X-Press Magazine # 1308

ISSUE 1308 | 7.03.12

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

LET’S BE FRANK

Frank Turner Eiffel 65

SMELLS LIKE ’90S SPIRIT

No doubt spurred on by the recent success of The Vengaboys’ tour and the forthcoming Aqua tour that has sold out shows all around the country, we’ve just caught wind that two – yes, two - more throwbacks to the ’90s are heading our way. Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside promoters have announced that a double headline tour of Eiffel 65 and N-Trance is imminent. Don’t remember them?

Maybe a rundown of their most successful songs might jog your memory? Eiffel 65 are best known for their international hit Blue (Da Ba Dee) which went #1 here in Australia as well as other hit singles Move Your Body and Too Much Of Heaven, all of which appeared on their album Europop, released in late 1999.

Earlier in the decade, N-Trance were lighting up dance floors all over the world with their smash hit single Set You Free, along with covers of the popular 1970s disco songs Stayin’ Alive and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?. You can catch Eiffel 65 and N-Trance on Friday, September 28, at Metropolis Fremantle and tickets are available from Bigtix. If that isn’t enough to whet your nostalgic appetite, S-Club 7 (which is now called just S-Club because not all the members are coming) have also announced they are coming to town and will play all their candy pop hits, including Bring It All Back, Reach, and Don’t Stop Movin’. They’ll be bringing fellow ‘90s superstars Big Brovaz along for the ride. Both bands will be playing one night in Perth at Metro City on Friday, May 25, and tickets are available from Oztix and Bigtix.There aint no party like an S-Club party. Get involved.

He oozes charisma from every pore and come May, Perth will get a chance to see why Frank Turner is regarded as one of the UK’s best songwriting talents.

Joined by a full band in The Sleeping Souls, Turner will head down under for a series of shows around Australia, stopping off at Amplifier on Wednesday, May 9. Support will come from Iowa’s William Elliot Whitmore who promises to charm and beguile with his banjo antics. Tickets are on sale now from Moshtix, Heatseeker and Oztix.

WINTER WARMER

Folk-singing Sydneysider Matt Corby’s last sold-out national tour Into The Flame saw him play 14 shows in 18 days, to 10,000 fans. The talented troubadour is aiming to do it all again when he plays to crowds across the country in theatre venues during the month of June for what has been dubbed The Winter Tour. Matt and friends will be performing some old favourites along with a couple of new unheard songs. As the last Australian headline tour before the release of Matt’s debut album later in the year, this will be a tour fans won’t want to miss.

Corby will take to the stage at the Astor Theatre on Saturday, June 9. Tickets will go on sale at 9am on Friday, March 9, from mattcorby.com.au.

Matt Corby

LITTLE BRITAIN

After spending much of last year locked away writing new material, Melbournian foursome British India are set to return to the touring circuit to debut their latest and greatest album. The guys got together back in 2004 and since then have been pleasing audiences with their own take on indie rock. Their first hit came from track Tie Up My Hands and consequently their debut album Guillotine was released in 2007. It was that year that they also received Triple J’s Best New Independent Artist Award. They’ve played the likes of the Big Day Out, Splendour On The Grass, Groovin’ The Moo and Homebake and now they have just announced their WA dates for the upcoming tour. You can catch them on Friday, March 30, at The Civic Back Room with special guests Emperors, Russian Winters and Custom Royal. Their latest track I Can Make You Love Me is being released soon so make sure you keep your ears peeled.

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News

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Reactions/Comp

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Flesh

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Music: Dirty Three

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Music: St Vincent/ 360

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Music: The Beards/ The Last Dinosaurs

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Music: The Ting Tings/ Seekae

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Music: Johnny Clegg/ Psycroptic

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Music: Gemma Ray/ The Ghost Hotel

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New Noise

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Eye4 Cover: Black Bird

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Eye4 News/ Music: The Sweet

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Eye4 Movies: Rooftop Cinema/ Project X

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Eye4 Movies: John Carter/ Coriolanus/ Art Stories

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Eye4 Arts List

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Salt Cover: Bombs Away

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Salt: Cover Story/ News

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Salt: DJ Krush/ Anthony Pappa

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Salt: Rewind: Future Music Festival

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Club Manual/ Scenery

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Scene: Live

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Scene: Pub Scene/ Pub Blurbs

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Scene: Local Scene

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Tour Trails

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Gig Guide

Cover: Dirty Three play The Astor this Friday, March 9

Salt Cover: Wild Nights 2012 featuring Bombs Away is out this Friday, March 90 www.xpressmag.com.au

The Raveonettes

MAY MASSACRE

British India

Psychaedelic indie collective The Brian Jonestown Massacre are heading down under, and their egos are packed and ready to go. Whether you love them or hate them, TBJM have a cult following and are likely to sell out their upcoming tour alongside The Raveonettes. Hitting the road in support of their forthcoming album Aufheben, which will hit shelves on April 30, fans can catch The Brian Jonestown Massacre on Tuesday, May 22, at the Astor Theatre. Bookings can be made through BOCS.

Tim Freedman

BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

He’s best known as the lead singer of The Whitlams, but ARIA award-winning songwriter Tim Freedman can certainly stand on his own, which he proves time and time again with his unqiue solo shows. Occupying the realms between a gig and a conversation, Freedman’s work has been described as “tunes linked together by extended yarns”. The much-loved muso will be displaying his storytelling skills in amongst a slew of new tracks from his 2011 record Australian Idle during four intimate shows at the Ellington Jazz Club on Thursday, June 14, and Friday, June 15 (he’ll be playing both an early show at 6pm and a late show at 9pm each evening). We’re expecting tickets to sell pretty quickly for this one, so you’ll want to head over to ellingtonjazz.com.au or call the venue on (08) 9228 1088 to secure your spot.

ONCE UPON A PINE

Music afficionados will gather under the shade of UWA’s enormous pine trees come Sunday, April 22, when RTRFM’s celebration of local music - In The Pines - returns for another year of superb sounds in a serene garden setting. The first announcement of bands was made last week and included the Benedict Moletta Band, Drowning Horse, The Ghost Hotel, The Love Junkies, smRts, Sugar Army and The Sunshine Brothers; and this week RTR have added another bunch of musically minded peeps to the bill, including The Big Old Bears, The Leap Year, Runner, San Cisco, Sonpsilo Circus and Split Seconds. Presale tickets are only $15 for RTRFM subscribers an $20 for the general public; on sale now from rtrfm.com.au.

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with Melissa Erpen... Send your name, address and daytime phone number to win@xpressmag.com.au with the name of the competition in the subject line or enter online at www.xpressmag.com.au. Snail mail entries can be sent to Locked Bag 31, West Perth 6872. Entries close 4pm Monday.

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Photography Stefan Caramia, David Chong, Daniel Grant, Sammy Granville, Matt Jelonek, Denis Radacic, Mike Wylie

Contributing Writers Reuben Adams, Nina Bertok, Shaun Cowe, Derek Cromb, Graham Frizzell,Chris Gibbs,Alfred Gorman,George Green,Chris Havercroft, David Geoffrey Hall, Joshua Hayes, Brendan Holben,Travis Johnson, Rezo Kezerashvili, Joanna Lettenmaier, Tara Lloyd, Adam Morris, Ely Nas, Andrew Nelson, Chloe Papas, Daniel Parkinson, Ben Swan, Conan Troutman, Tom Varian, Mike Wafer, Ben Watson, Chela Williams, Jessica Willoughby

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TWISTED AFFECTION

Pop punk rockers Twisted Affection are the newest sensation making waves in the Perth music scene.

With their high energy shows, killer melodies and throwbacks to catchy old school punk riffs, the band’s debut single That’s What She Said sets the tone of good things to come. The band’s debut self - titled album, was released on February 24 and to celebrate we have five copies up for grabs.

Enter now to be in the running.

Kings Park Moonlight Cinema

MOONLIGHT CINEMAS

The Kings Park Moonlight Cinemas is the perfect way to spend a summer’s night under the stars watching the latest films as well as many classics. We have a bunch of double passes to giveaway so get in now and you could be a lucky winner.

VICIOUS CUTS 2012

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The latest instalment from Melbourne’s dance music power house Vicious Recordings is finally here - Vicious Cuts 2012! Undoubtedly the biggest and best instalment in the series to date, the double CD features 42 of the biggest club tracks from the dance floors of the world into two discs of dance music bliss. Mixed by Ian Carey, Vandalism & Angger Dimas, we have five copies up for grabs. Enter now for you chance to win one of the must have dance compilations of 2012.

MINISTRY OF SOUND

Following on from last year’s hugely successful Anthems: Hip-Hop, Anthems: R&B is everything you expect, and more, with 57 R&B classics and recent hits from the genre. Featuring some of R&B’s hottest acts including Blackstreet, Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Drake, K-Ci & Jojo, Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne, and OutKast, this compilation seriously packs a punch. In stores March 9, we have five CDs to giveaway. Enter now for your chance to win a copy.

A Happy Event (Un Heureux Événement) screening At French Film Festival

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

This year, the French Film Festival has expanded and will be screening at not two but three Luna Palace locations; Cinema Paradiso, Northbridge; Luna on SX, Fremantle; and for the first time, Windsor Cinema, Nedlands. With more films, more screenings and more locations, this festival is set to be the biggest and best of the year! To celebrate this wonderful festival being screened from March 21 to April 9, we are offering our readers the chance to win one of ten double passes we are giving away. Enter now to be in the running.

The Necks

THE NECKS

World famous improvising legends The Necks are set to return home for an Australian tour that will be stopping at The Bakery on Monday, March 26.

We have two double passes up for grabs so get in now because these guys are simply at the top of their game and you don’t miss them.

CHECK OUT WWW.XPRESSMAG.COM.AU AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER ONLINE FOR LOADS MORE EXCLUSIVE COMPS!

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CAB AUDITED CIRCULATION: 38,000 APRIL 2011 – SEPTEMBER 2011

Deadlines EDITORIAL General - Friday 5pm, Arts - Thursday 10am, Comp’ Thing Monday Noon, Clubber’s Guide - Monday 5pm, Rock X-tras - Monday Noon, Gig Guide - Monday 5pm

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BUS BUNGLE Dear X-Press, I am writing to inform you of the situation which occurred at the Bon Iver concert last night at Red Hill Auditorium. We pre-bought the concert and return bus ticket from the Rosemount Hotel, believing that we would get priority entry and exit. On the way up the hill, the bus driver stalled and couldn’t hill-start the bus so ordered everyone (and not politely) off the bus to walk the rest of the way into the venue. So we did, while we watched everyone drive by us, getting to the gates before us.

Quoted from the Red Hill website: “buses have express entry in and out of the venue so you can watch everyone else stuck in traffic as you drive by.”

After the concert I walked through the entrance gates at 10.50pm toward the buses, when I saw one bus leave. Assuming it was going to a pick up point just around the corner, I continued to walk toward the buses.

I then heard the people I was passing by say “I bought a return ticket, and all of these other

randoms were on the bus and I couldn’t get on!”

I rounded the corner to get to the first remaining bus just as it was leaving. The bus was full. It was, by my watch, 10.51. And judging by the large number of people wandering around trying to get answers and solutions, my watch was not incorrect. The same thing happened again and again- all the buses left and it was not yet 11pm.

There appeared to be no one monitoring who was getting on the buses, or giving the signal for the buses to go.

The security guard there was the only official person around, so most people approached him and asked what to do. He admitted the situation wasn’t good, as yes, it was not yet 11pm, and we all had valid tickets that we had paid for, but his hands were tied and he didn’t want to act with any authority. There was no number to call, no person in charge, no person managing the situation. He then told people to head to the bottom of the hill, which a large group did. He said that they may be able to catch the Staff Shuttle, although he wasn’t sure if they were allowed, or if they would fit, as there were so many of them.

We finally managed to get a lift with

someone we knew, as I was not prepared to hitch a random lift. So at approximately 11.40pm, we were driving past the bottom of the hill, and we saw the people who had walked to the bottom of the hill to wait. There was a busload of them.

Who knows how long they had to wait- hopefully you’ll hear from them too and you will find out.

I am disgusted that organisers advertised and sold a service which they did not bother to provide. It is clear that this disgraceful situation would not have occurred had it been managed skilfully. The security guard could have made better decisions, but should not have been put in that situation in the first place. Why was there no one checking the tickets as people getting off and on?

Mayuka Juber Via Email X-Press has since contacted the promoter, who stated that due to non-ticket holders boarding buses there was a delay in transport, an inconvenience that they apologise for; however extra buses and cabs were ordered and staff stayed on site until all concert holders got home safely.

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

OKA

HONEY FROM THE BEE

Queensland progressive roots purveyors OKA swung into town last week to perform at the Nannup Music Festival, and so inviting is sunny WA that they’ve decided to hang around for a few days and are giving lucky local music lovers the chance to catch their funked up live show all around town. Showcasing tunes from their awesome new album Milk & Honey, the talented trio are playing on Wednesday, March 7, at the Indi Bar in Scarborough; then Mojos Bar on Thursday, March 8, and Sunday, March 11; and then inbetween they’ll play the Prince of Wales in Bunbury on Friday, March 9; and Settlers Tavern on Saturday, March 10. Tickets are available from okamusic.com.

Bon Iver (Photo: Callum Ponton)

BON IVER Red Hill Auditorium Saturday, March 3, 2012 Justin Vernon, the force behind Bon Iver, does not immediately suggest a genius. Certainly he seems capable, bright, healthy looking and unconcerned with fashion; patient, a quite serious guitar player. A round character. People like this become nurses, high school teachers, primary-caregiver dads. Not a revered singersongwriter-bandleader, a role with a high incidence of imperiousness, control and need.

But Vernon is unusual. Just three short weeks ago the songwriter and frontman stood in front of the music industry’s best and brightest in LA to accept a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Now that he’s semipopular, you can almost see him through the audience’s eyes; on Saturday evening at Perth’s beautiful new Red Hill Auditorium he looked categorically different from how he seemed back in 2009 when he made his Australian debut at the Fly By Night in Fremantle, seated with his band huddled around him. Now he stands at the center of a big stage, the manager of a show that fluctuates between intimacy and orchestral uproar.

Vernon is touring with a nine-piece band that didn’t necessarily recreate the arrangements of

POP YOUR CHERRY

Your Pop Quiz cherry that is. Back for another round, the Pop Quiz, hosted by musical fanatic and man about town Tomas Ford is coming to Ya Ya’s to test you all on your music knowledge skills. Those invited to attend include people who love their music, people who know their music and maybe those that don’t, people who have something to prove and those who simply might enjoy being drunk and yelling answers at the energetic Ford. This time round the quizmaster will be joined by his appointed poet laureate Byron Bard and tech man Mac Naughton. The night consists of nine rounds and the prize includes a bar tab and a plastic trophy.

Previous installments of the Pop Quiz have sold out quickly, so email Ford post haste for booking details at popquiz@tomasford.com.

his two albums, For Emma, Forever Ago, from 2008, and Bon Iver, Bon Iver, released last June, but plays to the strengths of the players. The group is full of multiinstrumentalists, with a constantly shifting balance: on Saturday, depending on the song and the section therein, sometimes your attention would be drawn to three loud guitars or two violinists or two drummers or seven singers. And it made a coordinated sound; Vernon unspooled a few lengthy, cathartic, echoey guitar improvisations, but otherwise this was a team of equals.

Starting with a rousing rendition of Perth (Vernon later joked that he assumed his audience would “find it cool), most of Saturday’s set list was plucked from the new album, with its travelogue song titles – Minnesota, WI, Hinnom, TX, Calgary — but a few fan favourites – Skinny Love, Blood Bank – were also pedalled out during the second half of the set and during an encore performance of The Wolves (Act I and II) he introduced an audience-participation game, in which he asked the crowd to sing the line “what might have been lost” through a steady crescendo, and then scream at the moment of release. It was a testament to his popularity and warmth as a performer that he could induce the five thousand voices to reverberate through the amphitheatre, though whether they were screaming along with the tune or simply screaming in admiration of Vernon was rather difficult to discern. _JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

SAYER THE STAYER

The man with the lion’s mane also known as Leo Sayer is bringing his famous fro and high-pitched vocals to town. Gerard Sayer was originally a commercial artist and in ’71 he decided he wanted to break into the world of music; and so after being likened to a lion thanks to his sweet fro he was christened Leo and began making music that can only be described as pure disco pop. He climbed the charts with tracks like You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and Thunder In My Heart and has sold out concerts and festivals around the world since then. He visited Australia for the first time in the ’70s and liked us so much he became a citizen. Now after an extensive career, Sayer is headed out on the road again at 63 years of age. He is bringing his band along and they are set to play the Albany Entertainment Centre on Tuesday, March 27, and then the Bunbury Entertainment Centre on Wednesday, March 28. For ticket sales check out the venue’s individual websites.

TALL TALES

The Novocaines

GIVE ME NOVACAINE

Beat Nightclub has recently launched a brand spanking new band room and what better way to showcase it than with a night of local rock; so to kick off the festivities The Novocaines will be playing on Friday, March 16. The Novocaines hail from here in Perth and they started to gain some attention after the release of their two EP’s Ragdoll and Courtesy Eventually. Late last year they released their debut album entitled Idle Time and it is no doubt set to cause some commotion. The guys have toured with the likes of Grinspoon, Jebediah, British India and Calling All Cars and played Southbound and Big Day Out. Joining the guys for the inaugural night will be Sam Perry and Foam. Tickets are just $12 and available on the door. www.xpressmag.com.au

After well and truly making his mark upon the British indie rock scene, breakthrough artist Seth Lakeman is headed down under to celebrate with his friend and touring buddy Carus Thompson. Lakeman is the go-to artist for indie folk rock in England; after the success of his debut album and another after that, he was signed to label EMI Relentless Records alongside KT Tunstall and Joss Stone. The “poster boy of folk” has played the likes of Glastonbury as well as other major European festivals and constantly receives major time on the airwaves. He is bringing to Aus his brand new album Tales From The Barrel House that is said to boast sing-along ballads and foot stomping material. Thompson on the other hand hails from Aus and first met Lakeman on his first UK tour and a solid friendship was formed. He has played with the likes of John Butler and the Waifs and has spent the last eight years touring the globe. You can catch the pair of folk-rockers when they hit town on Thursday, April 12, at Clancy’s Fish Pub. After that they’ll play The Hyde Park Hotel on Friday, April 13, and then onto the Fairbridge Festival, which runs on Saturday, April 14, and Sunday, April 15. Tickets are available from Heatseeker.

I A Man

MAN POWER

Creating a sound which has been described as “somewhere between the layered, methodical melodies of Mogwai or Deerhunter and the danceable rhythms and folkiness of Wild Nothing”, Melbourne indie-rock four piece I A Man are set to charm local audiences with their washed out guitar ambience and dreamy melodies at the Astor Theatre on Sunday, March 18, when they open for UK hipsters Bombay Bicycle Club.

Tickets for the show are available through BOCS.

LIKE IT LIKE THAT

With his tunes dominating the airwaves seemingly non-stop, it’s hard to believe it’s been two whole years since Guy Sebastian hit the road and even longer since he released a full length album. But the wait is finally over, with new album Armageddon set to be released later this year and a national tour coming up in June.

Sebastian will be showcasing his hits from his Idol days, right up to his brand new, double platinum single Don’t Worry Be Happy at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday, June 20.

Tickets can be purchased from manpac.com.au or by calling (08) 9550 3900.

An Horse

HORSING AROUND

Supports have been confirmed for the An Horse tour this coming April, which kicks off on Wednesday, April 25, at The Rosemount Hotel.

Joining the Brisbane-based indie-pop two piece will be local ‘90s-indebted indie-rockers Kill Teen Angst along with art-pop purveyors The Leap Year. With a line-up this top-notch, a good time will surely be had by all. Grab your tickets from Moshtix, Oztix or Heatseeker.

DIRTY DEVILS

The countdown is well and truly on for Dirty Three’s upcoming show at the Astor Theatre this Friday, March 9, and if the opportunity to catch the iconic three piece wasn’t enough to get you ants-in-your-pants excited, they’ve just announced that rockin’ local outfit the Kill Devil Hills will be playing a support set earlier in the evening. With a sound often compared to Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Beast of Bourbon, the Kill Devil Hills are one of the most exciting live bands to come out of little old P-Town in years.

They blew away European audiences on their 2010 tour, so expect nothing less than a night of thrilling sonic beauty and devastation. Limited tickets are still available from BOCS, Oztix or by calling (08) 9484 1133.

PEEL OF APPROVAL

Back for another year of fine wine and fantastic blues music, the annual Peel Blues ‘N’ Roots Special has pulled together some outstanding live performers. Included in this year’s lineup are duo Pete Romano and Mark Constable, who markedly compliment one another when playing, Romano on vocals and guitar and Constable on harmonica. Also joining the lineup is WA native Mike De Velta whose love for blues music has seem him travel all over the state, gracing audiences with ukuleles, acoustic guitars and deep blues vocals. Last on the list is veteran John Meyer who has written songs for Angry Anderson and Renee Geyer as well as a solid collection of his own songs. In 2003 he was inducted into the WA Music Industry Hall of Fame.

On the day you can find food, drink and grounds filled with sunshine as well as a selection of Peel Estate Wines. The event is scheduled for Sunday, March 11, and anyone wanting to enquire further should check out True Blue Promotions online.

The Little Stevies

BEYOND THE THIRD DIMENSION

H av i n g n o t i c e d t h e c u r r e n t t r e n d s i n entertainment, Melbournian folk trio The Little Stevies have decided not to be backward in embracing the futuristic technology quickly spreading through the international entertainment industry. Everything is now in 3D, and not wanting to fall behind on this current trend, The Little Stevies are going 3D as well! They are stripping back and taking just themselves on the road, it’ll be so 3D it will actually be “in real life” according to vocalist Bethany Stephen.

It doesn’t get much more 3D than that now does it? The band has just returned from a tour of North America where they recorded their second album Attention Shoppers. Prior to that, they toured around Canada last year playing over 35 shows and garnering huge success along the way. Now, after touching up their live set, the trio are bringing their harmonies to Fremantle for one night one. They’ll be playing the Little Creatures Loft in Fremantle on Thursday, March 29.

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Dirty Three

DIRTY THREE Westward Ho

To support the release of Toward The Low Sun, their first full length in seven years, iconic and enigmatic Australian three piece Dirty Three will play the Astor Theatre on Friday, March 9, with support from The Kill Devil Hills. TRAVIS JOHNSON talks to violinist Warren Ellis about music, distance, and movies.

At times he may look - and even sound - like a drunken werewolf, but in conversation Warren Ellis is polite, genial, and effusive. In fact, there is only one time when he is anything less, and that was when asked about the recent breakup of Grinderman.

“I don’t know,” is the flat response. “I’m not talking about that. I’m just here to do interviews about the Dirty Three.”

And fair enough, because there is plenty to occupy us about the subject at hand, notably the release of Toward The Low Sun, the band’s first studio album since 2005’s Cinder. It’s a project that Ellis is enthusiastic about, going so far as to label it “the definitive Dirty Three album”.

When asked to elucidate on such on bold statement, he says: “I think it’s by far the most farreaching recording that we’ve done. It feels like an attempt at things that we probably couldn’t have done in the past. It feels very kind of broad in terms

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of where it’s drawing from... it just felt like that when I listened to it, so I thought I’d say it. Put it down to a senior citizen’s moment.”

Seven years is a long time between drinks, though, but Ellis maintains that, although the Dirty Three as a unit may have been somewhat fallow, its individual members - himself, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White - have kept themselves busy, and that, coupled with the fact that the three of them live scattered across the globe these days, contributed to the long gap between releases.

“We all do different things,” Ellis explains.

“There’s always been that problem of finding time when we’re all available, and also the fact that life kind of gets in the way of stuff. Added to that, we tried to record the album a couple of times, but hadn’t really come up with anything that moved forward, so there were a few things as to the reason it took so long. I mean, I’ve been putting out an album nearly

every year with other projects - it’s not like none of us has been doing anything; it just turned out like that.

Hopefully it won’t be that long until the next one, otherwise we’ll all be nearly 60.”

And while other bands may find it relatively easy to collaborate via long electronic means, for the Dirty Three an old-school approach is essential to their creative process.

“We’ve always needed to be in the same room to work. We always need to sit down and bang ideas out - sending ideas to each other doesn’t really seem to work, I guess. It’s always been like that,” Ellis says.“If we’re not in the same room together, we don’t seem to do anything. We just get several ideas going and work on them, and try to record very early on in the formation of the idea; we try to grab that, so there’s something very instinctive going on there, and hopefully an element of risk involved. You just work out how to deal with it. It’s finding the date that’s the hard bit - when we’re all free.”

One of the things that has kept Ellis busy is a burgeoning side-career as a film composer, having contributed to such cinematic projects as The Proposition and The Road, along with fellow Grinderman alumni Nick Cave. Ellis is typically selfdeprecatory when asked about this aspect of his work, saying, “Well, I get asked to do stuff. They approach me; I don’t go looking for it. I’ve generally done my film work with Nick, and we’ve decided whether we wanted to do it or not based on the script and based on whether the film looks any good, and whether we think we could do anything interesting with it. They’re the main factors, and then we just kind of sit down and do it. We work in what I guess is a similar way in that we get into a studio and just sit down and start making music, and see what fits with the image. But they’ve always been projects that have been offered to us, and generally by people that we know - directors and things like that.”

As for the upcoming Dirty Three tour, he admits to relishing the risk of putting untried material before a crowd. “You never know what’s gonna work and what isn’t going to work - that’s just part of the thing, you know? I’m still nervous about playing live and that, obviously, but sometimes there’s something exciting about playing the new stuff, and sometimes there’s something comforting about playing the old stuff. Not really knowing what will happen with the new stuff is kind of exciting,” Ellis concludes. “Usually when you get out live, you’re playing the songs a lot and they’re starting to develop and take on a new life. Some songs can work really well playing live, and others you play a few times and, for whatever reason, the just don’t seem to work. The live thing seems to sort that out for some reason - it’s always been like that.

They don’t always work; things can sound really great in the studio, but they don’t work live. We’ll get together and practice and hit the boards running.”

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360

Is Taken 360

Melbourne rapper 360, aka Matt Colwell, released his sophomore record Falling & Flying last September and since then, his track Boys Like You hit #8 in Triple J’s Hottest 100, he’s got engaged, acquired a few more tatts and has even kissed Ruby Rose. ANNABEL MACLEAN chats with the lad who plays The Rosemount on Thursday, March 15 and Friday, March 17.

“Every time I hear a Short Stack song, I want to chop off my cock and throw it into heavy traffic on a freeway” – these are the words which 360 let rip on YouTube a few months ago which created a media shit-storm.

Nominated for the Channel [V] Oz Artist 2011 Award, Colwell thought it’d be a ripper idea to

“pay out Short Stack” online as a way to create general banter and awareness about the Awards. It worked.

With over 132,000 hits, the clip went viral and no-one was quite sure whether to take him seriously. “I was completely taking the piss and just got up to do a video to encourage people to vote for it and I just thought ‘what better way to do it than pay out Short Stack’ and just went for it,” he says in an upbeat and casual tone.

“I wasn’t really serious but I mean I’m not a fan of their music or anything, that’s why I thought I’d go pretty hard on them, and then it just blew up into this media shit-storm and they just took it way out of proportion and shit but it was pretty funny.”

Although he says he was joking, there aren’t plans to do a collaboration with the Short Stack lads any time soon, if not, ever. “No, most definitely not, no,” he says. “No chance whatsoever.” Short Stack fans didn’t take the video as light-heartedly as Colwell however, with 360 receiving death threats from their fans.“They’ve got a pretty loyal fan base, they’re all like 12 year olds but one of their fans hit me up saying ‘next

tour you go on, we’re going to come and murder you’ and all this shit. Just dickheads. But they were pretty small infants so I’m not really scared... I just laugh at it [the death threat emails] and take a screen shot of it so I can laugh at it again later.”

Having recently moved back to Melbourne from Brisbane, Colwell’s record Falling & Flying landed at #4 on the ARIA charts and made a #1 iTunes debut and has just reached double platinum.“It’s been going crazy hey!,” he says of the response to Falling & Flying, still astounded himself.“His single Boys Like You recently went double platinum and even Ruby Rose showed her love for the tune and 360 by starring in the song’s video clip alongside songstress Gossling.

“Ruby’s always been a fan so she’s been on Twitter posting that she’s a fan of mine for a while and I’d always just said to her just sort of joking around just saying ‘oh we should get you in the next clip’ and she was like ‘yeah’,” he says of Rose’s appearance in the clip.

“She was amazing. She was a really, really nice girl, really professional and everything.”

Although Colwell says there will be special guests on his upcoming Boys Like You tour, we’re not holding our breath for it to be Ruby Rose.“It’s going to be even better than the last tour for sure. We’re getting a lot more down for the stage show and lighting and all that kind of stuff so it’s just going to be insane,” he says. And even though he doesn’t like flying, it will be his chosen mode of transport on the tour and his recently announced The Flying Tour which hits Villa on Friday, June 22, and The Astor on Saturday, June 23. “I just hate it because I’m six foot four and trying to fit into the seats all the time, I’m always fucking up my back.

It’s annoying.”

ST VINCENT

The Marrying Kind Ahead of her show at The Rosemount Hotel on Thursday, April 8, JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD chats to St Vincent about David Byrne, metal and Arrested Development.

St Vincent When, after five years of speculation, the team behind the cult hit series Arrested Development announced plans to produce new episodes and a feature film, the announcement left one longtime devotee gasping with joy. Annie Clark, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter behind the St Vincent moniker, was such a fan of the cancelled TV show she named her 2007 debut LP Marry Me after one of its catch-phrases.

“I’m really looking forward to it coming back – I was obsessed with it back in the day. I haven’t actually sat down and watched it all in a while, but I definitely think I’ll have to have a marathon to reacquaint myself,” Clark says, adding that she has a message for the creators: Surely the least you can do is let me write a song or two for the soundtrack,” she jokes.

Marry Me’s release in 2007 was followed by 2009’s rapturously received Actor and 2011’s equally lauded Strange Mercy, leading to Clark’s collaborations with respected musos Bon Iver and The National.

Although internet rumour has it that Clark’s latest collaborator Madonna, she downplays the possibility of joining forces with the pop superstar.

“I’m friendly with William Orbit, who is Madonna’s producer, and basically there was talk of her recording a song I had worked on. I actually don’t know what’s up with it now, I haven’t heard anything so I’m assuming it probably didn’t happen,” Clark says.

Despite being tight-lipped when it comes to the Material Girl, Clark is eager to reveal her muchhyped “on and off” brass ensemble-enriched project with new wave icon David Byrne will finally see the light of day next spring.

“We sent a lot of ideas back and forth over the internet, so it often didn’t feel particularly like we were ‘working together’, but we’ve come up with some really cool things,” she says.

Collaborations aside, Clark reveals that she’s also set to release a new record later this year, although long-time fans may be surprised with her new direction. “I made a dirge metal 7”,” she says.

“I’ve been a metal fan for a long time and I had a lot of fun recording it, but I don’t think I’m ready to release a full length metal album just yet. Plus, the 7” format is kinda punk rock in ethos, so it’s a probably a better fit.”

N o w t h a t s h e’s g o t h e r m e t a l experimentation “out of her system”, Clark reveals she’s started working on a new record with a “typical St Vincent sound” which she expects will hit the shelves in early 2013.

“I’m one of those people who needs to put everything down to function,” she concludes.

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THE BEARDS Growing Up Last Dinosaurs

LAST DINOSAURS The Land Before Time

With an ear for outrageously upbeat alternative anthems, Brisbane-based indie-rock quartet Last Dinosaurs are striving to create music that feels timeless, meaningful, and catchy as hell. JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD sat down with frontman Sean Caskey ahead of the release of their debut album In A Million Years. Last Dinosaurs play Amplifier on Saturday, April 14, and Mojos Bar on Sunday, April 15.

They were one of the buzz-bands at last year’s Splendour and Laneway festivals, where they won elated responses to their excitable brand of bright, danceable indie pop, and it’s not hard to understand why people were so excited. Last Dinosaur’s music is heavy on the handclaps and children’s TV melodies, which are played on traditional instruments (there’s nary a synth in sight) and sung by young men whose squeakily high-pitched,shouty falsettos are designed less to suggest androgyny or feminisation than boys in a heightened state of innocent, adolescent arousal.

When questioned about his band’s sound, vocalist Sean Caskey sums it up simply:“Good melodies.

Good drumming. Good bass playing. We’re all extreme perfectionists and we work hard on all our songs.”

It is precisely this sense of fastidiousness which has resulted in Last Dinosaur’s debut record taking nearly two years to finish. Yet despite the temptation to release the album last year, Caskey says this gestation period was essential to the way In A Million Years turned out.

“We did have the opportunity to record earlier, but I remember at that point thinking that we didn’t even have enough songs yet. So we decided to hold off and wait another six to 12 months and record when we did. That was the best decision that we’ve ever made because about 80 per cent of the album was written in the last three to six months before recording.

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So had we not waited and been patient we would have written a completely different album,” he says.

With a musical finesse beyond their years, the four Brisbane lads have rocked stages with names like Ash,We Are Scientists, and Foals.As Caskey explains, these high profile shows have afforded the young outfit the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of their musical heroes.

“It’s strange because we’ve got to meet all these amazing bands in such a short space of time.There are so many bands that stand out – Foster The People, Foals, The Drums, The Strokes – well, actually just Albert [Hammond Jr, guitar], the rest of the band fucked off after their set,” Caskey says.

Yet for all that Last Dinosaurs have done in the last year, the highlight, as far as Caskey is concerned, would have to be chatting with chillwave superstar Twin Shadow when he toured here recently.“He’s not so much an influence as an inspiration,” he says, adding that his own band’s rising popularity hasn’t stopped him from indulging in some fan boy behaviour. “Also, Phoenix is such a massive inspiration for us – they are just so fucking cool.When I got the opportunity to see one of their shows a few years ago it was just awesome,” Caskey laughs, adding that his over-excitement led to some inevitable stage-invading:“As soon as my feet hit the ground I went and hugged Thomas [Mars] the singer. He’s such a nice dude.”

Melbournian folk-rockers The Beards are out to change this big, wide, hairless world of ours. Speaking candidly in conversation with JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD, drummer John Beardmann Jr talks about the quartet’s new album, forthcoming tour and – you guessed it – beards.The Beards play Settlers Tavern on Friday, March 9, The Fly By Night on Saturday, March 10, and the Indi Bar on Sunday, March 11.

As drummer John Beardmann Jr attests, Australia’s favourite facially hirsute outfit The Beards are out to change the world, one face at a time. “It’s like feminist movement but for bearded individuals,” Beardmann Jr begins.

“Our first single was called You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man – I think that pretty much speaks for itself. Basically, we want to live in a world where a bearded man can walk down the street and not get heckled at. A world where a bearded man can walk into a bank and ask for a loan and not get immediately rejected because of the fuzz on his face.”

For a band that never expected to play more than one show, The Beards have certainly come a long, long way. Forming as a joke to play a single show in Adelaide, the entirely beard-based band have gone on to become underground legends of the Australian music scene. Since the release of their second album, Beards Beards Beards in 2009, The Beards have spread their bearded message across the nation with constant touring and countless performances all over the country.

“Our target audience is definitely beard lovers, but I really think anyone would like [our music],” Beardmann Jr says. “If we can change someone’s mind about beards or encourage someone to grow a beard then we’ve done our job.”

The Beards When asked whether he and his bandmates are ever worries their pro-beard mantra may alienate hairless music lovers, Beardmann Jr snorts “I’ve never thought about it – but I suppose we don’t really care if it does.”

Luckily for Beardmann Jr, his band have gained a rapidly expanding cult following across the nation which is only set to heighten with the release of their third album Having A Beard Is The New Not Having A Beard and accompanying national tour this month.

“Expect a lot of bearded men cheering, drinking beers, being awesome and sharing in some bearded love,” Beardmann Jr says of their upcoming live shows. “A lot of people said we wouldn’t be able to keep writing about beards past the first album. Now they’re all dead and we have around 38 beard-related songs to our name.

When all you have to do to find inspiration is look in the mirror, it’s pretty easy to keep writing.

We’ve been a band for six years now and we’ve been trying to spread our message relentlessly wherever we go, and we’re definitely getting somewhere – everywhere we go, at every show we play, we’re seeing more and more beards. It’s a beautiful thing.”

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SEEKAE Electric Feel

After releasing the critically lauded +Dome, gaining international acclaim and selling out shows across Australia in 2011, Sydney electronic experimentalists Seekae return to Perth for two sure-to-bebrilliant shows at The Bakery on Saturday, March 17, and Mojos Bar on Sunday, March 18. Alex Cameron runs through some of the highlights of a busy 12 months with JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD. The three unassuming blokes prodding at banks of electronic gadgets are leading an exploratory breakaway from bass-heavy dubstep towards a

Seekae lighter, hazier style of electronica rich with drowsy ambience and chopped-up found sounds.

Celebrated for their deft use of warm analog recordings—in a genre that can at times sound oppressively digital—the talented trio have etched a unique groove for themselves within electronic music and have subsequently garnered critical acclaim and amorous affections from a rapidly growing international fan base.

“The crowds at every show just kept getting bigger and bigger and then we were invited to play overseas and everything was just on the up and up,” Cameron says, naming a show at Low End Theory in Los Angeles alongside Eliot Lipp, Jonwayne, B Bravo, Tiron and Ayomari as his highlight for 2011.

“I really thought the US would be a hard nut to crack, but there was a surprising amount of support,” he

continues. “I learnt that US people are really hands on – like, people really pay attention to what gear you’re using and they were really interested to look and learn how we got our sound.”

According to Cameron, the band also noticed some “huge cultural differences” when they played a string of dates in Japan.

“In Japan there’s a bigger crazy going on while you’re playing the songs but then you can almost hear a pin drop in between songs,” he says.

For now though, Cameron says he’s more than happy to be back on local shores playing shows to the fans who have loved and supported his outfit since their inception nearly six years ago.

“We’re working harder than ever to perfect our live show. Our goal at the moment is to be able to control what we’re doing a lot more when we’re playing live,” he explains. “As people who already know the material probably know, there’s a certain vibe around it.”

While local music lovers were already afforded the opportunity to witness their memorable live show in August last year, Cameron promises there are “heaps and heaps” of good reasons to come to one of their live shows next week.

“For one, we’re changing a lot of our old songs to new versions, plus we’ll be showcasing some new material too. I’ll be playing drums live a lot more too,” he concludes.“As people who know the material and have seen us live before will know, there’s a certain vibe around it. You can come expecting a big full night of music goodness. Plus, we really love playing The Bakery – it’s an awesome venue. We’re really looking forward to playing there again.”

THE TING TINGS

Tings Are Going Their Way It’s been a long time coming, and its inception includes a whole scrapped catalogue of songs and arguments with record labels, but The Ting Tings’ second album, Sounds From Nowheresville, is finally ready for release. Filled with their usual catchy tunes, it’s a love letter to ‘90s hip hop, Phil Spector girl groups, and pure, fun pop music.

TARA LLOYD reports.

The Ting Tings “We needed to do something fresh and different,” says Jules de Martino, on the phone from Spain, where the album was eventually recorded. “We went to Berlin and we were tired, we’d been on the road for two and a half years, and we made a record that the record company loved.

“At some point we listened to what we’d written and it was a load of rubbish, it was just kind of making records for what was on the radio at the time,” he continues. “So we just backed off and went into hiding, we left Berlin, and we found a place in the south of Spain, and that’s where we ended up.”

De Martin attests the break was just what they needed to relieve the pressures of the record companies and to invigorate the duo, driving them to make a record that they believed in.

“When we got to Spain, we had no direction on this record. We didn’t know what we were going to write about. What could we write about? We get on planes every day, we’ve gone around the world 17 times now, and we didn’t know how we were going to connect with ourselves. So it took us a while to find ourselves and get out of that bubble that you get in when you’re touring. And we never fit in, me and Katie [White, the other half of the group], we always felt like we were observers. So here we are again, in a bubble in the south of Spain, doing our thing.”

Fans of The Ting Tings might be surprised at the musical influences that inspired Sounds From Nowheresville.

“Katie was talking about the music that inspired her at school when she was really young, bands like The Spice Girls and TLC, so Day To Day [a track from the record] was kind of our interpretation of an R&B track. We thought, ‘You know what? Let’s make a record that feels like a playlist’. Between track one and track 10 you can forget you’re listening to The Ting Tings, and that was the challenge,” he says.

“If you listen to the record, you can hear all the different influences that we go through. We listened to a lot of Prince, and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique was an influence in a huge way.”

If you’ve managed to spot a copy of their sophomore album, you might have noticed the striking artwork on the cover. It’s the result of a contest run by the band to give fans the chance to design the cover. It was won by Milan Abad, who depicts de Matino and White as skeletons. “[Abad] had drawn this picture that we loved, so we phoned him up on tour and said that we wanted that picture, it represents how we feel about the album,” de Martino says. “We’d gone around to art universities and talked about how we were feeling, and about travelling the world and we felt like nomads and we had no home, and this guy came up with this drawing and it represented everything we talked about.

“We had no base, you can’t just plonk yourself in a city because you’re a tourist. We made this record and it sounds like, well, everywhere,” he concludes.“Maybe we should have called it Sounds from Everywheresville.”

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JOHNNY CLEGG

The White Zulu Returns Psycroptic

PSYCROPTIC Dark Inheritance

Tasmanian-bred tech metallers Psycroptic are back with The Inherited Repression, an album dubbed as their most cohesive effort yet. Bassist Cameron Grant tells JESSICA WILLOUGHBY why the band took the time to capture the catchiness on this release.

“People and generations may have damaged things previously to you even being around,” Psycroptic bassist Cameron Grant speaks of the theory behind the band’s latest effort. “And by the time you get your chance, everything’s already turned to shit.”

It is not often that an established band has time on their side when it comes to releasing new material. But Tasmanian tech metal outfit Psycroptic were afforded this luxury when it came to their fifth full length, The Inherited Repression.

Stepping away from using acclaimed producer Logan Mader (Machine Head) on mixing duties, as was the way on their previous LP, the lengthier recording schedule allowed the four piece to complete the entire album in-house. With most of the offering tracked in guitarist Joe Haley’s home studio once again, the man himself stepping

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up to the plate in both the producing and mixing department, Grant points to the whole process leading to a different feel on this release.

“When we had time to do it, we’d get in there and get bits and piece recorded,” he says. “It was a lot more drawn out, the process this time. It was our busy personal lives and other work we had on that forced us to go in this direction. It was pretty indicative of how we wrote this album as well. This album was also vastly different because this is one of the first times we’ve actually written together, as a whole band, with these current members. I didn’t contribute anything to Ob(Servant) (2008). This was the first time that both Jason [Peppiatt; vocals] and I really got on board. I had a couple of songs that I mucked around with and it all sort of came together.

“We definitely went into this album with the mindset that the music should be something that you couldn’t help but nod your head to. The structuring played a really big part in that. Joe had worked out a lot of that, and then we pieced a lot of the riffs we’d been putting together on top of that.

The same went for lyrics also. This time, the lyrics were written after the songs were – which is a new thing for us. Usually, the lyrics are written way before and just slapped in there with little account taken for the actual material. It works a whole lot better.”

Taking a coveted support slot for Origin in Europe earlier this year, the last minute decision saw vocalist Jason Peppiatt and Grant himself left behind due to commitments on home soil. But their duties were in good hands with long-time friend Zdenek from Czech band The Godless Truth standing in behind the mic and Joe Payne from US outfit Divine Heresy, formerly of Nile, on bass duties.

Following a second Indonesian tour set for mid-year, all hands will be on deck for another Australian run of dates. “Jason and I will definitely be around for these tours, no doubt about that,” Grant says.

A major figure in South African music, Johnny Clegg is as much renowned for his pioneering blend of traditional Zulu music with western influences as for his uncompromising collaboration with African musicians at a time when it was illegal for racially mixed bands to perform. He speaks with JOSHUA HAYES ahead of his performance at the Burswood Theatre on Tuesday, March 13.

In recent years, Clegg has settled into the comfortable role of a musical elder statesman.

His former band Juluka recently played a 30 year anniversary reunion concert, performing to a sold-out crowd of 3,500 people in Johannesburg, and he’s working on a book about his time with Juluka, and a musical loosely based on his life.

On Clegg’s upcoming tour he’ll be performing some tracks from his latest album, 2010’s Human, as well as his well known material from the ‘80s.“There’s lot of dancing, there is a very broad spectrum of music mixing, so you’ll hear anything from rock to Cuban to African to Indian,” he says. “There isn’t one song that sounds like the last one.”

Clegg first encountered Zulu music as a 14 year old in the late ‘60s. While on a trip to the corner store, he witnessed a street musician playing traditional melodies on his guitar and was enchanted. “I saw that the picking style was absolutely unique, and I saw that there were no chords,” he recalls. “I realised that I was looking at a completely unique indigenous guitar tradition.”

At the time, Johannesburg was home to a vibrant street music scene. Inspired by this

Johnny Clegg encounter, Clegg quickly learned to play guitar, dance and speak Zulu. “Zulu street music was very competitive, and you would compete on the weekends with other musicians, and there was an informal pecking order…I had an inflated position simply because I was white,” he says.

Another street musician was Sipho Mchunu, who Clegg met in 1970. “Well, [Mchunu] heard that there was this white boy playing Zulu music and he didn’t believe it. He found out who I was and he challenged me,” he laughs.

The pair quickly overcame any rivalry and went on to collaborate for 15 years, first as guitar duo Johnny and Sipho, and later as Juluka.

The band released a number of acclaimed albums before splitting in 1985, after which Clegg formed his second band, Savuka.

Th ro u g h t h e ye a r s, C l e g g f a ce d many challenges performing with his African contemporaries due to the apartheid regime’s policies of cultural segregation. “When I began dancing I had to go into black areas and into black men’s hostels where the dancing took place,” he recalls. “I was 15 years old in my first incident with the police. I was too young to charge so they took me back to my mum… I got into a lot of problems with the police when I was 16, 17, 18.”

The competitive streak that drew him to the pecking order of Zulu street music also kept him going in the face of police harassment. “I was the only [white person] doing [traditional Zulu music], and I knew that if I didn’t, somebody else would take my place. I knew I was onto something very, very good and I knew also that there was nothing wrong with what I was doing,” he says.

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GEMMA RAY

The Lady Is A Champ The Ghost Hotel

THE GHOST HOTEL Maiden Voyage

Having played opening slots for Crowded House, Gomez, Cold Chisel and being handpicked to play on Powderfinger’s farewell tour,Perth’s own The Ghost Hotel are well on their way to becoming the best credentialed support act in Australia.

CHRIS HAVERCROFT spoke to Jake Snell as the five piece lead in to the release of their debut album Maiden Hill.The Ghost Hotel launch their new record at the Rosemount Hotel on Saturday, March 10.

The Ghost Hotel began as a solo project for Aaron Gibson, but over the years has expanded into a band that is filled with many of Perth’s indie-pop familiar faces. As with most bands in Perth, when it was time to get personnel together, Gibson chose a motley collection of his friends who he liked to shoot the breeze with about country rock and mid ‘90s indie. Once the band of buddies were together, the songwriting began in earnest.

“I think that everyone was trying to outcountry each other at first,” recalls Snell of those early days of The Ghost Hotel.“I think everyone was trying to see who could write the best country song. Thankfully that has slowed down a little bit and we have more of

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an open door policy stylistically and we are not stuck to having exclusively country content. Initially it was just all of us with an acoustic guitar seeing who could finger pick the better tune. It was all one upmanship.”

The first 18 months of The Ghost Hotel were carried out by Gibson alone, and Snell feels it was this gestation period that meant by the time people were invited into the band, Gibson knew exactly the kind of outfit that he wanted. From day one, Snell says there was an open door policy when it came to writing and all members felt like they have been able to contribute to The Ghost Hotel instead of feeling that they were taking something away from Gibson.

“My output is way less than those two in terms of songs on the album and songs we play live, but it is Gibbo’s baby and he is the ringkeeper,” Snell says. “The way I go about writing songs is that I usually sit on songs and let them grow exponentially over time.

I don’t push it too much, because although it is nice to have songs we are in very competent song writing hands with Woody [Paul Wood] and Gibbo. I am prone to having a bit of fun with it and just making up a different part every time.”

One of the first things to be notice about Maiden Hill is the varied and luscious guitar sounds on the record. Snell won’t admit to the members of the band sitting down and slavishly working on guitar tones for the record, insisting that it was a more reactionary process dependent on what the guitarist before him had put down. It may not have been a conscious effort, but it holds the album in good stead. It is clearly a project that Snell is happy with.

“It’d be nice if people listen to Maiden Hill and like it. It’d be nice if it furthered any momentum that had been gathered from the EP, but I don’t think that we’re sitting around waiting for the big break. When nice things happen we really appreciate them and enjoy it. We don’t take it for granted but we are all a bit older and priorities shift so I don’t think that us touring Australia relentlessly is going to happen, but we hope people enjoy what we do and we’ll keep doing it.”

2011 saw Gemma Ray playing alongside the likes of Grinderman, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis and Mick Harvey, but for the most part the torch-singing, guitar-taming, popnoir British chanteuse spent the year recording her fifth studio album Island Fire. JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD sat down with Ray ahead of the record’s release this Friday, March 2 It has been Gemma Ray’s ambition, throughout her career, to be considered not a great female musician but a great rock musician.

Of course, in her contrary way, she has also spent last six years flaunting her femininity, donning slinky dresses and spiking high heels, singing of sex, desire and bad-hair days.

Yet while Gemma Ray is a woman in a man’s world – one listen to her passionate, angry songs, full of hammer-headed riffs and glacial melodies, and you realise that she is simply a fantastic, inspiring musician, all on her own terms.

“I don’t really listen to music a whole lot, I never really have. It comes from a different world that I tap into,” Ray begins. “When I do listen to music, it’s not really a particular genre or style – this year I’ve been inspired by John Barry’s meta-soundscapes and I also love the immediacy of girl-group songs. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds also really inspire me – the rhythmic dynamics and the way the songs really suck you in is something I really aspire to do.”

Confounding expectations at every turn, she effortlessly blends disparate genres into unified and grandiose sounds, as with her 2009 album Lights Out Zoltar!, which was recorded with the help of hypnosis tapes, and her stripped-back 2010 covers album It’s A Shame About Gemma Ray. “It hops and skips over different genres,” Ray says of her eclectic sound. “I aim to make

Gemma Ray pop and get lost along the way via past eras and experimental instrumentation.”

Ray’s fourth full-length album Island Fire showcases the artist at new heights of her songwriting powers.

“It works as a story from beginning to end,” Ray says, “Listeners can expect to be sucked into my world and be taken on a journey. I hope it will rise above the disposable world of music we live in today.”

Island Fire was recorded for the most part at Alberts studio in Sydney when Ray was stranded in Australia last April after an Icelandic volcanic eruption grounded her flight back to the UK. So pleased was she with the results that she decided to return in 2011 to finish it, after stints recording in Norway and London.

“It was really fun,” Ray says,“It worked out better than I could have ever hoped for. I’d definitely consider coming back and recording at Alberts again for the next album.”

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GRIMES Visions

PERFUME GENIUS Put Your Back N 2 It

4AD / Inertia

Matador / Remote Control

The fourth musical offering in two years for Montréal-based electro pop goddess Claire Boucher and her one man group Grimes, Visions comes with a sense of freshness and vibrancy. Visions is her first release on a major record label and the effects of the move are clearly seen in the slick production and polished feel of the album.

Boucher’s songs are structurally complex and demonstrate a varied timbre and affect. For example, Genesis, a characteristic Boucher construction, moves from simple pizzicato chords to pulsing syncopated string saws, to a wilder, broken arpeggio in the climax.

Underneath these sophisticated classical techniques, though, Boucher clearly also loves pop and R&B. Opener Infinite Love Without Fulfillment, for example, employs nostalgic hip hop percussion (that brings to mind Run-DMC and Salt-N-Pepa) which hooks the listener immediately.

Equally endearing is the juxtaposition of eerie echoes and bubbling beats with leaping, asymmetrical melodies on Oblivion – behind the whimsy she defies her own frailty; she stays on the move, with uncertainty wherever she alights.

Perhaps most enjoyable of all is that all that her child-like vocal delivery is indecipherable, there’s something still remarkably personable about this album, as though Boucher is right there in the room with you, singing her heart out about the distant, otherworld she seems to have been beamed down from.

Perfume Genius (the moniker of Mike Hadreas) is part of indie-rock’s rediscovery of what’s now called psychfolk: the intricate, visionary songs of 1960s groups like Pearls Before Swine, the Holy Modal Rounders and the Incredible String Band. Yet there’s nothing loose or hippie-ish about his quietly ambitious music.

Hadreas has followed up his hushed debut, Learning, with this sophomore effort. Ghetto title aside, Put Your Back N 2 It is a graceful tour de force of an album - beguiling, bewitching and beautiful.

Drawing on the particulars of family and history, Hadreas ponders mortality and faith, nature and human nature. His songs start with the folksy sound of his high, reedy Sufjan Stevens-esque voice and his fingerpicked guitar, then unfurl as orchestral pop.

He writes meticulous, enigmatic parables that find resolution where words dissolve into music.

For example, Normal Song bends a relaxed guitar introduction and blends it with a story about the everyday problems in one’s life.

Other songs move toward counterpoint in which Hadreas’ vocals mesh with circular instrumental phrases, suggesting the Minimalism of Steve Reich and Tortoise. This is particularly evident of All Waters, a pastorale that surrounds serene guitar arpeggios with sublime, undulating ensemble chords. Reaching past the sorrows and wonders of the lyrics, the music seeks its own humble grace.

A consistently moving, subtly striking experience.

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

MEMORYHOUSE The Slideshow Effect

REBECCA FERGUSON Heaven

Sub Pop / Inertia

Sony Music

Memoryhouse’s The Slideshow Effect is a record in past tense.

Its intimate lyrics, childlike melodies and cloudy artwork all evoke an idyllic, imagined time, not long passed, of late night river swims, first loves and aimless days.

The album’s cover image, by singer Denise Nouvion, gives a perfect description of the music – a pair of pale legs in a river, rendered in impossible shades of blue. Like the music, it is personal but somehow unreal – a meeting point between memory and dream.

The lyrics share this surreal sense of nostalgia with disjointed but intimate images strung together in long streams, “The days all seemed far off, until the sky swelled up slowly. Can we survive without measured time?” Nouvion sings it all with a sing-song lilt that is both child-like in its naivety and bittersweet in its descriptions of times gone.

Nestling the melodies are Evan Abeele’s almost impressionistic arrangements, his guitars, synthesizers and strings layered in thick, smooth slabs and netted together with reverb.

The album has some impressive, drawn out crescendos but its strongest moments are when it is still, content to simply dwell in a thick haze of nostalgia with no particular rush to move forward.

In trying to work out exactly which other British songstress Rebecca Ferguson sounds like you will realise that you have probably heard it all before.

A husky voice with an average range and a collection of songs that you can just tell required some deep soul searching from Ferguson; Teach Me How To Be Loved anyone?

Never the less, the album isn’t horribly woeful; any fans of diva-tinged ballads will appreciate Nothing’s Real But Love and Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way) in the same manner that you might appreciate the soundtrack to a Richard Curtis film.

Musically, Ferguson is lovely enough for pop-orientated persons to listen to. Ferguson was previously a contestant on Britain’s X Factor, so that little pearl of wisdom might just put you in mind of what to expect from the album.

Her voice shares much of a likeness to Joss Stone with a little more jazz. Upon a little further examination into Ferguson’s history, it pops up that her path is a rough one as a young mother of two with no money and no hope as it would seem. A little bit of that hurt pokes through on some tracks like Shoulder To Shoulder but it’s no tearjerker.

Adele is apparently a fan, but in the same league they are not.

_HENRY ANDERSEN

_HAYLEY MIDDLETON

ANI DIFRANCO ¿Which Side Are You On?

STICKY FINGERS Happy Endings

Righteous Babe Records/ Shock Entertainment

Sureshaker Music / Tone Defeat Records

Grammy award winning New York singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco is back with her first studio record in three years and she’s out to prove that political debate and opinion music is not a job just for the boys.

DiFranco is mad and armed with a guitar and a song book of dagger-sharp lyrics which she delivers a warning to today’s hipsters. When DiFranco isn’t digging at the current state of America she’s chatting about lessons learned – for example on Promiscuity she enlightens us that, ahem, ‘looseness’ is “nothing more than travelling”.

Soul music and message songs are an obvious marriage. Even as a self professed folksinger, DiFranco sounds more bluesy and soulful in ¿Which Side Are You On? compared with previous records, starting with fuzzy guitar in Life Boat. The singer’s raw voice hums “I got red scabby hands and purple scabby feet – and you can smell me coming from halfway down the street” as the guitar weaves in and out like an ‘amen’ to her lyrics. Another highlight is the title track which is as funky and percussive as fans would expect.

The unmitigated flair of DiFranco’s songwriting is undeniable and it’s obvious the woman is frustrated.

Thanks to this frustration DiFranco has delivered a beautiful and gritty collection of reality in song.

The latest sampling from Sydney-sider boys Sticky Fingers is the EP Happy Endings and shit is it different from what they were doing before.

The guys came together in Sydney when drummer Beaker SF and bass player Patty Fingers found Dylan Frost, a kiwi lad, busking outside a pub. After that they worked on their sound with guitarist Seamus, and what subsequently occurred was psychedelic reggae with Frost’s melodic voice on top (best exemplified on Murderous Nerves).

So what’s with the change of pace? This latest offering is far mellower and raw, really concentrating on the various instrumentals included. Research into the epic novel that is the inside of the CD cover tells us that the boys toured with Donovan Frankenreiter who advised them to strip back their sound a little, well, a lot as it turns out.

The stand out track is Happy Endings for certain. It takes on Parisian-esqe instrumentals and pairs it with tranquil vocals, odd but it definitely works.

The six tracks were recorded in an old pub called the Annandale Hotel; apparently a bit of a creepy place with energy, and those sensibilities come out to play on tracks like Dinners On You. For something that was a large step away from their known work, and ultimately a bit of a risk, the sampling of tracks has indeed struck accord. He who dares wins.

_CHELA WILLIAMS _HAYLEY MIDDLETON 22

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

LAST DINOSAURS In A Million Years Dew Process / Universal Music

The first track up to bat on the latest offering from Queensland boys Lost Dinosaurs is Zoom; a pretty catchy little tune reminiscent of Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks. It is lively, carries whistle-inducing beats paired with smooth male adolescent vocals, and is hooky as hell.

Once you’ve made your way through the rest of the subsequent 10 tracks however, it becomes blaringly clear that much of the album shares that same likeness – a few too many tracks start out the same and you’ve gotta to stay tuned to get to the little bit of variety that is hidden deep in the track.

That being said, overall there isn’t too much to fault with this album – it has a great energy about it and fun, fast guitar riffs that really add another level.

Another track of note is Honolulu which has been getting some serious airtime with Triple J in recent weeks. A little slower than the others, it’s the perfect track for cruising highways in the mid-afternoon sunshine.

Last Dinosaurs have just signed up with new British label Friction, who is also privy to bands like The Maccabees and Kaiser Chiefs so these talented boys are likely to develop a big Brit fan base, which – in this reviewer’s opinion at least – they certainly deserve. For a debut album, this is a solid effort which makes for some very happy listening.

_HAYLEY MIDDLETON

THE UNTHANKS Diversions Vol. 1 Rough Trade

On Diversions Vol. 1, one of the most celebrated folk acts in the UK The Unthanks play songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons live from The Union Chapel, London. Moving away from their own material has presented the five piece in a different light where they could branch out from their usual tunes of booze, abuse and sorrow.

Taking one of the most unique voices in current day music is a formidable task but The Unthanks are clearly relentless in their pursuit of what they call “a bad idea that just wouldn’t go away”. Rather than try to out-sing Hegarty (which would be a futile approach), Rachel and Becky Unthank put their own spin on these divine tunes. For Today I Am Boy is given a delicate hand and faultless harmonies, and Bird Gerhl classy strings and sombre piano.

The Unthanks take a more upbeat approach to the songs of Robert Wyatt. Stay Tuned has a haunting vocal that is akin to Chan Marshall, where Dondestan finds the sisters performing some signature clog dancing percussion. Not only are the tunes finely put together, but The Unthanks are great exponents of between song banter.

Diversions Vol. 1 is a timely reminder of the songwriting prowess of Antony & The Johnsons and Robert Wyatt and The Unthanks do an exceptional job by paying a fitting tribute.

GORILLAZ FEAT. ANDRE 3000 & JAMES MURPHY – DoYaThing Putting this many visionary types in one studio could’ve made for a mess, but Gorillaz, Andre 3000 and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy highly anticipated love child (for Converse) might just be the catchiest tune of 2012. Damon Albarn lays down a double-time funk charge and loose-kneed lyrical buggery about being a “pale imitator of a boy in the sky,” while Murphy showcases a Curtis Mayfield-style falsetto and Andre 3000 brings it all home with a fucking brilliant freestyle which includes the gem: “I’m an Outkast but you’re into me/Summer got mad ‘cause winter blew me”.

THE DECEMBERISTS – One Engine (Universal Republic) Following in the footsteps of Twilight with an indiecentric soundtrack to coincide with their big screen adaptation of a popular teeny-bopper book series is The Hunger Games. Folk-rockers The Decemberists contribution to the tracklist comes in the form of new single One Engine – a tepid, lifeless tune devoid of everything that we’ve come to expect from them in this part of their career, leaving only the most traditional aspects of their sound intact. Awful.

M.WARD – The First Time I Ran Away (Merge Records) Praise the lord! Singer-songwriter M. Ward seems to have finally moved on from his disastrous She & Him side project with actress Zooey Deschanel and is back kickin’ it solo style one again. Charged with a bouncy spirit, this teaser from Ward’s sixth LP kicks back with a looser, rockier feel than previously, yet his dusty, wistful voice still inhabits an age all of its own.

LOWER DENS – Brains (Ribbon Music/ Domino) Baltimore dream-rock outfit Lower Dens’ new single Brains has single-handedly made Nootropics one of my most anticipated LPs of 2012. The legacy of this tune is the eerily beautiful atmosphere it creates, which invokes the work of older artists such as Angelo Badalamenti, and more recent work by Ariel Pink, Perfume Genius, and John Maus. Brilliant.

KATY PERRY – Part Of Me (Capitol) Ahh the inevitable Katy Perry Divorce Anthem. A predictable slice of angsty dance-pop, Perry’s admission that “You can keep the diamond ring/It don’t mean nothing, anyway” is hardly likely to stop Russell Brand is his tracks but, if nothing else, this admittedly catchy tune serves to prove she’s the hardest-working marginally talented artist out there.

BY THE NUMB3RS BEST FICTIONAL BANDS

1. Spinal Tap (This Is Spinal Tap) 2. Dr. Funke’s 100% Natural Good Time Family Band Solution (Arrested Development) 3. Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (The Muppets) 4. Stillwater (Almost Famous) 5. Sex Bob-omb (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) 6. Crucial Taunt (Wayne’s World) 7. The B Sharps (The Simpsons) _CHRIS HAVERCROFT 8. Dewey Cox And The Hardwalkers (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) 9. Mouse Rat (Parks And Recreation) 10. Mystik Spiral (Daria)

OKA Milk & Honey Oka Music / Vitamin Records

Electrified Digeridoo, heavy slide guitar, soaring flutes and juju rhythms are some of the many ingredients in OKA’s unforgettable progressive roots sound.

While humble beginnings busking on street corners have led to critical acclaim, commercial success and global tripping (they’ve got a huge following in North America), their sixth studio album Milk & Honey might just be their most exciting yet.

From the beginning of their colourful career, the talented Queensland-based outfit have radiated skill and self-confidence, quick-strumming their guitars and pouring out words in voices that could be bright or tart, affectionate or testy, depending on their mood. Milk & Honey only proves that the trio are completely comfortable keeping their sound undefinable, as they experiment with textures, rhythms and melodies to make vibrant tunes which are neither boring nor offensive.

Perhaps what is greatest about Milk & Honey is the way it explores new musical territory that is challenging enough to engage even the most roots-averse listeners while it maintains a unity of tone which yields a highly listenable work.

In terms of recording quality, Milk & Honey is also OKA’s most sophisticated and well crafted album to date – a musical convergence of their best qualities: warm singing, graceful writing, experimentation. They’re still creating art, but its art for music’s sake, and that’s what makes it such a great listen. _JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD www.xpressmag.com.au

EMINEM The Marshall Mathers LP “This is another public service brought to you in part by Slim Shady,” who would like to inform you that he doesn’t have much of a care for what you think. And so was born The Marshall Mathers LP from Eminem.

18 tracks all written by the Detroit local, and produced in part by himself also, with the likes of Dr Dre and the Bass Brothers. The album is very much a response to the areas of downfall that we all know plagued Mathers – his wife, his fame, his critics, etc. None of them escaped the wrath of his words and he set about to pull together an album that showcased the pressures his demons placed upon him, the first track Kill You being an apt example. This track, like others on the record, uses the simple technique of stripped back beats so that the vocals could take centre stage.

Undoubtedly the most praised track from the album is Stan featuring Dido which chronicled the obsession of a fan, showcasing creative sound effects and cultural resonance.

The rapper received backlash for the violence depicted in his lyrics, especially towards women, but the album was the fastest selling rap album in history. _HAYLEY MIDDLETON 23

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www.xpressmag.com.au

25

Project Runway Australia season 3 winner Dylan Cooper

MAKE IT WORK

Raspberry + Pop

SALE OF THE CENTURY

Stephen K Amos

LAUGH IT UP

A charming performer who has the skills and wit to comically seduce just about any audience, Stephen K Amos is renowned for his hilarious shenanigans, which Perth punters will be able to witness first hand this May. Heading to P-town for shows during the inaugural Perth International Comedy Festival, Amos will take centre stage at the Astor Theatre from Thursday, May 10, ’til Saturday, May 12, with Laughter Is My Agenda, a show which is sure to cement the UK funnyman’s reputation for fantastic live comedy. Tickets are on sale now from BOCS. Find out more about the Perth International Comedy Festival, via perthcomedyfest.com.au.

Bargain lovers take note! This Saturday, March 10, the Mount Hawthorn Hall will play host to an epic designer sale, offering up cut price clothing and accessories from some of WA’s most-loved labels. Head on down to the Hall from 10am-4pm, to get your hands on goodies from Raspberry + Pop, Zanthus, Almaza, Bonnie & Clyde, Petals In Disarray, The Launderette, Zamora, Generics, Little Gracie, Penny & Lola, Method and Frankii, among others. Cash and credit cards will be accepted.

The sale is only on for one day so be sure to mark March 10 in your diary to avoid sartorial disappointment!

In fashion, one day you’re in and the next day you’re out… Think you’ve got what it takes to win Project Runway Australia season four? Well then, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is because Pro Ro is set to make a triumphant return in 2012, and applications are now open for designers who think they have the skills to pay the bills. In the words of Tim Gunn, if you think you can “make it work”, don’t delay, hit up fmashows.com/projectrunway ASAP to register your interest.

KULCHA CLASH

A venue which celebrates the work of culturally diverse musicians, performers and artists, Kulcha is on the hunt for talented folk who want to perform at their Fremantle space in 2012. Offering profit-share incentives and special venue hire deals, Kulcha is a haven for the arts, and is a fantastic place for creative folk to showcase their skills. If you’re interested in having a chat to Kulcha about performing at the venue in 2012, email admin@kulcha.com. au before Friday, March 16, with your band/ artist name and a short description of your performance style.

BIKE HIKE

If you love to jump on your bike and ride then listen up, because Youth Focus is on the hunt for keen cyclists who want to make a difference. The Virtual Ride is a new fundraising event which will help support Youth Focus in the prevention of youth suicide and depression. During March participants will ride 20 hours to replicate the 700kms that 88 riders will cover in the Hawaiian Ride For Youth, which will see charitable cyclists pedal from Albany to Perth in only five days. Less physically challenging than the Hawaiian Ride For Youth, the Virtual Ride is perfect for just about anyone because your hours on the bike can be clocked in the gym or on the road, making it very convenient indeed. For more information and to register your interest and help a very deserving charity hit up everydayhero.com.au/event/2012virtualride.

Fremantle Chilli Festival

CHILL(I) OUT

If you’re the kind of person who likes to feel the inside of your mouth sizzle and burn when you eat then you’ll be pleased to hear about the return of the Fremantle Chilli Festival. Set to take over the Freo Esplanade this Saturday, March 10, and Sunday, March 11, the Fremantle Chilli Festival is one for lovers of the spicier things in life, with super hot plants, pickles, cheese, chocolate, wine, beer and more! There will be cooking demonstrations, free tastings and plenty of spicy fun for the whole family to enjoy. Entry is $15, kids under 16 get in free when accompanied by an adult.

HIGH TIMES The brand spanking new Rooftop Movies launched in grand style last Wednesday, February 29, with a screening of cult classic The Big Lebowski. An astroturf wonderland that looks out over the city, Rooftop Movies screens new releases and old favourites; find out what’s on and when at rooftopmovies.com.au.

Photographs by Matt Jelonek

Chris, Rachael & Tristen The Sweet

THE SWEET Sugar Rush Skye & Marcus Damien & Ahmad

The Sweet play Subiaco’s Regal Theatre on Saturday, March 10, with support from Slade tribute act Almost Slayed.

Somewhere along the way,‘70s glam-rockers The Sweet bifurcated, and now there are two versions of the group currently touring. There’s Steve Priest’s Sweet, who tour the North American market, and Andy Scott’s Sweet, who handle Europe and Australia. This brings us to the question: with two groups simultaneously working under the same name, what is the ineffable quality that makes The Sweet, well, The Sweet?

Sian & David

“I think people are gonna Kellie & Jayson

be very pleased and surprised when they hear the album.”

Russell & Sarah 26

Marc & Courtney

“I refrain from using the word ‘me’,” says Andy Scott. “But my job in the band was always to make sure the music was right. I was the producer, the basic songwriter, and the high harmonies - well I did most of that. Plus, the core of The Sweet’s sound is the thunder of the drums and the blocking of the guitar, basically.

It’s such a full sound and you’ve got to try and get that across and retain that, even though there’s only four people in the band, we do make a hell of a racket. But

it’s organised. I call it organised chaos. I still believe that there’s a template that you have to follow, and you have to get it - there’s no point in being in my band if you don’t get what it’s all about. We’re all in the same mindset. We’re all in this together.”

Out of that chaos has come a new album, New York Connection, a collection of covers. When asked about the dearth of original material on the album, Scott replies, “The last album of absolute new songs about 10 years ago - Sweetlife - was actually quite easy, because basically it was myself and one of the other guys in the band. However, with the recording of songs that we basically know, and having the band set up in my rehearsal studio here and thrash things out has actually been a very cleansing experience. We’ve come up with what I would call some quite interesting medleys or segues, where we’ve found that one song fits another one almost like a glove, so we’ve done a couple of combinations. I think people are gonna be very pleased and surprised when they hear the album.”

In fact, it was the band’s perennial presence on a raft of ‘where are they now?’ shows that prompted the sudden surge in creative output.“We’d been doing TV shows on the nostalgia circuit, where they chart back through several years, and over the last five years they’ve been trawling back through the ‘70s and the ‘80s, and they picked up on the fact that The Sweet had a lot of hits in Europe. We got to a point where we went, well, let’s try something different. We all love a good pop song, so we did a cover version of Join Together, The Who’s song, last year, did it on a TV show, and the whole thing went ballistic. We’ve had some time, so we’ve put together a whole new album of cover versions. So here we are with a new album of basically good, solid cover versions done in The Sweet style.” _TRAVIS JOHNSON X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Rooftop Movies (Photo: Jarrad Seng)

ROOFTOP MOVIES A Night Among The Stars

There was a time - and it wasn’t too long ago - when the Perth CBD and the inner suburbs were packed to the gills with movie theatres. Now there are three.

Film fans have to either make do with the limited number of screens available, or trek out to one of the god-awful multiplexes that dot the suburbs.

All that’s changed now - at least while the weather holds - with the opening of Rooftop Movies, an open-air cinema right in the heart of Northbridge. Nestled in a pink flamingo-festooned artificial oasis on top of the Roe Street carpark and boasting a program of cinematic icons and cult classics - and a licensed bar - it is an urban cineaste’s dream.

“It’s an idea I’ve had kicking around in my head since about 2003, when I first discovered that site,” says Artrage director Marcus Canning, who midwifed the project into existence. “We used the carpark for a work during a festival, and just seeing the potential of that site, I’ve had the idea kicking around ever since. When we finally started a conversation with City of Perth Parking, they were really into it, and obviously a partnership developed.”

Even so, the project underwent a long gestation, with every effort being made to ensure that all the pieces were in place before going public.

“It hasn’t been a cheap exercise setting that up,” Canning explains. “And we have had a lot of different projects on the boil, so we really

www.xpressmag.com.au

needed some decent sponsor backing in order to really consider it, and a couple of the key sponsors behind us, Bulmers and Stella Artois, once they were onboard that helped a lot. Obviously you can’t start rolling until you’ve got some assurance that there’s adequate backing behind it.”

It’s certainly been worth the wait, with the first week of screenings alone having encompassed such films as The Big Lebowski, The Dark Knight, Alien, and Casablanca. Canning assures us that assembling the schedule was a labour of love.

“It was a bit of a collective effort,” he tells us. “We started with a large list and whittled it down to 732 films on this Excel spreadsheet you can imagine trying to whittle it down further from there. We tried to get a mix of the cult, the classic, the cinephile, but also the B-grade and the totally schmaltzy as well. A lot of this has been about presenting films that people haven’t had an opportunity to see on the big screen for a really long time, or ever. There’s a couple of generations who have never seen Gremlins on the big screen, for instance, so slamming that up with Beetlejuice will be an interesting night out at the films. There was a lot of pleasure putting that programme together, and we’re looking forward to season two as well we’ve got a few surprises up our sleeve for that.”

Indeed, with only the first month’s screenings having been announced so far, interest is high with regards to what cinematic treats April will bring. Judging from Rooftop Movies’ opening salvo, it’ll be worth the wait. _TRAVIS JOHNSON

Project X

PROJECT X

The Superbad Hangover Directed by Nima Nourizadeh Starring Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown Project X is loosely, very loosely, inspired by the infamous party of Corey Worthington. You remember the guy - that high school kid from Melbourne who posted his house party on MySpace and attracted hundreds of people and over $20,000 in property damage. More importantly he attracted the attention of the Australian media and he famously gave a ridiculous interview in a pair of stupid glasses and a jacket on, no shirt. Well take from that the fact that some teenagers threw a party that got out of hand, and you have Project X. Really, that’s it. Three high school seniors, Thomas, Costa and JB decide to throw a party while Thomas’ parents are away, leaving behind a vulnerable house with a pristine garden, pool house and priceless Mercedes. Now son, I don’t want anything to happen to my Mercedes while your mother and I are away for the weekend... You know the set up. Strangely, and with little explanation, they enlist another high school student, Dax, to film the whole thing and it is this camera that the point of the view of the story is told through. Well supposedly it is, because the amount of slow motion and underwater scenes apparently shot with this old high school equipment are so blatantly out of place they disjoint

the movie. The constant smooth, slow motion shots of girls in panties interject the handheld shots like some bizarre music video for a terrible band.

Fearing a party of just a few people, they get the word out any way they can but put it out a bit too hard. As guests keep filing through the party swells getting more and more out of hand. The lads catch the ire of an enraged drug dealer, manage to pull the hottest chicks in school and get a midget trapped in an oven, events that bring each pubescent boy out of his shell and teach them an important life life lesson or two along the way. To their credit the three main stars of the film do a fine job of bringing their shallow characters to life, with Costa (Oliver Cooper) bringing some genuine laughs to key scenes.

But of course the story or plot isn’t why you go to a flick like this. You go for the hopefully funny situations that play out in front of you as the characters bumble their way through a series of ever escalating events. It’s nothing original, it’s a story that has been around since the ’70s with Animal House and of course Revenge Of The Nerds from the ’80s and more recently Superbad. So taking originality out of the picture, does Project X give you a funny and enjoyable ride?

It does and it doesn’t. While some audience members will find the no-brains comedy appealing, many will leave unsatisfied. The predictable and juvenile nature of the film will be a barrier to most and even for fans of slacker comedies the ride may be too utterly predictable and boring to get behind. _TOM VARIAN

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Coriolanus

CORIOLANUS God of War

Directed by Ralph Fiennes Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerald Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, James Nesbitt, Jessica Chastain Updating Shakespeare to a modern milieu is hardly a new trick, and the results range from the excellent - the Ian McKellan-starring Richard III - to the downright terrible - Geoffrey Wright’s ill-conceived Australianised Macbeth. Happily, Ralph Fiennes’ first foray into directing has a lot more in common with the former than the latter, both in style and thematic content.

The story sees Caius Martius Coriolanus (Fiennes), a decorated general of Rome, come undone when forced to pursue public office by his politically ambitious mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave). Banished, he throws in his lot with enemy commander Aufidius (Gerard Butler) and lays siege to Rome, seeking vengeance on the politicians who ousted him (among them James Nesbitt) and the people who supported the decision.

It’s a fantastic slice of Shakespearian tragedy, and it raises some timely questions about the role of the professional soldier in public life, and the way that our culture judges people by their charisma rather than their competence. Coriolanus is a born soldier, a hugely capable warrior, and it is this very quality, with its attendant brusqueness and air of violence, that makes him an unfit politician. Fiennes heightens this timeliness in his

chosen setting and manner of production design, shooting the film in Belgrade and dressing it in the iconography of the modern battlefield, with Rome’s legions fighting not with gladius and pilum but M4s and grenades. There’s always a risk when updating Shakespeare that the change in temporal setting is simply for the sake of expediency and audience familiarity, but it’s clear that play and setting were carefully mated to reinforce the narrative’s underlying themes.

The cast are great across the board. Jessica Chastain, who is fast becoming an ubiquitous screen presence, is perhaps underused as Coriolanus’ wife Virgilia, but she acquits herself well enough, while fellow frequent film flyer Brian Cox is effortlessly excellent as the politically canny but loyal Menenius.

Redgrave is fantastic, sheathing her character’s steely ambition and cold heart in a thin veneer of affection and sociability, but it is Fiennes himself who comes out looking the best. It’s a fearless performance, and Fiennes the director uses the physical geography of Fiennes the actor to excellent effect - witness his emergence from the film’s first battle, his shaven scalp and scarred face awash with blood. The full weight of the film, narratively and thematically, rests of Fiennes shoulders, and he carries it easily.

All up, this is an astute and ambitious directorial debut, and we can only hope that Fiennes doesn’t leave it too long between such projects. A Shakespearean adaptation is well within an actor’s wheelhouse, but it’d be great to see him stretch himself further and really test his behindthe-camera skills. _TRAVIS JOHNSON

Spaced Out

Directed by Andrew Stanton Starring Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church John Carter Of Mars: The film that could never be made. Projects have started and stopped since as early as 1931, with contemporary directors like Robert Rodriguez and John Favreau most recently failing to bring Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous character and world to life. And so exactly 100 years since the first printing of A Princess Of Mars, Disney finally gives audiences a look at the world of Barsoom, or Mars as we call it. Has all that laboured time produced sweet fruit? Sadly it has not, with a sour experience that will largely underwhelm and puzzle audiences.

First some back-story on what makes this movie potentially special. John Carter was first printed as a serial in a pulp magazine under the title Under The Moons Of Mars in 1912. It was Edgar Burroughs’ first printed work, an author you may know as the creator of Tarzan, a series that has produced and inspired many classic films, but the same never happened for John Carter’s adventures on Mars. Not including some terrible straight-to-video versions, a big budget take on the pulp classic has been a long, and I mean long, time coming.

So fans of pulp action and sci-fi held their collective breaths as Disney announced they were finally going to use the franchise, and famed Pixar talent Andrew Stanton was to take the helm. An award winning animator at heart, John Carter is Stanton’s liveaction debut and unfortunately it shows.

Let’s get back to the film itself. Taylor Kitsch plays John Carter, an American Civil War vet trying to mine a fortune in the harsh lands of early America. While being chased by the law and Apaches he comes across a cave of gold in the canyons, but upon entering and killing a strange figure he is immediately teleported to Barsoom. Upon arrival Carter realises that Barsoom has a lower gravity than Earth, giving him unnatural strength which enables his legs to propel him hundreds of metres through the air.

The first creatures John Carter encounters are the main inhabitants of Barsoom: a towering, green race that is barbarian in nature and technology.

Carter eventually earns their respect with his jumping ability and heightened strength. Also occupying the planet are humanoid beings, themselves in a civil war that is destroying what little remains of the planet.

Carter manages to rescue the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) from the Red Martians and promptly falls in love with her. Her own people have surrendered to the enemy, and so it is up to her, John Carter and his barbarian race of green Martians to band together and fight for a free Barsoom. It’s a classic story, and one that very much inspired Star Wars and, well, pretty much every adventure science fiction franchise.

But the problems with this film are many, with large, gaping holes in the plot, unlikable characters and a scattered flow that doesn’t know whether it’s a kids’ movie, an adult flick or something in-between. In the end you are left with a mutated flick that is trying to cater to everyone but ends up appealing to no one. _TOM VARIAN

Character Study

Dead Of Night

Panem Et Circenses is on display at Elements Art Gallery – 131A Waratah Avenue in Dalkeith – from Thursday, March 8, ’til Sunday, March 25.

The Perth Theatre Company presents Blackbird from Saturday, March 10, ’til Saturday, March 31.

Bookings can be made via BOCS.

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JOHN CARTER

PANEM ET CIRCENSES

BLACKBIRD

Scottish playwright David Harrower’s one-act play Blackbird depicts, in excruciating emotional detail, the confrontation between Una (Anna Houston) a young woman, and Ray (Humphrey Bower), the man who molested her when she was a child. It’s a hard hitting and uncompromising piece of theatre, and one that Houston did not approach lightly. “ I t h i n k , ” s h e s ay s, c a r e f u l l y a n d deliberately, “with this kind of play, you’d really be doing people who’ve lived this experience a great disservice by not knowing the totality of that experience.”

For Houston, in this case, that meant a great deal of research, much of it hard going. “You have to really dive into the subject matter and immerse yourself in it. What I was most interested to actually read about was the rehabilitation of sex offenders, which is relevant to the play, but also that’s where my brain goes - I just love knowing all the legal technicalities and that sort of thing. I read a lot of victim memoirs, which was very harrowing, but I think if you’re going to put that work on stage, you have to do that.”

B y h e r ow n a d m i s s i o n , i t w a s a n exceedingly difficult preparation period. But she also insists that it was the challenging nature of the material, coupled with writer Harrower’s deft handling of it, that prompted her to pursue the role.

“The writing itself is remarkable,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve come across that many contemporary plays that are as intelligently and emotionally intricate in the writing; it’s stunning, it’s a really stunning play. And also the subject matter is so confronting and challenging and complex, and it feels like a piece of work that needs to be done.

There’s nothing casual or light about it; it really packs a punch. I was really drawn to it. It’s about so many things, but the heart of it is the issue of paedophilia and all the complexities of that issue, and you’re right - we don’t talk about it as a society.

It’s covered up and it’s completely taboo, and it’s something that for the victims and offenders of the crime, there’s not much recourse for telling their story or having their voice heard, so that’s another really attractive quality to the work.”

Another reason was the opportunity to work with award winning actor Humphrey Bower,

John Carter

Blackbird who she describes as “So experienced, and he’s such a gentle soul, that I never feel inhibited or afraid of making a choice on the floor, in the work. He’s very kind and he’s very generous. It makes it so much easier when you’re working with a good person!

And he’s fun as well; I don’t think there’s much point in getting bogged down in the misery of work that’s confronting like this. You’ve got to be able to laugh and shake it off at the end of the day. I’m really lucky with Humphrey.”

Local art lovers are invited to take a ride back in time to a quirky carnival in Depression era America with Panem Et Circenses, an exhibition of engaging and whimsical oil paintings by Bethany Marchman. Though she’s now well known for her beguiling depictions of curious characters, not all that long ago Marchman was an illustrator and storyboard artist by trade, until a world event inadvertently changed her path in life.

“A lot of it was circumstance,” Marchman says of the catalyst for her transition from storyboarding to painting.

“When I first started showing my paintings I was also working in a studio that specialised in print ads and commercial storyboards.

This was kind of a rare thing in Atlanta since most studios of the like are in New York or Los Angeles. During that time, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. Everyone was scared and sad and so freaked out.

The economy took a big hit. Ad agencies tightened their belts and the studio wasn’t getting enough work to stay in business. I then turned my focus more toward my own art and worked on a career as a painter from that point on.”

In the time since her career change, M archman has developed a signature style that is elegant, inviting and instantly recognisable, though the artist admits this was something she struggled with early on.

“It was hard for me to find my style in the beginning. With commercial art, I didn’t like having someone there dictating what to make and how to do it. So, I think I got a little reactionary and was definitely not thinking about the sell-ability of my work. I learned to approach my painting as something very personal. I figured people may like it or may not. It makes it feel very meaningful and rewarding that way if they do like it.”

Drawing inspiration from classic oil painting masters who created breathtaking,

Siamese Twins by Bethany Marchman large scale works that were full of depth and character, Marchman utilizes ancient techniques to create distinctly modern artworks that draw you into the world of her oddball characters.

Innocence is a theme that has occupied much of Marchman’s previous work, but for Panem Et Circenses at Elements Art Gallery, this Star Wars loving artist gets political.

“I’m not very political with my paintings, but I really felt a need to explore different ideas around the current political and economic state of affairs - albeit in a whimsical manner. The series has a literal circus/entertainment theme. I wanted to incorporate imagery reminiscent of the Depression era since I thought it created another interesting parallel with the current issues of the world’s economy.

“A friend of mine suggested this theme once as we were talking politics.

‘Panem et Circenses’ (bread and circuses) was a metaphor coined by the ancient Roman writer, Juvenal. He was criticising the political powers that be for using cheap distractions to appease the masses and avoid civil unrest.

Since America is often compared to ancient Rome and many fear a similar downfall, I found this to be an interesting notion to work with.” _EMMA BERGMEIER

_TRAVIS JOHNSON X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

VISUAL ARTS Instant2: Linton and Kay Contemporary: Subiaco Paul Stojanovic bravely utilises the notoriously unreliable plastic toy box cameras, the Diana, which first appeared in the ’60s, and the Holga, that followed in the early ’80s in an engaging exhibition entitled Instant2. With both cameras synonymous with major faults such as light leakage, multiple exposures, dust and vignetting, Stojanovic expertly captures the everyday moments that we tend to overlook as we navigate our surroundings, crafting quietly beautiful images that evoke a memory of a particular period or childhood memory. Runs ’til Mar 15.

Sculpture By The Sea: Cottesloe Beach, Cottesloe Sculpture By The Sea will again transform the beautiful Cottesloe Beach into an international sculpture park from during March. The much loved event, Perth’s largest free outdoor art exhibition, attracted over 200,000 visitors last year. This year 30 West Australian artists will show their works on Cottesloe Beach, including renowned West Australian sculptors Lou Lambert, Tony Jones and Paul Caporn. They will be joined by 10 artists from NSW including Margarita Sampson and Orest Keywan, as well as artists from Victoria, South Australia, the ACT, Northern Territory and Queensland. Runs ’til Mar 19.

Cup City by Kevin Ballantine Cup City: Spectrum Project Space, Mt Lawley February 2012 is the 25th anniversary of Australia losing The America’s Cup, and Cup City is a photographic exhibition by Kevin Ballantine documenting Fremantle and Perth during the summer of the failed cup defence. Cup City will take place at Spectrum Project Space in March 2012 as part of the biannual FotoFreo International Photography Festival. This is the first time these 25-year-old images have been exhibited and Cup City consists of large black and white prints arranged in triptychs of stark, bleached landscapes, taken with a medium format camera in the summer of 1986/1987. Runs from Mar 9-23.

Boom: The Oats Factory, Carlisle Western Australia has been in the grip of a resources boom since 2006. But, what does this mean for the people who live here? What is our individual or collective experience? Utilising sculpture, painting, jewellery and film; 11 artists explore the phenomena of ‘boom times’. This exhibition showcases a diverse and vibrant group of artists who have collaborated on various projects and exhibitions for over 10 years. Features work by Jill Ansell, Clare Bestow, Vanessa Bradley, Louise Carre, Beba Hall, Georgina Moss, Diana Papenfus, Geraldine Pillinger, Sandra Perry, Gail Putz and Tineke Van der Eecken. Runs ’til Mar 18.

We Must Cultivate Our Garden: Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge Scottish artist Nathan Coley is bringing his sculpture We Must Cultivate Our Garden to Perth, the Australian debut of this internationally acclaimed artwork. Nathan Coley is an eminent Scottish artist and Turner Prize nominee, whose practice is based on the exploration of public space and the social aspects of our built environment. The 10 metre long sculpture is made from fairground lights, suspended on a temporary scaffolding structure; creating an intriguing juxtaposition between the profound text and dingy travelling fairground aesthetic. On display ’til Mar 26.

The Floating Garden: Free Range Gallery, Perth Perth based artist Fran Rhodes presents her first solo exhibition of photographic imagery that reflects on the experience of an immigrant to Australia in an increasingly globalized culture. The works in this exhibition are part of her ongoing research by practice into the metaphor of the garden and migrant experience. Runs Mar 17-27.

THEATRE/DANCE

Untitled 2011 by Monique Pecotich (Applecross Senior High School)

Year 12 Perspectives: Art Gallery Of WA, Northbridge An annual survey of work by WA’s top Visual Arts students, Year 12 Perspectives promises to deliver works of technical excellence and emotional complexity. Works depict relationships between self and the wider community, amongst family members and explore the relationship one has with one’s self. Fifty-one artists challenge us to reflect, explore and understand the world in which they inhabit and provide us with an opportunity to connect to the experiences of the young people of Western Australia. Exhibition runs ’til Apr 9.

www.xpressmag.com.au

Luminaire: The Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge The brand new theatrical work by Renegade Productions, Luminaire, has been cleverly crafted to produce a beautifully existential piece about love, life and infinity. This is not your ordinary theatre experience; it considers light as another performer on stage. Exploring a range of innovative and experimental techniques and effects to create lighting sculptures and ‘lumiscapes’, including ground breaking use of chemiluminescence, Luminaire is designed to take your breath away. Runs Mar 13-31. Bookings via blueroom.org.au.

Men In Pink Tights: Regal Theatre, Subiaco Making their world premiere season in Australia, Les Ballet’s Eloelle are bringing their new production Men In Pink Tights – the most spectacular, talented and hilarious all-male comedy ballet ever, to Perth. The greatest troupe

Solo: Artitja Fine Art, Fremantle Respected Indigenous artist Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa from the remote community of Mt Allen in central Australia returns to Perth for Solo.

Through a skilful application of paint and her dotting technique, Nampitjinpa creates a three dimensional view of sand blowing over the desert sand dunes in a flowing movement across the canvas, and other images of her homeland. Runs ’til Mar 25.

Larry Mitchell: A Pilbara Project Exhibition: FORM Gallery, Perth It takes a skilled and sensitive artist to interpret the complexities and contradictions of the Pilbara, and show its scenery in a fresh light. In Larry Mitchell: A Pilbara Project Exhibition, we have the opportunity to witness the encounter of one of Australia’s leading visual artists with this vast region, from the industrial landscapes of the Burrup and Port Hedland to the Spinifex-studded hills way east of Newman. Larry Mitchell’s paintings offer a perspective of the Pilbara in painstaking and sometimes painful detail. Runs ’til May 29.

The Unknown By The More Unknown: OK Gallery, Northbridge In his first solo exhibition, The Unknown By The More Unknown, David Egan presents a charismatic constellation of paintings and objects examining pop culture mysteries and vernacular theories - in which established methods of knowing are hijacked and subverted by the incurably curious - investigating the infinite potential of interpretation and understanding in cultural communication. Runs ’til Mar 18. of it is kind around the globe; Les Ballet’s Eloelle features over 50 ballets in its repertoire and an array of the best international professional male ballet dancers from 13 nations. Season runs Mar 23-24. Bookings via Ticketek.

Arcadia: Heath Ledger Theatre, Northbridge Sidley Park, Derbyshire, April 1809. Surrounded by eccentric family members, fastidious house guests and surly staff, tutor Septimus Hodge is in charge of educating Lady Thomasina Coverley, aged 13. Beyond the grand windows are the 500 acres inclusive of lake, where Capability Brown’s artificially manicured naturescape is about to give way to the fashionably ‘picturesque’ Gothic style of landscape gardening. 180 years later, garden historian Hannah Jarvis and academic Bernard Nightingale stand in the same room, trying to shed light on the garden’s secrets and uncover the scandal which is said to have taken place when Lord Byron stayed at Sidley Park in Lady Thomasina’s time… Runs Mar 17-Apr 1.

Bookings via BOCS.

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Local party duo Bombs Away, aka brothers Thomas Hart and Sketch, are currently on a promotional tour in America before relocating there for six months in June. (“We’re not abandoning Australia but we’re just getting the hell out of here during winter and then we’ll be back in summer”). Having just mixed Wild Nights 2012 alongside Adelaide’s DJ Kronic, the lads chat with ANNABEL MACLEAN about David Guetta, partying and the mix.

When Bombs Away took on America last year, they returned to Australia feeling putrid. The American “diet” had taken its toll on their insides and they were glad to be back in our sunburnt country to enjoy a somewhat healthier lifestyle. But, the lads have got a new strategy to cope with the food for their big relocation over to the States this year.

“Make more money,” Hart says. “We had no money last time. This time we saved a bit more so we don’t have to eat three dollar happy meals or greasy apples.”

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R O F G N I LOOK S L R I G E SOM

BOMBS BOMB S AWAY www.xpressmag.com.au

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Heading over to the US with a #1 Australian dance single in the ARIA charts for Supersoaker, a #1 artist in Australia and #32 worldwide on The DJ List under their belts, their new record label Bomb Squad Records and having spent over 52 weeks consecutively in the charts, America is the next stop on their train to success and superstardom. “We’re actually going to go over there and see if we can have the same success in the States as we have over here in Australia,” Sketch says. Having remixed the likes of Katy Perry, Gotye, Gym Class Heroes and more, the boys are hoping to raise the bar this year and hell, maybe even get Russell Brand in one of their clips. “I hope so, we really hope so,” Sketch says. “When we’re in the States, we’re hookin’ up some features with our next song so we’re going to do lots of cameos with some pretty big name people over there. That’s about all I can say because if it doesn’t happen properly then I’ll look like a dickhead.”

“We’ve just got a new remix for Alex Gaudino over in the States,” Hart adds.“We’re really looking to do a lot of American A-list work this year – our remix for Seany B’s [track] Everybody Get Up is #1 in the charts at the moment and they were amazing to work with but I think we’re going to be doing a lot more American work this year.That’s where we’re getting a lot of interest from and we can’t afford to let that cool down.”

But, at the rate the lads are operating, there are no signs of cooling down, in fact, even in their film clip for Supersoaker, things heat up and get a bit sexy by the poolside with copious amounts of scantily clad

women dancing amongst bubbles and flirting with the camera and water pistols. “We really wanted an excuse to get girls to wear not much clothes in the film clip; everything else was a bonus,” Hart says of the clip filmed at “the main penthouse on the Gold Coast”.

“People think it looked really fun. It was a super stressful day. I think we were there for probably 20 hours. I think we [Bombs Away and DJ Kronic] went through 28 bottles of vodka during the shoot so by the end of it, it ended up being a party but there was probably six solid weeks of planning leading up to it and then one hectic day getting it done.”

Aside from mingling with sexy women and jet-setting off to the States, the lads have recently mixed a disc for Wild Nights 2012 alongside DJ Kronic and say the mix was taken from some of the wild nights they’ve had. “Especially the intro,” Hart says in agreement. “We pushed for a little bit more leeway this year and we ran a bit with Kronic’s influence and we mixed it really, really quickly – mixtape style. It’s a lot more like our party stuff that we play. That’s what we do with our shows; we wanted to reflect that in the CD.” The mix includes DJ Kronic’s debut original single Looking For Some Girls Ft. Bombs Away and the lads are excited to announce to the general public that they are indeed looking for some girls. “Yes, very much so,” Sketch says enthusiastically, answering on behalf of Hart. At this stage though, they won’t be getting any Perth girls with the Perth leg of the Wild Nights 2012 tour still in the making. Sketch is excited about the possibility

Bombs Away of returning to Perth for at least a day so he can reunite with his house – the one he and Hart abandoned after relocating to the Gold Coast for work recently.“I literally have not been inside my house for like 18 months.

There is definitely still food on my table,” he says.

They’re also looking forward to playing Creamfields 2012 shortly and smashing some vodka with David Guetta on the tour.“We’ll get him drunk and we’ll show him what happens when love takes over,” Hart says, half-jokingly. Sketch is also hoping that his new snakeskin jacket will bring the ladies to the party on the tour. “I had it custom made and it’s improved my pick up rate at least 200 per cent. It’s so shiny. I just point girls at it and they get distracted and then I can get them back to the hotel room.”

» BOMBS AWAY » WILD NIGHTS 2012 [CENTRAL STATION] » OUT FRIDAY, MARCH 9

Digitalism

GET DIGITAL

If you haven’t had the chance to check out the brilliant German duo Digitalism live then you’re going to need to get along to Villa on Friday, May 18. Known for their electro-punk and indie dance madness, the dudes smashed it at Parklife last year with their live show, banging out hits from their latest record I Love You Dude. The lads are doing the Groovin’ The Moo sideshows around the country but what’s even better about this Perth sideshow is that Stockholm based producer Adrian Lux will be supporting in Perth – and only Perth. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, March 20 and are available from Moshtix and the Boomtick Shop. Snatch them up for $45 plus booking fee.

Yay for Reeperbahn action!

KUT UP D-FLOOR KRAFTY STYLE

Coming all the way from Brighton Beach in the UK will be the legendary breaks DJ Krafty Kuts. Martin Reeves, as he is known to some, will be bringing his mad mix of breaks, electro, dubstep, drum’n’bass and hip hop on a national tour down under, finishing up in Perth on Saturday, May 12, at Villa. Hit up Villa for ticketing deets coming soon. If you’re a fan of A-Skillz, Jack Beats, The Freestylers or even Plump DJs, get a load of this. Make sure you check out his new record Let’s Ride ahead of the gig.

Krafty Kuts

MANIK MADNESS

DJ Mag named him on their official Hot To Watch 2011 list. He is the mighty New York City born and bred music producer, DJ MANIK. This kid boasts releases on underground imprints such as Josh Wink’s Ovum, LA based Culprit, Steve Bug’s highly praised Poker Flat and upcoming releases on Lee Foss’ and Jamie Jones’ almighty Hot Creations. He cannot be genre-boxed. Expect house, nu-disco, funk, acid and deep house when he hits town on Friday, March 30, at The Velvet Lounge. Tickets are $20 plus booking fee from Moshtix. Get ready to get MANIK.

MANIK

FUN PUNCH PARTY

Well maybe it’ll be when Sydney’s Bag Raiders hit town shortly in celebration of their forthcoming Leave Them All Behind 4 compilation on Modular Records. The lads have been in LA for the last few months working on the album and are excited to be returning back home to party it up down under for their first gigs for 2012. The crazy cats play Limelite at Villa on Saturday, April 7. The almighty Cassian supports. Stay tuned for ticketing deets. Get your turbo love on!

CLARK CALLING

After a huge East Thursday show last year,Warp Records’ Chris Clark is coming back to town. In celebration of the release of his new record Iradelphic which drops on Monday, April 2, and includes collaborations with Martina Topley Bird and Bibio, Clark plays The Bakery on Friday, April 27, for a full audio and visual experience. Showcasing his brand new palette of sounds and inspiration from Wales, Brussels, Berlin, Norway, London and more, expect a night of colourful synth lines, textured distortion and grand beats. Tickets are $26 plus booking fee and are available from lifeisnoise.com, Heatseeker, Oztix and nowbaking.com.au.

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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ANTHONY PAPPA

RENAISSANCE MAN It’s been a busy couple of years for Australian dance music legend Anthony Pappa. Not only has he been busy touring and making a name for himself as one of the world’s most technically sophisticated DJs, he’s also been hard at work on the new Renaissance compilation. TARA LLOYD gets the lowdown from the DJ and producer.

After a stint living in the UK, Anthony Pappa is heading back to his home country in collaboration with Renaissance for an explosive live show.“I’ve been working with Renaissance for about 15 years now and we’ve done so many projects together,” he says.

“I was one of the DJs for Renaissance and I have also mixed several albums for them, so this new album is just our latest venture.”

Pappa isn’t a stranger to new ventures; as well as producing mix CDs for Renaissance and Global Underground throughout his career he’s played the role of producer, done his own studio tracks and has smashed out beats around the world.

“My favourite is definitely performing live gigs when I DJ,” he says. “I do choose what to play on the night depending on the crowd, the set time and the feel of the gig. I usually have a pretty good idea of what I am trying to achieve at each gig with my style of music and the way I play.”

In between all his other roles, Pappa also found time to set up his own label, Red Light District.

“Setting up the label was very easy for me as my manager looks after it and takes care of anything related to the label,” he explains. “The great thing about having a record label is that it gives you the freedom to release anything you want to.” And if the name seems a little familiar, namely with a particular Amsterdam destination, it is exactly what you’re thinking. “I’ve been to the red light district many

Anthony Pappa times as a tourist,” he says. “I was told when you go to Amsterdam you must go do the sights, so I did.”

He’s certainly in-demand, as a producer, DJ or record label head honcho; DJ Pete Gooding described him as “the best DJ, technically, I ever saw”, and his technical skills have blown critics and fans away. Pappa says that his ability for classical drumming has helped his renowned mixing skills.

“Being a drummer since I was four years old definitely plays a big part in my ability to mix as a DJ,” he says.

“It helped me as a producer because I learned how to read and write music as a drummer so I understand the way music is structured.” He’s recently put those skills to use mixing Nina Kravitz’s tune I’m Gonna Get You. “I like the original mix of Nina Kravitz,” he says of his choice to work with her. “It’s a very nice vocal track and I wanted to do a remix of it, to use on my new Renaissance CD.” And if you’re expecting one of the pioneers of the Nu-Breed DJ movement to spend all his time in Australia partying hard, well, you’re wrong. Even while touring, he’s still managing to fit some work in. “I’m currently working on a track with Melbourne producer Gab Oliver, and I’m touring with Melbourne DJ Rollin Connection,” he says. “The rest of my time in Australia will be spent catching up with friends and family and spending some time on the golf course.

My favourite hobby is playing golf and I love the relaxing time on the course.”

» ANTHONY PAPPA » SATURDAY, MARCH 10 @ GEISHA

DJ Krush

DJ KRUSH JAPANESE MASTER

Japanese maestro Hideaki Ishi, aka DJ Krush, is a gentleman who has innovated dance music to a degree where he stands alone as not only one of Japan’s most influential DJs but, one of the world’s. Having first started DJing and producing as Krush in 1990, last year Ishi celebrated his 20th year as DJ Krush. Now, he returns down under as part of his 20th Anniversary World Tour. DAN WATT gets the lowdown.

Hideaki Ishi is looking forward to returning down under.

He’s always been a man on the look out for potential collaborators of all different genres and Australia is just the place to keep your eyes and ears open according to the DJ and producer. “So many styles and so many genres are interesting to me that I will be taking interest in everything that can I see while I am in Australia,” he begins.“If I discover a style of music from a country that little is known about then I will consider collaborating with them in the future.”

Despite his overtly philanthropic tone, there is one genre that doesn’t particularly excite Ishi and that is dubstep.“As a DJ, you always keep an ear out for what is fresh and exciting, I do not believe that dubstep is fresh or exciting anymore, there is some music within that genre that is well produced and mastered but there is also a lot of music that is neither of those because when something becomes so popular it is easier for some producers to cut corners.”

Talking of buzz genres, when DJ Krush first broke into the international scene with his 1994 record Strictly Turntablized, trip hop was the buzz nomenclature of the time and with his big beat sound, DJ Krush was thrown under the ‘trip hop’ heading and in more recent years he has been labeled the Godfather of Trip Hop.“It’s a bit of funny one being referred to as the ‘Godfather of Trip Hop’,” he says. “I think it was coined sometime, somewhere by a journalist and everyone seems to pick up on it but it’s not a title that sits too well with me because it wrongly implies that I just play trip hop when in actuality what I do play can never be neatly placed in any one genre.”

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He now softens his line slightly explaining where the title may have come from. “In the early ‘90s when the sound known as trip hop was coming out of Bristol, me and a lot of my colleagues did listen to a lot of it and incorporate it into our sets,” he adds.

When Ishi was first starting his career as a musician back in ‘90s, he had a very interesting parttime job as a delivery boy for the Japanese mafia, or the Yakuza as they are known in Japan. Interestingly, Ishi explains that these days the Yakuza is so frowned upon that it risks extinction. “Compared to 10 to 15 years ago, there are very strict laws in Japan outlawing any organised crime activities,” he says. “Socially it has become unacceptable to be associated with the Yakuza.

There have been cases where incredibly famous TV personalities and stars have been sacked from their job for having even the remotest association with the Yakuza.”

Yakuza is now a distant memory for Ishi as he hits town this weekend in celebration of his 20 year long career as DJ Krush. With regards to describing what the upcoming show will be like, he talks of his 20th Anniversairy show in Tokyo last July. “On the night I played for seven hours,” he says. “That included a one hour live set, Japanese MCs who have been with me for my entire career and traditional Japanese instrument players jamming live over my beats!”

» DJ KRUSH » SATURDAY, MARCH 10 @ VILLA X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

THE FUTURE WAS HERE

Die Antwoord Future Music Festival Arena Joondalup Sunday, March 4, 2012 Future Music Festival has become the king of festivals in a time where festivals have been struggling to pull crowds. After Future’s massive debut at the Arena last year, the promoters did well to improve the flow and accessibility of everything on the day.

Swapping around The Likes of You tent and the Flamingo Stage worked well and there were some new additions including the white oasis of the Pure Blonde Dome which had some massive 3D visual mayhem projected on its inside walls and ceiling.

Early on in The Likes Of You tent, Darren J’s classy set provided a stark contrast to Azari & III who stepped back into time with their brand of Chicago house, topped off with a cover of No Way Back by Adonis. While their releases display an obvious love of ‘80s electro, it was only live that their talent for reviving that era faithfully became evident. The show was all about the performance of vocalists Starving Yet Full and Fritz Helder - the dynamic duo danced, gyrated and sang up a storm.

Back on Las Venus Stage, UK drum’n’bass duo Chase & Status were causing some chaos.

With little room to move given the ridiculous fence that surrounded the dancefloor area, the duo accompanied by their full live band and the energetic MC Rage, got off to a rocky start. Although the sound issues were fixed relatively quickly, it seemed that all acts for the rest of the day on the Las Venus Stage were plagued by technical difficulties.

Smashing through tracks mostly off their 2011 album No More Idols, they got the crowd pumping with their delicious dubstep infused drum’n’bass beats, causing some head thrashing with Fire In Your Eyes, communal crowd sing-a-longs with Let You Go and utter madness with the chaotic anthem Fool Yourself. But, when British singer Delilah joined them on stage, the upbeat set took a down turn with Delilah delivering some average vocals on Time which were so soft, it was almost impossible to hear her anyway. Skrillex’s set too seemed quiet but that didn’t stop the enormous crowd from limbthrashing to Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites and fresh tracks off his new EP Bangarang.

Oliver Huntemann hit the decks back in TLOY tent and was surprisingly animated as he treated the crowd to an archetypal collection of techno bordering on the minimal. As he neared the end of his set, punters on the frontline began whistling and jumping in anticipation of what was to come – the outrageous performance from South African rap-raving crew Die Antwoord. DJ Hi-Tek entered the stage in his gross mask and began banging out fresh track DJ Hi-Tek Rulez off the group’s new record Ten$Ion. You know it’s going to be a fucking epic show when it begins with the deep, warped vocals of “DJ Hi-Tek will fuck you in the ass, fuck you in the ass, fuck you in the ass, you punk-ass white boy… you can’t touch me faggot!.” The tattclad Ninja and Yo-Landi Fucking Vi$$er appeared in fluoro orange baggy suits with what appeared to be a gemsbok print stamped on the back of their matching costumes.

Filled with crotch gropes, gyrating movements, dubstep head thrashes, entertaining dance moves across the entire stage, costume changes and even a raw solo from Ninja which saw him spitting rhymes that even the crowd couldn’t keep up, this show was a step up from the trio’s appearance at Big Day Out last year. Vi$$er’s highpitched vocals added to the madness which ensued amongst the crowd during Fok Julie Naaiers, popular single I Fink You Freaky and their YouTube smash hit Enter The Ninja. It was like rap-rave theatre show with their black and white Salad Fingers type visuals flashing up on the big screens and the trio finishing each song in freeze mode.

Deep Dish’s Dubfire followed, his set showed his returned to his more techy roots, playing deep, dark, minimal techno which suited the transition to night well. Over at the Knife Party Pres Earstorm Records Stage, BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe www.xpressmag.com.au

MC Rage with Chase & Status All too soon this short set had to end but not before treating the throngs to a trifecta of Blue Monday, Temptation and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart.

But, the act of the day had to go to evil genius, techno deity, Aphex Twin, aka the elusive Richard D. James. As his signature sound and psychedelic visuals filled the big top, the middle screen briefly went transparent, and revealed James on a platform behind the screen. He was removing himself from the equation of the performance to allow us to focus solely on the audio-visual show. He pulled out a mind-blowing live show, working things up to insane levels by

New Order the end of his set with an all out skitzo assault of gabba and jungle, a barrage of lasers and strobes erupting in a dazzling finale. The words “Keep Calm” flickered on the screens, followed by “Fuck Off & Go Kill Yourself” – a lovely message to end the night with – hilariously mental. Right at the end he popped his long haired, bearded head up from behind the screen, inciting a roar – he flashed a trademark mischievous grin, and then, just like that, he was gone.

» ALFRED GORMAN, ANDREW NELSON & ANNABEL MACLEAN

Fatboy Slim

Skrillex was bringing the party, smashing out some hip hop beats and even a remix of Nero’s Must Be The Feeling.

New York’s post-punk dance troupe The Rapture smashed out the perfect soundtrack for the sunset, with the crowd dancing freely to tracks like No Sex For Ben and Gotta Get Myself Into It. Future regular Sven Vath took things up a notch with a corker of a set.

The veteran DJ of 30 years knows how to rock a party and he had the people moving with his seamless mixing of deep, dirty house, techno and progressive sounds.

Paul van Dyk was up next on the PVD Presents Evolution Stage working within a geodesic dome with images of the earth projected behind him. He looked like the director from The Truman Show, having the audience in his hands, bringing forth a cheer with every drum roll and arpeggio. In contrast, Fatboy Slim’s star seemed to be waning, despite playing classics like Basement Jaxx’s Where’s Your Head At and adorning a mask of himself, his set seemed to be a bit forced and predictable, lacking the sparkle of some of his peers practically half his age.

When New Order hit the Mazda 2 Flamingo stage, there was nowhere to move on the dancefloor. Lead singer Barney launched into a set dating back 30 years with gusto that was reciprocated by the audience. This latest reincarnation of the band was the first without bassist Peter Hook but you could hardly notice his absence as one by one the classics came including a surprise reworking of 586 from their record Power, Corruption And Lies.

35

BAR ORIENT

NEWPORT

LEFTBANK

WEDNESDAY 07/03 Amplifier – Fluxx Beat Bar (Bar Open) – DJ Antrax Captain Stirling – Fiveo/ Mind Electric Clancy’s (Applecross) – Upbeat – DJ Andy Connections – DJs Joby /JJ / Rueben Double Lucky – Last Wednesday Eurobar – Wild Wednesdays - DJ iPod/ Ben Pettit Eve – DJ Don Migi/ Skooby Gold Bar–DJ Adroc Hipe Club – DJ Roger Smart Leederville Hotel – We Love Wednesdays ft DJ Slick Mustang – DJ Giles Norma Jeans – DJ Mischief Sovereign Arms – Lokie Shaw The Deen - DJ Zelimer/ DJ Viper/ DJ Benny/ T– Zone 1 The Rosemount - Cowboys & Indie Kids DJs The Queens – Wriggle on Ya-Ya’s – DTF3 ft DJs Jimmy Von Exploder/ Wolfman/ Ricky Ponting/Tomy Smoker/ Jonny Mango

THURSDAY 08/03 Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) - DJ Wrighteous Claremont Hotel – DJ Double

Lee M Kelsall Bonobo

James Lavelle Dee/ DJ Matt/ DJ Millie Club Marakesh – DJ Simon Connections – Bingay Cottesloe Hotel – DJ Shots/ DJ Andy M Eve – DJ Tony Allen Leopold Hotel – DJ Riki/ Roger Smart Llama Bar – DJ Maxwell/ EMAS/ Lukas Wimler Mint Nightclub – DJ Simon Barwood Mt Henry Tavern - DJ Matty J Mullaloo Beach Hotel - DJ

John Paul/ DJ Slick Mustang – DJ James South St – DJ Castasia/ Dpad Swinging Pig – DJ Simon The Avenue – Jon Ee The Causeway – EMAS DJs The Craftsman – Roger Smart The Deen – DJ Flex/ DJ Nano/ DJ Surge/ DJ Don Migi The East End Bar - The Prestige The Queens – Kapitol The Whale & Ale – Josh Tilley The Whistling Kite - DJ Gareth Woodvale Tavern – DJ Melvin

FRIDAY 09/03

Beni

Ambar – James Lavelle (UNKLE) Amplifier – Jamie Mac/ Shannon Fox Bar 459 - DJ Smurf Beat Nightclub - Play Boheme Bar - DJ Majiika Boulevard Tavern – DJ Andyy Broken Hill Hotel – DJ Nick Alexander Brooklands Tavern - DJ Jayden Capitol – Bonobo Carine Tavern – Greg Packer/ MC Assassin

Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) - DJ Boogie Claremont Hotel – DJ Nick Sheppard/ DJ Max Club Bayview - Infexious ft Ben Stevens/ Nomad Como Hotel – DJ Gazz Deville’s Pad - Funk Club ft Charlie Bucket Eve – DJ Don Migi/ DJ Danny Boi Flawless – DJ Zelimir Ginger Nightclub – Rondevoo Fridayz Gosnells Club – DJ Now Hipe Club - DJ E-Funk Lakers Tavern – Fresh Fridays - DJ Dooey Left Bank – DJ Frankie Button Library – Sneaky Little Creatures Loft – Marine Beats Llama Bar – DJ Reuben/ DJ Morris Malt Super Club - Fiveo Merriwa Tavern – DJ Real McCoy Metro City (Solace Bar) – DJ Slick Metro Freo – Frat House Fridays ft Beni/ Death Disco DJs Mint Nightclub – Club Retro ft Chris McPhee Mullaloo Beach Hotel - DJ John Paul Mustang – Swing DJ/ DJ James MacArthur Paddy Hannans – Crazy Craig Paramount - DJ Johnny Boi/ DJ Jordan Queens Tav – DJ Rueben Sail & Anchor - Balcony Beatz/ DJ J-MAC Sovereign Arms – Aiden Wallis

High Road Hotel – DJ Simon High Wycombe – DJ Matt Hipe Club – DJ E-Funk Library – MKT ft DJ Riki/ DJ Richie G/ DJ Vicktor Little Creatures Loft – Marine Beats Liquid Nightclub - DJ Klar55/ DJ Stevie M Llama Bar – DJ Reuben/ DJ Melvin Malt Super Club – Fiveo Metro City (R&B Lounge) - DJ Slick/ DJ Ruthless/ DJ Soso Metro City - DJ Stevie M/ DJ Matty S/ DJ Ruthless/ DJ Makka Metro Freo – DTuck/ Darren Briais/ Wazz Mint Nightclub – Pop Life ft DJ Aaron/ AJ Mullaloo Beach Hotel – DJ Danny SATURDAY 10/03 Mustang – Rockabilly DJ/ DJ Ambar – Japan 4 ft Buda/ Marty James MacArthur Niche – Frankie Button/ Cee/ McFly/ Oli/ Wish/ Mr Ed Jonny Zimber Amplifier – Beni/ Eddie Electric Norma Jeans – DJ Darren Basement On Broadway – DJ Oxford Hotel – DJ Sequeria Ricky Boheme Bar – Carte Blanche DJs Paramount- DJ Cornflake / DJ Jordan/ DJ Johnny Boi Broken Hill Tavern – DJ Nick Queens Tav - Gareth Richardson Alexander/ James Wilson Rocket Room – DJ Brett Rowe Capitol – Death Disco DJs South St Ale House – DJ Jay Capitol (Upstairs) – Cream Of Sovereign Arms – Rockwell The ‘80s Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) - DJ The Avenue – Jon Ee The Brighton (Upstairs) – Micah/ Dood Claremont Hotel – DJ Tone Def Kill Dyl/ eSQue Club Bay View – VIP Saturdays ft The Boheme – DJ Sneakee The Causeway – Sun City DJs DJ Ryan Eurobar – Roger Smart/ DJ Raci The Clink – Az-T Eve Nightclub – DJ Don Migi/ DJ The Cornerstone – Dylan Hammond Stevie M Flawless - Stache Saturdays ft DJ The Deen - DJ Birdie/ DJ JJ/ DJ Tony Allen Zelimir/ DJ Minna Geisha - Soul Project ft IIIya/ Anyo The Avenue – JMC The Carine – Mind Electric/ Little Nicky/ Az-T The Causeway – 4by4 DJs The Eastern – DJ Midfield The Generous Squire - DJ Anaru The Queens – DJ Rueben The Saint - DJ Jordan The Shed – DJ Glenn 20 The Whale & Ale – Josh Tiley Tiger Lils – Paul Malone/ Adam Kelly The Vic - DJ Giles The Wembley Hotel – Funky Bottoms/ Jon Ee Windsor – DJ Riki and Ray Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Giles YaYa’s – Junk ft DJ Whoa!

LIVE MUSIC 7 DAYS A WEEK FREE ENTRY! SATURDAY THE RUSTY PINTO COMBO 10 CENT BILLIONAIRE

+ ROCK-ABILLY DJ + DJ JAMES MACARTHUR

EARLY

WEDNESDAY PARTY ROCKERS

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THURSDAY SEA OF TUNES & THE VELVET ADAM HALL PLAYBOYS FRIDAY + DJ JAMES LATE CHEEKY MONKEYS MACARTHUR 36

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PETER BUSHER SUNDAY AND THE LONE RANGERS

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MONDAY MARCO AND THE ALLEY CATS TUESDAY DANZA LOCA SALSA NIGHT DJ AND LIVE PERCUSSIONISTS

46 LAKE ST, NORTHBRIGE PHONE 9328 2350 BAND ENQUIRIES: info@mustangbar.com.au www.mustangbar.com.au X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

METRO CITY

The Generous Squire – On Tap The Saint – DJ Anaru The Shed –DJ Glenn 20 The Wembley – Az-T The Whistling Kite - DJ Craig The Velvet Lounge – Lucid Dreaming 4th Birthday ft Lee M Kelsall/ James Francis/ Richard Lee/ Cam Duff/ Aarin Fraser/ Dan McNab/ VJ Martino The Vic – DJ Kristian Tiger Lil’s – DJ Bojan/ DJ Ben Sebastian Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Melvin Windsor – DJ Ray Woodvale Tavern – DJ Real McCoy YaYa’s – Saturday Social ft The Kings Of Cheese DJs

SUNDAY 11/03 Broken Hill Tavern - Sophie Jane Captain Stirling – DJ Jay Claremont Hotel – DJ Double Dee Clink – DJ Tony Allen Euro Bar – DJ Flex Eve Nightclub – DJ Birdie Mint - Chris McPhee Mustang – DJ Rockin Rhys Salt On The Beach - Punchy & Juicy/ Charlie Bucket The Avenue – Az-T

AMPLIFIER/CAPITOL

The Bird – Milly James/ Lucy Peach/ Lilt The Causeway – Lukas Wimmler The Cott – Cott Sessions THIS WEEK: The Kiosk – DJ Cinder Frat House Fridays ft Beni/ The Saint - DJ Anaru Death Disco DJs The Shed – DJ Andyy Friday, March 9 @ Metro Freo YaYa’s - Northern Soul Alldayer

METRO FREO

IN THE

James Lavelle Friday, March 9 @ Ambar

MONDAY 12/03 Bar Orient - DJ White Label Broken Hill Tavern - DJ Mario Tavelli Eastern Hotel – Adam Morris The Deen – Plastic Max/ The Token Gesture The Paddo – DJ John Paul The Shed – DJ Andyy

Bonobo Friday, March 9 @ Capitol DJ Krush 20th Anniversary World Tour Saturday, March 10 @ Villa Anthony Pappa Saturday, March 10 @ Geisha Lucid Dreaming 4th Birthday ft Lee M Kelsall/ James Francis/ Richard Lee/ Cam Duff/ Aarin Fraser/ Dan McNab/ VJ Martino Saturday, March 10 @ The Velvet Lounge

TUESDAY 13/03

Bar Orient - DJ Lyndon Eastern Hotel – Jon Edwards High Road Hotel – DJ Matty J High Wycombe – DJ Ricky Hipe Club – DJ Roger Smart COMING UP Metro City - The Game (LMFAO) The Cott (Upstairs) –Maxwell/ SmithAgentSmith Wednesday, March 14 @ Club Jus Haus?/ Damian John Bayview Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Melvin 360 Thursday, March 15 @ The Rosemount Hotel 360 Friday, March 16 @ The Rosemount Hotel

Bootleg ft The Bootleg Brothers/ PDS/ Tee EL/ FTW/ The Barons Red Friday, March 16 @ Ambar DJ Minx Saturday, March 17 @ Villa KRS-One/ Cut Nice/ Money J/ Sugar Ray/ Armee/ MC Optamus/ Breakers/ Maze/ Hi 5/ Mega/ King Leonidas/ DJ Krush Cortext Friday, March 23 @ Metro City

DJ KRUSH

20TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR SATURDAY, MARCH 10 @ VILLA

Full Frequency ft Micah/ Ben Mac/ Massiv Trav/ Dart/ Sardi/ Declan/ Ben M/ Rok Riley/ James A/ Miranda Menzies/ JoLettenmaier/ FTW/ Bezwun & JS/ Ari Sistym/ Puff/ Ru-Kusa

Cube/ Rick Ross/ Trey Songz/ Kelly Rowland/ Lupe Fiasco/ Chris Brown/ Missy Elliot/ Big Sean/ Naughty By Nature Machine Drum & Jacques Sunday, April 22 @ Arena Greene/ Nik Ridikulas vs Ben Taaffe/ Ylem vs Rachael Joondalup Dease/ Rok Riley/ Kit Pop/ Clark Solar Barge/ Clunk/ Modo/ Friday, April 27 @ The Bakery Oni Cash/ Sleepyhead Thursday, April 5 @ The Bakery The Funkoars Villa’s 3rd Birthday ft The Friday, April 27 @ Bar 120 Freestylers/ Marten Hørger/ DNGRFLD/ Black & Blunt Derrick May Thursday, April 5 @ Villa Friday, April 27 @ Ambar Diafrix & Joelistics Sunday, April 1 @ Norfolk Basement

Friday, March 23 @ Shape Jungle Fever ft Aphrodite Friday, March 23 @ Villa District ft Black & Blunt/ Dr Space/ Marko Paulo/ DNGRFLD/ Chris Moro/ Fellis/ ST1/ Beckon MC Friday, March 23 @ Ambar The Butternut Slap/ Sunmonx/ Russ Liquid/ JPS/ Opiuo Saturday, March 24 @ Capitol DJ Hype/ Sigma Saturday, March 24 @ The Overflow (The Court) Japan 4 ft Vengeance Saturday, March 24 @ Ambar Sets On The Beach Volume 7 ft The Aston Shuffle (live)/ Yacht Club DJs/ Ajax/ Sampology (AV/DJ set)/ Canyons (live)/ New Navy Sunday, March 25 @ Scarborough Beach Amphitheatre

Hot Cross Buns Easter Thursday ft Tonite Only/ The Medics/ Yesyou/ Mind Electric/ Death Disco DJs/ Kno Agents/ Sun City/ Jus Haus?/ DJ Cody and more Thursday, April 5 @ Amplifier Capitol

Japan 4 ft Bitrok Saturday, April 7 @ Ambar

MANIK Friday, March 30 @ The Velvet Lounge

Bag Raiders Saturday, April 7 @ Villa

Krafty Kuts Saturday, May 12 @ Villa Digitalism/ Adrian Lux Friday, May 18 @ Villa

The Funkoars Saturday, April 28 @ The Rosemount Hotel

Groovin’ The Moo ft 360/ Hilltop Hoods/ Adrian Lux/ Beni/ Digitalism/ Hermitude/ Muscles/ Purple Sneaker DJs/ Wavves Saturday, May 19 @ Hay Park, Bunbury

Soul Project ft JT Donaldson Saturday, May 5 @ Geisha

Mickey Avalon Saturday, May 26 @ The Rosemount Hotel

Creamfields ft David DJ Havana Brown Guetta/ Above & Thursday, April 5 @ Metro Freo Beyond/ Dirty South/ Alesso/ Excision/ W&W/ M.A.N.D.Y & Stacey Pullen Giuseppe Ottaviani (live)/ Thursday, April 5 @ Shape

Yelawolf Tuesday, March 27 @ Capitol

Congorock/ Vitalic/ Sied van Riel/ Tritonal/ Downlink/ ShockOne/ MaRLo/ Bombs Away/ MC Stretch Saturday, May 5 @ Supreme Court Gardens

360 Friday, June 22 @ Villa 360 Saturday, June 23 @ The Astor

Van She Tech Saturday, April 7 @ The Aviary

Hermitude Friday, March 30 @ Mojos

Soul Project ft Miss Honey Dijion Saturday, April 7 @ Geisha

Diafrix & Joelistics Friday, March 30 @ Bar 120 Peo De Pitte Friday, March 30 @ Ambar DJ Fresh Friday, March 30 @ Metro City Ministry Of Sound Clubbers Guide To 2012 Tour ft Denzal Park & Danny T Saturday, March 31 @ Villa Diafrix & Joelistics Saturday, March 31 @ Hyde Park Hotel Hermitude Saturday, March 31 @ Amplifier

Trafik: The Drum & Bass Reunion ft Rintel/ Rufkut/ Frantik/ JRippa/ Armee/ Xsessiv/ Mystique/ Dazz K/ Roller Crew/ Dart/ Devo/ Kent/ Teneacity/ Webbz Friday, April 13 @ The Rosemount Hotel The Herd/ Thundamentals Saturday, April 14 @ The Rosemount Roger Sanchez Friday, April 20 @ Villa Supafest ft P.Diddy/ Ice

S E I T T O H Y BA ONLY T H IG SUMMKEFR N E N OR O

E V E T A E ARCH V M I 0 L 1 , Y A D THIS SATUR N 9PM

ARE BAC

E P O S R O D O E N T R Y U N T I L 10 P M EE FR

/eveclub facebook.com www.xpressmag.com.au

eacoc Steve P

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Dan E win ing

s ounes Yo olln Y nco Linc Li 37

38

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Slipknot

SOUNDWAVE 2012 Claremont Showgrounds Monday, March 5, 2012 Soundwave isn’t the sort of festival that slowly warms you up, rather it throws you in the fire.

Yeah, it was a scorcher of a day, though not nearly as bad as predicted, and perhaps that’s what kept a good chunk of the crowd away for the early part of the day. Of course, you also have to factor in the fact that the bands this year definitely skewed towards the darker end of the musical spectrum, and their chosen demographic tends to function much better out of direct sunlight. In any case, Soundwave didn’t hit maximum density this year until late afternoon.

Finnish battle-metal band Turisas

Steel Panther (Photos: Denis Radacic)

Mastodon www.xpressmag.com.au

kicked things off with an incredibly loud energetic set on probably the smallest stage at the festival. Dressed in red and black battle-paint and temperature inappropriate leather vests the group smashed out some epic folk metal to the pumped up crowd.

One of the major improvements on this year’s Soundwave was the inclusion of many Australian bands to the line-up. One of these bands was local punk-rockers Break Even. Sadly, Break Even have decided to call it quits, and today’s set could very well have been the last chance that Perth got to see their genuine and heartfelt brand of hardcore rock.

Yet another band to announce their retirement, Thursday played what could very well be their last ever show on the very same stage that they made their first Australian appearance (at 2004’s Big Day Out). With the end in sight, the band made the call to play a set of predominantly older material, which proved to be a hit with the crowd.

Circa Survive is a band that seemed to have more of cult following than most on the lineup. Not many of the punters in attendance had heard of them, yet they still had a very sizeable fanbase who were ridiculously passionate about the band, and the talented outfit did a stellar job in entertaining them. Much of the hype surrounding this band comes from frontman Anthony Green, and in particular his incredible vocal range. Today Green delivered a performance that not only proved he’s got the chops, but he is an all-round entertainer. While the songs were delivered with gusto and grace, it will be Green’s antics that most punters will remember. “I love you all. When we finish playing, I can’t wait to suck all of your dicks”. Nice work Anthony.

Another major highlight for the day was faux-glam-rockers Steel Panther and their frankly hilarious show. It’s hard to tell if we watched a music show or musical theatre as the LA deviants sang, cursed and made dick jokes to the crowd.

Dressed in red shirts, Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn utilised every minute of the short set time they had and made sure the energetic crowd broke their sweat. They specialise in some form of death/metalcore but were let down a little bit by a sound-mix leaning too heavily on the treble. Granted, the circle-pit generated duststorms indicated the kids didn’t care that much.

Sticking with the European theme Sweden’s In Flames put on a great, yet disappointing performance in the afternoon. The beardy group opened with the title track from their latest LP Songs From A Playground Fading and followed with Deliver Us. About two thirds of the set was made up of songs from the new album, with just three coming from their backcatalogue. Even if we ignore the “your old stuff is better than your new stuff” argument, there should have been far more variety in the set.

A little bit later in the day, Norwegians Kvelertak kicked some serious arse. Their audience wasn’t the biggest but they still pumped out some killer metal tunes. Three guitarists lay down melodic metal while still keeping things traditional, it was refreshing to see some metal that didn’t involve breakdowns.

Love them or not, the Soundwave crowd was seething with anticipation for Limp Bizkit. Fred Durst strutted on stage and immediately thanked the crowd for having them back after their disastrous Big Day Out show in 2001 where Sydney teenager Jessica Michalik died after being crushed in the mosh-pit. With that, the crowd erupted as they struck into My Generation. After Livin’ It Up, Durst hopped down to the crowd and made his way to the back of the “D” and proceeded to serenade the growing number of girls on shoulders. The whole thing was amazing to watch, but not so much as the tribute to Jessica that followed. Durst brought

her father, George, on stage and a massive pink sign with “Jessica” written on it was unveiled. He seemed to be acting with sincerity, and the crowd replied in kind. He dedicated Take A Look Around to her, and then dedicated Faith to metal-loving women everywhere by bring about 30 on stage.

The set closed out with Break Stuff, finally fulfilling the dreams of many-an inner teenager.

Next up, Marilyn Manson was a complete disappointment, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following the reviews of his prior appearances on this tour. His performance can only be described as shambolic.

He lurched aimlessly about the stage, slurring and croaking his way through a pretty stockstandard greatest hits set, and failing miserably at bantering with the crowd on such outré topics as “the weather.” For a man who built his reputation as the ‘King of the Shock Rockers’, the only shock here was how boring and unoriginal he’s become.

The faithful at the foot of the stage may have gotten their money’s worth, but there was a steady exodus from the rest of the crowd through the length of his set, as they went in search of an act who actually looked happy to be there.

The Dillinger Escape Plan dominated Stage 7 - incidentally, the home to some of the more interesting acts of the festival - with their raucous, infectiously fun energy. A scheduling slip-up saw them go on 20 minutes ahead of schedule, leaving more than a few punters miffed that they missed half the set, but those who caught the tail end witnessed a table, hoisted by the crowd, used as a platform from which the band could stage-dive, which is not something you see every day.

Devin Townsend easily takes home the statue for ‘Most Fun Act’ of the day, hitting the crowd with a mini-rock opera featuring his puppet mascot, Ziltoid the Omniscient. Townsend manages to combine intricate musicianship and a heavy rock groove with a tongue in cheek sense of humour that is all too often absent at the thin end of the talent wedge.

Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society did things big, and did them old school. After a lengthy delay Wylde finally took to the stage as the sun set, backed by a wall of Marshalls. Through the set he might have said about three words to the audience, but really, he let his guitar do all the talking. After Suicide Messiah he launched into a face-melting solo that went on for 10 minutes?

20 minutes? Days? Weeks? Is it still going? By the end it was quite possible he had exhausted every possible technique and note on the guitar.

The Sisters of Mercy - aka Andrew Eldritch and some guys - played to a middlingsized but enthusiastic crowd. It was a little discombobulating seeing the Elder Statesman of Goth sporting a shaved head and a white hoody, but at least the cellar-deep voice was still in good shape. An unsteady start - the mix was far from perfect - soon picked up into a solid run through a goodly selection of the band’s better known tracks, albeit all truncated to fit into a forty minute slot. Whatever the setting, Eldritch tends to act like he’s conducting a Satanic Mass in St Paul’s Cathedral, and his stage presence more than compensated for any technical shortcomings.

After the incredible set theatrics of Slipknot, System of a Down’s own stage was incredibly sparse by comparison. By the end of the opener Prison Song it became clear their fans were numerous as they knew every word. Serj Tankian was at his sardonic best as he gleefully danced, squeaked and sang, clearly still able to fire off his machine-gun speed lyrics. They harvested their entire back-catalogue and tried to pack as much in as possible to the 1.5 hour set, though they rarely deviated from the album sound. It exposed a same-ish quality to their music, but the energetic crowd didn’t show many signs of boredom. Early work such as Soldier Side moved on to B.Y.O.B from 2005’s Mezmerize, until the crowd was left with Toxicity to close out a hot and heavy day.

So, the final tally. Disappointments: few. Music: awesome. Australian flag capes: one.

Southern cross tattoos: too many. Sisters of Mercy t-shirts: more than have been seen in this town in 20 years. All up, not a bad day. _GEORGE GREEN, BRENDAN HOLBEN & TRAVIS JOHNSON

Machine Head

Meshuggah

In Flames

Kvelertak

Watain 39

THE COMO

Thursday nights at The Como is tipped to be the new night south of the river. Action starts from 7pm when resident DJs spin some tunes before Mike Nayar And The Other Guys take to the stage. Drink specials including $7 pints of beer or cider available on tap, $7 frozen cocktails, and lip-smackingly delicious $12 burger and beer offer, so there really is no excuse to miss out on all the action. Plus, get your entries in for your chance to win music festival tickets. Check out all the other special offers available at The Como at comohotel.com.au, or head over to facebook.com/ComoHotel.

ROSEMOUNT HOTEL

This Saturday, March 10, local country-rockers The Ghost Hotel will kick up a storm as they debut songs from their new album Maiden Hill with special guests Ruby Boots, The Chevelles, Sean Pollard (Split Seconds) and Luke Bostelman (Flanders).

Doors open at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased from rosemounthotel.com.au or at the door.

THE LEEDERVILLE HOTEL

Come down and enjoy this St Patrick’s day (Saturday, March 17) at The Leederville Hotel.

The venue is going all green, with all the best DJs and entertainment. There will be prizes for the best dressed leprechauns and, who knows, you might even find your own pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

FLY BY NIGHT

MOJOS BAR

This Wednesday, March 7, Fremantle Blues and Roots Club present Minnie Marks, Edo & Tony and Simon Marks. Then on Thursday, March 8, and Sunday, March progressive roots trio OKA will launch the release of their new album Milk & Honey.

Incorporating flavours of dub, electronica, hip hop, jazz and many moreforms of world music, OKA are renowned for celebrating Australian culture with a very present, powerful and uniting indigenous cultural overtone. Bondi reggae folk artist Declan Kelly will entertain audiences earlier in the evening on both nights.

RAILWAY HOTEL

Get your 18 wheels rolling down to the Fly on Saturday, March 24, for the Truckers & Trailer Trash Ball! Yes sir-ee, this awesome event promises to transport you back to the good ol’ times when men (and women) didn’t shave, rock music actually rocked, and it was summer all year round. There will be a bunch of real cowboys running together for this special night, including The Devil Rides Out, Chainsaw Hookers, The Dirty South and Guns Of August – all of whom will keep your noise between the ditches and smokey out of your britches. You better not be running a fat load ‘cause there’s also goin’ to be a Saloon Bar Shoot-Out in the Fly Trap, as well as Budweiser and Jack Daniels drink specials all night long.

So grab your other half and put one foot on the floor, one hanging out the door, until she just won’t do no more.

The Railway Hotel continues it’s open-mic sessions in the Beer Garden this Sunday, March 11. It happens out there from 2-6pm, interested acts should contact the arvo’s host Turin Robinson on 0425 171 585, or just pop on down and enjoy a free sausage sizzle and some acoustic tunes.

VOODOO LOUNGE

Each year the fine folks from the Voodoo Lounge search out the best performers of the powerful exotic art of the East known as belly-dancing, from the various schools around the state: all of which have evolved from different countries and cultures around the world and have been imported into our society through multiculturalism. This Friday, March 9, expect to see some amazing props, performances, all of which will celebrate the power of femininity and sexuality.

FRAT PACK Metropolis Fremantle Friday, March 2, 2012 Toga wearing party lovers made their way to Metropolis Fremantle last Friday for the second, and much hyped Frat House Fridays party. With DJs behind the decks, sheet clad guys and girls got down on the dance floor, welcoming in the long weekend in true frat style.

Get on down to Frat House Fridays this week to catch DJ Beni getting the party started.

Emily & Tiffany

Jasmine, Shailee & Shannon

Photographs by Matt Jelonek

Brendan, Annabel & Edward

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Kate, Bree & Anna

Haylee & Kelly

Kristy & Andrew

Quinten & Jimmy

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

DAVE MANN

Nice Guys Finish First Dave Mann is one of those people who just seems like an all-around good guy. Born and raised right here in Western Australia, he’s the lead singer of the Dave Mann Collective, and his happy-go-lucky presence and great songwriting skills are a big factor in the band’s success. He’s just released his new album Everywhere At Once, which will be launched at the Fremantle Arts Centre on Friday, March 9. TARA LLOYD reports.

“We had a lot of fun making it, I can tell you that,” Dave Mann begins. “It was a very fulfilling experience and it all just flowed together really easily. It was a pleasure with all the people I was working with, we all had a lot of fun and it just went smoothly for some reason. This one came together nice and easily, I’m quite proud of this one.

“I reckon it’s the best one I’ve done, there’s a lot more depth on this album. It’s a lot more organic and a lot more true to what I am as a person, in the process of recording things can get squeezed and

Dave Mann pushed in different directions and your finished product can be not what you intended it to be,” he continues.

“This album stayed really true right from the start, and we kept that rawness that I wanted. On this one we managed to keep the freshness. It’s almost like we’ve recorded a live gig.”

Although his other albums have been mighty popular with fans and critics alike, Mann says that this album has a different energy, and one that he’s been trying to achieve for a while.

“The other albums felt maybe a bit clinical,” he says. “This one has a nice edge to it and it’s a bit raw, but it’s something we’re really proud of. I think it happened in the way it was recorded, we had a much smaller budget and we went into the studio with only three days. So we thought we would just play it live, as if we were going to play a gig, but without the audience. So we just hit record on the machine and pretty much, what’s ended up on the CD is what we did in one take.”

It’s a clever idea to record this way, because the Dave Mann Collective are known for their live shows. Not only have they played support for bands like Pete Murray and Thirsty Merc, they’ve also previously scored a spot at the West Coast Blues ‘N’ Roots Festival.

“It’s funny, getting on stage and playing in front of a big crowd, it’s really fun and all, but there’s a special connection you get with the crowd when it’s just a smaller gig.”

POND

The Silents / Bastian’s Happy Flight The Norfolk Basement Friday, March 2, 2012 With punters lining up down the street an hour before doors even opened, and a rowdy selection of gig-goers downing beers at the bar, it was bound to be a good night from the get-go. The last in a series of fundraising shows for a tour of America, Pond were back at their old stomping ground.

First-billed Bastian’s Happy Flight warmed up the crowd, laying down some seriously sexy synth sounds and getting everyone in the mood for some loving. Regular shoes transformed into dancing shoes, and gyrating occurred. Next up, The Silents took the stage as the middle men, with a little less hot and heavy and a little more…just heavy. Song after song blended into a haze of bass and experimental grunge, with little excitement or enthusiasm from band or crowd, bar a few hardcore fans at the front.

By the time local favourites Pond hit the stage, the gig was well and truly sold out and punters were left out on the street: a testament to Pond’s huge fanbase and the love Perth has for the funky, funky blues.

Wandering on stage and carrying out their own sound check, the five-piece resembled any other messy alt-rock band, having ditched the tie-dye for t-shirts and jeans. That is, they looked like any other band until they launched into their set. There’s just something about Pond!

A couple of minutes in, and the previously mellowed out crowd was a writhing mass of sweaty bodies, grasping onto beverages for dear life and moving maniacally around the tiny room. Frontman Nick Allbrook encouraged the crowd, shimmying around the stage in a Jagger-esque manner and propelling himself out into the crowd for some mad signature crowd surfing. New drummer Cam Avery (The Growl) smashed the skins like a pro, and Jay Watson proved his prowess as a strings man. It’s been said before and shall surely be said again: Allbrook’s falsetto pipes are one of a kind, and it comes as a surprise every time you see those forceful,

Pond (Photo: Stefan Caramia) screaming, old-style vocals come from such a young guy.

The boys pumped out older crowd favourites from Frond like Cloud City, newies from recently released Beard, Wives, Denim, plus an insane cover of Kick Out The Jams as the clincher. Throughout their relatively quick set, Pond took the crowd on a genre roller coaster: journeying through some ‘70s psychedelia, keyboard work that would definitely have a place in the ‘80s, and pedalling backwards to some classic ‘60s rock with a hint of hippy-psych.

Each member of Pond has their musical fingers dipped in a bunch of different honey pots; from duo outfits (Allbrook/Avery) to local Perth bands, to international superstars (Tame Impala). But there doesn’t seem to be any pretension or band-crowd separation, and Pond’s lack of boundaries is what makes them great musicians: the ability to switch instruments, bands, scenes, genres, all the while taking it in their stride and cutting the bullshit. Pond ended their set and last hometown show for a while with an all-in jam, and it was all over too quickly with the crowd left gasping for more. But alas, no encore. Here’s to hoping the boys sort out their visa troubles so they can hop the lily pad and show the U.S a good time. _CHLOE PAPAS

DUBLIN JAZZ AUNTS Bearing the terrible clichéd nature of this question, how would you describe your band’s sound?

Intricate layers of simplicity, dynamic electric cello, powerful Dublin Jazz Aunts lyrics and vocal delivery with a tight rhythm section. We combine eclectic elements of classical, jazz, roots and rock resulting in a sound that will make you want to rip your shoes off and run barefooted to the evolution of the band. This will be evident in the upcoming release of ends of the earth. our debut EP later this year.

How did you come up with the name Dublin Jazz Aunts?

We are not from Dublin, we don’t play jazz but we could become your favourite relatives. Our name comes from a “corrected” sentence of predictive text from an old mobile phone. If you work out what the three words are you will find that we are the exact opposite.

You started out as a folk/roots outfit, but have established yourselves as an eclectic rock act over the last 10 months - do you think this was a natural progression?

Yes it was definitely a natural progression. When we started playing we threw ourselves into the trend of local folk and roots based music, but we knew as a band that the music wanted to go somewhere else sonically. We bought in an actual drummer and moved away from the Cajon percussion we had been using. We expanded the guitars and cello into electric territory and began exploring the textures, tones and effects that those instruments could bring to our songs and to the

Out of all the local folks you’ve played shows with, who’s been one of your favourites?

Valiant. They’re a band from the central west coast of Australia, three brothers and a childhood best friend that create and perform music that shows a bond and shared understanding that can’t be taught at WAAPA or any other musical institute.

What can a punter expect from your upcoming show at the Norfolk Basement?

None of the acts are “making up the numbers”. Each band is a headlining act that will deliver a headlining performance. Punters will walk away at the end of the night satisfied after having paid only $10 entry.

Dublin Jazz Aunts will be performing at The Norfolk Basement in Fremantle on Thursday, March 8. Tickets are $10 on the door from 8pm.

Support comes from One Tiger Down, Valiant and Burn Habit.

WA HAVE LIFT OFF

This Sunday, March 11, the Rocket Room is set to host the newest and hottest Sunday Session this year. With the exotic dancers from Allure Entertainment and the best party people on the west coast it’s gonna go off like a Rocket. Entry is free before 9pm and $10 after.

MIGHTY FINE PAIR

Multi award winning blues duo Jane Germain and Ian Simpson are set to launch their new album No Fun Allowed with a very special performance at Kulcha this Friday, March 9. Their latest album features new songs they have been creating together in their own style ranging from bluegrass, to swing, to hard driving blues and down-home country. Joining Jane and Ian will be two very special guests – ex-Sensitive New Age Cowpersons Adam Gare on mandolin and Fred Kuhnl on upright bass. A copy of the CD will be included with every full priced ticket. www.xpressmag.com.au

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Wild Flag, March 7, The Bakery

BELINDA CARLISLE Mandurah OKA/ DECLAN 16 Performing Arts KELLY Centre 7 Indi Bar 17 Astor Theatre 8 Mojos Bar NUKARA NUSIC 9 Prince Of Wales FESTIVAL (The 10 Settlers Tavern Go Set, Mick 11 Mojos Bar Thomas, Blind Lemon, Minnie WILD FLAG Marks, The Fancy 7 The Bakery Brothers, Shelley Short) 17 Chapman Valley BLACK LIPS SEEKAE 8 The Bakery 17 The Bakery 18 Mojos Bar ST. VINCENT JOHN BUTLER 8 The Rosemount 17 Fremantle Arts DIRTY THREE Centre 19 Goldfields Arts 9 Astor Theatre Centre Kalgoorlie 21 Mandurah Arts KERSER Centre 9 Civic Hotel 22 Clancy’s Fish Pub Dunsborough 23 Albany BONOBO Entertainment 9 Capitol Centre 25 Queens Park BENI Theatre Geraldton 9 Metro Freo 26 Carnarvon Civic 10 Amplifier Centre 29 Astor Theatre THE BEARDS 30 & 31 Sun 9 Settlers Tavern Pictures Broome 10 Fly By Night AQUA / RADIO 11 Indi Bar INK 18 & 20 Metropolis Fremantle THE SWEET BOMBAY BICYCLE 10 Regal Theatre CLUB NANO STERN 18 Astor Theatre BORIS 13 Burswood 20 The Bakery Theatre BABY ANIMALS 23 Charles Hotel MARCH 24 Endeavour CHARLES Hotel BRADLEY WOLFPACK 14 The Bakery 23 Civic Hotel (The MICK THOMAS Den) 24 The Prince Of 15 Friends Wales Restaurant 25 The Newport 16 The Norfolk HETTY KATE 17 The Oxford 24 The Ellington Leederville DANIEL THE GO SET O’DONNELL 15 Clancy’s 24 Riverside Fremantle Theatre 16 Indi Bar BRIAN SETZER’S DIESEL ROCKABILLY RIOT 16, 17 & 18 Quarry 24 Fremantle Arts Amphitheatre Centre 360 DURAN DURAN 15 & 16 Rosemount 24 Sandalford Hotel Estate Swan Valley TANIA DOKO DARYL 16 Bamboo Bar BRAITHWAITE TENORS 24 Bunbury UNLIMITED Entertainment 16 Octagon Theatre Centre

MARCH 07 – 13

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Black Lips, March 8, The Bakery

SETS ON THE BEACH 25 Scarborough Beach NICK LOWE 26 Astor Theatre THE NECKS 26 The Bakery FRANKIE VALLI & THE FOUR SEASONS 27 Kings Park PIERRE BENSUSAN 27 The Ellington YELAWOLF 27 Capitol LENNY KRAVITZ / THE CRANBERRIES / WOLFMOTHER 28 Athletics Stadium Mount Claremont ADAM ANT 28 Metro City LEO SAYER 28 Bunbury Entertainment Centre CHE-FU 28 Burlington Hotel Bunbury 29 Settlers Tavern 30 Metro Freo GRACE KNIGHT 29 Fremantle Arts Centre 30 The Ellington DIAFRIX/ JOELISTICS 29 Prince Of Wales 30 Bar 120 31 Hyde Park Hotel THE LITTLE STEVIES 29 Little Creatures BRITISH INDIA 30 Civic Back Room 31 Kalgoorlie Hotel WOODEN SHJIPS 30 The Bakery SNAKADAKTAL 30 Villa CHILDREN COLLIDE 30 Capitol 31 Players Bar GEORGE MICHAEL 31 Sandalford Estate Swan Valley HERMITUDE 31 Amplifier EDDI READER QUARTET 31 Fly By Night PETULA CLARK 31 Mundaring Weir Hotel

Bonobo, March 9, Capitol

HOLLY THROSBY 31 Norfolk Basement DEEP SEA ARCADE 30 Capitol 31 Players Bar

APRIL DIAFRIX & JOELISTICS 1 Norfolk Basement DEEP SEA ARCADE 1 Mojos Bar PETULA CLARK 1 Albany Entertainment Centre CHILDREN COLLIDE 1 Mojos Bar WEST COAST BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS (Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Pogues, The Specials, My Morning Jacket, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Steve Earle, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Husky, John Fogerty and more TBA) 1 Fremantle Park XAVIER RUDD 4 Fly By Night Club 5 Astor Theatre YES 5 Riverside Theatre MACHINE DRUM/ JACQUES GREENE 5 The Bakery BAG RAIDERS 7 Villa DEAD MEADOW / PINK MOUNTAINTOPS 7 The Bakery BALL PARK MUSIC 7 Amplifier 8 Newport Hotel STRAWBERRY JAM MUSIC FESTIVAL (P.O.D., Hawk Nelson, Mike Mains & The Branches and more TBA) 8 Albany SUBLIME WITH ROME / MATT McHUGH 11 Metropolis Fremantle

SETH LAKEMAN/ CARUS THOMPSON 12 Clancy’s Fish Pub Fremantle 13 Hyde Park Hotel PASSENGER 13 Fly By Night Club FAIRBRIDGE FESTIVAL OF WORLD & FOLK MUSIC (Paul Brady, Seth Lakeman, My Friend The Chocolate Cake, Chipolatas, Chris While, Julie Matthews, Kavisha, Tjupurru, Stiff Gins, The Woohoo Revue and more TBC) 13 - 15 Fairbridge Village Pinjarra THE HERD 14 Rosemount Hotel SEAL 14 Sandalford Estate SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM 14 Villa LAST DINOSAURS 14 Amplifier 15 Mojos Bar JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE 14 Fly By Night 15 Rosemount Hotel AMON AMARTH 19 Capitol ROGER DALTREY (CANCELLED) 19 Riverside Theatre BIG SCARY 20 Amplifier BLUEJUICE 19 Settler’s Tavern 20 Capitol CALLING ALL CARS 19 Indi Bar 20 Prince Of Wales 21 The Rosemount LIAM BURROWS 21 The Atrium Mandurah 22 The Ellington DEEZ NUTS 21 Amplifier 22 YMCA HQ SUPAFEST (P. Diddy, Chris Brown, Missy Elliot, Naughty By Nature, Big Sean,

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Listing deadline is Monday 5pm. The Gig-Guide is a service to advertisers listing bands.

All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press Magazine. Email reception@xpressmag.com.au or fax 9213 2882.

Sneaky Sound System, April 14, Villa

Ice Cube, Rick Ross, Trey Songz, Kelly Rowland, Lupe Fiasco and more TBA) 22 Arena Joondalup LOU BARLOW 22 Rosemount Hotel RTRFM’S IN THE PINES 2012 (Benedict Moleta Band, Drowning Horse, The Ghost Hotel, The Love Junkies, smRts, Sugar Army, The Sunshine Brothers, The Big Old Bears, The Leap Year, Runner, San Cisco, Sonpsilo Circus, Split Seconds, plus more TBA) 22 Somerville Auditorium UWA BURT BACHARACH 23 Riverside Theatre AUGUST BURNS RED 25 Amplifier AN HORSE / I A MAN 25 Rosemount Hotel CLARK 27 The Bakery THE FUNKOARS 27 Bar 120 28 The Rosemount

Ball Park Music, May 19, Groovin’ The Moo

BLEEDING KNEES CLUB 27 Amplifier 28 Mojo’s Bar THE HOODOO GURUS 28 Astor Theatre

MAY THE MOUNTAIN GOATS 1 The Bakery MIKE STEWART 2 The Ellington HUSKY 4 The Bakery FU MANCHU/ BLACK COBRA 5 The Rosemount DEVIL DRIVER 9 Capitol FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS 9 Amplifier BOY & BEAR 10 Albany Entertainment Centre 11 Bunbury Entertainment Centre 12 Fremantle Arts Centre DEAD LETTER CIRCUS 10 Prince Of Wales 11 Metropolis Fremantle 12 Capitol

SICK OF IT ALL / AGNOSTIC FRONT 11 Amplifier KRISTIN BERADI 11 & 12 The Ellington LANIE LANE 12 Fly By Night Club 13 Amplifier WAVVES 18 Rosemount Hotel DAVID CAMPBELL 16 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre 17 Queens Park Theatre Geraldton 18 Perth Concert 19 Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre ANDREW W.K. 17 The Bakery FLORENCE + THE MACHINE/ BLOOD ORANGE 17 Burswood Dome THE MACCABEES 18 Capitol KAISER CHIEFS 18 Metro City GROOVIN THE MOO (360, Andrew W.K OneMan-Party Tour, City and Colour, Digitalism, The

Catcall, May 26, Amplifier

Getaway Plan, Hilltop Hoods, Kaiser Chiefs, The Maccabees, Public Enemy, Wavves, Ball Park Music and more TBA) 19 Hay Park Bunbury NATURALLY 7 19 Perth Concert Hall CITY AND COLOUR 20 Fremantle Arts Centre MUTEMATH 20 Amplifier GINUWINE / BELL BIV DEVOE 24 Astor Theatre ANTI FLAG/ STRIKE ANYWHERE/ FLATLINERS 24 Capitol S-CLUB / BIG BROVAZ 25 Metro City CATCALL 26 Amplifier BITTER END 26 Civic Hotel (The Den) 27 YMCA HQ LIAM BURROWS 26 Friend’s Restaurant 27 Jazz Fremantle BARNEY MCALL 27 The Ellington

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK / BACKSTREET BOYS 29 Burswood Dome BOB HIRST 30 & 31 The Ellington

JUNE JOSH KYLE 2 The Ellington THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 2 Prince Of Wales 3 Metro City THE JEZABELS 5 Metro City TINA ARENA 8 Riverside Theatre TIM FREEDMAN 14 & 15 The Ellington LENNY HENRY 15 Burswood Theatre GUY SEBASTIAN 19 His Majesty’s Theatre 20 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre 360 22 Villa 23 Astor Theatre NADIA ACKERMAN 28 The Ellington

JULY LADY GAGA 7 Burswood Dome MELISSA ETHERIDGE 20 Riverside Theatre

ST VINCENT

St Vincent

Texan songstress Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, will return to Australia this week to play songs from her heavily praised third album Strange Mercy. Debuting at #18 in the Billboard Top 200 in the US and being scored 9.0 by Pitchfork, the album has racked up the year-end list accolades: #7 in NME, #8 in Q, #9 in Time, and #26 in Rolling Stone among many others.

While St Vincent has performed in Australia in a solo capacity at Sydney Festival, this will be the Australian debut of her new full-band show and will be the first time she will grace WA fans with her musical presence. Tickets are available from Heatseeker.

DIRTY THREE

Dirty Three

www.xpressmag.com.au

Led by violinist Warren Ellis (Grinderman, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), instrumental trio Dirty Three return in 2012 with a new album and a nation wide tour. Kicking off in early March, the tour will follow hot on the heels of the band’s first studio album in seven years, which Ellis declares, “may well be the definitive album from Dirty Three”. Don’t miss this opportunity to catch the Dirty Three as they pass through WA, playing the Astor Theatre on Friday, March 9. Support comes from local rockers the Kill Devil Hills. Limited tickets are still available through BOCs.

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Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, Friday at The Rosemount

WEDNESDAY 07.03 BAKERY Wild Flag Rabbit Island Erasers BALMORAL James Wilson BALLY’S BAR Greg Carter Karaoke BLACK BETTY’S Everlong CLANCY’S FISH PUB (CANNING BRIDGE) Take Me To The River Karin Page Chris Assad CLAREMONT HOTEL Open Mic Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Rhiannan Longley HALE ROAD TAVERN Fenton Wilde HYDE PARK HOTEL The Lewis Moody Quarter & The Hammer Trio INDI BAR OKA Declan Kelly LOBBY LOUNGE (BURSWOOD) Courtney Murphy LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan MOJOS BAR Minnie Marks Edo Tony & Simon Marks MUSTANG Party Rockers DJ Giles PADDO Hailmary Nevsky Prospekt Fools Of April ROSIE O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) David Fyffe ROSEMOUNT Trapped Under Ice Relentless Negative Reinforcement

Blanche DuBois, Thursday at The Ellington

Dying Sun SOUTH ST ALE HOUSE Greg Carter THE MOON Justin Walshe Jiah Rocket Adam Burgess

THURSDAY 08.03 BAKERY Black Lips The Painkillers Astral Travel BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Bernadine Grigson BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke CLANCY’S FISH PUB (FREMANTLE) Terry Serio & The Ministry Of Truth COMO HOTEL The Other Guys DEVILLES PAD Jon Madd’s Karaoke ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Blanche DuBois FUSE BAR Howie Morgan HIGH WYCOMBE HOTEL Chris Murphy HYDE PARK HOTEL Open Mic INDI BAR Bex’s Open Mic Night KALAMUNDA HOTEL Dirty Scoundrels LUCKY SHAG James Wilson MARKET CITY TAVERN High Grass Dogs JK Mike Anderson MOJOS BAR Oka Declan Kelly MOON & SIXPENCE Bob & Clem MUSTANG BAR

The Ghost Hotel

THE GHOST HOTEL RUBY BOOTS,THE CHEVELLES SEAN POLLARD

SATURDAY MARCH 10, THE ROSEMOUNT

Sea Of Tunes Alex Arpino DJ James MacArthur NORFOLK BASEMENT Dublin Jazz Aunts Valiant One Tiger Down Burn Habit OCEAN BEACH HOTEL Open Mic Night RIGBY’S Open Mic ROSEMOUNT St Vincent Oscar & Martin ROSIE O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) Bill Chidgzey ROSIE O’GRADY’S (FREMANTLE) Clayton Bolger SOVEREIGN ARMS Fenton Wilde SWAN LOUNGE The Buttonettes Flip Top Siren Of Sound THE BOAT Jen De Ness THE BROOKE Open Mic Night THE GATE Better Days YA YA’S Foxes Black Birds Antelope YMCA HQ Trapped Under Ice Relentless Blkout The Others Wild Sense

FRIDAY 09.03 7th AVENUE Pop Candy ASTOR THEATRE Dirty Three AMPLIFIER Psychonaut BAILEY BAR Mod Squad BALLY’S BAR Jamie Powers BALMORAL The Other Guys BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Feisty Burlesque BELMONT TAVERN Everlong Acoustic BENNY’S Faces BENTLEY HOTEL Sophie Jane BLACK BETTYS J Babies BOHEME BAR Soul Corporation BRASS MONKEY Adrian Wilson CAPITOL Bonobo CAPTAIN STIRLING Bluebottles

Mister & Sunbird, Friday at The Norfolk Basement

CASTLE HOTEL The Damien Cripps Band CHASE BAR Greg Carter CIVIC HOTEL Kerser Rates CLANCY’S FISH PUB (FREMANTLE) The Stillsons COMO HOTEL Tip Top Sound CRAIGIE TAVERN Mia Good Company EAST 150 Trevor Jalla ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW Proof ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Rachel Claudio Horizon Art Orchestra FUSE BAR Groove Karaoke GLOUCESTER PARK Kenji GREENWOOD Pretty Fly HERDSMAN TAVERN Acoustic Nights HYDE PARK HOTEL Travis Caudle One Trick Phonies INDI BAR Vdelli KULCHA Jane Germain & Ian Simpson LEGENDS BAR The Organ Grinders MERRIWA TAVERN Overload METRO FREO Beni MIGHTY QUINN TAVERN Kontraband MOJOS BAR The Pimps Of Sound Mathas Mama Teesh Zev & Vu MUSTANG Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Swing DJ Cheeky Monkeys DJ James MacArthur NEWPORT Party Rockers NORFOLK BASEMENT Mister And Sunbird Joe Black Trio Mike DeVelta OSBORNE PARK HOTEL Howie Morgan Duo PADDO Stu Harcourt PARAMOUNT Flyte PICKLED FIG Minky G

Rosco Dwyer PRINCE OF WALES Oka PRINCIPAL Dirty Scoundrals ROCKET ROOM Chainsaw Hookers Vanity The Bob Gordons In The Now DJ Brett Rowe ROSE & CROWN Helen Shanahan ROSEMOUNT Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving Chaos Devine Prescient Foxes SAIL & ANCHOR Switchback SOUTH ST ALE HOUSE Robbie King Karaoke SPRINGS TAVERN B.O.B STIRLING ARMS Christian Thompson SWAN BASEMENT Cothe Paltiva Buzz Kill Vamps This Other Eden Carnies With Candy SWAN LOUNGE Applebite & The Beggars On Acid Balayi Stray Dogs Of Athens SWINGING PIG Better Days Greg Carter THE BIRD Tracksuit The Love Junkies THE BOAT Deuce THE GATE Smoking Section THE SHED Kickstart THE VIC Jack & Jill UNIVERSAL Retriofit VELVET LOUNGE Mourning The Collector Burst and Bloom Neutral Native Nymph Honey VICTORIA PARK HOTEL Ivan Ribic WANNEROO TAVERN Clayton Bolger WOODVALE TAVERN Dr Bogus YA YA’S Emperors Sugarpuss Puck

SATURDAY 10.03

BOOK NOW

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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Listing deadline is Monday 5pm. The Gig-Guide is a service to advertisers listing bands.

All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press Magazine. Email reception@xpressmag.com.au or fax 9213 2882.

Jane Germain & Ian Simpson, Friday at Kulcha AMPLIFIER BENI BAILEY BAR Milhouse BALMORAL The Recliners BALLY’S BAR Stu Harcourt BAR 120 Flyte BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Chris Murphy BLACK BETTY’S Redstar BURSWOOD CASINO Courtney Murphy Murphy’s Lore John & Shaun Sandosham CAPTAIN STIRLING Leighton Keepa Duo CIVIC HOTEL Neverborn Mhorgl CIVIC HOTEL (THE DEN) No Such Luck Fucked//Vein Surprise Sex Attack Tikdoff CLANCY’S FISH PUB (CANNING BRIDGE) The Morning Night Duo CLANCY’S FISH PUB (FREMANTLE) The Sidewalk Diamonds Archer And Light CLAREMONT HOTEL The Zydecats COMO HOTEL Tip Top Sound CRAFTSMAN Mod Squad EASTERN HOTEL Overload ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW Daren Reid & The Soul City Groove ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Rachel Claudio BUMP FLY BY NIGHT CLUB The Beards GREENWOOD HOTEL In The Groove HIGH ROAD HOTEL Dr Bogus HYDE PARK HOTEL The Long March Arons Crusade Lynda Smyth & The Borrowed Few INDI BAR Matt Gresham INDIAN OCEAN BREWING COMPANY The Other Guys LAKERS Greg Carter Karaoke LEOPOLD HOTEL

Friday Friday Travis Caudle TimothyTravis Nelson & The Caudle Fly By Night Infidels, Saturday atBy The Bird Fly Night

Steve Hepple M ON THE POINT Rhythm 22 MOON & SIXPENCE Blaze MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke METRO FREO Karma MIGHTY QUINN TAVERN Kontraband MOON & SIXPENCE Blaze MOJOS BAR Tracksuit Stillwater Giants Palatial Digs Deep River Collective MUSTANG The Rusty Pinto Combo Rockabilly DJ 10 Cent Billionaire DJ James MacArthur NEWPORT Kizzy Gravity NORFOLK BASEMENT Wolves At The Door Timothy Nelson The Gypsie Howls The Yokohomos The Witness Lucy Peach OSBORNE PARK HOTEL Adrian Wilson PARAMOUNT Felix QUARIE BAR Electrophobia RAILWAY HOTEL Mourning The Collector Blank Page Refugees One Armed Scissor The Government Yard REGAL THEATRE The Sweet ROCKET ROOM Kickstart ROSEMOUNT The Ghost Hotel Ruby Boots The Chevelles Sean Pollard ROSIE O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) Blue Gene SAIL & ANCHOR Better Days SETTLERS TAVERN Oka SUBIACO HOTEL Off The Record Bob Brisbane Quartet SWAN LOUNGE The Suspects Flip Top Luke SWINGING PIG Greg Carter THE BIRD Timothy Nelson & The Infidels Our Man In Berlin Face To Your Face

www.xpressmag.com.au

The Gypsie Howls, Saturday at the Norfolk Basement

THE BOAT Deuce THE BROOK Chris Gibbs Duo THE GATE Dirty Scoundrels WANNEROO TAVERN Christian Thompson WHALE & ALE Lush WOODVALE TAVERN The Damien Cripps Band YA YA’S The Self Preservation Society The Kings Of Cheese

MOJOS BAR VICTORIA PARK Oka HOTEL Declan Kelly Neil Colliss MT HELENA TAVERN WANNEROO Overload TAVERN MUSTANG Chris Murphy Blue Gene WOODVALE Peter Busher And The TAVERN Lone Rangers Mia DJ Rockin Rhys Good Company NEWPORT Tim Nelson MONDAY 12.03 Polly Medlen Band BRASS MONKEY NORFOLK Everlong Acoustic BASEMENT ELLINGTON JAZZ Tim Meaco CLUB Jonathon Brain Rodrigues Family Geraldine Fundraiser The James Collins LOBBY LOUNGE (BURSWOOD) Band Courtney Murphy OCEAN VIEW John Sandosham Clayton Bolger SUNDAY 11.03 MOJOS BAR PIG & WHISTLE 7TH AVENUE Wide Open Mic Night Electrophobia Good Karma MUSTANG BAR PINK DUCK LOUNGE Marco & The Alley Cats BALLY’S BAR BAR Greg Carter THE DEEN Kevin Conway Plastic Max And The BALMORAL Token Gesture PRINCIPAL Cranky Bernardine Grigson BROKEN HILL QUARIE BAR HOTEL TUESDAY 13.03 Gotham City The Organ Grinders BURSWOOD THEATRE QUEENS TAVERN Nano Stern BROOKLANDS Big Bamboo CIVIC HOTEL (THE TAVERN SAIL & ANCHOR DEN) Greg Carter Anchor Shawne & Luc CAPTAIN STIRLING The Others SOUTH ST Christian Parkinson Travels ALEHOUSE CHARLES HOTEL Dyatlov Blackhart & Karaoke Party Amend Strangelove EASTERN HOTEL CHASE BAR SOVEREIGN ARMS Groove Karaoke James Wilson Ivan Ribic ELLINGTON JAZZ CLANCY’S FISH PUB SPRINGS TAVERN CLUB (DUNSBOROUGH) Scott Nelson Freddie Grigson Dave Mann Collective SWAN BASEMENT LOBBY LOUNGE CLAREMONT HOTEL Supersalt John Sandosham Sunday Driver MOJOS BAR FOAM Seraphim COMO HOTEL The Government Kate Ferguson David Fyffe Yard Daniel Firkin Trio ELEPHANT & When We Can Bears & Dolls WHEELBARROW SWINGING PIG Rose Parker Daren Reid & The Stu Harcourt PADDO Soul City Groove Stu Harcourt THE BIRD ELLINGTON JAZZ PRINCE OF WALES Lilt Open Mic Night CLUB Lucy Peach SETTLERS TAVERN Laura Bernay Milly James Open Mic Night GREENWOOD THE GATE THE BIRD Chris Gibbs Duo Better Days Georgia Mooney HIGH ROAD HOTEL Chris Gibbs Trio Kizzy Mike Nayar UNIVERSAL X-WRAY CAFE HIGH WYCOMBE Open Piano Night Retriofit HOTEL Undercover Acoustic HYDE PARK HOTEL Mike De Velta Stella Donnelly INDI BAR The Beards The Stiffy’s INDIAN OCEAN BREWING CO Retriofit Psychonaut Dove LAKERS TAVERN Jamie Powers BRUTUS LEISURE INN Ivan Ribic COLD FATE LOBBY LONGE NAILS OF IMPOSITION (BURSWOOD) FRIDAY,MARCH 9 Courtney Murphy M ON THE POINT Bluebottles

PSYCHONAUT

AMPLIFIER

45

Classifieds and Music Services Hotline: 9213 2888 Display ads: musicservices@xpressmag.com.au Deadline: 4pm Monday Credit cards welcome

HAIR, HEALTH & HAPPINESS MENS WAXING/CLIPPING Itís a guy thing! Hair removal for men, private, qualified, experienced. Ph Athletes Effigy 9384 2950 MUSOS WANTED “OB” MIC NIGHT Ocean Beach Hotel.

Thursdays.Interested open-mic artists contact Jysae on obhmicnight@ gmail.com or 0429 779 744 ANY MUSICIANS want to perform original tunes? Kinda Buckley/Cornell 3/4 time sigs, some jazz & blues. Ph: 0415 252 323.

MUSICIANS WANTED BY MANAGER to form all female punk/top 40 covers band. Lead guitar, drums, bass guitar, vocals. Guaranteed work waiting.

Tony 0411118304 OPEN MIC NIGHT every Thursday night at Indi Bar. Just call Bex on 0404 917 632 OPEN MIC NIGHT - THURSDAY At Moondyne Joe’s. 8:30 - 12pm. Friendly atmosphere, good sound. To book ring Mark on 0409 137 850.

SEEKING PROFESSIONAL FEMALE VOCALIST For North of the river based corporate working coverband.

Preferably between 19-29 years old.

Call Pete 0439 301 718.

WANTED TALENTED TRUMPET & TROMBONE PLAYERS FOR BIG BAND If you are new to Perth, have left school or university and want to be in a big band, please phone Chris: 0451 458 533.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT PHOTOGRAPHY Promo photography, studio, live, location.

Mike Wylie 0417 975 964 www. p ro j e c t p h o to g ra p hy. co m When its time to ice the cake

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PRODUCTION SERVICES CD & DVD MANUFACTURE Check out our latest CD & DVD specials online at www.procopy.com.au 9375 3902 MATRIX PRODUCTIONS AUSTRALIA Lighting, staging, sound systems, smoke machines, night club FX, intelligent lighting, strobes & mirror balls, crowd barriers, video projectors.

9371 1551 PA HIRE FX Lights club to concert s i ze. Pro E q u i p m e n t w w w. perthconcertsound.com.au.. Ph 9307 8594 / mob 0404 410 020 / 9309 6219 RECORDING STUDIOS A L A N D AW S O N ’s W I T Z E N D RECORDING STUDIO Prof quality albums or demos, large live room, experienced engineer, analog to digital transfers, mastering..Alan 0407 989 128 or Jeremy 0430638178 www. witzendstudios.com ANDY’S STUDIO International multi award winning songwriter / producer.

No band required. Broadcast quality.

A songwriter’s paradise. Ph 9364 3178 AVALON STUDIOS BIBRA LAKE One of Perths best equipped studio.

Record to analog tape or digital, Avalon pre amps, Neumann mics, the latest and best universal audio, plug in’s for digital recordings. All styles of music, $55 per hour call Tony 0411 118304 email - avalonstudios@ bigpond.com

GOLDDUSTCONSTRUCTION.COM Production, mixing, recording and composition for your music. Unique award winning skills to take songs from ideas to finished mixes or to fulfill the potential in existing ones.

Located in Subiaco. $60 p/h. Andrew 0408 097 407 POONS HEAD MASTERING Analog mastering at its best. Clients include Mink Mussel Creek, Jeff Martin, The Panics, Pond + The Floors. World class facility. World class results. www.poonshead.com 9339 47 91 RECORDING MIXING MASTERING PRODUCING Fremantle location.

Call Pete Kitchen Cooked Records.

Ph 0407 363 764 / 9336 3764 REVOLVER SOUND STUDIO Ph 9272 7505. www.revolverstudio. com.au SONGWRITERS! - UNLOCK YOUR SONGS’ POTENTIAL +FREE BAND APPRAISALS. UK Producer, 40,000+ hours studio experience. 20 yrs in London with bands and songwriters.

Kicking arrangements, great studio and the ability to really listen will give your material the edge you need. Call Jerry on 0405 653 338 or visit www.jerichomusic.com.au TONE CITY RECORDING STUDIO Professional recording & mixing.

Clients include Abbe May, Pond, Felicity Groom & The Silentís. Ph: 0409 297 362.

REHEARSAL STUDIOS AAA VHS REHEARSAL ROOMS Great facilities, great vibe & great price!!! Unit 5 /16 Peel Road, O’Connor. Phone 9418 5815 or 0413 732 885 BIGBEAT SOUND STUDIO Clean rooms, all new PA systems, air-con and good parking . Willetton Ph: 0425 698 117.

P L AT I N U M S O U N D R O O M S Professional rehearsal rooms, airconditioned, quality PAs mob 0418 944 722 ROCK FORCE PRODUCTIONS For more information please visit www.rockforceproductions.com 0409 102 246.

STREAM STUDIOS The place to rehearse in Perth.. Phone: 0403 152 009 www.streamrehearsal.com.au TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** JAN/FEB ENROLMENTS NOW. Beg-adv, all styles and all levels including bass. Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484 / www.clifflynton.com BASS LESSONS Rock, funk & jazz.Tony Gibbs 9470 6131 SINGING LESSONS Learn a technique that actually works! The method used by over 120 Grammy award winners. Certified Speech Level singing instructor. Call Simon 0431335495.

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

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