BMA Magazine 409 January 15 2013

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A Warm Welcome To The First Ever Canberra Comedy Festival

Fax: (02) 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne Allan Sko General Manager Allan Sko

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Editor Ashley Thomson

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Sub-Editor Greta Kite-Gilmour Graphic Design Marley Film Editor Melissa Wellham NEXT ISSUE 410 OUT JANUARY 30 EDITORIAL DEADLINE JANUARY 21 ADVERTISING DEADLINE JANUARY 23 Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

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Falls Festival Launches Fire Damage Fundraising Over the past fortnight Tasmania has been devastated by fires which continue to be managed by local authorities – not so far from where a good many travellers from the ACT spent their last New Years Eve. The Falls Music & Arts Festival farm at Marion Bay remains undamaged, however their neighbouring towns have not been so lucky. Festival management were evacuated from the site but the site has now been declared a safe zone, becoming a temporary refuge for displaced locals, staff members and friends who have not been so fortunate; returning to lost houses, schools, businesses, livestock and precious personal belongings.

The Falls Music & Arts Festival are calling on all of their friends; those who love Falls and those who love Tasmania to

help out by donating via give. everydayhero.com/au/fallsfestival. They’re kicking things off with a $10,000 donation and will continue to work with local councils to support their communities in all of their various capacities. The festival will also be holding further fundraising efforts in the weeks to come. Keep an eye on their website at fallsfestival.com.

Craft ACT MODERN Market 2013 Calls For Entries Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre is looking for a broad range of exceptional designers and craft artists to participate in the inaugural, high-end craft and design night market, to be held in Canberra on Saturday May 25, 2013. MODERN will coincide with the Centenary of Canberra celebrations and provide designers and craft artists the opportunity to showcase their products and services to design-savvy shoppers whilst benefitting from networking with other likeminded creative professionals and exposure to new audiences.

Visitors to MODERN will be able to buy direct from the best in Australian craft and design and meet the creative and entrepreneurial talent of the future. They are looking for makers from the whole spectrum of craft and design: ceramics, glass, fashion, furniture, interior furnishings, jewellery, object design, stationary, textiles, wood and more. Submissions close 5pm Friday March 22. For more info, visit craftact.org.au or call (02) 6262 9333.

Enter The Gallery Of Small Mistakes You Are Here festival is calling for literary and visual art entries of all media for consideration in the Gallery of Small Mistakes: an exhibition of personal works that never quite lived up to their intention. The Gallery of Small Mistakes seeks to uncover the potential of the objects, videos, poems, photographs and miscellanea that you have hidden away in your closets and diaries. It’s time to dig deep into your hearts, basements and old school art folders for those secret pieces that have always

‘If I ate my weight in sashimi, maybe my cat would lick my skin like a dog licks a window.’

Happy Thanksgiving! #409JANUARY16

Canberra’s where rather than have a comedy festival we watch them on TV. Rather than have a festival we have one-off shows that cost as much, in laymen’s terms, as two pounds of premium human hair. No longer. For the first time ever the best comedians in Australia and the world will descend on Canberra for the inaugural Canberra Comedy Festival. The festival will run from Tuesday March 19 to Saturday March 23, commencing with an Opening Night Gala featuring sets from the festival’s best, plus a special international headliner in critically acclaimed UK-based comedian Steve Hughes. The festival will then hold host to 25 more stand-up comedy shows over the next four days, including international superstar Stephen K. Amos, and Australian comedy legends Tripod and Akmal. ANU Arts Centre Theatre and Civic Pub will be the primary venues, with shows running each night from 7pm to 10:30pm.

As Creative Director Jay Sullivan says, ‘Canberra needs a Comedy Festival. The team has delivered a diverse range of shows, amazing talents, and the highest quality acts.

This will become a major annual event.’ For all the information and ticketing, visit canberracomedyfestival. com.au. It’s long overdue – get amongst it.

haunted your memories. An engagement ring for a wedding that never happened? YES. A letter to God saying you wanted a puppy and not a baby brother?

YES. Messy cross stitching?

YES. Angsty poetry from teenage years? YES. This is a chance to share your personal works and offerings that would otherwise never see the light of day, but can now be collected in the poignant shadows of the Gallery of Small Mistakes. If you have something awful and embarrassing, but beautiful in its intention… they’d love to hear from you. Email images of your submission to youareherecanberra@gmail. com by COB Friday February 1.

FROM THE BOSSMAN Hullo and welcome back you lovable scallywags. I hope the first few trembling steps of 2013 have been treating you well thus far.

It’s always ‘fun’ at this time of year to find out what everyone’s been up to over the festive season. OK, me first then. I return as proud father of two little girls and concerned husband to a shattered and heroic lady wife. As a result our apartment resembles a set from the more high budget moments in Apocalypse Now, with both bubs indulging in a spirited Risk-like land grab using toys as flags. The toilet is the only personal space left now, unless I forget to lock the door - my eldest daughter’s new favourite pastime is barging in to eagerly showcase the latest pen she’s used to draw on the wall whilst I’m delicately trying to extract a hefty kebab-rich bum nugget in the shape of a pretzel made by an apprentice baker.

Charging tenaciously through another January as we are, by now you would have partaken in the traditional beginningof-the-year routines such as taking a digital machete to the fervent overgrowth of your neglected inbox; wondering how many more times you can type out the phrase, ‘I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year!’ before your fingers split and pus comes steaming out; and casting aside all but the most manageable of New Year’s resolutions (‘I’ll rejoin the gym tomorrow I promise, but for now back to that Backdoor Slags 9 DVD... I did promise myself to watch more porn after all’).

I have adopted an unwitting New Year’s Res over the break, which is to maintain my thicker beard. A curious side effect of a second daughter is that my body has tapped into some long lost testosterone which has laid dormant since adolescence, that awkward time in life when I was trying to force my way into clubs at a strapping four foot nothing and bald as a plucked chicken. I would have - perhaps ironically - given my left testical for a spurt of the old T back then.

YOU PISSED ME OFF! Care to immortalise your hatred in print? Send an email to editorial@bmamag.com and see your malicious bile circulated to thousands. [All entries contain original spellings.]

To the cunt who stole both the wheels off my bike on December 30 while it was chained to a tree between Evatt and Charnwood you have pissed me off. I hope you got appropriately ripped off by your dealer when you traded the wheels for skanky bush weed. Also now I cant take my dog for runs so he is going to get like dog diabetes and probably die. I also have to now catch the bus to work so ill probably get human diabetes and die too, or get stabbed by some homeless or something. So bike wheel steeler I hope you cant sleep at night knowing that you will indirectly lead to one canine and one human death. Also if you are the dealer now in possession of said wheels, please post them on gumtree at a reasonable price so I can buy them back? Cheers.

But, like an Australia Post parcel, it’s arrived years later and as a result, at the age of 30, I finally have a lush tangled forest of facial furriness that children could lose a misguided frisbee in.

At least that’s what I tell myself to get through the day. It’s more likely akin to someone sweeping the gents urinal at a shopping centre after a particularly spirited day of wang-waggling and hastily gluing the resultant pubes onto my face. The result calls to mind a hirsute rave octopus trying to escape a rat trap.

But as well as being left alone by the homeless, it has its benefits. Instead of cleaning myself up before the start of the working year I have kept my Kodiak Jack look to serve as a passive warning to friends and work colleagues alike of the insane month just past. They may be tempted to ask how my ‘holiday’ was, but one look at my Tom Hanks Cast Away beard will tell them all they need to know.

While the beginning-of-year motions are all-too similar, 2013 beckons a different beast as we hurtle headlong into the much talked about Centenary of Canberra, the year when our region’s voice breaks and we finally sprout some pubes*. That’s right, Sydney. Check out our big curly one and weep. Just about every beloved Canberran you know will be cashing in, I mean, celebrating by touting their wares. Including us. Come March, we’ll roll out every edition of BMA Mag that’s ever been printed in our inglorious 21 year history for an exhibition and asking you the dear reader - to give us your thoughts and memories of times past. And now that I’ve put this in print, we actually have to do it.

I should now ask about what you have been up to but we’ve run out of time. Next time, I promise. For now, I have a New Year’s Resolution to keep... ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com *The first column of the year and the second time I have mentioned pubic hair; twice too often for a year’s worth of columns you could argue. But that would make you an oily pube.

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WHO: Sophia Christopher WHAT: Canberra-born Songwriter WHEN: Wed Jan 16 WHERE: Hippo Bar

Canberra-born Sophia Christopher has been sampling the music world at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she is on a scholarship for Songwriting and Film Scoring. While also working for the Berklee College and performing throughout Boston, she has expanded on the knowledge learned here at the ANU School of Music and will return to Canberra to showcase it. Local act Party Gravy will support the show with Sophia singing her originals. Expect it to be a family affair but if anything, go to check out Hippo’s revamp with updated décor and cushy new balcony. 9pm. $5 door.

WHO: Battle Pope vs.

Jesus Christ Posse WHAT: National Tour WHEN: Fri Jan 25 WHERE: The Pot Belly

Brace yourself, Belco, brace yourself. Like the missionaries of old, Battle Pope and Jesus Christ Posse are taking their religion (and their newly pressed split 12” LP) to the streets – and they’ve carefully selected the most filthy, decadent dens of hedonism to preach their hard-line beliefs. For Battle Pope this includes their potent form of hyper-sexualised holy hedonism and party funk, and for Jesus Christ Posse their religious purity, strict abstinence and straight-edge lifestyle. Wretch and Throat of Dirt will also make appearances in the form of support. 9pm. Entry by donation.

WHO: The Waterboys WHAT: National Tour WHEN: Fri Jan 25 WHERE: Canberra Theatre

The Waterboys are due to make their first ever visit to Australia this January and are now including a one-off stop at the Canberra Theatre. With a set sure to please their most ardent of fans they’ll be spanning their 30-year back catalogue with highlights from their new album, An Appointment with Mr. Yeats. Formed in Edinburgh in 1983, the long-lasting Waterboys can apparently still make a buck without dying and have attempted to get ‘deep’ by using their newest album to examine the work of prominent Irish poet WB Yeats. Go for the classics, cry through the new shit. 8pm. Tickets $79 + bf.

See livenation.com.au.

WHO: UC Live!

WHAT: O YEAH! WHEN: Fri Feb 1 WHERE: Zierholz @ UC

UC Live! will wrap up their 2013 O Week with a Beach Party spectacle featuring prominent Canberran bands and DJs. With a mechanical surfboard, beach-themed debauchery, likely underagers and a chance to win prizes including Groovin The Moo tickets and a 9-day Thailand island hopper Contiki Tour it’s everything your February needs. Look for acts like Safia, Lavers and Dahrnoir supported by DJs Sammy Soundslike, Luke Jaimes and Chief. Prizes for Best Dressed so expect an eyeful and the resounding fact that Canberra is too far from a beach to be funny. 3pm. Free.

WHO: Richard Tognetti & Brett Dean WHAT: Electric Preludes WHEN: Sun Feb 2 WHERE: Llewellyn Hall

Kicking off the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2013 season are two giants of the Australian and international music scenes who bring more than just classy tunes and overheard Mozart standards.

Richard Tognetti playing on his six-string Violectra violin explores the intersection between instrumental virtuosity and sound worlds that are only possible with electronics, all commented on by an ‘unplugged’ string chamber orchestra. With Brett Dean conducting and composing the Electric Preludes, it is a rejuvenated take on the orchestra customaries. 8pm. Tickets $45 + bf on 1800 444 444.

WHO: SoundOut 2013 WHAT: International Jazz/ Experimental Festival WHEN: Sat Feb 2-Sun Feb 3 WHERE: Theatre 3, Acton

SoundOut 2013 is a free international festival of improvisation, jazz and experimental music and is set, once again, to blow the roof off of the domesticated, the pre-fabricated and mortgaged, transporting you to unexpected places of listening pleasure.

With acts from around the world, SoundOut 2013 boasts radical violinists, exploratory drummers, and free-loving quartets amongst others. It’s a new year, Canberra, and all musical borders, fences and definitions are for crossing, so come, hear the future evolve before your ears. Running over two days there are four sessions totaling around 16 hours of music. Visit soundout2013. blogspot.com.au for more info. $35/$25 by calling (02) 6257 1950.

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ashley thomson

Some people have always loved Canberra. I’m not one of them.

Between the ages of 14 and 21 I wanted to leave and did. Some people call Canberra their true home. I’m not one of them either. I was born underwater in a bathtub in Tokyo.

But I love Canberra now and that puts me among a group of people who’ve chosen to get all Mardi Gras because Canberra’s 100.

There’s been a gut-river of sap about the Centenary. This in the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘we are, at last, a true city.’ This in the Canberra Times: ‘the person tired of being here this year will be the person tired of life.’ Sentiment’s strong in some.

Then there’s the marketing: a simultaneous sweep of formidable every-space logoism (see: everywhere) and lowest common denominators (the Facebook ‘thumbs up’).

In the words of the geniuses behind the decision to use the thumbs up, they figured since people have trouble ‘loving’ Canberra, maybe they’d find it easier to ‘like’. Let sink in how much that stroke of genius cost.

So the artistic and business communities are getting completely bent, but to use a xenophobically loaded expression, most Canberrans don’t belong here in the truest sense of the term.

What can 100 years mean to a Canberran who was brought here a few decades ago because their parents wanted to raise a child in a ‘nice’ place? Or to people whose birth certificates read ‘Calvary Hospital’ but are first generation Canberrans with no geo-cultural heritage? Or, last but not least, to plain old immigrants.

My mother, who loves this city, summed up what is likely a broadly shared attitude: ‘If there’s good stuff on then good.’

If there’s good stuff on then good. The sycophantic and resounding positivism surrounding the Centenary must dissolve into tangible, attendable, enjoyable events that stand out from the norm.

But, said Centenary Creative Director Robyn Archer in so many words, that’s not the point.

Rather than spend the Centenary budget on booking The Rolling Stones (her example), Archer took the approach that existing events, events that will last, should be bolstered, amplified by the Centenary in our hundredth year.

Consequently, what Canberrans have to look forward to is – by and large – improved versions of everything there was before.

It depends on what approach you take as to whether you think this is genius or imbecility. If you’re wrong, you think it’s imbecility. If you’re right, genius.

Our city isn’t old. 100 years is nothing. Cities like London, Rome, New York and Tokyo have traditions, festivals and events that date back tens, hundreds and even thousands of years.

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A necessary precondition of those traditions – and one that is often unremarked in explicit terms – is the people who instigated and upheld them.

It is easy to remark on a city’s depth of culture. It is harder to think of the many gradients of involvement in its cultivation a society went through to reach that point.

Robyn Archer, in her capacity as Creative Director, is attempting to get the ball rolling.

Along with businesses looking to push their brands and people who finally have an excuse to pirouette out of the closet about their love of Canberra, people who take this ordinary-looking bait and leave their homes will perhaps, and likely inadvertently, be bolstering traditions.

If this plan succeeds, one day we will have a city where the kind of pride that starts riots will not be laughable. Ipso facto, Robyn Archer is trying to start riots.

Of the program released so far it is the lasting and local that rises: Canberra International Film Festival, You Are Here multiarts festival, Canberra Craft Beer Festival, Enlighten, Canberra International Music Festival.

Where so often the fact that this is Canberra scuttles pride or promise, this year these events should, if they are ever capable, tip prominence.

Things in this Centenary year have been weighed. Found worthy, they have been aided. In no circumstance could a clearer delineation have been made between those things worth your time and those not.

But the Centenary as a mouthpiece for Canberra’s promising elements is only constructive insofar as the mouthpiece is heard.

What the Centenary has done is added enough substance to bring the extraordinary out of the shadows.

Like the first person in a Hands Across America initiative, it is staking its reputation – somewhat dorkishly – on its ability to mobilise others.

The ultimate goal of this mobilisation, however long-term, is civic pride – in traditions, festivals, events. Most of all, in nothing greater than a genuine and violent sense of belonging.

In order to poke holes in things they must first have substance, and just as Canberrans are best positioned to poke holes in the Centenary, only true Canberrans can add substance to it.

Only Canberrans can make Canberra as impervious and desirable as any city that’s ever stood, and only by having the audacity to like something before it was cool.

Visit canberra100.com.au for the full program.

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ALL AGES Hey folks! I thought I’d welcome in the first column of this delicious New Year with one of my favourite things about last year’s Christmas holiday. ‘Was it the spirit of giving?’ you ask. Why no, it wasn’t. But then surely, Andie, it was the love, warmth and joy you received by being surrounded with loved ones and food? Nope. It was Christmas cracker jokes. Those sweet thin rectangles of joy that make up for the fact that paper crowns don’t suit me and my pack of coloured crayons are automatically redundant because I’m not four.

Here’s cracker-licious joke number one: Q: What did the pencil say to the paper? A: I dot my i’s on you son. You know where else I dot my i’s? Mastin – as in Reece Mastin. I’ve always thought that winning X

Factor would equate to the feeling of wearing roughly 1000 paper Christmas cracker crowns. Our beloved teen idol of X Factor fame and abundant paper crowns will be playing at the AIS Arena on Wednesday January 23. Tickets are $72 + bf and can be bought online from Ticketek or by calling them on 13 28 49.

Cracker-licious joke number two: Q: Why do chickens watch television? A: For hentertainment. If you need some hentertainment of your own, then go by some chickens. However, if you’re aged 12-25 and lack some quality entertainment for these long boring summer holidays, check out the Woden Youth Centre’s Summer Holiday Calender. There’s a social event on almost every day to keep you happily busy all January and early February, including movies, dancing, craft, swimming and more. You can find more information on their Facebook page: facebook.com/WodenYouthCentre.

Cracker-licious joke number three: Q: Why did the teacher wear sunglasses to school? A: Because her pupils were so bright. That one is only funny when you’ve had too much egg nog, trust me. But if we think back to teachers and school, we might remember a handy thing or two from English class for when we enter the 2013 Poetry in ACTION competition.

All ACT residents are invited to submit a short poem of eight lines. Ten winning poems will be displayed on ACTION buses and winners will receive $500.

Poems should have a Canberra/ Centenary/birthday theme and the closing date for entries is Friday February 15. For more information or to submit poems visit arts.act.gov.au.

Cracker-licious joke number four: Q: What do you call a train loaded with toffee? A: The chew chew train. Speaking of toffee and other assorted candy, how excited are you for the tenth annual Charny Carny on Saturday March 16? So excited.

You can find the carnival on the Canberra Christian Life Centre Community Oval between 12pm to 6pm. For more info visit charnycarnival.org.au/carnival.

And lastly, Q: Why is milk fast? A: ‘Cos it’s pasteurised before you see it. I guess you could say it moos pretty fast – Groovin the Moos pretty fast, that is. Just letting you know nice and early that our beloved festival will be back this year on Sunday April 28 at The Meadows, University of Canberra. The line-up will be announced on Wednesday January 30 and tickets will be available from Wednesday February 6 for $99.90 +bf.

Cheers, ANDIE EGAN allagescolumn@gmail.com

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LOCALITY

If you, like me, fall asleep to the sound of cicadas chirping at the moment, you are already familiar with the sound of Canberra’s heatdazed music scene. There is barely enough happening to justify our Entertainment Guide’s presence this issue. But what is happening is damned worthwhile – like the Alec in a family of Baldwins, the purple in a bag of Skittles, or the stillborn in a litter of Chihuahuas.

Canberra-born Sophia Christopher has been out of town the last few years studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston but is returning for a one-off show at Hippo Bar on Wednesday January 16. Our local New Orleans-style funk band Party Gravy will be supporting her from 9pm and tickets are $5 at the door. Across the street at The Phoenix Bar, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! will be making its first odds-and-sods appearance from 8pm. If you’re not yet familiar with BSNB, order a strong drink and ‘enjoy’.

On Friday January 18, local blues piano and Hammond player Leo Joseph has decided to stick his neck out for the RSPCA and Australian Wildlife Conservancy. He’ll be performing at The Front Gallery and Café from 8:30pm for $5 and all proceeds are going to the aforementioned misguided do-gooders. May it provide muchneeded euthanisation drugs for the former and fertiliser for the latter’s marijuana plantations.

If you enjoyed The Artist—no, wait… If you didn’t enjoy The Artist you can fuck off. Anyway, before all that happened that director and that actor made their name with a series of films known as the OSS-117 films. Jean Dujardin stars as OSS-117, a French secret agent who fights Commies and Nazis and gets the girl, and Arc Cinema are showing OSS-117: Lost in Rio on Saturday January 19, 7pm, at their outdoor sunset screenings. You can book a seat at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

YOU MADE MY DAY!

Email editorial@bmamag.com to send a message of gratitude, warmth and generosity to the world at large. AWWW. I’ve had one of the toughest months of my life. But the little things have got me through. So thanks to the random guy at the Coles car park in Jamison who offered me the last car spot just as I thought the world was going end. Thanks to everyone at my apartment building for not taking the purse I left in the swimming area. Thanks to the smiling old gentleman who patiently held the door open for me for over a minute as I struggled with shopping.

Thanks to the Greek stallholder at the Farmers Markets who always throws in an extra something for free. Thanks to my friend for bringing over a lasagne bake. Thanks to the group of bogans on Ainslie Avenue who chased after me to return the $50 that I had dropped. Thanks to my best friend who can make me laugh in the space of a text. Thanks to my Mum for being there.

To you all… You Made My Month.

To the London cab driver who dropped us off at the airport to make our way home to Australia. After being cut off by a car with diplomatic plates, your swearing tirade was like a piece of modern art. When the driver of said car got out and pointed purposefully at the ‘D’ registration plate as defense for his driving your loud retort - in a thoroughly cockney cabbie accent of ‘Oh yeah, what does that stand for then? DICKHEAD?’ tied off the trip to perfection. Thank you, my foul mouthed friend.

The same night over at Transit Bar, up-and-coming local groove metal group Eyes to the Sky are launching their latest EP with Delinquent and Distance 301 from 8pm. Tickets are $10 on the door.

And then there isn’t really anything I want to mention until Saturday January 26. At 9:30pm at The Phoenix, experimental psych-rock group Faspeedelay will be playing with completely brilliant Sydney/ Canberra shoegaze duo The Longest Day and excellent local rock quartet Waterford. And it’s free. If you don’t have anywhere to spend Australia Day, spend it here to see some of the best free live music you’ve seen in ages. And if you do have anywhere else to be, blow it the shit off and go to this instead.

On Tuesday January 29 at The Front there’ll be some more great local music when Cracked Actor support Brisbane instrumental quintet Ghost Notes from 7:30pm for $5. I don’t know jack shit about Ghost Notes but Cracked Actor are a band you should see while they’re still here performing for door prices like those.

And that’s everything local I care about.

ASHLEY THOMSON - editorial@bmamag.com

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Mind you, you have to be in the absolute state of Zen or it all falls apart

do, and it’s a great life. We recently packed out a huge room in Noosa, with everyone singing and dancing along, and for an unknown band in Canada, we were pulling a load of people. When you’ve got people in the crowd singing along to your lyrics, it’s a great feeling.’

NAMED BEFORE FIRETREES GOT BIG Chris downton While they’re an Australian band, over the last few years indie folk duo THE FIRETREE have spent more time overseas than at home, thanks to a seemingly constant touring schedule that’s seen them cultivate a significant fan base in both Europe and Canada. It’s a situation currently being remedied by Dale and Josie’s ongoing Australian tour, which sees them bringing their eclectic blend of indie pop hooks, vocal harmonies and multi-instrumental performance to no less than 30 different venues right across the country.

While some bands would shudder at the prospect of such an extensive voyage, when I catch up with Dale via phone he sounds like he’s perfectly in his element.

‘Right now we’re in Nelson’s Bay; we just played Newcastle the last two nights,’ replies Dale when I suggest that he must be used to life on the road. ‘We’re originally from Byron Bay, and I think in the last two years we’ve maybe been there three months! But you get itchy feet at home after two weeks… at least, I do,’ he laughs. ‘We love what we

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With their live shows incorporating everything from electric guitar, mandolin and harmonica to sampled loops and a live drum kit, I’m curious to ask Dale more about the duo’s self-described ‘surf-folk’ style, as well as the logistics involved with playing all the instruments live.

‘I’ve always lived by the beach surfing, but we first heard that label when we were touring overseas,’ he explains. ‘At the time we thought it was an interesting description, but then we got a bit more into that tag. Josie has her electric guitar running through a big amp, so that makes it a bit surf. It’s interesting, because we don’t actually see ourselves as that ‘folky’, we think we’re a lot closer to indie pop. We both love pop songs and good melodies.

‘Live, Josie is making loops out of her guitar and vocals while I’m playing acoustic guitar and drums with my feet, so there’s a lot to keep track of,’ Dale continues. ‘We’ve been trying to work out how much we can do with just the two of us and we’re confident that we’ve cracked it now, people are dancing. The songs definitely evolve as the tour goes on. Mind you, you have to be in the absolute state of Zen or it all falls apart on stage,’ he laughs. ‘People have told us to use programming, but we just say “No way!” Live all the way!’

The Firetree play The Front Gallery and Café on Monday January 28.

7:30pm. $8 door.

DEPARTING THE WEBB zoya patel 2013 is going to be the year of the song for DAN WEBB. The Melbourne singer-songwriter will be offering up one new track each month for free download to his fans as he prepares to launch his debut album later in the year.

The idea of releasing the 12 songs for free throughout the year occurred to Webb out of the blue one day. Having already decided to record demos to submit to producers to work on his album, Webb put together a band to start rehearsing. When they got going, he realised the recordings sounded good enough to release, albeit not as the final album.

I guess it would be nice to be a millionaire

‘It’s a chance to get some feedback from our fans and it’s also a chance to hype things up before the album comes out,’ Webb explains. ‘I need to get as much help as I can get, being an independent musician!’

Doesn’t seem like a bit of a double-up though, to be recording songs throughout the year and then also working on an album separately? I asked Webb if the free download tracks might appear on the album as well. ‘It’s sort of in the hands of the website, I guess. If the feedback is positive, then some of the songs will be re-recorded, but they’re sort of just a little preview of what I’m writing at the moment.’

Well, they certainly will provide a good snapshot of the music Webb is creating. The January song, Departure, features Kylie Auldist (The Bamboos) on co-vocals and is a rollicking keyboard-driven tune.

Webb is about to hit the road on his biggest national tour yet, but unlike his usual live shows, where things often get a little crazy, this time it’s a solo tour.

‘It should be a bit different this time. I’ll be behind my vintage keyboard and you can’t really rock out like I would with my band behind me,’ he admits. That said, there is still bound to be dancing, at least in the audience.

Fans can expect to hear a lot of Webb’s new stuff on the tour, and even some sneak previews of tracks that will be released in later months of the year. ‘I’ve just finished writing a bunch of songs, and I haven’t played a show in a couple of months now. It’s basically a whole new set list,’ Webb says. ‘It’ll be like a “best of” of what we’ve got going on at the moment.’

And as for making money? Well, Webb is a bit of a realist when it comes to actually drawing an income from his music. ‘I guess it would be nice to be a millionaire, but the reality is that people are going to probably download it for free anyway.’ True that.

Dan Webb will play The Front Gallery and Café on Friday January 25 with Elisha Bones. 8:30pm. $10 door.

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A LITTLE OLDER peter o’rourke Melbournian band LITTLE WISE are about to head out on their first interstate tour, with Canberra playing host to the opening gig at The Front on Friday February 1. Fronted by singer-songwriter Sophie Klein, Little Wise draw on a mixture of sounds including folk, roots, blues, rock and soul, in the style of The Waifs, Angus and Julia Stone or Paul Kelly.

The group’s debut EP, Moments of Clarity, was released in May and recorded with a range of musicians from the touring band as well as others from the Melbourne music scene. Speaking to songwriter Sophie Klein I asked if working with a band has had much of an impact on the way she writes her music. ‘Yeah, it’s had a huge impact on my music. It’s much more of a collaboration. I still write most of the lyrics, while we all contribute to the music – even our drummer comes up with some of our best riffs.’

Now they’re banned from asking about the lyrics

According to Sophie, it’s much easier to write about personal experiences for her songs, and try to make them relevant for the listener. However, she does admire the ability of some of her heroes like Paul Kelly to write from the third person (and about characters), which she hopes to do. She says it’s always easier to perform in front of a room full of strangers than her close friends. ‘When I first started my parents would often come and see me play, but then comment on specific lyrics and ask what they were about which was sometimes tricky – now they’re banned from asking about the lyrics!’

So when can we expect an album? ‘It doesn’t seem that long ago since we recorded the EP, but it’s already been quite a few months.

Hopefully we’ll be working on an album halfway through the year.’

Little Wise have been gigging constantly around Melbourne, as well as taking their show to parts of rural Victoria. ‘There’s a really strong network of bands in Melbourne, lots of little music communities,’ says Sophie. ‘It can be hard though because the music scene in Melbourne is so big, and there’s a lot of competition.’

She says bands have to be careful not to fall into the trap of playing free gigs all the time, which can come with the competition. ‘Some venues say it’s a great way to get your music out there – which it is – but you wouldn’t ask a chef to always cook for free to get customers to try their food!’ So what’s most important part of a Little Wise show? ‘Well, we try to play as tightly together as possible, but making sure the crowd gets involved, sings along and has a good time is crucial. Strangely it often seems to be easier to “wow” an audience in a rural setting than in Melbourne.’

Little Wise perform at The Front Gallery and Café in Lyneham on Friday February 1 with Sidney Creswick and Jude Kohn in support. 8pm. $10 door.

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DANCE THE DROP

Your eyes slither open like sickly clams, your lips retract with instant and morbid disgust. The first pungent breath of the day delivers a swift fist of rank realism. You fight your way towards vertical, palming your way down a familiar corridor, seeming now so unfamiliar and stale, towards the bathroom. Your soulless hands limply fondle for a switch on the wall, the bulb exploding in a shimmering wave of white and blinding light that exposes your repulsive mug. ‘My god, what have I become,’ you mutter in horror. I’ll bet that most of you will have had a similar experience on the first day of January; if you did not then I recommend a more aggressive party plan for New Years Eve 2013.

Now that we have all had time to laugh off our fragile New Years promise of sleeping more and drinking less, January has generously offered to provide us with a relative smorgasbord of resolutionbusting summer parties. The name Marlo is enough to make any trance fan froth at the mouth like a rabid dog with a muzzle full of dissolvable aspirin. The Dutch-born Australian resident returns to the Academy main room on Friday January 18 and if his last appearance is anything to go by it should be a rather crazy evening.

Sticking with the same theme, local musical mercenary Simon Palajda is debuting his latest regular local party Trance Answer on Friday January 25 at The Clubhouse. The inaugural event is headlined by Sydney double Nick Arbor and Thomas Knight, with locals Peekz, Solsta, Simon Palajda, Faken Switch and Dead Serious providing ample support.

The Australia Day long weekend is the perfect time for you to forget that you have any kind of responsibilities the following week and Trinity Bar has volunteered to be your partner in crime with a massive funky house line-up on Sunday January 27. 2 Bears (Raf Daddy DJ Set) & Tyler Touché (Baguette National Tour) take care of headline duties and Hugh Barrenger, Eldred, Fro & Mo DJs, B!TMORE, JK Rollin’ and Amine Allali will be there to mop things up.

Amazingly, this party is free before 6pm, so get in early!

2012 was a huge year for alleged shaven wookie Emoh Instead and king of the club kids Flume as solo artists, but they also tasted a heap of lip-smacking success with their club duo What So Not. It is in this guise that the lads provide 2013’s first Drop Top 5.

1. Sango – Owe Me (Ta-ku Remix) [Unreleased] – So much love for Ta-ku. Organic trap with soul. Big chords over the drop, this one’s big.

2. Flume – Stay Close [Future Classic] – Favourite track off Harley’s album. Smooth emotional vibe. Killer electric piano bassline. Great vocal pitching and hooks.

3. Eprom – Hurricane [Unreleased] – This tune is boss. Wacked rising bass. Huge ghetto vocal loop. Hard-hitting lazy hip hop percussion.

4. Branchez – Treat You Right [Unreleased] – Big transposed vocal hook (I think an MJ sample). Ecstatic trap percussion. Massive amount of energy in this track. Makes the club move, that’s for sure.

5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis x Mele – Thrift Shop (Emoh Instead Edit) [Unreleased] – Loved this original. Made this edit for a bigger club-friendly vibe. Went off at Stereosonic!

TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

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THE REALNESS Happy new year! Hope you all had an excellent holiday period and are suitably greased up for a year of fresh new music. Now, without too much fanfare or an inflated sense of self-importance, this will be my last ‘The Realness’ column for BMA. I have been writing for BMA for over a decade and have enjoyed sharing my obsessive passion for hip hop and electronic music over the years. While the sounds have changed and styles have developed over the years, my voracious appetite for music has remained the same (if not grown) and I look forward to continuing to share these passions with new endeavours online in 2013 and beyond (keep your eyes on the BMA website!). To go out on, though, I thought it might be nice to reflect on some pivotal tunes that have been released during the period that I’ve been writing for BMA. These tunes really epitomise what ‘The Realness’ has been all about.

They marked new sonic territory at the time of their release and are now considered timeless. Some are older, some are more recent, but all are essential listening and will have you coming back to them time and time again. In no particular order: J.Dilla – Two Can Win Vintage Dilla from his much loved Donuts album on Stones Throw.

Dusted summer soul music. The legend lives on.

Roots Manuva – Motion 5000 The first Manuva tune I ever heard. Beautiful, poetic and the perfect introduction to one of my now-favourite artists.

Gang Starr – Skills Guru and Premier’s returned in 2003 with The Ownerz LP (their last

roshambo he was the best of us

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studio record together). A choice slice of infectiously juicy boombap funk.

Calyx + Teebee – The Divide Deadly neuro-bidness from two dons of D&B. Equal parts swoozy swagger and sharp precision. A big favourite of mine and the late DJ Escha (RIP) that received much praise in the column.

Addison Groove – Footcrab …footcrabfootcrabfootcrabfootcrab… Chicago footwork meets juke meet hip hop meets UK bass music meets the future. Anthem status! Prick up your ears, move your feet, throw yo bows.

Black Star – Definition Introducing the world to Mos and Kweli. I went crazy for this and most of the Rawkus material in its heyday.

Erykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know Could have picked any Badu tune, really – she helped usher in a new wave of R&B/soul music, paving the way for your Frank Oceans, Miguels, Jill Scotts et al.

Pegz & Reason – Every Show Quintessential local hip hop music before ‘Aussie hip hop’ was a household name, on commercials and headlining festivals.

Quasimoto – Come On Feet The ever prolific Madlib lets his alter-ego loose on the world and dares you to catch up. Don’t call it leftfield!

Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo Pure euphoria as dubstep evaporated into something new entirely.

Bass music? Post whatever? Do we need genre markings anyway?

That’s it from me. I urge you to keep checking BMA for all the latest on music happenings both local and international.

Keep supporting your local scene and buying the music you love.

And, importantly, keep your eyes peeled on these pages for some fresh blood who will continue to keep you posted on all things hip hop and electronica. Catch you on the next page. Peace out…ya bish!

ROSHAMBO AKA CED NADA - roshambizzle@yahoo.com.au

METALISE Greetings and welcome to the crazy busy start of the year that accompanies the impending arrival of Soundwave’s ‘Sidewaves’ shows. It’s been a great summer with the New Year already hosting killer shows from Cock‘n’Ball Torture and King Parrot. Speaking of King Parrot, if you haven’t seen the band’s Shit on the Liver film clip, you’re missing out, it’s probably, like, the best film clip by an Aussie band ever. [Ed: We concur. Watch here: youtube.com/ watch?v=cinvIr-O1k8.]

So this list of Sidewaves is just ridiculous, from Slayer with Anthrax and Kingdom of Sorrow on Monday February 25 at the Big Top in Sydney, to a very attractive Kyuss Lives! and Red Fang bill at The Metro on Wednesday February 27, there is more than enough going on to fill this column. If you missed out on a Soundwave ticket and shows from Linkin Park, Blink-182, Puscifer, Sum 41, Bring Me The Horizon, Deftones, Garbage, The Offspring, Emilie Autumn, Coheed & Cambria, Tomahawk, Bullet For My Valentine, Cypress Hill, Duff McKagan’s Loaded, Sick of It All or Sleeping With Sirens get you all funny in the duds, then get along to the soundwavetouring.com page and suss out the details.

On a vastly more underground festival front, the bands confirmed for the Melbourne leg of the Obscene Extreme world tour happening Fri-Sat April 12-13 this year continues to grow. Just confirmed to me last week (wasn’t even up on the website at that point)

is the astounding Birdflesh along with the already confirmed Rotten Sound and Japan’s Sete Star Sept rounding out the initial announcement of confirmed internationals. They’re being joined

by Blood Duster, Captain Cleanoff, Intense Hammer Rage, Kromosom, Split Teeth, The Day Everything Became Nothing, The Kill and Wolfe. Also announced is Flatus (pronounced fley-tus), a WA Carcass tribute band who focus on the first two gore-soaked records of the infamous 1987-89 period of England’s grind pioneers.

June’s Evil Invaders festival for Sydney has amazingly managed to form a one-off performance from Sydney all-time legends Buffalo, fronted by the amazing original front man Dave Tice. Also playing are Archgoat (Finland), Sadistic Intent (United States), Midnight (United States), Vassafor (New Zealand), Portal, Nocturnal Graves, Cauldron Black Ram, Inverloch, Grave Upheaval, Black Jesus, Sacriphyx, Whitehorse, Spire, Witchammer, Erebus Enthroned, Ignivomous, Hordes of the Black Cross, Bleakwood, Crone, Stand Alone, Kingdom of Decay and the reunited Cruciform playing their first show in 18 years.

Chronolyth are at The Basement on Saturday January 26 and then there is a HUGE show at The Basement on Friday February 15 and Saturday February 16 headlined by oft ACT visitors Frankenbok, Our Last Enemy, Witchgrinder, Deprivation, Breaking Orbit, House of Thumbs, Alice Through The Windshield Glass, Nobody Knew They Were Robots, Na Maza, Barrel of Monkeys, Tortured, Law of the Tongue, Renegade Peacock, Escape Syndrome, Perpetual End, Inside the Exterior, Hence the Testbed, Johnny Roadkill, Beneath the Tides and The Devilzwork. That’s a big couple of days!

Check out the Cacophemisms blog 2012 top ten lists and see you up the front this year.

JOSH NIXON - doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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Martin Ollman Homebake 2012

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Australia’s given me everything.

Born Scotsman, bred Australian.

A proud one

hundreds of small towns that litter the countryside.

‘I tour constantly and play lots of regional centres and country towns. Those people buy records like anyone else and deserve to be played to. I do what I love and try to make a connection with the audience.’

FIRST GENERATION OCKER justin hook Growing up in a regional town is tough. Canberra isn’t exactly the poorest town in Australia when it comes to access to culture, but we know firsthand the agony of rarely seeing 2600 on a tour schedule.

Spare a thought for the folk in Mildura or Mt Eliza who don’t have Sydney a quick trip down the Federal Highway. JIMMY BARNES, whether as a solo artist or fronting Cold Chisel, is no stranger to the

Barnes has been a working musician since the early ‘70s. As lead singer and rabble-rouser for Cold Chisel, Barnes had a fearful reputation for hard living that often distracted people from the music. Even though it’s found an eternal home on ‘Classic Rock’ FM radio programming, they are very weird songs; non-traditional rock songs that owed larger debts to jazz and R&B than Jimmy Page. As you’d expect, the authenticity that Barnes exudes is hard fought.

‘You can’t sit around worrying about your image. You just sit down and concentrate on your songs, live performance and everything else falls into place.’

But careers don’t drop from the sky, fully formed. ‘Everybody has to comprise. You have to know the line you’re straddling and accept you have to bend certain ways to be accessible. That’s about judgement calls. It’s not selling out. That’s what business and life is about. You bend to suit the circumstances.’

TV talent shows are part of circumstance these days. Mahalia Barnes, one of his many musical offspring, recently appeared on The Voice, and Jimmy Barnes was realistic about her involvement.

‘My daughter didn’t do the show as the only way to get into the business, it wasn’t a last ditch effort. It was just part of her experience of the industry. And TV is a part of the music industry at the moment. I support her on that.

That doesn’t mean I agree with the all the principles of it. Music isn’t a competition. Why not go out and take it on? But if you get all the success of X Factor or The Voice and can’t deal with it, you’re up shit creek. Do it for the right reasons; going out to do anything for the fame is pretty shallow.’

Barnes will be performing in Canberra as part of the Australia Day celebrations and captures the essence better than a plastic flag on a ute. ‘Australia’s given me everything. Born Scotsman, bred Australian. And a proud one. We make mistakes, battle and struggle but we are essentially good people.

And Australia Day is all about that.

Celebrating the beauty and the faults. If you don’t look at the faults you never make yourself better.’

Australia Day Celebrates Live will see Jimmy Barnes play alongside The Presets and more on the lawns of Parliament House on Friday January 25. The concert begins at 7:30pm and the event is free.

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FASPEED AHEAD! ALIstair Erskine The first time you listen to FASPEEDELAY’s album Ghost on the Waterfront, it’s a puzzle to pick what type of band they are. A puzzle that takes all seven songs to resolve. Instrumental rock band, but are they post something-or-other?

Are they math rock?

Psychedelic jam band? Yes. They are.

At no point do you feel like you need to write a part for the others

Bass player Don explains, ‘We started the band in the 2000s because we all felt constrained in certain ways from being in bands that were more straightforward, vocal-driven rock bands, and this was a release for us to focus on talking more with our music. We come from very different musical backgrounds, but are happy that we do overlap in rather interesting places.’

Faspeedelay seem structured and comfortable in their freneticism – as chaotic and freeform as the music gets, there is never a sense that the band is lost and trying to find its way back. Don suggests the nature of the band’s relationship is one of the key components to achieving that cohesiveness. ‘The best thing about being in Faspeedelay is that at no point do you feel like you need to write a part for the others – we come up with an idea for a song and then happily and easily flesh it out. It might take some time to actually get that idea into something that sounds good, but there isn’t really the foreboding task of having to write all the parts for everyone else – this makes us find the writing process really enjoyable.’

Ghost on the Waterfront starts with a burst of about six songs that all clock in at four minutes or under, and then finishes with two epics clocking in at 12 and seven minutes, respectively. Are the shows structured like this? Dom laughs, ‘Actually we have been playing so many shows that we have really been mixing it around a lot. Sometimes we will open with In the Zone – the 12-minute jam – other times leave it for second last and then finish with a song like Meditation to wrap it up. It really depends, and I think we would get frustrated if we just played the same show all the time.’

Coming to Canberra to play with local shoegaze legends The Longest Day, Don is a happy advocate of his last trip to the nation’s capital.

‘We were there last year in March and we played at The Front, which was a wonderful experience for us – it’s an unusual space and the crowd were really receptive and enthusiastic. You play around Melbourne to people who may see a lot of music and, even if they like it, are less effervescent in showing their appreciation, whereas we got a great reception in Canberra which was really great as it was our first show we had ever done outside of Victoria.’

Faspeedelay play with The Longest Day and Waterford on Straya Day, Saturday January 26 at The Phoenix Bar, 9:30pm. Entry is free. Their album Ghost on the Waterfront can be purchased at the shows and streamed at faspeedelay.net.

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PHOTOGRAPHY © DAVID B SIMMONDS

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

HARD TO SUMMIT ALL UP GRACE CARROLL What does the future look like for the arts in Australia and how can we enrich it? THE NATIONAL ARTS SUMMIT: ARTS QUEST – HEIGHTS & HOPES will tackle these questions and discuss key issues regarding the teaching and practising of the arts in Australia.

The Summit’s theme, ‘Living and Learning Creatively – Shaping Our Future Together’, encapsulates this ambitious agenda. Scheduled to take place on Tuesday February 12 at Llewellyn Hall, the Summit boasts a rich program of speakers and performers, from poets to politicians and students to professional dancers. I had a chat with Creative Director (and Summit participant) Liz Lea to find out more about Arts Quest and the Australian Talented Youth Project behind it.

Mentorship is a key objective of Arts Quest – Heights and Hopes. Dr Jolanta Gallagher, Vice-Chair of the Australian Talented Youth Project and driving force behind the Summit, wanted Arts Quest to focus on cross-mentoring.

As Lea explained, Gallagher ‘devised this idea of celebrating three generations’. This encompasses young people, those established in their careers and the older generation, with each group united by their pursuit of a professional career within the arts. The Summit, Lea added, ‘provides an opportunity for younger people to meet older people in their field.’ The event is not aimed only at the young, she continued, but is also based on ‘the concept of people being able to mentor one another.’ Such contact can provide the crucial connections which propel young people forward on their artistic journey. They also offer an opportunity for established artistic figures to learn from the younger generation and reinvigorate their own practice.

The impressive program of the National Arts Summit features major creative figures from different artistic fields. These range from the acclaimed poet Les Murray to rock star cum politician, the Hon. Peter Garrett. Other speakers include the former Governor General Sir William Deane, Canberra Centenary Artistic Director Robyn Archer, and conductor Richard Gill, among others. These high-profile participants are complemented by an exciting artistic program, which includes Blue Bird, a dance performance by Lea, poetry readings and musical performances. Reflecting the cross-generational theme of the Summit, performers will range from those still learning their respective crafts to those with long performing careers behind them.

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Arts Quest is more than a celebration of the thriving creative environment in Australia, it aims to provide recommendations to shape its future.

Arts Quest is more than a celebration of the thriving creative environment in Australia – it aims to provide recommendations to shape its future. Bringing three generations of artists together to work towards the National Cultural Policy development is the key objective of Arts Quest – Heights and Hopes. Gallagher wanted to focus on the challenges and aspirations of the artists in the light of the National Arts Survey she designed.

The outcomes of the National Arts Survey will be discussed during the Summit, presented by ArtsHub. This survey asked participants two questions concerning the arts at both a national and local level: What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges for the artists and the arts today?; and, What changes would you like to see in the future and how do you think they can be achieved?

The results of these timely questions will help shape key recommendations for National Cultural Policy development. A live streamed Q&A panel discussion facilitated by popular radio personality Christopher Lawrence, MC of the Summit, will contribute to this discussion. (It is not too late to respond to the National Arts Survey. Head to surveymonkey.com/s/National_Arts_Survey to have your say.)

It seems fitting that Canberra, as it celebrates its Centenary year, is the host of The National Arts Summit, Arts Quest – Heights and Hopes. ‘One of the themes is “Thank you, Canberra”,’ Lea observed, adding that ‘Canberra is a good place to come, learn and grow.’

Composed of talks, panel discussion and performances, the program embodies the Summit’s theme of ‘Living and Learning Creatively – Shaping Our Future Together’. To be sure, those attending the Summit are promised an opportunity to come, learn and grow alongside arts practitioners and enthusiasts of all ages.

The National Arts Summit: Arts Quest – Heights and Hopes will take place on Tuesday February 12 at Llewellyn Hall, Australian National University. Head to atyp.org/hello-world for more information about the Summit and to purchase tickets.

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LITERATURE IN REVIEW The Long Earth Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter [Doubleday; 2012] There are an infinite number of empty parallel Earths, all in a row, and anyone can step into them with the flick of a switch and a simple device powered by a potato.

The product of a collaboration between the noted fantasy humorist Sir Terrence of Pratchett and prolific sci-fi staple Stephen Baxter, the book explores a world – excuse me, worlds – in which all scarcity has been taken away. What will humanity do when faced with limitless resources?

The Long Earth is a departure from the norm of parallel universe tropes in a couple of ways: the technology is hand-wavingly simple, and anyone can build and use it, so the focus is not on the how but the why and what’s out there. Humanity, not unexpectedly, spreads like a virus through the long earth, colonising and mining and taxing and legislating and making t-shirts. The world economy crashes and nobody really cares. We get glimpses of the way peoples’ lives have changed: a police officer trying to fight crime over infinite dimensions, a politician throwing in the whole concept of ‘nation’ and legging it to somewhere unsettled, a young family who leaves behind their 13-year-old ‘phobic’ son to step 100,000 worlds away, one step at a time.

However, the storyline that had the most potential turned out to be the weakest thread of the novel. Joshua Valiente is recruited by

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Lobsang – a fantastically wealthy artificial intelligence reputed to be a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle mechanic, thanks, P-Terry – to explore the upper reaches of the ‘Meggers’, or worlds further than one million steps away.

The Long Earth is described in rich and occasionally hilarious detail as Pratchett extends his sense of whimsy and Baxter flexes his alternate-evolution muscles, but the fascination and wonder of discovery is lost beneath pages upon pages of dry conceptual conversation. While there is a mystery and eventually a threat out in the Meggers, the actual plot is introduced too late and never quite manages to drum up any tension, and the resolution gets lost.

The world-building is excellent, detailed and unexpected, and some of the subplots and their implications are fascinating, but the main plot is thin and contrived and seems to be a vehicle for the authors to tell us their feelings about things. It makes for a good read, with an original premise and strong prose, but probably not second go around. emma grist

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Growing up in Tumut, I used to ride my push bike to the river to swim on hot days. By the time I rode back home, I was twice as hot as when I left. But I always forgot about that before the next weekend.

Even then, I treated the glorious Tumut River and Blowering Dam as little more than giant bathtubs to sit in.

Dear Weetbix, I went for a swim yesterday.

I should never be allowed to use those words because I am a terrible swimmer. I go for a swim the way a hippopotamus does, except I move less and am less interesting to watch – no nature documentary is filming me any time soon.

‘The middle-aged male sits in place, his rolls of fat barely contained by a Superman rash vest. He will just sit under the shade cloth for hours, occasionally dunking his head under the water. As we see, he now moves around the pool – not swimming – he’s just walking around in the water. This is probably so he can pee in the pool without drawing the attention of others.’

The first time I remember going swimming was in a pool at a caravan park, and I almost drowned.

My big sister jumped in to save me and my drowning brain decided the best way not drown was to drown my sister by pushing her under the water and climbing up onto her shoulders. Mum arrived moments later and saw all the splashing and she thought the best thing to do was to jump in, smack us both and throw us out of the pool. Fair call, I guess: if you get smacked for not doing homework or saying the wrong thing around a dinner guest, attempting to drown a sister definitely deserves a smack.

It was cool catching up with my friends yesterday, and given that the temperature was high thirties again, hanging out in a pool was the perfect way to do it.

I still had some feelings of self-consciousness, even though I had a rash vest on. Sun Smart has thankfully made men wearing tops into pools more socially acceptable, and I also burn badly and quickly, but I remember growing up that I would get picked on for wearing a shirt in the water – kids always knew I was doing more to protect myself from their taunts than the sun’s rays. I know I’ll always look more like Free Willy coming out of the water than Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Heck, I once lost a swimming race to a dog. But in my defence, they do have a whole style of swimming named after them. I may not have exercised much, but leaving the couch was still a win. But that might be another thought from my brain’s collection of: ‘Things Fat People Think’.

I’d like to change my relationship with water. I mean, from nearly drowning as a child and losing a swimming race to a Labrador, right up until a year ago when a woman accidentally punched me in the face at an Aqua Aerobics class – there aren’t a lot of positive experiences there. But I love sitting in water, and I’m really good at it. jay sullivan - Jay is the Artistic Director of the Canberra Comedy Festival, which will be held Tue-Sat March 19-23. See canberracomedyfestival.com. au for tix/info. This edition of LOLcol comes from Jay’s blog, dearweetbix.com.au, in which he takes studied advantage of Weetbix’s offer to contact them if you are not completely satisfied.

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ARTISTPROFILE: Rebecca Hanrahan

What do you do? I make drawings, paintings and prints, sometimes 3D artwork. I also have an interesting day job. I work with highachieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, increasing university entrance.

When, how and why did you get into it? I graduated from Printmaking and Drawing at ANU ten years ago. I have always made art and my family are very supportive. Canberra School of Art was a buzz. I loved it. I taught art in Canberra high schools for five years and it has been exciting seeing my ex-students graduate.

Who or what influences you as an artist? Stories inspire me. I love listening to peoples’ adventures and the way a story grows and gets better (or worse) with time. Everyday things around me drive my artwork, including my garden, family mishaps, objects with a story and spaces full of energy. I am always looking at others’ artwork.

I am loving Jemima Wyman, Josh Smith and Louise Bougeois.

Of what are you proudest so far? Our garden; it had great bones and was well designed. It is a work in progress.

What are your plans for the future? No plans. I will always be making art, no rest for the wicked; I want to do more travel. In the short term I am trying to toilet train our puppy.

What makes you laugh? My work colleagues are very funny. My brothers and my family also make me laugh.

What pisses you off? Too much to write here.

What about the local scene would you change? There are a lot of people doing exciting things, some incredible venues and facilities. Canberra is coming into her own. I would love to see more confidence in this town.

Upcoming exhibitions? A group show opening Saturday February 9 at The Gallery, Canberra Grammar School, and something fresh for the next Art, Not Apart, Saturday March 16 at NewActon.

Contact Info: HanrahanRebecca@gmail.com

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bit PARTS LAIR OF OPULENCE WHAT: Oriental-Themed Cabaret/Burlesque WHEN: Thu Jan 24 WHERE: Hippo Bar Sarina del Fuego and Madame Deang Finn welcome you to come and chase the dragon in Canberra’s opium den.

A night of tales from the Orient with exotic burlesque will transform Hippo Bar into a sultry sensual sanctuary. The hosts invite you to enter a trance with their mesmerizing variety of songs from the Opium Madame and a temptress delivering dreamlike burlesque performances.

Having graced the Canberra burlesque scene before, the group returns with Lair of Opulence and it should deliver. Reserved seating has already sold out so try to nab $10 tickets for general admission. See lairofopulence.eventbrite.com.au for tickets.

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NIDA WHAT: Summer Short Course WHEN: Mon Jan 21-Sun Jan 27 WHERE: Canberra Theatre Centre Looking to get a little dramatic summer? For the total noob or the seasoned pro, NIDA is offering an Open Summer Short Course program in Canberra this January. Not simply for the basic stage folk there are a range of courses available. There are activities that cater to 9-11 year-olds and 12-15 year-olds with more intensive skillsfocused drama programs offered for 16+. Courses run for five days during the week or two days over the weekend. All classes taught

by NIDA tutors (so ya know it’s legit). Early bird discounts apply so check out nida.edu.au or phone (02) 9697 7626 for all the course details and enrolment info.

YOUR COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY WHAT: Art Exhibition WHEN: Thu Jan 24-Sun Feb 10 WHERE: M16 Artspace Angharad Dean came to Canberra in 1990 and has made it her home; her exhibition of vibrant paintings, in celebration of Canberra’s centenary, speaks of her country, our country. The exhibition is inspired by the Australian light, colour and landscape and by Dorothea McKellar’s poem, My Country. The work in the exhibition includes local Canberra landscapes as well as paintings from two inspirational trips to the heart of country out in the wilderness near Alice Springs. From sweeping plains to ragged mountain ranges Canberra epitomises Dorothea McKellar’s country. The exhibition opening is on Thursday January 24, 6pm, and it will show 12-5pm Wed-Sun. CANBERRA DANCE THEATRE WHAT: Summer Programs WHEN: Mon Jan 28-Sun Feb 3 WHERE: QL2 Studio, Gorman House & CDT Studios, Civic Canberra Dance Theatre is giving people the opportunity to stay dancing all summer long. Classes such as Advanced Contemporary and Elementary Ballet are provided this summer for intermediates and beginners. As is a week-long intensive course, where all are welcome, for the GOLD Over-55 Company to prep for June’s performances at the National Gallery of Australia. Also on in early February they’re offering an intensive two-day course hoping to teach a range of traditional African dance and drumming. Schedules and class prices vary so check out canberradancetheatre.org for all the info including times, fees and structure.

NEARLY BIRDS WHAT: Art Exhibition WHEN: Fri Jan 18-Sun Feb 3 WHERE: Belconnen Arts Centre The Belconnen Arts Centre will be launching their 2013 season with this stunning collection of significant new works by challenging local artists. Nearly Birds brings together various mediums that explore themes of transience and grace as well as focusing on the life span of human beings. It will feature photography, sculpture and poetry from artists Victoria Royds, Paul Hetherington and Judith Crispin, with individual as well as collaborative pieces which will highlight the vulnerability and courage of human beings as we face the inevitability of death. All are welcome. 10:00am-5pm Tues-Sun. Please RSVP to the Belconnen Arts Centre for the opening on Friday January 18, 6pm, and see belconnenartscentre.com.au for full details.

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KICK UP YOUR HEELS WHAT: Social Dance Series WHEN: Sat Feb 2 WHERE: Yarralumla Woolshed Ever wanted to dance your way through Canberra’s opulent history?

No? Me neither! Ha. Jk. Here is your chance!The Centenary of Canberra celebrations will go all year if you join the Century of Social Dance programme. An authentic tailored series of dances representing the progression of dance styles through the decades.

The series kicks off in the 1900s with this Shearer’s Ball at the Yarralumla Woolshed hosted by Monaro Folk Society. Franklyn B. Paverty will be providing music for the evening and guests are encouraged to bring a plate to share in true Bush Dance tradition.

Tickets range from $10-$30 so email shearersball@hotmail.com for tickets and see socandance.org.au for all the details.

bands mentioned I’ve continued to put off listening to in any depth because I didn’t find them engaging to begin with.

UNINHIBITED You’ve probably got a few guilty pleasures lurking in your music collection. Maybe a little Kaiser Chiefs, a handful of overblown Muse tracks or an album’s worth of Mumford & Sons’ tunes-to-wearwaistcoats-to. But what about guilty non-pleasures? Those bands you don’t like as much as you feel you should.

I was forced to think about this when the music critic’s dream line-up for this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties was released. The announcement excited the shit out of tasteful folk everywhere but threatened to expose me as an indie rock heretic at the same time.

This was because the list contains a bloody large portion of my guiltiest non-pleasures, including: Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Einsturzende Neubaten and the near-mythical My Bloody Valentine.

Friends feverishly exchanged emails that day and the gig soon shaped up to resemble a reunion of Canberra musician expats. But while folk were borrowing cash or putting off eating for a week or two to get tickets, I waited for the excitement to dissipate in the hope no one would notice I hadn’t committed to anything.

It’s not that I don’t particularly like MBV, it’s just that their classic album Loveless sounds to me like a less engaging take on Dinosaur Jr.’s pop-song-lying-under-earbleeding-volume shtick. And the other

While I’m committing credibility suicide, I may as well tell you I’m not that enamoured with Joy Division. A few great songs, an excellent aesthetic but… meh.

Other bands I’ve not been fussed with over the years include Gang of Four, Tortoise, Refused, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.

All that said, I feel more guilt about not liking one particular band as much as I should than all the rest put together. The guiltiest nonpleasure of all? Fugazi. Don’t get me wrong, I agree the clip of Fugazi playing Turnover in a Washington park on a cold day in 1991 records is the greatest moment in rock history. And I love how I picked up a Fugazi record nearly 20 years ago and thought, ‘This isn’t fucking punk!’ and realised later it was punker than any of the Southern California blitzkrieg pop I was listening to at the time.

It’s just that I don’t think Fugazi is the greatest rock band of all time. And, to be totally honest, I’ve listened to the Counting Crows’ August and Everything After about 286 times more than In on the Killtaker – which is like saying I enjoy skateboarding but much prefer to rollerblade.

Yes, Fugazi is innovative, incredible live and the band where the hip and the punk meet. But it was also Fugazi that brought us the words – ‘We are all bigots, so filled with hatred, we release our poison... like Styrofoam’.

That’s right folks, like Styrofoam.

Pete Huet petehuet@yahoo.com

35

the word

on albums

album of the issue

A$AP ROCKY LONG.LIVE.A$AP [A$AP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA Records]

It would have been easy for Long.Live.A$AP to have been crushed under the weight of its own hype.

Even before the release of A$AP Rocky’s first collection of tracks – 2011’s tight, assured and enthusiastically received mixtape Live.

Love.A$AP – news of Rocky’s huge $3 million record label deal fuelled heightened anticipation of his debut studio album, while seemingly endless release delays bred scepticism and doubt as to whether he would ever deliver. Now Long.Live.

A$AP has finally arrived, and its vast, tastefully layered and intuitively produced soundscape sees Rocky adroitly marshalling a formidable range of guest artists and producers to spit his refined, intricately varied and utterly captivating style straight back in the faces of the sceptics.

Rocky is supremely confident, a self-professed ‘artiste’ who revels in taking a hands-on approach to the nuance of production, and the control and touch he exerts shows through in Long.Live.

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A$AP’s mature, deliberate progression of sound. On the title track opener, and through to tracks Goldie and PMW (All I Really Need), Rocky layers a heavy, viscous, captivating aural smog, his easy rapping flow pairing with the heavy, loping beat to tie it all together and complete a sound that is both sublimely measured and effortless. This addictively thick soundscape expands into Hell, where Santigold guests, providing her unmistakable vocals to perfectly round out the hook, as well as later album highlight, the beautifully lush and engrossing Danger Mouse-produced Phoenix.

Rocky kicks the pace up several notches at the album’s midpoint, showing his considerable artistic range by managing to convincingly pull off the Skrillex-produced Wild For The Night. Long.Live.

A$AP hits its substantial peak with 1 Train, a sprawling, engrossing hip hop roll-call to the likes of Kendrick, Danny Brown, Action Bronson and Big K.R.I.T. It is significant that amongst all these names Rocky stands tall, cementing his place as New York’s newest consummate hip hop artisan and collaborator.

DAVID SMITH

jonny telafone jonny telafone [Chapter Music]

kora light years [remote control]

Ex-Canberra lad made good Jonny Telafone has been crafting catchy pop for five years, with many of his songs coming out on local label Dream Damage. Now Melbourne-based, his diabolical gift for creating tunes that embed themselves in your subconscious, armed only with some bedroom electronica, a doona and a bedside lamp, has been celebrated with this cornucopia of goodies. The CD is accompanied by a vinyl EP, so all those who get their kicks from resorting to some of last century’s technology will have their fun too. Themes vary from the apocalyptic Stardate to the whimsical Pitter Patter.

There’s no doubting Jonny’s strongest work is inspired by the most extreme themes.

Make Your Pussy Cum is the sexiest song around since On Inc’s The Rhythm Flavour.

The mesmerising Burning Hot Like Jesus Was can be an unsettling listen, in the manner in which the crucifixion is translated to electro-pop. As a track, it cannot be faulted, with its chant-like lyrics and spellbinding rhythm.

(However, as a Christian, I find it sacrilegious.) The back tracks are joined by two new songs, the quality of which demonstrates Jonny is not resting on the laurels of his past work. Spirit Man is especially powerful, embossed with the authority of menace and mystery, complete with a lonely whistle like an old Spaghetti Western. This is a magnetic collection of adventure, imagination and riveting cadences; the lyrics are just as striking as the music.

New Zealand-based experimental funk collective Kora managed to turn a few heads with their 2007 debut self-titled album, a genremashing listen that saw them venturing between funk, metal, hip hop and reggae. Five years on, this second album Light Years sees the five-piece, centred around Dan McGruer and brothers Laughton, Francis, Stuart and Brad Kora, eschewing guitars completely in favour of electronics, and constructing a fusion of R&B, soul and electronics they describe as ‘alien funk’.

Whatever the case, it’s a sonic shift that’s led to a much more expansive sound on the ten tracks collected here, centred around huge sweeping synths, bass drops and clean, soaring R&B vocals. Opening track Little Star fuses a creeping dubstep undercarriage to twinkling echo-laden piano keys and crooned soul harmonies in an offering that calls to mind a more Motown-fixated Joker, while the glittery Story Ain’t Over ushers in the kind of ‘80s synth-pop that practically drips Paisley Park, all falsetto vocals and jittery synth arpeggios.

Dream Life meanwhile offers up a side-trip into 8-bit arcade game synths and crunked out beats that offers up one of this album’s most interesting moments as Nintendo-esque effects burble against a vaguely D’Angelo-esque soul vocal.

While there are plenty of interesting moments though, an overtly commercial R&B aesthetic dominates, with some truly cringeworthy lyrics adding too much syrup at points.

RORY McCARTNEY

CHRIS DOWNTON

san cisco san cisco [alberts/mgm]

pataphysics subversive [9 Gates/Creative Vibes]

after the fall bittersweet [mgm]

yo la tengo fade [matador]

Fremantle-based San Cisco is a band which has repeatedly (and somewhat nauseatingly) been described by on-air announcers and other bands as cute, very cute and (wait for it) so cute!

This was on the strength of their live performances and on a (admittedly cute) song in the 2011 Hottest 100. However, such gushing praise does not the basis for a sound musical career make, and the acid test has arrived with their debut long player.

Melbourne-based producer/ MC/horn player/songwriter Pataphysics (real name Pat Marks) is a guy who’s in high demand. Over the last few years he’s contributed to Speech DeBelle’s Mercury Prizewinning album and produced for the likes of Roots Manuva, 360 and Pez, a schedule that explains why it’s taken him so long to release this debut solo album, Subversive. As you’d expect given Marks’ brassplaying background, there’s a noticeably jazzy, laidback feel to the backings behind the 13 tracks here, with the more soulful vibes welded to a classic old school boom-bap beat aesthetic. Throughout, Marks focuses his lyrical aim on subjects ranging from Australia’s anti-terrorist laws (on the ragga-funk infused Explicit Treason, which calls to mind shades of The Herbaliser at points) through to the loss of independence experienced

by Indigenous communities under the Northern Territory Intervention on Direct Action, which shifts from a synthheavy hip hop crawl into fluid p-funk bass grooves over its running length. Elsewhere, Over offers up a slide down into deep, double-bass driven Ninja Tune-esque blunted grooves, complete with Vida Sunshyne draping her playful soul chanteuse backing vocals over Marks’ fluid rhymes, before Jungle sees Dead Prez’s Stic Man providing an appropriately gritty verbal foil amidst a sinister backdrop of Middle Eastern instrumentation and snapping MPC kicks. A strong, conscious debut worth the wait.

In the mid 2000s After the Fall were riding the crest of the Aussie garage band wave, along with fellow juggernauts such as Gyroscope. Hits like Mirror Mirror and Concrete Boots received frequent airtime and ATF counted among my favourite live bands. Gyroscope became rock legends while ATF disappeared from our collective consciousness. I thought they’d all died off but was pleased to hear that not only were they touring again (even if not to the ACT), but the Central Coast quartet had released a fourth album. Would this be more soul-stirring stuff, or a pale, aged shadow of their former furious riffage? The first half of the CD suggests the latter as, while the opener Same Old Thing resonates with the remembered ATF sound, a couple of early tracks display a blandness that creeps dangerously close to the featureless Gobi Desert of commercial mainstream rock. The unfortunately named The Fire is Gone suggests that the band has lost its spark.

But that’s just a speed bump in the tracklist as the wellloved trademark urge kicks back in from the title track onwards. The second half of the disk contains the main goodies, with the expected vivacious edginess delivered in spades. Lost it Again is the standout song, with Daniel Sanders projecting a more ragged edge to his voice, matched by grinding guitars.

Other highlights are Dirty Sheets, which carries the right degree of desperation, and the outrage-fuelled Never There.

It’s tough to review Yo La Tengo records because they present the antithesis to the snarky criticism some of us like to write. They are consistent. What a boring word. And hence, even though they’re consistently great, they don’t offer hooks a critic can hang his coat on.

CHRIS DOWNTON

RORY McCARTNEY

Opening track Beach wins hearts and minds from the get go, with the smooth pop glory of layered keyboards embellished with the childlike voice of Scarlett Stevens. There’s a certain engaging innocence in the vocals of the band, plus a stylish puckishness that gives them the irresistible appeal of a sad-eyed puppy. The themes of getting into strife and trouble in love and life, delivered in their vibrant, quirky manner, offer a fresh-faced appeal. San Cisco is at their best in songs like Lyall, all frivolous fun and more energy than a litre of red food colouring. Metaphors, another highlight, sees bewitching vocals that carry some of the sophistication of fellow indie-poppers Alpine. The deluxe version of the album has a second disk with favourites from their two EPs. This album demonstrates a noticeable leap in quality over their early recordings. Want proof? Then listen to the keys in Nepal. Best of all, they’ve accomplished this leap without surrendering their signature sound.

RORY McCARTNEY

Fade is YLT’s 13th LP, retaining the same personnel they’ve had on deck since 1993, with only the inclusion of super-producer John McEntire (Tortoise) offering anything new of note.

And yet. What a refreshing sea breeze of a set this is.

Why should you buy this record over others? Because it’s better than almost everything in their catalogue (save for 1997’s perfect I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One), and YLT’s catalogue is a potted history of modern music at its peak.

Fade is in the vein of their gentler work and slides by effortlessly. The opening tune (Ohm) should serve as a template for how albums are opened, and the closing Before We Run is just as excellent.

In between are slabs of pop, pastoral folk and scuzzy drone that riff on aging and death, but feel light and positive.

I’ve no idea how Yo La Tengo maintain this level of quality, but no matter. We must accept that there is a quiet trio who live in Hoboken, doing music better than almost everyone else. Fade is simply the latest example thereof. Buy and listen to this record over and over. It’ll do you good.

GLEN MARTIN

37

the word

on films

WITH MELISSA WELLHAM

I’m sure Peter Jackson is a nice guy – although one suspects he’s a little pretentious. I’m sure he’s super interesting, and can talk a mile a minute, and has plenty of hilarious anecdotes about the hijinks that occurred while filming Lord of the Rings. (Like that one time with Orlando Bloom! In the bar! And the unfortunate prosthetics!) But despite this, he has got to be my least favourite talented director ever. Just… just… edit your films, Peter! Please!

Nobody has an attention span that long; and if they do, their bladder certainly isn’t that large.

quote of the issue “I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.” - Gandalf (Ian McKellen), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

the hobbit: An unexpected journey The Hobbit is exactly what you expect it’s going to be – unless you hadn’t yet heard that Tolkien’s rather slender children’s classic was being adapted into three (yes, three!) films instead of one, in which case you’ll be all, ‘Dude, what the fuck? That’s the end? They haven’t even [INSERT SPOILERS HERE] yet!’

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) leads a safe, small, Hobbit-like life – until he is unexpectedly recruited by Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) to join a troupe of thirteen dwarves led by legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.

Peter Jackson’s – and our – return to Middle-earth is visually resplendent. The art direction is delightful; the cinematography stunning; the lush, green landscapes glorious.

The ensemble cast of oddball dwarves, mismatched against Martin Freeman’s prudish and proper Bilbo Baggins, make for a few entertaining scenes. But this is not enough to hide that The Hobbit is a story stretched too thin. Even the addition of innumerable repetitive and pointless action sequences (though thankfully not as many as were featured in Jackson’s outrageously indulgent King Kong) cannot improve the pacing. The film stagnates, and the slowness robs the material of its magic.

The Hobbit may not be bad. But it is very, very disappointing.

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melissa wellham

Les Misérables

quartet

It’s possible that this film adaptation is only going to appeal to a select group: people who don’t have particularly strong feelings in either direction regarding the stage production; people who don’t hate operas and musicals anyway; and people who can tolerate Russell Crowe. Luckily I fall into all three categories, and so quite enjoyed Les Mis!

I admit, I had mixed feelings going into Quartet. Directed by Dustin Hoffman, I had mentally placed this film in the same category as last year’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – which some astute readers may recall I deemed to be a little, well, racist. Don’t worry, it’s not racist. But it’s also not very challenging.

It is 19th century France. Exprisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) has been hunted for decades by a ruthless and clearly obsessive policeman (Russell Crowe) because he broke parole. Valjean agrees to care for a dying prostitute’s (Anne Hathaway) daughter, Cosette, who grows into a beautiful young woman (Amanda Siegfried). Their lives change forever when Cosette falls in love with a revolutionary agitator, Marius (Eddie Redmayne). It’s a film of broken dreams! Blood! Passion!

Redemption! Anne Hathaway dying of tuberculosis! Okay, so Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech fame) gets a bit carried away with all the melodrama, and regular-ol-drama, and the swooping camera shots – but there is real emotion and power. Despite its pitfalls (e.g. Siegfried and Redmayne plaintively singing about their undying love for one another mere moments after meeting), there is enough to keep you enthralled. Jackman and Hathaway both turn in remarkable performances – and their scenes are so faultless that it seems unfair to concentrate on the flaws of the film otherwise. It’s cheesy, yes.

But it’s French. You’ve got to forgive a little cheese. melissa wellham

The film is set at Beecham House – a home for retired musicians – and follows the loud-mouthed and inappropriate Wilf (Billy Connolly), flighty Cissy (Pauline Collins), and Reggie (Tom Courtenay), who holds their little group together. But when their former singing partner and world-class star – not to mention Reggie’s ex-wife – Jean (Maggie Smith) moves into the house, they are shocked.

The characters must try and overcome old (not racially motivated!) prejudices, and work to discover whether the passage of time can heal old wounds.

It’s a congenial comedy-drama, which is charming at its best and slightly cloying at its worst. The pace is as sedate and leisurely as the average walking speed of the elderly cast. Quartet is heartwarming, but not hard-hitting – which is a shame, as I imagine actors like Smith could’ve done with something meatier to chew on, instead of creamed corn.

Quartet is fun, light, and features a seasoned cast of talented British veterans. It’s all very pleasant – and whether you think that sounds pleasing is a matter of personal taste. melissa wellham

the word on dvds

girls [warner home video] Now that the hype, backlash, backlash-to-the-backlash and acceptance into the cultural lexicon through its multiple award nominations have all played out, it’s much easier to watch Girls with clearer eyes.

In mid-2012 this HBO comedy – created, written and starring Lena Dunham – touched a raw nerve, and everything from the New York Review of Books down felt compelled to spill gallons of ink about what was, essentially, an inconsequential slice of hipster tedium through the prism of emergence into adulthood. The themes were rote: escaping the demons of youth, living with the expectations of your parents, searching for rent, should I dump him…and so on. For a voice heralded as unique, Dunham chose some very boring subjects to illustrate her worldview. But in her defence, she made it clear that’s all she knows. If her universe seemed to be free of ethnicity or real struggle, so what. Dunham laid all her inadequacies out bare (often sexually and awkwardly so) and there shouldn’t be any expectation for her to reflect multi-ethnic NYC through her stories. It was a show about rich kids in Brooklyn, for fuck’s sake.

Just know that going in.

The Sex and the City comparisons are somewhat laboured, but relevant.

Explicitly referenced – tongue in cheek, you’d hope – in a scene where a SATC poster hangs in the background, both shows revolve around a group of women talking about sex and having sex in New York. Both seemed to capture zeitgeist moments but whilst the former was a paean to consumerism (shows, clothes, men) and me-ism, Girls is messy and self-absorbed in a different, more bookish way. By season’s end these characters remained alien, their struggles mediocre.

I still didn’t care that much, but their world felt very real and despite falling well outside their demographic, season two is an attractive proposition. justin hook

metal evolution [Beyond Home Entertainment] When I first saw this series in the TV guide I thought it referred to something military related. When the penny dropped and I tuned in about halfway through episode three, the first image I saw was the bemused face of Geezer Butler, bassist for Black Sabbath, shortly followed by keyboardist Jon Lord from Deep Purple.

By around two seconds into episode four (on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal of the late 1970s), I was hooked. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Metal Evolution is a first-rate music doco. Smartly pieced together with engaging interviews and mouth-watering footage, this DVD set features all 11 episodes, each one focusing on a particular metal sub-genre. Presenter Sam Dunn and crew travel to key metal birthing destinations like Birmingham, Seattle and Detroit and interview around 300 metal heavy-hitters of note. The episode on thrash metal features interviews with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Slayer’s Kerry King and Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, and is good value if for no other reason than to compare Lars Ulrich’s sun-kissed Hollywood tan with footage of the band in 1982.

This same episode looks at how close-knit thrash scenes in San Francisco and Los Angeles were thrust into the mainstream with the arrival of Metallica’s Black Album in 1991; the delicate balancing act between underground cred and stadiums full to capacity is a running theme. When exploring the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s, Dunn speaks not only to key players like Mudhoney’s sardonic Mark Arm and king-hitters like Alice in Chains, but checks out others such as Creed and Nickelback, who achieved massive success by reconfiguring key grunge traits for a mainstream audience. There is little doubt this outstanding documentary was a labour of love and the viewer is all the better for it. dan bigna

america in primetime [madman] For most of its life the film industry has celebrated itself.

The golden era of Hollywood is remembered as a time when giants roamed the backlots and front pages. Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard obsessed over faded Hollywood glory – and that was 1950! Then there are classics like Singin’ in the Rain and more recently Hugo and The Artist; all inward-looking ‘film’ movies.

And that’s not counting the hundreds of docos, some just as good as their subject (Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now). Point is, Hollywood loves itself. Television, less so.

Traditionally the poorer, less glamorous cousin, it used to be that TV was for actors and writers on the way up or down; a career leveraging point or a graveyard of waning talent.

Then something happened and paradigms shifted. That thing was The Sopranos, and even though it wasn’t the first of its kind, it was the best and set off a chain reaction changing the type and way stories were told on the small screen. It helped create the ‘Golden Era of TV’ we currently live in.

America in Primetime captures every step of that journey with input from all the major players. David Chase, David Simon, Judd Apatow, Vince Gilligan, David Lynch, Mary Tyler Moore, Alec Baldwin and plenty more offer thoughtful and at times acidic ruminations on television; in one segment David Simon (The Wire) openly discusses his disgust of Dexter’s catharsis through violence. In another, Roseanne inspires with characteristic frankness. Thematically split into four parts (Independent Woman, Man of the House, The Misfit, The Crusader) it covers almost every major touchstone and show, making it the most complete ‘history’ of American TV ever made, appealing to both novices and addicts. If you read this page regularly, you need to see this. justin hook

39

the word

BLACKBOX

on games

Previewing 2013’s Hardware This year is shaping up to be a pretty big one in gaming. First and foremost is the expected arrival of both Sony’s and Microsoft’s next machines. While little is known about the PS4, including its name, the new Xbox (simply known as ‘Xbox’) will be packing the next Kinect.

It’s speculated that the Kinect 2 will rival the quality of a commercial motion capture system and track your whole living room through the use of multiple sensors. To this, Microsoft have also demonstrated a system that extends the limits of your TV by projecting onto the wall behind it. A preview video of the system looks pretty sweet. While not necessarily a practical aid, it looks to make the game experience a more immersive one.

Other hardware news includes the release of several Androidbased consoles. The first notable entry is Ouya, which raised over $8.5 million on Kickstarter. A few more systems have since been announced, including GameStick – a console compact enough it can reside within and be powered by your TV’s HDMI port, thereby game-enabling your TV. Not one to be left behind, Nvidia are also releasing an Android console – or should I say controller, given the unit is one and the same. The handheld system includes a detachable, multi-touch screen, allowing it to be used as a standalone device. It can also impressively stream to a 4K TV – that’s over 7 million pixels per frame.

As a lucky coincidence, several ‘affordable’ 4K TVs are also planned for released, with Sony leading the charge. It’s suspected that Apple will enter the TV game this year. Prior to his passing, Steve Jobs claimed he had finally cracked the TV. Presumably this ‘cracking’ will involve Siri.

This could be bad news for Sony. Apple and Google make more money from mobile games than Nintendo and Sony combined. As a result, Sony find themselves in a perilous financial situation, with it being possible that few more flops could see the demise of this former gaming giant.

Another screen technology on offer includes the Oculus Rift – a VR headset that people finally seem happy to wear. Funded by Kickstarter and backed by the likes of Gabe Newell (Valve), John Carmack (id) and Cliff Bleszinski (Epic), the device is apparently awesome to use.

Also of note is the release of the Piston, the first PC built to solely run Steam. The machine comes as the first attempt to make PC gaming more accessible. Despite not being the official Steam box, Valve are working closely with the developer. Valve will be later releasing their own machine, codenamed Bigfoot, which is believed to released in 2014. Excitingly, Valve claim their homegrown offering won’t be closed, insomuch you can install your own OS, and will support eight controllers and multiple screens. Hopefully this means each player could get their own screen.

All up, 2013 is shaping up to be pretty interesting. To that, next issue we’ll look at some of the exciting game releases coming up. torben Sko

40

The days are still sweltering and we’ll be waiting a while before the leaves start turning but it’s a different story on the box: the season’s upon us – the ratings season, that is. In case watching the cricket (or anything else) hasn’t reminded you enough about what’s coming soon, here’s the recap…

SCTEN is relying heavily on proven fare and new reality offerings.

The newbies from OS to look out for are Elementary, the reimagined Sherlock Holmes with Lucy Lui as Watson. Not completely woeful but also not a patch on the British Sherlock, Ripper Street and The American. Eleven will pick up the CW’s reimagining of Beauty and the Beast and Sons of Anarchy and An Idiot Abroad will return to ONE (sorry no GoT, which stays on pay).

WIN has followed its recent formula with lots of locally produced historical drama including Underbelly: Squizzy, a remake of ‘80s miniseries Return to Eden, Power Games, about the competition between the Packer and Murdoch families for ownership of Australian media, Schapelle, Gallipoli and literature brought to the small screen with Parade’s End. The network also has a couple of international standouts with Arrow, based on The Green Arrow comics, and crime drama The Following, about an FBI officer’s hunt for a serial killer. And, in case you thought reality cooking was over, there’s The Great Australian Bake-Off. It’s a similar story over on Prime with Mrs Biggs, about the notorious bank robber’s wife, and A Place to Call Home, set in rural Australia in the ‘50s.Their O/S fare includes Last Resort, about the crew of a nuclear submarine branded fugitives, Zero Hour, a sci-fi offering which borrows heavily from central X-Files themes, and Mr Selfridge, a period drama set in the famous department store. And the most bizarre reality show – Celebrity Splash, where celebrities show their diving skills. SBS’s centerpiece is Prisoners of War (SBS1, Sat Jan 19, 8:30pm), the Israeli drama series on which Homeland is based.

Over at Auntie there’s Peep Show (ABC2, Thu Jan 24, 9:30pm), the next installment of Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, detective series Serangon Road, 1950s sleuthing in The Dr Blake Mysteries (ABC1, Fri Feb 1, 8:30pm), telemovie Cliffy about Australia’s unlikeliest sporting hero, drama in The Time of Our Lives, about three generations of the one family with the likes of William McInnes and Claudia Karvan, and the doco Whitlam: The Power and the Passion.

Comedy-wise there’s a new Chris Lilley project, Upper Middle Bogan, new Spicks and Specks and Twenty Something, Indigenous sketch comedy in Don’t be Afraid of the Darkies, and the Merrick Watts and Dave O’Neill gameshow Tractor Monkeys.

In its drive to bring quality stand-up to your loungeroom, Auntie is premiering Set List (ABC2, Thu Jan 24, 9pm), with fully improvised sets from the likes of Ross Noble, Tim Minchin, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Frank Skinner and Dara O’Briain. Whether you are looking to awaken a yearning for yet more ‘70s nostalgia or just feed your penchant for kitsch, you can’t go past Abba: Bang a Boomerang (ABC1, Wed Jan 30, 8:30pm). Hosted by everybody’s fave Kiwi, Allan Brough, the doco takes a trip down memory lane to chart the Abba journey in Australia, starting with Molly admitting he never said he liked Abba because he thought everyone would think he was gay.

TRACY HEFFERNAN tracyherrernan@bigpond.com @ChezBlackbox

41

the word

on gigs

Homebake 2012 The Domain Saturday December 8 It’s a sad reality that running costs and demand are driving the focus of the festival scene away from traditional bands and Australian artists and further on to international DJs and the drugs you need enjoy them. However, in saying this, the traditional festival is far from dead yet. Despite the nay-saying of critics, this year Homebake came back once again with a vengeance. With a diverse line-up including Australian heritage band Something for Kate, songstress Kimbra, an ever-puzzling and separate Angus and Julia Stone, comedian Tim Minchin and Perth rockers Birds of Tokyo, the Homebake line-up had something for everyone. Nestled once again in the beautiful environs of Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, the festival this year showcased some of the best Australian music, along with one huge international blast from the past.

As the day began to heat up and the crowds flowed into the domain, the festivities were under way. San Cisco opened the day on the main Domain stage playing their craftily infectious tunes.

Isabella Manfredi from The Preatures made a cameo appearance as the stalked female on their track Awkward. The beers were flowing liberally as the one dollar deposit allowed even the most economically disadvantaged festival-goer to take advantage of the recycling system. San Cisco were later joined by Brisbane boys Last Dinosaurs, who whipped the crowd into a dancing frenzy playing their own brand of indie pop. Frontman and heart throb Sean Caskey bantered playfully with the crowd as every female in the Domain swooned.

Punk legends The Saints fittingly played on the Rowland S. Howard stage. The sun hung high in the mid-afternoon as the band visibly copped the heat. With the expertise that comes from 30 years of rocking stages around the world, lead man Chris Bailey executed the show with a certain finesse and character, paying perfect homage to his chubby 20-year-old former self. No longer ‘stranded’, The Saints played far one of the tightest sets of the day.

Tame Impala slowed the mood down to a heavy psychedelic vibe.

The crowds swayed hypnotically as gigantic riffs reverberated through the Domain. The boys looked equally as comfortable on the stage in front of thousands of people as they would in a dank smokefilled underground club. They were followed by the Hilltop Hoods, ripping the crowd into a frenzy with their perfectly executed rhymes and infectious beats that come from a decade of Aussie hip hop dominance. Suffa, Pressure and Debris showed the Sydney crowd why they have remained one of Australia’s must see acts for ten years. As the sun went down and Angus Stone serenaded a dull and heat-weary crowd from the Rowland S. Howard stage, Tim Minchin took to the main stage in all his teased hair and bleary-eyed makeup glory. Dealing with a number of heavy social issues, including boobs, cheese and the plight of the youth, Minchin executed his quasi-comedic show hitting each note perfectly, despite at one point stomping the piano with his feet.

PHOTOS BY MARTIN OLLMAN

42

The night ended with by far the biggest name on the bill. Despite not being Australian, this year’s headlining act, Blondie, was met with great fervour and excitement, as thousands of festival-goers gathered round to see if a 67-year-old Debbie Harry still has it (and would still get it). Rocking out, all be it with an extra guitar player, the band had the crowd dancing along as they belted out all their hits (including The Tide is High, Call Me, and Heart of Glass) and also some covers including the Beastie Boys’ Fight For Your Right. It’s not every day you get to see legends of the New York punk scene, and Blondie did not fail to deliver. As Sydney descended into darkness, Debbie Harry wailed into the night. Homebake concluded for another year, hopefully to be back again next year bigger and better.

BAZ RUDDICK

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Jan 18 - Sat Jan 19 wednesday january 16

friday january 18

Art

Art

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

Exhibition Opening – Nearly Birds

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Karaoke Karaoke

From 10pm.

THE DURHAM

Carry-on Karaoke Wednesdays $100 bar tab giveaway every week to most entertaining performer. 9pm.

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Live Music

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 6pm. Free.

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Live Music Live & Funky House Fridays

Acoustic/soul & jazz 6-8pm. Funk house from 9:30pm. (And two happy hours!) Free.

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Joel Harrison/Heuristic 5pm/10pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Princi 9pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

Music @ Mint

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Live music in Mint’s garden bar.

6-10pm. Free.

MINT GARDEN BAR

Cheese/ Retro

Perfectly ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Don’t be embarrassed. 9pm. Free.

HIPPO BAR

Canberra blues piano/Hammond player.

8:30pm. $5 (proceeds to RSPCA/AWC).

Book your slot for a free meal! (02) 6230 2484. 6:30pm.

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

With Marlo. 9pm.

Academy Fridays

TRANSIT BAR

Sing For Your Supper

Art

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Sophia Christopher

With Party Gravy. 9pm. $5 door.

saturday january 19

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Leo Joseph

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

THE GEORGE HARCOURT INN

Carter Rollins

Melbourne rock duo. 8pm. $5.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

Something Different BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! 8pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

thursday january 17 Art Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Film Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (18+)

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

7pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

ARC CINEMA

Live Music 4Some Thursdays Free entry. 9pm.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Charles and Dave 9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

RE:Kleyn 9pm.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

43

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Jan 19 - Sat Jan 26 saturday january 19 (CONT.)

monday january 21

wednesday january 23

Art

Art

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

ARC CINEMA

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Live Music

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

Film OSS-117: Lost In Rio (M)

Arc Outdoors. Doors at 7pm for a sunset start. Bookings required: nfsa. gov.au or (02) 6248 2000.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

8pm. Tix at door.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Ced Nada

Live Music

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Biscuits

Guns n Roses Tribute the basement

9pm.

Blame It On The Boogie Saturdays

Motown/disco/’80s & ‘90s from 9:30pm. Free entry (and get a free drink if you rock an afro).

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Special K

10:30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Love Saturdays

With Matt Nukewood. 9pm.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Bob Log III

With Crash the Curb. 9:30pm.

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi and more! Free pool.

9pm. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

The Bootleg Sessions

With Bruges, The Ians, Bacon Cakes, Freddie McClennan. 8pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

A Place To Bury Strangers (USA)

TRANSIT BAR

tuesday january 22

Eyes to the Sky

TRANSIT BAR

Andrew Kimber Quartet

With Calum Builder. 7pm. $10.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

sunday january 20 Art Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Film Dream of Life (PG)

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

4:30pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

ARC CINEMA

Live Music Irish Jam Session

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Sunday Cider Sessions

Live music in the beer garden while the weather shines. 4pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Something Different Drawn In

With Poncho Circus, music and art. Book a deck chair or table. See newacton.com.au/drawnin for more.

NEWACTON COURTYARD

44

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

Art Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Live Music

Live Music

Modhan

Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem)

Born from a synthesis of jazz, folk, rock and funk. And Scottish. 7:30pm. $15 door ($10 students).

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

Brooklyn’s noise rockers swing by Canberra for the night. 8pm. Presale thru Moshtix.

THE PHOENIX BAR

EP launch from rising local groove metal band. With Delinquent, Distance 301. 8pm. $10.

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

friday january 25

thursday january 24 Art

With Ladybones. Free before 10pm.

TRINITY BAR

Dan Webb

Melbourne singer/songwriter. With Elisha Bones. 8:30pm. $10.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

Jemist 9pm.

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

HELLENIC CLUB (CIVIC)

The Psychobilly Freakout

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Burlesque and punk from The Velvet Vixens and Little Mac and the Monster Men. 8pm. $20 door.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Nite Society & Landspeed: Instagram Jam

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Art Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

Dream of Life (PG)

TRANSIT BAR

ARC CINEMA

Live Music

Live Music

Irish Jam Session

Howling Steam Train

With Shoeb Ahmad and Louise Curham. 7pm.

THE LOFT

Trivia Kiki’s Bitchin’ ‘80s Trivia 7:30pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

THE BASEMENT

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

The Dirty Picture (M)

Alister Spence/Raymond MacDonald

With Revellers, Reptile Park. 8pm.

Tix at door.

Film

Karaoke Love

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Livin’ Mex

Jason Hart/4th Degree

Karaoke

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

2pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm. Free.

Get busy on Instagram, hash tag #nitesociety to win Landspeed Vouchers! 8pm.

ARC CINEMA

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

7pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

Rolls in from Melbourne to get lively.

8pm. Presale thru Moshtix.

TRANSIT BAR

Degg 9pm.

5pm/10pm. Free.

Australia Celebrates Live

With Jimmy Barnes, Guy Sebastian, The Presets and Timomatic. Concert from 7:30pm. Free.

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE LAWNS

saturday january 26 Art Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

9pm. Free.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

4Some Thursdays

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Charles and Dave KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Free entry. 9pm.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Mudd Puppy

With Critical Monkey and Rosie & Sam Harris. 9pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Jan 26 - Sat Feb 2 Film The Sapphires (PG)

Arc Outdoors. Doors at 7pm for a sunset start. Bookings required: nfsa. gov.au or (02) 6248 2000.

Sunday Cider Sessions

Trivia

Comedy

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Tye’s Amazing Things on the Internet Quiz

Lacking Responsibility

Live music in the beer garden while the weather shines. 4pm. Free.

monday january 28

ARC CINEMA

Live Music Biscuits presents ‘Straya Day DJs to take you late into the night.

8pm. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

Get Stellar 9pm.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Cronolyth

With HAZMAT, The Devilzwork, Rise.

8pm. Tix at door.

THE BASEMENT

Faspeedelay

With Waterford, The Longest Day. 9:30pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Live Music The Firetree

Surf folk duo. 7:30pm. $8.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

Australia Day at BAC

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi and more! Free pool.

9pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

sunday january 27

Biscuits

TRANSIT BAR

The Bootleg Sessions

With Cub Callaway, The Burley Griffin, Marky Moon, Hayley Shone. 8pm. Free.

tuesday january 29

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

Art

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

Film

Sculptor Victoria Royds, poet Paul Hetherington and photographer Judith Crispin. 10am-5pm. Free.

The Dirty Picture (M)

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

4:30pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

ARC CINEMA

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

2Bears (Raf Daddy DJ Set)

Karaoke

TRINITY BAR

Karaoke Love

Party Gravy

Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm. Free.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

Live Music

Here to make you dance, make you sing, make you cry. 3pm.

Glasshouse

TRANSIT BAR

Glasshouse and Architect DJs keep your long weekend groovy. 8pm. Free.

Ghost Notes

Special guest DJ!

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

8pm. Free.

Irish Jam Session

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

Film

Art

The Dirty Picture (M)

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

ARC CINEMA

Recent films that slipped by Canberra.

2pm. Bookings at nfsa.gov.au/arc.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

Live Music Party Gravy

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

With guests. 9pm.

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

THE PHOENIX BAR

10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

friday february 1

Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Art Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

Live Music

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Joel Barker

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

West Australian-based singersongwriter. With Amber Nichols and Melody. 7:30pm. $10.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Nearly Birds

thursday january 31

10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Art Exhibition – Feeder/Mirage/LPL

Live Music

11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

Little Wise

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Melbournian musical brainchild of Sophie Klein. With Sidney Creswick, Jude Kohn. 8pm. $10 door.

10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more.

Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Nearly Birds 10am-5pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Art by Raquel Ormella, Patsy Payne and Arryn Snowball. 11am-5pm (10am-4pm Sat).

Live Music With Tyler Touche. Free BBQ. 2pm (free entry before 6pm).

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFE

THE PHOENIX BAR

Art Exhibition – Nearly Birds

THE PHOENIX BAR

wednesday january 30

Art

Something Different Fun activities for all ages/abilities throughout Australia Day, Belconnen style. 10:30am-4pm. Free.

Stand-up comedy night w/ Tim Noon, Shahed Sharify, Harris Stuckey and Simon Bower. 7pm. $5.

7:30pm. Free.

Brisbane instrumental quintet. With Cracked Actor. 7:30pm. $5.

Irish Jam Session

OUT

JAN30

Clubfeet thee oh sees soundout festival 2013 excitebike ...and more!

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

45

FIRST CONTACT

SIDE A: BMA band profile

Eyes to the Sky Where did your band name come from? It’s the first line in a song called Above by Intronaut.

Group members? Darren Cope – Vox, Joe Pigram – Guitar, Neil Fatiaki – Guitar, Adam Wombey – Bass, and Michael Hazell – Drums.

Describe your sound: Progressive without the wank, melodic but definitely not pop, epic but not cheesy, uplifting but not happy and aggressive but not negative.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? The Big Lebowski, He-Man, Alf Stewart, Baroness, Hermes from Ship to Shore.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? Having a stick-thin drag queen moshing out in the front row (and Fats on lead guitar in his undies).

Of what are you proudest so far? Recording a three-song EP with Lucius Borich (Cog, Floating Me).

What are your plans for the future? Lots of gigs and another EP. What makes you laugh? Dazz knocking over every table at The Basement, punching a keg and spilling everyone’s drinks.

What pisses you off? Straight edge vegans (Hazell).

What about the local scene would you change? Less DJs… more venues that support loud, live, original music!

What are your upcoming gigs? We have our EP launch at Transit Bar on Saturday January 19 with supports from Delinquent and Distance 301. Also got a couple in the works for March and April but they aren’t 100% confirmed.

Contact info: You can hit us up at facebook.com/ eyestotheskyband and Reverb Nation at reverbnation. com/#!/ eyestotheskyband.

All bookings can be directed to David Agoni on 0404 006 871.

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Aaron Peacey 0410 381 306 Activate Jetpack activatejetpack@hotmail.com Adam Hole 0421 023 226 Afternoon Shift 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 Capital Dub Style - Reggae/Dub Events + DJs facebook.com/CapitalDubStyle Rafa 0406 647 296 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.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 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 Latin-Ska-Reggae facebook.com/loschavosmusic Rafa 0406 647 296 Andy 0401 572 150 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, 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 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 STonKA Jamie 0422 764 482/ stonka2615@gmail.com 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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