Brag#678

ISSUE NO. 678 AUGUST 31, 2016

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

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

END OF FA SHION

The legendary Australian group return.

T EE T H & T ONGUE

How Iceland can teach you what record not to make.

V INCE JONE S

Paying tribute to Van Morrison, the master.

JIM NOR T ON

Taking on hecklers without wrecking his career.

JA ME S V INCEN T MCMOR ROW

Throwing left turns at whim.

Plus

K ING CR E O S O T E D. MINOR S Y DNE Y UNDERGROUND F IL M F E S T I VA L F IL M S CHOOL S PROF IL E A S T RONOM Y CL A S S A ND MUCH MOR E

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Secret Sounds Presents

The 24th Annual Music & Arts Festival

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BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 3

JEWISH MUSIC BEYOND BELIEF

SUNDAY 18 SEPT 2016

M U S I C • DA N C E • F O O D

SONG OF SONGS – Australia’s favourite singers and legends perform songs of their favourite Jewish composers. Steve Kilby, Deborah Conway, Tina Harrod, Bernie Hayes, Virna Sanzone, Yaron Hallis, Dave Faulkner, Mahalia Barnes, Shimon & Dov Farkas, Martha Marlow.

Backed by the Band of Bands (led by Jonathan Zwartz).

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BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 5

rock music news

the BRAG guide to

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Joseph Earp, James Di Fabrizio and Alex Chetverikov

five things WITH

turn to page

THE GIANT WORM SHOW

JOSEPH TAWADROS FROM THE JOSEPH TAWADROS QUARTET Your Band I only work with 3. performers who are great

Growing Up I was born in Cairo, 1. but I grew up in Australia in

a very musical household.

My parents loved traditional Egyptian and Arabic music so I grew up listening to that.

I love listening to 2. Inspirations

Umm Kulthum, one of the most famous Arabic singers. Her songs are engaging and some of the first I learnt on the oud. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, one of the most famous composers from the Arab world, comes in second.

humans and who can kick my butt as musicians.

First of all, I love playing with James Tawadros, who I’ve been performing with for 15 years. He’s a world-class percussionist and one of the greatest riq players in the world. Matt McMahon, our pianist, is an artist of great sensitivity and musicianship and Karl Dunnicliff is one solid bass player who has the ability to shift moods and funk it up. Musical ability aside, all these guys are awesome to deal with and its always fun and high energy on stage.

The Music You Make 4.

I’ve released 13 albums to date, my latest being

World Music, a two-handed album recorded with James Tawadros – we play 63 instruments between us.

With live shows there’s always a lot of energy.

There’s fast and exciting pieces and slow and reflective pieces, and I think there’s something emotionally for everyone.

I also like telling jokes and stories onstage and like to include the audience in the joy we share onstage performing with each other.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

Music is fine in Sydney –

we have a great wealth of awesome musicians here, and for me the musicians make the scene. In terms of success, well, that all depends on how hard that musician works and

26

Old 505 Theatre Tuesday September 6 – Saturday September 10

what they have to offer.

For me, it’s not about fame or fortune, but writing and presenting music that means something to me.

It’s being in touch with other humans. The more in touch I am, the more the music resonates. I’ve been blessed with a loyal audience who I appreciate and love very much.

JARED JEKYLL

28

ROMEO AND JULIET

29

Factory Theatre Wednesday September 28 – Friday September 30

There’re some great venues in Sydney, but I’ve built a good relationship with Camelot and they seem to have a good and eclectic lineup.

Eternity Playhouse Wednesday September 7 – Thursday September 8

What: Global Rhythms Music Festival Where: Bicentennial Park, Glebe When: Sunday September 25

RHUBARB

16 Giant Dwarf Wednesday September 28 – Friday September 30

and much more…

ANGELIC SOUNDS

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 DEPUTY EDITOR: Joseph Earp ONLINE EDITOR: James Di Fabrizio SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Joseph Earp, Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Alex Chetverikov, James Di Fabrizio, Anna Wilson ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar COVER PHOTO: Cynthia Sciberras ADVERTISING: Tony Pecotic - (02) 9212 4322 tony@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600

AWESOME INTERNS: Anna Wilson, Emily Norton, Alex Chetverikov, Angela Antenero REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Anita Connors, Christie Eliezer, Emily Gibb, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Sarah Little, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, George Nott, Daniel Prior, Tegan Reeves, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Spencer Scott, Natalie Salvo, Leonardo Silvestrini, Jade Smith, Lucy Watson, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young

NO BROKEN FLOWERS

Before they became one of Australia’s most iconic bands, Icehouse – then making music under the name Flowers – began their career at Warriewood Surf Life Saving Club to a crowd of 30. Four decades later, they’ve laid the soundtrack for a generation with songs like ‘Great Southern Land’ and ‘Hey Little Girl’, selling over three million albums locally, more than nine million internationally, and scoring eight top 10 albums and more than 30 top 40 singles in the process. The ARIA Hall of Famers will close 2016 with performances at One Electric Day, Caloundra Music Festival and Bondi Beachfest, before hitting the road in 2017 from January to April. They’ll also play Enmore Theatre on Friday January 13 and Saturday January 14.

Angel Olsen

PULL UP THE ROOTS

The inaugural Sydney Blues And Roots Festival has just dropped its massive 2016 lineup. This year’s iteration of the festival is in some way the biggest of its eight-year history, and is set to feature a range of accomplished and internationally renowned artists. Diesel, Chris Cain, The Hippos and Chase The Sun are the festival’s de facto headliners, but to be honest, every single one of the acts on the bill is worthy of your attention. Just as excitingly, the recently reformed Stars are going to be playing the fest, breaking some 35 years of silence. Sydney Blues And Roots Festival takes place from Thursday October 27 to Sunday October 30, with venues and the full program to be soon announced.

The Avalanches

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Kris Furst: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial: Friday 12pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Fishished art: No later than 2pm Monday Ad cancellations: Friday 4pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to.

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THE BRAG

6 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

DOOING QUITE A LOT BREAKING YOUR FALLS

Falls Festival, the yearly four-venue festival, has just announced its full lineup list, and ho boy is it gonna make you happy. There’s a strong, satisfying focus on Aussie acts this year: Matt Corby, Violent Soho, The Avalanches and Bernard Fanning are all playing, along with a host of international acts including Grandmaster Flash, Childish Gambino, Fat Freddy’s Drop and many more. It’s a helluva list and sure to please even the naysayers. It all goes down at Byron Bay, Lorne, Marion Bay and Fremantle on Saturday December 31, running all the way through till Sunday January 8.

One of the most influential and important bands of the last 30 years, the Pixies, are returning to Australian shores. The group headlined 2007’s inaugural Australian V Festival and in 2010 played an incredible 13 shows on their sold-out Doolittle tour across the country. Heading our way to celebrate their forthcoming album, Head Carrier, the group will be supplemented by bassist Paz Lenchatin, a new member of Pixies’ permanent lineup. They’ll play at Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday March 7. thebrag.com

xxx

@TheBrag

GOT THE BLUES

Phew. The organisers behind Byron Bay Bluesfest have really outdone themselves this year. The fest isn’t ’till next April, but a host of incredible musicians have already been announced. The lineup will include the likes of Zac Brown Band, Patti Smith, The Lumineers, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Billy Bragg, Jethro Tull, as well as Bluesfest alumni St. Paul & The Broken Bones. And you know what? That’s not even half the list.

There’s a ridiculously large number of artists, and you can read about ‘em all at thebrag.com. The 2017 incarnation of the ever-memorable Bluesfest runs from Thursday April 13 to Monday April 17, just north of Byron Bay.

Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227

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Patti Smith

Bec Sandridge photo by Will Edgar

GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATOR: Sarah Bryant - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties)

Angel Olsen, gearing up for the release of her new album My Woman, has announced the venue for her Fairgrounds Festival sideshow, and it’s a doozy. Olsen will be playing the Sydney Opera House on Monday December 5, in a perfect meeting of singer and space. After all, the House is the perfect place to experience the singular beauty of Olsen’s melodies and voice, making this a not-to-be missed concert experience for both fans of the singer-songwriter’s brilliant body of work and contemporary rock in general.

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 7

live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Alexander Chetverikov, Emily Norton and Joseph Earp

five things WITH

PALACE OF THE KING

MATTHEW OTTIGNON FROM MISTER OTT musicians are saxophonists: I love John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons.

However, by high school I was taking inspiration from a wider world of music, listening to mixtapes of Jamaican music my brother Mark made me and attending local world music workshops. Much later – and thanks again to my brother’s mix tapes – I was introduced to Ethiopian music which has formed a major influence on the tunes I make with Mister Ott.

1.

Growing Up The eldest of four kids, I grew up in Auckland. My father, who once played flute and sax with Manfred Mann in London, immersed us in music from an early age, nurturing our growth by providing unique opportunities such as inviting touring musicians to stay and teach.

Furthermore, our grandmothers were also accomplished musicians, with one touring as Liberace’s harpist in Australia.

Your Band In Mister Ott, we have Ellen Kirkwood 3. on trumpet, Daniel Pliner on keys, my brother

Eden on bass and Ben Panucci on guitar, while drumming duties are shared by former Deep Sea Arcade drummer Carlos Adura and kiwi drummer Daniel Kennedy. All these creative musicians also perform in other great Sydneybased bands such as Dereb The Ambassador, The Strides, the New Venusians and Fat Yahoozah.

Inspirations 4.

From an early age I listened to my dad’s 2. jazz records and as such many of my favourite

sounds, our aim is to take you on a journey with unknown rhythms and melodies that will get you dancing. We have a new album coming out in December and the music is a mixture of Ethiopian jazz, new soul and afrobeat. Mixing the album will be Damien Charles (The Red Eyes) who has mixed for the likes of Hiatus Kaiyote.

Music, Right Here, Right Now I’ll let our trumpet player Ellen answer 5. this one: “There’s so much amazing music in

Sydney and Australia. Lots of people are doing creative, imaginative things. Unfortunately, it seems that Australian culture doesn’t appreciate the arts as much as other cultures – people are more likely to go out and watch sport than go and see live music. I think it’s important for people to experience art that challenges their normal ways of thinking. It makes us more aware of ourselves and the world around us.”

Palace Of The King hold a number of distinctions. First and foremost, they’re an incredibly tight metal/hard rock band, a group of musicians with some unbelievably heavy tunage at their disposal. But they’re also nuanced and intelligent songwriters, titans of the genre who deploy every chorus with wit and skill. Oh, and their album Valles Marineris boasts some of the fi nest artwork around.

The band are playing Frankie’s Pizza on Thursday September 1 to celebrate the launch of the album.

To celebrate their celebration, we’re giving away fi ve copies of the record.

Head to thebrag.com/freeshit for more.

What: Mister Ott as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 Where: Venue 505 When: Saturday September 3

Xxx

The Music You Make We draw from East African, South American, hip hop and modern electronic music styles. Whilst we might draw you in with familiar

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

xxx xxx

Ceres

Scabz

CRAWL DOWN KING

After its successful inauguration ceremony last year in the landmark King Street in Newtown, King Street Crawl returns with a veritable slew of local bands and DJs lined up for a full day of music. Expect the vibrant King Street pubs and restaurants to be in full swing as they celebrate one of Sydney’s finest cultural institutions on Sunday September 4, with performances from Scabz, Richard In Your Mind, Shining Bird, Adi Toohey and many, many more.

HAVE A DRAG

In anticipation of the release of their forthcoming album, Drag It Down On You, Melbourne four-piece Ceres have also announced the album’s release via US independent label, No Sleep Records – home to the likes of La Dispute and Touche Amore. Drag It Down On You has been a two-year work in progress, written amid tours, travel and personnel changes, and recorded across two weeks in March. Ceres will celebrate with a show at Newtown Social Club on Saturday November 12.

ON THE SLY

The upcoming Live At The Sly is sure to be one hell of an evening. There’s to be so many genres on display, you’ll feel like a hungry kid in a candy shop eating pick ‘n’ mix. Headlining the night will be hip hop group Sagrada Familiar – not to be confused with Sagrada Família, the church in Barcelona. Beautiful place really, but not quite in the same vein as the sick beats this band will be rapping out. Also on the bill are The Domestics, gracing us with their funky infusion of pop, ska, rock and soul vibes. Very vibey indeed. Finally, Majun Bu will also be hoodoo voodoo-ing you with their musical mojo. Live At The Sly hits the Slyfox on Thursday September 1 at 8:30 pm.

WARRIOR WOMAN

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Frankie’s Pizza will play host to an east coast battle of the bands on Sunday September 4, when they host Battle Royale with Wolfpack (Melbourne mates), Daggerz (local legends), Captives (Tassie terrors) and Smoking Martha (Queensland quality tune killers) sharpening their musical instruments.

The stage is set at Frankie’s from 7pm, so do make sure you save the date.

COME OUT OF YOUR CAVE

Cave Records have announced they will be holding their third party at a Marrickville warehouse, with the specifi c location to be released on the day. The lineup will feature the likes of Beatsika, Godriguez, Bustlip and Disco Pomeranian, with stellar live visual projections produced by the up-andcoming VJ xRKxx. Their first two parties featured full houses that did not disappoint, so you don’t want to miss out on the upcoming date’s good vibes. It all goes down on Saturday September 3. Entry is $10 on the door.

Holy Holy

HOUSE OF THE HOLY (HOLY)

Holy Holy. Holy holy. Holy holy. Keep saying it and something special might happen. Well, it has. Holy Holy have announced a national Australian tour today to coincide with the release of their brand-spanking new music video for ‘Darwinism’, a tune that has earned its fair share of admirers via heavy rotation on triple j. ‘Darwinism’ isn’t trying to redefine how we view evolution, as its title might suggest – instead, it’s a fresh burst of energy from a band following up a hugely successful 2015, and it coincides with a host of dates scheduled around Australia throughout November, with a new album due for release sometime next year. Holy Holy will play the Metro Theatre on Friday November 18, so grab your bloody tickets now. xxx

With previous album Wonder achieving a number six ranking on Australian charts, Lisa Mitchell has teamed up with US producer Eric J Dubowsky, who has worked with the likes of Chet Faker and The Rubens, on her upcoming album Warriors. Off the back of the successful release of new single ‘The Boys’, Mitchell will follow up with a gig at the Newtown Social Club on Saturday October 22 and Sunday October 23.

BATTLE STATIONS

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BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 9

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR • Which rapper is thinking of of a name change and trying out options with mates?

• Which promoters of a recent tour were caught short by the act’s diva demands, and as a result have not settled accounts and are now ignoring requests to pay up. Some of the suppliers are looking at legal action.

• Are The Weeknd and Daft Punk working together?

• Is Paul Stanley hinting another Kiss album could happen?

• The Amity Affliction’s This Could Be Heartbreak debuted at #28 on the US charts after first week sales of 13,000. It’s their best effort over there. The previous Let The Ocean Take Me sold 10,000 first week and came in at #31.

• Prince’s Paisley Park will be open to the public from October.

• Legendary Sydney venue Selinas reopens

on Thursday September 1 at the Coogee Bay Hotel after closing in January. From the ’70s to the ’90s, Selinas was not only the place to see rising bands like Cold Chisel and INXS, but a celebrity hangout for starfuckers. Thursday night is when the live action is.

• The Gooch Palms don’t have much of a chance to hang out with family and friends after their Australian tour winds up in hometown Newcastle on Saturday September 10. They have to dash back to their new base of LA (“we live 20 metres from Sunset Blvd and party any night we want”) for the start of their US tour on Friday September 16.

• NSW troubadour Julia Jacklin is Apple Music UK’s New Artist Of The Week.

• With an album and tour on the way, imagine the horror Central Coast band Elliot The Bull felt when they returned from holidays to find some arsewipes had broken into their studio and nicked

Jed Kurzel

thousands of dollars worth of gear collected over ten years. A campaign at gofundme.com/2k6fwzek raised half the target within the first week.

• Victoria Police are hunting a creep who sexually assaulted a teenage girl at Selena Gomez’s August concert in Melbourne and released a description of him. In the meantime, Tasmanian band Luca Brasi took to Facebook to express their anger that two of their friends were sexually assaulted during their show at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory.

• As Canadian band The Tragically Hip played their last emotionally-charged show in their hometown in Kingston, Ontario after leader Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Eddie Vedder dedicated a song to him during Pearl Jam’s show in Chicago. “I just want to send them our energy from our gathering up to their gathering up there,” he said.

NEW SIGNINGS #2: CREATE/CONTROL & JACK GRACE

Create/Control’s latest roster addition is Sydney trip hop/ electronica songwriter and producer Jack Grace. His debut EP is out later this year with a single ‘All Lost’ out now, which he says “came about during a tumultuous period”. Debut single ‘Hills’ featuring Buoy (whom he produces) has had 338,000 streams.

Jack Grace

Lifelines Expecting: Paloma Faith, her first, which delays the release of her next album.

Expecting: Connie Mitchell and Black Angus of Sneaky Sound System are weeks from the arrival of their first child.

Recovered: guitar maestro Tony MacAlpine is going back on the road after he was cleared of colon cancer.

Hospitalised: The Ghost Inside’s Zach Johnson underwent his ninth round of surgery following the band’s horror bus crash.

Injured: Burt Bacharach, 88, broke an arm, reason unknown.

In Court: Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and T.I have begun their appeal against the ‘Blurred Lines’ copyright infringement ruling which gave Marvin Gaye’s estate $6.3 million in damages and a running 50 per cent of royalties.

Sued: The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach for $100,000 by producers of documentary Smokestack Lightning about US bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, who say he promised to be its director and executive producer for 8 per cent of profits and total creative freedom when it was in post-production. He then allegedly demanded major changes, increasing budget costs.

Sued: pop singer Demi Lovato by indie duo Sleigh Bells who say that her ‘Stars’ took from their ‘Infinity Guitars’, citing “the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as three quarter-beats and a rest.” Her producers, also named in the court and who deny the claim, said Lovato only contributed the first line.

Sued: Ariana Grande by songwriter Alex Greggs, who claims that her ‘One Last Time’ is awfully like ‘Takes All Night’, which he penned for Skye Stevens in 2012.

NEW SIGNINGS #1: MUSIC SALES & JED KURZEL

Global publishing company Music Sales has signed Sydney singer-songwriter and film composer Jed Kurzel, representing his past works including the scores to Snowtown, Slow West, The Babadook and the upcoming Una and Assassin’s Creed: Time Out Of Mind, the film adaptation of the video game. He’s handled by G.Schirmer in Australia and Chester in the UK. Kurzel co-founded The Mess Hall, whose Devil’s Elbow won the 2008 AMP.

COURT QUESTIONS VALIDITY OF LOCKOUT LAWS

In the week the Ian Callinan review on Sydney’s lockout laws was due, the NSW Government was thrown into a quandary. The Supreme Court last Thursday declared that the Secretary of the Justice Department did not have the right to “declare” a venue in the city subject to the laws, potentially making 15 music venues including strip clubs also exempt. The Smoking Panda at the CBD’s Coronation Hotel was initially exempt from the lockouts because it was registered as a “tourism-accommodation establishment”.

But when it was discovered that non-guests were also drinking at the bar until 1.30am, the exemption was revoked. The bar appealed, and now trades most nights until 5am. When and if the Government responds to the Callinan report’s findings is yet to be seen. It is not expected to be immediate.

SURVEY: BEST FESTIVAL TO GET SEX

If you want to knock boots at a British music festival, go to Glastonbury. Sex toy retailer Lovehoney, which surveyed 1,000 festivalattending millennials, said 34 per cent reckoned that was the place. Creamfields followed with 13 per cent, then Download, T in the Park and V Festival. Tents were the shag-piling place of choice, then car, campervan, spot in the field, backstage, dance tent, in the crowd and in the portaloos. And 20 per cent of them brought a sex toy to the fest.

SCA REVENUE, PROFITS, UP

It’s been a good year for radio and TV network Southern Cross Austereo, according to its new full-year financial results. Revenue was up 5.1% to $642.3 million, net profit rose 19% to $77.2m, and the group reduced its debt by 33%.(or $166.7m) to $340m. It’s expecting further growth in 2017.

10 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

HOW BAGPIPES CAN KILL YOU

Doctors are warning musicians to clean their wind instruments regularly after a 61-yearold Scot died from “bagpipe lung”, inhaling fungi growing inside his bagpipes that he played daily. He suffered a dry cough and shortness of breath for seven years, but got slightly better when he visited Australia for three months without his pipes. After his death they found extensive lung damage.

RUMOUR OF THE WEEK: TUPAC SELFIE SHOWS HE’S STILL ALIVE?

Since his murder in 1996, some insist that rap icon Tupac Shakur is alive in hiding from hitmen, living in Cuba or playing in a nursing home band with Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. Last year, in a deathbed confession, retired cop David Myers claimed he was paid $1.5 million to help the star fake his death and that 30 people were involved. However a new vid posted on YouTube claims to show a selfie of Tupac (or someone who looks awfully like him) sporting a bandanna, taken in 2015 on a phone “made in 2011” – 11 years after his death. The video’s had 1.3 million views. But, hey, hasn’t Tupac himself dropped enough hints on Facebook he’s around, including the cryptic “2 Souls, One Body” line.

WILL OSLAND LAUNCHES MANAGEMENT CO.

William Osland, who co-owns distribution and licensing company WJO Australia, Checked Label Services and Checked Label Services Publishing, launched his own management firm. William Osland Management is aimed at acts who’ve left major label deals and struggle with the back catalogue and new releases in the physical, digital and audiovisual market. First signing

Died: Mark Butcher, who managed Newcastle live music venue Hunter On Hunter, after a lengthy illness.

is Melinda Schneider who has an album Melinda Does Doris … Again: The Movie Songs out in October.

TRIPLE J REACHING 1.96M

Last week’s GfK radio ratings showed triple j has a national reach of 1.98 million. Michael Mason, Head of ABC Radio, told Radioinfo that ABC’s radio is focussing on the digital sphere, “because that’s clearly where the growth is – particularly around the personalisation aspect of radio”, where listeners get the music, news and talk when they want. 30 per cent of listeners do so online, he said.

APRA AMCOS WINS AWARD FOR DISPUTE SCHEME

APRA AMCOS won the Australian Disputes Centre’s ADR Corporate Team of the Year award for its innovative dispute-resolution project Resolution Pathways, launched last year. Designed by Shirli Kirschner of Resolve Advisors, it assists APRA AMCOS members and licensees to resolve disputes themselves or get an independent determination of issues.

Disputing parties are offered a free consultation with an external dispute facilitator to help them choose the most appropriate method for their dispute. See resolutionpathways.com.au.

MUSICNSW HAS ‘SOUND ADVICE’ FOR INDUSTRY

MusicNSW has launched Sound Advice, a series of regular panels, talks and masterclasses to give musicians and biz folks a leg-up into the industry. The first one – Band Necessities – was on yesterday (Tuesday August 30) at the MusicNSW headquarters in Glebe. It was hosted by Glenn Dickie of Sounds Australia, Jess Beston (Tiny Monster), Vanessa Picken (Comes With Fries), Tim Derricourt (Dappled Cities /Swimwear) and Stephen Goodhew (FBi Radio). See musicnsw.com.

Died: Jamaican saxophonist Headley Bennett, 85, after being recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He played on hits by Bunny Wailer and Gregory Isaacs, and on Bob Marley’s debut single ‘Judge Not’, Died: Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans, 94, who played on the Sesame Street and Midnight Cowboy themes.

Died: Gilli Smyth, founder singer of British prog-rock band Gong, 83, in Byron Bay after long illness. She was also a poet, and slipped away reading poetry and singing with her friends.

MOST TWEETED “WINTER” SONGS

The ten songs most tweeted about by fans around the world this winter were Major Lazer’s ‘Cold Water’ (feat. Justin Bieber), Ariana Grande’s ‘Into You’ and ‘Dangerous Woman’, Britney Spears’ ‘Make Me...’, Katy Perry’s ‘Rise’, Fifth Harmony’s ‘Work From Home’, Rihanna’s ‘Work’, Drake’s ‘One Dance’, and Desiigner’s ‘Panda’.

MORE WEST PAPUA GENOCIDE GIGS

Following Punks For West Papua’s gigs and documentary to raise awareness and funds for the indigenous West Papuan’s that were genocided by the Indonesian military, Rize Of The Morning Star will from Friday September 30 staging 11 shows around Australia as well as overseas for the United Liberation Movement For West Papua. Its leader Benny Wenda said, “Indonesia have tanks and guns.

West Papuans only have guitars. Music is the only weapon we need for freedom.” More info as it comes to hand.

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Teeth & Tongue Feeling Healthy By Andi Lennon

T

eeth & Tongue, the project of New Zealand-born singersongwriter Jess Cornelius, has been filling the world with melancholy pop gems for over half a decade. Though it’s been two years since their last effort Grids, Cornelius is about to unleash a new album, Give Up On Your Health, with lead single ‘Dianne’ already creating waves.

Despite the fact that Teeth & Tongue’s combination of radioready melodies and dark, melancholy lyrical content is still evident across the new record, Cornelius says the writing process that brought it into the world was markedly different from the approach behind her other albums. “This album was a lot more collaborative,” she says. “We recorded it more like a band.

“On the last two records I programmed all the drums tracks first, which made the arrangements a little bit more rigid and simple.

This time I’ve been working with the full band and we arranged the songs as a group. That was a really fun process. Because the studio’s not soundproofed, we couldn’t do proper band rehearsals so I bought some headphones for all of us and our rehearsals were like a silent disco in this pokey little room”.

Prior to recording, Cornelius spent time at the Nes artist’s residency in Iceland. Though it’s tempting to assume that the experience directly affected Give Up, as far as Cornelius is concerned, Iceland altered the record in distinctly subtle ways.

Vince Jones Van Morrison, The Master By Joseph Earp

V

ince Jones is a blessed man. He’s a trumpeter who has been blessed with an extraordinary technical ability; a singer blessed with a soft, beautiful voice, and a gardener blessed with some very green thumbs. Indeed when he talks to the BRAG early on a drizzly Monday morning, he’s not been practicing for his upcoming show at the City Recital Hall, a set that will see him reinterpret the work of Van Morrison. Rather, he’s been brushing up on his horticultural skills.

“I was just watching something on YouTube on how to propagate Kiwi fruits,” Jones says in his smoky, gentle husk. “I’m trying to grow a little forest … All these fruit trees. I’m trying to grow them from cuttings.”

He sounds distinctly relaxed for a man about to play such an important show at such a grand venue, honouring one of the great singers of the Western canon. Isn’t he nervous?

“Oh, I’m always nervous,” he says in the voice of the least nervous man in the world. “It’s a huge workload.

It’s a huge concert. I’ve done the Van Morrison shows twice now. To pull it off I practice twice a day. I try and make sure that it’s nice and loose, you know?”

For Jones, these upcoming shows are the culmination of a lifetime’s obsession: Morrison was a performer who he connected with at a very young age. “Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks was one of the first five albums I bought in 1972, when I was old enough to afford an LP. I bought it mostly because of peer pressure. All my friends had bought it. But I’d seen a couple of the musicians he used – I’d seen them … play with the modern jazz quartet. But it just made me wonder what an Irish folk singer – quite a rocky, soft-rock folk singer – was doing with that kind of band.”

“I started listening to the album,” Jones says, his voice rich, reliving that first pleasure all over again. “I

12 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

“EVEN THOUGH HIS LYRICS CAN BE QUITE OBTUSE AT THE TIME, HIS LINES SEEM TO HOLD LITTLE PICTURES THAT GRAB YOU.” heard some beautiful music coming out of that record. And then, many years later, when it was suggested to me that I play it, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve been listening to that music since I was a teenager.’ So I thought it would be fun to reinterpret it.”

Jones admits that there are differences between his and Morrison’s singing style, although if there’s one thing the two singers share, it’s drive. “I’m a natural tenor,” says Jones. “I’ve got a bit more chops than him because I’ve been a jazz singer all my life. But his singing is so beautiful. He really could sing. His passion was so strong, it was almost like he heard it in his head and he had to get it out somehow. Apparently he didn’t have any guitar tabs or anything. He just said, ‘Follow me’ to his band. And it sounds like it too. It sounds like a trainwreck that could happen at any time. But it didn’t, because he had good players.”

Jones’ set will include songs from across Van Morrison’s discography, and though audiences can expect every one of the hits, lesser known tracks will make an appearance too. As to be expected, given his role as both a fan and a musician tackling his works, Jones has a deep knowledge of all of Morrison’s albums, and is finely tuned to the delicacies of each complicated work.

“Moondance is more commercial,” Jones says of that famous, multiselling behemoth.

“It’s more complete; they’re complete songs. Whereas Astral Weeks is

quite moody, and they’re not actually songs in the form of A-A-B-A. You know how a song goes: here’s the chorus, here’s the verse. But on Astral Weeks, the songs are kind of strange. And they’re quite beautiful songs. So I know it’ll be a challenge but I really enjoy it.”

Of course, the act of covering someone else’s songs is an innately fraught one. Of course, your covers will always be automatically compared to the originals, but there’s something more than that too. Playing a version of someone else’s tune can be a kind of trespass, particularly someone like Van Morrison, whose music is held dear by so many people.

“Well it’s interesting,” she says.

“What it did do was make me realise what kind of album I didn’t want to make. The objective was to go there to write an album, and

I normally don’t write in big blocks like that. I normally write songs over a long period of time in-between doing everything else in my life, so this was a very intense process.

“I really forced myself to write every day, and I don’t necessarily think that produced the best songs but it meant that I got a lot of stuff out of my system,” Cornelius continues.

“It was so isolated that there wasn’t a lot to write about except for my own emotional journey and my own neurotic thought processes. Being stuck in this isolated place with nothing to do at night means you just have a lot of time to think, so of course the songs I wrote there were very internally focused. There were a lot of strange songs. I think I wrote one about non-recyclable coffee cups.”

For Cornelius, writing a song often requires a series of artistic left turns: the finished project rarely ever resembles like the sonic sketch that kicks the whole process off. “‘Dianne’ was a much more garage-y guitar song for a while,” she explains. “But I like taking a song and doing a bunch of different things with it.”

Though ‘Dianne’ might seem positively effervescent on the surface, Cornelius argues that the song is underpinned with anger, driven by a duality that matches the beautiful with the broken. “I wanted this album to be an enjoyable listen and not be too dark, but ‘Dianne’ came from a bit of an angry place. I wasn’t intentionally trying to create that sort of division: it just happened naturally. But I think that’s where the high energy comes from.

Actually, it’s frustration probably more than anger.”

A lot of Give Up touches on real moments from Cornelius’ life: from

James Vincent Mc Moments In Movement By David James Young

But Jones understands the territory he finds himself traversing, and is at great pains to stress he will always honour Morrison’s originals, even as he and his bandmates riff on some elements of the classic tracks.

“I don’t like screwing around with people’s songs too much,” he says.

“I like to have respect for the original singer’s intentions. So the audience will get the lyric, and they’ll get the melody. But we’ll play with them a little bit. Particularly with the quality of musicians I’ve got. We’ll have strings and horns.”

Inventiveness aside, as far as Jones is concerned there’s only one real aim of the upcoming shows. He’s not tackling Morrison for any other reason than to pay homage to some songs he has been listening to for almost his whole life. “It’s the kind of music that hits you right in the heart,” he says. “Even though his lyrics can be quite obtuse at the time, jis lines seem to hold little pictures that grab you. I still can’t work out what the songs are completely. And that’s a good thing. That’s what art is, I think. It’s something that you can’t explain.”

What: Van Morrison’s Masterpieces Where: City Recital Hall When: Saturday September 10

F

rom his initial role as an indie folk upstart to his evolution into a synth-heavy slowjammer, Irish singer James Vincent McMorrow has traversed more genre melds and mashes than many artists do in an entire career. And, excitingly, if his third studio album We Move is anything to go by, he’s far from finished shaking up his sound.

As the multi-instrumentalist takes in some brief off-time in central Sydney following an exclusive set at this

year’s Splendour in the Grass, he has genre semantics on his mind.

“When I was starting out making music in the 2000s, there were so many bullshit genres,” he says, recalling in particular the categorisation of MySpace music profiles. “All people wanted to know was, ‘What is this? Where does it fit?’

It became quite disorientating for a lot of musicians, but I always felt like it wasn’t even a thing. Great bands can

“I WANT PEOPLE TO EITHER SAY, ‘I’M INTO THIS’ thebrag.com

elements plucked from her real-world surrounds. But the autobiographical nature of the record did come with its own concerns and Cornelius found herself worried that her friends and family would notice themselves in the record. “It’s kept me awake at night!” she laughs. “I had to just let it go. Some of it’s about my family and people I know, so I was worried about how they would react.

“You just hope that people will understand that it’s just a moment and that you only feel that way maybe for a day and that’s the day you write that song, but it’s not necessarily that black and white.

People’s feelings change all the time so it is quite hard owning that.”

Cornelius has previously gone on record as saying that throughout the process of making the album she acted “careless[ly] with her own sanity”. Is that perhaps what the title of the album hints at? Does songwriting take its toll on Cornelius’ health and well-being?

“I’m probably a bit overly sensitive in a lot of ways, but it’s not the songwriting itself that [takes its toll].

I find that part is the most fun. I think most people are the same: that’s why you keep writing. You keep saying you’re never going to write another record and then you write a song that you really want people to hear and of course that turns into doing another record. It’s in the mixing [that] it starts to get a little traumatic because you’re facing the reality of what you’ll be ending up with.

Cornelius laughs. “Making a record is like planning a wedding,” she says. “You want everything to be perfect. You have such high expectations. But it’s not going to be perfect, it’s never going to be perfect. It doesn’t go the way you planned. Ever!”

I DON’T REALLY ANALYSE [MY SONGWRITING] THAT MUCH BECAUSE IT COMES STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART TO THE HEAD TO THE HAND TO THE PEN.”

What: Give Up On Your Health out through Dot Dash / Remote Control Records on Friday September 2.

Morrow element of me holding back and being afraid to dig into what I wanted to make.

“You’re burdened by what’s come before you, and you’re burdened by the weight of expectation,” he continues.

“The trick is to not just go, ‘Fuck that’ and react to it. You have to take it into context and understand it. There are definitely songs on the second record where I was doing exactly what I wanted, but there are also songs where I was a bit more careful. On this record, I had a clear vision. I had the songs, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

There was no time to question it.”

We Move was written over a patchwork of several cities and several key producers. McMorrow constructed the album in studios around the world, recording in Los Angeles, Toronto and his native Dublin, assisted by producers such as Frank Dukes, Two Inch Punch and Paul “Nineteen85” Jefferies.

still transcend, and I think that’s what counts.

“You need the ability to move through whatever it is that you need to move through. It’s about people embracing you. That’s what I want. People can passively accept something, but I don’t want that shit. I want people to either say, ‘I’m into this’ or, ‘I’m not into this.’ It has to be one of the two – anything in-between is no good for me.”

McMorrow first rose to public attention at the start of 2010 with the release of his debut album, Early In The Morning.

Taking its cues from the indie folk movement stalwarts such as Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, the album quickly achieved cult status, as the McMorrow name began bubbling under the European mainstream.

By the time he followed it up at the start of 2014 with Post Tropical, the game had changed entirely. His noted falsetto

and breathy delivery remained intact, but by then his switch to electric guitar was complete, and he found himself engulfed in fluttering synth patterns and glitchy drum beats. So, where to from there? To paraphrase one Napoleon Dynamite: wherever he wanted to go.

“This record is me doing the thing that I’ve always wanted to do in the most non-condensed manner possible,” says McMorrow excitedly of We Move. “I feel like the second record still contained an

If you don’t know Jefferies by name, you will almost certainly know the artists he has worked with – Drake, DJ Khaled and Nicki Minaj are to name but a few. While it may seem strange to go from ‘Hotline Bling’ to making music with a relative outsider to the pop world, McMorrow is quick to point out the gap between commercial radioready tunes and the songs he makes is smaller than one might think.

“It doesn’t feel like a world away from what I’m doing,” he reasons.

“That’s the thing, y’know? A song like [Drake’s] ‘Marvins Room’ was so revelatory for me. I’ve been searching for my entire career how to fit the

OR, ‘I’M NOT INTO THIS.’ IT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE TWO – ANYTHING IN-BETWEEN IS NO GOOD FOR ME.” thebrag.com

sonic aspects of what I love with being a singer-songwriter. When I heard ‘Marvins Room’ – much like when I heard [Kanye West’s] 808s & Heartbreak for the first time – it showed me how to put yourself on the line emotionally and yet keep it in this minimal electronic pocket. It’s a tricky thing to do, but listening to that kind of music proved to me that it wasn’t impossible. You can use a lot of low end and aggressive sounds while still keeping the heart of what you’re singing about.”

Listeners have already heard two tracks from We Move ahead of its release – the recently dropped ‘Get Low’ and the pulsing, catchy ‘Rising Water’. McMorrow explains that the latter was selected to once again indicate that he’s not interested in making the same record twice. “It’s funny: the lead single from all three of my albums has always been the track that opens the album,” he says.

“It was never planned that way – it just so happened that they were the songs that I felt best reflected what I was doing on each, and would ease people into the records themselves.

“I think, as a song, ‘Rising Water’ is simple in its premise,” McMorrow says. “It’s direct and it’s got a lot of things that help it. It’s not necessarily a song that will knock people completely off-kilter, but it definitely will keep them off-centre. With this record, people are definitely going to be getting something different. I would be really disappointed if people had me figured out.”

What: We Move out through Dew Process on Friday September 2

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 13

End Of Fashion Back In Style by Anna Wilson

B

ack in the day, End Of Fashion were at the top of their game, touring the country and indeed the world with a self-titled debut album that shook the charts and resulted in a multitude of awards.

That’s the key phrase here though – back in the day. It’s been ten years since the band’s lead single ‘O Yeah’ resonated with adolescents by the thousands; ten years fans have felt every moment of.

Well, guess what? End Of Fashion are back.

Vocalist Justin Burfod has brought the old gang back together, reforming to celebrate their debut release with music venues across the country ready to give thousands of fans the chance to reminisce and party.

Burfod laughs as he explains his activities during the group’s absence. “I’ve discovered rum – it’s amazing. Back in the day I was into Jameson’s. That shit is crazy: it’s like blackout juice.”

Burfod, chatty and jovial, is buzzing with excitement for the impending tour. “I actually got approached to do it,” Burfod says. “I’ve been rattling around town doing acoustic gigs, playing Coco-Blue [Burfod’s solo record] and I was asked if I’d do EOF songs.

I said, ‘No, especially not solo acoustic’. So they said, ‘Can you do an EOF set?’ I said, ‘Yeah, if you want the band!’”

Despite Burfod’s eagerness to tour, life, as ever, temporarily got in the way. “We had to do a bit of juggling. You know: people have lives to live. For the Ampy gig earlier this year, Mal Clark got back on drums, Jay Cortez was on guitar – even though he was originally bassist – and I got Hugh Jennings

King Creosote A Spaceman Came Travelling By Anna Wilson

I

t’s so rare in this day and age to come across a musician whose mantra involves creatively pushing against the rigid structures of society – but King Creosote does just that. Coupling strong social and economic beliefs with a traditional approach to songwriting, the King, also known as Kenny Anderson, uses his music to mirror all aspects of his persona, from mentions of his native Scotland to his political stances on energy consumption.

Since his breakthrough release From Scotland With Love in 2014, Anderson has continued to display an attitude that’s equal part cosmic and DIY, his record Astronaut Meets Appleman touching on both the exalted and the everyday.

His tunes are advanced yet approachable – touched and touching – and though the concept of the ‘unique’ is overdone in modern music criticism, Anderson is just that.

The album title, Anderson suggests, explores the confl ict and harmony present between tradition and technology. “I don’t know if it’s that well known in Oz, but there’s a lot of digitisation in life at the moment” says Anderson. “I’m against it. Especially the effect that it’s had on the music industry.”

Although Astronaut is loaded with tension – the record drips with paradoxes – this thematic material appeared naturally, and Anderson stresses that he never forces his music to fi t a certain mould.

“I wanted to make a very played album, one with nothing really programmed,” he says. “We started the album on tape recording in analogue, but the digital methods did creep in.

14 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

“Sure, there is an advantage to WAV fi les working their way in to the ether, but despite that Astronaut is still a very performed album,” he explains. “I recorded it close to where the band lives on the west coast of Scotland. I brought a bit of the outside in, a bit of the outdoors. I wanted to make it sound immediate, and I went into the studio with songs barely half fi nished. I wanted them to be direct, to be old school.”

The album opens with ‘You Just Want’, a powerful, oddly anthemic tune, snaking disarmingly poppy melodies around the listener. It’s quickly followed by a ballad that mixes traditional instrumentation and electro stylings, a quirky number branded with a Welsh title.

“It’s called ‘Melin Wynt’,” Anderson explains. “It’s an anti-wind turbine song. Lyrically I am having a go at modern life, especially in that song: I’m having a go at wind turbines, and in particular the people who think we’re getting low energy.

“Last September on our way to Festival Number Six in North Wales, I was up early the day of the trip and took a walk to the top of a hill. There was a sign: it said ‘melin wynt’, which means windmill. There is no windmill on the top of the hill; there’s no windmill, there’s an army of turbines. It’s like an alien vision, like War Of The Worlds – so there had to be a wind instrument in the song. I had bagpipes in mind for the drone because when you stand under turbines, they have a very distinctive sound.”

Getting that distinctive sound required an ensemble of stellar musicians, people who could not only play their instruments well in a stripped-back recording

environment, but also understood Anderson’s vision and were able to mimic the sounds of the world and of society as he hears them.

“The bagpipes on ‘Melin Wynt’ were played by Mairearad Green.

I wanted a song that creaked and groaned along,” says Anderson.

“There is actually the noise of a wind turbine in the song and the ghosting of my vocals in the chorus. thebrag.com

King Creosote photo by Calum James Gordon

It was a fortuitous offer, one that tied in with a stab at a reformation earlier in the year.

“I got the band together this year and it just so happened there was a slot open at The Ampy a week later: we only promoted the show for a week and it still sold out,” Burfod says. “It was like, ‘Wow, there still seem to be people that give a shit, so let’s play to more that care.’”

in, as he played on the record. Mal’s away for the tour so we’ve got a kid called Nathan on drums and Jay’s back on bass. He’s the very original, first-ever bass player.”

Getting the original group back together after such a long break proved somewhat problematic. Laughing, Burfod says, “We’re still trying to suss out the guitarists situation, but I didn’t want to plug the tour as “featuring original members” – I’m not trying to be that guy!”

Time, that old bugger, has affected the band’s performance style too, and Burfod is upfront about the manner in which his body has changed. “I’m probably a lot less fi t now,” he chuckles. “It’s the sad truth, but it’ll be just as fun. I got overwhelmed with energy at the Amp show – it’s like wearing a pair of old familiar shoes. It really is fun, and it’s mostly the crowd’s fault: they draw it out of me, so they’ve got no one else to blame but themselves.”

Out of the blue reformations aren’t unusual, of course, but the timing of End Of Fashion’s return does seem a little unusual. What was it about 2016 that made the band break their hiatus? “Break our hiatus? That sounds almost sexual,” he cackles. “We tried to do this last year and we couldn’t organise ourselves out of a back bag: musos just cannot organise things. That’s why they need people to organise for them.”

Back in the day, there was a reason provided for End Of Fashion’s indefi nite departure – Burfod has been quoted a few years ago as saying that the end of the band’s relationship with triple j was largely the reason behind their split.

“I do think that losing that relationship hurt the band and that sucked, but what kind of sucked to me about that whole thing was that we were tarnished with an anti-triple j message. I wrote a Facebook rant that made national news. It got more attention than one of our records – it was good to open some

“I WAS KIND OF SAYING A FEW YEARS AGO THAT [THE BAND] WAS NEVER GONNA BE A THING AGAIN AND NOW WE’RE PLAYING ON A TOUR. I GUESS I’M TRYING TO LEARN TO NEVER SAY NEVER AND TO NOT TALK IN ABSOLUTES.” dialogue.”

“I think the js do a good job at what they do: it’s not that they’re doing anything wrong, there’s just not enough triple j,” Burfod says, simply. “It sucks they have to move on from bands, though I do understand they have to. We felt it as a band when we lost that relationship – it’s not like I hold a grudge, it’s just like, man, that sucks.”

With a four-city tour fast approaching, the resurfacing of such a coveted Aussie group will surely leave many fans wondering if the tour marks the ultimate end or the beginning of a new chapter. “I’m not sure,” Burfod says simply. “I was kind of saying a few years ago that EOF was never gonna be a thing again and now we’re playing on a tour. I guess I’m trying to learn to never say never and to not talk in absolutes.”

Hesitantly Burfod adds, “I don’t know what EOF feels like anymore. I think others might be more keen than I am. It’s true though, I’ve moved onto other pastures. Whatever. I should stop talking now.”

When: Thursday September 8 Where: Newtown Social Club

“THERE’S A LOT OF DIGITISATION IN LIFE AT THE MOMENT. I’M AGAINST IT. ESPECIALLY THE EFFECT THAT IT’S HAD ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.”HAD ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.” us any good. The killer instrument is those bagpipes. I don’t think they sound like a typical bagpipe part in that song, or sound like anything melancholy. They’re oddly human, oddly alien.”

Nonetheless, despite all these heavy themes, it would be wrong to assume that Astronaut is one long bad time. There is a particular whimsy to Anderson’s songwriting, an element that the musician attributes to his personality rather than some considered artistic intent. “I do have a whimsical life: I think anybody playing music kind of does.

At the same, I enjoy wordplay. I also have a maths degree, so things like numbers, codes and clues appeal to me.

“To be honest, I’m more into that than I am into trying to educate and really dig deep,” he continues. “Accidentally, I manage a real emotional weight in lyrics, but I think that only happens if you’ve had experiences like I have.”

“It’s the equivalent of your eyes watering up in the wind, the feeling that you’re getting lost in the headlong rush into a carbon emission lifestyle that isn’t doing thebrag.com

For Anderson, it’s all about tension.

Confl ict underpins his music, his life, his persona – everything he does is affected by a Janus-like double-headed approach to the world. “I think a lot of the lyrics are quite dark,” Anderson says. “I think if you heard my lyrics with an emo singer, growling, you would hear it like that. I try to out whimsy myself every day, all the time.

It’s a ridiculous life I live. I’ve got to be true to myself, to paint a really clear picture because at the end of the day, all I have is what I believe in.”

What: Astronaut Meets Appleman out through Domino on Friday September 2.

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 15

arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Alex Chetverikov, Emily Norton and Angela Antenero

five minutes WITH

PINKY BEECROFT FROM RHUBARB Why do you think audiences are so fascinated by mistruths?

Well, I think they’re probably fascinated by stories, especially good ones. And there’s a certain pleasure in trying to figure out if something is true or not. Once upon a time, politics was made interesting by this guessing game – we’d think, “Is it true? Is it a lie?” Now it’s not so much fun, because they’re lying all the time. I miss the possibility of truth.

R

hubarb has been described as a “game show where contestants tell strange stories – some true, some utter rhubarb”. So it’s in part about being good at fibbing. Are you a good fibber?

Yes, I think I’m pretty excellent at fibbing. I probably don’t do it as much as I used to – back in the day it was my default setting. I would lie just for the sake of it. If someone asked me what I did for a living I would say, “Oh, I raise Angora goats on the south coast.”

Which was totally, utterly false. I once wrote on a real estate form that I was George Michael’s in-house conga player. I mean… why not?

It must be an odd experience to get up onstage and tell porkies. Was it something that immediately appealed to you?

Yeah it was. I like the fun of telling stories, and I love stories when they’re wildly improbable but they’re so good you just want them to be true. I mean, a lot of the time in this show I’ll be telling the truth. In my own life, the truth has usually been a lot stranger than anything I could’ve made up.

The show is set to include audience participation. Do you think audiences tend to be very enthusiastic about joining in with entertainment onstage?

Personally, as a punter, I hate audience participation. I’m having a night off, leave me alone – I’m just here to observe. But I’m always amazed how so many people

Hannibal Buress

love it. They just want to engage. So, with this show, if you want to engage, you’ll get opportunities. But if you don’t want to, that’s OK too. I’m totally uninterested in forcing people to do shit that they don’t want to do.

What do you want the audience to be thinking/feeling as they walk out of the theatre?

I just want them to be entertained. I want them to laugh, feel happy, and shake their heads in disbelief. This is not an immersive Siberian torture play: this is amusement. I’m hoping people will be surprised by some of the stories, particularly weird intimate stuff about public fi gures. It’s always fun to fi nd out what disgusting things someone like Stephen Curry has done in his spare time.

But mostly, I want them to leave the theatre thinking, “Goddamn I love Pinky Beecroft.”

What: Rhubarb as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 With: Pinky Beecroft, Gretel Killeen, Jordan Raskopoulos, Mark Swivel and more When: Wednesday September 28 – Saturday October 1 Where: Giant Dwarf

FROM CARTHAGE TO DISNEYLAND

Comedy superstar Hannibal Buress has gone from strength to strength this year, appearing in a variety of hit TV shows and feature films, as well as featuring as a cast member on the Comedy Central series Broad City and serving as co-host of Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show. No doubt about it, Buress is a legend, already earning comparisons to such luminaries as Mitch Hedberg along the way. The Hannibal Montanabal Experience will land Buress in Enmore Theatre on Thursday December 1.

THE FIRST BREATH OF SPRING

Spring is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than to savour the delicacies and produce of New South Wales at the Spring Night Market at Carriageworks on Saturday September 3 from 5pm until 10pm? The market’s lineup will feature stallholders from around NSW’s leading restaurants and providers, curated by renowned Sydney chef and creative director of Carriageworks Farmers’ Market Mike McEnearney. Talents

PUT UP YA LIGHTERS

as diverse as Billy Kwong, Bird Cow Fish, Cake Wines, Efendy, Icebergs, Kurrawong Organics, La Bastide, Pasta Emilia, Pepe Saya, Porteno and Young Henrys will feature on the night. Providers, winemakers, and beer and spirit makers from across 14 wine regions of NSW will also be showcased and visitors will be able to celebrate the new season by engaging with some leading chefs, who’ll be cooking live with seasonal ingredients. How can you say no to a bumper crop of gustatory delights like that?

LIFE THROUGH ROSE TINT

The Sydney Design Festival will play host to Rose Tinted Glasses, a one-night-only exhibition curating female, Sydney-based artists who seek to liberate conventions in the art world. Allowing themselves to be consumed by the unknown and the instinctive, the exhibition is founded on subverting the norm and redefining how we view the practice, production and product of art, blurring the distinction between intent and intuition. See life through Rose Tinted Glasses for one night only,

OZ COMIC-CON

There’s no denying it anymore: so called ‘nerd culture’ has now completed its takeover of mainstream pop culture.

Superheroes movies are everywhere, B-grade films are experiencing a surge in popularity, and old school pleasures like Star Wars and TMNT are back again.

All that resurgence makes Oz Comic-Con an even more appetising proposition.

The celebration of all things comic-y runs from Saturday September 10 to Sunday September 11 and will feature guests, merchandise, erchandise, movies and so much ch more.

We have three weekend double passes to give away. To enter, head over to thebrag.com/ freeshit.

6pm until 10pm, on Wednesday September 7 at the Commune Hood gallery in Waterloo.

MOLTO BENE

Salts Meats And Cheese Kitchen in Alexandria are presenting the latest and greatest tutti a tavola, with friend and renowned Italian Chef Massimo Mele assisting with the menu.

Tutti a tavola translates to “everyone at the table”, and, staying true to this Italian phrase, this event is sure to have everyone at the table eating... Or more likely just breathing in their food, given it can be expected to taste too damn good. You can expect a four course menu of Tasmanian food with an Italian twist. Also, don’t forget to wash it down with a glass of wine! Or two glasses... Or a bottle… Tutti A Tavola will take place on Friday September 30 from 6:30 pm till 10 pm.

O, BEWARE, MY LORD, OF JEALOUSY...

ABC’s Q&A will broadcast a Shakespeare special on Monday September 5 at the Sydney Opera House, as part of this year’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and the show’s organisers are looking for inquisitive Bardies (AKA Shakespeare lovers) to be a part of their studio audience. For a chance to ask a question of some of the foremost Shakespeare luminaries, including John Bell, Kylie Farmer, A.C. Grayling, Germaine Greer, and Kate Mulvany, visit the ABC website to register as part of the studio audience.

Videodrome

Come down after work or uni on Friday October 7 to the Light The Night lantern walk.

The wonderful initiative is designed to raise money and awareness of the prevalence of blood cancers, with the magnificent surroundings of Barangaroo hosting the event for the first time. Last year 30,000 people attended walks around the country, with each person shining a special lantern as a form of support. With food stalls and onstage entertainment also available, it’s a great chance to support those in need and bond as a community. With your support on the night, we can work to improve the quality of life and survival rates amongst those living with these afflictions.

Light The Night

DOUBLE ESPRESSO

Chauvel Cinema in Paddington is featuring a range of wonderful double-headers in September and October, following on from their showings of the Italian Film Festival starting on Tuesday September 13. Included among the many double features already announced are John Carpenter’s The Thing, paired up with David Cronenberg’s stellar Videodrome, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet coupled with Charles Laughton’s Night Of The Hunter, and, just for the kiddies (and the kiddies at heart) Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away screening alongside My Neighbour Totoro.

16 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

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arts in focus

Jim Norton

FEATURE

[COMEDY] Laughing And Crying By Adam Norris

AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL (AFTRS) Courses on offer: AFTRS offers a BA Screen, an MA Screen: Business And Leadership, short courses, nine diplomas, eight advanced diplomas, eight graduate certificates, plus an MA Screen in eleven disciplines.

Take the next step: AFTRS graduates include: Jane Campion (Top Of The Lake), Ivan Sen (Goldstone), Kriv Stenders (Red Dog), Warwick Thornton (Samson And Delilah) and Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker).

What makes us different: AFTRS is What else you need to know: consistently rated as one of the top Award course entry is based on merit international film schools in the world selection rather than ATAR.

by The Hollywood Reporter, the only Australian higher educational dates: The 2017 institution to make this list. At EDUCATION Enrolment intake for AFTRS BA Screen AFTRS, you’ll be taught up-toprofile is open now until Wednesday the-minute skills using state of November 30. Enrolments the art facilities and gear, meet for other undergraduate and like-minded creatives and build postgraduate courses opens on influential industry networks. Students Thursday September 1. graduate from AFTRS industry-ready, with the skills and knowledge to work in Open Day: Saturday September 10, the fast-changing screen and broadcast 2016, 10am until 4.30pm. industries.

T

o suggest that Jim Norton is a controversial comic might be an understatement. The celebrated stand-up has even seen jail time thanks to his stunts, finding himself arrested as a result of a live broadcast entitled Teen Voyeur Bus. Not that Norton minds ruffling a few feathers: after all, for a comedian, almost any publicity is good publicity, and the provocateur is unreservedly chatty during his fifteen minutes with the BRAG, happily joshing about the many projects he spreads himself across, and how much opportunity that might allow him to suddenly stumble from grace.

“I think the more outlets there are now, the more you have to diversify,” Norton says of his career today, and his many roles as an actor, author, stand-up comic and radio personality. “Basically, all that these different projects are is a desperate attempt at staving off complete failure. Every time I do something, I feel like I’m jumping from life raft to life raft to life raft, and I think back in the olden days it wasn’t like that. I think once you were made, people would remember you for the rest of your career.

Now, I think I’d like to have my own show on the air. I’ve been doing radio for 15 years, so I love doing that, and I’ve done stand-up and acting for 26 years. I would love a talk show – something like that would be fun.

Also, having a relationship that lasts more than two weeks: that would be pretty exciting.”

Having dabbled in radio and live performance myself, I can appreciate both the allure and the terror of hosting your own gig. Program whatever you want!

Say whatever you want! But of course there are drawbacks: say the wrong thing at the wrong moment and the bottom can fall away faster than you can draw breath to say, ‘Whoops…’

Sometimes, you embarrass yourself and move on. Other times, the circumstances are much more serious.

“If it was a table full of heavy people you’d say something about them being fat, black people you’d say racist stuff, women you’d say sexist stuff, whatever is the meanest thing you can say. But as a comic, you know you can’t do that, so you develop skills to win the moment without losing the audience, without overreacting. Richards wasn’t a skilled enough comedian to do that, and it ended up wrecking his career.”

Norton stops to think. “I mean, every comedian wants to do what Michael Richards did,” Norton says. “And I don’t mean racist stuff. When you’re

Who are the teachers? All AFTRS tutors have worked in the film, TV and radio industries and many still do. They are experts in their fields and many have won industry awards. They’ll show you how to tell a story and how to move and inspire your audience.

Address: Building 130, The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, Sydney NSW 2021 Phone: 1300 13 14 61 / (02) 9805 6611 Email: studentinfo@aftrs.edu.au Website: aftrs.edu.au

So far, Norton has avoided these pitfalls. Though some may find him offensive, it is generally at his own expense – antagonising an audience or hurling insults to generate interest just ain’t Norton’s style. He’d rather regale you with his calamitous forays into past relationships or his current sexual misadventures. His is comedy born of life: the stuff that just tumbles out whenever he opens his mouth.

“I MEAN, EVERY COMEDIAN WANTS TO DO WHAT MICHAEL RICHARDS DID. AND I DON’T MEAN RACIST STUFF. WHEN YOU’RE HECKLED, YOU HAVE TO DECIDE HOW TO RESPOND. AND REALLY WHAT YOU’D LOVE TO DO IS SAY THE MOST VISCOUS THING POSSIBLE”

“Any little moment, anything you say, it does live forever now.

You look at Bill Cosby. Hannibal [Buress] is doing a set and says, ‘Google Cosby and rapist’. I think the people who posted that [footage] were trying to get Hannibal in trouble, like, “Ooooh, Canadian says naughty things.” And all of a sudden it backfired, and they came after Cosby. But that’s how it is. One moment. Usually it doesn’t change the career of an iconic comedian, who is now obviously a rapist. It changes the career of the comedian who says it.

Michael Richards – Kramer from Seinfeld – had that meltdown at the Laugh Factory where he said all this racist stuff. I think that’s what you have to watch out for, that you don’t say something...”

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heckled, you have to decide how to respond. And really what you’d love to do is say the most viscous thing possible, because you’re so annoyed that they interrupted.

“It’s funny. Lena Dunham wrote an article recently about Estee [Adoram, comedy booker] at the Comedy Cellar. Lena emailed me for quotes, and then sent me a link to the article. And in it, she wrote, ‘controversial comedian Jim Norton’, and said, ‘I hope you don’t mind that I used the word ‘controversial’’. And I said, ‘No!’ What comic would mind that? It’s never bad for a comedian to be seen as outspoken. If you’re going out of your way to do that, you’re probably not going to be good at it. If you’re just out there trying to shock people, you’ll probably just end up annoying them into looking the other way.”

“When I first started … I was really pathetic,” Norton says, a self-depreciating laugh rumbling down the phone line. “I was happy-go-lucky, I wanted the audience to love me so bad.

‘How ya doing tonight?’ Watching old footage of yourself, it’s just disgusting. But then I went through a stage of just being really angry and making the audience not like me at all. After a while you settle on a balance.

I want to be funny, but I don’t need the audience to agree with me. All I want to do is make clear why I feel the way I feel. A lot of comedians want to change the audience’s palette, and that’s not my job. If I can make you understand who I am, then that’s it.” Norton laughs. “I hope you think it’s funny, but I don’t expect to change anything you think.”

What: Mouthful Of Shame as part of Just For Laughs 2016 Where: Enmore Theatre When: Sunday September 11

SYDNEY FILM SCHOOL Courses on offer: Sydney Film School offers a Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media. Each course lasts one year.

The diploma provides a foundation in all the disciplines of fi lmmaking and the advanced diploma allows you to specialise in your chosen fi eld.

Take the next step: 85 per cent of our advanced diploma graduates are currently working in the film and screen industry, with many working overseas as well as in Australia.

What else you need to know: Enrolling at SFS not only makes you part of our student community, it also provides you with access to a supportive global What makes us different: SFS is community of filmmakers. SFS provides Australia’s leading independent film ongoing support to our graduates by school, and one of the top film schools offering distribution funding for student in the world. Focusing 100 per cent on films. We also run our own commercial filmmaking, SFS is renowned in the film studio business that employs industry for the practical nature of a number of recent graduates its courses and the high quality EDUCATION both as salaried employees and of its students. Our students profile freelance technicians. make around 180 short films a year: we believe you learn by Enrolment dates: The next intake making films. is February 2017. Closing date for applications is Sunday November 27, We are a diverse and creative 2016. community, united in a passion for fi lmmaking. 25 per cent of our Open Day: Saturday September 3 students hail from overseas, adding 2016, 2pm until 5pm. cultural texture to the fi lmmaking education we offer.

Address: 82 Cope Street, Waterloo, NSW, 2017 Who are the teachers? Our Phone: (02) 9698 2244 teachers all work in the industry as Email: admissions@sydneyfilmschool. well as teach. They are successful com fi lmmakers who are strongly Website: sydneyfilmschool.com connected to the industry.

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 17

film reviews Hits and misses on the silver screens around town

■ Film

DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD In cinemas now We all know a David Brent. The original Brent (played toe-curlingly well by Ricky Gervais) was the major reason for The Office’s success, and though it’s been over 13 years since the program’s Christmas special aired and tied up all those loose ends, Brent the “entertainer” has resurfaced. The world might have changed, but Brent hasn’t.

Life On The Road takes the lead from the mockumentary style of the TV series, but it’s not The Office: The Movie. The film features none of the original cast of characters save for Brent, and Gervais’ fellow writer and The Office’s co-creator Stephen Merchant played no part in this project.

However, despite the trouble that such a dearth suggests, thankfully the film is not the disaster it could have been.

Mr. Brent is now a sales rep at Lavichem, a company that sells cleaning and personal hygiene products, but he’s still an idiot clutching at dreams of rock stardom.

Eventually, following his fantasy, he cashes in his pension and assembles a group of hired guns to perform as his

■ Film backing band for a tour of Slough. The only problem is his bandmates hate him (he even has to pay them to drink with him) and the tour is a shambles and whirlwind of humiliation for the former manager of Wernham Hogg.

This film sees Gervais continuing to straddle the lines between cheeky jokes and gags that are plain spiteful and mean-spirited. If you weren’t a fan of the TV show then this is not the film for you. Brent has not grown as a character: in fact, he’s more of a caricature than ever, and his affected immaturity is still easily his defining character note.

Ultimately, the film has some strong gags and is filled with songs that

are enjoyably bad. Brent’s backing band, the Foregone Conclusion, are slapdash in all the right ways and their folk/rock stylings are enjoyably middleof-the-road. A tune like ‘Lady Gypsy’ is a crystallised version of Brent’s character: all swagger and stiffness.

Natalie Salvo

Kubo And The Two Strings is breathtakingly beautiful, wowing in a chill-invoking way few recent family films have matched. Knight displays the finesse of Henry Selick (for whom he served under as lead animator on Coraline) while adding the weight of one versed in combat choreography. He captures the very same heady blend of excitement and danger conjured by the boss monsters in Legend Of Zelda, and though that may be a lighter reference point than Selick would choose, the trademark Laika darkness is present.

In cinemas now George W. Bush and his gaffes have given us a lot to work with. War Dogs dives balls deep into the American invasion of Iraq, popping off shots against its satirical targets left and right as it goes.

Finely satirical, the film keenly examines the jackpot mentality of the modern American way. Sure war kills, but when you work out how to score big, do you have the balls to play the game?

The plot sees our ‘heroes’ loose as fuck, driving through Jordan to Baghdad, being chased by militants and surviving the triangle of death, all with their antics soundtracked by a selection of deep, fantastic cuts. The music comes from sources as varied as Fiddy Cent, Neil Diamond, Pitbull and Leonard Cohen, the tunes bringing with them a dry

Truth’s sharp sting elevates a story from simple traditional structure to profound catharsis in this, likely the last thing you would expect from a family film about a young boy who folds paper using magic.

Our titular origamist Kubo (Art Parkinson) embarks on a journey to retrieve a fabled suit of armour, with a monkey charm brought to life (Charlize Theron) and a samurai beetle (Matthew McConaughey) along for company after he discovers his legendary lineage.

WAR DOGS

Throughout, wisecracks galore flow from the mouth of comedy golden boy Hill. Though the film is told through the eyes of Packouz, Hill’s Diveroli is a fascinating character. Is he a mastermind, a career criminal or just a bloody intelligent capitalist juggernaut serving his beloved nation? The film refuses to answer such questions, choosing instead to romp and rumble through themes such as the establishment and the loose concept of ‘winning’.

In cinemas now

That said, the supporting characters are underwritten, and there are moments that feel loose and not properly thought out. There are still times when the original wit and humour of the television show feels lacking: gaps that may very well leave you wanting to go back and enjoy the original show in order to get your entertainment fix.

■ Film

The film charts the steep ascension of two weedappreciating American males, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller), through the mid 2000s, detailing the story of how they scored a $300 million contract to supply the US Army with weapons.

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

comedic wit that digs out the deeper laughs festering under all of Hill’s ‘Imma boss mofo arms dealer’ quips.

Essentially the film is about two white, 20-something males bucking the trend, screwing with the establishment, risking big, succeeding big, playing the game and winning the game, annoying balding older males in the process. Likely as not, if you too are a white, 20-something male who similarly wants to buck the trend, screw the establishment and succeed (not necessarily in international arms dealing, mind you), you’ll enjoy this film.

While Hill steals the show, Teller does good, solid leading man work. The cinematography and graphics grip the eye sufficiently, providing a range of tasty morsels to focus on.

Best of all, the film satirises Diveroli and Pouchaz’s exploits while never making them out to be either martyrs or villains.

That's what makes War Dogs a brutally comedic exploration of an absolutely shit war.

Amy Henderson

There you have it – the hero’s journey. A tale as old as time! Director Travis Knight’s invocations of the Buddha throughout the film are no accident, tied closely as they are into the story’s roots in Japanese culture.

Early on, the film is wholly carried by this sense of wonder and purpose, and the scripting is solid but not as charming (or funny) as it could be. But when Marc Haimes and Chris Butler’s screenplay finds its feet, it plants them in warrior stance. The writers strike at the heart of the issue directly, pulling no punches; they are unashamedly confronting, but empathetic and – most importantly – astute.

Here is a family film brave enough to be honest about death. A film that puts a small boy in a suit of armour, hands him a sword, and then tells him there are better solutions. A film that takes a note from Studio Ghibli in showing that burying one’s adversary is not the only answer.

Kubo has many strings to its bow, but the two that define it are its intense evocation of family and its devotion to the power of story. Only in the passing of stories are we immortalised, and only by embracing our impermanence are we given joy and significance in our lives.

For a film about folding paper to carry such weight is compelling, refreshing and sorely needed. Kubo And The Two Strings is a gift to a new generation; one that gives them the legendary armour of truth, myth and family.

David Molloy

five minutes WITH

perhaps haven’t encountered his work yet?

Todd Solondz really is one of America’s greatest living filmmakers and we’re excited to have his latest film opening the festival. Solondz is a provocateur, and his films are pitch black. There’s really no one who makes films like him.

Reality Bites

I

s there a guiding philosophy behind the curation of the films in the SUFF? First and foremost, we aim to show fi lms that provoke, push boundaries and are more on the adventurous side. Though we pay homage to the spirit of the historical underground, the exact defi nition of ‘underground cinema’ 18 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

STEFAN POPESCU FROM SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

is always up for debate, so we see SUFF as a conduit for showcasing the year’s best independent fi lms.

We seek out fi lms that are original, daring and that will leave a lasting impact.

Wiener-Dog is the new film from Todd Solondz. How would you explain his style to people who

Trash Fire seems like another highlight. What is the film about?

The film features Adrian Grenier from Entourage. He stars as Owen, one of the biggest misanthropes committed to screen. His parents were killed in a fire when he was a child, his sister survived covered in burns and she now lives with his grandmother. Owen is in a relationship with a woman he despises but when he finds out

she is pregnant, they decide to visit his family. I can’t give away much more but things quickly descend into madness from there, culminating in a finale that’s truly remarkable.

There are going to be three classics shown in retrospective: how did you go about selecting those three?

John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs is our closing night film. It’s hailed as a classic by the few people who have actually seen it. We’re also screening Naked Lunch, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year, and Carrie, which is turning 40. We’ll be screening a yet-tobe-released digitally remastered version of the the latter, which looks stunning.

What do you want audiences to think and feel as they walk away from SUFF films?

Everyone responds to films differently. We do our best to build a great atmosphere around the festival so hope to provide our audience with a good time and hope they’ll come away buoyed by the state of independent cinema.

Film is worthless if it doesn’t make you feel, so whether you walk away challenged, confounded, aroused or violated, it’s all positive.

What: Sydney Underground Film Festival 2016 When: Thursday September 15 – Sunday September 18 Where: Factory Theatre

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BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 19

THE BRAG GUIDE TO

SYDNEY

ge he Frpin T m o r arp E F h

By Jose Moving

W

hat’s in a name?

As far as Kerri Glasscock’s concerned, a lot. The chief executive of the Sydney Fringe Festival is still reeling from the recent difficulty she had overseeing the process by which each of the Festival’s bevy of performers slotted themselves into genres. After all, the Fringe is dedicated to bucking the norm and resisting trends, so inserting some of the Fest’s stranger shows into categories proved to be a near-impossible task.

FRINGE FESTIVAL

“Ultimately, it’s the artist’s choice where they want to be listed,” says Glasscock, still sounding vaguely exasperated. “Actually, it’s a conversation that comes up a lot for all Fringe festivals. We have a gathering called the World Fringe Congress every two years, and this is a question that comes up all the time: ‘Is it okay to put things in a genre?’ Interestingly enough, New Zealand Fringe has recently done away with all genres. They just listed all the events.”

T

hough Glasscock admits that Sydney Fringe is “not quite ready” to head down that path and follow New Zealand’s lead, she sounds envious when she discusses the effect doing away with genre had on our Kiwi brethren’s festival.

“The New Zealand Fringe organisers said it was really interesting. They said people were just going to a show based on their own instincts, so they had people going to shows that they wouldn’t usually, and adults going to kids shows.”

But genre doesn’t simply create the type of audience bias that sees lovers of the stage skipping straight to the theatre section of the Festival’s packed program guide: some of the shows in this year’s fringe simply cannot be summed up in a paragraph, let alone a genre, and many of the acts incorporate a whole range of artistic styles.

“We’re not genre specific,”

says Glasscock. “We span all genres. And it’s not just about talks or events: it’s about spanning all aspects of visual arts. It’s really about the local conversation for us.”

Indeed, the phrase ‘local conversation’ is so key to the Fringe that it could almost be used as its tagline. Glasscock is at pains to stress that the Festival has no strict guiding philosophy, but she evidently believes in the importance of Sydneysiders telling Sydneycentric stories. “We often say to people that we would love to call the Sydney Fringe the Sydney Festival if we could, because we really are indicative of the Sydney voice,” Glasscock explains. “We really are about saying, ‘These are our local artists and we love them, and here are the stories we’re telling that are about us.’”

Aside from its strong emphasis on the local scene, the Festival is also defined by a deepseated resistance to curation.

More: For the full Sydney Fringe program, visit sydneyfringe.com 20 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15

Though Glasscock and her team of organisers have certain end goals in mind, they’re not interested in catering the Festival to any particular mindset, and they are keen to create as varied a program as possible. “When we’re planning the Festival lineup, there is a case of anything goes,” she says.

“We’re a Fringe festival – we like to be inclusive. But fundamentally it’s about the artists. They’re the core of everything that we do.

“We’re different to Fringe festivals like Edinburgh or Adelaide,” Glasscock continues, “in that a good 80 per cent of our artists are local Sydney residents.

And a good 90 per cent of the venues we use are local, existing venues. So a big part of what we do is highlighting what they do all year round, but also adding to what they do, and we’re not laying on top something we want. We want something that is really descriptive and indicative of stuff that we get all year round.”

That said, the Festival’s hands-off approach isn’t a cast iron rule, and Glasscock says there are times when she and her fellow organisers push the program in a particular direction – though, of course, always with the Festival’s best interest in mind. “We’re technically an open-access festival, like most Fringe festivals, so people just register their events. But obviously there are so many other things that go on behind the scenes with partnerships, and public events and our partnerships with venues, so some things are driven from our office. And sometimes there will be certain parts of our program that we will reach out to other people for.

“For example, we often reach out for our kids and family program, because it’s something fairly new for our Fringe festival,” she says. “We really want to make sure that there’s a really great quality program on that front. We’re nurturing it. We often reach out to people we want to be involved.”

“Fringe Festival is really about saying, ‘These are our local artists and we love them, and here are the stories we’re telling that are about us.’”

Glasscock’s concerns about maintaining quality have paid off: the Fringe boasts an array of world-class acts this year, the kind of shows that will already have lovers of the arts frothing at the mouth. But for Glasscock herself, the sheer amount of quality available is proving oddly problematic, insofar as she now finds it impossible to select any events in the program that she would recommend over any other.

“There’s just too many,” she says with a laugh. “There’s always so many – I always find it difficult talking about shows that I am particularly interested in! I’m always excited by work that crosses genres, and something that really has something interesting to say and pushes certain boundaries.”

Given that the Festival’s modus operandi is pushing boundaries, Glasscock might just well find herself in luck.

What: Sydney Fringe Festival When: Thursday September 1 – Friday September 30 Where: Various locations around Sydney

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2016 SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL TOP PICKS SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU 1

FRI 2

3

WITH DEAN

SIRENS BIG BAND

7:00PM WAYWARD BREWING CO

8:30PM VENUE 505

COMEDY LAB

HAGLUND

4

5

6

A BOY NAMED

BIRDHATS BIRD WATCHING TOUR

CASH

4:00PM PROJECT UGLY

7:00PM LORD RAGLAN HOTEL

11

12

OFF BROADWAY

LAUNCH

FREE AFTERNOON

OF LIVE MUSIC 3:00PM GEHRIG LANE

ATLANTIS 8:00PM KINGS CROSS THEATRE

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AN EVENING WITH OUR THEATRE ELDERS

MELBOURNE

6:30PM ETERNITY PLAYHOUSE

8:30PM ETERNITY PLAYHOUSE

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CITY BALLET

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

LOVE, LOSS AND LATTES

THE BEST CORN CHIP IN THE UNIVERSE

GREAT DETECTIVES OF OLD TIME RADIO LIVE

FOLONOMO GALLERY

7:00PM SEYMOUR CENTRE

8:30PM OLD 505 THEATRE

6:45PM OLD 505 THEATRE

TIM RITCHIE

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STENCIL ART PRIZE EXHIBITION FROM 11:00AM OFF BROADWAY FESTIVAL HUB

SAT OPENING PARTY

FRINGE IGNITE 3:00PM STANLEY STREET DARLINGHURST

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THE OFFENSIVE

CULTURE

SCOUTS

NIPPLE

WALKING TOUR

SHOW

9:30PM OLD 505 THEATRE

7:00PM NEWTOWN STATION

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SYDNEY GHOST TOUR 8:30PM OBSERVER HOTEL SYDNEY

7:30PM IMPERIAL HOTEL

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JAZZ JAM

ELIXIR

SHAPESHIFTER

AEON

CASTLES

VENUE 505

8:30PM SEYMOUR CENTRE

8:00PM TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

7:00PM SEYMOUR CENTRE

7:00PM OLD 505 THEATRE

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GLOBAL RHYTHMS

AUSTRALIA STREET PORTRAITS FROM THE

INNER WEST

FROM 12:00PM BICENTENNIAL PARK GLEBE

SEE WEBSITE FOR DETAILS

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OLD SCHOOL

GROOVE

OBJECTS FOR AN UNKNOWN FUTURE MUSEUM

8:30PM VENUE 505

FROM 11:00AM STANLEY STREET GALLERY

FUNK & NIGHT

DEATH DO US PART

HAUNTED

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SILENT DINNER PARTY 7:00PM PADDINGTON TOWN HALL

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ROSE CALLAGHAN

ATTENTION DEFFICT...

OOH A PONY!!

BABY BOY BOLOGNESE TOP GUN LIVE ON STAGE

8:15PM THE FACTORY THEATRE

7:00PM THE FACTORY THEATRE

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

SYDNEYFRINGE.COM

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m ringe.co sydneyf BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 21

OPENING WEEKEND

Each year the festival gets bigger and bigger, and this year we have a mentally enormous opening weekend planned. All based in the inner city suburbs of Darlinghurst, Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Newtown and Surry Hills.

SAT 3RD SEPTEMBER 3–7PM

FRINGE IGNITE Our opening celebration is back this year up Stanley Street in Darlinghurst

SAT 3RD 5PM

THE RETURN OF LOST SOULS + EID AL-FITR Exclusive Australian Premiere of two important Chinese documentaries, followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers Verona Cinema Oxford Street

SAT 3RD 8:30PM

MR OTT Venue 505 Surry Hills Mesmerising eastern sounds and hypnotic dance grooves

SAT 3RD 9PM

DRAG DISCO The Midnight Shift

SUN 4TH

KING STREET CRAWL The music continues today up King Street in Newtown

SUN 4TH

RETRO DISCO The Green Park Darlinghurst

OPENING WEEK

With too many terrific things to fit into opening weekend, we had to list events for the Opening Week here too!

WED 7TH 6:30PM

AN EVENING WITH OUR THEATRE ELDERS In conversation with leading legendary theatre performers to raise funds for the Actors Benevolent Fund NSW Eternity Playhouse Darlinghurst

THU 8TH 6:30PM

CULTURE WARRIORS Whose duty is it to support the production of contemporary art in Australia?

Panel discussion Eternity Playhouse Darlinghurst

WED 7TH & THU 8TH 8:30PM

MELBOURNE CITY BALLET’S ROMEO + JULIET Eternity Playhouse Darlinghurst

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FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS CLOSING WEEKEND

Holy moly there is almost too much to handle on closing weekend of the festival this year. Key note art events, headline music and of course school holidays are upon us with FRINGE KIDS.

FRI 23TH 8:30PM

LADY SINGS IT BETTER Sound Lounge Chippendale

SAT 24TH 7PM

CASTLES 2016 SYNZ Award winning production Old 505 Theatre Newtown

SAT 24TH 7PM

SILENT DINNER PARTY Break the world record for the largest silent dinner party with us!

Paddington Town Hall

SUNDAY 25TH 12PM

FUN STUFF

GLOBAL RHYTHMS Our massive closing event sees an afternoon of the best bands from around the country.

Bicentennial Park Glebe

It’s festival time and that means fun – of course you’ll have tonnes of fun going to any of the program events, but if you want to get amongst something bigger here are a few of our recommendations.

FRI 16TH 6PM

FAMILY DEADLY DISCO Redfern Community Centre Redfern

SAT 17TH 6PM

FAMILY MOVIE IN THE PARK Free outdoor screening of Paper Planes Camperdown Park Newtown

FRINGE KIDS

We’ve got the school holidays sorted. Bring the kids along to our great family program.

SAT 17TH 6PM

SAT 24TH & SUN 25TH 10AM & 2PM

SUN 18TH FROM 11AM

SAT 17TH & SUN 18TH

TUE 20TH TO FRI 24TH 8:30PM

TUE 27TH 10AM

SILENT DISCO Public House Petersham EDWARDIAN PICNIC DAY AND CRICKET MATCH Camperdown Park Newtown ELIXIR Winner First and Foremost Award Brighton Fringe, the comic acrobats return.

Reginald Theatre

WONDERFUL WALL HANGINGS Eliza Street, Newtown KIDS WORKSHOPS AT CAMPERDOWN COMMONS Camperdown Commons YOGANAUTS Redfern Community Centre

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

SYDNEYFRINGE.COM thebrag.com

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15 :: 23

Australia Street – Portraits From The Inner West

[PHOTOGRAPHY]

Best Of The Fest…

The hottest tickets on the Fringe… #1

brag favourite

[COMEDY]

Jacques Barrett Is Particularly Go: od At This

Zahn Pithers: Photographer

By Tegan Jones

T

he iconic Australia Street runs from Newtown to Camperdown, straight through the heart of Sydney’s Inner West.

It is also commercial photographer Zahn Pithers’ stomping ground, one he is paying homage to in his portrait project Australia Street – Portraits From The Inner West.

“I have been a photographer for 18 years,” he explains, “but in the back of my head I always wanted to do a personal project. I was renovating my house and I had a really beautiful floor and I wanted to shoot a portrait on it. I decided to ask someone on my street, Australia Street. I really loved it, so I asked another person to [pose for a portrait]. Before I knew it people were suggesting other subjects. All of a sudden I was shooting these really interesting people, all from within 150 metres of where I live.”

The project has been the culmination of over 18 months of

hard work, making it a real passion project for Pithers. “I started in February last year and I would set a day aside each week where I would at least do one,” he says. “It was basically whenever I could fit it in because I have two kids as well. I would have to pull the whole lounge room apart to set up for the shoot.

It was pretty labour intensive, but once I started and saw the results and reactions from other people, it’s something that really took on a life of its own. I couldn’t stop.

“I knew I wanted to have an exhibition but I didn’t know in what capacity,” he says.

“Someone mentioned that the Sydney Fringe Festival supports independent artists and helps them find a venue for their work.” Pithers laughs. “You could paint your toenail and put it up on a wall and they’re guaranteed to show it.”

For anyone who lives in – or even has an appreciation for – the Inner West, it isn’t surprising that artists and photographers such as Pithers draw inspiration from

it. There’s nothing quite like the area.

“I wanted to do a portrait series for years but I never nailed down the look,” Pithers explains.

“Someone suggested doing something like Humans of New York but in Newtown, but someone was already doing that.

“I think there’s an energy in the Inner West that nowhere else has, really. Bondi has it, but it seems a little more transient there because of the tourists. The Inner West is really soulful, and there’s just an energy and passion for the area. That’s where the project really sprung from: people just love the area.”

The exhibition itself, as well as the opening, will have an art trail aspect to it, fitting perfectly with the theme of the series. If you’re going to experience some of the residents of Newtown, why not also experience the area simultaneously?

It doesn’t just end with the portraits.

“I’m having a private showing at home with all of the people from

the series and then I’m having the street exhibition,” Pithers says. “I’m hoping to get everyone local to come up for the opening night where you’ve got Young Henry’s, Black Star Pastries and Continental Deli all getting involved.

“It’s all fi tting and it’s all seeming to work,” he continues.

“It’s very [local].

The piece is called Australia Street, all the people in it are from here, all of the prints were done by a guy on Australia Street...

Even the book I got made was done in Chippendale. It’s just so local.” He laughs, a sound of pure contentment. “It’s like when you eat food that is grown locally – you get that warm fuzzy feeling because it’s from your own backyard.”

What: Australia Street – Portraits From The Inner West as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 When: Saturday September 10 – Friday September 30 Where: Various venues across Australia Street, Newtown

Confidence is key in comedy and in lif e.

Never doubt your se Aim high. Call your lf. show ‘is particula rly good at this’. That ’s what Jacques Bar rett has done, proving th modesty is miser at y and that nothing beats a bit of self-promotion when you’re doing stan d-up.

Where: Factory Th eatre When: Tuesday Se Thursday Septe ptember 20, mber 22, Saturda y September 24

[COMEDY]

Andreea Kindryd

A

ndreea Kindryd is hands down the most interesting person I have ever interviewed. Movie stars and celebrity crushes from my teen years past pale in comparison to Kindyrd and the warmth, honesty and frankness she exudes. I’m not joking: I genuinely wish that I could talk to her every day.

Kindryd has also lived a fascinating life, one that would put most of us to shame. She has been a cast member on the original Star Trek series, a hippie, an Indigenous rights campaigner, a one time associate of both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and the subject of an investigation by the FBI. This year, Kindryd is set to bring her gift of the gab to the Sydney Fringe Festival. As far as she’s concerned, the Festival wanted her presence for one reason, and one reason alone: her mouth.

“Basically I just like to talk a lot,” Kindryd laughs.

“I started off just trying to write stuff for my grandkids. They wanted to know how I met Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. My grandson then had a child and wanted to know where we came from, and the slave stories in my family are quite interesting. They’re not as tragic as they could have been. One of them didn’t take shit off anybody: she got herself a shotgun.”

As with so many writers and comedians, part of what drove Kindryd to laughter and later to the stage, was personal tragedy. “My daughter committed suicide and I didn’t know what to do,” Kindyrd says.

“I live across the street from a comedy room so I started going because I desperately needed to laugh. One day somebody mentioned that there was a comedy course for women. So I went there.

Later, when we performed at Mardis Gras, I came out to my straight daughter, bisexual daughter and gay daughter as a mysexual – basically, I do it myself.”

After chatting a bit more about her incredible life, including a period during which she dated

24 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15

To Boldly Gone..s.

By Tegan Jo

a comedian 33 years her junior (making her my new personal hero), we get onto what makes a good storyteller.

Kindyrd argues it isn’t always about caricature or having a gift for mimicking voices.

“I just try to do what we’re doing right now: I like to talk to people,” she says. “Who knows what this show will be like on what night. I have a list of things that I’ve promised to cover, though they might not be in the exact same order. I do try to have a through line: from slavery to Star Trek to the Southern Cross, which is me coming to Australia.”

Giving but a brief snippet of the show, Kindyrd begins to zoom through some of her life experiences. “When I worked on Star Trek, my family had gone from slavery

to the stars. Later, when I moved to Hong Kong I became a ‘gweilo’ - just an ordinary foreign devil just like my Swedish, British and Malaysian friends. We were all the same, and the colour didn’t matter there because I was with a different group.

“All of us were tribal and liked travelling with groups of people like us, so that’s when I started on the hippy trail.

That was fun because my tribe became those who lived in sarongs.”

Kindryd laughs. “I don’t know,” she says, her voice rich with contentment. “I just had fun when I was younger and I’m still having fun! I’m just trying to find me and be real.”

What: From Star Trek To The Southern Cross as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 Where: Camperdown Cellars / The Imperial Hotel When: Thursday September 22 / Sunday September 18 thebrag.com

RHUBARB 28TH SEPT - 1ST OCT AT 7.30PM THE GIANT DWARF

HOSTED BY MATT DOWNEY TEAM CAPTAINS: KATE JENKINSON & PINKY BEECROFT WITH SPECIAL GUESTS: WEDS 28TH SEPT

STEPHEN CURRY LINDSAY MCDOUGALL LINCOLN YOUNES AMY RUFFLE

THURS 29TH SEPT STEPHEN CURRY MARK TREVORROW ANDREW HANSEN YVIE JONES

FRIDAY 30TH SEPT

GRETEL KILLEEN JORDAN RASKOPOULOS MARK SWIVEL CHARLES WATERSTREET

SATURDAY 1ST OCT PAUL CARTER DR. ALAN DUFFY NICK BOND ..MORE TO ANNOUNCE

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BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 25

brag favourite

Drag Disco

[PARTY]

Where: The Shift Bar When: Saturday September 3

Get in the spirit of Sydney Fringe Festival’s opening weekend with Drag Disco, where partygoers will be getting their diva on and dancing into the night. Lights, disco balls and drag – this one really will have something for everyone, and it’s all happening on the back of the official Fringe Ignite opening day party.

[THEATRE]

The Giant Worm Show!

T

here are plenty of things out there in the world that can’t be explained: giant tracks in the Himalayan snow, shadowy shapes in Loch Ness, lights in the sky over Roswell, monstrous pink worms in South Gippsland. But every so often, an intrepid explorer-cum-theatremaker comes along to unravel the mystery.

Enter Melita Rowston. Back in 2013, The Giant Worm Show! told the true story of a floundering Victorian town and the unlikely saviour who rose to the heights of unlikely tourism… and then disappeared. Now, Rowston’s revamped show is hitting the Sydney Fringe, full of puppetry, profundity, and Daryl Somers.

C

hances are, if you were asked to think of flamenco music, you’d immediately conjure up an image of a beautifully costumed woman dancing wild circles around a man playing furious guitar. It summons images of passion and desire, of love and

by Adam revenge…

tions Little Fic tember 5 – September 26 x Street Bar When: Mondays Sep Where: Kno

lar Little Fictions pendale’s Knox Street Bar, the regu Across a month of Mondays at Chip er themes include temb Sep The e. action for Sydney Fring strange and night of storytelling will step up its (the n and women), The Great Unknow (from some of Vaginal Spray (feminist tales for men es Scen e Crim and on) inati tlebutt and fasc duced by MCs absurd), Sydney Stories (local scut intro tales rm perfo Fictions’ team of actors Australia’s finest crime writers). Little is.

Norr m Ada own G’s BRA the like Monique Schafter, Jack Gow and

And not just any giant pink worm puppet. The story of Karmai The Puppet has all the hallmarks of fiction: heroes, villains and a community at breaking point saved by a man who has the notion to turn Gippsland’s “Wonder from Down Under” – a three-metre long earthworm, the largest in the world – into a saviour mascot. Sometimes, art just writes itself.

“The show has had a massive overhaul,” explains Rowston. “I mentioned finding my voice after the Ned Kelly show, and the [version of Giant Worm] we had back in 2013 was a very theatrical show. It was more like a play with other performers, much more a pastiche variety show. It just wasn’t quite what I wanted, which is more storytelling, using a lot more video that I’ve taken of these crazy places.

Because this really is an amazing journey – but it’s all real! The people are all real, and I really wanted to go back and revisit it all.”

Guess I’ll Go And Eat Worms

Damian Wright Trio

#3

[SPOKEN WORD]

stole Ned Kelly’s bones, or talk about a giant pink worm puppet.’”

“Every show has different challenges,” says Rowston. “This is a kind of comic monologue TED Talk.

by Adam Norris To unearth (no pun I did Six Degrees Of intended) the story of Karmai and its Ned Kelly at three different Fringe creator, Rowston travelled back and Festivals last year, starting in Sydney forth from Sydney to Korumburra, slowly and then Melbourne, Adelaide, and it gaining the confidence of locals until did feel…” Rowston pauses, reflecting the full story began to take shape. It’s on the evolution of her stagecraft. sterling stuff: In Cold Blood meets The Muppets. The story even contains the “Each time I did it I realised, yeah, I unexpected inclusion of Daryl Somers, like this! I’m finding my voice! So sure, there were still nerves and all that stage the town’s official Worm King of 1982 (“Did I think it was weird being asked to fright, but as I travelled around telling be Worm King?” Somers has said. “At these stories, it felt cool. It felt right. the time I’d been talking to an Ostrich And because it’s me both writing and for 11 years, so it was completely telling the stories, I felt a huge amount natural for me.”) of ownership; I felt that I was able to do whatever the fuck I wanted. I wasn’t “I was working full time, and I’d fly down accountable to another playwright. It felt every couple of months to this town really empowering, but still terrifying, that’s a two-hour drive from Melbourne,” especially when you have a full house says Rowston. “It became this on opening night and you know you obsessive thing I’d keep going back to have all these reviewers out there.” She for long weekends. I’d stay in the local laughs. “But it lets you step into your motel and meet all these people. It was own and say, ‘Well, fuck it! I am going a slow burn. When I first showed up, to talk about how my grandpa said he [MUSIC]

brag favourite

#2

r ; I felt that I was able to do whateve “I felt a huge amount of ownership table to another playwright.” the fuck I wanted. I wasn’t accoun

noone knew anything about this puppet and I felt like a bit of a dickhead.

“But slowly, because it was the older generation who created it, I did things like put up posters around town, and did an interview for the newspaper there.

Slowly, people started contacting me.

I’d ask, ‘This is probably the strangest question you’ve heard, but do you know anything about a giant pink worm puppet?’ And sometimes people would say, ‘Actually, I do.’ It was fun.”

At the heart of the story is Karmai’s creator, Frank, a man inherent to the tale of the puppet’s rise and fall, but

one who was tremendously guarded about sharing his unusual history.

“Each person I’d meet knew a little bit of the history, but Frank didn’t want to meet,” says Rowston. “He’d been burnt before. He’d had TV crews try and do documentaries but then start taking the piss.

“The whole festival and the puppet had an untimely ending, where success was the thing that destroyed it. And so he was very protective and guarded.

Everyone I met told me I had to talk to him, but he just didn’t trust me. He thought it was a big failure in the end, but now there’s a Facebook page

where lots of locals have joined to share their memories. You can see the amazing effect it had. So it was a jigsaw until maybe a month before we first opened.” Relief floods Rowston’s voice; she’s clearly very satisfied with what the production became. “We were still getting more info, so now for the Fringe it’s good to have the chance to go back and properly piece it all together.”

What: The Giant Worm Show! as part of Sydney Fringe 2016 Where: Old 505 Theatre When: Tuesday September 6 – Saturday September 10

years have always progressed “The younger generations over the e flamenco guitarists writing flamenco forward, and now you hav ts of genre bending.” across rock and jazz; there’s all sor setting at the Opera House, that was when I saw a guitar style that had all the elements of music that I loved.”

Flamenco is a style of music that has been embraced the world over, and part of the secret to its longevity, Wright Norris believes, is the fact it can be remarkably malleable.

It’s not just within contemporary flamenco that such an element of flexibility can be found – its entire history is one long evolution.

Flamenco Fire

Or at least, that’s the traditional image of flamenco. Though it has held onto a strong element of its heritage, the music has evolved over the years, courting influences from across the globe. For Damian Wright, the bandleader of (you guessed it) the Damian Wright Trio, playing the Spanish guitar has been a lifetime’s work.

“I started playing the guitar when I was six,” Wright recalls. “I played everything from rock to metal, to classical and jazz. I was always interested in playing different styles, and I think it was only a matter of time before I found flamenco as a teenager.

“In the house we were always listening to a huge variety of music,” he continues. “Everything from classical to Middle Eastern to South American music. There was always an interesting variety, so I think when I heard flamenco, it was a style that didn’t necessarily sound that exotic. I felt like I’d been listening to that for a long time. Then, when I first heard it in a live 26 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15

“Flamenco has always been a progressive music,” Wright argues.

“From the very beginning, the people who most associated with flamenco outside of Spain left Northern India, and it took about a thousand years to get to Spain.

“Through their travels they brought a huge influence, and that was mixed with the fact there was already a huge influence from the Moorish rulers at the time. So you had that mixed with previous Christian traditions that already existed, and so that all came together and turned into what it called flamenco today.

“When you say flamenco, there is a very traditional sound, which is very deeply rooted in southern Spain, and that’s what the purists are essentially practising,” he continues. “But then the younger generations over the years have always progressed

flamenco forward and now you have flamenco players that are collaborating with famous dancers; you have flamenco guitarists writing across rock and jazz: there’s all sorts of genre bending.”

This is precisely what audiences should expect from the Damian Wright Trio. Each member of the act is besotted with the potential of flamenco music and their disparate tastes

ensure a performance of a wild and seductive variety.

“I absolutely love everything from Radiohead to Debussy,” says Wright.

“There are so many influences I’ve grown up with that I think of now whenever I’m writing. Flamenco music lends itself to a deep connection with certain emotions and feelings, a huge variety of sentiments that everyone can relate to. That’s why words like

passion and fire get thrown around, because it’s a music that stems from that feeling. I think any successful performance of flamenco has to have those elements, and that’s what we’re always striving to achieve. There’s nothing subdued about the show. It’s three musicians working together to create that fire.”

Where: Venue 505 When: Saturday September 17 thebrag.com

‘DROP IT LIKE IT’S OTT’ TOUR

MISTEROTT.COM

SAT SEPTEMBER 3,

VENUE 505 280 CLEVELAND ST, SURRY HILLS

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Get your tickets from: www.sydneyfringe.com ‘THE MYSTERIOUS BURST OF SONIC ENERGY THAT IS MISTER OTT, IS INFECTIOUS.’ thebrag.com

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 27

more offensive material “It’s like Stockholm Syndrome. The to make the show.” that there is, the easier it is for us But more than ever, their cultural critiques are first and foremost entertainments. Their show is the Bechdel Test, but with harmonies to die for.

“We think of our songs as being in three categories,” founder Maeve Marsden explains.

“Stuff that’s genuinely offensive, stuff where we’ve manipulated the lyrics so it seems more offensive than it is – like, we sing ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ and we make it really creepy – and then songs we do just because they’re kind of weird. Some people get confused. ‘But that song wasn’t sexist!’ And we’ll say, well no, but it was funny.

“There are heaps of messed up songs out there,” Marsden laughs. “One we’re doing is a Brian McFadden song called ‘Just The Way You

By Adam Are’. I thought, ‘Awww, like the Billy Joel or Bruno Mars song!’

willing to confront, and while Marsden certainly wants the crowd to walk away better informed, she is also adamant that they will leave whistling under their breath.

“If we’re in a rehearsal talking about a particular song, we’ll always think, ‘What is it about? What is the point?’ And if we can’t answer that question, we don’t do it. If we can’t make the arrangement work or we can’t make it funny, we’re not going to do it. It has to have both elements to make the cut.

Sometimes, no matter how funny it is, something will just sound boring musically. Or it doesn’t matter how beautiful it sounds, people will get bored because they’ve come to engage with something other than a cover act. No-one’s there for a political lecture. Nobody will engage if we’re not funny and entertaining at the Norris same time. I don’t like going to political theatre that’s really didactic and preachy.

I want to be entertained.”

Dirty Ditties

“But the lyrics are: “I love you just the way you are, drunk as shit dancing at the bar, I love it and I can’t wait to take you home so I can take advantage.”

[MUSIC]

Lady Sings It Better

A

lot has changed for Lady Sings It Better over the years. Members have come and gone and the format has evolved, but the troupe’s core has grown stronger with age. The eight performers descending on the Sydney Fringe are still doing what they do best: hilariously exposing the casual misogyny couched in far too many contemporary songs.

[COMEDY]

brag favourite

Jared Jekyll: Young, Dumb And Full Of Pun Who doesn’t love a good pun? Bloody nobody, that’s who – particularly not rising comedian Jared Jekyll, the scintillating surrealist performer who has already won rave reviews for his appearances on triple j and the blistering set he delivered in support for none other than Tom Green.

Jekyll’s Fringe Comedy show will feature his trademark wordplay, combined with heavy lashings of rap and beatboxing, proving that music and comedy are better bedfellows than anyone might have thought.

Where: Factory Theatre When: Wednesday September 28 – Friday September 30

#6

brag favourite

#4

“There was a backlash, and he said, ‘No, no, I’m talking about my wife, and I like it when she’s drunk and she’s dancing!’ And I thought, well, you probably aren’t actually talking about date rape, but the vibe and the lyrics might make people think it’s OK. I mean, we’re not antisexual content, but rapey content we’d like to see eradicated.”

Lady Sings It Better’s level of sexuality-focused content immediately brings to mind the recent production of Hot Brown Honey, in which the cast led their audience to question issues of gender through song and dance. Utilising music is an effective method of surreptitiously engaging in content that theatre audiences may not always be

[COMEDY]

With Marsden promising the world’s longest ’90s boy band medley, the odds of being entertained are pretty high. Just don’t expect to ever hear some of your favourite artists quite the same way again...

“One of the girls found an Elvis Presley song called ‘Kissin’ Cousins’, that’s all about cousins who want to make out. We’ve taken a kind a dark delight in finding these songs now. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome. The more offensive material that there is, the easier it is for us to make the show. I think we’d be a bit sad if feminism won,” Marsden chuckles, “because we’d be out of a job.”

What: Lady Sings It Better as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 Where: Seymour Centre When: Thursday September 22 – Saturday September 24

brag favourite

#5

Greta Lee Jackson: Red Flag

Jared Jekyll

We’ve all done things we’ve been told not to do. There is something unbelievably enticing about hopping over a fence adorned with a ‘No Climbing’ sign; something deliciously vicarious about sticking yer fingers into a power socket (don’t do that though.

Like, seriously.) As far as Greta Lee Jackson is concerned, rules were made to be broken and advice was made to be ignored. Her new comedy show Red Flag is all about breaking the rules and breaking hearts, and is jam-packed with the darkly fascinating material Jackson is famous for. Get to it.

Where: Factory Theatre When: Tuesday September 27 – Friday September 30

Greta Lee Jackson

[VISUAL ART]

Stencil Art Prize Founded in 2009 in Sydney, the $5,000 Stencil Art Prize has grown to become the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world.

This year’s exhibit features 84 artists from 21 different countries, with the must-see highlights including Pablo Ursua’s 3D painting of a dinosaur and Ralf Kempken’s optical illusions. The winner will be announced on Sunday September 11.

Where: Off-Broadway Festival Hub When: Monday September 5 – Sunday September 25

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thebrag.com

Shakespeare In Woop Woop

By Amy Henderson

[COMEDY]

brag favourite

#7

Romeo And Juliet

As far as artistic goals go, “getting to as many regional shows as possible and delivering ballet to places that have never had ballet before” might fall into the category of the slightly unusual. But that’s the selfconfessed aim of Michael Pappalardo, the artistic director of the Melbourne City Ballet (MCB), in regards to his company’s upcoming production of Romeo And Juliet.

From his humble beginnings starting out in a local dance studio, Pappalardo is now a part of one of Australia’s most innovative and pioneering dance companies. “I was six years old,” Pappalardo says of his start in dance. “My best friend danced and I went along. I really enjoyed it: it grew and grew and then it absorbed my entire life.”

Such an evolution proved to be a singularly good thing for Pappalardo, putting him in perfect stead to take MCB productions to Australians across the country – even those in Woop Woop.

James Smith: Live

When asked why the company chose to stage Romeo And Juliet, Pappalardo cuts straight to the point. “Romeo And Juliet is a fabulous traditional ballet: [our production] has all new choreography, all new costumes and a set purposely designed for this tour. It’s really a traditional story, and with the addition of a whole lot of acting and immersion, it’s just this beautiful ballet.”

You can’t beat simplicity, eh?

Nothing beats content that is delivered without bells and whistles; entertainment that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than entertainment. James Smith’s what-it-says-on-the-tin style of live comedy is simple, dressed down fun: even the title of his upcoming Fringe Fest show, Live doesn’t beat around the bush. So neither will we – go see this show.

With the story’s wealth of history, staging the production came with both challenges and blessings. Pappalardo’s version of the classic story is all about mixing old and new forms: about setting the established against the visionary.

“We had a specific idea about what we wanted to do in Romeo And Juliet,” he says, “but it’s all about developing the project, working on the choreography, watching lots of other ballets and movies, and reading the literature. It was about doing a whole lot of research, then compiling all that into developing the choreography to make the ballet. It’s very collaborative really”.

Where: Factory Theatre When: Tuesday September 20, Thursday September 22, Saturday September 24, Wednesday September 28, Friday September 30

brag favourite Jordan Raskopoulos: Sad, Sad, Super Sad. Oh My God, When Will It End?

Given we’ve all had to wrangle with a micromanaging boss, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Pappalardo bursts into peals of laughter when asked about his leadership style. “I love to work collaboratively. I would never walk into the studio and say, ‘This is what you have to do!’ I want the dancers to enjoy it. If they’re not part of the process, they may not enjoy it. I want them to enjoy the movement.”

#8

For Pappalardo, mounting an intimate, moveable production like Romeo And Juliet is a disappointingly rare opportunity.

“So many artists I have spoken to have mentioned that no-one really does small projects anymore,” he says. “No ballets were doing smaller venues or touring regionally.

There was no work for young dancers...

There simply weren’t enough jobs.”

The Axis Of Awesome’s frontwoman Jordan Raskopoulos steps out for Sydney Fringe with a solo show, only it comes with a twist: the aim isn’t to make you cry tears of happiness, but to destroy you with utter sadness. Sad, Sad, Super Sad. Oh My God, When Will It End? is a tragi-comedy inspired

by Raskopoulos’ recent announcement of her gender dysphoria following decades of private struggle. Now she’s proud, empowered, and what better way to prove it than “to try and make you all really sad on purpose”? One thing’s for sure: you won’t want it to end.

Despite its reputation as a stiff, academic art form, as far as Pappalardo is concerned, ballet is all about directly engaging the audience, and Romeo And Juliet has been designed as a completely immersive experience. “The aim of the performance is not only to show beautiful dancing – it’s about really enveloping the audience in the story. We want audiences to cry, to feel the love and emotion. We want them to experience a true drama, not just ballet.”

Where: Factory Theatre When: Tuesday September 20, Thursday September 22, Saturday September 24 [COMEDY]

When asked about how far Pappalardo plans to take Romeo And Juliet – both literally and figuratively – his response is swift, satisfyingly so. This is a man who cares about the art form deeply, who lives for it. “We’re trying to make sure the plot and the characters are right,” he says. “Ballet in its rawest form can be very boring, but we have put in as much drama as we can.”

“I love to w ork collabo ratively. I w If they’re no ant the dan t part of the cers to enjo process, th y it. ey may not enjoy it.”

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What: Romeo And Juliet as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 When: Wednesday September 7 – Thursday September 8 Where: Eternity Playhouse

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Sydney’s Shot In the Arm

by Natalie Roge rs

playing under the Showa 44 moniker. “They’re both so talented,” McAll says of the pair, “and it’s so good to have them on the bill.”

Though every single act included has the power to attract a legion of fans, one band sure to stand out from the crowd is Melbourne/ Sydney based band The Prophets. “They’re an amazing band,” says McAll. “They’re a collaboration between Peter Farrar and Darryl Carthew. These guys are so brilliant and they present a lot of researched African rhythms in a context that is kind of theatrical but also very groovy. They’re also a roving act too, so they will be walking around the street and playing at the venue. They wear these amazing masks, and they’re excellent musicians; some of my best friends.

Rai Thistlethwayte [MUSIC]

Fringe Ignite

S

imply put, Fringe Ignite will excite even the most cynical of city dwellers. The whole community has rallied behind the live music initiative, one that plans to fill not only the pubs and bars of Stanley Street with flesh-and-blood performers, but this year shopfronts, galleries and restaurants too. All the venues will be bursting with the sights and sounds that make Sydney the unique and diverse city we all love, and the event has been expertly curated by the one and only Barney McAll. “When I was asked by APRA to be a part of this, I thought it would be a really exciting way to not only present my friends and peers – who may not be as well known as they should be – but also to create awareness about the importance of the live music scene in any city, and the spirit of it, which seems to be under attack here,” says McAll. “When people

experience a live performance they’re given something that you cannot get from a screen.”

incredibly finding himself awarded the Australian Council Fellowship in the very same year.

For those aware of McAll’s varied and successful career as a jazz pianist and composer, he will need no introduction. But others who are less familiar with his many achievements – both here and in the US – can be assured that 2016’s Fringe Ignite is in safe hands.

Then, in 2011 McAll fulfilled a long-held promise to his even longer-held friend, Sia Furler, when he signed on to be her musical director. “I met her in the early ’90s when she came to my gig,” he explains. “She told me that one day she was going to be really famous and that I was going to be her keyboard player – that’s how forward thinking she is.” He laughs.

“I lived in New York for many years but I’ve been coming back home every year and staying part of the scene here,” says McAll, “so I really have stayed in touch with everything that’s going on.

I have worked with a lot of great jazz musicians: people like Dewey Redman, Kurt Rosenwrinkel, and of course Gary Bartz. I also played with Fred Wesley and The J.B.’s, so I just lapped everything up and learnt a lot about music.”

Over the years McAll has been nominated for a slew of ARIA, Bell and AIR awards, many of which he has won. He ranks up there with some of our most celebrated exports, even managing to snare a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2007, while

It’s not just Furler, however: McAll has a range of contacts in the contemporary music scene, and his varied tastes mean that he has a whole host of performers to introduce to Sydneysiders come Fringe Ignite. “I have always kept myself connected to the Australian music scene,” McAll says, proudly, “and the people that I’ve chosen are my favourite musicians here.”

The sheer talent of the musicians signed up for Ignite is staggering: Rai Thistlethwayte will be there, a musician McAll describes as being “out of control”, along with soul singer Alice Terry, and Simon Barker and Carl Dewhurst, the duo

“Then there’s Sikkim Rex, who are now a trio,” McAll continues. “They do some really exciting stuff. Also, I’ll be there to accompany singersongwriter Diana Rouvas, and my trio – made up of Hamish Stuart and Jonathan Zwartz – will also be playing. There’ll also be a set from the Old School Funk Band, which is the Tuesday night regular band from the Surry Hills jazz club, 505. They’re an amazing group: they’ve been playing there for years just funking it up and I’m going to sit in with them as well.”

Even though McAll is the very definition of a jetsetter – he’s always involved in new and exciting projects that take him around the world – he stresses that he is extremely proud to be part of such an iconic Sydney event, and believes we should all get out there and support our local artists. “The people that I’ve picked are underground and free thinking, and that’s the kind of show I wanted to present. Especially in this, the day and age of X Factor and those kind of shows. They’ve diluted our industry and made free thinking and forward thinking less palatable, which is really a sin. So let’s get together and give Sydney a shot in the arm!”

What: Fringe Ignite as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 When: Saturday September 3 Where: Stanley Street, Darlinghurst With: Baz & LN, Miles Thomas, Brian Campeau, Sikkim Rex, Rai Thistlethwayte, Lucinda Peters, and many more

Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour

Sly grog haunts, opium dens and Sydney’s most haunted locations

830pm Thursdays Fridays Saturdays BOOK NOW

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www.sydneyfringe.com

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More: For the full Sydney Fringe program, visit sydneyfringe.com

[MUSICAL THEATRE]

[MUSICAL THEATRE]

SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL SHOW PROFILES Albert & Jameson: A Play with Vampires

[THEATRE]

The show: Albert & Jameson: A Play with Vampires is a new absurdist comedy from the gang at Dire Theatre. The story centres on Albert and Jameson, a pathetic pair of vampires, as they explore the meaninglessness of life. The play is structured around the duo as they struggle with the three big E’s: eternity, enraged peasants and each other. Following a very public blunder by Albert, the paltry pair are forced into hibernation for a century or so. They awake in the modern world, but quickly discover that living in the age of Facebook is about as tolerable as an eternity of one another’s company.

The talent: The cast comprises three members of Dire Theatre, all local Illawarra boys. Adam O’Brien plays Albert and is also the show’s writer and director. David Rienits plays Jameson and Sam Sweeting plays a plethora of roles including Discount Vincent Price.

The crowd: Albert & Jameson is suitable for all lovers of theatre and comedy theatre (M15+).

It’s a light hearted examination of some very confronting themes, but all and all is an evening of fun existential dread and penis jokes.

Price: $25 Where: Off-Broadway Festival Hub, 74-76 Pyrmont Bridge Road, Annandale When: Thursday September 22 – Saturday September 24.

Facemeat – The Musical Cycology – Inside The Mind of Cy Coleman The show: Cycology is a cabaret journey inside the mind of American composer Cy Coleman, the man behind the music of Sweet Charity, City Of Angels, Barnum and other Tony-winning musicals. The work looks at the volatile relationships he had with his various writing partners using his wonderfully complex music.

From his first piano recital at New York Town Hall at the age of six to the sold-out concerts he played near the end of his life, Coleman’s career spanned performance, production, film scoring and composition, though he is most well known for the songs he wrote with his various collaborators. He wrote with eight different lyricists for Broadway stages alone, and with many more for standalone songs.

The talent: Richard Woodhouse wrote the piece and stars as Cy Coleman. Richard has played at numerous independent shows all across Sydney, with highlights including Squabbalogic’s Man Of La Mancha, The Drowsy Chaperone and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, as well Birdie’s Keating! The Musical. Leading a fantastic three-piece band is actor/singer-songwriter Jonathon Holmes, whose various projects have included Vaudevillia, Mickey’s Jazz Club and his EP Plutonese.

The crowd: Fans of Cy Coleman’s music and shows, and jazz fans in general.

Price: $30 adult, $24 concession, $21 for groups larger than six Where: Seymour Centre Sound Lounge When: Thursday September 15 - Saturday September 17

The show: Sydney-based seven-piece Facemeat is delighted to be involved for the first time with the Sydney Fringe Festival. A show specifically prepared for the festival, Facemeat – The Musical is a spoken-word tale of entrapment narrated by the band’s writer David Sattout and interspersed with new music.

The hour-long journey takes us through an old family home and reveals the awful secrets contained within it. Musically the show traverses rock, blues and cha-cha-cha.

The talent: Facemeat boasts an all-star cast of Adam Moses (Soul Roots Revival Band) on vocals, Ellen Kirkwood (Fat Yahoozah) on trumpet, Oliver Thorpe (Petulant Frenzy) on guitar and vocals, Eden Ottignon (Mister Ott) on bass, Jamie Cameron (The Vegetable Plot) on drums, Byron Mark (Petulant Frenzy) on keys and Ross Harrington (Midnight Tea Party) on alto saxophone and clarinet. Facemeat will also feature the very special talents of puppet master Shani Moffat and composer and writer David Sattout.

The crowd: 25- to 40-year-old music and theatre goers; people who are interested in material that is not regular popular fare.

Price: $15 Where: 401 Lamps Hibernian House, 342 Elizabeth Street Sydney When: Wednesday September 14 and Thursday September 15, 8:30pm

THE STRIDES JOSEPH TAWADROS QUARTET GRACE BARBÉ AFRO-KREOL AJAK KWAI DECLAN KELLY PRESENTS DIESELN’DUB AFROBRASILIANA SOUNDSYSTEM MIRIAM LIEBERMAN TRIO EMILY WURRAMARA MIDDAY TO 8PM BICENTENNIAL PARK GLEBE book tickets at globalrhythms.com.au

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SHOW PROFILES [TOUR]

[THEATRE]

[MUSIC]

Global Rhythms Festival 0 1–3Music

ER SEPTEMB 2015

The show: Global Rhythms sees artists from all over the country performing at a brand new waterfront location in Glebe. Between a backdrop of both bridges, this event will be an afternoon of music, international food, activities and environmental sustainability.

The talent: Joseph Tawadros, a triple ARIA award-winning musician and composer, brings his quartet to the stage. Ajak Kwai makes her long-awaited Sydney debut, sharing her soulful and inspiring music with funky afro-beats. Grace Barbé’s sound reflects and celebrates the [THEATRE] diverse cultural influences of her Indian Ocean heritage in a way that will have the whole crowd dancing. Emily Wurramara from the Northern Territory sings beautiful music in both English and her first language, Anindilyakwa. To see the full lineup head to globalrhythms. com.au.

Reflections Of A Cause Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour The show: Journey back in time to discover the dark side of your favourite city. Sly grog haunts, opium dens, ladies of the night and revenge are all on the agenda! It takes place at Sydney’s most picturesque area with great views of the Harbour, Rocks and plenty of pubs to calm your nerves after the bone-jangling tour.

The talent: The ghost tour has been written and researched by paranormal investigator Jacqueline Travaglia, a historian currently in London researching all things Jack the Ripper. The work will be performed by local actors Alison Albany, Sandy Sharma, John E Molyneux and Sam Haft.

The crowd: Prospective audiences should have an open mind, a sense of humour and an interest in all things dark and ghostly.

Price: $34 per person.

Where: The Rocks. The tour meets outside the Observer Hotel.

When: Every Thursday and Friday from Thursday September 1 to Friday September 30.

The crowd: As a festival looking to provide a unique experience, we’re hoping to have the kind of crowd who wants to lay down a picnic rug, grab a bottle of wine from the bar, enjoy some food from the Middle Eastern markets and kick back and relax.

Price: $40, teenagers $10 and children 12 and under free.

Where: Bicentennial Park Glebe.

When: Midday to 8pm, Sunday September 25.

The show: Our show is about how identity is created through decision making, and how the decisions we make in our youth effect the outcome of our lives as adults.

We follow the lives of a young 15-yearold couple who meet in the small town of Yackandandah and who are still together as a married couple 20 years later. We switch between pivotal moments in their lives as 15-year-olds and as married 35-year-olds in a fragmented experimental structure.

The talent: The lead actor is Chris Miller, who is a well known Sydney theatre personality. Also in the cast we have Emma Dalton, Anthony Yangoyan and Macushla Cross, who are all exciting, emerging talents.

The crowd: The audience who would enjoy this play are fans of thought-provoking and informative scripts. Anyone involved in fringe theatre themselves, actors, writers and visual artists or just lovers of the arts should come along. I also believe relationships and drug counsellors could benefit from this show, as there are plenty of highly emotionalised scenes.

Price: $25 adults, $20 concession.

Where: The Depot Theatre, 142 Addison Road Marrickville.

When: Wednesday September 7 until Saturday September 10, 9pm.

#SUFF2016

OPENING NIGHT FILM & PARTY 'WIENER-DOG' BY TODD SOLONDZ CLOSING NIGHT FILM & PARTY 'MULTIPLE MANIACS' BY JOHN WATERS

A 4 DAY CINEMATIC ADVENTURE WITH 100+ FILMS, MUSIC AND MASTERCLASSES. TIX AT SUFF.COM.AU Central Ranges

32 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15

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brag favourite

Musical Of Thrones

#9

[MUSICAL THEATRE]

Where: New Theatre When: Friday September 16 – Sunday September 18 and Saturday September 24

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Arca Bayburt

It’s the musical theatre adaptation we all knew was coming, as inevitable as the winter. Musical Of Thrones: A Parody Of Ice And Fire, penned by Daniel Cullen, follows the story of the Starks at Winterfell as they receive an important visit from King Robert of Westeros. Gripping stuff, right? Hell, maybe it’ll turn into a worldwide smash that will last eight seasons and get pirated by just about everyone. Maybe not.

[DANCE]

Fake Gay News

M

ainstream queer news is a bloody joke. Here’s why.

Remember when a rainbow crossing was painted onto the Oxford Street side of Taylor Square in Darlinghurst back in 2013 for Mardi Gras?

Pedal + Castles Show titles: Pedal and Castles (we’re putting on two shows!)

The show: Both shows are pretty much one third Ziggy Stardust, one third Labyrinth muppets and one third existential sex/life crisis. Also I travel loads so it’s about all the ridiculous situations I find myself in when I’m alone in the big wide world. I use the show to remember what to pack. Its all pretty abstract. I make weird, interesting and pretty pictures from the things that have moved me so that audience can find their own story in my – hopefully entertaining – expression.

The talent: For the last two years I’ve been constantly travelling, so my experiences of moving and being in pretty heightened situations informs a lot of how I see the world.

The crowd: All kinds of people! Except Trump, he probably won’t like it. Unless he likes the movie Labrynth and has suddenly become not-an-asshole, in which case he’d love it.

Price: $25 full or $18 concession for each show, with big discounts if you see the double bill.

Where: The Old 505 theatre When: Tuesday September 20 – Saturday September 24

More: For the full Sydney Fringe program, visit sydneyfringe.com

F ENREE TR Y

OPENING NIGHT SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL PARTY

A bunch of politicians (among them Christine Forster, who always seems as though she’s hoping to be mayor some day) are talking about repainting it and the gay media was awash with positive commentary on the proposal.

The crossing was initially removed because of safety concerns. People were lying down in the middle of the street, taking selfies. The Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight, Duncan Gay (lol) said that a coloured crossing could open the possibility of other groups clamouring for specialised crossings.

“When you approve something in a colour, you approve a political statement and if you allow colours for one thing, you leave yourself open for many others,” he said in a 2013 interview. “Well-known sporting teams may want a crossing as well – we could have red and green for the Rabbitohs, maybe.”

Such a statement really smacks of the “Zoophiles are gonna want to marry their dolphin lovers once we open the floodgates to deviant marriages!” argument made by your garden-variety bigot.

An online petition trying to save the crossing reached 15,000 signatures. The argument was that Taylor Square has historically been the cultural heart of Sydney’s queer community since forever, adding historical context to the defense of the crossing.

I call this Fake Gay News. This is the kind of insipid gruel that gets churned through mainstream news outlets, ignoring the real issues that queer people face. God knows it’s easier to talk about a rainbow crossing than it is to face the realities of queer youth homelessness, drug abuse and systematic discrimination. Instead, let’s all allow ourselves be distracted by those shiny diamante studded GAYTMS. I walked through Taylor Square one night many years ago, after leaving some girl’s apartment. I’d met her at a queer party and wanted to sleep with her, but was still consumed with gay shame and a whole pile of internalised homophobia. No amount of rainbow symbolism could have crowbarred it out of me at the time. She lived across

Then I had to come back, because I’d forgotten something. She was awake and probably had been for a while. Completely expressionless, she was lying on her back and staring up the ceiling, jogging one foot lightly. Then she caught sight of me, and to all appearances stopped breathing.

Maybe she felt as ashamed as I did about the entire interaction. Or maybe I’d just projected that onto her.

I was paranoid on the walk home: the more people I passed, the more I was convinced that each and every one was taking a good, long look at my crotch, and somehow seeing both my and her names floating there incriminatingly. I doubt walking on a rainbow would have made any difference.

Indeed, I walked on that rainbow crossing many times. I was even in the parade that year. Seeing the rainbow didn’t magically make me feel that the world was any less hostile towards people like me. It only served to remind me how our struggle has been commodified. Why should we settle for symbolic victories? We shouldn’t be lulled into political apathy because a bunch of well-to-do opportunists painted a rainbow for us and asked for a pat on the back. “Hey, sorry about you being second class citizens and all, but look, we painted a rainbow on the ground for you.

We care.”

This is emblematic of the plight of queer people. Even our own mainstream news outlets ignore the real stuff, the ugly stuff that we try so hard to sweep under our glittery rugs. A rainbow crossing will have very little impact on the lives of many disenfranchised queer people. It’s a symbol for nothingness, proving about as important as a like on Facebook.

The total cost of the rainbow crossing was $110,000, including the $30,000 for its removal – money that could have been spent on things like resources for queer youth, education or even a campaign for equal rights.

Repainting the crossing is symbolic at best and lazy at worst. Queer media needs to step up and give voice to the things that really matter.

this week…

FROM 9PM MIDNIGHT SHIFT 85 OXFORD STREET DARLINGHURST

DRAG SHOWS BY KARA DEVINE AND POMARA FIFTH AND MORE

DJ TANNER DERBY GET YOUR DISCO ON!

THE SHIFT CLUB thebrag.com

the road from a row of squat, industrial buildings with advertisements atop them.

She’d accidentally spilled her drink on my pants, yet charmed me enough to let her take me home. Immediately after sub-par sex, I tore arse out of the place.

On Wednesday August 31, Birdcage are set to present Spring Fling at the SlyFox. It’ll be a celebration of the beginning of spring with lots of dancing and floral treats. Entry is free and DJs Tiny, Mickey, Dom de Sousa and more will be spinning for your pleasure.

On Friday September 2, head over to The Imperial Hotel for Friday Work with Felicity Frockaccino

Felicity Frockaccino hosting from 10pm, and shows running at 11pm, 12am, and 1am. It’ll feature over-the-top costumes, performances and banter: what more could you need?

Then on Saturday September 3, the Shift Club will be hosting the Sydney Fringe Festival opening party with Drag Disco. From 9pm come celebrate with a bunch of gay camp crazy drag queens. Think mirror balls and big hair! DJ Tanner Derby will be on the decks playing camp disco and shows all night from 9pm. Your drag hostesses and showgirls on the night will be Pomara Fifth and Kara Devine.

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:15 :: 33

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

MAXWELL

an unexpected but moving visual tribute to the Divinyls’ lead singer Chrissy Amphlett.

“This one goes out to everyone who made a baby to that first record,” Maxwell announces at one point during his Enmore Theatre show to his adoring crowd. “And also to all those 20-year-old kids here tonight”.

‘Sumthin’ Sumthin’ is one of the most malleable songs in his repertoire – sometimes appearing as a late night slow jam, sometimes as a banger – but here it’s a showcase for the band, a bubbling, busy number, highlighting the hyper-expressive trumpet work of Keyon Harrold.

Such an aside is a nod to both Maxwell’s boudoir appeal and his status as a crossgenerational maverick. First appearing in 1996 with neo soul classic Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, the musician has been a consistently classy, if not exactly prolific, presence in soul music.

Tonight’s set is very much a greatest hits parade, dominated by sophisticated, smooth tunes like ‘Lifetime’ and ‘Bad Habits’. The latter begins with some feather-light falsetto, but quickly settles into a gently swinging groove and then branches out into some jazzy interludes.

Everything is done with a perfectionist’s attitude to musicianship and visual flair, Maxwell himself resplendent in a light grey suit, crisp white shirt and rock star sunglasses, sashaying away in front of projected visuals which segue from shooting stars and rocket launches into glittering panoramas of Vegas at night.

More spectacular still is his sparse, ethereal cover of ‘This Woman’s Work’, a performance that sees Maxwell highlighted in ghostly dual spotlights while sheet music from Kate Bush’s original plays behind him, intercut with

The stunning ‘Lake By The Ocean’, however, sees Maxwell take his foot off the pedal in grand style. The strongest track from new record BlackSummers’night, it’s a graceful, mellow marvel, and with Maxwell nailing the fluid falsetto flourishes perfectly, this version is pure silk.

Later, he teases the start of ‘Whenever Wherever Whatever’ before pivoting instead into the gospel inflections of ‘Let The Church Say Amen’, becoming the most dapper person ever to lead an “Aussie, aussie, aussie” chant and finishing with a delicate version of the evergreen ‘Pretty Wings’.

Finally, the band introduce themselves one by one with nods to their home cities (Chicago, Philly, St.Louis, Memphis), a litany of names which reads like a list of America’s greatest soul music cities.

It concludes an immaculate show from Maxwell, a crooner some 20 years into his career and still yet to put a foot wrong.

Daniel Herborn

gordi

PICS :: AM

Enmore Theatre Monday August 22

28:08:16 :: Newtown Social Club :: 387 King St Newtown 1300 724 876

CUB SPORT, CLEA, TINKER Newtown Social Club Saturday August 27

Little is known about Tinker, the production project for one Christopher Bristow that made its live debut last May. Already making waves on SoundCloud, it’s interesting to see Bristow’s compositions unfurl within the live setting. He’s complemented here by a drummer and a female vocalist, both of whom impress with their proficiency in handling their respective instruments. A tender, strippedback cover of Drake and Rihanna’s ‘Too Good’ translates beautifully, while single ‘Fill The Field’ is pure bliss release that deserves to break through into the collective conscious. With a lot of potential shown, here’s to its fruition.

25:08:16 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

34 :: BRAG :: 676 :: 17:08:16

volumes

It’s safe to fear the worst in the moments before Cub Sport start their biggest headlining show to date in Sydney. The night previous, the band sadly had to cut their set short due to frontman Tim Nelson’s voice loss, and there was every chance in the world that he would not be able to recover in time.

However, the doubt slips away into the dark of the night the second the curtain pulls back and the opening harmonic refrain of ‘Sun’, the dream-like opener to the band’s This Is Our Vice LP, rings out with the utmost of clarity. Nelson is on the level. Indeed, if Nelson’s health wasn’t public knowledge and went without being acknowledged by the man himself, the show could well have just been seen as business as usual.

Fortunately, in case you’ve not been following the trajectory of the band of late, business is good. Like, really good. ‘Come On Mess Me Up’ is the lighter ballad we didn’t know we needed, ‘I Can’t Save You’ is synth-pop paradise and their rendition of Kanye West’s ‘Ultralight Beam’ is inspired and soulful. Cub Sport are the voice – try and understand it.

David James Young

PICS :: AM

andy black

PICS :: AM

It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If this is so, Laura Marling is overwhelmingly flattered by Clea Pratt, who performs mononymously under her first name. Given, Marling isn’t entirely idiosyncratic – many have been like her before, and many more will continue to be so. The similarities, however, are simply too great to ignore. It’s the vocal timbre, the chord progressions and it’s even the way said progressions are played on guitar.

This is music built entirely out of another’s mould, and it’s entirely detrimental to

whatever individuality Pratt may have had to offer.

27:08:16 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711 :: Brighton Up Bar ::

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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up all night out all week . . .

THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS, ALEX LAHEY, STAY AT HOME SON Newtown Social Club Friday August 26

The trick to performing while backed by an entirely programmed and processed beat is staying militantly precise and diligent. It’s here that Stay At Home Son – who, it must be stressed, are a new act that have all the time in the world to learn this – fall short. Missed cues and flubbed parts almost derail them entirely, while their vocalist’s mono-baritone delivery sees each song eventually shift into holding patterns. There’s certainly a talent here to be watched – it might just take a moment for the grey area within it to subside.

arrested development

PICS :: AM

Melbourne’s Alex Lahey exudes both a playful innocence and a visceral six-string savvy; a pogo-mosh between youthful exuberance and quaint wisdom beyond her twenty-something years. Her exceptional singles ‘Let’s Go Out’ and ‘You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me’, stir up a rousing reception, but it’s the newer material on offer that both holds its own and bodes great promise for the future. ‘Every Day’s The Weekend’ is bouncy and carefree, while the brilliantlytitled ‘Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder’ is a frazzled, jangly sugar rush. Expect her Brighton Up headliner to sell out – she’s not long for venues that small.

26:08:16 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666

Let it be known: What follows is easily one of the most joyous celebrations one could imagine when farewelling a band of this nature. Constantly outsiders peering in, The John Steel Singers have always held somewhat of a cult status in Australian indie rock, which is both a testament to their commitment to doing things their own way and the at times inexplicable nature of commercial success. Tonight, the band – with percussionist Jonathan Boulet and vocalist/saxophonist Kirsty Tickle in tow – are celebrating a career of pop majesty, disco detours, glam-rock gold and the occasional dose of GoBetweens worship for good measure.

Early favourites like ‘Masochist’ and ‘Strawberry Wine’ blend into more recent jams such as ‘Weekend Lover’ and ‘Can You Feel The Future’, which expand out into borderline delirious wig-outs that feel as though they could go on forever. It ends, serendipitously, with a practically accidental run through of long-abandoned single ‘Overpass’, as well as a wild ‘Rainbow Kraut’, which sees triple j alum and former manager Maggie Collins join the band onstage for one last dance and sing. The John Steel Singers haven’t faded away – they’ve burned out, bright and beautiful.

Goodnight and good luck, gentlemen.

You’ve done us proud.

David James Young

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9361 3379 :: Clif Dive :: 16-18 Oxford St Darlinghurst

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 675 :: 10:08:16 :: 35

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK DE LA SOUL

And The Anonymous Nobody...

Rough Trade

De La Soul, pioneers of alternative ’90s hip hop, have escaped the creative chains of record labels, shrugged off previous sampling battles and delivered a 17-track, genre-fusing original.

De La Soul return with a crowdfunded album more polished and professional than most.

Described by Nas himself as “avant-garde”, And The Anonymous Nobody... laces sounds from decades past with the modern day hip hop voices. The result is a journey through rhyme infused with a diverse collection of styles, from De La’s usual ‘jazz rap’ to funk, soul, rock and R&B.

Made possible by crowdfunding, the album blurs independent and mainstream lines. In some ways it resembles the estranged, more eclectically dressed cousin of the band’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High And Rising. Yet despite the connection between the albums, Anonymous Nobody stands on its feet, proving to be a powerful work in its own right.

From a monologue by Jill Scott, to ’60s gospel soul mixed with Snoop Dogg, De La truly bring it all – and more – with this record. Appearances by Damon Albarn and Little Dragon only add to the colossal lineup of features.

When, towards the end of the album, De La Soul say, “Music means everything to us”, you better believe it.

All in all, And The Anonymous Nobody is a seriously welcomed breath of fresh air.

Evie Kennedy

BEACH BABY

MARGARET GLASPY

GONJASUFI

KING OF THE NORTH

TEETH & TONGUE

Welcome to the world, Beach Baby.

No Mind No Money is the sound of a band bursting onto the international stage, scoring some real hits in the process.

The somewhat condescending assumption that commercial albums are ‘lesser’ than grainier, more difficult work is one that has retaken a disappointingly firm grip on contemporary culture in recent years. Just take the enormous sniff let out by critics and consumers alike when Margaret Glaspy’s Emotions And Math was picked as triple j’s album of the week, as though the selection sliced the work’s cool factor in half.

It’s funny how some perceive and attain enlightenment. Travel, books, spirituality – many attribute these to having some sort of positive effect that keeps them mentally and physically healthy for years to come.

Don’t go into King Of The North’s new album, Get Out Of Your World, expecting an exercise in musical banality and mindless frivolity.

Though the record starts relatively innocuously with a few stray shards of guitar, some disparate beats, a guttural voice and a ten-tonne LA rock riff in ‘Rise’, before long it transforms into a behemoth: a rocking, bluesy beast.

Teeth & Tongue’s fourth album Give Up On Your Health is an electrifying move into synth-based territory for Jess Cornelius and her band. As the sounds on the album get more experimental, the bolder Cornelius becomes, inviting listeners into the engrossing urgency of her vignettes.

No Mind No Money Island Records

‘Limousine’ opens proceedings and suggests a quick ascent to bigger things, but it’s the titular track that really has the true punch of melody behind it. One cannot help but marvel at the self-effacing “A little fucked up and a little slow” lyric that twists in the centre of the song – it’s an understated gem that proves akin to finding loose change in the gutter.

‘Smoke Won’t Get Me High’ is a frolic of sorts, a call to those who’ve discovered that the comedy in their lives has been replaced by tragedy.

“Do you like what I do?” quiz the band on ‘Hot Weather’ – most listeners will surely be answering yes.

‘Bug Eyed And Blonde’ is suitably dreamy and detached, with a chorus that manages to be both affecting and radio friendly. Languid from start to finish, it’s a seamless transition through the prism of ’60s meanderings, all psychedelic brain frazzle.

All in all, No Mind No Money might not reinvent the wheel, but it has a distinct charm and power entirely of its own. Don’t miss this one – it’ll stick in your head for days.

Bronius Zumeris

Emotions And Math ATO

And yet to deny Glaspy’s album is to deny a relentlessly enjoyable record. Inhabiting the same slick yet sad, rough yet ready territory as records like Ryan Adams and King Krule’s 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, the piece balances hurt and heart.

Tracks like ‘No Matter Who’ seem ready-suited for both late night revelry and later night introspection, whereas the stripped back ‘Somebody To Anybody’ shows off Glaspy’s skills as a songwriter.

“I keep my head down and my eyes wide,” Glaspy sings, carving out the kind of chorus one can imagine fans writing on their walls, or getting printed on their skin. After all, she writes lyrics that fans will want to keep close – words you can build a world around.

Joseph Earp

Callus Warp

But at what point do we become too enlightened? That question is answered on Gonjasufi’s newest release Callus, where the Californian producer attempts to meld sound in a way that is ferocious in its delivery, yet unlistenable and uninteresting.

To call this an album would be an overstatement at best. It’s more of a bad science experiment gone wrong, and while a track like ‘Ole Man Sufferah’ gives some sort of order through all the wacky experimentation, most of the album is dissonant and messy. ‘Krishna Punk’ is true to its name and is definitely the most tolerable cut off the album, but its on ‘Elephant Man’ that it really becomes apparent that Sufi is more interested in making music for himself rather than his fans.

There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s actually quite admirable.

But what isn’t admirable is lazy creativity, and the idea of just chucking a bunch of random instruments together and hoping they make sound is an interesting concept resulting in awful tunes.

Benjamin Potter

GEORGIA MULLIGAN Our Blood To Part Independent

36 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

Georgia Mulligan is the exception to that particular rule. If anything, Mulligan is all about overwhelming the listener rather than cutting them short, and her songs find much of worth in the territory most musicians would lack the bravery to even skirt around. She is that, then – a singularly unafraid songwriter, and ‘White Lies’ mixes up a drenched melody with a vivid, spat-out chorus, whilst ‘The Worst Part’ swings back from trauma to transcendence and then all the way back again.

‘Ride Like You’re Free’ adds to the list of hard rock tracks celebrating the discourse of freedom with a swagger-soaked stadium soundtrack – and one of the better ones to boot – while ‘Down To The Devil’ is the latest station on Robert Johnson’s perennially inspiring trip to the gates of hell.

The journey to the top of ‘The Mountain’ is almost as impressive as the view from the top, ‘Caught Between Two Worlds’ is emotional conflict dressed to kill in double denim and ‘Hard Days Are Done’ is catharsis with a bottle of single malt and a Bon Scott sneer.

There’s more to come with the prisoner-free ‘No Stone Left Unturned’ and pop-but-not ‘Manic Depression’. Kings aren’t supposed to be benign rulers, and King Of The North ain’t no benign rock’n’roll band.

Patrick Emery

Give Up On Your Health Dot Dash / Remote Control

The opening track is Blondie meets Ladyhawke, as layers of synths are revealed and the narrative unfolds via Cornelius’ beguiling vocals.

On ‘Do Harm’ Cornelius imparts wisdom on the importance of letting things go, while ‘Your Ghost Is The Hardest To Kill’ tells of the anguish of being at the mercy of someone no longer a part of your life.

Meanwhile, the monster romp ‘Dianne’ demands to be listened to on repeat and as loudly as possible, serving as the most infectious track on the album. The closing track is a masterclass in indie rock, with Cornelius embracing a real sense of fun and taking things to an exciting new level.

Never has Cornelius’ song writing or vocals been more powerful and even though she’s this far into her career, there’s still plenty more she has to show off. Truly a musical chameleon, Cornelius has rejuvenated Teeth & Tongue and released a singularly compelling album.

Holly Pereira

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK On the whole, contemporary indie rock seems particularly prey to unfulfilled potential. Disappointingly often, musicians in the genre set up a situation or a sound that they then seem unable to bring to fruition, hinting at an emotional maturity that their fragile tunes bend and break under.

Get Out Of Your World Independent

Indeed, Mulligan’s skill is making pain seem like a triumph, and triumph seem like pain. By refusing to settle for anything resembling the middle ground, Mulligan blasts her tunes into the walls of your heart, pounding out messages in the places you thought secret.

The end result is an EP that feels like something cut from your life; not for you but of you.

This is music you already know, somehow – songs you have been hearing your whole life without even realising it. You don’t know Georgia Mulligan yet. But Georgia Mulligan knows you.

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

DEATH GRIPS - Government Plates BOB DYLAN - Highway 61 Revisited THE DRONES - Gala Mill

PJ HARVEY - Uh Huh Her CAT POWER - Myra Lee

Joseph Earp thebrag.com

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

pick of the week Flowertruck

SUNDAY S E P T E M BER 4

Various Locations King Street, Newtown

King Street Crawl 12pm. Free.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Codie Prevost + Brigginshaw The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $19.20.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Bernie Segedin Duo Tokio Hotel, Sydney.

7pm. Free.

Doko + Swamp To Sahara + Flip The Script Brighton Up Bar,

Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

Genisis 2 - feat: The Substitutes + Naked + Never Eleven + Clockworks + Soul Krunch + Kimber Lane + Box Of Rain + King Misstra + Madre Elegante Manning Bar, Camperdown. 7pm.

Free.

Go Van Go Frankie's Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Lastlings Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 12am.

Free.

Sugar Jam Open Mic Night Sugarmill, Kings Cross. 8pm. Free.

Sydneyvision Song Contest 2016 Grand Final Dendy Opera Quays, Sydney. 7pm. $20.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anthony Charlton Australian Arms Hotel, Penrith. 8:30pm. Free.

Hoochie Mama Garry Owen Hotel, Rozelle. 7pm. Free.

Hussy Hicks Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $15.

Mr Taos Medicine Show + Lola Sola + Col Ganderton Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Shake The Shackles The Little Guy, Glebe.

8pm. Free.

Sunset Sessions

The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Adeline Pines + Wasters Vic On The Park, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

Echo Deer The Temperance Society, Summer Hill.

8pm. Free.

Episode V, Rum And Ale Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm.

Free.

Imperial Broads Freda's, Chippendale.

8pm. Free.

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $33.80.

Little Wise + Alana Bruce + Sam Newton The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $15.

Live Band Karaoke Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 9pm. Free.

Palace Of The King Frankie's Pizza, Sydney. 7pm. Free.

Skeggs + Dumb Punts + Verge Collection Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $18.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

David Debs Lord Raglan Hotel, Alexandria. 7pm. Free.

Hussy Hicks Old Manly Boatshed, Manly. 8pm. $15.

Jj Hausia Figtree Hotel, Figtree.

9:30pm. Free.

Key To The Highway The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Spit Roasting Bibbers Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9:30pm.

Free.

Sunset Sessions The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

The Best Of Chess - feat: Ray Beadle + Chris Wilson + Charlie A’Court Brass Monkey,

Cronulla. 7pm. $34.70.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Angelena Locke Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm.

Free.

As A Rival + Dividers + Ebolagoldfish + The Great Awake + Raised As Wolves Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Black Diamond Hearts Penrith RSL, Penrith.

9pm. Free.

Brad Johns The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm.

Free.

Christie Lamb Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 8:30pm.

Free.

Cryptopsy + Whoretopsy + I Valiance Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $55.10.

Fripps & Fripps + Fox Holmes + Stay At Home Mum + Scum Dog Zillionaire Sweaty Betty's Bar, Miranda. 7pm. $14.30.

Gabriella Cohen Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm.

Free.

Glenn Esmond Duo Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 9pm. Free.

Jimmy Bear Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 9:30pm. Free.

Jp Project Clovelly Hotel, Clovelly. 4:30pm. Free.

Plini Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $28.70.

Raised As Wolves + As A Rival + Dividers + Ebolagoldfish + The Great Awake Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm.

Free.

Rattle & Hum - U2 Show Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

Soundproofed Engadine Tavern, Engadine. 9pm. Free.

The Whitlams Metro Theatre, Sydney.

7:30pm. $46.90.

Vanessa Heinitz Engadine Bowling Club, Engadine.

7:30pm. Free.

Yates The World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. $25.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Alfredo Malabello - feat: Alfredi Malabello The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

Johnny G And The E Types Presents King Of Soul (Otis Redding’s 75th Birthday Celebration) The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $29.20.

Katcha Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt.

8pm. Free.

Ted Nash 99 On York, Sydney.

5:30pm. Free.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Anita Spring And The Soul Doctors Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

Endangered Species Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free.

John & Yuki Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt.

8pm. Free.

Mister Ott Venue 505, Surry Hills.

6pm. $18.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

60s Mania St George Masonic Club, Mortdale . 8pm.

Free.

Anthony Callea Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 7:30pm. $45.

Cath & Him Hornsby RSL, Hornsby. 8pm. Free.

Dave Anthony Panania Diggers, Panania. 8pm. Free.

Diesel Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $37.50.

Fox Company + Kvlts Of Vice + Bad Moon Born

Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

Mike Hallam Hot Five Penrith RSL, Penrith.

2pm. Free.

Pentatonix Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $59.90.

Sarah Mary Chadwick + The Garbage + The Flowers Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $13.

Ted Mulry Gang Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $35.

Vanessa Heinitz Duo Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 9pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

50 Million Beers The Bunker, Coogee.

8pm. $10.

Bryan Esteppa And The Tempe Two + Adam Young & Buddy Glass The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Father Sydney Presents (Father Bass Club Weekly) feat: Myrne + Luude + Hatch + Holly + Butcher + Lolo Bx Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm.

Free.

Hussy Hicks Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $15.

Lost Romeros Oxidados The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3pm. $7.

The Best Of Chess Records - feat: Ray Beadle + Chris Wilson + Charlie A'Court The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $34.50.

Whelan & Gover Rocks Brewing Co, Alexandria. 2pm. Free.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS From Street To Stage Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

Glenn Esmond The Push Bar, The

Rocks. 4pm. Free.

Jp Project The Rivo Hotel, Riverstone. 4pm.

Free.

King Street Crawl feat: Grinding Eyes + The Tambourine Girls + Richard Cuthbert + The Maladies + Fan Girl Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

12pm. Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Peter Bibby + Shining Bird + Polish Club + The Ruminaters + Fascinator + Wild Honey + Betty & Oswald + Pretty City + Jody + Deep Sea Arcade DJs + Rare Finds DJ + Visions DJs Waywards, Newtown. 12pm.

Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Big White + Flowertruck + Spike Vincent + Bourgeois Earth + Phanosland + Tim Mcmahon + Felix Lush + Mezko + Julien Bowman + Concrete Beach + Sunscreen Miss Peaches Soul Food Kitchen, Newtown. 4pm. Free.

King Street Crawl feat: Terza Madre + Aidan D. Cooney + Little Georgia Midnight Special, Newtown. 3pm. Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: The Laurels + Richard In Your Mind + Spod + Rebel Yell + Den Contrast + Secret Guests Union Hotel, Newtown. 2pm. Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Curated By Sad Grrrls Club + Skandy Gramatic + Yes Rave + Rackett + Latham’s Grip + Bad Bitch Choir + Rachel Maria Cox + Wasters + The Nah + Nothing Rhymes With David + Cat Lyf + Body Promise + Simo Soo + Htmlflowers + Zsa Zsa Lafine + Slim Set + Sass Hound + Owen Rabbit + More Imperial Hotel Erskineville. 12pm.

Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Snakepit + Punchdagger + Autumn + Panic Burst And Galleries

five things WITH

LUCAS HUGHES FROM FOOTMARKS

Tell us a little about your new performance, Footmarks 1.

Now in its third season, Primal Dance Company has partnered with three celebrated contemporary classical composers to create the new work Footmarks. The piece features a stunning original score and a cast of athletic dancers.

The piece is grounded in the physical environment of the 2.

Central Coast region.

What do you think makes that subject so fascinating?

Footmarks is an exploration of the way our history has shaped our contemporary cultural identity. The

thebrag.com

work is inspired by the physical environment of the Central Coast region as well as historical stories of strength.

produced there?

It has long been a venue on our bucket list and we cannot wait to enjoy the beautiful theatre.

How long did the piece take What do you want to rehearse? audiences to think/feel as 3.

5.

Our rehearsal schedule has they leave the theatre? been intense at times, as many of our rehearsals have had to be scheduled around the dancer’s various commitments to projects and contracts both locally and overseas.

The Eternity Playhouse is such a special venue. How 4. does it feel to have the piece

It is our hope that our audience leaves our performance inspired by the potential that we have as a community in Australia.

What: Footmarks as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 Where: Eternity Playhouse When: Monday September 5

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 37

g g guide gig g

picks up all night out all week...

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com The Hideaway Bar, Enmore. 4pm. Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Green Buzzard + Middle Kids + Planet + Shearin' + DJs Rhosian Woolridge Vs Dom O'Connor + Al Grigg Vs Dion Ford + Cecil Coleman Vs Gab Ryan + Johann Ponniah Vs Scott Armstrong Marlborough Hotel, Newtown. 12pm.

Free.

King Street Crawl - feat: Twin Fires + Pat Capocci + Good Counsel + James Thomson And The Strange Pilgrims + The Drey Rollan Band + Billy Fox + Nick Saxon + Ruth Carp And The Fish Heads + Colin Jones + Colin Jones & The Delta Revue + DJs Glenn Boyce + Nic Puertolas + Josie Leitch Leadbelly, Newtown. 12pm.

Free.

Michael Kopp Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 1pm. Free.

Nathan Cole Rocks Brewing Co, Alexandria. 2pm.

Free.

Suicide Silence Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm.

Free.

The Dead Marines

The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 5pm. $7.

Trashed Again - feat: Durry + Mapsto Eden + Meth Muscles Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 12pm.

Free.

Vanessa Heinitz The Mill Hotel, Milperra. 5pm.

Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Dave Anthony feat: Dv8 The Mill Hotel, Milperra. 8am.

Free.

Harry Manx + Clayton Dooley The Basement, Circular Quay.

6:30pm. $60.10.

Heath Burdell Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 3pm. Free.

Jed Zarb Jamison Hotel, Penrith. 1pm. Free.

Josh Needs Red Cow Inn, Penrith. 2pm. Free.

Michael Fryar The Mill Hotel, Milperra. 12pm.

Free.

Michael Gorham Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown.

2pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Dan Barnett Big Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 4pm. Free.

Ted Nash Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West.

1pm. Free.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 5 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

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

Free.

Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Frankie’s World Famous House Band Frankie's Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

The Monday Jam The Basement, Circular Quay.

8:30pm. $6.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Skegss

A Boy Named Cash Lord Raglan Hotel, Alexandria. 7pm. $17.20.

Live & Original @ The Corridor Corridor Bar, Newtown. 7pm.

Free.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 6 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31 Go Van Go Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Live Rock & Roll Karaoke Frankie's Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free.

Sydneyvision Song Contest 2016 Grand Final Dendy Opera Quays, Sydney. 7pm. $20.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1

A Boy Named Cash Lord Raglan Hotel, Alexandria. 7pm. $17.20.

Darren Hanlon + The Grand Magoozi + Eric Isaacson Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

7pm. $28.

Little Sundays feat: Local Talent The Little Guy, Glebe. 6pm. Free.

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $33.80.

Little Wise + Alana Bruce + Sam Newton The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $15.

Live At The Sly – feat: Sagrada Familiar + The Domestics + Majun Bu + Live At The Sly Djs Slyfox Enmore. 7pm. Free.

Mr Taos Medicine Show + Lola Sola + Col Ganderton Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Palace Of The King Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 7pm. Free.

Skeggs + Dumb Punts + Verge Collection Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $18.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2 The Best Of Chess - feat: Ray Beadle + Chris Wilson + Charlie A’court Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $34.70.

Cryptopsy + Whoretopsy + I Valiance Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $55.10.

Johnny G And The E Types Presents King Of Soul - Otis Redding’s 75th Birthday Celebration The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $29.20.

The Whitlams Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $46.90.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 Diesel Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $37.50 Mister Ott Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $18.

Pentatonix Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $59.90.

wed

Sacred Roots – feat: Carmella Baynie, Yantra De Vilder, Avishai Barnatan, Amir Paiss Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman. 4:30. $26.50

thu

31

01

Aug

Sarah Mary Chadwick + The Garbage + The Flowers Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $13.

Sep

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 6

02 Sep (10:00PM - 1:40AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sat

sun

03

5:45PM  8:45PM

Sep

04

05 Sep

The Whitlams 3:30PM  6:30PM

Sep

(10:00PM - 1:15AM)

mon

Sarah Mary Chadwick

Darren Hanlon + The Grand Magoozi + Eric Isaacson Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $28.

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

tue

06 Sep

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

EVERY SATURDAY

Party DJs GROUND FLOOR - AFTER BANDS

38 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

thebrag.com

brag beats

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

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Alex Chetverikov, Emily Norton and Joseph Earp

five things WITH JOHNY

BLUE BOY FROM SURVIVAL PARTY

Growing Up For me growing 1. up involved several powerful ghetto blasters almost always on full, with me pinning my head in-between, soaking up every sound.

Inspirations Such a big 2. question with so little space to answer in!

OK, so I’ll name five: I love Bono, Freddie Mercury, Sia, Celine Dion and Shirley Bassey. All of those singers have super powerful voices with unimaginable control and range.

Seekae

Your Crew I work a day job: I’m a banker with ANZ and I love it very much. With DJing it was a trance DJ named Ruby who taught me to spin back in 2007. My first gigs were at Slide nightclub, swiftly followed by Phoenix Rising.

3.

GOODBAR AND GOOD VIBES

Goodbar and Charades continue their recent spate of billing great artists with yet another solid booking: Seekae is going to be launching their weekly Peoples Club night on Friday September 2. Located conveniently just outside the lockout zone (fancy that!), the venue is looking to be Sydney’s next big thing in underground dance music. Kato, Hubert Clarke Jr. and others will be supporting Seekae for the launch, making this a not-to-be-missed event.

plying his trade through the filters of disco. The man is also responsible for a string of funky EPs released on his own label Plumage (and a reissued groover on Detroit’s Kolour LTD label), so he’ll have a lot of choice cuts to get the place dancing.

The Music You Make And Play 4.

My music style

changes from venue to venue, but personally I love commercial pop and remixed disco anthems. I also love vocal, sexy house and any kind of music that is fun for everyone.

I’m a sucker for yesterday’s anthems, and enjoy bringing up fond memories for clubbers when they hear an old anthem.

Music, Right Here, Right

5.

Now

The music scene is a real battle these days: never have music tastes been so diverse and spread

DOPPLEGANGERS out. Because of this, everyone is a DJ all of a sudden. It has suddenly become very fashionable and cool.

Some things I love about my scene apart from the music, obviously, would have to be the drag queens.

The performers just always bring a glamorous, comical,

SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM

Santé, the artist celebrated for his work with Radio Slave and Tiefschwarz and his stellar remixes of Grace Jones and Richie Hawtin, is set to join the newest party series Nights Like This! at newly opened Goodbar on Saturday September 10.

The Berlin-based producer prides his approach as that of a composer rather than just a DJ or a producer, and has an auteristic approach to his work that sets him apart from his contemporaries.

Make sure you save that date, won’tcha?

What: Survival Party as part of Sydney Fringe 2016 Where: Imperial Hotel Basement When: Saturday September 10

Santé

Peaches

DRAWING CIRCLES AROUND CIRCOLOCCO

Ibiza legends Circoloco, the celebrated brand that has been pushing its own blend of house and electro for some time now, has lined up a heap of exciting events for this December. I know, right: it’s like all your Christmases have come at once. Seth Troxler and Ben UFO will be the acclaimed acts blasting their way through a set at the Greenwood Hotel in North Sydney on Saturday September 10.

THE TEACHES OF

Prepare thyselves: Peaches is heading to Sydney this December. The one-of-a-kind musician has already been announced as part of the Meredith Music Festival lineup, but her sideshow will give all those punters not quite ready to make that particular trip a chance to see a legend in the pitchperfect surrounds of the Metro Theatre. It all goes down on Friday December 9, so learn yourself up on the teaches of Peaches before then.

BIRDO AT THE BURDO

Norm De Plume is a bit of an overachiever. The DJ has been at work for 20 consecutive years, and he is also the hard-working host behind the host of the podcast Delusions Of Grandeur. He’s heading back to Sydney on Saturday September 3 to reignite the discotheque at the Burdekin Hotel,

Leftfield

I SEE EMC

The global electronic music community are coming together in a big way for the Electronic Music Conference this year, with over 150 guests anticipated to contribute. There will be a series of panel discussions, roundtables, workshops and masterclasses. Talk about getting an educational and musical experience right? You can expect five days of musical discovery, learning, networking, and celebrating all things electronic music. Joining keynote speaker Mirik Milan (Amsterdam’s Night Mayor, and no stranger to Australian shores) are a number of industry luminaries, including Anna Burns (Future Classic), Ben Marshall (Sydney Opera House), the electronic artist Leftfield, Patrick Donovan (Music Victoria), Sophie Hirst (Google Australia), and Wade Cawood (Pulse Global).

The Electronic Music Conference will run from Monday November 28 ’till Friday December 2. xxx

thebrag.com

fun, colourful and exciting element to our scene. Life would be a whole lot duller without our wonderful queens.

Dopplereffekt are playing their very first Australian shows this September. The Detroit pair are one of those artists who really don’t require any introduction, but we’ll introduce them anyway: the duo, Heinrich Mueller and To Nhan, have been busting out tunes for almost two decades and have won themselves a legion of fans and a whole host of accolades.

They’ll be joined by Xosar, adding

a touch more talent to an already over stuffed bill. It all goes on at the Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday September 10.

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D. Minor Major Key By Augustus Welby Palu to observe other students’ creative approaches and expand his own musical outlook.

“Hip hop is a very collaborative genre and I have built many great relationships with students who I have collaborated with and am in the process of collaborating with,” he says.

“You often meet many DJs and producers at AIM who are looking for artists and other producers to work together on their original music. I have picked up many helpful tools and methods from other people who have been in different experiences within the music industry. This has definitely helped me with my own music to create something that has meaning.”

There is a prevailing school of thought – no doubt abetted by the availability of guitar tablature websites and YouTube tutorials – that the value of formal training and the process of learning music in an academic environment is declining in popularity.

Mistaken or otherwise, the theory goes that this way of development will dilute the purity of expression and normalise one’s method of application. However, Palu understands the great advantages that result from seeking instruction from others.

“I think it is vital to gain knowledge and to learn the history of your art,” he says. “There are always new opportunities to grow in any field and learning music is a great way to further your career.”

P

arramatta rapper D. Minor has gained a number of coveted accolades over the last few years. He’s won a gold medal at the World Championship of Performing Arts, a Sony Foundation National Scholarship, a Vodafone Foundation Australia sponsorship and he’s been appointed ambassador for Parramatta City and Musicians Making A Difference. He’s also a student at the Australian Institute of Music, so his chat with the BRAG swiftly turns to the school and how it has enhanced his skills.

“As my career in music was building, I wanted to further my knowledge, gain experience and get a degree in music,” says D. Minor, AKA Daniel Harvey Palu. “I was looking to build a strong foundation in songwriting, music production, as well as creating my own compositions. I was also looking to advance my skills in software and recording techniques, as well as building up studio experience. Musicians Making A Difference was a great stepping stone into getting into AIM, due to me participating in many courses which they were putting on,

thus building up the basic knowledge to be accepted into AIM.” Palu predominantly makes hip hop music.

Ever since its advent in the 1970s, the genre has been a highly collaborative art form – it’s as much about the DJ/producer as it is about the MC and there continues to be rife cross-pollination among artists. At AIM, Palu is surrounded by a multitude of other aspiring musicians working across a range of disciplines. This has opened the door for plenty of collaborative experiments, allowing

“I THINK IT’S VITAL TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND LEARN THE HISTORY OF YOUR ART.”

Last year Palu won the gold medal for rap vocal at the World Championship of Performing Arts in Long Beach, California.

It’s a prestigious victory and he intends to build upon that momentum throughout the remaining months of 2016.

“Winning gold was an awesome experience.

I did gain a lot of confidence and it gave me a lot more opportunities to build my career.

It definitely gave me a boost in courage and motivation. My plan for the remainder of the year is to continue completing my study at AIM, release my EP and headline for a few international artists who are performing in Australia.”

What: Mixtape out now independently And: For more information about the courses AIM offer, head to aim.edu.au

five things WITH CHASM FROM ASTRONOMY Growing Up Listening to my grandpa 1. playing his sweet sax every

afternoon was a big musical moment in my childhood. He was the only remotely musical person in our family. I dug it. I also dug the tapes my sister brought back from her school trip to Malaysia.

I loved Guns N’ Roses’ Lies, The Bangles’ Best Of and New Kids On The Block. Lies in particular was bad arse – it had a lot of swearing, which I enjoyed.

Your Band Astronomy Class is like 2. a family. We are friends who

happen to make music together, so that is the best situation. The band has gone through many different phases and challenges, but somehow we keep rising up. We all met many moons ago now, all through a love of music, particularly the tunes put out by the record label Elefant Traks.

mixed at Tardis Studios in Marrickville with Mike Burnham.

He had a lot of infl uence on the overall aesthetic of our sound. That was also present on our second record Pursuit Of Happiness. Both those albums are steeped in a heavy reggae infl uence but always with hip hop beats and swagger.

Pursuit Of Happiness was more of a soul record, whereas the

40 :: BRAG :: 675 :: 10:08:16

first album was almost strictly working with reggae vibes.

Our third album, Mekong Delta Sunrise, was a move in a new direction – we almost exclusively sampled Cambodian ’60s and ’70s records to make the album.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 4.

I think there is a lot of great

music in Sydney, but not many venues. However, I always enjoy catching shows at Play Bar . There’s soldiers out there putting on shows and making it happen against the odds which is inspiring and I appreciate it, as Sydney does not lend itself to live music and night culture right now.

What Do You Love About Glebe?

5.

Besides performing at Mr Falcon’s for our upcoming show, I also put on a night at the same venue once a month, playing records. You’ll often find me lurking into the early hours of the morning around Mr Falcon’s and Different Drummer. Both venues have a vibe to them.

xxxphoto by Chris Frappe

The Music You Make Our first record Exit 3.

Strategy was recorded and

CLASS

What: Glebe Gig Hop, as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2016 Where: Mr Falcon’s, Record Crate, Different Drummer, Staves Bewery, The Little Guy and B.E.D. When: Saturday September 17

thebrag.com

club guide g

club picks p up all night out all week...

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week

FRIDAY S E P T E M BER 2

Seekae

Goodbar

People’s Club Launch Party feat: Seekae DJ Set + Kato + Hubert Clarke Jr + David Bangma + U-Khan + Adi Toohey + Sydney Pony Club 8pm. $22.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31 CLUB NIGHTS Birdcage - feat: Various DJs Slyfox, Enmore.

9pm. Free.

Queerbourhood feat: Seymour Butz + Friends The Bearded Tit, Redfern. 7:30pm.

Free.

SBW - feat: Jonski Babysham + Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Sosueme - feat: UV Boi + Lanks + Lastlings Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 9pm.

Free.

The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm.

Free.

Yellow Wednesdays Secret Garden Bar, Enmore. 7pm. Free.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1

xxx

CLUB NIGHTS Femme Fetale The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

House Keeping - feat: DJ Conor Boylan + Guests Side Bar, Sydney. thebrag.com

8pm. Free.

Running Touch Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $13.60.

Thursday Mix Up feat: DJs + Bands Hermann's Bar, Darlington. 4pm.

Free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Aus DMC Championships Nsw Finals - feat: DJ Total Eclipse + Broke + DJ Shan Frenzie + DJ Adverse Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2 CLUB NIGHTS Argyle Fridays The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Axel P Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

Bassic - feat: DJ Craze + Four Colour Zack + DJ I-Dee + Goldbrix + Bluegrass + Robustt + Arcade Theory + Ebony Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $28.

Blvd Fridays - feat: K-Note Marquee, Pyrmont.

10pm. $12.30.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Fatback - feat: DJs Adverse + Juzzlikedat + Caratgold + Amity + Makoto + Cman + Edseven + Vj Spook Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks.

5pm. Free.

Friday Frothers feat: DJ Babysham + Guests Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Kilter + Special Guests Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $29.10.

Loco Friday - feat: DJs On Rotation The Slip Inn, Sydney.

5pm. Free.

Lorna Clarkson - feat: Mick Antonievich + Tom Studdy + Ed Willis + Steph& Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 8:30pm. $10.

Peoples Club - feat: Seekae DJ Set + Kato + Hubert Clarke Jr + David Bangma + U-Khan + Adi Toohey + Sydney Pony Club Goodbar, Paddington. 8pm. $22.

Ruffbeatz - feat: Whitenoise + Kryptic + Loose Cannon + Ben420 + Zac Slade Music + Biscuit Bytes + Loren Pierce + Triex Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm. $25.

Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Tokyo Prose feat: Kyphosis + Singleminded + Vice Versa + Severity Zero + Tokyo Prose + Mark Bionic Candy's Apartment, Potts Point. 8pm. $20.

Whitenoise Escape Reality Launch + Kryptic + Loose Cannon + Ben420 + Zac Slade Music + Biscuit Bytes + Loren Pierce + Triex Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm. $25.

HIP HOP & R&B

Ante Up - feat: Diola + Bones + White Girls + Dewis Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Brenny B-Sides Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 CLUB NIGHTS

Argyle Saturdays - feat: Tass + TapTap + Minx + Crazy Caz The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

C.U Saturday feat: Tristan Case + Philip Kanis + Alex Ludlow + Alex Low + Steven Birch Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $16.50.

Cakes The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm.

Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Father Sydney Presents - feat: Wu-Xi Collective Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm. $20.

Frat Saturdays feat: Danny Simms + Jayowens Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Kick On Saturdays - feat: Guest DJs Cargo Lounge, Sydney. 6pm. Free.

Kings Cross Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 5pm.

Free.

Lndry - feat: Kill Frenzy + Pantheon + Friendless + Elijah Scadden + Sanger + Non Applicable DJs + Sarkozy + Jermaine Jones + King Lee + DJ Just 1 + Mike Hyper + Offtapia

Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.90.

Loose Ends Spring Party - feat: DJ Matt Vaughan + Ben Drayton + Hip Hop Hoe + Rohan Willard + Luke O’Connor + Magda Bytnerowicz Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $23.10.

My Place Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Bar100, The Rocks.

8pm. Free.

New World Sound Marquee, Pyrmont.

10pm. $26.60.

Pacha - feat: Trance Nation feat: Exis + Digital Dreamerz Ivy Bar/lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38.

Scubar Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney.

8:30pm. Free.

Something Else - feat: Norm De Plume + Refuge DJs + Sonderr + Dave Stuart + Mitch Fowler + Lea + Shacklo Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $11.

Sunset 2 Sunrise Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $54.90.

HIP HOP & R&B

Aden Mullens And Murray Lake Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

Funk The Bar feat: D-Funk + DJ Daigo + Benny Hinn + Meem Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4 HIP HOP & R&B

Somatik And Alex Mac Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 4pm. Free.

Kill Frenzy

Running Touch

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 C.U. Saturday – feat: Tristan Case + Philip Kanis + Alex Ludlow + Alex Low + Steven Birch Civic Underground, Sydney.

9Pm. $16.50 Lndry – feat: Kill Frenzy + Pantheon + Friendless + Elijah Scadden + Sanger + Non Applicable + DJ Just 1 + Mike Hyper + Offtapia Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $22.90

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1 Running Touch Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $13.60

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2 Bassic – feat: DJ Craze + Four Colour Zack + DJ I-Dee + Goldrbix + Bluegrass + Robustt + Arcade Theory + Ebony Chinese Laundry, Sydney, 9pm. $28 Fatback – feat: DJs Adverse + Juzzlikedat + Caratgold + Amity + Makoto + Cman + Edseven + VJ Spook Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Loose Ends Spring Party – feat: DJ Matt Vaughan + Ben Drayton + Hip Hop Hoe + Rohan Willard + Luke O’Connor + Magda Bytnerowicz Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $23.10.

Something Else – feat: Norm De Plume + Refuge DJs + Sonderr + Dave Stuart + Mitch Fowler + Lea + Shacklo Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $11.

Sunset 2 Sunrise Metro Theatre, Sydney.

9pm. $54.90.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4 King Street Crawl – feat: Madchester + Brit-pop + indie and alternative DJs Webster’s Bar, Newtown.

12pm.

Free.

Four Color Zack

CLUB NIGHTS 423 - feat: Rimbombo + Not To Admire + Keep It Disco Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

2pm. Free.

King Street Crawl feat: Vinyl DJs Hive Bar , Erskineville. 12pm.

Free.

King Street Crawl (Step On) - feat: Madchester + BritPop + Indie And Alternative DJs Webster's Bar, Newtown. 12pm.

Free.

Sin Sundays The Argyle, The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

Norm De Plume

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 6 CLUB NIGHTS Coyote Tuesdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10.

BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16 :: 41

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

27:08:16 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St, CBD

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

Off The Record

RECOMMENDED

Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray Some other top-notch international gigs are on the horizon, coming to Civic Underground. First up is Dutchman Young Marco. who swings by on Friday September 9, as well as dapper house cat

Seth Troxler

D

espite the fact that its logo looks like it was made by a ten-year-old in Microsoft Paint, Circoloco throws some pretty damn good parties. Based in Ibiza, the internationally touring brand tends to swing by Australia as the summer heats up, and this year is no different. One of its strongest Aussie lineups thus far, the 2016 incarnation will be headlined by one of the co-founders of Hessle Audio, Ben UFO, and the enfant terrible of dance music, Seth Troxler.

It’s going down on Saturday December 10 at the Greenwood Hotel. It’s a day party, with proceedings kicking off at 4pm.

The San Francisco-based collective of Jacob Sperber, Jason Kendig, Robert Yang and Josh Cheon AKA Honey Soundsystem is coming our way. The group have all been instrumental in the formation of the Dark Entries and Discaire

imprints, alongside their own Honey Soundsystem Records label, and have been pioneers in the gay underground community, throwing queer parties all around the globe. Expect things to get raucous when they hit the Cruise Bar on Sunday October 23.

Young Marco

Seven Davis Jr on Saturday October 22, and Machinedrum on Wednesday November 30.

Looking overseas: one of the best nightclubs on the planet, London’s Fabric, may be closed forever when the Islington Council reviews its license on September 6. The club is currently closed following the recent tragic drugrelated deaths of two 18-year-olds.

At the time of writing, a change. org petition addressed to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to stop the closure has received 89,677 signatures. A statement from the club reads: “This petition demonstrates the sheer magnitude of people who not only value what we have been doing here in Farringdon for nearly two decades, but also care about our culture and our city’s nightlife.”

Stay tuned.

Tour rumours: Detroit house and techno don Carl Craig will be returning to Sydney over the NYE period. Lock it in.

Honey Soundsystem

Best releases this week: If you’re craving a little bit of ambient, noise and techno, then don’t sleep on Kristian Marstal’s Complex (on Idiot Disc). Otherwise I’m really digging Max McFerren’s Complete Walkthru (1080p), Grant’s Cranks (Lobster Theremin) and Ulysses’ Feelings (The Bunker NY). Also, while their name is completely terrible, Ross From Friends’ You’ll Understand (Lobster Theremin) is well worth your time.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8 – SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11

Red Bull Music Academy Weekender: Mr. Fingers, Bok Bok, Peanut Butter Wolf + more Various venues

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9

Young Marco Civic Underground

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10 Giorgio Gigli TBA

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11 Chez Damier Harpoon Harry

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16

Detroit Techno Militia Goodbar

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22

Seven Davis Jr Civic Underground

SUNDAY OCTOBER 23

Honey Soundsystem Cruise Bar

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29

Green Velvet Greenwood Hotel

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11 – SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13 Return To Rio: Carl Cox, De La Soul, Eric Powell, DJ EZ + more Del Rio, Wisemans Ferry

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12

Marcel Dettman Chinese Laundry

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24

Randomer TBA

SUNDAY OCTOBER 2

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 30

Rebekah Burdekin Hotel

Bicep UTS

Jackmaster Greenwood Hotel

Machinedrum Civic Underground

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. Hit me on Twitter via @tysonwray.

42 :: BRAG :: 678 :: 31:08:16

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