ENTERTAINMENT
M A N D Y N O LA N ’S
SOAPBOX
W W W . E C H O . N E T. A U /
LIVE MUSIC
S O A P - B OX
STUFF THEORY
I think we’ve reached Peak Stuff. Ironically, we in the first world have most of the stuff, and we made it with stuff we took from people in the third world, aka ‘stuff quarries’. People in the third world don’t have a lot of stuff. That’s why we politely called them ‘the third world’. To become a ‘first world’ you need a lot of stuff that you don’t actually need. Although not everyone in your first world can get their hands on stuff, because that’s the point of stuff. It’s aspirational. The power of stuff only works when it drives you. That’s why homeless people scare us. They don’t have any stuff. People in the ‘third world’ used to be happy about not having stuff. Like Indigenous Australians before colonisation: a lot of them didn’t even know you needed stuff. Because they didn’t. Their cultures weren’t about stuff. Until we came in and ‘stuffed’ them up. Thanks to globalisation, aka ‘stuff theory’, we introduced not just stuff, but it’s warmup acts, misery and depression, and a sense of the unfillable hole. You can’t sell stuff unless your buyer has a hole to put it in. The hole is one of the gifts of capitalism. Not in the belly; that’s starvation. That’s a real hole. The best holes to market to are the ones that don’t exist. Stuff by its very definition is useless shit for an invisible ache. For capitalism to work all the people need a big existential hole in the core of their humanity. This is what marketing experts do best: they speak to our throbbing want, our sense of our alienation, disconnection and hopelessness, and they tell us about the new stuff they have to help tether us to meaning and joy in our emotional abyss. Like a safety raft made of stuff. They show us pictures of happy people with their holes all filled up having fun with their new stuff. It makes me really want that stuff, even though I know it’s a trick. Anyone who’s bought stuff knows that stuff doesn’t work like that. It’s only stuff you don’t have that will make you happy. I, like a lot of people, have too much stuff. I have an impressive hole. I’ve been putting stuff in it for years. Stuff I saw other people get so I had to have. Stuff I didn’t really want. Or stuff I did want in the shop because they know how to make stuff look so pretty that you just have to have it, but when I got it home I found I didn’t need it or actually like it. So I put that stuff in the cupboard with all the other stuff I don’t need. I have stuff that people gave me on my birthdays. Stuff that I was given when a family member died. Stuff that I bought for the kids so they could get working on stuffing their unfillable holes. Over the years I have really accumulated a shitload of stuff. I have a massive house that pretty well serves the purpose of being a giant expensive box for my stuff. Most of the stuff I have sits in cupboards and on bookshelves and in wardrobes. I even have stuff insurance in case anything happens to my stuff. So I can get all the stuff back again. In all honesty I could put a very small amount of stuff in a suitcase and probably live a much happier life. A life less ‘stuffed up’. I imagine how much free time I would have without the ongoing maintenance, sorting, tiding up, discarding and then, of course, replacing of stuff. What a strange world we have created. Or should I say ‘stuffed up’. We’re overstuffed. So many shops are full of stuff. New stuff every season. New stuff every week. Stuff on sale. Stuff in warehouses that won’t fit in shops that has to be sold online. Stuff arriving at your door. Stuff in planes, stuff on boats. Stuff in space. Stuff people don’t want any more on swap-and-sell websites. Free stuff on Gumtree. Stuff at the op shop. Stuff being buried in giant holes in the ground. Stuff floating out to sea. Stuff breaking down into nanoparticles and going into fish that we end up eating. The stuff is inside us now. And still we want more stuff. Because our stupid economy is built on making, moving and selling stuff none of us actually needs. So maybe it’s time to start giving a stuff a miss. That’s the action we need to pull back on climate change. Let’s stop stuffing up, and start stuffing down. I just need one more cushion first.
40 September 26, 2018 The Byron Shire Echo
TOP LEFT: UKE NIGHT | LOWER LEFT: VINATGE 360 | RIGHT: BUGS
GRUNGING IT UP WITH THE 90S! Miss Amber and Stukulele are going grunge with their 90s Uke Night at Club Mullum this Thursday. Special guests Clelia Adams and Áine Tyrrell will round out the evening so it’s not all up in your face and you will enjoy a very classy band including
Kate Gittins on wind instruments and Julian Smith on double bass. With tunes from Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, TLC, 4 Non Blondes, R.E.M., Wheatus, Radiohead, Britney, Sinead, The Cranberries and more! The songbook is available through
www.ukemullum.com. Entry: Adults $15, Youth 6–16 $2.50. Young-uns FREE. BYO ukulele or just come along and belt out some tunes… and we mean BELT! Thursday 6.30pm Mullumbimby Ex-Services. Tix at the door.
VINTAGE 360
BIRTHDAY BREWERY BUGS
Following an epic sold-out national tour earlier in 2018 supporting his critically acclaimed #1 ARIA Australian album Vintage Modern, ARIA-winning rapper 360 heads to the Hotel Great Northern in Byron this Sunday. 360 has just revealed his latest music video, a moving visual for fan favourite single Money, directed by frequent collaborator Rush Productions. Featuring the vocals of Perth singer/songwriter Sydnee Carter, Money has quickly become one of 360’s most beloved songs, finding him in peak form as a rapper, weaving in and out of personal tales about his triumphant rise and rapid fall, and the financial consequences and lessons learnt. Vintage Modern pairs 360’s trademark charm, honesty and razor-sharp raps with a lush sonic backbone of guitars and live instrumentation fused with contemporary rap sounds, replacing the heavy synths and electronic drops his music is traditionally known for. The album garnered a slew of enthusiastic reviews by music press around the country and mobilised his 10,000-plus strong Facebook fan group The Close Circle.
The iconic Byron Bay Brewery are celebrating their birthday this Saturday night with a bunch of bands playing a free show!
Sunday at the Hotel Great Northern. Tix on oztix.com.au.
When a swag of iconic Australian anthems were bought to life in 2014 by lo-fi recordings of songwriter Connor Brooker in his bedroom, Bugs hatched. Since then Bugs have continued to go from strength to strength by winning over new fans everywhere they play with their loveable brand of bashful, high-energy garage guitar pop. After scoring Feature Artist on Triple J Unearthed and receiving a tidal wave of support for endearing single Neighbourhood the boys earned a spot playing the Byron Bay leg of Falls Music Festival over New Year – crushing it in front of an adoring early crowd of thousands. Continuing the momentum, a breakthrough year lies ahead for the band with a fresh EP and national tour announcement up their sleeves. Bugs will be performing with local groups Seaside, The Violent Monks, and Sophie Ozard for Byron Bay Brewery’s Birthday event this Saturday. It’s free entry and kicks off at 8pm.
INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE I often forget how much of a big role Cream, Clapton, and even how big that Unplugged 90s was and a lot of that was Robert Johnson. A lot of Hendrix – Voodoo Child is just a seminal text for blues rock for me. I think that’s so special and I still don’t feel like I could play that and really do it justice. That’s something I really want to achieve in my playing; I’ve been working on that a lot this year, working on that explosive style of blues rock, where you could do
really a good version of that track and do it justice. To date my best versions of Voodoo Child have been when I’m playing solo and not under so much pressure to be compared to Hendrix. What should we expect for your show at the Byron Guitar Festival? Recently I’ve been getting a little more ambitious with my playing, and practising a lot. I think in the modern guitar space, and the guy who is out in front and has the most success,
who is a mind-blowing guitarist is Joe Bonamassa. It took me a while to really recognise his amazing playing ability. When I first heard him a year ago it was a flurry of notes stretching into blues and even a more proggy realm, but I’ve really come to appreciate what he does in a big way as I’ve got more ambitious with my playing. Byron Bay Guitar Festival 6–7 October at the Byron Brewery. Tix at byronbayguitarfestival.com
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo