Brag#616

ISSUE NO. 616 JUNE 10, 2015

FREE Now picked up at over 1,600 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

M A R K RONS ON

Uptown’s finest looks forward to his Australian dates.

ALPINE

AIN’T FOOLING AROUND

T IM ROGERS & T HE B A MBOO S

The supergroup with a side of soul.

E V ERY T HING E V ERY T HING

The Brits’ new album fights against the news feed.

CHEECH & CHONG

It’s easy being green for these comedy legends.

Plus

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BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 3

rock music news

the BRAG presents

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Chris Martin, Sarah Basford and Gloria Brancatisano MOJO JUJU Newtown Social Club Saturday June 20

five things WITH

CHRISTOPHER KING FROM THIS WILL DESTROY YOU

4.

Growing Up Neither of my parents had 1. an interest in music. My first instrument was bass when I was 14. I lied to these older kids in a punk band that I had been playing for a year and they let me join and I learned from there.

Hearing the pieces A Rainbow In Curved Air and Music For 18 Musicians had a profound effect on me. I had never heard music like that at the time. Film is a huge inspiration. Kubrick was ahead of his time in so many ways. RIP.

3.

Terry Reily and Steve Reich.

2. Inspirations

Your Band Me and Jeremy [Galindo] played in bands together in high

The Music You Make ‘Post-rock’ is the most common one I’ve heard tossed around. Doom metal, shoegaze and drone are other genres we’ve been put into. I don’t listen to much post-rock but last time we played with Russian Circles they absolutely slayed (as per usual).

We just finished our third record with John Congleton, who just won a Grammy for his work with St. Vincent. He is also Alex’s boss so we are beyond lucky to have access to his studio and to John’s unique input/engineering/producing.

Right Here, Right Now 5. Music,

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Keiron Costello, Christie Eliezer, Fergus Halliday, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, Kate Robertson, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Spencer Scott, Natalie Salvo, Raf Seneviratne, Leonardo Silvestrini, Lucy Watson, Krissi Weiss, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forrester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121

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THE BRAG

4 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

WOLF ALICE Oxford Art Factory Friday July 24

YEARS & YEARS Oxford Art Factory Sunday July 26

A RADIANT BEING

Joshua Radin will tour Australia this September. The American singer-songwriter will play shows in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane while he’s here. Radin returns on the back of his sixth album, Onward And Sideways. His work has been featured in TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill and American Idol, along with several films. Radin will be at the Metro Theatre on Thursday September 10.

A Place To Bury Strangers Sam Smith

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

Brooklyn merchants of noise A Place To Bury Strangers are bringing their massive sound to Sydney in September. And we do mean massive – these guys are so loud, they sell their own branded earplugs. In a career that now stretches over a decade, up to and including fourth album Transfixation, they’ve flatted all before them. Feel the music at Manning Bar on Saturday September 5.

WOLLOMBI MUSIC FESTIVAL

The Wollombi Music Festival will return to the Hunter Valley this year, and organisers have now revealed their lineup. With two stages of music plus camping, markets, food, workshops and more, the boutique festival attracts a mix of blues, folk and world music fans, plus many more. Wollombi is a convictbuilt village just 90 minutes from Sydney. The 2015 lineup includes Marshall Okell and The Pride, Knox Fiji, Righteous Voodoo, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Gabriel & Cecilia, The Sea Gypsies, Sam and The Bird, Vanishing Shapes and more. Wollombi Music Festival will be held on Saturday September 26.

BANGALOW BBQ & BLUEGRASS

The Byron Shire’s Bangalow BBQ & Bluegrass Festival, celebrating all things bluegrass and ol’ Americana, has revealed its first lineup for this year. Headlining the festival will be two-time ARIA nominees The Wilson Pickers alongside Golden Guitar recipients The Company and Sydney locals Green Mohair Suits. Bangalow locals Hussy Hicks and Brisbane’s Sian Evans are also set to join the program. Co-headlining the festival will be the local produce, because nothing shouts fun like a fair share of barbecued meats. The annual ‘low n’ slow’ BBQ competition will return with newbies having to compete with the proven chops of the 2014 champions, The Meat Sweats. Bangalow BBQ & Bluegrass 2015 will be held on Friday August 7 in the A & I Hall and Saturday August 8 at Bangalow Showgrounds.

YOUTHS ON THE MARCH

Following their sold-out national album release tour, Gang Of Youths have announced they are again hitting the road for a massive tour across Australia in August and September.

The Sydney-based rockers will embark on a 24-date tour hitting venues in both regional and capital cities in every Australian state, ending the tour in Tasmania in September.

2015 has already been an exciting year for the band. As well as the national tour, they scored a top five debut on the ARIA charts, triple j feature album and FBi Album of the Week for their record The Positions. Gang Of Youths will take over the Metro Theatre on Saturday August 8 and Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Wednesday August 12.

LIGHT UP THE SKY

Californian rockers A Skylit Drive will make the journey across the Pacific for a run of tour dates this August. Since forming in 2008, the five-piece have released four albums, with 2013’s Rise their most recent. They’ll bring their post-hardcore sound to Australia when they play a six-date national tour with guests Polaris and A Breach Of Silence. Together, they’ll hit Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Wednesday August 26 and the Factory Theatre on Thursday August 27.

DASH UP TO DASHVILLE

The Hunter Valley’s new Americana-themed music festival, Dashville Skyline, has revealed its first batch of artists for this year’s debut event. Following the announcement of the new festival by the team behind PigSty In July and the Gum Ball Festival, the first round

SAM SMITH RETURNS

Following a vocal cord haemorrhage that forced him to cancel his last Australian tour, Sam Smith has announced he will return to our shores this November and December. Only getting through the sold-out Brisbane and Sydney stops of his debut Australian tour, Smith will now be back for shows in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This month his debut album, In The Lonely Hour, celebrated its one-year anniversary – it’s sold more than eight million copies worldwide and has been in the top ten of the UK album chart since its release, spending all but two weeks in the top fi ve. Smith will play Qantas Credit Union Arena on Friday December 4. Tickets go on sale Wednesday June 17.

thebrag.com

A Place To Bury Strangers photo by Dusdin Condren

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Metro Theatre Friday July 24

lineup is now here, headlined by Australian altcountry men Wagons and Canada’s Bahamas.

More artists will be added to the bill at the end of July. In the meantime, the program so far also includes All Our Exes Live In Texas, Green Mohair Suits, Melody Pool, Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes, The Lonesome Heroes and more. Dashville Skyline will land in the Hunter Valley over the October long weekend, Saturday October 3 and Sunday October 4.

ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: James Ambrose, Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600

AWESOME INTERNS: Sarah Basford, Vanessa Papastavros, Elias Kwiet

AZEALIA BANKS

Where: Hermann’s Bar When: Sunday June 14 And: Also supporting Sleepmakeswaves at the Metro Theatre on Saturday June 13

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Sarah Basford, Gloria Brancatisano, James Di Fabrizio, Lauren Gill, Vanessa Papastavros, Meggan Turner

GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Sarah Basford, Sarah Bryant, Vanessa Papastavros - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties)

Newtown Social Club Thursday July 23

We’re lucky enough to be surrounded by friends in Austin, Texas running a great experimental label called Holodeck Records that are constantly putting out challenging music. It’s a very peculiar and interesting time to be alive, let alone making music/ art. The onslaught of hypermedia and technology makes any bit of information immediately available and this has its own pros and cons. Anyone can make a record nowadays and that is both a wonderful and terrible thing. My favourite concert I’ve seen was Steve Reich performing ‘Mallet Quartet’ in a giant chamber Presbyterian church. The acoustics and phasing going on in the room were mind-bending.

Years & Years photo by Mike Massaro / Wolf Alice photo by Jordan Hughes

school and met Donovan [Jones] and Alex [Bhore] along the way to the lineup we have today. We all have strong, different personalities and opinions that we bring to the table and it magically ends up working. We all know each other so well at this point – it’s like family.

MARMOZETS

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 5

live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Sarah Basford, James Di Fabrizio and Lauren Gill

five things WITH

HELEN SHANAHAN

KEVIN CURRAN FROM HAILMARY their songs cause they weren’t technically that hard. I’m a huge Deftones fan too, but it was Alice In Chains that really shaped the way I played – Jerry Cantrell inspires me so much!

Your Band We’ve got myself on 3. vocals and guitar, Vas Shevtsov

Growing Up I started playing guitar after 1. seeing a really young guitarist called Nathan Cavaleri playing on Telethon. He had leukaemia and started playing guitar to take his mind off it. My parents thought he was amazing – they were into Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zep, et cetera (also my dad can play a bit), so I said, “I can do that too,” and in

turn it led to me saving my pocket money and buying a classical guitar. So Nathan, I thank you!

2.

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

Inspirations My first album I ever bought was Ugly Kid Joe – America’s Least Wanted. I also loved Nirvana early on as well; they were kind of the first band I remember where I would learn

on drums, Mick Quee on bass and Paul Cush on lead guitar and backing vocals. We all have different bands we love but collectively we like a lot of the same stuff. We’ve been really fortunate to work Jeff Tomei in the USA (Smashing Pumpkins, Jerry Cantrell, Skid Row, Matchbox 20) on our last couple of releases; he has really helped us a lot in terms of songwriting and production.

The Music You Make We are at the root a hard 4. rock band – a lot of guitar riffs and melody. We get pigeonholed into the grunge category quite a bit but I think that’s a bit lazy. There are a lot of different elements that make up the sound. We have one

full-length album and three EPs; the last three releases with Jeff Tomei involved in the mixing and production. On the live front we get out there and have fun and play with a sense of energy. If you want to get your face melted with riffs, we are your band.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

The music scene is at a really funny point at the moment. I think rock music is like the underground now; the people who go to shows are super supportive, but there is bugger all commercial support radio-wise in Australia for this style, which makes it harder.

There are so many great bands out there, you just have to look a little harder and not expect it to come to you.

What: Wallapalooza With: RedHook, These Four Walls, Smoking Martha Where: Frankie’s Pizza When: Sunday June 14

Helen Shanahan Winning a Songwriter of the Year award is an impressive feat for any aspiring artist, and Helen Shanahan must be pretty chuffed about it, having done just that thanks to the Telstra Road To Discovery program. Hot off the heels of her latest single ‘Across The Sea’, Shanahan has announced a national tour including a Sydney show at The Newsagency in Marrickville on Tuesday July 14. It really is all happening for Shanahan.

We’re giving away five copies of her latest EP, Finding Gold, produced by Neilson Hubbard in Nashville and locally by Pip Norman (Dan Sultan, Ash Grunwald, Daniel Merriweather). To get your hands on the release, visit thebrag.com/freeshit. xxx

RECLINK COMMUNITY CUP RETURNS

Josh Pyke

JOSH PYKE GETS INTIMATE

Australian singer-songwriter Josh Pyke has announced an intimate, non-ticketed ‘fans first’ show for those who pre-order his latest album, But For All These Shrinking Hearts. Pyke has recently finished a series of shows alongside the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. His upcoming album will be his fifth studio release.

Pyke will play The Soda Factory on Wednesday July 29. Pre-orders are available through his website.

Sydney’s hardest fought Aussie Rules match will be back once again this year. No, this isn’t the local derby between the Swans and the Giants – it’s the Sydney Reclink Community Cup, in which a team of media personalities (the Sydney Sailors) takes on their rival musicians (the Western Walers). 2015 will mark the fourth time the game has taken place in Sydney, with the original Melbourne event now in its 21st year.

The match raises funds for Reclink, which helps the community’s most vulnerable people by encouraging participation in sport and recreation.

The 2015 Sydney Reclink Community Cup will kick off at Henson Park, Marrickville on Sunday August 2.

showcase their garage pop sound with tunes like ‘Fears’ and ‘A New Hope’, alongside cuts from their forthcoming debut release, which is set to hit stores later this year. They’ll play Oxford Art Factory on Saturday July 18.

Sal Kimber

Reclink Community Cup

SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX

The viral cover sensations Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox are embarking on their debut Australian tour after completing a sell-out tour of the US. The group has been prolifically spreading on social media, with their

reinterpretations of popular music in cabaret, jazz and Motown styles receiving millions of views. They have covered artists including Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Radiohead, Hozier and Taylor Swift, with arrangements that take influence from the Great American Songbook.

See it all go down Thursday September 3 at the Metro Theatre.

Lurch & Chief

COUNTRY AND INNER WESTERN LINEUP

Lost Highway Records Australia has announced a night of country and honky-tonk mischief this June. The Country & Inner Western Show will feature the likes of the Cruisin’ Deuces, Lucky Luke and Harry Love. In an evening that promises to deliver a hootenanny you’ll never forget, the performers will play some of their boot-scootin’ best with the venue offering dinner services for those who wish to wine and dine. Waltz on over to The Basement on Wednesday June 24 to join in on the country festivities.

Melbourne rockers Pretty City have announced they’ll hit the road for a six-date tour to celebrate the release of their new EP, The Triple A-Side.

Featuring singles ‘Melt’, ‘Running Around’ and ‘Second Hand Clothes’, the EP is the result of the trio’s indecisiveness when it came to choosing their lead single. So instead of selecting one track, they picked all three. They’ll play them live when they hit Frankie’s Pizza on Wednesday July 8.

THE JENSENS

Brisbane indie rock outfit The Jensens have announced they’ll join Morning Harvey for an east coast tour this July. The five-piece will

6 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

Alt-country five-piece Sal Kimber and The Rollin’ Wheel have announced a national tour in support of their newly released single ‘Stumble In The Dark’.

With a full-length album set to drop this year as a follow-up to 2011’s selftitled LP, the single will provide a taste of what we can expect next. Originally from rural Victoria, frontwoman Kimber has collected a range of awards over the years, including the Victorian Female Vocalist of the Year Award at the Victorian National Country Music Awards in 2010 and the APRA Song of the Year at the Victoria National Country Music Awards in 2012. Catch their Sydney gig this Sunday June 14 at Newtown Social Club, alongside special guest Julia Jacklin.

THIS WEEK AT THE BEACH ROAD

Coming off a successful tour of their latest EP Breathe, Melbourne rockers Lurch & Chief are playing a free show at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel this Wednesday June 10. The sixpiece has gone from strength to strength since 2014 with some big singles including ‘Keep It Together’ and ‘Fading Out’ earning the love from triple j and community radio. Lurch & Chief will be joined by Polish Club and Stoney Roads DJs. Additionally, flamenco-meetsmetal fiesta party trio Kallidad are returning to their Bondi home to play this Saturday June 13, joined by Nick Drabble and Richie Ryan. Get excited.

thebrag.com

ReclinkCommunityCup#5080_photo Rod Hunt

PRETTY CITY HIT SYDNEY CITY

SAL KIMBER ROLLS ON

Entries close: 31 July 2015

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$ footprints@lmc.nsw.gov.au or (02) 9367 9381 www.leichhardt.nsw.gov.au/Footprints-Film-Festival BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 7

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Which smaller publisher looks like it’s heading for the scrapheap? * Which manager was heard whinging at the Virgin Sydney airport lounge that he seemed to be spending more time on one of his client’s divorces than her music career? * After receiving big farewell publicity and a golden handshake, which top executive is about to return

to his former company as a consultant? * After naming his movie Dazed And Confused for the Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin classic, Richard Linklater’s next movie Everybody Wants Some takes its name from the Van Halen song. * Run The Jewels have been fans of Tkay Maidza ever since they saw her at Falls Festival. At a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Killer Mike gushed, “[She is Australia’s] biggest rising star. I saw

MODULAR’S PAV BATTLES UNIVERSAL, BMG Modular Recordings founder Stephen Pavlovic is in the wars. US music publisher BMG Rights Management is suing him and Universal Music Australia (UMA), a partner in Modular, for not paying Tame Impala their due mechanical royalties. BMG wants US$450,000 (AU$590,000) and for Modular to stop selling Tame Impala’s back catalogue (The Australian put the “missing” money closer to AU$1 million). UMA said that it and Modular should not have been included in the suit. “Universal Music Australia and Modular Recordings were not involved in contracting with BMG over mechanicals for sales of Tame Impala recordings in the United States,” it said in a statement.

A Supreme Court case began in Sydney last Thursday between Pavlovic and UMA. It was revealed that Pavlovic, an employee of UMA, was dismissed (Justice Sackar commented: “Your client was a thorn in Universal’s side”) on February 23 this year. Pavlovic also wanted to trademark the name Modular, which UMA opposed. He runs a company called Pavlovic Investments. Pavlovic’s law firm, Levitt Robinson, said he only held Tame Impala’s mechanical rights through a US

her perform, she rocked the house!” After Maidza’s debut at Brighton’s The Great Escape festival and VICE House Party, the 19-year-old is touring the UK with buzz band Years & Years. In the meantime, she’s crossing over into mainstream radio in Australia. * Among the subscription TV ASTRA awards finalists for the Rising Star category is Channel [V]’s Zakary Chenoweth. * Bruce Springsteen joined The Who onstage in New York, first for ‘My Generation’

company until January 2014, “when it was assumed by Universal Music Group”. It added Pavlovic is in “confidential” talks with BMG on the matter.

QUEEN HONOURS MICHAEL MCMARTIN Michael McMartin, long-time manager of the Hoodoo Gurus and artist rights advocate, has received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 1975, McMartin set up Trafalgar Records (Radio Birdman, 1927), then Melody Management, looking after Brendan Gallagher, Brooke McClymont and producers Charles Fisher and Tim Whitten. He was a founding member of the Music Managers Forum Australia and Association of Artist Managers, then professional development and international manager for the MMF, the first chairman of the World Council of the IMMF, and assistant secretary-general.

BALD FACED STAG TURNS ON THE BANDS One of Sydney’s oldest pubs, The Bald Faced Stag in Leichhardt, is turning on the bands this winter. It’s got a new PA system and lighting, a larger band room with an

and then alongside Billy Idol and Willie Nile for ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. * Lil Wayne tried to assault an umpire over bad calls at a charity basketball game. * Daft Punk have added yo-yos and frisbees to their merchandise list. * On a festival poster, Glastonbury advertised Chet Faker as ‘Chet Facker’. Oops! * After Paul McCartney called on Oasis to reunite, Noel Gallagher replied, “Yeah, well, tell him if he writes our comeback single, it’s on.”

expanded stage, and better views for the audience. Clayton Ries is the new entertainment booker, previously of the Metro and the Gaelic Club, and who had a hand in starting up Festival Of The Sun and One Day Sundays. He said, “We’ll be making this place come alive again, launching its new identity with a series of creative events during the day and night to really make this a go-to venue in the Inner West.” He’s at clayton@baldfacedstag.com. au.

DEEP SEA ARCADE LAUNCH STUDIO, REHEARSAL SPACE Following on from their regular indie act showcase, the Visions night, Sydney’s Deep Sea Arcade have launched Visions Studios in Chippendale. It is a recording studio, rehearsal space and artist collective. Band member and Visions general manager Nic McKenzie said, “Visions Studios is our offering to the Sydney musical community, located at Central Station with all of our gear and instruments set up. We want to create an environment that is cheaper than any rehearsal studio for bands we love to turn up, plug in, rehearse and record together in an inspiring space.” It’s at Level 5, 822 George St, Chippendale (entrance on Little Regent St). Contact McKenzie at visionsstudioscentral@gmail.com.

THE EXCHANGE SOLD The Exchange Hotel in Darlinghurst has been sold. Its evenings at Q Bar, Spectrum, Phoenix, Nevada Lounge and Vegas will close on Sunday July 19.

METALHEADS MOST LOYAL, SAYS SPOTIFY Research from streaming service Spotify has suggested metal fans are the most loyal listeners, followed by pop fans. Global metalheads are over 20 per cent more likely to keep to core metal acts while pop fans listen to a wider range of acts. “Metal fans are the most loyal of all. One could also conclude that the more guitar-oriented genres inspire more loyalty in the listener,” Spotify said.

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NEW SIGNINGS #1: THE SUPERJESUS JOIN SOCIAL FAMILY Sydney-based Social Family Records’ latest signing is The Superjesus. A new single, ‘The Setting Sun’, came out on Tuesday, from an EP set for a late 2015 release. It is their first new material since the Rock Music album in 2003.

NEW SIGNINGS #2: BARELY DRESSED GETS JESS RIBEIRO PRODUCED BY:

SUPPORTED BY:

A co-promoter of AC/DC’s concerts in December has threatened website Viagogo with legal action. The actual New Zealand dates are not confirmed yet, and tickets obviously not on sale. But Viagogo has already started advertising them for NZ$1,300. Promoter Ian Magan has sent a cease-and-desist letter. Viagogo said it received listings from pre-allocations to fan clubs, sponsors, VIPs and travel/hospitality companies. Magan responded, “AC/DC are very egalitarian and want each fan to have an equal chance of attending the concert.”

Barely Dressed Records, set up by artist managers Katie Besgrove and Nick O’Byrne with Remote Control, has signed songwriter Jess Ribeiro. While her 2012 debut My Little River was a folk country record, her upcoming August album has been recorded with Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey). Ribeiro got the idea of working with Harvey in the Moab desert in

Lifelines Recovering: Tool’s Maynard James Keenan from a hip replacement.

Injured: Dallas Frasca got a black eye and swollen cheekbone while crowd-surfing at Queensland’s Big Pineapple Music Festival and falling two metres.

Injured: Hellyeah guitarist Tom Maxwell will sit out the rest of the band’s European tour after breaking his foot in three places.

Recovering: Joni Mitchell may be on her way out of hospital soon after suffering a brain aneurysm last March.

Split: One Direction’s Niall Horan and Aussie gal Melissa Whitelaw.

They met when the Brit band toured here in February.

Engaged: Iggy Azalea and Los Angeles Lakers player Nick Young, who proposed with a US$500,000 ring after seeing the rapper since October 2013.

Born: a daughter to rapper Ludacris and wife Eudoxie Mbouguiengue.

Sued: controversial rap mogul Suge Knight’s legal problems continue to mount. Photographer Leslie Redden says last September when she was taking photos outside a Beverly Hills venue, Knight thought she was taking photos of his son, called her “a bitch” and “angrily advance[d] towards” her, wrestled her to the ground and tried to snatch her camera. She said she had injuries to her neck and back, and dislocated her finger. Knight is also being sued by the widow of Terry Carter, whom Knight ran over in his pickup truck on January 29.

Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Universal Studios are also named in the suit.

Died: Allan Fryer, Adelaide-born singer of 1980s Sydney metal band Heaven, aged 60, from cancer.

Fryer claimed he was offered the singer’s role with AC/DC to replace Bon Scott by producers Harry Vanda and George Young. Heaven had success with their debut album Twilight Of Mischief in 1982. Fryer went on to live in Texas. The band reunited for Australian tours, the last being in 2012.

Died: Marian Henderson, aged 78, who was a folk, jazz and blues singer in Sydney in the 1960s. She later became a painter and theatre designer.

the US. “I thought my guitar was haunted and had a breakdown in Denver,” she said. So she decided to go to New York to find Patti Smith for advice. On a car ride, a track that Harvey had produced came on the radio, and inspired her to write to him when she returned to Australia.

NEW SIGNINGS #3: THE PATH STRAY TO UNFD UNFD has inked New York’s Stray From The Path for Australia and NZ. They toured here with Northlane in 2013 and last year with The Amity Affliction. UNFD A&R man Luke Logemann remembers on the tours, “I spent their whole set thinking, ‘Man, I wish Stray From The Path were on my label.’ Now they are.” Guitarist Tom Williams says they loved everything about Australia and that we’re a priority on their next two-year tour cycle.

APPLY FOR TELSTRA ROAD TO DISCOVERY Applications for the 2015 Telstra Road To Discovery open on Monday July 6. The talent development program connects emerging singer-songwriters with major names in the music biz. It offers two music development funds worth $15,000, as well as an allexpenses-paid trip to the USA to attend the Americana Music Festival, local gigs, ongoing education and the opportunity to work with Telstra to help kick-start a music career. For more info, visit telstra.com/trtd. thebrag.com

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THE ALBUM UPTOWN SPECIAL INC. THE 6X PLATINUM, ARIA CHART TOPPER UPTOWN FUNK OUT NOW ON SONY MUSIC - markronson.co.uk

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SPECIAL GUESTS GEORGE MAPLE + TIGERTOWN

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NEW ALBUM KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS THE THIRD OUT NOW

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WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

PANAMA

with special guests

SUN 26 JUL METRO THEATRE

Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders

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BAD//DREEMS

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Alpine

Make The Connection

T

here are many reasons why we have caught Phoebe Baker and Lou James at a good time.

Melbourne sextet Alpine have a string of successes to their name now, including global tours and festivals, accolades and television spots – the highlight a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! – and plenty of gigs to come. It’s also a lovely day, sunny and warm, and the girls are relaxing on comfortable couches.

But mostly you know the co-leads are in a good mood thanks to Paul Simon. After I complain that ‘You Can Call Me Al’ has been in my head all morning, the conversation is off and racing, with impromptu sing-alongs and unexpected topics popping like champagne corks.

Prepared questions are lost in the dervish, and as we discuss alternative lyrics to the Simon song, it becomes immediately clear that these two have turned banter into a strange art.

“‘Cor, you caught me out!’ It would make a great karaoke song.”

“I always thought it was ‘Caught Me Out’,” James laughs, and the pair start singing alternate lyrics about a guy called Eddie walking in on his cheating partner. “I thought it was about a guy having an affair, and he gets caught by his wife. But he’s also some cockney geezer, you know?

“It comes down to us being more assured now, and being more comfortable in expressing what we want,” says James. “It’s building a world that we don’t want to seem too disconnected or out of reach, especially once we start performing onstage. We want people to feel as

“I’ve only done karaoke once,” Baker recalls, “and it was fun, but I was a little too ambitious. I went with Prince, ‘I Would Die 4 U’. Great song, but karaoke?” She shakes her head sadly.

Before I really understand what’s happening, we’re suddenly in Disney karaoke territory, trying to recall the lyrics to ‘Friend Like Me’ while Baker sings ‘Arabian Nights’ and James reflects on her Lion King obsession growing up; collecting the quilt, the lunch box, the Lion King Polly Pocket (which apparently was a thing). It’s invigorating conversation, and speaks volumes about not only Baker and James’ ease in interviews, but also their own friendship and the idiosyncratic banter that has become such a vital aspect of Alpine’s live performance. This, however, has not always been the case.

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“I mean, sometimes songs do become muscle memory,” Baker considers. “When you’re on tour, doing gigs every night, you can’t expect yourself to be feeling that emotion 100 per cent across every song. Sometimes you’re just feeling something different, and it’s hard to replace that. Different songs will always connect with you more than others, depending on your mood.

Some nights you’re going through the motions a little, but it just means that you’re responding to different aspects in it.”

“There are so many factors, which is fine,” James agrees. “Anybody is going to get sick of performing the same song over and over. But you’re always in such a different context spread across the world, too. You could be in a dive bar; you could be in a beautiful old classical theatre. You could be having a good day, having a shit day. Even singing the same songs and knowing your way around them, they’ll always be a little fresh, a little bit new. The songs might be the same, but you express them differently each time.”

Following the rolling success of 2012 debut album A Is For Alpine, it was always just a matter of time before their sophomore dropped.

They’re now a little bit older and a lot wiser for the three years in between. Yuck has already seen its lead single, ‘Foolish’, released to strong acclaim and high rotation, and the record itself is only days away. The self-assurance James speaks of has served the band well in piecing together a release that truly reflects who and where Alpine are today, but it also helped ease concerns about how their follow-up would be received.

“I don’t feel anxious, because I just feel so much happier and more content with this album than the first one,” says James. “In terms of recording it, having so much more time [was important]. I feel like being a bit older with more experience, the big difference was knowing what I’m trying to say with the lyrics, being able to write them down and being happy with them. Not many people get to do an album, let alone two, so at the end of the day it’s awesome.”

“I think with your second album there might be more pressure, but I think what will be, will be,” Baker grins. “I enjoyed the process and we’re really happy with the songs.”

“I still listen to it all the time,” says James. “I’ve found that with both albums, but this one I listen to and there are songs that still put me in that emotional place when we were writing them. It touches me; there’s a real connection. We’ve only performed maybe two or three songs [from this album] live before, and if I’m nervous about anything, it’s just not knowing. Performing the older songs, it’s fine – I know how I’m moving in each of them – but

with these there hasn’t been that chance to connect with them yet onstage.”

“They take you back to that moment, that emotion,” agrees Baker.

She pauses, and looks across to James. “But part of that is because we really, really worked on this – together and individually. The two of us always work collaboratively, but this time the other guys in the band had more input. As you listen and reflect on it, you’ll always hear things you didn’t recognise at the time. You’ll be surprised by bits working in ways you never thought about. Even if you’ve moved on from those emotions, it’s always interesting to listen back and realise, ‘Oh, so that’s how I reacted then.’

I remember when we first listened to the master, it was all too much.

You’re thinking about all the things you could have done, the things you want to change. But really, I’m so happy with it.”

“And you know what’s funny?”

James asks. “Since we settled on the title, I hear people using the word ‘yuck’ all the time now. I think people might say it quite frequently without realising it. And you know, if people don’t like the album, at least they have a good word to describe it,” she laughs.

What: Yuck out Friday June 12 through Ivy League With: Pearls, Olympia Where: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle / Metro Theatre When: Thursday July 9 / Saturday July 11 And: Also appearing at Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands, Friday July 24 – Sunday July 26

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“With your second album there might be more pressure, but I think what will be, will be. I enjoyed the process and we’re really happy with the songs.”

involved with it as we are. I don’t like going to a show and feeling that the stage is some barrier between me and them, you know? There’s something about crafting a show which is magical and that has the audience involved, too. But it’s been hard to figure that out. You’ve got to have a strong identity for people to connect with, and I think the first time around we were a little fragmented. Things like interviews, the banter at our shows, it wasn’t really that connected. I think you definitely need to reconnect with a song in order to get that feeling of storytelling. You’re not just playing a song live, you’re bringing something to life.”

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Tim Rogers & The Bamboos Opposites Attract By Augustus Welby biggest commercial success in The Bamboos’ career. Seizing upon this momentum, in early 2013 Rogers and The Bamboos embarked on the Rock ’N Soul Medicine Show tour. The setlist showed off a few new compositions, which suggested that a collaborative album would soon follow. However, once the tour wrapped up, Ferguson got stuck into another Bamboos album, Fever In The Road, spotlighting the vocals of bandmates Ella Thompson and Kylie Auldist.

“Just for the sake of the band, I wanted to make sure that we could be strong without having any of these guests involved,” Ferguson says. “[But] in the back of my mind I always had this idea that it would be great to do a full-length record with Tim.”

P

erhaps no-one could’ve predicted it, but when You Am I’s Tim Rogers teamed up with local funk gurus The Bamboos on the 2012 single ‘I Got Burned’, it gave rise to an incredibly effective union. Three years later, this unlikely partnership has led to a full-length album, The Rules Of Attraction. It’s a wonder-filled journey drawing on funk-soul, doo-wop and Exile On Main St.-era Rolling Stones, topped off by Rogers’ matchless charisma.

The BRAG speaks with Rogers and Bamboos leader Lance Ferguson about the pair’s creative bond.

“I met Tim through playing guitar in Megan Washington’s band,” Ferguson says. “We got to talking

about music we loved and we really found an instant rapport. Then I was like, ‘Hey, I think I’ve got a song that’s going to work for you. Do you want to come in on this record?’”

“I found him very personally charming,” Rogers says. “I was knocked out thinking that I could ever get involved. I was really intimidated, and I generally only take on work things these days if I’m intimidated.”

Rogers’ intimidation stemmed from the fact he’d been an avid follower of The Bamboos since day one.

“The original bass player was Stuart Speed, who was playing with me in the late ’90s and a very dear friend

who’s very sorely missed,” he says.

“I’d seen them play at The Night Cat [in Melbourne] when I was behaving disgracefully. It’s rare that I say I’ve got a lot of respect for someone who’s a dear friend, but I really respected him.”

When the time came to get started on the album, the pair were adamant about evenly sharing the creative responsibilities. Given Ferguson has led The Bamboos since 2000, it made sense for him to handle the instrumental details. “I was building these demos, which had the whole form of a song without vocals, and sending them to Tim just as sketches,” he says. “Then the things that Tim responded positively to, I would work on a bit more.”

Conversely, Ferguson wasn’t much of a You Am I aficionado. “Although I was aware of [Tim’s] stature and presence and history to some degree as one of the great frontmen and artists of Australia, I didn’t really know the music that well,” he admits.

Accordingly, Rogers took care of the words and melodies. “I wrote most of the lyrics when I was in New York with my daughter,” he says. “I’d walk her to school and then it took about two hours to walk back to where I was staying. So I was sort of dodging traffic and waiting until the bars opened and just making up things in my head.”

Along with impressing existing fans of The Bamboos and You Am I, ‘I Got Burned’ reached a whole new audience and remains the

The record largely comprises feel-good funk-soul numbers, complemented by a lively production quality. “We didn’t have any

prerequisite moods going into this,” Ferguson says. “It just turned out that a lot of the tunes are fairly upbeat. But that tour was an upbeat, raucous, rocking kind of affair. I did want to capture some of that element in there.”

When Rogers returned from the US, he went straight to Ferguson’s Yarraville studio to track the vocals.

Ferguson has taken part in countless studio collaborations over the years, and he’s learned to not be a perfectionist. “I’m looking for a great performance,” he says. “I’m not such a stickler for things like, ‘If it wasn’t recorded on a $10,000 mic, we have to re-record it.’ In this day and age, things recorded on a shitty mic can end up being made to sound really good. With this record, a rawer aesthetic was actually even better.”

As a result, the majority of vocal takes on the album have survived from the demo recordings. To Rogers, Ferguson’s relaxed production approach came as a surprise. “I thought he’d be a lot more methodical,” he says. “But when we got to work together, after a couple of days I realised I could just be goofy and he’d let me do that and then we could knock it into something OK. Being asked to join and collaborate with someone you respect so much and a band that you just fucking adore, I didn’t want to fuck it up. I remember when Davey [Lane, guitar] got asked to join You Am I – his big thing was, ‘I don’t want to fuck up one of my favourite bands.’ That was my feeling with the ’Boos. I’m very thankful that he just let me be who I am.”

What: The Rules Of Attraction out now through Warner Where: Metro Theatre When: Friday June 19

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Gengahr Maiden Voyage By Lucy Rutherford

T

o outside observers, it feels like the rise of London alt band Gengahr has been quite sudden, but for chief vocalist Felix Bushe, success has been a decade in the making.

“I’m 25 now, and I played in my first band when I was about 14 or 15, so it kind of feels like ten years building up to it,” he says. “Since we put our first demos online, that process has felt really quick and that’s been a really exciting thing for us. Having interest from putting stuff up on SoundCloud gives you real confidence because you get the sense that real people are listening to it. We’ve played in other bands before where we’ve had record labels or management get involved and they’ve been really excited about it. But we’ve never really seen that connection with the public.”

came more from fi lm. When I’m constructing a song and writing it out, I always think about it visually as much as I do on the page.

“There’s elements of psych in it, elements of pop, elements of grunge.

So it kind of straddles the line between pop and rock but does it in a way that’s gentle and trippy at times,” he says. “Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Deerhunter, Tame Impala; they were a few of the bands we were listening to as we were writing music for the album. And the production on those sorts of records, the lo-fi or element of DIY sound, makes them sound rich and inviting.

That’s what we were going for with our record.”

“When it comes to making the videos, I spend a lot of time storyboarding them and writing them down. I’ve always wanted to make a fi lm, so to be able to do it with music and combine it with the artwork we do as well, it’s a real privilege to be able to do all those things.”

Lyrically, Bushe says he also takes a lot of inspiration from fi lms. This is evident, too, in the band’s music videos, which feature cinematic and often disturbing narratives.

“Growing up I was pretty severely dyslexic,” says Bushe. “I didn’t read that much until more recently but I watched a lot of fi lms. So most of my inspiration for writing probably

Gengahr will be coming to Australia for the first time to play Splendour In The Grass next month, and Bushe promises that despite the ethereal and delicate aspect of their music, their show is an energetic live experience.

“With drums and bass especially it’s much bigger, whereas on record we’d have those quiet,” he says.

“We didn’t even think too much about trying to replicate the record [in our live show] because I don’t think they necessarily need to be the same. If people want to go see something live I think it should be

slightly different, because you’ve already heard the record.”

And for those without tickets to the sold-out festival, Bushe says there are sideshows in the works.

“We’re looking to do about five or six.

I can’t wait. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia. We started working with an Australian label pretty early on, which was great, and that’s how we managed to get over there and get stuff on triple j. It’s really exciting to hear that there’s interest. For us it’s a whole other world from little old England. I mean, my mate, I think he

got his Australian girlfriend out there and now she’s living with him in London. All magical things seem to happen in Australia.”

What: Splendour In The Grass 2015 With: Blur, Florence + The Machine, Mark Ronson, Of Monsters & Men and many more Where: North Byron Parklands When: Friday July 24 – Sunday July 26 And: A Dream Outside out Friday June 12 through Liberator

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Gengahr’s woozy, dreamlike brand of indie has garnered them worldwide acclaim and led to tours with the likes of Alt-J and The Maccabees, playing South By Southwest earlier this year, and getting singles like ‘She’s A Witch’

signifi cant radio airplay. And all that before releasing their first album, A Dream Outside. Bushe describes it as a modern guitar record.

Jeff The Brotherhood Still Wasted, Still Dreaming By Augustus Welby ‘Karaoke, TN’ and ‘Coat Check Girl’ that outwardly embrace pop melodies and structure.

“When we signed to Warner Bros. we knew what we were getting into in terms of, ‘OK, this is a career thing now, we need to make a record that they can use,’” Orrall explains. “So there was that element of, ‘Let’s give them some hits.’”

A

head of 2012’s Hypnotic Nights, Jeff The Brotherhood signed to the major label Warner Bros. Records. The album was co-produced by The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, so it seemed certain to feature a commercially suitable sound. Yet while Hypnotic Nights included some of the most on-point Weezer worship this side of the 1990s, the Nashville duo hung onto their ramshackle roots.

“We basically did Hypnotic Nights the same way we recorded all the rest of our records,” says singer/

guitarist Jake Orrall, who’s joined in the band by his brother, drummer Jamin. “Dan wasn’t super worried about whether we got good takes or not. He was just there to tell us if something sounded totally whack or if it sounded good.”

Two-and-a-half years later, Jeff The Brotherhood have returned with their eighth album, Wasted On The Dream, and the anticipated major label makeover has now occurred.

Along with guest vocals from Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino and a flute solo from Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, there are tracks like

To be fair, the band’s predilection towards sugary melodic rock was evident as far back as 2009’s Heavy Days. “Every album gets more accessible and better sounding, because we get better at writing songs and get better at playing our instruments,” says Orrall. But the band’s growing skills aren’t all that distinguish Wasted On The Dream from Jeff’s earlier work. In fact, a more obvious modification is the record’s hi-fi, overdub-happy production.

To ensure this was a smooth transition, the brothers roped

in experienced producer Joe Chiccarelli (Spoon, Alberta Cross, The Strokes). “He pushed us pretty hard,” Orrall says. “That was part of it, though – we knew that he was a professional, we knew going into it that it was going to be hard work, but we wanted that. We wanted to make the best album we could make.”

Fortunately, the laborious recording process hasn’t sucked the life out of the record. Jeff The Brotherhood are an incredibly entertaining live act and Wasted On The Dream still conveys a sense of the pair’s onstage animation. This time around, however, the recording personnel were expanded to include bass player Jack Lawrence (The Greenhornes, The Dead Weather).

“We knew we wanted to have bass on this album for the first time and he’s just an unbelievable bass player,” Orrall says. “Before recording, we went to a practice space and we worked for ten days, just playing choruses over and over

and trying out different drum beats and different arrangements of stuff.”

This all happened in the early months of 2014. Then, after various delays, Jeff The Brotherhood were dropped from the Warner roster – a mere two weeks out from the record’s scheduled release.

They’ve now shifted back to the land of independence, but that doesn’t mean there’s an aesthetic devolution on the horizon.

“I think the next one will definitely have a different attitude,” Orrall says. “There won’t be as much pressure to do a single and stuff like that. We knew that our longterm hardcore fans might be a little bit weirded out by some of the stuff on Wasted On The Dream, but you’ve got to keep growing.

You can’t just keep doing the same thing forever.”

What: Wasted On The Dream out now through Dine Alone/Cooking Vinyl

The Ruckus Old Bonez Bring The Ruckus By Natalie Rogers

‘S

hy and retiring’ is defi nitely not the way to describe Sydney fi ve-piece The Ruckus. The eclectic mishmash of talented musicians had been touring up and down the east coast as Bonez for long enough to build a solid following. However, with the introduction of new members and the inevitable evolution of their sound as a result, frontman Tomi Gray knew it was time for a change.

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The Ruckus recently arrived with their new name at a sold-out show at The Vanguard. The lucky punters in attendance were caught unaware, having had no idea they would be witnessing the rebirth of a band they’d grown to love. “It was a great show,” says Gray. “We’re still trying to bounce back from it mentally and physically – I’ll admit I’m still in the recovery mode.”

It’s safe to say that from all accounts, Bonez were given a proper burial. “It was a bit of an emotional experience to put an end to that chapter, but there were a lot of supportive people there cheering us on, so we feel like we kicked some goals with it.”

Aside from the big announcement, the Vanguard show had another

purpose. It was the official launch party for the band’s new EP, Let’s Get Weird. “We’re all pretty excited about it,” says Gray. “In fact, this is the most excited I’ve been about the band in a long while.

We’ve fi nally got a lineup in which everyone’s pushing for the same thing.”

The five tracks on the release showcase a band coming into its own. The Ruckus are genrebenders – they move between funk, hip hop and rock with an ease only achievable when each musician respects their instrument, but wants to push the boundaries.

“We’re a complete collective – everyone has the freedom to bring what they want to the table. Paulie [Mason], our lead guitarist, is from a jazz background and has so many different influences. Hugh [L. Jones] can totally handle his drums and we’re so happy to have Ben [Frank, guitar] on board. Froggy, on bass, is from Brazil – he’s been shot and lived through so many dramas.

We’re a very bizarre group of people.

“Everybody in this band is so fucking weird!”

You may think that’s what inspired the EP title – and you’d be half right.

“There was this dude – I think he was English,” says Gray. “Anyway, he’d show up to all our shows and stand at the back of the room yelling it [‘Let’s get weird!’] really drunkenly. He’d start yelling it and then somewhere along the way other people would start

chiming in. One day we were like, ‘You know what? The dude has a good point,’ and it really became a bit of a motto. We started saying it to each other before we went onstage – it was our war cry. Now nothing represents our band better than those three words.”

What: Let’s Get Weird out now through Manga Republic/MGM

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“This band started as a thing to do for lols, you know? But it turned into something else along the way.

People actually seemed to be liking us, so we thought, ‘Maybe we should be taking this a little more seriously,’” Gray explains. “Myself and our bass player [Bernardo ‘Froggy’ Lopes] had been playing together for about a year and a half when we decided to bring three new members into the fold, and suddenly it didn’t feel like the same project anymore. We couldn’t go on calling ourselves Bonez because it was clearly becoming something quite different.”

Gray says coming up with the new name was easy – “Because that’s what we do when we turn up to play a gig, we bring the ruckus!” he laughs. “Or at least, we like to think so. Bonez doesn’t make much sense at all – I don’t know what we were thinking.”

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Make Them Suffer All Grown Up By Augustus Welby

O

ld Souls, the second record from Perth symphonic death metal sextet Make Them Suffer, landed at the end of May. It’s an exciting, confronting and even cathartic listen, evidently the product of much painstaking labour.

The densely produced LP arrives just over three years after the band’s debut, Neverbloom. When the BRAG speaks with drummer Tim Madden, he’s a touch upset about how long Old Souls took to get ready.

“We did want to avoid that threeyear gap,” he says. “Even if we had’ve pushed it to two years and nine-tenths. But it wasn’t to be, unfortunately. It’s not something that we wanted to do or to have to make our fans wait that long.

It’s been hard for us to see all the comments online – people like, ‘Where’s the album? Is it ever going to happen?’ It was feeling like, ‘Is this album going to happen? Are we going to be able to get it together?’

Thankfully we were able to overcome the adversities put before us and put Old Souls out.”

“We didn’t want to do Neverbloom part two,” Madden says. “A lot of bands can go down that road of just sticking with what they do best, and that works for them. But we wanted to expand upon Neverbloom and open a few new doors with

“It was hard to write outside of what we were familiar with,” he adds. “We did a lot of chopping and changing, writing and rewriting and replacing parts and replacing songs.

It took a lot longer than it should have.”

Much like on Neverbloom, Roland Lim produced Old Souls. Lim has also worked with the likes of Birds Of Tokyo and Lights Of Berlin, and Make Them Suffer have come to rely on his input. “I feel like he’s the seventh member of this band and understands the band’s sound probably better than we do ourselves,” Madden says. “When we brought him over to start preproduction, then we did even more changes. I think Roland actually spent from September through to December over here working with us on this thing. It seemed like forever and we really pushed it down to the wire.”

Three other well-known producers were enlisted to help mix the album: Jason Suecof (The Black Dahlia Murder, Trivium), Joey Sturgis (Emmure, Asking Alexandria) and Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus). “We didn’t have a budget to fly overseas and work with somebody in America or Europe, which we would’ve loved to,” Madden says. “So we thought, ‘Let’s try to get a few different people to mix the songs, to give it a bit more flavour.’ We chose the people for those songs that were appropriate; the faster songs were

done by Jason Suecof, the moshier songs by Joey Sturgis, and ‘Old Souls’ was done by Forrester Savell.

He’s phenomenal.”

At its heaviest, Old Souls will chill listeners to their very soul. But the album also contains delicate touches of orchestrated strings and piano. While the band attempted a similar dynamic juxtaposition on Neverbloom, it’s executed with greater precision this time around.

“If we were to look back at Neverbloom and critique it on a production level, I feel like some parts were not as clear as they should’ve been,” Madden says. “[With Old Souls] we’re really glad we were able to get the right tones and the right mixing to make it all work and to have that separation.

I don’t think we went as dominant

with orchestration. We wanted to allow the orchestration and the piano to be more signifi cant when it was there. It’s the same with the guitar as well – there’s parts where the guitar part comes across a lot stronger and the listener understands it’s the focal point.”

For the most part, the record features synthesised strings, but latest single ‘Let Me In’ marks the first time Made Them Suffer have worked with a real string section.

“We kind of wish we’d done that on all the songs,” Madden says. “It actually does make a big difference using real violins and stuff like that.

But it costs more to do that.”

Evidently, a lot of the creative decisions that distinguish Old Souls were motivated by things the

band wanted to correct about the first album. Despite such constant reflection, the end result is a markedly different LP. “We could’ve done Neverbloom part two and 50 per cent of the fans would’ve been like, ‘Awesome!’”

Madden says. “But there are also that 50 per cent who’d be like, ‘We would’ve liked to see Make Them Suffer expand.’ We’ve got so many elements to the sound, why not try it?”

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There’s no doubt about it, a lot of work went into this album.

Not only is there a tonne of songwriting ideas crammed into each track, but production-wise, it’s fleshed out with layers of diverse instrumentation. To convincingly pull this off, Make Them Suffer realised they’d have to work patiently.

our sound. You’ve got tracks like ‘Timeless’ and ‘Old Souls’, which are like nothing on Neverbloom.

Even ‘Let Me In’ is leaning towards that boundary of becoming a bit more melodic, but it’s still heavy.

What: Old Souls out now through Roadrunner/Warner With: Black Tongue, I Valiance Where: The Bald Faced Stag / Hombre Records, Newcastle When: Thursday June 18 / Friday June 19

Everything Everything Heavenly Sounds By David James Young ended title. The religious connotations present themselves, but then again, so do more sinister ideas. What can be taken away from a name like Get To Heaven?

The answer is whatever you make of it – as you’re probably right.

“We got to the end of the record and we had this quite violent, bloodthirsty concept for the album title,” explains Higgs. “We must have gone through 50 titles – ‘blood’ this, ‘teeth’ that. After a while, I could tell the other guys weren’t happy – there was something missing. I was looking through the lyrics, and I went over the song called ‘Get To Heaven’. It immediately clicked – I was just like, ‘Fuck it, why not?’ It felt so positive, but it also had this underlying subtext of religious extremism. It feels like everyone is trying to get to what they perceive as their own idea of heaven, and you’ve got to take the good and the bad with that.”

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“If we find ourselves repeating things, we tend to call one another 16 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

out on it pretty quickly,” says Jonathan Higgs, the band’s lead vocalist, guitarist and primary lyricist. “There are some things that we’ve come to accept aren’t changing – the way I sing, for instance, is the way I sing, and Alex [Robertshaw] is always going to play guitar in his own way. It’s always going to sound like us – and so it should – but we’re pretty conscious about making sure what we’re doing hasn’t been done by us previously.”

After a year mostly spent away from touring, the Englishmen have re-emerged in 2015 with the imminent release of their third studio album, Get To Heaven.

Enlisting the help of notable British producer Stuart Price, the band revelled in the chance to once again

redefine what an Everything Everything song could sound like.

“This time around, we were very open in our dialogue about what we wanted to do,” Higgs says. “We wanted to make an album that was much more aggressive, much more high-energy and more confrontational than the last one. We all found that the second record [2013’s Arc], when we were playing it live, felt a bit too grand and a bit too negative. We wanted to make something a lot more colourful.

A lot of the year that we spent writing saw us obsessing over the media and the violence and disaster in the world.

We felt all-consumed by the news feed. This album was kind of a push against that.”

This brings us to the album’s somewhat ambiguous and open-

Everything Everything have often relayed abstract metaphor and odd lyrical imagery within the confines of their music. ‘Torso Of The Week’, a song from Arc, mentions Twitter and treadmills, while recent single ‘Distant Past’ namechecks Italian rivers and biblical lands. Although Higgs appreciates that his approach to lyric writing may come across as bizarre or deliberately obtuse, he’s also quick to point out that in doing so, he’s allowing for the band to further stand out.

“I think it’s important in terms of being a successful band, but I don’t really know any other way when I write,” he says. “I find a lot of things cliché and boring – an awful lot of things, actually. I’m always striving to find things that aren’t the same old shit, basically. I’m after new angles. It’s slowly grown from being

Touring is already underway for Get To Heaven, which is set for release this week. July will see Everything Everything return to Australia almost exactly two years after their maiden voyage, once again taking the stage at the Splendour In The Grass festival.

“We’re really excited to be coming back,” Higgs says. “The two headlining shows we’re doing around the festival should be a lot of fun, too. It’ll give us a chance to explore a little bit more, which we haven’t really had the chance to do before. Splendour was absolutely awesome last time. We were just blown away by it, to be honest. It was a country where we’d never been, and had absolutely no idea what to expect.

We walked out onstage and there were all these people that were singing our songs. We had no idea what was going on!”

What: Splendour In The Grass 2015 With: Blur, Florence + The Machine, Mark Ronson, Of Monsters & Men and many more Where: North Byron Parklands When: Friday July 24 – Sunday July 26 And: Also appearing at the Metro Theatre on Thursday July 23 More: Get To Heaven out Friday June 12 through Sony

thebrag.com

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ven as separate descriptive terms, ‘indie’, ‘rock’ and, by proxy, ‘indie rock’ carry a wide spectrum of ideas, sounds, styles and approaches to creating music.

In their time together, Everything Everything have managed to traverse a substantial portion of what those terms have to offer.

This is a band that hyperactively blends glitchy electronica, twinkling guitar and thick layers of vocals running through a blood-rush of tribal rhythms. When it comes to the creative side of Everything Everything, it’s become paramount that they continue to boldly go where no band has gone before – and not trip over themselves in the process.

slightly obtuse to being exclusively about humanity through the avenues that I opened up when I first started the band. At this point, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m not referring to a historical figure or a particular technology – it’s ostensibly traced back to feelings and human emotion.”

BRAG’s g guide to film,, theatre, comedy and art about town

arts in focus

c i s s tria parq Triassic Parq photo by Michael Francis

dance with the dinosaurs also inside:

CHEECH & CHONG / WOMEN HE S UNDRESSED / ALEX GIBNEY / ARTS NEWS / ARTS GIVEAWAY / REVIEWS thebrag.com

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arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Meggan Turner, Sarah Basford and Vanessa Papastavros

five minutes WITH

Shellwork by Marilyn Russell

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The Grump

JAMES WINTER FROM BRAND

Blak Markets as the resident artists in the space. They sell original work by remote and urban Aboriginal artists. Their application for a residency with Brand X was really compelling and we thought it a great opportunity for the people of Darlinghurst to experience indigenous culture right on their doorstep.

You’ll host an Aboriginal shell workshop this weekend during DoDarlo. What can you tell us about the event?

Shellwork is very significant to the Aboriginal people of La Perouse, where the people from Blak Markets originate. It consists of gluing tiny shells onto different objects like shoes or jewellery boxes. It’s very ornate but it’s not an art form that has a basis in Aboriginal culture – in fact, it’s thought that missionaries introduced indigenous

ladies to this work in the late 1800s. Nonetheless, the people of La Perouse have become famous for their shell art and their work now appears in highend galleries across the country.

Blak Markets have Marilyn Russell and her mum Esme to run the workshop for DoDarlo – meaning participants will be working with two prestigious women who have dedicated their lives to creating shellwork.

What kind of visitors are you expecting on the day?

I think anyone with an understanding of the diversity in Aboriginal culture or an appreciation for Aboriginal artwork would get something really special out of this experience. But I hope people who are curious about our indigenous people would engage with this special workshop too. Shellwork is more about

the conversation that happens around the table than making the work.

Just how much do we know about Aboriginal history in the Darlinghurst area?

There is not a lot of information about Aboriginal life in Darlinghurst as such, but Surry Hills has some very significant places including the Cleveland Paddocks (Prince Alfred Park) as an Aboriginal campsite until the coming of the railway in 1855 and St. David’s Hall as the home for the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association, an all-Aboriginal political organisation formed in Sydney in 1924 by Fred Maynard.

What: Blak Markets Aboriginal Shell Workshop Where: Brand X When: Saturday June 13

Many great things have come out of Scandinavia – the Skarsgårds, IKEA and arctic reindeers, to name a few.

Scandinavia also produces quality fi lms, as it so happens, and several of those are showing at the second Scandinavian Film Festival in Sydney from Wednesday July 8 – Sunday July 26 at Palace Norton St and Palace Verona. Some of the fi lms on the program include the Norwegian road movie, Here Is Harold, about an elderly man who kidnaps the founder of IKEA. A tale of a different elderly man, The Grump, who is forced to move to the city from his beloved country abode, is also on the bill, alongside plenty of other great features.

We’re giving away fi ve double passes, valid for any fi lm at the festival (excluding special events). Head to thebrag.com/freeshit for your chance to score a pass.

xxx

rand X has had an active presence on the Sydney scene since its former life as Queen Street Studio. How do you introduce your space to new visitors and customers?

Our space on Campbell Street is a creative retail concept store for artists to experiment with representing themselves in a retail environment. It aims to support creative and social enterprises with three months of free space to build new audiences and to sell directly to the public. Currently we have

SCANDINAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL

SURRY HILLS FESTIVAL 2015

Surry Hills Festival has confirmed its return for 2015. Applications are now open for storeholders, artists, performers and local businesses to get involved with the community event. Marking the return of spring, the festival will celebrate everything there is to love about this iconic and vibrant inner city suburb. The streets, parks, laneways and event spaces of Surry Hills will be transformed for the day as the festival takes over and highlights one of Sydney’s most innovative and creative districts. This year’s festival will be following the theme of ‘An Event Of Stories, Love & Tales’. Surry Hills Festival 2015 will take place on Saturday September 26. Visit surryhillsfestival.org for more details.

THE ZOMBIE PROM RETURNS

Sydney’s favourite prom night, Zombie Prom 1986, will be heading to the Factory Theatre next month for its fourth year running. Teaming up with Oz Comic-Con and ReedPOP, Russall S. Beattie Presents will be offering up some deadly entertainment on the night. The Independence Day event will feature a zombie house band, reanimated dancers and even some zombie disc jockeys playing all your mum’s favourites from the ’80s. Oh, and there’s a dress code – dress like you’re dead, but with more neon and spandex.

ALL ABOUT MEN

Having premiered at the Old Fitz over 15 years ago, Men is making a return home. Brendan Cowell’s first play revolves around three men and one woman, as they reveal the best and worst qualities about themselves in an hour. Featuring a talented cast of young actors, including Sean Hawkins, Ben O’Toole, Jamie Timony and Cheree Cassidy, Men will be given a breath of new life at its old stomping ground. This year’s production will be directed by Jessica Tuckwell. Men is playing at the Old Fitz Theatre from Tuesday June 30 – Saturday July 25.

Follow the scent of brains to the Factory Theatre on Saturday July 4.

A TIME FOR NEW BEGINNINGS

To celebrate World Refugee Day, the inaugural New Beginnings Refugee Arts And Culture Festival will showcase the cultural expressions and heritage of

Azar Nafisi

Men

refugee and asylum seeker communities. The free one-day celebration will feature music and dance performances, visual arts exhibits, workshops and a short film screening.

Delicious food and market stalls will also be available to give everyone a taste of the diverse cultures on show. Through a vibrant program, the New Beginnings Festival encourages people from all communities to unite for a shared cultural experience.

Everything featured in the program is run by the refugees and people living in our community while they await the processing of their claims for asylum. Celebrate World Refugee Day by attending the New Beginnings Festival on Saturday June 20 at the Addison Road Community Centre.

WINTER GARDEN AT ST. MARY’S

The forecourt of Sydney’s iconic St. Mary’s Cathedral will be transformed once again into a winter wonderland complete with an ice skating rink. The month-long Winter Garden festivities will include entertainment and themed nights alongside some of your favourite winter treats like glühwein (warm and spicy wine) and hot chocolate. The winter fiesta, besides the giant ice skating rink, is set to feature a mechanical snowboard and a petting zoo as well as crackling fireplaces and even private igloos for you and your cool mates. Strap on your skates and glide on down to St. Mary’s Cathedral from Friday June 19 – Sunday July 19.

When Marnie Was There

IDEAS AT THE HOUSE

The Sydney Opera House will play host to three additional events for the Ideas At The House program this year. Iranian-American author Azar Nafisi will present The Power Of Literature, exploring the crucial role literature plays in democratic societies. Nafisi is the best-selling author of Reading Lolita In Tehran, a documentation of her experiences teaching Western classics in secret in Iran. British academic and historian Sir Richard Evans will be exploring the strange hold that the Nazi regime still has on us, while Louis de Bernières, acclaimed writer and poet, will be sharing the stories that inspired him to create such literary successes as Red Dog and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Nafisi will appear on Sunday July 5 at the Concert Hall. Why We Still Talk About The Nazis with Evans will be in the Studio on Sunday July 26, and Bernières will be at the Joan Sutherland Theatre on Monday August 24.

GHIBLI AT GOLDEN AGE

Golden Age Cinema in Surry Hills is celebrating the announcement of the retirement of veterans Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata by screening some of the classics from everyone’s favourite animation studio, Studio Ghibli. The latest from the studio, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s sophomore When Marnie Was There, will be showing alongside the renowned titles, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away. The Studio Ghibli program continues at Golden Age until Sunday June 21. xx

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thebrag.com

Triassic Parq [MUSICAL] Roaring With Laughter By Tegan Jones

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Triassic Parq photo by Michael Francis

ith the impending film release of Jurassic World, excitement is currently high for anything related to dinosaurs and Chris Pratt’s abs. What more could audiences want – except for perhaps a musical reimagining of the original story told from the perspective of the dinosaurs? Squabbalogic Independent Musical Theatre is bringing singing, dancing and sexually confused T-Rexes to the Seymour Centre for Triassic Parq.

Artistic director Jay James-Moody tells us more.

“While in Jurassic Park it’s all about the humans trying to stop the bad dinosaurs, we find out in Triassic Parq exactly why they are rampaging,” explains JamesMoody. “It’s because they’ve all been genetically bred as female,” he laughs. “Since they didn’t all have the full DNA code they had to get it from some frogs. Now some of them are undergoing sex changes, which is throwing their tribes and family groups into chaos … One of our T-Rexes suddenly grows a penis

and it all gets out of control from there.”

But just where did this otherworldly idea come from? “It was originally a festival show in New York and I get the impression that the writers were just huge Jurassic Park fans, especially because there are a lot of great in-jokes in the show,” James-Moody says. “Even the stage directions are incredible and it’s kind of disappointing that the audience won’t get to read them.”

Despite the fact Triassic Parq is clearly a comedy, it also contains some important underlying messages. “As crazy as the show is – and it is hilarious – it has some really interesting current themes such as familial and societal reactions to people who don’t conform or who are transgender,” says the director. “There’s also a faith versus science battle in there as well. All of this is very deeply covered under crazy humour, but nonetheless it’s there and it’s what really drew me to the show.”

This is, of course, one of the most effective things about the medium of comedy: its ability to provide social commentary and explore important issues within the guise of humour.

“It’s a really subversive way of getting people to think about these sorts of things. The show is undeniably entertaining and ballsto-the-wall hilarious, but if you can sneak a little message in there as well, I always find that’s good too. “[Triassic Parq] is a musical, but it really will appeal to fans of comedy, movies and pop culture. It has a wider appeal than some of our other shows that are a bit more niche and are more for musical theatre nerds.”

The cast of comedic dinosaurs, meanwhile, promises to leave a big footprint, despite its relatively small number.

“It’s a pretty small cast,” says JamesMoody. “We have three Velociraptors who represent different perspectives – Innocence, Faith and Science.

“We also have two T-Rexes – Caitlin and T-Rex 2.” But it doesn’t stop there. “We have a new dinosaur named Mimosaurus who just mimes everything out, and then there’s Pianosaurus who plays the keyboard and is the bandleader.

“I should also mention that the show is inexplicably narrated by Morgan

Freeman… but I’m not going to elaborate anymore on that yet. You’ll just have to come and see the show.”

What: Triassic Parq Where: Seymour Centre When: Wednesday June 17 – Saturday July 4

Cheech & Chong [COMEDY] Up In Smoke By Tom Clift “A lot of teams are manufactured by management,” says Chong ahead of the tour. “But Cheech & Chong, we came out of the chute original. The fact that a Mexican and a half-Chinese hippie could literally change the world is mind-boggling. We’re part of the English language … before Cheech & Chong, there was no dope humour in the way we did it. Now it’s worldwide.

And I don’t think there’s a movie or a television show or a comedian that doesn’t mention getting high.”

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or as long as there’s been stoner comedy, there’s been Cheech & Chong. With eight feature films and ten comedy albums under their belt, the toasted twosome are among the most celebrated double acts of all time, with legions of dedicated fans

all around the world. Now pushing into their 70s, Richard ‘Cheech’ Marin and Tommy Chong are embarking on a ‘greatest hits’ tour of Australia, celebrating more than 40 years of good times, laughter and the almighty herb.

According to Chong, a big part of the duo’s success comes from people being able to relate to them. “We’re the hippies. We’re the poor. We’re the crazies. And that’s what a lot of the world has,” he says. “We started with absolutely nothing. Cheech never finished college and I never finished high school. We did all the terrible jobs you can just to put food on the table. [But] we’re not cynical. There’s nothing cynical about us. If you have this attitude, you can’t lose!”

Chong’s cheery outlook was put to the test in the early 2000s, when he

was sentenced to nine months in prison for selling bongs and other drug paraphernalia. But when we ask him about it, his reaction is not quite what we expect. “It was like going to camp!” he exclaims. “I got to hang out with a lot of my fans and I was having the best time. Everyone wanted to talk to me and everyone wanted to hear what I had to say. Everybody was down on the government for putting me in jail.”

Unsurprisingly, Chong still has a lot to say about the legal status of pot.

“In America, we have the right to the pursuit of happiness,” he says. “To me, that means having the ability to live our lives the way we want to live them.

And especially now they’re doing studies and finding out that marijuana helps with so many ailments.

“The pot laws around the world really are racist laws,” he continues. “They were designed to keep black and brown people down. It’s a racist law that has to disappear, along with the opposition to gay marriage, and the way we treat ethnic people … We’ve

got riots in Baltimore, and I tweeted that instead of a SWAT team, we need a pot team. We need a team of potheads to take a bag of really good kush and just spread it around the neighbourhood and mellow everybody out. We’re going to sit with the heads of state and smoke a bowl. The only burning should be the burning of the herb.”

Asked what Australian fans can expect from the tour, Chong promises a night full of classic bits. “We’re going to go into our library and dig out the obscure bits that people still quote,” he says. “We’re going to go into our closet and see what still fits. We’ve got a lot of older fans now … Then we also get a lot of young kids who have never seen us before, but heard of us from their parents. So we get a very eclectic audience, and we love them.”

What: Cheech & Chong: Up In Smoke – The Greatest Hits Tour Where: Enmore Theatre When: Friday June 19

Women He’s Undressed [FILM] All By Design By Kate Robertson 0th century Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly should need no introduction – the acclaimed New South Welshman won three Academy Awards in his lifetime, which was the most held by any Australian until last year (when Catherine Martin scored her fourth). However, the Kiama-raised designer is today largely unknown in his home country.

Women He’s Undressed is the new documentary by director Gillian Armstrong, revealing Orry-Kelly’s place in film history.

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Australia to New York in 1921 to be an actor, before relocating to Los Angeles a decade later. As a designer, he worked with many famous figures including Humphrey Bogart, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck and Jack Warner (the studio chief of Warner Bros. who first hired and eventually fired OrryKelly as his head costume designer).

Orry-Kelly formed an especially close relationship with the actor Bette Davis.

According to Armstrong, a documentary on Orry-Kelly was appealing “for the very reason that nobody knows who he is”. It was her co-producer Damien Parer who approached her with Orry’s story.

“I couldn’t believe it – I knew all the names of the films,” says Armstrong.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ Casablanca, Now, Voyager, Some Like It Hot and Auntie Mame were designed by an Australian from Kiama, New South Wales, and none of us had ever heard of him.”

“What Bette discovered, and why they became such a team, [was] that she had someone – he knew how to subtly enhance her figure, but for the two of them it was going to be about character,” explains Armstrong. “His design was suited to character and he was sympathetic to whoever or whatever shapes the bodies were.”

Women He’s Undressed traces Orry-Kelly’s life as he travelled from

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In the film, actor Darren Gilshenan (AKA Uncle Terry from The Moodys) plays Orry-Kelly. Armstrong says he’s a great fit. “I started reading comments in some articles about costume and so on where [Orry-Kelly] was described as brash and rude and

everything. I thought, ‘Oh, he’s an Australian – you didn’t get the joke!’”

Narrating in the first person, Gilshenan portrays Orry-Kelly as a bold, funny and passionate larrikin.

His commentaries are interspersed throughout the film, alongside historical footage, clips from films showing off Orry-Kelly’s costumes and interviews with historians, designers, actors and other people who knew him.

When it came to research, Armstrong worked closely with the writer Katherine Thomson. With no biography on Orry-Kelly to focus on, they had to read books about others, trawl through newspaper articles and hunt for archival materials. Along the way, they discovered a few surprises.

“On Wikipedia it says that Orry was named after a carnation, but actually, we then found out that Orry’s father’s hobby was breeding carnations, and actually the carnation was named after Orry,” Armstrong reveals.

There was also a stint in rehab. “He was back in Australia in the early ’50s and he made a joke he was

only drinking milk because he had an ulcer.”

As a director, Armstrong naturally has a keen insight into the role of the costume designer in the production of films. “I actually went to film school to study to be a costume and set designer in the beginning,” she says. “So I have absolute respect for costume design. I have worked with some of the world’s most brilliant [designers] … I have a complete understanding and awe of great costume and that was one of the other reasons I took

the film on, because people have no idea [about] the detail that goes on behind it.”

What: Women He’s Undressed (dir. Gillian Armstrong) as part of Sydney Film Festival 2015 Where: State Theatre / Hayden Orpheum Cremorne When: Thursday June 11 / Saturday June 13 And: Also showing aboard the Sun Princess in Sydney Harbour on Wednesday June 10

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Film Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen around town

Alex Gibney [FILM] The Documentarian By Adam Norris

■ Film

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Playing at Event Cinemas George Street on Saturday June 13 as part of Sydney Film Festival 2015 Thomas Vinterberg’s reimagining of the Thomas Hardy classic Far From The Madding Crowd is the latest in a recent rash of literary classics being brought to the screen. As with all such adaptations, there is an unavoidable tension between either remaining faithful to the original novel, or updating it for a contemporary audience, with Vinterberg walking a fine line between the two in telling the story of Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) and her three suitors.

While Vinterberg retains the setting and circumstances of Bathsheba’s story, the character herself is transformed from the conceited young girl of Hardy’s novel into an independent young woman with a feminist edge. In fact, Bathsheba’s quest for independence in a patriarchal society becomes the heart of the film, with her romantic dalliances acting to reinforce this idea.

The main strength of Vinterberg’s adaptation is in the casting of Bathsheba’s three suitors. Matthias Schoenaerts and Tom Sturridge are outstanding as Farmer Oak and Sergeant Troy respectively, and Michael ■ Film

SLOW WEST

Far From The Madding Crowd Sheen’s turn as the socially awkward but incredibly passionate Farmer Boldwood is particularly moving.

The film is very aesthetically beautiful, however some of its methods of exposition are a little awkward, as Vinterberg attempts to stick closely to Hardy’s narrative.

Bathsheba’s sporadic narration is a clear example of this, its only purpose being to set up the story, before being removed completely for the remainder of the film.

Similarly, Fanny Robin’s explanation of her own character to Farmer Oak, and the song used to demonstrate Bathsheba’s relationship to Boldwood, are equally jarring and do more to break the narrative flow of the film than provide meaningful exposition of the plot.

Far From The Madding Crowd is a puzzling adaptation, and while beautiful to watch, has a hard time telling either Hardy’s narrative or its own.

Louisa Bulley Slow West

In cinemas now Slow West begins with a shot of the stars.

A teenage boy, a stranger to the new world, lies on his back pointing a gun at the constellations. Stars bulge out as he mimes blowing them away. It’s a fitting introduction to a film of cosmic delicacy: a fairytale in the guise of a black comedy in the guise of a Western, in which the grandeur of the landscape seems to mock the petty desperadoes traversing it. Directed by ex-Beta Band member John Maclean and produced by Michael Fassbender, who stars, Slow West has a tone all its own: perched bravely but assuredly on a knife’s edge between the poetic and ridiculous.

Part of what makes it so distinctive is Robbie Ryan’s widescreen photography, with New Zealand subbing in for Colorado circa 1870. This Old West is more verdant than the one we’re used to. The sun shines brighter, and there’s colour everywhere you look.

The boy, played by our own Kodi SmitMcPhee, is a Scottish aristocrat who’s crossed the world in search of his lost love. She’s on the lam in America after an accidental death for which she and her father were blamed back in Scotland.

Fassbender turns up as Silas, who dispatches a few Injun-hunters to prove his bona fides and then offers to chaperone the

Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief

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lex Gibney is excited to feature at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, and with good reason. Not only does he love spending time here in the Antipodes, but three of his films – Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief, Mr Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown and Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine – are festival highlights.

Going Clear has already become the secondmost-watched HBO documentary of the last decade, and Gibney’s examination of Brown and the development of soul music is one of the most entertaining accounts you will find of the USA’s turbulent cultural development during the ’60s and ’70s. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker isn’t shy to tackle weighty themes, yet his creative drive remains rooted in the search for a good story.

very old – people like Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and such, showed that in non-fiction stories you can have an authorial voice and narrative drive that makes it every bit as compelling as fiction, if not more so. Sometimes the events themselves are more unpredictable than they are in any conventional drama.

“I’m compelled by stories, and by character,” Gibney explains. “Sometimes I’m motivated by the injustice that I see around me, though not all the films I do are that angry. But I’m motivated by stories, those ones that come along that you just have to tell because it’s so gripping. There were a lot of years when I was younger that I didn’t get to make very many films, and I feel like if I have the opportunity now, why wouldn’t I do it?

As such, Gibney’s task as filmmaker is not to archive snapshots of history or compile exhaustive catalogues of character traits, but to bring us into the story – to immerse us, however briefly, in landscapes far different from our everyday. Part of the difficulty, then, is intuiting exactly how that story will take shape. There are countless anecdotes and oddities that may help to add colour or engagement to a documentary, but the risk of distraction from the substance of the story is very real.

boy for a price as he travels westwards.

For all its majestic vistas this is not a portentous film. Jed Kurzel’s score is almost sprightly, as though we’re watching the new adventures of Huck and (an admittedly more taciturn, cigarillo-chomping) Jim. Slow West is full of discursions, but they never feel as though they’re straining for quirky affect. Ben Mendelsohn wanders into the pair’s encampment, bringing absinthe as well as his trademark off-kilter menace, and he and Fassbender get roaring drunk. The next morning Silas and the boy wake to find they’re in the middle of a flood. The next shot sees the pair riding across the flats with the sun on their face, and a clothesline strung between the horses.

This is a film full of elemental scrabbling in which wry comedy is never far behind.

It ends with a shootout for the ages: unpredictable, vivid, funny but lyrical too.

Harry Windsor

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

Arts Exposed

“There are a couple of the more personal ones I’ve wanted to do that I haven’t been able to, but generally speaking when I set my mind to doing one, my record has been pretty good in terms of finishing. There aren’t too many car wrecks by the side of the road.

There may be a lot of duct tape and fractured glass by the time I get to the finish line, but I still manage to get there.”

In terms of content, Going Clear, Mr Dynamite and The Man In The Machine would struggle to be more dissimilar, yet there remains a certain tone shared between them.

All three attempt to reconcile the nature of truthfulness or factuality when presenting true stories, and how the narrative of each must be more than a simple litany of dates and names lined up in a row. The search for the humanity behind the words, for the story within the history, is what makes a documentary truly memorable.

“It was Werner Herzog who said when you make a documentary you’re not listing facts,” says Gibney. “That would be the phonebook, and the phonebook is a valuable resource but it’s not much fun to read. I think inevitably you’re trying to tell a story. We all love to listen to stories and we’re all fundamentally storytellers; it’s a part of what defines us. So finding a way to do that in a way that’s engaging for people is terribly important.

“I think the documentarian can learn, and indeed has learned a lot from fiction films, and the New Journalism – though it’s now

“Telling a good story is terribly important, and the best non-fiction films shouldn’t be seen as a list of facts. Sometimes I know the critics see it that way. ‘Oh, are there any new facts in this film?’ But it’s the story that is the powerful thing here, the poetry of sound and image that is conveying an essential truth rather than a list of facts. That would be a dreary documentary.”

“Ultimately it has to do with narrative structure and the themes you decide to focus on.

Inevitably you come to a place where there are all these wonderful details and you’d like to include them all, but sooner or later in the cutting room, the gremlins of the story begin to make themselves manifest, and they start warning you not to be distracted by those wonderful details that don’t serve the larger narrative. It was Chekhov who said if there’s a gun on the mantle in the first act, it had better go off in the third, and that kind of condensation of drama is really important, even in documentary. Maybe especially in documentary. As you’re cutting the film down, you’re being rigorous about the kind of tale that you’re telling, and making sure that everything is honing in on itself. Sometimes it’s painful to lose those wonderful details that you’d like to include, but it becomes necessary for the good of the story.

“I think films are all about the road. If you’re not focused on the road you’re on, then you’re never going to find your way. Now I’m really blathering!” he laughs. “I’m getting lost in fucked up metaphors about roads. That’s always a sign of things going terribly wrong.”

What: Going Clear, Mr Dynamite and The Man In The Machine (dir. Alex Gibney) as part of Sydney Film Festival 2015 More: For the full program, visit sff.org.au

What's in our diary...

Lore Sydney Opera House, Friday June 12 – Saturday June 27 Award-winning choreographer Frances Rings makes her return to Sydney in Lore, a double bill portrayal of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that explores themes of inequality, identity and sustainability. Sheoak, also known as the Grandmother Tree, is a symbol of shelter, medicine and protection – according to lore, once a portrait of hope but now a witness to the changing lives of each new generation. Meanwhile, Waangenga Blanco and Deborah Brown share their developing voices in I.B.I.S. The trio’s performance is ultimately a celebration of life, resilience and optimism in the Torres Strait.

Advertising Sales Representative A fantastic opportunity exists for a self-motivated salesperson to join the BRAG, one of Sydney’s leading music and arts titles, plus to work with and across the Furst Media stable of titles.

A knowledge of and passion for all things Sydney – venues, bars, clubs, pubs, music, the arts, eateries and entertainment – is essential.

Applicants with outbound sales experience and/or an existing contact base who can hit the ground running are preferred.

A retainer and generous incentives are offered, commensurate with experience.

Mobile phone and car allowance adds to a great package with all the usual benefits.

JOIN THE TEAM! Email your resume and cover letter to jobs@furstmedia. com.au

For more info, head to sydneyoperahouse.com.

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bread&thread Food & Fashion News... with Chris Martin

Dove & Olive

The Glenmore

WELCOME WINTER AT THE GLENMORE

Let’s be honest, Sydney offers its residents and visitors many great reasons to brave the cold and explore the city (chief among them, the fact it really isn’t that cold). The Vivid festival has been a great success once again this year, but if you’re looking for a more peaceful view of the harbour now the lights are gone, there’s always the rooftop at The Glenmore. This Thursday June 11, it’s the place to be – the second annual Winter Rooftop Party is on, with complimentary cocktails and canapés that’ll warm you to the core.

CRAFT BEER FIGHT CLUB

Psssst, listen up. We’re not meant to talk about Craft Beer Fight Club. We’re not meant to tell you all about the event going down at the Dove & Olive on Wednesday June 10, where Victorian breweries Brewcult and Dainton will go head to head in a prize fi ght to prove who’s got the better brew. We’re defi nitely not meant to talk about the four craft beers, beer label design contest, giveaways and more. But if you promise not to tell (too many of) your friends, then we’ll let you in on our secret. Remember, though, the other rule – if it’s your first night at Craft Beer Fight Club, you have to drink.

SPICE BECOMES BARRIO CELLAR

The former Elizabeth Street home of Sydney nightclub

The Spice Cellar has been revamped and relaunched as Barrio Cellar. The new-look spot marks the expansion by

owners Nicole Galloway and Peter Lew of the Mexican taqueria and tequileria, Barrio Chino in Kings Cross, to Sydney’s CBD. Barrio Chino regulars will recognise some of their favourite flavours on the cocktail list and menu, while new additions will ‘spice’ things up a little more. The musical pedigree of the venue hasn’t been left behind, either, with Spice’s Murat Kilic and Rebecca Alder curating the music program. Tacos, hot dogs and more, served from 4pm until 3am – now that’s a plan.

Civilian photo by Daniel Knott

A CIVIL WAY TO DINE

Civilian Bar & Kitchen

Newly appointed head chef Aaron Mihelic is serving a new-look menu at Darlinghurst’s Civilian Bar & Kitchen, introduced just in time for winter. The focus is on sharable and casual food, and Mihelic recommends starting with the Hiramasa kingfish carpaccio dressed with orange soy, finger lime and wild rice, and the dukkah lamb skewers with yoghurt, cucumber and nut crumb. For a bigger appetite, try the broccoli orecchiette, Cape Grim beef tri tip, confit pork belly or the braised lamb shoulder. Civilian also serves brunch until 3pm from Fridays to Sundays, while Max Cristao’s cocktail bar has the potions for a little later in the day.

CHARLOTTE’S FAMILY IS GETTING BIGGER

Sydneysiders who are already acquainted with Charlotte – as in Charlotte Café in Birchgrove and Charlotte’s Little Sister in Manly – will soon have some new family members to meet.

Pennant Hills is soon to get its own Charlotte’s Little Sister, shortly followed by another at Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, which will open in August. The Eveleigh location will be an especially impressive space, offering breakfast and lunch out of a Mediterranean-influenced kitchen with its own pizza oven, as well as operating

a bar on Thursday and Friday evenings.

A LITTLE MORE ITALIAN IN LEICHHARDT

The home of Italian food in Sydney, Leichhardt’s thriving Norton Street, is getting even more red, white and green with the arrival of the Capriccio Osteria & Bar. The word ‘capriccio’ has a few meanings in Italian, but the owners of this new venue say it’s all about the ‘whimsical’ and ‘fantastical’. Head chef Bryan Gerlini (formerly A Tavola) has joined owners Matteo Galletto and Michele Rospoli at the newly renovated space, complete with open plan kitchen, garden courtyard and upstairs dining. The Miss Peaches

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS PEACHES

highlight is a wood fire oven dedicated to panini, baked to order. Buon appetito.

The Fish Shop

MERIVALE’S NEW CHEFS

It’s something of a shake-up behind the scenes at a couple of Merivale venues this month, with the appointment of Joachim Borenius as head chef at Coogee Pavilion Ground Floor. The Swedishborn chef has worked at some spectacular restaurants around the world, including Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Berkshire and Per Se in New York City.

Borenius is tasked with developing a new winter menu for Coogee, while his predecessor Zac Sykes moves back to The Fish Shop in Potts Point to introduce seasonal dishes, focused on sashimi and raw plates.

Newtown’s most popular mistress, Miss Peaches, is turning two this month and throwing a big ol’ party to celebrate. The bar claims Australia’s biggest range of US craft beer – the ideal accompaniment to Miss Peaches’ bluesy vibes and musical program. The birthday party this Thursday June 11 will feature performances from Pat Capocci and The Brassholes, supported

by Miss Peaches DJs. Don’t forget to taste their secret recipe ginger beer, lemonade, watermelon soda and sarsaparilla.

Cheap Monday Pop

CHEAP MONDAY POP-UP SHOP

If there’s one thing the people of Sweden know how to do, it’s to look sharp and stylish at all times. Sure, anyone can scrub up in a nice suit or skirt, but what about some comfier all-weather wear? Denim is the way to go, and Stockholm’s Cheap Monday label has things covered from top to bottom. Now, Cheap Monday has popped up in Surry Hills with its own Cheap Monday Pop store, located in the garage of The Record Store on Goulburn Street. From the Spray On series jeans to the classic denim jacket, footwear and accessories, all the timeless trends are yours for the taking, Wednesdays through Sundays until the end of June.

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BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 21

Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK SETH SENTRY

getting brimstoned”. It’s not just a juvenile boast; over the top of a double bass, this is the best way for Sentry to show he’s finally reached a point of success.

Seth Sentry is the kind of artist who makes you feel like you’re already best friends with him.

Getting blazed, playing Xbox and complaining about work are the bread and butter of the Sentry back catalogue. Yet Strange New Past stands out as a mature successor to 2012’s This Was Tomorrow by taking each successful element to the next level.

Hitting the age of 30 after his last album, it’s clear that the Melbourne native is struggling to rid himself of his latent adolescence and find his place in the adult world. His earlier immaturity is replaced by older and more reflective subject matter, with Sentry pouring his heart and soul out about his absentee mother in ‘Violin’. It’s an album highlight and epitomises the changes that Sentry has gone through during his rise to success.

No longer does Sentry only have a miniscule bag of weed, he embellishes his success in ‘Hell Boy’ by claiming he’s “Puffing pentagrams / And

With his trademark tongue-in-cheek finally applied to something other than shying from

responsibility, Strange New Past is a huge step forward for Seth Sentry.

Jonty Simmons

GIRLPOOL

FFS

LOVE MIGRATE

THE VACCINES

VIOLENT FEMMES

As Girlpool, teenagers Cleo Tucker (guitar) and Harmony Tividad (bass) make distinctly strippedback indie-pop, driven by hypnotic riffs and demanding vocals that flicker between shrill harmonies and barely-there murmurs.

Collaborations often don’t work, but it seems Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand and glam rockers Sparks didn’t get the memo.

Heck, they even went and wrote a whole silly song about it. Said track is a seven-minute epic that sounds like something by Monty Python, and the other 11 songs on their cheekily titled album, FFS, continue in much the same vein and style.

Love Migrate are another criminally undervalued band from Melbourne, borne out of Goodnight Owl with a splash of Sleep Decade and some Gizzard thrown in too. This is their second EP since their god-dayamn incredible 2012 debut album Plagued Are All My Thoughts, Like White Ants In The Fence.

The Vaccines have returned with their third album in tow, and English Graffiti sees the West Londoners in career-best form. The quick and rough production style of their debut album in 2011 earned them fans the world over, and their sophomore effort a year later, appropriately titled Come Of Age, saw them grow as songwriters.

The good news is that the first new music from the Violent Femmes in 15 years sounds exactly like the Violent Femmes. Recorded on New Year’s Eve in Hobart and originally released for Record Store Day, Happy New Year doesn’t take the band’s sound anywhere new, and you wouldn’t want it to, either.

It is full of joy, and for a band that has endured its fair share of feuds and member-on-member lawsuits over the last 35 years, hearing these musicians having fun is pretty amazing.

Before The World Was Big Witchita

On this debut album, Before The World Was Big, the LAraised, Philly-based duo combs through childhood memories (the hyperactive, very short ‘Magnifying Glass’) and mulls over growing pains (‘I Like That You Can See It’).

Girlpool share the quiet intensity of The Breeders and the introspective nature of Waxahatchee, unafraid to play around with pace and volume.

The absence of drums never feels obvious, nor are they missed.

Together, Tucker and Tividad’s voices can be piercing – a little pop-punk, a little wayward country – and are an effective way of filling space. ‘Dear Nora’ feels like a sleepy secret, and a spoton homage to the lo-fi darlings of the same name, whose influence lingers over the entire album (as on ‘Cherry Picking’).

Tucker and Tividad swap vocals to great effect, sounding like fidgety siblings recounting their days.

Chiara Grassia

FFS Domino/EMI

This supergroup makes a bold and creative statement by sticking its middle fingers up at conventional song structures and adding quirky lyrics and instrumentation. The music is still predominantly pop, from the synth to disco varieties and everything in between. It’s all rather idiosyncratic and fun.

On ‘So Desu Ne’, notes are bent backwards and forwards to make the most warped pop licks, while singles ‘Johnny Delusional’ and ‘Call Girl’ are ornate pop; busy tunes that see Alex Kapranos and Russell Mael trading witty repartee.

If you can get past the many different ingredients, there is much to enjoy, as the clever pop and tongue-in-cheek humour prevail.

Ultimately, this album shows two bands living it up, having fun and quite simply not giving a flying fuck what anyone thinks.

And somehow, it all works.

Natalie Salvo

Shimmer Through The Night Flightless/Remote Control

They nailed the driving, simple beats and twangy guitars on that album’s ‘Little Kid’ and they do it well again on this EP. Their tunes are handmade for a dreary Australian winter. The music envelopes your earholes like an old blanket would while you sit on the couch watching the grey pitter patter outside.

First track ‘Pippa’s In The Highlands’ is a beautifully easygoing start. Like any first track should, it gives an indication where the CD will take you. ‘Dreaming Wild’ gets a little synthpop, which is a nice sonic sidestep. It’s a bit War On Drugs-y but with enough Love Migrate to not draw too much of a comparison.

Love Migrate have always done the slow stuff well, soaked in melancholy with a few sprinkles of optimism to keep you floating along. This band is a treasure.

Needs a spokesperson onstage, though.

Jack Parsons

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK On Breakthrough’s opening and title track, Darren Hart sings, “Everybody wants to feel they’re high on top of the world”. With this release, it seems like Hart is on his way there. From this EP’s very first moment, you’re graced with Harts’ signature sound, which was established on last year’s debut full-length, Daydreamer. The title track is a highlight, beginning with a fuzzed-out guitar lick that grooves away with the bass and drums.

HARTS

Breakthrough Pavement/Shock

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The first time I saw Harts live, I was hooked not just by his charisma and stage presence, but his ability to mix ’80s electro beats with modern blues guitar.

After listening to a few of his

tracks, it’s easy to see why Prince invited him to hang out and jam at his Paisley Park Studios. The blistering Hendrix-esque guitar playing that’s become a staple of the Harts live show is present on each of this EP’s fi ve tracks.

Throughout, you’re gifted with many a funky rock groove that’ll put your feet in a dancing mood and slap a smile on your face.

If you’re yet to discover the guitar wizardry of Harts, then Breakthrough is a great place to start. It’s catchy guitar pop of the highest order, with very little to fault.

English Graffiti Columbia/Sony

This third long player is another big step forward for The Vaccines.

Given they only formed in 2010, it’s shocking how good they’ve already become and how quickly they’ve gotten there.

Lead single and opening track ‘Handsome’ was released some time ago and is as brash as it is confident. It has a buzzy and infectious appeal about it. The next song, ‘Dream Lover’, is also the current single and despite being rather different in feel is just as good as – if not better than – the opener.

The chorus is euphoric and instantly appealing on every level, yet the heavily reverberated riff is what really underpins this excellent tune.

‘Radio Bikini’ is the best track at the tail end of the album, while ‘Give Me A Sign’ again shows off The Vaccines’ ability to morph their well-renowned power and slow tempos together effortlessly.

Alexander Crowden

Happy New Year Planet/MGM

If you’re a fan of Gordon Gano’s whiny yet energetic singing and big blowy saxophone lines, pick up this EP. The opening cut, ‘Happy New Year’, is a simple, goofy track that sticks a drunken smile on your face. It’s followed by the dark tango, ‘Love Love Love Love Love’, and ‘Good For/At Nothing’, both of which have the enthusiastic bitterness of vintage Femmes. The EP is closed out by ‘Fast Horses’, a slower, reflective track featuring one of Brian Ritchie’s signature wandering basslines.

Violent Femmes are reportedly recording material for a new album as we speak, but for the time being, Happy New Year lives up to its name.

Jack Franklin

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

JAMIE XX - In Colour THE CURE - Japanese Whispers THE BEACH BOYS - Pet Sounds

BARENAKED LADIES - Stunt AMY WINEHOUSE - Back To Black

Tex Miller

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xxx photo by Laura Coulson

Age brings maturity to Seth Sentry’s raps, but he hasn’t forsaken what made him a success.

Strange New Past High Score/Inertia

live review

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Lucy Watson

What we've been out to see...

I

became a Sydney queer in late 2011. Prior to that I was either overseas or boring. As a result, I have not known life prior to the birth of Sydney queer promoters House Of Mince, and for that I am thankful. Established in mid2011, this weekend sees House Of Mince celebrate its fourth birthday, with the second instalment of its Super OpenAir series (details below).

GRACE JONES, STEREOGAMOUS Carriageworks Tuesday June 2 Beneath a full moon, Carriageworks hosted the third and final Grace Jones performance for Vivid Sydney 2015. Fans trickled in from the cold to be welcomed by the energy of opening act Stereogamous.

A black sheer curtain separated the DJ duo from the audience, so only the hazy silhouettes of Jonny Seymour and Paul Mac laughed and danced behind the decks, grooving to their own funky tunes.

Goodgod Minceteria

The cloaked priestess Grace Jones walked up to a rise on the stage above her six-piece band. Lifting her hands to reveal a black corset and white tribal paint, Jones commenced the dance party with ‘Nightclubbing’ as her voice cast its spell from behind a gold skull mask.

The minds behind House Of Mince have developed a substantial reputation in their four years on the scene. They’ve brought huge queer international acts to Sydney, and they’ve also fostered a huge amount of local talent. Peter Shopovski, the man behind the Mince, is clearly committed to developing a Sydney scene as well as bringing out the big guns.

That commitment to Sydney is evident in the vibe of these parties. I went along to House Of Mince’s collaboration with Vivid and Goodgod, Goodgod Minceteria, at the Opera House a few weeks ago, and the atmosphere was phenomenal. Inside the Studio, the dancefloor was dimly lit, the DJ playing from the window of a tower in a castle, longing to let down their hair Rapunzel-style, while the stage was a mish-mash of all kinds of performers in all kinds of get-up, from skanky drag to sporty chic to not much at all. It was a busy vibe, but one that perfectly captured the eclectic mix of both the party and the Sydney queer scene generally.

And then, you stepped outside for a cigarette, and the world was transformed.

No longer in the dungeon of messy, sweaty, queer bodies, you were on the promenade looking out towards the Harbour Bridge. Behind you, the Opera House was lit up in all its Vivid glory.

Where just moments ago you were voguing and mincing with fierce queers, now you found yourself trying not to blow smoke on the family pushing their pram past. The family had no idea what was going on inside the depths of the Opera House; their only clue your “homo fabulous” singlet and coloured hair.

To me, both of these moments were quintessential Sydney experiences. The

mass of tourists strolling down Circular Quay is a reality for most locals and every visitor, but the messy queer club pumping house and disco with sassy voguing babes carving through the crowd is my Sydney. To see these polar opposite Sydneys side by side was not something I’ll easily forget.

The dualism of these Sydneys, albeit completely amplified at the Minceteria, is not new to House Of Mince. It’s what the OpenAir series has been encapsulating since its debut last year. Last November, the car park of the Vic On The Park Hotel, one of my locals – though a place I’d typically associated with burgers, bringing the dog and playing some amateur basketball – was now a queer dance haven. It was still light, it was a Sunday, and we were in a car park, but none of that seemed to bother anyone.

As I danced in broad daylight with people I usually only see under the UV light of the club, I looked up and watched a plane fly low overhead, reminding me that the outside world wasn’t that far away. Sweating off last night’s hangover and dancing to Stereogamous, I found myself wondering what the people on the plane were doing, what their Sydney was like, whether they were having as much fun as me.

Her place as a pop culture icon is unquestionable. From her incredible presence alone, it’s evident how the 67-year-old Jamaican performer has become an inspiration and muse to artists of every medium throughout her career.

From the moment she set foot onstage, there was nowhere else to look. Stalking across the stage to ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before’, Jones gave everyone a perfect Instagram shot of one of her dramatic poses.

From falling in love with ‘My Jamaican Guy’ to the relationship drama of ‘Private Life’, Jones told the story of love lost and

gained to the soundtrack of heavy bass and disco anthems. Reminiscing on her love affair with Australia, she fell into Edith Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’. At some points the high-energy reggae dancehall tracks were only held together by Jones’ charisma, as everything else nearly descended into chaos when a male pole dancer was invited to the stage, and Jones’ two backing singers waved flags of her face in the background.

The set highlights include a powerful rock performance of ‘Williams’ Blood’, an overexcited singalong to Roxy Music’s ‘Love Is The Drug’ and some of Jones’ own backstage banter. Changing costumes between every song, she entertained her audience with anecdotes and a spontaneous you-can’t-save-me version of ‘Amazing Grace’.

Later, Jones announced, “Just pretend you’re in New York,” as bubbles filled the stage for ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’. Inviting her audience to sing louder for her last night in Sydney, she didn’t care if you didn’t know the words – she just didn’t want to see your phone.

Jones’ signature hula hoop dancing to ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ will forever be entrancing and impressive. Returning for an encore of ‘Hurricane’ with a bellowing black cape, she brought her entire team onstage for a bow, before one last swoop of the Carriageworks stage for her final night at Vivid.

Tanydd Jaquet

That’s the beauty of House Of Mince parties. They’re simultaneously otherworldly and grounding, reminding you that despite everything, despite our shitty lockout laws and our shitty notions of ‘equality’, Sydney is still a pretty alright place to be a queer and have a good time. Maybe I’m too sentimental; maybe I just like partying too much. But certainly, for the past four years, being queer and living in Sydney has been fun. And while I’m not going to give it all the credit, I definitely owe a decent chunk of that to House Of Mince.

this week…

And other than that, save yourselves for Super OpenAir this Sunday June 14 (before that, stay in on Friday and Saturday with Season 3 of Orange Is The New Black!). Upsizing from the Vic, OpenAir has gone Super and is now around the corner at the Factory Theatre. Tickets

are cheap and it’s a full afternoon of dance music and good vibes. Join Kiti, Lorna Clarkson

vs Annabelle Gaspar, Gang Of She, Ben Drayton, Ben Fester and many more.

Lorna Clarkson

sosueme ft. the vanns

PICS :: JA

Goodgod Minceteria photo by Daniel Boud

Wednesday June 10 sees the Sydney launch of Melbourne-based queer mag, Archer. As part of a conversation night featuring Paul Mac, music will be provided by Homosocial DJs. Head along to 107 Projects from 7pm to check out the latest issue and grab some discount Young Henry’s on tap.

03:06:15 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247 thebrag.com

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 23

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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up all night out all week . . .

JEBEDIAH Metro Theatre Friday June 5

come together

PICS :: AM

Every now and then, a music critic or radio DJ can be heard describing an artist as ‘quintessentially Australian’.

It’s invariably delivered with an air of unquestionable gravity, as if those two words say everything there is to say about a band, songwriter or slackjawed rapper. Problem is, nobody can point to the Australian chord or the Australian melody to give that description any real meaning. And yet, a band like Jebediah and their music seem Australian to the core. They just can’t help it.

07:06:15 :: The Big Top :: 1 Olympic Dr, Milsons Point 9033 7570

Perhaps it’s their enduring presence on the landscape that’s done it. This tour marks the Perth foursome’s 20th anniversary (and accompanying Twenty compilation, because if Jebediah’s oh-so-simple, oh-so-catchy rock ditties haven’t gone out of fashion, then the idea of the ‘best of’ album sure hasn’t either), and the fans on this side of the country are raring to go for a birthday sing-song.

‘Animal’ gives them their first opportunity – it helps that Kevin Mitchell’s nasal hooks ring out long enough that anyone can find their way to a correct note eventually – while the softer edges on ‘Losing Streak’ lend a relatable air; we look straight through the already minimal artifice of this particular rock’n’roll show, and see that these stars are regular people like the rest of us.

criticism – it’s more than classic punk ever had going for it – and everyone’s determination not to take things too seriously tonight makes for a mighty fun time. The crowd is friendly, but it’s not without energy, and as the Jebs return from their interval with ‘Leaving Home’, the first mosh-surfer of many takes his mark. There’s an overwhelming feeling that ‘Harpoon’ soundtracked at least one teenage heartbreak per person in the audience, judging by the sing-along here, but ‘Teflon’ is the real favourite.

‘Twilight = Dusk’ gets a dishonourable mention for being almost completely out of tune, but missteps are otherwise too few to count, and nobody’s wiping the smiles off this crowd’s faces anyway. Whatever the quintessentially Australian sound is, Jebediah are part of it. It’s hard to see that changing for a while yet.

Chris Martin

Indeed, Jebediah are only just good enough at their instruments, only just smart enough with their lyrics. That’s no

frankie’s pizza

PICS :: AM

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

07:06:15 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney

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live reviews What we've been out to see...

FRENZAL RHOMB, HOSTILE OBJECTS, CANINE Newtown Social Club Friday June 5 Frenzal Rhomb haven’t played at Newtown Social Club (formerly the Sandringham Hotel) since 1993. “Don’t pretend you were there,” said frontman Jay Whalley. “You had to build your own stage back then – everyone treats it like a nostalgic thing, but it was shit.

You had to build your own stage. Now it’s all haloumi and fucking chips in candelabras.”

Approaching 25 years on the circuit, the Inner West punk rock band has generated a loyal following and a ripper line of merchandise (which are perhaps mutually reinforcing). This gig was a welcome throwback to a less pretentious time for Newtown.

jane tyrrell

They also took the piss out of pub rock, at one point luring the crowd into a Cold Chisel sing-along. “We are $3 off playing ‘Khe Sanh’,” declared Lindsay McDougall, who was then hit by a shower of gold coins. “We’d expect that of St Peters, but not Newtown.”

There weren’t many new tunes on offer, however it seems Frenzal Rhomb have lost nothing of their effortless banter, energy and irreverence. They rounded off the night (perhaps predictably) with ‘Punch In The Face’ and ‘You Can’t Move Into My House’. This is fastpaced punk that doesn’t take itself too seriously and brings out the best of the ’90s.

Annie Murney

PICS :: AM

Punk metal outfits Canine and Hostile Objects warmed up the room before Frenzal Rhomb opened with their hate anthem, ‘Russell Crowe’s Band’, kicking a chaotic mosh pit into action, though the crowd was a bit static around the edges, making up a discordant mix of passive bystanders and body-thrashers.

Sliding comfortably into their wry comedy and biting social commentary, Frenzal were able to perform most of their back catalogue in a one-hour set, picking short songs from Sans Souci, A Man’s Not A Camel and Forever Malcolm Young. They raced through crowd favourites such as ‘Mummy Doesn’t Know You’re A Nazi’ and ‘You Are Not My Friend’.

05:06:15 :: The Basement :: 7 Macquarie Pl Sydney 9251 2797

HOCKEY DAD, LOS TONES Brighton Up Bar Saturday June 6 Anyone who doubts the effect a quality bowl cut and moustache can have on a gig need only have looked as far as tonight’s support act, Los Tones. For most, the four-piece outfit from Sydney tapped into some unkempt slapdash shambles, tinged with echoes of the ’60s.

Underneath the jangly guitar, percussive beats galloped incessantly alongside frontman Bodie Jarman’s interaction with the crowd. Injected midway into their sonic catalogue, ‘Psychotropic’ generated moderate toe-tapping and arm-flailing, flowing in familiarities to The Murlocs while maintaining a grittier aspect in all the right places.

Equipped with a guitar and snare drums, enter next Wollongong natives Hockey Dad, who in their current form are comprised of childhood sweethearts Zach Stephenson and Billy Fleming.

When any act sells out six consecutive shows you expect a good display; when they do it without even an official fulllength release yet, you know you’re in for something impressive.

Confined within the four walls of Oxford Street’s Brighton Up Bar, the duo well

OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

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and truly stepped up to the plate, offering ‘Lull City’ as a bold introductory with ‘Beach House’ following its tail. The boys continued to build on their brand of unaffected ’70s slacker rock instilled with infectious harmonies and classically curated surf-pop power chords. There’s something crisp and easy to listen to in their lo-fi method that would feel suited to a muddy festival field with a crowd flapping in unison, accompanied by the occasional surfer passing above.

Effortlessly melding both recognisable and new tracks into their repertoire, Stephenson’s charisma and vocal duties, teamed with Fleming’s persistent steadfast synchronised drumbeats, are what gave Hockey Dad their backbone.

‘I Need A Woman’ held water above the rest; they had the crowd sitting in the palm of their very hands, lapping up every note, elevated vocal and guitar riff that oozed from the stage.

Perhaps this is what made it so jovial – how quickly what Hockey Dad eject can get under your skin and swim firmly through your veins. When you catch something right on the brink, right at the start and it still feels abundant – well that’s your ticket.

Kiera Thanos

S :: JAMES AMBROSE :: KATRINA

CLARKE :: ASHLEY MAR ::

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 25

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

Sleepmakeswaves

SATURDAY JUNE 13 Metro Theatre Me

Sleepmakeswaves + This Will Destroy You + Gay Paris + Serious Beak 7pm. $28.85.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 10 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK The Hoo Haas + Charlotte Kerr The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Durry + Helens Gate + Breaking Point + Ride For Rain Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $10.

Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm.

Free.

Muso’s Club Jam Night feat: Various Artists Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Aaron Michael Band Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

Michael Griffin Quintet Foundry616, Ultimo. 6:30pm. $21.50.

Opera In The Pub - feat: Opera Bites Roxbury Hotel, Glebe.

7:30pm. $48.70.

Paris Combo City Recital Hall, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

THURSDAY JUNE 11

Xxx

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Anthems Of Oz

26 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm.

Free.

Draw Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm.

Free.

Drawcard Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $15.

Jessey Napthali + Chasing Giants + Sabrina Soares + Ryan Thomas Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Marrickville B/C - feat: Stuart Jammin Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 7pm. Free.

Mas Carne + Women’s Auxiliary Choir Organisation Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10.

Muso’s Club Jam Night feat: Various Artists Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill.

8pm. Free.

Songsonstage - feat: Mick Hambly + Chris Brookes + Lauren Valatiadis Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm.

Free.

Soundscape Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 6pm. $10.

The Sticks Red Rattler, Marrickville. 8pm. $16.90.

The Vernons Marlborough Hotel, Newtown.

8pm. Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anne McCue Quartet + Clare Mccallum Camelot Lounge, Marrickville.

8pm. $22.

Chris Stretton Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 7:30pm. Free.

Excuse The French The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5.

Hein Cooper + Dan Twining + Grace Pitts

Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $13.

Hussy Hicks The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. Free.

FRIDAY JUNE 12 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Reuben Bradley Trio + Taylor Eigsti The Sound Lounge, Sydney.

8:30pm. $15.

Sexy Sunday Jam Bellini Lounge, Potts Point.

7pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Ash Grunwald + Hein Cooper Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $35.

Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues - feat: The Blues Preachers + Bonnie Kay & The Bonafides + Sugar Bowl Hokum The Vanguard, Newtown.

6:30pm. $19.

Daniel Arvidson Cessnock Leagues Club, Cessnock. 8pm. Free.

Ian Moss Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $41.85.

Pete Hibbert Central Charlestown Leagues Club, Charlestown. 7pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

2goodreasons Honeysuckle Hotel, Newcastle. 8pm. Free.

Bandsonstage - feat: Blackadder + Half All Girl Band + Mass ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. Free.

SATURDAY JUNE 13 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC James Power Modus Operandi, Mona Vale.

6:30pm. Free.

Johnny G & The E Types The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. Free.

Komeda Project The Sound Lounge, Sydney.

8:30pm. $35.

Sexy Sunday Jam Bellini Lounge, Potts Point.

7pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Ash Grunwald + Hein Cooper + Sahara Beck + Thom Lion Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle.

Xxx photo by Xxx

pick of the week

Bill Kacir Marrickville Ritz Hotel, Marrickville. 8pm. Free.

Blaming Vegas Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 7pm. Free.

Chris Cook Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. Free.

Decline + Local Residents Failure + Nerdlinger + Ivan Drago + Speedball Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Dragon The Basement, Circular Quay.

8pm. $35.

Emarosa + Far Away Stables + Dear Seattle Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $40.

Eugene + Scarlet’s Revenge + Anonymii Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10.

Gabriel Emilia Duo The Belmore Hotel, Maitland.

9pm. Free.

Geoff Davies The Push Bar, The Rocks.

7:30pm. Free.

Glam Slam The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. 9pm. Free.

Glamma Rays + Evie J Willie The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Glenn Esmond Crown Hotel, Sydney. 8pm.

Free.

Jake Rattle & Roll Belmont 16s, Belmont.

8:30pm. Free.

Jenny Broke The Window + Sarah Belkner + North Arm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $14.

John Vella Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee.

10:30pm. Free.

LJ Chatswood RSL, Chatswood.

5pm. Free.

Mike Waters Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.

Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. Free.

Reece Mastin Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

6:30pm. $35.

Rob Eastwood Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 6pm. Free.

The Dinlows Modus Operandi, Mona Vale.

6:30pm. Free.

The Double Shadows The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. Free.

The Loaded Six Strings Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard.

9:30pm. Free.

The Vernons The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. $10.

Vanessa Heinitz Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. Free.

Upskirts 8:30pm. $29.

Ian Moss Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $41.85.

Mojo House Band - feat: Jesse & James Mojo Record Bar, Sydney.

7pm. Free.

The Protesters Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham.

8pm. $15.

Zane Penn Central Charlestown Leagues Club, Charlestown. 7pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

031 Rockshow R.G. McGees, Richmond.

9pm. Free.

2goodreasons Cessnock Leagues Club, Cessnock. 8pm. Free.

Andy Bull + Cub Sport Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $40.

Ange Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. Free.

Art Vs. Science The Basement, Circular Quay.

8pm. $29.20.

Black Cab Red Rattler, Marrickville. 8pm.

Free.

Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

3pm. Free.

Glenn Esmond Trio Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 9pm. Free.

Food Court + Upskirts + Polish Club Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $12.

Harbour Masters Duo Crown Hotel, Sydney. 9pm.

Free.

Larrikin Rose Of Australia, Erskineville.

8pm. Free.

Love That Hat Belmont 16s, Belmont.

8:30pm. Free.

Mark Wells Trio Honeysuckle Hotel, Newcastle. 8pm. Free.

Missy Lancaster Picton Hotel, Picton. 8pm.

Free.

Panorama Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. Free.

Pop Fiction Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. Free.

Replika Springwood Sports Club, Springwood. 8pm. Free.

Rob Eastwood The Push Bar, The Rocks.

9:30pm. Free.

Sam Newton Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. Free.

Secret Society The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. 9pm. Free.

Sleepmakeswaves + This Will Destroy You + Gay Paris + Serious Beak Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $28.85.

Songsonstage - feat: Russell Neal + Slightly Off + Luke Mahler + Steve Tulinsky Duo + Hue Williams Ettalong Beach Club, Ettalong Beach. 7:30pm. Free.

Songsonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston Petersham Inn, Petersham.

7:30pm. Free.

Sun Hill Drive The Belmore Hotel, Maitland.

9pm. Free.

Ted Nash The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney.

7:30pm. Free.

The Loaded Six Strings Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 7pm. Free.

Unleash Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill.

8pm. Free.

Venom Clubnight - feat: Hadal Maw + Gods Of Eden + Norse + Dystopic Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 12pm. $15.

Voltaire Twins + Grrl Pal Goodgod Small Club, Sydney.

8pm. $10.

Yngwie Malmsteen Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

8pm. $91.70.

SUNDAY JUNE 14 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC The Kinetic Jazz Orchestra + B&M + Jurassic Bark St Luke’s Church And Hall, Enmore. 4:30pm. $30.

Mary Wilson The Vanguard, Newtown.

6:30pm. $39.80.

Mo Soul Club Modus Operandi, Mona Vale.

6:30pm. Free.

Satellite V Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Best Of Blues - feat: Ray Beadle Band + Foreday Riders + Shane Pacey + Sally King + Sametribe Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham.

4pm. $30.

DC Bellamy + Stormcellar Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 3:30pm. Free.

From Street To Stage - feat: Joe Moore + Various Other Artists Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Jay Katz The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 3pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Ambulare + Unbranded Animals + The Crimson Horror + Skinpin + Chasing Tuesday Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 5pm. $10.

Cover Note Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

8:30pm. Free.

GK Picton Hotel, Picton. 1pm.

Free.

Glenn Esmond Panania Diggers, Panania. thebrag.com

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

Reece Mastin

MONDAY JUNE 15 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS They Call Me Bruce Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

wed

thu

10 June

11 (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

June

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

TUESDAY JUNE 16

fri

12 June (9:30PM - 1:30AM)

12pm. Free.

Harbour Master Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 3pm. Free.

Hornet The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. 6pm. Free.

Jack Bloak Minstrel Show - feat: Jack Bloak Jug Scullers + Veronica Wagner + Lawrence Osborn + Chris Stabback + Russell Neal Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 6:30pm.

Free.

Lisa Caruso Union Hotel, Newtown. 8pm.

Free.

Max Power Ingleburn Hotel, Ingleburn.

1pm. Free.

Mick Fryar The Rivo Hotel, Riverstone.

1pm. Free.

Night Radio The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 5pm. Free.

Phillip Crawshaw Belmont 16s, Belmont.

2:30pm. Free.

thebrag.com

Rebecca Moore Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction. 12pm. Free.

Reece Mastin Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle.

6:30pm. $35.

Rob Eastwood Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. Free.

Steve Crocker Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

6pm. Free.

The Snape Brothers Honeysuckle Hotel, Newcastle. 4pm. Free.

Urban Guerillas Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 2pm. Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills. 2pm. Free.

Wallapalooza - feat: Hailmary + Redhook + Flannelette + Smoking Martha + These Four Walls Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm.

Free.

White Bros Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

SUNDAY AFTERNOON (4:30PM - 7:30PM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

Steve Hunter Band Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Live & Originals - feat: Katherine Vavahea + Charli Simons + 3 Boys & A Fire + Yahel Ben-Eliyahu Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7:30pm.

Free.

Swing It Tuesdays - feat: The Basement Big Band The Basement, Circular Quay. 6pm. $8.

sat

sun

13 June

14 June (9:30PM - 1:15AM)

mon

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

tue

15

16

June

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

June

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Lanks Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 9pm. Free.

Marty Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 27

g g picks gig p up all night out all week...

Xxx

THURSDAY JUNE 11 Draw Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Drawcard Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15.

Hein Cooper + Dan Twining + Grace Pitts Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $13.

FRIDAY JUNE 12 Ash Grunwald + Hein Cooper Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $35.

Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues - Feat: The Blues Preachers + Bonnie Kay & The Bonafi des + Sugar Bowl Hokum Ash Grunwald

SUNDAY JUNE 14

The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $19.

Mary Wilson The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $39.80.

Dragon The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $35.

Wallapalooza - Feat: Hailmary + Redhook + Flannalette + Smoking Martha + These Four Walls Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free.

Emarosa + Far Away Stables + Dear Seattle Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

8pm. $40.

Ian Moss Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $41.85.

Jenny Broke The Window + Sarah Belkner + North Arm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $14.

Mike Waters Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $12.

Andy Bull

Yngwie Malmsteen

Reece Mastin Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

6:30pm. $35.

SATURDAY JUNE 13 Andy Bull + Cub Sport Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $40.

Art vs. Science The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $29.20.

Food Court + Upskirts + Polish Club Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

8pm. $12.

Yngwie Malmsteen Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $91.70.

Art vs. Science Xxx

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WWW.NAGSHEAD.COM.AU thebrag.com

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

brag beats

off the record:

plus: + club news + club snaps + club guide + review

mike callander

mark ronson uptown’s finest

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 29

brag beats

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Vanessa Papastavros and Meggan Turner

five things WITH

LOU HARVEY FROM COMMAND Q

IT’S EMOJI RAVE TIME

Ever wanted to express your inner emoji by dressing up and raving the night away? Here’s your chance. The party-loving minds behind Sydney label Surveillance Party have announced their maiden Emoji Rave, taking place at a secret location. It’ll be a silent rave across three channels of psytrance, techno and breakbeats. Organisers say “Sydney lockouts will apply to douchebags”, which is all the more reason (as if you needed

Kid Radio

Cristoph

THIS KID’S ON THE RADIO CRISTOPH THE BEAT

Growing Up I grew up in a strange 1. house where Dad would only play world music like Taj Mahal and the Buena Vista Social Club but Mum loved her country – Garth Brooks/ John Denver type country. It was a strange mix. I probably could recite an entire John Denver album.

2.

Inspirations In year eight, one of my mates gave me a mixtape, which introduced me to bands like Something Corporate, Brand New, Blink-182, et cetera. I grew up with punk rock, played in punk/hardcore bands. The discovery of Travis Barker made me smash the drums and, nek minnit, a degree in percussion.

3.

Your Crew Shaun [Offbeat] and I met at WAAPA [Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts]. We learned to play some whacked shit on instruments people have never heard of. Classical music kind of bored us, and luckily we were introduced to Safri Duo by our teacher, which gave us the idea of dance music with live percussion. We have sort of built this studio for ourselves over the past five years, accumulating instruments and hanging foam over the windows – the house kind of looks like a meth lab from the outside. We both teach percussion at high schools too to make ends meet.

30 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

it) to get your smiley on. But which one will you choose? Surveillance Party’s Emoji Rave will take place on Saturday August 8.

THE END OF THE Q

Darlinghurst’s Q Bar has announced that it is shutting its doors for good after 22 years of nightlife fun, due to the sale of the Exchange Hotel. Although the Sydney party scene will never be the same, the venue isn’t saying goodbye without one hell of a send-off. “After Carmada

GOROS RESIDENCIES

In addition to its brand new karaoke rooms, classic arcade games, bamboo booths and a brand new late-night menu, Surry Hills nightspot Goros has announced a new weekly entertainment lineup. From Thursday to Saturday, resident DJs will be joined by very special guests each week. Thursdays are being taken over by The Midnight Swim Sessions, anchored by Thomas Studdy, which will explore the genres, styles and movements across contemporary music’s short history. Fridays will feature Derriere, who will be mixing hip hop beats and rhythms late into the night. To top off the weekend, Le Fruit DJs will take over on Saturday nights, bringing tropical, summery beats to warm you up through the winter.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

The music scene is equally good as it is ruined. Social media is key and has made every artist accessible.

This is a blessing and a curse! The Perth scene is reckless though. It is by far the strongest scene in the country and has been for bass music for a long time. Every week there’ll be at least two internationals playing somewhere and the shows are always full. It’s seriously crazy. There’s a culture here like nowhere else and it’s a really exciting place to grow up as a musician. For example, I saw Boombox Cartel, Pegboard Nerds and Tomsize at the same show on Sunday night.

It was ridiculous.

Where: The World Bar / Chinese Laundry When: Wednesday June 24 / Friday June 26

22 years of providing Sydney with an alternative to the norm, it has come time to say goodbye to the character filled space that holds a special place in more than one generation’s heart,” the venue wrote on Facebook. “Q will live on in the hearts of everyone who passed through her doors and danced her floors.” Sunday July 19 will mark the very last night at Q, with a party of apocalyptic proportions.

The lineup will include the crews responsible for the venue’s quirky history of alternative entertainment, featuring regulars like Hot Damn, Girlthing, Teen Spirit, No Sweat and newcomer MMRS, as well as some old friends being pulled out of retirement for one last bash.

KAZ JAMES + JDG

ROLL UP, ROLL UP TO ELECTRO CIRCUS

The inaugural Electro Circus festival will head to Sydney’s west this September for a massive day of beats from overseas and local acts. Following the recent announcement of the new indoor event to be held at Rosehill Gardens’ Grand Pavilion, organisers have now dropped a lineup of Aussie dance scene regulars and some special international guests. Electro Circus also promises an audio-visual feast and performances by circus acts, dancers and more. The music lineup for Electro Circus 2015 includes Carmada, Joel Fletcher, Tigerlily, Gladiator, Sikdope, Dotcom, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Torro Torro, Alexander Popov, Heatbeat, Chris Schweizer, Just A Gent, Zac Waters, Reece Low, Kronic, Spenda C and more. Electro Circus takes over Rosehill Gardens on Saturday September 5.

This weekend’s instalment of Pacha Sydney features a big-name double bill with headliners Kaz James and JDG. They’re both serial collaborators, with James having found success from the underground to the biggest festivals and supporting David Guetta on his last world tour. Will Sparks and Joel Fletcher have both tapped JDG to share ideas, proving the local producer is at the forefront of Australia’s burgeoning bounce sound.

They’ll take over Ivy on Saturday June 13 alongside a host of others, including Kyro, Moto, Deckhead, Dave Winnel, Offtapia, Pro/Gram, Friendless, Jace Disgrace, Just 1, Ben Morris, Def Rok, Skoob, Jeff Drake, DLE and Trent Rackus. thebrag.com

xxx

The Music You Make And Play 4.

We play bass music –

rhythmic bass music. We love dudes who push boundaries with a heap of rhythmic drive – Skrillex of course, Major Lazer, Buraka Som Sistema. But then the guys in the underground scene really expanding the bass movement – Djemba Djemba, AWE, JSTJR. There’s too many to list; it’s such a big scene. Some tracks we’ve been rinsing hard in almost every set are the AWE remix of the new Hermitude track ‘Through The Roof’ – such a killer remix – and the JSTJR remix of ‘Toque’ by Buraka, another hugely rhythmic bass tune.

UK deep house and techno starlet Cristoph is set to play his first parties Down Under.

The Newcastle DJ/producer has been spreading his wings across his native Britain and into Europe, landing in-demand bookings at the party capital, Ibiza. Cristoph has been handselected as a Pete Tong ‘Future Star’ on BBC Radio 1, and he’s already proven himself as a dedicated hard worker for the dance cause, so you’ll want to check him out at Home Nightclub for S.A.S.H on Sunday July 5 and at Kit & Kaboodle on Saturday July 11.

Melbourne’s Kid Radio, who combine live instrumentation with soulful melodies and electronic foundations, will be doing all of that and more on a national tour this July and August. The Kid Radio sound spans double bass, synth and everything in between, as evidenced on their self-titled debut album due out Friday July 24 and produced by Count Bounce (TZU, Pez, Sietta, Joelistics, Ash Grunwald). ‘Young Heart’ is the first taste of what they can do, and young hearts will run free when Kid Radio play Oxford Art Factory on Saturday August 22.

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 31

Mark Ronson The Superproducer Speaks By Augustus Welby “I’ve never been able to get my head out of the DJ booth,” Ronson says. “On paper that sounds like a frenetic or scattered list of people.

But in a DJ set, I’ll happily include Steely Dan and Chaka Khan and AC/DC and Mystikal. Maybe not in that order, but over the course of a night I could play them all. For me, those things aren’t massively different.

“When I was a hip hop DJ in New York, I used to love throwing in a soft rock or classic funk track and the hardcore hip hop kids who didn’t think they were into that stuff would be dancing to it. It’s the same with ‘Back In Black’ by AC/DC, which I used to play, and I’d follow it with a Puff Daddy song. So while it does seem like a weird selection, to me all of it is connected.

“I can’t speak for Kevin and his influences, but when I listen to Tame Impala, a lot of it reminds me of what I love about Stevie Wonder,” Ronson adds. “It’s soulful but it’s also psychedelic, there’s lots of weird organ sounds and really great melodies. So working with these newer artists ties together a lot of the influences from the past.”

A

fter his synthpop and alternative hip hop oriented album of 2010, Record Collection, Mark Ronson fans had to wait more than four years for the producer’s next release.

However, when Uptown Special finally surfaced this January, it was an emphatic reminder that the UK studio auteur doesn’t do things by halves. Like his three previous albums, Uptown Special came together with help from a crack team of guests. Several of those involved, including contemporary music dons Kevin Parker and Bruno Mars, have successfully carved out their own stylistic niche. But Ronson wasn’t

simply looking to appropriate his guests’ respective trademarks.

“Obviously a lot of the reason why I contact people is that I’m a fan of their work,” he says. “But I’ll also just be writing something and think, ‘Oh, I know who’d sound great on this’ or ‘It’d be really great if I could get them to add something.’ With guys like Kevin and Andrew Wyatt [Miike Snow] and Bruno, there is that aspect of wanting to capture what I love about them. But I think for them, working on my album can be like a holiday. You know, when it’s your own project, you antagonise over it, over every little

detail. But if you just come in to do one song, you can mess around, sing something or play some guitar, have a bit of fun, and it’s a chance to try something new.”

In comparison to Ronson’s first three LPs, Uptown Special isn’t absolutely jam-packed with guests. Parker and Wyatt each appear multiple times, and the whole album was made in co-ordination with producer and composer Jeff Bhasker. Nonetheless, running the gamut from unknown singer Keyone Starr to Sydney provocateur Kirin J Callinan and veterans Mystikal and Stevie Wonder, it’s an incredibly diverse assemblage.

Uptown Special features input from another highly accomplished artist, though not in the world of pop music. Novelist Michael Chabon – responsible for 1995’s Wonder Boys, which was made into a film starring Michael Douglas, and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay – penned lyrics for nine of the 11 songs.

“I would say Michael Chabon is my favourite living writer,” Ronson says.

“Especially Kavalier & Clay – that book got me back into reading.

You know when you finish school and you never want to read a book again? I was just like, ‘I’m going to DJ hip hop clubs and make beats.’

But yeah, I’d written ‘Summer Breaking’ and it had a night-time vibe, it had a bit of mystique, it was unlike anything I’d written before. I thought that it needed to tell a story,

but I don’t really know how to write that kind of story. We can all copy someone else, but I thought I’d ask Michael if he was interested. I wasn’t too worried; if he’d said no, Jeff and I probably would’ve written it. But it was so great when he agreed to do it.”

A cool, jazzy rock tune carried by a dangerous sensuality, ‘Summer Breaking’ owes significant musical debt to the work of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. Meanwhile, after tuning in closely to hear lyrics like “Avenues empty as .44 clips / Cargo ships, teen zombies ghostriding their whips,” one’s impression of the song vastly expands.

The multi-layered nature of ‘Summer Breaking’ is true of the album as a whole. While Uptown Special is an immediately engaging pop record – perhaps even Ronson’s most accessible to date – it continues to reveal itself on repeat listens.

“I think this is the first album of mine that has the chance to do that, if it stands the test of time,” Ronson says. “When you listen to ‘Bang Bang Bang’ or ‘The Bike Song’ [from Record Collection], everything’s really on the beat and in your face.

Once again, because I’m unable to remove myself from DJing, it was hard to understand that not every song on an album needs to be upbeat. So with this album, I wanted to go on some journeys and go into some darker places.”

What: Splendour In The Grass 2015 With: Blur, Florence + The Machine, Of Monsters & Men, The Wombats and many more Where: North Byron Parklands When: Friday July 24 – Sunday July 26 And: Also appearing at the Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday July 28 More: Uptown Special out now through Columbia/Sony

Leftfield The Right Way Forward By Steven Morgan

O

nce upon a time, a long time ago and in a land far away – back when undercuts were worn without irony and people could say things like, “New Friends episode tonight!” – two British men were about to play a pivotal part in the legitimisation of dance music. It sounds strange now – legitimising dance music as though it’s some sort of fad. However, back in 1995, people were still genuinely questioning if this boom-boom-boom was just a passing trend.

Xxx

Leftfield’s Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Leftism was a critically worshipped cornerstone that made it clear dance music was here to stay.

Their classification-blurring epics fit just as comfortably in a sweaty club at 2am as on a ludicrously expensive sound system belonging to a polo-neck-wearing music snob.

Four years after Leftism came its follow-up, Rhythm And Stealth. In that time, dance music had evolved at an explosive rate into an ever-growing range of subgenres. The album managed to reach number four on the Australian album charts, but just three years later in 2002, Neil Barnes and Paul Daley decided to go their separate ways.

Fast-forward to 2010 and the surprise announcement of the band’s reformation, with the notable absence of Daley. After resoundingly positive reactions to the first comeback shows, Barnes announced a new Leftfield album was on its way.

32 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

“I felt like I wanted to push the Leftfi eld catalogue in a different direction and make it really modern, rather than a memory of those two albums. I didn’t feel like the story was over,” says Barnes.

“The name brings a weight behind it that allows me to get into the personality of the music. The power of it is Leftfi eld and the emotion of it is Leftfi eld, and that’s me; that’s very much my thing.”

Keeping in tradition with the first two albums, Alternative Light Source features a respectable guestlist that includes Sleaford Mods, who also guested on fellow ’90s dance veterans The Prodigy’s latest album.

“Jason [Williamson]’s got the same stupid sense of humour as me,” says Barnes. “I didn’t know that Jason was about to start something for The Prodigy. There was no connection, and it didn’t stop me from wanting to do this track.”

Since Rhythm And Stealth, dance music has changed immeasurably, to the extent that referring to it as ‘dance music’ makes you sound out of touch. EDM has finally broken dance through to the American mainstream, and we ask Barnes how Leftfield fit into a landscape obsessed with the drop.

“That’s a tricky one,” he says.

“Most acts doing that sort of music look bored doing it. Taking that approach to being successful is just being cynical and

manipulating people. I hate it. I’m happy just to make some music and I hope people like it and that they realise that I’m trying to do something different.”

Alternative Light Source is an impressive reinterpretation of ’90s techno through a modern filter that recalls innovators like Modeselektor.

Though still identifiable as Leftfield, it’s unquestionably forward-looking, with the seven minutes of lead track

‘Universal Everything’ making clear that this comeback is no cynical cash-in.

“Modeselektor lead the way in big band electronic music,” says Barnes. “Also in England we’ve got Hudson Mohawke and Jamie xx; they’re forging a new style of music that is really fresh and brave.”

For those who’ve still yet to hear Leftfi eld, where does Barnes

recommend as a starting point?

His response drips with irony.

“Do not listen to Leftfi eld. Stay in the area that feels safe for you and that you’re comfortable with.

You don’t want to get corrupted by all this music.”

What: Alternative Light Source out now through Liberator/ Infectious

thebrag.com

club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week Kölsch

SATURDAY JUNE 13

8pm. $10.

DJ Benny B 5 Sawyers, Newcastle. 9pm.

Free.

DJ Ricky Bonomini The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. 11pm. Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills.

10pm. Free.

Hook N Sling Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40.

Infamous Saturdays - feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. Free.

Le Fruit DJs Goros, Surry Hills. 8pm.

Free.

Lndry - feat: Kölsch + Future Classic DJs + Mantra Collective + A-Tonez + Sidechain DJs + Elijah Scadden + Fiktion + Samrai + DJ Eko + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $32.80.

My Place Saturdays Bar100, The Rocks. 8pm.

Free.

Nad, Ketami Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly.

6pm. Free.

Pacha - feat: Kaz James + JDG + Kyro + Moto + Deckhead + Dave Winnel + Offtapia + Pro/Gram + Friendless + Jace Disgrace + Just 1 + Ben Morris + Def Rok + Skoob + Jeff Drake + Dle + Trent Rackus Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

6:30pm. $38.

Resident DJ The Kent Bar & Grill, Hamilton. 9:30pm. Free.

Sarah’s B’Day Jam - feat: C’Man + Juzzlikedat + Adverse + Caratgold + Makoto + Jayo + Nofuss Rus + Raine Supreme + Whisky Mxd + Dusty Allen Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm.

Free.

Sienna Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Establishment, Sydney.

9pm. Free.

Spice & Picnic - feat: Cut Copy DJs + Sleep D + Babicka + Juno Mars + Kali + Pepper Pot + Dean Relf + Ant J + Steep + Kate Monroe + Aaron Manhattan + Amanda Louise Imperial Hotel, Erskineville.

9pm. $35.

The Empire Strips Back (A Star Wars Burlesque Parody) - feat: The Empire Strips Back: A Star Wars Burlesque Parody Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

8pm. $60.

HIP HOP & R&B

40oz Bounce + Moonbase Commander + Mearebach Music + Mace Dogg + Sean’Don + Young Loz Ching-a-lings, Sydney. 9pm.

Free.

Allday + Asta + Gill Bates UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington. 7pm. $35.

SUNDAY JUNE 14 CLUB NIGHTS

DJ Sean Andrews 5 Sawyers, Newcastle. 9pm.

Free.

La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor The Establishment, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.

Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm.

Free.

MONDAY JUNE 15 CLUB NIGHTS

Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

TUESDAY JUNE 16 CLUB NIGHTS

Chu The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. Free.

Chinese Laundry up all night out all week...

Kölsch

+ Future Classic DJs + Mantra Collective + A-Tonez + Sidechain DJs + More 9pm. $32.80.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 10 CLUB NIGHTS

The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. $5.

THURSDAY JUNE 11 HIP HOP & R&B

Sydney Freestyle Lounge Play Bar, Surry Hills. 8pm.

Free.

CLUB NIGHTS

Audiophilez DJs Modus Operandi, Mona Vale.

6:30pm. Free.

Number56 - feat: Claire Morgan + More Secret Location, Sydney.

6pm. Free.

Pool Club Thursdays feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

5pm. Free.

The Midnight Swim Sessions - feat: Thomas Studdy Goros, Surry Hills. 8pm.

Free.

The World Bar Thursdays The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. Free.

thebrag.com

FRIDAY JUNE 12 HIP HOP & R&B

Friday Lite - feat: Cache One + Baby Face Thrilla + Victoria Kim + Fishing DJs Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. Free.

Hustler Fridays - feat: MC Shaba Hustle & Flow, Redfern.

7pm. Free.

Mr. Ruckman + Tampered Minds + Deadbeat & Peace + Casa & Pt Fresh + El’ Jistos Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10.

CLUB NIGHTS

73 Til’ Infinity - feat: Jon Mcculloch + Edseven + Thomas Studdy Play Bar, Surry Hills. 4pm.

Free.

Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks.

6pm. Free.

Bassic - feat: Nghtmre + Bear Grillz + Hydraulix + Autoclaws + Chenzo + Lennon + Blackjack + Doe + Kemikoll Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $22.60.

Derriere - feat: Rotating DJs Goros, Surry Hills. 6pm.

Free.

DJ S Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson.

8pm. Free.

DJ Baltah The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. 11pm. Free.

DJ Matt Meler 5 Sawyers, Newcastle. 9pm.

Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills.

10pm. Free.

Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

7pm. Free.

Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm.

Free.

Krunk Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40.

Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm.

Free.

Sam Wall Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly.

8pm. Free.

THURSDAY JUNE 11 Number56 - Feat: Claire Morgan + More Secret Location, Sydney.

6pm. Free.

FRIDAY JUNE 12 Bassic - Feat: Nghtmre + Bear Grillz + Hydraulix + Autoclaws + Chenzo + Lennon + Blackjack + Doe + Kemikoll Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $22.60.

SATURDAY JUNE 13 Allday + Asta + Gill Bates

UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington. 7pm. $35.

Hook N Sling Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40.

Lndry - Feat: Kölsch + Future Classic DJs + Mantra Collective + A-Tonez + Sidechain Djs + Elijah Scadden + Fiktion + Samrai + DJ Eko + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $32.80.

Pacha - Feat: Kaz James + JDG + Kyro + Moto + Deckhead + Dave Winnel + Offtapia + Pro/Gram + Friendless + Jace Disgrace + Just 1 + Ben Morris + Def Rok + Skoob + Jeff Drake + Dle + Trent Rackus Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney.

6:30pm. $38.

Sarah’s B’Day Jam - Feat: C’Man + Juzzlikedat + Adverse + Caratgold + Makoto + Jayo + Nofuss Rus + Raine Supreme + Whisky Mxd + Dusty Allen Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm.

Free.

Spice & Picnic - Feat: Cut Copy Djs + Sleep D + Babicka + Juno Mars + Kali + Pepper Pot + Dean Relf + Ant J + Steep + Kate Monroe + Aaron Manhattan + Amanda Louise Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 9pm. $35.

SUNDAY JUNE 14 S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.

SATURDAY JUNE 13 CLUB NIGHTS

Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests The World Bar, Kings Cross.

Allday

BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15 :: 33

snap up all night out all week . . .

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

thebrag.com/snaps

Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray

R

ed Bull Music Academy has locked in the latest round of its monthly club series, this time around bringing over London-based artist Justin McNulty AKA Kutmah. Having spent his formative years living in the States, McNulty is a member of LA’s Dublab collective, founded the revered Sketchbook club night and is an associate of Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder legacy. Now back in London, he also runs his own experimental imprint IZWID and hosts a celebrated show on NTS Radio. Catch him on Saturday June 13 at Goodgod Small Club. Entry is free, you just need to RSVP. One of the fastest-rising names in the UK, Cristoph, has locked in an Australian tour. Crowned as one of Pete Tong’s ‘Future Stars’, his productions lurk within the realms of deep house and techno, and he already counts the likes of Hot Since 82 and Richie Hawtin within his evergrowing global fan base. Recently scoring two number ones on Traxsource’s main chart and a number three on Beatport’s tech house chart, he’s been picked up for the infamous Defected parties in Ibiza and across Europe, and shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. You’ve got two chances to catch him next month – on Sunday July 5 at Home Nightclub for S.A.S.H and Saturday July 11 at Kit & Kaboodle.

A stalwart of Melbourne’s techno scene, Mike Callander, has announced a rare sojourn to Sydney. One of Australia’s most respected selectors, Callander was a co-founder of the esteemed Haul Music imprint, runs the audio education institution School Of Synthesis, and is a resident of arguably Australia’s most

infamous nightclub, Revolver Upstairs.

He’ll be joined on the night by likes of Softwar, Timmy Maxwell, Jungle Snake, Jamie Bianco and Mike Witcombe.

Catch him on Saturday July 4 at The Spice Cellar.

Devastating news – our very own Smokin’ Joe Mekhael has had his Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-ever DJ set beaten! Back in 2012, the Sydneysider became the very first DJ in the world to play for a week straight, clocking up a monumental 168 consecutive hours at the Empire Hotel and smashing the previous record set by Brisbane’s DJ Hertz (152 hours). However, last week the Guinness World Record website was updated to confirm that Polish DJ Norberto Loco had successfully one-upped Mekhael, completing a 200-hour set at The Underground Temple Bar in Dublin. Will Mekhael try to get his title back? I bloody well hope so. It’ll cost him $7,000 to have an official Guinness adjudicator present once more if he does. Did someone say Pozible?

Tour rumours: what’s all this I’m hearing about the long-awaited return from Roman Flügel? The Black Madonna will finally debut in Australia in August. Oh, and expect visits from KiNK and Dubfire mighty soon.

Best releases this week: I’m not usually the sort of dude who’s into electro but Marco Bernardi’s Mantela (on Abstract Forms) is pretty nifty. Other highlights include Moritz Von Oswald Trio’s Sounding Lines (Honest Jon’s Records), NAP’s Uncharted (1080p), Journeymann Trax’s Smoke Tape (1080p), Nu Zau’s Aditie (Heisenberg) and Art Crime’s Obsession (Phonica).

Mike Callander

RECOMMENDED SATURDAY JUNE 13

Tiefschwarz

Cut Copy DJs The Spice Cellar

Kölsch Chinese Laundry Kutmah Goodgod Small Club

FRIDAY JUNE 26 Kobosil Bridge Hotel

SATURDAY JUNE 27 Stephan Bodzin Chinese Laundry Recloose The Spice Cellar

SATURDAY JULY 4

s.a.s.h sundays

PICS :: AM

Mike Callander The Spice Cellar

07:06:15 :: Home :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600 34 :: BRAG :: 616 :: 10:06:15

SUNDAY JULY 5

Cristoph Home Nightclub

SATURDAY JULY 11 Iron Curtis The Spice Cellar Cristoph

Kit & Kaboodle

SATURDAY JULY 25 Tiefschwarz The Spice Cellar

SATURDAY AUGUST 22

Borrowed Identity Bridge Hotel

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos?

Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com

I M A G I N E B E I N G M A D E TO

y a d n u S y r e Ev

FE EL L IKE CRAP JUST FOR

BEING

LEFT

H A N D E D.

Okay, that’s hard to imagine? But being gay, lesbian, bi, trans or intersex is no different to being born left handed, it’s just who you are. So stop and think because the things we say are likely to cause depression and anxiety. And that really is pretty crap.

GO TO LEFTHAND.ORG.AU TO WATCH THE VIDEO

STOP THINK RESPECT t

t

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