Sauce - Issue 51, 19-9-07

On the street every second Wednesday

Issue #51 19/09/07 - 2/10/07 Made in Tasmania

Tix Available From Mojo Music Or The Venue www.myspace.com/jameshotell www.jameshotel.com.au 122 York Street Launceston 6334 7231 THURSDAY 4TH OCTOBER T

SATURDAY 13TH OCTOBER

FRIDAY 19TH OCTOBER

SATURDAY 20TH OCTOBER

“Metallica Metallica Tribute” Tribute

MIA DYSON with Epicure

‘Newspaper Mama Revisited Tour’

Peter Combe

+ The Fumes

SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER

PAGE 2

PARK WAY DR I V E

Setting Their Sights On The Horizons HARD BOILED

By David Williams

I remember when we finished recording, and we were literally saying, “I don’t think we could write any more songs,” Fans of Byron Bay metallers Parkway Drive don’t really need another reason to appreciate the band’s much-anticipated follow up to Killing With A Smile. But here’s one they should be pretty thankful it happened, because, as Winston told me ahead of next month’s Hobart show, there was a point where they didn’t ever think it would …

Congratulations on Horizons … How are you feeling about it now? Is it relief? Or are you still excited? Where are your emotions with it, now?

I’m really excited about it. Basically, I’m excited about the whole thing, because I haven’t seen the finished product.

Like, I’ve heard the songs, which I really, really like, and I’ve seen the artwork, but I haven’t seen it all put together.

To me, the whole package of an album is different from just having the sound or the visual kinds of things. I like having the whole package in my hands.

So I’m kind of psyched to see that, but I’m just interested, really, to see how it goes, because it’s been a while since we put out the last album, and I’m just wondering if kids still remember us! [Laughs] Yeah, it’s going to be interesting, I guess. I’ve got about two months to sit on my hands until it comes out, and then I suppose those questions will be answered.

where we were going to have to write another album! Which was a really, really awesome thing for us to be able to do … and by that time, I think we were ready to write more music, which was cool.

I’ve asked a hardcore fan of yours if they knew why the band was called “Parkway Drive”, and they didn’t, so I’ve got to ask you – why is the band called “Parkway Drive”?

It’s basically … well, not basically – it is the name of the street that our drummer and our tour manager/merch guy live on. They’re brothers, and there’s basically a house there that their dad and family built over the years, that they let pretty much every hardcore band that came out of Byron jam at and hang out at. And at some point in time, in most of our lives, that place has been home to us. When we started the band, we wanted a moniker that meant something to us, rather than just a bunch of words; it meant something to us, and had a place in our hearts, and that was it, because it was kind of “home”. So what better thing to have, I guess!

Yeah – there must be a little bit of anxiety mixed in there as well.

Yeah, kind of. I guess [it’s] not so much anxiety as just … curiosity, I guess! [Laughs] It would be nice if it did go well, but it’s not the first thing on my mind. I’m just interested to see what people say, just because we never thought we’d be in the position to write two albums, let alone be backing up an album that went really well. It’s just a strange position to find ourselves in.

How do you feel about listening to your own music?

And how often do you listen to Parkway Drive in everyday life?

I haven’t heard Killing With A Smile, the recording, in, at least, over a year, which is interesting! [Laughs] I never go out of my way to listen to it, but I find myself listening to Horizons a fair bit, just because, I suppose, it’s new music to me. I don’t know, I kind of like it. I guess I’m not bored with it yet.

Did you think that before, [with] Killing With A Smile, that that was going to be it?

Yeah, well … [Laughs] When we actually wrote Killing With A Smile … I remember when we finished recording, and we were literally saying, “I don’t think we could write any more songs,” because we just did it all on that album! We just wrote as many songs as we could, and we didn’t think we would be able to do anything after that.

It might change. I find when you’re playing the music nightafter-night-after-night for however many … I think it’s been a couple of years now that we’ve been playing the songs off Killing With A Smile; we must have played each of them a hundred times. Like, the last thing you want to hear is that music when you’re not playing it, because you know you’re going to get sick of it at some point in time. Yeah, I guess that’s the answer to that! [Laughs]

And then, kids started to like Killing With A Smile, and it kind of blew up, and … [Laughs] we put ourselves in the position

What’s changed about the band since Killing With A Smile? What do you think we can hear that’s changed

about the band?

Um … I’m not quite sure. Hearing-wise, the sound of the band … the sound we’re trying to aim for on Horizons has been one of more focus. As opposed to changing the sound that we have, and changing the way we go about things, it still sounds like Parkway Drive; we just tried to focus things in the way that we tried to make the fast bits faster and crunchier, and the heavy bits heavier, and the melodic bits more melodic. We just tried to make everything the best it could be, in what it was trying to do. Like, if you’ve got a heavy bit, you may as well make it as heavy as you can, and if there’s a melodic bit that’s going to sound nice, you may as well make it sound as melodic and nice as you can. That’s kind of what we tried to do on this album.

Killing With A Smile you recorded and put together in just a couple of weeks – how did the recording process for Horizons differ to that?

To start with, we had a bit more time, which was great. I think we had about twice as long, which was really, really awesome. And also, because we worked with Adam again, we were going into the recording process knowing what to expect, and instead of having just a week of fumbling around, not knowing what the hell we were doing, we got down to it straight away, which was really good – which took a bit of pressure off. I guess in the time since we recorded the last album as well, both ourselves and Adam have progressed a little in the way we do our certain things – us playing music, and him recording – I guess the music came out a bit easier, and a bit different from last time. And also Adam’s producing skills have gone through the roof since we recorded Killing With A Smile. That’s basically the difference! [Laughs] That must be really nice – growing together.

Yeah, it is! The whole band … when we started the band, we kind of just aimed to do something that we hadn’t done before … being from a hardcore background, we wanted to write something really heavy, and a bit more challenging and technical and metal-sounding. And as we’ve kind of gone on in the history of the band, we’ve just tried to progress and maintain that same attitude; keeping ourselves amused while

we’re trying to achieve these goals. So everyone’s kind of evolved at the same time, which is really, really awesome.

What’s so significant about the track Horizons that you would actually name the album after it?

It kind of went the other way around, actually! [Laughs] Well, not really … We named the album Horizons, and then I wrote that song Horizons, so it shares the same title … but I think that the title of the CD being Horizons is more meaningful to us than the actual song named Horizons, simply because, for us, when we named the album, we didn’t really … have a consensus on what we wanted to name it – everyone had a whole bunch of different ideas, and no one was agreeing.

And, at the time, I think we were in Germany or Holland or something like that, touring around, and I just had the idea to call it Horizons, simply because that’s all we’ve seen since Killing With A Smile; we’ve just been five guys heading towards the horizon in every direction. We’re just driving or flying or doing whatever, but that’s all we see, is horizons, and it kind of sums it up perfectly for us. We kind of went with that one, and I think it reflects the band, especially at this point in time.

And what stands out about your European tour?

I think for most of us, especially me, touring Europe, and touring the band, totally changed my view on a lot of things in life, just because we’ve seen so much and experienced so much in the time we were over there that it was amazing.

Like, playing shows, and playing the music in another country, where you can’t even speak the same language or read what they write, and having people go absolutely crazy and still singing along, is an experience I never thought I’d have in my life. So it was really cool.

Parkway Drive play Hobart’s Brisbane Hotel on the 14th of October.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www. sauce.net.au PAGE 3

NO V EL L A

When Your Zip Up Casuals Just Don’t Fit Anymore ROCK SALT

By Tom Wilson

You know that old question, “what’s in a name?” Well, I don’t know the answer. But I know some guys who might. Meet NW fourpiece Novella – formerly known to the Tassie music scene as The Zip Up Casuals. A new name, a new sound, a new direction, a new EP in the works – time for a new look at these guys, starting with singer/guitarist Russo …

What do you draw upon the most for lyrical inspiration, and how does it show through in the songs?

Well, from our experiences in life and other people’s around us. We write songs that tell a story, whether it’s about an old girlfriend or someone struggling through life. We’ve written songs about the music industry and how hard it is to crack.

A bit of a mixed bag. It’s great to hear from people who can relate to the lyrics in our songs; people have different interpretations of our songs. Funny story – we wrote a song about a car accident, and a couple of weeks later Rhys and I crashed, and rolled his van. Maybe our songs are premonitions – who knows? Better be careful what we write from now on.

Last we heard, you were working on a release of some kind. What stage is that at now?

We are just about to start pre-production for the EP, and plan to record early next year. We’ve been playing shows flat-out lately, so we are going to take a bit of time off and start writing some more tracks. We recorded a demo not long ago

SOUNDSCAPE FESTIVAL

EXCLUSIVE!

You were previously known as The Zip Up Casuals. Why the name-change? And what does it represent?

After playing as The Zip Up Casuals for almost three years with three different line-ups, we decided to move on from the past and take this as far as we can take it. A new name has meant a fresh start for us. We dropped all our old songs, and [have] written ourselves into a new sound. We’ve taken on a professional outlook on things now – the old name meant an old band, I guess. Plus we grew out of the old name; wanted something a bit more classy. I think the old name was floating around with Richo since high school.

How is your songwriting process different as Novella?

Has it changed that much?

Yeah, we have definitely changed as songwriters – we spend a lot more time processing ideas and making songs to a point where we blow ourselves away. I think previously songs were written for the sake of writing them. Now we get a lot of feedback from people in the industry and fans of the band, which always helps. We now have direction – we set out to write a song for a reason, not just a bunch of lyrics thrown together that sound half-alright. We don’t settle for something that’s half-alright anymore. [Laughs] The songs are more complex these days – more thought and emotion goes into it.

NEWS Well here it is, the city of Hobart finally has its very own major live music event: The Soundscape Festival - Domain Regatta Grounds, 26 Jan 2008.

… We wrote a song about a car accident, and a couple of weeks later Rhys and I crashed … Maybe our songs are premonitions – who knows? which we are giving away – copies are available at shows, or send us an email on Myspace.

How long will it be before Novella take over the world?

Record the EP. National Tour. World Tour. World taken over.

Good plan, ‘ey?

Which five Tassie bands would you most like to play a gig with, and why?

Well, I guess we’ve played with most of our favourite bands from around the state. Up on the NW coast the bands are pretty close; we all dig each other’s stuff; we all get out and see each other play as much as we can. Dirty Harry and the Rockets, Cruel Like That, Henry Horsefall and the Sporto Elite … we love playing gigs together. [I] Guess one band we would have loved to play with would have been The Dead Abigails.

What changes have you seen in the NW music scene in the last year?

It’s been a huge change. We have so many talented musicians from up here; six or seven bands that could easily push the music industry. Thanks to David Sykes, we have been given a chance to pursue a future in music. We have an original music night every Friday night at Spurs in Devonport. Bands get a chance to perform live and gather some experience.

It’s really taking off.

What kind of dynamic is there in the band? Who’s the

chatty one? Who’s the annoying one? Who smells the worst?

We are all kinda different in our own ways. We all have a good sense of humor – [if] one of us fucks up, we laugh about it. [I] Guess that’s how we tolerate each other when we spend so much time together. We all can be annoying and smelly, especially if we are on the road. Rhys does poo frequently, which can be on the nose. Rhys can also be chatty when he’s been drinking for three days straight. In the van on the way back from Hobart can be a long trip after Rhys has had a dozen beers. Richo can be chatty as well, but I guess we all can be.

If Hollywood made a movie about the band, which actors would play each of you, and why?

Rhys would be played by Elijah Wood – he reminds me of Frodo; a little hobbit with a big voice. Richo would probably be played by Russel Crowe – they both tend to get a bit firedup and fly off the handle every now and then; throw phones etc. Hank would be played by Daniel Radcliffe – both have magical powers. I am sure Hank went to Hogwarts to learn how to hit those skins. He must sprinkle magic dust over his kit. I’d probably be played by Will Ferrell – can’t sit still most of time, and tends to be a bit loud, and I’m sure I get on some people’s nerves.

Novella play Spurs in Devonport on the 21st of September. www.myspace.com/novellaaustralia

This one-day festival will be an 18+ fully licenced event showcasing bands and artists over two stages. The site was chosen due to its central location, exisiting infrastructure, nonresidentual status and picturesque surroundings. With a focus on the positve aspects of our great nation, The Soundscape Festival is just as much an Australia Day celebration as it is a cultural celebration. And up until now Hobart was the only capital city in Australia not to stage a major live music event on Australia Day. All planning and infrastructure will allow for a crowd size of up to 10,000. The festival will be making its official lineup announcement Nov 14. Tickets go on sale Nov 19! http://www.thesoundscapefestival.com

NATIONAL CAMPUS BAND COMPETITION 2007 FINALISTS: Lucy, Enola Fall, Social Theorists, Woof Woof, Lakoda, Zac Lister Band, Emma Fair Band, Nathan Wheldon & The Two Timers Organised by the Australasian Association of Campus Activities (AACA), NCBC has been running on Australian University and TAFE campuses across the country for eighteen years. The competition showcases up-and-coming bands to wider audiences and has helped launch the careers of acts such as Eskimo Joe, the Vasco Era and Jebediah.

The 2007 NCBC will see bands vying for various finalist prizes, including the honour of being flown to the 18th national final in Melbourne in October to compete for a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of NEWS.com.au, CD Pressing courtesy of Outbreak Marketing, musical equipment, recording time and more.

SCIENTISTS FOR FALLS 2007 The Scientists Of Modern Music are the first Tassie act to be confirmed for the 2007 Falls Festival. They will now be playing both the Lorne and Marion Bay events.

OR I G I N A L S I N G

The North-West Finally Gets Its Showcase

CONTENTS Rock Salt

15

CD Reviews

16-17

Gig Guide

18

Gig Reviews Burn Out

19-20

Hard Boiled

22-27

Bangers & Mash

28

Hip-Hop

29

Travel Bug Spotlight DVD Reviews

30

Street Fashion Eyeball Kicks

Phone: 03 6331 0701 Advertising: advertising@sauce.net.au Editorial: editorial@sauce.net.au

Editor David Williams

Sub Editor Tom Wilson

Journalist Chris Rattray

Graphic Designer Chris Titmus

david@sauce.net.au

crattray@sauce.net.au

twilson@sauce.net.au

ctitmus@sauce.net.au

Writer Carole Whitehead cwhitehead@sauce.net.au

Contributors: Ryan Farrington, Ian Murtagh, Felix Blackler, Dion Brooks, Steve Tauschke, Clara Murray, Carole Whitehead, David Walker, Mathew Labedzki, Zackery Blackstone, Eloise Gurr, Patrick Duke, Shannon Stevens, Lisa Howell

Deadlines Sauce #51, 19th Sept - 2nd Oct DEADLINE: 14th September

Opinions expressed in Sauce are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

PAGE 4

By Tom Wilson

ROCK SALT

4-14

Original Sing is a concert based in the state’s north-west designed to showcase some of the best local singer-songwriters. The night is often a mix of professional musicians and artists who may be performing for the first time. Ahead of the seventh OS gig, I spoke to Marcus Wynwood to find out more.

When and where is Original Sing held? And has this always been the case?

Original Sing is held on the last Saturday of every month at Maginty’s Irish Bar in Burnie. The first one was in March, so the September 29th Original Sing will be the seventh one!

of the coast, has taken off. A lot of the artists who have performed at Original Sing have gained extra work out of it. There are a lot of people with an interest in promoting local talent – all these people need to work together and share resources if we want to make the NW coast music scene great.

Who first started the night, and why?

The night was started by me. Being a local musician myself, I know that there is a lot of talent on the north-west coast. Unfortunately there is a lack of opportunities for these people to perform, so I thought an originals night would benefit the area and the local music scene. I approached Maginty’s Irish Bar in Burnie and told them about my idea, and they loved it! The staff at Maginty’s have been very supportive of the night since day one – you should go down there for a beer some time and support them! The night has a few purposes: help up-and-coming songwriters gain experience performing in front of a crowd, give the more experienced artists some great local exposure, and bring the high-quality local original music to the general public – and it seems that they love it!

How has the night evolved since its beginnings, in terms of growth?

Every month there have been more and more people turning up to check it out. Last month there would have been over a hundred people in the bar! Word-of-mouth travels fast!

Last month there would have been over a hundred people in the bar! Word-of-mouth travels fast!

What are some of the challenges of putting this night on?

Advertising and booking acts, although, it hasn’t been that hard – it’s been advertised in the newspaper, on the radio, online, and with posters around the NW coast. Word-ofmouth seems to be the most effective form of promotion.

As for booking acts, well, ask any original musician if they’d like a gig and they’ll jump at it!

In what ways do you see this night benefiting the NW music scene?

It will put original music in the front of people’s minds. It will give artists a chance to be heard and it will create an interest and a buzz around the music scene. Over the last six months or so, the music scene in Burnie, and the rest

Who have been some of the acts the night has featured?

There have been a lot of great acts – you can check out the list of past performers on the Original Sing MySpace page [address at bottom of article] Here are a few examples: Jesus and the Jedi (Burnie), Fiona Grace (Sassafras), Adam Cousens (Hobart), Nathan Wheldon & The Two Timers (Launceston) and Floyd Thursby (Melbourne).

This month’s line up, on the 29th of September, is The Stoics, myself, Jay Fraser, George Begbie and Amy Kendall.

What do you think makes Original Sing unique?

There is nothing else like it on the coast! You can come to one of the best pubs in Burnie, grab a cold one, sit down and listen to some top notch talent. What could be better?

How can interested parties get involved?

If you’re interested in coming and checking it out, just head down to Maginty’s Irish Bar in Burnie on the last Saturday of the month. If you’re interested in performing, check out the Original Sing MySpace page or send me an email on mwynwood@gmail.com Where would you like to see this night in a year? In what direction would you like to take it?

Who knows? In twelve months’ time, Original Sing could be doing tours around the state, or releasing a “best of” CD! [Laughs] It would be great to see Original Sing grow and continue to promote local talent well into the future.

The 7th Original Sing night will be held at Maginty’s Irish Bar in Burnie on the 29th of September. www.myspace.com/MarcusWynwood

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TH E CAT EM P I R E

ROCK SALT

So Many Nights, And So Much Left To Prove

By Tom Wilson “You’ve come a long way, baby …” With both an attempt to break a venue crowd record and a show backed up by a full orchestra planned for next month, the days of Hello, Hello getting chart success have never felt so long ago. The Cat Empire are not the same band you once knew, but it’s clear they still feel like they’ve got a lot to prove. Frontman Felix spoke to me from Brisbane.

So Many Nights has already been called your strongest release yet in reviews. In what ways would you say that this album is superior to your previous releases?

I think that, when you put six hundred shows performed around the world, and a lot of traveling and a lot more experience to write songs about, you sort of come up with an album that’s your best yet.

It happens to bands sometimes; they work for a long time, they do well, because of their live show and the feeling around the band and everything like that, and eventually they make the album that’s their best studio album, you know? Where they really get it right … I think that that was this album for us.

From what I’ve read, you’re going for some kind of record attempt in October.

Well the story behind that for us is, when we were starting out our touring careers, we used to go to places and spend time there.

Like, we’d do a season at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and we’d do a season at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, and play there for two or three weeks.

We’d broken one at the Prince Of Wales in Melbourne, which was a similar kind of venue. So, you know, all these years later, it’s a bit of fun to come back and see if we can set a new benchmark.

You’re also playing a show with the Australian Youth Orchestra the same month. A band playing with an orchestra can go two ways. It’s obviously worked for Hilltop Hoods and Metallica, but it sure as hell didn’t work for KISS. In what ways will the orchestra affect the sound of your material, and how you physically perform the live show?

Well, I think that the new album … Ollie, the keyboard player, did some really wonderful string arrangements, which really had a big affect on the sound of the new album. They’re very unique string arrangements, and they’re quite subtle – not like the normal strings that you’d expect to be behind a rock band or something like that; they’re actually quite jazz-oriented string arrangements, a lot of them. So firstly, the album So Many Nights

… it uses strings in a really quite unique way, I think. So pretty much what we’re going to do is just extend on that, and we’re going to do a workshop with the Youth Orchestra, based on improvisation … giving people who are used to reading notes from a page completely the opportunity to do other things with it … The whole team has got a genuine air of authenticity about it, and we’re actually going to do something quite different with the orchestra in some parts … The orchestra’s not going to be there for schmaltz – it’s going to be there for real substance. So I think it’s going to be a really interesting project.

With this, and the record attempt … The Cat Empire has already achieved multi-platinum sales and stuff, so how accurate would it be to say that … you guys still feel like you’ve got a lot to prove?

I think so. I mean, it’s definitely true … I feel in a wonderful place with this band at the moment, because it’s achieved a lot of success so far, here and overseas, and it can do successful

And there was something about the nature of going to a city and playing night after night which was a big part of shaping the band’s early approach to touring.

And it’s something that we’ve missed, because, over the last three years, we’ve been traveling non-stop – we’ve been in a different city every night, pretty much. We’ve been living in a tour bus.

We see things kind of fleetingly. We see pretty much stages and shows, and maybe the city for a night or two sometimes, and then you pass on. And while it’s been exciting, it was a goal of ours to return to Australia with this album, and to at least try to go to a couple of cities and spend a bit of time there.

I feel in a wonderful place with this band at the moment …

And Sydney offered us the opportunity, because we’ve had a great history in Sydney; we’ve got a really strong following there.

And the idea of playing at the Metro, which is where we started out, sort of works for us. The fact that they have a record there – we thought it’d be a bit of fun to try and break the record.

So whose record will you be breaking?

I think it’s the record held by You Am I … I think they did seven shows there with Powderfinger, when Powderfinger were starting out. And every time we were there, years and years ago when we used to play the Metro in Sydney, they always used to tell us about the record.

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PAGE 6

tours and it can release albums and all that sort of stuff.

But honestly, the things that interest me about music aren’t just selling records or doing sold-out tours. The idea of playing with an orchestra and doing it properly, or the idea of putting on shows which are really, really unique, and doing something different …

The idea of continuing to be able to go to different places and do different things, and really, you know, try and work on music in Australia, and see where we can take it, is the thing that I got into music [for] in the first place.

The Cat Empire go AWOL with Triple J in Burnie on Saturday the 13th of October.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

ROCK SALT

JOH NNY CAS I N O A ND TH E SECR E T S

New Clothes Look Better With Old Shoes

By Carole Whitehead

New Clothes, Old Shoes … it’s a phrase that can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. But, for Sydney singersongwriter Johnny Casino, it’s about covering a lot of stylistic ground, but never losing sight of his passion for the sounds that define him. He spoke to SAUCE ahead of his show at Hobart’s Brisbane Hotel this month.

So what have you been up to lately? On your Myspace you say you play in a lot of different bands. Which have you been with most lately, and why?

Been real busy playing and writing music and tattooing people at work; been playing around the country with the different lineups of the Secrets, and pretty much having a good time. We ain’t here long enough to not do that!

And how much has your music changed, going from one band to another over the years?

I think it has changed a lot! I have changed a lot, and I play and write music from a personal point of view, so if I have changed, then I hope my music has as well. I ain’t as angry as I used to be, and I have realised that it’s not always everybody else’s fault, and I’m more willing to put my hand up for some of the problems I get myself into.

I ain’t as angry as I used to be, and I have realised that it’s not always everybody else’s fault …

Which band is the “most fun” to tour with, would you say?

Right now it’s the many different lineups of the Secrets – they really keep me on my toes, and hopefully the audience as well.

Where is your favourite place to play a gig? And why is that?

My favourite place is the next place I’m getting the chance to plug in, turn up and turn on! I just love to play – just let me do my thing and I’m happy.

When, if at any point, do you regret getting into the music industry?

I have abso-fuckin-lutly nothing to do with the “music industry” – I write songs that I want to sing and play, and I won’t be told how to do it. If people don’t like it, that’s OK with me, and as much as I have learnt over the years to be part of the “music industry”, you have to play by their rules – I play by my rules.

You’re coming down to Hobart on the 21st of September.

What can audiences expect from you in this show? Have you been to Tassie before? If so, how was it?

We play honest, passionate rock ‘n’ roll music, and if that is your type of music, then I’m willing to bet you’ll have a good time. But, that being said, I am a gambling man! I have been to Tassie before, and thought it was a beautiful place, but I did have trouble getting back home; when I got to the airport, the powers-that-be made the decision that I was too drunk to get on the plane home, so they made me wait in the airport for five hours until I sobered up! That wasn’t much fun.

A review I have read says that you have a faraway look in your eyes when you play. What goes through your mind when you play? Where is the faraway place that you go to?

I play and sing songs that are very real to me, so sometimes I get lost inside that feeling. I really don’t know where I go, but I do go somewhere, and, if the time is right, maybe you will to.

What’s the thing you miss most when you are out on tour?

Clean, dry clothes!

The album New Clothes, Old Shoes is out now. What do you think this says about the album?

For me, it’s just a play on words. I’m kinda saying, “I wanna try something new different here, but I ain’t gonna run too far from what I love.”

One of your pics features someone on stage in just their undies and shoes. Please tell us the story “behind” this pic!

That’s my good friend Mad Macca; me and him play in a band together called The Egos. He also plays in the great band Cosmic Psychos. The Egos is a band with members in three different states, so we have never had a full rehearsal, but we managed to tour Europe and record an album. That photo was taken in Spain.

Thank you so much for your time It’s a pleasure! All the best.

Johnny Casino and the Secrets play at the Brisbane Hotel in Hobart on the 21st of September.

PAGE 7

I H EA RT HI R O S H I M A

ROCK SALT

Rock – A Dish Best Served Raw … And Tuff

By Tom Wilson Before they started their tour of Australia, I talked with drummer Suzie of raw-rock troupe I Heart Hiroshima about the unwritten rule of making an album sound live … without a pedal or overdub in sight.

So Tuff Teef is your debut full length [album].

And one of the things that I picked up from the bio is this album is an album of, and I quote: “twelve tracks that make rules.” But I kinda get the feeling… I understand that you guys avoided using over dubs or pedals on this album.

Yeah, well we don’t ever use pedals. We don’t ever use over-dubs, we don’t ever use excess, so it’s kind of a continuation of the sort of beliefs that we have as a band. Which have been sort of concreted since we started playing.

So would you say this is sort of a rule that you’ve always abided by?

Well we just didn’t want excess, and we didn’t want things to be over the top, we are really happy with the way that things sounded, there was no need to sort of go over the top with yeah, extra pedals and a big, whole drum kit and putting crazy over-dubs on recordings… cause, I mean I think the most important thing to us is to be able to recreate our live shows on our records.

And you can’t do that if you’re putting all these crazy things on it. You know? Then people hear a record and then they see you live and it’s two totally different things.

Yeah, I don’t know how much I agree with that.

So how true would it be to say that you feel that rock music these days needs to be rawer in general?

No, I think sometimes it really works. Sometimes people enjoy being… maybe they like having those kind of two sides to themselves.

You know, live and a studio, but in no way am I saying it’s a wrong thing to do, just in our case we want to be really totally a mirror image or what we are when you see us live. And I think that kind of raw, clean sound is exactly what it’s like when you see us play.

… I’ve done way better than I ever could have expected in this band…

So I guess with that in mind, here’s a nice big question; what do you see as the most important qualities or rock music?

I don’t know. I’m a big hater or egos. I don’t like egos, I don’t like people taking… and of course I take this stand incredibly seriously, and I take everything that I do very seriously.

But I don’t like taking music seriously to the point that it feels like a job, or a chore, or it’s so… I don’t like musicians being really, really business minded.

I think that’s a detraction of what you’re doing music for in the first place. So, I suppose a sense of being really real as an artist, you know, just being yourself. If something’s fun, we do it.

You know? We’re always laughing around, and just sort of… we don’t hate ourselves if we play crap.

I mean, I’m sure our manager does! [Laughs] You know, we’re always getting warned not to get… I mean, we don’t always get massively wasted or whatever, but if occasionally we fuck up a bit if someone’s had a few too many drinks, and it’s just a laughing kind of thing, like, I’ve done way better than I ever could have expected in this band.

So I’m not going to get angry at myself, or want myself to always be striving to do better because, I mean, I’m pretty happy where I’m going, and we are doing better, and we’re still having fun. Yeah, so I think the most important thing in rock music is not to have a big ‘gay rock ego.’

From my point of view I hate meeting people that are full of themselves. I’ve been pretty lucky that that hasn’t happened too many times, like just people who are chilled out, and just have fun with what they’re doing.

And I suppose, yeah, just playing music that you like. Not doing it for any other reason.

So how did I Heart Hiroshima come together?

We just… it was kind of just a few friends, just wanting to be friends, wanting to play guitar together. And their PAGE 8

other friend, Suzie, was a drummer, and they thought oh, yeah, she should come and play some drums.

It was just kind of really casual, no intentions, but the electricity in the room the first time we played a song, or heard Matt song, our eyes all lit up, and I felt that there was really something special there.

I Heart Hiroshima play Sirocco’s in Burnie on the 9th of November, 39 Bar in Launceston on the 10th, and Morilla Estate in Hobart on the 11th. All shows in Tasmania are with Regurgitator and New Pants.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

H A NK MARV I N

FM

ROCK SALT

As Influential As Rock N Roll Itself

By Tom Wilson When SAUCE caught up with the former lead guitarist for The Shadows – a band that can be credited with influencing none other than The Beatles – Hank Marvin delved into his style, what brought him to create it, and the two-way street of musical influence.

87.6Mhz Our Own Youth Radio Station?

Now I’d like to start [by saying], a lot is made of the influence you’ve had on people like Pete Townsend, Clapton, Naomi and Harrison, but I guess, what do you think it is about your sound that you were making at the time, that caught the attention of these artists?

Oh gee, that’s a hard one to answer… because it was clearly a sound that had a great impact – now I’m not sure why it had a great impact, but it did.

You know, it seemed to capture the imagination of lots of people at the time, who were either encouraged to start taking up the guitar, or if they already played, they used me as, you know, to copy and so forth.

So it’s a bit of a hard one to really answer, because [I was] playing it, not sort of on the other side. I’m just really glad that they did – I’ve heard different comments from different people… for example, Brian May said that for him, he just loved the sound itself, and he loved the way I played.

You know, the use of the whammy bar, and some of the hard stuff The Shadows did at the time, which he said for them, was like heavy rock in those days. You know. It was quite hard music.

You know, some songs might demand a heavier guitar sound. But then sometimes you know, they don’t. It sounds better using a cleaner sound, the sort of sound I use, with the echo and everything.

Okay. Well like I was saying a lot is made of the influence you have had on these people, but what about the other way around? Throughout your career, what are some of the, I guess, the musicians and the songs that have really struck you, and how do you think they might have influenced your own playing?

Well obviously … when I first got a guitar, I was listening to mainly folk-blues music, and traditional jazz. Then I started to listen to the early rock and roll. Like early Presley, Gene Vincent… that sort of stuff.

And it was the guitar sounds on those records that really excited me, and in terms of playing electric guitar, that style, and that sound was very exciting in those days. And it made me want to try to copy what they were doing.

to copy that style, it was a style, it was a sound quite different to anything we’ve heard in the UK or Europe before. Something new. So I was trying to copy that, which obviously gradually led on to be developing my own style; fortunately.

And, off we went. But of course, then there are some great songs too that hit you, I remember hearing in a little coffee bar, hanging with some friends in 1957 I believe it was, or was it… no, ’57.

Tasmanian musicians, MCs and producers, would you like to help make a Tasmanian youth radio station, to be broadcast to the world?

Sauce FM is going online, soon to be streaming from www.sauce.net.au, and we need new music!

To be a part of this, download and fill in the form giving us permission to use your music (www.sauce.net.au/saucefmpermissionform.pdf), and then post it to us with a CD of your best tunes.

I think. And I heard the opening sound of That’ll be the Day, the first hit by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

All music submitted must be an original composition, made by the submitter, who must be a Tasmanian.

I found it incredible on this jukebox. Just for a minute everything stopped. Wow, that was just enormous.

Guitar Man is out now.

WWW.

.NET.AU

Movie Clips, Music Tracks, Searchable Gig Guide, Magazine PDF’s and Interview MP3’s. Become a member and get a SAUCE T-shirt, Sticker and a CD from the genre of your choice!

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

And do rock ‘n’ roll, which I started to do. So I was trying

And those things, really Tom, started to reach people. If you put some passion into your playing, which I always try to, and emotion, I think that comes across, and clearly touched people. I’m glad it did, but that’s as far as I know, really.

B A C K PA C K E R

… If you put some passion into your playing, which I always try to, and emotion, I think that comes across, and clearly touches people …

BAR & CAFE

FROM 6PM

Did you … at the time, kind of notice that influence coming out? Would you hear something on the radio and go, “Bugger me – that sounds a little bit like a song I wrote?”

Well, there was a lot of tunes, well not tunes, there was a lot of guitar sounds through that sixties period that were sounding a lot like The Shadows, or instrumentals, or even guitar sounds on records which were featuring vocals.

FROM 6PM

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It’s just the way it goes, I guess. Even in later years, in the seventies, and even now sometimes, I still hear records that sound very much like the sound I was using, in the early sixties. I guess it’s still a good sound, that’s the thing. And it still works, depending on the treatment of the song.

FROM 8PM

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Things like FBI and The Savage and things like that. And also it was commented on the melodic pieces we played, and the way I sort of expressed the emotion and the… things. Getting some emotion, and things like that.

ENTERTAINERS WANTED Send Demo, Bio & Photo to: 1 Tamar Street Launceston PAGE 9

CL A I RE CL AR KE

18-Year-Old Songstress Sings It Like She Means It ROCK SALT

By Carole Whitehead

Already renowned for insightful lyricism and the musicianship to convey it, at only eighteen years old, Perth singer-songwriter Claire Clarke continues to push forward into the national music scene with the release of her debut full-length album, Unhinged. We threw Carole Whitehead into her first interview for SAUCE to find out about loving the stage and singing one’s heart out when walking onto it.

So where are you today?

I’m in Perth, actually, yeah.

I hear you’ve just released your debut album, Unhinged?

The album actually hasn’t been released yet, but the first single, Blur has. That was released last month.

Oh, OK. When does the album come out, then?

The release date hasn’t been announced yet, but it should be towards the end of the year.

So how are you feeling about all that at the moment?

I’m absolutely excited. Definitely can’t wait for it to come out, and share it with everyone. It’s such an exciting time to get my music out there, after working on it for so long and everything. So yeah – very excited!

And I’ve read that you like to express yourself through your lyrics. How does it go if you’re writing about someone, and they hear the song?

[Laughs] Well, I try and make most of it a little metaphorical, so it’s kind of not related to anyone in particular, or if someone reads it … Well, actually, in some of the songs, I suppose it’s pretty direct! [Laughs] Um, no – I just write how I feel, however it comes out. I just try to do it without any barriers, so I’m not holding anything back.

everything … who I really am just kind of shows and shines through. I think, onstage, there’re absolutely no barriers, and you can kind of be your true self. So yeah – we get a bit wild onstage, definitely. [Laughs] So you’ll be doing that in your upcoming shows – getting a bit wild?

Definitely, yes! Really, I love to interact with my audience, and really connect with people through my songs. And when I’m onstage, I’m always singing right into people, and really getting a reaction out of them. That’s what gives me my energy.

In your biography as well, it says that you were playing gigs at a younger age. What age were you when you started?

I started when I was sixteen, performing my own music. Like, the first time I stepped out on stage literally was one of those moments that I’ll never forget, and I know that sounds a bit clichéd, but [it’s] very true, because I just felt so comfortable, and I just felt like I was connecting with people on that really pure level that I think you can only do through music.

At sixteen, really?

Yeah. So, singing my own songs, it really kind of showed me that its what I want to do for the rest of my life – that one gig

And you’ve said that you’re “pretty crazy” as well.

When do you get the chance to sell that?

Well, onstage, really. Onstage I get a bit crazy, and I suppose

I think, onstage, there’re absolutely no barriers, and you can kind of be your true self.

PAGE 10

solidified my belief in my music, and myself, and everything.

So, from then on, I couldn’t stop waiting to get onstage – I was always, “When’s the next gig?” [Laughs] I, personally, am terrified of stages, so I can’t understand that at all! [Laughs] “No way!” See, people say that all the time to me – even, you know, big acts. They sing to the lights and don’t think of the people, and always like, “Oh no! I don’t want to get up on stage!”

But, for me, I think that’s the best part of it all. For me it’s getting up on stage and really feeling the music, and connecting with people through that and through my lyrics and everything.

You’ve mentioned that you’re from Perth – is that your favourite spot to play a gig?

Well, I don’t know, because … I’ve played in Sydney, and I’ve played in Melbourne now, but I haven’t done a full-on [tour] – I haven’t experienced every single place in Australia yet. So

once I’ve done my tour for the album, I’ll get back to you on that! [Laughs] It’s exciting to play in different cities.

I mean, Perth is very … you know, everyone knows everybody, and it’s a small place – it’s the most isolated city in the world. But it’s always exciting to play here, because it’s very comfortable, and the music scene’s great here. But it’s also really exciting when you go over to, say, Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane and that … and it’s a completely different audience; completely different vibe.

That’s really cool … I haven’t been down to Tasmania yet, but I’m planning to.

To listen to the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au www.myspace.com/claireclarke

BEN L EE

Ripe And Ready For The Picking

By Dave Williams

ROCK SALT

I really do look at my personal, emotional, artistic, spiritual, psychological development in all those areas as being a series of failures.

Singer-songwriter Ben Lee is doing pretty well for a guy who sees his career as a series of beneficial mistakes. In the middle of a heatwave, he spoke to me about what it took for his latest album to get Ripe.

I guess with all the hot weather, the fruit on the trees over there would be becoming Ripe?

What a segue! Unbelievable! I plant myself at your feet!

[Laughs] I just felt the cheese leaking out of me as I said it …

Why not, man? Milk it!

Is it the content on the album? Or is it a statement of your career, or yourself? What is it about any of those things that compelled you to call the album Ripe?

It’s probably a bit of all of that, but to me … what’s exciting about something being “ripe” isn’t just the moment of consummating – like eating the fruit or whatever. It’s all the patience that you’ve had to develop to let it get there.

[Laughs] And I think … I’m not a patient person by nature – I’ve rushed a lot of things in my life, and sometimes I jump in, you know? But I’ve had to be “ripe” … a lot of what makes you patient is failing. I mean, you don’t get everything you want, so you just have to keep doing it again and again until you get it right. And I feel like part of what I’m proud of with my career is nothing I can even take credit for – it’s just that I’ve sort of stuck it out and ripened over the years, you know what I mean? Just by making more and more records, and writing more and more songs and touring, you develop a tenacity, and a kind of confidence or something.

There’s an American saying, I believe – You fail your way to success.

Exactly.

I was wondering – what was the last thing that you felt you failed at, that has helped you develop a successful career?

Oh, God … I mean, they’re infinites. I really do look at my personal, emotional, artistic, spiritual, psychological development in all those areas as being a series of failures.

I mean … it’s so interesting to try and put your finger on one …

You’re going to have to open up a bit here, I guess …

Yeah, making coffee this morning for my girlfriend, and just kind of not being good at it. I mean, I’ve never had a girlfriend that likes coffee before, and I don’t really like it.

So I’m putting myself out there, and I’m trying to get good at something. And I don’t know when it’s good and when it’s not good, so the only way is to take it out there, you know what I mean? And get that reaction. And it’s literally a case where you’ll have to make a hundred bad cups before you make a good cup.

I guess you’ve answered my other question, which was going to be “are you over in L.A. tuning movie stars”?

But I guess not.

“Tuning”? [Laughs] I like that! No, no – I’m pretty monogamous at the moment. I’ve gone through my phases … I mean, I shouldn’t say I’m “pretty” … I’m totally monogamous! That can get you in trouble if you say things like that! No, I’m totally monogamous. Have you ever read The Birthday Book, with all the birthdays? My one’s actually really accurate for me – it says you’re capable of being either a complete slut or totally loyal and monogamous and committed. And I am like that, you know? I can go uptown, I can go downtown!

Do you read the stars? Are you a newspaper stars reader?

If I come across it, you know? I don’t let myself get too caught up in it …

What sign are you?

I’m Virgo – my birthday’s next week.

What date?

September 11th … Me and Moby – we have the same birthday … But I’ve found that there are bigger questions worth contemplating than “am I going to get what I want?” Do you know what I mean? In some ways, knowledge of all those things – like tarot cards and horoscopes – they’re kind of based on “are you going to get what you want?” And I’m sort of interested in my journey as a process of, like, surrendering to what the world wants of me.

I try not to obsess about “am I going to get what I want”, because I don’t even know what I want. I sort of do … I want to be a huge rock star, and I’ve always wanted that, and I’ve always wanted it to be with a twist, you know? I’ve always wanted to work at the top level of pop music, and still inject it with a sense of humour and a soulfulness and a realness,

B RET T GA RSED

Music Legend To Play Guitar Expo Brett Garsed was born in rural Victoria, Australia and began playing guitar at age twelve after hearing Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore play Speed King. His main influences were Blackmore, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix. This later expanded to more diverse styles such as Leo Kottke, Rory Gallagher (his main inspiration for slide guitar) and Edward Van Halen.

Brett’s playing style always revolved around left-hand legato from day one: “I don’t know why I started playing that way, it just seemed so natural.” This eventually led him to the music of Allan Holdsworth, a life-changing experience for most musicians. Hearing Holdsworth introduced him to new

sounds and possibilities which in turn exposed him to more fusion oriented artists such as Larry Carlton and Scott Henderson.

In July of 1985, Brett was featured in Guitar Player magazine’s “Spotlight” column, which was devoted to exposing new talent to

that I don’t perceive as being too “present” in a lot of it. But, as far as my specific goals, and how I’m going to get there, I don’t really know. It’s just a series of failings of things, and you sort of end up with a career.

Where did you come from, Ben? Where were you born? What was your childhood like? Where did you grow up?

Sydney – I was born in Sydney … You know – Jewish family … a lot of music in the family, but it wasn’t at all forced on me. I sort of “found my way” to it. My family where all kind of academic, this generation. I was one of the only ones that didn’t go to university.

Wow, that must have freaked them out.

Oh, yeah! I mean, can you imagine? It’s like, a brutalising thing to have to deliver.

It’s like being a meat-eater in a family of vegetarians.

[Laughs] Exactly. But I sort of knew, from a young age, that everything I was learning was happening “experientially”.

Like, none of my big lessons came in school. I wanted to taste things, you know? I wanted to actually engage with them in a real way.

And what would you say have been the milestones in your career so far? Have there been turning points?

Yeah, major turning points. But they often weren’t to do with my career – they were to do with things happening in my life that made me look at my career differently, you know? I mean, a major one recently was Awake being so successful after I had it rejected by labels, and paid for it myself and all that sort of thing.

Because that’s a real confidence-builder, in terms of following your own sense of musicality and artistry, because you just say, “Oh, if I do what I want, there’s an audience for it.”

So there’s that. I think being fourteen and getting plucked out of my bedroom and being given a stage and a record label – that was a major turning point for me. I think another one was Something To Remember Me By, which was the first record of mine that really flopped. That was a major turning point for me, because I was so earnest, and I was just doing the rest of the world. This encouraged Brett to give up his job as a licensed plumber and pursue a career as a professional musician, prompting him to send demo tapes to as many record companies and management companies as he could find. “I wasn’t looking for a record deal. I just wanted to get into a good band.” One of the tapes was heard by Ross Fraser of the Wheatley Organization, which led to an audition for a short tour by Australian superstar John Farnham. Farnham, at this time still a member of the Little River Band, was planning a solo album and invited Brett to be a part of the project. The resulting album, Whispering Jack, went on to become the biggest selling album in Australian history, followed by sellout tours of Australia and Europe.

Brett continued to tour and record with John until early 1989 when he was invited to the US to audition for Nelson, a band led by Gunnar and Mathew, sons of the late Ricky Nelson. The audition was a success and the resulting album, After the Rain, went on to sell in excess of 3 million copies and yielded a national #1 (Love and Affection) as well as two top ten follow up singles.

my best. I mean, I know it wasn’t the record that people had liked before … but I really was just putting my best foot forward, and I was shocked that people would turn against it, you know? So that was a really big thing – having my first hit, and the blessing and curse of that, of Cigarettes Will Kill You, and dealing with the pressure of fame for the first time was really big … being involved in my first major relationship with Claire [Danes] – that was a six year, real growth period.

I know – I’m going on and on. And then the major one … really the biggest thing in my life, I think – the single biggest major milestone in my life was meeting my spiritual teacher, which was the first time I started looking at music as my kind of service, and my prayer.

I was always interested in spirituality, and I always thought that my music was like my work, and then I went and I would meditate or whatever in private. I thought the two sort of stayed separate. And then, when I met this teacher, he was very clear with me that my path was to try and inject my music with this sense of hope for my audience and stuff. So that was a real culmination with a lot of events, and a lot of different outlooks that I’d been experimenting throughout the course of making records and writing songs.

I see you as definitely being able to be called a “wordsmith” … but then, you have this other element, which is the musical side of it; the melody side of it. I was just wondering – how do you compare the feeling of writing a great lyric or a great phrase, compared with writing a great, or satisfying melody?

Well I don’t like poetry … yet. I’ve never written a great poem. I’ve mucked around with it – I’ve never done it. I don’t think my songs particularly work as poems. I think there is a poetry to pop music, and to rock ‘n’ roll songs, that has its own beauty to it. But it can’t be divorced from the rhythm or the melody. I mean, all my best lyrics … they’re meant to be sung, you know?

Ben Lee’s latest album is Ripe for the picking now.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www. sauce.net.au

For most of ‘91 Brett toured the US with Nelson, and spent ‘92 recording Quid Pro Quo with Chicago-born guitarist TJ Helmerich after the duo decided to sign to Varney’s label. With Nelson on a seemingly permanent hiatus, Brett and TJ pursued their career promoting Quid Pro Quo. Greeted with critical acclaim worldwide, the pair recorded the follow up album Exempt in 1993. In ‘94 Brett also filmed an instructional video for REH/Warner titled Rock Fusion, which covers, in detail, his unique approach to guitar improvisation.

Brett is now living in Australia again after fourteen years in Los Angeles, having just completed the record breaking “Last Time” tour with John Farnham which went for an unprecedented seven months.

Brett Garsed will be appearing at the Guitar Expo at the Devonport High School on the 21st of October.

PAGE 11

JES US AND T H E JE D I

Make Music With The Force ROCK SALT

By Tom Wilson They’ve got a band name that sounds like a George Lucas prequel to The Passion Of The Christ. They’ve got bass, and they’ve got drums. And they like to spoon … apparently. Meet Jesus and The Jedi – two guys who are a perfectly good reason to rock the fuck out. See them, love them, teach them how to use Myspace, and read on – Jesus gave me a sermon from the mount …

How did you guys first start playing together?

I [Jesus] approached The Jedi about two years ago and said, “We should have a jam sometime!” I’d said it to hundreds of people in the past, but this time I got off my arse and hooked it up. We just clicked from the beginning. Once we’d seen how talented we each were, we just knew we could be headed for big places. The Jedi filled in on bass for a few months with The Dave McKenna Trio, but once Duds (vocalist/guitarist) moved overseas something else happened – Jesus and The Jedi was born.

change it over to a band site. Call me computer illiterate if you will – remember I am over two thousand years old. Give me a break.

But seriously, can anyone help us out?

The band is comprised of a drummer and bass player.

In what ways do you think the lack of any other guitars benefits your sound?

It’s heaps easier to organise jams with only two people ... end of story ... and guitarists are overrated anyway. Seriously though, The Jedi’s bass-playing skills hold a massive sound in itself; a few effects here and there drive home a huge funky sound. Plus we haven’t met a guitarist who has the creativity or talent to be in Jesus and The Jedi yet.

Jedi: I am an examination supervisor for various financial companies. I am also a father, I captain the legendary Showtime Skunks basketball team, and local chess champion. I play a mean King’s Gambit.

Who are some of the Burnie acts you’ve played with so far, and what’s been the best gig?

We played a show at Maginty’s Original Sing with Marcus Wynwood, Invisible Boy and a few others. We consider that to be our best gig thus far, even though our set was cut short.

We had about a hundred people cheering for us that night. Other than that, we’ve played a few gigs with Jake Boote, Melbourne band Grumpy Neighbour, The Que and Viva Computer.

You’ve had a fair bit of interest from Triple J Unearthed – yet the recordings aren’t up on your Myspace yet. What gives? How can people hear your stuff outside of live shows?

They can drop into my house and listen to my copy. That is the only way. We’re trying to get a bit of money together to massproduce some demos (I made a hundred to sell, but heaps have gone as promos). With the Myspace thing, I don’t know how to

When we’re not playing a gig, we usually get together, watch a movie and spoon …

What does each of you do outside of the band?

Jesus: I am an engineering officer in local government and yes, I wear a tie. I ride an SV650 – do you want to buy it? I also have an extensive collection of old hankies and shoelaces. I keep in touch with nature, call bingo numbers, and have a fetish for hiding in people’s bushes and watching them make tea etc.

Where could someone usually find you on a Saturday night?

When we’re not playing a gig, we usually get together, watch a movie and spoon. We watch either Quigley Down Under or Three Men and a Little Lady. Basically, anything that stars Tom Selleck.

To what extent does using the Force help you as musicians?

The Jedi usually takes control of that one. He’s got the Jedi mind control thing down. He uses it to make people dance and tell us we’re awesome. It’s handy when you want someone to get you a drink, or when you get an itchy crack mid-song.

I personally don’t like The Jedi using the Force. I prefer to read the Bible and do a lot of forgiving and forgetting. I can also do the water-into wine thing.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have three albums, what would they be, and why?

Jesus: Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger. Best album ever released, bar none. I think I’ve listened to it about five thousand times, and I still want to listen to it now. It’s so good I’d probably tattoo it on

my back.

Mr. Bungle – Mr. Bungle. Something a little different.

Intense Hammer Rage – Avagoyamugs (or some of the new stuff when it comes out). For something a little more different. Support your locals!

Jedi: The Residents – Demons Dance Alone. Best album ever. I love the Residents so much I’d also probably get them tattooed onto my back.

Funkadelic – Cosmic Slop. ’Cause George Clinton is the funkiest person I’ve met.

Blue Meanies – Full Throttle. ’Cause this album goes off. They’re a very tight band.

I understand you’re looking to play some shows in Launceston and Hobart. What progress have you made here? Where would you most like to play?

We’ve got a show coming up in Hobart at the Brisbane with Viva Computer on Friday, 28th of September. Thanks to Matt Leary for hooking that one up. I’ve made a few calls and sent some demos off to The Oak, The Commercial and The Gunners Arms to get the ball rolling in Launceston with Woof Woof and Invisible Boy. We just need someone to put us on! Anywhere! I wouldn’t mind getting a Friday or Saturday night at the Republic or the Lewisham Tavern.

Jesus and The Jedi play Hobart’s Brisbane Hotel on the 28th of September.

DEAD L ET T E R CI R CU S

The Letters Were Lost, And A Band Was Formed ROCK SALT

By Dave Williams

With their Tasmanian tour on the horizon, Guitarist Rob Maric from Dead Letter Circus went into detail for SAUCE about the incredible story behind the name of their band, and the complicated process of finding their current line-up.

So are you travelling around on the tour at the moment? How’s it all going?

Good, yeah. I just literally stepped out of the tour van. It’s going fantastically. The shows are going really good, We’re doing some Karnivool shows at the moment.

We were meant to be doing a bunch of New South Wales shows right now for our own tour, but Karnivool ended up booking a tour which clashed with a bunch of shows, so instead of trying to compete with them, we just jumped on a couple of shows as main support and it’s worked out really well!

It’s kind of like a big Karnivool beast has sat on us.

Yeah, well I guess as the saying goes, if you can’t beat them – join them.

Exactly. And it doesn’t get better than joining Karnivool.

We absolutely love them, they’re an amazing band, so… yeah. In many ways we’re actually happy about it, even though it’s not really the best for us. [Laughs] Yeah, so I just want to go straight to the most obvious question that comes for me when I talk to bands for the first time, and that is; Dead Letter Circus… what’s that about? Did you guys have a bit of a run-in with the post office? Or what?

Oh, it’s actually an old story about my grandmother in Croatia. Her husband basically died, but she kept sending all these letters out to the circus… this travelling circus, trying to chase it around, and they never make it because the address book is actually… not real.

PAGE 12

So all these letters pile up around the country… and it’s actually a bit of a legendary story, and we thought it was kinda cool, so [that’s what] we named our band.

It probably doesn’t suit us anymore, but oh well, it’s too late. [Laughs] So… just let me understand that for a bit, she didn’t realise her husband had died, and…

Oh, she was in denial that he had died, but she thought that he went and joined the circus. That’s what she told herself, because she couldn’t handle the fact that he had passed away.

But she kept sending letters out to what she thought was a travelling circus, but those letters wouldn’t make it, so they became dead letters. And… yeah, that’s sorta where it came from.

That’s rather beautifully romantic, isn’t it?

I know, it is! It’s kinda sad, and a story of …

Tragic…

Tragic.

And you’re saying that you didn’t believe it was totally suiting the band, in terms of… what way? In what way do you guys think it doesn’t describe you, or suit you anymore?

I don’t know! I guess we started off as a heavier kind of a band … and then our songs got a bit less obscure, a bit more… I don’t know. It feels less dark, and more… I guess positively in our songs as well. I feels like a negative kind of name.

She was in denial that he had died, but she thought that he went and joined the circus.

Well, it’s got the word dead in it. And in a lot of our songs, if you check out the lyrics, they’re positive. And there’s not much positively to that story, really.

Yeah. Oh, well, you know. It’s a beautiful story anyway.

Oh, I’m glad you think so.

So how did you guys form, and what have been the milestones in the band’s development so far?

Well the singer Kim, and the bass player Stewy, they were in a Brisbane band … They rose about the same time as The Butterfly Effect in Brisbane, and they were kind of like a Cog [style] metal band.

With a lot of really … They had a bit of a following up here, they were going really well for a while, neck and neck with the ‘Butters,’ until they broke away nationally.

They had a phenomenal drama, they spent the next year or two trying to replace their amazing drummer, and

no-one could… and they kinda just fell apart.

And around that time, when they finally fell apart, that’s when I met Kim, and at the time he was singing and playing guitar.

And I said I was a guitar player, and he was into it, and yeah, we just kinda bonded to each other musically.

From there we just started the band, and the problem was that we didn’t have the right drummer at the time.

We used the drummer that I was playing with, and we went through all of these really depressing phases where for about six months, we had no drummer working for us.

Then we put an ad in the street press, and we got like, two responses. One was from like a seventeen year old kid, and one was from Scott, saying “I’m a full time drummer…” and this and that, and we thought it was a prank but we had one jam with him and it was phenomenal. And then we started.

Dead Letter Circus play Devonport’s Spurs on the 27th, The Republic Bar in Hobart on the 28th, and The Saloon in Launceston on the 29th of September.

To listen to the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

PAGE 13

MEL I NDA JA CKS O N

Magic With A Sting … And A Touch Of Controversy ROCK SALT

By Dave Williams

… As I get older, I’m starting to go back and listen to older stuff, you know?

With the new single from her forthcoming debut album out by the time you read this, Melinda Jackson has plenty to be excited about at the moment. But what could top that? The fact that Magic – a “celebration” of a song by none other than Sting – actually got an official nod from the man himself. That said, she’s also had a bit to be worried about – with the recent prison-sentencing of Oz industry figure Glenn Wheatley putting her on the fringes of controversy, which is never, ever a good thing …

So what’s happening in the world of Melinda Jackson?

Well, I’m just getting ready to release Magic, which is really exciting. I’m in the middle of all the bits-andpieces with that, so, yeah … right in the middle of it. But that’s going to go out on the 15th of September.

When you say that you’re going to release it, where will you release it? I mean, it sounds like it’s a cage of doves that you’re going to open up, and it’s going to fly out there!

[Laughs] It is!

In what form? Where will you be letting it go to?

Well first of all, we’re starting here in our homeland of Australia … so we’re going to have the official release of the hard-copy CD into shops on the 15th of September, and also the digital release … so it’ll be available in the shops, and also on iTunes and other programs like that. So that’s sort of how it’s going to get released.

Did you go to … is it the Sydney Performing School of Arts or something like that? How has your career evolved to where you are now?

Well, I’ve been singing since I was really young. My family is musical – my grandfather was a lead singer with the Australian opera for a long time. So he came over to Australia – to Sydney – and auditioned for the opera, and he did that. So I guess it’s kind of a family thing. I never studied in any performing arts schools. I did singing lessons and dancing and that sort of thing, but it was more normal school, normal life, I guess. And then, when I left school, I decided I wanted to start doing gigs and singing with different bands, so I started doing that. And I’ve always been writing all the while as well – ever since I was little.

I interviewed Sam LaMore the other day … he mixed Fall In Love?

He produced it, and co-wrote as well. So he was one of the writers – I wrote that with him.

Was that a Central Station sort of joining?

That was wasn’t. Fall In Love happened through iSPY Records, so completely independent, and then through MGM as well.

How did you and Sam get together?

It was through a friend, actually, that I’d worked with in the past, and he sort of said, “Come and meet Sam – he’s in town.” He’d just gotten back from the States, and when he got back, it was like, “Oh, perfect! I’d love to do something with Sam.” So that’s how Fall In Love happened.

And Everywhere was a good release for you. Were you much of a Fleetwood Mac fan as a kid? Or were your folks into Fleetwood Mac? Yeah, they were. I really liked Fleetwood Mac. I started getting into it when I was older, though. I’ve done that with a fair bit of music; as I get older, I’m starting to go back and listen to older stuff, you know? You appreciate all the sounds, and what they used in production and everything back then.

Amazing stories, really, about the life of the band – in terms of them all hating each other at various points in time, and still working together, and it all coming out in their music. I mean, You Could Go Your Own Way was all about, “bugger off! I don’t care!”

Yeah, I know! It’s incredible! I just can’t believe that they could tour like that! Like, honestly, they must have driven each other absolutely mad! But yeah … that was a really interesting story; that they could come up with such an amazing album, and get out on the road, all in the midst of break-ups and craziness!

Talking about getting out on the road – are you planning to do a national tour to promote Magic?

Yeah, I’m hoping to. [We’re] basically just lining up some gigs around Australia at the moment. We’ve also got some fun international gigs coming up, which is good – after we get it off the ground here. Then we’ll be hopefully releasing overseas with some of the partners over there, which is really good. Basically we’ve got to release Fall In Love over there, in some other countries, and then Magic as well. So that’s quite exciting.

But yeah – definitely gigging around. I go on the road with my own band, which is great; it’s a six-piece band.

And it sounds a little bit different to what it sounds like in the recording, but it’s sort of what I’m used to – working with bands – so giving it a different flavour, a different edge. But yeah, it’s good.

You are on the edge of one of the biggest sort of controversies and scandals in the Australian music business at the moment, aren’t you? With Glenn?

Yeah, with Glenn. I feel really, really bad for Glenn.

That’s how I feel about it too.

Yeah. I just don’t think it was the right … I don’t think it was handled appropriately, you known?

There’s such a fine line between what is done to minimise tax … and if you’re being advised, I’m sure he would have gone along with advice.

Exactly. Everybody goes along with advice.

Now the poor guy’s got, like, ten months in the slammer.

Yeah. It’s very unfair.

But maybe he’ll be writing some music, and he’ll come out and we’ll see a new Master’s Apprentices album coming out?

Yeah, that’d be cool! [Laughs] But yeah, my heart goes out to him and his family. It’s a very frustrating situation.

Look, there’s some really interesting things going on at the moment with some other big-name muso’s and entertainment types, because the Swiss accountant was advising a lot of different people in the industry, and across the entertainment industry. I noticed that Paul Hogan’s offices went up in a fire recently, and all his records were destroyed … It’s a bit of a difficult time for a lot of some of the icons of the industry out there at the moment.

Yeah … It’s not good.

How does something like that impact on you, in terms of management?

Well, because Glenn and Neil worked together with me, for Neil … he works very closely with Glenn, and he’s a very good friend of Glenn’s, Neil has basically taken care of business now with regard to my career. So yeah – they’re both fantastic guys. I love them both, they’re great. So I’m very lucky that I still have Neil here, you know, to help get things off the ground and everything.

It’s impossible to know everything, and impossible to do everything, and at some point or another, you do have to trust what you’re being told. The whole [concept] of taking advice from people – does that sort of freak you out a bit now? The fact that you are quite vulnerable to other people’s advice and knowledge and priorities?

I guess, in the end, it’s tough, because yeah, you do [feel vulnerable] … But I think it’s really important to read things yourself, and not just, you know, take advice from people – if you’re talking about people like accountants or anything. I think it’s important that people are as clued-up as they possibly can be, you know what I mean? Yeah, so I just try and make sure that I know what’s going on, as much as I can I guess. But yeah, it didn’t sort of freak me out that much, in terms of taking advice from people. I just make sure that I read things! [Laughs] I mean, obviously, my situation is nowhere near as complex as somebody like Glenn … I still have a very simple business structure that I’m working under – it’s not complicated. But I can see that, the further into the industry, and the more successful you are, definitely the more complicated it can get … the more you lose your control of what, where, and who’s taking care of what – that sort of thing. But for me, it’s still a very simple, basic structure, you know?

And would you like to maybe come and play some shows in Tassie one day?

I would love to! I’ve never been to Tasmania, and I have been saying that I want to come down for a long time.

It’s beautiful, so yeah – really looking forward to that. Hopefully … I’ll definitely keep you posted! [Laughs] To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au www.myspace.com/melindajacksonmusic

PAGE 14

MADINA LAKE From Them, Through Us, To You 9/10

CHEF’S CHOICE MANKIND IIWII 10/10

These guys are now officially on my top bands list! They are hot! Based in Chicago, their ride till now has been one filled with a few horror stories – ones that have, in a way, helped them get to this point in their career. Brothers Nathan (vocals) and Mathew (bass) Leone, were dared by friends and accepted to appear on a Fear Factor “Twins Challenge”. They took out the major prize of $50,000, which helped to fund their debut album, From Them, Through Us, To You – it will not disappoint you!

Mankind is a collaboration between one of Brisbane’s best producers, Dave V and Melbourne-born Hungry Human, MC Thorts. Miles apart physically, together they bring the soul of old-school hip-hop to the surface and skilfully portray their many years of experience on a very original and well-thoughtthrough project.

I can see this album being on heavy rotation over the coming weeks...

Dave V has a production style that can’t be compared to many new artists – using warm, funk bass lines mixed with bluesy guitar riffs and heavily compressed drum loops, and the occasional church organ for even more originality.

Thorts is an intellectual rhymer; more of a poet than anything, speaking his truth about the social conditions that he’s faced with, and expressing the mental battles between his mixed philosophical questions and answers that don’t seem to match up.

My favourite tracks would be Hungry Humans and The

Opening with Here I Stand, you are instantly drawn in by their well thought-out, clearly defined, meaningful lyrics.

Each song has great vocals, and are delivered with an intensity that can only be described as in-you-face rock, mixed with a metro/pop, new-age vibe.

Simple Life e featuring Class A A. I think Hungry Humanss best represents that passion and word-wizardry that makes Thorts a step above the rest. The Simple Life is filled with so much rawness – from the chopped, emotional guitar riff sample to the expressive verses from Thorts and one of Geelong’s hidden treasures, Class A.

From there on, each song demonstrates their brilliant abilities as musicians, and confirm to us what they are all about throughout this album. They have captured the upbeat sound that is so popular these days, but still manage to keep their own flare and uniqueness erupting through.

I can see this album being on heavy rotation over the coming weeks, and I encourage lovers of introspective, heart-onsleeve-style Australian hip-hop to check this release out real soon.

It is truly great to hear expressive songs about everyday life – through the strong vocals and intense sound, these guys leave you with a feeling of emotional empowerment and satisfaction. You are sure to enjoy what these guys have to offer!

RYAN FARRINGTON

CORNERSTONE ROOTS Free Yourself 6/10 Cornerstone Roots are back again. Free Yourself, their second album, is soon to be released in stores. This release will give you an insight to their New Zealand heritage, while the lively disposition through this album is down-to-earth; the Kiwi reggae creates a humble and mellowing vibe.

Each song soulfully delivers an important message, inspired by their close ties to family and their native soil.

These guys have a mellow rock/reggae vibe; the album’s flowing melodies stay within the boundaries of their unique style. They know exactly what they are about, and this release demonstrates just that.

Cornerstone Roots are a four-piece; Brian Ruawai (vocals and Hendrix-inspired bluesy guitar), Naomi Tuao (bass, Turongo, drums) and Aaron Bush (percussion). The general vibe to the album is grabbing hold of everyday issues – which everyone can relate to in some way – and getting their point out there. For me, Home topped this release; it is a straightforward song, with a touching message.

The album also includes appearances from Reggae MC/ vocalist Luciano, and veteran Studio One DJ Ranking Joe. It will appeal to all tastes – it is so easy to relate to, and will provide pleasant listening.

It won’t get you up dancing, but it is ideal for background music, or if you’re in the mood for some mellow-rock tunes to chill out to.

LISA HOWELL

DETROIT COBRAS Tire and True 6/10

It seems that there is a new punk rock band coming out of the woodwork in the hope of conquering the Australian (and possibly international) music scene.

Melbournites Horsell Common have just released their first single Good From Afar, one of the tracks off their soon-to-be-released album The Rescue.

The track has the blistering energy of 80’s-style punk rock and the edginess of the new-wave punk of today.

Good From Afar displays the band’s raw talent, and is perfect for a debut release. (You know a song is good when even the remix is top quality) Horsell Common could soon be household names after their tour alongside big named acts The Butterfly Affect, Youth Group, Gyroscope, Grinspoon and Little Birdy as part of the Breakout ’07 east coast tour.

The whole 80’s punk theme drops off in the tracks to come. The vocals of Blood And Wine sound similar to that of Ben Lee, which is very far from the punk genre in which they classify themselves.

A much slower tempo and whining vocals make this sound similar to that of yet another Aussie act, Kisschasy.

On hearing the first track, you would assume that the other tracks were all as emotionally charged as the first, but they are not.

The other tracks are not as strong as the single, but the album is worth buying just for the title track.

SHANNON STEVENS

MERE THEORY Catalan Atlas

With The Detroit Cobras latest release due to hit stores soon, their latest compilation of songs give new meaning to the expression “old school”, with this album best described as down to earth, garage/pub rock. It’s been three years since these guys have released an album, and this is a great collection to get their ball rolling again!

As each song passes, I find myself drawn in by their mellow rock vibe, and I am constantly reminded by the soothing, flowing tones and well-written lyrics just why rock ‘n’ roll is still popular and an inspiration to artists after all these years.

Rachel Nagy’s classic rock voice, together with the well-produced rhythm arrangements – by Mary Ramirez (guitar), Kenny Tudrick (drums), Greg Cartwright (guitar, percussion) and Carol Schumacher (bass) – combine for a great congregation of work. Also, Eddie Hawrysch, lending his talents on the piano, joins the Cobras in Try Love and The Hurt’s All Gone.

You’ll Never Change starts off the album by giving us a great insight to what this album has to offer! As Long As I Have You and My Delight are both interesting songs; catchy, with a sound that has its own place in today’s music industry. But it is still easy to see when listening to these guys where they draw upon for inspiration, by keeping the deep rock meaning intact, as well as staying well within the defined boundaries that their sound aspires to.

LISA HOWELL

HORSELL COMMON Good From Afar

Album Cover Not Available

LISA HOWELL

Rolling Stone magazine stated “Catalan Atlas is a mature, compelling record, and a strong contender for this year’s best debut”.

For such a high-profile magazine to be quoted with that, it’s fair to assume that what you’re about to listen to is of high quality.

Catalan Atlas is the debut album from Adelaide’s Mere Theory. The album is made up of intense rock tunes and the occasional power ballad, making this the perfect album for all rock enthusiasts.

The first track: Every End Is A New Beginning really shows lead singer Chris Mellow’s full vocal ability. He hits the high harmonies in just the right places and that works to the band’s advantage, making this one of the best tracks off the album.

You could be mistaken into believing Defeating This Feeling was by Snow Patrol. The only clue to make you believe otherwise is that the instrumental work is more hardcore than that of Snow Patrol’s.

Breathe (Take This Vaccine) is one of those edgy power ballads. The instrumental work is the highlight to the track. From the twangy guitar riffs to the deep bass chords, this track is well worth a listen.

You will realise the potential of this band is seemingly endless upon listening to the first few tracks. This is one of the must have albums for 2007.

SHANNON STEVENS

THE CAT EMPIRE So Many Nights

THE GO! TEAM Proof of Youth

Australia’s favourite felinetitled band, The Cat Empire, are back – bigger and better than ever. The band’s third full-length album, So Many Nights is, in my opinion, their best release yet.

What do you get when you cross hip-hop, dance, and a touch of indie? No idea? Well, the answer is The Go! Team.

The title track of the album is extremely infectious, and the beat will be left in your head for at least the next few hours. The band even manages to squeeze in the name of one of their previous releases (Two Shoes) into the lyrics of this track.

Till The Ocean Takes Us All starts off with some very intriguing vocal work – it sounds like some old sea shanty you would expect to hear Popeye belting out.

The English six-piece band who sound very much like the comical act Junior Senior have just released their latest album Proof of Youth.

Grip Like a Vice starts off with a very catchy guitar riff, then explodes into hip-hop styled vocals. Like all dance music, the lyrics are a bit difficult to understand, but suit the instrumental work on the track.

Much slower (and sounding substantially more cornier) is I Never Needed It So Much.

This is the weakest of the tracks on the album by far, and not one I would expect to be released as a single.

There is too much consistency with the music in the track, as the tempo stays at the same dull tone throughout.

The Cat Empire is one of Australia’s most well-known acts, having extensively toured throughout the US, Europe and, of course, Australia.

The vocals also sound very High School Musical –the instrumental work drowning out the (in this case) singer.

This is one track that I would suggest skipping over!

Their first two albums both reached double platinum, and the third won an ARIA for best world album.

The music of The Wrath Of Marcie sounds like one of those old school marching bands. You can just picture all those swankily-dressed school kids marching down the street whilst all their school mates either laugh or egg them.

No Longer There is similar to the title track off the album due to its catchy instrumental work. The tempo is slower in this one, but the drum work at the end really stands out, and finishes the song on a good note.

And how could I not mention a song with a name like Fishies?! With a name like that, you can already tell that the song is going to be an interesting one. It has a very Latin feel to it, and is top-class music from a top-class band.

SHANNON STEVENS

The Go! Team’s music is very comical, much like that of Junior Senior, but is just not the genre of music that is widely sought-after, it seems.

THE HOT LIES Ringing In The Sane Adelaide band The Hot Lies have just released their fulllength debut album Ringing In The Sane. Ringing In The Sane (got to love the swapping of the “R” and “S”) has a pop-punk styled track list with a few outstanding – and some not-so-crash-hot – songs.

The first single Emergency! Emergency! is highly contagious, and will leave you singing along to it for days. Pete Wood provides vocals for the band, and this is one song where his voice is very well utilised, and of a very high quality. The middle of the track is also quite different; the focus turns from the vocals onto the instrumental work and the screaming, and makes for interesting listening.

Slowing the pace down is Sharks Swim Everywhere. The guitar work in this track almost has a depressing feeling to it. It starts off painfully slow, and then climaxes in the chorus. (Like the mood of a depressed person: sad and upset then angry and scary as hell).

The Hot Lies have toured with big name punk rockers Millencolin and My Chemical Romance, and will be supporting both Good Charlotte and Sum 41. They have also played Taste of Chaos, and Eskimo Joe worked on two of the songs on the album, making The Hot Lies one band that I predict we will be hearing much more of.

SHANNON STEVENS

THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO Better Than 9/10 Yet again these guys don’t disappoint us, with the release of their third single Better Than from their number one album Grand National.

The trio once more broadcast their excellent abilities to produce a classic sound with outstanding instrumental performances, and they continue to provide us with more inspiring and meaningful lyrics, which overall makes for first-rate listening. When listening to Better Than, you will clearly understand where John is coming from when he was writing this wicked song.

For me, it is about being happy with who you are, not to take people for granted because they will not be around forever, and also about wanting to be seen as the person you are, instead of who everyone wants you to be.

This is a message that I can relate to, as I’m sure everyone can in their own way. The best thing about John’s writing technique, in my opinion, is that we can share the truth of his words.

The album includes two versions of the single Better Than, with the second mix being my favorite of the two; it has a more upbeat tempo and intense vibe which, in turn, strengthens the lyrics.

They have defined their own style and stuck to it, and man, it rocks! I’m sure you will agree, Grand National is an album of exceptional quality, and JBT deserve outstanding praise for their abilities as unique, successful artists.

MATTHEW LABEDZKI

Divine Heresy Bleed The Fifth 6/10 Headbangers rejoice! From the mastermind guitarist of industrial metal band Fear Factory, Dino Cazares has formed four-piece Divine Heresy – a metal band that will detonate your ears.

My first impressions of the album were that it sounded similar to Fear Factory, but with further listening you surpass comparing the two bands. New to contribute his voice to today’s metal scene is Tommy Vext, who brings a growling approach and melodic, clean choruses to the songs. The rapid-velocity drumming of Tim Yeung (Hate Eternal, Vital Remains, Nile) and Cazares’ harmonising seven-string guitar riffs and bass parts back up Vext vocals. Former Nile member Joe Payne will be the band’s permanent bass player.

Though it is hard to create a band sound that has not been heard before, the band does have their distinct approach of attitude and passion delivered in a hard-hitting way. The first single, Failed Creation, a political song blasting out messages of how we turn a blind eye on world decisions in need of being fixed.

One of the lines directly states, “Open your fucking eyes”. I agree. Other great tracks along with the single release are Saviour Self, Rise Of The Scorned and Closure, which have better chorus melodies than the other tracks.

It is the type of music that would be good for movie themes and children’s TV shows.

Produced by Dirty Icon productions Logan Mader (ex-guitarist Machine Head, Soulfly) and Lucas Banker, and co-produced

by Divine Heresy, the album is sure not to offend Fear Factory fans, and is for an audience who like the brutal and clean vocal style many bands are adapting today.

SHANNON STEVENS

DAVID WALKER PAGE 15

GIG

GUIDE

19TH SEP - 2ND OCT WEDNESDAY 19TH HOBART

Royal Oak The Titz

The Loft The Stiltsons + Supports S ports @ 8PM Su Supp 8P PM

Curly’s Bar Dr Fink

Saloon Evermore + Children Collide @ 9:30PM

Wrest Point Kate Ceberano + John Joh hn h n Paul Pa Paul

Irish Murphy’s Mindset + Guests

Wynyard Pub Jesus And The Jedi

Republic Bar & Café Gurithm + Dewayne Everett Smith @ 9PM Syrup Rewind – St. Nick + Reme

LAUNCESTON The Hub Mouth Off – Comedy, Drama and Spoken Word @ 6PM Irish Murphy’s Sambo + Zac Lister Band Saloon The Gary Gary’s + DJ

THURSDAY 20TH BURNIE Stage Door the Café Leonie Smith + George Golla @ 7:30PM

HOBART

Irish Murphy’s Glenn Moorehouse

Halo Psysessions – Benza + Shammie/Psywise + Ellis D Irish Murphy’s Garod Matcham + Running with Scissors Republic Bar & Café The Vaudevillians + The No No’s @ 10PM Syrup La Casa – Nick Hay + Timo + Discotouch Wrest Point Evermore

LAUNCESTON

37 Wilson St Burnie 6431 6616

Irish Murphy’s Open Mic Night Republic Bar & Café Hayley Cooper @ 9PM

LAUNCESTON

WEDNESDAY 26TH HOBART Brisbane Hotel Stillsons + Echo Blue + Jay Freak Curly’s Bar Big Swifty Irish Murphy’s Nathan Weldon & The Two Timers + James Parry Republic Bar & Café Dream Awake @ 9PM Syrup Rewind – St. Nick + Reme

LAUNCESTON Irish Murphy’s Leigh Ratcliffe + Tokyo Gun Club The Hub Mouth Off – Comedy, Drama and Spoken Word @ 6PM Royal Oak Open Mic Night Saloon The Smashers + DJ

THURSDAY 27TH BURNIE Stage Door the Café Jazz-Free Zone + Europa Poets Society @ 7:00PM

Irish Murphy’s Captain O’Brien’s Crack

DEVONPORT

James Hotel Glenn Moorhouse @ James Bar DJ Patty Duke @ Reality

HOBART

Royal Oak Lloyd Spiegel

SATURDAY 22ND BURNIE Stage Door The Café Hipnosis @ 7:30PM

HOBART

Spurs/Warehouse Dead Letter Circus

21/Sep

Lloyd Spiegel

22/Sep

The Titz

TUE

25/Sep

Jazz in The Boatshed

WED

26/Sep

Open Mic. Night

THU

27/Sep

The Zac Lister Band

FRI

28/Sep

Ben Castles

SAT

29/Sep

To Be Announced

GREAT FOOD

OPEN MIC NIGHT The Last Wednesday Of Every Month

OPEN 7 DAYS

14 BRISBANE STREET, LTN 6331 5346

LAUNCESTON 39 Bar Ministry Of Sound – Klaus “Heavyweight” Hill + Gillie + Chris Neobi + Joycie @ 9PM

Curly’s Bar

Syrup DFD – Gillie + Adam Turner + Dave Webber Wrest Point Suzi Quatro

Lonnies Recut + Jess + Cam + P.D.

HOBART Brisbane Hotel Pussy Kills Everyone For No Reason + Charles Du Cane + Viva Computer + Jesus And The Jedi @ 10PM

39Bar Chris Neobi + Jess Tucker + Recut + Joycie

Curly’s Bar Revival

Irish Murphy’s Sgt. Green

Irish Murphy’s Sambo + Dr. Fink

The Hub Shock Corridor @ 8PM

Republic Bar & Café Dead Letter Circus + Ten Foot Tall @ 10PM

James Hotel Cheeky Sound Chaser @ James Bar DJ Patty Duke @ Reality

Syrup Pickle vs. Pitch Black – Shad + Wilco + PKC + Liv + Scott Woodhouse

Lonnies Cam + P.D. + Craig + Boaz

Tasmanian Inn Toulouse (Western Swing)

$7.50

Breakfast Special from fr om 8am, 8 am , 7 Days 8am Da ys w week eeek

43 Charles St Launceston 03 6331 4857

Stage Door the Café Blue Monday @ 5:00PM

HOBART Irish Murphy’s Sambo Raincheck Lounge Live Acoustic Music @ 4PM Republic Bar & Café The Stiltsons @ 10PM The Loft Dead Letter Circus + Supports – ALL AGES @ 3PM The Metz Laid Back Summer Beats @ 4PM

LAUNCESTON

GUNNERS ARMS

Pizza & Beer

10

$

(One pot per pizza) 23 LAWRENCE ST. L’TON - 6331 3891

Irish Murphy’s Glenn Moorehouse + Leigh Ratcliffe + 3sum The Hub Painting Party – Gareth Boyle @ 8PM Star Hotel Sexy Lounge With Carl Fidler @ 5PM

OCTOBER

TUESDAY 2ND LAUNCESTON Irish Murphy’s Andy Collins

WEDNESDAY 3RD HOBART

Spurs/Warehouse Original Music Night – Live Bands

RIVERVIEW HOTEL

SUNDAY 30TH BURNIE

Royal Oak The Zac Lister Band

DEVONPORT

We are the ONLY Radio Station servicing the entire East Coast and Fingal Valley of Tasmania!

Saloon Dead Letter Circus + Ten Foot Tall

The Hub Open Mic Night @ 6PM

Stage Door the Café The Stoics @ 8:00PM

98.5 Bicheno, Swansea, Triabunna and Orford

Royal Oak Live Music

James Hotel Sgt Green + DJ Mark J @ Reality

FRIDAY 28TH BURNIE

100.3 Scamander up through the Fingal Valley to Campbell Town

Irish Murphy’s Murphy’s Law

The Hub Drumming Workshop @ 8PM

The Hub Funkjam @ 8PM

LAUNCESTON

SAT

Syrup Bang Gang DJs + Kir + Corney

Syrup Mesh – Adam Turner + Scott Woodhouse + Dave Webber + Chilli

Brisbane Hotel The Vaudevillains (Melb) + Bone Rattlers + The No No’s – ALL AGES @ 3PM

Republic Bar & Café The Art Of Fighting + Little Red @ 10PM

FRI

Republic Bar & Café Sugartrain @ 10PM

Irish Murphy’s Nathan Wheldon

LAUNCESTON

93.7 Pyengana to Beaumaris

Irish Murphy’s Tim Davies + Stokin The Neighbours

Republic Bar & Café Son Del Sur @ 9PM

Irish Murphy’s Ben Castles

Irish Murphy’s Jeremy Matcham + Dr. Fink

”Thursday Night Originals” - Samuel Bester

Derwent Entertainment Centre Powderfinger + Silverchair

MONDAY 1ST LAUNCESTON

Backspace Theatre Junk Rooms @ 8PM

Halo Hook N Sling

20/Sep

Curly’s Bar Grotesque + D2M + JimK + Samex @ 10pm

Irish Murphy’s Amy Kendall + Stillsons + Dream Awake

Grotesque + D2M + JimK + Samex @ 10pm

THU

Brisbane Hotel Cosmic Psychos + Killerbirds

Royal Oak Jazz in the Boatshed

Curly’s Bar Revival

CD’s & DVD’s New + Second hand

TUESDAY 25TH HOBART

HOBART

FRIDAY 21ST BURNIE

Brisbane Hotel Johnny Casino And The Secrets + Red Rival + Superkunts

COLLECTOR’S CORNER

Irish Murphy’s Glenn Moorehouse

Stage Door the Café Katy Pakinga @ 7:30PM

James Hotel Nat & Adam @ James Bar DJ Buff Star Dlux @ Reality

Backspace Theatre Junk Rooms @ 8PM

6331 9355 or help@barrattsmusic.com.au

MONDAY 24TH LAUNCESTON

Maginty’s Irish Bar Original Sing

The Hub Open Mic Night @ 6PM

HOBART

104 George St, Launceston

LAUNCESTON

On Tasmania’s Beautiful East Coast

SATURDAY 29TH BURNIE

Royal Oak Samuel Bester

Spurs/Warehouse Original Music Night – Live Bands

Power Adaptor $32

The Metz Laid Back Summer Beats @ 4PM

Royal Oak Ben Castles

James Hotel 3Sum + DJ Mark J @ Reality

Devonport High School Guitar Expo 2007

A Mere $199

Republic Bar & Café Cake Walking Babies @ 9PM

James Hotel Glenn Moorhouse @ James Bar DJ Patty Duke @ Reality

The Hub Kellie Collins Band @ 8PM

DEVONPORT

A Great Sounding, Five Octave Keyboard

Raincheck Lounge Live Acoustic Music @ 4PM

Irish Murphy’s Well Strung

Irish Murphy’s Phil Picasso

Stage Door the Café Charles Du Cane @ 8:00PM

BEWARE! There are some dreadful instruments available over the Internet & from some local stores. Always deal with a reputable music-specialist store!

Lewisham Tavern Rob Sawyer

Star Hotel Sexy Lounge With Carl Fidler @ 5PM

The Hub Yyan @ 8PM

BARRATTS

Irish Murphy’s Micheal Clennett + Mickey & Pete

Irish Murphy’s Nathan Burley + The Sign + Nathan Weldon & The Two Timers

LAUNCESTON

AT

HOBART

Irish Murphy’s Nathan Wheldon + Ben Castles + Cheeky Sound Chaser

Syrup Mesh – Adam Turner + Scott Woodhouse + Dave Webber + Chilli

YAMAHA PSRE203

Stage Door the Café Cary Lewincamp @ 5:00PM

Backspace Theatre Junk Rooms @ 8PM

Republic Bar & Café Matt Dwyer @ 9PM

QUALITY ISN’T EXPENSIVE

SUNDAY 23RD BURNIE

LAUNCESTON

Curly’s Bar Dr Fink Syrup Rewind – St. Nick + Reme

LAUNCESTON Irish Murphy’s Leigh Ratcliffe + Nathan Wheldon & The Two Timers The Hub Mouth Off – Comedy, Drama and Spoken Word @ 6PM Saloon The Gary Gary’s + DJ UTAS National Campus Band Comp @ 7PM

BURNIE

Stage Door The Cafe 254 Mount St Upper Burnie 64322600

HOBART Curly’s Bar 112 Murray St 6234 5112 www.curlysbar.com.au Hotel SOHO

124 Davey St 6224 9494 Raincheck Lounge 392-394 Elizabeth Street 6234 5975 Republic Bar 299 Elizabeth Street 6234 6954 www.republicbar.com The Brisbane Hotel 3 Brisbane St 6234 4920 thebrisbanehotel@gmail.com Syrup 1st Floor 39 Salamanca Place 6224 8249

LAUNCESTON Lonnies Niteclub 107 Brisbane St Launceston 6334 7889 www.lonniesniteclub.com Gunners Arms Bar & Bistro 23 Lawrence St Launceston 6331 3891 James Hotel Reality Niteclub / James Bar 122 York St Launceston 6334 7231 www.jameshotel.com.au The Royal Oak 14 Brisbane St Launceston 6331 5346 Saloon 191 Charles Street Launceston www.saloon.com.au 6331 7355 The Hub 1Tamar Street Launceston 6334 9288 39 Bar/Club 35 Cameron Street Launceston 6331 7222

GIG REVIEWS Jeff Drake

Taberah + Zero Degrees Freedom

The Humans + Chi-Roh

Dirty Harry and the Rockets

Already doused and left sticky from the first of the Golden Syrup Sessions, a night with “The Drake” was promised to be one of pure debauchery. Emelio, the research officer, had briefed us on this madman from Canberra, loved for his skills as well as his Keith Richards-esque philosophies. Feeling more than prepared, we mounted ourselves on the bar.

Residents Gillie and Turner allowed us to remove our layers of inhibition and throw ourselves into the building crowd as they sent an intelligent and happy vibe through the speakers.

After TSOMM and Coven the previous night, I was thinking of a quiet night, but then I get a phone call. “Can you review a gig? Any gig?” OK, I reckon I can manage a nanna nap, then get down to the Brisbane. It was what I had in mind, but my body was saying “Noooooo!”

The Republic Bar was the perfect setting for two Tassie bands that really know their craft. To start the night was a band I checked out a few months back at the old Trout. Chi-Roh really impressed me that night, and didn’t disappoint this time either.

It was a fine night, and Dirty Harry and the Rockets had chosen it to launch their EP. But before they could grace the stage, it was local band Novella’s turn to rock out in the spotlights. With their own unique style of rock, Novella got the attention of the people in the crowd, and kept it right to the end.

SYRUP – 15/9/07

BRISBANE HOTEL – 8/9/07

Dragging a swag of empty spirit bottles, The Drake set himself upon us with a solid mix of tech house and vocalcharged tracks, fuelled with the desire to turn us all into blithering bass monkeys. The man seemed to fear nothing, including the onslaught of Emelio as he threw himself into the booth with excitement, clearly impressed. The Drake, undeterred by what he must see at every show, performed another mix between tracks with skills worthy in the best DJs. By the early morning, The Drake had left us collapsing in the gaps of insanity with a heavy set of punchy, bass-driven tracks that caused you to shake it in an unforgiving convulsion of joy. We were overcome by the skilled deliverance of The Drake, but also due to the fuelled debauchery that was clearly required for such a show. With nothing left to do but to pull the crew from the rooftops, we returned to our nest to ponder how Canberra could hide The Drake for so long. It must be all that quality porn.

FELIX BLACKLER

I arrived around 10pm and Zero Degrees Freedom had just started. I hadn’t seen them since Launceston two months back, and was looking forward to them playing in the closer environs of the Brisbane.

It started off a bit fluffy, but after a few songs all was sorted.

Simon’s vocals were really hammering, and the band was playing well.

After a short break, Taberah were on. They have a totally different style of metal – I prefer to think of it as cock rock.

But they do it well, and look like they are enjoying themselves on stage.

There’s the usual long hair, black band shirts and wailing, tapping guitar solos that local bands like Hammerhead and Lady Crimson have made popular again. A band like this could take a few tips from those two and get into the act onstage.

This sort of metal suits the over-the-top theatrics they use – I’ve seen Taberah a few times now and this was certainly their best for me.

KEVIN GLEESON

REPUBLIC BAR – 15/9/07

JAMES HOTEL – 08/09/07

The dance floor filled quickly once people heard they had taken the stage, and there was people moving and shaking to the infectious sounds that Chi-Roh produce.

They had a new member in their line up on bass, and that didn’t hamper them one bit – still keeping the tight, groovy melodies flowing and the masses dancing. It was well and truly a party atmosphere tonight, and Chi-Roh was the perfect band to kick things off.

The Humans have been on the mainland recently, and this was their first gig back in their home state for quite a while.

The dial was cranked up to eleven, and after a short break in proceedings they blew people’s ear drums with their rock sound.

This was one of the loudest gigs I’ve heard in a long while at the Republic, and that complimented The Humans’ massive distortion. For a three-piece, you could be forgiven for thinking that their was another guitar crankin’ – they had this energy that made you think there was more than just three people playing.

All in all, it was another great night of music – my legs are sore from all the dancing and jumping, and my ears were still ringing long after the gig.

BEN PETER

But then it was time for the main act, Dirty Harry and the Rockets. They had brought their own very professionallooking backdrop for the evening, which really added to the visual component of the show.

Playing pure rock ‘n’ roll, the four-piece started out with the track Blame It on Me – the whole time looking like they had been raised on a stage. Continuing straight into their next track, Killing Time. The night kept a single vibe throughout – the audience really seeming to get into the music.

Sadly, it was eventually time for the last song for the night, Take Her Out, and it was all over. They definitely put on a good show – both with their on-stage performance, and also musically.

One of the greats of Tasmanian music, Dirty Harry and the Rockets are establishing themselves well, with a good following in our state – and have hooked up some great shows with some well-known bands for the coming months, so look out for them. They should be gracing a stage near you soon.

CAROLE WHITEHEAD

BEN MIL N ER ’S

98’ GT-Forrester Lux BURN OUT

Engine: E i 2L T Turbo b running i 16pound, 16 d 3i 3inchh tturbo b b backk exhaust, BOV. Exterior: Full kit, green tinted windows, custom eyelids, aftermarket rear wing, aftermarket tail-lights.

Interior: Full leather trim, Mini Turbo Timer, and an Autometer Boost gauge.

Rolling Smooth: Dolce 20inch chrome wrapped in silica low profiles.

Lowered on aftermarket springs.

ICE: JVC-KDG615 head unit, Pioneer Front splits and rear 6x9. Schnider 500w amp powering a Rockford 12inch sub.

DRIVER PROFILE What do you do with yourself, Ben? I’m the produce manager at Woollies.

Not long ago you had a Honda, correct?

Yeah I did up a sort of aqua-colour Honda, some bloke bought it; thrashes it apparently, but hey it’s not mine anymore.

What’s the plan? I notice the GT’s for sale?

Well it just sprung on me - I’m over paying it back each week. I could go on a holiday with that cash!

So what is next then?

I saw a little 4x4 the other day. I’m looking at pimping the snot out of it - rims, good sound system, you know.

PAGE 18

I’m over paying it back each week. I could go on a holiday with that cash!

MOTO RHEA D

Milk On The Rocks, With A Splash Of Grammy ROCK SALT

By Dave Williams Black t-shirts may fade, but British rock behemoth Motorhead’s indestructible juggernaut just keeps on keeping on. And for the trio’s veteran guitarist Phil Campbell, 46, his geezer life couldn’t possibly get any better, as he tells Steve Tauschke on the phone from Cardiff in Wales on the eve of the band’s Australian assault.

You’re enjoying some down-time right now – what do you tend to do when you’re not performing?

Yeah, just walk my dogs and catch up on correspondence and clean the cars and just relax.

But I’m looking forward to coming to Australia because I’ve got some family in Perth who I haven’t seen for a couple of years.

The band’s been chugging along for more than thirty years – what do you see as the key to its longevity?

It’s a stupid answer really, but just not givin’ in – really! Once you give up, then you stop. So we just keep going by doing two hundred gigs a year and writing fresh material every eighteen months.

Luckily we’ve been honoured to have a long, successful career. But it’s been hard work along the way – not the hardest work – but it can be hard.

I’m quite happy with just the Grammy – I don’t need to get any more.

It’s a great honour, like a musical Oscar.

So what would constitute giving in?

Just packing Motorhead in, really, and saying we don’t want to be musicians again. One of the things I’ve tried to do quite well is music.

I’m pretty crappy at most other things, so it’d be stupid for me not to carry on really. I enjoy music anyway, I love it. So there’s some life in us old geezers yet.

The roar of a huge crowd must be enough to inspire you surely?

Yeah, it’s great! We come off stage wringing and soaking wet and it takes us about three or four hours for us to wind down.

It’s a great job and we’re lucky enough to be able to do it.

Do you have a post-gig ritual?

If it’s really, really hot, I have a large glass of milk with ice in it.

It’s the only thing that quenches my thirst. I’ll sit there and have a cigarette and some milk n’ ice – sometimes it takes me an hour to get my breath back!

Is there a special feeling releasing a new record?

There’s a special feeling when we finish the recording. We think “thank fuck for that!” It’s a relief. But we just do the best we can at the time and we don’t put anything out until we’re happy with it.

So tell us how a Motorhead song comes together?

I have a studio at my house, so I try to put as many ideas of rough songs together as I can before jamming. Then we all meet up in Los Angeles. I’ll take my ideas over and I might have fifty-seven half-songs, then we all start working collectively.

Lem might have his own songs too, so it’s a proper band thing.

Sometimes we’ll blast away in the studio for two or three days and nothing coming out. It’s frustrating and you’re throwing guitars against the wall, and then other days you can go in at ten o’clock in the morning and ideas will come straight away.

The best thing is to always have a tape recorder running, because if the magic appears you don’t want to forget it.

What did a Grammy award mean to you in 2005?

We won it for a cover of Metallica’s Whiplash for a Metallica tribute album, and for some strange reason that got nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. We won it thirdtime-lucky – it was very pleasing.

When I started in this business I didn’t expect to have a Grammy sitting on my mantle, that’s for sure. I’m quite happy with just the Grammy – I don’t need to get any more. It’s a great honour, like a musical Oscar.

Lastly, a guy of your experience must have the odd war story to share?

Here’s one for you; I think it was the Christmas before last. We came back from this gig in this hotel in Germany and there was this life-size stuffed reindeer there, so I jumped on the back of this reindeer and pretended to have sex it.

But it was on wheels and rolled about twenty feet across the foyer of this posh hotel and smashed into the hotel Christmas tree and this thirty-foot high Christmas came down!

Motorhead tour nationally in October.

Contributors?

Would you like to contribute to Sauce? either doing CD or gig reviews, photograhy ... or make a suggestion as to what you could contribute?

Contact us at contributors@sauce.net.au PAGE 19

I think what we’ve done defines what Devildriver is all about …

Want to hear all the usual answers to all the usual questions? Want to hear Devildriver growler Dez Fafara spend an entire interview plugging the latest album? Go somewhere else! For the rest of you, sit back and enjoy as the gravel-throated vocalist took some time out with SAUCE

DEVILDR IV ER

HARD BOILED

Pay Attention To The Last Kind Words

Want to hear all the usual answers to all the usual questions? Want to hear Devildriver growler Dez Fafara spend an entire interview plugging the latest album? Go somewhere else! For the rest of you, sit back and enjoy as the gravel-throated vocalist took some time out with SAUCE to shoot the shit on food, his kids, and what Devildriver and Megadeth would be in the animal kingdom …

You’ve got the very intense tatts and the piercings. I’m just wondering what your kids think of it …

Well, they’ve kind of grown up where they’re used to it, obviously. But I mean, if you go to their school, you see piercings … of course, no tattoos yet, just because they’re in elementary and junior school. But you know, my young one’s got long hair and … wears certain clothes and this and that, so, you know, they’ve grown up used to it. They accept everything that they’ve been raised around, you know?

Obviously, Devildriver followed on from your work in Coal Chamber as a much darker, heavier project – far more intense, as far as metal goes. It’s something that I’ve noticed in a lot of bands – if they used to play nu metal or hard rock or something, all of a sudden they’ve got this tendency on the next album to … head in a more “metal” direction. What’s your view on that?

If we’re going to speak about the scene, what I’ve been seeing is the opposite, where downloading and things of this nature are killing underground artists, and forcing them to go in a more actual “pop” way.

A lot of the metal bands now are doing a very predictable, very clean choruses – when they hit the chorus, it’s got to be clean, otherwise it’s very scream-y. And so, I just know that Devildriver wants to do what’s not popular.

So, if people are doing “B”, we’re going to do “A” – if they’re doing “C”, we’re going to do “D”.

We knew that right now, especially in the United States, this kind of a record was needed – that was just heavy all the way through, and was noncompromising.

PAGE 20

By Tom Wilson

The Last Kind Words – now that you’ve got a bit of distance from it, what do you see as its strengths and, perhaps, its weaknesses?

I’m sure over time … any person that views their art – whether it be painting, sculpture, music – can find weakness. At this point I can’t, because we just got done, and I think what we’ve done defines what Devildriver is all about.

I think its strengths are definitely in the guitar riffing; in a lot of the guitar work and solo work … really amazing, immense drum playing … structures of the songs – they’re all very diverse. And its uncompromising – vocally, and very much through the sound – and uncompromising lyrically.

I’ve always wished I could write about fast cars and women, and I can’t – I go deeper. And I didn’t want to sell it out. I wanted to go deeper … As far as the weaknesses, we have so much growth to still do that the only weakness would be the time.

We need time for growth, and I’ve always said to the label that our fourth, fifth, sixth records are going to be way better than this one, because we’re growing so tight as a unit.

One thing that I’ve always noticed, and admired you as a vocalist for, is the tone of your voice.

I’m surprised – I’ve never heard your speaking voice before, compared to your singing one.

How did you get your voice like that? Is it put on?

Or is it just too much whiskey and cigarettes?

You know, through practice, through going to rehearsals, through being really introduced and impressed by bands like Motorhead or early punk bands … or early Black Flag – stuff like that, I think, gave me those tones.

And it’s coming across great – people are taking to it exactly like we thought they would’ve.

I’ve always enjoyed the old blues artists with a lot of rasp and soul to their voice, and so, [I] tried to find that somehow also in the heavy metal genre, in order to define my sound, I guess.

If we stayed with what our hearts wanted to do, we knew people would come to it, and they are. [And] In an organic fashion, through touring, and through a lot of hard work with the band.

I’ve never really looked at it introspectively! [Laughs] I’ve just kind of done what I’ve done, and grown over the years with what I’ve done, with Coal Chamber to now.

As long as it keeps growing in a positive way, I keep doing things which are relevant, yet against the grain.

That’s the most important thing for me.

Of course, the big news now is Gigantour. You’ll be touring with Megadeth. Both you and Dave Mustaine seem to be, in ways, be outspoken or something.

For you, obviously, there was the whole business with Sevendust writing the mean song [which attacked Fafara over a dispute with Rayna, former Coal Chamber bass player, who was married to Sevendust’s drummer]. For Mustaine … well, pretty much every interview he ever does seems to cause some sort of controversy. I’m wondering – are you two of the most misunderstood people in metal?

into him in Europe recently, and he was just killer. But as far as his guitar playing, and the band as a whole too, they’re ferocious, you know? And they seem to have longevity, so … I don’t know my biology too well, but if a tiger lives long, I’ll give them that.

So what would Devildriver be?

Devildriver? Ah … a fucking rhinoceros, man! [Laughs] We’re just at the stage where we’ve got our head down and we’re shaking our horn, and we’re running through the brush, and you can feel us coming a mile away!

Right now, I would give it that! For sure … a rhino, armouredup, with one horn ready to go! [Laughs] Come on – we both do interviews all day long too, so you know what? Questions like that are always killer. I love it.

I have no idea. I mean, that one thing you’re speaking about happened four years ago, and since then, he’s made public apologies on MTV.

You wait all day for something you can actually think about, you know? Otherwise I could try to sell you on my band all day long. We might as well have moments like that. I love it.

So the man that back-paddles is obviously the man that’s wrong, in going about something like that … But misunderstood? No, absolutely not. I’m probably one of the most approachable, humble, thankful people you’ll meet in metal, if that’s anything.

I was actually considering a question about Italian food …

We have a question about Italian food? Hold on – “ding-dingding!”

I believe that there’s six things that kill a band, so I always keep those six things in check. Those are – drugs, alcohol, money, ego, women and lack of communication.

So I always make sure those things are in check. But as far as being misunderstood, not really.

Just for fun, I’d like to play with some metaphors now regarding the Gigantour bill. If each act of the bill was an animal, what would they be, and why?

Ah, that’s cool! OK – here we go. I like this kind of shit … let’s rock! Let me think … well, Megadeth … I have to think of a really strong, vicious animal that lives a long time …

What would that be? I’m pretty sure a tiger has a pretty long lifespan … [He asks his wife] I’d give them something ferocious, man … Something that lives a long time, you know what I mean? And it’s fierce, because Dave Mustaine … I’ve known Dave for a long time. He’s really cool.

He’s always been really just a great guy to me. I just ran

[Hypothetically] You’ve just finished a gig and you’ve got lots of ingredients. What’s something you’d make?

And had a decent hour to just mellow-out? Making some chicken masala with some angel hair – oh, that’d be the best!

[Laughs] Being Italian, I’m so partial. You could just hold a roasted garlic clove in front of me, and I’ll grab it! [Laughs] A follow-on to the animal question, which [bands], according to Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest”, would be killed and eaten?

Oh, wow … I have no idea … Megadeth, who’s the old bull, and we’re the young bull, and where we run uphill and we go to the old bull, “Dad, you see all those cows down there?

Let’s run down, and let’s fuck one of them!” And the old bull looks at the young bull and goes, “No, son – let’s walk down, and let’s fuck ‘em all!”

The Last Kind Words is out now.

To listen to the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

COSMICVSPSYCHOS

KILLERBIRDS

BEAUTY & THE BEEF NATIONAL TOUR 2007

29TH SEPTEMBER THE BRISBANE HOTEL

3 BRISBANE ST HOBART 6234 4920 WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEBRISBANEHOTEL

PAGE 21

S A M L A MOR E

More BPM, More Groove, More Sam

It’s a lot different to the Gwen Stefani pop stuff I was doing a couple of years back.

BANGERS & MASH

By David Williams

With a list of internationally acclaimed recording artists under his producer’s hat, the electrifying Sam La More’s no slouch on the recording front either. With bases out of Sydney, Los Angeles, and London, this Australian-born DJ has always been ahead of the groove, whether he’s getting the wind up American radio with his aggressive basslines, or just playing nasty, grimy tunes – Mr. La More is living la vida loco…

Is there a signature sound for Sam La More? Is there something that makes your work sound distinctive from a DJ playing in parties or clubs?

Well I basically try to get away with as much as I can.

[Laughs] I do have a distinctive sound – I like quite aggressive electronic stuff, and I always have, from a very young age. And although the name of the sound has changed, it’s pretty much the same one song in different incarnations, which I play over and over again!

What are some of the titles that it’s been given?

Well ... the first name I came across for it was “hardcore industrial techno”. But now it’s just called “electro”, and that’s just what kids know as being club music. It’s ironic, but it’s the same genre, basically – the same tempo, the same sound. Now it’s just done on laptops, and back then it was done using samples and clips and stuff. But, amazing, the same ideas, the same ... everything! And I suppose we’ve been through a few different styles since then.

What about your own personal production work? Would you say there’s a “hard, aggressive electro sound” to that? Because I can’t really hear that on, say, What You Waiting For? [Laughs] Really? Well, it was certainly in that vein, but, you know, I didn’t want to push it too hard, just because Americans are pretty conservative – this radio’s very conservative.

I’d just done this track with The Potbelleez, and radio came back and said, “Oh, we’re not going to play it, because the synthesiser is too aggressive!” [Laughs] Or the bassline! You just think, “You guys are so dull! What the hell is wrong with an aggressive bassline when you’ve got these aggressive, distorted guitars all over the radio, but you can’t handle an aggressive, distorted bassline?” It’s double-standards, you know?

I find that really with the States – it’s completely twisted.

You’re right – it’s got that whole conservative edge to it. But then, I’ve been looking at some of the posters for some of the DJ nights, and DJs on Myspace, and they’re so outrageous … like strip club posters.

Oh, look, let’s not start with Americans! [Laughs] I could really criticise them until the cows come home.

What about what you’ve done on this one-of-three Pacha discs? What were you going for? Did it sort of evolve as you were going on?

Look, it’s like a remix. It’s one of the greatest compliments someone can pay you – to say, “Hey, make a CD of your favourite tracks and we’ll put it out, and we’ll publicise it, and we’ll sell it, and help make you famous.” So, I just said, “Well, fuck! That’s just such a great opportunity for me to take the piss! I’m seriously going to put on my favourite kind of records – some really tough, nasty, grimy tunes that make the kids dance, but, nonetheless, just see how far we can push it.” So I picked up records … really twisted things, and tried to make them fit in a way that might shock the hell out of people. And hopefully it does. I’ve been playing [the] records in clubs and … [laughs] it’s pretty different, you know? It’s a lot different to the Gwen Stefani pop stuff I was doing a couple of years back.

What I think the world can be thankful to America for is for the dancing style there. There’s such a massive difference with how people dance in the States compared with, say, how people dance in the UK and Australia. Like, in the States you’ve got that whole “hipthrust” thing going on, whereas in the UK and Australia it’s the “running man” sort of thing. I’m just imagining people going mad to some really hard electro. Is that how it’s looking for you on the dancefloors these days?

Where, in America?

Yeah.

Well, America is still so RNB-influenced, that their tempos are anywhere from eighty to a hundred-and-ten. We don’t even start in that range! We start at a hundred-and-twenty and go to a hundred-and-thirty-five! So that’s why we have a different dance style; you can’t run at a-hundred-and-ten BPM, you know? It’s half the speed. And you can’t sway your hips at a-hundred-and-thirty, you know? Basically, it’s the tempo that’s dictating their dance style, and it’s the RNB crowd that’s dictating the tempo in the States, you know? Because they can’t get their kind of groove working at a-hundredand-twenty. As soon as they hit that tempo, it changes at different times.

To listen to the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au samlittlemore.com

REME

ST. NICK

How would you describe yourself as a DJ? I guess … “funky” is probably the best word. I like to bring out old-school tracks and mix them with something new that’s popular these days. My roots are hip-hop, but I’m a bit bored with hip-hop, so I’ve been experimenting with everything from rock [and] punk through to house, breaks, reggae … a bit of everything, really. [I do] a lot of quick mixing, quick changeups, and live mash-ups … and a little bit of scratching.

How would you describe yourself as a DJ? It’s more a spare time hobby for me than a major part of my life. I don’t practice, and I don’t spend hours on the net scouring for new, fresh-out-the-press tunes. With the minimal amount of playing in clubs that I do, it’s not of huge importance that I have super-fresh tracks. I tend to rely on the not-so-new, yet not-overplayed bomb tracks.

What production work have you done recently?

[I] just actually started getting into that. I just bought Ableton Live, and I’m starting to get my head around that. I just bought some USB drum pads, so I’ll start taking that along to my sets, bashing out a few rhythms. I haven’t actually made any tracks that have been released or anything, but that’s soon to happen.

What have you been listening to lately outside of work, and what do you like about it?

Lately I’ve been listening to a whole lot of underground west coast hip-hop … also a lot of old 70s funk – Curtis Mayfield … James Brown, that sort of stuff.

… Mixing anything together, and making it sound good. That’s kind of what I try and do.

REWIND

&

What production work have you done recently?

I once tried to make some hard house way, way back in 1998 on an antiquated music program … I failed miserably! Hence, I don’t mess around with production.

The imagination and creativity is not there for me to make music. I’m just happy to play other people’s!

REME ST. NICK Turn Back The Clock

By Tom Wilson

With the brand new Rewind night ht kickin kicking ng off at Syrup very soon soon, I spoke k to the two DJs that will be resurrecting the hits of yesterday on a weekly basis.

Say “hi” to Reme and St. Nick …

What’s been your proudest moment as a DJ so far?

My proudest moment? Shit … probably the best set I ever had was at the main tent at the Falls Festival, in the Village, two years ago. That was probably close to a thousand people, and I’ve never had a crowd that big.

I once tried to make some hard house way, way back in 1998 … I failed miserably!

I played for a couple of hours, and then, when I got off, the crowd just wanted more, but I actually had to turn the sound down for the campers. That was probably my best night playing out – just the vibe was good. That’s what I go for. I like having a room full of people that are just really getting into it.

What’s been your proudest moment as a DJ so far?

DJ Lucky Phil and I used to run a few events on the northwest coast, namely “Sexy” and “Northern Light ‘03” (for which we flew in Andy Van). Although these were never super-successful events, we often pulled good crowds; the majority of which were “electronica-starved” locals who were dying to hear some good beats, and cut some shapes on the dancefloor!

Who are some of the other DJs in Tasmania that you look up to, and how are they influential?

Well I guess some of the guys at Mobius – Dameza and Grotty. Those boys have got good skills. But apart from that in Tassie, there’s not really anyone that’s doing what I’m sort of into … I look at people like Dexter, and get inspiration from people like him.

He’s been one of my biggest inspirations – just the way he mixes. He just doesn’t stick to genre – he’s just mixing anything together, and making it sound good. That’s kind of what I try and do.

PAGE 22

What have you been listening to lately outside of work, and what do you like about it?

Pretty much anything electronic – down-tempo such as Dig or Thievery Corporation, deep, vocal house, party breaks (where did that genre go?) old-skool “hoovers and horns”, hard house to liquid drum and bass. Coming initially from a pre-2000 hard house background, I still adore the harder g , and have dabbled in a bit of 190BPM freeform/UK genres, hardcor as well as occasionally spinning my old Tidy and hardcore, Nukleuz Nukleuz-labeled hard house. Due to the lack of market for g these genres in Hobart, I have been concentrating on the ttech-edg tech-edged, jackin’ sound of west coast American house.

Produce like The Sound Republic, Mario Fabriani, Jay Pr Producers We W est and an Bobby and Klein. The genre itself is quite unique West, fo its “jackin’” rhythm, which is heavily syncopated, and in for ex extreme cases can become almost like a UK garage/twost rhythm. Add to this some squelchy synths, quirky horn step st stabs, smooth basslines, the mandatory house pianos, and so some often bizarre vocal hooks, and you have west coast, or “jackin” house!!

Rewind will be held on Wednesday nights at Hobart’s Syrup.

Who are some of the other DJs in Tasmania that you look up to, and how are they influential?

Tassie has some really brilliant DJs, and as I didn’t move to Hobart until 2006, unfortunately I never got a chance to hang out with many of Hobart’s “pioneering” DJs.

DJ RUS H

Smelly Americans And Perfect Mixtapes – Meet DJ Rush …

BANGERS & MASH

By Tom Wilson So what makes a good mixtape? It was a question asked in the classic High Fidelity, and it was one I decided to throw at DJ Rush ahead of his Lonnies set next month. And really, given the time he’s spent perfecting them both in this country and in Los Angeles, I really can’t think of anyone more qualified. Can you?

So I understand you moved to the US, and spent several years working there. What prompted you to do this?

The main reason I went to America was to really take that extra step. I mean, I could have stayed in Australia, and tried to make some big moves here, but I really wanted to take it to the next level and go over to America and really form a lot of good relationships over there with people, and try to get my foot in the door over there. Obviously LA’s the… that’s where I spend most of my time, in LA, and that’s the place to be. That’s where Hollywood is, and a lot of artists go there to record, and I had some good connections over there. So, I called up everyone I knew, got in touch with anyone and everyone I’d ever met in the scene. Then I went over there and tried to make things happen. So that’s the reason I went there, just to really take that extra step forward, and try and be the Australian guy that makes it big in America.

having exclusive music – brand new music that no one’s heard before, and getting some well-known artists, and also showing off some fresh new talent. That’s what I’m really trying to do with my mixtapes; using the American artists and connections I’ve made over there, but also showing off some Australian talent. On this mixtape, I’m using American producers with Australian artists, and vice-versa. I’ve got some Australian producers with some American artists …

I’m just really trying to chop it up. In Australia, I’m trying to show some of the American talent that I’ve met over there, and in America I’m trying to show some of the Australian talent over here. I’m really trying to make that crossover.

Australians smell pretty good; we’ve got a good range of fragrances out here …

DJ Ru Rush plays Lonnies with MC Omar Musa on Friday the 5th of October.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, lis go to www.sauce.net.au

Answering Your Prayers For Hard Dance

@

By Tom Wilson

BANGERS & MASH

With the success of Tackyland and Boogie, which dominate Syrup’s first floor on Friday and Saturday nights, they couldn’t resist bringing out the other half of the music spectrum not yet played at the venue, halfway through the week. The premise? “The Bangers You Forgot You Loved.”

And just for fun, which do you reckon do smell worse – Americans or Australians? [Laughs] Ah … Oh, look … I don’t know how to answer that – I’ve got to support the home country, and say that Australians smell pretty good; we’ve got a good range of fragrances out he here. Maybe the Americans have been eating a bit too much fast food over there, so they probably smell a bit worse worse! [Laughs]

N E X HOR I Z ON

SYRUP

Hobart’s Syrup is to bring you the night you’ve been bugging them for. That’s right – Syrup is going Rewind.

Klaus Hill plays Launceston’s 39 Bar on the 29th of September.

So they’re trying to squeeze their music in whenever they can. So I guess, with the American artists … I guess … I mean, Australian artists take it really seriously as well, but, I guess, [Americans] have got that hope – or they know – that it’s going to do well, whereas in Australia, we’re sort of fingers-crossed that it might do well.

WEDNESDAY

NIGHTS

Klaus “Heavyweight” Hill is a bona fide stalwart of the London breaks scene. This guy loves making music, whether in the booth wok-tossing mentalist breakbeats to the bassbin max, or in the studio stir-frying basslines so heavy they may be impossible to lift. Already name-checked by the goodfellas Rennie Pilgrem and Meat Katie, Klaus’ sound is a barnyard blend of tough beats, booty-wagglin groove and inspired darkness with loads of bass!

Everything’s kind of at their fingertips. Not saying that Australia hasn’t got a lot of good equipment or artists or anything like that. I guess that, over in America, they can focus on their music a lot more, whereas people in Australia … they do their music, but they’ve also got a day job.

So everyone kinda wanted to help me out, and… just having an Australian accent was a great advantage, and so I really got my foot into a lot of doors over there, and I accomplished a lot… coming from Australia. But in terms of from an American perspective, I’ve still got a long way to go. But I’m pretty happy I think, how things have turned out so far.

What are some of the most important qualities of a good mixtape?

Well, definitely, in America, a good mixtape is all about

“HEAVYWEIGHT” HILL

The American talent that you’ve worked with, what sets them apart from the Australian ones? Do they have different ways of working? Do they smell worse, or whatever?

Well obviously, in America, when you say you do music, they assume that you do it full-time … I guess it seems like more of a hobby over here. So in America, a lot of the guys work on music full-time, and they’ve got access to better studios and a lot more artists.

So would you say you’ve accomplished… how much of that goal would you say you’ve accomplished at the moment?

I mean, like I accomplished a lot more than I expected. But there’s still so much to accomplish over there because… at first I thought coming from Australia was going to be a disadvantage. But being Australian over in America was the best thing that I could have been, because everyone, yeah, they love Australians over there.

So is this the first time you’ve been back to Australia since you moved over?

No, this is actually the second time. I went over to America at the beginning of 2006 – I spent a few months over there, and then I came back and spent a little bit of time in Sydney, promoting my first mixtape. And then I went back over there … and spent a couple of months over there. Now I’m back here, promoting the second mixtape that I’ve brought out.

KLAUS

Do you miss the hell out of the Hard NRG tour? Are you thirsty for something other than the variations of house and electro pumping at the state’s nightclubs? If so, prepare to wet your lips with Nex Horizon – a night promising hard dance, more hard dance, followed by a little bit more hard dance ... oh, and hard dance. I spoke with the night’s promoter, Neesha Peacock.

You’re putting on a hard dance night called “Nex Horizon” – the first of its type in Launceston.

How much demand have you seen amongst the clubbers and dance fans in Launnie for a night of this type?

Well, we used to get the Hard NRG tour every year, but they’ve stopped that now, and I’ve talked to a lot of people who are a bit sick of the house-electro thing.

Why did you pick the Saloon for this night? Were other professional engagements you have with this venue a factor in choosing this venue over others? (In other words, do you work for them already?)

No, the only thing I have to do with any of the clubs in Launnie are that I go there for a night out. I picked The Loft ‘cause the size and layout are great for this night. And they’re willing to give us a go, which is much appreciated.

I’ve talked to a lot of people that are a bit sick of the house electro thing.

Who else is involved in putting on this night?

We’ve got Colin Malone, who does some DJing at Lonnies – Adrian Creed from the northwest coast, and Jeffrey J who is the hard breaks man, and various artists from around town for the still visuals.

When will the first one be held, and how frequent will they be?

Our first night is on the 6th of October. At the moment it’s a one-off thing; we don’t want to scare people off with a weekly gig that will get old after a month. So maybe every three to four months might do it.

Reminisce screaming your heart out to Oasis’ Wonderwall or stamping your feet to Here’s Johnny, rhyming with early Hilltop Hoods or busting a move with Justin Timberlake (if that’s your thing).

The music played will be streaming from the sounds of the 90’s to the early “noughties”. These are the tunes that took over the world in the last twenty years.Old anthems, rave tunes, indie rock numbers, house grooves, plastic pop, vocal breaks – the middle of each week, Syrup presses the Rewind button.

Who are some of the DJs you’ll be getting to perform?

And how many DJs in Tasmania seem to specialise in hard dance?

The guys above will all be playing. There is a night in Hobart that goes once a month, and also Pickle in Syrup, but nothing up here at the moment.

For the clubber who may not be too crash-hot on dance music definitions, how would you describe hard dance?

And what are some examples of this kind of music?

It’s a harder-edged genre with hard bass lines and melodic breakdowns. Any of the Ministry Hard NRG CDs are a good place to start looking if it sounds up your alley.

What are some of the traits of the average hard dance fan? Would you say a lot of them have very specific tastes?

Passionate. I think, like most music, if it’s quality, it’s going to be

listened to. The Aussies like Nick Fish and Bexta are always going to draw a crowd down here, and also doing their own production, which is going to send you further as a DJ. You’re a DJ yourself. What are some advantages of being both a DJ and a promoter? Do you get more gigs?

[Laughs] Well, no gigs as yet in the club scene – they don’t really want this stuff every Saturday night around Launnie. That’s why us guys have set this up – to just get out there and show people what we’ve got. And hopefully [they’ll] like it, and support some up-andcoming DJs on the scene.

If you could get any DJ/DJs in the world to play at this night, who would they be, and why?

Tiesto and Armin van Buuren – just class acts.

And if you were going to buy them a drink, what would you get them?

Jagibomb – get the night going. th

The Nex Horizon begins at Launceston’s Saloon on the 6 of October. fan? Would you say a lot of them have very specific tastes?

Passionate. I think, like most music, if it’s quality, it’s going to be listened to. The Aussies like Nick Fish and Bexta are always going to draw a crowd down here, and also doing their own production, which is going to send you further as a DJ. You’re a DJ yourself. What are some advantages of being both a DJ and a promoter? Do you get more gigs?

[Laughs] Well, no gigs as yet in the club scene – they don’t really want this stuff every Saturday night around Launnie. That’s why us guys have set this up – to just get out there and show people what we’ve got. And hopefully [they’ll] like it, and support some up-andcoming DJs on the scene.

If you could get any DJ/DJs in the world to play at this night, who would they be, and why?

Tiesto and Armin van Buuren – just class acts.

And if you were going to buy them a drink, what would you get them?

Jagibomb – get the night going.

The Nex Horizon begins at Launceston’s Saloon on the 6th of October.

PAGE 23

KATA LYST

Asking The World, What’s Happening?

BANGERS & MASH

By Dave Williams Amongst his flat’s walls being demolished, we talked to Katalyst about being beaten by Paul Mac to an ARIA, walking off with two accolades at the Dance Music Awards, and the anticipation of releasing his album to the overseas audiences.

Hey Ashley Katalyst, How are you going?

Yeah, not too bad! Sorry I’m so late bro, I just got a bit held up by the builders next door.

I had to run downstairs and cal a couple of people back, and they decided they needed to knock down an internal wall in the flat next to me today…

Ouch!

Yeah, it’s been pretty noisy.

Na, it’s cool. I’m often late for interviews, so this is one for the artists; getting one back at me.

[Laughs] Getting their own back.

Yeah, yeah. Even things up a bit.

Yeah, good stuff bro. So how have you been

anyway?

Yeah, mate. Things are flat out. And how are things at invader land?

Yeah, pretty good. Pretty bloody flat out as well, but I’ve got the new philosophy that busy is good, as apposed to busy is stressful.

Yeah. That’s it. There’s busy, and there’s good busy, isn’t there?

Yeah. It’s something that sometimes I have to remind myself about, but no, it’s all good man. Things are going well; the album’s doing good, got a few shows coming up that I’m sort of preparing for, and then I’m off to do a bit of, a few shows, a bit of a run over in Europe at the end of the year, so can’t complain!

No, it sounds like fun.

Yeah, it could be a lot worse…

Now you won best dance music album, and best producer at the 2002 Dance Music Awards. But this new album from you, What’s Happening is more of a hip-hop production?

Yeah, I guess what you might find is, I was also nominated for an ARIA in that year. I can’t remember what the ARIA category was; I think it also might have had something to do with dance…

You can’t remember what category it was?

That’s terrible isn’t it?

It’s like me saying “What are the ARIAs?” [Laughs] I think it might have been best electronic artist, or something like that… I guess what I’m trying to say is the following year, they actually started a category for urban music, which is still kind of a broad term, it doesn’t necessarily define exactly what I do, so the dance music awards really encompassed hip-hop at times.

Far out.

And even though Paul Mac, I think won the ARIAs that year, that I was nominated for, he was also nominated for the dance music awards, which I won. They just really needed to… there wasn’t the recognition in Australia at that time, there was so much music out there, it’s like rock, pop and country going on.

And I think that’s over the past five years, between then and now, obviously record sales speak for themselves. You know, they’ve obviously broadened the scope of the, or broadened the categories, you know, in the ARIAs, and Dance Music Awards is now the Urban Music Awards. So, go figure.

Yeah. You’ve got a lot of overseas artists performing on What’s Happening, as well as Australian artists. I’m thinking with the way you’ve positioned yourself with your label and having achieved these awards, I reckon it’s a pretty calculated move that you’ve got like, you know, people from the UK and the US on your album, to create an international appealing album, rather than just something that’s straight Oz hip-hop. Am I somewhere near the mark on that?

Yeah, I mean the international stuff, I guess there’s a lot of artists, you know, in the world that you sort of would like to work with, and I sort of made a conscious effort to hook up with a few people who I really wanted to get on the album. To sort of give it different flavours, like you say, from different areas, and different styles of music as well.

It looks like it will be a worldwide release, not necessarily on my own label, but for me as an artist.

So the album was sort of more geared to Australia but I always had a view to maybe slightly… to release in different territories and hopefully I’ve got a UK label that’s going to put it out for the rest of the world, so I’m just sort of waiting to finalise that with them. It looks like it will be a world-wide release, not necessarily on my own label, but for me as an artist.

What’s Happening is out now.

To listen to the full interview go to www.sauce.net.au

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BANGERS & MASH

Where Did House Music Come From?

By Dave Williams Genres – some love them, some hate them, and everyone uses them regardless. But while the phrase “house” is thrown around the dance music world like categorising confetti, where did the phrase actually come from? Well, that’s something San Francisco’s Kaskade could enlighten us on during promotions for his new album – Bring The Night.

Email details to news@sauce.net.au

What’s happening in dance music in San Francisco at the moment? What are the trends?

Oh, man … I wish I could speak better about that, but I’ve been traveling so much in the last few years I feel, actually, a bit out-of-touch with San Francisco, and what’s been going on here.

But I mean, San Francisco’s a musical city, and the underground is always strong here. So what’s going on here? A lot of the wonky house stuff has been happening, you know? Justin Martin and these guys have been making a bit of a splash lately.

Cartoons?

What’s “wonky house”? You’ll have to educate me a little bit.

Ah, it’s kind of funky, electro-tinged house. It’s Claude VonStroke and Justin Martin – these guys kind of coined that phrase, I think.

Do you know where the term “house music” came from? To me, it reminds me of something like “house wine” or “house bread”.

[Laughs] I like that! That’s good. No, I don’t know. A lot of the old Chicago guys actually argue about where it came from … No-one’s actually been able to define [it] – a few guys argue over it. And back in, like, I think it was ’82 or ’83, Frankie Knuckles had a club in Chicago called The Warehouse, and a lot of people kind of argue that that’s kind of where it stemmed from – “The Warehouse Music”, you know?

OK. How do you feel about Bring The Night? What’s your feeling about the CD these days – because it must have been a while since you actually finished it, yeah?

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks – it’s been out for a couple of weeks in the States. But nah … with mix CDs, you don’t need as long of a lead time. With an artist album, I finish it six/seven months before it’s actually out.

But with the mix CD, in order to keep the track selection fresh … I finish it, and they’re manufacturing it like a week later. So yeah – I didn’t mix it too long, so it’s still really fresh. I don’t know – it’s typical mix-CD stuff.

I think that I like to try and do these things every once in a while, just to give the people a feel for what I’m playing in the clubs, and what I’m up to as a DJ.

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I’m finding that DJs are diversifying more now, as opposed to being known as a “house DJ” or a “breaks DJ” or a “drum-n-bass DJ”, and yet I understand that you’re still known as a “house DJ”.

How do you feel about that whole movement, and your own sort of nomenclature as a house DJ? Yeah, it’s cool. I have a lot of respect for the word, because I was born and raised in Chicago, and [have] respect for the genre. So, I mean, it’s cool to be categorised as that still. I like that. But, for me, I always thought it was weird that people in dance music … they want to hyper-categorise everything, and I never understood that.

Breaks … house … drum-n-bass – to me it was all just dance music … Basically “house” was just another word for dance music – electronic music. So I didn’t understand that. I think it’s cool that people are mixing it up a bit more. I mean, really that’s what it was when it all came about in the 80s … “post-disco”, “new wave” …

“Post acid-house” …

Yeah. Lots of weird, freaky dance records … that were really just dance records, and then they got classified as house records later on, I think. So I think that’s really … going full-circle, because it was much more of a mixed-bag. You could play an industrial record next to some weird Kraftwerk electro record, and it was all house back then.

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You know, it was all just dance music. Now, people would be like, “Oh, that’s Kraftwerk – that’s an early electro record …” “Ministry … that group Ministry, that’s an industrial record.” People really want to classify this stuff. It’s cool that it’s getting a bit mixed-up now – I like that.

Bring The Night is out now.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au

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JAMI E DOO M

Get More Bang For Your Buck BANGERS & MASH

By Tom Wilson

Esteemed dancefloor movement engineer and member of the DJ collective Bang Gang, the fabulously named Jamie Doom is setting his sights on Hobart, aiming to give patrons of Syrup a double-dose of sound with fellow Banger Gus The Hoodrat. He spoke on the pros and cons of when DJing becomes a duet …

You’re playing Syrup in Hobart with Hoodrat, I understand.

That’s what I hear! That’s what my manager tells me!

[Laughs] Well, let’s hope he’s right! How will you guys be performing? Will you be playing one after the other?

Or will you be mixing together?

Well, it kind of depends on what the club gives us. Like, me and Gus kind of like playing at the same time. If there’s a double setup, you can play with two people. If there’s only one setup, then … you’ve got to make do with what you’ve got, really.

Gus and I, because we play a lot together, we kind of know how each other mix and stuff, so we can play quite “together”. Someone will play a few songs, and maybe someone will loop or the other person will mix, or someone do effects … half-playing back-to-back, half playing together at the same time. There’s only so much two people can do, though, on one setup.

Like you were saying, you guys have been mixing for quite a while. Has it gotten to the point where, if you guys are mixing simultaneously, you don’t even have to talk to each other at all? You just know where each other are going?

Kind of, because we like the same music … It’s obviously a lot easier to play together when you know each other’s songs, because you know when [there’s] a breakdown or a good bit to loop up or when the vocals start or whatever, you know?

So if you know someone else’s songs, and me and Gus do because we play together so much, and we like the same music … and I guess we have a relatively similar style of mixing … it’s pretty easy to do, I guess.

I guess the more we do it … Having said that, sometimes it fucks up. That’s what happens when you play together.

[Laughs] But … if we have two full setups, we can properly play – like, he’ll play something, I’ll play something. And if you do that, obviously you can mix a lot quicker, because you can be teeing-up … one song while Gus is still doing the previous mix.

So you just go back-forth-back-forth and it’s really quick …

With things like looping and stuff now – you can just loop a song up, and the other person can mix into that loop – it kind of gives you a lot more freedom, because you can decide where you want to make the loop, and then Gus can be mixing in the next song …

Sometimes we’ll kind of go, “oh, do this, do this” … [We] can kind of look at each other and read the other person’s eyes a lot … like, “One, two, three, four, on the floor” kind of thing. But we try not to plan things out too much, I guess, so we kind of just have to adlib.

So there have never been any instances where you’re mixing alongside each other and one’s looked to the other and gone, “What are you doing, man?

That song’s shit! Turn it off!” … I guess sometimes, but, you know, that’s what happens when you play together! [Laughs] I guess the mixing we kind of do can be quite high-risk, because when you’re mixing quickly and using lots of vocals and mixing with two people … and mixing with loops … there’s a lot of potential to fuck up, really.

Compare that to one guy playing for himself, mixing intro into outro every seven minutes – if you’re fucking that up, you shouldn’t be playing, really – you know what I mean? So we’re like, “Well, we’d rather do something a bit more fun, and if it pulls off, it sounds really good.”

But the flipside of that is, every now and then, [there’s] maybe a fuck-up.

… One guy playing for himself, mixing intro into outro every seven minutes – if you’re f*cking that up, you shouldn’t be playing, really …

And if it fucks up, you can always blame the other guy!

Yeah – but you know, there’s always effects and little things to make a fuck-up sound semi-deliberate, anyway.

[Laughs] Your visit to Syrup – what kinds of sounds will you be dropping on the night?

I haven’t been to Syrup, so I don’t know what kind of club it is … What we’re playing at the moment … we kind of play little bits of everything. I know that sounds almost

kind of clichéd nowadays, ‘cause everyone apparently plays a mash-up or whatever. But we do, really.

I think that’s the one thing we really like doing. We like all that French noisy stuff … all that really popular new French sound that’s coming out … and we really like the UK fidget house sound … They’re actually really quite contrasting sounds.

And obviously we also like all the Aussie stuff, which is primarily our kind of crew; like Modular and kids who are doing stuff on our own record label and stuff. And then there’s the German and the … whatever. I guess they’re the four main sounds, and, although we really, really like them, I’d never play a straight-up set of French noise, or a straight-up set of fidget house …

All that music’s great in small doses, and it has a lot more punch when you’re kind of moving between it, rather than playing, straight-up, two hours of fidget house or something … I guess our style is to really jump between everything, and kind of balance out …

If it’s a really hard song, we’ll balance that one out a bit with something a bit more poppy and fun … That’s just the kind of music we like listening to in clubs, so that’s kind of the music we like playing, you know? I get bored … Like, I love dance music, but I just don’t think the way dance music is made anymore, or maybe it’s my attention span or something …

To go and listen to three hours of a straight-up sound – to me, it’s just boring. So I guess that then just affects how we play. It’s really bits of everything. I know it sounds cheesy …

If you want to mix it up, you could always – in the middle of a house set – just drop some Autechre or something … some extreme German electro noise terror!

Yeah, we haven’t quite got to Autechre territory yet!

[Laughs] Maybe Mode Selector …

Squarepusher?

Oh yeah, maybe!

Aphex Twin? There’re so many possibilities! Now, the moniker … I’ve got to ask – “Jamie Doom”. How did you settle on “Doom” when you were picking one?

Were you a fan of the video game?

I don’t know – it doesn’t really have any great meaning.

When we started the party, which is kind of where everything came out of, I didn’t actually DJ – we just kind

all hung out and promoted the party, I guess.

I was the last one to start, and because of that, I didn’t really have a DJ name. So I just kind of put it to the rest of the guys … And then Benny, who’s DJ Damage, he was like, “Ah, you need something kind of timeless and kind of sinister,” because I can be quite moody! [Laughs] So that was it – nothing deep and meaningful in it! That’s about it!

Why was the group formed? What are the advantages of having several DJs under one banner, so to speak?

I guess … I don’t know if there are any advantages … It was half formed out of accident, really. Primarily, it was us putting on a party, and the whole Bang Gang DJs – as a group outside of the party – didn’t exist.

That was the name of our party – we all promoted it, we all played records. And then, I guess … as that kind of got more popular, people started asking us to play outside of the party, and so it just carried on from that really, more than anything. And it is fun, also, to play with other people, you know? It’s a lot more fun … I don’t know if I could do the whole traveling DJ thing if I was by myself.

It just would become way too much hard work, you know?

And we wouldn’t want that! [Laughs] Yeah, it was kind of just [that] we all liked hanging out, and we were already doing it, and that’s just how most of the gigs came to us anyway, you know?

It was kind of always offered as a group, and the more you play as a group, the more you get … more bookings of the group … It expands musical resources, you know?

You’ve got five people finding old songs or new songs or whatever …

It can kind of give you a whole different edge. Like, I’ll think I’m up to date with music, and then I’ll play with Adrian, [and] I’ll be like, “Oh, what the fuck is that? What’s that? What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?” You find all this music that you probably wouldn’t find if you were just digging around by yourself. I don’t know if there’s any advantages! I don’t know! We probably just like hanging out to much!

Jamie Doom and Gus The Hoodrat play Syrup in Hobart on the 29th of September.

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au PAGE 27

TH E TO NGUE

HIP-HOP

Still in Shock and Awe

By Tom Wilson Hip-hop artist The Tongue recently explained the extreme highs and lows in the process of recording his latest album that give a whole lot of meaning to its title, Shock And Awe, and why the youth of today need to wake the fuck up.

So… Shock And Awe… I thought it was funny, ‘cause that’s also what they called the first big American bombing campaign of Iraq. I was wondering, as a nice opener, what’s more deadly; your LP, or three thousand tons of high explosive?

Well there you go; I mean, there are similarities. And to be honest with you, that’s where the phrase came from. I think that’s what pops into most people’s heads when they hear Shock And Awe. But yeah, I mean, I kinda just like the idea of…

I’m very anti-violence and I think war is… the failure of humanity results in a war, basically.

The failure to communicate. So I kinda like the idea of using their term against them, really. It was funny because I kinda came up with that title… I don’t know, probably about seventy percent into the record. And then all kinds of shit things were happening to me during the course of the record. And yet, all kind of awesome things were happening as well.

Like on the bad side, we had producers pulling out beats, and I’m still looking at taking legal action against one of them… my DJ left, and my cat died… all kinds of shit things, but at the same time all these awesome things were happening.

Like we hooked up with all these international dudes, and the tracks just came out great, and that kind of shit. So in the end it was like shock and awe! And that pretty much sums up my last few months of life… So it’s got a few different meanings to it then.

Yeah, okay. So I guess, stylistically, aside from its length, in what ways is Shock And Awe set apart from Bad Education?

You know, with Bad Education, I hadn’t done anything before, you know? Like songs from that EP were seriously like, probably the fifth or sixth songs I’d ever recorded, you know what I mean, so like I was pretty under-experienced.

Since then, between the EP and the album, I’ve done some tours with Astronomy Class and a lot more shows, and collaborated with a few dudes and had a lot more experience, so I think I was much better equipped.

I guess in terms of the style, I just had, you know, like eleven tracks, and had eleven more chances of doing something fun, basically. That’s the way I look at it, kind of, I approach each

track as it’s own little world, really.

And I just went all out with this album, man, I asked every awesome hip-hop producer in this country for beats for this record, you know? And again, getting back to the ‘awe,’ it was awesome that fuckin’ so many dudes came to the table and threw beats at me, really.

But I just wanted to go for something bigger, man, and more sophisticated. I’m so sick of… hip-hop in this country, you know? Like, listen to Butterfingers I Love Work, to me really typically shows the problem with the way hip-hop is perceived in this country.

You know, hip-hop is far more intelligent than I Love Work, or you know, something like that. I just kinda wanted to bring out something that was… had more layers to it, man. And had more… excitement to it. That’s the exciting thing about coming into Aussie hip-hop at the moment, is that it’s so young.

And the future is unwritten, man, and you know, there’s only been one number one album in Australian hip-hop history, you know. It’s shown that it can be done, yet who’s going to stand up to the plate, and bring it through for the next generation?

I’m getting way off the plot of the question here!

Nah, it’s cool. So on a lyrical front, what kind of subject matter do you delve into on this album?

I mean, look man, basically, my vibe is basically… I’m antiviolence, I’m anti… how can I put this? I’m basically… everyone you know, like me, Vents, Pegs, The Herd, even Hilltop Hoods, we’ve all got roughly the same message for the youth, which is basically; wake the fuck up out of your slumber. There’s an ideological war on at the moment, and we need soldiers on the front line. Do you know what I mean? Like this huge push in the media to be something you’re not.

You know, and we get these real mixed messages from our government, you know, like you go to jail for violence, unless of course that’s violence against someone your government has told you to kill. In which case you get a fuckin’ badge of honor.

Shock And Awe comes out on the 30th of September.

… we’ve all got roughly the same message for the youth, which is basically; wake the f*ck up out of your slumber…

To listen to an MP3 of the full interview, go to www. sauce.net.au

BENZ A

BANGERS & MASH

First Rule Is, You Do Not Talk About Dance Music …

By The Space Monkeys A DJ and producer with the rather appealing professional advantage of working at major Oz hip-hop label Obese Records, Benza took a tea break from moving and shaking to talk to me about the evolution of dance music, and what it has in common with, of all things, Fight Club’s Tyler Durden … So, read on … sir …

How have you seen the national and international dance music scene change since you started back in 1997?

I think changes to the scene over the last decade can be seen in both its progression and, more importantly, in its sheer breadth.

While any genre of music will develop and progress over time, I think electronica has seen more growth – in terms of the splintering of sub-genres and the development of entirely new styles – than any other movement.

Back in ’97, we had trance, techno, house and big beat. That’s pretty much it. Now, the array of styles that identify themselves as independent from others, and that have developed organically from slight mutations and people pushing boundaries, is astounding.

House has developed into progressive house, electro house, tech house, deep house, hard house and more. Techno has splintered into a billion sub-genres. Trance became Goa, psy, progressive, minimal, Suomi … the list goes on. Whoever heard of glitch in ‘97?

...Tyler and the narrator are teeing off golf balls into an industrial park – I’ve always wanted to do that!

The album was released early in the year. Now that you’ve got some distance from it, what do you see as its strengths and, perhaps, its weaknesses?

Another difficult one. There’s some production on the new record that I’m genuinely proud of – some places where I pushed out of my production comfort zone and stretched for new sounds; the breakdown in Mechanism, for example – where I’ve stretched a sound into sonic oblivion – or the gentle, quasi-classical, Radiohead-ish introduction to Sunday that builds into a stomping 140bpm killer with a monster bassline and a great big orchestral lead.

I worked long and hard also on pushing away from four-onthe-floor dancefloor tunes. I really like some of the breaks-y and house-y stuff on the record too.

Weaknesses are a whole other thing … As a producer, there are tiny, miniscule moments that only you will ever hear; tiny glitches or minute variations in sound that you kick yourself for after the album’s gone to press.

For example, a friend once told me that if you listen really carefully to the drums on Led Zeppelin’s Moby Dick, you can hear John Bonham’s kick drum pedal squeaking. I’ve never been able to listen to that song again! (To all the Zeppelin

fans reading this, I’m really sorry!) There’re a couple of little things like that on the album, but I don’t really want anyone to hear them! [Laughs] What plans do you have to follow it up?

World domination, mega-wealth, my own island, and sonic bliss!

I’m really not sure. I’ve taken a little break from production to just listen to as much as I possibly can. At the moment, there’s a couple of movements in electro-house and minimal techno that are blowing my mind. Artists like Tiefschwarz, Chris Lake, Sebastien Leger, Audiojack and Deadmau5 are really moving me.

There’s a whole new movement that is fusing crazy-ass funk with twisted up psychedelia … I’ve got a feeling that’s what the next album might sound like. Just like me, only more like me … know what I mean?

In the liner notes of the album, you state that sometimes you introduce CDs to your car CD player out loud. What was the last one you introduced it to, and why?

I honestly do that! “Car stereo, this is [insert name here], [name], this is car stereo…” It’s only really for very special albums, that I feel should have an intimate relationship with the stereo that’s playing them. (Does that make me sound like a freak??)

Honestly, the last one was the Gotye remix album. There’s some stuff on there that is mindblowing. (The Duosseudo remix of Heart’s A Mess! Phwoar!)

I understand you work as operations manager for Obese Records. What are your responsibilities?

I certainly do. I started at Obese about four months ago, and I’m honestly loving it. I hadn’t ever had a massive exposure to Oz hip-hop before I started here, with the exception of my beautiful girlfriend who’s a massive fan, and it’s uncovered a whole new scene for me. At this stage, my primary responsibilities are in marketing, promotions, bookings and general co-ordination of releases.

What are the most challenging and rewarding parts of your job?

I have a fair amount of experience in business, so hustling deals is not uncommon to me. I think the biggest challenge is based in a whole new field of music that is only just opening up to me. Hip-hop is a whole other world …

I think the biggest reward is when you work on the lead-up to an album. You nurture it, you promote it, you support the artist, and then finally you hold the album in your hand and

PAGE 28

see it appear in shops … A little like production in that sense … I knew I was here for a reason!!

One of your influences listed online is Tyler Durden.

While it may have been written as a joke, in all seriousness, how did the teachings of Mr. Durden influence you, both as a person, and as a DJ? “Mr. Durden.” I like that! I wouldn’t necessarily subscribe to the teachings of Tyler – the nihilism, the wanton destruction and the brute violence – but there’s a determination about him and an understanding of self that I really admire. Tyler wasn’t bound by the strictures of the system he so violently detested, and set about creating his own revolution.

I’m not saying I’d like a cult of shaved-head Space Monkeys building bombs out of soap in my basement, but I admire the resolve required to take on a system like he did. Plus, there’s an awesome scene where Tyler and the narrator are teeing off golf balls into an industrial park – I’ve always wanted to do that!

As a DJ, I’ve never really held firm to the “this is a psy-trance party, you’ll be playing psy-trance here” rules. My sets are built on that which I love and that which shakes my arse.

Same goes for my albums. [Laughs] I’m [saying] this with absolute vitriol after all this Fight Club talk!

I think also the collective feeling of community on a dancefloor is, while not directly parallel, reminiscent of the sense of community created by a group of lost thirty-somethings beating the crap out of each other in the basement of Joe’s Tavern. There’s a brotherhood [and sisterhood] to dancing together.

How could the philosophies of Fight Club be applied to DJing? “The first rule of psy-trance is: you do not talk about psy-trance” … OK, I’ll stop trying to be witty.

[Laughs] Ten or fifteen years ago, that was almost true.

There was an almost secret society of people gathering and dancing in the bush that was determined to remain underground.

Of course, with the passage of time, these things become diluted and more common. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a teenager these days that hasn’t been to some sort of dance party …

I think, rather than Fight Club, I’d prefer to see the philosophies of The Usual Suspects applied to DJing … I’d kinda like to be the Kaiser Soze of the electronic world …

Though preferably without the limp. http://www.myspace.com/benzaproductions

THE H A NG N GA “CR A ZY H O U S E ”

DALAT, VIETNAM

Steve Tauschke

SPOTLIGHT I S T HE AT R E R E C OM M ENDS

TRAVEL BUG

Articulate – Terrapin’s Creative Development Program 2008 Terrapin wishes to assist in the development of innovative, new Australian puppet and/or visual theatre work, and invites applications for its new initiative: “Articulate”.

The objectives of Articulate are to seed three new puppet based visual theatre works per year. To achieve this, Terrapin will select three projects in 2008 from Tasmanianbased artists to support from initial development stages to professional presentation. This support will come in the form of: -Three weeks free use of rehearsal and workshop space in the Terrapin loft.

-A small amount of seed funding for project costs.

-Dramaturgy/mentoring by the Artistic Director of Terrapin Puppet Theatre.

-A professionally-produced one-week season of all three Articulate projects.

-A portion of the box office of the in-theatre season.

The selection criteria that proposals will be judged against are: A strong creative rationale that outlines why the applicant wants to create this new art work.

Demonstrated excellence and innovation in puppet-based theatre, challenging artists and audiences alike.

Appropriate skill levels in the artistic team to achieve stated goals.

Future professional performance potential.

Projects that fulfill the selection criteria and fit with the strategic directions of the company will be invited to pitch their ideas in person to the selection panel.

The pitch is where the applicants get a chance to talk the panel through the idea, giving us a clear understanding of what it is they want to create, why they want to do it and how they will put it all together.

Applicants should contact Terrapin’s Artistic Director Frank Newman before completing the application, which should be submitted by Friday the 26th of October 2007.

The pitch to the selection panel will be on Wednesday the 21st of November 2007.

Application information is available from: Website: www.terrapin.org.au Phone: 03 6223 6834 Email: info@terrapin.org.au

FLIP TOP HEART Is Theatre and Aurora Energy bring you another exciting Flip Top Heart. Create an awesome multi-artform short performance work using the theme of “skin” for your chance to win $1000, plus other cool prizes.

Register your act today! Find everything you’ll need to know about entering Flip Top Heart 2007 online at http://www.istheatre.com/flip Registrations close Friday 21st of September, and cost $33 per entry.

Heats and Finals: Preliminary Heat – Hobart Backspace Theatre Sackville St (behind Theatre Royal) Friday 28 September 7pm Finals – Hobart

A counter-cultural jewel in Vietnam’s conservative socialism, the Hang Nga “Crazy House” is rooted in the natural spirit world, discovers Steve Tauschke.

Already unique in Vietnam for its lack of cyclos – the terrain is too steep – the colonial-era hill station of Dalat has gained added notoriety as home to the country’s most outlandish structure.

Perhaps more suited to Barcelona than conservative Vietnam, the Hang Nga Guesthouse defies almost every conventional architectural norm in the country. Aesthetically, the structure resembles a madcap marriage of neo-Gaudi and HR Pufnstuf – more like a surreal fairytale castle than a regular hotel. It is little wonder locals refer to it as the “Crazy House”.

Located on a hill about a kilometer from the centre of Dalat, the Crazy House is centered around a pair of lofty treehouse-like towers whose gnarled and knotted artificial trunks take on the appearance of giant melted candles.

Both towers comprise nine guest rooms each with its own unique nature theme and mascot; Ant Hill suite, the Yellow Bamboo suite, the Eagle suite and the Kangaroo suite, to name only a few.

Although self-contained, these rooms appear as a series of interconnected caves, linked by molten tunnels, swirling staircases and hidden balconies – and all devoid of flat walls and square corners.

Dominating the wacky décor in my cubby house-cosy Bear suite is a five foot-tall ornamental grizzly hugging a honey pot fashioned into a fireplace and whose eyes glow red when the lights go out! Bizarre!

A feature of Vietnam’s south central highlands region, Dalat has a reputation as the City of Love, making it a popular retreat for Saigonese and a Mecca for honeymooners charmed by its cool mountain air, French-style cafes and swan-shaped paddleboats (the town draws 350,000 domestic tourists annually).

Not to be outdone, the Crazy House offers its own kitsch contribution to the newly-wed set; purposely tacky pink lace curtains, ceiling mirror mosaics and fresh flowers on arrival.

The guesthouse’s cult status among international travelers means a reservation, particularly for treehouse suites, is

much sought after. Rooms range in price from $A40 to $A50 a night but for cheaper accommodation, couples may also check into the adjoining dorm-style Pink Mansion or simply visit the enormous giraffe statue that doubles as a tea shop.

For those on day trips, separate admission to the Hang Nga outdoor art gallery is VND3000 ($A4). This offbeat exhibition features a tiny aviary, sculptured dwarves and toadstools, cast iron cobwebs and a true rarity in Vietnam – a nude statue. An avant-garden indeed! Also nestled among the bamboo are miniature chalets for those seeking a Swiss-style sleepover.

Both the garden and guesthouse were designed in the mid-1990s by an arty eccentric, Dr Dang Viet Nga, a Soviettrained architect and the daughter of former President Truong Chinh, who served from 1981 to 1988. In 1983, Dr Dang was invited to Dalat to build the Youth Culture Centre and, bewitched by the town’s pseudo-bohemian lifestyle and art deco influences, she decided to stay on.

Tickets to all heats and finals are $10 cash at the door. http://www.istheatre.com/flip

RAW NERVE SHORT FILM INITIATIVE Are you looking to hit a Raw Nerve?

INFOCUS

...the colonial-era hill station of Dalat has gained added notoriety as home to the country’s most outlandish structure.

Wide Angle Tasmania is proud to announce the call for entries for Raw Nerve 2008. Now in its seventh year nationally, and its first year in Tasmania, Raw Nerve is a joint initiative developed by Screen Development Australia (SDA) and the Australian Film Commission (AFC), and is aimed at assisting budding new filmmakers who have not previously had a screen credit on a broadcast film.

As SDA’s Tasmanian representative, Wide Angle Tasmania has attracted assistance from the AFC to allow four talented emerging Tassie filmmakers/teams to get their short films out there and onto the screen with a subsidized production opportunity! In addition to access to production and post-production equipment, each film will receive a $2000 cash budget and a Supervising Producer.

We strongly recommend creative teams to apply.

and story-telling abilities. The development of these new screen works is made possible through each of the state screen resource centres. Wide Angle Tasmania is proud to be involved for the first time in 2008 as the Raw Nerve screen resource centre partner in Tasmania.

Wide Angle Tasmania operates as a one-stop shop for promising new filmmakers through the Raw Nerve Scheme by providing access to equipment and facilities, stock and post-production, mentoring, and training. Wide Angle Tasmania is seeking filmmakers with drive, ambition and commitment to participate in this unique and special scheme.

Successful participants will have their film screened around the country!

To find out how to submit your application or to find out more about Raw Nerve and Wide Angle Tasmania, please email info@wideangle.org.au ENTRIES CLOSE Friday November 2nd 2007.

Targeted at the development of high quality short films on a microbudget, Raw Nerve provides new film talent across Australia a unique arena to showcase their filmmaking skills

For more information contact Bev Jefferson, General Manager Wide Angle Tasmania on 03 62 23 83 44.

DVD REVIEWS DEAD SILENCE

According to Hang Nga’s resident manager Anh, specially commissioned artisans followed Dr Dang’s instructions to the letter during the construction of the Crazy House.

Although hardly the postcard from paradise image of Vietnam it nonetheless remains a counter-cultural jewel among Vietnam’s conservative socialism.

Never trust a ventriloquist doll. Those wooden expressions, flip-top mouths and eerily life-like eyes don’t scream “happy playtime”. Opening a film with a mysterious “gift” of one wrapped in brown paper gives all sorts of nods to Child’s Play, and nothing good ever came of that bastard redheaded step child. Dolls turn up – people die.

Dolls, however, are not the ones to be scared of.

The guesthouse café is somewhat more orthodox, save for its quirky ‘Quench Your Thirsty’ drinks menu. It opens into a main dining room adorned with a photographic display of Dr Dang and her father posing alongside such dignitaries as Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. Nearby, various framed press clippings reveals the inspiration behind the Crazy House to be Dr Dang’s fascination with the eternal spirit world.

Dead Silence is the brainchild of Saw pioneers James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Obviously excited to have a budget this time, they attempt to bring to life another character of violence and death. Crazy old women, small towns with a penchant for vigilantism, and the proverbial sins of the father have always been standard fare for horror films, and this one ticks all the boxes.

“Although man has entered a time of consumption and modern means,” she is quoted, “deep in his mind there remains a desire to think of the wild and natural world.”

You may remember our protagonist, Jamie Ashen, played

by Ryan Kwanten, as Vinnie the lifeguard from Home and Away. You can understand why he was fired as a lifeguard,

Once called Le Petit Paris, the town is home to some 2000 French-style buildings, including a local TV tower designed in the Eiffel style.

Backspace Theatre Sackville St (behind Theatre Royal) Saturday 29 September 7pm

but his new career as a psuedo-sleuth makes you yearn for Baywatch repeats. When Jamie’s wife is mysteriously killed after an anonymous doll delivery he finds himself the prime suspect. Deciding to return home and track down the mysterious doll’s owner he is tailed by Donnie Wahlberg, playing it step-by-step as grim detective, Pinkerton. He’s pretty much ineffective as a police officer and is only really likeable when holding a shotgun. Unfortunately not even blasting away evil dolls can save the film at this late stage.

Australian Splat-Pack members James Wan and Leigh Whannell sure had more money to play with in Dead Silence, and most of the film looks like experimentation with CGI, but the dialogue and pacing leave a lot to be desired. To their credit, the story is at least an original take on the inherently evil profession of ventriloquism.

Combined with some very creepy scenes and a deft hand at manipulating the audience when they least expect it, this is a decent… thriller? Flawed from the beginning, Dead Silence never reaches the shocks it intends, but still manages to creep up your spine as Mary Shaw descends upon you in silent predatory mode.

To appreciate the full impact of this movie, show this to someone who doesn’t like “horror” movies … then take them to Reliquaire in Latrobe …

DION BROOKS

PAGE 29

Street Fashion

HAYLEY 20

BLAKE 24

LINTON 20

TIA 19

Favourite Band: Static-X

Favourite Band: Porcupine Tree

Favourite Favou urite Band: Dead Can Dance

Favourite Favo ourite Band: Silverchair Silve rchair

Favourite Drink: Port

Favourite Drink: Scotch & Coke

Favourite Drink: White Russian

Favourite Drink: Vodka

What are you up to in town today?

Checking out CDs

What are you up to in town today?

Going to read and draw

What are you up to in town today?

Going to the park

What are you up to in town today?

Drinking coffee

What’s the most important thing in life?

My partner [Fiona]

What’s the most important thing in life?

Art

What’s the most important thing in life?

Erotic activity

What’s the most important thing in life?

Money

Kevin or John?

Kevin?

Kevin or John?

Neither

Kevin or John?

Jack

Kevin or John?

Kevin

What’s your favourite way to chill out?

Getting harassed by journos while trying to drink coffee

What’s your favourite way to chill out?

Being in the darkroom after hours

What’s your favourite way to chill out?

Aikido

What’s your favourite way to chill out?

I don’t want to say – my parents might read it

Describe yourself in one word.

Friendly

Describe yourself in one word: Mellow

Describe yourself in one word: Sublime

Describe yourself in one word: Awesome

PAGE 30

Republic Bar & Cafe

SATURDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER

Art of Fighting

$22 Cover 10:00PM

FRIDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

Dead Letter Circus

$15 PRESALE / $18 DOOR - 9PM $10 Cover 10:00PM

Wed

19th

Thu

20th

Fri

21st

Sat

22nd

Sun

23rd

Mon

24th

Tue

25th

Wed

26th

Thu

27th

Fri

28th

Sat

29th

Sun

30th

GURITHM + Dewayne Everett Smith 9:00pm MATT DWYER 9:00pm THE VAUDEVILLIANS + The No No's $7/$5 10:00pm THE ART OF FIGHTING + Little Red $22 cover 10:00pm CAKE WALKING BABIES 9:00pm QUIZ NIGHT 8:15pm HAYLEY COOPER 9:00pm DREAM AWAKE 9:00pm SON DEL SUR (cuban salsa) $3 9:00pm DEAD LETTER CIRCUS + Ten Foot Tall $10 10:00pm SUGARTRAIN $3 10:00pm THE STILLSONS 10:00pm

BER B ER E R

299 Elizabeth St North Hobart Ph. 6234 6954 www.republicbar.com

ALBUM LAUNCH SATURDAY 13TH OCT HOBART ALL AGES SHOW

FRIDAY 12TH OCT LAUNCESTON SHOW @ BAR 39 + FUNKOARS +MYNSE $15 ON DOOR 10PM

33A ELIZABETH ST MALL HOBART ph. 03 6234 8600 email. shop@ruffcut-records.com www.ruffcut-records.com

TICKETS ON SALE! Urthboy, Hermitude & the Tongue 19th October @ Republic Bar

Jewelz & 9th Insight 15th September @ Halo

Vents & Funkoars 13th October @ Republic Bar

@ BRISBANE HOTEL 4PM - 7:30PM + FUNKOARS + HEADS OF STATE $15 ON DOOR

SATURDAY 13TH OCT HOBART LICENSED SHOW @ REPUBLIC BAR 9PM TILL LATE + FUNKOARS + HEADS OF STATE PRESALES $20 + B/F FROM RUFFCUT RECORDS OR REPUBLIC BAR - $25 ON THE DOOR

PSYSESSIONS

‘triple j's Home and Hosed presents’

KID CONFUCIUS

FRIDAY 21ST SEPT

BENZA HALO

11PM 1 1 P M START S TA R T

+Shammie / Psywise

+Ellis D & guests

$8 before midnight $10 after midnight

FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER

REPUBLIC BAR

PAGE 31