Inpress Issue #1126 by TheMusic.com.au

VICTORIA'S HIGHEST CIRCUL ATING STREET PRESS

FREE JACK JOHNSON DOWNLOAD: DETAILS INSIDE!

TRACEY THORN

UNDERWORLD

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI

DJ PREMIER ZEBRA

THE M E A N I E S COL A WAR S RO C K W I Z GO S T EL E R A D I O

W E D N E S D AY 9 J U N E 2 0 10 ~ I S S U E 112 6 ~ F R E E

MELBOURNE - MORNINGTON PENINSULA - BALLARAT / BENDIGO - GEELONG / SURF COAST

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Secret Sounds presents

special guests BOY & BEAR and JOHNNY FLYNN

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EXTRA SHOW ! ADDED

T U O D AUG SOL - THE

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Tickets from Ph 1300THEHIFI, www.thehiďŹ .com.au, Polyester, Greville Records

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

I SPEAK BECAUSE I CAN OUT NOW ON EMI

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FREE Sampler! Check out some of our favourites. Go to secret-sounds.com.au to download your Playlist 4

Wednesday 9 June

JOHN FLANAGAN & THE BEGIN AGAINS + YELKA + HAZELMEN 8.30pm, Entry by donation (band room) BROTHERS Thursday 10 June

MISTER BLACK AND BLUES 5.30pm, Free in the Front Bar THE BOY WHO SPOKE CLOUDS + GOODNIGHT OWL + VICTORIANA GAYE 8.30pm $7 Entry (band room) Friday 11 June

SON OF A GUN 5.30pm Free in the Front Bar TOBIAS HENGEVELD + CLAIRE JENKINS (CAN) 5.30pm, Free in the Front Bar Saturday 12 June

BEN CARR TRIO

5.30pm Free in the Front Bar

Sunday 13 June

JAMES KENYON & THE LLOYD WEIR

4.30pm Free in the Front Bar

EARL GREY POLICY 8.30pm, $5 Entry (band room) + STEEL BIRDS Coming Up...

Open...MON - THU...from 4pm ‘til late FRI...from 2pm ‘til late SAT - SUN...from 12pm ‘til late

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18/6 JESS CHALKE + DAN PARSONS, 22/6: DAN MUSIL + CARLY FERN + NIC TAMMENS, 26/6 CILLA JANE + ALEX HALLAHAN, 29/6 NMIT RECITAL, 2/7 LINDSAY PHILLIPS + THE ORBWEAVERS + ANGEL EYES, 3/7 BENNY WALKER + TOM RICHARDSON

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SATURDAY 12 JUNE

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No.109

BRUNSWICK

Thursday 10 june

“the” jack norton six-stringed virtuoso: guitars, banjo & bouzouki 7.30pm Saturdays in June

Spoonful highly charged rhythm and blues rock band 5pm

Sun 13 june

sweet felicia & the honeytones swingin’ blues with groovin’ bass and a good dose of tude 5pm Monday  June

The Prayerbabies Celebrate Lizzo’s birthday with the splendiferous Prayerbabies for an early arvo session of blues, country and gospeltinged tunes. They’re funny buggers too. 3pm

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WWW.MUSE.MU 9

ISSUE 1126

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE 2010 CREDITS EDITORIAL

Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast Editor Shane O’Donohue music@inpress.com.au Interval Editor Daniel Crichton-Rouse interval@inpress.com.au National Dance Editor Kris Swales zebra@inpress.com.au Contributing Editor Adam Curley Staff Writers Bryget Chrisfield, Michael Smith

ADVERTISING sales@inpress.com.au National Sales & Marketing Director Leigh Treweek Victorian Sales Manager & Bootaé Katie Owen Arts & local advertising Sarah Blaby Bands & local advertising Adrian Stoyles

DESIGN & LAYOUT

COLA WARS

INPRESS 14

18 20 21 22 24 25 26 28 30 31 31 32 32 32 32 34 34 34 34 35 35

Foreword Line – news, opinions, tours, Backlash and Frontlash, and life on the road with Story Of The Year The Gin Club have fans in Mick Thomas, Tim Rogers and Gareth Liddiard Underworld are making songs to smash dancefloors again The Meanies gurgle and splutter about their 21 years together Ariel Pink is not a self-loathing Jew Solomon Burke got to work with producer Willie Mitchell before he died Tracey Thorn doesn’t listen to her first band, Marine Girls, anymore Gosteleradio are named after an old state-owned Soviet radio service On The Record reviews new releases by Crystal Castles, Here We Go Magic and Mike Patton Gyroscope sound like The Wiggles next to Parkway Drive Saosin’s new singer is starting to sound less like their old singer Cabins sometimes get groped, sometimes get booed, while on stage Berry is France’s newest answer to Charlotte Gainsbourg Great Earthquake have a lot in common with Steve Zissou The Josh Owen Band nearly threw in the towel while making their debut album Marshall & The Fro are bringing some northern sun to Melbourne Keshie sound like guys driving with the top down in ‘90s flicks Dead Letter Chorus explain why maple syrup is now on the menu Little John is stepping up as alt. country’s newest local hero Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! reckon their name conjures up images of a sea battle Sleepy Sun don’t wanna just be known for a Fleetwood Mac cover Umläut tell how watching Italian movies threw their timing off

FRONT ROW 60

RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro and co-creator Brian Nankervis talk about life on the road, as they take their quiz show around Australia; dance artist Fiona Bryant discusses working with choreography legend Deborah Hay ahead of In

GIVEAWAYS

The Dark; This Week In Arts tells you how to spend your time (and heard earned money) David Whiteley dons the suit for corporate satire in The Grönholm Method for Red Stitch; Cultural Cringe looks at the first MIFF 2010 films; Snapshot features Carolyn Fels’ Continuum The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodríguez-López gets personal with his debut feature film The Sentimental Engine Slayer; Rottofest director Ronan Freeburn calls out for entrants to his WA film, arts, and comedy festival; TV Set indulges in the new David ‘The Wire’ Simon drama, Treme Film Carew dedicates the majority of this week to Sex And The City 2, and uses a lot of words your grandmother wouldn’t approve of; 7 Up looks at legendary loners of the screen Ahead of the IRENE Underground Arts Festival, curator Daniel Lynch tells us what to look out for; Trailer Trash gets excited about Community and Ninja Assassin

BACK TO INPRESS 67 67 69 69 69 78 78 78 79 79 82 82 83 84 89 94 94

Berserkerfox are tearing up the Melbourne music scene Cola Wars prepare to reveal their raw new rock creation Our LIVE section has everything you need to know about the world of Melbourne live music! Gig Of The Week rugs up for the Empress’s winter party LIVE:Reviews wants to be Henry Wagons’ best friend Stu Harvey gives you a ShortFastReport on the world of punk and hardcore Andrew Haug takes us to the dark side in The Racket Kendal Coombs leads the under-18s boardroom in the Department Of Youth Adam Curley fears Kelis has been BEP’d in The Breakdown Dan Condon blues and roots in Roots Down If you haven’t appeared in Fred Negro’s Pub, your mother probably still speaks to you Jeff Jenkins walks the talk with Jason Walker in Howzat! Plan your month with Fred Negro’s June calendar Our Gig Guide fills your diary for the weekend Find your new band and just about anything else in our classy Classifieds Finish Line hits hard with industry fact (and conjecture) Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig get it on in Fragmented Frequencies

artroom@inpress.com.au Group Art Director Stuart Teague Inpress Cover Design / Art Direction Matt Greenwood Layout Matt Davis, Matt Greenwood, Stuart Teague

ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION accounts@streetpress.com.au Accounts Qing Shu

CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors Clem Bastow, Jeff Jenkins Overseas Contributors Tom Hawking (US), James McGalliard (UK), Sasha Perera (UK). Writers Nick Argyriou, The Boomeister, Paul Andrew, Atticus Bastow, Steve Bell, Tim Burke, Dan Condon, Anthony Carew, EJ Cartledge, Peter Chambers, Matthew Cheetham, Chris Chinchilla, Rebecca Cook, Kendal Coombs, Adam Curley, Cyclone, Michael Daniels, Wayne Davidson, Guy Davis, Carolyn Dempsey, Liza Dezfouli, John Eagle, Guido Farnell, Sam Fell, Bob Baker Fish, Johnny Gash, Cameron Grace, Stu Harvey, Andrew Haug, Andy Hazel, Anthony Horan, Rod Hunt, Layne Kim, Cookie Lee, Joey Lightbulb, Michael Magnusson, Baz McAlister, Keith McDougall, Sam McDougall, Tony McMahon, Adam D Mills, Count Monbulge, Luke Monks, Fred Negro, Mark Neilsen, Roger Nelson, Danielle O’Donohue, Matt O’Neill, Jordan Oliver, Adrian Potts, Paul Ransom, Symon JJ Rock, Adam Sharp, Nic Toupee, Rob Townsend, Dominique Wall, Doug Wallen, Rod Yates.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Chrissie Francis, Kate Griffin, Kane Hibberd, Lara Luz, Lou Lou Nutt, Gina Maher, James Morgan, Heidi Takla, Nathan Uren.

INTERNS Andrea Biagini, Dale Brett, Mitchell Brown, Julian Hocking, Stefanie Markidis.

EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting letters to us for publication, you agree that we may edit the letter for legal, space or other reasons. ©

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Email giveaways@inpress.com.au from 5pm Wednesday Gosteleradio (pronounced Gostel-eh-radio) launch their excellent debut album, Great Deeds Against The Dead, at the Toff In Town on Sunday. It’s a lustrous pop record with dreamy, harmony-drenched choruses layered on clouds of synths, guitar and bass. As band member Ben Strong tells Inpress on page 26 this week, “We didn’t want [the album] to be an attempt at 11 singles. It’s such a cliché, but we wanted it to be something cohesive, we really wanted it to have flow.” If you want to hear what all the fuss is about, then drop us a line: we have two double passes to the show to give away.

WORD UP TO PRIZE WINNERS: Prizes must be collected from Inpress offices during business hours (9am-5.30pm, Mon-Fri). ID is required when collecting prizes. Prizes must be collected within four weeks of the giveaway being published. Please note, Inpress giveaway policy is that winners are permitted one prize per four-week period only.

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THE GEORGE PUBLIC BAR

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

DEAD KEEN

Iconic American gothic rock outfit Christian Death will visit Australia for the first time this August. Joining them will be legendary locals Ikon and New York export Voltaire. With a longstanding and tempestuous band history spanning three decades, Christian Death released their latest album American Inquisition in 2007 and are back on the road to prove their legendary status as death rock pioneers. On temporary hiatus from tearing up the underground New York goth scene, Voltaire will join Melburnian post-punk outfit Ikon when the alternative rock brigade takes over the Corner Hotel on Saturday 14 August. Tickets are on sale now from the Corner box office.

GET TO THE POINT WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE

SONGWRITERS’ COLLECTIVE PRESENTS:

GOOD SUNS SHAUN KIRK THE JAYDEN JESS HIESER ENTRY $7, 8PM

THURSDAY 10 JUNE

EP LAUNCH

SARITAH

DJ DAMON AKA THE NOMAD FEAT. RAYJAH 45 HUGO & THE LIGHT BRIGADE UNTITLED (ZULU FLOW AND DUVZ) BAM BAM ASSASSINS

ENTRY $12, 8.30PM

ENTRY $12, 9PM

SATURDAY 12 JUNE

ALBUM LAUNCH

Greek music icon Anna Vissi is coming down under this month with a four-hour show that will showcase all the hits from her four-decade career. She will perform on Sunday 13 June at the Palace Theatre. Tickets are available through Ticketek.

CELADORE GOING THE DISTANCE

Celadore have extended their Distance Is A Gun east coast tour to include a run of regional shows across their home state of Victoria. The Melbourne indie rockers will perform at Music Man in Bendigo on Saturday 26 June, Memorial Hall in Yarra Glenn on Friday 2 July and an afternoon show at Pure Pop Records and an evening show at the Workers Club on Saturday 3.

A STATE OF FLUX ALL INDIA RADIO

QUIET CHILD TWO CENT SIDESHOW ENTRY $12, 8.30PM

SUNDAY 13 JUNE

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY EVE

[ME] REDCOATS THE BLACK & WHITE THE BEAT DISEASE

ENTRY $10, 8.30PM

MONDAY 14 JUNE

RESIDENCY

EL MOTH & THE TURBO RADS GUEST DJS

ENTRY BY DONATION, 9PM

COMING UP:

SONGWRITERS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS: (WEDNESDAYS IN JUNE) RED INK (17 JUNE) SLEEP PARADE (SINGLE LAUNCH) (18 JUNE) RAVE REVIEW 1ST BIRTHDAY (19 JUNE) MELBOURNE MASS GOSPEL CHOIR (20 JUNE) MUMBLETOWN (24 JUNE) VAUDEVILLE SMASH (25 JUNE) ROOT! (26 JUNE) IDA BRAIM (EP LAUNCH) (1 JULY) JACK’S CASTLE (2 JULY) OWN KIND (EP LAUNCH) (3 JULY) CLOUD CITY (EP LAUNCH) (9 JULY) SMALL TOWN FIASCO (EP LAUNCH) (10 JULY) THE PROCESS (15 JULY) SPIT SYNDICATE (ALBUM LAUNCH) (16 JULY) STRIKE ANYWHERE (17 JULY) JUNGAL (ALBUM LAUNCH) (23 JULY) AUTUMN GRAY (24 JULY) ALPINE (29 JULY) MATT SONIC & THE HIGH TIMES (30 JULY) MERCURY RISING (31 JULY)

NORTH EAST PARTY HOUSE (13 AUGUST) INDIGO CHILDREN (14 AUGUST)

Metal Hammer mag reckon Alexisonfire’s latest record, Old Crows Young Cardinals, is a “dense and beautiful heavy rock album with as many hardcore influences as progressive ones: rewarding and utterly gripping”. The band themselves call their music “the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight”. However you wanna describe them, everyone agrees that it’s live where the group truly excel. Good news for fans is that Alexisonfire play the Palace on Sunday 10 October. Tickets go on sale Friday 18 June from Ticketek.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

Reggae and dancehall musician Mista Savona will take his ten-piece band on the road for a national tour next month. Savona’s recent release Warn The Nation has been praised as one of the definitive reggae albums to emerge from this country and a fitting follow-up to his 2007 Australia/Jamaica landmark crossover record Melbourne Meets Kingston. The homegrown musician and producer will perform at the Hi-Fi on Friday 9 July. Tickets are available from thehifi.com.au and Polyester Records.

SEJA AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET

Synth pop musician Seja has been named as the support for Sarah Blasko when she returns to home soil for a national tour in October and November. Blasko has been singing up a storm at shows and festivals across Europe and the US following the overseas release of her stunning third album As Day Follows Night. Seja’s debut solo album We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares has seen her build upon her previous collaborative work with Brisbane bands Regurgitator and Sekiden and produce a masterful synth pop record. The Victorian leg of the tour kicks off at the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine on Thursday 7 October (tickets from the venue or theatreroyal.info) before stopping off at the Palais on Friday 8 (tickets from Ticketmaster) and the Meeniyan Town Hall on Saturday 9 (tickets from lyrebirdartscouncil.com.au).

A MISSION OF GOOD HEART

‘AVA LOOK Australian indie champions British India are revving up for the launch of their critically acclaimed new album Avalanche in their hometown with shows at the Corner Hotel this Friday and Saturday, supported on both nights by up-and-coming Melbourne pop two-piece Big Scary and Adelaide indie rockers City Riots. Debuting Top 10 on the national ARIA Chart earlier this month, Avalanche is the band’s strongest album to date. Featuring hit singles Beneath The Satellites, Vanilla and the title track, the album takes British India’s trademark garage pop to new heights.

Daryl Braithwaite and Adam Hills are the latest additions to an astounding line-up of musicians set to perform at the Heart Of St Kilda concert at the Palais Theatre on Tuesday 29 June. Braithwaite and Hills join a cast of performers that includes Ella & Jesse Hooper, Tex Perkins, Archie Roach, Paris Wells, Clare Bowditch, Mick Thomas, Rebecca Barnard, Stephen Cummings, Kutcha Edwards, Even, The Frowning Clouds, Brian Nankervis, Des Dowling, Judith Lucy, Greg Fleet, Ian Bland and Hannah Gadsby. All proceeds from the annual event go to the Sacred Heart Mission in support of their ongoing work with homeless and disadvantaged people living in Melbourne. Tickets for the star-studded charity event are available from Ticketmaster.

TAKE YOUR PICK Their excellent debut earned them an ARIA Award nomination and their live show has won them a reputation as one of this country’s mustsee live acts, and now The Wilson Pickers are preparing to hit the road in celebration of their forthcoming second release, Shake It Down. The band, featuring Sime Nugent, Danny Widdicombe, Ben Salter, John Bedggood and Andrew Morris, play Geelong’s National Hotel on Thursday 15 July, the East Brunswick Club on Friday 16 and Lot 19 in Castlemaine on Saturday 17.

TICKETS FOR COHEN GOIN’ QUICKLY

With tickets for his first Melbourne show selling out quickly, a second date for the Melboune leg of Leonard Cohen’s November tour has been announced. The new show will take place at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday 13 November. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek.

BUBLE YET TO BURST

Melbourne’s love affair with Canadian crooner Michael Bublé is continuing, with the announcement of a third show in Melbourne in February. The first two Melbourne shows on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 have sold out and will be followed up by a third night at Rod Laver Arena on Friday 25 February. Tickets for the newly announced show will go on sale on Thursday 17 June.

$2 CARLTON POTS EVERY MONDAY FIRE! SANTA ROSA, FIRE! (ALBUM LAUNCH) CHRIS O’NEIL ALBUM LAUNCH (FOR PRESALES TICKET CONTACT ANDREW AT BYRNESIDE MUSIC 95106322)

FRI 11 JUNE

FIRE! SANTA ROSA, FIRE! (ALBUM LAUNCH) W/ KIMBRA + DEEP SEA ARCADE

GREAT EARTHQUAKE (ALBUM LAUNCH) THE FROWNING CLOUDS W/ LOVE CONNECTION + MILK TEDDY

THE GOOD CHINA (FAREWELL SHOW) SAT 19 JUNE

W/ INSTITUT POLAIRE + THE BON SCOTTS

2ECONDS SINGLE LAUNCH W/ MEET ME AT MONTAUK + OPTION + KILLS COLLAPSE

SUN 13 JUNE - JUNE RESIDENTS

SAT 12 JUNE

THURS 17 JUNE

CHRIS CAVILL ANDREW HIGGS

ALL GREEK TO US

YOU’RE FIRED

MARSHALL & THE FRO BENJALU

Riding high on the success of their recently released debut album Nothing On TV, Sydney indie quartet Cassette Kids are heading down to the Toff In Town this Saturday for some musical revelry. The band will be supported by Ballarat punk teens Howl and New Zealand new wave duo Kids Of 88. Tickets are available at moshtix.com.au.

ALBUM LAUNCH

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

FRIDAY 11 JUNE

Melbourne outfit Princess One Point Five are warming up for the release of their fourth album What Doesn’t Kill You with a Thursday night residency at the Builder’s Arms this month. Joining festivities tomorrow will be kooky two-piece Flying Scribble and experimental pop kids Patinka Cha Cha. Thursday 17 June will see the band accompanied by vintage folk-pop songstress Georgia Fields and Melbourne musician Ben Montero. For the final week of the residency, Princess One Point Five will be supported by Cuba Is Japan and Lehmann B Smith. Tickets are available at the door.

FRI 18 JUNE

CHRIS O NEIL ALBUM LAUNCH W/ KIEREN CHRISTOPHERSON + THOM CRAWFORD + RONALD BLACKMAN

SUN 20 JUNE - JUNE RESIDENTS

THE FROWNING CLOUDS + DELTA RIGGS

+ DELTA RIGGS

W/ THE KREMILIN SUCCESSION

FRI 25 JUNE

BEACHES 7” LAUNCH

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

PASS THE TEST

One of the world’s premier thrash bands, Testament, return to our shores in August. Over 25 years, nine studio and five live albums, the group have cultivated a huge following – their most recent record, 2008’s The Formation Of Damnation, peaked at number 15 in Germany. With a new album due this year, Testament play Billboard on Friday 6 August with Dreadnaught. Tickets are on sale now from the venue and Moshtix.

MARKET SHARE

Northcote Town Hall’s winter artisans’ markets return this month, featuring stalls selling locally handcrafted items including clothing, jewellery, homewares, ceramics and plants. The big news for music fans is that a local act will perform each week – on Saturday 19 June it’s Nick Batterham, on Saturday 26 The Silence Engine’s Stefan Lafebre performs, on Saturday 3 July it’s Actor Slash Model and Jordie Lane wraps things up on Saturday 10. The markets run from 10am until 4pm and entry is free.

GIVE US THE BREAK

COLLISION COURSE With new single Jellylegs offering the first taste of their soon-to-be released second album, Children Collide are set to play the Hi-Fi this Sunday with special guests Cabins. Tickets are available from thehifi.com.au and oztix.com.au.

SIMONE FELICE TOUR CANCELLED

Simone Felice’s Australian tour has been cancelled after the singer was rushed to hospital last week for emergency open-heart surgery as a result of aortic stenosis. All tickets purchased will be refunded in full at point of purchase. Jordie Lane, who was to support Felice at the Northcote Social Cub on Friday, has decided to honour the booking and will perform in duo mode with Matt Green, with support from Liz Stringer and Van Walker (performing as Elizabeth & Donovan) and Leena. Tickets are $15 at the door. Blondie

ERNEST ON HIS WAY

In support of his debut album, Hunting, out next week, Ernest Ellis will embark on an east coast tour in July. The songwriter, who cites PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Beck, Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac as inspirations, plays the Northcote Social Club on Friday 16 July.

SPLENDOUR RESALE

With a stellar line-up that includes Pixies, LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, Scissor Sisters, Mumford & Sons, Florence & The Machine and about a billion others, it’s no surprise that the Splendour In The Grass festival sold out within hours of going on sale. Good news for those that missed out is a ticket resale facility is now in operation. If you’re still keen to get to the event, held at Woodford from Friday 30 July until Sunday 1 August, head to splendourinthegrass.com before Tuesday 27 July. Those who have purchased tickets but can no longer attend the festival can put up their tickets for resale and recoup the original outlay (minus fees and charges) once it is re-purchased by another person.

Following a standout performance at this year’s Bluesfest and a brief run of packed-out shows with mates The Hoodoo Gurus, surf rock supergroup The Break (three parts Midnight Oil, one part Violent Femmes) return to Victoria this weekend for a handful of headline shows. Playing from cracking debut album Church Of The Open Sky, the band play the Studio in Geelong on Friday, the East Brunswick Club on Saturday and the Espy on Sunday.

AL’S BELLS

CW Stoneking has announced enigmatic American tenor banjo player Al Duvall as main support act on his July tour. Duvall sounds like the perfect companion to his mysterious host – he says he was born in West Virginia in 1877 and claims to have started his career in a minstrel show, fought in World War I, worked for almost 70 years in a sausage factory and took up the banjo in 1991 as therapy for his pleurisy. He attributes his longevity to a daily dram of Hamlin’s Quinsy Balsam. The pair play the Corner Hotel on Thursday 8 and the Prince Bandroom Friday 9 July. The Pretenders

BACK ON THEIR BIKE Tickets for the Melbourne leg of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Australian tour sold out in less than a day. With critics calling latest album Beat The Devil’s Tattoo a true return to the band’s best, fans will be rapt to hear BRMC will play a second – and definitely final – Melbourne show at Billboard on Saturday 31 July. Tickets go on sale on 9am Friday from billboardthevenue.com.au and Ticketek.

STAR STILL SHINES

HYNDE AND HARRY TOGETHER Legendary rock bands Blondie and The Pretenders will join forces this December in a co-headlining tour throughout Australia. The tour will see two of music’s most compelling frontwomen, Deborah Harry and Chrissie Hynde, join forces in a spectacular double bill at the Palais Theatre on Wednesday 1 December and at Rochford Wines in Yarra Valley on Saturday 4 December. Founding Blondie members Harry and Chris Stein and longtime drummer Clem Burke have just completed Panic Of Girls, their first new album in six years. Emerging from the late ‘70s New York punk scene, Blondie’s impressive catalogue of hits includes 1978 number one Heart Of Glass, The Tide Is High, Call Me, Union City Blues and Atomic. English rock band The Pretenders have experienced a somewhat turbulent 30-year career and have cemented their name in the music history books with hits such as Brass In Pocket and perpetual wedding song I’ll Stand By You. Joining them at the Palais Theatre will be accomplished Magic Dirt frontwoman Adalita, who will also play at the Rochford Wines A Day On The Green show with Melbourne five-piece Little Red. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday from Ticketmaster and adayonthegreen.com.au.

Alex Chilton, singer and guitarist of Big Star, passed away in a New Orleans hospital on 17 March. One of the most influential rock groups to emerge from the early 1970s, Big Star were scheduled to play at the South By Southwest music festival just days later, sharing stages with many bands influenced by Chilton’s music. On Sunday 20 June Yah Yah’s will host Thank You Friends – A Tribute To Alex Chilton. Bringing together some of Melbourne’s most esteemed Chiltonians, the night will be a celebration of one of the greatest songwriters and challenging yet confusing musicians of all time. Tim Rogerstein, Dan Kelly, Henry Wagons, Adalita, Jordie Lane, James McCann, Davey Lane, Kat Spazzy, Gus & Lachie Frankin, Chromenips, Phil Gionfriddo, Van & Cal Walker, Mark Ferrie, Pete Satchell, Spencer P Jones, Mikey Madden, Joel Silbersher, Downhills Home, Chris Altmann and Nick Murphy will play songs from across Chilton’s entire career. Doors open at 7pm, entry is $15.

HORSE POWER

Following the release of their debut EP last year, Super Wild Horses played around Australia with the likes of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Jon Spencer, The Drones and My Disco, and had one of their tunes chosen to soundtrack a bunch of scantily-clad hotties mucking about in a Bonds TV advert. With debut album Fifteen set for release on 23 July, the garage pop duo play the Victoria Hotel’s Swanston Room on Saturday 31 July with Total Control, Boomgates and School Of Radiant Living.

FOREWORD LINE LOTS IN STORE

Jack Johnson

NEWS FROM THE FRONT Jump Jump Dance Dance

The Basement Discs (24 Block Place, city) has another big month of instore performances lined up in June. On Friday Russian-born songstress Zulya sings from her most recent album, Tales Of Subliming, featuring songs in all three of her spoken languages; on Friday 18 June soulful roots rockers the Josh Owen Band preview their debut studio album, which has been three years in the making; and on Friday 25 June Barb Waters showcases her latest album, Buffalo Mountain Girl, written about her experiences growing up in country Victoria. All performances are at 12.45pm.

EMPIRE BUILDS

The Cat Empire have sold more than half a million albums in Australia, and this year will play their 800th live show. The band will release their fourth studio album, Cinema, on 25 June, and will webcast the record’s launch on Sunday 20 June at thecatempire. com.au. Right now fans can also download a free album track, Beyond All, from the site, and pre-order a number of album packages, which include signed albums, handmade tote bags and the chance to attend one of the group’s soundchecks. The band have also announced two new Melbourne shows – supported by Clairy Baby Browne & The Bangin’ Racketts and Mama Kin, The Cat Empire play the Prince Bandroom on Sunday 8 August and the Palace on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 August.

ANYTHING GOES

We don’t have enough fingers to count how many staples of Aussie radio Mental As Anything have been responsible for penning. The band will be dusting off their old hits, as well as some newer material, when they play Geelong’s Gateway Hotel on Wednesday 30 June, Wellers in Kangaroo Ground on Thursday 1 July, the Sandbelt in Moorabbin on Friday 2 and Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal on Saturday 3.

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS This week we’re giving you two free tunes from opposite ends of the musical spectrum – first up is the opening track of Jack Johnson’s brand new studio album, here remixed by Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij in Boys Like Us mode. Secondly, we present you the killer Grum remix of LA/Aussie electro rockers Jump Jump Dance Dance’s Show Me The Night. Simply head to universalmusic.net.au/freedownloads/streetpressaustralia to get downloading. You And Your Heart (Boys Like Us remix) JACK JOHNSON After selling an astonishing 18 million-plus records worldwide, this man on a journey is set to release his fifth studio album, aptly titled To The Sea. The first single and first song on the album You And Your Heart is a beautiful, melodic slice of acoustic bliss. The new album was recorded at the Mango Tree Studio in Hawaii and the Solar Powered Plastic Plant in LA using 100% solar power. Building upon his philanthropic efforts, Johnson will continue to collaborate with local non-profit groups around the world on his 2010 tour and once again will donate all of his tour profits to support environmental, art, and music education via 1% For The Planet. Catch Jack performing in Australia in December. Show Me The Night (Grum Remix) JUMP JUMP DANCE DANCE Trans-Pacific electro rockers Jump Jump Dance Dance present their Hype Machine top ten/Bigstereo #1 Grum remix of their hit single Show Me The Night. The single is taken from their self-titled debut album due this August. It’s unusual for an up-and-coming band to have a pedigree as impressive as that of these boys. But as it stands, the duo of Chris Carter and Simon Lewicki have amassed a wealth of experience – Carter as an in-demand DJ and vocalist who has played alongside such luminaries of the LA scene as DJ AM and Tommie Sunshine, and Lewicki as the mastermind behind the celebrated club acts Groove Terminator, Tonite Only and Chili Hifly – before uniting to create Jump Jump Dance Dance.

CALLING MELBOURNE BANDS

THE WRIGHT STUFF We were all dirty here at Inpress last week when it was announced that Rufus Wainwright was heading to Australia to play the Sydney Opera House on Thursday 14 October. The good news is that the singer has now also scheduled a run of shows in other states. Wainwright will appear in solo mode, performing songs from his acclaimed sixth studio album All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, as well as selections from his impressive back catalogue. He plays the Palais on Sunday 24 October. Tickets go on sale next Wednesday 16 June from Ticketmaster.

All presale tickets available through MOSHTIX: Phone: 1300 GET TIX (438 849) on-line: www.moshtix.com.au, or at all Moshtix outlets, including Polyester (Fitzroy & City)

The Song Room is a national charity about to launch a fun, interactive fundraising campaign to raise funds for disadvantaged kids around Australia. It is looking for homegrown talent to feature on its campaign website as part of a national competition and its viral promotional across the net. The campaign will be heavily promoted around the country, and your band will receive healthy exposure and acknowledgement. If you have tracks that were written, produced and recorded by you, contact Lynda on 03 9495 6422 or lynda@songroom.org.au.

DARK STARS

Coopers Dark Ale, PBS FM and Inpress invite you to attend an exclusive gig at a secret location on Saturday 17 July. Featuring The Drones, The Dacios and Batrider, Sounds After Dark, broadcast live to air on PBS, will be the most intimate gig The Drones have played in Melbourne in years. The band, whose local shows always sell out, recently performed at the Pavement-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK. You can’t buy your way into this exclusive invite-only event; for further information on how you can score yourself a ticket go to coopers.com.au/events/ soundsafterdark.

MORE MUSE Muse sold out all three of their Australian concerts in no time. Melbourne fans who missed out will be delighted to know the band will now play a second Rod Laver Arena show on Wednesday 15 December. Tickets are on sale now from Ticketek.

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

TALL TALES

FOREWORD LINE

Attentive possums and professors on ‘shrooms. Just another day on the road for RYAN PHILLIPS and JOSH WILLS of Missouri’s STORY OF THE YEAR. “Does dope-ass have a hyphen?”

hillips: Hello fellow humans. We are in beautiful New Haven, CT right in the heart of the Yale campus. We are playing a great venue tonight called Toad’s Place. We got in town early last night and it wound up being a really great and memorable night for me. A couple of strange things happened. First, the rest of the dudes went out to a bar (shocker!) and I stayed back to work on some music. I walked around the city with my acoustic jamming in random places, soaking up the vibe, searching for inspiration. This area is full of awesome-looking buildings and architecture and places like this can really affect your mood and creativity. Anyway, I wound up in this little grassy field behind a building, and two great things happened. The first: I was jamming pretty hard, kinda lost in the music and I looked up and there was a possum directly in front of me, no more than six feet away, with his teeth showing, hissing at me. I jumped on top of a bench and screamed like a teenage girl. Maybe even a pre-teen girl, but hey man, he came from out of nowhere and those little fuckers carry

BACKLASH

rabies. So after a minute or two, I realised that for some strange reason he (maybe it was a she? I didn’t see a little possum dick) wasn’t scared of me and wasn’t going anywhere. So I slowly sat back down and played the guitar for 15 long minutes while this possum sat six feet from me and listened. I think this particular possum liked my guitar playing or wanted to be my friend. I named him Gary. Gary the possum. My friend. My fan. He never tried to eat me or suck my blood or give me rabies. He just listened. The perfect fan. After Gary peaced out, another creature just as exciting and mystical paid me a visit. He was a 60-ish man that looked like Socrates from Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. This man came right up to me and closed his eyes and proceeded to dance while I wrote music. I’m pretty sure he was either on mushrooms or acid because I’ve never seen a human experience music the way he was. It’s like he could see the notes. This went on for quite a while. It was me, Hawaiian Socrates, and Gary the possum hiding somewhere close by, alone in a field, creating music together. I guess you had to be there, but it was one of the top ten weirdest hours of my life. It got even weirder. I figured this man might be some kind of lunatic or homeless person, but after he concluded his ten-minute interpretive-art-solo-dance session, he started talking to me and I’m pretty sure he was a professor at Yale. A professor on ‘shrooms. He told me about this unbelievable jazz guitarist that would blow my mind, so I went to this jazz club with him and had my face absolutely melted by a guitar player whose name, to my everlasting shame, I forgot. He was absolutely brilliant. I had a Guinness and watched a true master of the guitar unleash his demons – to a crowd of no more than 15. For tips. And now that I think about it, maybe Gary the possum and this strange man where the same person… The Tribe

Sitting in a parking lot, on top of the trailer, playing the guitar watching an ugly, underwhelming sunset. Way too much pollution and smog I guess. Nothing like a good sunset. Except for maybe dogs or white chocolate peanut butter cups. I saw a man in Walmart with no legs – and I’m pretty sure he was blind as well – and I felt like the richest person in the world because I have my legs and my health. Life is all about appreciating the little things. Low level ecstasy. Low maintenance living. Appreciating what you have instead of focusing on what you want. And right now I have a boner that won’t go down. Morning. 10am. Slept for eight hours for the first time in the last two weeks. I feel like a new human. Looking out the window listening to Kings Of Leon’s first album followed by Iron Maiden, Rolling Stones, and Muse. Today is important because I’m going to change my underwear and socks; we are in NYC and I’m going to see my management company today; and I’m going to buy some music. Need to get some of the older U2 albums. I never got into U2 because when I was a kid my friends and I thought it was “wuss music”. I only recently discovered the genius of that band... Anyway, I’m excited to walk around New York City and soak up the vibe and find inspiration for new songs. I’ve been on fire lately writing and recording music. It feels so amazing when the music flows. It’s like it’s been waiting to surface all along and then bam! Out it comes. Like it was always there, just waiting to be tapped into. It’s an amazing thing to create. To bring to existence something that otherwise wouldn’t be. It’s what its all about. Love, Ryan. WHO: Story Of The Year WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Billboard

FRONTLASH

THE LIBS

SPICKS AND SPECKS

Former PM Malcolm Fraser quits the party, now comes the news MP Petro Georgio won’t contest the next election. Is there anybody with even an ounce of humanity left in the party?

For trouncing Hey Hey in the ratings. Anything that helps get Daryl Somers off our screens is alright by us.

MILEY/SANDRA/ET AL

Playing Festi Hall on 12 August. Get ready to party like it’s 1989.

Uh, please.

THE PUB WITH NO NAME

ADRIANA XENIDES RIP.

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST

We don’t know what it’s gonna be called yet, but the former Tote relaunches with an invite-only event on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY 99 TILJ U11N E BOIS ET CHARBON TH

GYPSY SWING

FRIDAY DJ LOVEPUFF

11 T H J U N E 8.30 TIL CLOSE

E SATURDAY 128.30 JTILU NCLOSE DJ AMANDA ROFF TH

SUNDAY THE HOLY SEA

13 T H J U N E 5 TIL 7

(SOLO)

7 JUNE MONDAY 9 TIL 11 ADAM AFIF & FERGUS MCALPIN TH

AND FRIENDS

OPEN FIRE DINNER 7 NIGHTS LUNCH: SAT 12PM/SUN 1PM

9415 9 9 0 4 M O N - F R I 3 P M T I L L AT E S AT M I D DAY T I L 1 A M S U N 1 T I L 11

THE MARQUIS OF LORNE HO TEL CNR GEORGE + KERR S TREET S FITZROY

RAISING THE BAR On the eve of releasing their fourth album, Deathwish, THE GIN CLUB’s BEN SALTER and CONOR MACDONALD chat with STEVE BELL about the sonic evolution of their many-headed beast and the support they’ve received from the scene’s elder statesmen.

Gala Mill, this distinctly Australian environment again played an integral role in the album’s sound. “It was an easy decision because we had so much fun recording Junk up there,” Salter explains. “We try to explain it to people when they ask, ‘What’s it like up there?’, and it’s impossible to properly describe. It’s just awesome. When they go up there people finally understand the beauty of the place and why it’s so perfect for recording. There’s no mobile phone reception and there’s nothing really else for you to do except go and record. There’s no distractions and you get into the perfect mindset. Plus the set-up is great; I couldn’t imagine why you’d want to do it anywhere else. It’s distinctly outback Australian – it’s not like country Victoria or even northern New South Wales where it’s nice and lush and stuff – it’s arid bush, proper bush. It’s quite beautiful, but it’s bush.” “And it’s very easy to get a lot of work done,” Macdonald enthuses. “We tend to work pretty hard when we’re there and it’s good when you have as many people as we do – you can have four or five people recording at once, and another couple getting firewood or getting some food prepared or something. There’s always work to be done, but it’s great fun at the same time and I think that’s reflected in the end product.” The band were joined up there for part of the recording process by Aussie music legend Mick Thomas, who contributed the track Calling Me Home which was the B-side to the 7” single Rain. “Gus [Agars, drums] hooked that up because he knows him really well,” Salter gushes. “I’d met Mick a few times briefly, and I think we even played with him a couple of times, but Gus mentioned that Mick had expressed an interest in coming up there, and I said, ‘Oh geez, we have to get him up!’. He ended up coming up for two or three days and hung out, and he was just the most humble person. We were, like, ‘This is Mick Thomas!’. It was an amazing experience for us and every humbling – it makes you think that we must be doing something right.”

here are many different ways a band can come into existence – some start out with a concrete vision of what they hope to create and achieve, while others have more laissez faire foundations and just seem destined to happen. Brisbane indie folk collective The Gin Club are a definite example of the latter option, having formed when a group of disparate solo musicians frequented a recurring jam night at an inner-city Brisbane pub and gradually realised they had common musical interests. From these relatively ad hoc beginnings they have morphed over time into an actual band in every sense of the word. Indeed, to the external observer the change undertaken by The Gin Club over the last five or so years has been extreme. What began as a group of friends playing each other’s songs has evolved organically into so much more, a band with that intuitive gang mentality that is indefinable but at the same time so obvious to those who watch them play or listen to their increasingly accomplished recorded output. The current case in point is their brand-spanking new fourth album, Deathwish. Following on from their epic 2008 double album Junk, the new release has seen them hone their sound considerably, without sacrificing the core aesthetic and diversity that has characterised previous Gin Club releases. While the band’s sound has changed considerably since the release of their debut self-titled longplayer back in 2004, and its

membership has ebbed and flowed over time – they now have eight relatively stable members, including two based in Melbourne and one all the way from Sweden – for songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Ben Salter and Conor Macdonald the gradual shift in the band’s sound is as natural as night following day. “I think it’s probably just an evolution of our songwriting,” Macdonald offers. “Plus to an extent it’s been about having time to work on things. The first album was done in a day, and then [2005’s] Fear Of The Sea was done over maybe three weekends, whereas the last couple of albums we’ve been able to spend a couple of weeks doing bed tracks, and then spend a fairly long period of time to do overdubs and mix it, and I think that’s had a huge impact on the sound of the various albums.” “I think also we’ve never really limited too much our idea of what we could be,” Salter continues. “All of the really cool bands that I like such as Radiohead or Wilco or The Triffids by the time they did Black Swan – although they were always a little bit all over the place – but those bands who always try not to limit their idea of what the band can be, it’s really cool. The transition from the first album to Fear Of The Sea which had Drug Flowers – it’s just totally different, and at the time people were going, ‘Oh, it’s really weird, you’ve got these weird pop songs, what happened to all of your acoustic stuff?’, and that was just the second album. But really the progression’s more about the make-up of the band – when you’ve

got seven different songwriters all listening to different stuff, why would you want to get together and play this one narrow type of music? That seems really boring.” “We manage to make it sound cohesive though, which is important,” Macdonald muses. “There’s a lot of collaboration once the songs are brought to the band with the arrangements and things like that.” “There’s still a fairly core group of people who are playing the instrumental side of the album – Dan [Mansfield] played a lot of the keys and guitar, and I played a lot of the guitar and did a lot of the backing vocals,” Salter offers. “Although we tried to break that up a bit this time around, because on Junk it got a bit similar because I was doing backing vocals on everything, so on this one there’s a nice combination and some guests such as Sue Ray and Megan Washington doing vocals as well. But generally because I do a lot of the backing vocals and we have the core drummers it can’t help to sound like us – I’d be surprised if after how much we’d played together that even though we’ve got a lot of songwriters we didn’t sound like an actual band.” As with Junk, the new album was recorded at Prior Park – the cattle property outside of Rockhampton owned by Salter’s sister and brother-in-law (Gordon Stunzner, who also wrote and performed the gorgeous Book Of Poison on Deathwish) – and, as with antecedents such as The Triffids’ In The Pines and The Drones’

Thomas is the latest in a line of distinguished Oz rock figures to have offered patronage to The Gin Club – You Am I’s Tim Rogers has been a longterm ally and sang Something Rotten on Junk, while Gareth Liddiard from The Drones has also played a strong mentoring role for the collective. “Those three guys have been so lovely to us and been really, really supportive over the years,” Macdonald marvels. “Tim from very early on got behind us – we’d only been around for six months or something – and he saw us at a show and really helped us in so many different ways from there on in.” “And it’s not just us – it doesn’t get said enough, that Tim Rogers is one of the biggest patrons and supporters of Australian bands,” Salter stresses. “He’s always there to give advice to so many people I know that play in bands, it’s totally inspiring and he’s just been such an important supporter of The Gin Club from the very outset. It’s just been so important – if not the most important thing to be – that these people who I admire so much, for them to consider us worthy of their support is extremely gratifying. It’s pretty much the greatest thing I could ever hope for.”

WHO: The Gin Club WHAT: Deathwish (Plus One/Shock) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 19 June, East Brunswick Club

HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS Stadium techno pioneers UNDERWORLD are teasing fans with their first new material since 2007’s Oblivion With Bells, and frontman KARL HYDE assures KRIS SWALES the new album is purpose-built to smash dancefloors. now rumoured to be a sixth album due in September seemingly complete. “We’re getting him warmed up,” Hyde jokes fondly of his musical companion of 30 years. “We’re pumping oxygen in there and showing him pictures of trees and stuff, and just getting him acclimatised to the idea that maybe we’ll let him out. “I think he likes being outside in the fresh air,” he continues, “but he’s a very talented man and the studio is one of his instruments – he’s a very, very gifted producer and I’m thrilled with what he’s been doing, just thrilled.” While Oblivion With Bells was still a solid outing, the slow and steady pace at which it unfolded meant that only the singles Crocodile and Beautiful Burnout featured prominently in the ensuing tours – and even then only occasionally interspersed in between such classic festival smashers as King Of Snake, Pearl’s Girl and Mmm Skyscraper… I Love You to ease the crowd from warp factor nine back to idle. The aforementioned You Do Scribble and Downpipe, as well as another uplifting progressive house anthem in the making commonly called Between Stars on fan forums, indicated that a return to the relentless big tunes of the band’s turn of the century period may well be on the cards. It’s an assumption that Hyde is happy to confirm.

he Underworld faithful should have known something was coming. Even before Karl Hyde and Rick Smith’s fifth Underworld MK 2/3 era studio album Oblivion With Bells dropped in October 2007, the duo and their right-hand man Darren Price were busily crisscrossing the globe with their incendiary live show, Hyde all the while blogging the band’s adventures on their website and sharing his slightly leftfield take on the world via Twitter – a medium perfect for his trademark stream of consciousness ramblings. The only evidence that the band had been active in the studio at all came from the esoteric Athens compilation (tracklisting Laurent Garnier and Squarepusher via Roxy Music and Mahavishnu Orchestra), a collaboration with Mark Knight and D Ramirez that produced the big room minimal-tech weapon Downpipe, and the 020202 and phonestrap/autotrader releases that appeared with minimal fanfare on their website. But on 12 December 2009, the touring cycle finally ended in Abu Dhabi’s salubrious Emirates Palace and the tweets became more sporadic, though Hyde

continued to diarise his wide-eyed view on everything from Formula One racing to reuniting with Brian Eno and Australian improv jazz trio The Necks at the Brighton Festival in March, to again perform the Pure Scenius composition they debuted as part of the Eno-curated Luminous Festival in Sydney last year. Only a 24 March post reading “Four nights in a row without sleep – things get interesting. Bring on the dancing horses…” and an 11 May revelation from Knight that he and Ramirez were again in the lab with Underworld hinted that something big may well be brewing at Underworld HQ, but no one suspected just how big it would be until Scribble – a reworked version of an ‘intelligent’ drum’n’bass track known as You Do Scribble which has been a feature of live shows since 2005 – came roaring across the BBC airwaves courtesy of Zane Lowe on 13 May. Inpress caught up with Hyde just two days before the High Contrast co-produced bomb dropped, his blog intimating Smith was just about to see the light of day for the first time in months with work on what is

“The last album was probably one of our most introspective records and quite likely influenced by making two film scores back to back and enjoying that experience of exploring those sound palettes,” a considered Hyde reflects in reference to the musical backdrops they helped provide to Anthony Mighella’s 2006 romantic drama Breaking And Entering, and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s 2007 cosmic freakout Sunshine. “[The new album] has come directly out of three years of live shows, experimenting with new material, and gearing towards being able to play it live. A lot of Oblivion With Bells you couldn’t play live unless we did it in a theatre, a sit-down theatre – which is still an intent of ours, to be able to do that kind of show – but a lot of that material just wasn’t integratable into the live show.” Enter Knight and Ramirez, two masters of working a modern dancefloor into a frenzy – Knight arguably helping reframe the sound of superclub main rooms with releases through the Toolroom Records label he’s helmed since 2003. Introduced to Hyde and

Smith through Junior Boy’s Own label co-founder Steve Hall (now part of Underworld’s management team), the four-way collaboration immediately struck paydirt with Downpipe in 2009. It’s through keeping their minds open that Hyde and Smith have evolved so fluidly since first joining forces in 1979, their union producing two albums as electroclash forerunners Freur in the early ‘80s, coalescing into Underworld MK 1 (alongside bandmates who Hyde admits with a hint of melancholy that he’s no longer in touch with) through the late-‘80s Underneath The Radar synth-pop era, and then exploding off the back of the acid house revolution with now departed househead Darren Emerson in the ranks for the instant classic Dubnobasswithmyheadman longplayer in 1994. Then there’s the Tomato arts collective which curates art shows and experimental happenings alongside providing the visual accompaniment to the Underworld live extravaganza, and Hyde’s own return to his artistic roots – he painted the cover art for the Athens compilation, and has an exhibition of new work set to open in Tokyo this August. “I’m a product of a ‘70s art school,” Hyde admits. “And the reason I stopped was that I felt it was too exclusive, that a lot of people were intimidated by art galleries – although I loved them it was intimidating for a lot of people. And I think for Rick, too, we wanted to communicate with a lot of people and I didn’t want to just communicate with a few people. And so I put all my efforts into making music and when I met Rick it was about that. But then we formed Tomato with the other guys and that was being around artists and we started to get back into galleries. And the great thing about that was that Underworld fans who had never been to an art gallery were coming to galleries, and that was a very important turning point for me. People were coming to art galleries because they liked the band and they liked the music.

“So I’m happy working in galleries, they’re a different headspace to being in the band which allows me to really enjoy what’s great about being in Underworld. I kind of miss [Underworld] when I’m out painting, but it’s a good thing to happen – to go somewhere else to realise where you come from is home.”

WHO: Underworld WHAT: Scribble (underworldlive.com) WHEN: This Sunday, Winter Sound System, Melbourne Park

KEEPING ’EM KEEN SAMUEL J FELL ducks for cover as LINK and WALLY MEANIE take over the Espy to shoot off about THE MEANIES’ 21 years of punk madness (and heckle passers by). soaked napkin. I can’t see my dictaphone amongst the discarded jugs on the small table in front of us; the ashtray is overflowing and, to be honest, things are a little blurry. It is, in truth, a typical Meanies experience. The reason we’re here is to discuss The Meanies and what later this month will be their 21st anniversary. Twenty-one years of punk rock, of acting up and rocking out, of laying support for the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, of creating their own seminal, underground version of music to drink and fuck by. It’s certainly no small achievement. “No, it isn’t,” muses Wal. “The first six or seven years were rather hectic, but then it kinda tapers off. So we’ve been together for 21 years, but it’s like any good marriage – there was the honeymoon period at the start, and then it’s just like, whatever. “And we’ve had a few kids along the way – Frenzal Rhomb, Eddy Current, Spiderbait,” he continues with a sly smile toward Link, who continues to laugh heartily. “Yeah, it makes you feel good. Alimony’s a bitch, though.” The Meanies indeed had that honeymoon period at the start of their career, bursting out of the blocks in 1989, laying down albums like 1992’s Come n’ See and 1994’s 10% Weird on the Au Go Go label, truly marking themselves as the anti-grunge, as something different and violent and full of musical malaise. But then they did seem to disappear for a while. Did they actually break up? “Yeah, we did,” says Link. “Oh shit,” interjects Wal, wide-eyed. “For the last 15 years I’ve been telling people we never did, and now you go and spill the beans… Ive been telling people we were on hiatus.”

t would seem, even at this early stage of proceedings as the peak-hour traffic rumbles past on the Esplanade below us, that we’ve gone through the looking glass. The setting is almost idyllic: out to the west, a burning, shimmering autumn sun sinks ever lower toward the insipid waters of Port Phillip Bay. The bay itself is calm and, despite the traffic and the trams, St Kilda seems to be stretching out after a long day, ready to sit in front of a warm heater with dinner and a DVD. On the small balcony above the Espy bottle shop, however, we’ve long since fallen down the rabbit hole, Mother Nature’s ebullience going unnoticed as we writhe about in rock’n’roll.

“I hate everyone, especially you,” yells Link Meanie over the balcony railing, directing his faux-rage toward a jocked-out meat head crossing the road below us. The meat head looks up to see who hates him, (wisely) decides against taking any action against the scruffy-looking character leering down at him, and continues on his beach-ward trajectory. Link sits down, laughing, knocking the table as he does so, spilling beer everywhere; over the table, over me, over his partner in crime, Wally Meanie, sitting across from him. I’ve long since abandoned the neat list of questions written in my notebook, the notebook itself resembling a beer-

“Why do you even bring me to these fuckin’ things?” Link slurs back with another laugh. “You wanna rewrite history? Then don’t bring me to these fuckin’ things, you know I’m about the truth.” The chemistry between these two is as strong now as it ever would have been, hence the fact The Meanies are back (from a break-up or a hiatus, no one knows, not least of all the band). Over more recent years, the band have suffered tragedy with the deaths of longtime members DD Meanie and Taz Blizzard, but they’ve soldiered on, albeit in typical Meanies fashion (read: they don’t give a fuck, perhaps the secret to their scruffy success). “Yep, not giving too much of a shit,” acknowledges Wally, straight up, before Link expands. “Yeah, we

got back together again and made a go of it, I was playing guitar and playing some of the newer songs and it didn’t really wash with some of the crowd, they wanted the old Meanies show,” he says. “You’ve gotta respect people are paying money to see what they want to see, you know? Did I go off track there?” “The Meanies haven’t been the be all and end all since the break-up, as Link calls it, the hiatus as I call it,” clarifies Wal. “We’ve had other shit on… For the initial six or seven years, it was all Meanies, Meanies, Meanies, and that got to be too much and imploded. When we got back, it was more for the hell of it… it was like, ‘Fuck, that was fun, lets do that again’.” It’s around this point that Link decides he’s had enough and so slides off his chair onto the floor, bumping the table next to us, much to the chagrin of the couple seated there, wondering what the hell is going on and where they can go for a quiet drink in this damn suburb. Link doesn’t care and neither does Wal, both laughing like loons as I try and find a question that seems relevant, settling on their cult status, regardless of any ‘success’. “We’re better than The Cult,” quips Link from his position on the floor – he’s not totally out of it. “We didn’t know what we were doing next month, let along next year, or in 21 years,” Wal says, bringing it back to the band’s longevity. “It was like, ‘Wow, we’ve been asked to do this, wanna do it?’.” “I think people pick up on the fact, particularly when you don’t care and are doing it for the fun of it, there’s no desperation. People see you’re just having fun and so get into it,” Link adds on the band’s appeal and, despite his drunken state, he’s hit the nail on the head: coupled with the fact The Meanies never took musical life too seriously, it’s the fact there was no desperation to their act, their shtick, that really struck chords with people, particularly in an age of Nirvana’s and Pearl Jam’s who were, lets face it, quite serious, and indeed ended up becoming antitheses of themselves. But not The Meanies. After all, they’re still here, 21 years down the track. “There’s no plan for world domination or a fuckin’ takeover, the only stuff we plan to do is stuff that makes us happy, things that put a smile on our dial and some beer in our belly,” says Wal on where the band are at now. “There’s no pressure now… We’re just being lazy and cheeky, just like The Meanies.” WHO: The Meanies WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 19 June, Hi-Fi

HOT PINK Angrily dismissing claims he’s a self-loathing Jew, ARIEL ROSENBERG – AKA ARIEL PINK – explains to ANTHONY CAREW why he needs to be huge right now, and why he’s no longer recording for the wrong reasons.

“J

ews are the worst.” With those four words, Ariel Pink rode his way into internet infamy. The 32-year-old – born Ariel Rosenberg and, thus, of Jewish heritage – recently gave an interview to Heeb magazine in which he ranted about the state of the world, the war in Palestine, the voodoo of the stock market and the sinking ship of capitalism. Read the whole thing and Rosenberg sounds delightfully pissed off at (in)humanity. Read those four words out of context – where, since Pitchfork vaulted the quote into messageboard fodder, they’ve routinely been taken – and the reading of Rosenberg seems to be different. He, the blogosphere has decided, is a self-loathing Jew. “Oh god! Self-loathing Jew?” yelps Rosenberg. “I’m a self-loathing artist, too. Why single Jew out? Why can’t I be self-loathing all-around? Jesus! God! Let’s come up with something more creative than a self-loathing Jew! It’s the ultimate stereotype: what’s more Jewish than complaining about being

Jewish? Who’s more of a Jew than someone complaining about Jews? If Sarah Silverman can do it, why can’t I do it? Why am I a fucking anti-Semite? And who is saying that: is it Pitchfork or the fucking ACLU? I guess I just shouldn’t talk to Heeb magazine any more. I’m just stirring up stuff; it’s other people who attach the weight, or imagine a sense of belief, into what I’m saying. I just talk shit. When people ask me stupid questions, I’ll fucking answer.” I’m not sure whether asking about the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the whitewashing of anyone who criticises it as an ‘anti-Semite’ constitutes a stupid question, but Rosenberg responds, in part, that Zionists “are out to make sure the holocaust doesn’t happen again to them, but what about all the other holocausts out there? I don’t hear these anti-defamation groups out there yelling about genocides in Africa.” Rosenberg is clearly wound up, and goes on: “I’m not an anti-Semite! I love Jews. My family are Jews. Do I love my family? Of course I do. Do I like the state of god in the modern world? No, no, fuck no, man. These psychopathic fairytales – these comfort systems for the terrified – are doing the world in. How are we supposed to achieve world peace, or feed the hungry, when we’re getting all nationalistic and territorial? I’m all for one-world. I’m a very one-world kind of guy.” When not discussing the Zionist mindstate, Rosenberg’s talking about his latest LP, Before Today. It’s been called everywhere from his sixth to his 24th full-length – depending on how you tally up various releases pulled from his unending vaults of home-made cassette recordings – but Rosenberg sees it as his first ever ‘real’ album. It’s the first he’s ever made with a full-time backing band, the first he’s ever made in a studio, the first that’s ever really been produced, and the first that someone – in this case, legendary indie imprint 4AD – paid him to record. And, it’s actually his first new recording since he was ‘discovered’ by Animal Collective in 2004.

“No one wants to be that jerk who’s desperate to be famous. But we all end up famous anyway… So the trick is to aim high…” “I really got my fill of just recording like a madman years ago; I no longer feel that burning urge to get every little last yelp of therapy out,” Rosenberg says. “It was therapy for me. But it was probably doing it for all the wrong reasons: to get back at my parents, at cheerleaders, at people I hated, at authority, shit like that. It was really juvenile stuff. And you think you’ll never get over that, but, all of a sudden, it’s like: ‘Whoop-de-doo, now what?’.” Now, it looks a lot like Before Today seems like the album that’s going to cross Ariel Pink over from cult act to indie institution. And Rosenberg’s all for it. “We need to be huge right now.” Um, why? “Because it’s so easy to not be huge,” he retorts. “You’re born with that innate. You grow up your whole life that way. No one wants to be that jerk who’s desperate to be famous. But we all end up famous anyway. You only get 15 minutes, though. So the trick is to aim high, to try and shoot through the stars. Because it’s just a fleeting opportunity. It’s like taking snapshots when you’re at the top of the Empire State Building. You’ve gotta take them when you’re there, because you’re gonna come down soon.” Given Rosenberg cut his teeth as DIY bedroom weirdo, it’s strange to hear him talking big. Isn’t it? “Anybody who pretends that they’re being passive, and that the attention that they’re getting is in spite of themselves,” Rosenberg spits, “those are some lengths of bullshit right there. I think everybody’s out there trying to make it. Anybody whose name you’ve ever read out there, you’re bound to find that they’ve been doing it very concertedly for a very long time. Maybe, once they’re successful enough they can buy into that myth; have a manager there to handle all the mundane, careerist shit, whilst they get to remain wonderfully aloof, but it’s all the same shit. It’s like when you invest in stock and somebody else does all the dirty work.” Ariel Pink’s stock has come a long way since his first official release, The Doldrums, came out in 2004, finding instant notoriety via its release on Animal Collective’s record label, Paw Tracks. “It was a real head-trip,” Rosenberg recounts. “I was getting my first bit of attention, ever, and, then, all of a sudden, it snowballed, and I was being written up in magazines, and if I Googled myself my name would come up with all this crazy shit next to it. It was a big deal when it happened, but then I got sick of it because it started to make me sick to my stomach, reading a lot of the harshness of people’s impressions.” Critics were divided as to the worth of the signature Ariel Pink sound; whereby Rosenberg, working in his bedroom, would painstakingly assemble slightly-warped recreations of classic ’70s/’80s AM radio pop songs. Only, as he added layer after layer, the compositions would grow cloudier and cloudier, until melody was obscured beneath a pall of tape-hiss. The sound struck a chord with other artists, though, and, by 2009, Ariel Pink was the veritable godfather of chillwave and an influence on a whole new generation of lo-fi sonic stylists, from Here We Go Magic to Nite Jewel. “I’m glad that people give a fuck, man,” Rosenberg smiles. “I wouldn’t have expected it to resonate this far, this long. I wouldn’t have thought it’d happen yet. I thought it would’ve been the sound of tomorrow. The sound of whatever’s next annoying. Or whatever already is.”

WHO: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti WHAT: Before Today (4AD/Remote Control)

OLD TIME ROCK’N’SOUL Seventy-year-old SOLOMON BURKE finally got to work with legendary producer Willie Mitchell on his latest album, Nothing’s Impossible. Mitchell died ten days after finishing the record. Burke tells JEZ HEYWOOD what it all meant to him.

or the first couple of minutes of the interview, it’s Solomon Burke who’s asking all the questions. In quick succession he fires off a string of enquiries – “How’s things going? And your family? All is well? And how’s the weather there today?” – that makes it feel like a conversation with a kindly old grandfather rather than a living legend, the king of rock’n’soul. And then, with, “So what are we going to talk about today?” it’s time to get down to business. Burke’s latest longplayer, Nothing’s Impossible, sees the King team up with legendary soul producer Willie Mitchell, best known for his work with Al Green. “We were phone friends for 30 years,” Burke laughs. “Thirty years we were promising to do this and do that. Matter of fact he sent me a couple of songs to record and [producer] Jerry Wexler never gave them to me. We tried to meet a couple of times when I went to Memphis but I didn’t get to him or he had to leave town, there

was always something. Or he was in a session and, respectfully, he’s one of those producers, if he’s producing someone, he’s not going to interrupt the session for someone else to come in.” Mitchell, at 81, passed away in early January, just after the Nothing’s Impossible sessions. “I’m very excited about it,” Burke says of the album. “Excited, thrilled and sad at the same time. I’m so happy that I got the opportunity to spend that time with him, to be part of his life and for him to be part of mine. It was just an amazing moment in time. He was like a lost brother. He passed ten days after he completed it. And he was telling me, ‘We’re gonna work on this album, we’re gonna make it happen, we’re gonna promote it’. It was a joint venture him and I were having with this. A family venture because his son and my daughter are working together, hand in hand. A lot of great things that was planned, that he set in motion, we’re carrying out. And I’m very sad about that part of the album, but happy that we’re able to carry on the works and sounds of Willie Mitchell in this production. His horn sound, his string sound. His direction in guiding me on how he wanted me to sing these songs. And putting them together. After all these years, it was a challenge for both of us. A great lesson. One of the great lessons in my life. I call it a masterpiece of the rhythm of my soul. And I’ll always keep him in my heart and my mind.” Despite their advanced years – Burke, at 70, the youngster in the studio – the two soul legends worked the sort of hours you’d expect from musicians half their age. “The first day we worked, I met him at 11-something in the morning, we had lunch ‘round about 1.30 and ‘round about 6.30 we were recording the first song. His whole thing was, ‘You’re not leaving this studio without recording’. And we did. I recorded a song that he loves very dearly. I had no idea what it was, I thought it would be something that he wrote. It was a song that he had around for ten years that he couldn’t get anyone else to record. He called in his musicians and they were there. All within an hour. This command that he had on artists, musicians and writers was incredible. They were always there at his beck and call. So we played You Needed Me and he said, ‘You can do better than that. Do it again!’. Okay, I sang it again and I said, ‘I think I can do one more’. But he said, ‘Oh no you don’t! That’s what I wanna hear. Now let’s write something’. So 4.30 that morning we finished up Dreams. Just an amazing day.” The sessions themselves ran at a cracking pace. “It took us 12 days in total. It wasn’t long enough but it was perfect as far as he was concerned,” Burke says.

“It was a joint venture him and I were having with this… After all these years, it was a challenge for both of us. A great lesson. One of the great lessons in my life. I call it a masterpiece of the rhythm of my soul. And I’ll always keep him in my heart and my mind.” Since his 2003 comeback, Don’t Give Up On Me, Burke has experimented with sounds and styles, but hasn’t – until now – made a real soul record. “Well, it’s nice being able to return to different sounds and feelings, to express the words of the song in a different manner, but also to be able to project what you feel from your heart, from your soul, and to make the words come to life.” And Burke doesn’t sound like he’s planning on hanging up the microphone any time soon. “I’d love to do a jazz album. I’d love to do a classical album. We have a new gospel album coming out in September. I’d love to do a rock album, which I think we’re going to be doing at the end of this year or next year. I want to keep going in to the waters of life and testing the different sounds and to put a touch of soul in everything we do and give different artists, and new artists, the opportunity to write for us and produce us. I’d love to do an album just with young musicians. After six generations of recording and being in the music business it becomes an adventure.” And speaking of adventures, Burke’s about to set off around the world to promote his new release. “We’re on our way to Japan in ten days and doing some dates in America. Doing our European tour this summer. And I’m looking forward to coming to see you soon, I hope. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed real big time.” Touring also allows Burke to visit his rather large family. “I’m the father of 21 children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren,” Burke says. “They’re everywhere. All over the United States, France, Holland, everywhere.” With that many descendants, how does he remember all those names? “We don’t!” Burke laughs. “We remember all the good things like honey, baby, sweetheart, pumpkin pie, boo-boo and all those things. That way you do very well. When you start calling names and calling the wrong names, that’s when you get into trouble.” With the conversation drawing to an end, Burke muses on his six-decade-long career in a way that ties in quite nicely with his new album. “Nothing’s impossible, is it?” He asks. “That’s the way to think. Nothing’s impossible if you believe. But first you gotta believe. You gotta have an idea in life. A dream can come true. And you gotta work at it to make it come true. You gotta wake up and start working on it and it all becomes real.”

WHO: Solomon Burke WHAT: Nothing’s Impossible (Shock)

GIRL TALK With Everything But The Girl on an extended hiatus and her third solo album now in the shops, TRACEY THORN chats with ANTHONY CAREW about pressure, acoustic guitars and her seminal first band, the Cobain-beloved Marine Girls.

or the first time in 28 years, Tracey Thorn has made a melancholy, largely acoustic album for an independent label. The similarities between the two – the newly-minted Love And Its Opposite, all hard-won middle-aged wisdom and near-adult-contemporary sound contrasting with 1982’s stark, sad A Distant Shore, made when Thorn was but 19 – aren’t particularly similar, but they’re there. “Because it’s not an electronic dance record, it’s naturally going to be more reminiscent of those early days,” says Thorn. “But it’s so much more arranged than A Distant Shore was. That was just me on acoustic guitar for ten songs, and it was all recorded in one afternoon on a Portastudio in someone’s garden shed. Things were incredibly primitive in those days. So, to me, making it felt completely different.” Now 47 and a mother of three, Thorn’s recent spike in solo activity – 2007’s electronically-driven Out Of The Woods and Love And Its Opposite mark just her second and third solo LPs ever – has coincided with Everything But The Girl, the ‘downtempo’ duo she’d split with partner Ben Watt since 1982, going on hiatus in 2002. When making Out Of The Woods, Thorn wrote a couple of songs by herself on acoustic guitar, the first time she hadn’t followed the singing-over-electronic-production model in two decades. Inspired, she decided to make an entire album that started with her and a guitar. “It’s always quite refreshing doing what you haven’t done for a number of years, rather than settling into these patterns of work that you’re very, very comfortable with,” Thorn offers. So, wait, she felt uncomfortable? “Not uncomfortable, but there was a certain degree of tension,” Thorn answers. “I felt under pressure. I’d set myself this task, and there was no other way around it.”

refreshing. We just happened to hit the age of 16 when it was a current idea that you could make records yourself, release them yourself, sell copies of cassettes in shops. Being the kind of like-minded people that we were, we just went on and did it. We didn’t think of being something new; these DIY girls making their own music by themselves... I suppose we were, as girls stepping out on our own, quite independent and spirited. We never really paid much attention to these so-called ‘rules’ about what a band was supposed to be. We didn’t know anyone who played drums, for example, so we just formed a band without a drummer. We were just happily following our own instincts.”

WHO: Tracey Thorn WHAT: Love And Its Opposite (Strange Feeling/Inertia)

“Ever since we got name-checked by Kurt Cobain, we’ve become one of those apparently influential early DIY indie groups.” Working with producer Ewan Pearson in his home studio in Berlin – over a period of two years, in short bursts of two-or-three days – Thorn set about trying to keep the “very pared-down and minimal” sounds of the acoustic songs she’d written. These songs often address marriage as institution; the opposite of love, as the album’s title suggests, being a Long White Dress. On the opening tune, a melancholy piano lament called Oh, The Divorces!, Thorn carols “Oh Jens, oh Jens/your songs seemed to look through a different lens”, and, later in the LP, her subject is revealed: a cover of the old Nancy & Lee chestnut Come On Home To Me delivered as a duet with Melbourne’s favourite adopted-Swedish-crooner, Jens Lekman. Not that Thorn, newly married after a 28-year, three-child ‘courtship’ of Watt, was deliberately out to author some sort of thematically-driven record. “Records become what they become as you go along,” Thorn says, with a shrug. “You’re usually just concerned with trying to bring out the best in each song, make every one have some character of its own. Then you throw them all together, and call it an album. The qualities of an album emerge on their own, they’re rarely the product of conscious decisions on your part.” It’s more a case that afterwards, speaking to people, you have to invent intention? “Absolutely!” laughs Thorn. “So often you have to make up reasons for things you do that’re largely instinctive and subconscious, and never ever thought about or discussed. But interviews can’t proceed on that basis; if I just kept saying ‘I don’t know’ we wouldn’t ever get anywhere.” Given all the talk of A Distant Shore, it’s no surprise that our interview proceeds to talking about Marine Girls. Formed by Thorn when she was just a 17-year-old sixth-form student in rural Hertfordshire, the ramshackle girl-group became a huge part of England’s DIY post-punk movement. Their two albums, 1981’s Beach Party and 1983’s Lazy Ways, went on to influence Beat Happening, the twee movement, and, famously, Kurt Cobain; and sound just as amazing now as when they were recorded. I ‘discovered’ them more than a decade ago and am still listening to them. Thorn, however, is not. “When I’m asked questions about those Marine Girls albums by people who’re still listening to them now, it occurs to me that the music must be just so vivid for them,” Thorn says. “But, for me, as someone who never listens to those records, I really have to rack my brains trying to remember that time and I suspect that I often don’t do so particularly clearly. It was a very long time ago. “At the time,” Thorn continues, “we were so small, and our success was so localised, so it’s more exciting for people, years on, to uncover this ‘hidden’ bit of history. I know for lots of people who love the Marine Girls, it really has that sense of discovery about it. Particularly in America. There, there’s a real cultish thing about the Marine Girls. Ever since we got name-checked by Kurt Cobain, we’ve become one of those apparently influential early DIY indie groups. People often want to ask about it, and that’s cool. It’s an interesting story.” That ‘story’ includes the recently-revitalised Television Personalities, whose leader – recent MGMT song subject and infamous iconoclast Dan Treacy – was Marine Girls’ first champion, releasing Beach Party on his Whaam! label. There’s also Thorn’s teenaged heroes, Welsh minimalists Young Marble Giants, whose mastermind Stuart Moxham produced Lazy Ways, and The Raincoats, contemporaries also daring to make ramshackle, melancholy post-punk as untrained, non-aggressive women. “There certainly was no scene,” Thorn says, of the acts Marine Girls have been forever associated with. Thorn was, however, not aware that she was living through some inspirational/influential era at the time. “We took it completely for granted,” she says. “We were all too young. We’d never lived through another era, never experienced something that we could see the contrast to, and feel that what we were doing was new and

RADIO CONTACT GOSTELERADIO’s music will be playing when we make contact with life on other planets, or so BEN STRONG was told by a friend after they’d heard his band’s debut album. ALICE BODY agrees.

“

When mankind colonises a planet elsewhere in the universe and makes contact with other intelligent life forms, the CD in the space dock will be at the two-minute mark of The Troubles and they will know that we come in peace.” So read the text Gosteleradio’s (pronounced Gostel-eh-radio) Ben Strong received from a friend upon the release of Great Deeds Against The Dead, the band’s debut LP, recently. The otherworldly theme is far-reaching: when Strong first makes contact it sounds as though he is still embroiled in the void of synthy, proggy rock that characterises Gosteleradio’s music. At first my voice won’t stop echoing in my ear, and then the phone keeps cutting out. I ask where exactly he’s calling from. Near Foster it turns out, with friends. Ah. Not some DalÍesque terrain then, with stilt-walking elephants. The Troubles is the first of three instrumental tracks on the album. “We didn’t want [the

album] to be an attempt at 11 singles,” Strong says, explaining the emphasis. “It’s such a cliché, but we wanted it to be something cohesive, we really wanted it to have flow.” “We” is Strong and brother Josh, both ex-members of Plug-In City. Marty Umanski from TTT (formerly Tic Toc Tokyo) makes three as drummer, though Great Deeds was recorded before Umanski came on board. Strong uses evocative words like “lush” and “widescreen” to describe the sound of Gosteleradio, and tells me the music-making process was guided by intuition. The brothers’ conjectural approach to their music is mixed with historical meaning behind the lyrics. I’d read that they were about the brutality of state-sanctioned killing. “Well, that’s a little more earnest than what we really intended; we weren’t trying to make social commentary,” he says. “The whole point of the album was to do something very intuitive to Josh and I. Josh is fascinated by history, he devours history books, so when we were trying to think of themes for songs he’d say, ‘Oh, well there’s this really interesting battle in the Crimean War’.” That’s so nerdy. “It’s so nerdy.” Incidentally, the name Gosteleradio itself turns out to have historical significance: it was the Soviet state committee for radio and television, one that only allowed stations that pumped pro-government propaganda at listeners, and worked zealously to jam any broadcasts carrying any anti-Soviet sentiment. Strong maintains that the band called itself Gosteleradio mainly because it sounds beautiful, rather than for the reason that it once referred to an instrument of totalitarian rule. In any case, the Slavic syllables and the meaning behind it complement the music’s ethereal feel and the lyrics’ concern for historical happenings.

“My dad comes to me and goes, ‘I’ve got an idea for a film clip for Guillotine. I can see a guy lying with the seals and he’s just been shot’. And I don’t often know what the hell he’s talking about…” The past can also be heard in a sonic sense when listening to Great Deeds. Look up almost any review for the band and it will overwhelmingly compare them to Pink Floyd. I can hear why; the loping ghost of The Dark Side Of The Moon certainly does the rounds here. Strong isn’t defensive: “We love Pink Floyd and we love that record, and the sound of Gosteleradio is not an original sound. But it wasn’t premeditated; we didn’t think, ‘Oh, there’s a real niche for revitalising Dark Side,’ because there were a lot of other influences… we were quite influenced by The Flaming Lips. I guess the template for (Gosteleradio’s sound) was Dark Side, so I guess that’s why it sounds like that in parts. And that doesn’t worry us; I mean it is what it is. Everything sounds like something.” Simultaneously, and rather paradoxically, there’s an equal amount of praise lauding Gosteleradio for presenting listeners with a fresh sound. “Yeah, it’s hard for us to find bands to play with, because we don’t really sound like any other bands in Melbourne.” Hmmm… a band who look at the past by going with their gut, and sounds old but new. I find The Troubles and wait for the two-minute mark. The track is representative of the rest of Great Deeds: slow and epic, intricately stratified, reminiscent also of Air’s Moon Safari. The song’s gone 1:58… 1:59… and bang on two minutes everything seems to take a big breath of helium and float skywards in the wake of a guitar riff wandering up an octave. I ask what Strong’s thoughts are on music that transports you from the familiarity of your usual surrounds in the way that Dark Side, Moon Safari and, indeed, Great Deeds does. He suggests a symbiosis between the music playing and the person listening. “I think there’s a cinematic quality to it. My dad comes to me and goes, ‘I’ve got an idea for a film clip for Guillotine. I can see a guy lying with the seals and he’s just been shot’. And I don’t often know what the hell he’s talking about but he makes all these connections.” So, how does one come to make cinematic music? What’s the impetus? “A lot of music that gets made is about the energy of it, the attitude of it if you like. And we didn’t really want to pursue that. With the previous band (Plug-In City), we’d rely on the energy to play the music, and we’d have these terrible shows where we were not feeling it, but you’d have to get up and play this very upbeat music. And it’s awful, it makes you feel like you’re dishonouring what you’re doing, but it’s also just embarrassing, you know. Whereas with this, we wanted to play something that we’d always feel comfortable and in the right frame of mind to play. We didn’t feel like we’d have to carry a particular attitude.” It’s admirably ambitious of Gosteleradio to work on making an album that lists being listenable as its primary goal. It requires that the music be able to stand on its own and be enough. For me, it’s enough to land me in a Japanese anime from the ‘80s, awash with vengeful hearts and purple. For the intelligent life forms the human race is to encounter in the future, it could be the new Gosteleradio in the original sense of the word, enough to ease alien dissent, prevent them from ridiculing our puny attempts at spacecraft and stop them from blowing us all up. WHO: Gosteleradio WHAT: Great Deeds Against The Dead (Independent/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday, the Toff In Town

SINGLED OUT BY CLEM BASTOW

ON THE RECORD

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THE LIKE HE’S NOT A BOY Universal

CRYSTAL CASTLES CRYSTAL CASTLES Shock

HERE WE GO MAGIC PIGEONS Secretly Canadian/Inertia

Man, I felt like (hurr durr) I was the only person in the country who liked (uhh) The Like’s 2005 sweet secret, Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking. Perhaps with the help of Mark Ronson’s efficient, upbeat production that feeling will disappear. He’s Not A Boy shifts their sunny Californian sound up a few gears to something a little bit Donovan, a little bit That Thing You Do!. I’m sure this will end up all over either a) Sportsgirl or b) a Bonds undies ad, so get in early and say you like (OH SORRY) it now.

This Canadian duo create perfect music to crank up in your bedroom and convince your parents that you are on drugs. Opener Fainting Spells threatens to vacuum your soul out via your eardrums as you are catapulted directly into the ‘mystery sound’ universe of Crystal Castles. Somehow these tunes capture the soundtrack to your nightmares (Doe Deer) while simultaneously tapping into an emotional well of melancholy (Celestica). Lyrics are incidental to the spectral quality of Alice Glass’s vocal and sound like somniloquies during Year Of Silence. Baptism is a relentless, electronic drill sergeant.

“It’s casual,” sings Luke Temple in his fragile falsetto, “not heartbreaking/So casual, not mind-shaking.” Could this chorus from Here We Go Magic’s Casual be a selfdeprecating comment about the band’s own music? And how about those lyrics in The Collector: “I’ve got a mild fascination for collectives” goes the chorus, and the verses are about Noah’s Ark. Could these “collectives”, like the biblical ark, perhaps be full of animals? And could this Noah perhaps be a member of one of these collectives of animals?

IRONIK FEAT CHIPMUNK TINY DANCER (HOLD ME CLOSER) Warner While I initially thought that Elton John’s statement “Tupac and Kanye West are two artists I’ve let sample my records – that says everything about how much I rate Ironik” = “I need to buy some new cut flowers for the dog’s kennel”, there’s something (largely due to Reg’s glorious melody, left largely untouched) about this Tiny Dancer that I find oddly, worryingly compelling. Send me out on a rail, please.

DELTA SPIRIT BUSHWICK BLUES Dew Process Whaddya know, I pressed play, and three or so minutes later, the song’s over; it’s like that TV show that no one watched, Flash Forward. Is it just that I am reaching saturation point after listening to singles every week since 2003, or is there truly a vein of indie rock that is magicked up out of such confidently delivered generic rumbling that it passes without so much as a blink? A little from column ‘A’, a little from column ‘B’.

Ethan Kath’s production experiments beyond what’s comfortable to hear and you may reach for the balance knob during Violent Dreams or try to swat an invisible giant mosquito as Vietnam – with its arcade game melody and irresistible driving beats – kicks off. Laser warfare attacks Birds and why has no one ever penned a song named Pap Smear before? It’s not as uncomfortable as the name would suggest. Although you’d never pick it, the only song in this set not written by Glass and Kath is Not In Love. Live drums by Christopher Chartrand punch their way out of Intimate, which could be a space-aged Popcorn. The assault on your receptors in the last half of the song could be used as a torture device. At times paranormal, the second album by Crystal Castles presents another achingly beautiful canvas of sonic art. A precarious listening experience that reaches into your suppressed memories and taunts your furies. The perfect companion piece to screaming underwater. Bryget Chrisfield

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Superficially, Here We Go Magic seem like a milder, more “casual” version of their fellow Brooklyn psychedelic art-rock hipsters. Temple’s falsetto combines with ethereal synthesisers and jangly guitars to form a soft airy sound. But those lyrics sell them short – this is mind-shaking music. It’s not bright like Animal Collective nor dark like Gang Gang Dance, but subtle and eerie like music from the twilight zone. HWGM’s first LP was the work of one man, and was divided between folk songs and arty soundscapes. Products of a five-piece band, most tracks on Pigeons are both at once: stacks of different textures and harmonies are laid on top of each other, creating Eno-esque ambient worlds to get lost in, but Temple’s hooks always cut through the walls of sound and lodge right in your head. On a few tracks, the band lose this balance of song and sound: Bottom Feeder is a simple, folky ballad, light on soundscape. It’s pretty, but lacks the unnerving weirdness of the more experimental material. The last two tracks on the album go in the opposite direction – ditching conventional songcraft completely for fourth world ambience. Here Temple’s falsetto is wordlessly layered and processed, but the band prove that their amazing soundscaping skills are strong enough to work without vocals.

MORCHEEBA BLOOD LIKE LEMONADE [PIAS] Recordings/ Liberator There is usually a problem when bands try to recapture and recreate the sounds of a glorious past, and when they do they more often than not end up sounding like pale imitations of their previous shiny selves. Perhaps that is the downfall of Blood Like Lemonade, album number seven from British trip-hop-pop wonders Morcheeba. Blood Like Lemonade sees singer Skye Edwards return to the Morcheeba fold alongside Paul and Ross Godfrey and her relaxed, soul stylings will no doubt be welcomed by fans who remember her from the band’s earlier work, including the critically lauded Who Can You Trust? and Big Calm. Teaming up with Edwards again is a smart move by the Godfrey brothers, but not even her warm vocals, which are the highlight here, can save what is ultimately a pretty sleepy offering. While there are some pleasant moments on Blood Like Lemonade, there is nothing really new or remarkable about it. The album’s dark title track impresses as does single Even Though, and the laid-back, almost folk sounds of I Am The Spring make for a sweet distraction. Despite songs Recipe For Disaster and Crimson possessing a soulful menace that is admittedly intriguing, musically there is nothing truly exceptional here. It’s the sort of record you might put on if you were having trouble drifting off to sleep. Nice enough? Tick. Relaxing? Sure... but interesting? Not so much. Blood Like Lemonade is the sort of down tempo, chillout record that would not have been out of place as background music in a Chapel Street boutique or café in the late ’90s. Unfortunately Blood Like Lemonade is less Morcheeba, more Snorecheeba. Ned Pearse

Keith McDougall

There’s something about these guys – and I don’t think it’s solely due to the involvement of James Murphy. The stomping Bang Pop – as I gather its title is meant to suggest – cuts itself from the same cloth as the best of Beserkley Records’ power pop classics, with enough West Coast snottiness to make both Tommy James and Rivers Cuomo beam with fatherly pride.

THE WILSON PICKERS SHAKE IT DOWN ABC Music Bluegrass is one of those genres – like Dixieland and Zydeco – that has the potential to make me rabid with fury, but occasionally (very occasionally) slips past my rage-o-meter to find me rather enjoying it. Today, The Wilson Pickers’ latest finds itself in that enviable, if slightly uneasy, position. Just don’t get too comfortable, lads.

OWL CITY UMBRELLA BEACH Universal Mr Owl City, I represent the firm of Doldinger, Moroder & Limahl, and inform you that you are to cease and desist your unlawful winking towards The Neverending Story score by way of Ibiza. We were happy to allow Fireflies to go through to the keeper (indeed, it even ended up on our gym playlist), but this confusing mishmash of Euro dance and Fantasia’s bittersweet melody must be fed to the Gmork within 14 business days. Regards.

ERIKA BULLET EMI Approaching Erika Heynatz’s musical endeavour is a strange thing: there’s a sense that it should be far worse than it actually is. The sultry, vaguely loungey Bullet definitely occupies the sensibility of a different hit parade – somewhere between 1996 and 2001 – but it works, mostly because Heynatz has an appealingly belllike voice. So why is she only performing in Westfield shopping centres? I will never understand this country’s pop industry.

MUMFORD & SONS WINTER WINDS Dew Process So these are the guys that took out the Hottest 100 with a song that I am willing to admit I still haven’t heard. But whaaaaaa? Is this – faintly Bragg-ian folk stompers with a touch of sea shanty and a shake of Martyn WyndhamRead – really what the kids are into these days? It’s like breaking into a house party at Corey Worthington’s joint only to find them all playing Whist and drinking Ovaltine.

DRAWN FROM BEES FEAR NOT THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE DEPARTED Bonefinger Records Three words. Three syllables. Sounds like… Midlake, if Midlake shook the flowers from their hair and got an edgy, platinum blonde pixie cut (as sported by singer Dan James), and dabbled in less musing and more theatrics. Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed is the fourth CD Drawn From Bees have released in two years. There have been two EPs and one mini-LP since the band formed (or reformed from the ashes of Glasshouse) in 2008. They’ve certainly been busy bees (I had to!), although this doesn’t seem to have impacted on the quality of this debut full-length LP. From the interviews with the band that I’ve read they seem wholly dedicated to music making (Glasshouse were around for ten years), and you can hear that heartfelt approach in Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed, which sounds unrushed and painstakingly crafted. The album’s like a prickly pear in a paddock with plenty of hooks per song, which makes it very radiofriendly without ever quite slipping into paint-by-numbers, same-old same-old indie music territory. Fear Not… opens with Run Away, a damn catchy song. It follows with Always The Last To Know, also a damn catchy song. Then there’s The East Wood Fox that is, well, it’s pretty damn catchy too. And the pattern doesn’t really let up, though it does decelerate from fast and catchy half way through the album to slow and catchy for the remainder. Even coordination-impaired individuals such as myself can feel like nimble panthers, due to the easy prey made from the pure goddamn catchiness of almost every song on this album. So… if you’re not into likeable, infectious, Franz Ferdinand-y music (ie: if you’re a liar) then don’t waste your time here. If not, give in as those catchy little Drawn From Bees songs interlock and net you into their little Drawn From Bees world. It’s a sneaky strategy but it’s nice down there. Alice Body

THE STU THOMAS PARADOX ESCAPE FROM ALGEBRA Bar Hum Bug Productions Falling in love with music from an early age and playing in some top local outfits doesn’t give you the god-given right to run away to the circus and become a solo artist. But having mad guitar and musical skills, clever songwriting ability, a solid voice, killer arranging/producing know-how and a good dose of self-belief at least allow you to pull it off. It can and does work; I’m thinking of some of our much-loved Melbourne music identities like Mick Harvey, Mike Noga, Brian Hooper and even Spencer P Jones. As Forrest Gump might put it, “Eclectic is as eclectic does”. That is one of the simple pleasures of Escape From Algebra; that, along with some funky lyrics and way-cool guitar work, particularly from Thomas’s trademark use of the baritone guitar (the perfect weapon of choice for a bass player now six-stringin’ it). Free Of Mind is the ‘60s LSD/psych-inspired opener and a precursor to the ‘70s guitar/glam of Lost In Space. Dare I suggest the listener runs the decade gamut by drawing comparisons to the endearing naivety of the ‘80s-ish (think The Stems) Love Charm. Apart from being a great tale with its caustic barbs – “The whispered promises are vague/They’re multiplying like the plague/There’s more hot air in your balloon” – O Enemy has this amazing Addams Family tango quality about it. Only Friend is highlighted with blasts from a wheezy Chordmaster as well as a horn section and the über-catchy single Shake Your Derriere speaks for itself; I dare you to resist. There is this voodoo-esque surf sound permeating the entire record but it’s no more evident than on Snowball and the closer Woman Of Steel; the latter could be taken straight from one of those cult motorcycle or Russ Meyer films. Melbourne’s music lovers of diversity rejoice in this release, creeping out from the commercial blanket of sameness – Escape From Algebra is just the ticket. The Boomeister

MIKE PATTON MONDO CANE Ipecac Recordings Bologna was Patton’s home whilst married to his Italian bride for seven years, and, amongst other things, his time there had him speaking Italian fluently and falling in love with what amounts to Italy’s golden oldies from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Mondo Cane, a mildly profane Italian saying that means more or less “the world’s gone to the dogs”, is Patton’s paean to these songs. He gathers together a 40-piece orchestra to faultlessly recreate their lush musical backdrops and a 15-strong band to add a more modern and Patton-esque touch to proceedings. And although the band sometimes overdoes the modern and zany, the orchestra is a stunning thrill ride, the violins swelling the melodies of Ore D’Amore and Senza Fine to dizzy heights, while songs such as 20 Km Al Giorno and Deep Down positively swing. These songs, however, show up Patton’s one overriding weakness: while he’s capable of singing pretty much anything, he is an arch-ironist, more at home singing pastiches and experimenting sonically than with any kind of sincere conveying of emotion. In this, he shares company with the likes of Frank Zappa and Ween, encyclopaedic experimenters who never seem to be taking anything at all seriously despite how much they love music. The songs on Mondo Cane, though, are overdramatic and emotional – and they’re meant to be sung that way. L’Uomo Che Non Sapeva Amare means “The Man Who Didn’t Know How to Love”, and the way Patton sings, you begin to wonder if it mightn’t be autobiographical. Nevertheless, the arrangements and orchestrations are so delightful, the melodies so memorable, that Mondo Cane is a triumph. Like Loveage and Peeping Tom, the product of this Mondo Cane project is an album that people who aren’t Patton fanboys can still love, even if the radio dial on these antipodean shores has never before heard the likes of it. Antonios Sarhanis

ON THE RECORD

LATEST CD REVIEWS

THE RED EYES RED ARMY Echofoxtrot Records

HOLY FUCK LATIN Young Turks/XL Recordings/Remote Control

BLITZEN TRAPPER DESTROYER OF THE WORLD Sub Pop/Stomp

DAMIEN JURADO SAINT BARTLETT Secretly Canadian

The Red Eyes seem to be one of Melbourne’s hottest and most popular dub/reggae bands that you’ve never heard. They’ve been featured ample times in local, national and international press, supported a host of legendary artists including The Wailers and Horace Andy, and also possess an extremely slick and professional attitude towards their career, marketing and image.

Anyone who witnessed the gut-melting maelstrom that was Holy Fuck at Meredith in 2008 – a whirling storm of stomping dance at 2am from which heart-rates are still recovering – knows what to expect. But Latin might actually surprise even the most devoted of fans. Moreso than either of their previous albums, it distils the band’s edge-of-disaster live attack into a muscular, tightly wound jolt of rhythm, melody and noise. The band has for the first time settled into a consistent line-up and the foursome have been touring incessantly for most of two years. The experience has left them more focused on hooks and sparer with their effects, yet somehow more thumpingly intense than ever despite being much lighter on chaotic noise.

Among those fortunate enough to witness one of Blitzen Trapper’s live shows on their maiden Australian tour last year, there would be few to doubt that a new contender for the title of Best American Band had arrived on our shores. The live experience more than delivered upon the promise set by their critically acclaimed fourth album Furr. So with expectations high the band, led by frontman and chief songwriter Eric Earley, returned to the studio last year to record their follow-up, Destroyer Of The World.

Ten albums into Damien Jurado’s workmanlike career, the Seattle songwriter remains a source of constant inspiration for fans, if a somewhat opaque presence for newcomers. There are many possible entry points for the latter, from the rock-damaged I Break Chairs to the lush On My Way To Absence. While Jurado’s unshowy storytelling and country-twanged, hangdog rasp are reliable constants, each album is that little bit different from the rest.

From the exquisite vocal harmonies which introduce the epic album opener and title track, Destroyer Of The Void wastes little time in setting Blitzen Trapper’s new agenda. As the introductory piece twists and turns in on its own arrangement, the ease at which the band are able to weave multiple genres into a single arrangement is nothing short of impressive. And this theme of crosspollinating styles continues throughout the album, across the 12-string folk of The Man Who Would Speak True, through the stomping Dragon’s Song to the beautiful ballad The Tree.

His latest, Saint Bartlett, is most like 2000’s Ghost Of David in that it brings in wobbly, experimental production that’s as intimate as it could be. Fellow cult songwriter Richard Swift is in the production chair, and the album was cut in less than a week at Swift’s studio with just the two men contributing. That means Jurado’s usual backing band is absent, but the album mostly fills that empty space with interesting ideas. Wielding reverb and other grand-yet-ghostly embellishment, Swift resembles Phil Spector on a shoestring budget. The opening Cloudy Shoes sees Jurado warmly harmonising with himself over handclaps and mellotron, his voice newly inviting. There’s great kitchen-sink percussion on Arkansas and satisfying drums on Throwing Your Voice, whereas a scratchily recorded conversation runs behind Kansas City.

Frequently dub and reggae are genres that are immediate, grabbing and engrossing live, but on record, without the atmosphere, lights and dancing bodies, it can be easy to lose interest in the repetitive melodies and rhythms. Not so with Red Army – The Red Eyes manage to take the genre to some ingenious and inventive new levels, throwing in elements of rock and dance music to maintain interest levels, despite most of the tracks being in excess of five minutes. The genre is well represented in Australia and New Zealand with many competing and highly competent acts, so to be noticed and remembered you really have to offer something unique, special or exceedingly good. The Red Eyes are that band in the genre: competent, full of character, tight, catchy and brimming with soul. They deserve all the success they are currently experiencing and much more into the future. Chris Chinchilla

Holy Fuck are very difficult to describe. And they are near-impossible to resist. Their third longplayer, Latin is a limbic and visceral experience, an overwhelming and all-encompassing album that you seem to feel rather than hear. The hypnotically insistent beats are interleaved with deceptively memorable, addictive melody lines. These sound like they are mostly organ-driven but with Holy Fuck you can never tell – toy guns and brushed cymbals and synthesised flutes weave together, floating on repeatedly escalating tidal waves of bass and drums (both live and programmed). The songs here are less chock-full of showy sound effects than on past recordings, but they are still gob-smacking in their tonal range. Haunting buried vocal chants on Stay Lit and toothrattlingly overdriven bass on rock-out closer P.i.g.s. are highlights, but Latin is a very consistent and unified album, the product of a band who have been doing their thing for a fair while now. They might be less experimental than they used to be, but Holy Fuck are more captivating than ever.

Building upon their already broad Americana roots base, the band have added more folk, harmony and acoustic subtlety to their arsenal of blues-based rock’n’roll hooks, riffs and imagery. The breadth of intricacy devoted to every facet of the album is staggering, as Earley’s lyrics perfectly complement the band’s tasteful and imaginative playing, whilst the crisp production provided by studio engineer Mike Coykendall (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him) allows the music to speak for itself. Destroyer Of The World exceeds all expectations set by the band’s previous work, and its brilliance more than justifies the promise and expectations that Blitzen Trapper take in their stride as they continue their ascent into one of the world’s best bands.

Roger Nelson

Symon JJ Rock

The album lags a bit in the middle, after a clutch of terrific songs at the start, and it’s easy to zone out at times if you’re already well familiar with Jurado. But as usual, the details of his low-key life lessons and quiet character studies are worth poring over: the standout Rachel & Cali finds its anti-social narrator avoiding a party but still making awkward pleas to the title’s Rachel. A bit scrappy and tossed off (in a good way) compared to his last few, Saint Bartlett can still come out of nowhere and break your heart. Doug Wallen

What do THE DRONES, THE DACIOS and BATRIDER have in common?

Visit coopers.com.au for all details.

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Red Army is their second album, chock full of 15 tracks of expertly produced dub goodness that tick all the boxes you’d expect from the genre. We have staccato guitar riffs in the style of the legendary Ernest Ranglin, deep walking basslines, echoing keyboard chords, steady beats and beautifully warm brass stabs. Even as I sit writing this review I find it hard to prevent my head bobbing, my body swaying and my fingers tapping to the incessant and irresistible grooves and rhythms.

BEST OF BURDEN They’ve recently had a ‘best of’ album released against their wishes, but GYROSCOPE’s DAN SANDERS and ZORAN TRIVIC tell KATE STEPHENS it’s a sign of their fans’ respect for the band that no one they know has bought it.

t was back in 2008 when Perth foursome Gyroscope finally kicked down the door to commercial success. Their third album Breed Obsession debuted at number one, single Snakeskin was on every-second football ad, and the ARIAs even gave them a nod with a Best Rock Album nomination. It’s hard to then imagine that, after opening up the door and finding such successes, Gyroscope were happy to slam it shut again. When Inpress sat down for a beer with vocalist/guitarist Dan Sanders and guitarist Zoran Trivic, both were quick to stress that when it came to writing material for their latest album, Cohesion, they tore everything up and started all over again. “We’ve never really been a band that’s made a career on number one singles or gold records,” explains Trivic. “We’ve never written a song for radio or television. So after Breed Obsession, if anything we tried to do the opposite because we said… Look, Breed Obsession was quite a sort of commercial crossover for us in a sense, and it was sort of like a schizophrenic album as well

because there were so many different sounds on the record. So that’s where the title Cohesion came from. When we sat down we were like, ‘Look, we’re gonna make a cohesive record that tells a story from the songwriting to the album’. And we wanted to make a rock record.” In an attempt to leave the ‘sheen’ off Cohesion, the four packed up and moved over to a studio in Rockfield, Wales to work with producer Gil Norton. Sanders says that Norton, having worked with the Foo Fighters and Pixies, continuously attempted to remove any producer/ band hierarchy, allowing all involved to meet at one level playing field. “This is our fourth record now and Gil is probably the first producer that we’ve really felt comfortable for him to say, ‘I think you guys should do this instead of that,’ and we kind of expected him to do that,” says Sanders. “But most of the time he came in and asked us what we thought and what our thoughts on the change were, and what his idea was. So he was really good at being more like a fifth member of the band than like a producer sort of thing. That’s what we loved about Gil. We called him ‘Uncle Gil’ after a couple of days.” With a world famous producer in the team, Gyroscope, rounded out by bassist Brad Campbell and drummer Rob Nassif, endeavoured to push themselves further than just a 12-track standard rock album. In between a puff of his cigarette, Sanders begins explaining how Cohesion was their attempt to create a rock album with a live edge. The four wanted to take their listeners to another level, not through the production itself but through the simple transference of live emotions. Whether it be the impulsive drum beats or the bleeding vocals, they wanted each listener to feel and almost see the record, rather than just hear it. “Some of our favourite albums,” states Sanders, “whether it be Nirvana’s In Utero or At The Drive-In’s Relationship Of Command, you close your eyes and you can picture them jumping around, and it sounds like it could change at any time, like the recording itself. And that’s what we liked, the spontaneity.”

“Breed Obsession was a schizophrenic album because there were so many different sounds on the record. So that’s where the title Cohesion came from. When we sat down we were like, ‘Look, we’re gonna make a cohesive record that tells a story…’.” With Cohesion completed and ready to be unleashed, Gyroscope, like every band, prepared themselves for the competition from other albums released around the same time. What they didn’t expect was that competition to be themselves. Back in 2008, Gyroscope fulfilled their three-album contract with Warner music but, after they didn’t re-sign, Universal stepped in and scooped them up. However, the story continued when Warner recently released a Best Of Gyroscope, with tracks taken from their previous recordings. Sanders and Trivic are quick to note their disappointment in the release, which they say they had “nil to zero” involvement in. Both insist the topic has been put to rest, but it’s something that still fires both of them up. “Basically we just want to go on the record to tell people we had nothing to do with the best of,” explains Trivic. “We’re not going to disparage the release or whatever, there’s probably not a lot we can do without getting into a lot of trouble. So we just said, ‘Look, I don’t think it’s very fair of them releasing it at the same time as us releasing Cohesion,’ and it was a full underground, top secret mission… It was a bummer, but it was a small thing at the end of the day, and you just get over it and you keep going.” Gyroscope aren’t the first band to find themselves with a poorlytimed ‘best of’. Yet, whilst the end result can’t be changed, it’s reminded the foursome that, no matter what is put in their way, they’ll always stand up for themselves and their rights. “We’ve never been one of those bands that are easy to tell what to do,” remarks Trivic. “Basically we own and run our band. I’ll go and do all the graphic design for the websites, and Dan used to build the websites… We just kind of do our own thing, as if we are our own band. So we are just lucky to have the backing of Universal.” But their label isn’t the only group of people backing them. With Sanders and Trivic claiming no one they know has purchased the best of, their fans too have a wide respect and admiration for the foursome. They are also open-minded, according to Sanders, who points out that Gyroscope have often toured with hardcore bands. “Sometimes when you’re gigging with one of those bands you can show them your stripes, because the music doesn’t always have to be the same sort of genre, but the passion is always there,” he explains, before Trivic adds, “I mean, we’ll finish doing a festival and the guys from Parkway Drive will come over and go, ‘Man, that was a really great set’. And you just sort of think our music compared to them is like The Wiggles or something.” Gyroscope are a strong foursome that have survived more than ten years. Trivic notes the mutual respect within the group allows them to grow and learn together but the underlying issue, admits Sanders, is their inability to stop. Their creative drive has pushed them through four LPs and countless gigs, and it’s something that looks far from slowing. “We don’t want to rest on our laurels, be it touring or even just conducting our everyday shit,” replies Sanders. “We always want to accomplish something. So I suppose musically we always challenge ourselves, and each other.”

WHO: Gyroscope WHAT: Cohesion (Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Forum

FINDING THEIR FEET From rocky beginnings SAOSIN are taking control. Bassist CHRIS SORENSON tells DANIELLE O’DONOHUE how the band have taken the reins.

CABINS FEVER When they’re not fighting or being groped onstage, CABINS put on one helluva live show, LEROY BRESSINGTON and BRIN HINCHCLIFFE tell NIC TOUPEE. what you’re going to get, like a box of chocolates.” “I’d be a caramel-filled chocolate,” Hinchcliffe chimes in. “I’d be a Top Deck, white on the top and black on the bottom,” Bressington counters with a lewd smirk.

In Search Of Solid Ground is Saosin’s second album. Their self-titled debut was recorded not long after singer Cove Reber had joined the band, replacing founding member Anthony Green. When Reber joined Saosin he was just 19 and had a vocal style very similar to the former frontman. It was a difficult transition. A lot of the fans that were introduced to the band through their debut EP were sceptical about the new singer, especially when they heard the similarity between the old and the new.

t’s a meeting that no major record label ever wants to have with one of their bands. Label: “So let’s talk about producers for album number two.” Band: “Um, guys, we were actually thinking of producing it ourselves. And mixing it and engineering it. And… well, let’s just say we’ll see you in a year’s time”. The conversation between the executives at Virgin in the US and American post-hardcore band Saosin wouldn’t have quite sounded like that, but on latest album In Search Of Solid Ground, that’s essentially what happened. The band booked time with Butch Walker (Weezer, All Time Low), but didn’t get everything finished before Walker had to move onto his next project, so they kept working on the album themselves, before John Feldmann (The Used, Escape The Fate) helped finish things up. Bass player Chris Sorenson is aware how lucky the band are to have been given that kind of freedom from their label. “Being on a major label it’s especially hard to say, ‘Hey, we’re a band and we want to self-produce and self-engineer and self-mix our record’,” he says. “Because that’s when a red light instantly comes on for the record label. But it was just kind of by force, coincidence and necessity that we were able to pull it off and they were stoked. “Beau [Burchell, Saosin guitarist] actually produced the first EP we put out, Translating The Name. And then over the course of seven years in the band, I’ve just kind of picked up from Beau what production actually means. I didn’t intend to produce this last record. We just intended to be more involved in the engineering end, but when it came down to do vocals with a producer it just didn’t happen as we had planned.”

But four years later, Sorenson says Reber has carved out a place for himself with a lot more confidence on this latest album. “I think after touring as much as we did on our last record he realised, or he started figuring out, ‘I need to start figuring out myself’ and I think that’s where he landed on this album,” Sorenson explains. “We’ll see what happens on the next record. I think he’s going to have a better identity. The first record there were no expectations, but he still felt like he needed to fill some shoes and then on this record he felt like, ‘Okay, I think I filled the shoes but maybe I filled the shoes a little bit too close to home. So maybe I want to focus on things that are important to me rather than cater to the sound that’s already been established’. So we’ll see what happens on the next record.” Sorenson says one of his biggest challenge as a producer was telling his brothers they had to redo a part or that something wasn’t good enough; trying to channel their musical energy in a positive way. “The hardest part that I was having was Alex our drummer. There wasn’t like an intense amount of tension or arguing or anything, but he likes producers because he doesn’t have to see them 365 days a year. And so when I’m saying, ‘Hey, you need to work on this, you need to change this beat, you need to do this at this part’, naturally we’re like siblings when it comes down to our relationship between each other. It’s hard for him to adjust and it’s hard for me to adjust… And now going into the next record, whatever we decide to do we’ll have a new respect for each other.”

WHO: Saosin WHEN & WHERE: Friday 3.30pm (U18) and 8pm (sold out), Billboard The Venue

“I’d like to think the crowd mostly enjoy it, as well,” adds Hinchcliffe. “Sometimes we get laughed at, sometimes we get cheers, sometimes we get booed,” he admits candidly. “I think it’s sometimes about the way we look: once I was told I was trying to look like someome from Hanson. But we just wear what we feel like.”

eroy Bressington (vox/guitar/keys) and Brin Hinchcliffe (drums) from Sydney band Cabins are really excited. Overdose-on-raspberry-cordial excited. They’re not only excited about the upcoming release of their mini-album Bright Victory, but also about the accompanying Australian tour with comparative scene veterans Children Collide. “We love touring,” beams Bressington animatedly. “We all get along so well, and if we don’t, we settle it with a quick drinkingand-pool game. We’re really excited about the next tour; we find we’re bored if we’re not touring. I love staying in hotels and everything about touring.” Onstage antics and spontaneity are de rigeur for Bressington and Hinchcliffe (the line-up is completed by singer/guitarist Daniel Brooks and bassist Chris Shuttleworth), with Cabins having a well-deserved reputation for a very physical – and sometimes hazardous – live show. “I love the possibility that anything can happen,” Bressington muses, and offers his own favourite stage moments to illustrate the point. “I once had someone grab at me under my guitar on stage. I went off to the side of the stage to get a beer and leant over, and all of a sudden there was a hand up under my guitar feeling me up. I let her go for a few minutes,” he confesses, laughing, “and went back to the stage. Also once I kicked my leg out as part of a dance on stage and my shoe flew off and hit Daniel so he came over and kicked me back. “I’ve fallen over a few times, actually,” he confesses. “I try to dance around and nearly break my legs. There can be fights on stage sometimes – you just don’t know

The chaos with which they approach their live performances found its way into their recording for Bright Victory, recalls Hinchcliffe. “We recorded our mini-album in November last year. We did some random writing in the studio and came up with some of the songs spontaneously, but we’d been writing throughout the year and had a few songs ready for it as well. We recorded it in three days and mastered it in two. We only had a short time frame to do it in and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do.” “I have a ten-track digital recorder at home, and use that to record vocal melodies and guitar,” explains Bressington, illuminating their quick studio process somewhat. “Hinchcliffe added the drums, we added bass, and ended up making a structure of combined forces,” he adds. There’s a serious side to Cabins’ output; Bressington’s lyrics hint that he’s steered through some stormy – and steamy – waters. “Most of the lyrics are about things that have occurred in my life, disguised as metaphor. I think if I said what actually happened it would be a bit too revealing and X-rated,” he intones salaciously. “I’m a bit of a maverick,” he laughs before recalling a more sober incident. “I wrote a song for the mini-album about having my head bashed in on a rock by a bunch of people on a beach, and going into a club to play a show with a bloody head.”

WHO: Cabins WHAT: Broken Victory (out Friday through Ivy League/Mushroom) WHEN & WHERE: This Sunday, Hi-Fi

RATTLE AND HUM GREAT EARTHQUAKE alter ego NOAH SYMONS tells TONY MCMAHON how he accidentally set out on his journey as a one-man dreamscaper.

LONG TIME COMING The JOSH OWEN BAND almost didn’t persevere with their threeyears-in-the-making debut album, Owen tells NIC TOUPEE.

use to pick up each instrument as it organically builds up, climaxes and disappears in time. On stage, I set up in a circular way starting on my left with accordion, drums, glock in the middle, bass, then finishing on the right with guitar. It’s quite a complex process, which I’m still perfecting. Maude, who sings on the album, also joins me live when she’s available, which is always nice.”

rawings, by Great Earthquake, AKA multiinstrumentalist Noah Symons, is undoubtedly one of the releases of the year so far for anyone interested in credible music that is both uncompromising and bewitchingly warm. Coming, naturally, from the extraordinarily brave Sensory Projects label, this is an album that deserves to be listened to multiple times, rewarding as it does each new playing with resonances almost unheard of outside the novel. Interestingly, Symons references a novelist, Haruki Murakami, as one of his primary influences, along with the films of auteur director Wes Anderson. “Murakamki’s writings influence me in the way that there’s a dream-like quality always apparent,” says Symons. “And also there’s this idea of an alternate reality going through his writings that take you away to another place, something I’d like the listener to experience when they hear Great Earthquake. Wes Anderson is my favourite director. For me, he evokes a strange melancholy that is both sad and joyous at the same time, so I guess you could say it is the mood that he creates in his movies that inspire me, there’s also something so damn cool about what he does that I just really want a piece of it.” Given the fact that Symons plays almost every instrument on Drawings, the question must be asked as to how this music translates to a live setting. Symons indicates that it’s no easy task, and also that it’s a bit of a work in progress. “Great Earthquake is realised live through the aid of a loop pedal and a mini mixer, which I am able to

Surprisingly, perhaps, Symons says that being a one-man band was not a conscious decision on his part. Rather, we have Dirty Three and some poor soul who hocked their accordion to thank. “It really is just the way it worked out. Before Great Earthquake began I was in a band called Lions Light, which was a two-piece. In 2007, the other member Tim Brown moved to the Solomon Islands and I was at a loose end musically. At the time, I’d been making melancholic lo-fi instrumental music using four tracks, listening to Dirty Three and Old Mice Parade. So it was at the point that I decided that I wanted to perform as a one-man band. I already owned a drum kit, glock and guitar, so I went out and got a loop pedal, an accordion from a pawn shop and started making music. Great Earthquake music. It’s evolved a lot since then: the music is much more upbeat and positive these days, along with the inclusion of bass and lately my own voice in the mix.” Symons is also responsible for the beautiful artwork on Drawings, as well as being a member of several other bands and a qualified barista at a café in the hilly eastern suburbs. Like all true Renaissance men, he says his various endeavours are all about balance. “They all work together and balance each other out. If I was just making music as Great Earthquake I would become a hermit. I need balance to keep afloat. I also really enjoy playing in a band, just playing drums in Timothy & Wilderness. I think visual art and music go hand in hand for me; performing Great Earthquake is really just like making a drawing. Living in The Hills is peaceful and inspiring for being creative, I also love where I work, an organic café called Earthly Pleasures, which I would work in for free if I could afford it.”

WHO: Great Earthquake WHAT: Drawings (Sensory Projects) WHEN & WHERE: This Saturday, Workers Club

MARSHALL MATTERS A new album is the perfect excuse for MARSHALL & THE FRO to bring their raucous roots back to Melbourne, they tell SAMUEL J FELL.

ubbed by some as Australia’s answer to Lenny Kravitz, Josh Owen has left a trail of wowed audiences and flung plectrums all over Australia’s funk and blues festival circuit over the past four years. More recently, he spent weeks touring Australia with US singers Toni Childs and Jackson Browne, until it became abundantly clear he needed to focus on finishing his own album, which has been three years in the making. Recorded now and ready to launch, The Long Way seems an apt description of Owen’s long-awaited debut. “Basically, it’s all taken so long because it is so expensive to record music,” Owen says. “Some of the songs on the album are five years old – that’s pretty old if you think about it. Our first drummer left just as we started recording our album three years ago. We recorded the album again with a new drummer, but most of the songs were written pre that period, and a couple were written right at the end of the recording sessions, which were a year and a half ago.” Despite the expense, and the accompanying risk regarding recouping their hard-earned, Owen explains that his band were committed to releasing an album, no matter how long it took to complete. “We really, really wanted to record an album; put something together from start to finish and see it through. It was expensive but satisfying to see it all come together. A lot of people are still putting out albums although the commercial industry is now focused on singles,” Owen laments. “I believe in those albums that I personally love and I’m sure that other people have those – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon or Radiohead – where you have to listen to the whole album.” His commitment wavered once or twice, but the band continued despite difficulties and Owen’s self-doubt.

Marshall & The Fro – made up of bassist Luke Ferguson and drummer Jacob Mann – have, since their inception four or five years ago, made a name for themselves as raucous purveyors of roots music with a harder twist. Their live shows are such that people have no choice but to let the rhythm run through them – indeed, every time I’ve seen them play, it’s been an experience, something which leaves you sweaty and spent, but calm and peaceful at the same time. In 2007, the group (then with bassist Nick Ohlson) released their selftitled debut, a record which sent chills running up the spine of the blues/roots scene in this country, and one which saw the band spread themselves far and wide,

So Friends For Life is done and dusted, it’s out there and ready to roll, and for O’Kell and the Fro, it’s an important one – their debut was quite popular but didn’t really take them to the heights they’d have imagined, so this one has really got to hit a chord for them to get to the level they deserve. Is it going to do so? “I don’t know,” O’Kell laughs. “We’re just gonna take it and head out with it, play as much as we can, see how it goes live.” Good move methinks – there’s not a lot more you can do. Still, this is a band just waiting to pop, waiting to share it with the world – and, at the very least, they’ll keep you warm. WHO: Marshall & The Fro WHAT: Friends For Life (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, Baha Tacos (Rye); Friday, the Evelyn; Saturday, Ruby’s Lounge; Sunday, Pure Pop Records

“I like to take a lot of vintage sounds from the past. I really love the ‘70s sound – the drums, the warmth of the instruments, the way albums were recorded,” he enthuses. “But I tried to modernise it: the bass and bottom end sound very modern, big and round like a modern album should sound. The top end is also right for a modern sound, which gives it a sense of being ‘vintage modern’. I think we succeeded in the sound we were trying to create; whether other people think so is another matter.” The lyrics were as important to Owen as the sonic quality. They were written to reflect an intense time in his emotional life, and were a cathartic release of pent-up sadness, he candidly reveals. “The album is mostly about the breakdown of friendship between blokes. A lot of stuff was happening at the time I was writing that was so heartbreaking for me, personally, that it was the main driving force behind the lyrics. When you talk about a problem it seems to clear it out in your mind, and the same for me when I was writing. I could close a door on certain things and move on by writing it down.”

WHO: The Josh Owen Band WHAT: The Long Way (Right On Records) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Oscar’s Ale House (Belgrave); Sunday, East Brunswick Club; Monday, the Espy; Friday 18 June 12.45pm, the Basement Discs

An actress by trade, French darling ELISE POTTIER gets very honest performing as BERRY, she tells PAUL RANSOM. anything else. I whisper more than sing like the traditional chanteuse,” she points out. “But my songs are very intimate, so there’s not so much of the actress in them. For me, my music is very personal. It comes from my life, my feelings, so I don’t really have to act them so much.”

Now then, a good three years later, the time is ripe for another offering, and it’s arrived in Friends For Life, a record that has, as O’Kell says, been a while in the making. “Yeah, I’d say probably four to five years,” he tells. “I wrote a bunch of songs when I was recording the last CD, maybe even in the year before that. And I’m pretty consistent with the songwriting, so since then I’ve been writing; we got up to around 60 or 70 songs, then began to break it down to the ones we felt like playing live, road tested a bunch of them… and ended up with the 11 that are on the record.”

iven it’s winter and the chill has well and truly settled upon our fair town, it would seem to me that the time is ripe for some warming tunes, some grooves from up north where the sun shines all the time and even when it rains it’s not cause to wear shoes. Marshall O’Kell knows this only too well, and so when he heads down our way later this week with the Fro in tow, his main aim will be to thaw out the masses and get ‘em dancing. “We haven’t been down to Melbourne in at least 12 months,” he tells. “We’ve been holding off a bit, waiting for the release of this new album… but we’re absolutely looking forward to it. I need my Melbourne fix.”

Owen has an affinity with ‘70s albums and sonic values, easily spotted in his live show and definitely reflected in the sound of The Long Way.

FRENCH PIP

hitting pubs, clubs and festivals all over the country.

It’s been quite the process, but as O’Kell attests, it’s been worth the wait. Friends For Life really picks up where their eponymous debut left off, although having said that, there are a few notable differences. “For starters we brought in Anthony Lycenko to produce and mix it,” he explains. “He’s unbelievable in the studio… throwing up ideas I’d never have thought of. Plus we ventured out a little bit in terms of genres and we had really good gear to record with, so there are these different sounds, and so this is what we came up with.” Friends For Life is definitely a bit further reaching than the band’s debut, a bit deeper perhaps, and (in parts) a lot more rock’n’roll, while tracks like Bleeding Hearts go down the soulful ballad path, something not prevalent on the debut.

“There was a point in the middle where I thought we weren’t going to finish the album. There were places we approached to mix it that thought it was unmixable because they didn’t like the music,” he recalls. “I was trying to work out whether they just didn’t like our music or whether it was bad, and there were three or four months there when I was wondering whether I should finish it at all. That was really tough. What saved it was talking our songs over with trustworthy friends and getting some other opinions, and finally finding someone who wanted to mix the album because they believed in the music.”

Turns out her beautifully soft, smoky songs are like journal vignettes. “I am very shy actually, so I don’t really know how I do it. It’s only because I am surrounded by people that I like and trust that I can do it.” Indeed, there are times when it’s easier to retreat to the country house. “Sometimes it is too hard,” she admits. “I suppose that’s why I became an actress. I wanted to say something but I didn’t know what.”

lise Pottier is shy. You can hear it in her laughter, nervous and reflexive. There is a softness in her voice, a hesitance. Partly it’s her faltering English, partly it’s her. Strange, when you consider that she made her stage debut at sixteen and now fronts a critically admired jazz tinged outfit called Berry, who will be in Australia this month supporting fellow Gallic troubadours Nouvelle Vague. Berry, as Pottier likes to be called, giggles down the phone. “I am in the countryside,” she begins, “because it’s here that I have my piano and my guitar, and I’m just writing the new album. It’s good to wake up and see so much beauty around me. Very inspiring.” Through the agency of her translator (who is introduced only as Jean Francois) she goes into her background. “I started very young doing different plays and I really loved it. So I went to a theatre school and studied all the great writers and appeared in lots of productions, including of course the plays of Moliere, which are very much a part of the culture here in France.” It was whilst pursuing her love of the stage that Berry first came into contact with Mano, the jazz composer who would help her unleash her musical genie. The result was the 2008 album Mademoiselle, which since its original French release has been a slow-burner around the world. Berry’s erstwhile life as an actress can still be traced in her music. “Acting inspires the way I sing more than

At this juncture it seems appropriate to ask Berry why she even bothers. “It’s about being less lonely,” she states. “I like to share humanity, to make a connection with people… It’s more powerful, I think, when people don’t understand what you’re talking about, so when I sing in French and English-speaking people listen, somehow they are more moved. They understand something else, something outside of the text.” In the two years since its release, Mademoiselle has well and truly transcended the supposedly narrow market for chanson Francaise. It’s not selling truck loads but it has certainly done enough to get the band on the plane to Australia. “It’s funny because the record is very French,” Berry notes. “Also, we had no real money for promotion. Not like Carla Bruni.” Cue all round laughter and presidential jokes. Jean Francois steps in, “I tell you something, Berry’s husband is a lot nicer than Carla’s.” Not wishing to appear unpatriotic, Berry and the translator are very quick to respond with pride when the topic of the World Cup comes up. “I hope I will be seeing the matches in Australia, even if I do have to wait up all night,” she says. “I’m not very optimistic for France this year. They don’t have their best team right now but I will be up supporting them anyway.” WHO: Berry WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 17 June, Prince Bandroom

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GREEN GRASS

ALL HANDS ON DECK

JOHN DICKSON, AKA LITTLE JOHN, pops his interview cherry with NICK ARGYRIOU to talk up his brand of visceral old country music.

FIRE! SANTA ROSA, FIRE! have impressed with their debut album. But what’s up with that band name, DOUG WALLEN asks SAMUEL STEARNE.

psychedelic guitar angle for more of an atmospheric element, so it now has more of a rock feel in addition to the fiddle and the mandolin, but the main thing behind our music is the vocals and vocal harmonies,” attests Dickson, who claims to be also strongly inspired by The Anthology Of American Folk Music compilation.

ormer Redfish Bluegrass harmonica player John Dickson returns as frontman of Little John, an old-time, country-tinged, wild colonial musical beast that lends itself more to the playing of the likes of the Stanley Brothers and Hank Williams. Studying his PhD at La Trobe University, Dickson is majoring in literature, sociology and English, and only starting writing his own songs a couple of years ago. “I’ve been doing gigs now under Little John for about a year after starting as a bluegrass outfit and now into something more alt.country,” he declares, finding his feet in his first ever music interview. “I’ve never done one of these things before so I’m just speaking off-the-cuff,” he tells. Assuring Dickson that I’m also asking questions off-the-cuff, due to the limited info circulating about Little John online, he breathes easier. With the debut Little John record, Put Your Hands On Me, looking at a release in July or August 2010, Dickson informs that its sound, while unique to his style and influence, does reference a little of The Gin Club, Kill Devil Hills and Silver City Highway in its brooding, raucous country folk aesthetic. Being recorded at a friends studio in Preston, the band, Brooke Penrose (Saint Jude): double bass, backing vocals, Damian Hooper (Fee Brown & The Highwater): electric guitar, Bill Deeble (Saint Jude): drums, backing vocals and Greg Field (Redfish Bluegrass): mandolin, fiddle, backing vocals, originally put down live tracks to nail more of an acoustic feel, but have since built the sound up to epic proportions. “The album is sounding like more of a studio-recorded thing and we changed the line-up and band to include drums, and Damian brings a bit of a Bad Seeds and

“What’s unique to Little John is the vocal delivery as we try and get the depth in our voices on a similar level to the old folk artists... even onto Bob Dylan and trying to capture the sweet harmonies you get from a great bluegrass band or bands like The Everly Brothers and even Gillian Welch. So at the end of the day it’s all a mixture between rock and getting some real integrity and depth to the vocals while nailing the storytelling element in the songs,” says Dickson. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the whole Little John story is the fact that Dickson doesn’t even like roots music per se, claiming he doesn’t care for the genre much any more. “I just don’t like the term, what it means and its limitations, it’s all so restrictive... so the aim for Little John is to mix things up a bit.” With the record being at the 70% finished level with a little more tweaking and re-records planned before it is to be released later this year, Dickson is keen to have Put Your Hands On Me see the light of day for more reasons than one. “Singing other people’s songs over the years in bluegrass bands, and doing traditional songs gets a bit repetitive and I was just sick of doing it, so Little John seems like a natural progression,” he explains. With a sweeping, poetic musical narrative washing through the record, Dickson, like so many modern musicians it seems, isn’t so concerned with what he expresses lyrically, it’s more the sound and sentiment that the focus is on. “People just aren’t writing The Times They Are A-Changin’ any more, including me. No one writes socially as much, it’s more lost love and heartbreak and some joy, but not too much more than that.” WHO: Little John WHEN & WHERE: This Friday, the Gem (full band show); Saturday 19 June, Labour In Vain (full band); Thursday 24 June, the Gem; Sunday 27 June, Yah Yah’s

PRETTY GOOD, EH? DEAD LETTER CHORUS frontman CAMERON POTTS tries to guess why the Canucks are swooning to their blooming rock with TONY MCMAHON.

and evocative. Produced by Adelaide mainstay Matt Hills, who helmed Wolf & Cub’s Vessels as well as Santa Rosa’s first two EPs, Sea Priest is a debut to mark and remember. So how does it sound compared to the band’s live set? “We made a conscious effort to make [sure we] weren’t putting anything in there that wasn’t there,” shares Stearne. “We weren’t adding theremin or synths that we don’t own or anything. I was pushing for it to be a really honest record in that respect. I don’t think the record is lo-fi in the slightest, but maybe more realistic to our live sound.”

n a six-piece band, communication is key. So it helps that most of the young members of Adelaide’s Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! can trace their friendship back to 2002. Today, after two EPs and spots on five different festivals, the band are signed to Melbourne’s influential Dot Dash imprint and have a debut album, Sea Priest, that’s been lighting up Australian radio. That’s quite a long way from the humble days of a few mates playing in their high school band before tentatively cutting their teeth on rock covers. Drummer Samuel Stearne is quick to credit the leadership of Santa Rosa’s guitarist and one-time lead singer, David Williams. “[Bassist] Josh [Flavel] and I begin playing as part of the school band,” Stearne recounts, “so that really had nothing to do with writing our own music or even wanting to write our own music. Dave fought really hard for us to start a rock band and eventually convinced me to buy my first drum kit.” He adds, “We’re all like brothers in a way, so there’s no eggshells to walk on. It was a relationship that was already quite long-standing before the band.” The band’s current line-up is Flavel, Williams, Stearne, keyboardist Art Zinoviev, second guitarist Nathaniel Morse and vocalist Caitlin Duff, who took over as lead singer from Williams, although he sings with her on more than a few songs. Sea Priest is an indie rock record drawn from a wealth of sources, stacking jumpy rhythms and sawing hooks against overlapping vocals, glaring synths, almost cosmic lyrics and a great deal of atmosphere. The sound can recall everything from Love Of Diagrams to Broken Social Scene to the Arcade Fire: big and busy yet catchy

“We only had a couple of days to record it, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. It meant that we made decisions and then went for it, rather than sitting back and thinking about it for too long. It means that it has a kind of energy and urgency, which is great. We’re really excited about it.” Most importantly of all, however, Dead Letter Chorus are releasing Covered By Snow as a 7”, and Potts is almost as thrilled as his vinyl junkie interviewer. “We’re really excited to be doing it this way,” he says. “Everyone in the band has fallen back in love with vinyl. And I think a lot of people in music in general are beginning to understand the nature of vinyl and how great it makes things sound and how great it is to have something tangible rather than just something you’ve downloaded that you can’t really hold.” As far as DLC’s success in Canada is concerned, Potts puts it down to a number of elements, amongst them

“This is the first time we’ll be playing any of the songs off the new record. We’re going to have to figure out how to play them. It’ll be nice to get a feel for how they’re going and any kind of things that crop up and we think we might need to fix them. The new record is a bit more experimental and a bit more along the path of a band record. I don’t know. Everyone in the band is writing and everyone contributing in new ways, as opposed to the last record. I love going to see bands play songs for the first time. There’s something very raw about it; sometimes they mess things up, you know? It gives you a real feeling that you’re seeing a live band and not listening to a CD.” Unusually, the Covered By Snow tour takes in some quite out of the way regional areas such as Wagga Wagga and Mildura. Potts says this was a deliberate philosophical ploy on the part of the band. “We definitely wanted to go to new territories. A lot of bands don’t do that, but we find we really enjoy it because they don’t get a lot of live music and the music they do get they really tend to appreciate. It’s not like we have to go there to make ourselves feel good, but it’s definitely cool to go to a town where people are thankful.” WHO: Dead Letter Chorus WHAT: Covered By Snow (ABC/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: This Thursday, Sandbar (Mildura); Friday, Northcote Social Club

One thing’s for certain: the name sticks in one’s head just as much as the music does. “The imagery behind it is like old imperial navy, like a sea battle with ships and cannons,” Stearne concludes. “We’re all for epic imagery.” WHO: Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! WHAT: Sea Priest (Dot Dash/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: This Friday, Workers Club

KESHIE’s music fuses elements of Africa, Australia and daggy ‘90s films, ALENA SCHNEIDER tells CHRIS CHINCHILLA.

“I’d like to think that they liked the sound of the record and the songwriting and things like that. We found that a lot of people were commenting on our live performances: coming to see us and taking a lot away from the show. I’m not too sure, actually. I think there’s a lot of music happening over there that’s raw and intense, without being emo. Maybe we just came along at the right time.”

anada has recently gone seriously bonkers for our own homegrown indie folk pop rock outfit Dead Letter Chorus, their recent tour there provoking accolades naming them the best band outside that country and Australia’s answer to Arcade Fire. Now, a magnificent new single, Covered By Snow, from their forthcoming second album and a huge national tour in support should see this fivepiece garner some local recognition commensurate with that achieved overseas. Vocalist and guitarist Cameron Potts explains that the song was recorded hastily, but that this method has distinct advantages.

Still in their very early 20s and managing a strong showing on Triple J with recent single Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres, Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! are one of Adelaide’s most promising exports in recent memory. The elephant in the room, though, is the band’s strange, unruly name. “There’s no real meaning behind that,” admits Stearne. “We kept coming up with these great names and finding out that they were taken or they were a song by some other band. We were trying to disassociate from anything, so we were coming up with all these ridiculous ideas. I think it was around the time when Godspeed You! Black Emperor were allowed to have that name, so we thought anything goes now.”

HERE COME THE DRUMS

the sound and songwriting of the band’s recorded work as well as the power of their live gigs. And there’s also the fact they don’t wear make-up.

One of the many attractions of the Covered By Snow tour is that Dead Letter Chorus will be playing songs off their new album for the first time live, and the opportunity for an audience to hear an album take shape before them is not one that comes along often.

Although he admits that the second guitar position is a bit cursed – with the position appearing, disappearing and then reappearing with Melbourne transplant Morse – Stearne says the band is extremely democratic, six-piece or not. “But there are clearly defined roles as well,” he explains. “Josh, myself, Art and Nathaniel don’t sing or contribute to the lyrics, but as far as the way it ends up, we’re all welcome to speak up. We all had a say in every song that ended up on that record. I think it’s pretty much by definition a democratic result.”

frobeat seems to be one of those genres that confuses many. What exactly is it? Africa is a damn big place, so what country or area does it refer to? I probed Alena Schneider from Keshie, fairly experienced purveyors of the genre, to discover what it’s all about. How would you describe your music? “Basically, Keshie is pop music with lots of drums. If you remember in the ‘90s there were lots of these daggy movies like 10 Things I Hate About You with all these guys bopping along in their cars listening to music with their hoods down. Imagine that with more African drums. That’s what we sound like.” How do you compose music such as yours? Is it planned or improvised? “We start with concepts of African rhythms, taking the parts that are always present in African music – certain sounds, passages and riffs – and then dress them up for western ears with a drum kit or guitars. Talia [Browne, also percussion] and I will say, ‘Hey guys, here’s a little tune that uses these ideas, why not try this pattern on the hi-hat and this pattern on the kick drum?’. We work up from the rhythms, whereas a lot of western music starts with the melodies and fits the drums in around that.” Have any of the members studied or had a high level of exposure to African music? Or are you just big fans? “Both Talia and myself have spent time in Ghana studying the traditional music and styles there. The other guys I met at uni where we were all studying jazz improv together and we’ve all been learning ever since.”

So what is Afrobeat? Are you referring to one country or style, or is it all very similar? “When people hear Afrobeat, it tends to refer to Nigerian music, stuff like Tony Allen, a Nigerian-born, Paris musician, but we’re basing our music more on a style that came out of Ghana in the ‘50s and ‘60s called highlife when, due to colonisation, all these western instruments started coming into the country. The locals started experimenting and wondering what they could do with them, but because they hadn’t been exposed to western music, they just tried to play their own traditional music on them. Talia has also studied Guinean drumming and I draw a lot of influence from Malian drumming, Malian blues and the instruments they use such as the ngoni, a pumpkin shell with strings that sounds a lot like a banjo, so all those influences go into the melting pot.” So what are the Aussie twists you add? “Mainly our lyrics and vocal harmonies. The lyrics are about Melbourne and life in Melbourne; I don’t have enough knowledge to write anything deep, just tales of things that happen to us. Also the bass and guitars play around with melodic harmonies that wouldn’t be found in African music. Oh, and also a bit of jazz nerdiness for good measure.” Have you had many African people come and see you play? What do they think of it? “We actually had a really great experience recently playing an African food night at Lentil As Anything. It was initially a confronting experience, you know, us little white guys pretending we understood this complex genre of music. Whilst we were playing, this huge African lady came bursting out of the kitchen, grabbed my tambourine and started joining in, then these guys started getting up and dancing, loving it and asking if the songs we wrote together are traditional songs because they reminded them so much of being back home. It was a much more validating experience that the musos that come up to us and compliment us on being ‘so African’. What would they know?” WHO: Keshie WHAT: After Breakfast EP (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: This Thursday, East Brunswick Club

THE SUN ALSO RISES SLEEPY SUN singer/songwriter BRET CONSTANTINO hopes his band aren’t just known for a Fleetwood Mac cover, he tells TOM HAWKING.

JOIN THE DOTS CLINTON ‘BÄR’ MCKINNON tells DOUG WALLEN how Italian cinema and American metal inform UMLÄUT’s sound.

way that roles are divided in our band, our individual talents, all of those would be brought out in a song like that. It became much more popular than any of us thought – because people like it so much, we ended up playing it a lot on the last tour. [But] we don’t want to be known as that band who do the Fleetwood Mac cover,” he adds, sounding a little alarmed. “We’d rather be known for the songs that we write.”

omewhere on a mountainside in Nevada, watching as the sun descends slowly into the twilight, sits Bret Constantino. Even discounting their name, it’s hard to think of a more appropriate setting for Constantino’s band Sleepy Sun and their hazy, loose-limbed jamming. The ever-prolific California sextet have decamped to Lake Tahoe to work on new material, even though their second album, Fever, has only just been released – and that was barely a year since their debut, Embrace.

Constantino hastens to explain that despite the short turn-around between records, Fever isn’t a rushed release. “When Embrace came out, it [had been] ready for almost a year... We put it out on the internet for free before that, so it was pretty much out in the underground for almost a year before official release. [So] it wasn’t like we rushed these songs [on Fever]. It did seem a little rushed the way we laid it down between tours, perhaps, but we were pretty well-prepared.” The band have been on the road constantly since the release of Embrace. “When we left to go on tour the first time,” Constantino says, “we left everything, really. Since then, there’s not really been much else for us. There’s been the demand [for us to play], which is good, but there’s not really a home to go to. Home has been the road for us, sharing our tunes with people.” Several recordings from the tour have made it onto the album, including the band’s ripping cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, which graced the B-side of Open Eyes, the first single from Fever. “We thought that the

The songs that Sleepy Sun do write are often remarkable, loose and organic yet intricate and highly structured. “The way a song is composed can be from many different angles,” Constantino explains. “Sometimes someone will write a riff, or a vocal melody, or a concept, but we generally approach them together. The way they come out is an expression of our contributions. When we go and record them, they change a lot again; it’s a completely different art.” The band’s music seems to sit cosily with the idea of a resurgent Bay Area psychedelic sound. Does Constantino feel an affinity with contemporaries playing a similar style of music? “Absolutely. I assume you’re talking about bands like Wooden Shjips, Howling Rain...? When we started, a lot of people asked that question and I’d say, ‘Well, there are a few bands that we’re acquainted with,’ but it’s taken this long to be more involved in that... We play a lot of shows with [those bands]. They’re our friends, sure.” However, he does caution against the idea of seeing San Francisco as some sort of psychedelic HaightAshbury wonderland. “It’s interesting – the notion that there’s this thriving psychedelic scene in San Francisco is probably more exaggerated for people on the other side of the planet,” he chuckles. “But I think it’s becoming more like that. If you asked me last year, I might have said differently.” It’s agreed that it’s easy to idealise what’s going on from the other side of the world. “Totally,” Constantino chuckles. “Shit, I mean, I had no idea that Embrace was released in Australia.” He pauses. “It is out in Australia, isn’t it?” WHO: Sleepy Sun WHAT: Embrace (ATP/Inertia)

several line-up changes since then, with the drum stool often sitting vacant, but the band has soldiered on. Turner is no longer in Umläut, so it’s fair to call McKinnon the leader, but don’t expect him to step up to the mic and start wailing some powerhouse verse and chorus. “That’s only because I’m ashamed of my voice,” he laughs. “That’s partly true. I consider it instrumental pop music. I think of it as pop or rock. There’s sections and choruses, but maybe not with some narcissist, easy-on-the-eyes frontperson singing all through it.”

here’s no shortage of influences brimming over in Umläut, the Melbourne band of US expat and former Mr Bungle multi-instrumentalist Clinton ‘Bär’ McKinnon. A mostly instrumental self-titled debut last year pitted a sort of psychedelic circus music against imagined film soundtracks, international lounge, seedy surf and metal, and other oddball nuances. Juggling saxophone, flute and keyboards in the band, McKinnon is continuing an internationally known legacy that began with Mike Patton’s Mr Bungle in the late ’80s and included his time with the post-Bungle troupe Secret Chiefs 3. McKinnon has been based in Melbourne for nearly eight years, living with his Aussie wife and their two children. Umläut has been going for about half that time, but there’s been only the one album, to McKinnon’s chagrin. “We’ve got a bunch of new tunes,” he explains, “but we haven’t been able to find the time to record. We’re sort of a poor, fledgling band: we’re just doing local gigs and I’ve got a day job. Just to get the guys all in one place for rehearsal is a minor miracle. On top of that, I’m shit at organising.” Despite his own harsh words, Umläut have a wildly unique album to their name and are now embarking on their first consecutive string of gigs in ages. It’s a tour with McKinnon’s old friend Dr El Suavo, whom he describes as “Australia’s crankiest parlour magician and social commentator”. That interesting pairing could mean a second wind for Umläut, a band who started when VCA student Mark Turner sought out McKinnon and singlehandedly assembled a band for him. There have been

Again on the topic of a second album, McKinnon says he’d be more apt to do an EP or series of EPs. “I’m like anybody,” he offers. “I don’t have much of an attention span. Not that I’ll go on record as one of those people who says the album era is over. I like listening to albums if it’s interesting and it keeps your attention.” He cites Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind EP as a great, digestible release while praising albums by the Dillinger Escape Plan and Cleric. “That’s the kind of music I love,” he admits. “This really extreme metal married with cinematic, almost soundtrack-y moments.” As for that disparate slew of influences bouncing around in Umläut, McKinnon shares an anecdote on the subject. “We’re doing an excerpt,” he explains, “from this tune by an Italian film composer from the ’60s called Piero Piccioni. He did the music for this film The 10th Victim, and we have a tune called The 11th Victim, which is my little homage. We have a lot of music that’s in 6/8 or 12/8 or 3/4 [time]. I was trying to figure out where all this has been coming from, and I think part of it traces back to The 10th Victim, which has this title track in 6/8. Also, back in the Bungle days, we were doing Burt Bacharach’s What The World Needs Now Is Love. That’s another one in 3/4.” He adds, finally, that the song The Ferryman by the contemporary Italian psych band Jennifer Gentle was a direct influence on the song Kitty Puppy from the Umläut album. “So if there’s any future musicologists reading this,” McKinnon announces with a laugh, “that’s who I’m ripping off.” WHO: Umläut WHEN & WHERE: Friday, the National (Geelong); Saturday, Spanish Club

854

INSIDE:

WEDNESDAY 9TH JUNE 2010

CHRIS STEVE FORTIER AOKI

GIFT LEE OF GAB MORTIMER

C O M E

ALIVE

O G F L AVA S

JANELLE MONﾃ・

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Zebra Magazine 3

NAPT

CE M EN

TOURING DATES

JULY

THE LIKES OF YOU: STEPHAN BODZIN, ROBERT HOOD, HUGO - Jul 2, Brown Alley AIRPORT: SIMON PATTERSON, SIED VAN RIEL - Jul 2, Billboard ELEKTRIK TATTOO: DYNO - Jul 9, Billboard MISTA SAVONA - Jul 9, Hi-Fi Bar SUPER DISCO: DROP THE LIME - Jul 10, Prince Bandroom KEVIN RUDOLF, SHONTELLE - Jul 16, Palace Theatre SPIT SYNDICATE - Jul 16, The Evelyn LOWRIDER - Jul 17, Sandbar AGAINST THE GRAIN 2ND BIRTHDAY: AQUASKY, NAPT, POE DE PITTIE, SKOOL OF THOUGHT - Jul 23, Brown Alley LADY CHANN, KILLAQUEENZ - Jul 23, The Espy LAB: PABLO CAHN - Jul 23, Secret Warehouse Location LOWRIDER - Jul 23, Westernport Hotel LOWRIDER - Jul 24, Corner Hotel THE LIKES OF YOU: JAMES HOLDEN - Jul 25, Royal Melbourne Hotel LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, HOT CHIP - Jul 29, Festival Hall WINTERBEATZ 2010: BIG BOI, FATMAN SCOOP, NE-YO, T-PAIN - Jul 29, Rod Laver Arena

AUGUST GOLDFRAPP - Aug 3, Palace Theatre K-OS - Aug 3, Prince Bandroom LIBERATE: JOHN 00 FLEMING, MIKE, TRITONAL - Aug 13, Brown Alley

SEPTEMBER PETER HORREVORTS - Sep 4, Miss Libertine SUNNY: LEE BURRIDGE - Sep 17, Billboard CYPRESS HILL - Sep 23, Palace Theatre

OCTOBER PARKLIFE - Oct 2, Venue TBC

NOVEMBER JASON DERÜLO - Nov 6, Festival Hall

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be touring Ch sm & Vida-Sunshyne will Cha and July. They e Jun in a trali Aus th throughout Hi-Fi this Friday su ort Muph & Plutonic at the supp l Girls warm-up slot a also scored The Beautifu and hits Melbourne on o their national tour, which on ce. Pala the at e F ay 25 Jun Frid

JJOIN THE CLAN

a live instore C Analogue are performing Clan memorate the aat Missing Link Records to com Analogue r ase of Re Cognition: The Clan rele a collectible, is n nitio Cog Re n. ectio Coll Lega L cy n of the most ctio sele a ng aini cont three-disc set electronic an trali Aus seminal acts of modern r careers as music, all of whom started thei ctive. The set part of the Clan Analogue colle with classic DVD ion pan com a also includes rare historical film clips, a documentary and artists, Winduptoys material. Two of the album’s downstairs at sets live orm perf will ll, and Ape 7pm this and 5 een betw et, 405 Bourke Stre m your winter Friday. Let their explorations war ve for the soul and set you on a good groo . weekend

DARKBEAT: CHRIS FORTIER, DUBFUNK, ALI B, SKOOL OF THOUGHT - Jun 11, Brown Alley SHAPESHIFTER, ELECTRIC WIRE HUSTLE SOUND SYSTEM - Jun 11, The Palace MUPH & PLUTONIC, CHASM & VIDA-SUNSHYNE, JESS HARLEN - Jun 11, Hi-Fi Bar SOUND PELLEGRINO THERMAL TEAM - Jun 11, The Espy JAMIE LEWIS - Jun 11, The Market COMMON, KID CAPRI - Jun 12, Prince Bandroom RAP CITY: DJ PREMIER, THE BEATNUTS, MASTA ACE & EDO G - Jun 12, The Espy HEAVY INNIT!!: STAGGA, BOOT - Jun 12, Mercat Cross CASSETTE KIDS - Jun 12, The Toff In Town WINTER SOUND SYSTEM: UNDERWORLD, CROOKERS, MARKUS SCHULZ, ZOMBIE NATION, TIGA, ROGER SHAH, THE PROXY, MANDY, STEVE AOKI & MORE - Jun 13, Melbourne Park GIFT OF GAB - Jun 13, Corner Hotel NADASTROM - Jun 13, Royal Melbourne Hotel LONDON ELEKTRICITY - Jun 13, Prince Bandroom LEE MORTIMER - Jun 13, Revolver RON CARROLL - Jun 13, Seven RENAISSANCE MAN - Jun 18, The Espy JOHN PHANTASM, ULTRAVOICE, FAREBI JALEBI - Jun 18, Brown Alley SHWAYZE & CISCO ADLER - Jun 19, The Espy INTERVIEW: ANTIX - Jun 19, Miss Libertine RENAISSANCE MAN - Jun 19, LaDiDa MIXED MESSAGES: ERPHUN - Jun 25, Brown Alley GIGI BAROCCO, ACT YO AGE - Jun 25, Roxanne Parlour

JUNE

LET THE SUNSHYNE LE

TAKE ME HIGHER

BALMY ARMY on. The architects of at you’ve been missing out whhat create sounds with rootts beat then you don’t kknow y PT the NA er a eth rd Tog hea t en. en’ Nad hav Tomek If you round, comprising Ashley Pope and g. Hailing from UK’s underg y for N-Funk, NAPT is a DJ duo ranteed to get you bouncin Jul 23 gua ay are t Frid tha on y se Alle hou wn and Bro in electro, breakbeat ch NAPT when they hit Cat Skool Of e. and iabl ie env Pitt are De s Poe tion y, NAPT’s dance music produc hday featuring the Brit quadrella of NAPT, Aquask Birt Against The Grain’s Second y.com and Inthemix. are $25+BF from brownalle Thought. Earlybird tickets

THIS WEEK SHAPESHIFTER @ THE PALACE Street Press Australia presents Shapeshifter. The New Zealand facemelters are all set to launch their new album The System Is A Vampire at the Palace this Friday and will be doing so by playing the longplayer live. This is cranking drum’n’bass that will rumble through your nether regions. Support from Electric Wire Hustle Soundsystem and DJ JPS.

SOUND PELLEGRINO THERMAL TEAM @ THE ESPY Orgasmic and Teki Latex are the two public faces of Paris-based label Sound Pellegrino and they’re getting ready to unite and form the Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team. Prepare to experience sounds flowing between tribal rhythms, pumping tech house, Baltimore and warped funky with a slice of club rap thrown in for good measure. Support comes courtesy of the Scattermusic home stable with Slap n’ Dash, Scattermish, Mu-Gen, Mat Cant and Lewis CanCut. Admission is free. This Friday.

JAMIE LEWIS @ THE MARKET In 1997, Swiss DJ/producer Jamie Lewis created his own record label Purple Music Inc, recognised today as one of the most impressive house music labels worldwide. Catch him at the Market this Friday when he launches his Flashback CD, a celebration of two decades

of outstanding productions, with a three-hour set from 1-4am that is guaranteed to make you groove.

DARKBEAT PRES CHRIS FORTIER, DUBFUNK, ALI B, & SKOOL OF THOUGHT @ BROWN ALLEY Darkbeat presents Chris Fortier (USA), Dubfunk (SWZ), Ali B (UK) and Skool Of Thought (UK). This Friday.

MUPH & PLUTONIC @ HI-FI BIRTHDAY BASH Iconic live music venue Hi-Fi are celebrating their birthday in June and have lined up Muph & Plutonic to headline shows at both their Melbourne and Brisbane locations. Labelmates Chasm and VidaSunshyne will also feature with Jess Harlen supporting. MC Mantra just added. Tickets $18+BF on sale now. This Friday.

RAP CITY @ THE ESPY A must see event for any hip hop fan, Rap City will feature over five hours of international and local artist performances, purpose built stage design, audiovisual displays, merchandise stall all backed by high impact graphic design and an interactive website. Featuring DJ Premier, The Beatnuts, Masta Ace & Edo G with local supports to be announced soon. Rap City takes over the Espy this Saturday. Tickets through theespy.oztix.com.au.

HEAVY INNIT!! FEAT STAGGA @ MERCAT CROSS A big winter party will team special guests Stagga (Chrome Kids, UK) and Boot together with residents Affiks & A13 plus a quality local line-up including Riz-One and Heavy Innit!! virgin, Stack. Seven hours

state and ability In Farsi, “Erphun” means the level. Erphun’s l itua spir er of being on a high moody and music is brooding, pounding, ther realm ano from if as ive, mat sfor tran experience ly real to way only entirely. The in action him see to is nt this immense tale y for Mixed so be sure to head to Brown Alle Local support Messages on Friday 25 June. s, Freya, Misch’ Evan Ben ka, Mus agi, from Miy ets $20. Tick m. 10p rs Doo Chief plus more.

of devastating bass weight with a beefed-up Funktion-1 rig and killer outdoor balcony. Another wicked dubstep party coming right up upstairs at Mercat Cross and a long weekend to make it unmissable. $20 on the door, $15 VIPs before midnight. This Saturday. 10pm-5am.

DRUM‘N’BASS CLUB ANTHEMS FEAT LONDON ELEKRICITY @ THE PRINCE Hospital Records is back in town! The next instalment – created especially for drum’n’bass lovers Down Under – is expertly mixed by award-winning Hospital Records head honcho London Elektricity, and, Hospital artist, Agent Alvin. Catch Colman when he tours off the back of Drum‘n’Bass Club Anthems and hits the Prince this Sunday (Queen’s Birthday eve) with guests Patch, Finna, Safire and many more. Doors 10pm. Tickets $35+BF through Polyester Records, DMC Records, Alley Tunes, Ministry Of Style, Collectors Corner, Inthemix, the Prince Public Bar (12-10pm, seven days) or through princebandroom.com.au.

LEE MORTIMER @ REVOLVER Lee Mortimer will join the Revolver Sunday residents for a public holiday eve you won’t forget. The wonkiest man in house music returns to the Revolver back bar for the second time and sources at his Wearhouse imprint have revealed Mortimer has been locked in the studio for the last few weeks working on some exclusives just for his Australian tour. Child (live), Steve Ward (live), Continuum (live), Jamie Stevens and Uone in the front room from 1am. Doors from 9pm this Sunday (Queen’s Birthday eve) until

midday or so the following day. First round pre-sales $17+BF through Moshtix.com.au.

THE HELLFIRE CLUB @ MARTINI LOUNGE Hellfire’s Back To School party. Headmaster Richard Masters calls attention to the class. You all have detention at Hellfire’s cheeky Queen’s Birthday weekend Back To School party back in its original ‘90s venue in Carlton (old Dream nightclub). Dust off those old school uniforms (if they still fit) and get on down to Hellfire for six of the best and a night of kinky fun. This Sunday with DJs David Thrussell and friends. 8pm-3am. $25 on door/$20 members. Pre-sale tickets available at Lucrezia & DeSade.

WINTER SOUND SYSTEM @ ROD LAVER & SURROUNDS Winter Sound System is fast approaching and the local line-up is in and will be sharing decks with ridiculously exciting headliners such as Underworld, Crookers, Steve Aoki, Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery, Laidback Luke Tiga and Thomas Von Party. Nick Foley, Papa Smurf, Steve Strangis, Kris Baha, Ando, 1928 & Sleeves, Gavin Keitel, Aram Chapers, Andy Murphy, Chardy and many more have scored the honour and give you more reasons to part with your hard-earned and dance your cares away. Just added to the Dim Mak Main Arena line-up, Autoerotique (Keith Robertson & David Henderson). The action takes place this Sunday at Melbourne Park – Rod Laver and Hisense arenas and surrounds – from 10pm-7am. First release tickets have sold out and second release tickets are now on sale for $99+BF and

service charges through Ticketek.

GIFT OF GAB @ THE CORNER American MC/hip hop mastermind Gift Of Gab is heading our way in support of his new album Escape 2 Mars. The Oakland rapper is the skilful MC from Blackalicious (check out Alphabet Aerobics, people) and part of the group of hip hop eccentrics known as Quannum (which includes DJ Shadow and Lyrics Born). Gab was also a member of The Mighty Underdogs, a collaborative project including Lateef (Latyrx) and Headnodic (Crown City Rockers). Support from Curse Ov Dialect & Class A. $35 pre-sales (cornerhotel.com)/$40 on the door. This Sunday.

RON CARROLL @ SEVEN NIGHTCLUB Chicago’s house music legend Ron Carroll is coming out to help us celebrate the Queen’s Birthday! A cracking singer/songwriter/producer, Carroll has worked with the best including E-Smoove, Maurice Joshua and Bob Sinclar. This will be his only Melbourne show on This Sunday at Seven Nightclub. Hit up Ticketmaster for tickets.

UPCOMING NOCTURNAL DELUSIONS LAUNCH FEAT JOHN PHANTASM @ BROWN ALLEY Soundkraft Records second CD (Nocturnal Delusions) launch party with John Phantasm (UK), Ultravoice (ISR), Farebi Jalebi (Ind) and Rubal (Au) will be held on Friday 18 June at Brown Alley from 10pm. Tickets through greentix.com.au.

RENAISSANCE MAN @ THE ESPY & LA DI DA Renaissance Man hail from Finland and both halves of the outfit met while working in an architecture office in Helsinki. Taking their inspiration from 3,000 years of art and science, Renaissance Man prove

that you can think out of the box, but that it’s even better to think outside the walls. Or make that borders. Catch Renaissance Man on Friday 18 June joined by Mu-Gen, Scattermish, Lewis CanCut and Mat Cant. Tickets available now through espy.com.au and Oztix. A second show has been announced for Saturday 19 June at La Di Da.

Distrakt, Kris Baha, Mu-Gen, Kraymer, Trumpdisco, Swick, Airwolf, MYM, Pop A Cap, Zayler, daftwho?, J Heasy, Death By Disco, Swerve, Marco Polo, Luke Wellsteed, Dom Dolla and Paul Coverdale are also on the agenda. Friday 25 June, 10pm-5am. Tickets are $25+BF (early bird) through Moshtix or more on door.

SHWAYZE & CISCO ADLER @ THE ESPY

DIAFRIX & THE PUBLIC OPINION AFRO ORCHESTRA @ THE CORNER

LA trendsetters and rulers of indie hip-hop, Shwayze (AKA Aaron Smith) and Cisco Adler, are returning to Australia after their brief, sold out east coast tour in February. And this time New Orleans hip hop duo The Knux and DJ Jason Smith will be coming along. Support from Red Ink, Mafia, Dublin Aunts, 360, Deadly Booty and Streetparty Vs Swick. Saturday 19 June at the Espy. Tickets through espy.com.au and all Oztix outlets.

Diafrix team up with The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra for a huge double bill. Diafrix debut album Concrete Jungle has taken their iconic concoction of hip hop, funk and African roots and developed it into a truly world-class sound. Plus special guests Motley (UK), DJ Surrender and Manchild. Saturday 26 June. Doors 8.30pm. Pre-sale tickets $15+BF through the Corner Box Office (12-8pm, Monday-Saturday) or online (cornerhotel.com).

INTERVIEW FEAT ANTIX @ MISS LIBERTINE

BLAK ROOTS ALBUM LAUNCH @ THE TOFF

The Interview crew are back with New Zealand’s Antix launching their brand new fourth studio album Cavalier. Antix, two fresh faced brothers with a love of electronic music, formed in the late ‘90s and were quickly snapped up by Iboga Records in Denmark. Support from Ben Evans, Blinky, Tony Loucas Vs Andy Simpson (B:R:B), Punkz On Junk, Motek (live), Deutronium, Loki, Simon Murphy and Nathan Canis. Saturday 19 June at Miss Libertine.

SOUND JUNKIES P RES GIGI BAROCCO & ACT YO AGE @ ROXANNE PARLOUR

African act Blak Roots have taken the reggae genre in Melbourne to new heights with an exciting musical brew of driving reggae rhythms, refreshingly sweet vocals and African-inspired harmonies. Led by African vocal extraordinaire William Kadima, Blak Roots formed in early 2008 bringing together an eclectic mix of talented jazz, world and reggae artists from some of the planet’s most exotic locations. The band releases its debut album with the support of amazing local act Vox Congo performing a unique mix of Congolese gospel, rumba, soukous, zouk, reggae, aguaya and pende folk rhythms. Doors 7.30pm. $12 entry. Sunday 27 June.

If you ain’t acting your age then you ain’t made for this gig. Act Yo Age are ready as anything to send decibels through our heads. AYA will headline alongside Gigi Barocco (Italy) to bring you their very own house/electro music. As resident to the Sweat It Out crew, be prepared for an impressive show. Eli B,

Back for another wild air race, the Airport artisans invite you to join their mile high club. Strap yourselves in for the ride of your life with trance

AIRPORT FEAT SIMON PATTERSON & SIED VAN RIEL @ BILLBOARD THE VENUE

heavyweights Simon Patterson and the flying Dutchman – Sied van Riel. Also featuring an impressive support line-up from around Australia including Nathan Cryptic (NSW), DJ Frost (SA) and local star Trent McDermott. First release costs $29+BF (strictly limited to 50), earlybirds are $39+BF (limited to 50), pre-sales will set you back $49+BF or first class flights cost $69 (available only through promoters). Friday 2 July. 9pm-5am.

THE LIKES OF YOU FEAT STEPHAN BODZIN, ROBIN HOOD & HUGO @ BROWN ALLEY The Likes Of You brings you a dose of techno with Stephan Bodzin (live), Robert Hood and Hugo. Bodzin is the son of an experimental musician who cut his teeth composing music for European theatres before his talent was discovered and he went on to worldwide domination as a DJ and live artist. Hood is a founding member of Underground Resistance and makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul. Rounding out the international delicacies is Hugo from Turin, Italy. A classically trained jazz musician, Hugo fell in love with electronic music in the ‘90s. Friday 2 July at Brown Alley.

ELEKTRIK TATTOO @ BILLBOARD THE VENUE Elektrik Tattoo debuts with Italy’s techno wizard Dyno plus support performances from other artists featured on Bush Music’s latest EP (also called Elektrik Tattoo): Heath Renata, Steve Ward, Joel Fletcher, Mike Metro, Momo & Trav, Yoshi, Lucca Tan, Viking, Eric Powell, Chardy and many more on the night. Some of Australia’s best tattooists – Devils Ink’s Justin Acca, Steve Aidone and Dan Powe – will rotate their artistry across three canvasses while tattooed models roam the venue featuring their designs. Friday 9 July at Billboard The Venue. 10pm-late. Early bird tickets are $25 through Billboard online, Moshtix and Ticketek.

DROP THE LIME @ THE PRINCE After setting the stage ablaze at the Stereosonic Festival 2009, Drop The Lime (DTL) is heading back to tour Australia in July. Drop the Lime (Luca Venezia) is an electro DJ/ producer hailing from New York who has remixed Moby, Blaqstarr, Rex The Dog, Armand Van Helden and Midnight Juggernauts as well as co-writing songs with Diplo and Herve. Catch DTL at the Prince on Saturday 10 July.

LADY CHANN & MOTLEY @ THE ESPY The UK’s number one dancehall queen Chanelle Williams (AKA Lady Chann), has been part of North West London’s vibrant Suncycle crew since it’s conception and now she’s branching out alone and bringing her unique talent our way. Lady Chann hits the Espy on Friday 23 July with support from Sydney duo Killa Queenz, Motley (UK) and locals Fraksha, Mat Cant, Affiks and Mamasita Bonnita. Tickets available now from espy.com.au and all Oztix outlets.

WINTERBEATZ FEAT NE-YO, T-PAIN, BIG BOI & FATMAN SCOOP @ ROD LAVER ARENA Winterbeatz 2010 featuring urban superstar Ne-Yo, Grammy Awardwinning artist T-Pain, local duo Phinesse and Australia’s DJ Nino Brown is heading our way. Not only has Ne-Yo had huge success in his own right, he has also written smash hits for a plethora of artists including Rihanna, Mario, Janet Jackson and one of the highest selling singles of 2006/2007, Irreplaceable by Beyoncé. Let T-Pain Buy You A Drank at the afterparty. Just added: Big Boi from OutKast, and the party-king hypeman, Fatman Scoop. Thursday 29 July at Rod Laver Arena. Tickets from Ticketek.

YEASAYER @ THE PRINCE Yeasayer with special guests. Thursday 29 July. Doors 8pm. Tickets $45+BF through handsometours.com,

Polyester Records, Greville Records, the Prince Public Bar or through princebandroom.com.au.

SPIT SYNDICATE @ THE EVELYN

Spit Syndicate bring the Starry-Eyed national tour through Melbourne on Friday 16 July. The Sydney duo recently released their sophomore album Exile to widespread acclaim and will be joined by special local guests at each stop. Accompanied on stage by musical mercenary DJ Joyride, Spit Syndicate have built a monster reputation on the back of their unique, high-energy live shows.

K-OS @ THE PRINCE Trinidad-born, Toronto-raised musician/MC/producer k-os (also known as Kheaven Brereton) has enjoyed much acclaim from his fourth studio album Yes!, featuring guest appearances from Emily Haines of Metric and Murray Lightburn of The Dears. If you missed out on Splendour tickets, you can catch the k-os sideshow at the Prince on Tuesday 3 August. Tickets through Ticketek or through princebandroom.com.au.

PASSION PIT @ THE PRINCE Passion Pit with The Joy Formidable (UK) and Rat Vs Possum. Wednesday 4 August. Doors 8pm. Tickets $66+BF from Ticketmaster, the Prince Public Bar (12-10pm, seven days) or through princebandroom.com.au.

LIBERATE FEAT JON ‘00’ FLEMING @ BROWN ALLEY Liberate was launched in April 2010 and featured a star-studded line-up that included Eddie Halliwell, Sean Tyas, Matt Hardwick, Solarstone and Signum. So how could they top that? With Jon ‘00’ Fleming, that’s how! Proudly presented by Street Press Australia, the event will take in Melbourne on Friday 13 August at Brown Alley with a massive, extended four-hour set from Fleming as well as MIKE launching his upcoming album New York City Lights and the first ever Australian tour of trance newcomers, Tritonal. Wow! Tickets through Inthemix and onsideentertainment.

Zebra Magazine 5

DA N

IE L

SA N

DUMMIES’ GUIDE TO

MANDY

PHYSICAL WORK

PATRICK BODMER TALKS ZEBRA THROUGH THE CREATION OF THE MANDY LIVE SET, REKINDLING THEIR PRODUCTION PARTNERSHIP WITH BOOKA SHADE, AND THAT NEARMYTHICAL DEBUT LONGPLAYER. MANDY PLAY WINTER SOUND SYSTEM SUNDAY 13 JUNE.

hile some artists are content with having achieved a well defined trademark sound, Patrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung are consistently living on the edge and seeing what else they can eke out of the machine. As MANDY, the duo have stormed the very heights of global music charts and seen the inside of more clubs than could be counted but it’s arguably their label, Get Physical, which is their most enduring achievement. It was founded in 2002 alongside Booka Shade (Walter Merziger & Arno Kammermeier) and DJ T (Thomas Koch) but more importantly, thrust upon the electronic dance music world with MANDY’s own classic Put Put Put. The stuttering rhythms, clean production and edginess of Put Put Put were a revelation to house DJs used to the same tired formulas, and the strength of subsequent releases such as Sunsetpeople, the No Stoppin EP and the timeless Jah secured all the underground cred MANDY could hope for. However, it wasn’t until Bodmer and Jung teamed up with Booka Shade to produce Body Language and O Superman that they were catapulted into the glaring spotlight of global recognition which proved to be both a boon and a curse. For Get Physical and all involved it meant instant, some would say overnight, success which soon became something of a burden. After all, what goes up must come down and while the label has mind bogglingly maintained a high standard of quality where releases are concerned, maintaining the momentum has been a struggle. Jung has since admitted in an interview with Resident Advisor that the pace has taken its toll. “All of a sudden we needed to promote this and promote that, and the overheads became so high. We would bring out so much music that it became too much at some points. We want to reduce that number,” he stated.

6 Zebra Magazine

This is not to say that the label is anywhere near dire straits – besides its regular high performance in charts on download sites such as Beatport or What People Play, it remains one of the most charted labels by users at RA and occupies more internet message board threads than you can shake a stick at. However, Bodmer lends the distinct impression that the Get Physical team are gradually working back towards their roots and thus away from the limelight in a certain sense. With Jung having recharged his batteries during a stint in New York the duo are well and truly back on track. “He just wanted to escape from Berlin,” Bodmer explains. “After nine years Berlin can be heavy pressure surrounded by only musicians, DJs and producers every day and everyone going on parties and then the next party, and the next party… he decided to have a break in New York and try to go to galleries and museums [laughs] but now he’s back in Berlin, coming here to the studio in my flat and we’ll start again doing music together and getting prepared for the live show.” The MANDY live show is an entirely new beast first launched at Coachella last year to the apparent pleasure of Red Hot Chili Peppers who, according to Bodmer, were dancing and

jumping around on stage and offering the Berliners beer. “I guess it was a good show so we’re very motivated to do more shows. It was definitely [surreal], very unexpected!” Bodmer says of the experience. “First we got the idea of the live show just to do, out of interest, something different from DJing to get a new experience. Then we started to go back to the studio and work on it. “We’re really excited now to come back to Australia to play not only the old MANDY tracks but the new ones also; it’s great fun to play your own stuff, we didn’t do it for a while and so we did a rework of all the tracks we did – maybe 30 we’ve made – and then we did many new tracks and for each show so we could put them together in a spontaneous kind of [manner] and do live interpretations. It’s very technically driven, we don’t bring instruments and stuff – we have three computers and it’s all effects and machines.” Unsurprisingly, it was with the assistance of Booka Shade that Bodmer and Jung developed the live show and at the same time managed to spend more time in the studio with their counterparts. The fruits of their rekindled collaboration have resulted in plenty of new material, and according to Bodmer two or three tracks are slated for June/July release and it’s seemingly only for

MEMBERS: Patrick Bodmer, Philipp Jung. SINCE: 2001 FROM: Berlin, Germany LABEL: Get Physical ACCOMPLICES: Booka Shade ALIASES: Oakland Stroke, Telegraph FUN FACTS: * Bodmer and Jung met at a tennis court as 15 year olds. * Their name MANDY is an acronym for Me And You. * Their 2005 collaboration with Booka Shade on Body Language was voted Ibiza’s track of the season in 2005. QUOTABLE QUOTE: “If one of us is in a happy energetic mood, but the other one is in a dark mood and wants to play dark music, there’s a clash. You can’t have one DJ playing a happy record and the other a dark record, so usually one of us has to sit it out and try to get into the mood of the other, and then when he feels ready to play in that direction he’ll jump back in.” Patrick Bodmer to Beatportal in 2008 MEDIA HYPE: “MANDY can select ‘em. Better than you or me, guaranteed. Whether it’s a Body Language cut, their Fabric 38 or At The Controls, Berlin heads Patrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung bring a sense of maturity, smarts and cohesion to the mix that is rare these days. Renaissance is no exception.” Resident Advisor review of Renaissance: The Mix Collection. “Get Physical act MANDY’s capacity to just float at a certain plateau of intensity usually paid enormous dividends. Our World (Our Music), a 2003 collaboration with the Sunsetpeople, is humbling in its sublime simplicity – it’s little more than minor key chords, insistent bass pulse, and a nourishing strings.” Pitchfork review of 12 Great Remixes For 11 Great Artists 2001 – 2007 SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY SINGLES Put Put Put (Get Physical, 2002) Body Language (Vs Booka Shade) (Get Physical, 2005) Jah (Get Physical, 2005) O Superman (Vs Booka Shade) (Get Physical, 2008) Donut (Vs Booka Shade) (Get Physical, 2010) COMPILATIONS Body Language Vol 1 (Get Physical, 2005) At The Controls (Resist, 2006) Fabric 38 (Fabric, 2008) 7th Anniversary Compilation Pt1 (Get Physical, 2009) Renaissance: The Mix Collection (Renaissance, 2009)

lack of time that they’ve not been able to produce more. “That’s why we didn’t do MANDY Vs Booka Shade tracks for a while, because the guys have so much time pressure and they’re always watching the time so it didn’t feel really relaxed and we didn’t really like the idea of, ‘Now we have five hours to do a new track’,” Bodmer explains. “We more wanted to let it flow and that was not possible for a long time and now, for a while, now they’ve finished their new album and are a bit more relaxed we’ve got the MANDY Vs Booka Shade energy. We didn’t do only music, we were talking and having fun and then more as a side product were playing a little bit around showing them what we like and they were showing us what they like and then it came together as tracks… so it was more like a surprise. We found that after three years not producing together it feels very exciting; all the energy was coming back and we were having fun in the studio and you can hear it in the music – it’s very different.” Just how different it is remains to be seen considering the very likely sound of their most recent collaboration Donut, but rest assured it won’t be anything like the abortive MANDY album produced with Lopazz in Iceland two years back. “I feel like the last years we’ve been talking so much about the new MANDY longplayer and everyone is asking for it,” Bodmer laughs. “There [are] three MANDY longplayers maybe, like, flying around. So many new tracks and especially the Lopazz project we did together from Iceland. It’s finished but we decided not to release it because it’s very much sound travelling, listening music, and it doesn’t fit what we would play live as DJs. So we have to find a pseudonym, another artist name, and then we can release this record but we wouldn’t release it under the MANDY name.” While the excess of material available to Bodmer and Jung should conceivably materialise as a Get Physical release some time in the near future, there aren’t any stable plans ready for action just yet and the results ought to be all the better for it. “That’s why we like to do productions together with other people, to get this ‘band feeling’ which is more than just coming in, working, producing and going home,” Bodmer enthuses. “We like the idea of just working together and talking, then not watching the time passing by – it’s a different kind of attitude in the studio. More like listening to the machines, seeing what they can do and playing around and not just taking the first groove you have – more like a sound experience, waiting for the moment it catches you and not having one special thing in mind and trying to get it. More the other way around.”

Zebra Magazine 7

GA BY LIN LI OV G IC

ALL ABOUT STEVE HE’S TEAMED UP WITH HIS SHARE OF LEGENDARY FIGURES ON HIS FORTHCOMING ALBUM, BUT THE PERFECT COLLABORATOR FOR STEVE AOKI WOULD COME FROM A MORE CLASSICAL BASE. STEVE AOKI PLAYS WINTER SOUND SYSTEM THIS SUNDAY.

teve Aoki has a CV that needs to be condensed into a zip file if it’s to avoid clogging up email accounts. He’s a DJ, producer, clothing designer and label boss amongst other things, and even then he harbours yet to be achieved aspirations of which he won’t mention for fear of a jinx. In light of all this it’s no wonder he titled his 2008 debut album Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles – it may as well have been called ‘The Only Time I Sleep Is On Flights Between Shows’. “I’m lucky because I have a really devoted, loyal team, loyal staff, who work really hard on all the different stuff.” Teams dedicated to the smooth sailing of the clothing label and the record label (both named Dim Mak) and then the producing. “I just try to spend as much time as I can in LA when I’m not touring and when I’m on

the road I’ll find time to work on the road and keep producing more tracks.” Aoki was known mainly for his DJing and remixes. As he says, “people associate me with very aggressive dance music cause my DJ sets are pretty aggressive,” but this isn’t the genre he was born into. Aoki started out in the punk/hardcore scene, a scene he’s returning to with Bloody Beetroots pal Bob Rifo. “We’re called Rifoki,” he chuckles, “I’ve been playing the lead single in my set and Bob, they play a Rifoki track in their set as well. It’s interesting how we’re able to include something in our sets that’s against the grain, really fucking fast and hardcore. Some people probably hate it but this is just part of who we are.” There are many parts to Aoki as his forthcoming album will testify. The

M BY CK LU IN KE NO N

STYLE JUNKIE

GIFT OF GAB LIKES TO CHALLENGE HIMSELF AS A RAPPER, AND HE’S DONE THAT YET AGAIN ON HIS SECOND SOLO LONGPLAYER. XXX OF GAB PLAYS CORNER HOTEL THIS SUNDAY. GIFT ESCAPE 2 MARS IS OUT THROUGH QUANNUM/OTHER TONGUES.

ift Of Gab – AKA Timothy Parker – is as musically prolific as he is musically talented. The driving force behind cult Californian duo Blackalicious, hip hop super group The Mighty Underdogs and San Francisco-based collective Quannum Projects has firmly cemented his spot in the American hip hop landscape with his prestigious lyrical ability and pursuit of back catalogue excellence and, in more recent times, abundance. Not content with group success, Parker has also pursued an outlet for his solo work and recently released his second solo record Escape 2 Mars. Zebra caught up with the smooth-talking Californian and he explained the inspiration behind his latest musical offering. “I always want to be able to stay unpredictable and do different things. I always want to be able to be an artist – whether it is Blackalicious,” Parker states, suddenly interrupting his own thought and interjecting his sentence excitedly: “By the way; Blackalicious is seven songs into our next record, which will be out in 2011. “I always want to be an artist that is unpredictable,” Parker continues, back on track. “I don’t ever want to be put in a box. I don’t ever want people to feel like, ‘This is what Gift Of The Gab does’. That’s why with Escape 2 Mars I rhymed over electronic beats. I’ve never done that. It’s always been mainly sample-based or, if it’s live, it feels like a sample. You know, this was the first time I rhymed over beats that felt foreign to me, but I liked the experience because it’s new and anything that’s new to me as an artist is exciting and I want to be able to explore and do things that I haven’t done. So I guess 8 Zebra Magazine

album, yet to be titled, will feature artists from the likes of Weezer to Kid Cudi and a mysterious artist by the name of Zuper Blahq who features on the first single I’m In The House and suspiciously resembles Will.I.Am. “It’s one thing to produce an album of instrumentals, its anther to produce an album with features. I pretty much have features on every track so I’m really mixing it up with different kinds of genres. I have Rivers Cuomo from Weezer on a track, and I have some hip hop vocalists like Zuper Blahq, Lil Jon, Kid Cudi, Black Star, and then artists like Sky Ferreira. I’m trying to mix it up so there’s a place for everything. And this album is going to be very different from what people will expect from me.” So far, the set for his June Australian tour looks to be an interesting one. No doubt it will feature the “aggressive dance” he’s known for, but fans shouldn’t be surprised if they’re treated to a dose of Rifoki hardcore punk between I’m In The House and the new track featuring Lil Jon. “The track with Lil Jon, it jumps out at you. I actually did two tracks with Lil Jon, one where I produced a track with Laidback Luke and we debuted it at WMC with Lil Jon and it went over so big for us. Such a big fun track and that’s something that I definitely think will come out for the tour.” Ever evolving and challenge pursuing, it begs the question who hasn’t he worked with that he would like to? In light of his diversity, the answer is not so surprising. “If I could pick anyone at any given time period I would love to pick someone like Mozart or Beethoven. To sit in a room and see how they compose music, where their head’s at, what they’re doing, how they’re writing; you wouldn’t want to even bother them, I’d just be a fly on the wall watching and soaking it in.” that was my inspiration, to excite myself.” When you have a proven formula for success, pursuing an untried musical tack can be a daunting and challenging process, so how did Gab find the experience? “I found it fun actually,” states an emphatic Parker. “I mean, I’m a style junkie. Growing up, the groups that influenced me were De La Soul and Freestyle Fellowship because in sound and in lyricism they were doing things that I’d never heard before and I was like, ‘Wow, it’s possible to rap like that. You’re really going to take a children’s song and rap over it’. I was always intrigued and really drawn to shit that was different. So, for me, if I don’t do that it’s boring because I’ve already done other things and I want to be able to do things that I haven’t done before. So I always like to challenge myself as a rapper, but more than challenging it was exciting, ‘cause I’d never done it before.” Parker is renowned for his verbally dexterous, rapid-fire, lyrically savvy rapping. So intricate are his rhymes that they tend to lend themself to the recorded medium, but Parker is adamant that his new album translates well into his live performance. “Look, I think that it’s a different experience, but the same in that it comes from the same place. I love recording, I love making music, I love having an idea and expressing it and in the end I’ve created something that evokes emotion. Yes my music translates well onto records, but it can work equally well when you witness it live. “I guess when I perform my music live, it is just a matter of interpreting that recorded, but at the same time, when you’re live you can interpret it in different ways, ‘cause I might be feeling a certain way on a particular day when I come out live on stage. So I appreciate and value both aspects and I hope my audience does too.”

BY EV STU AN AR S T

LIKEABLE LAD THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ROCK CAREER OF STATIC REVENGER BY HIS CURRENT COLLABORATION PARTNER HELPED KICK-START THE ONE HE’S NOW CHOSEN. XXX STATIC REVENGER PLAYS WINTER SOUND SYSTEM THIS SUNDAY. I LIKE THAT IS OUT THROUGH VICIOUS/UNIVERSAL.

e likes cats. Correction: Dennis White, known as the Static Revenger, likes that. “What I do like? As a man I like it when my team wins a match. Women generally say they like everything from Gucci to shopping, so I Like That is best looked at from a women’s perspective,” White laughs. Of course White’s talking about his recent triumph I Like That, a fresh collaboration with Richard Vission and vocalist Luciana. “If we released I Like That three years ago I reckon it would’ve bombed. It’s a case of changing musical cultures as the record now has a place and a story to tell. We didn’t set out to make a commercial record. We set out to make a dancefloor record,” he tells. White’s also known for clubbing sounds including Everything Is Beautiful, Long Time and Happy People. Based in Los Angles, White’s a known producer and spinner who’s had three number one Billboard tracks with Weekend Players, Madonna and Kristine W. He’s also a talented fellow. He’s out shopping in Beverley Hills and yakking down the phone, intermittently answering questions and pausing to try on shoes. “I’ve just bought myself an Yves Saint Laurent suit and it’s a fucking rock star suit,” he shares. The American’s a Jack of all trades. He’s also an innovator. He directed the music video for Inner City’s classic Good Life and formed Detroit alternativerock-dance band Charm Farm. His resume makes for impressive reading as he’s directed the likes of Paul van Dyk, Meck and Toolroom’s Mark Knight. And if that’s not enough he’s a multi-instrumentalist and Berklee College of Music Graduate. Perhaps his inner instrumentalist is bursting to come out. “My inner instrumentalist is bursting to come out a little bit. It all started with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson and Detroit techno. When I met those guys I was a real fucking musician. I looked at those guys as DJs who

BY EV STU AN AR S T

SUCKA FOR PUNISHING TUNES LEE MORTIMER DOESN’T PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO HYPE – HE JUST WANTS TO SMASH OUT BIG TUNES. xxx

LEE MORTIMER PLAYS REVOLVER THIS SUNDAY.

nglishman Lee Mortimer is yet another DJ being touted as the ‘next big thing’ or the ‘hottest DJ of the moment’. Even if he is someone to keep a watch of, surely DJs are getting sick of being placed up on a pedestal, right? Mortimer, or Mr Lee as the conference call operator mistakenly refers to him, reckons so. “I’ve actually been touted as the next big thing for about three years. If people want to say it then it’s fine with me. People will always discover music at some point and there are always more people to impress,” he says. He’s also been dubbed as an underground superstar who plays fidget house. As you’d expect from a DJ, Mortimer plays music, however Mortimer argues he plays music that’s sleazy. And no, he’s not referring to a seedy, grubby style of music. Mortimer’s talking about something different. “It’s big – it’s big electro house with lots of wobbly basslines

and massive main room tunes. I always try to throw in a few funny samples, just to keep things interesting,” he reveals. His theory about music is much about ramming the music out of speakers as hard as possible and not a story touching on gloomy dystopia. His approach is akin to “sod the consequences”, modern music has to be in your face. “I always try to make big tracks. I like big synths and big sounds. For me that’s music.” The Brit, who scored a residency at UK Ministry Of Sound, has a love of sound that grabs snippets from all over the globe. Typical and influential music makers like Pete Tong, Claude VonStroke and Derrick Carter rate a mention as his favourites. According to Tong, Mortimer’s track Crazy was one of the largest tunes at ‘07’s WMC. Not a bad accolade. “It’s good. Things have been great and I’m very proud of it. I’ve never rested

played other people’s records,” he says. But that all changed when the Detroit pioneers challenged him to mix two records together. “I couldn’t mix two fucking records together to save my live. DJing is such a different skill set. I desperately wanted to learn their craft and go deeper with their music. The day I realised I couldn’t mix two records together was the day I became fucking obsessed by it,” he says. Times have changed as White’s demonstrated his skills the world over. However he and his latest collaboration partner, Richard Vission, have history. “Richard Vission ruined my career as a rock star,” he says. “Back in 1996 I had a rock dance band called Charm Farm that was signed to Mercury Records. We had a song called Superstar, [on] which I supplied the lead vocal and a girl [sang] backing vocals. Vission got his hands on the vocals and destroyed them.” White’s quick to point out that there’s no bad blood between him and Vission. “Far from it as we’re very good friends. The record company actually sent him the vocal track. Vission took my vocal and cut it to make the tackiest Top 40 record remix that you will ever hear and subsequently destroyed my rock star career,” he laughs. White was strategic in approach to the track’s release. “I hated the remix and wouldn’t let the record company release it. Sadly Richard started playing it on his radio show and it got a good reaction. Basically the record ended up being the most requested song of the entire year.” White’s live sets are also renowned to be entertaining. As part of DJs Are Alive, he says he tries to liven things up by bringing instruments into proceedings. “Yeah, I love to add a bit of a live band experience to my sets. I like gadgets, my own edits and often play over songs.” on my laurels and have kept busy, trying to appeal to more people. It’s really exciting and long may it continue,” he tells. Now focusing on his own Wearhouse record label, his ear for a jingle has remained tight, churning out releases and remixes. And just to prove he has a wicked sense of humour, Mortimer also has a couple of rather unusual production aliases – “I’ve used Sawtooth Sucka and Lemon Pesterer,” he spills with little prompting. Sawtooth Sucka is easy to explain, he says. “When producing tracks I use a lot of tracks that have a sawtooth kind of a sound. So I’d use it a lot on my tracks.” Lemon Pesterer – well, that’s another story. “It’s actually an anagram of my name. I searched the internet and that’s what came up. The full name is I’m The Lemon Pesterer, which is still better than the alternative: The Penis Thermometer!” he laughs. Having started making music on the unassuming Commodore Amiga, Mortimer’s musical crossing has advanced to becoming a respectable recording and remixing artist in his own right. That he’s had tracks and remixes appear on Front Room Records and CR2 only adds to his standing. Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads have also requested his remixing duties. Probably his most successful track thus far is Blau!, his collaboration with Laidback Luke, or his reworking of Visage’s classic ‘80s anthem Fade To Grey. The fact is his music has caught the ears of many. As such he’s been racking up the air miles, jetting off to Singapore and our own Australia to champion his sound. “I got a lot of gigs on the back of Blau!, my track with Laidback Luke. I love traveling and going to new places. I usually play my normal music wherever I travel. After all, if a venue books me they should have a rough idea of what I play.”

CY CL ON

HOLDING THE FLAG DJ PREMIER, AKA CHRISTOPHER MARTIN, IS AMONG HIP HOP’S MOST INFLUENTIAL – AND REVERED – PRODUCERS, BUT THE WIDELY COPIED ‘PREMO’ DOESN’T BEEF WITH BITERS OR ”SWEAT EMULATORS”. DJ PREMIER PLAYS RAP CITY AT THE ESPY THIS SATURDAY.

n 2010 Christopher Martin is seeking fresh challenges – and beyond hip hop. He rather fancies producing U2, the DJ purchasing their A Celebration on import back in the ‘80s. And just how might U2 sound with Martin at the boards? “Soulful, but very rock‘n’roll,” he responds. Originally studying computer science, the Texan native found fame with the late MC Guru (Keith Elam) as Gang Starr. Though not directly affiliated with New York’s Native Tongues collective, Gang Starr, too, pioneered abstract jazz stylings in hip hop. Still, the duo didn’t clock up spectacular sales, their most successful LP 1998’s Moment Of Truth, which went gold. What would be their last outing, The Ownerz, fell victim to EMI’s corporate turmoil. In 2004 Gang Starr toured Australia with Good Vibrations. “It was one of the best experiences of my career,” Martin recalls. Soon after,

Gang Starr either split or went on hiatus, Martin contradicting himself in interviews. Elam began collaborating with the unknown Solar, who aspired to be a ‘new’ Premier – to the irritation of hip hop fans. Even while in Gang Starr, Premier was cutting beats for elite MCs: Nas, The Notorious BIG and Jay-Z. However, the urban fraternity was surprised when Martin, no purist, worked with the ‘pop’ Christina Aguilera on 2006’s Back To Basics, their neo-soul Ain’t No Other Man scooping a Grammy. (Mind, he had liaised with D’Angelo.) Martin speaks adoringly of the singer, now a friend. “It was one of the dopest experiences ever. She was fun to work with and we built a true brother/sister relationship because of it. I went to her private wedding, hung out at her house with her whole crew – [it was] me and Flavor Flav playin’ Mario Kart-racing, all kinds of fun shit...

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THE POWER & THE PASSION IN THE FACE OF THE SO-CALLED GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, TONY COLMAN – NOW WORKING SOLO AS LONDON ELEKTRICITY – REVEALS HIS HOSPITAL RECORDS IMPRINT HAS ENJOYED ITS MOST FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL YEAR EVER. XXX LONDON ELEKTRICITY PLAYS PRINCE BANDROOM THIS SUNDAY. HOSPITAL PRESENTS DRUM + BASS CLUB ANTHEMS IS OUT THROUGH CENTRAL STATION/UNIVERSAL.

ony Colman launched Hospital Records with old pal Chris Goss back in 1996, their base then West London (they’ve since transplanted to the South). Colman, who plays the keys as well as guitar, was previously in the acid jazz Izit. What’s more, he and Goss had an earlier label, Tongue And Groove. Colman began producing drum’n’bass with Goss as London Elektricity. Their Song In The Key Of Knife was deemed an instant classic – and a watershed. At the time, drum’n’bass was dark, austere and macho, but London Elektricity espoused a jazzier style, reminiscent of LTJ Bukem’s ‘intelligent’ jungle, while referencing R&B, disco and house. Though London Elektricity is officially Hospital’s flagship act, the label is best known for introducing Welshman Lincoln Barrett, AKA High Contrast. Today Hospital continues to unearth stellar talent, with Belgium’s Netsky already tipped to be as massive as High Contrast. Indeed, Hospital has a tradition of cred ‘artist’ albums. To tie in with his Australian tour, Colman has overseen an exclusive mix compilation, Hospital Presents Drum + Bass Club Anthems, together with New Zealand’s Agent Alvin. The package is out through the Universal-affiliated Central Station. “It’s all happened really quickly,” Colman enthuses. “It’s brilliant in the way it’s happened, actually.” Central touted the project in only February when London Elektricity’s tour dates were locked in. Colman is meticulous, but he doesn’t endlessly fiddle with mixes. “I’m very anal – but quick,” he chortles. At any rate, Colman is chuffed with Drum + Bass Club Anthems. “I’ve done a lot of mixes over the years, but this is the best mix I’ve ever done, I think.” He considers the package as a “statement” about the surging drum’n’bass movement as much as Hospital. Both DJs’ selections underscore the internationalism of contemporary drum’n’bass,

I love her to death. Her husband Jordy [Jordan Bratman] is the shit, too. He’s a major part of why she and I worked together since he was a diehard fan of my previous work.” There was talk of Martin contributing to Aguilera’s Bionic – as well as the Burlesque movie soundtrack – but she “passed” on the tracks. “It’s all good,” he says. They’re already planning to reunite for a later project. Martin has plenty to keep him busy. He’s involved in Kanye West’s Good Ass Job, for starters. “Kanye texted me on my phone and asked if I was in NY. I said ‘yeah’ and he stopped by and hung out with me and Showbiz from DITC [the Diggin’ In The Crates crew]. We had a good time talkin’ about music, politics, life... He came at 8pm and stayed ‘til 3am – [we were] just building and listening to his album’s early stages. Kanye is a good dude. He is cutting-edge and truly does not give a fuck. That’s the type of people I like.” Martin will eventually furnish an ‘artist’ album of his own. The DJ is returning to Australia just weeks after Elam succumbed to cancer. The MC’s passing was sadly overshadowed by a controversial deathbed letter Solar circulated. In it, Elam inexplicably forbids Martin from participating in tributes. Martin has questioned the letter’s authenticity, as with Elam’s family and the global hip hop community. Ask the DJ about Solar – and allegations made by Solar’s ex Tasha Denham that he turned Guru against Martin – and he’s ever the diplomat. “I think it is really unfortunate how all of this back and forth has taken away from Guru’s legacy as an artist and as a man. At this time, I wish to have no part in anything other than celebrating his life.” And he’ll do that by reflecting on the good times. “I will remember that Guru loved Gang Starr more than anything in the world... I love him and miss him so much. He will always be in my top ten greatest of all time – a pure original.”

Colman commencing his set with the State Of Mind remix of Shapeshifter’s Dutchies. Hospital has survived a catastrophic downturn in the music industry – and the digital revolution. Colman is philosophical about rampant file sharing. His perspective is that labels should harness the Internet, not fight it. “It’s an amazing tool for promotion.” He’s unconvinced that illegal downloading hurts music sales. It’s mainly people who can’t purchase music who download – or kids with “loads of disposable time, but no disposable income”. Colman also appreciates that kids in the Second and Third Worlds can’t easily access music legally. He’s a democrat. “What’s the point of making music unless people can enjoy it? We never went into this because we’re running a bank. We’re making music ‘cause we love music.” Times are tough in Britain. Nevertheless, DJ Greg Wilson contests that economic struggle is good for music. “Greg’s right!” Colman concurs. “I’m old enough to have been working during the last recession, which was right in the mid-to-late ‘80s, and it was that recession that gave birth to dance music in the UK. I started my first record label during that recession. People do turn to music during times of hardship and it becomes more important and less taken for granted. We’re seeing that again now... People need to get out and have a good time – particularly during a recession when you can’t afford to go on a really nice holiday or whatever, but you can afford to go to a club and get off-your-face and enjoy yourself. It’s the best form of escape. It’s probably the cheapest form of escape as well, in a way – [or] the most affordable. We’ve had our best year ever in terms of the business – and that’s right in the depth of the recession. So, certainly, from a financial point of view, the proof’s in the pudding for drum’n’bass.”

CY CL ON

LIVE AND SWEATY A FORTHRIGHT CHRISTIAN VANCE OPENS UP ON EVERYTHING FROM “FACEBOOK CLUBBING” TO THE DEFINITION OF A LIVE ACT – BUT KEEPS HIS CARDS CLOSE TO HIS CHEST WHEN PROBED ON A NEW DUBSTEP PROJECT. CHRISTIAN VANCE PLAYS ROYAL ASSEMBLY AT LOUNGE THIS FRIDAY.

hristian Vance is the most mercurial figure in Melbourne techno. He’s also passionate – and outspoken. Vance has fashioned a bold new techno, reconciling European IDM with Detroit’s jazzy hi-tech soul, while retaining an Australian irreverence. It’s no wonder that he’s attracted fans like Carl Craig. Nevertheless, Vance is looking for fresh challenges in 2010 – outside of techno. He’s intrigued by dubstep. Vance was originally a member of the live combo Phunk de Sonique, but went solo in 2006. The live muso then switched from analogue gear to a laptop and also started releasing music. His first recording, Tiger Snake, materialised on Ripperton’s Swiss label Perspectiv. Vance launched the digital HAUL_ Music with local DJs Mike Callander and Craig McWhinney. Vance will now air a third EP in July. He is coy about the details – including the title – but plays a fantastic dubstep remix “by a new collaborative duo” known as Jay Vincent Jr. He sums it up as “fresh Australian dubstep in a very Detroit vein of futuristic emotional stuff”. In the meantime, he’s remixed Etienne Jaumet’s For Falling Asleep on Versatile – just licensed for a comp by DJ Argy. There’s even talk of an EP for Sydney’s Future Classic. (“They’ve got the music,” Vance says.) And, yes, Vance has begun an album. Though Vance prefers performing live to DJing, he co-presents a radio show on Kiss FM, The Hair Of The Dog, every Sunday from 6pm. “We have a very singular kind of music policy – which is no real music policy. We’ll play everything from old funk and disco right through to the latest dubstep recording by Martyn or Scuba or someone like that. So it’s a good show.” Vance is likewise involved in a new HAUL_ monthly at Revolver – in the intimate front room, which he loves. Still, Vance worries about the future of clubbing in Melbourne. And it’s

CY CL ON

HOLDING THE FORT

CHRIS FORTIER IS STILL RESOLUTELY UNDERGROUND TWO DECADES INTO HIS DJ CAREER – AND THAT’S WHY HE FEELS HE’S NEVER SUCCUMBED TO COMPLACENCY. CHRIS FORTIER PLAYS QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA 2 AT BROWN ALLEY THIS FRIDAY.

“I

think it could be easy if I ever thought I was part of the establishment, but I have never felt that way,” Fortier says of the very suggestion he’s played it safe. “I have always felt there was more to do or [more] goals to achieve. There is an inherent trait in me to search out new things and sounds – and that is what drives me each day, to improve and get better than the previous day. It is a simple, hard-driven passion that is still keeping me inspired after all these years.” Nor does Fortier feel he’s in competition with his peers. Fortier was DJing professionally in his native Florida in 1990, securing a residency at an Orlando superclub. He also started producing as Fade with Neil Kolo. He’d then relocate to New York, regularly playing Twilo. In NY, Fortier began recording solo as 40oz. From the outset, too, he showed entrepreneurial flair. Fortier founded a record promotions company. Today he’s

focused on his long-running Fade Records. Underground he may be, but Fortier has often lamented the fact that dance music is recognised more in Europe than the US. The American electronic community has traditionally celebrated outsiders while neglecting domestic talent. Yet dance is now all over US airwaves courtesy of urban acts such as Will.i.am. Fortier is cautious when assessing any cultural shift – and its ramifications for DJs. “It is good overall, but this is all happening more than 25 years after house music became a movement.” He is gratified that a young generation is being exposed to the 4/4 beat – his hope is that they’ll further explore underground electronica. Even in the late ‘90s – and the pre-download era – Fortier didn’t profit greatly from his 1998 remix of Delerium’s ubiquitous Silence. “Actually, I don’t think we got as many residuals from that remix as some would assume,” he

not just because festivals are marginalising clubs. He fears that electronic dance is being rendered redundant by “Facebook clubbing”. “You’ve got a real issue because we’re breeding a young society of the ‘entertainmentstyle’ of clubbing. There’s not an acknowledgement of interesting, different music. There’s F-all support for live electronic music, really. The clubs are providing an entertainment space for young people to take photos of one another and the music is literally wallpaper.” DJs are limited and, as such, a younger generation don’t consider clubbing as an “almost religious, ritualistic, social response to life” as Vance did growing up. Regardless, on Friday he’ll play another one-off set of live deep techno at Lounge. Vance last played the iconic venue in the late ‘90s – and fondly remembers Lounge’s long-running techno night, Filter. Vance is irked, too, at how in electronic circles the term ‘live’ is so abused. His show, he promises, is as live as any band. Vance uses a keyboard in addition to a laptop and controller, yet doesn’t mix or edit finished songs – he creates music from “raw sounds”. He can improvise. “It is a live orchestration of electronic bits of music that go cohesively together.” Vance finds plenty to inspire him in the wider pop culture. He enthuses about the partlyanimated French bio-pic Gainsbourg. Back to techno, he loves Marcel Dettmann’s remix of Fever Ray’s Seven. So what was the last pop record he dug? Vance laughs. “Does Four Tet count as pop music?” Not really. It turns out that he’s into German hip hop star Peter Fox. Fox’s song Schwarz Zu Blau (Black To Blue) is about the “ugly” side of Berlin – a side techno tourists rarely see or reference. “It’s like German cinematic urban-pop,” Vance declares. “It’s kind of like a pop Modeselektor or something.”

says candidly. “That record took quite a while to really surface. We did that remix way back in 1998 – it took about a year to convince the label to release it as a 12-inch promo. Originally they were only using the remix on a label compilation as an exclusive track. But the track took off a bit thanks to Sasha and John [Digweed]. I was very proud of it, of course, in that we had a hit record in many countries well before Tiësto even came close to remixing it in 2000. We did do some more remix work – and production work – for artists trying to become chart acts, but none of them near to Sarah McLachlan, for sure. And these days, it is fair to say, our mix is overshadowed by Tiësto and the many more remixes the label has tried to suck out of the song!” Fortier always strenuously resists tags, asserting that he’s a “house DJ”. But, though spanning everything from acid to techno to deep house, his sets follow a (mutable) progressive aesthetic. The DJ is reticent about identifying producers, artists or labels he currently admires – due, he says, to the constant flux that defines dance (he does, however, post charts). Still, three years ago, Fortier presented an experimental ‘artist’ album, As Long As The Moment Exists. He plans to commence another this year. But, first, he’s airing a backlog. “I have been doing a number of remixes the last year – many of which are coming out now and through to the end of the year. One particularly is for Darkbeat’s new label.” The surfing fan doesn’t envisage himself residing in Brooklyn indefinitely – he misses Florida. “I don’t think I will live in NYC forever – it is amazing and I love it – but eventually there will be a move to a simpler existence for me and my family. I have twin baby boys now, so I think moving to a beach again is on our horizon soon – very soon.” Zebra Magazine 9

SINGLES

WITH TIM FINNEY

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

KATY PERRY FEAT SNOOP DOGG California Gurls

(EMI) I’m by no means a Katy fan, but this is actually really great, and probably her best attempt at a pop song so far. I read someone describe it as being like Ke$ha with most of the annoying bits removed, which is basically spot on if you agree that Ke$ha’s choruses are mostly fine (if somewhat generic) while her drunken slurred spoken word verses are objectionable. What a shock that Katy would jump all over the only trend to emerge in teen pop since her last album – but the result is a deeply enjoyable piece of discofied synth-pop with that kind of shiny, burnished synth-chord sound precisely midway between Kylie’s Love At First Sight and, um, Kylie’s In My Arms. The song itself is slight to the point of being ridiculous, but expecting depth from a song called California Gurls is like expecting erudition from a puppy. It’s just not the point.

YOLANDA BE COOL & DCUP We No Speak Americano

(Sweat It Out/Universal) Not new, precisely, but I thought it was worth paying tribute to the curiousness of the massive success of this club track, which even now haunts the upper reaches of the charts. When was the last time a largely instrumental house tune actually did this well? We No Speak Americano does of course contain a vocal swiped from Tu Vuo Fa L’Americano, but this is just the hook that spices up its Cuban horn pirouettes, which fit squarely within the Classic Records/Derrick Carter mould of bumpin’ boompty house. Simultaneously, the tune belongs to that tradition of liberally sampling winsome, sepia-toned Latin and South American tunes that has haunted post-minimal European dance these past four years or so – a trend that hit its aesthetic pinnacle with Ricardo Villalobos’ Enfants (Chant) and its (prior) crossover peak with Samim’s Heater. As always, the spoils of the day go to the latecomers, but Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP shouldn’t be punished for finally pushing these two lineages to the point where they combine to resemble the maddening irresistibility of Doop more than anything else.

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TRENTEMØLLER Into The Great Wide Yonder (In My Room/Stomp)

ANGUS PATERSON

From when the first twisted, scraping bellows of Trentemøller’s Into The Great Wide Yonder ring out, you’ll realise there’s little frivolity to be found here. There’s not a moment of that sweaty elation you felt when you heard his epic reworking of Moby’s Go for the first time. The opening deluge of The Mash & The Fury summons the sound of the apocalypse, not unlike the exploding smoke plumes that adorn the front cover, and it’s a signal no one’s going to be given an easy ride. The electronics are as dense as ever, but they’re now more likely to be superseded by bluesy guitar twangs, hollow live drums and bruised, achingly sad female vocals. But there’s still a sense of the familiar here, and if you witnessed the raw acoustic edge Trentemøller brought to his tour of Australia back in ‘07, you’d already know the dark menace he’s harnessed to full effect here. From the raw emotional pain of Sycamore Feeling, through to when Trentemøller finally lets in some light with the closing Tide, it all draws together perfectly. The electronics and the instruments overlap to the point where the sound textures merge, but Trentemøller’s biggest achievement is how he’s taken this rawness, and somehow managed to draw melody and musicality out of it. If you’re looking for ‘beats’, you won’t find them here – but in its own abrasive, self-assured way, this is a masterpiece unto itself. Don’t assume you’re necessarily going to “like” it; just know you’ll have no choice but to respect it, and maybe eventually love it.

VARIOUS/ JAMES HOLDEN DJ-Kicks

(!K7/Inertia)

GRUM Heartbeats

(Etcetc/Universal) CARLIN BEATTIE

KRIS SWALES

Not long after James Holden introduced himself to the progressive house gurniverse with the jaw-dropping Balance 005 compilation in 2003, he charted a course directly up his own arsehole which took him through his misunderstood At The Controls mix before finally landing him at his destination in 2006 with the self-indulgent The Idiots Are Winning. While the Border Community head honcho has been busily spreading the wares of Fairmont and Nathan Fake in his downtime, he’s been lost in the wilderness for much of the past few years, so his return with the latest edition to the DJ-Kicks series is welcome. Given in the past the series has moved from the conventional (The Juan MacLean) to the slightly obtuse (Four Tet) it seems a perfect fit for a triumphant return for Holden, and the end result is just that – well, sort of. Holden’s DJ-Kicks is more about the head trip than the body journey, and it’s a mesmerising ride through esoteric electronica for the most part with the occasional nod to the dancefloor. The opening stanza moves through the indie and punk-funk sounds of Piano Magic and Grackle before Mordant Music’s Olde Wobbly deposits you in the middle of a lost tribe in the heart of the cosmos. If names like Caribou, Kieran Hebden (AKA Four Tet) and Steve Reid, Legowelt and Mogwai ring a bell, then there’ll be a familiarity to the sonics Holden explores on this journey. His DJ-Kicks is unconventional, but thankfully not one destined only to click with the chinstroking elite.

Over ten years have elapsed since The Rapture’s debut Mirror produced the disco-regenerate Olio. From then we’ve listened to Daft Punk, Mylo, James Murphy and Calvin Harris each strike and flee similar thematic chords. Enter Graeme Shepherd, AKA Grum. Listening to the Scottish-born musician’s Heartbeats, it’s at first a struggle to conceive that the record is his first. Consider, however, Shepherd’s past 24 months of production work, amongst the likes of Lady Gaga, Anoraak and Passion Pit, and the scene becomes all the more clear. A near 51-minute session becomes an almost timeless affair; the breed of gapless and unflagging album that even seasoned professionals Air and Scooter have struggled to create over recent offerings. Perhaps it’s the sheer lack of restraint or consideration the artist observes towards realising the album. A self-proclaimed musical hedonist, the Grum manifesto trashes pop convention, in turn coming to epitomise the very organism that is popular culture itself. The framework of the tracklist is a gummy, addictive candy that bonds nostalgia and futurism in perfect harmony. Within its opening ten minutes, Heartbeats has avant-garde electro (Can’t Shake This Feeling) sitting aside nu gaze and house (Through The Night and Runaway) with absolute comfort. To say specific tunes stand out amid each hit would be doing each of the 12 candidates an injustice, however it’s the faultless composition within sparklers like Power, Want U and the title track that create such a formidable firstround effort for Grum.

Zebra Magazine 11

JUNE 11 - 20

JOY TO THE WORLD ON THE EVE OF JOY’S RADIOTHON LAUNCH PARTY, THE STATION’S SPONSORSHIP & EVENTS MANAGER DAVID HUNT PRESENTS BRYGET CHRISFIELD WITH A PLETHORA OF REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD ‘CHOOSE JOY’.

ustralia’s only gay and lesbian radio station, JOY, celebrated 16 years of broadcasting last December, the first test transmission having commenced on World AIDS Day on 1 December 1993. According to the station’s website, the first words that went live to air on that original frequency (90.7) were those of station founder John Oliver, who said, “Can I have a cup of coffee and then we’ll get going?” A Jimmy Barnes song was the opening track, albeit accidentally, and then Kylie Minogue’s Celebration followed as the official launch song. In 2002 JOY began broadcasting full-time on its current frequency (94.9) and remains one of only five gay and lesbian radio stations in the world, the others are located in Barcelona, Rome, Berlin and London. For the first time this year, JOY will be throwing a launch party to kick off its ten-day Radiothon. Explaining that Radiothon was previously “just an on-air event”, JOY’s Sponsorship & Events Manager David Hunt shares his excitement about this inclusion on your party calendar. “We have our own series of CDs and we’ve had CD launches before, which are huge,” Hunt shares, “but we thought a perfect thing for us to do [would be to] literally have a launch party. It’s gonna be quite an ‘80s theme, we’ll be showing lots of ‘80s film clips in the other room so it’s gonna be a real celebration of the station on the night. And it’s a chance for a lot of our on-air presenters to be onstage introducing the different acts [and] hosting so therefore our listeners can see who they are and get to chat to them. “I actually coordinate the whole event and just try to get people to be part of it. We’ve got circus performers, hula hoop people, burlesque performers plus some up-and-coming artists that we’re starting to feature on JOY. There’s a guy called Brecik and he’s a local Melbourne artist that we’re featuring on the night and we’ve also got the outrageous Supergirly – she’s performing for us and she’s also been an on-air presenter for us. Supergirly actually performed for Madonna’s birthday party in London! And Dolly Diamond’s performing, who is an amazing drag queen but also an on-air presenter. And of course Paris Wells is headlining it. We’ve always supported her music, way back before everyone else jumped on it. We had her in performing live on air so she feels a real bond with JOY… And we’re also featuring this guy who’s a local

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JOY 94.9 RADIOTHON artist and he’s a tenor, but he is only a young guy and he’s just got a record deal. He’s done a version of Beyoncé’s Halo and he’ll be doing that but he’s also doing an ‘80s cover of the old Foreigner song I Wanna Know What Love Is, which will be really quite fun on that front as well. And also a women’s circus are performing.” James Reyne was originally contacted to participate in the Radiothon launch party but had a prior engagement. “He’s away on a holiday that night,” Hunt enlightens, “and that’s why we’re having him the following Friday night on the drive show. He’ll actually be taking people’s calls and we’ll say, ‘Ring now and become a member and James will actually take your membership’. He’s such an accommodating person, so it’s gonna be fun… We’re doing lots of ‘80s-related events.” The fun will also continue through your wireless and beyond over the ten-day Radiothon cycle. “Because Breakfast Club was one of the films of the ‘80s, on the second Saturday we’re actually having a Breakfast Club breakfast here at the station,” Hunt reveals. “So you can come and if you join up you get breakfast and we’ll have celebrities serving and it’ll be lots of fun.” The theme for this year’s JOY Radiothon is ‘Choose JOY’ and yes, you can buy a Wham!-inspired t-shirt emblazoned with said slogan. “We’re printing them and it will be a limited edition,” Hunt warns. “We’re only making a limited amount and when they’re gone, they’re gone.” The chosen theme is particularly apt since George Michael was a recent visitor to our shores. “We were looking for a theme and you know, ‘Choose Life’, ‘Choose JOY’ – it just goes hand in hand,” Hunt continues, “and we just thought the whole ‘80s thing is so huge at present and so it was just a good thing to do.” With more than 70 specialty shows currently produced for JOY, the variety is endless. Hunt tells that one of the radio shows that has “been around for years” is Café Latte with Alan Ross (Sundays, 3-5pm). “It’s a soul music show, which is really popular,” he enthuses. “We’ve got shows like The Casting Couch [Thomas Caldwell and Kylie Eddy; Saturdays, 5-7pm], which is the movie review show that does extremely well. And one of our really big shows – and people listen to it online around the world – is Broadway At Bedtime [Will, PJ, Nina and cast; Sundays, 9-11pm]. It’s one of the few exclusive Broadway musical shows on radio, so we get a huge following for that.” Over 250 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender volunteers keep JOY on the air and Hunt singles out “Andy and Adrian who do breakfast twice a week” as longstanding announcers with the station. “Look, there’s probably quite a few,” he admits, “but [Andy and Adrian have] been with us for quite a few years and before they did breakfast they did another show on the weekend. They also had their own comedy show in the [Melbourne International Comedy Festival] and it was called Radio Husbands. They’re not a couple, but they hang out together and both their partners are best friends as well. And they even go on holidays together, which is really fun. So that’s why they call themselves ‘radio husbands’.” The Radiothon commences on air the morning after the launch party but attendees will be able to sign up and become members at the event. And you never know who will turn up to show their support on the night, if Hunt’s recent experience covering the Logies red carpet for JOY is anything to go by. “Our mic had the JOY logo on it and the amount of celebs that saw that JOY logo and came over and said, ‘Oh, we love JOY. You’ve been so supportive of all our shows that we do on the television, or theatre. You always do great radio interviews for us and support us’. So it was [all about] how the rest of the media and how performers just really love and support JOY.” Hunt went a bit weak at the knees for Daniel MacPherson (“he was one of them [who approached] the minute he saw our logo”) and also Kris Smith (AKA Dannii’s boyfriend). “Apart from being unbelievably good looking, he is the loveliest person,” Hunt gushes. “And, again, he’s been in here and said, ‘Oh, I know JOY!’. And we’ve done interviews on the station and I said, ‘Well you know Dannii’s loved by us; we play her music all the time’. He went, ‘Yeah! She loves JOY’.” WHO: JOY (94.9) WHAT: Radiothon Launch Party WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, the Glasshouse. Pre-sale tickets can be purchased through the station for only $10, with all proceeds going towards keeping the station alive and well.

SUPERGIRLY

I AM A FAMOUS POP STAR/CELEBRITY AND I AM OFTEN COMPARED TO PARIS HILTON. IN LOOKS ONLY, THAT BIATCH CAN’T SING. WHERE AND WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST SET? At a gay club in the UK. I thought I was singing for a group of hot bikey men, turns out they were women and more dykie than bikie. WHAT’S YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE 12”? Robbie Williams. I actually think it was a 13”, though I never measured it properly. Oh sorry, you a mean song? WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHAT YOU DO? I don’t have parents. I am genetically created by scientists who wanted to create the perfect popstar celebrity and they did – me. WHAT DOES THE MELBOURNE CLUB SCENE NEED MOST? A members only club so I can go out and not have to deal with losers and wannabes trying to hang around and wanting to be my friend. I mean, as if! I only hang with rich people and other celebrities. FAVOURITE CLUB TO PLAY? I love playing the Viper Lounge and the Skybar at the Mondrian Hotel, ‘cause I always know I will see some celeb friends. Clubs in Melbourne? Oh, no. Not unless you pay me, then anywhere if the price is right. WHAT’S YOUR BEST ALL TIME GIG? I did a gig once at Elton John’s house, which was awesome. I even got hit on by KD Lang – not really my type. But I can tell you now there is no way that guy is gay, he was really into me and not camp at all! WHAT GIGS HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP? I guess I have to mention the Choose Joy Radiothon Launch on Thursday 10 June at the Glasshouse. It’s going to be amazing. Of course it will be, I’m singing.

Zebra Magazine 13

JUNE 11 - 20

RADIOTHON

DANAE GIBSON (JOY’S GENERAL MANAGER) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH JOY AND WHAT’S YOUR ROLE AT THE STATION? “Seven months as General Manager.” WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? DID YOU HAVE PREVIOUS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OR RADIO PRIOR TO JOY? “I come from Perth, have a degree in Broadcasting and long involvement with community radio at 6RTR as a presenter, producer, trainer, program committee and Board member. I was teaching young people Radio at TAFE before relocating to Melbourne.” WHAT DOES THE THEME ‘CHOOSE JOY’ MEAN TO YOU? “It is a simple call for members of the GLBTIQ communities – and our friends and allies in the broader community – to support Australia’s first and only GLBTIQ community radio station. We provide a voice for the queer community, a place to find support and connection to other GLBTIQ folk and help to break down isolation. More than 250 active volunteers and a handful of staff keep us on the air 24/7 every day of the year as we entertain and inform the community. We are proud to bring you JOY and we appreciate your support.” HOW MUCH PREPARATION HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN TO PREPARE FOR THE LAUNCH PARTY AND RADIOTHON? “Weeks and weeks of planning have gone in to planning the launch party which is a new event for JOY’s annual Radiothon. Our amazing volunteers and staff have an incredible array of skills and are working as a mighty team to make sure we have a lot of fun to celebrate the hard work we put in. We love community radio for its flexibility, creativity and camaraderie and the Choose JOY Radiothon launch party will be a great way to share the love! We really appreciate the performers donating their time and the support of community, sponsors, members and listeners.” CAN YOU SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORIES FROM YOUR TIME WITH JOY? “Every day has something fabulous about it at JOY! Fielding calls from other media when federal opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, was interviewed on Freshly Doug (Doug Pollard 9am-noon, Thursday) not long after he had declared he was threatened by homosexuality. JOY is a great place to have conversations with community leaders like Tony Abbott about issues that directly affect the GLBTIQ communities. And, being kissed on each cheek by Tina Arena, as she visited the station!” DID YOU HAVE ANY POSTERS OF BANDS/POPSTARS ON YOUR WALLS WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER? “Yes, do you really want to know whom? Blondie, The Pretenders, Kim Wilde – can you see a theme here? – and The Police.”

SUE WILKINSON (HEAR ME RAW, 7-8PM THURSDAY) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH JOY AND WHAT’S YOUR ROLE AT THE STATION? “I have been with JOY for about 12 fantastic months. I completed the taste of radio course and there’s was no looking back. I had the opportunity to host a women’s show, and now co-host drive on Fridays with the very lovely David Hunt.” WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? DID YOU HAVE PREVIOUS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OR RADIO PRIOR TO JOY? “Teaching is what I do full time, and in my job I have to have a sense of humour. I have done a tiny bit of stand-up and public speaking – does that count? So, no. Other than trying to tune the car radio I had never done any on radio-related material.” WHAT DOES THE THEME ‘CHOOSE JOY’ MEAN TO YOU? “To me, JOY symbolises a unique community and culture, where everyone is accepted for who they are. Where else can you find that? Choose JOY, means support a radio station that supports people and not profit margins. It also means I can dress up as Madonna at the Radiothon Launch Party. Sad, but true.” HOW MUCH PREPARATION HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN TO PREPARE FOR THE LAUNCH PARTY AND RADIOTHON? “I’ve been practising putting on blue eyeshadow and leg warmers. I’m also getting out my ‘80s CDs and playing them as much as possible. Creating the playlists for each of my shows has been fun. I’ve been singing each song, obviously very much out of tune, just like I did in the ‘80s.” CAN YOU SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORIES FROM YOUR TIME WITH JOY? “On New Year’s Day we did a live broadcast at the Belgian Beer Garden. It was fantastic being live in front of an audience as they saw in the new year with beer, hot chips and best friends. To be a part of that was quite unique.” DID YOU HAVE ANY POSTERS OF BANDS/POPSTARS ON YOUR WALLS WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER? “It seems that I was into ABBA, Bay City Rollers and Kiss. I wish I had a Kate Bush poster like other cool kids, but alas, no.”

ANDY & ADRIAN (BREAKFAST SLOT, TUESDAY AND THURSDAY) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH JOY AND WHAT’S YOUR ROLE AT THE STATION? Andy: “My Nanna Dorothy always said I had a face for radio, so it was kinda drilled into me from a young age I should try radio for a career. Thanks Nanna!” Adrian: “Our radio careers started back in around 2003 when we did our first ever radio show on JOY 94.9. It was the

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ALAN ROSS (CAFÉ LATTE, 3-5PM SUNDAY) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH JOY AND WHAT’S YOUR ROLE AT THE STATION? “I started as phone support on Saturday afternoons for John Jennings and Brendan Castle during JOY’s first year. They made me feel very welcome as a volunteer and helped me put together a demo and gave me the opportunity to become an on air presenter. I’ve been presenting my current show Caffe` Latte since 1997. I am also on JOYPAC.” WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? DID YOU HAVE PREVIOUS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OR RADIO PRIOR TO JOY? “No radio background (hopefully you can’t tell by now!).” WHAT DOES THE THEME ‘CHOOSE JOY’ MEAN TO YOU? “Everyone has a favourite station that their radio is usually dialled to. It should be JOY! It is so rare for a city to have a 24/7 radio station for the gay and lesbian community, we should never take it for granted. It would also be great to see more members of the community ‘choose’ to volunteer for JOY (on/off air).” HOW MUCH PREPARATION HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN TO PREPARE FOR THE LAUNCH PARTY AND RADIOTHON? “Something special is planned for the two Sunday shows during Radiothon.” CAN YOU SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORIES FROM YOUR TIME WITH JOY? “Being a part of Joy has introduced me to many fantastic people over many years. It has been great witnessing some of JOY’s history and evolution from its early years and through its struggle to get its full-time licence to its city location today.” DID YOU HAVE ANY POSTERS OF BANDS/POPSTARS ON YOUR WALLS WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER? “Yes, mostly Abba and Donna Summer, and then Barbra Streisand.”

Monday midnight shift in the middle of winter. We were soon moved into a Sunday afternoon shift, where we stayed for a few years. Now we’re doing breakfast radio and lovin’ it.” WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? DID YOU HAVE PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OR RADIO PRIOR TO JOY? Andy: “We both had great film and TV experience, but we were short on radio broadcasting – thankfully JOY still took a chance on us!” Adrian: “I sold CDs at Kmart for eight years when I was a kid – does that count?” WHAT DOES THE THEME ‘CHOOSE JOY’ MEAN TO YOU? Both: “Wham! and white t-shirts.” CAN YOU SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORIES FROM YOUR TIME WITH JOY? Andy: “We’ve interviewed a few idols over the years (our idols, not necessarily Australian Idols, though we’ve interviewed countless ones of those). But embarrassing as it may seem, I almost wet my pants when I interviewed Toni Pearen. TV drama has never been the same since E Street was axed.” Adrian: “We also created a live show called Radio Husbands and took it to Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmania and ended our run at the recent Melbourne International Comedy Festival… that was a massive personal achievement for us.” DID YOU HAVE ANY POSTERS OF BANDS/POPSTARS ON YOUR WALLS WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER? Andy: “I made my mum collect posters of Cher, which I plastered on my walls. I also had a huge Matchbox car collection. I was a very confused child.” Adrian: “I’ve been obsessed with Michael Jackson for years and I’ve even got a photo of my bedroom wall from 1997 with one of his posters! RIP Michael Jackson, RIP.”

Zebra Magazine 15

1. Horse Power THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS 2. Tonight NITE JEWEL 3. Dutchies (State Of Mind Remix) SHAPESHIFTER 4. Get Low LEWIS CANCUT 5. The ArchAndroid JANELLE MONÁE 6. Die Slow (Nite Jewel Remix) HEALTH 7. OMG RUSKO 8. Easy On Yourself (The Heels Of Love Remix) MOTORCYCLE BOY 9. We Are Born SIA 10. Happiness SUPER VALUE

URBAN NEWS WITH CYCLONE

Janelle J anelle M Monáe: onáe: Space Oddity S pace O ddity

Mu icc cri Music Mu Mus critic critics tic tics i s ddon’t on’t ooften on on’ fteen aagree g e oonn ‘‘ins gre ‘instant instan in ins tantt cclas tan classics’. las lassic assic s cs’. s. s’. s’ They Th The heey w were e wi ere wildl wildly lddl ldl d y divi ddivided ivi vided ded de eedd onn Ka Kanye nyye We nnye W West’s st’ss 808 st’ 808s 08ss & Hear H ear aartb tbr brreak eak.. B efore efo re tha at,t, m muc uch iinsider nsider nsi dderr dialo di alo l ggue u Heartbreak. Before that, much dialogue centred circa centre cen treed on on EEminem, minem, min e ci em em, irca r The Sl SSlim lim Sha SShady dyy LLP. P Su SSure, re, e skills, uncomfortable thee ki kkidd hhad add ski kkiillllls kills llss, bbut ut som ssomee felt so feltltt un nco com oomfor foo tab t blee aabout abo ut his ut h polit po politically litica lit tic iicaallyy in iincorrect c rrec co cor reecct llyrics yrics yri c plu cs plus us tthe h cul he cultur cultural turral al ramifi cations However, just rram am mifi ificcat ca a ion onss ooff a white on whhite rapper. w raappe per. How Ho o eve vveerr,, ju jus uusstt aabout bo t bou eve eryy rrev re eevvview iew e er ew er iss inn lov ovee with with t Ja JJanel nel ne eelle l Mon Monáe á rig áe right ht every reviewer love Janelle now. Many ArchAndroid now w. M an ar any an aaree pproclaiming roccla lai aaimin m g The hhe Ar rchA Andr ndroid oid idd to to be an earrlyy con early onntten e der de fo de forr ‘‘album allbum alb m of of the h ye he ear’ ar . contender year’. Diddy’s Boy PPeculiarly, Pec ul arl uli arrly, y, Monáe y, Moonáe Mon á is sig signed i ned edd tto Di D ddy’s ddy ’ss Bad Bo oy won’t ‘rapping’ bbut, but u hhappily, appily app illy yyou ily ouu w wo oonn’t hea hearr hhim im ‘ra ‘rappi ppiing’ on pping’ o The Thhe ArchAndroid. Monáe’s other ally, Big Boi, cameos on the seriously funky Tightrope, which captures her flexing swagger, James Brown, not TI, stylee. In fact, ‘celebrity’ guests are few – if underground street poet Saul Williams actually counts as one. Monáe has been compared to Lady Gaga but, beyond their shared love of theatre, they’ve little in common. Gaga’s music is generic – and prosaic – but Monáe is an innovator. Her most obvious predecessor is the eccentric Andre 3000, but she’s ppre pr re eeven ev eve ven more expansive. The ArchAndroid journeys through everything: nostalgia, cabaret, swing, rock, th thr hro psychedelia, punk, funk, disco, hip hop and electro. ps psy sy sy And An A n Monáe’s songs all have a twist. The ArchAndroid is also a concept – or fantasy – album that, perhaps is more than the Detroit techno contingent, puts Afrofuturism into Fritz Lang’s proto sci-fi Metropolis. Monáe is calling it an “emotion picture”. Indeed, Monáe has dreamt up a messianic robot alter ego, Cindi Mayweather. The narrative is explained in the liner notes, yet it’s not essential to enjoying the album. The concept is reminiscent of Princess Superstar’s My Machine. But, if Superstar’s album served as a post-feminist critique of pop’s clones, then Monáe’s motivations are obscure. e. What e. Whhat at she does is generate a meta-mythology, eschewing ew wing ng ng old archetypes. Significantly, Monáe totally deconstructs ‘neo-soul’, that (limiting) preservee of of tthe he he countercultural black artist.

WHERE AND WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST SET? local was devastated “SSome “So “Some m pa pparty par rttyy at a tthe he h lo ocal caa po ppool o as a tteenager. ol een e age a r.r. I w a ddev as e ast astate tate ate ated t d when realised wanted wh whe h n I rre al sed ali alised eedd noo on oonee w ant ntteedd to hea he eeaar aany nyy of of myy old old 222-ste sttep ste hear 2-step re rrec e oord rds.” s” records.” WHAT’S YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE 12”? “DJ Mujava – Township Funk.” WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHAT YOU DO? “They’re actually pretty onto it. When I was young and listening to The Avalanches around the house they really got into that album.” WHAT DOES THE MELBOURNE CLUB SCENE NEED MOST? “A reason for people to stay out all weekend. Club music is

WITH STEVE DU

SPIT SP TS SYNDICATE YNDICATE

everywhere eve vvery rryw yyw whher hee e nnow and so over-exposed that it’s sadly lost much of signifi Other than that though, more late-night of iitss signi si gnifificcance. gni gn ca dumpling would be a good start.” dum um umpli mppli pll ng ng ho hhouses hou o FAVOURITE FAVOURITE CLUB TO PLAY? “Revolver! “Re Revol vooollve vol ver eer! Any An room, any set time.” An WHAT’S YOUR BEST ALL W T’S YOU WHA TIME GIG? “Golden “G “Go Golde Golde Go ldde d n PPlains lai la a n 2010 with the Scattermusic Scatte Sca Scat tte t rmu music i Soundsystem.” WHAT GIGS HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP? “Every Thursday at Revolver, plus Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, Renaissance Man and DJ Sega supports at the Espy!” SKREAM’S REACTION TO THE ENGLISH CABBIE GOING POSTAL PIC BY KANE HIBBERD AT WAS UNSUPRISINGLY FROWNED UPON BY SOME OF HIS FOLLOWERS… KISS PIZZA: HOME OF KISS FM.

MUPH & PLUTONIC

URBAN PROSE

Friday night isn’t the only time you can catch Chasm & Vida-Sunshyne, as the duo will hit the road through June and July, spreading a little of that summer vibe their music so easily captures, while we freeze our arses off through another Melbourne winter. The pair

Following on from 2009’s New Skool Rulez project, Multicultural Arts Victoria

This weekend it’s time for Muph & Plutonic to rock the Hi-Fi as part of Hi-Fi’s Birthday Bash. When the show was announced weeks ago, it was just Muph & Plutonic, but since then the show has taken on epic levels, as the line-up has now exploded into Muph & Plutonic, Mantra, Chasm & Vida Sunshyne and Jess Harlen. Boom, massive show. You can catch this one Friday 11 June at Hi-Fi Bar. Tickets only $18, available now via thehifi.com.au.

CHASM & VIDA-SUNSHYNE

Still, avant-garde Stit ll,l,, for for all all its ts av avant an -ga ant g rde dee flair, air, The air Thhe ArchAndroid A hAn Ar Arc hAndro hA Andro droid id stands sta taand n as nds as a popp al aalbum lbum b m and bu annd ssoo it’s weree tthose great it’ t’s accessible accessi cceess ssi s ble b – ass wer w hoo e ggre hos reeea eatt ‘‘70s 70s 70 00s opuses Bowie’s o ses op opu e (like ((llike ike kke David D David idd Bo Bowie wie’s wie ’ss Th The he Ris RRise Ri s And Fall ArchAndroid Fa l Of Fal Of Ziggy Zigg Zigg iggyy Stardust…). Star tardus ta d tt… dus …).). The hee A Ar Arch chh is is never neverr overwhelming, ove v rwh whhelm ming n , ppretentious re ent ret ntiou nt iou ouu or selfindulgent. Monáe’s heroes inndulg ind lggent ent.. Tellingly, Telll ing inngly, y, Mo n ’ss her náe he erro are canny ccan annyy pop op operators, opera op erator era tors, tors, tor s like like SSalvador lik alvado alv adoor Dali, as ad well African-American wel w ell as as the the cul cultt A frir can can-Am -Am -A A eri Am erican er can science fific ction fictio ctioon writer writ riter er Octavia Octavi Oct aviaa Butler. avi Butl uttler.r Monáe while. Monáe has as had had a bbuzz buzz zz for orr a whi w wh lee. Based le. in Hotlanta, the Kansas City native popped up on OutKast’s Idlewild ‘soundtrack’. In 2007 she issued an EP, Metropolis: The Chase – the single Many Moons received a Grammy nod – and theoretically this album (full title The ArchAndroid: Suites II And III) is the sequel. (There’s a final ‘suite’ to come.) The only criticism that could be made of The ArchAndroid is that it might have included that EP as a bonus. (But, then again, Slum Village’s major label debut was Fantastic Vol 2.) Monáe lately guested on BoB’s album – her Vampire Weekend-sampling The Kids its stand-out. Highlights on The ArchAndroid? It’s a tough call with Monáe’s wealth of musical ideas. Faster sounds like Prince’s Paisley Park posse hitting Broadway. Monáe has a go at punk rockabilly on Come Alive (The War Of The Roses). Wondaland is new wavey – like Sandii & The Sunsetz mimicked by Bat For Lashes. 57821 is pastoral soul from ‘a’ (not ‘the’) renaissance. And the Debussy-sampling Say You’ll Go is balladry as it should be: sweet, not sugary.

“

IN OTHER NEWS: THE GOVERN NM M MEEN NTT WAS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES FELL BY 12 TODAY.”

S US CU RC CIIR D@C AIID SA MA S AM MA

have commissioned a new release, this time entitled Urban Prose. A joint effort between Multicultural Arts Victoria, the Arts Centre’s Dig Deep Program and North Richmond Community Health Limited, Urban Prose combines tracks from established artists such as Mantra, Momo of Diafrix, Motley, Illy and Jess Harlen along with tracks from young musicians from Zimbabwe, Sudan and Samoa who now call Australia home. Urban Prose is available 28 June through Multicultural Arts Victoria.

With their sophomore release Exile out now, it’s time for Sydney’s Spit Syndicate to hit the road. You can catch the double-S doing the national tour thing all through July, as the Starry-Eyed Tour takes Nick Lupi and Just Enuf all over the country. Spit Syndicate will hit Melbourne on Fri 16 July when they play The Evelyn Hotel, with support from 1/6 and Tys. Tickets $15.30, available now through spitsyndicate.oztix.com.au. And th iinn the meantime, make sure you cop that new album Exile, available now through Obese.

Janelle Monáe

Mantr Mantra M

Yarra. cu Bar and Nightclub, 199 Commercial Rd, South cu ircu Circus C WHERE IS IT? Cir W WHEN IS IT? Every Saturday night. ing in between. WHAT CAN YOU HEAR? House, techno and everyth James, Daniel Oliver Le, a Virgini rs, Chape Aram an, Newm Micc N WHO PLAYS? Mic WHO Isaac Fryar, Kovic, Matt Jones, Nick Evans, ick Jones, Tom Nick in , N ing Viking, Viking w Vik d w, dre Ta Tar Tardre uh Liam Waller, Dean Benson and Pat Tassone. Buhl, Mike Mi e B Mik with a passion for a music, crowd, friends and fun. Pee WHO’S GOING? People KNOW? Nestle in as the Mama Said Crew bring TO N NEED I DO WHAT WHAT ELSE use that Melbourne has to offer, with a resident ech/ho ee eep ddeep of deep/t best of veryy best th very the give any night in Australia a run for its money. With w wo that would e p that einne-u lin DJ line-up for ngg aan eclectic sound to please the ears of those looking ering ffferi fferi offerin airss off tai tairs up ups upstai e f nt and downstairs for those who want to becom ffe diffe differe et ing di meth om som someth e oped in a warm music-driven environment. el n elo eenvelo env ooor 10pm each and every Saturday so come Doo Doors aand check out what all the fuss is about. an

will tour the entire east coast of Australia w Australia, a, stopping in Melbourne for the Hi-Fi g alongsidee Muph & Plutonic this Frida gig Friday, ay, and also playing the Palace on Friday 25 June, June, where they will support TThe he Beautiful Girls.

I GO IN GOOD OOD COMPAN COMPANY NY

So I droppedd a little something about this In Good Companyy mixtape last week week, and this wee week it’s available online for free download. I’ve had this one on repeat for th the past couple days, it’s dope. In Good Company is a combination of tracks from likeminded artists A-Diction, Syntax and Whispa, all of whom have an albu album to drop in 2010. On top of that, you also get production from Mules, Ciecmate, JSquared, ATP, Lewis One and Whisper. Plus M-Phazes, M guest spots ffrom Tommy Carson, Cherry P and Noah MC. Do your thing, get to ingoodcompany.bandcamp.com right now for the free download. ingoodcomp

COMMON POSTPONED

Just before I get outta here for another week, a quick note to let y’all know the upcoming Common and Kid Capri show, scheduled for this Saturday, has been postponed. At this stage, dates are yet to be confirmed.

Zebra Magazine 17

274 JOHN JOHNSON HNSON ST, ABBOTS TSFORD ABBOTSFORD PH: 9417 9 122 1221 21

KISS DINERS

VICTOR

BARDI & PHILLIP

SCRIBBLE

PLAYGROUND

HANGTIME @ EUROTRASH

KISS PIZZA FANS

SCRIBBLE

PLAYGROUND

MAMA SAID @ CIRCUS HANGTIME @ EUROTRASH

MAMA SAID @ CIRCUS

HANGTIME @ EUROTRASH

MAMA SAID @ CIRCUS

UNDER SUSPICION

USPII ION UNDER SUSPIC

UNDER SUSPICION

KHOKOLAT KOATED DYSFUNKTIONAL @

LOFT

DYSFUNKTIONAL @ LOFT

KHO OKO KOLLA AT KOATED @ KHOKOLAT

BAR

@ KHOKOLAT BAR

RHYTHMALISM @ FUSION

UNDER SUSPICION

RHY YTHM THMALISM @ FUSION

previews aavailable on Autech Autechre.ws. Meanwhi Meanwhile, rumours J abound oof new WITH NIC AND NH Aphex ma material in 2010, and there are a cou couple of new snip snippets on YouTube from a mid-M mid-May gig, which seem reminiscent oof Ambient It’s mid-winter in Melbourne Melbourne, e, which Works, a period many fans are happy means the usual moaning about to see him revisit after the recent the cold and staying in to look at Acid Frenzy of The Tuss an and AFX. To peopleofwallmart.com. Meanwhile, complete the trilogy, techno veteran the northern hemisphere is going Surgeon is finally making it back batshit, soaking up sunshine and to Australia. His new Fabric mix is feeling frisky after a bitch of a disappointingly underwhelming, winter. Obviously affected by this but his DJ shows have always spring fever are some of the dons impressed, so SMD still recommends of the electronix old skool, with that you poke it and see if it moves. new material by both Autechre In other local news this Saturday and Aphex Twin, and Autechre Tastes Like Techno at Deep Eleven embarking on their first Australian hosts Good Machine, Bad Machine, tour in over ten years. If you were playing techno that hates techno, there the other week, you’d have Cosmic Pizza hosts at Lucky and heard them play sounds from the recent Oversteps. They’ve already got Bimbo host Ransom, Michael Ozone, JPS, Rambl, Hysteric andm ore. new material coming out again for Speaking of Hysteric, Australia’s Move Of Ten, with some interesting collector is starting up a most OCD co disco night somewhere new Italo dis Brunswick. Following the demise in Brunswick of Gelati let’s hope this becomes a permanent fixture! With Melbourne’s dire current cclub/party scene think about events worth trying to thin mentioning is getting us depressed, music. so onto musi Music-wise, the dub/2-step hybrids 1. All About The Money with Addison keep on coming, com AGENT 86 Footcrab – UK stepper Groove’s Foot n 2. Superstitio meets Juke, ala Dance Mania. (Uncle Swerve Fantasy Mix) Kontext with Dissociate on Immerse UNKLE SWERVE electro and dubstep spend Records – ele naughty bedtime together some naught 3. I Can Change pleasantly sparse hybrid. creating a ple LCD SOUNDSYSTEM ‘post-rockers’ Trans Am release US ‘post-rock 4. Crazy Scats their latest aalbum, which started off LATEST CRAZE soundtrack to what is rumoured as a soundtra 5. Leave Me Alone After to have been Avatar.r. A fte teer bbeing eingg ein (Sultan & Ned Shepard Remix) CEDRIC GERVAIS 6. Turn It Up THE BAMBOOS 7. Scribble (Radio Edit) UNDERWORLD

Kiss FM Chart

8. Hypocrisy (John Digweed & Nick Muir Remix) ABE DUQUE 9. Shades Of Marble TRENTEMØLLER 10. Fire SHAPESHIFTER

Corner Brunswick Street & Rose Street Fitzroy VIC

Surgeon

dumped, they reworked it into their latest offering Thing – think Gary Numan, John Carpenter with shades of Joy Division, a nice listen. Ross 154’s deep house track Until My Heart Stops has been reissued by M>O>S (no, not THAT Ministry!). It’s the closest thing to classic Mr Fingers or William S that you’re gonna get, so make sure to trash that shitty MCDE mp3 and chase this down. Speaking of re-releases, check Mandre’s exotic funk electro jazz album 4. A real psychedelic funk trip, as if George Clinton went to Ibiza and hung out with some guy called Prince. More electronic funk we’re digging are the latest from US rare funk and boogie label, People’s Potential Unlimited. Recent reissues worth checkin include The Pinch and The Solicitors… With Toups in the UK and NHJ on hiss way to the US, tune in till next month thh for some hopefully exotic ‘scene reports’, more broken deadlines. So ‘til next time, if you have any comments, send us event info, demos, questions, insults or bribes – email us! suckmydisco@yahoo.com.au suc uckmy kmydis kmy disco@ di dis co@ @

DJ Def Rok

thi this th h s ttrack racck tthat’s hat hat’s at s fo forr su sure. ure. e. EEv Every veery r get OL’Skool tittimee I gge tim et ttoo pplay layy ann OL’Sk la O OL L’Sk ’Skkoool giiig I uusu ggig usually suaallly pu suall ppull uulllll itt oou out utt ffor orr tthe hhee ladies, llad la aaddies dies ieess, aand ie nndd som sso sometimes oom meet etittiime mes m eess I ppla pl play lay tthe la he he track well tra tr rackk as as w wel e l hhahahaha…” ahha aaha hahha hah aahaa…” …””

LET’S GET IT ON

(DA PRODUCER’S MPG GROOVE MIX)

IF YOU NEED A MAN BON GARCON

(Rotating Records), 1998. “I was only 16 when this track came out; it opened my eyes to UK R&B, which I became a big fan of when I started DJing. Many tracks have sampled Get Down Saturday Night by Oliver Cheatham but this does it to perfection. Real R&B club banger.”

MARVIN GAYE

(Motown), 2005. “The original track was released in 1973, but this remix was released on the Motown Remixed album. I reckon this track would get any crowd in the mood for some sugar.”

TRIUMPH WU-TANG CLAN

ONE LOVE BOB MARLEY ASCENSION MAXWELL

(Sony), 1995. “Another track from my high school days, I lost my Vs to this song. I think the experience lasted the length of this song as well – 3:21 mins. So I will never forget

(Island Records), 1977. “An absolute classic, one of the greatest tracks ever made. This is the anthem for the human race. I usually play this as my last track at many of my gigs and you get the offcut alcoholics singing along. Bob Marley is the reason why I love music so much.”

(Loud Records), 1997. “This track represents my hip hop side. It always gets my head nodding so hard, my neck hurts, absolutely massive. This is my favourite beat of all time, the RZA killed this beat.” DJ Def Rok plays RNB Superclub at Fusion at Crown this Sunday. RNB Superclub Vol 10 is out through Platinum One Entertainment/Sony.

SATURDAYS AT LUCKY COQ TAHL

GREYSKULL

MOONSHINE JEAN PAUL ASH-LEE

KODIAK KID

PACMAN

SAM MCEWIN

CRN CHAPEL & HIGH ST WINDSOR WWW.LUCKYCOQ.COM.AU

GANGA GIRI

YOUR MUSIC HAS ALWAYS HAD A STRONG INDIGENOUS HEARTBEAT, BUT IS IT YOUR OWN CULTURAL HERITAGE WHICH HAS INSPIRED YOU TO FOLLOW THIS DIRECTION OR ANOTHER MUSICAL EXPERIENCE WHICH LED YOU DOWN THIS PATH? “My motivation and inspiration has come from bringing together multicultural Australia certainly with strong Indigenous roots and band members fusing with contemporary beats and production – this has enabled us to reach a wide audience and community and to share our

interpretation of Australia now. There have been many strong influential moments such as having grown up around Yothu Yindi as my father was a photographer and sound engineer for Indigenous acts from the top end, these experiences have been influential for me as band leader...” IT ALMOST SEEMS LIKE YOUR MUSIC HAS CONNECTED MORE WITH INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCES THAN AUSTRALIAN ONES GIVEN THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU SPEND TOURING OVERSEAS – WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS ABOUT YOUR SOUND THAT TRANSLATES SO WEL L ACROSS CULTURES? “Audiences overseas are very interested about what is happening musically and culturally here in Australia and the Didjeridu is way more popular overseas than it is here, there are 26,000 Didj players in Germany alone apparently and travelling definitely makes me appreciate what we have here in Australia.” ‘BAYAMI’ IS THE FIRST TASTE OF THE GOOD VOODOO ALBUM – WHERE IS THIS TRACK COMING FROM AND WILL ITS SOUND COME AS A SURPRISE TO LONG TIME GANGA GIRI FANS? “It is a strong release with more vocal content as there is more we want to share with our audiences, ‘Bayami’ is sung by our main Indigenous song man Gumaroy Newman who is of Kamilaroi/Wakka Wakka heritage and is all about giving thanks to our creator Bayami. I think fans will love the track as we have had solid vocal tracks before, particularly with Gumaroy.” IS IT HARD TO TRANSLATE YOUR MUSIC INTO THE LIVE ARENA? OR CONVERSELY ARE YOUR TRACKS SO CUSTOM-BUILT FOR LIVE PERFORMANCE THAT

With Wit W ith tthe h soc he soccer occcer e W Wo World orld rl Cup just around the corner co cor ner, ner er, yyou’ ou vee got ou’ go to ttake the good (Nike’s corner, you’ve ep eepi pi pcA d wit d) w thee bad baa (Rogue Traders epic Ad) withh the pr ppro ovid v ing ngg Austr Au A ustr strali alil a’ss ttheme song) – and then al providing Australia’s th the h re’s re’ e’s tthe hee brilliant brir lli lliant antt in the case of the Adidas there’s Originals O Ori rigin ginals naals lss ca campa campaign m aign mpa mpaign g w gn which superimposes Daft PPunk, Pun unk, k Dav David id Beckham, id Bec B ecckha kkha haam m, Noel Gallagher, Ciara m, annndd m aand moree int nntto tthe he icon he ico con Cantina scene from more into iconic Star SSta tar W ta Wars. ars. A ar And nd eve nd even venn among ve a such exalted compan com panny, y, it’s it’s a light itit’ lilightsaber gghhhtsa ght sa wielding Snoop company,

IT’S DIFFICULT TO CAPTURE THAT ENERGY ON RECORD? G O CO ? “It is always more amazing live! Our music is all about celebration so when we play live we are bouncing off the crowd. Bayami captures some of this live spirit.” WHAT’S ON THE GANGA GIRI AGENDA UNTIL THE ALBUM DROPS, AND WHAT’S THE LONG-TERM PLAN FROM THERE? “We are off around Australia for a month promoting the release of ‘Bayami’ then it is off to Europe, USA and Canada for a two month tour then back to release Good Voodoo nationally, all very exciting really and we all feel very fortunate to be able to travel and share the magic of music and what we have in this beautiful country of ours!” GANGA GIRI PLAYS EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB SATURDAY 3 JULY. ‘BAYAMI’ (INDEPENDENT) IS OUT NOW.

JUNO DOWNLOAD CHART 11.. A Alllll A All Ab About boout ouuutt Th TThe he M Money oonnneey oney one DJ AGENT 86 2. Gangster (Trolley Snatcha remix) DREADZONE 3. Jam Hot (Tensnake Remix) JOHNNY DYNELL 4. Keep On Keepin’ On (original mix) CHOPSTICK & JOHNJON FEAT FRITZ KALKBRENNER 5. Drop Kick Bass 2’S COMPANY 6. Split The Atom (Bar 9 remix) NOISIA 7. I Am Dead (Hercules & Love Affair remix) JORI HULKKONEN FEAT JERRY VALURI

8. The Looq ART OF TONES 9. Sick Tonight (Doctor P remix) DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP 10. Scotch Hop BURNT ISLAND CASUALS (AKA HARRI & THE REVENGE)

Agent 86

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY EARLY DEADLINES SPA ofﬁces will be closed on Monday June 14. All editorial, listings and artwork is to be submitted by Friday June 11, 5pm. For bookings and queries, please call 9421 4499.

Zebra Magazine 21

WEDNESDAY

DREWFUNK & HANS DC @ REVOLVER Malaysian-born illustrator/artist Drewfunk now resides in Melbourne after deciding to quit his job as a designer to live out his passion. His latest project pairs him with DJ Hans DC in a live painting/DJing collaboration, where the two parties perform together. Drewfunk and Hans DC will be creating a visual and aural masterpiece in the back bar from 8pm.

SPEAKER CHIC @ FIRST FLOOR A tribute to the sophisticated musical tastes of Melbourne’s north side. Combining indie grooves and electro with the occasional vintage reference or post-disco classic. Free entry.

CANDY STORE @ LOUNGE Playing fine flavours of sweet house music for your late night dancing pleasure. Join resident DJ PCP plus special guests and dance yourself silly. Just do your boss a favour and take Thursday off. $5 entry.

FIVE ELEMENTS & B WIV DEECE @ MISS LIBERTINE Representing the true old school mindset, weekly selectors MzRizk, DJ Sizzle, Takaco, Ayna, Duchesz and special guests walk you through all eras of hip hop. On top of that, killer local spitters B Wiv Deece are hosting Wednesdays in June. Throughout the month, B Wiv Deece will be teaming up with some of Melbourne’s finest hip hop acts. Free entry.

THURSDAY

RING THE ALARM @ FIRST FLOOR

A night of deadly dancehall and killer reggae. Beforehand, join Cat Sweeney from Burn City Queens as she hosts jungle city dance classes. Then residents Jesse I and Major Krazy are joined by weekly guest selectors. This week’s guests are Sista Itations and Binghi Fire. From 9pm3am. Free entry.

LOVE STORY @ THE TOFF Featuring 1928 and support from rotating guests Tranter, Rad Pitt, Megawuoti and Sleeves (Strobe) playing everything you love in electro, techno, indie and disco. From 11.30pm-5am. Free entry. International and interstate guests monthly.

TROPPO LOCO & MISK @ MISS LIBERTINE A mix of global street sounds and tropical sub-sonic kookiness featuring Paz, Mr Fish, BP555, Wankel Rotary Engine, Yoink! and more. From 9pm3am in the back room. Also on is Misk, where the music floats between deep melodic tech house, groovy jazzspaced stabs, crunchy minimal techno and smooth cocktail house. Featuring resident DJs U-one and Dave Pham plus this week’s guests Raph Korman and My Friend Samuel. Free entry for both.

HANGTIME @ EUROTRASH Hangtime continues to rock the shit out of Eurotrash. Featuring a rad line-up of rotating DJs to keep you boozed and buried on the dancefloor.

FREE RANGE FUNK @ LUCKY COQ Free Range Funk DJs Who, Agent 86, Lewis CanCut and special guests tempt you into the night with their eclectic bag of treats. Expect to be charmed with delightful jazz, deep soul and funk early. Stick around after dessert and it’s fruity disco, choice house and hipster dance drops. Free entry.

VARSITY @ BIMBO DELUXE School’s out for the week and we’ve cleared out the lounge room. Teaching you a lesson in hip hop, soul and funk after school are Matt Radovich, Mr Moonshine, Just Lindsay, Tahl and Rowie.

RHYTHM-AL-ISM @ FUSION The Rhythm-al-ism team bring you the best urban jams and house grooves every week. Featuring special guest DJ Kay Z along with Damion De Silva, FMR, A-Style, K Dee and Simon Sez. From 9.30pm-4am. $15/$12 guestlist (guestlist@restless.com.au).

22 Zebra Magazine

BASS CAMP @ LOUNGE Not just a breaks night. From hip hop, electro, house and techno – Bass Camp will play anything with a bassline. This week features Mr Nice, Citizen.com and Youthful Implants. So come down for a night of party tunes from 10pm-late. $5 entry.

a stick at. Oh, and the kitchen may burn down as Herbie and Post-Percy are the evening’s master chefs.

DYSFUNKTIONAL @ LOFT

THURSDAYS @ NEW GUERNICA

Damion De Silva, Ken Walker, K-Dee, Suga and Durmy are the funkin’ five in audio control. Playing R&B, grooves and whatever funk keeps you movin’. From 9pm-late. $15/$12 guestlist (guestlist@restless.com.au).

Turns out those dudes in high school who were into music like The Smiths, The Cure and Manson learnt how to mix, typed the name Derrick Carter into Wikipedia and got themselves a residency at New Guernica. Conductors from 9pm include Negativ Magick, Post-Percy, Leslie Salvador and Bromance. Free entry.

Join the crew at the Toff with Dr Phil Smith playing no-brainers and guilty pleasures from the ‘60s/’70s/’80s/’90s/today and tomorrow. The sounds of pop, disco, rock, R&B, funk, soul and oddball covers. The party starts at 9pm and entry is always free.

3181 THURSDAYS @ REVOLVER Revolver keeps it laidback and local from 6pm. There are tunes from Hans DC and guests. Plus vintage video games, foosball, free wi-fi internet and half price meals every week from Colonel Tan’s all-new kitchen for local residents and traders. The second Thursday of each month features the designer market.

FRIDAY

BACK BACK FORWARD PUNCH PLUS WAX! & HAUL MUSIC HAUS PARTY @ REVOLVER Hot off the back of their debut EP release, Back Back Forward Punch are hitting Revolver. With brilliant production skills and a groove-laden front lady, this game-changing electro trio will pull you off the wall and on to the dancefloor. Featuring very special guests Paqman and Winterplan. Entry $10. Also on will be the second Haul Music Haus Party kickin’ off at 1am. This time Christian Vance joins his Haul Music cohort, Craig McWhinney, in a rare one-on-one. Out the back you’ll find the new night, Wax! featuring Andee Frost, Ooh Ee, Otologic and Fantastic Mr Fox. Hit up wax@revolverupstairs.com.au for hassle-free entry.

MAFIA, FLAGRANT, BONNITA & CARGO @ FIRST FLOOR Featuring hip hop heavyweight Flagrant, bona fide party starter MAFIA, sassy rude girl Bonnita, and Cargo to bring it home until dawn. With an emphasis on the old school, hip hop and R&B. $10 entry.

NEO FETISH @ ABODE A sophisticated night of fetish for the alternative community. Featuring unique deep techno and tech house sounds from resident DJ Lady J. Dress in fetish, leather, twisted or plain old alternative.

CHRISTIAN VANCE (LIVE) @ LOUNGE To celebrate the long weekend, Bambaataa presents Melbourne techno giant Christian Vance for an exclusive live set. Support from Quale’ (France), Nick Verwey, Tom Ellis and Popeye playing techno, minimal, prog and tech house. From 10pm-late. Email badrunneproductions@hotmail. com to ensure entry.

FRIDAYS @ CIRCUS Now into it’s third year and still bringing quality tunes ranging from commercial house to underground electro.

LIKE DISCO @ LA DI DA What is Like Disco? Motown and funk led us to disco and now original disco classics have been re-edited, remixed and reinvented. Disco continues to be a constant source of basslines, riffs and vocals for house and techno. So put your hands up and let your hair down as you dance to everything that’s like disco. From 7pm-dawn. $15/$10 guestlist.

FRIDAYS @ EUROTRASH Mu-gen and NXR playing party through to electro. Free entry. Open until 3am.

FRIDAYS @ NEW GUERNICA You know it’s going to be a good night when you’re at a club and the DJs work the same part-time jobs during the week as you; it means they’re probably up for getting loose just the same. At New Guernica we’ve got more Nudie Jeans folding clerks and fixie part importers than you can poke

POPROCKS @ THE TOFF

SATURDAY

CASSETTE KIDS, HOWL & KIDS OF 88 PLUS THE HOUSE DE FROST @ THE TOFF The debut album release for Cassette Kids, Nothing On TV, is out now and the Sydney four-piece are touring to celebrate. Joining Cassette Kids on tour will be Triple J Unearthed High winners Howl and New Zealand duo Kids Of 88. Tickets $12+BF through Moshtix or $15 on the door. Also on is The House De Frost, a modern day discotheque that plays true disco, not nu-disco. Helmed by the infamous Andee Frost.

MORE FIRE #111 @ DEEP 11 (MERCAT CROSS HOTEL) Australia’s longest running reggae and dancehall night keeps the fire burning as winter sets in. Residents Chant Down (Ras Crucial and Jesse I) will be joined in June by special guest selectors Nukc, Kavinda and Ali MC. Plus live vocals from Damajah. All styles of reggae and dancehall until the early morning. Doors open 10pm. $10/$8 (concession/PBS FM members).

IQ @ ABODE Styled for an intelligent, quirky crowd. DJs Scruffy, Beaker, Jon Montes and guest Queen Martine play sexy tribal, progressive and deep house beats. From 11pm-late.

MAMA SAID @ CIRCUS Nestle in as the Mama Said crew bring the very best of deep tech and house that Melbourne has to offer over two levels. Doors open at 10pm, so come and check out what all the fuss is about.

THE LATE SHOW @ REVOLVER Featuring breaks, dubstep, grime and funky in the front room. While the back room samples disco, boogie, cut-ups, house and the rest. With residents Ransom, Nick Thayer, Raph Boogie and Matt Cant along with guests Spinfx, Who and Ian Thomas. Plus Boogs and Spacey in the morning and primo rotating guests to boot.

IT’S OUR HOUSE MASK PARTY #2 @ LOUNGE Join Darren Coburn and Moose for a sensual start to your Saturday night. Then, from the Smashbang label, it’s Luke McD smashing out original left-of-centre techno/electro tracks. Finally, connecting all the dots, Nick Coleman makes his way down to keep you up until the early morn’. From 10pm-late.

UNDER SUSPICION @ BROWN ALLEY Under Suspicion is Brown Alley’s new resident Saturday night. It’s a party that represents the best of underground culture and music. Under Suspicion aims to create a new underground culture that breaks down the walls of industry trends and ignites a party experience like no other.

HOUSE PARTY @ EUROTRASH Party on two floors with 1928, Sleeves, Megawuoti, Tranter, Mu-gen and D Ceed. $10/$5 before 0pm. Email adam@eurotrashbar.com.au for birthdays – you’ll get free entry and a cheap guestlist for your friends.

DISCO SOCIAL @ FIRST FLOOR Enter Studio 393 as the disco bandits, Kano and Mr Moonshine, play all that is disco, boogie and funk.

THE TECH REPUBLIC @ POISON APPLE In the main room Boogs, T-Rek, Jen Tutty, Phil K, Ross Horkings, Tyrone and Bianca White supply the soundtrack to your evening while in the basement Gavin Keitel, Mike Callander, Lister Cooray, Bart Bara, Clint Morgan and Jamie Coyle bring you some of the finest house and techno to get your arse groovin’. $15 guestlist (inpresslist@live.com).

PLAYGROUND @ SEVEN Spread over six rooms, Playground has been showcasing R&B and hip hop for five years. Complimented by regular live acts, come and celebrate the best in urban culture that Melbourne has to offer.

SWEAT SATURDAYS @ ONESIXONE The new undisputed jump-off for lovers of sophisticated grooves, Sweat continues bringing the goodness. Featuring DJ Who, Anthony Larr, Ant J Steep and MJ. Doors open at 10pm. $15/$10 (mention Sweat).

SATURDAYS @ LUCKY COQ Spread over two levels with DJs downstairs including Pacman, Jean Paul, Sam McEwin and Greyskull playing tech house and electro. Upstairs you’ll find Kodiak Kid, Moonshine, Ash-Lee and guests playing funk. From 9pm-late. Free entry.

SATURDAYS @ THE LOFT Featuring DJs Scotty Erdos, Phil Ross, Nick James and Ontime dropping top 40 dance and house tunes in the main room and DJs Achos, G-Funk, DJ Ryza, Shaggz, Az, Dylisco and Julez in the R&B room.

SUNDAY

DETENTION CENTRE @ BILLBOARD THE VENUE The Detention Centre made headlines only a few years ago when it became Melbourne’s largest urban correctional facility. Responsible for rehabilitating thousands of offenders that fail to groove, the Detention Centre employed a range of hardline treatments from R&B and hip hop to dancehall and reggae. Featuring Damion De Silva, Ken Walker, K Dee, Brandon and Suga. $30/$20 guestlist before 10pm/$25 after on list (guestlist closes at midnight). No free list and no pre-sales, so get there early. Doors 9pm.

INFUSION @ THE ESPY A three-piece jam in the Gershwin room from one of Australia’s favourite live dance acts. The best part is that it’s completely free. Support from Kids Of 88, Ebony & Ivory. Doors 9pm.

BLACK CAESAR @ THE PENNY BLACK If you love funk bomb ditties from all eras then you’ve got to attend the only free funk bash on Queen’s Birthday eve. Mr Lob and Obliveus will be rocking it proper so expect slammin’ tracks all night long from 6-11pm.

QUEENS BIRTHDAY EVE @ LOUNGE To help celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, Lounge has organised a party that even the Queen wouldn’t forget. So come and join Muska and Tahl from Mixed Messages, Citizen. com and Snowie for an all-out night of party tunes and techno. From 10pm-very late. $10 entry.

ROYAL SECRET SUNDAYS @ FIRST FLOOR Get your groove on for the long weekend with Crystal Sol, Melbourne’s latest live house band featuring Chloe Maggs. DJs throughout the night will include Jason Serini, Mike Steva, Kris Naum and Smac. Free entry before 10pm.

INDUSTRY @ CIRCUS When you’ve stopped serving the masses, come to Circus and let loose. Great for people who love to party on a Sunday and for people who work in the industry.

SUNDAYS @ REVOLVER Revolver’s all-day electric disco party is one of the world’s most unique clubbing experiences – tight like

family and welcoming like long lost friends. Featuring Boogs, Spacey Space, Radiator and T-Rek. $15 in the morning, free entry apart from Summer Series events.

SUNDAYS @ NEW GUERNICA A mix of Little Richard slamming a piano with a pair of blue suede shoes to John Lydon pissing off his Sex Pistol fans with his new band that was just as important, along with all the good new wave, death disco, punk funk, post punk and Liverpool pop you can hear in a good night out. Free entry.

GOSSIP SUNDAYS @ LOVE MACHINE Spectacular stage shows, podiums and MCs freestyling live. Sexy, uplifting vocal house beats by Peter McNamara, Mr Stoj and Sebastian Morxx. Doors open 9pm, $15 guestlist (Gossip Sundays Facebook Group). Plus complimentary entry if you mention Zebra magazine at the door 9-11pm.

KHOKOLAT KOATED @ K BAR Khokolat like you’ve never tasted. Featuring Damion De Silva, K Dee, Jay Sin and weekly guests playing R&B sounds strictly for the urban elite. From 9.30pm-late. $15/$12 guestlist (guestlist@restless.com. au).

PARLOUR TRICKS @ RED VIOLIN Each and every Sunday, the luscious ladies of Trife Parlour Crew host a party night of hip hop, crunk and booty-shaking madness. Featuring TPC along with weekly guests on the decks, Parlour Tricks is the ultimate place to get loud, loose and boozy before the Monday morning grind. From 8pm-3am. Free Entry.

STUN!DAYS @ BLUE BAR How many DJs does it take to change a lightbulb? Come down to Blue Bar and find out. Featuring Rowie and Kate Niall mixing it up. From 6pm-1am. Free entry.

margaritas on a Monday morning. Special appearances by Percy’s colourful friends and a rabidly fun, five-hour-odd set of party dance with one of Melbourne’s most eloquently wasted madmen.

NEVER CHEER BEFORE YOU KNOW WHO’S WINNING @ REVOLVER Join hosts Mikey Cahill (Rock City/ Joey Lightbulb) and Kerrie Loveless (K-Lo) and tackle Revolver’s ultimate trivia contest. Win CDs, DVDs, movie passes and meal tickets. Register at nevercheer@ revolverupstairs.com.au to book (eight people per team) and get bonus questions. Kicks off at 7.30pm. Free entry.

CURIOUS TALES OF A VIVID LUSCIOUS @ BIMBO DELUXE DJ Who delivers surreal sass and cunning in the forms of sly, charming music and sumptuous live art. Be entertained and amazed in a world existing between couches and canvas.

UPCOMING

DUBSTEP @ FIRST FLOOR

Fresh Audio host a very special night that will cover many dubinfluenced genres. Featuring DJ Damon, Jake Savona, MC Jornick and Oakley Grenell. Support from So Fire, Papa Stylee and Bass Bin Laden. Doors open 10pm. $10 entry. Friday 18 June.

AWW SHIT @ ROXANNE PARLOUR Australia’s biggest street culture party holds it’s second installment. Hosted by Louie Knuxx, Aww Shit will feature street art along with some fantastic prizes (streetwear threads, skateboards, DVDs and more). Tunes provided by DJ Spleazy, 25th Hoodlum, Ms Butt and the infamous BTwo. Saturday 19 June.

SOUTH SIDE HUSTLE @ LUCKY COQ

SOUL SESSIONS @ THE TOFF

Pilgrim Light Circus kick the night off from 5-7pm playing live jazz and funk. Following them is Askew, Booshank, Paz, Ms Butt, Jumbo, Junji and Harry, Pete Baker and guests laying down slick tunes until 3am.

Following a successful night, the second installment of Soul Sessions at the Toff begins with a fresh new collaboration with the Oz Soul Collective movement. The Oz Soul Collective is a passionate network of Australian soul/urban artists. On Saturday 26 June catch rising stars Jess Harlen, Candice Monique and The Optics and Runforyourlife featuring Syrene, for an Oz Soul Collective line-up with super smooth vocals, undeniable talent and explosive stage presence. Tickets $15+BF from Moshtix. From 7.30-11pm.

SUNDAE SHAKE @ BIMBO DELUXE Slide into your favourite comfy couch or across the dancefloor as masters of entertainment PhatoA-Mano, Agent 86 and Tigerfunk hit you between the ears every Sunday.

MONDAY

STREET POETICS @ FIRST FLOOR

Featuring an open mic with house band Mr Savona, Tom Tom (True Live), Bop Choi (Cookin’ On Three Burners/The Optics) and rotating guests. Hosted by Mantra (Illzilla) and DJ Wasabi. If you like huge beats, scratchin’, beatbox, freestyle, breakin’ and everything hip hop then get your arse down to Street Poetics.

DIAMOND DOGS @ BIMBO DELUXE Inspired by David Bowie, Lady Noir and Kiti span the ages of rock, glam and indie. If you’re after something a little different, then look no further.

DEEP @ NEW GUERNICA An mp3 player on shuffle isn’t as entertaining as listening to someone who actually loves playing good music getting loose with you from behind the decks. Hence New Guernica’s new take on Monday evenings. Every Monday on rotation from 9pm music lovers grace our organ and play sounds from the deep to keep the weekend wrongness flowing.

TUESDAY

PERCY’S PLAYHOUSE @ NEW GUERNICA Hosted by the delightful young chap who thinks high tea means

DAIFRIX & THE PUBLIC OPINION AFRICAN ORCHESTRA @ THE CORNER Diafrix have pushed past their status as Melbourne’s ‘next big thing’ and are building a massive cult following, with a growing reputation as one of Australia’s most amazing live acts. Named as the Best Homegrown New Artist in The Age EG Awards last year, their debut album Concrete Jungle features Diafrix’s iconic concoction of hip hop, funk and African. Tickets $15+BF from Corner Box Office. Saturday 26 June.

BLAK ROOTS ALBUM LAUNCH @ THE TOFF African act Blak Roots have t aken the reggae genre in Melbourne to new heights with an exciting musical brew of driving reggae rhythms, refreshingly sweet vocals and African-inspired harmonies. Led by African vocal extraordinaire William Kadima, Blak Roots formed in early 2008 bringing together an eclectic mix of talented jazz, world and reggae artists from some of the planet’s most exotic locations. The band releases its debut album with the support of amazing local act Vox Congo performing a unique mix of Congolese gospel, rumba, soukous, zouk, reggae, aguaya and pende folk rhythms. Doors 7.30pm. $12 entry. Sunday 27 June.

Zebra Venue Guide

ABODE 374 St Kilda Rd, St Kilda 9525 5552 ALIA Level 1, 83-87 Smith St, (corner of Smith St, and Gertrude St), Fitzroy 9486 0999 ALUMBRA Shed 9, Central Pier, Docklands 9690 0883 THE APARTMENT 401-405 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 9670 4020 ATTICUS FINCH 129 Lygon St, East, Brunswick 9387 0188 THE BALCONY 422 Little Collins St, Melbourne 9642 8917 BAR 362 362 St Kilda Rd, St Kilda 9534 4666 BARAKI UPO MEZETHES 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9663 1002 BARBARA Level 1, 203 Swan St, Richmond 9429 3146 BAR OPEN 317 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 9415 9601 BERTHA BROWN 562 Flinders St, Melbourne 9629 1207 BIGMOUTH 168 Acland St, St Kilda 9534 4611 BILLBOARD 162 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 9639 4000 BIMBO DELUXE 376 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 9419 8600 BLUE BAR 330 Chapel St, Prahran 9529 6499 BLUE TILE LOUNGE 95 Smith St, Fitzroy 9417 7186 BOUTIQUE 134 Greville St, Prahran 9525 2322 BROWN ALLEY Corner of King St, and Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9670 8599 CABINET BAR & BALCONY 11 Rainbow Alley, Melbourne 9654 0915 CANARY CLUB 6 Melbourne Pl, Melbourne 9663 1983 CANVAS Level 1, 302-320 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn 9819 2200 CHAISE LOUNGE Basement, 105 Queen St, Melbourne 9670 6120 CHASERS 386 Chapel St, South Yarra 9827 7379 CIRCUS 199 Commercial Rd, South Yarra 9804 8605 CO. NIGHTCLUB Level 3, Crown Entertainment Complex, 8 Whiteman St, Southbank 9682 1888 THE CONTINENTAL HOTEL 1-21 Ocean Rd, Sorrento 5984 2201 COOKIE Level 1, Curtin House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne 9663 7660 THE CORNISH ARMS 163A Sydney Rd, Brunswick 9380 8383 CROFT INSTITUTE 21 Croft Alley (off Little Bourke St), Melbourne 9671 4399 CUSHION LOUNGE 99 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9534 7575 DECCA BAR 95 Queen St, Melbourne 9600 0900 DING DONG LOUNGE Level 1, 18 Market lane, Melbourne 9662 1020 THE DROWNING OLIVE 407-409 Swanston St, Melbourne 9650 5486 ELECTRIC LADYLAND Level 1, 265 Chapel St, Prahran 9521 5757 EMPRESS 714 Nicholson St, North Fitzroy 9489 8605 ESCOBAR 189 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 0407 845 278 ESPLANADE HOTEL 11 The Esplanade, St Kilda 9534 0211 EUROTRASH 18 Corrs Lane, Melbourne 9564 4411 EVE BAR/LOUNGE 334 City Rd, Southbank 9696 7388 E-55 55 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 9620 3899

FIRST FLOOR 393 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 9419 6380 THE FOX 351 Wellington St, Collingwood 9416 4917 FUSION Level 3, Crown Entertainment Complex, 8 Whiteman St, Southbank 9292 5750 GEORGE LANE BAR 1 George lane (off Grey St,), St Kilda 9593 8884 THE GERTRUDE HOTEL 148 Gertrude St, Fitzroy 9419 2823 GERTRUDES BROWN COUCH 30-32 Gertrude St, Fitzroy 9417 6420 GOLDEN MONKEY 389 Lonsdale St, (enter via Hardware Lane), Melbourne 9602 2055 THE GOOSE & VINYL 91-93 Flinders Lane (entrance via Duckboard Pl), Melbourne 1300 843 466 GRACE DARLING HOTEL 114 Smith St, Collingwood 9416 0055 THE GREAT BRITAIN HOTEL 447 Church St, Richmond 9429 5066 THE HAIRY CANARY 226 Little Collins St, Melbourne 9654 2471 HORSE BAZAAR 397 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9670 2329 HOTEL BARKLY 109 Barkly St, St Kilda 9525 3332 INFLATION 60 King St, Melbourne 9614 6122 KATUK 517a Chapel St, South Yarra 9827 9004 KHOKOLAT BAR 43 Hardware Lane, Melbourne 9642 1442 LA DI DA 577 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 9670 7680 LA LA LAND 134 Chapel St, Windsor 9533 8972 LAIKA 9 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9534 0002 THE LOFT Level 2, 117 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9650 3388 LONG BAR 60 Lygon St, Carlton 9380 4004 LOOP 19-23 Meyers Pl, Melbourne 9654 0500 LOUNGE 243 Swanston St, Melbourne 9663 2916 LOVE MACHINE Little Chapel St (Corner Malvern Rd), Sth Yarra 9533 8837 LUCKY COQ 179 Chapel St, Prahran 9525 1288 MADAME BRUSSELS 63 Bourke St, Melbourne 9662 2775 MAEVE FOX 472 Church St, Richmond 9427 1233 THE MARKET 143 Commercial Rd, South Yarra 9826 0933 MATCH BAR & GRILL 249 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9654 6522 MANCHURIA 7 Waratah Pl, Melbourne 9663 1997 MERCAT CROSS HOTEL 456 Queen St, Melbourne 9348 9998 METROPOL 60 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9534 5999 MISS LIBERTINE 34 Franklin St, Melbourne 9663 6855 MISTY PLACE 3-5 Hosier lane, Melbourne 9663 9202 MOTHER’S MILK (BRIGHTON) 287 Bay St, Brighton 9596 9470 MOTHER’S MILK (WINDSOR) 17 Chapel St, Windsor 9521 4119 NASH HOTEL 344 Victoria St, Richmond 9428 3418 NEVERMIND 336 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn NEVERWHERE BAR 185 Smith St, Fitzroy 0422 560 890 NEW GUERNICA Level 2, Hub Arcade, 318 Little Collins St, Melbourne 9650 4464 THE NIGHT CAT 141 JohnSt,on St, Fitzroy 9417 0900 THE NIGHT OWL Basement, 33 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 9614 2777 NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB 301 High St, Northcote 9489 3917

ONESIXONE 161 High St, Prahran 9533 8433 THE ORDER OF MELBOURNE Level 2, 401 Swanston St, Melbourne 9663 6707 PALACE THEATRE 20 Bourke St, Melbourne 9663 4288 PLATFORM ONE ne Vault 7/8 Banana Alley, Melbourne 9620 7080 THE POST OFFICE HOTEL 90 Swan St, Richmond 9428 6674 PRINCE OF WALES 29 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9536 1166 PUBLIC BAR 238 Victoria St, North Melbourne 9329 6522 THE PURPLE EMERALD 191 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 9650 7753 Q BAR 257 Toorak Rd, South Yarra 9804 7800 RANDY DRAGON Basement, 313a Flinders Lane, Melbourne 9629 9141 RED HUMMINGBIRD 246 Russell St, Melbourne 9654 2192 RED BENNIES Level 1, 371-373 Chapel St, South Yarra RED LOVE MUSICROOM Level 1, 401 Swanston St, Melbourne 9639 3722 RED VIOLIN 1/231 Bourke St, Melbourne 0411 423 245 REVOLVER 229 Chapel St, Prahran 9521 5985 ROBARTA 109 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9534 9041 ROBOT 12 Bligh Pl, Melbourne 9620 3646 ROOFTOP BAR Level 7, Curtin House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne 9663 3596 ROOM 680 Level 1, 680 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn 9818 0680 ROXANNE PARLOUR 2/3 Coverlid Pl, Melbourne 9663 1018 RUBY’S LOUNGE 1648 Burwood Highway, Belgrave 9754 7445 SAGI BAR 57 High St, Northcote 9489 9983 THE SAINT 54 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9593 8333 SECTION 8 27-29 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne 0422 972 656 SEVEN 52 Albert Rd, South Melbourne 9690 7877 SOFTBELLY BAR 367 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 0410 329 129 SORRY GRANDMA! 590 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 9670 7493 STAR BAR 160 Clarendon St, South Melbourne 9810 9954 SYN BAR Level 1, 163 Russell St, Melbourne 9663 8990 TERMINUS HOTEL 605 Victoria St, Abbotsford 9427 0615 TOFF IN TOWN Level 2, Curtin House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne 9639 8770 TRAMP 14 King St, Melbourne TRANSIT Federation Square, Princes Bridge (corner Northbank), Melbourne 9654 8808 TRANSPORT PUBLIC BAR Federation Square, corner Flinders St and Swanston St, Melbourne 9654 8808 TRYST 3 Wilson St, South Yarra 9827 5533 TYRANNY OF DISTANCE 147 Union St, Windsor 9525 1005 VELOUR 121 Flinders lane, Melbourne 9663 5589 VIOLET TEARS 192 Barkly St, St Kilda 9534 4445 WAH WAH LOUNGE 185 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 9654 5793 WHITE BAR 129 Fitzroy St, St Kilda 9593 9077 WINDSOR CASTLE 89 Albert St, Windsor 9525 0239 WORKSHOP Level 1, 413 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 9326 4365 YAK 150 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 9654 6699

THE ARSE END HEADS UP Ramms

tein

D-Bridge Agent 86

Yolanda Be Cool

ALL ABOUT THE S SA ALLES ES

Is it overkill if we big-up Agent 86 again? Last week we noted his success on the Juno charts and now he’s toppe pp d their charttss with his All About The Money single i l . Sk Skaciidd llives!

NOW THAT T ’S A BOX SET! Rammstein’s Rammstein ’s Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da box set comes with handcuffs, lubricant and an array of dildos… Ummm, m dildos live! m,

BUT DO YOU SPEAK SPANISH? Yolanda Be Cool’s We No Speak Americano is not only number four in the mainstream Australian charts but has broken out in Spain where it has hit number two on the iTunes sales chart. The Doop revival lives!

ARSE LICKS

RIP Books

BOOKS DOWN We are sad to hear that Greville Street Books tore is closing end of June. They gave us 19 years of madly specialist books in design, graff and archit ecture. And, it was the only place to find books on niche dance genres like Washington gogo, punk funk, Detroit techno, etc. We blame the iPad.

Christina Aguilera

The A-Team

CHRISTINA AGUILERA Too late she jumps on the electro bandwagon, with only her Le Tigre/Peaches collabo My Girls being any good. But we did like Warren The Ape’s comment about her at the MTV Movie Awards: “If Christina Aguilera is bionic, I wanna do the robot.”

REMAKES The A-Team, really? That’s the best you can offer us? And they wonder why the US summer box office is dying in the arse…

Zebra Magazine 23

ROCKIN’ IN THE FREE WORLD LITTLE MORE THAN AN EXPERIMENT WHEN IT BEGAN IN 2005, SBS’ ROCKWIZ IS NOW IN ITS FIFTH YEAR OF EXISTENCE. MATT O’NEILL SPOKE WITH CO-CREATOR BRIAN NANKERVIS AND HOST JULIA ZEMIRO ABOUT THE SHOW, CURRENTLY ON ITS DEBUT AUSTRALIAN TOUR.

here is something greatly affirming about the idiosyncratic career arc of RocKwiz. A locally produced and developed musically themed game show helmed and developed by veterans of the Australian entertainment industry on a shoe-string budget, RocKwiz has demonstrated, over the course of its five year development, that independent local content is still entitled to a place in the hearts and, much more surprisingly, on the increasingly internationally defined television screens of Australian audiences. “There’s definitely an element of surprise regarding our success,” explains long-term host Julia Zemiro. “If only because – it’s SBS. There’s still a very popular perception that few people know about SBS or that it’s difficult to find SBS on your television

THIS WEEK IN

ARTS

WEDNESDAY 9 One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Jack Nicholson in stellar form as a man who chooses the comfort of an institution over jail. Absolute classic of a film. ACMI, 7pm.

THURSDAY 10 Le Petite Mort: The Orgasm – a “seductive, skillful study of sex and science”, and a “scandalous story and song”... These people sure do like the letter ‘s’. Cabaret with more than a touch of raunch’n’sexuality from Isabel Hertaeg. Butterfly Club until 13 June. The Other World – exhibition of photography by Leigh Backhouse exploring nocturnal natural landscapes and unpopulated public spaces. Kick Gallery, Collingwood until 26 June. The Sentimental Engine Slayer – feature film debut by Mars Volta main man Omar Rodríguez-López. Depending on what you read (interview Vs Film Carew) it’s either the best thing, like, ever or somewhat self-indulgent. ACMI (tonight: 7.30pm) until 13 June.

FRIDAY 11 A Kind Of Alaska – opening night of Winterfall Theatre Company’s production of Harold Pinter’s play about sleeping sickness (A Kind Of Alaska). The Theatre Husk, Northcote until 4 July. IRENE Underground Arts Festival – three-day festival celebrating underground arts culture, with a particular focus on street art. IRENE, Brunswick until 13 June. The Wolf Man – 1941 classic from the Universal vaults, starring the legendary Béla Lugosi as a gypsy who curses a Welshman to become hairy and lairy once a full moon strikes. ACMI, 9.30pm.

SATURDAY 12 Jumuwarnti (Many Waterholes) – debut solo Victorian exhibition by Kimberley artist Lloyd Kwilla, son of Billy Thomas. Contains 12 paintings exploring the theme of jumuwarnti. Accompanying the exhibition will be works by fellow Kimberley artist Freddie Timms. Salt Contemporary Art, Queenscliff until 30 June.

A Loving Friend – filmmaker Kerry Negara travels to Bali to document the boys who worked for and lived with Australian artist – and alleged pedophile – Donald Friend in the 1960s. Negara will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. ACMI, 4pm. Volver – one of Spanish cinemagod Pedro Almódovar’s more recent works. Starring his muse Penélope Cruz, Volver is a cinematic love note to the women that have shaped the director’s life. World Movies Channel (Foxtel), 8.30pm, as part of their 25 Filmmakers You Must See Before You Die series.

SUNDAY 13 BBB – opening night of new exhibition of vibrant and moody photographic works by Andrew Babarczy, Bronwen Hyde and Elaine Batton. Obscura Gallery until 7 July. Project Seven: Infinite Space – final night of the Melbourne Ballet Company-produced programme of four works, including choreographer Simon Hoy’s Infinite Space, and a further two world premieres by Hoy and one by Robery Kelly. Chapel Off Chapel.

MONDAY 14 Public Holiday – since we know you will all have spent the past evening/ this morning huddled around the television set watching Australia’s debut FIFA World Cup match, may we suggest a mid-afternoon picnic in the park with a little light reading, followed by a BBQ at home with some serious Red Dead Redemption action? Of course, if it’s raining, you might want to head along to the Titanic Exhibition at the Museum. Or track down the 15-disc FIFA World Cup DVD Collection: 1930-2006 behemoth. At 90 minutes a disc, that will keep you going until...

TUESDAY 15 Rooms – exhibition of works by PhD student Simone Hine spanning performance, video, and installation, investigating stillness and contemporary art and cinema. Fortyfive downstairs until 3 July.

screen – particularly given we’re not the only music show out there. There is a perception that, because we don’t have the national-strength support of Spicks And Specks or the ABC, we don’t have a true national following but, when you have 20,000 people on your website, you realise there’s a massive audience out there.” The greatest demonstrator of the show’s unprecedented success has been their invitation to actually tour Australia. A relatively small scale and intimate endeavour originally, RocKwiz in now on a national tour across Australia and performing everywhere from capital cities like Sydney and Brisbane to obscure regional areas like Queensland’s Gladstone. A concentrated effort to deliver something special to fans of the production, Zemiro and Nankervis are adamant that each show will offer something unique – with none of the shows actually being broadcast or televised. “It’s been great doing promotion for the tour, actually, because it’s getting me very excited about the event,” Zemiro enthuses of the show’s debut tour. “It crystallises exactly what the event will be in your mind, having to talk about it so much, I get to picture everything that will happen and everyone that will be involved and, in a way, it makes it more real to me. We’ve had so many people write to us and ask if we were ever going to come to Sydney or Brisbane – let alone somewhere like Darwin – so it’s been

great to deliver something to fans and reward their attention, so to speak.” “We’re doing some really regional locations in places like Queensland,” Nankervis enthuses. “The idea was to do the big cities and try and do as many of the regional locations as we could because we know those people in those locations don’t always get everything – and in some instances don’t even get SBS. We actually offered tickets to people on our mailing list before we allowed them to be sold anywhere else. We’ve wanted to tour right from the start – you do a season in the Espy, you can only fit 300 people, but there’s 20,000 people who want to see the show.” “We have flirted with the idea of the big show before,” Zemiro finishes. “We’ve done a couple of bigger shows here in Melbourne and, every time we do one, you can just see people grow a little bit bigger on stage. It’s different because, with filming, you control how it works in a way but, with the theatre, you have to be there at eight o’clock and there’s a lead up to the actual event – it just makes things that much more electric when you finally do hit the stage. We’re all very excited about the shows and we’re very much looking forward to them.” WHAT: RocKwiz National Tour WHERE & WHEN: Palais Theatre Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 June

BUY A PIECE OF ROCK’N’ROLL HISTORY Rock Prints is back for 2010, held at 374 Gallery, Northcote Friday 18 to Sunday 20 June. This is pretty much your best chance of getting your mitts on vintage posters by the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Nick Cave, as well as newer art featuring the likes of Muse, Kings Of Leon, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. In addition to prints, there will also be original pieces on sale. Head to myspace.com/ rocknrollprints to whet your appetite.

THE DEAD ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Some heavy subject matter, this Topsy. It tells the story of a Coney Island fun park elephant abused by her minders and then condemned to die by electrocution (in front of an audience) for reasons that don’t make sense. Not exactly the sort of material you’d expect from a comedy-musical-play, but that’s what the award winning Here Theatre have done, and they’ll perform Kit Lazaroo’s play at fortyfive downstairs Thursday 1 to Sunday 11 July. Tickets through the venue.

DARK IS THE NIGHT WHEN LEGENDARY POST-MODERN CHOREOGRAPHER DEBORAH HAY VISITED AUSTRALIA EARLIER THIS YEAR SHE SET IN TRAIN A PROCESS THAT WILL CULMINATE NEXT WEEK WITH IN THE DARK. SOLO DANCER FIONA BRYANT SHINES A LIGHT AND PAUL RANSOM PEERS INTO THE SPACE.

e suis l’espace où je suis. I am the space where I am. That’s what it means; and for Melbourne-based dancer Fiona Bryant it’s all about presence in the now. “It’s something we can never take for granted as dancers,” she says. “It’s not something that’s easily taught and we usually have to spend our whole career learning about it.” It is an entirely apt reflection from a young dancer who was selected to attend a ten-day intensive in country NSW with American choreographer and theorist Deborah Hay back in the summer. Hay is revered in dance circles for her non-traditional approach to both choreography and performance and her now famous solo performance projects certainly aim to disrupt the norm. As one of four performers, (along with Atlanta Eke, Luke George, and Carlee Mellow), Fiona Bryant is certainly in awe of her mentor. “When she walks into a room she has this sense of command,” she says. “She’s in her early 70s now and for someone like myself, and I’m about the age she was when she started back in the early ’60s, it’s really quite inspiring. The great thing

about her is that she is still curious, still learning.” In The Dark is a great example of the Hay oeuvre. It started with each dancer being given a ‘score’ of 15 instructions. A series of workshops followed but then the artists were left to rehearse the piece daily for three months leading up to performance. The pieces, of course, are massively varied; four solo dances springing from the same source, each growing in their own way. The result is an organic blend of set choreography and individual expression. “In terms of the dancer’s adaptation it really is about them reading what they will into Deborah’s instructions,” Bryant adds. “There’s an enormous possibility; especially with this In The Dark season where there are four of us presenting the same solo; ‘same’ meaning only that we were handed the same score on a piece of paper… I don’t even know what the other guys are doing.” As someone who has always specialised in solo performance, Fiona Bryant is used to the relative freedom of dancing alone. “You certainly don’t have to worry about what you do impacting on another dancer but

then again if you’re given a very rigid choreography… there perhaps isn’t much room to manoeuvre.” Ironically, one of the freedoms that Deborah Hay’s approach allows stems from her insistence on daily rehearsal. Upfront it sounds like a huge, grinding commitment but “it’s not about going to the studio for hours each day, but about a kind of accumulation, rather than the traditional way of rehearsing things for hours on end and pulling it all apart.” However, for audiences the results are often confronting. “It challenges a lot of the contemporary dance conventions that we might be used to seeing in

Melbourne,” Bryant says, recalling how audiences walked out when Hay last presented work here in 2008. “Every day we go into the studio we’re trying to undo all our training … and we’re re-learning how to dance.” If Bryant is worried about this, she isn’t saying. “Deborah will say she gets quite a thrill out of people who either walk out or fall asleep because she knows that she’s doing something that’s not quite standard or comfortable.” WHAT: In The Dark WHERE & WHEN: Dancehouse Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 June

THEY SHOOT THE UNSUCCESSFUL, DON’T THEY?

C U LT U R A L

WITH REBECCA COOK

THE LATEST RED STITCH OFFERING EXPLODES THE MYTH OF HR ‘SCIENCE’. DAVID WHITELEY TALKS PAUL RANSOM THROUGH THE SATIRICAL MINEFIELD OF CORPORATE SURVIVAL AND CUTTING EDGE THEATRE. he Grönholm Method?” a friend of mine chirped. “Isn’t that some Swedish acting thing?”

“T

Ah, the irony. The Grönholm Method is neither a Scandinavian theatre technique nor a pseudo scientific way of personality profiling. Rather, it is the English language title of Spanish writer Jordi Galcerán Ferrer’s newly translated black comedy about ‘extreme HR’. The dimly familiar and possibly credible ‘method’ is all part of the trick. For an actor, it represents a somewhat apt challenge. El Metodo, as it is in Spanish, is a play about how far we are prepared to go to get the gig. Set in the world of faceless corporations it takes the job interview and turns it into a process of Darwinian elimination. In doing so it poses the obvious question: How low will we go? “It’s kinda like a cross between Twelve Angry Men and Big Brother,” quips David Whiteley of Red Stitch fame. Whiteley will be starring as Frank in the Nadia Tass-directed, English language world premiere of Ferrer’s chillingly funny drill down into the faux forensics of HR speak. “This play is like a Rubik’s Cube,” he adds. “It’s a puzzle. But what happens once that puzzle is resolved?” The Grönholm Method is classic Red Stitch material; contemporary, edgy, and gritty with ideas, and Whiteley is clearly enjoying the layers. “It’s a play about what the demands of corporate life have made people become in order to appear to be successful. It seems to be the argument of the play that achieving this success creates a new person; and that the person who is the least constrained by ethics can get through to the final round.” This is not to say that the play is all bleak analysis. “It’s really a very

funny play,” Whiteley notes. “It’s kind of a take on the whole reality TV thing.” But of course it’s also a big ethical/ emotional flag. It’s about success. It’s about worthiness. “It’s fascinating the lengths that people will go to find the right candidate,” Whiteley observes, “and also what people are prepared to let happen to them in order to succeed.” As someone used to working in the highly competitive (and did we say viciously bitchy?) world of acting, David Whiteley knows a thing or two about fighting for roles. When poked on the fun topic of auditioning, he duly expands. “Absolutely. Particularly the sort of atmospheres and unspoken things that happen when you audition; the kind of lengths that people go to get the part and ways that you think about the other actors and the way you behave in that situation. Y’know, it can be quite soul destroying.” Meanwhile, lurking in the background is the corrosive ubiquity of purely economic thinking. Productivity as paramount objective. “What does this do to the people who choose that life?” Whiteley wonders aloud. “How is it diminishing our notion of life? I know it sounds like we’ve heard all this before but it’s true; what kind of society are we creating when it’s all about how much you earn and how many hours you can work?” The answer, it seems, is cruel. “The person who is the true emblem of executive power is the person who has no compassion.” Fortunately, fate has been kinder to David Whiteley and his fellow ensemble members at Red Stitch, as their production of The Grönholm Method is being directed by Nadia Tass, whose CV includes the 1986 film Malcolm and staged versions of Louis Nowra’s much loved Cosi.

“Quite apart from her stature she’s wonderful to work with,” Whiteley says. “She’s very precise; she doesn’t cut corners; so we’re working real hard.” Indeed it was Tass who, having first encountered the play in Greek, stumbled upon a new English translation in New York. “It’s quite enjoyable to be able to adapt the play, in a sense to help create the play for an English speaking audience,” Whiteley elaborates. “There are still failures in translation. You’ve still got elements of Spanish sentence construction which you have to smooth over; and then on top of that you’ve also got the New York-ified version which we also have to try and steer clear of.”

CRINGE

“It’s a way of giving some power back to the actors,” he explains. “Because the actor’s life is quite lonely. Y’know, you turn up, you do what you’re told, you shut up, and you eat when they feed you. The great thing about Red Stitch is that whatever else you do you can come back here and it’s like family.” And you wouldn’t kill your brother just to get the gig, would you? WHAT: The Grönholm Method WHERE & WHEN: Red Stitch Actors Theatre until Thursday 10 July

It seems like only a couple of months ago Melburnians were so inspired by political activism they were donning brown shirt-pant combinations, drinking chai lattes, and dreaming of agit prop theatre in a psycho-sexual way. The inspiration was the major controversy of last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) – The 10 Conditions Of Love – a film about the Uigher people that was condemned by the Chinese Government. With Festival Director Richard Moore playing a fuzzy-headed David to the Chinese Government’s Goliath, Melburnians stood proud and, let’s face it, a little surprised when Moore told them he wasn’t going to pull the film despite high level pressure and high tech attacks on the festival’s website. The controversy and Moore’s stoic response made last year’s MIFF a massively popular success. MIFF was so happy with 2009’s ‘States of Dissent’ stream of the programme that it has decided to run the stream again this year with several films that are likely to stir up trouble. Having conquered the dragon, Moore has set himself a much more aggressive combatant – nothing less than North Korea – by programming The Red Chapel, a Danish documentary that purports to have taken a comedy group to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange in order to gain greater access into the country. (Cringe is not sure which part of that synopsis is the strangest.) There’ll also be a documentary that tells both sides of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. Now that the website has been fortified and Moore is

GUERRILLA DANCE PIECES AT FED SQUARE

For Red Stitch it’s just another intriguing theatrical challenge. “We like to deal in new work because it’s exciting; you’re dealing with the best and the latest in new writers.”

The 2010 Australian Dance Awards take place on Sunday 20 June and in the lead up, a series of dusk performances are being held in Federation Square as part of a new event called Dance Card. Choreographed by four young artists in response to the series’ title Guerrilla, talent includes VCA graduate Emiline Forster, Chunky Move tour alumnus Amber Haines, Gareth Hart, and Amy Macpherson, co-director of Phantom Limbs. These performances take place from 6pm Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 June. More info at australiandanceawards.net.au.

This commitment lends itself to adventure but also entails a level of gatekeeping shrewdness. Although Red Stitch is a company run by the actors it is not an open door. It is with no small nod to irony that they talk up the ‘quality’ line. Indeed, of the differences between stage and screen, David Whiteley attests, “Writing in theatre, by definition, has to be better because a) you’re asking people to sit in the dark for two hours in possibly quite cramped conditions, and b) you have nothing but a big empty space. Film and TV writers have ways of distracting audiences that playwrights don’t.” Given the sizzling dark satire of El Metodo, Whiteley may well be thanking his lucky stars that he doesn’t have to compete to the death for parts with Red Stitch. It’s one of the obvious advantages of being an actors’ ensemble company.

keeping his eyes out for FSB agents instead, Chinese films are back in the festival including the biggest Oriental box office hit of 2009, City Of Life And Death by Chuan Lu. Other highlights include a tribute to one of the most subversive and political (can’t help ourselves now we’re onto a good thing) filmmakers in the US, Joe Dante (Gremlins); a truly disturbing-looking film (think League Of Gentlemen in midAmerica) by cult director Harmony Korine called Trash Humpers; and Roman Polanski’s new offering The Ghost Writer. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist And Rebel continues the theme in the Documentary spotlight, while Videocracy, an exposé of the sleazy Italian TV industry, which is controlled by media mogul and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is also likely to raise some eyebrows and quicken the pulse of our Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith – if he doesn’t have palpitations over North Korea already. The MIFF ‘Backbeat’ spotlight this year includes Lemmy crushing all myths, rumours and speculation of hard-core rocker Lemmy, frontman of Motörhead; Villalobos, an earthumping portrait of German-Chilean DJ Ricardo Villalobos; and When You’re Strange, a look at the late ’60s and early ’70s rock band The Doors, narrated by Johnny Depp. A wanted ad on Twitter back in April indicated that MIFF was on the hunt for a new Artistic Director for 2011, so it seems this might be Moore’s last year at the helm, but by all accounts he’ll be departing on an absolute high.

SHOT SNAP-

CONTINUUM, 2009 (OIL, GRAPHITE, AND WAX ON LINEN) CAROLYN FELS Displaying as part of an exhibition of works by Carolyn Fels at Anna Pappas Gallery, Prahran.

THERE’S DAGGERS IN MEN’S SMILES If you’ve ever been sitting through a performance of Macbeth and thought to yourself, ‘This play needs more men’, then Manbeth is catering to your desires. A “fast, furious, and physical” update on the classic Bard’s tale from Band Of Creatures and Optic Nerve Theatre, this all-male production hits fortyfive downstairs Thursday 15 July and runs until Sunday 1 August. Book tickets through the venue.

IT’S ALL VERY REAL FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS GOT A GLIMPSE OF OMAR RODRÍGUEZ-LÓPEZ’S ALMOST MYTHICAL FILMS. HE OPENS UP TO SCOTT FITZSIMONS ABOUT THE SENTIMENTAL ENGINE SLAYER, AND THE INSPIRATION OF THE DEAD.

here are few artists of our current generation that compare to the calibre and work-rate of Omar Rodríguez-López. Best known as a member for post-hardcore legends At The Drive-In and then as the general of experimental rock juggernaut The Mars Volta, his solo work has been the focus recently. Releasing a phenomenal seven or eight albums a year when he can, there’s a lot more that are sitting in an office waiting for a moment he says, for years fans have known about the existence of films. In 2004, he released part one of a two-part soundtrack for A Manual Dexterity (recorded/filmed 2001), his first solo album, but neither the second album of film has ever surfaced for various reasons. The Sentimental Engine Slayer (filmed in El Paso in 2007) is the world’s first look. “It just sort of happened, by way of the people I was working with, the crew,” says Rodríguez-López. “I call it the ‘crew mutiny’. I had made two other films and made this film, none of them with the intention of what happens after, all of them for the love of the process and for doing it. “Eventually the crew sat me down and said, ‘We respect your point of view and we respect your philosophy behind doing things and we think they’re beautiful. But at the same time we helped you make these films, we put a lot of hard work into it so it’s bigger than you, these films, and we want your permission to pull it out of the closet and send it to the film festivals’. So I said ‘Okay,’ not thinking anything of it and next thing I know we’re going to Rotterdam and Tribeca and Australia and Japan.” Rodríguez-López wrote, directed, produced (along with ex-Red Hot Chili Pepper and regular collaborator John Frusciante), composed the soundtrack and starred in the film, and though he expresses a hesitance about his film projects becoming public, he’s more jovial than he’s ever been in past talks to Front Row. “We were just finishing another film

when the theme came up, so it was a way of just shutting them up so they would get back to work… I think the difficult part comes later when you realise, yes, that an audience sits before it and has its own ideas about your film.” The Sentimental Engine Slayer is typically Omar. Multiple storylines all at once, and not only does he cut between narratives, but also plays with the timeline within each scene as well. The soundtrack becomes a vital part in following the story, sonic motifs return the viewer to earlier moments and piece the film together. “There was music that I imagined for the film, and there was music I played for the actors. I said, ‘This is the feeling of your character and this is the feeling of your character and this is the feeling of El Paso’ and then making the film of course generates a tone, generates a sound in your mind, generates a feeling the same way that we can smell our life.” Perhaps the most surprising thing about the film is the fact that Rodríguez-López stars as the troubled and nihilistic-leaning Barlam, adding another element to his already full workload. “With the film it turns into a thing that if you don’t do it, then who? And if not now, when?” he says, emphasising the questions. “You know how it can happen, a human being, you can sit there and say, ‘I want, I want, I want,’ [and] until the day you just do, then you sit there saying, ‘I want’,” he chuckles. “So at some day at some moment you decide to just do, and any obstacle that gets in your way, well you treat it like a dagger pointed at your heart. “For example, I never wanted to act in the film. But the main actor pulled out a week before because they offered him a gig where they can pay him, and so at that moment I either play a character that I know very well and that I’ve written or the film doesn’t happen. I decide making the film happen over my own fear and my own ego. The same thing with

anything else… I make it happen.” Remarkably, he goes on to talk of Jeremy Ward, a very close friend and Mars Volta collaborator who died in 2003, when discussing the autobiographical nature of the film. “If I dream one night that I can fly and I turn into a dragon, if I make a film like that – I lived it, you know? I lived my dream, it happened. It’s a part of my existence, so therefore it’s a part of some sort of waking reality, whether I’m awake in this reality where we speak in the phone right now, or if I’m awake in the other reality to see my dead grandfather and to see Jeremy, neither of them are more real. But either way I pull from one and take it to other. “The dead people who were with me are still with me. In The Sentimental Engine Slayer, Barlam the main character, he has to burn a body and he goes to the desert and he burns the body. So when I have to sit there and look at the bag, I’m burning Jeremy’s clothes. I kept Jeremy’s clothes since the day that I packed his room because it was too painful for his parents to go into his room and pack away all his things. I packed away all his things and for some strange reason, without knowing it, I kept all of his clothes. What I didn’t realise was that I’d have my own moment with him years later in this film. “So in the bags, I put his clothes there and then this moment when I look at the fire, or Barlam looks at the fire, this moment is real and it’s filled with truth. It’s not just a man looking at a fake bag, there’s reality always in every aspect of the film. You give it something personal in any way shape or form that you can, and for me there I said goodbye to Jeremy’s clothes and what was left of the exterior world to him.” WHAT: The Sentimental Engine Slayer WHERE & WHEN: ACMI. this Thursday to Sunday

SET

WITH ANDREW MAST There must be at least one Republican shill hack out there closely watching the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to see if they can whip up a made-for-cable-drama out of the disaster. They’d call it Apalachicola, set in the Florida oyster hamlet of the same name, a handful of 40-something white fishermen band together to bring Tim McGraw to town to headline an anti-Obama tea party. It would be Glen Beck’s second favourite show for sure (he hosts his fave show). It would have to work because the same formula has already worked for Treme (from 14 July, Showcase), ex-journo David Simon’s HBO series about New Orleans post-Katrina. With its first ten-episode season almost over in the US, this latest show by the man who gave us The Wire and Generation Kill is only similar to its predecessors in one way: it’s really, really good. Well, okay, the similarities don’t totally end there because Simon buffers himself with proven collaborators. Treme stars

actors familiar to Simonites such as Wendell Pierce (Bunk in The Wire) and Clarke Peters (Freamon in The Wire). Wire addicts will also want to look out for casual cameos by Jim True-Frost (The Wire’s endearing Prezbo), musician/actor Steve Earle (Walon in The Wire, and in Treme acting alongside his son Justin Townes Earle) and Anwar Glover (Slim in The Wire and ex member of totally awesome Washington go go outfit The Backyard Band). Treme’s episodes are also guided by Simon alumni, with the first episode directed by former Polish ‘arthouse’ director Agnieszka Holland – having experienced a break out hit with Europa Europa in 1990, her star was fading until Simon threw her The Wire and made her one of the most in-demand TV directors today. And the list goes on: Brad Anderson (who also worked with Simon in his early days of Homicide: Life On The Streets); Simon Cellan Jones (who previously worked on one of the greatest UK series of all time Our Friends In The North); Ernest R Dickerson; Anthony Hemingway and Jim McKay. Between working on The

Wire and returning to the fold for Treme, these directors have churned out quality episodic televisual treats with the likes of Dexter, True Blood, Breaking Bad, Big Love – so we’re talking good shit here. On Treme, they help create the finest show about a music culture that has ever reached TV. Half a dozen stories interweave as we witness the sheer trauma that was the aftermath of Katrina. Simon not only looks at the big picture (how federal, state and local governments failed so badly in an emergency and then took advantage of it as election fodder) but also takes us up close to the little things (keeping a small business running, replacing items that were destroyed). It’s harsh and it’s often devastating (there is a scene in later episodes involving a holding lot for unclaimed bodies that will take away any hope you may have left for humanity). But the New Orleans’ suburb of Treme is a musicians’ haunt and the camera lingers on performers of all levels. Don’t wait five years to discover this like most of us did with The Wire.

SOMETHING ROTTO SET TO TAKE OVER THE ISLAND OF ROTTNEST FOR ITS SECOND YEAR RUNNING, ROTTOFEST DIRECTOR RONAN FREEBURN TELLS MATTHEW HOGAN HOW THEY’VE EXPANDED THE FILM COMPETITIONS THIS YEAR.

ast year, the inaugural Rottofest took place and created a creative and laid-back hub for filmmakers, comedians and bands to share their craft with each other and an enthusiastic audience. Taking place on the Western Australian slice of paradise that is Rottnest Island, which is a mere short ferry trip from Fremantle, Rottofest returns this August with an expanded festival programme calling out to comedy filmmakers across the country. Festival director Ronan Freeburn explains their search for Australia’s funniest filmmakers. “Last year we put out a call for best WA-based comedy films and we received between 60 and 70 entries,” he recalls. “From that, we chose 18 of the best West Australian based comedy short films that were produced in the last year. We screened them at the festival. The feedback from people that went to Rottnest Island and watched the films was really positive. Quite a few were really surprised at the quality that was actually being produced here in

WA. Following that, some of the more well known filmmakers who got some press in the last six months, including [Cashed Up Bogans director] Jules Duncan, and Vincenzo Perrella and Dan Osborn, who did This Is Perth, they all had films screen at the festival last year and basically it seems like we gave these filmmakers a place to get together and show their films to comedy audiences.”

Freeburn says Rottofest will offer exposure to a new audience for every film that gets through. “Whereby filmmakers might be submitting to other film festivals, those film festivals actually cater to different genres, this film festival is all about promoting comedy,” he says. “This is a place where comedy filmmakers can have their work appreciated by comedy audiences.””

This year, in addition to a short film competition for films three to 15 minutes long, they’ll have a separate competition dedicated to skits up to three minutes long. Both are open to filmmakers Australia wide. “This year we had a little more time up our sleeves so we thought, ‘Let’s step up the film side of things a bit more and actually do a national call for short films’,” says Freeburn. “As far as we’re aware, it’s the first national skit comedy competition in the Australia. Every filmmaker, comedian, or person on the street always has an idea for a skit, but they’ve got no outlet for it besides filming it and whacking it up on YouTube.”

Freeburn says his festival is one of the most unique currently on offer. “Considering you’re on this island and the main focus is comedy, it brings out a feel-good vibe to the people coming across, the people screening, it doesn’t have that aggressive feel that many other festivals have and it’s largely arts based so it’s not really a culture of getting completely boozed.” Entries for the short film competition must be received by 30 July. Head to rottofest.com.au for further details. WHAT: Rottofest WHERE & WHEN: Rottnest Island, WA Friday 27 to Sunday 29 August

THERE IS NO PLAN B.

GET YOUR ACTION FIX

EXPLODING INTO CINEMAS THIS THURSDAY

GIVEAWAY!

ADAM HILLS TO RECORD NEW LIVE DVD

Circus Oz are gearing up for their return to Melbourne stages next week, particularly so as they’ll be debuting six new faces: two acrobats, a vocalist, and three multi-instrumentalists. With two hours of circus power planned, featuring foot juggling, rola bola, double trapeze, and ‘Chinese pole’, their season runs Wednesday 16 June to Sunday 11 July. Thanks to Circus Oz we’ve got two double passes to opening night to giveaway. For your chance to win one email giveaways@inpress. com.au with ‘CIRCUS OZ’ in the subject line.

It seems you can’t get enough of him, Melbourne. After a spectacular Comedy Festival that found all his shows sold-out, featuring a hilarious performance arc of raising money so an audience member would strip down naked in Federation Square (that’s the short version of the story), Adam Hills – the face of Spicks And Specks – is returning to the stage in July to record his favourite stand-up show for a DVD. The comedian will record Inflatable live at the Athenaeum Theatre Wednesday 7 to Saturday 10 July. Tickets through Ticketekmaster.

REVOLVER MAKES WAY FOR BMX BANDITS Come Wednesday 23 June, Revolver Upstairs is gonna look a little different. How so? Well, as they’ll be hosting the Revolver Upstairs 2010 BMX Spectacular the owners have decided to clear out the usual décor of tables and chairs and whatnot, and install a half pipe. Some of the country’s best riders will be taking part, with DJs providing the soundtrack. Head to revolverupstairs.com.au for more info.

BUTTERFLIES AND WORKPLACE HURRICANES From the company behind Catalpa and BODYBAG, !tch Productions, comes The Butterfly Catcher, a play with pretty imagery (butterflies are lovely, aren’t, they?) and a bit of a punch. A darkly comic look at the nature of power and politics in the workplace, we’re sure The Butterfly Catcher will resonate well with Inpress readers. Play runs until Sunday 27 June at The Mechanic’s Institute Performing Arts Centre, Brunswick. Head to itchproductions.com.au for more info.

FILM ADAM HILLS

CAREW

WITH ANTHONY CAREW When television’s least-charismatic wordsmith, Carrie Bradshaw, is turning in her latest column, the Sex And The City 2 camera cuts in to reveal its title: “Marriage and the Terrible Two’s”. With that rogue, unnecessary apostrophe lingering, making your old pal Film Carew [sic] to his stomach, the question begged: is this some withering commentary on Bradshaw as character, suggesting that, published author though she may be, she isn’t entirely in command of the written word? Or are the people making this film themselves semi-literate? There’s plenty of evidence to suggest the latter. 146 minutes of it. A laughless, charmless, witless trudge into an aspirational parade of acquisitional middle-age brand whoring, Sex And The City 2 is the kind of film that finds a product for every occasion; that bides its time in the dull moments between unveiling diamond rings and flat-screen televisions. In five of the most dramatically-inert minutes ever committed to celluloid, we’re taken on an extensive tour of a “hotel”; assumedly gawping in wide-eyed wonder at the idiotic set someone’s built in an ersatz appropriation of luxury. I kept wondering whether I’d have to leave a tip. If the first Sex And The City movie was offensive in its vile, reprehensible, utterly racist ways (Magical Negro alert!), this time things’re just depressing; the cinematic equivalent of a dead woman walking. Its women, once – in a decades-ago land of television – frothy and funny, are now charmless hags, broad caricatures of the caricatures they once were. They rather resemble drag-queens: the most inessential, cosmetic, societally-applied notions of ‘femininity’ amplified into a grotesque pantomime. Given it was written by – and, possibly, for – gay men, such delusional notions of ‘sisterhood’ seem direly predictable; there a misogynist tone in its every supposed ‘celebration’ of being a Woman. In turn, the unending barrage of bad reviews that’ve greeted the film seem fuelled by a culturally-sanctioned form of gender-hatred; these characters, and this film, not merely characters and film, but representations of entire (reprehensible) womankind. And they’re written from a starklyconservative place; this a far-right tale of despicably grotesque wealth flying in the face of this annoying

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recession; in which married women are consigned to lives of jobless penance whilst their husbands gawp at fertile young nannies’ breasts heaving in slow-motion; wherein the sole single woman left is reduced to a mere whore, grovelling for condoms in the dirt, desperately trying to keep her wizened vagina lubricated, making a series of sexual come-ons and “puns” so brutally obvious and incredibly unfunny that they turn the fine art of flirting into the entreaties of a stripclub bouncer. Yes, I’m talking about Samantha; that once-powerful PR bitch who is systematically stripped of all her power, until she becomes but a walking cunt. She and the gals wing their way (with multiple “magic carpet ride” references!) off to Abu Dhabi – or, at the very least, a set left over from an Arabian Nights telemovie – carting several camel-loads of baggage, both actual and metaphorical. Presented with a fleet of cars, a cabal of willing man-slaves, and a $22,000-a-night hotel suite gratis, the Fab Four act as if the entire UAE has been handed to them on a platter. These are the most vulgar American tourists ever authored: ones refusing to bend to local custom, working under the egotistical assumption that entire countries and cultures should bow down to their beliefs. Suck it Middle Eastern prudes!: no entire-way-of-life must get in the way of our bestest gal-pals having their cans hanging out in hideous, over-priced, eyesore rags. Sex And The City 2 tries to suggest some sort of cross-cultural understanding – underneath the oppressive yokes of their unfabulous burqas, Islamic women are materialist fashion drones just like us! – but it needn’t bother: seeing one conservative religious group criticising another speaks volumes. 45365 is an observational, impressionist portrait of small-town America; its narrative-free, fly-onthe-wall approach looking at the rituals – football games, town fairs, homecoming dances, teen vandalisms, local elections, court dates – of some nowherseville in the Midwest. Mistaking tedium for thoughtfulness and shots of passing trains for artfulness, the Ross brothers debut documentary feature feels like an ambitious home-video, and little more.

THE MONO-MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: CINEMA’S ICONIC LONERS By John Eagle 1. Alain Delon in Le Samourai (1967) 2. Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952) 3. Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976) 4. Alan Ladd in Shane (1952) 5. Clint Eastwood in A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) 6. Steve McQueen in Bullitt (1976) 7. Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Make A Film. Make A Difference.

MAFMAD (Make A Film. Make A Difference.) is looking for short film ideas from people under 25. The subject of your film should be the distraction for drivers caused by passengers having â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a party in the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Two winners will each receive $20,000 to bring their idea to the screen and a $5000 cash prize*. Entries close 25 June 2010, so get your ideas down on paper and get moving. To enter visit www.mafmad.com.au *subject to terms and conditions

A WEEKEND WITH IRENE

TRAILER

CINEMA WITH GUY DAVIS

FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NEVER BEEN TO AN ARTS FESTIVAL IN AN OLD LINGERIE FACTORY, NOW’S YOUR CHANCE. TONY MCMAHON PREPARES FOR THE IRENE UNDERGROUND ARTS FESTIVAL WITH CURATOR DANIEL LYNCH.

he IRENE Underground Arts Festival is a celebration of non-conventional art including aerosol, stencils, paste-ups and music, held in the glorious surrounds of a former Brunswick lingerie factory that is now home to studios for more than 35 diverse artists. Festival curator Daniel Lynch says that the impetus for the event grew out of a desire to engage with the broader community. “I guess we came up with the idea about a year ago. It sort of occurred to us that we had an opportunity to branch out and make the wider artistic community and the community in general aware of the facilities that are available at Irene. And not just the artistic network, but also the musical side of things: there’s a recording studio here and we regularly have gigs. Then there’s the activism side of things: there are a number or organisations like Food Not Bombs that work out of IRENE. We just really wanted to extend the network and get the conversation happening, and we saw that the way to do that was to have some kind of event.” As well as attempting to combat

negative stereotyping of street and aerosol art, the IRENE Underground Arts Festival is also a celebration of the extraordinarily exciting crosspollination of ideas that occurs as a result of having so many artists in the one spot. “A lot of the artists we’ve invited in have been talking with the more aerosol-based artists. It’s been interesting for me to see that the aerosol guys have been learning stuff from the more paste-up-oriented guys. It’s really good for some of these guys to paint alongside more established artists, but the established artists are also really excited to see this new breed of artist coming through and bringing new stuff to the scene. People are just really going for it and trying different stuff and it’s really great to see all this communication between all these artworks.” When it comes to nominating highlights of the festival, Lynch is naturally reluctant to narrow it down to only a handful. When Front Row presses him, however, he nominates the following. “The launch party on Friday night,

TRASH

I think that will be a really good time to come along. That’s when we’re really going to try and show off the space and make it the star of the night. We’re flying a DJ down from Sydney. We’re putting together a little bit of a film night as well: different graffiti and street art and activist films that we really like. So that will wind down the Friday night. The Saturday night is going to be absolutely awesome. Food Not Bombs are going to be doing the catering for us; there’s a real good cross-pollination of artists and DJs coming down from New South

Wales as well as local music. On the Saturday as well we’ll be doing guided tours of the space so that we can explain the different artists and what they’re doing and what they’re about. On the Sunday, there’s open studios and an art auction and workshops and forums and a sketch party where we all sit down and have like a creative drawing party.” WHAT: IRENE Underground Arts Festival WHERE & WHEN: IRENE, Brunswick this Friday to Sunday

Racism, bigotry and prejudice recently ran amok through those dank, musty corners of the internet populated by geeky types (like yours truly) far too interested in superheroes making their way to the big screen, all thanks to Donald Glover, the funny, charismatic star of the ace new US sitcom Community (it’s on that GO! channel, and YOU SHOULD WATCH IT) letting it slip that he’d be interested in playing Spider-Man in the upcoming teen-friendly ‘reboot’ of the webslinger franchise. Not such a big deal, I hear you mutter (no, really, I hear you). Well, except for the fact that Glover is AfricanAmerican, and Spidey has been white-bread Peter Parker under his mask even since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko conjured up the character in 1962. Bear in mind at this point that Glover hasn’t said he’s seriously in the running for the role or even that he’s landed an audition but just that he’d be keen to show the studio, the producers, and director Marc Webb what he’s got to offer. Naturally enough, the fanboy district of the internet went a little batshit crazy. Some usually level-headed people got a bit overheated in their insistence that Spider-Man remain white, some traditionally smart and switched-on people got a bit self-righteous in their belief that uproar over a potential change to the character equalled a general disdain for dark skin. Personally speaking, I believe

crying racism is ill-judged in this circumstance, if only because some very vocal comic-book devotees tend to have a conniption when ANY aspect of their beloved heroes are altered, be it costume, capability, or origin story. Sure, you’re gonna have the lunatic fringe that comes out with all manner of wrongheaded shit when a black guy like Michael Clarke Duncan is cast as a white villain like the Kingpin in Daredevil but those people are idiots and most folks know better than to give them the time of day. I’m not a die-hard Spider-Man fan, so I’m probably not as invested in any casting choices as some other people are, but I could dig Glover in the role. Physically he looks the part – based on what I’ve seen on Community, he’s lean, athletic, and graceful. He’s certainly got the quick wit that would give the character his wise-cracking edge. And Glover freely admits he’s a bit of a dork, something necessary for bringing Spidey’s secret identity of awkward Peter Parker to life. All of this is far more important than the colour of his skin. To wrap up, here’s this edition’s Reason To Upgrade To Blu-ray If You Haven’t Already: the crimson majesty of Ninja Assassin, a gallons-of-gore martial arts killfest starring absurdly muscular Korean pop star Rain as a ninja who turned his back on the life of an assassin, only to find himself having to murder the fuck out of a bunch of bad guys in various graphic ways. Watch it and you’ll feel like you’ve bathed in a vat of O Positive.

HISTORY MAKERS Local metal crew BERSERKERFOX will not be repeating themselves, guitarist ASHISH KUMAR tells SAMUEL J FELL.

BUCK FIZZ From Bodyjar’s end to the debut release for new outfit COLA WARS, frontman CAM BAINES has pulled his punk hat down tight, he tells SAMUEL J FELL.

McRae left the band shortly after the recording of this record, to be replaced by Max Bonazzelli, as Kumar tells.

elbourne is a veritable hotbed of metal – it seeps from the city’s pores layering the streets in a pungent grime, everyone to a man revelling in the underground joy of it all. Metal bands both old and new trawl our fair town, pub to club and back again, extolling the virtues of the hard and the heavy, garnering fans and giving back tenfold in bass-heavy thunder rolls. No exception are Berserkerfox, a quintet intent on carrying the torch, their own brand of melodic death their watchword, their insanityridden live show their trademark. “Our other guitarist, Anannd [Thambirajah], and I met at uni in 2005,” says guitarist Ashish Kumar. “That’s where it began, and as two guitarists do, we sat down and started playing Metallica. Then after a couple of months, it was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this riff, can you play a solo over it?’. So that’s how it started and then around a year later we thought, ‘Lets start a band’.” And so Berserkerfox were born – bringing in vocalist Daniel Mozumder, bassist Liam McRae and Rory O’Donnell on the tubs, and the journey began. “We were just trying to get tight,” Kumar tells on what the group’s early expectations were. “So we played as many shows as we could, and lucky for us, we’ve been able to keep the band together for this long.”

“But as we went on, we played a few shows together, did a few supports, cashed in a few favours to get some shows… then Cola Wars became our main focus, pretty much as Bodyjar were finishing up.”

“Liam is an extremely talented guitarist, but he chose to play bass in this band because as a great musician, he just wants to be able to play all these instruments,” he says. “But he’d made it clear from the start he wasn’t always going to be here, so after we recorded the album, he said it was time for him to go. So we looked for bass players and Max, who’s from Italy, emailed us and said he was coming to Melbourne and asked if he could join the band. So he sent us videos of him playing along to our songs… we were pretty impressed.” No doubt, although Bonazzelli has some big shoes to fill, as only one listen to History.Altar. Ashes shows. This is a record the band have been working towards for some time, and for them, it’s all about getting Berserkerfox’s name known. “This was definitely about getting our sound out there, putting our signature tinge in the music like we do,” Kumar concurs. “Basically, we wanted kick-arse artwork, very characteristic production and we just wanted our music to be heard.” Be heard it will, I have no doubt, although as Kumar goes on to say, History. Altar.Ashes was written and recorded around a year ago, and so now the band are writing in a different vein, such is their wont to get out there and to evolve. “We’re writing completely different stuff at the moment,” he says. “Our next album will be very different to this one, but I think that’s growth. No one wants to see a band put out the same record over and over again.” Still, it’s early days for Berserkerfox, the sky is the limit, the pungent metal grime they exude so far, their muse. No doubt we’ll be seeing, and indeed hearing, a lot more of these five cats.

Since those early days then, it’s been all about the live show. Berserkerfox have made a name for themselves around Melbourne town as a group to watch – they’ve honed their live chops, laid them to tape with debut EP King Kong On Crack (’09), and honed their live chops some more, which brings them to now, about to release their debut LP, History.Altar.Ashes. Before we get to this, however, it should be mentioned that bassist Liam

WHO: Berserkerfox WHAT: History.Altar.Ashes (Ovis Records) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, the Arthouse

As Bodyjar were ending their run, Cola Wars were in the studio, putting together what’s become Invader, the fruits of their work and time together thus far. It says a lot about their commitment to the band, and indeed Baines’ and Wakker’s commitment to music in general, that they have something out so soon after finishing with a band that was their focus for so long. As such, Invader is a labour of love, something they’ve all obviously been wanting for some time. “We tried to make a big, fuckin’ rock record,” Baines says on what Cola Wars’ motivation was when they went in to record.

rom the demise of the old, perhaps like a phoenix from the ashes, new things emerge to take their place. Last September a staple of Australia’s music scene, pop punkers Bodyjar, called it quits. Over a career spanning 15 years, the quartet endeared themselves to many and so to see them finally hang up their axes and call it day is almost to see the end of an era. However, from this, founding member Cam Baines and drummer Shane Wakker have arisen and begun something new, something they call Cola Wars – indeed, their phoenix. “We really didn’t realise the weight of what we’d done with Bodyjar until we got to that last show,” ruminates Baines on his past, firstly. “It was 15 years of hard work, but I think it was the right thing to do, to finish it up.” This they did, quite obviously, but what’s come of it is something that’s been ticking away behind the scenes for some time. “Bodyjar had this little jam room set up in an old school classroom, we had 24 hour access to it, and so me and [drummer Shane] Wakker thought, ‘When Bodyjar aren’t jamming, we could do something else in there’,” Baines tells on the formation of Cola Wars. “So it just started as a side project, and then developed into a fully blown thing,” he adds. Baines and Wakker enlisted bassist Mark Brunott and guitarist Mike Juler and – bam! – they had their line-up. “I think it was about 2006 [that we started writing songs], and it was just us jamming. We never took it too seriously, it was just something to do on the side,” Baines tells.

“We had the songs and we wanted to make it eclectic, so each song has it’s own little slot on the record, and we wanted to have bigger guitars and some pointy shit going on, not as slick as Bodyjar,” he goes on. “It’s all stripped back and it’s a bit rawer. Basically, we wanted to make it different to Bodyjar, a bit harder hitting, a bit more depth to it.” Cola Wars are definitely a change from what Baines and Wakker were doing with Bodyjar, but whether they’ve achieved the depth they were after or whether Invader is as raw as they wanted it to be is a matter of opinion. “I think lyrically there’s more depth in there because we’ve had so much time,” Baines counters. “I guess our MO was to make a really noisy, punk rock record, you know?” Invader is definitely a noisy punk rock record, of that there is no doubt, and after even a cursory listen, you can tell this is four guys stretching out on some material where there’s no expectation, no pressure. Despite the background of Baines and Wakker, this is new and different, so as the sand continues to slip through the hourglass, more power to them, I say, them and their phoenix. WHO: Cola Wars WHAT: Invader (out 18 June through Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 18 June, Northcote Social Club

ISSUE 1126 - WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE, 2010

TOURS

TTT

PRESENTS

Ash August 4 Billboard

THIS WEEK INTERNATIONAL STRUNG OUT, THE LOVED ONES: Tonight Barwon Club (Geelong), Thursday, Hi-Fi Bar STORY OF THE YEAR: Friday Billboard The Venue THE VIBRATORS: Sunday Arthouse

NATIONAL

PRINCESS ONE POINT FIVE: Thursday Builder’s Arms MUPH & PLUTONIC: Friday Hi-Fi Bar GYROSCOPE: Friday Forum DAPPLED CITIES: Friday Prince Bandroom FIRE! SANTA ROSA, FIRE!: Friday Workers Club THE PARADISE MOTEL: Friday Thornbury Theatre IAN MOSS: Friday Bennetts Lane; Saturday Brighton Beach Hotel; Sunday Palais (Hepburn Springs) THE BREAK: Friday the Studio (Geelong); Saturday East Brunswick Club; Sunday Espy DEAD LETTER CHORUS: Saturday Northcote Social Club CASSETTE KIDS: Saturday Toff In Town DARYL BRAITHWAITE: Sunday Espy GOSTELERADIO: Sunday Toff In Town CHILDREN COLLIDE: Sunday Hi-Fi Bar ROCKWIZ TOUR: Tuesday Palais

GIG OF THE WEEK WINTER PARTY SATURDAY, EMPRESS With 50-degree days and that frickin’ drought a distant memory (remember when it never rained? Ever?), we here at Inpress are bracing ourselves for a good ol’ fashioned Melbourne winter. Which is why we’re so excited about the welcome-to-winter party the Empress is throwing this Saturday. The pub is promising to turn itself into a winter wonderland (we’re picturing plenty of cotton wool and Styrofoam) as it hosts 11 bands across two stages from 6.30pm. Highlights include the “Krautpop-no-pop love-in” that is Rat vs Possum vs Pets With Pets vs TTT, both RvP and TTT still having plenty of favourable words written about their excellent debut albums (Daughter Of Sunshine and Lands, respectively). Keep an eye out for ex-Love Is Science Fiction visual art project Promised Land early, inimitable Brissie warbler Ed Guglielmino, the deliciously weird Bum Creek and Panel Of Judges (spruiking a new song or two), while a headlining set from never-dull no wavers Chrome Dome should ensure things never get too warm and rosy. Bring on the mulled wine.

Wagons pic by Lou Lou Nutt

Dear Mr Wagons, In light of my attendance at a few of your most recent performances, I’ve reached the conclusion that we could become the fastest of friends. You are fully the type of bloke I see myself drinking beer and laughing with. Don’t freak out, this is not a come-on. I am a red-blooded lady-loving man like yourself, though I doubt you have as many problems trapping them as I do.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL YUSUF: June 16, 18 Rod Laver WANDA JACKSON: June 18 Corner Hotel HERE WE GO MAGIC: June 18 East Brunswick Club ALESTORM: June 19 Corner Hotel MILES AWAY, BREAK EVEN: June 19 Arthouse, 20 Phoenix Youth Centre (all ages) PAUL DI’ANNO: June 24 Espy TRAIN: June 25 Forum MARK LANEGAN: July 7 Corner Hotel; 9 Espy Gershwin Room THE SOFT PACK: July 8 East Brunswick Club BOYS LIKE GIRLS: July 14 (U18), 15 (18+) Hi-Fi Bar SNFU: July 15 Arthouse KEVIN RUDOLF: July 16 Palace STRIKE ANYWHERE: July 16, 17 Evelyn KASABIAN: July 23 Festival Hall SCISSOR SISTERS: July 26 Festival Hall THE TING TINGS: July 26 Palace GRIZZLY BEAR: July 27 Palais ALBERTA CROSS: July 27 Corner Hotel FOALS: July 27 Hi-Fi Bar BAND OF HORSES: July 27 Palace MUMFORD & SONS: July 28 Palace Theatre 30 SECONDS TO MARS: July 28 Festival Hall BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB: July 28, 31 Billboard

MUPH & PLUTONIC: June 11 Hi-Fi Bar xx PURPLE SNEAKERS: June 11 Miss Libertine KATIE NOONAN & THE CAPTAINS: June 18 Hi-Fi Bar THE MEANIES: June 19 Hi-Fi Bar TUMBLEWEED: June 25 Hi-Fi Bar OPERATOR PLEASE: June 25 Corner Hotel DEEZ NUTS: June 26, 27 (under 18) Hi-Fi Bar KARNIVOOL: July 6 Hi-Fi Bar THE SOFT PACK: July 8 East Brunswick Club SALLY SELTMANN: July 10 Corner Hotel THE WILSON PICKERS: July 15, National Hotel (Geelong); 16, East Brunswick Club; 17 Lot 19 (Castlemaine) KASABIAN: July 23 Festival Hall GRIZZLY BEAR: July 27 Palais ALBERTA CROSS: July 27 Corner Hotel; 28, 29 Palace THE MAGIC NUMBERS: July 28 Corner Hotel YEASAYER: July 29 Prince Bandroom SURFER BLOOD: July 30 Corner Hotel MIDLAKE: August 1, 2 Prince Bandroom ASH, WE ARE SCIENTISTS, LAST DINOSAURS: August 4 Billboard The Venue LAURA MARLING: August 4, 5 Hi-Fi Bar SLASH: August 11 Festival Hall CORDRAZINE: August 28 East Brunswick Hotel SARAH BLASKO: October 7 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 8 Palais; 9 Meeniyan Town Hall

I reached this decision on my birthday. You were playing first-up at the Byron Bay Bluesfest and I made all my friends get up early to come see your show. You were wearing desert boots – which I have recently acquired for my own feet – and when you sang Love Me Like I Love You I really felt it. You signed it on my tea towel after the show – “Henry Wagons loves you” – and though you probably don’t remember that, I do. I sometimes pin that towel to my shirt like a bib and wear it around town. I know it sounds a bit weird but it puts a smile on my face all the same.

LIVE: REVIEWS WAGONS CORNER HOTEL

Do you need a new band member? I don’t really play anything but I have a strong back and could lug gear or something. I’d happily do it for free entry to your shows and unlimited access to you rider. What kind of beer do you have? I’m not really that fussy but that South Australian stuff gives me gas. I wouldn’t expect you’d go for any SA gear anyway after your Eagle On The Hill anecdote. Every time you tell that story I laugh and I laugh… oh, the memories. When you kind of apologised to The Eagle On The Hill at your last show, that was nice but, I thought, a little unnecessary. I wouldn’t give a rat’s what those churchies think anyway and you’ve always got friends here in Melbourne. So what do you think? I’m pretty much available to start this friend business immediately. I’m eagerly awaiting your response. Sincerely… No. Truly… No. Lovingly Yours, Samson McDougall

live@inpress.com.au xx

THE MAGIC NUMBERS: July 28 Corner Hotel LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, HOT CHIP: July 29 Festival Hall YEASAYER: July 29 Prince Bandroom THE STROKES: July 30 Festival Hall HELLYEAH: July 30 Billboard The Venue RICHARD ASHCROFT & THE UNITED NATIONS OF SOUND: July 30 Palace SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS: August 1 Northcote Social Club MIDLAKE: August 1, 2 Prince Bandroom FRIGHTENED RABBITS: August 2 Hi-Fi Bar THE DRUMS, THE MOTIFS: August 2 East Brunswick Club FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: August 2, 3 Festival Hall GOLDFRAPP: August 3 Palace Theatre MIIKE SNOW: August 3 Hi-Fi Bar BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE: August 3 Corner Hotel TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: August 3 Billboard The Venue ASH, WE ARE SCIENTISTS: August 4 Billboard The Venue KATE NASH: August 4 Corner Hotel LAURA MARLING: August 4, 5 Hi-Fi Bar BAND OF SKULLS: August 4 East Brunswick Club JONSI: August 4 Palace FANFARLO: August 5 Northcote Social Club PASSION PIT: August 5 Prince Bandroom TESTAMENT: August 6 Billboard SLASH: August 11 Festival Hall CHRISTIAN DEATH: August 14, Corner Hotel EELS: August 15 Palace SENSES FAIL: August 21 day (under-18), evening (18+) Hi-Fi Bar NAPALM DEATH: September 5 Hi-Fi Bar MAYHEM: September 23 Hi-Fi Bar CYPRESS HILL: September 23 Palace ASLAN: September 30, October 1 Clifton Hill Hotel ALEXISONFIRE: October 10 Palace RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: October 24 Palais PAUL WELLER: October 26, 27 Forum CELTIC WOMAN: October 30, 31 Palais Theatre ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK: November 5 State Theatre Dappled Cities Friday Prince Bandroom

LEONARD COHEN: November 12, 13 Rod Laver Arena METALLICA: November 18, 20 Rod Laver Arena BLONDIE, THE PRETENDERS: December 1 Palais; 4 Rochford Wines JACK JOHNSON: December 8 Sidney Myer Music Bowl MUSE: December 14, 15 Rod Laver Arena MICHAEL BUBLÉ: Feb 22, 23, 25 Rod Laver Arena

NATIONAL

ROCKWIZ TOUR: June 16 Palais MACHINE TRANSLATIONS: June 16 Northcote Social Club ROSS WILSON: July 16 Sandbelt Live PRINCESS ONE POINT FIVE: June 17, 24 Builder’s Arms KATIE NOONAN & THE CAPTAINS: June 18 Hi-Fi Bar DAN SULTAN: June 18 Forum COLA WARS: June 18 Northcote Social Club DAN PARSONS: June 19 Wesley Ann; 20 Builder’s Arms GUY SEBASTIAN: June 18 Palms At Crown 1927: June 19 Forum THE MEANIES: June 19 Hi-Fi Bar AINSLIE WILLS: June 25 Palais (Hepburn Springs) REBECCA BARNARD: June 25 Thornbury Theatre; 29 Palais; July 3 Bennetts Lane THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: June 25 Palace TUMBLEWEED: June 25 Hi-Fi Bar

JONESEZ: June 25 Birmingham OPERATOR PLEASE: June 25 Corner Hotel 50 LIONS: June 25 Arthouse DEEZ NUTS: June 26, 27 (under 18) Hi-Fi Bar Inferno (Traralgon); 25 Palace Theatre COMMUNITY CUP with THE LIVING END, NICK BARKER & THE REPTILES, THE BLACKEYED SUSANS and LITTLE FREDDY & THE POPS: June 27 Elsternwick Park THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT: June 30 Ferntree Gully Hotel, July 1 Bended Elbow (Geelong), 2 Inferno (Traralgon), 3 Pier Live, 4 Commercial Hotel (South Morang) ASH GRUNWALD: July 3 Corner Hotel; 4 Ruby’s Lounge; 18 The Loft (Warrnambool) THE AMITY AFFLICTION: July 3 Hi-Fi Bar (under-18s arvo, over-18s evening); 5 Karova Lounge (Ballarat - all-ages); 6 Kangaroo Flats Leisure Centre (Bendigo all-ages) GANGA GIRI: July 3 East Brunswick Club REGURGITATOR: July 4 East Brunswick Club KARNIVOOL: July 6 Hi-Fi Bar THIRSTY MERC: July 7 Karova Lounge; 8 Bended Elbow; 9 Corner Hotel; 23 Westernport Hotel. RICHARD IN YOUR MIND: July 9 Northcote Social Club THE LITTLE STEVIES, BEN WELLS & THE MIDDLE NAMES: July 9 East Brunswick Club THE DEAD SALESMEN: July 10 East Brunswick Club SALLY SELTMANN: July 10 Corner Hotel MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE: July 10, 17, 23 Spenserlive THE WILSON PICKERS: July 15, National Hotel (Geelong); 16, East Brunswick Club; 17 Lot 19 (Castlemaine) ERNEST ELLIS: July 16 Northcote Social Club THE PEACENIX: July 16 Sandbelt Live FABULOUS DIAMONDS: July 17 the Toff In Town THE NATION BLUE, A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: July 17 East Brunswick Club DARREN HANLON: August 20 Thornbury Theatre VIOLENT SOHO: July 22 Northcote Social Club RICK PRICE: July 22 Wellers (Kangaroo Ground), 23 Thornbury Theatre, 24 Palais (Hepburn Springs) HARD-ONS: July 23 East Brunswick Club LOWRIDER: July 23 Westernport Hotel (Phillip Island); 24 Corner Hotel THE TEMPER TRAP: July 24 Festival Hall YOUNG HERETICS: July 24 Northcote Social Club DUTCH TILDERS BENEFIT CONCERT with DUTCH TILDERS, CHAIN, KEVIN BORICH EXPRESS, CHRIS FINNEN, STEVE RUSSELL, GEOFF ACHISON, LLOYD SPIEGEL, STEVE PAGE and JEANNIE LUSHES: July 29 Thornbury Theatre SUPER WILD HORSES: July 31 Victoria Hotel THE CAT EMPIRE: August 8 Prince Bandroom; 19, 20 Palace PVT: August 12 Corner Hotel SHIHAD: August 13, 14 Northcote Social Club CORDRAZINE: August 28 East Brunswick Hotel GRINSPOON: September 8 Inferno; 9 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 10 Pier Live; 15 Eureka Hotel. POWDERFINGER: September 10, 11 Rod Laver Arena, October 29 Sidney Myer Music Bowl PARKWAY DRIVE: September 29 Festival Hall SARAH BLASKO: October 7 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 8 Palais; 9 Meeniyan Town Hall AIRBOURNE: November 1 Hi-Fi Bar

FESTIVALS

SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS: July 30August 1, Woodford

Richmond Fontaine pic by Lou Lou Nutt

Miranda’s vocals have recently been compared to almost everyone from Feist to Cat Power to the geeky Laura Veirs and beyond. Yet as she sings Waves she does sound alarming like Sarah Blasko with just a hint of the ethereal wonder of Hope Sandoval thrown in for good measure. Meanwhile, her shimmering and drifting guitar sounds bring to mind early Cocteau Twins. Miranda proceeds to showcase the dreamy songs off her Dave Sitek-produced debut The Magician’s Private Library, and throws in a few covers for good measure. Disappointingly she doesn’t do Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind as she usually does; instead she covers an old tune by The Smiths. After having done the Livid festival up in Sydney at the behest of Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Miranda is relieved that it’s all over. “You guys are so chill,” she exclaims. “ I have been playing the Opera House over the last couple of nights. Man, working with Lou Reed is so intense,” she laughs. Miranda wonders why she is failing to get the party started but the supremely chilled sounds she’s pumping makes it easy to just sit back and soak it up. The openly lesbian Miranda dedicates Pelican Rapids to the cause of gay marriage, eliciting applause from some sections of the audience and an uncomfortable silence from others. A lively cover of Lauryn Hill’s Ex-Factor brings down a brief but wonderfully enchanting set. Guido Farnell

RICHMOND FONTAINE EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB

King Khan & BBQ pic by Carbie Warbie

For a Sunday night at the East Brunswick Club, there’s a pretty decent crowd in attendance and feeling like one of the youngest punters in the room is something I haven’t felt for a very long time. It’s almost filled to capacity with those who have opted to avoid the trashy hilarity of Eurovision, and tonight’s show couldn’t be further removed from tacky European pop songs if it tried. Opting for a stripped back two-piece approach, it’s Willy Vlautin and Dan Eccles representing the Richmond Fontaine camp this evening. And even though it’s only two guitars, one voice and the occasional harmonica, you can hear where the rest of the band is supposed to sit around the songs. That’s not to say that their simple renditions of these tunes are lacking because of the absence of the rest of the band. Far from it, actually. Vlautin’s songwriting is fairly typical of the storytelling alt.country/Americana style, and is filled with tales of drinking too much, small town mentalities and sleeping in your car because you’re too drunk to drive home. It’s no surprise to me when I later learn that Vlautin is a published and well-respected novelist, as his lyrics hold a certain literary craft unseen in many other genres. The stripped-back style permits the opportunity to fully appreciate the longing melodies and extremely personal lyrics of these Portland natives. The fact that the songs are peppered with the usual references to suburban American towns that probably hold little significance for a Brunswick audience doesn’t seem to matter. The frame of reference may be foreign, but the intention, sentiment and sense of nostalgia rings true, no matter where you’re from. With lyrical ramblings of not fitting in with the redneck jocks in your hometown and longing for a better life definitely located elsewhere, these guys are completely fuelling my current addiction to storytelling songwriters like Jeff Tweedy and Bruce Springsteen. It’s songwriters like these whose work stands up pretty strong, regardless of whether they’re standing alone on a stage in a dimly lit room, or filling thousand-strong venues and delivering their music with the full force of a band. Seeing Richmond Fontaine in quiet acoustic mode renders the crowd quiet and attentive to the point where you can hear the girl behind the bar removing the bottle tops as she serves drinks. Which leaves us all the better to appreciate Willy Vlautin’s ‘drank too many beers last night’ raspy vocals and considered words. Initially, I thought most of the crowd were drawn out by curiosity, but it’s not until the encore when more than a few obvious fans scattered throughout the crowd start to shout out requests that I realise there is a definite and strong love for this band. Appreciative and humbled, they acquiesce to a few requests and decide to play two more songs, “one fucked up and one funny”, before letting us out into the cool night. Lou Lou Nutt

HOLLY MIRANDA TOFF IN TOWN Holly Miranda wishes she had brought her band with her for this gig so that she could give us the full show tonight. Instead she’s doing it solo, just a girl with a guitar and a whole lot of reverb. There are an awful lot of girls wielding guitars these days but right from the start it’s clear that Miranda, with her lovingly crafted songs and that beautiful voice, has got talent to spare.

THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW CORNER HOTEL King Khan is widely known to incite a riot and leave a trail of destruction in his wake so expectations were high that Khan and bandmate BBQ would do some major damage. Resplendent in colourful turbans, feathers and lame capes, the duo took to the stage looking like a novelty exotica/lounge act from the ‘50s. If Korla Pundit or Jambi The Genie at Pee Wee’s playhouse needed assistants these guys would have been it. As Queen’s We Are The Champions introduced the duo they settled into a wild instrumental take on what sounded like Johnny B Goode. Khan pulled out every clichéd guitar move established over the years before placing the neck of his guitar on a bald punter in the front row who was videoing the gig on a cheap digital camera. Nothing could deter the man and Khan eventually gave up, bending over wearing sequined tights and shaking his arse at the camera. After declaring war, without much justification, on Xavier Rudd the duo started grinding their way through Suck It And Smell. The midweek Melbourne crowd were a little slow on the uptake and later Khan joked, “What did you think you were going to see? Midnight Oil?” before he launched into a hilariously crazed Peter Garrett impersonation. Eventually the crowd did warm up, settling into a polite bunny hop for most of the show with the occasional bit of pogoing to mess things up just a little. Remembering their recently deceased friend Jay Reatard, the duo played Zombies on which Khan defiantly growled, “I don’t give a fuck.” While their streetwise attitude and lyrics are unashamedly punk the duo are endlessly fascinated with rock’n’roll. At times they had a whole lot of Little Richard craziness going on and at others they veered into surf rock that would even put The Cramps to shame. Animal Party was clearly just an excuse to insert some whack animal sounds. Surprisingly tender moments like Love You So towards the end of the set even contained a few doo-wops. Predictably, Tastebuds just grossed everyone out. While Khan was out of control allowing his personality/ego to fill the room, BBQ hung back, adding a comic commentary as the set progressed. Khan and BBQ have been playing

live@inpress.com.au together for years and it showed as their guitars impressively locked together in tight arrangements on the three-minute anthems. Encores saw BBQ step up to the microphone dressed as a pink octopus to deal some slower numbers like Into The Snow, which had a classic R&B vibe. A hugely entertaining evening. Guido Farnell Cog pic by Heidi Takla

talented local ensemble Sljivovitz Orchestra, while Opa! and Bizerka also demonstrated the rich Balkan music scene in Melbourne, setting the scene for a night abounding in musical delights from the eastern European patchwork. From the start Mikelangelo’s strong European background was obvious. Our hearts swelled listening to Croation fishing stories and songs in a duet with his father, Vinko Simic, who fell into the music heart-first with a beautiful amateur innocence and disregard for the microphone. The mixed-aged crowd all seemed delighted after the show. Beautiful dance, music and cabaret kept our ears and eyes tantalised and we all fell for the vulgar superhero, who stole our hearts and innocence, but kept us grinning the way through his performance, a highlight being Formidable Marinade, where he informed us that “sodomy is not just for animals/human flesh is not just for cannibals”. Bob Baker Fish

PAUL KELLY & PAUL GRABOWSKY HAMER HALL “So you’ll be in the Garden Of Eden tonight, but the devil will drop in from time to time,” says Paul Kelly by way of introduction. By way of a backdrop, pianist and composer extraordinaire Paul Grabowsky had invited Kelly to submit a set of songs based on a certain theme. Grabowsky was then to rework said songs and give them to the Australian Art Orchestra to play. Kelly went biblical, Grabowsky went jazzy, and they roped in Vika & Linda Bull (as well as a six-member vocal ensemble) to perform the new arrangements. Here then, tonight, before a full house, is the fruit of the two Pauls’ labours. The result is stunning. Gentle acoustic murmurings become lush, rich tapestries. Straightforward rock structures are transformed into multilayered, off-beat renditions. In between it all is Kelly, occasionally offstage, occasionally shuffling front and centre with a broad grin, and always at the forefront of the audience’s attention.

Generously, he allows the Bull sisters to alternate solo slots and take centre stage. Grabowsky, meanwhile, prowls and hovers, conducting his hand-picked orchestra during certain segments and retiring to the grand piano to tinker during others. The evening has a celebratory feel about it. Given the extended arrangements, each member of the orchestra has the chance to shine, such as trumpeter Scott Tinkler, Philip Rex on double bass and guitarist Stephen Magnussun. Better known tunes such as God Told Me To and Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air are welcomed like old friends. Particularly impressive is the vocal work from Linda Bull, seamlessly assuming Kelly’s words and lifting the mood to an altogether higher plane. Glory Be To God and Passed Over (from 2005’s Foggy Highway) get the full monty, with all performers onstage revelling in a brass, bass, drum and vocal cacophony. Kelly wanders back, preternaturally unaffected and without fanfare, to finish with the brooding, reflective Gathering Storm. EJ Cartledge

COG, CALLING ALL CARS BILLBOARD THE VENUE It’s a consensus: everyone has fun at a Cog gig. They’ve been kicking goals in the live scene since they sauntered down from NSW 12 years ago. So although I’m usually a harsh critic of the live DVD money-making release, I can understand the market for The Sound Of Three: 12 Years With You. Especially if the rumours and not-so-subtle hints are true and this really is the last time that we’ll hear these songs live. And talk about ending on a high note – this gig was definitely one of their best. They didn’t say much, which was probably a good thing. It was simply song after song, an attempt to satisfy the preconceived mental setlist of every fan in the room. But you could still hear the disappointment in the occasional shout of, “Don’t break up.” When the 20th Century Fox intro music began and Calling All Cars appeared onstage the floor was filling up. However, it was more a case of finding a good spot rather than any interest in the band. The prog rock crowd is a tough one to win over. But props for effort because although they were looking at a room packed with crossed arms and screwed up noses they still looked like they were enjoying themselves. Cog began their set with the suspenseful tones of Doors and the crowd was just itching for the groove to kick in. The stage lights lit up the audience and showed the boys the full extent of their sold-out show, as hundreds of people threw their fists in the air and sang every lyric. They moved quickly through to Are You Interested? and The Movie’s Over. There was no fancy lighting show accompanying the music. There was no rant by Flynn Gower or even political two cents thrown in by Lucius Borich. No one even said hello. But the music was as tight and powerful as ever. The loyalty of their audience has made this band what they are today. And to show their gratitude Flynn threw back to the early days with Moshiach and Open Up. When they were followed by The Spine, the mosh hit top form. Bodies were thrown around the room and the crowd seemed to be bingeing on the last taste of a live Cog gig they might ever have. The night ended with Bird Of Feather, No Other Way and as per usual, no encore. More than one fan stared up at the empty stage for a moment before retiring their aching limbs and coarse throats for the night. Lizzie Dynon

MIKELANGELO & THE BLACK SEA GENTLEMEN, BIZERKA, OPA!, SLJIVOVITZ ORCHESTRA THE ARTS CENTRE Tonight Australia’s rich eastern heritage was on show through a diverse banquet of talented musicians and performers, laid on with the sensuality of a Mikelangelo French kiss. No one was spared. Not even one stoic fellow in the front row, who thought he was immune to Mikelangelo’s sexual taunts, being male. Not so – smooches and private dances in bathing trunks (equipped with comb) showed Mikelangelo’s true passion for over-the-top cabaret entertainment. With his tunes composed and performed with rich, worldly lyrics and astounding creativity, Mikelangelo has the presence of a superhero, with the self-assured and self-assumed sensuality of the true Balkan experience. He was mesmerising, his hot-blooded, deep-rooted eastern European gypsy tones plumbing the life, spirit and passion of this incredible music. The Black Sea Gentlemen blend beautifully. Dressed with implicit delight, they are exquisite musical talents with bold and wacky individual personas, each bringing darkness to life through fanciful lyrics and poetic prose. The performance was incredible, veering from musical indulgence to resonant storytelling, and definitely not for the fainthearted. The blood began pumping early by the energising and delightfully

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WE GOT SPIRIT The last two weeks have been busy for country pop soul extraordinaires The Adventure Spirit. Following a string of stirling performances in Bright, Ballarat and at the reopening of the Memorial Hall in St Kilda, ‘The Spiz’ are taking their soulful harmonies and swamp-fruit rhythms to Veludo on Acland Street. They’ll be playing from 4pm this Sunday, so grab the chance to hear this unreal, unmentionable, undone and unforgettable group.

ONE GOOD POINT The next few months will be full steam ahead for Melbourne’s Princess One Point Five (P1.5). After a small hiatus, the band are gearing up for the release of their long awaited fourth album, What Doesn’t Kill You, which is released this Friday. The night before it hits stores and months before they head out on a national launch tour, P1.5 will be treating local Melbourne fans to a sneak peek of the new album, showcasing the new tracks and a handful of old favourites. They play the Builders Arms this Thursday with Flying Scribble and Patinka Cha Cha, and follow it up with shows at the Builders every Thursday in June. Entry is $8 from 8.30pm.

ROCK BALLS With an uncontrollable urge to play and an energy which defies logic, The Murderballs will not, nay, cannot stop until rock‘n’roll is saved from the mundane and once again takes its rightful place as king. Only then will Jesse, Kent and Lenny be content to fade away into rock’n’roll history. Either that or become cult heroes. They play Ruby’s Lounge in Belgrave this Thursday with Human Jack and The Mercury Theatre.

BLAME NICHOLAS Nicholas Roy is in for a change of scenery. After hibernating inside four walls and a ceiling, a Mac, a mic, keyboards and an acoustic guitar, he’s packing up his gear and hitting the road with his band for an East Coast tour hitting the Toff In Town this Thursday. With the success of his Genesis-harking jangle pop single It’s All My Fault, Roy is raring to head in a northerly and southerly direction to do it live at what promises to be a great show. Joining Roy will be power-pop firecracker Brendan Maclean. Entry is $12 from 8pm.

BANJO PATTERS IN Banjo is a 28-year-old Melbourne musician whose solo career exploded onto the live music scene in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in late 2007. Now with a backing band behind him, Banjo is going from strength to strength as he develops a strong fanbase in Melbourne’s outer suburbs and moves towards being one of Melbourne’s must-see musos. Catch him playing Ruby’s Lounge in Belgrave this Friday with Mama’s Rejects and 2Swai.

TO AND FRO After three months hunkered down with producer Anthony Lycenko (ARIA nominee, Pete Murray, U2, Beautiful Girls, Xavier Rudd) at 301 and Rocking Horse studios in Byron Bay, Aussie roots rock icons Marshall & The Fro are stoked to announce they have a new 11-track album, Friends For Life. The independent band has 30 dates booked around the country on an eight-week launch tour that kicked off last month, including Ruby’s Lounge in Belgrave this Saturday night! Joining them will be Shaun Kirk, Benjalu and Chris Cavill.

TABASCO SAUCY Mix one part old-time medicine show, one part hillbilly swing, spice with a bit of country blues and good ol’ Piedmont pickin’ and you have the Tabasco Tom & Doc White show. Tabasco hails from Long Island, New York and has played with just about anybody who’s anybody including Bonnie Raitt, BB King, Chris Smither. Doc has spent years soaking up the same musical heritage as Tabasco. Hillbilly music from the Appalachians, western swing from Texas, blues from the Delta and country music from just about anywhere all went into the musical melting pot. They play the Fox Hotel this Sunday from 5pm. Entry is free!

MARGOT’S SOUFFLÉ The Margot Leighton Quintet head to the Paris Cat for a rollicking gig this Thursday night from 8.30pm. Leighton and the band have been hard at work recording the original tunes featured in this performance. With tunes encompassing jazz, samba, funk, Motown, jump blues and New Orleans grooves, this special performance has something for everyone.

KNIFEY SPOONY Get ready: Spoonful are in town. Every Saturday in June the highly charged rhythm’n’blues rock band – featuring Paul Winstanley, Kit Warhurst (Rocket Science), Andre Warhurst (Silver Night Drive) and David Lord (The Rectifiers) – will be delivering the killer show they’re renowned for at the Union Hotel in Brunswick. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Get there for a 5pm start.

IRENE SHOWS HER ARTS This Queen’s birthday long weekend, the Irene Arts Warehouse – 5 Pitt Street, East Brunswick – invites the community to celebrate the vitality of Melbourne’s underground art world. Showcasing everything aerosol and radical by renowned and emerging artists, the Irene Arts Festival is going to be a feast. The opening night exhibition is on Friday at 6pm. On Saturday from 5pm the live music program includes local and interstate musicians: Toasters Boutique, Blades, Tenfold, Anon Speak, Laird & Lomas Feat Madman, DJ Luke Presto, Ida, Scotty B The Digital Assassin and more. It’s a weekend with a brilliant line-up of exhibitions, demonstrations, local laneway tours, open studios, workshops and music. Find it on Facebook for all the details.

HOSKING BOBS DOWN From the outset, David Hosking has been stubbornly independent in his outlook and career, ignoring the attentions of record companies in order to articulate precisely his own musical vision without interference. As a tactic it might be unusual and probably explains why few have heard of him. To date he’s released six self-financed albums. To celebrate the release of his latest album, Down Every Street, on vinyl Hosking will be performing live with special guests The Killjoys at the Chapel Off Chapel on Saturday 3 July at 8pm. Tickets are $27.50 and available online at chapeloffchapel.com.au or phone 8290 7000.

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THEY’VE LOST IT They appeared from the sea, astride their trusted burros, brandishing instruments of musical conquest. With reckless abandon they sat down in an open field and began to play. And so here they are: Lost Burros live at the Old Bar this Thursday with fine friends Death Cheetahs and Strangers At Sea. Lost Burros are an exciting new four-piece band of primal frolicking fiends. Their songs are built off a strong, primal style of drumming making heavy use of the toms. Feel the primal rhythms reeling through your pulsating veins, scream toward the endless skies above, and dance, goddamn it, dance!

THAT OLD PLAGUE Plague Doctor knows the true meaning of the blues. He once sent 85 million people dancing to their graves. He uses his smoking wand to keep the beat and direct the burial of the dead. He’s seen scorpions crawling on broken glass. He’s woken in the gutter with the planets whirling above him. His magic undergarments are soaked in liquor and wax. Join Plague Doctor for a month of Wednesdays in June at the Old Bar featuring music from above and beyond the grave. Plague Doctor is a sci-fi pre-apocalypse blues ballad explosion machine playing the soundtrack for these strange times on terror-firma.

on the night are Bastard Squad and Mince Meat and entry is $25 from 8pm. From there, Sin City tear up stages in SA, NSW, WA and QLD before wrapping up the tour back at the Arthouse on Thursday 15 July, this time with Canadian punk heavyweights SNFU. Good times indeed!

JANE AUSTEN’S SCANDAL Diana is still dead, Prince Charles is still (somehow) getting laid, Fergie’s taking bribes and Melbourne indie cabaret duo The Jane Austen Argument are throwing a most royally riotous bash at the Brunswick Hotel called ‘Royal Scandals’ to honour our dear Queen Lizzie’s birthday. Starting at 9pm this Saturday, the Brunswick Hotel will be transformed into a palace of scandals and trashy glamour, featuring FLASHfry, Mikki Ross, Brendan Maclean and The Jane Austen Argument. It’ll be a gorgeously chaotic mix of cabaret, pop, indie and folk. Prizes for best/ worst dressed and entry is free from 8.30pm!

HIT STRANGERS Like five Bear Gryllses of Melbourne’s inner north, Pretty Strangers will be setting up camp at the Empress every Thursday in June, crafting versatile melodies from wood and steel using their bare hands. Don’t miss the chance to catch the rising indie pop quintet, joined by some of Melbourne’s finest young bands including Thieves, Star and Cyprus, In The Woods and These Patterns.

THRILLING STUFF Thrilling True Stories are a three-piece comprising keys, bass and drums who play atmospheric indie pop. Their music is both minimal and sprawling, bright and dark, and leaves you knowing that music is art. They play the Edinburgh Castle this Saturday night with Lucky Hunter, who distill a love of garage rock, unhinged psychedelia, dirty country, free jazz, old soul, pop music and general mayhem into a sound of their own. Also playing will be The Desert Shore, who emerge from the horizon with sandals full of sand and handfuls of mad synth-fuelled cosmic garage. Entry is $7 from 8.30pm.

ICED MAGIC Magic Silver White begin a monthly residency at the Builders Arms tonight, Wednesday 9 June, joined each week by guests – tonight it’s Mononoke and Sailor Days. The five-piece combine a love of classic pop songs with an equal passion for kosmische, European soundtracks, minimalism and high fidelity. Headed up by songwriter Jojo Petrina, MSW features a line up of Cornel Wilczek (Qua), Mat Watson (Mountains In The Sky), Biddy Connor (Sailor Days) and Monica Sonand (Mononke). Entry is $6 from 8.30pm.

TWICE THE SIN Sin City kick off their tour to promote the release of their latest single, Don’t Eat Your Heart Out, in furious style this Sunday with UK punk legends The Vibrators at the Arthouse. Also playing

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Jackson Firebird play 303 on Saturday. HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? Dale Hudak, drums/bottle bin and electric washboard: “The first time I met Harvs was just after I received a call at about six in the morning from a band whose drummer had gone AWOL. They had won a battle of the bands which gave them some time in a studio in Adelaide and the morning they were supposed to head off they just couldn’t find their drummer. So I met Harvs when he was only 14 and the bass player for Dionysus in the back of a Valiant driving to Adelaide.” HAVE YOU RECORDED ANYTHING? “We have a five-track EP, Bottle Bin, out and are at the final stages of recording our first full-length album.” CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BAND’S SOUND IN FOUR WORDS? “Dirty, raw, loud and simple.” IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND IN THE WORLD WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “AC/DC, because they are AC/DC.” IF A HIGHER POWER SMITES YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN ONLY SAVE ONE RECORD FROM THE FIRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “Definitely The Allman Brothers’ Live At Fillmore East.” DO YOU HAVE A LUCKY ITEM OF CLOTHING YOU WEAR FOR GIGS AND WHAT IS IT? “The old skintight denim jumpsuit.” IF YOU INVITED SOMEONE AWESOME AROUND FOR DINNER WHAT WOULD YOU COOK? “Fish fingers.” WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO DRINK IN MELBOURNE? “It was the Tote, now it’s Ding Dong Lounge to catch a band.”

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BENEDICT CLOCKS IN

ROLL WITH SINGLE MEN

After several years of solo touring, Benedict Moleta is taking his first lap around the track accompanied by his five-piece band to celebrate the release of his fi fth album Timesheet. Said to paint scene after detailed scene, piling on heady descriptions in a voice that’s hushed, airy and pristinely delivered. Benedict Moleta is not to be missed, playing the Empress on Friday 16 July with The Ancients and Oliver Mann.

The Single Men’s Drinking Club will bring their home-brewed brand of rock chaos to Yah Yah’s this Thursday. A bad idea borne from bad intentions, The Single Men’s Drinking Club are five malcontents with far too much amplification. With the snarl of The Drones and the pretension of The Bad Seeds, the Drinking Club have found a home in the seedy heart of Melbourne. Joining them on the night are art rock chameleons The Young Have Secrets and rock’n’roll collision group The Orphanage. Doors at 9pm.

LAWRENCE OF MY CLAVIANS After a packed out debut EP launch at Revolver, national radio play and rave reviews, electrifying jungle punk duo Clavians are psyched be bringing the party back to Revolver every Wednesday night in June. Each residency show will see Revolver’s stage become an eclectic melting pot for Melbourne’s finest underground bands and DJs. For the second installment of the five-week stint – that would be tonight, Wednesday 9 June – the guests will be Dreaming Of Ghosts, Siva and The Villains Lair. Doors are at 8pm and at the cost of a gold coin donation, you would be crazy bananas to miss out.

PUNCH ONE OUT Hot of the back of the debut EP release Punching Air In The Nyah, Back Back Forward Punch are hitting Revolver. With pants-shaking production skills and a groove-laden front lady, this game changing electro trio will pull you off the wall and onto the dance floor. With very special guests Paqman and Winterplan. A Paqman live show is two young men, hidden behind a mountain of electronics, drum machines, synthesisers and noise generators, a nonstop sweaty interaction between man and machine. Entry is $10 from 9pm.

JOPPY’S DISEASE Joppy is the project of singer/songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Josh Johnstone. Hailing from Fremantle, Joppy now calls Melbourne home after some recent shows in UK, USA and Europe, both solo, and also fronting rock band The Happy Endings. Joppy’s debut album, Plastic Disease For The Lonely, is released on 14 June, and he plays the Evelyn Hotel on Wednesday 16 June. You can also catch him at an in-store at Pure Pop Records on Saturday 19 June.

FRONT FROWN With the onset of winter biting its teeth and lashing its tail, the Workers Club will be heating up this Sunday (Queenie’s birthday eve), with The Frowning Clouds and The Kremlin Succession picking up the torch of rock’n’roll’s free-wheeling spirit. The Frowning Clouds need little introduction to Melbourne’s community of beat loving hipsters and with plenty of attention being given to their wild rhythms and throbbin’ beats, the Workers Club is putting in extra support beams under the dancefloor ahead of this gig. The Frowning Clouds also play the Workers next Sunday 20 June. Entry is $7 from 8pm.

SASKIA WATCH Elegance is a rare quality in a time of such immediacy, elegance in rock’n’roll even more so. But one listen to her music and one swift and wide eyed glimpse at Saskia Sansom on stage, and it’s hard to ignore the fact that elegance has as much relevance in this modern age as it ever has in times past. Having recently finished recording her debut LP with legendary drummer Jim R White (Dirty Three, Smog), Sansom draws comparisons to Cat Power, Mazzy Star and PJ Harvey, yet her haunted and fragile delivery is a sound all her own. Sansom plays the Empress Hotel every Wednesday in June, beginning tonight with support from Mikelangelo & Saint Clare and Tara Simmons. Entry is $8 from 8pm.

Oh my! The little Pony will become a bar of chaos, disorder and experimental wonders as These Patterns headline this Thursday. These Patterns are a trio who experiment with electronic wonders, creating post-punk psychedelic sounds and angular dancing. Expect brand new songs of minimalist beats, howling lyrics and a whirlwind of electronic revelations. Joining them are My Musical Collective, a squish on stage will conjure up indie pop fun, while Le Fox and Beloved Elk follow with their post-punk indie goodness. Doors at 9pm.

ORANGE PEALS Pony plays host to an eclectic evening of entertainment this Saturday. The evening begins with the tingling space-pop of Mid-State Orange, followed by Matt Bailey (ex-Paradise Motel) who will be performing his illuminated brand of country spirituals. Also appearing, Melbourne’s purveyors of literate, intelligent and poignant pop rock, Andrew Keese & The Associates and headlining the evening, the wonderful Three Month Sunset with their reverb-drenched psych rock. This is most potentially the perfect soundtrack to your Saturday night. Doors open at 9pm.

FORE RUNNERS The PURPLE SNEAKERS DJs are upping the ante with their first mix compilation. CYCLONE asks founder MARTIN NOVOSEL why it’s taken so long.

JOHNS ON HOLIDAYS Summer’s throes may have vanished but Sydney quartet The Holidays emerge from their Sydney studio with another sun-drenched tune that channels warm nights and cloudless skies. The new single Golden Sky blends wild percussion, sing-along chant choruses, falsetto vocals and squawking guitars into an action packed, yet equally sublime journey. It comes hot on the heels of the acclaimed single Moonlight Hours, which reached #1 on Triple J’s playlist earlier this year and re-configured the band’s musical GPS. The Holidays launch the new track at the John Curtin Bandroom this Saturday – grab tickets from Oztix.

REVELLING IN PECKER SS Pecker are the eight-legged underbelly freakmazid of Melbourne’s mean streets. Incarnated several times from experimental jazz beginnings towards hip hop/ rock extravagance, SS Pecker is the ever evolving chameleon of Australian live music. With an emphasis on ‘keeping it real’ and a dedication to organic beats and rhymes, they combine the raw elements of live hip hop with intricate space-rock freak-outs and deliver it all with energy and finesse. They play Revellers North on Johnston St in Fitzroy on Friday 18 June.

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assistant to Triple J’s Richard Kingsmill, no less). And Novosel, who now operates his Boundary Sounds as an artist and events company, is a part-time Sneaker. Novosel has moved back to London where, among other activities, he’s DJing at nightspots like Club NME. “I’m in the UK managing Philadelphia Grand Jury,” he explains. “I guess I’m starting Boundary Sounds over here.”

RAT VS WINTER To celebrate thermal underwear, snotty noses, breathing steam and all the other good shit that comes with winter in Melbourne, the Empress is turning itself into a winter wonderland. Playing are ex-Love Is Science Fiction visual-art project Promised Land. Then a kosmische-pop-no-pop love-in with Rat Vs Possum Vs Pets With Pets Vs TTT and special guests. Things get hazy with Parading and Bum Creek. Panel Of Judges give us all hope for a summery future before Chrome Dome tear it all apart with hopeless savage no-wave. Finally Lost Animal the low-intensity effortless flow and blunt beats. Entry for all that amazing goodness is $12!

PONY PATTERNS

ydney has a tradition of spawning iconic – and influential – DJ cliques, from the house Sneaky Sound System to the nu-rave Bang Gang. The Purple Sneakers story begins with Martin Novosel, AKA PhDJ, who founded the indie dance club of the same name at the Abercrombie Hotel – “a shitty old man’s pub” – in 2005. (The venue closed over summer, prompting them to relocate their “house party” to the Gladstone.) “I started it when I got back from the UK. I was living in the UK for three years and overstayed my visa and got this letter... I really wanted to start a record label in the UK, but I wasn’t allowed to, ‘cause I was on the wrong visa. So, basically, I came home to Sydney wanting to start a record label, and didn’t know how to fund it. I thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ll just start a nightclub and that will fund it’ – ‘cause that’s what I knew how to do quite well: DJ. Then that club night, Purple Sneakers, went on to become a really successful club. We released a whole bunch of records, but the record label part of things essentially became a charity. It really wasn’t a viable business – meanwhile, the club stuff took off.” Though Novosel aspired to promote a club with an ‘anything goes’ policy, the idea was to also focus on new, not retro, music – and mash-up style. “I like music to be genuine – and for the DJs to be genuine. If you really like house music, then you should play house music. You can always tell when the DJ’s not playing something they like... For me, that’s the main thing: I can’t bullshit. I always had to play what I love playing so, when I started Purple Sneakers, I went, ‘Well, I like a bit of indie, a bit of electro, a bit of punk, a bit of hip hop, a bit of anything’.” Today Novosel is joined in the Purple Sneakers fold by fellow DJs MIT, Ben Lucid and Nick Findlay (the

However, Novosel will return to tour behind the Purple Sneakers’ double-CD, We Mix You Dance. His set, Chin’ Strokin’, is, as the title underscores, orientated less to the dancefloor than the lounge, with tracks from The Drums, The XX and Animal Collective. “It’s a bit more education, rather than entertainment.” Novosel conceived We Mix You Dance as a series on realising that there was nothing akin to a Ministry Of Sound comp brand for indie kids. Still, the first volume’s strength lies in the fact that Purple Sneakers are not merely following the 2000s’ indie dance craze but representing – and reconciling – two facets of contemporary pop culture: indie and electro. Prior to Purple Sneakers, Novosel felt that most indie clubs were too conservative. The DJs would spin obvious Britpop classics – and didn’t mix. “That’s why I don’t really like the term ‘indie club’ or ‘indie’ DJ,” he says. “We’re club DJs who play non-club music.” While he might be compared to Erol Alkan of Trash fame, Novosel has emerged as a tastemaking entrepreneur like James Lavelle or Steve Aoki. He loves acting as facilitator, helping others’ careers. Nonetheless, Novosel harbours a secret desire to produce more under his Dept handle, with an EP tipped for 2011. In the interim, the DJ will attend the Melbourne launch of Purple Sneakers at Miss Libertine. He’s thrilled that the club is expanding, but wary of becoming embroiled in Melbourne’s scene politics. “It’s actually being run down there by Melbourne people,” Novosel says diplomatically, “so I really wanna stress [that] it’s not like a Sydney club coming to Melbourne.”

WHO: Purple Sneakers WHAT: We Mix You Dance (out Friday through Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Miss Libertine

Clavians play Revolver every Wednesday night in June. HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? Aleksei, guitar/vocals/foot contraptions: “After an international backpacking stint and a suitcase full of songs, Mr Tim Ali (drums and vocals) and I got together in a local school hall one afternoon. We smashed it out for four hours straight accidentally locking out a whole orchestral assembly from their final rehearsal. Our scuzzy jungle punk was officially born.” HAVE YOU RECORDED ANYTHING OR DO YOU PREFER TO TOOL AROUND IN YOUR BEDROOM? “Our debut EP, Clavians, was recorded live and DIY over a two-day stint in a vacant Clifton Hill warehouse with engineer extraordinaire Terry Hart. We’re currently independent, but it’s available in a stack of local record stores and online at clavians. com.” CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BAND’S SOUND IN FOUR WORDS? “Two-step, jungle punk, scuzz-tunes.” IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND IN THE WORLD, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “Forgetting past supergroups and making this real, I’d say a line-up comprising The Wiggles and Nick Cave & Warren Ellis… because it’s all for the children.” IF A HIGHER POWER SMITES YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN ONLY SAVE ONE RECORD FROM THE FIRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “Geoff Love & His Orchestra perform Themes For Super Heroes (1979). It has all the classics – Super-, Spider-, Six Million Dollar- and Bat- man. Plus I’d slip in a Hendrix bootleg I found years ago in a ‘specials’ bin for good measure.” DO YOU HAVE A LUCKY ITEM OF CLOTHING YOU WEAR FOR GIGS AND WHAT IS IT? “It’s not officially clothing, but when Mr Ali lets his facial hair flourish (occasional monobrow included) we always play real tribal-like. He gets wild with his sticks, skins and shrieks.”

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SOUL CARE Restore With Care is a community project designed to obtain donations of medical supplies in order to provide better health care for the children at the Light Of Love Children’s Home in Tuni, India. Organisers from Australia’s Restore With Care aim to raise $50,000 for the cause and provide ongoing medical supplies to a new medical clinic this November. They host a fundraiser at Yah Yah’s this Saturday, so head down and hear the delectable soul, R&B, funk, Motown, disco and even a little Afrobeat. Tunes spun by Vince Peach (PBS FM), Chris Gill (RRR FM, Northside Records) and Miss Goldie (PBS FM). Doors at 9pm.

IT’S REALLY COLD Cold Harbour are taking over the Lyrebird Lounge in Ripponlea this Thursday from 8pm. The band start in acoustic mode before handing proceedings over to the rantings and social observations from pissed off rock pig, Nick Haines. The Harbs will then return in full electric mode to finish the night off in a suitably noisy (but not too noisy to upset the neighbours) fashion! The band will be presenting material from both studio recordings as well as some choice covers. Their recently released Dust Storm album will be available on the night as well as remaining copies of their previous studio and live efforts. Entry is free!

PARK A LEWIS Still buzzing from their radio success on Triple M and Radar Radio, Melbourne band Gretchen Lewis are back on the live scene appearing at Revolver Upstairs this Saturday alongside Sheriff and Sweet Lincoln. Armed with two new songs and a revamped Primus cover to accompany their existing set, fans are sure to be impressed and stirred to a frenzy of excitement and gyrating hips as these seasoned campaigners take to the stage. Check out the live video on YouTube and be sure to check out the videos for the hit songs Underground @ 30 and A Night In The Devils Bed. Entry is only $10 and there will be t-shirts, CDs and comic books up for grabs. Doors at 9pm.

REZZALP GET WET Rezzalp (AKA the Plazzer sisters) have thrown themselves overboard, literally, in the brand new music video for their single Overboard. Being the first release from Rezzalp’s upcoming debut album In My Dreams. Overboard reveals the siblings’ four-part harmonies, pop groove and attempts to be rid of their single lives. Conceived visually by director Alethea Jones with the support of Inspiration Studios, the music video was shot over four days with a crew of volunteers, all lending support to this independent band. An official launch screening of Overboard and live performance by Rezzalp and Ben Abraham will be held at Toff In Town on Thursday 17 June. Entry is $10 from 8pm.

A STATE OF FLUX are hooked on remixing their tunes, RED BLACK tells NIC TOUPEE. For fans who hoped the earlier EPs would be followed by a release of some new original work, Black says new things come to those who wait.

LEGENDS DO LIZZIE

“We’ve been working on a new album that will be our debut studio album,” he promises. “We’ll be touring Reflux in June and July and then we’re straight back into the studio in August. When we started we had more of a rock band approach but we’re becoming much more electronic and cinematic now, so the new album will have a cinematic, highly-produced feel.”

After staggering aimlessly up and down Smith Street for the last couple of months on their gruelling two month, four show tour of Collingwood, Legends Of Motorsport (much like many of their fans) will be ending it back where it all began at Yah Yah’s this Sunday, Queen’s birthday eve. Since their gig at Yah Yah’s on Good Friday, Legends have ventured as far as the Birmy and as wide as the Grace Darling. They’ll be joined this Sunday by the beautiful people and sounds of the excellent Bowers and Bunny Monroe, who are playing their last show for six months. So be there for the end of tour party to end all end of tour parties! Doors at 9pm.

DOWN TO CHINA TOWN Join The Good China in a farewell celebration before they scatter to far parts of the globe for winter when they play the Workers Club on Thursday 17 June. With various band members headed to Europe and Japan, it’s your last chance to catch the eight-piece and their handclapping, toe-tapping tunes for many months. After releasing a popular three-track demo and headlining shows at the Tote and Empress, this will be a show you want to get involved in. The very excellent Bon Scotts and the always brilliant Institut Polaire will be sharing the stage for what should be a huge night of indie pop. Entry is $8 from 8pm.

State Of Flux claim, with great gravity, on their MySpace page that they are determined to push the boundaries of alternative music. Very few bands could make such a claim and expect it to hold water: where could alternative music possibly be pushed that hasn’t already been explored? Like the atom, the genres within alternative music have already been split every which way, spreading sub-genres like quarks throughout the radiosphere. It isn’t just about sounding different, explains producer/musician Red Black, it’s about the search for a unique and singular identity, outside aesthetic rules and assumptions. Black explains how A State Of Flux have once again opted for the unorthodox – instead of releasing a debut album after a couple of EPs, they have decided to put out an entire CD of remixes called Reflux. “It started off as a remix EP, and we invited people we respect in the Australian music scene to contribute. We approached quite a few experimental electronic artists including Justin Ashworth, also a Melbourne dubstep producer called Distro, I’ve submitted a couple of tracks myself, one track was done by a live band called Roussemoff which is radically different. Then we just kept going. Now we have 12 songs in total, an album’s worth.”

CANOS’ NU DONG Straight from selling out their EP launch at the Northcote Social Club a few weeks ago, Canos are going to kick out the resident rock pigs at Ding Dong Lounge this Friday. As Melbourne’s finest exponents of the nu-folk movement that wafted out of West London last year and took the world by storm, it’s time to don your finest shirts and waistcoats and strap on those braces for a night of Canos’ banjo-and fiddle-drenched folk rock. Joining them for a night bursting with dobros, banjos and double bass are the bluegrass folksters John Flanagan & The Begin Agains and the wistful beguiling tones of folk songstress Sibhan. Doors open at 8pm.

REMIXING IT UP

Black was searching for a new way of presenting their sound, after his own exploratory attempts at reinterpreting ASOF material.

BRILLIANT BOOM Following on from a huge Pop Boom #1, Popboomerang Records are proud to announce the line up for the Pop Boom #2. The night will be held on Saturday 19 June at the Birmingham Hotel and features co-headliners The Solomons and Brilliant Fanzine (EP launch) showcasing their indie pop rock anthems. The night will also feature new melodic Melbourne outfit The Futurists playing their farewell show before relocating to the UK for six months and a rare performance from folk pop enigma Tim Reid. To top things off, PBS’s Lukey D (Everybody Moves) will spin Aussie classic tunes as DJ for the night. Tickets are $10 and the first 50 payers snare a collectable Pop Boom #2 sampler.

THURS 10TH:

THURSDAY IS

“Our first release has remixes we’ve done of our tracks, and we found people really like the new lease of life it gives the music. We were really inspired by that response and wanted to see what other people could add. We made it obvious to remixers that they could do what they liked – the more they changed it the better. From that, we got such a broad mix of material,” he says with satisfaction.

TOP 40 & COMMERCIAL PARTY TUNES DJ’S 9PM TIL CLOSE

SAT 12TH:

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80’s RETRO TUNES FROM 9PM TILL CLOSE

Touring an album of remixes seems an ambitious proposition, especially considering the diversity of remixers, instruments and construction. Black is confident that the concept will translate well on stage. So confident, in fact, the band are filming the show for a DVD. “We are getting now to a point where we play as much of this album live as possible. Everyone has to play more than one instrument now which is fun. We’ll try to put on a really interesting show, and we have invited a couple of people who have worked on the album to collaborate and perform our tracks in the fashion they’ve remixed them in. To document it all, we are filming the album launch in Melbourne and releasing a DVD in a couple of months.”

WHO: A State Of Flux WHAT: Reflux (Red Lodge) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, the Evelyn

PLENTY MORE

An Undying Day In Orbit have spent the best part of the last few years playing around Melbourne, and recently released another EP. They are playing the Birmingham Hotel this Thursday and it’s their last show for a few months while their bass player travels the world. Over from Adelaide for the first time are The Honey Pies, and rockers Crash Arcadia and Dirty F will also join them. Entry is $6 from 8pm.

Tony Johannsen & Glenn Ford are taking time out from recording The Land Of Plenty’s second album to do a run of acoustic shows. They kick off this Friday at Revellers North in Fitzroy. They’ll be debuting some new songs as well as reworking some Land Of Plenty material. Get along for some great acoustic entertainment. Entry is free!

SUN 13TH:

$5 BUBBLE & $10 COCKTAILS

FRI 11TH:

“We’re dying to do another remix release,” he says. “It has inspired me in many ways to open the project up and let more people in. We’ve made it clear that we want to do a remix for every future release. I’m also dying to open it up to fans. I’m a bit of a Trent Reznor fanboy, and I love the way he’s been approaching the music scene over the last five years, opening the remixes up to his fans. It is something I’ve been investigating and it will be a definite part of the future. Our fans will hear more about that soon.”

FALL INTO ORBIT

LADIES NIGHT DJ’S 9PM TIL CLOSE

However, there’s no telling whether the band will be sidetracked by what seems to have become quite an affection for the remix concept. Black admits that he’s hooked.

SUNDAY SESSIONS DANIELLE MCDONALD 12.30PM – 2.30PM SOLO

O.M.GEE’S 3PM – 6PM BAND

QUEENS B’DAY EVE DJ’S 9PM – CLOSE

EVERY NIGHT!

2010

WORLD CUP GAMES SHOWN LIVE ON SCREENS THROUGHOUT THE VENUE

EVERY WEDNESDAY

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FOOSBALL

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STARTS JUNE 16 FOR 5 WEEKS REGISTER FROM 6PM GAMES START 8PM EVERY REGISTERED PERSON RECEIVES ONE FREE BEER! 75

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UNDER THE HILL The Black Hill Five are a lovely little rock’n’roll band from Melbourne. They’ve recently supported Epicure at their last ever Melbourne show, and have gigs coming up with Dan Kelly. But for now they’re playing every Wednesday in June at the Birmingham Hotel. They’ve got a great list of supports each week; check out week two of the residency tonight with Wil Wagner & The Smith Street Band and The Hondas. Entry is $5 from 8pm.

JORDIE FILLS OUT After hearing the terrible news that Simone Felice’s Australian tour has been cancelled due to a matter of serious medical emergency, Jordie Lane, who was supporting on the tour, has decided to still do the show himself on Friday 11 June at the Northcote Social Club. Performing in duo mode with Matt Green, they have put together a triple bill with beloved friends and incredible singer/ songwriters Liz Stringer and Van Walker (under

the guise Elizabeth & Donovan), as well as Leena. Tickets at the door only from 8pm.

KINKS OF THE CASTLE Melbourne indie quartet Jack’s Castle are gearing up for the release of their debut album, On A Colour TV. The highly anticipated debut draws on the success of the band’s two independently released EPs and was produced by acclaimed electro folk producer Joe Hammond and mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. With the band’s singer John O’Brien accepting an invitation to visit London in August 2010 to learn from the master, Ray Davies from The Kinks, they’re set for a big year. They play Revellers North on Saturday 19 June.

FACE PLANT Described as a “cocktail of rhythm and hostility”, Ouch My Face are going to take their pummelling, screeching and chaotic blend of unique punk-rock back to the Old Bar this Saturday. Teaming up with Ouch My Face will

be Bone, Beat Disease and New Estate, transforming the Oldie in to a melting pot of angular licks, off-kilter rhythms and enough sweaty good times you’ll forget it’s eight degrees outside. Opening proceedings will be good buddies New Estate, so be sure to get in early for what is shaping up to a royal belter of a show.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

ON YER NE Melbourne black metal six-piece Ne Obliviscaris play their final local headline show before the release of their brand new album later in 2010. Consisting of violin, guitars, bass, drums, Ne Obliviscaris have a vast array of influences within their sound from progressive to black, thrash, death and melodic metal, and even western art music, jazz and flamenco. They team up with progressive metal band Paradigm (NSW) and complex version extreme metal makers A Million Dead Birds Laughing for a huge night of metal at the Northcote Social Club this Sunday, Queen’s birthday eve! Entry is $15 from 8.30pm.

Reptiles launch their new EP at Revolver on Sunday. HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? Joel Cornell, guitar: “We formed after Emilio (singer) ended a band of his. I joined up with Emi, and brought in Nick Gardener to play bass – we had met at art school. Emilio and I were not listening to crap music anymore, and we were pissed off with a lot of bands – none of our friends that we played with were doing anything exciting at the time, and by exciting I mean energetic and rude. So we named our band after our favourite character in Mortal Kombat: Reptile. HAVE YOU RECORDED ANYTHING OR DO YOU PREFER TO TOOL AROUND IN YOUR BEDROOM? “Does that mean Pro Tools? We’ve used that. We have recorded two EPs: Smell My Skin was released late-2008 and Come Get Me! is being released this week. I guess, yeah, like most people I’ve dabbled in a little tooling.” CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BAND’S SOUND IN FOUR WORDS? “Crude, romantic, loud, stinky.” IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND IN THE WORLD, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “I’d love to support Alan Vega or Suicide. I’ve heard he’s a right cunt and resents every band he meets and only wants to bet on baseball. Sounds good... that amount of discouragement can’t be bought!” IF A HIGHER POWER SMITES YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN ONLY SAVE ONE RECORD FROM THE FIRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “The Mac Sample House Inspector 12-inch single I found in Savers for a buck. Belgium new beat.” DO YOU HAVE A LUCKY ITEM OF CLOTHING YOU WEAR FOR GIGS AND WHAT IS IT? “I actually don’t. I know Nick likes to wear a really good Undertaker t-shirt he got in NSW – once it smelt so bad and had fungus on it. But I don’t usually wash my underwear, so I guess they get worn regularly… I don’t live with my mum anymore!” IF YOU INVITED SOMEONE AWESOME ’ROUND FOR DINNER WHAT WOULD YOU COOK? “Mexicano!”

LOLLIPOP GUILD Led by former Lucksmiths lead mouth Tali White, local super group The Guild League are back for one of their rare live shows. The band have been cranking out their indie rock folk since 2001, and have produced three fine albums including the most recent Speak Up. With members drawing from all quarters of the indie mafia, they remain as once quoted “the favourite band you may not have known you had”. Catch them at the Northcote Social Club this Friday with Tessa & The Typecast and Oh Pep!. Entry is $14/$12 concession from 8.30pm. The Demon Parade

WEEKENDER ON PARADE A massive holiday weekend for Ding Dong Lounge as Weekender this Sunday night celebrates the old Queen’s birthday by playing British cult pop and rock from the ‘60s to now featuring The Clash, Kinks, Joy Division, The Cure, The Smiths, Dexy’s, Siouxsie, Small Faces, The Who, The Jam, Buzzcocks, The Sweet, Slade, Supergrass, Gary Numan, OMD, Yardbirds, Human League, Wire, Gang of Four, The Fall, Pulp, New Order, Happy Mondays, Undertones, Ian Dury, Stranglers, Adam Ant, etc. DJs Steve and Kieran are behind the decks and there’s live action from The Demon Parade and The Kicks. Huge one. Doors open at 9pm.

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ONE BIG THUMP

DEAR ABBIE

The Universal Thump is the most expansive musical project to date from singer, pianist and songwriter Greta Gertler, who has opened for Martha Wainwright, Glenn Tilbrook, Joan As Police Woman and Madeleine Peyroux. Australian born, Gertler co-wrote The Whitlams hit Blow Up The Pokies with Tim Freedman, as well as the early Whitlams tune Charlie #3. The Universal Thump also houses producer and multi-instrumentalist Adam D Gold, who at home in NYC has recently performed with Tanya Donnelly, AC Newman, Jon Auer (The Posies) and many others. The Universal Thump preview songs from their debut album at the Northcote Social Club on Monday 14 June with Houlette and Glasgow DJ A La Fu. Entry is $10 from 7.30pm.

Imagine Bobby Gentry and JJ Cale had a love child and adopted her out to Rickie Lee Jones whilst she was dating Tom Waits and they all spent summer vacations hanging out with Ryan Adams and Lucinda Williams. Now you’re somewhere close to describing the sound of Abbie Cardwell. A former winner of Triple J Unearthed, 2008 MusicOz Award and ABC Dig Radio Award, her inimitable style has been lapped up at venues large and small from coast to coast. Cardwell plays at the Wine, Whiskey, Women night at the Drunken Poet tonight, Wednesday 9 June, with Nicola Watson from 8pm.

THE JSBS DO VEGAS Having spent the last year whipping Melbourne crowds into music-induced frenzies The JSBs are launching their debut EP, St Christopher’s Road Trip To Vegas, at Revolver Upstairs on Friday 2 July. Joining them for the fiesta will be Melbourne darlings Johnny Rock & The Limits playing their farewell show, experimental trio These Patterns, and alternative geniuses Tomaki Jets. Action starts at 8pm, $13 with an EP on the door.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

After years of taking themselves far too seriously playing in funk soul bands, six girls finally came together to discover that people would rather dance to the sound of trash can lids being hit with large sticks whilst simultaneously destroying their vocal chords. Add a handful of synthesisers, floor toms, strobe lights and smoke machines, and you have Northeast Party House, a band inspired by the antics that occurred when a mother on vacation left her 17-year-old son in charge of their inner city Melbourne apartment for two weeks. Northeast Party House have been destroying dancefloors across town. Check out their first headline show at the Birmingham Hotel this Friday with guests Infrasonic, Straw King Eye and Cult Visions. Entry is $5 from 8pm.

HENRY’S PARIS CAT Henry Manetta & The Trip continue their soul jazz tirade following the huge response to their latest album launch at the Northcote Social Club last month. The album, Sexjazz, will satisfy any fans on an infinite groove and a mind-blurring jazz trip. They play the Paris Cat this Friday night. Go get yer sexy on! Ten years ago Van & Cal Walker boarded a ship bound for the mainland, the apple isle could no longer contain them. In search of stories and song, in Melbourne they did land and we have all been thankful since. Van and Cal play songs, Australian songs, songs that you feel you know yet have not heard before. Essentially, they play good songs. This Sunday they shall be relating some of these songs in the comfortable surrounds of the Drunken Poet, an ideal venue for the telling of such tales. Joining them will local legend of rock’n’roll Spencer P Jones. A Sunday afternoon worthy of your time. Van & Cal from 4pm, Spencer from 6.30pm.

HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? Kira Puru, vocals: “I saw these guys playing with some other diva. She was passing through town on a national tour, so I thought I’d see if she had enough fervour to keep them interested. Turned out she didn’t.” HAVE YOU RECORDED ANYTHING OR DO YOU PREFER TO TOOL AROUND IN YOUR BEDROOM? “Yes, we’ve recorded one self-titled EP at the Institute in Newcastle, and we are currently in preproduction for another, which we will be recording during our upcoming visit to Melbourne.” CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BAND’S SOUND IN FOUR WORDS? “Brutal art blues pop.” IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND IN THE WORLD, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “We’d support Johnny Cash, Nick Cave and Tom Waits if they started a super-band. Why? For the after party.” IF A HIGHER POWER SMITES YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN ONLY SAVE ONE RECORD FROM THE FIRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “The Beatles, Abbey Road.” DO YOU HAVE A LUCKY ITEM OF CLOTHING YOU WEAR FOR GIGS AND WHAT IS IT? “Yes, my vintage fur stole.” IF YOU INVITED SOMEONE AWESOME ’ROUND FOR DINNER WHAT WOULD YOU COOK? “I’d get Geordie to cook and I’d bring the wine.”

As headline act at Ding Dong’s 7th Birthday Bash, MIKE NOGA tells NICK ARGYRIOU of his experiences playing at the infamous music lounge.

PARTY AND BULLSHIT

DRUNKEN WALKER

Kira Puru & The Very Geordie Malones play the Old Bar on Friday, the Builders Arms on Saturday and the Edinburgh Castle on Sunday.

GONG FOR DONG

DEATH IS HOT Dark Realm’s doors are open for the first time in 2010 with its resurrection at the Spanish Club this Friday. Dark Realm have always been about taking their visitors on a journey and this is sure to be the best one yet at the beautiful new venue. Death Of Art will headline the night with their very visual and emotive show and take you on a rollercoaster ride you won’t want to get off! Their confronting style of rock electronic music is carried by powerful female vocals, classical and sweet one minute then angry rock the next. Also to join the line-up on the darkside is Cloud City, Final Serenity and Jae Maree Hill. Giveaways provided by Victorian Gothic throughout the night. Entry is $10/$8 with flyer/guestlist from 8pm.

ike Noga is in hot demand. Nominated to take the publicity calls for Ding Dong’s Seventh Birthday Bash promotion, Noga is also keeping busy around Melbourne playing his solo sets, preparing for The Drones’ Sounds After Dark secret gig in the aftermath of the band’s recent Pavement-curated ATP shows and Noga’s own holiday through the south of Spain. The explosive rock drummer is also currently lending his services along with fellow Drones guitarist Dan Luscombe to Augie March founder Glenn Richards’ solo record. That’s where we find Noga, on a break from “laying down tracks” with the fellas. As he explains, it’s more of a case of “having a few beers and general jamming, really”. It can be revealed in this accidental Inpress scoop that Richards’ brother Chris from Tasmania and Ben Bourke from Ned Collette also round out Richards’ band. But I digress, for it’s Ding Dong Lounge’s birthday celebrations that Noga is asked to comment on. His experiences, weird or wonderful of the inner-city laneway music venue that has hosted a plethora of magical nights catering for leading national and international bands while providing the breeding ground for many the Melbourne musical outfit. Noga’s Gentlemen Of Fortune headline this Saturday’s shindig and, on the back of securing the coveted Band Of Horses Melbourne and Sydney support in late July, are looking to show punters why the choice was an easy one for Ben Bridwell and co. “Well, The Drones had some rippers [gigs] at Ding Dong when I first joined five years ago and

I remember seeing the late, great Rowland Howard there, just solo with his electric guitar and it absolutely blew my mind,” Noga informs. “The thing I love the most about that place is that it’s one of the only reasons for me to head into the city at night... It’s cool to have a place like that... otherwise I just don’t go into the city because it’s an alien world for me, but with Ding Dong, it’s a place you want to go to. A real hidden gem is what it is.” Explaining that the Rowland S Howard solo show Noga attended in “a great club, with fuck all people in attendance”, leads the highlights reel, it’s the Ding Dong Lounge’s rock reputation, bar and a crowd who lives for the music that we both agree is the Dong’s allure. You rarely hit heightened, inane conversational chatter when artists are on stage pouring their hearts and guts out at Ding Dong. There’s a respect for the musician that has to be given laud. There’s also plenty of drinking and partying and a definite kicking-against-thepricks attitude that enshrouds the place. “Most of my memories of Ding Dong Lounge is of it being very dark, and very loud and me being very drunk,” laughs Noga. “It’s just so nice to see a venue celebrating its birthday instead of its closing,” a reflective Noga informs. With Dan Luscombe taking the stage with The Gentlemen Of Fortune Saturday eve to replace the absent Stevie Hesketh, Noga affirms that it’s going to be a cracking showcase. Especially with Davey Lane’s supergroup (including Jet’s Nic Cester) The Psychotic Pineapples also plying their trade for eager punters. “It’s lovely to see a Melbourne music venue kicking on and we can’t wait to celebrate the event on Saturday.” WHO: Mike Noga & The Gentlemen of Fortune, Davey Lane & The Psychotic Pineapples, The Frowning Clouds, The Ovals and Big Smoke WHAT: Ding Dong Lounge Seventh Birthday Bash WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Ding Dong Lounge

CLEARING UP JAZZ

NEW ROOTS

Previewing the much anticipated standards album, On A Clear Day (out in July), Jamie Oehlers and Paul Grabowsky will perform songs from their release at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club on Thursday 24 June. Highly esteemed and creative voices in jazz, Oehlers and Grabowsky bring creativity and originality to a much-loved standards repertoire inspired by jazz masters such as Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane. Songs included Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk) and When The Sun Comes Out (Harold Arlen). Tickets are $18/$15 and can be booked on 03 9663 2856.

Know Your Roots is the brainchild of Long Road Productions, a monthly showcase of some of Melbourne’s best musical acts in the folk, country, blues, reggae, funk, soul and world genres beginning this month. It all takes place at the iconic 303 in Northcote, and the line-up for the very first show includes Guesswork, Bridget Pross, Filthy Soup and Kenny Joe Blake. With this, the scene is all but set for the best roots night around. The only thing missing is you! Know Your Roots happens Saturday 26 June from 8pm. Hit knowyourroots. webs.com for tickets and information.

GROUSE LARNACH-JONES

NICK BONES UP

It’s all in the family at the next Grouse Party, Friday 11 June at the Bendigo Hotel. In a very special “Family Edition”, all of Grouse Party’s DJ pairs are blood relatives and will be unleashing their sibling rivalry in a musical fashion. Music industry honchos and hearththrobs The Larnach-Jones Brothers head the bill, along with Her Manos (Grouse regular Melodee Maker and her younger brother), The Tuckers (Beaches/Spidervomit) and representing the sisterhood, The Dodkins Sisters make their DJ debut. Get down early to avoid a queue and ‘cause the Bendigo Hotel is shouting the first round, with free beer or wine on arrival from 9pm-10pm.

Garage indie band Nick Larkins & The Bones are playing two shows this weekend. Nick was the guitarist for past indie legends Wild Pumpkins At Midnight, and more recently for Cruel Sea guitarist Dan Rumour. The Bones will be belting out their garage indie rock, with the ethereal sounds of theremin, spooky dirty beautiful guitar, and a pounding female rhythm section. They play this Friday at the Noise Bar with Blue Shudder, fresh out of high school and exploding with angst, and the poptastic Wicked Annabelle ($6 from 9pm). They then hit 303 in Northcote on Sunday with the melodic Autumn Gray and the ethereal Star & Cypress ($5 from 7pm).

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SHORT FAST

Earth Crisis

OF YOUTH

REPORT

Hardcore and punk with STU HARVEY shortfast@inpress.com.au

All things under 18 with KENDAL COOMBS accessallages@inpress.com.au

I’d like to think it’s unlikely that you’d want to buy a shirt with a swastika on it. What if I said it was a t-shirt with a swastika on it and it was £10,000? That is the price asked by Helen Hall, a memorabilia dealer who is selling the item which was originally worn by Sid Vicious during the filming of the Sex Pistols mockumentary The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle on behalf of a private vendor. Hall told UK paper The Telegraph, “This iconic piece of clothing is one of the most memorable worn by Sid Vicious. It sums up everything that punk and the Sex Pistols stood for: rebellion, controversy and provocation.”

As you may have noticed, a few weeks back it was National Youth Week and there were heaps of events around town for all young people – no matter what their skills or area of interest – to get involved in. If you were too busy with your school week (because Youth Week conveniently falls in the middle of the school term) then it’s not too late to get involved. The National Talent Competition has changed and this time there is a People’s Choice Award. After months of preparation and hundreds of entries, the 2010 National Talent Competition has closed and voting for the highly coveted People’s Choice Award is now open to voters – but only young voters: this is a talent competition for young people, by young people. If you fancy yourself a better talent scout than Dannii Minogue and Kyle Sandilands, then head to youthweek. com and get voting. The shortlisted entries of budding musicians, writers, filmmakers, graphic designers and photographers are being showcased on the website. In addition to the People’s Choice Award an elite team of professional judges will determine the overall winners in each category – the industry award is broken into two sections with entries from those between 12-17 years of age in one group, and 18-25 in the other. There are great prizes on offer so if you think that judges usually get it wrong in these circumstances, make sure you get to youthweek.com and pick your winner.

Everyone’s favourite straightedge, vegan hardcore pioneers from Syracuse, New York, Earth Crisis, have blown out the remaining dates on their current European tour, seemingly so they can get to work on a new album. The band posted a message to fans last week explaining the move: “Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be cancelling our upcoming European dates in June/July. The good news is we’ll be starting work on our new record and are shooting for a early-2011 release. Sorry Europe, we’ll see you next year with a new record!” The legendary Kid Dynamite announced a reformation show last week. A set by the revered Philly hardcore band, who splintered off after they ceased in 2000 to form acts such as The Loved Ones, None More Black and Paint It Black, is just one of the highlights of the upcoming This Is Hardcore fest happening in Philly mid-August. The three-day event features an amazing line-up of bands including a re-formed Ink And Dagger, Cro-Mags, Bane, Blacklisted, Cold World, Trapped Under Ice, Merauder, Reign Supreme and about 30 more acts. Unfortunately unless you grabbed a ticket you’re shit outta luck, because the event sold out within 36 hours!

Nick Vine and drummer Mathew Woodhouse. The album drops on 9 July on Trial And Error. To launch their new album, Samsara will be hitting the road with another band from the Trial And Error roster, Newcastle’s Dropsaw, whose third album Hard Justice is instores now. You can catch the two bands together on Saturday 14 August at the Arthouse and Sunday 15 at Phoenix Youth Centre (all ages). SHORT FAST REPORT TOP 5 Fucked Up pay tribute to Katrina & The Waves. Head to hipster website brooklynvegan. com to hear our favourite Canadian punks reinterpreting the classic Walking On Sunshine. Extortion plus I Exist plus SXWZD. The three great Aussie bands are touring together in August. Catch the fun on Thursday 26 at the Arthouse. Attack Attack! Tonight on Short.Fast.Loud they’ll be joining me to talk about their new self-titled album and to answer the question: why are they referred to as crabcore?

Still getting over the concept of Punk Goes Classic Rock? Well relax, because work is currently underway on Punk Goes Pop 3! Sparks The Rescue are the first band to be linked to the latest in the long-running series.

Horace Pinker. In 1996 this pop punk band from Chicago released Burn Tempe To The Ground. Due to the fact they were on the largely unknown One Foot label, the album was sadly under-appreciated. They did tour, from memory, in 1997… if you missed that tour, guess what? In one of the most unexpected tour announcements of the year they’re touring Australia – catch ‘em at the Arthouse on Friday 13 August.

Melbourne outfit Samsara will soon unveil their new album, Instinct Over Influence. The band have once again enlisted the skills of Converge guitarist and noted producer Kurt Ballou (Blacklisted, The Hope Conspiracy, Paint It Black, Have Heart) to engineer and mix the album, with Alan Douches at West West Studios in New York handling the album’s mastering. Instinct Over Influence will be the first recorded output for the new look Samsara that includes vocalist

Ruiner. Sad news that the great Baltimore hardcore band who were recently in Australia again are breaking up. Singer Rob explains: “This wasn’t an easy choice to make. We always ran this band at 100% and some of us now feel like we don’t have the desire to tour any more. We aren’t the kind of band who wants to release records and rarely play the music, so we decided it is now an appropriate time to hang it up.” The band will play their final show in the US in October.

THE

RACKET Metal, heavy rock and dark alternative with ANDREW HAUG theracket@inpress.com.au Firstly, can I say it feels great to not be reporting the death of some iconic metaller this week! Was beginning to think we were really cursed by the god above or the devil below. Take ya pick, ha! Norwegian symphonic black metal group Dimmu Borgir have announced their collaboration with Norwegian composer and Berklee College Of Music summa cum laude alumnus Gaute Storaas, the 51member KORK (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and the 38-member Schola Cantorum Choir for the band’s as-yet-untitled new album. To date, more than 101 musicians have lent their talents to the making of the CD. Storaas shares some insight on what it’s like to work with Dimmu Borgir: “There have been several attempts of dressing up rock bands in suits, bow ties and symphonic splendour, to various degrees of success. Working with Dimmu Borgir is quite different. Their music is epic, thematic and symphonic already from the creation; they are clearly having an orchestral approach to composing. My role in this is sometimes just to transcribe their themes, sometimes to take their ideas, tear them apart and build them back up in ways that are true to the band’s intentions.” Reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers Atheist will enter LedBelly studios in Atlanta, Georgia in July to begin recording their longawaited, as-yet-untitled fourth album. The band have secured the services of one of metal’s most significant talents of the past decade, Jason Suecof (Trivium, Devildriver), to handle the mixing of what promises to be a modern

DEPARTMENT

classic. “I can’t believe we are about to record this album finally,” vocalist Kelly Shaefer states. “We have been working our asses off for a year, and have taken great strides to make this the record we, as fans, would want to hear from Atheist. It’s ferocious, intelligent, and dead-balls heavy as shit! When people hear this, they’re going to say, ‘It’s Atheist!’” “We are honoured and totally stoked to have Jason be a part of this album with us,” says drummer Steve Flynn. “He went to great lengths to make this happen for us, and we are grateful. We anticipate collectively taking extreme metal to new places.” He seemed to have vanished into obscurity at the time that Opeth were finally being acknowledged worldwide – the man in question is drummer Martin Lopez! He’s back and has joined forces with bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus, Death) in a brand new project called Soen. According to Lopez the band’s music “will be melodic, heavy, intricate and very different than everything else”. Soen is currently writing material for what is expected to eventually become the group’s debut album. A new supergroup featuring former Deep Purple bassist/singer Glenn Hughes alongside Led Zeppelin reunion drummer Jason Bonham and Dream Theater’s former keyboardist Derek Sherinian have settled on a new name: Black Country Communion. The band state Black Country Communion is a devastating head-on collision between American and British rock influences – a true supergroup that delivers a titanic rock experience greater than the sum of their supremely talented parts. Sixx: AM, the band featuring Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, are continuing work on their sophomore album for a tentative late-2010/early-2011 release. Sixx writes on his MySpace blog: “Just finished all the bass tracks on the Sixx: AM album this week. James and I have a few lyric re-writes before he starts laying down final vocals. Listening back to all the songs the other day really put the album in perspective on how far we’ve pushed ourselves. I think the biggest challenge now

In other competition news, the groovers over at SYN FM have chosen a winner for the Free Kick competition to pick the next star rock’n’roll band to play at this year’s Community Cup alongside the likes of Nick Barker & The Reptiles, The Blackeyed Susans, Little Freddie & The Pops and The Living End. And the winners are… Money For Rope. Make sure you go check the guys out at the Community Cup because they put on a fierce performance at the competition’s grand final gig at the Espy. They’ve won themselves a coveted spot on the stage at the best game of AFL you’ll see all year, the Community Cup – also known as Melbourne’s raddest charity football match – on Sunday 27 June at Elsternwick Park. This game has seen Ally Spazzy go head to head with Angus Sampson, entire families of streakers, rock stars battling it out against community radio stars and everything in between so if you’re stuck for some fun this school holidays head out to the Community Cup and support a good cause.

is lyrically to outdo what we’ve done musically.” Canadian death metallers Kataklysm have completed the recording process for their new album, Heaven’s Venom, for a 24 August release via Nuclear Blast Records. “It’s done!” exclaimed guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais. “The recording for our new album, Heaven’s Venom, is complete. Everything you wish for in a Kataklysm album is here and some unexpected musical adventures as well. Everyone here has given 150% of themselves! The music, the vocals and the production are all top notch. The mix is the hands of Tue Madsen as we speak and we have full confidence in him. He did a wonderful job on our In The Arms Of Devastation album so be prepared!”

LOCAL GIG GUIDE Medusa, WonroweVision, Demolition, Toe Cutter – Saturday 19 June, Metal Heaven (1422 Lauderdale St, Narre Warren) Internal Nightmare (EP launch), Contrive, Humonic, Scar The Surface, Meticulous Despoilment and Deliverance We Prey – Friday 25 June, East Brunswick Club

TOURS, TOURS, TOURS Alestorm – Friday 18 June, Corner Hotel Paul Di’Anno – Thursday 24 June, the Espy Om – Friday 16 July, Hi-Fi Bar Slash – Wednesday 11 August – Festival Hall Napalm Death – Sunday 5 September – the Hi-Fi Mayhem – Thursday 23 September – the Hi-Fi Overkill – Friday 24 September, the Hi-Fi Andrew Haug hosts Triple J’s The Racket every Tuesday from 10pm – triplej.abc.net.au/ racket. Email theracket@inpress.com.au

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THE

Will.i.am

BREAKDOWN Pop culture therapy with ADAM CURLEY Beware, Kelis fans. From reports ahead of the New York singer’s next album, currently set for a 6 July release in Australia, there are many signs to indicate she’s been Black Eyed Peas’d. Her album, Flesh Tone (the title made incidentally more timely by the hoopla caused by the recent description of a ‘champagne’-coloured dress Michelle Obama wore as “flesh tone” by the designer), led by first US club chart hit Acapella, is being released through Interscope via Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am’s own label. Collaborators on the album include David Guetta, Benny Benassi and Boys Noize. In a recent interview with New York City’s The Village Voice, Will.i.am said of his partnership with Kelis, “She’s the cool people’s best-kept secret and I want to introduce her to the world.” Yes, tread carefully, or you’ll be wiping the backspray off your face like Fergie after a long show. Will.i.am’s quote, of course, doesn’t mean a whole lot, except to say that Kelis has many times attempted sustained ‘mainstream’ success and failed due to a generally acknowledged level of ‘artistic integrity’. She hasn’t done too badly for herself, with spiking single sales every few years with the likes of Milkshake and Bossy, but the appearance of a handful of tracks on which she was merely a ‘guest’ for other artists on her own ‘best of’ in 2008 speaks volumes. Kelis has been often used as the ‘credibility’ guest for more successful acts, including NERD, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Enrique Iglesias, but has had trouble turning that cred into ‘breakout stardom’. But if anyone knows how to overcome that hurdle, it’s the man who led the Black Eyed Peas’ once explodingPOW-sign hip hop into the musical (well, and visual) representation of the Speed Racer remake, ie. a whole lot of shiny, expensive nothing. Acapella so far hasn’t had the same kind of chart impact in Australia as it’s had in the States and also hasn’t made the jump to the main singles chart in the US, but it’s early days yet, particularly for a ‘dance crossover’ act, which often take some time to be latched onto by radio. The track is also not nearly as bad as anything BEP have given us of late, though it doesn’t touch her distorted pop of old. Of course, if the success doesn’t come, it’ll likely just add to her ‘credibility’ status and get her more guest work in the future. The same could be said of fellow New Yorkers

ROOTS DOWN

Blues ‘n’ roots with DAN CONDON rootsdown@inpress.com.au I’m currently staring down to the ground 30,000 feet below me, taking in my last glances of the Texas countryside as Townes Van Zandt’s Our Mother The Mountain pumps through my headphones. I’ve just spent the past few days in Austin, a city that really loves its music. As you alight the plane at Austin-Bergstrom Airport there are pictures of guitars all over the terminal. You can grab a sandwich at Lefty’s Grill (named after Mr Van Zandt’s amazing Pancho And Lefty) or perhaps get some coffee at the Asleep At The Wheel diner, which is named after the western swing band of the same name. Once out of the airport, music lovers have limitless options to wile away the hours – a huge number of bars, diners and restaurants all offer live music. There’s a reason it is considered to be the live music capital of the world. I fought through the jetlag to get out to the Continental Club early on in the trip. Established in 1957, the bar has played host to so many of Austin’s finest as well as those passing through the city; everyone from Glenn Miller to the Butthole Surfers have graced the stage here and one of Austin’s favourite sons, Stevie Ray Vaughan, is said to have gotten his start here back in the mid to late ‘70s. I was here to see a local, in fact an old friend and roommate of Vaughan’s, Denny Freeman. Freeman is widely considered to be one of the finest guitarists on the planet; he was a touring member of Bob Dylan’s band up until August of last year (he also plays on the excellent Modern Times record) and was a member of Taj Mahal’s Phantom Blues Band up until the end of 2002. Through the 1980s Freeman was in the house band at Antone’s, Austin’s home of blues, and while he was there he backed up artists like Buddy Guy, Otis Rush,

Ratatat, who released their LP4 record last week (through XL/Remote Control) and take a seemingly dichotomous approach to their work. On the one hand their ‘artist’ albums are straying further from ‘indie dance crossover’ land (the influence of structured French electro on their first two records) and taking more from Warp Records ‘sound-art’ and the French electronic approach to shoegaze (chillout?). Their peers at this stage are Air more than any of America’s newer crossover indie dance acts. It’s excellently textured stuff, yet their name is synonymous in many circles with club remixes and collaborations with more ‘mainstream’ artists. Ratatat’s two remix albums have seen them work over Kanye West, Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and Missy Elliot. Last year they collaborated on two tracks for Kid Cudi’s album. Perhaps the biggest sign of their entrance into club culture are the lists of unofficial mash-ups other (usually pretty shit) DJs have made with their tracks. If you’re looking for a pumped up Nirvana or AC/ DC song, an amateur Ratatat mash-up is waiting for you on Beatport or SoundCloud or wherever the ‘jockeys’ are uploading their tracks these days. There’s no doubt Ratatat could take their collaboration and remix success and translate it to their ‘artist’ work with their own ‘guest’ vocalists/rappers, or even fit their own sounds into a clubbier mould. Perhaps they’re happy to remain the “cool people’s best-kept secret”, particularly if it means not becoming Will.i.am. Besides, it’s sounding like Mark Ronson is going to go there for them anyway. The first tracks released from his upcoming Record Collection album, Circuit Breaker and Bang Bang Bang, take the arcade-game structure of old Ratatat and push it into a cut-for-radio cube with a soul groove. A ‘kept secret’ it is not, but then, there might be a reason he’s releasing the album under the name Mark Ronson & The Business.

Jimmie Rodgers, Albert Collins and Junior Wells. As I climb the stairs to the Continental Club’s Gallery room, I’m shocked to notice there are precisely four people in the room and two of them are bar staff. Tonight Freeman is playing with the Mike Flanigin Trio, which also features drummer Frosty Smith, who has backed up Texan greats like Marcia Ball, Roky Erickson, Jimmie Vaughan and Alejandro Escovedo. By the time the band kick into gear, the room has just six payers inside. As if the intimacy of the show wasn’t enough of a surprise, it turned out that this wasn’t even a blues show; Flanigin is an organist (and a damn good one) with a revolving band who play anything from funk to rock to blues and beyond. Tonight they’re on a jazz kick and it is really something to see players of this calibre performing in this kind of setting. I cannot accuse them of not putting in effort for such a small (albeit growing) crowd; the music was constantly interesting and I’d imagine this environment serves as a great place to try out new things in front of an audience to see if they work. All three played incredibly, and equally as impressive as their individual talents was their ability to read each other and communicate in the middle of their freeform tunes. By the end of the night there were probably 20 people in the club; a few girls got up to dance and some requests were called and honoured. As I strolled up to the stage to throw my last few dollars into the band’s tip jar midway through one of their closing tunes, Freeman nodded and smiled, acknowledgment and thanks for my cash, and something about this moment rocked my thoughts about the entire show. Here we had three musicians of the highest calibre, putting on one hell of a show to such little acknowledgement. I’d convinced myself this kind of show was an excuse for the musicians to get out and try new things before they embarked on bigger shows with bigger projects, but then I realised that after all these years they are still suffering for their art – playing for tips to not many people at all and I couldn’t help but feel they deserved more.

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TOLA’S WORLD

JUST GOTTA SMOKE IT

RIP

Melbourne band Enns Tola launch their debut single and film clip Turn My World Around at Spenserslive in West Melbourne on Friday 18 June with support from metal rock group Tread and slick local pop act Parker. Enns Tola’s flawless stagecraft, where progressive Middle Eastern rock meets soaring melodies, extends far beyond the tried-and-tested band line-up. Blending edgy and raw guitar-driven riffs with Japanese koto and woodwind along with masterful drums, bass and vocals, they forge a unique sound that demands attention. Tickets are $12+BF from Moshtix.

RUE MCCLANAHAN

PURU AND CHILLY

DOUBLE THE RUMBLE Rumble is back this Queen’s birthday weekend on Saturday at the Bendigo Hotel and it promises to be a big one. Ex-Fireballs member Matt Black will be taking his new act Doubleblack to the stage after their recent national support of Nashville Pussy. Do not miss these guys! Alongside them will be Ballarat’s very own The Yardapes, who have been sent from the future to destroy your past with their surf-inspired trashabilly punk. The Vaudevillains frontman Adrian Whyte performs solo on the night – a solid songwriting exposé. All this with the usual titillating burlesque act in the middle and Rumble DJs spinning ankle-breaking tracks ‘til 3am. Entry is $10.

Kira Puru & The Very Geordie Malones have already had a busy year starting with a stack of dates supporting Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants on their album launch tour throughout April and May. Now they’re following it up with a tour of their very own in celebration of their debut EP! They will be hitting Melbourne with a show at the Old Bar this Friday, accompanied by Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders, The Death Rattles and Mojo Juju (solo) – entry is $10 from 8.30pm. They then join a host of awesome acts at the Builders Arms on Saturday, with Graveyard Train and Dead Man On Deck – $10 from 8.30pm. And finally, they play the Edinburgh Castle for a mammoth Queen’s birthday eve show on Sunday with Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collectors and The John Fox Band – $10 from 8pm.

ROMANTIC FOLK Formed back in the year 2000, popular Melbournebased Bosnian band Romantic have delivered ten years of quality live sound to our community. Their unique style of pop, rock and folk party music, has made them the band of choice for many memorable occasions. Senahid Mrki has vocal capabilities unrivaled in Melbourne, and his warm and outgoing personality has made him a favourite amongst lovers of Bosnian music all over Australia. They make their debut at Spenserslive in West Melbourne on Saturday 19 June. Tickets are $20 at the door from 7pm.

When the sexiest and sassiest Golden Girl of them all, Rue McClanahan, passed away last week aged 76, she left behind a generation of fans who’d grown up with her portrayal of an older lady with an insatiable appetite for sex and romance, something almost unheard of in TV-land prior to that.

Born 2006 at the foothills of the Great Dividing Ranges, Bottle Of Smoke have been unleashing their distinct sound via monster guitars, gravel stained melodies and sound solid arrangements to unsuspecting ears. Bottle Of Smoke create raw, dynamic hard rock music that navigates over various terrain. They primarily exist, work and bleed to perform their music live. Reviews have regarded their potential influences as being drawn somewhat from the American West Coast music scene of the early to mid-‘90s. Make your own call when they play IDGAFF this Friday with The Charge and Electric Primitives. Entry is free from 7pm.

Her performance as randy senior citizen Blanche Elizabeth Devereaux (Dorothy: “Your initials spell B.E.D.?”) in The Golden Girls not only won her an Emmy but also paved the way for strong, funny, sexually-liberated women characters like Sex In The City’s Samantha Jones. Blanche was saucy, hilarious and horny as hell – she made the golden years seem like spring break. As the brassiest of four feisty older women sharing a house in Miami, she bore the brunt of many a wisecrack (Blanche: “My whole life is an open book”. Sophia: “Your whole life is an open blouse!”), but it’s for her own Blanche-isms that she will be remembered... Rose: “Is it possible to be in love with two men at the same time?” Blanche: “Well, let’s set the scene... have we been drinking?” Thank Rue for being a friend. Further viewing: tmz.com/2010/06/03/ rue-mcclanahan-betty-whitegolden-girls-dirty-jokes-video/ Melvis Crawford

ROSIE IN THE JUNGAL The Rosie Burgess Trio are about to head off overseas to the US and Canada for a whirlwind of shows and to soak up that North American summer. But, before they go, they’ll be gracing the stage at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood for Sunday Sets with Jungal this Sunday from 3pm. The three women from Jungal are a breath of fresh air on the Australian music scene. Rocking out in full throttle, Jungal create their own brand of Australian flavoured indie roots. Next up, armed with a makeshift drum kit, guitars, an electric violin, delectable harmonies and a little comic relief thrown in there for good measure, the Rosie Burgess Trio are one musical concoction you don’t want to miss. Entry is free!

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is probably one of the few areas of my life where I can get up on stage no matter what I’m feeling. But I’ve had some terrible panic attacks before gigs, where the feeling of stage fright, which I still get, overwhelms me and it becomes something else, like an intense desire to prove a point. Things can actually get better then, it can improve what happens on stage.”

Jason Walker

CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

HOWZAT!

didn’t ache.” But the tough times led to an artistic triumph – Ceiling Sun Letters is a ragged masterpiece.

Local music news by JEFF JENKINS

So where did the title come from? “This might destroy the mysticism of it, but my email address was getting spammed very generously a few years back,” the Sydney singer/songwriter tells Howzat!, “and they were obviously using a random word generator for the subject line to get through the filter. I received one email entitled ‘Democratic Educator’ – which I really like and have used as a song title – and another entitled ‘Ceiling Sun Letters’. It just seemed quite an odd and beautiful phrase.”

EVERYBODY’S IN DEBT The artist bio is often deadly dull or filled with hyperbole. Rarely is it brutally honest. But the bio accompanying Jason Walker’s new album (out now on Laughing Outlaw Records) tells a vivid tale: “Ceiling Sun Letters is a drug album,” Jason states. “During the writing and recording of it, I was dominated by a fear of death and the nervous energy that followed my two near-death experiences… I lived on a diet of [anxiety drug] Xanax, anti-depressants, cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, the odd dragon-chasing session and bingeing on food. It’s about trying to communicate the chaos that everyone experiences at various points in their lives, and trying to swim against the logical current to get the word out. I was not at all well during that period.” “There’s only so much that one person can take,” Jason sings in Advice To Beginners, “you’ll dream of a time when you

Jason will be in Melbourne next month, with shows at the Empress on Friday 9 July and the Espy on Sunday 11 July. How does Jason’s panic and anxiety disorder affect his approach to live performances? “They’re both triggered by a variety of circumstances in my life over which I feel I have little or no control. For example, getting on a crowded train or a bus can make me freak out – internally, I hasten to add – as do car and security alarms. I seem to have this thing about live performance where I just instinctively know that I can control what’s going on to a certain extent. Music

In 2006, Jeff Apter asked Tim Finn how he’d feel if he wrote a book about the brothers Finn. “I’d be horrified,” Tim replied, smiling. Jeff says Tim initially gave the project “his reluctant blessing”, but he later refused to be involved with the book, Together Alone, ($34.95, Random House). Indeed, Jeff was unable to speak with most of the key players, including Tim and Neil, Michael Gudinski, Phil Judd and Split Enz’s manager, Nathan Brenner. The result: a fraction too much fiction? Perhaps. But Jeff – who has previously done books on Silverchair and Keith Urban – has done an admirable job, delivering a highly readable book filled with fine anecdotes. An example: Enz bass player Nigel Griggs was so paranoid during the making of 1983’s Conflicting Emotions album, he planted a tape recorder in the studio’s control room. Together Alone also documents an unusual creative love story, between Enz founders Tim Finn and Phil Judd. Jeff writes that Tim “grieved” when Phil’s daughter, Amy, was born, quoting a Judd acquaintance: “It marked, in Tim’s mind, the end of the special bond he shared with Phil.” Sadly, they remain estranged. Tim’s most recent solo album concluded with a song called More Fool Me. “We couldn’t keep our band together,” Tim sings, “you and I were always gonna blow it… somehow we’ve lost everything.” Phil – an immensely talented musician, who also fronted The Swingers – was recently convicted of stalking three young girls. It’s a tragic tale. There are some glaring omissions in Together Alone (Jeff fails to mention Peter Jones, who replaced Paul Hester in Crowded House in 1994), and without the involvement of the main subjects, it lapses into a chronological roll call of Neil and Tim’s various musical projects. But that’s no bad thing when the music is so good. Every Finn-related album has at least one magic moment, a song that provides the soundtrack to a significant moment in your life. As Jeff writes, “Neil

and Tim Finn have left a permanent impression on probably millions of listeners and admirers around the planet, both together and alone.”

CHART WATCH Just four Aussie acts in the national Top 40. We Speak No Americano YOLANDA BE COOL (number four) Mr Mysterious VANESSA AMOROSI (21) Unbroken STAN WALKER (23) Seventeen JET (33) Top five debuts for two Perth bands. Immersion PENDULUM (number three, debut) Innerspeaker TAME IMPALA (four, debut) Iron Man 2 AC/DC (seven) Down The Way ANGUS & JULIA STONE (11) This Is The Warning DEAD LETTER CIRCUS (13) Golden Rule POWDERFINGER (14) Spooks THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS (18, debut) Enchanted Way DAVID HOBSON (19) April Uprising THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO (25) Conditions THE TEMPER TRAP (32) Hazardous VANESSA AMOROSI (37)

HOWZAT! PLAYLIST Everybody’s In Debt JASON WALKER Easy Targets LAZY SUSAN Age 14 REBECCA BARNARD Nowhere Boys BRITISH INDIA More Fool Me TIM FINN

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Babble Bar Open Bittersweet Kicks Cherry Bar Bois et Charbon, Bon Soiree Marquis Of Lorne Hotel Cherrywood Guns, Dead Man On Deck, The Jacks The Arthouse Clavians, Dreaming Of Ghosts, Siva, The Villians Lair, Drewfunk, Hans DC Revolver Daryl Roberts The Spanish Club Dizzy’s Big Band Dizzy’s Jazz Club Jacob Harris, Das Musik Mann The Standard Hotel John Flanagan & The Begin Agains, Yelka, Hazelmen Brothers Wesley Anne LeBelle, Tim Woods, Preston Perche, Cazi Esplanade Lounge Marshall & The Fro, Benjalu The Loft, Warrnambool Nicola Watson, Abbie Cardwell The Drunken Poet Open Mic Bender Bar Open Mic Elwood Lounge Open Mic with Matt McFarlane Brunswick Hotel

THU 10

3181 Thursdays, Hans DC, WHO Revolver An Undying Day In Orbit, Crash Arcadia, Dirty F, The Honey Pies Birmingham Hotel Andrew Reid, Gyro Groove Dizzy’s Jazz Club Cold Harbour Lyrebird Lounge

SANDY RETREAT This Sunday is Queen’s birthday eve (thanks Liz) and the Retreat is up for some fun with the mighty Sand Pebbles and Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist (not to mention DJ Traffic Jam to keep things rockin’ until 3am). The show kicks of at 8pm, the open fires will be cranking, the beer will be cold, the music will be hot. Thursday night, the Retreat welcomes Mini-Bikes (featuring the ever-so-talented Marcel Borrack) with help from SoV. Friday night is set to be huge at the Retreat with Money For Rope and Fearless Vampire Killers, and Saturday doesn’t show any signs of slowing down with blues veteran Tinsley Waterhouse warming up the front bar from 7.30pm and then Brothers Grim and The Plague Doctors rockin’ out the back from 10pm. And it’s all free. Don’t forget Bogan Bingo is back Monday nights 8pm ‘til 10pm, free, adults only. See you there!

Curds n Grain Elwood Lounge Dan Musal, Mandy Wragg Bender Bar Harry Manx Thornbury Theatre James Hampton Great Britain Hotel Jason Cruz & Chris Aiken, City Escape, Therefore I Am (USA), Dream On Dreamer, The Statics, KC Irony Next John Montesante Quintet, Nichaud Fitzgibbon The Commune Keshie East Brunswick Club Ladies Night Transport Hotel (Fed Sq) Large No 12’s Pure Pop Records Lost Burros, Death Cheetahs, Strangers At Sea The Old Bar Margot Leighton Quintet Paris Cat Jazz Club Marshall & The Fro, Benjalu Baha Tacos Mini Bikes, Marcel Borrack, SoV Retreat Hotel Mister Black n Blues, The Boy Who Spoke Clouds, Goodnight Owl, Victoriana Gaye Wesley Anne Naomi Jones Trio The Drunken Poet Nicholas Roy, Brendan McLean The Toff In Town Passport For Amy, Blue Shudder, Ashen Tide The Arthouse Pretty Strangers, In The Woods, Oceans Between Empress Hotel Princess One Point Five, Flying Scribble, Patinka Cha Cha Builders Arms Hotel Riverside Travellers The Spanish Club Rock Aerobics, The Single Men’s Drinking Club, The Young Have Secrets, The Orphanage, Pauli Douglas Yah Yah’s San Fran Disco, En Tout Cas, Under Colours Ding Dong Lounge Saritah, DJ Damon, Rayjah 45, Hugo & The Light Brigade, Untitled, Bam Bam Assassins Evelyn Hotel Shutter Stop, Toyota War, Parliament of Rooks Bar Open Simon Wright & the Elective, White Boys Can’t Funk, Lorraine Manjela Esplanade Lounge

Slabotomy, Roostar, Speed Orange, Travis Winters Esplanade Gershwin Room Strung Out (USA), The Loved Ones, Backyard Surgeons HiFi Bar Studio A Spectacular Comedy Fundraiser IV, Josh Thomas, Frank Woodley, Jimeon Corner Hotel The Bonniwells, Iowa Grace Darling Hotel The Foundation, Glycerine, Green Skies Brunswick Hotel ‘The’ Jack Norton Union Hotel Brunswick The Murderballs, Human Jack, The Mercury Theatre Ruby’s Lounge The Promises Edinburgh Castle Hotel These Patterns, My Musical Collective, Le Foxx, Beloved Elk, Slow Dance Pony White Boyz Can’t Funk Cherry Bar

FRI 11

After The Fall, The Vasco Era Forum Theatre Back Back Forward Punch!, Paqman, Winterplan, WAX! Weekly Audio Extravaganza, Haul Music House Party #2, Andee Frost Revolver Banjo, Mama’s Rejects, 2swai Ruby’s Lounge Better Than The Wizards, Ryan Murphy Band, Berry Bodies, Emily Trembath Brunswick Hotel Bottle Of Smoke, The Charge, Electric Primitives IdGAFF British India, Big Scary, City Riots Corner Hotel Burly-Friday Live Show featuring, Scarlett, Miss Nic, Goldiloks, Honey B Goode, Poppy Cherry, Foxtrot India, Lady Chocolat Burlesque Bar Canos, John Flanagan, Siobhan Ding Dong Lounge City Escape The Castle CJ Shaw, Jshwa & The Owls, JJ Symon Edinburgh Castle Hotel Dappled Cities Fly, John Steele Singers, Otouto Prince Bandroom

Death of Art, Cloud City, Matador Stage, DJ Funky Perle Conchi The Spanish Club Doc Viney The Prague Dreadnaught, Berzerkerfox, Demonhead, Ayera The Arthouse Drunk Mums, The Eyeball Kicks, The Charlies 303 Duck Duck Chop, Dozers, Daddy Long Legs, Transistor, Touch It Pony Elf Tranzporter, Mc Izzy, Ethereal lotus Fleet Irene’s Warehouse Fire Santa Rosa Fire!, Deep Sea Arcade, Kimbra Workers Club Frowning Clouds, Demon Parade Barwon Club ‘Grouse Queer Party’, The Larnach-Jones Bros, Her Manos, The Dodkins Sisters, The Tuckers Bendigo Hotel Henry Manetta & The Trip Paris Cat Jazz Club Ian Moss Bennetts Lane Jordie Lane, Elizabeth & Donovan, Leena Northcote Social Club Kalimaa, Dilan Peters Bender Bar King Marong & Afro Mandinko Bar Open Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, The Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders, The Death Rattles, Mojo Juju The Old Bar Lady J Abode Late Arvo Sons, Lost Burros, Saint James, Mohair Slim Yah Yah’s Live & Subs Esplanade Gershwin Room Marshall & The Fro, Benjalu, Chris Cavill, Andrew Higgs Evelyn Hotel Money For Rope, Fearless Vampire Killers, DJ Dave The Scot Retreat Hotel Muph & Plutonic, Chasm & Vida Sunshyne, Jess Harlen HiFi Bar Nick Larkins & The Bones, Wicked Anabelle, Blue Shudder Noise Bar Nick Murphy, Peter Ewing, Owl Eyes Grace Darling Hotel

Northeast Party House, Infrasonic, Straw King Eye, Cult Visions Birmingham Hotel Orangeroom Rock, The Raffaellas, She Fuzz Reveller’s North (upstairs) Pat Lajoie, Wilber Wild Band Dizzy’s Jazz Club Poprocks at the Toff, Dr Phil Smith The Toff In Town Sarah Saunders Elwood Lounge Shannon Lee Chaise Lounge Son Of A Gun, Tobias Hengeveld, Claire Jenkins Wesley Anne Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, Slap N Dash, Mu Gen, Scattermish, Mat Cant, Lewis Can Cut Esplanade Lounge Sunset Circus, Quiet Child, A Brokers Night Sleep The Public Bar The Guild League, Tessa & The Typecast, Oh Pep! East Brunswick Club The Pretty Lies, Art of Wor, Beyond Redemption, The Company Esplanade Basement The Wildes Builders Arms Hotel Tony Johannsen, Glenn Ford Revellers North Tony Johannsen Reveller’s North (downstairs) Tornado Wallace, Francis Inferno Orchestra Loop Traditional Irish Music Session, Dan Bourke & Friends The Drunken Poet Violent Mood Swings Lyrebird Lounge Wikked Bliss, Black Aces, Bunny Monroe Cherry Bar Young Werther, The Nymphs, Charles Jenkins Empress Hotel

SAT 12

A State of Flux, All India Radio, Quiet Child, Two Cent Sideshow Evelyn Hotel Alex Legg, Fats Wah Wah St Andrews Hotel Ben Carr Trio Wesley Anne

What are you doing AFTER DARK on July 17? Visit coopers.com.au for all details. 84

Blades, Toasters Boutique, Laird & Lomas ft. madman, Tenfold, Anon Speak, Ida, Luke Presto Irene’s Warehouse Bogan Nation, A Lesser Ego, Elemental Burn, Fine Art Dealer Esplanade Basement Box Rockets, The Honey Pies Great Britain Hotel British India, Big Scary, City Riots Corner Hotel Brothers Grim, The Plague Doctors, Tinsley Waterhouse Trio, DJ Xander Retreat Hotel Bum Creek, Chrome Dome, Ed Guglielmino, Lost Animal, Panel Of Judges, Parading, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, The Orphanage, The Promised Land Empress Hotel Chris Wilson The Drunken Poet Cirque De Femmes Burlesque Bar City Escape Sand Bar, Mildura Common, Kid Capri Prince Bandroom Dan Kelly, Eagle and the Worm!, Ken Eavel Barwon Club Darktown Strutter, Vanity, Black Aces Reveller’s North (upstairs) Dead Letter Chorus, Two Hours Traffic, Institut Polaire Northcote Social Club Desert Sessions, The Merri Creek Pickers The Public Bar Doomsday Saints, Damn The Empire, Thrashdance, Bateman The Arthouse Doubleblack, Adrian White, The Yard Apes Bendigo Hotel Duck Musique Builders Arms, early show Graveyard Train, Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, Dead Man On Deck Builders Arms Hotel Great Earthquake, Love Connection, Milk Teddy Workers Club Ian Moss Brighton Beach Hotel Instromania, Harry’s Web, The Futuras, Ben Rogers and Instrumental Asylum, Martin Cilia Chandelier Room Josie Jason Great Ocean Hotel Kill Kurt Reifler, The Transistors, Rise Electric Cherry Bar Kill The Matador, Emerson Bang

Kiss Chasey Pier Live Kretch, Union Radio, Ryan Sterling Grace Darling Hotel Marshall & The Fro, Shaun Kirk, Benjalu, Chris Cavill Ruby’s Lounge MC Junior Project, Jerson Trinidad, Keagan Clothier Spenserlive Mike Noga & the Gentlemen of Fortune, Davey Lane & Psychotic Pineapples, The Frowning Clouds, The Ovals, Big Smoke Ding Dong Lounge Mo Ichi, Miyagi Loop New Skinn, Tim Mcmillan Band, Fading Hour, In Volume, Faeble HiFi Bar Ouch My Face, Bone, Beat Disease, New Estate The Old Bar Pat Lajoie, Ollie McGill’s ‘The Genie’ Dizzy’s Jazz Club Rap City ft. DJ Premier, Nic Javis, Beatnuts, Masta Ace, EDOG, Total Eclipse Esplanade Lounge & Gershwin Room Scruffy, Beaker, Jon Montes, Queen Martine Abode Shane Walters Elwood Lounge SHERIFF, Gretchen Lewis, Sweet Lincoln, The Late Show Revolver Spectrum trio Lomond Hotel Spoonful, Paul Winstanley, Kit Warhurst, Andre Warhurst, David Lord Union Hotel Brunswick The Break, Digger & The Pussycats East Brunswick Club The Casette Kids, Howl, Kids of 88, The House deFROST, Andee Frost The Toff In Town The Devil Rides Out Lyrebird Lounge The Frowning Clouds, The Living Eyes, Badlands DJs Birmingham Hotel The Jane Austin Argument, Brendan McLean, Mikki Ross, Flash Fry Brunswick Hotel The Lowdown Street Orchestra Bar Open The Rock Dj, Ildiko, Alex Ashley Bender Bar The Valiants, Cheerleader IdGAFF

kwp!CPR10778

WED 09

Plague Doctor, Jimmy Tait, Store Bought Cool The Old Bar Saskia Sansom, Mikelangelo & St Clare, Tara Simmons Empress Hotel Single Twin, Brian Catridge Load Error Edinburgh Castle Hotel Song Writers Collective, Good Suns, Shaun Kirk, The Jayden, Jess Hieser Evelyn Hotel Strung Out (USA), The Loved Ones, Lost Boy Found Barwon Club Tailor Made For A Small Room, Far Concern, Maudita Builders Arms Hotel The Black Hill Five, Wil Wagner & Friends, The Honda’s Birmingham Hotel

Wed. 9th (Wine, Whiskey, Women) 8pm: Nicola Watson 9pm: Abbie Cardwell Thurs. 10th 8pm: The Naomi Jones Trio Fri. 11th 6pm: Traditional Irish Music session with Dan Bourke & friends Sat. 12th 9pm: Chris Wilson Sun. 13th 4pm: Van & Cal Walker 6.30pm: Spencer P. Jones Tues. 15th 8pm: Weekly Trivia

All Shows Always Free! The Drunken Poet, 65 Peel Street (Directly opposite Queen Vic Market). Phone: 03 9348 9797 www.myspace.com/drunkenpoets 85

gigguide@inpress.com.au Three Month Sunset, Andrew Keese & the Associates, Matt Bailey, Mid State Orange, Wunderlust, Pink Fitt Pony Thrilling True Stories, Lucky Hunter, Desert Shore Edinburgh Castle Hotel Thrillkillers, Superfun Happyslide The Prague Tobias Cummings Edinburgh Castle, early show Umulat, Dr El Suavo The Spanish Club Vince Peach, Chris Gill, Miss Goldie, Dom A Dozen Yah Yah’s

SUN 13

A Sound Mind, Hatchet Dawn, Sounds of Sirus, Vitruvian Man, Hybrid Nightmares Next Archer & Bow Great Britain Hotel Boarders, The Messengers, The Polites, Seesaw, TTT, Pink Fitt Pony Cazi, Penelope Knight Builders Arms, early show

TO BE SHAW Sydney’s esteemed singer/songwriter CJ Shaw is back at the Edinburgh Castle as part of his ongoing TunesInBloom Xpress Train tour. He is joined by two very special locals Jshwa & The Owls as well as JJ Symon. Shaw’s shows are heavily entrenched in the folk tradition of songwriting, storytelling and poetry. His variety of songs is outstanding as he moves seamlessly between tragic folk ballads, contemporary folk hip-hop and comedy. Catch the line-up at the Edinburgh Castle this Friday. Entry is $6 from 8.30pm. Children Collide, Cabins, Betty Airs HiFi Bar Curly Joe, Adam Lawler Chandelier Room Damon Smith & The Quality Lightweights, D. Rogers & Emma Heeney, Ed Reed Empress Hotel, Arvo Show Dan Kelly Karova Lounge Danielle McDonald, O.M.Gee’s Transport Hotel (Fed Sq)

Daryl Braithwaite, Headspace, Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batucada Esplanade Lounge Fearless Vampire Killers, Oz Rock History Sessions, Sharpie Cows, Gaylord Lovelace, Smoke Machine, Michael Ozone Grace Darling Hotel Fred Negro’s Kooky Karaoke, The Patron Saints, Lewi Pommer Lyrebird Lounge Fromage, Francis Chang, Superhanz Loop

Gift of Gab, Curse Ov Dialect, Class A Corner Hotel Gosteleradio, Oliver Mann, DJ Smiley McSlidey The Toff In Town Ian Moss The Palais, Hepburn Springs Ida Fox Edinburgh Castle, early show James Kenyon, The Lloyd Weir, Earl Grey Policy, SteelBirds Wesley Anne Jodie Galvin & The Tenderhearts The Carringbush Hotel Joe Mandica Duo The Spanish Club Josh Owen Band, Hailey Calvert East Brunswick Club Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, Jess Ribiero & The Bone Collectors, The John Fox Band Edinburgh Castle Hotel Lauren Lee Williams Lomond Hotel Legends Of Motorsport, The Bowers, Bunny Monroe, The A-Tonals Yah Yah’s London Elektricity, AD MC, Patch, Finna, Safire, & more Prince Bandroom

Mary Jane Kelly, Shinto Katana, Phantoms, Cash No, Hallower, Cam (Bodyjar/Cola Wars), Mikey (FAO/Cola Wars), Perfect Fit, Madison Jayne Bang Mike Rudd, George Martin Iron Horse BBQ Fresh @ Elwood Mini Bikes The Standard Hotel Monster Band Night, Tasha, Romero, Beavercore, The Feel Goods Ruby’s Lounge Moonee Valley Drifters Westernport Hotel Ne Obliviscaris, Paradigm, A Million Dead Birds Laughing Northcote Social Club Nick Larkins & The Bones, Autumn Gray, Star and Cypress 303 Open Decks Bender Bar Pealing, Wade & Young St Andrews Hotel Redcoats, The Black & White, Beat Disease Evelyn Hotel Revolver Sundays, Lee Mortimer, Charmeleon Recordings Showcase 001, Reptiles, Pets With Pets, Jumpin’ Jack William Revolver Ryan Meeking Elwood Lounge

Sand Pebbles, Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist, DJ Traffic Jam Retreat Hotel Shaun Kirk Oak Tree Tavern Stevie Page Band Williamstown RSL Sunday Sets, Jungal, Rosie Burgess Trio Bendigo Hotel Sweet Felicia & The Honeytones Union Hotel Brunswick Tash Anderson, Bridget Pross, Filthy Soup, Simon Wright, Sid Air, The Mcqueens, Les Burdett and the Heavy Rollers, Cheerleader Brunswick Hotel The Band Who Knew Too Much Bar Open The Break, Digger & The Pussycats, Infusion, Kids of 88, North East Party House, Ebony & Ivory Esplanade Gershwin Room The Denotators Sandbelt Hotel The Frowning Clouds, The Delta Riggs, The Kremlin Succession Workers Club The Supertronics, Retro Surf Instrumental Grandview Hotel The Toot Toot Toots, Assassination Collective, Baptism of Uzi, DJ Steely Dan McKay The Old Bar

The Vibrators, Sin City, Bastard Squad, Mince Meat The Arthouse Tubovas, My Left Boot, Ancient Man Cherry Bar Uncle Bill, Atrocity Burlesque Bar Van & Cal Walker, Spencer P Jones The Drunken Poet ‘Weekender’, The Demon Parade, The Kicks Ding Dong Lounge White Woods, Miniature Submarines, Elizabeth Pistol Club Empress Hotel

MON 14

Bogan Bingo Retreat Hotel ‘Crotchety Knitwits’ The Old Bar El Moth & The Turbo Rads Evelyn Hotel Josh Owen Band Esplanade Lounge Karaoke The Spanish Club Sunday Sets, Andyblack, Haggis, Swing Classes The Toff In Town The Prayerbabies Union Hotel Brunswick

The Universal Thump, Houlette, DJ A La Fu Northcote Social Club

TUE 15

Ali E, Hayley Couper, Bean, Acknowledge, Group Art Show The Old Bar Anna’s Go Go Dance Classes Bendigo Hotel DJ Shaky Memorial Retreat Hotel Freya, Al Parkinson, Earl Grey Policy, Imola Esplanade Lounge Melbourne Fresh Industry Showcase, Celeste Kate, Desiderata, Mutch Katsonga, The Vinegar Stroke, Napolean In Rags, Sketch Club, Trivia Revolver Open Mic Empress Hotel The Basics, The Solomons Northcote Social Club The Brunswick Discovery, TBC Brunswick Hotel Weekly Trivia The Drunken Poet

We’re the earliest to play the latest music.

WEDNESDAY 9TH

DARYL ROBERTS THURSDAY 10TH

RIVERSIDE TRAVELLERS FRIDAY 11TH MATADOR STAGE

DARK REALM PRESENTS

DEATH OF ART + CLOUD CITY AND SUPPORTS FRONT BAR

DJ FUNKY PERLE CONCHI SATURDAY 12TH

UMULAT VS DR EL$17SUAVO SUN 13TH

JOE MANDICA DUO 4PM FREE MON 13TH

KARAOKE

SCREENING FACILITIES AVAILABLE FOR FILM CLIP & DVD LAUNCHES

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140 Sydney Rd

BRUNSWICKHOTEL.NET

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FUNCTION BOOKINGS WELCOME www.myspace/thespanishclubvenue

59-61 Johnston St, Fitzroy P: 03 9417 2505

9387 6637

NO COVER CHARGE

WED JUNE 9 - 8:30 PM

THE BRUNSWICK OPEN MIC

WITH HOST MATT MCFARLANE. $10 JUGS! REGISTER AT 8PM ON THE NIGHT! (FREE BEER PER PERFORMER!)

THURS JUNE 10

THE FOUNDATION GLYCERINE GREENSKIES

FRI JUNE 11

BETTER THAN THE WIZARDS RYAN MURPHY BAND BERRY BODIES EMILY TREMBATH

SAT JUNE 12 - 9PM

THE JANE AUSTEN ARGUMENT BRENDAN MACLEAN MIKKI ROSS FLASH FRY 6PM - 2X SETS FROM 30MLS

SUN JUNE 13

QUEENS BIRTHDAY AT THE BRUNNY!

LONG ROAD PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS TASH ANDERSON BRIDGET PROSS FILTHY SOUP SIMON WRIGHT FROM 8:30PM - SID AIR! THE MCQUEENS LES BURDETTE AND THE HEAVY ROLLERS CHEER LEADER

MON JUNE 14

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY

8.30PM - PERFORMANCE FROM BILLY BERTIE $10 JUGS, FREE POOL AND JUKEBOX!

TUES JUNE 15

THE BRUNSWICK DISCOVERY

GIVING CHANCES TO NEW UP AND COMING ARTISTS (ENQUIRIES TO BRUNNYGIGS@GMAIL.COM)

gigguide@inpress.com.au

303 Friday Drunk Mums, The Eyeball Kicks, The Charlies Sunday Nick Larkins & The Bones, Autumn Gray, Star and Cypress

BANG Saturday Kill The Matador, Emerson Sunday Mary Jane Kelly, Shinto Katana, Phantoms, Cash No, Hallower, Cam (Bodyjar/Cola Wars), Mikey (FAO/ Cola Wars), Perfect Fit, Madison Jayne

BAR OPEN Wednesday Babble Thursday Shutter Stop, Toyota War, Parliament of Rooks Friday King Marong & Afro Mandinko Saturday The Lowdown Street Orchestra Sunday The Band Who Knew Too Much

BENDER BAR Wednesday Open Mic Thursday Dan Musal, Mandy Wragg Friday Kalimaa, Dilan Peters Saturday The Rock Dj, Ildiko, Alex Ashley Sunday Open Decks

BENDIGO HOTEL Friday ’Grouse Queer Party’, The Larnach-Jones Bros, Her Manos, The Dodkins Sisters, The Tuckers Saturday Doubleblack, Adrian White, The Yard Apes Sunday Sunday Sets, Jungal, Rosie Burgess Trio Tuesday Anna’s Go Go Dance Classes

BIRMINGHAM HOTEL Wednesday The Black Hill Five, Wil Wagner & Friends, The Honda’s Thursday An Undying Day In Orbit, Crash Arcadia, Dirty F, The Honey Pies Friday Northeast Party House, Infrasonic, Straw King Eye, Cult Visions Saturday The Frowning Clouds, The Living Eyes, Badlands DJs

BRUNSWICK HOTEL Wednesday Open Mic with Matt McFarlane

Thursday The Foundation, Glycerine, Green Skies Friday Better Than The Wizards, Ryan Murphy Band, Berry Bodies, Emily Trembath Saturday The Jane Austin Argument, Brendan McLean, Mikki Ross, Flash Fry Sunday Tash Anderson, Bridget Pross, Filthy Soup, Simon Wright, Sid Air, The Mcqueens, Les Burdett and the Heavy Rollers, Cheerleader Tuesday The Brunswick Discovery, TBC

BUILDERS ARMS HOTEL Wednesday Tailor Made For A Small Room, Far Concern, Maudita Thursday Princess One Point Five, Flying Scribble, Patinka Cha Cha Friday The Wildes Saturday Graveyard Train, Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, Dead Man On Deck

BURLESQUE BAR Friday Burly-Friday Live Show featuring, Scarlett, Miss Nic, Goldiloks, Honey B Goode, Poppy Cherry, Foxtrot India, Lady Chocolat Saturday Cirque De Femmes Sunday Uncle Bill, Atrocity

CHERRY BAR Wednesday Bittersweet Kicks Thursday White Boyz Can’t Funk Friday Wikked Bliss, Black Aces, Bunny Monroe Saturday Kill Kurt Reifler, The Transistors, Rise Electric Sunday Tubovas, My Left Boot, Ancient Man

Friday Marshall & The Fro, Benjalu, Chris Cavill, Andrew Higgs Saturday A State of Flux, All India Radio, Quiet Child, Two Cent Sideshow Sunday Redcoats, The Black & White, Beat Disease Monday El Moth & The Turbo Rads

GRACE DARLING HOTEL

CHOP SU-WEET Earplugs. Check. Beer. Check. Willingness to jump around like a frickin idiot. Check. After years of playing in venues around town, selfreleasing a nice little piece of vinyl and receiving favourable reviews, two-piece no-core noise instructors Duck Duck Chop have their sights set on creating a harsh sonic terrain, intertwined with melodic flourishes and stabs of white noise this Friday night at pony. They’ll be joined by upstarts Dozers and skuzzy fuzz-monkeys Daddy Long Legs. Doors at 9.30pm. Saturday Mike Noga & the Gentlemen of Fortune, Davey Lane & Psychotic Pineapples, The Frowning Clouds, The Ovals, Big Smoke Sunday ’Weekender’, The Demon Parade, The Kicks

EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB Thursday Keshie Friday The Guild League, Tessa & The Typecast, Oh Pep! Saturday The Break, Digger & The Pussycats Sunday Josh Owen Band, Hailey Calvert

EDINBURGH CASTLE HOTEL

Thursday Studio A Spectacular Comedy Fundraiser IV, Josh Thomas, Frank Woodley, Jimeon Friday British India, Big Scary, City Riots Saturday British India, Big Scary, City Riots

Wednesday Single Twin, Brian Catridge Load Error Thursday The Promises Friday CJ Shaw, Jshwa & The Owls, JJ Symon Saturday Thrilling True Stories, Lucky Hunter, Desert Shore Sunday Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, Jess Ribiero & The Bone Collectors, The John Fox Band

DING DONG LOUNGE

EMPRESS HOTEL

CORNER HOTEL

Thursday San Fran Disco, En Tout Cas, Under Colours Friday Canos, John Flanagan, Siobhan

Wednesday Saskia Sansom, Mikelangelo & St Clare, Tara Simmons Thursday Pretty Strangers, In The Woods, Oceans Between Friday Young Werther, The Nymphs, Charles Jenkins Saturday Bum Creek, Chrome Dome, Ed Guglielmino, Lost Animal, Panel Of Judges, Parading, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, The Orphanage, The Promised Land Sunday White Woods, Miniature Submarines, Elizabeth Pistol Club Tuesday Open Mic

EMPRESS HOTEL, ARVO SHOW Sunday Damon Smith & The Quality Lightweights, D. Rogers & Emma Heeney, Ed Reed

ESPLANADE BASEMENT Friday The Pretty Lies, Art of Wor, Beyond Redemption, The Company Saturday Bogan Nation, A Lesser Ego, Elemental Burn, Fine Art Dealer

ESPLANADE GERSHWIN ROOM Thursday Slabotomy, Roostar, Speed Orange, Travis Winters Friday Live & Subs Sunday The Break, Digger & The Pussycats, Infusion, Kids of 88, North East Party House, Ebony & Ivory

ESPLANADE LOUNGE Wednesday LeBelle, Tim Woods, Preston Perche, Cazi Thursday Simon Wright & the Elective, White Boys Can’t Funk, Lorraine Manjela Friday Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, Slap N Dash, Mu Gen, Scattermish, Mat Cant, Lewis Can Cut Sunday Daryl Braithwaite, Headspace, Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batucada Monday Josh Owen Band Tuesday Freya, Al Parkinson, Earl Grey Policy, Imola

EVELYN HOTEL Wednesday Song Writers Collective, Good Suns, Shaun Kirk, The Jayden, Jess Hieser Thursday Saritah, DJ Damon, Rayjah 45, Hugo & The Light Brigade, Untitled, Bam Bam Assassins

Thursday The Bonniwells, Iowa Friday Nick Murphy, Peter Ewing, Owl Eyes Saturday Kretch, Union Radio, Ryan Sterling Sunday Fearless Vampire Killers, Oz Rock History Sessions, Sharpie Cows, Gaylord Lovelace, Smoke Machine, Michael Ozone

HIFI BAR Thursday Strung Out (USA), The Loved Ones, Backyard Surgeons Friday Muph & Plutonic, Chasm & Vida Sunshyne, Jess Harlen Saturday New Skinn, Tim Mcmillan Band, Fading Hour, In Volume, Faeble Sunday Children Collide, Cabins, Betty Airs

IRENE’S WAREHOUSE Friday Elf Tranzporter, Mc Izzy, Ethereal lotus Fleet Saturday Blades, Toasters Boutique, Laird & Lomas ft. madman, Tenfold, Anon Speak, Ida, Luke Presto

LYREBIRD LOUNGE Thursday Cold Harbour Friday Violent Mood Swings Saturday The Devil Rides Out Sunday Fred Negro’s Kooky Karaoke, The Patron Saints, Lewi Pommer

MARQUIS OF LORNE HOTEL Wednesday Bois et Charbon, Bon Soiree

NEXT Thursday Jason Cruz & Chris Aiken, City Escape, Therefore I Am (USA), Dream On Dreamer, The Statics, KC Irony Sunday A Sound Mind, Hatchet Dawn, Sounds of Sirus, Vitruvian Man, Hybrid Nightmares

NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB Friday Jordie Lane, Elizabeth & Donovan, Leena Saturday Dead Letter Chorus, Two Hours Traffic, Institut Polaire Sunday Ne Obliviscaris, Paradigm, A Million Dead Birds Laughing Monday The Universal Thump, Houlette, DJ A La Fu

Tuesday The Basics, The Solomons

PONY Thursday These Patterns, My Musical Collective, Le Foxx, Beloved Elk, Slow Dance Friday Duck Duck Chop, Dozers, Daddy Long Legs, Transistor, Touch It Saturday Three Month Sunset, Andrew Keese & the Associates, Matt Bailey, Mid State Orange, Wunderlust, Pink Fitt Sunday Boarders, The Messengers, The Polites, Seesaw, TTT, Pink Fitt

PRINCE BANDROOM Friday Dappled Cities Fly, John Steele Singers, Otouto Saturday Common, Kid Capri Sunday London Elektricity, AD MC, Patch, Finna, Safire, & more

RETREAT HOTEL Thursday Mini Bikes, Marcel Borrack, SoV Friday Money For Rope, Fearless Vampire Killers, DJ Dave The Scot Saturday Brothers Grim, The Plague Doctors, Tinsley Waterhouse Trio, DJ Xander Sunday Sand Pebbles, Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist, DJ Traffic Jam Monday Bogan Bingo Tuesday DJ Shaky Memorial

REVELLER’S NORTH (DOWNSTAIRS) Friday Tony Johannsen

REVELLER’S NORTH (UPSTAIRS) Friday Orangeroom Rock, The Raffaellas, She Fuzz Saturday Darktown Strutter, Vanity, Black Aces

REVOLVER Wednesday Clavians, Dreaming Of Ghosts, Siva, The Villians Lair, Drewfunk, Hans DC Thursday 3181 Thursdays, Hans DC, WHO Friday Back Back Forward Punch!, Paqman, Winterplan, WAX! Weekly Audio Extravaganza, Haul Music House Party #2, Andee Frost Saturday SHERIFF, Gretchen Lewis, Sweet Lincoln, The Late Show Sunday Revolver Sundays, Lee Mortimer, Charmeleon Recordings Showcase 001, Reptiles, Pets With Pets, Jumpin’ Jack William

Tuesday Melbourne Fresh Industry Showcase, Celeste Kate, Desiderata, Mutch Katsonga, The Vinegar Stroke, Napolean In Rags, Sketch Club, Trivia

THE ARTHOUSE Wednesday Cherrywood Guns, Dead Man On Deck, The Jacks Thursday Passport For Amy, Blue Shudder, Ashen Tide Friday Dreadnaught, Berzerkerfox, Demonhead, Ayera Saturday Doomsday Saints, Damn The Empire, Thrashdance, Bateman Sunday The Vibrators, Sin City, Bastard Squad, Mince Meat

THE DRUNKEN POET Wednesday Nicola Watson, Abbie Cardwell Thursday Naomi Jones Trio Friday Traditional Irish Music Session, Dan Bourke & Friends Saturday Chris Wilson Sunday Van & Cal Walker, Spencer P Jones Tuesday Weekly Trivia

THE OLD BAR Wednesday Plague Doctor, Jimmy Tait, Store Bought Cool Thursday Lost Burros, Death Cheetahs, Strangers At Sea Friday Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones, The Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders, The Death Rattles, Mojo Juju Saturday Ouch My Face, Bone, Beat Disease, New Estate Sunday The Toot Toot Toots, Assassination Collective, Baptism of Uzi, DJ Steely Dan McKay Monday ’Crotchety Knitwits’ Tuesday Ali E, Hayley Couper, Bean, Acknowledge, Group Art Show

THE PUBLIC BAR Friday Sunset Circus, Quiet Child, A Brokers Night Sleep Saturday Desert Sessions, The Merri Creek Pickers

THE SPANISH CLUB Wednesday Daryl Roberts Thursday Riverside Travellers Friday Death of Art, Cloud City, Matador Stage, DJ Funky Perle Conchi Saturday Umulat, Dr El Suavo Sunday Joe Mandica Duo Monday Karaoke

STANDARD HOTEL Wednesday Jacob Harris, Das Musik Mann

Sunday Mini Bikes

THE TOFF IN TOWN Thursday Nicholas Roy, Brendan McLean Friday Poprocks at the Toff, Dr Phil Smith Saturday The Casette Kids, Howl, Kids of 88, The House deFROST, Andee Frost Sunday Gosteleradio, Oliver Mann, DJ Smiley McSlidey Monday Sunday Sets, Andyblack, Haggis, Swing Classes

THORNBURY THEATRE Thursday Harry Manx

TRANSPORT HOTEL (FED SQ) Thursday Ladies Night Sunday Danielle McDonald, O.M.Gee’s

UNION HOTEL BRUNSWICK Thursday ’The’ Jack Norton Saturday Spoonful, Paul Winstanley, Kit Warhurst, Andre Warhurst, David Lord Sunday Sweet Felicia & The Honeytones Monday The Prayerbabies

WESLEY ANNE Wednesday John Flanagan & The Begin Agains, Yelka, Hazelmen Brothers Thursday Mister Black n Blues, The Boy Who Spoke Clouds, Goodnight Owl, Victoriana Gaye Friday Son Of A Gun, Tobias Hengeveld, Claire Jenkins Saturday Ben Carr Trio Sunday James Kenyon, The Lloyd Weir, Earl Grey Policy, SteelBirds

WORKERS CLUB Friday Fire Santa Rosa Fire!, Deep Sea Arcade, Kimbra Saturday Great Earthquake, Love Connection, Milk Teddy Sunday The Frowning Clouds, The Delta Riggs, The Kremlin Succession

YAH YAH’S Thursday Rock Aerobics, The Single Men’s Drinking Club, The Young Have Secrets, The Orphanage, Pauli Douglas Friday Late Arvo Sons, Lost Burros, Saint James, Mohair Slim Saturday Vince Peach, Chris Gill, Miss Goldie, Dom A Dozen Sunday Legends Of Motorsport, The Bowers, Bunny Monroe, The A-Tonals

EMPLOYMENT

SELF-EMPLOYMENT LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY

ADMINISTRATION

Using; P Audio, B & C, JBL and E.V. Top quality drivers in all our custom built bins. Top boxes, mids, subs, wedges to spec. This online pic is our new folded horn with one 18inch challenger, putting out 137db – 140+ when coupled. Call us for a free quote. 0414355763

EDUCATION & TRAINING VIOLIN TEACHER NEEDED! Position available in Busy music school in Beverly Hills, Kogarah and at various government schools. Teaching mainly beginners to intermediate level. Enthusiasm, patience and ability to inspire will be looked at more than your qualifications and experience. Email resume jobs@jumbonote.com.au iFlogID: 3615

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MESA BOOGIE TRIPLE RECTIFIER

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BAND MERCHANDISE

BASS

ON LINE BOOKING AGENCY

MIJ SQUIRE JAZZ BASS Would you like to be able to offer everyone you know and everyone they know and so on, the BEST PRICES GUARANTEED in the world for all their new brand name shopping? Well take a look at this. This is most certainly a lifetime opportunity to launch ongoing income well into the future. www. hotglobalbusiness.com/fortunate iFlogID: 2992

Japanese made Squier Jazz Bass L Series 91-92 Very good condition, great sound, all original iFlogID: 4269

MESA BOOGIE 4X10 W/ CUSTOM CASE

FOR SALE AMPS

Pearl EXR (2005 model) drum kit with the following: - 14” snare - 8” tom 10” tom - 12” tom - 13” tom - 16” floor tom - 22” bass - double kick pedal - single kick pedal - Pearl drum rack - numerous clamps for additional drums and/or cymbals - brand new skins for all 5 toms - Drum City cymbal bag (leather) - clamp arm 3x boom cymbal stands - 2x straight cymbal stands - stool - additional tom arms Cymbals: - Zildjian A Custom 14” hi-hats - 10” splash - 17” crash - 18” crash - 16” fast crash - Zildjian A - 21” sweet ride All in perfect condition, reluctant sale. Call Kieran on 0410691616. Pickup from Sydney. iFlogID: 5091

Mesa boogie 4x10 bass cabinet. Custom touring case with removable wheels and front grill protection. Perfect for the touring bass player or someone who wants a very durable and loud cab. $700 Brisbane 0449 166 129 Ibanez Thermion TN120 All Tube Guitar Head. Good Condition, great amp. $600 iFlogID: 4027

FENDER 1965 TREMOLUX STACK

PIANO TEACHER NEEDED!

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BUSINESSES

ACOUSTIC GUITAR MATON M225 Maton M225 Solid Sitka Spruce soundboard Queensland Maple Back, sides & neck Rosewood with dot inlays fingerboard Australian Made Original Elixir strings Natural Finish $750 *pick up in Sydney area iFlogID: 3645

GIBSON 1960 RI GOLDTOP

MUSIC INDUSTRY BIBLE

HEADROOM SOUND Using; P Audio, B & C, JBL and E.V. Top quality drivers in all our custom built bins. Top boxes, mids, subs, wedges to spec. This online pic is our new folded horn with one 18inch challenger, putting out 137db – 140+ when coupled. Call us for a free quote. 0414355763 iFlogID: 3096

SHOP FOR BAND MERCH ONLINE! Shop online 24/7 at www.tsp.net.au for Australia’s biggest and best range of official licensed band merchandise. Hundreds of bands, thousands of products! AC/DC, Blink 182, David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, Escape The Fate, Iron Maiden, Jimi Hendrix, Joy Division, Megadeth, Metallica, MGMT, Minor Threat, Misfits, Nirvana, Opeth, Parkway Drive, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, Ramones, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Tool, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more! T-shirts, fleecy hoodies, caps, beanies, bags and loads of other cool stuff. Shop now at www.tsp.net.au.

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ENTERTAINMENT

VIPER GUITAR AMP.ALL VALVE

WANT TO WORK IN THE MUSIC BIZ?

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CD / DVD Valleyarm are a global digital music supplier and are seeking sales contractors Australia wide to sign bands and artists. On target earnings of $37800 PA, flexible hours and awesome incentives! A passion and an ear for good music is essential, if you like checking out bands and have good people skills then this might be the job for you! A real chance to make huge dollars within the music industry! Training provided. Email interest and resumes to info@valleyarm. com or call 03 9525 5589 for more information.

100 watt head and matching 4/12 angled quadbox.2 fully seperate channels with reverb/crunch/mean/filth. effects send/return.all footswithable. very versatile.Australian designed quality.MINT CONDITION.$850 ono. iFlogID: 4664

MARSHALL VS100 VALVESTATE AMP.

SECOND NATION DELINQUENT E.P SECOND NATION - delinquent E.P. AVAILABLE NOW for $4.99 at www. myspace.com/secondnation

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ THEMHUMM www.myspace.com/themhumm

MARSHALL JCM2000+1960A QUADBOX Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 head and 1960a 4x12. GREAT CONDITION apart from cosmetic wear. Genuine Marshall footswitch provided. ONLY $1600. PH TOM on 0433744065.

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS MASCHINE SAMPLING PAD - HUGE SPECIAL - ONLY $899 IN BOX ONLY ONE AVAILABLE - CALL US 07 54743033 MUSIC@NOOSA

HIRE SERVICES

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FENDER PINK PAISLEY STRAT. For Sale! Fantastic Sounding AKG K701 Headphones, Brand New with original packaging, manual and warranty card. Bought $900, will let go for $700. You don’t wanna miss this occasion, don’t you!? Email me on vangelis2133@yahoo.com or just phone: 0449672435. First Come, First Serve!

KEYBOARDS KORG TRITON EXTREME88

DRUMS MEINL DJEMBE NEAR NEW! A rarely used example of this classic and much sought-after synthesizer in excellent condition. Price includes delivery to any destination on mainland Australia. iFlogID: 3583

EXCELLENT CONDITION. FOOTSWITCH INCLUDED. ONLY $1050! PH

Quality MEINL Djembe stands 60cm tall w/ 30cm head diameter. Deep sounds - quality drum - moving overseas so regretful sale $200 Brisbane 0449 166129

May Madness sale only $349 Power adapter an extra $29 Call 02 9520 3044 or email shop@engadinemusic.com iFlogID: 4414

MIXERS

Coming soon to a movie theatre near you, this dramatic fantasy musical adventure. From the trenches of the first world war to a new world beyond the mysterious Timeless Forest. All enquiries to Duncan on mobile: 0402 136 335 duncan321sunrise@yahoo. com.au View associated website at www.adventuresofjack.webs.com iFlogID: 4490

THE BEST IN MASTERING

SPACE SHIP NEWS.COM.AU

PA/OPERATOR FOR HIRE For as low as $100, you get a PA system with a sound mixer, complete with a human operator as well to set it up for you for the evening. You can play your own music through it, sing, talk, do a disco, small function, etc, etc, etc. Contact Chris 0419 272 196. iFlogID: 3721

PA AND INSTRUMENT HIRE

Melbourne Pa and Instrument Hire Specialists. We have a large range of Pa equipment, large and small to suit any occasion. Dynacord,yamaha,mackie,cordless mics,etc etc. Instrument hire also available such as drumkits,keyboards,amps and much more. Call for 9689 4622 Just 10 min from cbd

Viking Lounge mastering provide the best in personalised service and attention to fine detail. Paul Stefanidis will take your project to the next level! Credits include a national number one by Shortstack and top producers Craig Porteils, Lee Groves and Trevor Steel! For more details see www.studioprojects.com.au and www.vikingloungemastering.com or call Andy om 0424 656 973

Perth Music News Your one stop for local Perth music news, gig guides, photogrpahy, reviews, bands, CD’s & more... Sign up to our weekly e-news & keep up to date! www.spaceshipnews.com.au iFlogID: 4790

MUSIC COMPOSITION: FILMTVRADIO

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OTHER CUSTOM BASS DRUM HEADS

MUSICIANS FOR FUNCTIONS/ VENUES

12-24 MONTHS INTEREST FREE, NO INTEREST EVER, TAKE HOME YOUR GUITAR,AMP,P.A,KEYBOARD,ETC TODAY... CALL US FOR MORE DETAILS 07 54743033 MUSIC @ NOOSA

YAMAHA NP30 DIGITIAL PIANO

Original hard rock/metal band Silent Rose based in Melbourne, is currently seeking a dedicated manager. Visit www.myspace.com/silentrosemusic or email silentrosemusic@hotmail. com for more details.

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MARSHALL JCM2000 DSL 100

$99 per song +gst for online mastering via our secure servers. Analog chain, digital chain, mix evaluations, online mastering and attended sessions - we ensure your mastered product sounds amazing. www.matthewgraymastering.com.

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ABSOLUTE VALUE!

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EP RELEASE

Are you thinking of hiring quality musicians that bring an audience ? Do you have a function/event and considering live entertainment ? For a limited period, we are offering a Venue Promotions Package featuring favourite entertainers. If it is about raising your venue profile or just great entertainment you want, contact us now. Chris 0419 272 196 http://infovisionproductions.yayabings.com.au iFlogID: 5076

PA SYSTEMS, LIGHTS , STAGES

Custom bass drum heads ensure your bands name gets remembered after the gig. The sickest, best quality custom bass drum heads, banners, backdrops, stickers, and full drum wraps! www.kustombassdrumgraphics.com.au sales@kustombassdrumgraphics.com.au iFlogID: 2883

WANT TO PERFORM OR TOUR?

Music for Film, TV, Radio, Media & Other. Composition of songs, jingles, commercials, themes, scores and classical pieces. Most genres undertaken: classic pop-rock, easy listening, acoustic, country, folk, comedy, lyrical and classical. Accomplished and experienced composer/ writer/ vocalist/ musician. Contact Duncan on 0402 136 335 or duncan321sunrise@yahoo.com.au www.myspace. com/filmtvradio www.filmtvradio. webs.com www.loveinakingdom. webs.com myspace.com/duncansunrise www.adventuresofjack. webs.com myspace.com/duncansmusicsunrise iFlogID: 4927

Do you want to perform or tour? Need help sourcing $ for? There are government grants closing soon. For help contact: speakeasywordsandmusic@ gmail.com or 0439 620 526. Professional, down to earth, affordable grant writing and music/tour booking

TOP SHELF DJS - MELB DJ HIRE

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COOL PERTH NIGHTS

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ROCK/METAL BAND SEEK MANAGER

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Authentic Signed & Reprint Rock Memorabilia from across the globe www.rockgodsandlegends.com

Genuine 1980’s Pete Townshend jap model. all original. in case. plays great. nice patina. very rare. suit collector. EXCELLENT CONDITION! $2500.00 Ph Jimbo on 0428744963.

ADVENTURES OF JACK BARTHOLEMEW

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MUSIC@NOOSA - INTEREST FREE

*NEW* N.I MASCHINE

English made reliability. 100watts in 2 fully seperate channels with reverb/ chorus/lead boost. all footswitchable. very grunty. great fat sound! PERFECT CONDITION! $400.00 Ph Jimbo on 0428744963

PROMOTER

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DJ EQUIPMENT

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SECONDHAND 1960 RI LES PAUL GOLDTOP IN EXCELLENT CONDITION W/CASE ONLY $3395 CALL US 07 54743033 - MUSIC@NOOSA

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LOOKING FOR A JOB BACKSTAGE ?

Backstagejobs.com.au Australia’s very own dedicated online employment website to backstage jobs. Subscribe to our free jobs & news bulletins and become a member for free and post a free classified.

Australia’s first online booking agency with a difference!!!! For Artists & Promoters

ROCK MEMORABILIA

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OTHER

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FENDER TREMOLUX HEAD AND 2X12 CAB.made in 1965 IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. ONLY $3499 CALL US 07 54743033 - MUSIC@NOOSA

Coming soon to a movie theatre near you, this sensatonal new and original film opera / musical. A dramatic and compelling medieval adventure set to classical music and song. Contact Duncan on mob: 0402 136 335 or at duncan321sunrise@yahoo.com.au View associated website at: www. loveinakingdom.webs.com myspace. com/duncansmusicsunrise

iFlogID: 4713

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The Directory is a sourcebook for all the contacts in the Australian music market. There are over 5,000 listed companies & individuals in 70 sections covering all business sectors from Artists cross referenced by Booking Agents, Managers & Record Labels, Promoters, Music Media, Venues, Lawyers, Publishers & much more! We have 3 versions of the Directory available in Print $55 (GST & Postage included)--6 Month Online Subscription $40--iPhone App $19.95 (from Apple iTunes Store). To purchase your print or online version go to www.immedia.com.au/amid or call the IMMEDIA! Office (02) 9557 7766

25 years..you’ll probably find his name on CDs you own.....For a limited time song transfers through the ATR100 - the worlds finest 1/2” tape machine - is absolutely FREE!! (Worth up to $100 a song)...So for only $88 per song you can get the results you want at the price you can afford..-..Post - Upload, or call in......For further details visit --- www.gomersall.com --- Call Paul 0407 488 697

MATTHEW GRAY MASTERING - $99

100watt rms. 4 channell with EQ/ REVERB. stereo CD input. CUBE STYLE. Very good condition. $300.00 Ph Jimbo on 0428744963.

Authentic Signed Rock Memorabilia and reprints from around the globe. www.rockgodsandlegends.com

Position available in Busy music school in Beverly Hills, Kogarah and at various government schools. Teaching mainly beginners to intermediate level. Enthusiasm, patience and ability to inspire will be looked at more than your qualifications and experience. Email resume jobs@jumbonote.com.au

challenger, putting out 137db – 140+ when coupled. Call us for a free quote. 0414355763

MUSIC SERVICES

GUITARS

Prefer female: Position available in Busy music school in Beverly Hills, Kogarah and at various government schools. Teaching mainly beginners to intermediate level. Enthusiasm, patience and ability to inspire will be looked at more than your qualifications and experience. Email resume jobs@jumbonote.com.au

ROSS PC110 POWERED MIXER

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IBANEZ THERMION GUITAR HEAD

VOCAL TEACHER NEEDED!

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PEARL EXR CYMBALS RACK STANDS

Super Rare Original 2 channel Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier. Excellent Condition. $3000. 0412642196

HEADROOM SOUND AUSTRALIA

iFlogID: 3100

TOM ON 0433 744 065

VINYL COLLECTION 1992 TO 2005 If you are wanting a solid piece of electronic music history, than this is the collection for you. Music Genre is as follows; Sound Tracks, Donna Summer, Yello, 1998 to 1990, 1991 to 1993 Rave & Italian Hi Energy, Hard House 1994 to 1997, Energy & Hard Trance 1993 to 1996, House & Atmospheric 1997 to 2000, Techno, Tech House & Acid 1996 to 2000, Progressive Trance 1996 to 1998, Eye Q & Harthouse Label, Goa Trance 1995 to 1997, Dark Progressive & Tribal House 2000 to 2003, Progressive House, Tech & Breaks 1998 to 2003, Ambience, Electro, Trip Hop, Big Beat, Breaks: Acid, Trancy & Tech 1995 to 1998, American Breaks 1995 to 1997. Total Records = 1350. $5k for the Lot. Vinyl in mint condition, you will not be disappointed. Call Max 0448551646.

We have the gear and have the people. From small to BIG - give me a call for a quote - PA SYSTEMS from $110 - CALL MATT on 0424 399 801

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MASTERING MASTERING BY PAUL GOMERSALL

Cool Perth Nights weekly mailout features all the coolest live music, theatre, indie film screenings and art exhibition happenings in and around Perth Western Australia. Sign up via www.coolperthnights.com and receive this clean presented and very fun info each Wednesday lunchtime WST.

Unlike other DJs, Top Shelf DJs have a background in alternative and indie music. So if you want your party to have a distinctly indie/alternative feel,or just want a few alternative tunes in the mix, we are the perfect fit for your event! Find out more at www.topshelfdjs.com.au iFlogID: 5074

GET IN THE KNOW!

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LOVE IN A KINGDOM - FILM OPERA

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PA EQUIPMENT HEADROOM SOUND Using; P Audio, B & C, JBL and E.V. Top quality drivers in all our custom built bins. Top boxes, mids, subs, wedges to spec. This online pic is our new folded horn with one 18inch

Trust your next mastering project with Paul who’s been working with major international artists for over

From the people who brought you TheMusic.com.au comes two new free news resources, The Daily News Feed and Velvet Rope; the only source of music business and industry news you will ever need! Each morning the Daily News Feed posts crucial music business news, helping you stay cur-

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 89

rent with Aussie and overseas breaking stories. Velvet Rope is brought to you via Door Bitch and is a weekly news column that keeps you up to date on the happenings of the music biz. From job opps, news, events & a bit of back room gossip, Door Bitch has it covered. It’s out every Friday at noon. Check out the new news at www.TheMusic.com.au

Professional illustrator available for any project. Book covers, children’s books, album art and much more. Based in Melbourne, drawing world wide! Excellent rates. www.paulikin. com -Phone: 0403 996 129 or email paul@paulikin.com iFlogID: 4701

RECORDING STUDIOS

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SOUNDORNOT.COM.AU! Is your music HOT or NOT? Upload your music and let the general public vote, 1-10, is your music HOT or NOT? Visit soundornot.com.au today! iFlogID: 5244

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

Get one of the best mix engineers in the US to mix your single or album! It costs less than you may think! Credits include Beyonce, Robbie Williams, U2, Snoop Dogg and a cast of thousands! See www.studioprojects.com.au for details or ring Andy 0424 656 973.

our teachers have the reputation to take you from beginner to pro. Please visit our website to find your closest teacher and grab a free download. www.g4guitar.com.au or Phone 0405-274456 iFlogID: 2633

SINGING LESSONS THAT ROCK

$$ ATTENTION ALL STUDIOS $$

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LIVE AUDIO ENGINEER

A rockin’ salute from the Team at Clk Click Publicity! Clk Click Publicity is a music and entertainment publicity company that specialises in providing excellent quality management, marketing and PR services in order to promote music, film, arts and events in Australia. We have an introductory offer that will blow your mind, and keep your pockets full! For a limited time Clk Click Publicity can whip you up a professional Bio and Press Release for only $100. We can also organise band photos and logo creation for a very reasonable price. If you’re interested in finding out about our full range of publicity services, we’d love the opportunity to have a chat with you and put together a proposal for your next release, event or tour. For further information please shoot us an email at info@clkclickpublicity.com or visit our website at www.clkclickpublicity.com We look forward to working with you!

Take your band to the next level with old school high end engineering form a veteran with 28 years experience! Credits include The Next, The Vandolls, The Art, Eskimo Joe, KIlling Heidi and many, many more! For more details see www.studioprojects.com.au or ring Andy on 0424 656 973. iFlogID: 4866

HEARTICAL SOUND SYSTEM HIRE

Want to become an agent for Valleyarm? Valleyarm are a global digital music supplier and are seeking studios and producers Australia wide to be official agents, you’d be responsible for signing new bands and artists to add to our catalogue and getting paid to do so. If you ever have bands asking how they can get their songs on iTunes then this is the perfect chance to bring in extra revenue with excellent monthly bonuses available! Training and point of sale is available to get you started straight away. Email info@valleyarm.com or Call 03 9525 5589 iFlogID: 4841

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Write, develop and record your material in a creative, positive environment. I am a producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocal coach with vast experience in helping artists polish their songs. Studio features Pro-Tools and vintage gear with three recording rooms. Extensive industry contacts. Phone Andrew Covell 9798 2665 or 0425 262 594

REHEARSAL ROOMS CAULFIELD MUSIC CENTRE

New TV show on C31 Digital - Saturdays 10.30 PM,Tune into 44 on your box For Guitar players and guitar music fans. iFlogID: 5373

PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING

From small PA to large high powered rigs. Crystal clear custom built mids and tops cabs with heavy duty bass bins. Suitable for indoor and outdoor events. delivered, set up and operated. Call Derek for quotes on 0423979396 iFlogID: 5135

PHOTOGRAPHY

SPEAKER REPAIRS - ALL MODELS

BAND PHOTOS

Headroom Sound Australia. Re-cones to all models e.g. JBL, P Audio, B & C, E-Tone etc Custom built crossovers, all at budget prices. For quotes contact Ray on tallpoppies@iprimus. com.au or 04143 55763

Looking for a photographer for your band?Checkout theartofcapture. com to see examples and portfolio of work. Studio and location shots.All states. Contact Kane Hibberd Kane@theartofcapture.com or call 0419 570 660. iFlogID: 1256

PHOTOGRAPHY

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HEADROOM SOUND AUSTRALIA

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INTEGUITAR.COM

**MENTION THIS ADVERTISEMENT TO RECEIVE A FULL 5 HOUR REHEARSAL STUDIO BOOKING ON SATURDAY OR SUNDAY FOR $45** WELCOME TO CAULFIELD MUSIC REHEARSAL STUDIOS. WE HAVE FIVE LARGE, SOUNDPROOF ROOMS AVAILIBLE FOR HIRE. ALL OF THE ROOMS ARE THE SAME SIZE (APPROXIMATELY 7 X 6 METRES). EACH ROOM IS EQUIPPED WITH A 12 CHANNEL P.A. SYSTEM, 4 MICROPHONES, 4 MICROPHONE LEADS AND 4 MICROPHONE STANDS. OUR REHEARSAL ROOMS ARE ALL AIR CONDITIONED. THEY ARE ALWAYS KEPT CLEAN AND WELL MAINTAINED. WE HAVE TWO ROOMS WITH PIANOS AVAILABLE FOR SOLO, PRIVATE USE. THESE ROOMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR HIRE WHEN THEY ARE NOT BEING USED FOR TEACHING. PLEASE CALL FOR AVAILABILITY. THEY ARE HIRED AT $5.50 PER HOUR. EXTRA EQUIPMENT CAN BE HIRED WITH THE ROOMS. PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU WILL BE NEEDING WHEN YOU BOOK SO THAT WE CAN HAVE IT READY FOR YOU. FOR ALL BOOKINGS PH: (03) 9532 9530.

Play songs on guitar instantly. $49.99 postage inc. kit of 4 x interfaces + tutorial CD. Special deals for the first 100 buyers. The guitar is an easy instrument to play but it is an extremely difficult instrument to learn. Getting past the initial stumbling clanging strumming period of learning guitar can take a number of years and its made all the more difficult by the blank fret board. InteGuitar solves this problem by giving the fret board a temporary movable visual interface of rudimentary OPEN and BAR Chords in the form of a silicon strap. If you can see how the chords are played these basic functions can be over come in much shorter time and be less frustrating. Because the interfaces can be repositioned along part of the neck Bar Chords be displayed. It takes a few attempts to get used to setting up an interface eventually taking 1 to 5 minutes to complete. Silicon Interfaces stretch to fit on all steel string acoustic and electric guitars. Fatter necks like classical guitars are a little harder to fit. Call us now on 0405 044 513 iFlogID: 2716

BLUES HARP LESSONS

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PORTABLE RECORDING SERVICE Assisting with CD releases, Live DVDs, Offering you professional audio which you can also upload to Myspace, YouTube, E.P.Ks etc. ANY GENRE 18 channels of Pro Tools, 16 channels of professional isolated stage splitters (Radial, JensenTransformers), Quality pre amps, Great microphones, Internationally experienced engineer Jeremy Conlon MOB: 0421 836 876 EMAIL: jeremy@cooperblack. net www.myspace.com/jeremythesoundengineer B. Music (Composition) , Cert IV Music Tech, Cert IV Work Place Skills and Assessment

Photography...Get the right shot the first time at an affordable cost..Contact Mike 0447572106 iFlogID: 4631

DANE BEESLEY PHOTOGRAPHY Smiley Mcslidey Records has a rehearsal room for hire. Situated directly opposite RRR in East Brunswick, you get the place to yourself, can make permanent bookings if you want, has a rad PA in a rad sounding room. Email us at smileymcslidey@ gmail.com for bookings or if you wanna come take a peep.

POSTERS

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TOP US MIX ENGINEER PAUL LANI

PROFFESSIONAL ROYALTIES EARNING POP ROCK SONGWRITER AVAILABLE FOR TUITION AND GUIDANCE. TRAINED WITH LEADING NYC VOCAL TEACHER WHO HAS WORKED WITH ARTISTS IE. AVRIL LAVIGNE, KELLY CLARKESON AND BEYONCE. COMMERCIAL RADIO PLAY FOR ORIGINALS. LOCATED EASTERN SUBURBS. AVAILABLE TO TRAVEL. ORIGINALS WELCOME OR BEGINNING FROM AFRESH. K.I.S.S. = $$$$$. 0435 426 012 iFlogID: 4454

PRODUCTION/MIXING TUITIONS I’m a professional Music Producer and Sound Mixer who has worked with internationally renowned artist such as Seal and De La Soul, and I’m offering private tuition in Mixing and Production. Bring your own session (Logic or Protools) or use one of mine, and I will show the tricks that they do not teach you at school, I work from my home setup (Surry Hills) only, $65 per hour. http://www.steevebody. com

Modern Life Music School offers professional performance based tuition for the dedicated beginner or established musician. A tailored program to achieve your goals utilizing a modern studio and live performance facility will ensure that you achieve your potential .

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A1 HOME CALL GUITAR TUITION A1 very experienced guitar teacher available for home call tuition.we come to you! become a better musician soon!based in sydney’s inner west.I had the best teachers,now

Lola Vocal Tuition is a team of two female music students, teaching beginner to intermediate students (of any age) in all styles of contemporary music. We work on technique, vocal confidence and overall on-stage performance. We do either single or group singing tuition. For prices email us at lola_vox@hotmail.com or call Laura on 0427763653 or Luise on 0419329896 . iFlogID: 5176

GUITAT TUITION Experienced guitar teacher, all styles and skill levels welcome. Learn how to play like your heros. teaching in collingwood area. flexible hours, competative rates. 0439404403 gypsyjones11@gmail.com iFlogID: 5180

ence. Must be determined, skilled and have own gear and transport. Easygoing but professional environment. Ages 18-30 Wollongong/ Sydney based. Influences: Dimmu, Old man’s child, arch enemy, children of bodom, immortal, megadeth, slayer, amon amarth etc. Interest gained nationally and internationally with distribution deals on offer for the band. Great opportunity. www. myspace.com/asmodaiaus or email asmodai_aus@hotmail.com iFlogID: 5302

Experienced saxophonist is looking for bands and studio sessions. Jazz, funky, afro, reggae, latin, rock, folk. If interested contact me at 0410041979. Cheers. Lorenzo

DRUMMER BASS PLAYER + DRUMMER WANTED

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PRO TROMBONIST AVAILABLE

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VIDEO / PRODUCTION 360 DEGREE INTERACTIVE VIDEO

Professional Trombone player available for gigs, session and tours. Jazz, Funk, Latin, Pop, Rock and Classical. Can sight read, improvise and write parts. Contact Brendan 0409833827.

I’m a Sydney based artist looking for a bass player and a drummer. I’d love to give everyone a go but we can only consider accomplished players. We are and will continue to be gigging regularly around Sydney. With the music getting regular airplay on FBI and attention from all the right people, we need musos that LOVE the music I do and believe 100% in it. Let Management know if you’re interested by emailing: management@ taylorkingmusic.com or calling on 0404 370 768 Check out the music at my Myspace: www.myspace.com/ taylorjking iFlogID: 3484

FUNKY RYTHYM SECTION WANTED!

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Panoramic Video create interactive 360 degree online videos that are a unique addition to any website, putting your fans and web viewers virtually there with you. We can add in hotspots into the videos too so that you can direct users to other web sites for ticket or music purchasing, and with the ability to be embedded into other pages such as blogs etc, a Panoramic Video is a perfect choice for viral marketing.. Our videos keep the interest and by their nature keep users and fans on your website for longer than a standard video. It’s cool, and it’s unique, and a great option if you are looking for something different and innovative.. Costs will vary depending on where you are and what we do for you, but our rates are very reasonable.... We are a new innovative business in Melbourne and looking to help promote local bands and artists with our interactive videos.. so give us a call for a great deal. Check out some of our samples at www.panoramicvideo.com.au then give us a call on 03 9457 7600 today.. We would love to hear from you! iFlogID: 2774

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE BASS PLAYER BASS PLAYER AVAILABLE

Gary Soloman Bass player for Marie Wilson, Bo Diddley, Free zone etc is available for local/ touring gigs and recordings. Original acts or covers OK , any genre styles OK call Gary 0407505764

EXPERIENCED DRUMMER

LOLA VOCAL TUITION

Ableton certified trainer and author of Ableton video training for Groove 3 (USA) Craig McCullough is available locally in SE Qld for private Ableton and music technology training. Video training is also availble from www. groove3.com. Mobile: 0431 556 746 email: abletontrainer@optusnet. com.au Learn to play from some of Australia’s best guitar teachers. G4 GUITAR is a network of over 100 teachers across Australia using the latest learning techniques to ensure students the absolute best tuition available. Backed by the G4 GUITAR METHOD

THE VOICE PROFESSOR: Professional singing training in any style or genre. We ain to get the best out of your voice with exercises in correct breathing, posture, tonation, flexibility and control, all at half the price of Melbournes major singing school. All enquiries contact thevoiceprofessor@ gmail.com. Ivanhoe Location.

DRUMMER

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GUITAR TUITION 100+ LOCATIONS

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ABLETON CERTIFIED TRAINER

TUITION

ILLUSTRATOR AVAILABLE NOW!

We have 5 days recording in late June. We need a great Rock producer/engineer to mix our 5 tracks. Must have plenty of experience in Rock/Metal/Punk www.mypace. com/droptankband droptankband@ gmail.com

iFlogID: 4452

NY TRAINED SONGWRITING TUITION

Learn Blues Harmonica all styles from Ragtime, Country Blues , Chicago Blues styles. Private lessons in Sydney with Blue tongue & Workshops across Australia with Bluetongue, Ian Collard & Doc Span. web- http://www. bluetongueharmonica.com.au p-02 80037132 m-0412 668575

iFlogID: 5105

PA Hire & Experienced operator, Pubs, Clubs, Corporate & Private Events plus more. Contact Matt 0412474551

ROCK MIXER WANTED FOR EP

CONTEMPORARY AND MUSIC THEATRE SINGING TUITION. TRAINED WITH LEADING NYC VOCAL TEACHER WORKED WITH ARTISTS IE. AVRIL LAVIGNE, KELLY CLARKESON AND BEYONCE. WORLD RENOWNED VOCAL EXCERSISES TO VASTLY IMPROVE VOCAL TECHIQUE BASED ON EXCSERCISES FROM MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC. LOCATED EASTERN SUBURBS. AVAILABLE TO TRAVEL. ORIGINALS WELCOME. AUDITION COACHING. 0435 426 012

SAXOPHONIS AVAILABLE

SINGING LESSONS

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BASS/ GUITAR/VOCAL TUITION

PA HIRE

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Caulfield Music Centre MUSIC SCHOOL * where students become musicians * www.caulfieldmusic. com.au QUALIFIED TEACHERS AVAILABLE Monday - Friday: 4pm-9pm * Saturday: 10am-4pm * Sunday: 11am-4pm * *Please call for lesson availability times. PRIVATE LESSONS - $28 PER HALF HOUR GUITAR BASS PIANO SINGING & VOICE PRODUCTION DRUMS PERCUSSION SAXOPHONE FLUTE RECORDER HARMONICA VIOLIN At Caulfield Music Centre Music School, we offer private, oneon-one lessons. We believe this is the best way for students to learn their chosen instrument. All students receive special student DISCOUNTS on musical instruments and equipment. All lessons are payable weekly, one lesson in advance. A DISCOUNT applies when paying for 10 lessons in advance. Missed lessons incur the full fee unless a minimum of 24 hours notice is given. Exceptional circumstances will be considered. ALL ENQUIRIES AND BOOKINGS PHONE 9528 1162 OR EMAIL music@ caulfieldmusic.com.au

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NEW REHEARSAL STUDIOS

Dane specialises in providing high quality creative images to a diverse range of clients. Contributor to Rolling Stone, Time Off and Slam Magazine. www.photodane.com

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CAULFIELD MUSIC CENTRE

SINGING TUITION Tired of cracking on high notes? Not enough range or power? Learn to sing it right 1st time, every time. Dramatic improvement guaranteed. Beginners to professionals welcome. Creative, friendly environment. Also recording, songwriting, multi-instrumentalist. Phone Andrew Covell 9798 2665 or 0425 262 594

SINGING TEACHER NYC TRAINED

SONGWRITERS/SINGERS

iFlogID: 5184

GUITAR GODS AND MASTERPIECES

Your voice has the ability to sing at the Audioslave/ Radiohead/ Aretha/ P.J.Harvey level because of Design. Extend your vocal range learn to sing the right technique the first time, career counseling how to start a band. For advanced students: • Microphone Techniques • Recording Techniques • Songwriting • Harmonising. Free performance nights for current and previous students. 10 + years teaching experience. Beginners to Advanced also guitar lessons 0405-044-513

you can too.learn the fundamentals that make a great guitar player!many styles taught in a relaxed,fun manner that will get you happening fast.ph 0421727864.

Experienced drummer available with pro-gear for working band or form a band.Have own transport in Melb. Dedicated and reliable.I am a all rounder drummer wanting to get back into giging. call Bing 0404576365 iFlogID: 4618

GUITARIST GUITARIST TO FORM/JOIN BAND i am looking to form a serious band, influences include Stone Roses, The Smiths, Beatles, Kinks, Suede. Preferably looking for vocalist to collaborate with, then add bass and drums later. songs ready, looking to be gigging asap. own transport preferable. email - thevilliers@hotmail.com iFlogID: 4990

LEAD GUITARIST AVAILABLE Lead guitarist looking to jam/form a heavy metal band, preferably on the central coast but willing to travel. Influences: Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron maiden - Blake 0403138542 iFlogID: 5350

OTHER

SINGER LOOKING FOR LIFE TIME BAND genuine music man searching life time members. iFlogID: 2424

HAVE VOCALS WILL TRAVEL Vocalist looking for home. Happy to begin with new band or established. Influences blues rock punk folk metal everything. Have experience playing in bands and vocal training. iFlogID: 5369

MUSICIANS WANTED BASS PLAYER BASS PLAYER WANTED Bass playwer wanted for originals band in Melbourne. Have the basics of songs completed, just need to learn the songs to add the bass and get them gig ready. Looking for someone determined and eager to play. Influences are Sonic Youth, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, etc. Contact 0403929446.

funky rythym section wanted for dynamic sexy funk/rock/blues hip hop band.influences-the meters,early rhcp,sly stone,james brown,jimi hendrix,parliament/funkadelic.phone 0421727864. iFlogID: 4238

WANNA BE IN MY BAND??!!! Who wants to be in a all girls original pop rock band hav some fun and make some $$$?! Guitar/bass/ drummer needed. Must be able to sing passable back up vox and luv performing!Practice 1-2 times per week. Gig asap. All ages welcome. www.myspace.com/nicolesero 0435 426 012 iFlogID: 4394

DRUMMER WANTED Drummer wanted for originals band in Melbourne. Have the basics of songs completed, just need to learn the songs to add the drums and get them gig ready. Looking for someone determined and eager to play. Influences are Sonic Youth, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, etc. COntact 0403929446. iFlogID: 4431

SONS OF GENGHIS NEED DRUMMER!

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BASS PLAYER WANTED We are a rock covers band playing classics from the 70’s to current styles. AC/DC is a big influence along with Guns N’ Roses, Pearl Jam and Hendrix. We are easy going down to earth people looking for the same. We’re looking for someone who is committed and doesn’t take themselves too seriously. We have a view to play local gigs around Wollongong and eventually doing originals and touring. If you’re interested in rocking your way to the top then look no further. Call Dale on 0409 408 596 iFlogID: 4573

BASS PLAYER Do you love to see people groove to your sound? Is it a thrill to move people with your music? are you able to receive simple instruction and run with it? If so, give us a call. We are a local church in Cronulla looking for a bass player to add to our creative team - call us today on 9544 1144.

Sydney Based “Sons Of Genghis” need versatile drummer, if you play like primus meets Chilli Peppers, Faith no more meets Pantera,this is the band for you and we want your chops!! Check the sounds at www. myspace.com/sonsofgenghis. Call Jono 0410 330 702 or Andy 0420 771 357. iFlogID: 4485

GUITARIST GUITARISTS WANTED TO TEACH

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BASS PLAYER WANTED Female fronted originals band seeks musically open minded bass player. Rehearsing in inner west. We like PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, The Bellrays, MC5, Nick Cave, Thin Lizzy, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath. Call 0410 865 035 or email newtons4@aapt. net.au iFlogID: 4699

BASS PLAYER WANTED Influences Mark Lanegan, Nick Cave, Townes Van Zandt, Bright Eyes, Suicide, Soundgarden, Bruce Springsteen, Cat Power, Radiohead, Pixies, PJ, Rowland Howard etc. For more details email bass7000@gmail.com iFlogID: 4987

VOCALIST WANTED Professional band with clubwork and agent, looking for charismatic male vocalist.Ideal influences would be 80’s 90’s pop/soul.Must be true showperson. Age: 35 - 50years of age. For details call Cora on 0418 122 370. iFlogID: 4994

BASS PLAYER WANTED Bassist wanted to join melodic metal band with death/black/thrash influ-

G4 Guitar is an Australia wide network of Guitar Teachers who teach from their own homes and studios. With over 100 teachers we are the No.1 name in guitar tuition. We welcome both inexperienced and experienced teachers and we provide online training and support. To apply to become a teacher please visit our website at www.g4guitar.com.au or phone 0430-426137 iFlogID: 2631

NOEL GALLAGHER-OASIS COV BAND OASIS cover band requires a NOEL GALLAGHER. That means good singing ability and tight rythm ability. Lead not essential. Please be a fan of the music, have your own transport and some good gear. Call Blake 0420 774 819

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 90

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andy@zfmcountrywide.com

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BANDS WANTED FOR ITUNES ALBUMS

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KEYBOARD SKILLED KEYBOARDIST WANTED to complete lineup of new show. Ability to cover orchestrations and excellent sounds to match a must. High quality show with good pay. Contact: onemoreguitar@yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 4323

MULTI-GENRE KEYBOARD PLAYER SEEKING KEYBOARD PLAYER WITH A LIKING AND SKILL IN VARIOUS GENRES OF MUSIC FROM THE 60’S ONWARDS. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A LONG TERM PARTNERSHIP WITH A PROFESSIONAL LYRICIST, SINGER WITH AMBITION TO FROM A SONGWRITING DUO TO CREATE SONGS FOR ALBUMS, FILM AND OTHER MEDIA. PROFICIENCY IN APPLE, GARAGEBAND A DISTINCT ADVANTAGE. , PLEASE CONTACT ENRICO ON 0407 781156 FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Valleyarm Digital are looking for bands to be included on compilation albums that will be featured on iTunes worldwide, you’ll still own 100% of your recordings & publishing plus make money from the sales!! All genres are welcome and we’ll also be offering a Worldwide Digital Deal to a band or artist that we think we can market on a global scale! This will include $5000 worth of online marketing and a worldwide release on all the major digital stores. Submit your tracks (1 per band/artist) along with bio and contact details to - info@valleyarm.com www.valleyarm.com iFlogID: 4843

SINGERS/MUSICIANS WANTED!

KEYBOARD PLAYER / SYNTH WIZ

VOICE OF AN ANGEL Have you been told you have the voice of an angel? Do you want to put it to good use? Come along and sing for a local Church and see your gift grow. Share what you know, let us share what we know. Call 95441144 for a chat about your gift and how we can help see it grow. iFlogID: 4593

Talented Musicians, Singers/Songwriters Wanted for collaborative project. Im a Perth based Producer seeking friendly and talented singers and musicians in any style for serious yet fun musical projects leading to an album and gigs. Interested? feel free to contact me : recording_studio19@ y7mail.com iFlogID: 4931

SINGER

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RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SINGER Sydney based, agent backed and well established Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute require a singer. Please send bio and pic to info@ozredhotchilipeppersshow.com.au iFlogID: 5035

SINGER NEEDED

NOEL GALLAGHER-OASIS COV BAND Keyboard Player / Synth Wiz needed urgently for exciting new band (trip hop / electronic / rock / indie inspired). We are ready to record our debut album and support it playing gigs, but still looking for the right person to complete the line-up. Chops are less important than enthusiasm, commitment and appreciation of mood and space! Contact: Rokk Latanzio - 0407 518 526

iFlogID: 5409

MUSO’S WANTED TO JAM/ FORM BAND muso’s wanted to jam form rock/ metal band, steve,0424487379 iFlogID: 2814

GOSPEL SINGERS WANTED

Five world-class passionate vocalists wanted for a Gospel music CD project. Must have beautiful, passionate, powerful and devotional delivery. iFlogID: 3585

SINGER FOR GRUNGE/ROCK BAND Sydney Grunge/Rock band Samsara looking for a talented singer and front man to join a complete band looking to gig and record. An albums worth of music is already written but need vocal melodies and lyrics. Influences include Silverchair, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Black Sabbath etc etc. Contact Daniel: 0403 885 433, for more information and demos. iFlogID: 4187

SINGER WANTED

MUSICIANS AND AUDIENCE WANTED

Alternative heavy rock band seeks professional singer. Album worth of material ready to but also willing to jam and write together. Samples available, SMS Tek 0425 729 690 for further details. iFlogID: 4565

SKA SINGER WANTED Details: http://hotelwilliam.yayabings. com.au This is the underground melting pot of music jam sessions, organised by the Yayabings Music Club with the JazzKatts romping the Fusion Bar. Musicians/singers, comedians and artists at all levels perform by coming in on that evening. Totally impromptu and musicians may improvise with other musicians/singers or perform their own set. Local/Backpackers/ Internationals all welcome. iFlogID: 2923

GET YOUR MUSIC ON RADIO! Want to get your music heard on radio? Australian Broadcasting Media(ABM) has over 30 radio stations so getting your music out there is no problem! Interested? email

Rolling Stones Tribute Band are currently running auditions for the role of Mick Jagger. Professional attitude and experience required. Industry contacts well established. (some guitar and harmonica skills would be an advantage) Contact Chris 0431 530 330 E-mail bazza40@tpg. com.au

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SERVICES BEAUTY SERVICES WEB & GRAPHIC DESIGNSYDNEY

We are a new band called Low Gear. Have had about 16 practices together at home, and now about 10 in a studio. We’re not looking for anyone interested in making money as soon as they join a band as we are not gigging yet, but will be looking to just for fun to start, then who knows. Whilst we dont like to admit to being influenced directly by any particular bands, we all like a mix of, The Specials, Toots and the Maytals, Madniess, Reel Big Fish, Prince Buster, Sublime as far as ska goes, we also individually have many opposing influences such as, The Clash, The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers and thats just me! We have had a great time in the rehearsal rooms in Marrickville, Sydney for the past couple of months, doing 2 hours every fortnight until we get storage

ments and we can quote & deliver! 100 A4 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $40 250 A6 Leaflets printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $50 250 Full Colour Digital Business cards onto 300gsm gloss = $50 100 A3 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $80 1000 Business Cards in full colour 2 sides with plastic coating = $160 1000 A5 Flyers printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $210 1000 A4 Letterheads printed in full colour onto 100gsm bond = $230 1000 A4 Flyers printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $300 500 A2 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $490 1000 A5 Booklets 8pp printed in full colour onto gloss = $735 500 Presentation Folders printed in full colour on white board = $795

Want a logo to differentiate yourself from other bands? We can make you stand out from the rest! Boggleworks are currently offering a special price of $250 (RRP $349) for your very own custom designed logo. Visit www. boggleworks.com for more info. Be sure to enter the promotional code “IFLOG” for the special discount!

BEAUTY FOR A CAUSE CAMPAIGN

Clothing Alterations, Mending & Embroidery Servicing Mont Albert, Box Hill, Balwyn & surrounding areas Call Laura for a quote & appointment 0435005309

iFlogID: 5131

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SINGER

ALEY GREENBLO, A CURRENT FINALIST FOR MISS EARTH AUSTRALIA HAS RECENTLY BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE FACE OF THE “BEAUTY FOR A CAUSE CAMPAIGN”. ALEY HOPES TO CREATE AWARENESS ABOUT CURRENT ENVIRO PROBLEMS AND HAS SET OUT ON A MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! THIS “DOWN TO EARTH” COMMERCE LAW STUDENT IS EXTREMELY PASSIONATE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT & IS DEDICATED TO ENSURING THAT OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET REMAINS CLEAN & LITTER FREE! ALEY HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY ACTIVE IN PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS & HAS TAKEN ON VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL INITATIVES. “IT IS SO EASY AND EVERYONE CAN HELP BY DOING THE SMALLEST THINGS!”

Established and agent backed OZ Red Hot Chili Peppers Show are looking for a experienced singer, to front the band. Must be based in Sydney, with own transport, and ready to gig on weekends.Gigs waiting. Please email details to info@ozredhotchilipeppersshow.com.au iFlogID: 5242

SIMPLY RED VOCALIST REQUIRED Professional Sydney based band with club work and agent requires a frontman for Simply Red tribute show.For further information call Dianne on 0418 122 370. iFlogID: 5290

PINK TRIBUTE NEEDS SINGER

The Australian Pink Show, Sydney’s well established and leading Pink Tribute needs a Fill In singer. We require someone with experience and the stage presence to be Pink. We are

Aley Greenblo who was crowned as a finalist in January for the MISS EARTH AUSTRALIA PAGEANT TEACHES THE WORLD HOW TO ADOPT A GREENER WAY OF LIFE. Aley is studying COMMERCE LAW at UNSW and has been speaking out to encourage others to get active. In a speech Aley delivered to her fellow peers on Friday she mentioned that “MANY PEOPLE ARE INTIMIDATED BY THE IDEA OF ‘GOING GREEN’. IN REALITY HOWEVER, “GOING GREEN IS VERY SIMPLE AND MANY PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED HOW EASY IT IS TO FOLLOW AN ECO-FRIENDLY LIFESTYLE”. ALEY GREENBLO’S ACTS INSPIRE US TO INCULCATE GREEN LIVING IN OUR LIVES AND SPREAD ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS IN OUR OWN LITTLE WAY. TO FIND OUT MORE GO TO: http://aleygreenblo.blogspot.com/ or facebook: aley greenblo iFlogID: 5314

GRAPHIC DESIGN

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SYDNEY MUSICIANS WANTED Musicians wanted to join our new online community - thesound.com.au iFlogID: 5209

WANTED

BAND PHOTOS

AMPS

NAIL DOWN YOUR NAME

Need band photos? Then contact Atomic Pics as we can provide high quality live show and Promo Photos at a very affordable price Contact me with a message @ www.myspace. com/volume11 iFlogID: 5118

MYSPACE - WEBSITES - ALBUM ART - POSTERS - LOGOS - PROMO - TSHIRT DESIGN - Graphic Design services for everything in the music industry. Website packages start at $449 Custom Myspace $899 WE KNOW YOUR BUSINESS Email for a free quote/consultation paul@cattanachdesign.com.au or vist the website www.cattanachdesign.com.au

You got a great band. Your band is tight. you look great, your getting gigs your getting known but you haven’t protected your name. If you don’t lock it down some one can come along and steal it. That’s what we do. We can register your name and trade mark it so it will be yours, protecting your future money making ability and your creative talent. Call me today 31142123 or email ej@engelbertjones.com.au

ILLUSTRATOR! BOOKS TO ALBUMS

PARTY & FUNCTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Do you need an affordable Illustrator? Freelance illustrator Paul Ikin can create a range of styles for your project. No hidden cost at an affordable price. Album Covers - Film Clips - Book Sleeves - Children Books - Online Images - Fliers - Posters Editorial Artwork. Visit www.paulikin. com - T: 0403 996 129

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100 COLOUR POSTERS ONLY $80

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100 Full Colour A4 Gloss Posters = only $40 100 Full Colour A3 Matt Posters = only $50 100 Full Colour A3 Gloss Posters = only $80 and many more options to choose from Posters • Flyers • Handouts • Business Cards We can print a sample for you while you wait and complete the job within the hour. bsd@zip.com.au www.blackstar.com.au

Trust the professionals to capture the fun and magic of your party or event! 21st parties, sports clubs, nightclubs, promoters, concerts, seminars plus corporate and social functions! We’ve been awarded “Best scene Photograph” PDMA in 2009, member of the AIPP and have extensive experience in photographing events from parties through to music events of 40,000 revellers, so you can be assured of affordable quality and professional photos for your party or event! Check us out or make a booking today at www.atomikarts.com

PI BAND ART AND DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

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4 Tonne Truck with Hydraulic Lift available for Hire for deliveries private, commercial or contract (by negotiation) $65 p/hour for man and truck $85 p/hour for two men and truck. Call Derek 0423979396. iFlogID: 5137

TUITION SINGING & VOCAL PRODUCTION Whether you just want to sing for your own pleasure or dream of being a singer on stage, all aspects covered from diction, breathing, microphone technique, pitch, harmony,working with live bands and performing. Utilising the latest techniques from the US, sing without stress or fear. All lessons can be recorded and take place in a relaxed and fully equipped studio in Botany. All ages welcome - female teacher- children welcome. INTRODUCTORY OFFER: $30 per lesson for the first 3 months. Conditions apply. Email: alteregoprom@gmail or phone 0403.869.364 iFlogID: 4437

iFlogID: 5082

GREEN, GLAM & GORGEOUS

Join us for the Winter Solstice around the midnight fires and turn the wheel of the year together. On the darkest night of the year we welcome the warmth and light of the Solstice fires! www.witchesworkshop.com

iFlogID: 4978

TRUCK AND DRIVER FOR HIRE

Singer needed for hard rock band. We’re looking for a singer, male or female, for our all original hard rock band. The guitarist and I (bass) have been playing together for over 8 years now and over 3 years with our drummer. We have been writing new songs the last 2 years and continue to work on fresh original material. We have also been playing gigs all over Melbourne for the last year getting some stage experience up but we are really dying to get a frontperson with a voice that works with our music. We’re willing to give anyone a listen, we’re all easy going and in it for the fun above all else, but also been keen to take the next step and make it a serious commitment. Have a listen at our myspace link upon application. http://www.myspace.com/psyecho Please note the myspace recordings are over 2 years old now and we have progressed in style and skill greatly since then.

iFlogID: 4622

WITCHES WINTER SOLSTICE

TOUR STAFF WANTED

GRAPHIC DESIGN SERVICES

iFlogID: 2762

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CLOTHING ALTERATIONS

10 min from city.

OTHER

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Inspire Design Studios provides meaningful, smart and economic design solutions that communicates clearly with a given market. From website design, to branding, we can take you through the entire process of creating an identity for your organization. Maybe you just need some business cards, or maybe you need a completely new look. From logo design, to website creation, to company apparel, and anything in between. To provide you with the most competitive pricing contact us to discuss your requirements without any obligation. Special prices Static website (within 5 pages) $495 CMS website (within 7 pages) $695 Online shopping site $795 No hidden charges or on-going monthly fees To find out more please visit www. lydiay.com

sign Pro Tools 8 designed to improve your music and audio postproduction skills. PT 101 12-13 July PT 110 14-16 July PT 201 19-20 July PT 210M 21-23 July Logic Pro 101 7- 9 July Ring 9514 9931 or go to http://www.utsproschool.uts.edu.au to book your place

iFlogID: 4914

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SYNTH NOISE MAKER WANTED

OTHER

VOCALIST / ENTERTAINER

WANT A LOGO FOR YOUR BAND?

iFlogID: 5379

OASIS cover band needs a Noel Gallagher. That means a good singer with tight rythm guitar ability. Lead not essential. Good gear and transport required. Call Blake 0420 774 819

iFlogID: 5298

SYNTH NOISE MAKER WANTED FOR ELECTRO POP ROCK BAND, WE LIKE INTERESTING SOUNDS, BANDS LIKE THE KNIFE, BOWIE, NINA HAGEN, ENO, DELTRON, PORNO FOR PYROS, KRAFTWERK AND MORE. BALLARAT AREA...WE HAVE RELEASES..WE NEED A DEDICATED OPEN PERSON.. OWN GEAR, TRANSPORT, WE HAVE SYNTHS TOO, MULTI INTRUMENTALIST WOULD BE GOOD..OPPORTUNITY TO CO WRITE NEW MATERIAL.. HAVE FUN..TRAVEL AND PLAY..EMAIL softrobots@gmail.com PHONE Jez. 0421 836 876

CD Art/Layout design,posters, stickers etc, video editing/filming,DVD, multimedia. Cheapest rates in Melbourne. reapersimagedesign.com.au 0403 416 424

Established and agent backed Oz Red Hot Chili Peppers Show are looking for a experienced singer. Must be based in Sydney, with own transport. info@ ozredhotchilipeppersshow.com.au

Melodic/Trash Metal band aged early 20’s seeking a singer. We play covers but also working on originals, we plan to gig in the near future. Influences; Slayer, Pantera, Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Mudvayne & more. Practice at Newtown Zen-Studio [Contact me at Memo.oi@hotmail. com]

REAPERS IMAGE DESIGN

agent backed and have loads of gigs ready to go. You need to be available on weekends to perform. So... Ya reckon you can do it? then email Rob at info@ozpinkshow.com.au or go through the link on our website www. ozpinkshow.com.au

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SHOW

SINGER WANTED [METAL]

MUSICIANS WANTED FOR POP BAND

iFlogID: 5226

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Melbourne bassist seeking RELIABLE, DEDICATED, CONFIDENT, CREATIVE musicians to form pop band. Influences: Faith No More, INXS, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, GnR, Soundgarden, The Police, Godflesh, Icehouse, M.I.A, Depeche Mode, Pantera, Genesis ect listen to demos at soundcloud.com/integra and call Mike on 0424 838 782

then looking to make it more regular. We are now finding that we are hitting a wall without a singer and are looking for someone to come along and give us some input and help us over this hurdle. We are looking for a singer who is decent, but doesnt feel the need to bash it out at 100% all the time, someone who can relax into a voice and also belt out some cheeky stuff every now and then too. If you feel you would have a good time practising with us, give us an email and see how you go. If you enjoy our company then I am sure you would be a welcome friend.

100% devotion to music and the packaging it comes in. Pi (Paul Ikin) has a Complete Design Studio aimed at album cover design, packaging and Band Websites. Based in Melbourne Central Complex its easy to get to. Some of the services include * Art Layout design for CD’s/Digipack/ Gatefolds, * Vinyl Sleeves 12” & 7”, and professional Band Websites. Feel free to visit our site to find out more about our services www.paulikin. com iFlogID: 4626

SUPER CHEAP COLOUR PRINTING

Global Sanctuary Photography are currently running their yearly May, June and July specials. To name a few people we have shot: John Mayer, Jimmy Barnes, Iva Davies, Cruel Sea, Panic at the Disco, Human Nature, Killing Heidi and Delta Goodrem. We come to you on location or at your gig or come to our awesome warehouse studio at Botany. Studio style or grungy warehouse, the choice is yours. We are creative and easy going producing quality work using canon pro gear. Call us on 0416 144 277 or email us at globalsanctuary@mac. com. Visit www.globalsanctuary.biz iFlogID: 4518

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P&O/DJ BOOTCAMP CRUISE

P&O have teamed up with DJ Bootcamp to bring u Australias first 8 day/3 island professional DJ Course Cruise.Learn DJing and enjoy, food,entertainmet,accommidation and 3 islands!Early booking discounts.Go www.djbootcamp.com.au to book 95472578 info. Sails August 29, 2010

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! Ever found yourself putting on a tour and don’t know how to get a sound engineer or someone to sell merchandise on the other side of the country? Well, that is how CoverYourArtz.com came about... The website enables anyone offering a service that can be used by touring artists to browse for work, and for touring artists to find the people they need to make their tour work anywhere in Australia. By visiting CoverYourArtz.com, anyone who is putting on an event is able to source all types of crew from tour managers, sound engineers, and lighting technicians to merchandisers, photographers and poster distributors in areas where they wouldn’t normally know where to start looking. Anyone working in the industry can look for work, and also list their details so that they don’t miss out on that next ‘big job’! Registering and browsing for jobs on CoverYourArtz.com is absolutely free, you only pay when you want to apply. For further info please contact the team at info@coveryourartz.com or visit our website at www.coveryourartz.com. iFlogID: 5308

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THE CHILLI MAN IS BACK!!!!

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FINISH LINE

INDUSTRY NEWS BY BRYGET CHRISFIELD

The Triangles in ‘07 – before they got into beer

VALE ADAM D MILLS

FRAGMENTED FREQUENCIES OTHER MUSIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE WITH BOB BAKER FISH

Regular Inpress contributor Adam D Mills passed away on Monday 31 May. He was 29 years old. What shined through most about him was his passion for music. His affection for experimental and post-rock music was well known, but he had a breadth of musical loves that extended from black metal through to pop like Tegan & Sara. He also wrote for Blunt, Mess+Noise and Cyclic Defrost with some regularity and his passion for music extended to opening a record store in Sydney, Sound&Fury. Unfortunately due to the music retail environment of recent times, the store had to close in 2006, but Sound&Fury lived on as a label.

OZ DOMINATES MUSEXPO Melbourne’s own retro-inspired quintet, Little Red, are showcasing at the third annual MUSEXPO Europe at Borderline Club in London on Tuesday 15 June. The other three Australian bands that are showcasing are all quartets from Brisbane: Hungry Kids Of Hungary, 26 and Drawn From Bees (who rose from the ashes of Glasshouse). Australia has the most showcasing bands this year and Borderline Club is the same venue where The Temper Trap were signed by Infectious Records’ Korda Marshall after the debut MUSEXPO Europe in October, 2008.

In Fragmented Frequencies’ early years he indulged in a fantasy that all the punk rock superheroes were great mates; that Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra would bake cakes together, snort some crack with Gibby Haynes, then go to the pinball arcade with The Ramones and just before bed sacrifice some virgins with Glenn Danzig.

WOLFMOTHER CANCEL EUROPE Wolfmother have cancelled all of their appearances up until Splendour In The Grass 2010. A statement released to the Main Square Festival (France) organisers stated: “We are sorry to announce that Wolfmother have been forced to cancel its full European tour for June and July. Due to medical reasons, Andrew Stockdale, Wolfmother’s lead singer is unable to fly.” The band was booked to warm the stage up for Kiss in Germany and Pearl Jam at London’s Hard Rock Calling (they will be replaced by The Hives). They were also scheduled to appear at Download (Killswitch Engage will fill in), T In The Park and Rock Am Ring. Pending Stockdale’s recovery, the band will return to the road for a North American tour, kicking off with Lollapalooza in August. We wish him a speedy recovery.

MORE MOVEMENTS The second round of speakers has been announced for One Movement For Music Perth (OMFM): David Loiterton, Kevin Arnold, Arjun Sankalia, Kyle Hopkins, Patrik Larsson, Sebastian Mair, Phil Patterson, Frank Takeshita, Julian Wall, Oum Pradutt, Ben Mawson, Deville Schober, Bobby Talwar, Martin Elbourne, Jasper Donat and Chris Gough. Artist submissions for OMFM are now open via Sonicbids and one successful international applicant will be flown to Perth to perform at the festival. One lucky national submission will also be offered a performance opportunity at the festival. To submit, go to www.sonicbids.com and keep an eye on the website (onemovementmusic.com) for further information on the One Movement Music event, which will take place from 6-10 October.

FOR PEAT’S SAKE Online artist applications are now open for your chance to perform at Peats Ridge 2010. Held over New Year’s from 29 December to 1 January in Glenworth Valley NSW, up-and-coming groups and big name acts from all over the world are encouraged to submit irrespective of genre. Submit your online musical application through peatsridgefestival.com.au before Monday 19 July.

JOB OPS PBS is looking for a mid-level Systems Administrator. Good communicators and team players are encouraged to apply for this ten-hours-per-week contract position. Please email mara@pbsfm.org.au for more information. Applications close 23 June. Got news? Announcements? Gossip? Unsubstantiated but hilarious rumours? Send them all to finishline@streetpress.com.au.

LOCALS TOP INTERNATIONAL CHARTS Two little heard of Australian acts have scored breakout hits in Spain. Melbourne band The Triangles have found their song Applejack atop the Spanish iTunes chart after it was featured in a lager commercial. The ad uses the song in its entirety and features the band cavorting Duran Duran-style in the Spanish sun and sea, it was initially issued by indie label Half A Cow on the band’s 2005 Magic Johnson album. Sydney’s Yolanda Be Cool were sitting just behind The Triangles at number two on the iTunes chart on the weekend with their local club hit We No Speak Americano (number four in Australia). The duo, who seem to have nicked their name from the hold-up scene in Pulp Fiction, are signed to Ajax Bang Gang’s label Sweat It Out and their hit also features labelmate DCup. In the UK, Perth’s Pendulum debuted at number one last week with their Immersion album and had two tracks off the set in the singles listings. The album, which has spent two weeks in the top five here, is also ranked number seven in Billboard’s tracking of overall European sales across the week.

CHARTFIXER: ILLEGAL OR JUST PR?

HOOK’D ON JOY DIVISION

Last week, the biggest news in the Australian music press was Chartfixer – a digital media venture that promises to get “any song” into the ARIA charts for a fee. The website claims to be able to rig the charts via iTunes by paying users ($1.31 per track) to download digital singles and details this strategy as “simple and perfectly legal”. For $6,000, “downloaders” will buy 1,000 digital copies of a song, which Chartfixer defines as a sales tally high enough to enter the ARIA Singles Chart’s top 80 in a typical week. If you have $25,000, this team of “downloaders” could give your song top 20 potential. ARIA CEO Stephen Peach told Australian electronic magazine Crikey, “ARIA will take all necessary steps to preserve the integrity and accuracy of the ARIA charts. Additionally, the sales for any release found to be using the services would be disqualified.” An “unidentified entrepreneur” assured Billboard.biz, “Chartfixer is not illegal… Chartfixer does not actually fix or rig the ARIA charts. It is nothing more than another promotional service…”

Following a pair of performances of Joy Division’s 1979 classic Unknown Pleasures (plus some other Warsaw/Joy Division tracks) by Peter Hook & The Light at Hook’s new Manchester club FAC251 on 18 and 19 May this year, there are whispers that Australian fans will be given the opportunity to see a similar commemorative tour later on in the year. The album was played sequentially and in its entirety to mark the 30th anniversary of lead singer Ian Curtis’s death and special guests that joined Hooky and co onstage included former Happy Mondays singer Rowetta and former A Certain Ratio member Simon Topping.

GIVE AN IOTAH The winners of Triple J’s 2010 Unearthed High competition are Iotah from Gisborne Secondary College. The band comprises four Findlay sisters: Amy (lead vocals/drums), Hannah (guitar/backing vocals), Sarah (keys/backing vocals) and Holly (bass/backing vocals). Iotah were chosen from over 600 entries and the youngest member, Holly, is in Year Seven! The sisters will be flown to Sydney to record in the Triple J studios with engineer Greg Wales and will perform in front of their high school, Gisborne Secondary College, with British India headlining.

MUSICAL CHAIRS Billboard The Venue announces the appointment of Paris Martine to the position of Band Booker. Working alongside Eric Powell (Events & Marketing), Martine joins Billboard to oversee all band bookings for the venue while retaining her current position as band booker at The Workers Club. She is contactable on paris@billboardthevenue.com.au. After four years as Entertainment Manager at Wesley Anne, Anto Macaroni is moving on and Damien Sutton will take up the reins. For freelance publicity enquiries and anything regarding Puta Madre Brothers and Baboso Recording Co, Macaroni can be contacted at whitebreadmexican@gmail.com. Emily Alvis has joined the Shiny Entertainment team and will be handling publicity and promotions for Princess One Point Five and Owl Eyes (emily@shinyentertainment. com.au). Shiny also farewell longtime team member Jade Pham.

Of course it’s teenage fantasy hokum, and this punk rock Brady Bunch fever-dream had all but vanished until recently, when it became clear that not only did someone else share this vision, but they took it one step further. Henry & Glenn Forever imagines Rollins and Danzig as sensitive, caring lovers who live next door to the polite yet devil-worshipping Hall & Oates. It’s a 64-page comic book from Igloo Tornado, a collective of artists that dare to delve into the intimate thoughts of the soft-loving, hard-living duo, the sensitive and vulnerable emo feelings that they share only in their respective diary entries and with each other. It’s not altogether narrative-based; with multiple drawing styles, it’s more like a collection of significant movements from their lives that provide a unique insight into our ink-obsessed musclebound heroes, revelling in their insecurities and self-doubt. We see them singing karaoke together, Danzig repeately asks Rollins how his butt looks in pants, and they bicker about toilet paper and who does all the housework. They even have a TV party. It’s sensational. You can find it at microcosmpublishing.com. Zac Keiller is a local guitarist very active on the experimental music scene. Whilst his releases and collaborations are too numerous to mention here, the one constant is his fascination with discovering new and unique sonic textures from one of the most overused and unimaginatively approached instruments in western music: the guitar. The majority of his previous releases saw him working with ambient textures or electroacoustic improvisation (which you can now download for free at zackeiller.polydistortion.net). His new album Start Burning (Iceage Productions) sees him limiting the use of pedals, instead attempting to find a kind of transcendence through stark purity of tone. Whilst there’s some gorgeous ambience with drones and fragmented runs of notes, there’s also a raw kind of riff-based instrumental rock with drums, which emphasises that these days it takes different strokes to move Keiller’s world. The Sentimental Engine Slayer is the debut feature film release for Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Not only did he write, direct and produce the film, he also stars as the confused 20-something struggling with some serious mental health issues in his transition to adulthood. He also contributes the really whacked out score which is pretty consistent with his previous solo offerings. His sounds are a mixture of guitar noise and gentle ambience and it provides the film with a confused, hazy, perhaps drug-addled feel, perfect for the disjointed narrative and surreal suburbia he’s going for. This very bold and unique debut feature is playing at ACMI from tomorrow until Sunday.