Time Off Issue 1582 by TheMusic.com.au

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EDDIE SPAGHETTI

SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM

WIL ANDERSON

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GIVEAWAYS returning to Australia for The Hi-Fi Shoreline Series and will be supported by Little Scout and Tara Simmons. We have got four double passes up for grabs to their gig at The Hi-Fi on Saturday 23 June! Entrants must be 18+. Hell On Wheels tells the epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on a Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannan (Anson Mount: Straw Dogs, Last Night) who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell On Wheels, a dangerous and raucous melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. In a world where crime and corruption are rife, Cullen, along with the newly emancipated Elam Ferguson (Common: Wanted) and widow Lily Bell (Dominique McElligot: The Guard, Moon) must learn to survive in a lawless town. Thanks to Hopscotch Entertainment we have four copies of Hell On Wheels: Season One to give away!

Ghostory is the third full-length album from shoegaze-pop trio-turned-duo, School Of Seven Bells. With the new line-up comes an evolved sound and what just might be the band’s career defining release. They are

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ISSUE 1582

W E D N E S D AY 2 0 J U N E 2 0 1 2

TIME OFF Foreword Line – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash

It’s a different School Of Seven Bells we’ll witness on their Australian jaunt this week 12 The Audreys show us what they have collected

Check out what’s happening This Week In Arts

Romance, pop art, war comics and nude girls all in one exhibition; we chat to curator Jaklyn Babington about Pop: Remix 26

The Looking Glass gets European

The Gruen Transfer host Wil Anderson talks about the series

For the first time, Australia gets to see Eddie Spaghetti all on his lonesome

Circa are back next week, we chat with Britannie Portelli about it

Metric have always been music nerds

We talk to Tenacious D about stuff you wouldn’t want to talk to your mum about

Cultural Cringe has another crack at life as a pop culture vulture in Brisbane

What possessed Hugo Race to commit the classics to tape?

The wild ride doesn’t seem to end for Sneaky Sound System

After many, many, many, many, many years, Nick Barker & The Reptiles are back! 18 Muscles talks about his Manhood

What’s new in Wolf & Cub’s world?

Tape/Off are releasing a single and hitting the road

They’re one of our most promising young punishers, see what The Bride have in store for Brisbane audiences as they return up here

Get the drum on all the coolest happenings in local music last week, this week and beyond in Live 29 Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down

Lochlan Watt gives you brutal metal news in Adamantium Wolf

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THURS 31 MAYY

Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown 32 Cyclone has the wide urban world covered with some OG Flavas 32

Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out 24

Go behind the music Behind The Lines

iFlog and you can too

CREDITS

McCormick, Brad Swob, Siobhain McDonnell Front Row: Baz McAlister, Mandy Kohler, Lauren Dillon, Adam Brunes, Matt O’Neill, Mitch Knox, Jessica Mansour, Guy Davis, Rowena Grant-Frost, Danielle O’Donohue, Helen Stringer, Alice Muhling Photography: Stephen Booth, Kane Hibberd, Alex Gillies, Brad Marsellos, Terry Soo, John Taylor, John Stubbs EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. © PUBLISHER: Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Suite 11/354 Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 POSTAL: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Phone: 07 3252 9666 Email: info@timeoff.com.au PRINTED BY: Rural Press

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FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

IN BRIEF Australia jazz legend Graeme Bell has died at the age of 97 last week after suffering a stroke. The composer, pianist and bandleader died Wednesday 13 June at the Prince Of Wales hospital.

SPREADING THEIR FOUNDATIONS They’re quickly becoming one of our most cherished local indie-rock acts and if things keep going the way they have been for The Medics, then their profile is set to grow massively as more and more people cotton on to their emotive and powerful brand of rock music. The Medics’ story started in Cairns, Far North Queensland and has seen their emergence as one of Australia’s most genuinely exciting new bands. Their debut album Foundations was released in May, debuting at number 29 on the ARIA charts, and has received much praise from fans and media. They are excited to take the album on the road and will be playing a set at the Four Walls Festival at the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries on Saturday 4 August and then hit The Northern in Byron Bay a couple of months later on Friday 5 October. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

CALOUNDRA IS COOL AGAIN One of the country’s fastest growing events, the Caloundra Music Festival, made its first lineup announcement last week with The Living End, John Butler Trio and The Cat Empire set to headline the three nights of the 2012 event. Alongside those hot Aussie acts are fellow Aussies The Whitlams, Boom Crash Opera, Ball Park Music, Lanie Lane, The Beards and the incredible New Orleans funk powerhouse that is Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, who return to Australia for their third tour in under two years. The event takes place at the wonderful Kings Beach precinct in Caloundra from Friday 28 September through to Sunday 30 and there are a number of acts still to be announced, organisers have said, with plenty more overseas and Australian acts still to come. Tickets are on sale now from the festival’s website, beginning at just $91 for a daily adult ticket and $175 for the three days.

THIS YEAR’S FRUITFUL CROP

The line-up for the Harvest Festival’s second year has dropped and it features a couple of surprises as well as a few confirmations of some of those hot rumours doing the rounds. The first announcement features the incredibly diverse and awesome Beck, pictured, last week’s Time Off cover stars Sigur Rós, Brooklyn’s most loved Grizzly Bear, the incomparable Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, the reformed Ben Folds Five, the very cool Santigold and Beirut, old schoolers Cake and The Dandy Warhols, Austin’s mighty fine The Black Angels plus Chromatics, Ozomatli, Liars, Fuck Buttons, The War On Drugs and Dark Dark Dark. The first festival was praised widely after it went off without a hitch in November last year; plenty of amazing performances in a stunning venue with an incredible overall vibe, which has made this year’s line-up announcement one of the most hotly anticipated of the year. You can bet that word has been spreading like wildfire, so make sure you’re ready to buy your tickets when they go on sale from OzTix and the festival website on Thursday 28 June at 9am; the festival happens at the City Botanic Gardens on Sunday 18 November.

8 • TIME OFF

Sydney’s The Beautiful Girls have announced they are splitting up after ten years in the game. Frontman Mat McHugh will continue to focus on his solo material. A stage collapse has left one person dead ahead of an outdoor Radiohead concert in Toronto’s Downview Park on the weekend.

NEVER GONNA GIVE IT UP Rick Astley, ‘80s star and internet phenomenon, will be touring Australia for the first time in 23 years! The artist behind tracks like Whenever You Need Somebody, When I Fall In Love and – of course – Never Gonna Give You Up, he enjoyed his most popular years throughout the late-‘80s and early-‘90s, before hanging up his music career. What no-one saw coming was the internet fame that he’s enjoyed since 2008, as the ‘Rick-Roll’ grew to prominence. That is, the act of promising one thing but linking to Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up music video. It was one of the first internet memes to make mainstream news and it pretty much single-handedly revived his career; will that translate into packed houses for the former pop star upon his return to our country? We’ll have to wait and see. Astley will play Twin Towns, Tweed Heads on Friday 16 November, Civic Hall, Ipswich Saturday 17 and The Tivoli Sunday 18.

¡Uno! is the name of the new record from Green Day – their ninth and the first in a trilogy that will include ¡Dos!, due in November, and ¡Tré! early in 2013 – and it will be released on Friday 21 September.

WORLD BEATER COMES HOME

World-beater Gotye this week announced an Australian stadium tour and will play the Brisbane Riverstage on Wednesday 12 December. With his track Somebody That I Used To Know, which is lifted from his Making Mirrors album, Gotye has topped virtually every chart in the world, including spending a whopping eight weeks at the top of the American Hot 100 chart. There’s little more introduction Gotye – real name Wally De Backer – needs at the moment, having come a long way since triple j favourite album Like Drawing Blood. Fans who have liked his Facebook page or who are signed up to his mailing list will receive a password by the end of Thursday 21 June that will enable them to buy tickets before the rest of the world. In the announcement De Backer said he and his band have been working on a bunch of older songs that they haven’t played live before and mentioned some new visuals from some amazing animators he’s been lucky to work with recently. For fans old and new, these promise to be special shows, but tickets will be in epic demand; make sure you grab yours from Ticketmaster when they’re on sale Wednesday 27 June, or hit Facebook for pre-sale information. Tickets are $79.90.

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The status of the reformed The Stone Roses was looking a little shaky last week as drummer Reni left the venue before the band could perform their encore in Amsterdam last week. Frontman Ian Brown returned to the stage solo and said, “What can I say, the drummer’s a cunt.” After eight weeks at the top, Gotye has been knocked off the top of the US charts, with Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe hitting the pointiest end of the chart this week.

HE WANTS TO BE Passenger – aka Mike Rosenberg – will be returning to Australia this August for a national tour. The serial busker, who has most recently been busking and gigging across Europe, will hit his biggest Australian venues yet this tour. The tour will feature tracks from his latest – and ARIA top ten – album All The Little Lights as well as tracks from the singer-songwriter’s back catalogue. In what is turning into a big year for Rosenberg, he’s also been announced as the support act for Ed Sheeran in the UK this October. After he has spent so many years travelling through our country and building a fanbase organically, Passenger has developed into a real favourite amongst audiences throughout Australia so don’t dilly-dally when it comes to buying your tickets for the show he plays at The Hi-Fi on Thursday 16 August; they are on sale now from Moshtix for $30 + bf. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

HEATING UP They are one of the finest and most popular exponents of roots reggae to come from their home country of New Zealand (and that’s really saying something) and Aussie audiences are just as besotted by Katchafire as our Kiwi brothers and sisters. The band haven’t stopped touring this year following the release of their acclaimed and aptly-titled fourth record On The Road Again and have been spreading their sound far and wide – on top of that they’ve picked up an award nomination (Best International Band at the British Reggae Music Awards) and have made a documentary about their headline tour of Brazil (which we should get a glimpse at in the not too distant future). But the band are heading back to Aussie for a massive headline tour that sees them hit just about every corner of the country, so no-one has any excuse for missing out on their fix of this incredible band. Catch them at The Hi-Fi Friday 31 August, Kings Beach Tavern Thursday 6 September and the Caloundra RSL Friday 7.

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FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

IN BRIEF The new album from The Temper Trap has debuted in the US charts at 81, beaten out by fellow Aussies Knife Party, whose Rage Valley EP debuted at 75. Subscription music network [V] has announced that the station’s most high profile host Jane Gazzo will be moving across to sister network Max.

HEALTHY RIVALRY Post-hardcore ‘supergroup’ Rival Schools have announced the full dates for their Australian tour after previously being announced as headliners for the Poison City Weekender festival that is taking place in Melbourne in September. A side project of friends from various New York hardcore bands Quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits and Youth Of Today, their debut 2001 album United By Fate would gather momentum in the years after its release and become a cornerstone of the genre. Returning in 2011 with their follow-up Pedals (after touring Australia in 2009 shortly after their reformation) the band are touring once again in September. Toy Boats have been announced as the main support for the show that takes place at The Zoo on Friday 14 September; you can grab yourself a ticket from OzTix and outlets for $39.80.

YOU’RE TEN, YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL, YOU’RE DEAD Sydney roots/reggae outfit, The Beautiful Girls, will be playing their final shows across Australia, prior to bidding farewell to the music scene. The band announced last week on their Facebook page that they will be embarking on their final tour ever and these final shows will double up as a Ten Year Anniversary Tour. The band announced: “It has been 10 crazy years since The Morning Sun and we are ready to celebrate with each and every one of you!! The tour will take us back to some of our favourite haunts in Australia and we can’t wait! Each night will feature two huge sets – one acoustic and then one electric – covering ten years of songs that will forever remain close to our hearts and souls.” We can’t say it any better than that; you can witness the band one last time when they hit the Coolum Civic Centre Friday 10 August and The Tivoli Saturday 11. Tickets are available now.

DREAMS CAN COME TRUE The past ten months has been nothing short of ridiculous for Aussie metalcore acolytes Dream On Dreamer, with an enormous touring schedule that has seen them travel through the US, Europe, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore as well as regional Australia and our capital cities as a part of the monstrous Soundwave bill. This of course comes on the back of their debut LP Heartbound, which was released within 18 months of the band’s formation and debuted in the Top 40 of the ARIA Album charts. A few awards and nominations and a US release through Rise Records has come following its Aussie release, giving the band plenty of reason to go on. Dream On Dreamer are back on home turf and ready to take another trip around the country on their Homebound tour, the dates of which have just been announced. They’re bringing Like Moths To Flames from the USA with them as well as locals Hand Of Mercy and In Hearts Wake and you can catch them at the Tempo Hotel on Thursday 30 August or at a special all ages show at the Paddington Community Hall Friday 31. 10 • TIME OFF

US roots icon Ry Cooder claims that US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “scares” him in a statement released to announce his new album Election Special. The politically charged album will be released on Tuesday 21 August. Canadian metalcore outfit Obey The Brave have signed to Epitaph, the label announced last week. The band, who formed in January this year, will release their album Young Blood on Friday 31 August.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

PUT A SPRING IN YOUR STEP

Brisbane’s largest ever celebration of Australian hip hop, the Sprung Hip Hop Festival, is back again in 2012 with an even bigger and better array of some of our country’s finest hip hop talent, headlined by the biggest and best we’ve got. Adelaide legends Hilltop Hoods are taking the number one spot on the bill for the 2012 event, just another massive show in what has been another enormous year for this group. Their Drinking From The Sun record went absolutely ballistic upon its release and so did tickets for shows on their headline tours. They’re not the only act getting in on the action though, you’ve got Melbourne masters Illy and Pez, the always incredible TZU boys, Sydney smart-arse Kerser, the super cool Mantra, kick arse acts like Spit Syndicate and Thundamentals and strong-headed MCs like Seth Sentry, The Tongue, Bias B and Briggs, while Evil Eddie, Mase N Mattic, Bam Bam, Seven, Deathstarrs, Dwizofoz and Kudos round out this epic bill. It all happens at the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday 10 November, it’s open to people of all ages and tickets are only $77 + bf for general admission or $110 + bf for VIP tickets and available from Friday 6 July onwards.

This year’s Australian Music Prize – commonly known as The AMP – will be free for artists to enter. Last year’s entry fee was $95. EMI Music Publishing Australia and Wonderlick Entertainment have signed a worldwide joint venture agreement which allows them to co-publish songwriters and gives Wonderlick access to EMI’s administration services. Wonderlick will use the worldwide services for emerging acts Jackson McLaren and Max & Bianca, while The Paper Kites are the first signing to the joint arrangement.

Melbourne’s Snakadaktal, who won triple j’s Unearthed High competition in 2011, are hitting the road in support of their new single Dance Bear, which dropped last week. The dreamy-indie outfit’s August tour will be their biggest headline tour to date and will feature support from recent Ivy League signing Sures. The band, who are still incredibly young, have been an incredibly popular new name on the Australian indie scene, but after a support slot on the recent enormous tour from Sydney chart toppers The Jezabels, they are reaching a whole new level of popularity, meaning that these shows are going to be absolutely enormous and that you should most definitely be picking up a ticket as soon as possible. They’re playing The Hi-Fi on Friday 10 August; tickets are $18 + bf through Moshtix.

BRINGING IT BACK Melbourne rapper Illy will embark on a national tour this August in a month-long journey around the country’s major and regional cities. In support of his third album Bring It Back, current single Heard It All is available now through iTunes while the album will be released later this year – probably around the time of this tour. The new record is the followup to 2010’s The Chase, which had singles It Can Wait, and Cigarettes – both of which feature in the top 30 of the triple j Hottest 100. The new album features collaborations with M-Phases, Pez, Trials, Mantra and Reason and is described as a “positive departure” from his 2010 release. “Usually I work with a very small team so being able to branch out and work with lots of new people has resulted in a really different sound,” Illy offered of the new album and tour. “There are a bunch of songs on Bring It Back that I can’t wait to do live, so getting back out on the road can’t come quick enough!” Hip hop producer Chasm Soundsystem will be supporting when he hits Tomba’s, Toowoomba on Thursday 9 August, The Zoo Friday 10 and The Northern, Byron Bay Saturday 11.

MACY’S RETURN

GREAT JOB!

Australian Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! fans should be over the moon as news has come through that the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are bringing the live show that has sold out shows all across the US and UK down to Australia for the very first time. The live show is comprised of short films and sketch comedy with plenty of flamboyant costumes and, of course, complete and utter puerility. The show has survived five surreal seasons on the air, so it’s a great time to finally be witnessing this spectacle down in this part of the world! Get along and enjoy the dancing, singing, poetry, videos, and signings after shows when this dynamic duo play The Tivoli on Thursday 4 October. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

It has been over 12 years since we saw former chart-topping soul songstress Macy Gray on our shores; she was supposed to be here a few years after that first visit but she had to pull the pin, so there are no doubt plenty of people very excited to welcome her to the country once more. She had her biggest hit way back in 1999 with the smash hit I Try but since then has smashed out a whole bunch of material and this year releases her seventh record, Covered. Yes, it’s a selection of covers, but they’re pretty interesting ones; Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Maps, Radiohead’s Creep, Arcade Fire’s Wake Up , Sublime’s Smoke 2 Joints and My Chemical Romance’s Teenagers just a few of the choices. Anyway, she plays two headline shows in Queensland this September, dropping by Jupiters Casino, Gold Coast on Wednesday 19 September and then hitting QPAC on Thursday 20.

BACKLASH

FRONTLASH

If somebody is opposed to same-sex couples celebrating their union – for religious reasons or otherwise – that person is a close-minded bigot. Why pander to those jerks? And if those same people are so fucking pious then where is their tolerance, and how come they can’t “forgive” people who offend their “values”?

Harvest Festival has released its first lineup for the 2012 installment, and it’s already shaping up to be a cracker! So many good bands, but we’re particularly pumped to see The War On Drugs on their first Australian visit, bring that good shit on!

ATT: CAMPBELL NEWMAN

CREAM OF THE CROP

HALL MONITORS

HOW SWEDE IT IS

With a few venues shut down of late, it’s cool to see Paddington Hall being dusted off for the House Vs Hurricane tour and a couple of other all ages shindigs. Is this a return to the time when bands like The GoBetweens would hire halls and put on their own gigs?

The woman who briefly ran Sweden’s official Twitter account was racist. Sad but true. Yet we’re missing the bigger picture – why the fuck does Sweden have an official Twitter account? Does that mean Australia has an official Twitter account? Tell us it’s not Julia…

FUCK YEAH!

WET’N’FAILED If you go on a water slide and get stuck halfway you don’t sue the park, you slink off with minimum fanfare wondering why you were born so crap at things that even a thick child can do without raising a sweat. Right? No? Goddamn our society is fucked…

THE WAR ON DRUGS

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The Oxford English Dictionary has finally recognised the term “bogan”, defining it as, “a depreciative term for unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, especially of low social status.” Unsophisticated? Fucken stuck-up wankers, who do they think they are? We’ll glass ‘em if they come near here…

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COLOUR AND ROMANCE GHOST SONGS

If School Of Seven Bells love a good old ghost story, they’re not alone. Tales of freakish sights and stories of the unexplained have long appeared in song, although Des’ree’s reference to ghouls as heard on her infamous song, Life, is probably best forgotten. For those who need a nudge, she sang, “I don’t want to see a ghost/ It’s a sight that I fear most/I’d rather have a piece of toast/ And watch the evening news.” That bit of prose is softer than a box of tissues. Okay, so lyrics about ghouls and goblins can be, well, daft and not all will make you soil your pants in fright. School Of Seven Bells like a good ghost story, albeit a cryptic and metaphorical one, so much that they decided to name an album after it. Ghostory is just one of many titles that feature the paranormal. Ghostbusters is probably the most famous song, although the late, great Jim Morrison can point to The Doors’ The Ghost Song as a worthwhile contribution. My Chemical Romance got all spooky with The Ghost Of You. Tori Amos made Happy Phantom whilst The White Stripes put out Little Ghost. Even Fleetwood Mac got into the ghoulish act with The Ghost.

“People only think about ghosts as being these things that spook you,” Alejandra Deheza suggests. Stuart Evans gets ghoulish to find out how images, spooks and music collide when School Of Seven Bells take to the studio. Cover pic by Justin Hollar.

t could have been enough for School Of Seven Bells to stick with being labelled as shoegazers. It could have been plenty for the American band to simply ring ahead with minimal changes to their output. But that would have been too easy for Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis, the duo behind School Of Seven Bells. “We arrived in Japan yesterday and played last night. The gig was so much fun and I was happy with how it went,” Deheza begins, despite being tired and jet-lagged having arrived in Tokyo 24 hours prior, with a good omen for their upcoming run of Australian shows. So although the American band make with shoegaze, today, for instance, their sound’s also recognised as electronic, rock and, err, cinematic. Trace the cinematic lineage to Curtis’ love affair with Twin Peaks and other über-cool goggle box exploits that tell a story. A few listens to anything School Of Seven Bells have produced tells a story, albeit an abstract one. Memorable concepts, arrangements and elements are omnipresent – aggressive guitar riffs, tribal beats that ramp and refuse to subside, synths that pay homage to early electronic music. All this leads to an almost alien combination when Curtis and Deheza combine the varying fundamentals. “Electronic music’s always been something Ben and I had been interested in. We’ve come from mostly rock backgrounds, but I’ve always loved playing with drum machines and programming beats. It was the kind of music that made a huge impression on me.” Deheza spent her childhood in South Florida, USA – a breeding ground for electronic music. “Most things I heard on radio growing up had an electronic influence. I remember hearing New Order, which made a big impression.”

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The band came together after Curtis met twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza while touring with his previous band, Secret Machines. All three subsequently left the bands they were in, moved in together, established a home recording studio and launched an all-consuming venture called School Of Seven Bells. The band’s debut album, Alpinisms, 12 • TIME OFF

was released in 2008 and they subsequently toured off the back of the album’s success. Although Deheza readily admits her love affair with electronic music, School Of Seven Bells are relative newcomers to the electro genre. Past albums are hazy – ambient even – and struggle to be defined as electronic. Even now, Deheza retains a fascination with the strange and beautiful. Take the rationale behind the band’s debut, Alpinisms. The literal interpretation of alpinism may be more akin to mountain climbing, but the band states the name originates from a book called Mount Analogue. The book tells the story of a group of people that set out on a climbing expedition to a mountain that does not exist except metaphorically speaking, the true meaning of the book being about life and the way we climb and conduct ourselves. Deheza doesn’t dwell on the metaphorical linkage, with preference given to the ideological semblance. If that sounds confusing, Deheza has another explanation, “I

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Earlier this year, School Of Seven Bells released Ghostory. The album, although received well by media and punters, was, as suggested, angled firmly towards more of an electronic approach than previous offerings Alpinisms and 2010’s Disconnect From Desire. It was a deliberate tactic. “The album was written in tandem by Ben and myself. With this album, it was a cathartic experience as it was very difficult for me to write,” she admits candidly. The difficulty in writing Ghostory, was the result of not confronting past fears. “There’s a reason why these emotions and these other things stayed with me as I’d put off dealing with it. The album made me look at all these emotions again and gave me a chance to let them tell their story. I feel like when things happen you rush past them and put a label on them like, ‘I’m moving forward.’ The trouble with that is things always catch up with you as you can’t run away from yourself.” Ghostory was the first record made without Alejandra’s twin sister, Claudia. Not that that affected the way the story

“I WASN’T THINKING ABOUT HOW I’D BE SINGING THESE EXTREMELY PERSONAL LYRICS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE… IT’S KIND OF BIZARRE AS IT SEEMS SUCH A PRIVATE THING, BUT THESE AREN’T PRIVATE EMOTIONS. EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT SADNESS AND ANGER ARE.”

think our music is textured and there’s lot of images that come to mind when you listen to it. The sounds we make are like pictures and I always feel there’s a lot of colour and romance in what we make.” This being music, however, there’s always room for one departure and/or inclusion. And on October 12, 2010, it was announced that Claudia Deheza had left the band for personal reasons. “As far as the energy of the band goes, I feel like everybody’s doing what they want to do,” the remaining sister suggests. “That has a very healing effect. Being involved in music is a great life to have but it’s hard if you want to do other things. Everybody’s focus has to be one hundred per cent into the music.”

was told. The ghost referred to in the album’s title is not of the paranormal kind, but she’s hesitant to delve deeper into the true definition despite it being an obvious topic of interest and immense passion. “People only think about ghosts as being these things that spook you. I believe in energies and feel strong emotions. The story behind Ghostory is about how I was terrified of feeling sad and I avoided dealing with it at all costs. Sometimes situations make you really sad, but it’s not as bad as you make them.” So what’s making her sad? “The emotions and things I’d put off.” It’s difficult to cast opinion. It’s a truism for Deheza that Ghostory represented a huge release of pent-up energy and emotions. “It’s funny as when Ben and I wrote the lyrics, I wasn’t thinking about how I’d

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But seriously, it’s hard to look past the freakiest, ghoulish ghost song of all, which also appears on the biggest-selling album of all time. Take a bow, Michael Jackson, as Thriller ranks high. And let’s be honest, Jackson may be a musical genius but up until his passing, he remained something of a spooky sight. be singing these extremely personal lyrics in front of people. Ben would say, ‘Are you sure you’re okay to say that in front of people?’ It’s kind of bizarre as it seems such a private thing, but these aren’t private emotions. Everybody knows what sadness and anger are.” The decision to take the album into relatively uncharted electronic territory was also based on Curtis’ exposure to sounds booming from gigantic sound systems whilst he toured. Curtis was so impressed and inspired by what he heard that he shifted perspective to electronic music for School Of Seven Bells. Ghostory has meaning for the duo. According to Deheza, the scariest part of life is the ability to demonise the unknown. Their belief in the supernatural influences their lyrics and approach. Deheza grants that a haunting and spooky quality sits beneath their music, explaining, “I have written songs about a particular haunting or experience that I didn’t realise was happening until that very moment. When I start to write songs that’s when spirits come out.” Still, most agree School Of Seven Bells blur the lines between art and real life. Their albums consist of hazy lyrics overlain with an almost eerie quality. Moreover, they’ve previously discussed a concept called lucid dreaming whereby being in a dream is akin to real life. People, places and moments are very much real and being in a dream state is par for the course. If that all sounds a little fluffy or abstract, think again. “I don’t believe our lyrics are abstract,” says Deheza definitively. “Everything we create is natural and never in just one direction.” Touring’s another one of Deheza’s great loves. “I love the constant touring and have no idea what to do or how to occupy myself when I’m not touring,” she laughs. “I love the energy and the strange combination of adrenalin and absurd situations. Right now for instance, I feel like I’m tripping as the jetlag is kicking my arse. I’m tired and want to sleep, but I’m in fucking Tokyo and I just want to go out and see it. I love it. It’s psychotic, but I love it,” she admits, laughing once more. WHO: School Of Seven Bells WHAT: Ghostory (Vagrant/Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 23 June, The Hi-Fi

CALM AND COLLECTED Adelaide duo The Audreys have collected three out of three ARIAS for best Blues and Roots release, and with just three albums under their belts. A baby down and a collection to date, now it’s time to take stock. Vocalist Taasha Coates chats to Liz Giuffre.

“W

e beat John Butler, Xavier Rudd, Angus and Julia Stone, and Bernard Fanning – sorry Bernard. Three [awards] seems nice, and in homewares and other design places they always talk about collections of threes, so I’m okay with that,” The Audreys’ Taasha Coates says sweetly of her achievements to date with bandmate Tristan Goodall. Since 2006 they’ve owned their category, the strange beast that is Blues And Roots. But what if The Audreys kept getting nominated for ARIAs, but in different categories? Pop? Children’s, or Adult Contemporary (whatever that is)? “Isn’t it just modern music for grown-ups?” Coates offers by way of explanation of the strange thing that is AC. “[But] that’s actually what I think I already write, I don’t write music for teenagers. But it’s not a nice label is it? It sounds a bit MOR, a bit middle of the road.” Is there something slightly sinister about Adult Contemporary, though, the adult part?

about my son – somebody stop me!” she jokes. What about making that a new branch – a genre of mummy music? “I don’t know, we should make it up. We know what dad rock is, don’t we? Maybe it’s greying mullets and too-tight jeans, yeah… but I really don’t think I’d be a good kids performer because I swear too much. I really don’t think that would go down too well with the mums and dads.” WHO: The Audreys WHAT: Collected (ABC/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 21 June, SoundLounge, Gold Coast; Friday 22, Powerhouse; Saturday 23, Woombye Pub

“It makes you think… porn? Look, I could branch out…” Now, dear reader, we’re off. Coates is charming and wicked – don’t let looks or sounds deceive. Currently on the road but putting in some pre-tour industry advising at the recent the Sydney Song Summit, Coates has had a chance to slow down, smell the roses and grow. Literally, as she made a human (a gorgeous little boy who she shows pictures of after only the tiniest prompt). “One afternoon a week I take a class of kids who are doing Certificate IV in Music Business… [After having my son] I’m a lot more in one place than I’ve ever been before. And so I thought I might just do something a bit more grown-up. It’s all the admin/business side of the industry, which bores some people but I find it quite interesting. And they’re not all musicians; some of them work as bookers or promoters or venue managers or managers so it’s not just musicians, and they’re the ones who aren’t so keen on it, who sit back and go ‘Í don’t need to listen, I don’t need this stuff.’” While it’s easy to not think about The Audreys as “needing that stuff” either, this last little while has been about exploring what the duo have done over their career to date. Their new release, Collected, a three-album best-of pack, also contains rarities, live takes and other bits we don’t usually get to hear. While such bonus material is relatively standard fare these days, the process of gathering it was a new experience for the band. Take, for example, the live stuff (such as new single and video, Train Wreck Blues), which was the type of thing Coates was, strangely, initially against. “It’s something I resisted early on because I didn’t want to be self-conscious during the performance, having to listen back to it later, because singing live is a thing that happens in a moment and then it’s gone, and so I was nervous about listening back to it and having it change my memory of the night. So I was just being a bit of a prima donna, really, but I think that even maybe, sneakily, our sound engineer had started recording performances, and he justified it by arguing it was for his own purposes, saying he wanted to try out a new desk, or something. Boys and their stuff, you know. But then he dug out some stuff and played it back to me and I thought, ‘That’s alright, I can live with that.’” The idea of a singer being opposed to being recorded might seem strange to we lay people, but it also gives an insight into how the process works for those on the other side, and helps us understand what gets chosen for such a collection as Collected – why it’s special stuff. “When you’re in the studio you’re hearing yourself back in a perfect environment. You’ve got these really expensive headphones on and an amazing microphone and everyone’s really quiet and all you’re focusing on is giving a really great performance. But live, there’s so many other factors and I wasn’t sure I was hitting my marks,” she explains, matter of factly. “But it turns out I’m awesome…” she trails off, then smiles. That wicked smile. And that is awesome. Coates says the process of coming back from learning to be a grown-up was something she hadn’t expected. “I sort of messed the guys around a bit by getting pregnant before the last record came out; we only toured it for three months or so before I took a year off… So we came sort of a long time out of a release and didn’t really have anything new to promote. [But after the last ARIA win we thought] ‘Let’s just gratuitously celebrate that with some kind of compilation thing that we can then use as an excuse to go out touring again.’ I’d really missed playing, and I hadn’t had a break like that since the band started. I never got out of my trakkie pants – went down the shop once every couple of days to get coffee, and that was my excursion for the week. It was a real shock, I really loved it, but my life went from this big thing which was going out and being in public and meeting people a lot, to this very small thing which was just me and my gorgeous little boy. So it was such a big change, and I loved it, but then we had booked something, I think maybe before he was born, and I said, ‘Oh yeah, that’ll be fine, he’ll be four or five months by then, that’ll be fine.’ But then as the date got closer, the thought of going on stage was really confronting, but I just got up there and went, ‘Now I remember why I loved this so much!’” One thing Coates can promise is the band won’t use the time to write songs about being on the road, and she will do her best not to get too sooky over this new role as a mum. “I’m also really worried that I’m going to start writing really sappy music

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TO ANYWHERE AND BEYOND! Ahead of their headlining slot at the Hard Rock Rocks The Beach component of the Surfers Paradise Festival, Sneaky Sound System’s Connie Mitchell tells Chris Yates how despite becoming one of the go-to singers for the international hip hop elite, she’s still not really into that sort of thing.

onnie Mitchell has been a significant figure in the Australian music scene for more than a decade now, starting out in the post-Caligula, post Def-FX electro-goth-rock outfit Primary, and crossing over into the mainstream as the main (and now only) voice for the massively successful Sneaky Sound System, now a duo featuring herself and producer Angus McDonald. The first single from their 2011 third album From Here To Anywhere was We Love, and there’s pretty much zero chance you missed it at the time. With a video that breaks the record for the most sexual innuendos ever crammed into four minutes (probably) and minimalist production, it was obvious that this album was going to go into some different territory, as the title suggests. “We kind of thought it was a bit brave to do that song actually,” she says. “It’s so sparse. On the radio you’re just bombarded, so we just wanted to make something that would stand out because it was so sparse. We put it out first, and we felt a bit braver because of that fact.” The minimalism inherit in the production leaves a lot of space for Connie’s vocals, which are always going to be the focal point for the tracks anyway. She says that it gave her the opportunity to do something different with her performance that she’s always wanted to do. “The whole album I tried to create some kind of different character for each track,” she explains. “To be quite honest with you, I love buying albums but I get a bit bored – my attention span’s not that great, you know? So I thought of it like being a listener and wanted to give the album a bit of light and shade by creating different characters for each track. It makes it more interesting for the listener I hope. Angus would play me different tracks and I would come up with different ideas for each song – it was very natural. It makes it more interesting for me as a writer and a singer you know? I don’t think I could still be doing this without that kind of process.” Connie remembers the days of starting out in Primary fondly and as a really unique time for creating music in Australia.

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“Back then you had a lot more room to do things,” she reflects. “You could push different genres and there wasn’t really any pressure to ‘make something’. It was just for the love of making music. I find the travesty of today is that because we’re so limited and the genres have refined themselves down so much – you’ve basically just got pop and rock, you know? Even rock is getting squeezed out. I was watching something on TV the other night, Queens Of The Stone Age live at The Enmore or something like that, and I thought, ‘Wow, how is this going to happen now? How are we going to get another band like that again?’ Everything on the radio seems to be a dance-pop hybrid with an R&B vocal over the top – that’s the majority of what you here. It’s a real shame because there’s some really beautiful genres of music that are kind of getting squeezed out.” This may seem like a hypocritical perspective coming from Mitchell, especially considering that her group attracts the level of mainstream attention that they do. They have however achieved this status by always thinking outside the traditional ideas of mainstream pop, from the very beginnings of how the group formed out of the Sneaky Sundays club night in Sydney. Their recent signing to Modular records (home of Cut Copy, The Presets, Architecture In Helsinki, The Avalanches etc) is proof positive once again that they are determined to keep pushing the envelope of what is expected from what is primarily a dance-pop outfit. She says the group really didn’t want to tread the same water, despite how easy it is for a group at their level to coast along on previous successes. “Well we were very aware of not fitting into any kind of format when we did the album,” she says. “I also think it took a lot of courage of not going down that path. We wanted to make a record that we would want to listen to, and that there was a high level of quality, you know?” Fittingly for this weekend’s performance, Sneaky Sound System were also one of the first acts to really take dance-oriented pop music to the outdoor rock festival scene, something which is taken for granted these days.

Connie says that she initially felt very nervous about how the band would be received by festival audiences “That’s very true, and I would be like, ‘Oh my god, this is not going to fly’!” she laughs. “It was such an establishment. It’s a credit to Australian audiences that they were so into it, and it’s really become the norm these days.” In her downtime from the group, Connie has done some pretty full on extra-curricular activities. Even though she still insists she is not really a fan of hip hop, this hasn’t stopped her playing special guest for the big names in rap like Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross, not to mention her ongoing involvement with the everexpanding epic projects of Kanye West. West himself has sung her praises on many occasions, saying he was awestruck with her talent and originality on first hearing her tunes. She most recently contributed to the massive Jay-Z/Kanye epic Watch The Throne but her first appearance was on Kanye’s third album Graduation, and she insists that before she was asked to go into the studio she had absolutely no idea who he was.

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“That’s not my world,” she says of the bright lights and bling that is the world of Mr West and hip hop in general. “I knew he was some kind of big act from America but I just didn’t know who he was, which I think kid of worked in my favour, because I just got down to business. I was really out of my genre and comfort zone – it was not the kind of music that I listen to. Maybe that’s why he kept calling me back. When I went to New York to meet him there was some big power players in the room: there was 50 Cent, Common, Jay-Z and Kanye, and all of those guys, what I love about them is that they really give you kudos. Like, whenever anyone walked in the room, Kanye would introduce me and talk about my work, and they would always be like, ‘Wow, credit to you.’ It was really refreshing to see that’s how that world operates.” WHO: Sneaky Sound System WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, Hard Rock Rocks The Beach @ Surfers Paradise Festival

GOOD LIVIN’ His name might be synonymous with dirty rock’n’roll and all things debaucherous, but there’s more to Eddie Spaghetti than meets the eye. He explains to Steve Bell how he ended up morphing from chief Supersucker to solo artist extraordinaire, all without even the vaguest of compromise.

here’s a moment on the most excellent 1999 Supersuckers album The Evil Powers Of Rock’N’Roll – aptly just before raucous tune I Want The Drugs is about to kick in – where a disembodied voice poses the question: “Would you say that your songs are about liquor, women, drugs and killing for the most part?”. There’s a reflective pause before a cheeky, “Yup!” is proffered and then the depraved goodness of those Supersuckers guitars kick in with a vengeance. The exchange was bootlegged from a radio interview, and the respondent voice harbouring the evil intentions belongs to Eddie Spaghetti, frontman and chief sonic architect of the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Rock’N’Roll Band In The World’.

“I’ve been super busy doing solo stuff, and I’m on tour with the band right now – we’re in Phoenix, Arizona, getting ready to rock the Phoenicians,” Spaghetti offers with a chuckle. “We’ve been busy – we’ve been working on a new record, which is taking a lot longer than what we thought it was going to take to get it out, but it’s in the works and should be out before too long.

And while such a tag is obviously impossible to verify, if there was to be a quest to find the world’s greatest rock’n’roll band – and we’re talking proper rock’n’roll, foot-to-the-floor stuff that takes no prisoners, where the sniff of debauchery and danger is arguably more important than traits like rhythm and melody – then you could do worse than kick off the search by studying Supersuckers. Founded in Tucson, Arizona in the late-‘80s, they infamously tossed a coin when they wanted to get out of town and lady luck found them shunted to Seattle, where they signed to Sub Pop just as the grunge phenomenon hit – they suddenly found themselves in the midst of a massive rock explosion, just not entirely the right type of rock.

This solo career of which Spaghetti speaks is now three albums deep – his most recent being last year’s Sundowner long-player – but it all kicked off somehow haphazardly back in 2004 with the sessions for what became his solo debut The Sauce.

Nothing could derail Supersuckers though – they’ve always played the rock’n’roll card because that’s what they knew best, not because they thought it was going to get them anywhere. Decades later and they’re still plugging away, fighting the good fight and doing what they love because essentially they don’t know how to do anything else. Eddie Spaghetti might have inadvertently branched off into a solo career – he’s currently on the verge of his first trip to Australia on his lonesome – but it’s still business as usual for the inveterate rocker.

“When I come down there though it’ll just be me by myself, but I let the crowd tell me what they want to hear: if they’re Supersuckers fans, and hopefully they are, then I can play pretty much anything that the crowd can shout out. That’s kinda how the solo shows go – I let the crowd tell me what they want to hear, and I try my best to play it. Sometimes I win, and sometimes I lose, but it’s always entertaining.”

“It sort of happened by accident – I went into the studio to record a couple of songs that I had on my own, and it turned into my first solo record, and that was such a hit with everybody that I decided to do it again, and again,” he ponders almost incredulously. “And I’m probably going to do it again and again and again after that. I’ve only just recently come to grips with the fact that I now have a career as a solo artist as well as with the band – you know, I always considered myself a band guy, and not really a solo artist per se, but I’m starting to get more comfortable with that notion. “And they totally complement each other anyway. Sometimes I’ll open for the band as a solo act anyway, and it goes really well together. And it all winds up in the Supersuckers bin at the record store anyway, so it’s good for both things.” While the solo records are predominantly more laidback concerns than your typical Supersuckers fare,

this departure from the rock isn’t a total surprise for long-term fans – the band did famously make a foray into more stripped-back country with 1997’s brilliant Must’ve Been High record. “Yeah, I fought [country music] for a long time when I was in high school and stuff like that – I kinda fought the country music that I heard blasting out of every pickup truck in town, but eventually that shit just seeps into who you are and becomes a part of you,” Spaghetti muses. “You look at artists like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens and even Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle – there’s some great country out there, and it’s too good to deny for too long. “It was kind of rough going for a while [releasing Must’ve Been High], people weren’t accepting of it and people thought we were fucking around with them – they thought we’d lost our fucking minds,” he laughs. “But over time I think that the country record is our biggest selling record, so it shows you what they know.” One thing that links all of his disparate projects is the inherent humour that underlies Spaghetti’s work, never overt enough to make his songs seem flippant but always present just below the surface. “It’s just something that I can’t get away from, for better or for worse,” he smiles. “Sometimes it kinda bites me in the ass to have some comedy in a song,

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because, let’s face it, the comedy movies are never the ones that are up for the Academy Awards, but they’re always the ones that you watch over and over and over again. I always found myself having an affinity with being on the funny side of the street.” Unfortunately Spaghetti’s sunny outlook on life doesn’t extend to his take on the current state of rock’n’roll. “It’s in the toilet I think, unfortunately,” he sighs. “I was talking to my friend today about it – I think rock is going to become like jazz or blues, where it’s this little niche thing where a few old guys are doing it in a bar to seven or eight people. Very few people are going to have any success at it anymore. Unfortunately I think that real rock is just out of favour at the moment – I’m sure it will come back, but it’s going to take some sort of remarkable event for that to happen. It’s tough to think of many real good rock bands right now that haven’t been around for a while – that are new. Luckily the ‘Suckers ain’t going anywhere in a hurry though, so it ain’t all doom and gloom!” WHO: Eddie Spaghetti WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 28 June, Beetle Bar

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SYNTHETIC DREAMS Classically trained trumpeter turned Metric axeman Jimmy Shaw believes “a very integral part of the rock’n’roll experience” is when the onstage action “seems unhinged and on the edge of collapse at all times”. Bryget Chrisfield braces herself.

ow that Metric’s latest Synthetica set has landed, Jimmy Shaw, the band’s guitarist (who also plays synth and theremin), acknowledges that regulating the quality of material shared via YouTube and social networking sites is challenging. “People want you to put out music all the time and you have to have something to say on Twitter ten times a day, and photographs on Instagram, and updates on Facebook and, I mean, it’s like you have to constantly supply the world with as much information as you can,” he opines. “And sometimes there just isn’t that much happening, you know? It’s like: there’s only so many lobbies of hotels I could photograph without it becoming extremely boring… A lot of the mystery is gone, so the more that you can play little games and create whatever sort of mystery you can, the better.” Since the album’s lead single is called Youth Without Youth, Shaw is asked to reflect on his formative years. The multi-instrumentalist chuckles and then offers, “Put it this way, if you’d seen my report card it would’ve looked something like this: music 99 and then a series of 51s after that.” We’re tipping Physical Education would have been one of the “51s”. “Absolutely! Pool – you know, swimming – was one of the classics and I just refused to do it. I was a really, really skinny little kid and I just didn’t wanna get in a bathing suit and get in this gross pool with, you know, 2,000 other kids: it was nasty to me. So I just refused to go in the pool. I didn’t swim once the entire time I was in high school and they used to hate me for that. Every single week it’s like, ‘Up to the principal’s office.’ I spent a lot of time in the principal’s office. But usually the music teacher would come and rescue me and go, ‘No, you can’t get this kid in trouble, he’s the star music student and we need ‘im’.” Shaw started his musical life as a classical trumpet player, attending “a school in Philadelphia called Curtis” and then “The Juilliard Institute in New York”. “When I was 12 and 13, I was playing in a brass quintet and I played at probably about 120 concerts in the two years and I travelled all over North America. I went on a two-week tour of Japan,” he elaborates, as if it’s nothing. Shaw then wound up playing in the New York Philharmonic at an age he admits was exceptionally young for such an

achievement. “But by the time I was kind of 19 or 20, I realised that it was not my calling at all,” he reveals. “I didn’t wanna be part of that and I found the classical music world very uptight and stuffy, and you just sort of play the same pieces of music over and over and over again for the next 50 years. It just wasn’t the life for me. I needed more artistic freedom than that. That’s when I started listening to records and I sold a lot of my trumpets when I was at Juilliard and bought an eight-track, and a guitar and synthesiser, and started making pop music.” On how this classical training aided or impeded his transition into rock’n’roll, Shaw reflects, “I’ve definitely had to unlearn some things in the process, you know, because rock’n’roll isn’t about being right: a lot of the time it’s actually about being wrong and it working anyway. It’s way more about attitude than it is about playing the right note and, as a guitar player especially, I really had to learn that aspect of playing. When we first started touring I was a very safe guitar player and Josh [Winstead, bass] and Joules [Scott-Key, drums/ percussion] in the band used to say to me all the time, they’re like, ‘Dude, you need to unhinge a little bit. Like, go crazy!’ And I remember when we were playing shitty little punk bars and whisky-fuelled, really down and dirty rock’n’roll, man, when I first started playing guitar solos like that, I used to think it was the worst thing, like, ‘Jesus, that was absolutely horrible!’ And the two of them would always come backstage afterwards and go, ‘That was amazing, do that again!’ So I definitely had to learn the other aspect of making music with an attitude as opposed to just being correct.” Describing the distinction between listening to recorded material and the live gig experience, Shaw shares, “It’s like the difference between reading a screenplay and watching a movie itself”. “When I go see a concert I wanna see something transpire, you know, I wanna see something happen: I don’t wanna just see the person play the record, I wanna see an event… I think it’s up to the artist to make sure that the live experience is its own thing completely.” Metric ensure every performance is unique and gratifying by including “a couple of pieces of music within a live set that [they] would never, ever, ever

play the same twice”. “For years it was the two songs Dead Disco and Empty – I don’t think I’ve ever played the same guitar solo ever, not even close to the same thing. And sometimes the solo happens in a different place; sometimes it goes on forever, sometimes it doesn’t. Back in the earlier days we were definitely really, really into doing that, you know? A couple of years ago I was just sort of browsing through YouTube and I found this version of Dead Disco that we played at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco – which is the amazing, legendary venue – and this version was 26-minutes long. And Emily [Haines, frontvixen] is ranting and flying up and down the stage. I mean, it’s not as though we don’t do it anymore, you know? But there were a few years there in the middle where we were just totally overindulging in the idea of freeform improvisation within a rock’n’roll show and, in a way, I think it’s what we became known for as a live act a little bit, ‘You never really know what’s gonna happen’.” Haines has “tamed down a little bit” now, according to Shaw, “because she used to jump off 20-foot speaker stacks and crowd-surf and she’s torn down barricades and done some crazy shit in her time”. “But all that was in the pursuit of this transcendental experience. And the

whole thing just sort of seems unhinged and on the edge of collapse at all times. To us that’s very exciting: that’s a very integral part of the rock’n’roll experience.” These moments of visceral connection can certainly be felt from the crowd and it’s what makes live music such a rewarding communal experience. “Oh, absolutely, “ Shaw enthuses. “It’s really only those concerts where every single person in the room – the four members in the band and every single audience member – are truly connected that it really spirals up and transcends. If the audience is not really there then the band’s not really gonna be there either. I mean, it’s a conversation between the stage and the audience every single night, and it’s when that conversation is fluid and you’re communicating with each other that it really has the ability to just blow everyone’s minds, us included.” WHO: Metric WHAT: Synthetica (Create/Control) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 29 July, Splendour In The Grass, Belongil Fields, Byron Bay

DOUBLE D “A simple peeled orange is awfully sexy if you finger it properly,” Tenacious D frontman Jack Black assures Bryget Chrisfield. His bandmate Kyle Gass laughs along, later admitting he’s paid for dental work in exchange for a blowjob.

wo funny guys, both on different phone lines. In Hollyweird, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge… If you caught Tenacious D supporting Foo Fighters last December, you would have experienced their special brand of comedic rock’n’roll with generous lashings of berating banter in between. During the show this scribe attended, Tenacious D frontman Jack Black called his bandmate/sidekick/ lead guitarist Kyle Gass “clammy fingers Magoo”. “Oh my god,” Gass feigns outrage. “That’s so mean!” “You know, sometimes I get nervous and I lash out,” Black defends. The diss was delivered after only one song. “Oh my god, that’s right,” Gass recalls, “and then I think I had to quit.” Black continues, “That was – wait, that was the night that you quit the band. I remember. That was a legendary night.” Gass must have developed a thick skin to protect against such verbal abuse over the years. “I really have. I’m numb to it,” he admits. When asked whether there were any crazy happenings on this tour, Black offers, “Well we caused an earthquake in New Zealand and there was quite a good rap party at the end of that show. We all went over to someone’s hotel room and I remember somehow we ended up trying to carry a piano down the stairs.” Gass chuckles, “Was there some drinking going on before that?” “There was some drinking, yeah. It was one of those crazy nights.” Hopefully no pianos were harmed during this post-show revelry. “[The piano’s] fine,” Black stresses. “It’s functional. Thankfully there were no broken bones and no broken piano keys.”

Roadies are “the REAL rock’n’rollers” according to Black, so what of groupies? “Groupies!?” he baulks. “No. You see it’s 99% sausage fest out there.” Gass agrees, “Yeah, there’s a lotta dudes. A lotta dudes.” Black clarifies: “It’s possible to wrangle some groupies, but there has to be a person who’s special job it is to just go out there and find them and bring them back. But, you know, those days are gone for me – I’m married with children now, I don’t fuck around.” It has to be said that Tenacious D’s visual presence is instrumental to their appeal and accompanying video clips have been filmed for a whopping five out of the 14 16 • TIME OFF

tracks on their latest Rize Of The Fenix set. “I could’ve gone at least one more,” Black opines. “I would’ve liked to’ve done one for Señorita.” Gass agrees, “Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.” The band’s manager, Michael Michaels, was so excited about the guest stars Tenacious D lured into the fold for these upcoming videos that he placed a call ahead of this interview to provide an extremely animated heads-up. Black and Gass are particularly pumped about the star of their Roadie clip. “We got Danny McBride,” Black extols. “It was quite a coup. We were a little surprised that we got ‘im. We just asked him and he said ‘yeah’. And it was a double coup: not as many people would know or care, but the director of most of the episodes of Eastbound & Down, Jody Hill, was the director of the video and that was equally thrilling for us ‘cause he’s so fucking funny.” Gass boasts: “Well I think that’s a good reflection on us.” Some fittingly freaky shit goes down in the duo’s clip for Low Hangin’ Fruit. “Well, you know, it’s very provocative and there’s lots of fruitplay,” Black reveals. “There’s a lot of fingering various fruits and licking fruits.” “You might not have thought that fruit was so sexy, really,” Gass contributes. Black concurs: “It’s amazing how provocative a piece of fruit can be.” What’s the sexiest citrus? “Well a simple peeled orange is awfully sexy if you finger it properly. It was a fun shoot. It was strictly me and Kage. There was a tremendous amount of provocative dance. Kyle’s got the moves.” “Let’s just say you were moving pretty good yourself,” Gass praises. “We had some pretty good wardrobe for that too – we were pimping it out.” Now that Rize Of The Fenix has dropped, how far would Tenacious D say they’ve come in their quest to become the best band in the world? Gass responds quickly: “It’s one of the best albums ever.” But Black has a lot more to say on the subject: “Quite honestly, it’s less about being the best band right now and more about saving rock’n’roll. Because let’s face it, rock’n’roll is laying down on the gurney right now, it’s flatlined.” This is true. “I’m not done with my analogy. The surgeons are looking at each other and saying, ‘Is it even worth it? Should we just put off – what’s that electric thing? The defibrillators?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Gass confirms. And Black’s off again: “And that’s when we – surgeons Kage and Jables – come in the room and say, ‘Step aside, we’ve got this,’ and bring it back to life. It’s nothing less than a heroic rescue mission. We’re like field team six going in to rescue sweet, innocent rock.” There’s a bit of adlibbing on album track Deth Starr and after claiming, “We’re basically having sex. I think there’s some love making,” Black divulges his source of inspiration. “You know how in the heyday of Van Halen when Diamond Dave would, you know, just be talking in the middle of a song? [Busts out the slow, sexy Panama riff] ‘Reach down, beneath my legs and ease the seat back.’ [Then, from Hot For Teacher] ‘I brought my pencil! Give me something to write on, man’.” Of the skits littered throughout the album, Classical Teacher is a standout. “It was terrifying I have to say,” Gass reflects on the ‘experience’. Black elaborates, “Well the lesson with the classical teacher was less about learning guitar technique and more about tapping into some hidden passions that Kyle wasn’t even aware of. You’ll notice when next we play in your town that Kyle plays with a kind of abandon only seen in the wild. He plays like a jaguar.” If you’re searching for LOLs, give 39 a few spins. Here’s a lyrical sample: “She needs a dentist appointment quick/I pay for it and she sucka my dick.” Is this song based on a real ‘lady’? “It was loosely based on someone Kyle was dating for a time,” Black handballs. Kyle? “Ugh, well, you

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know, it was kind of a tough break up. It was more based on my ongoing midlife crisis, I think.” Black adds, “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Was a dentist appointment paid for though? “Excuse me, we have to wrap it up,” announces the phone conference operator. Much laughter. Black jokes, “We told her to interrupt if a dentist was asked about.” So did Gass in fact sort out a dental bill? “That part was true,” he chuckles. “But there was no agreement like [puts on a weird accent], ‘In exchange for the dentist you must x, y and z’.” When asked whether there are any topics too unsavoury to explore through song, Black shares, “There’s an invisible line in the sand and everybody knows [when] there’s too powerful a taboo. There’s a lot of things where the unsavouriness is just a matter of time, it’s like, ‘Oh, too soon!’ And there’s other things that are just too harsh to be funny. Our next album is the stuff that was too hot, too dirty and too unsavoury on all of our albums. We’ve compiled them all and it’s called…” Gass interjects, “D-licious.” “It could just be called ‘Licious,” Black muses and then one-ups himself, “I think it would be called ‘Spicable: Tenacious D – ‘Spicable.” Gass approves, “Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.” WHO: Tenacious D WHAT: Rize Of The Fenix (Sony)

BEST MUSIC THING EVER EVE

12 – 14 SEPTEMBER 2012 BRISBANE AUSTRALIA

THE GLOBAL MUSIC GATHERING SPEAKERS

Ben Lee Artist (AUS/USA) / Ben Swank Third Man Records (USA) / Rene Chambers – Spotify (UK) / Aly Ehlinger C3 Presents (USA) / David Jimenez-Zumalacarregui Primavera (ESP) / Mark Poston EMI Music Australia (AUS) / Charles Caldas Merlin Network (UK) / Jessica Ducrou Splendour in the Grass (AUS) / Ian Haug Powderﬁnger (AUS) / Ben and Nicky Berger Berger Management (USA) / Richard Moffat Way Over There (AUS) / Lisa Hresko CMJ (USA) / David Bridie Artist (AUS) / Nick Findlay triple j (AUS) AND MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!

BIGSOUND LIVE Kate Miller-Heidke / Violent Soho / Eagle & The Worm / The Paper Kites / King Cannons / The Cairos / Oliver Tank / Kira Puru & The Bruise / The Trouble With Templeton / The Preachers AND MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!

TIME OFF • 17

RACING HEART

PICKIN’ UP THE PIECES

The perennial Hugo Race speaks with Brendan Telford about how his lengthy, expansive career has led him to musings on love.

Nick Barker & The Reptiles burnt brightly on the Australian scene in the late-‘80s and early‘90s before fading into obscurity. Frontman Nick Barker tells Steve Bell about their second lease of life.

ugo Race is one of Australia’s most travelled musicians – not just geographically, but musically. He has traversed most genres with aplomb, putting out a plethora of releases on a cluster of international labels, constantly pushing boundaries and enjoying himself all the while. And whilst he has been part of big globally-renowned acts (Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Wreckery, Dirtmusic) and with Hugo Race and the True Spirit, No But It’s True marks his first “official” solo album – although he concedes this isn’t exactly true. “Like most things I do, it’s a little more confused than that,” Race chuckles. “Aside from the True Spirit records, I did a live acoustic album in 1994 called Stations Of The Cross, which isn’t usually included on the catalogue because it came out on a German label called Normal as part of a mail order series, but then got distributed to an Italian label in Naples that ended up in stores. Then three years ago I did an instrumental record called Between Hemispheres but that doesn’t count… And my last album Fatalists is a solo album, but since then I’ve formed a band called Hugo Race Fatalists and we have another album coming out… none of this is very clear or makes much sense, does it?” No But It’s True is an intriguing prospect because it requires Race to play songs that others have written and others have played for many years, whilst Race himself struggles to listen to his own music after it hits the shelves. He opines that the issue wasn’t about playing familiar songs, but about striving to find the key to their success. “I never really listen to anything I have written after it’s been recorded because I have lived with it for so long,” Race admits. “But I have always quite enjoyed hanging around with other musicians and prodding each other, saying, ‘Can you play me a Carpenters cover?’ or, ‘Play me a Captain Beefheart or a Blondie song.’ I’d been talking to two close friends about what types of covers you might choose if you were to record them. Out of it all came this idea about what makes songs really eternal, what makes them connect with

F so many people, and the conclusion was that they were all about love. Love can do that. Songs about partying, good times, bad times – they come and go. Yet there is this drama about love and what it is; how it’s good and how it’s bad. It defines people’s lives.” Race’s innate knowledge of, well, everything, and penchant for consistently pushing himself into new sonic parameters bode well when it came to collating the songs for No But It’s True. Race poured considerable energy and concentration into gleaning a brace of disparate tracks that spanned eras and genres. On their own they speak their separate stories, but when pared back and placed side by side offer a singularity in their message about love that is driven by pure lyricism. “We started with 30 or 40 love songs, then reduced them down by which ones made sense with how I play, because some songs I love and am crazy about don’t fit me. Because I did them so stripped back, very minimalistic, some songs didn’t work without its accompanying arrangement, and it’s that moment that you realise that it’s composition that drives it, that makes the song tick. Yet with a song like (Bruce Springsteen’s) I’m On Fire, which is incredibly wellknown, I realised that I had never really listened to the lyrics before. I only knew part of the chorus. So when you strip away all the production, some simple yet powerful sentiment remains. It is astonishing.” WHO: Hugo Race WHAT: No But It’s True (Rough Velvet) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, X&Y Bar; Saturday 23, Bangalow Bowling Club

Beefheart, and Hugo [Race] had played with Nick Cave – but I was pretty much a rock’n’roll guy, and with The Reptiles I just wanted to do something fucking balls to the wall, like Jason & The Scorchers or Georgia Satellites. Unfortunately the label wanted us to be fucking Guns N’ Roses – we should have followed our heart, but we were kids and we didn’t know shit really.”

or a while there Nick Barker & The Reptiles had it all – songs such as (Sure Beats) Goin’ To Pieces, Another Me and their cover of Cockney Rebel’s Come Up & See Me (Make Me Smile) omnipresent on the radio, the band filling big rooms on the thriving pub circuit – and then they were gone, just like that. They could have stayed a mere footnote in the ever-expanding treatise that is the history of rock’n’roll, except for an aptly-timed intervention with charitable (and football) overtones. “They had the [charity football event] Community Cup earlier this year and they’d asked us to re-form for that,” Barker recalls. “We’d kind of bumped into one another, because The Wreckery did a reformation and I saw all the boys when they came along to see that – I was in The Wreckery before I started The Reptiles – and we got chatting, and there was a fair bit of love in the room. No-one was throwing any big money at us to do a club show, so we thought, ‘Fuck it, we’ll do it for charity!’ We played and it was really good, so we thought we’d do another couple of shows and here we are. “It’s just been really good fun, and we’re arguably better musically than we were back then – we’re not as exuberant, and we’re not as drunk, but we’re certainly better players.” The feelgood rock’n’roll of The Reptiles was miles removed from the more artistically-inclined The Wreckery, mainly due to Barker’s more simple muse. “The Wreckery wasn’t really my band – I never wrote anything, I was just the bass player – but on a good night they were a really high-energy, swampy beast,” he continues. “I was always a big fan of rock’n’roll bands like The Stones, and I love The Cult’s first couple of albums, so it was weird hanging around with The Wreckery guys – they were highbrow private school kids into Captain

Things didn’t end well first time around, which is why The Reptiles current reformation is a blessing for all involved. “It’s funny, because as you get older playing music, everything’s forgiven,” Barker laughs. “We sorta had a pretty ugly break-up, The Reptiles, we were all pretty confused. We got signed up and heavily promoted, but we didn’t really sell a lot of records – not by the standards of the late-‘80s – and I think the record company considered us a bit of a failure, and we just kind of fizzled out. We were still playing over 150 gigs a year but the crowds were just dropping off – it was a pretty inglorious ending. “It’s a story as old as music itself, but in a lot of ways I guess we’ve gone through a bit of a healing process, because it was a pretty ugly time. It was okay for me because I did that solo album that had Time Bomb on it [1994’s Happy Man], and that did really well so I felt that I’d redeemed myself, but the other boys had pretty big chips on their shoulders for a long time, and rightly so. But it’s been nice to revisit the songs, and nice to realise that we were a really good rock’n’roll band.” WHO: Nick Barker & The Reptiles WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, Racecourse Hotel, Booval; Saturday 23, Hinterland Hotel, Nerang; Sunday 24, Tempo Hotel

BREAKING HART BENTON “New Time Old Time” Tour June/July 2012

“These are people who’ve gone beyond fashion and are making music they seem to genuinely feel” Ross Clelland, Drum Media

“A refreshingly old approach to new music” Phil Young, 3MDR Melbourne

SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM FRIDAY 22 JUNE 5:30PM – 9:00PM

LAUNCHING THEIR DEBUT EP

SUNDAY JUNE 24

322 BRUNSWICK STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY w/ The Rusty Datsuns + Luna Junction Doors open 7pm / $10 entry An initiative of

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SATURDAY 23 JUNE 3:30PM – 8:00PM

SURFERS PARADISE BEACH

BLACK BEAR LODGE

JUNE 23 Sol Bar, Maroochydoore JUNE 24 Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane JUNE 30 Pure Pop Records, Melbourne JUNE 30 Wesley Anne Hotel, Melbourne JULY 11 The Joynt, Brisbane JULY 14 Bon Amici, Toowoomba JULY 20 Upfront Club, Maleny JULY 24 Old Bar, Melbourne

HOODOO GURUS

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ASH GRUNWALD SUNDAY 24 JUNE 1:30PM – 5:00PM

BANDS THE INDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOG RES THE DJS THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE REMIXES THE ARTISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GRO LBUMS THE TOURS THEMUSIC.COM.AU THE FA THE INDUSTRY THE LOCALS THE BLOGS THE E S THE GIGS THE PRODUCERS THE CLUBS THE TISTS THE FESTIVALS THE GROUPIES THE ALBU THE FANS THE BANDS THE INDUSTRY THE LOC S THE ENCORES THE DJS THE GIGS THE PROD LUBS THE REMIXES THE ARTISTS THE FESTIVA PIES THE ALBUMS THE TOURS THE FANS THE TIME OFF • 19

LONE WOLVES

BRING BACK THE BUFF

Joel Byrne from Adelaide’s Wolf & Cub discusses the merits of FM classic rock with Chris Yates, and how it relates to the psych rock that he and his bandmates have been drip feeding of late.

On the verge of Manhood, Muscles (Chris Copulos to his mum) tells Matt O’Neill, “I feel like I’m in my own little universe and I’ve got no path to follow from other people.”

hris Copulos’ Muscles moniker was introduced to Australian audiences with a wave. Dropping in late 2007, Muscles’ debut album, Guns Babes Lemonade, saw the Melbourne producer’s name inextricably linked to then fellow rising stars like Cut Copy, Pnau, The Presets and Van She – early breakthrough hits such as Ice Cream and Sweaty coinciding with a national explosion of interest in locally produced dance music. “There was this Aussie wave – bands like Pnau, Empire Of The Sun. Even now, you have groups like Miami Horror and Art Vs Science kind of keeping the momentum going,” Copulos reflects. “It was really, really cool from an Australian point of view – to see these artists getting support both in Australia and overseas. But then, everyone is sort of on their own path. My music doesn’t sound anything like their music.” Copulos has always operated within his own continuum. Since inception, his work as Muscles has been a weird overlap of contradictory outlooks and influences, from the simple collision of experimentation and pop hooks that was debut release, Four Months, in 2006 to the combination of raw electro and meticulously layered vocal hooks (see: Ice Cream) that has since become his trademark. “I kind of feel like Muscles is a special project,” the producer suggests. “You look around and there’s a lot of indie bands around who sound kind of similar to each other and a lot of hip hop, but I feel like Muscles is a special project. I feel like I’m in my own little universe and I’ve got no path to follow from other people. I’m kind of creating my own path with this music, if that makes sense.” The proof is in Copulos‘ delivery of a follow-up album – or, rather, his refusal to immediately deliver a follow-up album. One of the biggest breakthroughs of the late-noughties’ electro explosion, Guns Babes Lemonade debuted at #14 on the Australian charts and topped the Australian dance charts.

20 • TIME OFF

eing disconnected from record labels and doing everything by themselves, Joel Byrne says that the usual disadvantages of being independent (ie. no money) are outweighed by the freedom to release their new material on a timeline that suits them.

Yet it has taken Copulos nearly five years to get around to releasing follow-up album, Manhood. “Well, it didn’t take five years to write it,” he laughs. “It’s really just been the last two. After Guns Babes Lemonade was released, I was really on tour for a couple of years – until about the start of 2009 – and then I wanted to just take a break for a little bit. That’s why we released that EP, Younger & Immature, back in 2010. We wanted to give people something to tide them over until the album was done.” Manhood itself presents further evidence. Noisy, dark and eclectic, Muscles‘ second album isn’t generic Australian electro. It’s weird, sleek, sexual work. Aggressive and mercurial, Manhood does not arrive without Copulos‘ immediately recognisable vocal hooks and quirks – but it’s a product for the clubs, not the radio. Even in its softer moments, it feels too singularly unusual to stand alongside today’s electro-indie crowd. “I’m excited by it,” Copulos says of the album. “I feel like it’s a nice, sexy little dance record, you know. I hadn’t listened to it since I finished it, until just recently when I decided to take it for a spin in my car, and I was just listening to it thinking, ‘This is exactly the kind of follow-up record I wanted to make.’ It’s exactly the second album I knew I wanted to make from the moment Guns Babes Lemonade was released. I can’t wait for people to hear it.” WHO: Muscles WHAT: Manhood (Modular/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, Oh Hello; Saturday 28 July, Splendour In The Grass, Belongil Fields, Byron Bay

“We were on Dot Dash and they were an amazing label,” he says genuinely. “But we have a more direct relationship with our fans now. Now, if we wanna put something out, we put it straight out. There’s no promotional agenda that you have to work to and you don’t have to worry about doing something that’s contrary to any release plan. For instance, with these new singles we would have to clear so much. Now we can just put stuff on the Internet and do whatever we want. The flipside of that is that financially it’s a real fucking struggle. It’s fine to release stuff for free, but it costs money to produce. You hope people are gonna return the favour by coming to see you at shows and buying merch and all that kind of stuff.” It’s a familiar tale these days, but when you have a live show as strong as Wolf & Cub, you’re hardly doing the band a favour by seeing them live. Its more like the other way around. Their massive sound is captured beautifully on the new single Shut Me Out; with its rougher edges it’s a great representation of what they do onstage. Produced by Tim Whitten, it’s one of four new songs and is the heaviest, most menacing of the bunch. “We were intentionally going for a crunchier sound, or a crunchier vibe than what we had already achieved with the other (new) songs,” Byrne says of Shut Me Out. “The only thing that’s different really is the guitars. We’ve kept a smooth kind of vibe to it that we want to keep going for the rest of the album. Tim brought in some nice little delay units and stuff for the vocals which injects it with that weird, psych kinda element which we try not to stray too far from.” The other big new track is See The Light – released a little earlier this year, it signalled that the band were

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returning with a purpose, raising the bar significantly for what sounds they wanted to create in the studio. That track (as well as the b-sides for See The Light and Shut Me Out) were produced by Burke Reid, the ex-Gerling member who’s popping up with a producer credit on more than a few amazing releases of late. “I hate to even say this, but [Reid] is really becoming a go-to kind of producer. He’d totally hate to hear that as well,” Byrne laughs. “That’s the last thing I think he wants to be, but it’s no surprise that he’s been involved with so many great records. It’s not a coincidence. He injected this smooth, easy-listening element into See The Light which has really set a high quality that we want to achieve with the new stuff.” At this point, Joel explains what he means by easy-listening and confesses to listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and Springsteen of late, certainly surprising considering the direction of the new material so far. “You know, like classic rock, FM Radio can’t help but influence what we’re doing. We’re definitely not trying to create a new sound, that’s the furthest thing from my mind. Maybe not something that’s easy to listen to, but something that’s a pleasure to listen to. That’s what that classic sound is all about, it’s fucking undeniable!” WHO: Wolf & Cub WHEN & WHERE: Sat 23 June, Hard Rock Cafe @ Surfers Paradise Festival; Sat 28 July, Splendour In The Grass

TIME OFF • 21

REEL LIFE

HARD TIMES

Playing with their heroes, drunken gig hustling and overseas aspirations – the Tape/Off reel just keeps rolling. Drummer Branko Cosic fills Benny Doyle in on the latest.

Ahead of The Bride’s upcoming national album tour, vocalist Kevin Schwartz tells Daniel Cribb that Australian hardcore is in need of some life support.

ranko Cosic doesn’t do boredom. If you can’t find the Brisbane muso manning the stool for local fuzz merchants Tape/Off or producing a bunch of other local bands, you might be able to tap him on the shoulder while he’s buried in his laptop mixing, or just pop into the 4ZzZ studio on a Friday, where he co-hosts lunchtime programme Unnecessary Knowledge. Cosic, just like Tape/Off, is quickly becoming an integral part of the Brisbane music community; a wanted commodity. And listening to their 2011 five-track ...And Sometimes Gladness, you get the feeling that life is only going to continue getting busier for the lads. That’s why it seems only natural that Kellie Lloyd would ask Tape/Off to be her backing band for a run of shows, before simply settling with Cosic to provide a percussive spine to her new tunes. “She wouldn’t tell me what it was about,” he recalls of their first catch-up organised at Beetle Bar, “but [Tape/ Off] had been playing Screamfeeder covers, so we thought she was going to sue us! So Nathan [Pickels – guitar] and I went there to meet her properly, and it was only then that she said she’d like Tape/Off to be her backing band. She went out on an incredible limb because she hadn’t seen us live or anything.” In between these sort of beautiful random occurrences, the band have been head-down, planning to tackle their first ever full-length. “Everything that we’ve done up until this point has been self-released and self-recorded,” he explains about their current situation and direction, “but for the LP we are definitely going to take things further. We’re in talks to hopefully go overseas – that’s something that we’d like to do.” Cosic and the band, currently enjoying help from Tiny Spiders bass player Cam Smith, are approaching this LP with a different mindset to their previous release. Although to an unaware set of ears ...And

22 • TIME OFF

“S Sometimes Gladness sounds like considered set of tunes, the skinsman confesses that the EP actually had to be rushed out due to some boozy mouth flapping. “We actually had a launch show booked before anything was recorded,” he informs. “That was supposed to be an album. We were finished with [2010 EP] Unreel Unravel and we thought, ‘Let’s do an album, let’s have a go at it’. But I kinda got drunk one night and booked The Zoo just because they’d put a call out for bands, and we didn’t think we were going to get it, but they gave us a Saturday night there. All of sudden it was serious, so we had to get our arse into gear, and [... And Sometimes Gladness] is what came out, but you wouldn’t listen to it and see it as a rushed release at all. It was pretty motivational; I have never worked like that before, but it came up pretty good in the end.” Although this run of dates marks the final touring cycle for that aforementioned 2011 EP, Cosic admits that there is no time for feelings of closure. The appetite of the entire band is unrelenting, and they are simply starving for more of the same. “It doesn’t feel like it’s the end of an era or anything like that,” he reasons. “I guess it’s just growing up. To imagine where we were a year ago to where we are now is a massive growth, so hopefully we can have those same kind of big steps. We don’t really know what’s going to happen in another year to come, [but] the other guys are really hungry for it, so there’s the possibility that in the next year the album will arrive.” WHO: Tape/Off WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 23 June, The Zoo

ydney for a long time had, in my opinion, the best hardcore scene in Australia,” reckons The Bride’s Kevin Schwartz of his hometown, “Unfortunately, it’s sort of slowed down a little bit over the last year, two years… Places like Brisbane, it’s pretty much non-existent, the scene’s almost gone because venues are closing down all over the place and no one wants to put on hardcore gigs anymore, which sucks. “But in saying that, because that sort of thing is happening, you’re starting to see a lot more house gigs and that kind of thing. Fans are saying ‘Hey, come play in my living room and we’ll invite everyone and charge a dollar and we’ll put sandwiches on.’ That’s the kind of scene that you saw a couple of years ago, which I think is fantastic, and I think it’s great to see it come back now. So it is on demand and I think it is getting better and better, but it’s only going to be as good as the people coming to the shows and supporting it. So yeah, come out to gigs – don’t sit at home and be lame.” Doing all they can to keep the music they love alive, The Bride have been on the road constantly since the release of their debut album, President Rd, providing ample opportunities for punters to come out of the woodwork. “We really just want to build up our fan base. We’re pretty passionate about what we do, so we try to tour new places and play to people that might not have heard us. Ultimately, the goal is playing as many of those shows as possible – as well as playing the capitals where we’ve already established a bit of a fan base. We want to play as many spots as possible and get the music out there and sort of bring back that community of hardcore that’s gone missing over the past couple of years. “[On tour] we pretty much live in a crappy little eight-seater van,” he laughs, admitting their goal isn’t an easy one. “It sucks, it’s really hard, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Always in a van, always listening to the same songs, and always sitting next to the same smelly feet.”

themusic.com.au

Although the album came out in November last year and they’ve already circled the country a few times, this is the band’s first headlining tour in support of an album that features vocal cameos from the likes of Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive and members of Heroes For Hire. The pairing of Sydney pop-punk and hardcore reinforces the strong sense of community that energises The Bride. “For us, [community] is essential. We couldn’t have done half of the things that we do as a band without being friends with so many different people. It seems that over the past year some bands have started to keep to themselves and they don’t want to talk to other people and stuff like that. I hate that crap. I’ll talk to anyone who wants to sit down and have a chat – whether it’s about music, life or fucking sport, I really don’t care. That’s the kind of community that we’ve tried to build up, and is why we have guest vocalists on our album. “I don’t really see the point in being a band if you’re going to sit there alone by yourself the whole time. It’s supposed to be fun and it’s supposed to be about friendship and mates. That’s extremely important to us and we would never change it.” WHO: The Bride WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 21 June, Snitch; Friday 22, Strathpine Community Hall; Saturday 23, Railway Hotel, Toowoomba; Sunday 24, Expressive Grounds, Gold Coast

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B R I S B A N E P OW E R H O U S E .O R G TIME OFF • 23

SINGLED OUT WITH CHRIS YATES

ON THE RECORD

HITS

Take Your Pills

PENNY HEWSON

This One’s For You/ My Lover’s Touch Popboomerang

After being a prominent feature of the musical landscape in Melbourne in the ‘90s, Penny Hewson has returned to her home city after a decade abroad in the US. These two tracks show she’s keen to get back into making sweet tunes with a double shot of accomplished pop songs, which hark back to that era. This One’s For You is multi-layered and complimented with deep strings, while My Lover’s Touch is a very French-sounding acoustic number.

Dead Oceans/Inertia Replacing bassist Jonathon Smith with Dion Lunadon (of The D4 fame), the new-look A Place To Bury Strangers have washed out the killing floor that was their 2009 Exploding Head record, replaced it with their own weapons of mass destruction, and deliver Worship, a record as abrasive as previous releases yet offering a stronger sense of melody than previously thought possible.

The band hasn’t foregone the noise however – far from it. This is likely to be one of the loudest records released this year. You Are The One starts like a gothic pop tune, opting for a brooding atmosphere and creeping bass before all hell breaks loose, Ackerman’s hushed vocals proving to be a menacing counterpoint to the sonic maelstrom. In fact his vocals prove to be an effective weapon in itself – when he murmurs “either way I choose/the choice is wrong”, the torment and gnashing of teeth are palpable. The pounding bass and industrial guitar distortion remain well and truly at the forefront of their sound – Mind Control threatens to blow up the speakers, just so that Revenge can finish off the job – but there is nuance here, like the moody, reverb-drenched Fear, the noirish sweetness of And I’m Up or the shimmering wall of guitar and incessant motorik drumming on Dissolved. The space allowed on the cavernous, Cure-baiting Slide helps to intensify the claustrophobia on tracks like Leaving Tomorrow, ensuring that any relief from the onslaught is fleeting. Worship is a record that takes in so many genres – shoegaze, krautrock, industrial noise, grindcore, garage rock – and melds them into a fierce mosaic of unrelenting aggression, confidence and surprising accessibility. An assured return. ★★★★½

Banana Beat/Suburban Noize/Shock

Tenzenmen

Having gained international attention in the years subsequent to the release of his self-titled debut album, Mickey Avalon has enjoyed a cult (and occasionally mainstream) following, due primarily to his catchy and skilfully woven tunes: musical tattles of Los Angeles’ substance inhaling and sex-driven sub-celebrities. Returning with his second (and long-delayed) studio album, the Hollywood-based rapper appears to have lost his knack for crafting passionately lewd, crude and drug-abused beats – and with that, his ability to write good music.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Nikko launched The Warm Side on the unsuspecting public, thus creating LIVE a darkly eloquent, apocryphal gothic outback country. It’s a distinctly unique soundscape, part post-rock roil and rumble, part esoteric reflection, and this world is further explored on their follow-up Gold & Red.

Gold & Red

Fans expecting a return to production of songs like Jane Fonda, My Dick and Waiting To Die are instead on the receiving end of a dry amalgamation of music and inspiration that has (presumably) gone stale since the record’s initial release date years ago. Sadly, a large number of the tunes play out as poor derivatives of the recipes Avalon found success within in 2006.

Nearly twice as long as it’s album predecessor, Loaded is scattered with what feels like a scrapbook of halfformed ideas. On occasion it seems that a good idea is around the corner; Mr. Brownstone kicks off as a quirky homage to LL Cool J’s Mr. Goodbar and the very sighting of fellow LA rapper Andre Legacy’s name featuring on a studio album should excite most Avalon fans. Unfortunately these opportunities are squandered amongst the average production and bad decisionmaking that litter this hour-long listen of shabbily executed rhymes supported by cheap instrumentals. In regards the delay, Avalon has promised to chase this sophomore release with a new album upon each passing year from here on in. One can only hope that the artist finds some new creative energy in the meantime.

Brendan Telford

★★

Perfectly captured by Cam Smith (Tiny Spiders, Ghost Notes, No Anchor) in the cavernous orchestral hall of Brisbane’s historic Old Museum, Gold & Red opens with the brooding, ominous The Child, the atmospheric D Vwall of sound intense and apocalyptic. It’s a brooding set piece to set up shop on, and showcases the four-piece’s intricate compositions perfectly. Much hinges on the rich timbre of Ryan Potter’s vocals, and they are beautifully captured here, offering the right amount of bluster and fragility that these tracks deserve. It doesn’t all work – You Are Loved stumbles due to vocal simplicity and repetition – but is more than made up for by the subtle whimsy of Smoke Alarms, dusky beauty of Never Danced (a surprisingly touching love song) and the rolling tension of Dark Eyes (with backing vocals by Keep On Dancin’s Jacinta Walker). The added presence of violinist Adam Cadell (The Scrapes) is evident throughout, plinking away on Never Danced and in full dervish mode on the title track, and proves to be Gold & Red’s lynchpin, that last piece that helps everything slot into place.

Carlin Beattie

Universal There could be no mistake who this is from the very first guitar chord that rings out on Chartreuse, the first of four Rick Rubin-produced tracks on Texacali. You can hear the age in Billy Gibbons’ voice but it doesn’t really hinder him – just makes him sound more bad ass really. The chord progression is actually a really interesting mutation of your standard 12 bar blues, and all the tracks have something surprising or interesting about them, including their cover of rap classic 25 Lighters by Texan DJ DMD.

NIKKO

Texacali

MICKEY AVALON Loaded

Worship

ZZ TOP

LIVE

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

Fresh from tearing France and probably the entire European continent a fresh derriere, Brisbane’s sons and daughters of real rock’n’roll HITS return to Australia with some songs pressed into vinyl courtesy of the French label Beast Records. Not surprising that the sleazy riff-mongering of HITS goes down so well in a country famous for things that smell bad and taste great, Take Your Pills delivers a hearty dose of rock that doesn’t take itself seriously. The single is backed with a cover of The Laughing Dogs’ I Need A Million which would be worth it all on its own.

Beast

Gold & Red is epic in every sense – the noisy moments are incredibly emotive, the quiet moments offer enough space to dance to its own tune without feeling perfunctory. Nikko have created another elegiac yet iconic gem. ★★★★

Brendan Telford

LIL WAYNE

My Homies Still (feat. Big Sean) Universal

Following the template of his best tracks like 6 Foot 7 Foot and A Milli, My Homies Still features a minimal bassline that sits on top of a big kick drum and a stuttering, sterile snare with a tiny bit of looped vocal. You can forgive him for revisiting this simple idea when he does it so well, and almost everything else he tries to experiment with ends up sucking hard. It’s not quite as good as the other two aforementioned bass monsters, but it’s close.

VOMIT BULLETS Rad Mobile Independent

The cover of Rad Mobile is as rad as the title, a disgusting mish mash of various Asian languages and a terrible shot from inside a racing car, it’s so stupid it’s brilliant. Which kinda mirrors the whole Vomit Bullets approach. Featuring members of Stolen Bikes Ride Faster who had a similar aesthetic, Rad Mobile is six thrashy punk numbers with liberal amounts of metal palm mutings and indecipherable lyrics which really just comes across as a bunch of dudes having heaps of fun and swearing a lot. Ace.

HOT CHIP

Night And Day Domino/EMI

While the new album might be patchy, this isn’t really unusual for Hot Chip – their particular brand of genius usually appears in short bursts. Night And Day is a high-tempo bloopy synth banger, and easily one of the few really amazing tracks from the record and is a great example of how they manage to condense a bunch of great ideas into a short track. Flutes is really the only other track on the album that beats it. 24 • TIME OFF

MILLENCOLIN

BEACHWOOD SPARKS

THE BEACH BOYS

Epitaph/Warner

Sub Pop/Inertia

Captiol/EMI

In 2000, Swedish skate punks Millencolin wanted to take things to the next level. They debunked to LA, jumped in the studio with Bad Religion stalwart Brett Gurewitz and emerged with Pennybridge Pioneers. It proved to be the album that took them around the world and in the 12 years that have passed has been recognised as their definitive body of work.

When LA quartet Beachwood Sparks first floated onto the scene at the start of the millennium, their cruisy cosmic country and laidback, harmony-laden Laurel Canyon-inspired rock seemed somewhat out of time, even as their two albums earned them plenty of plaudits and acclaim. Now in this era where acts like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes have reignited interest in slightly outthere Americana, it’s a perfect time for the estranged outfit to reunite – not to suggest that their music (now or then) mirrors any of these acts, because Beachwood Sparks are definitely their own beast, still owing far more to Gram Parsons than anyone like Grizzly Bear.

It’s probably good to be cynical when approaching a new album from The Beach Boys; they are old and aside from Brian Wilson’s 2004 re-recorded SMiLE, they haven’t released anything of worth in decades. It makes it quite a joy then to hear That’s Why God Made The Radio, an unspectacular, but far from embarrassing release on their 50th anniversary.

The Melancholy Connection

The Tarnished Gold

An extension of their ten-year anniversary tours and what is likely the final homage to those songs, The Melancholy Connection is 14 tracks – originals, b-sides, off-cuts – but far from forgotten scraps; this is actually a great album on its own merits. In fact, gauged against the hot and cold albums released since Pennybridge..., this collection of tracks could go down as one of the quartet’s best bodies of work and arguably their most punchy and consistent record since the turn of the millennium. With Nikola Sarcevic pushing his register to the higher end of the spectrum, new track Carry You and its stadium-worthy chorus wouldn’t be out of place on a Foo Fighters record. Meanwhile, songs like The Downhill Walk and Bull By The Horns deliver all the best bits of Millencolin; simple nostalgic lyrics, blunt riffs and straight-up drum beats, every element executed with streamlined efficiency. The real treat here for fans, however, is the 90-minute movie that chronicles the making of the landmark Pennybridge... album. Storyboarding the tracks with tales from the studio while splicing it with recent live footage from around the world, it’s entertaining and really captures their time in California. This is the perfect way to begin your Millencolin journey, or suitably conclude it. ★★★½

Benny Doyle

As a group of songs, their comeback album The Tarnished Gold (the first since 2001) pretty much meanders from beginning to end on a bed of strummed guitars, pedal steel and sweet harmonies with no apparent urgency – floating along with no existential angst or quest for higher meaning. It was recorded and produced by old foil Thom Monahan (The Pernice Brothers, Vetiver), who does a brilliant job make it soft and shiny, like a sparkling mirage always on the horizon but never quite in reach. There are numerous guests throughout, including Ariel Pink and Neal Casal of The Cardinals, but no one leaves an imprint that outshines the band. Songs like Sparks Fly Again and Tarnished Gold meander by like a gentle stream, shimmering yet shallow, while Talk About Lonesome is jaunty enough to belie its title and Earl Jean summons the effortless majesty of Wilco at their most languid. Goodbye is, title aside, the perfect closer, mellow and stately and a totally fitting finale to this most welcome of returns. ★★★★

themusic.com.au

Steve Bell

That’s Why God Made The Radio

The opening harmonies of Think About The Days are unmistakably Beach Boys, despite the near-certainty that auto-tune technology is helping them hit those notes. The title track is boring and destined for a future nowhere else but easy listening radio, but then Isn’t It Time turns the record on its head; it’s a genuinely fantastic song delivered with that carefree, joyous spirit, the band’s shared vocals an absolute treat. Mike Love’s Daybreak Over The Ocean threatens to become Kokomo II – but doesn’t – Beaches In Mind is cheesy but kind of adorable, while you can’t help wonder how long Brian Wilson has been holding onto From There To Back Again; the Al Jardine-sung piece is truly beautiful and emotionally stirring. That’s Why God Made The Radio’s production is top notch, Brian Wilson again proving his undisputed genius with faultless arrangements across the board. The record sounds a million bucks and a look at the musician credits shows there probably has been that kind of figure spent. It’s no classic, far from it, but they could’ve done a lot worse. If you spy it in a bargain bin when summer hits, consider it worthy. Alternatively, if you’re hitting a retirees cruise anytime soon, don’t leave home without it. ★★★

Dan Condon

LIVE

LORN

KELLY HOGAN

EL-P

CLAG

Ninja Tune/Inertia

Anti-/Warner

Fat Possum/Shock

Chapter Music

Linked with dubstep, but without any true kinship, Lorn’s new album is rhythmic and hypnotic. Bass rumbles and hums menacingly across its 12 tracks and, while there are some catchy moments this is, by-and-large, an oppressive listening experience. Melodies leaven the mood somewhat, but it’s always a temporary measure. They slither around the surface and are slowly dragged under, while beats arrive, fracture and vanish. This is a dark composition, skillfully crafted, consistent in tone and scope. Sporting a deeper and more digital sound than Lorn’s previous 2010 album, Nothing Else, Ask The Dust also makes heavier use of vocals. Marcos Ortega’s effected voice runs through a number of tracks on the album and it’s an interesting progression of his sound. His voice never dominates proceedings, and for the most part it works quite well, a paranoia-inducing mutter more reminiscent of Dalek than Burial’s work.

Country and indie rock chanteuse Kelly Hogan has for a decade been best known for being Neko Case’s beautifully-voiced foil both onstage and in the studio – as well as singing on a raft of records by a diverse array of acts such as The Waco Bothers, Tortoise, Silkworm and Drive-By Truckers – but now she’s decided to step back into the spotlight with I Like To Keep Myself In Pain, her fourth solo album but first since 2001.

Arriving five years after 2007’s boundary-busting I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, El-P’s third studio album proper is expected to contend with some pretty hefty expectations. Cancer 4 Cure doesn’t really measure up though. It’s a fine record; it’s simply a different record.

Brisbane had a band stalking its shadowy alleyways in the ‘90s that were incredibly unique – although not many people realised. The twee punk of all-girl Clag is something that is nigh on impossible to envision – it truly has to be heard to be believed. And luckily for us, Chapter Music has reissued Pasted Youth, a 23-track dissection of the band’s messy oeuvre.

Cancer 4 Cure

Ask The Dust never really transcends its genre, but it does present a convincing case for bass music and skillfully avoids the sense of repetition that can threaten to overwhelm the work of similar artists.

Hogan’s sultry voice is still the key ingredient here, but the eclectic depth of songwriting talent on display is staggering: highlights include Vic Chesnutt’s powerful Ways Of This World, M. Ward’s free spirited Daddy’s Little Girl, Andrew Bird and Jack Pendarvis’ We Can’t Have Nice Things, The Handsome Family’s The Green Willow Valley and Stephen Merritt’s touching Plant White Roses, but there are no real duds amongst these 13 tracks. The rich and malleable canon of Case (to whom Hogan dedicates her sole self-written track, Golden) informs the tone and arrangements, but Hogan is an intuitive interpreter in her own right and this sophisticated and solemn blend of country and soul proves that she’s much more than just a pretty background vocal on a clutch of cool records.

★★★½

★★★★

While this is an album where individual tracks tend to blur together into a whole, The Well is a wonderful centrepiece to the album, both as a track and as an encapsulation of the whole. Two simple, but catchy, melody lines dominates much of the six-minute track, running over the top of slow, opiatic beats, but the melody runs out and the drums cut, leaving nothing but a slowly fading rumble to envelope the listener.

Sky Kirkham

Steve Bell

The overall make-up is significantly more accessible than El-P’s previous outings. The production is cleaner, brighter and more precise. Genres are more easily teased from the collage. The UK grime kinetics of Works Every Time or abstracted boom-bap groove of Oh Hail No, for example, represent some of the most conventional work of El-P’s career. Drones Over Brklyn is potentially his catchiest work to date. None of which is to suggest El-P has actually compromised his aesthetic. The cerebral patterns and unpredictable song structures remain intact. His bass-heavy, lurching, synth-heavy production is still fundamentally unchanged. The producer/MC just seems to have shifted his focus – from experimentation to craftsmanship. Cancer 4 Cure may not shock as immediately as its predecessor, but El-P’s newfound precision may actually mean it will be remembered more kindly in the long run. ★★★★

Matt O’Neill

Much of what on is display is jangly, dissonant guitar, basic Casio warblings, and atonal vocals from Bek Moore singing about new bikes (Bike), chips and gravy (Chips & Gravy), goldfish parties (Goldfish) and shopping mall security guards (Security Man). There’s no sense of malice or anger either, which for a punk band in the early-‘90s was almost unheard of. Sure, there is the thrash and bombast of the raw live closer Shithouse, and the dedication of Scum Manor to Greg “because he’s fucking scum”, but it’s more a mix of the silly swing of ska legends The Specials or Bad Manners and the inane weirdness of Deerhoof.

Once the project was underway Hogan assembled a killer band – including, amazingly, the legendary Booker T Jones on keys, soul pioneer James Gadson on drums and Gabriel Roth (of Dap-Tones and Sharon Jones fame) on bass. She then approached a slew of songwriters – friends or former workmates from various projects – and solicited this batch of songs, which were then worked up as an ensemble.

I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead was an exercise in maximalism. El-P’s second album was a sprawling exploration of his limits and the limits of his bruising, all-encompassing production style. Cancer 4 Cure is an exercise in precision. It transforms I’ll Sleep...’s lo-fi post-industrial stew into polished blasts of experimental hip hop aggression.

Pasted Youth

I Like To Keep Myself In Pain

Ask The Dust

Live they would often face away from the audience with masks taped to the backs of their heads, or in hospital gowns with Mr Men toys strewn everywhere, weird idiosyncrasies that didn’t sit well with the grunge stalwarts of the time. Yet the true genius of Pasted Youth isn’t to highlight how stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb these kids were, but how energetic, fucked up and altogether fun Clag still are today. Members went on to play in other, bigger bands in Melbourne (Beaches, Panel Of Judges, Minimum Chips), yet their churlish endeavours as captured on Pasted Youth act as a timely reminder of their eccentric, infected brilliance. Brendan Telford

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TIME OFF • 25

F R O N T R O W @ T I M E O F F. C O M . A U

THIS WEEK IN

ARTS

BURNING MAN

WEDNESDAY 20 The Last Five Years – a contemporary song cycle that chronicles the five year life of a marriage, from meeting to breakup. As the story begins Cathy is at the beginning of the relationship and Jamie is at the end. With intercutting scenes, we watch Jamie move forward in time as Cathy moves backwards. Winner of the 2002 Drama Desk award. Opening night, Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, South Bank, 7.30pm until 23 June. Sleeping Beauty – directed by Julia Leigh, it’s a film that follows a young woman who lends herself to be used, but not abused, by men in an erotic situation while she is asleep. Selected for Competition in Cannes 2011 protagonist Lucy (Emily Browning) remains elusive, her motivations unclear, her reactions to situations when she is awake muted. Part of the Contemporary Australia: Women in Film Series, Goma, Cinema 1, 6pm repeated Saturday 30 June, 3pm.

THURSDAY 21 Dirty Pretty Songs – Virginia Gay sings dirty songs that are really pretty. Without changing a word or the tune, she can take a pop song you’ve heard a thousand times and turn it on its head. Bringing the lyrics to life in ways you’ve never noticed, but will soon never forget. From a frighteningly beautiful Smells Like Teen Spirit, to a devastating rendition of Radiohead’s High And Dry. Closing Night, Judith Wright Centre, 8pm.

FRIDAY 22 Monster – as the title suggests this is an exhibition revolving around the concept of the monster, or more specifically the theme monstrosity. Featuring the work of 13 artists, this exhibition promises a wide range of interpretation on a topic many would be cautious to define. The images are powerfully disturbing and provide us connection to an uglier side of humanity. Featuring artists such as Stuart Elliot, Ashley Porter, Pat Thomas and more. Closing Today, The Oats Factory.

SATURDAY 23 Fresh Cut 2012 – an exhibition opening preceded by talks by Fresh Cut artists Sean Barrett, Antoinette J. Citizen, Yavuz Erkan and David Nixon at 4pm.This year’s Queensland emerging artists were selected by IMA Director Robert

ROY LICHTENSTEIN DUDE.

SLEEPING BEAUTY Leonard. Opening night, IMA, 5pm exhibiting until 4 August. Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong and Left Is Wrong and Right Is Right – an exhibition from Scottish artist Douglas Gordon who is known for re-presenting appropriated films in ways that comment on their content and materiality. His works tend to be structured around dualities, dichotomies, and doppelgangers, exploring dark themes and existential dilemmas. Opening night, IMA, 5pm exhibiting until 4 August.

SUNDAY 24 Elizabeth, Almost by chance a woman – Drawing on all the energy, spirit and spontaneity of original 16th century Commedia dell’Arte, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo offers up a modern play about politics and sex, the two taboos which transcends language and culture. Elizabeth I clings desperately to her throne and her sanity. Presented by Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC. Closing Today, Powerhouse Theatre , 7.30pm. Burning Man – although the focus of this film is really a man, there is a beautiful portrayal of a woman by Bojana Novakovic recently seen onstage at the Brisbane Powerhouse in The BlindDate Project From writer/director Jonathan Teplitzky who juggles varying time frames to bring about a finely balanced film about grief. Part of the Contemporary Australia: Women in Film Series, Goma, Cinema , 3pm.

MONDAY 25 Aurelian – artist Genevieve Trace travelled home to Ayr and gathered stories from community members who have or are experiencing loss. With this biographic scaffolding, this offering explores the relationship between live performer and film. Part of FreeRange Arts, opening night, MetroArts - Basement, 8.30pm until 26 June.

ONGOING CAPTCHA – an exhibition from Melbourne artist Gabrielle de Vietri who combed the Internet in search of CAPTCHAs, those meaningless passwords we type in to prove we are human. She collected dozens of them and wrote stories with them, which she presents as videos. We hear the artist read her tales as the corresponding CAPTCHAs are projected. IMA, until 20 July.

Bethany Small and NGA curator Jaklyn Babington chat about Roy Lichtenstein, pop art, romance, war comics and nude girls. Sometimes it’s difficult to think of anything with which to introduce a person beyond their name, with some exclamation marks maybe and possibly a “Dude:” as a preface. Roy Lichtenstein is like that. So, “Dude: Roy Lichtenstein!” He’s a seminal first-generation pop artist with an instantly recognisable style. Those painstakingly-rendered articially mechanical-looking Ben-Day dots are coming to the QUT Art Museum courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia. The exhibtion, Roy Lichtenstein: Pop remix, contains works that follow Lichtenstein’s work from the 1950s to the 1990s, contextualised with archival photographic and film documentation of his artistic process. That explore his vitally important collaborations with various print workshops, and particularly master printmaker Kenneth Tyler. According to NGA curator Jaklyn Babington, “the exhibition contains Lichtenstein’s best known pop prints, including his remixes of romance and war comics, brushstrokes and nude girls.” It also represents his appropriation of styles and techniques from art history, reworked through the iconography of his own style. “Lichtenstein is kind of the first artists who start to really use appropriation as their sole art strategy,” says Babington. “Once he finds his style he starts applying that style to imagery that’s appropriated from an art movement, that’s part of why Lichtenstein’s so popular. Of course other artists and art movements have used appropriation throughout art history, however Lichtenstein’s works are very important in terms of postmodernism, as appropriation is a central tenet of the movement.”

BARRACKS 07 3367 1954 61 PETRIE TCE, TOP OF CAXTON ST

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (M) (NO FREE TIX)

THU/FRI/MON-WED 11.15, 1.50, 6.55, 9.30PM SAT/SUN 1.00, 4.20, 6.55, 9.30PM

A ROYAL AFFAIR (M)

(NO FREE TIX)

THU 11.00(BABES), 4.05, 6.45, 9.25PM FRI/MON-WED 10.15, 3.30, 6.30, 9.15PM SAT/SUN 11.15, 3.45, 6.30, 9.15PM

SHOWING FROM JUNE 21

ELENA (M) (NO FREE TIX)

THU 9.45, 11.50, 2.00, 8.40PM

THE LOOKING

FRI –WED 12.20, 2.35, 7.00, 9.15PM

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) BARRACKS EXCLUSIVE! THU-WED 1.00, 5.30, 7.30, 9.30PM

BRAVE 2D (PG) (NO FREE TIX)

THU-WED 10.00, 4.15, 6.15PM

BRAVE 3D (PG) (NO FREE TIX) THU-WED 12.00PM

THU-WED 9.30AM

TAKE THIS WALTZ (MA15+)

(NO FREE TIX)

THU-SUN 12.10, 4.55, 7.10PM MON-WED 12.30, 5.00, 7.15PM

ROCK OF AGES (M)

THU 1.40, 4.25, 9.25PM FRI 1.00, 4.25, 9.25PM SAT/SUN 10.25, 1.55, 9.25PM MON-WED 1.00, 4.25, 9.30PM

ICE AGE 4: CONTINENTAL PROMETHEUS 2D (M) THU-SUN 9.45, 2.25, 8.15PM DRIFT 2D (CTC) (NO FREE TIX) MON-WED 9.00, 10.45AM

THE THREE STOOGES (PG) (NO FREE TIX)

MON-WED 10.30, 2.40, 8.15PM

THE WAY (PG)

Euro 2012 is underway. After careful research I can confirm that this event involves football of the soccer variety and that a significant proportion of Europeans are batshit crazy for it. According to the hugely reliable figures I concocted after consulting a research group of one, 85 percent of continental Europe prefer football to sex. A massive 99.9 percent agreed with the suggestion that they would spontaneously combust with joy if Eurovision and the Euro Cup were combined in such a way that footballers played in sequins and sang Euro-trash pop ballads while a wind machine aerated their hair and fake smoke welled at their feet. All true. It’s also true that co-hosts Poland and Ukraine have faced boycotts because of their particular takes on ‘human rights’. In Eastern Europe ‘human rights’ include: the right to associate your favourite club with white supremacist organisations; the right to yell ‘Sieg heil!’ at your opposing side while unfolding giant caricatures of Jews that would make Hitler tear-up with pride; and the right to beat the fuck out of nonwhite spectators. This is understandable; in Poland, after all, three or so million Jewish men, women and children – that equates to roughly 90 percent of the pre-WWII Polish Jewry – were systematically murdered during that war. Afterwards, when asked to explain, Poland answered that they hadn’t noticed they’d managed to kill so darn many and suggested that three million people had simply disappeared. Mind you, they said this while getting cosy in their

THU-WED 3.00PM

CENTRO

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING (M) THU-SUN 10.40AM

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THU-WED 2.00PM

MEN IN BLACK III: 2D (M) THU 4.10PM FRI-WED 4.45PM

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (PG)

newly appropriated houses, melting down their stolen menorahs and ripping up the floorboards searching for Jewish treasure. So, as you can imagine, they’re not actually clear on what a Jewish person looks like. We can tick the box for rampant racism. Let’s move on to women’s rights. As well as harbouring a visible contingent of swastika-toting thugs, Eastern Europe also has a thriving sex trade; the kind of sex trade that leaves women bloodied, bruised and debased. Now, I understand that Australia’s track record on this ain’t great either, but at least we’ve managed to work out that decriminalising prostitution is probably better than insisting that if you’re being paid for sex you’ve given implied consent to whatever treatment you’re consequently dealt. Luckily (maybe) Ukrainian group Femen have been protesting the hell out of the impact Euro is expected to be having on the sex trade in Ukraine and Poland. The gist of Femen’s actions is this: get your boobs out, scream, “Fuck Euro!” repeatedly, have your perfectly proportioned topless selves photographed ad nauseum, go home. As far as I can work out the ladies of Femen have nothing to do with positive action on the ground; no money is raised for sex workers, no attempt is made to influence policy, and there’s no collaboration with NGOs that actually are concerned with meaningful change. The term self-aggrandisement comes to mind. We can conclude then, that UEFA clearly made the right decision in choosing its 2012 host countries. And that is the Euro-soccer-thing wrap-up. SBS eat your heart out.

ELENA SHOWING FROM JUNE 21

07 3852 4488

I’OPERA NATIONAL DE PARIS: ROMEO ET JULIETTE (CTC) (NO FREE TIX) THU 11.30AM NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: FRANKENSTEIN VERSION 2 (CTC) (NO FREE TIX) SAT/ SUN 1.00PM A ROYAL AFFAIR (M)

FRIENDS WITH KIDS (MA15+)

FRI-WED 10.00AM

GLASS

WITH HELEN STRINGER

THE THREE STOOGES SHOWING FROM JUNE 21

3367 1954

THURSDAY 21ST JUNE TO WEDNESDAY 27TH JUNE 2012

26 • TIME OFF

WHAT: Roy Lichtenstein: Pop Remix WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Opening Night, 6pm QUT Art Museum exhibiting 26 August.

THE BARRACKS

CENTRO 07 3852 4488 39 JAMES STREET, THE VALLEY

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Lichtenstein’s appropriations come from both ‘high art’ and popular culture. The masterpiece and the comic book are treated on a level playing field. There’s no differentiation between the cultural importance or longevity generally imputed to the masterpiece or the comic-book scene: both are reconstructed in Lichtenstein’s visual language without affective modulation. Quintessentially pop is the style itself in its deliberate mimicry of the mass-produced. “Pop Art is a medium of multiplicity,” explains Babington, “and making the artwork resemble something mass-produced by a machine, something that isn’t a completely unique object, is like the opposite of Abstract Expressionism, which had been dominant in American art for decades when pop emerged.” “With Abstract Expressionism, it’s all about the artist as genius, you have the figure of someone like Pollock or de Kooning as the creative genius. It’s about expressing something from within them,” says Babington. “Pop is completely different to that: it’s not about separating art and life, the commercial and the everyday are a part of it. And Pop re-introduces the figurative and rather than the individual brushstroke of the artist there’s the goal of making the artworks look pre-programmed or done by a machine.” The desire to recreate the visual effects of mass-production are vital to considering Lichtenstein’s work: “over time and together with print workshops, he developed highly technical means of creating his particular look,” says Babington.

CRAK! 1963-64, COLOUR LITHOGRAPH, © ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN.

9.10PM WED 10.30 (GOLDEN LUNCH), 3.45, 6.30, 9.10PM ELENA (M) (NO FREE TIX) THU 11.30, 1.40, 6.40, 9.00PM FRI- WED 10.30, 12.45, 6.20, 8.40PM TAKE THIS WALTZ (MA15+)

THU 11.00 (BABES), 3.45, (NO FREE TIX) 6.20, 9.10PM THU 1.40, 4.10, 6.50PM FRI- TUE 1.00, 3.45, 6.30, FRI/ TUE/ WED 11.15,

1.40, 4.10, 6.40, 9.00PM SAT/ SUN 10.45, 4.00, 6.40, 9.00PM MON 11.15, 1.40, 4.10, 6.50PM LE CHEF (M) (NO FREE TIX) THU/ MON 10.00, 2.30, 9.10PM FRI/ SUN/ TUE/ WED 10.00, 2.30, 6.50PM SAT 11.00, 6.50PM ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (M)

THU 3.50PM FRI- WED 3.10PM PROMETHEUS 2D (M) THU/ FRI/ SUN/ TUE/ WED 11.50, 4.20, 8.50PM SAT 11.15, 4.20, 8.50PM MON 11.50, 4.20, 9.00PM WISH YOU WERE HERE (MA15+)

THU 1.50PM FRI/ SUN- TUE 11.00AM WED 1.30PM

F R O N T R O W @ T I M E O F F. C O M . A U

CRINGE

WITH MANDY MCALISTER It’s become a tradition in my house over the last couple of weeks to yell, “NOBODY CARES” at the TV whenever the ad for Being Lara Bingle comes on. We’re thinking about turning it into a drinking game, only neither of us in the house would hold down a job if we were drunk that often. Why is this woman’s life worthy of a reality show, seriously, Ten? It looks about as entertaining as watching paint dry and if there were paint drying in my house that would mean I’d have done something useful rather than spending a mind numbing hour with the Bingles. Rarely do I wish failure on others, but I sincerely hope this show sinks without a trace a la channel Nine’s doomed weight loss show Excess Baggage. Good on you Australia for ignoring the shit out of that. Ten seems determined to make BLB a hit show though, with ads for the show infiltrating every spare nook of air time available. It seems to have worked with the show’s debut last week pulling in 925,000 viewers. That’s right, more than 4 percent of the nation had nothing better to do on a Tuesday eve last week than watch a B-list celebrity chat on speakerphone. How can that be? When it comes to celebrity TV shows are we so desperate to catch up to the Americans who’re keeping

TUMBLING FORWARDS Some people run away to join the circus but as Britannie Portelli reveals to Dave Drayton, for her it was a calculated career choice. “When I was about ten years old I saw a circus show and I said to my mum, ‘That’s what I want to do’,” says Britannie Portelli, who has formerly represented Australia in synchronised swimming at the Commonwealth Games and was in the national aerobic gymnastics team, her conviction all the more obvious as she speaks down the line from Western Australia, where she is currently on tour with circus outfit Circa. “So all through my sporting career I was saying that I wanted to join the circus and with NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) being in Melbourne, and being that that was where I was from, I knew that it was viable to get a degree in circus arts and to have three years of quality training. Straight after Year 12 I got accepted into the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne and spent three years there training and developing all my different circus skills and developing foundations of all the different circus skills form basic acrobatics to aerials, tumbling and handstands and flexibility and then from there, a week before I graduated, I got a fulltime contract with Circa so I took it and finished NICA on a very big high, moved to Brisbane Christmas night and started training with them in January of 2011. You couldn’t have written it any better!” Portelli is right about that, her childhood dreams of circus life gradually took more definite form and she was steadfast in her desire to see them realised, Circa offered

up with the Kardashians that we’ll take Bingle for a TV star? Couldn’t we have done what we do when we need to make Australian things interesting to Australians and ring in an international B-list celebrity? I guess this is what Excess Baggage were trying to do in bringing a chubby Kevin Federline into the fold. But they messed up there; Federline is C list at best. If there’s anything less alluring than C-list, it’s fat C-list (hello Kirstie Alley). The Logies are a good example of injecting an incongruously international guest into proceedings thereby forcefully wedging more excitement than is reasonable into the Australian TV awards. A very out of place Matt le Blanc, a very stoned Macy Gray come to mind. This year they got Seal and Flo Rida. Would I watch the Australian adventures of Seal and Flo Rida? Yes I would, and take everything with a grain of salt and a kilo of chocolate. I imagine Seal rolling into a swanky apartment complex in the back of a Lexus, drinking a single malt, muttering about Delta Goodrem and coming home to a place completely trashed by his roommate Flo Rida. Television gold! Alas we’re stuck with the Lara “Bourgeois” Bingle and her band of boring boneheads. Maybe there are nine hundred thousand and some viewers who do care, but if one viewer is pining for something more interesting, maybe they all are. the perfect opportunity. “I’d seen a few of the clips on YouTube and then they were performing at the Sydney Opera House halfway through my third year at NICA and I thought ‘you know what, I’m just going to fly up’, so a few of us actually flew up and saw the show and ended up meeting a couple of people afterwards and from that moment on I just tried to shape as much as I could towards the Circa style. From there I saw another show at the Brisbane Festival in September of that year, and January of the following year I was working them and I’ve now performed both of those shows in the past 18 months, so it’s pretty thrilling and just an incredible company to work for.” The ‘Circa style’ that Portelli refers to is the company’s unique, stripped-back approach to circus performance, one that strips back the razzle dazzle to emphasise just how impressive the feats performed are. “When someone says circus and it comes to mind, usually people think of sparkly costumes and really big productions, Circa completely strips that back and we try and find a new way to contact the audience,” explains Portelli. “Whether that’s through an emotional thing or whether that’s just through pure skill, but we try and show them what the human is able to do, rather than a character or rather than something that is put out there to be superhuman. We strip back all the ‘ta-das’ in a way, and just inject it with total thrill and delight in places that audiences wouldn’t expect it. Through the combination between the music and the lights and the seven acrobats

WIL POWER Growing up on a dairy farm, comedian Wil Anderson has used his relentless work ethic to become outstanding in his field. As Simon Holland discovers the cream always rises to the top. When Wil Anderson decides to write some new material, no-one is safe. The Anderson way is to inspect the nuances of life and destroy them with a smile in every manner possible. Husbands will hide their smiles from scowling wives, mothers will cover their child’s ears, but one thing is for certain; it will continue to become a global smash hit. “I’ve always been one of those people that thinks that you have to start with an idea,” says Anderson from the warmth and comfort of his London bed. “You start with an idea of something that you want to do and you just build the rest of it from there.” If you set out thinking ‘I wanna have a TV show or I wanna have a radio show,’ then that’s kind of missing the point, having that as a goal. What you should in the show we create something that generally leaves the audience not quite knowing what they’ve seen but loving it and wanting to see more.” For all the serendipity in Portelli’s circus story it’s also clear that none of it would have happened without the hard work, something that her sporting career had her well and truly prepared for. “From sport to circus, it was definitely the early mornings,” laughs Portelli. “I was able to just get up in the middle of winter and know that this is what you have to do if you want to get somewhere, so knowing that you have to just keep pushing through that pain. With aerobics there’s such a combination of strength, flexibility, performance, stage presence, confidence and cardiovascular fitness that translates so well into circus, so that transition for me wasn’t too hard and because I always had wanted to do circus, I had done a couple of trapeze classes before I got there and a few different acrobatic classes when I was younger, so I was just so willing to learn. “I guess it was the same when coming to Circa because now my skill set has totally grown in such a different way – I’ve always wanted to know more and be able to do more with my body – and so learning all this different style of circus here at Circa has really just opened my mind and opened my body up to what it’s capable of.” WHAT: Circa WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 3 July, The Arts Centre

“Here’s the big secret; no one has any idea how it’s meant to work. The more you do showbusiness, the more you realise no one knows anything, and so y’know, you might as well just have a crack. My theory has always been if you find something that you love to do for free, just find a way to get someone to pay you for doing it and you’ll be just about as happy as you can be. I like doing stand-up and I like telling jokes and if I work hard at telling jokes then I’ll be able to keep doing it.” Indeed, Anderson has picked the toughest of callings, one subjected to the battering opinions of the masses. It’s here that the strength of Anderson’s character is revealed. “I think wanting everyone to like you is the biggest mistake you could make.” US comedian Bill Cosby was the one that said ‘I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.’ “Comedy is inherently subjective. One person’s Seinfeld is another person’s Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson. You don’t need everyone to like you. I think that’s the mistake that most mainstream comedy makes. The minute you go out to try to get everyone to like you, no one likes you. Do what you want, make the sort of work that you’re interested in and hope there will be an audience out there for what you like.”

say is ‘I have this idea that I want to express, what is the best form for me to express that in?’ What you’ll find then is that you’ll end up doing a shitload of things because each idea you have has a better way to express it. If you just keep coming up with ideas and keep hanging around for long enough then I guess you build something of an empire,” says Anderson with a laugh. The appeal to Australian audiences stems from his genuine sense of humanity and his core values, stemming from a childhood spent in the traditionalist dairy farm game. “The first person I met in show business was me,” he states. “I was always just making it up as I go along. I had no idea how it was meant to work, and I still don’t really understand how it’s meant to work.” His voice lowers to dispense the sage-like quality one gathers after eighteen year in the business.

WHAT: The Gruen Transfer - Hosted by Wil Anderson, Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft WHEN & WHERE: The Comedy Channel, Thursdays, 10pm

Redland Performing Arts Centre presents debase productions’

Chasing the Lollyman By Mark Sheppard Co-devised with Liz Skitch “…as original as it is Aboriginal... if you’re in desperate need of a really good belly-laugh, this will just about do it.”

Suitable for 13yrs +

Baz McAlister, Time Off Magazine, 2010

Photo: Lukas Davidson

C U LT U R A L

Saturday 7 July, 7.30pm Redland Performing Arts Centre – Concert Hall Tickets: Adults $26, Seniors/Pensioners $22, Students $15 (17yrs & under) To book: Phone Box Ofﬁce 3829 8131 or visit www.rpac.com.au* *A $2 booking fee applies to online purchases

www.artour.com.au

www.rpac.com.au

Tour managed and coordinated by arTour, an initiative supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Supported by Major Media Partners: Bayside Bulletin, The Redland Times and d’ﬁne. TIME OFF • 27

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EPIDEMIC… OVER Member answering/role:

Ben Castles – guitar, percussion (sometimes).

How long have you been together? Around five years now!

How did you all meet? There is no great story behind the forming of the band other than that we are from regional Queensland in Boyne Island – Nathan and myself went to school together playing in bands. Scott and Matt went to school together also. Matt is my cousin so it started as just some random jams between friends which then turned into writing, which turned into playing shows, which turned into recording and having loads of fun.

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? Incubus or Karnivool. They’d be the best shots to keep everyone singing along!

Would you rather be a busted broke-but-revered Hank Williams figure or some kind of Metallica monster? We are already all broke, if that helps?

Which Brisbane bands before you have been an inspiration (musically or otherwise)? Bands like The Butterfly Effect and Dead Letter Circus – seeing them grow into some of the country’s biggest names.

What part do you think Brisbane plays in the music you make?

Not sure. The drive to get there motivates us to play better to be considered worthy of playing with the big boys!

Is your band responsible for more make-outs or break-ups? Why? I can’t say I’ve thought of it that way – I’d say make-outs. Making out is easy, breaking up is hard.

What reality TV show would you enter as a band and why? Big Brother... if Crafter did why can’t we? Maybe Young Talent Time?

If your band had to play a team sport instead of being musicians which sport would it be and why would you be triumphant? We don’t play well with others. Probably basketball... we’d just rely on Matt. Other than that, probably wrestling. Truck (singer) and Scoot (Bass) are always wrestling while on tour. Truck almost always wins. It either ends with a wedgie or nuts in someone’s face, but it’s an eternal struggle.

What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term? Short term will see us at The Zoo on June 28, then we will be pulling our hair out in the jam room, doing some pre-production for what will hopefully result in an album. Epidemic… Over play The Zoo on Thursday 28 June. Photo by TERRY SOO.

TOUR GUIDE FEATURE TOUR

DEEP SEA ARCADE

THURSDAY 21 JUNE, COBRA KAI @ OH HELLO 2012 has already proved to be a massive year for young Sydney five-piece Deep Sea Arcade, who have wowed all and sundry with the release of their debut long-player Outlands. The album has been getting incredible reviews all around the country, and the word is that it’s been translating incredibly well live as well, which is cool because the shows in our neck of the woods are at the tail-end of a massive national tour, so they should be in fine fettle. Our local lads on the verge of big things, The Cairos, have also been tagging along and no doubt impressing with tunes from their awesome EP Colours Like Features, and young Gold Coast outfit Woe & Flutter have been opening up proceedings, so to catch this awesome triple play of emerging Aussie talent head to Oh Hello this Thursday night or to Byron Bay wher you can catch them at the Beach Hotel on Friday night.

TIME OFF PRESENTS THE AUDREYS: SoundLounge Jun 21, Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 22 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS: The Hi-Fi Jun 23 LONG PLAYER SESSIONS: Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 23, Jul 21 and Aug 18

PITBULL, TAIO CRUZ: BEC Aug 29 KATCHAFIRE: The Hi-Fi Aug 31, Kings Beach Tavern Sep 6, Caloundra RSL Sep 7 THE REMBRANDTS: The Tivoli Sep 1 CARTEL: Crowbar Sep 5, Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Sep 6

MOSMAN ALDER @ ALHAMBRA PIC BY MINO PERIC

PATRICK WOLF: The Tivoli Sep 7

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: Brisbane Entertainment Centre Jul 7

EARTH: The Zoo Sep 9

THE FAUVES, EVEN: The Zoo Jul 7

INGRID MICHAELSON: Spiegeltent Sep 12

THE JOE KINGS: Beetle Bar Jul 12, The Northern Jul 13, Woombye Pub Jul 14

SUBHUMANS: Prince Of Wales Sep 13

DEAD OF WINTER FESTIVAL: Jubilee Hotel Jul 14

MACY GRAY: Jupiters Casino Aug 19, QPAC Aug 20

OF MONSTERS & MEN: The Zoo Jul 18 THE MEDICS: QACI Aug 4, The Northern Oct 5 PASSENGER: The Hi-Fi Aug 16 XAVIER RUDD: Rumours Aug 29, The Tivoli Aug 30, LKCC Aug 31, Coolangatta Hotel Sep 1, Byron YAC Sep 2

MOSMAN ALDER, THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON, THE OYSTER MURDERS

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: QPAC Sep 12

RIVAL SCHOOLS: The Zoo Sep 14 HANSON: The Hi-Fi Sep 20 EIFFEL 65, N-TRANCE: The Hi-Fi Sep 21 WHEATUS: The Hi-Fi Sep 23 JOE BONAMASSA: QPAC Oct 3 STEEL PANTHER: Eatons Hill Hotel Oct 4 TIM & ERIC: The Tivoli Oct 4

RED DEER FEST 2012: Samford Sep 1

RUSSIAN CIRCLES, EAGLE TWIN: The Zoo Oct 5

JULIA STONE: Spiegeltent Sep 19 and 20, Byron Community Centre Sep 21

CANNIBAL CORPSE: The Hi-Fi Oct 8 MARTIKA: The Hi-Fi Oct 10

TIM & ERIC AWESOME SHOW: The Tivoli Oct 4

EVERCLEAR: Coolangatta Hotel Oct 10, The Hi-Fi Oct 11

BASTARDFEST: The Hi-Fi Oct 13

INTERNATIONAL

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS: The Hi-Fi Jun 23 THICK AS BLOOD: Thriller Jun 23 FASHAWN, EXILE: Coniston Lane Jun 24 EDDIE SPAGHETTI: Beetle Bar Jun 28 MACABRE: Jubilee Hotel Jun 28 JAY BRANNAN: Old Museum Jun 29 CARRIE UNDERWOOD: BCEC Jun 30 GOATWHORE, IMPIETY: Beetle Bar Jul 5 SIMONE FELICE, JOSH RITTER: Old Museum Jul 5 CEREMONY: Basement Jul 6 RUSS CHIMES: Oh Hello Jul 6 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: Brisbane Entertainment Centre Jul 7 TERROR: YAC Jul 9, The Loft Jul 10, The Hi-Fi Jul 11

WEDNESDAY 13: The Zoo Oct 25 THE BLACK KEYS: BEC Oct 26 RADIOHEAD: BEC Nov 9 RICK ASTLEY: Twin Towns Nov 16, Ipswich Civic Hall Nov 17, The Tivoli Nov 18 COLDPLAY: Suncorp Stadium Nov 21 GEORGE MICHAEL: BEC Nov 27

NATIONAL

NEW EMPIRE: Black Bear Lodge Jun 20, The Loft Jun 21, Bon Amici Jun 22 KIRIN J CALLINAN: Black Bear Lodge Jun 21 THE BRIDE: Snitch Jun 21, Railway Hall Jun 23, Expressive Grounds Jun 24 DEEP SEA ARCADE: Cobra Kai Jun 21, Beach Hotel Jun 22 THE AUDREYS: SoundLounge Jun 21, Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 22, Woombye Pub Jun 23

MELISSA ETHERIDGE: QPAC Jul 9, 10

HUGO RACE: X&Y Bar Jun 22, Bangalow Bowls Club Jun 23

THE TEA PARTY: The Tivoli Jul 7

MUSCLES: Oh Hello! Jun 22

CANCER BATS: The Hi-Fi Jul 13

INXS: Drift Inn Jun 24, Empire Theatre Jun 26, Twin Towns Jun 28, Eatons Hill Hotel Jun 30

ED SHEERAN: QPAC Jul 31 TIM BARRY: Sun Distortion Aug 3 MARK GARDENER: The Hi-Fi Aug 3 BILLY TALENT: The Hi-Fi Aug 9 NASUM: The Hi-Fi Aug 17 OPOSSOM, WHITE ARROWS: The Hi-Fi Aug 18

JONATHAN BOULET: The Brewery Jun 27, Coolangatta Hotel Jun 28, The Hi-Fi Jun 29 THE BAMBOOS: The Northern Jun 28, Coolum Civic Centre Jun 29, The Hi-Fi Jun 30 KING CANNONS: Old Museum Jun 29

SLASH: Brisbane Riverstage Aug 23

GUY SEBASTIAN: QPAC Jun 29, Jupiters Casino Jun 30

PENNYWISE, THE MENZINGERS, SHARKS: Coolangatta Hotel Aug 23, Eatons Hill Hotel Aug 24

HEROES FOR HIRE: Basement Jun 29, The Loft Jul 1

THE BEACH BOYS: BEC Aug 28

HILLTOP HOODS: Eatons Hill Hotel Jun 29

30 • TIME OFF

ALHAMBRA LOUNGE: 15/06/12

Things are looking good at Alhambra tonight. It’s still early, barely past 9pm, and the venue is already buzzing while the opening act sets up. The new stage at the venue is a great addition. The space feels like it is built for gigs now, rather than a bar that happened to have bands occasionally hidden in the corner; a definite improvement. The Oyster Murders open proceedings with their enjoyable take on the darker side of indie rock. Their mix of male and female vocals gives them what is typically a fairly uncommon feel, although it proves something of a theme tonight. Second song, Ghosts In Our Wake, is the highlight of the set; dark, melancholic and catchy, it’s a lovely track that shows off the band’s melodic skills. The Trouble With Templeton have some early gear problems, but it’s handled with good humour and when they do start, it’s a very impressive performance. Bleeders, their debut LP, released late last year, is a solid record, but there’s a sense of immediacy and intensity to the live performance that really causes the tracks to shine. Thomas Calder’s voice is strong and soulful, and tonight he’s aided by some beautiful harmonies from Betty Yeowart. There’s a second guitarist, a relatively recent addition, who adds an interesting twist to the sound too, with heavily-effected notes twisting around the folk rock of the originals. The punters don’t do the band a lot of favours – the chattering from the back of the room threatens to overwhelm some of the subtler moments – but for those paying attention it’s a wonderful set. Mosman Alder’s debut EP, Burn Bright, has been gathering some impressive critical responses and it seems that word has definitely spread as a rather large crowd gathers around the stage in anticipation. The band quickly justifies the turn-out tonight. As with the supports, their already solid EP is turned into something more visceral live, with shifting dynamics and layered instruments that create an impressively coherent whole. There’s some sharing of vocal duties throughout the set, with guitarist Jackson Muir taking over for some new tracks, and while it creates variety Mosman Alder are at their best when primary vocalist Valdis Valodze has the reins, his distinctive voice giving the band a unique presence. The audience seems excited and engaged and Valodze is clearly thrilled with the response tonight as he mentions how exciting it is to see audience members singing along. There’s still a sense that there’s room to grow for the band, but when everything gels – like when clear highlight Tokyo 1933 builds into distortion and then fades away on a haunting violin line – it’s clear that Mosman Alder have something special to offer. Sky Kirkham

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TEXAS TEA, THE STRESS OF LEISURE, VIRGINIA SOOK X&Y BAR: 15/06/12

It’s nice and cozy at the X&Y Bar, with enough revelers warming to upbeat country folksters Virginia Sook. The group is now fleshed out into a four-piece, and it’s the three part harmonies that really impress, offering a greater sense of depth to lead Lindsey Rozer’s tales of whimsy. It’s a beautiful opening to the evening. Aiming for a complete change of pace however is The Stress Of Leisure. Also in their fully fleshed out four-piece mode tonight, Ian Powne and his merry degenerates charge through a brace of swaggering punk-pop songs that grow better with each listen. The synth lines have always backed up Powne’s warbled guitar, but tonight steers the group. When he murmurs “I need that maximum high” you know Powne means it, underlining the fact with added cowbell. Bassist Ben Moore even tries on a Ramones-esque scissors stance. TSOL have always been about bringing fun back to the word ‘sleaze’, and tonight they do so with aplomb. Finishing out the night is Texas Tea, which also rounds out the four-piece expansion. Kate Jacobson and Ben Dougherty are a nuanced, measured duo, yet with the live band arrangement it really brings forth a joviality that isn’t always forthcoming in the smaller form. It is evident as soon as they launch into Whiskey And Wine that we are witnessing something that is further revitalising the duo. The presence of an upright bass is always going to offer a different live experience, and it fits seamlessly into the country rock on display, the bassist even offering the crowd a couple of bass spins. The instrumental interludes have a stronger ebb and flow, and when they launch into a number of new tracks, they are met with wonder and delight. I Don’t Write No Sad Songs is suitably gravelly, whilst Jacobson’s delivery of Macy And Me is beguiling. In preparation for their Long Player Sessions at the Powerhouse, the band play White Train from Paul Kelly’s Post album, and whilst it isn’t all roses (forgetting the first line) it makes for an exciting precursor. It’s been an electric set, albeit a short one, and when they finish with a rendition of Ray Charles’ Early In The Morning, it’s evident that it has been a special one too. A true Brisbane – nay, Australian – institution. Brendan Telford

BLANCHE DUBOIS, ECHO & THE EMPRESS BLACK BEAR LODGE: 17/06/12

It’s nearly an all-girls night, tonight. Echo & The Empress are up first, and they appear to have brought with them a small legion of happily inebriated fans, who’re uninhibited enough to make a proper go at dancing through the band’s entire set. Echo is three ladies – one on keys, one on tambourine, and one on guitar – and they’ve a distinctive pop sensibility, though, perhaps unaware or

wanting to distance themselves from that, it’s packaged as indie. Set The Boys On Fire begins the evening; a blues-folk track with some light country stylings. The great Oh Darlin’ follows that, a ballad whose piano line cuts a swift path to the song’s key emotion; one that doesn’t stretch its familiarity much, but it also doesn’t particularly need to. The girls then cover Tegan & Sara’s The Con, which, though sounding very much like a ‘fan’ cover (as opposed to something repurposed through the channels of the girls’ musical sensibilities), has some wonderful lower-register singing. Tracey Chapman’s Talkin’ Bout A Revolution follows that, remarkably sounding nothing like the ‘90s, before Devil In Me – a more complex track that seems constructed in the service of its story, which is nice – rolls through into The Wolves. In a blink, the stage is reshuffled for the Perth female twopiece Blanche Dubois and their band. Dense, textural, and emotive orchestration immediately stands-out of their first track, and they’ve a sound that’s sultry, but also sad: steeped in heart, but too, a hurt. Hell, a song written while its scribe was going through “a man-hater stage”, also carries that similar, wisened feel. They’ve a very ‘full-bodied’ approach to musical expression, Blanch Dubois; it’s strikingly realised, and deeply felt. Each instrument’s part – and there are many – is forceful, and forward in the bigger performance; each as vital, and unique as the other. Sadly, Echo’s fans have decided largely to ignore Dubois, and chatter rises considerably, drowning out most of the finer details of what’s going on, onstage. Forget-me-not, next, is a hushed and breathy track, which slinks softly into the comforting melody of Sweet Song. At last, the floor finally clears, and there’s just a few of us left. Time & Time Again, towards their set’s close, boasts a particularly strong vocal, and some beautiful, reflective verses. Dubois’ strengths, though largely unappreciated tonight, are fuelled by a tangible soulfulness that insists on facing you, head on. Sam Hobson

BEE MASK, RITES WILD, SECRET BIRDS

THE JUDITH WRIGHT CENTRE: 14/06/12 The Judith Wright Centre once again plays host to the artistic end of the musical smorgasbord. US experimentalist Bee Mask makes his maiden voyage with a few of Australia’s finest musical explorers to a packed seated audience. Opening the night are semi-local duo, Secret Birds. The duo play the usual fanfare of sprawling soundscapes with a psychedelic twist. They play off each other as songs develop and transform, with Damon Black even favouring a toy boombox/karaoke machine for his occasional vocals. A great start and a welcome return to their local environment. The crowd is informed of a quick changeover by the odd but in this case helpful ‘moderator’ of the night and he wasn’t lying as Rites Wild almost instantly takes the stage. Rites Wild is the solo project of Terrible Truths member Stacey Wilson, and she holds her own delivering the highlight performance of the night. She is totally energetic, really getting into the sway of things despite delivering a rather bleak set musically. The sound works well for her with every cranny of reverb from her synth and drum machine resonating throughout the venue. A great set by a clearly talented performer.

finds some patrons politely exit – indeed a highlight of the set is when a drunken patron stands outside drinking on the street and is visible through the glass window behind the performer, which strangely fits in perfectly with the music, and really goes to show that the set would have benefited from visual stimulation reminiscent of the man’s earlier shows elsewhere. Occasionally the set also suffers technical faults and these are clearly demonstrated by Bee Mask’s face as a sample misfires or some other mishap occurs. It’s during the later parts of the night when the set pulls together with the highlight being during the expansive final ‘number’, which delivers a really interesting collection of samples, beats and manipulations. All around it’s an interesting night of musical collages delivered by some great artists, and propelled by Rites Wild showing that Australians can be as willfully weird as Americans. Bradley Armstrong

EAST 17, HARRY K THE HI-FI: 14/06/12

A two hour DJ set kicks off East 17’s triumphant Australian return in a low-key manner; rather than working the audience into a pre-show frenzy, Harry K silently progresses through the likes of Foster The People and Katy Perry whilst sporadically wandering side of stage to check his text messages. In front of the “decks” he adjusts his headphones every now and then and chews gum intensely to show that a real person is actually pushing play on Usher and Gym Class Heroes. Why East 17 didn’t just whack on So Fresh: The Hits Of Winter and save themselves a couple of hundred bucks is a mystery – the amount of space left in the room for swinging cats suggests they could have done with the cash. With a sound guy whose job consists of hitting the go button on backing tracks, the three remaining members of East 17 sure look smug rolling onto stage minus troublesome drug spruiker Brian Harvey – aka the one who could sing. The girls in the room thrust forward to be in panty-throwing distance of their ‘90s obsessions, who respond by opening with their biggest hit House Of Love. Immediately there is no escaping the idea that if one were to pop around the corner to Caxton Street, the karaoke night at Casablanca’s would offer some eerily similar musical fare – except the singing backpackers are not likely to be whipping off stripper pants as John Hendy looks suspiciously close to doing throughout the set. Let It Rain has Tony Mortimer on bended knee, looking deep into the eyes of the front row ladies as they scrap on for the best camera angles. His vocal is continually drowned out by fiercely punctuated synth of the kind found during nail-biting scenarios of shows like Hot Seat, and he apparently has a cold. This makes Harvey’s absence all the more evident, though right-hand man Terry Coldwell does well to fill in some of the more tuneful vocal melodies that were reserved for the singer who is rumored by Wikipedia to be releasing solo record High On Jesus this year. Do U Still?, Slow It Down and Steam all make the best of set list, whilst the high vocals of Stay seep out from the backing track. New song Friday Night is a reeking dog’s breakfast of lads, booze and kebabs, and

some dickbrain has signed them up for four more albums of the stuff. But hey, it’s the ‘90s nostalgia circuit – if it’s not heinous (at least in a ‘so bad it’s good’ kinda way), it’s just not bloody well worth bringing to Australia. Tyler McLoughlan

SILVERSTEIN, SKYWAY, THE DREAM THE CHASE, MILESTONES THE ZOO: 16/06/12

TOUR GUIDE SHANNON NOLL: Fitzy’s Loganholme Jun 29, Twin Towns Jun 30 WORLD’S END PRESS: Alhambra Jul 5 CHARGE GROUP: Beetle Bar Jul 6 THE FUMES: The Loft Jul 6, Beetle Bar Jul 7

With a solid undercard put together tonight, there’s a genuine buzz in the room as local quintet Milestones take their positions. The quartet tear through tracks like Lost Boy(s) and Safe And Sound with vigour, the melodic slabs of punk keeping the solid early crowd entertained. Although the boys wearing straps seem generally more focused on their frets than the faces, Josh and Dakota are engaging and energised throughout, the vocalist and drummer showing nothing but passion during their short and punchy opening slot. The Dream The Chase walk the tightrope between harmonious and jarring with an undeniable ease, their tracks continually lulling you into a false sense of security before bludgeoning you cold. The guitar work throughout reminds of Thrice’s Artist In The Ambulance days and behind frontman Zach Britt’s soaring vocals, songs like Distance take the audience on an explosive journey through a variety of different emotional shades. Goldy crew Skyway don’t let the momentum wane for a second, keeping the party rolling with an tight and inspired set that generates the first signs of the pit mayhem to follow. While Rohan Chant and Mike Driver dance around each other to the left, Dan McMaster nails his notes, the frontman clutching the mic with a stranglehold grip. Their cover of Chisel’s Cheap Wine maintains the surliness of the original but gives it an up-tempo working over; however, it’s original numbers like Bright Eyes Never Die that give far more reasons to push to the front. As solid as their supporting cast is, Silverstein leave no doubt that they are the benchmark here tonight, their performance intense, rousing and pretty much flawless. Although the Canadian quintet are getting increasingly long in the tooth, the band dance all over the memories of their underwhelming slot at Soundwave 2009 with a punishing set that shows a level of fire undocumented in their studio work. Positioned with one foot on his foldback for the most part, Dimmu Borgir repping singer Shane Told is animalistic, leading the band through their entire back catalogue, including Brookfield, Discovering The Waterfront and a rapturously received Broken Stars, and the passion that the band shows onstage is reciprocated tenfold by the packed house; everyone singing the lyrics, the pit a chaotic mess of clenched fists, sweat and smiles. An acoustic version of Replace You late in the set breaks up the crowd melee nicely before My Heroine brings the noise once again. And just in case there are still any non-believers in the room, the Canadians return to the stage to close with a four-song encore that simply compounds the notion further that tonight, Silverstein are unstoppable. Benny Doyle

50 YEARS OF DYLAN: QPAC Jul 7 EVEN, THE FAUVES: The Zoo Jul 7 VAN SHE: Byron Bay Brewey Jul 11, The Hi-Fi Jul 12 SURES: Alhambra Lounge Jul 12 BUSBY MAROU: Woombye Pub Jul 12, SoundLounge Jul 13, The Tivoli Jul 14, The Northern Jul 15 OVER-REACTOR: Spotted Cow Jul 13, Basement Jul 14 KARNIVOOL: The Northern Jul 19, The Tivoli Jul 20, Coolangatta Hotel Jul 21, The Hi-Fi Jul 22 TIM FREEDMAN: Old Museum Jul 21, SoundLounge Sep 21 HOUSE VS HURRICANE: Tempo Hotel Jul 26 ILLY: Tomba’s Aug 9, The Zoo Aug 10, The Northern Aug 11 TOMMY EMMANUEL: QPAC Aug 9 THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Coolum Civic Centre Aug 10, The Tivoli Aug 11 SNAKADAKTAL: The Hi-Fi Aug 10 SOPHIE KOH: Brisbane Powerhouse Aug 12 LOON LAKE: Alhambra Aug 17, SolBar Aug 18 JINJA SAFARI: The Hi-Fi Aug 18 CHILDREN COLLIDE: Spotted Cow Aug 23, The Zoo Aug 24, The Northern Aug 26 BODYJAR: The Hi-Fi Aug 24 KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: The Hi-Fi Aug 25 XAVIER RUDD: Rumours Aug 29, The Tivoli Aug 30, Lake Kawana Community Centre Aug 31, Coolangatta Hotel Sep 1, YAC, Byron Bay Sep 2 DREAM ON DREAMER: Tempo Aug 30, Paddington Community Hall Aug 31 LANIE LANE: The Spotted Cow Aug 30, SoundLounge Aug 31, Bangalow A&I Hall Sep 1, Spiegeltent Sep 27 1927: The Tivoli Sep 1 JULIA STONE: Spiegeltent Sep 19, 20, Byron Bay Community Centre Sep 21 FRENZAL RHOMB: Spotted Cow Oct 19, The Hi-Fi Oct 20 DAMIEN LEITH: QPAC Oct 5

FESTIVALS DEAD OF WINTER: Jubilee Hotel Jul 14 SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS: Belongil Fields Jul 27 – 29 RED DEER FESTIVAL: Mt Samson Sep 1

All the way from the US of A, Bee Mask also quickly takes to the stage beginning with a string of water-based samples spilling from the PA. Having worked with the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never, it is clear that the art glitch musician has had a mutual influence on the man as samples spew from his desk of effects (which also features more cables spewing from it than most full bands would have).

BIGSOUND: Fortitude Valley Sep 12 - 14 BASTARDFEST: The Hi-Fi Oct 13 WHIPLASH: The Hi-Fi Oct 21 QUEENSLAND FESTIVAL OF BLUES: The Hi-Fi Nov 3

The set sticks to this initial format, with soundscapes drawing from real life and artificial sources being the general flavour. It does get perhaps a tad tedious and

SILVERSTEIN @ THE ZOO PIC BY TERRY SOO

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SPRUNG HIP HOP FESTIVAL: RNA Showgrounds Nov 10 HARVEST: Botanic Gardens Nov 18

TIME OFF • 31

ROOTS DOWN

OG FLAVAS

ADAMANTIUM WOLF

BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTSDOWN@TIMEOFF.COM.AU

URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE

METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT

RUMER

CALEXICO The Harvest Festival has, for the second year in a row, dropped a very indie-heavy line-up of acts on us, but it’s another bunch of bands who really straddle the line of what blues and roots has come to be seen as these days. In fact, of the bands on the bill, quite a number of them have previously played Bluesfest! You’ve got Beck heading things up, who can go anywhere from folk and country to funk to blues with a generous dash of quirkiness and insanity for good measure. Sigur Rós played a wonderful, if not slightly ill-fitting, set at Bluesfest a few years back, as did Cake, while the Latino, jazz, funk, hip hop explosion of Ozomatli would have to be one of the most prominent contemporary international acts to have graced the festival’s stages over the past few years. If you don’t mind things a bit heavier and psyched out then The Black Angels are a great rock’n’roll band who take a lot of influence from the blues and psych music of the ‘60s, while The War On Drugs are one of the bands who have decided to wear their Springsteen influence firmly on their sleeve but they do it incredibly well, giving it their own spin rather than merely aping The Boss as so many others do. Finally, if you’re more of a roots/dub/reggae kinda person who doesn’t mind elements of left-field pop and hip hop in the mix then Santigold (whose performance on Amadou & Mariam’s Dougou Badia single of earlier this year was incredible) is one of those real star performers and she’ll dominate at the event. Anyway, it’s not for everyone and it’s certainly not your straight down the line kinda roots fare, but it should be a pretty fun day when it hits the City Botanic Gardens on Sunday 18 November. Tickets are on sale from Thursday 28 June. The first announcement for the Caloundra Music Festival dropped last week as well and it features plenty of mainstream friendly blues and roots goodness that has made the general public very happy indeed. Of interest to some of you will be two of the headliners, John Butler Trio and The Cat Empire, two of the country’s biggest name bands, as will Sydney rockabilly/blues/rock’n’roll lady Lanie Lane. The most exciting name on the first announcement though is undoubtedly Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue who return to Australia for the third time in around 18 months and the second time this year. They are without a doubt one of the most exciting live New Orleans bands kicking around at the moment and they’ll go off at Caloundra. Also on the first announce is The Living End, The Whitlams, Boom Crash Opera, Ball Park Music and The Beards; but there are still plenty more acts – both Aussie and international – to be announced. It happens from Friday 28 September to Sunday 30; tickets are available through the festival’s website right now. There are a couple of excellent bands releasing new albums very soon, albums which we have been waiting on for a while now. Firstly, down home country geniuses Old Crow Medicine Show are releasing their first album in over four years next month with Carry Me Back set for a Friday 20 July release through ATO/ Shock. Their last record Tennessee Pusher was a ripper and the Australian tours they conducted following its release were even better, so here’s hoping the new record is as good and that they can make their way back here before long. Joey Burns and John Convertino are back with their full crew as a new Calexico album gets a release date of Friday 14 September. The alt-country masters actually moved to New Orleans to make the majority of the new record so it’s pretty exciting to think about how that might have affected the direction they go in. The record will be released in Australia through Spunk/Co-Operative, despite recent confusion that it may have had a release in this country through Anti-/Epitaph/Warner. 32 • TIME OFF

Adele (following Amy Winehouse) has done much to advance a UK-led soul revival. Warner is obviously trying to turn Rumer (AKA Sarah Joyce) into its Adele – and Adele might do with some competition since Duffy huffed off. Joyce’s debut, Seasons Of My Soul, was a UK platinum hit in late 2010. It materialised locally early last year. Though Warner Australia gave Seasons... a concerted push, and it scraped into the Top 40, the Anglo-Pakistani soulstress appeared reluctant to further promote herself. She’s admitted to feeling overwhelmed by her sudden fame, despite a decade’s struggle. That the Slow singer was so candid about her conception in interviews surely added to the anxiety: Joyce’s English mum had an affair with a cook while her engineer husband based the family in Pakistan. He now lives in Australia and Joyce has told Q she won’t tour here so our press doesn’t trouble him! If Adele is a powerhouse soul and blues diva, then Joyce, specialising in jazzy soul-pop, is more nuanced. On Seasons... Joyce revived composer Burt Bacharach’s smoothly opulent aesthetic (cue: Dionne Warwick) – and Bacharach is a fan. The Londoner has been widely compared to the wistfully melancholic Karen Carpenter, but she also has inflections of the quiet storm Sade and folky Joni Mitchell. (Joyce once sang with the indie-folk band La Honda). Now Joyce is back with Boys Don’t Cry – a covers album. The covers collection, like the Christmas album, has long been considered an artist’s last ditch attempt to stay relevant – or cash-in. Happily, neither are relevant here. Besides, Mark Ronson rendered the covers set ‘cool’ again with the recontextualised Version. (We’re gonna ignore the Glee phenom.) For Boys..., Joyce interprets – or Rumer-fies – songs recorded by male artists in the ‘70s. These “narratives” – and, occasionally, the artists – are

obscure, but all express distress. Joyce’s selections say much, too, about her headspace, with their themes of betrayal, disconnection and homesickness. She isn’t the first to present such a project. Tori Amos beat her to it with 2001’s overtly feminist – and subversive – Strange Little Girls, covering Eminem’s ‘97 Bonnie & Clyde. Joyce is more reverential, albeit not necessarily faithful. And she has aired the odd cover before, Seasons... closing with her take on David “Bread” Gates’ Goodbye Girl. Boys... opens with a breezy rendition of PF Sloan, penned by Jimmy Webb (author of Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park) in tribute to a neglected songwriter. Joyce offers a languid performance of folkie Richie Havens’ It Could Be The First Day. She returns to jazz on a remake of Isaac Hayes’ Civil Rights-era Soulsville, off the Shaft soundtrack, which features sublimated gospel backing vocals. The album’s biggest original hit is Sara Smile from Hall & Oates, blue-eyed soulsters beloved in the African-American community. Not that Joyce’s loungey reading – complete with George Benson-y guitar – is instantly recognisable. Just For A Moment is Sade-esque acoustic swing, first cut by Ronnie Lane, co-founder of ‘60s Brit Mod band The Small Faces, and Ronnie Wood. The stand-out? Seasons... flirted with country – and here Joyce delves more deeply into the genre with Flyin’ Shoes, from the tragic Townes van Zandt. There’s even pedal steel guitar. Fans of the underrated UK country soulstress Beth Rowley will dig it. The British ‘special edition’ of Boys... also includes songs by the likes of Bob Marley. Curiously, Joyce began Boys... in 2007, prior to Seasons..., liaising with TV composer Steve Brown, whom she met at an open-mic. Joyce recently fell out with her mentor, finishing Boys... with another outsider, Jennie Muskett. Possibly some will dismiss Boys... as background music or claim it’s overly tasteful or nostalgic. But, like Carpenter, Joyce’s ‘easy listening’ brims with emotion – and meaning. She’s salvaging MOR. This is deep water soul. If anything, Boys... highlights the quality of Joyce’s own songwriting on Seasons... The singer has told Digital Spy that she’s progressing on another original album: “It will probably be a bit more upbeat as I move out of the tunnel and into the light. I feel like the next record will be much, much brighter.”

THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY maintain the air of being young), a band creating a vital record about the concerns of a man beyond the guise of hooligan or predator is a rare occasion. Heaven is such an album. Cue the kind of Times-led applause reserved for HBO shows such as Mad Men, and likely a similarly small and loyal audience.

THE WALKMEN In a Q&A with The New York Times’ Arts Beat columnist Dave Itzkoff last week, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner discussed the recent final episode of the show’s fifth season. Weiner brought to light the narrative arcs of characters Pete Campbell and Roger Sterling, both partners at the advertising agency around which the show is based, one a first-time father in his early thirties and one a man with a few marriages at his back. In the episode, Weiner pointed out, Campbell realised that his recent affairs outside his marriage were the result of the unhappiness inside his marriage. Sterling, recently divorced, attempted to regain the excitement of new love he felt had long been lacking in his life. The episode was titled The Phantom – the thing that eludes us. When it comes to the trials of men of a certain age, or really men over a romantic age of around 25, popular culture isn’t often sympathetic. Men struggling with the responsibilities of family or monogamy are portrayed as immature cads, expected to grow up and ‘act their age’. Men acting out against unhappy relationships are usually made the villain. Men cause trouble; primarily, men cause women trouble. (Gay men of a certain age have an altogether different problem, that of invisibility.) Weiner’s sympathy for the troubles of his adult male characters, his permission for men – even heavily flawed men – to desire something real and understandable, is part of what makes Mad Men interesting television. The same can be said for the seventh album from New York rock’n’rollers The Walkmen, Heaven, out through Pod/Inertia. In a genre known more than anything for celebrating the young and overlooking everyone else (unless they’re among the few who manage to successfully

The Walkmen, 12 years into life, have already been praised for “aging gracefully,” as The Fader put it in 2010, on the band’s tenth anniversary. They also put a heaping of wearied regret and dejection into even their earliest, wildest recordings. As young men, The Walkmen were not Kings Of Leon or even The Strokes, another band dealing in dejection but also in scrappy night-time fuckery. It’s worth noting, however, that around the time of The Walkmen’s 2004 album, Bows + Arrows, they sat nearby The Strokes and Kings Of Leon as the new, young voices of rock. Theirs was the sound of America reinvigorated, of the young making a statement, a new start. While The Strokes have followed their dejection into the ground and Kings Of Leon their youthful urges to big-money stages, Heaven gives us a rock band using their years as fruitful fodder. Recorded with Fleet Foxes producer Phil Ek (with that band’s Robin Pecknold appearing on four tracks), Heaven is more pared back than past albums; the guitars are cleaner and uncluttered, frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s vocal is decidedly to the fore. It’s the tidal songwriting that gives the album its weight – the songs build and pull back repeatedly – as well as Leithauser’s reflective lyrics and conversational style. He sings of maturing love, reckless years gone by, moments of new attraction and the reasons for them, the burden of history. Basically, he sings of being a flesh-and-blood adult male. It’s by no means a gloomy album. There’s an acceptance of those themes, some knowledge that things can’t be any other way, and the enjoyment found in them too. Nowhere is that more apparent than on opening track We Can’t Be Beat, essentially a goodbye to youthful games and a new manifesto for the band. It might be accidental but certainly isn’t meaningless that Leithauser’s tone and phrasing reminds one of Julian Casablancas when he sings, “Loneliness will run you through.” He’s striving for something here, searching it out into his years – heaven, perhaps, or some other elusive thing.

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US post-hardcore group Rival Schools will return to Australia in September. Formed in 1999, the hugely influential band released their third album Pedals last year. Following up on their 2009 stint with Soundwave, this time around the band are being looked after by Resist Records, and will be joined by new Resist signing and Byron Bay native Toy Boats. Catch them at The Zoo on Thursday 14 September. Aversions Crown have announced another national tour, this time on their own. Dubbed the You’re Not Safe tour, the deathcore group will be hitting up Perth for the first time, as well as many regional areas, with Queensland dates coming through on 12 July at X&Y Bar, 13 July at Niche Event Space (an apparent new all-ages space in Brisbane), 14 July at the OCWA Hall in Nambour, and 15 July at The Gladstone Tennis Club. For more information hit up facebook.com/aversionscrown. Thanks to Destroy All Lines, Boston-based punk rock group Transit will make their way to Australia for the first time this coming August with Melbourne’s Anchors in support. The band released their third full-length album Listen & Forgive late last year through Rise Records. The tour will finish in Brisbane on 25 August at X&Y Bar, and 26 August for an all ages gig at Paddington Hall. Tickets are available now through Oztix. This year’s and in fact the fifth installment of Slaughterfest has been announced, and will take place in Sydney at the Sandringham Hotel on 21 July. Lo!, Agonhymn, Mother Eel, Mish, Brazen Bull, Moth, Bruiser, At Dark, Not Like Horse, Lomera, The Downgoing and Yurei are all set to play from 1pm for only $20 thanks to Grindhead Records and Von Grimm Records. Supports for the upcoming return of hardcore legends Terror have been announced. Melbourne’s Iron Mind will support nationally, with Against and Thick Skin confirmed to open up The Hi-Fi on 11 July. Due to the closure of The Loft by Brisbane City Council, and subsequent lack of replacement venues, the Brisbane all-ages show has since been cancelled. Those below 18 would be encouraged to make the trek to Byron Bay to catch them perform with Ghost Town and Juggernaut on 9 July. Supports for Rosetta’s forthcoming Australian tour, which also features City Of Ships and Nuclear Summer, have been announced. Waiting Room will open the show at Sun Distortion Studios on 27 July, with Hope Drone doing the honours at Crowbar on 9 August. We Lost The Sea, Lo!, Totally Unicorn, Life & Limb, Heirs, Urns, SexWizard, Coerce and more are among the bands billed on interstate line-ups. Pre-sold tickets are now available through Moshtix and Oztix. In case you missed it, The Amity Affliction’s third album Chasing Ghosts will be released on 14 September through Roadrunner Records. The release was tracked in Florida with Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette, who has previously worked with bands such as Alter Bridge and Escape The Fate. Newcastle punks Local Resident Failure released their debut album A Breath Of Stale Air just last week through Pee Records. The band is described as ‘classic punk rock’ in the vein of NOFX and Lagwagon. Sydney mosh lords Shinto Katana have announced 27 July as the release date for their forthcoming third full-length. Redemption will be released through Skull and Bones Records, and features guest vocals from Frankie Palmeri of Emmure.

GIGS OF THE WEEK:

Thursday: Ghost Town, Open Sea, Jurassic Penguin (NZ), Ansieta, Wallow – The Waiting Room. The Bride, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck, The Satellite Years – X&Y. Friday: IDYLLS, Marathon, Jurassic Penguin, Capeweather, Wallow – Fat Louie’s. The Bride, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck, Sunsets, Intention – Strathpine Community Centre. Icarus Complex, Brewzer, Decimatus, Breach Enemy Lines – Crowbar. Saturday: Thick As Blood (USA), Taken By Force, xStrengthx Through Purity, I As One, Unpaid Hostility, Crowns, Restrictions – Expressive Grounds. Nikko, The Rational Academy, IDYLLS, Sucks – The Waiting Room.

BREAKING HART BENTON

LAUNCHING PAD

NIKKO Artist Name: Nikko Album Name: Gold & Red Label: Tenzenmen/Music-Fix/MGM Where does this release sit in your discography? Gold & Red is our second full-length album (following 2010’s The Warm Side), but our fourth official release as we did a live CD and a double A-side 7” between albums. How do you compare it to your previous studio work? It’s a big step forward. There are a lot more vocals, and we spent a lot of time experimenting with string arrangements, vocal harmonies and extra orchestration. The songs are also a lot more straight-forward than the stuff on The Warm Side, although there’s the odd couple of prog-epics thrown in there for good measure. Is it reflective of your live show or have you used the studio to enhance the material? The bulk of the album (guitars, bass, drums) was recorded live in the orchestral hall at the Old Museum, so the tracks all have a really organic feel about them because of that. However, we added a lot of extra instrumentation (piano, violin, cello, sitar, mandolin etc) that we’ll probably never be able to replicate live due to the sheer amount of musicians needed to pull it off. We like to include an element of spontaneity and improvisation in our live shows anyway that would be hampered if we were simply attempting to recreate the studio recordings. They’re two distinct beasts. What have you got lined up for the launch? We’re launching the album this Saturday 23 at the Waiting Room, which is a tiny all-ages and BYO space in West End. Most bands go for the “bigger is better” approach for their album launch, but we’ve done the opposite by putting on a really intimate party-type show with an eclectic line-up that is primarily made up of our friends’ bands. It’s going to be a great night. Nikko launch Gold & Red at The Waiting Room on Saturday 23 June.

SAD SONGS

Farewell All Joy is an intense journey that brings to ferocious light the uglier sides of human experience; for those of you not in the know, we’re talking about the new record from Brisbane’s IDYLLS. There’s astounding technical precision and an unbridled punishment emanating from all instruments in this band and on this release, all topped off with a gnashing, multi-faceted vocal input. The ten harrowing tracks warp 20 minutes through an insurmountable passage of time, with absolutely maniacal arrangements, grinding intensity, and sudden yet progressive drops in mood as key components. If you want to know what it’s like live, then you can see them launching the record when they play a free show at Fat Louie’s with Jurassic Penguin, Marathon, Wallow and Capeweather on Friday night and an all ages show with Nikko, The Rational Academy and Sucks on Saturday night at The Waiting Room (entry for that one is $15).

CLOSE TO CARBON

Brisbane Frankenstein-pop ensemble (they call themselves that because they’ve all come from other established Brisbane bands, nothing to be afraid of) Hey Geronimo are back on the radio airwaves if you haven’t noticed by now with their brand new single Carbon Affair. It’s another contagious piece of shiny pop music courtesy of the quintet who introduced themselves to Australian audiences with the catchy Why Don’t We Do Something? and its rather unforgettable film clip late last year, and after the success of that tune we reckon people hungry for the next single will not be disappointed with what the band have come up with. They are, as you’d expect, packing up their

“Like everything in life, it all begins with Bob Dylan.” Michael David of Breaking Hart Benton confesses his band’s roots to Benny Doyle. “Particularly for Lee [James – multiinstrumentalist],” David confesses, “it was tracing Dylan’s influences and the music rediscovered during the folk revival, such as the 1920s field recordings of people like Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Clarence Ashley from the Anthology Of American Folk Music.” The singer and guitarist, along with partner in crime James, is delivering ‘new time old time’ music, a simple yet completely accurate way to describe not only the duo’s influences, but their sound too.

SPREADING THEIR SEED SEED, a free public concert showcasing Brisbane’s newest wave of local talent, is hitting Southbank’s Suncorp Piazza this June. SEED will stage 20 emerging musicians from across south-east Queensland featuring original music from independent artists at the very start of their promising careers. Presented by the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and supported by triple j, musicians will perform pop, rock, R&B, county, hip hop, metal and everything in between. Local artists include The Phoncurves, Josh Lovegrove, Kid Marvel, Caligula’s House and The William Moon Book Society. The show is on from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday 30 June.

CLUED UP With a successful first EP under their belts, The Clues are set to tour their latest brand new single, Occupied, this July. The upbeat single has been described as a little juxtaposed by its lyrics, with a ‘60s Vietnam feel mixed with a healthy dose of The Smiths and Footloose. The local indie up-and-comers play the Beetle Bar on Friday 6 June playing in support of indie four-piece Charge Group and former Snowman, now solo artist Joe McKee.

IN CHURCHES AND WAITING ROOMS

“We both love the authenticity and rawness of old time and traditional music (American Appalachian, English and Irish), and want to make music that is respectful of traditional styles and at the same time lyrically interesting,” David explains. “We also share a united vision in our crusade against songs about rainbows and unicorns (mainly love songs and ironically songs about broken hearts). Our other joint vision is to make the banjo a universally recognised sex symbol.”

Local electronic/country folk artist Andrew Tuttle of Anonymeye has a busy month ahead of him! Playing as part of Brisbane’s Fete de la Musique at St John’s Cathedral (Ann St, City) alongside jazz three-piece Feet Teeth, the performance is a rare opportunity to hear some reverb resonate in an old church. Fete de la Musique is held on Thursday 21 June with Anonymeye playing at 5pm. If you happen to miss this one, catch

MONKEY ISLAND

And with these worldly tunes comes a performance value that is as equally as entertaining.

Anonymeye again at The Waiting Room (Browning St, West End) on Friday 29 June in support of Laneway with special guests The Fingers Malone Ensemble. Doors open at 7.30pm, entry is $10 on the door.

HOLD ON TIGHT Vice Grip Pussies are heading our way and ready to shake shit up! The Melbourne five-piece party rock band were formed around brothers Lewi and Stacey, sons of Billy Pommer Jr, drummer of legendary Aussie rockers The Johnnys. The loud and proud rock‘n’rollers are hitting south-east Queensland for the first time playing at various venues – catch Vice Grip Pussies on Friday 29 June at Beetle Bar alongside HITS and Deadwolves, Saturday 30 June at Gold Coast’s Miami Tavern Shark Bar and Sunday 1 July at Nundah’s Prince Of Wales Hotel.

MORE VIBES The big Valley Vibes festival happening at the Fortitude Valley PCYC on Saturday 14 July has just gotten a hell of a lot bigger with the announcement of a whole slew of new acts: Drawn From Bees, The Phoncurves, Thelma Plum, The Familiars, Sleeping With Lions and Gentlemen all join the bill, which already featured the likes of YesYou, Numbers Radio, The Winnie Coopers, Fushia, Steve Grady, Bixby Canyon, Drake The Fake, Earth To Jim, Double Lines Minority, Interim, Those Clever Foxes and Slick Oddity. Tickets are on sale now from OzTix and outlets for just $15 + bf, the festival is an all ages, drug and alcohol free event and it all kicks off from 1.30pm.

VICE GRIP PUSSIES

“We do tend to dance around and get a bit excited when we play live – so there’s always a chance of some footstomping and hollering,” he admits. “We recorded pretty much as we play anyway, so a Benton performance is pretty true to the recorded sound, we just tend to let loose a little more with banjo solos and fiddle breaks. It’s pretty much your average back porch romp in Brisville, Tennessee.” WHAT: Breaking Hart Benton (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 23 June, SolBar, Maroochydore; Sunday 24, Black Bear Lodge; Wednesday 11 July, The Joynt; Saturday 14, Spotted Cow, Toowoomba; Monday 16, The Cave, Gold Coast; Friday 20, Upfront Club, Maleny; Sunday 22, Sunday Social Club @ St Elmo, Byron Bay

Local psych fiends Monkey Island are stoked to be back playing one of Brisbane’s most exciting new events, the Sunday Rock’N’Roll BBQ. Tony McMahon gets the lowdown from Aaron Fazio.

gear and taking themselves off on tour in support of the single, taking their kooky brand of pop to the masses along the east coast. You can catch them at Oh Hello!’s Cobra Kai club night on Thursday 5 July and then at the Gold Coast’s Elsewhere on Friday 6.

NO JOKE Seeing as the band formed back in 2008, it has been a pretty long wait for fans of Perth-formed, Melbournebased blues rockers The Joe Kings who have been holding out for the band to release an album. That wait is almost over, with Strange Individual dropping this August through MGM. Before the album is officially released, the band are getting back out on the road and looking to spread the good word of their bluesy, WAMi Award-winning sound to audiences all across the country. It’s a good idea, their live show has been praised widely for the loud and raucous punch it packs so it will no doubt get people pretty excited to get their hands on the new record. Catch them at the Beetle Bar on Thursday 12 July, The Northern, Byron Bay on Friday 13 and the Woombye Pub Saturday 14. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

SCHOOL OF SWEET SUPPORTS New York’s experimental dream-pop duo School Of Seven Bells have just announced their return to Australia in support of their third full-length album, Ghoststory. Joining them on their way back to our soil is local atmospheric indie-pop band Little Scout, playing shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Catch School Of Seven Bells at The Hi-Fi on Saturday 23 June where local favourite, Tara Simmons will also play in support. The pair has told their fans to expect to be enthralled in fuzzed-out, weirdo-pop goodness. Doors open at 7.30pm, tickets available through Moshtix.

“We’ve actually played at the Rock’N’Roll BBQ before,” says Fazio, “when it was at the Spring Hill Hotel, but we are looking forward to playing at the show again. We went along to the first show at the Mustang Bar last week and it seems like a great venue. Bob always organises an awesome Sunday afternoon with a smorgasbord of local music, a free BBQ, raffles and cheap drinks! R’N’R BBQ is great craic. Now that the R’N’R BBQ is back up and running, we will be there most weeks checking out the tunes and tuning up the chicks.” Interestingly, part of Monkey Island’s mission is to bring comic relief to rock‘n’roll. Fazio explains the process. “Our singer writes about the problems in his life, but instead of having a few large problems, he has a plethora of small insignificant nuisances that cause him constant distress. It just happens that people find this humorous.” So, besides laughter, what kind of a live show can punters expect at the BBQ? Fazio compares his outfit to another band, although not really. “It’s like getting shot in the face with a shotgun, except it only shoots blanks. But seriously, it’s pretty similar to our friends the Sleepwalks shows – except no one goes to sleep or walks out.” In closing, Fazio lets us know about Monkey Island’s plans for the rest of the year, of which only about 20 percent will be worth listening to apparently. “We are putting the finishing touches on our debut album at the moment, which we plan on releasing ourselves very soon. It will have about nine tracks, two of which are quite good!” WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 24 June, Sunday Rock’n’Roll BBQ @ Mustang Bar

themusic.com.au

As the name suggests, the Vice Grip Pussies have a stranglehold on down and dirty. On the eve of their tour north Alexander St John talks to Benny Doyle. From the band’s sound and style to the fonts and colours used with their graphics, the past seems to be more touched on with these Melbourne rascals than the present. St John puts it down to a general softening of the scene. “Music got lost a while ago,” he remarks, “these days it’s all toned down, cardigan wearing, singersongwriter crap that’s taken too seriously, or robot disco filth. Vice Grip Pussies [are] bringing back the real deal; music for the sake of having a good time, rocking out with your buddies and writing some grouse tunes while we’re at it.” St John is quick to assert the Vice Grip Pussies as a live rock’n’roll juggernaut. “A mind-blowing live show, full of energy and all around radical(ness)!” he gushes regarding the quintet’s punk and blues lovein. “We don’t hold back, and pride ourselves on bringing the thunder each and every time. You never know what’s gonna happen, but you can be sure your face will be melted!” With Steve ‘The Beaver’ fattening up the licks, the band have been riffing on some new ideas that will no doubt be aired on their maiden Queensland voyage. Just don’t be expecting a considered breakdown about sonics and themes – simply listen to the damn music. “I never finished school, so all I can tell you is we all grew up round those parts and it’s time for our triumphant return,” St John admits as a lark. “We’re coming to get our name out there and show you sunny Queenslanders what us Melbourne pussies are made of. Be there or miss out – it’s gonna be a party! Woo hoo!” WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Beetle Bar; Saturday 30, Miami Shark Bar, Gold Coast; Sunday 1 July, Prince Of Wales Hotel, Nundah

TIME OFF • 33

VULGAR GRAD

WE THE GHOSTS

WE HAVE A T-REX

HAVE YOU HEARD?

NANTES

What would a dinosaur groove to? Benny Doyle poses the tough questions to We Have A T-Rex frontman Jaryd Miles.

They might be a band. They might be Russian criminals. Either way, VulgarGrad are releasing a new vinyl single, Limonchiki. Tony McMahon gets on the vodka with enigmatic frontman Jacek Koman. Limonchiki, which means ‘little lemons’ in Russian, is apparently an old Jewish gangster song about booze, theft and loving your mum. Koman says VulgarGrad saw a gap in the marketplace. “Definitely. It was a toss-up – either that, or the traditional songs of the Hungarian pastry chefs. In the end, the fact that my greatgreat-grandfather did a stint in a Siberian jail decided it, and we never looked back. Not surprisingly, people do relate to drinking, stealing and loving your mum. Yes, we’re happy with our seven-inch vinyl. And it’s yellow!” Time Off is a little frightened to even ask this, really, but we summon the saliva: what’s a VulgarGrad live show like? It seems as if tears and underwear may be involved. “Anything can happen – you could be moved to tears and ask yourself, ‘Why am I sobbing when everyone else is giggling and dancing?’ Be prepared to witness a spontaneous rain of underwear (don’t hold back if you feel the urge to participate).” VulgarGrad have recently completed a European tour. Not surprisingly, Koman has some excellent war stories to tell. “A fun gig we played during our recent European tour – a gig in Christiania, an area in Copenhagen set up in the ‘70s as a hippie commune and still outside the government’s jurisdiction. We played at a venue called ‘Woodstock’ – a shed with a feel of a canteen at some intergalactic crossroads. The snap of Scandinavian winter had brought in a gallery of very odd characters, there was a wake celebration in one corner, a group of stoned Inuits in another, a pack of dogs running around and all shrouded in very heavy smoke. I don’t remember our second set…” WHAT: Limonchiki (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, The Joynt

Local pop/country four-piece We The Ghosts are launching their terrific new single, Little Bit Crazy, at an iconic brisbane venue. Tony McMahon chats to vocalist/guitarist John Cesar. While Cesar says Little Bit Crazy is a more advanced tune than the band’s previous single, he also indicates that there’s a long road ahead. “I feel that the song is a continuation of our musical development in the sense that our sound has always been fairly consistent, but we are obviously still maturing as a band and continuously discovering ways of enhancing our skills.” Famously, We The Ghosts won a fiercely contested battle of the bands at the renowned Gympie Music Muster, and Cesar says the judges were spot on. “Battle of the bands competitions are always crap shoots, until you become the band to win one, in which case the judges are geniuses. At the moment most things boost our confidence, so winning something like that and doing so against the locals was definitely a buzz.” For the rest of 2012, Cesar says his band will be having a bit of a think about things and deciding if they’re worth spending money on.

As far as what punters can expect at the single launch, Cesar just hopes The Zoo isn’t empty. “You never know! Especially with this band, we tend to all be pretty spontaneous and have been known to cause commotion. We are super excited for this show and hope that as many people as possible can join us, otherwise it’s gonna look awfully weird rocking on stage to nobody.” WHAT: Little Bit Crazy (Independent)

Coming up next on the 4ZZZ calendar is Radiothon! From August 18 to 26 we’ll being making our annual call out for subscribers and will have some fantastic prizes up for grabs. But more on that in the coming weeks.

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 27 June, The Zoo

WE WANT YOUR STUFF!

Speaking of Radiothon, are you a business that wants to help Zed make Radiothon 2012 the best 34 • TIME OFF

4ZZZ has some very competitive ad space available in our annual magazine Radio Times, published in July. The magazine reaches thousands of people every year through mailing subscriptions and distribution through South-East Queensland stores, venues, cafes and various other outlets. The release of Radio Times coincides with our annual subscription drive, Radiothon. Each year our talented volunteers donate their time to contribute articles to Radio Times on a whole range of community topics including music, art, fashion, community issues and 4ZZZ info. Getting involved in Radio Times gives you access to our listenership of over 356,000 people.

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? “Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. Seems appropriate.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “Getting dragged out to sea by a rip a few hours before a show.”

The grunge revivalists are eager to start recording again in the next few months, and tracks like Settledownnowfine signal towards a solid EP hopefully in the near future. For now, however, we are still left with the final head scratcher – what’s it like to witness a T-Rex in real life?

Why should people come and see your band? “We express ourselves through music, each individual contributing to a collaborative expression. That translates differently in each of our live shows, so you’re in for something unique every time. We want people to experience, respond and contribute.”

“That would be an interesting experience, if I had some sort of outer-body episode and ended up watching one of our gigs,” Miles ponders, “it would be weird but I’m sure I’d really dig it.”

Nantes play Upstairs @ The Clock, Gold Coast on Friday 22 June and Alhambra Lounge on Saturday 23 June.

LIQUOR ACT 1992 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR NEW LICENCE Applicant's Name:

Nant Distillery Pty Ltd

Premises:

The Nant Whiskey Cellar & Bar, Tenancy 10, Emporium Precinct 1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley Qld 4006

Principal Activity:

Commercial Other - Bar - sale of liquor on the licensed premises having the capacity to seat mot more than 60 patrons at any one time.

Trading Hours:

10:00am to 12:00am - Monday to Sunday

OBJECTIONS TO THIS APPLICATION MAY BE FILED BY A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC OVER THE AGE OF 18 WHO HAS A PROPER INTEREST IN THE LOCALITY CONCERNED AND IS LIKELY TO BE AFFECTED BY THE GRANT OF THE APPLICATION. COPIES OF ANY OBJECTIONS OR SUBMISSIONS (INCLUDING OBJECTOR’S DETAILS) WILL BE FORWARDED TO THE APPLICANT AND A CONFERENCE MAY BE HELD.

If you would like to donate to our prize pool, please email radiothon@4zzzfm.org.au.

We’re still healing our cuts and bruises as we recover from our Rumble Rock fund-raising event! The night was a bloody (literally) good time and a success for 4ZZZ! If you weren’t there or want to relive the chaos, check out the reviews online.

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Radiohead.”

A suitable song for the trio, Brisbane newcomers We Have A T-Rex are finally bringing their distortiondrenched jams to audiences after only now putting together a strong working model. “Tim [bass] and I had been throwing these songs around for some time, and there has been somewhat of a revolving door in this band when it comes to drummers, so when we found Roman [drums] it was like adding the missing piece. That and bonding over people getting hurt on YouTube.”

“Our goal as with most other bands is to release as much music as possible. Whether this is feasible for us at this point is still uncertain. We also have to decide whether we have a group of songs that are good enough to put the money and effort into!”

RADIO TIMES MAGAZINE!

Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Self-aware sponge squeeze.”

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 22 June, Ric’s Bar

ever? Radiothon is 4ZZZ’s biggest subscription drive and happens this year from August 18-26. We love giving out heaps of awesome prizes so we are seeking donations of prizes from businesses to give away to lucky listeners who subscribe during Radiothon. Small or mega – we’re not fussy!

RADIOTHON 2012!

How did you get together? Jos Eastwood (guitar/vocals): “We’ve known each other for years, always playing music together in various other ways. Dave wrote some songs last year, we decided to record them.”

“I couldn’t do it,” Miles concedes. “I’m sure if you held a gun to my head I could make you a shortlist of songs that would make the cut, but choosing one song to be in my head for the rest of my days is too much to ask of a man. I’ll tell you the song in my head right now – The Wooden Song by Butthole Surfers.”

Grounds for Objection (a) undue offence, annoyance, disturbance or inconvenience to persons who reside, work or do business in the locality concerned, or to persons in, or travelling to or from, an existing or proposed place of public worship, hospital or school; (b) harm from alcohol abuse and misuse and associated violence; (c) an adverse effect on the health or safety of members of the public; (d) an adverse effect on the amenity of the community. Format of Objections Objections must be lodged in writing individually or in petition form and must state the grounds for objection. An objection in the form of a petition must be in a format stipulated in the Act and the principal contact person should discuss the proposed petition with the Licensing Officer listed below. A petition template is able to be downloaded from the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation website at www.olgr.qld.gov.au A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC MAY MAKE A WRITTEN SUBMISSION TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE REGARDING whether the granting of this application will impact on the community, particularly relating to matters which the chief executive must have regard under Section 116(8) of the Liquor Act 1992. For further information on what is being proposed by the applicant, please contact Mr Russell Steele of RSA Liquor Professionals on 0422 595 060 or email russell@rsapro.com.au Closing Date for Objections or Submissions:

20 July 2012

Lodging Objections or Submissions: Objections and/or Submissions should be lodged with: Licensing Officer Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation Locked Bag 180 CITY EAST QLD 4002 Phone: (07) 3224 7131 All objectors will be notified in writing when a decision has been made on the application.

If you’re interested in purchasing ad space please email sponsorship@4zzzfm.org.au.

Executive Director Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation

themusic.com.au

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LEANNE@TIMEOFF.COM.AU

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5)634%": 5) +6/& 321 BRUNSWICK STREET MALL, FORTITUDE VALLEY WEDNESDAY 20TH JUNE

LE PARTY SOUL WITH DJ REDBEARD FROM 8PM FEATURING SPORTS FAN (10:30PM) + THE GOLDEN AGE OF BALLOONING (9:30PM)

THURSDAY 21ST JUNE

CASH NO!

FETE DE LA MUSICA - KATHY WILLIAMS DEVRIES (2PM) + THAT TROMBONE GUY (3:30PM) + SPOOK HILL (7PM) + AFTERGLOW (8PM) + REALEASE THE HOUNDS (9PM) + ISOLATION IN NUMBERS (10PM)

(VIC - performing the Decline by NOFX)

FRIDAY 22ND JUNE

Present

Liberation Front (NSW)

LAST (NSW)

No Trust Burn Down Hollywood Saturday 23rd June

WINTER JAM 2012 (Sea Shepherd Fund Raiser) The Molotov Ghost Audio Flannelette Danger at the Door 1154 Sandgate Rd, Nundah, Queensland, 4012

PPH: (07) 3266 8077 www.princeofwaleshotel.com.au

DOWNSTAIRS - WE HAVE A T-REX (9:30PM) + JUNKYARD DIAMONDS (8:45PM) + FLANNELETTE (8PM) UPSTAIRS - DJ STREX 8PM - 5AM

SATURDAY 23RD JUNE

DOWNSTAIRS - UNDERWOOD MAYNE (9PM) + SUBSTATION (8PM) UPSTAIRS - DJ CUTTS 8PM - 5AM

SUNDAY 24TH JUNE

EXPOSED #4 HEAT 6 7PM - THE UNPRETTIER, 7:30PM - CALAIS, 8PM - SHELBY RIOTS, 8:30PM - FAT SUSAN + THE LOW DOWN FROM 9:30PM AFTER EXPOSED

MONDAY 25TH JUNE

LOCAL BRISBANE ACTS FROM 8:30PM

TUESDAY 26TH JUNE

ORCHARD (9:30PM) + SUBDFUZE (8:30PM)

FREE LIVE MUSIC AND INDIE DJS

WANT TO PLAY? EMAIL BOOKINGS@RICSBAR.COM.AU

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TIME OFF â&#x20AC;¢ 35

WED 20 Erin Fitzsimon The Music Kafe Mal Wood The Bowery Mojo Webb & Band Press Club New Empire Black Bear Lodge The Brodie Graham Band, Rachel Mac The Tempo Hotel Virginia Gaye Judith Wright Centre Of Performing Arts

THU 21 Casey Fogg, Cognition The Tempo Hotel Cash No!, Friends With The Enemy, Last, LIberation Front, No Trust Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Deep Sea Arcade, Woe & Flutter, The Cairos Oh Hello! Hilltop Hoods Eatons Hill Hotel I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Satellites The Bowery I Used To Skate Once The Zoo Ijimp, Takako Nishibori, Lotus Star, Tibet 2 Timbuct 2 Brisbane Powerhouse Visy Jason Ayers, Sheep, Cartoon Physics, Slow Montion, The Op Shop Boys The Music Kafe Josh Kyle Quintet BriSbane Jazz Club Kirin J Callinan, Dcm, Nite Fields, Kangaroo Skull Black Bear Lodge Lionheir, The Melotonins The Joynt Mark De Clive Lowe, Paprika, Gavin Boyd Coniston Lane Mojo Webb Brew

New Empire, Jordan Millar, Eliza Jane The Loft, Chevron Island Sam Cahill, Chris Miller Elsewhere The Audreys Soundlounge Currumbin The Bride, Satellite Years, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck Snitch The Red Lights, Jeremy Neale The Hideaway The Roshambos, Pro Vita, Ben Trouble The Beetle Bar Virginia Gaye Judith Wright Centre Of Performing Arts Wallow, Jurassic Penguin, Open Sea, Ansieta, Ghost Town The Waiting Room

FRI 22 Basscreeps Coniston Lane Brazen, Fat Tuesday The Tempo Hotel Cash No!, Liberation Front, Last, No Trust, Burn Down Hollywood Prince Of Wales Claire Walters, Ryan Livings, Capitol Groove Press Club Deep Sea Arcade Beach Hotel, Byron Elly Hoyt Quintet Brisbane Jazz Club Feet Teeth, Ghost Notes, Pale Earth The Waiting Room Flannelette, We Have A T-Rex, Junkyard Diamonds Ric’s Horris, Bixby Canyon, Foxes The Zoo Hugo Race, Leek & The War Wick Tragedy X & Y Bar Idylls, Wallow, Capeweather, Jurassic Penguin, Marathon Fat Louie’s

Josh Lovegrove, Clashing Colours, The Runaway Spark, Steve Jevne The Loft, Chevron Island Kingfisha, Kooii, The Strides, Bullhorn, Integer The Hi-Fi Lady Abundance Project Locknload West End Lissy Stanton Band Burleigh Underground Drummers Liza-Jane, The Captain’s Daughters, Frankie And The Moon Soundlounge Currumbin Manic Radiation, Coke Bottle Glasses, Danger At The Door, Legless Chardons Corner Hotel Matt Vankan, Crooked Grin, Blind Dog Donny The Music Kafe Mick Danby, Alter Egos, Jung Hearts, Autopilot, Tom Laidley Chalk Hotel Miss Nine Eatons Hill Hotel Monstrothic, Icarus Complex, Brewzer, Decimatus, Breach Enemy Lines Crow Bar Muscles Oh Hello! Nantes, Morning Harvey, Babaganouj The Clock Hotel Oceanics, Bleeding Knees Club, Sneaky Sound System Hard Rock Café Pear & The Awkward Orchestra Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform R L Jones The Old MuseUm - Brisbane Snez Bitter Suite Softwar, Audun Elsewhere Sorry Socrates Alhambra Lounge Sticky Fingers Sol Bar, Maroochydore The Audreys Brisbane Powerhouse Visy

The Bride, Sunsets, Intention, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck Strathpine Community True RaDical Miracle, Cured Pink, Mshing, Per Purpose, Shooga Beetle Bar Vulgargrad The Joynt

SAT 23 Acca Dacca, Snake Runaway Bay Tavern Bound For Ruin, Greenstreet, Voice, Portraits, In The Shadows Scream Ahead Studios, Eagle Farm Caitly Turner, The Young Epoxy, Lord Rufus, Brizband, Connor Cleary The Music Kafe Cash No!, Last, Liberation Front, No Trust, A Hero To Some 4zzz Carpark Colombian Jungle, Kendall James, Giv Elsewhere Fashawn, Exile Coniston Lane Fox Hunt, The Bad Roots, Jack Paterson The Loft, Chevron Island Ingrid James Quartet, The Audreys Woombye Pub Kingfisha, Kooii Coolum Civic Centre Nantes, Morning Harvey, Babaganouj Alhambra Lounge Nick Barker & The Reptiles, Black Mustang Hinterland Hotel Nikko, The Rational Academy, Idylls, Sucks The Waiting Room Rampage, Decimatus, Azreal, Nescient Miami Tavern

LONG PLAYER SESSIONS slightly different chord progression on only one line of one verse, or some kind of Paul Kelly rap that is impossible for anyone else to recreate without sounding like a total knobhead. Still one of my favourite records ever though. I didn’t think I could respect or admire that guy anymore than I already did, but I have gone and proven myself wrong. The word ‘genius’ is definitely overused these days, but I think it absolutely applies in Paul’s case. Fave song from record? “Well, that’s a toughie because it changes every time I listen to it. So many great songs. At the moment though, probably Standing On The Street Of Early Sorrows – the melody is just so unique. Or Blues For Skip, or Adelaide...“

TEXAS TEA

When did you first hear this album? “I think I first bought it on CD from Brashs in Rockhampton’s ‘Shopping Fair’ in the early‘90s, so around then sometime.”

Album synopsis: He may have recorded 17 studio albums, but for many Paul Kelly’s Post stands as his definitive personal statement. Kelly’s first solo album, it came during a period a major change for the artist who had left Melbourne for Sydney after moving on from his outfits The Dots and the Paul Kelly Band – while also facing major upheaval in his personal life. Produced by ex-Sherbet guitarist Clive Shakespeare, the album was released in 1985 by the White Label/Mushroom with the now classic track From St Kilda To Kings Cross the one and only single. The album broke the Top 50 and was named by Australian Rolling Stone as the album of the year.

Does playing this album in its entirety present any specific challenges? “Gawd yes. Paul Kelly’s songs are deceptively difficult, there’s always an extra chord or a

Texas Tea cover Paul Kelly’s Post in its entirety as part of the Long Player Sessions at Brisbane Powerhouse on Saturday 23 June (from 8pm).

Album covering: Paul Kelly – Post (1985) Why did you choose this album? Kate Jacobson: “I would count Paul Kelly as one of my own and Texas Tea’s most significant influences. The songs on this album are really stripped back, have minimal percussion and some pretty bold production ideas. These are all things that we like. There are also some excellent gratuitous ‘80s saxomophone solos.”

36 • TIME OFF

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ON TIME OFF STEREO Tiny Spiders TINY SPIDERS The Plot Against Common Sense FUTURE OF THE LEFT All Aboard! TENNISCOATS Swing Low Magellan DIRTY PROJECTORS Post PAUL KELLY The Argument FUGAZI Break Down The Walls YOUTH OF TODAY Bulls Eye RUINED FORTUNE Pagans THE MYONICS Pyramids FRANK OCEAN

4ZZZ TOP 10 Gold & Red NIKKO Hollow GRAVEYARD TRAIN Young Heart BLANCHE DUBOIS Fall In Time CHARLIE MAYFAIR Darlin’ (single) JEREMY NEALE Kingfisha KINGFISHA Seven Seas THE GOOD SHIP Triple 7” Collection THE HORRORTONES Burn Bright MOSMAN ALDER Bloodstreams DZ DEATHRAYS

Sabrina Lawrie & The Hunting Party, Lords Of Wong, Smokestack Orchestra, Bmxwray The Beetle Bar School Of Seven Bells, Tara Simmons, Little Scout The Hi-Fi Sea ShepHerd Conservation Fundraiser, The Molotov, Flannelette, Danger At The Door, Ghost Audio Prince Of Wales Hotel Sticky Fingers Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Strange House, Bat Nouveau Crow Bar Sunny Dread, The Zionites Locknload West End Tape Off, Cannon, Royal Blood, Queen Slander The Zoo Texas Tea, Sue Ray Brisbane Powerhouse Visy The Bride, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck, Lockjaw, AmbItions Railway Hall Toowoomba The Company Black Bear Lodge Thick As Blood, Deceiver, Xstrength Through Purityx, I As One, Restrictions Expressive Grounds Thick As Blood, The Daylight Curse, Ill Temper Thriller Tiny Spiders Tym Guitars Vernons, Nine Sons Of Dan, Wolf & Cub, Hoodoo Gurus Hard Rock Café

SUN 24 Breaking Hart Benton, Luna Junction, Rusty Datsuns Black Bear Lodge Emma White, Carrie Henschell Dowse Bar Hailey Calvert Locknload West End INXS Jacobs Well Tavern Jimmy Saint & The Sinners, Valley Floor, Ash Grunwald Hard Rock Café Luke Peacock, Rachel Brady Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform

Mama Juju, Jaya, Chris Palmer, Calango Lazy, Triplickit The Music Kafe Nick Barker & The Reptiles, Black Mustang The Tempo Hotel Snobs, Stretch Paper Cranes Elsewhere Softwar, Discrow, Daniel Webber La La Land Steve Williamson, Locky Booster, Verner, Oli & Woodie, Dr Keen, Dirtie Clouds, Atarii Tonite Chalk Hotel Sticky Fingers The Joynt, Brisbane The Arcolas, Fun With Explosives, Monkey Island, Thee Andy’s Three Mustang Bar The Bride, Wish For Wings, Trainwreck, Prepared Like A Bride, Kings At Heart Expressive Grounds The Satellites The Bowery Thick As Blood, Taken By Force, Endworld, Never Lose Sight, Brazen, Dead Hand, Avenger, Lockjaw Annand Street Hall, Toowoomba Uq Big Band Brisbane Jazz Club

MON 25 Bigfellalinc, Emph N Treats The Cave Funky Monkey Jam The Music Kafe Mark Sheils Elephant & Wheelbarrow

TUE 26 Gonzales 3 The Bowery INXS Empire Theatre Marilla Holmes & Friends, Cover Charge, Blind Dog Donny The Music Kafe Pete Hunt Quartet Locknload West End Race Of The Harridan, Birds Of A Feather, Fuzzy Polaroid The Tempo Hotel

BEHIND THE LINES LOST & FOUND

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

WITH MICHAEL SMITH

YAMAHA THR5 AMP

The Yamaha THR series of practice amps are designed to fit where, when and how you play when you’re not on stage. With big amp response, the kinds of effects you expect and hi-fi stereo sound, the THR series was developed by a team of guitarists “in search of the ultimate tone,” so at least you know they understand your needs. The THR5 is the five amp version while the THR10 is obviously the ten amp version, and each includes Virtual Circuitry Modelling (VCM) effects capable of capturing subtleties simple digital simulations can’t approach, delivering the truly musical performance that makes classic analogue gear invaluable even in today’s digital environment, and they incorporate Yamaha’s new Extended Stereo Technology to create an incredibly wide, spacious audio image. With plenty of other features you really need to haul yourself into your local Yamaha stockist to check them out yourself.

THE ‘70S TRIBUTE SG

Having celebrated the birth of the Les Paul and the best of the ‘60s, Gibson has now looked at the way their range of guitars evolved into the ‘70s with a series of ‘70s Tribute models. The best known Australian exponent of the SG is, of course, AC/DC’s Angus Young, who now boasts his own signature models, the Ebony Angus Young SG and the Custom SG VOS. The Gibson SG Special ‘70s Tribute, for instance, features a unique thin-to-thick neck carve, outstanding upper-fret access, a PLEK-cut Corian nut, a pair of Dual Blade Alnico Mini Humbucker pickups for vintage-edged tones and contemporary versatility, a Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece for optimum sustain and precise intonation. But the test is in the playing isn’t it? You know the rest.

SOUND BYTES

Calexico’s core duo Joey Burns and John Convertino relocated to New Orleans with co-producer Craig Schumacher for the bulk of the recording sessions for their first album in four years, Algiers, living and working in a converted church on the neighbourhood for which the record is named. Local singer Sabrina Lawrie met guitarist Dave Catching while selling merchandise at an Eagles Of Death Metal show in Brisbane. He’d never even heard her music but, it seems, he immediately offered to work on a new album with her, which she hopes to record in September at the studio he set up in 1993 with the late Fred Drake, Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree in south-eastern California. Veteran Boston post-punks Mission Of Burma, who reformed in 2002, recorded their forthcoming album at hometown Woolly Mammoth Studios, producing themselves. Dream pop singer-songwriter Mary Epworth, who’s brother Paul produced Adele’s massively successful album, 21, recorded and co-produced, with her partner, multi-instrumentalist Will Tynham, her debut album, Dream Life, in a shed-cum-studio in darkest Norfolk. As we announced exclusively on themusic.com. au last week, Grinspoon are currently recording in Los Angeles studio The Bank with producer Dave Schiffman (The Bronx, Weezer). Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have been busy in their recording studio in Bath working on a new album. The Gaslight Anthem spent five weeks in Blackbird Studios in Nashville recording the forthcoming fourth album, Handwritten, with producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen). Did you know that the lathe Phil Spector used back in the day for cutting his classic vinyl hits still resides in Gold Star Studios in LA? Allen Barnes, younger brother of Jimmy, recorded the bulk of his forthcoming album, Kids Like It, down at Aerosound Studios, Albion Park, down Wollongong way near where he lives, polishing things up at Matt Finish’s John Prior’s studio, Unity Gains in Erskineville, while Greg “Clarkey” Clarke recorded the vocals at his place, among the last recording the much-loved sound engineer/ road manager did before his passing last year. The new album, Lake Air, from Dappled Cities, due in August, was recorded in various sessions in Paris, Los Angeles and Sydney, the band co-producing with American Jarrad Kritzstein, with Englishman Cenzo Townshend (Bloc Party, Florence + The Machine) mixing. Engineered by Robin Mai, Nicky Bomba recorded and produced the debut album, Intrepid Adventures To The Lost Riddim Islands, by his latest musical project, Nicky Bomba’s Bustamento, at Freeburgh Station Studios, the pair then mixing the album with Barry Deenick, while it was mastered at Noah’s Ark Vintage Labs.

Irmin Schmidt speaks to Doug Wallen about bringing the Can archives back to life.

pplying the term “lost tapes” to any band’s material would lend an air of intrigue, but for Can it’s almost understating a huge event. Working with co-curator Daniel Miller, Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt sifted through more than 30 hours of music recovered from the iconic German band’s archives. What became the threeCD, The Lost Tapes, includes unreleased studio, soundtrack and live material from 1968 to 1977, compiled by Schmidt with editor Jono Podmore. For starters, The Lost Tapes reintroduces the insane range of Can, spanning rickety quasi-garage (Midnight Sky), subterranean funk (Barnacles) and decayed ambient clatter (E.F.S. 108). It’s three hours of fertile experimentation that exorcises the ghosts of jazz and rock‘n’roll along the way. It also reminds how influential Can were, as you can hear later bands like The Make-Up (see Desert) and Clinic (see Deadly Doris) in these unearthed sounds. Remember, Spoon are named after a Can song, and many other notable bands have taken their names similarly, from The Mooney Suzuki to Australia’s own Hunters & Collectors. Reflecting on The Lost Tapes, Schmidt says he still recalls how most of the recordings’ arcane sounds were generated. Some he doesn’t, like the juddering sound on The Loop (“No idea”), but mostly the process remains clear to him. For the salvaged soundtrack music from 1971’s A Big Grey-Blue Bird, which became Lost Tapes track, Graublau, he remembers recording shortwave radio sounds at home before bringing them into the Can studio for the band to play against. “These astonishing, strange, electronic sounds which were totally new in the sound world in relation to music, I remembered very well,” he says. “If there was any surprise, [it’s] how contemporary, how avant-garde it’s still sounding today.” The shortwave radio of Graublau is far from the only example of Can exploiting raw outside material. “We accepted the sounds from outside, which is in my education was very much influenced by the musical aesthetics and thoughts and, well, philosophy of John Cage. Everything from outside could enter in our

music. We left the doors of the studio open, and the windows very often.” Schmidt says that approach was definitely at work on such classic Can albums as 1971’s Tago Mago and 1973’s Future Days. “Everybody brought things into Can. Sometimes like a little rhythm box and fooling around with it, or like [original singer] Damo [Suzuki] sitting on a cushion which made a strange sound while he was singing. It was a common Can idea to use sounds from our environment, or using our own instruments in a very deconstructive way and let them do strange sounds.” Add to that the desperate mantras of Can’s other famous singer, Malcolm Mooney, and it’s easy to understand the band’s cult appeal. In fact, the many hours of archives were accessed after the entire Can studio was sold to the German Rock N Pop Museum, where it is now set up for posterity. “It’s not totally identical,” observes Schmidt, “but it’s very near to it. They put everything in, including the tapestry on the wall. And it’s still a working studio.” Other pieces were recorded in the castle of an art collector. That may sound kook, but there’s no doubting Can’s discipline. “We played every day. We spent about 12 hours of the day in the studio.” And just because the tracks were spontaneous doesn’t mean they were formless larks. “It was spontaneous but always very concentrated,” Schmidt confirms. “It was not just fooling around and improvising. When we played, sometimes for hours, we were trying more and more to concentrate on what the music had created itself. You feel there is an idea coming up, and then

concentrate to find the nucleus, the essence of this idea, until you get it. You get the right groove.” Can would often record live on a two-track, which meant no separating the members’ individual parts. “You have to leave space and listen to the others more. Because you are responsible for the balance of the whole thing. [That] creates a concentration and also an openness in space and mind.” Several tracks from The Lost Tapes were either edited down to shorter lengths by Podmore or connected into longer montages, like Dead Pigeon Suite and Waiting For The Streetcar. That was a practical solution to the scattered incidental music Can had recorded for different films, but it’s also in keeping with the band’s history. “Can always made montages,” Schmidt suggests. “It’s one of our basic principles. Sometimes it’s very obvious, sometimes it’s very hidden. So my idea was to put all these snippets into a suite which makes one consistent piece.” What about all those hours of music that didn’t make it onto The Lost Tapes? “Nobody will ever have the chance to listen to them,” answers Schmidt, who describes the curating process as ‘coldblooded’. “When I filtered out these three hours, that’s what’s worth being released. The rest is going to the underworld.” WHO: Can WHAT: The Lost Tapes

GEAR REVIEWS ASHDOWN MI BASS 550 AND ASHDOWN VS-212 In the spotlight today is the pint-sized Ashdown MI Bass 550 watt bass head, coupled with a vintage 2x12 bass cab that will hopefully get my walls a shakin’. First of all, I must make it perfectly clear that this bass head is absolutely tiny and reminds me of those little 300w Crate Mono block guitar amps, yet it’s somehow rated at almost twice the power! I start off by plugging in my trusty old Yamaha RBX bass into the input jack, make sure the active switch is off (as it’s a passive bass), then I crank the input gain until the nifty little VU meter starts to clip. Next I head straight for the output and crank it up pretty high (almost all the way), for a nice clean and clear bass tone with a reasonable amount of headroom. My next move is to engage the ‘Deep’ and ‘Shape’ switches for a more modern, growling sound that’d be right at home on any modern rock or indie recording. Moving along to my favourite part of this amp is a unique 4-band parametric EQ, which works similarly to high end studio preamps and mixing consoles, where you have the ability to cut or boost desired frequencies. The only problem with this concept is that sometimes the bandwidth (or Q) is too fine and makes for a less ‘musical’ sounding EQ, but the 4-bands on the MI Bass are wide and tasty. I opt to boost the ugly sounding frequencies at first, then remove them to achieve beautifully sculpted bass tones, and the more I experiment with the EQ, the more tones I achieve: from old boxy ‘70s mids, to modern detuned thump by pushing the parametric EQ to its limits. On the rear of the amp is just about every feature a bassist could desire with a Pre/Post DI Out, FX Send and Return, Line Out, Headphone Out and two Speakon/ Speaker Outputs. There’s even a mini-jack line in on the front so you can plug in your iPod and jam along to your favourite tracks.

This amp sounds great at bedroom levels, but it definitely lacks power if you are going to jam with a loud drummer, or play a big stage even though it’s rated at 550 watts. However it’d be perfect for small gigs, rehearsals and even better mic’ed up for recordings. The MI Bass is plugged into a gorgeous vintage 2x12 cabinet that is simply incredible for its price. The Ox-Blood grill, white piping, sturdy

themusic.com.au

construction and recessed steel handles make for some serious eye candy, and the vintage voiced 2x12 speakers pump pristine low-mid warmth complementing the amp perfectly. Reza Nasseri For more info, head to sales@daddario.com.au. Review originally published in Australian Musician. TIME OFF • 37

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GRAPHIC DESIGN Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www. bizwebsites.com.au Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY- from $399 including UNLIMITED pages, Logos, Hosting and 5xemail addresses and much more! Contact info@bizwebsites.com. au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au iFlogID: 13864

Limited Edition mens tees and hoodies with a sense of humour. All hand-screened and numbered. monstrositystore.com

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iFlogID: 13611

OTHER

BASS PLAYER WANTED! up and coming band. metal/thrash/punk/ grunge/funk/hiphop etc. some skill required (obviously), but a can do attitude is a must. must be prepared for challenging and different music.

Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses!

iFlogID: 18779

Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www. bizwebsites.com.au

Young guitar player looking to start metal, punk band. influences include metallica, ozzy, black sabbath megadeth, trivium, bullet, anthrax, slayer slipknot and many many more.

If you want to use DRUGS, that’s your business

email space1996@hotmail.com if interested

iFlogID: 17027

DRUMMER 4-piece established Grunge/Rock band on Gold Coast seeks tight, dedicated drummer. infl. Melvins, Tool, Nirvana, Pumpkins etc. Some bits fast and complex, others reeaal slow. Contact Jason at tpsband@hotmail.com

iFlogID: 17392

Drummer needed for Sydney hard rock band.

iFlogID: 15454

If you want to STOP, we can help. Narcotics Anonymous 9519 6200 www.na.org.au

iFlogID: 16217

Need promo shots of you or your band? I’m looking for unsigned artists in the Bris area for collaboration shots (aka free). studio@manologonzalez.com.au or 0422 145 668. iFlogID: 18711

Need to promote your restaurant, club and make it the place to go? Contact us now, because providing good entertainment is a personal skill. Chris 0419 272 196

Low hourly rates. Everything negotiable. Easygoing, flexible entertainment. Call for a quote today.

Aged 17-21, must have a dedication to music, good work ethic, and playing experience.

ventura@yayabings.com.au

KN!VZ Entertainment Group

Contact: 0400 886 673 for more details.

Tarot Card Readings by Karen. Over 30yrs Exp. “When you need to know” Always welcome new customers. www.tarotreadingsbykaren. com

Ph:0415680575

iFlogID: 18559

iFlogID: 16661

DRUMMER A1 TOP PRO DRUMMER AVAILABLE FOR SESSION FREELANCE WORK, TOURS ETC. EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE, TOP GEAR, GREAT GROOVE AND TIME.SYDNEY BASED, WILL TRAVEL. PH 0419760940. WEBSITE www.mikehague.com

iFlogID: 18334

TOP INTERNATIONAL DRUMMER available. Great backing vocals, harmonica player and percussionist. Gigs, tours, recording. Private lessons/mentoring also available. www.reubenalexander.net

iFlogID: 14261

Experienced drummer with a commitment to practice and regular rehearsals required for Melbourne-based alternative rock band. Influences QOTSA, Foo Fighters, Nirvana… www.myspace.com/mollydredd 469

0411 372

iFlogID: 16936

GUITARIST 18 year old guitar player looking for another guitar player. Influences: GN’R, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferrably someone in the south (Shire). Call Tom on 0401722767

iFlogID: 15175

Parties and Private readings P: 0432 689 546. Evenings & weekends available. iFlogID: 18320

What happens when you start paying attention? When you become an active member and start participating in this elusive thing we call life. WWW.WHATISTHEHAPS.COM

iFlogID: 17980

TUITION

iFlogID: 13407

DRUMMER AND DRUM LESSONS

Female vocalist looking for guitarist, drummer and bassist to start post hardcore

Avaliable in Gladesville

band. Tons of lyrics already written. Influences La Dispute,

Teach all Levels, ages and experience.16 years experience.

mewithoutyou, Circa Survive, Pianos Become

I studied at The Billy Hydes Drumcraft Academy and Obtained a Diploma in Drummig. $60/HR

The Teeth, At The Drive In. 0435959167

A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC MAY MAKE A WRITTEN SUBMISSION TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE REGARDING whether the granting of this application will impact on the community, particularly relating to matters which the chief executive must have regard under Section 116(8) of the Liquor Act 1992. For further information on what is being proposed by the applicant, please contact Russell Steele, RSA Liquor Professionals on 0422 595 060 or email russell@rsapro.com.au 5 July 2012

Licensing Officer Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation Locked Bag 180 CITY EAST QLD 4002 07 3224 7131

All objectors will be notified in writing when a decision has been made on the application. Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 38 • TIME OFF

iFlogID: 13088

Looking for other original acoustic duo’s/bands with a following to share the bill and do live gigs together. Contact RemmosK@gmail.com

iFlogID: 15450

Anyone wants to form a REGGAE band in Northern Beaches NSW?

Format of Objections Objections must be lodged in writing individually or in petition form and must state the grounds for objection. An objection in the form of a petition must be in a format stipulated in the Act and the principal contact person should discuss the proposed petition with the Licensing Officer listed below. A petition template is able to be downloaded from the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation website at www.olgr.qld.gov.au

Executive Director

iFlogID: 15177

Songwriter - If you want to rhyme I’ve got the time. Jingles, songs, you can’t go wrong. If you’ve got the music, I’ll make it the number 1 pick. Tommy-0434021675.

Lodging Objections or Submissions: Objections and/or Submissions should be lodged with:

GOSPEL SINGERS WANTED for non-denominational music ministry to record triple-CD in Perth. World-class, passionate and devotional vocalists sought. View www.THE001Music. com for details. Jesus is KIng! Reverend Eslam. God Bless You!

OTHER

COPIES OF ANY OBJECTIONS OR SUBMISSIONS (INCLUDING OBJECTOR’S DETAILS) WILL BE FORWARDED TO THE APPLICANT AND A CONFERENCE MAY BE HELD.

Closing Date for Objections or Submissions:

SINGER

Musician/Guitarist seeking fame. I play blues and have a good ear for melody and improvisation. Im looking for likeminded people who want to start touring. Go to peterbuckley.me

VIDEO / PRODUCTION

iFlogID: 17084

Recording Studio set in the Lockyer Valley Qld. Professional audio engineer to take your music to the wow factor. Reasonable rates.Suit young upcoming bands and solo artists.

GUITARIST 18 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferably in South. Call Tom on 0401722767.

iFlogID: 17548

iFlogID: 16159

Eastern Suburbs guitar/ukulele/bass/slide lessons with APRA award winning composer. Highly experienced, great references, unique individually designed lessons from Vaucluse studio. Learn to play exactly what YOU want to play!

Proposed Trading Hours: 10:00am to 3:00am – Monday to Sunday

Music tuition, classical / flamenco guitar, celtic harp, theory & harmony, arranging. 9am - 9pm, 7 days. Parramatta area.

iFlogID: 18563

iFlogID: 18269

http://roybarnesphotography.com/

iFlogID: 18691

POSTERS

RECORDING STUDIOS

HIRE SERVICES

iFlogID: 18689

PA EQUIPMENT

5-piece SR4 wenge/bubinga neck, rosewood fingerboard, abalone oval inlays, mahogany body, poplar burl top, glossy finish, two MK1-5 pickups, MK1 3-band EQ, Accu-cast B20 bridge. Limited edition bass. $600. steelechabau@hotmail.com

CD MANUFACTURING:Acme is Australias best price CD manufacturer. 500 CD package = $765.05: 1000 CD package = $1320.00 www.AcmeMusic.com.au

iFlogID: 18685

BASS

DUPLICATION/ MASTERING

Mob: 0402663469 iFlogID: 18581

Michael

iFlogID: 18762

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