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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Caitlin Welsh

five things WITH

BAYDEN FROM PACKWOOD stories my parents would tell me about things like the Cambrian/ Permian extinction event, giant deep-sea squid, black holes and junk like that have inspired my songwriting the most. Content wise, at least.

2.

Inspirations I’m a huge fan of artists like Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens, Jonsi, Robin Pecknold, Randy Newman, Nico Muhly, Olafur Arnalds… the list is endless! Newsom’s album Ys was a particularly huge turning point for me; Van Dyke Parks’ expansive arrangements coupled with Joanna’s beautiful songwriting and storytelling completely changed the way I thought about music.

1.

Growing Up Mum and dad started me out on the guitar when I was four; I didn’t even really know what a guitar was at the time, but I grew to love it!

We used to listen to music a lot driving back and forth between Sydney and the sticks where we lived, visiting family – lots of Led Zeppelin, Kate Bush, stuff like that. Strangely I think the

Your Crew It started out just me and my 3. banjo, growing to include a string quartet and then the orchestra on the EP. Normally we’ll play live with a quartet and a smattering of woodwinds, but it’s always different. Trying to round up that many musicians

is never easy. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to play with them all thought – they’re all so damn talented!

The Music You Make We’ve just finished our debut EP, comprising 4. myself having a bit of a sing and a pick on the banjo, with a backing 50-piece symphony orchestra. It took about two years from woe to go, recording across Sydney. There were so many people involved it’s kind of mind-boggling.

Music, Right Here, Right Now I love what’s happening in Sydney. There’s 5. been a huge surge of backyard/warehouse gigs springing up everywhere to fill the voids left by the closure of some of our more iconic venues – so much innovation! For the EP launch, we’re lucky enough to be playing Paddington Uniting Church (with a full orchestra), where I’m hoping to recreate the sense of augustness I felt during the recording sessions – the way it was intended!

With: The Falls, Jack Carty What: Packwood EP Launch (w/ orchestra) Where: Paddington Uniting Church When: Saturday March 24 from 8pm

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Bonjah

HITS FROM THE BONJAH

I hope this is one of the rock news items that gets a picture [Ed: yes, it’s getting a picture.], because have you seen Bonjah? [Ed: See above.] Total babes. Excellent facial hair. Sadly we’re not yet at the point where you can open The Brag and it plays you their sweet new single ‘Fall Together’, although we’re working on that. (We got the idea from the scene in Easy A where Emma Stone spends a whole weekend listening to Natasha Bedingfield out of a birthday card, like a boss.) It’s a jangly little jam with plenty of handclap potential, and you can hear it, clap along, and objectify some handsome roots-rockers at The Lair (front bit of the Metro) on May 19.

Florence + The Machine

VIVID LIVE SONG SUMMIT 2012

Joining Neil Finn (or ‘Nil Fun’ as he insists on pronouncing it) and renowned theatre director and writer Wesley Enoch on The Song Summit 2012 lineup is the following list of amazing people with rich back-stories to share and songs to warm the sub-cockles of your heart: Megan Washington, Adalita (Magic Dirt), Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe), Abbe May, Catherine Britt, US producer Nick DiDia (he produced that Powderfinger album you guys broke up to) and many, many others. Tickets for the three-day conference (May 26-28, Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre) are available at songsummit.com.au, including a student concession for those readers studying philosophy (Hint: There is a table, there aren’t infinite universes and maybe do a DipEd just in case)

FBI SOCIAL TURNS ONE

What were you doing when you turned one? I cried for half an hour at my party because my mum spent hours making a beautiful Hickory Dickory Dock cake (from the Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, a magical tome covered in godlike glory and buttercream icing) but she’d used liquorice to detail the clock face.

Justified though, because liquorice is fucking disgusting. Anyway, FBi Social is turning one and their super party weekend (March 22 – 25) will be the opposite of liquorice. Featuring Kirin J Callinan, Guerre, The Paper Scissors, Pluto Jonze, Velociraptor, Glass Towers, Swimwear (Dappled Cities Tim’s solo DIY dance project – he’s launching his EP ‘Kissing

Machine’ on the Friday), DJs galore and a special birthday screening of Sixteen Candles – plus a whole lot more opposite-of-liquorice bands and your chance to win free entry to all FBi Social gigs until their second birthday.

Check their website for all the details. More like Hickory Dickory Fuck Yeah.

BUY A BRICK

By now you’ll be aware of the Annandale Hotel’s Buy A Brick campaign, and if you are yet to contribute to this worthy cause, instead of getting that 20 box of McNuggets on McThursday (March 29), pop across the road, shell out a tenner, watch four great Sydney rock bands (Sex In Columbia, Mannequins, Let Me Down Jungleman, Oyzters) plus Melburnians The Laughing Leaves and revel in the knowledge you have done your bit. Then get 40 McNuggets, to celebrate how altruistic you are. Huzzah!

BALL PARK TOUR

Ball Park Music’s debut album, Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs, perfectly summarises the sprightly six-piece’s sound – sure it’s peppy and off-kilter like all music from Brisbane tends to be, but it’s infused with unspecific emotions that aren’t quite happy or sad. Stupid, dumb-faced grown-up feelings, they are called here at THE BRAG. Anyway, enough Sydneysiders adore the band to allow them to sell out one Factory show and announce another. April 1 at the Factory it happens, Nantes and Cub Scouts are supporting, and it’ll probably sell out too, so hurry, hurry, scurry!

You have no idea how hard it is for us not to do this entire item – nay, this entire page – IN SUPER-REDCORDIAL-EXCITED ALL-CAPS. Phew. OK. So the Vivid LIVE lineup is AMAAAAAAAAAZIIIIIIIIING. Turns out wishing on stray eyelashes totally works and/or Fergus Linehan has been listening in, because JANELLE MOTHAF’IN MONAE and the Archandroid Orchestra are coming out; Karen O is bringing her “psycho opera” Stop The Virgens straight from NYC; plus Detroit rapper Danny Brown, Danish atmospheremongers Efterklang, new tunes being showcased by The Temper Trap, Seekae and PVT (who vow not to vowel), and Florence + The Machine with a goddamn orchestra (what took them so long?). We already knew about the most boyishly handsome three-way semi-classical commission in history Sufjan, Bryce Dessner (The National) and Nico Muhly (who arranged the strings in the new/best ever Usher single, among other things) – but their pal Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond is also out, so hold out hope for some surprise collabs around town (or even a Clogs show...?). PHEW. TAKING A NAP NOW. Tickets on sale this Thursday March 22 from 9am (or, like, March 20 if you’re a Vivid LIVE subscriber. Just sayin’) and full lineup at vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

MONKS OF MELLONWAH MELLONWA W H

NEUROGENESIS OUT MAY 2012

EP

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rock music news

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Caitlin Welsh

ELECTRELANE

five things WITH

JOE FROM MONKS OF MELLONWAH The Music You Make We make rock music – that’s the easiest 4. way to describe it without boxing our music in.

Each of us is into different music, from pop to metal, and so our music has become a sort of blend of everything we love. I think (or like to think) that the music has the epic-ness and atmosphere of Pink Floyd and Muse, and the raw rock and energy of bands like Led Zeppelin and more recently the Chili Peppers and Radiohead. Our debut EP, Stars Are Out, was a more raw-rock kind of energy – think catchy guitar riffs, driving beats and poppy vocals.

Since then our music has evolved a lot. With our new singer Will, the vocals have become a massive feature, and the music has exploded into space and into the heart of alternative rock. Our recent EP Neurogenesis, recorded at Studio 301, I think is a testament to our evolved sound.

1.

Growing Up We all had very music-rich childhoods.

Although none of our parents were musos as such, I think I can vouch for all us when I say I can remember sitting and listening to Led Zeppelin and Cream with Dad and admiring his air-guitar and bass antics.

Inspirations If push came to shove, I would say my 2. favourite guitarists are Jeff Beck and David Gilmour; Josh is always going on about different drummers but one name that is always consistent is John Bonham. John, our bassist, loves Flea from the Peppers; and for Will, singers like Jim Morrison and Robert Plant come to mind.

3.

Your Crew Our crew is relatively tight-knit. It includes all our families – who not only have massive musical inclinations but also have supported us so much – a few loyal friends and fans (including insane artist Eloise Lewis), and Chris our manager who does everything so we don’t have to (we love you). Along the way we have made great friends with Ryan Miller, who produced our second EP Neurogenesis (awesome bloke!), and also a few guys internationally – including producer Keith Olsen – who are beginning to help us in our musical excursions. Social networking makes so much possible these days!

Tiny Ruins

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene in Australia is tough at the 5. moment. The live music scene just isn’t what it used to be, and as we know a lot of the big Sydney venues are going under. Rock I guess has taken a sort of back seat to dance and pop, but we are firm believers that the scene will turn and take off again; as a musician and a fan, there is nothing like watching a band rocking out on stage. Although it is hard, I think we are making ground. Seeing and playing with bands such as Thirsty Merc and good friends Lovers Jump Creek is awesome and our recent play on triple j has really got our blood pumping!

What: Neurogenesis EP out March 23 More: monksofmellonwah.com

go off to record album #3) – by getting fans to pick the setlists on the band’s Facebook page.

They’re playing FBi Social on May 12, so start thinking about your faves. I’m off to spam their Wall. (“NOW DO ‘CLASSICAL GAS’!”)

MODERN LOVE

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine prefixed a visit to a gay bar with the disclaimer: “It’s not really that gay a place,” and then as we walked through the door ‘Tragedy’ by the Bee Gees started playing, and the whole world turned into a cliché. Luckily Modern Love, Sydney’s new weekly indie bash is set to launch this Saturday March 24 at The Oxford Underground, and they promise to stamp out all tired, preconceived notions of Sydney gay bars AND play Prince, Cut Copy, Sleigh Bells, Boy George and all that good gear. $10 entry, $4 Carltons ‘til midnight and Tom Ballard and Brendan McLean DJing

Way back in 2005, British indie-rockers Electrelane paid us a visit and knocked our collective socks off. After taking a hiatus in 2007, they decided to give the fans what they wanted and reformed to rock out at festivals across Europe, before heading back to Australia to show us they still got what it takes. They’re hitting Manning Bar on Thursday March 22, along with hometown favourites Songs and Caitlin Park. If you want to get yourself a double pass, just shoot us an email telling us how many boys are in Electrelane.

CHOPFEST IV

We know you can’t just slap on some eyeliner and safety pins and call yourself punk. But when you’ve got US heavyweights like Dead To Me and Cobra Skulls, we know it’s the real deal. We’re talking of course about Chopfest IV, which this year will take place at the Annandale Hotel on Saturday March 31. Alongside the international stars are local kids Gay Paris, Totally Unicorn, Lamexcuse and a whole swag more. If you need more punk in your life, just send us an email with your most punk rock memory and we might send you back a double pass. Or maybe even a Dead To Me/ Cobra Skulls CD and poster pack.

Dead To Me

(and probably live tweeting), alongside Sex Azza Weapon, Seabas and many more.

UNSIGNED ONLY

Stop reading now Sting, this competition isn’t for you, as you have a record deal, and the Unsigned Only comp is open to those who haven’t yet signed with a major here and here, and initialled next to this X, and over the page, and here again. Entries for Unsigned Only have been extended ‘til April 11, and with $5000 and mentoring programs by US record company execs on offer, I daresay you should finish those Garageband demos, delete the outmoded synth track your mate Dan added and hit up unsignedonly.com to enter. Cyndi Lauper and Robert Smith are on the judging panel, too! We don’t mean your dad’s mate Robert Smith, we mean The Cure’s Robert Smith (also the guys from 3 Doors Down, but shhh!)

TINY RUINS

Carrying on the cute-girls-name-albums-after-the-sea motif that PJ Harvey started in 2000, and Blasko continued in 2006, Tiny Ruins (aka Hollie Fullbrook) unleashed the stunning Some Were Meant For Sea last year, and is now returning to Australia for a Vanguard gig this Sunday March 25, because she ain’t playing no beer barns, yeah? And because the drive from NZ to Sydney is a long, wet, scientifically-baffling one, she is bringing along Auckland jangle-rock merchants The Vietnam War to keep her company and also to play before her.

OWLCHESTRA

The charming Jack Colwell sings nifty, catchy indie pop songs, backed wisely (and with wide eyes) by his band The Owls. They’re playing at the Con- what? OWLS is evolving! ...OWLS became OWLCHESTRA! OWLCHESTRA now has strings, flute, bassoon, clarinet and oboe.

You can check them out on March 30 at the Conservatorium Of Music, when they launch new single ‘Captain’s Melody’, which, I’m told, is super effective…at making you sing along.

(In related rock news, we just smashed our Pokemon joke quota for the year. It was two.)

LOU!

Hey Australia. Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh and Folk Implosion is touring. This is really exciting. He’s really good. But on Twitter last Thursday, he said that if he doesn’t sell more tickets, he’ll have to cancel the tour “and I WILL take it personally”. Guys! What’s up?

Do you not all have the amazing cassette Lou Barlow Live At Missing Link from Record Store Day last year? (Repressed Records in Newtown still have some, BTW.) He’s not like J Mascis!

He actually talks to you! And wants to be here!

And makes jokes! He’s so great! He’ll probably play ‘Back To Your Heart’ from Beyond! Don’t

Fishing

make me make you Google Image Search “sad puppy”. Grab some tickets now from handsometours.com. SRSLY.

PURPLE DAY, PURPLE DAY

Purple Day sounds like a day where everyone dresses like Grimace, Donatello or Widget The World Watcher and listens to Prince’s entire discography while eating blackcurrant Lifesavers and drinking Ribena, but it’s actually a fantastically worthy fundraising day for Epilepsy Australia. The Annandale Hotel are putting on such an event this Sunday March 25, with experimental arthouse act Toydeath, sleazerock merchants Dubious Company and Master Eye Cycle providing the aural delights. $10, starts at 7pm, good cause.

CHEETAHS PROSPER

At every gig there’s a twit who repeatedly yells out for a song – sometimes they think they’re being very witty bellowing “FREEBIRD!”, sometimes they’re just really dedicated (like the guy at The Mountain Goats who doggedly calls out for wordy titles like ‘Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod?’). Leader Cheetah are wisely trying to deflect that irritating practice when they play their last few shows for 2012 (before they

ONLY THE LONELY

When it comes to fashion, Sydney clothing label Lonely Kids Club have kicked more goals than Lady Gaga over this past year, and they’re celebrating their very first birthday with a party at The Backroom in Kings Cross on March 30, with the tropical sounds of Fishing, the jaunty Polographia and the warped dreamscapes of Thomas William to dance badly/moonwalk amazingly to. Of course, no fashion party is complete without a launch of sorts, and Lonely Kids Club will be showcasing their winter range, featuring T-shirts, jumpers and jewellery, while foolishly overlooking the hypercolour bum-bag trend that will be in full flight by winter. Oh well, they have Sydney sewn up already (clothing pun!). Tickets are $5 before 11, so turn up before 11.

“Four to the floor. I was sure she would be my girl. We’d rent a little world, have a little girl” - JAMES WALSH 10 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

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BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 11

The Music Network Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

Lifelines Injured: a nightclub owner claims he was hit by Lindsay Lohan’s black Porsche after she attempted a three-point turn and didn’t stop. She denies hitting him.

In Court: James Marks, 26, and James McCormick, 25, have pleaded not guilty to hacking into Sony Music’s computers and stealing music — including some unreleased Michael Jackson tracks.

Arrested: a gangster who allegedly called for the execution last year of Colombian folk singer and activist Facundo Cabral.

Died: Jindabyne-based musician and surfer Brian “Birdy” Burdett, 52, in a car accident that also took his daughters Sky, 10, and Kayla, 8. Reports said his Ford Falcon wagon veered to the wrong side of the Kings Highway near Braidwood, NSW, and struck another vehicle.

Burdett wrote the protest song ‘Let Kirra Be Kirra’ against the development of Kirra Point as a marina.

Died: longtime Doobie Brothers drummer Michael Hossack, 65, of cancer.

SONG SUMMIT 2012

Adalita, Megan Washington, Abbe May, Kav Temperley of Eskimo Joe, Kate MillerHeidke, Amandah Wilkinson of Operator Please, US producer Nick Didia and New Zealand’s Don McGlashan are among major names added to Song Summit 2012's lineup.

The industry conference will be held at the Sydney Convention Centre from May 26 to 28, and early bird tickets have already sold out. Organisers APRA/AMCOS have also announced new opportunities for delegates: Listen To The Music gives them advice and feedback on their music through listening panels; Play The Music Live allows delegates to perform before their peers. The Smoky Dawson Foundation has been created by the family of the country performer to provide two scholarships, consisting of $2000 cash, a ticket to the APRA awards, a three-day pass to Song Summit, and the chance to attend the Smoky Dawson Career Development workshop. All the info at songsummit.com.au

JAY-Z, KANYE SETTLE LAWSUIT

Jay-Z and Kanye West settled a lawsuit with bluesman Syl Johnson, who claimed that their track, ‘The Joy’ from Watch The Throne, sampled his ‘Different Strokes’ without credit or royalties. The rap superstars argued that Johnson’s song was not protected by federal copyright since it was recorded before 1972 (when laws safeguarding song recordings took effect). The two parties settled out of court.

Johnson previously hit Cypress Hill with a $28 million lawsuit for copyright infringement, but a court dismissed it arguing that the music being sampled was pre-1972 and therefore not protected.

THINGS WE HEAR

• Will Spotify have announced plans for its Australian launch by the time you read this?

• Religious fundamentalist group the Westboro Baptist Church protested outside Radiohead’s show in Kansas last week.

Proclaiming that rock music is unravelling the fabric of American society, they yelped, “Radiohead are freak monkeys with mediocre tunes”. The band called this the highlight of their tour. Last September, the church tried the same picketing routine when the Foo Fighters played Kansas. In that instance, the Foos dressed up as rednecks and turned up on a truck to play them ‘Keep It Clean’, about same sex love.

• Grizzly Bear reckon they’re touring Australia but won’t say when.

• Bono wrote a character reference for Courtney Love so she could get into a condo in New York. Love got thrown out of her last place by the landlady.

• DZ Deathrays told Tone Deaf they were kicked off their show at South By Southwest because they played too loud and stall

themusicnetwork.com

MOVES AT ANNANDALE

Kristie Jane, the venue booker at the Annandale Hotel, leaves the venue this week to do some travelling. She tells us she plans to base herself in the UK to work and travel in Europe until the end of the year.

RADIO STREAMING SUIT

The music industry is taking commercial radio back to the courts. Through the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (aka PPCA), the industry has been trying to get more money from radio stations who stream music on the internet. The PPCA filed a lawsuit after radio stations launched a bunch of digital stations, and set up Pink and Lady Gaga online stations when those artists toured Australia. But last month, the Federal Court ruled that internet broadcasting was the same as free to air, and record labels were not entitled to be paid. The PPCA argues that the court erred on a technicality, and will appeal the decision on that basis.

STEP-PANTHER JOIN SELECT

Hard touring Sydney trio Step-Panther have joined Select Music. The band has been creating a stir since it formed in 2009, picking up triple j airplay for ‘Rock & Roll Alone’ and ‘My Neck’ and rave reviews for their selftitled debut album, which was released last November through Speak N Spell. In May they head overseas to make their UK debut, playing The Great Escape festival among other shows. There’s already a buzz over there, with NME hailing them as one of the best new bands of 2012. Select has booked them for shows in Sydney and Brisbane in late April, before they go.

OZ ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Jasmine Rae was crowned Country Music Channel (CMC) artist of the year at the CMC Music Awards, held at the Great Cask Hall, Hope Estate Winery in The Hunter Valley. Other winners were Keith Urban (International Artist Of The Year and Music Video Of The Year for ‘Without You’), Peter McWhirter (New Artist), while James Blundell was inaugural recipient of the CMC Hall Of Fame award, given to those who have had an impact on Australian country music beyond their own careers. Lee Kernaghan, Catherine Britt and Travis Collins performed his songs. Performers on the night included O’Shea and US singer Craig Campbell.

OH MERCY ABROAD

Oh Mercy have signed to Rough Trade Benelux, with the Great Barrier Grief album to be released in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemburg on March 23. “Great Barrier Grief is very well suited for Europe and we believe in all the success of the album,” said Kees van Weijen, MD of Rough Trade B.V. Two singles are on high rotation on national radio 3FM, and a live to air set on 3FM confirmed.

Currently on a US/Canadian tour, Oh Mercy will debut in Europe mid-year having signed with booking agents Mojo Concerts/Live Nation.

HIP HOP 351 CAMP

MMAD (Musicians Making A Difference) holds its 351 camp in Collaroy, Sydney, May 11 to 13. The 351 Camp (3 days, 5 elements, 1 shot) is three days of music and hip hop dance workshops, seminars and performances. Participants will work with established artists (in the past, these have included The Potbelleez & Blue MC, Bliss N Eso and Justice Crew) to learn about

keepers couldn’t hear themselves talk.

• You think Kyle Sandilands got his arse kicked by people power? In America, 50 advertisers pulled support from Rush Limbaugh’s right-wing talk show after he had the cheek to call law student Sandra Fluke “a slut” and “a prostitute” following her comment that contraception should be part of the coverage US health insurance companies provide. Peter Gabriel and Rush demanded that top-rating Limbaugh stop playing their music. So did Rage Against The Machine. When Tom Morello heard the idiot had played their ‘Sleep Now In The Fire’, he fired off: “Hey Jackass, stop using our music on your racist, misogynist, right wing clown show. Sincerely, Rage Against The Machine”.

• You think it’s just rock roughnecks that cause problems at shows? In Chicago, a 67 year-old and a 30 year-old got into a punch up while an orchestra was playing Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. The dispute was over someone being in the wrong seat. The orchestra leader GLARED at the contestants.

themselves and the music industry, and discover ways to put positive thoughts into action. Registrations at mmad.org.au. Early bird rates end March 30.

INSTRUMENT RETAILER

Australian Music Group, which operates the Allans Music and Billy Hyde music instruments retail chain, has received a capital injection from Revere Capital. The figure is not known but AMG managing director Tim Mason told the Australian Financial Review, “This is very good news.

This reduces our debt significantly, is welcome news for the industry and for all the suppliers who deal with us”. According to the AFR, the debt was $60 million. Mason said conditions are still tough, with 5% of instrument sales from outside Australia.

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This Week

XAVIER RUDD Fri 23 March

GAELIC TURNS MUSIC OFF

The Gaelic is next month turning live music off to focus on its more lucrative restaurant and bars. The venue cited “a tough climate for live music in Sydney venues.” They added the decision was not easy to make.

TAXI CLUB TO CLOSE

HELM & ELECTRIC HORSE Sat 24 March w/ Mish, We Without

Just Announced

Gay club Taxi Club, on Flinders Street in Darlinghurst, closes on Easter Sunday (April 8). Its board said, “Our financial situation has deteriorated to the point where we have no option other than to shortly cease trading.” It blamed a downturn in gaming revenue and mismanagement of its property assets.

MOUNT KIMBIE

A DAY ON THE GREEN

w/ Dakest Hour

Petersons Winery at Armidale is the latest to get into showcasing live music. It hosted its first A Day On The Green, drawing 6300 – some from Sydney and Brisbane – who pumped $600,000 into the local economy and sold out motels and camping in the region.

The show, featuring Dragon, Noiseworks, Choirboys, Ian Moss, Richard Clapton and Ross Wilson, was a sell-out. Winery owner Colin Peterson said, “Everything fell into place – the music, the weather, the crowd”. Armidale Dumaresq Council, which put in $20,000 will provide $10,000 for the next two years to establish ADOTG in the city.

Fri 4 May

DEVILDRIVER Sat 5 May

Coming Soon

PEZ Fri 30 March

ICED EARTH Thu 5 April All ages show w/ Lord

DEAD MEADOW & PINK MOUNTAINTOPS

WORK AT AMRAP

The Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (AMRAP) has created a new position for a full-time music distribution coordinator.

Duties are to promote AMRAP to community stations, help identify music to distribute, and coordinate its monthly mail-out. Applications close Wednesday March 21, see amrap.com. au

Fri 6 April w/ The Laurels, Los Sundowners

SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM Sat 7 April w/ Aston Shuffle

ISC FINALISTS

SANDY RIVERA

Australian artists fared well in the finalists of the International Songwriting Competition, which draws entries from 120 countries.

Shane Nicholson and The Living End had three songs, while Missy Higgins, Emma Louise, Children Collide, Wes Carr, Tom Ugly and Caterina Torres had two. Also on the list: Eskimo Joe, Jebediah, Dead Letter Circus, Oh Mercy, Skipping Girl Vinegar, The Herd, The Dead Leaves, Dallas Frasca, Daniel Lee Kendal and Hunting Grounds.

Sun 8 April

AMON AMARTH Sat 14 April w/ Eye Of The Enemy, Orpheous

MARK LANEGAN BAND

PLAYGROUND WEEKENDER REFUNDING

Ticket vendor Greentix has starting to refund patrons of the cancelled Playground Weekender who paid by credit card. For other refund enquiries, contact Playground Festivals direct via info@playgroundweekender.com.au

• Nice to see venue owners helping their competitors: Paddy Coughlin, owner of The Standard in Taylor Square, bought a brick as part of the Annandale’s attempt to get funding to keep the venue afloat.

• Ch-ch-changes: Mortal Sin unveiled its new singer, Dave Tinelt (ex-Nekrofeist), at Venom on the weekend. He replaces Mat Maurer who quit last month.

• Florence Welch likes to cycle around London – but keeps getting lost and has to be helped by fans.

• The 25th anniversary celebrations of Kiama’s three-day Jazz and Blues Festival drew 5000 fans. A highlight was Christa Hughes & The Honky Tonk Shonks with a cheeky burlesque show, which included songs from her former band Machine Gun Fellatio, and a sultry rendition of Britney’s ‘Toxic’.

• Fed up with renting a £7 million, tenbedroom Sussex mansion that she was convinced was haunted, Adele bought a £2.5million house near the beach in Brighton.

Fatboy Slim is a neighbour.

Fri 20 April

Fu Manchu(USA) Thu 3 May Digitalism(GER) Fri 11 May Kaiser Chiefs(UK) Tue 15 May Mutemath(USA) Wed 16 May Mickey Avalon(USA) Fri 18 May Dead Letter Circus Fri 25 May Tim Ripper Owens(USA) Sat 26 May Young Guns(UK) Thu 31 May

TIX + INFO 1300 THE HIFI

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12 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

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Furry Lips + Hard As Nails + The Bitter Sweethearts

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Limited Head Space + Lines Of Charlie + The Broken Line

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Johnathan Devoy + special guests

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The Poor

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BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 13

Plain Sailing By Simone Ubaldi hen I talk to James Mercer ahead of the March 16 release date for Port Of Morrow, we barely mention The Shins. We don’t go into detail about the new album, and we barely touch on the end of their deal with Sub Pop. What we talk about, for the most part, is the gap between 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, and the forthcoming record. Two important things happened in the intervening years: Heath Ledger died, and Mercer founded Broken Bells with producer Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse). As he explains it, one thing is inextricably linked to the other, and those things together took him away from his acclaimed indie rock group – and eventually back to it. But the story starts a bit earlier, in high school.

“I am somebody who is a fucking late bloomer.

Like, fucking late,” Mercer laughs. “I was very shy in high school, then in my twenties I really locked down with a few very close friends. I held on tight to that small social group, which was my original band Flake, and the few people around us who I was able to relate to. In my thirties, I got signed – and suddenly I had to do things like this, have interviews like this, and it was terrifying. It’s social anxiety – I don’t know why some people have it and some don’t.”

Mercer got used to his crippling fear of interviews, but he never got over it. At first, he says, he couldn’t feel his fingers; but after Oh,

Inverted World was released in 2001, and he was forced to stare down music journalists in every corner of the globe, the numb terror subsided to an intense discomfort; he figured he was doing fine. Then, in 2008, Heath Ledger overdosed on pain medication and left a sea of bewildered friends to mourn him. Mercer wasn’t one of them.

“I was asked to go and sing at [Heath’s] memorial service in LA,” he explains. “I went down and they had me sing a Neil Young song. Sitting in the audience and watching these people who were very close to Heath, what was revealed to me was that this person had lived so full-on, and really emotionally engaged a lot of people around him. He was very present, and they were very affected by his passing. I realised at that moment that my memorial service, if I was to have one, would not have felt that way, because I was so closed off. It was really disturbing. I was upset being there.

“When I started playing in the band and we were signed, I became challenged by new social engagements – and that was good for me,” Mercer continues. “Some people look at life and they kind of see it as a wonderful, fascinating thing to explore, almost as if they were in a video game or something: ‘This is your avatar, this is the world we’ve created for you; go, explore, and enjoy yourself.’ I realised it was much more than a game to me – way too

When Mercer got home from LA, a friend called and invited him to go to Chile, hike through the wilderness of Patagonia and maybe make some music. He would have said no before Ledger’s funeral, but now he decided to say yes – and that made all the difference.

“It was almost like setting a match to a bunch of dry grass where each blade sets light to the next,” he muses. “It was like a prod to me – don’t live your life [so] filled with fear and inside of yourself that you forget to actually experience life; you’ve got to break out of that. I wanted to connect with people, and you see people around you that do – they’re comfortable with other people and they have a charismatic way about them, like Heath – and you want that; but for whatever reason it doesn’t come naturally to you, and you have to practice. Honestly, it’s something that I wish someone had told me in my past. You feel that fear, you feel that push to introvert, but the thing you need to understand is that… it is unhealthy to close yourself off from other human beings; you are a social creature and that’s in your genetics. Saying yes to things and going and doing things… it’s uncomfortable at first, but you just get better.”

When Mercer got back from Chile, Burton asked him to start a band, and he said yes again. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make another Shins record, and this was an opportunity to step outside that world, and see if he coped. Touring the world with Broken Bells, off the back of their self-titled 2010 album, Mercer found he did just fine.

More than that, he realised that the world is filled with kind, talented people who are worth getting to know.

“I feel like there was a dependence that I had on the social side of [having] my bandmates, you know, and it wasn’t healthy – not on my side. I relied on them too much. Once I realised that I could engage other people in this [creative] pursuit, it really was a strong draw. I explained this to them, and they’ve been supportive, which I really appreciate,” he says.

The Shins has always been a James Mercer project, from the minute he holed up in his bedroom and committed the first demos to four-track tape; he writes the songs, he sets the creative direction. The cast of players that records with him and tours with him has shifted over the years, so there wasn’t much of a demand to go back to the band and start working again. In the end, Port of Morrow came about because Mercer had drifted far enough away to feel like The Shins was less of a prison and more of a home – something he could change to reflect his newfound openness and the sense of opportunity he had found in the wider music community. As Mercer tells it, the album was born out of a much “happier and healthier” time of his life.

“It’s always been about me trying to realise these songs with the people around me, but now the circle of people around me has grown,” he explains. “I have a lot of people around me now who are friendly and talented and I want to engage all of them as a collective to work on and contribute to The Shins’ music. [So] I’m guessing that me writing all the songs alone is going to change in future... I’m in a more comfortable world now and I don’t want to hold it all to my chest anymore.”

What: Port Of Morrow is out now through Sony Music

“If the words unspoken get stuck in your throat send a treasure token. Write it on a pound note” - ADAM ANT 14 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

xxx

“I have a lot of people around me now who are friendly and talented and I want to engage all of them as a collective to work on and contribute to The Shins’ music.”

much. I realised I really needed to figure this thing out and learn to open up.”

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 15

Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot I Predict A Riot By Robbie Miles

B

est known as the frontman of seminal ‘80s (and now defunct) rockabilly outfit Stray Cats, Brian Setzer brings a whole new show to Australia this month, with his Rockabilly Riot extravaganza. With the relaxed confidence that can only come from 30 years of successfully doing what he loves, Setzer explains, “It’s really three different bands on the stage at different times. I didn’t want to limit it to just Stray Cats songs, but I do work some into the stuff that I wrote, and my solo stuff, and even some big band stuff – you know, without the horns.” Rockabilly Riot combines almost all of Setzer’s work to date.

“Yeah, it’s a lot of music,” he says, almost shyly.

The show also includes a performance element.

When asked if the much-discussed double bass trickery could beat Dave Miller (of Royal Crown Revue) playing one behind his head, Hendrixstyle, Setzer’s response has me excited: “Oh, boy, I tell you. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Chris D’Rozario, from Melbourne [but] he’s brought tricks on that bass to a new level. I love Royal Crown, man, I don’t know, but I – I think we got it beat.” Former Stray Cats bassist Slim Jim Phantom also appears with Rockabilly Riot, so duelling basses may be the order of the day.

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

WED 11 APR - THE VANGUARD

MON 9 APR - THE FACTORY

FACTORYTHEATRE.COM.AU PH 02 9550 3666 OR TICKETEK.COM.AU PH 132 849 All tickets previously purchased for the Mon 9 Apr show at The Vanguard are valid for the new show at The Factory Theatre

TICKETS ON SALE NOW DEBUT RECORD EARLY IN THE MORNING OUT NOW “Sounds both fresh and as if they’ve been in your head forever…McMorrow’s debut deserves its success.” – Q Magazine “A captivating debut… An arresting journey from emotional trials to aural pleasure.” – Uncut JAMESVMCMORROW.COM

Stray Cats formed with Setzer, Phantom, and Lee Rocker in 1980 in New York, before the band headed (penniless) to London to catch the Teddy Boy revival. They quickly found themselves at the centre of this movement, helped in no small part by their once distinct and now much imitated look: vintage rockabilly gear meets punk. Between their second break-up in 1993 and their reunion in 2004, Setzer formed The Brian Setzer Orchestra, in which he leads a ‘40s style big band.

“I can’t think of an example where a guitar player ever led a big band back in the day,” Setzer comments. “To rock out in front of it brings a whole new element to the thing. It’s so rich, to hear all those horns – but it doesn’t sound like an old record, so, I mean, it’s a modern sounding thing.”

Modern is a relative term, however, as Setzer is widely known to favour vintage gear. “It just sounds better,” he says, laughing. “It’s as simple as that; if they come up with new stuff I’d be happy to use it.

I still count on my old Stray Cats Gretsch, because it’s like puttin’ on an old pair of jeans, you know… they just fit perfect.”

Setzer’s latest experiment, Brian Setzer Goes Instru-MENTAL! is due for release in April. To say it’s fantastic is almost unnecessary, given the consistently high quality of Setzer’s output over the last three decades. From Stray Cats, through big band, a Christmas album and the phenomenal Wolfgang’s Big Night Out – in which The BSO reinterprets classical music with a rock‘n’roll flair – Setzer seems to bring his audience with him on each new project. This begs the question: after so many incarnations, are the fans coming to see the music or are they coming to see the man? “I don’t really have a good gauge for that,” Setzer responds.

“I can tell you, the age group is really all over the map… There’s players who sit right in front and watch my fingers…and some places I’ve played have tens of thousands of people, and they’re definitely not ten thousand rockabilly people.”

“The age group is all over the map. There’s players who sit in front and watch my fingers, and some places I’ve played have tens of thousands of people, and they’re definitely not rockabilly people.”

As many Sydneysiders know, a visit to Black Cherry or The Roxbury on the right night proves that the Sydney rockabilly scene is alive and well. Setzer marvels at this lasting quality: “Isn’t that funny? [Rockabilly] just rejuvenates itself.

I’m dumbfounded by it. It’s always going to be underground music because it’s rough edge; but there will always be people who want it, and who discover it by whatever way they do.” Setzer himself famously discovered rockabilly by seeing a photo of Eddie Cochrane. “It was just by luck.

I mean, I didn’t know his music would be so great. He was the coolest guy I had ever seen. I just thought, ‘I wanna look like him.’ You have to remember, at that time, everybody had hair down to their bellies and was wearing tie-dyed t-shirts.”

This emulation of his idol actually led to Brian being cast as Eddie in the film La Bamba. “Oh gosh, that was just great,” Setzer recalls. “I’d combed my hair and I’d been doing it for years,” Setzer explains, “but they said, ‘no, you have to go through makeup. We have a hair stylist.’ So this guy insisted on redoing it, and I looked like a French poodle (laughs), so I stuck my head in the water fountain and quickly combed it back, so it was still wet when I was up there.” Pro-tip for the scenesters out there, his style is usually held together by Murray’s Pomade and a spritz of hair spray.

After speaking to Setzer for only a short time, what is most clear is the respect and reverence with which he treats the music and those who love it. His steadfast loyalty to rockabilly traditions and the fans he has earned is to be admired.

Unpretentious and quick to laugh, Setzer puts it best himself: “It’s just good music.”

What: Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot with special guest Lanie Lane Where: The Enmore Theatre When: Friday March 30 More: Also playing alongside Crosby Stills & Nash, Earth Wind & Fire, The Pogues, The Specials, My Morning Jacket and heaps more at Bluesfest, April 5-9 @ Byron Bay

16 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

Adam Ant Stand And Deliver By Patrick Emery

B

efore there was ‘80s pop star Adam Ant, there was a young and excited teenager by the name of Stuart Goddard playing bass in a largely forgotten London rock’n’roll band by the name of Bazooka Joe. In November 1975, Bazooka Joe found itself on the same bill as another fledgling outfit by the name of the Sex Pistols. “It was St Martin’s College, and they were supporting us – it was their first ever gig,” Ant recalls. The rest of Bazooka Joe weren’t particularly won over by the Pistols, but Ant was. “I was really impressed with their energy. So I quit Bazooka Joe that night and formed my own band.”

Ant had been born and raised in central London.

His grandfather had a rich Romani background, and proved a significant influence on the young Stuart. “He was very quiet, and had a very strong work ethic, which I think got from him,” Ant recalls. “He’d been a sailor in World War II, and had been in one of the last major sea battles. He was very wise. I remember him once saying, ‘Don’t ever hit a woman, and if you do, I’ll hit you’.”

In the early ‘70s, Ant visited Long Live Rock, the fashion shop owned by young designer Vivienne Westwood and her flamboyant partner, Malcolm McLaren. Later on, when Westwood and McLaren moved to London to open clothing store ‘Sex’, Ant joined the crowd of impressionable youths – including the so-called ‘Bromley Contingent’ that featured Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol and Ant’s one-time manager Jordan – hanging out in the shop. “It was a very cool shop, but dangerous,” Ant recalls.

career. “Music is a passion for me,” he says.

“Having spent time away from it, by the time I got back into it, things had changed a lot. I had a daughter so my situation was a lot different. And I was able to go back into the music industry on my own terms, on my own label.”

The after effects of Ant’s hectic pop lifestyle bubbled to the surface in 2002, and subsequently he was confined to a psychiatric hospital and eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Nevertheless, he has persevered through the hard times, and has emerged – 30 years after topping the charts – with new material, and a tour Down Under. “I’ve got ten albums of material, so I have to look at it in terms of my own favourites, and also what the fans want to hear,” he says of the upcoming shows. “I like to think I do a show like if [you were] going to see Roxy Music; it’s a retrospective of my catalogue, with some new tracks thrown in as well.”

With: Georgie Girl and Her Poussez Posse Where: Enmore Theatre When: Friday March 23

“I always wanted to sell records and the idea of being a pop singer didn’t worry me.

To me, Marc Bolan was a pop singer, and he had great songs.”

Later on, when he had adopted the Adam Ant persona and formed Adam And The Ants, McLaren would assume the role of his manager for a short period. Despite McLaren subsequently poaching Ant’s backing band to form another of his contrived pop outfits, Bow Wow Wow, Ant pays tribute to his mentormanager’s creative nous and intellect. “Malcolm was a really creative force; I only worked directly with him for about a month, but I listened a lot to him – he was very informed. He knew a lot about rock’n’roll, really obscure bands. Malcolm was also the first person who really talked to me about the structure of songs. He was a very intelligent guy, and I don’t really think that comes across in the work he did with the Sex Pistols.”

While many of Ant’s contemporaries in the punk scene pursued a more confrontational and overtly political line, Ant was content to adopt a more theatrical style. While the notion of a pop singer was anathema to many in the punk scene, for Ant it wasn’t an issue. “I always wanted to sell records,” he says simply. “When we were signed by Decca, I don’t think they really took us seriously. We were sort of like the opposite of The Clash. I was looking for something a bit more heroic. And the idea of being a pop singer didn’t worry me. To me, Marc Bolan was a pop singer, and he had great songs.”

The success of ‘Ant Music’, the lead track from the second Adam And The Ants album, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, catapulted the frontman into pop stardom. But it was around this time that his dedication to his musical career began to take its psychological toll. “I was not good at saying no to anything,” Ant admits. “I was working like an absolute maniac, and I was exhausted.” His third record, Prince Charming, featured the hit singles ‘Stand And Deliver’ and the eponymous title track.

Nevertheless, Ant subsequently disbanded his backing band, and embarked on a solo career, releasing another hit single, ‘Goody Two Shoes’.

By 1985 Ant was ready for yet another change, and traded in his musical career for acting (he had first appeared on screen in Derek Jarman’s 1977 Brit-punk film, Jubilee). “It’s just a logical thing,” he says of the decline in his popularity in the pop music world. “You’re in a weekly, daily chart race. By 1985 I’d had enough of it, and that’s why I got into films. It was a good break to make – it had all got a bit crazy.”

A few years later he headed across the Atlantic to California, where he appeared in a series of plays and films over the next ten years – but by the mid-‘90s, he had returned to music, eventually moving back to England, and rekindling his BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 17

Joe Satriani All Geed Up By Matt Petherbridge

O

n the back of successful touring runs with flourishing hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot, American powerhouse guitarist Joe Satriani, affectionately known as ‘Satch,’ brings his G3 “guitar shredder extravaganza” Down Under this month.

Traditionally, Satch and fellow sweep-arpeggiostorchbearer Steve Vai have used the G3 concert series as a platform to perform with some of the world’s most respected guitarists (among them Robert Fripp, Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci); but this year, their decision to allocate their third spot to Steve Lukather, founding guitarist of ‘80s AOR-legends Toto, has raised eyebrows among their maniacal scale-bending fan-base.

Boris

“It just felt like the right thing to do,” Satriani says matter-of-factly. “He’s sold about 60 million albums with Toto, played on the biggest albums in music history – he played guitar on Michael Jackson albums (most prominently on 1983’s Thriller) – and countless number-one albums.

He’s part of the fabric of rock music, though he’s not in the Top Ten poll of Guitar Shredders”, he admits. “But he is one of the most impressive musicians I’ve ever met… I feel he’s more known for his intense musicianship, which is what I feel when I play with him. I always shake my head and say, ‘Man he’s good’.”

Looking back on the start of his career, Satriani says, “I started off really small, playing tours and selling albums out of the trunk of my car that nobody wanted. My perspective of starting my own record company and starting out with Relativity Records was mid-late ‘80s. It might be hard to relate my trajectory to someone in the ‘90s or in the current age. Next year, it’ll be different.”

Not one to be tied down by a band or held back by the unwavering commercial notions of top 40 hitmakers, Satriani is proud to have worked the ‘contrarian angle’ for his entire career. He doesn’t need to come out swinging like Joe Bonamassa did recently in Classic Rock Magazine, instead, he’s built a career out of valuing the principle, “You can only reach one person at a time”.

“The one thing that will always remain is that you have to make a good connection with other human beings and see what happens there.

People have connected with me as an artist, and over the course of my career I’ve met some great people. Without overanalysing it, your relationship with other people is so important.

I’ve got nothing but fond memories over my career of just meeting people”.

One of the more geektastic highlights was meeting George Lucas on his Skywalker Ranch: “He always stops by to say hello. When people think of the ranch, they imagine Droids

S

plicing, dividing, subtracting, then adding, multiplying, and generally cooking up one big mix of sounds, is what Japanese experimentalists Boris do best. Taking their name from a song by alt-rock godfathers The Melvins, their genre-defying sound switches and shifts between sludge metal, noise rock, psychedelia, ambient and pop. Just call it “extreme pop”, suggests drummer and vocalist Atsuo.

and Wookies walking around,” Satriani laughs.

“Hundreds of people work there on the most outrageous, forward-thinking ideas dedicated to sound and movies in the world. The studio is huge; it’s the same studio in which they recorded the orchestral music for Star Wars. In the same building, they’ll be mixing Lord Of The Rings. You really feel you’re in some special, creative space.”

In fact, he’s certain that ‘Wind In The Trees’, from his 2010 solo record, Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards, uses a particular recording of wind blowing through the trees that was also used in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. “I tracked down a sound designer in the building and I asked him if it would be hard to get a sample of wind for the album. He asked, ‘What kind of wind do you want?’ and I said, ‘20 knots, blowing through trees 100 feet tall.’ The wind recordings he had were done at different heights, on the ground, slowly moving up the canopies, I think we even got some crows in the distance... So you can see how practical it is to record there!”

With: Steve Vai and Steve Lukather What: G3 Where: The Hordern Pavilion When: Friday March 30

“It’s so difficult to simplify [our sound], because it is inspired by what we have all lived through and experienced in our lives,” he offers. “What we are influenced by is not only music but also literature, art, movies and so on. Not only those cultural things either, but I think also the structure of Japanese society and being Japanese in general.

“When we make songs, we don’t care about genre at all,” Atsuo continues. “If we do not draw inspiration from our own blood and muscles, from our own bodies when we make sounds, then there is no persuasive power. The way we think is by not thinking at the time of creating. We think about it later. I think if we were to follow something or someone else, that would be the end for us.”

Far from winding up, Boris continue to be prolific, releasing three new albums last year – Attention Please, Heavy Rocks and New Album – that intertwined with one another to create one of the most interesting trilogies in recent times. “I feel that ‘diffusion’ and ‘convergence’ is becoming the main theme for the releases,” muses Atsuo. “Attention Please and Heavy Rocks were originally born from one album, so we unified the two albums into one again. Then there is New Album, and several of the songs from that one are also from Attention Please and Heavy Rocks, plus some new songs.”

For this trio of releases, the band collaborated with producer Shinobu Narita – a man often described as intense and hyper-charged in his approach in the studio. “Basically, we gave him the recording

data for Attention Please and Heavy Rocks and he worked on the re-arrangements based on them. His job was framing the music, the minute details of it, and then further placing it so that he could see the songs overall. He produces the sounds with a pluralistic vision, coming and going from those places.”

As to how their studio sound relates to their live performances, Atsuo says, “We haven’t made so many changes equipment-wise [in our live shows], but it has been changing a lot in terms of recording. When we are touring, we are limited in terms of how much equipment we can carry with us, but Wata [guitarist, keyboardist] and Michio [touring guitarist] insist on using a Space Echo [aka Roland Re-201, an analogue delay effects unit]. These are big and heavy, but they always carry them.”

Coming up to their 16th year as a collective, Atsuo describes Boris as a band that never looks back – for both ideological and practical reasons. “I don’t look back at the past,” he tells me. “I always use my memory for the stuff that’s happening right now. I lock my memories into the music we’ve made or into the memories of all those people who have seen us play live – I don’t keep them inside my own body.

“We just started the band to have some fun,” Atsuo concludes, “and that still hasn’t changed even now. Performing has become a job for us, yes, but I think I’m having a happy life. I appreciate our listeners and the people who have always supported us. We are still recording at the moment, but I think we can announce another release soon.”

With: Laura, sleepmakeswaves Where: The Metro Theatre When: Thursday March 22

James Walsh Northern Soul By Benjamin Cooper

I

t takes a particular kind of resolve to call time or impose a hiatus on your band – particularly if the band is as massively successful as Britain’s Starsailor. Somewhere between infamously confronting the preening backstage aggression of Oasis’ Gallagher brothers and experimenting with Phil Spector and The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood as producers, the group found sufficient time to release four classy albums of swirling pop tunes. So pervasive was their ability to craft hook-laden yet thoughtful melodies, that their 2004 single ‘Four To The Floor’ was the only acceptable aural interruption to the constant strains of Steve Earle’s ‘Copperhead Road’ that permeated my year 12 dormitory. And yet in 2009, frontman James Walsh announced it was time to take a break, and began working on his own solo material.

The time since then has been well spent, with Walsh confessing that, “I learnt a lot from working with a whole gamut of different people, and it helps when I go back to writing on my own, because the experiences bleed across and often roll through in the songwriting.” He cites his work with fellow Brit Eliza Doolittle on her sophomore record as a key inspiration. “I mean, she’s this young girl in her early 20s with an unbelievable, natural sense of melody and these amazing hooks... She certainly keeps me on my toes – she has that awareness of current music. She tends to command that interest and

enthusiasm from everyone around her, which just means that when I’m writing the pressure’s on and I really have to up my game!”

Walsh also cites recent collaborations with Beverley Knight, a UK singer who manages to straddle both soul and RnB, as crucial in giving him the confidence to keep evolving his sound as a solo artist. “Most artists,” he says, “keep on doing the same thing because they’re a bit insecure. To be confident in myself that I am doing this because I want to continue to develop as a songwriter is a really great feeling. I think it’s something that even your detractors have to sit up and take notice of, and appreciate.

It’s one thing to say ‘Oh, he’s not really a great songwriter... I don’t get Starsailor’, but I think my response to that criticism has been to use it as a stimulus for the kind of work that I’m doing now.

I’m actually really proud of myself for it.”

And he’s having fun: “One of the best shows I’ve ever done, in my recent memory anyway, was down in lovely Liverpool. It really was such a special evening, and I am well aware of the loyalty of my fanbase: there’s always that element of risk when you strike out on your own. You tend to wonder whether fans of your previous work will get on board. In my case, people are still aware of the work I’m engaged with, and I’m honestly so flattered to continue to be selling out venues.”

He is particularly buoyant when talking about the intimate venues he will play in Australia, saying, “It’s such a joy for me to be able to be in those smaller rooms, and if I may say so, I think it’s the perfect space for my kind of voice and stories.”

With: Sarah McLeod (Screaming Bikini) Where: The Standard When: Saturday March 24

“Unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour. That music’s lost its taste so try another flavour” - ADAM ANT 18 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

Xxxx

Strange Rock By Birdie

Craig Finn Victoria, Bitter By Caitlin Welsh

‘A

pollo Bay’, the first track on Craig Finn’s new album Clear Heart Full Eyes, features the refrain, ‘Vietnamese / and six or seven VPs’. Or is it ‘Phoebes’? Neither. Turns out you can get it driving a car; you can get it singing in bars. Matter of fact, the best cold beer for ditching your cult rock band at the end of an Australian tour and spending a week driving alone along the Great Ocean Road thinking unsociable thoughts about broken relationships and such things turns out to be (aptly) VB. Our national swill, among other mythicsounding coastal-Victoria references like the eponymous bay and dignified vertical monoliths the Twelve Apostles, was a reference lost on most American fans of Finn’s band – The Hold Steady deal mainly in allusions to NYC, LA and his native Minneapolis. From a bitter Victoria trip to the ‘Honolulu Blues’, Clear Heart actually sees Finn going further afield than the same old scene. “It’s a lot about being alone. That trip was really, really lonesome,” he laughs, referring to the Great Ocean Road jaunt. “In a good way. But I felt like, when I listened back the record, there are a lot of songs about being either geographically displaced or alone, after a relationship. And that was something that kinda revealed itself to me after the record was done rather than what I was trying to write about.”

admits they needed some time to find their feet before plunging into recording again. “Especially in the writing,” he adds. “I think we needed a shakeup a little bit. But I think, on this one, the stuff we’re writing I’m really excited about.

The way Tad and Steve [Kubler and Selvidge, guitarists] are writing together is really exciting.”

Finn assures me that the next Hold Steady record will be in our hands soon, certainly by this time next year. (“Worst case scenario, I think, early 2013,” he says wryly.) But even between THS albums there will be no shortage of Finn’s idiosyncratic tunes – as he drawls on ‘Apollo Bay’, downtime makes him restless. “On tour, in fact, I’m the guy who’s always walking around,” he confesses. “It’s torture to me to sit in a hotel room. And in some ways the solo record was born out of that, in that we decided to take a few months off, and I was like, ‘What am I going to do with myself?’ So I made a record, because it’s the only thing I know how to do.”

What: Clear Heart Full Eyes out now through Longtime Listener

“I’ve always been interested in how rock‘n’roll fits into our lives... It’s something that’s been everpresent in my life, and is somewhat responsible for the way I see the world.”

Finn’s MO in The Hold Steady is to holler-sing grand pronouncements that twist back on themselves, full of pithy truths about youth and God and vices, and wave his arms in the air in a gleeful manner that underscores the elusive optimism of his lyrics. His solo material doesn’t exactly allow for such antics on stage, as he’s discovered during the tour he’s currently in the midst of. “The Hold Steady’s shows are so celebratory, and people jump around and throw beer, but this music is quite a bit quieter, and strikes a different chord,” he admits. “So the energy in the room is different. And that took me a little bit of getting used to, because it’s a more appropriate reaction to be just listening.”

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Finn hasn’t been falling into the solo-frontman trap of throwing ‘stripped-back’ band favourites into the set, either. “This is a totally different thing. I wouldn’t feel right doing that,” he insists, and he’s right. Clear Heart isn’t a Hold Steady album by any stretch – languid and countrified, with a more personal tone and less reliance on ‘characters’, it was recorded in a sweltering Austin July in a friend’s guest house with all Austin-based musicians. But there are still thematic similarities to Finn’s THS lyrics – dissolution, redemption and equivocation are still his hallmarks. “I know I return to the same themes, but that’s kinda where my mind is usually at. You know?” he muses. “That’s a reflection of who I am and what I think about. So to write another [kind of] song… it just wouldn’t feel like me. It would feel like an exercise rather than an expression.”

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The other main quirk of Finn’s songwriting apparent on Clear Heart is that he unabashedly invokes iconic figures to quickly set a tone. The habit contributes to the rollicking ‘No Future’ being the most Hold Steady-like of the collection. “Funnily enough, that song has both Freddie Mercury and Johnny Rotten, who is also referenced on a song called ‘Knuckles’ on the first Hold Steady record, and that was sort of an inside joke, mostly,” Finn says. “But I also think that, in all shades of both this record and the Hold Steady, I’ve always been interested in how rock‘n’roll fits into our lives. And with that song in particular, people are kind of looking towards those singers, or rock‘n’roll in general, who can give them some answers about their own lives… I mean rock‘n’roll has been around longer than I have, so it’s something that’s been ever-present in my life, and somewhat responsible for the way I see the world.”

THS seemed to be licking their wounds of late, following their first less-than-iconic album, 2010’s Heaven is Whenever, and the departure of Franz Nicolay – dapper keyboardist and principal source of their E Street whimsy. Finn

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BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 19

Wooden Shjips Into The West By Patrick Emery

R

ipley Johnson, guitarist and creative force behind psychedelic drone band Wooden Shjips, is relaxing in his house just outside of Boulder, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. “We’re about 10,000 feet up the mountains where we live,” he remarks. “There’s nothing around here, and it’s about a two-hour drive into Boulder. I don’t think it’s something we’d do forever, but we’re enjoying the isolation at the moment.”

Johnson moved to the remote location with his girlfriend after spending most of his adult life on the west coast. “I grew up in Connecticut, and I hated it,” he says. “I didn’t like the culture, but then I went to Santa Cruz to go to school, and it felt like paradise – people walking around not wearing shoes, that sort of stuff.” Johnson is already acutely aware of Boulder’s predominant claim to fame in the entertainment world as the location for the ‘70s sitcom Mork and Mindy. “You can go to the actual house they used,” he laughs. “I haven’t been there yet, but I really want to.”

This month, Johnson is bringing Wooden Shjips back to Australia for the second time – and a year after touring with his side project Moon Duo. By way of explaining what distinguishes a Moon Duo record from a Wooden Shjips record, he says, “Everyone who’s playing has different input, but the songs are all my songs – although I may have different ideas about where a song is going sonically, if that makes sense.”

Johnson isn’t a prolific writer as such, preferring to direct his songwriting activity toward particular projects. “I’m very project-focused – I don’t write songs every day.

While I don’t think I necessarily have a homogenous vision, the songs do tend to have a cohesion, because they’re all written around the same time and the same things tend to be going through my head,” he says. At the heart of any Wooden Shjips track tends to be a regular beat that Johnson and his band mates explore and exploit.

“I used to write starting with just a drum beat – I used to begin with the rhythms of the city as I went to work. I usually hear something in my head and go with that.”

“I used to write starting with just a drum beat – I used to begin with the rhythms of the city as I went to work. I usually hear something in my head and go with that.”

For Wooden Shjips’ latest record, West, Johnson took his artistic inspiration from the mythology of the American West, a by-product of his own travels across the continent. “There’s a loose concept behind it, but it’s not like a rock opera,” he explains. “I was moving from San Francisco to Colorado; it was like moving westwards to the old west. It got me thinking about my time in San Francisco, and the whole psychology of the West.”

He approached former Spaceman 3 member Sonic Boom to master the record, having previously met him at a festival in England.

“We [had done] a split 7”, which had an outtake of a Spaceman 3 track on one side, and a cover of one of his songs on the other side,” Johnson says. “Then we were playing this festival, and he was playing a solo set. His synthesiser broke just before the show, and he asked us to back him up for his set – so we had ten-minutes’ notice before we went on stage to play with him,” Johnson laughs.

He may have the chance to meet another hero this month, when Wooden Shjips’ Australian tour coincides with the Australian leg of Crosby, Stills and Nash, whose classic track Wooden Ships was the inspiration behind their name (Johnson apparently added the ‘j’ in the hope of achieving a name that sounded Swedish). When I mention this to Johnson, he seems bemused at the prospect of meeting the legendary David Crosby.

“We haven’t met him before,” Johnson laughs.

“It’d be really great if he came along. I really love his solo record, If I Could Only Remember My Name. It’s really spacey.”

Punters at Wooden Shjips Sydney show can expect to see the band in their natural environment, with their song structures conducive to live exploration and expansion.

“It’s fairly elastic,” Johnson muses. “One of the things about touring is that it can become very repetitive. There are lots of expectations that you’re dealing with – the promoters will want you to play a certain type of set, and the audience will have its own expectations about what it wants to hear…”

Johnson says he and the band will play it by ear, and size up where the audience is prepared to go. “We do stretch it out a fair amount, but it really depends on the audience. Sometimes they’re up for it, but other times all they want to do is just drink beer and get drunk.”

20 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

Xxxx

With: The Laurels, DCM Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Saturday March 24 More: West out now through Mistletone

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 21

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five minutes The Telescope

KENZIE LARSEN

I

f funny was a cheap drug and the Cab Sav Collective was a syringe and you thought that this was leading towards a funny analogy, then it’s probably been a while since you’ve had a fresh hit of grade A comedy. But sit tight, because Kenzie Larsen and Claudia O’Doherty have patch tested GoodGod Small Club and are bringing back Cab Sav’s monthly comedy and performance night. Kenzie hasn’t actually written anything to perform yet, but she tells us why it’s going to be awesome anyway.

What is Club Cab Sav? Cab Sav (Cabaret Sauvignon) started about six years ago at Lanfranchi’s Memorial Discotheque and was the brainchild of Zoe Coombs Marr and Mish Grigor. The idea was to start a night up for the performance and comedy work that our friends were making at the time. It was intended to be a super fun and exciting club kind of night where we could all test out material for larger shows that we were making in various configurations. Since the formation of the Cab Sav Collective, groups such as Post’ Brown Council, Pig Island, Rhubarb Rhubarb and Whale Chorus have formed out of connections and material tested out at Cab Sav nights.

What will you be doing on the night? I will be doing a short comedy performance that

Willem Dafoe

I haven’t written yet but I am hoping will be incredible.

Cab Sav by night, what do you do by day?

I make one of a kind hand drawn t-shirts (handmadetshirtsbykenzie.com) as well as art and I am currently working on a solo theatre show.

Who else is going to be on the stage/what will they be doing?

Zoe Coombs Marr and Nick Coyle are about to take their respective shows to the Melbourne Comedy Festival, so I’m guessing they will be doing bits from these shows. Claudia O’Doherty is also travelling to the Festival and will perform part of her upcoming show The Telescope. Eddie Sharp will be doing something pretty raunchy and Annilese Constable will be reading a story.

What’s the best thing about Cab Sav? The audience when they are enjoying the acts.

What: Club Cab Sav When: Wednesday March 21 Where: GoodGod Small Club / 55 Liverpool St, Chinatown More: $10 on the door

David Lynch), Adamson has of course scored this one, too. A post-screening Q&A will be followed by a performance of three songs from his recently released studio album I Will Set You Free.

Wednesday March 21 at The Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd Marrickville. factorytheatre.com.au

SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL

The full Sydney Comedy Festival program has arrived! Latest additions include Daniel Kitson (UK), Pajama Men (USA), Jon Dore (CAN) and slapstick darling Frank Woodley. We’re also aching to see (Eddie’s brother) Charlie Murphy (US), Good News Week regular Claire Hooper and up-and-comer Jennifer Wong. Then of course there’s our comedy locals: The Bear Pack, Lawrence Leung, Michael Hing, Genevieve Fricker and Australia’s “kings of comedy rock” trio, Axis of Awesome. And if you want to catch the extreme-sports of fun, hit up the Theatresports National Finals (May 19 at The Enmore Theatre). sydneycomedyfest.com.au

AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL

If you’re a KONY sceptic, then maybe the inaugural African Film Festival will satiate your thirst for something a little more legitimate. The Festival opens April 5, with Restless City at the

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

For the first time ever, the Sydney Film Festival Hub will take over Lower Town Hall to provide a smorgasbord of free exhibitions, screenings, talks, panels, parties, live music, performances and DJs. One of the headline attractions is a photography exhibition by renowned European photographer Fabrizio Maltese. He has toured the world's major festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice, to bring us 25 large-scale, exclusive photographic portraits of iconic film stars and filmmakers. The Hub will house a 120-seat theatrette – screening shorts, documentaries and features – all for free. Also on the bill is Cinema Burlesque; a night of cult-film inspired acts by some of Sydney’s top burlesque divas Frankie Faux, Delilah DuMoan, Anna Felactic and Dick Savvy. From 5pm-10pm, June 7-17. sff.org.au

FASHION POWER

Want to know what you’re going to be wearing in the future? From Monday March 26, The Powerhouse Museum (500 Harris St, Ultimo) will suit up to showcase the best graduating designers from four of Sydney’s top design colleges. Claudia Adinda has taken inspiration from origami techniques to develop Digital Dimensions, a collection of garments that are folded around the body to re-shape the human form. In contrast, Anna Langdon’s Arabesque evening gown is inspired by the dramatic costumes of the Ballets Russes and intricate carvings found on ancient Middle Eastern architecture. Simone Latham has focused on the elements of light, landscape and photography in her collection Reverie and uses electrouminescent panels and Swarovski Elements crystals, to intensify the light and shadow areas and create a brilliance of colour; and Madalaine Blythe ‘celebrates the romantic, the feminine and the artisan’ with her graduating collection Gloriana. powerhousemuseum.com

the way from Chicago to tell us why whe should never stop creating (June 7); and Awesome Soup – a collaborative event with The Awesome Foundation – will award no-strings-attached money to people with awesome ideas (June 3).

At Creative Spaces you can get the lowdown on what nooks and crannies the likes of the Empty Spaces Project and the Harbour Foreshore Authority have rescued from Sydney’s real estate monster for the sake of art (May 29); the Etsy Success Sydney seminar (June 2) will look at sustainable business models for local creative business owners; Failcon is for all those budding entrepreneurs who want to know what not to do (June 7); Portable will screen exclusive fashion films following an in-conversation special with fashion icon Henry Holland (June 6); the Game Changers panel of experts (May 30) will explore the mega trends shaping creative culture today; and then there is something called the YouTube Superstar Showcase (June 8). Phew! vividsydney.com

VIVID IDEAS

THERAPIST

It’s time to sharpen your pencils (and your wits) and pull out your exercise books. Sort of like gym-school for creative junkies, Vivid Ideas has lined up an epic program of talks, seminars, panel discussions and creative industry themed workshops. Whilst we're totally spoilt for choice, here are a few events for the top of the list.

Threadless CEO Jake Nickell is travelling all 22 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

What if Hitchcock met the Jazz Devil himself?

Music maven Barry Adamson (Magazine, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) has decided to find out. His first feature film, Therapist, is a forty-minute noir thriller that experiments artistically and structurally with the contradictions between memory, fantasy and truth. Long celebrated for his film compositions contributed to films by other directors (including

LE HAVRE Thanks to Pop Culture and Sharmill Films, we have ten in-season double passes to Aki Kaurismäki’s latest film Le Havre up for grabs. Set in the small, port city of the title, this French-language masterpiece tells the heart-warming story of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a former author who has retreated into voluntary exile to become a shoeshiner. Marx’s life takes an unexpected turn when fate throws in his path an underage immigrant refugee from Africa (Blondin Miguel) facing deportation. The film has bagged several serious accolades, as well as a special prize from the Palm Dog jury for Laika’s performance as Laika. For the chance to win, tell us who your favourite on-screen dog is.

Dendy Opera Quays. This is Nigerian director Andrew Dosunmu’s debut and he’s created a kaleidoscope of colour and print to explore the 'City of Dreams' through the eyes of the African diaspora. Also screening is the politically conscious music documentary Democracy in Dakar, which chronicles hip hop’s influence on the political process in Dakar, Senegal, and follows rappers, DJs, journalists, professors and street locals at the time before, during and after the controversial 2007 presidential election. Also worth a look is the African Short Session (April 7), and closing night will feature the Australian premiere of Kinshasa Symphony, the uplifting story of Democratic Republic of the Congo’s only symphony orchestra. africanfilmfestival.com.au

ART CYCLE #4

Art Month isn’t over yet. You have one last chance to take a Cycle Tour through the gallery treasure trove that lies within the Eastern Suburbs. Cruise from Woollahra to Paddington to Darlinghurst to Elizabeth Bay with the hippest cycle posse this side of the art world, musing at your beautiful Sydney surrounds between gallery pit stops.

The tour meets Saturday March 24 at Edgecliff Train Station, 11am. Head online to register. artmonthsydney.com.au

Karen O in Stop the Virgens

VIVID PROGRAM

All of our most vivid dreams have come true with this week’s Vivid LIVE program announcement. On the art side of things, Karen O has created Stop the Virgens, a psychoopera described as “An assault on the tragic joys of youth, fever dreams drenched in visual seduction, a cathartic spell spun through a cycle of nine songs". Seven years in the making, it will play at the SOH Opera Theatre for five nights from May 30. Brazilian producer Amon Tobin will also present a groundbreaking sound-art immersion, titled Live Beyond 3D ISAM. The work involves a custom-built 25 ft, three-ton cubic installation that acts as a morphing multidimensional screen. Tobin himself will perch within the structure’s core, piloting crashing machines, ripples and waves, and shape-shifting explosions in an overwhelming sensory experience. ISAM will play two performances in the Concert Hall on Saturday June 2. Also in the Concert Hall (Sunday June 3) Vivid LIVE and Sydney Film Festival will present the Australian premiere of Shut Up And Play The Hits, the acclaimed documentary capturing the week before, the day after and the very occasion of LCD Soundsystem’s Madison Square Garden Farewell Concert. vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com Xxxx

WITH

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Jay & Silent Bob Get Old Tour

Those who listen to the show will know that there is far more to Mewes than a catchphrase.

Not long after Mallrats was made, he began experimenting with heroin, leading to over a decade of addiction, withdrawal, rehab and relapse. The ever-supportive Smith tried everything to keep him clean until he finally found the right carrot-on-a-stick, the chance to play the iconic “Jay” one more time in Clerks 2. Smith chronicled this process in a heartfelt blog, Me And My Shadow, which is well worth a google. Alas, after six years sober, Mewes was prescribed painkillers after surgery, beginning the cycle again. This time, however, he has over 100,000 subscribers behind him, every show ending with an update on how many days sober he has racked up.

This of course begs the question, how does a recovering heroin addict spend almost every day with a stoner of Kevin Smith’s magnitude?

“It doesn’t bother me,” he laughs. “The wife smokes a little. A lot of my friends smoke and so do the fans, but they don’t get in my face about. After heroin, it’s pretty easy to avoid weed. It’s not like they’re putting a bowl of painkillers in front of me, which could be a different story.” He laughs, sounding a million miles from the iconic pot dealer character that made him famous. “They sell beer at a lot of the shows, and it’d be great to have one, especially around superbowl, but it’s just not worth it, y’know.”

Shocked to discover that the Super Bowl isn’t really a thing here, Mewes resolves to check out a rugby match while in town and asks more questions about our town than I do about him. Planning to arrive a week early with his wife, Jordan Monsanto, he seems excited to see Sydney, but even more excited about the work. “I never thought I’d get to go to Australia, let alone to work there.” He is keenly aware of the role of the audience in his rehabilitation and is very serious about the work, as much for his enjoyment of it as the distraction it provides. “I want to entertain people, that’s my goal, but at the same time it’s helping me. It reminds me of where I don’t ever want to be again. We can laugh about it on stage, but people tweet me about how listening to the show helped their friend or their brother to get sober or stay sober, and it’s awesome.”

Between the podcasts and the unavoidable typecasting that results from playing a character based on yourself, it’s easy to forget that Mewes is in fact an actor. Although Jay shares some of Mewes’s speech patterns and mannerisms, he is indeed a character. Almost 20 years since his first role, he still speaks with childlike enthusiasm about his latest projects.

“Even if I wasn’t in it, I’d watch it.” He says of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, a Canadian horror-comedy series in which he plays the janitor of a high school. He’s also just wrapped production on K-11, a prison drama that he describes as “a different direction for me. It’s darker and more serious than anything else I’ve done.” The restless comic energy of Jay reined into a dramatic role sounds as intense as a knife-fight in a phone booth, and I’m eager to see the result.

Knowing Me, Knowing Mewes By Robbie Miles

F

G IV EA W AY S

or the last two years, Jason Mewes (forever to be known as Jay), has sat in front of strangers and spilled his guts once a week. Group therapy, you ask? Narcotics Anonymous? Nope, but you get marks for your working out. Jason’s weekly podcast with “hetero life-mate” Kevin Smith, aptly titled Jay & Silent Bob Get Old is far funnier than an intervention has any right to be. Started by Smith under his SModcast Network (now SModcast Internet Radio) as a way to keep Mewes accountable

to an audience, the hilarious, filthy and disarmingly candid show is consistently ranked in the top 5 on iTunes.

Once described as a “sonic boom with dirt on it” by none other than his best friend, director and raconteur Smith, Jason Mewes is remarkably charming and well spoken.

Now with over 600 days sober, a happy and relaxed Jay speaks to me from his home in Los Angeles about bringing Jay & Silent Bob Get Old to Australia. “I get nervous

about flying. It’s 14 hours and you can’t smoke,” he growls cheerfully. The pair will play in Sydney and Victoria, with another show in Perth just announced. “Yeah, the promoters and the fans were saying ‘what about Perth?’ and then it sold out in two days. It was very flattering. Years ago when we did Vulgarthon (a marathon of View Askew movies held in several US cities) people came from everywhere: London, Sydney, and I realised we had fans all over the world.”

RED STATE

WIN!

W

hat happens when you look for sex online? You end up in hell. Or at least, that’s what happens in Red State. Cult status writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) has branched out into the world of comedy-horror with this action-thriller set against a backdrop of religious fundamentalism in righteous Middle America. The story twists between three teenage boys, a radical preacher and his band of hateful followers, government agents, helpless hostages and a small town sheriff with a big-time secret. The right-to-bear-arms is exercised and a spectacularly gruesome bloodbath ensues.

Red State releases on DVD and Blu-ray on March 22 and thanks to Curious Film, we have THREE COPIES up for grabs. Just tell us the real name of Smith’s “hetero life partner”, who he’ll be touring to Australia with in April for the Jay & Silent Bob Get Old Tour (hint: see above).

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It would seem that Jay has grown up, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s gotten old.

Having been a massive fan since Clerks, I let the twelve-year old me ask just one question, “What’s your favourite swear word?” The Jimi Hendrix of profanity grows quiet, carefully considering his answer before decisively stating, “Fuckface. Yeah, definitely fuckface”.

What: Jay & Silent Bob Get Old When: April 20 & 23 Where: Enmore Theatre / 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown

Strong violence, sexual references and frequent coarse language

AVAILABLE ON DVD & BLURAY FROM MARCH 22 | WWW.CURIOUSDISTRIBUTION.COM

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AUSTRALIA Sydney Dendy Opera Quays / 5Melbourne - 8 April Red Bennies

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Peter Powers

Dylan Young

[COMEDY] Power That Doesn’t Peter Out By Justin Wolfers It is indeed his antics and ridiculous on-stage scenarios that bring in the crowds. Powers amusedly explains to me the story behind a fictitious A Current Affair report that portrayed an audience member running through traffic outside the Enmore Theatre hunting a leprechaun. “People thought, it must be real if it’s being reported in The Telegraph, or on A Current Affair… It really was a non-story, but it helped.” And while in this case the story was fabricated, Powers is enthusiastic about some of the wilder happenings on his stages, explaining, “My sense of humour’s just mildly sadistic.”

One routine involves a woman on stage convinced she is a dominatrix who must whip anyone around her; a fitness instructor who passes by the dominatrix unawares; and someone who crawls around the stage thinking that they’ve been naughty, triggered

by Madonna’s ‘Hanky Panky’, but hypnotised to not feel any pain; and then these storylines merge in a ridiculous climax at the end of the show, with only some of the participants still wearing their clothes.

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o I’m sitting, head drooped in my chair, eyes closed, feeling very much at peace – in a hypnosis-induced sleep state where I have no urge at all to move or speak or do anything. My courageous (and equally sceptical) friend, Nick, has agreed to come along, and henow sits next to me in a similar state as Peter’s powers tell us, “When you open your eyes, you will notice something about your friend’s face that you’ve never noticed before, and you will find it hilarious.” I know already, from all the previous directions he’s given us, that exactly what he says is about to occur. He planted the suggestion in my mind long before directing me towards it, and now there is no reasonable chance I'll be able to resist. Then I am looking at Nick’s face – there is a dot under his eye, and I am cackling. He is cackling at me too. He looks drunk and far away; I feel drunk and far away too. It’s excellent.

Twenty minutes earlier, I was too ambivalent about hypnosis to even be properly sceptical.

I had just never considered hypnosis as a real or interesting phenomenon, and Peter Powers’ reputation – billed as an outrageous, comedy-orientated and somewhat trashy stage hypnotist – didn’t exactly help. But upon meeting him, he’s clearly far brighter and more self-aware than that. Having practiced hypnotism from the age of twelve, Powers has produced over forty television shows, made countless radio appearances and has even made forays into pain-relief hypnosis, where producers were surprised that he’d be willing to help people, thinking such an endeavour would be incongruous with his image.

According to Powers, Australians are particularly enthusiastic to volunteer for his routines, which he cites as being part of the Aussie humour. “It’s that little bit of roughness… I tell someone that they’re in a little dinghy lost at sea, and he’s rowing, all the way up to the interval, sweating… thinking he’s being chased by a shark… any decent person wouldn’t let me get away with that. In Holland someone would tell me off… but with Australians, I’ll ask ‘does anybody feel sorry for this guy?’ ‘No!’” In order for the hypnosis to take effect, you have to allow it and be willing to let it happen to you, and Powers says some people are easier to hypnotise than others. Before we’ve even begun, Powers tells me I seem like a pretty easy target, “because you’re copying my movements, wiping your brow because mine is sweaty”. Meanwhile I’m thinking – actually, I am sweaty, and nervous about staring too long at you, because you’re a mischievous hypnotist who claims to hold the world record for inducing the longest hypnotic sleep documented. Luckily for me I was only subjected to a friendly-journalist-beginner’s hypnotic routine and not the full-blown Peter Powers extravaganza.

What: Peter Powers Live On Stage Where & When: Hornsby RSL Club, Friday March 30 / Penrith Panthers, Saturday March 31 / Castle Hill RSL Club, Friday April 13 / North Sydney Leagues Club, Friday April 20 / Campbelltown RSL Club, Friday April 27 / Blacktown RSL Club, Saturday April 28 More: peterpowers.com

Every Breath [THEATRE] Strange Intimacy By Alasdair Duncan

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ustralia’s Benedict Andrews is acclaimed the world over as a director of theatre and opera, but Every Breath, which opens this month at Belvoir Street Theatre, marks his debut as a playwright. The play centres around a wealthy family and the enigmatic security guard who patrols their house at night, protecting them from an unknown threat. Each family member is drawn to the security guard in a different way, and through their interactions with him, a web of mystery unfolds. Up-and-coming actor Dylan Young plays the son, Oliver, and he tells me that finding his way into the play has been a rewarding experience, albeit a challenging one.

“People often ask me what the play is about,” he says with a nervous laugh, “but I dread that question, because the thing is, I still really don’t know! Some days, I walk in and think it’s about intimacy, or it’s about family, and others I’ll walk in and decide it’s about fear, or loss. It’s very broad, but it’s quite beautiful.” As for his character, Oliver, Young does have a better idea. “Oliver’s a little bit mysterious,” he says. “He comes from this privileged background, and he’s very manipulative.

He’s almost a little bit of a psychopath – there’s a sparkle in his eye that tells you there is something very odd going on with him, something bubbling away under the surface.”

Young has worked with Benedict Andrews before on a production of The Seagull, and is thrilled to be collaborating again on this original work. “He commented early in the process how strange it feels,” Young says, “because sometimes he’s in the mind of a writer, sometimes he’s in the mind of a director. I think he’s been feeling a bit of a split personality.” In the rehearsal process for a new work, many writers feel the need to make tweaks and changes to a script, but Andrews has not fallen prey to this impulse. “There really hasn’t been any tweaking that I can think of,” Young says, “even of simple words. Benedict writes in very

clear, distinct rhythms. When we worked on The Seagull, it was the same – his translation was really simple and clear. I guess he just worked it all out long ago when he was writing it and stuck to it.”

The play also reunites Young with actress Eloise Mignon, who plays his twin sister. Working out the dynamics of this relationship has been one of the more enjoyable parts of the rehearsal process.

“We’ve known each other for a really long time; we were in a play together several years ago and we’re quite good friends. We’ve been going out to dinner to try and figure out how to talk in similar patterns, to help find the intimacy of their brothersister relationship. It’s a very odd thing to be doing with a friend of yours, but it’s been fun.”

Being twins adds another layer of intimacy to the sibling relationship, and Young and Mignon have also been exploring this. “I’m not a twin, but I’m fascinated with that whole dynamic,” he explains.

“There are points where the twins in the play kind of speak in their own language. We watched a documentary about a pair of twin sisters who communicate with each other in this bizarre gibberish that only they understand. The thing with the twins is that they’re really mysterious – you never know whether they’re with you or against you, or whether they love or hate each other, or whether they’re actually having an incestuous relationship.”

This pairing is just one facet of an enigmatic debut, a work that Belvoir Street regulars will most certainly not want to miss.

What: Every Breath Where: Belvoir Street Theatre / 25 Belvoir St Surry Hills When: Opens Saturday March 24 More: belvoir.com.au

The Great Lie of the Western World [THEATRE] Beauty And Freedom By Alasdair Duncan

Presently, the group are in the final rehearsal stages of The Great Lie of the Western World, a new work written by Cathode Ray members Booth and Alistair Powning, that takes square aim at contemporary social anxiety. The play is about Fiona and Simon, a young, career-minded couple who are both so busy they seldom see each other, living together and trying to make it work from day to day. Their lives are shaken up when an old friend, Emerson, comes to crash on their couch, and begins asking some tough existential questions. “Freedom is the main theme of the play,” Booth explains. “We’re bombarded by media and capitalism and commercialism – our culture comes at us from every angle telling us what to think and what to buy and how to feel. How the individual can survive in that, without forgetting who they are, is in question.”

Cathode Ray Tube

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he Cathode Ray Tube collective may put on plays, but they prefer to think of themselves as a band rather than a theatre company. It’s this unconventional approach that underpins the work they do, giving it a loose and spontaneous quality. “A group of musicians will just jam regularly, and after a period, will gig, so this new play we’re putting on is essentially our next gig coming up,” collective member Michael Booth tells me.

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“We’re a small group, but we have two writers so we decided early on that, rather than do covers, we’d do originals. The other thing is that we don’t have a director as such – like a band, we can jam and work it out together, knowing the material, and try to get to the guts of it, presenting it in as real a way as we can. We trust each-other, we’re very familiar with one another, so we can be quite free and playful inside that framework.”

Fiona and Simon are caught in this bind, and it’s up to their old friend to put this in perspective.

“The thing is that they’re not communicating with each other, so we see them through their interactions with this other person,” Booth explains. “We can see that there’s something missing there. Hopefully we also see that there is a great love there, and how their own separate lives are taking over, as work and career are becoming the primary things in their lives.” It’s heavy thematic stuff, but Booth assures me that the audience won’t be beaten over the head by all the play’s ideas. “It’s written in a way

that’s engaging and fun and relatable,” he says.

“The audience may well be able to recognise themselves as they watch it. We’re not pushing any of the questions on people, but hopefully they’ll arrive there on their own.”

The distinctive poster art for the play features an image of actress Kate Skinner marked up for Photoshop treatment, which adds a strange layer of irony to the whole thing. “In the play, Fiona doesn’t acknowledge her own beauty and worth – she feels unattractive and is feeling pressure to look a certain way. The idea of a woman going to get plastic surgery, who is already beautiful, to make her more beautiful, is ridiculous, but it’s sadly quite common these days. The squiggles on the image are instructions for how to airbrush the image on the poster, but we thought about it and decided that putting an airbrushed image out there would be incredibly hypocritical of us, so we ignored the instructions and just put it out there. I’d say that’s indicative of our attitude as a group.”

What: The Great Lie of the Western World Where: TAP Gallery / 278 Palmer St Darlinghurst When: Wednesday to Saturday, March 30 to April 21 More: tapgallery.org.au

JACK LADDER HURSTVILLE - LONE SUN MARCH 25TH YOURS & OWLS, Wollongong w/ Melodie Nelson TUE MARCH 27TH BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA w/ Tiny Ruins WED MARCH 28TH CLARENDON, KATOOMBA w/ Tiny Ruins SAT MARCH 31ST CHINO’S, NEWCASTLE w/ no art

WWW.HURSTVILLE.COM

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Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

At the heart of the arts Where you went last week...

Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

The Kid With A Bike

■ Film

THE KID WITH A BIKE Opens March 15

09:03:12 :: White Rabbit Gallery :: 30 Balfour St Chippendale

PICS :: TL

down the rabbit hole

The Dardenne brothers (The Child, The Son, Rosetta) have made another brilliant film that has you emotionally involved before you realise what’s happened, and tells a high-stakes story without a whiff of pomp or ceremony. It deserved its Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year, but is a must-see regardless of awards.

Eleven year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret) is so small that when he lies in bed at the orphanage and pulls the sheets over his head, it looks like no one’s there. But he has a stubborn optimism, and the origin of this quality is an intriguing unknown that sustains the viewer throughout the film.

Cyril can’t believe his father has abandoned him – “He would have given me my bike before he left”, he insists, as he struggles from the grip of various faceless adults.

One such struggle ends with Cyril clinging onto local hairdresser Samantha (Cecile de France), who takes pity on the boy and decides to find his bike – a decision that eventually leads her to become his full-time guardian.

australian film festival 07:03:12 :: Randwick Ritz :: 39-47 St Pauls St Randwick

PICS :: KC

Samantha discovers that the bike has been sold by Cyril’s father to another child on the estate. She buys it back and returns it to the boy, but he refuses to believe Papa could have done such a terrible thing until a faceto-face meeting with his father (played by Dardenne regular Jeremie Renier) confirms the betrayal. Renier, reprising his man/ boy character from The Child, tells his son he doesn’t want to see him, leaving Cyril to come to terms with his abandonment, and challenging him to find a way to trust someone – anyone – ever again.

Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

MICK TURNER

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The Dardennes don’t appear to think much of the modern male. The film is populated with undignified, responsibility-shirking men who all need a stiff uppercut to the jaw. But by telling the story so subjectively, with the camera frequently positioned at Cyril’s eyelevel, the innocence and dignity of the child’s point of view is revealed. There is hope.

The child/father/bicycle dynamic has a healthy precedent in Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief. However, where the neo-realist classic is about a father trying to locate his lost bicycle while retaining the respect of his son, here we have a child on a bicycle trying to retain some respect for humankind in general. Such is the mastery of the Dardennes, that the true height of these stakes doesn’t sink in until the credits roll.

Tues March 20, 5.30pm Mart Gallery / 156 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills

Nikos Andronicos

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THE RUM DIARY

o it turns out Dirty Three’s Mick Turner is quite the Renaissance man. Not only is he super slick on the stick (guitar), he can also paint pretty sick pictures. Like the one on your left, which is of a king stabbing a dragon next to a butterfly with four eyes.

To coincide with Dirty Three’s upcoming Australian tour, Turner will exhibit a selection of his works, including limited edition reproduction prints of cover art images from Dirty Three albums along with a heap of recent stuff.

■ Film

Opens March 15 Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson. Starring Johnny Depp. Written and directed by Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I). With cred like that, The Rum Diary should be gonzo heaven, right?

Depp plays Thompson’s alter ego, journalist Paul Kemp. Thirty years old and jaded as hell, Kemp takes a job with a local

English language newspaper in San Juan because he’s a journeyman, and that’s what journeymen do. We meet him in the back of a cab flying through the Puerto Rican capital, knocking back minibar miniatures, eyes bloodshot, cigarette hanging from his bottom lip, dropping snide remarks about the hollowness of the American Dream. Fear and Loathing 2! Cue the bats!

Or don’t. Depp’s Kemp isn’t nearly drunk enough, often enough. He even says no to alcohol several times, completely undermining the spirit of the novel (in which he’s always drunk) and frustrating everyone who was looking forward to some Raoul Duke-style self-destruction. For a film based on a story about rudderless hacks who punish their bodies out of pure ennui, The Rum Diary just doesn’t go hard enough.

The novel itself has a barely discernible storyline, and was 25 year-old Thompson’s first foray into long-form fiction (published as a curiosity in 1998). Here, Robinson attempts to give the story some momentum by injecting heists, romances and roadtrips, but they serve only to stifle Depp’s already vague portrayal of Kemp.

Depp is miles from the electric sociopath he embodied in Fear and Loathing, and he’s pushing 50, which doesn’t help the energy levels. Robinson has done almost nothing since 1987’s Withnail, and Thompson is dead, so that’s three members of the creative team who were probably too old for the job.

As for the rest of the cast: Aaron Eckhart’s dodgy developer Sanderson is upstaged by his ridiculous six-pack, and Amber Heard, as Depp’s love interest Chenault, gives cinema’s most robotic performance since Short Circuit 2 (and even then, Johnny 5 was alive).

There are some funny set pieces, and for the die-hard Thompson fan it’s interesting to get a filmic portrait of the young Hunter, who hasn’t yet found his voice but is apparently “just about to”. For everyone else... skull a fifth of Appleton and go harass some loaferwearing new media types at Porteno, for a more satisfying modern equivalent.

Nikos Andronicos ■ Theatre

THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM Runs until March 31 Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom takes us a few steps away from our day-to-day reality, and promises us glimpses of a fantasy world, of words and worry.

In a bleak Irish fishing village, three sisters are cut off from the world, having locked themselves in their meagre home. The two eldest, Clara (Genevieve Mooy) and Breda (Odile Le Clézio) have chosen this seclusion, following the events of a fateful night many years ago at the New Electric Ballroom: a pulsing dance hall where rock’n’roll provided the soulful background music for young love.

The trio’s only contact with the outside world is through their regular visitor, Patsy (Justin Smith) the fishmonger, who wishes he could do more for the youngest sister Ada (Jane

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

Phegan) than simply deliver the fish. The play is based around the fantasies this family have created for themselves, telling and retelling their stories thousands of times to justify their lonely existence. Whilst the script succeeds in creating its own, insular world, it sometimes doesn’t know what to do once it’s got there.

What holds the show together are strong performances from the whole cast, who rise to the challenges of this difficult script. This is testament to the hard work of both the actors and director Kate Gaul. Mooy and Clézio are equally matched as the manic older sisters whose pain is at the heart of the story. They manage to find the comedy, the horror and most importantly, the reality in the crazed memories of Clara and Breda.

Smith drops in perfectly as the humble fishmonger, longing for more. Without spoiling the surprise, it’s hard to describe how completely his performance wins you over, but it certainly does. In the middle of it all is Phegan who is equal parts innocent and sadistic as the youngest Ada, swinging between absolute control and subordination.

It is on the strength of these actors that this play succeeds, in spite of a script that fails to deliver on its grander promises.

Henry Florence ■ Dance

2 ONE ANOTHER Runs until March 31 It’s opening night speeches, and the everdazzling, white-shirted Rafael Bonachela seems to hover behind his podium, halfway up the grand white staircase that graces the Sydney Theatre foyer. Below, an adoring crowd soaks in every charmingly accented word, as he reveals that before 2 One Another had its name, this latest pulsing, shimmering Sydney Dance Company masterpiece was known only as ‘Wakka

Wakka Boom’.

Indeed, 2 One Another packs a blinding punch despite a somewhat mundane conceptual premise. Exploring the relationship between the couple, the individual and the group (Gideon Obarzanek’s Assembly recently did much the same thing in a more experimentally relevant way), Bonachela has challenged his dancers with a complex physical language, which is executed with near-technical perfection. Particularly watchable mentions go to Annabel Knight, Charmene Yap and Richard Cilli.

This technical perfection translates across all artistic elements of the work, the dance but one layer of meaning in a beautifully constructed world. Tony Assness’ production and costume design is ultra sleek, and the backdrop screen, overseen

by Alastair Stephen, radiates texture and light to enhance both the physical and sonic components.

An eclectic soundtrack alters swiftly from grungy electric adrenalin-psyche to smooth, melancholic opera, and is overlaid at points with poet Samuel Webster’s abstracted textual excerpts. Sydney-based composer Nick Wales has also proven himself a powerful collaborative addition and his ‘Dark Half’ leads us to a heady climax.

With all the elements in place, 2 One Another makes for a contemporary Australian dance must-see. However, as a work that aims to explore human connectedness and isolation in different forms, I only caught whiffs of true human and emotional engagement. In the end, all the razzle-dazzle threatened to overpower the heart of the piece, and perhaps if Bonachela had stuck with his apt working title ‘Wakka Wakka Boom’, I wouldn’t have been looking for something that wasn’t quite there.

Paris, Sydney, Bruges, Kyoto and San Francisco.

You’ve spent a lot of time exploring the “ugly outer suburbs/mundane urban environments” of some of the world’s most beautiful cities. What about these ‘other’ places appeals to you? Nothing appeals to me at all. I remember being in Paris and waking up at 5am in the cold and asking my partner, rhetorically, ‘Why did I choose the project that stinks the most’?! Economic and emotional disparity is the point here, between what most people see and the so-called ‘rest’.

Xxxxx

Do all cities look the same underneath?

Definitely not. When I went to Kyoto, I was really struck by the different sense of social organisation. In Paris I filmed the periphery; had I done that in Kyoto I would have filmed the beautiful mountains all around; so the Kyoto footage was really the pockets of junk between the heritage jewels. In San Francisco I confined myself to two regions, one of which is actually pretty city-central.

This exhibition has taken you six years to produce. Did you make any

Friday March 30th – Brass Monkey, Cronulla www.brassmonkey.com.au (ph 02 9544 3844)

Saturday March 31st – The Vanguard, Sydney www.thevanguard.com.au (ph 02 9557 9409)

Sunday April 1st – The Vault, Windsor

Classy Americana drawing on the influences of honky-tonk, rock ‘n roll, rockabilly, western swing, alt-country, blues and sixties rock and pop. Eilen Jewell is one act you should not miss!

AS SEEN ON “MTV”, “ROAD TRIP”, “FREDDY GOT FINGERED” AND HOST OF “TOM GREEN’S HOUSE TONIGHT”

With Adam Geczy

V

www.thevanguard.com.au (ph 02 9557 9409)

By Roslyn Helper

Street Level eteran multidimensional artist, lecturer and art critic Adam Geczy has spent the last six years travelling the world… but not the world Lonely Planet would ever tell you about. His new exhibition, the ironically titled Beautiful Cities, explores what lies beneath the postcard pictures and sunshine smiles that lure us on vacation, revealing the truth about the chaos of overpopulation and the din of globalization.

Wednesday March 28th – The Vanguard, Sydney

TOM GREEN A-LIST ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

conceptual discoveries whilst making this body of work? Totally – media, ideas, the lot. I am now really satisfied that I gave myself that time, and I am glad that the work also contains a bit of history, in terms of the intervals in which the sequences were produced. When you make works of art, it is really important that they sneak up on you, that they teach you things. I would never have had such a strong sense of the different ways in which cities have been organised without having done this work.

Describe how sound is integral to your work. For more than a decade I have worked with composers. Sound is a key component to the work. It is not conventional music bit what I call Music+Video. There is a lot of bustle between sound and image that simulates the sense of metropolitan disorientation. Better see [the exhibition] and see what you think.

How do you keep pushing yourself as an artist? New configurations; new constellations. Bring old ideas up-to-date.

Be compassionate with your work. Be uncompromisingly violent with your work.

Don’t let the art-fashionistas pin you down.

What: Beautiful Cities by Adam Geczy When: Opens March 21 Where: Artspace / 43 - 51 Cowper Wharf Rd Woolloomooloo More: artspace.org.au

MTV’s funniest & most unpredictable personality returns to Australia to provide non-stop laughter with his brilliantly cracked view of the world around him.

EVAN THEATRE PENRITH FRIDAY 30TH MARCH BOOKINGS PH: 4720 5555 penrith.panthers.com.au

IPAC WOLLONGONG SATURDAY 31ST MARCH BOOKINGS PH: 4224 5999 merrigong.com.au

ENMORE THEATRE SUNDAY 1ST APRIL BOOKINGS PH: 132 849 ticketek.com.au BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 29

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK GRIMES

Visions 4AD/Remote Control Visions is a confident, impressive sleight of synthetic pop. The songs are simple, usually centering around only a couple of artfully minimal chord progressions, but that’s all Claire Boucher needs to work her wyrd trick on your ears.

This is a deceptively clever synth-pop record. You’ll enjoy it – if you don’t find Grimes’ voice too sweet a pill to swallow.

The instruments throughout sound brittle and synthetic, but not garishly or ostentatiously so. The rumbling, delayed arpeggio that opens ‘Genesis’ is laced with ham-fisted, lilting pentatonic tinkering. It feels endearingly naïve, as though it could’ve been pawed out on the black keys by a seven-year-old, but blooms into something sophisticated and elegiac as Boucher’s descending vocal settles like a pall of smoke over the changes.

LAMBCHOP

LOVERS JUMP CREEK

Mr. M Spunk Were I Lambchop’s publicist for Mr. M, I’d allow a long lead-time between promo copies and the record’s release date to give critics the longest possible time to let this one marinate. Like furled seedlings, all Lambchop records need time and attention to bloom. All are eventually growers. Especially Mr. M. The story goes, when Kurt Wagner’s friend Vic Chesnutt died, Kurt (also an artist) began painting his way out of the pain. He was approached

by Mark Nevers (producer for Will Oldham and Andrew Bird) who told Kurt he “had a concept of a sound and a method that worked with the tone of [Kurt’s] writing”. Mr. M was a chance for Kurt to “do things as directly and true to [his] desires as possible”. What an offer. It’s the kind of creative honesty we all crave in the aftermath of grief.

A red flag is waved in the first 15 seconds, and that flag is strings.

Lots of them. Swooping, film-scoreworthy strings. They recede into the undergrowth as opener ‘If Not I’ll Just Die’ progresses but, along with horns and piano, remain a constant theme throughout, coating instrumental tracks like ‘Betty’s Overture’ in the yellowed showbiz smoke-haze of a Reno casino, circa ‘64. Grief isn’t an overly apparent theme; its attendant state of introspection, however, is, and when ‘Gone Tomorrow’ ambles off into a long, mesmeric jam it seems to mirror the far-sighted meditations we succumb to when someone we love dies.

While Wagner’s hushed, reedy voice and finger-picked guitar is still the heart of Mr. M, Nevers’ orchestral touch has birthed a record that’s more complex and elusive than its forerunners.

Kate Hennessy

Sydney four-piece Lovers Jump Creek are easily one of the most original-sounding rock acts to come out of the local scene in recent times. Channelling elements of Cog, Karnivool and Fall Out Boy, they’ve managed to draw on disparate influences from jazz (the introduction to ‘French Kiss’ is a perfectlyexecuted, blissful nod to cool jazz) to hardcore (the riffs throughout the first minute of ‘Shut Up And Touch Me’ are some of the fattest and most urgent you’ll hear) and everything in between, while achieving an overridingly unique sound. And, importantly, played with just as much energy as you’d expect from a live show.

The guitar parts are dynamic and intricate, the drums hard-hitting, the basslines well-considered, the production values stunning. Vocalist Mark Webber’s lyrics are packed with emotion, delivered with an absolute mastery of tone and phrasing, especially in the higher ranges.

As far as the overall progression of the EP is concerned, no two tracks are the same. Sections of songs differ from the norm just enough to remain interesting without straying too far from a standard rock/pop structure.

Solos are perfectly placed and grow in technicality, heavy riffs explode out of quiet sections mid-song, and all are cemented by complex yet tasteful rhythm guitar parts on the low end.

This is a fantastic first effort with crossover appeal for fans of various genres, and will no doubt produce a string of energy-fuelled live shows to support its release.

The way the lyrics toy with the rudimentary '80s kick/snare rhythm tracks recall the adroit and intoxicating way nursery rhymes used to syncopate with the slap of palms in schoolyard clapping games. The only real knot of gristle is Boucher’s voice itself. It’s palatable enough when recalling an airier Kate Bush or Cyndi Lauper, but veers into insufferable chip-tune Mariah Carey territory at some points. When she whips it into ear-splitting terminals in the wordless chorus of ‘Colour Of Moonlight’, my cat bolts out of the room, and I wish I could follow.

NO ART

In their short three years of existence, No Art have been given the nod of approval by Richard Kingsmill, featured as unsigned artist of the week on FBi Radio, recorded a piece on ABC National’s Quiet Space and developed a following as one of the favourite acts of Sydney’s DIY circuit.

Achieving all this without a release to their name is one thing, but the real achievement is the two sides of the band that have been acknowledged: the melodic pop approved by triple j’s Unearthed, and the extended ambient jam featured on the Quiet Space program. With their debut EP, Exotica, they let both sides of their personality shine, shifting from the undeniable hooks of ‘Foxfire’ to the desolate flutters of noise that seep through the cracks of ‘Squid Shaker.’

In just five tracks, No Art deliver a solid statement of intent. Album opener ‘Kids In Place’ drives along with dark swagger until struck by a short-lived explosion of distorted guitar, collapsing into a stilted second half marked by innocently duelling vocals, before bookending itself at its finish. ‘Epica’ has a similar take on structure, building from the barren moans and rolling toms that open the track to its soaring, Explosions In The Sky-inspired finish.

It’s this penchant for exploring the limits of their song-craft that makes No Art such an interesting proponent of their genre. A cursory listen could see this album easily passed off as darker, Warpaint-esque indie, but at its heart lies an unpretentious experimental streak born out of an eagerness for discovery.

Exotica is a promising release not just because of what’s on the record, but what it leads us to expect from this band.

Max Easton

To describe this as ‘summery’ folk pop would be both reductive and wrong – but it is certainly warmer, less dark and less strange than The Maple Trail’s previous offerings.

This album evokes the kind of emotionally detached, peacefully sombre feeling that accompanies a walk in the wilderness or along a cliff – when mortality introduces itself as a benign but lingering presence.

Despite being conceived, written and recorded in various locations (The Blue Mountains, Sydney, New Zealand), the music has a real sense of stillness, of time moving slowly. The lyrics are subtle and elusive enough to testify to this – allowing the low, slow strings, steady horns and plucked guitar to structure and set the scene through which Aidan Roberts’ vocal treads its balanced and unwavering path between earthiness and sweetness, strength and hush.

Album opener ‘Captain Dies’ illustrates this best, with its single cello note humming throughout, and Roberts’ relaxed cadence drawing out over lines like ‘the feathers fly, and nobody blinks an eye’. In melancholic duet ‘Manuscript’, label buddy Caitlin Park’s voice is a perfect match, even if the lyrical promise of marriage sounds like a recipe for heartbreak. Other highlights include the achey slide guitar of ‘This Dead Moon’, and almost cheerful, blowing-in-the-wind chimes on ‘Barking Dog and Swallow’.

This album achieves greater success in creating a cozily subdued, by-thecampfire atmosphere than sharing the stories and stirring the feelings that stay with you come daybreak and beyond.

For listening when you need an escape to a more twilight and contemplative reality, preferably on board a Countrylink train.

Jenny Noyes

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Underlights EP Inertia Underlights have come a long way from the sloppy blues rockers I saw tearing it up on the small stage at the Annandale a few years back. They had plenty of appeal then, but they would struggle to keep time and their songs would go on for way too long. Now trading in psychedelic rock, their debut EP is tight, economic and manages to maintain the elements of the band that made them appealing in the first place.

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The EP opens with ‘Now That You’re In Love’, the track that caught the attention of triple j Unearthed and scored them a spot on this year’s Big Day Out. Bright, chorus-laden acoustic guitars propel the song along, while ‘60s (by way of ‘80s) influenced vocal harmonies swell as the electric guitars build nicely.

By the next track, ‘Remnants’, it’s clear that Underlights are out to create their own musical and lyrical world; there are a lot of long, reverb-washed notes, psychedelic guitars, and lyrics about clouds. In fact, there’s so much going on here that it’s difficult to tell what instruments they’re using, how many

singers there are, and what effects are being employed. It never sounds messy though, and the end results are very pleasing.

Towards the end of the EP some of the tracks start to waffle on a little. None of it is bad – there isn’t a dud note on the record – but there isn’t a great deal of variation either.

Underlights have delivered a wellperformed, well written and well produced debut that is sure to attract plenty of attention on the local front and maybe, with a little luck, overseas as well.

Roland Kay-Smith

Luke Telford

Cable Mount Warning Broken Stone Records

Sheridan Morley

UNDERLIGHTS

Some might dismiss the sonic levity for a lack of substance. But the paradox posed by this lofty childishness and the record’s eerie opacity is what holds its essential, enigmatic appeal.

THE MAPLE TRAIL

Exotica EP Independent

Bless This Mess EP Independent For an independently released, locally-produced debut EP, Bless This Mess sounds pretty damn world-class.

‘Oblivion’ is every bit as deceptively masterful. The intro synth sounds as though it’s melting in its effort to spin bass notes into a coherent web, dropping or smudging them occasionally.

WHITE RABBITS Milk Famous Mute/EMI White Rabbits have never quite managed to take off for some reason, despite testing out a couple of cannily crafted versions of themselves. On their debut, Fort Nightly, they sounded like an unhinged Cold War Kids in a roadhouse bar; they scored some solid airplay with the hauntingly frenetic caffeine jolt of ‘Percussion Gun’, which is still their best song by far.

‘Gun’ was from their second record It’s Frightening, produced by Spoon frontman Britt Daniel. There’s no doubt that the Missouri six-piece owe much to Spoon – they even recruited Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga producer Mike McCarthy.

Quizzical pianos saunter and probe over the top of impossibly crisp drums, while frontman Greg Roberts and Alex Even trade Interesting Guitar Noises. On close examination, these elements give nice texture to songs that slip by unnoticed on a casual listen – like a magic eye puzzle, once you look past the obvious pattern on the surface a new dimension suddenly appears. Those mathematically-scraped guitars and sly, pulsing bass ripple against each other on midpoint tracks like ‘Are You Free’ and ‘It’s Frightening’ (yep, right album), jostling with electronic noise and the piano interjections that gave Fort its ramshackle charm.

Like Gimme Fiction, Milk Famous does come off as a stronger statement of purpose than its predecessors – slicker, more graceful, packed in tight and yet more expansive. But it lacks a sense of narrative to give it focus. Only on closer ‘I Had It Coming’ do they strike the balance of cynicism and crisp, loose layers that is most “them”.

Put down the cutlery and pick up the percussion gun, boys; you’re at your best when you’re not worried about mussing your hair a bit.

Caitlin Welsh

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

CHILDISH GAMBINO - Camp RINGO DEATHSTARR - Colour Trip DIAMOND RINGS - Special Affections

DISCODEINE - S/T DOM - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP

ELEFANT TRAKS & NEW WORLD ARTISTS present

A Thousand Lives Tour 2012

plus

SPECIAL GUESTS

Friday 30 March

MANNING BAR Saturday 31 March

CAMBRIDGE HOTEL Newcastle

Future Shade out now on Elefant Traks / Inertia // iTunes Best Australian Hiphop Album 2011

TICKETS ON SALE NOW theherd.oztix.com.au and OZTIX 1300 762 545 BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 31

live reviews what we've been to see...

ST VINCENT, OSCAR + MARTIN The Factory Monday March 12

There was an excited buzz tonight, the patron saint of girls-with-guitars attracting a very healthy room of worshippers. But first was Oscar + Martin, or Martin + Oscar, their roleswapping leading to occasional confusion as to who’s who. There were some lovely vocals, particularly Oscar’s D’Angelo-aping keen, though considering their reliance on their equipment it seems odd that it was not used to greater effect, especially considering the amount of gear apparently at their disposal.

It’s a hard thing to warm up a crowd, but even at their most frenetic (falling into some pseudo-tribal face-to-face drumming à la Kyü), it didn’t really feel as though the pair had unleashed. Check back in a year.

None such could be said of the main act, Annie Clark (aka St Vincent) taking the stage to immediately unload ‘Surgeon’, ‘Cheerleader’ and ‘Chloe In The Afternoon’ back-to-back in a spastic blaze of white light, Clark shredding strings to quivering effect.

There was something almost steampunk about the schtick deployed here: partly the outfit, frilly blouse matched with leather shorts; partly the way her black frizz floated halo-like in the strobe, prompting flashbacks to Ridley Scott’s Alien; partly her almost automated, android shuffle back and forth to the microphone along the radial axis of the

REAL ESTATE, TWERPS, SURES The Standard Friday March 9

Awash with rolled-up cuffs, stripes and checkers, perfectly-manicured scruffiness, faded denim, boat shoes and talk of “working in the media”, what was once The Standard has transformed into hipster Mecca. LOL stereotyping, but seriously – first appearances portend a neat fit between tonight’s audience and the Pitchfork-lauded, Brooklyn-via-New-Jersey boys Real Estate.

With cheekbones to intimidate Johnny Depp, Sures’ Jonas Nicholls appears with co-founding compadre Matt Hogan to begin proceedings. With bassist and drummer in tow, Sures’ highly likeable indie-pop is tinged with punk sensibility, whilst echoes of Weezer can be heard in the pairing of Hogan’s guitar riffs with Nicholls’ falsetto.

Lo-fi Melbournites Twerps generate an infectious fullness of sound which, I’m told, has met with the approval of Jessica Alba (who tweeted the briefest of endorsements, “Twerps ‘Dreamin’”, in January). Yet the number of bopping heads in the audience suggests that the warm embrace of their '70s-pop-crossnew-wave bear hug is not

stage, band nattily attired in matching jackets and ties, and Clark casting herself in a Metropolis of her own making. Perhaps retro-future’s nearer the mark, her girly-girl inflections almost parodying the lasses of Mad Men. Aesthetics aside, Clark provided an incontestable demonstration this evening of her More Than A Pretty Face-ness (though there is that too), her visceral brand of hook-laden art-pop being delivered with steel beneath the honeyed voice, deft skill beneath the guitar pyrotechnics. The buttoned-down neuroses that characterise the aforementioned songs, and indeed much of the material from 2009’s Actor and last year’s brilliant Strange Mercy, seethed to the surface throughout the set tonight. Highlights included the pounding ‘Northern Lights’ and new song ‘Crocodile,’ with Clark amping up the fun factor over any semblance of quality, joining the audience to hurl herself around, bouncing off one delighted crowd member after another.

Discarding her stringed companion for an encore, the cigarette-butt-strewn aftermath ‘The Party’, she seemed more ‘50s lounge singer than saint, leaving her followers dazed, energised and a little sad.

Oliver Downes OUR PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY

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OUR PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY

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the purview of celebrities alone. Stylistic differences aside, a striking resemblance to Paul Kelly is heard at times in the tenor vocals of Marty Frawley, Twerps’ lead singer and guitarist. This likeness would be even uncannier if Frawley weren’t the son of the late and revered singersongwriter Maurice Frawley, who played guitar with Paul Kelly & The Dots.

Real Estate’s stage presence is in keeping with the nature of their music; understated would be an understatement.

Martin Courtney, Matt Mondanile, Alex Bleeker and Jackson Pollis remain unfazed by feedback issues in opener ‘Suburban Dogs,’ and have begun to establish a solid groove when second number ‘All The Same’ draws to a close.

Everything is coming up sweet sweet apple pie and sounds of summer for ‘Easy’ and ‘Green Aisles,’ and by the time ‘Days’, ‘It’s Real’ and ‘Out Of Tune’ loll around later in the set, a relaxed and satiated crowd is as happily responsive as they are ever going to be. There is little audible difference between live and recorded versions of Real Estate’s songs.

As a band, they’re all about subtlety, and their talent lies not in the creation of large-scale spectacle but in the way in w h i c h they gently wring beauty from musical nuance to slowly evoke a sense of wellbeing in the listener.

This talent shines through this evening.

Andrew Yorke

OUR PHOTOGRAPHER :: TIM LEVY

BON IVER

Sydney Opera House Sunday March 11 Not if he’d seen the Saturday Night Live parody of himself (in which Justin Timberlake sang and strummed himself into a snooze) and shaken his fist in mild anger at his television, could Wisconsin folkie Justin Vernon have contrived to put on a more vehemently energetic show.

Far from the subdued set he played at Sydney Festival a few years back, this was a nine-piece explosion of energy – with two drum kits, three guitars, and a roster of instruments that passed through trombone, trumpet and French horn, into clarinet and every register of sax. In fact, if you closed your eyes during ‘Hinnom, TX’ and imagined psychedelic space-age costumes and a trio of femme

backing singers, you might have mistaken it for Sufjan’s Sydney Festival show.

In fact, the defining quality of this show is the lack of defining quality – the ability of Bon Iver to shift through various registers and remind you of other bands and singers. There are times (‘Calgary’) when the wall-of-sound epic pop-iness calls to mind Coldplay, of all things; or Vernon’s gloriously unbound higher vocal registers and falsetto delivery is uncannily similar to, say, Alex Lloyd (‘Flume’); and the synths, electric guitars and neon blue-meets-pink lighting scheme remind us of ‘80s soft rock – not to mention those Auto-Tuned vocals that come out of a Kanye fantasy…

All of which is fine; but if you expected to hear Bon Iver, then you came to the wrong place. And as I left the Concert Hall, I decided I’m far more a fan of the album than the man. I also realised that Bon Iver is such an exquisitely composed and perfectly produced record, and so coherent and contiguous in its journey from start to finish, that it would be very hard to improve on it live. (And as if realising that, the first two triumphant songs out the gate were the first two tracks from the record – ‘Perth’ and ‘Minnesota IV’). That said, the musicianship was about as good as it gets, with more individual talent on that stage than seems fair – excavated in long, jammy, improvisational excursions mid-song, to the delight of the audience.

For my money, the highlights were the quieter moments that replicated the finetuned harmonies and instrumentation of the album – but two standing ovations suggest a lot of people liked this show just the way it was.

Dee Jefferson

“Waste your days. on your own, getting drunk, getting stoned. I’m sober, still alone....” - JAMES WALSH 32 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 33

live reviews what we've been to see...

FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012 Randwick Racecourse Saturday March 10 Future Music Festival is designed to attract a predictable horde of fistpumpers through the gates, but there were some artists on the bill this year that suggested a definite attempt at diversifying the demographic.

Everyone from Jessie J to James Murphy played, which was impressively one of the few sold-out festivals of the Australian summer circuit just gone.

The stages were relatively well positioned to prevent the sound from one stage bleeding into another’s. One flaw, however, was the placement of the DFA stage, which was almost cordoned off into an annexe of Randwick Racecourse, as if to kick the 1979 crew into its own little disco corner. A shame, because it was the least populated stage with arguably the best sets of the day, including the likes of The Juan MacLean, Hercules & Love Affair and Holy Ghost!.

New Zealand’s The Naked And Famous played to a healthy afternoon crowd, with their sun-kissed M83-meets-Passion-Pit synth-garage-pop helping to spread the pleasantries amongst what can only be described as a crowd with one of the lowest percentages of meathead for the day.

Coming into the dénouement of their set, they lost some of their mojo as crowds from all over the festival flooded to the main stage in an electro-mecca pilgrimage. Skrillex was on. The pockmarked former-emo with the silly haircut now has a few Grammys under his belt, and the sheer numbers showed.

With flames and confetti to stamp the point home, his aggressive take on dubstep brought out a new kind of anarchy in the crowd, who screamed and wub-wubbed their way through ‘Bangarang,’ ‘Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites’, and his notoriously popular remixes of Avicii’s ‘Levels’ and Benny Benassi’s ‘Cinema’.

Friendly Fires were blissful and refreshing after Skrillex’s manic set, as Ed Macfarlane boogied non-stop through their

performance in a way that was goofy at your Year 6 disco, but he made look so cool. The three-piece employed a part-time bassist/ percussionist to fill out their sound, and their tropical, percussive set was faultless. Opening with ‘Lovesick’, the boys played an even share from their debut and Pala, maintaining an energy and vigour that put them in the running for best set of the day.

The Wombats never fail to put on a show.

The songs from This Modern Glitch were warmly received by the more danceinclined Future crowd, with earlier numbers ‘Moving To New York’ and ‘Kill The Director’ also getting a rousing reaction before ending with the helter skelter ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’. Performing comes easy for these guys, and it feels like you’re just at a mate’s gig, with Murph’s lazy banter working a charm between songs – “What on earth is ‘manly’ about that particular beach?”. A particularly nice touch came when Murph dedicated ‘Lets Dance to Joy Division’ to New Order.

The two headliners – Swedish House Mafia and New Order – were set to play on adjacent stages, both massive acts in their own right. It was a bold move by Future to include an aging ‘80s band in the lineup (regardless of their legacy), and their audacity didn’t fully pay off. New Order’s crowd numbers paled in comparison to SHM’s, which was a testament to Future’s demographic more than anything. It was grating on New Order though, whose breaks between songs were punctuated by the distant but booming bass thuds from SHM’s set. An ill-fitting way to end the festival, which could have been avoided.

Only at Future Music Festival can you hear Avicii’s ‘Levels’ played five times during the day – and Avicii isn’t even there. The Festival boasted a diverse, brave lineup this year that aimed to satisfy people with all different sizes of bicep, and it mostly worked!

Rach Seneviratne

LEY MAR & KATRINE CLARKE

v energy green room 10:03:12 :: Future Music Festival 2012 :: Randwick Racecourse

PICS :: LM

OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS :: ASH

PHOTOGRAPHER :: LIA

M MADDEN

“Hatchets in the corner ears to the ground. Improve to the groove. get down to the sound” - ADAM ANT 34 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

live reviews what we've been to see...

THE RAPTURE, AZARI & III Metro Theatre Thursday March 8

Whether it’s torrential rain or poor booking strategy, the dancefloor for Azari & III’s opening slot is dismal tonight. Given that the band comes from the same stable as the headliner and is perfectly outrageous and electronic enough to satisfy even the most jaded of critics, the Canadian quartet should be killing it. And they are, but thanks to someone putting them on 15 minutes before the advertised start time, nobody’s watching. We rock up just as they’re smashing into ‘Manic’, having already disposed of their two big hits to an empty room. The hyper-homo-sexual frontmen are thrusting with everything they’ve got, and the bass is huge (one would say overbearing) so it’s certainly got the right feel to it. Azari’s brand of deep house has scored their fans the world over, but despite the gyrations, live V-drums and one overzealous DJ, the crowd seems largely unmoved. James Murphy rocks up only to keep his fingers in his ears, visibly appalled at the sound quality. What a shame.

DIE ANTWOORD, KATO The Enmore Theatre Friday March 9

A colourful crowd of spandex-clad ravers, costume-attired pill poppers, trashy, hyperactive teens and all manner of weirdos packed the Enmore last Friday night to witness Die Antwoord, the selfproclaimed “amalgamation of every culture in the world”.

After Kato warmed up the crowd with a set that fused tribal, hip hop, chest thumping and Disney tunes, a half-hour delay gave way to the haunting face of the late Leon Booth, projected above the stage, accompanied by brooding atmospheric sounds that rapidly built with the anticipation of the crowd. DJ Hi Tek entered the stage first and started churning out beats, followed by angelic sexpot Yo-Landi Vi$$er, prancing into the arena, and finally Die Antwoord’s absurdly aggressive front man, Ninja, complete with his trademark rat’s tail and Zef mustache.

It’s hard to imagine a Die Antwoord performance not being branded into your mind: ‘I Fink You Freeky’ featured Ninja strutting across the stage pretending to ejaculate on the audience; elsewhere, bizarre backdrops of cartoon phalluses, hardcore sex and self-mutilation accompanied songs.

TAYLOR SWIFT Allphones Arena Friday March 9

As the surprisingly tall pop star strode out from behind the red curtains that enclosed her elaborate, Disney-inspired stage, the entire arena becomes a glowstick-lit city of bedlam. To her fans, she’s like an amazing big sister who knows exactly how they’re feeling, and writes songs that help put into words what they can’t explain. It’s not contrived or deliberately exploitative, Taylor Swift is just writing bona fide, earnest girl-withguitar love songs.

The thing about Swift is that she turns the macro into the micro. Her love songs are all about her actual romantic life, so she’s putting her high-profile dalliances with Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal, and John Mayer on the same level as any one of her fans’ melodramas with that boy from down the street.

Having said that, her stage show is gargantuan. It’s a kaleidoscopic, enchanted wonderland complete with grand staircases and archways, confetti, trapeze artists, magic pop-ups, costume changes, a ten-piece band, backup dancers, giant Quasimodo bells and fireworks. Each song reads like a different chapter in the T. Swift fairytale – from the

The Rapture have now been around long enough that we all know what to expect from them, but this doesn’t make them any less entertaining live. The DFA champs and current Modular faves lean heavily on their sophomore, rather than their new record, which is a wise move as it contains almost all of their best songs (save ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, new, and ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’, old). Luke Jenner is in top form as always, quickly matching the audience’s intensity level while his saxophone-playing, cowbell-smashing salsa dancer of a keyboardist steals the show on almost every track. ‘Whoo! Alright...’ remains one of their best, and the three-song medley it inspires is the high point of a genuinely entertaining evening. The Rapture’s new material doesn’t necessarily translate as well, but they’ve got more than enough fuel in the tank and the right players – you have to see their drummer in full swing – to engender confidence anyway. Jenner’s yelp is still the best thing this side of David Byrne, and it’s very hard to get tired of ‘Get Myself Into It’ even if you’ve seen it live 20 times.

Jonno Seidler

Right before ‘Rich Bitch’, Ninja decided to give a scarily accurate parody of Aussie hip hop. Rich indeed, coming from a middle class white guy in his thirties who raps about being a ninja – but hilarious nonetheless. “Australia taught me how to swear,” he added, “– this is how I knew what a cunt is”. On Ninja’s third time divebombing the crowd, the convulsing mosh pit trampled him. Yelps (aimed mostly at security) of “Grab my fucking arms you retards” filled the theatre. Yanked out and limping back onto the stage, he yelled out, “Is everyone down there alright? I’m alright – I’m a fooking ninja!” as the opening synths of ‘Enter The Ninja’ filled the theatre.

Die Antwoord must surely be partly in jest; it doesn’t take a genius to notice their homophobic lyrics coming up against their homoerotic performances, amongst many other satirical undertones. They even mocked their own audience at the final moment, with lighting and sound cues that hyped the crowd up for what seemed like an inevitable encore – only to climax by turning the stage lights off and leaving panting punters exposed and confused under the house lights. It’s the kind of windup that could have caused a riot had their performance not contained so much energy and spectacle. Love them or hate them, Die Antwoord are unforgettable.

Matt O’Neil

fantasy wedding of ‘Speak Now’ to the 13-year-old dork-girl’s anthem ‘You Belong With Me’. The entire crowd is screaming every lyric of every song back to their heroine like it’s their job to do so.

Whether it’s clever marketing or actually true, I’m led to believe that the genesis of all Taylor Swift’s songs come from particularly forlorn nights alone with her thoughts and her rustic steel-string, where she sits down under a gnarled oak tree and puts pen to parchment. She honours this about an hour in, by making her way from the front of stage to the back of the floor to do an acoustic miniset, much to the rapture of the back of the arena.

She ended with the epic ‘Love Story’, where singing from a Romeo and Juliet balcony suspended by wires that helped her circumnavigate the entire arena 25 metres in the air, looking down at her fans with as much appreciation as they were giving back to her. As the curtains closed and the house lights flicked on, it was as if the audience had awoken from a dream, with nonplussed parents shepherding kids out who were eager to scamper home and update the fuck out of their Facebooks – “BEST. GIG. EVA.” And to be honest, I can’t blame them.

Rach Seneviratne

BRAG :: 452 :: 05:03:12 :: 35

snap sn ap

up all night out all week . . .

kira puru & the bruise party profile

It’s called: ‘When All Your Love is Not Enough’ – 7” single launch.

It sounds like: The single? It sounds like a slow fuck. And not the type when you’re lying there, wondering what’s going to happen on the next episode of The Wire.

Who’s playing? There’ll be us, Sydney’s dance porn act The Brutal Poodles, and a riff-heavy, blues act called The Blackwater Fever who are on tour with us.

Sell it to us: We’re hardworking sonsabitches and there’s no way we’d drive all the way into Sydney’s CBD traffic to put on a shit show. We spent ages looking for two bands that were going to make this night well worth the measly $10 and for anyone that’s seen us before, you’ll be happy to know we’ve got some new songs on the burner too.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: If all goes according to plan… not much.

Crowd specs: Huh? Wallet damage: A tenner.

Where: GoodGod Small Club

jessie j

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When: Friday March 23

karavan gypsy festival

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08:03:12 :: Hordern Pavilion :: 122 Lang Rd Moore Park 8117 6700

new order

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sam sparro 07:03:12 :: Hordern Pavilion :: 122 Lang Rd Moore Park 8117 6700

36 :: BRAG :: 454: 19:03:12

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10:03:12 :: The Standard:: Level 3/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100

09:03:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER PEACHY :: GEORGE POPOV :: ROCKET WEIJERS MAS MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THO

snap sn ap Remedy

up all night out all week . . .

More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart

Bruce Springsteen

the checks

PICS :: RW

ENDLESS BOOGIE

07:03:12 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247

The size of the crowd at the Sando was considerably less than the tens of thousands that packed into stadiums in the US in the mid '70s to see Foghat and ZZ Top, but Endless Boogie did the legacy of both mighty proud the other night. With songs at times stretching to a hypnotic half an hour, they perfectly executed the Grateful Dead’s trick of everything flowing seamlessly into everything else, which at one point saw them tackle a few minutes of ‘GOD (Guitar Overdose)' by The Coloured Balls mid choon. The music rose and fell and seemed about to close – only to rebuild again as if it had a stronger will to survive than its creators possessed, trying to bring it to a halt. It was extraordinary, almost Sister Ray type stuff led by a singer and guitarist who looked like Neil from The Young Ones. They had the house howling and were proof positive that this stuff might seem simple and monobrowed, but rhythm playing like this ain’t no small skill.

Malcolm Young would have been in raptures.

They have a third album on the way, and like the other two it’ll be a double.

HIGH ON FIRE

It’s not out until April but High On Fire’s new effort, De Vermis Mysteriis is already garnering some breathless raves along the lines of it being the trio’s own high tide mark against which everything else they do and have done will be judged. That is, it’s their Back in Black or Master Of Puppets.

Hopefully it’ll move as many units as either of those two. Matt Pike deserves some bucks and major recognition after slaving for so long in the metal trenches.

T. REX CAPTURED

A multi-disc and DVD edition of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior is out in May. It and The Slider album showcased Marc Bolan’s cosmic elf take on rock‘n’roll with classic short sharp pop singles that have been likened to Howlin’ Wolf. Live, all that 7” conciseness went to shit with Bolan doing unnecessarily long guitar solos at every turn, though this is where the magic was and still is.

the fabergettes

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TWISTED BROADWAY

09:03:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool Street Sydney 9267 3787

twist and shout party profile

It’s called: Twist and Shout’s 2nd Birthday!

It sounds like: If your birthday party was held on New Year's Eve, 1969.

Who’s playing? DJ Dylabolical and Doctor J. Sell it to us: Two years ago Twist and Shout started out doing unpretentious, high energy $5 dance parties where we play nothing but upbeat, fun ‘60s music of all genres. We’re back for our second birthday party, so along with balloons and lolly bags, expect some tributes to The Monkees and Etta James…

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Shaking your tail-feathers, dancing in the streets and twisting and shouting!

Crowd specs: Anyone who likes to dance!

Wallet damage: $5 on the door.

Where: Spectrum / Level 2, 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst When: Friday March 30 / 9pm-3am

:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER PEACHY :: GEORGE POPOV :: ROCKET WEIJERS MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS

Former Twisted Sister main man Dee Snider is kinda doing a Rod Stewart with the release in May of his album Dee Does Broadway, on which – as the name suggests

– he tackles a range of Broadway show tunes.

KYUSS LIVES?

So Josh Homme and Scott Reeder have called in the lawyers over Kyuss Lives! eh?

They did so after the band allegedly moved to seize ownership of the name Kyuss, which was always way more desirable than the graffiti-like moniker of Kyuss Lives! Did anyone on the planet not see this coming?

FEEDTIME FRENZY

That feedtime boxed set, The Aberrant Years, is out on Sub Pop – and what a joy it is, apart from the notion itself of the trio finally being seen worthy of such a righteous presentation. Format wise it’s four CDs, which is all their recorded output from their four albums plus bonus tracks, or there's a vinyl edition with a download for the extra goodies. Get it from Sub Pop and you also get a t-shirt to boot. The liner notes are by Leon O’Regan, who’s working on a book on the rumble merchants.

SPRINGSTEEN LITE

Can we have the old Bruce Springsteen circa 1978 back please? You know, the one who had cool and recorded with Lou Reed and performed with an intensity level that matched any of the punks? So he’s got a new album. We don’t care. Not a bit.

The man’s lost all his original “innocence” and has swallowed the ‘worker’s bud’ bit whole. (Bud Lite more like it…) There was a time when he was Elvis, John Fogerty and Buddy Holly all in one and was on a crusade to save and worship that music.

Now he’s super earnest and makes Huey Lewis seem right-on and viable, and the likes of the Dropkick Murphys the real contenders. Which of course they are.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES

Metallica’s Orion Festival in Atlantic City in June, which will see them playing the entire Black album, is getting stronger and more interesting all the time in terms of lineup.

It’s now been expanded to include Suicidal Tendencies, Sepultura, Torche, Red Fang and Wooden Shjips. This is in addition to the existing bill of the Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, The Sword and others.

ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is the Alex Harvey Band’s Live at the BBC, which kicks some serious freckle. These guys were always overshadowed by their sense of theatre and drama on stage, but underneath that greasepaint they rocked like many wished they could. Great stuff. Also spinning is the recently released deluxe edition of Big Country’s classic debut, The Crossing. Led by the guitar genius of the late Stuart Adamson, they did anthems better than anybody to the point where at Adamson’s funeral service, The Edge sighed that he wished that U2 could have written songs as powerful. Indeed. If only we could mix out the shitty '80s drum sound…

TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS On March 23 The Poor are at The Sando in Newtown and then on March 24 at the Clarendon Tavern.

The sixth annual Pete Wells memorial gig is on March 25 at the Bald Faced Stag in Leichhardt. The bill so far is Lucy Desoto And The Handsome Devils with a stellar lineup of very special guests to celebrate the life and times of Australia’s best-loved rock‘n’roll outlaw.

Japan’s numero uno garage rock‘n’rollers, The 5.6.7.8’s, stars of Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 blockbuster Kill Bill Vol. 1, and special guests of the Hoodoo Gurus on their national Dig It Up! tour in April, are doing

their own headline show on April 21 at The Factory Floor (ground floor of The Factory Theatre) with Kill City Creeps and The Gooch Palms.

And don’t forget Dirty Three are at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on March 21.

Dirty Three

Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays.

Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 37

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

Dirty Three

Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 8.30pm

3 Way Split Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Alana Lee, Renny Field, Faye Blais, Sam Joole Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $15 7pm Dan Spillane The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm The Dark Valve Bar, Tempe free 7pm Dave White Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm The Dead Marines Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Dirty Three Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $59 (+ bf) 8pm Faker, Pluto Jonze Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Hard As Nails, The Furry Lips, The Bitter Sweethearts Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Jamie Lindsay Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Jesse Morris & The 3 Beans Five, Julian Temple (NZ) Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8.30pm Krishna Jones Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Matt Seaberg The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm The Mountains, Le Smack, Hazy, Jack Off Jill, Floor Damage The Hampshire, Camperdown free 8pm Musos Jam Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 7pm Nicky Kurta Summer Hill Hotel free 7.30pm Noriana Kennedy (IRE), Nicola Joyce, Noelie McDonnell Notes Live, Enmore $34.70 7pm Open Mic Night Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 8pm Paul Hayward’s Punk Rock Karaoke Band Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel free 8pm Second Opinion, Room 13, Oslow, Craig Freeman Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm Steve Tonge Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9pm Sui Zhen FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel free 1pm

JAZZ

JAZZ

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

WEDNESDAY MARCH 21

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

Dirty Three $59 (+ bf) 8pm

MONDAY MARCH 19 ROCK & POP

Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Unherd Open Mic Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm

JAZZ

The Cope Street Parade 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8pm Open Mic Jazz: Various Artists, DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm Rob Eastwood Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $10 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Judy Collins (USA), Daniel Champagne CANCELLED The Basement, Circular Quay $75 (+ bf)–$80 8pm Nick Kingswell

Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 8.30pm Russell Neal, Massimo Presti, Mai-anne, Josue Vilches, Kyle Dessent Kelly’s On King, Newtown free 7pm

TUESDAY MARCH 20 ROCK & POP

Adam Pringle and Friends Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Beoga (IRE) Notes Live, Enmore $39.80 7pm Bondi Jam Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Hue Williams Jack’s Bar & Grill, Erina free 7pm Kylie Minogue The Big Top at Luna Park, Milsons Point $129.60 (+ bf) 8pm sold out OMG Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm

ROCK & POP

Greg Poppleton & Bakelite Jazz Glen Street Theatre, Belrose $23 10.30am all-ages Jazzgroove: Steve Hunter Band, Steve Barry Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (conc)–$15 8pm

Judy Collins (USA), Daniel Champagne The Basement, Circular Quay $75 (+ bf)–$80 8pm Russell Neal, the Crying Tree, Starr Witness, Kid Vegaz, Michelle Christensen, Oliver Goss Dee Why RSL free 6.30pm The Songwriter Sessions Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 7.30pm Tabitha Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 8.30pm

Chaika, My Sauce Good 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 7.30pm Jo Elms Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Steve Barry Trio 34 Degrees South, Bondi 8pm

Acoustic Showcase Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 7.30pm Ahab (UK), Lachlan Bryan The Vanguard, Newtown $35 (+ bf) 8pm Daniel Hopkins Taren Point Hotel free 7pm Darren Bennett, Black Diamond Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 6.30pm Eric Bibb (USA), Staffan Astner (SWE) The Basement, Circular Quay

$66 (+ bf) 8pm Greg Sita, Aaron Prentice & Dane Lloyd, Samantha Johnson Cookies Lounge and Bar, Bakehouse Quarter, North Strathfield free 8pm Helmut Uhlmann, Benja William, Miss Gray, Grant Wolter The Loft, UTS, Broadway free 6pm Mal Ward, Gary Brennan, Zelda Smyth, Leon, Ken McLean Royal Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Russell Neal, Warren Munce, Kyle Dessent Evening Star Hotel, Surry Hills free 7pm Soulganic Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 8.30pm TAOS, John Chesher, Gavin Fitzgerald, Mai-anne, Neil Jackman Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm

THURSDAY MARCH 22 ROCK & POP

Afro Moses The Basement, Circular Quay $20 (+ bf)-$25 7.30pm BDI Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 7.30pm Benn Gunn Newport Arms Hotel free 8pm Boris (JPN), Laura, sleepmakeswaves Metro Theatre, Sydney $46.70 (+ bf) 8pm The Break – Festival Showcase Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Convaire, Panama, Seabourne Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Craig Thommo Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm The Cranberries (IRE), Bonjah (NZ) Enmore Theatre $98 8pm Darkened Seas, Spectacles, Gypsies & Gentlemen, Four Litre Friday Annandale Hotel $5 7.30pm Dave White Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Electrelane (UK), Songs, Caitlin Park Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $37.50–$42 (+ bf) 8pm Home Ground Heroes Band Competition Semi Final: The Short List The Hard Rock Café, Darling Harbour $15 9pm Hot Damn: Sienna Skies, Safe Hands, The Ocean The Sky, Sector Sixteen Spectrum, Darlinghurst $15$20 8pm Johnathan Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel free 8pm Kirin J Callinan, Guerre,

Thomas William vs Peon, Moon Holiday, Tokyo Denmark Sweden FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 7pm Limited Head Space, Lines of Charlie, The Broken Line Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Mi-Sex (NZ), Mark Wilkinson Brass Monkey, Cronulla $40 7pm Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm Open Mic Night Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7pm Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band (USA), Spike Flynn Notes Live, Enmore $44.90 (+ bf) 7pm Professor, Fox, Chris Assaad Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Steve Tonge Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Up Close & Personal: Matt Toms Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Whitehouse, C4, Jess Beck Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf) 8pm Wild Armadillos Duo The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm

JAZZ

Glenn Rhodes Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Jess Pollard 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8pm Steve Clisby Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Sax in the City: Jeremy Rose & Friends The Spice Cellar, Sydney free 6pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Ben Sollee (USA), Piers Twomey The Vanguard, Newtown $35 (+ bf) 7pm Eddi Reader (UK) Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $44.20 7.30pm Roxy Ray Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 8.30pm Russell Neal, Mai-anne Kogarah Hotel free 7pm

FRIDAY MARCH 23 ROCK & POP

4 Arm, Modern Murder, Escapist, Skuldugory Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt $15 (presale)–$20 8pm 400KW, The Dirty Earth, Hang Dai Ad, Witch Fight Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Abigail Washburn (USA), Kai

“One good day of the week and I’ll be up again One good day of the week, I’ll be higher than the government”- JAMES WALSH 38 :: BRAG :: 454 : 19:03:12

Dirty Three photo by Annabel Mehran

pick of the week

Whitehouse

WEDNESDAY MARCH 21

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Welch Notes Live, Enmore $39.80 (+ bf) 7pm Adam Ant & The Good The Mad & The Lovely Posse (UK), Georgie Girl & Her Poussez Posse Enmore Theatre $86.10– $96.10 7pm Aerobi, Faithful Horizon, Luke Leukess, Rebecca O’Brien The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe 8pm Amali Ward Duo Ocean Bar, Coogee free 6.30pm Ate His Rock Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Bang Shang a Lang Penrith RSL free 8.30pm Ben Finn Trio Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 8.30pm Brad Johns Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Club Blink: Neon Heart, Sunset Riot, Club Blink DJs Club 77, Woolloomooloo $12 8pm Collarbones, Wintercoats, Rainbow Chan, Astral People DJs Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Courtyard Sessions: Young Romantics The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale free 6pm Cover Notes Duo Vineyard Hotel free 9pm The Delta Rigs, Red Leader, Jordo, DJ Johnny Gleeson Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Dirty Work Bambu, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah free 9pm The Doors Show Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Fallon Bros Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm The Field Brothers, Lachlan Gillespie Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $46–$71 (dinner & show) 7pm Finn West Wyalong RSL free 9pm Ghastly Spats, Whores, Teen Ax Black Wire Records, Annandale $5 7pm all-ages Glass Chain Oriental Hotel, Springwood free 9pm Helm Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor $15.30 (+ bf) 8pm Hue Williams Chilli Lounge, Grand Hotel, Wyong free 6pm Jesse Morris & The 3 Beans Five, Julian Temple (NZ) The Factory Theatre, Enmore $15 7pm John Vella Panthers North Richmond Kira Puru & the Bruise

free 8pm Kina Grannis, Ollie Brown Sydney Opera House $42.90 (+ bf) 8pm Kira Puru & the Bruise, The Brutal Poodles, Blackwater Fever GoodGod Small Club, Darlinghurst $10 8pm LJ Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm The Lonely Boys Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm The Loungephonics Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 8.30pm March Of The Real Fly, Bloods, The Fighting League, Tim Fitz Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Matt Scullion Great Southern Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Mi-Sex (NZ), Marlow, Sister Jane Annandale Hotel $30 (+ bf) 8pm Mitchell Fingers Trio Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskineville free 9pm MUM: King Tears Mortuary, Strangers, Teleprompter, Blind Valley, Bones, Wolfden, Colonies, Catkings, Sammy K, Dimes, Swim Team DJs, 199 DJs, Mark Dowsett, Wacks & Friends The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm My Friend The Chocolate Cake The Basement, Circular Quay $35 (+ bf)–$40 8pm Omegaman, Kit Lennon Sound System Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 7.30pm Opiuo, Russ Liquid, JPS Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $29.75-$35(+ bf) 8pm Panorama Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm The Paper Scissors, Pluto Jonze, Toucan, Swimwear, Pear Shape, Purple Sneakers DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm Paul Greene Rooty Hill RSL Club 8pm Pete Hunt Chatswood RSL Club free 5pm Pete Van Sint Jan Bligh Park Tavern, South Windsor free 7pm all-ages The Poor, Black Label Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $15-$20 8pm Same Vein, Squawk, Elephant, Oculus, The Red Door, Lovers Jump Creek Valve Bar, Tempe free 7pm Singled Out Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Snakadaktal, Elizabeth Rose, Sures

Snakadaktal

Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm sold out Soul Sacrifice Santana Tribute Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $15 10pm The Swinging Sixties Live Stones Manly Fisho’s $10 (+ bf) 8pm Tracksuit Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Usual Suspects Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park free 8pm Watussi, True Vibenation, Alphamama, Tropicante Sound Sistema, DJ Roleo Metro Theatre, Sydney $22 7.30pm Xavier Rudd The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $55 (+ bf) 7.30pm Yum Kingswood Sports Club free 7.30pm

JAZZ

Beat Disc, Parramatta free 5pm all-ages Chartbusters Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 9pm Children Collide, Deep Sea Arcade, Palms Metro Theatre, Sydney $28.60 (+ bf) 8pm Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen Brass Monkey, Cronulla $51 (+ bf) 8pm Clayton Doley’s Soul Extravaganza with Tina Harrod, Virna Sanzone and Lily Dior Blue Beat, Double Bay $15 9pm Cogel, Mushu Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Control Bambu, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah free 9pm Dallas Frasca, Medicated Youth, The Dirty Surfin Bastards

The Square, Haymarket $18$20 8pm Dave Tice and Mark Evans Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel free 4pm Dirty Deeds – The AC/DC Show Milton Ulladulla Ex-Servos Club $20 8.30pm Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun, Glitter Canyon, Sweet Teeth GoodGod Small Club, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Double Whammy Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 8pm Elle Harris Oceans Bar, Coogee free 7pm Endless Summer Beach Party Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm Eric Bibb (USA), Staffan Astner (SWE) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $69 (+ bf) 7pm Ether, The Raids, The Makeup, The Monsters of Rock Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 3pm Fatt Lipp Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Finn Leeton RSL free 8.30pm Generation Gap Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8.30pm The Gin Club, Texas Tea Spectrum, Darlinghurst $18 (+ bf) 8pm Glenn Whitehall Newport Arms Hotel free 8pm Granite Revolution Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm Harbour Masters Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 6pm He She Wonderland Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm

Chris Assaad 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8pm Eddi Reader Quartet, Brendan Gallagher Camelot, Marrickville $44 7.30pm Krystle Warren (USA), Piers Twomey The Vanguard, Newtown $40 (+ bf) 7pm The Vampires The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

London Klezmer Quartet Kantara House, Greenpoint, Central Coast $15 (+ bf)$20 8pm Ultimate All Ages Gig Yoyo’s Youth Centre Frenchs Forest $5 7pm all-ages

SATURDAY MARCH 24 ROCK & POP

10cc (UK), Mark Wilkinson The Factory Theatre, Enmore $69-$89 8pm 2days Hits Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 8pm Adam Katz, Tigertown, Cordial Factory, Mia Lucci Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Bang Shang a Lang Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 9pm The Barons of Tang, Future of Blame, Svelt, Mashy P The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $15 8pm Butterfly Boucher The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$50 (dinner & show) 8pm Charge Group, No Art

Helm, Electric Horse The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $12 (+ bf) 8pm Hip Hop Block Party: Reverse Polarities, That’s Them, Herb, Mothership Connection, Rapaport, Centre Left, Dseeva feat.

Nihilist, Backyard Lab, Cooking With Caustic, Yung Nooky, Beat Theory, DJ Migz Annandale Hotel $10 7pm Hit Machine The Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney free 10.30pm Hold The Phone, Mal Ward Panania Hotel free 8pm Ignition Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm James Walsh, Sarah McLeod The Standard, Darlinghurst $30 (+ bf) 8pm Keep The Faith - Bon Jovi Show Blacktown RSL Club free 9pm Kina Grannis, Ollie Browne Sydney Opera House $42.90 (+ bf) 8pm sold out Let Me Down Jungleman The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe 8pm Metal Evilution: Avarin, Overdrive, Thundasteel, Desecrator, Head in a Jar Valve Bar, Tempe free 7pm Mickey Pye Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Natalia, Brett Lee, Brandie Lea Williams, Mitch Lowrie Bedlam Bar, Glebe free 6pm Nunnchukka Superfly, The Cool Charmers, The Prehistorics, Upside Down Miss Jane Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm One Hit Wonders Marlborough Hotel, Newtown

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

wed wed

25 21 Jan Mar

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

thu

22 Mar fri fri

23 27 Mar Jan

(5:00PM - 8:00PM) (5:00PM - 8:00PM)

(9:30PM (9:30PM– -1:30PM) 1:30AM)

SATURDAY NIGHT

sat

24 Mar sun

25 Mar

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SUNDAY NIGHT (8:30PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 39

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Delay, Many Ions Apart, Frieda’s Boss, Blue Candy The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $15 7pm Wooden Shjips (USA), The Laurels, DCM Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

At Last - The Music of Etta James: Billy McCarthy, Iny, Elana Stone, Sally Stevens The Basement, Circular Quay $30 (+ bf)–$35 9pm Blue Moon Quartet Fairfield RSL free 7pm Dave Ades Group 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8pm The World According to James The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Co. Café / Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Andrew Denniston, Kyle Dessent Terrey Hills Tavern free 7.30pm Black Diamond, Alexis Sellies, Tim Humphries Ettalong Beach Hotel free 8pm Buddy Siolo, La Fiesta Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 2.30pm Russell Neal, Rebecca Fielding, Alan Watters, Benja William, Miss Gray, Mysterious Prince Cowboi Royal Exchange Hotel, Marrickville free 7.30pm Tukros Tabor Camelot, Marrickville $30 6.30pm

L2 Kings Cross Hotel

SUNDAY MARCH 25 ROCK & POP

Ace Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 7pm B-Massive Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Butterfly Boucher Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17.85 (+ bf) 8pm Cash Only Marrickville Bowling Club 4.30pm Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen (USA), Brent Parlane Notes Live, Enmore $51 (+ bf) 8pm Drive: Peter Northcote, Danny Marx Young The Bridge Hotel $10 3.30pm Finn Home Tavern, Wagga free 3pm The Generators Riverstone Bowling & Recreation Club free 2pm Harbour Masters Waverley Bowling Club free 3pm Hi-5 Enmore Theatre $39.90 11.30am, 1.30pm, 3.30pm James McIntosh, The Return of Cool Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 4pm James Valentine Quartet Riverside Theatres, Parramatta $40 3pm all-ages John Vella Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 6pm Kill Your Scene – Punk/ Hardcore Showcase Valve Bar, Tempe free 5pm

Kim Sanders & John Reeves, Okapi Guitars Empire Hotel, Annandale $15 (conc)–$20 7pm Kina Grannis, Ollie Brown The Studio, Sydney Opera House $42.90 (+ bf) 8pm sold out Kirk Burgess Collaroy Services Beach Club free 2pm Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm A Marrickville Messiah: Leichhardt Espresso Chorus Marrickville Town Hall $20 (u15 yrs)–$45 3pm Nicky Kurta Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm Pierre Bensusan (FRA), David Ross MacDonald Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $34 8pm Screaming Sunday: Reprize, Seraphim Blaze, StraitJacket Centrefold, Scream Infamy, Another Avenue, Cosmic King, Stellar Addiction Annandale Hotel 12pm allages

Set Sail 35 Degrees South, Bondi $15 8pm Shir Madness - Sydney Jewish Music Festival: The Barons of Tang, Old Man River, London Klezmer Quartet, Simon Tedeschi, The Western Wind Bondi Pavilion Community Cultural Centre, Bondi Beach $52 (early bird)–$62 1pm Snakadaktal, Elizabeth Rose, Colour Coding Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm Sonus Piano Quartet Independent Theatre, North Sydney $25 2.30pm all-ages Special Patrol Group, The Stukas, Killer Klowns Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 7pm Spenceray Coogee Bay Hotel free 7.30pm Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Tiny Ruins (NZ), The Vietnam War The Vanguard, Newtown $17

(+ bf) 7pm Twisted: Haiku, Metalloid, Suburban Lies, Red Morning, Milwaukee Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt $10 (presale)–$15 5.30pm allages U2 Elevation Acoustic Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Vibrations at Valve Winners Showcase Valve Bar, Tempe free 12pm

JAZZ

The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Anthony Hughes Oatley Hotel free 2pm Cass Eager, Asli Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 2.30pm Russell Neal, Charmaine Bingwa, Miss Gray, Kyle Dessent Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm

The Barons Of Tang Xxxx

free 10.30pm Packwood, The Falls, Jack Carty Paddington Uniting Church $10 8pm Pierre Bensusan (FRA), David Ross McDonald Notes Live, Enmore $39.80 7pm SFX: Mayhem Addition, Audio Blackmail, Stellar Green, The Great Lakes St James Hotel, Sydney $11 9pm Sinnister Valley, Blatherskite, Katabasis, Troldhaugen, Archaic Revival Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt $10 8pm Skyway!, Wake The Giants, The Sweet Apes, Forever Ends Here, Strive For Normality, Set In Motion, This Sanctuary, Uncorrected Annandale Hotel $15 (+ bf) 12pm all-ages Stevie: The Life & Music of Stevie Wright & The Easybeats: Scott McRae North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $45 (+ bf) 7.30pm Ted Nash Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale free 9.15pm Time Machine Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Twilight at Taronga: Richard Clapton Taronga Zoo, Mosman $59 (conc)–$69 7.30pm Velociraptor, Glass Towers, Rapids, I Know Leopard, Kato, Bad Ezzy, Frames FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm Wests Tigers Home Ground Heroes: Tiger & The Rogues, Far Away Stables, Sunset Exodus, Dream

FBi SOCIAL TURNS ONE

www.fbisocial.com

Wednesday March 21

Thursday March 22

Friday March 23

Saturday March 24

Sunday March 25

LUNCHBREAK

Kirin J Callinan Guerre Thomas William vs Peon Moon Holiday Tokyo Denmark Sweden

The Paper Scissors Pluto Jonze Toucan Swimwear Pear Shape Purple Sneakers DJs

Velociraptor Glass Towers Rapids I Know Leopard

Too Much

presented by Alberts

Sui Zhen FREE & Broadcast live on FBi Radio 94.5fm 1pm

Buy tickets to go in the draw to win a Gold Pass to FBi Social That’s 12 months free entry!

40 :: BRAG :: 454 : 19:03:12

FBi DJ’s Kato, Bad

Ezzy & Frames

with

Kate Jinx presents

a Special Birthday screening of

Sixteen Candles

til late plus DJs

til late

//7pm // $12 through oztix or $15 on the door

//8pm // $12 through oztix or $15 on the door

//8pm // $12 through oztix or $15 on the door

//7pm // Entry by Donation

gig picks

up all night out all week...

NICHE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

AN EVENING OF DISCO/HOUSE, DUBSTEP, HIP HOP, LEFTFIELD ELECTRONICA & FUTURE SOUL Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun

THURS MARCH 22 Boris (JPN), Laura, sleepmakeswaves Metro Theatre, Sydney $46.70 (+ bf) 8pm

Velociraptor, Glass Towers, Rapids, I Know Leopard, Kato, Bad Ezzy, Frames FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm

Electrelane (UK), Songs, Caitlin Park Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $37.50–$42 (+ bf) 8pm

Wooden Shjips (USA), The Laurels, DCM Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 (+ bf) 8pm

Kirin J Callinan, Guerre, Thomas William vs Peon, Moon Holiday, Tokyo Denmark Sweden FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 7pm

SUN MARCH 25

Whitehouse, C4, Jess Beck Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf) 8pm

Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival: The Barons of Tang, Old Man River, London Klezmer Quartet, Simon Tedeschi, The Western Wind Bondi Pavilion, Bondi Beach $52 (early bird)–$62 1pm

FRI MARCH 23

Tiny Ruins (NZ), The Vietnam War The Vanguard, Newtown $17 (+ bf) 7pm

Kira Puru & The Bruise, Brutal Poodles, Blackwater Fever GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm The Paper Scissors, Pluto Jonze, Toucan, Swimwear, Pear Shape, Purple Sneakers DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm

23 MAR

ASTRAL PEOPLE SHOWCASE FEATURING

Boris

COLLARBONES

Snakadaktal, Elizabeth Rose, Sures Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm sold out

WINTERCOATS RAINBOW CHAN

SAT MARCH 24 The Barons of Tang, Future of Blame, Svelt, Mashy P The Red Rattler, Marrickville $15 8pm Children Collide, Deep Sea Arcade, Palms Metro Theatre, Sydney $28.60 (+ bf) 8pm

+ASTRAL PEOPLE DJS

Clayton Doley’s Soul Extravaganza w/ Tina Harrod, Virna Sanzone and Lily Dior Blue Beat, Double Bay $15 9pm

30 MAR

Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun, Glitter Canyon, Sweet Teeth GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm

MOVEMENT

James Walsh, Sarah McLeod The Standard, Darlinghurst $30 (+ bf) 8pm

DJ/PRODUCER COMPETITION

More info at facebook.com/movementsydney

ALL LIVE EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT 8PM TIL MIDNIGHT The Paper Scissors

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 41

42 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

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

wild nights inside

brag beats

bombs away & dj kronic

also: + club guide + club snaps + columns

fairmont

miike snow

marten hørger BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 43

dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things WITH

NICK CURLY (GER) The Music You Make I wouldn’t put my music 4. into typical genres; clearly it’s based on techno or house, but I focus more on sending people on a trip while I’m performing.

For my own productions I mainly pay attention to the right groove, that’s the most important thing on a track, regardless of whether it’s a deep house or a techno track.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

I think the music scene is great

Growing Up Music was always an 1. important part of my family; my

Inspirations As child I used to listen to 2.

Phil Collins or Queen quite a lot,

father played electric guitar in a band for many years, and my Grandpa is still singing in a choir at the age of 84. Naturally it influenced me in a positive way – and especially because my parents always supported me in my career.

because of my parents. I have to say I still enjoy listening to Phil Collins – he’s a great artist who inspires me a lot.

Crew Well, everything started 3.Your

MOUNT KIMBIE TOUR

UK bass duo Mount Kimbie will return to Australia next month, playing the freshly launched Hi-Fi at the Entertainment Quarter, Fox Studios, on Friday May 4. With a sound that has been described as “post-dubstep”, the London-based duo made their mark with twin EPs on Scuba’s Hotflush Recordings prior to dropping their debut LP Crooks & Lovers.

The release traversed hip hop, jazz, techno, ambient and post-rock influences, earning rave reviews in hallowed publications such as Vice.

Mount Kimbie have taken their guitar-enhanced performance the world over, even playing in Berlin’s clubbing coliseum Berghain, and should work well in the confines of the venue many of you will remember in its previous incarnation, The Forum.

PICNIC FT KINK KI

Picnic and Reckless Reckle Republic are joining joi forces to host Bulgarian producer pro Velchev, aka Strahil Velch

when I established the RAJO Crew with Johnny D and Ray Okpara. Back then we used to organise pretty successful parties in Mannheim. After that I established the label 8bit Records with Gorge, and for the last five years I’ve been running Cécille Records with my partner Marc [Scholl].

right now; it’s become much more versatile, and overall electronic music has never looked better. Clearly it’s become more difficult for young artists to set themselves apart from the rest, but luckily there are always exceptional talents who break through – though I don’t want to mention anyone in particular.

What: Musik Matters feat. Nick Curly (Cécille Records/8Bit) Where: Goldfish / 111 Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross When: Saturday March 24 More: Nick Curly’s Between The Lines is out now

Alex Wolfenden

ACID MONDAYS

Dan Ward (AKA Negghead/Cafe Mambo), Alex Wolfenden (We Love/Café Mambo) and Garry Todd (2DIY4, AUS) make up Acid Mondays. They take acid (we have no idea if that’s true), on Mondays (also speculating there), in Ibiza (no, they definitely spend a lot of time there), and then make deliciously dirty, all-over-the-party house music (also true). If you think that sounds pretty good, we have a double pass to see Acid Mondays at The Spice Cellar this Saturday March 24.

Almost as good as being in Ibiza! Email us with the funnest/dumbest/most debauched thing you’ve ever done on a Monday for you chance to win.

KiNK, playing live at The Spice Cellar on Easter Sunday. KiNK is well established in house and techno circles due to releases on labels like Rush Hour, Poker Flat, Ovum, and Mule Musiq.

He also collaborates regularly with Neville Watson, with the pair’s most recent release featuring Hercules & Love Affair member Kim Ann Foxman. KiNK’s passion for hardware and sound manipulation translates from the studio into a live show that spans Chicago house, acid and deep techno, and saw him voted among Resident Advisor’s Top 20 live acts of 2011 poll, sandwiched between Modeselektor and Kollektiv Turmstrasse, no less. Either side of KiNK’s set, you’ll be treated to the sounds of Picnic’s own Matt Trousdale, Kali and Mike Witcombe playing a back-to-back set, with Spice figurehead Murat Kilic also throwing down some tunes. $25 presale tickets are available online.

SCISSOR SISTERS

The Scissor Sisters have announced an illustrious list of guest artists who will be appearing on their upcoming fourth LP, Magic

VIVID BEATS

Janelle Monae

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As you’ve probably read already in the rock news section – though from the fan mail I know many of you turn to these pages first (keep those letters and emails flowing droogies) – the program for Vivid LIVE 2012 at Sydney Opera House (May 25 – June 3) has been announced. Skipping straight to the beats highlights, Janelle Monae & The Archandroid Orchestra will be making their Australian debut for two nights on May 26 and 27, showcasing her ambitious mix of RnB, funk and cinematic pop. Sydney’s own PVT, who are signed to the esteemed Warp label, will perform and preview their upcoming fourth album, expanding their lineup with additional orchestration and a specifically designed light show. In another showcase of a Sydney act making their mark on the world stage, local electronic trio Seekae are also taking to the stage as part of Vivid LIVE. In addition to these performances, the program also features parties in The Studio curated by local music industry labels and promoters; Niche, Future Classic and Modular are just some of the crews hosting nights there over the week-and-a-bit showcase. Tickets on sale Thursday March 22 (or March 20 for subscribers); full lineup is at vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

The Herd

THE HERD TOUR

Aussie hip hop crew The Herd are embarking on a national tour to support the release of their new single ‘A Thousand Lives’, lifted from their acclaimed fifth album Future Shade, which has been lauded as “the most complete realisation of the band’s vision, and their most carefully produced record to date”. More significantly, Future Shade was described by the taste barometer that is BRAG as a “terrific album; the lyrics are insightful, the beats monstrous”. The Herd’s national tour includes a stop at Manning Bar on Friday March 30, where they will be supported by Thundamentals, who themselves have recently supported the likes of Big Boi and Drapht.

Hour. Diplo, no stranger to capital-P pop collabs after that Nicola Roberts track, will contribute material to the record; Pharrell Williams also apparently features, as does Azealia Banks, under her ‘Krystal Pepsy’ alias.

Magic Hour is due out on May 28.

BJÖRK’S BIOPHILIA

Björk’s bewilderingly ambitious. She seemingly never ceases to bewilder, does she? App-based

album, Biophilia, is set to be complemented by an eight-part remix series, featuring an eclectic array of high profile electronic and experimental artists; Matthew Herbert, Hudson Mohawke, Death Grips, Alva Noto, King Cannibal, Current Value, These New Puritans, 16 Bit and El Guincho are all offering reworks. The releases will be available on vinyl and CD, as well as in limited-edition deluxe packaging, and will emerge on a fortnightly basis from April 2.

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dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

WHITEHOUSE

five things WITH

A-TONEZ (BASS MAFIA) Growing Up Growing up there wasn’t 1. much music in our house, except for my brothers – especially Paul, who has always been the biggest influence in both my music and DJ career. I remember being about 11 and I walked into Paul’s bedroom and just saw these big turning things, and was infatuated. I think I sat there for the next five hours.

Inspirations Most of my biggest 2. inspirations come from within our local scene; there are so many artists that keep me on my toes.

Your Crew I’m part of the Bass Mafia 3. crew at Chinese Laundry – a great bunch of local boys pushing the bassline sound here in Sydney. I’ve recently teamed up with a new producing partner, Sample Sex; we have a few releases planned for release soon through One Love!

Music You Make I’ve always been one to 4.The

jump around different genres – I don’t like to play just one style of music. I find it very boring. I play everything from hip hop through to house music and then to dubstep/drumstep and DnB. I’m also taking a massive liking to glitch hop and Moomba. I’m currently writing mostly in the bassline styles, with my first remix being DnB and my first original a dubstep tune.

Music, Right Here, Right Now The Sydney music scene is ever5. changing; as with anything, people change, and so does the music. I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that the ‘family’ vibe has been lost in a lot of places. But having said that, the punters are going harder than ever, and the Friday nights at Chinese Laundry have really turned into a great community vibe! I’ve been a resident there for over three years now, and I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I really love smashing out tunes at The Wall @ World Bar on Wednesdays, too.

If, when you hear the phrase ‘White House’, you think ‘Depressingly obtuse bunch of old white guys trying to out-dumb each other in order to live in one’, you need this competition. Whitehouse will kick your cynicism and apathy in the head, bro.

Their debut album A Funky Intervention – described as Australian Zack de la Rocha/Gil Scott-Heron laid down over Sly & The Family Stone and Run DMC – was recorded at the new Gadigal Recording Studio in Redfern and produced by Thirsty Merc’s Sean Carey. The band is launching the album at da Oxford Art Factory this Thursday March 22, and you could be there! Just email us your favourite Australian protest or ‘message’ song and why.

Whitehouse

With: Freestylers, Boy 8 Bit and heaps more What: Jam Music and Chinese Laundry’s Garden Party @ ivy bar Where: ivy Courtyard, 330 George St, Sydney When: Saturday March 31 from 12pm – 7pm

LANCELOT

Lancelot is jousting through a number of Sydney venues over the coming weeks, playing shows at the World Bar this Saturday March 24 and Chinese Laundry the following Saturday, in addition to his Friday residency at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi. Lancelot is the new project from 22-year-old Sydney producer Lance Gurisik, who has co-written with Russ Chimes, Dappled Cities and Hot Hot Heat, and produced official remixes through his AEONS project (with Josh Matysek) for Grafton Primary, Lisa Mitchell, Ellie Goulding, Kids of 88 and Amy Meredith over the course of his nascent musical career.

Described by Jackplug as “One of our disco heroes of the moment,” Lancelot’s We Can Dance EP is set for release worldwide on LA-based label Binary, and is out now on Beatport.

PLAYGROUND WEEKENDER

The Playground Weekender washout has left the festival in what organiser Andy Rigby described as an “absolutely devastating situation” in an official press release, with news emerging that over one million dollars had been spent before the festival commenced, and that it was not insured for natural disasters. “With 36 hours until the event was due to go ahead, people had bought tickets, the festival site was booked, the stages had been built, the toilets were plumbed, the tents were up and the power was on… a natural disaster is not something a small business such as Playground Festivals Pty Ltd, has been able to cope with,” the presser states. We hope that the future for Playground Weekender is not as bleak as it seems at this stage.

Sneaky Sound System

The Robert Glasper Experiment

JOSE JAMES + ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT + TAYLOR MCFERRIN

Niche Productions is hosting a cross-genre, cross-generational triple bill that will traverse jazz, soul and electronic sounds, with The Robert Glasper Experiment, Jose James and Taylor McFerrin representing at Oxford Art Factory on Sunday June 10 (a long weekend). Jose James is a difficult figure to pigeonhole, having collaborated with the Australia-bound Moodymann, Flying Lotus and Basement Jaxx throughout his career.

His debut album, The Dreamer, was a throwback to the classic-cool-quintet albums like Kind Of Blue and was followed quickly by Black Magic (both on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label), which featured the aforementioned ‘heavyweight’ collaborations. His new album No Beginning, No End is set to be released later this year, and reportedly features appearances from Richard Spaven, among others. The Robert Glasper Experiment, meanwhile, make their debut appearance in Australia off the back of their new album Black Radio, which debuted at #1 on the Australian iTunes Jazz Charts.

Rounding off the triumvirate, Taylor McFerrin (son of Bobby) combines an impressive beatbox vocal ability and gift for electronics in his productions, and is currently gearing up to launch his maiden LP. Tickets go on sale as of this Wednesday.

GIRLS GONE MILD

GoodGod has announced a new weekly event, ‘Girls Gone Mild’, hosted by FBi Radio’s sister duo Hannah and Eliza Reilly every Thursday in the front bar. The press release elucidates that we can expect “balloons, lots-a-ladies and tunes to get buck to, all while sippin’ on GoodGod’s famous cheap and cheerful punch jugs.” There’s also the promise of new themes each week, including Soul Train, The Warriors, Beat Street and Bloc Party.

Hit the event’s Facebook page for updates and general social networking frivolity.

CIRCO LOCO EASTER

Tickets are still available for the Easter Circo Loco bash at the Greenwood Hotel on Easter Sunday, April 8. The event will feature the headline triumvirate of the purported ‘Queen of DC10’, Tania Vulcano, second-wave Detroit producer Stacey Pullen and Englishman Clive Henry, 46 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

formerly one half of the now defunct duo Peace Division (along with Justin Drake). For any young sconies unaware of Peace Division, the pair were a pioneering force in the tribal and deep house scene from ‘94 onwards, and both Henry and Drake remain key players in the club scene today. Pullen, meanwhile, was personally groomed by none other than Derrick May (who is also Australia-bound to play Chinese Laundry), and follows in May’s rather large footsteps with a neo-classical, digital edge to his productions that is absent from many of the grittier Detroit cuts. Any neophytes seeking a sample of Pullen’s sonic sensibility ought to investigate his fabric compilation, which despite being the better part of a decade old, still more than holds up when played today. As for Vulcano, while she doesn’t have the production pedigree of the other lads, her sets at Ibiza pantheon DC10 are the stuff of clubbing folklore.

SNEAKY RETURN

Sneaky Sound System’s Miss Connie and Black Angus are embarking on a national tour on the back of their third album, From Here To Anywhere, which was released late last year. ‘Really Want To See You Again’, the third single from the album, was released on Friday March 9, with remixes from Funkagenda, KiNK, Azari & III and Jam Xpress.

Looking ahead, SSS are set to collaborate with the likes of Erick Morillo, Funkagenda, Aeroplane, Riton and Hook & Sling. The forthcoming shows mark Sneaky’s return to Australia from shows in Asia and the US, and are their last local shows before the duo spend a fourth consecutive northern summer in the UK and Europe. Sneaky Sound System play The Hi-Fi on Saturday April 7 supported by Aston Shuffle, with early bird $25 tickets available online until this Wednesday March 21.

Bombs Away & DJ Kronic Looking For Some Girls By Annabel Maclean

W

hen Perth party duo Bombs Away (aka Thomas Hart and Sketch) took on America last year, they returned to Australia feeling putrid. The American ‘diet’ had taken its toll on their insides and they were glad to be back in our sunburnt country to enjoy a somewhat healthier lifestyle. But with plans to relocate to the States in June for six months (“We’re not abandoning Australia, we’re just getting the hell out of here during winter”) the lads have come up with a strategy to cope with the food situation: “Make more money,” says Hart. “We had no money last time. This time we saved a bit more so we don’t have to eat three dollar happy meals or greasy apples.”

Having jumped on the dubstep wave well before it broke, Hart and Sketch will be heading over to the States with a #1 in the ARIA Club Chart (‘Super Soaker’), and having spent over 52 weeks consecutively in the chart thanks also to their remix of Seany B’s ‘Everybody Get Up’ and more recently, Chris Arnott’s ‘Let Go!’. “[Seany B was] amazing to work with, but I think we’re going to be doing a lot more American work this year,” says Hart.

“That’s where we’re getting a lot of interest from and we can’t afford to let that cool down.”

promoting that this year… We’ve got six big releases booked up for this year already.”

Already on the label are the lads themselves, DJ Kronic, Melbourne’s Dixie, DJ Sarah Robertson – and a few more the boys are reluctant to reveal. “I guess it was more about having all the artists in one place and having an excuse to party together rather than having them all being pulled in different directions by labels with their own interests,” Hart says of the label’s creation. “This way they’re under our umbrella but it’s more that they work with us than for us. It’s just an avenue to really get that sound out this year.”

What: Wild Nights 2012 mixed by Bombs Away & DJ Kronic out through Central Station Records Where: Wild Nights 2012 Tour @ Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill When: Thursday April 5 More: With David Guetta, Dirty South, Above & Beyond and heaps more at Creamfields, April 29 @ EQ – Showring, Coachbay and Hi-Fi

In the meantime, however, the lads are promoting their Wild Nights 2012 compilation (their second in the popular party mix series), for which they collaborated with Adelaide DJ and producer DJ Kronic. All three gents say the mix was taken from some of the wild nights they’ve had. “Especially the intro,” says Hart. “We pushed for a little bit more leeway this year and we ran a bit with Kronic’s influence and we mixed it really, really quickly – mix-tape style. It’s a lot more like our party stuff that we play. That’s what we do with our shows; we wanted to reflect that in the CD.”

“We’ll get [David Guetta] drunk and show him what happens when love takes over. We’re going to leave him with lots of good memories and then he’ll be like, ‘Bam, there’s no getting over you guys..’.”

DJ Kronic (aka Luke Calleja) says it was “awesome” working with Bombs Away, and is happy to have his tracks ‘Looking For Some Girls feat. Bombs Away’ and ‘Watup Bitch feat.

Flygirl Tee’ included on the mix, alongside tracks like Foster The People’s ‘Pumped Up Kicks’, Qwote’s ‘Throw Your Hands Up’ and Parachute Youth’s ‘Can’t Get Better Than This’.

“I’ve been doing bootleg mix-tapes for since as long as I can remember and being able to do something official with a proper release date in mind and everything was just amazing,” he says. “They’re pretty crazy to work with but creatively, we just matched.”

‘Looking For Some Girls’ and ‘Watup Bitch’ mark the beginning of Calleja’s transition from DJing and remixing to producing. “I produce kind of the same way that I remix and make mixes, it’s all inspired from clubbing and partying,” says Calleja, who has been smashing out sets at his residencies at SinCity and Vanity on the Gold Coast for the last year and a bit.

Kronic and the Bombs Away boys are co-headlining the Wild Nights 2012 National Tour this month, after which Bombs Away will squeeze in the Creamfields 2012 national tour, before heading Stateside. Hart says they’re looking forward to smashing some vodka with David Guetta on the Creamfields tour: “We’ll get him drunk and we’ll show him what happens when love takes over,” he says, halfjokingly. “We’re going to leave him with lots of good memories from the trip and then he’ll be like, ‘Bam, there’s no getting over you guys,’ and then we’ll be like… ‘You’re a sexy bitch’.”

On a more serious note, Sketch and Hart have also recently launched Bomb Squad Records, their own label. “It’s basically a collection of artists – Australian and international – that we feel suit us so much that we want them on our record label rather than spread out across the country,” Hart says. “We’re really going to be BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 47

Fairmont Crossing Borders By Rick Warner

“That’s something that you want people to say about you, but you really shouldn’t say out loud,” Fairley says humbly. “So I can say that I do believe that Border Community has been ahead of the curve more than once, and that I am proud to be a part of. One could also note that the press has credited

me with inventing more than one sub-genre all by myself. ‘indie-trance’ was my favourite, which is of course now something that has totally taken off. I won’t mention that though because that would be gloating.”

Before his ‘indie-trance’ coronation, however, he was just Jake Fairley – a Toronto native honing his techno craft since the late ‘90s.

Having put out his first releases on Canadian label Dumb Unit and German heavyweight Traum Schallplatten, he found a permanent home on Border Community. Since then, he’s been mostly a one-label man. “Finding a label that you identify with and respect isn’t easy,” says Fairley. “Finding [a label] that’s run by people that you enjoy working with is also pretty difficult. So when I came across Border Community, a label that has all of these things, I didn’t feel compelled to work with anyone else. When the schedule has become tight I have released elsewhere, but my home is still at BC.” The descriptor ‘indie-trance’ is pretty apt for Fairmont’s music. Centred on lush, layered melodies and dampened mid-tempo drums, his two previous albums, Paper Stars and Coloured In Memory, have played like hazy, sun-drenched dreams for the most part.

When he brings his sound Down Under for the first time this month, he’ll be armed with an arsenal of hardware for the shows.

“I’m way to picky to be a DJ, or at least my tastes are too all over the place,” he says, explaining his preference for live performance over DJing. “I am actually bringing more gear out now than I ever have. One keyboard is in the shop right now and won’t be making it to Australia, but the rest will be with me.

The only times I scale it down are when I am going over an uptight border without a work visa. I hate having to compromise like that.

I like having lots of toys with me. Lugging around 50 kilos of gear is a drag, but having it all there on stage means I can have a lot of fun and I am never bored”.

On tour with Border Community label mates Avus and Luke Abbott, Fairley admits that travelling with friends sure beats lonely hotel rooms – but says the after-parties aren’t likely to get him arrested. “Everyone is pretty chilled out and down to earth. There’s not a lot of hotel room destruction stories from our crew, and that’s fine with me.”

With: Luke Abbott, Avus What: Border Community Label Night Where: Chinese Laundry When: Saturday March 24

Miike Snow Making A Monster By Alasdair Duncan

M

iike Snow was never meant to get this big. Pop song writers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg were keen to make some music of their own for a change, and when they met singer Andrew Wyatt, they started a band together, just as a goof, a way to have a little fun in the studio. However, like a science experiment in a B-grade horror flick, the band grew faster than it could be contained, and soon it was out of control. Festivals wanted to book them, crowds couldn’t get enough, and before long, what started out as a little casual fun turned into an epic, almost two-yearlong world tour. The tour left the trio feeling overjoyed, if a little dazed.

“I think all of that touring definitely brought us closer together,” Wyatt says of the time the band spent on the road. “We spent more time together than people typically spend with their girlfriends or their families. I’ve learned a lot of Swedish over the last few years. I pretty much understand it now, although I still don’t try to speak it. I don’t know that all the time we’ve spent together has changed us a whole lot, although it’s definitely added something. I think we have more of an affinity for live playing now than we had before.”

After coming off the road, the band returned to the studio with a buzz, determined to capture the euphoric feeling of their live shows on record.

The resulting album, Happy To You, is a truly joyful experience. Nothing that could be written about it could prepare you for the experience of actually listening to it. Miike Snow’s first album was filled with stately and supremely hooky electro pop tunes, and this one maintains the hooks, but multiplies everything else by about five thousand. The tempos are faster, the choruses more joyful, the rhythms explode

in flourishes of break beat and house, and the instrumentation takes in anything and everything, from brass sections to rolling piano loops. In fact, Happy To You features everything except guitars.

“That wasn’t a deliberate move, we just realised at a certain point that we didn’t seem to need them,” says Wyatt. The band went into the studio, and had recorded six or seven new songs before realising that none of them included guitars. They scratched their heads for a minute, wondering if maybe they should stick one or two of them in there, before going with their initial instincts. “We felt like if we started adding guitars, the record would end up with a bit of a divided feel,” Wyatt says, “and the songs with and without guitars would be clearly separated.

We decided, therefore, that it would be fun to finish the record without them and see how that worked out.”

The bulk of the Happy To You is built around synths, and the album embraces the chaos that happens when the instruments malfunction.

“There are certain songs on the album, like ‘Vase’, for example, which is completely based on ...” Wyatt pauses for a second. “I wouldn’t call them mistakes exactly, but things that happened at random. That stuttering synth sound that you hear on the song was something that came out quite unexpectedly, so we decided to build the beat around and on top of that.” Miike Snow’s approach, he tells me, is all about being ready for anything. “I guess that really, our philosophy is about letting the idea that it sounds good, be more important than the idea that you meant to do it.”

What: Happy To You out now through Universal

Marten Hørger German Breaks By RK

G

ermany is perhaps better known for techno than it is for broken beats, but one man is set on changing all that: Marten Hørger is not only a highly regarded producer, remixer and collaborator, he is also the brains behind Stamina Club – one of Europe’s longest running breakbeat club nights.

“I grew up in the countryside of Germany in the south, where the girls are beautiful, the

weather is nice and the sausages come in about a million different shapes,” says the affable German. Perhaps it was the idyllic setting, perhaps it was the feeling that there were more types of sausage welcomed in his native land than types of dance music.

“I just really like all kinds of music so I simply play whatever I like – I think it’s way more fun for everyone on the dancefloor as well,” Hørger says simply. “Breakbeat is not a very natural

sound for Germans, so I had to find a way to keep it interesting in my early years, and that concept still sticks with me.”

It was this attitude that led Hørger into the DJ booth at the tender age of 15. “I loved music and being a DJ so much that even before I was allowed to go to a club legally, I got smuggled in to play! So I spent my teenage years playing alongside the big techno and house DJs, trying to figure out how I could become one of them.”

Not just a cool story to tell at school on Monday, this turned out to be a crucial part of Hørger’s musical evolution; starting young helped him develop a stronger musical identity.

“I’d been a DJ long before I started writing music, so by the time I started producing I had spent so much time in clubs that I knew exactly what I wanted,” he explains.

Fast forward to 2012, and Hørger has a number of successful projects under his belt, including the now-defunct breakbeat duo Boogie Army and his current collaboration with Leeroy Thornhill, under the moniker Smash HiFi. “Boogie Army was a temporary thing, and shortly before [it dissolved], Leeroy left his old band The Prodigy,” explains Hørger.

“We had been good friends for a long time so we started playing lots of gigs together.

And approximately one and a half years ago, we decided to start working on an album. As

we both travel a lot all of the time, it’s pretty hard to get music done, so he moved over to Germany a little while ago to make it all more efficient,” he adds with a laugh.

Hørger says that almost all his original output these days comes under the Smash HiFi banner. Leveraging off Thornhill’s contacts has been a boon for the duo, given his previous life in the music business. “[Leeroy] really knows some amazing people – and we’re working with a few of them at the moment; I just don’t think I’m allowed to drop any names just yet!” he says coyly. He has also completed the odd collaboration with Plump DJs and Stanton Warriors, which he describes as “a dream come true”.

Hørger adds that even though he has been to Australia a few times before, he has never actually done much sightseeing. He’s determined to change all that on his visit next month. “This time I’m bringing my girlfriend,” he says, “and we’re doing the proper tourist experience – I can’t wait!”

With: Freestylers, Boy 8 Bit and heaps more What: Jam Music and Chinese Laundry’s Garden Party @ ivy bar Where: ivy Courtyard, 330 George St, Sydney When: Saturday March 31 from 12pm – 7pm

“With 20 years of drugs and drink I thought the time had come to think about standing up and saying that it’s tragedy and so old hat” - ADAM ANT 48 :: BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12

Xxxx

I

n 2006, Border Community label boss James Holden released his long-awaited debut album, The Idiots Are Winning.

Whether this was a statement about global politics in the midst of George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s reign of stupidity, or a prophetic vision of the state of the music industry in 2012 (cue the Black Eyed Peas and LMFAO), it seemed to be a shot at everything that a label like Border Community didn’t represent.

With a stable of inventive electronic artists like Nathan Fake, Petter and Holden himself, the UK label can only be described as ‘forward-thinking’. On the eve of his first trip to Australia as part of a Border Community artist tour, I asked Jake Fairley (aka Fairmont) what it’s like to be setting that kind of precedent in electronic music.

Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery

I:Cube

an Franciscan producer Justin Martin will release his debut album, Ghettos & Gardens, on Dirtybird Records in May. The long overdue album – Martin’s been around for so long that it comes as a surprise that he’s only now releasing his first LP – will cement his longstanding relationship with the Dirtybird label, who’ve been playing host to his distinctive brand of tech house since ’05. The 13-track album includes a remake of Goldie’s ‘Kemistry’, and collaborations with Ardalan, PillowTalk and Leroy Peppers (aka Justin’s brother and fellow Dirtybird artist Christian Martin).

S

Melbourne-based producer Christian Vance, who regularly makes the trip up to Sydney for gigs (most recently in support of Kirk Degiorgio) has recently released his third EP, Step 3000, on the Haul Music imprint. Vance, who is known for his melodic takes on techno sounds, recruited Degiorgio for a remix while supplying a dub of his own, which along with the original version builds upon a strong percussive foundation that stops the track from straying into the pitfalls of the ‘fromage netherworld’. Vance isn’t the only Melbournian-to-look-out-for who is releasing on Haul: Mike Callander, who along with Vance and Craig McWhinney oversee the Haul imprint, released his first longplayer, Antarctica, through the label last month. For those wondering what to expect, the presser expounds that Antarctica – a provocative title reportedly alluding to the critical reception to some of Callander’s previous EPs – pays respect to the long-player format while also “lamenting his isolation from the hit-hungry, chart-topping machinations of modern digital distribution,” aiming to reward listeners who approach the work with patience. In other words, it’s a test cricket release to the specious 20/20-esque releases being churned out en masse by the likes of Crosstown Rebels.

Revered ‘French touch’ producer I:Cube, who is also one half of Chateau Flight, will release his fifth studio album, ‘M’ Megamix, in early May. The 24-track album follows four previous long-players released over an intermittent period since his debut set Picnic Attack dropped, back in 1996. It's also the Frenchman’s first since 2006’s Live At The Planetarium.

I:Cube – real name Nicolas Chaix – has long offered a deeper, dare we say more sophisticated alternative to his more ‘celebrated’ French touch peers, with peerless moments like ‘Adore’ and, more recently, 'Falling' littered through his discography. ‘M’ Megamix will be released on DJ Gilb’R’s Versatile imprint, and in a press release penned by none other than Running Back boss Gerd Janson, he is described as “an assortment of all things that make [electronic] dance music, or what you think it is, enjoyable”. As the title suggests, the record is at least in part a homage

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY MARCH 24 PROSUMER One22, 122 Pitt St

FRIDAY MARCH 30 EFDEMIN One22, 122 Pitt St

THURSDAY APRIL 5 MOODYMANN The Spice Cellar

tINI, MARTIN BUTTRICH The Civic Underground

MONDAY APRIL 9 STIMMING The Abercrombie

A PLAY ON WORDS

to the classic mix-tape format, with short, cut-up snippets of tracks put together in the manner of a live performance. It also contains all three tracks that appeared on the recent Lucifer En Discothèque EP, including the incendiary ‘Transpiration’.

The 10th instalment in the Watergate nightclub mix compilation series, mixed

by You label boss Marco Resmann, hit shelves at the end of last month.

Resmann started out as the third man in Pan-Pot, these days a duo, and also tweaked a few knobs – what?! – as Anja Schneider’s producer. While producing under the pseudonym Phage, he won critical acclaim as half of Luna City Express, before founding the You imprint back in ’07. As with previous editions in the series, which were helmed by club deities such as Konrad Black, Tiefschwarz and my man Onur Ozer, Watergate 10 offers a snapshot of what’s happening on German dancefloors, encompassing cuts such as Resmann’s own exclusive collaborations with Kiki and Mike Shannon.

It also features tracks by Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts, Anonym and one of my favourite tunes of last year, the Zimbabwe mix of Jichael Mackson’s ‘GTI’. “I always loved to make mixes of my favourite tracks, whether on tape back in the day or on CD, or just digital like nowadays. For the Watergate CD I collected a pool of 60 tracks that the label requested for me,” Resmann recalled when discussing the mix. “The selection is a mix between old and new stuff and of course representative of what I like and what I play as a DJ. My final idea was to tell a story about a night at Watergate – from the beginning to the end, squeezed into a 78 minute mix.”

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com

THE WEIR

BY CONOR MCPHERSON DIRECTED BY ALICE LIVINGSTONE 7 — 31 MARCH

Funny, offbeat and chilling, this is superb theatrical storytelling in the best Irish tradition.

542 KING ST NEWTOWN | TICKETS 1300 13 11 88 | NEWTHEATRE.ORG.AU BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 49

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

club pick of the week Pluto Jonze

THURSDAY MARCH 24

Ivy Pool Club & Change Room, Sydney

Falcona Pool Party Pluto Jonze, Olympic Ayres, Furnace & The Fundamentals, Alison Wonderland, Sosueme DJs, Surecut Kids, Joyride, Frames, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Hobophonics, Hey Now, Devola, Hansom, Kristy Lee, Pedestrian DJs, Starjumps, Stoney Roads DJs, F.R.I.E.N.D/s DJs

$20 1pm til late MONDAY MARCH 19 Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney Mother of a Monday DJ Smokin’ Joe free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross A Little Thing We Call Jazz DJs free 7pm

TUESDAY MARCH 20 Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel DJ Willie Sabor free 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney I Love Goon DJ Smokin’ Joe

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free 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesday DJ Johnny B, DJ Shipwreck, MC Fro, Dr Rhythm $10 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic Andy & Mike free 8pm

WEDNESDAY MARCH 21 The Argyle, The Rocks DJ Georgia, DJ C-est Chic free 6pm The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Money Talks DJs 10pm Epping Hotel

DTF DJs free The Hampshire, Camperdown Frathaus Tiki Party The Mountains, Le Smack, Hazy, Jack Off Jill, Floor Damage free 8pm Kit and Kaboodle, Kings Cross Resident DJs 8pm The Lansdowne, Broadway Frat House Wolf & The Gang free 8pm St Paul’s College, University of Sydney, Camperdown Surreal Sounds The Potbelleez, Rogers Room, Ember, Louis London, Panama $35 6pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Sigma (UK), Brown Bear, Jitter, Brothers Grimm,

Pat Ward, Pablo Calamari, Tigerlily, Lights Out $5 9pm

THURSDAY MARCH 22 Arq Sydney, Taylor Square Going Gaga Kitty Glitter, Alex Taylor free 9pm The Cool Room, Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Starfuckers DJs free 9pm GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Girls Gone Mild Hannah and Eliza Reily free 9pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Random Soul DJs 8pm Hunky Dory Social Club, Darlinghurst Beat Skool The Dark Horse 6pm Kit and Kaboodle, Kings Cross Resident DJs 8pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs $15$20 8pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Flaunt Dim SLM, Bobby Digital, DJ Task, Troy T 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney Books or Beer? DJs free 8pm Soho, Potts Point Ladies Night DJs free 9pm The Standard, Taylor Square Redbull Revitalise Typhonic free 8pm Sugar Lounge, Manly Fat Laced Funk D-Funk, Slynk, Daigo, Jon Ohms, Fro White, Paul Master 9pm Theloft, Darling Harbour Alphamama, Lachlan Doley, DJ NAD 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Mush, Shag, Jack Shit, Dan Bombings free$5 8pm

FRIDAY MARCH 23 34 Degrees South, Bondi Disco Relief DJ Stu Kelly free 8pm The Abercrombie, Broadway Totally Barry Bad Barry DJs The Argyle, The Rocks DJ Cadell, John ‘The Owl’ Devecchis, Liam Sampras 6pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Presents Astral People Collarbones, Wintercoats, Rainbow Chan, Astral DJs free 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney DJ Hype (UK), Linken & Vertigo, Reload, Spenda C, Blaze Tripp, Sample Sex $20$25 10pm Civic Underground, Sydney Volar Resident DJs 10pm Club 77, Woolloomooloo Club Blink Sunset Riot, Neon Heart, Club Blink DJs $12 8pm Dee Why Hotel Flirt DJ Alana 9pm E11even Nightclub, Paddington T.I.A. DJs 9pm Epping Hotel Flirt DJs free The Gaelic, Surry Hills Sensory Overload Spacetribe, Suncontrolspecies, Raptor, Sarin, Galaktik, Pato De Gomah, Zac Slade, T&O, Adam T $29-$35 9pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Slowblow Masquerade Ball Softwar, Moonchild, DJ Jungle Snake, DJ Dreamcatcher, Future Classic DJs $10 11pm Home The Venue, Darling Harbour K Klub Minx, Amber Savage, Leah Mencel 9pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Hugo’s Fridays DJs 8pm Hunky Dory Social Club, Darlinghurst

Get Milk or Die DJs 7pm Kings Cross Hotel DJ Drae Leighton, DJ Liz Bird, DJ Stu Turner, DJ Tony Edwards, DJ Will Styles free 7pm Kit and Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Alison Wonderland, Surecut Kids, Devola, Maia, Stretch, Stoney Roads $10 8pm Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney TGIF DJs free 9pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Tone free 8pm Oceans Bar, Coogee DJ Matt Hoare 9.30pm Omega Lounge, City Tattersalls Club, Sydney Unwind Resident DJ free 5.30pm Opera Bar, Circular Quay Omegaman, Kit Lennon Sound System free 5.30pm Paddington Inn DJ Moonshine free 8pm The Roxy Hotel, Parramatta Fridaze Resident DJs 4pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Karma Dim SLM, Nacho Pop 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney Frisky Friday DJs free 6pm The Shark Hotel, Sydney Puls8 DJ Jono, Guest DJs free 9pm Soho, Potts Point Soho Fridays DJs free 9pm Space, Sydney Zaia Resident DJs 9.45pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Frames, Marcus King, Discopunx, James Taylor 10pm Star Bar, Sydney Just Dance DJs free 10pm Theloft, Darling Harbour Late at theloft Hybrid, The Marshalls 6pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross Why Sleep? Resident DJs $10-$15 20pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM King Tears Mortuary, Strangers, Teleprompter, Blind Valley, Bones, Wolfden, Colonies, Catkings, Sammy K, Dimes, Swim Team DJs, 199 DJs, Mark Dowsett, Wacks & Friends $10-$15 8pm

SATURDAY MARCH 24 34 Degrees South, Bondi DJ Jonesy free 8pm Annandale Hotel Hip Hop Block Party Reverse Polarities, That’s Them, Herb, Mothership Connection, Rapaport, Centre Left, Dseeva feat. Nihilist, Backyard Lab, Cooking With Caustic, Yung Nooky, Beat Theory, DJ Migz $10 7pm The Argyle, The Rocks Hustle Illya, We’ve Got Soul DJs, Dave 54, Phil Hudson, Agey, Nick Andrews, Arrnott Olsen, Chris Bongoliro, Johnny G free 9pm Arq Sydney, Taylor Square Twinkland Scott Tanner, Dom de Sousa free 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Samba Samba free 8pm Bella Vista Cruiser, Star City, Sydney Harbour E-Motion Steve Hill, Jon Langford, Tara Renolds, Ian Mac, Yoshi, Micky D, Squirrel, The Bondi House DJs, Torbynik vs Raissa, Mike B vs Adam Clarke, Tish Tash, Mybye, Scotty Sax $45 10.30am Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Ritual Nightmare, MooWho, 2Busy 2Kiss, Dirty Cutlery, Teez, Donald Crump, Scott Tonkin, Ay Jay, Whatis? 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney

Border Community Avus (UK), Fairmont (CAN), Luke Abbot (UK), Club Junque, Jamie Vale, A-Tonez, Punk Ninja, Dirty C, Ella Loca, King Lee, Athson $15-$25 9pm City Hotel, Sydney Kin.Ki Saturdays DJs 9pm Dee Why Hotel Kiss & Fly Resident DJs free 9pm E11even Nightclub, Paddington Turka Amet Polat, Seroz, Yusuf $20 9pm Epping Hotel Back Traxx DJ Kandi, DJ Hypnotixx Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Home Slice Hypercolour, Sari, Ar’che-type, Far7, Darkage $10 10pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Musik Matters Nick Curly (GER), Kerry Wallace, Tom Brereton, Matt Cahill, Amy Fairweather, Ben Ashton, Ryan Simpson $35 6pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Player Haters Ball – Neptunes Tribute Night Joyride and the Accidents, Levins, Shantan Wantan Ichiban $10 11pm Home The Venue, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs $20 9pm Hotel Sweneys Rooftop, Sydney Killpop Resident DJs $10 6pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Saturdays DJ Dolso 8pm Hunky Dory Social Club, Darlinghurst Ghetto Boogie DJs 6pm Ivy Bar, Lounge & Den, Sydney Pure Ivy Valentine, Cadell, Sir Charles, Robbie Santiago, Digital Love, Johnny Sommerville $20 9pm Ivy Pool Club & Change Room, Sydney Falcona Pool Party Pluto Jonze, Olympic Ayres, Furnace & The Fundamentals, Alison Wonderland, Sosoume DJs, Surecut Kids, Joyride, Frames, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Hobophonics, Hey Now, Devola, Hansom, Kristy Lee, Pedestrian DJs, Starjumps, Stoney Roads DJs, F.R.I.E.N.D/s DJs free$20 1pm Kings Cross Hotel DJ Stu Turner, DJ D-Flat, DJ PeeWee Ferris, DJ NAD, DJ Badboe, Mr Glass, Swim Team DJs, DJ Matt Hoare free 8pm Kit and Kaboodle, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Isbjorn, Mr Belvedere, David Neale, Playmate, Devola, Pat Ward, Handsome, Kristy Lee 8pm Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney Party Every Saturday DJ Nick Pap, DJ Ray Isaac free 9pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Nevermind, Darlinghurst Swagger DJ Booth, Gay-Z, Smithers, Boyonce $10-$15 9pm Oceans Bar, Coogee DJ Diego Lenis 10pm One22, Sydney Prosumer (GER), Co-Op DJs $20-$30 9pm Paddington Inn DJ Young Apprentice free 8pm The Roxy Hotel, Parramatta Reunion Party Sam Boutros, Nasser T, Tikelz, Robert Makhlouf, Jorgie Jay, Sarkis M, Simon Sassine, Mr Ed, Heavy D, Simmy Z, Mista Kay, George Basha 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross The Suite Big Will, Dim SLM, Disco Kid, Klimax, Stevie J, Troy T, Jo Funk, Steves, Adamo, Charlie Brown 8pm The Shark Hotel, Sydney

club guide send your listings to: clubguide@thebrag.com Puls8 DJ Jono, Guest DJs free 9pm The Sly Fox, Enmore Coochies King Lee, Ruby Slipper, Stevie Soundcheck free 9pm Soho, Potts Point Usual Suspects Vandalism, John Glover, Oakes & Lennox, Mike Rukus, Micky P, Here’s Trouble, Recess, Axle, Glen Darby 9pm Space, Sydney Masif Saturdays Masif DJs 10pm Spectrum, Darlinghurst Kittens $10 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Acid Mondays (UK), Matt Weir $25 10pm Star Bar, Sydney Situation DJs 10pm St James Hotel, Sydney SFX Mayhem Addition, Audio Blackmail, Stellar Green, The Great Lakes, SFXDJs $11 9pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross ONE Saturdays Resident DJs $10-$20 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Brown Bear, Nicc Johnson, Kraymer, Chris Arnott, Brendon Fling, Temnie, Adam Bozetto, Pablo Calamari, Saywhut!?, Naany,

Lancelot, Astrix Little, Richie Carter, Illya $15-$20 8pm

SUNDAY MARCH 25 The Argyle, The Rocks John ‘The Owl’ Devecchis, Anthony Casa 6pm Arq Sydney, Taylor Square Dirty Disco 9pm Bank Hotel, Newtown Summer Sausage Fest Kitty Glitter free 4pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi DJ Jamin & The Live Collective free 5pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel FBi Social Turns 1! - Too Much with Kate Jinx DJs $1 7pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club, DJ Tom Kelly free 6pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Sneaky Sundays DJs 8pm Hunky Dory Social Club, Darlinghurst Sundayzed Biggie Shortie, Club Junque, Ctrl Alt Delicious, White Cat, Raul, Mr Belvedere, Tom Yum, Sarah Spencer, King Lee,

Sample Sex & A-Tonez 3pm Kit and Kaboodle, Kings Cross Easy Sundays Set Mo, Mr Belvedere 8pm Oatley Hotel Sunday Sets free 7pm The Roxy Hotel, Parramatta Autummatic 2012 Rollback City, Phoenix Gerard, Billy B, Ember, Stef, A Stylez, Smokin Joe Mekhael, Mr Mr, Iljia, Willi, Six Fingers, L.A.M., Michey V, Nicky Gibson, G Wizard, Troy T, Daniel Berti, Sunset Bros, Shalvy Serato, Steve Play, Aberox, Sancho, Charlie Brown, Mista K, Bill Will, Cadell, Jagged Beats, I Am Sam, Nemz, Anthony K, Wolfpack, Mickey D, Sax On Legz, Bongolicious, Lady Lauryn, MC Daze, J Dwight, Rocamic $30-$35 4pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Sundays DJ Troy T, Dim SLM, Bobby Digital 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice Alex Wolfenden, Murat Kilic $20 4am The World Bar, Kings Cross Dust Lee M Kesall, James Taylor, Alley Oop free 7pm

club picks up all night out all week...

SATURDAY MARCH 24 Annandale Hotel, Annandale Hip Hop Block Party Reverse Polarities, That’s Them, Herb, Mothership Connection, Rapaport, Centre Left, Dseeva feat. Nihilist, Backyard Lab, Cooking With Caustic, Yung Nooky, Beat Theory, DJ Migz $10 7pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Border Community Avus (UK), Fairmont (CAN), Luke Abbot (UK), Club Junque, Jamie Vale, A-Tonez, Punk Ninja, Dirty C, Ella Loca, King Lee, Athson $15-$25 9pm

Prosumer

WEDNESDAY MARCH 21 The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Sigma (UK), Brown Bear, Jitter, Brothers Grimm, Pat Ward, Pablo Calamari, Tigerlily, Lights Out $5 9pm

THURSDAY MARCH 22 The Cool Room, Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Starfuckers DJs free 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Mush, Shag, Jack Shit, Dan Bombings free-$5 8pm

FRIDAY MARCH 23

Goldfish, Kings Cross Musik Matters Nick Curly (GER), Kerry Wallace, Tom Brereton, Matt Cahill, Amy Fairweather, Ben Ashton, Ryan Simpson $35 6pm One22, Sydney Prosumer (GER), Co-Op DJs $20-$30 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Acid Mondays (UK), Matt Weir $25 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Brown Bear, Nicc Johnson, Kraymer, Chris Arnott, Brendon Fling, Temnie, Adam Bozetto, Pablo Calamari, Saywhut!?, Naany, Lancelot, Astrix Little, Richie Carter, Illya $15-$20 8pm

SUNDAY MARCH 25 Hunky Dory Social Club, Darlinghurst Sundayzed Biggie Shortie, Club Junque, Ctrl Alt Delicious, White Cat, Raul, Mr Belvedere, Tom Yum, Sarah Spencer, King Lee, Sample Sex & A-Tonez 3pm

Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Presents Astral People Showcase Collarbones, Wintercoats, Rainbow Chan, Astral DJs free 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney DJ Hype (UK), Linken & Vertigo, Reload, Spenda C, Blaze Tripp, Sample Sex $20$25 10pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Slowblow Masquerade Ball Softwar, Moonchild, DJ Jungle Snake, DJ Dreamcatcher, Future Classic DJs $10 11pm

DJ Hype

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 51

snap up all night out all week . . .

red bull revitalise party profile

picnic fmf after party

PICS :: TL

It’s called: Red Bull Revitalise

It sounds like: Hip hop and indie mashup with a little bit of dubstep thrown in.

Who’s playing? Party-starters Nice & Ego from Melbourne and Red Bull Thre3style winner DJ Typhonic – plus two of Australia’s best-known street artists, Roachy and Thomas Jackson, will take you on a live visual voyage.

Sell it to us: We bring rockin’ DJs to a venue and let them give you an audio-visual experience that will blow your mind.

Meanwhile, some of Australia’s best-known graffiti artists will revital ise The Standard’s walls with insane live art installations.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Sore feet from hours of dancing, and feeling inspired to take your own art to the street. Oh yeah, and still having money left over to take that hottie you met last night out on a date.

Crowd specs: 18+ Wallet damage: Free entry!

Where: The Standard / Level 3, 383 Bourke St Surry Hills When: Thursday March 22 from 8pm

07:03:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st Darlinghurst 9332 3711

dfa's fmf afterparty

09:03:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER PEACHY :: GEORGE POPOV :: ROCKET WEIJERS MAS MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THO

52 :: BRAG :: 454: 19:03:12

chinese laundry

PICS :: AM

mum

PICS :: TP

10:03:12 :: The Metro :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

09:03:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9958

PICS :: TL

alphamama

PICS :: KC

10:03:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Sydney 9267 3787

GO FULL COCKED. LASER SKIRMISH. LASER TAG, ALL GROWN UP.

STRIKE CHATSWOOD | STRIKE ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, MOORE PARK FIND US ON

BRAG :: 454 :: 19:03:12 :: 53

snap up all night out all week . . .

It’s called: Modern Love It sounds like: An orgy with Rober t Smith, Sleigh Bells, Madonna’s erotica persona and the Scissor Sisters.

Who’s playing? Tom Ballard and Brendan Maclean, Sex Azza Weapon, Seabas, Smithers and more.

Three songs you’ll hear on the night: ‘Bad Girls’ by MIA, ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans and ‘Fuck The Pain Away’ by Peaches.

And one you definitely won’t: Anything by Skrillex.

Sell it to us: Pick and choose between gende r-benders, tattooed ex-emos, the bears upstairs, and hipster ‘DJs’ . And no straight-acting bullshit – the queers are celebrated; and then get blowjobs. So FROCK UP! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The bar’s rad walls featuring flashing neon crosses on every side. Oh, and the face but not the name of the boy whose number you drunkenly forgot to take after an hour-long pash.

Crowd specs: A bundle of really miscellaneo us sticks.

Wallet damage: $10 Where: The Oxford Underground / 34 Oxfor d St Darlinghurst When: Saturday March 24 from 10pm

PICS :: AM

party profile

modern love

insert coin(s): 4

the spice cellar

PICS :: AM

08:03:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st Darlinghurst 9332 3711

halfway crooks

PICS :: AM

10:03:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney

10:03:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9958 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER PEACHY :: GEORGE POPOV :: ROCKET WEIJERS MAS MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THO

54 :: BRAG :: 454: 19:03:12

roots manuva

PICS :: GP

fmf after party

PICS :: AM

10:03:12 :: Phoenix Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 3100

08:03:12 :: The Hi-Fi :: Entertainment Quarter 122 Rd Moore Park

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

DON’T MISS THIS AUSSIE SUPERSTAR OF COMEDY

“SICK AND REPELLENT” CHRISTIAN VOICE

“HARD HITTING, UNRELENTING GAGS… CHRISTIAN VOICE CERTAINLY KNOW A FINE COMEDIAN WHEN THEY PERSECUTE HIM.” THE SCOTSMAN

JIM JEFFERIES MORE+COMEDY PRESENTS

JIM’S DVD OUT NOW!

BRISBANE

THE TIVOLI THEATRE THU 12 APRIL – 7.30PM 52 COSTIN ST FORTITUDE VALLEY

WWW.TICKETEK.COM.AU OR 13 28 49 SYDNEY

THE FACTORY THEATRE SAT 14 APRIL – 7.30PM

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