BMA Magazine 343 Mar 04 2010

www.bmamag.com

flipart The flippin’ huge festival of circus, aerial, street and physical theatre finally comes to town!

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Angus & Julia Stone We see them rollin’

Los Amigos Invisibles Appearing at Flipart!

Grinspoon Still grinning after all these years

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Congrats Corinbank.

What a ripper weekend it was.

# 3 4 3 M A R 3 Fax: 02 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne General Manager & Advertising Manager Allan Sko T: 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Julia Winterflood T: 02 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Sales Executive Danika Nayna T: 0408 657 939 E: sales@bmamag.com Super Sub Editor Josh Brown Graphic Design Natalie Runko Exhibitionist Editor Naomi Milthorpe Film Editor Mark Russell Principal Photographers (The Flashbulb Posse) Andrew Mayo Nick Brightman NEXT ISSUE 344 OUT MAR 17 EDITORIAL DEADLINE MAR 8 ADVERTISING DEADLINE MAR 11 Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

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Coinciding with Paul Summerfield’s exhibition Secret Cities, The Front Gallery and Café is to be transformed for a day into an exotic suburban, bohemian sun dappled market place, alive with the curious and cunning original work of 11 hot-blooded, cool-eyed local artists. Peruse at your leisure treasures such as jewellery, photographic works, zines, textile art, hand bound books, paintings, prints (and even a little vintage clothing) in the welcoming environs of The Front, where you may also recline on the sofas and sip coffee among friends as you support the arts. Why? Because we all deserve art.

Alexander, Older Brother After a superb full band show in Canberra last September, Canberra born and raised and now Melbourne based artist Alex Hallahan returns this March as part of his solo tour, playing a series of artistic spaces throughout NSW and ACT. Hallahan’s live show reels the listener into his world, sharing tales of winding roads, conversations and modern times - an impressive hybrid of folk, alt country and soul, sewn together by his hand and stamped with his unmistakably eclectic style. Alex will play The Front on Saturday March 13 at 7.30pm and Beyond Q Bookshop on Sunday March 14 at 4pm.

Shining Stars It’s always high noon when Mikelangelo (frontman of The Black Sea Gentlemen and once nudist drummer of Prik Harness) enters the stage, or a saloon, or when he heads to the beach with his longboard. Together with The Tin Star he’ll be bringing the finest in surf ‘n’ western songs and instrumentals to McGregor Hall (in Acton on the corner of Barry Dr and Marcus Clarke) on Friday March 5. The

Staple Diet of Folk, Country…

With a new, unhinged band and a voice like a 747 taking off, Suzie Stapleton roams a rock-fuelled landscape strewn with folk, country and blues debris. She’s touring nationally to launch the new single 6ft Away on Saturday March 6 at The Phoenix. 6ft Away is from her forthcoming debut EP 45 Revelations Per Minute and features guest performances

by Johnny Nolan (Powder Monkeys) and Shane Walsh (Tex, Don & Charlie).

Spiritualized The Spirits are finally ready to release their debut EP, The Other Half. Recorded by Berkfinger at Big Jesus Burger and mixed by Lee Groves (Bertie Blackman), The Other Half consists of four eerie and emphatic songs. Intertwining guitars and hard-wired rhythms underscore a vocal at odds with the world yet hopeful, singing of love and love lost. The Other Half is available as a free download through Music Feeds and www.thespirits.com.au .

Walk This Way Central Coast band Jaywalker have been enjoying quite a bit of success lately, having been hand-picked by Sanity as the winners of their Breaking New Artists promotion. The prize sees their debut album The Light & Shade played in every Sanity, HMV and Virgin store across the country. Now’s your chance to catch the lads live, with Jaywalker taking to the road through February and March to promote the album.

Catch them at The Front Gallery & Cafe in Lyneham on Thursday March 4, supported

by US singer/songwriter and Survivor: Panama winner Aras Baskauskas (!?). Tickets are $10 on the door.

High Noonan Fresh from recording their incredible new album with international producer Nick Didia, Katie Noonan and her new band The Captains are very excited to get out on the road to tour their epic first single Page One. Page One is a rockin’ song co-written between Katie and her Captain’s guitarist Cameron Deyell and legendary Oz songsmith Don Walker (of Cold Chisel fame) – a song that Katie wrote as a wedding gift to fellow Captain’s keyboardist Stu Hunter and his partner.

They’re playing ANU Bar on Wednesday March 3 (not March 5 like we said last issue. Sincere apologies Katie). Tickets through Ticketek.

katie noonan

Are you going to The Front Fair?

Tin Star return for a night of surf ‘n’ western mayhem with the surf antics of Space Party and western roots troubadours The Wedded Bliss in support. So saddle up and come down for the biggest surf ‘n’ western themed night since Ennio Morricone sang at a karaoke bar in Hawaii.

It’s licensed, kicks off at 8pm, tickets at the door. $15/$12 for CMC members.

AUSTRALIAN TOWN NAMES AND MEANINGS Coolamon – Traditional term of approval used in reggae.

Grong Grong – A caveman’s telephone ringing.

Tongaboo – Surprising someone at a barbecue.

Koonoomoo – Trying to soothe a new-born calf.

Boggabilla – A traditional place to play Boggle.

Lavington – Decorating a toilet seat with desiccated coconut.

Thurgoona – Drinking cheap wine on a Thursday.

Bargo – A shipment of beer.

Crowdy Head – A collection of Crowded House fans.

Gleniffer – The female form of ‘Glen.’

Moolort – A special wine for cows.

Wareek – The shock of seeing Warwick Capper.

Dooboobetic – Someone who is allergic to The Doobie Brothers.

Terrappee – Using an outside toilet at night.

Catumnal – An almanac published by cats every year.

Tittybong – Couldn’t think of one.

Kennington – A small society of Kenny Rogers fans.

Bald Knob – Couldn’t think of one.

Diddillibah – The disappointment of only getting a funsize Mars bar.

Tinbeerwah – The disappointment of only getting canned beer.

Chatsworth – The measurement of a good conversation.

Mooloo – Couldn’t think of one.

Daliak – A dalek programmed to understand the paintings of Salvador Dali.

Boyerine – A dairy spread marketed at blokes.

JUSTIN HEAZLEWOOD www.bedroomphilosopher.com Justin performs as The Bedroom Philosopher and writes for Frankie, Jmag and The Big Issue.

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another

YOU PISSED ME OFF!

thing…

Sunday nights at the Pegasus always came to an end, and the end was signified every week when Steve the DJ played Summer Nights from Grease. You’ll remember from last time that on this particular Sunday I was now the proud possessor of the keys to Steve’s old Ford Escort – and it was time to take the bugger home. Or at least get it out of the car park.

However you may remember that, this being a Sunday, I was about eight pints to the good by this time and, although this didn’t seem so important at the time, I wasn’t in possession of a valid driver’s license. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the mic. “Anybody need a lift home in my new car?”

The premise here was that someone – probably a girl, hopefully a girl – would be sober enough to realise that I wasn’t sober enough to get the blasted thing onto the Queen’s highway and offer to take it, and therefore by extension me, home. There were no takers. And Ted wanted it out of the car park tonight. One by one my associates drifted away, leaving me to stare at my raffled spoils. As Steve climbed into his Jaguar he laughed a hearty “good luck with that” to me and cruised off into the stygian darkness. I was left standing there with Lee Meakes, erstwhile painter, decorator and fellow fan of heavy metal. Lee was a master of the tradesman’s ‘sharp intake of breath’ when presented with an onerous task that he didn’t fancy undertaking and he offered me one of his finest after I enquired what we were going to do. Hands on hips, he moved around the vehicle, stabbing the tyres with his instep doubtfully. “We’ll have to drive it back to your Mum’s.”

Has someone yanked yer chain recently? Well send an email to editorial@bmamag.com and have your sweet vengeance.

And for the love of God, keep it brief! [All entries contain original spellings] To the butt-fugly couple who thought it was hilarious to walk past their shitbox Volvo only to circle back to it, thus loosing me a much needed spot in the Mooseheads carpark tonight - You PISSED ME OFF! Not only was I half an hour late to the 18th birthday dinner of a very dear friend (due to looking for ANY available spot to parkcivic you pissed me off as well), but you had the gall to laugh about it to one another as someone else me took my place. You know what I hope happened to you on the drive home? Nothing. I hope the two of you shitheads live a long, long life in the company of one another - that would be punishment enough. to the poor excuse for a human being, who’s head is sooooo far up his arse he probably doesn’t even read bm - you fucken pissed me off, when, on a very busy road, you opened your fucking car door soooo far out that other drivers nearly swipe it off (now I fucken wish I did) and as I had to swerve, you got all abusive and verbal, not even owning up to your fault, you fucken pissed me off, you ugly human!’

He was as drunk as I was.

Luckily the year is 1990 and the Thames Valley Police haven’t yet commenced their revenue-rich war on the motorist. Marlow is a sleepy town – so quiet in fact, that at 11 o’clock on a Sunday night you’re more likely to run into a member of the local constabulary in the queue at the Kebab Van than be nicked by one, so we decide to chance it. I tossed Lee the keys and moved to get into the back, where I felt a nice lie down might be in order. Lee starts shaking his head.

“No no no no no. You drive. I’ve had too many.”

“I haven’t got a license.”

“You’ve got a provisional. If we get stopped we’ll say I was teaching you to drive in the dark.” It’s true. I did have a provisional, still valid from six years previously when I’d had a stab at learning to drive. It goes without saying that I failed my test, the victim of my own over confidence as I blithely entered a busy T-junction on two wheels at twice the recommended speed – I could see no cars were coming so I felt it would save on braking and clutch work – and it was in my pocket. The plan was watertight. I got in and started her up. My car.

Actually it took about five minutes of tubercular coughing and hacking from the engine before she actually fired up, at which point we noted that the nearside light was not working and there were no brake lights.

If the petrol gauge was working, we were in trouble. If it wasn’t, I was prepared to gamble on getting us home with a following wind…

Waking up the next day safe in bed, I appeared to have gotten away with it. Then, from the kitchen, an enquiring voice from the mother.

“Whose car is that out the back, Scott?”

What would you have said? scott adams thirtyyearsofrnr@hotmail.com

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FROM THE BOSSMAN We all know about having a jolt from the blue; a moment of inspiration, or some personal epiphany that strikes us from nowhere. It can be as life-changing as realising your true sexual orientation (“waaaaait a minute…the love of musical theatre, my immaculate grooming, the subscription to Bunz Magazine… it is true!”) or as trivial as remembering the name of that damn song that’s been in your head for the past seven years.

They can be special moments indeed, but for mine, nothing beats the jolt’s backward cousin, a dolt from the blue.

Not a person on this planet is immune to it; not Albert Einstein, not Mariah Carey (especially not Mariah Carey). The brain isn’t quite firing as it should – perhaps we’re tired, have been watching too much commercial TV or we simply work in the public service – and suddenly we’ve taken the orange juice out of the fridge and poured it all over our cornflakes. Or we go to vaguely write ‘milk’ on a shopping list only to realise we’ve written the word ‘twat’, being the last word you heard. Or you’ve gone and put the Theory of Relativity in the microwave (o Albert... you and your crazy ways).* Surprising yourself with isolated moments of stupidity in an otherwise perfectly functioning human is one of the little mysteries of the brain, and a source of great joy. It’s like being in your own silent comedy.

ALLAN “TWAT” SKO *yes, I do realise there are many things wrong with this sentence

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with

TRAVIS HEINRICH

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WHO: A glorious slew of astounding electronic acts WHAT: Sunday’s Best Music Festival WHEN: Sun March 7 WHERE: ANU BAR

Pang!, Lollygag and Cheese have been working hard to bring us one of Canberra’s most diverse and exciting electronic music lineups Canberra has seen to date. Firstly the genres: disco, electro, electrofunk, trance, progressive, deep house, house, breaks, techno, and minimal. Secondly, the lineup: Greg Wilson (UK), Jaytech (UK/AUS), Housemester (GER), Vincenzo (ITA), Anoraak (FRA), Deekline (UK), Tydi (QLD), Bagraiders (Syd), Muscles DJ set (Mel), Marlo (Mel), and Canberran lovelords The Aston Shuffle. Where are all these amazing gigs coming from?? Isn’t the economy supposed to be fucked??

WHO: Interesting musicians with a focus on experimental practice WHAT: Concrète WHEN: Wed March 3 WHERE: The Front Café and Gallery, Lyneham

Huzzah! Now THIS is what I’m talking about. I may come off as grinchy on occasion, but it all pays off when a gig like this comes around.

Local lad Luke Penders has done our town proud by ditching his modelling career to focus on planting smiles on our dials. Hellosquare label head Shoeb Ahmed is not to be missed, same goes with Sydney based Emily McDaniel and the ever so haunting Brother Gozu. And for all I care, subjectivity has no place here; because Canberra’s best band Kasha (pictured) are headlining. For only 500 cents, you’d be the mayor of Asscamp not to go.

WHO: EXCITEMENT TIME DJS WHAT: PURPLE SNEAKERS WHEN: FRI MARCH 12 WHERE: TRANSIT BAR

According to my mother, a ‘DJ’ is someone who hosts a radio show.

Well…that’s just plain cute. Ok, ok - teasing a French Canadian is not fair, I know (I might as well have asked a falcon to explain string theory in sign language to me), so let’s not be cruel here. The kind of DJ I’m referring to is the regular ‘Earth is not flat’ kind, and Transit have wrangled some up to spin their decks (er… press play on the CD player) for your pleasure. BenLucid, Kill The Landlord, Talihina Shan, Will Eat Brains, Fantomatique and Celebrity Sex Tape are playing.

Go watch them press play!

WHO: D’Opus & Roshambo WHAT: Their new single Come find out WHEN: Right now WHERE: www. triplejunearthed.com/ DOpusRoshambo

Yoko Ono once said that if John Lennon was alive today, he would be hip-hop’s biggest fan. If we’re playing the hypothetical game, then I imagine he would be quite fond of bullet proof vests too. Great, now all I’ve done is upset myself. Anyway, while some ironic corpses may think happiness is a warm gun, I personally think that happiness is in fact Canberra’s best super rad rhyme dispensers – D’Opus and Roshambo! They’re disgustingly good, and have a shiny new track all up on the internet. The bass line made me sad inside because I know I’ll never be able to emulate it. Hope no one shoots them!

WHO: Kim Churchill WHAT: A One Man Show WHEN: THUR March 18 WHERE: The Front Café & Gallery, Lyneham

At only 19 years of age, this lad has already played Woodford, the Byron Bay Bluesfest, supported Xavier Rudd, John Butler and Ben Harper. On top of all that, he also performed his track It’s This System to over a million people via The Footy Show. 19? At this rate, he’ll be president of the moon by April. Hell, I was lucky to have made spaghetti by 19. This guy needs to share whatever it is he has around a bit more. Bastard. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer – so go see him play. If it helps, his weaknesses are knives and dying.

WHO: You WHAT: Wellbeing & Spiritual Festival WHEN: March 20-21 WHERE: Queanbeyan Showgrounds

Let’s face it, our beloved Queanbeyan is never going to rival Paris or London as one of the world’s great cities. But hey Quangers folk, chill. Luckily for you, a gnarly wellbeing festival is happening at your showgrounds that you can relax at. Drop your kids off at their grandma’s house (if she’s not too busy studying for the HSC) and enjoy a delightful day in the sun. Exhibitors will be offering the latest products and services in health and wellbeing, fitness, eco-living, complimentary medicine, holistic therapies, spirituality and personal growth.

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flippin’ yeah!

The festival will also include roving performers Chrome and Erth, who will be moving between Civic Square and Garema Place during the festival, interacting with the crowd. Chrome’s new repertoire, entitled Pink Fit, features cabaret-style songs and theatrics focussed on the theme of love, and Erth utilises puppetry, stilt-walking, inflatables and extraordinary costumes to create a dynamic live theatre experience.

There is also a myriad of circus acts set to perform, with Highwire Circus presenting their new venture A Little Bit of Bally Hoo, featuring clowns and physical theatre, Warehouse Circus showcasing a variety of acts performed by 8-25 year olds, and Circus Monoxide offering an array of jugglers, acrobats and other hilarious circus high jinks in a fantastic show for the whole family.

katherine quinn In Spanish, the verb ‘flipar’ means to be mesmerised, to end up with your mouth wide open because you’re so impressed. It is an appropriate name, then, for the unique celebration of circus, aerial, street and physical theatre that will be taking place as part of the Canberra Festival this March.

“The name is derived from the Spanish word, and also from the act of flipping – because in physical theatre there’s a lot of flipping – combined with the word ‘art,’” artistic producer Frank Madrid tells me.

Frank first came up with the idea for FLIPART when brainstorming ways to drive demand for the arts in Canberra.

“Canberrans really like to party and there is a tradition of Canberrans getting out and doing things like the Folk Festival or the Multicultural Festival,” Frank says. “I wanted to do something different and I thought the whole idea of circus and seeing ordinary people doing extraordinary things had to work.”

We really need Canberrans’ support for the festival to survive and flourish.

Tell the world!

It’s enough to inspire you to run away and join the circus and the best part is, you (kind of) can! Stalker and Zymboyz will be holding workshops in Civic Square, teaching willing audience members the basics of break dancing and acrobatics.

Looking at the program, I notice there is a distinctly Latin twist to many of the acts, and the Music, Art and Food event which closes the festival will specifically feature music from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico, to coincide with the bicentenary of their quest for independence.

“I’m Venezuelan, so I’m hugely into Latin rhythms,” Frank says. “I come from a city that had international performers coming to town every April, and all the young people used to camp outside the ticket office to be the first ones to buy tickets.

“I grew up in that environment of exposure to the performing arts as part of everyday life. Now that I’ve become a Canberran, I think that the city will definitely benefit from engaging with the performing arts and develop its unique identity through that. What better way to celebrate Canberra’s birthday than with Latin music!”

Although the festival is hugely influenced by Frank’s Latin roots, he maintains that it is physicality that is the unifying theme behind all of the acts. Frank believes that physicality is “something very much linked to Australian identity. We all enjoy the outdoors, the beautiful weather, and sports – it’d be interesting to make a strong link between the arts and sports, because they both have that physical element.”

The festival is certainly going to be something special, featuring national and international acts such as Grammy-winning Latin fusion band Los Amigos Invisibles, Ethiopian acrobat trio The Zimboyz and aerial dance group Dislocate, as well as local acts such as Mr Fibby and Canberra expats Casual Projects, and celebrated aerial choreographer Janine Ayres, who will premiere her new project, Interwoven.

The main thing you need to know about Flipart, however, is not the amazing circus, dance and physical theatre acts that will be on show, the roving performers, the workshops or the celebration of Latin music and food. It’s the fact that it’s a test. The ACT Government has provided funding for the festival on a conditional basis to see how Canberra audiences will respond, and if Canberrans embrace the idea, the government will support future editions of Flipart.

Flipart will also feature the world premiere of Elevate, the new show from Australia’s pre-eminent physical theatre company, Stalker.

Committed to diversity, inclusion and innovation, Stalker have been creating their unique brand of physical and visual theatre for more than 20 years, entertaining audiences across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia.

“I’ve become madly in love with the theatre that I’ve chosen, so it’s nerve-wracking, but it’s very exciting at the same time,” Frank says, as we wrap up the interview. I promise to tell all my family and friends to come along, and he returns, “we really need Canberrans’ support for the festival to survive and flourish. Tell the world!”

Elevate is the sequel to Stalker’s StiltBreak, which has been performed more than 80 times worldwide to great acclaim. Featuring an exhilarating combination of break dance, hip-hop and stilt acrobatics, as well as a five metre high catapult, Elevate sounds, well, dangerous!

Nick from Stalker agrees, telling of countless sprained wrists and ankles when I chat to him between rehearsals. “Of course you have to be careful when there’s stilts and heights of five metres involved, because there is the potential for quite serious injury,” Nick says. “But it’s well worth the risk for the visual spectacle it creates. Elevate is set to be truly groundbreaking.”

Flipart will be held between Friday-Sunday March 12-14 in Civic Square, Garema Place and New Acton.

TRUE VIOLENCE

RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY!

PETER KRBAVAC

katherine quinn

“Before we start the interview, I’d just like announce that we are changing our name to The Fantastic Fighting League,” says Joel Paine, bassist for the group formerly known as THE FIGHTING LEAGUE. “I guess it’s just our way of forcing ourselves to step it up a level, ‘cause if we don’t get fantastic we’re gonna look like idiots.”

Sitting outside Gus’ on a Friday afternoon, I’m feeling pretty good about myself. I have the undivided attention of four gorgeous guys and out of the corner of my eye I can see passing girls giving me odd (jealous?) looks. Brothers Sam, Max and Riley, plus friend and self-professed ex-groupie Reuben are the talent behind local band RUBYCON. After playing together for just over two years, one failed attempt to create an EP (“they ended up losing our master CD and it didn’t even get pressed!”) and any number of gigs at debauched house parties and near-empty bars, the guys got together in August last year and recorded their self-titled EP.

Talking ahead of their comeback show at next week’s Gangbusters, and on the eve of Joel’s 20th birthday, there’s a palpable sense of expectation. Teen sensations no longer, the six Leaguers have regrouped with renewed focus and drive after half their membership spent the summer freewheeling around North America.

“We discovered that it would be so easy to take over America,” declares frontman Dominic D Death. “It was a reconnaissance mission. I went to New York and man, everyone in New York is a wuss.”

I went to New York and man, everyone in New York is a wuss

The origins of the group are hazy; Dom leads me through a convoluted metaphor of the band as an apple, though that theory gets lost during talk of worms in the core and suggestions of being eaten up by their own fame. What we do know is the group formed from the ashes of Are The Brave All Dead in 2007 to play a house show and since then have captured the zeitgeist with their youth anthems. Mixing new wave, no wave and garage rock influences, their sound falls somewhere between the primitive electronic explorations of Devo and first wave punk like Ramones and The Misfits.

In many ways they’re the archetypal high school band; a ragtag group of friends from different points of the musical spectrum hanging out and writing tunes. There’s nothing calculated here. That it happens to be some of the coolest stuff going ‘round this town is pure coincidence. “Alex is a guitar player but he plays drums, Richard makes electronic music and Andy’s the jazz guitarist. Everyone’s completely individual,” says Dom. “I think a lot of bands would form and you’d get together and say ‘let’s listen to these bands’ or ‘let’s be like this band,’” Joel muses. “But the thing with us is we’re six pissed off dudes and we just want to express that somehow,” concludes Dom. Their debut LP, recorded in September last year, was threatening to end up as one of the great lost records, but Joel assures me he’s finishing up the mixing and the record will see the light of day soon.

“Clearly we don’t want to rush anything,” he laughs, “but it is coming out – hopefully in a month.”

Beyond the release of their LP, future plans for the group are loose.

The self-proclaimed local heroes seem pretty happy at home. There’s talk of taking the message interstate, but they don’t seem wholly convinced. “Why would you?” Dom wonders. “The best dudes are here!”

The Fighting League play Gangbusters at Bar 32 on Wednesday March 10 with Super Best Friends and Beat Hotel. Doors open at 9pm, entry is $5. To download their debut EP, head to www.dreamdamage.com .

Created at the famous Big Jesus Burger Studios in Sydney (the likes of Sneaky Sound System, Wolfmother and The Presets have also recorded there), Rubycon’s EP is a real treat: five snappy, polished tracks which echo the likes of The Strokes and Kings of Leon, plus layered vocals and the occasional falsetto to add a unique twist. It’s clear that there’s no lack of musical talent in this band, with both Max and Sam studying at ANU’s School of Music.

Even Riley, who is only 14 years old, has been playing drums for more than six years.

We set up a mic in the kitchen, and we were just banging around

Riley being underage hasn’t stopped Rubycon from performing at the aforementioned rowdy house parties (apparently he came home smelling suspiciously of perfume – look out ladies!) and recording until the wee hours of the morning. “It was really late – probably our third or fourth night up past four,” Sam says, of recording the track Give It to Her. “We started the guitar parts at 1am, finished them at 5am, and then JP [the sound engineer] goes ‘we could do some good kitchen noises in there.’ So we set up a mic in the kitchen, and we were just banging around, and we put the jug on… it sounds weird now, but we were into it at the time!”

When I ask what they think of the local music scene, they collectively exclaim, “we knew this was coming!” followed by a series of goodnatured sighs and grumbles. “There’s some really good bands, like Fun Machine and The Trivs,” Sam says. “We saw Fun Machine the other day in Union Court – they just go so wild, all dressed up!” They also list Kasha and Girl Sized Hands among their favourites, and they’re all friends, it seems, with no rivalries or feuds to speak of. “The Trivs were actually really good to us – they helped us get into that uni scene of playing house parties and stuff,” Max tells me. “Everyone knows pretty much everyone.” And while Canberra audiences can be unpredictable, it seems the scene as a whole is flourishing. “We’re hearing about more and more bands,” Reuben says. “Canberra’s definitely on its way up.” Judging from the standard of Rubycon’s new EP, I think he might be right.

Catch the Rubycon boys at Transit Bar on Thursday March 18 along with Fun Machine and Architect DJs. The show is free!

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ALL AGES Well kiddlywinks, I have quite a lot to fill you in on this time…

Coming up on Saturday March 6 is Indyfest, a ten hour music event featuring a lineup of spine-tingling homegrown artists. At McGregor Hall in the city from 2pm you’ll have your chance to see Brave Empire, Chanel Cole, Fun Machine, Hail Lucy Nation, Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens, Margaret Helen King, Owen Campbell, Point of View, Rafe Morris, Soheyla, Teddy Cornick and The Third Estate.

Tickets can be bought at the door for a mere $15. This is a gig most definitely worth catching.

On Sunday March 21, our city’s widely misconceived stereotype will have its chance to shine. That’s right, the 22nd annual FM 104.7 Skyfire Spectacular is approaching fast. Oh, how the townspeople flock for this ‘family’ event. That is until they realise that all it really is is a perfect excuse for Canberra’s prime delinquents to gather in frighteningly large groups, knock back a few drinks and then start fighting any ‘lone ranger’ in sight. But rest assured that if you are smart enough to not go alone, the fireworks display is always no less than spectacular. Lake Burley Griffin will light up to a soundtrack simultaneously broadcast on FM 104.7 especially for the event.

I’m sure that you’ve all heard of Groovin’ the Moo by now. Well, the news has travelled that the show in Maitland has already sold out, and tickets for the Canberra show are close to it. Though the

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festival isn’t until Sunday May 9, its popularity is overwhelming. With performances from some of Australia’s most notorious artists, as well as artists coming from all over the globe to be part of this event, the festival is one not to be ignored. The 2010 lineup will include Vampire Weekend, Silverchair, Empire of the Sun, Grinspoon, Tegan and Sara, Spoon, Lisa Mitchell, British India, Miami Horror, Kisschasy, Bag Raiders and oh so many more. The festival will be held at the meadows of the University of Canberra. Quite like at Trackside, the atmosphere of an outdoor festival with beautiful scenery and an outstanding soundtrack to match is what will undoubtedly make Groovin’ the Moo an unforgettable experience. Tickets are selling for $95.90(+bf) from most ticketing outlets.

In support of their 2008 album, Misanthropy Pure, US hardcore/ metal band Shai Hulud are soon to be touring Australia, touring nationally with supporting bands Shinto Katana from Sydney and Canberra’s very own I Exist. You’ll have your chance to see them play on Wednesday May 19 at the newest all ages venue in the territory, The Warehouse. The band has been dubbed “one of the most passionate and mind-blowing shows in hardcore.” Tickets go on sale on Friday March 12, so don’t miss out on this one, kids!

NAOMI FROST allagescolumn@gmail.com

LOCALITY

Hello again music lovers! Hopefully you’ve all had a great fortnight, and those who attended Corinbank haven’t partied themselves into oblivion. This fortnight brings with it plenty more reasons to party, so cover up your sunburn, dust off the pine needles and head out to one of the following fantastic gigs.

Local favourites The Fuelers are teaming up with Truckstop Honeymoon (USA) to present a night of great music, known to the initiated as Truckstop 23. Throw on some dancing shoes and a flannel shirt and head over to McGregor Hall on Wednesday March 10. The party starts at 8pm and entry is $10, or $8 for CMC members.

Northsiders will be pleased to learn that locals Waterford and The Dunhill Blues have a gig lined up at The Pot Belly in Belconnen this fortnight. The guys will play alongside Adelaide’s Kirk Special from 9pm on Wednesday March 17, which also happens to be St Patrick’s Day. The Locality team are crossing our fingers for green beer and felt hats.

The team at Birds Love Fighting are pleased to present yet another instalment of Gangbusters at Bar 32. Locals Super Best Friends, The Fighting League and Beat Hotel take the stage on Wednesday March 10. Doors open at 9pm and entry is $5.

Final Lies will kick off their inaugural east coast tour with a local gig on Wednesday March 17. The lads will play at Bar 32 with Perpetual End and Never Trust a Bunny, and will then play a series of shows in New South Wales and Queensland.

Canberra’s very own Indyfest is back again in 2010, and this year marks its 20th anniversary. Indyfest has featured a huge variety of local acts over the years, and this instalment boasts another awesome lineup, including Margaret Helen King, Brave Empire, Julia and The Deep Sea Sirens, Fun Machine, Point of View, Soheyla, Hail Lucy Nation and The Third Estate. There’s something for everyone this year, so get along to McGregor Hall on Saturday March 6 and take in some great local music.

The Bootleg Sessions are on again this fortnight, making The Phoenix the only place to be on a Monday night. Head there on Monday March 8 to see sets by 7 Set, Sarah Daphne Foo, Pataphysics and Fat Controller. On Monday March 15, the Bootlegs will feature Soheyla, Rattis Von Zanzebar, Swoon and The Glaciers.

The music starts at 8pm and entry is free.

Head to The Phoenix on Thursday nights for the always great Domus Adultus sessions. Ayleen & The Husbands, Clankenstein and Second Sun will take the stage on Thursday March 4, while George Bishop, Pataphysics and Joe Oppenheimer will perform on Thursday March 11. Domus Adultus starts at 9pm and entry is free.

If you’re a local artist and you’ve produced a film clip, Landed Music wants to hear from you. The team at Landed Music are looking for local talent for their new program on Southern Cross Ten. The show will run for 48 weeks and will feature a selection of music videos, as well as interviews with local artists. This is a great opportunity for Canberran musos to get some free exposure, so check out www. landedmusic.com.au for more info and send your details in ASAP. That’s it from us this fortnight. Have a rad one, CATHERINE JAMES locality.bma@hotmail.com

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DANCE THE DROP ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!’

This statement is not only true for a retrospective Mob Boss, but also for most weekend warriors on their first day back facing the fluorescently lit reality of a nine to five working week. The fact is there is no rest for the wicked and regardless of what your mum thinks, we are all indeed extremely wicked.

Let’s face it, threesomes are fun, if not a little awkward afterwards. No doubt PANG! and Lollygag were getting drunk in a bar together and after a few too many mojitos Hugh slurred “okay, okay, we are definitely hooking up with the next guy that walks in the door” and as fate would have it only moments later Cheese appeared with a Cheshire grin. Nine months later the Sunday’s Best Music Festival was born. Injecting a much needed shot in the arm for the Canberra Day long weekend, the two stage event features an abundance of live acts, DJs and performers including Vincenzo (Poker Flat, Italy), Anoraak (live, France), Deekline (Against The Grain, UK), Bag Raiders (Shooting Stars, NSW), tyDi (Australia’s No.1 DJ, QLD), Housemeister (Boys Noize Records, Germany), Muscles (DJ set, VIC), The Aston Shuffle (Do You Want More) and MaRLo (Armada Music, VIC). The organisers also assure me that there is still a massive international headliner yet to be announced so if that’s not enough to get you to part with a portion of your slave wages, what is?

From a threesome to a full on Gang Bang, oops I mean Bang Gang! 12 inches of it in fact. You get the idea. Transit Bar hosts Heartbeat on Saturday March 13 with enigmatic scenester Jimmy2Sox taking the helm. Some may know him from his funked up remixes for artists like Empire of the Sun, Pnau and Jackson Jackson, others may simply regard him as ‘that guy I woke up next to with the perfect hair.’

Pro Tip: saying “BANGGANG BANGGANG” over and over again in a Mr Bean voice makes you sound like Chewbacca.

For those of you who think ‘trip hop’ is how you tackle a gutter whilst drunk, the following statement need not apply.

Remember that time Massive Attack played in Canberra? Prevent yourself from being one of those people that say “when was that?!” by buying a ticket to their live show on Friday March 19 at The Royal Theatre. Do. Not. Miss!

I don’t know about you, but I like my techno like I like my women: dark, loopy and satisfying. Melbourne club brand The Likes of You packs up its lens-less frames and black cardigan for an eastern road trip, ending up at Lot 33 on Sunday April 4 where they have secured the services of in demand German techno producer Oliver Huntemann.

Finally, for any other technology nuts out there, make sure to check out the newly released Pioneer CDJ2000 CD turntables. What CGI blockbuster Avatar has done for family cinema, these will surely do for club DJing.

TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

myspace.com/pangnight

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important to find the right balance, the right sound and the right groove so that you get the full effect from the music. It’s also great to be a DJ who is also a producer because I can test my stuff a lot quicker from the studio to the club. It’s so good to see a reaction from people for the first time.”

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FERRY SOUP tim galvin In the strobe-soaked underground world of the trance mafioso, FERRY CORSTEN would surely be acknowledged as the Don Vito Corleone of rave. He discusses his journey with me, from teenage prodigy to ‘made man’ from his secret headquarters somewhere in the Netherlands. “I remember how easy it was back then,” he reminisces, slowly stroking a purring Birman in his lap. “Nowadays it’s all about perfection. When I was younger I would just lay down a melody, a couple of samples and the possibilities were endless, you know? Now I am driven by perfection, so it takes a lot longer to be happy with my music.”

Perfection is not far from gospel in Ferry’s clubbing cosmos, with genre-defining releases like Carte Blanche by Veracocha, Out of the Blue by System F and Gouryella by Gouryella all uncovered as Corsten pseudonyms. “I get a lot of the emotion for my music from things like film scores and classical music,” he reveals. “They have lots of drama, things that give you that deep feeling. It is very

I like to Every scene has a big three, and in things from all relation to trance they are surely kinds of places Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren and Ferry to the soup and Corsten. Amazingly, like superhero then just see triplets, they all grew up in the same how it tastes area of Holland, where their jovial horseplay evolved from ‘who can eat the most pancakes’ to ‘who can dominate the international dance scene.’ “I have been in the top ten [in the coveted DJ Mag top 100 poll] for the last eight years and it’s great recognition for sure! I just try and do my best and always maintain the quality in what I do. With those other guys, we are all from the same part of the country and I guess we always try and outdo one another but I think they have done a lot better to market themselves than me!” he laughs.

Some say that the affirmation of superstardom is marginally easier to accomplish than its continuance, a point that Ferry attributes to diversity. “Because I have a really wide taste in music,” he answers, “I love everything from hardstyle to deep underground techno. Even when [System F release] Soul on Soul came out, we reintroduced the old electro sound into our music – it’s about infusion, different styles coming together to create something new and exciting. I guess I always like to add things from all kinds of places to the soup and then just see how it tastes. I’m sure it will be enough to satisfy the appetite of Australian audiences.”

Ferry Corsten will play at the Warehouse Festival at AIS Arena on Saturday May 1. Tickets through Ticketek, Landspeed Records and Parliament Clothing.

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LIKE A ROLLING STONE

HOLA MI AMIGOS!

PETER ROSEWARNE

MONIQUE SUNA

Down a long dusty road in the far distance, blurred by the heat, two bare-footed siblings gradually traipse into focus. The sister slinks casually in her sundress and wide-brimmed hat, gazing at the sky; the brother hides shyly behind a beard, bearing the masculine, weatherworn skin of a beach bum. This is how one might visualise ANGUS & JULIA STONE; world weary, laden with burdens and emotional baggage but tempered by their uplifting globetrotting experiences.

As an answer to the dark and mysterious acts frequenting the theatres of Caracas, a group of high school associates make the groundbreaking decision to form the finest (and only) Venezuelan dance band. This crew of merry musicians crusade to convince that dance is not only salsa and merengue and that electric guitar is not the same as punk. Henceforth, LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES begin to defeat Caracas and thus offering their friends a way to party.

In his travels, Angus Stone seems to have adopted a local town’s quirks for his solo project, Lady of The Sunshine, evidenced by the recording of the album, Smoking Gun, in a concrete silo. Once again, with Julia this time for their new album Down the Way, it seems that recording in a less than conventional space is par for the course.

“We’ve got a thing for the industrial old building vibe,” he admits. “There’s a place called Golant; it’s on a river fort and the only way to get to the [sawmill] studio is by boat on mid-tide, or you walk along the railway track. You walk in a line and it’s a bit like Stand By Me. That studio had a lot of moments and you could feel its presence.”

For Los Amigos Invisibles – comprising Mauricio Arcas on percussion, Julio Briceño on voz (vocals), Armando Figueredo on the teclados (keyboard), José Luis Pardo on the guitarra (guitar), Juan Manuel Roura on the batería (drums) and José Rafael Torres on the bajo – it has been one hell of a ride. With over 60 countries visited, one Latin Grammy, two Latin Grammy nominations, two Grammy nominations, six studio albums, one live DVD, one record label and with high hopes to continue to do what they love to do, this amazing band certainly have achieved much in over 18 years in the music industry.

I think it’s important to chill

Angus displays a chameleon-like approach to touring, which may stem from his willingness to engage in cultural and musical events, sharing, “I think it’s important for you, as someone that’s playing the songs and doing the shows, to voice that you want some time after or before [performing] to chill and get to know the place or the music that’s being played.”

This approach seems to have given the duo enough focus and experience to naturally produce a second ethereal work of art.

Angus explains, “sometimes you’re so close [to the album’s songs] it’s blurred. I think when you’re that close it’s because you’re focussing on the songs individually. That’s good because you’re really looking hard at the songs and asking how they make you feel… when you go in and you haven’t focussed on how you’re going to work the song, it’s naïve and raw and there’s a lot of honesty that comes through from that.”

Following last year’s quiet release of Smoking Gun it’s rewarding to see that true to his chameleon form, the dynamic with Julia has only strengthened. As Angus puts it, “we write so much, Julia and I, that with Lady of The Sunshine I had a couple of bags of songs that suited certain styles… I was keeping them stored for myself. But I think with Julia and I, anything we do with writing is only going to help.”

Angus and Julia have certainly proven their worth in musical weight with a beautiful follow up release. While the recording of the video clip for Big Jet Plane commences and triple j frequently rotates Black Crow, it’s easy to see that the coming year will be another goodie for the Stones.

Angus & Julia Stone perform at the ANU Bar on Tuesday March 16. Tickets through Ticketek.

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If you have a jealous wife it is hard for them to understand

On June 9 2009, their new album Commercial thumped its way into the US, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, henceforth starting the promotional tour visiting many places in the US, Mexico and Venezuela. It is only now that Los Amigos Invisibles have kicked up their groove shoes and now plan on gracing Australia with their funky melodies.

One would expect such seasoned musicians to be bored with the endless interview process that is promoting their music, yet guitarist Jose Torres brims with excitement as he talks about his music, Commercial and the ensuing tour. “It is our third time in Australia but our first in places like Sydney and Melbourne and we are very excited. We consider going to Australia more than working.

The best part of playing music is getting involved in people and cultures, it’s amazing,” says Torres.

Although being a musician certainly has its perks, Torres most definitely isn’t blind to the downfall of having the life of a travelling troubadour. “If you are afraid of flying you shouldn’t be a musician. It is very hard, travel, especially if you have a family,” he laughs. “And if you have a jealous wife it is hard for them to understand. We in the band are very lucky to have the respect and support of our family and wives.”

Torres talks about other aspects of band life that can prove to be quite difficult. “Creation of songs is easy. It is when we start to argue on vision that it get a little messy. But this is part of the creative process. Discussion and teamwork keeps the team on the same page and once everything is finished everyone is happy again.”

Los Amigos Invisibles shall be taking their fabulous selves to Monkey Bar on Friday March 12. Tickets are $20 and are available from the venue.

They will also be performing as part of the Flipart Festival closing night on Saturday March 13 in Garema Place at 10pm for free amigos, for free!

E X H I B I T I O N I S T

Many critics have regarded the play as like a puzzle – a patchwork of meanings and events which the audience member may only put together days after watching the piece and – fittingly enough – through the use of their own creative imagination. As real-life characters from Henning’s past, as well as mythical or historical figures appear on stage as part of Henning’s internal dialogue, the audience is treated to an endearing mix of magical and outstandingly authentic elements.

COMMISSIONING A SYMPHONY IN T BEN HERMANN For Australian playwright and director Michael Gow, the very process of writing and creating is just as intriguing and topical, just as filled with ecstasy, drama and despair as the events and themes with which the writing process seeks to deal. Best known for his 1986 play Away and shortly to retire from his post of Artistic Director for Queensland Theatre Company, his latest work Toy Symphony explores the mind of a writer in the midst of a creative crisis.

Toy Symphony was first released in 2007 – at the time over ten years since his previous full-length work – and immediately attracted extensive critical acclaim, picking up Best New Australian Work at the 2008 Helpmann Awards, and five gongs at the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards.

Re-opening for a new season and a new cast at the Queensland Theatre Company, the production will come to Canberra this March, with Chris Pitman playing the central protagonist, Roland Henning.

Henning is a writer struggling with writers’ block, desperately trying to make sense of the mess his mind is in. As Henning seeks help from his therapist Nina, the audience is thrown into the depths of his psyche, where Henning attempts to come to terms with the real-life experiences which gave rise to his artistic tendencies. Toy Symphony is widely regarded as being a very autobiographic piece for Gow, and significantly reflective of his own internal struggles during the writing process.

“All the events happened, but not the way they happen in the play,” says Gow. “Writers often take an actual event and play ‘what if’ with it. What if I said what I was thinking at a funeral? What if I acted on thinking an acting student was attractive?” Gow admits as well that Toy Symphony is a play that could only have been written at this stage in his career, but primarily because “it was an attempt to take apparently irreconcilable material and find a form that could encompass it.”

“I think it’s about someone who runs into a patch of life that gets rougher and rougher,” says Gow, when asked if the play’s message will reach beyond those with artistic inclinations. “They learn to stop trying to control things and just ride it out. I think everyone can relate to that.”

The play’s original production cast Richard Roxburgh as Henning – a role for which he won Best Actor at the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards.

Although these may seem like big shoes to fill for Pitman, he points to Gow and the script itself as support enough for taking on the role of Henning post-Roxburgh.

“Michael Gow has illuminated an incredibly complex character in Roland Henning,” says Pitman. “It has certainly been a challenge to colour in his many flaws and charms but because Michael is such an emotionally powerful writer, I haven’t really needed to look further than the script.”

The play runs for over 150 minutes, with the character of Henning not leaving the stage during that time. Coupled with constant jumps between present-day Henning and Henning as a young boy, Pitman’s role demanded a huge degree of focus and poise. However, Henning’s character is so well crafted that Pitman admits it has been easy to immerse himself in the character’s world.

“Playing the central role in the play and not leaving the stage does require a focus and energy but once I’m out there I am in the world of the play until I’m spat out the other end,” says Pitman. “I play Henning as an adult, and as an 11 year old boy without any costume change, so one of the great challenges in rehearsal was how to slide from the adult to the child and back again, without throwing the audience out of the story. But to see him as an adult and a child gives the audience a chance to understand and sympathise with him when he spirals into a path of self-destruction.”

Appropriately enough, Toy Symphony, a play dealing with a writer’s fear that he may never be able to write or create again, is continuing to grasp audiences around the nation just as Gow himself is retiring from Queensland Theatre Company with the express desire to place more time and energy into his writing.

“Like Away, people have seen this as a redemptive play,” says Gow of the many connections critics have made between the play and Gow’s previous productions, as well as with Gow’s own life. “But for me Away is about death and is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Like Toy Symphony, it’s about how meaningless it all is, but still worth the trip.”

Toy Symphony runs at the Playhouse from March 16-20. Tickets from Canberra Theatre.

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24 hour party people katherine quinn There’s a new guy in town. He’s well-dressed with awesome taste in music, and he throws huge parties every month. Everyone’s talking about PARTY BY JAKE, a brand spankin’ new Canberra company hosting gigs that feature not only music, but also incorporate a fashion element. (FYI: Jake isn’t actually a real person).

The brainchild of man-about-town Duncan Brown and business partner Chris Waterman, this dynamic duo came up with Party by Jake to reflect the way that certain styles of music and dress often go hand-in-hand. “I think people in Canberra are quite stylish and do put a lot of effort into their appearance,” Duncan tells me (although he insists that he wouldn’t call himself a fashionable guy). “It’s about trying to offer something a little bit different that I think people in Canberra will like.”

Party by Jake’s first endeavour is Heartbeat, featuring indie dance music and street fashion. Heartbeat events will be held monthly, and by the time this has gone to press the first party will have gone off at Transit Bar, featuring clothes from quirky Sydney label Pete Versus Toby. Fluoro colours, bold designs and wicked slogans such as ‘Nonsmokers die every day’ have gained Pete Versus Toby a cult following amongst the scenesters of Sydney, and Heartbeat offers Canberra its first taste of this up-and-coming label.

Another Sydney label, myPetsQuare, will be the fashion feature at the March Heartbeat party. Sporting a similar aesthetic to that of it-girls Agyness Deyn and Cory Kennedy, myPetsQuare is a heady mix of brogues, bowler hats and sharply cut blazers teamed with feminine pieces like floral frocks and form-fitting dresses. “Our main goal is to be the centre of attention,” confesses Angelique, one half of the design team behind myPetsQuare. Clad in these threads, you certainly would be – and don’t worry, lads, they also make clothes for men, like slouchy cardigans and edgy slogan tees.

The unifying theme behind the clothing brands featured at Heartbeat is individuality, something that can be difficult to achieve in Canberra, where there is little room or opportunity for new designers.

“You’ve gotta stand out, you’ve gotta do something different,” says Marco from Pete Versus Toby. “There’s too much of everyone just copying!” Duncan agrees, “People do want to pay for exclusivity and originality. There are little boutiques like Felt and itrip iskip which are doing Canberra proud, and even some of the product in places like Parliament and Globalise is great. But you buy a t-shirt there and there’s 15 other people wearing it.” The sky’s the limit for Party

by Jake, with whisperings of a progression from street fashion, the involvement of Canberra clothing labels and – maybe – even their own clothing line. “It’s cool to bring a little slice of something new,” Duncan says. “Canberra’s got a lot of potential.”

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For info on Party by Jake events, head to myspace.com/partybyjake .

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ALL WORK AND NO PLAYS EMMA GIBSON After a review of the drama department late last year, ANU has announced a shift in focus to a more theoretical, research-based approach, moving the drama department into the School of Cultural Inquiry. This means that theatre companies papermoon and Moonlight have been put to sleep.

square beaut peter krbavac After the success of its Abstractions nights, held last year as part of the Made in Canberra festival, HELLOSQUARE RECORDINGS is again returning to The Street Theatre for a series of four shows this autumn. For the last few years, the label has dedicated itself to presenting and releasing experimental and free improv orientated music locally, though over time has broadened its scope to include overseas artists and distribution. On home turf in the badlands of Belconnen, label main man Shoeb Ahmad outlines the first in the upcoming series of shows, featuring Sydney trio Roil.

The group comprises Chris Abrahams of The Necks on piano alongside double bassist Mike Majkowski and drummer James Waples, both of Three Omegas. “Roil’s all improvised like The Necks, but it is very acoustic and not as minimal,” Ahmad says. “It’s definitely more dexterous and a bit more intense. Chris Abrahams’ piano playing is quite something.” Joining them will be nomadic Aussie sound artist Robert Curgenven, making a Hendrix-style slight return home from his current European base. “He’s made his own dubplates for the turntables. He ampfilies it so there’s a lot of feedback resonance and he layers it with field recordings,” Ahmad explains. “It’s very ghostly stuff. It is electronic music but he doesn’t use a laptop or anything like that.” Rounding out the bill is local roustabout Tim Dwyer, under his unpronounceable ///▲▲▲\\\ handle, rocking his dubbed-out garage drone vibe.

For the second instalment, Ahmad has coaxed venerable UK electronic duo Icarus to town. Formed in the mid-’90s over a shared love of drum ‘n’ bass and jungle, the pair have spent the last 15 years fusing the manic BPMs of those genres with no wave and free jazz.

During their tenure they’ve released records on Temporary Residence (home to Mono, Explosions in the Sky and Pinback) and remixed the likes of Siouxsie Sioux’s post Banshees group The Creatures and Four Tet. With one half of the duo Ollie Bown currently based in Melbourne, working as an electronic music researcher at Monash University, the time seemed ripe for Icarus’ first run of Australian shows.

And of course there’s more in the pipeline, with Ahmad keen to take advantage of The Street’s liberal-minded booking approach. If just some of the gigs he has in mind come to fruition, then you, dear readers, are in for a treat... “The Street’s good, it gives me a good forum,” Shoeb says. “Venues are hard to come across in Canberra and the main point is a lot of places won’t take a punt on this kind of stuff. The scope doesn’t stop with electronic music - why not make it accessible. Well, ‘accessible’ in inverted commas!”

Roil, Robert Curgenven and ///▲▲▲\\\ play Street 2 on Friday March 12 from 8pm. Entry is $15 or $12 concession. Icarus, Shoeb Ahmad, Reuben Ingall and Luke Penders play Street 2 on Thursday March 25 from 8pm.

Entry is $10 or $5 concession. Bookings via www.thestreet.org or 6247 1223.

Papermoon began in 1992, taking its name from a song featured in its first production, A Streetcar Named Desire. It provided an outlet for ANU drama staff to maintain their practical skills. A bit more than a decade later, Theatre Studies graduates formed sister company Moonlight to give graduates the opportunity to continue their practice, and to put on work that is considered challenging, particularly commercially.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve done,” says Tony Turner, Head of Drama. “We’ve won the prestigious Canberra Critics Circle awards for the last five years, and two awards last year. The quality of the stuff we’ve been doing speaks for itself.”

An audience base was developing, with significantly stronger audiences in 2009 compared with 2008. But there won’t be a 2010 audience. Arts sub dean and chair of the review, Joan Beaumont says it’s too early to tell what will happen to Papermoon and Moonlight in the long term. She says the review and subsequent recommendations are about ensuring ANU students receive the highest quality of education.

“Both the staff and students and the external panel members involved in the review were unanimous that we are not offering an actor training school at ANU - we’re not a NIDA or WAAPA. What we’re offering is drama as part of a much broader degree in humanities and social sciences,” Beaumont says.

In fact, Turner had hoped to develop actor training, and in particular, director training in the future. He’s so disappointed with recent developments that he’s resigning after nearly 20 years at ANU. “The uni wants to take drama in a different direction - and they have every right to do that. I’m leaving because it’s not the direction I want to go in. I don’t believe you can teach drama without putting actors in front of an audience.”

Beaumont says an increased push by the Federal government for research-based teaching means universities are moving away from exclusively practical programs more suited to the TAFE sector. But Beaumont says ANU students will still gain practical experience in the classroom. And there will still be performances as part of assessments. “This is not a move away from performance to totally textual study. We have a curriculum that we promise to deliver. And we’ll be looking at stronger links to the community.”

This is, of course, a community where arts funding and opportunity is getting increasingly dry, making it difficult for emerging artists to gain the kinds of transitional experience Moonlight provided.

The ANU Arts Centre is now dark after staff members were moved across to the School of Cultural Inquiry. Beaumont says its future is still “an open question” although the centre will still be used by external hirers. Fiona Atkin, PhD candidate and Moonlight’s (sleeping) artistic director has more on that. While she may not see any Moonlight productions hit the stage this year, Atkin will be directing a play for Free-Rain later this year which will likely use the ANU Arts Centre. Ironically enough, it’s the very play that gave papermoon its name - A Streetcar Named Desire.

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ARTISTPROFILE:

Lainie Hart

What do you do? I have the most wonderful hobby in the world – playing in the theatre. I would live in it if I could! I enjoy acting very much, and more recently, have taken on the director’s cap.

When did you get into it? Like many, I imagine, I daydreamt about being on the stage when I was little, but in 1993 I was given the opportunity to be in my first major production – Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard with papermoon.

Who or what influences you as an artist? Without wanting to seem unnecessarily deep and meaningful, I think I have to say, life influences you: life, and gaining a greater understanding, and more honest insights into yourself and those about you.

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far? In February I had the privilege of directing The Allen Key Collective’s production of The Department of Heaven, written by Andrew Hackwill. This was a completely original musical, written and produced by an extraordinarily talented and generous Canberran, and brought to life by our talented local cast and crew.

What are your plans for the future? I hope that I might always stumble into opportunities to dive into scripts, play on stage, and bring stories and characters to life.

What makes you laugh? Lots of things – Boston Legal, my boofy labrador, my beautiful nephew, my best friend.

What pisses you off? Stupidity, unnecessary complexity, meanmindedness, and gossip.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? I think we are very fortunate in Canberra as performers and audiences. The amateur theatre scene seems healthy and robust, and offers frequent opportunities to be a part of all that theatre offers – socially and creatively.

What are your upcoming performances? I am having a lovely time playing Rosie Seymore in Canberra Repertory’s upcoming production of the very funny, nail-biting comedy thriller FlatSpin, playing at Theatre 3 from March 5 to 20.

Contact info: for Flatspin call Rep on 6257 1950.

UNINHIBITED Here at Uninhibited, as always, we been thinking about art, about its power to entertain and to divert, and (after watching Jeff Bridges’ mesmerising performance in Crazy Heart), about its mysterious power to redeem the weary soul.

But first things first.

Entertainment and Diversion, see: Wicked.

Boy oh boy, this was one entertaining show. We schlepped to Sydney to see it, we crammed our tootsies into high heels and downed three glasses of champagne waiting for it to go on, we can’t say much for its quality or possible staying power in the pantheon of creation - but heck was it fun. Two hours of solid gold pap, exploding with pyrotechnical doo dads and covered in a rich sauce of money and green face paint and Bert Newton’s liquor stash (if exploding gold can be covered in sauce, which it can, in this heady mix of metaphors). Rob Mills can’t sing, dance, or act, but what the hey – he wears tight pants and turns into a scarecrow. Uninhibited’s former housemate said it best: An amazing example of what can be done in the theatre with 15 million dollars. +++ Last weekend was spent in a shuddering, sobbing mess. Never fear, however – the sobbing was of the glorious, golden variety – the kind of cathartic cleanse one needs every so often, and to which one can always turn to art to provide (fine examples of the type: Les Miserables, Sense and Sensibility, any Bright Eyes song, the episode of Buffy in season 2 where she kills Angel just after he gets his soul back…). The cause? Watching not one, but two heart-breaking films: Pixar’s Up (yes, I know, you’re like – ‘what? Only just now? That movie came out a bajillion years ago!’ Shut up. We’ve been busy) and Scott Cooper’s love-song to country music, Crazy Heart.

Maybe we here at U-bit are overly sensitive to its particular wiles, but country music has always been the music of pain and suffering, of the broken-down and the down-and-out – and, on the flipside, the music of redemption. Bad Blake (Bridges) goes through it all – a working musician with a couple of back-catalogue hit records, Blake is alcoholic, broke, and alone. The music is the cause of his problems, of course – the lifestyle is ruining his health – but more importantly, Blake refuses – out of pride, out of fear, out of bile or sheer bloody mindedness - to allow music back into his life. It’s not that he can’t, just that he won’t, write. And that’s the real killer.

“This ain’t no place for the weary kind,” Blake sings, broken-voiced, towards the end of the film. And of course, he’s right: art, especially music, is a decadent killing field where so many good souls have foundered of their own accord. But there’s a shimmering light on the other side, that dedication and grit helps even the baddest of the Bad to struggle towards – those golden, heart-breaking notes that burst the straining canals of our hearts and open them up to beauty.

Pack up your crazy heart and give it one more try.

NAOMI MILTHORPE naomi@bmamag.com

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bit PARTS WHO: The NGA and some rockin’ stars WHAT: Starry Nights WHEN: Friday 5 – Saturday March 13, 5.30-11pm WHERE: National Gallery of Australia To chime in with its Masterpieces from Paris exhibition, the NGA has created a sparkling series of 18+ musical events in the middling weeks of March, called Starry Nights. From Friday 5 to Saturday March 13, the NGA will host a galaxy of stars, from Renee Geyer to Tim Rogers and Clare Bowditch (pictured), performing exclusively in the Sculpture Garden. There’s also the uber-hip Pol Roger Sculpture Bar if you fancy some bubbles with your blues, plus late night viewing, and free guided tours, of the MFP exhibition. Tickets to each event cost $70 through Ticketek, and your ticket gets you 10% off at the Gallery shop. Check out the NGA site for more info: www.nga.gov.au .

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WHO: Sparkly artists WHAT: Shimmer WHEN: ‘Til May 30 WHERE: NGA While you’re at the NGA seeing the sparkle sparkle of Rogers et al, why not stop by the dazzling new exhibition from the permanent collection, Shimmer. To quote: “Shimmer examines the many ways artists have employed colour, pattern, line and materials to give their work a special energy in the eye of the viewer. Through a display of works from the national collection, this exhibition explores various interpretations of the power of patterns.” Cool. Plus, it’s free!

WHO: You, ya Crackhead!

WHAT: Crack Theatre Festival WHEN: September 30 – October 4 WHERE: This Is Not Art, Newcastle Crack is a national theatre festival held as part of This Is Not Art, Australia’s largest media arts festival. Every rad theatre person I know went to Crack last year. If you’d like to hit the Crack this year, applications are now being accepted. The good folk at Crack (namely, Gillian Schwab and David Finnigan) are now taking applications from theatre and performing artists who want to perform, hold workshops, presentations, panels, forums and all sorts of other fun. Applications close Wednesday March 31. Details at cracktheatrefestival.com .

WHO: ‘Pling, Silas Brown & Cole Bennetts WHAT: Flare WHEN: Until Friday March 12 WHERE: Belconnen Gallery, Belconnen Community Centre Between 2004 and 2009 the beloved Multicultural Fringe Festival captivated audiences of Canberrans in what came to be known as one of the most eclectic, vibrant and deliciously debaucherous weeks in the whole of Canberra’s cultural calendar. Now, Cole Bennetts, Silas Brown and ‘Pling, the photographers who tirelessly documented this annual phenomenon, have pooled together to look back with love on the Fringe That Was. The exhibition Flare, at Belconnen Community Centre, will take you on a walk through memorable Fringe moments and make you all warm and fuzzy, with a side order of tears and nostalgia.

WHO: The Australian Chamber Orchestra WHAT: ACO Soloists Series: Diana Doherty WHEN: Saturday March 13 @ 8pm WHERE: Llewellyn Hall, School of Music

WHO: artsACT WHAT: Theatre in the ACT Strategic Directions Statement 2010-013 WHEN: Released now WHERE: check it out at www.arts.act.gov.au

Shameless how often this is just blatant quoting. Ho hum: “The Australian Chamber Orchestra is hailed as an orchestra of soloists.

In this concert audiences have the rare opportunity to hear a number of these talented musicians perform as soloists in some of their favourite music, really showing you what they are made of. Also featuring guest oboist Diana Doherty in a reprisal of her ARIA Awardwinning performance of the Bach Violin and Oboe Concerto.” For info on tix and the show, call the venue on 6125 5700.

Two weeks ago ACT Chief Minister and Minister for the Arts and Heritage Jon Stanhope released an official statement outlining the proposed direction for theatre in the ACT. The Theatre in the ACT Strategic Directions Statement 2010-2013 states a primary objective of creating “a dynamic and highly visible ACT theatre culture,” aiming to promote cultural and artistic diversity and foster the reputation of ACT theatre on a national scale. “For 2010 the ACT Government has provided over $1 million in funding to ACT theatre artists and organisations through the ACT Arts Fund,” Jon Stanhope said. “The Statement incorporates a vision and objectives, broad goals, longterm strategies, and practical actions that can be undertaken by both the ACT Government and the ACT theatre sector.”

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METALISE Sore sunburnt necks, torn wristbands and pockets full of ticket stubs join the sweaty laundry on the floors of many of east coast Australia’s metal lovin’ public. It seems that the shows keep coming, both international and local, and we just can’t get enough – even when your trusty columnist stuffs up the dates! My apologies to Templestowe for putting the wrong date of their show last Friday in the last ish – my bad!

Templestowe, however, ARE playing Saturday March 27 at The Basement in Belco along with The Darker Half, Dead Letter Opener and Forgery.

Melbourne’s long time doom masters The Eternal have just released a new DVD, Kartika World Tour 2009, which features 90 minutes of tour documentary as well as the making of the Kartika album. The DVD also features high quality promotional videos of Means For An Ending and Lost Our Way with an exclusive photo gallery also included. Proceeds from the DVD are going straight into the Eternal kitty for the recording of their new album Under a New Sun. Go to their MySpace (/theeternalband) to order direct and maybe even score a signed copy.

Is there anything you want more from an international metal bill than a blast of full force Scottish pirate metal? Of course not!

Darlings of the European metal festival circuit Alestorm are setting sail and will dock at The Factory in Sydney on Saturday June 19. The tour name I hear you ask? Plunder Down Under… yeah.

Hanging for the new albums by High On Fire, Ufomammut, Lair of the Minotaur and a double album from the second wave of doom’s greatest band Cathedral. All are due out in the coming months.

Methinks it’s to be a bumper year for releases.

San Diego metalcore giants As I Lay Dying are about to release their The Powerless Rise record and for Aussie fans this means touring time. Wednesday March 31 is the band’s closest port to Canberra fans landing at The Annandale. Get your core on.

THE AXE MAN COMETH

peter krbavac

Following the resounding success of last year’s event, the 2010 NATIONAL VINTAGE GUITAR AND AMP EXPO will return to Canberra this month. Guitbox aficionados will again overrun the unsuspecting Statesman Hotel for a weekend of workshops, demos and extended discussions over mouldy tube amps and battlescarred axes.

“We had a lot of people come through and I thought the whole weekend had a really enjoyable atmosphere,” says festival organiser Ian Stehlik, of last year’s maiden expo. “Everywhere I went there seemed to be people interested in guitars in one or more of their qualities: aesthetic objects of industrial design, functional musical instruments that sound good, or the special vibe some guitars have from their history, which most players can feel.”

Guitars need a bit of care for long term health

There’s no cause to mess with a winning formula, so 2010’s festival will essentially pick up where the last one left off – though it will, of course, be returning bigger and better. Exhibitors will include locals Berketa Guitars, Copley Guitars, Lark Amps – who I can personally recommend – and Ian’s own Zone of Tone, alongside Sydney’s Global Vintage, Adelaide’s Twangcentral and Gary Denis from the Gold Coast.

On the workshop and demoing front, expect to see Chris Johnson, Skip Sail – who’ll be exhibiting as well as performing – Steve Russell, Jenny Spear, Chris Johnson and Ernie Van Veen, amongst others, take to the stage.

Maiden Oz, Iron Maiden cover band extraordinaire, are at The Basement on Friday March 5.

A highlight of the ‘09 weekend was the free appraisals, which saw all kinds of vintage gats dragged in by punters for inspection. Ian was impressed with the amount of vintage pieces lurking in the suburbs of Canberra – among them a pre-war Martin 0028 and a 1967 Gibson Trini Lopez DeLuxe – and hopes this year will see similar quality through the doors. “I really enjoyed having a close look at fine pieces which came in last year,” he says. “It also gives me a chance to talk to owners and give some advice on condition. Guitars need a bit of care for long term health, even more so if stored than if played, actually.”

Tickets to death metal bonanza bill headlined by Polish uber warriors Decapitated are evaporating fast (following a brutal congealing process of course). Featuring a truly international quality bill for the genre, the Poles are joined by Tasmaniac’s Psycroptic, Origin and Misery Index. Saturday April 3 at The Factory in Sydney – don’t miss out!

“One of the nice things about last year was the mix of people who came along,” Ian says. “They ranged from guitar players who first got interested as teenagers in The Beatles era through to parents who play guitar with their kids who do too, through to younger altcountry stylists to metal players. So if you’re reading this, make sure to let the guitar players in your life know about it!”

Apparently Canberra’s own Aeon of Horus are down a six (six six) string slinger. Apparently the split with Barry Feeney was amicable but life goes on. If you have chops and are serious about your metal, hit the band up through their MySpace page (/aeonofhorus) or email aeonofhorus@hotmail.com .

Josh NP – Hay Que Jaderse – Corrupted – Raggle Taggle Compilation JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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The 2010 National Vintage Guitar and Amp Expo is held at The Statesman Hotel, Curtin, between 10am and 8pm on Saturday March 13 and 10am to 6pm on Sunday March 14. Weekend passes are available at the door for $10, including entry into the lucky door prize of a vintage guitar. For more info, or to enquire about displaying or selling gear, head to www.zot.com.au .

GRIN SPOONING SHAILLA VAN RAAD GRINSPOON are mid-‘90s seasoned rock ‘n’ roll veterans who are still kicking. Starting off at humble beginnings at a collaborative night in Lismore in northern NSW, the band have travelled upwards and onwards to become one of Australia’s most classic original rock bands.

Comprised of Pat Davern (guitar), Joe Hansen (bass guitar), Kristian Hopes (drums) and Phil Jamieson (vocals, guitar), the indie quartet have stuck through thick and thin since forming in 1995. Hansen muses of the first time the band got together, “Pat and I had a jam night at the Gollan Hotel where all sorts of musicians came down and had a play. Phil and Kris came down one night, had a beer and then met up again. The rest is history.”

Going through several different musical style changes, hiatuses and dealing with media coverage of Jamieson’s drug addiction and personal problems, Hansen admits that Grinspoon have been inevitably “dynamic and ever changing. For example, when we first formed, Phil was still very young – he was only 17 and he was a little brat. He didn’t know how to make toast or operate a washing machine. He was the precocious talent in the band. It took a while for him to settle down. These days he is a bit older and more calmed down and so is the band. There are also less tensions in the band.”

It’s like I’m married to three other blokes

Hansen laughs about the times when “Phil and I had so many fights, we even had a fight on stage. If you spend too much time together, in each other’s pockets, you don’t appreciate each other.” But now, Hansen says, because all the members of the band live in different cities, “our time apart makes our time together better. We’re very close, professionally and personally – it’s like I’m married to three other blokes.”

Having been nominated for 13 ARIA awards, winning one and selling close to 500,000 albums, Grinspoon has had the opportunity to tour all over the world with many different bands. The most memorable, Hansen mentions, has been KISS, describing the experience as “hilarious.” Because the band were “on their own level – they had thousands of people backstage to help with the pyrotechnics and lighting. When we went to visit them it was like visiting royalty.”

Their new album, Six to Midnight, which peaked at number six in the ARIA chart, is reminiscent of their original post-grunge sound.

Singles such as Dogs and Summer are a veer away from the style of New Detention, which brought the indie-pop and commercially sounding single Chemical Heart into the limelight. Instead, Six to Midnight hails back to the faster and grittier style of Guide to Better Living, Hansen says. “The new album is all songs that we could nail live and it harps back to our early stuff. The most challenging thing was bringing it down to 15 tracks that we all could agree on.”

Grinspoon are touring their new album Six to Midnight on Thursday 18 March at 8pm at the Hellenic Club in Phillip. Tickets through Oztix or Ticketek.

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labels with one only percent of the budget.’ Definitely one to look out for, the album is out on Friday April 9 so more on it once I’ve heard it in its entirety.

THE REALNESS Let’s get straight to it this fortnight with Hauie Beast aka Hau from Koolism just unveiling his first mixtape Love The Beast (strategically released on Valentine’s Day) for all the lovers and haters out there.

For all of those waiting on that new Koolism record (it’s coming people!) this is the perfect treat, with Hau really showing his range over the entire release. Both Katalyst and Jacob Giles supply an amazing production each, with Hau also selecting some dope ‘jacked’ selections as well as paying homage to some of his faves with some killer remakes of Brad Strut and Wajeed tunes. The release flows perfectly and Hau steps out of his comfort zone with a number of sung and spoken word pieces which work really nicely in shifting the pace and tone of the mixtape. Coz the man is so generous you can download it for free at hauiebeast.blogspot.com so get busy and share it with your friends. That’s the sound of the Beast!

You might remember me biggin’ up Gold Coast-based duo Choose Mics a while back with their pre-album release about a year or so ago. Well thankfully they are now back with their first official album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers which follows hot on the heels of Mules’ work on the latest Hyjak & Torcha LP and the duo just wrapping up a massive east coast tour with heavy weights Phrase, Bliss N Eso and Muph & Plutonic. Birmingham born MC Haunts and Australian born producer Mules have undeniable chemistry and were born to make music together. Their new LP acts as ‘an ode to the experience of creating an album, competing against established artists on major

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Two legends of the Oz hip-hop scene Hunter and DJ Vame have combined for the Monster House LP which will be released on Friday March 5 through Obese Distribution. Nick Sweepah, Dyverse and Intalekt show up on guest spots, along with probably the biggest titled track posse tune I’ve seen in a while, featuring Reason, Sinner, Mortar, Axxin The Supernova, Mr Karma, Mistery, Raph, Dazastah, Illergic, Thomas Rock and Layla all on one tune. Daaaaaamn.

Also released on Friday March 5 through Obese distro is the third release in 12 months for work-a-holic Torcha. Entitled Frozen State, the album is a collaboration with B-Don and is a ‘hybrid hip-hop album influenced by… elements of hard rock, classical and chart topping tunes’ as well as Torcha’s recent travels across Europe, the Americas and Asia. Feva, S.Q.Z, Hyjak, N’FA and Listic show up on guest duties.

The long-awaited official second album from Queensland’s The Optimen is due for release on Saturday April 10 through Red Tape Entertainment/Inertia. According to Red Tape Entertainment, The Out Of Money Experience is “a sonic excursion, boom-bastic voyage, sample-based tour-de-force, enriched lyrically by your favourite Boomtown bandits”. With a guest list that reads like a favourite emcee list (Tommy Illfiger, Jehst, Rainman, Lazy Grey, Pure Product, Adverse, The Archetypes, Phil Da Agony), I’m sure this will be a 100% certified neck-crackin’ release. More on this one when I hear it as well.

To hear music from all these releases and more tune to The Antidote on 2XX 98.3FM every Tuesday night from 9.30pm.

Roshambo roshambizzle@yahoo.com.au

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the word

BLACKBOX

on games The concept of playing a trivia game on a console (or any platform for that matter) has never really taken me. Maybe it’s because the most enjoyment I get from trivia is knowing I outsmarted a bunch of randoms I’ll never meet again. Or maybe it’s because I don’t have any friends to play it with. Either way, they just seem like the kinda games you wouldn’t get more than one or two sessions out of. Having said that, that didn’t stop me from dating my last girlfriend, so here’s to second chances. (But not for you Janie. We’re through, babe).

Scene-It? Bright Lights!

Big Screen!

Publisher: Warner Bros.

Interactive Developer: Artificial Mind & Movement Style: Trivia Rating: Try to borrow Platform: PS3, 360, Wii Scene It? is a bit of a mixed bag, getting some of the essentials right, whilst still managing to trip up in numerous other ways.

Focussing on the positive for the time being, Scene It? does at least succeed at doing what it’s meant to, which is to ask (mostly) interesting film questions. In fact, it offers just under 3,000 questions in a variety of styles, ranging from video-based ones (most of which focus around reasonably old clips) to the shit-tonne of obligatory text-based ones. Enjoyably, many of the question types, such as identifying the film based on a cartoonish or pixelated rendition of one of its famous scenes, are not only fun, but quite amusing too.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for all the round types. For instance, the anagram round tests your film knowledge about as much as a sudoku puzzle tests your physical prowess. Likewise, the audio round is reasonably inaudible thanks to the presence of a background track. While the film association round fixates itself so much on one title, if you haven’t seen it, you’re screwed. Annoyingly, the issues don’t stop there; the animated host is unfunny, horribly synced and causes the game to have some horrible load times.

The ‘end of round star system’ awards stars in such a frustratingly arbitrary way that it will no doubt create some heated arguments when the scores are close. Finally, thanks in most part to its Wii heritage, the visuals are a little lacking. When you also consider the fact that they chose to map the topmost answer to the lowest button on the controller, you can start to tell they didn’t put a large amount of effort into this port.

All that said, play this game with the right options (no host, no star system and penalising wrong answers) and it’s still good fun to play among friends. Unfortunately, given that most party games these days come out with their own peripherals, you might not have the required hardware to play with more than about one good friend, so here’s hoping that not many of your mates are film buffs.

TORBEN SKO

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The biggest controversy of the Winter Olympics isn’t the Russians’ indigenous ice dance, whether flamboyant ice dancer Johnny Weir can make the sign of the cross correctly or even US snowboarder Scott Lago being sent home because of that pic. The biggest question is – why didn’t someone offer Roy and HG a big wad of cash to resurrect The Ice Dream? Chez Blackbox is Winter Olympicsfriendly – especially the X-Games sports, backroom bitching at the ice rink and the curling – but even with that magnificent lineup, Vancouver Gold (WIN, daily, 9.30pm) is wearing pretty thin.

Mick Molloy is a great comedy writer and even actor in the right circumstance but he ain’t no commentator. And Eddie? For God’s sake, stick to the Footy Show (WIN, TBA) where homophobic pranks, juvenile jokes and chauvinistic jibes seem to be the backbone of the show and Millionaire, where the contestants (including the armchair ones) will put up with anything for the chance of winning a million.

As the Winter Olympics heads towards the closing ceremony, WIN’s 2010 lineup is (finally) taking shape. As we go to press there’s still no start date for the third season of Underbelly but one has been set for the remake of V (WIN, Sun Mar 7, 8.30pm). Sure the technology has improved – the rat swallowing is bound to look more believable this time around – but the whole thing has a seen-it-before feel to the production; a sci-fi version of Robin Hood re-imagining with pretty young things and a monochromatic backdrop. Sure the ‘80s mini-series was cheesy and there was no CGI but that’s what made it so good – Blackbox recommends searching it out. If you’re a fan of old Star Trek, you’ll love it.

Kings (7TWO, Wed, 10:30pm) is the latest offering from Heroes creator Michael Green. The plot is a modern day imagining of the bible’s Book of David, set in the fictitious kingdom of Gilboa, that looks a lot like NYC. It’s no doubt the bible is a great plot resource and Ian McShane of Deadwood fame certainly makes for a great king. The fact that Prime has relegated it to 7TWO is probably the best indication that it’s a sophisticated, not to be missed drama.

Docos to check out include Rendezvous with Death: Kennedy and Castro (SBS2, Thu Mar 4, 7:30pm) which hypothesises that Lee Harvey Oswald was a gun for hire, Contact (ABC2, Thu Mar 4, 9.25pm) which looks at the first contact between a remote Australian indigenous mob and whitefellas in 1964, Underdog (ABC2, Wed Mar 10, 8.30pm) which follows a Jamaican dog sledder (yes dog sled, not bobsleigh) and Natascha Kampusch: 3096 Days in Captivity (SBS1, Sun Mar 7, 9.30pm) where the former pre-Fritzl captive tells her story.

The folks who give away money at the ABC have announced a further $400,000 funding will be made available for young documentary makers under round five of the triple j TV docs initiative. You can apply for funding until Monday April 5 at www. screenaustralia.gov.au/jtvdocs .

A new series of Wilfred (SBS1, Mon Mar 8, 10pm) starts this week.

And yes, that was English star Dominic West, who plays McNulty in The Wire (ABC2, Tue, 9.30pm), putting on a half-decent Australian accent in Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin last Sunday night.

TRACY HEFFERNAN tracyheffernan@bigpond.com

the word on dvds

bill bailey’s remarkable guide to the orchestra [universal] Despite what you may think, not all us critics are talentless, slavering parasites jealously leeching off the success of others. Just most of us. And I don’t feel particularly good about giving this three stars.

Y’see, I love Bill Bailey and his childlike-yet-adult, kooky-yetintelligent brand of comedy; he was the reason I found myself traversing the frankly seedy backwaters of London to be in the audience of the Black Books pilot many years back.

The man can play just about every instrument constructed by humans (and some that aren’t), and here he’s organised a large scale orchestra, led by conductor Anne Dudley, to revisit favourite material of the past decade, as well as deliver some new set pieces, including a pastiche symphonic homage to wasps, locusts and jelly-fish, the Match of the Day theme-tune recast as a Jewish folk-song, and the introduction to current affairs flagship Panorama played backwards.

But the introduction of an orchestra, whilst undoubtedly impressive, doesn’t necessarily make things funnier. As the title suggests this is often a guide, and the comedy gets bogged down as a result, making it not as consistently hilarious as Bailey’s previous output in Bewilerness, Part Troll and Tinselworm. Taking advantage of this new format to revisit old jokes also makes the experience all too familiar for longterm fans.

But the innovation, effort and talent should be applauded.

This has enough laughs for the diehards, and would serve as an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with the weird and wonderful world of Bailey. The talented git. allan sko

two and a half men season 6 [warner home video]

Two and Half Men is not the sort of show I would normally watch, and with it being on pretty much every half an hour it’s actually quite an accomplishment to live in a Charlie Harper/Sheen-free world. But I’m in the minority; the show is staggeringly successful, unequivocally a ratings juggernaut. It rarely troubles any critics’ Best Of lists, but I doubt that bothers the team behind the show – Chuck Lorre (producer, creator) is a multimillionaire who knocked out The Big Bang Theory in his spare time and Charlie Sheen racks up around a million per episode, and a few other things if his numerous stabs at rehab are any guide.

This past weekend I’ve been trying to account for its success and here are the facts.

It’s vulgar, coarse, juvenile, far from family-friendly and played so obviously for cheap sexual innuendo that it should come with a free tube of hand cleanser and a box of tissues. It revolves almost entirely around Charlie chasing skirt, getting in trouble for chasing skirt from some other piece of skirt then skulking around his house thinking about the next piece of skirt to be chased. Interspersed are jokes about anal sex, alcoholism, fingers in holes and well… I think you get the point.

Sheen mugs his way through with barely audible mumbles and Jon Cryer as his hapless brother is Straight Man 101 doing enough to pull off an Emmy last year (insert Charlie-style joke here). Yet despite all this, halfway through I found it difficult to stop watching, caught like a rabbit in the headlights of Charlie Sheen’s slow-jawed smirk. I still don’t understand the mechanics of its success but somehow Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen have made the offensive, anachronistic and boorish antics of a man-child an inoffensive and treacly addictive treat. Sheen 1, society 0. justin hook

THE mighty boosh LIVE: FUTURE SAILORS TOUR [universal] Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett’s freakish lovechild The Mighty Boosh has risen from cult fervour to worldwide success over the past ten years. Their comedic lexicon is understood by an increasing number (walk into any pub and yell “I’m Old Gregg!” and you can be certain at least one, if not a chorus line, of folk will yell back “I’ve got a mangina!”), and their jaunts into myriad media forms epitomise the term ‘prolific.’ Of all their output – and there is a lot; the stand up show that started it all, the radio series that followed, three TV series with an apparent fourth on the way, a book, and plans for a movie – the stage show is undoubtedly the weakest. First live DVD The Mighty Boosh Live was a drawn out, forced and largely painful affair from such comic wits; characters like Bob Fossil and Bollo work brilliantly as bit parts in the series, but fall flat when given their own seven minute segments to fill. Overall, the casual offhanded wackiness of the show is lost in the live setting (which should be their natural home), replaced with a gaudy pantomime presentation that simply doesn’t suit.

Fortunately, Future Sailors is a vast improvement on the first live show, but is still bottom rung when compared to their other material. The first half hour is very strong; Fielding and Barratt play up to their characters with enough nuance to provide fresh laughs and the side characters are used sparingly well. Although it takes a turn for the worse when Sunflash, Fielding’s most annoying creation to date, intrudes later on. And the songs, which weave their way effortlessly into the series despite their bizarreness, simply break the flow in the live format.

Still, this is much better than the first live show, has 30 minutes of great new material, and shows the beloved duo are improving with the conversion from TV to stage. Bring on the next series. allan sko

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on albums

album of the week yeasayer odd blood [secretly canadian]

This particular album saw me moist lipped many an afternoon, reading through blogs and that whispered of leaked tracks and claims made by the band about how it was potentially more pop and mainstream. When it finally arrived, the only real disappointment was the cover art. The strengths of Yeasayer as both musicians and producers are flowing abundantly on this release, doing what they do so much better than other bands vaguely in their league of world music: give it a legitimate platform, make it accessible to the masses without bastardising it, and prove their exceptional skill at fusing genres.

They have respect for what an album really is, creating a thought out entity rather than a lot of their modern day counterparts who simply treat it as singles pushed together with obligatory buffers in between. A few tracks are slightly amiss, but All Hours Cymbals suffered the same fate, proving their interest in creating original pieces rather than pleasing the masses. There are giant bursts of energy on ONE and even Ambling Alp, but the real art remains in the composition, and the intricacies that continue to reveal themselves on every listen.

KATY HALL

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Dark Horse From Now On [Dark Horse Music]

Delphic Acolyte [Polydor]

Groove Armada Black Light [COOKING VINYL]

After fine tuning their music for two and a bit years, Melbournian four piece Dark Horse have offered up their first EP. The flavour is heavy melodic rock, with a strong blues influence, as seen in songs such as From Now On. The band’s favourite formula is the use of alternating waves of slow and fast tempos, with slow, quiet verses and loud, fast choruses. This is an effective recipe, as Adam Eaton’s bluesy voice dominates the lurking guitars which tick over menacingly in the background, before they explode in a rage of sound in the chorus. Beautiful Scene breaks this mould, going for broke right from the start.

There’s no doubt that Apostasy, which spins a rich haunting atmosphere with its echoing guitars and was released as a demo single, is a CD highlight.

Over a visceral surge of warbling buzzes and electro stabs, there’s a layered vocal line rising: a battlecry. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine fists held high, a zealot rallying his troops. “A call to arms! / A call to everything you wanted.” It bellows, it promises, and for an adrenaline-filled moment you think you can reach out and take it. These jittery electro beats and staccato melodies herald the arrival of Acolyte, the first record by much hyped outfit Delphic.

A fusion of indie ideals and electronica sensibilities, it recalls the same concept of Bloc Party’s Intimacy.

In the last two years Groove Armada leaked a couple of very disco sounding songs.

When they performed at the very strange but free Bacardi sponsored (what?!) concert last year I can’t remember much (‘cause of being drunk) except that they still had it. And that the floor was wet with booze so I was able to shimmy.

But there are other goodies too, in the opener Right Son with the music rising and falling rapidly like a jagged saw, and Hurricane with guitars crashing repeatedly like waves on rocks before the shrieking guitar solo at the end of the song. Most lyrics are clear, although the inflections to Adam’s voice occasionally make the words indecipherable - a bit like Kings of Leon. Even so, I couldn’t really work out the themes. However, words are less important in this genre than the gutsyness of the guitars and Dark Horse are a good rock package, with roaring guitars and great vocal tones.

RORY McCARTNEY

Red Lights is an anthemic march towards the dancefloor, with enough arpeggiated buzz saw goodies to keep Infected Mushroom fans sated, and Acolyte begins with gorgeous ambience before morphing into another reverberated stomper.

The synths sizzle and spew forth, the beats jiggle and jive, but alas! What is missing? What is this empty feeling? It all feels like a safety net. It all feels familiar, like an old blanket or your granny’s crib; it all feels like they toed the line. But there’s nothing wrong with that (no, Nan, I needed an example! I’d love to come over for Scrabble.

No, I don’t feel obligated, I want to). And if you are indeed ‘searching for the new sound’, I suggest you wander elsewhere.

But there’s nothing wrong with dipping your little toes into charted, synthy waters every now and again.

Palimah Panichit

In the past I had always thought Groove Armada were a bit hit and miss, no album quite striking me the way their singles did. But it seemed they were getting… better? How is that possible 13 years after they lost their musical virginity?

In any case, Black Light could very well be their best album release yet. Look Me in the Eye Sister suggests a Meatloafinspired album, I Won’t Kneel a Heart-inspired album, and Paper Romance remixes could be as well received as Does it Offend You, Yeah?’s Dawn of the Dead. Yet it all works as a whole.

I feel I could be listening to any of these songs while dancing in a dirty underground New York club in the late ‘80s. Black Light is the perfect title; I can see lots of vibrant ultraviolet lights bouncing off the sexy youths (which excludes me) as they bump and grind on the D-floor (I could almost be considered a youth for dropping the ‘ance’ in ‘dance’ right?). In conclusion, this album is very cool! peter rosewarne

singled out

with Dave Ruby Howe

MV & EE Barn Nova [Ecstatic Peace]

The Tealeaves The Tealeaves [Vitamin Records]

White Wizzard Over the Top [Earache/Riot]

I can recall being in a particularly psychedelic frame of mind with a bunch of friends and playing the classic 1969 Grateful Dead album Live Dead.

At one point, the band locked into an improvisation that was the manifestation of a single group mind just as I locked eyes with a beautiful girl who knew that everything was going to be alright. How often does that happen? Not often enough for us ordinary folk, but there have been MV & EE occasions where I have come close to re-living the Grateful Dead moment, and I’m not just saying that because of the influence the latter band has had on the core MV & EE line-up of Matt Valentine and partner Erika Elder. In recent years this two-piece has kept the psychedelic music flame alive by sometimes coming across as a cosmic Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but with an enticingly off-centre sensibility that commands attention in an all-embracing kinda way. On Barn Nova, there is a continuation of roots music transformation as second track Get Right Church taps into an early blues form, but filtered through some fabulous acid rock leanings with Erika Elder’s gorgeous vocals the icing on the cake. On the eleven minute Bedroom Eyes, an allout rock ‘n’ roll vibe emerges, perhaps due to the influence of J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr who sporadically works with the band, and whose presence complements the already righteous blend.

Like a strong cuppa of tangy lemon with a hint of ginger, the Tealeaves’ debut album will add zest to your day. This collection is light, sweet as cider and crisp as a virgin paperback, with simple but very appealing melodies inspired by the pop of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

There’s an awful lot of ‘new wave of traditional heavy metal’ out in the marketplace at the moment; last year saw spectacular albums by the likes of Cauldron, Ravage and Mean Streak to name but three, all taking metal’s early eighties heyday as their sonic starting point, and now they’re joined by White Wizzard, a Los Angelean quintet for whom it appears always to be 1983.

DAN BIGNA

The songs cover a panorama of emotions including joy, loss, comfort, devotion and goodbyes, yet the overall message is one of uplifting happiness.

The Melbourne septet, which only formed in 2008, features the crisp vocals of James Van Cuylenburg and Jess Wilson.

Singing singly they shine; in duets such as It’s Only Time, they sparkle. And the album is full of brilliant harmonies that magnify the passion expressed in the songs, as seen in the heart warming Beside Me. The opener Barefoot and Beautiful is a great upbeat tune, with the crisp voice of James, the rich underlying sound of the accordion and swelling harmonies. Travelling Far is a fast paced folksy number, with Rochelle Bryson’s fiddle dancing as James and Jess take alternate lines of the song. Jess leads in the delicate The Little Ones with its glockenspiel feature at the hands of David Schmidt.

I Come Undone and Josh are more sombre tunes but, for all that, they are two of the most beautiful tracks. This brew is sure to put a smile on your dial. rory mccartney

Interestingly, it’s not the usual Maiden/Priest wankfest these things usually turn out to resemble (though bassist/ founding member Jon Leon does allow himself one or two moments of gratuitous Steve Harris worship); instead, the band sound like nothing more than a bizarre melange of no-hope eighties outfits like Clovenhoof and Savage (who?), which adds a curiously fresh edge to events. That said, if you like heavy metal and you’re over 30, you’ll have heard all of this before, yet somehow the ‘Wizzard are so convincing in their execution and delivery that that hardly matters in the final wash up. The one stumblimg block is, even gonzoid bozos like Clovenhoof had one or two killer toons up their leather ‘n’ studded sleeves whereas Over the Top, pleasing to the lugs as it is, just fails to make the first division in terms of songwriting.

Ten minutes after it’s run its course, you’ll be struggling to remember much about the record save for the fact that it’s well sung, well played and well produced. Not a bad effort.

Scott Adams

Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be/Rocking That Body [UMA] Wedged together as two singles for total Video Hits domination, the latest move by the BEP to sodomise their original fans is one of their greatest. Will.I.Am goes bonkers on the pitch shifted vocals (dude, we get it already), Fergzilla tramples the small township of Taste-ville, and oh, wait, there are two other members in the band? No kidding.

Hystereo - Cityspeak [Bang Gang 12 Inches] Well, damn. This is just an out and out stomper. Having teamed up with local heroes the Bang Gang for a new EP, Hystereo drop six minutes of blissful banging electro that’s more down-tuned Casio chords and pummelling beats than you’ll ever need.

Penguin Prison - The Worse It Gets [Neon Gold] Ignore the terrible name and focus on the tuneage here.

Penguin Prison comes off like JT’s indie loving cousin, obsessed with bedroom-built synth pop and grooving guitar lines. And just as you’d hope, his knack for a hook is incredible. This is fire.

Timbaland - Carry Out ft.

Justin Timberlake [UMA] These two ‘Timb’s are best when they’re chilling together in the studio, pushing one another to do something interesting, and thankfully Justin took some time out from snuggling Jessica Biel to give his pal a hook up. Expect three minutes of syrupy smooth choruses, cowbells galore and some weird food-based sexual fetishes. So basically it’s pretty awesome.

39

the word

on films

WITH MARK RUSSELL

Suggested drinking games for the 82nd Academy Awards.

Take a shot for every: 1) time they cut to Lee Daniels nodding smugly after some favourable mention of Precious; 2) time someone mentions Avatar focusing on its box office receipts or technology rather than actual cinematic qualities; 3) pirouette or spin Patrick Swayze does in his dedication footage; 4) time they cut to Quentin Tarantino wearing an expression that says “Fuck you, I’m Quentin Tarantino”; 5) shot you think Mariah Carey’s had.

quote of the issue

“It’s funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’, for a little while.” Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) Crazy Heart

crazy heart

shutter island

dear john

It’s a little depressing to walk into an empty cinema to watch the frontrunner for best actor this close to the Oscars; especially when Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief has a line stretching round the corner. But it’s no real surprise. The miserysoaked tale of an alcoholic, country music has-been isn’t exactly Friday night date fodder.

“Scorsese was such a hero of the ‘70s and ‘80s and I’ve been increasingly disappointed,” Margaret Pomeranz bemoaned on At The Movies, and with a trailer that suggests “Scorcese does House on Haunted Hill” I can understand the frustration. The deliberately OTT soundtrack, brooding establishing shots, and central mystery certainly lead us in that direction. Instead, as the film rolls, we are given a psychological character piece, and a pretty good one at that.

Call me sexist, but I reckon The Notebook is the definitive chick flick. Not because of the woefully clichéd story, just-rough-enough male lead and cheesy-as-hell “I-wrote-you-every-day” line.

These things don’t hinder the case but the real reason I have this opinion is I have never personally encountered a woman who hates it. Most of the male film fiends I know groan at its mere mention. The female cinephiles on the other hand (all of whom have opinions I usually respect) tend to shuffle their feet as they sheepishly admit they “sorta, kinda, like it”. This overlong intro is designed to show you: I don’t get this stuff, so feel free to disregard the following vilification of a film based on a book by the same author.

Jeff Bridges really is brilliant in the central role however. He plays Bad Blake, a man whose songwriting talent is matched only by his self-destructive bitterness.

He’s playing crappy gigs, to bowling alleys full of audiences clinging to better times with the same desperate grip he has on his steel-string. But a glimpse of happiness appears in the form of music journalist Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who just might be the inspiration to lift him up.

This romance, like the film itself, lives and dies on the performances of these two great players. It’s very hard to buy this young, intelligent, beautiful woman being attracted to such a wreck of a man – this goes beyond broken-wing syndrome into a whole new level of romantic masochism. But the one attractive quality we get out of Bad is the undeniable sad honesty he carries himself with; a trait which Jean’s presence only heightens.

Crazy Heart meanders a little round the middle, occasionally feels like The Wrestler with guitars, and doesn’t always hit the high emotional notes; but the third act is incredibly strong. The film ends up as an imperfect but wailing tribute to a bitter cowboy, and it wouldn’t be a crime to see Bridges get the gong on this one.

40

mark russell

The premise is thus: detectives Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio), and new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) enter Shutter Island, a prison for deranged, violent offenders, to investigate a patient’s disappearance. Teddy has an ulterior motive; to track down the man that killed his wife. Scenes of German expressionism later, and all is not what it seems.

The film has a ‘twist’, and I place the term in wanktation marks as it doesn’t take a genius to pick it. But it isn’t an M Night Shyofquality twist where a weak film hinges on its impact; rather it steers the film from a psychological thriller to being simply psychological. Certain parts require a generous stretch of the imagination, but this is outweighed by the emotional impact of the lengthy denouement.

In other hands, this could have been, well, House on Haunted Hill. Scorcese has summoned some beautifully composed and haunting scenes, which help construct an affecting character piece. But where’s Goodfellas 2 already? allan sko

Initially Dear John promised more. This time the male lead, John (Channing Tatum), is almost a person rather than a cardboard cut-out. Its clichés are also as much about making Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) an adorable and quirky saviour for John, as they are showing how brooding and troubled he is.

Halfway through however, the wheels fall off dramatically.

Character and motivation go out the window as we lose Savannah’s screen time, never to identify with her again. The film paints itself into a corner morally speaking, and we stop understanding why we should care about their feelings for each other. Tatum is still charismatic, Seyfried is even quite good (despite having little to work with), there’s even a great turn from Richard Jenkins as John’s father; but Dear John fails in the final delivery.

Never thought I’d say it, but this isn’t even The Notebook. mark russell

41

GIG GUIDE March 3 - March 7 wednesday march 3 arts Canberra Gold

An exhibition that tells the stories of some of Canberra’s longest residents.

‘Til June 20.

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

Walykumunu Palaynma - Paint Right Way

New paintings from Papulankutja. Until Thursday March 4.

Concrète

Feat. Ahmad, Emily McDaniel, The Brother Gozu and Kasha. 7pm, $5.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Katie Noonan and The Captains She of the purest voice and porcelain skin performs for you, for just $35.

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

For your free listing shoot an email to editorial@bmamag.com. We print ‘em as they come!

Cut Cord

Exhibition by emerging sculptor Skylen Dall. ‘Til March 7.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE - MANUKA

Colour Country: Art From Roper River A new exhibition of Aboriginal works from Arnhem Land. ‘Til April 11.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Blaze 4

Blaze is CCAS’s annual emerging artist showcase exhibition. ‘Til April 1.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Cavorting

Exhibition that explores the perod of post menopause in women’s lives. ‘Til March 14.

SOUTHSIDE GALLERY, NARRABUNDAH

Bald Archy Prize 2010

thursday march 4

Belco Flicks II Tropfest Dropouts

Act I - for the family. Act II - for mature audiences. 7.30pm, free.

BELCONNEN COMMUNITY CENTRE

Dance

42

Mikelangelo and The Tin Star Faux Real

A special series of events in association with Masterpieces from Paris. nga. gov.au .

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Suzie Stapleton THE PHOENIX PUB

Curious Fate

10.30pm-2.30am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Indyfest 2010

Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens, Fun Machine, Rafe Morris, Chanel Cole, Margaret Helen King, and a million buckets more! And all for a mere $15.

You’d be mad to miss it.

MCGREGOR HALL

Something Different Mathew Kenneally and Toby Halligan

Something Like This KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Boutique Beer Festival

Domus Adultus

Ayleen & the Husbands, Clankenstein and Second Sun. THE PHOENIX PUB HIPPO LOUNGE

Dos Locos

9pm-midnight.

A master singer/songwriter with Aras in support. 7.30pm, $10.

Something Different Karaoke

Cash prizes, 2 for 1 basic spirits and tap beer, and free pool. DJ Peter Doree from 11pm.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

friday march 5

THE PHOENIX PUB

WESLEY MUSIC CENTRE

A special series of events in association with Masterpieces from Paris. nga. gov.au .

Starry Nights: The Black Sorrows

Live

Glorious folk for free.

Robert Schmidli Piano Recital. $2.

Starry Nights: Renee Geyer

THE BASEMENT

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Captain, My Captain

Wednesday Lunchtime Live

Live

Reunion show, with Scapegoat and Immorium. 8.30, $15.

Sneak preview performances ahead of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 8pm. $15/$10.

Hot music and cool cocktails for late nights.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

HIPPO LOUNGE

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

MCGREGOR HALL

Australian of the Year: Inspiring a Nation

With Mario Gordan.

Foreplay Fridays

Faux Real

TRANSIT BAR

Jaywalker

Hippo Live

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition by Emily Valentine. ‘Til March 20.

Live

Hot music and cool cocktails for late nights.

Strangeways DJs

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

TRANSIT BAR

9 ‘til 5 with DJs Pete & Matt. Free entry before 10pm.

arts

Flying Flings

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Australian of the Year Awards. ‘Til April 26.

Ug Beats

Jemist

TRANSIT BAR

The Crunch

CRAFT ACT

BAR 32

Trivia

An exhibition of portrait of humour, dark satire, light comedy and caricature. ‘Til March 8.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Soulcrusher

Your weekly Big Night Out with DJs playing rock, indie, alternative, punk and dance 9-way late.

Sofie Loizou (Syd), Jemist, Miss Universe, DFP, Not You, Alistair.

Secret Cities

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Live

REV

Something Different

CHAPMAN GALLERY

Digital paintings by Paul Summerfield.

Dance

arts Recent Paintings

In association with Ernabella Arts.

Opening at 5.30. ‘Til March 25. chapman gallery

HIPPO LOUNGE

10pm-2am.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Maiden Oz

Come and enjoy some extremely rare beer matched with fine food. ‘Til March 14.

$15, 8pm.

THE BASEMENT

Benjalu

Inspired by a life on the waves and a sleepy little coastal existence. 7.30pm, $10.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Happy Birthday Travis H Heinrich. the phoenix

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

saturday march 6 dance

sunday march 7 arts Arc: The Last Movie (1971, 18+)

With Chris Combe, Andrew Dever, Yohan Strauss, Sammy Tee.

Directed by Dennis Hopper. A provocative essay on Hollywood’s cultural imperialism. 4.30pm.

HIPPO LOUNGE

chapman gallery

Faux Real

dance

Villainy

Faux sure.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Candy Cube

10 ‘til 5 with DJs Peter Dorree and Matt Chavasse.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Academy Saturdays: Chris Frazer ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

LLIK LLIK LLIK TRANSIT BAR

Cube Sunday

Party on after the weekend’s over with DJ TJ from 10 ‘til late. Free pool.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

43

GIG GUIDE March 7 - March 13 Sunday’s Best

Canberra Day Long Weekend Festival.

Greg Wilson (UK), Jaytech (UK/AUS), Housemester (GER), Vincenzo (ITA), Anoraak (FRA), Deekline (UK), Tydi (QLD), Bagraiders (Syd), Muscles DJ set (Mel), Marlo (Mel), and Canberran lovelords The Aston Shuffle ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Day Play The Front’s Art Fair

Come lounge about, sip coffee, feel artsy and support over ten local artists selling their wares including jewellery, photographic works, zines, textile art, hand bound books, paintings, prints (and even a little vintage clothing).

10am - 5pm.

live

Angel Maria

Something Different

Truckstop Honeymoon

Robert Curgenven (Germany)

World’s Greatest Shave

This one’ll tear the roof off the place.

With The Fuelers. 8pm, $10.

MCGREGOR HALL

The Sundance Kids

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Special K

HIPPO LOUNGE

Gangbusters

Featuring The Fighting League, Super Best Friends and Beat Hotel. Doors open at 9pm, entry is $5. Come and experience what is swiftly becoming Canberra’s best independent music nights birdslovefighting.com .

HIPPO LOUNGE

With Roil. $15/$12. thestreet.org.au .

THE STREET THEATRE

Foreplay Fridays

9 ‘til 5 with DJs Pete & Matt. Free entry before 10pm.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Purple Sneakers DJs

BenLucid (Purple Sneakers DJ), Kill The Landlord (SYD), Talihina Shan, Will Eat Brains and more.

TRANSIT BAR

Bicipital Groove

Come and get shaved or coloured.

Register at worldsgreatestshave.com .

5.30-8pm.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Fall Ball at Albert Hall

Free swing and dance lesson, live big band and floor shows. fallball@ jumptown.org .

ALBERT HALL

saturday march 13

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

arts

BAR 32

Live

Flipart

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Something Different

RhythmProject Duo

Live

Trivia

TRANSIT BAR

thursday march 11

5-8pm.

WESTON CLUB

Something Different

arts

Jumptown Swing

There is a Fire Down Below

K’MOTION DANCE STUDIO, LONDON CCT

monday march 8

Exhibition by TJ Philipson. ‘Til March 21.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE - MANUKA

Dance Cheese

dance

HIPPO LOUNGE

Hospitality Night feat. UniVibes DJs

Club night.

TRANSIT BAR

Live

Mingle

Sarah Daphne Foo, Pataphysics and Fat Controller.

Something Different

9pm-midnight.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

tuesday march 9 arts Partly Cloudy

Exhibition by Canberra based artists about the fluffy vs harrowing nature of clouds. ‘Til March 27.

ANU SCHOOL OF ART

Something Different TNT: Karaoke Dynamite

Charles Chatain KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Power to the People Fundraiser Feat. Bougainvillean Songman Clive Porabou with George Bishop. 6pm.

Entry by donation.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

dance Ashley Feraude

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

44

Sam Buckingham and Friends THE MERRY MUSE

Special K

TRANSIT BAR

With Astro Chem, Raw City Ruckas. $10.

THE BASEMENT

Impressive hybrid of folk, alt country and soul, sewn together by his hand.

7.30pm, $10.

THE PHOENIX PUB

The Symbolist Music of Claude Debussy But was he an impressionist? Free.

4.30pm.

Of Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes and The Wreckery Fame. $5 entry.

Monkey Bar

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Knock out good times.

Tonight Alright

Los Amigos Invisibles

10 ‘til 5 with DJs Peter Dorree and Matt Chavasse.

The King Hits

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Robin Casinader with Jenny Spear

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

10pm-2am.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Starry Nights: Tim Rogers Band

A special series of events in association with Masterpieces from Paris. nga. gov.au .

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Iron Jack

With Divine Electirc, All Guns Blazing, Atlantis Awaits.

THE BASEMENT

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

friday march 12 arts Lights! Canberra! Action!

Flipart

wednesday march 10

Party By Jake

Alex Hallahan

THE FELLOWS BAR, ANU

Awesome Venezuelan dance band who’ll have you swinging from the ceiling in a jiffy.

Open Mic Stand-Up

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

HIPPO LOUNGE

Live

The Bridge Between

Karaoke

Open up them pipes for everlasting glory. Smashing prizes to be won.

A new comics and new material night. A safe and comedy friendly environment.

7.30pm.

Steve & Ray Amosa

Candy Cube

A special series of events in association with Masterpieces from Paris. nga. gov.au .

Something Different

A Canberra Festival event. Screening of the top 12 finalists of the Canberra Festival film comp and award ceremony.

TRANSIT BAR

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Shunji

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Cash prizes, 2 for 1 basic spirits and tap beer, and free pool. DJ Peter Doree from 11pm.

Bringin’ his Aust Club Chart #1 Out My Bitch. Booya.

Starry Nights: Clare Bowditch Trio

5-7pm.

George Bishop, Pataphysics and Joe Oppenheimer (who is the editor of this fine rag’s favourite local muso). .

Academy Saturdays: T-Rek

UCU REFECTORY

Live

THE PHOENIX PUB

Sneak preview performances ahead of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 7pm. $15/$10.

Easily one of Australia’s best lyricists (“She was one in a million / so there’s five more just in New South Wales!”, piano virtuosos and madcap winos, come see Tim Freedman and the boys belt out rock ballads like only they could. $24.50 (first release), $29.50 (second release), $35.00 (door sale).

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

THE PHOENIX PUB

Mathew Kenneally and Toby Halligan

Dance

The Whitlams

TRANSIT BAR

Domus Adultus

Bootlegs

CANBERRA CITY

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

The Bridge Between

Blues basement. No partner or rego required, just turn up! jumptown.org .

Talented people do wacky things around Canberra’s streets for three days.

An acoustic, folk and jazz mix with rhythm and syncopated blues influences. 7.30pm, by donation.

GAREMA PLACE

Talented people do wacky things around Canberra’s streets for three days.

CANBERRA CITY

Dance REV

Your weekly Big Night Out with DJs playing rock, indie, alternative, punk and dance 9-way late.

BAR 32

OUT mar 17

the dead weather yacht club djs kid sam kid sister beatlemania on tour …AND MORE

GIG GUIDE March 13 - March 17 Celebrate in the Park

Free concert feat. Eskimo Joe, Cassie Davis and Dragon.

STAGE 88

Something Different Raw Comedy

15 of the ACT’s brand spanking new comics compete with five mins of material! 8pm, $20 at the door.

TILLEY’S DIVINE CAFE

Live It’s open mic night. Get involved, and get on down with DJs HieronymusIX and Jayo.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Something Different Irish Jam Session

Come and have a fiddle from 5pm.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Oscar

monday march 15

10.30pm-2.30am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

The National Vintage Guitar + Amp Expo

Two days of vintage guitars and amps played and displayed, appraisals, sales, workshops and more.

STATESMAN HOTEL, CURTAIN

sunday march 14 arts Flipart

Talented people do wacky things around Canberra’s streets for three days.

CANBERRA CITY

Dance Cube Sunday

Party on after the weekend’s over with DJ TJ from 10 ‘til late. Free pool.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

tuesday march 16

Rock Steady

dance Hospitality Night feat. UniVibes DJs

TRANSIT BAR

arts Underwater Love

A spectacular underwater photo, video and ceramics exhibition by two Canberra artists. ‘Til March 19 BELCONNEN COMMUNITY CENTRE

Live

Truckstop Honeymoon with Doctor Stovepipe Like your music honest, heartfelt, swampy and great to dance to?

7.30pm, $10.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Hippo Live

Something Different

The King Hits

Knock out good times.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Sydney Women’s Jazz Collective Admission $18/$12. 8pm.

Bootlegs

TNT: Karaoke Dynamite

THE PHOENIX PUB

TRANSIT BAR

Something Different

Lindy hop/swing. No rego or partner required. 6.30pm, $14. jumptown.org .

MCGREGOR HALL

POT BELLY BAR

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Something Different

Lindy hop/swing. No rego or partner required. 6.30pm, $14. jumptown.org .

With Waterford and The Dunhill Blues.

With The Lethals.

On the And The Boys tour.

Live

Jumptown Swing

Kirk Special

Angus and Julia Stone

THE GOD’S CAFE AND BAR

Soheyla, Rattis Von Zanzebar, Swoon and The Glaciers

Live

Jumptown Swing

HIPPO LOUNGE

Trivia

TRANSIT BAR

Jumptown Swing

Lindy hop/swing. No rego or partner required. 6.30pm, $14. jumptown.org .

WHITE EAGLE POLISH CLUB

St Patrick’s Day Celebrations Enjoy traditional Irish hospitality at King O’s. Irish music, dancing and entertainment.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

wednesday march 17 arts Candy Man

An all-singing, all dancing celebration of Sammy Davis Jr. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

45

SIDE A: BMA artist profile

Ah! Pandita

Where did your band name come from? ‘Ah!’ is an expression of wonder and lust that we hear shouted at most of our shows.

‘Pandita’ is a Hindi title given to scholars – we particularly like Pandita Ramabai. She was the first female to receive the title and worked for the emancipation of Indian women. We are not officially Panditas ourselves however we won’t correct this mistake if it is made.

Group members: Gemma Nourse (accountant, guitarist and vocalist), Laura Volfolski (IT consultant, keyfumbler and vocalish) and Lauryn Hill (THIS IS YOUR INVITATION).

Describe your sound: Like the atmosphere at a packed out Olympic stadium, we are electric. Like an Olympic ice skater eating post-victory sugary breakfast cereal, we use loops. Like a crowd singing The Star-Spangled Banner, we are harmonious.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? Jonny Telafone.

What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had whilst performing? One time Gemma was drunk, that was weird.

She’d also only had cordial which was weird. She hates cordial.

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far? Getting second place in the under 10s girls 100m freestyle for Laura. For Gemma it was in backstroke. Also, Bar 32 was outrageous last month.

What are your plans for the future? Marriage. Settle down, try to have a family. In other news we’re hoping to release a split single with our musical friend Karoshi.

What/who makes you laugh? Tina Fey, Byron Fay and James Fahy. Subtle differences in name, not so subtle differences in humour and wit.

What pisses you off? We don’t really get pissed off. Oh wait, sexism, racism and polytheism.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? It’s great! We have a crush on every Canberra band. What’s happening here is really special.

Not only are there great bands but also people organising events and creating opportunities for creation and expression.

What are your upcoming gigs? We are playing at a FUNdraiser on Friday March 19 at McGregor Hall. Come along and make puns on local band names with us.

Contact info: ahpandita@gmail.com

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FIRST CONTACT Aaron Peacey Aaron 0410 381 306 Adam Hole Adam 0421 023 226 Afternoon Shift Adam 0402 055 314 After Close Scotty 0412 742 682, afterclose@hotmail.com Alcove Mark 0410 112 522 Alice 0423 100 792 Allies ACT (Oxfam Group) alliesact@hotmail.com/ myspace.com/alliesact Amphibian Sound PA Clare 0410 308 288 Amplif5’d Classic rock covers band Joy 0407 200 428, joybarac-heath@hotmail.com Annie & the Armadillos Annie 6161 1078/0422 076 313 The Ashburys Dan Craddock 0419 626 903 Aria Stone, sax & flute, singer/ songwriter (guitar) Aria 0411 803 343 Australian Songwriters Association (Keiran Roberts) 6231 0433 Arythmia: Ben 0423 408 767/ arythmiamusic@gmail.com Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422 733 974, www.backbeatdrivers.com Big Boss Groove Andrew 0404 455 834, www.bigbossgroove.com.au Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows - bookings@birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438 351 007 Blister Bug Stu 0408 617 791 Bridge Between, The Rachel 0412 598 138, thebridgebetween.com.au Bruce Stage mgr/consultant 6254 9857 Caution Horses Nigel 0417 211 580 Chris Harland Blues Band 0418 490 640 chrisharlandbluesband@yahoo.com.au Clear Vision Films rehearsals/film clips/stunts - 0438 647 281 wcoulton.clearvisionfilms.com Cole Bennetts Photography 0415 087 833/colebennetts@gmail.com Cris Clucas Cris 6262 5652 Crooked Dave 0421 508 467 Danny V Danny 6238 1673/0413 502 428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402 845 132 D’Opus & Roshambo hifidelitystyles@yahoo.com DJs Madrid and Gordon 0417 433 971 DJ Latino Rogelio 0401 274 208 DJ Moises (RnB/Latin) 0402 497 835 or moises_lopez@hotmail DNA Vic 0408 477 020 Drumassault Kate 0414 236 323 Easy Mode Daz 0404 156 482, easymodeband@gmail.com Entity Chris 0412 027 894 Epic Flagon band@epicflagon.com Fighting Mongooses, The Adam 0402 055 314 Final Warning Brendan 0422 809 552 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410 381 306/ Lachlan 0400 038 388 4dead Peter 0401 006 551 Freeloaders, The Steve 0412 653 597 Friend or Enemy 6238 0083, www.myspace.com/friendorenemy Funk Shui Dave 0407 974 476 Gareth Hailey DJ & Electronica 0414 215 885 GiLF Kelly 0410 588 747, gilf.mail@gmail.com HalfPast Chris 0412 115 594 Hancock Basement Tom 6257 5375, hancockbasement@hotmail.com Happy Hour Wendy 0406 375 096 Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com Hitherto Paul 0408 425 636 Infra Retina Kyle 0437 137 775/Michael 0425 890 023/www.infra-retina.com In The Flesh Scott 0410 475 703 Inside the Exterior Nathan 0401 072 650 Itchy Triggers Andrew 0401 588 884

Jacqui Seczawa 0428 428 722 JDY Clothing 0405 648 288/ www.jdyclothing.com Jenn Pacor singer/songwriter avail. for originals & covers, 0405 618 630 Jim Boots 0417 211 580 Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408 287 672, paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Karismakatz DJ Gosper 0411 065 189/ dj@karismakatz.com Kayo Marbilus myspace.com/kayomarbilus Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417 025 792 Little Smoke Sam 0411 112 075 Los Chavos Andy 0401 572 150 los.chavos@yahoo.com.au Manilla Green Herms 0404 848 462, contactus@manillagreen.com, Mario Brujo Gordon world/latin/ reggae/percussionist and DJ. 0405 820 895 Martin Bailey Audio Engineer 0423 566 093 Mercury Switch Lab Studios mercuryswitch@internode.on.net Missing Zero Hadrian Brand 0424 721 907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots aspwinch@grapevine.com.au Huck 0419 630 721 MuShu Jack 0414 292 567, mushu_band@hotmail.com MyOnus myonusmusic@hotmail.com/ www.myspace.com/myonus No Retreat Simon 0411 155 680 Ocean Moses Nigel 0417 211 580 OneWayFare Chris 0418 496 448 Painted Hearts, The Peter 6248 6027 Phathom Chris 0422 888 700 The Pigs The Colonel 0422 412 752 Polka Pigs Ian 6231 5974 Premier Audio Simon 0412 331 876, premier_audio@hotmail.com Redletter Ben 0421 414 472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404 178 996/6162 1527 Rhythm Party, The Ross 0416 010 680 Roger Bone Band Andy 0413 483 758 Rob Mac Project, The Melinda 0400 405 537 Rug, The Jol 0417 273 041 Samsara Samahdi 0431 083 776 Sansutra J-Ma 0403 476 350 Simone Penkethman (Simone & The Soothsayers, Singing Teacher) 6230 4828 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401 588 884 Solid Gold Peter 0421 131 887/ solid.gold@live.com.au Super Best Friends Matt 0438 228 748 Surrender Jordan 0439 907 853 Switch 3 Mick 0410 698 479 System Addict Jamie 0418 398 556 Taboo Bamboo Greg 0439 990 455 The Morning After (covers band) Anthony 0402 500 843/ myspace.com/themorningaftercovers Tiger Bones & The Ferabul-Zers Danny feralbul@aapt.net.au Tim James Lucia 6282 3740, LUCIAMURDOCH@hotmail.com Top Shelf Colin 0408 631 514 Transmission Nowhere Emilie 0421 953 519/myspace.com/ transmissionnowhere Udo 0412 086 158 Undersided, The Baz 0408 468 041 Using Three Words Dan 0416 123 020, usingthreewords@hotmail.com Voodoo Doll Mark 0428 650 549 William Blakely Will 0414 910 014 Zero Degrees and Falling Louis 0423 918 793 Zwish 0411 022 907

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