uniform: tattoos, checked shirts, retro dresses, horn-rimmed glasses S E E M O R E O F M A N DY O N and kids. Oh yes, small children are amazing hipster accessories as E C H O N E T DA I LY long as they have hipster names W W W. E C H O. N E T. A U /S OA P - B OX like Bear, Scout or Chai Latte. Hipster babies must be attired in tiny hipster clothes like baby rock shirts with jeans and bandanas, otherwise they might forget to How do you become a hipster? Is it the trend is around being an take them home. If you can get by accident or design? Do you just individual, about breaking your toddler to grow a beard you wake up one day and realise that free from societal conventions. will be king of hipster hill. you’ve miraculously transformed You know you have achieved If you don’t have a hipster kid individual trend status when you have to get a hipster dog. from geeky nerd into Mr Cool? there’s a large group of other It’s mandatory. Border collies, pit Gone are the acid-wash jeans individuals all doing exactly the bulls, staffies, pugs and terriers and the Gap t-shirts and low- same thing. The important thing are all hipster. Hipsters don’t have rise Converse; you now belong about being a hipster is that labradors or golden retrievers. I’m to a tribe of über-trendy you need to be able to identify sorry, they’re just too obvious. understatedly affluent groovers each other in a cafe otherwise If you have a wolf, you win; you who just happen to wear the you won’t know which one is don’t even need a beard – you get same shirts, get the same tattoos, the hipster cafe and you might gold-card hipster status. wear the same glasses and grow accidentally go to a cafe full of Not all dogs or kids suit the look, the same beards. people who aren’t hipsters. so if they can’t be styled into the
HOW TO BE A HIPSTER
shoes myself’ vibe, then they’ll be spending a whole lot of time at Grandma’s. Grandma is now missing her beloved laminexand-vinyl table setting because her hipster kids talked her into substituting it for the one they bought her from IKEA because, unbeknown to Grandma, she’s sitting on a hipster retro goldmine. How does this happen? Was there a hipster meeting I wasn’t invited to? I guess I shouldn’t have expected to be included, because at 47 I am too old to be a hipster. Also a bit too fat. I could however be the parent of a hipster but I don’t have anything groovy enough to be used in their new paleo cafes.
There definitely had to be a meeting; it was there that a few ground rules were established. Beards were voted in. Men without beards have to wear hornSocial trends puzzle me. Generally That is why they need the hipster understated ‘I fermented these rimmed black glasses. If you can
c i s u M Live
Bluesy songstress and multiinstrumentalist Anne McCue will be launching her sixth studio album Blue Sky Thinkin’. How did moving to Nashville change or broaden your musical offerings? Well it was quite a culture shock moving to Nashville from Los Angeles. In fact, moving from Melbourne to LA was less of a shock. That was weird but more in a sci-fi kind of way – it was like being in Australia but everyone had American accents, was very polite and driving on the wrong side of the road. It was like a strange dream! LA has really good restaurants and beaches and great weather. So coming to Nashville in the dead of winter – it was freezing – and finding that there were next to no restaurants that served healthy food was a mind bender. It took me a while to adjust.
Of course, the best thing about Nashville is the musicians and over the years I have gotten to know quite a few. The level of musicianship here is mindblowing and it definitely inspires me to lift my game. Also, now there are a lot more healthy restaurants, which is a relief. Who are the artists that you look toward for inspiration? With this new record I have gone back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s: Billie Holiday, Memphis Minnie, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Peggy Lee, Hoagy Carmichael, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian. They called it swing music but to me it’s just early rock’n’roll. It’s dance music, it’s blues with a fun twist. Swing music pushes, it’s contagious. I love the old blues and the old jazz, before it became too slick and intellectual and watered down. What have been the career highlights for you thus far?
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
How do you approach a song onstage? Do you like to change your arrangements or style from time to time for particular songs? I definitely love to jam, so most songs will be at least a little different every night. Of course there are some songs that are more structured – my set will be a mix of styles – swing, rock, blues, folk etc.
presents
I am often playing with different bands from city to city so I have to be ready for something new every night. It certainly keeps the material fresh!
SUNROSE
AND THURSDAY 28 MAY 6.30PM
Making sure every song is great is a good start. I personally love listening to whole albums – I know that may be a bit old fashioned. With this new album, I recorded 12 songs and then, after listening for a while, I decided to write and record six more songs because it wasn’t gelling as a whole. It was going all over the place stylistically. It was a hard decision because a couple of those other songs turned out great. But I thought it was worth it. Also, I think you have to have a sense of the overall sound being in harmony with the songs – the lyrics, the mood – they all have to coincide. When I produce other artists that’s what I think about.
All-original instrumental 2-piece. Psych-surf-drone-Arabian-kraut-rock!
E^m l pZkf mabl ieZ\^ ni [^_hk^ pbgm^k abml
STATE OF ORIGIN ON THE BIG SCREEN !
Club By
What do you believe is the essence of a great album?
ro
– at club Byron 27 May 7pm
n • ‘’ T h e
w lo’
A U ST R A L I A N - B O R N , E A ST N A S H V I L L E R E S I D E N T A N N E M C C U E C O M E S TO M U L L U M B I M BY F O R A W O N D E R F U L S U N DAY S E S S I O N I N B OT H S O LO A N D T R I O M O D E S .
It has changed over the years, since I started writing with other people. I wrote three songs on the new album Blue Sky Thinkin’ by myself and that is an organic process. I usually come up with a guitar part and then build the song from there. With co-writing, you can go in with a title, such as Things You Left Out In The Rain, which I wrote with David Olney and John Hadley. And then you sit and play around with it for a few hours. Those guys are great to write with – it’s a lot of fun. You play around with the words and the chords for a few hours and voila! – you have a song that you can all agree on. I wrote four songs with my friend Bob Saporiti. It’s always fun hanging out with Bob, whose stage name is Reckless Johnny Wales. I seem to get on well with those baby-boomer guys. Because my parents were older, I have a strong connection to the WWII generation and the baby boomers.
Club Byron & The Green Bistro
Bo
BLUE SKY SINGING WITH ANNE MCCUE
How would you describe your songwriting process?
in. Leg hair will have to wait because you can’t see hipster tattoos if they are covered in hair. There will be a lot of crafting. Knitting, crocheting, felting, you name it; if your kid doesn’t have a felt lunchbox you’ll be kicked out of the club. You can’t eat sugar – unless it’s got some sort All hipster ladies need to wear of meat base. glasses. Even if they don’t need At what point do ‘individuals’ who them. Spend a few hours a day reject mainstream fashion realise close to the TV and in a few weeks they all look the same? I feel sorry you should at least need glasses for the blokes who wore flannies, for short range. Otherwise fake it. had tatts, and had beards before Hipsters have to have tattoos. Lots the trend. These previously proud of them. You don’t even have to conscientious rejectors of fashion like them. Just fill up those arms have had their ‘look’ stolen. and legs with words and pictures, But don’t worry, they will get it preferably tattoos of other people back, because all trends die out with beards. In fact the sleeve eventually. We’re almost at peak thing is a must. It’s an instant hipster and I predict that after global hipster identifier. a decade of parenthood all the While women can’t grow beards hipsters will be fat and middlethey are encouraged to welcome aged with pattern baldness, back the downstairs lady-beard, pumping their trust funds and armpit hair has also been voted through the pokies. Just like us.
ES
•
Having a song – Stupid – in the same box set as Bob Dylan, The Byrds and hundreds of other folkrock artists was a thrill. Of course, touring with Lucinda Williams and Heart in the US was fantastic and a lot of fun. Having a song on the same CD as Leonard Cohen and John Coltrane (Artist’s Choice). That was before music really became digital and Spotify wasn’t invented yet so you could make a good living as an independent artist. For me though, I don’t feel my career highlights have happened yet – maybe I’ll be 70 when I really catch a big wave. I’m willing to hang in for a few more decades to find out.
wear a beard and glasses you’ve nailed it straight up. Clearly only menopausal women can grow beards and we’ve established they’ve been exempted from hipster membership owing to age and the fact a lot of them have labradors.
T
192
7
Players BALLINA
Regional Theatre
THE GREEN BISTRO 18-20 Marvell St Byron Bay 6685 6202
•
SOAP BOX
at its best
PRESENTS AN AMATEUR PRODUCTION OF
12 JUNE - 4 JULY ^ŚŽǁ ƟŵĞƐ Ͳ 8.00pm 2.00pm Sunday MaƟŶĞĞƐ
What should we expect for your show in Mullumbimby? I’m playing with some great guys – Matt Bone and Grant Gerathy. I suppose we will rock, then we’ll swing, then we’ll folk and then we’ll play some blues. It will be a great jam and I can’t wait!
BOOK, MUSIC & LYRICS BY LIONEL BART
Court House Hotel Mullumbimby Sunday at 3pm. Presale tickets $23 + bf: trybooking.com/130529; tickets at the door $25.
$2.00 Booking Fee Applies
DIRECTED BY CLEM HALPIN ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENTS BY WILLIAM DAVID BROHN BY ARRANGEMENT WITH HAL LEONARD AUSTRALIA PTY. LTD, EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF CAMERON MACKINTOSH AND THE SOUTHBROOK GROUP.
BOOKINGS - Just Funkin Music 124 River Street - BALLINA - 6686 2440 OR ONLINE at www.ballinaplayers.com.au
Hotel Brunswick Coming at the Bruns SUNDAY 31ST MAY
DALLAS FRASCA
facebook.com/hotelbrunswick |
CARAVANA SUN SUNDAY 7TH JUNE
@hotelbrunswick #hotel brunswick 6685 1236
The Byron Shire Echo May 27, 2015 21