Brag#597

ISSUE NO. 597 JANUARY 28, 2015

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MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE

Also

This Week

EDUCATION SPECIAL

T HE SM A SHING P UMPK INS Billy Corgan on taking influence from pop and literature.

F IRS T A ID K I T

The Swedish sisters who can’t get enough of Australia.

C A R IBOU

Years of innovation have led to a new record and a fresh live show.

S T EEL PA N T HER

The band that tried to get 5 Seconds Of Summer hooked on drugs.

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rock music news

the BRAG presents

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

the hottest artists on tour...

five things WITH

DAVID RICE FROM BURNSIDE

bands like Silverchair and Nirvana were huge influences when I first started out. Hearing Neon Ballroom for the first time when I was a kid absolutely blew me away. Such deep, raw emotion mixed with heavy guitars and nice pretty orchestral sounds. Now, a big influence would be bands like Linkin Park or Papa Roach’s new stuff for the way they incorporate synth and digital sounds into guitar and drumheavy songs.

Your Band Sheldon, Grant and I have been playing 3. music together since we were kids. We’ve only

loves Springsteen and The Monkees, so I grew up loving guitar-based music and supercatchy melodies. My uncle is a great musician so he was always a huge influence growing up. My sister got me into ‘Self Esteem’ by The Offspring when I was really young and that really kick-started my love for music.

2.

Inspirations The Beatles – duh [laughs] – but also

ever been in this band. Felipe joined us about a year ago after our original drummer Ben had to leave due to work and life and whatnot.

Felipe instantly became part of the family.

Love that guy.

4.

The Music You Make We’re currently gigging our debut album Evolution, which we produced and recorded ourselves with a lot of help from our friend Adam at his home studio. It’s a huge-sounding album with a big ‘wall of sound’ sort of vibe that we really like to get across live and have

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

I think the music industry in this country right now is great. Rock music doesn’t really get a great deal of attention these days but there’s great bands out there all over the country.

You’ve just got to look for them. I saw a band called We Without last year who just totally blew me away. Their songs and performance were so inspiring as a musician. I can’t understand why they’re not the biggest things in Aussie rock right now. It is good to see places like Spectrum and Oxford Art Factory to name a few still putting on great unknown rock bands – there’s even a few venues in Penrith that are now playing original live music. Great to see!

With: Stellar Addiction, 30three Where: Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith When: Saturday January 31

SOHN ▲ Oxford Art Factory Thursday January 29

BALKAN BEAT BOX Oxford Art Factory Wednesday March 11 Burnside photo by Kate Reid

Growing Up My dad is a huge fan of Bob Dylan, Neil 1.

Young, The Beatles, et cetera, and my mum

a lot of energy at our shows. We’re about to release the first single and video for ‘Will I Find You There’ on the 31st at Tattersalls Hotel.

PAOLO NUTINI Enmore Theatre Tuesday March 31

THE OCEAN Factory Floor Friday April 10

JAMIE HUTCHINGS LOOKS BACK

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, Kelsey Berry, Lauren Gill, Nicholas Hartman, Spencer Scott ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, Prudence Upton, Jamie Williams 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 GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Tori Bedingfield, Nicholas Hartman, Emily Meller, Spencer Scott - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties)

Jamie Hutchings is bringing his Careering Through the Wilderness 1995-2015 Tour to punters along the east coast. Making his name in the Sydney band Bluebottle Kiss, Hutchings has had a sprawling 20-year career. As his current band Infinity Broke plan to release their second album, Hutchings’ new tour will feature a setlist that spans his career, playing fan favourites as well as deeper cuts. Hutchings will play Camelot Lounge on Thursday February 5 with special guest Buddy Glass.

AN ACE IN THE DECK

Get ready to rock and roll all night… and part of every day. Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is coming to town this autumn for the first time since 2010. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will make the journey Down Under on the heels of his new Space Invader LP. His two-hour show will feature everything from Frehley’s solo hits like ‘New York Groove’, ‘Snow Blind’ and ‘Rock Soldiers’ to KISS classics like ‘Cold Gin’, ‘Strutter’ and ‘Love Gun’. Frehley is also slated to play a bunch of rare KISS songs for all the diehard fans – and yes, we know you’re still out there. Catch the Ace himself on Thursday April 30 at Metro Theatre.

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WHY SHOUT WHEN YOU CAN YELLE

French electropop duo Yelle will return to our shores this March for a national tour in support of their latest album, Complètement Fou. Overseen by famed American producer Dr. Luke, the album of brightly coloured electro with French vocals marks the pair’s third full-length release. Co-founded by Julie Budet and Jean-Francoise Perrier in 2005, Yelle is the French acronym for “You enjoy life.” A bit like YOLO, but without the embarrassing baseball caps. Yelle hit the Metro Theatre on Friday March 27.

Yelle

COOPERS AMP SHORTLIST

Lamb Of God

LAMB OF GOD RETURN

Virginian natives Lamb Of God have announced a run of Sidewaves ahead of their appearance at Soundwave next month. Joining the band for their headline shows will be fellow festival act Killer Be Killed, who will play their first-ever club shows in the world during this tour. See the slaughter at the Metro Theatre on Thursday February 26.

The 10th Coopers AMP has announced the shortlist for its 2014 prize, narrowing down the 65-album longlist to just nine finalists. The shortlist features acts from around Australia competing to be judged the best album of 2014.

The winner will receive $30,000 in prize money at the award ceremony in March. The AMP is decided by a panel of 15 judges, including music journalists, record store owners and musicians like Urthboy, Dave Faulkner and Sam Lockwood.

The 10th Coopers AMP Shortlist is: About Face by #1 Dads, Built On Glass by Chet Faker, Gon’ Boogaloo by C.W. Stoneking, Grassed Inn by Blank Realm, Laura Jean by Laura Jean, Raw X Infi nity by Remi, Tales by The Peep Tempel, The Sleeper by Caitlin Park and Typical System by Total Control. The winner of the 10th Coopers AMP will be announced in Sydney on Wednesday March 4. thebrag.com

Xxx

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG.

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The ever-controversial Marilyn Manson has locked in Sidewaves in Brisbane and Sydney during his time in Australia for Soundwave. The shows will give fans the chance to hear Manson’s ninth studio album The Pale Emperor live, following its release this month. Joining Manson will be Finnish titans Apocalyptica and Swedish industrial rock band Deathstars.

Catch Manson on Wednesday February 25 at the Enmore Theatre.

FBi Radio has announced the winners of its annual Sydney Music Arts & Culture Awards, recognising the musicians, artists, performers, restaurants and events that helped shape the city’s culture in 2014. The 2014 SMAC of the Year Award went to Danny Rogers, who helped St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival grow into one of the country’s biggest and best-loved touring festivals. The Record of the Year gong went to The Preatures for their new album Blue Planet Eyes, and 19-year-old Montaigne has been labelled FBi’s Next Big Thing thanks to her debut EP The Life Of Montaigne. Donny Benet picked up the award for Best Live Act while Newtown Festival was hailed Best Music Event. In the arts category, the boys from The Chaser won Best Arts Program for the opening of their own theatre space, Giant Dwarf, and Tony Albert took away Best Visual Artist for his latest work We Can Be Heroes. For the full list of award winners, visit fbiradio.com.

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

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THE PALE EMPEROR RISES

FBI SMAC AWARDS

AWESOME INTERNS: Tori Bedingfield, Lachlan Mackenzie, Spencer Scott, Nicholas Hartman

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Marilyn Manson

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live & local

free stuff

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

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

five things WITH

ANNA O

Growing Up I’m the youngest of seven and we’ve all 1. played something. My dad is a saxophonist; I grew up playing trumpet with him, mostly jazz standards. He pretty much taught me everything I knew about music theory, improv and feel, et cetera, until I studied music formally. I’ve been singing as long as I remember; my musical experience growing up was such a melting pot of what my siblings were listening to, my parents’ records, Top 40, school productions, jazz standards… which is why I have a really broad spectrum of influences today.

Inspirations My favourite artists are always changing.

2.

Right now I’m loving Hozier, Jane Tyrrell, Sevdaliza and Blood Orange. Some longstanding favourites are Kimbra, Lana Del Rey, Jessie Ware and Missy Higgins. I heard Missy’s first EP when I just started high school – she saw me through my high school years and beyond!

Your Band In my band I have Nathan Woodward 3. on the drums, he was actually in my brother’s year a few years above me at school. Nath’s been working with me from day one in terms of anything Anna O, and until very recently

Shameem

Music, Right Here, Right Now I live in WA, so the only shows I’ve 5. played in Sydney were at the Oxford Art Factory and the Beresford, and they were both ace. I get inspired by the artists I tour with; last year I supported Bonjah, Thief, Bec Laughton and Thelma Plum – humble, easy to work with and a lot of fun to be around, not to mention insanely talented!

Where: Jam Gallery When: Friday January 30

SARAH MCLEOD AND MICK SKELTON

Sarah McLeod (of The Superjesus fame) has teamed up with Mick Skelton (Baby Animals) for a rockin’ tour of the east coast. They’ll be playing a bag of songs from McLeod’s solo career, as well as Superjesus hits and a few other covers.

This unstoppable road train of looseness is going to make only three stops, one of which will be on Friday February 6 at The Basement, with The Art’s KJ playing in support. Both Sarah and KJ will be celebrating their birthdays on the night, and we want you to join the party. We’ve got two double passes to give away to the show, which includes entry to soundcheck, a meet and greet with Sarah and Mick and even a slice of birthday cake (no, seriously). The first 100 ticket buyers will be in on the party too, but for the chance to get in free head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us your favourite type of cake.

purchases or donations can be made at chuffed.org.

MASS SKY RAID

Coolangatta four-piece Mass Sky Raid have announced two shows in Sydney in late March to celebrate the release of their new single ‘Enemy’. This is the band’s first release since 2013 debut EP Courage Under Fire, with the new single set to be released on Thursday March 5. Mass Sky Raid play at Studio Six on Friday March 27 alongside Red Bee, Cosmic King and All The Wise. They’re also playing at the Factory Floor on Saturday March 28 with Sydonia, I Am Duckeye and Let The Number Be X.

Starting out as a touring keyboardist and vocalist to the stars, musician Gabby Huber has been working on her solo debut as Maples, and has released new single ‘Stars’ ahead of a debut Sydney headline show. Joining her will be Alyx Dennison from the disbanded experimental pop duo Kyu and producer Alex Hoax. ‘Stars’, the first single from Maples’ forthcoming album, was co-written by The Presets’ Julian Hamilton and co-produced by Dave Symes. Maples will play Goodgod Small Club on Friday February 20.

MIKELANGELO SINGS THE HITS

Australian crooner Mikelangelo will be performing the hits of Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen this Valentine’s Day at The Vanguard. Mikelangelo has toured all around the world to big cities like New York, Paris and London, and is set to lather up the romanceready crowd with his charm and witty anecdotes in between the classics and a few of his own cuts from new album, City Of Dreams. It all happens this Saturday February 14.

GIG BUDDIES

There’s nothing more annoying than being desperate to see a gig but having nobody to

go with. Spare a thought, then, for people who fi nd it difficult through disability to attend gigs on their own. That’s where Gig Buddies comes in. The new charity launching in Sydney next month aims to link adults who have a disability with volunteers who share their interests and can take them out for social activities. The project has been successful in the UK at brightening up the lives of people suffering learning disabilities, and is calling for volunteers Down Under. Gig Buddies’ Sydney launch party is on Friday February 13 at the UNSW Roundhouse, featuring performances by Seek The Silence and Rudely Interrupted.

Visit gigbuddiessydney.org for more details on a great cause.

ROCK’N’ROLL MARKETS

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Sydney Uni’s Manning Bar is set to be transformed once again for one day in February, becoming a market dedicated to all things punk, rockabilly, alternative and rock’n’roll. The Sydney Rock N Roll & Alternative Markets boast a variety of stores and stalls, including over 50,000 vinyl records available for purchase, as well as all sorts of vintage and handmade clothing, DVDs and CDs, plus food, cafes and bars. The entertainment lineup features Sydney four-piece Gay Paris headlining, as well as Papa Pilko and the Binrats, The Satellites and The Drey Rollan Band.

It all goes down at Manning Bar on Sunday February 1.

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Gay Paris

my upcoming release follows in the same vein but with a slightly more downtempo electronic vibe – like James Blake and Jessie Ware had a musical baby. We stick close to the recorded sound for the live show with electronic beat samples, synth sounds and having all my vocal layers on a track. People comment that the live sound is bigger than my recordings, especially vocally.

MAPLES MAKES DEBUT

Perth-based pop/soul singer Shameem has announced a Sydney show as part of a national tour in support of her new album The Second City. Having recently released the single ‘Under One Sun’, the socially conscious singer worked with the Grammy Award-winning producer James Bryan to create the track, and will be bringing her songs, backed with a full band, to Sydney for the first time. Shameem plays at The Oxford Hotel on Saturday February 21.

MUSIC FOR MALAWI

The Music You Make My first EP When The Winter Came is a 4. collection of electronic indie-pop tunes, and

Maples

SHAMEEM IN TOWN

The AFAP Action On Poverty charity is set to host a micro-music festival in Sydney, raising money to allow children in Malawi access to clean drinking water. 800 million people on the planet are denied access to clean drinking water each day. The Music For Malawi event aims to help provide this basic human need to thousands of children in the African country, with all profits from the festival going towards the cause. A number of acoustic, folk and experimental acts have donated their evening including Ackers, Citizen of the World, Tabua Harrison, Ukulele Big Band, Samba Ninja and Will Maisley. Music For Malawi is on Saturday February 7 at Spectrum. Ticket

the third member of my band was a friend of mine, Simeon Nelson, but he just got a kick-arse job as a musical director so I’m the middle of a transition with my band.

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Which female singer got knocked out in a club brawl? * Which partnership split up was so severe that cops were almost called? * Has Adele’s album been delayed because the James Bond people have flown her to LA to talk about contributing to the next soundtrack? * Expect ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic to play in Australia next summer, with a team-up of Herbie

Hancock and Chick Corea some time in 2015. * A newsletter by lawyers King & Wood Mallesons noted that 5 Seconds Of Summer were refused registration of the trademark 5SOS after the Australian Trade Marks Office found it was too close to ‘SOS’ and pronunciations such as ASOS, PSOS or SOSO (yes, we know ASOS isn’t pronounced like that). Apparently the bloke who made the decision sniffed that he’d never heard of the band. * The Guardians Of The Galaxy soundtrack has sold one million

ATO SLUGS ARTISTS OVER YOUTUBE INCOME Following the Australian Tax Office’s decision to tax artists for some crowdfunding campaigns, it now says income from YouTube (and other digital sources) is taxable. It ruled, “The income the taxpayer receives from Google for their YouTube videos is a reward for providing services relating to their activities as a special professional …

Therefore, the income can form part of the taxpayer’s assessable professional income.”

NEW AGENCY LAUNCHES ON THE SOUTH COAST Run & Rejoice is a new agency based on the NSW South Coast. It books bands for venues such as Captains at Mariners in Batemans Bay, provides a web development service for indie bands and music businesses, and assists touring agencies in getting touring visas for international acts. It is run by Skylar Kyu and Tom Roberts. For more info, visit runandrejoice.com.au.

LIVE NATION BUYS U2 MANAGEMENT COMPANIES Live Nation has bought two U2-associated management firms for US$30 million.

They are Paul McGuinness’ Principle

copies in the US. * Jai Waetford, who’s had 15 million total views on his YouTube channel, looks set to add to that figure. The video for his new single ‘Shy’, featuring blogger Kimmi Smiles, had 80,000 views in the first two days of going live. * Two Dead Kennedys fans who had sex onstage during a San Diego show could face criminal charges. But so far no-one has made a complaint. * Shazam is now worth US$1 billion. * During Sydney band Bonney Read’s nine-date tour of the

Management (which looked after the band until 2013) and current manager Guy Oseary’s Maverick, which also looks after Madonna. Principle, now Evergreen Ventures, is winding down operations after a decline in profits of €1.9 million over the past four years.

THE HOODOO GURUS’ MARK KINGSMILL RETIRING The Hoodoo Gurus have announced that their drummer of 30 years, Mark Kingsmill, is retiring at the end of March. They explained he has “had enough of this vagabond rock’n’roll lifestyle we all lead”. Kingsmill advised the band some months ago. The Gurus will replace him, but Dave Faulkner said, “Trust us, we will not settle for anything less than someone we feel is a perfect fit.”

VENUES NSW REPORTS $7.8M LOSS Venues NSW, the NSW Government agency that runs four of the state’s sports and entertainment stadiums, reported a $7.77 million loss in its 2014 annual report. It made a profit of $3.78 million the year before. The four venues are Parramatta’s Pirtek Stadium, Hunter Stadium (Newcastle), WIN Sports and Entertainment Centre (Wollongong) and the Newcastle Entertainment Centre

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Philippines in March, they will work with Gawad Kalinga (GK), an organisation dedicated to helping the poverty-stricken build sustainable communities, and Joomajam, which provides the GK community preschools with quality education. Band member Kat Ayala grew up there. They’ll do a fundraiser for their trip on Thursday February 12 at Spectrum, with Stellar Addiction and Soul Kitchen. * Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo has a problem with his fan mail. For some odd reason, he says, he keeps getting gifts meant for Incubus’ Brandon Boyd.

and Showground. Revenue from events dropped from $14.25 million in 201213 to $13.71 million in the last financial year. The reasons given were increasing competition from wineries for rock acts, more sporting events opting for larger venues and the failure of venues to get naming rights sponsors. But Venues NSW recorded a surplus of $920,000 on day-today operations, compared with the previous year’s loss of $781,000. Its chairman John Quayle said, “Our success remains in the ability of the venues to be multi-use, and through attracting and retaining a range of high-quality events.”

TRIPLE J UNEARTHED LAUNCHES SOUNDWAVE COMP Triple j Unearthed is looking for an unsigned act to join the Soundwave lineup at all its shows in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane in February and March. Upload your best tracks at triplejunearthed.com by Sunday February 8 to be in the hat.

AUSSIES LISTEN TO MORE RADIO THAN EVER BEFORE Figures from Commercial Radio Australia claim Australians in the five capital cities are tuning into commercial radio more than ever. The biggest growth came from the 25-to-39 age group, of which 80% of people listen to commercial radio. Last year a cumulative 10.1 million people tuned in each week, up 4.13% from 2013. Over 7.3 million listened to weekday breakfast, 6.8 million during drive time and 4.2 million from 7pm to midnight. Three million people listen to digital radio weekly.

NEW SITE FOR RABBITS EAT LETTUCE? Erik Lamir-Pike and Shane Lowe, promoters of the six-year-old EDM festival Rabbits Eat Lettuce, are adamant the three-day event will be staged over Easter, but in a new location. There was a drama two weekends ago when police stopped a ‘taster’ event on private land in Ebor, Coffs Harbour after council delivered an injunction saying it had not given permission for the event to go ahead. Organisers claimed the local police chief had a “personal vendetta” against their events.

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Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ has gone six times platinum and her ‘Lips Are Movin’ double platinum. Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ has gone five times platinum and ‘Blank Space’ has achieved its third. Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Timmy Trumpet’s ‘Freaks’ have gone four times platinum, and Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ triple platinum. Hozier’s ‘Take Me To Church’ and Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full Of Stars’ have gone platinum for a second time.

Earning their first platinum accreditation are Nicki Minaj’s ‘Bed Of Lies’, Charli XCX’s ‘Break The Rules’, Will Sparks’ ‘Ah Yeah So What’, Omi’s ‘Cheerleader’ (Felix Jaehn remix) and Jeremih’s ‘Don’t Tell ’Em’.

Going gold are Lorde’s ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’, Clean Bandit & Jess Glynne’s ‘Real Love’, Yolanda Be Cool & DCup’s ‘Sugar Man’, Ariana Grande’s ‘Love Me Harder’, Parra For Cuva’s ‘Wicked Games’, James Bay’s ‘Hold Back The River’ and James Newton Howard’s ‘The Hanging Tree’.

Of albums, Guns N’ Roses’ Greatest Hits has gone eight times platinum, with Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Frozen gaining their fourth.

Chet Faker’s Built On Glass went platinum.

The Eagles’ Selected Works, Alt-J’s This Is All Yours and Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga’s Cheek To Cheek have struck gold.

Lifelines Born: twins Billy and Betty to singer David Campbell and wife Lisa. This makes Jimmy Barnes a grandfather yet again.

Divorcing: Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore after six years.

Injured: The Vamps guitarist James McVey is only doing backup vocals on their Australian tour, prohibited from playing guitar for two months after wrist surgery.

Injured: Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington badly injured his leg, forcing the band to cancel the rest of its US tour.

Injured: Sydney band Lepers & Crooks’ singer Sam Baker split his head open at a gig at the Beach Road Hotel after he hit guitarist Alex Court’s axe. He continued the gig with blurred vision and blood streaming down his head.

In Court: an American jury found that Aussie expat Rick Springfield did not injure a woman at a New York show when he fell into the audience. Vicki Calcagno, 45, sued claiming his behind hit her head, causing lasting injuries.

In Court: The Beastie Boys lawyers who represented the band when it sued the maker of the Monster Energy drink for copyright infringements are asking a court to declare that Monster Energy should pay their US$2.4 million legal bill.

Beastie Boys were awarded $1.7 million by a jury for the original copyright violation.

In Court: 18-year-old Irish tourist Hugh McMahon faced Southport Magistrates Court over an incident where after being thrown out of Sin City nightclub in Surfers Paradise twice the same night, he tried to sneak back in through the roof. He got stuck, and had to call the QLD fire department. He pleaded guilty to four charges, was fined $900 and must pay $1,700 for damage to the club’s roof and the nonessential call-out of the QLD Fire and Rescue Service.

In Court: UK folkie Roy Harper denied charges he abused an 11-year-old girl in the ’70s and a 16-year-old in the ’80s.

Arrested: a 39-year-old Israeli man suspected of hacking into Madonna’s computer and leaking her new album Rebel Heart.

Sued: Disclosure and AlunaGeorge are denying as “completely false” claims in a lawsuit by songwriter Katie Farrah Sopher that she wrote the words for ‘Latch’, ‘White Noise’, ‘You And Me’ and ‘Attracting Files’.

Died: Edgar Froese, founder and keyboardist of Tangerine Dream and electronic music pioneer, from a pulmonary embolism, aged 70. He showcased at last year’s Melbourne Music Week discussing strategies for independent music.

Died: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Van Morrison drummer Dallas Taylor, 66. In the mid-’70s he quit music and became a drug counsellor.

Died: A$AP Yams, 26, founder of hip hop collective ASAP Mob. Harlem-bred Yams (Steven Rogriguez), A$AP Bari, A$AP Illz and A$AP Rocky were determined to “ride in on our own wave” and landed a major deal. He was in rehab last year for struggles with codeine and Xanax.

Died: John Sundahl, who dated Britney Spears in 2007 after meeting at an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, died at 44 after his helicopter was reportedly shot down by a Taliban missile in Kabul, Afghanistan.

BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 9

THE WAY THEY DO IT

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY

D

Jurassic 5

espite its ability to sell in large quantities, mainstream pop music typically earns a lowly rating from the critics. Its endeavour is to ingratiate listeners, rather than provide a challenging and thought-provoking listening experience. But perhaps this issue isn’t as serious as it’s often made out to be – critical opinions are somewhat arbitrary anyhow.

And while many artists’ careers are defined by their commercial fortunes, others have different priorities in mind.

Los Angeles hip hop sextet Jurassic 5 originally split up in 2007. They left behind four records, all of which gathered fervent interest from listeners across the globe.

The group’s commercial success actually kept growing as their years together went on, but they never ascended to chart-conquering superstardom. Ahead of Jurassic 5’s forthcoming Australian return, one of the group’s four MCs, Chali 2na, tells the BRAG that dominating the mainstream was never their chief priority.

Looking back now, Jurassic 5 are responsible for a classy body of work. Each of the group’s vocalists has a uniquely distinctive flow, but in a manner akin to the Beastie Boys or Wu-Tang Clan, they weave together with fortifying effect. On top of this, having in their rank two of the craftiest and smoothest DJs

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“I don’t want to make bubblegum music, where they take the wrapper off, chew out the flavour, when the flavour’s gone, they ready for the new song,” says 2na. “It has no real nutritional value. It doesn’t mean anything to the body as a whole, it’s just something to pass the time. I don’t want to be that. I want to be something that lasts.”

Speaking of making it last, in 2013 J5 regrouped for a tour celebrating their 20th anniversary. They’ve since toured the globe many times over, proving their music still resounds with longtime fans and appeals to stacks of previously uninitiated listeners. Additionally, last year the reunited Jurassic 5 dropped a brand new single, ‘The Way We Do It’. The track – which prominently samples The White Stripes’ ‘My Doorbell’ – illustrates that the six-piece hasn’t lost the knack for making tough, intelligent and feel-good music.

It’s now nearly a year on from the release of ‘The Way We Do It’, and despite J5’s ongoing live commitments, no more new material has surfaced.

“Something’s going to happen, we just don’t know exactly what,” says 2na. “I can’t really speak for whether or not we’re going to record. Maybe we want to keep it a secret [from] the journalists for a second. You never know…”

While 2na equivocates his way around talk of fresh recordings, he doesn’t hesitate to elaborate on the group’s broader agenda. “We want to make the brand grow,” he says.

“So whatever it takes to make the brand which is Jurassic 5 [grow] – not just the music, but the whole thing of it all. At this particular moment we’re having fun trying to give the fans what we do best, which is the show.”

This mission sends the group back to Australia in April for what will be 2na’s second Bluesfest appearance in a row. J5’s reunion campaign began at Coachella and they’ve subsequently made a habit of showing up at stacks of the world’s biggest music festivals. While festival gigs frustrate certain artists due to potential crowd indifference, J5 value this opportunity to spread their gospel.

“We’ve always been about touring the world and performing and trying to bring our brand of music, from a live perspective, to our fans and to new, prospective fans,” 2na says. “Speaking of prospective fans, there are people who haven’t seen us before, but maybe have heard about us – maybe they haven’t heard about us – but once they see us, they want to know more about us. What better place could that take place but at one of these humongous festivals?

“From the festivals in England and America, to the festivals down

there like the Byron Bay situation, these places breed opportunities for us to present our show to new potential fans, whether they be young or old. It’s most important for us to continue to pop up at these major events. Meeting the people at these new shows, new fans that have stumbled on our music and appreciate it from a different perspective – it’s beautiful to be able to still mean just as much to those people as we did to the fans that were there from the start.”

As we’ve already acknowledged, punching out skyscraping hits wasn’t what built Jurassic 5’s global profile. Rather, they always looked to create music that would defy the limitations of context. The fact that plenty of new listeners have enthusiastically latched onto J5 in the last couple of years further emphasises the enduring quality of the group’s releases.

Even though this is what the band aimed to achieve from the get-go, 2na is somewhat incredulous that the music has stood the test of time.

“I’m always amazed at that,” he says. “I’m happy that we had the foresight to think, ‘OK, let’s try to make music that can transcend time, that can be as good 20 years, 30 years down the line.’ You have to think about people like Earth, Wind & Fire or Stevie Wonder; all these different artists that we consider great nowadays, whose

“I DON’T WANT TO MAKE BUBBLEGUM MUSIC, WHERE THEY TAKE THE WRAPPER OFF, CHEW OUT THE FLAVOUR, WHEN THE FLAVOUR’S GONE, THEY READY FOR THE NEW SONG. IT HAS NO REAL NUTRITIONAL VALUE.”

music has the same effect, if not more so, to what it did when it first was created and was first pushed out to the public. I want to make that kind of music.”

When Jurassic 5 broke up in 2007, the members embarked on a number of separate projects.

Notably, 2na kicked off a solo career, which has given rise to the Fish Outta Water LP and two instalments in the Against The Current EP series, while Cut Chemist enacted a fruitful collaboration with DJ Shadow, with whom he still regularly tours.

In spite of these (and a variety of other) endeavours, getting back together wasn’t a major struggle.

“We have never stabbed each other in the heart while we were asleep or stolen money from each other,” 2na says. “Ain’t nobody slept with nobody’s wives. We’re a pretty functional group of people.

It’s love. It ain’t never anything that can’t be resolved with a civilised conversation. We ain’t no dudes who try to front like we the most perfect people, but we not sitting up here trying to act like our lives is a shamble. God has blessed us.

I feel like we’re defi nitely grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to us every day.”

What: Bluesfest 2015 With: The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Alabama Shakes, Train, Rodrigo y Gabriela and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6 And: Also appearing at Newcastle Panthers on Thursday March 26 and the Enmore Theatre on Saturday March 28

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Jurassic 5 photo by Baron Walton

“I always felt like you don’t choose the people who like you, they choose you,” he says. “So if we’re popular, we’re popular. If we not, then we’re not. If we have a platinum record, it’s because that’s what’s meant to happen and people like us like that. If we don’t, we don’t.”

in the biz gives the recorded output even greater distinction.

Steel Panther

“When you come and see us, it’s not like we’re faking it. We love heavy metal, we love to have a good time and we love chicks.”

Beg, Borrow And Steel By David James Young

W

hat springs to mind when one thinks of Steel Panther?

Is it the drugs? The women?

The guitar solos? The impeccably preened hair? How about boy bands? Probably not. Still, worlds collided during the Panther’s latest world tour in support of their fourth studio album, All You Can Eat.

Steel Panther photo by David Jackson

“We flew to London to do a BBC Radio 1 thing, and then we did this special acoustic show while we were there,” explains Michael Starr, the band’s lead singer. “The guys from 5 Seconds Of Summer actually ended up coming to our show.

Apparently, they’re big Steel Panther fans. I was like, ‘Really? This Disney band are Steel Panther fans?!’ We called out to them while we were onstage, we tried to get them to come up and join us. They didn’t do it, but afterward I sought them out. I just wanted to know if they wanted to do some cocaine. Everyone wants to know why Panther is hangin’ out with 5 Seconds Of Summer? Because they like to party and they like pussy. You put those two together and you got a common bond.”

The celebrity stories don’t stop there. Starr leaps from anecdote to anecdote in a single bound, rolling right into the next famous person who turned out to be a Panther fan – as well as someone who is much more reflective of the band’s ethos.

“We ran into Jack Black while we were touring in Japan,” he says.

“We were both in the same hotel – I think he was playing a show with [Tenacious] D or something – and we both ended up at the same club that night. Jack is the same dude that you see onstage or on the screen. That’s just like us – we’re the same guys. People always talk about how we’re jokin’ around, talking about tits and ass – that’s

who we are! When you come and see us, it’s not like we’re faking it.

We love heavy metal, we love to have a good time and we love chicks.”

Enjoying some strong sales on the back of All You Can Eat – including a peak at number two on the album charts in Australia – the band took time off over the Christmas and New Year period to have a muchneeded break. Contrary to what you may believe, a Steel Panther Christmas isn’t as wild as one would expect. As a matter of fact, it’s relatively normal – well, maybe the better turn of phrase is ‘comparatively’.

at Soundwave in late February and early March. It’s less a story of inspiration and more a matter of just straight up stealing an idea – and Starr’s exceptionally proud of that fact. “We were on tour with Priest for about seven weeks,” he says. “I watched Rob [Halford] sing every single night, and he is just amazing.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I stole a lot from him. He does a lot – he walks a lot! He’ll walk to the left, to the right, to the drum riser, back to the front. I started doing that, and it really gets you going. I’ve added it to my repertoire.”

“The holidays were totally killer!” reports Starr. “I went to see my mum and my dad, we opened some presents and then we sat down and watched a Steel Panther DVD.” Wait… seriously? “I like to catch my parents up on what’s going on with the Panther,” he says. “They don’t really go on the internet, so when I get them onto YouTube it’s like another TV station to them. I’ll show them us playing in Australia, I’ll show them footage from our arena tour… after a while, though, I’ll get sick of watching myself, so I’ll sub in some Van Halen or some Iron Maiden. I love watching these dudes that have perfected their trade.”

Steel Panther have shared the stage with some iconic rock names in their time, including Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Def Leppard.

Sure, it’s clear to anyone with half a brain that the band is faithfully sending up the lifestyle that these groups actually had at the height of their success. Even so, Starr makes sure that everyone is on the same page. Besides, Steel Panther aren’t laughing at them. It’s with them.

While we’ve got Starr in the proverbial confession booth, he throws in another admission. “I’ve also stolen Steve Tyler’s mic stand,” he says. “He gets fucking stands sent to him every day! The girl that does wardrobe for Aerosmith also does wardrobe for us when she’s not on tour with them, so I knew exactly where to get it.”

“The best thing about getting to see all these veteran bands and these classic bands is that I get to learn from them,” he says. I get to take something that they’ve done and interpret it with my own body. It comes out different, but still the idea was born out of watching and learning. You gotta do that, man.

People that have seen us before

want a new and improved Steel Panther. I gotta deliver! I’m taking notes, I got myself a clipboard, I’m working towards bettering ourselves.”

Without prompting, Starr launches into another story. This one involves the legendary Judas Priest, alongside whom Panther will appear

What: Soundwave Festival 2015 With: Faith No More, The Smashing Pumpkins, Incubus, Slipknot, Fall Out Boy and many more Where: Sydney Olympic Park When: Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1 And: Also appearing with Slash at the Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday February 24

The Smashing Pumpkins The Voices In Your Head By Adam Norris an unexpectedly deep voice.

“Somebody said the other day, ‘Your recent work doesn’t sound like your past work,’ and yeah, so it shouldn’t!

But then you’ll hear in the next breath, ‘I hear echoes of the past,’ and, well, that’s also true. It’s the same person, it’s the same teeth that the sound is passing through.

[On new album Monuments To An Elegy] the only intention was to try to make contemporary music.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to be connected to contemporary music because I don’t like it, and there’s a part of me that acknowledges that living in that world, well, maybe I need to be.”

Though Corgan’s voice is still unmistakable, it is now much richer – pleasantly weathered. While voice is intrinsic to identity, most of us are never going to be particularly conscious of how it develops, despite being one of the strongest hallmarks of who we are and how others come to know us. How strange it must feel to Corgan, stumbling across his earlier self while waiting at traffic lights or walking into a supermarket.

I

still remember how we met. A friend’s backyard, schnapps from the bottle, jumping from balconies.

And thrumming over it all, the ominous, disaffected observation that the world is a vampire. It was unlike anything we had heard before.

We knew grunge, of course – these were the days when Eddie Vedder ruled the known musical world – we knew rock, pop, punk. But

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with Mellon Collie And The Infi nite Sadness, the schoolyard soundtrack went entirely off the rails. The Smashing Pumpkins made music that just didn’t seem to fit anywhere else, and we flattered ourselves that in this regard it was music made for us.

“I have to say, it all feels like an unfolding story,” Billy Corgan says in

“Well, I never wanted to be a singer, I think that’s where the answer starts. I couldn’t hear the notes in my head, so I had to work out the melody on the guitar and then try to sing like the guitar. So from the early work on, you’re hearing someone who doesn’t like his voice and is trying to find a way to use it in a unique way. After Mellon Collie, I wanted to move into different work but I reached a point where as a composer I was becoming frustrated with the singer in me. So that began a very different journey. Can I actually sing complex melodies in a way that has control, that has

authorship? And that’s been a really long journey for me. Trying to learn how to sing in a way that I’m controlling the vocals, the vocals aren’t controlling me.”

The difficulties Corgan has faced in having these lyrics realised is a concern that never strays far from the conversation. Given the fervour with which his fans pull apart the meanings and connections within each release, it’s little wonder. You feel that in another life, he could quite happily have been a writer.

“I should have been an author. I’m a voracious reader, one of those people who know a lot about nothing. I do find that there are certain writers that when I come into contact with their work, it makes me want to try better. People like Bob Dylan or Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, writers that ask you to re-examine the comfort you have with your language. Have you ever read any Burroughs?”

I have, and outside of Burroughs’ writing, it has always been my ambition to emulate his art techniques; to make a hallway of canvas lined with spray-paint cans, and then fire a shotgun down the middle.

“Ha, I actually have one of those shotgun paintings. It was a gift from a former lover. I wasn’t crazy about it, but you know, I loved him and so it works for me. But Burroughs had that concept of the word virus. He talked about how certain cultures don’t have certain words, say, the word ‘jealousy’ for example. And then a particular word can get into somebody’s system and just rumble around. He showed me we have a standard comfort in the way we use

language, and by juxtaposing certain lyrical images you can create a kind of violence. You can have the same three words, but if you put the third one first, the first word second, that’s suddenly violent in the sense of how you would ordinarily hear them.”

While it’s a fascinating approach to songwriting, it’s difficult to imagine many contemporary mainstream artists adopting Burroughs’ linguistic preoccupations.

“I mean, look,” he laughs, “pop music, by and large, is dumb. It’s just getting them out to the dancefloor.

And there’s a joy to that. It doesn’t mean you have to get sucked into all its bullshit, but there is a certain joy to the right track on the right day. But I just don’t think I have the same enthusiasm for it. When I finally do break from it all, which will probably be sooner rather than later, people will be surprised because the language on the other music that I want to do is vastly different to my usual work. It doesn’t sound like the Pumpkins, and that’s not so much me trying to be different – I just am different. A different language, which I know doesn’t really have a place in pop music at all.”

What: Monuments To An Elegy out now through Martha’s Music/ Cooking Vinyl Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Wednesday February 25 And: Also appearing alongside Faith No More, Soundgarden, Slipknot, Slash, Marilyn Manson and many more at Soundwave Festival 2015, Sydney Olympic Park, Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1

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Mariachi El Bronx Two Heads Are Better Than One By Adam Norris It sounds like a vivid, if ominous location to throw a party (and yes, rudimentary research does indeed confirm that people died in that pool back in the day). While Caughthran is presumably not a haunted being himself, the duality of The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx’s music and the energy of their performance does pique your interest about where this story began.

“It came from boredom, really. I grew up in a Mexican neighbourhood and was surrounded by that culture, music. But I’d never taken a real dive into it. After the third Bronx record we were just feeling a little bored, and were getting these cool TV spots that wanted Bronx to do acoustic songs, and we’re not an acoustic band. We didn’t want to turn this stuff down, but at the same time we didn’t want to be boring and typical. We figured, ‘Well, if we’re going to do acoustic stuff, how can we shake it up?’

Mariachi was the answer. When we started it, it was just covering a Bronx song with mariachi rhythms, syncopations. But it turned into this thing that was just really fun. And what did we have to lose? It became this insane, inspiring thing that we’d really stumbled upon out of nowhere. I know people had messed around in it, but doing original mariachi tunes in English, it’s pretty unique. Especially coming from a fucking punk band.”

M

ariachi El Bronx are a strange beast, and though their upcoming Australian tour is far from their first, mariachi culture remains a genre that few local audiences are familiar with. The band’s music is vibrant and unexpected, blending traditional mariachi flourishes with evocative, often dark English lyrics. Mariachi El Bronx straddle the line between cultures like they’re riding a pantomime horse, which is even more apt since their alter ego happens to be LA punk outfit The Bronx. Leading audiences along that strange overlap has become a staple of their live performance, and has in turn seen the band play some rather unusual venues.

“There’s a gay club in Milwaukee where Jeffrey Dahmar used to go and pick up victims,” says frontman Matt Caughthran.

“This five-storey building, The Rave. It’s super old and super creepy, it’s got this ballroom on the very top with all of these other clubs and weird places throughout it. But underneath, the creepiest part, there’s this giant drained pool. This crazy fucking ghost pool room you hang out in, and there’s all this wild graffiti.

The whole building is just fucking creepy as shit. That’s the most haunted venue we’ve played. We’ve played the Queen Mary [in California], which is kind of fake haunted. But this place was the real deal.”

Turning back to the contents page in the Great Book of Music, punk and mariachi are at a pretty great remove, although most everyone can identify with the desire to drop whatever it is you’re doing and run in the other direction.

Not out of defeat, necessarily, but in the yearning for something new, something you might return from with a greater perspective.

The prospect of seeing Caughthran explore a third musical avenue, however, is slim.

“You know,” he considers, “finding something that’s that opposite of the other two, I don’t think so. I think those are both pretty opposite ends of the spectrum, so if we just concentrate on experimenting within those two realms I think we’ll get everything we need to get out of music, life, creativity. All of that stuff. For us it’s not about creating something from nothing every time. We love The Bronx, we love

Mariachi El Bronx, and they both allow us to be creative in different ways. Mariachi El Bronx was a search; we needed something else. And now that we have it, there’s not really that need.

I think we’ll probably keep it in those two ballparks.”

The success of both bands now sees them touring worldwide, so even finding the time for a third genre might be asking too much.

Mariachi El Bronx will soon be touching down for Bluesfest followed by a national tour, and all this after a huge run of UK and US dates. It’s a sprawling tour, but despite the occasional burst of illness and bone-shattering cold, Caughthran insists it’s all worth it.

“I didn’t grow up fucking dirt poor, but we were lower middle-class with the expectation that my world was going to be California. I certainly never expected to get out of the United States.

I preach to people to get out and travel, because what it does to your mind is so beautiful. The worst part, well, one thing I know for sure is that being sick on the road fucking sucks. It’s just fucking terrible. You do get homesick every now and then, but it’s a hard thing to complain about because that’s what you’ve signed up for. Sometimes your body breaks down, and when that happens, you’ve got a hundred and four fever, fucking strep throat, it’s fucking two degrees in fucking Montreal, and everyone’s speaking French and you can’t find a fucking doctor, and you’ve got a fucking show at nine o’clock and there are fucking low ticket sales. That shit, every now and then, just makes you cry, ‘Jesus Fucking Christ!’ But lucky for us, those times don’t happen too often. You can’t complain, right?”

What: Mariachi El Bronx III out now through White Drugs/Cooking Vinyl Where: Metro Theatre When: Tuesday April 7 And: Also appearing alongside The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Alabama Shakes, Train and many more at Bluesfest 2015, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6

The Decemberists Worlds Away By David James Young

I

t was extremely late in the game of 2014 when The Decemberists announced their imminent return after a lengthy period out in the proverbial wilderness. They got in early for 2015 with the January release of their seventh studio album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. There may have been a degree of uncertainty among fans as to whether the Portland indie rockers’ break would extend into a permanent vacation, but they’re quick to put it to rest that such an idea was ever the case.

“We’d been going at it for ten years or whatever, pretty consistently releasing records and touring,” elaborates Colin Meloy, the band’s lead singer, guitarist and chief songwriter. “It felt like a good time to slip away from it and focus on other projects. I had been working on these books, the Wildwood Chronicles, with my wife. I wanted to focus on those and be a writer for a little bit. It was a matter of sowing other creative oats. We always knew that we would come back to it eventually.”

What A Terrible World sees the songwriting take a shift into the introspective, which is a world away – fittingly enough – from the band’s ‘normal’ subject matter of barrow boys, mariners, trapeze artists and architects. Was it a matter of Meloy quote-unquote ‘growing up’ in this sense? Or was it just down to the context in which the album was written? As it turns out, it’s a little from column A and a little from column B. “I think that my interests and my fascinations shift and change over time,” he says. “Working on the books, oddly enough, seemed to satisfy my narrative urge. I noticed that the songs I was writing while I 12 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

was writing the books tended to be less about an outside narrative and character-based stuff and more meditations on myself. If anything, writing the books kind of led me away from overtly narrative stuff.

Then again, after I was done writing the books, the last two songs that I wrote for the record ended up being more narrative again. There might be a connection there, who knows?”

The Decemberists’ previous release came all the way back in 2011 with the album The King Is Dead. It too saw the band taking on a more realistic approach that served as a far cry from the hyper-literacy of earlier LPs such as Picaresque and The Crane Wife. “The King Is Dead was more or less a reaction to me having written The Hazards Of Love,” explains Meloy. “It was coming at a period of time when I was in somewhat of a darker mood, and when we were touring Hazards I began to get the inclination to start writing ‘pretty’ songs, for lack of a better term. Something a little more simple, something to sing along to.”

Would Meloy consider, then, that What A Terrible Word was written in reaction to The King Is Dead? “Not quite,” he says. “There’s probably more in common than you’d think.”

Fans were alerted to the band’s return with the release of the single ‘Make You Better’, which was coupled with an exceptional music video starring the wonderful Nick Offerman – better known to the world as Pawnee native Ron Swanson – doing a fake accent.

“We were invited to be on the season finale of Parks And Recreation,” Meloy says. “We had connections with Parks And Rec because Michael Schur, the show’s creator, and his crew were actually behind our video for ‘Calamity Song’. We met Nick through doing

that, and I think we were kindred spirits. I’ve been a long-time admirer of his work, so I called him up and asked how good his German accent was. He responded, ‘That’s a very personal question.’ Very Nick, right?”

Touring is very much underway for What A Terrible World, and it looks set to take The Decemberists all across the world in support of it – including, yes, Down Under. Meloy warns, however, that their arrival may take a little longer than some fans had hoped for. “I think we’re talking about putting something together for early next year,” he says. “It may well be in the works now.”

No Decemberists until 2016? This is an outrage! “Sorry!” he replies. “At the very least, it’ll be summertime by the time we get there.”

Talk turns to the last time the band came out to Australia, in support of The Hazards Of Love. “My memory of the last time we were in Australia was constantly following Passion Pit at the Big Day Out,” he says.

“Passion Pit were massive at the time, and they had these massive crowds of people pumping their fists, girls getting on their boyfriends’ shoulders, hands in the air, just raving away. We’d be psyched by that, thinking we’d have the same

sort of thing... and then we’d have maybe ten people in front of our side of the stage.”

Still, it’s not as if The Decemberists were ever hoping to fit into the festival realm – let’s not forget that half of the band’s 40-minute set in Sydney was taken up by the epic 18-minute single ‘The Tain’. “Wait, wait, wait...” Meloy interrupts. There’s a beat, before he asks in bewilderment: “We played ‘The Tain’?!”

What: What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World out now through Capitol/EMI

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Kitty, Daisy & Lewis Three Of A Kind By Garry Westmore

I

n a day and age where, for some, using analogue technology is somehow a kind of status symbol, we’re pretty sure you can’t beat London’s Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – the trio of siblings who still record on tape. On their upcoming third album, the aptly named Kitty, Daisy & Lewis The Third, they’ve doubled their recording capability.

“We used a 16-track recorder instead of an eight-track,” says Kitty, the youngest of the Durham family siblings. “We wanted to up our game and get more channels, and I think for this record we all kind of knew that we could put together a bigger sound, a bigger production I guess. We just wanted to add more stuff, like a string section. If we had just eight channels we would have run out!”

As a result, the trio’s third outing is a notably fuller-sounding record, with strings and horns in abundance yet subtly placed behind the chief instruments. The taut musicianship and songwriting sees it traverse genres like country (‘Whiskey’, ‘Bitchin’ In The Kitchen’), R&B (‘Feeling Of Wonder’), blues (‘Good Looking Woman’) and even reggae on the thoroughly enjoyable ‘Turkish Delight’.

“When we did the overdubs we kind of had in mind what we were going to do,” says Kitty, “but then we came up with some new parts which, in a way, transferred some of the tracks, writing new bits in.”

And though their producer Mick Jones (of The Clash fame) has been overseeing records since the early ’80s, the old recording gear took some getting used to. “I think he was a bit blown away, because today he’s used to

working with computers – that’s kind of what he knows – and obviously when you’re working like we do you can’t add in bit later on a computer, you just have to get it right, get all the overdubs right.

He got used to that quite quickly – we were like, ‘No, you can’t go on a laptop afterwards!’”

Rather than being snobbish, there’s something endearing about how Kitty, Daisy & Lewis go about recording – an approach probably infl uenced by their growing up in a musical household where instruments and records were always being played. “We grew up playing music,” says Kitty. “A lot of it was rock’n’roll and all that – my mum, she was always well into music. She never did it professionally but she was in a band when she was younger – she’s got a pretty big collection of loads of different kinds of music, so we were always just listening to everything at home.”

Even as early as their teenage years, the siblings were performing together. Their knack for music raised questions early on as to what to do about their schooling, as Kitty explains. “By the time it got to me [graduating high school], the band had reached a stage where it was like, ‘We may as well carry on with this, it seems to be going well.’”

Indeed, two days after Kitty fi nished her exams, they were off to do a tour of the US with Coldplay. “We were thrown in the deep end!” she admits. “But it was really incredible. Obviously being at school we weren’t able to tour, it was just gigs on the weekend.

But now it’s a full-time job, which is great because we all love doing it.”

In the years since their self-titled album of 2008, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis have come into their own.

When they started out, they were pigeonholed somewhat, defi ned by the 1940s retro aesthetic that dominated their album design and marketing material – all pinned-up hair, wartime dresses and black-and-white photography.

Nowadays, they seem much freer to be who they are and not necessarily prescribe themselves to a particular look.

“The whole retro thing, it was weird,” says Kitty. “We play all kinds of music and it was a little frustrating people latched onto

one kind of aspect of that. With this album, we didn’t say, ‘We’ll do this or do that’ or ‘We’ll go in that direction’ – everything just happened and unfolded as we went along. I think the music and songwriting came first … it’s literally just us writing about shit we’ve been through. We’ve all kind of grown up really.”

Though it’s been a while between records, with their last album Smoking In Heaven coming out in 2011, Kitty insists their time was spent effectively, making sure they got it right. The band rehearsed for fi ve months before heading into the studio to produce the

12 tracks for the record – there were 13 written, but Jones was superstitious about having 13 tracks.

“It’s special to us,” says Kitty of the album. “We haven’t released anything for a long time.” And nor have they toured Australia for some time. “At some point we’re going to come back and do some more gigs. It’s just fi nding s ome time to do it. I can’t wait – I love playing in Australia, it’s brilliant.”

What: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis The Third out Friday January 30 through Sunday Best/Shock

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First Aid Kit Heart Of Gold By David James Young

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orning has broken in Stockholm, native city for sibling troubadours First Aid Kit. “I just woke up!” says the elder of the two sisters, vocalist/ keyboardist Johanna Söderberg.

Her voice is hazy, occasionally mumbled, but she seems happy and sure of herself, which serves as a welcome contrast from not that long ago. The band’s third studio album, Stay Gold, dropped around the middle of 2014, receiving a strong critical reception and an even stronger commercial one on its way to cracking the top ten in five different countries. Even with this considered, the Söderbergs knew it was always going to take a lot of work to follow up their previous album, 2012’s The Lion’s Roar. The weight of expectation, says Johanna, could have broken them – but they made a point of not letting it.

“We tried not to think about it,” she says. “You’ve got to write for yourself – if you don’t do that, you’re going to lose your creative spark. It was really tough, though – there was a block of time where we thought there may not even be an album. We kind of just had to let go and not think too much about it. I can’t think of a particular moment where it turned around, but it took a lot of time. We thought that if we didn’t finish it then and there, we’d never get it done – it was something that we did for ourselves more than anything.”

Stay Gold was what took the Söderbergs around the world yet again, touring through 2014 in support of the record. Some of the more left-of-centre highlights of their year, however, came from more unexpected places. Having already performed on television for the big guns – David Letterman, Jools Holland, Conan O’Brien – there was only really one more mountain left to climb: Ellen DeGeneres.

“It was amazing,” gushes Johanna on First Aid Kit’s first-ever visit

to the world-famous eponymous morning talk show. “Ellen heard us on the radio in her car – that’s how we got on the show. She asked for us to come on the show while we were on our US tour, and it all came together with really short notice. I can’t believe how sweet she was to us. She was watching our soundcheck in her pyjamas!

It’s a very big show, but I think the crowd really got into it.” They all went home with a copy of Stay Gold, right? “That’s right!” Johanna laughs.

The sisters have started 2015 by getting the backs of their heads licked. No, really – just last week, First Aid Kit were featured on a series of limited-edition postage stamps in Sweden. It may seem a bizarre thing to even discuss, but it’s just – pardon the pun – part and parcel of Swedish pop culture, according to Johanna. “We were just asked, and we said yes,” she says nonchalantly. “It was that simple! We do a lot of fun stamps in Sweden – we have soccer players and pop stars. That’s how we roll! We haven’t seen the actual physical ones yet, but the designs look amazing. It’s going to be so weird to lick one of those for the first time.”

In other First Aid Kit news, Wild, the new movie starring Reese Witherspoon, has just hit cinemas here in Australia. If you do make it along to a screening, make sure you listen out for a musical appearance from the band. As part of the film’s soundtrack, the Söderbergs were asked to cover a relatively obscure track by R.E.M. The song is called ‘Walk Unafraid’, from R.E.M.’s 1998 album Up – a record, it must be mentioned, that was released when guitarist Klara Söderberg was all of five years old.

“I hadn’t really listened to R.E.M. at all,” confesses Johanna, “but they approached us and we somehow made it work. The original version

of the song has a very different feel compared to the way that we ended up doing it. It was quite a challenge, actually. It’s a tricky song, but I think we incorporated it into our style.” Surely covering the legendary US band would have sparked a further investigation into its 30-year-plus canon of work?

“No, actually!” Johanna replies with a nervous laugh. “I mean, I know their famous songs from when I was a kid, but I don’t really know all that much more. Maybe I should look into them?”

March will see the sisters back in Australia once again. As well as

appearances at Golden Plains and WOMADelaide, they will take in some of their biggest headlining dates yet in the surrounds of some truly luscious theatres. Even after several years of visiting, the excitement and awe never seems to lose its touch for Johanna.

“It’s been nothing but fantastic from the start,” she says. “We came over for the first time in 2010, just doing some really small shows, and they all sold out. We had absolutely no idea that people had even heard of us in Australia. That seemed like such a bizarre thing to us. It’s across on the other side of the

world – that just felt completely unheard of. Our Australian fans and the friends that we’ve made there would have to be some of our best in the whole world. We love triple j, we love Melbourne, we want to move there … this isn’t just something that we say about every country! We really do love it so much over there.”

What: Stay Gold out now through Columbia/Sony With: Luluc Where: Enmore Theatre When: Wednesday March 11

Perfect Pussy Just Say Yes By Augustus Welby however, Say Yes To Love contains plenty of memorable songcraft.

“There’s a lot of different things that people can take from it,” Ambler agrees, “and at least enough for it to be relatable, for someone to find a personal element. Whether it’s one end of the spectrum or the other. That’s something we noticed, but it’s not anything we homed in on.”

Released via trendsetting Brooklyn indie label Captured Tracks, the album immediately garnered high praise from the likes of Pitchfork and DIY magazine. As a result, Perfect Pussy spent the majority of 2014 on the road.

Not surprisingly, achieving near-instant notoriety sent waves of shock through the band.

“It’s pretty much destroyed my entire life,” says Ambler. “So, there’s that.

When you’ve been touring for a year, you’re like, ‘I can’t bear to travel anymore.’ I have so much anxiety and mental health issues that I’m dealing with. And we’re all dealing with being with each other so constantly.”

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“We’re five very different people from very different backgrounds,” says bass player Greg Ambler, “so there really is five totally different elements brought into it. People come together so often and they’re like, ‘I want to start a band that sounds like this,’ or ‘I want to write a song that sounds like this.’ [Perfect Pussy] is a general un-acceptance of current ideals. No matter how

progressive punk is, there’s always room to build.”

Hailing from Syracuse in Upstate New York, prior to Perfect Pussy the band’s five members had each spent a number of years toiling in their hometown’s punk, hardcore, indie rock and noise scenes. The varying backgrounds could have given rise to a confounding debut. Against the odds,

“What we’re trying to do now is focus on other projects and figure out where

“It’s become harder and harder for us to overlap. We’re all circles, but the coolest thing about this band is where our circles overlap. That’s the tiny space where we all agree. Those have become fewer and farther between as this year’s progressed.”

Anyhow, there’s no need to get ahead of ourselves, as the fact remains Say Yes To Love comprises 23 minutes of convention-defying punk rock.

Thankfully, following a couple of months’ rest, Perfect Pussy will soon hit our shores for the Laneway Festival and sideshows.

“I’m so excited to go to Australia,” says Ambler. “After [taking] a little bit of time off it’ll be cool to come over and maybe have fun playing music again.”

What: Say Yes To Love out now through POD/Inertia With: Lowlife, Tanned Christ, Todd Anderson-Kunert Where: Newtown Social Club When: Wednesday February 4 And: Also appearing alongside Flight Facilities, Flying Lotus, St. Vincent, Jungle, Pond and more at Laneway Festival, Sydney College of the Arts, Sunday February 1

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ast March, Perfect Pussy unveiled their debut album Say Yes To Love. It’s easy to describe the record as one of 2014’s standout releases. However, a confluence of hardcore instrumentation, washes of feedback, experimental synth work and Meredith Graves’ emotionally urgent lead vocals makes describing exactly what Say Yes To Love sounds like a tough task.

Given the band is a synthesis of several distinct personalities, Say Yes To Love hints at several directions Perfect Pussy could pursue in the future. For instance, there are elements of technical hardcore (à la early Dillinger Escape Plan), no-wave indie (à la early Sonic Youth) and more accessible post-hardcore (à la latter-day Fugazi). However, working on a followup record isn’t a priority just yet.

our own individual strengths lie,” Ambler says. “We talk about how we’re going to write another record eventually, but at this time it’s fucking impossible to think about getting together to do something like that and how it would even turn out.

It would be so much different than what this band is in a nutshell, which is this beautiful disaster.

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arts in focus

BRAG’s guide to film, theatre, comedy and art about town

arts news...what's goin' on around town...with Spencer Scott, Tori Bedingfield and Nicholas Hartman

free stuff

five minutes WITH

MATILDA RIDGWAY FROM COCK Have you had any awkward moments telling friends and family about your latest role?

Yes, Cock is hard. I mean, it’s hard to talk about Cock. To tell people you are doing Mike Bartlett’s Cock. That you are tired from working on Cock all day. To ask people to buy a ticket and pay for Cock. To tell them that we are wrestling with Cock in rehearsals, trying to get it into our bodies, our mouths but we feel like it’s starting to roll off the tongue. There’s probably a hundred more…

Above: Matilda Ridgway, Michael Whalley and Matt Minto in Cock

You recently won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role in an Independent Production for your work in A Doll’s House. How special is it to be include an explanation as to why on Earth she chose to appear in The Wog Boy. Turner’s Turn will be on at Hayes Theatre Co on Sunday February 22, Sunday March 1 and Sunday March 8.

HIJINKS RETURNS

Hijinks aims to prove that underwater is the new underground with a series of events throughout the year taking place at Sydney Aquarium. Beneath the surface of Sydney Harbour, you can enjoy cocktails and banter, all while taking in the view of sharks, dugongs and penguins enjoying the nightlife. The January edition of Hijinks features a largescale interactive version of Truth Or Dare, and entertainment from DJ Xan Müller, drag artist Minnie Cooper, caricatures by Sam McNair and a few more surprises. Hijinks returns to Sydney Aquarium this Thursday January 29.

How healthy is the independent theatre scene in Sydney at the moment?

I think we are living in such an exciting time – companies like Red Line, Sport For Jove, Hayes Theatre Company, Rocksurfers Theatre Company, ATYP Under The Wharf, 107 Projects, the Old 505. Sometimes you think great art can’t be made on our little island in the middle of the ocean but it is. It’s rad. Go buy tickets to it all.

What: Cock as part of Mardi Gras 2015 Where: Old Fitzroy Theatre When: Tuesday February 3 – Friday March 6

Sydney director Anthony Skuse takes the reigns with Suzie Miller’s new play Caress/Ache, exploring the global frailty of human life. Interweaving disparate lives, Miller presents a collection of fragile and intimate moments from all over the world. A surgeon who can no longer touch the living, a mother pleading to hold her son for the last time and a cheating couple attempting to rebuild trust are a snapshot of the interwoven storylines documenting the beauty and power of touch. Zoe Carides and Ian Stenlake lead a cast including Helen Christinson, Gary Clementson and Sabryna Te’o. Caress/Ache will play at SBW Stables Theatre from Friday February 27 – Saturday April 11.

Renowned satirist Simon Hunt and music maestro Paul Mac have been added to the annual Queer Thinking seminar, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has announced.

Hunt, who has made his name as Pauline Pantsdown – a satirical take on Pauline Hanson

Australian showbiz icon Geraldine Turner is about to star in her very own cabaret show, Turner’s Turn. After tappa-tappa-tapping and twirling her way around the world in shows like Chicago, Oliver, Into The Woods and Sweeney Todd, and winning herself a few awards along the way, Turner has come in from the dark to perform her first Sydney cabaret show in a decade. Turner’s Turn will feature songs from all across her career, as well a few yarns about her days in show business, which will no doubt 16 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

– has returned in time for the real Pauline’s bid for election in Queensland again. Meanwhile, Mac, who has worked with a range of prominent musicians including the likes of Kylie Minogue and Sia, will sit down for a chinwag with music mate Jonny Seymour and journalist Paris Pompor. Queer Thinking is on at the Seymour Centre on Saturday February 21.

Chris Wainhouse

CHRIS WAINHOUSE

Chris Wainhouse and pals are set to sweep away the cobwebs of overworked wage-slave minds with their enlightening, charismatic retellings of their day-to-day lives at the Unicorn Hotel’s regular comedy night, Happy Endings.

Wainhouse is returning to the circuit to dispense his witticisms and observations along with buddies Sean Woodland and Bev Killick. Previously, Wainhouse has appeared with hilarious laughsters like Bruno Lucia, Jeff Green, John Maloney and Arj Barker. Wainhouse and co. take over the Unicorn next Wednesday February 4.

Hugo Weaving in Endgame

ENDGAME

Director Andrew Upton and Hugo Weaving have come together for a new Sydney Theatre Company production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. In 2013, they put on Beckett’s polarising Waiting For Godot, and Endgame is considered a companion piece. The production will also feature renowned actor Robert Menzies, plus veteran Australian actor Bruce Spence and New Zealander Sarah Peirse. Endgame will play at Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Theatre) from Wednesday April 8 – Saturday May 9.

thebrag.com

Endgame photo by James Green

TURN IT UP

Anthony Skuse in Caress/Ache

Caress/Ache photo by Brett Boardman

Kath & Kim favourite Jane Turner and Puberty Blues’ Brenna Harding will star as a mother-daughter duo in Jumpy, the West End hit

by April De Angelis exploring the competing notions of growing up and growing old. Coming to terms with middle age, a stale marriage and looming unemployment, Turner’s character Hilary explores the perils of a midlife crisis with a glass or two of chardonnay. Tilly, played by Harding, tests the boundaries of being 15 via rebellion, promiscuity and sneering maternal contempt. Joining the cast is a list of Aussie favourites including Caroline Brazier, David Tredinnick, Laurence Boxhall, John Lloyd Fillingham, Tariro Mavondo and Dylan Watson. British playwright De Angelis’ Jumpy premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2012. Jumpy will play from Thursday March 26 – Saturday May 16 at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House.

From Wednesday February 18 – Saturday February 21, Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres are presenting The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe, a theatre production focusing on the experiences of four African women (Yarrie, Aminata, Big Mama Rosemary and Yordy) from four different African countries (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Eritrea, respectively) as they escaped the horrors in their homelands and found refuge in the Lucky Country. With the help of trained performers, the women use the tools of theatre to tell and spread their stories. This is an award-winning production, and following their short season at Riverside, the women will take their work to the UK. We have two double passes to give away to opening night – to be in the running, head to thebrag.com/ freeshit and tell us your favourite foursome from musical or pop cultural history.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

PAULINE PANTSDOWN IN PERSON

GETTING JUMPY

THE BAULKHAM HILLS AFRICAN LADIES TROUPE

Jumpy photo by by Jo Duck and Bronwen Sharp

Jane Turner, Marina Prior and Brenna Harding in Jumpy

Mike Bartlett’s play is certainly an original one – what appealed to you about the role?

Mike Bartlett has written all four characters with a beautiful depth and humanity. W is an interesting subversion of the ‘other woman’ trope. She lies to herself, she is manipulative and she is sexy, and leads John through his first hetero sex scene with an amazingly Anaïs Nin-like confidence. But she is also vulnerable and funny and joyous and cruel.

recognised amongst your peers?

It was an honour to be nominated amongst such a talented group of women and to walk out onstage and see the whole industry there was an amazing view. I think the Sydney Theatre Awards are such a great initiative to celebrate our industry. It was an awesome night but I wish I had written a speech. I drank too much champagne and opened my speech by calling out “vagina”.

Cock photo by Marnya Rothe

Y

ou’re starring in Cock at the Old Fitz next month. What’s the play about?

Cock is about John and M, a gay couple. Their long-term relationship is in its death throes and in the middle of this John falls in love with a woman, W. It’s a savage and funny contemporary play all about identity and love and sexuality, our basic need for security and certainty and our fear of the ambiguous.

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

Kill The Messenger [THEATRE] The New Western History By Adam Norris

Kill The Messenger photo by Ellis Parrinder

“As a child, I was always quite dramatic,” she explains. “I did a lot of performing arts and theatre as a teenager, but I didn’t start writing until I went to Canada. I won a scholarship to an international high school there, and I was the first indigenous student to ever attend. I found myself at this school with just under 200 students but who came from 88 different countries. I wanted to fi nd a way to share my voice, and my history of being a young indigenous person from Australia, and being from quite a close community in Mount Druitt. That was kind of when I first started making my own work, writing this little script of monologues. But that’s when the idea of using theatre and the arts to tell stories and share identities began for me. Especially the political identity that is inherent to being a young indigenous woman, and one who grew up in Western Sydney. That was the beginning for me.

Then I started getting further into academics, where if you have any fl air for the dramatic, people tell you to start studying law,” Lui laughs.

“But law also made a lot of sense. Doing work experience at a legal service, telling and hearing stories, that was what I enjoyed the most. It seemed like a natural jump, but I soon found out that law wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. Turns out, you need to really like it! And so I found my way back into theatre.”

Though she laughs about the cyclic approach to her life in the theatre, Lui’s offhand manner distracts from the tremendous effort that has gone into developing her creative reputation. Prior to her current involvement with Belvoir, she was the recipient of both The Dreaming Award from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of Australia, and The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award. Lui was also the Griffin

Nakkiah Lui in Kill The Messenger

Theatre’s artist-in-residence during 2013. It makes you believe it must only be a matter of time before she is thanking people onstage at the Oscars or, in the very least, graciously accepting her Tony.

“Even now, I think that while you’re making work, you’re making it – you’re inside it and can’t really be sure just how it’s going to seem from the outside. I would always go and see the indigenous shows at Belvoir, so now that I’m working here the feeling is just so surreal. Seeing my name on the poster…”

Lui trails off and lets out an amused sigh.

“And yes, this is kind of lame, but I always take a photo. It’s funny. You have these moments of thinking, ‘I get to do this for a living? What a privilege.’ Being a writer, I think you have to be a little ADD, so you’re always thinking about what your next project will be, what the next story is. You’re in dreamland a lot. I’d defi nitely like an Academy Award – if they were to start just handing them out I’d go and line up. But ultimately, you just need to make work, and let that be the fun of what you do.”

Kill The Messenger also follows the story of Lui’s grandmother, who died after falling through the unrepaired fl oor of her public housing home. Again, Lui believes institutionalised racism was at the core, and her grandmother’s death was entirely preventable.

“I helped care for her as she passed away, and one of the things that really helped me push through was that I wrote a eulogy that I hoped would be beautiful. But when I got up to read it, I just broke down. This one little thing I’d wanted to do for her, I couldn’t do it.

My grandmother had always said to me, ‘Be intelligent, be funny and be brave.’ She really ingrained that in me, and she was very much that kind of woman. She and my mother came from a time when indigenous people, especially women, just didn’t have the same opportunities. It’s so hard to really imagine. They really fought for their survival and their identity, but still had such beautiful hearts and I guess with this piece, what gets me through it – and it’s hard, I’m having to relive the death of my grandmother over the year it has taken to write, and now in rehearsals her pictures are there on the wall – is that, well, I just have to be like her. She would be smart, she would be funny, but most of all she would be brave.”

What: Kill The Messenger Where: Belvoir Street Theatre When: Saturday February 14 – Sunday March 8

Asylum

Asylum rehearsal photo by Robert Catto

[THEATRE] In Search Of Home By Tegan Jones rt has always been a way for people to question the world and raise social awareness. For 12 nights this February, the Apocalypse Theatre Company will be doing just that with its new project, Asylum.

Playwrights across Australia have created short works that discuss and challenge one of the largest political issues in the country at the present time. We chatted to artistic director Dino Dimitriadis about the project and what it hopes to achieve.

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rawness of emotion and something very real.

Apart from dealing with such an important subject as the matter of asylum-seeking, Asylum is also noteworthy as an example of ‘quick response theatre’, as Dimitriadis explains. “It’s about rushing the content to the stage. It means that the art itself isn’t necessarily polished and fully formed, but that it’s about the ideas and what the work is trying to engage with. So what you have is the lead time for a production condensed into a much smaller window of time.”

Although the topic of asylum seekers is frequently in the news and therefore accessible, this wasn’t the only inspiration behind choosing it for this project. “It’s about our responsibility as artists. It’s an absolute rare privilege to have access to any stage to say anything on and this is an issue that is extremely political. It’s not only topical, but the pressure to find a solution seems to be escalating. You only have to look at the absolute horrors of what’s happening at the moment with the hunger strikes,” says Dimitriadis. “I really believe that artists can lead these kinds of conversations and theatre in its great tradition provides a wonderful forum for it.”

Dimitriadis continues, “We put out the call in early December and writers had about 20 days to submit a concept. We then took five days to select the works and then the playwrights had until the 20th of January to deliver scripts. [From] this point we hit the stage in two weeks.”

The concept is quite a beautiful one from a creative standpoint – surely with so little time to perfect the works, you’re bound to get a

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“I think you’re completely spot on,” says Dimitriadis. “That’s what excites me about this format. Because of the lead time, because it’s a collection of pieces on each night and because it’s framed as a discussion, it allowed playwrights to shoot from the gut more boldly. They have to go on their convictions and they have the chance to pursue their concept wholeheartedly.”

In addition to involving established playwrights such as Hilary Bell, Mary Rachel Brown, Noelle Janaczewska and Ross Mueller, Asylum will also be featuring works by emerging artists. More important, however, is the inclusion of work from

Asylum rehearsals former and current asylum seekers. “We’re very lucky! That came about, I don’t know, through the universe,” Dimitriadis laughs.

Another of the most significant aspects of the Asylum project is that the artists involved have waived their fees. All proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.

“As a theatremaker my policy is always to pay artists, because it’s work,” says Dimitriadis.

“But with this project I have asked everyone to waive their fees. That’s because I feel that with a project like this it’s important to tell these stories but it’s also an opportunity to raise money for the people doing the work on the frontlines. These centres work daily for the rights of asylum seekers.”

What: Asylum Where: Old 505 Theatre When: Tuesday February 3 – Sunday February 15

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here is an old medical axiom related to how much pain a person is willing to withstand. The short answer suggests it is a matter of how strong the will is to survive. Many would struggle to imagine a scenario where needless suffering could lead to suicide, but this is precisely what playwright and actor Nakkiah Lui has explored as part of her true story, Kill The Messenger. In 2011 an indigenous Mount Druitt man, ravaged by undiagnosed stomach cancer, hanged himself after being refused hospital care on the assumption he was using drugs. Though Lui’s play does not shy from themes of racism, grief and outrage, it is also not without humour and empathy. Lui relates this in part to her colourful upbringing.

EDUCATION SPECIAL

All across Sydney, there are specialist education institutions waiting to equip you with the tools you need for an exciting new career. Because here at the BRAG we love creativity on screen and stage, we caught up with a few of our city’s finest creative education providers to tell us about what they’re offering in 2015. Now’s your chance to get smart and get a new start.

What makes us different: AIM’s state-of-theart recording studios

and music production suites, performance spaces, practice rooms, industry active teachers and mentors and the passionate and talented students make AIM more than just an institution, it is a music industry in itself.

Take the next step: Depending on the course students are studying, their interests and skill will determine what career path they

might fi nd themselves on. We have graduates touring Australia and internationally as session musicians or performing in their original bands, working for record labels such as Sony, Warner and Universal, as entrepreneurs, taking lead roles in musicals such as Wicked and Les Mis, working as high school music teachers, electronic musicians and DJs, music bloggers, actors, app developers and many other roles within the music and entertainment industry within Australia and internationally.

Enrolment dates: Trimester 1 kicks off Tuesday January 27, however we will still be taking enrolments until Monday February 12.

Trimester 2 commences Monday May 18, Trimester 3 commences Monday September 7.

Open Day: Our next date will be in August 2015. Stay tuned to aim.edu.au for details.

1-51 FOVEAUX ST, SURRY HILLS / 02 9219 5444 / ENQUIRIES@AIM.EDU.AU / AIM.EDU.AU

Courses on offer: Higher education courses: Acting, Costume, Design for Performance, Properties and Objects, Staging, Technical Theatre and Stage Management, Directing, Writing for Performance.

Adult short courses: Acting and Screen Acting Techniques, TV Presenting, Writing, Design, Directing, Musical Theatre.

What makes us different: Drawing on over 50 years of experience, NIDA is Australia’s leading centre for education and training in the performing arts.

NIDA’s internationally renowned, practicebased education and

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training model ensures each student has an immersive, challenging and collaborative learning experience. From Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees to evening and weekend short courses, NIDA offers a wide range of study options. Whether you are looking for intensive training to build your skills, or just want to try something new, NIDA has a course to suit you.

Take the next step: NIDA graduates enter the creative industries with the skills and confidence to build a successful career.

Many have gone on to

What else you need to know: NIDA is launching some exciting new vocational and educational training opportunities for 2016, with the application period commencing in July. NIDA short courses are offered through NIDA Open so check out the website for more information: open. nida.edu.au.

Enrolment dates: Applications for NIDA’s 2016 higher education courses open in July.

Applications are now open for adult short courses which run throughout the year.

215 ANZAC PARADE, KENSINGTON / 02 9697 7600 / INFO@NIDA.EDU.AU / NIDA.EDU.AU

What makes us different: Metro Screen’s courses are career-focused, giving you practical job-ready skills and essential production experience. If you want to create your own visual stories and work in the film industry, our courses are for you. Covering film, TV and digital content with accredited and non-accredited options, our diverse range is designed to fit in with your lifestyle and personal circumstances.

We offer a full-time Diploma of Screen and Media as well as a Diploma of Multiplatform Production, scholarship courses, a Certificate IV in Screen and Media and 36 short courses in a range of

specialisations at different levels. Our tutors are highly qualified industry professionals who base their teaching on practical real-world scenarios. Metro Screen’s professional equipment hire store, chroma key studio and post-production facilities are used throughout our hands-on training courses.

Take the next step: Our 2014 postproduction students have had great success with most graduates gaining employment and internships with

broadcasters and production companies including Channel Seven [for My Kitchen Rules and House Rules], Channel Ten, Fremantle Media, Eden Creative Media and freelance projects.

What else you need to know: Metro Screen provides monthly professional development seminars and networking events to help you meet contacts and collaborators. We offer production and development funding through Breaks, Raw Nerve and Jump Start. Our aim is to work with you to figure out the best pathway for you to get to where you want to go.

Enrolment dates: Intake for our second Diploma of Screen and Media in 2015 will open in May, with the course starting in June. Our short course programs are available for enrolment online now. We offer an early bird discount on all our short courses.

PADDINGTON TOWN HALL, 2 OATLEY RD, CNR OXFORD ST, PADDINGTON / 02 9356 1818 / LEARN@ METROSCREEN.ORG.AU / METROSCREEN.NSW. EDU.AU

SAE INSTITUTE

What makes us different: At SAE we know creative media industries graduates need individual practical training. We recognised this back in 1976 – that’s why we pioneered our hands-on, industryfocused and personalised curriculum, delivered to you in state-of-the-art facilities. In Australia, we proudly offer governmentaccredited certificates, diplomas and bachelor degrees across six disciplines – Animation, Audio, Design, Film, Games, and Web and Mobile.

As SAE has 53 campuses in 27 countries, our students and teachers are a unique, diverse and creative community

who come together for a collective purpose – outstanding education opportunities. Our expertise is worldrecognised and truly global because we work closely with our industry partners, we employ specialist teachers with real-world experience and we deliver personalised education in world-class facilities.

Take the next step: When a student graduates from SAE they join a renowned team of international alumni.

2014 marked the tenth anniversary of the SAE

VARIOUS COURSES

become leaders and innovators in their fields, garnering success in the local and international arts and entertainment community. To name a few, NIDA graduates include actors Cate Blanchett and Sam Worthington, designers Catherine Martin and Michael Wilkinson, and directors Jennifer Kent and Baz Luhrmann.

FILM AND THEATRE

NIDA

ME TRO SCREEN

MEDIA

Courses on offer: AIM offers Bachelor, Diploma and Postgraduate courses in Composition and Music Production, Contemporary and Classical Performance, Music Theatre, Audio Engineering, Dramatic Arts and Entertainment and Arts Management.

We also offer a huge range of short courses and one-on-one music lessons.

MUSIC

THE AUSTR ALIAN INSTITUTE OF MUSIC

Alumni Convention, with SAE Institute’s Berlin Campus welcoming a record crowd of nearly 3,000 alumni, students, staff and visitors, many from fellow SAE colleges from around the world. Our students go on to be audio engineers, fi lmmakers, producers, games developers, technical directors, graphic designers, 3D artists and the list goes on! You can check out some of our alumni success stories at sae.edu.au/showcase.

Enrolment dates: SAE has three intakes per year. The intake dates for 2015 are Monday February 9, Monday June 1 and Monday September 21.

Open Day: The next information session will be an Open Night held on Thursday April 23. More information and registration details will be available in the coming weeks at sae.edu.au/ events.

LEVEL 1, 11 YORK ST, SYDNEY / 02 8241 5200 / SYDNEY@SAE.EDU / SAE.EDU.AU

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BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 19

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK ZUN ZUN EGUI

utterly fascinating listen. It’s as if Battles, Queens of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin had a brawl and Shackles’ Gift is the album they made once the bad blood had been settled.

xxx

Shackles’ Gift Bella Union/[PIAS]

On a recent trip to his home in Mauritius, Zun Zun Egui frontman Kushal Gaya learnt of how local sugar cane workers would use the rhythm of the clanking sugar mill to sing their work songs. Fascinated with this synthesis of machinery and man, Gaya has imbued Zun Zun Egui’s eclectic melodies with a heavier industrial sound on this album.

Shackles’ Gift lurches along with the vigour of a seasoned drunk. It is adventurous, emotive and Gaya’s occasional gibberish belies the depth of his lyrics. The effect is a slightly discordant but

James Ross

xxx

African and industrial rhythms go up against classic rock on a brave second effort.

Zun Zun Egui’s technical ability is obvious.

Tracks such as ‘Tickle The Line’ and ‘I Want You To Know’ do a good job of exhibiting the band’s skill in crafting engaging licks. However, they fall into comfortable grooves that they seem less willing to get out of, a marked difference between this album and their innovative debut.

The album is nevertheless a wonderful combination of psychedelia, Afro-funk and industrial rock, and proves that Zun Zun Egui will continue to find new areas to explore.

DEREK GRANT

MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY

GRENADIERS

MARK RONSON

MOGWAI

Breakdown Red Scare

Maximum Entropy Lost Balloon/[PIAS]

Summer Independent/Bandcamp

Uptown Special Sony

Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1.

Rock Action

Longtime Alkaline Trio drummer Derek Grant has become the last member to release work under his own name with Breakdown, an album that shows off musical chops that were once hidden behind the kit.

I saw some other, better music writer describe electronic music as the same materials, differentiated by how the artist puts them together.

On Maximum Entropy, Welsh band Man Without Country have assembled a square coffee table.

Fortunately, MWC’s work isn’t the cane furniture with old prawns taped to it that the likes of David Guetta love to turn out, but nor does it resemble the parquetry offered by Jon Hopkins and his ilk.

It’s been four years between albums for Adelaide’s Grenadiers, but they’re back with a furious passion, and with a title like Summer they know exactly where they want to be.

Mark Ronson has put together an unusual collection of steamy, jazzinfused tracks on his latest venture, Uptown Special. In fact, it’s hard to believe that this album was recorded this decade, with its cheesy synths and funk guitar that would fit in well anywhere from the ’70s to the ’90s.

All the instrumentation on the album is performed by Grant, who competently handles the duties of guitar, bass, drums and piano. His voice is more than capable, and has a soft quality that works alongside the stylistic dynamics of the record.

Breakdown is a standard rock record that also shows elements of country and even ’80s new wave on tracks like ‘Waiting For The End Of The World’. However, while the songs are reminiscent of classic songwriters such as Petty, Springsteen and Dylan, they seem to lack depth. The record is centred around heartbreak and divorce, but fails to hit the emotional marks that it should be.

Songs such as ‘Got A Feeling’ and ‘Lucy’ recall Alkaline Trio, with a lot of the softer tracks presented in a similar way to their acoustic album Damnesia.

Breakdown is an interesting debut that shows off qualities from Derek Grant that aren’t on display in his other projects, but the album lacks the depth to keep you coming back.

This record lingers, but not necessarily in a good way; it’s just there. It doesn’t sound too far from something that’d come on when a SoundCloud playlist has been bunged on. The overwhelming impression is that the band is between ideas, or following the countercultural zeitgeist halfheartedly. These fellas say they’re ‘ambient’; maybe I’m a purist, but at all times it’s too involved to be ambient. Having more recognisable beats jump out would be a tremendous help to this album, but as it is, only the second (‘Entropy’) and third (‘Laws Of Motion’) tracks are notable, no doubt helped by the guest vocals.

The album isn’t bad, it’s just undecided on being fun or taking its self-declared category seriously, and that makes it unenjoyable.

The whole record toes a line between standard summertime anthems and dark punk songs.

Even the seagulls at the start of the album remind you of summer as much as they remind you of vultures circling overhead.

Summer is an album that’s loud from start to finish, and Grenadiers like it that way. The three-piece has no problem creating plenty of noise, with each song featuring visceral attacks of instrumentation in the vein of The Bronx, The Peep Tempel and Queens of the Stone Age. Even when the songs are quiet, they still have an intense energy to them, going from a whisper one second to a full-on, over-the-top guitar solo the next (‘Nothing On’).

The band also makes great use of backup vocals, adding extra depth to songs like the sultry ‘Stay Inside’, which lets singer/guitarist Jesse Coulter show off his singing chops over some groovy and catchy guitar lines.

While ‘Uptown Funk’ has proven ripe for commercial success, the rest of the album is not quite so formulaic. Though repetitive lyrics and themes are evident throughout the album, the musical styles are temperamental, changing from track to track. ‘Feel Right’ is perhaps the most unusual and energetic song, featuring a stunning performance

by Mystikal as MC, with seemingly endless sass.

‘Leaving Los Feliz’ also embarks on a clever lyrical motif that sets a club scene and creates a sense of continuity, which is maintained over three tracks starring the almost unrecognisable vocals of Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow. Meanwhile, Ronson’s collaborations with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker add colour, but sometimes Parker’s echoey vocals can cause the tracks to drag.

For a while there, it was looking as though Glaswegian post-rock outfit Mogwai had reached their creative peak. The quintet, who have long reigned as instrumental rock overlords, were suddenly sounding depleted of ideas. Stagnation was creeping in up until the release of last year’s Rave Tapes, which saw a reinvigorated Mogwai experimenting with a broader spectrum of synth sounds, krautrock influences and electronic textures.

As a counterpart to the album, Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1. offers three new tracks recorded during the sessions that produced Rave Tapes, alongside a trio of remixes. Leading out the EP is ‘Teenage Exorcists’, with its mix of everything you’d least expect from Mogwai: a distinct pop sensibility, infectious chorus, and some My Bloody Valentine-esque vocals all packed into a neat three-anda-half minutes. The other two originals, ‘History Day’ and ‘HMP Shaun William Ryder’, are a little underwhelming in comparison.

Fast-paced and in your face, this is an ideal summer soundtrack with a seedy underbelly.

Uptown Special transports the listener to another decade of dance and dreaming, but its strange mix of tracks leaves the album feeling slightly lopsided.

For a band that’s built a reputation on creating epic instrumental soundscapes, the unlikely pop-inflected jam of ‘Teenage Exorcists’ opens up some interesting avenues.

Only time will tell if Mogwai will continue down this path.

Spencer Scott

Erin Rooney

Jack Pilven

Nicholas Hartman Spencer Scott

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK The headline track on Twerps’ new record is ‘New Moves’, but the album itself is anything but. In fact, you could play Range Anxiety and their 2014 album Underlay in sequence and think that you were listening to the same record the whole way through.

TWERPS Range Anxiety Chapter

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The musicality varies enough from track to track for Range Anxiety to be a great standalone album, but you can’t help but feel like Twerps are typecasting themselves by repeatedly going back to their comfort zone each time around.

That said, songs like ‘Simple Feelings’ and ‘Cheap Education’ serve as reminders of the frenetic coolness that Twerps are capable

of, but unfortunately its value is cheapened by the mediocrity of tracks like ‘Love At First Sight’.

Nonetheless, Twerps are coming off a run of successful shows internationally, so there really isn’t a reason to change a winning formula.

Range Anxiety is a great soundtrack for spare time spent playing video games in your undies. But much like the waistband on those undies, Twerps can only stretch their sound so far.

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

TALKING HEADS - Speaking In Tongues KARNIVOOL - Asymmetry THE SMITH STREET BAND - Throw Me In The River

SUUNS - Images Du Futur SALVIA PLATH - Bardo States

Jacob Mills

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snap sn ap up all night out all week . . .

PICS :: AM

the kooks + the griswolds + catfish and the bottlemen 22:01:15 :: The Hordern Pavilion :: 1 Driver Ave Moore Park 9921 5333

ICEAGE, DEAD FARMERS, M.O.B Oxford Art Factory Wednesday January 21 The Iceage frontman, Elias Rønnenfelt, seems intent on provoking a response from his audience. He smacks a phone out of a punter’s hand, collapses to the floor on a whim, and hurls a bottle of beer into the crowd. On paper it sounds like an excellent display of punk theatrics, but in person it just starts to feel staged.

The band tries to channel its post-punk predecessors, emulating shock tactics and moody deliveries, however a lack of genuine passion proves that manner does not maketh the band.

Before Iceage arrive, we are treated to a sonorous performance by M.O.B. Filled with mournful keys and a harsh scraping violin, it sounds like noise-rock from the crypt. The Sydney-based band elicits cheers from an enthusiastic crowd as it layers dissonant notes over a MPC drum beat.

In contrast to the mechanical steadiness of that drum machine, Dead Farmers blast off their set with characteristic gusto. When they’re not bellowing lyrics at us with the enthusiasm of football hooligans they rock around stage banging heads and working plenty of feedback into their wailing guitar solos. Amid the crashing cymbals of

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the drums, the whole band’s energy is infectious and compelling.

Rønnenfelt walks on with Iceage and thrusts himself over the audience, gripping the mic stand for support as he warbles lyrics. His voice sucks but he makes up for it by grabbing the audience’s attention with his showmanship. As the concert wears on though, Ronnenfelt’s zeal wanes to match the crowd’s. He becomes disinterested, making the jerkiness of his movements hollow and formulaic. The outbursts of violence begin to seem petulant rather than punk rock.

There is a lot that works for Iceage.

Dan Nielsen’s military-style drumming complements the walking basslines of Jakob Pless. When Nielsen shifts into a rapid breakdown the change-up is invigorating, and gets the audience moving. Unfortunately, the rudimentary chords by Johan Wieth, who is more at home playing rhythm guitar than lead, clutter the songs without providing an interesting focus.

It results in competent but not engaging post-punk that merges with country to give it some kind of pace. Maybe their apathy is a reflection of the genre’s nihilism, but it seems like Iceage just don’t give a damn about what they’re playing.

James Ross

BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 21

live reviews What we've been out to see...

“Is this part of the song?” It was a quiet, careful whisper from one concerned punter to another during the opening minutes of Body/Head’s performance. A tech ran back and forth as the seemingly immortal Kim Gordon hunched over her pedal board and strummed away at her guitar, cutting out at intermittent points. It was eventually revealed to be a technical issue, but the fact that people thought her guitar cutting out could have been part of the composition showed that this was a crowd that was up for anything Gordon and her counterpart, guitarist Bill Nace, threw its way.

The duo played electric guitars with no other accompaniment, getting through roughly six songs over the course of an hour. Once their technical issues were sorted out, they took their simple setup and weaved it through terse, ridged compositions that drew you in, pushed you

back out and then towered over you before disappearing entirely. It was nothing short of intense, sending many in the audience into a trance, meditatively rocking back and forth to whatever rhythm made itself known. It was as if Gordon and Nace would not stop until they had gotten every last bit of sound out of their guitars – at any given juncture, they could be found savagely chopping away at the strings, plunging them neck-first into the ground or even grinding them up against one another in a move of pure theatre, with Gordon lying down as Mace dominantly held his six-string over hers.

It’s interesting to think that Gordon, now in her early 60s, has just written a tell-all memoir about her life in and outside of music, reflecting on over 30 years of being a musician. With Body/Head, right there in front of our very eyes, she was writing a new chapter. Teething problems aside, it felt pretty remarkable to be a part of it.

David James Young E UPTON PHOTOGRAPHER :: PRUDENC

HOW TO DRESS WELL The Aurora Spiegeltent Saturday January 24 “We’re Coldplay, this next song is called ‘Sky Full Of Stars’. Thank you.” Thus Tom Krell of Chicago introduced the fifth song he and his band, How To Dress Well, launched into at The Aurora Spiegeltent in Sydney’s Festival Village. The tongue-in-cheek reference – Krell’s long-running gag was that his band was sold as “mid-level America”, somewhere “below Coldplay but above a local stand-up comedian” – was ridiculous but set the tone for the night; at once hilarious and stunningly beautiful.

As a purveyor of what has been deridingly labelled ‘PBR&B’ (read: hipster rhythm and blues), it was difficult to know what to expect from Krell and his trio of players. His third and latest LP What Is This Heart? is quintessential headphone music, delicately produced, swerving between bravado and brittle. His live show, it turns out, pays pitchperfect homage to this Jekyll and Hyde vibe.

By midnight, as we were ushered into the space Krell himself described as a “weird circus tent”, the audience might have been more subdued than normal. But across a set that took in much of HTDW’s latest album, question-and-answer sessions and a bit of that stand-up comedy (Krell deadpanning: “This is a hair metal song, thanks”), the quiet was laudable. ‘Mesmerising’ is a phrase that gets bandied about in all sorts of promotional material but from the opening ‘A Power’ to the last, when Krell slipped some Young Thug lyrics into an otherwise pretty track, the tent was pin-drop silent.

22 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

up all night out all week . . .

augie march

PICS :: AM

The Aurora Spiegeltent Thursday January 22

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25:01:15 :: Sydney Opera House :: Bennelong Point, Sydney 9250 7111

That attentiveness had a lot to do with Krell – chest-beating, mic-snatching, Michael Jackson vocal-ticcing away – who was a force to be reckoned with. Restarting songs when things weren’t just so and throwing himself into tracks, his dedication to his craft was impressive. But equally responsible were a keyboardist, guitarist and drummer who, alongside the able frontman, recreated a sound so full and pure that it belied their size and almost outgrew the venue. As the night came to an end that wicked contrast between well-drilled and slapstick came to the fore again when Krell ranked the gig himself – “eight out of 10, I’m tired but it was pretty good”. We knew, as we walked out into the hot night, that that was a blatant underestimation. Just as we knew we’d just witnessed the best mid-level band in America live in concert.

David Seidler

IAMS PHOTOGRAPHER :: JAMIE WILL

bo ningen

PICS :: KC

BODY/HEAD

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

23:01:15 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711 thebrag.com

snap sn ap live reviews

up all night out all week . . .

What we've been out to see...

PASSENGER Qantas Credit Union Arena Friday January 23

vulgar display of pizza II

PICS :: AM

On paper, Passenger delivered a stereotypical – almost painfully so – folk rock set. When he quipped, “It’s hard to hate anything while you’re sitting down,” it felt like he’d issued a challenge. The set-up: slightly unkempt, bearded man onstage with an acoustic guitar. Too-tight jeans. Repeated, compulsory audience participation to give an intimate ‘aroundthe-campfire’ feel. To top it off – a Simon & Garfunkel cover.

25:01:15 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney

There’s no doubt his years of busking have contributed to his impressive stage

The song that propelled him to the spotlight, ‘Let Her Go’, was placed about three-quarters in, a refreshing turn. It was accompanied by the story of his (admittedly remarkable) rags-to-riches journey. From a backstage “cupboard with chips” where he wrote the hit in 45 minutes to his headlining world tour, it’s been a very long road.

It was when Rosenberg said thank you for supporting “real music” that the evening seemed to make more sense. Passenger has never been an ‘on paper’ artist. His power is in his live performance, which is something that more musicians should be able to trade on.

Emily Meller

PICS :: AM

kim churchill

But somehow Passenger AKA Michael Rosenberg managed to transcend the clichés of folk rock to deliver – and it’s almost hard to type this – a fantastic night. Starting with ‘Rolling Stone’, Passenger made the entire arena fall silent enough to give his sparse guitar melodies room to take hold.

In contrast, tracks like ‘The Wrong Direction’ were given a new life as he pulsed along with the strummed chords and created a denser, more powerful sound than should be possible without a backing band.

presence. It’s not often a single person can command a stage and audience for an entire performance, but he added in enough charm to make it feel like a more intimate evening than the Qantas Credit Union Arena should allow. ‘Life’s For The Living’ took on an alt-country quality, and even simple lines like “Life’s for the living so live it / Or you’re better off dead” seemed truly wise.

23:01:15 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711

KE PHOTOGRAPHER :: KATRINA CLAR

KID CONGO & THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS The Aurora Spiegeltent Saturday January 24

#1 dads

PICS :: PU

Kid Congo Powers has long been known as a sidekick, rather than a frontman.

A founding member of The Gun Club, Powers has been an axeslinger for The Cramps, Berlin-era Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and had stints in Die Haut and The Fall (who hasn’t?). But fronting The Pink Monkey Birds, he holds his own.

He’s sweeter than his former bandmates, with a cartoonish presence and a genuine sense of enjoyment while playing. With his John Waters pencilled moustache, lopsided leather cap and patch-covered jacket, Powers cut a charismatically cheeky figure at his Sydney Festival show. Completing the B-grade rocker look, his band members wore matching neckerchiefs and denim jackets.

22:01:15 :: Sydney Festival 2015 :: The Famous Spiegeltent Sydney CE UPTO KE :: ASHLEY MAR :: PRUDEN TOGRAPHERS :: KATRINA CLAR

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Powers and his Pink Monkey Birds ripped through a set of garage punk with swampy flavours. His first song was a version of the children’s song ‘Found A Peanut’, his inflections coming off like a rockabilly Fred Schneider. With camp swagger, Powers took a theatrical delight in announcing

each song thematically. “I’ve seen some people do the mash potato, I’ve seen some do the monkey, but I haven’t seen anyone doing the sex beat,” he said, before jumping into the first of The Gun Club material. While Powers lacks the gut-punching wail of the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce, he does the songs – from ‘She’s Like Heroin To Me’ to set closer ‘For The Love Of Ivy’ – justice.

The set wasn’t all covers – Powers played tracks off his three solo albums, including ‘LSDC’ and the standout ‘Haunted Head’.

New material included ‘Ricky Ticky Tocky’ and the instrumental ‘Bruce Juice’, which had enough bite and back-and-forth riffs that it almost felt like a SleaterKinney song. The set was studded with instrumentals, but Powers and co. didn’t overstay their welcome – they kept the energy levels up and encouraged dancing.

The crowd – with a mixture of Cramp T-shirts, sequins, wigs and greasedback hairdos – met each song with rapid enthusiasm, to the extent of shouting out heckles in Spanish. “Como te llamas?” they asked. “Kid Congo. If you want to be formal, Kid Congo Powers.”

Chiara Grassia

OUR LOVELY PHO :: JAMIE WILLIAMS ::

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BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 23

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week St. Vincent

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1 Sydney College of the Arts

Laneway Festival Flight Facilities + St. Vincent + Flying Lotus + Caribou + Jon Hopkins + FKA Twigs + Banks + Future Islands + more 11am. $160.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Lionel Cole Imperial Hotel, Paddington.

8pm. free.

Soul Jazz Wednesday - feat: The Darren Heinrich Trio Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Eddie Izzard Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

8:30pm. $79.90.

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

5pm. free.

Greg Coffin Trio Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15.

Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free.

Sloppy Kiss Soiree + Birds With Thumbs + Brain Zaps Goodgod Small Club, Sydney.

24 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

8pm. $10.

Suns Of The Universe The Vanguard, Newtown.

7pm. $8.80.

Surfdisco + Tropical Zombie + Chase City Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.

The Happy Hippies Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

6:30pm. free.

THURSDAY JANUARY 29 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jungle Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $52.

Thando + Beaten Bodies + Fulton Street The Vanguard, Newtown.

8pm. $20.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Belle And Sebastian + Twerps Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

8pm. $79.90.

Betty & Oswald The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Constance Fairleight + Mixed Bag Olympic Hotel, Paddington.

7:30pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Mick Hambly + Monica + Chris Brookes + Paul B Mynor Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS 10 O’Clock Rock Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

10pm. free.

Abuka Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15.

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

Bernard Fanning + Little May Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $55.

Black Diamond Hearts Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

10pm. free.

Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

8:30pm. free.

Dan Spillane Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 8pm. free.

Dave White Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney.

8:30pm. free.

Fait Accompli + Sons Of

The Universe Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 8pm. free.

Greg Agar Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Greg Byrne Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free.

Greg Hooper And Dee Donavon Penrith RSL, Penrith. 11am. free.

James Englund Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill.

7pm. free.

Jamie Lindsay Duo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 9pm. free.

Live Music Thursdays At The Sheaf - feat: Pluto Jonze Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay. 9pm. free.

Liz Taylor Penrith RSL, Penrith. 11am. free.

Max Power Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 4pm. free.

Sohn Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $50.40.

Songsonstage - feat: Phil Gray + & Guests Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale.

7:30pm. free.

Ted Nash Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 7:30pm. free.

Tequila Mockingbird + The Grind Kings The Gasoline Pony, Sydney.

7pm. $5.

The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

5pm. free.

White Bros Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free.

FRIDAY JANUARY 30 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jazz Hip Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. $5.

Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie Winston Gardens Chinese Restaurant, Winston Hills.

7:30pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

AM 2 PM + Ally Oliver Henry Lawson Club, Werrington. 7:30pm. free.

Ange Hills District Bowling Club, Baulkham Hills. 8:30pm. free.

Anna O Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction.

8pm. free.

Bernard Fanning Taronga Zoo, Mosman.

7:30pm. $89.

Bill Kacir The Mill Hotel, Milperra.

7:30pm. free.

Black Diamond Hearts Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

8:15pm. free.

Brian Gillett Duo Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

7:30pm. free.

Chiodos + Storm The Sky + Awaken I Am Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

7pm. $40.70.

Courtyard Sessions - feat: Emma Swift Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. free.

Darren Johnstone Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill.

8pm. free.

David Agius Duo Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free.

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

Drew Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. free.

Eagulls Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $35.90.

East Coast Band Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free.

Endless Summer Beach Party Richmond Club, Richmond.

8:30pm. free.

Evie Dean Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

5pm. free.

Glenn Esmond Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay. 6pm. free.

Halfnoise Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $23.

High Rollers Big Band Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free.

Jack Thompson Twins Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

8:30pm. free.

JJ Duo Club Windang, Windang.

7:30pm. free.

Keepin It Real South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 8pm. free.

Keiren Smith Windsor Leagues Club, Windsor South. 9pm. free.

Luke Dolahenty Family Inn Hotel, Rydalmere.

7:30pm. free.

Mac DeMarco Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $54.

Mandi Jarry PJ Gallagher’s Whisky Bar, Jacksons On George, Sydney.

5:30pm. free.

Matt Jones Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

9pm. free.

Matt Lyon Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West. 9pm. free.

Melody Rhymes Club Rivers, Riverwood.

8:30pm. free.

Metallica Show + Keiren Smith Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free.

Mewithoutyou UTS Underground, Ultimo.

6pm. $48.

Nova Tone Penrith Gaels, Kingswood.

8pm. free.

Peasant Moon + Dear Orphans + Matt Ward The Gasoline Pony, Sydney.

7pm. free.

Rebecca Moore Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. free.

Replika Duo Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free.

Riley Beech Rose Bay Hotel, Rose Bay. 8pm. free.

Rob Eastwood Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

10:30pm. free.

Rob Henry + Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. free.

Rock Solid Duo Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. free.

Russell Nelson + Rock Solid Duo Coogee Legion Club, Coogee.

7:30pm. free.

Scot-Free + Tamer + Hunch Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

7pm. $14.

Sharron Bowman Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

3:45pm. free.

Sheerkhan Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 9pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Lost Trolleys + July Morning + New Tricks Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale.

8:30pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Red Shift + Starr Witness + Midstrip Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. free.

Steve Crocker

Chatswood RSL, Chatswood.

5pm. free.

Swanee Colonial Hotel, Werrington.

9pm. free.

Thee Gold Blooms Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. free.

The Greeks + Bichos Locos + The Walk On By The Vanguard, Newtown.

6:30pm. $15.80.

The Party Mode Emu Sports Club, Leonay.

7:30pm. free.

Tori Darke Duo Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

7pm. free.

Toxic Dolls Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 9pm. free.

Unforgiven - Metallica Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free.

V.I.P. Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Vanessa Heinitz Kareela Golf Club, Kareela.

6:30pm. free.

Victoria Avenue Stacks Taverna, Sydney. 5pm. free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

AJ Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9:30pm. free.

Jack Henderson + Sam York + Lachlan Bryan + Aleyce Simmonds The Basement, Circular Quay.

7:30pm. $29.20.

Jay & Dani Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson.

8pm. free.

Pat Capocci The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Constance Fairleight + & Guests Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham.

8:30pm. free.

SATURDAY JANUARY 31 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Songsonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston + & Guests Petersham Inn, Petersham.

8pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jazz Rooms Funk & Soul Club Sydney 2015 - feat: Emma Donovan And The PutBacks + Russ Dewbury + Jorge Montiel + JC The Basement, Circular Quay.

9pm. $25.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Alex Hopkins New Brighton Hotel, Manly.

10pm. free.

AM 2 PM Cronulla Leagues Club Sharkies, Woolooware. 8pm. free.

Andy Mammers & Crash Avenue Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

10:30pm. free.

Armchair Travellers Duo Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. free.

As You Were Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 8pm. free.

Belle And Sebastian + Darren Hanlon Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $79.

Ben Finn

thebrag.com

gig picks

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

9pm. free.

Bill Kacir Epping Club, Epping. 7pm. free.

Brown Sugar Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 9:50pm. free.

Cara Kavanagh And Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt.

10pm. free.

Clive Hay Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. free.

Dan Spillane Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 8pm. free.

Dirty Dike + Smacktown + Sleepwalkers + Joe Snow & Lego + LMxEC + Sub & Creep Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $38.

DJ Michael Cassarino Mounties, Mount Pritchard.

7pm. free.

Draw + Smaal Cats + Jetson Manic + Eden’s March Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $10.

Drew Plough & Harrow, Camden.

8pm. free.

Evie Dean Le Pub, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Eyehategod Manning Bar, Camperdown.

8pm. $49.

Geoff Rana PJ Gallagher’s, Enfield, Enfield. 9pm. free.

Georgia White Novotel, Rooty Hill. 6:30pm. free.

Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

8pm. free.

Jonathan Jones + Party Central Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. free.

Julia Why? + Saint Abbe + Fields Of Mars The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8:30pm. free.

Kriola Collective + Miriam Waks Venue 505, Surry Hills.

7:30pm. $20.

Lara & Jack Duo Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

9:30pm. free.

Last Stand Chisel Show South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 9pm. free.

Mandi Jarry Woolwich Pier Hotel, Woolwich. 2pm. free.

Mark Crotti The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney.

8:45pm. free.

Matt Jones Buena Vista Hotel, Mosman.

2pm. free.

Matt Jones PJ Gallagher’s, Moore Park.

7:30pm. free.

Max Power Rose Bay Hotel, Rose Bay. 8pm. free.

Melody Rhymes The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill.

6pm. free.

Melody Rhymes Duo Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free.

Michael Mcglynn Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point.

8pm. free.

Muddy Feet Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park. 7pm. free.

Party Central Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. free.

Party Inc Kareela Golf Club, Kareela.

8pm. free.

Rebecca Moore Marrickville Ritz Hotel, Marrickville. 8pm. free.

Rob Eastwood Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

3pm. free.

Ryan Thomas Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany. 8pm. free.

Shy Guys Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free.

thebrag.com

Sons Of Mercury Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.

Soundbird Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 8pm. free.

Swanee Riverstone Bowling Club, Riverstone. 9pm. free.

Swinging Sixties Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

7:30pm. free.

The Frocks Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free.

The Tribe The Mercantile Hotel, Sydney.

8:30pm. free.

Victoria Avenue St George Rowing Club, Wolli Creek. 7:30pm. free.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie Illawarra Master Builders Club, Wollongong. 2:30pm. free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Kentucky Moon Union Hotel, Newtown. 4pm. free.

Murrumbidgee Jones Shakespeare Hotel, Surry Hills. 5pm. free.

Peach’s Sunday Jam - feat: Peach Montgomery Garry Owen Hotel, Rozelle.

3pm. free.

Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + & Guests Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont. 3pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Alex Hopkins Le Pub, Sydney. 3pm. free.

AM 2 PM Northmead Bowling Club, Northmead. 1pm. free.

Buckshot Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free.

Costa Rae Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 6pm. free.

Darren Johnstone Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci.

2pm. free.

Dave Debs Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. free.

Dave Phillips Family Inn Hotel, Rydalmere.

2pm. free.

Glenn Esmond Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn.

3pm. free.

Krishna Jones Ambarvale Tavern, Ambarvale.

2pm. free.

Mark Travers Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

1pm. free.

Offical Laneway After Party - feat: Future Islands + Jung Le + Macde Marco + Connan Mockasin + Dune Rats + Perfect Pussy + Eagulls + Siberia Records Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 11pm. $55.

Rebecca Moore Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

1pm. free.

Ric Bailey Plough & Harrow, Camden.

3pm. free.

Rob Eastwood Marrickville Ritz Hotel, Marrickville. 5pm. free.

Ryan Thomas Waverley Bowling Club, Waverley. 3pm. free.

Satellite V Marrickville Bowling Club,

up all night out all week...

Marrickville. 4:30pm. free.

St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival - feat: Andy Bull + Angel Olsen + Banks + Benjamin Booker + Caribou + Connan Mockasin + Courtney Barnett + Dune Rats + Eagulls + Eves The Behavior + FKA Twigs + Flight Facilities + Flying Lotus + Future Islands + Highasakite + I Know Leopard + Jon Hopkins + Jungle + Little Dragon + Mac DeMarco + Mansionair + Perfect Pussy + Peter Bibby + Pond + Ratking + Raury + Royal Blood + Rustie + Seekae + Sohn + St. Vincent + Tkay Maidza + Vic Mensa Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle. 11am. $160.

Sydney Rock ‘N’ Roll & Alternative Market - feat: Gay Paris + Papa Pilko & The Binrats + The Satellites + The Drey Rollan Band Manning Bar, Camperdown.

10:30am. $5.

The Byron Daniele Trio Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill.

3pm. free.

The Gaslight Anthem + Chris Farren Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

8pm. $67.10.

The Mighty Surftones Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6pm. free.

Vanessa Heinitz The Mill Hotel, Milperra.

12pm. free.

Zoltan Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 4pm. free.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2

THURSDAY JANUARY 29

Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $79.

Betty & Oswald The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. free.

Jungle Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $52.

Sohn Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $50.40.

FRIDAY JANUARY 30 Anna O Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 8pm. free.

Bernard Fanning Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7:30pm. $89.

Chiodos + Storm The Sky + Awaken I Am Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $40.70.

Courtyard Sessions - feat: Emma Swift Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. free.

Eagulls Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $35.90.

Mac DeMarco Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $54.

Draw + Smaal Cats + Jetson Manic + Eden’s March Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

Eyehategod Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $49.

Jazz Rooms Funk & Soul Club Sydney 2015 - feat: Emma Donovan And The PutBacks + Russ Dewbury + Jorge Montiel + JC The Basement, Circular Quay. 9pm. $25.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1 Sydney Rock ’N’ Roll & Alternative Market - Feat: Gay Paris + Papa Pilko & The Binrats + The Satellites + The Drey Rollan Band Manning Bar, Camperdown. 10:30am. $5.

The Gaslight Anthem + Chris Farren Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $67.10.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2 Benjamin Booker Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $28.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3

Mewithoutyou UTS Underground, Ultimo. 6pm. $48.

Banks St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $72.50.

SATURDAY JANUARY 31

Caribou Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 7:30pm. $59.33.

Belle And Sebastian + Darren Hanlon

Mahalia Barnes + Joe Bonamassa Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $60.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Daniel Romeo Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Benjamin Booker Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $28.

Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Chris Brookes Kelly’s On King, Newtown.

7:30pm. free.

wed

thu

28

29

Jan

Jan

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Caribou Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

7:30pm. $59.33.

Co Pilot Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free.

Live & Originals - feat: Original Sin + Adam Fisher + Tristan Grassick Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7:30pm. free.

Mahalia Barnes + Joe Bonamassa Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

8pm. $60.

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

8:30pm. free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

(9:00PM - 1:00AM)

fri

30 Jan

(9:30PM - 1:30AM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

31

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

Jan

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sun

01 Feb

(9:30PM - 1:15AM)

mon

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

tue

02 Feb

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

03 (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Feb

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Banks St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $72.50.

BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 25

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

TREAVOR MOONTRIBE AND AMANI FRIEND FROM DESERT DWELLERS me greatly when I was growing up. I loved the power of his songs to unite people of diverse backgrounds. I also loved musicians like Ravi Shankar, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Mickey Hart, Shpongle, The Orb… so many really! I guess I was always seeking out other artists that were incorporating world music and fusing it into their productions.

Your Crew TM: I started a collective 3. called Moontribe out of Los

Growing Up TM: As a young child I 1. always liked adult music and never really liked children’s music.

My early favourites were AC/DC, Blondie, The Police, Styx and The Go-Go’s. It was my teenage years that influenced my life’s passion for psychedelic music and harder intense music as

well. At the same time I was in a death metal-type band I was also experimenting with psychedelics, listening to all this classic ’60s trip-out music, and that eventually led me to discovering the rave scene.

AF: Bob Marley influenced 2. Inspirations

Angeles in 1993. We started doing free full moon parties in the desert where the focus was on the deeper realms of electronic music. These events are still going strong today although I’ve been focused on Desert Dwellers and am currently living in New Mexico working with Amani Friend on that project as well as my own solo music.

The Music You Make And Play 4.

AF: The music of Desert Dwellers crosses many genres, but with an emphasis on bass music,

psy-step, down temple, dub and that sort. The new album we are working on, called The Great Mystery, is multi-genre and has a few uptempo tracks on it as well.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

AF: The evolution of music these days is truly inspiring, and there are so very many up-and-coming producers with amazing skills. I think one of the biggest obstacles for new artists is just trying to get heard and rise above the noise floor of all the other artists, and to sound unique doing it.

But it’s definitely possible, as I keep seeing new artists blow up every year expanding the edge of this global experiment called electronic music.

What: Love Cacao Dance Event With: Marc Kundalini, Amar Dhall, Leigh Wood Where: Paddington Uniting Church When: Saturday February 7

DANCE AND YOGA IN THE CHAPEL

Onespace will host a pop-up show at the Paddington Chapel next month, enticing Sydneysiders to connect through music, dance, yoga and whole foods. Participants will join US tribal dance duo Desert Dwellers as they meld raw, natural sounds with deep bass into their signature groove, suiting both the yoga mat and the dancefloor. Supporting the duo will be DJ Marc Kundalini, Amar Dhall, Leigh Wood and a Kundalini dance performance from Tara Fischer. Outside, the pop-up lounge will feature whole foods, cacao treats and an organic wine elixir bar from Egg of The Universe and Amazonia. The event takes over Paddington Uniting Church on Saturday February 7, and is open to all ages.

Snails

AT SNAILS’ PACE

One of the most celebrated trap/ bass acts of 2014, Montreal-based DJ Snails has announced his highly anticipated debut Australian tour. Combining trap rhythms and dirty basslines in a new genre that he has dubbed “vomitstep” – yum – Snails has accumulated a growing following since his first track appeared in 2012. In 2014, Snails earned widespread notoriety and recognition from the likes of Skrillex, Dillon Francis and Diplo, with his tracks ‘Wild’ co-produced with Antiserum and ‘Pump This’ featuring heRobust. Snails slides into Chinese Laundry on Friday February 20.

NERVO + WHO KILLED MICKEY

This Saturday January 31, Marquee is getting the double bill treatment by way of Nervo and Who Killed Mickey. Sydney’s favourite latenight party spot on the waterfront will light up with the sights and sounds of the Nervo show, courtesy the Melbourne twins who hit stardom overseas by co-writing the Grammy Awardwinning David Guetta and Kelly Rowland single ‘When Love Takes Over’. As for Who Killed Mickey, we’re not entirely sure, but we do know who shot the sheriff.

Saywhut?!

Flight Facilities

RBMA STUDIO TAKEOVER

The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) will take over Sydney’s Studios 301 for a week in February, with in-house appearances from acts including Flight Facilities. RBMA’s studio takeover will feature lectures, parties, radio broadcasts and artist collaborations, and “the creation of a living, breathing local expression”. The program will feature Flight Facilities, who’ll curate a full day of action on Wednesday February 4, as well as Mark Pritchard, Seekae, Jonti, Touch Sensitive and more. During the week, the various artists will come and host shows and have a bit of a chinwag, and a whole host of electronic musicians and DJs will be on hand to collaborate. On the last day, FBi Radio will be handed the keys, with the community station broadcasting from Studios 301 all day. The program runs from Monday February 2 – Friday February 6; visit facebook.com/redbullmusicacademy for details.

BEN FESTER’S ONE NIGHT STAND

Picnic has announced its first One Night Stand for 2015, with Ben Fester to play an all-night set outside the lockout zone this weekend. Fester is a true mainstay of the Aussie dance scene.

Well-known for his work with Heavenly and Astral People, he finds a way to string together all genres of dance music to create an intriguing and coherent dancefloor experience. He has also supported acts such as Jay Daniel and Prosumer. Fester plays at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville on Saturday January 31.

26 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

RETURN TO RIO LINEUP

Partygoers will make an early Return To Rio this March for an end-of-summer celebration that follows last November’s festival. The festival has now revealed the full lineup for its first 2015 iteration, with headliners the Cuban Brothers set to play an exclusive Sydney set at Del Rio Resort. Brandon Block will also play his only Australian show at the festival, while Philipp Jugg, LTJ Bukem and Guti of Defected are all on the bill. Return To Rio takes over Del Rio at Riverside Resort, Wisemans Ferry on Friday March 20 – Sunday March 22.

ADVERSE + SAYWHUT?!

Play Bar will be pumping this Saturday January 31 thanks to the combined talents of Adverse and Saywhut?!, who’ll reunite to share the decks at Surry Hills’ home of all things hip hop, R&B and funk. Adverse was one of the originals at Sydney community radio station Triple H, and has been spreading his vibes on both sides of the bridge since the early ’00s. With MC Noodlez and Milo, he founded indie label The Groove Dealers, and he’ll be spinning his Afro-inspired beats this weekend. Meanwhile, Saywhut?! has been crusading for the cause of funk, soul and boogie for more than a decade now after his breakbeat beginnings. Benny Hinn will warm up the decks.

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief

five things WITH

FREQ NASTY

Growing Up My earliest memories 1. are of my dad playing his Yamaha guitar and singing in the evenings for most of my childhood. My dad was in a band called The Young Ones in Fiji in the ’60s as a young teenager and had to sneak out at night to do gigs and slip in the back door, as he was to young to be in a club.

Inspirations Tom Waits – unrivalled 2. individuality and artistic experimentation and also brilliant fusing of very trad skills (lyrics and songwriting) and left-field mayhem.

Freq Nasty photo by Jazzwall

Your Crew I work with David 3.

Starfire from LA on a project called Dub Kirtan All Stars fusing the chants of the South Asian yogic tradition with beats and bass. I also work with yoga teacher Claire Thompson on our Yoga Of Bass workshops, which explore the parallels between the ecstatic experience of music and dance, and the ecstatic experience of the yogic meditative path.

genres. Expect multi-genre wibblestep, low-slung funk with a little prancehall thrown in.

Music, Right Here, The Music You Make Right Now 5.

And Play 4.

The scene right now is I play electronic music with a strong emphasis on dub, reggae, dancehall and funk – but it doesn’t normally end up sounding a lot like these

amazing – more great music than ever. Will you ever hear more than a small sliver of it? No. LA has an amazing underground to mainstream

electronic music scene, from Team Supreme to Skrillex.

What: Wanderlust With: Yolanda Be Cool, Nahko and Medicine For The People, Ladi6 and more Where: Cockatoo Island When: Friday February 20 – Sunday February 22

Caribou Bittersweet Symphonies By Lachlan Kanoniuk

R

eleased mid-2014 and standing out in an overwhelmingly fertile crop of A-grade electronic full-lengths from the same period, Our Love exceeded the lofty expectations laden on a follow-up to Caribou’s landmark LP, Swim. It was a relatively long wait, with UK-based Canadian Dan Snaith carving out a slight divergence with his other solo project, Daphni, alongside his newfound role as a father.

Speaking from his London home over the holiday season, Snaith explains the emotional investment of Our Love.

Caribou photo by Thomas Neukum

“It didn’t take me longer to make this record compared to previous records, it just took me a while to get around to it with so much going on,” he says. “I was dying to make it by the time we finished touring, just dying to make this Caribou music again.

“There were bits and pieces that had been around since 2011, when I had a second to mess around with things, or when I was making something for the Daphni record and it wasn’t really dancefloororiented, feeling like it was going in a different direction. I’m not very good at having a sense of what I’m going to do in advance, it’s more getting my hands dirty and actually making music, and feeling what my music is going to sound like or be about. The only thing I get a sense of, accurately, is this affection when Swim came out, people talking about what it meant to them. That was my first angle for making another Caribou record after Swim.

I never really considered that at all before that.”

The ascendance of Daphni, Snaith’s peripheral club-ready project, has

solidified his rekindled fondness for the dancefloor – an aspect not exactly shied away from within the realm of Caribou. “There doesn’t have to be a firm distinction between the two for me at all, really,” he says. “There is a very different method of working and intention, which is why they end up sounding different.

“The Daphni stuff, I never intended for that to be released. It was just made to be played in the DJ sets after people saw me in the context of dance music again and I started getting offered DJ sets again, and I wanted to have more music to play. Not necessarily my own, but that was the easiest way to make sure I knew people wouldn’t have heard it before, getting a track the way I wanted it to sound in the club. That’s why I made that record – it wasn’t intended to be an album; it wasn’t intended to be released in the first place. It was made spontaneously, really quickly, not laboured over in the way the Caribou message is. I always have to sit with Caribou for a long, long time. Daphni music is intentionally functional; it’s meant to be music that people can dance to in the club. Some of the Caribou tracks have that functionality to a certain degree, but it’s not what I’m aiming for, it’s not a requirement. Caribou tracks can be dancefloor-oriented, or not at all. They can be either.”

As Caribou, Snaith exhibits a canny ability to toy with repetition – a vital component within dance – in a compelling fashion, orchestrating deft, underhanded swells. “Repetition in music has been a fascination of mine for my entire adult life,” he explains. “The first real challenge I had, when I felt I really developed my current

sensibility about music, was when I went from listening to horrendous progressive rock – where virtuosity is valued and repetition is definitely not – when I was 15, 16, then to hear all the records and types of music where repetition is a primary element. Even now, something I learned from making the Daphni record and from DJing is the value of music sitting still.

“For me, a novice mistake when trying to make music that works in a club is trying to change it too much. The best thing you can do is let it sit there, or change it only every once in a while. Our Love is a lot about being as concise as possible, getting these ideas in there in very short periods. People ask, ‘Why isn’t the album version of ‘Can’t Do Without You’ longer?’, asking why ‘Julia Brightly’, the short little track on the album, is so short.

It’s about being part of the larger narrative, rather than the tracks

standing so much on their own. It’s an idea you can play with, playing with people’s expectations: should it go on longer?”

Our Love is radiant in its densely layered emotion, searching deeper than the sheer, sometimes cheap euphoria present throughout popular electronic music in recent years. “That was definitely the intent, to pack as much emotion from my life into there,” says Snaith.

“I’m in no way claiming to be in this tradition, but the way I see that being reconciled is through the tradition of dance music [coming] from soul music through to disco music, where people have a superficial understanding about the most popular, super, super happy music, but a lot of it is very bittersweet.

“With house music, it’s very much the same thing. That’s also more general outside of dance music –

they have been my favourite songs, the songs that are simultaneously joyous and melancholic, that blend, that bittersweetness. That’s something I think music does so well as an art form compared to film, poetry, visual art; it synthesises those two opposites. That’s something that’s so interesting to me. Our lives don’t feel like one note, it always has things and its opposite right next to them. I wanted to make music that had these things, these contradictions next to each other all the time.”

What: Our Love out now through City Slang/Inertia Where: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House When: Tuesday February 3 And: Also appearing alongside Flight Facilities, Flying Lotus, St. Vincent, Jungle, Pond and more at Laneway Festival, Sydney College of the Arts, Sunday February 1

BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 27

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

club pick of the week Flying Lotus

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3

Sydney Opera House

Flying Lotus 10:30pm. $54.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28 CLUB NIGHTS

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

Rustie Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9:30pm. $44.

The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. $5.

THURSDAY JANUARY 29 CLUB NIGHTS

EK - feat: Grand Jete + Jeremiah & Hedon + Youngsheeb The Spice Cellar, Sydney.

9pm. free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills.

10pm. free.

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

5pm. free.

The World Bar Thursdays The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

FRIDAY JANUARY 30 HIP HOP & R&B

CLUB NIGHTS

35 DJs/35 Hours - feat: Club Kooky Kids + Elefant Traks Crew + Luke Snarl + DJ Sveta + Katalyst + Chasm + Huwston + Deep 28 :: BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15

Damien Osborne + Jansen Brown Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

7:30pm. $22.60.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1 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.

HIP HOP & R&B

Hi Tops Brass Band Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 9pm. free.

Saturday Dance Fever - feat: DJ Rescue + Impromptu Acts Buzzzbar, Newtown. 8pm. free.

CLUB NIGHTS

Acaddamy + Samrai + Jesabel + E-Cats + Friendless Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.

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

8pm. $10.

Club MTV - feat: Scndl Pacha Sydney, Sydney.

6:30pm. free.

Compound - feat: Subaske + T Mingus Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10.

Infamous Saturdays - feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free.

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

Nervo + Who Killed Mickey Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60.

One Night Stand - feat: Ben Fester The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm. $16.50.

Pacha Sydney - feat: Scndl + A-Tonez + Acaddamy + Natnoiz + Kyro + DJ Moto + Samrai + Jack Bailey + Jace Disgrace + Nanna Does + Fingers + Danny Lang + Mike Hyper + Here’s Trouble + Jade Le Flay + Nad + Heke Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

6:30pm. $27.70.

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

9pm. free.

Skratch Sat-Dee - feat:

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2 HIP HOP & R&B

Raury Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. free.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3 HIP HOP & R&B

FKA Twigs Metro Theatre, Sydney.

8:30pm. $54.

CLUB NIGHTS

Chu The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. free.

Flying Lotus Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 10:30pm. $54.

p send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28 Rustie Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9:30pm. $44.

SATURDAY JANUARY 31

free.

THURSDAY JANUARY 29 EK - feat: Grand Jete + Jeremiah & Hedon + Youngsheeb The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. free.

FRIDAY JANUARY 30 35 DJs/35 Hours - feat: Club Kooky Kids + Elefant Traks Crew + Luke Snarl + DJ Sveta + Katalyst + Chasm + Huwston + Deep Child + Annabelle Gaspar The Loft (UTS), Ultimo. 12pm. free.

Boss Bass - feat: Yahtzel + Spenda C + A-Tonez + Hydraulix + Phaseone + Blackjack + Lennon Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free.

Vanilla Ace + Pole Folder + Danny T + Trent Rackus + DJ Just 1 + Gg Magre + Helena Ellis + King Lee + Damien Osborne + Jansen Brown Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 7:30pm. $22.60.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1 S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2 Raury Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. free.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3 FKA Twigs Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8:30pm. $54.

No Zu & Sal P + D&D + Jimmy Sing Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. $20.

Voodoo - feat: Simon Lovell + Tonto + Matt Roberts + Jnau + Opaque + Sound Breakers + Goldbrix + Jorzz + Keppry B2B Jack Ellem Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 10pm. free.

SATURDAY JANUARY 31 Acaddamy + Samrai + Jesabel + E-Cats + Friendless Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.

Compound - feat: Subaske + T Mingus Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10.

One Night Stand - feat: Ben Fester The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm. $16.50.

FKA Twigs photo by Dominic Sheldon

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

7pm. free.

Jerome Fandor Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. free.

Child + Annabelle Gaspar The Loft (UTS), Ultimo.

12pm. free.

Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks.

6pm. free.

Boss Bass - feat: Yahtzel + Spenda C + A-Tonez + Hydraulix + Phaseone + Blackjack + Lennon Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills.

10pm. free.

Ember Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40.

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

7pm. free.

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

Leaks + Spirit Faces + Anatole Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.

Linda Jenssen Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly.

8pm. free.

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

No Zu & Sal P + D&D + Jimmy Sing Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. $20.

Phat Play Fridays - feat: Normski + Raine Supreme + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free.

Thank Funk It’s Friday The Ranch, Eastwood.

9:30pm. free.

Voodoo - feat: Simon Lovell + Tonto + Matt Roberts + Jnau + Opaque + Sound Breakers + Goldbrix + Jorzz + Keppry B2b Jack Ellem Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 10pm. free.

Yo Grito! DJs Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. free.

Adverse + Saywhut?! + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free.

Something Else Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

9pm. $20.

Spice 31.1 - feat: Nico Stojan + Uone + Robbie Lowe + Ant J Steep The Spice Cellar, Sydney.

9pm. $25.

Super C + Murray Lake Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly.

6pm. free.

The House Of Who - feat: Rotating DJs + Levins + The House Of Who + Nacho Pop + Kato’s Wig Shop Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. free.

Undr Ctrl Summer Rooftop Series - feat: Pelvis + Steele Bonus + Ariane Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 10pm. free.

Vanilla Ace + Pole Folder + Danny T + Trent Rackus + DJ Just 1 + GG Magre + Helena Ellis + King Lee +

Skratch Sat-dee - feat: Adverse + Saywhut?! + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free.

Spice 31.1 - feat: Nico Stojan + Uone + Robbie Lowe + Ant J Steep The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $25.

FKA Twigs

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Off The Record

up all night out all week . . .

Dance And Electronica With Tyson Wray

L

ondon’s infamous Sunday daytime party Secretsundaze will make its debut sojourn to Sydney in March – and the lineup is pretty spectacular. Headlined by Detroit don Marcellus Pittman, he will also be flanked by Secretsundaze residents Giles Smith and James Priestley. Rounding out the bill are local legends Ben Drayton, Heavenly DJs, James Greville, Declan Esau, Lupica & Karim, James Cripps and Zeus. It goes down at The Bristol Arms on Sunday March 1.

If you’re not too busy getting all loveydovey on the rubbish Hallmark holiday that is Valentine’s Day, Chinese Laundry has cooked up something special for you.

Saturday February 14 will see the return of UK titan Danny Howells. Since his breakthrough in the house world in the late ’90s, Howells has remained consistently one of the most respected selectors in the game, with his Sydney shows also spoken of highly in hushed tones by the more discerning punters. In the diary.

Tour rumour: We’re hearing word that Sydney will be getting a visit from up-and-coming German talent Svjet Lana next month. She’s released on labels such as Crossfrontier Audio, Natura Sonoris and System Recordings, and played at clubs and events such as Watergate (Berlin), Ritter Butzke (Berlin) and OFFSonar (Spain). Stay tuned.

Sad news: Edgar Froese, band leader of the legendary Tangerine Dream, passed

away last week. The group, which formed in the late ’60s, is credited with revolutionising krautrock and synth music. In a statement on its Facebook page, the band said, “Froese suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from the effects of a pulmonary embolism in Vienna”. Rest in peace.

Calling all DJs: you’re going to flip when you check out Rane’s new rotary mixer.

Described as “a no-compromise musicmixing performance instrument”, the MP2015 was created by enlisting some of the biggest DJs in the world to lend their advice. We’re talking Dixon, Anthony Parasole, Martyn, Gerd Janson, Efdemin, Ben UFO and Tim Sweeney. The high-end mixer boasts four channels and three bands of EQ, a filter, a rotary pot for mixing and a three-band isolator with adjustable crossover. There’s no release date or RRP just yet. Stay tuned.

Keep an ear out: Italian techno mainstay Donato Dozzy has announced a new LP with a twist – the entire album was recorded using only samples of Anna Caragnano and no other instruments. Needless to say, it’s got us intrigued. Titled Sintetizzatrice, it’ll drop in late March on Spectrum Spools.

Best releases this week: Vril has dropped yet another Vrilliant (sorry) full-length, Portal (on Delsin). Other highlights include MCFERRDOG’s Lawd Forgive Me (1080p), Omar-S’ ‘I Wanna Know’ feat. James Garcia (FXHE) and Burial’s surprise new EP Temple Sleeper (Keysound Recordings).

Svjet Lana

RECOMMENDED SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21

Rustie Oxford Art Factory

Mr. Scruff Metro Theatre

Detroit Swindle Chinese Laundry

SATURDAY JANUARY 31

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8

DJ Tennis TBA

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13

Moodymann National Art School

Lee Burridge, Matthew Dekay TBA Nico Stojan The Spice Cellar

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3 Svjet Lana photo by Michael Wickham

DJ HMC Burdekin Hotel

Flying Lotus, Caribou Sydney Opera House

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6 Theo Parrish Oxford Art Factory

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7 Kolombo Chinese Laundry

DJ EZ National Art School

Moderat The Hi-Fi

Genius Of Time Civic Hotel

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14

Steffi Marrickville Bowling Club Danny Howells Chinese Laundry

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22 SUNDAY MARCH 1

Marcellus Pittman, Giles Smith, James Priestley The Bristol Arms

SATURDAY MARCH 7

Carl Cox The Greenwood Hotel

SATURDAY MARCH 21

Dixon, Âme AGWA Yacht Club

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos?

Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com

s.a.s.h sundays

PICS :: AM

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28

25:01:15 :: Home :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600 BRAG :: 597 :: 28:01:15 :: 29

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live reviews

up all night out all week . . .

What we've been out to see...

NAS Enmore Theatre Thursday January 22 “Nothing beats the first album” – it’s an old-mate thing to say, and oftentimes it’s just nostalgia talking. However, in the case of Nas’ 1994 debut, Illmatic, this claim stands up irrefutably. Considering it was a major label debut from a highly touted MC, it’s interesting to note that Illmatic didn’t contain any massive singles. OK, judging by the way tonight’s crowd fiercely shouted refrains such as “Life’s a bitch and then you die,” “The world is yours,” and “One love,” it ain’t hard to tell every song on Illmatic could have been a single. Still, it’s an album-album, through and through.

together ft. roger sanchez

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The Sydney crowd deserves applause, too. Keeping up with what Nas is saying can be tricky business. From the evening’s opening rhyme – “Rappers, I monkey fl ip ’em with the funky rhythm I be kickin’ / Musician, infl icting composition of pain” – onwards, there wasn’t much time to take a breath. Nevertheless, the audience picked up the slack every time Nas pointed the microphone outwards.

It’s an understatement to say that Nas’ output since Illmatic has been underwhelming – after such a mighty introduction, he was always doomed – but tonight’s post-Illmatic hits medley was far from ordinary. Even if ‘Hate Me Now’ and ‘Nas Is Like’ remain rather grandiose, the likes of ‘One Mic’ and ‘Stay’ impressively showcased Nas’ canny abilities behind the mic, while the impossible catchy ‘I Can’ and ‘If I Ruled The World’ turned the party right up.

Towards the end of the night Nas divulged, “Back in the ’90s we didn’t know we could be famous. The music all came from [the heart]”. It’s a cliché, sure, but he certainly wasn’t at a loss for supporting evidence.

Illmatic is steeped in the frantic unrest of life in the New York projects, but it doesn’t wallow in this foundation. It’s a statement of existential fortitude, which is loaded with such tactile poeticism that it defies the limitations of protest music. Once the protest is over, this will remain a stunning body of work.

Augustus Welby

PICS :: AM

It’s nearly 21 years since Illmatic’s release, and in a recent interview Nas explained he’s now spent more time living in wealth than poverty. In spite of this, when he arrived onstage for this album retrospective to launch into the breakneck verses of ‘N.Y. State Of Mind’, the grub of the Queensbridge projects was brought into clear view. A few songs later, in ‘Halftime’, Nas threw out the line, “Now in every jam I’m the fuckin’ man”. Written as a 19-year-old, the statement underlines how Nas has always been a stunning presence behind the microphone. Gripping one tonight, you could easily believe he was still 20 years old. Beyond his unchanged physical appearance, it wasn’t like he was reciting past epiphanies; rather, all of Nas’ wit and swagger was happening live.

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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25:01:15 :: Home :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR S :: KATRINA CLAR OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: IAMS :: JAMIE WILL

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