ISSUE 1344 Wednesday 14th Nov 2012 - Free 38,000 October 2011- March 2012 Australia’s Highest Circulating Street Press
Education, Training and Careers feature inside BEAU AUFO FORT RT STR TREE EETT FE FEST STIV IVAL AL BLOO BL OODD RO ROCK CK FES ESTT 20 2012 12 STAT ST ATUS US QQUO UO EXAM EX AMPL PLEE
MEOW MEOW
HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL
12:34 PM
HAIL MARY
BABYJANE
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
Phonebooth Project, We Don’t Need A Map
ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS Kiss
IT’S KISS!
You wanted the best and the rest? Well you got it, American rock icons Kiss are bringing their rock’n’roll circus back to Australia in 2013. The greasepainted foursome have just come off a huge US tour with Motley Crue, who are also making it down under, along with the 2012 incarnation of Irish rockers, Thin Lizzy. Kiss are touring on their back of their recently released 20th studio album, Monster, and the band’s tour-opening Perth show will be their first here since 2004. So grab your eyeliner pencil and your dear diary and mark in Thursday, February 28, at the Perth Arena. Tickets go on sale next Thursday, November 22, through ticketek.com.au and 132 849, (check themonstertour.com for meet-and-greet/VIP packages). Oh yeah!
HOMEGROWN HEROES
Paul Kelly and Neil Finn, together again at last
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Reactions/ Comp
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Flesh
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Music: Cat Power
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Music: Anberlin/ The Sheepdogs
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Music: Status Quo
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Music: Gay Paris/ Hailmary
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Music: Babyjane/ New Noise
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Eye4 Cover: Beaufort Street Festival
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Eye4: News/ Cover Story/ Movies: Hola Mexico Film Festival/ Seven Psychopaths
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Eye4 Music: John Hood/ Eye2Eye/ Movies: Robot And Frank
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Eye4 Arts Listings/ Eye2Eye: The Duck House
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Eye4 Art Stories: Meow Meow
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Salt Cover: Example
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Salt: Cover Story/ News/ Ben Sims/ Yung Warriors
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Salt: MNDR/ Testpad: Crystal Castles/ Flume/ Nina Las Vegas
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Salt: Club Guide/ Scenery/ In The Diary/ Brother Ali
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Education Feature
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Scene: Live
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Scene: Pub Scene
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Tour Trails
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Gig Guide
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Volume
Cover: Cat Power plays Perth Festival on Tuesday, February 26, and Wednesday, February 27, at Chevron Festival Gardens Salt Cover: Example plays Stereosonic at Claremont Showground (TBC) on Sunday, November 25 www.xpressmag.com.au
Two of Australia’s greatest singer songwriters are joining forces in 2013 - Neil Finn and Paul Kelly - and will be touring the nation with their iconic back catalogues. Finn and Kelly will share the stage throughout the tour as members of the one band, performing selected songs from their individual songbooks. The concerts will also be a family affair, with Elroy Finn on drums, and Dan Kelly on guitar. To put the icing on the already-divine cake, lovely songstress Lisa Mitchell will join Kelly and Finn as their Perth support act, showcasing tracks from her recent sophomore record. Proudly presented by X-Press Magazine, the unique event will be held on Thursday, March 14, at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, with tickets on sale this Friday, November 16, through Mellen Events.
Bringing a slice of the desert to the city, We Don’t Need A Map is a new art exhibition celebrating the distinct language of the Martu Indigenous peoples and their connection to our beautiful country. The exhibition will provide a nuanced insight into the Martu way of life and cultural practices, providing people with the chance to experience the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of desert life. The artworks, artifacts and events that comprise the exhibition will offer a multifaceted portrait of Martu life to ensure audiences can engage and become immersed. We Don’t Need A Map will be held at the Fremantle Arts Centre from Saturday, November 17, until Sunday, January 20.
Santigold
THE (SANTI)GOLD-EN TICKET
When Santigold was announced for Harvest Festival over east, we were all just a little (or maybe a lot) jealous of our Brissy counterparts. But, the amazing songstress didn’t let us down, and is heading West for one show only - hooray! The glamorous lady will be joined by super-cool electro group Crazy P, further proving that this is a gig you shouldn’t miss. It’s happening this Wednesday, November 14, and has moved to The Bakery - crazily, there are still tickets available. You’d better get in quick though, because we have a feeling these are going to be snapped up at the last minute - grab them now through nowbaking.com.au
BLUES N ROOTS
This year’s West Coast Blues N’ Roots festival was absolutely massive, and it looks like the folks at Sunset Events and Chugg Entertainment have done it again - 2013 is looking to be huge, returning as a two-day event for its 10th anniversary. Saturday, March 23, will see performances from Robert Plant Presents Sensational Space Shifters, Iggy & The Stooges, Chris Isaak, Status Quo, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Fred Wesley and the New JB’s, Newton Faulkner, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Grace Potter, Mama Kin, Blue Shaddy. Sunday, March 24, will feature the absolutely legendary Paul Simon, Ben Harper, Santana, Steve Miller Band, Wilco, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Cliff, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Kiwanuka, Gossling, Ash Grunwald, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and The DomNicks. More acts are yet to be announced. Tickets go on sale at 9am WST on Monday, November 19. Head to westcoastbluesnroots.com.au for full details.
Paul Simon
British India
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED Hot on the heels of the release of their new single, I Can Make You Love Me, party-starters British India are hitting the road for one last time in 2012, stopping by WA in late November/early December. Fellow Melbournites Kingswood are coming along for the ride, so you can be sure shit is gonna get cray when both bands stop in to Prince of Wales in Bunbury on Thursday, November 29; Metropolis Fremantle on Friday, November 30; and Amplifier on Saturday, December 1. Tickets on sale from Heatseeker and Oztix.
Emperors, Southbound’s Coconut Club
LET’S GET (COCO)NUTS
Forget Christmas and New Year, because the countdown is on to Southbound 2013! Taking over Sir Stewart Bovell Park in Busso over the weekend of January 4-5, Southbound will bring with it a bevy of artists and activities, including a killer lineup at the Coconut Club. The 2013 Coconut Club bill is packed to the brim with local goodness, and features the likes of Bastian’s Happy Flight, Emperors, Rainy Day Women and Stillwater Giants, alongside 2 Fat DJs, Ando, Boston Switch & Lee Drums, DJ Axl, Fluoro, Frankie Button, The HouseJunkie, Mandy B, MC Amani, Mutchy & LZ, Paper Plane, Pussy Shoogah, Q-BiK & Seeka, Safari Pete, Shannon Fox, Swami Adima, Alex K & Zed and Zelimir. Check out the full lineup at southboundfestival.com.au. 7
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. By entering you agree to X-Press Magazine’s Terms & Conditions which can be found online. All competition entries will automatically enable you to become an X-Press subscriber! No details will be given to a third party.
Print and Digital Editions Publisher/Manager Joe Cipriani Editorial
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Managing Editor Bob Gordon: editor@xpressmag.com.au Fashion Editor Emma Bergmeier: fashion@xpressmag.com.au Dance Music & Features Editor Annabel Maclean: danceeditor@xpressmag.com.au Local Music & Arts Editor Jennifer Peterson-Ward: localmusicarts@xpressmag.com.au Gig & Event Guides Co-ordinator Melissa Erpen - guide@xpressmag.com.au Entertainment Services Co-ordinator / Competitions Melissa Erpen - win@xpressmag.com.au Photography Callum Ponton, Stefan Caramia, Daniel Grant, Sammy Granville, Matt Jelonek, Denis Radacic, Emma Mackenzie, Guang-Hui Chuan, Max Fairclough Contributing Writers Henry Andersen, Ashleigh Whyte, Nina Bertok, Shaun Cowe, Derek Cromb,Chris Gibbs,Alfred Gorman,George Green,Alex Griffin,Chris Havercroft, Joshua Hayes, Brendan Holben, Coral Huckstep, Travis Johnson,Rezo Kezerashvili,Tara Lloyd,Adam Morris,Andrew Nelson, Chloe Papas,Tom Varian,Ben Watson,Jessica Willoughby,Miki Mclay, Morgan Richards, James Manning, Joe Cassidy, Shane Pinnegar For band gigs and launches - plugyourgig@xpressmag.com.au
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Breakfest 2012
BREAKFEST 2012
VIP PRIZE PACK TO 2MANYDJS
Production
MALT SUPPER CLUB
Add some soul to your Thursday nights when nine piece high-energy band Stratosfunk hit Malt Supper Club on Thursday, November 22. With retro dance moves and style to match, their soulful sounds will have you up dancing from the first song! We have an awesome prize to give away which consists of free entry into Malt on Thursday, November 22, and a delicious tasting plate and wine for two. Enter now to be in the running.
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CAB AUDITED CIRCULATION: 38,000 OCTOBER 2011 – MARCH 2012
Deadlines EDITORIAL General: Friday 5pm,, Eye4 Arts: Thursday 10am, Comp’ Thing: Monday Noon,, Salt Clubs: Monday 5pm , Local Scene: Monday Noon,, Gig Guide: Monday 5pm ADVERTISING Cancellations: Monday 5pm, Ads to be set: Monday Noon Supplied Bookings / Copy: Tuesday 12 Noon, Classifieds: Monday 4pm Published by: Columbia Press Pty.Ltd. A.C.N. 066 570 803 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No PP600110.00006 Suite 55/102 Railway Street, City West Business Centre, West Perth, WA 6005 Locked Bag 31, West Perth, WA 6872 Phone: (08) 9213 2888 Fax: (08) 9213 2882 Website: http://www.xpressmag.com.au
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NICK CHARLES
Stratosfunk play Malt Supper Club
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The Melbourne Age describes Nick as “Australia’s virtuoso of acoustic roots and blues”. Nick’s latest album is Into The Blues and is available from Black Market Music. He’s playing on Tuesday, November 20, at The Charles and Friday, November 23, at The Ellington. We have two copies of his brand new album up for grabs. Get in now to win.
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Ruth Tyndall
Breakfest 2012 will feature a hand-picked selection of fresh and favourite artists across all forms of broken beat, breakbeat, drum’n’bass, hip hop, funk, bass and their offspring! We have the ultimate Breakfest prize up for grabs which consists of a ticket to Breakfest 2012 plus a 2005 collector’s block mount signed by all the artists of that year. Get in now for your chance to win this awesome prize.
Refused are fucking legends! I checked them out at Metro Freo last Friday night and am so fucking happy they ventured over to Perth for this onceoff tour they’re randomly doing. They put on a mad show, couldn’t have asked for anything better. So stoked to have got down and checked them out. This has got to make your end of year ‘best gigs of the 2012’ list surely?
Those delicious Belgium lads 2manydjs are coming back to town to mix up Eye Of The Tiger with the likes of Kraftwerk, put their very own brilliant spin on tunes from The Beatles, pump out the bass and thumping electro and show you how to get your groove on down on the d-floor. They are serious pros. Boomtick and X-Press are presenting a super sick prize pack which includes: VIP tickets to 2manydjs at Villa Nightclub on Friday, November 30 Your own exclusive meet and greet experience at sound-check before the show A personally signed block mount A Boomtick Prize Pack for both you and your friend To be in the running, all you need to do is take a photo of yourself with “2many” of “something”. For example: you with too many pegs on your face; you with too many tattoos, you with too many festival wristbands. Then, upload the photo to the X-Press Facebook page. Whoever gets the most ‘likes’ on their photo will automatically go into the Top 5 Finalists. The winner will be chosen by X-Press ahead of the show.
Ghost
HOYTS CAROUSEL POP CULTURE CLASSICS - GHOST
Pop Culture Classics continue at Hoyts Carousel with a special screening of Ghost starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore on Friday, November 30. Get in now to win a double pass!
SONIC BOOM BOX 2013
Hospin
HOPSIN @ THE CIVIC HOTEL
Hopsin is a producer, director, actor, and editor. In 2011, he headlined over 60 shows around the world, racked up millions of YouTube views and earned a feature on Tech N9ne’s All 6’s & 7’s album with B.O.B. Hopsin checks into Perth’s Civic Hotel on Thursday, November 22, and we have two double passes up for grabs. Get in now to win!
Sonic Boom Box 2013 is mixed by two of the world’s hottest dance acts: Avicii and Feenixpawl. Featuring tracks and remixes from Calvin Harris, Florence + The Machine, Deadmau5 and more, this is an absolute must that every dance music and festival fan should have streaming out of their stereos all summer. Get your entries to win one of five copies we have up for grabs.
POLKA DOT VINTAGE MARKET
Polka Dot Vintage Markets return to Claremont Showgrounds on Saturday, November 17, and Sunday, November 18, and is guaranteed to have plenty of bargains and treasures galore. Get in now as we have 10 double passes up for grabs.
SAM SIMMONS
Australia’s own maestro of suburban absurdism, Sam Simmons, returns to the Astor Theatre with a new hour of sublime joy on Friday, November 23. We have a double pass to giveaway to this show so get in quick to be in Sam Simmons the running!
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
NICK CHARLES
Blues Variations Covelski
Tomas Ford
THIRTY, FLIRTY AND FORDING
WA’s favourite electro-disco showman Tomas Ford is turning 30 years young - and he’d like it heaps if you helped him celebrate. Not one for a quiet shindig, Ford will be holding a two-room spectacular - I Feel Thirty - at PICA Bar at the start of next month. Rather than denying the big 3-0, Ford is embracing it with open arms and bottles of wine - with 29 years to plan the party, it’s sure to be a night of brain-frying madness. Ford will be showcasing material from his nineyear career (and you can request whatever you like via Facebook or Twitter), plus there’ll be live music, DJs, a bit of cabaret, comedy, performance art, and so much debauchery that you should probably request a week off work to deal with the hangover. It’s all happening on Saturday, December 1, at PICA - and you can grab tickets now for $10 through ticketbooth.
COVETING COVELSKI
Homegrown punk lads Covelski have been getting killer reviews for their recent self-titled EP, launching themselves straight to the top of the homegrown punk charts. To show off their new songs and regale audiences with their ferocious live shows, the foursome are heading out on their first ever national headline tour. Though this will be their first time playing to audiences over east, they’re not forgetting about those who have been with them from the start - they’ll be hitting up Ya Ya’s on Friday, December 14, with Kill Teen Angst, Celebrator and Adam Livingston (of Emperors fame), and The Railway Hotel on Saturday, December 15, with Manhattan Jinx and Scalphunter. Get on down!
Touring his new album, Into The Blues, Nick Charles performs at the Perth Blues Club at the Charles Hotel, on Tuesday, November 20, supported by Midnight Sun and Old Blood. BOB GORDON reports.
Nick Charles
Blues guitarist Nick Charles has just released a new album, Into The Blues, combining six Charles originals with some influential blues tunes. “Many of the songs and tunes on this album have been with me for ever, perhaps even since I began way back,” he explains. “The Big Bill Broonzy (Hey Hey) and Mississippi John Hurt (Frankie And Albert) numbers have also been standout crowd favourites and are always requested at shows and the Tampa Red (Denver Blues Variations) slide tune is just one of the all time greats. So when I began to write some new songs that seemed to fit the appropriate ‘blues’ feel I knew I had something to put down!” There have been many blues songs over the years that have influenced and inspired Charles. Was it difficult bring that focus down to seven tubes? “Great songs in any genre stand the test of time don’t they? Hey Hey, for one, is just timeless and has such a great ‘up’ vibe. But as a singer, in particular, I have to find a way to really present a personal take on a tune and it takes time to find ones that work for your voice. As a fingerpicker, too,
I like to be able to present a really full guitar take on a tune and certain ones work and others don’t. These all did remarkably well I think but don’t forget there are also six originals and they are probably my response to the classics anyway!” As such some songs have evolved with Charles treatment and others are closer to their originals. Some blues purists can be quite inflexible about the way blues tunes ‘were and should be’. Not this guy. “I let things happen!” he says. “It’s impossible to deny musical evolution and therefore modern influences creep in inevitably but having said that I like to think I remain true to the original feel and mood and I can always replicate the original to start with. “Hey Hey is very close to the authentic early 1950’s footstomper but others like Guitar Shuffle have been affected by my own listening history, for sure. Vocally, well, I can’t pretend I’m a Louisiana sharecropper and I can’t understand the concept of ‘impersonation’... may as well join a tribute band!”
Rachel And Henry Climb A Hill
RETURN OF THE FOLK
Jordi Davieson Photo: Callum Ponton
Quirky Freo folksters Rachel And Henry Climb A Hill have returned from an extended overseas holiday, and want to celebrate the best way they know how - by putting on a show! The group will be showing off their folk-pop stylings and musical madness at Clancys Fish Pub in Fremantle, with support from The Whistling Dogs and Miranda & Gordo. It’s all happening this Saturday, November 17, from 9pm onwards - and it’s only $5 on the door. Get on down for some foot-tapping, finger-clicking goodness.
ART ATTACK
Converge
San Cisco frontman Jordi Davieson will be the special guest at public art auction Art For The Ocean on Saturday, November 17. Now in its second year, Art For The Ocean raises much needed funds for the ongoing work of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. On the night guests will have the opportunity to bid on art which has been donated by artists whose pieces have been inspired by the theme “oceans”. In addition to the excitement of the live auction, there will also be canapés and refreshments, raffles, prizes and live entertainment. Tickets are available from artfortheocean.seashepherd.org.au.
CONVERGING DOWN UNDER
US-based metalcore band Converge boast over two decades of intense, hardcore music and live shows, and have become one of the most influential and revered bands in their respective musical category. Their most recent record, All We Love We Leave Behind, has been lauded as their best yet, meeting significant critical acclaim across the board for its individual sound and daring progressions. Now, the band are heading to Australia to show it off, and impress crowds with their exceptional live shows. They’ll be hitting up Amplifier on Tuesday, February 12, and tickets are available now through Oztix.
Colin Hay
MAKE HAY
You know him best as the frontman for Men At Work but Colin Hay is also a major solo artist and is set to take audiences across the country on musical journeys full of twists and turns. Hay will take centre stage at the Bunbury Entertainment Centre on Friday, February 1, before a show in Perth at the Regal Theatre on Saturday, February 2, followed by one final performance at the Mandurah Performance Centre on Sunday, February 3. Tickets are on sale now from the venues and Ticketek.
Dinosaur Jr
REJECTING EXTINCTION
Ezereve
SISTER ACT
After $14,000 was raised through the sales of her homemade demo CD Stop Traffik for charities that fight trafficking, singer/songwriter Ezereve is bringing people together again for a good cause and to launch her new EP Little Sister. On Sunday, November 18, music lovers will board The Crystal Swan, Perth’s most exclusive and modern function vessel, for a sunset cruise. Tickets are only $65 and are available to purchase now from ezereve.com. Ticket price includes a delicious cocktail style dinner (special dietary requirements catered for), a drink on arrival and entertainment from Ezereve and her band. Ezereve will be supported by special guest singer/songwriter Karlee Brown. Fifty per cent of the CD sale price will go towards World Vision’s Child Rescue to save children from trafficking. www.xpressmag.com.au
The classic line-up of US rockers Dinosaur Jr reformed in 2005, to the surprise and delight of their massive fanbase, and since then have pumped out three killer records - the latest of which being this year’s critically acclaimed I Bet On Sky. And, we’ve just got word that J Mascis and his pals will be heading down under in 2013, to destroy your ear-holes with the onslaught that is a Dinosaur Jr live show- hell yeah! But that’s not all folks. The legendary trio will also be bringing along a bunch of rock’n rolling support bands for the ride, including LA power-pop princes Redd Kross, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and space-rockers Moon Duo. Phew! This is sure to be an awesome gig, and it’s all happening on Tuesday, March 12, at The Astor - tickets are on sale now through showticketing.com.au
KING OF THE HONKERS
Big Jay McNeely toured to sell out houses in 2008 and 2011 across Australia and he’s back to do it all again – no mean feat for the spring chicken muso who is 85 and just can’t stop honkin’ that tenor sax! The rhythm and blues legend will join forces with local jazz aficionados Adam Hall And The Velvet Playboys for an evening of sensational entertainment on Friday, December 14, at the Fremantle Arts Centre. Tickets are on sale now through Oztix.
Spoonful Of Sugar
THE DAY THE INDIE KIDS HAVE THEIR PICNIC
Do you like picnics? How about delicious cocktails and cupcakes? Lastly, do you like super-rad live indie music? If you answered ‘motherflipping yes’ to one or more of these, then you need to get yourself on down to The Bird in a few weeks time for The Bird House Picnic. Featuring live sets from some of WA’s finest indie darlings - including Spoonful Of Sugar, Sun Orchestra, Bears And Dolls and Tim Gordon - plus a whole lotta sun, sugar and spirits, this is one hipster extravaganza that you shouldn’t miss. Kick off summer on a high at The Bird House Picnic on Sunday, December 2 tickets are cheep cheep, at only $10 on the door.
Sugarpuss
‘PUSS IN BIRD
Sugarpuss have been lying low recently, grooming themselves after bagging a WAMI Award, recruiting a new member, and laying down some new tracks in a cottage down south - reportedly, with a musical leaning towards something a little more poppy in time for summer. To prove that they’ve not just been resting on their laurels, the boys are heading back to civilisation to try out their new material on your waiting ears, and will be holding a single launch for new track Falling Outta Love. Check it all out and get reacquainted with the band this Friday, November 16, at The Bird. 11
playing guitar and piano like I always did, and I wrote all these songs. I made the mistake of playing them to my big brother, who said very quickly, not out of disrespect to me, but out of concern, that they were real depressing and they sounded like old Cat Power. I just closed shop, put up my hard drives. After eight months, I went back and I told myself,‘Don’t open the guitar case, Chan. Don’t walk over to the piano’. The only thing I saw that I worked on was the drums, the drum set and these synth sort of things that were against the wall that I got plugged in, turned them on, and touched them. And that’s the sound.
Cat Power
CAT POWER
You Can’t Kill Songs, They Live Forever Cat Power, AKA Chan Marshall recently released a new album, Sun, and will appear at the Chevron Festival Gardens as part of the Perth International Arts Festival on Tuesday-Wednesday, February 26-27, 2013. Talking with Cat Power’s Chan Marshall, it’s clear that she is an artist totally comfortable with herself and her abilities. Cracking jokes throughout the conversation, Marshall’s sweetness and openness regarding her career - from the drug-addled Atlanta days to struggling as a solo artist in New York City are not only revealing, but refreshing. That sweetness, however, should not be mistaken for weakness, as Marshall has also proven to be just as stubborn and independent today as she was opening for Liz Phair in 1992. Here she discusses not only her new album, but also her cancelled appearance at Coachella this year, the pressure to work with a producer, the importance of jazz to her approach, and what effect US jazz musician, Anthony Braxton has had on her work. Not long after this interview Marshall cancelled her December tour of Europe due to angioedema (an inflammatory skin condition). She is now resting up in preparation for her US and Australian tour dates in the New Year. By LEN COMARATTA This spring you wrote on your site that you “didn’t think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished.” No disrespect, but what difference would one performance make considering that the album wasn’t going to drop for six months? ‘Cause I don’t want to play old shit. I wanted to play what I wanted people to hear, which is what they’d want to hear if they had heard the record.
You didn’t want to even tease some of the new songs? No. You know what? I got so much pressure to get a producer and a new band for this record and a manager that I made the big mistake of trying to meet one. His advice was, ‘Don’t play it, because how are you going to possibly be ready?’. But the reason I didn’t play it was I didn’t want to do old hat. I wanted people to feel inspired. I didn’t want to bring anybody down. I was ashamed to cancel because that’s terrible. Sun features electronics, drum machine and synths... There are three beats that I did not make up. Those were supplied to me by this guy named Mark Lee, a Jamaican dude that I met and worked with in Miami. There are three beats that I did not engineer on drum machine. Everything else is me making my own beats. There’s no drum machine on the record. Except for the Roland, which is more like a dissonant thing. There is that on Manhattan, but it’s not a drum machine. At one point after touring Jukebox [2008], you said you didn’t want to look at a piano or guitar for a while. Why was that? Because when I moved to Los Angeles to be in my relationship - which ended three weeks before I finished the record in France in March when I moved over four years ago to be with my ex [actor, Giovanni Ribisi], I went in The Dust Brothers’ studio, The Boat, around the corner, a half-mile from where we lived in Silver Lake. I made the mistake of
on, and I had never known about that before, and that was something that was alive from him and alive from everyone watching. That’s when I learned that there’s a different space that’s still alive that has existed on certain records I’ve heard. And that was why, as troublesome as it may have always seemed to other people, playing live, there’s a psyche involved with putting yourself on a stage. They look at you with their eyeballs. It’s real difficult because I’m aware of people’s energies and their difference in opinions and personality type. Braxton just reassured me that that shit was still around, still alive, and that it’s possible that that Do you think you’ll ever revisit or release the journey can still be open for other people even if songs you abandoned from the Sun sessions? they’re younger than anybody in the audience and I’ve done this a couple times before, where don’t know anything about jazz scale. You know what I have all these on a secret record, or whatever. I have I mean? a couple of them I’ve never released. I probably have three now, because there’s also the whole Malibu… When I listen to or watch jazz performers, for me, nine months I tried to get my old touring band, my more so than rock’n’roll, it’s more the auditory friends Jim White, Judah Bauer, Gregg Foreman and and cerebral experience of being there, rather Erik Paparazzi, to play the same things I had recorded than actually knowing what is going on. When I’m by myself. I tried to get us to get really good live at a rock show, I like to know the songs they are versions of that and took them on tour so they have playing, or as many of them as I can. But when I’m the intensity of having to play it live. After trying to at a jazz show, I like the mood and the journey. mix it all up, it didn’t work, so that’s on another hard It’s like going to school, man. Jazz is drive. So, yeah, there’s that record; there’s another like going to the most liberated university of record from The Boat. Yeah, there’s a lot of lost shit, consciousness as far as music is concerned. It is a so maybe one day… trip, and as far as free jazz is concerned… I was dating this sax player in South Africa, and he’s playing with When you need a contract fulfilment, you can just all these old dudes. Free jazz stuff. This white boy pull one out of the vault. from Sweden, his name is Martin Holm. He said, ‘You’re Shit, I’ll write my contract myself. I’m gonna doing a great injustice to yourself as a musician. I’m not write my own goddamn contract. talking about music theory, but if you don’t learn how to play and read music, you’re doing a huge injustice Only one song on Sun, Ruin, features The Dirty to yourself as a musician, because there’s a lot less you Delta Blues Band. You commented on how the can convey to humans and to the universe’. And I’m still sessions didn’t turn out the way you had hoped. just as stubborn as I was then. I don’t want to learn Are you still playing with them, or is that project a formula that’s been ingrained. That’s part of the no more? beauty that I feel and a new confidence about getting Well, there’s a lot of beautiful recorded this record done, because I didn’t know what I was material from the nine months I was in Malibu, two doing. I didn’t know what the fuck the songs were years ago. Really beautiful things came out of that. gonna sound like. I didn’t know where I was going. But I have a lot of other songs that I still haven’t I didn’t know how the machine worked. recorded. I have a whole concept for my next record, I didn’t know if I was playing a good enough drum but I’m not sure if they’re going to be involved in that. But your question, will I play with them part. I didn’t know, on Silent Machine, that reversing again? You bet your ass. I don’t know if it’ll be for the that drum and then digitising and spacing out, next record or if it’ll be 10 years from now. I’m not through the computer, my vocals… I didn’t know if sure when, but they’re amazing players and amazing that was good or bad. But that’s what I needed to people. I’m very lucky to have had the time with do. I didn’t need him telling me that, just like I don’t need somebody telling me to get a producer. I don’t them, because there’s nobody like them, musically. need somebody telling me I need to learn for society. Let’s jump back in time a little bit. How did seeing I’m sorry. One day, maybe when I’m in the prime of Anthony Braxton in concert give you the courage my life - I’m Aquarius and my prime is around my 70s - maybe that is when I’ll be taking master painter to perform publicly? Having heard some jazz records before, classes, and I will have already directed five films and older jazz records, and always being close to put out 10 books and made 40 records and have a ballads… I love Lonnie’s Lament, Coltrane, or Miles couple scores. Maybe that’s when I will take music Davis, the 1958 Louis Malle soundtrack [Elevator To lessons. The Gallows], that contemplative sort of jazz. Being young and having that cassette when I was 13, I I read that you once said telling a musician they didn’t know what it’s like to experience free jazz. I need a producer is like telling someone they need know about the No Wave and the different stuff that a nose job. Did I say that? God, that’s funny. was going on. There’s still a large group of people that are still around that do that kind of music. I had never In 2000, you commented about how you were seen it live, just as I’m saying I never saw jazz live. So, when I went to the old Knitting Factory tired of touring your own music. You don’t hear on Houston [Houston Street, Manhattan] and saw musicians say that very often. Was there a reason this live, I had already been to ABC No Rio [an art that you wanted to stop playing your own stuff? I had been doing this tour with the Passion centre on Lower East Side, Manhattan] and seen other experimental stuff. And I had seen some experimental Of Joan Of Arc film, the Carl Dreyer film, where I got stuff in Atlanta because of Glenn Thrasher, from to take a load off and just play songs that I love. Half his radio station there. He booked this place called of them are my own, that to this day I still haven’t Klang. He had a show called Destroy All Music. I had recorded. Back then, in 1999 and 2000, when I was seen some weird shit and heard some from him, but doing that, playing these covers, playing these songs when I saw Braxton live and it was a grown man, that I wrote that I still haven’t recorded, I wanted like a grandfather man, he was doing something those unrecorded songs of mine to be called Sun, and that was unlike what I had ever seen. This was a I still haven’t done it. But I knew The Greatest wasn’t that, and I grown grandfather man doing something that was knew Jukebox wasn’t that. I knew You Are Free wasn’t registering with me. Back then though, in ’92, it was a that. It was real fulfilling to go to a place that are consciousness that was emanating from two sides. those songs, which is different than singing your own It was emanating from his physicality of doing it, songs. The same reason why Otis Redding loved to making sounds, and his journey, his trip he was sing Satisfaction, the same reason Black Crowes love going on. And there was another side. The audience to sing Otis Redding, the same reason Streisand loved members I was watching, watching, listening. It was whatever, why Dylan loved whatever. You can’t kill like a journey. There was no posturing; there was no songs. They live forever. light show; there was no rock and roll sexuality. There was a sexuality that was something else. I don’t know Len Comaratta is the Senior Staff Writer for US how to talk about it. There was something going music website www.consequenceofsound.net.
THE DATSUNS
Death Rattle Boogie, on the exact same date that their eponymous debut album hit the shelves all the way back in 2002? Still, it’s been a long time between drinks; their last full length release, Head Stunts, came out in 2008. The long hiatus was not due to anything too scandalous, though; as guitarist Phil Somervell assures us, it’s all down to time and distance. “Well, at the moment I live in Auckland and our drummer lives in Wellington,” he says. “And they’re about eight hours apart if you’re driving. One Death Rattle Boogie, the long- other guy lives in Stockholm, Sweden, and another lives in London, England, so it’s been basically just awaited new album from killer Kiwi guy a logistical thing working out when to get together, rockers, The Datsuns, is out now. and when we can get together. That’s why it’s been the best part of three years in the making - two and TRAVIS JOHNSON has a word with a half to three years.” That distance doesn’t mean that the guitarist, Phil Somervell, about rock, creative wheels haven’t been spinning, though. recording and the terrible tyranny Embracing the possibilities of online collaboration and information technology, The Datsuns have been of distance. able to quietly build up an impressive catalogue of ideas and works-in-progress upon which to draw Ten years is a long time for any band, with many when the fates allow them all to be in the same room never even managing to crack the decade before at the same time. self-immolating. “In our set-up that we’ve got now, if we What better way for The Datsuns to want to create together, we have to do it online. We mark the occasion than by releasing their latest LP, have to use the internet, because we’re literally not in
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The Datsuns the same city. All of us are still playing in other bands and working on our own projects as well, but when it comes to The Datsuns stuff, that’s how it is at the moment, although that may change in the future. I don’t know what will happen after this record.” The record in question is a classic slice of Datsuns drama, drawing on a wide spread of - let’s face it, mostly heavy - influences, and retaining the
feel of the band’s earlier work without feeling like another trip ‘round the hamster wheel. “I think that our early influences are still pretty strong,” Somervell says. “They seem pretty of obvious to us. There’s a heavy metal aspect to this album, that’s still there. It definitely hints at stuff from our earlier days, I guess, but it also takes things in a new direction as well.” X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
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THE SHEEPDOGS Not Just A Cover Band
ANBERLIN Vital Signs
Anberlin have released their new album, Vital, and are currently on tour in the US. GEORGE GREEN chats to frontman, Stephen Christian. It’s been a decade since God’s favourite rock band Anberlin exploded onto the scene with their debut, Blueprints For The Black Market, and the Floridian quintet have been one of the shining examples of hard-work and longevity in a music market filled with disposability and one-hit wonders. They’ve seen it all but it seems there’s always something to get excited about. “We’re currently on tour with Smashing Pumpkins here in the States,” frontman Stephen Christian says excitedly. “We’re on our way to San Francisco to play a massive show tomorrow night, so things are pretty good for us right now. Smashing Pumpkins are legends of rock, so it’s pretty incredible for us to not only participate in the show, but to then follow that up with watching these guys play at the end of every night. It’s such a boost of confidence for us that the guys that we looked up to when we were just getting into music are not only passing on the torch but also kind of giving us their seal of approval.” The way that Christian speaks is indicative of someone who has done his fair share of promotional interviews, but even he could not contain the sheer excitement of being on the road with one of his childhood idols. “It would have just been cool if Billy Corgan had even heard of Anberlin, but to be able to go on tour with these guys has just been an absolutely humbling experience for us as a band. To be honest, it kind of feels surreal,” says Christian.
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Anberlin Perhaps one of the reasons that Australian audiences love Anberlin is because the feeling is obviously mutual. The band have always considered Australia to be an essential stop on the touring circuit, and local audiences have paid back that sentiment with constant support and honest appreciation. “We’re planning on heading over to Australia in early April, actually. I mean, I’m sure you guys get this all the time, but we absolutely love Australia. We’ve been coming there for such a long time now, and it’s a place that we always try and get to every time we’re planning on touring. American fans take the accessibility that they have to live music for granted, I think. When we come to Australia, people come to shows to have a good time and pretty much expect to lose the shirt off their back before they go home.” One of the ways that Anberlin have shown their appreciation of their fans is evident on their latest LP, Vital, where the band selected four YouTubers who had posted Anberlin covers to sing on the album. “I knew that I wanted to have a choir type of part on the record, but I didn’t want it to be a massive amount of people. We all sat around and discussed what we could do, and one of us came up with the idea of scouring YouTube to find the people we could use. I mean, there’s already people who have spent time reworking our songs because they enjoy them, and some of them are really good, so we thought it would be a great way to include those people in the Anberlin experience. “We sent them all the recording gear and the song, and basically had them record their parts and work with our producer Aaron Sprinkle over Skype. It was such a unique way to collaborate with other people who are like-minded musicians and we’re all really happy with the way it turned out.
The Sheepdogs
The self-titled album by Canadian blues rockers, The Sheepdogs, is out now. TRAVIS JOHNSON talks to singer/guitarist, Ewan Currie, about the pros and cons of sudden fame. There’s no such thing as overnight success. The Sheepdogs, a dirty blues rock outfit hailing from Saskatoon, had been grinding away for a good five years before they suddenly found themselves plastered on the cover of Rolling Stone, having won the 2011 Choose The Cover competition. The resultant surge of recognition changed things for the band forever, but singer, Ewan Currie, is at pains to point out that it’s not all champagne and hookers. “Yeah, it’s been huge,” he admits. “But I don’t think it’s been as crazy as people think. It doesn’t mean that we’ve been on the covers of magazines all the time and we just hang out with Hollywood elites and shit like that. It basically gave us a huge amount of publicity that we couldn’t have gotten by other means, and it’s opened up a lot of doors. Especially back home in Canada - we do very well up there. “We kind of got promoted by this magazine in a very inorganic fashion, so we’re just trying to build up a fanbase in the US and in Australia and around the world in a very organic fashion. We’re touring, hitting the radio stations and doing all those things that bands have to do.” One result is that their fourth, self-titled album is the first one to get the full professional treatment; the band having produced their previous releases themselves. “That’s right,” Currie says. “This is the first
time we’ve had full-on production, and a label and all that kind of stuff.” Of course, working with professional producers does mean listening to other voices in the creative process, something that took a bit of getting used to. “There is a certain loss of control,” Currie explains.“When we were by ourselves, we had 100 per cent over how it sounded, so that was pretty nice. But at the same time, when you’re giving up some of that control, you’re also getting other people’s opinions, and in our case, we felt that the guys who were in studio working with us, they were giving us really good opinions. It’s also healthy, getting that outsider’s view.” There also came certain weight of expectation. It’s one thing to be a relatively unknown group pushing out your own releases, but it’s quite another to suddenly have the entire music world anticipating your next move. “Our last album that we made before this one was made with no expectations.” Currie reflects. “We didn’t have any money, we didn’t have a label, we didn’t have a whole bunch of fans who were expecting something of us. It’s a different story this time around though; we have a label, and lots of people who found out about us and are curious about what we’re going to do next. So, there’s a little more expectation and a little more pressure, but that’s not a bad thing either if it helps - and a kick in the ass does help at times.”
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
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Coles’ use of Down Down has probably been one of the most successful ad campaigns on Australian TV in recent years. It’s high profile; it’s big money and as such has drawn the attendant slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. “There’s a lot of criticism of it,” Rossi says. “A lot of it going ‘round on the internet. People going, ‘why, oh why? Are they short of money? Is it for their pensions? Do they want the money?’. “I was sitting in this hotel in Melbourne watching trains going up and down, there’s people going across the bridge, going to work, coming from work, and I think, ‘well that’s what they’re doing’.
Status Quo founders Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi Photo: Simon Cooper
“You and I are talking just now; with respect, you’re doing this because you’re being paid to do it. It’s your job. So, for some reason we want to ridicule people ‘because you’re doing it for your pension’. Well, yeah. What’s so friggin’ wrong with that?”
“You and I are talking just now; with respect, you’re doing this because you’re being paid to do it. It’s your job. So, for some reason we want to ridicule people ‘because you’re doing it for your pension’. Well, yeah. What’s so friggin’ wrong with that? (laughs).” Even in an age where bands need to acquire new income streams there’s been a lot of talk about Status Quo selling out. Coles will Status Quo are part of the whopping West Coast Blues N’ Roots exclusively stock the band’s forthcoming album, Pro Quo, and are sponsoring their Australian line-up on Saturday-Sunday, March 23-24, at Fremantle Park. BOB Quid tour. Could it be perhaps, when a band reaches its 50th anniversary, that there’s no such thing as GORDON speaks with guitarist, Francis Rossi. selling out? “I agree with you,” Rossi says. “That 2012 has, oddly, been the year of Status Quo. If you’ve stepped into Coles anytime seems sensible. But I could also take the view that Guitarist/vocalist, Francis Rossi, is in in the last six months for a spot of grocery when I was very young, I sold out by going to a the middle of it and he’s happy to be busy. shopping, you’d have heard Quo’s hit, Down record company, didn’t I? People used to say that “We came here Monday and we leave Down getting more airplay than it did when Led Zeppelin had sold out. Excuse me, sold out to tomorrow,” he says during a whirlwind promo it first came out in 1974. Of course the sexual whom?” trip to Melbourne. “We did some stuff for... what’s innuendo has gone out the door and now it Rossi is actually very good-natured, that supermarket? Hold on, it’ll come to me in a would seem that prices are down due to the passionate and funny. His tone isn’t angry, more Coles big red hand. minute.” comically flabbergasted that people are so
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surprised at Quo’s 2012 business decisions. “I don’t necessarily believe in capitalism anymore,” he notes. “I don’t know where it goes, but I grew up in it and to make it in this capitalist society you’ve got to earn money. If you’ve got money you’re somebody; if you haven’t, you’re not. I don’t necessarily think that’s good, but it’s gotten me by. People would not even speak to me, or entertain me, unless we were a successful band, or we had money, or whatever it is, that this system works on. I don’t think it’s right or fair, but it’s how it is. “So when Coles had been using Down Down for some time and we saw some cheques which was lovely - and they suddenly come along to our manager with talk of tour sponsorship, the ad comes along, then the corporate stuff and they pay us a shitload of money to do it - you’d be a dickhead not to do it. Why capitalism has worked for so long is ‘cause everyone believes in it. “I better get off this friggin’ subject, I can hear you nodding off (laughs).” In a spirited conversation, much actual music (that we’ll run closer to West Coast Blues N’ Roots) the irony is not lost on Rossi that he’s in Australia talking about a forthcoming Australian tour. “I know,” he laughs. “That’s the way our business is. I suppose, really, the older I get the more cynical I am. It’s showbusiness and I think showbusiness is 95 per cent bullshit and the other five per cent is bullshit. But what am I expecting? Of course it’s not real. “Everything we experience in this capitalist world is inflated bullshit. Why that should bother me at this point, I don’t know. That’s the way life is and I’m a dickhead for thinking it should be any different (laughs).” It might be Status Quo’s Golden Anniversary this year, but Rossi still seems to harbour no airs and graces about rock’n’roll. Nothing much has changed. “I’ve been doing this since I was 12 and professionally since I was 16,” he says. “There are nights you’re up there thinking, ‘My god, it’s grim’. And there are other nights you’re up there and it’s like playing with your knob. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, this is so lovely I don’t want it to stop’. It’s better than sex and it mostly lasts longer. Sometimes it’s just heavenly, but I don’t know why. “I s’pose some of it is standing in front of people who think you’re great, so it’s an insecure-show-off-ego-massage. It’s vanity. I worry about certain people in music who, if they’re not insecure little show-offs, it means they’re out there thinking, ‘the world needs my music’. Wow. I think that’s a dodgy point of view.”
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
GAY PARIS What It Ism Maniac horror-rockers Gay Paris are heading west with hairy pals The Beards. CHLOE PAPAS speaks to frontman, W.H. Monks, ahead of their shows on Thursday, November 15, at the Prince of Wales, Bunbury; Friday, November 16, at Settlers Tavern, Margaret River; Saturday, November 17, at the Rosemount and Sunday, November 18, at the Indi Bar.
Hailmary
HAILMARY Georgia On Their Mind Hailmary launch their debut album at the Civic Hotel this Friday, November 16, with help from Brutus, Wizard Sleeve and Victorian outfit, King Of The North. SHANE PINNEGAR reports.
Gay Paris When X-Press gets on the phone to Luke Monks, aka Wailin H. Monks, it’s apparent from the getgo that the conversation is going to be rather interesting. Monks talks a million miles a minute, jumping from dick jokes to deep emotional philosophies, with the vocabulary of a creative writing student and the insanity of a dude fronting a band full of awesome crazies. Gay Paris released their debut album last year, and their second full-length is already penned and ready to go. Monks gives us a little insight into the inspiration behind the upcoming album. “ The last record was to do with consumption of art, which to me, is an emotional process. And I think this is more to do with soulsearching and transcendence – we’re trying to bring people up out of the quagmire of banal day-to-dayisms, and give them the ism of a relationship with my thrusting crotch,” Monks deadpans. It’s evident simply from chatting with Monks that he’s the storyteller behind the narrative tunes that Gay Paris are known for – he explains that the other members are banned from even trying. “They’re allowed to write all of the music if I’m allowed to write all of the words. I don’t trust them - sometimes when they sing backing vocals they deliberately sing silly little lyrics, to see if I notice. They’re terrible, they make sport of me. I’m a man of learning!” Monks says, mock-indignantly. Monks explains that there is a method to
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his madness.“I tend to develop an idea, and then dress it up. I create personalities around isms, and central ideas, so they can have like a dialectic conversation… and it’s got to be reasonable even inside all of the pandemonium. It is all hell though! I’m not singing about anything very nice, but I like to think that by singing about those things, you can – by a process of reduction – find something fantastic. And by fantastic, I don’t mean imaginary, I mean something that is wondrous and uplifting.” The band are crowd-funding their record through Pozible – though, they’re doing it with a twist. “We thought, what do Gay Paris fans like? They like our music, but what they like just as much, is watching us debase ourselves,” Monks says. Each fan who donates to the campaign receives a reward - ranging from album streams to videos of band members doing embarrassing things in public, to dinner cooked by the band. Gay Paris obviously like to engage in a bit of larrikinism – so X-Press asks Monks what we can expect from a Gay Paris live show. “We are horror, and that’s it. We are sex horror. I mean, not like torture porn! More like you’re watching a gratuitous sex scene in a horror movie and you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I should watch this!’. And it’s like you’re a teenager, and you’re going, ‘Holy shit, I hope no one walks in’. That’s how you’ll feel when you watch Gay Paris. You’ll hope no one walks in, but you’re gonna like it.”
Choice - Path - Consequence - Solution. That’s the name of Hailmary’s debut fulllength album and, according to vocalist/guitarist Kevin Curran, it pretty much sums up life in a nutshell. “You choose the path you want to go,” he says. “You may succeed or you fuck up and then you do something about it! A lot of the songs on the album have that recurring theme, so it seemed a fitting title.” Hailmary decamped to the US to record the album with Jeff Tomei in Atlanta, as they had with previous EP [their second], A Million Miles And Days, because, Curran says, “working with a guy the calibre of Jeff is an experience in itself and listening to our record now, I think it has a certain shine to it that sets us apart from sounding like just another Perth band.” With Tomei having worked with Alice In Chains, AIC main man Jerry Cantrell and Smashing Pumpkins, Curran and the band [guitarist, Todd Fishwick - who came up with the origami chatterbox idea for the cover picture - drummer, Vas Shevstov and bassist, Nairn McKay] were well aware that their post-grunge sound was going to get compared to their producer’s other work. “ We are always going to get the comparisons to the early ‘90s stuff no matter what,” says Curran, who cites Alice In Chains’ seminal Dirt as the album he would most like to have sat in on the recording sessions for. “We tapped into another side of our sound on this record, especially with a track like Yellow Light Of Death which is bordering on metal. “I think we have finally got our sound down. The old EPs had some good songs on them,
but that full sound we were after just wasn’t quite there like this album is and I feel we are only getting better - it’s just a natural progression.” One of the strongest progressions on the album is Curran’s vocals – his range is not only broader, but the diversity his vocal chords display is quite amazing. “It’s down to experience,” he says. “I would say the more you do something the better you get at it, I guess. I’m using my voice more now than ever before and your voice is a muscle. I’m putting it to work.” Choice – Path – Consequence – Solution is a fascinating album full of light and shade, and is the clearest definition yet of Hailmary’s unique style. In short, the album has the potential to be a game changer for the band, and they aren’t content to sit around waiting for things to happen for them. “We’re working on a February national tour at the moment,” explains Curran, “and in talks for a USA tour for the end of 2013. Our goal at the moment is just to play to fresh audiences as much as possible.” Catch them while you can or suffer the consequences. Friday’s launch at the Civic Hotel looks formidable. “I think punters are going to get their faces melted off,” exclaims the obviously excited singer. “The three other bands on the bill are top notch. King Of The North are a two-piece powerhouse, but don’t let the two-man band thing fool you; these guys sound massive. Brutus are kickass also and I’m really looking forward to watching Wizard Sleeve as I’ve only heard their tracks on the net and they sound badass too.”
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THEE OH SEES Putrifiers II
GUY SEBASTIAN Armageddon
Freeform Patterns/Fuse Music
Sony
San Francisco punk rockers Thee Oh Sees are almost inhumanely prolific as they throw out album after album in the blink of an eye. John Dwyer has dragged one of the most recognisable fringes in garage rock through many an outfit since the ‘90s, but it is The Oh Sees that finds him honing his craft. Their high energy sound is irrepressible on their 14th album, Putrifiers II, which may be their most accessible release to date. The characteristically frenetic Wax Face finds Dwyer in top form as he barks like a dog during the Cramps like opener. It’s not all brash guitars and squealing vocals though with Thee Oh Sees offering up gems like the Nuggets inspired Floods New Light. Melody and bluster are both put aside as the Californians offer up the drone moment of So Nice to show that they have a lot more to offer than sixties inspired nostalgia. Putrifiers II appears to capture the charisma of Thee Oh Sees front man who has a mind and work ethic that never stays still. There are far more arrows in the quiver this time out as psychedelic rock, pop smarts and atmospheric drones are all coupled amongst their signature garage punk. The Oh Sees are often lauded as one of the better live bands on the planet. Putrifiers II shows them to be no slouch in energy and ideas stakes when entering the studio either.
We all know him as the afro-sporting, bible-bearing winner of the first series o f A u s t ra l i a n I d o l , b u t nearly a decade later Guy Sebastian has undergone a musical and physical metamorphosis. The afro is gone and tattoos have been slapped on in light of Sebastian’s musical transformation from sappy pop purveyor to solo singer/songwriter. While there are a couple of songs that lend themselves to Sebastian’s older style, this album is, for the most part, pretty decent. Sebastian is at his best when he’s singing about the things that mean the most to him, with Get Along and Big Bad World being the two standouts for this reviewer due to their obvious honesty. The former is an exploratory adventure in religious ponderings, where Sebastian sings ‘Dear God, Dear Soul, Dear Mary, Mohammed; Can we all just get along?’ and the latter a song written about Sebastian’s journey into fatherhood, and his instinct to care for and protect his son. The only glaring downside of Armageddon is it’s striking dynamic similarities to Bruno Mars’ Doo-Wops & Hooligans, but given my overly-analytical mind it’s likely that most listeners won’t pick up on this and will enjoy the new direction that Guy Sebastian is headed in. _ GEORGE GREEN
_ CHRIS HAVERCROFT
SARAH BLASKO I Awake
REECE MASTIN Beautiful Nightmare
Dew Process
Sony
The ladies love Reece Mastin. That, essentially, is the point of every single track on the 18-year-old’s second LP, Beautiful Nightmare. You may know Mastin from such places as hooking up with hotties in his film clips, or as the winner of last year’s ever-prestigious ‘music’ competition, X-Factor. Wherever you do or don’t know him from, Mastin would like to let you know that he’s all grown up and he’s getting some. From track one to track 15, this record is all about the lovin’. Though, unfathomably, it doesn’t incite thoughts of violently destroying the CD or ranting about manufactured music – it’s surprisingly not too offensive to the ears. Though, let’s not get ahead of ourselves - Mastin isn’t a musical genius, and the record is designed for horny teenagers and 20-somethings who live in a permanent state of regression. But, it’s difficult to denounce the offering completely – the kid has talent. The songwriting credits go solely to Mastin or are shared with artists like Benji Madden, and as far as pop songs go, they aren’t half bad - if a little obnoxious (see: Shut Up and Kiss Me, Dirty Paradise). Mastin’s almost androgynous voice is undeniably appealing, and it isn’t difficult to see why he sends 15-year-old girls into hysterics. This record isn’t all that original, but it isn’t vomitworthy either. Kudos to Mastin – just keep it in your pants, dude.
It’s been three years since Sarah Blasko’s last solo offering, but it was well worth the wait. The songstress remained in the spotlight between albums with supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper, but kept fans largely in the dark regarding the finer details of her new LP, I Awake. Recorded in Sweden and Bulgaria with Blasko behind the helm as producer for the first time, I Awake is an ambitious, grandiose record. Instrumentally, it holds its base in piano, but is boldly complemented by a 52-piece Bulgarian orchestra – a move that, though certainly unique, turned out to be nigh-on perfect – as evidenced by tracks like God-Fearing and Illusory Light. This feels like Blasko’s concept album – the orchestra allows her to explore new themes and sounds, and unlike her previous work, each song contains an unexpected musical element. Blasko’s lyricism, however, is a welcome constant – the singer/songwriter has always written personal, emotionally-charged lyrics, and this record is no different. Again, the orchestra adds an element – building to shaking, dramatic crescendos and dropping to dark, looming arrangements throughout, guiding listeners through the tumultuous, intimate ride that Blasko takes. This record is lush and intricate, yet it manages to maintain an alluring simplicity, allowing listeners to draw their own conclusions. I Awake will give you a little insight into the mind of Sarah Blasko – and in turn, perhaps your own.
_ CHLOE PAPAS _ CHLOE PAPAS
JOHN MURRY The Graceless Age
DINOSAUR JR I Bet On Sky
Spunk
Liberator Music
Even if he never wrote any music, John Murry has an interesting story to tell. As a junior Murry was given pharmaceutical speed to assist his learning which only lead to him being accommodated in a drug rehabilitation facility for 18 months. Years later he was resuscitated from a heroin overdose and found Catholicism. Murry has all this to tell without even needing to offer the titbit of being literature maestro William Faulkner’s grandson (or nephew depending on who you ask). The Mississippi native moved to California to be closer to the Mexican Coca-Cola and it was four years ago that he started work on The Graceless Age, his first solo album. His previous release was a collection of murder ballads with Bob Frank and The Graceless Age is rarely more chipper in its subject matter. Murry pulls together aching tunes that at first glance are roomy and intimate before you notice there is an orchestra lurking in the next room or a group of back-up singers hiding behind the door. Southern Sky has Murry loathing himself as much as his situation as he unleashes a stirring narrative of misfortune and despair that is never too far away from any of the songs here. Murry clearly agonizes over his recordings and the life that he inhabits. He may lack some grace but is the first artist to hint at filling the void that Mark Linkous left behind. _ CHRIS HAVERCROFT 20
There have been plenty of indie rock bands revisiting their heyday and reforming with their ‘classic’ line-up to bring their biggest hits back to the masses. One band doing it better than all others (outside of Guided By Voices) would have to be Dinosaur Jr who have continued to add new releases instead of becoming an act solely for reminiscence value. I Bet On Sky is their third release since they arose from the ashes. I Bet On Sky is a less brash effort than its predecessor, Farm, with opener Don’t Pretend You Don’t Know back to the band’s meandering best. Mascis has his drawl well hidden in the mix and his guitar doing most of his talking. The addition of subtle keys is a timely addition to the trio’s cannon as they continue to push the boundaries of ‘same but different’. Lou Barlow has always had the broadest musical palette and his bass playing this time draws on the more melodic moments of his solo career. Keeping in tone with this is the two tunes that he offers up here with the staccato Recognition and the pop-punk if Rude being two of his better moments in Dinosaur. As with all Dinosaur Jr albums, the success of I Bet On Sky will rise or fall on the quantity and quality of J Mascis solos. There are enough memorable tearaway pieces of fretwork to make I Bet On Sky worth the effort. _ CHRIS HAVERCROFT X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
MINUS THE BEAR Infinity Overhead Dangerbird Records
When it comes to consistency, Minus The Bear are in a league of their own. The Seattle stoner-rockers have long been kicking goals by releasing record after record of experimental, new wave indie rock that has seen them become one of the genre’s best kept secrets. Infinity Overhead is yet another string to their bow. Dynamically, Infinity Overhead isn’t all that different from their last three records, which is perhaps what makes this one so good. It proves that Minus The Bear are a band who are brilliant at what they do, and they know how to play to their strengths. The album is thickly layered with keys and samples, while still highlighting their unique fingertapping style of guitar-playing. One of the unique aspects of Minus The Bear’s musicianship is that the vocals are there to compliment the uniquely quirky guitar muses, and not overpower them. The hooks on this record are split evenly between vocals and guitar riffs, leaving the listener singing along and making guitar noises with their mouths at equal amounts. Whether you’re an indie lover, guitar nerd or someone who just loves rock and roll, Infinity Overhead is a cracking album that will quickly see Minus The Bear become one of your new favourite bands.
_ GEORGE GREEN
MACE FRANCIS – NEW YORK NONET Land Speed Record Listen/Hear Collective
WA composer, musician, conductor, Mace Francis took a flying sojourn to New York last year, with a score under his arm and a lineup of impressive jazz artists waiting to extrapolate his written thoughts into recorded music. The line-up up of musicians was very impressive - from expats - trumpeter, Mat Jodrell, pianist, Sean Wayland and Matt Clohesy on bass, to some outstanding American session players and soloists such as saxophonists, Jon Gordon and Dan Pratt, Nate Radley on guitar, Mark Ferber, drums, trombonist, Alan Ferber and Douglas Yates on bass clarinet. With such onomatopoeic track titles such as Ros`e (presumably an extract from Mace’s commissioned work, Plonk!) Pandora’s Mood, Samsara and Well…Maybe Someday on would think you could identify some of the tracks after a few plays, however, it’s difficult to make a connection, to feel rather than merely hear. The music and solos are high class and it’s not necessarily a ‘where’s the melody?’ scenario – mind you it would help, but from my perspective it seemed to be focused not necessarily towards a potential listener, rather a challenge for the soloists to extract the underlying essence of Mace’s concept. Sounds like one to experience live. _ HELEN MATTHEWS
THE SAINTS King Of The Sun Highway 125
Chris Bailey has long deflected accusations of misleading, or even unconscionable conduct in using The Saints moniker in the continuing absence of Ed Kuepper. Certainly, the Bailey-only Saints appears a galaxy away from the proto-punk buzz saw attack of the one-time Kid Galahad And The Eternals. Yet, almost counterintuitively, Bailey has carried on The Saints without diluting the band’s historical legacy, taking the band into territory of his own choosing. King Of The Sun is the latest Saints record. With only minor exception, it’s Bailey in his finest whimsical folk-blues guise. The title track has a whiff of literary pretension, its lyrics a set of seemingly nonsequitur statements built around a simple melody and Bailey’s disaffected vocals. Sweet Chariot is arguably the classic contemporary Saints style – a lumbering bluesbased pop lick and an aesthetic that sits perfectly with Bailey’s modern day Lord Byron persona. Million Miles Away (La De Bloody Da) would, if attended to in a brutal punk manner, be one of the great garage rock tracks; here, it’s an intriguing acoustic track of surprising depth. On Mystified Bailey’s bass abilities come to the fore, Duty is replete with romantic beauty, Road To Oblivion takes a basic blues formula and infects with a slick pop sensibility and All That’s On My Mind could have been found in the All Fools Day archives. The record comes with a bonus disc of ‘songs from the stash’, including Just Like Fire Would, Ghost Ships and All Fools Day. It’s a useful reminder that there’s far more to The Saints than those classic first three records. Chris Bailey is idiosyncratic to say the least. But he’s kept The Saints alive.
Babyjane
BABYJANE Sick As
Perth rockers, Babyjane, launch their second album, Make It Sick, at the Rocket Room this Friday, November 16, with support from Ragdoll and In The Now. BOB GORDON reports. It’s fair to say Babyjane have learnt a thing or two about hard rock. Their sophomore a l b u m , Make It Sick, fe at u re s a g u e s t appearance by John Corabi [ex Motley Crue] and was recorded with legendary producer Michael Wagener [Master of Puppets, Skid Row, Ozzy Osbourne] in Nashville, Tennessee. B a by j a n e’s f i r s t a l b u m , A re You Listening, came together from the members of two previous bands coming together. Now that they’ve consolidated with time, Make It Sick paints a different picture of Babyjane? “It paints us in our natural state,” says bassist, Paul Judge. “Now that we’ve been together a few years and gotten comfortable with the way each other writes, we know what works and what doesn’t in our music. The first album had a lot of great moments but, because we were coming together out of the ashes of two separate bands, may have come across as a little uneven for some people - some of the songs reflected that. This album sounds like us saying, ‘Bam - we’ve got our sound and this is the direction we’re running’.” Michael Wagener mixed the first album and reappears as producer on Make It Sick. After his work first time around, it was a given that he’d produce the band. “Definitely,” Judge says, “he insisted on it. He loved Are You Listening enough to mix it but knew how good we could sound if he’d been involved from the start. He told us in 2010 to go away and start writing for the next one because he was doing it in no uncertain terms. And when you look at what he’s done in the past, why would a band like us say no? He had the Midas touch not too long ago and he still has it. But we have to thank his engineer too - Shani’s a Perth-bred girl and she was equally as important in putting this together.” One-time Motley Crue singer John Corabi’s guest appearance on the album’s opening track was an on-the-money experience. “He did no more than two takes,” Judge says. “Other than Nik asking him to scream his heart out at the start of the guitar solo he didn’t need any direction. He just got it straight away. Then we hit the town with him.” Judge has no doubt the experience like for the band of uprooting from its Perth base to record with an American producer in the US has it given then a bigger world view. “It’s been hugely life-changing for me, personally,” he notes. “Our drummer Nik and guitarist John had already been there to work with him in 2010 so they knew what to expect. But to go over there to a world-class studio, to record with the guy who’s recorded some of my favourite albums ever, for five weeks’ full-time doing nothing but making music and thinking about nothing else, I am satisfied. “No matter what happens in the future, I am very grateful for that experience. It was a nice taste of what it must be like to make a real living from it. And now everything we do is geared up for the States, not just here. We’ll definitely go back there to play soon.”
_ PATRICK EMERY www.xpressmag.com.au
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
The Beaufort Street Festival returns on Saturday, November 17, bigger, bolder and more Beaufort than ever. You can get full details on the free all-ages event at beaufortstreetfestival.com.au. Mecca to the locals of Mt Lawley, and one of Perth’s most vibrant cultural hubs to the rest of us, Beaufort Street is a part of our city’s folklore. Undergoing a facelift here and there lately has seen another journey added to the streets tale, and it’s this idea of journeys which brings us The Beaufort Street Festival 2012. Directed for the first time by Paul Fletcher and Aaron Rutter from JumpClimb Management, the festival delivers three different journeys, encompassing food and wine, art and fashion, and family. So what can we expect? “Four massive music stages, a food and wine micro-festival, a huge arts program, a dedicated family stage and zone, cardboard cities, pop-up entertainment, and an all-in Mexican wave going from the top to the bottom of the street,” according to Fletcher and Rutter. “We have been working on the 2012 festival since May, and over the past four to six weeks it has consumed the majority of our lives. It will all be worth it come November 17 as we personally can’t wait to see the amazing arts projects, and the incredible street layout that we have planned this year.”
Photography by Callum Ponton
www.xpressmag.com.au
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The Soska Twins Anna Funder
THE WRITE STUFF CONTINUED FROM COVER
Lucy Peach, Ben Witt, Adam Livingston, James Voltaire
With around 70,000 Perth punters making it to the event in 2011, more street space has been secured for 2012, starting at Lincoln Street and going all the way north to Queens Crescent, and organisers expect the festival could get attendances anywhere up to about 100,000. “It’s a great opportunity for those who wouldn’t frequent Beaufort Street on a regular basis to experience the culture that is 6050. Ninety per cent of the businesses on the street are independently owned and operated which makes Beaufort Street a unique shopping experience,” says Fletcher and Rutter. A huge part of that unique Beaufort experience is the eclectic eateries littered up and down its sidewalks. Festival visitors will be able to get a copy of Recipes And Ramblings; A Food Journey from Beaufort St & Beyond, a book that captures the foodie spirit of the street. “Beaufort Street is renowned for its food and booze culture, it continues to grow and grow. One thing that is important about this culture is that it’s not just the venues that make this possible, but also the patrons, the Beaufort Street locals and loiterers. It seemed appropriate to celebrate this in the form of a community cook book.” If that weren’t enough, some of the local scene’s best-known and most-loved musos are banding together for a local music love-in across four massive stages at the Flying Scotsman, James Squire Bar, on Clarence Street, and on Beaufort above Walcott Street. In anticipation of the big day, Emperors frontman Adam Livingston, The Chemist’s Ben Witt, Voltaire Twins’ Jaymes Voltaire and Lucy Peach joined forces to celebrate all things Beaufort Street for our exclusive Eye4 cover. “If Beaufort Street was a hair metal solo, it would boast some big hair and epic licks including RTR FM, The Rock Inn, Planet, The Flying Scotsman, etc,” says Ben Witt, to which Jaymes Voltaire adds: “I
love the sense of community in Mt Lawley. I’ve lived in and around the area most of my life and I like that whenever I go out I’ll almost certainly bump into someone I know. Mind you, when you go out on a Sunday morning looking like shit, that can be the down side to Mt Lawley as well!”. For Lucy Peach, it’s the simpler things in life which make Beaufort Street a favourite. “Buying flowers, bloody mary’s, people I love,” she lists.“Colour, movement, words; all the fruit!”. “For me Beaufort Street was a big part of growing up, although most of my friends would debate on whether I have actually done that as of yet,” says Emperors’ Adam Livingston. “I remember going to The Scotsman every Wednesday to hang out with my friends back when a beer cost a beer, there were slightly less bozos around, and way less shitty music. I’ve had some great times on that street and some terrible times too. I think for a lot of people Beaufort Street is a big part of who they are and I guess I’m one of those people.” With such positive sentiments, it’s no surprise all four acts have big plans for their Beaufort Street Festival sets. “I think you can expect us to be pretty warmed up. We’re playing with Ball Park Music in Funbury the night before and again with them the night of the Beauf, so it’ll be three gigs in two days. We usually sound nice and tight when we play lots of shows back to back,” says Voltaire, while Witt says punters can expect: “Four sly cat dogs playing fresh jams with a new drummer.” “I’m going to party pretty hard that day so it’ll be interesting to see how we go,” Livingston interjects. “In all seriousness though we’ll try and do what we always do which is smash out a no-bullshit, loud as hell rock and roll show and hopefully get people to turn their heads.” _JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD & RYAN BUTLER
Calling all book worms! The 2013 Perth Writers Festival is coming up fast, with organisers promising sublime writing and fresh ideas from the world’s best writers and thinkers. Held, once again, in the beautiful grounds of the University of Western Australia, the bountiful program includes readings, talks, debates, workshops and more, with some of the special guests lined-up including 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Anna Funder, Man Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood, and political commentator Ahdaf Souief, who was in Cairo’s Tahir Square during the 18 days of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. International writers China Mieville (UK), Dennis Lahane (USA), Loretta Napoleon (Italy), Edward St Aubyn (UK), James Meek (UK) and Lawrence Norfolk (UK) are also billed, with local favourites Phillip Adams, Robert Dessaix and Maxine McKew returning to the festival. Running from Thursday, February 21, ‘til Sunday, February 24, the full program of sessions will be released in January.
OPEN ART
A vibrant mix of more than 60 emerging and established WA artists will invite punters inside their creative habitats to absorb, peruse, and share their artistic secrets when Artsource grants the public a backstage pass during the series of Open Studios events across three of its major studio venues in November. Wrapping up at Artsource’s newest complex, ‘The Ward’ in Leederville on Sunday, November 25, studios will open from 2-5pm and entry is free. For full event details, click on over to artsource.net.au.
TO MARKET WE GO
Annual weekend-long Christmas market Bazaar returns to Fremantle Arts Centre to showcase the very best of WA art, craft and design this year on Friday, November 30, ‘til Sunday, December 2. Attracting more than 10,000 visitors each year, Bazaar is where you’ll find a carefully sourced selection of unique, quality WA-designed jewellery, fashion, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, children’s toys and more. Set in FAC’s leafy Front Garden and with 50 stall holders on site, it’s the perfect place to pick-up a one-of-a-kind gift for someone special. Entry is just $2. To find out which stallholders will be presenting their wares, visit fac.org.au.
TWISTED SISTERS
In 2009 grindhouse flick Dead Hooker In A Trunk launched the directorial careers of identical twins Jen and Sylvia Soska, and now their second offering American Mary is set to establish them as an international horror force. This body horror bonanza is the tale of Mary Mason [Katherine Isabelle], a financially struggling surgical intern, who supports herself through college by servicing members of the underground body-modification community with the bizarre body alterations of their desires. After a brutal, forced encounter with a senior surgeon at her medical college, Mary sets out on a path of revenge that see’s her become as adapt at torture as she is a body alterations. If visceral, gory horror tales are right up your alley you won’t want to miss Luna Leederville’s special screening event on Thursday, November 15.The Soska twins will be travelling from Canada for the event where they will introduce their film and conduct a Q&A following the screening. Writer, producer and horror aficionado Lindsay Hallam will be the evening’s MC which kicks off at 8.15pm. Tickets will be available from lunapalace. com.au and, needless to say, this one is adults only.
BACK TO BASICS
A dynamic range of ultra-cool accessories and jewellery from around the globe are now in-store at Generics Accessories at the 140 William complex. Inspired by the love of travel, culture, music and fashion icons, the Generics brand is savvy, versatile and above all completely affordable. The Generics team have opened their doors bringing an exciting range of handbags, clutches, wallets, belts, earrings, pendants, cuffs, rings hats, eyewear and headwear, to 140. Open daily from 11am to 5pm. To find out more visit 140.com.au.
READ ALL ABOUT IT Bringing together zine makers and zine lovers from Perth and interstate, Let Them Eat Zines is the Perth Zine Collective’s very first zine fair. Held on Saturday, November 24, at Paper Mountain (267 William St, Northbridge), it will be a free celebration of zine-making and DIY publishing featuring a zine market, live music, a Zine Chef competition and zine readings. A full program will be announced soon, so keep your eyes on eatzines.perthzinecollective.com for up-to-the-minute details.
HOLA MEXICAN FILM FESTIVAL Movies And Mariachis
The Hola Mexican Film Festival runs at Cinema Paradiso from Thursday, November 15, until Wednesday, November 21. Tickets are available at the venue, or online from lunapalace.com.au
Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell star Seven Psychopaths
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Metatextual Massacre
Directed by Martin McDonagh Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Olga Kurylenko, Abbie Cornish Irish writer/director Martin McDonagh reunites with his In Bruges star, Colin Farrell, for this whip smart, brutally violent and wickedly funny ensemble crime opus. While alcoholic screenwriter Marty [Farrell] struggles with a script - called Seven Psychopaths, and why not? - his best friend, aspiring actor Billy [Sam Rockwell], ekes out a living by means of a dog-kidnapping scam in which he’s partnered with the soft-spoken Hans [Christopher Walken]. When Billy swipes a Shih Tzu belonging to the psychotic gangster Charlie Costello [Woody Harrelson], events are set in motion that will obviously culminate in a bloody apotheosis. Or will they? McDonagh delights in setting up and subverting expectations here, to excellent effect. Take a cursory examination of the trailer, and the word ‘Tarantinoesque’ springs immediately to mind, but that’s a fairly shallow read. Whereas Quentin and his cronies (and imitators) sift the rich loam of pop culture history for their material, Seven Psychopaths is both a dissection and satire of the kind of hip, violent, shaggy dog stories that came to prominence in the early ‘90s, and works to demonstrate how what was once so fresh is now laden with clichés and predictability. 24
Which alone would be enough, but McDonagh digs further, transforming what could have been just an enjoyably barbed parody into an examination of the nature of fiction itself. As the film progresses, we skip in and out of Marty’s script, the ‘real’ events of the film, and various flashbacks, asides, and fantasy sequences, blurring the line between the real, the fictional. It’s a weird, tiered, structure that’s confident enough to trust the audience to parse what is actual, what is remembrance, and what is anecdotal. If it all sounds too much like a post-grad circle jerk, rest assured that the film is consistently entertaining. There’s a robust narrative skeleton holding up all the metatextual musings, and it’s populated by an array of bizarre characters, portrayed by a truly impressive cast.Farrell gets short shrift as the hapless, booze-addled hack around whom all the chaos swirls, but his natural charm saves him from being forgotten in the shadow of the manic, unhinged Rockwell, who would pretty much steal the show if it weren’t for the presence of heavyweights like Walken and Harrelson, who play off their well-established screen personae. Even the supporting cast is amazing, boasting such notables as Harry Dean Stanton, Gabourey Sidibe, and Tom Waits; hell, even Crispin Glover turns up, if only for a single shot. There’s a chance that Seven Psychopaths might be a bit too clever-clever for the average viewer, but if you’re a dedicated cinephile, and a Kaufman/Tarantino crossover sounds like your cup of tea, you’re going to want to see this one, and soon. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON
If your knowledge of Mexican cinema only runs so far as the lurid grindhouse action flicks of Robert Rodriguez, or the dark, gothic fantasies of Guillermo Del Toro, the annual Hola Mexican Film Festival represents an excellent opportunity to educate yourself about the country’s diverse cinematic output. Now in its seventh year, the festival is the brainchild of Sydney-based Samuel Douek and is managed in Perth by festival director, Itzel Rosas. The theme of this year’s festival is Adios, Clichés, with a clear mandate to dispel the sometimes hackneyed cultural detritus that outsiders have often accumulated regarding the Mexican experience. With the recent upsurge in Mexican film production, Douek and his team have had a rich selection of works to draw on. “At the moment, I think Mexico is having a second big golden age,” Rosas says. “We had one back in the 1930s - it was huge, the industry in Mexico. Then, after the Second World War, that kind of disappeared for some time, but now it’s resurging very strongly. We have had so many awards, and so much recognition. I think that now we are well known for films as well as food!” Food plays a big part in Canela (Cinnamon in English), one of the festival’s featured films. A light family drama from debut feature director Jordi Mariscal. “It talks about the passion for cooking, the family around the kitchen, and how important Mexican cuisine is for Mexicans - the authentic thing, not just the tacos. All the love and the pride of being around Mexican food. Cinnamon is a family film, which is also very good.” The opening night film is Mariachi Gringo, which stars Shawn Ashmore [Iceman from the X-Men film series]. As Rosas explains,“It’s about this American guy who has a passion about music and mariachis, and goes to Mexico, to Guadalajara, and starts trying to be a mariachi. It’s about the passion for something, and it deals with the feelings of what real music is, and not the success or the money. It talks a lot about dreaming, and going for your dreams.”
Cinnamon, part of the Hola Mexican Film Festival But perhaps the highlight of this year’s selection is the critically lauded A Better Life, from American director Chris Weitz (American Pie, About A Boy). “You must, must, must see A Better Life,” Rosas says enthusiastically. “It’s a beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking film. It’s about a man who lives in the United States trying to educate his son and give him the best possible life. It’s a reflection of how people look for something better than what they have to give to people they love. It’s a beautiful film.” This year’s line-up is an incredibly diverse one, with offerings ranging from gentle comedy to harsh social realist drama, and the festival’s stated goal of putting the lie to accepted Mexican stereotypes is more than accomplished. Still, that should hardly be surprising, for a simple reason that Rosas herself puts best. “We have so many, so many good films!,” she says, smiling. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
JOHN HOOD Talking Blues
Perth blues guitarist John Hood’s autobiography, For The Love Of Music, is launched next Thursday, November 22, at Clancy’s Fish Pub with support from Scott Wise and Ken Wallace. BOB GORDON reports.
Robot & Frank
ROBOT & FRANK The First Law
Directed by Jake Schreier Starring Frank Langella, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Jeremy Sisto Given the preponderance of giant robots and thin scripts in the majority of sci-fi movies, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the genre is capable of depth and nuance. Happily, this indie effort from debut feature director Jake Schreier serves as a useful corrective. It’s the near future, and divorced retiree Frank [Frank Langella] is not dealing well with it. His old haunts are long gone; his place of refuge, the local library run by Jennifer [Susan Sarandon], is switching to an all-digital mode that replicates the ‘library experience’ and his memory is starting to slip. To help with the latter, his adult son, Hunter [James Marsden], gets him a robot helper [voiced by Peter Sarsgaard]. At first, the fiercely independent Frank resists the android’s intrusion into his life, bucking against the machine’s efforts to put him on a healthy diet and structure his day by encouraging him to plant a garden. Things change when, after a spot of accidental shoplifting on the part of the droid, Frank learns his new helper isn’t bound by the law, but only by his programming to improve his owner’s well-being. As it turns out, Frank is a former cat burglar, and he duly enlists Robot (the ornery old guy never bothers to give it a name) to help him plan a series of thefts - finally, a lifestyle activity the wily old scoundrel can get into.
Robot & Frank could easily have been the kind of ‘old guy’s still got it’ film that the likes of Eastwood and Willis have been specialising in of late, but what lifts it above that ilk is Schreier’s lightness of touch, and a captivating and layered performance by Langella. The film never hides the fact that Frank is starting to slide into dementia, and the new zest he finds when returning to his old thieving ways is as heartening as the inevitable decline is saddening. For all that, it’s also a very funny film, with the cantankerous Frank cracking wise with the oblivious, eternally polite Robot. A relationship of real depth and pathos builds between the two, and it’s all the more touching for the fact that Robot has no self-awareness. He’s not an artificial intelligence, only an incredibly sophisticated machine, which makes Frank’s confession to his anti-robot daughter, Madison [Liv Tyler], that Robot is his friend particularly poignant. Frank’s mental decline and the emotional and physical distance of his well-meaning but self-absorbed children have left him almost completely socially isolated; is it any wonder he comes to view Robot as not just a computer, but a companion? Robot & Frank is quite a loaded package: a spry caper film, a gentle comedy, an interesting extrapolation of current technology trends, and a meditation on the way we care - or fail to care - for the elderly. While there are a few stumbles along the way, it’s a thoughtful, warm and thoroughly human film. _ TRAVIS JOHNSON
It seems appropriate that former Sid Rumpo/Elks guitarist John Hood’s book, For The Love Of Music, comes out at the same time as The Rolling Stones celebrate their 50th anniversary with a new hits album and shows. As a young man Hood witnessed their first-ever Perth show at the Capitol in 1965. Their influence set him on his musical path. “The Stones really grabbed me,” Hood says,“especially Brian Jones, with the dual harmonica/ guitar thing. The great thing about the Stones was that they named and promoted their influences. My first blues record was The Best Of Jimmy Reed, who was one of their favourites. From there it was on to their other influences, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter. You have to hear the authentic thing to play blues. “The Capitol show was girls screaming and short sets from everyone, but it was a buzz. I’ve probably never been so pumped; I can still remember stepping out into the twilight air realising I’d just seen something special.” Hood’s notes that technically he is a blues player from the Freddie King/Otis Rush school, fused with his own style from years of playing. He has played with many musicians over the years, but is best known for his work in seminal Perth bands Sid Rumpo and The Elks. The book contains many photos, clippings and anecdotes of a very different time. “I didn’t keep notes but other people had,” Hood says of sorting through his own history. “I had access to every Sid Rumpo gig from manager Gus McPhee’s diaries. George Matzkov, who published the book, had all of the old Daily News entertainment ads, a veritable treasure trove. It took about 18 months, up to six hours per day. I loved the process of writing, it just seemed to flow really well. There was a lot of proofreading, which proved to be a difficult job.” Hood feels that writing the book helped make sense of certain parts of his life. “It revealed to me that what I have been attempting to do my whole life was express myself through music, probably because I couldn’t always express myself in other ways. Someone once said to me ‘you can’t expect to see God every time you play’
but in a way, I did. When you are in the moment improvising and you can feel the music all around you, that is just bliss. Also, with music being the most abstract of the arts, you can express an incredibly disparate range of feelings and emotions.” The book comes with a CD featuring many great Perth blues names, including Sid Rumpo and The Elks, before and beyond. Hood feels a bond with those he has played with but it’s not familial. “I think that aspect has faded with time,” he reflects. “I do have some special friends from different bands but no, it doesn’t feel like family. On the other hand, I have just been rehearsing with Scott Wise. We have only ever played one gig before but we share a bond of friendship that goes back to 1969. Now that feels like family and it shows in the music. It’s just so comfortable.” For The Love Of Music is available at 78 Records or online at www.highvoltagepublishing.com.
QUARRY UP Live At The Quarry Quarry Amphitheatre Friday, November 9, 2012
Josh, Kristin
One of summer’s great outdoor pleasures is back, that being the Live At The Quarry series at the Quarry Amphitheatre. Opening night last Friday saw Australian funnyweights, Tripod, bring laughs and songs galore to a full-house crowd who got down nice and early for food and refreshment. Next up this Friday-Saturday, November 16-17, is Washington, supported by The Chemist’s Ben Witt. Live At The Quarry is proudly presented by X-Press Magazine. For full details head to liveatthequarry.com.au. Photography by Matt Jelonek
www.xpressmag.com.au
Katie, Bryan
Bonnie, Mark
Ashton, Hannah
Amanda, Greg
Rebecca, Barry
Menuccia, Elton
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VISUAL ARTS Unravel: Venn Gallery, Perth Unravel features new portraits and video works from prominent WA artist Matt Doust, based on subjects from his new home in Los Angeles. Contemplating ideas of disconnection, both physically and personally, Unravel finds Doust investigating how both spiritual and physical experiences can affect the individual. Runs ’til Dec 21.
If I Cannot See Can You See Me by Matt Doust
Abstract Expression: Tresillian Community Centre, Nedlands An impressive line-up of both emerging and established artists will have their vibrant acrylic works on display. Runs ‘til Nov 18. Magabandi Marra: Kidogo Arthouse, Fremantle The first solo exhibition by aboriginal artist Krocette showcases his distinctive style and use of “realistic” birds in an abstract interpretation of their environment. Runs ‘til Nov 20. FIFO: Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth Featuring more than 40 works, Andy Quilty’s third solo show, FIFO, seeks to challenge what the artist considers the misrepresentation of ‘fly-in fly-out’ workers as lazy, frivolous, ‘cashed up bogans’. Runs ‘til Nov 22.
See-Saw: The Butcher Shop, Northbridge Features a selection of our city’s favourite artists including Fecks, Deathbot, Pawk, Mow Skwoz, Amok Island, Yohyo, Kyle Hughes-Odgers and more. Runs ‘til Nov 25.
Picasso To Warhol: 14 Modern Masters: Art Gallery Of WA, Northbridge Picasso To Warhol: 14 Modern Masters features over 120 works by 14 of modern art’s most iconic artists including Matisse, Picasso, Pollock and Warhol. Runs ’til Dec 3.
Bloodsport: Buratti Fine Art, North Fremantle The grit, the bravado, the violence. Bloodsport, the latest series from Johnny Romeo sees the acclaimed artist jump into the ring and deliver a knockout exploration of the world of boxing in all its savage, bombastic glory. Runs ‘til Nov 28.
Creatures Great And Small: Emerge Art Space, Mt Lawley The science of taxonomy, with particular reference to animal classification, is the loosely formed basis of Sharon Dawes’ sixth solo exhibition. Runs ’til Dec 7.
SoDA12: John Curtin Gallery, Bentley Reflecting the high calibre of emerging contemporary To Die For: Murano And Gullotti, Subiaco Daniel Truscott’s signature super pop aesthetic brings art in WA, SoDA12 is an exhibition of the work by cool to the after life in a new exhibition combining postgraduates from Curtin University’s School of painting and sculpture. The imagery is ghoulish; ghosts, Design and Art. Runs ’til Dec 14. monsters and demons, but not presented the way you 182 Days: Heathcote Museum & Gallery, Melville would expect. Runs ‘til Nov 28. Eva Fernández reflects on the experience of the 2012 Photographic Commissions Exhibition: Council individual within the walls of the former Heathcote Hospital in new exhibition 182 Days. Runs ’til Dec 19. House Foyer, Perth Professionally renowned photographers Toni Wilkinson and Juha Tolonen’s photographs capture the essence Between 2 Worlds: Kulcha, Fremantle of our city at a particular moment in time. Runs ‘til Works by Amal Al Babeli, Alberdina Plug and Ruth Halbert, using print, painting and photography, to Nov 30. reflect on the distances, coincidences and paradoxes Mirrored Whispers: Elements Art Gallery, Dalkeith of migration. Runs ’til Dec 20. A new exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed body illustrator and photographer, Emma Hack, the EPW: Applied Paintings - Project for a Kindergarten artist behind Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know I & II: PICA, Perth Best known for his ongoing EPW (Experimental film clip. Runs ’til Dec 2. Painting Workshop) series, prolific Australian artists’ John Nixon’s latest solo exhibition presents a connected pair of epic projects made five years apart. Runs ‘til Dec 30.
Lasting Impressions: Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth An exhibition of dramatic new paintings depicting the complexities of the human condition by Mel Brigg. Runs ‘til Nov 22. New Paintings & Touching History: Turner Galleries, Northbridge The first John Cullinane solo exhibition in Perth for seven years and the first ever solo exhibition for Sue Iris Whispers by Emma Hack Starcken. Both artists are based in Perth and both draw from a personal symbolic language and history Light Locker Art Space: Grand Lane, Perth to create very contemporary artworks. Runs ‘til Nov 24. Featuring new works by emerging artists Rhiannon Birch, Teelah George, Patrick Miller, Kate Mullen and Midway: John Curtin Gallery, Bentley Kelly Patchett, this youth exhibition space is located Features work by students who are midway through within Grand Lane, off Murray Street Mall and is their undergraduate Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) degrees. accessible 24/7. Be sure to stop by when the lights turn Runs ‘til Nov 25. on at twilight. Runs ’til Dec 3.
First Among Equals (Part II): PICA, Perth Presents a stellar line-up of Australian and international artists who share an interest in film, kinetics, colour, sound and time. Runs ‘til Dec 30.
Traversing Antarctica: Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle A rare collection of artefacts from the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, famously led by Sir Douglas Mawson. Runs ’til Feb 23.
THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE The Rink: Hackett Hall, Floreat Written by the team behind Chicago and Cabaret, The Rink is set in a rundown ‘70s rollerskating rink on the US east coast and tells the story of forgiveness between a mother and daughter as they try to find a way of letting go of the past to move into the future. Season runs Nov 9-Dec 1. Eve: Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge Fresh from a hit season in Brisbane, this contemporary work is inspired by the experiences of mid-twentieth century Australian writer Eve Langley, chronicling her life as an artist whose journey and creative works challenged gender stereotypes of the day. Season runs Oct 23-Nov 10. Picasso’s Goldfish: Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge Follows the intertwining narrative of Wilson, a oncerenowned Australian artists who has lost his creative spark, and Therese, a journalist hungry for a scoop. Season runs Oct 25-Nov 17. One Night Echo: PICA Performance Space, Perth A contemporary theatre production presented by independent, award winning local theatre company, The Duck House, One Night Echo takes a modern look at the Greek mythological stories of Narcissus and Echo and takes place at a house party at 3am, where those who remain look for love in the dirt. Season runs Nov 7-17.
Deserts And Rivers: FORM Gallery, Perth Explores country through the eyes of Aboriginal artists from the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson deserts and the country around Turkey Creek, Sturt Creek and the Fitzroy River in the east and central Kimberley. Runs ’til Jan 26. Luminous World: Art Gallery Of WA, Northbridge An exhibition from Wesfarmers’ significant corporate art collection, featuring more than 60 paintings, photographs and sculptures by 50 contemporary artists, including Susan Norrie, Rosemary Laing, Howard Taylor, Dale Frank, Bill Henson, Brian Blanchflower, Brook Andrew, Timothy Cook and Barrupu Yunupingu. Runs ’til Feb 11.
One Night Echo
DUCKING AROUND One Night Echo PICA Thursday, November 8, 2012
Sarah, Alexis, Arielle
Independent WA theatre company The Duck House kicked off their fifth birthday celebrations last Thursday night with the launch of their show One Night Echo. A contemporary theatre production combining dynamic performances with the energy created by an on-stage jazz/grunge/funk fusion band, it was a delicious night had by all. One Night Echo runs ‘til Saturday, November 17, at PICA. Happy birthday The Duck House!
Susannah, Josh
Photographs by Matt Jelonek
Susan, Gita, Marie Samson, Rachel
Simon, Jen Rob, Pippa
Kerry, Andrea
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Talei, Adam
Kate, Sarah, Natalie, Annette X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
MEOW MEOW
Cabaret Purr-fection Purr-fect, post-post-modern diva Meow Meow brings her unique brand of kamikaze cabaret kitsch to the Astor Theatre under The Beaufort Street Festival extended programming on Friday, November 16. Book tickets now through BOCS on (08) 9484 1133 or through bocsticketing.com.au. Meow Meow has amassed a lifetime of stories and loves to tell them. Described as a five-star sensation by The London Times, a “cabaret diva of the highest order” by The New York Post and “nothing less than revelatory” by The Australian, Meow Meow has become an international star, touring the world with her genre-bending postmodern cabaret shows which boldly combine performance art, cabaret and pop culture into a tour de force. Born in Canberra under the name Melissa Madden Gray, the West Australian Academy Of Performing Arts Musical Theatre graduate is elusive when questioned about her past, preferring instead for our interview to focus solely on her sultry alter-ego.
“It’s not my intention to make people embarrassed... I can tell if people have that ‘oh dear god don’t pick me’ look in their eyes.” And why wouldn’t she? Under her Meow Meow guise she’s packed out venues in New York, Berlin, London’s West End and the Sydney Opera House with her sizzling original works. She’s won a slew of awards, including the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize, the New York Franklin Furnace Performance Art Award, as well as numerous Green Room and Helpmann Awards here in Australia. She’s even collaborated with the enviable likes of David Bowie, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Amanda Palmer. “We met each other at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007, we were both playing in the Spiegeltent. It was this summer of art where we all fell in mad love,” she says of Palmer. “She’s one of my absolute best friends. I love her to bits.”
Having spent much of 2012 touring her own interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s bittersweet fable Little Match Girl, Meow Meow will return to her roots for a cabaret performance in an intimate show at the Astor Theatre this Friday evening. As the international sensation attests, she’s keen to revisit the form in which she made her name. “It’s lovely not to be stuck to a narrative. With cabaret, you have the flexibility to play on an audience’s ability to respond to the live factor, which you can’t do when it follows a narrative,” she explains. “That’s the beauty of cabaret. For example, I had a terrible hip injury six months ago and I had to re-jig everything. I had to wear a neck brace and sit on a stool for the whole show – although I did put on a necklace to make it pretty.” As for what audience-goers can expect - there will be stories, to be sure, and songs she’s pulled from her musical theater past, as well as a few new surprises. “I’m at point in my career where I have this magnificent treasure trove of material to draw on,” Meow Meow begins. “I’ll be multi-tasking and genre-hopping. It’s a pretty eclectic mix, sometimes there are 100 years between the times that the songs were written. I love having older and more contemporary songs side-by-side.” As the international sensation attests, the musicians who will be backing her in her new show have amassed a list of prestigious credits between them and will have no difficulty keeping up with her leaps between genres and musical styles. “The benefit of a cabaret show is that you can change the show every day depending on the politics of the day. Of course that means you’ve got to have brilliant musicians so they can keep up,” she laughs. The star, meanwhile, will supply a mixture of what she does best - a unique brand of kamikaze cabaret and performance art exotica, fusing classy old-world glamour with tongue-in-cheek ribaldry, provocations and downright sexiness. “It’s still me,” she says of her upcoming show. “There’s always an essence of me, although it’s not an entirely new show. It will still be gorgeous and sexy.” While much of Meow Meow’s act depends on an element of audience participation, the performer is keen to point out she is not in the business of putting them down. “It’s never really about the audience. It’s a very practical thing – I get them on stage to help me. It’s not my intention to make people embarrassed. It’s not participation in the sense that someone is
Meow Meow blindfolded and humiliated. I can tell if people have that ‘oh dear god don’t pick me’ look in their eyes,” she says. “I would hate for people to be dreading the show or to be too nervous to come because of the participation audience.” In fact, Meow Meow explains that one of the sheer pleasures of cabaret is that it is so
all-embracing. “ I love the flexibility of a cabaret format to take risks - to be endlessly reinvented, to respond to the personal and political circumstances of the audience, the performer, the larger world environment. I love that endless possibility.” _JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD
GLENGARRY GLENN ROSS Real Women Real Estate
Little y’s production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glenn Ross will be performed at The Blue Room Theatre from Tuesday, November 20, until Saturday, December 8. Tickets are available from blueroom.org.au. Glengarry Glenn Ross is a fundamental piece of theatre – written by David Mamet in the early ‘80s, it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, was turned into a feature film, and has since been rehashed and adapted by theatre artists around the world. While many different versions of Glengarry Glenn Ross have hit the Australian stage, director Mark Storen had a slightly different vision when revisiting the play – he came up with the idea of switching the gender of the primary characters, all of who were originally played by men. “I think that often there’s a lack of roles for women, really strong meaty roles, and the language that Mamet uses is so dense and fierce, and ferocious. It’s definitely a great acting piece. It’s as if his language is such a construct in itself, that it’s like tackling Shakespeare in a way – the rhythms, it’s been described as hot jazz and blues and it’s kind of – there’s a musicality to it that’s quite tricky to tap into,” Storen explains. “We’re also taking it out of the literal world a bit and putting our own spin on it – so it’s sort of in this slightly ambiguous space, referencing the real world.” The point of difference between Storen and Little y’s production of Glengarry Glenn Ross and the original version is the gender switch – but, www.xpressmag.com.au
Glengarry Glenn Ross Storen is also keen to ensure that the context is as it was originally intended, and the audience isn’t too comfortable. “ The play has been done a lot in a community context, and it’s done in a realistic kind of setting, often I think to its detriment,” he says. “In some ways I find that kind of more absurd when you see a lot of the time Australian productions are just putting on American accents, all that kind of stuff – it just kind of confuses me. So I’m interested to see what happens when you remove all that and you kind of present it in an unexpected fashion.” Glengarry Glenn Ross follows a bunch of deadbeat real estate salesman, exploring human nature and reaction. Storen initially pitched the concept to Little y after spending some time working with Mamet’s theatre in various other capacities. He explains that it is the use of prose by Mamet that inspired him and peaked his interest – and indeed, is likely to be one of the aspects behind the work’s everlasting success. “There’s a simplicity and clarity to his language, and often he doesn’t use a lot of stage directions. He’s kind of linked to the absurdist – he dedicates the play to Harold Pinter – but for me it’s just kind of the idea that that language can translate in any form you place it in,” Storen concludes. “Even if the references to the real world are not what we expect, or don’t manifest in the way that we kind of might expect in a literal sense.” _CHLOE PAPAS 27
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
UK singer and rapper Example, aka Elliot John Gleave, is about to unleash his fourth record The Evolution Of Man. Featuring Blur frontman Graham Coxon on four tracks and production from the likes of Feed Me, Tommy Trash, Benga, Skream and Dirty South to name a few, it’s “an electronically produced guitar album” according to the man himself. ANNABEL MACLEAN chats with the friendly, strong-minded gent ahead of his appearance at Stereosonic. Big eyes, large, gleaming teeth and jagged, dark close-up shots of Gleave’s face is what confronts your eyeballs when watching the music video for Benga-produced track Come Taste The Rainbow from Example’s forthcoming fourth record The Evolution Of Man. Over the years, Gleave’s music videos have intentionally and progressively delved deeper into darker themes and it’s something which Gleave will continue to do. “I’ve made 30 music videos now and there’s only so many times you can be wondering around with a pretty girl looking in love and dancing around and filming people in the clubs,” he says. “I was watching TV recently and I was so pissed off with everything I was seeing. It’s just so generic and boring. So I just wanted to make some really dark and scary videos because back in the ‘90s - a lot of my fans won’t remember the ‘90s because they were born in the ‘90s - but when I was a teenager, I was watching the Metallica videos, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Prodigy, a lot of those videos - especially the Marilyn Manson videos - were so fucking scary. None of these videos really made any sense. None of them had really anything to do with the song so that’s kind of what I wanted to do.”
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An Epic Evolvement
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Example Pushing into new territory isn’t only happening on the music video front, Gleave has once again pushed the boundaries with his new record The Evolution Of Man. With dirty, gritty and distinctive guitar riffs littered throughout the record, fused with electronic production from the likes of Tommy Trash, Feed Me, Benga, Skream, Dirty South and more, stamped with Gleave’s signature lyrical technique, The Evolution Of Man is true to its title.“It hasn’t really been influenced by anyone, I’ve just tried to channel certain vibes and feeling from my favourite bands across the whole album, like there’s not anything that sounds like Blur although Graham Coxon from Blur is playing on four tracks,” he says of the album. “I’ve just gotten with loads of different dance producers and we just started everything with a guitar riff and sometimes the guitar riff sounded like Nirvana and sometimes it sounded like Rage Against The Machine and sometimes it sounded like Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Snow Patrol, Coldplay, there’s all sorts of different guitar music on the album. But, in terms of the lyrical approach, it’s just me doing what I always do. It’s an electronically produced guitar album... really people hear the album and it’s whatever they want it to be and that’s kind of what’s cool about it anyway innit?” As for the production on the album, Gleave is pretty content with what each producer brought
to the record.“The great thing about all these guys is that they’re the best at what they do and they’re all so well respected but they’re also really different to one another, they’re all so distinct from one another,” he says. “If you compare Feed Me to Benga; they’re both producers but their actual styles are so different. That’s kind of what I wanted with this album. I wanted their approach on guitar music. So [with] every one of them we started from scratch but they’re all pretty different and they also put their famous twist to it like Feed Me is undeniably him when the bass kicks in and I suppose Benga’s one is undeniably him when you listen to the pattern of the drums.” Having recently had to cancel 10 or so shows because his achilles was in so much pain (“Because I’ve been sat down for the last four weeks, it’s held up quite nicely now so I’ll be ready for Stereosonic”), Gleave is looking forward to his appearance down under on the upcoming Stereosonic tour.“There’s going to be four new songs off the new album but I’ve got the back catalogue with quite a lot of hits there as well like Changed The Way You Kiss Me, Kickstarts, We’ll Be Coming Back, Watch The Sun Come Up. It’s hard to drop some of the popular ones as well because a lot of my songs which are massive in the UK have been massive in Australia so it’s very hard for me to choose what songs to drop. “This is my fourth visit now [to Australia] and I think the UK and Australia is one of my favourite and biggest markets [and] you can sometimes be one of those bands who do what they want to do but I always think that you should [praise] the audience because they’ve paid to be there, they’ve paid to be entertained.” Post Stereosonic, Gleave will be heading out on a big Asian tour, something he’s looking forward to, particularly visiting China for the first time. “The thing is, is that when you go around Europe, a lot of the European places, a lot of them speak really good English whereas when I went - I did a full Asian tour last year - I went to South Korea and some of them spoke absolutely no English whatsoever,” he says. “They still reacted really well to the music. So it’s going to be really interesting going to China. I’ve never been to China. I have no idea what to expect when we get to China.”
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EXAMPLE STEREOSONIC SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25 @ CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND (TBC)
YUNG WARRIORS
When Triple J got behind Yung Warrior’s single Standing Strong, shit got wild. There’s a real community vibe established in the song and its video clip, oozing out warm fuzzies all round. Featuring indigenous artists Dizzy Doolan, Sneake1, Dubbzone and more, D-Boy is still pleased as punch with the results. “Ah it was amazing,” he says, speaking of collaborating with all the artists on the track. “To me, they’re the best artists I look up to in Australia, and bringing them together and doing a track like that, we always wanted to do a big collaboration track. “On the first album you know, it was pretty much like a rush. We just wanted to get it out there [we were] young and naive but you know, with the second album, we took the time to really think about it and structure it. Working with them, that was deadly. One of the artists Dubbzone - I got to really work with him a lot after that and he ended up staying in Melbourne living with me for about a year so me and him did a lot of collabs so that was pretty good.” And, as for MC Momo of Melbourne hip hop-rap-dancehall duo Diafrix handling production duties on the single, well, D-Boy is clearly still quite wrapped about the whole thing. “He’s amazing!,” he says. “Everything he does is just magic. He’s the man, yeah fuck yeah! Oops, I said fuck (laughs).” D-Boy and Burns were also super stoked to take out the award for Hip Hop Artists Of The Year at the 2012 Deadly Awards earlier this year.“Still can’t get over it,” he says. “It was a big night from the awards to 30
FEELING THIRTY WITH TOMÁS FORD
The one and only Tomás Ford has had 29 birthdays so far and now, he’s finally hitting the big threezero. To celebrate the big achievement, Ford will be putting on a two room, genre-defying performance party of Warholian proportions. He’ll be putting on a set of his most requested abandoned material from his now nine year musical career (requests can be made via Facebook and Twitter) along with cabaret, DJs, live music, comedy and performance art. The full lineup will be revealed over the coming weeks but for the mo, hit up events.ticketbooth.com.au/ events/3734272 or call 1300 762 344 for tickets. They’re $10 and will sell out. Do it. Happy birthday Mr Ford!
SANTIGOLD TO BE BAKING
That’s right, the sassy lass Santigold and those crazy UK disco-boogie-funk peeps Crazy P will now be performing at The Bakery tonight, Wednesday, November 14, as opposed to Metro City which was the original venue for the gig. All tickets are still valid, just rock up to The Bakery instead. Woot!
2manydjs
2MANYDJS BRINGING THE PARTY
We’ve already told you about our super sick VIP competition we’re running along Boomtick Events to check out those Belgium lads 2manydjs at Villa on Friday, November 30. If you want to hear Eye Of The Tiger mixed in with Kraftwerk and The Beatles, you should consider entering our delicious competition. The prize pack is VIP tickets to the gig, your own exclusive meet and greet experience at sound-check before the show, a personally signed block mount and a Boomtick Prize Pack for both you and your friend. All you need to do to be in the running is take a photo of yourself with “2many” of “something”. For example: you with too many pegs on your face; you with too many tattoos, you with too many festival wristbands. Then, upload the photo to the X-Press Facebook page. Whoever gets the most ‘likes’ on their photo will automatically go into the Top 5 Finalists. The winner will be chosen by X-Press ahead of the show. Get cracking.
LAUNCHING DEF STYLE
The second annual Launch Block Party is this weekend folks! Incorporating all elements of local hip hop, Launch Block Party will be a day dedicated to rap battles hosted by Perth City Battles, scratching, beatboxing and turntablist demonstrations and graffiti battles. With an art exhibition by renowned WA artists, a massive B-boy competition hosted by Burns One featuring one-on-one grudge battles, two-on-two B-Boy battles (open for anyone to enter), a hip hop dance crew battle (BAM Crew vs CDA Allstars) and a special showcase by The Dance Collective, get pumped for a massive day. It’ll be spread across two levels, three stages, five bars, seven rooms and over seven hours showcasing over 50 incredible local artists, Launch Block Party have also locked in DJs Angry Buda and
Def Wish Cast DJ Junior as special guests for the day and true Aussie hip hop kings Def Wish Cast to headline the main show only which will hit the main stage and Bali stage from 8pm. There will be an after-party at the Rocket Room until 12am once the show has finished. It’s all happening on Sunday, November 18, from 3pm ‘til 10pm, at The Aberdeen Hotel. Get on Oztix for tickets at once.
BEN SIMS
TECHNO TO THE CORE
STANDING STRONG Tjimba Burns and Danny Ramzan are Yung Warriors, a Melbournebased hip hop duo who are doing big things. Having graced the stage with the likes of 50 Cent, Akon, The Game and D12, the lads were named Hip Hop Artists Of The Year at this year’s Deadly Awards. On the back of their hit single Standing Strong, they’re now embarking on a national tour. ANNABEL MACLEAN chats with Danny, aka D-Boy.
Tomás Ford
Yung Warriors performing on the stage for the single Standing Strong with all the crew - with all the visiting artists that are on the track - and to the after-party of the Deadlys where we performed two hours with our band. That was good. Everyone enjoyed it. Just seeing all the people happy, that urged us to get going because we were pretty tired.” Yung Warriors have been hard at it for eight years and D-Boy has only one man to thank for unleashing his desire to be inspired and that man is his partner-in-crime, Tjimba.“When I first heard his first track, that was it for me,” he says.“I wanted to do what he was doing. At the time I was living in Alice Springs when I heard his first demo because my dad and that had gone to Melbourne for a trip and he was like ‘here’s what Tjimba is doing’ and all this and I was like ‘what?!’. I was listening to heavy metal at that time - Slipknot, Limp Bizkit - because I was a full on skater-head. Tjimba’s been my big inspiration.” It was game on for the lads from there and now, they’re embarking on their massive Hip Hop Corroboree National Tour.”Expect the unexpected,” D-Boy says of the upcoming tour. “We’re just going to come there and give it all our best. We’ve been doing those live shows for how long now? We’ve got experience now because we’ve been doing it for so long. They’re getting better and better and with this next tour with all this hype being built up, I’d say expect the unexpected.” And, as for post tour plans, well both D-Boy and Burns have recently become fathers so they’ll be spending some time with the little ones. “Me and Tjimba have been working on some new material for a mixtape so we’re looking to drop a mixtape at the end of the year if not at the start of next year,” he concludes.
» » » »
YUNG WARRIORS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ AMPLIFIER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24 @ PRINCE OF WALES, BUNBURY
It’s been the better part of a decade since Ben Sims was last in Australia. Little did he know upon his last visit, he left with the handle ‘Ben The Butcher’. It was a set of ‘sonic ultra-violence’ that earned him the honorific title.“I might have grown up a little bit since then, I might not be smashing it too hard now,” he tells JAMES MANNING in his thickset cockney accent. Ben Sims is part of a British vanguard in electronic music comparable to what Derrick May, Mike Huckerby and Kevin Saunderson are to Detroit techno. But as techno’s prevailing winds blow back across the Atlantic, it’s the Sims et al in James Ruskin, Mark Broom, Regis and Surgeon that now have UK techno at the forefront of influence and popularity. “It is one of those periods where techno seems to be influencing quite a lot of styles, you’ve got a lot of guys coming from bass music or the post-dubstep scene that are making music which is essentially raw techno but they are doing it without the same influences as the older generation,” he says. “They’re not coming from a Detroit or Chicago background, they’re coming from more of a drum’n’bass or dubstep background. “Being into it [techno] for as long as I have, you see things come and go so many times, it’s why I try and not get too excited about the next craze. People jump ship and keep changing styles, I think there is something quite naive about that, things do come in and out of fashion and if you can carry on doing what you believe in, eventually it will be popular again.” Last year, Sims released his debut LP Smoke & Mirrors on Adam Beyer’s Drumcode. Prior to the album, Sims admits he never really considered himself an artist; he was always a DJ who produced tracks for his DJ sets. “The album was the first time I really took time out and really focused on just the music. I really enjoyed it and I managed to keep the momentum going
Ben Sims and kept up the excitement of going into the studio,” he says. “I have spoken to Drumcode about it and they are up for it, but it all depends on the music I make, it may not suite the label at all once I have done it. The last album came out on Drumcode but I didn’t cater it for Drumcode. I want to continue from where I left off and try and experiment a little bit more, maybe work with some more vocalists again and do some more house-ier stuff and push myself a little but further.” This momentum and excitement will translate into a follow up LP explains Sims. “At the beginning of next year I’m going to take January-February off to work on a new album,” he says, adding “before I saw the production side of things a very small part of what I do, it was always about the DJing, but now I feel a lot more confident after taking the time to work on a project that was ambitious and I look forward to doing some more.”
» BEN SIMS » FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 @ AMBAR X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
MNDR
DIAMONDS (AREN’T) A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND MNDR have been slowly but surely taking hold of the electro-pop scene both in the US and Australia, with front-woman Amanda Warner making quite the impression, if the constant comparisons to Santigold are anything to go by. CHLOE PAPAS spoke to the lovely lady behind the killer glasses. Amanda Warner first jumped into the music scene back in the early 2000s, experimenting with everything from electro to academic music. She stayed on the outskirts for some time, working solo and designing equipment for acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Then, in 2010, she was featured on Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.’s megahit Bang Bang Bang. Cut to two years later, and Warner is fronting MNDR, has become a NYC fashion icon (despite being a self-proclaimed ‘mega-nerd’), toured with the likes of Massive Attack, and recently released smashing debut record, Feed Me Diamonds. Warner says it’s been a wild ride. “The response has been beyond what I could have expected both critically and from the fans,” she says. “There is a lot of great music out right now, and it has been amazing to see and feel the warm reaction to Feed Me Diamonds - it is truly a humbling experience.” Many artists within the electronic and pop industries cite other musicians as key influencers in their work – but, as seems to be a theme with Warner, she approaches her music a little differently. Warner turned to a prolific NYC visual artist. “Feed Me Diamonds is inspired by the genius of Marina Abramovic. I am influenced by her performance art, political commentary, and her overall bravery in her art. As Peter Wade and I were writing this album there was a lot of emotional turmoil in my personal life,” Warner begins, explaining that during that time, there was an Abramovic exhibition held at the NYC Museum Of Modern Art. “In a documentary she [Abramovic] claimed that her father was assassinated in the
NINA LAS VEGAS
www.xpressmag.com.au
CRYSTAL CASTLES
Sydney producer Flume has received way too much attention. But, some may say deservedly so. After all, the fresh 21-year-old seemingly came out of nowhere and is part of a group of young beatmakers in Australia who are ever so effortlessly fusing hip hop, soul and electronica into beautiful, sampled-based tunes which make you want to jiggle your legs and hips. Sintra kicks off the debut record with its mellow, down-tempo hip hop beats. The kind of tune you’d head bop to while indulging in a few slices of watermelon and lying in the sun. Popular tune Holdin’ On is hands down the best tune on this record - it’s a summer festival track which is so starkly different from Flume’s debut track Sleepless and showcases the young gun’s versatility and talent as a producer. That swooning, sensual bearded man Chet Faker offers his soothing vocals on Left Alone, an absolute crooner of a track, seducing the cochlear ever so perfectly. Sleepless feat. Jezzabell Doran sounds like something the Hermitude boys might’ve thrown together and On Top feat. T-Shirt is a future hit in the making. The record drizzles into boredom/more of the same after On Top but overall, it’s a well-produced record from a young lad who’s no doubt going to shape the future of this scene.
Gothic, brain-melting, goosebump-giving, jawclenching, torturous electronica is what Canadian duo Crystal Castles has offered up on their third record III. If you liked II and their debut record, chances are you’ll be pretty stoked with this effort. Although III may not be as gut-wrenching sonically as the crazy, experimental duo’s previous material, there are still moments of insanity where Alice Glass penetrates your eardrums with her screeching and high-frequency, echoing vocals. III begins with messy, electro-throbbing Plague, a relatively normal and catchy tune which would go down well at Amplifier on a Friday night or could work well as background beats during a massage - if you’re into that kind of thing. Kerosene takes things to the next level. “Drown me in kerosene” is a bit of a downer but nevertheless, a fantastic, piece of warped, gothic brilliance. Wrath Of God is a winner with its pulsing basslines, cold melodies and screams and dull echoes which have a similarity to the soundtrack for The Ring. Pale Flesh sounds like a song which could’ve been put together in a torture chamber, Sad Eyes is surprisingly upbeat, Insulin is disgusting on the ears and Mercenary is grating but delicious. No doubt fans will have their own opinions but it’s fair to say that Crystal Castles haven’t strayed away from their signature sound. Dark, disturbing, delirious-inducing manic electronica here, worth expanding your mind.
FLUME FUTURE CLASSIC
MNDR former Yugoslavia by unknowingly being fed finely ground diamonds, and she connected this claim to a time when aristocracies and empires were overthrown by feeding the rulers finely ground diamonds. Over a period of time it eventually shreds your digestive system and the victim bleeds internally and the cause of death appears to be natural. At this time in my life, this concept seemed to tie together every point on this album,” Warner explains, not holding back on the gruesome details. Feed Me Diamonds is a smart record – no pretention, nor slotted in tracks, and every song feels organic. “Feed Me Diamonds and the emotion that went into it is about connection and saying exactly what is moving us emotionally without irony or cynicism, and of course a couple of dance songs because those moments happen too!” MNDR have only made one Australian appearance so far, touring with Mark Ronson & the Business Intl. last year for Future Music Festival. But, Warner reckons we made a pretty great impression. “I cannot explain how much I love Australia!... it is such a compliment to be well received in Australia, you all have such great taste in music and are also willing and up for a good time,” Warner exclaims. Aw, shucks. “MNDR 2013 down under tour is in the works as we speak. Stay tuned!”
» MNDR » FEED ME DIAMOND [INERTIA] » OUT NOW
say they’re amazing or interesting. That’s not to say that it won’t get better. EDM is huge at the moment, people want to push it and that’s a great thing. But what is really important is to be making it as well, not just playing tracks.” It’s all good and fine if you’ve got the DJing but these days it takes more than that. According Budding DJs, listen up: get your skills, to Nina Las Vegas, up-and-comers should be focusing on fingers in as many pies as you can original production just as much as their live sets and, time permits, as many other areas in the industry as because these days being a jack of ifpossible. Using her own experience as an example, she all trades is what it takes to make it says it’s really not that difficult to “make it” in Australia.“I in the industry, according to Nina think people focus too much on DJing in Australia – you to have some other element to what you do,” she Las Vegas. Ahead of her gigs here in need says. “It’s great if you’re an amazing performer but Perth shortly, the DJ extraordinaire should be active in all sorts of areas. You should and Triple J family member tells NINA you be putting out mixes all the time, you should try and BERTOK why times are changing have a blog and try and do a bit of radio, maybe have in the music industry and how DJs an internet site – that’s where the emphasis should doing as much as possible. The good thing is that can make sure they survive the be, Australia is so small in terms of our population that you’re usually in a position where you can do that, there rollercoaster ride. isn’t as much competition as there would be overseas “There just aren’t that many people making fresh, and it’s not as hard to get a reputation. You should be interesting club music,” Nina Las Vegas says.“In Australia practicing music, you should be researching it, you we have a shortage of that, especially with female DJs should be completely immersed in it – and we have and producers. I’m all for getting behind the girls but the type of scene where, if you make a good EP and to be honest, I can’t even count 10 of them that I can get even a couple of DJs to play your tracks, you’ll have
MIXING IT UP TO PARTY
FLUME
III FICTION RECORDS
» ANNABEL MACLEAN 3/5
» ANNABEL MACLEAN 3.5/5
THIS WEEK RUBY ROSE AND GARY GO GUILTY PLEASURE
MTV darling Ruby Rose teams up with Gary Go, the man Skrillex seemingly remixes with the regularity of the rising sun, on new single Guilty Pleasure. This is summer EDM at its poppy best. Get ready to throw this banger on as the sun sets and get hips shaking. This will be a guilty pleasure in no time. a good chance of being successful. “Making original material is pretty important in the scheme of things and that’s definitely on the cards for me in the very near future. I’m hoping it will be early next year by the time all this touring is done, though I’m having so much fun right now. I think I need to wait until I’m bored to sit down and do a proper album! But the goal is definitely there. At the moment, I’m on Triple J five days a week, I’m also touring at the moment, I’m releasing some remixes soon towards the end of the year and I’m spending a lot of time in the role of curator and encouraging other artists to be their best. I believe if you want to make something like an artist album, you should spend months perfecting your art, it’s a big deal. I know as a radio producer, something like that would take a lot of time to get it right.” And right now, that’s the one thing Nina doesn’t have. Currently in the middle of her Almost Summer Tour, she claims she has the big national festivals in her sights, starting with next year’s Big Day Out. “Big Day Out is an institution, so that’s very cool. I’ve only ever played the Sydney Boiler Room, which was amazing, but in terms of a big Australian festival tour, I’ve never done anything like this. Aside from all of this, she’s looking forward to touching down in Perth this weekend. “When you see me play in Perth, I’m not going to be putting together a set that’s some kind of cheesy, anthemic big room sound, it’s going to be quality stuff,” she concludes.
Nina Las Vegas
» NINA LAS VEGAS » FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 @ METRO FREO » SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17 @ AMPLIFIER
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STACHE
FLAWLESS
WEDNESDAY 14/11 BLVD Tavern – Wub Wub Brass Monkey – DJ Jewel (upstairs) Captain Stirling – Fiveo Clancy’s (Applecross) – Upbeat – DJ Andy Connections – DJs Joby /JJ /Rueben Eurobar – Wild Wednesdays - DJ iPod/ Ben Pettit Flying Scotsman – UniQue DJs/ DJ Bones/ DJ Moflow Flying Scotsman (Defec tors) – Beaufort Bop ft DJ Anton Maz Gold Bar – DJ Adroc Hipe Club – DJ Roger Smart L e e d e r v i l l e H o t e l – We L o v e Wednesdays ft DJ Slick Llama Bar – Jo 19 Matches Bar – Pussymittens Metro Freo – Rapture Mustang – DJ Giles Newport – Newport Wednesdays Sovereign Arms – Lockie Shaw The Deen – DJ Zelimer/ DJ Viper/ DJ Benny/ T – Zone 1 The Queens – Wriggle on YaYa’s – DJ Paul Burgess
THURSDAY 15/11 Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) – DJ Wrighteous Claremont Hotel – DJ Fiveo/ Jimmy Thorne
AMPLIFIER
Club Marakesh – DJ Simon Cottesloe Hotel – DJ Shots/ DJ Andy M Empire Bar – Halo/ DJ Bojan/ DJ Ben Sebastian Eve Nightclub – Retro Thursdays ft Tony Allen Flying Scotsman – Cowboys & Indie Kids DJs Leopold Hotel – DJ Riki/ Roger Smart Library – Dorcia Llama Bar – Danni Boi/ Charlie Bucket Mint Nightclub – DJ Simon Barwood Mt Henry Tavern – DJ Matty J Mullaloo Beach Hotel – DJ John Paul/ DJ Slick Mustang – DJ James Paramount – DJ Johnny Boi/ DJ Jordan Players Bar – MASH South St – DJ Castasia/ Dpad Swinging Pig – DJ Simon The Avenue – Jon Ee The Carine Tavern – Punchy & Juicy/ Little Nicky The Causeway – Jaymie Franchina The Craftsman – Roger Smart The Deen – DJ Flex/ DJ Nano/ DJ Surge/ DJ Don Migi The East End Bar – The Prestige ft Az-T The Queens – Kapitol The Whale & Ale – Josh Tilley The Whistling Kite – DJ Gareth Tiger Lils – Paul Malone/ Adam Kelly Woodvale Tavern – DJ Melvin
Nina Las Vegas
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FRIDAY 16/11 Ambar – Ben Sims Amplifier –DJ Jamie Mac Bar 459 – DJ Smurf Bar Orient – The Reggae Club Blvd Tavern – DJ Andy Boheme Bar – DJ Majiika Boulevard Tavern – DJ Andyy Brass Monkey – DJ Victor (downstairs)/ DJ James Ess (upstairs) Broken Hill Hotel – DJ Nick Alexander Brooklands Tavern – DJ Misschief Mel Capitol – Retro Mash/ Gavyn Mytchel Capitol (Upstairs) – I Love ‘90s Carine Tavern – Greg Packer/ MC Assassin Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) – DJ Boogie Claremont Hotel – Jon Ee Club Bayview – Amnesia ft Fendi/ Axon/ Fellis Como Hotel – DJ Gazz Eastern Hotel – DJ Munch Empire Bar – Lokie Shaw Eve Nightclub – DJ Don Migi & Guests Flawless – DJ Ryan Flying Scotsman – DJs Jo19/ Rok Riley/ Armee Flying Scotsman (Defectors) - Back To Mono DJs Geisha – FreQualizer presents Hedflux & Vandal Ginger Nightclub – Rondevoo Fridayz Gosnells Club – DJ Now Hipe Club – DJ E-Funk Honey Lounge – DJ Curlee/ Drew Green Lakers Tavern – Fresh Fridays - DJ Dooey Left Bank – DJ Frankie Button Library – DJ Sneaky Little Creatures Loft – Marine Beats Llama Bar – Jim Pearson/ Jehan/ Ben Edit/ DJ Cee Matches Bar – Fredrick Anderson Merriwa Tavern – DJ Real McCoy Metro City (Solace Bar) – DJ Slick Metro Freo – Frat House Fridays ft Nina Las Vegas Mint Nightclub – Club Retro ft Chris McPhee Mullaloo Beach Hotel – DJ John Paul Mustang – Swing DJ/ DJ James MacArthur Norma Jean’s – DJ Waz Paddy Hannans – Crazy Craig Paramount – DJ Johnny Boi/ DJ Jordan Players Bar – Miss Football Queens Tav – DJ Rueben Rocket Room – Extreme Aggression ft DJ Cain Sail & Anchor – Balcony Beatz/ DJ J-MAC Sovereign Arms – Lokie Shaw The Avenue – Little Nicky The Carine – Mind Electric/ Little Nicky/ Az-T The Causeway – Jus Haus? The East End Bar – Az-T The Generous Squire - DJ Anaru The Queens – DJ Rueben
THE COURT
The Shed – DJ Glenn 20 The Whale & Ale – Josh Tilley Tiger Lils – Paul Malone/ Adam Kelly The Vic - DJ Giles The Wembley Hotel – Abstar Windsor – DJ Riki and Ray Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Giles Ya-Ya’s – Hero DJs ft Pup
SATURDAY 17/11 Amplifier – Nina Las Vegas Barrack Street Jetty – The White Boat Party ft DJ Boris Abesit Basement On Broadway – DJ Ricky Boheme Bar – Carte Blanche DJs Brass Monkey – DJ Peta (downstairs)/ DJ Jewel (upstairs) Broken Hill Tavern – DJ Roger Smart/ Matt Richards/ Ben Dallin Capitol (Upstairs) – Cream Of The ‘80s ft DJ Ryan Capitol – Death Disco Clancy’s (Canning Bridge) – DJ Dood Claremont Hotel – Fiveo/ J.V.R Club Bay View – Fiveo Eastern Hotel – DJ Munch Empire Bar – DJ James Ess Eurobar – Roger Smart/ DJ Raci Eve Nightclub –DJ Crazy Craig Flying Scotsman – Under The Influence DJs Flying Scotsman (Defectors) - Fore DJs Geisha – DJ PP High Road Hotel – DJ Simon High Wycombe – DJ Matt Hipe Club – DJ E-Funk Honey Lounge – DJ Saxon/ Sardi Library – MKT ft DJ Riki/ DJ Vicktor and more Little Creatures Loft – Marine Beats Liquid Nightclub – DJ Klar55/ DJ Stevie M Llama Bar – DJ Reuben/ DJ Melvin Malt Super Club – Fiveo Matches Bar – Jstokes/ Valerio Metro City – DJ Matty S/ DJ Makka/ DJ Angry Buda/ DJ Kenny L Metro City (Climax) – DJ Francesco/ DJ Don Migi/ DJ Slick Metro City (R&B Lounge) – DJ Soso/ DJ Ruthless/ DJ Brett Costello Metro Freo – Roger Smart/ Ben Carter/ DJ Wazz Mint Nightclub – Pop Life ft DJ Aaron/ AJ Mullaloo Beach Hotel – DJ Danny Mustang – Rockabilly DJ/ DJ James MacArthur Niche – Frankie Button/ Cee/ Jonny Zimber Norma Jeans – DJ Phat Daz Oxford Hotel – DJ Sequeria Paramount – DJ Cornflake / DJ Jordan/ DJ Johnny Boi Queens Tav – Gareth Richardson Rocket Room – DJ Perry South St Ale House – DJ Jay Sovereign Arms – Rockwell The Avenue – Jon Ee
Teebs Flying Scotsman (Defectors) – Eclectic The Bakery – Prefuse 73/ Teebs Picnic The Boheme – DJ Sneakee The Brighton (Upstairs) – Micah/ Kill Mint – Chris McPhee Mustang – DJ Rockin Rhys Dyl/ eSQue The Causeway – Rhys Johnson Paramount – Glo/ DJ Slick/ DJ Benny The Clink –Az-T C/ DJ Matty S The Cornerstone – Jacob Lives Players Bar – Lucky Charm The Craftsman – DJ Shortz Rocket Room – Coyote Ugly The Deen – DJ Birdie/ DJ JJ/ DJ Tony Sovereign Arms – Dylan Hammond Allen The Aberdeen – Launch Block Party ft The East End Bar – Fiveo Def Wish Cast The Generous Squire – On Tap ft DJ The Avenue – Az-T Freeds The Causeway – Lukas Wimmler The Saint – DJ Anaru The Cott – Cott Sessions The Shed – DJ Andyy The Kiosk – DJ Cinder The Wembley – Lokie Shaw The Saint – DJ Anaru The Whistling Kite – Gavyn Mytchel The Shed – DJ Tony Dee The Vic – DJ Kristian Tiger Lils – DJ Bojan/ DJ Ben Sebastian Toucan – DJ Hages Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Melvin Bar Orient – DJ White Label Windsor – DJ Ray Broken Hill Tavern – DJ Mario Tavelli Woodvale Tavern – DJ Real McCoy Ya-Ya’s – Perth City Battles ft Knowledge The Deen – Plastic Max/ The Token Bones Vs Intelekt/ Lethal vs PM/ Azmatik Gesture Vs Decoy (ADL)/ Dash vs Donkey/ The Den (Civic Hotel) - MC Lars Phatigue vs Mysc/ Darko vs Double T/ The Paddo – DJ John Paul The Shed – DJ Andyy Trance vs Ace/ DJ Jamu
MONDAY 19/11
SUNDAY 18/11
TUESDAY 20/11
Captain Stirling – DJ Jay Claremont Hotel – DJ Double Dee Clink – DJ Tony Allen Empire Bar – CB3/ DJ Riki/ DJ Vicktor Euro Bar – DJ Flex Eve Nightclub – DJ Slick Flying Scotsman – Nathan J/ Nizbet/ Pasha/ Chris
Bar Orient – DJ Lyndon Eastern Hotel – Jon Edwards High Road Hotel – DJ Matty J High Wycombe – DJ Ricky Hipe Club – DJ Roger Smart Players Bar (Norma Jeans Bar) – Stevie M Victoria Park Hotel – DJ Melvin
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
CAPITOL
FRAT HOUSE FRIDAYS
NEWPORT
IN THE THIS WEEK: Nina Las Vegas Friday, November 16 @ Metro Freo
Syrup ft Kit Pop/ Rekab/ DYP/ Starks/ Hollywood/ Itoje/ Everyteen Friday, November 23 @ 23 Irwin Street, Perth
Parker/ Anton Maz/ Micah/ D N G R F L D / B AC K 2 M O N O / Roulette DJS Wednesday, December 5 @ The Flying Scotsman
FreQualizer presents Hedflux & Xkore/ Zanetic/ Poseidon Brother Ali/ Sean Price Vandal Saturday, November 24 @ Metro City Friday, December 7 @ Shape Friday, November 16 @ Geisha DJ PP Saturday, November 17 @ Geisha Perth City Battles ft Knowledge Bones Vs Intelekt/ Lethal vs PM/ Azmatik Vs Decoy (ADL)/ Dash vs Donkey/ Phatigue vs Mysc/ Darko vs Double T/ Trance vs Ace/ DJ Jamu Saturday, November 17 @ Ya-Ya’s Nina Las Vegas Saturday, November 17 @ Amplifier The White Boat Party ft DJ Boris Abesit Saturday, November 17 @ Barrack Street Jetty Ben Sims Friday, November 16 @ Ambar Prefuse 73/ Teebs Saturday, November 17 @ The Bakery Launch Block Party ft Def Wish Cast Sunday, November 18 @ The Aberdeen
COMING UP An Eglo Records Takeover ft Floating Points/ Fatima/ Alexander Nut Thursday, November 22 @ Ambar Hopsin/ Dizzy Wright/ Jarren Benton/ DJ Hoppa and more Thursday, November 22 @ The Civic The Bass Explosion Tour ft The Mane Thing & A Tonez and more Friday, November 23 @ Ambar Next Hype ft Eskmo Friday, November 23 @ Geisha Lucid Dreaming f t Kollektiv Turmstrasse Friday, November 23 @ The Honey Lounge
Ben Sims
BEN SIMS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 @ AMBAR
www.xpressmag.com.au
Stereosonic ft Tiësto/ Avicii/ Calvin Harris/ Example/ Carl Cox/ Major Lazer/ Laidback Luke/ Martin Solveig/ Dash Berlin/ Markus Schulz/ Diplo/ Sander van Doorn/ Infected Mushroom/ Chuckie/ Flux Pavilion/ Mr Oizo/ Porter Robinson/ Loco Dice/ Bassnectar/ JFK MSTRKRFT/ Excision/ Adam Beyer/ Aly & Fila/ Caspa/ Datsik/ Joris Voorn/ Bingo Players/ Tommy Trash/ Simon Patterson/ Gesaffelstein/ Ørjan Nilsen/ Dillon Francis/ Foreign Beggars/ Zedd/ Brodinski/ Krewella/ Nina Kraviz/ Van She/ Strange Talk/ Alvin Risk/ Destructo/ MaRLo/ Treasure Fingers/ Bart B More and more Sunday, November 25 @ Claremont Showground (TBC)
Club Paradiso ft Friendly Fires (DJ set)/ Kaz James/ Helena/ Mr Wilson/ Zelimir/ The Halo Effect/ Habitat DJs/ Maiko DJs/ Acebasik/ Kno Agents Tuesday, January 1 @ Salt On The Beach
Wonderland ft PNAU (live)/ Bag Raiders (DJ set)/ Flume (live)/ Grafton Primary (live)/ Tim & Jean (live)/ Alison Wonderland/ Elizabeth Rose/ What So Not/ Indian Summers DJs and more Tuesday, Januar y 1 @ Belvoir Mr Grevis Wednesday, December 12 @ Mojos Amphitheatre Habitat 8th Birthday Garden Party ft Nick Warren/ Sebastien Leger/ Chuck Love Sunday, December 9 @ The Court
Ministry Of Sound The Annual 2013 ft Tom Piper/ The Only and more Friday, December 14 @ Villa Kendrick Lamar Saturday, December 22 @ The Astor
Summadayze ft Chemical Brothers (DJ Set)/ M.I.A/ Fedde Le Grand/ Mark Ronson (DJ Set)/ Kimbra/ B o o k a S h a d e ( l i ve ) / Ed d i e Halliwell/ AN21 & Max Vangeli/ Carl Craig 69 (live)/ Maya Jane Coles/ Disclosure Live/ Adrian Lux/ Erol Alkan/ Breakbot (live)/ Fake Blood/ Hudson Mohawke/ Araabmusik/ Icona Pop/ Scuba/ Aeroplane/ Jesse Rose/ Danny Daze/ AC Slater/ Stafford Brothers & Timmy Trumpet/ Bombs Away and more TBC Sunday, January 6 @ Patersons Stadium
Breakfest f t K ra f t y Ku t s / A.Skillz/ DJ Yoda/ Lady Waks/ The Nextmen/ Jaguar Skills/ Specimen A/ Pyramid/ Marten Hørger/ High Contrast/ Spy/ Trus’me Wednesday, November 28 @ The Camo & Krooked/ MC Wrec Wednesday, December 26 @ Bird Belvoir Amphitheatre Sets On The Beach ft lineup TBC Sunday, January 13 @ Scarborough Lucid Dreaming ft Adana Twins Origin NYE ft Chase & Status Beach Amphitheatre & Dr Dru (DJ Set)/ Knife Party/ Gaslamp Friday, November 30 @ The Honey Killer/ ShockOne/ Pearson ESG Lounge Sound/ DMZ (Coki & Mala)/ Sunday, January 20 @ The Bakery Goldie/ Brookes Brothers/ Ed 2manydjs Rush/ Wilkinson/ Dillinja/ Marky Riva Starr Friday, November 30 @ Villa & Stamina/ Sigma/ Delta Heavy/ Saturday, January 26 @ Salt On Metrik/ DC Breaks/ Skism/ The Beach Drum ‘N’ Breaks ft Invictus/ DJ Gemini/ Inspector Dubplate/ Miss K Jakes/ Mensah/ Dodge & Fuski/ Big Day Out f t Th e B l o o d y Fr i d ay, N ove m b e r 3 0 @ Th e Bar9/ Distance/ Dark Sky/ Ben Beetroots/ Cr ystal Castles/ Rosemount Ufo/ New York Transit Authority/ K a s k a d e / P r e t t y L i g h t s / Pariah/ XXXY/ Om Unit/ Friction/ Nicky Romero/ Morgan Page/ 10 Years On ft Micah, Ben Mac Bare Noize/ Flying Lotus/ Benga/ Sampology and more & Wish Monday, January 28 @ Claremont Youngman/ Doctor Werewolf Friday, November 30 @ Ambar Sunday, December 30 & Monday, Showground December 31 @ Fairbridge Village, Above & Beyond The Potbelleez Pinjara Friday, February 1 @ Metro City Saturday, December 1 @ Metro Freo Chi Poption NYE 2012/13 ft Deadweight!2nd Birthday Bender Shy Panther/ Rachael Dease Future Music Festival ft The ft Eprom/ Saxon & Boy Prince/ vs Ylem/ Diger Rokwell vs Prodigy/ The Stone Roses/ PSY/ Dizzee Rascal/ Bloc Party/ Azealia Nebula & Modo and more TBC Mathas/ Kucka/ Leure/ Mei Saturday, December 1 @ The Bakery Saraswati/ Dani Marsland/ Jo Banks/ Rita Ora/ Boys Noize (live)/ Hardwell/ The Temper Trap/ Lettenmaier/ Aarom Wilson vs Fun./ Madeon/ Rudimental/ Ellie Japan 4 ft Kid Kenobi Craig Hollywood/ Ben Taaffe vs Goulding/ Steve Aoki/ Alesso/ Saturday, December 1 @ Ambar Rok Riley/ Clunk/ PCJ vs Ridik/ Gypsy & The Cat/ A-Trak (live)/ Miranda Menzies Feed Me (live)/ Zeds Dead/ Kill The Sets On The Beach ft Mark Farina/ Monday, December 31 @ The Noise/ DJ Fresh (live)/ Nervo/ Zane Miami Horror DJs/ The Knocks/ Bakery Lowe/ Borgore/ Sven Vath/ Richie Todd Terje/Last Dinosaurs/ Parker Hawtin/ Ricardo Villalobos/ Seth Sunday, December 2 @ Scarborough Insert To Play ft 360/ Urthboy/ Troxler/ Magda/ Cosmic Gate ft Beach Amphitheatre Drapht/ Hermitude and more Emma Hewitt/ W&W/ tyDi/ Andy Monday, December 31 @ Supreme Moor/ Super8 & Tab/ Ben Gold/ Perth Dance Music Awards ft Court Gardens The Stafford Brothers/ Timmy Bokchoy vs Flaunt/ Carla/ FTW/ Trumpet/ Tenzin/ Bombs Away Micah/ Mot3k/ Muller/ Phetsta Cuban Club ft Cuban Brothers/ Sunday, March 3 @ Arena Joondalup Sunday, December 2 @ The Court Yacht Club DJs/ Russ Dewbury/ Death Disco DJs and more Sets On The Beach ft lineup TBC Tuesday, January 1 @ The Flying Sunday, March 17 @ Scarborough Kid Kenobi Beach Amphitheatre Monday, December 3 @ The Deen Squadron Yacht Club, Dalkeith
BROTHER ALI A NEW MORNING
Fresh from the release of his acclaimed fourth album Mourning In America, Dreaming In Colour, Minneapolis rapper Ali Newman, aka Brother Ali, is returning to Perth, co-headlining a show with revered Brooklyn rapper Sean Price. He speaks with JOSHUA HAYES Mourning In America, Dreaming In Colour was a departure of sorts for Newman – his first studio album not to be produced by Ant, who was busy at the time touring with Atmosphere. Instead, Seattle’s acclaimed Jake One handles production duties. “Not everybody gets and appreciates what I do… so I work with the people that want to work with me and are excited about it,” Newman says.“And even after all of [Jake One’s] success, working with Jay-Z and Rick Ross and Dr. Dre and Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, all these people, he still was really excited about doing an album with me and put a lot of time and effort into it.” The album has received a very positive response from fans and critics, especially coming after his uncharacteristically flat 2009 effort Us. “I was depressed when I made [Us], and I can hear that when I listen to it. There really aren’t any anthems. There aren’t really any great moments of hope,” Newman says. However, events in the intervening years have inspired Newman, including the Arab Spring uprisings, Occupy Wall Street movement and his completion of the Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca – in 2010. “I think it’s made me a lot more focused on exactly who I’m supposed to be in life,” he says of the Hajj. “When I listen to this album I can hear how much more focused I am, how much more in tune I am; I feel like I’m able to say more with less words.” The first half of the album’s title – Mourning In America – is a reference to an ad run by Ronald Reagan in the lead up to the 1984 presidential election. “When he said “it’s morning in America again”, they were saying that we’re gonna go back to the old way of doing things; the rich on top, Christians on top, white people on top, men on top, old school consumption and extreme hyper capitalism, and
Brother Ali control and power and greed over everything else, and that idea of their morning has led to the nation’s mourning,” Newman explains. Although he supported Obama in 2008, he has spoken of his disillusionment with the President’s first term and doubts about his second.“The question still remains whether things can get better under Obama because in the first four years they didn’t change in any meaningful, permanent way,” Newman says. “Obama’s not the solution and no one person being elected to any office is the solution.” Instead, Newman believes that change can only be achieved through a social movement, and he has dedicated his time over the last year to Occupy Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street dedicated to protecting homeowners in South Minneapolis from foreclosure. In July he was arrested at a rally held outside the home of a family being threatened with eviction. “There’s been a lot of progress,” Newman says of Occupy Homes’ work, noting that they’ve been able to save “seven or eight” families from being evicted. “There’s been a lot of victories, there’s a lot of great movement.”
» BROTHER ALI » SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24 @ METRO CITY
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
GROWING GREEN ECU A Winner
HOSPITALITY BOUND ACAE Is Where It’s At
Going Green ECU’s environmental initiatives have received top honours at the Australian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) Green Gown Awards Australia. ECU was announced the winner in the Continuous Improvement - Institutional Change category for the development and implementation of the Sustainability Action Plan. The Green Gown Awards celebrate the Australia and New Zealand’s best sustainable initiatives in the tertiary education sector. In the past five years ECU has had a number of significant environmental achievements including: lowest use of water and energy for a WA university; increase in staff participation rates in the associated university programs; winning the 2009 Premier’s Award for Managing the Environment; and winning the 2010/11 WA Government Waterwise Award. ECU photography student Zaki Habibi was also a winner taking out the ACTS Sustainability Photography Competition for his photo - Symbiosis to preserve biodiversity in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.
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Congratulations also goes to ECU’s award-winning Health and Wellness Program, which was a finalist in the Social Responsibility Category for creating initiatives which help improve the health and wellbeing of all ECU staff. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Teaching, Learning and International) Professor Ron Oliver, who chairs the University’s Sustainable Communities Steering Committee, is thrilled with ECU’s strong showing at the National Awards. “In the past five years ECU has made a distinctive effort to improve our environmental and social sustainability through a number of programs and initiatives,” Professor Oliver says. “Winning these awards is a credit to ECU’s commitment to sustainability, both on our campuses and in the wider community. We are particularly pleased to be recognised for our continuous improvement across the institution and we look forward to further improving our outcomes with future programs.” For more info on ECU, hit up ecu.edu.au.
Study hospitality at ACAE ACAE is a vocational college located on Wellington Street (opp New Perth Link and Perth Arena). ACAE has purpose built training facilities with commercial kitchens, hotel reception, restaurant, bar as well as library, café, IT rooms and student services. Established in 1989, ACAE has its roots in Hospitality and Tourism training but two years ago expanded to include business and management courses. Courses are offered full-time or part-time and have a large hands on, practical focus. All vocational courses at ACAE contain an industry work placement organised by the college for the student. ACAE’s Diploma level courses also give students advanced standing into a bachelor degree, cutting down the time spent achieving a Bachelor degree. Students may also choose to complete their degree at their sister higher education institution the
Australian School of Management (ASM). ACAE also offers many networking opportunities for students to meet with human resources staff from major industry leaders to kick-start their career and most of ACAE’s students are working in their chosen industry prior to completing their course. Graduates include Byron Wright who is now the Director of Food and Beverage at the Sofitel Macau and Mark Simmons who was a contestant on television show Top Chef in the US where professional chefs compete against each other for the title. He is now the owner of Brooklyn restaurant Kiwiana in New York. For info on ACAE and their opening Open Days, head to acae.edu.au.
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GET YOUR TV ON Central Institute
Film and TV at Central Institute
Those seeking a career in the technical side of TV should look no further than Central Institute of Technology. The training provider has just joined forces with Global TV, who have provided Central with use of their sophisticated, $8 million ‘HD7’ High Definition (HD) outside broadcast truck. HD7 is ideally suited for training students on the latest broadcasting equipment and techniques. A state-of-the-art outside broadcast vehicle designed for covering live, fast-action sporting events, it features workstations for 10 technicians and control for up to 16 High Definition cameras. Designed to equip the next generation of television technical professionals with reallife, practical experience and enhance the industry’s skills base, the initiative is a first for WA. It also reflects the expectations of broadcasters and production companies that graduates be immediately job-ready upon starting work.
HD7’s Perth base will now be at Central’s Northbridge campus, where it will be used by students on the Certificate and Diploma of Screen & Media (Broadcast Television) courses under the instruction of expert trainers. Global will contribute to course content and training delivery, which are being designed around HD7. Students will benefit from the experience of lecturer Peter Wharram. Wharram has over 30 years experience in the industry and has covered outside broadcasts for the last six Olympics and three World Cups. TV simply does not get any bigger than those two sporting events. Students who have been trained on HD7 to a sufficiently high standard will gain reallife work experience when HD7 is deployed at Global Television projects around Perth, such as AFL and cricket. Students will observe Global’s technical managers and freelance professionals at work on actual, live-to-air broadcasts.
PR FOR THE WIN
Curtin University
Study PR at Curtin Public Relations (PR) is about managing communications, reputation, perceptions and relationships for organisations. It means attracting and retaining the support of customers, employees, investors, communities and other groups critical to an organisation’s success. PR professionals work in a wide variety of organisations and industries. They may provide advice to management and decision-makers at the highest level and work closely with the media. Roles in this industry may include: public relations officer, internal communications coordinator, publicist and public affairs consultant. Studying PR at Curtin will give students hands-on experience by developing strategies and pitching ideas for real organisations as well as undertaking a professional internship in the final year. Students can start their career with membership to the Public Relations Student Chapter, which will provide them with networking and career-building opportunities. Public Relations is offered as part of Curtin’s Bachelor of Commerce. Students can enhance their studies with a secondary major or choose from a range of elective units to support their career goals. When coupled with Journalism, students can complete this major as part of Curtin’s Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Arts. For more info, hit up curtin.edu.au. 36
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
WAAPA FOR THE WIN Bringing His A Game
Stephen Moore WAAPA Stage Management student Stephen Moore can’t wait to make his mark in the world of stage management. He is now on his way after winning the prestigious 2012 WA Vocational Student of the Year. From a young age Stephen had a passion for all things theatrical. Over the years his interest changed from being in the spotlight to coordinating behind the scenes, exploring the technical production and delivery of performances. Like many other WAAPA students, Moore’s decision to study at WAAPA meant a move from the eastern states to Perth. Through WAAPA industry contacts and experience opportunities, Moore’s has undertaken numerous placements with major theatrical productions and performance companies in Perth and interstate including: Mary Poppins (Disney Theatrics and Cameron Macintosh); The Swimming Club (Melbourne Theatre Company); Wicked (Gordon Frost Organisation); and Twelfth Night and Arcadia (Black Swan State Theatre Company). Entrants to VET Vocational Student of the
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Year are judged against several criteria, including career and study achievements; communication, team and leadership skills; other pursuits; as well as their ability to represent the training system at a broader level. WAAPA VET Executive Officer Rhyl McFarlane credits Moore for his ongoing commitment to his studies. “Stephen is an exceptional student, completing both industry placements, while also studying at WAAPA and working part time,” he says. “Stage Management is what he wants to do with his career and he brings that passion to every element of his studies.” Moore won $7000 and took out the award over two other finalists. He now holds the title of WA’s Training Ambassador for 2013 and will represent WA at the National Training Awards to be decided in Melbourne in November. In his role as Training Ambassador, he will be a regular guest speaker at a variety of VET forums, including the 2013 WA Training Forum, course and career expos and visiting schools to engage a new crop of potential VET students.
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
JOSH PYKE Jack Carty
ARTS MARTIAL
ARTBAR, Art Gallery of Western Australia Thursday, November 8, 2012
Emperors/ Further Earth Rosemount Hotel Saturday, November 10, 2012 Bands seem to really appreciate it when punters make it out to watch them when it’s raining in Perth. That’s exactly how local pop-rockers Further Earth, indie-rockers Emperors and slick, pop-rock’n’rollers Arts Martial were last Saturday night when a bunch of people rocked up to watch them do what they do best in the cosy, warm comfort of The Rosemount, shielded from the drizzly outdoors. Although The Rosemount appeared to be a cavernous den when Further Earth took to the stage, it didn’t stop the lads from lashing out, enthralling early punters with their signature brand of energetic pop-rock, as drinks were poured and the crowd prepared themselves for an evening of grand local shenanigans. Some folk appeared to be having copious amounts of fun early on. When Emperors took to the stage, a relatively classy looking girl wearing a sexy red number was getting her grind on up on the frontline which looked particularly amusing given she was standing next to a chick who was a fan of The Smith Street Band judging by her hoodie. And, that’s what makes a gig like this so brilliant - the plethora of bands on the lineup attract and welcome all sorts. Although still noticeably quiet on the crowd front, Emperors didn’t let that affect anything. They were their usual loud, brash, raw, gritty selves, smashing through an epic set (complete with harsh, bright strobes and light changes). Guitarist and vocalist Adam Livingston always gives it all he’s got. The four-piece delved into much of their debut record Stay Frosty and got the growingly-drunk crowd head-bopping and dancing to We Are The Rain and triple j smash hit, Be Ready When I Say Go. It was a short, sharp set that was, and always is, worth watching. But, of course, it was Arts Martial who everyone was waiting for. And, when the four-piece took to the stage, there was a sense of anticipation
Arts ArtsMartial Martial Photo: Photo:Dan DanGrant Grant in the damp air. These guys know how to rock and boy, do they do it well, and with an abundance of energy. Being their first headliner show in roughly a year (the lads spent a while on the road with Calling All Cars and Strangers), it was great to see them back in action and loving it. Having just released their debut LP, Promises Will Get You Nowhere, their set was smattered with delicious new tunes and reworks of popular tunes off their 2010 EP, Silhouette. Brew Like Bitter was darker, softer and slower and Dreams was less harsh than the Silhouette version but still withheld its delicious guitar riffs and frontman Jarrod Ross’ vocals still come out on top every time. Shotgun was a hit amongst punters a dirty, gritty slice of rock’n’roll and was a stark contrast to some of the slicker tunes littered throughout their set. Having said that, Solution Of The Year is a hit in the making and the super Rule The World is so pleasing on the ears. The catchy, older, Supernational took things to the next level but it was the final song for the down-to-earth, energetic lads’ set, Running, which had everyone bouncing. And with lyrics like, ‘So good, so glad that you’re here. We thank you for coming... it was worth waiting for’, you couldn’t help but beam and join in. No, thank you, Arts Martial. _ ANNABEL MACLEAN
Playing music on the streets of Perth is usually busking territory but ARTBAR’s open air concert, the last in this year’s season, brought a charming arrangement of folky tunes to a sell-out crowd in the city’s cultural centre. The audience laid their blankets and unfolded their chairs as Jack Carty began his short and snappy half-hour set. Carty’s music has got a likeable man-in-a-pub feel and his set incorporated an acoustic weaving of folk and roots with the occasional banter thrown in. Carty has been with Pyke throughout his Australia-wide Only Sparrows tour, and he’s similar to Pyke in his style and, as was noted later in the night, his beard. He ended his set with the ironically jovial yet devastating, She’s Got A Boyfriend, from his second album Break Your Own Heart. ABC 720’s Russell Woolf introduced Josh Pyke, who was joined by Joshua Schubert on drums and Russell Crawford on bass and backing vocals. Pyke played harmonica and a cracked guitar that he had lovingly patched up with cellotape. Outside concerts unofficially mark the start of summer, and thankfully this night was the warmest we’ve had in ages. Beside the stage, the Art Gallery of WA was lit with video projections corresponding with each of Pyke’s songs. This creative addition served the night well: while Pyke’s music is spellbinding, the additional accompaniment gave us something else to look at. With most visuals showing beach scenes, waves, and ships, the night had an unmistakably oceanic feel, which was reiterated when Pyke lead the set with The Lighthouse Song. “It’s like I’m standing on a sinking ship”, Pyke joked from literally across the pond on the wetlands stage. All of this culminated in the suitably seasonal The Summer, whose lyrics – “but time is like the ocean, you can only hold a little in your hands, so swim before we’re broken”– have the warm balance of nostalgia and pensiveness usually found in a Pyke song. It was surprising to find this gig, as part of an album tour, incorporated much of Pyke’s previous material as well as his newest additions like No One Wants A Lover. Pyke has a gift of composing short, easily recognisable, story-telling
Josh Pyke Photo: Guang-Hui Chuan songs that fuse a sense of upbeat naivety with a permeating weariness. Most of his older material came from Feeding The Wolves and Chimney’s Afire, and hearing Fill You In, Goldmines and Beg Your Pardon reiterated that they haven’t aged. Pyke even played Silver especially for Perth, explaining, “it’s always popular here”. At the tail end of his set, Pyke said frankly that he hated the charade of encores and would instead be playing Middle Of The Hill as a fake finale, followed by two pre-planned encore songs, Vibrations In Air and Love Lies. In typical Pyke style, Love Lies sounds like a lullaby but its lyrics – “summer tried to drown my shadow in the sea, but my shadow swims along beneath” – impart a darker mood. Pyke used a loop pedal at the end of this one, creating layers of echoey vocals that played like lapping waves as he exited the stage. _ CORAL HUCKSTEP
NORFOLK LANES FESTIVAL Norfolk Lanes, Fremantle Saturday, November 10, 2012 Last Saturday Fremantle came alive with the Norfolk Lanes Youth Festival, a joyous event if ever there was. Success stories Tame Impala and San Cisco have previously headed the bill and this time Mind Mischief, Fellow Or Foe, Oakland, Bass Reflex, Three Hands One Hoof, Codie Sundstrom, Love Junkies, Edie Green, Custom Royal, Hey Hurricane, Tim Gordon, Yokohomos and Sonspilo Circus brought the excellent vibes for 2012. Photography by Nicole Clissa
Sonspilo Circus
Yokohomos
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The humanity!
Shiny Happy Norfolk Lanes
Tim Gordon
Grinning and winning
Hat’s entertainment
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
RADIOHEAD Sydney Entertainment Centre Monday, November 12, 2012
How do you begin to describe a Radiohead show? What collection of words could ever do it justice? Eight years after their last visit in 2004, the five-show run on The King Of Limbs Tour sold out within minutes of going on sale. We’d been waiting for this moment. Approaching the Sydney Entertainment Centre the streets and nearby pubs were awash with an eclectic age mix, an indicator of the reach of arguably the most influential band of the past 20 years. Once the lights dimmed and the crowd reached a fever pitch the Oxfordshire gents casually sauntered out, ripping straight into Bloom, its rhythms crashing out tribally, the lower end of Philip Selway’s drums and Colin Greenwood’s bass locking in tight and staying there all night. Having not visited our shores for the release of 2007’s In Rainbows the setlist was stacked with songs from the latest two albums, and the band attacked them with fervour. Morning Mr Magpie filled the venue with stratospheric bass, Feral got super spaced out, the infamous dance sadly didn’t show up on Lotus Flower but Thom Yorke took the cavernous stadium by the scruff of the neck on Give Up The Ghost with nothing but an acoustic guitar, a loop machine and his faultless falsetto. Yorke has to be considered among the elitist company of frontmen in music, his command of the audience’s eye is unrivalled. Every signature shoulder twitch, hip swivel and hopped step was met with rapture from the packed house. Even when something as spectacular as the five other band members including guest live member, Clive Deamer, on a second set of drums - are all playing percussion simultaneously you can be forgiven for not noticing, such is the attention he draws. With his back turned to the audience, hunched over the piano on Videotape, Yorke cut a stunningly singular figure under the spotlight. The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for first encore closer, Paranoid Android, every tempo change roared on with the passion of fans, both young and old, who had been waiting what felt like a lifetime to hear every distorted
THE SAINT
This Saturday night is Heaven and Hell where angels and demons can dress up and capitalise on drink specials all night long! Bring your game face and get ready to throw down! The Saint presents local DJs Punchy, Juicy, Fiveo & AZ-T playing funky, heavy and vocal electro. Alongside is Angry Budda, the best in the business, playing your favourite Urban Jamz. Cool prizes for best dressed. Gates open up from 8pm. Free entry!
VOODOO LOUNGE
Voodoo Lounge has been nominated for a series of awards at this year’s Eros Shine Awards. You can vote for the venue and their entertainers by visiting erosshineawards.org.au. Come see what all the fuss is about tonight as they play host to The Golden G-String Competition. Doors open 8.30pm and there will be big prizes up for grabs.
MUSTANG BAR
This Thursday The Mustang welcomes Ragdoll, blazing their own trail through the wild west since early 2010. Ragdoll have carved out a name for themselves as one of Perth’s hottest bands. The threepiece are known for their high energy shows and amazing feats of musicianship, supported by Vida Cain and The Stanleys with DJ James MacArthur on the decks ‘til late.
INDI BAR
Catch a big weekend of music at the Indi Bar featuring Scottie Miller on Friday. Saturday night continues in the blues vein with songstress Toby. Sunday, The Beards hit the stage with special Guests The Snowdroppers and Gay Paris. Tickets are nearly sold out, so get in while you can.
THE PADDO
Come down to Paddo POW tonight, Wednesday November 14, and see live acts The Date, Graphic Fiction Heroes & Trojan John take the stage from 8pm. As always, entry for the night is free! 40
Radiohead live Photo Courtesy: rslblog.com chord of a 15-year-old song that’s lost none of its bite. Turning their already spectacular stage show, which included no big screen shots of the band, into what resembled a low-roofed strobing underground party on 15 Steps, you knew it was building into something massive at the end. Massive it was too. The jangling synth and pulsing rhythm of Everything In Its Right Place was the perfect foil for closer, Idioteque, it’s dark, skittish feel turned into the biggest, meanest glitching rave jam and a perfect way to end the night, illustrating just how strongly Radiohead have always had their finger pressed firmly to the pulse of modern music. This wasn’t just another gig. This wasn’t just a show. This was Radiohead, unparalleled and unforgettable. _ RYAN BUTLER
ROSEMOUNT HOTEL
This Thursday it’s the special edition of Space Ship News’ regular night. This one features two of the finalists in the website’s Band Of The Month comp, namely The Dark Woods and Ralway Bell, who’ll be bookended by local up-and-comers The Georgians and Lionizor. Doors open 8pm and entry is $6. To win a double pass to this show email win@ rosemounthotel.com.au with ‘Win’ in the subject line. In the beer garden, the Sons Of Rico fellas will be spinning tunes from 7.30pm, free entry.
RAILWAY HOTEL
This Friday, November 16, catch All This Filth, Kimura, Nightmare Effect and Armada Vale. Saturday, November 17, The Railway hosts The New Year, Rag n Bone, India 9 and The Idol Front.
HYDE PARK HOTEL
Head down to the Hyde Park Hotel this Friday afternoon and have acoustic act Simon Kelly get you in the mood for the weekend, followed by De Grussa Band, Graphic Fiction Heroes & Rob Walker at 8pm. Saturday, weekly band Meg Mac and the Squeeze perform live on stage from 9pm - entry is free.
YA YA’S
This Friday night Dux & Downtown headline our start to the weekend. And with the likes of Axe Girl supporting, it is sure to be a good night of live music. Saturday night sees Brisbane’s El Alamein supporting Grim Fandango. Don’t forget to come down for the last semi final of the Jammin Comp this Sunday arvo from 1pm.
MOJOS BAR
Sunday, November 18, Bob Log III plays another sold out show at Mojos Bar. Catch him this time with The Bible Bashers and Cal Peck & the Tramps. Tickets are $25 plus booking fee and are available through heatseeker.com.au or $30 at the door from 8pm. For your chance to win a double pass to this show, email mojos@coolperthnights.com with ‘Bob Log’ in the subject line. X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
BLOOD ROCK FEST 2012 Monster Mash
The Civic Hotel hosts the return of Blood Rock Fest in its fifth annual run on Saturday, November 17.Tickets are available from heatseeker.com.au. RYAN BUTLER reports. How does 26 local and interstate bands thrashing out a punishing mix of heavy music across three stages sound to you? To Cain Cressall, frontman of Perth’s crushing Malignant Monster, it sounds like heavenly hell. The blackened thrashers return as headliners for the 2012 edition after their top slot spot in 2011, and Cressall is excited to see the event grow.“Last year was absolutely killer and I’m glad to see it’s taken on a larger venue this year.The line-up is so diverse but they’re all very unique and exciting artists,” he says. “These mixed bill shows can be so tricky to pull off but these guys always choose the right bands to make it work.” All profits from the show are going to the Luke Adams Foundation, a charity set up in honour of Luke Adams, the young Perth footballer who fell victim to an attack of alcohol-fuelled violence, who is still on the long and arduous road to recovery. “It’s a brilliant foundation and a great message which I support wholeheartedly,” Cressall says. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate both alcohol and violence, but there’s a time and a place for everything. You only need to walk through Northbridge on a Friday night to see a few examples of the wrong combination of these two things. It’s like a fucking zombie apocalypse out there sometimes, just with metros and skanks. If you find yourself behaving violently towards other people when you drink alcohol, you shouldn’t drink.”
Cressall believes despite resurgence in the popularity of heavier music, events like Blood Rock Fest that support local talent are more important than ever. “The heavy music scene is healthier now than it has been for years in the sense that it’s becoming a lot more widely accepted and recognised as a credible and powerful genre. However, there seems to be an oversaturation of more commercially established international acts, which has caused the underground to recede. That’s just the nature of the beast though and you’ve just gotta roll with the tide. There are no complaints here and I quite enjoy the challenge.” Malignant Monster’s next challenge is the digital release of upcoming EP, Prelude To Murder, before launching full length Yours Is Murder next year on Saturday, January 5, at Amplifier. “The digital release is due simply to time restraints and we do intend on releasing it in a physical format later down the track,” Cressall says, adding digital releases are the way of the future, for better or worse. “I hate it but that’s what’s happening. Personally, I’m only interested in physical product and Malignant Monster will always cater to likeminded fans who still give a fuck about enjoying that full experience.”
ALL THE SINGER LADIES
RIDING SOLO
This Thursday, November 15, Mojo’s Bar is set to host a night which boasts some of this town’s up-and-coming musicians and songwriters across a diverse genre mix with one theme in mind - that is, to showcase the great leading ladies of Perth music. Featuring the retrofunk stylings of Randa And The Soul Kingdom, earthy quintet Those Wretched Horses, electro up-and-comers Lilt and indie-popsters The Insatiables, this line-up will celebrate the strong female musicians rockin’ it on the local scene.
DANCING IN THE STREET
With the 2012 Beaufort Street Festival just around the corner, those cool cats from Cool Perth Nights are getting the festivities started early with Parallel Party. Held at the James Squire Festival Bar (a Beaufort Street Festival pop up bar on 555 Beaufort Street), Andrew Sinclair will be rounding up his band for a special one-off performance. Always partying in parallel will be Rokwell & Groom (aka Felicity Groom and Diger Rokwell), while Mei Saraswati - very much in the driver’s seat on the night - will be lifting the lid on her motorized sounds. If that’s weren’t enough to tempt ya, DJs Jason Burton and Mz Jo (aka Joanna Lettenmaier) will have the dance floor more busy than Thomas Street and James Ireland will rev a semi-live DJ set.The good times kick off at 6pm and entry is a $10 donation to the Beaufort Street Festival.
Malignant Monster
Having wowed audiences at Rock-It a few weeks ago, John Butler will be jumping on stage at the Fly By Night Club for a special once-off solo performance with special guest Kav Temperley [Eskimo Joe, Basement Birds], who will also be performing a solo set. Shows like this don’t come around every day, so don’t pass up the chance to see what will surely be a stellar performance from Perth’s golden boy(s). It’s happening on Sunday, November 18. Tickets are on sale now through flybynight.org but you’ll want to get in quick!
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE
Boasting a succulent, sweet, soul-infused voice and a commanding stage presence, Odette Mercy is one of the most dynamic and entertaining frontwomen you will ever experience. Her band, The Soul Atomics, have more than 50 years high-level performance experience between them. Together, the bands’ tight rhythm section, powerful horns and hypnotic guitar grooves burst with sophistication and energy bound to set Kulcha on fire on Friday, November 16. This blistering combo is HOT!
PUNK & DISORDERLY Loud, rude, up-yours lyrics. That’s what you can expect if you head to Live Fast, Die Punx at The Velvet Lounge on Thursday, November 15. Performing together for one night only Creature, Dry Dry River, The Branson Tramps and The Shakeys will prove once again why they belong to Perth’s top league in punk. Tickets are $5 on the door, and DJ Jessica Kill will be spinning ear-splitting tunes between sets.
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The Shakeys
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Washington, November 16 & 17, Quarry Amphitheatre
Angus Stone, November 17, Perth Zoo
Prefuse 73, November 17, The Bakery
THE KNOCKS Taaffe vs Rok Riley, Clunk, MACEO PARKER 7 Chevron Festival Gardens PCJ vs Nik Ridik, Miranda 2 Venue TBA NORMAN BLAKE & JOE SETS ON THE BEACH (Mark Menzies) PERNICE/ DIRTY BEACHES 31 The Bakery Farina, Miami Horror DJs, 14 Perth Concert Hall 8 Chevron Festival Gardens The Knocks, Todd Terje, Last INSERT TO PLAY (360, ST. JEROME’S LANEWAY Drapht, Hermitude, Dinosaurs, Parker) FESTIVAL 2013 (Alpine, Urthboy) 2 Scarborough Beach SHAUN KIRKE Alt-J, Bat For Lashes, Chet 31 Supreme Court Gardens Amphitheatre 14 Indi Bar Faker, Cloud Nothings, SIMPLE MINDS / DEVO / THE 17 Settlers Tavern Divine Fits, El-P, Flume, CHURCH / MODELS Henry Wagons & The 4 Kings Park & Botanical BEN FOLDS FIVE Garden Unwelcome Company, CUBAN CLUB (Cuban 14 Fremantle Arts Centre High Highs, Holy Other, REEL BIG FISH/ Brothers, Yacht Club DJs, GOLDFINGER/ZEBRAHEAD Russ Dewbury, Still Water Japandroids, Jessie Ware, 5 Metro City Giants, Death Disco DJs & El Julia Holter, Kings Of SANTIGOLD/ Convenience, The Men, Ms PARKER Ginger Mojito) 5 The Flying Scotsman 1 The Flying Squadron Yacht Mr, The Neighbourhood, CRAZY P Nicolas Jaar, Nite Jewel, Of KASEY CHAMBERS/ SHANE Club, Dalkeith 14 Bakery Monsters & Men, Perfume NICHOLSON CLUB PARADISO 2013 5 Albany Entertainment (Friendly Fires, Kaz James, Genius, Polica, Pond, THE BEARDS / THE Centre Helena, Mr Wilson, Zelimir, Real Estate, The Rubens, Centre Esperance The Halo Effect, Habitat DJ’s, Shlohmo, Snakadaktal, SNOWDROPPERS 67 Civic Twerps, Yeasayer ) Goldfields Arts Centre Maiko DJ’s, Acebasik and 15 Prince Of Wales 9 Venue TBC 8 Mundaring Weir Hotel Kno Agents) 16 Settlers Tavern GIN BLOSSOMS JLO 1 Salt On the Beach 17 Rosemount Hotel 10 Capitol 6 Perth Arena SOUTHBOUND (The 18 Indi Bar LAGWAGON/ THE SMITH Flaming Lips, SBTRKT, Best ARCHIE ROACH STREET BAND Coast, Beach House, Boy & 10 Chevron Festival Gardens 5 Prince Of Wales Bear, Coolio, The Vaccines, GODSPEED YOU! BLACK WASHINGTON Bombay Bicycle Club, First EMPEROR 16 & 17 Quarry Amphitheatre 6 The Rosemount SPENCER P JONES/ THE Aid Kit, Hilltop Hoods, Hot 11 Chevron Festival Gardens NOTHING BUTTS Chip, Maximo Park, Millions, COVERGE 12 Amplifier NICKELBACK 7 The Bakery Totally Enormous Extinct DEER TICK & TWO THE BLACKEYED SUSANS Dinosaurs, Angus Stone, / JACKSON GALLANTS 7 The Rosemount Ball Park Music, Cosmo FIREBIRD 8 Mojos Bar Jarvis, Django Django, The 12 Chevron Festival Gardens STARS 17 Perth Arena MISSY HIGGINS Hives, Jinjo Safari, Lisa 8 Fremantle Arts Centre Mitchell, Matt Corby, Sharon 13 Chevron Festival Gardens MITZI Van Etten, Two Door Cinema AMANDA PALMER PREFUSE 73 & 14 Astor Theatre 8 The Bakery Club, Bertie Blackman, CHRYSTA BELL NICKI MINAJ / TYGA DJ Nu-Mark Toy Set, The TEEBS 8 Perth Arena Jungle Giants, Loon Lake, 14 Chevron Festival Gardens 17 Bakery SHANE NICHOLSON Oh Mercy, Rodrigo Gabriela, FATHER JOHN MISTY 15 Chevron Festival Gardens 10 Fremantle Arts Centre San Cisco & more TBA) ANGUS STONE PRIMAL SCREAM 4 & 5 Sir Stewart Bovell Park CELTIC THUNDER 16 Perth Arena 17 Perth Zoo 11 Astor Theatre Busselton FUTURE CLASSIC HUSKY 65 DAYS OF STATIC 16 Chevron Festival Gardens 12 Mojos Bar 5 The Bakery THE GLEN MILLER 13 The Bakery DAVID HASSLEHOFF SUMMADAYZE (M.I.A, 17 Capitol MANHATTAN JINX Fedde Le Grand, Mark ORCHESTRA MACKLEMORE & RYAN 12 Prince Of Wales Ronson DJ Set, Kimbra, 17 Burswood Theatre LEWIS 14 Rocket Room Booka Shade Live, Eddie 17 Chevron Festival Gardens 15 The Railway Halliwell, AN21 & Max Vangeli, Carl Craig, 69 Live, JENS LEKMAN SAN CISCO / THE JOHN BUTLER Maya Jane Coles, Disclosure 18 Chevron Festival Gardens PREATURES 18 Fly By Night Live, Erol Alkan, Fake Blood, SLEEPY SUN 14 The Bakery 19 Chevron Festival Gardens Adrian Lux, Breakbot BIG JAY MCNEELY HOW TO DRESS WELL & Live, Hudson Mohawke, 14 Fremantle Arts Centre AXOLOTL Araabmuzik, Icona Pop, TAME IMPALA JEFF MARTIN 20 Chevron Festival Gardens Scuba, Aeroplane, Jesse 15 Fremantle Arts Centre 22 Friends Restaurant Rose, Danny Daze, AC Slater, RINGO STARR PARKWAY DRIVE INDIAN SUMMER DJS Stafford Brothers & Timmy 21 Challenge Stadium 19 Challenge Stadium 22 Villa JOSE JAMES/ HOATUS Trumpet, Bombs Away & DARREN HANLON DEEP SEA ARCADE KAIYOTE More) 19 Mojos Bar 23 The Rosemount 6 Patersons Stadium Subiaco 21 Chevron Festival Gardens MOVEMBER MAYHEM TOUR SUICIDAL TENDENCIES/ THE RAAH PROJECT BOYS OF SUMMER (Dream On Dreamer, Make UNWRITTEN LAW/ THE 22 Chevron Festival Gardens 9 Amplifier Them Suffer, In Fear & Faith/ DUDESONS ED SHEERAN/ PASSENGER 10 YMCA HQ 19 Metro Freo Saviour) 23 Challenge Stadium SANDI THOM REGINA SPEKTOR 22 Amplifier CLIFF RICHARDS 10 Fly By Night 19 Belvoir Amphitheatre 23 YMCA HQ 23 Sandalford Estate NIGHTWISH OMAR RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ JEFF MARTIN TIM ROGERS/ THE 20 Metropolis Fremantle 20 Fremantle Arts Centre 24 The Rosemount BAMBOOS ESG 21 Clancy’s Dunsborough STEREOSONIC (Tiësto, 23 Chevron Festival Gardens 20 The Bakery 22 Mojos Bar Avicii, Calvin Harris, PHRONESIS WEEZER 23 Indi Bar Example, Carl Cox, Major 24 Chevron Festival Gardens 23 Perth Arena EVAN DANDO / JULIANA Lazer, and more) GLENN FREY WOODS 25 Claremont Showgrounds HATFIELD 24 Kings Park & Botanical 23 The Bakery 22 The Rosemount BRITISH INDIA JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD Garden KENDRICK LAMAR 29 Prince Of Wales NORAH JONES 27 Mojos 22 Astor Theatre 30 Metro Freo 24 Riverside Theatre YANNI ORIGIN NYE (Chase & JOHN WILLIAMSON SOUL REBELS Status (DJ Set), Knife Party, 27 Perth Arena 30 Quarry Amphitheatre 25 Chevron Festival Gardens Gaslamp Killer, ShockOne, BIG DAY OUT (Red Hot THE SAINTS/ THE CAT POWER Chili Peppers, The Killers, Pearson Sound, DMZ VOLCANICS Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire 26 & 27 Chevron Festival 30 Fly By Nightclub (Coki & Mala), Goldie, Brookes Brothers, Ed Rush, Weekend, Band Of Horses, Gardens Wilkinson, Dillinja, Marky Kaskade, Animal Collective, LAURIE ANDERSON & KRONOS QUARTET Against Me!, 360, Foals, & Stamina, Sigma, Delta 27 Perth Concert Hall Heavy, Metrik, DC Breaks, B.O.B, Sleigh Bells, Jeff BRITISH INDIA KISS/ MOTLEY CRUE/THIN The Brotherhood, Off!, Skism, Gemini, Inspector 1 Amplifier LIZZY Grinspoon, Jagwar Ma, Dubplate, Jakes, Mensah, JOHN WILLIAMSON 28 Perth Arena Delta Spirit, Everytime I Dodge & Fuski, Bar9, 1 Quarry Amphitheatre JAMES CARTER ORGAN Die, House Vs Hurricane, Distance, Dark Sky, Ben Ufo, JUSTINE CLARKE New York Transit Authority, Alabama Shakes, and more) TRIO 1 Astor Theatre 28 Chevron Festival Gardens 28 Claremont Showgrounds Pariah, XXXY, Om Unit and REECE MASTIN/ JUSTICE RICHARD HAWLEY more TBC) CREW/ THE JANOSKIANS 31 Astor Theatre 30 & 31 Fairbridge Village, 1 Perth Arena NATURAL NEW ZEALAND Pinjara THE TALLEST MAN ON CHI POPTION (Shy Panther, MUSIC FESTIVAL ( EARTH Shapeshifter, Kora, Ladi6, Rachael Dease vs Ylem, 1 Chevron Festival Gardens ELVIS COSTELLO & THE Trinity Roots, David Dallas, Diger Rokwell vs Mathas, Kucka, Leure, Mei Saraswati, IMPOSTERS/ SUNNYBOYS/ NEIL YOUNG P-Money & More) Dani Marsland, Jo JO JO ZEP &THE FALCONS/ 2 Perth Arena 1 Red Hill Auditorium ANTIBALAS Lettenmaier, Aarom Wilson STEPHEN CUMMINGS RUSSELL BRAND vs Craig, Hollywood, Ben 2 Perth Arena 6 Kings Park Botanic Gardens 2 Chevron Festival Gardens
THIS WEEK
RUSSIAN VISIONS
JANUARY 2013
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
MARCH
FEBRUARY
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FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013 (The Prodigy, The Stone Roses, PSY, Dizzee Rascal, Bloc Party, Azealia Banks, Rita Ora, Boys Noize, Hardwell, The Temper Trap, FUN, Madeon, Rudimental, Ellie Goulding, Steve Aoki, Alesso, Gypsy & The Cat, A-Trak, Feed Me, Zeds Dead, Kill The Noise, DJ Fresh, Nervo, Zane Lowe, Borgore, Cocoon Heroes ft Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Seth Troxler, Magda, Wake Your Mind ft Cosmic Gate & Emma Hewitt, W&W, tyDi, Andy Moor, Super8 & Tab, Ben Gold, The Stafford Brothers, Timmy Trumpet, Tenzin, Bombs Away & More TBA) 3 Arena Joondalup SOUNDWAVE 2013 (Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring, Paramore, Garbage, Slayer, Cypress Hill, Bullet For My Valentine, and more) 4 Claremont Showgrounds DEEP PURPLE/JOURNEY 7 Perth Arena GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC 7 Metropolis Fremantle DINOSAUR JR 12 The Astor PAUL KELLY/ NEIL FINN/ LISA MITCHELL 14 Kings Park Botanical Gardens GLENN SHORROCK/ WENDY MATTHEWS/ DOUG PARKINSON 14 & 15 Quarry Amphitheatre BOB MOULD 16 The Rosemount THE MARK OF CAIN 17 Capitol WILLIAM ELLIOT WHITMORE 23 Mojos Bar WEST COAST BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL (Sensational Space Shifters, Iggy & The Stooges, Chris Isaak, Staus Quo, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Fred Wesley & The New JB’s, Newton Faukner, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Grace Potter, Mama Kin & Blue Shady) 23 Fremantle Park WEST COAST BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL (Ben Harper, Santana, Steve Miller Band, Wilco, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Cliff, Michael Kiwanuka, Ash Grunwald & Benjamin Francis Leftwich) 24 Fremantle Park
APRIL HITS & PITS 2013 (Mad Caddies, Good Riddance, A Wilhelm Scream, Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Flatliners, Diesel Boy, One Dollar Short, Jamie Hay, Jen Buxton, Totally Unicorn & Paper Arms) 1 Metro Freo THE SCRIPT 3 Perth Arena ROGER HODGSON 7 Riverside Theatre ZUCCHERO 17 Regal Theatre
MAY BLACK SABBATH 4 Perth Arena
JUNE PINK 25, 26 & 28 Perth Arena
SEPTEMBER ONE DIRECTION 28 & 29 Perth Arena
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
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The Insatiables, Thursday at Mojo’s Bar
WEDNESDAY 14.11 BAR 120 Felix BRASS MONKEY Sugar Blue Burlesque CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Mitch Becker Geraldine CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Chet Leonard’s Bingotheque CLAREMONT HOTEL Open Mic Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Scottie Miller FLY BY NIGHT Beacy’s Got Talent! FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE Ben Folds Five GREENWOOD Bernardine GROOVE BAR (CROWN CASINO) 5 Shots HALE ROAD TAVERN Fenton Wilde INDI BAR Shaun Kirk LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan MOJOS BAR The Beards The Snowdroppers Gay Paris MUSTANG Envy PADDO The Date Graphic Fiction Heroes Trojan John ROSEMOUNT Some Lone Ranger Tourist Queens Boulevard Dam Few DJ Anton Maz ROSIE O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) David Fyffe THE BROWN FOX Courtney Murphy THE MOON Tom Ware Scott Tomlison Yianoss McStavros
Timothy Nelson & The Infidels, Thursday at Ya Ya’s
UNIVERSAL Strutt YAYA’S Anthony Salame MC- Jacques Barrett
THURSDAY 15.11 BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Howie Morgan BRASS MONKEY Rhythm Bound Karaoke BRIGHTON Open Mic Night BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Zukhuta COMO HOTEL Courtney Murphy DEVILLES PAD Rock ‘N’ Roll Karaoke DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Open Mic Night ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW 5 Shots ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Catherine Traicos GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Hi NRG HIGH WYCOMBE HOTEL Chris Murphy INDI BAR Bex’s Open Mic Night LEEDERVILLE HOTEL Leederville Loungeroom LUCKY SHAG James Wilson MALT SUPPER CLUB Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys MARKET CITY TAVERN Louise Ratcliffe Sharyce Kap. T. Elephant Sky Nathan Mayers MOJOS BAR Randa & The Soul Kingdom Those Wretched Horses Lilt The Insatiables
The Love Junkies
BEAUFORT STREET FESTIVAL 2012
EMPERORS SONPSILO CIRCUS WILL STOKER & THE EMBERS THE LOVE JUNKIES VOLTAIRE TWINS THE CHEMIST COW PARADE COW & MORE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17 BEAUFORT STREET
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MUSTANG BAR Ragdoll The Stanleys Vida Cain NORFOLK BASEMENT Luxury Cat Loose Lips The Belle Ends OXFORD HOTEL Johnny Taylor PADDY HANNAN’S Dr Bogus ROSEMOUNT The Georgians The Dark Woods Ralway Bell Lionizer Boys Boys Boys! DJs ROSIE O’GRADY’S (FREMANTLE) Clayton Bolger ROSIE O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) Bill Chidgzey SOVEREIGN ARMS Fenton Wilde SWAN LOUNGE Axe @ Ness Daisy Clover Julz Evans Eilish Siren Of Sound THE BOAT Jen De Ness THE BROOK Open Mic Night THE GATE One Trick Phonies THE SHED Losing Julia UNIVERSAL Off The Record WOODVALE Two Plus One YA YA’S Timothy Nelson & The Infidels Hey Hurricane
Ragdoll, Friday at Rocket Room
CIVIC HOTEL (THE DEN) Atacama Giants El Capitan Burning Fiction Castle Bravo CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Rhys Smith Trio CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH Bob Log The 3rd CLANCY’S FREMANTLE The Crux COMO HOTEL Dove CORNERSTONE Easy Company CRAFTSMAN Nicki Rose DUSK LOUNGE Kickstart EAST 150 Adrian Wilson EASTERN HOTEL Neil Colliss ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW Daren Reid & The Soul City Groove ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Sam Anning Quintet Meg Mac & The Squeeze EMPIRE Howie Morgan FLY TRAP Lynda Smith & The Borrowed Few Brendan Gaspari Minky G GLOUCESTER PARK Robo Mosquito GREENWOOD Greg Cater GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Decoy FRIDAY 16.11 th HALE ROAD TAVERN 7 AVENUE Light Street Free Radicals HERDSMAN ADMIRAL Sugarfield Steve Hepple HIGH ROAD HOTEL AMPLIFIER Clayton Bolger Emberville The Damien Cripps BAILEY BAR Band Mod Squad HYDE PARK HOTEL BALLYS BAR Dean Anderson De Grussa Band BALMORAL Graphic Fiction Heroes Acoustic Aly Rob Walker BAR ORIENT INDI BAR The Reggae Club Scottie Miller The Empressions INDIAN OCEAN BREW Mumma Trees Ben Merito Sista Che KALAMUNDA HOTEL BELMONT TAVERN Insideout The Bluebottles LAKERS BENTLEY HOTEL DJ Grizzly Christian Thompson Slickenside BLACK BETTYS Melee Everlong LEGENDS BAR BRASS MONKEY The Organ Grinders Adam James LYNWOOD ARMS BREAKERS BAR Mustangs Parker Avenue M ON THE POINT BROKEN HILL HOTEL James Wilson Matt Milford BROOKLANDS TAVERN MARKET CITY TAVERN Tamika Better Days Brad Wintle CARINE MOJOS BAR (ARVO) Pop Candy Captn K CARLISLE HOTEL Simmo T Reload MOJOS BAR (EVE) CHASE BAR Law Of Attraction Chasing Calee The Meaning Of CIVIC HOTEL Dallas Royal Hailmary DJ Informant King Of The North MOON & SIXPENCE Brutus Soul Corporation Wizard Sleeve
MUSTANG BAR Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Cheeky Monkeys NEWPORT Party Rockers NORFOLK BASEMENT Flouro Harry Webb Paul Devins PADDO Stu Harcourt PADDY HANNAN’S Baby Piranhas PADDY MAGUIRES 43 Cambridge PARAMOUNT Flyte PEEL ALEHOUSE Baby Piranhas PINK DUCK LOUNGE Chris Murphy PRINCESS ROAD TAVERN Midnight Rambler QUARIE BAR The Blackbirds QUARRY AMPHITHEATRE Washington RAILWAY HOTEL All This Filth Kimura Nightmare Effect Armada Vale ROCKET ROOM Babyjane Ragdoll In The Now ROSE & CROWN Sophie Jane ROSEMOUNT Devour The Martyr Truth Corroded Dawn Heist Kyzer Soze Nails Of Imposition BloodKlot ROSIE O’GRADY’S (FREMANTLE) Spyce ROSEY O’GRADY’S (NORTHBRIDGE) Neil Colliss SAIL & ANCHOR Howie Morgan Gene SOUTH ST ALE HOUSE Robbie King Karaoke SPRINGS TAVERN Greg Carter Karaoke SWAN BASEMENT Ebolagoldfish Local Resident Failure FAIM Latch Key Kids Mattress Security SWAN LOUNGE Duran Duran Tribute Band SWINGING PIG Spritzer Greg Carter THE BIRD Sugarpuss Runner THE BOAT J Man & Rosie THE BROOK Bernardine THE GATE Smoking Section THE SAINT Huge THE SHED Krank THE VIC Jen De Ness TIGERLILS Paul Malone Adam Kelly Alex Koresis
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
Listing deadline is Monday 5pm. GO TO www.xpressmag.com.au /PLUG YOUR GIG and plug away! The X-Press Guide is a Perth metropolitan service for advertisers listing tours, live, dance and arts events. All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press Magazine. The one entry system will update our print edition, website and App
Hailmary, Friday at Civic Hotel
Friday Friday Travis Caudle Travis Caudle Mei Saraswati, Saturday at Fly ByBakery Night Fly By Night The
ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Maggie Britton Saffron Sharp Dd Soul GREENWOOD Cargo Beat! GROOVE BAR (CROWN CASINO) Hi NRG HERDSMAN Chasing Calee HIGH ROAD HOTEL Losing Julia HYDE PARK HOTEL Meg Mac & The Squeeze INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO Jack & Jill INDI BAR SATURDAY 17.11 Toby LAKERS ADMIRAL Celebrations Karaoke Greg Carter LANGFORD ALEHOUSE BAKERY Die Hard Karaoke Prefuse 73 & Teebs LEOPOLD HOTEL BALLYS BAR Steve Hepple Dove LOBBY LOUNGE BALMORAL (CROWN CASINO) Retriofit John & Shaun BAILEY BAR Sandosham Dr Bogus M ON THE POINT BAR 120 Rhythm 22 Flyte MOJOS BAR BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Dianas & Doctopus Mike Nayar MOON & SIXPENCE BLACK BETTY’S Damien Cripps Band J Babies MUSTANG BREAKERS BAR The Burger Kings Parker Avenue The Wal-Tones BRIGHTON NEWPORT Jukebox Bandits Kizzy BROOKLANDS Gravity The Bluebottles NORFOLK BASEMENT CAPITOL Bob Evans Ball Park Music Thelma Plum CLANCY’S CANNING PADDY HANNANS BRIDGE Decoy Johnny Taylor CLANCY’S CITY BEACH PARAMOUNT Felix The Crux PEEL ALEHOUSE CLANCY’S Rock-A-Fellas FREMANTLE PERTH ARENA Rachel & Henry Climb Nickelback A Hill Jackson Firebird The Whistling Dogs PERTH ZOO Miranda & Gordo Angus Stone CIVIC HOTEL QUARIE BAR Blood Rock Fest One Trick Phonies Malignant Monster QUARRY Chainsaw Hookers AMPHITHEATRE Arrowhead Washington The Floors QUEENS TAVERN Broozer Big Bamboo Ebolagoldfish RAILWAY HOTEL Scalphunter The New Year Diamond Eye Rag n Bone Blunt Force Trauma India 9 Local Resident Failure The Idol Front Sure Fire Midnights ROCKET ROOM Goat Kickstart Wizard Sleeve ROSEMOUNT Dyatlov The Beards The Branson Tramps The Snowdroppers Severtone Gay Paris Chilling Winston ROSIE O’GRADY’S Forstora (FREMANTLE) The Bob Gordons Flavor Blindspot ROSIE O’GRADY’S Yiannos McStavros (NORTHBRIDGE) Rob Wass Blue Gene Pat Decline SAIL & ANCHOR Stuart McKay Better Days Ben David Childs Play Caleb Entrails SEAVIEW HOTEL COMO HOTEL Open Mic Night Jamie Powers SWAN LOUNGE CORNERSTONE Lipstick Pickup Elvis Tribute India 9 nine ELEPHANT & Scarlet Therapy WHEELBARROW Rubbertime Gun Shy Romeo UNIVERSAL Nightmoves VELVET LOUNGE Robo Ant Black Stone From The Sun Tell The Shaman Branches Of Berlin VICTORIA PARK HOTEL Ivan Ribic WOODVALE TAVERN Flash Nat & The Action Men YAYA’S Dux & Downtown Axe Girl Dirtwater Bloom
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The Bible Bashers, Sunday at Mojo’s Bar
MOJOS BAR (ARVO) WANNEROO TAVERN The Crooked Cats Eddie McMellow Galloping Foxleys WOODVALE TAVERN MOJOS BAR (EVE) Free Radicals Bob Log III XWRAY CAFÉ The Bible Bashers The Charisma Brothers Cal Peck & The Tramps YA YA’S MUSTANG BAR Neutral Native Peter Busher & The Lone Solomon Drive Rangers The Painted Bird NEWPORT Burst & Bloom Tim Nelson MONDAY 19.11 NORTHLANDS TAVERN BRASS MONKEY Acoustic Aly James Wilson PEEL ALEHOUSE ELLINGTON JAZZ Matt Williams CLUB PIG & WHISTLE Song Lounge Sugarfield GROOVE BAR (CROWN PINK DUCK LOUNGE CASINO) BAR SUNDAY 18.11 Kevin Conway Courtney Murphy Duo 7TH AVENUE PRINCIPAL MOJOS BAR Good Karma Karin Page Wide Open Mic Night BALMORAL QUEENS TAVERN MUSTANG BAR Stu McKay Mister & Sunbird Marco & The Alley Cats Chasing Calee ROSEY O’GRADY’S THE DEEN BAILEY BAR (NORTHBRIDGE) Plastic Max & The Token Gary Fowlie Bill Chidgzey Gesture BELMONT TAVERN Neil Colliss WOODVALE TAVERN Adam James SAIL & ANCHOR Damien Cripps BREAKERS BAR Electrophobia YA YA’S Carus Thompson SOUTH ST ALE HOUSE Open Mic Night BRIGHTON Christian Thompson Ricky Green SOVEREIGN ARMS BROKEN HILL HOTEL TUESDAY 20.11 Ivan Ribic Nathan Gaunt ELLINGTON JAZZ BROOKLANDS TAVERN SPRINGS TAVERN CLUB Scott Nelson Stu Harcourt Lize Heerman STIRLING ARMS CAPTAIN STIRLING LUCKY SHAG Kizzy Jamie Powers Ben Merito SWAN LOUNGE CARINE MERIDIAN ROOM The Itch The Bluebottles (CROWN) Ned Wishart CIVIC HOTEL John Sandosham SWINGING PIG Dove MERRIWA TAVERN Darren Gibbs CLANCY’S Celebrations Karaoke Jamie Powers DUNSBOROUGH MOJOS BAR THE BOAT Sneaky Weasel Gang Jacques Barrett CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Fenton Wilde John Robertson Daren Reid & The Soul The Zydecats Tien Tran City Groove CLAREMONT HOTEL Colin Ebsworth THE GATE Sunday Driver MUSTANG BAR Better Days COMO HOTEL Danza Loca Greg Carter Pat Nicholson PADDO THE MOON ELEPHANT & Simon Kelly St Ravine WHEELBARROW PRINCE OF WALES THE SAINT Daren Reid & The Soul Open Mic Night Howie Morgan Trio City Groove SETTLERS TAVERN ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB THE SHED Open Mic Night Electrophobia Marc Rodrigues THE BROOK UNIVERSAL EMPIRE Greg Carter Karaoke Retriofit CB3 VICTORIA PARK HOTEL TWO ROCKS TAVERN FLY BY NIGHT Damien Cripps Jump For Joy Karaoke John Butler GEISHA Cosmo Gets James Ireland Leon Osbourne S.O.B Aslan GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Decoy HIGH ROAD HOTEL Glen Davies HIGH WYCOMBE HOTEL Chainsaw Hookers The Organ Grinders INDI BAR The Beards INDIAN OCEAN BREW MALIGNANT MONSTER CO CHAINSAW HOOKERS Retrofit KALAMUNDA HOTEL THE FLOORS Bernardine DIAMOND EYE LAST DROP TAVERN Brett Hardwick SURE FIRE MIDNIGHTS M ON THE POINT & MORE Sophie Jane The Chilly Bin Boys MAHOGANNY INN Helen Shanahan SWINGING PIG Greg Carter Big Steve Spouse Band THE BOAT The Organ Grinders THE GATE Insideout Trio THE SHED Huge UNIVERSAL Soul Corporation WOODVALE TAVERN Dakota YAYA’S (EVE) El Alamein Grim Fandango Kill Teen Angst Ex-nuns
BLOOD ROCK FEST 2012
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17 THE CIVIC HOTEL
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MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY GUIDE
FOR SALE AUDIOFLY HEADPHONES Designed in Perth by a small team, unique headphones to capture every detail in your favourite music www.audiofly.com MUSICIANS AVAILABLE PRO BASS GUITAR/VOC funk blues pro gear. Enq Steve 0430 274 728 ausmuso@ virginbroadband.com.au MUSOS WANTED BASS PLAYER & DRUMMER WANTED Exp Guitarist (33) with gd gear looking 4 bass & drums to form Hard Rock band Ph: 0410596418. BASS PLAYER & DRUMMER WANTED To complete original band for WAMI nominee, Rochelle O’Reilly. R&B/Jazz/Groove, tons of room for original flavour. Contact Rochelle: 0438 345 354. METAL BAND SEEKS GUITARIST Inf inc Sepultura, Slayer, Fear Factory, Chimaira, Machine Head, Hate Breed & more. Send txt to 0422 442 368. OPEN MIC NIGHT Every Thursday 8.30-12 at Moondyne Joes. Steinway piano, good sound & friendly atmosphere. Call Mark 0409 137 850. OPEN MIC NIGHT every Thursday night at Indi Bar. Just call Bex on 0404 917 632. OPEN MIC NIGHT Every Tuesday night at the Craigie Tavern 8-11pm. Call Corey for bookings 0431 448 235 PLAYERS WANTED For working coverband. Keys, bass & lead guitar (vocals pref). Contact 0406 633 405. crimsonimk@hotmail.com ROCK SINGER WANTED Influences Queens Of Stone Age. Must have transport & jam weekly. Call or Txt 0434 556 579.
SWISS SHEPHERD Seeks Rhythm/Lead Guitarist for expandable project, Contact Cam on 0407 073 729. www.facebook.com/ swissshepherd VOCALIST & BASSIST WANTED Do you like Blur, Weezer, Talking Heads, Bowie, Kate Bush etc? Can you sing or play bass? Dave want you. Call Andy 0422 404 102. Facebook.com/ thebanddave. Girls or guys both welcome. PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT PHOTOGRAPHY P r o m o p h o t o g r a p h y, s t u d i o, l i v e, location. Mike Wylie 0417 975 964 w w w. p ro j e c t p h o to g ra p hy. co m When its time to ice the cake... PRODUCTION SERVICES * LIGHTING * AUDIO* STAGING * www. nightstarlightingaudio.com.au www. nightstarlightingaudio.com.au www. instandt.com.au www.instandt.com.au 9381 2363/ 9444 6651 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, PRO SYSTEM, FULL FOLD BACK Experienced operator. Optional light show. Fidelity sound on 0404 331 320. RECORDING STUDIOS ALAN DAWSON’s WITZEND 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 Pro d u c t i o n , m i x i n g, re co rd i n g a n d 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 MIDAS TOUCH STUDIOS Recording, Mixing, and Mastering. We get your band heard. Call Anthony 0435 113 654 www. MidasTouchStudios.com.au POONS HEAD MASTERING A n a l o g 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 R E CO R D I N G M I X I N G M A S T E R I N G 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 T H E S O U N D FAC TO RY 16 & 24 track tape + protools Best of old school & modern technology thesoundfactory@rockstar.org.au 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. PLATINUM SOUND ROOMS Professional rehearsal rooms, airconditioned, quality PAs mob 0418 944 722 TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** The Guitar Specialist. Beg-adv, all styles and levels including bass. Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484 / www.clifflynton. com BASS LESSONS Rock, funk & jazz. Tony Gibbs 9470 6131 DJ LESSONS AT FREMANTLE PRISION Death row cell 33. Scratching, cutting & mixing. Come casually or for a term. 0412 334 510. DRUM LESSONS All styles, all ages. WAAPA prep. Modern techniques & rudiments, Beginner to advanced. Ph: 0413 172 817. GUITAR TUITION I have over 30 yrs exp in performing & teaching. No reading required. Hr lessons only. Limited spots avail. Blues/Rock specialist. Ph 9403 3212.
VOX DELAYLAB Do Delay
This week in Volume, CHRIS GIBBS takes a look at a new piece of gear that has been billed as the “ultimate delay pedal” to see if the accolades hold up. It’s an exciting time for guitarists. Technology is striving to meld old-school values with 21 st century adaptability and some of the results are nothing short of amazing. It wasn’t so long ago that a guitarist looking to buy a new effects unit might be in a store choosing between two or three main brands; now changes in production capabilities and the nature of the global economy have opened the door for countless companies to make their products available to today’s guitarist. The Vox DelayLab is a lot of fun. With 30 diverse delay effects, stereo looping and numerous extras packed a particularly vintage-looking body; this pedal provides endless possibilities in an easy-to-use format. The DelayLab utilises effects modelling to emulate many famous delay units from the past and includes all of the standard delay effects including analog, echo plus, tube echo, stereo digital, lo-fi, pitch shifting, modulation - you name it, the DelayLab has got it. There’s even selected classic song delays built into the unit which include G’n’R’s Welcome To The Jungle, The Police’s Walking On The Moon and U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name. The DelayLab’s looping function can be utilised with the delay effects to surpass the abilities of many other units on 46
Vox DelayLab
the market. The DelayLab goes beyond just layering sounds by providing features that open up new possibilities such as reverse playback, triggered playback, and the option of using an expression pedal to control various parameters. Thirty preset programs showcase the DelayLab’s extensive features, and these presets are editable and re-writable. For the technophobic guitarist, there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had from just plugging in and twiddling the knobs until you like what you hear. The Vox DelayLab is a pedal well worth checking out for the guitarist wanting to up the ante in terms of unique, quality delay effects. So don’t delay - I mean, delay! The Vox DelayLab retails for $349. At time of print, Guitar Gallery Morley has the unit in stock for $269. Many thanks to Guitar Gallery Morley for letting us review their products. X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays
www.xpressmag.com.au
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays