Time Off Issue #1502 by TheMusic.com.au

PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY

GRAFTON PRIMARY

PEABODY

RICHARD TOGNETTI

THE GIN CLUB KAKI KING SUGAR ARMY FEMI KUTI

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18/11/2010 Lydia (USA) Elliot the Bull (NSW) The Paper and the Plane We Set Sail Bodywire Tickets $20 + bf presale through Moshtix and Oztix, $30 at door.

NOV E M B E R $7 ENTRY. $5 FOR GIRLS. STUDENTS FREE.

25/11/2010 Armada in the Dusk Training Day Pledge This (NSW) The Endless Pandemic Villa Rise (NSW) +DJ SAMXXX PLAYING PUNK AND HARDCORE. STILL PLAYING ALL YOUR FAVOURITE PARTY AND DANCE TUNES IN THE DANCE ROOM!!!

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For complete tour information, visit www.U2.com For local information & tour updates sign up at www.livenation.com.au I www.coppel.com.au For official Travel & Hospitality packages visit www.U2360packages.com.au Produced by Live Nation Global Touring in association with Michael Coppel and Live Nation Australia Suncorp Stadium is a non-smoking venue. Free Travel on QR train and BT Bus Service only - Conditions Apply

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ALSO TOURING - Metronomy (UK) Sat 27 Nov, Woodland | Broadcast (UK) Mon 6 Dec, The Hi Fi | The Books (US) Sat 19 Feb, The Zoo | Best Coast (US) Wed 9 Mar, Woodland | HEALTH (US) Sat 15 Jan, Woodland

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GIVEAWAYS In Seven Ages of Britain, British presenter and commentator David Dimbleby reveals the seven great ages of British culture, uncovering and exploring over 2000 years of extraordinary artistic achievements. Thanks to Roadshow Entertainment we have five copies to give away! Subject Line: SEVEN AGES OF BRITAIN Jamie Does... sees Jamie Oliver turn food tourist. In each show he explores the cuisine of a foreign city or region just a short flight from the UK. As seen on Channel 10, Jamie visits Morocco, Spain, Greece, France, Italy and Sweden. Thanks to Roadshow Entertainment we have five copies of the DVD up for grabs! Subject Line: JAMIE DOES Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an Infected Zone. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain “the creatures.” Thanks to Madman Entertainment we have ten double passes to give away to an advance screening of Monsters on Wednesday Nov 24, 6.30pm at the Dendy Portside! Subject Line: MONSTERS

A fascinating glimpse into the dark corridors of political power, Fair Game is a riveting drama based on the autobiography of real-life undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose career is destroyed and her marriage strained to its limits by a White House press leak. Thanks to Hoyts Distribution we have ten double passes up for grabs to an advance screening of the movie starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, on Wednesday Nov 24, 6.30pm at Event Cinemas Indooroopilly. Subject Line: FAIR GAME Thanks to Sony Music we have five copies to give away of Black Dub, the self-titled release by the powerful new group led by celebrated guitarist and producer Daniel Lanois. It is a distinctive, rock-edged album featuring an outstanding level of musicianship and a soulful, symphonic commentary influenced by Jamaican dub culture. Subject Line: BLACK DUB Thanks to Remote Control Records we have three double passes up for grabs to Grafton Primary’s gig at the Zoo on Friday Nov 19! They’re on tour to celebrate the release of their new single ‘The Eagle.’ Entrants must be 18+. Subject Line: GRAFTON PRIMARY

Email: give@timeoff.com.au with the designated Subject Line. Entries MUST include your full name, address and contact phone number in Body of Text. Please note our Giveaways policy: Email before Friday 3pm unless stated otherwise. If you have won a prize you will be notified by email. One entry per person/per competition. Prizes must be collected from the Time Off office during business hours with the presentation of ID. Prizes must be collected within 10 working days from email notification unless stated otherwise. Prizes are not transferable, exchangeable or redeemable for cash. Failure to collect the prize within the time specified will result in it being forfeited. Deadlines for entering and collection must be strictly adhered to.

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 1502 16 18 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 29 30 30 30 30 31 31 32 32

Find out what’s happening This Week In Arts We take a look behind Sydney Dance Company’s we unfold Cultural Cringe sings it from the rooftops Richard Tognetti and Sarah Giles talk us through Kreutzer Vs Kreutzer We give you the most comprehensive rundown on BIFF we possibly can! Take a peek through The Looking Glass Wild Target continues a strong tradition of making killers likable

36 36 36

38 37 39

BACK TO TIME OFF!

Our Live section is packed full of tour info, live reviews, local news and more other stuff than you could imagine Stu Harvey gives us a Short Fast Report Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down 50 Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown Lochlan Watt gets brutal in our new metal column Adamantium Wolf We take you behind the music Behind The Lines What do you do when you need to get rid of something? iFlog

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Get your music industry news from The Front Line Lowdown – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash A Day To Remember are getting meaner, not heavier Philadelphia Grand Jury discuss the virtues of change and ordinary London living We take a look inside the collective head of Peabody They’re back on the horse, but Grafton Primary are taking it one step at a time Jimmy Eat World took a look back to some past methods when making their new record We hit the road with The Gin Club Femi Kuti wants Africa to love itself Perth’s Sugar Army striving for cohesion There’s a Silver Ocean Storm front coming and the pressure in low Life in Nashville has been a great inspiration for 8 Ball Aitken Stick To Your Guns love the world Kaki King may be a hot guitarist, but she can’t stand the heat We discuss the growth of reggae with Raz Bin Sam Brianna Carpenter is bringing out the quirk for her next performance On The Record has the latest, greatest and the not so greatest new musical releases Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out

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INDUSTRY NEWS MELBOURNE GETS $25M, SYDNEY AND BRISBANE STAY SILENT

EMI EXODUS Criticised for their aging roster, Queen are the latest band to leave the EMI ranks, the struggling and cashstrapped major losing the act to Universal. The band is planning to release remastered versions of their albums next year through Island Records coinciding with the band’s 40th anniversary. Since private equity Terra Firma took over control of the label in 2007 they’ve lost artists such as Radiohead, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, while Terra Firma recently lost a court case against Citibank where they claimed they were tricked into paying an inflated fee for the company initially. They intend to appeal the decision. Mute Records also opted to become an independent label recently as well and there’s an expectation that more affiliated brands will look to jump ship.

Following on from the Live Music Agreement signed by representatives of the music industry signed with the Victoria government, the Premier John Brumby has outlined his support for the state’s music scene with a $25 million pledge. The injection of funds and support includes a $12 million Music HQ to be located in Melbourne, extra grant money for local musicians, $750,000 more in funding for the peak music body Music Victoria, a “code of best practice” for music venues and a dollar-for-dollar matching for investments like sound proofing, acoustic treatments and sound system improvements. This is all dependent on a re-elected Brumby Labor government though as the Victorian election (Nov 27) draws near.

TROPSCORE RETURNS

The support is miles away from the rest of the East Coast, where Brisbane music venues are beginning to close – most notably The Troubadour – to no response from the council and in Sydney, where worrying new council powers have still not prompted Lord Mayor Clover Moore to show her support for the live music scene. After stories, such as one in The Front Line, berated Moore for her nonchalant stance on the inner-city entertainment scene, her media department reacted against the “negative campaign” being run in the media and she appeared in the daily and community newspapers to ensure residents that she is not trying to inflict a curfew on Sydney’s venues. What The Front Line would like to see is an assurance from the Lord Mayor that she is supportive of live music venues, but she has ignored requests for comment. With a state election in March next year, there is an opportunity for music to become a major issue in New South Wales as well, a floundering incumbent Labor Government may even find it an attractive option to get voters back on side.

Max Tropscore is returning for its third year, with the national competition celebrating the union of music and film and providing a creative platform for musicians and composers. Entrants must create an original musical score or synch for a three-minute short film that has been produced by emerging Australian filmmaker David Hansen. The winner will have the opportunity to perform their score at Tropfest 2011, have their composition included on the Tropfest Finalist DVD and win $5000. To be a part register your entry online at www.maxtv.com.au/tropscore and supply your completed score or synch compiled with the vision on DVD to Movie Extra Tropfest by Thursday Jan 13. The winner will be revealed at Tropfest on Sunday Feb 20.

KYÜ’S GOT THE SPIRIT

CADD’S SIDE OF THINGS Hall Of Fame inductee Brian Cadd has released his book, From This Side Of Things through New Holland this month. Starting out in the bands Groop and Axiom, Cadd was behind the track A Little Ray Of Sunshine and has worked with Ringo Starr and Joe Cocker since.

AUSTRALIANS ABROAD British India are currently in the UK promoting their EP Vanilla – a track from their latest album Avalanche – and have launched a new website to coincide with it. Their single 90 Ways To Leave Your Lover has been picked up by New Zealand radio and the band will be touring there in December to support it. After emerging as the inaugural winner for triple j’s Unearthered High band competition for school kids, Tom Ugly (originally [is]) will be travelling to America to collaborate with as-yet-unrevealed artists to work on a new project. The self-titled debut EP from Tommaso Parisi’s moniker has not provided the foundation he’s needed to solidify his position on the national scene and the new project will reportedly involve music, fashion, film and visual art, with eyes for a 2011 release.

OBJECTS IN THE SUN Port Macquarie-based The Foreign Objects have been announced to play the Festival Of The Sun, after winning the Mid-North Coast triple j Unearthed competition. Headlined by Xavier Rudd, and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings it happens Friday Dec 10 and Saturday Dec 11.

BON CHART TOP Ahead of their impending tour, a new best of from Bon Jovi debuted at the top of the album charts this week, the accompanying DVD second in its respective chart. Susan Boyle’s festive album The Gift was forced to settle for second (although her previous record I Dreamed A Dream re-entered the chart at 20). The top Australian debut is ARIA Awards-bumbling Jessica Mauboy with her newie Get ‘Em Girls, whilst James Blunt didn’t manage to crack the top ten with Some Kind Of Trouble, which debuts in 11th.

JACKO CONTROVERSY CONTINUES After a new track from Michael Jackson’s new album Michael began streaming on the late star’s website, questions were raised against the authenticity of the track’s vocal line. The claims prompted an Epic Records spokesman to release a statement in damage control, “We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own.” Producer Teddy Riley also went on the record saying, “I have no doubts that these are Michael’s vocals. I stand for myself with no discrimination.” He also added that the vocals sounded “very polished, very on key and processed”. Slated for a mid-December release, the album is a patchwork of unreleased Michael Jackson material apparently recorded recently and features guest appearances from Akon, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz. There has been industry and family backlash from the album, with father Joe Jackson’s attorney Brian Oxman saying, “If Michael had wanted this music released he would have done so before his death. The songs being released on the new Michael Jackson album were unfinished and incomplete tracks that Michael said many times he never wanted released. We should honour Michael Jackson’s wishes.” Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has called the endeavour “disrespectful”. “Whoever put it out and is profiting off of it, I want to see how cold they are... He just wasn’t any ordinary artist. He was a hands-on person. To me it’s disrespectful. Michael Jackson songs are finished when Michael says they’re finished,” he said. “Maybe if I never worked with him I wouldn’t have this perspective. He was very particular about how he wanted his vocals, the reverb he used... he was that hands-on.”

COUNTRY AWARDS EXPAND The Country Music Channel have announced that their annual Oz Artist Of The Year award – won each of its four years by Adam Brand – will evolve in its fifth year into the CMC Music Awards. The expanded event will also include awards for International Artist Of The Year, New Australian Artist Of The Year and Music Video Of The Year, the latter available for voting online now while the other nominees will be announced in the coming weeks.

ROWLAND DOCO TO BE MADE One of three projects to receive part of the $495,000 grants offered by Film Victoria is a documentary about the late Rowland S Howard, titled Rowland S Howard: Autoluminiscent. The film will include interviews, performance footage, photographs and music and is being out together by Ghost Pictures. The other recipients were a new John Saffran project and a TC series.

Wednesday 17th November Mace and Mac The Fuzz Butterz

Thursday 18th novermber BOYS AND GIRLS The Ailnent Headwound the pony $12 tickets on door $10 host list

Friday 19th November 648 Ann Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 www.xandybar.com.au

Texas Tea Lion Island Aniki | Charlie Hustle

Sydney’s kyü have won the music category of the QANTAS Spirit Of Youth Awards (SOYA), a grant program championing local creative arts. The program provides the award winner practical support in the form of flights and cash, as well as the opportunity to build a professional mentoring relationship with creative leaders. As part of their prize, producer Lee Groves (Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Gwen Stefani) will be assisting kyü throughout 2011 to develop their opportunities both locally and internationally. “When you get to meet people that you genuinely respect and admire and want to work with – and in our case that was Lee Groves who we’re going to be able to work with – that’s exciting,” kyü’s Alyx Dennison told The Front Line following their triumph. The win is yet another in a list of growing accolades for the band, coming off choice support slots and the well-received release of their debut album and accompanying tour. Dennison admits to having an “objective perspective” on the growth of the band over the past little while. “We’ve been aware of it but it’s been hard to feel because it’s been partly gradual, but also partly rapid. I think since the album’s come out there’s been a huge… like we went up a few notches in terms of recognition I suppose and that’s something we have not a great grasp on. And there are moments here and there where things remind us that we’re not in the same position we were a year ago,” she says. The win seems to be perfect timing for the band as Dennison explains the upcoming plans for kyü. “We’ll start recording album number two over the next couple of months and we’re so excited to do that and get that done fairly soon over summer and really excited to work with Lee on that,” she outlines. “Then in February, we’re going to the States for six weeks and we’ll play some shows and maybe tweak the recordings that we did here over there or whatever. When Freya [Berkhout, the other half of kyü] flies back to Australia, I’m going to fly to England and do some travelling. So next year’s really about travel and stimulation and growth and hopefully it will be a really creative year, because this year’s not been so much compared to last year, as it’s mostly about getting the album out and touring and things.” Other winners included Victoria’s Ariel Kleiman in the film category, plus Victoria’s Penny Lane in the photography category, whose work has appeared in Street Press Australia (publisher of Time Off ) publications Drum Media Perth and Inpress.

Saturday 20th November Surfing’ Bird Fushia Slynk | ANIKI

Sunday 21st November The Moderns Buick 6 Butterz

Monday 22nd November Bar Closed

Tuesday 23rd November The Punch Drunks | Instrumental distraction Cutloose

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES One of our city’s finest music venues THE TROUBADOUR opens its doors for the final time this weekend. Co-owner JAMIE TREVASKIS talks to STEVE BELL about the factors leading to this sad decision, and the pride he has in the achievements of this fine institution.

usic venues by their very nature tend to come and go with time, but few venue closures have impacted the Brisbane music scene with the force of that of Fortitude Valley establishment The Troubadour. Recent news that ‘The Troub’ was closing sent shockwaves through the local music community, and the outpouring of grief and anxiety which followed has been unparalleled in its scope and intensity. That’s because, for many, The Troubadour had long ago become more than just a place to go and watch bands, but had transcended that role to become a sanctuary of sorts from the maelstrom of humanity which descends on Fortitude Valley each and every weekend. As you ascended the stairs of The Troubadour you were aware that not only were you likely to find your friends and acquaintances enjoying fine live music amidst the stately decor, but be met with friendly, smiling staff and experience a feeling of calm and ease that is exceedingly rare in these super-charged times that we live in. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. If any positive can be taken out of this sorry saga it’s the fact that co-owner Jamie Trevaskis – who, along with business partner Cori Scanlon, built the venue up from scratch nearly eight years ago – reasons that the primary reason for the closure is due to business technicalities rather than any scathing reflection on the state of the Brisbane music scene. “At the end of the day the reason we’re closing down is purely because of the landlord,” the ever-genial Trevaskis explains. “Cori and I both fought for about five months to get him to do any of the necessary improvements to the place – fix the air con that we paid for and that sort of stuff – and we just got nowhere, so at the end of the day it was just too much. We lost the power to the building during Fiesta and were shut for three days and nothing was done about it, and then there was a fire in the business downstairs which filled all of our gutters with ash and meant that we had floods for two weeks straight after the fire and nothing was done about that. There’s nothing you can really do when you’re fighting for a lease and you’ve got a building falling down around you. The saddest thing about that is that we’ve been here for seven-and-a-half years, paid rent every month without fail, never screwed anyone around, never asked for anything, never got them to fix anything or do anything, and then we get treated like a brand new tenant. They wanted bank deposits and bank guarantees – it got ridiculous. There’s just no need to go on – it’s the end. “Then on top of that you look at the scenario of what’s happening with Brisbane and music anyway: not the music scene – that’s fine – but just the state of venues and how the city’s sort of dissolving when it comes to the music scene. Do you want to get stuck with a terrible landlord in Fortitude Valley? I don’t think so. No-one who loves music even wants to come through the Valley anymore to get to a gig these days. So ultimately it just came down to the landlord’s decision – if he wants to keep the tenant he can, but he obviously doesn’t want to.” According to Trevaskis the saddest part of closing The Troubadour is turning their backs on all of the hard work that they’d done, and the immense goodwill that they’d accrued.

“It had never been easy from day one to open the doors in the first place – I’d spent two years prior to that working on it, so this has been basically ten years in the making – so for it to end sourly like this is really disappointing,” he admits. “But the other side of it is that we lasted sevenand-a-half years in a pretty fickle industry and the venue kept its reputation and stuck by what it was. It stuck around while a lot of venues opened and closed, so we’re proud of all those things and of all the bands that came through and really embraced the place. Brisbane punters really did treat it as their own – it was special to them – and you can’t ask for anything more than that really.” Despite the obvious esteem in which The Troubadour has been held by all and sundry, the outpouring of grief following news of its imminent demise shocked even the owners. “It was a shock to me – I didn’t expect that sort of feedback, so quickly as well,” Trevaskis continues. “Half the time you’re just so busy running the place that you don’t even know what’s going on in the outside world. Our sole reason for being here from day one was the music – it was never about making a business that made us a million bucks. The place turned its wheels for many years, and that’s all it did, and that in itself is a beautiful thing. All of the amazing shows over the years outweighed all of the negative shit that I had to put up with, and I think all of the people who walked in here noticed that – they knew they were here for a musical experience rather than just to get shitfaced. People felt that it was their place, a home away from home. I feel kind of responsible for that, which is probably the hardest thing to deal with, letting a lot of people down. But I’m sure that people understand that you can’t do something like this forever. Which isn’t to say that I won’t do it again, just that it won’t be here. No matter what, The Troubadour has come and gone and will no longer be – even if it opens somewhere else it won’t be The Troubadour. The Troubadour is what we remember it as.” Amidst the sadness there is inevitably time for reflection, and Trevaskis has a lifetime’s worth of memories from his time at the helm of The Troub. “The highlights are probably all of the bands that played who I’ve been listening to for years and never imagined that I’d see playing in my own venue – people like Jason Molina, Richard Buckner, Lou Barlow, Neko Case, Eric Bachmann. There’s just so many, I have to dig deep because there’s so many stashed back there. Justin Townes Earle playing to about 50 people. Mark Kozelek, Bill Callahan. There’s so many. Just to watch bands really develop too, play a couple of shows at the Troubadour and then move on to bigger venues – just being that stepping stone. I’m really going to miss it.” Aren’t we all. The Troubadour shuts its doors for the final time this Sunday – see gig and venue guides for details of final shows. Vale The Troubadour (2003-2010).

IN BRIEF Johnny Rotten has written a coffee table book called Mr Rotten’s Scrapbook that will cost around $730 per copy. Of the 750 copies made, 100 include a golden ticket which entitles the owner to a 10-minute webcam conversation with him. The ultra prolific Drive-By Truckers have a new record entitled Go-Go Boots all ready for release next February. Black Lips are currently in the studio with none other than super producer Mark Ronson. What?

THE PARTY DON’T STOP She’s either your idea of a perfect bad-ass pop star or your worst nightmare, whichever it is there’s a good chance that Ke$ha really doesn’t care. It was announced a few weeks ago that this young heartbreaker would be touring Australia with the Future Music Festival early next year, but it has now been revealed that she will also perform some all ages sideshows while she’s in the country, which will no doubt appease her massive underage fanbase. She’s just unleashed a repackaged version of her hugely successful Animal album entitled Cannibal with a bunch of new tunes on it, so you’d be wise to grab a copy of that and get ready for the party of your life when she invades the Brisbane Riverstage on Thursday Mar 3. Tickets are on sale from Ticketmaster as of Thursday morning.

CIRCUS HITS TOWN Stoners rejoice! This is, far and away, the closest that we have and perhaps will ever come to a full reunion of the legendary Kyuss and it is coming to Australia early next year. Kyuss Lives features three of the original members of the legendary stoner rock band in Nick Oliveri, John Garcia and Brant Bjork along with guitarist Bruno Fevery, they only announced their re/formation about two weeks ago but have already announce that they are heading to Australia to help us relive the glory days of desert-fried rock’n’roll. The band are one of the most influential in modern heavy rock music and their dedicated fanbase will undoubtedly be snapping up tickets to their shows at the Coolangatta Hotel on Wednesday May 4 and The Tivoli Friday May 6 awfully swiftly, so when they go on sale on Thursday Nov 25 you’ll want to grab one quickly! OzTix have your Cooly tickets while Ticketek will sort you for The Tivoli show. Presented by Street Press Australia.

Reports have surfaced that Lou Reed is responsible for the concept of the video for Susan Boyle’s version of Perfect Day. Ryan Adams has announced he will release III/ IV – a 21-track rock opera he wrote and recorded with The Cardinals a couple of years ago – some time soon. The classic line-up of Britpop darlings Pulp will reform for shows next year. Pop superstar P!nk is 12 weeks pregnant. She is married to motocross rider Carey Hart. A storage garage owned by Neil Young has burned down causing around $1 million worth of damage. Gerry Rafferty, the guy who gave us Baker Street, is in a critical condition after collapsing due to liver failure.

OUR LITTLE HOODRAT FRIENDS

No matter how much you gush about The Hold Steady, it never quite seems like enough. The band’s classic bar room rock is hard hitting but highly danceable, the lyricism of frontman Craig Finn is utterly captivating – his narratives drawing the listener in and never letting go – and the band’s live show is the most positive, uplifting and fun experience you’re ever likely to be a part of, it truly is a beautiful thing. They haven’t been to Australia since they closed out the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival at the start of last year but they have just announced that they’ll be back to play the Golden Plains festival in March and will stop off at The Zoo while they’re here for a show on Wednesday Mar 9 with support from Gun Street Girls. Tickets go on sale at 9am Thursday so buy one and buy all of their records if you don’t already have them. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

GOOD GRIEF The pop-punk world was never the same after the brothers Madden and their superstar rock group Good Charlotte burst onto the scene back around the start of the millennium, they became insanely popular in no time flat and continue to be one of the world’s bigger touring rock bands today. The band have been busy of late, they’ve just released a brand new record Cardiology as well as a long-awaited Greatest Hits CD so there’s plenty of material out there to sink your teeth into and get fired up for their imminent return! Yes, the lads are on their way back to Australia and you can catch them at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday Apr 8. That’s not all, they will be supported by the hugely popular Short Stack and Massachusetts’ Boys Like Girls, which is interesting because girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money. Anyway, get tickets from Ticketek from Monday morning onwards.

ALL OVER IT No matter what snooty elitist types may say about their music, you can’t deny the fact that Maroon 5 are an incredibly popular band. Their latest record Hands All Over debuted in the ARIA Top 10 upon its release in this country and continues to sell a whole heap of copies, so there’s no surprise that when they make their return to Australia in May of next year they will be playing massive arena styled shows. They’ve enlisted a pretty wonderful support cast for the tour as well, with the highly addictive Cobra Starship, Grammy award winner Sara Bareilles and up-and-coming Australian singersongwriter Ry Cuming. They all play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday May 7, tickets are available from Ticketek from Tuesday morning.

THE KEY OF B One thing that goes hand in hand with festival season in Brisbane is the inevitable whinging that occurs about the complete lack of sideshows that we get up here. It’s fair enough too; we love the opportunity to see some of these acts in more intimate environs. But every now and then a big old sideshow is announced and we’re pleased to report that when The Black Keys are in our part of the world for the Big Day Out, they’ll also stick around and treat us to a club show! The blues rock duo always put on a pretty kick-arse show and we think you’ll agree that their Brothers album is another corker, so you won’t want to miss them tearing up the stage at The Tivoli on Tuesday Jan 25. Tickets are available from Ticketek right now for $67.80.

RAT OUT OF THE BAG

THE KING REIGNS What began as a bedroom project for highly functioning stoner Nathan Williams has now blossomed into a full-blown, heavily-hyped force of garage pop punk. Wavves is now a three-piece project with three full-length records and their latest, this year’s King Of The Beach, has seen them step the quality of songs up an enormous amount. It’s an incredible piece of highly addictive and very catchy rock’n’roll that rolls through all sorts of weird and wonderful areas of what could be considered pop music. Wavves, who now feature Jay Reatard’s old backing band, will hit Australia for the very first time early next year, dropping by The Zoo on Tuesday Mar 8 with Bleeding Knees Club in support. Tickets are on sale from The Zoo’s website from Friday onwards for $42 + bf. Presented by Street Press Australia.

The boys in Ratatat have really developed an affinity for us Australians; they’re down here a hell of a lot these days and have just announced another tour of the country on the back of their latest record LP4. Since their last visit down here the group traipsed the globe like you wouldn’t believe – playing shows in all manner of countries. As well as being road warriors and touring the hell out of their awesome latest album, the band have also fairly recently been renowned for their collaboration with superstar urban artist Kid Cudi, proving their wide-stretching appeal. The band are out here for the Big Day Out early next year but they’re also going to break off and do some sideshows while they’re around. They play The Hi-Fi on Monday Jan 24; tickets are available from Monday from The Hi-Fi website and the usual outlets for $40 + bf.

IN BRIEF Guns N’ Roses guitarist DJ Ashba reckons it won’t be too long before we see a new Gunners record. Oh how we laughed. Lady Gaga has taken out a restraining order on a mad fan who professed that she wanted to die alongside her.

TO YOUR HEALTH The mixture of no-wave, post-punk, harsh noise and electronic pop that combines to make the music of Los Angeles’ HEALTH may seem somewhat shambolic, but that’s kind of what makes it so beautiful. The band were in Australia early this year for the very first time and they must have had themselves quite a time as they are coming back to do it all again at the start of next year. The band’s live show is seemingly raved about by everyone who sees it and if you missed out last time then you won’t want to make the same mistake twice! The band set ‘em up and knock ‘em down at Woodland on Saturday Jan 15, you can grab tickets from Moshtix now for $25 + bf.

Jessica Simpson is engaged again. Deceased Slipknot bassist Paul Gray’s grave has had two statues stolen from it. Danzig has cancelled a show in Minneapolis due to low ceilings. Former British Army captain turned shithouse pop singer James Blunt has told the media that he is partly responsible for avoiding World War III by not taking out 200 Russian troops during a mission in 1999. The new Marilyn Manson record will be released on his own label Hell, following his departure from Interscope. Austin heavy rockers The Sword have announced that Kevin Fender will be the temporary replacement for drummer Trivett Wingo who left the band last month. Unsurprisingly Kanye West has cancelled his performance on the American Today program after an interview he conducted last week sent him spiralling into a pit of despair on Twitter.

SHOWING HIS AGE

His 2005 record Illinois shot indie folk troubadour Sufjan Stevens to pretty much the indie equivalent of superstardom almost immediately. He had been releasing records for half a decade prior to this, but it was that breakthrough record that saw him become such a cherished star of the indie world. While he has issued a couple of interesting little releases in the past half a decade, his latest offering The Age of Adz is his first real full-length record since that hugely successful release. The album is an incredibly ambitious piece of work but Stevens’ fans have lapped it up, the record even debuting in the top ten of the Billboard 200. Stevens is finally making his way back to Australia early next year and will perform shows in theatres all over the country. You can catch him playing The Tivoli on Sunday Jan 30. Tickets are available from Ticketek now for $72.30.

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LOVE STORIES LAST ONLY 90 MINUTES (Histórias de Amor Duram Apenas 90 Minutos) Best Feature – Santa-Maria Luso-Brazilian Festival 2009 Best Actor – FestCine Goiania 2009 He is stuck with a writer’s block. She is stuck with him, until… she cheats on him, with another woman.

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IN BRIEF

HAZARDOUS MUTATIONS

Brazil’s Os Mutantes are one of the most important bands in the history of contemporary music, their spirit embodying everything that is exciting, dangerous, subversive and important about rock’n’roll. Formed in Brazil back in 1966, the band were threatened by the military government of Brazil for their introduction of elements of western rock music into the popular music of their home country. They were outspokenly critical of large parts of their government and their music was wildly schizophrenic, employing a huge number of different genres into their musical hotchpotch. These tropicalia originators make their first ever visit to Australia next March and will stop in at The Tivoli Tuesday Mar 8 with support from Best Coast. Tickets are available from Ticketek from Thursday morning and will cost you $68.70.

DON’T JUDGE A BROOKE BY ITS COVER Brooke Fraser burst onto the ARIA album charts a couple of weeks ago with a bang, debuting in the number three position with her awesome new album Flags. The kiwi songstress has been notably absent on the live front of late, so it is incredibly exciting to hear that this folk-pop singer songwriter is heading out on the road early next year to show off her new material and treat us to plenty of her older favourites as well. If you were too slow getting tickets to her sold out show at The Tivoli on Thursday Jan 27 then you’ll be pleased to hear she’s announced another date at the same venue Friday Jan 28. Tickets are available from Ticketek right now for $40 + bf.

Short Stack will be appearing in the Queen St Mall at 4.30pm Friday for an acoustic performance and signing and Hard Rock Cafe, Surfers Paradise 3pm Sunday. You must buy their new album from selected stores to get a wristband for the Hard Rock show. It has been confirmed that Iron Maiden will tour Australia on their plane Ed Force One when they’re here earlier next year. Fiery Furnaces member Matthew Friedberger intends on releasing eight solo albums next year.

WHERE HE BELONGS The legendary Joe Cocker OBE requires no introduction; he’s released 21 studio records over a career spanning close to 50 years, he’s had an enormous number of hit songs and is considered to be one of rock music’s most powerful and influential voices. He’s just dropped his latest record Hard Knocks and it sees him make a return to a more modern style of music after a couple of records worth of rhythm and blues classics. Cocker is returning to Australia next year, but he’s not coming alone! George Thorogood & The Destroyers are up there with the finest in blues rock bands that have ever existed and recent Australian visits have confirmed they are as scorching as ever in the live arena. Catch this enormous double bill at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Friday Feb 4, tickets are available from Ticketmaster from Friday Nov 26.

WHERE IS THE CLUB HOUSE? Planning on heading to a show at The Club House this week? A bit confused about where the fuck the joint actually is these days? Well the team have packed up and left their old premises at the Tempo Hotel and are now located on the third floor of Birdee Num Num on Ann Street. Just go right to the top and you can’t miss it.

FREE DOWNLOADS! Every fortnight we bring you a couple of sweet tunes courtesy of our good pals at Universal Music and this fortnight is no different! We have a couple of hip indie acts coming out of Sydney featured in this latest instalment with Ernest Ellis and Guineafowl offering up a couple of cracking tunes for your listening pleasure. Both acts have been earning themselves sensational reviews since their recent respective releases have come out and now you can get a taste of what they’re all about for nix! Just head to universalmusic.net.au/ freedownloads/streetpressaustralia and let the rest take care of itself!

Producer and Black Eyed Peas mastermind will.i.am has called the new Michael Jackson album “disrespectful”. We could say the same about the new BEP single. Billy Ray Cyrus has grown his mullet back. Slow news week, people.

ERNEST ELLIS Heading For The Cold Ernest Ellis may have been forced to postpone his co-headline tour with Parades due to illness, but his divine debut record Hunting continues to gain fans and praise. Stand-out track Heading For The Cold with its layered build up and blown out crescendo is just one reason why this Sydney songwriter has been getting five star reviews!

GUINEAFOWL Botanist Sydney’s Guineafowl brings a hint of what’s to come with handclappin’ tune Botanist. The pulsing track melds Guineafowl’s hypnotic and bold voice with a bouncy guitar line. Buoyed with a fresh spirit, Botanist will have you feeling better and saying what you want to.

THE BEST ONES ARE ALWAYS CRAZY One of the more hyped bands of this year has been Los Angeles based ‘chill-wave’ – yes, we’re sick of that term too – ensemble Best Coast. Their debut Crazy For You went nuts in the States upon its release and was highly heralded in the music press as being one of the albums of the year. It certainly is a gorgeous piece of work and it’s very exciting to hear that the band will be making it down to Australia next year for the very first time to show us how they do it live. If you like cats, California and cool, breezy, lethargic pop ditties then you’ll love this band. They play support to Os Mutantes at The Tivoli Tuesday Mat 8 – tickets are $68.70 from Ticketek – and headline their own show at Woodland on Thursday Mar 10. Tickets for that show are available from Moshtix now for $38.70.

LISTEN TO THEIR MUSIC If there’s one thing we like here at Time Off, it’s smooth music. And music just doesn’t get much smoother than that of The Doobie Brothers. This legendary pop act have stood the test of time, selling 30 million albums in their home country alone since their formation 40 years ago and, from all reports, they still sizzle in the live arena. Some might think they’re about to slow down given their long career, but that’s what a fool believes. Truth is they’re all set to blow us all away when they drop into the Brisbane Convention Centre Thursday Mar 24. Tickets are available from Ticketek from Friday Nov 26.

NOT A CLOUD She’s one of the most enduring artists in Australian popular music; you just can’t keep Wendy Matthews down. She is in Brisbane for one special show which will take place at the Treasury Casino this Sunday afternoon. She’ll no doubt be playing plenty of her finest material and the best thing is, entry is free!

JO’S SHOUT

With the release of her Have One On Me album earlier this year, indie-folk chanteuse Joanna Newsom proved that her ambition knows very few bounds. The majestically sprawling LP is packed full of all sorts of excitingly intricate passages that reward close and constant listening and propels the artist’s career arc forth in the most exciting of directions. Newsom has always been a stunning performer as Australian audiences have been lucky enough to witness a number of times in recent years, so we’re very excited to announce that she will be back in Australia next year with a full band in tow. Newsom plays The Tivoli Friday Mar 4, tickets are available from Ticketek now for $60.

ENTER THE ASYLUM They’re one of heavy music’s most enduring forces and the release of their fifth album Asylum earlier this year proved Disturbed are still as popular as ever. Since their debut record in 2000, the band have been together they’ve racked up a lazy 11 million album sales and so far three of their records have achieved platinum sales status in Australia and if things keep going the way they have been, Asylum will be their fourth before long. The band’s live shows have been so well received over here each and every time they’ve visited and no doubt that will be no different when they make a return next April with a stellar support cast in Trivium and As I Lay Dying in tow. They play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday Apr 30, tickets are available from Ticketek from Friday Nov 26.

WHAT IS HE GOOD FOR?

THANKS GUYS

Horrible UK mewler James Blunt this week claimed that he helped avoid WWIII during action in the Balkans while a captain in the British army. Yeah, sure James. Maybe a world war might have been tolerable if it meant your career never happened…

Powderfinger’s epic national farewell finally ground to a halt at the Brisbane Riverstage at the weekend. Congratulations on an amazing career, you really did the Brisbane music scene proud for a long time…

DOG’S LIFE

BUTT OUT

US singer-songwriter Joe Pug had the honour of being The Troubadour’s final ever international headliner, and he sure did an brilliant job of living up to the venue’s legacy. Amazing stuff…

The douche behind the dire viral web hit What What (In The Butt) is trying to sue South Park for taking the piss. Good luck navigating where even Scientologists and Islamic extremists fear to tread…

NEVERMIND

DUST TO DUST First they pick nearly everyone in Australia in the first Ashes squad, and then Warney tweets that a comeback might not be out of the question! Gasp! How many more twists and turns will be unveiled before the cricket season even kicks off?

The grunge tag may never leave them now, but Violent Soho – under the guise of Negative Creep – played an amazing set of Nirvana covers at Vegas Kings’ final ever show at The Troub on the weekend. Hmmm, apparently the tribute circuit is pretty lucrative… JAMES BLUNT

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With stronger hardcore influences and plenty of pissed off riffs, A DAY TO REMEMBER are a helluva lot meaner on new album What Separates Me From You, singer JEREMY MCKINNON tells SAMUEL J FELL.

NO SEPARATION ANXIETY

unk rock is an intriguing beast and has been ever since it first exploded, rude and raw, into musical culture back in the early- to mid-70s. Back then, it was the barest form of self-expression, as angsty and primal as it was possible to be at the time, a steroid-pumped version of the blues. Bands like Radio Birdman and The Saints here in Australia, Ramones and New York Dolls in the US and The Clash and Sex Pistols in the UK formed the basis of what was to become an overt form of musical desperation, born of isolation, anger, frustration and a need to separate from the norm. Utilising a DIY ethic, these bands and many like them forged their own place amongst what they saw as the dross and the debris of a society gone to the dogs and they stomped on the terra and did it their own way. These days though, punk rock is different. Through new wave, post-punk, grunge and pop punk, this genre, whilst defining a generation and influencing countless bands along the way, has morphed into what can only be described as the antithesis of what it set out to achieve (or not) in the beginning. For when did pop (the notion of popular music) become an acceptable part of punk (the polar opposite)? Quite some time ago now, and this is why punk rock is such an intriguing beast: those base ideals are still being utilised, but as a badge of ‘honour’ as opposed to an ethos (for the most part) – like an old soldier, pinning ribbons on his tunic, ones he never won, from a war he never fought in. Green Day and the Offspring began this ‘movement’ in the early 90s, turning punk rock into an acceptable form of mainstream entertainment and from there pop punk has blossomed and become the norm as far as punk rock goes. Of course, there are many bands, hiding in the underground, doing it the old way, but the ones you hear about (in mainstream media, anyway) are the ones eschewing the ethos of old in favour of big budgets, major labels, huge tours, entourages, the dross and the debris that characterises the mainstream music market and the people who inhabit it. Where has punk rock gone? And does anyone even care? One of the more intriguing bands flying the flag today are Florida’s A Day To Remember. They’re a band who, when you look through their past, wear the pop punk tag on their collective sleeve and who embrace it – for them, pop punk has become accepted, it’s been around for a long time, it’s where punk has ended up and you’d better dig on it or get the fuck off. But these boys go deeper. For melded with the bounce and the ping is the hard and the dirty, the metalcore and the grind that takes this

five-piece and makes them seem just that little bit more ‘real’ than most. This is, obviously, a dangerous game, as subjective as they come, but this one is blatant. A Day To Remember have prided themselves in the past as a band who have managed to remain underground. There are many pop punk bands who say the same thing, without a hint of irony, as they ride around in slick tour buses playing to thousands upon thousands of kids. ADTR seem to have it pegged properly though – but having said that, with the release of their fourth record, What Separates Me From You, this is likely to change, if it hadn’t already after their third record, Homesick, hit number 21 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. “Well, we’ll see. It kinda depends on how people take it,” muses vocalist Jeremy McKinnon on where this record

A darker record it is indeed, the most apt descriptor being what McKinnon himself tagged it – meaner. What Separates Me From You is indeed a record that will bring ADTR out of the underground, whether they want it to or not, capitalising on the popularity of its predecessor, but not in the way most pop punk bands have in the past. It’ll bring them out as a harder, faster band, the power outweighing the puff and the pop and, in fact, ADTR seem to have built themselves a niche where everything ranted about earlier hardly seems applicable.

“Not at all,” McKinnon says candidly when asked whether or not he was worried about Gilbert’s pop influence coming through too heavily on this new record. “He knows both sides to our band and he’s never really pushing us more towards the other. It’s all about the song and what the song means to us. So he understands the heavier portion of our band as well as the pop side, and that’s really important as a normal producer doesn’t get that kind of mix, it’s either one thing or another, but Chad knows and he gets it.

“It’s kinda cool. We’ve created this thing where we can literally record anything we want because A Day To Remember isn’t one band, it’s like four different bands as one,” McKinnon states. “So I think it’s a great thing and if people accept that, that’s cool. But to be honest

“And he was also our person on the outside, sitting back, because we had all these songs and he could look at them and say, ‘This sucks’, or ‘Try and take that song in that direction because it sounds exactly the same as two other songs you wrote’. It was that outside opinion that we could trust, that took us in the right direction.”

“I wouldn’t say the heavier songs got heavier, I would say this time around they got way meaner.” will take the band. “Honestly, I’m not worried. Homesick took us to a place that I never really imagined our band could get to. I mean, whatever this new record does or doesn’t do, I’m happy with because we did our time with it and I’m more proud of these songs than anything I’ve ever worked on before, so if people don’t dig it, that’s cool. I’m proud of what I did; it is what it is.” McKinnon doesn’t see it as a ‘new’ band having to conform (again, anti-punk) to an ethos founded more than 30 years ago and in truth, this is perhaps what sets ADTR apart. And this is particularly evident in how they put together their records. “We didn’t try to make this record sound any one way or the other, it’s just what happened naturally,” he explains. “And what happened naturally is… well, I wouldn’t say the heavier songs got heavier, I would say this time around they got way meaner. A lot less metalcore, chuggy stuff and a lot more hardcore influences, like pissed-off sounding riffs, which I’ve always been a big fan of. And on the pop side of things, it just got a bit more serious; it just became an all-round darker record for us.”

with you, we really don’t need our band to change drastically, because we’re four different bands in one.” ADTR have been criticised in the past for their melding of pop punk and metalcore, but it’s a mix they’ve been able to pull off time and again. But they’re still changing – as McKinnon says, they’re not bound to any one formula, they’re doing it their own way and isn’t that what punk music is at its heart? “To be honest, we didn’t even think about it, we just went into it and just wrote, because when you start thinking about it, that’s when you begin to have problems,” he says on how they did want this record to come out. “So we just took it as it came and so didn’t have those kinda problems. We just wanted time to get in there and record this album.” A Day To Remember did just that, along with New Found Glory founder Chad Gilbert, the man responsible for producing Homesick. Now this is interesting, because New Found Glory are as pop punk as they come and yet What Separates Me From You is perhaps ADTR’s most un-pop punk release to date.

Obviously this is a very important aspect of making a record, that objective opinion, and it’s surprising that Gilbert was, in this instance, the one to fulfil such a role. Having said that, there’s hardly a great deal of surprise in the world of punk rock anymore, so at this point in proceedings, it’s probably best to leave it at that. To answer the question posed earlier, where has punk rock gone, well, the answer is it hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still underground, it still utilises the DIY ethic, it still does things its own way. The bands you see on TV and hear on the radio though, the ones who call themselves punk, or pop punk or whatever, these aren’t punk bands. They may contain traces of what transpired back in the 70s, as ADTR do; they may write angsty lyrics and act pissed off at the world, but they’re not punk bands. ADTR are a band, pure and simple. They come from a place long gone – and they recognise that. They also recognise the need to evolve and the wont to not become pigeonholed. They’re an ever-changing beast and whilst their roots are intriguing and interwoven and blurred beyond comprehension, they’re doing things their own way and as was mentioned, this is truly what punk is anyway. Who the hell cares what anyone else thinks.

WHO: A Day To Remember WHAT: What Separates Me

From You (Victory/Stomp)

WHERE & WHEN: No Sleep Til Brisbane, RNA Showgrounds Sunday Dec 19

BROTHERLY LOVE While PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY are undoubtedly going from strength to strength as a musical force, one half of the band’s core duo SIMON “BERKFINGER” BERCKELMAN has no delusions about how they need to go about getting to where they want to be. He talks to DAN CONDON about re-establishing a fanbase, working hard and having fun.

t’s a clearly unwell Simon Berckelman that calls Time Off from his adopted home of Shoreditch in the east of London. He has been up all night struggling with a hellish flu but despite this he is still utterly congenial and excited to talk about the most recent developments within the band. And there have been a few. After becoming one of our country’s most celebrated live acts through endless touring of their riotous stage show the band packed their bags and moved to London earlier in the year to spread the spirit of the band to Old Blighty. “From a band perspective, there are just so many more punters,” Berkfinger says of his initial thoughts about their new country of residence. “Our first tours in Australia we were playing to like eight to ten people everywhere and here we’ve played to 20, 30 or 40 everywhere. The promoters are like, ‘Sorry there’s not that

many people here’, but we’re like, ‘Are you kidding? There’s 40 people here! And if we kick arse then that will turn into 80.’ “Those aspects of it are really exciting and really cool, but the food, weather and the vibe on the street are all not very good. I’m not going to live here now; I’ve thought about it. Also the music scene seems really stuck at the moment, there’s no substance, it’s all haircuts and NME and bullshit; there’s no one really making anything cool that I’ve seen. We’ve searched high and low, we’ve tried to go to so many gigs and the bands are just rubbish.” The band wasted no time in establishing their new home base, going so far as to hire a building to set up a recording studio in order to work on material for their forthcoming second album. “We built a studio down in Milwall next to the football club, which is famous for being the roughest football club in the entire UK, and they really are, you see them going to the matches and there are fights all over the street and police everywhere,” Berkifinger says. “We got a little industrial space and we’ve been making... we don’t know what we’re making. We’ve got about 60 songs. 20 of them we’ll decide we don’t like and need more work, 20 of them we’ll decide are cool but not right for this album and hopefully 20 of them will be right.” As far as a direction for the new record goes, Berkfinger honestly cannot commit to a single genre. “I’m in a very confused time in my life,” he admits. “I’m trying to work out what city to live in and what the album should sound and feel like. At the moment we’re not saying no to anything; we’ve written some ultra pop songs that would probably be better off given to Shannon Noll and we’ve written some really punk weird shit that might be too weird for people. We have no idea at the moment; I’m just trying to be really free. We don’t have to decide any time soon, we have to finish the second album by mid-next year.” The band’s debut album Hope Is For Hopers was made for next to no money but quickly became a massive hit locally, with a whole bunch of singles lifted from it and given a solid airing on the national youth network. When it came time to re-press the album, the band’s record label – who Berkfinger is at pains to point out have very minimal influence on what the band chooses to do – suggested that they add a heap of new songs and a DVD featuring the band playing at a house party in Brisbane last year. “The distributor said, ‘Look, you might think that your album’s over and that everyone who’s ever going to have it has, but there’s now quite a lot more interest in it because of the ARIA nomination and the new single and because you’re doing this big tour.’ So while they were pressing up new copies we thought we’d chuck on all of these other things we’d made in the meantime to add a bit more value on there for people.” The most recent development in the band’s career is the departure of their drummer Calvin, news that shocked and saddened many of the band’s fans. But fear not, as Brisbane’s very own Susie Patten of I Heart Hiroshima fame has jumped onboard. “We had a great time with him, but it was just getting too hard with him having a family,” Berkfinger says of Calvin’s departure. “There are lots of different things he requires as a 55-year-old man with a family compared to me being a 28-year-old guy with no family, so we had to make that change and it was a bit of a bummer because we’ll really miss Calvin but we were just crazy lucky that Susie happened to be in Berlin. We really scored there. We’ve already written a whole bunch of songs with Susie and she’s played a whole lot of shows and I think the show has been elevated. We thought that if we lost Calvin we wouldn’t be able to play cool shows but I think Susie takes it up a step in a completely different way. “People love Calvin, he’s a really massive character and that obviously weighed on us a lot when we were making that decision. Calvin enjoyed being in the band and we enjoyed having him in the band but we sat down and that’s just the way it had to be. It breathes new life into it and after a year it’s probably time for a change anyway. No one’s angry at anyone and we might do some more recording with him as well.” No matter how many times you’ve seen them in the past, fans can expect something a little different from the band’s set on this latest tour. “Our set over the past few years has evolved into this thing and there have been certain things that we’ve always done like finish on certain songs and had certain parts of the show, but we’ve deleted all of that and turned it all on its head, so there are quite a few surprises for the regular punters,” Berkfinger reveals. As for the near future, Berkfinger envisages plenty more miles in the tour van and not much else. “This is just how we’re going to have to live, we’re not a hypey haircut band, we get out to venues and play to crowds and talk to them, that’s how we build crowds,” he says. “So we just need to commit to touring the whole world for the next few years for no money, it’s the only way we can build a real career. It beats digging a hole on a building site, there could be worse things than waking up at midday, going to soundcheck then having some beers and talking to some people and playing a rock show.”

WHO: Philadelphia Grand Jury WHAT: Hope Is For The Hopeless (Boomtown/Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Beach Hotel, Byron Bay

Thursday Nov 18, The Hi-Fi Friday Nov 19

KILL THE BODY, THE HEAD WILL Sydney indie-rock veterans PEABODY have just released their fourth album. MATT O’NEILL speaks to bassist/vocalist BEN CHAMIE about the group’s Loose Manifesto.

here comes a point in every band’s career whereupon its members must decide what they want from their endeavour. Style, quality and scope are irrelevant – every band must comprehend and contend with their own ambition. New South Wales indie-rock quartet Peabody have seemed uncomfortably ensconced within the eye of such a storm for the better part of their 15-year career.

amount of time and I’ve always liked bands that go from one record to the next and have a kind of different sound from record to record. It happened very organically but, at the same time, we were conscious of it happening. We just decided to go with it – and that’s what we want others to do.

The group’s sound has never been that dissimilar to that of most quintessentially 90s indie-rock acts. Sitting at the intersection between post-punk guitar noise and classicist songwriting, Peabody’s finessed aggression has frequently hinted at popular appeal over the course of their career – only for such potential to be undercut by their predilection to volatile musicality or searing lyrical intelligence.

“You know, we’ve heard so many stories from bands where they’ve been told they can’t do something because of a record label or management won’t permit it and, fortunately, we’ve never been in that position,” Chamie adds with a laugh. “We’ve never had to compromise anything we do for this to really work.”

“I don’t know, it’s always been funny dealing with those sorts of things,” bassist/vocalist Ben Chamie considers of the band’s career. “You know, people describing us as underrated, criminally overlooked or whatever. They’re all these things that people project onto us. I certainly don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything. We didn’t start the band to be The Strokes; we started the band because we were a bunch of dickheads banging away in our garage and enjoyed it.” The uneasy dichotomy of the group’s work is perhaps best embodied by the creative partnership Chamie shares with lead vocalist and guitarist Bruno Brayovic. The sole remaining members of the band’s original three-piece line-up, Chamie and Brayovic enjoy a uniquely contradictory relationship. Chamie provides the band with viciously intelligent lyrical themes (Dadaism, postmodern literature) while Brayovic delivers those same sentiments with unfailingly bittersweet melodies.

WHO: Peabody WHAT: Loose Manifesto (Peabrain/MGM) WHERE & WHEN: Ric’s Bar Saturday Nov 20

“That’s not really a deliberate move on our part,” Chamie reflects. “It’s just kind of where we draw our inspiration from, I suppose. Our first record [2003’s Professional Againster] was much more personal and coming from personal experience and that sort of stuff but, as you go on, you need to look elsewhere for inspiration and some of that comes from music or books. You take them in, take the ideas that relate to your situation and hope other people will relate to those things as well.” That said – the group haven’t been completely denied success. Each of their four albums have received considerable critical respect while, among their peers, the group are afforded a level of respect far beyond what their modest commercial accomplishments would ever suggest. Bluebottle Kiss frontman Jamie Hutchings, for example, is so supportive of the band so as to have produced their first three albums. “It’s not like we didn’t have ambitions of success – I mean, when you’ve got songs on the radio, playing festivals and you’re touring and that’s all your doing, it certainly seems feasible to think that you could do this all the time,” Chamie considers. “You can only sustain that for so long, though, if you’re not one of the bands like Something For Kate who manages to break through to mainstream audiences. “You know, I have a friend who is in a band who are in a position like that,” the bassist continues. “They’re performing all the time, they’ve got festival dates, they’re even been on the cover of Time Off a couple of times – but none of that is necessary for someone’s creative output and, unless you break through, it can sometimes get in the way of it. I mean, we’ve heard so many stories about bands being shut down by major labels.” Still – the reckoning of the band’s ambition had to arrive at some point. For many, it came in the form of the band’s third album, 2008’s Prospero. A minor masterpiece, Prospero seemed to herald the arrival of the ensemble’s mainstream ambitions. The band welcomed new members Tristan Courtney-Prior (guitar) and Jared Harrison (drums) to the fold, delivered consistently impressive and ambitious songs across the record and received considerable critical acclaim for their efforts. “I think, on Prospero, we definitely had a different way to doing things. It was done in a proper studio and it cost a lot of money,” Chamie says of the band’s second-most recent release. “We spent a bit more time overdubbing mistakes, polishing the sound, making sure we got the exact sound we wanted as a band. It took a lot longer and was a lot more polished than if it was a record where we were taking a more warts and all approach.” Loose Manifesto, however, is the moment of truth many thought Prospero to be at the time of its release. While stylistically and ideologically the polar opposite of the band’s previous album, Peabody’s fourth record nevertheless represents the critical turning point the band’s career had almost made a point of avoiding for 15 years. Loose Manifesto is the sound of a band casting aside logic and commercial ambition in favour of simple glorious existence as a musical entity. “At this point, we put albums out because it’s what we do and what we enjoy doing and our only hope is that people enjoy them and come to the shows,” Chamie considers. “And that’s pretty much it. We don’t have any expectations that some song on the album will make us a million bucks. We just hope that people get the same enjoyment out of things that we do. I think that’s all it boils down to with this band at this point in time.” Everything about the album’s development screams independence and freedom. A tremendously messy record rife with aggression and eclecticism, Loose Manifesto was inspired by Dadaism, produced by the band, recorded spontaneously in a tin shed and released on the band’s own record label. Less of a white flag to commercial power-brokers and more a triumphant two-finger salute, the record is the sound of a band well and truly embracing their own idiosyncratic ugliness. “We were definitely looking to do something different with this album,” Chamie enthuses. “We approached these songs in quite a different way – the Loose Manifesto was kind of the manifesto for the record. We worked out very early on that we wanted a more immediate response when it came to recording the album. We recorded the whole thing with an eight-track in a shed with a friend. We just need to keep things fresh and exciting for ourselves as a band. “It was actually pretty organic,” the bassist muses. “I guess that’s something that just happens in a band you’re in for a considerable

TOTALLY NEW SCHOOL Will new GRAFTON PRIMARY track The Eagle see the duo soaring high above their contemporaries across the Australian dance landscape? With the amount of belief JOSH GARDEN has in the groups fresh music, BENNY DOYLE finds it hard to imagine anything but.

lectro brothers Ben and Josh Garden have been plying their trade of filthy dancefloor fillers for almost five years now and the duo are itching to return to the road, domestic touring absent from their schedule for almost a year. Along for the ride on the The Eagle tour are veterans of the game, Infusion, who paved the way in this country for young acts such as Grafton Primary, and the brothers are thrilled at having the support of an act that they hold in such high esteem.

We were seeing them at festivals as punters when we were young, maybe nine, ten years ago. Then while they disappeared for a few years we came out as a band and started doing our thing. Now we’ve managed to hook the tour up with them that I’m really excited about.”

“[Infusion] have pretty much been everywhere in Australia and they’ve had a really strong international presence as well. We’ve certainly seen them at a lot of festivals and really admired their work so it’s pretty exciting to get to tour with them,” Josh enthuses. “We did play one festival with them in Canberra and that was really fun but we haven’t toured with them before. I guess we were coming up at the time when those guys were all over the place as artists.

Locking themselves away for the majority of ’10 to begin writing for a new record, Garden explains the intensity they’ve found within the new tracks, or more directly, their newborn single.

Garden continues, “It’s nice to go touring with an act that’s really well travelled and has a lot of experience ‘cause I’m keen to find out some of their stories and some of their insights into the life. They’ve probably got a lot of really useful tricks for live shows and things, knowledge of their gear and their instruments – it’s going to be really interesting. We’ll pick their brains for sure.”

“I guess it’s more aggressive, more muscular and more rock’n’roll, but at the same time it’s still got that quirky edge to it,” Josh says of the difference between The Eagle and older material. “We were actually rehearsing it yesterday for the first time as we hadn’t got to that track yet.” Hadn’t got to that track yet? Such a statement is hard to believe since it’s what the band are ostensibly touring to promote. “We just had the song recorded before,” Garden explains, “and obviously we’re touring fairly soon so we need rehearsals. The first few rehearsals we just worked off the first half of the set and that song is in the second half so we only got to that yesterday.” And if the response of the group in regards to the track in a live setting is anything to go by, punters should be in for a treat. “It [The Eagle] was such a blast; it’s going to be really fun,” Garden gushes. “It’s probably the most fun track we’ve played during rehearsals, we were cacking our heads off when playing it. Hopefully we won’t be doing that on stage though but it just has that really infective energy about it. I guess it’s a bit more of a mature sound but it’s still got that really fun edge to it.” But as far as it being an indication of where the rest of their sophomore long player is heading, don’t be so sure. “To an extent,” Josh offers cryptically. “Some people, some record labels, would say this is a failing but we never seem to be able to lock ourselves down 100 percent to one single sound. I think The Eagle is reflective of some of the material in that some of it does have that riffy, kind of flicked out rock’n’roll edge to it, while there is some new stuff that is more proggy, more electronic, more heartfelt. So there is quite melodic, quite spacey, more uplifting kind of stuff then also straighter, grinding, riff-heavy kind of stuff which is sort of like The Eagle. It’s definitely an indication of where some of the album is going but not all. People that come to the show will get an impression of where the album is heading – that will be the best way to get an indicator.” No release date has been pencilled in for said album and for the moment, it doesn’t look like anything will be cemented before the year is out. “We do have a new album coming out but I don’t want to give people the wrong idea like it’s dropping in the next couple of months or anything – it’s going to be a little while,” he says. “This tour is a bit of road test but also a chance for people to hear the new material we’ve been writing. We’ve been absent and haven’t had any releases since September of 2008 which is quite a long time. This tour gives us an opportunity to showcase what we’ve been writing. We were actually going to be releasing an EP around now which is why we have a lot of tracks finished, but we elected to hold out and make a full-length album so it will obviously take a bit longer.”

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Getting Garden back down the path of their upcoming shows, their absence from the road in the last 12 months is brought up and the idea that cobwebs may need some dusting perhaps is also mentioned. But rather than get his back up, he tackles the question like a true gentleman. “This tour’s not so much a dusting as an absolute renovation,” Josh states with confidence. “Raising the ol’ house down to the foundation and building a new one is probably an apt metaphor for what we’ve done with the live show. Basically we’ve got a new drummer, and we’ve added a bass player as well so we’ve got a fatter, live sound. It’s definitely going to be an interesting adventure. “We’ve got about five new songs in the set that people wouldn’t have heard before. We’ve also reworked all the existing material as well so it’s going to be quite a new sound. This is a real music lover’s tour. It’s for people who really want to appreciate the music we’ve written and what we can do with our live performance. It’s been a lot of work but for us it’s really exciting and it’s what we felt needed to happen with the band to keep moving forward as a live act. Some bands can play the same songs in a similar way for years on end but for us, we kind of get itchy feet and have to change things around to make it fun for us. We hope its fun for fans as well; we hope they appreciate that extra effort we put in reworking and reinterpreting our music.” The proffered analogy that you couldn’t eat the same cereal for breakfast your entire life is met with receptiveness from Garden. “That’s what I always say too!” he laughs. “Some people seem to actually enjoy that but either way, I’m sure people will be pretty blown away with the new show.”

WHO: Grafton Primary WHAT: The Eagle (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Friday Nov 19 26

STILL HUNGRY JIMMY EAT WORLD have survived every trial and tribulation that the music world has to offer, but as guitarist TOM LINTON tells HELEN STRINGER, some bands are just built to last.

immy Eat World guitarist Tom Linton is preparing to impart some invaluable wisdom. Stealing himself with a deep breath, Linton is about to reveal the secret that’s endowed a punk rock band hailing from Mesa, Arizona with the much coveted ability to avoid self-destruction for the better part of two decades. “We’re just all pretty mellow guys,” he says, “I think that’s played a big part in it.” Surely there’s something larger afoot, some inherent capacity that’s kept the band going, that’s allowed them to hastily evolve from purveyors of run-of-the-mill early-90s pop-punk to genre-crossing rock staples? Apparently, it’s not as difficult as it sounds. The trick, according to Linton, is to actually like your fellow band members. “We all get along. I think that’s a big thing. A lot of bands that we’ve toured with in the past have broken up because the members didn’t get along. But we’ve been lucky enough – all of the guys in the band are,” he repeats, “pretty mellow.”

Squeezing in a chat before hitting a stage in Michigan in support of their latest album Invented, Linton is either exercising an enviable degree of humility, deliberately withholding the magical key to musical longevity, or he’s genuinely self-depreciating enough to be unaware of how unusual his band’s endurance is. For Linton, it seems the key to the bands’ remarkable capacity to persevere when less stable bands might have given up or imploded is quite simple. “You know, we started in ’93,” he muses. “Rick [Burch – bass] and I have known each other since we were 12. Zach [Lind – drums] and Jim [Adkins – vocals/guitar] have known each other since they were like five. I think that plays a big part in it.” Listening to Linton, one could be forgiven for thinking that their 17-year history has passed without so much of a hiccup. Whilst they’ve not suffered the same instability as some less-fortunate genre compatriots, the road to this year’s Invented hasn’t been without its bumps. After being picked up by Capitol Records as teenagers and releasing their 1996 sophomore album Static Prevails, J.E.W. was unceremoniously dumped by the label after the initially slow sales of their next album Clarity. It’s a fairly typical story of bands that managed to obtain a modicum of success in the late-90s. But, in what must be a hugely gratifying turn of events Clarity went on to become a critically-acclaimed cult classic. With a stoicism that could be interpreted as a quietly extended middle finger to major labels, J.E.W. took up day jobs and set about recording their following album Bleed American independently. The gamble paid out; a bidding-war ensued upon its completion, lead single The Middle hit number five on the Billboard charts and the album was eventually certified platinum. Having just begun touring Invented Linton is justifiably reluctant to discuss the past, offering a simple but taciturn, “We’ve been together a long time,” when asked if the label-dumping has left any lingering cynicism about the music industry. They may have escaped a potentially debilitating disillusionment early in their career, but the now distasteful “emo” tag has followed the band from album to album, regardless of its accuracy. With Invented being touted as a return to the accessibly heartfelt lyrics of earlier releases there’s a risk that said tag will regain prevalence. Linton, however, is quick to dismiss it. “That was really a label that people put on us and we never really endorsed it at all. We didn’t really understand it… does anyone?” he laughs. “You know? It was just a label. It’s just weird for us to label ourselves as that.”

pandering to pressures to emulate or exceed sales and acclaim to the detriment of the music. Linton concedes, “We always want to beat the last record. But when we’re in the studio, we don’t think, ‘Wow let’s have a song that’s a giant hit’, ‘cos I think if you start thinking like that it could get really bad. But, yeah, that’s the pressure we put on ourselves.” Having spent a lengthy period stuck in the studio Jimmy Eat World are now pumped to be hitting the road again. “It’s great to be out again,” he enthuses. “We had a pretty long break, I mean we went over for Soundwave, but other than that we had a year-and-a-half, maybe two years recording the record. Yeah, it’s pretty great.”

WHO: Jimmy Eat World WHAT: Invented (Interscope/Universal)

CUSTOM-MADE TOURING PRESENTS

THE JEZABELS TOUR 2010 WITH SPECIA SPEECI CIAAL GUUE UEST EST SSTSS

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For Invented J.E.W. reunited with producer Mark Trombino – who worked with the band for their first three albums before being replaced with Gil Norton part way into recording 2004’s Futures. In a rather serendipitous turn of events Trombino turned up to watch J.E.W. on their Clarity Live tour. In a confirmation of the band’s – not to mention the producer’s – maturity, Trombino agreed to once again take the producer’s post.

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“He came out to one of our shows and we had a good talk with him,” Linton explains with typical non-specificity, “We just thought the songs we had would work really well with him and he was able to do it.”

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Despite Trombino’s three-album absence, Linton insists that working together again was a familiar experience. “It was just like old times,” he reflects. “It wasn’t really different. The only thing that was different was that before we would go out to LA and we would rent out a studio for a couple of months and record out there. But this time we recorded it at our studio [in Arizona] and we would email him the songs every day. It was something different for all of us; a lot of it was done where he wouldn’t have to be there.”

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Whereas 2007’s Chase This Light saw the band take a softer approach to alternative rock, Invented is a return to the big guitar hooks and catchy choruses that made earlier releases so appealing. Not that it’s a mere rehash of the past; while the distinctive sounds are still there, primary vocalist Jim Adkins has gotten a tad conceptual with the lyrics, using photographs to inspire lost American-themed narratives. That said, it still sounds like a Jimmy Eat World album. Indeed, Linton seems comfortable with the suggestion that the band has not vastly overhauled its sound in the course of its six full length releases. “We try not to change too much,” he agrees, “We’re not going to put out a record with flutes and oboes playing or something weird like that. Really we try not to do anything too crazy.” In fact, “craziness” seems to be anathema to the band’s ethos. In what is fast becoming apparent is a fashion typical of Jimmy Eat World Linton explains that his one-track return to lead vocals came about because, as he says, “One of the guys had the idea because it didn’t look like Jim was going to be able to finish the lyrics…it ended up making the record.” Things in the land of Jimmy Eat World are clearly drama-free. That said, after touching commercial success there’s a risk of

WAY OUT WEST

THE GIN CLUB may be staples of the Brisbane live scene, but they’re quite partial to a good tour as well. Chief reprobate BEN SALTER forgoes the old ‘What goes on tour...’ maxim exclusively for Time Off.

fly soloo to Perth from Melbourne on Cup day, a day earlier than the rest of the gang, ostensibly to do “press”. s” However none has actually transpired so I have the day off. Pick up trusty Renault 1 tonne van from airport in scorching 37 degree heat – Perth is in the grip of a two-day heat wave – and hit the streets, not before having a highly satisfying mobile phone altercation with the long-suffering girlfriend, who reasonably wants to know when the hell I will be home again to look after her. I reply with the normal nonsense about how this is my job now and why won’t she take my career seriously, before heading off to hook up for a beer with old mate Sammy Strawbags from Insititute Polaire, a Perth native who should be able to give me the lay of the land. All I have

albeit with a TV and stereo, running water, clean linen and mattresses. Musician heaven. The hot day gives way to cool evening courtesy of the famous Fremantle Doctor, and I spend it in the deserted house with pizza, cheap wine and SBS. It’s pretty sweet, actually. The next day is even hotter – 39 degrees. According to SBS World News, which I have no reason to doubt, Perth is pretty much the hottest city in the world on the third of December 2010. I set off around midday to pick up Gus and Adrian from the airport. Rifle through my manbag looking for a CD to play and come up with a forgotten compilation that Brisbane bon vivant Wolvie Trash made me months ago. I ignore the scribbled tracklisting, which only adds to the LOLs when I realise it is basically a collection of novelty songs and absolutely horrendous chart toppers. All the hits are there, including Boyz II Men’s utterly disgusting I’ll Make Love To You, Shannon Noll’s Lift (aka the theme song from The Biggest Loser), that rapey and disturbing Girl I’m Gonna Make You Sweat song by Inner Circle and the theme to Home & Away. Alongside are more overtly risible tracks such as Stu Spasm & co’s I Like Looking At Naked Men and I’v Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts which becomes I’ve so something of an anthem for the tour. I’ll burn you a copy. Co Collect Melbourne contingent from airport and given th ridiculous heat we decide to head straight for the the be beach at Scabs. Despite the presence of shitloads of bu surfy dudes and beach babes, we gamely take a dip buff in our Reg Grundies, blinding hundreds of beachgoers in the process with our luminescent studio tans and ra sexuality. The ocean is lovely. We are not attacked raw by sharks. Get back to the digs just in time to meet the re of the gang from Brisbane, and we head off for rest th first gig of the tour, at a new venue called The Bird the in Northbridge. Supports from Felicity Groom and the aw awesome Split Seconds. Turnout is modest but we’ve lon since stopped worrying about stuff like that in long Th Gin Club – the journey is our destination, man. The

to do is make it to the pub she is at, which proves to be more difficult than expected as the route from the airport to the pub runs straight through the racetrack precinct, and being Melbourne Cup day, the road is closed and the whole area is awash with stumbling tarts and bogans. After a lot of u-turns and cursing I eventually make it to the pub where I find Sammy sipping ales with fellow Perth musical identity, Abbe May. Beer, bitching and gossiping ensues, before I saddle up the Renault again and head for the beachside suburb of Scarborough (or ‘Scabs’ to the locals) where we’ll be hosted by our good friends Pete and Yvette McBain. We’re staying in their old house that they’ve gutted for renovation while they rent the place next door. It’s something akin to a squat,

By Friday it has cooled down significantly and the we weather is glorious. Ola and I take a trip down the coast to the Shipwreck Museum so that I can investigate the wr wreck of the Batavia – girlfriend is reading a book about it and insists I go and check it out. It’s a pretty cool story – Dutch ship runs into reef off West Australian coast, crazed confidence man and lackeys set up Colonel Kurtz-style reign of terror and start slaughtering all the other survivors one by one until rescue team arrives. I’m surprised Gareth Liddiard hasn’t written a bloody song about it. We spend about 20 minutes absorbing the horror (the horror) before speeding off to the airport to collect our missing organist Dan “Magic Finghaz” Mansfield. We then spend the afternoon

at the West Australian Cricket Ground or “WACA”, watching Western Australia play England. It’s glorious, to be honest. Hardly anyone there, polite applause, hot chips, beer, everything is right in the universe. That night we play at the legendary Indi Bar, just down the road in Scabs. It’s a dying breed of venue, like a throwback to the 80s – a place where people will pay the entry fee regardless of what band is playing, just to have a look and have a nice night out. Anyway there were heaps of people there and they all seemed to enjoy it immensely. Saturday morning we are up early to fly to Adelaide, where we are playing at the Wheatsheaf Hotel. It is a wonderful place and all the ladies who run it there always look after us. It makes such a difference when the venue gives a shit, it really does. The gig is good as well – we do two sets to around 70 people and they all seem to really enjoy it. The support band, The Honey Pies, are fairly notable. First impressions not good – they arrive late, tune loudly on stage for ages and generally seem like a couple of amateur kids. I sternly warn them to hurry up and get on stage, patience wearing thin. As soon as they start playing I feel rather foolish, as they’re amazing, a cross between The Kinks, Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground. Punk bastards. Next day everyone leaves except Bridget and I, who stick around to go to the Day On The Green thing in McLaren Vale, where red wine comes from. Gus is playing drums with Tex Perkins so we have some tickets... it’s like adult/bogan Big Day Out. Swanee, Richard Clapton, Ian Moss, Mark Seymour, Ross Wilson, Vanessa Amorosi, Tex and Barnesy all deliver hit-packed sets. Well, except Tex, who gamely plays ten songs from his as-yetunreleased new album to a somewhat muted response. Through a haze of local wine I decide this is an admirable ploy. Later there is a darts competition and a naked guitar god at the Grace Emily, but I am too busy eating room service in the bath to bother with that stuff. So: a week off back in Brisbane, and now we’re in Tasmania, just finished actually. Launceston City Park Snow Monkeys on Friday. Played at the amazing, the wonderful, the loose Brisbane Hotel in Hobart on Sat night. Karaoke and hijinx till... umm... 9.30 in the morning. I’m still there now, recovering, as I write this. They go pretty hard at the Brisbane. Of course. Someday this war’s gonna end.

WHO: The Gin Club WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Saturday

Nov 20, Brisbane Star boat cruise, Mowbray Park Sunday Nov 21 (5pm–8.30pm)

triple j invites the world’s best artists to do acoustic versions of the songs you love Featuring: Grizzly Bear cover Hot Chip The Temper Trap cover Bruce Springsteen Jonathan Boulet cover Eddie Current Suppression Ring Regina Spektor cover Radiohead & more

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SWEET OBLIVION

Perth outfit SUGAR ARMY even find time to tour while they’re resting, as frontman PAT McLAUGHLIN explains to HELEN STRINGER. “As to fitting in, it’s been a bit of an issue,” he admits. “It’s a hard one to explain. We never really tried to fit into any kind of scene or genre, we just do what we do and hope it works. There’s no trying to fit in, it’s just do it and see who likes it. I think it’s pretty hard for the manager, though,” he jokes. Despite the darker themes of their debut and the heavier acts they’ve shared stages with, McLaughlin is quick to dismiss comparisons with their louder contemporaries. “I don’t think by nature we’re a heavy band,” he says. “It’s interesting, we listened to the album for the first time in ages like a month ago... we didn’t realise we were so dark back then and so heavy. I can’t really explain why. It’s not our natural inclination to go down that path, we just kind of did.”

ugar Army vocalist Pat McLaughlin is enviably articulate for a man who’s just been woken up at a very un-rock’n’roll hour to discuss his band’s upcoming Queensland shows. “It’s okay,” says McLaughlin when offered an apology for getting him out of bed, “I’ve got to work this afternoon anyway.” Despite the relative success of their first album the band are, laments McLaughlin, “still painfully languishing in day jobs.” After a mammoth year which saw the Perth lads go from local favourites to touring nationally with the likes of Gyroscope, Karnivool and Shihad, 2010 has been comparatively quiet for Sugar Army. Preparing to record their second album – the follow up to their 2009 offering The Parallels Amongst Ourselves – they’ve been taking a not entirely welcome break from touring. “We really love playing live,” says McLaughlin, “This has been the first time since we started that we’ve had this time off. It’s a little bit frustrating because it’s the most fun part of being in a band… but that’s the way it is at the moment, unfortunately” Sounding like he might be suffering from a pre-emptive case of cabin fever, McLaughlin is clearly keen to avoid another protracted stint in the studio. “Last time when we did the album we spent like ten weeks in there, and it’s just too long. We don’t want to do that this time.” Considering their previous touring partners – from Little Birdy to Cog – it’s not difficult to understand why Sugar Army has been a difficult band to neatly place on the genre spectrum. As McLaughlin explains, in a small music community genre-defiance comes with its own problems.

This time round, however, the band is perhaps more aware of the music industry’s partiality towards easy categorisation. “We want to put together a more cohesive record,” Mc Laughlin offers. “When we set out to do the album we felt like we needed to do something different – we were a bit sick of what we were doing – so we tried to explore what the band could be. But this time we’ve taken the bits that we like from the album and the bits that we like from the EP and done something that brings all that together.” It’s not all hard work in the Sugar Army ranks. McLaughlin explains that the band intends on taking full advantage of their much-needed reprieve from working on tracks for their forthcoming album to play their last east coast shows for the year. “For these shows I think we’ll be letting loose, because we’re only doing a few,” he says. “You know, when we first started touring we were expecting big parties and for it to be the cliché rock’n’roll thing, but it wasn’t for ages; all the bands we were touring with were going back to their hotel, and we were like, ‘Eh, that’s disappointing,’” he laughs. “But it’s great to play new stuff and just get a feel for what people think.”

WHO: Sugar Army WHERE & WHEN: The Troubadour Friday Nov 19

SINGING AFRICA Nigeria’s phone system being at best unreliable, it takes four goes and for the crowned Prince of Afrobeat, FEMI KUTI, to be on tour in France for MICHAEL SMITH to finally get through for a chat. Though Kuti was born in London, he grew up in Nigeria and, after taking up the saxophone, inevitably joined his father’s band before pulling together his own band in the late 1980s. So he’s all too aware of the endemic problems his homeland has had to struggle with throughout his life. Back in 1977, when he was 15, he saw his father’s home attacked by 1000 soldiers, with the house and recording studio burnt to the ground and his father beaten while his elderly grandmother was thrown out of a window, later dying from her injuries. This happened simply because the then-military dictatorship didn’t like what Fela Kuti had said on his album of the day. Like his father before him, Kuti has been the target of government repression as a consequence of his unswerving commitment to speak out against the injustices he sees.

igeria, the most populous country in Africa, gained its independence from the UK in 1960. But for much of the intervening 50 years, it has endured a series of, for the most part, corrupt governments, which are often military and repressive. So for artists like Femi Kuti, just as much as for his father Fela – who essentially created the musical form Afrobeat that his son continues – the fight for freedom continues undiminished. It’s a fight not just for Nigeria, but also for all Africa. It addresses everything he does it is all over his latest album, Africa For Africa.

“Exactly what’s happening in my life today,” is how Kuti, who was two weeks into a tour of France with his 15-piece band The Positive Force, explains the themes of his new album. “I want the title, Africa For Africa, to be a slogan in Africa; that Africans should love and care for Africa. Africans need to understand that African countries are colonial structures [created] by the colonial slave dealers. Africans must understand what more than 100 years of colonial rule and 50 years of independence by corrupt African governments have caused us, so we need to go back to the drawing board and think and love and care for Africa. We need to understand that fighting will only bring more unhappiness and hunger – Africa must love Africa.”

“I’m sure it’s not just an African problem,” he continues in his slow, considered way. “I’m taking the message all over the world and it’ll get back to Africa and I’m sure Africans on the streets will love it. Africans – lawyers, doctors – will love the album. I don’t know if the governments will like it. I don’t care if they like it because I’m sure the people of Africa will surely like it. “I think the music is dictating the pace for me now, which I want. I’ll not be commanding the music. I’ve always wanted to be overwhelmed by the music itself and I think I’m arriving there slowly but surely, so that’s a good sign for me. I’ve stopped thinking about Africa For Africa; I’m thinking about what next now, worrying about the future now. So I think I’m going to have to think up new ideas and create something different again and look at world opinion and sing about it; try to find a way of what we aim to be through music. “I’ve done so much already and when you are creative, you don’t want to repeat yourself, you don’t want to sound the same, you want to improve. And there are still only 12 notes and thousands of people who do music, so the older you get, the more challenging it becomes, so you have to work harder.”

WHO: Femi Kuti & The Positive Force WHAT: Africa For Africa (Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Brisbane Powerhouse Tuesday Nov 23

MERCURY RISING Following the dismemberment of Brisbane act Minus Life in 2007, the remaining musicians that went on to form SILVER OCEAN STORM were certainly no strangers to their razor-edged metal craft. Bassist KENT HAINES has a chat about the band’s debut album with LOCHLAN WATT.

SINKING THE BLACK On the road home for his Grass Roots Music Festival, flame-haired axe-shredder 8 BALL AITKEN is itching to spend another sunny spring day in the park at Mt Coot-tha. BENNY DOYLE learns about his travels from Queensland to Nashville and all the way back.

They were in no rush to release it, however this Saturday people will finally be able to own a copy, which is being handled by the aforementioned Truth Inc Records. Explaining the wait, Haines says that “the album’s been done for a while, but we sort of sat on it to see how it feels and stuff – just to let the songs breathe a bit. We didn’t want to rush it out. It should be in stores in January.”

The festival will see the premier of 8 Ball’s new 12-string Maton guitar, complete with 8 Ball markings on the body. “I’ve been playing Maton for a long time but one of my guitars got smashed in Melbourne airport,” he sadly says, “so I decided I didn’t want to tour with my old, irreplaceable Maton’s anymore. I’ve become an endorsed player with the company and they’ve built me this wild beast which is a mini-Maton customised 12-string.”

And how does he feel about the end result?

“P

retty much straight away,” says Haines when asked how long it took the band to go from parting with Minus LIfe vocalist Scott Moss to forging ahead with a new singer and a name. “We’d put too much effort in to just go ‘bleh’ and toss it aside. We thought we’d keep going and find someone new, and basically play it by ear and see what happens. “We tried a couple before Toby,” he says of the group’s vocalist, Toby Skeates, who had previously been seen singing for local rock act The Second That. “Most of them were decent, and did work, but when Toby came along it just fitted too well. It was like, ‘This is the guy we want!’”

Approximately two years of songwriting and finetuning of their new direction ensued, with tracking of the group’s slick and modern debut Architect Of The Dying Sun beginning in October 2009. The album was finally brought to completion in April this year thanks to a mixing and mastering job by guitarist Jonas Kjellgren of Swedish metal act Scar Symmetry. “Yeah, it was always part of the plan,” explains Haines. “Jason from Truth Inc Records and Truth Corroded, they used him to do their last album, and I was like, ‘Oh wow’ and didn’t realise he did that all himself. His band Scar Symmetry are one of our main influences, and if you had to compare us to a band, it’s quite down that alleyway, with the symphonic keyboards and stuff, so we thought who better to mix and master us than somebody who understands that sort of style.”

“Very happy, very stoked. It was almost cheaper doing it over there, than it was doing it over here, with the cost of a studio for the day, and getting someone decent in, just to mix it, spending a day on mixing, and then sending it off to somewhere else to master. I mean Jonas has done an amazing job.” A veritable icon of the Brisbane metal scene for both his work with booking and promoting bands as well as behind the bass guitar, Haines’ musical resume also includes Hollow and Lynchmada alongside the aforementioned Minus Life, yet he can now proudly say that Architect Of The Dying Sun “is the best CD I’ve ever put out or been a part of.” The album’s launch show this Saturday will see the band share The Globe’s stage with local stoner rockers Shellfin, a band also launching their debut album and one that’s spearheaded by local drummer and fellow metal promoter James Geekie. According to Haines, it’s also going to be the last-ever show to be held at The Globe. “We were having a few beers one night, and it sort of came up, and we said to each other, ‘Hey we should do a double CD launch!’” he recalls. “The more we sort of thought about it, a few days after we both found each other emailing each other, and talked to the other guys and they were keen for it too. We thought with the power of both of us promoting it, it should be a massive show.”

WHO: Silver Ocean Storm WHAT: Architect Of The Dying Sun (Truth Inc) WHERE & WHEN: The Globe Theatre Saturday Nov 20

TAKING TIME OUT

It’s obvious that not only does Australia love KAKI KING, but the guitarist loves Australia. As she returns for her sixth tour in a little over four years, she chats to MICHAEL SMITH. benefit to help raise funds for the then still relatively recent victims of Pakistan’s disastrous floods.

ike a proud parent, former banana picker 8 Ball Aitken is delighted to be seeing the festival he founded develop and grow with each instalment. Not that he had high hopes. “We actually only ever expected to run Grass Roots once. But the council likes it so they keep funding it each year and that was really unexpected,” he states. “I went up there [Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens] with my manager years ago and we were hanging out and I thought, ‘This is a fantastic place for a gig’. We thought obviously Brisbane has a lot of roots talent also so now here we are, six years down the track. We treat it as a get together for all the Brisbane roots heads.” As the oldest of 12 siblings from a struggling Northern Queensland family, 8 Ball’s past has bled down into his lyrics and music, his background shaping his colourful sound and storytelling. “My upbringing and where I am from has given me a lot of things to write about,” he says. “It’s also helped me become a professional Australian as well because the world is interested in our country but they don’t know a lot about us. A lot of places I go, they haven’t met a lot of Australians before so you become kind of an unofficial ambassador for the country. Certainly writing songs about my life has helped that.”

“Just seeing lots of friends, taking some time off,” she begins. “It’s been about a month-and-a-half at this point – I stopped touring at the end of July – so I’ve had this time off to regain my bearings and try and feel normal, make my house nice and all that. And do some gardening.” Asked if she’s been doing any writing, “Maybe,” she says with a cheeky laugh. “I’ve got no idea right now when I’ll go back in to record another album. A lot of times these things sneak up on me so I don’t know. I kind of need to conceive what it is I want to do first and then go and figure out how to do it.” There are however a clutch of festivals whose invitations she just couldn’t knock back – Queenscliff and the Mullum Music Festivals – so she’s taking the opportunity to get reacquainted with Brisbane while she’s here, touring off the back of her latest album Junior, which was released in April. One thing she’d definitely done though since taking a break was performing at a

While she didn’t play there, King attended the North Sea Jazz Festival where Chick Corea’s Australian bass player Tal Wilkenfeld introduced her to Herbie Hancock, where, as she notes in her blog, she discovered that while he might be in his 70s, he’s “a dirty, dirty old man”. As for touring Australia, she’s still getting to know the place despite having visited so many times within the past few years. “It’s funny, you start playing the major, more popular areas and then you kind of branch out more and more and I’ve done so many types of gigs in Australia – everything from tiny little places to arenas to being an opening act to the main thing. I mean some of the festivals have been really, really cool and some of the dates have been amazing, but unbelievably hot. It’s always cool to come and sort of see what happens.”

WHO: Kaki King WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Saturday

Nov 20, Mullum Music Festival Sunday Nov 28

“I think it’s the most music focused place I’ve ever been to,” 8 Ball begins. “Just about everybody in the city is a songwriter, everybody from the people with hit albums down to the guy in the garbage truck. Everybody plays in a band and writes songs. It’s the opposite of playing somewhere out in the sticks in Australia where everyone wants covers, it’s the absolute opposite of that. If you play covers in Nashville, they think you’re an idiot,” he laughs. “Everybody is waiting for a new idea, a new song, and it’s not just country music, it’s everything from hard rock to experimental stuff. There is just wild stuff going on and people with fresh ideas. Everyone is looking for the new thing and having a lot of fun doing it. I think that’s why there is such a vibe about that city.”

WHO: 8 Ball Aitken WHERE & WHEN: Royal Mail

Hotel Saturday Nov 20, Grass Roots Music Festival, Mt Coot-tha Sunday Nov 21

After a successful Australian tour supporting fellow Californian hardcore band Terror last October, STICK TO YOUR GUNS are returning for a string of headline shows and as vocalist JESSE BARNETT tells DANIEL JOHNSON, the band can’t wait to get back. going for. I guess I was trying to cover all of these social problems and kind of trying to put it all under one hat. At the end of the day, when it all ended up being said and done it ended up being somewhat of a concept album. “The main theme of it – and it sounds so cheesy – the hope thing has been so overdone and the fucking recycle heart [on the album’s cover], we know how cheesy that shit is, we’re not trying to be artsy or anything like that, but that’s definitely what we’re going for, an overall message of hope because it’s so easy to just get lost and say, ‘Fuck the world because the world fucked me’ type of attitude, it’s so easy to do that. We’re trying to get the mindset across of, ‘Yeah the world has fucked me but I still love the world’, and it’s hard for me not to when I visit a place like Australia.”

From Australia, King and her band – multiinstrumentalist Dan Brantigan and drummer Jordan Perlman – went over to Europe where they toured for five weeks through March and April.

aki King is as charming as ever when she picks up the phone at her home in Brooklyn, New York, but there’s a problem. It’s mid-September and basically, she’s taking time out. It’s been a pretty intensive couple of years, lots of touring and, really, the last thing she’s thinking about is her musical career.

Heading back into the studio in December to begin recording his first album since 2008’s Rebel With A Cause, 8 Ball has been inspired by his constant worldwide jaunts, especially within the USA or more specifically, Nashville.

HEAVY HOPE

“That was something that Imogen Heap and Zoe Keating organised some artists to do [essentially an impromptu event run at the end of August presented online at Live4Pakistan.TV, with Ben Folds, Josh Groban, K.T. Tunstall, Mark Isham and Amanda Palmer performing]. I also did a benefit for residents of the Gulf Coast that we did out in LA, [beginning of July, with Ben Lee among others sharing the bill at The Mint] so yeah, I’ve done a bit of fundraising here and there, to do my bit.”

“The gigs in Italy really stood out for us because we always do really well there, Cologne was amazing, Berlin…,” King recalls. “We did a bunch of great shows in Holland. I always wanted to tour in Scandinavia and that was really cool. They were kind of the best of that tour. The hottest gig I’ve ever played in my life though was Rotterdam, which is not used to warm, warm temperatures and we were playing in one of the outside tents.”

8 Ball further explains when asked if he had a hand in the instruments development; “I knew it was going to be a 12-string and I knew it was going to be a Maton but they said they wanted to surprise me. It’s a wild thing and a fantastic sound too. I just don’t tour with any guitar I can’t replace these days. I save the really old vintage ones for the studio, like my original old Maton, it has an unbelievable sound. It’s from 1976 and you just couldn’t get another one like it so I tour with newer guitars that you can replace if you need to.”

ince forming in 2003, Orange County-based melodic hardcore Stick To Your Guns have released three full-length albums, including this year’s The Hope Division. Frontman Jesse Barnett is the first to acknowledge Stick To Your Guns have not had the most stable history when it comes to personnel, but he believes the current line-up – also comprising guitarists Chris Rawson and Ronnie Friesen, drummer George Schmitz and bassist Andrew Rose – is the most solid of the band’s existence. “I’ve always been kind of like the punk kid in the band and we’ve changed a lot of members due to creative differences… we’re not a fucking rock band and that’s what some certain members of the band wanted us to be,” he explains. “We finally found a group of dudes where everyone is on the same page.” The Hope Division has been labelled a concept album by many reviewers, and while there are common themes of positivity and fighting justice running through its 12 tracks, Barnett says the band did not consciously tread that path. “Lyrically there are concepts involved, but as far as the whole album together being a concept album; I wasn’t even intentionally trying to do that and then it was kind of other people who kept on telling me that and I was like, ‘You know what, it kind of is’,” Barnett admits. “It wasn’t like a predetermined thing, it wasn’t really what I was

Stick To Your Guns are a far more positive band than many of their contemporaries on the hardcore scene, and Barnett says her has always thought it important to write thought-provoking lyrics. “If we can have anyone take anything away from one of our shows it’s maybe rethinking certain mindsets,” he says. “There are a whole lot of bands that are, ‘Fuck this, fuck that, fuck the government’ and I’m on the same page – fuck the government, especially the American one – but before anything can change, before we can have any sort of revolution in any matter we need to look at ourselves and point the finger at ourselves for a second and instead of calling everybody else an asshole, maybe be like, ‘Oh, maybe I’m an asshole, maybe I need to take a look at myself!’” Barnett says last year’s shows Stick To Your Guns played with Terror last year remain a highlight of the band’s career. “I can say by far Australia is the best place we’ve played; for it being our first time there I can’t believe the crowd reaction that we had, it was retardedly awesome!”

WHO: Stick To Your Guns WHERE & WHEN: X&Y Bar Thursday

Nov 25 (18+), The Fort Friday Nov 26 (all ages)

ALL FUN AND GAMES Local songstress BRIANNA CARPENTER talks hula hoops and circus hoopla with TYLER McLOUGHLAN ahead of a performance with a bunch of quirky twists.

a fake pond, fake grass, trees and big decorations. There’s going to be circus things to do – it’s going to be pretty massive and I’m very excited about it!” Though transforming the centre into a musical space for a day, Carpenter intends to incorporate the spectacle of its circus background into the show. “I wanted to make it interactive and get people involved, because I like going to gigs where you’ve got other things you can do as well as listening to the music, so that you can have a whole atmosphere going,” she explains of the opportunity to learn juggling and hula hoop skills at the show. “And there’s going to be a balloon maker, roving entertainment and then a bunch of circus people are gonna do a little demonstration too. It should be pretty fun.”

risbane bright spark Brianna Carpenter has a background as colorful as her persona, gaining recognition over recent years from the NA2R Awards, Qantas’ Australian Spirit of Youth Awards and reaching the shortlist in this year’s prestigious Grant McLennan Fellowship. Look further still, and you may recall Carpenter as an exuberant 2007 Australian Idol finalist, spurred on by the prospect of playing her songs on national television. So it’s a surprise to learn that the high achiever lacks a physical attribute most would consider imperative to the making of music. “I was born completely deaf in my right ear,” Carpenter reveals. “Sometimes it’s a pain – I’ve done a recording degree where you learn how to record and produce – and it’s really frustrating for me because I don’t know how to pan. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, is really heavily panned – so I can never listen to it on headphones.” Though Carpenter is neither interested in resting on her accolades or letting a disability diminish her ability, preferring to search for new and interesting ways to promote her soulful acoustic music instead, and this weekend’s musical event is just one case in point. “It’s my last show for the year, it’s the end of a little tour that I’ve been doing, it’s my birthday coming up, and I’m going overseas for nine or ten weeks,” a bubbly Carpenter excitedly explains of the show at Flipside Circus Training Centre to celebrate the host of occasions. “I’m setting the whole place up like a garden, with

It’s an impressive undertaking, and Carpenter muses that it came about through a need to reflect her own musical character whilst keeping things fresh. “I’m sort of sick of playing in the same venues,” she admits. “I’m wanting to do an event that is a bit more interesting and a bit more like my personality. Musicians, if they want to keep the spirit alive in Brisbane, they need to think of other ways to get the music out there and get people involved. Even though it’s an adventurous or ambitious option for me, I think it’s going to be really cool.” The unveiling of a new film clip for new single Black Keys will add a further special element to the event, though Carpenter admits with a nervous giggle that its contents may even be a surprise to herself. “I haven’t even seen it yet so I’m going to be premiering it maybe even to myself!” Currently recording an EP follow up to her 2008 debut album Harlequin, Carpenter has a busy few months ahead. And that’s before you take into consideration that putting on a performance of this nature has set the benchmark for all future shows that will need to be bigger, better and in more outrageous locations than this weekend’s circus space extravaganza, something Carpenter is fully aware of: “I can’t go back to just doing normal gigs now!”

WHO: Brianna Carpenter WHERE & WHEN: Flipside Circus Training Centre Saturday Nov 20

ONE LOVE

RAZ BIN SAM is bucking the trend of the laidback vibes associated with reggae and throwing his work ethic into the festival ring. The LION I frontman and REGGAEFEST organiser discusses his baby with BENNY DOYLE. are committed to their Rastafari tradition, its message, and they maintain a moral disciplined lifestyle, from how they carry themselves, all the way to what they eat. They won’t compromise. When this group enters the gates of the festival, the whole energy of the place will change. I believe people will feel their presence all over the shire and will be drawn towards it.” The area of Byron Bay and the Northern Rivers in general seems to go hand in hand with the ideals of reggae and what the music aims to achieve.

“R

eggae music’s popularity is consistently growing around the world and naturally, also in Australia. The amount of world class Australian reggae acts such as Kingfisha, Darky Roots and Fyah Walk, amongst others who have emerged in the past few years shows that people feel the power of the words and the sound of reggae. Australian people want more culture, deeper consciousness and a better knowledge of the roots of life. Reggae music is all about that and is the leading musical example of truth and natural living.” As a festival in its first year, Reggaefest is on the cusp of its make or break moment. However, overcoming obstacles to make this day a reality for the lovers of the scene surprisingly haven’t proven to be an issue for organiser and performer Raz Bin Sam. “It has actually been pretty smooth,” Bin Sam informs. “There’s been big support from the Byron Bay community and from roots and reggae lovers all over the country. We now just have to stay focused and make sure that the production is positive in all angles for the artists, the punters, the environment and our community.” With a well-rounded bill of both local and international acts, there is plenty for festival punters to be getting excited about. One act in particular sparks adulation in the purest form. “Our headlining act is Virgin Islands group Midnite who are in Australia for the first time. These guys are the proper form of roots music,” Bin Sam enthuses. “They

“I’ve lived here for over ten years and have been involved in the reggae scene and the music industry in this area since,” Bin Sam offers. “People here have the zeal for world music and culture as well as for the preservation of nature and an organic lifestyle. This is what makes Byron a worldwide attraction and all that goes hand in hand with reggae. I think it’s been a long time due to have an international level reggae event here.” Bin Sam will be putting his vocals in the mix at Reggaefest with local act, Lion I, the reggae group he fronts. But this is festival awards no prizes for first, second or last – it’s all about working towards the same common goal. “The Lion I Band has something to offer this collective on both a musical and cultural level which is the only reason we will be featuring on this bill,” he says. “The lifestyle, drive, meditation and connection between body, soul and the groundation of mankind are all channelled in this music. Words plus sound equals power. The almighty made it my duty and honour to spread this power by creating an opportunity to deliver their message and help it reach the people who need it. There is nothing hectic about it. This is going to be a positive production. Everything is running as groovy and relaxed as the rhythm – smooth and steady like a heartbeat. You have to overstand that reggae music is not a one person or one band thing,” he drives home. “There’s no ego and no competition. The only thing that is one is the love and unification of those willing to be moving forth.”

WHO: Lion I WHERE & WHEN: Reggaefest, Byron Bay Saturday Dec 4

SINGLES BY CHRIS YATES

OF MONTREAL

BUDDY GUY

PAUL SMITH

(Polyvinyl/Shock)

(Jive/Sony)

(Billingham Records/Shock)

False Priest

TWIN SHADOW Slow

(4AD/Remote Control)

George Lewis Jr is the interesting character responsible for one man buzz band Twin Shadow and Slow is the first single to get an Australian release ahead of the already hyped and internationally celebrated album Forget. It’s easy to see why – it’s a bedroom recording in the vein of other homebody groups such as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffi ti, Memory Tapes, Washed Out etc, but Twin Shadow delivers a much more conventional pop song format, sounding something like (almost exactly like really) Morrissey would if he still had a clue and a finger on the pulse. He uses some great live sounding instruments with the electronic drums and resists the urge to wash his voice out with reverb, until the falsetto chorus at least. It’s very modern sounding, and by that I mean it sounds like it came out in 1982.

BLACK EYED PEAS The Time (Universal)

A survey by the Black Eyed Peas marketing research department has obviously discovered that their average listener’s favourite movie is Dirty Dancing and their favourite drug is crystal meth. BEP are no strangers to insulting their audience’s intelligence and setting the cause of hip hop back decades at a time with a single release, but this time they’ve really gone way too far. Aiming firmly at the lowest common denominator possible, we’re bombarded at first with a hideous autotuned cover of the intro/chorus of the song from Dirty Dancing, before a weak as piss rap bit collides into it with the subtlety of a fat-o-gram. I can’t even imagine what drugs I would need to endure this – don’t think they even exist.

Athens, Georgia psychedelic indie pop outfit Of Montreal are not a normal band. They do not make normal music, and what they do make isn’t for normal people; if you are a normal person, odds are that you probably won’t like their tenth full-length album, False Priest, all that much. But that’s okay; normal people ruin everything. Indeed, the songs on False Priest revel in their strangeness with a carefree abandon that begs you to kick up your heels, join in the mirth and get your weird, weird groove on. Hell, sing along even – if you can, that is; frontman Kevin Barnes is a total freak and he wastes no time in showing it in the cheery space jangle of opener I Feel Ya Strutter. There’s a definite funk – soul, even – feel present throughout, which is evident in tracks like the sultry steps of Coquet Coquette, the synth-laced strut of Godly Intersex and the disco revivalist flavours of Like A Tourist. The vocal work on these tracks, not to mention the rest of the album, is one of the most consistently entertaining aspects of the record. Harmonies you weren’t sure existed find their way to your ears with booming depth, shrill height, and all the creamy middles in between. Barnes moves with finesse between smooth, mid-range delivery, epic falsetto, and even casual talk-singing (Our Riotous Defects, Around The Way), aptly driving the album’s coherently disjointed instrumentalism and fragmented soundscapes. Despite promises of deeplyburied method in the madness, if all this sounds like clash city to you, False Priest might just be an album best left to those that dug it the last nine times. ★★★★ Mitch Knox

(Warner)

Just when you think The Farris Brothers couldn’t sink any goddamn lower than the terminally embarrassing depths of reality TV shows and JD Fortune, they somehow manage to scrape from even closer to the bottom of the barrel. Original Sin is the first classic to get dragged out and re-imagined with a hideously misguided ‘modernising’ interpretation. Are the remaining INXS members so fucking clueless to the legacy of the cutting-edge pop masterpieces they once somehow managed to create that they think a disco cover version featuring the singer from Matchbox 20 and a Cuban rapper/DJ is a good idea?

SPEED ORANGE

She Killed Me In My Sleep (Yarraville Recording Company)

Not quite being tough enough to be one of those whisky-fuelled country rock pig bands, and not twee enough to be a jangly pop band, the brilliantly named Speed Orange sit somewhat awkwardly between these two conflicting neighbourhoods on She Killed Me In My Sleep. Distinctly Australian vocals and a rough and loose electric guitar help it out, and it is a very well-written song, but it really could benefi t from veering off in either direction it meanders in more convincingly. B-side Penny Drop drones along on a single note and is much more successful, but lacks some of the charm and character of the main event. Surely a band who will come along when they work out what they really want to do.

You don’t have to put this CD in the stereo to know what the thematic intention of this record is. Buddy Guy is Living Proof that age will not weary an old blues great and, thankfully, the book mostly matches the cover. Opener 74 Years Young sees the Guy braggadocio rear its cheeky head as he opines “I’ve drank wine with kings and The Rolling Stones” and that he’s “chased some tails and left some tracks”. Perhaps more importantly for most fans is that the blazing lead guitar in the opener is some of the finest that has appeared on a Buddy Guy record in quite some time. It screeches like a pissed off banshee, cutting through the smoothness of its backing in a most simultaneous ugly and beautiful dichotomous manner. Sleazy John Lee Hooker-esque Thank Me Someday plods as Guy works his way over the fret board and tells of his early days in Louisiana, where his guitar playing was not quite as celebrated as it is today, while On The Road takes things in a more classic pop-blues manner, a little white bread in its slick production, but boy that guitar still sounds nice and rough. There are two guest appearances on Living Proof, BB King lending his considerable talent to the ballad Stay Around A Little Longer and Carlos Santana adds tastefully to the spaghetti western referencing Where The Blues Begins. Unfortunately by the time the record is through, the smooth-sounding, super-proficient backing band starts to grate; it’s far too middle of the road. Buddy Guy is still a great guitarist with a hell of a voice and given a more raw production touch he could still make another classic blues record, then he’ll really be living proof. ★★★½ Dan Condon

UNDEAD APES

Grave Consequences (Mere Noise Records)

Pound for pound Brisbane has one of the strongest scenes around, but there’s a niche we’ve traditionally excelled in filling that has been neglected in recent years – unpretentious pop-punk. We haven’t been completely devoid of it, but Undead Apes are here to firmly put it back into the consciousness of the local listening public. Members of Sekiden, Gazoonga Attack, Dick Nasty and Eat Laser Scumbag play in the band and it shows; there are myriad similarities to those bands on Grave Consequences. While Undead Apes don’t necessarily sound like the Ramones, they do manage to sound similar to plenty of bands they influenced; a strong Descendents vibe pumps through these 11 tracks, shades of any number of Lookout Records bands are evident and the Australian lilt of some of the material recalls bands like Hard-Ons and even Ratcat. Big hooks and fuzzy guitar are the two main weapons here, while blazing lead guitar lines peppered amongst the power-chord dirge add an invaluable extra element; the Weezer referencing outro to The Thing particularly notable for its epic, soaring nature. You wouldn’t want to think too much about the quaint lyrics here, it’s not that they aren’t good – they are – they’re just very simple. Opener Eat Yr Brain professes “I wanna eat your brain”, the hilariously biting Taxes opens with the cracking “You think that you’re bad like Michael Jackson, really you’re just crap like Michael Jackson” and just gets funnier without being lame, while closing track Hypothermia somehow manages to spell out the title and make it sound catchy. If you appreciate well-crafted fuzzed out pop punk then this is a vital local release and the best of the genre we’ve seen in eons. Don’t think about it too much, just play it loud and grin. ★★★★ Barry Kobarma

Following closely in the footsteps of Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers who both released debut solo offerings this year, comes Maximo Park’s Paul Smith. Sure, the bowler-hatted Smith fronting Maximo Park didn’t quite hit the heady heights of hi-hat heavy, synth-driven postpunk like the former but still, with an album like Maximo’s A Certain Trigger, the point is relevant. Like Okereke and Flowers, who both failed to provide any sort of interesting continuation or chapter in the book of their respective band’s career, you can’t help but feel the songs that made the final cut for Smith’s Margins are leftovers rejected by his band and probably wouldn’t even reach b-side status let alone cut it for a record. The first couple of tracks – North Atlantic Drift and The Crush And The Shatter – open in a cruisy fashion and are lightly reminiscent of something from his band’s Our Earthly Pleasures. They both benefit from the full band treatment but, from there, it really turns into a solo album in quite a surprising way. While You’re In The Bath has Smith’s Jarvis-esque croon front and centre over a simple electric guitar pluck while I Drew You Sleeping is a refreshing mid-spring number featuring Edge-inspired guitar and a breezy hook. Alone, I Would’ve Dropped is a sleepy, acoustically-strummed track that is amongst the couple of highlights. It’s unfair to compare Smith with his main project, but knowing what has come in the past doesn’t prove Margins to be hit and miss. While it can border on a fascinating insight to a unique character, Margins doesn’t captivate enough to be any more than a passing listen.

CEE LO GREEN The Lady Killer (Warner)

There has been one consistent lament throughout Cee Lo Green’s career – the man’s inability to streamline. Inventive, charismatic and multi-talented, Green’s work in Goodie Mob, Gnarls Barkley and even spotty solo efforts like 2004’s Cee Lo Green Is The Soul Machine has always been thoroughly entertaining but he’s never managed to deliver anything resembling a consistent enjoyable album. Until now, that is. The Lady Killer is the big, brassy, soulful long-player fans always knew Green had hidden somewhere within his manic and eclectic output. Whereas previously the former MC was happy to follow his muse wherever it led him, with The Lady Killer, Green has opted to stick to one specific style – namely, soul – and write the best possible set of songs he’s capable of writing within that vocabulary. The touchstone influence of the record is the plastic ambition of Quincy Jones’ work with Michael Jackson. Opening track proper Bright Lights Bigger City is the most obvious homage – cramming stabbing eighties synths, sweeping string arrangements and an absolutely massive chorus over a Billy Jean-aping bass-line – but the entire record follows Jones/Jackson formula of re-spinning Motown soul/funk arrangements with leftfield stylistic flourishes, surprising lyrical sentiments and unconventional instrumentation. While there are those who would suggest that such a breakthrough sounds too good to be true, the – well, actually, they’d be pretty bang on the money. A genuinely impressive and enjoyable piece of work, it’s nevertheless difficult to imagine a less sincere record than The Lady Killer being released in 2010. The entire album feels like Cee Lo Green’s overlycalculated plan to break into the charts at any cost. Consider how and why controversial breakthrough single Fuck You was transformed to Forget You and you may comprehend the eerie toothlessness of the album. Sweet – but not nourishing. ★★★ Matt O’Neill

Margins

★★½ Ben Preece

INXS

Original Sin (Featuring Rob Thomas and DJ Yaliedys)

Living Proof

BRANDON BOYD The Wild Trapeze (101 Distribution/Sony)

After taking a brief hiatus from Incubus, frontman Brandon Boyd has returned to the field with a debut solo-album. With the exception of the odd helping hand from producer Dave Fridmann, Boyd has adopted a DIY aesthetic playing almost all instruments as well as taking care of the visual aspect of the whole package. In any such case most would probably be cradling a bulk of scepticism upon their approach, and in many cases they’d be right in doing so; The Wild Trapeze, however, is a surprise gem that is definitely worth embracing. Opening with the powerful title track, things get off to a rolling start with Boyd’s musical know how showing much promise from the get go. While the songs each revolve around an acoustic core, they are for the most part dressed up with and a plethora of instruments (including some strangely distorted bass) that act to breathe an extra dose of beauty and flavour into the already tasteful foundations. Dance While The Devil Sleeps is a marvel built of rich layers of instrumentation and Last Night A Passenger is a dreamy meditation that is among the most impressive songs of Boyd’s career. Although at no point does the album ever really break loose in the same way that Incubus do, there is still quite a lot of energy to be found in each song except for Courage And Control; which comes in at the mid-point to work as the perfect half-time chill out. The Wild Trapeze sees the gifted singer reaching levels of splendour that haven’t been consistently visited since Morning View (2001) and its predecessors. Boyd’s sense of melody and phrasing is near flawless throughout and his ability to write short and succinct works of power is no less impressive. A finely-crafted collection of songs that come together to form a surprisingly inspiring album. ★★★½ Jake Sun

GLENN RICHARDS

N*E*R*D

HOLLY THROSBY

JAY-Z

(Sony Music Entertainment)

(Universal)

(Def Jam/Universal))

Glimjack

Nothing

See!

It’s unclear where Glenn Richards sits in the musical environment of 2010 – he’s not quite the recognisable household name he probably should be at this stage and, perhaps, isn’t quite hip enough for the crazy indie kids that might flip between triple j and Nova. What is clear, however, is that the Augie March frontman does have the fanbase and credibility to truly get this exceptional debut solo outing across the line.

Hip hop producer superstars Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo’s ‘rock’ group N*E*R*D haven’t really hit the mark when it comes to pulling off a whole record, and on Nothing the distinction between their production work and own music becomes even less apparent. Fortunately, there is a cohesion to the album that makes this album feel less like a compilation or mixtape than the last two albums.

From the get go, Richards in solo mode openly feels utterly liberated, not necessarily avant-garde like the old days, but not Pete Murray-white collar or acoustic music for the masses a la Bernard Fanning either. It’s not that far removed from his stuff with Augie March and abandons the overtly-polished production the direction their latter-day material has taken.

Hypnotize U is an electro ballad produced by Daft Punk and despite Pharrell’s stupid sex rhymes is easily the highlight of the record, and an inspired musical pairing. They delve into 70s feelgood pop on Victory, and as bizarre a concept as that may seem, it works really well and proves their songwriting chops to be very well thought out even if they are being a little too whimsical. TI’s rap on the opening number Party People turns it into a proper track instead of just being a repetitive loop of funk pop. The first single Hot-N-Fun is a reworking of the smash they produced for Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Got Your Money, featuring Nelly Furtado instead of Kelis and Pharrell’s own rapping instead of ODB, so it obviously doesn’t reach the heights of that classic, but an unexpectedly great chorus gives it something a little extra. God Bless Us All mashes a tough hip hop verse into a soulful pop chorus that is a little cute in its naivety, but it’s this contrast that helps this track and other similar moments on the record become more enjoyable on repeat listens, even if it is jarring at first.

At a bit under an hour, Glimjack would have benefited from being slightly shorter, but in saying that, it’s hard to dream of what would have been dropped. The opening two tracks – Torpor And Spleen and Long Pigs – are both a solid first step while the endearing Apple Of My Eye has all the makings of a Richards-penned radio favourite, complete with an Anniversary-flavoured hook and infectious chorus. The moody Turn On Me gives Richards’ stunning, choirboy vocal the spotlight it deserves while Barfly Prometheus feels less of a solo outing and more of a band effort. Speaking of the band, Richards has enlisted the help of brother Chris as well as members of The Drones and Ned Collette’s Wirewalker. As a band they don’t do anything radically different to Augie March but have offered Richards the freedom to craft a wonderful piece of work, with all the melodic trimmings and lyrical garnish you could hope for or, considering it’s Glenn Richards, expect! ★★★★ Ben Preece

Their fourth album proper Nothing really does show the group’s development as songwriters, while vividly showcasing their production techniques that made them so successful initially, and is some of their strongest work as a whole album.

The Hits Collection – Volume One

Holly Throsby is notable for a few different things: her mother is ABC radio presenter Margaret Throsby, her uncle is cultural economist David Throsby, she went to school with Rose Byrne and Sally Seltmann, and in 2008 she was the girl on everyone’s lips after the release of her stellar release A Loud Call which even gathered her an ARIA nod. While she is still working on her follow-up, which at present is set to be released in 2011, she has used her brief downtime to do what any self-respecting indie-pop singer songstress would do, she’s released a children’s album for no other reason than she can.

50 million albums sold. Jay-Z (nee Shawn Corey Carter) went from selling crack cocaine on Brooklyn corners to becoming hip hop’s most powerful artist come corporate mogul. Jay-Z has even surpassed Elvis Presley’s record of 11 number one albums, a mindblowing feat. Whilst Jay-Z’s credibility in hip hop circles has always been in doubt and sceptics have always questioned his skill as an MC the sales figures speak for themselves, especially in an industry and subculture that revolves around the bottom line and cash money.

See! is a warm and bubbly dedication to all things invoking child wonderment, aimed to produce hand claps, singalong’s and sturdy nap time, though as a whole it isn’t that bad of a listen. Throsby possesses an addictive and nurturing voice that is perfect for an album of this sort, and she is still also backed by her trusty backing band expanding out with banjo’s, brushes, and upright bass to retain the outback veranda feel that is so comforting about Holly’s recordings This is bolstered even more by the album being recording in a 19 th century church in rural New South Wales, adding a live and confronting sound. While it is a little strange tapping your foot along to songs such as an ode to motorboats in Putt Putt, animal noises with What Turns? and temperate calendar based adjustments in Seasons, it is obvious that music reviewers are not the target audience, so as I hand it over to a more accustomed audience in my three-year-old niece, she happily gives the album her stamp of approval. ★★★½

Mark Beresford

The Hits Collection has all the tunes you would expect – Hard Knock Life is still infectious and Jay-Z’s enthusiastically misogynistic monologue and eerily nu-metal in sound 99 Problems is as fist-pumping as ever, but the compilation flails on occasion. Run This Town with Kanye West and Rihanna is anthemic hip hop at its finest. The Neptunes-produced I Just Wanna Love U (Give It To Me) goes beyond the usual club fodder big beat, Jay-Z and Beyonce’s collaboration Bonnie And Clyde is an ode to their own celebrity marital problems and whilst the lyricisms are inane the Prince and 2Pac samples which form the basis of the song are testament to the fact that Jay-Z can bounce from hip hop to sultry R&B without sacrificing too much credibility. The problem with a Jay-Z greatest hits is that all these songs have been ground into the ground by radio and club DJs, so there isn’t really anything exciting to discover. Regardless, it’s still interesting to hear The Neptunes, Timbaland, Rick Reuben and Dr. Dre’s production skills and mixes side by side and this compilation proves that over the course of his career Jay-Z has made writing a hit single an art that he has truly mastered. Cam Ford

★★★½ Chris Yates

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE MCR’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, entitled ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’ follows the platinum success of ‘The Black Parade’. Features the singles “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” and “Sing”. Also available: limited edition with a bandana wrapped around the album.

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remix

INXS

THE ANCIENTS

SMITTY & B. GOODE

THE TEMPER TRAP

(Petrol Electric/MGM)

(Sensory Projects)

(Shock)

(Liberation/Universal)

Not content with completely soiling their own legacy and pissing endlessly on the memory of Michael Hutchence the surviving members of INXS are now seeking to rework their greatest hits in the most tepid and boorish manner, enlisting Rob Thomas, Ben Harper, Dan Sultan, and Tricky amongst others to croon and overemote over some of the band’s career-defining hits. It’s somewhat telling that the album opens with Drum Opera – nearing three-minutes in length and penned by original INXS member Jon Farriss, it marries selfindulgent drum solos with embarrassingly-dated electronics, ambling along pointlessly until climaxing as an industrial techno instrumental. It’s a truly redundant and self-serving masterpiece. The album begins in earnest with Tricky’s take on Mediate – INXS seek to rework the track into the realm of electronica; the result is an awful melange of house music and overbearing guitars. Original Sin is utterly ruined as Rob Thomas and DJ Yaleidy transform it into a café-styled electro jazz song that features Yaleidy rapping in Spanish midway through the song. As the album continues more of INXS’s back catalogue is transformed into embarrassing recreations of their former selves, none more bland and passive than Don’t Change, which, with a choir and Andrew Farriss and Kirk Pengilly at the vocal helm transform the synth-laden new wave hit into an acoustic jingle that would befit an insurance advertisement. It seems INXS are set on making a complete mockery of themselves and whilst the album is an impenetrable work of self-indulgence, more alarming is the insincerit, which characterises the album. It’s the work of a band so misguided in their attempts to once again appeal to a wider audience and revive their career, that they have gone beyond yet another greatest hits album and instead reworked the songs for an imaginary younger fanbase and in doing so have forgone that last shred of dignity attached to the INXS name.

The Ancients 2

The Ancients have crafted an LP which is mesmerising in its tropical pop warmth, to even consider this came from Fitzroy, Melbourne and not Spring Hill, Brisbane leaves one considering where The Go Betweens or even Minimum Chips legacy truly left an imprint. The Ancients’ second LP is one that moves between paisley underground flower pop, Brazilian Tropicana pop and haunting UK shoegaze swagger. The detached and dreamy pop of opener Street Funk is sophisticated in its calypso melody and shimmering guitars and whilst the washed melodious interludes of MBV haunt and swirl in the background, indie pop is favoured over wired experimentation. Marsh Tomb fades in and the chiming melody and tranquil vocal delivery have an almost eerie drug laden Ariel Pink essence, and whilst the song itself would sit perfectly in The Chills or Clean catalogue, it’s the fact that The Ancients can craft songs of such restrained beauty whilst never sounding derivative which stands them as one of the more captivating musical propositions currently on the Australian underground landscape. Rising Seas mirrors The Zombies’ penchant for psych swirled pop and whilst the harrowing psych-cum-prog of Missing Page is adventurous, never does it feel like an overextension. The Rambler and Christine are reminiscent of the indie pop which defined Brisbane in the 90s, Cunningham, Minimum Chips and The Zebras, both awkward and innocent and sounding like a long hot summer spent practising in Spring Hill or South Brisbane rental house lounge rooms. As the LP unfolds it becomes apparent The Ancients are truly worthy successors of the legacy and disparate sounds left behind from the aforementioned Brisbane bands. It’s just a shame this sound had to be reawakened by a band who probably don’t even know what Spring Hill or that ‘Striped Sunlight Sound‘ is.

Hello Rock ‘N’ Roll

When choosing album titles some bands go with subtlety, some bands go with obscurity; very few have the balls to tell you exactly what you’re going to hear in threeand-a-half words. It’s a risky business: fail to pull off the purported mission statement and your album title becomes inescapable – and embarrassing – proof of your over-confidence. Luckily Sydney two-piece Smitty & B. Goode’s sophomore album Hello Rock ‘N’ Roll is filled with precisely the type of music the title in question suggests. Opener Just Like A Comet... joyfully channels AC/DC, embracing the homage with just enough irreverence to avoid being lazily derivative. That’s not to say it isn’t derivative, even occasionally imitative, but it’s sure as hell not lazy. The entire album sounds more like a modern genre transposition; taking a pinch of rock’n’roll from every era and then filtering it through a membrane of modern tendencies. On tracks like Hard Living and Mama’s On A Train the boys get their blues on; Elvis Presley’s influence is palpably apparent in the vocals of On My Way. In fact, pretty much every track could come with its own list of peculiar influences. The result is occasionally scattershot; sometimes an effective hat-tipping at rock’n’roll greats, sometimes a repetitive rehash of better bands. Sometimes the influences are noisily competing for dominance; on some tracks the layers are so plentiful it’s almost as though Smitty & B. Goode are channelling Jack White, who’s channelling BB King who’s in turn channelling Josh Homme. That said, it’s done well enough to be forgivable, even if it’s not always perfectly pulled-off. It’s pretty clear that Hello Rock ‘n’ Roll is not an attempt at reinventing the wheel. Because let’s face it; the wheel works just fine as it is. ★★★ Helen Stringer

Conditions – Remixed

So hands up who is so damn sick of The Temper Trap, the Conditions album and Sweet fucking Disposition? Seriously, how overplayed and stomped on can a song become? As such, the sight of a remixed release Conditions wasn’t anything to really be cartwheeling about. But it was a curiosity and as such demanded a listen… and another listen… Now sadly, it’s just on repeat. Such is the overwhelming success and complete electronic experience that makes up Conditions – Remixed. There is so much to offer fans of every genre and subgenre as well as retaining enough Temper Trap to keep the purists smiling. Sydney heroes PVT give an industrial brutalising to a completely ripped apart Fader while The Count (aka Herve) Medusa remix of Science Of Fear is a filthy, squelch-dusted banger that is unrelenting dubstep at its finest. The fact that The Temper Trap have been willing to flip even their biggest hits to an at times unrecognisable degree should be commended. Even weaker remixes such as Alan Wilkis’ take of Sweet Disposition and disappointingly, English dubstep heavyweight Rusko’s cut of Soldier On still have a change in tempo, an element of intriguing mixing flair or a quick moment of tech brilliance that make the tracks still listenable, albeit not quite up to the standard of the quality cuts like Bretonlabs’ Kate Tempest-assisted remix of final track Drum Song. The Sydney boys have gone about this the right way; not relying only on the hooks of Dougy Mandagi and by selecting quality and unorthodox DJs and producers in relation to the band’s general sound. This remix album will bring the sweet sounds of The Temper Trap successful under the bright lights of a pulsing dancefloor and win them over an entire new fanbase in the process. Benny Doyle

★★★★ James Kendall

N CO IO

ILAT

PASSENGER BRING ME THE HORIZON

There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret (Visible Noise/Shock)

You couldn’t have found a more clichéd album name if you tried, in a typical Underoath or Asking Alexandria post-hardcore fashion, the album title is longer than most newspaper editorials. But ridiculous name aside, ...Secret is a confusing third release by the British thrashers – in an effort to break new ground and push themselves to the forefront of the genre they dive heavily into vocal shuttering, electro-goth fill and more multitasking than Bohemian Rhapsody. As the band explain themselves, each member wanted to bring their own sound to this album, and while they all seem to have contributed, they simply created a cluster fuck of epic proportions. The combined affect is almost enough to make you ill at first listen and the album opens with the worst of it in the six-minutes-twenty of Crucify Me, a song that is six minutes and 19 seconds too long, and if you haven’t flung the CD from your car window after that then you may find a few surprises in the rest. Dotted in between a flaccid concept of expansive sound is a stripped metalcore sound that speaks much more clearly to the audience in Fuck and Alligator Blood as well as the sweeping contrasts of Don’t Go or Blessed With A Curse, unfortunately these tracks are outdone by the puzzling assault of the senses in the surrounding songs.

FISTFUL OF MERCY As I Call You Down (Hot Records/Inertia)

Supergroups are always a strange melting pot of contradictions. They always want you to take them solely on their new project which is impossible, especially considering you have roots hero Ben Harper and Beatles spawn Dhani Harrison. And they always explain how this venture is a change in sonic direction but it rarely ever is. Unfortunately most of the time, these predominantly self-indulgent projects have nothing super about them. So is Fistful Of Mercy bucking such cynical sediments? Not quite. But it isn’t a complete right off either. Opening tracks In Vain Or True and I Don’t Want To Waste Your Time sees the vocal triple threat wash over you in blissful purity while album finale With Whom You Belong is perhaps the album’s finest tune, leaving a deliciously organic taste in the listener’s mouth. But the guts of the album is a slog to connect you between such tracks. Father’s Song is a blatant rip-off of the vocal tone and chorus hook from Harper’s When It’s Good, while Fistful Of Mercy and Things Go ‘Round are pretty numbers that are forgotten before the next song has even begun. Too heavily reliant on their blessed harmonising voices, Fistful Of Mercy almost makes you forget that for the best part, the instrumentation and song structures are fairly middling.

While it’s admirable for Bring Me The Horizon to step out and lead the pack into a futuristic idea, unfortunately their idea of the genre’s progression is taking one foot into the grave – hopefully they pull their heads out of their arses before the next release.

Even with a ratio leaning on the better side of the hit and miss scale, this album still seems unnecessary for fans of the players involved. Obviously this is stimulating other creative outlets for Harper, Arthur and Harrison and the tunes are at times inspired, but otherwise it’s all fairly harmless and meandering. As I Call You Down just doesn’t tread any new ground or find any soul or angle that these three talented players haven’t used before.

★★ Mark Beresford

★★★

Benny Doyle

Flight Of The Crow (Inertia)

Originally from Brighton in the UK, Mike Rosenberg has been hanging around our shores for a few years now, and in that time he has busked his arse off and toured with some of our country’s best up-and-coming musicians. Using his dollar coins and new friendships he stepped into the studio and came out with Flight Of The Crow, a series of collaborations that showcase his own talent whilst being thickened up by guest musicians such as Kate Miller-Heidke and Matt Corby. Passenger’s acoustic nature and storytelling songwriting give a longing perspective on love and homeland, with a distinct vocal that glimmers through the beautiful arrangement of tracks. Rosenberg perfectly sums up life on the road and the emotional rollercoaster that ensues in truthful yearning and complete sincerity with a bare essentials notion that leads the tracks into the collaborative nature of the album. With the folk impressions of Month Of Sundays, featuring Elana Stone and Brian Campeau, or a sombre melody in Bloodstains may give the impression that Rosenberg is simply a vessel for a series of outshined efforts by guests, it isn’t the case. As each guest adds an eclectic touch to their respective recordings, it’s Passenger himself who rises above with heartbreaking delivery and wonderful acoustic pop. This may be Passenger’s fourth release in just three years but it cannot be stricken as a quick studio dive with established artists in an effort to boost public opinion, the striking honesty that they have managed to capture in the brief recording time is something that most big budget musicians cannot deliver in years, let alone days, and the undeniable infectiousness of Flight Of The Crow proves that Passenger will be around for some time yet. ★★★★½ Mark Beresford

N CO IO

Cam Ford

Original Sin

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Triple J Like A Version Volume Six (Universal)

You should all be well aware by now of triple j’s Like A Version concept, but in case you aren’t, it’s a showcase of local and international musicians and acts lending their own personal style to a cover of a well-known song – usually from another genre and generally in a acoustic setting, much in the same vein as BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. Now in its sixth release in five years, it seems that instead of grasping at guests and tracks, more artists are shining than ever. Be it Yves Klein Blue taking on a mandolin-driven rendition of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, John Butler Trio’s complete funkification of Jackson Five’s I Want You Back or Regina Spektor taking a stripped innocence to Radiohead’s No Surprises, each possesses a natural endearment by the performer that is very apparent in the recording.The gem of this round’s release is the lovely Megan Washington reworking Sublime’s 90s staple Santeria, shifting the stoner nature of Bradley Nowell to reveal the loving undertone of the song with a version that can easily go head-to-head with the original. The accompanying DVD package contains some just as special moments, the collective Basement Birds being all smiles as they chop their way into The Presets’ My People or Alexisonfire creating a surprisingly impressive take on our dearest The Saints with (I’m) Stranded. Of the 21 diverse tracks, there are guaranteed skips to be made on the CD player, but for the most part, if your dirty secret is an admiration of a good cover song not performed in a beer garden, then once again Like A Version delivers in spades. Mark Beresford

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ART

OPENING UP

REVIEW

SPARE PARTS Brisbane Powerhouse We’re trained from an early age not to stare at the unusual, the unknown, or the different. Such social etiquette is the product of a well-meaning desire to be polite, but it does – as much as fear or misunderstanding – cultivate an unfortunately persistent taboo. Spare Parts, an exhibition of variously decorated prosthetics, confronts this taboo by making artificial limbs things of overt beauty to be looked at and appreciated. What could be a macabre or at least eerie exhibition thus becomes a celebration of the ingenuity and functionality of the prosthetic limb. Primarily using prosthetic limbs as canvases, artists from various backgrounds have contributed to the show bringing their own artistic interpretations to donated legs, arms, hands and feet. On show and for sale are prosthetics adorned with the

work of Anthony Lister, Beastman, Kasino, and Kitty Horton, amongst others. There’s even a foot donated by Adam Hills and decorated by Patience Hodgson of The Grates. Like any group exhibition there are some pieces that work better than others. The most effective of the lot are generally from the artists who have not attempted to hide the limbs, choosing instead to draw attention to them, either by highlighting their function, or simply using them as an oddly shaped canvas. Prosthetic limbs, no matter how beautifully adorned are not going to be the hanging piece of choice for many. But that said Spare Parts is both a thorough showcasing of a diverse range of emerging artists and a positive step towards opening conversation on a needlessly taboo subject. Until Sunday Dec 5 HELEN STRINGER

DREAM A BIG DREAM The Indian Film Festival: Bollywood And Beyond will be returning in 2011 and whilst details are still scarce on the event, organisers are calling out for entries from you to enter their short film competition, which kicked off at this year’s event. The theme this time is ‘dream’ and films are to be no longer than ten minutes. Entries close Friday Jan 15. Head to indianfilmfestival.com.au for details.

THIS WEEK IN THURSDAY 18 Brazil Film Festival – Opening night film: Lula, The Son Of Brazil, which documents the early life of popular Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Tribal Theatre. We unfold – latest production from Sydney Dance Company, the first under new artistsic director Rafael Bonachela. Opening night, 7:30pm. Playhouse, QPAC until Saturday 27.

FRIDAY 19 Brazil Film Festival – tonight’s screening: Pachamama, from director Eryk Rocha, who documents his trip through the Amazon rainforest. Tribal Theatre, 7pm. Scott Redford: Introducing Reinhardt Dammn – exhibition of works – surfboard sculptures, videos, and paintings, suites of fibreglass objects and canvasses with acrylic surfaces – by Gold Coast artist Scott Redford. Opening day. QLD Art Gallery until 13 March 2011. Teorama (Theorem) – restored 35mm print of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorama, starring Terence Stamp as The Visitor, a man that enters an unhappy family and seduces every member – mother, father, son, daughter, maid – and leaves as mysteriously. Screens with the short Che Cosa Sono Le Nuvole? (What Are The Clouds?). Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 6pm.

SATURDAY 20 Appunti per un film sull’India (Notes Towards A Film About India) – diary film that documents filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini’s research trip to India in the hope of making a film about an ancient Indian legend. Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 2pm. Brazil Film Festival – tonight’s screening: DZI Croquettes, and 11-award winning documentary telling the story of the DZI Croquettes, a dance troupe, in the 1970s. Tribal Theatre, 7pm. Edipo Re (Oedipus Rex) – regarded

ARTS by the director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, as his most autobiographical film, this makes for interesting viewing since it’s the Greek drama about a chap who kills his father and marries his mother. From the same director as Salò. Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 3pm. My Stories, Your Emails – hilarious (but often shocking and poignant) show from La Clique star Ursula Martinez, split into two sections: her stories, tales from her life, and your emails, exactly that: the responses from her audiences in response to a particular show she’s known for. Final night. Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, 8pm. Nathan Gray / Martin Smith / Jesse Olsen – trio of exhibitions, Nathan Gray’s What They Brought Back, Martin Smith’s Hello Newmarket Hotel, and Jesse Olsen, open tonight. Ryan Renshaw Gallery until 20 November. Ziggy: The Songs Of David Bowie – The Thin White Duke needs no introduction to Time Off readers, Bowie is one of the world’s most influential artists. Here, iOTA, Jeff Duff, Steve Balbi, and Brydon Stace bring the songs of Bowie to life. Concert Hall, QPAC, 8pm.

SUNDAY 21 Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana (Notes For An African Oresteia) – Pier Paolo Pasolini’s restored 35mm film (from the original 16mm) about the Greek myth of Orestes, shot whilst filming Medea. Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 1.30pm. Brazil Film Festival – tonight’s screening, the closing night film, is Love Stories Last Only 90 Minutes, a romantic comedy. Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 6:30pm. Medea – Pier Paolo Pasolini’s most famous Greek myth adaptation, of a sorceress seduced by an adventurer, only to be thrown away one he’d used her as the stepping stone to power. Australian Cinémathèque at GoMA, 3pm.

HELEN STRINGER TALKS TO RAFAEL BONACHELA, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY, BRINGING WE UNFOLD TO BRISBANE THIS WEEK.

t’s fitting that Rafael Bonachela’s first production as Sydney Dance Company’s Artistic Director, we unfold, ends with a metaphorical arrival. Having taken the helm of the beleaguered dance company after it suffered first the departure of its director of two decades, the much-lauded Graeme Murphy, and then the tragic death of Murphy’s successor Tanja Liedtke we unfold as much marks Bonachela’s arrival as it does that of a rejuvenated Sydney Dance Company. The effusively articulate Bonachela explains, “This company deserves to just keep going… It’s a company that went through a lot of trauma: a director for 20 years and then Tanja Liedtke having an accident and dying before starting… they had been not very lucky, let’s put it that way. But, you know, I’m an optimist by nature.” He stops himself, “No, not actually by nature, by choice. So I just thought ‘let’s just push’… I mean we are a contemporary dance company, we’ve got to be pushing things.” Bonachela is not speaking hyperbolically; eschewing the popular tendency in contemporary dance to choreograph pieces to music of the same ilk, Bonachela instead collaborated with Italian composer Ezio Bosso and set about choreographing a contemporary dance to a classical symphony. “It was sort of scary,” says

Bonachela, ”because it was symphony and I’ve never in my life choreographed to a symphonic piece of music; at the same time there was an excitement about it. A symphony, it’s a big piece of music. It’s very monumental. [But] the fact that I was going to inherit a company with sixteen dancers was almost like, ‘Rafael, you’ve got to think big; you have to go with it, you can’t be shy’.” While contemporary dance is an apt forum for testing boundaries, there’s nevertheless an almost inevitable concern that in deviating from the norm audiences might be left feeling alienated. But as Bonachela explains, his comparative detachment from the Australian dance scene at the time of his appointment as artistic director meant that he was not in a position to speculate about the inclinations of his soon-to-be audience. “I didn’t really know what Australian audiences or Australian dance lovers would find accessible,” he says. “It was just a real gut thing of challenging myself as an artist first… It was like, how can I keep pushing myself as an artist, which is partly why I took this job, and then just cross my fingers and hope that audiences will get it and enjoy it.” Trusting his instinct has paid off; after performances overseas and across Australia we unfold has received almost invariably positive reviews. “The reception has been out of this

world,” he enthuses. “It’s literally been overwhelming. But I can’t as an artist and a choreographer guess that that’s how people will react.”

dancers in this country. You have very open-minded audiences. So yes, we can do better.”

Despite his success with the company, Bonachela is not content to rest on his laurels. “I’m not relaxing for a minute,” he says. “The work that we do is very different to the work that the Sydney Dance Company did… so in a way audiences need to get used to what we’re doing. We’re in a good place, but certainly, you can never relax with the arts, and with dance in this country there’s a lot of work to do… I’m just one more in this country fighting for dance to come to a better place. You have incredible

WHAT: we unfold

SCORE BIG

ARE YOU THE NEXT DANNY ELFMAN? TRY YOUR LUCK IN TROPSCORE.

C U LT U R A L

An important element of every film is its soundtrack (even silence is soundtrack if intended), and each year we are awarded many fine examples (can you imagine Inception without its foreboding BAHM-BAHM-BAHMBAHM?). Max Tropscore recognises this and, for the third year now, celebrating the best in motion picture scoring. Musician and composers from across the country are invited to submit a three-minute score to accompany a short film that’s been produced by filmmaker David Hansen. The winner will go on to perform their score at Tropfest 2011 and have their song included on the Tropfest DVD, as well as scoring cash. You have until Thursday Jan 13 to get your entries in. Head to maxtv.com.au/tropscore for details.

CRINGE

WITH MANDY KOHLER Invest now in karaoke because when all the kids signing up to glee clubs in American high schools turn 21 no karaoke machine will be safe. With a penchant for all things retro they’ll hit Tuesday nights in a flurry of pastels calling dibs on karaoke classics that should by rights have died, like I’ve Never Been To Me and Brand New Key. Don’t be alarmed, so long as they stick to the sanctioned venues we can avoid widespread panic. Singing, like drinking, is only allowed in excess on weekends or through dedicated venues. Just as your neighbours wouldn’t tolerate you staggering down the street yelling to yourself in a drunken stupor at 3am on a Wednesday, if you strike up the SingStar past dinner time on a weekday, expect a knock on your door. Just as a sober person is rarely amused by the wailing and flailing of a drunk, the chances of finding an appreciative audience for your heartfelt butchering of Tiny Dancer is next to zero.

At this point I confess that not only have I played just about every singing game on the market, always on easy, always ’til late (but always on Saturdays), but I’m also a Glee fan. I’m not passionate enough to be called Gleek, more of a Gleedweeb, a Gleeb, if you will. However, there’s a dangerous product on the market set to escalate the situation – Glee for Wii. It sounds like a potty training strategy but it’s out and about to test the effectiveness of double glazed windows everywhere. Karaoke Revolution: Glee is to music as Play Doh is to carpet, but that won’t stop me. Whether it be X-Factor, karaoke, games, or glee clubs it seems like people are losing their shyness about belting out a tune in front of an audience contained of more than a rubber duckie. It occurs to me that this might be a defining characteristic of this decade, like jazz in the ’30s or drugs in the ’60s. One day in the future, when the name Beryl is hip again, you’ll look back and think about those crazy 2010s when everybody just

wanted to sing. It will be nice to be retrospectively quirky. I thought we were just going to be the generation who ruined everything with rules. Just don’t go getting possessive of your favourite tunes. There’s a story about Billie Holiday singing at a performance with Sarah Vaughan, who had a greater range than Holiday. Vaughan called up a song Holiday made famous (I Cried For You) to which Holiday whispered, “You done screwed up now, bitch. That’s my song.” That’s fair enough. What’s a little professional jealousy between legends? Alarmingly though I heard a similar comment from a friend when her standard karaoke tune was snapped up by another singer, “She did my song. That bitch does not know who she’s messing with.” All because of Like A Prayer. Glee explored the power of Madonna, maybe they should consider the power of Madonna to inspire the karaoke riots of 2010. That would not be quirky, that would be embarrassing, so please karaoke responsibly.

WHERE & WHEN: Playhouse, QPAC Thursday Nov 18 to Saturday Nov 27

THEATRE REVIEW

FURIOUS ANGELS Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts One man. Five characters. A tiny two-by-two-metre stage occupied solely by a chair. This is the world of Furious Angels. The tiny stage represents a lunatic asylum in the 1930s, on the verge of upgrading – or ought that to be stooping – to electro-shock therapy treatment with the arrival of a new machine. The one man is Daniel Mulvihill, who at various points is called upon to portray the sneering Dr Aintel, the statuesque and angelic nurse Lenore, utterly mad patient Dizzy, a new arrival in the form of the delicate Shakespeare-quoting poet Will – and Dan, the narrator, a skewed version of his own affable self. There’s a lot to like about Furious Angels – it’s daring in the extreme, to have one actor playing five roles with nowhere to hide and no one to bounce off. The subject matter is likewise daring, with the play delving into both human nature and the nature of good and evil. Mulvihill is magnificent, particularly with the roles he can really sink his teeth into – he’s clearly having fun with the overtly villainous Aintel, and with Dizzy’s manic delivery and boundless energy. The space of the stage is used well, and the stark lighting adds much to the feeling of isolation. However, it’s a little disappointing that young writer David Burton has leaned a little heavily on self-conscious usage of ‘shocking’ language and borrowed quotations so heavily from Shakespeare and, particularly, Poe to make his point rather than exploring and developing his own promising voice. Furious Angels is short and sharp and while it’s confronting, bleak theatre, it’s entertaining, powerful stuff all the same. Until Saturday Nov 20 BAZ McALISTER

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

RICHARD TOGNETTI SARAH GILES

THE LOOKING

GLASS

WITH HELEN STRINGER All my friends are struggling musicians with poorly groomed facial hair. While these night-dwellers are comfortable in the sweaty confines of poorly lit, badly ventilated live venues, they visibly blanch upon being offered the opportunity to peruse an art gallery. They’re occasionally swayed by the promise of free booze, but the fear breaking some unknown rule of gallery etiquette and being forcibly removed from the premise by the art police keeps them from regularly enjoying the many fine galleries of the River City.

ollowing on from recent collaborations with photographer Bill Henson and comedian Barry Humphries, the Australian Chamber Orchestra has paired up with British playwright Laura Wade to create Kreutzer vs Kreutzer. Described by director Sarah Giles as a “sequence of influences and retakes”, the production combines a theatrical tale by Tolstoy with musical arrangements by Beethoven and Janácek, to ask the fundamental questions of, ‘What is marriage? What is sex? What is love?’ With three intricate layers to Kreutzer vs Kreutzer, it is needless to say that the production is a little complicated. When German composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a violin sonata (Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47, ‘Kreutzer’) in 1803, it was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower, but after they fell out over a mutual love interest, the sonata was instead known as the Kreutzer Sonata. 86 years later, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy used Beethoven’s music as inspiration for his controversial novella, The Kreutzer Sonata. Understood to be a statement in support of sexual abstinence, Tolstoy’s short story is about a man who kills his adulterous wife and her violinist lover after their performance of the Kreutzer Sonata leads him to realise that they were having an affair. In 1923, the Czech composer Leoš Janácek used Tolstoy’s novella as a starting point for his own composition, String Quartet No. 1 but due to pressure of his own extra-marital relationships, Janácek sided with the adulterous wife of Tolstoy’s story rather than the cuckolded husband. As the ACO’s artistic director and leader Richard Tognetti explains, “Tolstoy’s obviously talking about himself and his own past and something that he’s quite ashamed about and Janácek on the other hand is very much the modern man of the modern, western world so it’s interesting how from 1890 to 20 years later, even though they lived just a few hundred kilometres from each other, the difference in attitude. “Janácek must have been expressing his own also desires because he

It’s an anxiety felt by many, spawned, no doubt, by a ridiculous notion that one must learn to appreciate art. In the spirit of community service, therefore, it’s time to spread the understanding of just a few simple rules of art gallery etiquette. Don’t kick the art. It seems like a pretty obvious directive, but having been removed from GoMA for accidentally dislodging several carefully placed brass pots with my foot in an innocent attempt to answer the question, “Is this giant mushroom cloud constructed out of tarnished brass cookware solid?”, it’s worth repeating. The answer, by the way, was yes, then slightly later, no.

TWO WORLDS

COLLIDE THE AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA HAS TEAMED UP WITH NOTABLE DIRECTORS AND ACTORS TO CREATE AN ORCHESTRATHEATRE HYBRID REVOLVING AROUND A WORK THAT BEETHOVEN, JANÁCEK, AND TOLSTOY ALL HAVE IN COMMON. MONICA CONNORS SPEAKS WITH ACO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR RICHARD TOGNETTI AND KREUTZER VS KREUTZER DIRECTOR SARAH GILES. was having a relationship and he had been for many years with a girl called Camilla who was much younger than him and I think with Tolstoy, he’s looking at love and wanting square in the eye and trying to get rid of it.” Though this year marks 100 years after Tolstoy’s death, the themes of jealousy, sexual intrigue, anger and love, which combine in the nefarious tale of Kreutzer vs Kreutzer, make it just as relevant to today’s audience. Despite Tolstoy’s dark story, Tognetti says he wanted to get involved in the project precisely because of the production’s three distinct components, the “Beethoven Sonata, which is one of the great works of music, but then Tolstoy using that piece and then Janácek reacting to Tolstoy’s hideous message and the AY RSD HU T RTS STA

three things all seem to point to an explosive, dramatic symphony.”

if anything, will help the ACO find a new younger audience.”

The production’s director, Sarah Giles feels that Tolstoy’s story is again being readdressed but with a “more sort of contemporary approach with Laura’s writing. That story of Tolstoy’s has affected writers and musicians and artists for generations”.

A younger audience for classical music is indeed something that Tognetti is keenly interested in. Now into his 21st year of leading the ACO, Tognetti admits that despite his many achievements, including being made one of Australia’s National Living Treasures in 1999, he would like to see Australians become more musically educated, adding “I don’t mean that we all just listen to a bit more music but that there’s a proper music education system in this country so that kids really understand what music is and how to listen to it because I do think that it helps the brain.

With British actor Samuel West, who lists a range of theatre, film, and television credits, as well as Australian actor and rising star Robin McLeavy (currently at cinemas in The Loved Ones) as the two performers cast in Kreutzer vs Kreutzer’s central roles, Giles says, “The whole project has the ability to be something really new and really different and really fresh and I think

“Yes, it is for pleasure and it is for entertainment and it is stimulating

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but the stimulation part is actually the way in which you connect thoughts together and I think it’s important to connect thoughts together in an intelligent and provocative and energized way and I don’t think we’ve even begun with music education in this country and so I’d love to see that happen.” Despite being called “the thinking woman’s André Rieu” by Barry Humphries, Tognetti has no patience for more popular versions of classical music such as Susan Boyle and Andre Rieu, adding “André Rieu is a musical rapist. He has great music whether it’s classical or folk and he just plays it really badly and he just lobotomises the audience, but I’m not denigrating the audience at all because there are some wonderful people who enjoy

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HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT1 (M) THURSDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2010

Never give an honest opinion at an exhibition opening. Regardless of whether or not images of copulating mythological beasts drawn in real animal blood are desirable additions to home decor, the show was “fantastic”. Loudly dismissing it as “derivative shit” is a bad – and potentially dangerous – idea, particularly if the artist has not been

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Face-stalked thoroughly enough for on-sight identification. Dress appropriately. If attending an independent gallery wear a ridiculous hat to cultivate the appearance of having attained a level of nonchalant sartorial irony previously unknown to mere mortals. Make sure a wellthumbed copy of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road is visibly tucked into your pocket; if anybody asks, pronounce the last name “Ker-rak”. It’s wrong, but said with enough confidence people are likely to think you know better. Never read the printed “artist explanation” prior to viewing the art. If it’s necessary to explain that the randomly dispersed washingmachine lint scattered on the floor is in fact an exploration of the inherently discriminatory nature of topography it’s probably safe to conclude that it’s also not very good. Read it after instead; nonsensical art-jargon is even funnier when an independent judgment has already been made. Galleries are not mausoleums, churches, synagogues, or mosques. It’s not necessary to speak in hushed tones, avoid eye contact, and feign the kind of respect reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries, or Bono. Art should be discussed, dissected, argued-over. Silence in an art gallery is indicative of the quality of art on show. Remember that there is no such thing as the art police. Nobody has the authority to dictate how – or even if – art should be appreciated. Provided no attempt is being made to pilfer, damage, disrupt, or offend, it’s actually impossible to break some antiquated, unspoken rule of etiquette that doesn’t really exist.

André Rieu. If you want good music there’s amazing music out there. I don’t know why you’d get stuck on André Rieu.” With Tognetti and the rest of the ACO at the helm, there’s no doubt Kreutzer vs Kreutzer is an example of what could easily be branded amazing music though you should go see and decide for yourself whether the combination of Beethoven, Janácek, and Tolstoy can dare you to dream a dream. Kreutzer vs Kreutzer will make its world premiere in Newcastle City Hall on Thursday before hitting Melbourne this weekend. WHAT: Kreutzer vs Kreutzer WHERE & WHEN: Concert Hall, QPAC Monday Nov 22

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EAT, PRAY, LOVE (M) WED 10.40, 6.15, 9.00PM

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

BIFF! WHAM! KAPOW! THE THRUM OF PROJECTORS DIES DOWN, AND BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FALLS SILENT FOR ANOTHER YEAR – BUT NOT BEFORE IT BROUGHT US SOME OF THE BEST FILMS EMERGING ALL AROUND THE WORLD. BAZ MCALISTER AND SAM HOBSON LOOK BACK AT THE PROGRAM. BAZ MCALISTER I never thought in all my born days I’d see a film where a malevolent car tyre with psychokinetic powers went on a rampage through the American desert, exploding punters’ heads and generally causing havoc. But then along rolled Rubber. It’s not just well-made, it’s not just clever – it’s an ode in filmic form to one of the most important aspects in cinema. Namely, the fact that everything we’re seeing on screen happens for absolutely no reason.

There were some films at this year’s Brisbane International Film Festival you’d have every reason to adore. Like Rubber, some of the finest came out of the Shock Corridor programme – BIFF’s genre graveyard out of which stagger the rotting corpses of fine fantasy and horror films. Rare Exports brought some Christmas cheer, a gripping Finnish story about a little posse of reindeer hunters who stumble upon the real Santa Claus – a demonic monster frozen in a block of ice in the heart of

a mountain. Modern Aussie Western Red Hill, starring True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten, was well received by audiences at the Palace Centro on Friday night – but not as well received as Kwanten himself who was mobbed by hordes of ‘Truebies’. Opening night film Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D allowed Queenslanders to witness the state’s secondbiggest pest (behind Bligh) in full hop-out-of-the-screen glory. In fact, Queensland had a strong showing among the programme, with the Local Heroes section going off. Mark Hartley, filmmaker behind Not Quite Hollywood, dropped in to introduce his new film Machete Maidens Unleashed!, a Brisbane-based production and a similarly hugely fun look at the exploitation film industry in the Philippines. Local band SixFtHick dazzled in their own European tour doco. Louise Alston shared Jucy with the world, the follow-up to All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, putting on an additional screening due to demand. And the man behind giant croc flick Black Water gave us The Reef, where he indulged his penchant for water and huge teeth by having a shark bother his actors as they swim to shore after a boating mishap. A stunning debut feature for Aussie director Ben C Lucas, with a talented young cast, Wasted On The Young is a tale of two step-brothers – one a nerd, one a jock – at a classy school for rich folks. When they both fall for

RUBBER

the same girl, things get out of hand and everyone’s life starts spinning out of control. Similarly hard-hitting is Josh Fox’s remarkable documentary GasLand, which chronicles the meteoric rise of the environmentally dodgy practice of ‘fraccing’, or hydraulic fracturing, to mine natural gas across the USA. The film put the cat amongst the pigeons in Queensland, with the Greens’ Bob Brown this week falling in behind Fox in challenging the mining companies about the impact of fraccing. Brit director Gareth Edwards stopped in to introduce Brisbane personally to Monsters, his shot-for-a-shoestring film about a photojournalist and his boss’s daughter just trying to make it to the USA from Mexico. In Edwards’ imagination, this is more frightening than having to get past the jumpy border guards at Juarez – no, the pair have to make it through hundreds of miles of ‘infected zone’, where huge alien beasts have set up home. But a real standout of the festival is the performance of young newcomer Jennifer Lawrance as Ree in Winter’s Bone, a ‘rural-noir’ tale where a 17-year-old girl has to delve into the world of the hillbilly drug trade in search of her deadbeat, no-good father. Stately, gripping and deep, it’s not an easy film but it’s rewarding. There was just too much else going on to cram into these short paragraphs but suffice it to say that incoming director Richard Moore, taking over from Anne Demy-Geroe, pulled together an excellent and diverse programme in his first year with a mix of genres, a good selection of crowd-pleasers, and enough weird and wonderful films that you just can’t see anywhere else but which need to be seen.

SAM HOBSON The Gallaghers, the UK’s most dysfunctional family, return along with assorted colourful characters on the Chatsworth Estate. Frank, Manchester’s favourite son and world’s worst father, embarks on a series of adventures with his remarkably well-balanced children Fiona, Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam – and not forgetting the twins. With more hilarious tales of how one extraordinary family goes about its normal everyday life, Shameless: Series Two is packed with sex, love and scams: but the most important thing is – FAMILY. We’ve got a well serious Shameless prizepack to giveaway, including a copy of Shameless: Series One and Shameless: Series Two on DVD and an iPad! For your chance to win, email shameless@ streetpress.com.au with the answer to this question: which member of the cast is married in real life to costar James McAvoy? Five runner-ups will win a copy each of both Shameless: Series One and Shameless: Series Two.

From the Tuscan tones of the new Kiarostami, to the killer coldness of Clooney’s latest, to the lens-flared mumblecore of Sophia Coppola’s Somewhere, right down to the local, and encore-screened Jucy; a Clerks-esque ‘womantic’ comedy set right here in Brisbane, the BIFF this year had it covered. Around these hits, too, sat many, quiet gems; films, unfortunately, you won’t be seeing for a while – so here are some festival highlights from just outside of the limelight, to whet and to pique for whenever they may be back: In 2006, French director Kim Chapiron’s debut feature made something of a bloody splash. Sheitan was a taut, gory little genre film; a vehicle drunkly steered by a wide-eyed, hillbilly Vincent Cassel, and peppered with delightful directorial flourishes which boded promisingly for the burgeoning auteur. This year’s Dog Pound is his long-awaited sophomore effort, and, in most respects, it doesn’t disappoint. Sticking with the genrefilm – a prison flick this time ’round, instead of a slasher – Chapiron capitalises on a market starved for the jail-story. Like successes Un prophète and Jailbait before it, Dog Pound trends towards realism, and psychodrama. Set in a juvenile correction centre, Chapiron’s film excels in its depictions of violence; his directorial instincts are sharp, as fights are fluid, and punches pack flinging viscera, but the film slips on subtext and subtlety. Its frightening, oppressive tone, however, is worth seeing the film for alone. The Belgian TV-series A Town Called Panic this year got the featurelength treatment, and sits alongside Jacques Tati’s The Illusionist as one of the BIFF’s few animated features.

HOWL

Animated entirely in stop-motion puppetoon, Panic’s a revisionist slapstick painted in the sweet strokes of comedy kings the Marx Brothers, with daubs of Keaton’s sense of mounting calamity, and Chaplin’s penchant for pathos. The surreality afforded the film by the animation style returns its humour to a place of purity, and innocence, and the film’s marked with a keen sense of adventure and the fantastic, which it explores with a rapturous, Rupert Bear-like invention. From comedy, then, to Marwencol: a documentary about Mark Hogancamp, a man who, after being beaten into a coma which resulted in “all the memories being kicked out of his head” builds a one-sixth scale WWII-era city in which he lives out a safe and surrogate life, constructing a beautiful, imaginative and ultimately artistic life out of his relationship with a village of anthropomorphised dolls. The film itself is paced fantastically, revealing and exploring its subject with all the measure of a great novel, and painting a bewitching portrait of not only Hogancamp in recovery, but too of the mind, and of our basic desire for contact, and connectivity. Edifying this, Blue Valentine is a bleak, affronting, and heartbreaking film about a couple in the throes of a long breakup. Character-actor leads Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling play a couple, who, much like in its bloated, botoxed Hollywood cousin The Break Up, we learn of in snippets of then and now; of happiness juxtaposed against scenes of devastating fights, and irrevocable admissions. Despite the odd, indie contrivance, it’s a strong film destined for a wider release, and made with a sensibility that deserves far more dominance than it currently has in the otherwise tired genre. On relationships still, comes the festival’s star acquisition, Howl. Part lavish ode to Ginsberg’s thrilling poem, part court-room drama surrounding its censorship trial, and, at its transcendental best, a deep, and academic insight into artistic temperament, existence, and the creative process, Howl is a monolithic achievement amongst biopics, and a thronging, aching must for all literature buffs, and aspiring writers. Paired with Noe’s Enter The Void, Howl ranks as the BIFF’s strongest showing. Lastly, then, though there’re many more than space here allows, comes another documentary about a man, who disappointingly, featured none in Howl. Author William S. Burroughs - famous for Junkie, Queer, and the inimitable Naked Lunch - has always appeared something of a cool radical; a counterculture, pre-Ballard pop-pervert, thought of in fleeting amalgam with the likes of Warhol, and Hunter S. Thompson, and romanticised through vague images of Peter Weller’s noir-detective version of him in the Cronenberg film of the latter novel. Some know him through Ginsberg, and Kerouac, and their synonymity with the Beat

Generation, as a progenitor to the hippie, punk, and queer movements, but this film wonderfully unwinds and unpeels all of that. William S. Burroughs: A Man Within very much speaks in adianoeta to Burroughs as a painfully introverted man. We realise what feeds his internal parasite was not rotten cool, nor fatalism, nor his love for anarchy. No, it was love, and it was lonliness. Come back soon, BIFF.

THEATRE REVIEW

WEST SIDE STORY Lyric Theatre, QPAC It’s easy to attribute the success of revamped stage classics solely to the strength of the original material. Joey McKneely’s production of West Side Story, however, is a reenergised take on the original that makes no gratuitous attempt to significantly deviate from the source. And it’s a good thing too: inarguably one of the greatest Broadway musicals, West Side Story deserves to be treated with this kind of respect. A loose transposition of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet this story of forbidden adolescent love is set against a post-War 1950s New York City struggling with identity, racism, and poverty. Two warring street gangs - one Puerto Rican, one white American - engage in a futile battle for worthless territory that ends in inevitable catastrophe. In McKneely’s production the love story between the desperate Tony and the intolerably naïve Maria almost takes second stage to the larger narratives, which is a relief, considering that for modern audiences Maria’s doe-eyed uselessness is far from endearing. It’s little wonder that Anita the feisty Puerto Rican steals attention the moment she steps on stage. Whilst the lead actors make full use of the vocal materials at hand - with thankfully few pitchy moments - in West Side Story the dance is the true star. Every revival production can be judged according to how well they pull off the Cool dance, and this one is effortlessly entertaining. With every movement synchronised to the micro-second, the pent-up, testosterone filled aggression of these frustrated teenagers is palpable. West Side Story has endured not only because of the unparalleled quality of the script and score but because productions such as this recognise the hard-hitting material has remained relevant; whereas Tony and Maria’s relationship has dated beyond salvage the battle between the Jets and the Sharks and the complexities that feud encompasses are as raw and familiar as ever. Until Sunday Dec 5 HELEN STRINGER

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

SMILING ASSASSIN VETERAN BRITISH WRITER AND DIRECTOR JONATHAN LYNN TALKS TO BAZ MCALISTER ABOUT THE DELICATE ACT OF MAKING A HITMAN AND A THIEF LIKEABLE, RELATABLE, AND ABOVE ALL FUNNY, WHILE MAKING WILD TARGET.

id you ever stop to think about how many films there are that centre around contract killers? It’s a nightmarish line of work to be in, sure, but it’s not without its mystique. Fascinating characters like la femme Nikita, Leon, Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction, Ghost Dog, Mr and Mrs Smith, Vincent in Collateral, Jason Bourne, Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank – they may have killed more people than cancer, but we root for them, want to get close to them and want to know what makes them tick. Veteran British director Jonathan Lynn’s new film Wild Target follows one such character, a hitman with myriad quirks named Victor, played by Bill Nighy. Victor is meticulous, professional, solitary – but also a romantic. When he’s assigned to kill beautiful yet frustrating thief Rose (Emily Blunt) he just can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. Lynn acknowledges the prevalence of assassins in the film world, and says it’s a trope that dates back a long way. “I suppose one of the earliest films to feature a killer was Kind Hearts And Coronets... that’s about a multiple murderer,” says the 67-year-old

Englishman. “And I made a film with a killer in one of the two lead roles, The Whole Nine Yards, with Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. So of course it’s common in cinema.” The biggest challenge for a filmmaker, Lynn says, is taking on the job of putting a killer in front of an audience and saying ‘here, root for this guy’. And, for that matter, pulling off the same trick with Blunt’s kleptomaniac. “One is a murderer, the other is a thief – how do you make the audience care for them? The answer is, I think, you make them quirky and interesting and funny and you cast two extremely likeable actors. “Also, in movies, there’s a moral relativity. Why do you root for Marlon Brando in The Godfather? They’re in the Mob, they’re terrible people. The answer is they’re not as terrible as the other Mob family! They’re the good guys in this context. So in my film, Victor may be a killer but he’s not a horrible, sadistic killer like (his rival) Dixon (played by Martin Freeman). And also we see that he doesn’t really want to be a killer at all! It’s the family business, he’s grown up in it. And he can’t bring himself to kill Rose, she’s too lovely. So suddenly we’re on his side in a big way.”

Indeed, Victor has been thrust into the family business rather against his will. Even his ageing wheelchair-bound mother is handy with a shotgun. Lynn says that being pushed into something out of a sense of duty is one of the things that will allow viewers to relate to victor. The other, he says, is the fact that everyone has a murderous rage somewhere inside them. “When my son was a little boy there was a phase in bringing up children where you didn’t give them toy guns,” he recalls, “and so my wife and I, being a bit politically correct in those days, didn’t give him a toy gun. Well, it made no difference. He basically bit his breakfast toast into a gun shape! That’s there in all of us. Alfred Hitchcock said that drama is life with the dull bits cut out. Obviously most people don’t want to be killers, really, but that’s why you go to the movies – so you can vicariously experience that feeling.” Wild Target is based on a French film, Cible émouvante, made in the early 1990s. It took producer Martin Pope the best part of 20 years to win the rights to the remake and when he got them he called in Lynn, whose pedigree stretches back many years – he co-created legendary TV sitcoms Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister,

wrote for series like On The Buses, and directed successful feature film comedies like Clue, Nuns On The Run, and My Cousin Vinny. The first thing Lynn did when he got the Wild Target job was focus on the funny side. “The French film Cible émouvante was not as funny as Wild Target,” he says. “It had a lot of very funny things in it, but I thought the casting didn’t work as well. The woman who plays Rose was not someone audiences fall in love with instantly, in the way they fall in love with Emily Blunt. That made the film very different and a little darker in tone. I’d say our film is funnier – but we’ve still got a slightly French feel to it. It was a very good

film and I remade it because I liked it, I could see ways we could make it even better.” Lynn may not have directed a feature for some years now –since 2003’s The Fighting Temptations – but he’s been busy. A couple of times he’s been close to doing an independent film but, he says, “the money fell out” every time. “It’s a tricky business, making independent movies. There’s not a lot of money around.” However outside the world of film he’s close to the end of a book he’s been working on, and he’s had some success in London’s West End with a

familiar franchise. “I wrote a Yes Prime Minister play, with [co-creator] Tony Jay, which is currently running in the West End. We have updated things, it’s bang up-to-the-minute politically. We would love to bring the play to Australia, sometime – the series was very popular in Australia, originally. But really I’ve no preference what I do, though. I like any kind of writing. It’s all fun. I’m very lucky not to have had a ‘proper job’ since I was 21.” WHAT: Wild Target WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

WWW.DUEDATEMOVIE.COM.AU

Strong coarse language, drug use and sexual references

IN CINEMAS NOV 25 39

ISSUE 1502 - WEDNESDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2010

TEXAS TEA NAME AND ROLE IN BAND: Kate – Vocals/Guitar/Tambourine-on-a-stand contraption thingy

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER? Five years.

HOW DID YOU MEET?

My old band used to play with Vegas Kings [bandmate Ben Dougherty’s other outﬁt] quite a bit back in the day.

YOU’RE ON TOUR IN THE VAN – WHICH BAND OR ARTIST IS GOING TO KEEP THE MOST PEOPLE HAPPY IF WE THROW THEM ON THE STEREO? Smog

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE THE BAND’S DESTINY HOW BIG WOULD YOU GET – WOULD YOU CONQUER THE WORLD OR BE HAPPY TO BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND?

Somewhere in between I guess. I’d like to be a medium sized fish that could go from small pond to small pond. A flying fish could do it. Yes.... I’d be a flying fish.

WHICH BRISBANE BANDS BEFORE YOU HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION (MUSICALLY OR OTHERWISE)? The Go-Betweens. The Hekawis. Strutter. Kev Carmody.

WHICH PUB OR BAR IN BRISBANE ARE WE MOST LIKELY TO FIND YOU FREQUENTING?

The Troubadour... not for long though... SAD FACE.

WHAT REALITY TV SHOW WOULD YOU ENTER AS A BAND AND WHY?

Ladette To Lady (Ben needs to work on his manners)

IF YOUR BAND HAD TO PLAY A TEAM SPORT INSTEAD OF BEING MUSICIANS WHICH SPORT WOULD IT BE AND WHY WOULD YOU BE TRIUMPHANT? Equestrian. Horses’n’shit. It’s obvious.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE FOR THE BAND IN THE SHORT TERM?

X&Y Bar on Friday Nov 19, The Troubadour farewell on the Sunday Nov 21, then oﬀ to tour France for a couple of weeks. Oui! PHOTO BY BRAD MARSELLOS

TOUR GUIDE

GIG OF THE WEEK

INTERNATIONAL

LYDIA: Rosie’s Nov 18, Billy’s Beach House Nov 19 KAKI KING: The Zoo Nov 20 SMOKIE: QPAC Concert Hall Nov 21 FEMI KUTI AND THE POSITIVE FORCE: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 23 STICK TO YOUR GUNS: Boys and Girls Nov 25, The Fort Nov 26 METRONOMY: Woodland Nov 27 THAT 1 GUY: The Brewery Nov 29, Villa Noosa Dec 1, Miami Tavern Dec 2, Globe Theatre Dec 4 THE LEMONHEADS: The Zoo Nov 30 SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS: Great Northern Dec 1, The Tivoli Dec 5 REEL BIG FISH, THE AQUABATS: The Tivoli Dec 2 ARCHITECTS, COMEBACK KID, THIS IS HELL: The Hi-Fi Dec 3 KORN: The Tivoli Dec 3 LINKIN PARK: BEC Dec 3 GOTAN PROJECT: Brisbane Powerhouse Dec 4 FOZZY: The Hi-Fi Dec 5 MUSE: BEC Dec 5 & 6 BROADCAST: The Hi-Fi Dec 6 U2, JAY-Z: Suncorp Stadium Dec 8 & 9 GIRLS: The Zoo Dec 9 JEFF MARTIN: Coolangatta Hotel Dec 9, The Hi-Fi Dec 10 THE FALL: The Hi-Fi Dec 9 TUJIKO NORIKO: Judith Wright Ctr Dec 9 HOT WATER MUSIC, BOUNCING SOULS: The Zoo Dec 11 BLONDIE, THE PRETENDERS: Sirromet Wines Dec 12 REVEREND HORTON HEAT: The Hi-Fi Dec 12 EAGLES: BEC Dec 13 & 14 JACK JOHNSON, TEGAN AND SARA: Riverstage Dec 13 BON JOVI: Suncorp Stadium Dec 14 EL GUINCHO: The Club House Dec 16 LITTLE DRAGON: Woodland Dec 18 GORILLAZ: BEC Dec 19 BOBBY BROWN, JOHNNY GILL, RALPH TRESVANT: The Hi-Fi Dec 21 BUILT TO SPILL: The Zoo Jan 2 FLYING LOTUS: The Tivoli Jan 2 FUTURE OF THE LEFT: The Zoo Jan 3 DARKEST HOUR: The Hi-Fi Jan 4 MYSTERY JETS: The Hi-Fi Jan 6 THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: The Zoo Jan 9 EMMURE: The Fort Jan 12, Club 299 Jan 12 MOS DEF: The Tivoli Jan 13 HEALTH: Woodland Jan 15 JUDY COLLINS: QPAC Jan 15, The Events Ctr Jan 16 BEN JORGENSEN: Rosie’s Jan 20 ROYAL CROWN REVUE: The Hi-Fi Jan 20 RATATAT: The Hi-Fi Jan 24 TOOL: BEC Jan 24 LA DISPUTE: The Zoo Jan 25, Burst City Jan 26 OWEN PALLETT: Old QLD Museum Jan 25 THE BLACK KEYS: The Tivoli Jan 25 BROOKE FRASER: The Tivoli Jan 27 & 28 A DAY ON THE GREEN - TRAIN: Sirromet Wines Jan 30 SUFJAN STEVENS: The Tivoli Jan 30 KENNY ROGERS: Brisbane Convention Ctr Feb 1 THE UNTHANKS: Brisbane Powerhouse Feb 1 JOE COCKER: Royal Pines Golf Course Feb 4 MISFITS: The Hi-Fi Feb 6 STING: Riverstage Feb 7 CARIBOU, FOUR TET: The Zoo Feb 15 SWERVEDRIVER: The Zoo Feb 16 THE BOOKS: The Zoo Feb 19 TORO Y MOI: Woodland Feb 24 GANG OF FOUR: The Hi-Fi Feb 25 RIHANNA: BEC Feb 25 MARTHA WAINWRIGHT: A & I Hall Feb 26, The Tivoli Mar 1

THE GIN CLUB

THE HI-FI SATURDAY NOV 20 The normally fluctuating numbers of local folk-team The Gin Club have steadied in recent times, with the return of prodigal utility Ola Karlsson from suspension (in Sweden) finding the Ginners (as their fans call them) as close to full-strength for the Choppin’ Wood Australia Tour as you’re ever likely to find them. Which is fortunate, for this weekend they’re taking on powerful locals The Stress Of Leisure and underrated Sydney upstarts The Maladies in a local clash at The Hi-Fi, in what is shaping as an important engagement for all involved. The Ginners are winding down with a boat cruise on Sunday evening (The Brisbane Star departs from Mowbray Park, trip from 5pm – 8.30pm) and if you’re lucky you might surprise them somewhere else later on that night. An important round of home fi xtures for the much-loved Ginners after a slew of away matches, here’s hoping that they’re up or it...

Powderfinger @ Brisbane Riverstage by Stephen Booth

PRESENTS GARETH LIDDIARD: Old Museum Nov 19 THE GIN CLUB: The Hi-Fi Nov 20 OPEN ARMS FESTIVAL: Coﬀs Harbour Nov 20 YOU AM I: The Hi-Fi Nov 27 THE LEMONHEADS: The Zoo Nov 30 KORN : The Tivoli Dec 3 FOZZY: The Hi-Fi Dec 5 THE FALL: The Hi-Fi Dec 9 GIRLS: The Zoo Dec 9 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Port Macquarie Dec 11-12 BUILT TO SPILL: The Zoo Jan 2 FUTURE OF THE LEFT: The Zoo Jan 3 THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: Jan 11 OWEN PALLETT: Old Museum Jan 25 CARIBOU & FOUR TET: The Zoo Feb 15 SWERVEDRIVER: The Zoo Feb 16 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS: Brisbane Riverstage Mar 4 WAVVES: The Zoo Mar 8 THE HOLD STEADY: The Zoo Mar 9 THE CLEAN: The Zoo Mar 10 BLUESFEST 2011: Byron Bay Apr 21-25 KYUSS LIVES: Coolangatta Hotel May 4, The Tivoli May 6

FAREWELL TO THE FINGER We already reviewed their Sunsets Tour a few weeks back, but couldn’t resist one ﬁnal visual farewell to Queensland’s most successful band, as they said goodbye to thousands of their devoted fans at the Brisbane Riverstage on the weekend, closing the curtain on an illustrious career. They shall be sorely missed...

CROWDED HOUSE, OH MERCY

BRISBANE CONVENTION CENTRE: 09.11.10

The inoﬀensive indie pop of Oh Mercy seems almost tailor made for this kind of occasion. Pleasant, but not too exciting, they aren’t a band anyone could complain about and are unlikely to take the spotlight from the headline act. A backhanded compliment, perhaps, but with well-constructed songs like Keith St and Lay Everything On Me they could well have a smash hit of their own some time soon. “We won the Best Adult Contemporary Act [ARIA], whatever the fuck that means,” Neil Finn quips halfway through tonight’s show, and that award speaks volumes about the perception of Crowded House in 2010. While they open with the pop leaning Saturday Sun, it doesn’t take long before their experimental, psychedelic and generally loud and raw spirit ﬂourishes. World Where You Live opens with Finn

playing a psyched-out lead break while Don’t Stop Now sounds utterly ferocious in its delivery. When the band launch into Private Universe it’s obvious it too will benefit from a creative re-interpretation; Mark Hart’s lap steel and Matt Sherrod’s tribal drumming building and dropping intensity until the stage is almost at a complete hush. It’s not all solos and swagger; the inevitable sing-a-longs are a huge part of Fall At Your Feet and Four Seasons In One Day while Finn takes to the keys for a gorgeous solo rendition of Split Enz’s Message To My Girl. While their wide-stretching appeal may make them easy targets for the ‘Adult Contemporary’ tag, it simply feels wrong to be sitting down watching a set pumping with such vivacity in this sterile setting. When the hard rocking Whispers And Moans kicks in, we want to dance and not being allowed to is frustrating for both punter and performer – the latter clearly looking to the audience for energy to work off. When a handful of punters shuffle forward during Distant Sun, the band are so gobsmacked they lose their place in the song. Thankfully more people follow

suit and by the time Locked Out opens the encore a small mosh pit has formed and the band lift into a whole new gear. The banter onstage – particularly between Finn and bassist Nick Seymour – is highly entertaining throughout tonight. Finn is quick to quick to counter gushing praise from the dedicated legion in front of him with typically hilarious depreciation, Joel Monaghan’s exploits are mentioned and classic rock show clichés are rolled out and ridiculed. They’re musically humorous too; Finn coaxes Seymour into an impromptu rendition of the Velvet Underground’s Pale Blue Eyes, which starts horribly but ends up stunning, Seymour compliments a woman’s dress which itself turns into the subject of an off-the-cuff song and a bizarre boogie-woogie interlude during Better Be Home Soon catches many off guard. Tonight Crowded House showed Brisbane once again that they are an incredible rock band, hopefully next time they’re in town we can treat them like one. DAN CONDON

EP LAUNCH

with

BANG BANG BOSS KELLY OBLITERATI HOTEL MOTEL FRI 26 NOVEMBER 8PM THE ZOO $10+bf oztix.com.au

TOUR GUIDE

Then, as curtain draws, the crowd cheer and The Manic Street Preachers appear. They stride on stage as you would expect such an experienced and talented band should, before launching into the aptly titled You Love Us. It is clear from the ‘sold out’ stickers at the entrance, the frantic audience reaction, the air of enthusiasm and revolt that the above statement is irrevocably true and we’re all in for a little bit of special tonight.

Vegas Kings @ The Troubadour by Silvana Macarone

ROXY MUSIC: Riverstage Mar 1 KE$HA: Riverstage Mar 3 JOANNA NEWSOM: The Tivoli Mar 4 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS: Riverstage Mar 4 OS MUTANTES: The Tivoli Mar 8 WAVVES: The Zoo Mar 8 THE HOLD STEADY: The Zoo Mar 9 BEST COAST: Woodland Mar 10 THE CLEAN: The Zoo Mar 10 SWANS: The Hi-Fi Mar 11 NEIL DIAMOND: BEC Mar 21 & 23 URIAH HEEP: The Tivoli Mar 31 GOOD CHARLOTTE: BEC Apr 8 DISTURBED: BEC Apr 30 KYUSS LIVES: Coolangatta Hotel May 4, The Tivoli May 6 KATY PERRY: BEC May 5 JOE BONAMASSA: The Tivoli May 21

Then with a brief hello James Dean Bradfield kicks into Your Love Alone. The audience is loving every second so far and as the band roll through Motorcycle Emptiness and Roses In Th e Hospital the exhilaration swells. Nicky Wire seems comfortable on stage and has this time resisted the urge to cross dress to do so, instead opting for a collection of stuffed animals throned on his amp. Now seems like a good a time as any then, with the crowd suitably receptive, to properly say hello as the trio blow out Australia. The guitars are loud and crisp, the vocals clear and authoritative as this is a band that have played sold out gigs to tens of thousands of people and it suddenly becomes a great, unavoidable shame they’re here actually couped up here in the relatively small confi nes of The Hi Fi.

NATIONAL

THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS: The Hi-Fi Nov 17, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 18, Great Northern Nov 19, Spotted Cow Nov 20 HOLLY THROSBY: The Troubadour Nov 18, Soundlounge Nov 19, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 20 MIAMI HORROR: Globe Theatre Nov 18 PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY: Beach Hotel Nov 18, The Hi-Fi Nov 19 DRAPHT: The Tempo Hotel Nov 19 GARETH LIDDIARD: Old QLD Museum Nov 19 GRAFTON PRIMARY: The Zoo Nov 19 SUGAR ARMY: The Troubadour Nov 19 PEABODY: Ric’s Nov 20 CUSTOM KINGS: Bon Amici Nov 25, Old QLD Museum Nov 26 KASEY CHAMBERS: QPAC Nov 25, Caloundra RSL Nov 26, Twin Towns Nov 27, Empire Theatre Nov 28 THE CHURCH: Judith Wright Ctr Nov 25, Joe’s Waterhole Nov 26, Judith Wright Ctr Nov 27 MY DISCO: The Zoo Nov 27 YOU AM I: The Hi-Fi Nov 27 MICK TURNER: The Hi-Fi Nov 28 PAUL KELLY: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 30 – Dec 3 BONJAH: The Beach Hotel Dec 3, Club Envy Dec 4, Noosa Surf Club Dec 5 THE JEZABELS: Spotted Cow Dec 2, Great Northern Dec 3, The Zoo Dec 5 THE VASCO ERA: The Club House Dec 3 SALLY SELTMANN: The Zoo Dec 4, Great Northern Dec 5 JONATHAN BOULET: Alhambra Lounge Dec 9 JEBEDIAH: The Zoo Dec 10 HOODOO GURUS: Twin Towns Dec 10, The Hi-Fi Dec 11, Redlands Sports Club Dec 12 BELLES WILL RING: The Club House Dec 11 STRAIGHT ARROWS: The Zoo Dec 16, Woodland Dec 17 THE FUMES: Coolangatta Hotel Dec 16, Joe’s Waterhole Dec 17, Great Northern Dec 18 THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Great Northern Jan 12 & 13, Coolangatta Hotel Jan 14, The HiFi Jan 15, Kings Beach Tavern Jan 16 THE WHITLAMS: QPAC Jan 21 A DAY ON THE GREEN – INXS, THE BABY ANIMALS: Sirromet Wines Jan 30

FESTIVALS

OPEN ARMS FESTIVAL: Coffs Harbour Showgrounds Nov 20 THAT FESTIVAL: Cabarita Beach Nov 20 MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mullumbimby Nov 25 – 28 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Dec 10 & 11 NO SLEEP TIL BRISBANE: RNA Showgrounds Dec 19 WOODFORD FOLK FESTIVAL: Woodfordia Dec 27 – Jan 1 NO YEARS FESTIVAL: Brisbane Powerhouse Dec 31 SUNSET SOUNDS: Botanic Gardens and Riverstage Jan 5 and 6

VEGAS KINGS, NEGATIVE CREEP, NARWHALS, GEESE THE TROUBADOUR: 13.11.10

Solemnly and somewhat ironically, Geese are also here to celebrate their end of days. Steady beat patterns, eclectic timing and emotive vocalisations carry through short songs and a limited set, this fi ne start to the proceedings projecting enough imagination to soothe an existing migraine. Surf rock instrumentalists Narwhals display some familiar faces. A culmination of many of Brisbane’s past and present acts, these fl annel-clad locals emerge to run through some interesting bounce-inducing compositions. The flexi floor of the venue getting its fi rst taste of the action as the refi ned musical ability of this band presents the calm before the storm. Negative Creep (aka Violent Soho) take the stage half-naked and fi lled with Nirvana cover goodness. One man and his solo mosh pit launches on cue with each classic. The band’s namesake, Dive and Milk It annihilate any desire to leave the now shifting floor. With the atmosphere dripping, the Mansfield four rip through their set to the crescendo of Aneurysm– leaving a dense thirsty crowd primed for the fi nal farewell. “I’ll drink any shot that’s put in front of me tonight” Vegas Kings’ Pete Collins declares, while his Mere Noise compadre Ben Dougherty assumes, “I thought there would be more people at the last Powderfi nger show – it is truly a sad day.” A few of the fi rst shots fi red Good Soldier, It’s Alright and I Got This Thing challenge the strength of the venue. People swarm and stomp their way through a masterful set of added songs – the heat hears one speaker drop twice, and as is tradition, the swelter continues to escalate. Further straights are delivered and glasses sweetly raised to the devastating end of The Troubadour, the presence of Collins’ parents and the trio’s last hurrah. Instructed to act like they left the stage and returned “Cos you wanted us to”, the crowd chant voluntary repetitions of “more” to assist in the scene concocted. The encore initiates an equipment-crushing stage invasion before the last notes echo from one guitar hitting the ceiling above the raucous companions of the now legendary locals. KENADA QUINLAN

THE CHARALTANS, DEEP SEA ARCADE THE HI-FI: 10.11.10

As the hopes and expectations grow, so too does the audience as Sydney quintet Deep Sea Arcade emerge silently from the right. And with a bass-driven opener the synth grooves of the band seem to entice people in from the unwelcoming mid-week street as the venue slowly fi lls. Frontman Nick McKenzie does a great job embodying all that was Manchester 1990 as he struts with swagger and reassuredly cocky pomp. The performance is full of energy and bravado, reflecting their youthful status. There is a good vibe emitting from the band at this point, which only helps to justify the hype surrounding their promising future. With the fledglings taking fl ight for the future, the stage is now appropriately empty and the auditorium

significantly full for us to take a brief step back and welcome The Charlatans back to Brisbane after a two-year absence. Fresh from celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band, the Manchester five-piece have lasted tenfold what they expected. They seem happy to be here and immediately launch into the stirring Th en. The audience are all smiles as if greeting an old friend. As are the band. Lead charlatan Tim Burgess appears with some unmistakably dyed, “What do you mean grow old gracefully? Fuck that, I’m a rock star” hair but still encapsulates all we know and love. He plays to the crowd constantly throughout as all other members just get on with their duties, taking a back seat. He writhes through Black N’ Blue Eyes, Weirdo and ups the tempo for Madchester fl ashback track Smash Th e System. It’s clear then about five or six tracks in that the crowd are limbered up enough for the veterans to drop One To Another and Your Pure Soul back-to-back. Th is double-header reflects perfectly the decidedly introspective retrospective ambience of the night. The past sits beside present unobtrusively whilst all the while being comfortably linked by the very fibre of the band themselves. It’s obviously impossible to go for two decades and not have an impressive back catalogue to draw from. So when Burgess & Co play the delightful Oh Vanite, new tracks My Foolish Pride and Intimacy beside the wonderful Misbegotten and Tellin’ Stories everybody is left suitably full. It’s a veritable feast of days gone by and has everybody jumping, smiling, singing and even reminiscing. But then just when you thought it couldn’t get any better they hit you with Th e Only One I Know. The most recognisable of their tracks has every single person in the venue going nuts, each individual capturing and savouring the moment. After the suitably timed Th is Is Th e End the band depart the stage only to return (surprise, surprise) two minutes later for dessert. By now the spectators seem in complete symbiotic unison with the band as they fi nish on Love Is Ending ensuring that all involved go home happy and in some kind of euphoric reverie. BARRIE MORGAN

THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS, DEAD ACTORS CLUB THE HI-FI: 13.11.10

Melbourne based indie pop rockers Dead Actors Club start the proceedings at The Hi-Fi on a busy Saturday night with a confident and talented set. As an opening gig to their summer tour the five strong band, with their sound fi rmly rooted in the synthlaiden 80s, propel the audience into the stratosphere in preparation for the headliners. As a support act they are immense as they hit the right balance of energy, innovation and contagious melodies. Handclaps are accompanied with three-minute intros and as the fresh, raw and lively tracks pass by one can’t help feel this isn’t the last we’ll see of these guys. As tight and accomplished as you’ll fi nd in a relatively new act. With their job done then the Dead Actors Club slump off stage in their black T’s as a lengthy 20minute changeover ensues. A curtain is drawn across the stage which only helps build the anticipation and the excitement is so palpable you can almost taste it.

The big fi sh, small pond impression becomes even more apparent when they play You Stole Th e Sun From My Heart, This Is Yesterday, Everything Must Go and If You Tolerate This Th en Your Children Will Be Next. With the feel now of a kind of secret gig in the backstreets of some unknown town the Welsh rockers treat us to all their hits as well as some new material. We are the privileged as they roll through their back catalogue, banter with the audience and raise already infl ated levels of joy through the roof. And as frontman Bradfield explains how the band like to just blow their load and leave (therefore not to expect an encore) they duly oblige with A Design For Life and we’re all left wondering how such a small venue held such a big band. One of the great, unexpectedly amazing gigs you’re ever likely to see. BARRIE MORGAN

TOPOLOGY

POWERHOUSE VISY THEATRE: 14.11.10

A special occasion for local chamber ensemble Topology, today’s brief showing constitutes the debut airing of the quintet’s long-awaited Ten Hands – an hour-long work composed by all five members of the ensemble via a lengthy and involving collaborative process. It’s a significant development in the artistic arc of the local veterans and the air of the Powerhouse’s intimate Visy Theatre is charged with anticipation. The piece begins with all five musicians performing at the same piano. While the intertwining melody lines, hypnotic chord phrases and subtle bass fi gures initially suggest an overtly minimalist direction, Topology rapidly expand the scope of the work to encompass a stylistic perspective so broad and egalitarian so as to effectively dwarf the ensemble’s already considerable legacy of accomplishments. It feels almost fruitless to attempt to evaluate the work on one viewing. Within the composition’s stylistic make-up, one can discern contrasting musical aspects drawn from modernist classical, third-stream jazz, contemporary electronica, classical romanticism, jazz-fusion and indie-pop (among countless other niche vocabularies). Sub-bass synthesis supports dissonant string arrangements, lush and lyrical melodies give way to densely-layered polyrhythmic flurries and, perhaps most affectingly, upright bassist Robert Davidson’s vocals occasionally leap to the forefront – lending a rough-hewn emotional gravitas to the work’s compositional elegance. Th at said – the true achievement of the piece doesn’t actually lie in the breadth of styles Topology explore but how effortlessly the quintet synthesises them into one idiosyncratic language. While there’s a great stylistic diversity contained within Ten Hands, there is actually scant novelty or eccentricity within the piece. It flows beautifully and dynamically from movement to movement and, outside of perhaps an overly loud (but nonetheless compelling) electronic loop, never jars or stalls in its evolution. Th is fluidity is made doubly impressive by the fact that Ten Hands avoids overt repetition for the majority of its running time. There is a distinct developmental narrative arc to the piece that sees it expand, explode, retreat and evolve over the course of its 60-minute running time but the quintet manage to accomplish this largely without the standard crutches of heads and themes. The fact that the entire thing was performed goddamn live with only one noticeable hitch (reedsman John Babbage triggering a sample prematurely – and muttering an amusing curse word under his breath as a result), meanwhile, is freaking unbelievable. MATT O’NEILL

PERSONAL BEST RECORDS

with JULES FROM ALBA VERDEN

Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? I never stole music from my parents. Mostly due to the fact that they had terrible taste in music. Although I did constantly steal money from my mother and used said money to purchase Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction. First record you bought? Seeing as I touched on this in the first question, I would like to tell you about the lunch I had today. It was a tuna jaffle with chilli. I also had a milkshake. No one drinks milkshakes anymore. Why is that? Record you put on when you’re really miserable? I always find the theme tune for Thomas The Tank Engine cheers me up. Takes me back to a time when I used to steal from my mum to buy records. I suppose we are all happiest when stealing from our mothers. Record you put on when you bring someone home? I let them decide. Then tell them that what they have

chosen is a terrible choice in 25 words or less. It’s a great ice breaker and I hope they walk away from the experience having learnt something about themselves. Most surprising record in your collection? The Gypsy Kings. One year, on my birthday, my Gypsy Kings album hid in a box and jumped out when I walked in the room. That was very surprising. Cheeky Gypsies. Last thing you bought/downloaded? I’m currently downloading Rod Stewart And The Faces. Illegally might I add. I only illegally download music that I really love with the hope that the artist will track me down personally. I would love to meet Rod Stewart, seems like a great guy. Alba Varden play Lambda Lambda Lambda on Thursday, The Club House on Friday (DJ Set) and The Club House, Toowoomba on Saturday

Q MUSIC IS A NOT FOR PROFIT ORGANISATION SUPPORTING QUEENSLAND MUSIC, MUSICIANS AND INDUSTRY WORKERS. THIS COLUMN WILL PRESENT YOU WITH INFORMATION ON GRANT AND EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES, CONFERENCES AND THE GENERAL LOW-DOWN ON THE STATE’S MUSIC INDUSTRY.

Q MUSIC AND BRISBANE POWERHOUSE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS Continuing on with Q Music’s professional development workshop series for November you are invited to come along to the final two presentations of 2010 – a special panel discussion featuring experts on community and commercial radio in Australia on Wednesday Nov 17 and our final one for the year on Wednesday Nov 24 is a conversation with five of our most loved underground music identities discussing collaborative songwriting. Both workshops are held at the Brisbane Powerhouse 6pm – 8pm and are FREE. Bookings are required and can be made online.

INTERNATIONAL PATHWAYS GRANT OPEN The Australia Council for the Arts International Pathways grant supports international touring by Australian musicians performing predominantly original Australian music. It assists with the development of markets and audiences through live performance where there is little likelihood of short or medium-term commercial success. A new round of funding has opened which provides funding for costs associated with international touring up to a maximum of $20,000. Applications close on Monday Nov 29. For more info visit the Australia Council for the Arts website.

SOUNDCLASH INITIATIVE SUPPORTS MUSIC EXPERIMENTATION Soundclash is an initiative of the Music Board that supports the creation or development of innovative, risk-taking contemporary popular music. The initiative seeks to fund musically successful experimentation within contemporary music forms such as rock, hip hop, pop, electronic dance music, and other related genres. Soundclash provides funding of up to $10,000 for costs associated with a contemporary popular music project. Applications close on the Monday Dec 6. More info can be found on the Australia Council of the Arts website.

AUSTRALIA MUSIC OFFICE HOLD A&R USA MASTERCLASS The Australian Music Oﬃce will be holding their second A&R and Label Masterclass called ‘Getting a US Record Deal in 2011’ in Brisbane on Wednesday Nov 17. Participants will be able to take part in an interactive discussion and Q&A with some of the top label reps in Los Angeles including Michael Howe from Downtown Records (Gnarls Barkley, Scissor Sisters, David Gray), Jeﬀ Levan (Attorney) and Peter Cohen (Austrade), with more to be announced. Attendance costs $55 with limited places available. Register online at www.austrade.gov.au/ USRecordDeal

THE 2011 APRA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARDS OPEN FOR ENTRIES Eight emerging songwriters and composers will be given a career break thanks to the 2011 Professional Development Awards (PDA), proudly presented by APRA and supported by Q Music. Each PDA winner will receive a prize package made up of cash, product, travel, education and recognition, valued at over $25,000. The Jessica Michalik Contemporary Music Endowment and UTAS Stephen Schwartz Songwriting Award are also up for grabs with both being worth $10,000 cash. For more info head to www.apraamcos.com.au/pda.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? For these stories and more, go to www.qmusic.com.au.

WANT TO BECOME A Q MUSIC MEMBER? For membership details and application forms, go to www. qmusic.com.au.

MUSICAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Tasmanian born rockers My Escapade recently shipped up to sunny Queensland to become locals and we’re quite happy to keep them here. Since arriving, the dudes have promised to take listeners into “musical nirvana” with their latest EP Seasons Shifting. It’s a big promise to live up to, but they managed to enlist the help of Paul McKercher, who has previously worked with artists such as Eskimo Joe, Sarah Blasko and Little Birdy; so they might fulﬁ l their vows after all. They are playing a run of shows around Queensland with the help of Tinian’s Boy. You can catch them at Fitzy’s, Loganholme Wednesday Nov 17, Club Envy, Maroochydore Thursday Nov 18, Runaway Bay Hotel, Gold Coast Thursday Nov 25, Barsoma on Friday Nov 26 and Bon Amici Cafe in Toowoomba Saturday Nov 27.

SIX PACK

KATE VIGO

ALT CHANTEUSE KATE VIGO IS JOINING AUSTRALIAN IDOL FINALIST BRIANNA CARPENTER FOR A SPECIAL, ONEOFF SHOW. TONY MCMAHON CATCHES UP FOR A CHAT AND THE TALK TURNS TO 60S GIRL BANDS. “I haven’t really started on the production of the album yet but I have started writing. I’ll be working mainly with a producer called Dan West and we’ll make the album together in his studio using synthesised sounds and processed sounds. We’re not recording in the traditional way in a big studio with a band because I like the idea of constructing the arrangements as we go.”

ROCK ALL YEAR ROUND

CARDWELL BARES ALL

The people behind Cass Love Music Management, Amanda Brenchley Photography and Raven Pictures Graphic Design have gotten together and assembled a 2011 calendar featuring some of South East Queensland’s ﬁnest female musical talent. The calendar features the talent of 12 lovely ladies and what’s more, the collective will be playing a host of shows to promote it. You can see Facepalm a Piñata, Dark Symphonica, and Galactic Acid at Rosie’s on Friday Nov 26 followed by Smoking Martha, Whiskey & Speed and Facepalm a Piñata at The Step inn Wednesday Dec 8 and Galactic Acid, If I Lie, Dark Symphonica and Whiskey & Speed bringing the tour to a close at The Metal Hub, Norville Hotel Beer Garden, Toowoomba on Saturday Dec 11.

Excitingly, Vigo has spent the winter working on a new album, and she gives Time Oﬀ a sneak peak of what’s to come.

A ROOTSY SUNDAY

EASTON TO WEST

Mark Easton is heading back to Brisbane after playing a string of shows along the east coast, from the lush and picturesque rainforests of the Daintree in Far North Queensland to playing to capacity crowds on the stretching seashore at Mission Beach Festival. He also hit the road with 8 Ball Aitken for a few shows in Wollongong, Sydney and Newcastle while he was at it, making for a very busy couple of months! Apparently Easton is right in the midst of recording a new CD and he will be showcasing some of his new material at The Joynt in South Brisbane Sunday Nov 21.

Vigo is also appearing in full band mode for this performance, backed by The Underground Orchestra. “Max Walker plays the electric guitar but also has a magic box which makes all these cool synthy sounds. Dan McDonald plays the drums and sampler and Mike Story holds it all down with the bass. I sing and dance around on the stage. Sometimes we rock out and sometimes we go all quiet and it’s about the lyrics and the story of the song and sometimes we do 60s girl band-inspired pop songs.”

Don’t you just hate when over-production drains the soul from albums? Sometimes the minor blemishes and imperfections are the best parts. Abbie Cardwell recently went into the studios to record a very intimate and personal aﬀair and what has resulted from said sessions is The Bare Bones Session, featuring 11 songs recorded completely live. No editing, no overdubs, just Cardwell’s voice in all its raw glory. Aside from her performance at Woodford Folk Festival with the likes of You Am I, Basement Birds and Kate Miller-Heidke, Abbie Cardwell will be playing a show of her own at The Joynt Friday Jan 7. Head along to see why she’s received the title of “The Belle of Rootsy-Rockabilly-Twang.”

The annual Grass Roots Music Festival was formed by 8 Ball Aitken all the way back in 2005 and has continued on triumphantly ever since. The event this year once again features a multitude of artists encompassing roots, folk and country. The stellar line-up includes 8 Ball Aitken & His Band, Blind Lemon, Rose Carleo, Rod Dowsett, Hannah Acﬁeld, Gooreng Gooreng, David Flower and Pacha Mamma. It all happens at the Mt Coo-tha Botanical Gardens Sunday Nov 21 and goes all day from 10.30am through to 5pm. It’s free of charge and open to everyone – the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday.

Given she references 60s girl bands, I ask Vigo for some scholarly discourse on why they’re so awesome? As an icebreaker, we start with The Shangri-las.

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS

Sydney’s Straight Arrows are one of the most exciting garage bands kicking around the Australian scene at present. Their sound is shambolic and rambunctious, but the songs also possess a killer pop quality that makes the whole malarkey so damn appealing. The band have just released their debut album It’s Happening, a short and sharp collection of 11 songs that is over before you know it, leaving you dazed, confused and with a beautiful ringing in your ears that will make you want to listen to it all over again. If you’ve been lucky enough to catch the band live in action on their past visits to Brisbane then you’ll know that there are few bands who can throw a party quite like these guys, so it’s awfully exciting to see they’ll be back up here before the silly season for a show at The Zoo on Thursday Dec 16 and a midnight set at Woodland Friday Dec 17.

“The Shangri-las are so cool. The guy who put that band together and wrote the songs and produced their songs was George ‘Shadow’ Morton. All the songs are tragic tales which often include sound eﬀects to set the scene, like the motor-bike sound in Leader Of The Pack. I love how all those 60s girl bands quoted each other. If one band did a song another band really liked they would almost come up with a response to that song, or just quote each other. While all the songs are about tragedy there’s also a sense of irony and humor. Of course all that big hair and kitsch choreography also makes them awesome.” WHO: Kate Vigo WHERE & WHEN: Flipside Circus Saturday Nov 20

ON THE DOWNLOAD So we love Superchunk (their new record is great, if you haven’t heard it yet) and we also really like Misfits (most of the time). So we’re pretty damn excited that to celebrate Halloween, Superchunk recorded a version of the legendary punk rockers’ Horror Business and are offering it up as a free download on their website. We’re pleased to report that it has been done justice too, it’s completely awesome. [superchunk.com/music] One of the more hyped indie bands of last year was The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, after their eponymous debut record was released to seriously huge acclaim. The follow up to that album should be with us early next year and the fi rst taste of it has surfaced online during the week. Heart For Your Heartbreak will be released as a single midway through next month but it’s up for streaming on SoundCloud now. It’s a cute and catchy piece of slick, rollicking pop that has a slight mid-80s The Cure vibe to it. A very promising fi rst taste. [soundcloud.com/forcefieldpr] There’s a new album on the way from The Decemberists and they’ve been good enough to share a brand new track from it with us all. Head over to their website, enter in your email address and it’s all yours. The new song is Down By Th e Water, a nice slick folky number that doesn’t change the sound of the Portland ensemble too much. Accordion, gorgeous harmonies, great lyrics, Colin Meloy’s distinctive voice – it’s all there. [decemberists.com] Regurgitator have a couple more tunes up for your listening pleasure. They are really loving this whole ‘not releasing records’ thing and if it means we get more Gurge at a faster rate than ever then we say bring it on. They’ve given us Born Dumb and Evil Eye this time around and if you want to hear them you can do so by following any manner of links from their brand new website. [reguritator.net]

HYH

SIX PACK

HAVE YOU HEARD?

MY CERULEAN HEART DESPITE THE DEEP BLUE EVOCATIONS OF MY CERULEAN HEART’S MONIKER, THERE’S SUNNY TIMES AHEAD WHEN THEY PLAY FOR A GOOD CAUSE AT THE ROCK FOR REFUGEES EVENT, AS MITCH KNOX FINDS OUT FROM HEIDI MILLINGTON.

WE LOVE NANNA

forward to it for other reasons – it’s much more than just pulling at your heart and purse strings.

“The power of art to bring people and culture together in positive ways is dear to my heart,” Millington says of the band’s desire to be a part of Rock For Refugees. “So it is special for us to use our music to support Lifeline’s Refugee Claimant Support Service, who provide much needed services and support (from the emotional to the technical) for vulnerable refugee claimants in complex, uncertain situations. I am passionate about supporting human rights, and intelligent dialogue as to how to do this, so I am very passionate about what Rock for Refugees stands for.” While compassion is at the core of what the event is all about, Millington says she’s looking

“We love sharing our music with people. Not to mention, I think the audience will be made up of thoughtful, creative, compassionate, intelligent people so there is always the chance of cool people hooking up for great conversations and new ideas. Never know who might get inspired to make a diﬀerence. Hopefully the lovely Pillowbook girls will do our costuming again. We also get a chance to play with some of our favourite local electro bands.”

Aaron Nebauer launches New Age Neanderthals at The Globe Theatre on Friday Nov 26

If you’re unfamiliar with the “avante pop folk-tronica”, as Millington describes it, of My Cerulean Heart, then Rock For Refugees marks the perfect occasion to get yourself acquainted.

How did you get together? Aaron Nebauer (singer-songwriter): “Well I’m a solo artist and I’m not that together.”

“From My Cerulean Heart [you] can expect shimmery, uplifting electronica with beats you can dance to and a few soundscapes to inspire dreamy thoughts,” Millington evocatively describes. “Because we mix old and found sounds with new electronica sounds, we feel like we are time travellers, so we bring an element of costuming to our performances. This time we are going with a 1920s theme.”

Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Eclectic, ambient, melodic, textured.”

WHO: My Cerulean Heart WHERE & WHEN: Rock For Refugees, Barsoma Thursday Nov 25

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

THE OPEN ARMS FESTIVAL WELCOMES ONE AND ALL THIS SATURDAY AT COFFS HARBOUR SHOWGROUNDS, SO WE GOT SOME OF THE ACTS IN THE MOOD. Hungry Kids Of Hungary

HKOH: “We’ve got some colour coordinated outﬁts and matching board shorts we found at lifeline in Perth. We’ll probably just try to jump around a lot, point at people, smile. Like The Wiggles I guess.” BCE: “At our last show Josh jumped from a huge front of house speaker into the crowd. He’s always jumping oﬀ things, I love that guy.” You’re lost for a few hours in the Enchanted Woods, what do you return with? HKOH: “I magically return with a copy of my side project hip hop record sung completely in Spanish. Guest stars on the album include Nelly Furtado and Boyz II Men. I really want to learn Spanish.”

Who would you most like to see cover Creed’s With Arms Wide Open and why? Birds Of Toko, Adam Weston: “I’d have to say Horrorshow, because God knows the original didn’t work, so I think these guys should be able to chew this one up and spit it out properly. Adit would provide the mad beats and Solo would have to change all the lyrics except for the Arms Wide Open chorus tag. Brilliant!” Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Kane Mazlin: “That’s a hard question as I don’t really wanna hear that song at any time in my life. However, if I had to choose I’d pick The Living End. They could smash out an unhinged crazy version of it, complete with an awesome solo.” Behind Crimson Eyes, Dan Kerby: “I would have to go with Birds Of Tokyo, simply because they are amazing! I’m sure they would come up with a version that blitzes the original.” No one likes to see a lazy punter with arms folded across their chest. How do you plan to keep the crowd’s arms open? BOT: “Yeah that’s true. Once I saw someone in the front row just yawning! Almost makes you feel like you’re not doing your job properly. If Kenny [vocalist] sees anyone who doesn’t have their arms open to receive the love, he’ll single you out and embarrass you in front of everyone.”

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Bruce Cockburn because the man is an amazing lyricist and would be profound to chat to.” You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “I was in a band in 1995 and we won a rock band competition and the prize was back stage passes to Bon Jovi where one of the roadies accidentally dropped an amp on my toe and to this day the toe nail has never grown back properly. Why should people come and see your band? “Because The Globe is shutting down!”

BEETLE BIRDS

The Beetle Bar will be shaken to its foundations this Friday night as four inimitable female frontwomen take charge and deliver a night of what is bound to be powerful rock music! When Sabrina Lawrie & The Hunting Party, Ivy May Dillon, Dana Gehrman and Sharon Friel front up on the night, it’s not going to be any fey singer-songwriter business, they’ll all have full bands behind them driving their great songwriting to the limits. Entry is just ﬁve dollars and those doors will swing open at 8pm.

Apparently the ﬁrst of the Nanna Nights series at The Hi-Fi’s Vinyl Bar have was a huge success. Maybe the idea of board games and trivia might solve any further live music crises in Brisbane? Fledgling band Charlie Mayfair has been selected to perform at the next event following their performance at the 2high Festival and Montpelier, pictured, will be lending their musical prowess to soothe ears the following week. You can catch Charlie Mayfair on Wednesday Nov 24 and Montpelier will be performing on Wednesday Dec 8. The nights are free and you can actually feel free to bring your nanna, they won’t judge!

DID YOU KNOW...

Former Philadelphia Grand Jury drummer Dan Williams now plays for Art Vs Science?

THE BELL TOLLS

We let you know a couple of weeks ago that Blue Mountains group Belles Will Ring would be up here soon launching their new single new single entitled Come North With Me Baby, Wow. Well now we’re pleased to report that the band have announced their supporting cast for the show up here and they’ve made sure that those who head along to the show are going to well and truly get their money’s worth. When the group play their only Queensland show at The Club House on Saturday Dec 11, they’ll have new up-and-coming hipsters Guineafowl and Sydney new-wavers Magnetic Heads on board as well. It’s an all southern, all quality bill of interesting pop music not to be missed.

BCE: “I return with gifts for my brothers in BCE. I have an amazing new hard drive sent from the future for Josh. A never ending bottle of Canadian Club and a Les Paul for Az. A set of the fi nest Cuban cigars and a nice coffee for Garth. And for myself, maybe a beautiful Spanish women named Adelina who enjoys playing drums and has a thing for skinny white guys who have no money.” What is the best hug you have ever received? BOT: “I’m really glad you asked because Australia needs to know that our keyboardist Glenn gives the best hugs. It’s really quite the spectacle; he hugs by stretching his arms out while not quite making body contact, tilts his head to the side, again not really making contact, slips a quick pat on the back in there and he’s done!” HKOH: “I got a hug from a shoe shiner in Philadelphia when we were in the States earlier this year. He told me a story about how his landlord attacked him with a hammer and then for an extra few dollars sang a song about Obama. It was called We’re Taking It To Th e Top. He then gave me a hug and was told to move on by staff as he was shoe shining illegally outside a hotel.” BCE: “I haven’t been hugged in so long. Oh man, I need to get myself a Mrs!” Open Arms Festival is at Coff s Harbour on Saturday Nov 20.

THOSE RASCALLY RAPSKALLIONS It’s pretty clear that Melbourne seven-piece gypsy cabaret group Rapskallion know exactly how to get up to mischief, the title of their latest album When The Wine Kicks In essentially ensures that. The dudes and dudettes have locked in a whopping 30 date tour all the way down the coast to Tasmania and thankfully they’ve managed to scatter a few dates here and there for us Queenslanders. The dates kick oﬀ at The Joynt in Brisbane Friday Dec 24, The Rails, Byron Bay Wednesday Dec 29, The Loft, Chevron Island Friday Dec 31, Perigian Originals, Peregian Beach Sunday Jan 2, The Currumbin Soundlounge Friday Jan 7 and The Brewery in Byron Bay Saturday Jan 8.

ROCK THE BOATS The plight of refugees in this country is no secret to many of us. Whilst our government is content at dodging the issue there exists many charitable organisations that are there to clean up the mess. The Lifeline Refugee Claimants Support Service provide asylum seekers with material aid such as food, transport, medical, dental and medication services as well as English classes, employment support and torture and trauma referral. Of course services like these require money and what better way to raise funds and awareness than with music? Barsoma will be hosting the seventh annual “Rock For Refugees” event on Thursday Nov 25 featuring the likes of Felinedown, pictured, My Fiction, Trip Sinister, My Cerulean Heart and DJ Nemesis. Tickets are available from OzTix now for $12.75.

theWILDSIDE

TOUR

Presented by Elefant Traks, New World Artists and Select Music

SPIT THE SYNDICATE T O N G U E F

plus CLASS A

Friday 26th November

STEP INN Tickets on sale from tickets.newworldartists.net, Oztix phonecharge 1300 762 545, www.oztix.com.au & Oztix outlets see www.elefanttraks.com for more details www.thetongue.com.au // www.spitsyndicate.com

SPIT SYNDICATE • EXILE OUT NOW ON OBESE RECORDS THE TONGUE • ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OUT NOW ON ELEFANT TRAKS VIA INERTIA CLASS A • ME ME ME & HIM... OUT NOW ON OTHER TONGUES

SHORTFASTREPORT Hardcore and punk with Stu Harvey shortfast@timeoff.com.au We spoke to Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory on Short Fast Loud last week and he shared the news that they are about to hit the studio to work on a new studio album. The band will again work with producer Neal Avron, who produced what Gilbert described as “our three most popular records” being their self-titled, Sticks & Stones and Catalyst albums. Most exciting was how Gilbert described the songs for the new album: “this is our most fun punk record, this record is super punk, very Descendents, very upbeat. It’s definitely from the songs we’ve been writing, from start to finish, our most anthemic upbeat punk record”. The album wont hit stores until the band tours on Soundwave in 2011, but Chad did promise the band would play at least one new song live. Trouble in the world of Civet with the band losing their entire rhythm section mid-tour! Singer Liza Graves shared the news on the bands Facebook last week; “It is heartbreaking to come to you guys today to share our bad news. In the middle of our Nashville Pussy tour our rhythm section walked out on us. Granted, Jacq gave us a little more notice than Roxie, but in the end it’s all one and the same. It is unfair to leave the band in the middle of a tour and leave us scrambling to piece our lives back together.” The band are still aiming to release a new album in February 2011. On a similar subject, Closure In Moscow announced a couple of changes to their line-up that sees the departure of bassist Brad Kimber and drummer Beau McKee. Kimber departed in the hopes of pursuing a future in the United States with his dearest fiancée, but a statement from the band explained re McKee: “In the case of Beau; after years of playing and travelling together it became apparent that he was, unfortunately, not the right fit for CIM and our plans for the future.” Melbourne muso Salvatore Aidone has stepped up to the drum stool and according to the band it “is already working out incredibly” and friend of the band Joshua Collard has taken up bass duties. After numerous line up changes over the journey, Gwen Stacy have finally announced they are bringing the band to an end, with a final show

in their home town of Indiana next week. “After six years, 19 countries, countless US tours, two albums and an EP, Gwen Stacy has decided to call it quits. We feel like now is the best time to end the band and pursue other directions in life. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the band’s career over the years.” Melbourne punks The Duvtons will release a new single Aliens Done Took Mah Sanity on Nov19. The song recorded at the legendary Sing Sing studios by Matt Voigt and mastered by Tom Baker in LA (Bad Religion, Parkway Drive). The song will be available exclusively via iTunes.

SHORT FAST REPORT TOP 5 La Dispute Tour! Worst kept secret of 2010… but yes, La Dispute are returning to Australia in January and now it’s oﬃcial! They will be hitting the road with Brisbane’s To The North. Jan 25 @ The Zoo (18+) and Jan 26 @ Burst City (all ages) Bloke Records. Pete ‘Bloke’ Abordi, well known as front man for Sydney’s No Apologies and most recently as a member of Blkout has launched a new label, Bloke Records. The label will commence with a release that is sure to become an instant collectors’ item; a split-7” featuring exclusive unreleased tracks from No Apologies, Blkout, 50 Lions and Parkway Drive. Preorders start Nov 15 so for details head to http:// blokerecords.bigcartel.com A Day To Remember What Separates Me From You, without doubt one of the most anticipated albums of 2010, is out this week. Ben Jorgensen. Former Armor For Sleep frontman Ben Jorgensen will tour in January to support his new solo EP There Is Nowhere Left To Go. Jan 20 @ Rosie’s Dropsaw RIP. The great Newcastle hardcore band Dropsaw are calling it a day. They’ll play their ﬁnal ever show Dec 3, on home turf at The Cambridge in Newcastle. If you feel like making the trip the line-up is pretty rad, with special guests Mindsnare, Against, Relentless and Phantoms. This show will be huge.

ADAMANTIUMWOLF Metal with Lochlan Watt The Ailment

Hand Family and Architect of The Dying Sun albums at The Globe. Entry from 8pm will cost you $10 and support will be provided by High Plains Drifter and Perspectiv. Head along to The Step Inn on Saturday Nov 27 to see Helm, Dead Letter Opener, New Skin, and Echotide.

Things will get a little metal this Thursday for the new Destroy All Lines club night Boys & Girls, which operates out of X&Y on Ann Street, the Valley, as Sunny Coast deathcore group The Ailment and local boys Headwound The Pony perform sets from 9pm. Straight off their tour with Canadian deathcore band Despised Icon, The Red Shore and Thy Art Is Murder will continue to blaze their way through Queensland this week. The bands perform all ages shows together at Di Carlos at The Fort in Brisbane on Wednesday Nov 17, and at Shed 5 in Burleigh Heads on Thursday Nov 18. Disentomb launch their intensely brutal debut album Sunken Chambers of Nephilim this Friday at Monstrothic. The band will be supported by NSW death metallers Daemon Foetal Harvest as well as locals Laceration Mantra and Hypoxia, with the album now available locally through Obsidian Records as well as Amputated Vein Records internationally. Upstairs, melodic death metal group Through Plagues make their long-awaited live debut alongside Eternal Rest and Veiled In Flesh. Entry is $10 from 8pm. Sunshine Coast metal dudes Infinite Thought Process headline a little show this Friday night at a new warehouse space right near Albion train station called Sun Distortion Studios, located at 2/24 Corunna Street. Joined by dual-vocal metal group Ironhide and hardcore punk newcomers Waiting Room, the gig runs from about 8pm, will cost you $5 and is an all ages event. Shellfin and Silver Ocean Storm join forces this Saturday to officially launch their Second

Czech Republic grindcore group Needful Things will tour Australia in January. With Melbourne blast lords Captain Cleanoff supporting on the Victorian and South Australian dates and Beyond Terror Beyond Grace picking up the east coast, you can catch the band at Monstrothic on Jan 28. Nu-metal survivors Disturbed will tour Australia off the back of their fifth album Asylum in April/May next year. Joined by the curious line-up of US metal bands Trivium and As I Lay Dying, the shows will be rounded out by Melbourne metalcore band Forgiven Rival, appearing locally at the Brisbane Entertainment Center with on Apr 30. Tickets will become available to the public on Nov 27. Chances are if you’re a fan you’ve already heard, but a recently reunited Kyuss will tour Australia next year on the name of Kyuss Lives, featuring members Nick Oliveri on bass, vocalist John Garcia, Brant Bjork on drums, and guitarist Bruno Fevery in place of original stoner Josh Homme. The band split in 1995, with a European tour earlier this year of Garcia and a bunch of backing musicians playing the bands’ hits providing the inspiration for their reunion. You can catch the band on May 4 at The Coolangatta Hotel and on May 6 at The Tivoli, with tickets going on sale Nov 25. Brisbane tech-metal newcomers The Schoenburg Automaton continue to tease with the prospect of a release, recently unveiling the details and artwork for their three-track demo, which will be available for purchase soon. The band also has unveiled plans to travel interstate for the first time, playing at The Maram in Canberra on Jan 21 alongside Alarum, Aeon of Horus, Mytile Vey Lorth, Nemesphyxia and Tortured.

ROOTSDOWN

Blues ‘n’ roots with Dan Condon rootsdown@timeoff.com.au Os Mutantes

Since 2008 8 Ball Aitken has hosted the annual Grass Roots Music Festival, helping up and coming blues and roots acts play to perhaps a wider audience than they usually might in a supportive, family friendly environment. 8 Ball and his band will headline this year’s event as per usual, but he has assembled a wonderfully diverse bill for the festival this year with unstoppable hardworking blues band Blind Lemon, country chanteuse Rose Carleo, country rocker Rod Dowsett, folk-pop youngster Hannah Acﬁeld, indigenous roots band Gooreng Gooreng, folk-rocker David Flower and the highly danceable roots boogie of Pacha Mamma. Of course the music is all 100 percent original and so get along and show your support to a bunch of our local talent. It all happens at the Mt Coo-tha Botanical Gardens from 10.30am through to 5pm on Sunday Nov 21. Entry is totally free of charge, the event open to people of all ages and is drug and alcohol free. With the announcement of the line-up for the Golden Plains festival in rural Victoria a couple of weeks ago came that all too familiar pang of hope that we might get some sideshows up this way. So far things aren’t looking too bad in that regard with a couple of the acts announced to be playing club shows in Brisbane town early next year. Readers of this column ought to be more than interested in the ﬁrst ever Australian tour from Brazilian psych legends Os Mutantes. The story of this band cannot be done justice in this short amount of space, but I strongly recommend you read some of the material readily available about their history – it is absolutely fascinating. At the time of their formation, the band’s mix of traditional Brazilian music with American psychedelia was gutsy to say the least. The songs they performed were stunning though and it will

be a real pleasure to see them in Australia. They play The Tivoli with Best Coast on Tuesday Mar 8; tickets are on sale from Ticketek from Thursday morning onwards. Baroque tinged American folk sensation Joanna Newsom will be back in town when she’s out here for the festival as well, playing The Tivoli Friday Mar 4 and we reckon there’ll probably be a couple more announcements as the festival draws closer. It would be nice to see Justin Townes Earle, Hawkwind and Imelda May up here at the very least! Fans of the hard driving blues rock of The Black Keys who aren’t interested in venturing out to the Big Day Out next year will be rejoicing after hearing the news that the duo have announced a very rare Big Day Out sideshow to hit The Tivoli on Tuesday Jan 25. The band are out here on the back of their Brothers album, which seems to have done pretty well for them and you’re always guaranteed of an energetic live show when they come to town so this one ought to be very popular. Tickets are on sale now for $67.80. On the local front, Gold Coast blues and roots artist Mark Easton has just come back from six weeks on the road, which took him from the Daintree up in Far North Queensland down to the far south of New South Wales. He played some great shows along the way, including the Sydney Blues Festival and the Mission Beach Festival so there’s no doubting the fact that he’s in good practice, which is great news for us because he’s stopping in at The Joynt in South Brisbane to take us through a set of his typically dark yet diverse brand of wild rocking music on Sunday Nov 21. A quick heads up for those of you who like dancing and soul music; the awesome Watch Your Step club night is returning for a Christmas night upstairs at the Step Inn on Saturday Dec 18. DJs Len, Paul, James and Gaz only play the ﬁnest in 60s soul, garage, r’n’b, mod and funk from 45rpm singles, making it the most authentic soul night in town. It kicks oﬀ at 9pm and costs $6 to get in.

THEBREAKDOWN Pop culture therapy with Adam Curley

Yet another article about Facebook by the author Zadie Smith was published in the New York Review Of Books in the light of Jesse Eisenberg turning Mark Zuckerberg into a damaged babe-genius in The Social Network. In the article, unimaginatively headlined ‘Generation Why?’, to paraphrase, Smith decries the “pack mentality” Facebook inspires as well as the “flattening” of individual personalities through what she sees as infinitely limited technology that is accepted as reflective of the human experience only because we want it to be or can’t do better. Smith writes that our lists of ‘likes’ and the sharing and appropriation of “personal trivia” skims over the need to develop deeper, nuanced views and habits and feelings and relationships – to ‘become somebody’ – because “to Zuckerberg, sharing your choices with everybody (and doing what they do) is being somebody”. It might seem ironic that the woman whose name, in that annoyingly large white font, can be spotted on the bookshelf of every share house anyone’s ever been to ever is writing about the homogenisation of culture, however her article, and a response piece published in the The Atlantic by senior editor Alexis Madrigal, have had me thinking about the failures of the recent ARIA Awards. And not because Jessica Mauboy resembles a Harvard graduate. In Madrigal’s article, he argues that Smith is wrong about Facebook encouraging homogenisation because we “live in the time of the hyperniche” where we have many more outlets to publish and receive information we’re interested in than ever before, as well as more communication with people interested in the same things. It might seem as if everyone on Facebook has suddenly decided to ‘like’ that woman from Vivian Girls’ side project, but in fact it’s a tiny percentage of people using Facebook and an even smaller percentage of people interested in music, or western music, or American ‘indie’ music. The ways in which Madrigal’s true sentiment can be related to the music industry is obvious: fragmented recording and publicity sector, influx of small-scale and online media outlets, blah blah etc. When at times it appears as if our music culture is

becoming more homogenised, the actual sales and listening figures show a culture with more options being taken by fewer people. Or, to put it in less humanistic terms, a marketplace of niches. After years of falling interest and a format that didn’t seem to reflect what was happening in our culture, this year the ARIA Awards attempted to remedy that by loosening up proceedings and incorporating more and varied artists and ‘genres’ – this time, not just what can be heard on drive-time radio but more of what less people, everywhere, in Australia are listening to. And still no one cared. Why? Because attempting to converge ‘niche markets’ to create a product that appeals to all people is a fundamentally flawed endeavour. It’s like trying to cook a meal that will appeal to everyone who eats, or that point at a party where the person you’re talking to tries to hook you up with their friend because “he’s gay too”. It’s a lesson that should be heeded by other awards initiatives, particularly those like the Australian Music Prize, which has shown signs of trying to be more ‘inclusive’ in its shortlists and its judging process. In fact, many of the awards comps in recent years have been leaning towards models that make it possible for genres and acts outside their traditional markets/audiences to be shortlisted or win, as well as more objective judging processes. That’s fine (even great) as far as the critical process goes, but let’s face it, there’s often a disparity between the critical process and audience ‘taste’, and if audience is key to continuation then it doesn’t make for potential market success. As more niche markets pop up, in the “time of the hyperniche”, the music industry doesn’t need larger events that include them all. We need smaller events grown by and targeted towards specific music communities, as cross-pollinated as they may be. On the other side, as Zadie Smith alludes of the limited processes designed by Facebook, it doesn’t matter how many options we have, our culture of needing to constantly share what we ‘like’ is already a homogenised way of thinking. It adds nothing to the richness of the musical experience. Then again, who’s going to deactivate?

BIG DAY ART DESIGN OUR COVER

AND WIN BIG! READERS’ CHOICE AWAR Vote for your favourite artwork D in the Readers’ Choice vot Check out the entries exhibit e. summerfestivalguide.com.aued at vote via Twitter. More details and soon!

TO ENTER: Competition opens Tuesday 2 November. Create your impression of an artist on the current Big Day Out schedule and upload your entry at summerfestivalguide.com.au (go to the Big Day Art section). WIN: Time Off cover art. Artist proﬁle. Double pass to the BDO Festival. A cd prize pack – the latest releases from BDO artists. Design software for each state winner. Free entry to a CATC Workshop for each state winner. ENTRIES CLOSE FRIDAY 7 JANUARY

MELBOURNE SYDNEY BRISBANE

TIMEOFF-NOV10-130x180.indd 1

30/09/10 6:07 PM

HYH

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HAVE YOU HEARD?

MY ESCAPADE

DANCE FOR JUSTICE

BUSY TIMES ABOUND FOR LOCALLY-BASED ALT-ROCKERS MY ESCAPADE, AS THEY EMBARK ON A TOUR IN SUPPORT OF THEIR JUSTRELEASED SINGLE, OF A FUTURE, FROM THEIR UPCOMING EP. MITCH KNOX CHATS WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST JASON LUCAS. etc.,” Lucas explains. “We enjoyed working with Paul McKercher who we got on board to mix the tracks, he really had a great feel for our sound and direction, it was great hearing the tracks come to life. We’re really excited about bringing it out in the new year; we all feel the new recordings are a lot more ‘us’ than anything we’ve done in the past. It sounds the way we want it to; we’re looking forward to getting it out.”

There’s a vital fundraiser happening at the Globe Theatre this Friday night looking to beneﬁt Brisbane’s Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) and the Intervention Rollback Action Group (IRAG) in Alice Springs. Deadly Dance 4 Justice – say NO to the iNTervention! will not just be raising funds but also awareness regarding the Indigenous intervention legislation, because organisers say that the mainstream press simply aren’t reporting what is happening in remote communities. There will be some great music keeping the vibe high as well with Fyah Walk, pictured, Impossible Odds, Tjupurru, Kindling and Homeless Yellow, with other local acts to open the show from 5pm. Entry is just $20 at the door or you can pick up a ticket from OzTix now for $15 + bf.

Burning Brooklyn play Stuff The Stocking at Valley PCYC on Saturday Nov 27 How did you get together? Alistair Grist (drums): “Alex and I began writing songs together in 2008 after I advertised in street press looking to start a new band. We then advertised for the remaining members. We were lucky enough that the fi rst two people that contacted us completed the band.” Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Tropical Fusion Pop Punk.” If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “At The Drive-In.” You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “Casanova – All Beauty Must Die.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “I’ll get dick punched for this…. When our bass player Josh was so drunk he fell from the top bunk in our hostel, yes I said hostel, face fi rst into the floor. He then proceeded to sleep walk to the lockers in our room and squat like a dog before pushing his manhood out the back and peeing all over the lockers, then Alex decided to whip him with a belt.” Why should people come and see your band? “If you enjoy bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, Anberlin or Fightstar, you might enjoy our music. We aren’t amazingly different, we’re just honest.”

EPIC BY NAME, EPIC BY NATURE

There’s another awesome line-up of live music all set to destroy the crowd at Epic Skate on Saturday Nov 27. Byron heavy hitters In Hearts Wake are back at the venue with their popular and punishing sound and hugely dynamic live show, they will be joined by a couple of Sydney bands in Pledge Th is and Villa Rise plus Gold Coast locals Final Hope and Midnight In Alaska rounding out the bill. As per usual, the show will be open to people of all ages, will feature an adult jumping castle, sumo suits and one of the largest dance ﬂoors around. You’ll want to get in early as the venue only holds 2180 people (seriously). The gig kicks oﬀ at 7.30pm and tickets are just $15 on the door.

ADDING TO THEIR PALETTE

The lads from Gold Coast band Colourﬁde were seriously yearning for a change and as such they decided to quit their jobs, pack all of their gear into a 4WD and headed out to some of our country’s most remote communities. While out there they worked with youth in those communities, collaborated with local legends and generally got themselves into all sorts of eye-opening situations. Of course now the boys are in some of their best form ever, so you ought to get along and see them performing at their big homecoming show at the Gold Coast Arts Centre on Thursday Nov 25. They have plenty of stories and songs to share so don’t miss it. The band will be supported by Anarchist Duck and the David Flower Band, doors open at 8pm.

GET LOST

Over a dozen Gold Coast based musicians and singers have come together to help realize the dream of producer and guitarist PurpleZain, The Lost Whore Project. The project is a rock opera written about a hedonistic bucks night that goes awry in the ﬁctional town of Little Angeles AKA Angel Town. It’s full of booze, drugs, pimps and prostitutes – all the ﬁ ner things in life – so strap yourself in! Members of Mourning Tide, A Secret Death, Kill the Apprentice, Devilution, The Wrath, Endless Nameless, The Meaniacs, The Final Fall, Hell and Whiskey, The Chevron Whores and Zeus Baby have all leant a hand and you can bet that plenty of them will be around when the record is launched at the Hard Rock Café, Surfers Paradise on Friday Dec 3.

But they’ve got to get through the tour ﬁrst; not that Lucas and his bandmates aren’t looking forward to that.

“It was tough picking a track as a single from the upcoming EP, as I don’t think the disc can be summed up by any one track,” says Lucas of the band’s decision to build their tour around Of A Future. “It’s more of a snapshot of where we’re at as musicians. Of A Future felt right as a ﬁrst single as it’s the sound of where we’re at and where we’re going.” On a wider scale, putting the whole EP together has been a rewarding – albeit timeconsuming – experience for the band. “It’s pretty much done musically, [we] just got the mastered tracks back from the UK a few weeks ago; we just need to ﬁnalise artwork,

“Any chance to play live gets me excited,” he enthuses. “I’ve always felt music needs to be felt and experienced rather than just another track on someone’s iPod. Live music always takes things to another level. We’re also looking forward to playing in towns we haven’t had the opportunity to play in yet and make some new friends.” WHO: My Escapade WHAT: Of A Future (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: Fitzy’s Loganholme Wednesday Nov 17, Club Envy Maroochydore Thursday Nov 18, Runaway Bay Hotel Gold Coast Thursday Nov 25, Barsoma Friday Nov 26, Bon Amici Cafe Toowoomba Saturday Nov 27

ENDLESS SUMMER

During the bleak winter months Savannah Jo Lack shipped oﬀ to the United States to soak up the rays of their summer. Well, that’s only partly true. Savannah didn’t really have a lot of time to loaf around by the pool, she was too busy touring the country and arranging strings for various Hollywood screen projects. She also recorded new material in both Nashville and in her home studio in San Francisco but now the songstress has taken up residency at the Powerhouse and will be performing a few tracks from her album Knitting Songs, which will be sure to win over indie, folk and country aﬁcionados. There are only two more dates left for her at the Powerhouse on Friday Nov 19 and Friday Nov 26 so make sure you check her out before she goes back.

DID YOU KNOW...

Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American album was renamed Jimmy Eat World after the September 11 attacks. The title track was renamed Salt Sweat Sugar. Pressings after 2008 regained the original title.

PREPARING TO DOCK

Avast! The good ship Dubmarine is preparing to dock and release their much awaited debut Depth Of Sound. Audiences were dumbstruck and astounded at this year’s BIGSOUND performance. Their infectious and positively groovy blend of high-powered dub and dancehall has seen them tour extensively overseas taking in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and the Czech Republic, but now the group will be launching their album at The Zoo Friday Dec 3 with Oka and Direct Inﬂuence. Entry will set you back $15 on the door and it’s sure to get those booties movin’.

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DID YOU KNOW...

ROLLER ONE

Kaki King focused on playing drums throughout her adolescence?

MELBOURNE DUO ROLLER ONE ARE VOCALIST AND GUITARIST FERGUS MCALPIN AND DOUBLE BASS PLAYER ADAM AFIFF, BOTH ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF SILVER CITY HIGHWAY. TALKING TO TONY MCMAHON ABOUT THEIR STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM, MOTORSPORTS, THEY NATURALLY LIKEN THE RECORDING PROCESS TO COUGHING UP A FUR BALL. to really stand out the simpler we kept things. We were able to build from there. It’s really quite amazing how stripped back things can be and often more intense or to the point.” And even though it’s just two people on stage, McAlpin says that plenty of other stuff goes on behind the scenes. “Friends. Not the TV show, the other kind. You look at a band and see a couple of guys, but it’s really much bigger than that.” And Afi ff says that Queensland – and one venue in particular – is amongst his favourite places to play.

“We’d tried recording a number of times and it just missed the mark,” says McAlpin. “We were actually on our way back from a failed session when we thought, ‘Let’s drop in on Andrew [McGee – producer]’. Then a day later we had most of the album! Maybe it’s like a fur ball.” Stunningly stark, as might be expected from a two-piece, Motorsports nonetheless stays with the listener like few albums in recent memory. Aﬁﬀ says this ‘more is less’ thing might be because of a certain directness in the music. “A while ago the two of us set out to learn how to play as a two-piece. The songs started

“We came up to Brisbane before we had started Motorsports, before we even had a name for the project. We played a couple of shows as Fergus and Adam, from Silver City Highway, you know. The Cabinessence show was one of the best shows I think we have ever played, the vibe and the sound and the people we met and made friends with was really something else. I’m really looking forward to playing there this Thursday.” WHO: Roller One WHAT: Motorsports (Torn And Frayed) WHERE & WHEN: Cabinessence Thursday Nov 18, The Hi-Fi Friday Nov 19

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

The ﬁrst single from local indie kids Lunch Tapes is about to drop, it’s called I Never Knew and it matches a bit of raw alternative rock with some sunny beach pop to culminate in a neat little package. The band are getting ready to launch the single as we speak and have a big party planned to take place at Ric’s Bar on Thursday night. Their raw, semi-improvised style of music is said to shine on the live stage, as are fellow locals Baby Seal Club who will be getting up there in support. Entry is free and word is there will be some free singles kicking around too, so get amongst it.

DID YOU KNOW...

A Day To Remember covered The Fray’s Over My Head (Cable Car) for the Punk Goes Pop 2 compilation?

GIVING THANKS The sadness of Red Hill’s The Hangar closing down has not died down one iota since the news dropped a few weeks ago, a large sector of Brisbane’s DIY scene are still in a state of shock, but thankfully there are a few more shows left before we say goodbye forever. The farewell series of gigs Thank You Red Hill continues this on Saturday with a classic Hangar line-up featuring We All Want To, pictured, who are fresh from the release of their new album, Ed Guglielmino, Moon Jog, who are launching an EP full of post punk party and the Super Electric Trio of Doom who are said to bring back the psychedelic 70s. Entry is $10 and as always it’s a good old fashion BYO party. If you don’t know where Hangar is and want to come along for a look, shoot an email admin@loﬂy.com.

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SMITTY & B. GOODE

THE ROOFTOPS

ROLAND K. SMITH, AKA SMITTY, FROM SYDNEY ROCK’N’ROLLERS SMITTY & B. GOODE, TELLS TONY MCMAHON ALL ABOUT HIS BAND’S SECOND ALBUM, HELLO ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, AS WELL AS MAKING THE EXCELLENT POINT THAT, WITH ALL THIS RADIOHEAD SERIOUSNESS, WE SOMETIMES FORGET THAT ROCK’N’ROLL SHOULD FIRST AND FOREMOST BE A HOOT.

LOCAL ROOTS POPPERS THE ROOFTOPS ARE IN THE MIDST OF THEIR SOMETHING SO FAMILIAR TOUR, IN SUPPORT OF THEIR SINGLE OF THE SAME NAME. MITCH KNOX GETS THE LOWDOWN FROM FRONTMAN EUAN GRAY. that this is a somewhat of a universal theme for most towns and cities in Australia.”

Hello Rock’n’Roll clocks in at just under half an hour, reminding Time Oﬀ of a band like The Ramones: urgent, no frills, very accessible.

The packaging of the single furthers this theme, drawing on an old tradition which modern times seem to have muscled out of the mainstream.

“Th at’s exactly it. We wanted to be as direct as possible; say what we came to say and leave before anyone has the chance to get sick of us. Our live shows are like that too. We try and have as little banter in between songs as possible and just rock for the whole set. The Ramones were great at that.” According to Smith, Brisbane punters are in for a very sweaty time.

“Our aim has always been to be a fun rock’n’roll band. Early rock’n’rollers like Buddy Holly, Elvis, Wanda Jackson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard etc, all had a great sense of fun about them. It was party music, and its purpose was to make you shake your booty. Later on, probably after Dylan, rock became more serious. Bruce Springsteen and The Clash started using the power of booty shaking rock’n’roll to deliver a message. We fall somewhere in between those two types of rock. Radiohead are a great band, but they sucked all the booty shaking goodness out of their music in about ‘96.”

“I’m usually dripping wet after a Smitty & B. Goode show. B. Goode completely evaporates. Every part of everyone of our songs rock, so we are rocking all the time. Sometimes we rock too hard and I have to have a little sit down, but then we start rocking again. We’re also very loud and people usually have a little boogie down the front of the stage.” WHO: Smitty & B. Goode WHAT: Hello Rock’n’Roll (Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Ric’s Bar Friday Nov 19

DEADLY DANCE 4 JUSTICE SAY NO TO THE INTERVENTION A fundraiser for the Aboriginal A R RightsCoalition C

FRIDAY THE 19TH NOVEMBER The Globe 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley - Doors 5pm

FYAH WALK IMPOSSIBLE ODDS TJUPURRU HOMELESS YELLOW KINDLING ((The The Boys Boys FFrom rom KKooii) ooii) Plus More!!!

SSUPPORTING UPPORTING TTRADITIONAL RADITIONAL OOWNERS WNERS OF OF COUNTRY COUNTRY Tix $15 presale & $20 at door – On sale now att oztix.com.au 56

“The Something So Familiar Tour has been our first national tour and we’ve had a ball so far,” Gray enthuses. “One of the highlights of the tour was being spontaneously awarded trophies by an excited audience member in Armidale. We later realised they were hockey trophies from the 80s. The lowlight of the tour has been the redeye flights after zero sleep and paying $5 for a coffee at the airport.” Incidentally, the song around which the band centred the tour, Something So Familiar, speaks to the entire experience of such transience. “Something So Familiar is almost like a soundtrack to being away from home, so it fitted nicely with the tour concept,” Gray explains. “It’s about aching to leave Brisbane but coming home singing its praises. Everywhere we go, people have confirmed what we thought;

“Nobody sends postcards anymore,” Gray laments. “It’s a bit of a dying art so we thought we’d bring it back, in the spirit of the song, in the hope that people may feel inspired to re-connect with friends and family away from home. People are really digging the concept and we haven’t had any complaints from Australia Post yet!” This weekend you can rock along and help prove that there’s no place like home when The Rooftops return to Brisbane. “Obviously we’ll be in our comfort zone in Queensland and it will be great to play to our home crew, as always,” says Gray. “We know that local audiences are always up for dancing and having a great time so it will be an absolute pleasure.” WHO: The Rooftops WHAT: Something So Familiar (Independent) WHERE & WHEN: The GPO Saturday Nov 20

WED 17

Alex Jones The Tempo Hotel Geoﬀ Rayner Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Guitar/Band Hero Competition Elephant & Wheelbarrow Karma Victory Hotel Lanie Lane, Jez Mead The Troubadour Locavore, The Auburn, The Molotov Club 299 Lydia, We Set Sail, The Paper and The Plane, Elliot The Bull, Bixby Canyon The Hive Mace and Mack, The Fuzz X & Y Bar Mark Sheils Royal George My Escapade, Tinian’s Boy Fitzy’s Loganholme Open Mic The Music Kafe Soula’ Flare Glass Bar & Restaurant The Bowery Hot Five With Mal Wood The Bowery The Divine Right Of Kings, Irukandji, Shotgun Halo, I Shall Devour Step Inn The John Steel Singers, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Ball Park Music The Hi-Fi The Mouldy Lovers, Greshka, The Vulture St Family Skiﬄe Band The Zoo Thee Hugs, The Chokes Ric’s Tyson Faulkner Fiddlers Green

THU 18

Adam Power Story Bridge Hotel Adrian Keys Tinbilly Travellers Angela Fabian The Joynt Ballad Boy Loving Hut Boys and Girls X & Y Bar Briggs, Drapht, Optamus Railway Bar, Byron Bay Fillit Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Girl Vs Ghost, Damsels In Distress, The Hotel Charlie Club 299 Hey Fever, The Auburn, The Incredible Kicks, Tiny Migrants Step Inn Holly Th rosby, Kieran Ryan, Mckisko The Troubadour Jazz Under The Stars, Seventh Avenue Cloudland Jez Mead Buddha Bar Lambda: Alba Varden, Swim, Moon Fleet Alhambra Lounge Lanie Lane The Buddha Bar

Lucian Mcguiness, Remco Keijzer, Misinterprotato Jazzworx Lunch Tapes, The Baby Seal Club Ric’s Lydia, Elliot The Bull Rosie’s Macho Grande, Legless, No Right Turn The Music Kafe Mark Bono Hamilton Hotel Mason Rack Band Nambour RSL Miami Horror Globe Theatre Michael Hoad, Heerabella, Stockade The Bug My Escapade, Tinian’s Boy Club Envy Nigel McTrustry, Caroline Hammond The Nimbin Hotel Nik Phillips Victory Hotel Numbers Radio, Brothers, The Last Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Philadelphia Grand Jury, Howl, Bearhug The Beach Hotel, Byron Bay Roller One Cabinessence Sharny Russel, Lauren Lucille, Steve Russell, Andrew Shaw, Joe Marchisella Brisbane Jazz Club Simon Watson Gilhooley’s Brisbane Southbank Rock School: 12 Gauge Whiskey Rage, The Dead Rabbits, October Letters, Black Books, The Ovaries, Red Label, Tough & Go The Zoo The Big Duo, The Wind Up Dolls The Tempo Hotel The John Steel Singers, Deep Sea Arcade, Pam Pam Coolangatta Hotel The Satellites The Bowery Venus Envy Royal Exchange Hotel Woody Elephant & Wheelbarrow

FRI 19

8 Ball Miami Tavern Adrian Keys The International Hotel After Glow Alderley Arms Hotel Akasa Sherwood Services Club Andrew Campbell Alexandra Headlands Blue Bar Apparently Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Australian Robbie Williams Show Springwood Hotel Bleeding Knees Club Woodland Blind Lemon Seagulls

Blindchase Kitty O’Shea’s Blindchase Wharf Tavern Bonﬁ re Nights, Blonde On Blonde, Sugar Army The Troubadour Bud Surfers Paradise SLSC Byron Short Royal Exchange Hotel C4 Chatswood Hills Tavern Cadd & Morris, Hodads Hinterland Hotel Comicbook Hero Hamilton Hotel Daniel Dow Story Bridge Hotel Deadly Dance For Justice: Fyah Walk, Impossible Odds, Kindling, Tjupurru Globe Theatre DJ Quintrixx Narangba Valley Tavern Double Dose Jimboomba Country Tavern Doug De Jong Rochedale Rovers Drapht, Dialectrix, Optamus The Tempo Hotel Fat Albert Broadbeach Tavern Gareth Liddiard, Loene Carmen Old QLD Museum Grafton Primary, Infusion, Disco Nap The Zoo Green Jam: Joshua Tait Trio QPAC, Melbourne St Green Greg Wall Dublin Docks Tavern Hemi Kingi Trio Wynnum Point Hotel Holly Th rosby, Keiran Ryan Soundlounge Currumbin Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Ball Park Music Runaway Bay Tavern Jan Lennardz J’z Jazz Crew Vida Amor Restaurant Jeﬀ Carter Victory Hotel Jericho Palmwoods Hotel Jez Mead, Lanie Lane Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Joel Walkenhorst, Bonedry Duo Kawana Waters Hotel Jon Bos Rocks Stones Corner Hotel Josh Henry Ferny Grove Tavern Kaos Kedron Park Hotel Karma Burleigh Heads Hotel Lydia, Elliot The Bull Billy’s Beach House Mace Fernvale Hotel Macka Titanium Bar Mark Easton Australian Hotel Massive Fergusons Royal Mail Hotel Goodna Michelle Brown Duo Tewantin Noosa RSL

Paul Clarke Morningside AFL Club Paul Van Den Hoorn, The Replicants Elephant & Wheelbarrow Philadelphia Grand Jury, Howl, Bearhug The Hi-Fi PJ Hooker Eleven 17 Queensland Wind & Jazz King George Square Ramjet Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Rapids, Myth & Tropics, The Moderns, Fairchild Republic Miami Tavern Shark Bar Rick Barron Racehourse Hotel Rob Reeves and His Virtual Guitar Orchestra Samford Homestead Restaurant Roller One The Hi-Fi Rushmore CBX Sabrina Lawrie & The Hunting Party, Ivy May Dillon, Dana Gehrman, Sharon Friel The Beetle Bar Sarenda Fusion Villa Noosa Scott Dean Club Hotel Waterford Shag Duo Maroochydore SLSC Short Stack, QSM Live Manouche Jazz Weekend: Salon Rouge, Greshka Queen Street Mall Simon Kennedy Q Bar Holiday Inn Skyway, Word Up Hard Rock Café Smitty & B. Goode, Running Guns Ric’s Steve Trubble Horse & Jockey Warwick Stevenson St Albany Creek Tavern Texas Tea, Lion Island X & Y Bar The Beam Redbank Plains Tavern The Beards, The Rooftops, Dogtags, Jack Human The Loft Chevron Island The Darren J Ray Trio Sandgate RSL The Deckchairs, Oka, Rob Longstaff, The Led Roses Maleny Community Centre The Front Edinburgh Castle Hotel The Geoff Green Trio The Point Restaurant The Hard Word Feat. Mohini Cox Brisbane Jazz Club The Hayden Hack Infusion Locknload West End The John Steel Singers, Deep Sea Arcade, Glass Towers Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay The Residents, Savannah Jo Lack Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform The Roger Gonzalez & Rohan Somasekaran Trio Cuvee Lounge Bar, Sofitel

The Sparkz Gilhooley’s Brisbane The Ten Fours The Joynt Todd Burns Centenary Tavern Treva Scobie Southern Hotel Toowoomba Triplickit, No Right Turn The Music Kafe Two Cool Murrumba Downs Tavern Two Way Active Buderim Tavern Two Way Street The Palace Hotel

SAT 20

22 Hotels Alexandra Headlands Blue Bar Adrian Keys Waves Bar, Nth Stradbroke Angela Fabian Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Australian Robbie Williams Show Kallangur Tavern Berst Elephant & Wheelbarrow Blindchase CBX Bud Twin Towns Byron Short Rochedale Rovers C4 Miami Tavern Carl Wockner, Spun Kawana Waters Hotel Cheap Fakes Locknload West End Cheap Fakes Verrierdale Hall Dachunga Gilhooley’s Strathpine Dan England Narangba Valley Tavern Dave Ritter Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Diamond Trade, Hanklin Bros, West Texas Crude, Sugar Shakers The Music Kafe Doug De Jong Spring Lake Hotel Geoﬀ Rayner Manly Hotel Hits, Mad Macka, Leftwaﬀe The Beetle Bar Holly Th rosby Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Homer Ipswich Jets Hot Escape, Neodyne, Geomantra Springwood Hotel Husk Cleveland Sands Hotel Jez Mead, Lanie Lane The Loft Chevron Island Kaki King, Tara Simmons The Zoo Kate Vigo & The Underground Orchestra, Brianna Carpenter Flipside Circus Lizard Kings, Hey Fever, Hoodlum Charlie Miami Tavern Shark Bar Mace Southern Hotel Toowoomba Martini 66, Shaun Kirk Royal Mail Hotel Goodna Michelle Brown Duo River Lounge Noosa

Mirror World, Stewart Fairhurst Hamilton Hotel Monkey Business Victory Hotel Morning Of The Mo Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Novacain Story Bridge Hotel Open Arms Festival: The Living End, Birds Of Tokyo, Grafton Primary, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Horrorshow, Behind Crimson Eyes, City Riots, Metals Coffs Harbour Showgrounds Palmwoods Got The Blues: Daniel Champagne, Dillon James, Geoff Achison Palmwoods Hotel Peabody, Sister Jane Ric’s PJ Hooker The Palace Hotel Punkfest: The Go Set, Denim Dan And The Dogs Bollocks, Mouthguard, Plan Of Attack, Wheat Paste, The Black Market, D Rouser Jubilee Hotel QSM Live Manouche Jazz Weekend: Swing Guitars, East West Hot Club Queen Street Ramjet Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Seductive Soul Gilhooley’s Loganholme Silver Ocean Storm, Shellfi n, High Plains Drifter, Perspektiv Globe Theatre Solar Rush Royal Exchange Hotel Spike Alderley Arms Hotel Stairway Lansdowne Tavern Sunset Sessions: Andrew Petersen, Mardi Lumsden & The Rising Seas QPAC, Melbourne St Green Thank You Red Hill: We All Want To, Edward Guglielmino, Moon Jog, Super Electric Trio Of Doom Lofly Hangar That Festival: You Am I, Regurgitator, Miami Horror, Little Red, Ash Grunwald, Funkoars, Space Invadas, Calling All Cars Cabarita Pony Club That Festival After Party Neverland The Big Duo, Brooksy & Co The Tempo Hotel The Gin Club, The Stress Of Leisure, The Maladies The Hi-Fi The John Hoff man Project Brisbane Jazz Club The John Steel Singers, Deep Sea Arcade, Fishing Spotted Cow The Medics X & Y Bar The Walters The Boundary Hotel

FRIDAY ORIGIN AL GRE SATURD EN JAM AY SUN 5-8PM S E T SESSI SUNDA Y GLO ONS 5-9 BAL GR PM MAYBEL O O VE 2-5PM AND TH LE GALUVAO

E GROO Performe VE d with Ma cy Grey & FACTOR Naughty by Nature 58

Th riller: Wish For Wings, Poseidon, Th is City Ignites Rosie’s Todd Burns Centenary Tavern Tom Foolery Grand Central Hotel Undead Apes, The Sips, Nova Scotia, Pastel Blaze The Troubadour Vertigo Broadbeach Tavern Ziggy, The Songs Of David Bowie QPAC Concert Hall

SUN 21

Morningside Fats Jubilee Hotel Paul Clarke Our Haus Café QSM Live Manouche Jazz Weekend: Fox Lane Quartet, Ewan Mackenzie And Swing Manouche Queen Street Mall Skyway, Word Up Shed 5 Burleigh Heads Smokie QPAC Concert Hall Sunday Session, The Walters The Tempo Hotel The Bagman Redland Bay Hotel The Big Easy Noosa Yacht Club The Con Artists Brisbane Jazz Club The Darren J Ray Duo Gaythorne RSL The Fun Team, Jam Night The Music Kafe The Go Set Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay The Moderns X & Y Bar The Mustard Duo Dublin Docks Tavern The Scouts Oxford 152 Up The River Jazz Story Bridge Hotel Vaughan Ney Cleveland Sands Hotel Vertigo Billy’s Beach House

Adrian Keys The Breakfast Creek Hotel Andrew Baxter Band Harrigan’s Drift Inn Blind Lemon Ivory Hotel Bob Mouat Southern Hotel Toowoomba Bounce Victory Hotel Brad Wild Gilhooley’s Loganholme Brett Hitchcock Benowa Tavern Bud Wynnum Workers Club Calling Last Drinks, Los Huevos, Mystery Band, Mystery Band, Texas Tea, Mexico City, Edward Guglielmino And The Show, P-Uke, Cori The Troubadour Casey Rogan, Berst Elephant & Wheelbarrow Chad Shuttleworth Palmwoods Hotel Clark Brick Waterfront Hotel Funk Yeah Locknload West End Global Grooves: Mihirangi, Maybelle Galuvao And The Groove Chapter, The View From Madeleine’s Couch QPAC, Melbourne St Green Grass Roots Music Festival: 8 Ball Aitken, Blind Lemon, Rose Carleo, Rod Dowsett, Hannah Acﬁeld, Gooreng Gooreng, David Flower, Pacha Mamma Mount CootTha’s Botanical Gardens Hippopotamus Miami Tavern Hodads Broadbeach Tavern Ingrid James, Steve Russell, Jack Thorncraft Waterloo Hotel Live Spark: Adele and Glen, Sean Sennett Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Mace, Treva Scobie Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Mark Boersma Burleigh Heads Hotel Mark Easton The Joynt Mason Rack Band Brunswick Hotel Michelle Brown Duo Kin Kin Hotel

MON 22

Ohai, Idaho Place The Music Kafe Smokie Empire Theatre Stairway Conrad Jupiters

TUE 23

Connor Cleary The Music Kafe Escalate: Al Buchan, The Deep End, Tim Loydell, Hunter Van Larkins, Daniel Champagne The Tempo Hotel Femi Kuti and The Positive Force Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre Nik Phillips Caloundra RSL Paul Van Den Hoorn Elephant & Wheelbarrow Paul Young Trio Locknload West End Punchdrunks, Instrumental Destruction X & Y Bar

.AU

OM C . C A P

Q GREEN

JAM W

EEKEN

MAJO

R PAR

TNER

FINAL WEEK

THU NOV 18

WEDNESDAY NOV 17

MIAMI HORROR

JEZ MEAD

+ LANIE LANE PRE $10 / DOOR $12 / 8PM

WITH TIM FUCHS DOORS OPEN 7PM - $25+BF/$30 - 18+ID

THURSDAY NOV 18

FRI NOV 19

HOLLY THROSBY

DEADLY DANCE FOR JUSTICE Aboriginal Rights Coalition Fundraiser

+ KIEREN RYAN (KID SAM) + MCKISKO PRE $20 / DOOR $25 / 8PM

FRIDAY NOV 19

+Fyah Walk +Tjupurru +Impossible Odds +Homeless Yellow

SUGAR ARMY

+ BLONDE ON BLONDE + BONFIRE NIGHTS PRE $15 / DOOR $20 / 8PM

SATURDAY NOV 20

DOORS OPEN 7PM - $15+BF/$20 - 18+ID

UNDEAD APES

SAT NOV 20

+ THE SIPS + NOVA SCOTIA + PASTEL BLAZE $TBC / 8PM

SILVER OCEAN STORM & SHELLFIN DOUBLE ALBUM LAUNCH

SUNDAY NOV 21

THE TROUBADOUR’S GRAND FINALE

+HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER +PERSPECTIV

WITH VERY SPECIAL GUESTS

DOORS OPEN 7PM - $10 - 18+ID

THE TROUBADOUR

Level 2, 322 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley

COMING SOON

(next to Cosmopolitan Cafe in the Valley Mall)

www.thetroubadour.com.au http://troubadour.oztix.com.au Bookings and enquiries: thetroubadour@grafﬁti.net

THU NOV 25

Radio Star +Pensive Penguin +Running Guns +Hard Graphic All The Things We Did Tour

DOORS OPEN 7PM - $9+BF/$12 - 18+ID

FRI NOV 26

PETER B & THE HOMELESS SOULS +BENJAMIN HOoPER TRIO +AARON NEBAUER +DRU DOORS OPEN 7PM - $10+BF/ $12 (CONCESSION)/$14 (FULL) - 18+ID

SAT NOV 27

KIDNEY THIEVES SINGLE LAUNCH +TiN CAN RADIO +SLIMEY THINGS +PIRATE +GREEN THIEF

DOORS OPEN 7PM - $10+BF/$15 - 18+ID

321 BRUNSWICK STREET MALL, FORTITUDE VALLEY WEDNESDAY 17 NOV

THURSDAY 18 NOV

LE PARTI SOUL W DJ REDBEARD (8PM) + THEE HUGS (9.30PM) + THE CHOKES (8.30PM)

TAPES (9.30PM) + BABY SEAL CLUB (8.30PM) + DJ VALDIS (8PM)

FRIDAY 19 NOV DOWNSTAIRS:

SMITTY & B. GOODE (9PM) + RUNNING GUNS (8PM) + DJ VALDIS (8PM)

SATURDAY 20 NOV DOWNSTAIRS:

DJ BENJAMIN BOUNCE (8PM)

PEABODY (ALBUM LAUNCH) (9PM) + SISTER JANE (8PM) + DJ VALDIS (8PM) UPSTAIRS: DJ CUTTS (8PM)

SUNDAY 21 NOV

MONDAY 22 NOV

UPSTAIRS:

CUCA SHOP (2XSETS) 8PM

TUESDAY 22 NOV BANDITO FOLK (9.30PM) + VAN RICHARDS (8.30PM)

FEVER PITCH (9.30PM) + JOLLY JOLLY DOOWHACKER (8.30PM)

FREE LIVE MUSIC AND INDIE DJS

WANT TO PLAY? EMAIL

BOOKINGS@RICSBAR.COM.AU

WWW.RICSBAR.COM.AU 59

ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

Thursday Lambda: Alba Varden, Swim, Moon Fleet

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE THEATRE

Tuesday Femi Kuti and The Positive Force

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE TURBINE PLATFORM

Friday The Residents: Savannah Jo Lack Saturday Angela Fabian Sunday Live Spark: Adele and Glen, Sean Sennett

COOLANGATTA HOTEL

Thursday The John Steel Singers, Deep Sea Arcade, Pam Pam

ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW

Wednesday Guitar/Band Hero Competition Thursday Woody Friday Paul Van Den Hoorn, The Replicants Saturday Berst Sunday Casey Rogan, Berst Tuesday Paul Van Den Hoorn

FUSION VILLA NOOSA

Friday Sarenda

GLOBE THEATRE

Thursday Miami Horror Friday Deadly Dance For Justice, Fyah Walk, Impossible Odds, Kindling, Tjupurru

Saturday Silver Ocean Storm, Shellﬁn, High Plains Drifter, Perspektiv

ROCKINGHORSE RECORDS TOP 10 1. Tangalooma THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS

GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL BYRON BAY

Thursday Numbers Radio, Brothers, The Last Friday The John Steel Singers, Deep Sea Arcade, Glass Towers Saturday Morning Of The Mo Sunday The Go Set

HARD ROCK CAF

2. He Will Have His Way: The Songs Of Tim & Neil Finn VARIOUS ARTISTS 3. Triple J’s Like A Version Six VARIOUS ARTISTS 4. Come Around Sundown KINGS OF LEON

ON THE TIME OFF STEREO

10. Midnight Remember LITTLE RED

Songs From The Road LEONARD COHEN

Guided By Delight THE SEWERGROOVES

MIAMI TAVERN SHARK BAR

Friday Rapids, Myth & Tropics, The Moderns, Fairchild Republic Saturday Lizard Kings, Hey Fever, Hoodlum Charlie

QPAC CONCERT HALL

Saturday Ziggy, The Songs Of David Bowie Sunday Smokie

8. Conditions TEMPER TRAP 9. 2 GRINDERMAN

JUBILEE HOTEL

Friday 8 Ball Saturday C4 Sunday Hippopotamus

7. Innerspeaker TAME IMPALA

Allo Darlin’ ALLO DARLIN’ The Wants THE PHANTOM BAND

MIAMI TAVERN

6. Drama To The Finish STATESMEN

Blurry Blue Mountain GIANT SAND

Friday Skyway, Word Up

Saturday Punkfest: The Go Set, Denim Dan And The Dogs Bollocks, Mouthguard, Plan Of Attack, Wheat Paste, The Black Market, D Rouser Sunday Morningside Fats

5. Giant Steps BIGFOOT

Unproﬁtable Servant THE BONNIWELLS

4ZzZ FM NOW PLAYING

Love Planet PAINTERS & DOCKERS

1. Candy Bling Shoes String THE MOULDY LOVERS

She’s Always A Woman BILLY JOEL

2. Traitor INLAND SEA

Grave Consequences UNDEAD APES

3. Kyu KYU

It’s Happening STRAIGHT ARROWS

4. Sacriﬁce OH YE DENVER BIRDS

RIC’S

Wednesday Thee Hugs, The Chokes Thursday Lunch Tapes, The Baby Seal Club Friday Smitty & B. Goode, Running Guns Saturday Peabody, Sister Jane

ROSIE’S

Thursday Lydia, Elliot The Bull Saturday Thriller: Wish For Wings, Poseidon, This City Ignites

STEP INN

Wednesday The Divine Right Of Kings, Irukandji, Shotgun Halo, I Shall Devour Thursday Hey Fever, The Auburn, The Incredible Kicks, Tiny Migrants

SURFERS PARADISE BEER GARDEN

Friday Ramjet Saturday Ramjet

THE HI-FI

Wednesday The John Steel Singers, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Ball Park Music Friday Philadelphia Grand Jury, Howl, Bearhug Friday Roller One Saturday The Gin Club, The Stress Of Leisure, The Maladies

THE TEMPO HOTEL

Wednesday Alex Jones Thursday The Big Duo, The Wind Up Dolls

5. Too Strange for Avery BLAME RINGO 6. Strange Tourist GARETH LIDDIARD 7. Escapades HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY 8. The Fool WARPAINT 9. Tangalooma THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS 10. Get Some LYKKE LI Friday Drapht, Dialectrix, Optamus Saturday The Big Duo, Brooksy & Co Sunday Sunday Session, The Walters Tuesday Escalate, Al Buchan, The Deep End, Tim Loydell, Hunter Van Larkins, Daniel Champagne

THE TROUBADOUR

Wednesday Lanie Lane, Jez Mead Thursday Holly Throsby, Kieran Ryan, Mckisko Friday Bonﬁre Nights, Blonde On Blonde, Sugar Army Saturday Undead Apes, The Sips, Nova Scotia, Pastel Blaze

TIME WARP Nov 17, 2003 – Britney Spears, at 21

years old, becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nov 18, 1987 – U2 opens for itself by pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers during a concert in Los Angeles. Nov 19, 1993 – Nirvana records an MTV Unplugged concert in New York. Nov 20, 1998 – Alanis Morissette does an instore performance for the opening of a Tower Records store in Buenos Aires. The proceeds from the sale of her album for the day are donated to a local children’s hospital. Nov 21, 1980 – Don Henley is arrested after paramedics treat a nude 16-year-old girl suﬀering from drug intoxication at his home in Los Angeles. Henley is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, cocaine and Quaaludes and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Nov 22, 1997 – INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence is found dead in his hotel room in the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay, Sydney. He was 37 years old. Nov 23, 1976 – Police arrest Jerry Lee Lewis outside the gates of Graceland after he shows up for the second time that night and makes a scene by shouting, waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis Presley. Sunday Calling Last Drinks: Los Huevos, Mystery Band, Mystery Band, Texas Tea, Mexico City, Edward Guglielmino And The Show, P-Uke, Cori

THE ZOO

Wednesday The Mouldy Lovers, Greshka, The Vulture St Family Skiﬄe Band Thursday Southbank Rock School, 12 Gauge Whiskey Rage, The Dead Rabbits, October Letters, Black Books, The Ovaries, Red Label, Tough & Go Friday Grafton Primary, Infusion, Disco Nap Saturday Kaki King, Tara Simmons

X & Y BAR

Wednesday Mace and Mack, The Fuzz Thursday Boys And Girls Friday Texas Tea, Lion Island Saturday The Medics Sunday The Moderns Tuesday Punchdrunks, Instrumental Destruction

GETTIN’ COMFY SAVANNAH JO LACK

We’ll be presenting new songs and arrangements at each show.

BRISBANE BOUND

Any special guests going to make an appearance during your tenure? Yes! I feel very lucky to be making music with an amazing line up of Brissie players . Silas Palmer on keys, violin and magic. Kathryn McKee on cello and wit. Adrian Mauro on keys, bass and tinklies. Beck Flatt on fat grooves, my beautiful niece, Sarah Hodkinson on vocals and violin and Dave McGuire on guitar solos that are so soaring and beautiful, I sometimes forget to sing.

DANIEL CHAMPAGNE

Is this your first foray to Brisbane? If not how many times have you performed in our midst? I think I’ve been through Brisbane about five times already this year. I came up to QLD first to play Woodford a few times and the made my way into the city, Gold and Sunny Coast. Please relate your impressions of performing in our fair city. I’ve only had great times up there. It’s a small scene compared to Melbourne and Sydney but it’s tight, no egos and there’s some real cool things for young artists. No other city around Oz has anything like Fretfest! What can we expect different this time around? A new bunch of songs that I’m road testing. Among the show there is a guitar special at Tempo on Tuesday which will get me excited. Home ground: Far south coast of NSW Describe your live music/performance style as succinctly as possible. Folk and blues based original and traditional songs driven by a guitar style using body percussion, two hand tapping and weird tunings.

Has anything exciting been happening in your world of late? Just a few months back from the Canadian tour. In WA now heading your way. Then a tour of NZ before I settle down over summer to record my debut album! Daniel Champagne plays Upfront Club, Maleny on Friday, Palmwoods Hotel on Saturday, Peregian Originals, Peregian on Sunday, and Tempo Hotel on Tuesday

Favourite position at the venue when you’re not on stage? Back of the audience, vino in hand, taking everything in. Artist name: Savannah Jo Lack and Her Irreverent Orchestra What is it about the venue that makes you want to a run of shows there? The Powerhouse is an amazing venue, run by a group of people who are truly committed to music and the arts. I haven’t come across anything like it in my travels. I love that punters can choose how they experience the show – up close and personal or from the bar or balcony. As an artist who tours pretty extensively and plays in every type of venue, it is really a treat to land at the Powerhouse and be met by great sound, a great stage and a great crew of people. A run of shows there means that I can really experiment with how we present the songs each week. Same set every week or mixing it up? Mixing it up!

What have you been up to of late? A lot! It’s been a crazy year. I toured with Chris Pickering and awesome San Francisco artist Annie Bacon in March this year. We played triple header shows up and down the west coast of the US. We managed to ﬁt a mattress and about 20 instruments into our Sprinter van, all of which were played at some point or another during our sets. Umm. What else? I’ve been arranging strings for a gaggle of Nashville artists and played my debut US TV appearance with New York artist, Ruth Gerson, on the Craig Ferguson show in October. I’m heading back to San Francisco at the end of November to launch Annie Bacon’s folk opera and to begin pre- prod on my new album. Very excite! Savannah Jo Lack plays Brisbane Powerhouse on Friday Nov 19 and Friday Nov 26

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE PRESENTS //

WEEKEND SESSIONS

FREE EVENTS THIS WEEKEND AT BRISBANE POWERHOUSE THIS FRIDAY 6PM

THE RESIDENTS

19 NOVEMBER SAVANNAH JO LACK

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re fresh, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re free and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re moving in. A new band makes Brisbane Powerhouse their home each month.

THIS SATURDAY 5PM

TURBINE JAZZ 20 NOVEMBER ANGELA FABIAN QUARTET

Cool cats and smooth tunes, cross rhythms and bebop.

NOV 26 - DEC 3

THIS SUNDAY 3.30PM

LIVE SPARK

/ / /

21 NOVEMBER ADELE AND GLEN + SEAN SENNET

// / / / /// /

Featuring the best indie pop/rock talent from Brisbane and beyond.

THIS SUNDAY 6.30PM

LIVEWIRED

21 NOVEMBER LINDSEY WEBB

Funny, free and freakinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; awesome.

FREE EVENT

FEATURING STREET ART TATTOO FINE ART & PERCUSSION WORKSHOPS DRUM SALES LIVE MUSIC

NOV 26TH

OPENING NIGHT LAUNCH PARTY / 6pm TIMBREPERCUSSION.COM.AU

MORE INFO BRISBANEPOWERHOUSE.ORG 07 3358 8600

BEHIND THE LINES BEHIND THE LINES WITH MICHAEL SMITH BTL@STREETPRESS.COM.AU TYM JUST BIGGER Some of you will have noticed that the music retailer the international stars seem to love best in Brisbane, Tym Guitars, has been closed for a few weeks. Well, the good news is that what’s happened is that the man behind the name, Tim Brennan has moved to a much bigger, custom-built space just 20 metres from where you’ve been used to finding him and this week Tym Guitars reopens at 5E Winn Street, Fortitude Valley. But wait, as they say in the ads, there’s more. Not only will the new store offer a much bigger and more diverse range of amps, recording equipment, drums, tour gear and all manner of merch, from CDs and vinyl to collectables, as well as a bigger hire section and practice rooms, but also, and this is the exciting part, a full digital 16-track recording studio. We’ll be running a studio profile on the facility a little down the track when it’s all up and running properly, but for now, we can tell you that studio will complement the new fully-equipped live stage where you’ll be able to catch local, national and international bands playing instores. The dedicated stage area will feature a full backline and a custom-built 16-channel audio system designed and installed by Acoustic Technologies, complete with the option of full 16-track studio quality recording. Tym Guitars are also now the exclusive representatives of Brisbane-made Vase Amplifiers. For those of you who turn to the store for your repairs, the main repair and manufacturing workshop remains at the Fern Street, Buranda address, but the new facility is large enough to take up a lot of the repairs and some of the manufacturing, so it’ll still be the central drop off/pick up point for those running repairs touring acts inevitably find they have to make. Anyway, I’ll have a chat to Brennan next week to get a bit more of the inside story.

Q MUSIC SONGWRITING WORKSHOP Co-presented by APRA/AMCOS, on Wednesday Nov 24 Q Music is presenting a free songwriting workshop at Brisbane Powerhouse’s Turbine Platform as part of the Professional Development workshop series for this year. The workshop is aimed at providing some insight and inspiration for aspiring, emerging and established musicians, managers and industry workers of all genres and will feature Richie and Tamara (Hits) and Geoff and Ben Corbett (SixFtHick) talking about collaboration and song arrangement. The two-hour session, which will run from 6pm, will be facilitated by the author of the rock’n’roll history of Brisbane, Pig City, Andrew Stafford. For details and to ensure your place, contact APRA.

THE INSIDE ON JIMI’S GEAR Voyageur Press has just published the first serious overview of the guitars, amps and effects Jimi Hendrix used across his career, unimaginatively but appropriately titled Jimi Hendrix Gear, by Michael Heatley, which includes a very brief forward by Roger Mayer, who became Hendrix’s electrical engineer and developed several of the effects pedals most often associated with the guitarist, most notably the Octavia, which reproduces the note being played an octave higher and mixes it with the original note and a dash of fuzz, as heard for instance on the solo in Purple Haze. While it’s not particularly well-written the research is pretty exhaustive and covers everything from the first guitar Hendrix ever owned, a 1957 Supro Ozark 1560S to the custom 1960 Zemaitis 12-string you see him playing on the cover of A Film About Jimi Hendrix, along with details of the various amps and effects pedals and even some stuff on Noel Redding’s basses and Mitch Mitchell’s drum kit. All up a superior coffee table book for anyone with a passion for instruments and the man who revolutionised the way we play the electric guitar.

SOUND BYTES Due for release towards the end of January, UK three-piece The White Lies went into Assault & Battery Studios in London to record their second album, Ritual, with producer Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails). To celebrate their formation 50 years ago, singer Colin Blunstone and keyboards player Rod Argent are currently in Argent’s Red House Studios in Bedfordshire, UK, with the current line-up of one of the most influential psychedelic band of the 60s, The Zombies, recording a new album which Argent is also producing. The new album, 21, from English singer songwriter Adele, was for the most part recorded in Malibu, California, with Rick Rubin, but also includes a couple of tracks produced by 2010 Brit Award/Music Producer’s Guild Producer of the Year Paul Epworth (Plan B, Bloc Party, Florence + The Machine), including the album’s first single, Rolling In The Deep, which Epworth wrote, recorded in Kensal Rise in London.

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ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE Leading up to what would have been his 68th birthday and marking the 40th anniversary of his death, noted Aussie guitarists STEVE EDMONDS, KEVIN BORICH and PETER NORTHCOTE discuss the legacy of one of the world’s best known guitarists with MICHAEL SMITH.

t should go without saying that, when it comes to the electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix changed everything. Sure there had been plenty of great players before him, pioneering innovators like Les Paul, Chet Atkins and Scotty Moore among others in the first wave of rock’n’roll. By the time Hendrix arrived in London in 1966, there was also the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, but what this remarkable musician brought to guitar playing took things to a whole other level no one at the time could ever have imagined and no-one since has really had such an all-encompassing impact. Even more remarkable is the fact that Hendrix achieved all that he did in just four short years; essentially from the time he arrived in London in September 1966 until his death on September 18, 1970. Celebrating the legacy and commemorating the 40th anniversary of his death, Saturday night sees the Enmore Theatre in Sydney hosting an evening dubbed Experience Jimi Hendrix, featuring ten renowned guitarists – Nathan Cavaleri, Kevin Borich, Randall Waller, Bob Spencer, Grant Walmsley, Peter Northcote, Dave Leslie, Chris Kamzelas, Steve Edmonds and Phil Emmanuel – performing songs from the Hendrix catalogue. Street Press Australia had a chat to a couple of the guitarists involved about the impact of Hendrix on guitar playing and on their own particular approach. “Hendrix’s impact on me personally was profound,” Edmonds says, whose CV includes stints with Jimmy Barnes and Shannon Noll as well as fronting his own trio. “I was a drummer from a family of drummers and we had a rehearsal one night in the school hall and one of the guys drove me home and he was playing Hendrix on a tape. I was so obviously impressed or whatever as this guy took the tape out and gave it to me and I had that tape in the cassette player by my bed for the next two years; played it every day. “I still went on playing drums. It was only after I went to see Kevin Borich one night – I went into Selina’s and saw Kevin play and I walked out a guitarist – that was the other turning point in my life.” “Basically the three-piece, big stack of amps, let’s go for it!” is how Borich describes what prompted him to

put together the band that he fronted from 1976, the “pop/rock” band that had brought him to Australia from New Zealand, The La De Da’s, having broken up. “I’d got into Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, that was the sort of thing I liked so that’s what started coming out of me I s’pose, that heavy guitar-oriented stuff.” “Technically,” Edmonds continues, “it’s ridiculous the impact and the level of invention that Jimi Hendrix has had on the world. The whole thing about trying to copy Hendrix – you just can’t, it’s as simple as that, because it comes from a different place. No-one sounds like Jimi Hendrix. His whole way of playing, the way the musical ideas flow through, are just a different way. I’ve never seen anyone play with such abandon, with such innate freedom. “He was the first guitarist to really use the amplifier and effects as a whole musical device, an incredible thing at that time. And it’s not like the way Hendrix played his [right-handed] guitar upside down has revolutionised things to the point where all guitarists are playing lefthanded and upside down. Stevie Ray Vaughan used the upside down [guitar] bridge because he thought the tremolo worked better for him. Other than that, it was a totally unique concept. So you have that working and then he bumped into [drummer] Mitch Mitchell, who just happens to be working in Jim Marshall’s shop – is that coincidence? And then he’s introduced to Roger Mayer. So here you had three people on the same wavelength meeting and collaborating to develop these huge steps in the evolution of the instrument.” Voyageur Press recently published the first serious overview of the guitars, amps and effects Hendrix used across his career, Jimi Hendrix Gear, by Michael Heatley, which includes a very brief forward by Mayer, who became Hendrix’s electrical engineer and developed several of the effects pedals most often associated with the guitarist. Most notable of these is the Octavia, which reproduces the note being played an octave higher and mixes it with the original note and a dash of fuzz, as heard for instance on the solo in Purple Haze. The aforementioned Jim Marshall was of course the drummer with an interest in electronics who developed the iconic Marshall amp, which, along

with the Fender Strat guitar, was the other vital ingredient in creating the Hendrix sound. “And it was still essentially a very clean guitar sound,” Edmonds adds. “Yes there was a fuzz pedal and a wah and so on but it was still a Strat through a [well six eventually] very clean, bright JMT [100w] Marshalls. With that he was able to create these themes, which is how I see them, which are so rich in harmony and melody that sound so beautiful on the instrument.” “I just liked his whole thing,” is how Borich sees Hendrix. “He wrote fantastic lyrics, he wrote fantastic songs, I liked the way he sang, I liked the way he played – he was a total unit, he had showmanship, he had everything.” In complete contrast, Peter Northcote admits that, “I didn’t like Hendrix much when I first heard him. I liked all the later stuff; Band Of Gypsies, Crash Landing, etc. But I thought he was a bit sloppy and was often out of tune, until one day I listened to Are You Experienced and I just ‘got it’. It was like hearing guitar for the first time. I was like a virgin being touched knowing that I shouldn’t be allowing this to happen… but it felt so good. We as musicians ultimately strive to find our ‘voice’. Like Jeff Beck and many other masters, Hendrix found his early. I just wasn’t tuned it to it. Now, I tune in to Jimi to tune out (minus the acid). Hendrix ‘is’ the guitar!” Experiencing Jimi Hendrix happens Saturday Nov 19 at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney.

STUDIO PROFILE SPARK 1 STUDIOS MARK ‘SPARKY’ PALTRIDGE, OWNER/ ENGINEER/PRODUCER

WHAT’S THE STUDIO SET UP YOU HAVE THERE EQUIPMENT-WISE? As I’m still renting, I built my studios within 2 ex-shipping containers. This way, I’m totally portable if needed be, as well as not being tied down to a lease. One room is a complete tracking room, with the other the control room, linked via video cables and a multicore. I also run a multicore to the downstairs of our house, often tracking drums this way, utilising room mics placed in the adjacent bathrooms and stairwell, if we want to go for the HUGE drums sounds! I’ve collected a fair bit of outboard gear over the years, relying heavily on JLM Audio gear, (pres, comps, eqs), as well as API comps and pres, Avedis pres, Quad Eight pres, and various outboard FX, such as Lexicon reverbs & delays, as well as a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. I recently upgraded my monitors to the Event Opals and just love them! (I still love my Auratones too). All mixes are summed outside the box via a summing mixer. I have 24 I/O via my RME ADI-8 convertors.

before they start recording, as there’s nothing more frustrating than listening back a few days later and saying, “It’s a little bit too slow/too fast/out of the groove”. Spend the time getting a basic two-track recording of your rehearsals, and listen back to see if it’s really ‘working’ as a song, for all of the band. It’s got to feel ‘right’, really move you.

I’m all about the song, and this means paying attention to arrangements/grooves/song speeds/keys etc…. Book my studio and you get me thrown in for free!

WHICH NOTABLE ARTISTS HAVE WORKED AT THE STUDIO?

Yes, I can, but I’m yet to have a band keep this take as the final take, as they all invariably want to re-track their individual parts to really lock it in. Whatever works for the client is fine by me!

I’ve been recording here in Montville for six years, and I’ve been lucky to have worked with many talented local acts and songwriters, but I guess the MOST notable would have to be world class producer/songwriter, Bob Montgomery. (Writer of Buddy Holly’s Heartbeat, producer of Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings and countless others). He now lives up here in Noosa, and he asked me to track vocals for an artist by the name of Jasmine Rae. All the backing tracks were recorded in Nashville, uploaded to me, then I engineered for Bob and Jasmine for three days, comp’d the vocals and uploaded them back to Nashville, to get mixed. It just blew me away being able to sit and learn from such a great man!

WHO DO YOU HAVE ON STAFF AND WHAT’S THEIR BACKGROUND IN THE INDUSTRY?

IS THE STUDIO CAPABLE OF HOLDING A FULL BAND AT ONCE FOR RECORDING?

WE’RE AN IMPOVERISHED INDIE BAND – DO YOU OFFER ANY DEALS FOR ACTS IN OUR SITUATION? My studio and all its facilities are $60.00 per hour or $400.00 per day.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IN-HOUSE INSTRUMENTS AT THE STUDIO ACTS CAN USE, OR IS IT TOTALLY BYO? I’m happy for the artists to bring their own gear, but I also have on hand: a Guild acoustic guitar, Fender Strat, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul, Fender and Marshall valve amps, a Sonor 3005 drum kit, an old Hammond organ with a Leslie inside it, as well as various other bits and pieces, and yes, you’re welcome to use them!

ANALOGUE VS DIGITAL – DISCUSS.

WORKING IN THE STUDIO CAN BE ARDUOUS AND WE’LL NEED A BREAK – WHAT ARE THE AMENITIES IN THE LOCAL AREA?

Love them both, use them both. I love good plug-ins, and I love using all my analogue gear in mixdown, too. Embrace it all, use what works for you.

Montville/Mapleton is the home of cafes et al, being a tourist town…. all within five minutess, either direction, from my studio.

ANY TIPS FOR ARTISTS ENTERING A STUDIO FOR THE FIRST TIME?

CAN BANDS BRING IN THEIR OWN ENGINEER OR DO THEY HAVE TO SOLELY USE A HOUSE ENGINEER?

WHAT ARE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS?

Pre-production is everything! It’s a great time saver for the client if they know the BPM/speed of the song,

I seem to get a lot of work these days, as I seem to have developed a certain sound that people like. For me,

It’s just me, but I have many artists I can call on to session for clients/singer/songwriters that may need a band to support their songs.

spark1studios@bigpond.com www.spark1studios.com 0416 262 319

EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION URBAN HUMM STUDIO, WEST END. Rehearsal Rooms, Recording Studio & P.A. Hire.Off street undercover parking, flat loading, aircond., P.A. provided. Open 6.00pm to 11.00pm. Weekend and day slots available.Permanent weekly spots available.Phone Andy. 0411632023 iFlogID: 9153

Fender Squier Deluxe Jazz V Active Bass Guitar with soft case. Black, matching headstock and electronics upgrades over $500 value alone (Bartolini pickups and NTMB3 pre). Excellent Condition. $700 ONO Call Brian 0431 080 829 iFlogID: 9189

DRUMS $250 for a 20” cast, hand-hammered ride cymbal? If you are not Dreaming already, go to www.cymbalsplus. com. Dream Cymbals and Gongs, Metro Drums plus more. iFlogID: 6985

CALL CENTRE/CU ST. SERVICE Telemarketer required with music industry experience by Sydney based established music production company. Possible work from home, if more suitable. Hourly rate plus commission neg. Please email your details for an appointment. leon@ oriium.com.au iFlogID: 9367

ENTERTAINMENT

BASIX CUSTOM BIRCH MAPLE DRUMKIT 5 Piece + Pearl Rank System 12’ & 13” Mounted Toms 16” Floor Tom with legs 14” Snare 2 x Boom Stands 1 x Hi Hat Stand 1 x Snare Stand VIC 0410 467 863 $1150 iFlogID: 8939

TAMA Custom Rockstar 5piece w hardware & Paiste 802 hi-hats, crash, ride. Pedal included. Excellent condition. Good, tuned skins. Can deliver. Beautiful blue beginners kit ready to rock, huge sound. iFlogID: 9295

Looking for a job backstage? Then join the thousands of other members who have found jobs at backstagejobs.com.au its free to subscribe with Jobs,News,Classifieds and now you can download our Iphone App for free

GUITARS FENDER STANDARD STRATOCASTER

iFlogID: 9268

PROMOTER DIRTY LAUNDRY PRODUCTIONS IS CURRENTLY RUNNING NEW EVENTS @ LADY LUX ON FRIDAYS AND WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOME NEW PROMOTERS WHO ARE KEEN TO JUMP ON BOARD WITH THE TEAM. PLEASE CONTACT MICHAEL ON 0403820043 iFlogID: 9264

Brand New Fender standard Stratocaster.(Mexico) Updated model including new tinted neck. Different colour options available. Package includes Guitar, gig bag and stand. RRP $1100 Logans Price $756 Heaps of other Fender bargains instore. Logans Music (02) 9744 2400 www. loganspianos.com.au AUTHORISED FENDER DEALER iFlogID: 6618

NEW WAY COMMUNITY CHAPEL NEW WAY COMMUNITY CHAPEL a small independent and non-denominational, inner-city Christian Church would really like to be in touch with someone who plays a musical instrument to assist us in our Worship Services held every Sunday night from 5.00pm. Time wise? Involvement could be weekly or fortnightly and hopefully voluntary. For more information? Go to www.newwaychapel.org.au or phone Pastor David on 33665412. We’re looking forward to hearing from you. iFlogID: 5909

FOR SALE

Brand New Gibson SG Standard Lefthanded guitar. Heritage chrery finish including Gibson hard case. Logans Price $1999 WOW! (righthanded also available!) Logans Music Burwood (02)97442400 www. loganspianos.com.au AUTHORISED GIBSON DEALER

GUITAR & BASS FX PEDALS

Fender twin reverb combo amplifier, later 70’s. reverb and tremolo. 100+ watts. silver face with foot switch, on casters. All original including the valves no tears anywhere. excellent condition. $2100. Contact brendon at email mccarrison@aapt.net.au

iFlogID: 9155

Markbass CMD102P: 300WRMS (500WRMS @ 4Ohm) 2x10” bass combo, only 20kg, absolutely massive sound, best 2x10 combo I’ve heard, amazing condition. $2595RRP. Includes custom made amp cover ($150) and Markbass Bass Keeper instrument stand ($50). $1700 for the lot! iFlogID: 9246

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FS: Digidesign C|24 - BRAND NEW, still in the box. ONLY $8000!!! INCLUDES: $2500 worth of DB25 to RTS break out cables at no extra cost. Will also deliver within sydney and help to install! Call Brent 0406 501 192

Excellent quality “road tough” guitar & bass effect pedals featuring rugged aluminium chassis construction, quality hardware & sturdy control knobs. All the effects you could ever need including metal, distortion, chorus, flange, phase, delay, overdrive, wah wah etc at great prices - starting from as low as $39.00 Order direct from our website www.ubersonic.com.au or contact us sales@ubersonic.com. au for more info iFlogID: 9037

GUITAR AMPLITUBE IRIG

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MUSIC SERVICES BOOKING AGENTS Gig Launch has heaps of opportunities for artists in Australia and around the world. We’re always on the hunt for new artists, so head over to www. giglaunch.com.au and get submitting! Go Aussie, Go Gig Launch iFlogID: 9386

Gig Launch is Australia’s first online booking agency with a difference for worldwide artists and promoters. We cater for every type of artist and promoter, to find out more head over to www.giglaunch.com.au Go Aussie, Go Gig Launch! iFlogID: 9147

Looking for bands to play Apollo Bay! Gig Launch, Australia’s first online booking agency, are accepting submissions to play Apollo Bay 2011. Great festival, great promotion. Head over to www.giglaunch.com.au to submit your band. Go Aussie, Go Gig Launch!

Electro-Harmonix “The Stereo Clone Theory” stereo chorus pedal. 2x chorus and 1x vibrator settings. Beautiful, ‘70s analogue chorus tone. Amazing condition with original packaging. $299RRP - only $120 for this one! Location: Ferny Hills, Brisbane. iFlogID: 9250

I’m seling my Digidesign MBOX2 including Pro Tools LE 8 for $450. It has been kept in a box and used only a couple of times since i bought one year ago. Mobile: 0421250023

RADIO BONDI IPHONE APP - FREE!

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Score a Brand New Unopened Rode K2 tube studio condenser mic for a great price!! $890 check out features at factorysound.com Call to do the deal 0411083379 iFlogID: 9094

PA EQUIPMENT BSSOUND SALE. Ex-hire equipment. OnLine Auction 19-24 Nov. 140 Lots of microphones, speakers, effects, amps, mixers, lights. www.bssound. com.au/sale.htm or Mark Barry on 0419 993 966 CARVER U.S.A Twin 900 watt split mono power amp with Bose controller/pre amp. rack mount style.in covered case.will run 4 speakers each side.total 1800 watts.LOUD! VGC $750 lot.Ph.0428744963 cooroy iFlogID: 9308

EAW KF-550 powerful and large PA speakers (2x). 2x15” 1x12” 1xhorn horizontally oriented. Triamped. Includes stands. $1900 for the pair. Call or email for specs, or visit http:// bit.ly/kf-550. jeremy@thebennett.org or 0400 404 919. iFlogID: 9098

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SELL YOUR BANDS C.D’S ONLINE!!!! www.rocknpops.com/unsignedmoozik

So ya love rock? You ain’t never heard it like this! Download ENVY - IMAGES FOR THE LONELY out now on Itunes. Experience the new face of Melbourne rock! iFlogID: 9117

SPECIAL OFFER!!!!

Special Packages available for artists and bands!! Whether being recording/ mixing. With networks to many studios around town your project will sound great and professional whilst working within a budget!! OUR PASSION IS TO CREATE RECORDS THAT GIVE THE LISTENER A HARD HITTING, FRESH SOUND THAT PUSHES BOUNDARIES, WHICH STANDS UP AMONGST THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE AND DO ALL GENRES. For a full list of our credits see myspace.com/mixinthelab. Contact us on 0424 462 945 or Email at thelab1@hotmail.com iFlogID: 6287

HIRE SERVICES Need a PA /Sound system for small functions/events ? For as low as $100, you get a professional PA system with a sound mixer, complete with operator. Suitable for weddings, pub/club band gigs, private parties,etc. Contact Chris 0419 272 196

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We’ve had a few more artists sign up over the past week, come check them out. Also, the site is changing, so bookmark us and stay tuned! www.soundornot.com. iFlogID: 9092

PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING THE CHEMISTRY OF SOUND

As Engineers/Producers our passion is to create tracks that give the listener a hard hitting, fresh sound that sonically sounds PHAT and pushes the boundaries of what music currently sounds like in Australia, which stands up amongst the international market. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE ALL GENRES. We’re located at Level 7 studios and the studio is decorated in some of the most appreciated vintage and modern gear which provides our clients an incomparable advantage in the sense of both the analogue and digital domains. Artists we’ve worked with include: Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Kanye West, INXS, Black Wallstreet and a myriad of local artists such as Hyjak, Potbelleez, Vice Verser, Thundamentals, Fame, Tycotic, Rai Thistlewaite (Thirsty Merc), Wendy Mathews, Gin Wigmore, Tim Freedman (The Whitlams), Carl Riseley, Hoodoo Gurus, Wes Carr, You Am I, and many more. Contact us on 0424 462 945 and check out myspace.com/mixinthelab iFlogID: 6186

PHOTOGRAPHY I’m Murray New, a Brisbane based photographer. I specialize in Band Promotional and Live Music photography, please contact me 0412961958 or murray.new@hotmail.com iFlogID: 9007

PROFESSIONAL MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

MASTERING Forensic Audio Mastering - Professional High End Analog and Digital Mastering. Recent projects include Paul Dempsey, Papa Vs Pretty and The Bank Holidays. Online service available from $80 per track. www. forensicaudio.com.au iFlogID: 9132

Would you like your EP mastered for $450 (ex GST)? Or how about your album mastered for $900 (ex GST)? Matthew Gray Mastering - world class mastering from where you are right now. Check out the blog for details matthewgraymastering.com/ blog. iFlogID: 8926

OTHER Commercial Radio Airplay, get your songs on Radio! Interested? contact andy@zfmcountrywide.com iFlogID: 9406

Free Radio Bondi Fm Iphone app, visit the app store, search for radio bondi, download free app, enjoy! iFlogID: 9408

We are experienced risk takers that not only know the rules, but also know when and how to break them! We have been engineering and mixing for over 15 years and have worked in Sydney’s top studios. We also have our own Mixing/Production studio called The LAB, located at the famous Level 7 studios which is decorated in some of the most appreciated vintage and modern gear in combination of a myriad of assorted software and plug-ins that provides our clients an incomparable advantage in the sense of both the analogue and digital domains. THIS IN COMBINATION WITH MANY STUDIO CONTACTS AROUND TOWN, YOUR PROJECT WILL SOUND GREAT AND PROFESSIONAL WHILST WORKING WITHIN A BUDGET!! For a full list of our credits see myspace. com/mixinthelab. Contact us on 0424 462 945 or Email at thelab1@ hotmail.com iFlogID: 6285

The MUDA Studio is offering a “Production Pack” including Writing, Recording, Mixing and Mastering for $300 per track ONLY. This pack is available for a period of time so hurry up and contact us at studio@ mudasutdio.com iFlogID: 9280

REHEARSAL ROOMS OUT LOUD MUSIC STUDIOS OUT LOUD MUSIC STUDIOS Brisbane’s favourite rehearsal rooms Open 7 days a week Discount rates for Mon-Fri 10am-5pm. Call 38460111 or 0414-369286 (all messages responded to).

REPAIRS ROCKIN REPAIRS - GUITAR TECH RESTRINGS-SETUPS-UPGRADESREPAIRS Do you live to play? Whether you’ve bought a new guitar or a favourite is feeling faded, we’ll rejuvenate it! We work hard to give you the feel/sound you want! 0405253417 tara@rockinrepairs.com www.rockinrepairs.com

TUITION For professional band promo and press ready photo packages contact Elleni on elleni@ltmusicphotography. com or 0400 786 209. www.ltmusicphotography.com

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS 4 GUITAR & KEYS

Trish Watson Photography! A young western sydney based photographer with a flair for creativity. Specialising in band promotional and live photography, events and portraiture. Let your eyes be the judge! web: http:// trishwatsonphoto.com email: trishwatson@live.com iFlogID: 8912

RECORDING STUDIOS Come and compare your quotes and quality. Fixed price deals on all release product. Killer sounds as good as anywhere in Australia. Classic SSL console and outboard gear. Affordabale live recordings, EP’s, Albums, Mastering. Protools & Analogue Eng/producers welcome. Ph: 0404066645 iFlogID: 8964

Do You Want That Million Dollar Sound On A Small Budget! CityOfNineGates is a studio near Bondi Beach that specialises in Contemporary and Urban music. To hear samples of recent projects and see testimonials – www.cityofninegates.com For Pricelist- cityofninegates@gmail.com

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BASS PLAYER

Easy way to learn saxophone for students of different ages (from kids to adults) and different levels (from beginners to advanced). $35/hour Lorenzo 0410041979

3 mid week inner Sydney original venues looking for original solo/duo acoustic acts and commercial rock acts. Acts touring interstate welcome. For more information contact: NowMuzik nowmuzik@gmail.com

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Short, Advanced Practical Recording Course. Personal tuition. Get more out of your recordings. Drum tuning & miking. Advanced mixing, guitar & vocal tips. Record & mix a live session. Mix your own songs on an SSL 4000 console.

Bass Player needed for originals electro rock, pop and soul established AV band. Recording in production and southern management. Share stage with dynamic diva, swampy guitar synth and power drums/mc. Email links for links. Great tunes.

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SINGING LESSONS Certified Speech Level Singing (SLS) Instructor. Learn the Technique of over 120 Grammy award winners. Extend your Range. No more Breaks/Flips. Develop Strength. All Styles. Eastern Suburbs. www.myspace.com/mazvocalstudio Contact Maz: maz@mazmazak.com

CALLING ALL BASS PLAYERS Sydney Fusion Band , The Three Wise Monkeys has just launched a Free iPhone app for a limited time. Search on your iPhone APP store for “Three Wise Monkeys” or go to www.threewizemonkeys.com

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VIDEO / PRODUCTION HAVE YOU SEEN MIKE HUNT

iFlogID: 9065

Looking for dedicated, talented young Bassist. We have rehearsal space to tighten up & gig by December. MUST HAVE INITIATIVE, BE COMMITED & willing to travel. Sounds like ATDI, Kings of Leon, Sonic Youth, Drones, Sigur Ros etc. Contact Joel. iFlogID: 8260

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL need bass playa!

Australian Bands Only.Do you have A You Tube Rock Band Video you want to promote,if so Mike Hunt wants to promote it.Just send your link to admin attention Mike Hunt and we will do our best to list you for free worldwide at www.clearhunt.com iFlogID: 6007

MUSIC VIDEOS - B.Y.O. concept or let us serve you up something fresh! Let’s grab a cuppa and flesh it out ;) www.sketchbook.tv

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MUSIC VIDEOS offer a great way to gain exposure. Immersion Imagery has worked with over 20 artists and strives to offer quality creative Music Videos at an affordable price. Visit www.immersionimagery.com or email info@immersionimagery.com iFlogID: 9354

We’ve made clips for El Duende, Line Drawings and Grace Before Meals. Get your band on Rage and Youtube, or make a video for your myspace page. Fantastic concepts and slick production that wont break your budget. www.dynamicscreencontent. com.au, facebook.com/dynamic. screen.content 0413555857 iFlogID: 9080

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE

CALLING ALL DRUMMERS Sydney Fusion Band , The Three Wise Monkeys has launched a Free iPhone app. Search on your iPhone APP store for “Three Wise Monkeys” or go to www. threewizemonkeys.com iFlogID: 9063

DRUMMER WANTED FOR METAL BAND. WOLLONGONG AREA, ORIGINALS, HOME RECORDING. influences: Amon Amarth, Bloodbath, Tool, COG, Strapping Young Lad, Pantera... Contact us for more details. Mark Email: krammusil@hotmail.com Phone: 0402621247 Troy Email: mrc.1984@ yahoo.com.au Phone: 0431165853 iFlogID: 8990

DRUMMER WANTED-PRO METAL BAND! Hard-rock / Metalcore band seeks committed, self motivated drummer capable of playing to a Pro standard. Must be available for regular gigs, rehearsal. Must have a great work ethic and be easy to get along with, and share the same passion to pursue music full-time. iFlogID: 6445

DRUMMER EXPERIENCED SUNSHINE COAST BASED DRUMMER LOOKING FOR (OR TO START!)TALENTED LOCAL POPULAR ROCK COVERS BAND TO GIG ONCE/TWICE A MONTH. OWN GEAR AND TRANSPORT. CALL PHIL 0459 239808 (PEREGIAN AREA) iFlogID: 8932

Looking to make music with space, experimental. Jazzy pop feel. Infl: Grizzly Bear, Department of Eagles, Radiohead iFlogID: 9209

GUITARIST

GUITARIST iFlogID: 9151

3 mid week inner Sydney original venues looking for original solo/duo acoustic acts and commercial rock acts. For more information contact: NowMuzik nowmuzik@gmail.com iFlogID: 9049

CALLING ALL GUITARISTS Sydney Fusion Band “The Three Wise Monkeys” has jst released an iPhone APP. Get it free for a limited time. Search for “Three wise Monkeys” on your iPhones App Store or go to www. threewizemonkeys.com iFlogID: 9055

GUITARIST WANTED TO TEACH

iFlogID: 9337

A four week course that gets you playing fast. Individual tuition. Chords, Rhythm, Songs, Theory. 25 years specializing in teaching beginners! Gift vouchers available. Call David on 96603877 Annandale/ Inner West area. iFlogID: 6426

BASS FOR BEGINNERS Equipped with 13 years of bass guitar and musical experience, Rachael offers an introductory level of tuition for beginning musicians focussing on areas of technique, music theory, rhythm and performance. Open to all ages. Bass ownership not essential, studio location Eastern Suburbs. Contact 0415273252 or rachael.rees@ hotmail.com. iFlogID: 6161

Tired of paying exorbitant amounts of money for studios? Get professional quality guitar tracks done for your demo/album online. Contact for more info. iFlogID: 8953

OTHER SAXOPHONIST AVAILABLE. Experienced saxophonist based in Sydney is looking for bands and studio sessions. Jazz, funky, afro, reggae, latin, rock, folk. If interested contact Lorenzo at 0410041979. Cheers. iFlogID: 9134

We seek guitar players who are looking to earn money teaching guitar. Training and teaching materials are supplied. Teach from one of our schools or your own location. Limited positions available. Visit www.g4guitar.com.au for details. iFlogID: 7447

Lead guitarist needed for Gold Coast based rock cover band with private & club gigs. See nextexit.com.au for songs. ACDC, Gunners, JET, RHCP, Maroon5 & U2 to name a few artists covered. Call 0412669292 for audition

iFlogID: 9057

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 64

iFlogID: 9178

DRUMMER

INTERNATIONAL SESSION GUITARIST Credits: Marcia Hines, Candice Alley, (ex-Toto) Fergie Frederikson and toured the world with Darlene Zschech, Nathan Eshman is available for remote guitar sessions. All services available over the internet / ALL STYLES & NO STUDIO FEES / www. nathaneshman.com

iFlogID: 9027

MUSICIANS WANTED

Drum Lessons Location: Gladesville Billy Hyde Drumming Academy Trained. 15 years experience, all ages, levels and experience. Home Studio. Michael Mob: 0402 663 469

iFlogID: 9201

iFlogID: 9340

MANAGEMENT

iFlogID: 9143

iFlogID: 9335

THE LAB STUDIOS

SUPPORT LOCAL ACTOR IN L.A FEATURE FILM AUDITION VOTE FOR BENN ALLSOP Need Your Support Your Time & Effort is Greatly Appreciated So Please take the 5 minutes and go to www.idancemachine.com/ blog/2690 and vote! contact me @ www.riverlanemusic.com

iFlogID: 9256

The Sino Australian Music Exchange (S.A.M.E.) can help you organise your band’s tour of China. Download the prospectus document now for more information - www.tenzenmen.com

SONGWRITER’S RECORDING STUDIO Understanding the needs & budget of a songwriter, International producer Nathan Eshman can create complete production on your hit songs, from concept to mix & master. Clients include: Marcia Hines, Candice Alley & ex-Toto front man Fergie Frederikson // www.nathaneshman.com

iFlogID: 9373

EP RELEASE

BURLESQUE & DRAG EYELASHES Petticoats & Gallantry has launched a new range of exclusive, boutique handmade & decorated false eyelashes perfect for going out. With a mix of over-the-top dramatic lashes suitable for Performances, Burlesque, Drag and even just for a special night out, you’re sure to find some one-ofa-kind false eyelashes to wear. Each pair is customised and decorated by hand in a variety of themes, and commission orders are very welcome. www.petticoatsandgallantry.com.au Look for us on facebook for exclusive promotions.

GET YOU AND YOUR MUSIC ONTO AUSTRALIAN RADIO STATIONS+SMART PHONES AND INTERNET RADIO STATIONS WE’LL PLAY YOUR SONG 300 TIMES IN 1 MONTH FOR LESS THAN $2 A TIME.THATS A LOT OF COVERAGE FOR LITTLE MONEY EMAIL andy@zfmcountrywide.com

iFlogID: 9184

OTHER

iFlogID: 9262

AmpliTube iRig. Plug your guitar into your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad and jam anywhere with world class guitar and bass tone right in the palm of your hand - from the leader in studio-class guitar and bass software. Simply plug the iRig interface into your mobile device, plug your instrument into the appropriate input jack, plug in your headphones, amp or powered

PA speakers - EAW KF-550 powerful and large PA speakers (2x). 2x15” 1x12” 1xhorn horizontally oriented. Triamped. Includes stands. Make an offer! Call or email for specs, or visit http://bit.ly/kf-550. jeremy@thebennett.org or 0400 404 919.

iFlogID: 8947

iFlogID: 9252

iFlogID: 8976

BRAND NEW BLACK AB2 BASS STARTER PACK: $350 AB shape bass 34” scale length 20 fret Built-in tuner VOL/TONE controls Comes with: BA15, DVD, Bag, Extra Set of Strings, Strap, Cable, Picks, Manual + COMPLIMENTARY WHITE PAGES BASS TAB

Tobacco Burst 1974 USA Gibson SG Looks it’s age if your into that relic rock’n’roll been around the traps look. Sounds amazing. A real character & a reluctant sale. Recently had professional setup & comes with it’s original hard case.

Korg Pitch Black floor tuner. Amazing pedal tuner. Incredibly accurate. Multiple different display modes. Tunes my 5-string bass to a low A without even hesitating. Original packaging included. $179RRP - only $90 for this one! Location: Ferny Hills, Brisbane.

marshall MC212 2x12 extension cabinet for sale in kiama area.. 2x65 watt celestion speakers mono/ stereo inputs, 8ohms each input, both spekers brand new ,perfect condition,2 carry handles, and 4 screw in wheels, $350 o.n.o interested.... call at 0435510600

BASS

iFlogID: 8937

iFlogID: 9276

iFlogID: 9421

GUITAR AMP. PEAVEY BANDIT 11. 80 watt 12”combo. features reverb/ saturation. 2 channel footswitchable. very loud. great fat sound. perfect condition. $350. Ph. 0428744963 cooroy.

SCHECTER $1450 ONLY I AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA BRAND NEW IN BOX LIMITED EDITION MODEL “Twin Tribal” black, Duncan Designed pickups, Grover tuners, full-neck tribal inlays. Standard 25.5” scale “Devil” with extended 26.5” scale “Scorpion”... SYDNEY 0414 473 483

iFlogID: 6658

iFlogID: 6614

AMPS

iFlogID: 9423

MIXERS

GIBSON SG STANDARD LEFTY

VOLUNTEER

iFlogID: 6545

Lowden acoustic guitar. Made in Ireland 2003. Model 032C cutaway. Rosewood back and sides, sitka spruce top. Abalone inlays. Hiscox case. Mint unused condition suit new buyer $3500. Ph Brendon on mobile 0417644600.

iFlogID: 9430

Talented UK professional DJ looking for Club work around Brisbane and the Goldcoast. Vast amounts of experience worldwide and excellent mixing skills. Playing Rnb, Hip Hop and Dance music. All bookings can be made by contacting Mike on 0415078714 iFlogID: 8941

speakers, download AmpliTube for iPhone Free and start rocking! You’ll have at your fingertips the sound and control of 3 recombinable simultaneous stompbox effects + amplifier + cabinet + microphone just like a traditional guitar or bass stage rig! Add amps and effects as you need them — you can expand your rig with up to 11 stomps, 5 amps, 5 cabinets and 2 microphones in the AmpliTube iRig app custom shop. ONLY $59.99 UNBEATABLE Logans Music (02)9744 2400 www.loganspianos.com.au

iFlogID: 9031

iFlogID: 9371

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL Creative, noisy, non-expert guitar player into sonic youth, stooges, patti smith, drones, needed for weird band with daggy west end girls. xconband@gmail.com iFlogID: 9084

OTHER Festival4Stars International Songwriting Contest - now accepting submissions. Prize of an all expenses paid trip to London, and all song submissions receive written feedback from the judges. Heat 3 winners receive $300. To submit your song, head to www.giglaunch.com.au iFlogID: 9388

ozjam.com.au is for you! Whatever instrument or genre of music you play, Ozjam can connect you with other talented, like minded musicians who are looking to jam, gig, and even tour the World! Ozjam is loaded with features, it’s free to join and with over 4000 members its fast becoming the largest online music community in Australia today! iFlogID: 6499

ROCK COVERS BAND WANTED! EXPERIENCED SUNSHINE COAST BASED DRUMMER LOOKING FOR (OR TO START!)TALENTED LOCAL POPULAR ROCK COVERS BAND TO GIG ONCE/ TWICE A MONTH. OWN GEAR AND TRANSPORT. CALL PHIL 0459 239808 (PEREGIAN AREA) iFlogID: 8934

Sydney gigs available - Empire Hotel. Launching Empire Unplugged November 25th as a showcase for Sydney artists. To submit to play, go to the Gig Launch website at www. giglaunch.com.au iFlogID: 9398

MUSICIANS WANTED

Sydney gigs available - Low302. Darlinghurst. Looking for bands to play, show usually starts around 9pm. To submit to play, go to the Gig Launch website at www.giglaunch.com.au iFlogID: 9400

Wanted all singers and musicians! Join for free and post your clips on the all new website, www.nu2talent. com.

SINGER

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Looking for singers/songwriters for electronica/indie/dance project. More info mail to reigovilbiks@gmail.com Location Perth. Reigo

AWESOME DESIGNS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES www.melissahowarddesign. com for a full list of services including logos, posters web and much more. 0402796254

iFlogID: 9442

Sydney Band looking for creative singer to write some original music with. 18 - 25 years old, music genre ranging from soft modern rock (Temper Trap) to alternative (tool/ porcupine tree). Give us a call. 0431 485 328 (Toby).

iFlogID: 9145

SERVICES BEAUTY SERVICES

top lid models, front-rear lidded models with rackmount option

10% DISCOUNT

jjust mention i TIME OFF*

KEYBOARD & SYNTH CASES standard roadcases & full custom trolley cases. NOT crazy oversized multifits!

iFlogID: 8895

SENIOR FIRST AID TRAINING $90 Senior First Aid training fully registered and approved. Just $90 Blacktown area. Group discounts avail. www.valiant.net.au Call 1300 600 343 iFlogID: 8972

WANTED OTHER

ELEMENTS COLLECTIVE

missing .. man from sydney central yha.. with red hair and leather cuffs.. this is maxine kezerle..chick with roxy pants...would you like to go out for dinner sometime?? 0432470048 iFlogID: 9356

Hip-Hop Workshops & Performances Specialised classes inDJ’ING BEAT PRODUCTION EMCEEING / SONGWRITING DRUMMING BEAT BOXING RECORDING B-BOYING / B-GIRLING STREET DANCE STYLES and much more!

OTHER Is your life a cluttered mess? Take it Shake it Life Coaching visit www.tisi. me Xmas gift vouchers available.

Classes available for Kids through to adults, in Beginner to Advanced levels! Studio Location17 McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley For more info visit www.elementscollective.com.au

HEY!Pro HEY! ProAudio AudioShop ShopMgr! Mgr! lower prices, huge range of ready made cases, extensive custom case shop, WE WANT YOUR BUSINESS wholesale@cases.com.au

MOST AROUND

standard roadcases or full tour cases with all options available

$80-$350

Reapers Image Design.All your multimedia needs met-logos,cd art & layout design,posters,stickers,video editing & filming,DVD construction, Multimedia solutions. Cheapest rates in Melbourne, we’ll beat any other legitimate quote. reapersimagedesign.com.au 0417 393 706

LIVE MUSIC photographer with industry experience. Rates open for negotiation. Sydney based photographer who is a big supporter of the underground music scene. Visit - www. alicepractice.net to view pictures or - alicepractice_x@hotmail.com to contact.

$390-$900

SMALL & BRIEF CASES

MOST AROUND

iFlogID: 6481

iFlogID: 9105

Create your presence online and get noticed. Sydney based web designers are here to help you create and design your website with ease. We

MIXING CONSOLE CASES

huge range for camera’s, audio viz gear, techs & equipment

iFlogID: 6348

MUSICIAN & BAND WEBSITES

I’m starting a new business in CSS programming and I’m willing to charge very cheap to gather some folio with customized myspace profiles. This price will certanly increase after some productions, so be quick to not loose the oportunity. To know more about my work visit www. fugadalula.com.br/blog To quote: renato@fugadalula.com.br Thanks!

iFlogID: 9458

MOST AROUND

$390-$900

Visit our website for an extensive price list and other services!

iFlogID: 8928

If you want to join a band, form a band, find a new band member, get exposure, or just jam, then www.

AM AMP HEAD TOUR CASES

MYSPACE BAND PROFILE FROM 200$

FULL COLOUR POSTERS

www.blackstar.com.au 100 Colour A4 Gloss Posters = $40. 100 Colour A3 Matt Posters = $50. 100 Colour A3 Gloss Posters = $80. More options to choose from Posters • Flyers • Handouts • Business Cards. We print your job within hours. • bsd@zip.com.au

iFlogID: 9168

INSURANCE COMPANY??

iFlogID: 6665

iFlogID: 8943

iFlogID: 9438

Vocalist Wanted. Western Sydney punk band require male vocalist aged between 20-30 to front band. Exp not important. Looking for a mix between clean melody and screaming. Influences: Nofx, Pennywise, The Bronx.

specialise in building websites that work. When you hire us to design your website we’ll give you a product that looks great and that actually works for your business or service. Packages start from $400 Call Richard or Kelly on 0424 125 169

$200-$1500

GO-RAK 14u $590 rrp

GO-PAK 350 $599 rrp

MOST AROUND

sales@cases.com.au

PLASMA CASE lowest $$ GO-Drawer 4 $850 rrp

*cannot be used with any other offer

looking to start up a new acoustic band from scratch and am keen to get it started. looking for over age of 18 and needs to be able to contribute as a two piece band. Shane

19 leonard cres brendale 4500

1300-85-4620

World class mastering from where you are, right now.

$450* EP master $900* Album master only for Oct. & Nov. Prices exclude GST. For details see matthewgraymastering.com/blog

Online and print classifieds For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 65

SEAN SENNETT SEVEN/ ADELE & GLENN [Go-Betweens] SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 POWERHOUSE, 3.30pm @ LIVESPARK

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OFF THE RECORD: 25 Years of Music Street Press edited by Sean Sennett & Simon Groth