Issue 1468 by X-Press Magazine

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NEWSDESK

LOCAL NEWS

GLOBAL NEWS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SMELLS LIKE A DOCUMENTARY The first fully authorised documentary about iconic Nirvana singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain is to get a limited national cinema release. Cobain: Montage Of Heck is written, directed and produced by Oscarnominated filmmaker Brett Morgen (Crossfire Hurricane, The Kids Stay In the Picture) and produced by Frances Bean Cobain. Morgen was given access by the late Cobain’s estate to his personal archives, and the film features Cobain’s art, music and never-beforeseen home videos as well as interviews with his closest family and friends. Cobain: Montage of Heck will open in cinemas for a limited time from Thursday, May 7.

STRONG COMMITMENT Irish soul singer Andrew Strong has made a commitment to return to Australia with The Commitments Tour. Boom! Strong began his career starring and singing in the cult film The Commitments with the soundtrack becoming an international best seller. With The Commitments Tour Strong and his eight-piece band will perform all the hits from the movie including Mustang Sally, Treat Her Right and Take Me To The River. This tour is to be Strong’s last for an indefinite period so make sure you catch him at the Astor Theatre Friday, May 29. Tickets can be purchased at astortheatreperth.com. Andrew Strong

THE FLYING CIRCUS IS THIS SATURDAY! The folks at Rough Love are set to debut the global party brand Flying Circus in Perth and it’s almost here. Get set for Audiofly (Flying Circus, Supernature, Get Physical), Martin Buttrich (#9414, Planet E, Cocoon Recordings) and BLOND:ISH (Get Physical, Kompakt), the event will feature local support from Allstate, Deej & J, plus a Treehouse side-stage with Fungle Club, DAWS, Amber Akilla, Bunj, Turnip, Parakord, Pussymittens, Genga, Benny P, Kovaxx and AC Souljah. It rolls out this Easter Saturday, April 5, at McCallum Park, South Perth Foreshore. Tickets and full details at roughlove.com.au.

The band that are synonymous with Swedish melodic death metal is returning to Australia. At The Gates began their career in 1995 with their album, Slaughter Of The Soul, which would become an inspiration for death metal bands around the world. After an 11-year hiatus, the band reformed in 2007 for an extensive reunion tour and subsequently a new album, At War With Reality, last year. Catch their frenzied sound at Amplifier Bar on Wednesday, October 28. Tickets on sale now at metropolistouring.com.

Martin Buttrich, Flying Circus

At The Gates

MELODIC DEATH

Kurt Cobain

FIVE ON FIRE Life Is Noise have quickly become a local institution, bringing out West a surfeit of innovative, exciting and rarely-spotted acts ranging from Deerhoof to High On Fire to Marnie Stern. To celebrate five years of noise, they’re throwing a party at the Bakery on Thursday April 2, featuring the skull demolishing Drowning Horse, rapidly rising ethereal shoegazers Fait and the inimitable weirdo stylings of Chris Cobilis. Cobilis, who is soon to record an album with American poet, Kenneth Goldsmith, is the kind of audience-challenging artist that Life Is Noise has championed in its time, both locally and with touring acts. “Life Is Noise has provided me with many great opportunities,” Cobilis told X-Press this week. “In many respects they are the only promoters who care about the bands I play in. “I also got to see so many great bands that I thought I would never see like Wire, Neurosis and Earth.” Tickets for Life Is Noise:5 are available from lifeisnoise.com and oztix.com.au. Chris Cobilis

SOMETIMES I SELL OUT SHOWS With almost every date on her extensive national tour already sold out, Courtney Barnett has added several new shows including another one for Perth. The Melbourne artist has been making waves worldwide with her latest album, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit and recently won the Developing Act Grulke Prize at SxSW 2015, awarded to artists who are breaking new ground with their creativity, with past winners including Haim, The Flaming Lips and Damon Albarn. Grab tickets for Courtney Barnett fast before this second Perth show sells out too on Sunday, May 3, at The Bakery. Tickets can be bought from nowbaking.com.au. Courtney Barnett

SOMETHING FOR PAUL Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey is all set to record his second solo album. However he wants to test out his new songs before he sets them to tape, so he’s playing them to a live audience first in a solo show. The new songs will feature along with a selection of his solo and Something For Kate songs as well as the occasional cover (he’s very good at those, too). With his first solo album Everything Is True gold-selling Dempsey’s long-awaited follow up is sure to impress. See him at the Rosemount Friday, May 1. Get tickets at rosemounthotel.com.au. Paul Dempsey

COOL MOOVES

MOUNT HAWTHORN STREETS AND LANEWAYS FESTIVAL Non-for-profit organisation the Mount Hawthorn Hub is set to take over the City of Vincent’s Mount Hawthorn, as its streets turn into the ultimate party – located throughout Scarborough Beach Road, the festival will span from restaurant the Cabin to Axford Park, infusing surrounding alleys and lanes including Anvil Lane, Fairway St and The Mezz laneway with music, food, art, entertainment and plenty of other festive displays. Market stalls, DJs and roving performers will feature throughout the day, with Anvil Lane to be transformed into a laneway bar and pizzeria and the Mezz Laneway will transform into a fun family area including street games, rides, face painting and entertainers. There’s also an alleyway to feature a silent disco to keep the event buzzing as night falls. A free community event that is sure to produce a day out for the whole family, the Mount Hawthorn Streets And Laneways Festival happens on Sunday, May 3, from 12–7pm. Mount Hawthorn Streets And Laneways Festival Pic: Ryan Ammon

Groovin The Moo is set to kick off within the month and it’s West Australian home Bunbury is generating a great deal of excitement and buzz that will now see some of the our toppermost locals on the bill. Doctopus will be there deliver their durgy garage slacker rock, Timothy Nelson & The Infidels will bring their folk and roll, walking a fine line between infectious melody and vicious punk and garage rockers Foam will hit the stage. A busy Tired Lion has managed to squeeze a GTM appearance into their busy touring schedule and Fremantle hip hop/jazz collective Koi Child are in, with Said The People representing the South West town as the winners of triple j Unearthed. A massive list of local DJs including Bobby Chance, Boston Switch, DJ Jake Watts, Jack Manoni, Juddy, Liquid Culture DJs, Ozradecks, Princi, Rando, Sonder and The Canzirri Project will take over Bunbury’s own unique Mootown stage. Tickets for Bunbury’s GTM are on sale via gtm.net.au, with Bendigo and Maitland’s dates already sold out be sure to grabs yours quick.

After recently being inducted to the Swedish Music Hall Of Fame, Yngwie Malmsteen – the King Of Shred - will return to Australia in June for the first time in a decade. Following on from his recent soldout shows in Tokyo, Japan and Bucharest and joining a mouth watering line up with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Kiss for the Monsters Of Rock Festival in Brazil, Yngwie and his band will play at the Astor Theatre on Saturday, June 6. Tickets are on sale now and available through Oztix’s tombowler website.

Koi Child, Groovin The Moo

Yngwie Malmsteen

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THE KING OF SHRED RETURNS

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WIN

N E W S L E T T E R - S I G N U P AT F O R E X C L U S I V E C O M P S

SAMBA Samba (Omar Sy), a recent migrant to France, works as a dishwasher in a hotel. Due to a bureaucratic error, Samba is put in detention and when released is asked to leave France. With the help of rookie immigration worker Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Samba is forced to fight to stay in his adopted country. From the directors of the breakout hit The Intouchables comes a film about two people both wanting to get out of their dead-end lives with fate bringing them together. Thanks to Transmission Films we have 10 passes to give away to Samba via the X-Press App.

NORTHERN SOUL Northern Soul is a British film about the youth culture in the ‘70s that changed a generation. No longer satisfied with the prospect of a small town life and a factory production line, two young boys dream of going to America to discover rare records that will help them become the best DJs on the scene. This journey forces them to confront rivalry, violence and drug abuse and tests their friendship to the limit. Northern Soul will be available to own from Wednesday, April 15, on iTunes and other digital platforms, and will be available to rent from Wednesday, April 22. In celebration of the release of Northern Soul we have five pairs of Audio Technica DIP headphones (RRP $19.95) to give away. Enter via the X-Press App. Northern Soul

THE GUNMAN Sniper Terrier (Sean Penn) is on a mercenary assassination team in the Democratic Republic of Congo and kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Terrier’s successful kill shot forces him into hiding and to abruptly abandon his girlfriend (Jasmine Trinca). Returning to the Congo years later, he becomes the target of a hit squad himself and he reconnects with the members of his old assassination team, including his ex-girlfriend, in an attempt to discover who has put a price on his head. The Gunman also stars Idris Elba, Javier Bardem and Ray Winstone. We have five double movie passes to give away via the X-Press App. The Gunman

PRINT AND DIGITAL EDITIONS PUBLISHER/MANAGER Joe Cipriani

EDITORIAL - 9213 2888

LAGGIES Overeducated and underemployed, 28-yearold Megan (Keira Knightley) is in the throes of a quarter-life crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind her friends who are checking off milestones and celebrating their grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and, given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week, hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Annika’s world-weary single dad Craig (Sam Rockwell). Director Lynn Shelton (Your Sister’s Sister, Humpday) crafts a sweet, romantic coming-of-age comedy about three people who find their lives intertwined in the most unconventional way as they make their way through the imperfect realities of modern day life. We have five DVD copies of Laggies to give away. Enter via the X-Press App. Laggies

MANAGING EDITOR Bob Gordon: editor@xpressmag.com.au LOCAL MUSIC & ARTS EDITOR Travis Johnson: localmusicarts@xpressmag.com.au GIG & EVENT GUIDES CO-ORDINATOR guide@xpressmag.com.au COMPETITIONS win@xpressmag.com.au For band gigs and launches - plugyourgig@xpressmag.com.au

ADVERTISING - 9213 2888 LIFESTYLE STRATEGY MANAGER – AGENCY / DIRECT Tim Milroy - entertainment@xpressmag.com.au Jennifer Groves - advertising@xpressmag.com.au ENTERTAINMENT ACCOUNT MANAGER ENTERTAINMENT / VENUES / LIVE AND DANCE MUSIC PROMOTERS / RECORD LABLES Tim Milroy - entertainment@xpressmag.com.au CLASSIFIEDS LINAGE classifieds@xpressmag.com.au

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT - 9213 2854 CONTENT COORDINATOR Anthony Jackson - production@xpressmag.com.au ART DIRECTOR Dwight O’Neil DESIGN + PRODUCTION Andy Quilty, Anthony Jackson, Rachel Del Borrello 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

THE RED ROAD The Red Road is a gripping, dramatic thriller revolving around the intriguing conflict between embattled local police officer Harold Jensen (Martin Henderson) and mesmerising ex-con Phillip Kopus (Jason Momoa). Harold finds himself struggling to keep his family together while simultaneously policing two clashing communities: the small town where he grew up just outside of New York City, and the neighbouring mountains, home of a federally unrecognised Native American tribe. After a terrible tragedy and coverup further divides these worlds, an uneasy alliance is forged between Harold and Phillip. As these two men find themselves increasingly compromised by one another, and the emotional ghosts of their collective pasts begin to emerge, the lives of both quickly unravel, leading to terrible consequences. We have five DVDs of The Red Road season 1 to give away. The Red Road 6

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33,560 OCTOBER 2012 MARCH 2013 - AUSTRALIA’S HIGHEST CIRCULATING STREET PRESS

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FLESH

NEWS - INTERVIEWS - REVIEWS - CONTENTS

people who are passionate about music in this city. It’s a great opportunity to discover some amazing music too - a few months ago I had never heard the Rosemary Beads song Breath and now I can’t wait to see it live on stage. What are some of the bands you’re especially looking forward to? Don’t make me choose! I’m really looking forward to seeing the Rosemary Beads and the Jangle Brothers for the first time. Rachael Dease’s set will be epic and I’m a bit obsessed with her song All In/All Out. I’ve had a lot of listeners calling up and telling me how good Shit Narnia’s shows are. And of course I’m looking forward to seeing what Felicity Groom will pull out of the wardrobe this year. I’m also looking forward to getting out and catching up with punters - putting faces to names and meeting listeners - I’d love people to come up and say hello! Will you be hosting as Barr used to do? In the spirit of change at RTRFM this year the hosting will be a little bit different from usual. Peter Barr has well and truly hung up his boots in that department and is looking forward to kicking back on the day. I’ll definitely be around for the whole day, but there might be some other people involved too. I won’t give away exactly what’s happening, but it’s going to be fun!

Felicity Groom Pic: Michael Wylie

RTRFM’S IN THE PINES Talkfest With Caitlin RTRFM’s IN The Pines returns to the Somerville Auditorium, UWA, on Sunday, April 19. BOB GORDON talks about it with the station’s new Breakfast presenter, Caitlin Nienaber. You’ve been in the RTRFM Breakfast presenter’s chair for just over two months now, how’s it treating you? It’s amazing - I still can’t believe this is my job! It’s such a joy to be able to meet people every day who are doing cool stuff and making this city such a great place to be. I’ve been really surprised and touched by how welcoming everyone has been. From other RTRFM presenters, staff and volunteers to people I’ve interviewed - they’ve all been checking on me and asking how I’m going. The love from our audience has been the most overwhelming - I’ve had some really sweet phone calls and emails from long-time listeners and people tuning in for the first time. That stuff really makes a difference.

Our front cover tips its hat to The Triffids album, In The Pines, one of the inspirations for RTR’s annual event. While they were more celebrated in Europe than at home back in the day, their presence seems eternal when one thinks of WA music now. What are your thoughts?

What’s your daily routine like given you have to rise so early? I’m still trying to figure that out. I get up at 4am and head into the station just after 5am and then stick around ‘til about midday. I do a bit of prep at home in the afternoon and often fall asleep next to my computer and a pile of icecream wrappers. Being sleep deprived has done weird things to my brain - I once rocked up to work wearing my boyfriend’s jeans. The other day I

Were you daunted at the prospect of taking over from multi-WAM Award winning 10-year veteran, Peter Barr? Absolutely. I’m still daunted if I think about it too much! But I’ve had to try and put

nearly got refused entry to a flight because I had forgotten to check in.

I love that album a lot - it’s definitely my favourite Triffids album, but it was released the year I was born so like many people I came to it later on. I think the Triffids made us feel more comfortable with our ‘West-Australianness’ they had a unique sound and referenced familiar places while still managing to find success on the world stage. I love hearing musicians reference really specific local things and take that to a wider audience - I think the world needs to hear Shit Narnia’s Claremont Boys. It’s something that makes me so proud to be involved with RTRFM because we champion our local musicians and give them a platform to develop a sound and style all of their own.

What’s your personal history with RTRFM? I started listening to the station in about 2004 after I had Peter Barr as a tutor at Curtin but didn’t start volunteering ‘til 2009 when I organised some work experience through uni. I was pretty shy and helped out producing Morning Magazine for a year before actually going on air. I basically just hung around and filled in on lots of shows... there was a great gastro bug that went around one week back in 2010 where I got to do the news, a Drivetime and present an Out To Lunch.

that doubt to one side and just get on with it being tired all the time helps! I really miss hearing Peter on the radio every day, but I’m happy knowing he’s enjoying spending more time with his family and doing new things. He’s been a mentor to me for a long time and still works at the station so I annoy him with lots of questions. If I can one day be even half as good at this job as he was I’ll be stoked. Had you experienced doing a Breakfast radio shift before? Only when I used to fill in for Pete back in the day so doing it full-time is new to me. But it’s definitely my favourite timeslot - I’m a bit of a nanna so an early night doesn’t bother me. Last year I worked as a journo at a commercial radio station in New South Wales and it sucked! 8

and there’s more where that came from. It’s interesting to be back after a couple of years off from the station because it does feel like things have been reinvigorated. I’m looking forward to building the Breakfast show throughout the year and trying lots of new things. Breakfast With Caitlin airs from 6am-9pm weekdays on RTRFM 92.1. In The Pines happens on Sunday, April 19, at UWA’s Somerville Auditorium and stars Abbe May, Aborted Tortoise, Fait, Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse, Hideous Sun Demon, Husband, Lanark, Maurice Flavel’s Intensive Care, Methyl Ethel, Rachael Dease, The Jangle Brothers, Shit Narnia, Statues, The Wilds, Thee Gold Blooms, Eduardo Cossio Quartet, Felicity Groom, SpaceManAntics, Grim Fandango and The Rosemary Beads. Presale tickets are $20 RTRFM subscribers, $25 general public from rtrfm.com.au, 78 Records, Mills Records and Noise Pollution Records. Door sales (limited) available on the day, $25 RTRFM subscribers, $30 general public.

The Triffids 1986 album, In The Pines

Hideous Sun Demon

Caitlin Nienaber

Shit Narnia Pic: Kristinn Hermanniusson

In The Pines is coming up, what are your memories of this beloved event in previous years? Felicity Groom’s leopard-print catsuit a few years ago was a pretty big moment for me. I really loved watching Boys Boys Boys! put on an impromptu running man competition on stage in 2012. And I still have a mental image of Mongrel Country’s pig masks that haunts me to this day. The Rainyard have pulled out, but there’s The Rosemary Beads and The Jangle Brothers (Rainyard / Mars Bastards / Header / JAC members) who have been introduced on the line-up. In recent years there’s been an effort made to reflect on WA music from the past at In The Pines. It’s important, no? Definitely. We’re so lucky to have so Methyl Ethyl many new and current musicians and artists How’s the rest of 2015 looking for RTRFM? releasing quality music and putting on great It’s looking good! It’s a really exciting shows, but we need to make sure we give props year for us because it does feel like change is in to all the great bands that came before them. the air and that we’re free to shake a few things The thriving local scene we have didn’t come up if we want to. Kicking off with the new event, from nowhere - it’s taken a lot of hard work from Distant Murmurs, was a great start to the year WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU

Tim Underwood, The Rosemary Beads Pic: Alfred Gorman

CONTENTS 4 6 8 10

28 30

Newsdesk Win Flesh: RTRFM’s In The Pines Music Against Me!, The Beards Gaz Coombes, Alice Cooper New Noise Culture Hub Cover: JIm Jeffries Lifestyle, Hitlist Arts Listings Fast & Furious 7, Dior And Me SpongeBob, Mommy Feature: What’s On In April Scene Cover: Aeroplane Horrorshow, The Regular Hunters, Jay Lumen Local Scene: Eduardo Cossio Live: West Coast Blues N’ Roots, Sun Kil Moon, Winterbourne X-Press Guide Social Pics/Volume

Front Cover: RTRFM’s In The Pines returns to the Somerville Auditorium, UWA, on Sunday, April 19. Scene Cover: Aeroplane is coming to Sets In The City at Riverside Drive on Saturday, April 11.

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MUSIC

VIEWS

INTERVIEWS

AGAINST ME!

STORIES

ALICE COOPER

Transition

Songs For The Dead

Florida’s Against Me! are headed down under for the first time since 2013 in support of their sixth album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues. AARON BRYANS speaks with vocalist and transitioning transgender, Laura Jane Grace, in the lead up to their Perth show on Thursday, June 4, at the Rosemount Hotel. With six albums and many line-up changes over 18 years, the band initially formed as a solo act under Tom Gabel (Laura Jane Grace), Against Me!, have come a long way in the punk rock world building a strong fan base along the way. However its last year may have been its biggest and most impactful with the dramatic loss of Jay Weinberg on drums, the release of the wellreceived album Transgender Dysphoria Blues and Grace’s announcement as a transgender. “The members changing helps,” Grace reveals. “Especially now with Inge and Adam, I do feel like we’re a better band than we’ve ever been. We’ve recorded the past couple of months of touring in the States for a live record. We’ve finished up mixing that and mastering it is quite a task because there’s about 35 songs, but listening to the rough mixes compared to the live album in 2005 is insane, the difference you hear. That’ll be evidence to people that it’s cool to be a band that’s lasted that long and feel like you’re progressing musically and there’s things you couldn’t do before that you can now.” Weinberg’s departure during the recording of Transgender Dysphoria Blues was a huge obstacle for the band production-wise, leaving them with the option to re-write and record the album to generate new drum tracks.

“We recorded the album with the drummer we were playing with and then he quit. We had recorded all of the record and it was there and then when he quit we were like ‘fuck well we can’t use the drum tracks’. We tried to re-record drums to the existing guitars but it was lame so we had to start fresh. “Atom (Willard, who now makes up the rhythm section with Inge Johannson) is a much better drummer and a way cooler dude.” On top of his work with Against Me!, Grace’s passion for her music is evident in her production work for other US bands, sticking true to her claim that she would release an album a year. “I have stayed true to that; but it’s not always been my band’s record,” Grace explains. “A couple of weeks ago I finished producing a record for this band called Warriors From Brooklyn. I produced their record which will come out this year, we put out our record last year, the year before that I produce a record for the band Cheap Girls. I’ve made sure I’m continually working and making an effort to kick ass and keep making records because it’s really my passion.” Grace’s announcement that she is transgender in 2012 was a shock to some but was met with a mass support from not only followers but her bandmates. “People have been really supportive and really rad in ways that continue to surprise me. If you’re cool back to people and give that extra effort and try to explain yourself no one has to be defensive and no one has to explain themselves. “I think it clears things up and shows that we’re on the same page and I think it makes people feel more comfortable at a show. It’s interesting at the end of the night hearing bouncers say you have a really friendly audience, usually they want you to get the fuck out of the club. So to hear and notice things like that is reinforcing it.”

Alice Cooper heads back to Australia to support Mötley Crüe on their final ever tour, hitting Perth Arena on Saturday, May 23. DAVID JAMES YOUNG reports. Vincent Furnier (better known as Alice Cooper) is one of rock’s truest survivors; with a list of hits as long as your arm and a live show that will drop your jaw even after all this time. At 67, Cooper keeps busy with not only his usual suspects – golf, touring, his long-time radio show Nights With Alice Cooper – but with new, interesting projects to keep him on his toes. The latest is a new album, his first in four years, in which he enlists some living friends to help pay tribute to the dead. “I got to be friends with Johnny Depp,” begins Cooper who nonchalantly delivers what would be an incredibly exciting sentence for most. “We did a film together called Dark Shadows and really hit it off. Johnny is a great guitar player, and every once in awhile if he was in town we’d get him up to play with us. One night, we got talking about all of my dead, drunk friends; and, somehow, it managed to turn into the idea of a covers album where I glorified and paid tribute to all of them.” Set for release within the year, the album is to be released under the name The Hollywood Vampires, which was the name of the drinking club Cooper assembled during his wilder years. “There

MICHAEL FRANTI Eloquent Sufficiency Michael Franti & Spearhead are joined by Donavon Frankenreiter, Blue King Brown and Tijuana Cartel at Red Hill Auditorium on Saturday, April 18. ADAM MORRIS reports. Years ago, one of my university lecturers sat the class down and proceeded to explain why Michael Franti was the most important lyricist at large in the world today. It was a big claim, but that particular lecturer was weirdly intimidating and so we dutifully wrote down the singer’s name and set forth to find the truth for ourselves. I’m glad we did, because Franti is indeed a musician whose songs are not just catchy as hell, but inspire you to question the life around you. Just don’t call him an academic’s musician. “I’ve thought about that, and there was a time when I used to hate that moniker,” he says. “I didn’t want to be a songwriter just for intellectuals, you know? I think that one of the things that I’ve learnt over the years is that to be able to state something simply, to mean what you say and say what you mean within a melody that lots of people can understand, it’s a craft that’s really challenging. Not to write pages and pages of words that explain everything, but kind of leave some mystery there, to try and be eloquent in a shorter space. There’s always a wealth of things to write about. I think the challenge for me is to find new ways to do it.” One of Franti’s favourite collaborations came from his early days remains to him as one of “the coolest things I’ve ever done musically”. This was his 1993 work with William S. Burroughs. “I was out on tour at the time with U2. Bono, myself, and my Disposable Heroes partner Rono (Tse) went into this really fancy hotel room, and Burroughs shows up with a bowling ball bag. He drops it on the bed, and it bounced really heavily, like there was an actual bowling ball in there. I was really impressed. I mean, the guy’s like 80 years old and he’s still going bowling? And then he goes…” Franti clears his throat and delivers an uncannily accurate, reedy Burroughs impersonation. “‘I’ve just come from the shooting range and I thought you might like to see my gun collection,’ and he pulls out this .357 Magnum, the Dirty Harry gun. The barrel of the gun was so long, it’s like one of those tricks where you reach into a cup and pull out a walking cane, watching this giant gun come out of a bowling ball bag. And then he says, ‘Here’s my 9mm, here’s my .38 special I got in New York in 1948, here’s this, here’s that’. This whole collection is coming out of this tiny bag, and he’s handing them to us and we’re brandishing them around, posing with them in the 10

“There’s always a wealth of things to write about. I think the challenge for me is to find new ways to do it.” mirror, pretending to shoot. And then he goes over to Rono and goes, ‘Hey, wait a minute! Don’t point that thing at anyone, are you crazy?’ And he opens up the chamber and there’s still one bullet left in it. And we all let out this collective gasp, amazed that none of us had just got our head blown off. After we left we were all talking about it, and we were pretty sure he did that just for effect.” Franti laughs at the memory. “Like, ‘Here are these big rock stars coming in, thinking they’re pretty badass. But I’ll show them who’s really the bad ass here’.” Franti’s music has gone through a wealth of transformations over the years. From his own university days playing with spoken-word/industrial outfit The Beatnigs, to The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, to his ongoing odyssey with Spearhead, Franti’s lyrics have always been charged with social and creative commentary. Finding the right vehicle for his expression, though, has not always been a straightforward ride. The effort to match substance to sound has seen radical shifts in both his songwriting and his musical philosophy. “There was a specific moment when I was writing a song about HIV testing for the very first Spearhead album, called Positive. I remember I’d written a song with Disposable Heroes about the AIDS crisis, and it was like, ‘Fuck the government because they’re not responding, it’s a real crisis out there’. I live in San ’Cisco, which if New York was ground zero for AIDS, then day two was San Francisco. So I went and got tested myself, and when that happened I was suddenly stricken with fear and sadness. I realised it was impossible for me to write a song about HIV testing that would empower anyone else to go get tested if it was filled with anger and rage. It had to be something that was almost sexual, that was whispered. And that’s really the way the song came across. “I realised whatever song that I write has to emotionally fit the music in the same way that I score a screenplay in a movie scene. That really opened up a whole new world of musicality to me.” WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU

are songs on there by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, The Who, Harry Nilsson, T-Rex... all of these people that I’d been friends with and that I loved,” he says. “Johnny ended up playing on every track, and Joe Perry ended up joining in too. We had so many friends and all of these different people come in and track with us... even Paul McCartney came in one night!” When Cooper and his band return to Australia in May, it will – for the first time ever – not be as a headlining act. Instead, he will be joining hair-metal heroes Mötley Crüe as their opener. It’s how Cooper has toured for nearly a year, and will stay with the band until their final-ever show on New Year’s Eve. Although it came across as an odd pairing to many, Cooper insists that their union is one that makes perfect sense; allowing things to come full circle for the Crüe as they reach the end. “Production at rock shows had gotten so big in the ‘70s, you definitely noticed when all the big bands in the 80s were incorporating it – Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, bands like that,” explains Cooper. “I looked at that as being quite a compliment, but in a way I viewed it as competition. ‘These kids are great,’ I thought, ‘but I’m still here. I still want to blow them off the stage.’ “All these years later, the Mötley guys called me up and told me about their tour – not a farewell, a final-ever tour. They said I was a huge inspiration to everything about the band... they wanted me to help send them out in style. I said yes immediately – it’s a great package. My band are bringing it every night, Mötley are bringing it every night... the audience is really the one that benefits the most from a tour like this.”

MUSIC

VIEWS

INTERVIEWS

STORIES

GAZ COOMBES The Light And The Dark Of Life Singer/guitarist Gaz Coombes talks to SHANE PINNEGAR about his justreleased second solo album, Matador.

THE BEARDS Diff’rent Strokes With a new single, Strokin’ My Beard, out now, The Beards play on Thursday, May 7, at the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; Friday, May 8, at Settler’s Tavern, Margaret River, and Saturday, May 9, at Capitol. Resident X-Press beard aficionado, ANTHONY JACKSON, chats with bassist, Nathaniel Beard.

A sometimes moody collection of tracks which leave the quirkier side of Supergrass far behind, Gaz Coombe’s new album, Matador, features consummate song construction and the sort of layered sonics that lend themselves to movie soundtracks, more than three-minute pop hits. Coombes couldn’t be happier about the initial reaction to the album. “Yeah, it’s been a pretty amazing couple months actually,” he explains. “It’s always stressful to the moment when you’re looking to release a record. There’s always that sort of mixture of tension and excitement and nervousness. You don’t know how people are going to take it. It’s been amazing. I’ve been

down in my studio putting ideas down and trying to get a record together and, all of a sudden, it’s out there and being really well received. I’m pretty overwhelmed by the response. It’s been amazing. “I guess there’s a lot there for people to reference against and, obviously, a lot of it’s inevitably referring back to Supergrass, which was a really important time in my life. It’s the reason I’m here. If it wasn’t for Supergrass and all the great stuff that we did, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.” The humour in Supergrass was far more in your face than on Coombes’ solo work. There’s still humour in there, but it’s deeper down in the mix. I wonder if that is a sign of maturity now that he’s a father. “I don’t think so,” he asserts. “The same ridiculous surreal things get me going. I don’t think my sense of humour, or my approach, or my outlook on life has really changed that much. You know, you just have to kind of feed off what’s happening at that time in life. My life’s good. I’m enjoying myself. Life gets more

complicated as you get older. It gets more chaotic and complicated and there’s more factors and layers to tap into. Maybe that’s what it is. I guess the fun is to tap into all of that stuff, the light and the dark of life, perhaps more than we did in Supergrass, but I still think there’s a lot of those dark layers within Supergrass too.” Coombes played most of the instruments on Matador, and says he didn’t restrict himself to any single genre when making the album. “I just wanted to feed off what was happening instinctively. I’d get into the studio and I’d start putting that beat down, maybe just a beat or it might be something that would start from a few loops, maybe a little melody or something, and then feed off that really and try and find inspiration from the studio and from what was around me rather than any particular influence from the outside. It’s almost giving into what I felt like doing. I try to keep my mind open to whatever came along and that’s really what propelled it forward.” So, 20 years on from I Should Coco, with a masterful second solo album out, does Gaz Coombes feel the same about music as he did as a 16 year-old? “Yeah. It’s a different climate, a different landscape to be involved with, but that excitement when I play back something through the speakers in the studio or I get that feeling on stage, then, yeah, it’s exactly the same and the same kind of thing that fuels me. It really is. It’s a different sound, a different sort of vibe. That’s the whole part of the evolution process. You’ve got to keep changing with it and keep adapting, but the essence always, I guess, remains the same.”

First off, congratulations on such fine man manes and on the release of Strokin’ My Beard, the tour looks massive! Thank you and thanks for having me and for having a beard. It’s great to back on tour for the release of Strokin’ My Beard - which is the 50th song we’ve written about beards. Being a beard aficionado myself I’m curious to ask how you maintain lush, shiny, fresh smelling beards on the road? Do you travel with product, appliances or are they all au naturale? “ F r e s h s m e l l i n g ” m ay b e a l i t t l e presumptuous - as you mentioned it’s a very long tour and while every effort is made to keep our beards fresh, they tend to eventually get clogged up with rock juice, which is an earthy combination of sweat, alcohol, smoke, grease and various other substances. In regards to beard-care products, it really depends on the band member. Our drummer, John Beardman Jr, likes to use an array of balms and oils to keep his beard looking great; while our singer, Johann Beardraven, is a staunch believer in embracing his beard in its natural state and has never once used a beard-care product or even washed his beard. We’ve asked him to but he won’t.

“Having a beard is not a novelty, not a trend and not a phase - having a beard is a way of life.” The band toured Europe late last year. How did our northern friends embrace The Beards’ ethos? I’d imagine they’d be well ahead of us southerners in terms of beard appreciation, style and tradition? Well Europe does have a rich bearded history but throughout the dark decades of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, European countries were plagued by the worldwide shaving epidemic just as much as we were here in Australia. Thankfully, those days are now behind us and across the world former shave-slaves are lining up to join the beard revolution. Your shows entice a lot of crowd reaction and interaction, what is your favourite song to play live? What song really gets the beer swilling face fuzzers moving? I’m a big fan of a track from our most recent album called, There’s A Bearded Man Inside Me. It’s about beards. With winter coming up beard season will soon be upon us. According to some, the age of the beard is at its peak, to some it is just another fad. Do you believe the beard is as timeless as man or just another trend that will die out with the hipster? Let me be absolutely clear about this. Any claims that society has reached ‘beard peak’ or that growing a beard is just another fad are ludicrous and are almost certainly perpetuated by the rapidly dwindling former-overclass who held us down for the best part of the 20th century. Now that we’ve entered the Age Of The Bearded, these people are desperately looking for any other explanation other than what is completely obvious: that they are completely and utterly finished and that the future belongs to the bearded. Having a beard is not a novelty, not a trend and not a phase - having a beard is a way of life. Think of the beard revolution in the same way as the internet - now that it’s here we’re not ever going to go backwards to the way things were before. Beards equal progress. WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU

NEW NOISE

For more album reviews head to xpressmag.com.au

OUT OF 5

FALL ELECTRIC Interior Perth’s own Fall Electric are somewhere between psych and indie rock, yet neither of those titles do them any justice. Interior is their second record, and as the name suggests it’s an introspective effort. Both lyrically and musically, Interior is complex and contemplative. The layering of cello, guitar and the vocals of leading man Andrew Ryan are at the core of most songs, and around this the band brings in drums, beat-boxing, heavy distortion, echoes and some very slick post-production courtesy of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. The downside to Interior is that the drive to create something unique tends to get in the way, and the intimacy of the cello, guitar and vocals can become clouded by everything else. That said, Air Flows Gently is an easy chorus with building strings under a lightly plucked guitar, all held together by a steadily pounding drum and well complemented by distortion and echoes. There’s a lot to Interior and this is what it sounds like when the balance is right. Throughout the album no ideas are underexplored and the arrangements are tight, and with consecutive listens you’ll begin to hear the time that’s gone into this music. Fall Electric are seriously talented, and Interior is a serious album.

REBELUTION Count Me In Often regarded as one of the best bands to come out of Santa Barbara, California, Rebelution’s Count Me In continues to show why, debuting on the Billboard Top 200 within the top 20, reaching #1 on Billboard’s Reggae album chart. Influences from the likes of Bob Marley that fuse well with a closer to home Sublime, Count Me In bleeds the message of acceptance and love. Backing up their most recent success, Peace of Mind, Rebelution has continued where they left off, with their signature style of groovy bass lines and melodic horn riffs, heard in tracks such as Count Me In and De-Stress being sure to delight the fans that have followed them since their humble beginnings in 2004. However too much of the same thing can be a bad thing and while they continue doing what they do best it’s the track, Lost In Dreams, which impresses, going for a more spacey sound which displays a pleasantly refreshing style that shows they aren’t afraid to experiment and grow while keeping roots attached. Living up to the high standard Rebelution’s has set for itself, the band is sure to continue on in establishing itself as one of the best modern day reggae bands. BEN DILLON

LACHLAN MACKENZIE

2.5 OUT OF 5

4.5 OUT OF 5

KODALINE Coming Up For Air

FILTHY APES Indigovidual Kontrol I’ve just been to the planet of the Filthy Apes and I think I’m going to stay. Donning gorilla masks and pseudonyms, the Perth-based band has crafted a scuzzy, psychedelic debut. Get set for the journey that is Indigovidual, starting with the soaring guitars of Colour Cafe and riding the monkey magic until the pounding breakdown of Death Kwan Doh. This EP as a whole is brilliantly executed. Each song feels like an extension of the last, but by the end you realise there’s been a drastic shift in tone since the beginning. As catchy as the hooks are, the band knows not to get too stuck on a good thing and frequently introduces new ideas before the old ones get stale. This is probably because it’s a ‘use every part of the buffalo’ type of record. No-one in the band is left behind. When vocalist Father Time transitions between psychedelic wailing and punk screaming, the elements are so in sync it’s hard not to feel euphoric. It would work as well in a stadium as it would in your basement, and Indigovidual proves that the Filthy Apes are ready for both. Get your stinking paws on it. JAMES ROSS

Reaching commercial status with their debut album, In a Perfect World – the Dublin quartet’s follow up, Coming Up For Air, just doesn’t seem to reach or surpass the same uniqueness and creativity. While they will surely continue to reach higher success commercially as they establish themselves as a band that appeals to the emotional and heartbroken type - they have in the process sacrificed their previous charm and genuine character. Sounding like a combination of Coldplay and Snow Patrol, they seem to be playing it safe with music you’d find on said bands’ back catalogue. They haven’t tested any new waters on their second album, rather than improving on their previous hit single, High Hopes, an emotional charged song that hits anthemic qualities. Honest represents an attempted dash to mainstream fame; while it still manages to tick the boxes of a well written song, it lacks energy, often waiting for an uplifting chorus that bigger bands Coldplay or The Script are capable of. Kodaline just doesn’t seem to of yet establish itself as its own act, following the footsteps of its influences rather than taking a side step alongside them. While they do it well, experimenting outside of their safe zone of ‘emotional heartbreak’ will go a long way in establishing a better variety of music that hopefully will create their own unique sound. BEN DILLON

OUT OF 5

SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR The Great Wave MGM The Melbourne band that have taken their name from the first animated neon sign in Australia, Skipping Girl Vinegar, are back with their earnest take on guitar-led indie rock. The Great Wave was made under the radar as the band spent time with producer Brad Jones (Bob Evans, Josh Rouse) who they dragged out of his Nashville studio and into halls and sheds along the Victorian Coast. Dance Again gets things underway with a solid piece of rock that borrows from Springsteen without capturing any of his working class charm. The chugging slice of melody is still one of the better moments with Making Our Way being the other star out chorus for the Victorian five-piece. The writing of The Great Wave was heavily affected by band leader Mark Lang being given the news that his wife has ovarian cancer. While the prognosis has been positive, it is a significant factor in the feel and flow of the album. Here Comes The River and Lay With Me are typical of most of the heartfelt album - they are slow paced, somber and at times laborious. Skipping Girl Vinegar have spared no expense on the packaging of The Great Wave. With its spine complete with a dewey decimal number and a cloth library bag to accompany the CD it is a stylish addition indeed. It is just a shame the tunes within don’t appear to have had the same amount of risk afforded to them on what is a pretty safe sounding release. CHRIS HAVERCROFT 12

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LAURA MARLING Short Movie Caroline/EMI British folkie Laura Marling spent the time since her last album in self-imposed exile in LA - where she is said to have found the locals more - poetic only to turn her back on the pursuit of the spiritual and mystical lifestyle to move back to London. Her fifth album, Short Movie, finds Marling at her most sonically abrasive. Short Movie is a shift for Marling as she dispenses with the predominantly acoustic delivery of her first four albums and embraces the electric guitar. This shift is not as seismic as it was for Dylan and the Newport Folk Festival by any stretch, but it does give a whole bunch of new tones that the adept singer can explore. There is a sense of restlessness that flows through the album that is clearly informed by Marling’s recent journey of self discovery. One thing that it did confirm for Marling is the complexity of relationship and community. False Hope sees Marling with electric guitar as she plays over a rock beat, which adds some vitality to an already vibrant performer. Those needing their folk fix will be pleased to know that Marling scratches that itch with tunes like Easy that speak of her visits to the Joshua Tree to get high. Marling is a skeptic and a seer with a voice that is wiser than her young age of 25 would suggest. Short Movie is another Marling record set to be critically praised while still appealing to the masses. Marling is like a fine wine for sure. CHRIS HAVERCROFT

L I F E S T Y L E & C U LT U R E

Australian comedian and former Perth resident Jim Jefferies returns to his old stomping grounds for three shows at the Crown Theatre this Thursday, April 2, Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4 as part of the 2015 Perth Comedy Festival. TRAVIS JOHNSON catches up with the controversial commentator. A quick look at the official Jim Jefferies website shows it to be loudly and proudly proclaiming that his last comedy special, Bare, won Comedy Special Of The Year. That’s not bad for a guy who went largely unknown in this country before he struck out for foreign climes, making a name for himself first in the UK, then the US (it’s not his fault - we have a habit of refusing to recognise our starts until someone else does). In person, however, Jefferies is humble when asked about it. “Ah, well, it was one webpage (comedy news site The Interrobang) that said it was comedy special of the year. It’s not like I won the Emmy although I’m eligible to win an Emmy! But I don’t think it’s gonna happen somehow. “To me that was nice because it was voted on by the public. There were big names - Jim Gaffigan and Bill Burr were in there. It was big comics I was up against. I was quite happy - I’d never won anything before. What does it mean to me professionally? Not much, I don’t think? Hopefully ticket sales go up ever so slightly, I’m not really sure. Hopefully it means people are liking my stuff.” People do, by and large, although he does ruffle feathers from time to time with his often crude comedic sensibilities and his tendency to not shy away from courting controversy or even enmity. Take for example, his response when we ask him about the recent cancellation of his television series Legit, which ran for two seasons on FX. He mentions a channel shift and other factors before flooring us with, “... the real reason it was cancelled is the guy who was the showrunner, the co-creator, Peter O’Fallon, was just a bit of a fucking dickhead and couldn’t get along with people at the network. That’s the real answer. That’s as honest an answer that I can give you. And I used to say nothing, I used to say nothing in interviews, but I’m just done with the cunt - he’s a fuckin’ pain in the arse.” Cue long pause. But Jefferies’...differences... with his colleague haven’t soured him on TV, and he’s actively working on more projects in that field. “Yeah, I have a deal at the moment with a new script I’m writing. The thing is, it’s very tricky. It was my third or fourth script that I’ve sold, but then to get it to pilot, then to get it to series, it’s very, very hard to get a show to series. I feel... I don’t want to use the word ‘blessed,’ but I fell very, very lucky to have gotten two series of television that I’m proud of. At the moment it’s pilot season now in LA, which means I’ll be going out and auditioning for all the new sitcoms, just be an actor. And in my opinion, half the shows aren’t particularly very good that you’re auditioning for, and that’s very disheartening. So the long and the short of it is, yes, I am going to be trying to do more acting, but my main focus has always been stand up.” Presumably there are less “fucking dickheads” to be found on the comedy stage.

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A R T S & C U LT U R E

FILM

NEWS

EVENTS

FAS H I O N

which comes from being brought up in a city far from everywhere else. You’ve been involved with FORM’s street art initiative, PUBLIC. What’s the latest artwork you’ve completed for it? The last one I did was the Dracula in Wolf Lane last year, which was a nice little jam, a kind of nice little change from all the large scale works that had happened the week before. Stormie Mills - Photo by Francis Aldrijich

STORMIE MILLS & JARRAD SENG Artist Stalk EAT AT: 50ML This Leederville institution is doing cafe-style food right. Try the eggs, feta and tomato. 50mL

We hunt down two of WA’s most prominent creatives, Stormie Mills and Jarrad Seng, and find out what they’ve been up to, their favourite places to eat, and why they love Perth.

STORMIE MILLS What’s happening in Stormie’s world? At the moment I’m in Perth and I’m preparing one of the bunnies for Sculpture By The Sea. I’m working on some concepts for some walls that I wanted to paint, helping FORM mainly with just moral support at this stage and working on some ideas for a couple of shows. Why do you keep coming back to Perth to produce work/live? I grew up here so it’s always been home but I’m also a firm believer in the tyranny of distance being good for creativity. Charles Saatchi said when everyone zigs you zag and I don’t feel like I have to exist DRINK AT: HOWLING’S BAR geographically where everyone else travels to, to live and work This brand-spanking new joint on the corner of Hay because I think I will lose the essence of my work and Milligan is bringing some much-needed small bar style to the top end of town. Howlings Bar

TRACKY DACK REIGN

Why We Can’t Let Go Of The Humble Tracksuit As the weather cools, many of us are looking to update our wardrobes with a handful of cold season essentials. Thanks to the many options on the market, from high end pieces to more affordable numbers, there’s no reason not to work that winter style with flair. Popular purchases include beautifully tailored coats, knee-high boots, designer scarves, and, well, tracksuits. I know, one of these things is not like the other. SHOP AT: ALPHA60 The tracksuit (top and bottom, but especially Hit up the King St branch of this chic chain for the bottom) is the cockroach of the fashion world. No latest look. Alpha60

2015 A Fashion Odyssey Anyone who’s been online lately knows 2015 is the year Marty McFly visited in Back To The Future Part II. Comparing today’s fashion with the 2015 style imagined in the 1989 movie is currently all the rage. And with Nike working on creating the shoe from the film (the Nike Air MAG), fantasy and reality are set to collide.

Truth is you could probably wear a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt from 1985 into 2015 and no one would notice, but costume designers are artists: where GO TO: FREMANTLE would the fun be in that? We like to imagine that in the Find your fun in the street when the world’s best future, everyone’s winning in the style stakes, whether buskers and other assorted outdoor entertainers they work in law enforcement or hospitality (here’s converge on Freo from Saturday, April 4, until lookin’ at you, The Fifth Element). Long-term, predicting the future of fashion is Monday, April 6. a fun game. Short-term, it’s an actual business: fashion trend forecasting is big money. Nowadays, science Eloise Green The Hula Queen 14

Why did you get involved with the project? FORM approached me really early on about the idea and I had been involved in things like the early days of Wynwood Miami. I’ve seen the benefits to the community and businesses that bringing artists to work within spaces gives, so of course I welcomed this being done in our city. I also am a firm believer that many people from many different backgrounds can contribute to the vibrancy of a city and not any one organisation or bureaucracy or group of people and a genre of work control that. I think that everybody has the potential for positive contribution. Do you have any favourite street art pieces you’ve seen pop up in Perth? One of my favourites from PUBLIC last year is the work by Never, which I guess is now known as ‘The Lady Of Northbridge’ on the side of Central TAFE. Then there’s small interventions like ‘The Lego Man’ that’s been painted on one of the exhaust stacks on top of the Flying Scotsman that just make you smile. What’s your favourite place to eat in Perth and why? I have lots of favourites – I do really like Solomon’s in Mount Lawley because of it’s ability to specialise to dietary requirements and it’s organic. Then of course there’s Sayers Sister in Northbridge, MUST, MilkD, Phi Yen, Greens and Co and Yello in Leederville that are all great coffee/food spots. How about your favourite bar/pub? I’m not really a pub person but I do like the proliferation of small bars in Perth and spend time at Enriques, MUST, El Publico, and 399. Is there anything new or exciting coming up for you in the next few months? Yes, PUBLIC is going to be another exciting instalment of works with a great list of people coming to paint, but also a really interesting list of people coming to talk about work at the symposium, including dialogue about

the creation of a vibrant city is as important to the cultural fabric as the works themselves. As I said before, I am working on some ideas and concepts for exhibitions in the future so whilst it may not be visible, I think what I am working on is exciting but won’t be seen for a while.

JARRAD SENG What has Mr Seng been up to lately? In the past couple months I’ve climbed cranes in Kenya, explored the caves of Tasmania, toured Australia and New Zealand with bearded folk musicians and sailed with dolphins in South Africa. All for ‘work’, of course. Where are you now? I’m back in Perth! It feels great to be home. What’s so great about Perth? I love this city. The creative scene is buzzing right now, especially with Fringe World and Perth Festival shenanigans in full swing. You’re kidding yourself if you think there’s nothing to do in Perth! And it’s just the right size too, I love being able to walk through the city at my own pace without being trampled by the hordes of foot traffic you might find in Melbourne or Sydney. As much as I enjoy exploring the world, I’m equally excited to come home every time. Where’s your favourite place to eat in Perth, and why? I’m starting to accept that no matter how many times I mention Nandos in the press, they aren’t going to give me the elusive black card. So I guess it’ll be Ace Pizza then ;) How about to drink? The Bird. Do you have any new/interesting projects coming up in WA? Now that I’m back in the country for a little bit, I hope to finish work on my latest exhibition series as well as the next instalment of The Hidden Sound.

matter how many times that fluffy mess is relegated to the bin, by the end of winter somehow you’re on the couch in a pair of tracky dacks, eating pizza and watching a definitely-not-intellectual movie, unsure exactly how it all happened. Eva Mendes caused an online furore recently (and by furore I mean an internet huff that lasted for a solid forty eight hours, forever in digital time) after she said sweatpants are the number one cause of divorce in America. While no sane person would go near that comment and its connotations with a ten foot pole, it is true tracksuit pants (or sweats, as Americans call them) do not have an illustrious fashion reputation. Not for want of trying, though. Juicy Couture have really given it their best shot over the years, snazzing up the cut, printing their logo on the butt, procuring a celebrity following along the way. Then we had Normcore convincing us tracksuits were de rigueur for the ironically chic, and even now paparazzi are snapping young It girls like Cara Delevigne in their rebel sweats. On the guy front, many a film throws audiences a shirtless ripped dude wearing nothing but tracksuit pants, and no one’s complaining. Still, even when you bling them up, wear them with a designer jacket, or wrap them around a hot bod, there’s something inherently daggy about tracky dacks. When trying on a pair, my mind doesn’t go to Rihanna or J. Lo. Elasticated and slouchy, this really doesn’t look like someone being oh-so-cool on the red carpet. Instead, I can’t shake the vibe there’s a

little too much Kath And Kim in that there reflection. I get that pulling up the bottoms and slipping on heels or wedges apparently makes them high end, but trust me, that’s not what’s happening in this Target changeroom. Tracksuit pants are like smart mouth comments only meant to be said in your inner voice, and never spoken out loud. They remind me of finishing assignments in a frenzy on the couch, or getting out of tailored work wear after a long day pretending to be professional. Also, travel. Flying is a tracksuit-friendly zone because really, the inside of the plane is like a large lounge room you’re sharing with a lot of housemates. Let me guess - you’re different, determined to swan around indoors this winter in fabulous yoga wear and flowing culottes. Stop lying to yourself! Wake up, and embrace the inevitable. At some point the dreaded tracky dacks will make a comeback in your winter wardrobe. Hey, it’s not all bad news: even really cheap, horribly ugly ones are still comfortable, and strangely comforting.

fiction cinema is part of the puzzle. Style aficionados know the wardrobe choices in big budget futuristic films can filter through runways for many a season. The costuming in science fiction cinema has a strange relationship with fashion. On one hand, the outfits partially reflect styles of the day: the barely-there wardrobe of Barbarella had a definite ‘60s vibe, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and Logan’s Run boasted draping dresses for women with a hint of caftan happening, while the eighties saw Tron channel the eras love of less-than-shy fluoros and neons. But imagination was also key; the looks of the day were “futurised”, resulting in strange hybrid mutations of everyday trends. Is it any wonder then, that fashion designers are often inspired by sci-fi cinema? Citing a movie from this genre as inspiration for a clothing collection means (get ready to wrap your mind around this one): imagined trends for the future, conceptualised in the past, based on fashions of that time, end up inspiring real life trends of the future, when the future becomes the present day. Mind blown? The whole scene is similar to a freaky time travel scenario. You might not turn out be your own grandmother, but thanks to films like Blade Runner, at some point you’ll probably dress like her. That movie, which imagined a 2019 where ‘80ss fashion of the day fused with noir-inspired outfits of the past, is still influencing looks on the runway, like some kind of self-fulfilling style prophecy. Which brings us to the upcoming release

of Mad Max: Fury Road. Fashion-wise, this film channels the look of the less-than-friendly future imagined in the original 1979 Mad Max movie, with an incorporated 2015 perspective. (No, this won’t get confusing.) So far, one can say it definitely indulges the modern day love of skull paraphernalia. On a side note, the fingerless gloves and micro-shorts shot in the trailer tells us the end of the world’s no excuse not to have an even spray tan and a wax #dystopianpriorities Whatever a filmmaker’s take on the years ahead, very rarely is the costuming a negligible background element. The art of our clothing choices is used to paint the scene, because style is a language cinema speaks fluently. One thing science fiction wardrobing doesn’t celebrate, is subtlety: safe to say the future, dystopian or otherwise, has got game. Now with new Star Wars and Blade Runner films set to join the schedule, things are about to get real interesting in a strange, fashion-world-versionof-12-Monkeys way. Thanks to the internet and its flood of information, we’re travelling through trends at a much speedier rate. Throw in movies looping the past and the present in multiple (often self-referential) ways, and it’s about to get cray-cray on the runway.

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GILLIAN O’MEAGHER

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DINNER OPENING NIGHT The State Theatre Centre Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Moira Buffini’s arch black comedy brought out a fine crowd for its opening salvo, eager to dine on the acerbic delights contained in the whip-smart play. Photos by Matt Jelonek

Jaz, Zoe

Alex, Ash

Glow

Ludovic, Alice

Alison, Rebecca

VISUAL ARTS

Tuesday, April 14, until Saturday, May 2. Head to blueroom.org.au for more information.

Glow: Free Range Gallery This exhibition by artist Katrina Barber features a series of spectacular light constructions that immerse the viewer in a strange and beautiful world of colour. It’s Barber’s first solo show and it runs from Wednesday, April 1, until Monday, April 13. For more info, go to freerange.org.au.

Armour: The Blue Room Theatre Writer and director Tom Jeffcote brings us a story of damaged masculinity in this drama, which sees four men on a weekend retreat confront both each other and their own tortured emotions. It runs from Tuesday, April 21, until Saturday, May 9. Go to blueroom.org.au for tickets and session times.

My Island Home - Artists Of Badu Island: Mossenson Galleries This exhibition of works from Badu Island in the Torres Strait features works by Laurie Nona and Alick Tipoti, plus traditional Badu Island dancing on the opening night, which starts at 6.30pm on Wednesday, April 15. The exhibition continues until Saturday, May 2. Go to mossensongalleries.com.au for more details.

An Evening with Noel Fielding: Perth Convention And Exhibition Centre Rock star comedian Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh fame comes to Perth on Friday, April 24 and Saturday April 25. Fridays gig is booked out however single seat tickets are still available for the Saturday performance. Book via Ticketek.

Brain JuJu: The Butcher Shop This solo exhibition by sculptor Bruno Booth runs from Wednesday, April 22, until Sunday, April 26. Go to thebutchershop.com.au for more info.

Georgia, Kale

Rebirth: The Art Gallery Of Western Australia Japanese artist Mariko Mori has created Rebirth, an immersive experience comprised of installations, LED sculptures, photographs, drawings and videos. It’s on display until June 29. For more information, go to artgallery.wa.gov.au

Meg, Bella

The Visitors: John Curtin Gallery Celebrated Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson presents his ambitious nine channel music video installation to Perth as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. It runs until Sunday, May 16. Go to johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au for more information. An Internal Difficulty: Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts Curated by Andrew Nichols, this group exhibition sees seven prominent Western Australian artists Thea Constantino, Susan Flavell, Tarryn Gill, Travis Kelleher, Pilar Mata Dupont, Nalda Searles and Nichols himself - reconsider the figure of seminal psychiatric researcher Sigmund Freud in a domestic context. It runs until Sunday, April 12. Go to pica.org. au for full details.

NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has been described as the first Iranian vampire Western. A delirious genre mashup that recalls the effortless cool of early Jim Jarmusch and is sure to delight astute cineastes. VICE Magazine and Pilerats are hosting a special screening this Saturday, April 4, at Luna Outdoor, with free pizza courtesy of Sienna’s and wine from Wines by Brad. Doors open at 6.30pm, with the feature kicking off at 7.45.pm. Book your tickets via lunapalace.com.au. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Star Wars parody burlesque show The Empire Strips Back is headed our way for two shows only at the Regal Theatre on Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30. combining top notch choreography with faithful production and costume design and that sauciness that sets the best burlesque apart from the pack, this is one show that’s sure to get even the scruffiestlooking nerf herder up and running. Book your tickets now via Ticketek.

Kaleidoscope: Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts Contemporary artist Tracey Moffatt’s first major solo exhibition in Perth since 2004 features her new video work, Art Calls, plus an installation of works taken from her Spirit Landscapes series. It runs until Sunday, April 12. Head to pica.org.au for more information.

THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE Old Love: The Blue Room Theatre The creative dynamo that is theatre collective The Last Great Hunt bring us a May December romance that is sure to push the boundaries. It runs from

The Confidence Man: Studio Underground Side Pony Productions presents an interactive audio experience, directed by Zoe Pepper and written by Pepper and Adriane Daff, that exposes the greed and betrayal festering under the surface of ordinary suburbia. It runs from Thursday, April 30, until Sunday, May 10. Go to perththeatre.com.au for more. Cosentino - Twisted Reality Tour: Regal Theatre Known as Australia’s greatest magician, Cosentino brings his unique brand of large-scale illusion to Perth for two shows only on Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2. Tickets are available via livenation.com.au.

FESTIVALS Eat Drink Perth Running until Friday, April 24, this citywide festival of food holds a thousand temptations for gourmands of all stripes. Head over to visitperthcity.com for more info. Alliance Francais French Film Festival 2015 Once again, Luna Palace Cinemas plays host to the best and freshest films that France has to offer, featuring new works from the likes of Benoit Jacquot, Francois Ozon, Mathieu Amalric, and Anne Fontaine. It runs until Tuesday, April 7. for information and tickets, go to lunapalace.com.au. Fremantle Street Arts Festival Over the Easter weekend (April 4 - 6) the streets of Fremantle will throng with some of the best al fresco entertainers from around the globe. Buskers, clowns, acrobats, magicians and more will perform across 10 stages scattered throughout Freo. For more information, go to fremantle.wa.gov.au/festivals. Spanish Film Festival All the passion and drama of the Latin world comes to Cinema Paradiso, opening on Thursday, April 23, with Spanish Affair and continuing until Wednesday, May 6. Go to lunapalace.com.au for all the details.

The Empire Strips Back

HORSES FOR COURSES Horse On Toast is both a brand and an exhibition, and it’s being launched at Paper Mountain on Tuesday, April 10. Drawing on Amy Perejuan-Capone’s personal experiences in Iceland and Icelandic folklore, the show comprises two distinct sets of work: The Reykjavik Collection of furniture and numerous watercolours and sculptures. The exhibition runs until Sunday, April 26. Go to papermountain.org.au for more info.

JOSH PYKE JOINS THE ORCHESTRA Following on from his upcoming collaboration with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in April, singer/ songwriter Josh Pyke will join forces with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra for one show only on Friday, July 24. Tickets are on sale now via waso.com.au Josh Pyke

NEWS ON THE MARCH Australian Revelations’ April screening has been announced, and it’s a corker. The classic Phillip Noyce drama Newsfront will screen with the WAproduced short Tango Underpants at The Backlot Perth on Tuesday, April 28. Featuring a career-best turn by Aussie acting legend Bill hunter as a newsreel cameraman who must contend with cultural and technological changes affecting his job and his life, Newsfront is one of the great Australian dramas. Book Spanish Affair your tickets now through revelationfilmfest.org. WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU

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SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: A SPONGE OUT OF WATER MOMMY Mother Dearest Directed by Xavier Dolan Starring Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Suzanne Clément A widowed mother, Diane “Die” Dupres (Anne Dorval), must again look after her troubled son as he moves back home, after setting fire to a facility he was being treated in. Die and Kyla (Suzanne Clément), a troubled neighbour, form a curious bond in caring for the exuberant, personable but highly self destructive Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon). Most notable in Mommy is the aspect ratio. At a 1:1 ratio the screen seems cramped, merely a small vertical strip at the centre, lending a sense of claustrophobia to the suburban setting. The audience is constantly reminded of how hemmed in the characters are by their condition, and as this changes throughout the course of the film we are acutely conscious as to why. Xavier Dolan demonstrates a masterful touch in using this confinement, turning this self imposed limitation to an advantage. Due to the confines of the screen, composition and camera movements become more noticeable, and moments of extreme close-up are inescapably uncomfortable. Not only is each shot skilfully composed, like a picture filling the borders of its frame, but it also allows for a greater control of the audience’s gaze, which Dolan often uses to direct the audiences attention. Yet as successful as this gimmick (a phrase used with some hesitancy) is, it is the cast that is

deserving of attention. Mommy delivers a script that is full of emotional extremes, dragging the audience to euphoric highs and devastatingly emotional lows, through which the actors must navigate. Essentially a three hander, the trio give us some wonderful work, both in bringing the these complex creations to life, and in the chemistry they have with each other. Anne Dorval manages to delve into the multiple layers of Die, bringing us someone that is brash, bold and occasionally crude, but has substance and real heart, even if she must manipulate others in her attempts to get by. Above all though, she is a mother that loves her son, come what may. Suzanne Clément presents the opposite to Die’s brashness; empathetic, contained, shut down, timid, but with a core of volatile emotions that she is unwilling to confront. When that switch is flipped, it truly is something to behold. However it is AntoineOlivier Pilon that probably carries the lion’s share. As Steve he conveys a roller-coaster ride of emotions as his ADHD swings him from highs to lows. It is a character that demands attention, which the camera gladly gives him, as he portrays Steve’s great charisma, and devastating lack of control. It is that mix of great potential and volatility that keeps the audience guessing throughout the course of Mommy. An emotional ride, Mommy may overstay its welcome slightly, but is still well worth taking. DAVID O’CONNELL

Mommy screens at Somerville, UWA from Monday, April 6, until Sunday, April 12, as part of Lotterywest Festival Films. For tickets and session times, go to perthfestival.com.au.

A Goofy Goober Directed by Paul Tibbitt Starring Tom Kenny, Antonio Banderas, Clancy Brown

a fight upon a life-size David Hasselhoff, or the earworm that was the Goofy Goober song. Of more genuine concern is the plot, which is very loosely constructed, needing multiple miraculous events just to forge ahead, be that from a cosmic powered dolphin or a magic book. It often seems forced rather than arising from the natural chaos of the show, stretching out a plot worthy of a 15 minute episode into a 90 minute movie. The climax also has glaring issues. Although the final battle against the evil pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) is a raucous action sequence in the best spirit of the show, something must be said for those CG redesigns of the characters as superheroes. It’s as if the animators have taken a trip into the Uncanny Valley and brought back the most disturbing things they could find. So what’s the good news? Well this sequel keeps that sense of manic energy and fun that SpongeBob is known for, as well as that irreverent humour that appeals to kids of all ages. For fans of the show it is exactly what you want, with all the core characters getting a lot to do in the film, each having those moments that define them. It also maintains that intelligence that underlies the brightly coloured hyperkinetic style, with some surprising adult references from sources as diverse as The Shining to The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. In the end that is all it really needs to do. The result is bright, chaotic, and a whole lot of crazy fun for the crustiest old crab to the tiniest minnow.

As one of the longest running shows on Nickelodeon TV, with fans as highly placed as Barack Obama, SpongeBob Squarepants certainly has been a cultural phenomenon. A Sponge Out Of Water represents the second trip to the big screen for Bikini Bottom’s goofiest goober. Our porous, yellow and absorbent hero is still in his dream job as the fry chef of The Krusty Krab, making the much desired speciality of the house, the Krabby Patty. When Plankton, the nefarious owner of the rival Chum Bucket restaurant, attacks in an attempt to once again steal the much desired Secret Formula, it really is just another day for SpongeBob, with giant robots, tanks and fighterbombers. So when the Krabby Patty Formula does actually go missing, society quickly breaks down and the Apocalypse comes to Bikini Bottom (with Mad Max inspired fashion for everyone). To save his town (and his pineapple home under the sea), SpongeBob must team up with the unlikely ally of Plankton to retrieve the formula, all in a quest that involves time travel, pirates and the world above. So in all, a fairly typical set up for a SpongeBob story, but after all this time, is it Sponge-worthy? Yes and no. Let’s start with the negative first. This doesn’t hit the heights of the original SpongeBob movie, but it would be nigh on impossible to top DAVID O’CONNELL

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THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS 7 Where The Rubber Meets The Road.

Dior And I

DIOR AND I Fashionable Insight Directed by Frédéric Tcheng Starring Raf Simmons In 2012 Raf Simmons was made creative director of Dior. Traditionally thought of as a menswear designer, this film follows the eight week period leading up to his first haute couture collection. We are given a behind the scenes look at the design process, as well as the workshops that must make it happen on the day. Like good fashion, this works by taking an existing formula and tweaking it slightly, taking it back to a minimalist approach and just adding a few accessories to individualise it without ruining a classic silhouette. For Dior And I this takes the form of a rather deceptively straightforward telling about the creation of a collection. Going from conception to runway is something we have commonly seen in fashion documentaries and it is something we again see here. That titillating insight into the fashion industry, that time when the magic happens, and that time when approaching deadlines and “creative”(read “somewhat crazy”) demands cause nerves to fray and tempers to boil over. As usual it is compelling viewing. However Dior And I manages to accomplish so much more than the average fashion film. In part this is due to the importance of the label. With the recognition the brand has, with the money this global industry pulls in, with the decades of

history surrounding this fashion house, the stakes are intensified. Being granted a fly on the wall view at this moment of change, as Raf places his mark on perhaps the world’s largest and most prestigious fashion company, is riveting stuff. Yet it is in its considered approach to the issues surrounding this that makes Dior And I interesting. Is it is not just the collection, but what it represents. A collection of haute couture may be important, but the ateliers also have the considerations of high end costumers to consider, who are also placing demands on the limited workshops. Raf must demonstrate his own fashion mark, but can’t stray too far from the conception of the Dior’s previous work. He also must woo the press and the fashionista. It is the tip of the fashion branding iceberg, and we are given a hint as to how this high end drama can effect a multi-million dollar industry - all issues that Dior And I is careful not to draw from its main narrative too much, but addresses tangentially. Also lurking in the background is the ghost of Dior. Be that literally, as in some of the lurid tales of the security guards in the fashion house would have it, or figuratively, as in the vast collection of his work that Raf draws on for inspiration. For it’s part the documentary handles this by giving us intermittent extracts of Dior’s autobiography, drawing parallels to the experiences of a designer as well as history of the house. It is a device that could so easily be overplayed, but here seems perfectly tailored. A fascinating insight to where couture and big business meet. DAVID O’CONNELL

Directed by James Wan Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson Over the past seven films the Fast And The Furious franchise sure has built up its own little world. A world where physics doesn’t matter a damn, bald men with muscles can take more punishment than a Terminator, family matters above all else, and there is very little that can’t be solved by the judicial application of a really fast car. Following on from the events of the previous film, former British black ops assassin gone rogue, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), seeks revenge on Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his team of elite drivers for the crippling of his brother. As Toretto’s team is hunted, a shady government official, Mr Nobody, (Kurt Russell), offers them a chance to turn the tables and become the hunter. To do this, they must rescue a hacker (Nathalie Emmanuel) from an international terrorist and retrieve the tracking device, Godseye - ahhh look... the plot really doesn’t mater, just strap yourself in and enjoy. All you need to know is that everything can be accomplished by skilful driving, and an understanding of inertia that rivals the Roadrunner. This has everything we have come to expect of a Fast And Furious film. Vin Diesel’s sub-harmonic rumbling as he talks about the mean streets in front of an American muscle car, Paul Walker tearing around in a plastic fantastic, The Rock oiled up and throwing full grown men

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around like rag dolls, and enough car-porn to make Michael Bay aroused - all of it is here. It also has the emotional core of family, that has been a consistent thread running throughout the series. Here it finds particular resonance, as the tragic death of Walker in a car accident makes this his final film. The series uses this opportunity to grant a final farewell to one of it stalwarts, producing a genuinely moving send off from the cast. Despite this touching tribute, it is fairly obvious that this franchise is in danger of hitting peak oil in its attempts to constantly one up it’s own ludicrously over the top action sequences. Fortunately it hasn’t quiet hit that point yet, presenting some of the most unbelievable jawdropping setpieces of the series to date. Yes, it is completely insane to expect audiences to believe this world of cartoon physics populated by ex-street thugs turned multi-millionaire parttime spies, but it has also become one of the most entertaining movie franchises around. So for that couple of hours it is surprisingly easy to just sit back, enjoy your popcorn and get lost in the engine roar and insane automotive ballet, believing that cars can actually fly. The handing over of the reigns from long time director Justin Lin to James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring), certainly seems to have left the series in safe hands. Furious 7 accomplishes everything its predecessors did, and ramps things up nicely, for an unbelievably enjoyable ride. DAVID O’CONNELL

YO U R G U I D E TO W H AT ’ S O N T H I S F E S T I V E S E A S O N

RUN RIOT WITH HYSTERIA

WHAT’S ON IN APRIL

Ever wanted to hear Def Leppard’s album Hysteria played live in full? Well now’s your chance with Run Riot – A Tribute To Def Leppard. Brought to you by a collection of WA’s most respected musicians, Run Riot aims to recreate one of rock’s most revered albums with all the high-quality guitar and lush harmonies right down to the specific audio samples of the original. Alongside this the band will entertain with a selection of Def Leppard’s classic hits from across their career including Photograph and Rock of Ages. See Run Riot – A Tribute To Def Leppard at the Civic Hotel this Thursday, April 2. Tickets available at oztix.com.au and at the door.

MOO-RE ACTS BEATS AND EATS AND CLIFF The City of Wanneroo presents its annual Global Beats and Eats extravaganza, announcing reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff, fresh from West Coast Blues N’ Roots, to headline. The family event will feature activities such as face painting and the Akwaaba drumming workshop, roving performers such as Chinese Lion Dancers and Samba Dancers, a huge variety of food trucks from all cuisines and the main music event starting with Huaria, The Brow Horn and Nueva Salsa Orchestra and concluding with Jimmy Cliff. Global Beats and Eats is happening at Liddell Park in Girrawheen, Saturday, April 11, at 4pm. It is a free event but tickets are required and you can find them at wanneroo.wa.gov.au. Tickets are only available to City of Wanneroo residents until Friday, April 3, when the remaining tickets will be released to the general public.

Groovin the Moo have increased their already packed line-up by adding a bunch of local acts to each of their regional shows. Joining the Bunbury date, alongside acts such as Ball Park Music, Charli XCX, Hilltop Hoods and San Cisco is Doctopus, Timothy Nelson & The Infidels, FOAM, Koi Child and the winners of the Bunbury triple j Unearthed spot, Said The People. Groovin The Moo Bunbury happens Sunday, April 26, and tickets are still available from 2015.gtm.net.au. FOAM Pic: Rachael Barrett

WEST END WEEKENDER

Perth guitar pop maestros DM3 have announced another Perth show to their Monsters Of Jangle tour before heading to the East Coast and then off to Japan. This special show will be on Friday, April 17, at FOUR5NINE (Rosemount Hotel) with support from The Jangle Brothers. (Jeff Baker and Ian Freeman - The Rainyard, The Mars Bastards, Header) and Joe Algeri’s outfit, The JAC.

This Easter Weekend, the Fremantle Street Arts Festival will welcome the first ever West End Weekender event, showcasing the city’s most exciting and innovative young talent - transforming the popular High Street into a bustling space of music, arts and festive attractions. An outdoor stage – the Bar Orient Pitch will kick things off at 2pm, displaying a diverse range of local and international artists including Grace Barbe, Andrew Winton, The Brow, Formidable Vegetable Sound System, Dilip N The Davs, The Georgians, DJ NDORSE, Sista Che, Shangarajive and Still Frame Mind with many more to take the stage. Equally as entertaining, the Fremantle Street Arts Festival will produce plenty of interactive art, food stalls, street performers, and other attractions. Attendance is free giving you every reason to head on down to the West End Weekender, happening from Saturday-Monday April 4-6.

Showcasing some of Perth’s best female business owners and entrepreneurs, the Rosemount Hotel will host the Ladybird Market on Sunday, April 12, from 10am-3pm. It’s an event for anyone who enjoys shopping locally, supporting their community, live music and getting involved within a fun-relaxing atmosphere accompanied by great food. While the event celebrates and supports the works of women, the event isn’t restricted to one gender, but open to all – with a diverse range of products and services on offer, such as baby and children’s clothing, artwork, jewellery, beauty and health products, home décor, crafts and much more. For more information of the event, visit its official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ TheLadybirdMarket.

Dom Mariani, DM3

Andrew Winton

Ladybird Market

Jimmy Cliff

TIGER HUNTS AT DUSK To celebrate National Youth Week, the City of Joondalup is hosting its first underage gig, Tigerlily At Dusk. Dusk Nightclub in Joondalup will open its doors to 12 to 17 year olds as it hosts some of Joondalup’s young DJs before headliner, Tigerlily, takes the decks. There’ll be refreshments provided, and you can go to the Joondalup website for a chance to have a go on the decks yourself. Tigerlily At Dusk happens Thursday, April 16 at 6pm, tickets and details can be found at joondalup.wa.gov.au.

IT’S A JANGLE OUT THERE

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THE LADYBIRD MARKET

A preview of everything happening in the Perth scene this August! advertise: advertising@xpressmag.com.au

THE BOOK OF LIFE

X+Y

Mathematics prodigy Nathan (Asa Butterfield) From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge is a socially awkward teenager who has difficulty Gutierrez comes an animated comedy with a unique understanding people. Numbers, however, he does visual style. The Book Of Life is the journey of Manolo understand, and when he lands a spot in the British (Diego Luna), a young man who is torn between team at the International Mathematics Olympiad he fulfilling the expectations of his family and following gets the chance to make new friends and find new his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he confidence. Also starring Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastical and Eddie Marsan, X+Y is in Perth cinemas from YOUTH FEST worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich Thursday, April 9. Four up and coming young WA bands will get the chance to perform at this year’s AmpFest. AmpFest is a live with a fresh take on pop music favourites, The Book Of music program created by a local government Youth Advisory Council initiative to provide an opportunity Life encourages us to celebrate the past while looking X+Y for original, unsigned bands, duos and solo acts aged 12 to 25 to develop their music skills and play in front forward to the future. Also starring the voices of Zoe of a live audience. It’s also to provide under 18’s the chance to see live music. The to-be-announced winners Saldana and Channing Tatum, The Book Of Life is in of AmpFest 2015 will play at the Llama Bar in Subiaco, Sunday, April 26, starting at 5pm, an all-ages alcohol Perth cinemas from this Thursday, April 2. free event. The Book Of Life

AmpFest

SKULLCAVE ON TOUR

CONSCIOUS SOUL Electro dub outfit Dubarray of the Sunshine Coast are making their way to the Sunset Coast to play shows across the state. Describing their music as conscious world electro and soul dub, the band take their influences from bands such as St Germain and Portishead. Dubarray will play four shows in WA, Friday, April 17, at The Odd Fellow in Fremantle; Sunday, April 19, at The Indi Bar in Scarborough; Friday, April 24, at Settlers Tavern in Margaret River and Sunday, April 26, at Caves House in Yallingup.

Having wrapped up their tour in the US, San Cisco are now off on a two-week tour of Europe. They’ll return home for shows at the Fremantle Arts Centre on Thursday, April 23, (18+) and Friday, April 24, (all-ages), before joining the national Groovin The Moo roadshow in Adelaide. GTM hits Bunbury on Sunday, April 26.

Perth’ doom/shoegaze trio Skullcave are wasting no time getting over East, heading to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in good company with none other than their mates in The Love Junkies. Touring off the back of their successful debut self-titled EP launched in January the band are responding to national radio play and critical acclaim by taking their fearsome live show to the East Coast. Catch Skullcave’s next Perth show at The Bakery with Naik for Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving’s album launch on Friday, April 17.

Dubarray

San Cisco Pic: Michael Wylie

Skullcave Pic: Damien Crocker

SAN CISCO

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TRAINWRECK BLOOMS Local rock’n’blues band Dirtwater Bloom are releasing their debut EP at the end of May and to show off their new music are playing gigs in and around Perth. Self-described as trainwreck blues, the band evoke cowboys, whiskey, seedy bars and wasted love. See Dirtwater Bloom at Mojo’s this Wednesday, April 1, with Lantana and Dr Bumface and closing the open mic session at the Indi Bar in Scarborough, on Thursday, April 2. Dirtwater Bloom

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Vito de Luca, AKA Italian-Belgian producer Aeroplane, has established himself as a party-starting DJ, a remixer du jour, and a leader of the nu-disco and Balearica music scene. His distinctive analogue house sound sets him apart from the rest. In the last year, Aeroplane has produced several popular Hype Machine-charting remixes, including of Justin Timberlake’s Suit & Tie, Mystery Skulls’ Paralyzed, Charli XCX’s Boom Clap, Mayer Hawthorne’s Wine Glass Woman and Stromae’s Tous Les Mêmes. GARETH BRYANT caught up with him ahead of an appearance at Sets In The City at Riverside Drive on Saturday, April 11. CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

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CONTINUED FROM COVER. Sound-wise, what do you expect to trend in 2015? I’m not sure. It’s getting really difficult to follow everything as there are hundreds of small bubbles, and you never know which one is about to burst and which one is about to grow. I do have a feeling that 2015 will be beat-less. I’ve noticed that a lot of music at the moment has little to no beat, and by beat I mean drums, putting songs and performances upfront. I like that. Aeroplane and an artist album – any plans on that front given the impending release of your new track, Let’s Get Slow? I’m considering it but I need to finetune the direction. I like concept albums and not collections of random songs. So once that direction/concept will be clear, I’ll get to it and will probably record it very quickly. Driving is pointless if you don’t know where you’re going. What else is fresh out of the Aeroplane lab? We’re told you’ve collaborated with Mayer Hawthorne and Kimbra – what can you tell us? That it’s true for both. And I can’t tell much else about it at this stage. The next thing is a song with Benjamin Diamond called Let’s Get Slow coming out through Capitol France, and after that I have a two-track house EP that’s also finished. Your sound has a definite ’80s vibe to it. How do you capture that with the equipment you use? I have realised over the years collecting vintage gear that, even if it helps, it doesn’t make you sound a certain way. It’s your culture and your knowledge of a genre that makes you do the right thing to emulate it. What’s your favourite piece of music-related hardware? I bought a Roland Jupiter-8 in the early stages of Aeroplane. It’s still the most inspiring piece of gear I own. You’ve collaborated with Kimbra, who comes from our neighbouring New Zealand. Let’s test your Australian music knowledge – name us three other Aussie acts you recommend to our readers, and why. There’s obviously Tame Impala or Empire Of The Sun, both from Perth I think, or Jagwar Ma from Sydney. Why? Because they’re three really great bands, and I would recommend to go see them live too. And if you live in Australia and don’t know these three bands it’s about time you go listen to them.

Jay Lumen

JAY LUMEN 365 Hungarian DJ, Jay Lumen, heads to Geisha on Thursday, April 2, with support from Flex, Green George and Houshed. AUGUSTUS WELBY reports. Germany, Holland, England and Spain – these are the European nations synonymous with modern electronic music. Looking a little deeper, Italy, France, Scotland and Belgium also house prominent electronic scenes. Hungary, on the other hand, barely enters the competition. At least, that’s the way it appears to a casual, remote onlooker. But Budapest DJ and producer, Jay Lumen, argues otherwise.

HORRORSHOW On Closer Listen

Aeroplane

In the past year alone, you have remixed tracks for Justin Timberlake, Mystery Skulls, Charli XCX, Mayer Hawthorne and Stromae. What attracts you to a remix project? You do different remixes for different reasons. Sometimes just because it’s great for profile and it’s fun to get involved in that A-list stuff. Stromae because hashtag Belgium; Mayer because it’s a great song. I can’t like the song too much if I want to remix it, though. Every time I have fallen in love with a song and reached out to ask for the stems, I couldn’t do the remix – it always felt like I couldn’t make it better. Who would be your ultimate collaboration with anyone still alive? And on the flip, who do you wish you could have worked on a project with who is no longer with us? I’d like to work with a band. Like Midlake or Fleet Foxes. Also Mark Hollis from Talk Talk is my dream vocalist. Or Bowie, for obvious reasons. Most people I get influenced by are still alive, but if I had to pick one I’d love if Bernard Edwards (Chic) could be my bass player. In Australia, rock and hip hop continue to dominate the local markets; electronic music is beginning to experience a resurgence since the early-to-mid-2000s success. How is EDM - if I can use that term with you - trending in Europe? EDM as a genre is reaching the end now. But if by ‘EDM’ you refer to electronic music in general, it has always been strong in Europe. It comes and goes in the charts, but it is still dominating the clubs in different shapes and forms. “We have some big festivals here in Hungary, major festivals as well,” Lumen says. “Not only for underground, but all kinds of electronic music. The scene is pretty strong here, especially Budapest, which is really good for me. I play a lot in Hungary. I have 60-70 per cent of gigs outside of the country and 30-40 per cent inside the country.” In recent times, Lumen’s certainly not been at a loss for gig opportunities. Having gained recognition as a tech-house/techno DJ, Lumen’s spent the last five years navigating his way through the global club circuit. For Lumen, living and breathing music 365 days a year seems entirely natural. “I started to learn music when I was seven years old,” he says. “I started to learn how to play the violin and all kinds of things about the music. I was singing in a choir as well. I think all of my life was going around the music until now, and I hope for the future as well.” Although Lumen’s classical violin training occurred at a very young age, the shift into electronic production still seems rather drastic. However, his affection for electronic music also stretches back to his youth. “When I was a child I started to listen to all the Chicago house and Detroit techno sounds from the late ‘80s and I really loved it,” he says. “That kind of music is real fresh, still today as well. It was 30 years ago, but I think it’s really fresh now again. So that was the point when I felt I have to make something in electronic music. It was the first bang for me; I was sure that I have to make some of my own sounds in electronic music and I was sure that I have to be a DJ.” Lumen’s an admired professional behind the decks, but this success is effectively trumped by his reputation as an original producer. There’s barely been a single week during the last four years when Lumen hasn’t had a tune sitting high in the Beatport charts, and the winning streak continues courtesy of his latest release, the eight-minute techno jam, Departures. With consistent sales success comes artistic affirmation, but Lumen isn’t letting it go to his head. “My manager just said that I was in the Beatport Top 10 with all of my releases in the last four years, which I didn’t believe,” he says. “And he said ‘You are the only one all around the world’. I’m so happy, but still, I’m the same man. I just try to do what I love, which is the music.” Lumen’s now released more than enough originals to fill an entire DJ set. However, in a further display of refreshing modesty, the Hungarian’s DJ sets are an exploration through the vast fields of techno, tech-house and house music. “I play a lot of tunes from other artists, of course,” he says. “I play my own sounds as well – around 20 per cent of my sets are my own tracks. I don’t feel that I have to do like some other acts that play their own sounds only. First of all I’m a DJ, which is why I like to show some new sounds from some others. To play the songs that I like, that’s why I’m a DJ.”

Horrorshow play Settlers Tavern, Margaret River, on Wednesday, April 2, and The Bakery on Friday, April 4. MATTHEW TOMICH reports. Horrorshow may seem like unlikely candidates for an acoustic set. At first listen, the Sydney duo’s sound is steeped in the fundamental hip hop tropes of cut and paste beats, rapid-fire rhymes and the occasional synth and brass sample. But on closer listen, there’s sophistication and nuance in the deft lyricism of Nick Bryant-Smith and the multi-layered songwriting of Horrorshow’s producer Adit Gauchan that makes a stripped-down and intimate acoustic tour a natural fit. “We’ve actually been doing these sorts of shows since way back when we first started writing together,” says Bryant-Smith, otherwise known as MC Solo, from the back of a tour van headed from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane. “But back then, we were doing them, on a much smaller scale, which was basically just to our mates at a local pub or something. But we’ve always had a network of really talented musician friends around us so we’ve always hung out and jammed with them and this tour is an extension of that whole format. I guess we’ve sort of had this up our sleeve for many years but it’s cool to finally take it out on the road and show it off to people.”

It’s not the first time Horrorshow have brought the acoustic format to a large audience, either – in 2011, the group performed an unplugged set at The Basement in Sydney. The next year, they brought that show to The Spiegeltent at the Brisbane Festival, which was recorded and released for free on Bandcamp. And last year, Horrorshow performed a cover of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side mixed with A Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It? for the triple j series Like A Version, a song that’s made its way into most of their sets on this tour so far. For Bryant-Smith, these shows – billed as the Listen Close tour – give he and Gauchan a sort of flexibility with their performance that’s harder to achieve when you’re working with backing tracks and pre-programming. “There’s definitely room to be a bit more spontaneous or change shit up when you don’t have songs all joined together in a Serato crate,” he says. “When it’s all live you’re able to turn around to the band and say we’ll do this instead or we’ll change the order of this or speed up or slow down or whatever. There’s definitely a bit more room for spontaneity and we’ve been trying to just roll with that and embrace it and see what happens in that live moment when we’re all up there.

“We’ve always had a network of really talented musician friends around us so we’ve always hung out and jammed with them and this tour is an extension of that whole format.” The nationwide jaunt finishes up in early April, after which Horrorshow will reunite with fellow Sydneysiders Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride as the collective One Day to tour with Groovin The Moo. Beyond that, Bryant-Smith says he’s keen to return to the studio and commence work on album number four. “I don’t think we’ll get it out this year. That would be awesome. That would be fucking awesome. I’d love that. But history tells me it usually takes a bit longer than that, though it’s definitely not going to be four years between albums like it was with our last one. So we want to come back with some new music as soon as we can but there’s just so much stuff going on, it’s hard to get back in the studio. So we can keep our fingers crossed for this year, but just as soon as possible is our plan.” After performing for some years with Miche Suite, singer/songwriter Leah Miche last year debuted her new outfit, The Regular Hunters, via the release of single, Demon Desire. The new era continues with the release and launch this week of a new single, Surreal. “Most of my songs these days are observations of our modern world and what a shitty state it’s in, always with a conscious hope to spread awareness and change without being preachy, I guess,” Miche says of the song and its place in the wider scheme of her writing. “A lot of positive change is becoming more common these days but I still fear it’s a minority in the grand scheme of things. Surreal is a love story about someone who decides to leave this world by transcending to a higher realm… consequently leaving their loved ones behind, ‘now I’ll be the one that’ll wait for you’.”

“A lot of positive change is becoming more common these days but I still fear it’s a minority in the grand scheme of things.”

Leah Miche, The Regular Hunters

THE REGULAR HUNTERS Keep It Surreal The Regular Hunters launch their new single, Surreal, at The Oddfellow on Saturday, April 11, with help from True Science, Joni In The Moon and Our Man In Berlin. BOB GORDON chats with vocalist/guitarist, Leah Miche.

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Surreal is part of the journey towards an EP or possibly a full album release, that Miche states will be darker and moodier. “All the members since the release of Deep Demon Desire have changed,” she notes, “so the next release will be more of a representation of our live set with plans to incorporate some electronic beats and sounds without retracting from ‘being a band’.” Miche explains that the band’s name comes from more or less the topics of the songs themselves, “mankind and our search for the meaning for life,” she says of the prevailing theme. And while the days of Miche Suite aren’t that long ago, evolution has played its part. “This band is pretty different to Miche Suite,” she notes, “it’s electric driven and indie folk rock. It’s defiantly more reminiscent of the music I love - Jezebels, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, etc. I feel like these songs are a bit like the ones I wrote when I first started songwriting. I’ve actually delved into songbooks from my teens and used melodies and lyrics to finish these current ones. It’s not an uncommon thing for a songwriter, of course, but interesting how we get side tracked along the way. “In this current line up we have drums (Tashi Hall), bass (Andy Holliday) and a second guitarist (Drew Kraplijanov) who really ‘gets’ the intention for the songs and plays ambient embellishments and all ‘round goodness. We all have similar tastes in music and we’re just keen to explore that and create our own thing.” 23

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COME ON FEEL THE NOISE Perth based sound merchants Life IS Noise have been around for a whole five years now, which is a perfectly valid excuse to throw a big ol’ shindig at The Bakery this Thursday, April 2. They’ve knitted together a killer lineup of talent, including Drowning Horse, Mt Mountain, Puck, Fait, Kaan, Cobilis and DJ Wil Bixler, which should make for an awesome night of music. Doors open at 8pm, tickets are $15 via lifeisnoise.com. Puck - Photo by Alistair Walsh

FEAST ON SOUND THIS EASTER Start your celebrations early this weekend by getting down to The Bird this Thursday, April 2, and catching an earful of Hunting Huxley, Elli Schoen, Luke Dux & Atomic Lunch Box and Tim Gordon. Entry is $10 and the noise starts at 9pm. Elli Schoen

DAMN DIRTY APES Who are they? What do they want? What shadowy urges compel them? It’s hard to say - all we really know about masked and anonymous simian sound slingers Filthy Apes is that they’re launching their debut EP, Indigovidual, at Mojos this Saturday, April 4, with support from The Hounds, Apache, Moana, and Black Stone From The Sun. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10.

GET SMRTS Bar Four5Nine is ready to rock this Easter weekend when the mighty SMRTS headline a great lineup, including The Shakeys, The Pissedcolas and Nerve Quakes. Doors at 8pm, entry is $10.

Mark Kozelek

SUN KIL MOON The Bakery Wednesday, March 25, 2015 10 years ago, Mark Kozelek’s brief insult directed at The War on Drugs at the Ottawa Folk Festival would’ve been a brief aside. Local press would devote a line in a review to Kozelek’s curmudgeonly grumbling and it would remain a funny aside for gig-goers, but little more. But this is 2015, and that offhand remark evolved into a one-sided beef that became a meme and a diss track and now, most unfortunately, a defining part of the way audiences perceive the 48-year-old songwriter. So there was already a tension in the air when Kozelek walked on-stage with keyboardist Chris Connolly and drummer Eric Pollard at the sweltering and packed Bakery on Wednesday night just before 9PM. And it was hard to tell if that tension was cut or prolonged when, before playing a note, Kozelek asks someone offstage to “turn those fucking fans off.” When the keyboards were too loud on the opening song Mariette, he stopped and joked that the sound guy was on crack, before launching into a strippeddown, guitarless version of the song. When Kozelek cuts through the bullshit and allows his songs to do the talking for him, he’s a brilliant performer, even when he’s doing a stripped-down version of his catalogue.

“Kozelek is nothing if not charismatic, even if that charisma is steeped in selfdeprecation and half-joking aggression. He’s one of the most interactive performers you’ll ever see, bringing up two women from the front of the stage to join him in a cover of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, whom, luckily, could sing, as well as another punter whom, unluckily, couldn’t keep a beat when tasked with banging on a drum.”

In fact, Kozelek didn’t pick up his guitar until about 30 minutes into his set, performing sombre and stripped-back versions of Stephen Sondheim’s Send In The Clowns, an absurd and vulgar novelty song about Nando’s chicken, as well as Micheline, I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love and Richard Ramirez Died of Natural Causes from last year’s Benji, with only keyboard and percussion to back his voice. And while no performer is obliged to make the live show sound exactly like the record, the poignancy of those songs is lost in translation when the melody is carried only by chords on a keyboard, or when Kozelek inexplicably shouts lyrics that he wrote to be sung, as he does in the second half of Richard Ramirez. And of course he played War On Drugs: Suck My Cock, and maybe the shouting was appropriate there, if not a little embarrassing. Kozelek is nothing if not charismatic, even if that charisma is steeped in self-deprecation and half-joking aggression. He’s one of the most interactive performers you’ll ever see, bringing up two women from the front of the stage to join him in a cover of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, whom, luckily, could sing, as well as another punter whom, unluckily, couldn’t keep a beat when tasked with banging on a drum. But there’s a point when crowd interaction goes from endearing to awkward and cringe-worthy, like when Kozelek asked a Maori security guard to keep a beat – thankfully, he could – but felt it necessary to guide him with a few words of encouragement: “Have you seen that movie Once Were Warriors? Pretend you’re that guy beating the shit out of his wife. I’m joking!” And three hours is an incredibly long time to keep an audience entertained no matter how talented you are, especially when a quarter of that time is talking and not playing songs, which is why The Bakery went from about 400 to 200 punters by 11pm. Kozelek appeared more relaxed – or maybe drunk – as the set limped towards its conclusion, and there were some late highlights, like when he responded to a request for Salvador Sanchez and, after requiring some assistance from a punter up front to remember the lyrics, remarked to himself, “Sometimes I’m a really good songwriter.” Or when Bec, the 28-year-old woman who Kozelek brought on stage to bang on a drum for the last three songs, told him with enthusiasm “My Dad’s 50!” after Kozelek joked about how old he is. And those final songs – Jim Wise, Truck Driver and He Always Felt Like Dancing – were rendered beautifully, but it’s hard to appreciate a beautiful performance when you’ve been standing in a sauna for over three hours and quarter of that time was spent watching inane banter, especially when there’s more than six hours of material to draw from. A nearby punter put it best when he said “It’s entertaining and all, but I think I’d rather just hear some Sun Kil Moon songs.”

Lower Spectrum

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01/04

KANKAWA NAGARRA Knight Heroes & Laments Album Launch @ The Ellington

02/04

EDUARDO COSSIO The Work Of Days EP Launch @ Four5Nine

04/04

FILTHY APES Indigovidual EP Launch @ Mojos

10/04

CHAINSAW HOOKERS We Want Your Blood Album Launch @ Amplifier

10/04

THEM JACKDAWS Self Titled Album Launch @ The Velvet Lounge

11/04

THE REGULAR HUNTERS Surreal Single Launch @ The Odd Fellow

11/04

OH WHITE MARE All Right Single Launch @ Jimmy’s Den

11/04

SANZU Painless EP Launch @ The Rosemount

17/04

AMY SUGARS Everything I Never Said Album Launch @ The Carine

17/04

GRRL PAL Paradise EP Launch @ The Bird

17/04

TANGLED THOUGHTS OF LEAVING Yield To Despair Album Launch @ The Bakery

18/04

DARKYRA BLACK Fool Album Launch @ The Astor

18/04

NATALIE GILLESPIE Courage To Love Album Launch @ Fremantle Arts Centre

22/04

HELEN SHANAHAN Finding Gold EP Launch @ The Ellington

26/04

CELERY Self Titled Album Launch @ The Velvet Lounge

08/05

THE KILLER HIPSTERS Self Titled Album Launch @ Paddington Ale House

09/05

AXE GIRl Beach Single Launch @ The Odd Fellow

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GET LOW Lowbrow are taking over Mojos this Sunday, April 5, and putting on a hell of show, with performances from Lower Spectrum, Leon Osborn, Grrl Pal, Kissinger x Kruz and the Lowbrow DJs. That’s a whole heap of fun for only $10. Doors open at 8pm.

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EDUARDO COSSIO All In A Day’s Work Eduardo Cossio launches his EP, The Work Of Days, this Thursday, April 2, at Bar Four 5Nine, with support from Jeff’s Dead, Stoney Joe and MC Tristan Fidler TRAVIS JOHNSON checks in. How did you get started as a performer? I started as a singer/songwriter and formed a band called The Whistling Dogs. Currently I write instrumental music and study composition at WAAPA.

Who are your key influences? Having grown up in Peru is one big influence, being a fan of The Beatles as a kid is another. Tell us about The Work Of Days. How did it come about? My first EP, Goodbye To The Land, was a solo project, for the The Work Of Days, I wanted the sound of a band in interaction. When putting together the EP, did you work to a theme? The Work Of Days evokes many themes, one of them is the commitment to create... while the ship goes on. Where did you record and who with? It was recorded at Flat Spin Studios by Stuart Bishop. In the process I got to gig and collaborate with talented musicians. What’s your writing process like? A lot of music happens in dreams, which I record on my mobile phone for later use.

KZAM SELF TAUGHT NEVER CAUGHT SOLO EXHIBITION OPENING NIGHT Little Wing Corner Gallery Saturday, March 28, 2015 Performances by Golden Slums, The Black Bone Gang, The Lammas Tide and The Southern River Band ushered in the first solo show by emerging street artist KZAM. Photos by Rachael Barrett

The Southern River Band

Ciara & Rahalie

Jeremy & Em

Ella & Julius

Jess & Kate

Elliot, Kim, Alex & Daek

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George Clinton

WEST COAST BLUES N’ ROOTS FESTIVAL Fremantle Park Sunday, March 29, 2015 The 12th annual West Coast Blues N’ Roots festival got off to a raucous start with ‘Breakthrough to Blues & Roots’ artist Old Blood impressing early starters with some of the most authentic blues on this year’s bill. Edo Ekic’s fluid guitar work and Tony Papa-Adams’ gravelly growl lent grit to a howling set before the more polished acts to follow. Fast becoming a stalwart of such events, talented local multi-instrumentalist Morgan Bain wasted no time in showing why he’s so highly respected. Possessing a mighty big voice for a wee fella, Bain played a blinder of a set, hitting tracks new and old. Local radio favourite I Think I Got You was an early highlight with its ‘woo-ohh-oohoohoooh’ refrain, whilst his forthcoming single, Lost In The Moment, ended his set on a quieter but solid note. Lanie Lane’s voice has an ethereal quality – think Heart’s Ann Wilson or Ambrosia Parsley of

Shivaree – and she wields it like a bouquet of flowers, her delicate tunes a beautiful way to ease gently into a long, sun-drenched day. Playing ‘probably my most well-known song’ What Do I Do, followed by ‘definitely my least well known song, because I only wrote it three nights ago’, One Day Closer - which included a wonderfully ad-hoc a Capella section – her delicate touch and gentle genius shone like sun glittering on a pond. Hopefully Lane’s retirement won’t take her from the spotlight completely for too long. Kim Churchill, shaggy surfer-blonde moptop bouncing in the breeze, does the one-manband thing better than most. Strumming a guitar, drums clamouring as he keeps the beat with his foot pedals, harmonica harping and chimes jangling, his style may not be unique, but it is heartfelt and instantly engaging, with songs like Canopy getting plenty of people on their feet and dancing in the midday sun. His cover of Led Zeppelin’s Lemon Song is a force of nature that must be heard to be believed.

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Mavis Staples

Paolo Nutini

She may have demons lurking in her dark corners, but onstage Beth Hart is never less than completely commanding and a riveting frontwoman. Possessing an enormous voice full of soulful blues and backed by a band on fire, hers is one of the standout sets of the day. At times reminiscent of the ‘60s greats like Darlene Love or Mavis Staples, Hart’s Bang Bang Boom Boom, the title track of her released-in-twoweeks new album Better Than Home, Sister Heroin and Zeppelinesque blues stomper, Sinner’s Prayer made for a great hour under the Big Top Tent, before she finished up with My California, dedicated with love and pride to husband Scott, who is never far from her side. Charles Bradley brought his Extraordinaires and a very welcome dose of soul power to Fremantle, channelling ‘60s Booker T & The MGs R&B and early James Brown in equal measure, not to mention some funky dance moves. ‘The screaming eagle of soul’ and his band were in the pocket from the moment they took the stage and by the way he flirts with the crowd like a cat playing with a mouse, you know he’s having as much fun as we are listening, especially through If You Aren’t Gonna Do Me Right… I Might Just Do You In and Lovin’ You Baby.

What can one write about Mavis Staples to do her justice? The 75 year-old legendary gospel soul singer still has the vocal power to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, and she works the crowd like a master, coaxing roars of approving crowd participation. The Staples Singers 1971 classic, I’ll Take You There, is astonishingly moving: a testament to the spiritual power of great music. We’re more used to seeing Xavier Rudd in his one-man-band configuration, but he was in Freo with an uber-multicultural troupe called the United Nations. Rudd’s new band adds textured beats and a groove to his rootsy reggae-folk songs to get the hippies on their feet shaking their moneymakers, while we found Food In The Belly and Follow The Sun to be a perfectly mellow soundtrack for an interlude in the brand spanking new Blues N’ Roots Wine & Tapas Tent Bar. (Our tip for next year: barramundi and dill croquettes, freshly shucked oysters and champagne) At 63 Keb’ Mo’ has the handsome features of a 40 year-old, but his music rings with much more life experience indeed. Blues tunes flecked with soul and country are his stock-in-trade, and he delighted

Xavier Rudd

Keb’ Mo’

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Rodrigo y Gabriela

David Gray

Jurassic 5

the Big Top Tent with a masterful set that sizzled with the power of his highly emotive guitar playing. Paul Kelly brought the full Merri Soul Sessions shebang to Fremantle, with no less than six singers rotating through a set of new and old hits. Australia’s finest storyteller took the mic for his own How To Make Gravy, while Dan Sultan lent an stomping R&B groove to Looks So Fine, Feel So Low. With singers the calibre of Kelly, Sultan, Clairy Browne, Vika & Linda Bull and Kira Puru, there’s no way his set was going to be any less than awesome, and a bouncy Dumb Things and the joyous spiritual Hasn’t It Rained – featuring all the aforementioned vocalists – had young and old dancing and singing the afternoon away. Rodrigo y Gabriela’s technical artistry is astonishing – they are unofficial leaders of the newflamenco movement - and they combine that with such melodic and percussive magic that their set is a joyous occasion. Just two acoustic guitars – that’s it! – yet their sound is the equivalent of any full band, and the capacity crowd under the Big Top Tent were transfixed and/or dancing throughout – which is more than you can say about most acoustic duos (or rock bands, for that matter). Mind you – very few acoustic duos can claim Metallica, Slayer and Led Zeppelin as primary influences, not to mention some of their members as friends. David Gray seemed to engender a strong reaction from the main stage, delivering a set of folky pop that many danced and sung along to. Even so, it’s hard not to find Gray’s dreamy soundscapes a bit bland, without much to distinguish them from each other, but his fans – and there were plenty of them – obviously enjoyed themselves. Arguably more than any act on the bill today, Jimmy Cliff embodies the spirit of the Blues N’ Roots Festival. The greatest reggae artist alive, Cliff’s shows are a celebration of music, peace, love and joy – all the messages that the Festival embodies. Cliff burst onto the stage exuding pure joy. His set started off with Rasta Nyabingi drumming, with a seven-piece drum ensemble

including Cliff on Bongos. He ran through all his hits, You Can Get It If You Really Want, Wild World, I Can See Clearly Now, The Harder They Come and Many Rivers To Cross as was to be expected. The real surprise was how he referenced dancehall in his set, not only by jumping into ragga riddims , but by demonstrating some dancehall moves with the help of his backing singers - Tek weh yuhself, Scooby Doo, Signal Di Plane and more dances were showcased with Cliff’s trademark energy and enthusiasm. At 67 yearsold, he moved effortlessly through five decades of music from ska through reggae to dancehall. As he said onstage ‘This is a labour of love for me’, and his performance was delightful as ever. Scotsman Paolo Nutini won over legions of new fans with a set of soulful rock’n’roll that revolved around his sultry vocals, not to mention a charismatic presence that ensured plenty of young females in front of the stage. Jurassic 5’s hip hop stood out from the rest of the bluesy, rootsy, reggae and soul acts on the bill, but the tent was filled with people chasing a slice of the less ordinary, and these veterans delivered

with some of the sick beats they’re reknowned for in polished and dynamic performance that was high on crowd participation. Amazing.

John Butler

Charles Bradley

Any return of The John Butler Trio to their old stomping ground of Fremantle is met with a special kind of parochial fervour . Any Butler set is likely to follow a similar theme, so there was jamming, there was some anti-political sloganeering, and then there was a slew of favourites such as Better Than, Used To Get High and Zebra. With Byron Luiters on bass and Grant Gerathy on drums they are an incredibly tight and funky unit, with Butler’s lead guitar playing very much displaying a love of the likes of Page and Hendrix. Even so, when he was alone on the stage, running his hands through the solo instrumental, Oceans, the intensity did not drop off one bit.

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George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic took 2015’s West Coast Blues N’ Roots to the finish line with a set of psych funk from the 73-year-old madcat and his enormous troupe of musicians, dancers, backing singers and whoever else was up there on the crowded stage (hello Dixie!). The man who has done more than just about anyone to extend the realms of funk into rock and rap and more over 40 years delivered a set that was as mind-melting visually as it was musically. And so there goes another West Coast Blues N’ Roots festival. It wasn’t its most iconic line-up, but the day always delivers with world class music and funky seaside vibrations. It makes you feel good to be alive. SHANE PINNEGAR, MUMMA TREES, BOB GORDON Photography by Elspeth Erickson

X- P R E S S G U I D E

JAY LUMEN, APRIL 2

SAN CISCO, APRIL 23 & 24

TO URS THIS WEEK HORRORSHOW 2 Settlers Tavern 4 The Bakery ZOMBOY 2 Villa JAY LUMEN 2 Geisha Bar ED SHEERAN 4 & 5 Perth Arena JOHN FARNHAM & OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN 4 Sandalford Winery EL SON ENTERO 4 Fremantle Arts Centre NEPATHYA 4 HBF Stadium OPHIDIAN 5 Barrack St Jetty COUNTING CROWS 7 Perth Concert Hall PINK FLOYD EXPERIENCE 7 Crown Theatre APRIL 2015 AWAKEN I AM 8 Prince of Wales 9 Last Night @ Amplifier 11 YMCA HQ ARCHITECTS 9 Capitol ROBIN INCE: HAPPINESS THROUGH SCIENCE 9 Astor Theatre FAIRBRIDGE FESTIVAL 10 – 12 Fairbridge Village, Pinjarra SETS IN THE CITY ft. AEROPLANE, LUKE MILLION, LOSTON, NICKY NIGHT TIME & more 11 Riverside Drive AMPLIFY FESTIVAL ft. TROYE SIVAN, CONNOR FRANTA, JAMIE CURRY (JAMIE’S WORLD), RICKY DILLON, KURT COLEMAN, JAI WAETFORD & more 12 Perth Arena THE GIPSY KINGS 13 Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre

DUBARRAY 17 Odd Fellow 19 Indi Bar 24 Settlers Tavern 26 Caves House THE MURLOCS 18 Four5Nine Bar MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD 18 Red Hill Auditorium NANA MOUSKOURI 19 Perth Concert Hall DEMI LOVATO 21 HBF Stadium SAN CISCO 23 & 24 Fremantle Arts Centre THE SCRIPT with LABRINTH 24 Perth Arena GUTTERMOUTH 24 Leisure Inn 25 Rosemount Hotel 26 Margaret River Football Club KATY STEELE 24 Jimmy’s Den BOO SEEKA 25 Jimmy’s Den JERICCO 26 Rosemount Hotel SPYGLASS GYPSIES 26 Ellington Jazz Club GROOVIN THE MOO 26 Hay Park, Bunbury HUMAN NATURE 28 Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre YOU ME AT SIX 28 Capitol 360 29 Rosemount Hotel 30 Prince of Wales MAY 2015 COSENTINO 1 & 2 Regal Theatre PAUL DEMPSEY 1 Rosemount Hotel SPENDA C 1 Villa 360 1 Players Bar 2 Dunsborough Tavern COURTNEY BARNETT 2 The Bakery APIA GOOD TIMES TOUR ft. KATE CEBERANO, BRIAN CADD, JOE CAMILLERI & GLENN SHORROCK 2 HBF Stadium SAM SMITH

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ED SHEERAN PERTH ARENA, APRIL 4 & 5

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COURTNEY BARNETT, MAY 2

4 HBF Stadium ACE FREHLEY 7 Astor Theatre RED FANG 7 Rosemount Hotel THE BEARDS 7 Prince of Wales 8 Settlers Tavern 9 Capitol RICKY MARTIN 8 Perth Arena MICHAEL SPIBY & THE BADLOVES 8 Centurion Hotel 9 Charles Hotel 10 The Ravenswood OPETH 8 Astor Theatre AMERICA with SHARON CORR 9 Red Hill Auditorium JOE AVATI 9 Fremantle Town Hall ANASTACIA 10 Perth Concert Hall ALT-J 15 HBF Stadium BACKSTREET BOYS 15 Perth Arena BRITISH INDIA 15 Dunsborough Tavern 16 Capitol 17 Newport Hotel THE ANGELS 16 Charles Hotel PALOMA FAITH 16 Perth Concert Hall RIBLJA CORBA 16 Astor Theatre SPANDAU BALLET 22 Perth Arena BABY ANIMALS & THE SUPERJESUS 22 Charles Hotel COLIN HAY 23 Regal Theatre 24 Colonial Brewery, Margaret River MOTLEY CRUE 23 Perth Arena SHAGGY 23 Astor Theatre SHE WHO ROCKS ft. BABY ANIMALS & THE SUPERJESUS 23 Charles Hotel PETER BIBBY 24 Mojos NICKELBACK 26 Perth Arena DEFEATER 28 YMCA HQ 29 Rosemount Hotel ANDREW STRONG 29 Astor Theatre PANOS KIAMOS 29 HBF Stadium DARYL BRAITHWAITE 29 Charles Hotel DAVE WARNER 30 Charles Hotel THE FUNKROARS 30 Amplifier

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN 6 Astor Theatre KARISE EDEN 10 Albany Entertainment Centre BRIAN KENNEDY 10 Victoria Hall THE GETAWAY PLAN 12 Rosemount Hotel THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER 18 Capitol JEBEDIAH 26 & 27 Astor Theatre 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 29 Perth Arena MACHINE HEAD 29 Astor Theatre

JUNE 2015 BORIS 1 Rosemount Hotel BEN HOWARD 1 Fremantle Arts Centre AGAINST ME! with JOYCE MANOR 4 Rosemount Hotel VOYAGER with KLONE 5 Amplifier DIESEL 6 Charles Hotel

OCTOBER 2015 KISS 3 Perth Arena AT THE GATES 28 Amplifier FLEETWOOD MAC 30 Domain Stadium

JULY 2015 YELLOWCARD 4 Metro City AUSTRALIAN ROCK WITH ANGRY ANDERSON 4 Charles Hotel THE MANFREDS 4 Astor Theatre JOHNNY MARR 18 Metropolis Fremantle ADAM HARVEY 22 Albany Entertainment Centre JOSH PYKE with WASO 24 Perth Concert Hall V CAPRI 25 Charles Hotel AUGUST 2015 THE AUSTRALIAN BEE GEES SHOW 15 Regal Theatre 16 Albany Entertainment Centre PEACE TRAIN: THE CAT STEVENS STORY 21 Astor Theatre 22 Albany Entertainment Centre THE BEATLES FOREVER 27 Albany Entertainment Centre ELVIS MEETS THE BEATLES 28 HBF Stadium SEPTEMBER 2015 TYLER OAKLEY 9 Perth Concert Hall JULIA MORRIS 11 Regal Theatre ROY ORBISON & THE EVERLY BROTHERS 12 Crown Theatre

NOVEMBER 2015 NEIL DIAMOND 14 Sandalford Estate 16 Perth Arena

FOR ALL WEEKLY EVENTS DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MAGAZINE APP AVAILABLE FROM DOWNLOAD OUR FREE EVENTS GUIDE APP 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

THE LIMBS, APRIL 1

PUCK, APRIL 2

WEEKLY WEDNESDAY 1/04 THE BEAT Street Wednesdays THE BIRD Shake ft. Manc Mark Mr. Shing-A-Ling CENTURIA HOTEL Mysc Intelekt Soma Chef & Shadow Park Bench Philosophers CLANCYS CANNING BRIDGE Songwriters Night ft. Belle Harvey Rhys Watson CLUB KAHUNA Ch33k ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Kankawa Nagarri (Olive Knight) Night Cap Sessions FLYRITE Northbridge Nightly Now THE GOOD SHEPHERD Herd ft. The Limbs Blood Groove Villain Rich King Matthews Hello, Madam HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen ft. PHETSTA MOJOS BAR Dirtwater Bloom Lantana Dr. Bumface THE MOON CAFÉ Going Solo ft. Leah Miche Tashi MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday Backpacker & Student Night NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays THE ODD FELLOW The Rogues - Tribute to the Pogues 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Petty Things ft. When Autumn Falls Sully Priority One Furniture ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz SETTLERS TAVERN Open Mic Night ft. Claire Warnock THE VELVET LOUNGE Decadence Rock N’ Roll Night II: Wayne’s World Party DJ Crude THURSDAY 2/04 AIR Thank God its Thursday Party AMBAR Waze Odyssey AMPLIFIER Last Night – Fall Out Boy ‘From Under the Cork Tree’ 10 Year Anniversary

THE BAKERY lifeisnoise 5th birthday ft. Drowning Horse Mt. Mountain Puck Fait Kaan Chris Cobilis DJ Wil Bixlet CAPITOL Gorillaz Sound System DJ set & special guests CIVIC HOTEL Run Riot – Tribute to Def Leppard Maverick CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Dux N’ Pickett DEFECTORS BAR Alex Arpino Nic Brown Latch Key Kids Daniel Castledine Ben O’Neill ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Spontaneous Combustion – The Carl Mackey Sextet Night Cap Sessions GEISHA BAR Jay Lumen Green George Houshed Flex HULA BULA BAR Easter Thursday Rhum Safari INDI BAR Open Mic LIBRARY Easter Thursday ft. DJ Dorcia THE MANOR Mass Appeal ft. Charlie Bucket Beni Chill Zeus Nathan J Sleepy Head METRO CITY Allied Health 2015: Circus MOJOS BAR Fisherman Style #106 ft. Earthlink Sound MUSTANG BAR Thumpin’ Thursdays ft. Blue Gene MINT Boom! Boom! Shake the Room! – Easter Thursday PARKER CANDY 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Eduardo Cossio (EP Launch) Jeff’s Dead Stoney Joe ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Roller Easter ft. Gracie & Sistym Rivers Dart Devo Blend Kent SETTLERS TAV Horroshow Tuka VILLA Zomboy FRIDAY 3/04 YMCA HQ Good Friday, Good Mosh ft. Aveira Skies The Decline At The Space Jam The Light The Dark Novarchy Winterfold El Capitan

Longshore Emecia Lakesider Ready to Fire SATURDAY4/04 AMBAR Japan 4 THE BAKERY Horrorshow BAR ORIENT Grace Barbe Custom Royal The Georgians Andrew Winton Dilip N The Davs Mad Tatters Morris Dancers Dave Robertson & The Kiss List Twisted Herring BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) CANVAS CAPITOL DD8: SRS PARTY BZNSS ft. Elk Road Nick Lynar Command Q Death Disco DJs Lilt Mr Cake Casuel vs. Naysu Bags & Mash Bass Attic DJs CIVIC HOTEL Zemilja CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Justin Burford CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Al & Drac’s Funk Duo CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Yambeque EAST END BAR & LOUNGE Temptation ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Ali Bodycoat Quinet The Ellington Upstairs Presents the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party! R&B Easter Party ft. Carrie Pereira FLYRITE Father FREMANTLE Fremantle Street Arts Festival FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE El Son Entero GEISHA BAR Members Party ft. Rukasu Green George Saul Bliss James A. Tom Love Jimij GINGER Serial. GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus HULA BULA BAR Sailor Saturdays INDI BAR Ladies Night ft. Jacob & the Rudeboys Hannah Mae & the Hoodwinks Teischa Bri Clark LIBRARY MKT LLAMA BAR Laundry METRO CITY Hospitality Perth 2015 ft. London Elektricity Metrik Fred V & Grafix S.P.Y Dynamic MC METROPOLIS FREMANTLE

APACHE, APRIL 4

Metropolis Saturdays U18 Project presents Tigerlily MINT Pop Life MOJOS BAR Filthy Apes Apache Moana Black Stone From The Sun The Hounds MUSTANG BAR The Continentals DJ Holly Doll PARKER Menagerie Nights 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Nerve Quakes The Shakeys The Pissedcolas SMRTS ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Everybody Loves Cats In Space Showcase ft. Three Hands One Hoof Iceage Sugar Porn Crumpets ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Turin Robinson SETTLERS TAVERN Ensemble Formidable SHAPE HUSH SKYE BAR Grand Opening ft. Monty Cotton Huge DJ Richo Alice in Wonderland & Willy Wonka Fancy Dress Party SWAN LOUNGE Katey Brooks & guests THE VELVET LOUNGE This is Rapture – 80s Night ft. The X Boyfriends VILLA Ministry of Sound: Clubbers Guide to 2015 ft. DJ Glover DJ Krunk SUNDAY 5/04 AMBAR 12th Planet AMPLIFIER Clique City Easter Takeover ASTOR LOUNGE Late Night Hysterics Flower Drums Apollo’s Son Cool Milk THE BAKERY A Day Woo Fantasy Finale ft. Day Woo Entertainment Syndicate N.B.C DJ Aldi Jeff Jackson Ben Taaffe Ben M BAR ORIENT The Brown DJ NDORSE Formidable Vegetable Sound System Still Frame Mind Shangarajive Bellydance Eclipe Perth Scottish Fiddlers Simon Kelly & the Big Bamboo Ben Catley Tashi BARRACK ST JETTY Ophidian THE BOTANICA Botanica Easter Sunday

GOLDEN STRING, APRIL 8

CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Salt Shaker Selectors DJ Boogie CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Decks on the Decks ft. DJ Jiminy Kickit Grace Barbe & Afro Creole ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Music of Stevie Wonder FLYRITE MVMT Easter Sunday FREMANTLE Fremantle Street Arts Festival FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE Winterbourne GEISHA BAR Fritz Kalkbrenner GILKISON DANCE STUDIO Annual MONDO Easter Rave ft. Lewi Mckirdy HULA BULA BAR Tropical Sundaze MOJOS BAR Lower Spectrum Leon Osbourne Kissinger Cruze Grrl Pal Lowbrow DJs THE MOON CAFÉ Lunar Whales Dee Muru MUSTANG BAR Easter Tailgate ft. Atomic Stagecoach Bang Bang Betty & the H-Bombs Shot Down From Sugar Town DJ Holly Doll Frenzy DJ James Mac PEEL ESTATE WINERY Billy Higginson & The Pale Moon Riders Renegade Short & Curly Rustic Timber Tanya Maxwell Brownie & Lindy 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bass Ingredient ft. Temple Rexop Impulsiv & Korp Scopius/Kurtox Infinite/xfade ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down SETTLERS TAVERN Ten Cent Shooters MONDAY 6/04 AMPLIFIER Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls & special guests BAR ORIENT Bri Clark Bernardine Ho Ssy Jarrad Wall (Jake & the Cowboys) BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness Student & Industry Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night FREMANTLE Fremantle Street Arts Festival MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic PARKER Manic Mondays ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia

TUESDAY 7/04 ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Jessica Stuart Few LLAMA BAR Ruby Tuesdays MOJOS BAR Night Signals Nectar Bipolar Bear Sam Stkin NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show THE PADDO Quiz Meisters PERTH BLUES CLUB Zach Linton Trio Third Time Round Golden Slums ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night WEDNESDAY 8/04 THE BEAT Street Wednesdays THE BIRD Leftover Lovers Vol. 2 ft. Doctopus Spaceman Antics The Spunloves CAPITOL Mobb Deep DJ Ski Beatz CLANCYS CANNING BRIDGE Songwriters Night ft. Mark Neal Kris Nelson CLUB KAHUNA Ch33k ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Joe Southwell & Friends present the Music of Sting Night Cap Sessions FLYRITE Northbridge Nightly Now THE GOOD SHEPHERD Herd ft. HUSSY Ballet for Boys Sounduh Foreign Architects The Domb Hot Rocks DJs HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen MOJOS BAR Michael Triscari & special guests THE MOON CAFÉ Golden String Taylor Spliff MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday Backpacker & Student Night NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Dirtwater Bloom The Devil in Miss Jones Golden Slums ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz SETTLERS TAVERN Open Mic Night ft. Claire Warnock THURSDAY 9/04 AMPLIFIER Last Night – Architects After-Party Make Believe Me Awaken I Am The Moment We Fall

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FELICITY GROOM, APRIL 11

ASTOR THEATRE Robin Ince CAPITOL Architects & special guests CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Fly By Night presents ‘Baka Beyond’ ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB All Our Exes Live In Texas Night Cap Sessions THE GOOD SHEPHERD Oakland Eteana Lunar Inverse Ku Kraft Petrichoral & more HULA BULA BAR Rhum Club INDI BAR Open Mic MOJOS BAR The Crossbars The Drools Amber Down 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Katey Brooks The Jessica Stuart Few Tashi James Atles ROSEMOUNT HOTEL South Side Cobras Custom Royal Golden Slums Blood Groove SETTLERS TAVERN The Bombadils FRIDAY 10/04 AIR Gaz from Geordie Shoe AMBAR Monarch – B2B Edition AMPLIFIER Chainsaw Hookers Claim The Throne Emu Xperts Bounty Hunter THE BAKERY DeadWeight presents. Wot U Call It!? Ft. Footsie S.K.I.T.Z Beatz DJ BPM CAPITOL LUMINOX CIVIC HOTEL Come To The Sabbath – Classic Heavy Metal Nite! Ft. The Coven 4 Horsemen Delthlahem CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Boulllibass DJ Boogie CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Café Sundowners with The Lime Lights Jazz CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Tom Fisher Duo ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Adam Hall & the Velvet Playboys with Richard Jackson & Alemay Fernandez The Soul Sessions fidelity FLYRITE Tkay Maidza HULA BULA BAR Secret Agents & Other Hip Sounds JIMMY’S DEN Nic Brown Joni In The Moon Owen de Marchi (The Black Bone Gang) LIBRARY Sneaky

MOJOS BAR Hussle Hussle ft. DT Rob Shaker Bryte MC Intrusive Thoughts 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Ron Pollard Quintet Lytta Laurel Fixation & the Frustrations People Problem ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Rumjacks King of the Travellers Total Waste SETTLERS TAVERN Cera Kymarni SWAN VIEW YOUTH CENTRE Sneaky Jackal The Crossbars Ready to Fire Tashi The Georgians JR Falloway THE VELVET LOUNGE The Caballeros Them Jackdaws Dirtwater Bloom Ego SATURDAY 11/04 AMBAR Japan 4 ft. Hedflux AMPLIFIER North East Party House & special guests ASTOR LOUNGE Stuart Orchard Turin Robinson Black River Ransom THE BAKERY The Love Junkies Red Jezebel Aborted Tortoise Black Stone From The Sun Filthy Apes CIVIC HOTEL 2000 Likes Facebook Party CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Justin Burford CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Al & Drac’s Funk Duo EAST END BAR & LOUNGE Temptation ELECTRIFIED Bassment 011 ft. London Nebel ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Grain Danny Martin & the Mastertones FLYRITE Father FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE Fremantle Chamber Orchestra GEISHA BAR Kinky Malinki GINGER Hoochie Mama GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus HULA BULA BAR Jungle Juice LLAMA BAR Laundry MATISSE BEACH CLUB Natural Sunset Sessions ft. Ladi6 Parks MOJOS BAR Felicity Groom Methyl Ethel Silver Hills

OUR MAN IN BERLIN, APRIL 12

PARKER Menagerie Nights 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Coverama 00’s Edition ft. Lubey Tuesday Harry Truman & the Bourne Identities The Math Debaters Menstrual as Anything Limp Dickheads ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Sanzu Earth Rot The Ritual Aura Watercolour Ghosts ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Turin Robinson RIVERSIDE DRIVE Sets in the City ft. Aeroplane Luke Million Loston Nicky Night Time & more SCITECH Scitech After Dark SETTLERS TAVERN Fingers Mitchell Cullen SWAN LOUNGE The Flying Embers & guests YMCA HQ Make Believe Me Awaken I Am Vice Versa Havoc I The Burden Longshore SUNDAY 12/04 AMPLIFIER Norma Jean & special guests THE BAKERY Locally Baked ft. Our Man In Berlin Grrl Pal These Winter Nights Blue Child Collective Ricky Green Riley Pearce Ruby May Salt Tree CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Salt Shaker Selectors DJ Boogie CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Decks on the Decks ft. DJ Jiminy Grace Barbe & Afro Creole ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Jen de Ness Sextet

MOJOS BAR Nicholas Allbrook Rabbit Island Benjamin Witt PARKER Feisty Carnivale 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Fine Court Big Mother Love Placid & more ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (CAR PARK) The Ladybird Market SETTLERS TAVERN Blues on the Verandah ft. Aiden Varro SWANBROOK WINERY Matt Waring MONDAY 13/04 BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness Student & Industry Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Ben Matthews MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic PARKER Manic Mondays ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia TUESDAY 14/04 ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB WAAPA Classical Vocal Fundraiser LLAMA BAR Ruby Tuesdays MOJOS BAR Mojos Monthly Comedy NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show THE PADDO Quiz Meisters PERTH BLUES CLUB Joe Filisko Eric Noden ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night TORCH BAR Quiz Meisters

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LIFEISNOISE 5TH BIRTHDAY FT. DROWNING HORSE MT. MOUNTAIN PUCK FAIT KAAN CHRIS COBILIS DJ WIL BIXLER THE BAKERY THURSDAY, APRIL 2

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MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY

Gear and tech reviews by Chris Gibbs

FENDER YNGWIE MALMSTEEN SIGNATURE ACCESSORIES Touring Australia in June, guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen spearheaded the neoclassical guitar movement of the early ‘80s and has influenced generations of musicians with his exciting playing and high-energy performances. In addition to the Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Stratocaster (historically one of the first signature models ever to be released by the company) Fender have recently released a signature line of accessories bearing the larger-than-life shredder’s name and seal of approval. The Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Clip-On Tuner is designed for ease of operation even on dark stages. A

MUSOS WANTED OPEN MIC 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 0409 101 688 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 30

striking chrome casing with a built-in vibration sensor aims to provide accurate tuning even when in high-noise locations and the large easy-to-read display features an LCD needle to indicate correct pitch. This tuner is very light (50 grams), portable, and offers a tuning range of A0-C8 and an A4 range of 430Hz-450Hz. Also designed in collaboration with the guitarist, Fender Yngwie Malmsteen signature instrument cables are built with the professional performers in mind, delivering true sonic transparency that won’t color or change tonality. These cables, available in 10 or 20-foot lengths, feature custom-designed commercial-quality brass connectors for quiet connection and operation as well red-braided exterior for added flexibility (not to mention a really cool look). The thick interior reduces handling noise and like many Fender cables, this series is backed with a lifetime guarantee. The Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Guitar Bag offers high-quality protection for the guitarist

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 REHEARSAL STUDIOS BIBRA LAKE REHEARSAL STUDIO Air Conditioned Room. Great Facilities. Superior sound to hear yourself and your band. 10 mins from Freo. Phone Nick: 0410 485 588.

CLASSIFIEDS

on the go. The bag features thick-cell foam padding, soft leopard-print plush interior and durable nylon exterior that allows musicians to transport their most-prized instrument in reliable safety and gloriously over the top Malmsteen style. Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Electric Guitar Strings are custom designed with Malmsteen’s specific wrap ratios and gauges to provide unparalleled speed, maximum tone and smooth playability. Made from the highest quality nickel-plated steel and featuring Fender’s innovative (and largely under-appreciated) Bullet ends for more sustain and tone, these strings are available in the relatively unorthodox gauges of 8-11-1422-32-46. That gauge may not be to every guitarist’s taste, but Malmsteen devotees will most likely get a kick out of utilising his preferred string set. The Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive Pedal captures the powerful, heavy, and yet quite transparent tone of the neoclassical shredmeister. High-quality construction in a compact and rugged chassis make this pedal truly worthy of even the most rigourous stage settings. The unique tone-shaping circuitry was apparently designed in close collaboration with Malmsteen himself over a period of six months to get the sounds just right. Features Include true-bypass switching, die-cast housing with high-gloss red finish, gain and level controls, red (but of course) LED indicator, optional non-slip rubber feet which can be

PLATINUM SOUND ROOMS Professional rehearsal rooms, airconditioned, quality PAs mob 0418 944 722 TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** New Year enrolments. Online bookings. Children & adults. Beg to adv. AMEB and WAAPA accreditation. 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 GUITAR TUITION Learn guitar at the speed of light in a state of the art music studio. fretlightaustralia.com. Ph: 0433042503 VOICE COACH SINGING TEACHER 30 years experience. All levels, all styles. Student discounts. NOR 0407 260 762

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Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive Pedal

installed by the user, and the option of AC or 9-volt battery operation. Like most single unit effects pedals, the external power supply is sold separately. Check with your local Fender dealer for price and in-store availability of the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Accessories range of products. CHRIS GIBBS