BMA Mag 349 27 May 2010

www.bmamag.com

Gyroscope A cohesive unit

The Aston Shuffle

Canberra boys done good

s ’ t s i n o i t i b i Exh ay #349MAY26

d h t r i B 1st Artstravaganza!

Also online: After The Fall and Killing Birds

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get off your arts review!

www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ApFZvw4G fz8watch?v=ApFZvw 4Gfz8 That is all.

# 3 4 9 M A Y 2 6 Fax: 02 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne General Manager & Advertising Manager Allan Sko T: 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Julia Winterflood T: 02 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Sales Executive Danika Nayna T: 0408 657 939 E: sales@bmamag.com Super Sub Editor Josh Brown Graphic Design Cole Bennetts Exhibitionist Editor Naomi Milthorpe Film Editor Mark Russell Principal Photographers (The Flashbulb Posse) Andrew Mayo Nick Brightman NEXT ISSUE 350 OUT JUNE 16 EDITORIAL DEADLINE JUNE 7 ADVERTISING DEADLINE JUNE 10

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church of kim For many who made the trip to Byron Bay Bluesfest at Easter it was all about seeing the older music legends on the bill, but one of the runaway hits of the fest was 19-year-old Kim Churchill. Following his last packed out show at The Front in March, Kim will return on Thursday June 10 at The Holy Grail, Civic. He’s too young to be a music legend, but there’s no doubt Kim Churchill has a huge international career ahead. $10 on the door.

jazz club From modern swinging jazz through to ambient slow landscapes, electronics that morph and become burning fast jazz tempos, and intricate Latin influenced compositions that slow down to become intimate ballads, The Tom O’Halloran Trio will stun punters at Trinity Bar on Wednesday June 16. These three musical brothers have built an intriguing creative language via countless performances. Full details at www.soundtravellers.com.au .

dusky tunes Sydney five-piece Dusker are returning with their anti-folk stylings to The Phoenix on Saturday June 5. They’re aiming to repeat the success of their showcase gig earlier this year,

cat cat are back Sparkling guitars with krautish groove, Cat Cat are set to release a new EP with the original band lineup. At the moment it’s Conor (From The South) and Warwick (JW Sparrow) as a duo and perhaps special guests including the famed Casiotone keyboard on drone and drums. The two-piece will be taking original Cat Cat material and brand new songs into an enjoyable reformatted cloud of live psychedelic and feedback pop. Their live recorded single Heard Her Play is now available on www. birdslovefighting.com .

do good Vorn Doolette is leading the wave of new folk artists in Australia, with his performances being likened to iconic greats such as Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright and Johnny Cash. He’s playing The Front on Thursday June 10, with local bloke Drew Walky in support. Doors from 6.30pm, $10 on the door.

righteous slam This month Traverse Poetry has joined with the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival to run a special human rights themed poetry slam. Come along to The Front on Friday May 28 and perform poems that make human rights accessible, relevant and significant - and win great prizes! $3 (free for poets).

Sign up for a slot from 7.30pm

Mayhem will be lifting the roof off Watson Scout Hall on Saturday June 5. It kicks off at 2pm and finishes at 10pm.

takin’ a dive Variodivers are a grunge/ garage rock trio from the nash cap. Their second EP Decompression has just been released nationally through MGM/Green Distribution, was produced by Phil McKellar (Grinspoon, Dirty Three, Sliverchair), and is currently available from all major music retailers. Variodivers blend modern sounds with a grunge background giving them a uniqueness that takes inspiration from great bands such as Mudhoney, The Melvins and Butthole Surfers. The boys have always been super hard working, supporting the likes of Gyroscope, Something With Numbers, Front End Loader, Dallas Crane, British India, End of Fashion, Tambalane, 67 Special, Giants of Science, The Fumes and Love Outside Andromeda. Decompression will be launched at Max Power on Saturday May 29 at The Maram in Erindale. It’s an all day event kicking off at 1pm, with 13 local bands on the bill including Super Best Friends, Readable Grafitti, Escape Syndrome and Tonk, to name a few. What’s even more awesome is that the event is totally free.

seismic sounds After the success of the recent Chilean earthquake appeal fundraiser (over $15,000 raised), the organisers are staging another rock benefit show. Local band Prostitute Gunn who donated their time for the first show will be taking part as well as metal behemoth Chud, Frostbite, The Bastards and Champion Ruby. Seismic

variodivers

Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

The inaugural ANU Arts Revue is coming. What is it? Let’s put it this way: sometimes people listen to Mariah Carey.

Or anything involving Andrew Lloyd Webber. And then sometimes people change the lyrics to said artists’ songs so they’re vaguely political and absolutely hysterical. This year sometimes can be NOW, and people can be YOU. If you want to write skits, sing and dance, work back stage, make posters, paint sets, drink wine or tie shoes... WE WANT YOU! anuartsrevue@gmail.com .

playing songs from their latest EP We Flew Into The Updraft.

Indie compadres Yae!Tiger will also make the trek from Sydney to fill the headline spot. Doors open at 8pm and as per ushe at Phoenix it’s absolutely free.

THE ADVENTURES OF SPACE CAT! Chapter One Space Cat is launched into space, warp factor eight. The journey takes three years. Space cat sleeps most of the way.

Chapter Two Space Cat lands on a foreign planet. The ship’s landing paws come down and gently knead the ground. The docking doors open. Space Cat can’t decide whether to stay in or go out.

Chapter Three During the surveillance mission Space Cat is alarmed to discover an alien species that resembles vacuum cleaners.

Chapter Four Space Cat is brought to meet with the planet’s leader, but his Cat customs bring confusion. He appears interested for a moment then wanders away for no reason.

Chapter Five Space Cat returns to his ship to find biscuits and litter tray are at critical levels. Activates an emergency ‘grey alert’.

Chapter Six Space Cat is reminded of his Space Fleet oath not to interfere with other civilisations. The ship passes Canaryian 4, Goldfishilus and Lizardopia.

Chapter Seven Space Cat is about to be killed by the great Doberman warlord. Phew, it’s just a holodeck simulation.

Chapter Eight Space Cat returns home to Catnip 5. He is honoured for his bravery at a ceremony. He is given a trophy made out of the back of a couch and presented with the keys to his new home, built out of old jumpers.

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

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YOU PISSED ME OFF!

thing…

I was a slave to Holy Diver. For a couple of weeks prior to the album’s release Tommy Vance had been playing tracks from it, teasing his Britain-wide Radio 1 listenership with its brilliance, and I’d salivate like a metallic Pavlovian pooch every time I got a sniff of one of the tracks. I couldn’t buy it on its day of release – I’d already spent my pocket money for the week – but the following Saturday there I was in Tescos in Northampton, handing over five pounds and 29 pence for this hotly anticipated slab of metallic grandeur. It didn’t let me down.

The needle dropped onto the vinyl. My jaw dropped onto the carpet.

Stand Up and Shout is still one of the best album opening tracks in the history of metal, but in 1983 it was quite simply one of the best tracks I’d ever heard. Guitarist Vivian Campbell’s coruscating riffage transported me to another plane as I battered away at my cardboard guitar in time to the music, but it was the vocals, courtesy of the timeless Ronnie James Dio, that were what Stand Up and Shout was really all about. For Holy Diver, the first album by Dio’s eponymous solo band, is one of the great expositions of metal singing. If not the greatest.

The title track, for all its faintly ludicrous allusions to riding tigers and drowning vicars, is pure brilliance; Dio exhibiting his mastery of the art of epic metal in five and three quarter minutes of pure vocal nirvana. But whilst Dio even in 1983 had something of a (deserved at times) reputation for penning silly dungeons and dragons ditties for a non-critical legion of dopey bedenimed followers, Holy Diver demonstrates a keen ear for melody and, above all, songwriting smarts that most of his contemporaries couldn’t touch. Caught in the Middle is a great pop song swathed in crashing drums, throbbing bass and razor sharp axework, whilst the album’s show stopping piece de resistance – Don’t Talk to Strangers – shows what can be done with a stellar riff, a songwriter’s ear and the best set of hard rockin’ pipes this side of… well, the best set of pipes period, actually.

Put simply, DTTS is perfect heavy metal.

But why all this misty-eyed reminiscence? Because when I woke up today I found out that Ronnie James Dio had died at the age of 67 after a brief but savage battle with stomach cancer. I mentioned earlier that Dio seemed to me as a young headbanger to be ‘timeless’ and, over the next 27 years that has always been my sense of the man. He was already a veteran when I first entered the wonderful and frightening world of heavy metal, and for nearly 30 years, whatever modern musical mores have come and gone, he’s accompanied me on my sonic journey. Sure, he’s birthed a few turkeys over the years, but the bottom line has always been a legacy of involvement in three of the classic hard rock albums of all time (the man’s vocals can be found on Rising by Rainbow, Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath and the aforementioned Holy Diver) and a voice that for many sums up an entire genre. The man was gracious, generous (his single-handed stewardship of heavy metal’s contribution to Bob Geldof’s Live Aid/USA for Africa projects – Hear ‘n Aid – earned him many plaudits from many outside of metal’s sometimes wilfully ghettoised community) and, perhaps most importantly, a lover of both beer and curry. I’m sad as I type this, but perhaps to prove to myself that the man lives on in his music, I’m cranking Rainbow in the Dark at neighbour-bothering volume – and it feels good. Rock in Peace Ronnie. scott adams thirtyyearsofrnr@hotmail.com

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

And for the love of God, keep it brief! [All entries contain original spellings] To the judge who just sentenced a gay couple in Africa this week to 14 years for having a commitment ceremony.... why don’t you take your impotent dick and shove it up your closeted arse?? Why should other people pay for your lack of adventure in bed and sexual disfunction. Deal with it...

To the vicious grandmother in the front row at James Zabeila. No one gives a right f*** that you were there for 5 hours waiting for him to play. We were all there for such a long time, your not the only one who has to wait. Just because you’re waiting doesn’t give you a right to fight everyone in the front row for a spot. Don’t push you? How about you don’t throw people around you fat pig. Everyone else was having an amazing time to his incredible music and you f***ing spoilt half the act. Thank god the bouncer had to throw you out! Next time, it is ok to try and bash the bouncer, but how about you don’t go kicking a 5 foot young girl and zabeilas computer on the way out?

You should never be let into a venue again. The sight of your ugly face alone will wreck the evening for everyone. You piss me off!!!

FROM THE BOSSMAN So, has anyone else been having as much fun with Telstra as I have?

Recently, I’ve been receiving bills that need to be sent off to NASA to tally. After navigating the 37 recorded options on the help line (“Would you like to know the weather in Beirut? Please say yes or no.”) I finally get through to one of them human fellers.

“Ahhh yes, good evening, I’m calling about my bill. It appears I’ve unwittingly taken out a mortgage with you.”/ “No, sir, the amount is correct.” / “But I’m on a three googleplex cap plan.” / “That is correct, sir. And you have exceeded it.”

The fun and fresh-smelling dwellers of Gorman House can attest that I do indeed use my phone a fair bit; someone’s got to keep the BMA fire stoked after all. But as I can’t recall calling my cousin ZZzzrd from Mars any time recently, the notion of exceeding my cap is perplexing at the very least, and makes me swear like an Asterix character at worst (f$%*& &(%# !!!). This is compounded by the most confusing billing system I’ve come across to date. “So this figure I see online, I was told that’s how much I’ve used, and if I’m under my cap I’m safe.” / “No sir, that figure shows how much credit you have left.” / “So I have $125 left?” / “No sir, you have used $125, and will be charged $7,688 as outlined in our terms and conditions.” / “(f$%*& &(%# !!!)”

ALLAN “IN COMMUNICADO” SKO

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TRAVIS HEINRICH

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WHO: Rafe! He’s putting on a Cabaret WHAT: A Show to Make You Smile WHERE: Tuggeranong Arts Centre WHEN: Thur May 27, 28 & 29

Living in Canberra, hopefully you know Rafe. He’s that humble guitar strumming lad with a pocket full of smiles, rainbows and joy. Oh, and you may know Hadley too; stirring his whiskey with a rusty nail and sending swears into passing prams. When you combine the two you obviously get cabaret (what? Who’s writing this?). Rafe has some new songs and kindly asked five musicians to join him, whilst Hadley blackmailed some actors into performing amongst the tunes. With two of Canberra’s most creative forces teaming up this should be fucking excellent. It’s cabaret, songs, dance and circus. Just like those emails; if you miss this, your mother will die. $25/ $15.

WHO: You and your astronaut pants WHAT: Australian Hip-Hop Championships WHERE: The Street Theatre WHEN: Sat June 12, 7pm (seniors), Sun June 13, 2pm (juniors)

Do you remember the ad where the Nesquik bunny poured Nesquik into a swimming pool and drank it all up? What the fuck was with that?? Dude that’s water, probably chlorinated and filled with scabs and bandaids. Nice job marketing, it actually made me too grossed out to buy your product. Of course, this is all completely irrelevant to the Australian Hip-Hop Championships happening at The Street Theatre.

With over two hours of intensive arm and leg flailing from Canberra’s best dancers this is not to be missed and will feature internationally renowned B-boy Leerok from NZ, plus MC KG, DJ Richie Blaze and freestyle battles ahoy. Register at grandjesterent@mail.comcom. $25.

WHO: Two Hours Traffic supporting Dead Letter Chorus WHAT: A terrific Canadian foursome WHERE: The Front Café and Gallery WHEN: Wed June 16

Back in Primary school (YPS for lyf), my best mate thought for the whole year that my name was Traffic. At the end of the year our parents met, with his asking my Mum “are you the mother of...

Traffic?” “Um... Do you mean Travis?” my Mum replied. They laughed; probably in relief – as anyone naming there kid Traffic would be batshit crazy and not someone you’d want your kid near. So here’s the segue – Two Hours Traffic are a glorious Polaris prize nominated Canadian band, who sound like a poppier version of The Shins, and they’re supporting Dead Letter Chorus (pictured) at The Front.

Territory is their next album; go have a listen yeah yeah.

WHO: The 2010 Canberra Contemporary Art Space Zine Fair WHAT: A Zine Fair!

WHERE: CCAS (at Gorman House, in the city you muppet) WHEN: Sat Jul 3, 11am – 4pm.

Are you drunk and considering driving home? You’ve seen those ads – Drink OR Drive. ‘What do I do?’ Bed that confusion pal, because I’ll suggest an alternative – speeding! If you’re drunk, just speed home!

The faster you drive equals less time on the road; therefore there’s less chance of having an accident. Better yet, speed to the Zine Fair at CCAS! They’re showcasing the region’s best DYI print makers in zine form. Canberra’s best publication (err… second to BMA) (nyuk nyuk – Ed.), First World Youth Culture by Steven Pennington is showing, among others. CCAS want your zine on a table pal. Book your free stall by calling 6262 9191 or shoot an email to admin@actwriters.org.au .

WHO: Once again, it’s you WHAT: Canberra musicians rock out for children in Bangladesh WHERE: The Basement WHEN: Sat May 29

Jason Campbell-Smith, frontman of Sunchaser and The Wayward Orchestra, has chivalry pouring out his ass. In a step to help the youth of rural Bangladesh gain greater access to education, he’s set up an almighty fundraiser to magnetise the Benjamins.

To treat your ears, Smith’s own Sunchaser and The Wayward Orchestra are playing, along with Manilla Green, Starfish Hill, Mog, Eillen Francisco and Phil Wohlers. Don’t call it a box social; call it your next adventure kiddo. Canberra has had its luck (they’ve called our newest suburb Beard FFS), so dish out your clams and enjoy the talent Canberra has for a good cause.

WHO: All your fashion conscious folk WHAT: Party By Jake: A Royal affair WHERE: Transit Bar WHEN: Sun June 13

After I grooved the moo so to speak, I was reminded of what amazing potential Canberra has for gigs. Most likely you’re aware of the noise regulated red tape squeezed around our throats. It’s helped close Toast, threaten The Front and is doing battle with Transit. Transit is the best thing that’s happened to Canberra music culture in recent times, as it provides a plethora of eclectic, free events. Let’s add to that. Party By Jake: A Royal Affair is a night featuring clothing label Aviary, providing giveaways such as printed tees and hoodies. Hand drawn designs inspired by birds – it’s good stuff. Featuring Mingle DJs and Party By Jake DJs. It’s free and will warm you up kiddo.

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supporting acts, and if none come along then I guess you’re all in for a few solid hours of Deez Nuts, which I doubt anyone will complain about. Doors open at 7.30, where I am sure tickets will be sold.

ALL AGES It has only just become apparent to me that almost every fortnight I open the column by absentmindedly bitching or discussing the weather as if to say I am trying to ‘break the ice’ with small talk.

Therefore just this once, seeing as there are a lot of gigs to mention, I am NOT going to have a nice long rant about the disgusting presence of winter. I am NOT going to deliver a chunky 100 words about the warmth of the heater I am sitting in front of as I write this and I am NOT going to admit that I just blabbered on about it just now! I’m just going to let it slide this issue.

Possibly the most widely know Australian band over the last two decades, Powderfinger, before they all go their separate ways, are doing just one final round of the country in which they originally bloomed. But what a run they had together! Tickets are already on sale for The Farewell tour that they are calling Sunsets, claiming to be the band’s most extensive tour in their celebrated 21 year history. The legends themselves will come to the capital on Tuesday October 12 to play their final gig in Canberra at the University of Canberra. For your last chance to see the triumphant five-piece live, grab your tickets from Ticketek or Lanspeed Records for $93.70.

On Friday June 18 as part of the This One’s For You tour, thriving Melbourne hardcore kings Deez Nuts will be climbing on stage at the Weston Creek Youth Centre in support of their newest album, This One’s For You. There has been no mention as yet about any

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Perth hardcore/punk bands Miles Away and Break Even will soon be hitting the road with Melbourne bands Hopeless and The Broderick on the I’d Rather Be Giggin’ tour. You’ll have your chance to see them all on Tuesday June 22 at the Tuggeranong Youth Centre. Tickets are sold at the door folks, this one deserves a looksee! Then, on Sunday June 27 you can witness the spectacular hardcore stylings of rising Byron Bay boys 50 Lions, Perth’s Blkout and Sydney band Persist. You can catch it all at The Jam Factory at 2pm, tickets are sold at the door. This will make for a lovely Sunday outing.

It is really quite necessary that you snatch up your tickets for this one soon, because the excitement of the Youngbloods tour is already setting in. That’s right! The Amity Affliction are back on tour!

Featuring Misery Signals all the way from the US, Melbourne’s own Confession and Flood of Red from all the way up in the UK, this is a spectacular lineup at the Woden Basketball Stadium on Thursday July 8 that will blow you right out of the f**king water. This is all happening in support of Amity’s new album Youngbloods, which is to be released on Friday June 18. So, as I said, grab your tickets fast from any Moshtix outlet for only $33.50. Doors open at 7pm.

NAOMI FROST allagescolumn@gmail.com

LOCALITY

Bah bow. No dice, or cigar for that matter. My submission to the Inquiry into Live Community Events cannot be considered by the Standing Committee on Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services because it was published in the previous issue of BMA, and therefore cannot be awarded the status of parliamentary privilege. And what, prey tell, is parliamentary privilege I hear you say?

Not being a lawyer or aspiring politician and with my days of Year 12 Legal Studies long gone, parliamentary privilege was a foreign concept to me ‘til I received the no dice email from the Committee Secretary. The ACT LA site states: “Committee proceedings are considered to be ‘proceedings in parliament’ and as such are protected by parliamentary privilege. Privilege means that witnesses and submitters cannot be sued for what is said or written and evidence may not be used in courts or tribunals to question the truth, motives or credibility of any person.”

Righty-o. Good stuff. It sure is nice to know that everyone who ragged the shit out of The Waldorf is protected against legal action. But alas I cannot be, for entirely unbeknownst to me, “once the committee receives a submission it becomes the property of the committee and must not be published, or otherwise circulated, until it is authorised for publication.” So no parliamentary privilege for me.

But how was I supposed to know this? The only obvious information included on the Inquiry into Live Community Events page is “submissions should include your full name, postal address and telephone number. Electronic lodgement is preferred. A closing date for submissions will be set by the Committee in the New Year.” That last sentence is clearly redundant as the Inquiry was launched late last year. I’ve since learned from the Committee Secretary however that a new deadline has not yet been set, but that the Committee will most likely still consider submissions that are received up to the point where they draft their final report, scheduled for the end of June.

What this all boils down to though, dear readers, is yet another communication failure. Who is actually going to read the ACT LA’s guide to making a submission? And better yet, who even knew there was one? These questions painfully echo the granddaddy of them all, who actually knew about the Inquiry? Well, hopefully a lot more of you now. Massive props to Andrew Mottram, the creator of the Facebook group I Want to Help Shape the Future of Music in Canberra!, who is still tarrying selflessly away to give the Inquiry maximum exposure, something that should surely rest upon the ACT LA’s shoulders.

Don’t make the same mistake I did kids. Don’t publish your submission anywhere, online (ie Facebook) or in print, before it’s up on the ACT LA site. Be safe, and read the submission guide. Head to www.parliament.act.gov.au, hover your cursor over Committees, and then click Getting Involved. So for chrissakes, get involved! You’ve got about a month, so stop constructing a botanical garden to decorate your freaking FarmVille and get typing.

JULIA WINTERFLOOD julia@bmamag.com

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DANCE THE DROP Now I’ve returned, with lessons learned on sunburn, from an island paradise to our city on ice.

It’s hard to swap Jäger shots on yachts for nine to five slots, waking up at 6am to a frosty graveyard and not bikini tops. But one thing that makes the winter months much easier to take is the shipshape bunch of mates providing weekly escapes.

For those of you out there thinking ‘what the hell does that mean?’, I’m alluding to the magic of our local dance music scene.

Proving that Grimace isn’t the only one with Purple Sneakers, the Transit crew have been nice enough to invite the indie brand back for another round of alcoholistic mayhem on Friday May 28. This particular event welcomes the Architect DJs, who are having their hair held back by locals Celebrity Sex Tape, Princi and Chairman Wow. Australia has an ever aging population, it’s true. Soon DJ booths will be overrun by hordes of turkey-necked codgers in skinny leg golf pants, that is unless Academy has anything to say about it. The newly birthed Young Blood series of Friday nights in the Candy Bar, beginning on Friday May 28, has been developed to showcase the new breed of DJs coming through the ranks. The inaugural event will see ageist militants such as Peking Duck, Cheese, Ben Colin, DJ Bricksta, The UH-OH! DJs, Aeon and Yohan Strauss prove that you don’t need facial hair to play great tunes.

Now to one of my favourite nights on the clubbing calendar, the lads at Effigy have secured the services of Czech Republic duo Shades of Grey and DJ Schwa for Saturday May 29. The Beef Records crew will be showing you what music is all about with a stunning live set sure to erupt into the atmosphere like an unpronounceable volcano of awesome. Supports for this fine evening include Fourthstate, Biggie, Yohan Strauss, Beat It, Bobbin and Gabriel Gilmour.

On the weekly tip, for lovers of cocktails and sexually attractive house music, Kinky Electro is a new weekly Saturday night at North Bar including Tim Galvin, Nathan Princi, DJ Baker and Jacob Howes on the fun end of the turntables. Come and say hello, we won’t bite… hard.

Saturday June 12 heralds the return of Soundtrap to Transit Bar. This particular evening delivers QLD techno duo Digital Divide to us on a sonic platter. Locals keeping up the pace alongside are Alex Cleary, Mikey-G and B-tham.

Lastly, I have to acknowledge a major incident involving one of the leading promoters here in our capital city. Without naming names, there was a recent development involving a club and one of our most respected and hard working contributors to the scene. All I can say is that greed and stupidity does not equal money and success in our small community. I really hope that punters vote with their wallets and teach this particular club owner that loyalty and persistence is the way to succeed in Canberra.

TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

myspace.com/pangnight

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KICK YOUR ASTON

HE’S SO KLUTE

KATHERINE QUINN

danika nayna

Normally you’d associate dance music with fun, frivolous things like fluoro and flashing lights and mind altering substances, right? But it’s actually a very serious subject – and this is evidenced by my very earnest discussion with Vance from THE ASTON SHUFFLE about the resurgence of The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams.

Tom Withers has not only carried on a musical career since the ‘80s, he’s done it in a tricky, cross-genre motion. He was but a youngen with punk band The Stupids before he fell in love with lasers in 1994, turning him into the drum ‘n’ bass producer we know and love him as today, KLUTE. He’s now onto his sixth double-disc album Music for Prophet, which is “another Klute extravaganza with one CD of DnB and another of techno and breaks,” released on his own label Commercial Suicide. And you’ll have a chance to see him at All Our Friends on Saturday June 5.

“There are certain records that are just insta-vibe tracks no matter where you go around the world, and Sweet Dreams is one of them,” Vance informs me. “There are certain songs and certain bands that everyone pretty much holds close to their heart, regardless of what sort of music you’re into.” So is that why all the DJs seem to be playing it at the moment? I enquire.

Do you just whip out some synth when the crowd is a little lukewarm? “It’s not a matter of ‘oh, the crowd’s a little bit dead, let’s just pull out the get-out-of-jail-free card’ – it’s a little bit more subtle than that,” he insists. “But there’re always going to be dancefloor weapons, especially at festivals, because at festivals you really do want to go for the jugular.”

At festivals you really do want to go for the jugular

The Aston Shuffle will be going for our jugulars at the All Our Friends music festival, alongside international dance music giants like Laidback Luke, Steve Aoki and Felix Da Housecat. Intimidated much? “I think we’re gonna try not to be too scared about playing alongside the heroes of the moment,” Vance says. “Being able to see all these people and meet them and hang out with them is really rewarding. They’ve got huge fanbases in Australia, and trying to stand up next to those guys and not screw up could be a challenge.” Despite their modesty, you might call Vance and Mikah Shuffle nu-rave heroes themselves. The Canberra lads (yes, that’s right!) smashed onto the scene in 2007 when their single For Everyone reached the top of the ARIA charts, followed by their heady, bass-driven remix of Pnau’s Baby. Since then, they’ve supported the likes of Justice, Digitalism and Claude von Stroke, as well as mixing several CDs for Ministry of Sound.

“It’s so easy to sit back and think ‘I’ve achieved a baseline level of success, therefore I can be lazy,’” Vance says. “We’re constantly trying not to fall into that complacency trap.” Indeed, this DJ/producer extraordinaire insists there’s always something to be learned from his colleagues and competitors, declaring that “every DJ’s got a different story to tell. Overall when it comes to writing a song, I think our aim is to make something that’s very musically strong and means something to people, as opposed to something that’s sort of disposable and throw away,” he says, when asked about their forthcoming album.

“We might test a few new tracks [at All Our Friends]. We’re excited to finally get this music out there, because we’ve been living with these songs for a long time.”

Catch The Aston Shuffle at All Our Friends, held at the UC Refectory on Saturday June 5. Tickets through Qjump.

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Hours could’ve been spent listening to his prophet-like views on a changing music scene, but my nine minute phone card limit has other ideas. So we bitch about what kids are into these days – dubstep – for a couple of minutes before a quick delve into how the global financial crisis plus a conservative government equals a better clubbing culture, of course.

I like a bit of sex to the beat

“I’m not overly fond of dubstep.

I was more a fan of garage and two step,” Tom says, and I agree excitedly. “To me, dubstep’s a bit sort of mongy and straight. I like a bit of sex to the beat. It’s kind of like funeral music, really.”

Don’t take offense, dubsteppers. He has an uncompromising love for high-energy beats. His origins are as a punk rock drummer, before good old fashioned ego clashes sent The Stupids sideways. “Punk rock was the first sort of musical revolution for me,” Tom says as he recalls his days as Tom Stupid. “I went on a long musical journey through metal, then indie music, and eventually wound up checking out crossover indie-rave sort of stuff, like The Happy Mondays. That was the next musical revolution in my life, when rave was kicking off in the early ‘90s.”

Tom has seen clubbing culture go in and out of fashion, and he reckons it’s about to surge once again. “Up until that point it was still kind of based on disco ideals, but then rave completely blew the lid on that and just pulled people together,” Tom says with a ‘back in the day’ fondness to his voice. Note: try and use the words ‘disco ideals’ more often.

“I think it’s almost gone full circle. We’re back to the clubs mostly, which is this kind of disco mentality of exclusivity and VIP. But with these so-called recessions going on, and we’ve got this conservative government again, maybe there’ll be a sense of rebellion again. First and foremost this music comes from the hearts and minds of how people are feeling about it and then the music is affected as a result, so I’m looking forward to some exciting new music as a reaction to the hard times we’re going through at the moment.”

Thank you, Professor Klute, you give us all the brightest of hope for bigger and better all-nighters to come.

Catch Klute at the All Our Friends Festival, held at the UC Refectory on Saturday June 5. Tickets through Qjump.

SHADY BUSINESS

SHADES OF YAY

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On November 27 2008 BOOKA SHADE played to an overcrowded Transit Bar as sweat rained from the ceiling. They left that evening with a legion of new fans and now they’re back with More!.

Young club night Effigy has already gained a reputable following after showcasing the likes of Luke Chable, Phil K and Jaytech. Their unique mix of deep house, prog and tech house has filled a niche market in Canberra’s dance scene, perfectly complimented by the dark burlesque surrounds of Hippo. The crew have stepped up to the plate once more and invited Beef Records’ managers, SHADES OF GRAY, to headline come Saturday May 29.

More! is Booka Shade’s latest studio album. With indulgently bassheavy production it is a clear step away from past ethereal classics such as Charlotte and Mandarine Girl. Drummer Arno Kammermeier eagerly explains the concept behind their newest work.

“It was the two of us sitting in the studio thinking we wanted more energy, more drums, more dance beats!” says Arno, betraying the secret to their method. “It was logical to call the album that [More!].

We are also a fan of short album names like all the Pet Shop Boy’s albums, Please and Very.”

We love the idea of having a concept to an album

Arno and production partner Walter Merziger started by throwing out all previous sounds to vehemently try and create something new.

Slowly the concept took form. More! begins with what is sure to be a universal club hit, Havana Sex Dwarf, and peaks with typical Booka Shade moments at L.A.tely and No Difference.

“We grew up with the concept of an album and we love the idea of having a concept to an album,” explains Arno. “There is a reason we start a certain way and a reason we will try and finish the album a certain way. Before we have started with more epic songs on new albums, but Havana Sex Dwarf is more up-tempo and the album ends in a different way too.”

As co-founders of Get Physical Records the duo had a deep pool of talent from which to draw collaborators for their latest release.

Interestingly they chose to work with the late ‘70s Swiss electronic outfit Yello (think Oh Yeah from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Get Physical stalwart Chelonis R. Jones.

“We wanted to stay away from featured artists – it is not really what Booka Shade is about; we want our own sound,” says Arno. “Chelonis R. Jones has been on the label since day one, so he was an obvious choice. With Yello we wanted someone who inspired us when we were young.”

After touring non-stop for almost five years the band returned to the proverbial home of techno, Berlin, for a well needed break. It was during this time, finishing the new album, the duo learnt to DJ for the first time. This new club influence is clearly audible on More!.

“Before we thought DJing was a different art form, something we didn’t ever do,” says DJ Arno. “It gave us the chance to take the basic beat that we had made that day into the club and check how the groove worked on the dancefloor. It helped with the overall production of the More! album. You can hear it is a bit more dancey this time because of that.”

More! is out now on Physical.

Shades of Gray is the brainchild of Michal Ruzicka, aka DJ Schwa, and Nick West. The pair teamed up in 2006 to display their unique range of deep and tech house. A year earlier Schwa had launched Beef Records as a sub-label of progressive Czech label Tribal Vision Records. With n sitio tran The West’s help the duo turned the between arranging label independent.

in the studio and playing live in the club is pretty smooth

“We are fully focusing on cutting edge house, tech house and techno,” says the Czech born Ruzicka. “Our first bigger signage was Robert Babicz and Moonbeam. After that we started regularly charting and the ‘big dogs’ started recognising us and our brand.” The duo was not only interested in signing names to their label and began to further develop their own sound. Their first vinyl release came in 2007 with Simplicity, shortly followed by releases on German label Plus Minus. Last summer the pair took their show on the road.

“It was a great tour and experience,” remembers Schwa. “In between the gigs most of the times we were based in Prague. My family lives there and my dad is running a successful recording studio. So staying in a house with the state of the art equipment and not writing any music would be a sin.” Shades of Gray completed five tracks on tour, all of which were signed to various labels. At the moment the pair have a new compilation, Prime Cuts 3, due to hit stores within a few weeks; plus their Concord Jazz EP, which just came out on Milton Jackson’s label Dark Energy.

“We are really happy about that,” says Ruzicka of being involved with deep house icon Milton Jackson. “Ian Pooley remixed one of the songs.

At the moment we are working on EPs for Pack Up and Dance, which is Andy Cato’s label. Andy Cato is one of the core Groove Armada members. We are also working on an EP for I Records which is a cool deep house label.” Shades only have a few short months in Australia, before making the move back to Prague permanently. Fortunately the Effigy team have backed a winner as it is their impressive live show that has helped Shades of Gray establish themselves at top nights such as Spice and Deep As F*CK. “It is a proper live show setup,” explains Schwa.

“Notebooks, mixer, external effects and controllers. We use Ableton Live so the transition between arranging in the studio and playing live in the club is pretty smooth. Totally groovy, visual and danceable material.”

Catch Shades of Gray, supported by Fourthstate, Biggie, Yohan Strauss, Beat It, Bobbin and Gabriel Gilmour, at Hippo Bar on Saturday May 29. $10 on the door.

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MIAMI BASS

JAY WALKING

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Miami is all about sunshine and good music – at least that’s how I see it. I suspect SONIC C subscribes to the same school of thought, and mainly because he is from Miami and loves good music. “Really what happened was like this – I was a DJ and I started getting into hip-hop.

Later on, I decided that the scene wasn’t really for me so I started listening to electronic music and started producing it.”

Very few Canberran musicians of any type have reached the level of global acceptance and love that wonderboy JAYTECH has experienced in his short life. From three storey-high posters of his face in Beijing, to playing to 100,000 strong crowds in Brazil, his music is taking the world on a journey and finally, with the release of the double disc Anjunadeep : 02, we can now have a Jaytech officially released mix disc to sit with our bulging folder of his monthly podcasts. But is this mix any different to what he normally dishes us out for free on a monthly basis?

Indeed, today he claims that electronic music is his great love and there is little else he’d rather be doing right now. “I just fell into making music. Laidback Luke was the first DJ to play my tracks and then Crookers and David Guetta started playing Stickin’ and that’s how I exploded – all over that basically!”

Certainly Stickin’ is a track you’d know – but that isn’t the Sonic C modus operandi. “I do what I do with my heart and hope for the best.

Sometimes things come out of it like Stickin’ and sometimes it might be more of a disco sound. Regardless, I don’t try for hits – I aim for good music.

I don’t try for hits – I aim for good music

“My sound is really electro with some hip-hop and house influences and I’m not going to deny that I’m into that scene, but my main thing is keeping it fresh and not letting things get stale.

“I don’t want to make music with the same annoying bass line for five minutes. While some people make the same thing over and over I try to stay away from that; my style is what I like and I make whatever I’m into at any given moment and that can change on a daily basis.”

Regardless, his style is somewhere between the Afrojack and Steve Aoki kind of vibe and he also claims he looks up to Laidback Luke quite a lot. “Other than that, I’m doing a lot of touring this summer and I’m trying to push out a lot of music on blogs and I’m doing a lot of work with Autoerotique. There is no release date but that’s what I’m trying to do and that is to put my name out there and hope people will listen!”

Finally, Sonic C is on his way to Australia for the first time soon and the boy is pumped.

“Really, you can expect to hear a variety of the things I like. My DJ sets jump around a little bit – I like to play everything from David Guetta to tech house. I try to make it fluid and mix the songs in a hip-hop kind of way. I’ve been taught by Laidback Luke and Steve Aoki and I play for the crowd and want them to have fun – nothing more!”

Catch Sonic C at All Our Friends, held at the UC Refectory on Saturday June 5. Tickets through Qjump.

“Absolutely – with the podcasts, it’s usually just a back and forth easy mix, about showcasing the new tracks. For the Anjunadeep compilation, it was a much bigger studio project – we edited tracks down so that they were just the right length, looped sections, and affected lots of the transitions to make the mix flow more smoothly. A lot more nitty gritty technical production than on one of my usual podcasts.”

Send a big massive message of lovey love to my peeps in Canberra

Jaytech then goes on to say that the most drawn out part of the process was waiting for the tracks to be cleared, which wasn’t surprising as one of the highlights of the entire CD is James Grant and his remix of Flaming June by BT. “James Grant emailed the right people to track down the parts so we could do the remix,” he explains.

“At first I don’t think BT was too sure if we would do a good job, and I think in the end James Grant managed to convince him by sending him a photo of himself and his son having a bath, and that somehow won BT over, and the cockles of his heart were warmed enough for him to allow us to go ahead with the remix,” laughs our erstwhile jetsetter.

Jaytech grins widely when asked about the more unknown artists he got to give a leg up on his disc. “Dave Horne – the first track of his I had ever heard before is the one we included which is amazing for an up and comer. I’m glad to see Paul Keely on there with his track Cloud 9, as he’s been up and coming for a while now, but is really coming to full steam at the moment.”

Describing his mix as an audio version of the Golden Gate Bridge, with a smaller peak early on leading to a greater one later, Jaytech’s disc of Anjunadeep : 02 is certainly a ride. But the local boy made good has a message for you all too. “Just make it clear to them that everything I write tends to be a little complex, and send a big massive message of lovey love to my peeps in Canberra, and that I can’t wait to rock out with you all again soon!”

Anjunadeep: 02, mixed by Jaytech and James Grant, is out now on Anjundadeep/One Love.

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THE RED SEE shaun bennett In every band there is always a defining member who was the first to join, is the main songwriter and is the face of the band. Examples include Robert Smith from The Cure, Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins and Daniel Johns from Silverchair. In the case of THE RED EYES it is Damien Charles.

“I’m the only original member of the band actually. The first few months of the band started as a jam thing and there were different people all the time. So I’m the original member from that time,” he says. “I considered The Red Eyes to have started when El [singer] came over from New Zealand. So we’re the two main members in the band.” It is clear that he has persevered long and hard with his vision for the band since starting the it in 2002.

I’m the glue that sticks the songs together

Even though the band can possess up to 12 members, and each member plays an equal part, Charles is the driving force behind the production and dynamics that make each song complete. “I’m the glue that sticks the songs together, and a bit of an editor as well – I check everything, although most of the songs are written by El and I.” This could be the reasoning behind the member’s nicknames as they are all variations on Star Wars characters. Charles is also known as Darth Vader, El’s alter-ego is Yoda, the bassist is robot R2-D2, the keyboardist Luke Skywalker, percussionist The Emperor, the drummer is known as Papa Jules and trumpeter Adrien is also known as Obi Wan. Interestingly enough being in The Red Eyes has a touch of celebrity culture, as according to Charles (aka Darth Vader) there is potential to start a spin off of Survivor based on the band. “It’s a little running competition in the band to see who can survive the longest. Our drummer has stubbed his toe on doors countless times and on one occasion we got it on film, although that is quite painful to watch,” he jokes. However, he is worried that once the show starts the band will turn on each other and end up disbanding. “We’ve got enough black eyes.”

Competitions with other bands for the name The Red Eyes seem to follow the group around since Charles recently discovered there are nearly a dozen other bands with their moniker, the most prominent of which in the US. “When I started the band I did a massive internet search and found no other bands with the same name. Now there are at least ten with the name The Red Eyes,” he says. “I sent an email to one of them in the US welcoming them to The Red Eyes Club.” He says that if they tour the US the Survivor scenario may come into play. “We have to start a band competition to see who the best one is. It could get ugly.”

The Red Eyes will cook up a storm at Transit Bar on Thursday June 3 with Agency Dub Collective. 8pm, $10.

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“The design for the production was very challenging at the start.

There are hardly any props, and no furniture, this means it’s all down to the actors and the text (ably supported by lighting and sound!).

For a play that has such a ‘domestic’ feel about it, being stripped back like this seems to have lifted it into the realm of classical Greek drama, and yet there is something ‘familiar’ in the design, which has taken its inspiration from 1950s Australian architecture/design.”

LOVE, HONOUR, AND A PLAY Canberra is set for a double dose of William Zappa, a familiar face to Australian theatre, as he takes to the stage in HONOUR and WINTER’S DISCONTENT. “Having enjoyed performing in Canberra on three different shows previously, I’m really looking forward to doing two more back to back and enjoying the warmth of Canberra audiences. Especially in the middle of winter!”

It’s second time round for Zappa in the role of George in Joanna Murray-Smith’s play Honour, on at the Canberra Theatre Centre from June 9-12. Often considered a modern Australian classic, the play centres on Honor and George, a couple happily married for three decades. But when things change, both must relearn their identities beyond ‘husband’ or ‘wife’.

“One doesn’t often get to play a role on more than one production of a play, so when this came up I was very excited to take up the challenge once again. Older and wiser and more experienced as an actor,” Zappa says.

“I have fond memories of the previous production, for the Melbourne Theatre Company, but very few specific moments are etched on my mind, and I was glad of that in rehearsals because I didn’t want anything to get in the way of rediscovering the role.”

And a new imagining of the set has also contributed to Zappa’s fresh approach, with a minimalist set requiring the actors to approach the performance in a different way to hold audience attention.

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There’s also a sense of familiarity in the characters. A husband, a wife, a daughter, and aspiring journalist, they all hold something in them that is readily identifiable. George is the type of man we all like to hate. He’s a successful academic, bordering on famous, and has been happily married for 32 years, until he is enchanted by a young journalist (around the same age as his daughter) and leaves his wife.

It’s a story we’ve all heard before, and it’s difficult to see this archetype in a new way. But that’s what makes it interesting— especially for Zappa.

“George is very challenging because he is a cliché—at least his behaviour is—and it is important that he does what he does out of a true belief that what he’s doing is right. And this is what it’s like for men and women who genuinely fall in love with someone while married to another, which is quite different to having a ‘fling’. The danger comes when the heart is involved,” Zappa says.

“I think what Joanna has managed to write here is such an incredibly well-observed analysis of love and infidelity and loyalty and motivation, and she has done so with the most fantastic wit and humour. It is hard to perform because of the emotional turmoil but very satisfying for an audience.”

The play’s season in Sydney has been so successful that it was extended. Canberra is the only other city to be seeing the production.

As soon as Zappa finishes up in Honour, he’ll be jaunting across town to The Street Theatre for a short season of his own play Winter’s Discontent. Not only is Zappa performing in the show, he also wrote it.

“Winter’s Discontent is about an actor, Robert Winter, alone in his dressing room, getting ready to perform a play that he hates while at the same time dealing with a personal tragedy. It’s not autobiographical, although there are anecdotes that are based on my own personal experiences, but it reflects the lives of actors in general and explores/exposes the kinds of ups and downs that we go through,” Zappa says.

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LOVE, HONOUR, AND A PLAY CONTINUED “But it is also a kind of homage to theatre and acting. It celebrates the skills required to be an actor and presents the audience with, if I say so myself, some great theatricality. The kind of thing that makes theatre unique.”

Zappa says performing in two shows back to back was a happy coincidence. “It was fortunate that The Street Theatre, who will be presenting Winter’s Discontent, had a slot available that coincided with my being in Canberra. It means that I will be able to use a Canberra-based actress for the other (hardly seen) role of the stage manager. I’m very happy to say that Leith Arundel will be playing Mo the stage manager and the voices of some other people from Robert’s life.”

Winter’s Discontent shows from June 18 until July 3. And does Zappa hope to see the same audiences turning up to each show? Or will they attract different crowds?

“Honour and Winter’s Discontent are very different plays, but I’m hoping that people who see Honour will say, ‘Wow! What an actor, we must go and see him again, and Look! He’s doing his own show!

Fantastic!’”

Honour plays at the Canberra Theatre Centre from June 9-12. Bookings 6275 2700.

Winter’s Discontent plays at the Street Theatre from June 18 until July 3.

Bookings 6247 1223.

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The exhibition will feature the work of sixteen Canberra artists in total, some created from extraordinary mediums, such as Nancy Tingey’s forms created with woven grass seed heads, and Nicolette Benjamin Black’s pieces made from processed Patterson’s Curse, Scotch thistles and discarded computer cables. Some of the works in the exhibition deal directly with the issue of climate change. Jorg Schmeisser’s etchings, for example, depict the breaking up of an iceberg in Antarctica, and Rosina Wainwright’s wooden planes raise the question of food miles and the consumption of energy and petrochemicals that are associated with the practice. The Indigenous connection with the earth is an important theme within the exhibition, with the works of Karen Williams, Heather Burness and Frank Thirion all exploring this topic. Both Williams and Thirion were taught by Aboriginal elders in order to gain perspective for their work.

TREAD LIGHTLY KATHERINE QUINN The new exhibition at Belconnen Arts Centre, EARTH CONNECTIONS - timed to coincide with the six month anniversary of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit - explores the role the arts can play in environmental education. “At Copenhagen there was a pretty strong acceptance right around the world that climate change is real, but that it is a mammoth task to re-orient government and industrial systems to make the necessary changes,” program manager Christine Watson tells me. “In Western society we have this heritage of this idea of domination of the earth by humankind, and that humankind has that right to dominate other species. We still need to examine our relationship with the earth to make sure that our carbon footprints, and the consumption of material goods that creates those carbon footprints, doesn’t overtax the earth.”

The opening of the exhibition will feature projections on the exterior of the Belconnen Arts Centre by the ANU BEAM artists, who incorporate video, animation and still images into their work. For the kids, there is a children’s trail through the exhibition and a children’s book which was presented to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to take to the Copenhagen Summit. There will be an opportunity for visitors to meet the artists on Saturday June 5, and an environmentally-friendly art market will be held on June 12, with local artists exhibiting plant-dyed eco-printed textiles, prints on recycled paper, jewellery made from recycled materials and low-fired pottery.

Earth Connections attempts, through exhibited works and community engagement, to deal more broadly with the human relationship with the environment and the splendour of nature. Works such as Eugenie Keefer Bell’s breathtaking photographs of skies viewed from a plane and ice formations in Finland, and Frank Thirion’s explorations of the mysterious aspects of the heavens. “A number of works in the show talk about that innate knowledge we have that the world we inhabit is an amazing place that’s bigger than our frail individual selves,” Watson says.

Earth Connections runs at Belconnen Arts Centre from May 28 - June 20.

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created his own version called ‘pop-ballet’. Love a good rebel story that ends with a dramatic dance.

“The view of ballet is the same now as it was when I started… boring!

That’s one of the reasons I created Rock the Ballet and Bad Boys of Dance. Ballet has been losing a bit of appeal, almost classed as ‘aging’ with the younger generations and most people in the industry are doing nothing to change that,” rebellious Rasta says. “Pop-ballet is a seamless blend of solid, classical ballet technique, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop and musical theatre. It showcases the versatile dancers of today while taking dance to the next level. Hopefully it will influence dancers, choreographers and directors to think outside the box when it comes to creating for their public.”

BALLET UP DANIKA NAYNA When one thinks of ballet, one imagines a high cultured event featuring prima ballerinas in pink tutus pretending to be ducks and fit boys’ bums in tights. But coming our way soon is a somewhat edgier, modernistic version of every prissy little girl’s dream industry, brought to us by a highly decorated principal dancer, director and choreographer named Rasta Thomas and his Bad Boys of Dance.

ROCK THE BALLET is a highly acclaimed show which is about as similar to the traditional style of ballet as Baryshnikov’s package is to Vegemite toast. In fact, Rasta – a young man who began his career because Daddy thought enrolment in ballet would be an apt punishment for being a little brat to his martial arts teacher – is adamant in going nowhere near that old, highly strung scene and has

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Rock the Ballet? Featuring the Bad Boys of Dance? Such things are not just what your music teacher would have named your end of year seven school production in an attempt to make theatre more interesting. The rock factor is indeed an integral part of the show, with pliés and pas de bourrées set to a soundtrack of U2, Michael Jackson, Prince, Queen and more. Rasta, who’s a hip, young 29-year-old by the way (just in case my jesting really did inspire some sort of suppressed past experience), has created a two-act, monster dance performance that crosses all the boundaries of age and genre.

“A normal ballet experience is usually set to classical music, with mostly girls and a few guys and it showcases just ballet technique.

Rock the Ballet is set to rock and pop music, is mostly guys, no tights, set against an awesome backdrop of video-projected scenery.” Did he say just say NO TIGHTS?! Oh well. A show that makes most ballet traditionalists wag their fingers in disapproval - and a mostly male cast raunching-out in ‘first position’ to Prince - almost makes up for the loss of oogling at flexed cheeks.

Rock The Ballet plays at the Canberra Theatre Centre June 11 and 12. Check out www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au for details and tickets.

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME Courtney Boot “The initial desire was to put onstage a bong-making workshop,” says playwright David Finnigan in his best deadpan. “It became necessary to flesh out that image.” Finnigan is talking about his latest work, UNDERAGE HOUSE PARTY PLAY, commissioned by The Street Theatre as one of two writing commissions (along with Aedan Whyatt’s The Back of Beyond) in 2010. The play, directed by Canberra stalwart Stephen Barker, follows five teenagers - meat for “the coming-of-age grinder” - on a journey through their last high school rager, and plays at The Street Theatre from June 3 to 6.

The bones of the play came from Finnigan’s own time spent partygoing during the “dirty end, the fag-end, of being a teenager.”

“I had a huge stockpile of dialogue from notes from parties when I was 16,” says Finnigan, but, he explains, “the aim was not to be a nostalgia exercise.”

“These characters are types.”

The five “archetypal characters”: a blonde girl, a smart girl, a stoner, a former geek, and a rich Christian. Not exactly The Breakfast Club - but not far off. In Underage House Party Play, however, they’re all played by the one actor, former Canberran Matthew Kelly. “It’s very difficult to stand on a stage and talk to yourself and not feel silly,” says Kelly, a former Questacon performer working for the second time with director Stephen Barker. “You need to overcome those clichés, to establish a convention early on that the audience understands. If the audience likes you, they’ll pretty much go with you.”

Says Kelly, “It’s been great fun, though some of the characters are harder to play than others. I’m playing young girls, and I don’t want to make fun of them. It’s very difficult to create a character [and] make her sincere, and not make her a stereotype of a teenage girl.” Kelly – now living in Melbourne and working on writing, directing, and performing his own comedy – has helped to workshop the play, in conjunction with Barker and Finnigan, as part of The Street’s focus on creating opportunities for new work that “reflects a Canberra sensibility,” says Street Theatre Artistic Director Caroline Stacey.

“There was some testing of the waters,” explains Finnigan of the workshop process. “What crowd can we draw, and what things can we touch on that no-one else is going to hack at? […] How far can this go? Caroline said: ‘quite frankly, it hasn’t gone far enough’. So… a condom is getting lost,” Where, you ask? Well. You’ll have to see the play. “I think that what The Street Theatre is doing in creating this season is great,” says Kelly, “giving Canberra artists a chance to get their shows performed.” Finnigan agrees: “It’s a kick arse thing that Caroline has done. I’m hugely appreciative,” Underage House Party Play performs at Street Two from Thursday June 3 to Sunday June 6. www.thestreet.org.au .

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portraiture in the digital age. Present Tense is not an exhibition of new media portraits but a dynamic exploration of portraiture at a time where visual culture is saturated by digital technology. The exhibition comprises a wide range of new media, interlaced with traditional contemporary artworks. It focuses on the interaction between digital and non-digital artistic methods and features a mix of installation work, film, posters, sculpture, painting and photography.

PRESENT AND CORRECT jemima fort The present tense is the micro. Reality. Right now. This is what the National Portrait Gallery captures in Present Tense: an imagined grammar of

The advent, accessibility and increasing affordability of digital technology has had a great impact upon visual culture. As Curator Michael Desmond explains, “digital media changes everything” - but this change is a merger, rather than a takeover. His exhibition demonstrates how, despite infiltrating the art world, digital technology has not sought to eclipse traditional media. It embraces new artistic methods, but retains what Desmond calls a “fetish” for traditional, hands-on processes.

Video portraits are displayed alongside now archaic daguerreotypes and static digital images hang opposite paintings on canvas. Despite distinct technical variation, the works complement each other naturally.

If the exhibition is a comprehensive window into contemporary art, it shows that contemporary artistic style is not dictated by a single, exclusive aesthetic, but an open blend of technique, experience and individual ideas.

Khaled Sabsabi’s Australians (2000) is a metal rack of CRT televisions that flicker precariously, each displaying an element of a face. It experiments with identity and reproduction, but also immediacy and tense: it is permanent as a complete, solid installation, but temporary as it is made of pieces that are easily uninstalled and it relies on a supply of electricity. This is also the case with James Dodd’s Posters from Occupied Territory (2003): a collection of screen printed posters that the artist has pasted directly onto a wall of the exhibition space. The posters themselves are permanently affixed to the gallery space, but their existence is temporary because their inevitable removal will destroy them. The notion of ‘temporary permanence’ is evident throughout the entire exhibition. The very notion of capturing the present tense in an exhibition is an attempt to make it permanent and tangible. However, it is necessarily temporary: it is fleeting and it cannot be the present forever. Present Tense is an exhibition of which there is more to see than to say. It is complex and delicate, but its immediacy is a window into a fleeting reality that is inherently approachable because it is happening right now.

Its exploration of time and art and expression is, at once, dynamic and static. And that cannot be translated into words.

Present Tense is at the National Portrait Gallery until August 22.

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ARTISTPROFILE:

Sarah Black

What do you do? Contemporary dancer.

When did you get into it? I started dancing when I was 14 at the Canberra Dance Development Centre. I didn’t know it was something I wanted to make a career out of until I was around 18.

Who or what influences you as an artist? My Aunt Narelle Benjamin was a huge influence on me and still is as a dancer. I also learn a lot from my peers and think Michael Jackson was a genius.

What’s your biggest achievement so far? Forming my own company with a group of my peers from VCA called Rogue. We will be going on our second international tour, this time to Korea in a few weeks. Getting something like that off the ground is a lot of work and we are really proud of what we have created.

What are your plans for the future? At the moment to keep on working with the amazing choreographers I have had the opportunity to work with in the past and continue with Rogue.

Perhaps move to Europe in a few years to truly experience the culture and eat the chips and mayonnaise.

What makes you laugh?

My friends! Always at the worst moments…

What’s your opinion of the local scene? Local being Australia? It’s amazing! There is so much outstanding and unique work out there in both established and independent companies. Imagine what they could do if they actually had the funds to create their true vision! Local as in Canberra? It is a breeding ground for absolutely phenomenal artists in many different fields. They keep trying to find a way to boost tourism in the capital. Hello? Time for a contemporary arts festival? Everyone else has one!

What are your upcoming performances? Chunky Move’s GLOW is coming to The Street Theatre in Canberra from May 26 - 29 and then touring to Venice. Throughout the rest of the year I will be performing for different projects in Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei.

Contact info: www.chunkymove.com, www.roguedance.com .

UNINHIBITED “Holy artwank! BMA’s newest baby is birthed into the world, an eight page editorial indecent exposure of all the wacky, trad, underground, overground artforms you can handle. Yes, Exhibitionist is long overdue in a town which has in the past few years defenestrated local arts coverage.

Anyone’d think, from reading the rags, that nothing arty happens in this town. Well, Uninhibited is here to say that anyone is wrong.”

So began the very first Uninhibited in the very first edition of Exhibitionist, all the way back in April 15 2009. That’s right, Exhibitionist recently turned one year old, and this issue we’re celebrating with a bumper artstravaganza edition. There’s our interview with William Zappa, coming to town in June with a doublebarrel theatre threat with Honour at the CTC and Winter’s Discontent at The Street. Also at the CTC this month is Rasta Thomas, bringing his blue-blood-bogan artform mash-up Rock the Ballet to town. Across the ridge, Belconnen Arts Centre are getting environmental with Earth Connections, while over the bridge the NPG present their redletter exhibition for 2010, Present Tense. Local lad David Finnigan makes good with his commissioned work, Underage House Party Play, while we profile prodigal daughter Sara Black, returning to her home town with dance pioneers Chunky Move’s “biotech fiction” Glow.

There is a lot on in our little town. And it’s appropriate that we take the time to trip down memory lane for a moment or two, to recall just how much has gone on in our city over the past 12 months. Because Exhibitionist (and BMA as a whole) is tangible, chip-wrapperble proof against the charge that nothing happens in Canberra. On the theatrical front we’ve had stellar stuff from local companies Boho, Moonlight, papermoon, Canberra Repertory, Everyman, Jigsaw, The Street Theatre, CYT, and more; visits from national companies – Bell Shakespeare, Company B Belvoir, Circus Oz, Finucane & Smith, STC, MTC, and QTC; as well as international tours that showcase amazing work and artists – Les 7 Doigts de le Main with Traces, theater simple with The Snow Queen, and most recently, the jaw-gaping beauty of Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce.

Musically, we’ve had cabaret artistes like Paul Capsis and Caroline Nin visit, amazing concerts served up to us by the ANU School of Music, the Canberra International Music Festival, and opera and musical theatre aplenty from Co-Opera, OzOpera, and the like, while in dance, we have a local scene well worth boasting about, with companies like QL2, Canberra Dance Theatre, Mirramu and DNA leading the charge in both performance and education. And on the visual front, we have a ripping local scene supported by galleries at CCAS, ANCA, Belconnen and Tuggeranong Arts Centres, and more, as well as the luck of the national institutions, bringing blockbusters like the NPG’s Vanity Fair and the NGA’s Masterpieces from Paris straight to our doorstep. We have a local music scene that’s too multifarious for venues to cope with; we have a culture of participation as well as attendance, both in visual and theatrical culture; there are companies that create and companies that educate, and festivals to make your mouth water. Our very first edition we featured the nascent poetry slam night Bad!Slam!

No!Biscuit! – and, one year on, it’s still going strong.

What we at Uninhibited always say – and will continue to, as long as anyone will read – is that there’s plenty going on here.

Artwank indeed.

NAOMI MILTHORPE exhibitionist@bmamag.com

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bit PARTS WHO: Old blokes WHAT: Codgers WHEN: June 1 - 5 WHERE: The Street Theatre En route around regional Australia and opening at The Street Theatre on Tuesday June 1 is Don Reid’s award-winning Codgers.

Six ‘distinguished’ gentlemen – some of them mates since war service – sweat it out at the gym every week. They exercise together, chew the fat about their families, laugh, tease and sing. They solve the problems of the world, agreeing to disagree.

Featuring a cast of six very distinguished Australian actors Ronald Falk, Ron Haddrick, Edwin Hodgeman, Jon Lam, Russell Newman and Shane Porteous – Codgers has played to critical and audience acclaim throughout Australia. Tickets and info on 6247 1223 or head to the website at www.thestreet.org.au .

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WHO: Party By Jake and Aviary WHAT: Party By Jake: A Royal Affair WHEN: Sunday June 13 WHERE: Transit Bar Sunday June 13 of Queen’s birthday long weekend will see Party By Jake’s next event, Party By Jake: A Royal Affair. The night will feature local label Aviary as the sponsor, providing giveaways including a limited amount of printed tees and hoodies in both men’s and women’s sizes. Aviary is an independent clothing label. From hand drawn designs, local founder Andy Gallagher screen-prints guys and girls t-shirts, hoodies and sweats. Inspired by a passion for birds, Aviary is colourful, fun and fresh. Featuring Mingle DJs and Party By Jake DJs behind the decks, an indie dance/nu disco showdown will fire up the warm belly of Transit Bar for this stylish Sunday night party.

WHO: Comedy Club at Civic Pub WHAT: First Birthday Gig with Brett Nichols, Jay Sullivan and Greg Kimball WHEN: Wednesday June 2 at 8pm WHERE: Civic Pub Comedy ACT’s Comedy Club at Civic Pub will be celebrating its first birthday in June, having hosted 12 months of successful shows. Comedy Club is held on the first Wednesday of every month upstairs at Civic Pub in Braddon. Headlining the first birthday gig on Wednesday June 2 will be Sydney comedian Brett Nichols, 2003 Green Faces winner, and a regular act on the Sydney and National comedy circuits. Joining Nichols on stage will be locals Jay Sullivan and Greg Kimball, along with a couple of surprise special guests.

Entry fee is $10 at the door, show starts at 8pm.

WHO: Singers, guitarists, song-writers WHAT: Workshops with The Hottentots WHEN: June 4 - 6 WHERE: Music For Everyone, Ainslie Arts Centre Braddon To quote: “Music For Everyone brings two of Australia’s finest musicians to Canberra for three days of exhilarating and inspiring workshops in singing, song-writing and guitar. As folk/world music duo, The Hottentots, Flemish-born guitarist and songwriter Carl Cleves and Greek-Australian songbird Parissa Bouas have headlined at all major Australian folk festivals and toured internationally to Europe, Latin America and Madagascar.” The duo will bring their expertise to workshops on singing, guitar, and songwriting.

At between $40 and $60 a pop for each workshop, it’s pretty reasonable - and MFE are offering special prices for booking all three workshops together. Bargain! For more information and to download your workshop registration form, visit www.mfe.org.au and go to Special Events.

WHO: Sandy Evans Trio WHAT: Jazz, fools!

WHEN: Wednesday June 2, 8pm WHERE: Band Room, Peter Karmel Building, School of Music

WHO: QL2 and Maya Dance Theatre WHAT: Standing in line in order of height WHEN: June 10 - 12 WHERE: QL2 Studios, Gorman House Arts Centre

The Adelaide Advertiser says of Sandy Evans: “...in a few seconds Sandy Evans has established she’s fully in command, with a galaxy of musical ideas, both for her numerous compositions and to drive her inspired solos, either on tenor or soprano saxophone. She couldn’t ask for better backing than the bass and drums supplied by Brett Hirst and Toby Hall. These two work a magical dialogue of bass skins and cymbals as they punctuate, embellish and reinforce Evans’ inventive lines. This is world class contemporary music performed by some of the very best exponents in this country.” Must be good if they like it in Radelaide! Tix at the door: $20/$15/ANU students and children $10.

QL2, in collaboration with Singapore’s Maya Dance Theatre, present Standing in line in order of height, a new dance work exploring conformity and individualism in Singaporean and Australian culture, which aims to develop cross-cultural links and choreographic skills in young dancers. QL2 Artistic Director Ruth Osborne says the partnership between QL2 and Maya “exemplifies a developing new model of dance education in Australia, where university study forms part of a continuum of development for a dance artist, with other strands building strong educational connections between students and the wider ecology of dance.” Word. Get tickets and info through the QL2 website at www.ql2.org.au .

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SHE’S LOST CONTROL

WITH TALENT UNRIVALLED

ZOYA PATEL

arietta mccloud

Heidi from CLOUD CONTROL has a voice that is as crisp as the Blue Mountain air she grew up breathing. “I spent a lot of my childhood in the bush, running around with rocks and things,” she laughs. Certainly, Cloud Control has a sound that conjures up images of blue skies and sunlight filtering through treetops. It’s the kind of music that makes you yearn for days at the beach, or road trips on summer days. As all of the band members grew up in the Blue Mountains, I can only assume this had a large influence on their style.

The night I met JOE OPPENHEIMER I’d just come from a Bob Dylan tribute gig. I walked in to the wonderfully ramshackle sharehouse to find a lanky, long-haired, bespectacled man flawlessly belting out Beatles hits, his big hands flying over a beautiful old piano. A few friends were harmonising and oo oo ahing; it was a good old fashioned singalong. Two years on and nothing has changed, bar the size of his audience. The same goes for JAMES FAHY, a tall, ravenhaired and Luciferian-goateed music man of constantly astonishing skill; his remarkable aptitude for multiple We started Ped instruments and Buckleyesque voice never Orch with no fails to inspire awe.

“Wherever you spend your formative years is always going to be fundamental to your outlook on life, so I do think our environment affects us, but more in an implicit way than something we can put our finger on,” Heidi explains. Three out of the four band members have moved to Sydney now, for practical reasons regarding “jobs and stuff,” but with the amount of touring they’ve been doing lately, it’s more likely that Cloud Control call the highway home at the moment.

People in Canberra, I get the impression they’re quite free

Currently touring to promote the release of their debut album Bliss Release, the band are pretty chuffed to have an actual record to promote at their shows. “We were really ready for it to be released!

We feel the album came together really naturally, kind of like a person forming rather than something we constructed.”

I noticed, though, that they’re hitting some rather puzzling locations on the tour. “We’re playing in Bunbury! Where even is that?!” Heidi exclaims. “No, it’s good. We’re pretty excited to just play in this little regional town. Who even knows who will come to that show?”

Luckily, their Canberra show is more a source for excitement than bewilderment. “We’ve had really good experiences of playing in Canberra!” Heidi assures me. The band have played Transit and the ANU Bar before. “People in Canberra, I get the impression they’re quite free, and in other cities they’re a little more uptight. Canberra, they’re kind of loose, you know?” Hey, no arguments here. I’m just glad we’re considered more urban than Bunbury!

It’s hard to decide what to be more excited about, though – a headlining tour, or supporting Vampire Weekend on their Australian tour. I feel a little guilty that I’m brimming with enthusiasm about a different band, but I can’t resist grilling Heidi about their dates with the preppy indie darlings. “These will be the biggest shows we’ve ever played,” she says. “We’ve sold out shows at the Hordern, and there’ll be thousands of people!” There is a slight hint of nerves in Heidi’s voice, but something tells me that if any band can impress a crowd of Vampire Weekend-obsessed indie kids, it’s Cloud Control. Hell, I bet they’ll even sell out their show at Bunbury!

Catch Cloud Control with Richard In Your Mind and lovely local lads Haunted Attics at Transit Bar on Saturday June 5. Tix from Mohstix.

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idea how intense It matters not how many times I see Joe it would get, and talent just and James perform, individually and gravitated to it. together, and it matters not how many

times I sing along at the top of my lungs to their enormous collections of classics; I will always look forward to their next gig with gusto. And there’s one hell of a gig on the horizon.

On Friday June 11 Joe and The James Fahy Trio will launch their new EPs at McGregor Hall, and they’re forming a supergroup to celebrate.

Team of Rivals also comprises the charisma-dripping Ramsay Nuthall, bassist and vocalist of Fun Machine, and the ridiculously talented, massive babe Bec Taylor, drummer of the Trio as well as drummer, keyboardist and vocalist of Fun Machine. Team of Rivals will play two sets, the first soft and the second loud, with the sublime voice of Josef Salvat providing what will no doubt be a magical interlude.

The origin of all this musical magic could be said to be the open mic night Pedestrian Orchestra, held every Wednesday for the past year in Joe and James’ backyard shed. Now an institution, Ped Orch’s tenth birthday was the best night of local music I’ve ever experienced; a testament to our brilliant and burgeoning local scene. Muses Lennon lookalike Joe, “I think a lot of genius comes into Canberra. They’re usually here for something else, and then their talents get channelled into music.” Reflects James, “we started Ped Orch with no idea how intense it would get, or how long it would last, and talent just gravitated to it. Most of the 15-odd people on Joe’s EP came from that crowd. It was like magic. Little self-appointed music supports grow all over Canberra. If only they had more places to play, other than backyards and garages...” We hear you James.

When asked how their music has shaped them, Joe replies, “I was thinking the other day about my uni work, and how I don’t really try.

Thinking about what people were understanding of me, about who I was, and how that doesn’t come across in that work. But I realised that it’s my songwriting that shows people; it’s in my songs that people can see. It’s a very public display of my intelligence, of who I am!” Ponders James, “songwriting, composition, it feels like a true use of all my faculties. What will the reaction be? What’s the narrative? How can I do this with my hands, with my head, and my friends? I learned how to exist through my music... it was music that proved to me that I could make something – it proved to me that I had worth.”

Their music is worth the world to my ears. Don’t miss Joe Oppenheimer and The James Fahy Trio’s double EP launch at McGregor Hall on Friday June 11.

I’ll be the one up front dancing like a loon and singing my heart out.

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN ZOYA PATEL Rob Nassif, drummer of GYROSCOPE, has a surprising amount of enthusiasm in him for someone who has been a big part of the music industry for over a decade now. Having expected to have to coax the excitement out of him (seriously, when you’ve been playing and touring for that long, interviews must have completely lost their appeal, right?), I’m unprepared for his sudden burst of animation.

“I’m excited big time for the tour!” he exclaims, right off the bat. “It’s the main tour to support Cohesion, and we’ll be playing heaps of songs off the album for the first time. It’s gonna be great, man!”

Gyroscope would be well within their rights to be chuffed for the new album. Cohesion debuted at number three on the ARIA charts, and has already become a fan favourite. “We’re really stoked,” Rob admits. “It’s pretty crazy to find out it was only 11 copies short of going to number two! If I’d known, I would have bought a couple more copies…”

We’re just friends hanging out and playing music and supporting each other

It’s refreshing to see that the band haven’t succumbed to complacency, having managed to maintain their momentum for 13 years now. Gyroscope are still pushing their limits, and trying new things. Cohesion is even edgier and faster paced than the band’s previous records, and each of the songs has a hook of its own. Even Rob finds it difficult to pin down his favourite track. “It’s always changing! They’re all my little babies, I love them all! The beauty of the record, though, is that the songs translate really well live.”

The band are pretty excited for their national tour, though I can’t get Rob to disclose his favourite tour destination. “It doesn’t matter where you play, as long as the crowd is into it,” he says, diplomatically. I’m pretty sure that means “Canberra” though.

Supporting Gyroscope on the tour is After The Fall and The Vasco Era. Rob is almost as enthusiastic about the support acts as he is about his own music. “The Vasco Era are just a tremendous live band, we’ve been fans of theirs for a long time. And After The Fall are long time friends of our band, and we thought it’d be great to help them out with a tour, and hang out with them.”

This sense of solidarity is pretty characteristic of the Perth music scene in general. “Because we’re all over here by ourselves, there’s a lot of support. I would say that in other states there’s a lot of competition between bands, but there isn’t competition so much here. We’re just friends hanging out and playing music and supporting each other!” Rob may be the most well-adjusted musician I’ve ever spoken to. His advice to young bands? “Just enjoy it! It’s a hard game, this music industry, so firstly just have fun!” Sound advice, from a man with a great sound of his own. If Gyroscope’s career is anything to go by, it’s a formula for success!

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Catch Gyroscope at the ANU Bar on Saturday June 19 with After the Fall and The Vasco Era. Tickets through Ticketek.

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METALISE RIP Ronnie James Dio – 1942-2010. There’s a plethora of tributes out there for the man, but I simply send a twin horn salute to the man that invented it \m/ – RIP DIO –\m/.

Mayhem has announced dates for the balked tour that, if my foggy memory serves, was supposed to happen last year. With Atilla Csihar back in the fold, replacing Maniac who came out last time, I think this time has the potential to outdo their last performance at the ANU a few years back. Last time I thought the pig heads were more interesting than the set, but I don’t wanna disrespect one of black metal’s Norwegian founders. It only adds to a September that is shaping up to be a significant liver structural integrity test for the metal fan, with tours from Napalm Death, Coffins, Overkill and now Mayhem all in one glorious month. Mayhem hit The Factory in Marrickville, Sydney on Friday September 24 or The Hifi in Melbourne on Thursday September 23, depending on where you’d like to see the band.

Speaking of the Coffins tour, supports were announced by tour promoters Obsidian last week for the big weekend of fun and games taking in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney respectively on the weekend starting Friday September 17. The Melbourne show is a monster. Gospel of the Horns, Cauldron Black Ram, The Day Everything Became Nothing, Clagg, Ignviomous and Whitehorse at The Hifi is just a HUGE bill no matter how you slice it! The Sydney show features Pod People, Rookwood playing their last ever show and Summonus. Moshtix is the website to visit for your Sydney ticket, the HiFi website or Missing Link Records for Melbourne tickets.

In more doomy related international tour news, audio travellers Om have announced a tour thanks to the fine folks at the Heathen Skulls label. So far a run of four dates have been announced, so the possibility of a Canberra show is there. Also coming out with the band is the solo project of Mr Robert Lowe, better known as Lichens, and the tour is supported by Heathen Skulls head honcho Robert McManus and My Disco/Agents of Abhorrence guiterroriser Ben Andrews with their Black Widow/Blarke Bayer project. The tour is slated for October with a show at The Hifi in Melbourne and a Sydney date at The Factory on Friday October 15 and Saturday October 16 respectively. More news on a Canberra show as it comes to light.

The Basement have a couple of big shows in June and the month also sees the departure of Mikey from the management team. A quick salute to Mike for all his hard work over the past few years, thanks mate! Anyhoo – Five Star Prison Cell bring their album launch tour to Canberra on Friday June 4 along with Never Trust A Bunny, Recoil, Friend or Enemy and Dawn Heist. Friday June 25, the venue hosts Melbourne band Aprocessof with Never Trust A Bunny, Na Maza, Inside The Exterior and fellow Melbournites The Devyles.

Josh Nixon – np: Illoomorpheme – Portal - Swarth JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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BLACKBOX

on games Monster Hunter Tri / Portal [re-released] Developer: CPS1 / Valve Publisher: Capcom / Valve/Microsoft Game Studio Style: 3rd Person RPG / 3D Platformer Length: 30+ hours / 1-3 hours Rating: Buy / Classic It needs to be said – it’s about time the Wii received some quality titles. Thus, Nintendo has banked plenty of time into hyping Monster Hunter Tri, a title which has its roots on the PSP. Having spent a fairly minimal amount of time on previous versions, I approached this new title with a level and open mind.

On the surface, it comes across as being incredibly similar to Phantasy Star Online. Plenty of grinding and slashing to level up; a concept we’re akin to since those wonderful days of Diablo and the phenom of World Of Warcraft. Can Monster Hunter Tri deliver the goods?

The game takes it very slowly for the first few hours, which can definitely turn a lot of players off. Given time though, it becomes evident the game just grows and grows. Sink in six hours, and that slowly becomes 20. 50+ hours later, then you’re ready to go online.

This is the beauty of Monster Hunter Tri, it just keeps on giving and giving in dribs and drabs – simple and elegant game design that works, and serves to reward the player.

It’s not without odd quirks though. The menu system could definitely do with some tightening up (terrible font for it, by the way). Whilst the art style is stellar, and certainly pushes the Wii’s hardware, those of us that have been in 720-1080p realm can shirk on the graphics tip, but you get over that once you realise the quality gameplay.

Classic controller is necessary.

All in all, a solid piece of gaming. Free online play is a beautiful kicker, once you get your Wii Speak working properly, or, alternatively plug in a USB keyboard. Feel like a hardcore RPG that works well as single and multiplayer? Dust off that Wii. No kidding.

JEMIST To mark the Mac OSX release of Steam, heralding the program’s first venture on a real operating system (zing!), Valve have chosen to port Portal. Apart from a few UI discrepancies, the Mac version is an exact copy of the 2007 original, which really isn’t a bad thing. For those who haven’t played it, Portal is a classic. It masterfully puts forth and explores the concept of creating portals and does so with an entertainingly wry sense of humour. Sure this release isn’t ground breaking, but apart from anything else, it bodes well for a Mac release of Portal 2 later in the year.

TORBEN SKO

Stock the fridge with Red Bull or clean out that espresso pot that’s been festering on the kitchen bench. The Football World Cup, the one with the round ball that’s the world’s biggest sporting event, kicks off with the Opening Ceremony (SBS1, Fri Jun 11, 10pm). Then it’s a couple of days’ wait for Australia vs Germany (SBS1, Mon Jun 14, 4.30am). If you’re a World Cup novice, grab a FIFA-loving friend, learn the rules and pick an underdog to cheer for when Australia’s not playing. Chez Blackbox will be cheering on Nigeria. Definitely not New Zealand, whose appearance somehow makes a World Cup berth seem much less impressive. Now that the World Cup has become something we actually have a chance of winning, the broadcast has gone Olympics-style complete with The World Cup Show (SBS1, daily from Fri Jun 11, 9pm) hosted by the subject of the ‘90s TISM tune What Nationality is Les Murray?. And Working Dog has come up with its own World Cup version of The Dream – Santo, Sam and Ed’s Cup Fever (daily from Fri Jun 11, 8.30pm). No doubt a brainstorm from soccer tragic Santo Cilauro, it also stars Ed Kavalee and Sam Peng. For uber fans, there will be a 3D broadcast available but you will have to a) shell out more money for a 3D TV than a flight to Johannesburg would cost and b) move to Sydney as Canberra has once again been overlooked.

Political thrillers are all the rage at the moment. The latest – Midnight Man (ABC1, Fri May 28, 8.30pm) – brings the fantastic James Nesbitt back to Auntie’s Friday night crime slot. While probably not his greatest offering to date, Nesbitt is a good choice for the eccentric ex-muckraking journalist, embroiled in an international conspiracy and afraid of daylight. What this really has to do with the story (apart from intrigue the vampire-obsessed to tune in) is not quite apparent.

The Riches (7TWO, Wed Jun 2, 10.30pm) is the latest high quality US drama to appear quietly on one of Australia’s commercial networks.

Starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as a pair of grifters, the show is about how they, along with their children, take over the lives of a well off suburban family. We can only hope it doesn’t disappear later into the schedule only to be rescued by Auntie in five years time.

Other new offerings include Misfits (ABC2, Mon Jun 7, 9.30pm) about a group of teenagers with newly acquired and unwanted superpowers and 30 Seconds (ABC2, Fri Jun 11, 10.05pm) – a satirical drama set in the advertising world.

Docos to look out for include the series The American Future (ABC1, Thu May 27, 9.30pm) which looks to history to put modern America in context, Albino United (SBS1, Thu Jun 10, 8.30pm) about albinos in Tanzania, murdered or disfigured for witchdoctors, Art from The Arctic (ABC2, Sun Jun 6, 8.30pm) which follows 20 artists on an expedition to Spitzbergen in the Arctic circle, Leaving the Cult (ABC1, Wed Jun 2, 8.30pm) and Being Human: Unearthed (ABC2, Fri Jun 11, 8.30pm) which goes behind the scenes of the nocturnal series.

7 is trying to put in their bid for purveyors of the new Australian pastime – cooking. Dinner in a Box with Curtis Stone (7TWO, Fri Jun 4, 5.30pm) has a complete dinner party in every ep while Delish (7TWO, Fri, 7pm) shows you how to use what you grow (and there’s tips on that too).

Don’t forget the Eurovision Final (SBS1, Sun May 30, 7.30pm) TRACY HEFFERNAN tracyheffernan@bigpond.com

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on albums

album of the week booka shade MORE! [physical]

Every techno purist in town is probably still arguing the electronic pop invasion that was Booka Shade’s Donut, the only single released off this album so far. But god dammit you need to listen to the rest of this album.

More! is above and beyond any other dance release I’ve heard this year.

Don’t get all antsy-pantsy when I tell you this, but there are a few vocal guests and collabs on the playlist. Luckily, they’ve added only a twist of their unique sound to the melodies and atmospheres that are undeniably Booka Shade (like track six, Divine, where Booka made French electro group Yello go progressive. Ha!). This is not one of those collaborative bombs where ‘guests’ perform an unsubtle takeover.

Arno’s comments on the album say it best: “The album takes you through every stage of the night out; the excitement before you go out, the party, the late, late night, a bit of paranoia...”

I wish this magazine was like one of those birthday cards where, when you open it, More! would start playing obtrusively in your face (I’m working on it, Dan Dans - Ed.). Words can’t fully express the multi-layered perfection. So this’ll have to do: BUY BUY BUY! DANIKA NAYNA

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the dead weather sea of cowards [third man records]

gemma ray Lights Out Zoltar!

[Bronzerat Records]

Indica A Way Away [Nuclear Blast/Riot]

Dead Weather’s (Jack White, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita, and Jack Lawrence) sophomore release Sea of Cowards is sex. Sex in the shape of a CD. Horehound was a dirty, bluesy beast and their second effort sees the same sweaty and smoky sounds – with some development.

The second album from UK singer songwriter Gemma Ray is unlike anything else you’ll hear this year. It pays homage to vintage pop, with a style harking back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, but the tone has morphed from the chirpy tunes of that era to a much darker atmosphere. This sombre feeling comes across in spades, although the nature of the threat is sometimes obscure. There’s a nameless terror in Death Roll and a smothering depression in the bluesy Dig Me a River. It’s not all gloom though, as Gemma lightens the tone with the use of a toy piano and there’s a tale of drunken romance in 1952.

Finnish all girl gothic pop bands aren’t exactly ten a penny, so, whilst Indica are undoubtedly large fish in a very small pond, they are still really rather spiffing – and they pack enough crossover appeal to conquer the mainstream if handled the right way. For their fifth release they’ve decided, for the first time, to record in English and, whilst this decision means some of their quirky (to the English-hearing ear at least) charm is immediately removed, there’s still a huge amount on A Way Away to become enamoured with.

The subject matter may be dark and depressing, but this time it’s a little more pop.

The rustic edge remains, but is played against a futuristic feel, courtesy of Fertita’s experimental guitar work.

Opening song Blue Blood Blues introduces the rest of this red-blooded album, and although White leads vocals here, Mosshart sings most songs: she purrs, snarls and shrieks her way through the album. The harmonies between White and Mosshart, their voices twisting around each other, are still what make their songs so damn sexy. Stand out track The Difference Between Us is almost a touching love song – if love songs were often characterised by dysfunction, distortion and demon woman vocals, with Mosshart crooning, “You can cry like a baby / Just let me do what I need to / It might be to me or to you”. Lead single Die By The Drop is all dirty bass, while Gasoline gets frankly funky.

One might question why Jack White needs so many goddamn side projects, but this album should answer that question: it’s good. It’s all snake-hips, snarling lips and swagger. Take me now, Dead Weather. Each and every one of you.

MELISSA WELLHAM

Gemma is incredibly versatile, playing many of the instruments and co-producing the record at home. It’s a very plush effort, with heavy use of special effects and strings to create a dreamy, theatrical effect. In Snuck a Peek the drone guitar sounds like a record being played at too slow a speed - weird but attention grabbing. The frequent use of layered voices contributes a choir effect and theatricality comes to the fore in Goody Hoo, which could be the soundtrack to a Western.

Top tracks are 100MPH, Fist of a Flower, No Water and album highlight So Do I. The CD’s style is an acquired taste, but it does have a special charm all its own.

RORY McCARTNEY

Album opener Island of Lights sees the girls at their heaviest (think: some of Nightwish’s poppier moments – Amaranth f’rinstance), whilst elsewhere the pure pop sensibilities of Scissor, Paper, Rock won’t fail to get you grinning like a loon.

But the band is at its best on a pair of aching, melancholic ballads, the second of which, the album’s title track, is so good it wouldn’t have gone amiss on one of Kate Bush’s late seventies/early eighties ouvres.

The other, Lilja’s Lament, is pure whimsy, containing a compelling performance from vocalist Jonsu that will delight and unsettle in equal parts. Add all this to the likes of the strangely insistent Straight and Arrow – an eerie, blackened nursery rhyme that wouldn’t seem out of place on the soundtrack to something directed by Tim Burton – and you have a surprisingly enchanting, beguiling release. I’m hooked.

Scott Adams

singled out

with Dave Ruby Howe

Mike Patton and the Metropole Orchestra Mondo Cane [Ipecac Recordings]

teenage fanclub shadows [(PEMA/Liberator Music]

The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street (2010 Remaster) [Universal]

From the artfully distorted Morricone-esque guitar strains of Ore d’Amore, I knew I was in love. I must admit, I’d heard many things about Meister Mike Patton, mostly from some of my hilariously obsessed friends; they extol the virtues of Patton-ism at the drop of an ironic accessory. Oh lordy, never did I expect the swelling strings of its Italian orchestral grandeur, virtuoso crooning and wailing from a seemingly infallible vocalist, while a brass section as fearsome and powerful as the bearded visage of Thor himself punches you with the vicious insistence of, well, Thor. Mondo Cane is a covers album of Italian fifties/sixties pop, brought to life by the Metropole Orchestra and arranged by Patton himself, a hopelessly romantic, swooning collection of wildly beautiful music that screams and caresses all at once. Sometimes, in the breathless, claustrophobic rush of Che Notte, you can feel Italy breathing around you. Close your eyes for second and imagine a chase through the paved alleys of floral Italy; a tanned, olive skinned protagonist willing his spluttering scooter faster from the relentless clutches of Mafioso types, as they comically get tangled up in hanging laundry and scream obscenities as the charming lead winks and steals away. This record is that kind of soaring portraiture of Italian life and its wonderful culture, evocative soundscapes formed from impassioned string arrangements and heart-rending brass, topped with Patton’s immaculate delivery. Yeah, I’m a believer now.

Against the backdrop of the early nineties alt-rock boom, Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub always seemed like a band slightly out of time. While contemporaries were wringing all kinds of abrasive tones out of their Fender Jaguars, The Fannies were marrying walls of overdriven guitars with threepart harmonies and covering The 1910 Fruitgum Co. with genuine affection, rather than ninetiesstyle irony. From the beginning, the Glasgow four-piece always had the heart of a classicist pop band. Over the years, Teenage Fanclub has attracted constant comparison to Big Star - an influence they wear proudly on their sleeves - but it has to be said that the Glaswegians have frequently ‘out-Big Starred’ the seminal ‘70s band themselves.

Since 2000’s fantastic Howdy, the group have hit upon a reliable formula, mixing the glistening power-pop of 1995’s Grand Prix with a hint of 1997’s folk-rock excursion Songs from Northern Britain. The shoegazery bluster of their beginnings may be gone, but what they’ve lost in volume they make up for in gold standard songwriting. On Shadows, the writing duties are, as ever, democratically assigned, with four tunes apiece from the group’s three songwriters Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley. Love in particular is very much on form: his orchestral-backed contributions Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything and Shock and Awe are as good as anything the band has ever done.

Another reliably excellent LP of sun-drenched pop from grey Glasgow.

I often champion remastered recordings because I want to believe that enhanced sonic detail makes for a better listening experience in this age of pristine digital. But sometimes a deliberate unrefinement can add to the mystique of a classic recording, and such considerations are tossed up by this newly remastered edition of The Rolling Stones’ finest hour Exile on Main Street.

Without ever having heard the original version, I gather that a cultivated gritty consistency might have been the right stuff all along. Nevertheless, full band arrangements are allowed breathing space on this meticulous remaster, and it all sounds good. Exile was originally released in 1972, and its murky, back alley vibe suggested free reign given to experience and experimentation with a lot of musical ground covered from the original Delta blues onwards.

Prior to recording, the band had decamped to southern France which brought on a useful spell of sordid sex and drugs, but from decadent environs great art emerged now revealed in sparkling high fidelity. As for the much anticipated bonus tracks, I would place the remarkably polished reworking of a number of unreleased tunes from the original sessions in the good but not great category. The alternative version of Loving Cup is, however, a real treat that reveals a particularly loose swagger from a band usually so careful about image and presentation. But all that really matters is Exile itself, and its bloody fantastic opulence.

PALIMAH PANICHIT

peter krbavac

Dan Bigna

Karton We Bleed [Sound Of Habib] Damn, these Canberra boys know how to party. Sprucing up their sound with some banging electro bells and whistles, Karton have put together an absolute burner of a single that in a just world would shoot them to the top of everyone’s 2010 radar. Whatever peoples’ reaction to this tune, it’s pretty clear that Karton are giving The Aston Shuffle a run for their money as Canberra’s finest export.

Matt Van Schie journey [Bandroom Records] Van She bro Matt Van Schie steps out on his own with his latest solo single Journey and holy shit if it isn’t better than anything from his main band’s last record! This is pristine synth-pop brilliance, cruising by on a wave of soft keys, nodding beats and cooed vocals.

Smoother than smooth.

Scissor Sisters Invisible Light [UMA] This is pretty typical giddy pop cheese from Scissor Sisters with some foreboding spoken word thrown in for kicks. But who cares a lick about the original when you’ve got not only Stuart Price but also Boys Noize and Siriusmo on remix duties? Boys Noize may take the win with his cosmic-banger re-rub, but which ever one is your flavour, you can bet these will be invading dancefloors in no time.

39

the word

on films

WITH MARK RUSSELL

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a glaring example of my pet hate regarding recent action film scripts: they completely separate action from story. An action set piece can now go for ten minutes without us learning anything about the main character. Then immediately afterwards, in order to fill this obvious void; we get a two minute expositional dialogue spiel, where they tell us who they are. The end product: we’re bored by the dialogue ‘cause, well, it’s an action hero getting all Dr Phil; and we’re bored by the action ‘cause we don’t care about the people involved. Give me John McClane, working his psychological issues out on a Russian terrorist’s face. Or Mr and Mrs Smith arguing the minutiae of marriage through gunplay. (note: if the previous spiel in any way bored you, imagine me jumping off a building while saying it. It’s helped others before.)

quote of the issue

Steve “What do we owe?” Tzimi “Nothing, you’re family. No relative ever get charged, anything. It’s Greek-enomics.”

The Kings of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time The video game to feature film adaptation is almost a Hollywood tradition of ham.

Let’s face it, when the shining example a genre holds up is Tombraider, things are not looking so good. The latest cab off the rank is Prince of Persia... and the flops keep on coming.

Not having played the game, I can’t really comment on how faithful the storyline is. I’m told, however, that the game version is a lot more interesting. This is an action film, about an adopted Prince named Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), with a dagger that can reverse a minute’s worth of time. His favourite pastime is running over roof-tops, he’s got all kinds of weird mystics and warriors chasing him, and a hot princess as his sidekick. This should make a great adventure film – Indiana Jones and the Battle for Parkour Supremacy.

Instead we get a bunch of sledgehammer plot points that lead Dastan into the desert to meet increasingly poor bit-part characters, while he searches for the next repetitive action set-piece.

Jake is undoubtedly charismatic and works well in the role, and the action is innovative the first time you see it. But as the rehashed movements stack up, Gyllenhaal’s smirk seems less charming cock-sure, and more talented actor turned mercenary. Worst of all, though perhaps most typical these days – it’s too goddamn long!

In a situation such as this, a plot device where you can relive the past few moments again, is not favourable.

40

mark russell

new york, i love you Pretty young things and venerable actors exchange snappy dialogue and smouldering looks across ten vignettes, written and directed by heavyweights of Hollywood, on the topic of falling in love in the Big Apple and all the craziness that ensues. Sounds like a cringe worthy Hollywood goes arthouse wank venture, eh?

Somewhat, but there’s much to enjoy. It may be the heroic flow of wine generously bestowed

by Dendy before the preview screening, or the fact I got married recently, but I liked this film. Others haven’t. Which is understandable; a series of shorts can seem a fractured and disjointed outing that never allows the viewer to truly engage with an overarching story. Not for me. We have many beautifully captured stories revealing just enough about the characters for our minds to develop the rest. There is humour and delight through dialogue and acting, and some wonderful moments of surprise.

Only Orlando Bloom lets the side down; I’m sorry ladies, the lad just can’t act. And whilst maligned elsewhere, I found the Anthony Minghella penned short to be the most powerful, with Shia LeBeouf giving the performance of the film.

But there’s the thing; while some struggle to engage with this format, others will pick apart their favourite scene, moment, piece of dialogue, actor etc. And there’s more than enough quality to pick through. allan sko

Kings of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2 About ten years ago, Nick Giannopoulos gave us The Wog Boy; a film that boasted more stereotypes than a Pauline Hanson real estate listing. The titular character, also known as Steve Karamatsis, has now returned to our screens, though this time he and friend Frankie (Vince Colosimo) are headed to the island paradise of Mykonos.

Steve’s inherited a beach worth a fortune, though bureaucracy soon dictates that he has to pay a million dollars in taxes or he’ll lose it all.

Perhaps surprisingly, Kings of Mykonos has things going for it. There’s some soul in a few of the characters, even if it’s shown sparingly. It also looks better than almost any Australian comedy we’ve seen.

Director Peter Andrikidis has shot the glittering exteriors with a combination of love and skill. The problem, unfortunately, is that it’s just not entertaining. The jokes and story run out well before we’re allowed to, and it soon loses any semblance of coherence or thought. We meander into subplots and extra characters that we just couldn’t care less about.

The Wog Boy idea was a little groan-worthy in the original film but was dragged into the realm of adequacy by a tongue-in-cheek tone, and an acceptance of where it stood in the cinematic grand scheme of things. The sequel doesn’t follow through on this however, and instead we’re left asking that question we first had when we saw the poster: Why? mark russell

the word on dvds

Chickenfoot Get Your Buzz On – Live [Universal/Liberation] Like most things Sammy Hagar-related, the genesis of Chickenfoot can be traced back to tequila. The story goes that Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen) were jamming at one of Hagar’s bars, Cabo Wabo, in Mexico. Hagar runs a thriving business empire of themed bars and in the last few years sold a majority interest in his Cabo Wabo branded tequila to the same liquor company that makes Campari, Wild Turkey and Cinzano. There’s nothing more rock than a Campari on rocks, as the famous saying doesn’t go.

After joining the crumpled rockers on stage, Hagar figured his incisive business acumen was again spot on and figured all they needed was another ‘80s throwback to complete the gory picture. And that’s how Joe Satriani – the man with the second hairiest forearms in showbiz – came to find himself in one of the loopiest and least exciting supergroups ever to make a quick buck. Get Your Buzz On – Live is essentially a meat and potatoes run-through of Chickenfoot’s self-titled debut album. Now as much as the band members would like to think otherwise, Chickenfoot, the album, is not Hall Of Famer material. It sounds like a leaden, plodding, joyless hard rock romp through the collected back catalogues of each member – but without the wicked humour of vintage Van Halen (to be fair the Hagarfronted Halen weren’t that funny), the deft pop-funk of the Peppers or the dazzling virtuosity of Surfing with the Alien. The hour long doco yields far greater rewards – Hagar proving himself to be an utter bore by getting in the face of Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), yelling and screaming at his own non-jokes; Chad Smith’s excruciatingly fallow attempts at vox-pop humour and Nigel Tufnell/Christopher Guest bringing the LOLs like the seasoned pro he is. justin hook

it’s complicated [Universal]

Valentino: The Last Emperor [Madman]

This is not a particularly complicated film. The formulaic It’s Complicated, written and directed by Nancy Meyers, is a romantic comedy of the love-triangle variety. Jane (the ever-charming Meryl Streep) is finally settling into divorced life, ten years after separating with her ex-husband Jake (the surprisingly attractive Alec Baldwin), who is now re-married to a woman the age of their eldest child. But during one drunken night, the sometime significant others do the hankypanky, and so begins their secret affair. The third point in the triangle is Adam (Steve “Was He Born With White Hair?” Martin), Jane’s architect and potential love interest. Torn between two paunchy paramours, Jane proves that hard life decisions and love aren’t just for the young. Unfortunately, three characters does not equal three personalities. Alec Baldwin is probably the most interesting of the bunch, and that’s because he plays an unrepentant, egotistical horn dog. Luckily all three actors have developed senses of comic timing, and manage to work the sometimes sickly sweet script to their advantage. Although It’s Complicated has been praised for its portrayal of women who fall into the 50-is-the-new-40 age bracket (oh my god! They have emotions! More importantly, they have sexual desire!), for anyone who isn’t an ageist, sexist chauvinist, this will not seem like an exceptionally edgy concept – and certainly not enough to carry an entire film. The DVD extras include an audio commentary on the film from Nancy Meyers plus a producer or two, plus a ‘making of’ featurette that mostly involves clips of the cast talking about how much they all admire and respect one another. Yawn.

Passably amusing, somewhat charming, and perfectly inoffensive – the phrases ‘entirely adequate’ and ‘mediocre at best’ spring to mind, though I’m torn between the two. Now that’s a complicated decision.

Matt Tyrnauer, who started his career at the tragically underappreciated Spy magazine and is now a special correspondent at Vanity Fair, followed legendary fashion designer Valentino Garavani for Valentino: The Last Emperor. The title gives the game away; whilst not necessarily a fawning love letter to the perma-tanned subject of this insidery doco, neither is it an incisive deliberation on the fashion industry. Wisely stepping back and allowing the revolving cast of seamstresses, designers, pooch handlers, hangers on, models and immaculately attired businessmen to float through the viewfinder, Tyrnauer captures Valentino in the final act of an illustrious decades long career – Valentino retired from the industry in 2008. Sadly, Valentino: The Last Emperor leaves an empty taste, failing to capture the effervescent swing of his best designs. This is the man, after all, who thinks nothing of letting five slobbering pugs take up a row of lush leather seats on a private jet.

Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino’s business and life partner, emerges as the driving force behind the success of the brand. But in one telling, if brief, encounter he also reveals the sheer obscenity of the fashion industry. Referring to a photo shoot in 1967, Giammetti reminisces about filling a studio with semolina to recreate the look of a North African sand dune. This profligate waste of foodstuffs is mind boggling. You see, fashion isn’t about real life. It’s about venerating the absurd, celebrating the wasteful, applauding the irrational and stroking the egos of artistes whose diminished mental capacity is directly proportionate to their callous indifference to the outside world. Now, I don’t for a minute suggest we should all scupper about in burlap sacks and egg carton trilbies, and riling up at the insanity of the fashion industry is a fool’s errand but seriously, there have to be limits.

Not for Valentino though. The last of his kind, they say. Let’s hope so.

melissa wellham

justin hook

41

GIG GUIDE May 26 - June 1 wednesday may 26

Dance Jemist

Arts Hobnob

Exhibition by Zoe Avis, Kate Barker, Jacqueline Bradley, Rachel Freeman and more. ‘Til June 13.

M16 ARTSPACE

Night Perspectives

Exhibition by Ian Dickson. ‘Til June 13.

M16 ARTSPACE

The Laramie Project

Presented by Everyman Theatre. ‘Til May 29. Bookings 6275 2700.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Death Proof

An exhibition by Helen Shelley. ‘Til June 26.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Outback Explorer

An exhibition by James Dodd. ‘Til June 26.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Totaal Voetbal

An exhibition by James Lieutenant. ‘Til June 26.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Live Wednesday Lunchtime Live

Fantastic Flutes: a recital. Elizabeth Mitchell, Jennifer Vaughan and Anthony Smith on piano.

WESLEY MUSIC CENTRE

Jane Williams

With Hannah Gillespie and Adelaide Jones.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Kira Puru & The Very Geordie Malones

Wine soaked, tobacco smoked, hard rockin’ rhythm and blues. Supported by Abbie Cardwell. 8pm, $10.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Something Different

United Tour w/ Nicole Brophy

$3 (free for poets) - sign up for a slot from 7.30pm.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE TRANSIT BAR

Arts

The Love Recession

Arc: The Sundowners (1960, PG)

Denim-squeezing country rock which tells stories about love, loss and places they’ve never been to. 8pm.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Charles Chatain

Arc: Juvenile Liaison (1975, 18+)

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

8pm.

PJ O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Something Different Open Mic Night 9pm, free.

POT BELLY BAR

Karaoke

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

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

friday may 28 Arts Arc: A Powerful Noise

Arc: Garbage Dreams (2009, 18+)

As part of the Human Rights and Arts Festival. 7pm.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Adam Bozetto

Of Potty Mouth Records.

Shades of Gray

With DJ Schwa. Supported by Gabriel Gilmour, Yohan Strauss, Fourthstate, Bobbin, Beat It and Biggie.

The Trivs

Wonderland

It’s their final show. Come say farewell.

With Ah! Pandita and Super Best Friends. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

Scul Hazaards.

Free music at the most charming pub in town.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Lifting Lily

Johnny Huckle, The Wedded Bliss, The Fuelers, Dubba Rukki. 5pm, $10.

9 ‘til 5. DJ Matt and drag show. Free entry if dressed in Alice in Wonderland theme.

MCGREGOR HALL

Live

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Marion Borgelt: Mind & Matter

The Wedded Bliss

Arc: White Material (18+)

The new film by Claire Denis. 4.30pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Arc: Attica (1974, PG)

A milestone social justice documentary.

2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Live Jenny Spear

Expect to hear originals and homages to Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and more. 7pm, $5.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Something Different Irish Jam Session

Come and have a fiddle from 5pm.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

monday may 31

Aperçus de France

Toe tappin’, groove swingin’ madness.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

BAR 32

Arts

Frank Madrid

Live

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

sunday may 30

Arts

Faux Real

Trivia @ Transit Bar / $5 Night

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Dance

HIPPO LOUNGE

TRANSIT BAR

From 9.30pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Dance

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

REV

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

As part of the Human Rights and Arts Festival. 7pm.

Benlucid, Fantomatique, Princi, Kid & Bird, Chairman Wow and more. Free baby!

Exhibition launch of artists’ books with a story component. RSVP 6262 9191.

Running ‘til June 6.

Nick Broomfield’s early, very sober look at Lancashire‘s police juvenile offenders unit. 4.30pm.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Do you know lots of stuff about nothing? Then why not try your hand at trivia every Wednesday at 6pm

The story is the thing

Perhaps the best of the films made by Hollywood in Australia in that decade.

2pm.

Special K

Purple Sneakers

Arts

saturday may 29

Jacquie Nicole, Second Sun, and Fearless Movement. 9pm, free.

Fame Trivia

thursday may 27

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Domus Adultus THE PHOENIX PUB

Carry-On Karaoke

Human Rights Poetry Slam

Live

Low end, hip-shakin’ illness.

TRANSIT BAR

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Mercury Switch and UG Beats represent.

Something Different

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Dos Locos

Photographic exhibition by Michael Lawrence-Slater. Opening 7pm. ‘Til June 12.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Dance Hospitality Night w/ Unvibes DJs TRANSIT BAR

Live The Bootleg Sessions

Duncan Sargeant, Joe Oppenheimer, Genevieve and The Assumptions, The Phonic Carpet. 8pm, free.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Something Different Fame Trivia

Do you know lots of stuff about nothing? Come on down every Monday from 6pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

tuesday june 1

The Spirits of the Dead

A wild and jagged sound that pushes the boundaries of folk, blues and rock.

8pm, $10.

live

Charity Show

With Unearth.

THE BASEMENT

Black Dahlia Murder

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Natural rhythms of life expressing movement, flux and change. ‘Til July 4.

With The Rooftop Revellers. From 6.30pm, $17/$14/$12.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

THE MERRY MUSE

William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe

10pm.

Enjoy music the way nature intended!

Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, The Basics and more.

Something Different

Rob Mac Project HOLY GRAIL, KINGSTON

Heuristic

TRANSIT BAR

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Thinking of going on a holiday to Japan? Top Japanese tourist agencies answer you questions.

As part of the Human Rights and Arts Festival. 7pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Arc: White Material (18+)

The new film by Claire Denis. 2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants

Last time these guys played Phoenix there were people hanging from the ceiling! With special guests.

THE PHOENIX PUB

The Cool

10pm-2am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

42

The Gum Ball Festival

BELFORD, HUNTER VALLEY

10.30pm-2.30am.

Something Different Australian & New Zealand Air Guitar Champs

Grand final. Competition starts at 9pm and will finish at approx 11pm.

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB

TNT: Karaoke Dynamite

Open up your pipes to win big.

Japan Expo

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Trivia 7pm.

HOLY GRAIL, KINGSTON

GIG GUIDE May 21 - May 24

43

GIG GUIDE June 1 - June 8 tuesday june 1

Charles Chatain 9pm-midnight.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

live

Mitch and Dos Locos

Captain, My Captain.

Free music at the most charming pub in town.

THE PHOENIX PUB

wednesday june 2

8pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Something Different Open Mic Night 9pm, free.

POT BELLY BAR

something different $5 Night / Trivia

TRANSIT BAR

Trivia

Q&A, games, fun, music. 7 for a 7.30pm start.

CANBERRA SERVICES CLUB, MANUKA

thursday june 3 Arts Arc: Psycho (1960, M)

Hitchcock’s classic. New print.

Preceded by Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Arthur (1959). 7pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Underage House Party Play

By David Finnigan. ‘Til June 6. Book now on 6247 1223, or www.thestreet. org.au .

THE STREET THEATRE

Otherworlds

Exhibition by Timo Nest and Zoya Tavakoli. ‘Til June 13.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE - MANUKA

Arc: On The Beach (1959, PG)

Study of a Cold War Australian suburbia living at their wits end. 2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Dance

friday june 4 dance D’Opus

Cuts like a ninja, slices like a razorblade.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Arc: The Shadow of a Boomerang

An American brother and sister feud over the management of an outback station they’ve inherited. 2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Dance

9 ‘til 1. DJs Tori Mac and Robbie. Free entry before 11pm. Free drink for the first 25.

All Our Friends

Dance festival of epic proportions!

Laidback Luke, Steve Aoki, Tiga, Felix Da Housecat and more.

With Yae!Tiger and The Tables.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Hospitality Night w/ Unvibes DJs

Live

Cloud Control

The Bootleg Sessions

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

TRANSIT BAR

THE PHOENIX PUB

Live

Special K

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Identical Strangers 10pm.

HOLY GRAIL, KINGSTON

Never Trust Bunny THE BASEMENT

Margaret Helen King

With Hannah Petocz and Night Parrots.

A magically harmonious night not to be missed. 7pm, $10.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

10.30pm-2.30am.

The Hottentots (Parissa Bouas and Carl Cleves Giving two days of workshops in singing, guitar and songwriting. www. mfe.org.au .

AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

sunday june 6

10pm-2am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

saturday june 5

Hitchcock’s classic. New print.

Preceded by Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Arthur (1959). 4.30pm.

Greg Carlin, Guillaume, Reuben Ingall.

9pm, free.

Arts

The Red Eyes

Arc: Psycho (1960, M)

Hitchcock’s classic. New print.

Preceded by Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Arthur (1959). 7pm.

Arc: The Damned United (2009, M)

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Lakeside Circus

tuesday june 8

Something Different

Leanne Melmoth

8pm.

Adrian Edwards, Emma Dryden, Daniel Champagne, Pretty Crane. 8pm, free.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

44

monday june 7

On the Bliss Release tour with special guests Richard In Your Mind and Haunted Attics.

Live

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

With Leanne Melmoth. $10 at the door.

Arc: Psycho (1960, M)

Melbourne avant-pop artist, with Ah! Pandita and From the South. 7:30pm, $6.

Come and have a fiddle from 5pm.

Brewn’ EP Launch

Arts

Justin Ashworth

Irish Jam Session

TRANSIT BAR

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

TRANSIT BAR

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

dance

Aaron and Jacinta

THE PHOENIX PUB

Carry-On Karaoke

UCU REFECTORY

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Domus Adultus

With Mr Fibby and Hashemoto.

Music, theatre, a BBQ dinner. 4pm, by donation.

From 9.30pm.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Nathan Frost

Devastatingly handsome music.

The Sunday Sunsets

DJ Bricksta

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Dusker

Girl Thing

THE PHOENIX PUB

Something Different

REV

BAR 32

With Chrome Dome and Void.

From deep and groovy to straight party mode.

Live

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

Jonny Telafone

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Jemist

Ug Beats

TRANSIT BAR

Live

Screenwriter Peter Morgan charts the career of 1970s English soccer managing guru Brian Clough. 2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

something different Jumptown Swing

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

MCGREGOR HALL

Fame Trivia

Do you know lots of stuff about nothing? Come on down every Monday from 6pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Trivia 7pm.

HOLY GRAIL, KINGSTON

TNT: Karaoke Dynamite

Open up your pipes to win big.

TRANSIT BAR

Open Mic night

Come along and go bananas! 8pm.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

GIG GUIDE June 9 - June 16 wednesday june 9

Vorn Doolette

live

Critically acclaimed, new folk storytelling. With Drew Walky from 7.30pm. $10.

Big Erle

With Matt Southon and Genevieve Chadwick.

THE PHOENIX PUB

A French Butler Called Smith High energy Latin, funk and instrumental fusion. 8pm, $10.

dance

Special K

Live

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

NEO

Hospitality Night w/ Unvibes DJs

10.30pm-2.30am.

Genevieve Chadwick 8pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Something Different

Something Different

Open Mic Night

$5 Night / Trivia

POT BELLY BAR

9pm, free.

Trivia

Q&A, games, fun, music. 7 for a 7.30pm start.

CANBERRA SERVICES CLUB, MANUKA

Jumptown Swing

friday june 11

Strangeways DJs

thursday june 10

TRANSIT BAR

REV

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

BAR 32

Arts

Live

Arc: Psycho (1960, M)

Charles Chatain

Hitchcock’s classic. New print.

Preceded by Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Arthur (1959). 2pm.

ARC CINEMA, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE

Standing in Line in Order of Height

How universal is the desire for individuality? Tickets: QL2.org.au. ‘Til June 12.

QL2 THEATRE, GORMAN HOUSE

Dance Ashley Feraude

Smashingly gorgeous.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Live Domus Adultus

Matt Dent, Marc Robertson and more.

9pm, free.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Parades

TRANSIT BAR

Kim Churchill

With special guests Ashleigh Mannix and Justin Carter. $10.

HOLY GRAIL, CIVIC

8pm.

Alice Cottee, Freya’s Rain, The Hussy Hicks and more. 8pm, free.

Witness the dawning of the new age of grunge. 8pm, $12.

THE PHOENIX PUB

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Something Different

The Chronics

Fame Trivia

10.30pm-2.30am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

NEO

High energy, original soul-fuel, funkfood from Darwin. 8pm.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Killing the Sound 10pm-2am.

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

saturday june 12 dance Tom Neville

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Nathan Frost

The perfect way to lounge out on the Queen’s weekend.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

tuesday june 15

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Live Pro Wrestling

live

AMAROO SCHOOL, GUNGAHLIN

12-string acoustic guitar fingerpicker and vocalist. 7.30pm.

Clash in the Capital. Biggest wrestling event to ever hit Canberra. All tix $10.

Family friendly! 6pm

Australian Hip-Hop Championships

Fred Pilcher

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Register your dance crew at www.ueg. com.au/ahc. With special guest Leerok from NZ. Seniors. 7pm.

THE STREET THEATRE

Something Different Trivia 7pm.

HOLY GRAIL, KINGSTON

TNT: Karaoke Dynamite

sunday june 13

The Doubly (EP)ic Launch

MCGREGOR HALL

Do you know lots of stuff about nothing? Come on down every Monday from 6pm.

From 9.30pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

Of James Fahy Trio and Joe Oppenheimer! Joining forces with other illustrious local musicians. There’ll be surprises aplenty. DO NOT MISS!

Live

Johnny Zoch EP Launch

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Carry-On Karaoke

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

TRANSIT BAR

The Bootleg Sessions

All Guns Blazing

Something Different

Fame Trivia

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

THE PHOENIX PUB

Jemist

Hip-hop and then some.

Do you know lots of stuff about nothing? 6pm.

High energy, original soul-fuel, funkfood from Darwin.

dance

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

WHITE EAGLE POLISH CLUB

monday june 14

Presented by Soundtrap. With Alex Cleary, Mikey G and more. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

TRANSIT BAR

Digital Divide

Open up your pipes to win big.

TRANSIT BAR

dance

wednesday june 16

Rock Steady!

Sunday reggae roots and culture plus Jamaican BBQ from 4pm.

TRINITY BAR

Party By Jake: A Royal Affair

live Just a little bit precious

TRANSIT BAR

Exhibition by Emma Beer, Jessica Herrington and Natalie Mather. ‘Til July 4.

Live

Exposure

Cheese, Offtapia, Michael Hazan, Staky and more. Clothing by Aviary. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Brendon Dwyer

Exhibition by Mikhaela Keenan-Davis.

‘Til July 4.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Live

Something Different

The Barons of Tang

Australian Hip-Hop Championships

THE PHOENIX PUB

Free music at the most charming pub in town.

Register your dance crew at www.ueg. com.au/ahc. With special guest Leerok from NZ. Juniors. 2pm.

M16 ARTSPACE

The gypsy punksters return!

Dead Letter Chorus

With Two Hours Traffic. 8pm.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

THE STREET THEATRE

OUT JUN 16

The beautiful girls dappled cities karnivool hot hot heat deez nuts …AND MORE

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FIRST CONTACT SIDE A: BMA band profile

VARIODIVERS Where did your band name come from?

From our love of competitive nude skydiving (we only skydive tandem).

Plus… ‘vario’ is Italian for ‘diverse’ and ‘divers’ is French for ‘various.’

Group Members?

Dave (drums/ sexiness), Justin (guitar/vox/sequinned suits) and JT (bass/synth/beard).

Describe your sound: We really want to say “it’s the brutal groove that makes you move” but that would be plagiarism.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? Ikari Warriors, Garry’s Peadon, Owe ‘n’ Ridgeway, Lincoln and the Days and Steve Gray’s new tattoo.

What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had whilst performing? After a show in Wollongong our sound guy sprayed everyone on the dancefloor with a fire hose. Please go and read all about it on our Myspace page.

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far? The new CD Decompression in stores now. Seriously, go to a store and buy it!

What are your plans for the future? Launch our CD to Canberra at the Max Power Festival (the Maram, Erindale, free entry, Saturday May 29).

What makes you laugh? Garry, Simmo and dodgy photo mods.

What pisses you off? Hitler, Pol Pot and Kochie.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? It’s in desperate need of more venues. As always great bands.

What are your upcoming gigs? CD launch at Max Power Festival amongst the cream of local rock sensations… Eww. The Maram, Erindale – free entry – Saturday May 29.

Contact info: www.myspace.com/variodivers .

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Aaron Peacey Aaron 0410 381 306 Activate Jetpack activatejetpack@ hotmail.com Adam Hole Adam 0421 023 226 Afternoon Shift Adam 0402 055 314 After Close Scotty 0412 742 682, afterclose@hotmail.com Alcove Mark 0410 112 522 Alice 0423 100 792 Allies ACT (Oxfam Group) alliesact@hotmail.com/ myspace.com/alliesact Amphibian Sound PA Clare 0410 308 288 Amplif5’d Classic rock covers band Joy 0407 200 428, joybarac-heath@hotmail.com Annie & the Armadillos Annie 6161 1078/0422 076 313 The Ashburys Dan Craddock 0419 626 903 Aria Stone, sax & flute, singer/ songwriter (guitar) Aria 0411 803 343 Australian Songwriters Association (Keiran Roberts) 6231 0433 Arythmia: Ben 0423 408 767/ arythmiamusic@gmail.com Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422 733 974, www.backbeatdrivers.com Big Boss Groove Andrew 0404 455 834, www.bigbossgroove.com.au Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows - bookings@birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438 351 007 Blister Bug Stu 0408 617 791 Bridge Between, The Rachel 0412 598 138, thebridgebetween.com.au Bruce Stage mgr/consultant 6254 9857 Caution Horses Nigel 0417 211 580 Chris Harland Blues Band 0418 490 640 chrisharlandbluesband@yahoo.com.au Clear Vision Films rehearsals/film clips/stunts - 0438 647 281 wcoulton.clearvisionfilms.com Cole Bennetts Photography 0415 982 662 /colebennetts@gmail.com Cris Clucas Cris 6262 5652 Crooked Dave 0421 508 467 Danny V Danny 6238 1673/0413 502 428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402 845 132 D’Opus & Roshambo hifidelitystyles@yahoo.com DJs Madrid and Gordon 0417 433 971 DJ Latino Rogelio 0401 274 208 DJ Moises (RnB/Latin) 0402 497 835 or moises_lopez@hotmail DNA Vic 0408 477 020 Drumassault Kate 0414 236 323 Easy Mode Daz 0404 156 482, easymodeband@gmail.com Entity Chris 0412 027 894 Epic Flagon band@epicflagon.com Fighting Mongooses, The Adam 0402 055 314 Final Warning Brendan 0422 809 552 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410 381 306/ Lachlan 0400 038 388 4dead Peter 0401 006 551 Freeloaders, The Steve 0412 653 597 Friend or Enemy 6238 0083, www.myspace.com/friendorenemy Funk Shui Dave 0407 974 476 Gareth Hailey DJ & Electronica 0414 215 885 GiLF Kelly 0410 588 747, gilf.mail@gmail.com Groovalicious Corporate/Weddings/ Private functions 0448 995 158 groovalicious@y7mail.com Guy The Sound Guy live & studio sound engineer, 0400 585 369, guy@ guythesoundguy.com HalfPast Chris 0412 115 594 Hancock Basement Tom 6257 5375, hancockbasement@hotmail.com Happy Hour Wendy 0406 375 096 Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com Hitherto Paul 0408 425 636

In The Flesh Scott 0410 475 703 Inside the Exterior Nathan 0401 072 650 Itchy Triggers Andrew 0401 588 884 Jacqui Seczawa 0428 428 722 JDY Clothing 0405 648 288/ www.jdyclothing.com Jenn Pacor singer/songwriter avail. for originals & covers, 0405 618 630 Jim Boots 0417 211 580 Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408 287 672, paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Karismakatz DJ Gosper 0411 065 189/ dj@karismakatz.com Kayo Marbilus myspace.com/kayomarbilus Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417 025 792 Little Smoke Sam 0411 112 075 Los Chavos Andy 0401 572 150 los.chavos@yahoo.com.au Manilla Green Herms 0404 848 462, contactus@manillagreen.com, Mario Brujo Gordon world/latin/ reggae/percussionist and DJ. 0405 820 895 Martin Bailey Audio Engineer 0423 566 093 Words for You: writer/publicity/events Megan ph 6154 0927, megan@wordsforyou.com.au Mercury Switch Lab Studios mercuryswitch@internode.on.net Missing Zero Hadrian Brand 0424 721 907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots aspwinch@grapevine.com.au Huck 0419 630 721 MuShu Jack 0414 292 567, mushu_band@hotmail.com MyOnus myonusmusic@hotmail.com/ www.myspace.com/myonus No Retreat Simon 0411 155 680 Ocean Moses Nigel 0417 211 580 OneWayFare Chris 0418 496 448 Painted Hearts, The Peter 6248 6027 Phathom Chris 0422 888 700 The Pigs The Colonel 0422 412 752 Polka Pigs Ian 6231 5974 Premier Audio Simon 0412 331 876, premier_audio@hotmail.com Rafe Morris 0416 322 763 Redletter Ben 0421 414 472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404 178 996/6162 1527 Rhythm Party, The Ross 0416 010 680 Roger Bone Band Andy 0413 483 758 Rob Mac Project, The Melinda 0400 405 537 Rug, The Jol 0417 273 041 Samsara Samahdi 0431 083 776 Sansutra J-Ma 0403 476 350 Simone Penkethman (Simone & The Soothsayers, Singing Teacher) 6230 4828 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401 588 884 Solid Gold Peter 0421 131 887/ solid.gold@live.com.au Super Best Friends Matt 0438 228 748 Surrender Jordan 0439 907 853 Switch 3 Mick 0410 698 479 System Addict Jamie 0418 398 556 The Morning After (covers band) Anthony 0402 500 843/ myspace.com/themorningaftercovers Tiger Bones & The Ferabul-Zers Danny feralbul@aapt.net.au Tim James Lucia 6282 3740, LUCIAMURDOCH@hotmail.com Top Shelf Colin 0408 631 514 Transmission Nowhere Emilie 0421 953 519/myspace.com/ transmissionnowhere Udo 0412 086 158 Undersided, The Baz 0408 468 041 Using Three Words Dan 0416 123 020, usingthreewords@hotmail.com Voodoo Doll Mark 0428 650 549 William Blakely Will 0414 910 014 Zero Degrees and Falling Louis 0423 918 793 Zwish 0411 022 907

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