BMA Magazine Issue #506 - June/July 2019

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[CONTENTS]

[Canberra’s

Guide]

Entertainment

#506-June/July

Sponsored by IV Coffee the coffee that reaches places others don’t dare to go!

Mail: 36/97 Eastern Valley Way Belconnen, ACT 2617 Publisher Radar Media Pty Ltd

RONNY CHIENG

p. 30

General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Allan Sko E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Graphic Designer/Cover Design Juliette Dudley Film Editor Cam Williams Featured Gigs Editor John Harvey

ZEBRACORN

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JOSEPH TAWADROS

p. 29

SPIDERBAIT

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NEW STORY RUTH O’BRIEN

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Entertainment Guide Editor Ruth O’Brien Social Media Manager Allan Sko Columnists Pip Gazard, Josh Nixon, Peter O’Rourke, Allan Sko Contributors Ruth O’Brien, Kirsty Webeck, Jessica Conway, Rory McCartney, Vince Leigh, Cara Lennon, John Harvey, Josh Nixon, Andrew Myers, Alice Worley, Belinda Healy, Cody Atkinson, Allan Sko NEXT ISSUE #507 OUT Thursday 25 July EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday 12 July ADVERTISING DEADLINE Friday 19 July ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA Magazine is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

LUCY SUGERMAN

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LITERATURE IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEWS FILM REVIEWS THE WORD ON GIGS ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

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DAVID BRIDIE

p. 19

KIRSTY WEBECK

p. 28 p. 32 p. 34 p. 38 p. 40 p. 44 @bmamag

Death Metal Immediately cease giving any fucks and name your band the most appalling thing you can (not) imagine. I would list some here, but my legal team have advised against that.

Folk

FROM THE BOSSMAN

BY ALLAN SKO [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]

As any parent or pet lover knows, naming something can be an onerous task.

Unless you’re an author or one of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell writing team, you may never have been required to name something before. It will seem like an weighty commitment.

And so it is with your band.

Getting your band or artist name just right can appear crucial. If not for the sake of instant Google searches and easy-to-find uniqueness, the name also needs that timeless quality. Being suitable for your particular genre of sound is important too.

And so, realising the urgency instilled in bright-eyed would-be bands and earnest songwriters alike, I have rallied my 20 years of experience in the industry and am here to allay your fears through the means of providing a short guide to naming your musical persona, handily broken down into genre.

What’s your birth name? Yeah, just go with that.

DJ Write a number of adjectives and nouns on separate pieces of paper, and affix to a dart board. Obtain a dart, stand some distance from the board, close your eyes, and throw.

Wherever the dart lands, stick a ‘DJ’ prefix on it and yer done, as DJ Food will confirm.

Tip: for improved results, stand as far away from the board as possible. If you miss, then congratulations, DJ Crapthrow! *** Hopefully this helps you on your way.

But remember - whilst the process may seem crucial, names are not fundamentally important. It’s amazing what you can get used to in a name, whether it be aggressively banal, like DJ Rectangle, or wrenchingly clunky, like Everybody Was in the French Resistance...NOW!; jarring and irritating when you first heard them, but now simply ‘the name for that thing’, as unremarkable as The Chemical Brothers, or Oasis.

In the end, a name is just a name. If you’re good or popular enough, you’ll get anything over. Just ask The Beatles.

You’re welcome.

Nu metal Take any random two one-syllable words and stick ‘em together to make a new two-syllable word. You can do it with anything - duckblunt, bluntduck, duckqueen, queenduck, bluntqueen. Make a list of 20, and pick the seventh one.

Electronic/Bass music Take a perfectly good name, and purge it of all vowels. To whit: TNGHT, SBTRKT, MSTRKRFT, CN BY VWL? Alternatively, take a well known/celebrity name and tweak the first letters: Com Truise, ill. Gates, Hom Tanks, Cenedict Bumberbatch.

Rock The tried-and-true method still stands after all these years. Stick a ‘The’ at the start, and you can pretty much open a dictionary at random and you’re set. Just ask genre-demolishers The The, the veritable zenith/nadir (delete to preference) of the form that practically shut down the prefix for everyone.

Australian Pub Rock There is only one Aussie pub rock name - The Fat Rosellas. You need go no further. I don’t care if there’s already 63 Fat Rosellas touring. The more merrier.

Metal A quick consultation of your handy medical text book should see you on your way. Acute Penamdectomy, Fractured Wishbone, Herniated Disc. facebook.com/bmamagazine

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UPCOMING GIGS

[HOT TIX]

Promised The Moon Exhibition / Various artists / Thu, 20 June - Fri, 26 July / ANU School of Art & Design Promised the Moon will be an exhibition, curated by Ursula Frederick, of local artists’ works created specifically to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. It will highlight the ACT’s unique space heritage and the region’s connections to the Apollo missions and lunar landings. The exhibition will launch with a panel discussion on Thursday 27 June at 6pm. The official reception and splashdown closing event on Thursday 25 July at 6pm will mark the Apollo 11 astronauts’ safe return to earth.

Official launch 6pm, 27 June. Free entry.

CAPO Emerging Artists’ Prize / Wed, 3 July - Fri, 2 Aug / ANU School of Art & Design Foyer As part of the ANU’s Emerging Artists’ Support Scheme, the fifth annual CAPO Emerging Artists’ Prize celebrates six recent School of Art & Design graduates: Belle Palmer, Chayla UeckertSmith, Sheida Sabetraftar, Shags, Joanne Leong, and Kendall Manz. The exhibition’s curator is Francis Kenna, who graduated from the ANU with a combined Arts and Visual Arts degree and subsequently completed the CAPO Curatorial Exhibition Award.

All artwork and an exhibition catalogue will be for sale via the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery Office. Free entry

Polo Jazz Festival / All Local Lineup Sat, 29 June / White Eagle Polish Club Los Chavos, Brass Knuckle Brass Band, Zackerbilks, Good Gosh.

From street funk and latin reggae to gypsy swing and dixieland, the Polo Jazz Festival is a high-energy musical journey from New Orleans to Latin America and beyond: a sweaty late-night party for anyone who knows that a sousaphone will always be tougher than a bass guitar, as Latin ballads get a ska–reggae twist, and hard-hitting brass meets vintage swing and old-school hip hop.

7 pm. Tickets $25 (door) or $22.00 + $1.02 bf, via eventbrite.com

Beyond Comedy / John Cruckshank / Fri, 28 June / Beyond Q Books (11 Brierly St, Weston Creek) “Watching the comedy of John Cruckshank is like going to a rooftop bar on top of a rooftop bar: It’s good.”

Beyond Comedy is proud to bring one of Australia’s funniest rising stars to Canberra! Described by the Sydney Comedy Festival as “the laidback king of deadpan”, John Cruckshank brings his understated and absurd Australian humour to town. It’s set to sell out. Hosted by Chris Ryan, featuring Scott Hawkins, Laura Campbell, Nick Schuller, Anthony Tomic and more! Tickets $15 online or $20 at the door (until sold out)

Club Sandwich Comedy / Hamish Hudson / Fri, 5 July / Hunting Lodge (Tuggeranong Arts Centre)

Australian Beard & Beer Day / $500 cash prize / Sun, 21 July / King O’Malley’s

Hamish Hudson is known for his sharp wit and bent views on Australian life. One the country’s top musical comedians, he takes you on a delightful journey from sharp song writing to the cheekier-side of profanities. Hamish’s music is clever, simple, poignant, and everything non-pc, leaving audiences singing his ridiculously ear worming lyrics for days. His refreshing honesty and musicality will be joined by another CSC fave, Tom Gibson, plus two-time Moosehead Award winner Tanya Lossano and hosted by Chris Ryan. This will be a night packed with laughs! Tickets $15 online

King O’Malley’s is conducting a celebration of beards in support of Lifeline Canberra, and every beard attending has a chance of winning a prize.

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There’ll be prizes for Longest Beard, Full Beard, Styled Beard, Best Bearded Team, and finally, the coveted Best Beard of 2019.

The Best Beard of 2019 will win a cash prize of $500. There’ll be two prizes of a tour of Young Henry’s Brewery for seven, and there’ll be other prizes as well. Free entry. @bmamag

facebook.com/bmamagazine

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Now, upcoming gigs!!!!!!!! Hurrah!!!!!!!

LOCALITY

[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH PIP GAZARD SEND YOUR GIGS AND INFO TO: [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]

Hey folks! Pip Gazard here and welcome to Locality with Capital Youngster thrown in, your one stop shop for all information regarding the local and underage music scene in Canberra. We’ve had an incredible month of music and gigs and have another a-looming!

The first thing to mention is that this past month has brought us several new releases from some of Canberra’s homegrown talent, including Moaning Lisa, Slow Dial, Sputnik Sweetheart and Eloria. These tunes are definitely worth digging your teeth into and also serve as an indicator as to what a wonderful starting point our beautiful capital can be for musicians.

On to gigs, Eloria launched their brilliant new EP at The Polish Club, joined by WeirdoGvng, cryler burden, Reubok and Sweethard with a special guest appearance from our favourite Groovy Daughter, a phenomenal local act who performed alongside some of the nation’s most loved at Groovin the Moo earlier this year. If you’re a fan of funky electronic jams, this was a night curated for you.

If you did miss the last gig at The Front, don’t fret! Coming up on the 13th of June and hosted by CBR DIG is the Winter Warmer, featuring acoustic sets from The Tipsy Scholars, Sputnik Sweetheart, Slow Dial and Heather Dunks. So if you’re in the mood for some hot grub and sweet tunes (and with this inclement Canberra weather, how could you not be?) trot down to Lyneham for a 7 o’clock start and prepare to be nourished.

On the 22nd of June, Sputnik Sweetheart will be celebrating the release of their newly released single Home Again at The Polish Club and will be joined by Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Neko Pink and Charlotte & The Harlots. These are four of Canberra’s most talented bands and to be able to see them all in one place is a dream come true! The night kicks off at 8 o’clock and is a mere $15 on the door (or $10 if you pre-book).

On the 28th of June, Mach 81 have booked The Polish Club for a huge night. The tremendous lineup features Every Closet Door, Deputy Chief Wardens and Ladybug and the night kicks off at 8pm. Plus, the entry fee is a miniscule $5 for students and $10 for adults.

On the fifth of July, power-pop gems SPORTS BRA will be playing a house show in Watson as part of their national tour. The best part? It’s an all ages show! Because this gig is still a little while away, all we know at the moment is that they’ll be joined by Alien Abduction Fantasy and that the night kicks off at 7pm, but definitely keep your eyes open for more news.

Magic and music together at last Helena Pop rocked the literal house with their new single Punk’s Dead Another tremendously exciting gig was Helena Pop’s single launch, hosted by Mulgara. Helena Pop were joined at this intimate house show by Paint Store and Ghostgum – two local acts that you definitely want to keep in your sights. Helena Pop delivered the goods on their new single Punk’s Dead, and there was no lack of wonderful music for all ears of all ages!

Some very exciting news that I’ve been looking forward to sharing is that our little, beloved, and mostly all ages venue The Front is back from the dead, alive and kicking! I had the absolute pleasure of revisiting the venue to see Azim Zain and his Lovely Bones, Elk Locker, Lost Coast and Sal Viejo and am so happy to report that the venue is as wonderful as ever! (Plus, the aforementioned bands played some of the juiciest sets I’ve ever witnessed). I would highly recommend keeping your eyes on The Front if you’re craving some fun all ages live music.

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Finally, on the sixth of July, The Magic Rob Universe will be hitting Smith’s Alternative alongside Jason Recliner. The Magic Rob Universe is a terrifyingly wonderful combination of music and magic and if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of experiencing them live it is definitely worth the $10. The event starts at 4pm; be there or be square!

That’s all for this month folks, thanks for tuning in and I hope y’all have a delicious gig-filled month!

Love, Pip xoxox

@bmamag

BMA ARTIST PROFILE

LUCY SUGERMAN

BMA checked in with wunderkind Lucy Sugerman ahead of her show at Smith’s Alternative on 27 July with Madie Chynoweth and Eden Plenty.

Group members: Usually just me! But sometimes Damien Slingsby, Andy Mitchell, Adi Jones, and Ash Violi join me too, which is good fun.

Describe your sound: I would say it’s very lyric heavy, emotive, and organic. I love using string instruments and tend to write most of my music on the piano. I write about things I see around me; mostly about my feelings. My friends like to describe it as ‘sad piano: with a beat’.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise?

My biggest musical influences are probably Tom Odell, Sigrid, Norah Jones, Elton John, Missy Higgins, Rodriguez, and Carol King just to name a few off the top of my head!

In life, my biggest influence is my family. I’m also going to add on Taylor Swift but we probably shouldn’t get into that right now or this will be way too long.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had as an artist?

There’s been so many wonderful experiences I still can’t believe I’ve been lucky enough to have, but I think the best ones have been playing my songs at Llewellyn Hall with CYO and the whole journey behind that, supporting John Farnham and Daryl Braithwaite at Anthems last year, writing and bringing to life a bunch of really special songs this year during February and March with some talented friends, and the time this little girl came up to me and gave me this hand-drawn picture and said she started singing lessons because she saw me on TV. Blew my mind.

Tell us about one of your proudest moments?

One of them would honestly have to be graduating school! I got some results I’m really happy about and I think seeing how far my friends and I had come since the beginning of high school was really emotional. But a great feeling. We went through everything from family stuff to boy dramas; we had loss, heartbreak, all-nighters, failures, breakthroughs, fights, health problems, injuries… you name it. We found out that to have all that happening while you are trying to make big decisions about your future was definitely not easy.

But I’m proud of myself for making it through something that, at times, felt like was never going to end, and I’m proud of my friends. facebook.com/bmamagazine

Now I get to watch them all navigate the big world, kick their goals, and figure themselves out. It’s really cool.

What are your plans for the future?

At the moment I’m currently working on an EP which is really exciting. I’ve worked with some incredible producers and writers, and have written a lot of music that I’m really proud of. The demo/first drafts were shown to my label a couple of days ago so hopefully (fingers crossed) you’ll be hearing a little more soon!

I’m also looking into part time study next year. I’ve been saving to go to Europe as well. I’m looking at opening shows for some artists I love and hoping to go on a tour of my own soon. That’s the dream anyway. For now, I plan on writing and writing and writing.

What makes you laugh?

Vine compilation videos, the lyrics to Baby Blue, my mum’s dancing, everything my little cousin Keoki does, and that one video where people can’t spell (it’s called ‘how is prangent formed’, look it up – you won’t regret it).

What pisses you off?

Comment sections, mean people, and the people in power who continue to make decisions that are damaging our planet.

What about the Canberra/music scene in general would you change?

Canberra music scene wise I’d make going to gigs regularly a norm for the everyday Canberran (there’s so many wonderful things on all the time – people keep trying to tell me nothing happens in Canberra and it makes me stressed) and I’d get more venues up and going! Otherwise I think it’s a lovely little (and ever-growing) community full of very talented people.

As far as the music scene in general, it would be to increase society’s value placed on musicians, get rid of the folks who like to take advantage of us both financially and artistically, and get more of our talented women behind the desk and producing. But I feel like we all want to work to change those things.

What would you like to plug?

I’m doing a gig at Smith’s Alternative on 27th July with my band, supported by the lovely Madie Chynoweth and Eden Plenty who will be playing a bunch of their original material. I’ll be giving a sneak peek of new songs and playing some old ones too. We’re all super excited about it, so we would love to see you there for a night of music and getting emotional.

Find out more & get tickets at https://www.smithsalternative.com/ events/lucy-sugerman-57578 PAGE 15

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BMA’s Jessica Conway in conversation with writer/actor/inspiration Hanna Cormick on living life and making art with chronic disease We, as a society, have a problem with ableism.

‘Oh no’, you all cry! ‘Not another -ism’.

Just deal with it, because it’s true.

The majority of us are clueless as to what disability or chronic illness actually means in a daily, practical sense. As a result, one of three things tend to happen: - We simply avoid people with an obvious physical impediment, panicked as to what to do or say or how to say it, - We talk to adults like they’re six-year-olds coupled with the hearing of a 90-year old, or - We tell people all the ways they can get better if they just try hard enough. Mind over matter and all that. ‘Just tell yourself you have energy and chronic fatigue will go away!’

This is bullshit. And it needs to change.

Hanna Cormick readily agrees with this sentiment, noting before she became chronically ill that she herself didn’t even believe in chronic illness.

“I thought you could push through anything with enough will. My ingrained ableism was shocking, and something I have struggled to unravel and unpick over these years,” the young theatremaker told me.

You see, Hanna’s life changed radically several years ago. She was an able-bodied actress, dancer, circus artist, cabaret performer and theatremaker in Australia, Europe and Asia for some 20 years.

She was ‘normal’.

Until she wasn’t.

Today, Hanna largely lives in a sealed room. The world outside literally deadly.

Her allergies are vast and have even included water and mobile phone batteries. She has experienced ceaseless pain, unimaginable fatigue, and unstoppable bleeding.

This myriad conditions are formed by a rare perfect storm of sorts, or what Hanna calls ‘the trifecta’.

“The trifecta sees three rare genetic conditions (hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) that, in a certain subset of patients, frequently occur together and make each other worse,” she explained.

“I deal with a lot of organ complications caused by these disorders and some other rarer co-morbid autoimmune diseases. It affects every bone, organ and cell in my body, causing physical impairment, debilitating fatigue, and has a profound effect on my immune system, which means that I have to live inside a sealed saferoom and cannot be around most people. I’ve been living, almost exclusively, in the same room for the last four years”.

This tectonic shift in her health is what ultimately gave birth to The Street Theatre’s upcoming play, Zebracorn.

An odd name yes, but also no.

“Doctors are taught ‘when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras’, to prevent overdiagnosis of rare conditions when it is statistically more likely to be a common condition,” Hanna explained.

The downside is this leads to those with rare disease, like her, being overlooked.

“Those with rare disease refer to themselves as Zebras. But

From left to right: Christopher Samuel Carroll, Lloyd Allison-Young, and Chloe Martin PAGE 16

my illnesses are really complicated, and present in strange and extreme ways, even for a Zebra.

“So, the Zebracorn is part zebra, part unicorn: rarer than rare, isolated, believed by many not to exist, but despite everything, still fabulous”.

As Hanna became increasingly disabled, a friend helped establish the habit of writing just two sentences every day about how she was feeling.

“I’ve kept to that practice these last four years, documenting, in microform, the changes that have occurred. I may have been living inside the same room, stuck in the same bed, for all that time, but you can start to see the way that time passes differently. And through the writing, I started to notice how strange my life had become, and that the shift in the way I was able to interact with the world meant I was able to perceive it in a new light; the political structures and injustice I was suddenly prey to, the way humans treat each other, our relationships with our own bodies, and our relationships with vulnerability and mortality.”

Hanna is usually a very private person, but over the course of her extreme illness, she found she wanted to create and share this autobiographical work. As you’d imagine, there are some pretty heavy themes at play; desperation, desolation, despair, and grief for the life you’ve now lost.

“But it isn’t entirely grim,” Hanna quipped.

“Surviving this existential threat day after day necessitates a dark, sharp sense of humour and diamond-hard hope, and the work attempts to convey those parts of the experience as well.

Zebracorn tries to honour the phenomenological reality of living this kind of life, jumping from the intense and concrete intimacy of human connections on the edge of crisis, the absurdity of the medical system, the political struggles, the surreality of the rules of this alien body, in a fractured structure that utilises physical theatre and video art projection.”

The production features three of Canberra’s household names, Lloyd Allison-Young, Chloe Martin and Hanna’s partner and cowriter Christopher Samuel Carroll. All trained in Paris at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, and all have known Hanna since before her illness took hold.

“It’s great to have these big names of the Canberra diaspora come back here to work as an ensemble. We have a shared language due to our training, but they are also people who knew me before and after this illness and can bring their own perspectives thematically to the work. I’m really excited to have them in a room together to see how their respective creative sparks will ignite the material.”

Hanna hopes that by sharing her bizarre world it’ll help increase people’s understanding of chronic illness, conditions that you can’t simply will away, the importance of maintaining ‘normal’ relationships with the outside world as we inch our way towards dismantling our ingrained, though often subconscious, ableism.

Now that’s something we should all support.

Zebracorn is part of The Street Theatre’s FIRST SEEN: new works-in-progress program that offers Canberra audiences the opportunity to be part of the creative process that pushes performance works to production-ready stage. Zebracorn plays on Sunday, 7 July at 4pm. Tickets are $15 from http://www. thestreet.org.au/shows/first-seen-zebracorn-hanna-cormick facebook.com/bmamagazine

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Spiderbait’s Kram On Punk Ethos and The Canberra Vortex with BMA’s Alice Worley

In 1996, Spiderbait became the first Australian band to take out the Hottest 100 with their short, punchy single, Buy Me A Pony. In 1997 they won their first ARIA for Ivy and The Big Apples. And if you’re a ’90s baby like me, you’ll all remember second single, Calypso, in 10 Things I Hate About You while Kat Stratford angrily reads The Bell Jar. In 2019, Kram, Janet, and Damian are fresh from headlining the Hotter Than Hell tour and are headed Canberra way to rock our socks off at the UC Refectory.

I called Kram to chat about punk music, early gigs, and to get some advice on what makes a thriving band. But first, that tour.

“Hotter than Hell was amazing,” Kram enthuses. “Sorry that it didn’t make it to Canberra. Getting to play alongside Jebediah and Magic Dirt again was great. Both those bands have some of my favourite female musicians and it was really great to reminisce playing in Melbourne with them all those years ago.”

The interview allowed a chance to wrestle with the topic of non-male musos and punk, the latter inspired by a punk panel interview with Henry Rollins and John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) in which Johnny claimed punk was long dead. Henry interjected with his belief that some of the best punk music of today is coming out of Australia, particularly from non-male acts.

“Punk is so subjective,” Kram states. “Johnny could’ve said “Modern Art is dead”, and in his mind that would be true, but there would be people like Henry there to disagree with him.

Punk is a hard thing to define; it’s so much more than a punk ethos in a band. You could have a classical musician that might be considered punk because of their message and attitudes.

I cite the Dixie Chicks as an example. They suffered a dip in record sales and death threats but they stuck to their guns.

“Yes! Exactly!” Kram responds, with a laugh. “I’ve seen a lot from female acts lately. I mean look at Amyl and The Sniffers and what they’re doing. And I have to say to all the guys out there; I’ve been in a band with a woman for 30 years now, and it’s been a really special experience for me. She’s amazing.”

With so many years in the biz, Spiderbait have experienced it on both sides; from fledgling band, to the seasoned pros that have toured with Henry Rollins, Primus, Beastie Boys, and Fugazi.

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“Yeah! That was pretty huge,” Kram admits. “Henry and Black Flag was a big influence on us. Damaged is still one of my favourite albums, particularly Police Story.”

I ask what acts he has his eye/ear on these days.

“I would definitely have to say Major Leagues from Brisbane. I think they’ve been doing some really fantastic things. I’d also have to say Ruby Fields.”

As a music veteran, does Kram have any words of wisdom to impart upon these, and other, budding bands?

“The number one thing is to make sure the friendship is there,” Kram says. “It’s a really important foundation for that emotional connection. There’s a reason why our band has lasted all these years, you know?

“It’s like a high school group, it has to be a friendship that’s going to stand the test of time and you need to be able to communicate and collaborate.

“A good manager is also something that’s really important,” Kram continues. “Find someone that believes in what you’re doing and won’t interfere with you creatively. If you’ve got a band mate that’s really good at all that stuff, that’s great too.

“Make sure you’re doing what you wanna do; don’t do what other bands are doing just because you think you should. Do your own thing. We’ve all got a perspective and a story. And if the music is good and people like and support you, they’ll come knocking.”

The upcoming show is one of many Canberra jaunts for the trio.

Does Kram hold any fond memories of our beloved capital city?

“I actually do!” laughs Kram. “I really like Canberra, I have a lot of fond memories, like playing ANU Bar. And we played a festival that I forget the name of, sorry, but we actually quite enjoy Canberra and we like the crowd. I know we haven’t played there in a while but we keep coming back to it.

I tell him us Canberrans have a bit of an in-joke that the place is like a black hole; no matter how many times you try to leave, it’ll suck you back in.

“It really is like a vortex isn’t it?” he laughs.

And you can be sucked into Spiderbait’s swirl on 21st June @ UC Refectory, with The Lazy Susans and Teen Jesus and The @bmamag Jean Teasers – (Tickets available through Oztix).

David Bridie Brings The Visual Wisdom imparting knowledge of the scene, and how he’s bringing life to latest album The Wisdom Line with BMA’s Allan Sko David Bridie is one of Australia’s most prolific and beloved songwriters, sporting six studio albums with Not Drowning, Waving and seven more with the recently retired My Friend the Chocolate Cake. Now Bridie returns to Canberra with a special performance.

The forthcoming album The Wisdom Line is David’s sixth solo album and brings with it an enthralling, multimedia project exploring themes of Melbourne, asylum, home, the transience of our relationships, and the importance of genuine connections.

Each of the 11 tracks featured on the album will be matched with a music video produced by a selection of local and international filmmakers including Andrew Wiseman, Stephanie Gould (USA), and Matej Kolmanko (Slovenia).

“We did films for each song that extrapolate on the meaning, or the feel, of the song,” a cheery Bridie tell me. “I’ve always done that with Not Drowning Waving, but I’d like to think I’ve got a lot wiser! It was always the plan to do this from the get-go.”

Creating an entire visual aspect for an album is no small task. What drove the ambition? A desire to explore the song through a different medium? Or provide something extra for audiences?

“A little of column A, a little of column B,” Bridie confirms. “The music industry and how we as artists deliver the songs to our audience through technology and different formats is shifting sands. It’s a different way to make the record work.”

Despite having a firm grasp on his own music, Bridie was happy to give the visual filmmakers freedom to create.

“I gave each filmmaker the lyrics and a brief with the intention of the song,” he says. “In some, there was a back-and-forth, work-in-progress. Most of them was, “Yeah great, just change this a bit.” There were only three of them we had to shift direction. I trusted the filmmakers.

But when you’re doing a collaboration like this, you’re letting go a bit.”

A joy of collaboration can be the interpretation and surprise that can be given on your own work. This was no different.

“Matej Kolmanko, the Slovenian filmmaker I knew having done a couple of gigs over there, for some reason.... He’s fantastic. He did [the film for] The Abyss, and found all these archival bits of footage. It’s an astonishing film clip. I love it.

“Stephanie Gould used Super 8 footage. It has a washed out look that immediately evokes the past,” he continues. “In the song Book of Revelation there’s all this footage of religious iconography in New York, where Stephanie is based, which I really like. So that’s really different to what the song may have suggested.”

All this allows for an exciting and immersive live show.

“When people see the live show, there’s not a homogenised feel; you get these different interpretations both from personnel, but also their format they’re using, and editing,” Bridie says. “That’s a comment I got from the Melbourne show. And we’ve spent a lot of time getting the sound right for these, and I’m really happy with how all the elements facebook.com/bmamagazine

are coming together. The Street Theatre will be a beauty too, with a grand piano there as well. That’s quite a key element for this record.”

As a veteran of the music scene, I took the opportunity to ask Bridie for his musings on what has changed, for better or worse.

“There’s a lot,” he says. “There was a big gap back in the day between the mainstream and the indie world. Then, post Nirvana, it blurred a little bit. And then with the advent of these reality TV shows, and the Guy Sebastians of the world, the gap has started again.

“I like the DIY nature of music now; it reminds me of things back when I was starting. Bands designing their own covers and singles, and bringing a four-track into the bedroom to record. I think that’s a good thing. There’s a lot of young indie bands coming through – and I try to hold back from saying this – who sound so like The Go-Betweens or The Dead Kennedys or Echo and The Bunnymen. So the generation gap between young people and their parents is a lot smaller than my generation and their parents. And that’s a massive difference.”

How so?

“It’s not just musical beliefs, but the take on the world; the morality gap between me and my parents is vast, whereas with my daughters it’s quite small. There are things I pick up from them that I haven’t concentrated on. There was music, film, and literature in the ’60s that people weren’t honed into, whereas nowadays people are.”

With wisdom imparted, the focus turned to the Canberra show.

“I’m really looking forward to the Canberra show,” Bridie enthuses.

“We’re playing every song on the record, with a few songs from Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake. And we will play Hotel Radio.“ David Bridie, his band, and his amazing visual accompaniment will adorn The Street Theatre on Friday, 28 June at 8pm. Tickets are $45/$40 concession from http://www.thestreet.org.au/shows/ david-bridie-wisdom-line-album-launch PAGE 19

DANCE THE DROP [THE WORD ON DANCE MUSIC] WITH PETER “KAZUKI” O’ROURKE [CONTACT@KAZUKI.COM.AU]

A few synchronicities in the digital music world took place over the last couple of weeks, heralding a new way of accessing music for audiences and indeed DJs alike.

Firstly, digital music global juggernaut Apple announced that they would end their iTunes service, meaning individual digital music files would no longer be available for purchase.

Instead, Apple will continue their market dominance of the sector with Apple Music, a streaming platform. Not that Apple ever thought of music fans as actually “owning” the files, with restrictions on what technically could be copied and used on other platforms (not that that ever stopped anyone from sharing the files on a torrent site).

Godlands brings her 4 U Only EP to Mr Wolf this June And now for some gigs!

Despite the cold and dark, there’s plenty to keep you occupied over the next month. Mr Wolf has trap music queen Godlands coming to tour her 4 U Only EP, supported by Nay Nay, Cirrus and Prav on Friday, 21 June.

The heavy-hitters continue at Fiction, with Odd Mob returning to our city for some thumping bass house on Saturday, 22 June, with locals Brittany De Marco and BNDR in support. Get keen!

Sideway has a stacked calendar again this month, so give their Facebook page a geez. My pick is definitely Dutch synth-master Legowelt taking over the Communi-fy system for some deep techy beats, supports by Roy Batty Jr. and Cressy on Saturday, 22 June.

On the more-aimed-at-DJs side, dance music market metropolis Beatport launched a new streaming service, Beatport Link. In addition to the digital store where DJs can purchase endless amounts of tunes to spin in their sets (over 7 million apparently), Beatport Link allows DJs to stream music directly into performance software (I guess they’re assuming you’ve got a faster internet connection than we do in most of Australia…).

It’s an interesting space to be in 2019. Music is so darn accessible – and hey I’m not complaining that I can access nearly any album in the world on Spotify – but it does reduce our personal relationship with it. The easier it is to find something, or have an algorithm determine your playlist, the easier it is not put in any emotional investment or sense of ownership to it.

Music becomes just another disposable commodity, decontextualized from its origins.

For DJs, though, it will be interesting how the system is taken up.

Obviously for a more commercial club, finding any music for a song request is going to be appealing. But for the underground selector, does this lessen the connection to a tune even more?

If you’re up for some UK grime and garage, check out It’s a London Thing the following Saturday, 29 June with Mincy & MC DTech, DJ HRH and Boomtze.

Legowelt synths his way over to sideway this June Cube has you covered for hard trance and NRG on Friday, 28 June with national sensation Sunset Bros, supported by DJ Nasty and SRGN – bring your rave whistle for sure!

Catch you next month!

Part of building a set is knowing your music, and knowing it well; allowing you to drop a track just at the right moment.

I personally won’t be signing up any time soon, especially as half my gigs are far away from a decent internet connection. But I’ll certainly watch how the changes unfold with interest!

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@bmamag

?

Questioning TikTok

with Cody Atkinson

Name?

Everyone has Spotify though...

Only maybe?

TikTok

Exactly. It’s a pretty big thing.

Age?

Well, why haven’t I heard of it?

It’s about two years old, but has had a number of different guises already.

How old are you?

In what seems to be a continuation of an ongoing trend, it turns out that the latest new way to consume and use music doesn’t really help the smaller, independent artists that often struggle to get a fair piece of the pie.

Wait, is it that Kesha song?

It was actually Ke$ha when she recorded it. But no, this isn’t a lengthy column on Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, which is a decade old. Man, time flies.

OK, is it those chocolate rolls?

You know, the thin white and brown ones with barbershop style stripes?

Come on now – do you reckon the fine people at BMA are gonna give me column space to write about damn chocolates?

They’re alright, sure – not column worthy though.

OK, you got me – what is TikTok then?

Well, it’s the newest viral sensation, don’t you know.

TikTok is the flu?

Viral internet sensation. Well actually, it’s an app.

Apps... I’ve heard of those...

TikTok might be more than that – it might be the biggest breakout app since... Instagram? Vine? Twitter?

Ah, those things are really big.

Are you sure that this thing is in that class?

Not only is TikTok that big, it’s growing exponentially. On recently reported data, it has more monthly users than Twitter and (probably) Snapchat. It’s huge in China (where it goes by the name Douyin), and the company who own the service (ByteDance) allegedly has a market capitalisation three times that of Spotify. facebook.com/bmamagazine

Bit of a personal question!

Let’s say... 30s.

Well, I hate to inform you, but you might be past “it”. “It”, in this context, is the technological zeitgeist.

Now hang on...

Hmmmmm...

American music publication Pitchfork recently ran a piece on their royalties system, focusing on a US hip hop duo called iLOVEFRiDAY.

There’s nothing bad with reaching your technological age limit. Some people didn’t get Twitter, others stopped at Instagram, even more still at Snapchat. Facebook, of course, works in reverse, with everyone’s racist uncles and aunties somehow able to grip the platform enough to repost half-baked patriotic rants while signing off with their name on Every. Single. Post.

Never heard of them. Do continue.

I feel like we’ve missed something here.

Yeah. Busking would pay better.

After some back and forth, iLOVEFRiDAY got a generous promotional deal in return for use of the clip, but publicity for your upcoming record doesn’t necessarily put that food on the table.

Which is? ...What exactly is TikTok? Right. TikTok is a short video service, like Vine, but with longer video options and more interactivity. Usually, TikTok videos are 15 seconds long, and are sort of video remixes of music videos with original visual content from users.

Right, so there’s the music connection.

Yeah, it’s basically short music video remixes of snippets of other songs – often done as site-wide challenges.

Cool. So given the big user base, surely this is great for artists who get picked up in these challenges?

Maybe.

According to Cooper at Pitchfork, iLOVEFRiDAY’s track Mia Khalifa had been used in over four million TikTok videos, surely amassing millions of views. In return, they have received no hard currency.

Wait – four million videos and no cash?

Yeah, that’s dire. That’s worse than the streaming services.

Earlier this year, TikTok had to pay $5.7 million USD (approx $238904723057230503 billion AUD at time of writing) to the US Federal Trade Commission for violating laws relating to the protection of children’s online privacy, or the COPPA laws as they are known there.

Wait… Where have I heard that before?

Well, it was foreshadowed by the HBO TV show Silicon Valley, where in a 2017 episode Dinesh was potentially liable for $21 billion worth of fines due to the fictional service’s popularity with young people.

Right.

Like in the TV show, Musical.y (a forerunner service to TikTok that was later bought out by ByteDance) illegally collected information from children under the age of 13, and unlike on Silicon Valley, they were hit with that record $5.7 million fine.

So not paying artists a fair share, collecting information on kids…?

When you put it like that…

But things can be both fun and slightly morally questionable.

Yeah…

It’s still early days, but it does highlight the lack of foresight often given to the concept of paying artists who created the original content that the platform uses to make money.

The fact that the users make the videos is one thing, but without the music as the backing, likely the entire thing would be dead in the water.

I guess not everything has to be a judgement on whether something is good or evil. Everyone’s moral continuum is different, and with these things, who am I to judge how people decide to not participate/boycott a particular thing? If something is fun for people and not like super-evil, maybe there are bigger battles to fight.

I imagine that paying a proper, fair share of royalties would be expensive.

Good work sneaking moral continuum in. Double ‘u’, bonus points.

And that’s not the only big cost they have come up against.

But they should pay artists properly, hey.

PAGE 21

METALISE

[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON [DOOMTILDEATH@HOTMAIL.COM]

Lord headline Metal Fiesta 14 at The Basement Friday, 21 June welcomes Lord to town for the launch of their new album Fallen Idols headlining the phonetically pleasing Metal Fiesta 14 fest at The Basement. Those who grabbed the United single earlier this year were treated to a digital preview of the album which covers the whole metal spectrum. From ballad territory on Counting Down The Hours to the death/thrash brutality of The Edge of the World, the album encompasses a lot of ground and of course the lads have the musical chops to ensure you have the most skilled sherpas to guide up the mountainous heights this album travails. BYO oxygen.

Looking forward to the freshly minted 30-year-old Jake Willoughby jumping up for his first Canberra show with Sydney band Sumeru on 5 July. The Embrace the Cold tour is at Transit Bar and features mostly locals Mental Cavity, all local Lucifungus and from parts unknown (to me) Facecutter. Sumeru’s newest album is Summon Destroyer and is well worth your time and study ahead of the show!

Mental Cavity gave me a spin of their forthcoming album, delivering another 12 tracks off the back of their self-titled release a couple of years back. Recorded on a small rural property near Bungendore, despite risking a supernatural serial killer taking them out one by one, thankfully this didn’t occur. All the bloodshed ended up on the recording equipment of storied Melbourne engineer/producer Mike Deslandes instead, and the final mixes are as thick as congealed blood.

Equally thick are the riffs of Lucifungus on the vinyl version of their debut album Akuna Kin which is out right now through the fine folks at Black Farm Records. There are three versions available for your listening and tactile pleasure, ranging from your nice garden variety Fungus in plain “test press” black through to mind altering coloured wax that looks like a tiger slug on gold tops… kinda. Great purchase for a great album.

Of course, they’re not doing it on their own; the Shananigans team know how to throw a fiesta and you can bet on crunching sets from Rise of Avernus, DepriVation, Claret Ash, Clarity of Chaos, Taliesin, Black Mountain – Black Metal, Hidden Intent, CHUD and Mattersphere. And don’t bother having dinner at home; hit up Chompy’s when you get there.

If the hangover subsides by the 23rd June, you are well advised to take a quick trip up the Hume to the excellent Crowbar venue on Parramata Rd in Leichhardt for the classic ’90s death metal stylings of Incantation. The New Jersey pioneers have been plying their trade for 30 years this year around rhythm guitarist and now vocalist John McEntee. I can’t remember a time they’ve been out before, so it’s overdue. The Sydney show also features Brazil brutality from Nervo Chaos, Inverloch, Laceration Mantra and Golgothen Remains. Absolutely crushing night out.

The shred will be in full effect on Tuesday, 25th of June also at The Basement with Born of Osiris and Chelsea Grin on a dual headline Australian tour with Diamond Construct Hostel. As I mentioned last time, Lee McKinney is a monster player. Guitarists both budding and seasoned will have plenty to think about on a cold winter’s Tuesday in Belconnen.

Wednesday, 26th June is a night for the old guard with three all-time NWOHBM bands coming over for one night of glory at The Basement. Most will know by now that health issues have kept Venom Inc from their 2nd visit in a year, but their scratching has opened up for a spot on the bill for the mighty Tank. The bill is now Girlschool, Raven and Tank and you can grab tickets at hardlinemedia.net and check if there are any of the limited VIP tickets left.

PAGE 22

Thy Art is Murder have a new album out 26 July entitled Human Target and their show at the Sydney Crowbar, and the Brisbane Crowbar AND the Corner Hotel in Melbourne are all sold out.

So if you have a ticket, good on ya, and enjoy the mosh. The rest of you are gonna have to wait til the 26th for the album to drop.

Interested to know why they have a new drummer…

@bmamag

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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

Exhibitionist Arts in the ACT

PAGE 24

@bmamag

Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

[A New Life Story by Ruth O’Brien]

GROWING UP DISABLED

BY RUTH O’BRIEN

My mum once told me about the moment I realised my arms were different.

I was playing on a swing in the backyard with her, and a friend of my parents. I was about two at the time. My parents’ friend asked me, “So, Ruth, do you like having short arms?”

Apparently, I looked confused and stared at my arms inquisitively for a long time.

This is all the detail I really know about this event and I certainly don’t remember it myself. I do remember, though, that from around that age, I was aware that I was different to most kids I knew. I was born with a rare condition called Thrombocytopenia with Absent Radii Syndrome (or TAR Syndrome). This means that my platelet count is very low - the main things that clot your blood - and I’m missing the radius bones in both my arms. My ulna and humerus bones are also smaller than those in the “normal” human body.

Between the ages of one and three, I had ten surgeries on my arms to realign my hand to my wrist, and generally make my arms straighter. I wore splints at night for a long time - probably until my teen years, until I got sick of them. In hindsight, I’m not sure they really did anything.

I adapted to the physical side of my condition very quickly. Many people who are a born with a physical condition don’t know their bodies any other way, so finding creative ways of doing things becomes normal. For example, I’ve always used my feet and legs to help me close and open doors, pick things up, as well as reach and move things that my arms could not.

The emotional and psychological impact of my disability, however, has been constant and everchanging. And not because I ever disliked my body. It was due to the constant stares, the questions, the subtle discrimination I received from peers who often talked to, and made eye contact with, my friends rather than me in group situations; the patronising behaviours of ignorant teenagers and adults alike, and, in general, feeling less valued in society than ablebodied people. As a result, and probably partly due to my personality type, I felt the constant need to prove myself to others and show people that I was just as capable as anybody else. facebook.com/bmamagazine

In one way, this was a great thing. I always tried harder to be included and, in effect, now have specific skills and knowledge in many areas.

For example, I’m a comfortable public speaker, I drive a car with no adaptations, I write a mean grant application, I’m a good researcher, and I have a lot of knowledge about the arts, especially in Canberra.

On the flip side, constantly proving yourself is draining. The inferiority complex I had often made me over-commit to things and get rundown. Don’t get me wrong - my overcommitting trait was in part due to me just loving to be involved in creative projects and community events. I’ve always loved having many things on the go. However, there was often an element of me wanting to show that I wasn’t less than anyone. If anything, I was better.

I should also point out that, up until my 20s, I didn’t comfortably identify with having a disability. I never liked the term “disability” as I felt it highlighted what was different about me, what was “wrong” with me, what I “couldn’t” do.

It also felt strange saying that I had a disability because I could pretty much do everything that my peers could do.

The period from my late teens to mid-20s was a very confusing time for me. As I got older, and the responsibilities of adult life became more pertinent, I started to acknowledge that some things were harder for me than my peers, and that “keeping up” was not as easy. I studied on and off throughout my 20s in both music and psychology and, though music was always my passion, I found it hard to believe I could make something creative become my career.

Due to what I largely put down to stress and the constant battle with my aforementioned inferiority complex, I experienced severe bouts of anxiety and depression which seemed to gradually get worse every year. One of my ongoing beliefs about myself was that I wasn’t attractive to men, or at least, I wasn’t a viable life-partner because of my disability.

This belief didn’t just come out of nowhere. It was the result of many messages that had been communicated to me by society throughout my PAGE 25

short life. I was laughed at in a night club by a group of young men. Once a guy called me pretty, “for a disabled girl”. And, in general, people being shocked or surprised (if even just initially) that I had a sexuality when the topic came up in social conversation.

So, even though it was partly in my head, it also wasn’t. I believe I experienced blatant discrimination in the dating game because of my disability, and thus needed to develop confidence in order to find a partner. Being continually underestimated in most areas of life is very exhausting and, while it’s not only women with disabilities who experience these emotions and situations, it’s unfortunately very common in this social demographic.

I started my first “proper” relationship when I was 27 and this lasted for four years. He and I are still great friends. I’m now happy in another relationship and feel completely comfortable with my partner in sharing everything I’ve experienced (in fact he’s editing this for me right now!) and the feelings I continue to sometimes struggle with around disability.

I’ve never attempted suicide, but at my lowest points the thought of it has crossed my mind. Let me reiterate that I was never unhappy with myself physically (except for the usual “being too fat” kinda thoughts that many young people have) throughout all of this and never have been. I really like my arms, I think they’re pretty cool and have coped bloody well considering the amount of strain I’ve put them under sometimes!

I also emphasise that suicidal thoughts are a symptom of depression and if you’re having them, it’s a good idea to talk to somebody.

Though it’s the hardest thing in the world when you’re depressed, sharing the load of what you’re going though with even just one trusted person is vital in improving your mental health.

I don’t think my depression was necessarily caused by my disability, but having a sense of my identity was important for my long-term level of self-confidence.

I remember “coming out” as disabled to a friend around 2011. I felt a sense of connection with my identity I hadn’t before. This was a turning point my life. This isn’t to say that all was rosy from here on.

PAGE 26

Acknowledging my disability for myself has been one thing; talking about it publicly is something I’m still fine-tuning. There are days when I feel more disabled than others.

Sometimes, I don’t feel like I have a disability at all, particularly when my access needs are met and I’m not physically challenged beyond my normal routine. At other times, I feel very disabled, especially if I’m tired or travelling many surprising challenges come up for me whenever I visit another city and have to use public transport. This uncertainty is an impediment unto itself.

I’m much better at laughing at myself these days, though, which helps break down social barriers around my disability and shows that I’m comfortable talking about my physicality if it comes up. I’m also more comfortable asking for and accepting help - for so long I thought I had to do everything myself to prove that I was capable and to retain control in my life.

Accepting my disability, and identifying with having one, has been a journey for me, and will continue to be through each of life’s stages.

Disability can be viewed as a fairly black and white situation - either you have one or you don’t. But, it’s more complicated than that. We need to acknowledge that people with disabilities are often not disabled medically, but rather by the barriers that society creates.

I’m now 32 and loving life more than ever. In the last 12 months, my journey around disability acceptance has been tested again, as I’ve started working in various different positions to do with access to the arts for people with disability. For a few months, I found putting myself “on display” in the disability arts sector a bit strange. But lately, I’ve reached another turning point. I’ve become passionate about accessibility and how to remove barriers for people with disabilities to have equal access to the arts, events, cultural institutions, and festivals.

As a creative person, I love problem-solving and finding new ways to get things done. I’m a strong advocate for equal opportunities and access. We’ve got a long way to go in becoming a truly barrier-free society, but I’m very proud and happy to be a part of the process. Simply writing this piece shows me how far I’ve come, and it’s a privilege to be able to share it with you. @bmamag

Ruth O’Brien is a singer, songwriter, arts administrator, and disability advocate. She currently works for Accessible Arts, Ainslie & Gorman Arts Centres, Women With Disabilities ACT, and writes regularly for BMA Magazine. Ruth is also one half of Canberra music duo, Miss Adventure.

Her debut EP, Invaluable, can be ordered online via ruthobrien.bandcamp.com/ releases or streamed on iTunes or Spotify.

For more information visit ruthmvobrien.com

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Photo by Grace Costa

Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

People love talking about the moment they realised they’re old.

From wrangling errant chin hairs to being livid when invited to a party, through to telling your friends’ children that you remember holding them when they were a tiny baby while they roll their eyes at you.

For me, I realised I was no longer a young person when I started defending my hometown, Canberra, with a fury the intensity of a thousand burnouts at Summernats.

When I first moved away at the wise old age of 22, I was desperate to get into the world and see what else was out there.

I’d had a lovely time growing up in Canberra, but it was time to move on. I remember sadly farewelling my family, and Kingsley’s Chicken, before I boarded a plane for Taiwan.

The first people I met scoffed when I said I was from Canberra.

“I know. It’s the worst place in the world,” I agreed.

Admittedly at this stage, I hadn’t been to Adelaide. (Just kidding, Adelaide, I love you).

I later found out that they’d never even been to Australia, let alone the nation’s capital.

I remember feeling guilty. Canberra had always been good to me.

We had an EARTHQUAKE SIMULATOR at our fingertips right there at Questacon, for the love of God. How could anyone who grew up in the ‘90s in Canberra complain about their hometown when they could head down the road and get shaken around for 20 seconds on a whim?

I should point out that I never felt guilty enough to refrain from mocking Canberra as I travelled around the world and met more and more people with unfounded opinions on Walter Burley Griffin’s masterpiece. To be fair, practicing gratitude is not a popular hobby for the young.

The words just tumbled out of my mouth with no warning. Straight from the heart.

It was a slippery slope. Before I knew it, I was preaching to people about how it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.

“It’s got beautiful, clean facilities for children, including wide open spaces and a great education system.”

WHO HAD I BECOME? I don’t even want children, yet here I was, someone in their 30s, finally reflecting fairly on a city which had given her many things including a great childhood, unbelievable chicken, and awesome chips.

And it is a great place to raise a family. That earthquake simulator is still there. Where else would you raise your children?

Kirsty Webeck is a Melbourne-based comedian taking Australia by storm. Most recently seen on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow, The ABC’s Tonightly with Tom Ballard and opening for Joel Creasey at The Enmore Theatre.

Her critically acclaimed solo show Chipper comes to Canberra on 27 & 28 June at Civic Pub. The 28th is sold out and limited tickets remain for the 27th (if that). Tickets available through www.kirstywebeck.com/upcominggigs

I was about 30 when it first happened. When I became acutely aware that I was ageing.

I met them at a barbecue.

“Oh you’re from Canberra. How awful.”

“Actually, Stacy, I think you’ll find that Canberra’s beautiful and clean and safe and friendly.”

PAGE 28

@bmamag

A Grand Oud Time

BMA’s Allan Sko catches up with multi-instrumentalist, multi-award-winning, Order of Australia sporting JOSEPH TAWADROS AM ahead of his June The Street Theatre show Joseph Tawadros AM is a four-time ARIA award winner, master of the oud (a Middle Eastern lute), a composer, storyteller, and a dapper gent to boot.

The award, accolades, and audience devotion is certainly attributable to Joseph’s incredible talent, but it is ably matched by the desire and enthusiasm for his craft.

This 30 June At The Street Theatre, Joseph will be joined by his brother James Tawadros on the Req, Bendir (Egyptian percussion), Karl Dunnicliff on double bass, and Matt McMahon on the piano.

“[It’s about] connecting with strangers, providing a voice for others, an outlet and a type of healing for people I haven’t met,” he says.

“My music is very personal and has an emotional depth, commenting on moments in my life. The audience identifies, and I think that’s why I feel very close to them when performing.”

Ahead of this thrilling mix of Middle Eastern, jazz, traditional sounds and contemporary innovations, us BMA-ers had the chance to catch up with the man to see what makes him tick.

“The oud is a strong symbol of Middle Eastern and Egyptian music,” Joseph says, when asked about his musical weapon of choice. “Being born in Egypt but brought up in Australia, I found the oud a good link to my heritage and, my family being Arabic music buffs, I couldn’t escape it.”

Joseph is a true international man; born in Cairo, raised in Sydney, and currently living in London. He performs all over the world and often plays with orchestras presenting his original works, including BBC Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and the Academy of Ancient Music in London. Was his international fusion of sound an intention from the beginning, or a natural occurrence?

“It was always something I did naturally,” he confirms. “I love music and listening to all types, and I think the more you listen, the more your body soaks in the music, digests it in its own way and reinvents it in another way. I think all the musical styles I listen to stew inside me and create a music which is hard to categorise. My first and foremost love, though, is traditional music of Egypt; the other genres add different flavours to my compositions.”

After whipping through a few ‘getting to know you’ questions, such as which songs he would love to do an oud version (“Working Class Man, You’re the Voice, I Was Made For Loving You“), what he does with his spare time (“I love going to museums and filling my mind with art and images”), the meaning of life (“create for the other and expect nothing; take the music seriously and not yourself”) and what makes him laugh (“I haven’t laughed for the last 10 years”), before getting onto the big question: any tips for maintaining such spruce facial hair?

“One must be dedicated to the cause,” he says, with great reverence; like an ancient sage imparting wisdom. “Wash and condition everyday, fragrance regularly, and believe in its density.”

The Joseph Tawadros Quartet play at The Street Theatre on Sunday, 30 June at 4pm. Tickets range from $25-39 and are available from http://www.thestreet.org.au/shows/joseph-tawadros-quartet-0

Speaking of different flavours, Joseph is know for incorporating improvisation into his performance.

“I feel it’s where a player can really shine and change the same piece of music every night,” Joseph enthuses. “It’s that freedom that allows magic to happen with the other musicians on stage and the audience. Improvisations are, of course, dictated by scale, rhythm, and chords, but no player can ever plan what they will play. Good improvisers are good listeners and are sensitive to what’s going on around them.

You can pick up on something a fellow musician is playing or the energy of the audience; that’s why it’s so special to me and a must when music making is involved.”

Joseph has recorded 14 albums of original music and he is the oud player you hear on the ARIA award winning Ali’s Wedding soundtrack. This is but a slice of what led to Joseph being able to affix an AM to his name. “[Receiving a Member of the Order of Australia is] the greatest honour to be bestowed upon me as far as awards go. To be recognised and be given the title of AM for my services to music is something very humbling and something I never could have expected.”

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PAGE 29

Internationally Prudent Ronny Chieng’s Tone Issues Finally Get A Line to Canberra

By Allan Sko Originally scheduled for an April show this year, when the Canberra Comedy Festival was in full swing, Ronny Chieng found himself having to reschedule to July after being picked up for yet another TV project.

As celebratory a moment as this is for the man, it is hardly a surprise at this point, with Chieng’s career burgeoning from stand-up, to his own ABC show International Student, to featuring in global cinematic hit Crazy Rich Asians, to a regular slot on The Daily Show, and to stand-up once more.

“I work day and night, but it isn’t an issue when you love what you’re doing,” the affable Chieng says.

But no matter what the project or level of success, first and foremost for Chieng is always the comedy.

“I do stand up every night in New York, and on weekends I tour, so it’s very much part of my life and my creative process,” he enthuses. “I literally think of nothing else all day except jokes.

You live it. Stand up isn’t easy, but you still have to find time to do it. It is a job. But it’s part of my everyday life; every second of the day. It’s all I ever think about. Stand up fuels everything else I do. When I’m really happy with how my stand up is going, it helps creatively with other projects.”

One of these creative projects is Chieng’s own International Student on ABC, which follows a loveable bunch of students on campus. Similar to Community, it’s a ripe concept for whacky characters aplenty, but Chieng also had more in mind.

“It’s a delicate act to celebrate who we are, but also not go for easy jokes,” he says, as far as race and comedy is concerned. “A lot of the show was telling an authentic story. Another part of it is doing jokes that have nothing to do with being Asian. They’re just funny jokes. And part of it was also doing Asian jokes, but owning them.

“So it’s not just us doing the same shitty joke; it’s us doing jokes from our perspective. We take shoes off, sure, but here’s our perspective on it. Our parents are very demanding, yes, but they’re also very loving. So it’s both sides. A lot of people don’t have the perspective to tell the whole story.

“It was definitely a case of ‘write what you know’, and I also tried to tell a story I felt no one else could tell, and no one else has told,” he continues. “And the fact that international students in Australia is a billion dollar industry and no one’s told that before. I thought it was a very Australian story.”

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Not wanting to make the genial chat with Chieng overtly political or concerning race, I nevertheless gently tabled the concept of accents in comedy, or performance in general.

To whit, a white performer is generally safe with attempting a Scottish, Irish, South African or American impression, but steering toward an African, or particularly Asian, impression is problematic territory, even if the accent is pitch perfect.

Fortunately, Chieng enjoyed the challenge and was more than happy to expand on the potentially touchy topic.

“Man, that’s a very difficult question. It’s a very good question,” he says. “All art forms are not a science. There’s no ‘this is this’ and ‘this is not’. So I’m very hesitant to give any hard and fast rules because people will point to it and go, ‘”Well, he said this is OK if you do it like this”.

“That being said, if you’re impersonating a specific person, like Jackie Chan or whatever, I think that’s legit. I think the problem is you have to look at the history of how people are making that joke, so you have to divorce the context and reality.

“It is possible to do it correctly. I’m not even saying an accurate impression, I’m talking about the context of what you’re saying. I’m a comedian; I lean toward the side of making fun of everything, But it’s the same reason we don’t go around saying the n-word. There’s a context to it you might not want to be giving out.”

The lively discussion continued, with Chieng now focusing closer to home.

“The Asian accent is interesting,” Chieng continues. “It depends what you’re trying to make fun of. What are you actually trying to say? Are you saying that Asian people can’t speak English? Or are you trying to bring people into your story by making them understand what you heard?

“It’s not a science. I don’t even know what the right answer is.

It’s like in the Supreme Court in America trying to decide what porn is. And they’re like, “Yo, I don’t know what porn is, but I know it when I see it.” I think it’s the same thing. I know what a racist accent sounds like; I couldn’t give you a definition, but I know it when I hear it!”

Having the fortune and pleasure of interviewing a number of comedians over the years, one common trait that I have noticed is the reticence to be given a label – be it the political

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comedian, the prop comedian, the racial comedian. I wondered if Chieng was worried about the same thing?

“It’s certainly there from the start,” he says. “When I started stand-up I was telling that story; the Asian perspective. After doing that for a bit I started avoiding it for the reasons you just mentioned.

“And then I settled into a comfortable, ‘I’ll talk about something if I think it’s funny’. And if it happens to be Asian, fine. But I’m not going to do it for the sake of doing it.

“With storytelling, authenticity resonates, so if I’m really getting to what I want to say, I think it works. As much as I don’t want to be the ‘funny Asian comedian’, I do want to be the ‘funny comedian’! But being funny is being authentic to your story. So I can’t avoid it.”

In regards to being authentic, I enquired as to whether he plans to do a Big Sick like move; the film with which PakistaniAmerican comedian Kumail Nanjiani told his very personal story in superb, hilarious fashion. In terms of talent and position, Chieng would be perfectly situated for such an endeavour.

“I’m lucky to have that with The Daily Show and International Student. Working on those scripts was like a Masters course in screenwriting. So it (a film) is definitely something I want to do. I’m getting to a point where I’m confident I can write something like that, whereas before it would be pretty daunting.”

With the future on the mind, it was time to probe about what us folk can expect from his latest upcoming show.

“The usual personal experiences,” he says. “It’s hard for me to talk about it without giving stuff away! I’m not a theme-show style comic either, so it’s just me giving bits and pieces away.

This isn’t saying much, but if you liked my other shows, this one will be right up your alley as well.”

A ringing endorsement if ever I heard one.

Despite Chieng’s continued success, he remains an extremely pleasant, humble, and of course funny person who is thankful to anyone and everyone who is a part of his career. You can continue the love on Tuesday, 9 July at the Canberra Theatre Centre. Tix, if available, are from the Theatre website.

“Yeah, sure,” Chieng enthuses. “My job is storytelling, and as a stand-up I’m constantly mining personal experiences. I think I’m getting better at telling stories and writing scripts. It’s something, like anything, that you need experience doing.

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PAGE 31

Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

LITERATURE IN REVIEW

LITERATURE IN REVIEW

WITH CARA LENNON

WITH CARA LENNON

We Are Displaced Malala Yousafzai [Weidenfeld &Nicholson; 2019] Malala Yousafzai entered the public consciousness in a big way when she was attacked going to school in 2012.

Growing up in a Taliban controlled part of Pakistan, Yousafzai’s father ran two schools, one a girls-only school, in the face of increasing aggression and threats of violence that culminated in the bombing of schools across the region.

Yousafzai became an advocate for girls’ education when she was still in primary school, blogging for BBC Urdu under a fake name from the age of 11. When she was 15 her school bus was boarded by the Taliban who shot her (and injured two other girls in the process) in retaliation for her activism. Yousafzai survived, although she (and eventually her family) had to be evacuated to the UK and weren’t able to return to Pakistan for years.

We Are Displaced is a book in two parts. The first half skims the more well known aspects of Yousafzai’s story, already described in her first book I Am Malala. Here it delves into the struggle to reacclimatise in England and how her immediate family coped during the time they were displaced internally in Pakistan, travelling between different arms of the family to try to lessen the burden of their homelessness on any one household. Yousafzai relates what it was like to be a child beset by large fears, dull worries, and homesickness after being driven out of her hometown during a military operation to uproot the Taliban.

In the second half of the book, Yousafzai has collected the stories of other girls and women she’s met travelling the world as part of her advocacy work; some of whom have made it to safe harbour, while others are still stuck in refugee camps or separated from family members.

Dayglo Celeste Bell & Zoë Howe [Hardie Grant Books; 2019] From punk-rock rocket to Hare Krishna diva, the Poly Styrene story was a wild ride with a lithium-fuelled interlude.

“Oh Bon-DAAAGE, up yours!

ONE TWO THREE FOUR”, screamed Poly Styrene and jump-started a generation of riot grrrls.

Lead singer, writer, and creator of the X-Ray Spex, Poly was one of punk’s UK icons, best known for her blistering belters and neon aesthetic.

When it was released in 1977 the album Germfree Adolescents was met with everything from slavish adoration to open derision.

Under a bright exterior was a fascination with the weirdness of consumerism and a fuck-you attitude that looked like feminism from the right angle.

But it all melted away with that flash-in-pan brilliance of so many bands of that era. Mere months after Sid Vicious was arrested, Poly was being hospitalised for hallucinations, at the start of a life-long mental health journey. Dayglo unpacks post-Spex Poly beside the post-Spex scene, cutting between musicians discussing her influence and family reliving her years medicated and misdiagnosed.

Dayglo reads like a documentary transcript, flipping between talking heads that get a line or two each before the camera moves on. It’s surprisingly coherent, fluid even, cramming a lot of diverse views into a sharply edited narrative. In the rhythm of it, it’s a little too easy to lose track of who’s what, so you’re not always sure if it’s a sister or a mental health specialist weighing in, but otherwise a fun format. Dayglo’s a punk-girl mecca too, so there are loads of names that’ll jump out at you, like Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill), Viv Albertine (The Slits), and Ana da Silva (The Raincoats).

In both parts, We Are Displaced does an admirable job of humanising a heterogenous, often targeted, and misunderstood group of people by giving them a platform to speak for themselves. It’s also a surprisingly accessible read in spite of the heavy and sometimes graphic subject matter.

It’s also a gorgeous book. Like physically gorgeous, like I kinda wanna get a room with it. It uses colour sparingly but somehow projects hypercolor. It’s big and hardcover and luxe feeling, and it’s either ironic or extremely appropriate given Poly’s lyrics about the way material things get a hold of us. I’m just saying, if this book was a person, no-one on tinder would be ghosting that shit.

Told in short first person chapters by girls who are focussed on the present and future as much as the past, We Are Displaced reframes the traditional refugee narrative away from overwhelming tragedy and survival to something personal to the contributors. These young women, like any normal people, are pragmatic and optimistic in amongst all the other emotions that come with their experiences, and are busy trying to build futures for themselves wherever they’re situated.

Poly was eventually correctly diagnosed with rapid-cycle bipolar and took refuge in a Hare Krishna community where her hallucinations were accepted as visions. But it was years of managing a life of unmanaged bipolar and trying to create while dosed up on lithium before Poly really got it together, tragically releasing her last solo album shortly before succumbing to cancer.

Project Indigo was a return to form, from a 53-year-old, spiritually woke punk still telling y’all she’ll do what she wants.

Profits from We Are Displaced will be used by The Malala Fund to further their work for women’s education.

“You can call me a brat or the girl is too fat, but I would say I’ve got my little yoga mat, I don’t care what they say, I’m kitsch all the way.”

PAGE 32

@bmamag

LITERATURE IN REVIEW

LITERATURE IN REVIEW

WITH CARA LENNON

WITH CARA LENNON

Beastie Boys Book Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz [Faber and Faber]

Tales From The Inner City Shaun Tan [Allen & Unwin; 2019]

You must be sure to approach anything resembling a coffee table book with extreme prejudice. It’s a wasteland of shiny hardcover nothings out there, and a Beastie Boys book seems like a prime candidate for a cash grab right? I mean the Beastie Boys are just a cheesy-fun, kinda douchy band that peaked before Britney and Timberlake did denim on denim. Right?

Shaun Tan’s Tales From The Inner City is a collection of short stories about a people out of touch with their world.

Holy crap this book is way better than it ought to be. It’s funny, it’s got all kinds of random extra stuff in it, it’s legit sad in places. It’s got both front row thrills and views from the mezzanine, with Mike D, Ad-Rock and contemporaries piling in their reminiscences of Sugar Hill rap and Germs-era thrash.

The Beastie Boys Book is autobiography, collage, and this-is-yourlife commentary injected by friends and celebs. Mike and Ad don’t just write their own memories, they get up in each other’s margins with comments and asides, bickering about things that happened and shooting the shit.

It follows them from being ‘80s kids in New York through the douche years, into fame fans and fake samples, and is just a metric fuck-tonne of fun.

Although on the douche years it’s candid to the point of being a little bit cringey. Like you’re embarrassed because they’re embarrassed, and they’re embarrassed because they did a proper dick move. Like ditching their only female band member for being their only female band member. It’s cringe that comes from honesty and hindsight, though, so you kinda have to stick with it.

A lot of nerd stuff is slipped in under the big rowdy scrapbook vibe too. It caters to the meticulous musos who want a floor plan of the band’s L.A. studio or an inventory of their favorite-est guitars, drum machines, and amp heads.

Plus, what’d usually be a garnish of bonus content is crammed in so thick it could be a book in itself. Amy Poehler steps up for a chapter to review Beastie Boys music videos, Spike Jonze chips in a photo journal, and there’s a Roi Choi mini cookbook full of stoner recipes, including the hilarious ‘One Potato Chip’.

Sadly, there’s a big Adam Yauch-shaped hole where MCA should be. The Boy’s third member passed in 2012 after three years battling cancer and even with the casual tone of the book it’s clear that Yauch had a huge impact on a lot of different people. You can feel how much they miss him in the stories they share about him.

It’s a shame that only Beastie Boys fans are likely to pick this up, because it’s just a good book. Too good to gather dust on a coffee table. This is a grown-up shelf book.

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Animals, memories of animals, fantasies of animals infiltrate the cities we’ve built, a reminder there are some natural forces that won’t be ignored. Animals with agendas. They may be here to help us, hunt us, or litigate, but most importantly, they’re here because they exist.

Tan began his career as an illustrator before writing and illustrating his own works, and it’s the artwork that’s definitely the star here. Tan paints the grey corners of metropolitan living as desolate but beautifully textured, an impersonal backdrop you could drown in but for extremely personal interest of owls, lungfish, foxes and bears.

As wonderful as the short stories are, it’s the illustrations that’ll haunt you. That, and the loneliness of Tan’s version of us, a species so lost it takes us exceptional effort to see even each other.

Tales from the Inner City is the sister work to Tan’s earlier Tales From Outer Suburbia. Whereas Tales from Outer Suburbia treats the ‘burbs as a fringe where all the weird things go, Tales From The Inner City has a dreamy introspective quality—specifically the kind of dream you desperately want to remember when you wake up, and are sad to find slipping away from you. Tan describes his book as a flow of daydreams triggered by a story about crocodiles living in a skyscraper.

“Our current way of life is, historically speaking… a kind of glitch in geological time marked by great separations and abstractions.”

Tan’s writing style is poetic (the good kind) and more concerned with ideas and feelings than characters or plot. What story there is, is the kind you can draw from a photo, an overheard conversation, a paragraph of a newspaper article. What happens might be small, but what it means is huge and strange.

Tan spends most of his words on the situations, the emotions they provoke, and of course, the animals. There’s a collective narrative about the nature and destiny of humans that’s mostly implied, given shape when the works are read all together.

The two Tales volumes are picture books for grown-ups in existential crisis (or if they aren’t beforehand, they might be afterwards). While there are some healing moments in Tales From The Inner City, they’re far between in a series of reflections on the spiritual cost of being completely cut off from nature in the heart of urbanity.

Worth it for the art alone, or if you go for wistfulness, nostalgia, and wanderlust. One for readers with a strong sense of the otherwhere and otherwhen.

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[ALBUM REVIEWS]

ALBUM IN

FOCUS

Then out of the blue comes Fiat Currency. 22 minutes is potentially a stretch to describe a full length album, but I put it on two weeks ago, have absolutely flogged it subsequently, and it’s hard to stop recommending it to mates on text messages and social media.

So here’s the review.

HENRY FIAT’S OPEN SORE FIAT CURRENCY [DUSTWARD] There’s a couple of heavily inspired by ’80s/’70s punk releases floating around this issue. Normally, as a parochial supporter of Australian music, I would be all about the Amyl & The Sniffers record, but when this came across my radar this month, all other nostalgia dependent garage rock music took a distant back seat to this blisteringly fantastic ten song collection.

Watch Us Mutate turns the influences toward English classic punk rock.

Concussion Device maintains the English flavour with riffs that remind me of The Jam on methamphetamine with a chorus that’s almost as addictive.

They’re elusive!

The Corrector blasts by with a set of riffs I would describe as being “angular” and typifies the production on this album. I’ve seen video of their guitarist Frank E. Male playing the see-through Dan Armstrong guitar and that’s what I picture when I hear his tone on the record. It’s a clean, clear guitar played with zest and aggression that doesn’t mask its intent, which is to blitz you with riffs and little segue parts in between that I just can’t stop lapping up.

They have over 15 releases, have worn masks the whole time, and haven’t put out a full length album since 2008’s Mondo Blotto. Vocalist, Sir Henry Fiat, took on another band this decade, called Friends of Dorothy and produced a bunch of releases of which The Man With The Machine EP and The Man Without DNA album I would recommend should this intrigue you.

The song also demonstrates how they use dynamics to make the songs that are barely two minutes long, with little quiet breakdowns before dropping in a melodious lyric defining my inability to get these songs out of my head. “You don’t stand a chance,” is sung with a melody line that reminds me of Blackie Hard-Ons channelling The Beach Boys.

The Swedish band has been together since 1997. I discovered them in 2005 on 7” Your Mom is a Fucking Mongo under the moniker Sir Henry Fiat’s Bastard and the sheer unpretentious glory of this band was apparent even then. I was all about it from there but they didn’t make it easy to follow them.

PAGE 34

We Got Issues kicks off the record with a killer intro/outro riff that bookends a savagely catchy tune introducing the band and ingratiating the listener with the message that, “Just like me, just like you, we got issues too,” over a verse riff that is as Devo as it gets without whipping something.

The Monotone Pt 1 gives us an instrumental reprieve before dumping into 2019’s best three-pack of songs on a back to back album.

Spoiler alert - The Monotone Pt 2 follows The Monotone Pt 1 and drives through another incredibly catchy chorus.

Have Love Will Ferrell simultaneously spoofs on the classic song title by The Sonics and provides an ode to wannerism (I wanna iPad, I wanna skateboard, I wanna new tattoo).

Don Wanna (drums) gets a love letter with potentially the most catchy song of the whole record – a tall order – on Don Wanna Meets The FBI with some filthy garage surf lines and a herky jerky chorus that means you barely have time to catch your breath.

Nine Months BC brings a hectic close to Sir Fiat’s contribution to the record in raucous, barely controlled fashion, before the almost surf rock instrumental Fiat Currency closes the album out.

22 minutes, ten songs, all the garage deliciousness you can pack into that time. You will replay this. You need this. This is vital. It’s not nostalgia in the form of an oft photocopied set of tropes. It is inspired, genuine affection for the past coupled with great song writing, hooks, and melodies and that makes it a winner in any era.

Don’t sleep.

5 short-fire stars.

JOSH NIXON

@bmamag

The band comprises the female powerhouse combo of Kerri Simpson (guitar and lead vocals) and Alison Ferrier (guitar), backed by drummer Anthony Shortte (from Collard Greens and Gravy).

Their debut album was co-produced by maestro Jeff Lang, and with powerful results.

In opener Maw Maw, the slow menacing tread of swampy rhythms precedes Simpson’s amazingly deep vocals.

OPELOUSAS OPELOUSIFIED [

]

A keen love of the music of the deep south drew together three of Melbourne’s top blues artists to form the group Opelousas (taken from the name of a Louisiana town).

Words run into each other in a viscous drawl, sometimes morphing into a keening sound, as the music casts its hypnotic spell.

There’s only a light blues touch to the catchy I Never Kissed Her; a song about an intriguing love triangle.

Shortte’s furious tattoo launches the rock edged, foot tapper Dear John, with Simpson

The departure of Hillman and an overseas tour inspired the generation of this debut (of sorts) selftitled folk record.

THE MAES THE MAES [

]

And then there were two!

Following the departure of Anita Hillman, The Mae Trio is no more, replaced by The Maes, comprising sisters Maggie and Elsie Rigby. facebook.com/bmamagazine

The album had an unusual genesis, with songs recorded on the fly while travelling through Canada, Scotland, and Ireland, before cutting the balance of the tracks back in Melbourne.

Fans of the ‘Trio will be happy to find that the essential sound of the band has been retained.

Opener and album highlight Treat You Better launches with the pure, simple sound of Maggie’s trickling banjo, followed by softly resonating vocals, dressed up with wisps of mandolin. While they have lost the capability to produce the three-part harmonies which Hillman facilitated, the sisters’ intertwined

drawing out and bending lyrics as only she can. This devotional poem to their favourite musical genre comes complete with references to US folk heroes such as John Brown and John Henry.

Awe of another kind comes across in James Dean, with its outstanding, suck-you-in and swallow-you-up riff, dressed up with random metallic sounds. Simpson’s delivery jumps from a conspiratorial whisper to a scream, ending in breathing sounds.

Meet Me in the Hallway is a gentler, more countrified invitation to romance, while Good Love Bad is a real scream it out, wailing guitar rocker.

Sugar Baby marries swampy guitar with a swinging rhythm, while Ferrier’s perky fiddle really makes Big Old Steam Train something special.

Whilst The Opelousas’ debut is blues focused, it carries enough variety with it to keep fresh throughout, and is chockablock with rhythms that get right into the bloodstream.

RORY McCARTNEY

voices can still weave sweet patterns in the air, before closing the song with a crisp acapella rap.

The Maes is generally a slow-paced release, with a wistful vibe. At times, the vocal sound is reminiscent of fellow folkies The Lucky Wonders, while the more upbeat Half Moon Bay recalls the sound of the duo Ruby for Lucy.

There is nothing quite as perky as Buzzcut Season from The Mae Trio’s previous release September, although Tenderness and Alcohol, another highlight of the new album, beguiles with its playful changes of pace.

In Head Over Heels, Elsie’s violin introduces an uplifting tone, in tune with the joyful lyrics, while the cello of Monique Clare adds backbone to the track.

Instrumentation is kept to a minimum on the album, allowing the beauty of the women’s voices to cut through, and the record ends as it began; with simple, pure acoustic music and sparkling vocals in Stay Home.

RORY McCARTNEY

PAGE 35

[ALBUM REVIEWS]

ALBUM IN

FOCUS

However, amid this deep earth rumble, following on from the chorus, another side to the band’s full-frontal assault is revealed when a surprise chord change allows a soloing guitar to usher in a melodic interlude.

CLARITY OF CHAOS CLARITY OF CHAOS [INDEPENDENT] [

]

The self-titled debut album from Canberra’s Clarity of Chaos has just been released, and if you thought the metal genre had been recycled to the point of obsolescence this ten-track sonic treatise will no doubt change your mind.

Part of the new wave of Australian metal, Clarity of Chaos has delivered an intense and fiery mix of melodic groove metal and metalcore worthy of attracting global attention.

It kicks off with Final Warning, a blitzkrieg of an opener which quickly attunes the listener to the lay of the aural territory.

There is speed, there is meaty distortion, and the dazzling proficiency of musicians shredding and slamming their way through a rousing exhortation.

PAGE 36

This element, of sneaking in a slice of almost sweet respite between the wallto-wall sledgehammering, appears on a number of other tracks here (Suspended, Break Me), a style quirk that broadens the scope of the band’s fulminating sound.

In other songs, this melodic vein is more obvious, issuing forth from vocalist James Dohm’s gravel and gruff, such as in Bring Back the Tide, with the bullet fire guitars and relentless drums providing a bracing counterpoint to the canorous line of the chorus.

There is another trope harnessed here - the mix of grooves within the one song, and yes, perhaps a typical one for the genre but one that proves beyond a doubt the high level of musicianship on display here, an aspect of metal that might easily be overlooked.

The production is impeccably smooth at the low end with guitars sitting exactly where they need to, and despite the prominence of the drums in this soundscape, there is not a moment when it deters from the vocals, or anything else for that matter.

It is a splendidly even sounding record, proving that independently produced records can compete with the goliaths of the international metal scene.

Less metalcore than one anticipates, Clarity of Chaos fits somewhere between Lamb of God, Pantera and Finland’s Profane Omen. The local buzz around the band will surely extend to the rest of the country and beyond with a line from Forgive and Forget, another visceral and supercharged cathartic roar from the album, becoming quite prescient: “We’ll take what’s yours, make it ours.”

VINCE LEIGH

Drummer Darren Mead is in full flight throughout most of this record and is kept tethered to the ground by bass player Kris Farrant with guitarists Timothy Whalan and Toby Lagan proving to be masterful exponents of power and euphony.

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[SINGLE REVIEWS] Wasting Time is the kind of hybrid country rock pop crossover that aims to please country music fans and the more mainstream attuned audience.

quite infectious. It’s a compact song, going from the verse-chorus cycle to a half time bridge before an obligatory guitar solo and chorus outs, and this brevity pays off; the chorus effectively burrows into your head as designed.

And on that level, it works.

The production contains all the panoramic boldness such a song calls for, with Ray’s rebelliously matter-offact voice suitably suspended over the whole scene.

After a rousing intro, a sparse yet gratifying verse melody is articulated over restrained instrumentation, which leads straight into a more resplendent chorus, complete with backing vocal zest and an intensified band.

RAY RYDER WASTING TIME [

]

Ray Ryder has been touring Australia for a while now, fine-tuning his brand of country rockpop. This latest track, Wasting Time, might just be the one to fulfil the promise of his earlier releases and his nonstop touring.

The chorus melody is suitably chant-like, though retaining a slight vulnerable edge. This quality is no doubt due not only to Ray’s ironic semi-swagger but the subject matter of the song.

Introspection is a common theme of country music and Ray’s take on the past and all the ills and missteps that may have coloured it, is gently brought to light here, and given a barroom jauntiness that is of recording sessions with Violeta at United Recording in Hollywood - a prestigious studio to say the least.

As well as getting the opportunity to record with a bunch of seasoned LA musicians, Violeta began collaborating with some hotshot writers too, including Dapo Torimiro (John Legend, Stevie Wonder, and Justin Bieber) and Troy Laureta (Ariana Grande, David Foster, and JJ Lin).

VIOLETA JEALOUS [

]

Violeta Bozanic is an old hand at winning talent competitions. At ten she was a finalist on Australia’s Got Talent and more recently was the recipient of the 2018 junior vocalist award at the World Championships of Performing Arts. This was held in the US, a big event where, in attendance, was US mega-producer Jeffrey Weber who promptly began a series facebook.com/bmamagazine

New single Jealous is one of the outcomes of those collaborations. The song is subdued R&B flavoured pop, showcasing Violeta’s vocal prowess and writing know-how. With a lean albeit glossy production, the economy of the sonic backdrop serves a couple of purposes, most notably to let Violeta’s understated performance become the focus of attention, and secondly, to fit the modern pop song production mode of ‘less is more’.

The acoustic guitar intro might fool you into thinking yet another trap beat

The appeal of this track is in its fluid nature, and no doubt this will help get it onto a broader set of radio and streaming playlists.

Ray’s performance, and the song itself, is not bound by the geography of their origin; one can imagine hearing this on US radio. It attends to all the requirements of such a record: good melodies, with an appropriately pleasing sound, stewarded by a confident and convincing vocalist.

VINCE LEIGH

inspired ballad is on offer, but the set-up groove ventures into another territory, more reminiscent of ‘90s-era hip hop.

Violeta’s performance on this track is a good indicator of her range, the wellcontrolled lower cadences of the verses segue nicely into the higher, more robust notes of the pre-chorus and chorus.

However, on Jealous, there are no soaring highs and diva-like vocal workouts which allows the song to tease rather than thump you over the head.

It feels like a preview of what’s in store from Violeta, which is pop with a streak of maturity running through it. Within a lyrical framework that is direct and unequivocally accusatory, the song holds a steady pulse rather than quickens to any kind of dramatic climax. It has the obligatory hooks, nestled within the prechorus, rather than the chorus, although repetition is the hook of all hooks when it comes down to it.

This is a satisfying track that introduces a young, effervescently talented newcomer to the Australian music scene, and judging by the trajectory of her career so far, to the global music scene also.

VINCE LEIGH

PAGE 37

[FILM REVIEWS]

THE WORD ON

FILMS with Cameron Williams THERE’S MORE TO GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS THAN GIANT CREATURES PUNCHING EACH OTHER

Do not underestimate Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Yes, there’s a scene where a pilot ejects from a fighter jet into the mouth of a flying monster, but it’s still a blockbuster with a political pulse.

Godzilla began as a symbol of the nuclear horrors inflicted on Japan by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The fear in the eyes of civilians fleeing Godzilla represent the

“Quit it!” “No, YOU quit it!”

A winged three-headed monster named Ghidorah is the villain of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (besides the humans; I’ll get to that in a second). In the sequel to Godzilla (2014), which is also part of the ‘MonsterVerse’ that includes Kong: Skull Island, the balance of nature is in disarray thanks to man-made pollution and overpopulation.

psyche of a nation still dealing with a catastrophe. Over time, Godzilla went from foe to friend as he protected the world from various monsters, as well as a forgettable American remake in 1998. The nuclear edge has shifted away from horror since Godzilla made his debut in 1954, but Godzilla: King of the Monsters stomps along to environmental science-fiction themes.

According to a group of eco-terrorists and an idealistic scientist (Vera Farmiga), mankind is a disease and giant monsters known as ‘titans’ are the cure. Destruction follows the titans wherever they go; people get eradicated and nature re-claims the scorched earth. The titans get a wake-up call after a centuries-long slumber, but instead of a little old school ‘survival of the fittest’, the apocalypse begins! Ghidorah roars the loudest, proclaims himself king, and nests in Washington D.C.

The terror of tampering with the atom has been replaced by global warming. The titans represent nature’s push back against mankind’s misuse of the planet. Director Michael Dougherty presents imagery of the monsters in action that’s a mix of biblical chaos and a heavy metal album cover. The rise of the titans is a metaphor for the worldwide course correction required to halt a planet in crisis.

A dying planet and a tyrant in the American capital; where does our world end and this film begin?

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Like all great science-fiction, Godzilla: King of the Monsters asks tough questions about what it may take for humanity to survive and the sacrifices needed. I thought more about the state of our world in the company of Godzilla; even when the film’s genocidal ideas bordered on silly and militaristic excess became mind numbing.

While Godzilla and Ghidorah traded blows, I thought about recycling. While Mothra duelled with Rodan, I thought about riding my bike more.

Blockbusters where monsters fight each other are an emergency exit from reality – indeed, Godzilla: King of the Monsters has plenty of awesome moments – but the issues affecting the world in 2019 roar into the cinema. A reveal about the origins of Ghidorah put the creature’s claim to the throne in doubt and Godzilla becomes the rightful heir. There’s a sense of the human characters working to support their environmental champion for once; it’s like properly sorting your paper and plastic surrounded by explosions. Godzilla is the titan who strives to maintain balance so the planet can survive. Ghidorah wants to destroy all life on Earth and remake the world in his image.

There’s a distinct line drawn between the need to act and the acceptance of defeat.

I left the theatre glad Godzilla was on our side, but felt much worse when reality hit.

Godzilla say: “Recycle”

ASTÉRIX: THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC POTION [

]

The unique style of Asterix cartooning transfers very well into this 3D-animated Gallic tale, pitting druidic magic against raw ambition and Roman aggression, with complications from overweening wizardly ambition in ancient France.

A serious fall while collecting mistletoe brings Druid Panoramix to realise that he must find a successor to carry the secret of the magic potion — the one that makes the druids invulnerable to the Romans. Along with Astérix and Obélix and the latter’s apprentice, Panoramix searches the length and breadth of the Gallic world for talented candidates.

Astérix and Obélix must also prevent the evil wizard Sulfurix from obtaining the secret formula for his own nefarious purposes — something he has every chance of doing via magical hypnosis. While they’re away, the village, protected only by its women, comes under fire by the Romans. Evidently, though, the Romans have no idea what those women are capable of when their ire is up.

Delighting adults and children alike, Astérix: The Secret of the Magic Potion uses continual to make timeless fun of everything from masculine and wizardly stereotypes to the haughtiness of authority. The film maintains a pace just short of frenetic; its grimmest and tensest parts won’t traumatise the youngest; and, at an hour 25 minutes, it’s a good length to maintain anyone’s attention.

Accompanied by a rousing orchestral soundtrack, this adventure in the world of the druids will have you chuckling as you’re up and at ’em.

JOHN P. HARVEY @bmamag

RED JOAN [

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX ]

[

]

Red Joan opens by showing us the very ordinary life of long-retired physicist Joan Stanley (Dame Judi Dench) and her sudden arrest some 60 years after the end of WWII on charges of having given away nuclear secrets to the Russian Government at the start of the Cold War.

In the closing of this trilogy, the X-Men must band together to save one of their own – Jean Grey (Sophie Turner – Game of Thrones) as she loses control over a malicious, alien power that she absorbs after a rescue mission gone wrong.

Frail and dependent upon the good will of her adoptive son, Nick (Ben Miles), who is a practising barrister, Joan finds that Nick is shocked and disgusted to learn the part that Joan played in breaking the western monopoly on the atomic bomb. This context provides a frame in which most of the movie recalls the events of the war and its aftermath.

Inner tension breaks out among the heroes, including Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy – Filth), Magneto (Michael Fassbender – Shame), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games; American Hustle) and Cyclops (Tye Sheridan – Ready Player One) as they are not the only ones trying to aid Jean Grey – for better or worse.

Sophie Cookson plays the young Joan Stanley of the war and immediate postwar era, a physics student quickly befriended by fellow student and Russian expat Sonya (Tereza Srbova). From the outset of their friendship, Sonya tends to use Joan, but she introduces Joan to her cousin, Leo, with whom Sonya shares communist ideals.

After graduation, Joan signs the Secrecy Act and commences work with a physicist, Max (Stephen Campbell Moore), in Britain’s nuclear programme. But she remains interested in the ideals that communism espouses, and even more interested in the charismatic Leo (Tom Hughes), so she would seem a prime candidate for recruitment as a spy for the Russian Government.

In actuality, Joan has strong principles. What they are, and how they will be tested in the face of competing loves and the disturbing readiness of U.S. politicians to use the atomic bomb, lies at the heart of the film.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, an experienced British director also adept at working on film scores, Red Joan combines scenes of wartime London, tension in conversation and subterfuge, dangerous action, and the vocabulary and manners of the time, subtly contrasting them with modernity, in which members of today’s security services and the media, with no experience of WWII or the early Cold War, sit in judgement on those who lived that reality.

Every scene is lit and shot with care, the whole seamlessly integrated as only British films are. Worth seeing for its exploration of the question, as relevant today as in 1945, of how to navigate the moral quagmire of who should have the power to cause mass destruction with a single weapon, Red Joan is also a very human tale of love and betrayal whose ending will remain in your thoughts for some time.

Dark Phoenix offers a nice sprinkling of fan service and Easter Eggs so keep your eyes peeled and ears open.

These prequels with new timeline movies have been strong so far, with only X-Men: Apocalypse being slightly underwhelming, but Dark Phoenix just kind of stumbles alongside, dragging its heels to the finish line.

This is the directorial debut of Simon Kinberg who has worked on The Martian, X-Men: First Class and Logan.

So what went wrong?

Kinberg juggled writing, producing, and directing, and it’s fallen in a heap with a messy narrative that feels lacklustre and unfinished.

Such as when we are introduced to our characters: the time-stamp says 1992 yet beyond that there’s no other indication of that era: no acid wash jeans, thick TV units, chunky sneakers or tacky slang.

Just tacky dialogue, unfortunately.

I love the X-Men as a whole – the ’90s TV show, the graphic novels, (most of) the movies. But instead of ending with a bang it has ended with a fizzled flap of the phoenix’s wings (pun entirely intended).

Dark Phoenix is entertaining at face value, at least.

ANDREW MYERS

JOHN P. HARVEY Showing at Palace Electric, New Acton facebook.com/bmamagazine

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[THE WORD ON GIGS - GROOVIN THE MOO - EPIC - 28 APRIL (PHOTOS BY MARTIN OLLMAN) Review by Rory McCartney The festival lineup followed current music fashions, with a strong hip hop representation and plenty of dance music at the close. An obvious omission was any serious rock band, with the usual token metalcore act being left out this year.

Women were well represented, as were overseas acts and strong local talent including APRA Music Award nominees.

Fashions on the field showed an increasing trend for ‘less is more’ and underwear as outerwear for women’s attire.

Glitter was still in evidence, but its popularity was waning.

Highlights in menswear were the guy dressed like an army bandsman with the large Canberra bus stop earrings, and the bloke in the flying helmet, goggles and shiny red shorts.

Onesies were definitely out of favour, with only one person seen in a cow suit (his wrist band caught in my back pack zip, and I lost half a Billie Eilish song trying to untangle it!)

A small but enthusiastic crowd greeted locals Glitoris who kicked off proceedings at the Moolin Rouge with their hard hitting, social commentary. One of the few rock edged acts on the dance card, they broadcast themes including women’s status and their opinion of Donald Trump and his ‘We’re going to build a wall’ trope.

All female group Erthlings had good songs but sadly lost vocal projection due to their lead singer’s head cold. A new song with a strong bassline had real appeal, and their Cuts and Bruises was a set highlight.

Angie McMahon positively smouldered, unrolling slow passionate songs with languid strums. She has a great voice that moves from a high, ephemeral lilt to a deep timbre.

The audience had to wait for her hits, as she said she liked to play her sad songs too. But the hits did arrive, with great cheers greeting her songs Slow Mover and Pasta.

The hyperactive G Flip jumped from drums to guitar to keyboard with a vibrant performance of songs with serious messages about judgemental people, toxic relationships and, in Bring Me Home, those suffering from anxiety.

Haiku Hands brought a real sense of fun into the day with their jumpsuits, choreographed moves, and pop stick sculpture headpieces. Making their second GTM appearance in two years, their frivolous antics brought relief after dark themes from other singers. Could they be the Spice Girls for the 21st Century?

Trophy Eyes got the mosh moving on the main stage with their bouncy rock. They featured singalong hand clapping choruses as their sweet licks peeled off into the cloudless sky. Wafia kept it soulful with Heartburn, with the crowd joining her with, ‘When I see your face’ in the chorus. 83 Days was a set highlight for her.

Jack River produced some of the best rhythms of the day thus far, creating a forest of waving arms in the crowd. She teased us with a cover of Tal Bachman’s She’s So High.

The standout of the festival was bewitching Norwegian songbird Aurora. With an elfin appearance, dressed like an extra in Game of Thrones, she was haunting in word and gesture. Her high notes dripped like icicles as she sang and danced to the dark, dark opener Churchyard. There was the powerful ecological song The Seed with its message: ‘When the last tree has fallen and the rivers are poisoned, You cannot eat money’.

Regurgitator gave us a taste of the longed-for rock with a solid string of hits. They threw in their new song Light Me on Fire which captures the band’s signature sound. In Black Bugs, with no keytar available, they had to play the tricky bridge on normal axes. It was great to hear oldie Kong Foo Sing in the set, with Quan Yeomans commenting that, going by the age of the crowd, a lot of them would not have heard the band’s music before.

Sofi Tukker set their jungle themed stage afire with smokin’ hot dance beats that energised the punters, a few of whom had to be passed over the barrier to escape the crush in the mosh. Silver-clad Sofi crowd surfed while simultaneously singing and taking selfies with the excited audience. Including songs delivered in Portuguese gave the set an exotic touch, and the combo of Sofi’s high vocals with Tukker’s deep tones provided a heady mix.

While the festival had a big hip hop representation, there was nothing to rival the unique Aussie character of Hilltop Hoods. Their music was warmed up with the inclusion of a brass section, and Ecca Vandal joined them for Exit Sign.

Billie Eilish hysteria ensured a tight pack around the stage.

She bookended her set with her best tunes Bad Guy and Bury a Friend. The show was supported by incredible, creepy background videos, featuring huge spiders and wayward eyeballs and hands. Any comment from Billie Eilish was greeted with huge screams from the crowd, which lapped up her every word. Refreshingly, she encouraged them to leave their phones alone and live in the moment for a change. A throng made for the exits straight after her set. Marshalls did a good job of keeping traffic moving, although encouraging people to use the back gate to Wells Station Road would have speeded-up progress.

Overall, a very successful transition to the new venue, with just a little more rock needed in future to provide a balanced line-up.

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@bmamag

Review by Belinda Healy

As I see the hoards of people moving from stage to bar to stage, I think to myself: “Where do all these people come from?” I figure this is the beauty of a festival like Groovin the Moo – it gives regional kids from towns all around Canberra the chance to see some great quality live music. I even overhear a conversation in the toilet that some women had come from as far as Newcastle. This is the festival I wished existed when I grew up in regional Victoria.

Regurgitator win the day, not for most of the punters, but certainly for me. They still sound as good as they did 20 years ago (ouch, I feel old). Quote of the day: “Thanks for listening to our songs, even though you probably don’t know any of them.” Moving from one hit to another, they played all the old faves as well as their new stuff. They’re loud, fun, and energetic, and their visuals are stunning.

Sofi Tukker

It’s a heck of a spectacle to witness. The EPIC showgrounds are transformed into a heaving epicentre of glitter, tie dye, crop tops, bras, heavy makeup, band t-shirts, plastic beer cups, selfies, and even a huge fairground ride.

Hilltop Hoods rocked the crowd, and their female vocalist Nyassa is the cherry on top. Part way through the set, the music stops and the band asks the paramedics to come into the crowd to check on people who look unwell. It is great to see bands taking responsibility to do this, especially as they can see a lot more of what’s going on than someone on the ground level. Other bands – take note.

Billie Eilish

Nick Murphy (formerly known as Chet Faker) fits into the schedule at the perfect time. Some nice, chilled, downtempo music that you could sit and have a drink to in between the more upbeat acts. He’s impressive on the keys.

Coolio is underwhelming, but of course everyone in the crowd sings along to (probably) the only song they know, Gangsta’s Paradise. DJ Spindarella injects a lot more energy into the crowd, but sadly her set is very short.

Billie Eilish is a name I should have heard of, but haven’t, and boy am I impressed. It is impossible to believe she is only 17. She takes to the stage like a duck to water – oozing confidence, pacing the stage effortlessly like a seasoned pop star. She asks the crowd to put down their phones and be in the moment. She is a huge star, but she does not want the negative behaviour that goes with it – and that includes a thousand mobile phones shoved in her face.

A word on pill testing. Groovin the Moo successfully held safe pill testing for the second year in a row. Here are some stats comparing the Sydney and Canberra festivals: Sydney – (no pill testing) – 14 people hospitalised

Groovin the Moo has gone from strength to strength, providing an opportunity to young people to see and listen to great live music they otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to. There is an energy and gratitude at regional festivals that is very special, and the core of the reason Groovin the Moo has been going strong for over ten years.

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A$AP Twelvyy

Canberra – pill testing – 234 voluntary participants had their pills checked – 171 samples tested – 7 dangerous substances identified and discarded – Health warnings and safety information were provided to all patrons presenting at the pill testing service – One ambulance transport for intoxication at a music festival of over 20,000 attendees

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[THE WORD ON GIGS] National Folk Festival @ Exhibition Park, 18 - 22 April Review & photos by John P. Harvey John Schumann and Shane Howard

Another NFF has come and gone, leaving in its wake memories both of performances to make you wonder and of the National’s reliable air of bonhomie and whimsy.

After a brief introduction to the Truman Smith Band, Bluegrass Parkway, and half a dozen other performing troupes at Thursday night’s opening concert, Friday saw full performances by dozens of performers, including delightful sets by festival favourites Lucy Wise (in a trio) and John Flanagan (in a new trio) as well as an annotated musical journey through copyright conflicts illustrated by Shortis & Simpson’s Worldly Goods Choir.

Also well worth hearing were the Kate Pass Kohesia Ensemble and, of all things, an opera: Gilbert & Sullivan’s jolly Trial by Jury, with a cast of 18 and an orchestra of seven, together taking the name Loosely Woven.

Audiences were also treated to some old favourites, including Rory McLeod, Guyy and the Fox, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, and The String Contingent.

Over the entire long weekend, musicians new to the festival stages performed repeatedly, including JigJam, ABRASKA, ELSKA, and The Fagans, and many more made themselves known to audiences through the remaining Infinite Glam Rock daily heats and finals. Through an irreproducible weekend, I found myself exposed to the energy of Scots group Mánran; the fabulous danceable interweavings of the four-piece Malumba; the surprisingly Celtic sound of the Japanese band John John Festival, and the rocking Celtishness of Kittel & Co.; the quiet delights of the PK Wrigley Skifflejuggers; the bouncy vocal harmonies of Green Mohair Suits; and literally dozens of others.

And it’s always fun to catch the daily heat of the year’s themed “Infinite” competition — this year’s being the Infinite Glam Rock competition — in which every entry gets a good laugh. (It was as an entry in one year’s “Infinite Bee Gees” competition that the Spooky Men’s Chorale devised the now legendary Ba’hari Ghibb. If you haven’t seen it, catch up with your favourite video site.)

Lucy Wise

Every year, too, brings fresh and exciting combinations of favourite musicians. This year, for instance, John Schumann (Redgum) and Shane Howard (Goanna), backed by their new six-piece backing band, the Red Rockin’ Dirt Band, combined their brilliance on dozens of numbers in two unforgettable concerts.

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Possibly the biggest surprise of the festival, though, was the

Men’s Spooky Chorale

And these were just Friday’s highlights.

sophisticated, energetic, sound of Yolngu musician Gawurra. This is somebody to watch.

With 15 stages going all day and 11 going all evening, there’s something for everyone’s tastes all the time, most surprising being the range that apparently falls within “folk”: from classical, fusion, and jazz to a good deal of driving alt-country sounding very like well-formulated rock.

The festival’s one regrettable aspect was that certain performances were so amplified as to be agonising. In two venues, it actually blew speaker cones. There were plenty of formal complaints about it, and I think it may be time for festivals and other music venues to take practical action to protect client health and safety.

Musical performance isn’t all that the festival boasts, though. The festival shop houses the finest musical instruments; workshops teach everything from papier mâché and instrument making to comic songwriting and album financing; and, as always, there’s a great deal of dancing from mid morn to midnight — everybody welcome to join in — and children enjoy access to programmes of activities throughout.

And that’s to say nothing of the specialist groups that met, rehearsed, and performed, from the National Ukulele Muster and the Poet’s Breakfast to the Festival Choir and the NFF Percussion Experience.

When I first came along to the National, I kicked myself for all the years for which I’d imagined that it had consisted merely of performances by “folkies”. It’s far, far more, and not the least of it is the inclusive, warm atmosphere that permeates the entire event from beginning to end. I believe that not a few musicians purchase a season pass just for the opportunity to spend the entirety of Easter between sleeps jamming with others in the session bar. On a weekend like this, though, who even wants to sleep? @bmamag

Steve Judd of Karnivool (look at that widdle face!)

Karnivool, Southeast Desert Metal @ Kambri, ANU, Saturday, June 1 Review by Ruth O’Brien Photos by Gerard Jenkins – https://www.facebook.com/ GerardJenkinsPhotography “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be into Karnivool, Ruth!” said a friend I bumped into at the recent Karnivool gig at Kambri, ANU. And to be honest, I’m not usually into the heavier genre of music that this band falls under. But the minute I heard Roquefort on triple j around 2005, I was instantly a fan.

And it seems I’m not the only one. Karnivool certainly does have a loyal Canberra fanbase proven by the attendance, and for good reason. The standard of musicianship these guys have is world class. Ian Kenny is by far one of Australia’s best male voices. He hits every note with ease and passion, seeming as effortless as talking.

In fact, each and every member of this band (Drew Goddard – lead guitar, Jon Stockman – bass, Mark Hosking – guitar, and Steve Judd – drums) make Karnivool an extraordinary act.

Ian Kenny of Karnivool

Saturday’s show was full of technical mastery both by those on stage and off. Lighting was en pointe. To do this well in time with hits, stops and mood is almost like another instrument in the band, so props to whoever was in charge of that!

Sound quality was also great. This style of music requires a careful balance between volume and getting the right mix for the audience. All I can say is… Nailed it!

The support act, Southeast Desert Metal, were a fantastic intro to the night too. Hailing from Alice Springs, these four guys have been referred to as “the most isolated heavy metal band in the world”.

Karnivool

Consisting of Chris Wallace, singer/guitarist, and his nephews and bandmates, guitarist Gavin Hayes, drummer Robert Wallace, and bassist Gary Bird, Southeast Desert Metal bring a new sub-genre to the metal scene, with subtle traditional Aboriginal influences being fused with their songwriting.

Many of their songs address serious topics such as police harassment, suicide, and the drug epidemic within the Australian Indigenous population. It was a great choice of support to warm up the crowd before the main act.

The Kambri venue, whilst great as a whole, could do with a look at crowd safety. The amount of people who tripped over a small step attached to some metal fencing was pushing more than 30. The last thing anyone wants is an accident.

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Southeast Desert Metal

All in all though, this was a great gig!

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