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Tig Notaro has left Louis CK in both tears and laughter and she is returning to Australia for a one-week tour to leave us in the same state. Tig Notaro made her first appearance at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2011 and left everyone hanging off her every word. This high-demand stand up comedian, known for her ‘dry-as-the-desert’ humour will be performing in Perth at the Regal Theatre on Saturday, December 6, at 8pm. Tickets are on sale now through ticketek.com.au.
Canadian outfit, Marianas Trench, have announced an Australia/New Zealand tour in November. The band’s third studio album, Even After, has reached platinum status in both Canada and the US and vocalist/ guitarist, Josh Ramsay, also co-wrote and produced Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen’s #1 smash, Call Me Maybe. Marianas Trench will be performing at the Astor Theatre on Thursday, November 6. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, September 18, at 10am, available from Tig Notaro livenation.com.au and marianastrench.net. Marianas Trench
YEARLINGS VISIT HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOSAW Out of the woodwork comes Things Of Stone & Wood, dusting off the cobwebs, for their 25th anniversary tour. Their top 10 single, Happy Birthday Helen, saw them achieve international success that saw them hailed as ‘one of Australia’s most adored folk-rock bands’. They’ve inspired the works of The Waifs, John Butler and Angus & Julia Stone with their acoustic melodies. Things of Stone & Wood will be playing at the Charles Hotel in North Perth on Saturday, December 13, and The Dunsborough Hotel on Sunday, December 14. Tickets available through oztix.com.au.
On the back of The Yearlings East Coast tour launching their new album, All The Wandering, they’re coming to the West. All The Wandering is The Yearlings’ fifth studio album and was recorded to two-inch tape on a vintage Studer 24-track machine. Special guest for the shows will be Sara Tindley. The Yearlings will be launching their album at Clancy’s Fish Pub Fremantle on Thursday, October 2. Doors open at 8pm, for tickets see theyearlings.net The Yearlings
Things Of Stone & Wood
THE GREEN POLICE VANCE JOY DEBUTS AT #1 ON ARIA CHART
Legendary US pop-rockers Cheap Trick and Australian rock royalty The Angels are teaming up Australian tour in 2015. The bands will be co-headlining an Evening On The Green run which stops by Kings Park & Botanic Gardens on Sunday, February 8, and also features The Baby Animals and The Superjesus. Tickets start at $99 (plus booking fee) on sale this Friday, September 19, through ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100.
Vance Joy’s debut album Dream Your Life Away landed in the #1 spot on ARIA’s album charts, with the single, Riptide, now certified 5x platinum. He’s announced his Dream Your Life Away Australia tour which will stop by the Astor Theatre on Friday, March 20, 2015. For tickets see showticketing.com.au.
Cheap Trick
Vance Joy
SANDYLAND BUSBY MAROU ACOUSTIC DUO TOUR
Actress, singer, and comedian Sandra Bernhard’s show, I Love Being Me, Don’t You? has played to sold-out crowds, extended its run and has also been released as an album. Sandyland is classic Bernhard with hysterical insight and outspoken views rolled up in cabaret, stand-up, and a little burlesque. Bernhard will also be bringing her band The Flawless Zircons for a show at the Regal Theatre on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, September 16, at 10am, from livenation.com.au and sandrabernhard.com.
Having toured extensively with their full band, the boys from Busby Marou are this time going on an intimate acoustic national tour and will release Farewell Fitzroy: Days of Gold Edition, a special reissue of their second album, on Saturday, October 18. It will be featuring original tracks and five additional tracks including their new single, Days Of Gold. Along for the tour are Fiona Bevan and Zeek Power. Busby Marou will Sandra Bernhard perform at Mojos on Thursday, November 27, and in Bunbury at the Prince of Wales on Friday, November 28. Tickets are available at busbymarou.com. Busby Marou
GURUS & FRIENDS Original and present members of the Hoodoo Gurus are performing with special guests Ratcat, Jebediah and British India for a massive Sunday session at Scarborough Amphitheatre on Sunday, November 30, HAVE MERCY AND MARDUK from 3.30pm. Tickets on sale now from ticketmaster. With their third album, Resolve, to be released on com.au. Too much goodness! Friday, October 31, heavy-hitters Hand Of Mercy are embarking on an three-week trek across the country Hoodoo Gurus supported by Hellions and Void Of Vision. Hand Of FASHION CENTRAL TAKES Mercy will hit at Elliot Street in Bunbury on Friday, November 28; Villa Night Club on Saturday, November OVER FORREST PLACE 29, and YMCA HQ (all-ages) on Sunday, November Fashion Central will be taking over Forrest Place for the 30. Tickets are available from destroyalllines.com, Telstra Perth Fashion Festival with a range of free events 1300 762 545 and oztix.com.au Also touring Australia will be black metal running from this Friday, September 19, until Sunday, pioneers Marduk, who along with Inquisition will September 21. Among other events are Perth City storm Amplifier on Monday, January 12, 2015. Tickets retailers showcasing the latest spring/summer trends, a performance from Samantha Jade for Target, styling are available from oztix.com.au. workshops and the annual Chic Model Search. For full details, head to telstraperthfashionfestival.com.au. Marduk 4
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FANDANGO They call it a “transcendental queer art disco”, and it hits Connections Nightclub on Sunday, September 28. Melbourne art party freaks Disco Abyss are teaming up with local performance collective Voix De La Ville to create Fandango, a one-night-only surrealist spectacular. Step through the Connections looking glass and you’ll be met by BAFTA-winning drag performer Strykermyer, subversive vaudevillian Ash Baroque, and live installations from the likes of Anne Marie Therese, Claire Hysteria and Heather Anger. Also featured are rare grooves from Rex Monsoon, Modesty Blaze, Tim Brown, Mama Cass, and many more. To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page. Fandango
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OBVIOUS CHILD Fresh off the Sundance circuit, Obvious Child stars Parks And Rec’s Jenny Slate as Donna, a recently dumped Brooklyn comedian who falls pregnant to a one night stand. Things get particularly complicated when, through some casual stalking, she realises ONS is a conservative religious yuppie - definitely not her type, and almost certainly displeased with her decision to not keep the pregnancy. It’s funny, lewd, honest, and makes some cutting observations about contemporary women’s reality and rights. Obvious Child screens exclusively at Luna Leederville from October 9. We’ve got double passes for the Saturday, October 4 preview screening to give away. To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page. Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
PRINTING Rural Press Printing Mandurah DISTRIBUTION - 9213 2853 - distribution@xpressmag.com.au ADMIN / ACCOUNTS - 9213 2888 Lillian Buckley accounts@xpressmag.com.au EDITORIAL DEADLINES General: Friday 5pm, Eye4 Arts: Thursday 10am, WIN: Friday 5pm, Salt Clubs: Monday 5pm , Local Scene: Monday Noon, Gig Guide: Monday 5pm ADVERTISING DEADLINES 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 WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY
ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL Lavazza’s Italian Film Festival is back in Perth from September 24 - October 15, and it’s gonna be a ball - 35 comedies, dramas, and a few Cannes contenders labelled “Top Shelf”. Highlights include Nouvelle Vague-style Darker Than Midnight, biopic of legendary drag queen Fuxia; Incompresa, featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg and a whole lot of superstitious symbolism; and the critically acclaimed The Wonders, a dreamlike family drama about apocalypse preppers. Also look out for the host of films with screwball titles like The Worst Christmas Of My Life and Blame It On Freud. To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page.
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HOPE FLOATS
Australian designer Dina Ochwada’s jewellery label, One Luv, have been making beautiful pieces in the spirit The Worst Christmas Of My Life, screening at the Italian of French giants like Chopard Film Festival s i n ce 2 0 0 4 . O c hw ad a ’s work is intricate and playful, featuring whimsical origami, JOSH JOHNSTONE babushka, and harmonicainspired collections, necklaces EP LAUNCH based on Yves Saint Laurent’s Josh Johnstone is a trooper trademark spectacles, and of the Perth music scene, maritime pieces. One Luv and finally the Vida Cain, The just released their Hope Floats Happy Endings and Bordello collection, a series of pendants featuring crystals vet is releasing a solo EP. Half trapped in glass chambers. We’ve got a piece from the A World Away features a six Hope Floats collection to give away. Head to oneluv. track melange of alt-country, pop, and rock ballads - com.au, and use the promotional code LUVXPRESS for it’s warm, honest, and reminiscent of Bob Evans. The 25% off. To win download our new X-Press Magazine EP launches at the Indi Bar this Friday, September 19, App from your App store and head to the comps page. with support from The Jook Joint, Midnight Mules’ Chris Rowe, and Josh’s father’s band, the Conan Oneluv’s Hope Floats Chapman Trio. If you’d be down for a double pass To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page.
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Half A World Away EP
MORE THAN A DAME Frank Miller’s 2005 neonoir thriller was an aesthetic left-hook - Sin City took the gloss and grit of comic book stylisation to film for the first time and did it with aplomb. We’re finally seeing a Sin City sequel - in the same year as the follow-up to 300, another adaption of Miller’s blood-drenched material. Codirected by Planet Terror’s Robert Rodriguez, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For returns to the multi-story format, blood spillage and all-star cast of the first instalment, and features Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and, believe it or not, Lady Gaga. It’s in cinemas from September 18. To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page. 6
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Australian bass, the Melbourne sound - it’s an exciting time for Australian EDM. Child of psytrance, electro and progressive house, Melbourne bounce has been making huge waves internationally, and with recent recognition from the likes of Laidback Luke and Calvin Harris, it’s about time Onelove released another Melbourne compilation. Mixed by rising star Chris Bullen, Melbourne Bounce 2 showcases 25 of the biggest tracks and names in the genre, including work from Will Sparks, Uberjak’d, Joel Fletcher and Timmy Trumpet (plus two exclusive tracks from JDG and Zoolandia with digital download). To win download our new X-Press Magazine App from your App store and head to the comps page. Melbourne Bounce 2
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GARETH LIDDIARD Making Movies Taking a moment out from The Drones, Gareth Liddiard performs a solo show at the Rosemount Hotel this Saturday, September 20, with support from Cam Avery. BOB GORDON reports. Gareth Liddiard, by this time, has chalked up a fair, shall we say, gigology. He’s played all types, but one stands out in his mind for all the wrong sorts of right reasons, a decade ago in a small venue in the South of Germany. “We had a show in a town where two people rolled up,” recalls. “It was fucked because we were just hoping that no one would show because we’d get the night off. “But two people walked in and we were like, ‘nooooo!’. It’s more nerve-wracking playing to two people than it is to 2,000. It’s way more personal.”
Sacred Flower Union - Pic: Stefan Caramia
AZ20 Flowers For Everyone AZ20, a celebration of 20 years of RTR FM’s Ambient Zone show happens this Sunday, September 21, from 6-10pm at The Bird with Furchick, Sacred Flower Union, Craig McElhinney and Strasarbs. We check in with Sacred Flower Union. Dan Griffin, aka Sacred Flower Union has put out lots of music in the last two years. As in, lots.
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As it turns out The Drones toured Europe in July and it’s fairly needless to say that things went a little differently. “It was awesome,” Liddiard says. “It was one of those weird tours where every single bit was really good.” The Drones have been signed to Bang! Records since 2002 in Europe and have maintained a loyal following as the years have gone by. Touring in support of last year’s excellent I See Seaweed album, the fascination is still there. “It sort of depends of where you go,” Liddiard notes casually. “If we went to a small town we’d get 150-200 people and in big towns we’d get 1,000. It depends where we are; the more southern countries we tend to do better in, ‘cause they’re more into drinkin’ beer and gettin’ loose. It works for us (laughs).” As it turns out, the European trip was the final go-’round for I Sea Seaweed. “Yeah it was, in fact we finished rehearsing a couple of days ago for a new album,” Liddiard reveals. “That’s the next step, we’re moving into a studio on October 1, when I get back from Perth. “I’ve got ideas... I’ve got three or four songs, some bits and bobs in the spare parts department and some nutty ideas. Hopefully we’ll do something kind Edmond, The Lonesome Town - Photography by Dean Darby of different.” While many bands record new albums almost in reaction to how their previous one turned out, for Liddiard new albums are... “... usually just what follows,” he notes. “You would have learnt things from the last record and simply taken them along with you. But with the The Lonesome Town photographic divergent neurological make-up which fails to function bulk of the last record you’ve been there/done that well in crowds and noisy places and bright lights but exhibition opens at Three Stories - which has an acute sense of the lines and symmetry and and want to do something different. “We go back and forth like that. We’ll have Lifestyle Surf Art in Fremantle this pathos present in faces and landscapes as one; synergies something like Wait Long By The River... (2005) which and details and emotions that the more typically wired was quite stark and barbed and heavy and then we’ll Saturday, September 20, with musical brain will likely overlook. Dean Darby feels a lot. have Gala Mill (2006) which was very laidback and fare from The High Learys, Doctopus You’ve written the text for the exhibition, what have full of space. We just do that; we go back and forth. It’s hard for me to say because I think about this shit and DJs Gidget Duck & Dr Kavebeat. you tried to evoke? Is it objective or from within? The text is largely subjective because from a full-time. BOB GORDON chats with co-curator, surfing perspective in particular the riding of waves and “All I ever think about is music... it’s just like associated euphoria cannot be accounted for in objective spaghetti that never leaves me alone. I heard a great Kent Turkich. terms. I write in mostly a stream of consciousness style quote the other day from a film-maker who said, ‘there’s the film you make in your head, and there’s the Describe the scenes captured in The Lonesome Town with all kinds of wild pulsating imagery past and present surfies and beasts and biblical worlds interrupting the film you write, and then there’s the film you actually exhibition... shoot’. It’s the same with albums.” Some years ago I left Perth with my girl waves and physical realm. That is my experience of the and lived on the streets of Noosa Heads in Queensland world. And as someone with - what can be described “I have a large volume of music because I securing and eating stale muffins at closing time on in medical terms as - autism, it is as though some parts follow quite a stream of consciousness approach, so Hastings Street and hiding out in the cul-de-sacs of my brain infringe into parts they shouldn’t by the I am always putting out or playing with concepts,” of Sunshine Beach at night because I felt like there usual standards of brain morphology, so that sights and he says. “Most of the run-times are quite short and was a something else I was meant to be doing, a sounds and emotions and meaning intertwine for me, as the type of music lends itself well to this approach. purpose. In time I met some creative surfies expressing though I’m in a psychedelic state. Due to these strange I’m really following the footsteps of people like Sun themselves fully in the water as much and in their lives twisted senses, I don’t socialise much without a good Araw and Mark McGuire and labels like Preservation generally. We formed the Australian Surfing Resurrection reason. So much of what I observe of this town is as if and Not Not Fun. (australiansurfingresurrection.com) with the purpose of from a cave. At least an inner sanctuary. So, to me, the way I see the world is truer “That said I haven’t really released or showing what’s really going on in the holy car parks and recorded anything ‘properly’ these are more constant side-streets of what we consider to be honest, post- than objectivity. On the other hand, as an academic in urban planning, particularly cultural planning for creative stream of lo-fi efforts adding to a larger collage of corporate surf culture. sounds.” ASR has become part of a movement which cities, I have some idea about what is supposed to be Afternoon Reflectors, the most recent exists in defiance of those corporations which serve- objective knowledge surrounding cities and the way Sacred Flower Union release was launched last month up boxed-in versions of surfing and the joyous spirit they develop and change, decline and boom. I like some to enthusiastic response. Griffin has found it... it announces, aligning more broadly with the eternal of the changes happening in Perth, especially regarding the softer, tasteful, creative aspects. But there are many “Extremely overwhelming - a lot of people struggle of self-expression against the combine. have said really nice things and I didn’t think anyone The Lonesome Town exhibition turns that eye people missing out. Environments trashed. The original would be that into it!” on boomtown Perth, with the surfing part representing inhabitants still excluded. The defining picture for the However, Sacred Flower Union on ‘tape’ any gesture which attempts to break with the power exhibition is Edmond – a homeless man who sleeps in and what it becomes live are two separate points on relations of the past which have dulled us as a society the cardboard waste behind a stationary store. the map. and ravaged our minds and bodies and seen our “Recording Sacred Flower Union is allowed experience and creativity and, indeed, joy limited. What do you hope that people get from viewing to be as abstract or experimental as possible, there The pictures were mostly taken on old breaking this exhibition? Some insight into their own truth. are no boundaries and I like to try and have a lot of film cameras, and are of boomtown characters and variety that you might not get in a 30 minute set,” landscapes, plus non-commercial surfboard riders. Griffin explains. “It’s about the listening experience. “Playing live Sacred Flower Union is less Who are these people and what are they doing? How CONTENTS about ambience and experimentation and more about are they living and what lies in their hearts? dance party sounds. I guess you could say the live They are good people. But they are carrying 4 Newsdesk show cuts through the treacle and is a bit of a party, out their lives according to a schedule imposed upon 6 Win whereas the recordings embrace exploring a time or them. One which controls and keeps them industrious. 8 Flesh space and sit in that ambience.” They are intelligent people, too. But when you are born 10 Music Griffin has a slew of gigs coming up over into this boomtown with your face against the perspex the next few months, as well as a workshop at Camp you have little cause to question whether the way things Ryan Adams, Kasey Chambers Doogs and some possible summer touring. In the operate is anything other than the whole truth. The Painkillers, Josh Johnstone meantime he’s pretty stoked to be playing the AZ20 Megan Washington Describe the eye photographer, Dean Darby, celebration. “RTR parties are always the best,” he says. harbours for his subjects... New Noise It’s an autistic eye. An old Yashica loaded with “Hands down. Can’t wait!” 15 Eye4 120mm film is permanently strung around his insect Cover: King Hit Tickets for AZ20 are $10 (subscribers) and $15 neck, and he finds peace of mind and a target for his Hugh Sullivan, Eye2Eye (general) from rtrfm.com.au or on the door. Ambient hyper focus tendencies in its cranks and wheels and ancient devices. The photographs are the result of a Zone airs every Sunday from 7-9pm. The Infinite Man, Falling Through Clouds The Hit List, Fashion, Arts Listings 21 Scene Cover: Kasra GOOD SHEPPARD EDM News, Tricky, Take 5 Aussie chartbusters Sheppard have spent the last month touring in Europe Basenji, John Safran and have hit the top 10 in Ireland, Live: Habstrakt, Biffy Clyro, Italy and Poland with Geronimo. In Cannibal Corpse, NCBC Final other territories, the single has also Local Scene: Childsaint hit the iTunes top 10 in New Zealand, 28 X-Press Guide Indonesia, Malaysia and The Philippines and rising rapidly in the Mediabase 30 Social Pics, Volume RICHMOND STREET RECORDS US National Alternative Radio Charts, jumping from #107 up to #62 this week. Leederville-based Richmond Street Records is set to FRONT COVER: The Infinite Man opens at Cinema They’ve not forgotten about launch with a street themed launch party at The Bird Paradiso this Thursday, September 18. home, however and have announced next Tuesday, September 23. Pulling out all the stops to showcase the best new talent from the Central an Australian tour which stops by Institute of Technology, the line-up will feature Rich SCENE COVER: Kasra Mowlavi and Critical Music the Astor Theatre on Thursday, King Matthews, Kat Wilson, Elkwood, Matt Cal and October 16. Tickets available from Three Tales. Doors open 6pm and entry is free. For labelmates Enei, Mefjus and Zombie Cats head liveattheastor.com.au. more details head to richmondstreetrecords.com. to Villa this Saturday, September 20.
THE LONESOME TOWN Beneath The Belly Of The Boom
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RYAN ADAMS A Circular Process
Ryan Adams has released his 14th album, his first self-titled LP. AUGUSTUS WELBY reports. Ryan Adams has been performing and recording under his own name for nearly 15 years. Essentially, he’s a solo artist – at least by the loose definition of the term – though he’s never embarked on a record alone. The US alt-country savant recently released his 14th album and, interestingly enough, it’s his first self-titled effort. The eponymous designation doesn’t signify that Adams has run out of ideas. Rather, the title relates to the fact that for the first time he had complete control over the record’s construction. “I made it in my own studio, I self-produced it and there’s no doubt that it’s what I wanted,” he says. “There was nobody standing in my way.” Ryan Adams follows up 2011’s Ashes & Fire. That album marked a return to lone billing after a fiveyear, five-record run playing with backing band, The
Cardinals. Accordingly, the Glyn Johns production was a stripped-back and largely acoustic affair. The self-titled LP is actually Adams’ second attempt at making his 14th album. For the first one, Johns again sat in the producer’s seat. But at the 11th hour Adams vetoed its release. “The record was finished and it was pretty cool, but there wasn’t enough of an exploratory, celebratory feeling to it,” he says. “Because there was another producer at the helm, it just didn’t feel to me like I had done enough discovery. What eventually happened was I let some more time pass and created a new record at the end of another year after that session. I was finding a different sort of energy that, to me, felt like, ‘oh this is something with a lot of energy and power’.” While the rejigged album was recorded in Adams’ own LA-based PAX-AM studios, with the songwriter himself handling production duties, it’s not pared back to the extent of its predecessor. In fact, the record roams through diverse textures, heeding to the wishes of each individual song rather than perpetuating a consistent arrangement aesthetic. For instance, tracks such as Gimme Something Good and
Feels Like Fire are hoisted up by the power of a full band, while My Wrecking Ball and Let Go comprise a tender intimacy that recalls such iconic Ryan Adams records as Heartbreaker and Love Is Hell respectively. Ultimately, the autonomous recording scenario permitted Adams the necessary freedom to push into further reaches of his creativity. “I got to stay in the studio longer enjoying recording and being a songwriter and someone that records,” he explains. “The studio is where I make art and then sometimes I release it and go out and tour. But the point for me is the work, not what happens with it. “I have that freedom to do that as long as I like until I decide that I want to go out and tour and release a contemporary record. My ego doesn’t necessitate that I need to go and be in front of people every year. I just want to create songs for me. Which is what I do. There’s hundreds of songs a year. I don’t jam, I just write songs. They don’t have to go somewhere, it’s just what I do for fun.” The conception of creativity that Adams advocates here might even be a prerequisite for
KASEY CHAMBERS Outside Country Kasey Chambers, the golden girl of Australian country music who is a staple on the mainstream charts, has returned with her 10th album, Bittersweet. CHRIS HAVERCROFT speaks to Chambers as she embarks on a new chapter, both personally and professionally. Kasey Chambers’ history is well known as she hunted foxes when living on the Nullabor and played in a family band that saw her at times playing to empty bars and sleeping out in the elements. Those days must feel like an eternity for the singer who now tops the charts with regularity and is again hoping to do so with her latest and 10th album. “I like to think that each record is special at the time, even if I don’t think it was quite so special when I look back at a later date,” jokes the affable singer about Bittersweet. “I wanted to have a new interest in going in and making a record instead of doing the same old, same old thing. I never want it to feel like I am just going through the motions. I haven’t felt that up until now, but if I went back into the studio this time and did it with the same producer, the same musicians and the same studio, it wouldn’t have had the same excitement about it.” It was the singer’s brother Nash (who is also her long-time producer, sound guy and manager) who suggested that maybe it was the right time for Chambers to look for someone else to produce Bittersweet and to also go somewhere else to record it. Chamber’s rationale was that she was searching for the same feeling that she had when she made her debut album, The Captain, all those years ago. “I was nervous and excited at the same time. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen and to try and bring myself out of the comfort zone, so that was why I wanted to try something new. Part of this too, was to get a bunch of people in the studio that I hadn’t worked with before. Bernard Fanning was someone that I have always admired musically, and we have done little things together but never to the extent that I did in the studio on this record. He was amazing. He is one of my favourite people that I have ever worked with in the studio, actually. He took on a different role and played all of the keys and all of the acoustic guitars. I also managed to talk him into singing a duet.” 10
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generating quality artistic statements. However, staying focused on the art in its pure expressive form, while also securing remuneration isn’t a straightforward act. Remarkably, even though Adams has been a professional musician since the late 1990s, he isn’t compelled to write songs simply to satisfy the demanding voice of capitalism. “It’s not just what I do for money, it’s what I already did,” he says. “I had a job before, working in house development. I built new plumbing and I also worked on roofing. That was my job but I made music on the side and came to where I couldn’t keep my job and also make music. I had to stop working the job to do music. “I don’t have a quest to keep my job,” he continues. “My job right now is making music only because that’s just what I do all the time, but if it ever changed I would still just make as much music. Some people read all the time, some people play golf or some people like to watch TV. I make music.” While Adams’ self-presentation is refreshingly free from anxiety, it’s doubtful that someone whose work hadn’t received constant approbation and yielded financial reward for almost two decades could make these sorts of statements. Nevertheless, when it comes to applying himself to his art, Adams’ Zen perception stays firm. “I don’t change what I do to make money. I just do what I do and if it works, I do it more. It’s sort of a circular process. I don’t do stuff that I don’t want to do. “When I used to be on that label, Lost Highway, which I really just did not like, I don’t know what they thought they were doing, but whatever it was, it didn’t work. So that’s done now and I can just do what I always meant to do.” These days Adams is his own label boss. Ryan Adams will be the songwriter’s second album to come out on the PAX-AM label, which has also recorded and released music by Fall Out Boy and Adams’ punk rock side project, Pornography. His scorned relationship with the Universal subsidiary Lost Highway Records lasted from 2001’s second album, Gold, up until the last record to feature the Cardinals, 2008’s Cardinology. Some credit is due to the label for the fact that, even though he’s never delivered a global smash hit, Adams has been a considerably successful artist for a lengthy stretch. However, while there are some misfires in his catalogue, none of his albums bear the imprint of mercenary manipulation. “I play guitar and I make up songs and tell stories and I collaborate and jam with other musicians. It’s just what I do. It’s part of the fabric of my being. It’s always been part of who I was to draw or tell stories, ever since I was a kid. Eventually it became music and music has been this thread that’s always been with me all down the line.”
“I liked the idea of getting people in who are also songwriters because they tend to not just think about their own instrument. They are not session guys that you just chuck a chart in front of and then they play. I wanted people who would think about songs from a different angle.”
Instead of reading like a guest list of country musicians, Chambers gathered a collection of contemporary Australian musicians to flesh out the songs for Bittersweet. As well as the aforementioned Fanning, Dan Kelly brings his flourishing guitar lines, Matthew Englebrecht adds bass and Declan Kelly sits behind the drums. The record is also produced by Nick DiDia - whose credits include Pearl Jam, The Wallflowers and Bruce Springsteen - to add to the star-studded line-up. “It wasn’t a conscious effort to get people outside of country music,” Chambers says. “It was more to try and get people who understand the type of music that I write and that I play, but are also people who think outside the box a little bit. I also ended up with Ashleigh Dallas, who has been playing in my band for a while and she is predominantly a country player. It was about getting people that get my type of music but would approach it in a different way than what I usually do. “I liked the idea of getting people in who are also songwriters because they tend to not just think about their own instrument. They are not session guys that you just chuck a chart in front of and then they play. I wanted people who would think about songs from a different angle.” With her marriage to musician, Shane Nicholson at an end, the past year has seen Chambers try and embrace a fresh start and a new way of living. She admits to having to shuffle around the way that she parents, where she lives and the way that she does things (including touring and making records). Even though Chambers admits to it being scary at times, it is exciting too and she expects that is reflected in the record. “I guess the thing is that when I write songs it is usually in my darkest moments. For the rest of the day I am usually pretty happy and positive about life, but I do have those moments where I think, ‘oh my god, I’ve had a marriage breakdown’ or ‘that didn’t turn out right’ so I probably come out sounding more depressed than I really am. Part of that is probably my country upbringing and my dad playing Hank Williams records every day for the first 10 years of my life.”
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JOSH JOHNSTONE
THE PAINKILLERS Down Among The Animals
Now a four piece, Perth punk icons The Painkillers launch their latest EP, Garage Sale Girl, Snapshot Rock at Mojos Bar this Saturday, September 20, with support from Donny Rat, Emu Xperts, Aborted Tortoise, Python (reuniting for one show only!) and Catbrush. TRAVIS JOHNSON Josh Johnstone launches his solo EP, Half caught up with Joe Bludge to hear his thoughts regarding this auspicious occasion. A World Away, this Friday, September Garage Sale Girl came about due to a scheduling mishap, amongst the tracks on the EP but in terms of the entire 19, at the Indi Bar with help from Conan it turns out. For the special occasion of drummer James Painkillers oeuvre: Animals. “It’s rather a long song - Chapman, The Jook Joint Band and Chris Baker’s 60th birthday, The Painkillers had added a couple eight minutes, which is really unusual for us. We rarely of members to their line up, in the form of Richard go over three minutes, but I guess changing formats Rowe. BOB GORDON reports. Lane on guitar and Big Dog on bass. A couple of gigs supporting Tex Perkins’ The Ape and local KISS tribute act KISStake were lined up. “Then I saw your mate, (X-Press Managing Editor and KISStake member) Bob Gordon, down at The Pines and he said they’d been cancelled.” Painkiller Joe Bludge recalls. “So we had this band sort of ready to go, so we thought we’d do this EP.” It all worked out for the best: The Ape shows were ultimately rescheduled, plus we got a new recording from The Painkillers, a band whose activity has been somewhat intermittent of late, owing to Baker’s activities with old bands such as The Beasts Of Bourbon and The Scientists. Consisting of five tracks, the Garage Sale Girl EP came together rather quickly. “We sort of did without the preproduction,” Bludge tells us. “We sort of skipped that part. We were able to muddle our way through the songs and work them on the run. Normally the band has a few songs that we haven’t recorded yet and we’ve got them kicking around, and so the songs on the EP are the ones we nominated to do from that bracket.” There is one song on the new release that stands out from the pack, being unique not only
leads to interesting things and possibilities, so this was another thing we did on this EP that we couldn’t normally do. “It’s a sort of ‘us vs. them’ song, which was a pretty banal polemic for a long time but now seems really extraordinarily relevant, given the taking over of democracies like ours happening, and even little punk bands like us are appalled by it. Most of the eight minutes is me adlibbing to the best of my ability. I guess it’s inspired by Patti Smith and the sort of stuff she did in Horses. It works its way up to a crescendo, starts off slow and works up fast, soft to loud... so that’s the eight minute one.” Looking at the broader cultural context, Bludge predicts a rise in political music. The current state of play demands it. “I pretty much hope so,” he says fervently. “Otherwise we’re pretty fucked. There also seems to be a lot of middle of the road music coming out. I’m a bit surprised. Sometimes I feel like a lot of songwriters aren’t as politically astute as they used to be, but I don’t know - I move in pretty limited circles. But there needs to be. I think everyone needs to make a stand at the moment in their own way or pitch a battle somewhere.”
Always something of a hard-working all-rounder, Josh Johnstone has released solo material before under the name, Joppy. But with the release of a new EP, for the first time under the name, Josh Johnstone, there’s a different essence to it all. “No doubt,” Johnstone notes. “Most of the music I released under the Joppy banner were demos of songs that I had sitting around which didn’t suit any of the bands I was playing in at the time. I’m really happy to be making a fresh start with a clean slate back here in Perth. It feels right and its great to be calling this place home again.” Johnstone has been flat out during the last few years, touring and recording with his bands, The Happy Endings and Vida Cain. Though his new EP is a solo release, the process has been as open to a group ethic as his bands have. “There is a lot more collaboration with random musicians and producers,” he says. “If you do get your hands on a copy of the EP and read the credits you will see that almost every song was tracked and mixed in a different place with a different bunch of musicians.
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“This EP is me finding my own sound, so I’m not sure what the next release will sound like, but I do like this snapshot of the last few years of my musical life and think with so many people involved in the process it has something unique about it. “Five or six of the songs were written in Broome when I had some downtime during a national tour The Happy Endings were doing a few years ago. It was like there were a whole bunch of songs in me that were waiting for the right environment and a break in gigging to come out of me, and they did. “The other track, Reckless, which is the opening track on the EP, was written in a friend’s studio in Italy when I was there a couple of summers ago. We hadn’t planned to do any music during that particular downtime but it just happened and there is a cool energy to the song given that it was all done on the fly.” Johnstone has been co-writing an album with Steve Parkin and has just started tracking one of the new singles from it with Joel Quartermain (Eskimo Joe/ Wastelands Studio). “It’s sounding really cool,” he reveals. “Once that album is done, it will be time to tour the US and Europe again, this time under my own name!” In supporting roles at Friday’s launch will be Conan Chapman, Chris Rowe and The Jook Joint Band, featuring Johnstone’s father, Bill. “It’s something I have wanted to do for a very long time,” he says. “For one reason or another it hasn’t happened, but I feel that stylistically and timing-wise, it has worked out perfectly really. “I’m so happy to have them on the Bill!”
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Megan Washington has just released her new album, There There, and is set to perform alongside Neil Finn and Gurrumul on Saturday, November 22, at Sandalford Estate, Margaret River. CHRIS MARTIN reports. It’s a gloomy Tuesday morning at the Universal Music offices in Surry Hills, but Megan Washington is in a determined mood. Her second album, There There, is out in a matter of days, and the Port Moresby-born songwriter says it’s time to start a new chapter in her career. “This whole record is a consolation,” she says. “And the very idea of a consolation implies a tacit acknowledgement of the conflicts before there can be the consolation, you know what I mean? And I had to deal with a lot of shit from my past – well, I wanted to deal with it, and I think subconsciously that’s probably why I made this record. “I think a lot of those narratives and a lot of those dramas are finished and can be written about from a finite, ‘And therefore, here is the song, thanks for your time, and let’s all go to the pub’.” If this is Washington’s closure, it has been a long time in the works. She released her debut studio album, I Believe You Liar, in 2010 – a collection of keysinfused alt-pop that saw her win ARIA Awards for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist that year – then followed it up with the mini-album Insomnia, a dark and troubled portrait of a musician in turmoil. It wasn’t the triumphant, radio-friendly second release designed to capitalise on the goodwill of the first (“I just fucking wrote Insomnia, so I put it out,” she says). There There has taken as long as it needed to take. “I felt ever since about 2011 that I was sort of looking for something, but I didn’t know what I was looking for,” says Washington. “Just quite a Lynchian sort of idea. And I was just looking for someone to work with. I went across to London in 2012, and wrote with a whole bunch of people there, and I went back again at the beginning of 2013 and it was only then when I met Sam (Dixon, producer) that I kind of went, ‘A-ha, now I have all the bits’, and he was hugely influential in this record and quite influential to me, artistically, and in my personal life as well as musically. I didn’t really have the interest in doing it before I did it, because I didn’t have anything to write about, and there was a lot of natural resolution that came as part of writing this album, and I probably wasn’t ready for that either.” In truth, this has been a year of new starts for Washington, who continues to split her time between Australia and the UK. In May, she delivered a TEDx talk at the Sydney Opera House revealing her lifelong battle with stuttering. That sprouted an episode of Australian Story, profiling a singer who’d grown to prominence in the Australian contemporary music sphere while managing to conceal her debilitating condition from all but those close to her. At the start of 2014, did Washington envisage making all this public? “Even at the start of the day that I did it, I didn’t envisage myself doing it,” she says. “I still can’t really believe that I did it, actually – I’m still a bit like, ‘Fuck!’ If someone asked me again to do that right now, I’d be like, ‘No fucking way’. At the time, I’d just split up with my old manager and I was feeling really raw. And so I just thought, ‘I’ll do it,’ because… like, you do weird shit after a break up, you go skydiving or cut all your hair off, and splitting up with him was very much like a break up, so I did some crazy shit. I kinda wanted to push the boat out a bit and see. Weirdly, since I did that, my speech has gotten much worse. I hoped it would be this sort of holistic balm … dunno.” The new-look Washington is evident in name, as well: There There will be her first release under her full name, Megan Washington, as opposed to the surname-only moniker applied to her earlier work. She wanted to draw a line between the Dixonproduced material, recorded in London, and that which she’d written with Australian producer, John Castle. “Up until I made this record, every single thing that I released with John Castle was just me and him. So in my head, that’s kind of a band; me and him. And I would like to make more work with him in the future, and that will be Washington also, because he has such a sound and such a style and such a unique voice that what I was very much made up of parts of him. So it just didn’t seem energetically or karmically accurate to call this music Washington as well. And Sam and I, I don’t know; it was just a different… Sam felt less like a bandmate and more like a midwife. He really helped me bring this thing into the world, but he didn’t flavour it very heavily in anything particularly. He was very helpful in helping me to decipher what I wanted.” For now, There There continues a pattern of growth in Washington’s career that she’s sure isn’t over just yet. On tracks such as Limitless, My Heart Is A Wheel and One For Sorrow, she’s learnt the ability to write whenever and wherever she feels like it, rather than waiting for the muse to strike – and that’s bound to bring us a different Washington from here on in. “Remember when you were a teenager and it didn’t matter where you were?” she asks. “You were sort of consumed with the rage and the fury of your existence, and everything was really meaningful, and everything that everybody said was profound – it didn’t matter where you were, it’s just who you were, and then you grow out of it. So I think this record is quite literally a historical record of who I was at the time that I was writing it, but I’m certainly not that person anymore. “I think after this I’m done with putting my heart out there. I think I’d like to make a party record, I really would. I’d like to make a disco record.”
MEGAN WASHINGTON An Australian’s Story
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NEW NOISE
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THE MADDEN BROTHERS
JOE BONAMASSA Different Shades Of Blue J & R Adventures
Greetings From California Capitol/EMI
This being his 11th solo album of blues rock in just 14 years, Joe Bonamassa could be forgiven for running out of new ways to express his prodigious guitar talents. Thankfully, Different Shades Of Blue finds the 37-year-old American axe-slinger in top form and showing once again why he’s one of the hottest six-string shredders in the world today. This is the Grammy nominee’s first album to feature all original material, a significant step for a blues rock purist. Not that the influences aren’t as glaringly obvious as usual; the hands of Clapton, Page and Rory Gallagher are all over this record, and that can only ever be a good thing. At the top of the pile for rock riffage is second track, Oh Beautiful!, which rivals anything found on Led Zeppelin II, while Heartache Follows Wherever I Go brings the melancholic blues, and there’s even a Queen-esque ballad to keep things varied with Never Give All Your Heart. Bonamassa is often labelled as Eric Clapton’s natural successor, although Clapton himself probably wouldn’t take kindly to that, given he’s still putting out records himself. In saying that, it’s a fitting sentiment, and this record will only serve to reinforce it.
Twin brothers and founding members of Good Charlotte have gone from wearing leather and collecting tattoos whilst writing fast-paced pop/ punk songs to toothpick-chewing, Aussie-fried chicken-loving, children hugging acoustic pop duo. Their debut album, Greetings From California, is indicative of the siblings’ patriotic Uncle Sam style. The album is certainly a tip of the hat to the more summery sounds of the West Coast as the guitars are turned down to a level that wouldn’t wake a baby and the tunes are vocal and groovebased. Brixton has the brothers offering layered harmonies and a hint of falsetto for a song that is so lightweight it could do with sleigh bells. They may be judges on The Voice, but neither of The Madden Brothers are blessed with tearaway pipes of their own. What they do have is a good ear for harmony and a knack for penning a chorus that could be slotted in to prime time without causing radio producers too much discomfort. What this collection lacks though is any spark that would make any of the tracks memorable. The Madden Brothers are better known as TV personalities than they are as musicians these days. Greetings From California is the type of unthreatening art that is delivered by talk show hosts. This debut is music to be played in cafés so as to not distract the conversation.
PAUL MCBRIDE
4.5
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
OUT OF 5
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SHOVELS & ROPE Swimmin’ Time Spunk
KIMBRA
The Golden Echo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent both had a Warner crack at a solo career with limited success until they crossed paths. The pair made a record together, In the same way that the grungy, electronic got hitched to each other and then their career tendencies of Kimbra’s recent single, ‘90s Music, trajectory took a significant turn for the better may have come as quite a shock to fans, The when they formed the multi-instrument swapping Golden Echo will challenge much of what you have previously assumed about the New Zealand duo, Shovels & Rope. Their second album, Swimmin’ Time, performer – and it may take some getting used to. The album mashes a combination of builds on the skewed Americana that saw the Shovels & Rope debut become so highly awarded. disco, R&B, pop and soul together in a confusion There is enough left-of-centre twang and sparse of sounds that somehow comes out simply fun instrumentation to make this album bridge the gap and cheeky. The result is a slew of strong hits between slacker indie and country as the duo cover such as Teen Heat, Goldmine and Miracle, showing off Kimbra’s signature big vocals with a hint of topics such as failure and the devil early on. There is a nautical element to Swimmin’ newfound sass. The biggest success of this album is Time with floods, submarines and fishing all getting a run with the couple’s liberal use of harmony that perhaps the maturity in sound that has come from doesn’t shy away from charming faults or happy this startling rebrand. Whether it be through the accidents. The gothic nature of the band rears its jarring rhythms in ‘90s Music or her shivering croon head on Evil as fuzzed-out guitar and minimalist in Nobody But You, Kimbra’s voice demonstrates piano create the foundation for this sinister march. effortless control in each context. But The Golden Mary Anne & One Eyed Dan is signature Shovels & Echo delves into an overwhelmingly experimental Rope as it takes to oddly matched characters and space with Everlovin’ Ya (featuring Bilal) and Waltz Me To The Grave that is painfully grating and dark wraps their tale in a foot stomping lo-fi romp. Shovels & Rope have been getting their at times. Nevertheless, the tracks on this record share of attention in no small part due to their quirky high energy live shows. Swimmin’ Time bravely transcend the genres and audiences of captures all of the bands assets and brings them Kimbra’s past, demanding relevance and boldly achieving it. into your lounge room warts and all. ERIN ROONEY
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
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U2 Songs Of Innocence iTunes (Island Records/Universal physical release on Monday, October 13) In context, the release of U2’s new album, Songs Of Innocence, only drew slightly less hatred on the internet/social media than it would have in normal circumstances. That said, yes I have an iPhone and thank God it wasn’t Coldplay. When U2 released 2009’s No Line On The Horizon they touted releasing a follow-up LP, Songs Of Ascent, that very same year. Along the way that was delayed, then forgotten as they toured the world then withdrew (as much as is possible) back to their lives to dream it all up again. Aside from the Apple kerfuffle, Songs Of Innocence arrives as a fairly typical U2 missive (albeit through the varying producer filters of Danger Mouse, Ryan Tedder, Flood, Declan Gaffney and Paul Epworth) but minus the sexy single
(Vertigo for 2004’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb; Dirty Boots for No Line On The Horizon). The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) opens proceedings, taking Bono’s lifelong love letter to Jeffrey Hyman into song and while it’s not what you’d expect, we must remember that Joey was listening to U2’s Beautiful Day on his deathbed. Bizarre lives here in any case. Songs such as Every Breaking Wave, California and Song For Someone find the band in typically sweeping form, the refrains and the chordal progressions take the sentiment into the heavens, or somewhere next to them. The surprising elements on this album come with Volcano and Raised By Wolves. The former seems to channel a younger band unaware that it’s U2, with a chorus sourced from Siouxsie & The Banshees, while the latter marks time with a seemingly detached Bono vocal decimated by a suitably howling chorus. Closing track, The Troubles, seems to echo Irish history, but reveals itself as a more personal ode about the (in)ability to move onward. While The Ramones got a certain Irish teenager through some harsh times, it seems Songs Of Innocence is a reflection on how he got through the rest of them. BOB GORDON WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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Yirra Yaakin’s latest production of King Hit by David Milroy and Geoffrey Narkle opens on September 18 at the courtyard of the State Theatre Centre of WA. King Hit was first produced by Yirra Yaakin in 1997, was remounted and toured in 1998, and then produced again in 2004. Director Kyle Morrison speaks with us about his current production this important play that has a significance for both WA theatre and WA Aboriginal history. To begin, why don’t you tell us a bit about your cast? Clarence Ryan is playing Geoffrey Narkle, the Barker Bulldog. This is his first time performing for the stage, but I’ve known him for 20-odd years in the film and television industry, and I can honestly say he’s one of the best actors I’ve worked with. Then we have two Noongar actors, Karla Hart and Maitland Schnaars, who are both graduates of WAAPA’s Aboriginal Theatre course. We are lucky to have Noongar actors to help interpret these characters that are very recognisable to our families. It’s interesting to see how well we can bring our families, our mob, to life on stage. And we also have Benj D’Addario, a stalwart of Perth theatre, who is playing a multitude of characters. They’re all playing six or seven characters, apart from Clarence, but he’s got all the monologues. But he has to play different versions of that character… Absolutely, the beautiful child with wonder in his eyes, and then the jaded adult who’s been messed over by the apartheid regime that West Australia has been through over the last 50 years. It’s kind of a tough play with heavy and heartwrenching moments. We balance that with a lot of energy around the fight scenes and the humour. You’ve grown up with King Hit, haven’t you? When I was 17 and fresh out of WAAPA’s Aboriginal Theatre course, my first professional acting gig was King Hit, playing Geoffrey in the 1998 remounting of it. Touring around with that play and getting a sense of the importance of a story like this for WA audiences really solidified theatre as a craft that I could work on. I believe in the importance of storytelling. If we can’t hear each other’s stories, we can’t understand each other’s paths, so theatre is the best device for that. This show keeps reaffirming the importance of theatre for me. So what made you want to do it again now? It’s been 17 years since it was first done, and I don’t think we’ve moved that far in the country in that time. We’re still seeing the effects of the Stolen Generations since the ‘40s and ‘50s. This play is going to be relevant until we’ve really reconciled the history of Australia honestly. In South Africa they call it Truth And Reconciliation, in Australia we call it Reconciliation because we don’t want to tell the truth. King Hit is a really good way of giving people an insight into the Stolen Generations through a single individual. Once we get a sense of one journey, we can look at the whole picture and go, wow, we have a long way to go, we really do. As the director, is your version of the play quite different from its previous incarnations? Well, a little bit, but with playwright David Milroy’s blessing and [Geoffrey Narkle’s] family’s blessing I was able to dramaturg some of the sections to suit the style that I’m going for. I like to be able to inject a new idea or thought into it, so we’re taking a contemporary look at the play, but we’re keeping to the heart of it as Milroy intended. CICELY BINFORD
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Miss Burlesque WA 2014
BURLESQUE BATTLE John Bell of Bell Shakespeare
BELL BRINGS BACK THE BARD Celebrating their 25th year in 2015, Bell Shakespeare have announced an impressive roster of productions for the upcoming season, which includes As You Like It, Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo And Juliet. Of the four, only Hamlet, directed by Damien Ryan, who brought us Henry V this year, is currently slated to come to Perth, with exact dates yet to be announced.
ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT The Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award Supported By Little Creatures Brewing is Australia’s richest, most prestigious and long-named award for prints and artists’ books. Now in its 39th year, the award and the accompanying exhibition represent the cutting of edge of printmaking in Australia. This year, in addition to more traditional forms, 3d printed objects and the product of other, more experimental processes will be included. 55 works culled from 272 entries will be displayed at the Fremantle Arts Centre from Thursday, September 25, until Sunday, November 16, with the winners announced on opening night.
It’s the battle of the boas - the feathered kind, that is - this Saturday, September 20, at the Fly By Night Musicians Club. It’s the semi-final heat of Miss Burlesque WA 2014. Georgette Violette, Lucy Lovegun, Penny Purr, Violet Velour, Darla Harland and Brandy Bows will make the feathers and fur fly as they try to tantalise their way into one of the three slots left in next week’s grand final. There, they’ll battle Ruby Slippers, Sugar Du Joure, Lulu Liqueur, Rose Noir, Odile Devine, Monet Petit and Lola Cherry Cola for the state crown and a shot at the nationals. Boylesque, er, boys Charlse D. Barkle, Zazel, Cupid’s Avatar, Baron E Tolle and Pirteman will also be competing for Mr Boylesque WA 2014, which goes to the man who most resembles Peter Boyle, the dad from Everybody Loves Raymond. Tickets are available via flybynight.org.
LIGHT THE LIGHTS Visiting Melbourne artist Bronek Kozka is presenting a technical and creative lighting workshop at the Perth Centre For Photography on Saturday, September 27, between 10am and 2pm. Working with stylist Hannah McGrath, Kozka and the workshop attendants will collaborate to create and light a scene. This is a rare opportunity to learn from Kozka, who has placed highly in many awards, including the Hasselblad Masters Award, Monash Art Award, the Albury Art Prize, the National Portrait Prize and the Iris Award. For full info, go to pcp.org.au.
THE INFINITE MAN Time Enough For Love Directed by Hugh Sullivan Starring Josh McConville, Hannah Marshall, Alex Dimitriades Paradoxes, predestination and good, old-fashioned emotional insecurity collide in this debut feature from Australian writer/director, Hugh Sullivan. Dean (Josh McConville) and Lana (Hannah Marshall) have a truly disastrous anniversary date. Not only is the quaint little resort where they stayed a year ago now a rundown derelict, but Dean’s complete overreaction to seeing his plans of constructing the perfect weekend crumble results in Lana leaving with her old flame, the oafish Terry (Alex Dimitriades). No worries, though; Dean dabbles in weird science, and a year after the disastrous date, he’s convinced the now estranged Lana to travel back in time to that fateful day to try and set things aright. The thing is, Dean is such a neurotic, micromanaging mess of a man, he tries to course-correct more than once, leading to multiple Deans, multiple Lanas and even multiples Terries, all with their own agendas, running around the abandoned motel. Sullivan smartly uses time travel tropes to construct a character study of the well-meaning but blinkered Dean, a guy who thinks he can fix everything if given the chance, but fails to recognise that what’s broken is inside him. Sullivan’s intricate
script literally allows Dean to confront himself - albeit different versions of himself from different points in his life - in order to dissect notions of insecurity, jealousy and wounded masculinity. If Dean is difficult to empathise with at times, it is largely because some of his destructive behaviours and neediness are a little too close to the bone. Sullivan’s astute characterisation of Dean doesn’t extend to the other two participants in this three-hander, unfortunately. Both Marshall and Dimitriades do good work with what they’re given, but Lana is essentially the film’s McGuffin, while Terry functions as both antagonist and comic relief - his motives are so oblique that at times he’s a walking non sequitur. Perhaps it was a sacrifice necessary in service to both the film’s focus on Dean’s internal processes and its brisk running time (under 90 minutes) but it does feel like there was a missed opportunity or two. Still, The Infinite Man remains a fine, fun, clever riff on both relationship comedies and time travel stories. It’s a small-scale film - deliberately so but its narrative ambitions belie its financial and spatial constraints. Anyone who appreciates thoughtful, arch comedy and clever writing will find something to enjoy in Sullivan’s closed loop. TRAVIS JOHNSON
LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR OPENING NIGHT The State Theatre Centre Wednesday, September 10, 2014 A stellar cast, including Peter Rowsthorn, Humphrey Bower and Damon Lockwood, wowed the audience in Black Swan’s production of Neil Simon’s semiautobiographical comedy. Photos by Stefan Caramia
Maggie, Peter, Ned
VANCE JOY Life Is But A Dream Vance Joy’s debut LP, Dream Your Life Away, came in at #1 last week on the ARIA Charts and his national album tour will see him perform at the Astor Theatre on Friday, March 20, 2015. MEG CRAWFORD reports. Singer/songwriter James Keogh, better known as Vance Joy, is a whip-smart, measured and thoroughly pleasant man. Keogh’s had a wild flurry of success with his beautiful brand of folk pop – Riptide off his debut EP God Loves You When You’re Dancing headlined triple j’s Hottest 100 for one, and it has since gone five-times platinum. You might expect some ego, but there’s absolutely none. The moniker Vance Joy is an amalgam of names from one of his favourite books, Bliss by Peter Carey. Keogh likes the freedom that comes with operating behind it and, although he’s committed to it for the foreseeable future, he doesn’t necessarily intend for it to be his identity for all eternity. “Vance Joy’s a musical project,” he explains. “If you have an alias then you can float into something else one day. Idols of mine are like Damon Albarn who’s done all of this solo stuff, but his also done Gorillaz and Blur amongst other projects – sometimes doesn’t even remember what the collaboration was. Gotye as well. It’s almost like a self-effacing approach that they have. I really admire that. They let the music do the talking.” Given that he’s taken his name from a book, it’s safe to say that Keogh is a little bookish and it shapes his music. “I really do enjoy reading, it’s like a vacation, but I’m not a super voracious reader,” he reflects. “I don’t chow down books really easily, but I feel like what I read stays read. You can get a lot of 16
good lines or ideas or a general feeling or atmosphere from a book and you can channel that into a song. I feel like it’s good mental exercise. “I read something really beautiful recently. I was reading the new Tim Winton book, Eyrie, and he says ‘it’s easier to fill a void than contemplate it’ and I was like, that’s awesome. I feel like there are those little nuggets of gold that you can get from a book. Whether or not I ever try and build on the concept or use it for a song, they all go on the scrap-heap, those kind of nice ideas and thoughts.” It’s like Keogh’s already had a couple of different lifetimes already. He used to play footy for Coburg and was well on the path to being a lawyer. Luckily for us, he’s given those careers a swerve and he says he feels more relaxed as a consequence. “It’s a work in progress, but I’m doing something I really love and I feel like I’m expressing myself,” he says happily. “The goal, eventually, is to becoming a fully realised person. I know it comes with maturity: you grow into your skin and you also accept what you are and your limitations and you work with what you’ve got. At the point in my life where I was playing footy and at uni, I was still trying to find my path, but I had an instinct that it wasn’t for me. “I had a dream in my heart about playing music. So, settling into myself and being able to follow my dream has allowed me to be more relaxed.”
Fiona, Owen
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Hayley, Joseph
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FILM
HUGH SULLIVAN The Infinite Man Hugh Sullivan on the set of The Infinite Man
After establishing himself with a handful of wellreceived short films, Australian filmmaker Hugh Sullivan makes his feature debut with the melancholy sci-fi romantic comedy, The Infinite Man. Rather than a sprawling, spectacular science fiction popcorner, The Infinite Man operates on a very intimate scale. The film centres on Dean (Josh McConville) who wants nothing more than to spend the perfect romantic weekend with his girlfriend, Lana (Hannah Marshall) - and his access to time travel technology means he can go back and try to fix any mistakes or remove any impediments to happiness. As the paradoxes stack up and quantum doppelgangers begin to multiply, it soon becomes apparent that Dean is his own worst enemy - quite literally. “I had a desire to make a time travel film,” Sullivan explains. “Time travel is something I’ve always enjoyed, and something I wanted to try my hand at. But I also wanted to look at a relationship as experienced by an insecure and ruminative mind. Dean is someone who has a very difficult relationship with the past and with himself, and time travel allowed me to approach these ideas quite explicitly.” Working on a tight budget meant that Sullivan had to discipline himself with the minimal narrative elements he allowed himself - three characters (Dean, Lana and Lana’s ex-boyfriend, Terry, played by Alex Dimitriades) and one location, an abandoned motel. “I’m sure there were moments were I was tempted to introduce more characters and locations,” Sullivan muses. “It certainly would have made the
development process a little easier. But then it would have made production more difficult. “I think placing certain constraints on myself necessitated a good deal of creative problem solving, and perhaps took the project in a more interesting and unexpected direction than may otherwise have been the case.” Although spatially constrained, The Infinite Man deals with big ideas and big emotions - not to mention a time travel conceit that gets more convoluted and confusing as the film progresses. “In many ways I wanted to embrace these complexities. Dean’s mind is a confused and confusing space – it’s unnecessarily complicated. I wanted the film to reflect this psychic turmoil. I wanted it, structurally, to feel like a mind turning in on itself, circling back to some unresolved past. It’s rumination, really; it’s a mental process. Time travel just makes it all more physical, and hopefully a little more fun.” Fun though it may be, the film’s structure meant that the writing process has a challenging and at times tedious one. “ I’m not sure exactly how many drafts were written, but it was certainly quite a few. Due to the nature of the project, even the smallest change to a scene would reverberate throughout the entire script, and necessitate many more changes. Repeatedly. Perhaps it is appropriate that a film about repetition and revision be written in such a way, but it wasn’t really something I appreciated at the time.” TRAVIS JOHNSON
Falling Through Clouds - Photo by Jamie Breen
FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS Birds Of A Feather In a world bereft of almost all bird life, a cage bird and a scientist who dreams of flying have a complex relationship. That’s the central conceit behind Falling Through Clouds, the latest stage production from progressive theatre company, The Last Great Hunt. We spoke with erstwhile Hunter, Arielle Gray, about the show. “The story centres around Mary, who is a scientist.” Arielle Gray tells us. “We’re in a world where birds have gone extinct and she wants to bring back a species of bird which can fly - that’s her basic aim. Mary has a vivid imagination and at night time she has dreams of flight and flying and soaring through the air and soaring through the clouds. Basically, her day time starts to merge with her night time... and I don’t want to give away anything after that!” And that encapsulates the key problem when talking to one of the seven members of The Last Great Hunt. The troupe pride themselves on being innovative and surprising, and so any discussion
about an upcoming production is, inevitably, rather circumspect. The best we can get out of Gray regarding Falling Through Clouds is that it’s science fiction... sort of. “We seem to be throwing around the term ‘soft sci-fi,’” she says. “In that it’s not complete sci-fi; it’s quite playful, it’s very visual, there’s lots of visions and beautiful images but there’s also quite clinical scientific images. Yeah, soft sci-fi, I think, nicely sums it up, our genre. We get quite playful and a little bit tongue-in-cheek.” As is usual for The Last Great Hunt, the show mashes together a range of theatrical techniques in interesting ways. “We have puppets, we’re using a lot of paper, we’re using animation, but we’ve moved up from the last show, It’s Dark Outside, where we had a fixed point screen out back. We’re now playing with animation in a three-dimensional sense; we’re playing with it in the space and hitting different objects at different points within the space and projecting form behind.” And, also true to form, Falling Through Clouds is a truly collaborative project for the team. As Gray explains, “Four out of seven of the artists from The Last Great Hunt are working on this particular show. The other three have been in and seen showings and given us lots of feedback and done some dramaturgical work but it is really the four of us - Tim Watts, Chris Isaacs, Adriane Daff and myself - working in a space together. Tim is kind of the head creative on this, but he is very, very open as a collaborator and certainly is not a dictator at all. The whole show, the four of us have had a hand in. It all contributes to a real DIY feeling.” TRAVIS JOHNSON
Falling Through Clouds runs at the PICA Performance space from September 22 - October 11. For tickets and session times, go to pica.org.au. WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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Letters Home: The Blue Room Theatre Joe Lui’s autobiographical show centres on his decision to flee his native Singapore to avoid compulsory military service and how that decision has affected his relationship with his parents, his culture and himself. It runs until October 4. Go to blueroom.org. au for more.
Every week we bring you the best in fashion, food, shopping and lifestyle.
King Hit: State Theatre Centre Yirra Yaakin’s production of Geoffrey Narkle and David Milroy’s play, based on the life of the former, dramatises the plight of the Stolen Generation via the lens of boxing. It runs from September 18 - October 4. Head to yirrayaakin.con.au for more info. Falling Through Clouds: PICA Performance Space The latest production from The Last Great Hunt is a sumptuous visual feast that details the relationship between a captive crane - the last of his kind - and the scientist studying him. Incorporating puppetry, animation, live performance plus a soundtrack from Ashley Gibson Grieg, it runs from September 22 October 11. Go to pica.org.au for session times and tickets. The Glass Menagerie: The Old Mill Theatre Directed by Susie Conte, this production of Tennessee Williams’ meditation on family and fate runs until September 20. For tickets and session times, go to oldmilltheatre.com.au.
EAT AT: LITTLE BIRD CAFE Among its many charms, this Lake street eatery boasts a fine line in gourmet bagels, including candied bacon and New York-style Reubens.
FESTIVALS
Little Bird
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival From the opening night film Marina, a biopic of accordion-slinging singer Rocco Granata, to the closing feature, the classic, Sophia Loren-starring, Marriage Italian Style, Cinema Paradiso and Luna On SX play host to the best movies Italy has to offer. The festival runs from September 24 - October 15. Go to lunapalace.com.au for info, tickets and session times. Little Big Shots Film Festival For Kids Coming to the Fremantle Arts Centre inner courtyard from October 7 - 9 is this family friendly showcase of short cinema, which features sessions suitable for everyone from toddlers to teens (two years to 15, to be precise). Go to fac.org.au for tickets and session times.
Spike Heels - Photo by Guido Nigro
VISUAL ARTS DRINK AT: WOLF LANE One of the elder statesmen of the burgeoning Perth small bar scene, Wolf Lane is always worth a visit for a Catch 22 or three. Wolf Lane
Adjustment: Emerge Art Space Felicity Sivewright’s new exhibition explores the changing face of WA in the name of “progress.” It runs until September 20. emerge-art.com.au has more details. Boundaries Of Beige: Fremantle Arts Centre Marzena Topka uses textiles such as office clothing and string in striking ways to investigate how organisational structures interact with our daily lives. It runs until September 20. Go to fac.org.au for more. Fremantle Arts Centre Student Exhibition: Fremantle Arts Centre This huge showcase of work produced by students who have undertaken various creative courses at the FAC runs until September 21. Go to fac.org.au for details.
SHOP AT: JOHNNAGE THE BRAVE Local pop artist Johnnage The Brave - you’ve seen his work on the Stand To Smoke/Sit To Drink chalkboards at the Scotto, surely? - now has a Redbubble store, where you can get his stuff slapped on a shirt, a phone cover, anything really. Check him out at redbubble.com/people/johnnagethebrav.
Afghanistan - Hidden Treasures From The National Museum Kabul: The Western Australian Museum Once thought lost or destroyed under the Taliban regime, these 230+ pieces illustrate the complexity and variety of Afghani history. The exhibition runs until November 16 - go to museum.wa.gov.au for further information. Richard Avedon People: The Art Gallery Of Western Australia T h i s co l l e c t i o n o f i m a g e s b y t h e f a m e d photographer Richard Avedon spans his career from 1949 to 2002 and includes portraits of such notable figures as Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, Twiggy, Malcolm X and Bob Dylan. It runs until November 17. Go to artgallery.wa.gov.au for more information.
THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE
Weight Of Painting: Paper Mountain An exhibition by Lauren McCartney which explores the form of ‘action painting’ and feminism in an often male- dominated medium. McCartney interweaves performance, paint and media together while utilising her body as an instrument. Her works will be displayed until September 21. More info at papermountain.org.au
The Brain From Planet X: Phoenix Theatre Dark Psychic Productions present an off-the-wall musical spoof of 1950s alien horror movies, written by Dabid Wechter and Bruce Kimmel and directed by Ryan S. McNally. It runs until September 27. Book through TAZTix.com.au.
Le Vol: Turner Galleries Melbourne artist Valerie Sparks creates large-scale works in the style of 19th century French scenic wallpapers, conflating multiple perspectives and locations into one landscape. The exhibition runs until September 27. Go to turnergalleries.com.au for more.
Spike Heels: Melville Theatre A contemporary comedy of manners that delves into the mix-ups and misunderstandings inherent in a four-sided love triangle (quadrilateral?). Written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Trevor Dhu, it runs until September 27. Hit up meltheco.org.au for tickets and session times.
KARRINYUP SS14 LAUNCH ANNA SAXON reports from the Karrinyup Spring/Summer Fashion Launch and explores the Brave New(ish) World of fashion blogging.
GO TO: ARTLINK MAGAZINE LAUNCH The Bird plays host to an impressive collection of artistic thinkers, including Stelarc, Oran Catts and Ionat Zurr, on Saturday, September 19, from 5pm. The topic of discussion is the intersection between medical science. Artlink 18
“What’s the name of your blog?” seemed to be the catchcry of Karrinyup’s Spring/Summer 2014 Fashion Launch. All of Perth’s glittering bloggerati were at the event which featured fashion previews, a catwalk of upcoming trends for the Spring/Summer season, and a styling session from successful Australian bloggers Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson. Elle and Tash from They All Hate Us fashion blog fame are true internet celebs - beacons of Aussie success and well-coiffed hair. Best friends and business partners, the women presented the trends for Spring-Summer to an eager blogging crowd, most of which appeared to be seasonal classics with a chic twist - pastel blazers and crop tops, floral midi skirts, and all-white ensembles with metallic accessories. But
The 2014 Light Up Leederville Carnival The City of Vincent and Leederville Connect are lighting up Leederville for another year of entertainment and attractions. Wander along Oxford Street adorned in lights offering a vast array of food, music, bars, fashion, art and children’s entertainment. This free family friendly event will take place on Sunday December 7 from 12- 8pm. Visit leedervillecarnival.com.au for more information.
Karrinyup SS14 Lauch. Pics: Caroline Stafford.
the fab duo doesn’t expect us to break bank on a new spring wardrobe. “We really advocate dressing ‘highlow’,” Elle said. “I get a lot of satisfaction from wearing a $1000 pair of shoes with a $20 top from Target.” All of the runway looks were styled from boutiques within Karrinyup, illustrating just how easy it is to put together great head-to-toe outfit using local material. Tash and Elle were quick to assure us that Perth isn’t the fashion
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Marriage Italian Style - playing at the Lavazza Italian Film Festival
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backwater we were afraid it was. “We love Perth fashion - you’re not that far behind,” Tash laughed. “On the Gold Coast, its all beachwear, in Melbourne it’s all black, but in Perth you always see a unique twist on trends.” The catwalk preview put together by the pair was a serious show stopper - with models descending the shopping centers escalators, as though they were mannequins who had come to life and decided to join the party. However, the most successful part of the evening was its focus on celebrating the Fashion Blogger. Quite a few of us were starstruck when seeing local fashion icons we’d idolized for years, people from blogs we’d stalked and furiously tried to emulate since we’d figured out stripes and spots could go together. The true rise of the fashion blogger dates back to 2003, when blogger Kathryn Finney (aka The Budget Fashionista) received an invitation to attend New York Fashion Week. Over the following years, not only have we witnessed fashion bloggers gaining access to fashion’s finest events, but they have also begun to fill the front row, sitting alongside American Vogue’s notorious editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. This surprising shift of importance proves that the fashion industry recognizes the influence and power that prominent fashion bloggers now possess. Many everyday fashion lovers are now just as, if not more famous than the models, designers and celebs they admire. So now’s the time to fire up your laptops and charge your crappy cameras, guys - who knows, you could be Perth’s next style superstar.
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Critical Music is one of the most highly respected imprints in the game, and it’s no wonder - the label is a bastion of the creativity and experiment that made liquid DnB such a powerful force in the first place. Label founder, director and DJ ambassador Kasra Mowlavi is bringing his expertise to Perth on the Critical Sound tour. MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES and ZOE KILBOURN check in with Kasra before he and label buddies Enei, Mefjus and Zombie Cats play Villa this Saturday, September 20. Kasra’s helmed Critical Music since its foundation in 2002. He’s helped launch international profiles for DnB radicals like Rockwell, S.P.Y, Calibre, and Foreign Concept, all producers who can move a crowd while eluding easy drops, synths, and samples. “I don’t see what we do as part of the EDM scene,” he says. “The EDM scene is focused on a style of music and event that Critical isn’t involved in. That said, the popularity of electronic music on the whole has seen some positives for us, as people discover more than just the mainstream - they dig a little deeper into the underground and find us doing our thing.” Kasra doesn’t produce music himself, but he does have a knack for cultivating cutting edge artists and making sophisticated mixes. As a DJ, he doesn’t shy away from a self-conscious air horn or two, but overall his brand of DnB is as suave as a 180 BPM Amen break can get. It’s led to his residencies at BBC1 and too-cool-for-you nightclub Fabric, which included mixing Volume 62 of their esteemed Live series.
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“I suppose on a personal level I’m one of the only label owners in recent times to make a career from DJing, without having to resort to production work to help with profile,” he says. “Most DJs these days have to produce to get themselves out there.” Managing a high-profile label like Critical could be exhausting alongside frequent DJ work, but Kasra’s grateful they bleed into each other. “Both work well together, like the night we are playing in Perth - its part of a label tour. As with all areas of music now, the live performance side has to be completely harmonious with the label side. One feeds the other and vice versa.” As an energising force of fringe DnB - he’s recently signed Russian producer Enei, who fashions deep grooves out of classic breaks - Kasra’s borne witness to increasingly interesting modes of collaboration. “A lot of the newer label releases feature collaborations made entirely over the Internet or started in studios apart from each other. Funnily enough, right now I’m sitting in Enei’s hotel room whilst him and Mefjus write some music!” Mentoring as many artists as he is, it’s worth asking where he draws motivation from. “A mixture of things,” Kasra says. “I tend to not take inspiration from within DnB itself as the music can become too insular, but I definitely look outside to get ideas as everyone has a different approach. I also like to make it up as I go along. It’s more exciting.” It’s clear from his output that Kasra’s approach to life boils down to dedication and distinction. His advice: “Be different, work hard, don’t listen to negative people and don’t spend all your time on Facebook.” CRITICAL SOUND KASRA, ENEI, MEFJUS + ZOMBIE CATS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 @ VILLA
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GRANDMASTER FLASH PLAYS CUBAN CLUB 2015
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SASHA, SETH TROXLER TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS
KIT POP AND TA-KU JOIN DIPLO HWLS (a collaboration between Perth-based producers Kit Pop and Ta-Ku) recently joined Diplo’s BBC1 radio program, Diplo And Friends, and by all accounts they killed it. Last Saturday marks the second of Ta-Ku’s appearances on the program - he mixed with Mike Posner back in February 2013. You can hear HWLS’s impressive set via Mixcloud.com.
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TRICKY Lost In Thaws Tricky’s new album, Adrian Thaws, weaves together a combination of hip hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica. JO CAMPBELL catches up with the artist that almost single-handedly spearheaded the trip-hop movement in the ‘90s.
Grandmaster Flash
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KITO AND REIJA LEE More exciting news from Diplo’s label, Mad Decent: producer Kito is coming to Australia for a national tour, with vocalist Reija Lee in tow. They’ve recently collaborated on EP II, a slick mix of hip hop, RnB, and Diplo’s genre-bending approach to bass. Kito and Reija play next month’s edition of Perth rave Get Weird on Friday, October 17.
Lloyd Events’ beloved New Year’s Day party, Cuban Club, has announced its 2015 headliner: godfather of hip hop (and Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame inductee) Grandmaster Flash. He joins Saskwatch, audiovisual festival legend Sampology, Charlie Bucket and the States’ Raashan Ahmad for what should be an enormous afternoon. This year, the traditonally Kito and Reija Lee tropicana event has taken Palm Springs as its theme, and they’re promising an event in the spirit of Monroe, Sinatra, and Pimms cocktails. Ticket price covers lunch, dinner, canapés and drinks. Tickets on sale from Monday, September 22 via Ticketmaster.
Electronica “Son of God” Sasha has just announced an Australian tour, hitting The Court on Sunday, November 2. He’s made almost every DJ Mag Top 10 since 1997, has worked with Thom Yorke, The Chemical Brothers and Madonna, and held residencies in Ibiza and NYC. He’s also worked very recently with Seth Troxler, who has also announced a Perth visit. Grounded in classic techno, Seth Troxler’s been playing Detroit nightclubs since he was a precocious 16 year old way back in 2002. He’s worked extensively with producers like Deetron and Tiefschwartz, claims the Mayan calendar and Robert Downey, Jr. as key influences, and has gotten a lot of love by BBC1. You can catch his Perth set at Villa on Saturday, November 22.
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CARMADA’S PERTH PREMIERE Bass music babes Yahtzel and LDRU (last seen in Perth with Peking Duk) have joined forces as Carmada, dropping their single Maybe this week and locking in an EP release for October. Carmada make their live debut in Perth forStereosonic: they play the Saturday, November 29 leg of the two-day tour. Carmada
BACARDI TRIANGLE Looks like 2014’s going to be the year for boutique tropical festival announcements: Calvin Harris, Kendrick Lamar and Elise Goulding are already locked into upcoming Bermuda party, Bacardi Triangle. Featuring 15 superstar DJs and producers (plus a whole lotta rum), the festival is flying out punters from 22 countries to Bermuda for the weekend beginning Thursday, October 30, 2014. You can find more information at bacarditriangle.com, which is also offering 12 Aussies the opportunity to win tickets.
Using his birth name for his latest LP’s title, controversial artist Tricky has decided to give listeners an intimate look at his life through photographer Amy Albataew’s lens. Shot earlier this year outside a storage locker containing personal items from his residence in New York in the late ‘90s, the collection is beautiful and somewhat haunting. Among this series are snapshots of old recording tech, a Polaroid of Tricky showing the gap where his teeth should be, and dusty reel-to-reel tapes used in a bygone session in New Orleans. “These are recordings I did with a marching band led by a trumpet player named Shorty,” recalls Tricky. “I was there for about six weeks, broke my leg, and moved into an old church. These recordings were done over about three days. As far I know they haven’t been heard at all.” The Tumblr-hosted gallery shows Tricky at a pivotal stage in his career after the success of the ground-breaking record he made after leaving Bristolian outfit Massive Attack, Maxinquaye, and its follow up, Pre-Millennium Tension. A desire to be closer to the home of hip hop inspired a residency in the big apple. “I wouldn’t consider myself a hip hop artist, but hip hop was a big influence for me, so when
you’re an artist you know you have to live in New York at one time because that was the Mecca for urban music in the ‘90s.” His nostalgia is understandable with the 20 year anniversary of Maxinquaye approaching in 2015. Adrian Thaws clocks in as his tenth studio album and, as the title and photo gallery suggest, offers strippedback production with an upfront message, as Tricky explains. “It’s me coming back to claim what’s mine. I’ve done a lot for this music industry, a lot of people sound like me and I’m still fairly underground. A lot of people have made money off me and my style of music. Some artists are doing stuff I did 15 years ago, calling it trip-hop (stupid name) and I keep moving.” The album was written and produced in is home studio. “I don’t go into the studio to make a song - I go there to relax. I just sit down and play with different sounds and stuff. It’s very natural and organic.” But something Tricky is far less comfortable with is the concept of fame. “I’m trying to break down that hierarchy,” he says. “People like superstar DJs that doesn’t even make sense. They’re playing other people’s music. It’s gone way too far. Being famous means nothing. It’s not an ambition.” Adrian Thaws is Tricky’s response to this desire to breakdown celebrity status; a call to arms. “It’s saying: ‘Fuck you, you’re the same as me. You’re not my idol. I respect your music but don’t expect me to kiss your arse.’ People shouldn’t be so impressed with success. We live in celeb culture where people become well-known because of their talent but now, being known is more important. TV reality shows and the dumbing-down of people is part of the plan of the powers that be - we’re easy to control if we’re numb and dumb.”
WITH SISTYM ARIANA YEUNG SERVES UP THE BEST NEW RELEASES
FOREIGN CONCEPT Make Meals EP Critical Music
S.P.Y Back to Basics Chapter 2 Hospital Records
VLTRN Dirt Signal / The Ride Formation Records
KIRIL Delirious EP Flexout Audio
STATIC Run For Shelter (feat. Frank Carter III) Retrograde Sound
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Foreign Concept has just released his highly anticipated Make Meals EP and does not disappoint. Title track Make Meals is a hip-hop influenced swagger bomb, while melodic rollers When You’re Alone and Endless Fade demonstrate his versatility and development from his rawer-sounding earlier releases. The latter is a personal highlight, with Naomi Olive’s soulful vocals complimenting the haunting key progression perfectly. The Volks is a slightly techier excursion but still maintains Foreign Concept’s characteristic rolling deepness. An excellent EP that further cements Critical Music’s position on the forefront for fresh underground drum and bass. S.P.Y has backed up his last Back to Basics Chapter 1 album in style, with tracks featuring collaborations from BCee, Total Science and LowQui. To follow are 12 tracks of musical mastery, ranging from the euphoric delicateness of Stardust (feat. BCee) to the raw, grimy amen breaks of Guidance (feat. Total Science) and Heavy Metal. Perth Sunset is the Brazilian producer’s nod of respect to our corner of the globe, with the atmospheric rolling bass line evoking memories of deep sunsets over the Indian Ocean. We tip our hats in return. Up-and-coming Perth DnB producers VLTRN show no signs of slowing down with their latest release on Formation Records. From the chunky heaviness of neurofunk stomper Dirt Signal to the relentlessly frantic acid synth stabs of The Ride, VLTRN’s hard work and dedication to their craft is reflected in the gradual evolution in the quality of their production and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the talented duo. Fans of the deeper tribal 174 BPM sounds from artists such as Skeptical and Dub Phizix will appreciate Kiril’s Delirious EP. Funky technical stepper M Filtre and the head nodding roller Dubplate Flavour compliment the more complex drum arrangements in JGLST, while the tribal tinged vocal sample in Direct Tone builds up the listener’s anticipation right up until the chest thumping drop. Delirious is an exciting and interesting listen for anyone looking to explore the deeper end of the DnB spectrum and is a gem of an EP from this relatively unknown producer. I’m predicting big things to come from Kiril if these tracks are anything to go by. Taken from Static’s Something About Nothing album sampler, Run For Shelter is yet another excellent example of the versatility of the drum and bass genre. With a clean piano hook and soaring string arrangement with an occasional subtle lower-end synth buzz to menace it up a little, vocalist Frank Carter III’s soulful vocals are the feature element of this track. Carter’s versatile vocal range adds a whole new dimension to the instrumental arrangement, a canvas for insightful lyrics. Fans of liquid drum and bass will dig this release.
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BASENJI New Dawn Sebastian Carlos takes his production name from the Basenji, a barkless Congolese hunting dog. It’s a name that echoes the playful innocence of his work - bass tracks redolent with pitched percussion, pentatonic scales, reverb, and the odd barroo. SHAUN THOMAS COWE and ZOE KILBOURN catch up with Sebastion before his national tour, which brings him to Welcome To The Valley on Saturday, October 25. Basenji, whose Soundcloud bio is limited to his affection for almonds and bicycles, is having a great time at Auckland airport. “I snuck bread from breakfast into my jacket pocket and I’ll probably eat it
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if the food on the plane isn’t enough,” he says. “This morning I did some sightseeing and learnt what a Gannet is, but now it is time to go home to work on new music.” Joie de vivre doesn’t even begin to describe it. Sebastian’s outlook is overwhelmingly positive - as it should be. Heirloom, one of Basenji’s first tracks with Future Classic, recently dropped as a free download to enormously positive reception (“It’s only been about a fortnight! I think today plays might hit 300, 000”). “Heirloom is quite an old track actually,” he says. “I had a playable demo close to the start of the year. I made it not that long after I made Dawn, which is why there are certain similarities in the instrumentation and overall style. I don’t really stick to a formula when it comes to making my music, but there are general techniques in song writing or production that I often keep coming back to. I try to keep my music upbeat and I like working with more organic sounds - I think that’s what creates a certain thematic consistency to my work.” “I have felt for a long time that heavier, darker dance music takes up too much space in the electronic music scene,” Sebastian explains. “Although I do enjoy it, I find it really over saturated. I think in some ways my music is a response to that. I like making songs that don’t really make sense in clubs, songs that don’t take themselves too seriously. I shamelessly like songs that are upbeat, cute and clichéd. If I’m working on a song and I’m not having fun, I will usually scrap it.” In that case, is there anything Sebastian feels he can’t make under the Basenji name? “I don’t turn down anything,” he says. “There are so many songs I continue to work on even if they don’t resemble “Basenji” tracks in any way. There are dozens of songs I will never show to anyone. I think it is really important to try to make all kinds of music, challenging yourself is the best way to stay inspired. Just because something doesn’t fit a specific project, doesn’t mean it has to be forgotten. “I think a lot of what I have learnt about production I have learnt since I started the Basenji project. I get pretty attached to sounds and ideas, so it takes me a while to incorporate new content into my work and keep the balance right. I think stylistically my music won’t change dramatically or suddenly, but there are a lot of tiny changes going on.” Basenji plays the Oktoberfest-style Welcome To The Valley festival - a lot of chilling, a lot of beer. “I’m not exactly sure how that gig happened, but I am really excited to be back in Perth. I always have a lot of fun on the We$t Coa$t.” (Sebastian requested the stylised $es.) “I’m not a massive beer drinker, but I’m keen to get involved!”
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JOHN SAFRAN Express Yourself Bound for Rottofest, John Safran has a knack for throwing himself into situations he hasn’t prepared for - Haitian voodoo ceremonies, successfully placing a fatwa on Rove McManus, roping maverick priest Fr. Bob Macguire into a regular radio show. While touring with his new book, Murder In Mississippi, he’s been signed up for a DJ set by Perth partystarters Chocolate Jesus. ZOE KILBOURN chats with John ahead of his Friday, September 19 DJ set at The Good Shepherd. “You have to put yourself in new circumstances and - not in an over-the-top way - you have to shake things up a bit. Somehow, my regular thing is not quite knowing what to ask, and the asking the wrong questions. That can somehow work out. You go somewhere, ask something inappropriate, there’s blowback - and then you get something awesome out of that.”
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John Safran is talking about the crazy method behind Murder In Mississippi, and possibly every other career highlight. John’s in Perth for a Rottofest presentation of the book’s “expansion pack”: the book tour includes phone recordings, footage the ABC couldn’t air, personal insights the book couldn’t accommodate. While planning, Chocolate Jesus wore him down. “These guys have been emailing me for years, like, every six months. I think they might’ve just emailed me when the Rottofest thing was being planned, so I just said, “Oh, same time, why not?” I’ve only DJed twice before - I mean, what are they expecting? I’ve locked into just doing ‘80s hip hop I’ve got on vinyl, that’s the limitation I’ve given myself. I really liked 80s hip hop growing up, I hope that’ll make it interesting.” John really likes ‘80s hip hop. As a uni student in the early ‘90s, he even found himself part of a crew called Raspberry Cordial. He won’t be rapping for his Good Shepherd set, but you can expect a lot of Public Enemy and Beastie Boys. “One of the biggest mistakes of my early life was buying hip hop cassettes. I’ve got all these first pressings of De La Soul and Public Enemy and whatever, and it’s all on cassette. I mean, cassette was more portable, but what was I thinking? All these records I’ve found have accumulated over the years since then. And also, some of the stuff back then I couldn’t get on cassette so I just bought on vinyl anyway. “On New Year’s Eve I did a DJ set, which was sort of my first one in Melbourne. Midnight Juggernauts were playing. I did the same thing as I’ll do at this gig, although I slipped in one ‘90s record, and someone noticed it. Not this time.” “In rap, there’s such an obvious blueprint for story telling,” he says. “I took it all as being kind of cheeky - I never took the lyrics seriously - like when LL Cool J was banging on about how cool he was, I just thought it was meant to be funny. Like, not like I’m laughing at him, but that he’s putting on an act. I liked the whole thing - it wasn’t comedy, it was nearly comedy - transgressive, offensive, all that kind of stuff.” “I’ve actually been reading all these old crime books from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and I think early rap was kind of like that - there was no guarantee that society was then going to consider it as an art form, and subsequently they’re seen as classics and great works. People just were kind of running on this energy - it was very unpretentious, and it’s fascinating trying to figure out where it was coming from. Early Public Enemy records - it’s so idiosyncratic. You kind of go, What was there before it? It’s like this combo of black militant lyrics and then this weird sound of like, punk rock, but not - it was confusing and exciting and it burst out there when no one was looking for it.”
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Biffy Clyro - Photo by Cole Maguire
BIFFY CLYRO Calling All Cars Metro City Friday, September 12, 2014 There wasn’t a silent fan in attendance at Metro City as Biffy Clyro once again proved why they should be considered the best Scottish rock band around today. Leading the crowd through an incredibly energetic and unforgettable set, the trio left no stone unturned as they showcased an endless combination of intense rock outs and slower sing-alongs. Melbourne-born, London-based trio Calling All Cars kicked off the show as they blasted away the remains of Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel from the speakers. Kicking off the show with a ton of newer material from their third album, Raise The People, vocalist Haydn Ing held nothing back, keeping the builds of Every Day Is The Same and Werewolves interesting as he jumped around the stage using anything he could find as a playground. Drummer Adam Montgomery stayed tight throughout, smashing into killer choruses and harnessing the endless potential of his floor tom. Montgomery combined with bassist James Ing for some flawless high-end melodies that took over as Haydn Ing’s vocals struggled to cut through due to some sound difficulties. All was soon forgiven as Haydn jumped over the barricade, taking his guitar and microphone with him, performing older
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track Animal from within the mosh and the crowd ate it up. Sure enough, by the the time final track Reptile was all said and done, the crowd was roaring and ready for their Scottish heroes. It didn’t take long for “‘Mon the Biff!” chants to engulf Metro City and soon enough Biffy Clyro hit the stage with Different People. The trio clearly had a huge batch of dedicated followers as the crowd immediately began moshing and singing along endlessly. The stage lit up in a lighting frenzy as The Golden Rule rang out through the venue, shortly followed by a roar as vocalist Simon Neil led the crowd through The Captain. Drummer Ben Johnston was impressively versatile throughout, constantly performing utterly unique drum fills whilst sharing lyrics with Neil and his brother James, owning classic track 57 much to the delight of fans. Recent singles Sounds Like Balloons and Biblical were deafening as the crowd got louder and louder and the choruses got bigger and bigger. By the time slower cult favourite God & Satan came around there wasn’t a soul in the room quiet. Neil brought the stage alive, all alone with an acoustic guitar in hand and raw emotion as the band continued to sound even better live then they do recorded, which was an achievement in itself. The huge songs kept continuing as Many Of Horror and Black Chandelier led perfectly into Bubbles that had Neil giddy to the point of dancing. Soon into the song a small pit broke out; enough to push the crowd into hysteria as the trio broke out into a thunderous instrumental ending. The band didn’t stay off stage for long as they returned for a three-song encore concluding with Mountains. Neil’s end of show thanks was as genuine as you could ever receive concluding a huge night of Biffy ‘Fucking’ Clyro. ‘Mon the Biff! AARON BRYANS
Cannibal Corpse - Photo by Denis Radacic
CANNIBAL CORPSE Hour of Penance Capitol Tuesday, September 9, 2014 Longstanding US outfit Cannibal Corpse are the sweethearts of death metal to West Australian punters. A deliberately ‘un-brutal’ term to use in connection with the band, considering the gore-laden lyrical content and unrelenting riffs that helped them stake their claim as one of the big-wigs of the genre since they got together 26 years ago. But no matter how many times they visit our shores, local fans always feel a familiar rush of excitement – like that high school crush you never really got over. Returning once again on the eve of their 13th full-length release, A Skeletal Domain, the band didn’t hold back on sharing new material, with Perth among the first in the world to hear the album in the flesh. Starting off the night early were Italians Hour Of Penance. It was their second time in our city, after supporting Behemoth on their national run of dates last year. Expectations were high and they didn’t disappoint. Although the live mix wasn’t really
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doing them any favours, the four-piece were able to rise above, drawing heavily from their most recent effort, Regicide (2014). Not your usual technical death metal fanfare, the standout was James Payne’s drumming – what an absolute machine. Cannibal Corpse spared the introductions. Coming on stage to the roar of the crowd, they plunged unceremoniously into Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead off 1994’s The Bleeding. Setting the tone for the night and a set littered with the best of new and old, there was definitely something to be admired about a band that had never wavered from their true essence after almost three decades in the ring. “This one’s for all the ladies out there….this is Fucked With A Knife,” bellowed the ominous force that is vocalist George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher ahead of the classic 1994 track. And the hits just kept on rolling. Stripped, Raped And Strangled (1994) and I Cum Blood (1992) were spliced between songs like Sadistic Embodiment and Icepick Lobotomy - both literally fresh from the studio. The greatest thing about Cannibal Corpse is that there are no pretentions – what you see is what you get. These are five musicians genuinely passionate about keeping death metal stripped back to its core. Ending off with the expected, but always much loved, Make Them Suffer (2006) and Hammer Smashed Face (1992) – there is no doubt that we’ll be seeing Cannibal Corpse next time they have a new album under their belts. JESSICA WILLOUGHBY
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Bar9 - Photo by Josh Lloyd
BAR9 AND HABSTRAKT Killafoe, Casuel, Maker, JD4D, Naysu, Dinolife, Blackfoul, Heavy Division, Fat Al Shape Bar Friday, September 12, 2014 2014 has borne witness to the rise of a cult event in Perth’s bass music scene - a scene that has left itself less and less room to rise in prolificacy or popular demand. If you’re at all a dubstep fiend or committed raver, then you might’ve just guessed I’m talking about Bassment. Edition 002 stretched a 3-4 hour line around the corner from Gilkison’s dance studio. Edition 003 sold out its entire online ticket allocation in a very literal 5-10 seconds. Taking bass music back where it belongs, the nights themselves have consistently delivered gargantuan dubstep tunes and vibes, resplendent reminders of the greatness and staying power of the genre. It was ball-of-excitement time, then, when it was announced that Bassment had teamed up with tried-and-true industry destroyers Inhibit to bring the lucky people of Perth Bar9 and Habstrakt, a seemingly perfect recipe for a huge night of explosive bass music. The event was slickly run, and despite the huge online attendance, the line was whittled down to next to nothing within a couple hours of doors opening. Lead support for the night was local Killafoe, fresh off having his single Creation Bomb featured in Excision’s Shambhala 2014 mix, a huge nod of achievement to any bass music producer.
Following in the reliably bass-crushing footsteps of Inhibit selector Casuel, the set Killafoe provided was of a familiar surging intensity, jumping effortlessly across genres whilst keeping the focus on building a dubstep-worthy, energy-yielding atmosphere. Frenchman Habstrakt came out and opened with Yabba Dabs, a chaotic dubstep creation from his upcoming Storm EP in collaboration with Megalodon. It left the room simmering, ready to boil over, but unfortunately what came next failed to capitalise on this. White Avenue - Photo by JF Foto There were patches of classic grimy, glitchy dubstep, The Rosemount Hotel but the set was ultimately driven by house tracks such Saturday, September 13, 2014 as the first drop of Mercer & DJ Snake’s Lunatic or the Skrillex, Kill The Noise and Milo & Otis remix of NRG. It The National Campus Bands Competition is a Big pleased some, but ultimately lacked the grunge and filth Deal, let us never forget. From the field of scrappers that dubstep devotees have drooled and queued for with and garage bands have risen some truly iconic Aussie previous Bassment events, and this was reflected by a outfits, including local names Eskimo Joe and Jebediah (it’s contractual - you have to mention those two constant ebb and flow of dancefloor passengers. The UK’s Bar9 also decided to open up with every time you write about the NCBC). On Saturday, six acts went head to head for the honour of heading a huge 2014 dubstep artpiece: their collaboration with to the nationals, with Iceage Sugar stepping into the Datsik, Droid. This time, however, when the crowd slot vacated by the injury-plagued Mister Wolf. rose in anticipation of more jumbo dubstep, they were Opening act Bears And Dolls absolutely validated. It took 26 minutes before it felt like set the bar low with their Emilie Autumn/Amanda the destructive warpath of dubstep bangers ever trailed Palmer posturing, all forced whimsy and deliberately off for a pit stop, but within the minute the crowd was wacky costuming. There’s the ghost of something sent off on a trip to yet another deadly double drop interesting going on there, but lead singer Brooke destination. Digital Gangsta by Space Laces was the Wilkie’s Minnie Mouse falsetto and deliberately crowd favourite, but it was a set predominantly built arrhythmic dancing comes across like Tori Amos around immense originals, such as Piano Tune, the having a stroke. Some decent musicianship and remix of Example’s Kickstarts and the remix of Dodge songwriting could not overcome what was essentially & Fuski’s Bring The Wobble Back, the ensuing screams an exercise in ‘look at me!’ theatrics. They’re There delivered up a nice line in carrying forward from the back of the room a clear jangly surf rock, with elements of ‘80s paisley pop indicator of the quality of the mixing. The room was left lifted straight from the Stems/Church playbook. to Bassment slayer Dinolife, and with every huge wub Singer Dylan Melsom’s vocals could certainly be that followed from that point onwards it felt more and stronger and there’s little chance anyone would more like being back in a Bassment sweat pit. A fitting object to a change of name from something that end to a night that showcased the hunger and passion sounds like a pretty obvious placeholder until something better comes along, but these guys are dubstep will always cultivate in Perth. certainly worth checking out - take as evidence the fact that they took out the number three spot. JOSH LLOYD
THE NATIONAL CAMPUS BANDS COMPETITION STATE FINAL
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White Avenue were next off the blocks. In terms of music genre, they pursue a similar line to their immediate predecessors on the bill, with perhaps a heavier, crunchier edge that draws from more ‘70s rock influences. They’re a tight act, and if they could perhaps learn to know when a song is supposed to end rather than dragging it out past its natural conclusion, impressive instrumentation and a palpable sense of fun more than make up for it. Here’s a factoid: The Fuzz Bucket on the bill on Saturday are the second band in Perth to sport that name, and a member of the original incarnation was in the audience to check out the new kids. The three piece impressed all and sundry with some astute, no frills rock St James Sirens generated the loudest response from the crowd on the night - there’s no doubt about that. They also sounded more like Karnivool than any other band on the roster - is there a connection? This town certainly loves its ‘Vool. The Sirens were far and away the most technically proficient band of the night, and they play exactly the kind of populist heavy rock that will draw a crowd; while it’d be nice to hear something that stretches the boundaries a bit, it’s hard to complain. They took second place. Late replacements Iceage Sugar served up some delicious indie pop but the night belonged to White Avenue, who are off to Sydney to knuckle on in the nationals. Once again, it was a strong showing for the NCBC - but we should be used to that by now. TRAVIS JOHNSON
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The Georgians
THE GEORGIANS ON MY MIND The Georgians deliver a dose of hooky, energetic alt-rock with their new single, Launch It, which - appropriately enough- launches at The Flying Scotsman this Wednesday, September 17. Along for the ride are Tell The Shaman and The Mondays. Doors open at 8pm.
Shit Narnia
WELL, BOWL ME OVER
Custom Royal - Photo by Perry DeGennaro
If you haven’t been paying attention to the awesome rock ‘n’ roll shows that have been going on at the Osborne Park Bowling Club, well, you’ve been missing out. Remedy that this Sunday, September 21, by getting down there for Bowlapalooza, featuring the lairy likes of Lauren Fixation, The Fruity Whites, SMRTS, Kaan, Smokin’ Aces, Suburban And Coke, Emu Xperts, The Pissedcolas, Aborted Tortoise and Shit Narnia. Doors open at 2pm
A ROYAL NIGHT OUT
JUST JOSHING
Custom Royal head a killer line up of local talent at The Rosemount Hotel this Thursday, September 18. Catch them alongside Night Signals, Necter, Howling Bones and Cothe from 8pm. Entry is $8.
A familiar figure from his work with such noted acts as Vida Cain, The Happy Endings and Bordello, Josh Johnstone is now out for himself with a new solo project. He launches his debut EP, Half A World Away, with his four piece band at the Indi Bar this Friday, September 19. Support comes from the Conan ROCKET HARD It’s gonna be a night of weird, hypnotic, psychedelic Chapman Trio, The Jook Joint Band - featuring Josh’s noise this Friday, September 19, when French old man! - and Chris Rowe of The Midnight Mules. Rockets play The Beat Nightclub along with fellow Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10. mindbenders Blackmilk (the band, not the swimwear) Golden String and HYLA. Doors open at 9pm, entry CAVE IN YOUR SKULL is $8. Liam Young, Jay Marriott and Steven Turnock are OUT ON A LIMB Skullcave, Perth’s newest power-doom trio. Their first Get ready for a fun Sunday sesh at Four5Nine Bar single, Acid Tone, gets an airing at Four5Nine Bar this this week, when indie-rock exponents The Limbs are Saturday, September 20, courtesy of Fat Shan’s, with joined by The Government Yard, Fox Jellyfish, The support from Apache, Black Stone From The Sun, and Heavenly Creatures and Diet. Doors open at 6pm. Bad China. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10.
NORTHBRIDGE BREWING COMPANY OPENING NIGHT Northbridge Brewing Company Thursday, September 11, 2014 Even Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi put in an appearance at the grand opening of this boutique brewery and eatery. Dozens of Perth’s top tastemakers graced the Lake Street venue’s opening event, and a good time was had by all. Photos by Stefan Caramia
Liz, Tim
Derrick, Erin, Dawn, Justin, Jo, Tim, Jenny
Jeff, Joe
Reece, Lisa
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David & Jessica
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Childsaint
CHILDSAINT Get Down With The Sickness Childsaint launch their debut EP, Sick, at The Bird this Friday, September 19, with support from Dream Rimmy and Delay Delay. We caught up with Chloë McGrath, one quarter of the dark-folk outfit, to get the lowdown. Who are Childsaint? Childsaint began with Jane Azzopardi and myself deciding to play our miserable acoustic songs together, about a year ago. Then we asked Ashlyn Koh if she wanted to drum for us, and then Rhian Todhunter signed up on bass and we became less acoustic-y and made more ...whelmed... music.
dark and driven at the same time. A friend told me we could be the soundtrack to a western film; we get very different comparisons. We all agree on our love for and influence of Warpaint, Sharon Van Etten, The Drones, The War On Drugs, Batrider and Elliott Smith. Tell us about Sick. It’s our first release! Four tracks, all of which are originally written by Jane or myself and made better by the band. It’s kind of cruisy to listen to, a little dark but it wouldn’t be Childsaint without nightmare imagery and cussing. Where did you record? We recorded with Rob Stephens at Pink Eye over the summer months, mostly with amps mic’d up in Rob’s hallway. He’s probably the best guy you’ll meet, he was so patient with us, let us figure out how we wanted things to sound and helped us to get there.
What’s up next for you guys? What’s your sound? We haven’t really thought about it - our attention Between us all, we have varied tastes that meld has been all on getting the EP out! Probably just keeping on together and shape our sound. We’re a bit dreamy, folky, but writing and enjoying playing together.
WHIPPER SNAPPER DISTILLERY OPENING NIGHT Whipper Snapper Distillery Saturday, September 13, 2014 With music by The Rumble, The Regular Hunters, Mat Cal, Polly Medlen and more, haircuts by Uncle Joe, and moonshine by the litre, the opening of this East Perth venture was a riotously joyous affair. Photos by Rachael Barrett
Aaron, Cameron, David, Matthew
Tom, Jarred
Christian, Jimmy
Dave, Div
Jess, Naomi, Ty
17/09
THE GEORGIANS Launch It Single Launch @ The Velvet Lounge
19/09
CHILDSAINT Sick EP Launch @ The Bird
19/09
JOSH JOHNSTONE Half A World Away EP Launch @ Indi Bar
20/09
THE PAINKILLERS Garage Sale Girl EP Launch @ Mojos
20/09
SKULLCAVE Acid Tone Single Launch @ Four5Nine
26/09
MAURICE FLAVEL Intensive Care CD Launch @ Rosemount Hotel
04/10
THE LAMMAS TIDE Barefoot Electric Album Launch @ The Odd Fellow
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VILLAIN The Other Side EP Launch @ Flyrite
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VARIOUS Stormrider 2015 Compilation @ The Civic WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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TOURS THIS WEEK STEVE NIEVE 17 Fly By Night BAND OF FREQUENCIES 18 Mojos Bar GRACE KNIGHT 19 & 20 Ellington Jazz Club 360 19 Metro City 20 Astor Theatre ANDY BULL 19 The Bakery STICKY FINGERS 19 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River 20 The Bakery TCHAMI 19 Ambar CLAUDE HAY 19 Swan Hotel Basement TALL BLACK GUY 19 The Manor ANTHONY CALLEA – SONGS OF GEORGE MICHAEL 19 Astor Theatre ROTTOFEST 19 – 21 Rottnest Island TIKI TAANE 20 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River GARETH LIDDIARD 20 Rosemount Hotel MEG MAC 20 Amplifier Bar JOCHEN MILLER & HEATBEAT 20 Metro City SLUMBERJACK 20 Capitol JOE BONAMASSA 21 Perth Concert Hall SWOLLEN MEMBERS & MADCHILD 21 Amplifier Bar GABRIEL IGLESIAS 23 Riverside Theatre ANGUS & JULIA STONE 23 Perth Concert Hall
SEPTEMBER ANGUS & JULIA STONE 24 Perth Concert Hall ANDREA BOCELLI 24 Perth Arena INGRID MICHAELSON 24 Fly By Night Club TUBA SKINNY 24 Fly By Night 25 The Jazz Cellar 26 & 27 Wave Rock Weekender 28 Clancy’s Dunsborough BOY & BEAR 25 Albany Entertainment Centre 26 Bunbury Entertainment Centre 28 Fremantle Arts Centre REBEL SOULJAHZ 25 Capitol DMA’S 25 Mojos Bar 26 Amplifier Bar COURTNEY BARNETT 26 Fly By Night KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD 26 The Bakery 27 Wave Rock Weekender BLUEJUICE 26 Capitol 27 Red Earth Arts Festival, Karratha
THE CAT EMPIRE 26 Fremantle Arts Centre 27 Metro City WAVE ROCK WEEKENDER 27 - 28 Wave Rock Caravan Park RISE OF BROTALITY TOUR ft. I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN, THE GHOST INSIDE, IN HEARTS WAKE 27 YMCA HQ 28 Capitol LISTEN OUT PERTH 2014 ft. FLUME, CHET FAKER, ZHU AND MORE 28 Ozone Reserve MIAMI HORROR 27 Red Earth Arts Festival, Karratha 28 Newport Hotel
OCTOBER THE HIGH KINGS 1 Crown Theatre HANDS LIKE HOUSES 1 YMCA HQ 2 Amplifier Bar THE YEARLINGS 2 Clancy’s Fremantle THE DIRE STRAITS EXPERIENCE 3 Perth Concert Hall ANNA VISSI 3 HBF Stadium THE MEANIES 3 Rosemount Hotel STACEY PULLEN 3 Geisha Bar MANJIMUP BLUEGRASS & OLD TIME MUSIC WEEKEND 3, 4 & 5 Manjimup GENERIK 4 Metropolis Fremantle 2014 AWESOME FESTIVAL 4 – 13 Perth Cultural Centre VERUCA SALT 4 Rosemount Hotel BRITISH INDIA 5 Scarborough Beach Amphitheatre JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE 8 & 9 Perth Arena INVENTIONS 8 Rosemount Hotel 10 YaYa’s 11 YMCA HQ SLAVES 8 Amplifier Bar THE TEA PARTY with SUPERJESUS 9 Crown Theatre BRIGGS 9 Flyrite 10 Mojos Bar 11 Dunsborough Hotel HILLTOP HOODS 10 Nipper Roe Oval, Broome T-PAIN 10 Metropolis Fremantle DEAD KENNEDYS 11 Capitol JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE 11 Astor Theatre RHYS DARBY 13 & 14 Astor Theatre ADAM BRAND 15 Friends Restaurant 16 The Deck, Busselton 17 New Centurion Hotel 18 Charles Hotel 19 Ravenswood Hotel
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ANDY BULL
ROTTOFEST
ROTTNEST ISLAND FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
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THE SELECTER 14 Rosemount Hotel ALL DAY 15 YMCA HQ 16 Prince of Wales, Bunbury 17 Amplifier Bar SAY ANYTHING 15 Amplifier Bar COMEBACK KID 16 Amplifier Bar SHEPPARD 16 Astor Theatre MISSY HIGGINS 16 Crown Theatre 18 Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre 19 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre ALLDAY 16 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury JOHN WILLIAMSON 16 Albany Entertainment Centre 18 Astor Theatre ANDREW DICE CLAY 17 HBF Stadium JOHNNY CASH THE CONCERT 17 Astor Theatre CHRISTINE ANU 17 & 18 Ellington Jazz Club JASMINE RAE 17 New Centurion Hotel 18 Charles Hotel 19 Ravenswood Hotel SOLE MIO 19 Crown Theatre REGGIE WATTS 21 Astor Theatre MILEY CYRUS 23 Perth Arena BRAZOUKA 23 – 26 Regal Theatre BALL PARK MUSIC 24 Astor Theatre 25 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River BEN OTTEWELL 24 The Odd Fellow 25 459 Rosemount Hotel WELCOME TO THE VALLEY 25 Belvoir Amphitheatre THE AUSTRALIAN SANTANA EXPERIENCE 25 Charles Hotel HOLY HOLY 25 Dunsborough Tavern DEVIN TOWNSEND 25 Hale School LIL JON 26 Metro City THE ROLLING STONES 29 Perth Arena KATIE NOONAN & FRIENDS 30 Artbar THE KIN 30 Mojos Bar 31 Rosemount Hotel SHIHAD 31 Mojos Bar
NOVEMBER THE ROLLING STONES 1 Perth Arena SHIHAD 1 Rosemount Hotel SASHA 2 The Court Hotel JOELISTICS 1 459 Rosemount Hotel 2 Mojos Bar AQUA 5 Metropolis Fremantle MARIANAS TRENCH 5 Astor Theatre THE SCREAMING JETS 6 Capitol RODRIGUEZ 6, 7 & 9 Kings Park & Botanic Garden THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS 7 Rosemount Hotel MADDEN BROTHERS 7 Crown Theatre KATY PERRY 7 & 8 Perth Arena BLACK VOICES 8 Perth Concert Hall MIX 94.5’S CLASSIC HITS ALL DAY 8 King’s Park & Botanic Garden RADIO BIRDMAN 9 459 Rosemount Hotel GOSSLING 9 The Bakery JACK CARTY 9 Rosemount Hotel JOE SATRIANI 11 Astor Theatre JIMMY EAT WORLD 11 Metro City
YES 12 Crown Theatre KRISIUM 12 Amplifier Bar THIRSTY MERC 12 Friends Restaurant 13 Rivendell Winery 14 New Centurion Hotel 15 Charles Hotel 16 Ravenswood Hotel PAUL UBANA JONES 13 Northshore Tavern 14 Ravenswood Tavern 15 Collie Hotel 16 Settlers Tavern 19 Music Shack, Pinjarra 21 Howling Wolf Winery, Yallingup JOHN DIGWEED 14 The Stables Bar DUSKY 14 Ambar THELMA PLUM 14 Players Bar 15 Amplifier Bar 16 Newport Hotel NOFX 15 Metro City THE MARK OF CAIN 15 Rosemount Hotel SEAN PAUL 15 HBF Stadium TORI AMOS 18 Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre JIMMY BARNES 19 Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre 20 Albany Entertainment Centre 22 & 23 Kings Park & Botanic Garden STEVE SMYTH 19 459 Rosemount Hotel 20 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury 21 Redcliffe On The Murray 22 Mojos Bar 23 Indi Bar SETH TROXLER 21 Villa THE DELTA RIGGS 21 Prince of Wales Hotel 22 The Odd Fellow HEY LADY! 21 Mojos Bar 22 459 Rosemount JUSTINE CLARKE 22 Crown Theatre NEIL FINN 22 Sandalford Winery C.W. STONEKING 22 Rosemount Hotel 23 Mojos Bar NICK CAVE 27 & 28 Fremantle Arts Centre ILLY 28 Astor Theatre BROODS 26 Capitol BUSBY MAROU ACOUSTIC DUO 27 Mojos Bar 28 Prince Of Wales BEN FOLDS & WASO 28 & 29 Perth Concert Hall HAND OF MERCY 28 Elliot St Bar, Bunbury 29 Villa 30 YMCA HQ COLAB FESTIVAL 29 UWA Oak Lawn THE SMITH STREET BAND 29 Rosemount Hotel STEREOSONIC 29 & 30 Claremont Showgrounds HOODOO GURUS 30 Scarborough Amphitheatre
DECEMBER JOAN ARMATRADING 4 Astor Theatre HUSKY 4 Dunsborough Hotel 5 The Bakery 6 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury YACHT CLUB DJS 5 Amplifier Bar UB40 & BLUE KING BROWN 5 Red Hill Auditorium HILLTOP HOODS 5 Bovell Park, Busselton 6 Red Hill Auditorium PIERCE BROTHERS 5 Settlers Tavern 6 Indi Bar NE OBLIVISCARIS 6 Amplifier Bar TIG NOTARO 6 Regal Theatre
SLEEP 8 The Bakery TY SEGALL 11 The Bakery DEAD LETTER CIRCUS 12 Capitol 13 Prince of Wales, Bunbury THINGS OF STONE & WOOD 13 The Charles Hotel 14 Dunsborough Hotel THY ART IS MURDER 17 YMCA HQ 18 Capitol WATSKY 18 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury 19 Leisure Inn 20 Amplifier Bar
JANUARY 2015 SOUTHBOUND 3 & 4 Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton MARDUK & INQUISITION 12 Amplifier Bar EVERY TIME I DIE 14 Amplifier Bar OZ ROCK BUSSELTON ft. ICEHOUSE, ABSOLUTELY ‘80S, WENDY MATTHEWS, ROSS WILSON, DIESEL, JAMES REYNE 24 Barnard Park, Busselton RED HILL AUSTRALIA DAY EVE CONCERT ft. ICEHOUSE, JAMES REYNE, DIESEL 25 Red Hill Auditorium SUZI QUATRO 28, 29 & 31 Regal Theatre DOCTOR WHO SYMPHONIC SPECTACULAR 31 Perth Arena
FEBRUARY 2015 CHIODOS 4 Amplifier Bar PASSENGER 7 Red Hill Auditorium EVENING ON THE GREEN – THE ANGELS & CHEAP TRICK 8 Kings Park & Botanic Garden LANEWAY FESTIVAL 8 Esplanade Reserve, Fremantle ROXETTE 14 Perth Arena THE EAGLES 18 & 19 Perth Arena ONE DIRECTION 20 Patersons Stadium PAUL SIMON & STING 21 & 22 Sir James Mitchell Park GUY SEBASTIAN 28 Perth Arena
MARCH 2015 FROM THE JAM 5 Capitol SANDRA BERNHARD 10 Regal Theatre KYLIE MINOGUE 14 Perth Arena ROXETTE 14 Perth Arena VANCE JOY 20 Astor Theatre ROD STEWART 21 Perth Arena
APRIL 2015 THE BLACK KEYS 14 Red Hill Auditorium
MAY 2015 SAM SMITH 4 HBF Stadium RICKY MARTIN 8 Perth Arena PALOMA FAITH 16 Perth Concert Hall
JUNE 2015 THE GETAWAY PLAN 12 Rosemount Hotel 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 29 Perth Arena
SAVOIR, SEPTEMBER 19.
STICKY FINGERS, SEPTEMBER 19
WEEKLY WEDNESDAY 17/09 ADELPHI GRILL Bernardine THE ALBION HOTEL Quiz Night THE BALMORAL Randa And Soul Kingdom THE BIRD Chance Encounters #1 ft. Tornado Wallace DJ Medico Jasione Tre Loughmani Mick Dispiace Jay Barina BRASS MONKEY Backpacker Night THE BROWN FOX Acoustic Chill Out THE CARINE Open Mic Night Shaun Street CAPITOL Harlem Wednesdays Philly Blunt Olithvgxd Genga CHARLES HOTEL Funky Bunch Trivia CITRO BAR Adrian Wilson CLANCY’ CANNING BRIDGE Songwriter Night ft. Ben Merito CLUB RED SEA Cheek THE COURT Wicked Wednesdays ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Manteca FLYRITE Northbridge Nightly Now FLY BY NIGHT Steve Nieve GOLD BAR Famous THE GOOD SHEPHERD Thinkfar GROOVE BAR (CROWN) 5 Shots HULA BULA BAR Island Nite LLAMA BAR Akuna Club ft. Terace Shann Troy Division Egg Noodle LANEWAY LOUNGE Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Decoy Duo THE LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan MALT SUPPER CLUB Margeaux Wednesdays METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen
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MOJOS BAR The Julius Lutero Band Bartlett Bros Joe Pule Siobhan Cotchin THE MOON CAFE Going Solo ft. Timothy Nelson Amber Fresh MUSTANG BAR Backpacker & Student $5 Fest Easy Tigers DJ Giles Madam Montage NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays ft. DJ Bliss NICHE BAR Karma Wednesday OCEAN ONE BAR Brazilian Forró Wednesday Nights THE PADDO Dove 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL White Avenue King Crime Union Penance The Fruity Whites Dr. Bumface IMF ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Surroundings Statues Winterfold Hollow Ground ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Best Years of Your Life Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz ROSIE O’GRADY’S NORTHBRIDGE Laugh Resort Comedy Open Mic Night ft. Dave Fyffe SHAPE BAR Milk Wednesdays SOVEREIGN ARMS Wednesday Cocktail Night DJ Five O SWINGING PIG Open Mic Night Greg Carter UNIVERSAL BAR Virtual Insanity UNIVERSAL BAR (UPSTAIRS) Adrian Wilson THE VELVET LOUNGE The Georgians Tell The Shaman The Mondays VILLAGE BAR Village People Wednesdays VOODOO LOUNGE Fantasy Wednesdays YAYA’S JC5
THURSDAY 18/09 AMPLIFIER Last Night ft. Dream On Dreamer Aveira Skies Vice Versa Idle Eyes THE BIRD Fat Sparrow Album Fundraiser Nic Brown The Prefix BRASS MONKEY James Ess Open Deck Night Rhythm Bound Karaoke THE BRIGHTON Siren Song Enterprises BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke CAPTAIN STIRLING Trivia Night THE CAUSEWAY BAR Xport Thursdays CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Rock Scholars Showcase THE CLAREMONT HOTEL Institution Thursdays DJ Lukas Wimmler CONNECTIONS NIGHTCLUB Bingay hosted by Veronica Jean Jones THE CRAFTSMAN DJ Five O DEVILLES PAD Rock n’ Roll Karaoke Magnus Danger Magnus DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Open Mic Night Kris Buckle ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Sam Anning FLY BY NIGHT Beacy’s Got Talent THE GATE Greg Carter THE GOOD SHEPHERD 44th Sunset 3 Hands One Hoof Mel Jackson GRAND CENTRAL PARK Kizzy GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Dr. Bogus HULA BULA BAR Hi-Fi Lounge INDI BAR Open Mic Night LAKERS TAVERN Howie Morgan LANEWAY LOUNGE Jessie Gordon Quartet LEISURE INN DJ Misschief LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Jack + Jill LOST SOCIETY The Collective THE LUCKY SHAG James Wilson
360, SEPTEMBER 19-20
MOJOS BAR Band Of Frequencies Simon Kelly & The Big Bamboo Jordan McRobbie MOON & SIXPENCE Bob & Clem MUSTANG BAR Lionizer Being Beta DJ James MacArthur NEWPORT HOTEL The Newport Record Club NORTHSHORE TAVERN Nathan Gaunt Duo OCEAN ONE BAR Turin’s Open Mic Night THE PADDO Matt Angell PEEL ALE HOUSE Open Mic Chris Kinna 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Fat Shan’s Band Comp – Semi Final #2 ft. Jamie Munslow Davies The Hounds Lumpy Dog Bad China Black Stone From The Sun ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Custom Royal Night Signals Necter Howling Bones ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Clayton Bolger RUBIX BAR Adam James THE SAINT Thursday Music Quiz SETTLERS TAVERN Comedy @ Settlers ft. Troy Kinne & special guests SWALLOW BAR Shotdown From Sugartown UNIVERSAL BAR Off The Record YAYA’S Priority One At The Spacejam Ascending Fall Figure 23 FRIDAY 19/09 AMBAR Tchami Terace Drifter Paul Scott City Kid Parakord AMPLIFIER Natural NZ Music Festival Announcement Party ft. Tiki Taane Optimus Gryme ASTOR THEATRE Anthony Callea – Songs of George Michael THE AVIARY Ben Sebastian DJ Dave
THE BAKERY Andy Bull Angus Dawson The Peppermint Cloud Club THE BALMORAL The Mojos BAR ORIENT Reggae Club THE BAYSWATER DJ Atlus BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) STEREO BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) PLAY BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Mike Nayar THE BELMONT Light Street BEST DROP TAVERN Tandem THE BIRD Artlink Magazine Launch Childsaint Dream Rimmy Delay Delay THE BOAT Kelly Read BRASS MONKEY DJ Vicktor James Ess THE BRIGHTON Frenzy CAPITOL Capitol Fridays Roger Smart CAPITOL (UPSTAIRS) I Love ‘80s & ‘90s Darren Tucker THE CARINE J!mmy Beats THE CAUSEWAY Showtime Saturdays CHASE BAR & BISTRO James Wilson CITRO BAR Adrian Wilson CIVIC HOTEL Jincs Reilly Craig Ben O’Neill Gabbi Fusco CLANCYS CANNING BRIDGE DJ Boogie CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Zarm Duo CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Free Friday Fiesta ft. Razor Jack Shotdown From Sugar Town Ross Vegas Juggler CONNECTIONS NIGHTCLUB Winter Of Our Discontent ft. Betty Grumble Ginava DJ Smoothie Boys Aslan Modesty Blaze Reece Walker Salut Barbu THE COURT Talk Like a Pirate Day – Pirate Party CRUISING YACHT CLUB Replika
Deadline Monday 5pm. X-Press Guide is a service to advertisers listing all entertainment events. All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press. Email guide@xpressmag.com.au
TOURS • LIVE • DANCE
MEG MAC, SEPTEMBER 20
DEVILLE’S PAD A Dead Man’s Dance – International Pirate Night ft. The Isolites Rumskull EAST 150 BAR Jamie Powers EDZ SPORTZ BAR Back2Back ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Grace Knight Jacuzzi Masterpiece EMPIRE BAR Howie Morgan EVE NIGHTCLUB Recharge Fridays FLYRITE TinyClub MAK Pasteman GEISHA BAR Rough Love 1st Birthday ft. Rodriguez Jr. Shaddow Brothers Beto Quintero Erick Namorato Nando Cesar GINGER NIGHTCLUB Mondo Fridays GOLD BAR Fox Friday’s THE GOOD SHEPHERD John Safran Ash Pedrick Ben Morrison Sam Kuzich Blake Kelleway GOSNELLS HOTEL The Gypsy Minions THE GREENWOOD Acoustic Aly GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Tod Johnston & Peace Love DJ Crazy Craig THE HERDSMAN Adam James Duo HULA BULA BAR Shakin’ It HYDE PARK HOTEL (COURTYARD) Kevin Curran Woodlock INDI BAR Josh Johnstone Conan Chapman Trio Jook Joint Band Chris Rowe
WHITE AVENUE, SEPTEMBER 17
INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO. Justin Cortorillo KALAMUNDA HOTEL Astrobat LANEWAY LOUNGE Astrid Ripepi Quartet Retriofit THE LEISURE INN DJ Peta LIBRARY Dorcia LLAMA BAR Honey THE LUCKY SHAG DJ Richie G MALT Nu Disco Hip Hop THE MANOR Tall Black Guy Mei Saraswati DJ Charlie Bucket MAHOGANY INN Bernardine METRO CITY 360 METRO FREO C5 I Love 80s & 90s METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Clique #013 Legends: Tupac vs. Biggie MINT Club Retro MOJOS BAR Katy Steele MOON & SIXPENCE Soul Corporation MULLALOO BEACH HOTEL Jam Jar Friday’s Ladies Night MUSTANG BAR Oz Big Band Swing DJ Flash Nat & The Action Men MY PLACE Karaoke NEWPORT HOTEL FLUKE Fridays Madam Montage NORTHSHARE TAVERN Footy On The Road THE PADDO Craig Reilly Flyte PADDY MAGUIRE’S Rock Candy PARAMOUNT Paramount Party Crew
FEATURED GIG
BUTCH STABLES BAR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
PARKER Kim (The Presets) & DE$IGNATED Motorik Vibe Council PEEL ALE HOUSE Siren Song Enterprises PIRATE BAR Dean Anderson PORT KENNEDY TAVERN 2 Tenors THE PRINCIPAL The Lifelike Project Katt Nelson PUBLIC HOUSE Neil Viney RENDEZVOUS HOTEL (LOBBY BAR) Grant Hart ROLEYSTONE COUNTRY CLUB Stu McKay 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Project Redlight Energy Comission Them Sharks Suburban & Coke The MDC ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Danceathon! ft. Savoir Catlips Morgan St. HI-FI The M.O.V.E. Record Players John Tanner DJ ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Gunshy Romeos ROTTNEST ISLAND Rottofest SAIL & ANCHOR Howie Morgan SETTLERS TAVERN Sticky Fingers THE SHED Crush DJ Glenn SOVEREIGN ARMS Thank God It’s… Funky Lounge Fridays DJ Az-T THE SWAN BASEMENT Claude Hay SWINGING PIG Greg Carter TROPICANA HOTEL, CARNARVON Siren & Assassin UNIVERSAL BAR Nightmoves UWA TAV Tim Roose VELVET LOUNGE Breakdown 1st Birthday ft. DiiSTORTiiON Vectrix Beatslappaz Roxright Carla DLuxways VERNON ARMS TAVERN Greg Carter THE VIC Nathan Gaunt WINTERSUN HOTEL Leon Tioke THE WOODVALE Our Generation
TCHAMI, SEPTEMBER 19.
YAYA’S Braves Thee Gold Blooms Luke Pallier ACE Fridays DJ Ace SATURDAY 20/09 AMBAR Japan 4 ft. Miss Demeanour Tee El Mo’fly Philly Blunt Meet Mark AMPLIFIER Meg Mac Rainy Day Women Pure Pop Eddie Electric ASTOR THEATRE 360 THE AVENUE Lokie Shaw THE AVIARY DJ Dave Genga Zel THE BAKERY Sticky Fingers THE BALMORAL Hans Fiance Trio BAR ORIENT Saturday Night Fever BAYSWATER HOTEL Acoustic Saturdays BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) CANVAS BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) House Party THE BIRD DJ Dodger Stadium Jerome LOL & Samo Sound Boy BOAB TAVERN James Wilson THE BROOK One Trick Phonies BROOKLANDS TAV Organ Grinders CAPITOL Slumberjack Death Disco CAPITOL (UPSTAIRS) Cream Of The ‘80s THE CARINE Frankie G THE CAUSEWAY New Navy CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Steve Parkin CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH Deep Sea Disco ft. DJ Swami Adima THE CLAREMONT HOTEL Antics Tim from Tim & Jean COCONUT CLUB Saturdays THE CRAFTSMAN Madam Montage THE CRUISING YACHT CLUB Kathy Carver DEVILLES PAD Black Magic Disco JO19 DUNSBOROUGH TAV Jasmine Atkins Duo EAST END BAR & LOUNGE HOME
ELECTRIFIED Illuminate UV Glow Ball – Party for Peace ft. Jt Damien Blaze Chris Hynds Cyberdelic King Owl & Subjester Travis Eddy Rinski ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Grace Knight Dd Soul Chelsea Cullten FLY BY NIGHT Miss Burlesque WA 2014 Semi-Final FLYRITE Father THE GENEROUS SQUIRE Defanutly GINGER NIGHTCLUB Saturdays @ Ginger GOLD BAR Pure Gold GOSNELLS HOTEL Baby Piranhas THE GREENWOOD Passionworks GROOVE BAR & LOUNGE (CROWN) Decoy DJ Matt HULA BULA BAR Sailor Saturdays HYDE PARK HOTEL Cheek2Cheek KALAMUNDA HOTEL Celebrations Karaoke LAKERS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke LANEWAY LOUNGE Fleer Ultra Why Georgia? THE LIBRARY MKT ft. Riki Vicktor LOST SOCIETY Chalk M ON THE POINT Rhythm 22 MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke METRO CITY Dream In Colour II ft. Jochen Miller & Heatbeat METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Kim (The Presets) Motorik Vibe Council Linda Marigliano (triple j) METRO FREO C5 I Love ‘80s & ‘90s MOJOS BAR The Painkillers Catbrush Python Aborted Tortoise Emu Experts Donny Rat MOON & SIXPENCE Damien Cripps Band MUSTANG BAR Shotdown From Sugartown DJ Holly Doll Milhouse DJ James Mac NICHE BAR Surrender Saturdays
BRAVES, SEPTEMBER 19
NORTHSHORE TAVERN Howie Morgan Project THE ODD FELLOW Midfield Legends Bureaucrats Watch With Mother THE PADDO Cheeky Monkeys PARAMOUNT Felix PARKER Parker Saturdays PEEL ALE HOUSE Greg Carter PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Dynamic Duo RAILWAY HOTEL Teachings in Dub ft. The KBI Sound System EarthLink Sound DJ Veeness RENDEZVOUS HOTEL (LOBBY BAR) Domonic Zurzolo 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Skullcave Black Stone From The Sun Pat Chow Bad China ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Gareth Liddiard Cameron Avery ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Flava ROTTNEST ISLAND Rottofest SAIL AND ANCHOR The Gypsy Minions THE SAINT DJ FIVE-O SETTLERS TAVERN Tiki Taane Optimus Gryme THE SHED HUGE DJ Matt SWALLOW BAR DJ Peas Of Soul Purpose Radio SWINGING PIG Frenzy UNIVERSAL BAR Soul Corporation VELVET LOUNGE Rudy Aarin Fraser PJ Stokes Winter Brothers Optomal VILLA Critical Sound ft. Kasra Enei Mefjus Zombie Cats YAYA’S SASS ft. DJ Jordan ARCADIA All-Nighter! DJ Cookie YMCA HQ This Existence Defy The Leader Havoc Eyes Cast Skyward Impaler Among Them
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SLUMBERJACK, SEPTEMBER 20.
SUNDAY 21/09 AMPLIFIER Swollen Members Madchild THE AVIARY Ben Sebastian THE BALMORAL Andrew Winton THE BAKERY Sticky Fingers THE BASILICA OF ST. PATRICK UWA Choral Society THE BELMONT Acoustic Aly BENTLEY HOTEL Jeanie Proude THE BIRD RTRFM’s AZ20 – Celebrating 20 Years of Ambient Zone ft. Sacred Flower Union Furchick Craig McElhinney Ambient Zone DJs Strasarbs THE BRIGHTON Becs Scrivener Duo BROKEN HILL HOTEL Justin Burford BROOKLANDS TAVERN Steve Hepple THE CARINE Chris Gibbs THE CAUSEWAY Acoustic Sunday CIVIC HOTEL Kizzy CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Sunday Brekky Sesh The Limelights Jazz CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Breakfast Session Stielgutz Guitar Duo The Sesh Boom Bap Pow CLAREMONT HOTEL Sunday Session DJ Yujin Choong DJ Jordan Scott CLUB BAYVIEW Lokie Shaw COMO HOTEL Two Frets Down DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Kris Buckle ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Spyglass Gypsies FLINDERZ HILLARYS Marcio Mendes FLY BY NIGHT Music Rocks THE GATE Mike Nayar THE GREENWOOD Luke O’Connell GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Peace Love HULA BULA BAR Tiki Time Sundays INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO. Retriofit THE INGLEWOOD Third Gear IRIS BAR & RESTAURANT Trevor Jalla
KALAMUNDA HOTEL The Joshua Trio LAKERS TAVERN Gypsy Minions LANEWAY LOUNGE Allira Wilson Trio LAST DROP TAVERN Brett Hardwick LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Thierryno THE LUCKY SHAG DJ Richie G MOJOS BAR Spy Glass Gypsies Rock Scholars ft. Unknown Soldiers Whitefox Running Out Moth THE MOON CAFE Eloise Ashton Jacob Diamond M ON THE POINT Nathan Gaunt MANDOON ESTATE Why Georgia? MULLALOO BEACH HOTEL Sunday Sesh NEWPORT HOTEL Sunday Sess Lionizer NOBLE FALLS TAVERN Robert Rodoreda THE PADDO Superseeds PEEL ALE HOUSE Adam James PERTH CONCERT HALL Joe Bonamassa PIRATE BAR Sunday Jazz Session ft. Saffron Melody Sharp PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Greg Carter THE PRINCIPAL Timothy Nelson THE QUEENS DJ Five O Sam Spencer THE ROSE & CROWN HOTEL Blackbirds 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Limbs DIET Government Yard The Heavenly Creatures ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) The Get Down ft. DJ Charlie Bucket John Safari Klean Kicks ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Gang Of Three ROTTNEST ISLAND Rottofest THE SAINT Sunday Funday Howie Morgan Project SETTLERS TAVERN Jane Germain Ian Simpson Sunday Sess THE SHED Blue Hornet
SHOTDOWN FROM SUGARTOWN, SEPTEMBER 20
SOUTH ST. ALEHOUSE Open Mic Night STABLES BAR The Rooftop Party ft. Butch SWALLOW BAR Randa & The Soul Kingdom Duo SWANBROOK WINERY James Sherry Drew Woolley James Bosley SWINGING PIG Organ Grinders UNIVERSAL BAR Retriofit VERNON ARMS TAVERN Kevin Curran WANNEROO TAVERN Matt Williams WHISTLING KITE James Wilson THE WINDSOR Justin Cortorillo THE WOODVALE Damien Cripps Duo MONDAY 22/09 BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness Student & Industry Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Song Lounge ft. Lily Osborne Minky G & Sam The Little Lord St Band Kris Kingwell GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Justin & Mike MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic PARKER Manic Mondays ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia YAYA’S Big Tommo’s Open Mic Night
TUESDAY 23/09 THE BIRD Richmond St Records Label Launch 2014 ft. Rich King Matthews Kat Wilson Elkwood Matt Cal Three Tales BRASS MONKEY Open Mic Night Shaun Street CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Quiz Night CONSERVATORY ROOFTOP BAR Rooftop Comedy ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Steve Tallis GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Flava Dee LANEWAY LOUNGE Open Mic Night Josh Terlick LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Hans Fiance THE LUCKY SHAG Ben Merito MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke MOJOS BAR The Lake & the River Santa Muerte Kites Paper Walls MUSTANG BAR Danza Loca Salsa Night OCEAN ONE BAR Overgrowth Open Mic Night THE PADDO Quiz Meisters PERTH BLUES CLUB The Chess Set Riddum Shakers PERTH CONCERT HALL Angus & Julia Stone RIVERSIDE THEATRE Gabriel Iglesias ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Wide Open Mic SWINGING PIG Siren Song Enterprises YAYA’S Aaron Gwynaire The Umbrella Heads The Woods Sweet Side Effect
FEATURED GIG
SACRED FLOWER UNION FURCHICK CRAIG MCELHINNEY AMBIENT ZONE DJS STRASARBS THE BIRD SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
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NEWS
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INTERVIEWS
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REVIEWS
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LIVE
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EVENTS
AMPLIFIER BAR
THE CAUSEWAY
THE COURT HOTEL
DELICIOUS @ ROCKET ROOM
METRO FREO
THE SHED
MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY
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CLASSIFIEDS
When he’s not making music as DnB producer Niwun, Michael Unwin teaches the very same course he studied years ago at SAE. Since graduating with SAE’s Certificate III in Music and Diploma of Sound Production, Michael’s found himself working in fields as diverse as radio broadcasting, developing youth outreach courses and education.
Perth’s developed a reputation as the DnB capital of Australia, but when Michael Unwin was flipping vinyl back in the mid-00s, he felt limited. “I’ve been interested in electronic music for a very long time before SAE, and I’d done DJing a lot at nightclubs and parties and clubs,” says Michael. “Eventually I got a little bit bored with it, and at the same time, I was getting a bit bored with my day job - it wasn’t really aligning with my interests and my passion in life. At the time, I was just working a stock-standard government job dealing with contracts and securities. “I guess I saw education as a way to upskill and get into an industry I wanted to be a part of, which was creative media. I didn’t really consciously think about it in those terms, but I do remember at one point wanting to leave the DJing part of it behind and being interested in how to produce electronic music, and I tried to sit down with some of the software and tools and thinking I could teach myself, but finding it difficult to find the resources to teach myself. Aside from that, though, self-directed learning can be a bit hazardous and difficult at the best of times, so I was looking for an outlet where I could have a structured learning environment. I guess it’s just that kind of frustration that lead me to SAE, and SAE had I wanted.”
Under the Niwun moniker, Michael continues to produce music with the skills he’s learnt (and continues to learn) at the Institute. He’s also seen the rise of a particularly exciting Perth bass scene. In a small city like Perth, the flow of ideas mimics the kind of collaborative learning that happens in his classes. “For a while, the scene I was involved with got a little bit stagnant, and working with vinyl, there was only a limited selection of music I could get my hands on. I kind of decided, well, if I can’t really find the stuff I like, why don’t I make it? It’s very much different now - there’s a really vibrant scene in Perth, and there was, ten, fifteen years ago, as well. But that intermediary period - I got a bit tired of the repetition and hearing the same music, I guess. “Now, there’s so much interesting stuff happening, because there’s this constant crosspollination of ideas. That’s something that’s definitely been replicated in Perth, hence why we’ve managed to produce some really big names. That kind of friendly competition with other producers is really good from that point of view - it helps you learn and really motivates you.” Since graduating in 2010, he’s returned to SAE to teach. Education is something he’s particularly passionate about - both his parents are academics - and the resources he has at SAE keep him in tune with the lifeblood of bass music.
“Keeping up with industry changes does present a bit of a challenge,” Michael explains. “My employer offers me another of ways to do that as well. There’s a number of really, really good industry bodies in Perth that help with that sort of thing. Apart from that, SAE’s been really good for just keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in Perth, as is talking to your students and other staff members. The most important thing I have to keep up with are things like technology what plugins are available, what’s new in terms of the tools for making music. That’s something we talk a lot about between the audio staff. Just having that collegiality and discussions between different staff members helps a lot.” Michael’s still very much a part of the Perth music scene. “Music making absolutely is a part of my life. A lot of weeks, I’ll wake up much earlier before I have to start my job at SAE just to have a couple of hours to work on some sound design or composition. I don’t necessarily do that all the time depending on what other commitments I have in my life, but I’m always making music whether it’s little compositions for my own sake or stuff I upload online, it’s very much something I enjoy doing. Just learning about myself and creativity, and being able to get better at something by practising it.”
FOR HIRE BUDGET PA & DJ EQUIPMENT HIRE Delivery & set up available. All pro gear. Phone 0402 576 200 MUSOS WANTED BASS PLAYER WANTED Old school blues rocker for working rock band. Phone: 041 223 1126 OPEN MIC NIGHT every Thursday night at Indi Bar. Email Trojan_johnmusic@yahoo.com.au for spot. Laneway Lounge Open Mic every Tuesday night. If you’re keen for a spot text Josh on 0430313577 OPEN MIC NIGHT Peninsula Tavern, Maylands. Bands needed and solos/duos. Call Damian 0411 367 783 OPEN MIKE NIGHT/ARVO South St Alehouse Hilton, original songs, solo/duo, sorry no bands. Come on down for a play on a Sunday to round off the weekend..TEXT..Gus 0409101688 PRODUCTION SERVICES CD & DVD MANUFACTURE Check out our latest CD & DVD specials online at www.procopy.com.au 9375 3902
MATRIX PRODUCTIONS AUSTRALIA Lighting, staging, sound systems, smoke machines, night club FX, intelligent lighting, strobes & mirror balls, crowd barriers, video projectors. 9371 1551 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 www.witzendstudios.com ANALOG MASTERING VINTAGE TAPE, TUBES & TRANSFORMERS with the latest state of the art digital converters. Clients include: Melody’s Echo Chamber, Pond, Gossling, Knife Party, Felicity Groom, The Floors, Jeff Martin & The Panics. World class facility, World class results. Www.poonshead.com. 9339 4791 ANDY’S STUDIO International multi award winning songwriter / producer. No band required. Broadcast quality. A songwriter’s paradise. Ph 9364 3178 GOLDDUST Production Mixing, recording and composition. Leederville $80 p/h. 0408 097 407
RECORDING MIXING MASTERING PRODUCING Fremantle location. Call Pete Kitchen Cooked Records. Ph 0407 363 764 / 9336 3764 REVOLVER SOUND STUDIO Ph 9272 7505. www.revolverstudio.com.au SONGWRITERS - BANDS! Great Productions! London Producer, awesome studio. Call Jerry on 0405 653 338 www.jerichomusic.com.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 R E H E A R S A L RO O M & PA H I R E W I T H OPERATOR 2800 Watt quality system or 5600 Watt. Fremantle area. Bibra Lake studio. nw@centralbeat.com.au 0410 485 588 STREAM STUDIO’S 89 Stirling St, Perth. Mobile: 0403 152 009 info@streamrehearsal.com.au
TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** The Guitar Institute. New Studio New Times Avail. Online bookings. Beg to prof, all styles. Tutors WWC clearance. Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484/ www.clifflynton.com BASS GUITAR LESSONS AVAILABLE by WAAPA tutor. A practicle approach to learning. .All styles. Years of experience. Tony Gibbs 9470 6131
MICHAEL UNWIN
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