Brag#593

ISSUE NO. 593 DECEMBER 17, 2014

FREE Now picked up at over 1,600 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE

Also

THE BRAG'S

This Week

XMAS GIFT GUIDE P.19

PA UL K EL LY

The Aussie icon presents his Merri Soul Sessions.

HER MI T UDE

Sydney’s favourite dance duo on plans for a new album.

E DDIE I Z Z A R D

BAILA BRAZIL

The comedy legend talks Monty Python and Robin Williams.

EMM A DONOVA N & T HE PUTBACKS It’s a new Dawn launching in Sydney this week.

Plus

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BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 3

rock music news

the BRAG presents

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Lauren Gill, Spencer Scott and Tyson Wray

the hottest artists on tour...

speed date WITH

RAINEE LYLESON

My influences range from jazz to soul and folk; the music I create doesn’t fit into a pre-described genre. It’s accessible without being four-chord pop – I want to challenge the listener with unusual chord changes and melodies. My focus is on subtlety and truthful storytelling expressed through that delicate balance of words, music and humour.

1.

Keeping Busy I’ve been keeping busy but 2.

I’m certainly not a workaholic.

Sometimes I’ll wake up smiling because I love sleeping so much.

At the moment I’m learning The Beatles song ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ – truth runs deep. I’ve just released my debut, self-titled EP, which is pretty exciting. It was recorded and produced by Miles Selwyn, who’s just opened his new studio in Marrickville. I also made a video clip for my song ‘Born By A River’.

You can find that on YouTube under

my channel RaineeMusic. Shout out to the director Zac LynchWoodlock. At the moment I’m just playing shows, trying to get the music out there and building a fan base here in Sydney.

3.

Best Gig Ever My best gig ever was probably a show I did earlier this year at the National Folk Festival.

I was performing as Joni Mitchell, where I embody her in a onewoman show about her life and music. The whole trip seemed to run parallel to an anecdote I would tell in the show: solo road tripping in my beat-up 1992 Daihatsu Charade, ‘Daisy’, listening to Joni’s album Hejira and having a festival fling with a man with beautiful facial hair and a great hat. The show itself I did solo in a packed tent with some of the biggest Joni fans. They were just beaming at the stories I told and singing along to the songs.

That’s my happy place. Those are

the kind of gigs I want to be doing with my original music.

Current Playlist I love Robert Glasper, a jazz 4. pianist who collaborated with R&B singers on an album called Black Radio. It’s sophisticated, the lyrics are deep and inspiring and it’s such a wonderful showcase of superior artistry in an industry that tells us success is defined by how high cut your leotard is.

5.

Your Ultimate Rider My ultimate rider would be a grand piano in the green room, a masseuse, endless cups of herbal tea and a bar filled with top-shelf single malt whisky.

What: Rainee out now With: Meredith Rose Where: Foundry616 When: Friday December 19

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray ONLINE COORDINATOR: Emily Meller SUB-EDITOR: Emily Meller STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Tori Bedingfield, Lauren Gill, June Murtagh, Spencer Scott, Tyson Wray

GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Tori Bedingfield, Emily Meller, June Murtagh gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag. com (dance, hip hop & parties)

SOUNDGARDEN SIDESHOW

Soundgarden have locked in a Sydney headline show to coincide with their appearance on the 2015 Soundwave tour. One of the most influential grunge bands on the planet, Soundgarden last brought their Grammy Award-winning back catalogue to Australian shores when they headlined the 2012 Big Day Out. They’ll hit the Big Top at Luna Park on Thursday February 26.

AWESOME INTERNS: June Murtagh, Tori Bedingfield, Lachlan Mackenzie, Spencer Scott

Pokey LaFarge

Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forrester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121

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4 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

BALKAN BEAT BOX Oxford Art Factory Wednesday March 11

PAOLO NUTINI Enmore Theatre Tuesday March 31

THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL Exhibition Park, Canberra Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6

SHAKE A LEG

Southern rock and soul outfit Alabama Shakes are bringing their show to Sydney on the back of their Bluesfest appearance. What started as an after-school project between two friends has spanned four years and four Grammy nominations for 2012’s Boys & Girls. Alabama Shakes are now heading back on the road in the lead-up to a second album, set to be released in 2015. It’s definitely on the list of ones to watch for next year.

The Shakes headline the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 2, with support from none other than Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires.

HEEPS OF FUN

British rock legends Uriah Heep are returning to our shores. Considered one of the ‘Big Four’ pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal in the late ’60s and early ’70s along with Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep have cemented themselves as one of the biggest names in rock. Over the course of their 45-year career, they’ve produced 23 studio albums, including 2011’s Into The Light. They last toured Australia in 2011 as part of their 40th anniversary tour, selling out shows across the country. The Heep will play Rooty Hill RSL on Thursday March 19 and the Metro Theatre on Friday March 20.

Lucie Thorne

POKING AROUND

American roots songwriter Pokey LaFarge will return to our shores next April. The tour, which will also feature a six-piece band and expanded rhythm section, will coincide with the release of his new studio album, which is set to land next year. The LP is the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed self-titled release on Jack White’s Third Man Records, praised for its eclectic blend of jazz, country blues and western swing. Catch LaFarge and co. on Saturday April 11 at Manning Bar and Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Sunday April 12 alongside his Bluesfest commitments.

American violinist Lindsey Stirling has announced an Australian tour this summer on the back of her sophomore album, Shatter Me. First appearing on America’s Got Talent in 2010, Stirling wowed audiences with her choreographed violin performances. Since then, she has composed, choreographed and directed many of her own original videos, injecting her own flavour into instrumental covers of themes from Games Of Thrones, The Phantom Of The Opera and The Legend Of Zelda. Stirling is no stranger to our shores, having last played a string of sold-out shows in 2013. She’ll be at the Enmore Theatre on Saturday February 21.

NORMA JEAN

Metalcore pioneers Norma Jean have locked in an Australian tour next April. After six genredefining albums including 2013’s Wrongdoers, the Atlanta band led by Chris Day will return to our shores with an epic live show honed over a year-long global tour. Norma Jean will take over Newtown Social Club on Sunday April 5.

CITIZEN DOWN UNDER

Underground alt-rockers Citizen will play a debut run of Australian tour dates in 2015. The Run For Cover signees have been working hard in support of 2013 album Youth, and they’ll kick off their schedule Down Under in April. Sydney welcomes the Ohio-based pop-punkers to The Bald Faced Stag on Wednesday April 22 and Thursday April 23.

NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL 2015

The National Folk Festival has added some more artists to its 2015 lineup, which takes place in Canberra over the Easter long weekend. Joining the lineup are The London Klezmer Quartet, Nuala Kennedy Band, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen and Lucie Thorne and Hamish Stuart, among others. The announcement adds 14 new artists to the festival, which runs across 18 venues in Canberra, and features over 200 acts. New South Wales is the ‘Featured State’ for the 2015 edition of the event, set to showcase several acts from the state including veteran acoustic artist Mike McClellan and Jan Preston’s Boogie Circus. The National Folk Festival, presented by the BRAG, runs in Canberra from Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6.

thebrag.com

Lucie Thorne photo by Hamish Stuart

DEADLINES: Editorial: Friday 12pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Fishished Art: No later than 2pm Monday Ad cancellations: Friday 4pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to.

Published by Furst Media P/L ACN 1112480045 All content copyrighted to Cartrage P/L / Furst Media P/L 2003-2014

Oxford Art Factory Thursday January 29

Pokey LaFarge photo by Glen Hall

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Prudence Clark, Keiron Costello, Meg Crawford, Marissa Demetriou, Christie Eliezer, Fergus Halliday, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Mina Kitsos, Emily Meller, Adam Norris, Kate Robertson, Erin Rooney, Raf Seneviratne, Leonardo Silvestrini, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young

SOHN

A STIRLING EFFORT

ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Georgina Pengelly - 0416 972 081 / (02) 9212 4322 georgina@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600

Factory Floor Friday January 23

Soundgarden photo by Michael Lavine

Soundgarden

CALIGULA’S HORSE

xxxx

Your Profile I love folk music from the early ’70s but I also love The Notorious B.I.G. I love dancing really hard and not caring that people think I’m too white to legitimately crump.

I love yoga and angel cards and hiking but I have an acerbic sense of humour that some new-age people just can’t appreciate. I never let anyone define who I should be.

I’m all kinds of things from one day to the next and so is my music – always evolving.

Caligula’s Horse

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BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 5

live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Chris Martin, Tori Bedingfield and June Murtagh

head to: thebrag.com

speed date WITH

WAAX we are an experience, that’s for sure. We’re about empowerment and claiming back the right to be pissed off.

Keeping Busy The past three 2. months have been a whirlwind for us. Since our triple j Unearthed Bigsound win, we have signed on with management and a booking agent. We’ve been playing a few shows but nothing too much until our tour in December.

Best Gig Ever Our Bigsound set 3. was pretty amazing,

1.

Your Profile Sonically we move along the indie/punk rock spectrum with songs that are fast, angry and

heavy and then songs that are slow, reflective and peculiar. Our usual crowd looks like angsty misfits of all ages and

they’d be fans of Bikini Kill, The Hives, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Dead Weather. You’re best to come see us live;

but nothing can top our one show at The Joynt (R.I.P.). The biggest mosh we’ve ever seen.

Marie usually likes to jump in, but it was dangerous. For some bizarre reason some drunk dude screamed “STAIRWAY!” So we sang ‘Stairway To Heaven’ a capella with over 170 people. I don’t even know

how it got to that, but we rolled with it. Elijah stage dived, it was mad fun.

Worst show? Probably a few but most likely due to drunkenness, so of course I cannot recall.

4.

Current Playlist We recently discovered The Vasco Era (R.I.P.). Jesus, those dudes could crack a tune!

Royal Blood, Wolf Alice and Modern Baseball’s new records are all pretty fucking solid. Locally, Rolls Bayce are pretty damn outstanding!

Another standout would be Meg Mac – that girl is a superstar and a great songwriter.

5.

Your Ultimate Rider Scotch and craft beer and an angry crowd.

Where: Captain Cook Hotel / The World Bar When: Thursday December 18 / Friday December 19

SAMSUNG M3 WIRELESS MULTIROOM SPEAKER

Nothing spells summer like some groovy tunes, and the new Samsung M3 Wireless Multiroom Speaker is here to help you enjoy your music non-stop in any connected room of the house or office. It’s the third Multiroom Speaker model (the M5 and M7 are also available), boasting two-way speaker functionality and easy-to-use controls from compatible mobile devices over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with the Multiroom smartphone app (Android and iOS). The speakers (RRP $269) are available in black and white, and for those audiophiles, they support several audio formats including AAC, MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA, FLAC, AIFF and ALAC. It’s a great gift for any music lover this Christmas, and we’ve got a prize pack k to give away of four units and a hub to o connect them all together – perfect to set up throughout your home. To be in the running, head to thebrag. com and tell us which summer album would sound great through a set of these speakers. For more information about the speakers, visit samsungsound.com.au.

The Zoo City Lads

Ruby L’otel

RUBY TUESDAYS

Hello, Ruby Tuesdays. That’s the name of Sydney’s newest regular live music night, hosted at the Ruby L’otel. It’s billed as an evening of “amazing, eclectic and original musical talent”, hosted by Scott Gibson of The Fallen Gentry, who warms the stage before the showcase acts take their cues. The likes of Javier Luis, Matt Hanley and The Hoo Haa’s have already featured at Ruby Tuesdays, so get down next Tuesday eve to find out who’s next.

THE ZOO CITY LADS

Breaking onto the Sydney music scene earlier this year with their debut single ‘Throw It Away’, up-and-coming rockers The Zoo City Lads made a memorable impression following some smokin’ shows at Oxford Art Factory and FBi Social. Now, back to celebrate the release of ‘Sad Songs’, their new garage rock effort, The Zoo City Lads have organised a night with some of Sydney’s finest including Boson Higgs, The Desert Sea and Captain Cook. One thing you can take for sure; this is going to be loud. The Zoo City Lads play The Bald Faced Stag on Saturday January 17.

TELSTRA ROAD TO DISCOVERY WINNERS

The Telstra Road To Discovery competition has crowned its 2014 winners at a Grand Final event in Melbourne. 2014 joint winners Teischa Jones from Perth and Loren Kate from South Australia each won a $15,000 development package. Jones was born in Western Australia where she spent her early years in the coastal town of Exmouth. Now she is based in Jolimont. Kate, meanwhile, hails from Aldinga. Her contemporary/folk music has allowed her to travel most of the country playing festivals such as Tamar Valley Folk Festival, Alice Springs Desert Festival and Nannup Music Festival. Her third album, Moving On, was released through a successful crowdfunding campaign. The People’s Choice winner Hannah Rosa performs regularly around her hometown of Brisbane at Black Bear Lodge, The Bearded Lady and The Powerhouse and has played the Brisbane Festival, Palm Creek Festival and Byron Bay Bluesfest. For more info on Telstra Road To Discovery, visit beinvolved.com.au/telstraroadtodiscovery.

BOXING DAY HOUSE PARTY

Christmas on the Northern Beaches this year means one more sleep until the Boxing Day House Party, being held at the Mona Vale Hotel on Friday December 26. A massive lineup will help you dance away those turkey hangovers, with Bag Raiders on hand for a DJ set, joined by Fear Of Dawn feat. Natalie Conway, Stoney Roads DJs, Mo Funk, Glass Ocean, Bin Juice, Faf and many more. If you’ve been a good boy or girl this year, Santa might drop you some tix, but otherwise head to Eventbrite to secure yours.

xx

Gold Class

Telstra Road To Discovery winners Teischa Jones, Loren Kate and Hannah Rosa

FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE

Live music rolls on (alongside those bowling balls) at The Standard Bowl, with the regular Friday Night Live spot in full swing throughout the summer. This Friday December 19, it’s a triple-header led by Bad Pony. The fivepiece indie rock outfit was founded by Sam Thomlinson and Jarred Young, and promises a solid dose of drums and guitars. Joining the Pony are Halcyon Drive, the garage/indie popsters out of suburban Melbourne, and Deckhead, who’ll also lead the Boxing Day proceedings on Friday December 26.

ROYAL CHANT

A CLASS ABOVE

6 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

Royal Chant

thebrag.com

xxxx xx

Melbourne’s Gold Class have just released their debut seven-inch ‘Michael/Gone’ and are hitting the road in celebration. Although they only began working together in early 2014, Gold Class have made a splash in their hometown and are ready to take on the world. The band will be heading to Sydney this week with Mere Women and Wives to launch the new material and give Sydneysiders a taste of what they can do. Catch Gold Class at Black Wire Records on Friday December 19.

Aussie rockers Royal Chant are bringing together some of their favourite bands as part of a VSOP (Very Special One-Time Performance) to kick off 2015. The trio will be shaking it up a bit this January, bringing in a fourth member to fill out their sound for one night only. Royal Chant will be debuting tracks from their upcoming album The War Cry Of Failure and will be joined by the loud and spectacular sounds of Service Bells and Wasters.

Catch them at Brighton Up Bar on Thursday January 8.

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 7

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Which celeb told her manager before her family that she has a bun in the oven? * Which media-savvy label exec who ‘leaked’ that he was available for new gigs was disappointed when a bidding war didn’t eventuate? * Richie Sambora will be in Australia for Christmas. He’s joining his girlfriend, former Michael Jackson guitarist Orianthi, who’s back in Adelaide.

* Sheppard’s ‘Geronimo’ is now five times platinum, while ‘Uptown Funk’ by Mark Ronson and One Direction’s ‘Steal My Girl’ both went gold. Of the albums, Taylor Swift’s Red is four times platinum and 1989 picked up its second platinum accreditation.

Triple j’s Like A Version Vol. 10 and Nickelback’s No Fixed Address are gold. * Dave Grohl reckons there’s 1,300 hours’ worth of Sonic Highways footage left unused. * Avicii has the most Shazamed song of all time. The DJ’s hit ‘Wake Me Up’ with Aloe Blacc has collected more than 19 million

SWEAT IT OUT & MAKER WIN CUP FOR SECOND YEAR The combined Sweat It Out and Maker team has won the Musica Copa charity football tournament for a second time. Aided by fancy footwork from What So Not and Motez, they whopped the OneLove team and gave $5,000 to their chosen charity, St Vincent de Paul Society. OneLove donated their $4,000 to beyondblue. MTV shoved Mushroom aside to third place, and handed over $3,000 to St Vincent. The tournament was held at Marrickville’s KIKOFF Soccer Centre.

Organisers Paul Stix (UNDR ctrl) and Martin Novosel (Purple Sneakers) said, “The level of sport, enthusiasm and friendship was so high both on and off the pitch, and it was our total pleasure to bring the music industry together for a second year and raise such a significant amount of money for charity.”

AUSSIE ISPS GIVEN 120 DAYS TO DEVISE A CODE The Australian Government has given Australian ISPs 120 days to come up with an industry code to “take reasonable steps” to block copyright infringement on their networks. If they don’t negotiate one with rights holders

by Wednesday April 8, then the Government will impose its own code. In a joint submission

queries on Shazam to date. * After the Vanfest event in Forbes this month drew a higher-thanexpected 7,000-strong crowd (despite fears of rain), delighted organisers confirmed there’ll be another festival in 2015. * Two more Sydney venues which host live music have changed hands. The Cock and Bull (Grand Hotel) in Bondi Junction was bought by Iris Capital for a reported $25 million. The Golden Sheaf in Double Bay went for $41 million. * On the eve of their 2015 Australian tour, US band Chiodos have lost guitarist

by Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis presented to Cabinet for approval, infringing consumers will not be punished or have their internet speeds slowed. However, their access to overseas sites with pirated content may be blocked. Consumer groups argue that illegal downloading is due to higher prices and slow access to shows. A Choice survey found Aussies who pirate are avid consumers, and more likely to also buy content legally. 55% of consumers try to find a legal source first.

JAY-Z WINS ONE-SYLLABLE SAMPLE CASE A New York judge threw out a case brought against Jay-Z by hip hop label TufAmerica, who claimed that he sampled an “oh” on ‘Run This Town’ from The Blueprint 3. It allegedly came from the track ‘Hook & Sling (Part 1)’. The judge ruled the word ‘oh’ is “quite common” and that TufAmerica “apparently believes it has a monopoly on the use of the word ‘oh’”. The court also found it hard to make out the offending “oh” after listening to ‘Run This Town’ repeatedly, and that Jay-Z could not be held liable for using it.

NEW MUSIC VENUE IN MONA VALE A new bar in Mona Vale’s Pittwater Road, the La De Da bar and restaurant, is showcasing live music. It is run by Skunkhour’s Aya

Thomas Erak and will announce his replacement shortly. * Beyoncé and Jay-Z are buying a US$85 million LA mansion with eight bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. She’s also rumoured to be pregnant again. * Every Time I Die guitarist Jordan Buckley was so annoyed seeing a fan taking an onstage selfie that he kicked the phone out of the dude’s hands. * Vestax, the Japanese manufacturer of DJ equipment including turntables and digital mixers, has reportedly filed for bankruptcy after more than 37 years.

Larkin, designers Rick Vaughan and Paul Brabenec, and DJ Marcus King.

STEREOSONIC TO INTRODUCE DRESS CODE A brawl involving 20 idiots at the Sydney installment of Stereosonic saw festival co-founder Frank Cotela lambast those bringing “roid-up-bros muscle culture” to the event. “Brother EVERYONE is laughing at your shorts, singlets, fake tans, bumbags and cartoon shaped bodies, but more importantly we are sick of the charged up violence you bring … time for a change. If it means that we will profile you at entry point and stop you entering – you will be stopped! 40 dumb c**ts are not going to spoil a great day enjoyed by thousands!”

FALLS DONATES TO BYRON Every year Falls Festival puts $1 from each ticket sold into a community fund to give to local organisations. Falls Byron director Brandon Saul gave $2,500 to the Brunswick Heads Nippers for new surfboards, $2,500 to the Ocean Shores Community Centre for extension plans and for the Open Day theatre group, $2,500 to Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre for its parent insight program, $2,500 to Crabbes Creek Community Hall for its NYE fireworks and $7,500 for the Byron Bay Community Theatre’s NYE Soul Street event.

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Brisbane-based wholesaler Impulse Entertainment has acquired online retailer musicshop.com.au, and will revitalise it with a wider array of items for sale.

DR. DRE 2014’S HIGHEST-PAID MUSICIAN Dr. Dre earned a record US$620 million for 2014, helped by selling Beats to Apple for $3 billion (last year’s winner Madonna made $125m). Beyoncé was at number two with $115m, followed by the Eagles ($100m), Bon Jovi ($82m), Bruce Springsteen ($81m), Justin Bieber ($80m), One Direction ($75m), Paul McCartney ($71m), Calvin Harris ($66m), Toby Keith ($65m), Taylor Swift ($64m), Jay-Z ($60m), Diddy and Bruno Mars in a tie ($60 million) and Justin Timberlake ($57m).

Lifelines Split: Muse’s Matt Bellamy and actress Kate Hudson, who have a son aged 3.

Ill: Avril Lavigne is experiencing “health issues” and asked fans to pray for her.

Ill: Former Sydney radio and Sounds Unlimited host Donnie Sutherland will have his voice box removed after his throat cancer returned.

Ill: Green Day guitarist Jason White has been diagnosed with tonsil cancer. Since his doctors “caught it early”, he is expected to make a full recovery.

In Court: Ryan Thomas Barr, 20, pleaded guilty in Townsville District Court to supplying drugs.

He’d turned up to the Groovin The Moo festival with an E tab, panicked when he saw cops and sniffer dogs at the gate, and tried to sell it off outside for $30 – and, duh, got spotted by the cops.

In Court: Hilltop Hoods fan Richard Moroney was fined $500 at Mackay Magistrates Court for twirling his sweater above his head at an October 18 show and throwing it at the stage.

Struggling with cops who tried to throw him out didn’t help either.

Suing: ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival folks Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and the wife of late guitarist Tom Fogerty are taking action against John Fogerty for using the name on his Creedence Clearwater Revisited tour.

Suing: Dr. Luke is hitting celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos with a lawsuit over alleged tweets saying he raped Lady Gaga.

Geragos is representing Kesha in her ongoing sexual battery case against the producer.

Suing: Pete Murray is suing accountant Tony Lowe, alleging he paid his own fees out of Murray’s accounts over six years without permission.

Died: Dana Miller, US manager for one-time idols Corey Hart, Rick Springfield and Andy Gibb, was found dead in his mother’s house in Pasadena, aged 59.

Died: Australian-born Graeme Goodall, who helped set up Island Records in 1962 and launched the careers of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, died at 82. He started out on AM radio before moving to England and then to Jamaica.

DAINTY TAKES GREATER STAKE IN BANGTANGO

FRI 9 JAN

GLASS ANIMALS

SAT 10 JAN

TYCHO LIVE

SAT 17 JAN

MARDUK & INQUISITION

SUN 25 JAN ALL AGES

KERSER

Dainty Group has increased its stake in premium ticket provider BangTango, which offers sponsorship and VIP ticketing packages to first-access tickets. It has done these for Dainty tours including Bon Jovi and Katy Perry. Paul Dainty says BangTango-driven sponsorships can sell up to 50,000 tickets, “the equivalent to an additional, incremental, arena show in each market”.

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR AUSTRALIAN JAZZ BELL AWARDS WED 4 FEB

VIC MENSA

FRI 13 FEB

MODESELEKTOR

SAT 28 FEB

DELTRON 3030

THU 12 MAR

DJ SHADOW & CUT CHEMIST

Nominations have opened for the 2015 Australian Jazz Bell Awards, to be held in Melbourne on Thursday April 30. Each of the eight categories has a $5,000 cash prize.

For full info visit bellawards.org, nominations close on Wednesday February 11.

NEW SIGNINGS #1: NEW TEAM FOR EVES THE BEHAVIOR

WED 01 APR

SWITCHFOOT

SAT 18 APR

BLACKSTREET

SUN 28 JUN

BRIBRY

22-year-old Brisbane singer, songwriter and producer Eves is now Eves The Behavior.

“Most of my lyrics are behavioural studies,” she explains. Meanwhile, with new music set for release in 2015, Hannah Karydas has signed a record deal with Dew Process, booking with Village Sounds and publishing with Alberts.

NEW SIGNINGS #2: NEW DEALS FOR CALIGULA’S HORSE Brisbane’s alt-prog outfit Caligula’s Horse have signed with New York’s The Agency Group for North American bookings. Their new agent Josh Kline also looks after Bring Me The Horizon, Trivium and Protest The Hero. The band has also signed a management deal with Melbourne-based Wild Thing Presents, which already handles its bookings. Caligula’s Horse tour the east coast through January.

NEW SIGNINGS #3: OISIMA AT CREATE/CONTROL With plans to release his debut album Nicaragua Nights in mid-2015, Adelaide’s Oisima (real name: Anth Wendt) has signed with Create/Control. Mixing soul with Middle Eastern and jazz music, he made a name with his Jewels Of Thought mixtapes and the Dusk Till Dawn and Goddess EPs.

NEW SIGNINGS #4: JIM LAWRIE WITH BARELY DRESSED Melbourne drummer-turned-singer-songwriter Jim Lawrie has teamed with Barely Dressed/ Remote Control Records for the release of his second album Eons in February. His live schedule includes the three Falls Festivals.

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THE LANGUAGE OF DANCE

BY ADAM NORRIS

A

s we start to talk – Fernando Narduchi on a distant balcony in Brazil with traffic sputtering in the background, me at a coffee-stained desk halfway across the globe – he warns me that his English is not so strong, and he hopes very much he doesn’t embarrass himself through his answers. It is a groundless fear, since Narduchi’s replies are vivid and his voice is full of character. It is difficult, of course, to distinguish the pauses in his thoughts as either language divide or emotion, since much of his creativity stems from the triumphs and calamities of BrazilianAfrican history. But as artistic director of Balé de Rua, he is a man fuelled by discovery and the storytelling of dance, and with Baila Brazil he has no doubt that the spirit of his culture will resonate on the Australian stage.

for freedom. And in Brazil it was different, because here, the black people not only survived, but they really gave a huge contribution for the Brazilian identity, in everything: in music, in religion, in the food, the spirit of the people. In everything.

So they not only survived, but they defined what Brazil would become.”

Now, for the record, I can’t dance.

And I mean, at all. Every time I try, I’m surprised I don’t leave behind a dancefloor full of crippled limbs and the terrified screams of children.

Confessing this to Narduchi, though, doesn’t perturb him in the slightest.

In fact, teaching the uncoordinated and graceless how to dance sits at the core of the company’s aims.

“We have [run] a dance school since 2000, where we give classes for free. And we find people there, new generations of dancers who become part of the company. And so, every dancer we have in the company now came from this school, had this preparation. You see,” he laughs, “in the first eight years, we were trying very hard to make the company [sustainable]. Our first real show was in a little breakdancing festival in the village, only with other groups from Uberlândia. We started with ten dancers onstage then, and it was

very good, very new to people. Then in the next few weeks a lot of people came along hoping to be part of the company, and within one month we had 35 dancers! So it was a lot of change quickly. In those times it was common to have groups with many dancers – 25, 35, that was normal in dance companies. But then, when we started to become professionals we became 15 dancers, and it was a number that we encourage, that still works for us today.”

For those who have seen footage of the company or were fortunate enough to catch Balé de Rua’s last Australian performance in 2010, the prospect of dancing even half as well as these frantic performers seems impossible. Their style is hard to pinpoint; a kind of samba, hip hop, traditional dance fusion. However you choose to describe it, it is undeniably arresting, and it is exactly this unexpected, entrancing quality that first caught Narduchi’s eye.

“I always loved to dance, and one night I was walking my bike down the street and saw a group of dancers in a square. I stopped, because until then I’d never seen that kind of dancing. It was a surprise for me, firstly because it was only guys dancing. I started coming back again

and again until we became friends, and I started to learn the first steps of funk, of break and hip hop. In the beginning, I was the one who needed to learn. And I tell you, they changed my life.”

Narduchi laughs as he recalls his introduction to this new world of dance. “I started dance before, classical dance, modern dance, but I never belonged to a group or company, and I never went onstage until I met these people.

I was always a dance lover and still am today, but the dance really became part of my life after I met those guys. After some years, I invited Marco Antônio – he is the real hero of this history, because he’s a choreographer of the show and the costume designer, the set designer, many things – I invited him and some other friends to create a company, and since that first moment what we wanted was to create a new kind of dance, because in those years it was really American, of course. Our heroes were Michael Jackson, James Brown, MC Hammer, and so then we tried to make it in the Brazilian way. We tried to mix this kind of dance with Brazilian music, Brazilian rhythms. And to take risks. And it worked!

“We started to be invited to many festivals, but what we really wanted was to create an identity that when you see the company, you wouldn’t have any doubt, you would see Brazil.

And that’s what we tried to do up to today, to find our own way, to make new dancing and create this identity.

After all of these years I guess we got it, but of course it never ends.

Every new creation brings new – how can I say – oh my God!” He trails off, laughing hard. “My English is not so good, especially in this moment.

Challenges! New creations bring new challenges!”

It is clear that dance means more to Narduchi than mere entertainment.

There is such passion in his voice, such enthusiasm to share not only the energy and culture of Brazil, but its essence; the shapes and sounds that stitch together its history.

“In the end, after all of this, the Brazilian people know joy. We don’t dance just for entertainment, though of course the show is for huge audiences in big theatres. When you see us onstage, we want you to have a feeling that it’s true, it’s not fake, it comes from the soul, from the heart.

We work very hard to achieve this.

It’s not just entertainment. I want you to be happy when you see the show, but I want you to be happy from your heart, because it is so urgent. We try to show a little bit of Brazil’s spirit.”

What: Baila Brazil Where: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House When: Friday January 9 – Sunday January 18

“The minute you walked in the joint, I could see you were a man of distinction” - SWEET CHARITY 10 :: BRAG :: 5923 :: 17:12:14

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BB Credit_photo_Frederic_Desmesure 8

“Each show has a different story,” Narduchi says. His words are at first hesitant, but soon begin speeding.

“For example, we did a show called The Black Body In Dance.

We wanted to talk about the black people, the heritage of the black people, and so [choreographer] Marco Antônio and I decided to show not the suffering of the slavery, but to show the strength of the people, and how smart, how strong they were to survive. In the end, we decided we didn’t want to talk about this as a sad, ‘Oh, these poor people, they suffered so much’ story, but show it all. Show that these people were strong, and how amazing [it was] that they survived all of this. And so we learned a lot about the history of the black ships from Mother Africa, the trips to Brazil, and then the fight

“IN THE END, AFTER ALL OF THIS, THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE KNOW JOY. WE DON’T DANCE JUST FOR ENTERTAINMENT, THOUGH OF COURSE THE SHOW IS FOR HUGE AUDIENCES IN BIG THEATRES. WHEN YOU SEE US ONSTAGE, WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A FEELING THAT IT’S TRUE”.

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Slow Club The Sum Of Many Parts By Jacob Mills

T

here’s something about a Northern English accent that plucks the heartstrings of anyone who hears it. It tells tales of verdant green fields, unpasteurised milk, and that one documentary about their insane rates of heroin addiction. But from his London apartment, the cheerful voice of Charles Watson from Sheffield duo Slow Club spells out the history of a band with particularly fond memories of old-country charm.

“Where I grew up, I was about a 45-minute walk from the nearest bus stop and an hour from the nearest town,” he says. “My overriding memory as a teenager was walking to the bus stop and listening to music. It’s a serene feeling that you only really have the privilege of having when you live so far away from a major town.”

In fact, a simple walk is Watson’s tried and tested artistic panacea.

“Getting outside and clearing your head is amazing,” he says. “Lately I’ve developed the ability to be able to detach myself from music and do something like paint or other repetitive tasks that are just an alternative to writing songs. As with anything, you always hit a wall, but getting outside and clearing your head is simple and it works so well.”

Clear air is a consistent string on Slow Club’s new record, Complete Surrender. The sound is stripped back and leaves you feeling like you’re wandering through the album, absorbing the music through your skin.

“We had no idea about the direction or texture of the sound before we started recording,” says Watson.

“We wanted to simplify things and

make the album sparser. I’m the kind of person who gets distracted by the possibilities of what you can do with a song, what you can add to make it bigger.

“The difference between this album and the last is that we’ve done this one in a home studio with a bunch of collaborators. We’ve brought in a range of different musicians and have the knowledge now of when to stop and go, ‘OK, this song is finished.’”

Since home recording equipment has become more readily accessible and available to anybody with a little cash and a little knowhow, collaborative recording has become an oft-used technique in music. For Watson and bandmate Rebecca Taylor, it yielded results.

“Collaborative recording is a very different recording process. Rebecca plays drums and some keys and I play guitar, piano, keyboard, et cetera. The last record we had Rebecca on all the drums and me on all the guitars and keys. To be able to bring in a bunch of different musicians completely changed the way that the album was constructed.

You can hear the difference in the drumming, for example. [Our friend] Avon, who we brought in to lay down some drum licks, had a more technical and cadent style of drumming which sounds different to Rebecca’s less rehearsed but more natural-sounding style.”

Without additional help, writing as a two-piece can have its limitations – the most obvious being that two people trying to create a sound comparable to four or five musicians takes a lot of finesse and a lot more work.

“Rebecca and I write separately a lot since we’re not always in the same town,” says Watson. “If I feel like I’ve been cooped up for a while, Rebecca could be having a much better day on her end. Distance allows us to express ourselves clearly as two different musicians, which I think is great because it means our sound stays active rather than us finding a middle ground between our two styles.

Being a two-piece does have its stresses, though. The best thing about a collaborative album is that we were able to split the workload across far more musicians.”

is notable for producing Arctic Monkeys, Pulp and one-sixth of Iron Maiden, so it’s no wonder that the music scene is alive and strong.

According to Watson, collaboration is just an extension of the sense of community present in a smaller country environment. Sheffield

Fortunately for Watson, Slow Club has taken him across the world, from playing shows throughout Europe to repeat trips around the

“London is considered to be England’s cultural centre, and there really is so much to do. But I find that, in a way, there is so much to do that no-one really does anything.

The great thing about those Northern towns like Sheffield is that you start out as a band and you know all of these people that come to your shows. I haven’t seen that in London yet.”

US, and he’s coming up on his third romp Down Under.

“We can’t wait to come back to Australia in January. Last time we were in Melbourne we got completely blown away by the response. We didn’t really have high expectations for our music to have travelled so far, but the turnout was amazing. I feel like we’re lucky that we even get to come to Australia. Although the accent is as close as you can get to British, so we feel fairly at home.”

What: Complete Surrender out now through Caroline/Universal With: Alyx Dennison, Fieldings Where: Newtown Social Club When: Saturday January 17

Emma Donovan & The PutBacks Storytelling Through Soul By Emily Meller earing a voice like Emma Donovan’s, it would be easy to assume that natural talent has been the driving force behind her remarkable career in music. When you add the fact that her family make up The Donovans, it’s only logical to think that music runs through her veins.

H

guitar and electric organ beats is Donovan’s rare voice, relaying songs crafted to seem almost off-the-cuff, but which bear all the marks of an expert touch. Dawn sits easily alongside ’70s soul records, but Donovan has long drawn on her indigenous heritage, both stylistically and lyrically.

But speaking to Emma herself, she’d have you believe it was really the support of funk band and collaborators The PutBacks that was the defining factor behind the critically acclaimed new release, Dawn. What she leaves out is the many years of work that have gone into honing her craft and distinctive approach to songwriting.

For one thing, she started her singing career at age seven playing with The Donovans, and she has been refining her sound ever since.

This was most pronounced when she was the youngest member of The Black Arm Band. Its roots were inherently political, but Donovan recalls that working with some of the most talented Australian musicians even made her dad experience a slightly fanboy moment.

“My first-ever tour was with Uncle Jimmy Little, and I went when I was on school holidays in year six or year seven on a regional tour around NSW,” she says. “There is a lot of support. I think with Aboriginal artists today, our networks are getting so strong.”

Community plays a large part in Donovan’s music-making process, and also how she sees herself in the music world. While she spent years as a solo artist and is constantly working on material, many of the songs on Dawn only came into being once ideas had been shared with The PutBacks and her main collaborator in the band, bassist Mick Meagher.

“I’ve been in a lot of bands where non-blackfellas want to help tell my stories as well. I have the support of The PutBacks, who have respect for my songs and lyrics even when they’re heavy. Sometimes as a woman you don’t feel as comfortable putting some of that out there, but I had a lot of support with songs like ‘Black Woman’. I always acknowledge that. Even though it’s my story, they’re a big part of helping me tell that story. Just that collaboration, it came from a really nice place.”

But over the layers of skilfully executed funk

“I was playing with Bart Willoughby of No Fixed Address,” Donovan says. “My dad was his biggest fan – I texted him photos. I was like the cool daughter singing with them.”

The gospel influence on Dawn is understated, but has obviously shaped Donovan’s approach.

She speaks so fondly of her family that it’s impossible to deny how much she values the fact her music is as much a reflection of her own tastes as their influence.

“The only kind of soul/gospel influence I had around was singing with my grandmother,” she says. “On the weekend we had a family wedding and we all sang together. But that happens naturally with my family, and singing gospel comes about because of my grandparents who grew up in the mission, which influenced them a lot with music from going to church. So my grandparents invested a lot of music into the rest of the family. I feel really lucky.”

Even if she isn’t forthcoming about it, there is clearly a lot more than luck at play.

What: Dawn out now through HopeStreet Recordings With: Leah Flanagan, DJ Dave Bowman Where: Newtown Social Club When: Sunday December 21

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Jessica Pratt The Lone Ranger By Augustus Welby

A

t the end of the day, it’s the music that matters most, but it’s always nice when an artist’s backstory includes some romantic details. In our internet-centric age, artist bios are all too frequently filled with blah-blah statistics denoting YouTube views or Myspace hits. The tale of LA-based songwriter Jessica Pratt, however, is uniquely fascinating. In 2012, Pratt was an unknown musician whiling away her early 20s in San Francisco. It was around this time that Pratt’s friend showed some of her recordings from 2007 to White Fence’s Tim Presley. Presley was so moved by her music that he started a record label just so he could release Pratt’s self-titled LP.

Jessica Pratt is an enchanting collection of songs, featuring nothing more than fingerpicked acoustic guitar and Pratt’s mesmerising vocals. For the release of On Your Own Love

“The first record is actually mostly a studio record,” Pratt says. “It’s just that maybe the most well-known song on it is one that I recorded on a four-track. The way that song is recorded is basically how I like to work.

“My biggest concern was with trying to write and record in a way that felt pure and natural to me, which is recording at home,” she adds.

“It’s not necessarily that I needed the [audio] quality to be of any real low-grade. It’s just the way it works out for me.”

The crackly recording perfectly suits Pratt’s vocals, which have the ability to transport listeners to a time of black-and-white nights spent in smoky coffee houses. Similar to Jessica Pratt, several of On Your Own Love Again’s songs have a wistful demeanour.

It’s never entirely melancholy, but Pratt’s not afraid to examine vulnerability.

“I guess there is a darker thing that comes out,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s my own temperament or if it’s the influence of things I’ve listened to that I love very much or if it’s just the tonal flavour that I need to inhabit when I play. I think it’s a combination of all

those things. Also, the bulk of the second record was recorded right when I moved to Los Angeles and I didn’t really have any friends. I spent a lot of time alone. I was kind of going through a difficult time.”

Pratt will make her way Down Under for next year’s Sydney Festival. The release of her first record was basically unplanned, so one might imagine being thrust into the life of a touring musician came as a shock. On the contrary, Pratt has embraced the opportunity to do music full-time.

“I was always working on music privately and recording stuff,” she says. “I always did it and never questioned it. [Getting exposure] gave me more confidence and it definitely made me want to pursue that harder.”

What: Sydney Festival 2015 Where: The Famous Spiegeltent When: Saturday January 10 And: On Your Own Love Again out Friday January 23 through Drag City/Spunk

Jessica Pratt photo by Colby Droscher

Pratt has now completed a second album called On Your Own Love Again, which lands in late January. It’s seven years since the songs on her debut were recorded, so it’s no surprise her songwriting has developed. “I was really raring to go, because I had these songs that I wanted to show people and I felt like they were so much better,” she says.

“Because [the first record] was such old material, I felt intrinsically like I had already advanced a lot from that stage – just being an adult and playing for years after that.”

Again, Pratt has teamed up with esteemed indie label Drag City. Thankfully, the label investment hasn’t hampered her no-frills production aesthetic. In fact, this record is more lo-fi than its predecessor.

Ed Kuepper Old Dogs, New Tricks By David James Young

T

he last time many music fans saw Ed Kuepper in the flesh, it was in a very different guise to normal. The former Saint, occasional Laughing Clown and current Bad Seed was up onstage recently as a part of the Melbourne Festival, one of many musicians and bands paying tribute to the late, great Rowland S. Howard in the critically acclaimed Pop Crimes show. Although Kuepper did not make it out to the Sydney leg of the show, he was incredibly proud of the Melbourne run.

“I thought they went really well – I thought the show was great,” he says, now back in his native Brisbane. “I really enjoyed what everyone else was doing. I sat side of stage each night to watch the other performers, and I thought they were just wonderful. Rowland would have been amazed at it all, I think. We met around 1977 – he was actually at the very first Saints show. He used to come along to every one that he could.”

Despite counting Howard as a friend and someone he was a fan of, Kuepper is reluctant to identify the former Birthday Party guitarist as a great influence on him. According to Kuepper, the two are not mutually inclusive.

“As much as I loved and respected what he did, I can’t say that it influenced me,” he explains. “I think you get to a certain point where it’s a combination of being open-minded to what’s going on and largely establishing your own territory. I think I’ve managed to do that. That’s what I draw upon. I don’t go out of my way to listen to music in order to influence or inspire me. If I’m looking for some inspiration to create, then I’ll go into a completely different zone – I might read a book or watch a film, look at some artwork. Anything that’s away from music, really.”

After a run of by-request shows around the traps in solo mode, Kuepper will return to Sydney next month as a part of Sydney Festival. The show is a collaboration with members of the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, which will see them present works from his canon in a way that will give new life to songs that have more or less become standards to him.

“We got approached to put something together,” says Kuepper. “We wanted to do something that would be really unique and special – something that won’t be repeated.

What I wanted to do was introduce instrumentation that I haven’t used much onstage before, which is where the chamber quartet come into it. I wanted to cover a broad range of what I’d done in the past, but I also wanted to look at that material in a completely new way. On one hand it’s a retrospective, but very little of the songs will be performed in the way they originally were. It’s not a nostalgia show, basically.”

Kuepper also warns that it may take the audience a little longer than usual to recognise when he’s playing one of their favourites from earlier in his career. “What I tend to do with older songs, whenever I happen to be playing them, is look at whether that song still has some form of relevance to me as a person today. I look at how I feel actually playing that song. It’s got to reflect what I’m doing now as opposed to what I was doing 20, 30 years ago.

Some songs can be changed quite significantly.”

What: Sydney Festival 2015 Where: City Recital Hall Angel Place When: Saturday January 24

Matt Andersen Weightless Wanderer By Augustus Welby

I

t’s long been known that Canada’s Matt Andersen possesses a wealth of natural talent.

Since emerging from the Canadian east coast over a decade ago, Andersen has been wowing audiences with his excellent blues guitar chops and sensual lead vocals. In February, Andersen released his new solo LP Weightless, which illustrated his songwriting versatility more emphatically than anything prior.

In the early days of his career, Andersen gathered plenty of attention for performing covers, including a version of Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ that has more than a million views on YouTube.

Despite the video’s lingering imprint, Andersen has been focused on original material for the last half-dozen years, gradually honing his creative identity. On Weightless, Andersen visits various stylistic ports: there’s the reggae-tinged opener ‘I Lost My Way’, anthemic gospel number ‘My Last Day’, country slow-burner ‘So Easy’ and upright soul ditty ‘Weightless’.

“The more you write the better it gets,” he says.

“Sometimes going with first instincts is a good way to go, but you should also be open to changing things. For me it works best, I learned, if I have an idea for a song but don’t limit myself to just that idea. If it happens to take a complete right turn halfway through, then I follow that.”

While Andersen commonly takes the stage alone, an extended cast of musicians helped assemble Weightless. Picking up where 2011’s Coal Mining Blues left off, the record features elaborate full band backing, including vocal choirs and additional guitar work from Neko Case’s sideman Paul Rigby. Andersen wasn’t the record’s lone creative force, either. Each track was co-written with one of several established Canadian songwriters, such as Joel Plaskett, David Myles and Tom Wilson.

14 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

“I definitely thought two heads are better than one when it comes to songwriting,” he adds. “So I picked some of my favourite writers and just hooked up with them. We didn’t try to focus on what the songs were going to sound like – just wrote the best songs we could.”

Andersen’s nothing if not a seasoned traveller. He customarily plays around 200 gigs a year and he’ll sneak in another Australian visit before the year is out. 2014 has been an especially busy year for the travelling crooner and the hard work’s starting to pay off.

“It was January 7th when we first started touring,” he says. “I’ve probably had about four or five weeks off in total. It’s been a lot of travelling, a lot of new places. The size of the crowds I’m playing to [has grown], especially in Canada. The last time I played Toronto it was probably about 900 people and the show we had this time was 2,300. So I’ve seen a lot of growth and a lot more attention. It’s definitely been my biggest year to date.

“For the last ten years or so [I’ve been] playing as much as I can, travelling as much as I can and doing a lot of live shows. It’s a very grassroots way of doing it, but it’s definitely worked in my favour. I don’t have any overnight fans. All the people have been with me for years. It feels really good.”

What: Weightless out now through True North/MGM With: Frank Sultana Where: The Vanguard / The Brass Monkey When: Thursday January 8 / Friday January 9 thebrag.com

xxx

“I don’t have a lot of time to write because I’m on

the road so much,” Andersen says. “I’m writing three or four songs in a short period of time, but I find if I do that too much I kind of start to rip myself off a little bit. I start to sound too much like myself, so I wanted to avoid that.

Paul Kelly The Merri Soul Sessions By Chris Martin

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aul Kelly is sitting in his Sydney hotel room, discussing his legacy as a songwriter and musician – something he’s no doubt asked to talk about quite a lot these days.

He’s often held up as Australia’s folk rock poet, our bard for the masses, whose lyrics and melodies sum up not only everything that’s beautiful and tragic about the human condition in these parts, but also the land upon which it’s all built. Unsurprisingly, Kelly’s own view on his artistic legacy is rather more straightforward – and even more humble than you might expect.

“Those things are unmeasurable,” he says. “I don’t particularly like my music. Some people [do], but there’s other things that I like a whole lot better. I know there are people that really like my music – some do, some don’t. So it’s all out of your hands. [It’s] not even anything you can really think about or consider. The main thing I do think about is writing another song.”

Kelly’s latest collection of songs has been translated into The Merri Soul Sessions, an album completed with an all-star cast of Australian musicians like Dan Sultan, Clairy Browne and Kira Puru. The record fits snugly into Kelly’s perspective on his role as an individual in a long line of other talented artists. “Just like I’ve picked up stuff from other people and passed it on, people who like what I do will draw from it,” he says. “That’s being part of a line: pick it up and pass it on.”

In this case, Kelly stands in a line with his favourite soul artists.

Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield are the names he mentions as we discuss the decorated history of soul music. It’s a different side to Kelly – one that

fans mightn’t be familiar with, but that has emerged as naturally as ever. “Calling it soul, soul is just like giving a framework to work in,” he says. “What I end up making is kind of a mutant mongrel thing anyway.

So it’s not us trying to make a soul record, it’s just a certain sensibility; a certain way of attacking the thing.”

Two other names involved heavily in the new record are Vika and Linda Bull, the sisterly duo who’ve sung in Kelly’s backing band for years now.

It was Vika’s powerful interpretation of the iconic Kelly song ‘Sweet Guy’ in their live sets that lit the fuse on The Merri Soul Sessions.

“When I first heard the song,” says Vika, “I thought about, [sings]: ‘What makes such a sweet guy…’ And then when I actually got to sing it, it was like, ‘Oh, hell’s bells, OK’ – now I understood what I had to do to make it [work]. I suppose it got me a little bit when I understood what the song was about … I like singing it, though. I enjoy being able to give it the power and the oomph I think it needs to get the message across. I like belting it out.”

Certainly, Kelly was impressed

by Vika’s delivery. “All of us kept saying, ‘We should record that version,’ and we sort of had desk tapes, some live recordings and so on, but we wanted to go in and do it in a studio,” he says. “The initial thought was that it could be an EP. What happened also around that time – this is almost two years ago now – I had a songwriting session with Dan Sultan, and we wrote two songs in one day, and they were both songs that we thought, ‘Well that one’s a Vika song, and that one’s a Linda song,’ so we thought that right off the bat … then I started thinking of other singers, so that rolled on from there. It was a sort of snowball effect.”

Thus a new album emerged, with the help of Kelly’s backing band (including Cameron Bruce and Peter Luscombe) and some older Kelly songs that hadn’t yet found a home, like the Sultan-fronted ‘Don’t Let A Good Thing Go’. “I wasn’t quite convincing myself when I sang it,” says Kelly, “so I thought, ‘Oh, I should try someone else singing it.’ That’s often how it happens – I have a voice in mind, my voice isn’t quite the right one, so I have to go and fi nd other people to do it. That’s what this record is about: those kinds of songs that I thought other people could sing better.”

“He left me to it, pretty much,” she says. “I got the lyrics and the tune about six months before, and I just loved the imagery of it – a very visual song – and I thought, ‘That will suit me, he picked well.’”

In the end, The Merri Soul Sessions came together surprisingly quickly, with time left over on the final day of the allocated two-week period to

Kelly will, however, be front and centre with the Merri Soul Sessions band on a series of tour and festival dates this summer. All

write and record a new gospel song, ‘Hasn’t It Rained’. Not bad going in a year that was “supposed to be my year off, actually,” Kelly laughs.

The songwriter himself stepped into the background on most of the recordings, letting others do the singing – Linda Bull reports that even Kelly’s direction on album opener ‘Smells Like Rain’ was quite relaxed.

the familiar faces from the album will be along for the ride. “That was the only time we could get everyone, in January,” he says. “I think we’ve cut short a few people’s holidays to do it. But it means we get to play some festivals, play the Mona Foma in Hobart, some cool gigs; opening the Sydney Festival, things like that.”

What: The Merri Soul Sessions out now through Gawdaggie/Universal Where: Sydney Festival Parramatta Opening Party When: Friday January 9 And: Also appearing at Taronga Zoo on Thursday February 5 and Friday February 6, and Bluesfest 2015 at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6

“ F R E E W H E E L I N G , C O N T A G I O U S A N D D E L I G H T F U L”

THE GUARDIAN

W E D N E S D AY 2 2 A P R I L S T A T E T H E A T R E TT I CIKCE T MKA SET ETR S1 3 6 O1 0 N0 T I CSK EAT MLA SET E RN. C OOM .W AU

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arts frontline

free stuff

arts news...what's goin' on around town...with Chris Martin, Emily Meller and June Murtagh

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit xxx

five minutes WITH

FIVE MINUTES WITH MICHAL MALINOWSKI FROM 567 KING hub at this year’s Newtown Festival – how did that go down?

It was fantastic and it was a great way to bring three super-talented artists together and showcase what we do. I’m sure that everyone that witnessed Peque, Unique and Phibs painting was impressed and gained much inspiration. We also staged a colouring competition for the youngsters, and this proved really popular.

Graffiti art at Newtown Festival

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Have you found it hard to convince the wider community of graffiti’s value as an art form?

People in Newtown are very openminded, and there was already a rich and celebrated history of murals and aerosol art here before we arrived. Public art speaks for itself, and when it is done well it can brighten up your day and enrich our lives. When Ben Quilty, the 2011 Archibald Prize winner, gave 567 praise in the press, it brought about a new acceptance of what we do.

What kind of goodies do you specialise in?

Our biggest focus is aerosol paint.

This versatile tool has countless applications. We don’t only supply to muralists and artists, but also to designers, the film industry, tradesmen and so on. We have close to 1,000 colours available in different brands and finishes. Plus we carry a wide range of markers, water-based paints, books, clothing and accessories. Over the last few years, we’ve been venturing more and more into the sale of music resulting from our passion for hip hop and an addiction to collecting vinyl.

You put together the live artist

The Head On photography festival is calling for 2015 submissions to its prestigious art prizes, worth a total of $50,000. Emerging photographers, photojournalists and artists are given the opportunity to submit their work in one of four categories: portrait, landscape, mobile or moving image. In 2014, Head On drew over 4,000 global submissions and saw entries from both local and upcoming artists, as well as internationally renowned photographers. The 2015 winners will be announced at Head On’s opening night and

A Tennessee Williams classic will be brought to life in Sydney Theatre Company’s upcoming production. The poetic, intense and complex play Suddenly Last Summer explores the nature of enforced heteronormativity and the consequences it can have. Investigating the themes of control, identity, secrets and sexuality, this macabre work provides an opportunity for director Kip Williams to push the boundaries of theatre in an exploration of these ideas, all of which were so radical in Williams’ time. Suddenly Last Summer is the second production in Sydney Theatre Company’s 2015 season. It will play at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from Monday February 9 – Saturday March 21.

Suddenly Last Summer

Elizabeth Gilbert

exhibited throughout the festival from Friday May 1 – Sunday May 31. Submissions close on Sunday March 1. Visit headon.com.au for details.

NOEL FIELDING

One of the biggest names in UK comedy is coming to Australia. Half of the awardwinning comedy duo behind The Mighty Boosh and a team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Noel Fielding will appear on Wednesday April 22 at the State Theatre.

Mike Fielding (Naboo/Smooth) will join the fun.

MAYHEM: VALENTINE’S CABARET

Next Valentine’s Day, Saturday February 14, the Justice and Police Museum will be transformed into the infamous 1950s Ziegfeld

MARDI GRAS 2015

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The full lineup of comedians, performers, films, panels and parties has been released for the 2015 edition of the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras. Next year’s Mardi Gras will explore the theme of ‘Passion’, with visual arts, theatre, film, discussions and performances a mere few of the experiences that will be taking place in next year’s bright and spectacular event.

Highlights include the return of Queer Thinking, a day of ideas and discussion at the Seymour Centre on Saturday February 21, the famous Harbour Party with headliner Kiesza on Saturday February 28, the Sunset Cruise on Sydney Harbour on Tuesday March 3, and of course the Parade itself on Saturday March 7. The 2015 Mardi Gras will run from Friday February 20 – Sunday March 8.

Club for cabaret night Mayhem. Once the chosen hangout for Sydney’s elite and hardened criminals alike, the revived Ziegfeld Club will be offering one night of burlesque marvel, with Diesel Darling, sassy drag queen Maxi Shield and international cabaret Mother’s Ruin.

Come dressed in your finest ’50s attire as the museum revisits the days of gambling dens, swing dancing, vintage drinking etiquette and black-and-white portraits. Ticket prices include museum entry and a full program of activities, as well as a drink upon arrival and Americanstyle catering from Nightwalk Diner.

SAND SCUPTING EXHIBIT CELEBRATES DISNEY

Sand Sculpting Australia is set to launch its inaugural international sand sculpting exhibition, titled A Friend In Me. This year’s theme pays tribute to everyone’s favourite Disney/Pixar characters. A Friend In Me will feature 17 lifesized sand sculptures, as well as children’s sand sculpting workshops, sand art, a giant sandpit and an interactive Lego play zone that will be integrated among the sculptures. From Friday December 26 – Sunday December 28, visitors will have the chance to watch the artists as they work on the entrance display piece. Ten Australian and international artists will spend two weeks and over 1,500 hours creating the exhibition, showing at Bella Vista Farm Park until Monday January 26. thebrag.com

Sydney Mardi Gras photo by Hamid Mousa

Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras

We have fi ve double passes to give away to each of the two sessions of the World Short Documentary competition at 4:30pm and 6:30pm on Tuesday January 13. To go into the running, head on over to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us why you like your fi lms short.

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

There are so many highlights on the 2015 All About Women program, it would be easier to tell you who not to see. The answer would be no-one.

Based at the Sydney Opera House, All About Women traverses topics from gender in gaming culture to working at National Geographic. International speakers will include Anita Sarkeesian, who spoke out against misogyny in gaming and was later attacked as a result; Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love; Roxanne Gay, the author of Bad Feminist; and National Geographic explorer-in-residence Sylvia Earle.

Australian guests will include Annabel Crabb, writer Clementine Ford, Helen Garner, John Bell and Germaine Greer. They’ll be joined by Jane Caro, Judith Lucy, Elizabeth Farrelly, Susan Carland, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Katherine Fox and Kaz Cooke, among others. All About Women will be held on International Women’s Day, Sunday March 8. For the full program and tickets, visit sydneyoperahouse.com/aaw.

HEAD ON ENTRIES OPEN

Film fanatics, listen up: Australia’s leading short fi lm festival, Flickerfest, is returning this summer with what is set to be a stellar program. Featuring the best 100 short fi lms of the year, the festival will be running from January until May at 50 venues across Australia. The festival is now in its 24th year and is ready to celebrate a diverse range of talented fi lmmakers and actors, with the Sydney leg running from Friday January 9 – Sunday January 18 at Bondi Beach.

Suddenly Last Summer photo by James Green

ALL ABOUT WOMEN 2015

What: 567 King Where: 567 King Street, Newtown

FLICKERFEST 2015

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alk us through the history of 567 King.

567 King opened its doors in 2005. Before 567, I was running a website documenting local aerosol art. The site was set up as a uni assignment but as I had fun keeping it fresh I put more effort into it and it continued evolving. Over time, my brother helped me set up a shopping cart and the next step was to source goods from overseas that weren’t available in Australia. Once the online store got traction, the natural progression was to open up a physical shop, with the ideal location, Newtown.

How connected is the art and painting scene to the hip hop scene more generally?

A lot of people that paint also create music. This is their artistic nature, to create. In Sydney, before graffiti took off, breakdancing was the big thing. So Sydney has its graffiti roots tied closely with hip hop. At the same time, a lot of artists are into all styles of music and not just hip hop. If you dig through a hip hop head’s collection of records, you’ll find a wide variety of stuff. But we love our hip hop!

Timber!

“With my sister we grew up in the middle of the woods at my parents’ place in Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez – a really small village where the tradition of Québec folk music is still really alive. The music is very important. We have three live musicians onstage with us.”

In regards to the thematic nature of the shows, Carabinier-Lépine says, “It was a good subject to transform into circus – to play with the dangerous instruments that they were using. In a way, doing circus is dangerous like the work they were doing in the woods.”

He also stresses the importance of family and tradition for Cirque Alfonse. “It felt like it’s a good part of our history to keep alive for the newest generation that never experiences that kind of life [and] how hard that life was.”

Timber!

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hey cut down trees, they skip and jump, but they don’t press wildflowers. They also don’t put on women’s clothing, but perhaps they hang around in bars.

Now that the obligatory Monty Python reference is out of the way, we can introduce Cirque Alfonse – the wood-chopping, whip-cracking and log-throwing circus family that’s sawing its way onto the Riverside Parramatta stage as part of next

year’s Sydney Festival. We caught up with Antoine Carabinier-Lépine to chat about the show, Timber!, and how his family became an axewielding circus troupe.

Hailing from a rural village over an hour out of Montreal, CarabinierLépine’s family has a past steeped in tradition and folklore. At its centre is the deep-seeded farming heritage that provided inspiration for

Cirque Alfonse, which injects music, dancing, storytelling and even cooking into its shows.

“The show is a tribute to our lumberjacks, back in the day when they were going in the camp during the long winters,” says CarabinierLépine. “We tried to transform the lumberjack skills into circus, and it’s why we juggle with axes, jump over big saws, log rolling, et cetera.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Cirque Alfonse family is that the troupe was created by Antoine’s father, Alain, when he was 66 years old.

The performers even rehearsed their first show in the woods of their family home. Now, three generations of the family are involved in the shows.

“He always wanted to be onstage his entire life, and he never got the chance for that,” says CarabinierLépine. “My parents have been really supportive for us and it felt just normal to give him that chance.

“It’s really something special to tour with your family. Normally you are on tour with co-workers and friends. It’s something different with the family but it’s a wonderful adventure that we are so lucky to live.”

xxx photo by xxx

[CIRCUS] The Family Business By Tegan Jones

Cirque Alfonse is a celebration of traditional Québécois heritage – which has made the shows’ immense popularity surprising. “[The first] show was created to be performed in smaller cities in Québec,” says Carabinier-Lépine. “It’s really about our roots and tradition. We never thought to play it worldwide! And here we are after three years of touring in 14 countries.”

The real question is, with so many saws and knives flying around, is there any genuine danger? “Without danger there is no circus for us. It’s part of the show. We had one thing that we kept in mind during the creation and it was, ‘We don’t cheat.’

So the show is completely real – everything we use is without magic or tricks. It’s part of the fun, yes, but we are still stressed during every show, because we have had some injuries, unfortunately. But the show must go on!”

What: Timber! as part of Sydney Festival 2015 Where: Riverside Theatres When: Friday January 9 – Sunday January 18

Eddie Izzard [COMEDY] Working With Legends By Adam Norris

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Eddie Izzard photo by Amanda Searle

“It was unbelievable,” Izzard says.

Those familiar with his stand-up material are well-acquainted with the rapid monologues that characterise his sets; the bemused commentary on his own material, the characters that wander in and out like strangers lost in a hotel lobby. “I was in the blackmail sketch, where Mike Palin is hosting.

They bring us on with a bag over your head, and Palin says, ‘You’ve been blackmailed!’ But it wasn’t perfectly thought out, you see. You had to just come up with on the spot some reason why somebody would be blackmailing you. But I’d had time to figure out my response, so I said, ‘People have been accusing me of wearing men’s underwear, and it isn’t true!’ That seemed to work. And then, as Eric Idle was pulling me away, I said, ‘Wait, wait, I’ve got another joke!’ “‘What?’ said Eric, ‘You want to say something else?’ “‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I never wanted to be a transvestite. I always wanted to be… a lumberjack!’ It was wonderful, it was very odd, and may well never happen again.”

Izzard these days is quite removed from the 17-year-old refining his comedy in order to impress girls during A-level chemistry classes.

He has been touring the world thebrag.com

since 1996, after his show Defi nite Article found great success in the US. 19 years later, Force Majeure is set to arrive at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt in January, and brings with it insights into comedy the multilingual Izzard is in a unique position to relate.

“What I have found is that there is no national sense of humour. No Australian sense of humour, no British or American sense of humour, no German sense of humour – well, of course there’s no German sense of humour,” he concedes. “But there is a mainstream sense of humour in every country, and then there’s a more alternative sense of humour, which is more Python, more like what I do, and that exists all around the world and seems to link up better. The laughs I get when I perform in Russian in Moscow, in German in Berlin, French in Paris, English in Sydney, they all laugh at the same points.”

xxx photo by xxxx

hey say not to meet your idols. Realistically, the chances of that ever actually happening tend to be slim (hence why Christopher Walken is yet to return my emails). But the opportunity to feature alongside your childhood heroes is something rarer still. David Tennant managed the feat by piloting the TARDIS. Harry Potter fanatic Evanna Lynch was cast as Luna Lovegood. And Eddie Izzard – one of the most outstanding and idiosyncratic performers-at-large in the world – was invited to step onstage with comedy’s messianic Holy Grail (and with such beautiful plumage), Monty Python.

That everyday surrealism remains a constant in Izzard’s sensibilities.

The complexities of his act may have grown – they’re more layered, as he describes it, than one of his earliest jokes: “I went fly fishing the other day. I caught three flies” – but absurdity is never far away.

“People used to say, ‘Oh, your comedy is very gentle.’ And I thought, ‘Gentle? God, that doesn’t sound very good.’ So Force Majeure starts with human sacrifice. That seems to avoid the gentle. Whoever thought that killing someone and offering them to a god was a good idea? The gods created everything on Earth, apparently, and if you believe in them, why in the hell would you start killing people? Why be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to kill Jim, because God would love that.’

What? That’s insane! I think that’s where the first fascist guy stepped up. People were wondering, ‘Who should we kill?’ and one guy was like, ‘Let’s kill Jim. I get to choose, because I’ve got a big hat on.’”

Eddie Izzard Izzard was close to the late Robin Williams, who gave the young comedian his first real break in the US. There is a myth surrounding comedians that has endured so long now that one starts to doubt it is a myth at all – that comedy develops as a survival mechanism; one becomes the tragic clown for fear the girls won’t like you and the boys will beat you up.

“I do think there’s truth in that,” Izzard pauses, and sighs before continuing. “Some people will develop comedy to try and become popular. I definitely did. I wasn’t

playing football or soccer, so I used comedy deliberately for that reason.

Even Churchill had his ‘black dogs’, but he lived until 90 because he kept powering through. And Robin decided it was just getting too dark.

It was tragic. I had no idea. I don’t think it’s necessarily the tragic clown, I just think it’s … some people have some very dark thoughts, and some of those people end up as comedians.

“But it’s the same everywhere. The tears of a soldier, tears of a politician, tears of a clown. It’s just more dramatic when it’s a comedian

because they seem to be having so much fun when they’re onstage, they’re so happy. And with someone like Robin you think, ‘God, if only you could just go back onstage and keep living in that fun time,’ you know? But it just doesn’t seem to work that way. It’s the cards you get given at birth, and how you end up playing them in life.”

What: Force Majeure Where: Forecourt, Sydney Opera House When: Wednesday January 28

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Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and bareboards around town

Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner

The Imitation Game

The Age Of Entitlement

■ Film

■ Theatre

THE IMITATION GAME

THE AGE OF ENTITLEMENT

In cinemas Thursday January 1 When they announce the Oscar nominees in January next year, you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll see The Imitation Game on the list. Indeed, as a worthy historical drama about a brilliant but troubled mathematician who helped turn the tide of WWII only to be persecuted on account of his homosexuality, you could probably make the argument that it’s one of the most Oscar-baity movies ever made.

In the case of The Imitation Game, the genius in question is Alan Turing, who at the outset of WWII is recruited by MI6 to help crack Nazi code. An eccentric personality, Turing initially draws the ire of his colleagues, but slowly proves himself an essential part of the unit. Modern estimations suggest that the work done by Turing and his colleagues, played here by the likes of Matthew Goode and Keira Knightley, likely reduced the length of the war by years.

As with Mongrel Mouth’s debut production, The Silence Came, The Age Of Entitlement is set in a multi-storeyed house, and you are encouraged to wander at will between the rooms and the storylines. You can go up to the ballroom and press the flesh with political figures and investors, or take part in a protest downstairs. You might even be asked to read poetry at a sit-in. There’s nothing more alarming, or exhilarating, than an actor stopping mid-argument and turning to you for affirmation, and this dissolution of the fourth wall is what makes Mongrel Mouth’s productions so great.

The Age Of Entitlement is notably darker than The Silence Came, and as soon as you walk through the door you’re confronted by the maudlin, slightly off-kilter costuming and make-up that set the scene for the undercurrents of unease that run through the storyline. At times it’s violent, terrifying, even disgusting, and there’s nowhere to turn away from it.

The experience forces you to weigh money and power against passion and integrity.

What is worth sacrificing, and what is worth fighting for? Is it really necessary to compromise our beliefs for the greater good? Although it’s set in a weirdly indefinable time period, there are echoes of our current struggle with an economic system that seems based around the greed of a few at the cost of the many.

Obviousness of the casting aside, Cumberbatch is extraordinarily good in this film, bringing an emotional depth to the role of Turing that in lesser hands might have been smothered by self-conscious tics.

His performance elevates the film above standard biopic fare, and is reason enough to buy a ticket.

The best thing about immersive theatre is that no-one has the same experience. Stand back-to-back with someone and you’ll see vastly different plays. As a result, by the end, everyone has different answers to the questions. In the final scene, as the audience is forced to make some hard decisions, the commentary on our role in the greater picture becomes uncomfortably clear.

Tom Clift

Hannah Warren

MR. TURNER In cinemas Friday December 26 J.M.W. Turner looms large in the canon of great English painters. The Tate’s esteemed Turner Prize, awarded annually, was named for him; he is credited with elevating the status of the landscape genre of painting at a time when narrative-style compositions dominated; and he is commonly credited with paving the way for the French Impressionists, with Claude Monet among those who studied his work.

Writer and director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky) recognised in Turner a “radical, revolutionary painter” and as such saw scope for making a film examining his extraordinary and often ethereal work, alongside their mortal, imperfect and very human creator.

Mr. Turner begins in 1826 with the 51-yearold artist’s notoriety steadily building. Turner (Timothy Spall) is working from his London studio where he lives with his elderly father/ studio assistant (Paul Jesson) and housekeeper (Dorothy Atkinson). Immediately the artist is portrayed as a flawed individual, particularly in

an early scene where he denies responsibility for children who are clearly his. We watch as the artist travels, paints and whores his way around London until the death of his father. This turning point sees him fall into a depressive phase but also leads to his seemingly loving relationship with a widowed landlady (Marion Bailey).

While the plot is somewhat benign, its Leigh’s script that proves the hero here. Turner lived in a time when manners and tradition were paramount, something that so often dilutes the meaning of events for modern audiences.

Nonetheless, Leigh manages to navigate these societal conventions without losing valuable meaning. Similarly, Spall’s vast repertoire of grunts and surly looks gives a humanity to Turner that historical characters so often lack, a performance which was recognised in his Best Actor gong at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Nonetheless, at two-and-a-half hours and with limited real action, this film caters more for those already interested in Turner’s work and life, as it tends to labour as a standalone narrative.

Lee Hutchison

Music Giveaway What's been on our TV screens this week Head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

BLUE KING BROWN!

S AY W EA IV G

Making his English-language debut, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) keeps things moving at a lively pace, the film’s inherently compelling subject matter helping to make up for the predictable manner in which it unfolds. Flashbacks to Turing’s tortured childhood at boarding school make clear the adversity he faced his entire life, but scenes set after the war skirt around the worst of Turing’s fate.

■ Film

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

NEW ALBUM + LAUNCH GIG TIX!

Taking It All Away: MCA Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Thursday December 18 – Sunday February 22

oots/reggae stars and regular festival favourites Blue King Brown have released their new album, Born Free, after two years of work – and it’s a return to the top of their game. Pursuing their patented socially conscious lyricism, frontwoman Nattali Rize and co. move in new musical directions on the record. Born Free features collaborations with Jamaican legends The Congos and Jesse Royal as well as Katchafire’s Logan Bell, and was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer James ‘Bonzai’ Caruso.

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A number of items from the Museum of Contemporary Art Collection are being drawn together in an exhibition that explores the ideas of erasure, abstraction and the impact that art can have on society. Inspired by early 20th century Russian art movements, the exhibition puts a radical spin on contemporary art, causing viewers to question the nature of time, creativity and society through the works.

Taking It All Away is a fascinating and investigative experience, free with entry to the museum.

For more information, visit mca.com.au.

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WIN!

Blue King Brown will bring their live show to the Metro Theatre on Friday January 16, and we’ve got three prize packs to give away, including a double pass to the show and two copies of Born Free – one for you and one for a friend. To be in the running, head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us why you like your music to have a message.

Untitled (Clock) by Stuart Ringholt

thebrag.com

The Age Of Entitlement photo by Duncan Maurice

That’s not to say the film is bad, necessarily. As a matter of fact, it’s actually quite good, if very, very conventional. Even the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch seems like the safest choice possible – the man who made a name for himself as this generation’s quintessential Sherlock Holmes could play a socially oblivious genius in his sleep.

Playing at Merchants House until Saturday December 20 You cannot consume The Age Of Entitlement passively. It quite literally grabs you by the hand and pulls you into the action – which could be either a party or a protest, depending on which floor you’re on.

xmas gift guide

2.

The gift: Timezone Powercard

It suits: Any serious gamer, social butterfly or competitor. Whether you are a serious gamer playing Maximum Tune 4 and want to mod your car to the max to compete in our national tournaments, a family who wants to play head-to-head against each other and see who can collect the most tickets or be the master at air hockey, all of our locations ensure we cater to your needs.

The store: 567 King

What’s in Santa’s sack? The new book from SEEN, They Call Me The Godfather Of Graffiti, just landed and is a hot item right now! Books always make great presents, and this is one of those books that will be hard to disappoint with.

Price: $68 Available: 567 King Street, Newtown, or from our online store.

Website: 567king.com

Price: $20, $30 or $50 Available: timezone.com.au

THE BRAG’S XMAS

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The catalogue: Our biggest seller is always our great range of spray paint. Reds, greens and whites get popular with people doing Christmas-themed pieces at this time of the year. Our graffiti books, marker sets, clothes and vinyl records also sell well at this time of the year.

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1.

It’ll be the present of the year because: They’ve got 12 months to use it in any Timezone location in Australia! Our stores have had a lot of great games and attractions added this year. Some highlights are the addition of our Typhoon motion simulators and many new-release ticket games and Skilltesters.

GIFT GUIDE It’s always a struggle to choose the perfect gift come Christmas – let alone beat the crowds to buy it. We asked some Sydney hotspots to tell us about what they’re filling their stockings with, so you can too.

4.

The gift: Party In The Park Tickets

It suits: Music fans in Sydney, and especially North Sydney, who’ve been starved for a great live music concert event in their own backyard. A pair of Party In The Park tickets for Christmas – now that’d go down well.

It’ll be the present of the year because: The lineup includes Aussie festival favourites The Cat Empire and The Jezabels, headlining a stage alongside North Sydney Oval’s famous fig tree. Joining them are The Paper Kites, Husky and Sons Of The East.

And don’t forget the swills by 4 Pines.

Price: First release tickets $84.70

3.

The gift: Risque Revue Gift Voucher

Available: partyinthepark.com.au

It suits: Foodies and entertainment lovers.

It’ll be the present of the year because: A striking cabaret of the highest European standard, Risque Revue is Sydney’s number one burlesque. Lose yourself in a night of Parisian glamour, with a decadent three-course French menu and incredible neo-burlesque. Be spoilt with full table service for beverages at your own private dining table, and captivated by the international cast performing a variety of aerial skills, ballet, live vocals, sensational group dance numbers and more! Perfect for couples, as well as large parties.

Price: Tickets are $89 per person, which includes three-course menu, private dining table, table service for beverages and full show.

Available: Book online – slide.com.au/ risquerevue – or call (02) 8915 1899

attention advertisers Our next issue is our last issue of 2014, and it hits the streets Wednesday December 24.

We’ll be back in the office on January 7, with our first issue of 2014 out on January 14 – so make sure you book all your New Year’s Eve and holiday season ads into next week’s issue!

Please send all artwork, gig guide listings and press releases to cover from Christmas Eve January 14 before 5pm on Friday December 19. thebrag.com

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Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK THE BASICS

The Basics rile on “tax free bed[s] of gold”, racism and turning back the boats.

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The Lucky Country Origin/MGM

By the time I was listening to Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett’s earnest political criticism had given way to an inevitably hypocritical career in politics. But listening to The Basics, who are back after a threeyear hiatus, there is a sense of what it might have been like in Garrett’s heyday.

T-PAIN Happy Hour: The Greatest Hits Sony It was only a matter of weeks ago that Faheem Rasheed Najm – better known as T-Pain – shocked an unsuspecting audience at NPR by performing without his infamous Auto-Tune at a Tiny Desk Concert.

More than that, he sounded good.

Damn good.

Not only did it give listeners a chance to hear the voice behind the mountainous production, it also came in close proximity to the release of Happy Hour, his first greatest hits compilation. This gave us a chance to reconsider and revisit the work of a man who was, if only for a time, one of the most hated men in music. An immediate realisation follows: all the time we spent bemoaning the alleged death of quote-unquote ‘real’ music, we could have spent having fun with tracks like ‘Freeze’, ‘Buy U A Drank’ and Jamie Foxx collab ‘Blame It’.

It’s shiny, unabashedly commercial and often ludicrous – there’s a song called ‘I’m ’N Luv (Wit A Stripper)’, for God’s sake. What’s revealed, however, is how dedicated T-Pain has been to the format, and how he still manages to make it work in his favour. Points off for shunning the anthemic ‘Take Your Shirt Off’, though.

David James Young

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS Monuments To An Elegy BMG/Cooking Vinyl “I will bang this drum to my dying day,” sings Billy Corgan on The Smashing Pumpkins’ latest album, Monuments To An Elegy. With Monuments marking the band’s ninth studio album, released years after the departure of all the other original members, few would doubt Corgan’s persistence by this point in time.

Like many of the Pumpkins’ more recent ventures, none of the songs on Monuments pack quite the same punch as their ’90s favourites. The opening number, ‘Tiberius’, comes close, with its grinding guitars and drums. ‘One And All’, another guitarheavy track, is also memorable, as is the final song, ‘Anti-Hero’.

Unfortunately, a large majority of the tracks on the album are fairly repetitive and easily forgotten.

Corgan’s lyrics are far less poetic these days and generally just feature a couple of main lines sung over and over.

A new Smashing Pumpkins album in 2014 may seem irrelevant and redundant to many fans, with many giving up hope for this band years ago.

Monuments does offer a couple of decent tracks, but regardless of what fans, critics, fellow band members or anyone else thinks, Corgan will continue to beat this drum for as long as he deems fit.

Kelsey Berry

Like most political parties I want to believe in, it seems The Basics don’t provide a solution to their criticisms. But then, maybe that’s the difference between politics and art – dirty deals versus dirty riffs.

Emily Meller

EYRETON HALL

ORSOME WELLES

OLMEG

Featherstitch Independent/Bandcamp

Erth News Bulletin Independent

Primordial Soup Independent/Bandcamp

The first thing you’ll notice about Eyreton Hall is frontwoman Toni Randle’s angelic voice. The duo from New Zealand commence their debut album with a track entitled ‘Bellbird’, which begins with a simple acoustic riff and Randle’s sweet vocals, and then intensifies with a Fleet Foxesesque full band crescendo.

This Melbourne-based progressive/ alternative rock act has certainly got its own thing going on. When you think of that genre, the powerful but dulcet tones of bands such as Karnivool and Dead Letter Circus come to mind. While Orsome Welles would be far from out of place playing alongside those bands on the same bill, they’d stand out at the same time.

Olmeg are one of Melbourne’s most-prized heavy, psychedelic stoner rock bands. It’s a very particular genre with a very particular following. To have a fan base as large as this, you need to do it well – which is a testament to Olmeg’s career, since they formed in 2011 and this is only their second album.

The title track ‘Featherstitch’ opens in a similar vein, this time with Randle’s vocals against a simple piano, and undulates beautifully when the band kicks in, with harmonies and a violin making a welcome appearance.

Lyrics throughout this record are deep and heartfelt, showcasing the band’s maturity when it comes to songwriting. ‘The Marriage’ is rather heartbreaking, bittersweet and reflective, featuring lyrics like, “And sometimes you hold my hand when my doubt is crushing explicit,” and bursts of clarinet in the background.

The standout track, however, is ‘Salt And Sixpence’; soulful, honest and soothing. The album closes with ‘And So It Goes’ (there’s that clarinet again) – a gorgeous and dramatically simple love ballad without the sap.

While Eyreton Hall don’t really offer anything new in the genre of folk-pop, you can forgive them easily, as this debut shows great promise. It’s beautifully recorded, richly layered and overall a very enjoyable listen.

Angelica Houston

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Cam Ewart is one hell of a storyteller.

Frontman of alt-country group Ghost Towns Of The Midwest, Ewart spends the bulk of the band’s debut EP spinning tales of death, debauchery and destruction. And yet, like Wagons (for instance), the darkness of the lyrics doesn’t for a second detract from the rollicking good time Ewart and his bandmates are having as they cruise the whiskydrenched saloon bar backdrops of their songs.

GHOST TOWNS OF THE MIDWEST Field Recordings Of...

Independent

20 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

Clocking in at just 27 minutes, Field Recordings Of... is the perfect introduction to the band. There’s a taste of everything, from the singalong alt-country stomp of ‘Gallow Birds’, to the down-and-out rock’n’roll blast of ‘Round The Bend’, to the toetapping narrative sweep of ‘Judas’

xxx

Delivered in their distinctive style, The Basics offer politics worth believing in.

The Oils’ influence is overt in opener ‘The Lucky Country’, almost to the point of parody. With lyrics like “Tony’s gonna buy you a brand new car,” it’s hard to know how seriously to take it. But they mount more serious criticisms – in a blistering three minutes

‘Tunaomba Saidia’ is a radical change of pace in the form of a Nigerian-influenced protest-style song. Its bohemian melody is beautiful in its own right, tightly constructed while giving off an air of effortlessness (Wally de Backer AKA Gotye’s influence is clear).

The lyrics are strongly narrative, and powerful if you can suspend your disbelief.

(in which, with a melody that recalls Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Rake’, Ewart takes the biblical figures of Jesus and Judas and sits them in a minibus on tour as a band).

Picking a highlight is difficult given the quality of all six songs. If pressed, however, it’s the closer ‘Car Crash’ that seems to linger the most. It certainly carries the most weight in the collection. Putting aside his drunken-storyteller shtick for a moment, Ewart lays his heart on the line in a poignant ballad that uses the image of a wayward car as a metaphor for a life gone out of control.

Their sound is just a touch more raw.

The guitar sounds, especially, are more real and less heavily produced; some of the riffs are actually quite bluesy at times as well, which adds to this vibe. Some may say this is simply the production, which admittedly isn’t as polished as it could be. However, the intention with this release is obviously to get something out there for Orsome Welles while they work on their debut album.

Ultimately, it’s the quality of songs that matters most, and these guys’ tunes show great promise: groovy, catchy, and progressive without being too obscure or experimental, and with a great feel for dynamics and variation. Some of the tracks on offer here stray almost into thrash metal territory (‘Want You To Know’), while others are quieter and considered (‘Not Me’).

These guys show enormous potential – bring on a full-lengther.

Rod Whitfield

‘Trans-Dimensional’ fades in with a fuzzy amp effect before kicking off an epic blues riff that’s much more melodic than expected. This is a good start for anyone who’s only dipping their toes into the genre.

Matt Dawkins’ raw vocals come to life with ‘Megalomaniac’, which at over eight minutes long has time to switch between at least five or six tempo changes. The instrumentals of ‘Nest’ are gentle, before launching into a heavy interlude, and then switching back and forth between melody and chaos.

At almost ten minutes in length, ‘Told You So’ paints a sweeping desert backdrop, putting various instrumental and amp effects to good use. The album ends with ‘Mettle’ and ‘Behind Disguise’, the latter a 13-minute opus that leaves you both exhausted and satisfied.

Primordial Soup is an impressive exploration of the genre, but you know the best from Olmeg is yet to come.

Chris Bright

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

THE DELTA RIGGS - Dipz Zebazios DAMON ALBARN - Everyday Robots PAUL KELLY - The Merri Soul Sessions

PINK FLOYD - The Wall PAPA VS PRETTY - White Deer Park

It’s a very promising debut indeed.

Wayne Marshall thebrag.com

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 21

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live reviews

up all night out all week . . .

What we've been out to see...

UB40 FT. ALI CAMPBELL, ASTRO & MICKEY VIRTUE Enmore Theatre Tuesday December 9

Many see UB40 as the giants of the ’80s that were the gateway drug for many sensible folk into the world of reggae. But beyond their 30-plus years of commercial success is a band with political and social stripes, and their set was a great homage to both nostalgic hits and social chutzpah.

Having gone through a litany of lineup chops and changes over the years, we were lucky enough to have two original members (arguably the cornerstones of the band) grace the stage. The iconic vocalists Astro (rapper and toaster) and Ali Campbell (lead singer) strode out looking every bit my dad’s age but performing with the gusto of an 18-year-old on his first night at schoolies.

Flanked by a horn section, two keyboardists, a backing vocalist and a many-limbed percussionist/drummer, the recreation of their big-crowd sound was

impeccable. Opening with an instrumental number before getting into some cuts from their most recent (18th!) studio album, they were warming up both the crowd and themselves. They delved into some impassioned tracks from 2005’s political Who You Fighting For?, and once their 1983 ditty ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ landed, the diverse, energetic crowd was well and truly ready.

Astro showed off the toasting chops have inspired the likes of Shaggy, Sean Paul and Shabba Ranks in latter years, highlighted with the frenetic ‘Rat In Mi Kitchen’. They brought out the lighters in the air with ‘Would I Lie To You’ and their cover of Elvis’ ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’.

They blitzed us in the encore with the saucy, reggae-tinged ‘Food For Thought’, and then many a glass of chardonnay was euphorically thrown around the Enmore when their biggest tune ‘Red Red Wine’ swam through the theatre. And like a fine red, red wine, this incarnation of UB40 just seems to be getting better with age.

Raf Seneviratne PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

NICK CAVE

encores, here it’s dropped unassumingly into the middle of the set for purposes of contrast.

Earlier this year, during the Sydney Film Festival, the State Theatre hosted the premiere screening of 20,000 Days On Earth, a vivid and stylised biopic about a day in the life of Nick Cave. Fittingly enough, the artist himself is at the famous venue for a three-night run of solo shows to end the year, and though the theatre is some 85 years old, it could have been designed just for him. It’s got the same combination of awesome power and terrifying presence as our venerable prince of darkness, whose shadow is cast enormous along the theatre walls like a silhouetted Lucifer as he delivers tonight’s sermon.

The centrepieces of Cave’s recent setlists have been the selections from the 2013 Bad Seeds album Push The Sky Away, and indeed tonight it’s ‘Higgs Boson Blues’ that’s most jaw-droppingly brilliant, as Cave riles and writhes over a rolling adagio groove. Likewise, the band utterly nails the hastening swell behind ‘Jubilee Street’ (certified masters of volume and structure, now Cave and co. conquer tempo). ‘Push The Sky Away’ is the obvious choice to close, and the theatre exhales as Cave disappears once again into the night.

State Theatre Friday December 12

Chris Martin

Joining Cave this eve are some familiar faces in his backing band, led by the inimitable Warren Ellis. It’s ostensibly a seated gig, but even before Ellis pulls back his mallet to strike the opening bell of ‘Red Right Hand’ – third on tonight’s setlist – the crowd standing at the front of the stalls has swelled.

The fact it’s billed as a Nick Cave solo show means that, while the band is by no means shafted out of the spotlight, Cave can alternate the delicate piano balladry of songs like ‘Nobody’s Baby Now’ and ‘The Ship Song’ with the staccato menace of ‘From Her To Eternity’. Cave and his various collaborators’ stunning dynamic control has always been a defining factor in their live performances; while any self-respecting arena rock star would save an anthem like ‘Into My Arms’ for a crowd-pleasing sing-along during

“Hit the road, Daddy, leave your common-law wife. Spread the religion of The Rhythm Of Life.” - SWEET CHARITY 22 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

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Venue 505 Saturday December 13

At the tail end of Jack Carty’s nationwide tour promoting his third album, Esk, and 505, the dimly lit jazz club on Cleveland Street, was a fitting space for the singersongwriter’s intimate folk tunes. Carty came onto the scene in 2010 with his debut EP, Wine & Consequence. His third album is a continuation of the smooth folk-pop and heartfelt lyricism he has become known for. He’s also big on collaboration, with some of the songs on Esk co-written by Josh Pyke and featuring Katie Noonan. The collaborative spirit is similarly present in Carty’s live show, which feels like a loosely organised get-together of friends and musical collaborators.

New Zealand singer-songwriter Luke Thompson opened the night with a rhythmic set full of intricate finger-picking and plenty of good humour. Two of the five members of the Melbourne band Playwrite

performed an emotive set to follow, pushing vocal limits and exploring the new terrain that comes with a more paredback sound. 505 is a space that seems to magnify sonic detail and certainly does justice to subtle songwriting. Aside from the occasional interruption of a cocktail shaker, you could hear a pin drop.

As Jack Carty took to the stage, moving between piano and guitar, he launched into some of his catchier numbers before taking on more of a lullaby approach. On the whole, Carty’s music is a soothing kind of melancholy, beautifully crafted and lyrically thoughtful. The set culminated in a melodic sing-along of ‘If I Am A Candle, You Are A Spark’. Later, Carty was joined onstage by Thompson for a fantastic acoustic cover of ‘Blood’ by the now-dissolved Australian band, The Middle East. Strong on the collaboration front, this tight trio of performers offered up a night of captivating harmonies and powerful lyricism.

Annie Murney

PHOSPHORESCENT, ALI BARTER

Houck’s voice cracked and soared, before the band closed its main set with the all-in ‘Ride On / Right On’.

Ali Barter’s mesmerising voice drew the growing crowd closer to the front as the main room of the Oxford Art Factory gradually filled for tonight’s show. ‘At Sea’ saw her swap the guitar for keys, and final song ‘Community’ was a slyly sultry affair.

Houck returned for a solo encore that began with ‘Wolves’, an “older song from a while back” that saw his vocals descending into echoing, howling loops and sent the audience into a hushed awe. In keeping with the back-catalogue theme, Houck then led the crowd in a sing-along to ‘When We Fall’ (“It’s pretty obvious what’s required here, and you can’t fuck it up, I promise!”).

Oxford Art Factory Sunday December 14

Phosphorescent took the stage to their latest album Muchacho’s opener ‘Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction)’, and the tone was that of a trucker troubadour mixed with Americana-infused rock. Matthew Houck and his band oozed swagger, but it was tinged with the vulnerability of the tales of love and losing it that he has spun for over a decade.

‘Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)’ featured mournful slide guitar and one of the many instrumental interludes that showcased each of the players’ individual talents, while still blending with the natural awareness that comes from constantly performing together for so long. For the atmospheric version of ‘Song For Zula’,

CLOUD NOTHINGS Oxford Art Factory Wednesday December 10

It’s Cloud Nothings’ first time touring Australia with material from Here And Nowhere Else, an album they’ve described as noisier and more complex than anything else they’ve done. Live, it’s impressive just how much noise the trio can make, without losing a single riff or beat in a mess of sound.

While it’s always been Dylan Baldi’s band, Cloud Nothings’ recent shift in lineup has had a profound impact on turning up the intensity. From the opener ‘Now Hear In’ it’s clear that adding Jayson Gerycz on drums has allowed Cloud Nothings to stray away from scuzzy riffs in a favour of cleaner, bolder rhythms. It barely needs to be translated live – just like on record, the

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JACK CARTY, PLAYWRITE, LUKE THOMPSON

up all night out all week . . .

14:12:14 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney

Next, the band returned for a rollicking version of ‘Los Angeles’. Before the last song, Houck took the time to thank everyone, announcing that after two years of touring, “this was going to be [their] last show for quite a while”.

Watching from the crowd, The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel was also impressed, talking effects pedals and Telecasters with Phosphorescent’s guitarist after the show. It was a great set, and Houck and his band teased out new shades from both old and more recent material in a fascinating way.

Natalie Amat

drums are level with Baldi’s vocals. They’re about as close to melodic as you can get.

Then there’s Baldi’s guitar, taking on some of the rhythm work in frenzied riff after riff. ‘Patter Walks’ nails the switch from the thumping bass opening to the rhythm guitar reverb, letting everything build and dip over a massive seven minutes.

Material from Attack On Memory has a noticeably different dynamic, but ‘Fall In’ and ‘Stay Useless’ are still highlights, and a relief from the mind-bending (and finger-destroying) guitar work of newer songs. The band’s extended jam on ‘I’m Not Part Of Me’ is an impressive show of Baldi’s tightened guitar skills, and if tonight is anything to go by, their energy is only going to catapult them further.

Emily Meller

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 23

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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week Dead Letter Circus

FRIDAY DECEMBER 19

Metro Theatre

Dead Letter Circus + Sleepmakeswaves + Voyager 8pm. $38.90.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17

Yeshe & The Groove Wizards Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $10.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney.

9pm. free.

Apes Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.

Carl Stewart Band + July Morning + Venus Alkatraz + Brumby + Volky Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Fat Bubba’s Chicken Wednesdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

5pm. free.

Gemma Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

7:30pm. free.

Mandi Jarry Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill.

7pm. free.

Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. free.

Spookyland Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8:30pm. free.

The Basics + Gun Ball Straights Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $30.

Ty Segall Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $48.10.

Victoria Avenue Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

6:30pm. free.

ACO Underground Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $40.

Jesse Winey Trio + Dried Spider + Nika Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm. free.

Lionel Cole Imperial Hotel, Paddington.

8pm. free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 18 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Brian King & Jody Yates Greg Hayes Chatswood RSL, Chatswood.

12pm. free.

Craig Woodward Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Glen Esmond Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction.

6:30pm. free.

Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

7pm. free.

The Button Collective The Wild Rover, Surry Hills.

7pm. free.

The Lazys

Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

9pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Big Swing Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

A Team Duo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 9pm. free.

Alex Hopkins Open Mic Night Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 8:30pm. free.

Beau Smith Pioneer Tavern, Penrith.

12pm. free.

Black Diamond Hearts Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

10pm. free.

Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

7:30pm. free.

Cath & Him Pendle Inn, Pendle Hill.

7:30pm. free.

Dave White Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney.

9:30pm. free.

Dee Donavan Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free.

Dot Copper Penrith RSL, Penrith. 1am. free.

Drew Panthers, Penrith. 6:30pm. free.

Grooveworks

Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free.

Jamie Lindsay Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill.

7pm. free.

Joe Echo Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. free.

Kaleidoscope Lo-fi, Darlinghurst. 5pm. free.

Lime Cordiale + Kid Zeus Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly.

9pm. free.

Liz Taylor Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free.

Mandi Jarry Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free.

Matt Jones Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 8pm. free.

Nicky Kurta Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free.

Roland Storm Penrith RSL, Penrith. 11am. free.

Stephen Fisher King Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free.

The Cairos + March Of The Real Fly + Smaal Cats Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $20.

The Double Shadows The Robin Hood Hotel, Waverly. 7pm. free.

The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

5pm. free.

The Togethering + Trash Jacket + Lorias James + Alexis + Flaccid Mohawk + Peter Burke + Michael Crane + Mitch Perry Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Ty Segall Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $48.10.

Waax Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. free.

World’s End Press Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

8pm. free.

Inner City Blues - feat: PJ O’Brien Band + Ali Penney And The Money Makers + Laura Zarb Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $20.

Nathan Cole Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm. free.

Sam Newton Kareela Golf Club, Kareela.

6:30pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Fat Yahooza + Edema Ruh + Azadota + Angry Little Gods Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15.

Jazz Hip Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo.

11:30pm. $5.

Soulganic Duo Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS 2thorns Windsor Leagues Club, Windsor South. 8pm. free.

8 Ball Aitken Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 8:30pm. free.

A Very Cuthbert Xmas Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 7:30pm. free.

Alex Hopkins Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free.

Big Way Out Bankstown Sports Club, Bankstown. 6pm. free.

Black Diamond Hearts Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free.

Brad Johns Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 6pm. free.

Clayton Vetter The Grand Hotel, Rockdale. 5:30pm. free.

David Agius Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

9pm. free.

Dead Letter Circus + Sleepmakeswaves + Voyager Metro Theatre, Sydney.

8pm. $38.90.

DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free.

DJ SS + Grooverider Hermann’s Bar, Sydney.

8pm. $35.

Double Jeopardy Duo Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park. 7pm. free.

Drew The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm. free.

Evie Dean Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

4:30pm. free.

Fun House Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

7:30pm. free.

Gay Paris Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Gold Class + Mere Women And Wives Black Wire Records, Annandale. 8pm. $12.

Halycon Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free.

Harbour Masters Duo Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee.

12am. free.

Jamie Lindsay Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 3:45pm. free.

Jamie Lindsay Duo Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill.

8pm. free.

Jess Dunbar Duo Emu Sports Club, Leonay.

7:30pm. free.

Jimmy Bear Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

8:30pm. free.

Joe Echo PJ Gallagher’s Whisky Bar, Jacksons On George, Sydney. 5:30pm. free.

Joe Echo Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt.

10pm. free.

Jonathan Jones Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. free.

Kurt Williams Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. free.

Leon Fallon Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free.

Live Music At The Royal The Royal, Leichhardt.

9:30pm. free.

Lucky 13 + Sloppy Kiss Soiree + The Crash Killers Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10.

Luke Dixon Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 5pm. free.

Luke Dixon Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free.

Luke Dolahenty Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free.

Mark Crotti Royal Exchange, Newcastle.

G SINGIN ERS H C A E T EeDtro IR m y e REQSU n yd Must have own studio/space & Wwc cert, Experience essential

Call Hayley 0422963373 7:30pm. free.

Matt Price Parramatta RSL, Parramatta. 5pm. free.

Melody Rhymes Duo Old Fitzroy Hotel, 8pm. free.

Michael Mcglynn Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont.

8pm. free.

Mountain Sounds Festival Launch Party - feat: Olympic Ayres + East + I Know Leopard + Hockey Dad Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $17.40.

Nova Tone Penrith Gaels, Kingswood.

8pm. free.

Rachel Fahim Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 7pm. free.

Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. free.

Rob Eastwood Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

6:30pm. free.

Rob Henry PJ Gallagher’s, Enfi eld.

9pm. free.

Ryan Thomas Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West. 9pm. free.

Sam Lyon Duo Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill.

8pm. free.

Sarah Paton Massey Park Golf Club, Concord. 7pm. free.

Screaming Jets + Tracer Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 8pm. free.

Sound City Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 7pm. free.

Spit Roasting Bibbers Crown Hotel, Camden. 8pm. free.

The Bon Jovi Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free.

Tori Darke Cronulla Leagues Club Sharkies, Woolooware. 7pm. free.

Triple Shot Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 8pm. free.

Wildcatz Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Winston Surfshirt Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly.

9pm. free.

Zoltan Adria Restaurant, Darling Harbour. 5pm. free.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Matt Jones Adria Restaurant, Darling Harbour. 5pm. free.

Rob Eastwood Epping Club, Epping. 7pm. free.

“Tomorrow when you say “I do” I’ll die. I’m almost too ashamed to tell you why” - SWEET CHARITY 24 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

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JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Lionel Cole & The Family Business - feat: Various Artists Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $10.

Xxx

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

After Party Band Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown.

9:30pm. free.

Alex Hopkins Woolwich Pier Hotel, Woolwich. 2pm. free.

Alex Hopkins PJ Gallagher’s, Enfi eld.

9pm. free.

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys + Dead Farmers + Dag + Roamin Catholics Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. free.

Ben Finn Trio The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free.

Big Rich Riverwood Inn, Riverwood.

8pm. free.

Blake Tailor St George Motor Boat Club, Sans Souci. 7pm. free.

Blaming Vegas Crown Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Brothers 3 Panthers, Penrith. 7:30pm. $35.

Cover Me Crazy Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 8pm. free.

Darren Hanlon + Anthonie Tonnon St Stephens Church, Newtown. 7pm. $26.

David Agius Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee.

9pm. free.

DJ Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

8pm. free.

DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free.

DNA Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free.

Double Jeopardy Duo Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9pm. free.

Drew Plough & Harrow, Camden.

8pm. free.

Endless Summer Beach Party Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 7pm. free.

Evie Dean Novotel, Rooty Hill. 6:30pm. free.

Funk Machine Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free.

Gemma Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

5:30pm. free.

GJ Donovan Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. free.

Greg Lines Padstow RSL Club, Padstow. 6:30pm. free.

Heath Burdell Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 8pm. free.

Hits & Pieces Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

9:30pm. free.

Iron Lion The Bradbury, Bradbury.

8pm. free.

Jamie Lindsay Le Pub, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Jazz Express Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free.

Jess Dunbar Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free.

JJ Duo Kelly’s On King, Newtown.

9:30pm. free.

John Milligan Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free.

thebrag.com

Luke Dixon Moorebank Hotel, Moorebank. 9pm. free.

Luke Dolahenty Duo The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 6pm. free.

Mad Cow Kareela Golf Club, Kareela.

8pm. free.

Mark Crotti The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney. 8:45pm. free.

Mark Travers Henry Lawson Club, Werrington. 7:30pm. free.

Matt Jones Band Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free.

Matt Price Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. free.

Melody Rhymes Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free.

Michael McGlynn New Brighton Hotel, Manly.

10pm. free.

Muddy Feet Horse & Jockey Hotel, Homebush. 7:30pm. free.

No Troubles Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free.

Panorama Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Rattle & Hum - U2 Show Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. free.

Rebecca Moore Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West. 9pm. free.

Red Alert Panthers, Penrith. 9pm. free.

Rockin Mustangs Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

7:30pm. free.

Scott Russo & Phil Jamieson Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $43.

Screaming Jets + Tracer Mounties, Mount Pritchard.

8pm. $40.

Seattle Sound Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free.

Spank Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

8:30pm. free.

Stephen Kiely Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

6:30pm. free.

Sugar Reef Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst.

9pm. free.

Tales In Space Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly.

9pm. free.

The Chosen Few Band Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. free.

Twisted Fest 2014 - feat: Pink Industrial Whores + Jon Doe + Burnt At The Stake + Awakened + Exist Within + Prototypes + Til Rapture + From Valley Ruins + By The Horns + Scarred Remains + In Hydes Shadow + Abandon Fire + Shatter The Crown Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 1pm. $20.

V.I.P. PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta.

10:30pm. free.

Xmasroids Y2K Festival - feat: Dead Farmers + Shovels + Cat Cat + Dollar Bar + Narrow Lands + Staunch Nation + Philippa Omega + Wives + Whitney Houston’s Crypt + That Feel + The No Banhams + MC Matt Banham Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham. 1pm. $20.

Zoltan Buena Vista Hotel, Mosman.

2pm. free.

Zoltan Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

9pm. free.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 21

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

The Basics

Raggamuffin’ Meltdown + Nerdlinger Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

4pm. free.

Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie + Ron Nairn + John Smith Illawarra Master Builders Club, Wollongong. 2:30pm. free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Bill Kacir Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. free.

Glenn Esmond Peachtree Hotel, Penrith.

1pm. free.

Holly Stone Riverstone Sportsmans Hotel, Riverstone. 1pm. free.

Riley Beech The Mill Hotel, Milperra.

12pm. free.

Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. free.

Ted Nash Ingleburn Hotel, Ingleburn.

3pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Andy Mammers Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 4pm. free.

Ange Waverley Bowling Club, Waverley. 3pm. free.

Angelo Pash Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

6pm. free.

Beatville Boys Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. free.

Blake Tailor Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7pm. free.

Bounce Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Brothers 3 Western Suburbs Leagues Club, Leumeah. 7pm. $35.

Cell Block 69 Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60.

Chris Stretton St Marys Rugby Leagues Club, St Marys. 1pm. free.

Dead Letter Circus + Sleepmakeswaves + Voyager Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 6pm. $30.

Drew Cronulla Leagues Club - Sharkies, Woolooware.

2:30pm. free.

Emma Donovan And The Putbacks + Leah Flanagan + DJ Dave Bowman Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 5pm. $18.

Fuckfest (A Chrimbus Special) - feat: Athorataxis + Seagull Chainsaw + Skullfuckdisco + Belaya Kniga + Evylz + DFO: Bad + Rancid Meatfl aps + Grotesque Circular Dance + Cum Asylum Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 5pm. $10.

Gary Johns Trio Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

8:30pm. free.

Greg Byrne Le Pub, Sydney. 3pm. free.

Joe Echo Duo The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 1pm. free.

Mark Travers Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 1pm. free.

Matt Jones Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee.

8:30pm. free.

Matt Lyon Panthers, Penrith. 3:30pm. free.

Matt Price And Jess Dunbar

Commodore Hotel, Mcmahon Point. 2pm. free.

Mick Aquilina Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

2pm. free.

Peabody + The Maladies Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 3pm. free.

Penny Lane Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

10pm. free.

Raoul Graf Plough & Harrow, Camden.

3pm. free.

Rhiannon Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst.

1pm. free.

The Rock’N’Roll Yule feat: Los Hombres Del Diablo + Blacksmith + Comacozer + Lynt + Stu Tyrel Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10.

Three Wise Men Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

2pm. free.

Tony Williams Henry Lawson Club,

Werrington. 1pm. free.

\MONDAY DECEMBER 22

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Latin & Jazz Jam Open Mic Night World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Carl Fiddler Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

7:30pm. free.

Zoltan Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 6pm. free.

wed

TUESDAY DECEMBER 23 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Blues Tuesdays Spring Street Social, Bondi.

7:30pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Bernie Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

7:30pm. free.

Phil Jamieson + Scott Russo Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 7:30pm. $35.

Triumphant Tuesdays - feat: Dave Eastgate Karaoke Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

8:30pm. free.

thu

17

18

Dec

Dec

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(9:00PM - 1:00AM)

fri

19 Dec

(9:30PM - 1:30AM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

20

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sun

21

Dec

(9:30PM - 1:15AM)

mon

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

tue

22 Dec

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

Dec

23 (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Dec

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 25

gig picks

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Emma Donovan and The PutBacks

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17 ACO Underground Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $40.

Apes Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.

The Basics + Gun Ball Straights Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $30.

Ty Segall Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $48.10.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 18 The Cairos + March Of The Real Fly + Smaal Cats Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $20.

The Togethering + Trash Jacket + Lorias James + Alexis + Flaccid Mohawk + Peter Burke + Michael Crane + Mitch Perry Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

World’s End Press Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 Gold Class + Mere Women And Wives Black Wire Records, Annandale. 8pm. $12.

Mountain Sounds Festival Launch Party - Feat: Olympic Ayres + East + I Know Leopard + Hockey Dad Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $17.40.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys + Dead Farmers + Dag + Roamin Catholics Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. free.

26 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

Darren Hanlon Darren Hanlon + Anthonie Tonnon St Stephens Church, Newtown. 7pm. $26.

Scott Russo & Phil Jamieson Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $43.

Twisted Fest 2014 - Feat: Pink Industrial Whores + Jon Doe + Burnt At The Stake + Awakened + Exist Within + Prototypes + Til Rapture + From Valley Ruins + By The Horns + Scarred Remains + In Hydes Shadow + Abandon Fire + Shatter The Crown Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 1pm. $20.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 21 Cell Block 69 Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60.

Emma Donovan And The PutBacks + Leah Flanagan + DJ Dave Bowman Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 5pm. $18.

Raggamuffin’ Meltdown + Nerdlinger Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. free.

thebrag.com

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

brag beats

inside:

plus: + club guide + club snaps + weekly column

dubfire

havana brown

hermitude back on the tracks

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 27

brag beats

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Spencer Scott and Tori Bedingfield

five things WITH

Tech N9ne

BEN ASHTON To this day it sits framed in my parents’ house. I went down the jungle route as I found it to be a lot more soulful and reggae-like.

I would go to the old jungle and drum’n’bass parties and be that excited juvenile lurking in the background watching Kenny Ken, M-Beats, DJ Krust, Ragga Twins, Hype, Micky Finn… These guys really inspired me to go out and get my first pair of Numark Belt Drives (I couldn’t quite afford the 1200s!). Santa Claus soon delivered in due course, in ’97 I believe.

3.

Growing Up I was very lucky to travel 1. with my father from the age of three all over Europe and North Africa – he operated a longdistance haulage company so I would often be perched in the passenger seat. I would say from the age of five I can remember everything that was played along the journey: Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Paul Young, Santana, Dire Straits, New Order, Fleetwood

Mac, John Lee Hooker, The Doors, Sting, Led Zeppelin… My God, I’m chit-chatting now, this list could go on and on! I was so lucky to be educated from such a young age and I am very grateful for this. To this day I still own and listen to all their albums.

2.

Inspirations Around 1995 the firstever record I purchased was the D-Livin ‘Why’ on 12-inch.

Your Crew A lot of my mates went down the DnB route while I stuck to jungle. Knocking about with a new bunch of friends in ’96 and ’97, I made the transition to UK garage and funky house. Myself and my buddy Jack Fuller, we run Bad Apple in Sydney, which we started in 2011, and we have been lucky enough to host Huxley, Soul Clap, Mosca, Mark Henning and Mike Huckaby. We have been grateful to support a plethora of internationals and play alongside some amazing local talent throughout Australia.

The Music You Play These records have been 4. with me since I started out… they never get boring, although I have not played Cevin out for years! I’ll

definitely be giving that Visnadi tune a little rinse at the upcoming Dubfire show.

Deep Dish – ‘The Future Of The Future’. (I think I’ve replaced the sleeve twice – it’s currently held together by tape!)

Octave One – ‘Blackwater’ (chase the blues instrumental) Cevin Fisher – ‘(You Got Me) Burning Up’ Visnadi – ‘Racing Tracks’ (Ritchie Hawtin and Villalobos) Sunship – ‘Cheque-One-Two’ Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

The local music scene is very healthy and more internationals want to come visit Australia to showcase themselves, but we have many obstacles, and for obvious reasons I won’t go into those stupid fucking lockout laws as it’s just soul-destroying.

There’s a handful of amazing venues in Sydney that give you the opportunity to play at or showcase your own branded event with your local DJs. There’s still a serious lack of venues. Folk need more choice.

IT’S TECH TIME

Tech N9ne has announced he will be heading off on an Australian tour this March. N9ne has sold over two million albums and had his music featured in films, TV shows and video games. He became known as an innovative rapper in the ’90s because of his trendsetting ability to rap at breakneck speed, as well as backwards. His career-defining song, ‘Strange 2013’, saw him collaborate with the surviving members of The Doors, in a reworking of their track ‘Strange Days’.

With his 2012 Hostile Takeover tour, he holds the record for headlining the longest continuous tour in rap history.

Tech N9ne will take over Manning Bar on Saturday March 7.

With: Dubfire, AboutJack, Micky Price, Ed Wells Where: Greenwood Hotel When: Saturday December 20

PACHA SYDNEY

Another weekend, another international headliner at Pacha Sydney. This Saturday December 20, Ivy plays host to Botnek, the DJ/production duo from Montreal who’ve remixed Mat Zo and Porter Robinson, Steve Aoki, Tommie Sunshine, Tocadisco and many more. As per usual, the Pacha lineup is bursting at the seams with selectors from around the country and overseas: this week it’s Krunk, Natnoiz, Jesabel, Matt Nugent, Samrai, Chris Arnott, Jace Disgrace, Fingers, Just 1, Elroy, E-Cats, Deckhead, Mike Hyper, Stu Turner, Chris Fraser and Trent Rackus. Sounds like a party to us.

Dreems

SUMMERTIME DREEMS Well-travelled DJ Dreems is returning to Sydney this month to launch his new LP In Dreems with a show at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville. After playing Picnic’s One Night Stand in April, Dreems has travelled all around the world. Eight months later, he is returning to his hometown to launch his debut, with help from several special guests including Kali, Andy Webb, Adi Toohey, Colo, Juno Mars and Passenger 440. Dreems’ album launch show takes place on Saturday December 20.

Boogie Blind

One Day

ONE DAY SUNDAYS’ CHRISTMAS GIFT

Aussie hip hop collective One Day and The Vic in Enmore will donate the proceeds of this month’s One Day Sundays gig to Youth Off The Streets. Comprising MCs from Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride, the all-Aussie One Day boys have been busy this year, releasing their debut album Mainline in August followed by a national tour in September. The hectic schedule did not stop there for One Day, who teamed up with The Vic for One Day Sundays – a monthly block party with street art, live music and DJ sets. The Christmas edition of One Day Sundays will be on Sunday December 28 at The Vic.

WAX WARS GRAND FINAL

28 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

MARQUEE XMAS PARTY

It’s the famous Xmas Party at Marquee this Saturday December 20, and the Belvedere will be fl owing. Aussie products Miriam and Olivia Nervo, collectively Nervo, will take hold of the dancefl oor, continuing a rise to prominence that began with their co-writing credit on the Grammy Award-winning single ‘When Love Takes Over’. The Melburnian twins have spent the year travelling the world, playing sets at Tomorrowland and Mysteryland, but there’s no better place to be at Christmastime than Sydney, right? Right.

BOOGIE BLIND MAKES THE CHOP

The regular funk, soul, hip hop and boogie night The Chop, held at Play Bar, is set to celebrate its first birthday this weekend with a massive special guest by the name of Boogie Blind. The 2001 Vestax World Champion and member of the skilled turntablist crew X-Ecutioners picks from a wide variety of styles, so he’s sure to get the party pumping this Saturday December 20. Watchful fans will know Boogie Blind’s work as a tour DJ for Fat Joe, Jim Jones, Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch, among others. He’ll be joined at the birthday bash by Ink Stains, Mumbles, Raine Supreme and Benny Hinn.

1

After a month’s worth of high-velocity cuttin’ and scratchin’, Wax Wars is ready to crown the country’s finest turntablist talent at its Grand Final this Friday December 19. The Crown Street Cut Collective’s knockout competition has been whittling down performers in a headto-head display of turntablism, turned right up to ten and screened live on the tele as they go.

The semi-final victors take the stage at Play Bar this weekend, and it’s winner-takes-all.

There’ll also be live street art and a showcase set by a special guest.

Hermitude The Next Step By Augustus Welby

H

ermitude have been making records for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until 2012’s HyperParadise that they advanced to the forefront of Australian music. That beatdriven set of tunes gained the Sydney duo – composed of multi-instrumentalists Luke Dubs and El Gusto – stacks of new fans, as well as earning an AIR Award for Best Electronic Album and claiming the prestigious Australian Music Prize.

For longtime fans, all of a sudden their favourite underground instrumental hip hop duo has become a popular talking point. But when the BRAG checks in with Dubs (AKA Luke Dubber), he reminds us that HyperParadise didn’t take off straight away.

“It came out and then like ten months after, people were still just clocking onto it,” he says.

“The reaction seemed to build gradually instead of coming out and going, ‘Bang! Here we are.’ It was very gradual, which was very exciting for us because just when you thought it was petering off, it kept going.”

HyperParadise’s cumulative spread would explain how the duo has managed to sustain a regular gig schedule over the last few years.

Not only have Hermitude been headlining increasingly bigger rooms since the record’s February 2012 release, but they’ve been a main stage drawcard at festivals such as Groovin The Moo, Woodford, Meredith and Falls. This year, Dubs and El Gusto’s omnipresence has receded somewhat, which suggests they’ve been holed up in the studio preparing album number five. However, that’s only partly true, as in early 2014 the pair carried out tours through New Zealand and the UK. Then, more recently, Hermitude set off on a major North American tour supporting local lads RüFüS.

“Early on, it’s really important that it’s just completely free and it just flows. It’s such an exciting time when you first start writing a record, because it could be anything. Then as time goes on you start critiquing it a bit more and tailoring it, if you want to, to a certain style or sound.”

Hermitude’s third LP, 2008’s Threads, featured a number of impressive vocalists, including the likes of Urthboy and Elana Stone, as well as Jamaican reggae performer Luciano.

HyperParadise, however, went without featured guests. Dubber says the new record will contain “quite a few collabs”. As for who, we’ll have to wait and see.

“No spoilers yet. But all will be revealed pretty soon.”

What: NYE On The Harbour With: The Aston Shuffle, Yolanda Be Cool, Crooked Colours, Hayden James and more Where: Cargo When: Wednesday December 31

“That was our first big tour over there – about 15 shows,” Dubber says. “Hungover and driving like eight hours a day, every day – it was a hectic run, but it was an amazing experience.

It was really cool to see the vast countryside of America and also get to rock some shows in between. “[RüFüS] are absolutely smashing it over there.

They sold out two shows in New York and they were big rooms. We were lucky to jump in front of their crowd and win over a couple of their fans. We get to go over and be silly again next year, which will be fun.”

Having lined up a global publishing deal with Sony/ATV, next time around Hermitude will charge through America on their own terms. But before that happens, there are a few pressing commitments to take care of at home. First of all, they’re on board to headline Cargo’s NYE On The Harbour event, which also features the likes of Yolanda Be Cool and Crooked Colours.

‘A night to remember’ perhaps isn’t the most appropriate phrase, but Dubber promises an occasion of epic proportions.

“We’re really looking forward to the show and it sounds like it’s in a pretty sweet spot down there by the harbour,” he says. “It’s going to be bananas. I haven’t been in Sydney for a New Year’s in… I can’t remember how many years. So we’re pretty excited we get to play a hometown gig, and it’s El Gusto’s birthday on New Year’s Eve so there should be a bit of shenanigans ensuing.”

As well as the usual imbibing of curiously named cocktails, Hermitude will use this gig to debut a brand new single, which is due for release in January. Dubber withholds the track’s title, but he says a new record is set to follow in March.

“It’s been a work in progress pretty much since we finished HyperParadise. We probably had a couple of months off and then started coming back into the studio and writing periodically over the last few years. Whenever we weren’t touring we kind of snuck in.”

There’s no doubt Hermitude would enjoy it if the heightened interest and voracious acclaim that followed HyperParadise was repeated, of course. “It’s always a factor that’s going to sit in the back of your head,” Dubber says. “‘We’ve had quite a successful album. How do we follow it up?’ There’s a whole lot of new fans who are really into the HyperParadise sound, but they may not have heard records we’ve done prior.

But I think you just have to write the music that feels good to you at the time and try not to ponder on that stuff too much, because it can interfere with the flow of what you’re writing.”

Speaking of flow, rather than drawing up elaborate plans for what the next record would encompass, Dubs and El Gusto opted to put down as many ideas as they could and then start thinking about the bigger picture. thebrag.com

BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 29

Dubfire Tastes Of Techno By Augustus Welby

I

t’s a fading memory, but there was a time when musicians could expect to make some serious cash through record sales. In that bygone era, certain artists refrained from performing live and chose to focus entirely on studio work. This is becoming less and less of a realistic scenario, which means those who can’t endure masses of touring have limited options for making a living out of music.

However, even though constant touring is now crucial, round-thecalendar gig schedules aren’t anything new. Electronic producer and DJ Dubfire (AKA Ali Shirazinia) started his career in the early ’90s as one half of the progressive house production team Deep Dish. Following a tremendously successful 15-year run – which saw Deep Dish enjoy chart success and win a Grammy – Shirazinia kicked off his solo career in 2006, pursuing a tougher techno sound under the Dubfire moniker.

With both projects, relentless touring has been one of Shirazinia’s primary tasks. And he bloody loves it. “I’ve been on the road ever since I can remember, so I got over that hump mentally and physically many years ago,” he says. “It’s like second nature. I quite enjoy seeing the world and I have pockets of friends in every corner of the globe.

So it’s like coming home to an extended family member that you haven’t seen for a while.”

You’ll often hear musicians explaining how the 90 minutes onstage each day are what redeem the jagged nature of touring life.

However, even though countless hours are spent in transit, there’s also plenty of time available for indulging in other activities.

Dubfire’s been touring for more than two decades, so he knows how to make the best use of his time.

Over the years, this has led him to become a food buff.

“Experiencing something that represents the local culture, their cuisines and so forth, sometimes that’s a window into where you are,” he says. “In order to feel settled, as far as having arrived at a particular place, it’s important for me to have that connection to wherever it is I am and the people who’ve invited me there.

“Because I like to eat, after so many years of doing it and recommending restaurants to friends and connecting with chefs who like music, I’ve grown into this food connoisseur who’s very well connected to chefs all over the world. That also makes it more interesting to travel, because now I can look forward to seeing a chef who I haven’t seen in a long time and maybe he’s got amazing new dishes or ingredients.”

Perhaps this seems like an incongruous passion for someone so inextricably associated with dark nightclubs and tinnitus-causing sound systems. But Dubfire points out the symmetry between the work of great chefs and musicians.

“When I started to really appreciate the technical skill that it takes for chefs to do what they do, especially really gifted chefs, [I realised] it’s no different in the music industry.

We have so many people making music but we have a select few making really interesting, incredible, timeless music. With the chefs out there, a lot of people can say that they cook, but how many can serve some of the plates that you’ve seen in cookbooks from Noma or those types of restaurants?”

As well as the sensual delights, sitting down to enjoy some quality tucker helps get Dubfire ready for the gig ahead. “I can’t go to sleep and then wake up and go straight into that club environment, where everybody’s been drinking or doing whatever for hours and hours. I’ve

got to go have a nice meal, great conversation, nice wine or sake or whatever and then I’m in the mood to give my best performance.”

Before the year is out, Dubfire will pop over for a brief Australian tour, stopping in at the Greenwood Hotel to headline the latest Code party.

He’s been a regular visitor over the last couple of decades, so it’s no surprise he knows a thing or two about the local dining options.

“Everybody knows Rockpool, Neil Perry’s restaurants,” he says.

“Tetsuya’s in Sydney is another unbelievable restaurant, by a Japanese chef who was trained in French technique. Really, every time I’ve been to Australia I’ve

always had nothing but incredible food, and amazing wine of course.”

In other news, after an eight-year silence, earlier this year Dubfire and his Deep Dish partner Sharam Tayebi got together to work on some new material. In March, they delivered the eight-minute epic ‘Quincy’, and Dubfire says Deep Dish will become a full-time concern in the months ahead.

“This year we kind of wanted to get our feet wet. We wanted to reconnect creatively to see if we still had that magic formula together.

Next year we’re going to make Deep Dish a focus and spend pretty much all of February in the studio together to see what happens.

“It’s interesting, our solo careers and the way they took off,” he adds.

“Mine went in a more underground, back to my roots, techno direction, and Sharam went in his typical pop direction. Coming back together, it’s going to create an interesting dynamic that we’re trying to tap in to. Right now we’re just trying to pick up from where we left off. We want to really go in and finish the story and also see if there’s a new chapter.”

With: Space Junk, B_A, AboutJack, Micky Price, Ed Wells Where: Greenwood Hotel When: Saturday December 20

Havana Brown The Rev-Head Next Door By Natalie Rogers

S

he was dubbed ‘The Lady In Red’ at this year’s ARIA Awards – though it’s hard to imagine Havana Brown’s latest mix taking much influence from balladeer Chris de Burgh. “Everything I release is always going to be inspired by the club scene,” says Brown. “That’s where I found my voice, and the club sound is definitely where my heart lies.”

From the outset there’s a sincerity in her tone that is both comforting and unexpected: Havana Brown sounds like the girl next door.

In a fitting revelation, she admits to scoring a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role on Neighbours as a teenager. “I was one of the lead character’s girlfriends – she was a little crazy!” Brown laughs. “It was fun because I grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne.”

Not long after her small-screen debut, Brown heard London calling. Deciding to ditch university, much to the dismay of her loving family, she bought a ticket to ride and began to navigate the well-worn path of an Aussie starlet forging a career abroad. In many ways, Brown has sunny old England to thank for her skyrocketing profile. It was there she found herself broke, while the constant tension brewing within her band, Fishbowl, saw them self-destruct just shy of releasing their debut record.

“When the band broke up I spent a lot of time in nightclubs,” Brown says. She soon realised that she could have the best view in the house by becoming a DJ. “I thought, ‘I could do that.’”

Less than a decade on and Havana Brown is unstoppable. In her short career she has been nominated for a slew of awards, including Song of the Year for ‘Warrior’ at this year’s ARIAs. Add to that the mini-empire she built thanks to her Crave remixes, totalling an impressive ten compilations at last count,

30 :: BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14

and you could say Brown does indeed run the night (or at least continues to give it a good crack). Not bad for a working-class child of immigrant parents. She believes her work ethic was instilled in her at a young age. “I’m always working – I don’t really know what else to do,” she says. “When I’m back in LA, I’m in the studio every day working on and writing new music. I hope to be releasing more original material early next year.”

In the meantime, when she isn’t touring the globe as the hand-picked support for Chris Brown, Rihanna or Enrique Iglesias, Havana has enough to keep her busy. “I have club residencies in Las Vegas, New York and Atlantic City. I am constantly on the road, but it’s the lifestyle I chose and I love it. I’m so happy to be back in Australia for the start of summer. I can’t help but be in a good mood – it’s always so beautiful here.”

Brown will play a New Year’s date in Sydney before heading down to Canberra for the Summernats festival of fast cars and music.

“I’ve heard Bliss N Eso and Illy are playing too. I can’t wait, I love those guys,” she says.

“It’s going to be a big party! I don’t even know who I’d be going for but I just wanna hear those loud cars. I love when they zoom past – it’s just sexy!”

Brown is starting 2015 right where she wants to be – and with an uninterrupted view of the finish line.

What: Summernats 2015 With: Bliss N Eso, Illy, The Radiators Where: Exhibition Park, Canberra When: Thursday January 1 – Sunday January 4 And: Also appearing alongside Will Sparks at Marquee, Wednesday December 31

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Off The Record Dance And Electronica With Tyson Wray

pend this Australia Day Eve down at the Oxford Art Factory as Picnic and Funf throw down a triple-bill bonanza. Leading the charge are US disco and funk luminaries Soul Clap, who will be joined by fellow Statesman Nick Monaco and London’s Apron Records boss FunkinEven. A killer local lineup rounds out the bill – including Slow Blow, Dreems, Kali, Ben Fester, Adi Toohey and Andy Webb. It goes down on Sunday January 25.

S

Jungle, hip hop and turntablist extraordinaire Om Unit has locked in a return to Australia. The artist formerly known as 2tall (the moniker he retired in 2008) dropped his debut album Threads last year on Civil Music, and is a regular fi xture on labels such as Goldie’s legendary Metalheadz, Pinch’s Tectonic and Berlin’s Project Mooncircle. He also runs his own label Cosmic Bridge Records. Catch him on Friday January 23 at Goodgod Small Club.

Heads up – Florian Kupfer has locked in a last-minute Sydney show. Having spent 2013 releasing all-killer no-filler productions on the likes of seminal labels L.I.E.S., Russian Torrent Versions and Rush Hour (with his single ‘Feelin’ topping many end-of-year lists), his sojourn to Australian shores this month will mark his debut visit Down Under. He’ll hit The Spice Cellar on Friday December 19 where he’ll be joined by local legends Ben Fester and Preacha.

Our mates over at Code are bringing one of the biggest club brands in the UK and Ibiza, Sankeys, to Sydney for one night only to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Headlined by the debut Australian performance of resident DJ Darius Syrossian, there will also be sets from the likes of Yousef, Dillan Joseph, Space Junk, Ben Ashton, AboutJack, Tristan Case and more. It goes down on Sunday January 25 at the Greenwood Hotel.

Two of the biggest names on the NYE/ NYD touring circuit, Hudson Mohawke and Mr. Carmack, have locked in a double headline show in Sydney. Scotsman Mohawke is a regular on Warp Records and Kanye West’s label Good Music, and also makes up one half of the duo TNGHT alongside Canadian producer/DJ Lunice.

The Hawaiian-based Carmack is also a heavy-hitter, with his hip hop-tinged dance productions finding homes on the likes of Teamsupreme and Soulection. Thursday January 8 at the Oxford Art Factory.

Highly recommended.

Best releases this week: shut it down – Theo Parrish has swooped in to take out the coveted Tyson Wray Album of the Year™ award with his last-minute entry American Intelligence (on Sound Signature). Other highlights include the techno mini-compilation Reversed Polarity (Genesa), Yan Cook’s Gravity (Delsin), DJ Metatron’s U’ll Be the King Of The Stars (Traumprinz), Some Truths’ Bliss Abyss (We Can Elude Control) and Prosumer’s Fabric 79 (Fabric).

snap up all night out all week . . .

Soul Clap

RECOMMENDED FRIDAY DECEMBER 19

SATURDAY JANUARY 10

FRIDAY JANUARY 23

Florian Kupfer The Spice Cellar

Daniel Avery TBA

SATURDAY JANUARY 24

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20

Pender Street Steppers TBA

Lido, Sophie, Nadus, QT Metro Theatre Dubfire Greenwood Hotel

THURSDAY JANUARY 1

Tycho The Hi-Fi

SUNDAY JANUARY 11

Omar-S National Art School Tim Hecker, Ben Frost Sydney Opera House

Spice Afloat: Space Dimension Controller, Trus’Me, Oliver Koletzki, Niko Schwind Sydney Harbour

FRIDAY JANUARY 16

THURSDAY JANUARY 8

SATURDAY JANUARY 17

Hudson Mohawke, Mr. Carmack Oxford Art Factory

Omar Souleyman The Aurora Spiegeltent

Oneman The Famous Spiegeltent

Om Unit Goodgod Small Club

Marcel Dettmann Imperial Hotel, Erskineville

SUNDAY JANUARY 25

Mister Saturday Night National Art School Darius Syrossian The Greenwood Hotel Soul Clap, Nick Monaco, Funkineven Oxford Art Factory Leon Vynehall The Famous Spiegeltent Nightmares On Wax The Aurora Spiegeltent

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? me via carrier pigeon.

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de la soul garden party

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Tim Sweeney Goodgod Small Club

14:12:14 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999 BRAG :: 593 :: 17:12:14 :: 31

club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week Dubfire

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 Greenwood Hotel

Code

Dubfire + Space Junk + B_A + AboutJack + Micky Price + Ed Wells 1pm. $66.50.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17 CLUB NIGHTS

DJ Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.

The Wall - feat: Various Local And International Acts World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. $5.

Whip It Wednesdays - feat: Various DJs Whaat Club, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 18 CLUB NIGHTS

Jour De Fete - feat: Prince Valium + Atomas + Brendan Palmer + Dingue Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $5.

Pool Club Thursdays feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

5pm. free.

The Mess Up Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. free.

The World Bar Thursdays World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Block Party #2 - feat: Ghostface Killah + Pharoahe Monch + The Tongue + Soul Benefits Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $64.90.

John Legend + Dami Im Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 7:30pm. $138.30.

Joyride Lo-Fi, Darlinghurst. 6pm. free.

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FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 HIP HOP & R&B

Hustler Fridays - feat: MC Shaba Hustle & Flow, Redfern.

7pm. free.

Wax Wars Final - feat: DJ Co$t vs DJ Dameza + Surprise International Guest + DJ Samrai Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm. $10.

Waxx World Bar, Kings Cross.

7pm. free.

CLUB NIGHTS

Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

5pm. free.

Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free.

Frisky Fridays Scubar, Sydney. 5pm. free.

G-Wizard Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40.

KLParty Xmas Party feat: KLP + Wordlife + Husky + Oshan + Utah Jazz + A-Tonez + The Bassix + Severity Zero + Magnifikate Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

10pm. free.

Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. free.

Not So Silent Night - feat: The Preatures (DJ Set) + The Cairos (DJ Set) + Purple Sneakers DJs + Select Music DJs + New Navy + Thief + Apes + High-Tails + Jesse Davidson + Waax World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

Imperial Hotel, Erskineville.

10pm. $15.

El’ Circo - feat: Resident Circus Act Performers Slide Lounge, Darlinghurst.

7pm. $109.

Frat Saturdays - feat: DJ Jonski Side Bar, Sydney. 6pm. free.

Homemade Xmas Party - feat: Royaal + Venuto + Rees Hellmers + DJ Iko + DJ Seiz + J Reyes + Nick Arbor + Simon Lovell Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 9pm. free.

Marquee Annual Xmas Party - feat: Nervo Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60.

Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25.

Pacha Sydney - feat: Botnek + Krunk + Natnoiz + Jesabel + Matt Nugent + Samrai + Chris Arnott + Jace Disgrace + Fingers + Just 1 + Elroy + E-Cats + Deckhead + Mike Hyper + Stu Turner + Chris Fraser + Trent Rackus Pacha Sydney, Sydney.

6:30pm. $35.

Rhythm Of The Night (90s Christmas Edition) - feat: DJ Levins + Ariane + Captain Franco Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. $15.

Sienna Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Establishment, Sydney.

9pm. free.

Soda Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs Playing Disco And Funk

Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

5pm. free.

Something Else Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

9pm. $20.

Spice 20.12 - feat: Ant J Steep + Murat Kilic + Dean Relf The Spice Cellar, Sydney.

10pm. $25.

The Heathers The Hi-fi, Moore Park. 10pm. $25.

Undr Ctrl Summer Rooftop Series - feat: Ara Koufax + Noise In My Head + Roof Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 10pm. free.

Xmas Weekender - feat: Lido + Sophie + Hwls + Nadus + Qt + Uv Boi Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $49.70.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 21 CLUB NIGHTS

La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor The Establishment, Sydney.

8pm. free.

Reggae Sundays Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 5pm. free.

S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.

Sunday Sessions - feat: Cadell + Tom Kelly + Ocky Goldfish, Kings Cross. 4pm.

free.

Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm. free.

MONDAY DECEMBER 22 CLUB NIGHTS

Crab Racing Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free.

Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. free.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 23 CLUB NIGHTS

Chu World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

Sweat It Out Presents: A Very Sweaty Xmas feat: Benson + Cassian + Crooked Colours + Danny T + DCup + Frames + Go Freek + Yolanda Be Cool + Harris Robotis + Indian Summer + Juan Du Sol + Mickey Kojak + Motez + Playmode + Silversix + Terace + Wongo Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

2:30pm. $54.50.

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Soul Control 19.12 - feat: Florian Kupfer The Spice Cellar, Sydney.

10pm. $15.

Thank Funk It’s Friday The Ranch, Eastwood.

9:30pm. free.

Tim Sweeney + Noise In My Head + Pelvis + D&D Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $22.

Wordlife Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. free.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 HIP HOP & R&B

The Chop 1st Birthday Special - feat: Boogie Blind + Mumbles + Ink Stains + Raine Supreme + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm. free.

CLUB NIGHTS

Barbarian Bars MC Battle feat: K.I.D. + Entyce Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Big Village Xmas Party - feat: Daily Meds + True Vibenation + Suburban Dark + Loose Change Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $20.

Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests World Bar, Kings Cross.

8pm. $10.

Code - feat: Dubfire + Space Junk + B_A + AboutJack + Micky Price + Ed Wells + More Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 1pm. $66.50.

Dreems + Kali + Colo + Juno Mars + Andy Webb & Adi Toohey + Passenger 440

THURSDAY DECEMBER 18

Dreems + Kali + Colo + Juno Mars + Andy Webb & Adi Toohey + Passenger 440 Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm. $15.

Block Party #2 - feat: Ghostface Killah + Pharoahe Monch + The Tongue + Soul Benefits Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $64.90.

Marquee Annual Xmas Party - feat: Nervo Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60.

John Legend + Dami Im Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 7:30pm. $138.30.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 KLParty Xmas Party - feat: KLP + Wordlife + Husky + Oshan + Utah Jazz + A-Tonez + The Bassix + Severity Zero + Magnifikate Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Not So Silent Night - feat: The Preatures (DJ Set) + The Cairos (DJ Set) + Purple Sneakers DJs + Select Music Djs + New Navy + Thief + Apes + High-Tails + Jesse Davidson + Waax World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.

Soul Control 19.12 - feat: Florian Kupfer The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15.

Tim Sweeney + Noise In My Head + Pelvis + D&D Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $22.

Wax Wars Final - feat: DJ Co$t vs DJ Dameza + Surprise International Guest + DJ Samrai Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm. $10.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 Big Village Xmas Party - feat: Daily Meds + True Vibenation + Suburban Dark + Loose Change Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $20.

Pacha Sydney - Feat: Botnek + Krunk + Natnoiz + Jesabel + Matt Nugent + Samrai + Chris Arnott + Jace Disgrace + Fingers + Just 1 + Elroy + E-Cats + Deckhead + Mike Hyper + Stu Turner + Chris Fraser + Trent Rackus Pacha Sydney, Sydney. 6:30pm. $35.

Rhythm Of The Night (90s Christmas Edition) - feat: DJ Levins + Ariane + Captain Franco Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. $15.

The Chop 1st Birthday Special - feat: Boogie Blind + Mumbles + Ink Stains + Raine Supreme + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm. free.

Xmas Weekender - feat: Lido + Sophie + Hwls + Nadus + QT + UV Boi Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $49.70.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 21 S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 23 Sweat It Out Presents: A Very Sweaty Xmas - feat: Benson + Cassian + Crooked Colours + Danny T + DCup + Frames + Go Freek + Yolanda Be Cool + Harris Robotis + Indian Summer + Juan Du Sol + Mickey Kojak + Motez + Playmode + Silversix + Terace + Wongo Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 2:30pm. $54.50.

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live reviews CYPRESS HILL, COIN BANKS, IVAN OOZE Enmore Theatre Monday December 8

It’s not every day you go to a gig where homemade bongs are passed through the crowd, joints are lit and lead singers blaze onstage, but hey, it’s not every day you see Cypress Hill. Like the hip hop veterans they are, Cypress Hill brought unapologetic energy, taking over the Enmore with their distinct sound and creative lyrics, and delivering explosive hits that kept the crowd jumping all night.

Supporting the rap megastars, Aussie hip hop artists Coin Banks and Ivan Ooze played early, drawing small crowds with a few loyal fans front and centre. Bringing the vibe back to a ten, Cypress Hill kicked things off with ‘I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That’. The energy and dynamic between B-Real, Sen Dog, DJ Julio G on the decks and Eric Bobo on percussion could not

up all night out all week . . .

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be faulted and continued consistently for the close to two-hour set. With a backlog spanning more than 20 years, a slew of hits ensued, including ‘Tequila Sunrise’, ‘Illusions’ and crowd favourite ‘Insane In The Brain’.

Known for their pro-weed position almost as much as their music, the gentlemen did not disappoint, B-Real leading the blaze as he lit up onstage before spitting a few of their smoking anthems including ‘Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up’, ‘I Wanna Get High’ and ‘Dr. Greenthumb’, as the crowd partied and the venue filled with a haze.

After a musical battle between Julio G and Bobo and further hits including ‘Cock The Hammer’, ‘Lick A Shot’, and ‘A To The K’, Cypress Hill hit the ball out of the park with their final song ‘(Rock) Superstar’ leaving the crowd on an undeniable high (pun intended).

Julienne Gilet

wax wars

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What we've been out to see...

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live reviews

up all night out all week . . .

What we've been out to see...

HIATUS KAIYOTE, REMI, KIRKIS, SILENTJAY & JACE XL Metro Theatre Sunday December 14

Neo-soul group Hiatus Kaiyote are proudly collaborative, and on the final night of their tour they perform a set which is as inclusive as it is innovative. Backing vocalist SilentJay opens with a collection of mellow hip hop beats. Brooding horns over a simple bass/snare drum combo set the stage for him to invite Jace XL out for a duet. Together they sing R&B choruses over the beats SilentJay has prepared, and their obvious rapport brings a warmth to the stage as the music warps from hip hop to deep house.

Kirkis drive the night into unexplored space with a layered soundscape of fragmented clicks, electronic whirs and heavy synths. Echoing the progressive jazz of Badbadnotgood, the band shifts into soul as Jace XL and another of the headliner’s backing singers appear to provide vocals. The two voices weave between each other, embedding the lyrics within the musical fusion of Kirkis rather than rising above them.

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Remi appears next with the swagger of a lifetime hip hop aficionado. His effortless lyricism is like an extension of his breathing patterns as he gets the crowd moving over simple jazzy chords and live

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drums. As if to prove he doesn’t even need the minimal backing of the music to stay on point, the drums cut out and he continues to flow, dropping bars with precision and skill. Remi’s got game, and he twists about onstage with such style that it’s hard not to be swept up in it.

When the opening keys of ‘Mobius Streak’ are struck, Hiatus Kaiyote are here.

Lead singer Nai Palm is resplendent in a glittering gold jacket with large, dangling earrings and her leather baseball cap turned backwards. Her genuine enthusiasm coupled with rich, throaty vocals is captivating. The band behind her delivers beautiful harmonies that culminate in euphoric cries by Palm as she sings.

The group is obviously at home improvising, and the set maintains the feel of a jazz band that’s having as much fun experimenting with the songs as reciting them. The unconventional chord progressions that emerge are what separate Hiatus Kaiyote from other neo-soul outfits, as the music rises and switches from soulful breakdowns to heavy electronic jams. Everything is brought together by Palm through the joy and honesty that she communicates, and the set ends to cheers as she removes herself from the spotlight to the masterful work of the band.

James Ross

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Tafelmusik: House of Dreams Goldner String Quartet Steven Isserlis with Connie Shih I Fagiolini Paul Lewis Modigliani Quartet Eggner Trio

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