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THE DRUM MEDIA • 3
Beth Orton
Sugaring Season
New Album Out Now bethortonofficial.com facebook.com/BethOrtonOfficial
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4 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 5
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, JUST FOR LAUGHS & ADRIAN BOHM PRESENT
THE BIGGEST COMEDIANS THE LOUDEST LAUGHS AZIZ ANSARI
STAR OF PARKS AND RECREATION ONE OF THE HOTTEST STARS IN THE US
12 OCT
DREW CAREY
ALL-STAR COMEDY GALA WITH JUDITH LUCY, BILL BURR, CHARLIE PICKERING, DAVE GORMAN + MORE!
20 OCT
DAVE GORMAN’S
RHYS DARBY AND FRIENDS
MURRAY FROM FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS WITH JARRED CHRISTMAS, BRENDHAN LOVEGROVE + MORE!
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION CREATOR & STAR OF THE HIT SHOW GOOGLEWHACK ADVENTURE
21 OCT
21 OCT
ADAM HILLS’
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INTERNATIONAL COMEDY GALA
IN CONCERT
‘HE’LL MAKE YOU LAUGH, HE’LL MAKE YOU WANT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM’
WITH DOM IRRERA, MIKE WILMOT, ED BYRNE, HANNAH GADSBY + MORE!
THE STAGE
21 OCT
21 OCT
THE NASTY SHOW
HOSTED BY ROASTMASTER GENERAL JEFF ROSS WITH TOM GLEESON, DOM IRRERA, RHYS NICHOLSON, BIG JAY OAKERSON, MIKE WILMOT
GABRIEL IGLESIAS
‘COMIC OF THE YEAR’ COMEDY CENTRAL
22 - 23 OCT
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+ RICH FULCHER, HANNIBAL BURESS, AND MANY MORE...
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 7
th f e or ha m rperl hoy te
l
OPEN ‘TILL 3AM
900 PRINCES HIGHWAY, TEMPE PH: 9559 6300 www.valvebar.com.au
WED 10
MUSO’S NIGHT ROCKIN WEEKLY BLUES JAM
8:00PM FREE ENTRY FRONT BAR
JACOBIDE + BLACK MATCHES + BLANKET STARE
THU 11 7:30PM $10 DOOR
PROG CORPS FEAT: CALIGULA’S HORSE
FRI 12
VICES TERM FOUR + THE LANE COVE + FREE WORLD (MELB)
SAT 13
WED 10TH 7PM THU 11TH 7PM FRI 12TH 7PM
7:30PM $12 DOOR
SAT 13TH 12PM
+ HEMINA + AVARIN + CAMERIA
7:00PM $15 DOOR
SUN 14TH 1PM
SUN 14TH 5PM
COMING SOON:
19/10: CHRIS DUKE & THE ROYALS 25/10: FOOT IN THE WALL FEAT: THE ELLIOTS (MELB) 28/10: IN HEARTS WAKE
“REVERSE GRIP” (-CANADA) GLAM ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “TRUSH” , “RATTLESNAKE” , “BECOME THE CATALYST”
“BLAKE PARDEY” FOLK/BLUES/ROCK’N’ROLL SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “BROKEN HANDS” , “NIGHT ATTACK”
“CADE” INDIE/BLUES SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “STOLEN MEMORIES” , “ADAM TRIPODI BAND” , “LADY IN WAIT”
“FESTERING DRIPPAGE” EP RELEASE GRIND/DEATH SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “DARK HORSE” , “NEW BLOOD” , “BURIAL CHAMBER” , “THROAT OF DIRT” , “INFESTED ENTRAILS” , “THE HOLIDAY PROJECT”
VIBRATIONS AT VALVE BAND COMPETITION SEMI FINALS
“STEEL SWARM” METAL SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “ARMORIAL” , “PARENTHIA” , “THE BLACKENED BENEATH” , “EMERGENCY SYNDROME”
COMING UP:
‘GOBOOKEM.COM’
Wed 17 Oct: Experimental Show with “Captain Keen’s Joy Machine” , “Olivia Jean Hucker” , “Maurice Jones” , “Kay Proud Love” ; Thu 18 Oct: Rock Show with “Left Or Right” , “Bloody Lovely Audrey” and many more; Fri 19 Oct: Punk Rock Show with “Ugly Bitch” , “Liberation Front” , “Kahn Of K” , “Gravity Takes Over” ; Sat 20 Oct: 1pm: ModToberfest - Mod Ska daynighter feat: “Jan Stark’s Soulsville” , “The Mayday Dreamers” , “The Pop Guns” , “Bad Vibrations” , “The Auskas” , DJ’s Pierre L’Chat , Siobhan Ellis , Mick Horan , The Cider Striders , Deedee Rude and The Crimplenes; Sun 21 Oct: 12pm: Vibrations At Valve Band Comp Grand Final; 5pm: Rock Show with “After Thirteen” and many more
For band bookings please email valvebar@gmail.com
Bistro open Lunch and Dinner !!
TUE 9TH OCT COMEDY NIGHT WITH
7:30PM - 10:30PM
DAYNE RATHBONE (WINNER RAW COMEDY 2011; SO YOU THINK YOU ARE FUNNY UK)
THU 11TH OCT
MC JOEL OZBORN
AND FRIENDS
7:30PM - 10:30PM
THE
H.P CORONADOS
+ GUESTS LIVE EVERY THURSDAY FREE ENTRY!
ADAM PRINGLE (GUITAR), JEREMY CRAIB (KEYS), MATT “THE RUMBLE” MORRISON(DRUMS) AND ROWAN LANE(BASS)
SUN 14TH OCT
3:00PM - 6:00PM
SUNDAY ARVO JAZZ AT THE HPH
FREE ENTRY
TUE 16TH OCT COMEDY NIGHT WITH
7:30PM - 10:30PM
RO CAMPBELL (WINNER 2010 SCOTTISH COMEDIAN OF THE YEAR, JONGLEURS, EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL ETC)
EVERY MONDAY
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FUNCTION ROOMS - CONTACT JOSH FOR INFO 9660 4745 FREE JOSH@HAROLDPARKHOTEL.COM.AU 8 • THE DRUM MEDIA
WED 10/10
The Drifting – CD Launch + Dan Hopkins
& The Generous Few
+ Natasha Eloise FRI 12/10
First Ladies Of Soul SAT 20/10
Contraban Final Show FRI 26/10
Barbara Blue (US) + Mojo Webb FRI 2/11
Running In The Shadows
Fleetwood Mac Tribute
Sat 3/11 Karma County + Sam Buckingham Thur 8/11 Band Of Frequencies Fri 9/11 Penny & The Mystics + Southerly Change Sat 10/11 Petulant Frenzy Play Zappa Sat 17/11 Pyjama Party With The Frocks Fri 23/11 Wes Carr introducing Buffalo Tales Fri 7/12 Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos Sat 15/12 Jordie Lane Single Launch
John Butler Trio (NYE Midnight Set) Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (usa-nye sEt) tHE bLacK sEedS (nz) fRiEndLY fIreS dj Set (uk-nye sEt)
kRaFty kUtS Vs A.sKilLz (UK) tHE hERd (aus) Kaki King (USA) Blood red Shoes (UK) Unknown Mortal Orchestra (USA) Electric Wire Hustle (NZ) King Tide (AUS) mAt. mChUGh & THE SEPERATISTA SOUND SYSTEM (aus) 65DaysoFstatic (UK) Deep Sea Arcade (AUS) Gold Fields (AUS) Gossling (AUS) Will & The People (UK) Chapelier Fou (Fr) The Medics (AUS) NorthEast Party House (AUS) HatFitz and Cara (aus) Tuka (AUS) The Cairos (AUS) The PreaTUREs (AUS) Battleships (AUS) Lime Cordiale (AUS) Daily Meds (AUS) JONES Jnr (AUS) Tigertown (AUS) MicroWave Jenny (AUS) also featuring — The Return of The Dub Shack Plus many more artists to be announced...
THE DRUM MEDIA • 9
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Thurston Moore (USA)
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TIX AND INFO www.liveatthebrewhouse.com.au Bands, send your links to info@liveatthebrewhouse.com.au
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FROM $49* MOJO
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30
THE SANDRINGHAM HOTEL 387 KING STREET NEWTOWN / 9557 1254 S YEAR WWW.SANDO.COM.AU BOOKINGSCONTACT SANDO@ATOMICDROP.COM.AU
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STREET LEVEL BAR:
SUN 14 OCT STREET LEVEL BAR:
50 MILLION BEERS “SKETCH CLUB”
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DAVE TICE AND MARK EVANS 4PM-7PM DJ KAKI 8PM-LATE DJ
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FREE
STREET LEVEL BAR: ADAM PRINGLE AND FRIENDS - FUNKY AS F#CK + TOOHEYS $6 NEW JUGS (7-8PM)
COMING SOON FRI 19 OCT ---
Coerce + Totally Unicorn + Lo! + Nice Guys + Snakes Get Bad Press *** www.oztix.com.au ***
SAT 20 OCT
---
"Whiplash Festival" Mnemic (Denmark) + Dawn Heist + Lynchmada + Merauder + Anno Domini + more *** www.moshtix.com.au ***
FRI 26 OCT ---
SAT 27 OCT ---
"Night Of The Stripping Dead - a Halloween Neo-Burlesque Creepshow" *** www.moshtix.com.au *** "Citadel Records - 30th Anniversary" DomNicks (Dom Mariani (Stems/DM3) and Nick Sheppard (Cortinas -UK)) + Deniz Tek + Penny Ikinger
FRI 2 NOV + SAT 3 NOV ---
“Steel Assassins” VOYAGER (WA), MEGAHERA (Italy), EYEFEAR (VIC) + DARKER HALF (NSW) + more *** www.moshtix.com.au ***
SAT 17 NOV ---
“Bastardfest 2012”
FRI 23 NOV ---
Ten Foot Pole (USA)
18 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Saturday 13 October, the Manning Bar will be transformed as it’s taken over by the Drunken Moon Spring Festival, curated by Brothers Grimm and co. Sound good? We have two double passes to the Manning Bar show to give away.
T H E D R U M M E D I A I S S U E 1 1 3 1 T U E S D AY 9 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 2
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX ***DOORS OPEN 7:00pm*** $30 pre-sale / $35 door sale ***tickets on sale now www.666entertainment.com***
FUN UNDER A DRUNKEN MOON
FOR MORE GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK HEAD TO FACEBOOK.COM/DRUMMEDIA AND CLICK ON THE GIVEAWAYS TAB
THE ROCKWELLS
"DOOMSDAY FESTIVAL 2012"
SAT 13 OCT
Currently touring their brand new and second album, Strange Flowers, which they reckon is a bit more the psychedelic rather than four-to-the-floor rock end of their thing, Regular John are returning to the Annandale to launch that very album Saturday 13 October. They’re also playing the Great Northern in Newcastle Friday 12, but we have three double passes to the Annandale show to give away.
FREE
"666 ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS"
STREET LEVEL BAR:
Regular John
A NIGHT WITH REGULAR JOHN
(ALL PROCEEDS TO THE OAKTREE FOUNDATION'S PARTNER PROJECT BA FUTURU IN EAST TIMOR)
KADE AND THE KARNEEZ + FIVE COFFEES + AARON CORNELIUS + DANE OVERTON & KRISTIE MELLOR
Australia’s only Aotearoa music and arts festival, The Pure Series showcases homegrown New Zealand-based artists across various genres at The Greenwood Hotel in North Sydney, the first in this year’s series kicking off midday Saturday 13 October with Che Fu, Bulletproof, P Money, Optimus Gryme, Askew 1, Glovecats and more. We have two VIP double passes to the event to give away.
*** www.moshtix.com.au *** *** www.oztix.com.au ***
Giveaways – Check it out for free stuff and head to Facebook for more! The Front Line hits hard with industry fact and conjecture, while Forward Line has the latest news on tours, releases and more. Britain’s favourite Mumford & Sons talk about writing the new album and playing shows that are out of the ordinary. Reunited, hip hop collective TZU have discovered our convict past – and ghosts. From idea to band, Winter People have a story to tell. Read about the dynamics of being Chicago’s Tortoise. Ole! Meet Los Campesinos!, all the way from Cardiff, Wales. Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard steps out alone. Spooky soul electronica Collarbones talk teen dreams and the Internet. Everclear mainman Art Alexakis is still feeding the emotional hunger. LA glamour DJ Steve Aoki is no hipster elitist. Bryget Chrisfield ponders this year’s Australian Independent Music Awards form guide. Melbourne’s Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders brings us a Drunken Moon. Sydneysiders Tigertown draw back the veil a little. New Jersey fuzz-rockers The Atomic Bitchwax certainly know how to milk a riff. It’s all about being prepared for The Paper Kites. Their second album together is much more a Hat Fitz & Cara affair. The Spitfires are determined to take no prisoners. On The Record reviews new release albums and singles from Martha Wainwright, Urthboy, Bats For Lashes, Lisa Mitchell and more.
FRONT ROW
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PUBLISHER Street Press Australia Pty Ltd GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast EDITOR Mark Neilsen ASSOCIATE EDITORS Michael Smith, Scott Fitzsimons FRONT ROW EDITOR Cassandra Fumi frontrow@drummedia.com.au CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Adam Curley CONTRIBUTORS Aarom Wilson, Adam Wilding, Alex Hardy, Anthony Carew, Bethany Small, Brendan Crabb, Brent Balinski, Bryget Chrisfield, Celline Narinli, Chris Familton, Chris Maric, Craig Pearce, Cyclone, Dan Condon, Danielle O’Donohue, Dave Drayton, Fiona Cameron, Guy Davis, Helen Lear, Huwston, Ian Barr, Jake Millar, Jamelle Wells, James d’Apice, James Dawson, James McGalliard, Jessie Hunt, Katie Benson, Kris Swales, Liz Giuffre, Lucia OsborneCrowley, Mark Hebblewhite, Paul Ransom, Paul Smith, Pedro Manoy, Rip Nicholson, Rob Townsend, Robbie Lowe, Ross Clelland, Sarah Braybrooke, Sarah Petchell, Sebastian Skeet, Sevana Ohandjanian, Shane O’Donohue, Simon Eales, Steve Bell, Stuart Evans, Tim Finney, Tom Hawking, Troy Mutton PHOTOGRAPHERS Angela Padovan, Carine Thevenau, Cybele Malinowski, Josh Groom, Justin Malinowski, Kane Hibberd, Linda Heller-Salvador, Maclay Heriot, Tony Mott ADVERTISING DEPT sales@drummedia.com.au Brett Dayman, James Seeney, Andrew Lilley
themusic.com.au
Check out what’s happening This Week in Arts, Comedian and actor Aziz Ansari puts a microscope over couples his age in Buried Alive and we chat to the kids of Medea. 51 Trailer Trash lets us in on studio secrets and Cultural Cringe gives us the arts news, and we review at Legally Blonde: The Musical, The Words, Sex With Strangers and Living In A Glass House. 52 We preview the Antenna Documentary Festival, Hannah Gatsby lets us in on about Wanting A Wife, and Heath “Chopper” Franklin chats about new show, The (s)hitlist. 53
LIVE
Reviews of the past week’s big gigs including Velociraptor, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Steel Panther. Dan Condon features the world of blues and roots with Roots Down, Chris Maric gets local with hard rock and metal in The Heavy Shit, and Sarah Petchell brings us local and international punk news in Wake The Dead. Cyclone gives you urban and r’n’b news in OG Flavas, Adam Curley muses on all things pop culture in The Breakdown, Viktor Krum asks you to Get It Together with the latest in hip hop, and Dave Drayton gets Young & Restless with all ages goings on. Michael Smith delivers some Blow with jazz and world music news and MusicNSW gives you the heads up on stuff to get involved in. It’s all here: Tour guide, what’s happening in indie news this week, gig guide and more, plus a profile on The Trobes. The Classies – need a singer/bassist/drummer/ any other service/product you can think of? Your answer is here. And on iflog.com.au. Muso and BTL, your guide to studios, recording, gear, courses and more.
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COMING UP COGEL (EP LAUNCH), BELL WEATHER DEPARTMENT, NANTES, TWIN LAKES, TESSA AND THE TYPECAST, OLLIE BROWN, LOUIS LONDON, DAN CRESTANI, CIVILIANS, PENELOPE AUSTIN, JORDAN SLY, WILL AND THE PEOPLE (UK), DUNE, RED INK, JORDAN MILLAR, SONS
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FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
CRASH THE BOOMGATES
WINNERS ARE GRINNERS Hermitude and House Vs Hurricane will definitely grace the Jägermeister Independent Music Awards stage as performers, but will they also collect the respective awards for which they’ve been nominated? Bryget Chrisfield investigates.
Boomgates started as a couple of friends having a loose Thursday evening sing and strum on the couch. It felt good so more friends were invited along to the sporadic jam sessions. It soon became obvious that this crew were now a proper band in their own right. Now Boomgates are hitting the road to celebrate the release of their debut long player, Double Natural. You can catch them on Saturday 10 November at GoodGod Small Club.
HAY’S WAY SHOES NEWS
Brighton, UK-based duo Blood Red Shoes have announced they will be making their first trip to Australian shores, playing this year’s Peat’s Ridge Festival. The duo released their third album, In Time To Voices, in July this year and while they’re out will also play a headline show on Friday 4 January at The Hi-Fi.
MENANGLE MEN
SMOKIN’ JOE
Hermitude
House Vs Hurricane Have you ever won anything in the past? Luke Dubber (Hermitude): I won a billycart competition when I was a kid. We had to make our own billycarts and ride around this crazy track: there’s this old abandoned raceway in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains where I grew up, Catalina Raceway. I think I won, or I came second. I’ve got a trophy. I’ve still got it somewhere. I’ve got a couple of medals from piano playing when I was a kid. But as for Hermitude, we won the [triple] j [Music Video Of The Year] award for the Speak Of The Devil clip last year. So that was massive.
Guitar genius Joe Robinson has been wowing crowds with his playing ability since he was 13, drawing praise and admiration from his industry heroes for his prodigious skills. Still only the tender age of 21, Joe has a list of credentials that would make most musicians three times his senior envious. He’s back in the country from his now home of Nashville and will play Saturday 27 October at The Vanguard, Sunday 28 at Sydney Blues & Roots Festival, Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 November at Mullum Music Festival, Thursday 13 December at The Street Theatre in Canberra and Saturday 15 at Festival Of The Sun in Port Macquarie.
The sky’s set to fall, the earth’s gonna split and Satan’s mighty claws are gonna haul us all down into the fiery depths of hell. So before all that happens, The Toot Toot Toots have managed to squeeze in a pre-apocalypse tour of gargantuan proportions. They play Thursday 13 December at Rock Lily, Friday 14 at The Junkyard in Maitland, Saturday 15 at The Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle, Sunday 16 at Yours & Owls in Wollongong and Monday 17 at The Phoenix in Canberra.
HVH: Chris [Shaw, guitar] wrote all of the music and demoed it at his home studio, then we’d refine it in the practice room. Dan and Riz [Ryan McLerie, vocals/ guitar] wrote the vocals to the recorded demos. We were able to take the completed album over to The Machine Shop, which helped a lot, and then we did a further week of pre-production to refine the songs a little more and get a fresh set of ears to add ideas. What’s an album from those nominated in this year’s JIMAs that you‘ve particularly rated and why? LD: I know Flume’s in there. I think for a single [Sleepless]. He’s awesome. He’s a guy that we discovered last year and we got him to do a support for us at the Speak Of The Devil launch at the end of last year, and then when it came around to doing a remix album this year we got him on board for that. And the remix that he wrote – the HyperParadise remix – has gone kind of bonkers... He’s the hot-right-now guy. HVH: Frenzal Rhomb – Smoko At The Pet Food Factory. We’ve all grown up listening to this band, they rule and this CD is just as awesome as all their old material. If you don’t think Bird Attack [from Smoko At The Pet Food Factory] is the greatest Australian song ever written, then there is something wrong with you. WHAT: Jägermeister Independent Music Awards WHEN: Tuesday 16 October
PRESENTED BY 20 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Birds Of Tokyo
BOT RELEASE/SHOW
Birds Of Tokyo will play The Annandale Hotel on Friday 7 December with tickets on sale at 9am Friday via the band’s official website, birdsoftokyo.com. Fans will need to join the birdsoftokyo.com mailing list before midnight tonight for an exclusive password to purchase tickets. The show is in aid of releasing their new This Fire EP.
GOING TO THE ZOO
At triple j, ears have been on alert searching Unearthed for the perfect sounds to open Harvest Festival - four bands to fill out four golden spots around the nation. And the winners have arrived! For the Sydney event on Saturday 17 November they’ve enlisted Tigertown.
How was the songwriting process for your nominated album?
VINTAGE AUTOMOBILES
Sadly, after 15 years and 350 shows as a band, 78 Saab are calling it a day. The band have developed a strong, fiercely loyal fanbase and a reputation for flawless live shows. The band will play their final show on Saturday 1 December at The Annandale Hotel.
SERPENT SERMONS
ALL ABOARD!
House Vs Hurricane: Nothing music related. I think Dan[Casey, vocals]’s basketball team, The Pink Flamingos, won their premiership a couple of years ago.
LD: It came together a bit quicker than our previous albums – about twice as quick actually, but it was also because we spent a lot more time on it. Instead of having other commitments like we’ve had in the past, we decided to devote 100 per cent to the writing of that record. We’ve got a studio in Leichhardt, near where we live, and we decided to go in there five days a week, during the days – kinda like a day job, really, and just work on the record. So we did that for a year. I went travelling for a month in June and that’s the only month we had off, actually. We started in January and finished in November, so it took about ten months… It was relatively smooth. You always have a month or a few weeks where you kind of lose a bit of the mojo and it’s a little bit harder to get stuff going, but then if you just keep persisting you get over that hump and eventually you come back into a phase where it’s really productive and fruitful, I guess.
It’s pretty safe to say that the album tour from everyone’s favourite Menangle dudes, The Rubens, is shaping up to be a major slam-dunk. With their second Metro Theatre show now sold out, they’re psyched to announce the addition of six more regional dates. The new NSW shows are Saturday 20 October at The Mona Vale Hotel, Thursday 25 at Entrance Leagues Club in Bateau Bay and Saturday 27 at The Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle.
From house shows to huge festivals, international tours to regional youth centres, Jamie Hay has seen it all. Now the Conation/A Death In The Family/Fear Like Us vocalist opens a new chapter with debut solo album, King Of The Sun, out Friday 2 November, and a tour to accompany it. Jamie Hay will introduce the country to his record on tour alongside Lincoln Le Fevre and plays Saturday 1 December at the Lass O’ Gowrie Hotel in Newcastle and Sunday 2 at Blackwire Records.
Sweden’s kings of unholy black metal chaos Marduk are invading our shores, headlining their own Serpent Sermon tour this summer. Joining them on the crusade will be Australia’s own curators of the abyss, Portal, and Melbourne’s blackened horde Order Of Orias. They play Saturday 12 January at The Hi-Fi Bar.
ONE-OFF CLEARY SHOW
His last performance in Sydney was to a soldout Concert Hall at Sydney Opera House last year for the massive Legends Of New Orleans tour. Jon Cleary now returns to our shores for a brief promotional trip for his first studio album in over seven years, Occapella. Fortunately the schedule has allowed Cleary to perform a oneoff, very special solo show at The Basement Circular Quay on Thursday 1 November.
STING LIKE A BEE
Brother Ali will return to Australia for the first time since his 2008 Falls Festival appearance and Sean Price will be making his first ever trip to Australia. Both artists will be showcasing tracks from their respective new albums and dropping in their respective classic tunes along the way, and play a doublebill on Thursday 22 November at The Factory.
Regina Spektor
MORE REGINA
There will be a third and final Sydney show for the charismatic virtuoso Regina Spektor this December tobe held at the beautiful Enmore Theatre on Saturday 8 December. Her other two Enmore Theatre shows have sold out.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
FISHER’S GIG IS BIG
Proving the Australian all-ages music scene is alive and well are a group of bands preparing to rock this year’s Fisher’s Gig in the Macarthur region this November. The superb line-up features a mix of up and coming local bands performing alongside headlining acts of national and international acclaim. Five local bands will take to the stage on Saturday 3 November, including The Masterplan, Go Mason Go!, Carmeria, Paintbox City and 46 Clicks. They will be joined by two headline acts from Victoria: Closure In Moscow and Hunting Grounds. Campbelltown City Council’s Festival Of Fisher’s Ghost runs from Thursday 1 to Sunday 11 November.
IN THE P!NK
P!nk will make her hugely anticipated return to this country for The Truth About Love tour 2013. Renowned around the world as one of the most dynamic live performers of her generation – and by far the most successful female touring and recording artist ever in the Australian market – P!nk’s 2009 Funhouse tour was one of the biggest Australian tours ever. She plays Sydney Entertainment Centre on Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 July and Friday 2 August next year.
STORIES FROM THE SOUL
Kutcha Edwards’ story is one of twists and turns, ups and downs but always one of family and culture. Blak & Blu is an album made of his soul. It’s a road journey of his spirit. He’s taking it on the road and will perform on Friday 7 December at GoodGod Small Club.
The national tour dates for 2013’s Future Music Festival – Day Of The Dead-Set Awesome – are now set in stone. Boys and girls, muchachos y muchachas, the countdown to FMF 2013 is on! They’ll be popping the piñata that is their all-star line-up on Wednesday and the Sydney event will take place on Saturday 9 March. Save the date.
MISSISSIPPI LOVIN’
William Elliott Whitmore returns to Australia for a series of headline shows in March 2013, as well as two special performances at Bluesfest. Hailing from a farm along the banks of the Mississippi River, Whitmore has developed an intense love and spiritual understanding of the land, which he flawlessly conveys through all of his records. Catch the show on Wednesday 27 March at The Annandale Hotel.
Mikelangelo & The Tin Star
HALLOWEEN CHERRY
One of Sydney’s favourite band, burlesque and DJ events, Black Cherry, celebrates six years of rock’n’roll debauchery with a fully-themed halloween/Mexican Day Of The Dead party at The Factory Theatre on Saturday 27 October. Head along for three rooms of entertainment, bands, DJs, circus burlesque shows, a halloween-themed burlesque knockout competition, rock‘n’roll karaoke band, Green Fairy Absinth cocktail bar, Cantina Mobil Mexican food truck and MC Lauren La Rouge on sass patrol. Bands include Mikelangelo & The Tin Star, Los Capitanes, Captain Reckless & The Lost Souls, Neon Heart, Graveyard Rockstars and C.O.F.F.I.N.
LIVING END SUPPORTS
It’s just over a month until The Living End kick off their massive 39-date retrospective tour and the band are now ready to reveal the huge list of special guest bands and DJs who be joining them on the road. The Sydney shows will feature Area 7, Even and Cabins on various nights, plus special guest DJ 2manyPJs (Phil Jamieson from Grinspoon).
DRIFTING TIGER
Melbourne sextet The Tiger & Me weave a rare mixture of styles and sounds as three lead vocalists exchange and merge tunes from whispered ballads to fevered maelstroms, from charming pop to explosive rock. Their second full-length album, The Drifter’s Dawn, is due for release next week and they’re touring to launch it, playing Saturday 10 November at The Red Rattler, Sunday 11 at Majors Creek Pub and Thursday 15 at High Tea (acoustic show).
themusic.com.au
Reel Big Fish
THREE-HEADED MONSTER
Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger and Zebrahead are teaming up for a killer Australian tour this summer. This is the kind of tour that these titans of rock thrive upon: twisted flesh, flailing limbs and a sea of swarming bodies. Catch them on Saturday 1 December at UNSW Roundhouse.
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FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
DEATH BY STEREO
As the national tour for recently reformed Swedish death metal legends At The Gates approaches, they are excited to announce the support acts that will make these bills even more brutal and thrilling. Sydney supports for Thursday 1 November at The Metro Theatre are Katabasis and As Silence Breaks.
I N D U S T RY N E W S W I T H S C O T T F I T Z S I M O N S frontline@streetpress.com.au
HUNGRY SHOOTER
With their latest single, Sharp Shooter, currently receiving a suitable thrashing on national radio, Brisbane’s Hungry Kids Of Hungary are shaping up for the perfect return, with their first Australian headline tour in 18 months kicking off in just over two weeks. With psych-surf-pop duo Gung Ho in tow as main support, HKOH are happy to announce local supports in all areas. Support for their shows on Thursday 1 November at The Standard and Friday 2 at Wollongong Uni will come from Light Giant.
360
360 LEADS ARIA NOMINATIONS
Melbourne rapper 360 has blitzed the ARIA Award nominations event for 2012, leading the pack with six nods as well as featuring in the Fine Arts and Artisan awards which were presented at the nominations announcements. 360’s producer Styalz Fuego picked up the Best Producer award for his work on Falling And Flying, while the other two Artisan awards went to Gotye’s court with Francois Tetaz taking Best Engineer and Frank and Wally (Gotye) De Backer Best Cover Art, both for his album, Making Mirrors. Gotye also picked up five nominations for the mainstream awards, with The Jezabels also matching that tally. The fine art awards were awarded as follows: Best Classical Album, William Barton for Kalkadungu; Best Jazz Album, Sarah McKenzie for Close Your Eyes; Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/ Show Album: triple j for Straight To You: triple j’s Tribute To Nick Cave and Best World Music Album: Joseph Tawadros for Concerto Of The Greater Sea.
OPERA HOUSE GOT SOUL
Sydney Opera House will host New York soul-funk royalty Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings for a blistering show in the Concert Hall on Friday 4 January as part of Summer at the House. With a reputation as one of world’s most electrifying live acts, this ten-piece band ooze a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since Motown’s golden days. From the Dap-Kings’ collaborations with legendary soul icon Al Green, Prince and the late Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones’s rhythmic swagger echoes the spirit of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner. Tickets on sale this Friday.
WANTED MAN
With the instant impact at radio of the single, Just To Feel Wanted, still simmering, Thundamentals MC Tuka launches his second solo album, Feedback Loop, this November. Not afraid to lean on all of his influences, mix them up and present something completely new, Just To Feel Wanted’s catchy, almost Gnarls Barkely feel was just a small taste of what is to come on Feedback Loop. He plays Saturday 17 November at Hotel Gearin in Katoomba and Thursday 22 at The Annandale Hotel with special guests Rapaport, 10th Dan and Grub at both shows.
JEZABELS, 360, JOINED BY TAYLOR SWIFT AT ARIAS
In more ARIA Award news, country pop superstar Taylor Swift has been added to the line-up of entertainment for this year’s ceremony, which had comprised solely of local artists. Swift, who will release her next album, Red, later this month, will join locals 360, The Jezabels, Hilltop Hoods, Jessica Mauboy and The Temper Trap, with more to be added. The 22-year-old Swift is of course a global superstar and will add commercial market appeal for the awards, which this year will again be televised on Channel Nine’s digital frequency Go! It will also push general public ticket sales, which are now open. The awards take place Thursday 29 November at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
360 MARKS A YEAR IN TOP 50
360 celebrated an astonishing 52 weeks in the ARIA Album Chart top 50 with his album, Falling And Flying, last week. The album peaked as high as four during that time. 360’s manager Rae Harvey told theMusic.com.au that the record is about to hit double platinum (140,000) and achieve 500,000 single downloads. “Falling And Flying is a great example of what can be achieved with a dedicated team of tenacious people who all had the privilege of working on what I believe was the best album released in the last 12 months,” Harvey said.
BELLES WILL RING ANNOUNCE HIATUS
Sydney harmony chasers Belles Will Ring have revealed to theMusic.com.au that an upcoming show, where they’ll play latest album, Crystal Theatre, in full, will be the band’s last for the foreseeable future as they enter into an indefinite hiatus, admitting the show, “could be our last show for a very long time.” The band, whose founding members Liam Judson and Aidan Roberts have a number of side projects and producing credits between them, added, “(we) don’t feel this is the end of the story... yet.” The band will play at Sydney’s The Vanguard Saturday 20 October.
SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS HEAD TO MELBOURNE
The annual Screen Music Awards will move to Melbourne this year, organisers have announced. Run by APRA [Australasian Performing Right Association] and the AGSC [Australian Guild of Screen Composers] the awards ceremony for film and TV composers will take place Monday 19 November at BMW Edge at Federation Square. The Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hanson will host the evening, while Paul Grabowsky will conduct the live orchestra. Nominees will be announced Thursday 18 October.
PRESENTED BY 22 • THE DRUM MEDIA
First Aid Kit
AMORE & MEND SUPPORTS
Touche Amore and Make Do & Mend both toured Australia separately for the first time last year. Now both bands will be returning together and they’ve announced the local supports. At their Friday 2 November Annandale Hotel show they will be Harbourer, their Saturday 3 Annandale show will be Vices and their Sunday 4 Tuggeranong Youth Centre Canberra show again will be Harbourer.
TAKE YOUR MEDICINE Following a sold-out tour earlier this year, the stunning First Aid Kit will soon make a triumphant return to Melbourne and Sydney stages alongside their Falls and Southbound festival appearances. For their third Australian tour, the Swedish sisters will welcome the new year in their most compelling setting yet and play the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall on Thursday 3 January.
Bob Mould
MOULD ON STAGE
After exiting Hüsker Dü the granddaddy of alternative rock, Bob Mould, formed Sugar and released one of the most important underground rock albums of the early ‘90s. The powerful and ever-fresh debut album, Copper Blue, written and co-produced by Mould, was a pivotal moment for alternative rock, laying the foundations for the surge of alternative rock and power punk of the 1990s as well influencing some of today’s rock icons. Mould is still kicking arse and brings Copper Blue back to be experienced as it should be – live and on stage. He and band perform Saturday 9 March at The Factory Theatre.
LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT
Direct from the deep south of New Zealand, psychedelic roots act Left Or Right are touring Australia for the first time to celebrate the Australian release of their second album, Buzzy. They’ll play Thursday 18 October at Valve Bar, Friday 19 at The Great Northern in Newcastle and Sunday 21 at Yours & Owls in Wollongong.
HOME BREW EH BRO Young Gifted & Broke brings forth the next wave of artists behind New Zealand’s number one hip hop group Home Brew at a showcase on Thursday 25 October at Civic Underground. The showcase features Home Brew, @Peace and Team Dynamite and will also feature performances from YG&B label manager DJ Substance with local supports to be announced.
WALKING FISH
EXCAVATOR In the early months of this year, Saritah packed her suitcase and acoustic guitar and flew across the globe from Melbourne to California where she went into the studio and created an album of original songs. The result is Dig Deep, a vibrant, rich album that unites roots reggae, dancehall, pop and nu-soul flavours on a journey through universal conditions of joy, loss, inspiration and faith. The album’s out in November and she’ll play Thursday 22 November at Manly Boatshed and Friday 23 at Rock Lily.
Axolotl are a collaboration bred in a Melbourne home studio and spearheaded by Ella Thompson and Dustin McLean. They share a love of cinematic, lush, layered production combined with lyrical songwriting. Inspired by artists such Little Dragon, Leonard Cohen, Feist, St Vincent and Radiohead, Axolotl blend electronics and raw sounds to create innovative work. Fresh from touring with The Bamboos along the East Coast they’re presenting their debut EP and launching it on Friday 19 October at Beresford Upstairs.
JULES RULES
Kylie Auldist
ON THE SOUL TRAIN
Kylie Auldist is no stranger to the art of musicmaking. Recording her first song at age six, Auldist’s undeniable vocal talent has seen the sultry chanteuse sharing stages with the likes of Renee Geyer and Jimmy Barnes. Don’t miss Auldist as she is joined by long-time collaborators and friends launching her new album, Still Life, Saturday 17 November at The Basement in Circular Quay.
PLAIN USELESS
This coming January, Gary Jules, the man behind the cover of Mad World, most recently used in the TV advert for the Julian Assange telemovie, will be making his way to Australia. A born storyteller, Jules draws you into his experience with his expressive songcraft. He plays Friday 11 January at The Factory Theatre.
Bleeding Knees Club
ON YOUR KNEES
LEVY & LIBERTY Yasmin Levy, that vibrant interpreter of Ladino music, returns to Australia with her brand new CD, Libertad, a hand-picked international ensemble, and a slew of accolades for her previous release, Sentir. Her previous sold-out Australian tour introduced audiences to a gripping young performer and composer on the cusp of international stardom. She plays Saturday 17 November at the Factory Theatre.
It’s time to break out the Band-Aids and brace your battered body one more time, as Bleeding Knees Club head out on a national tour in November to launch Let It Go, the final single off their debut album, Nothing To Do. These will be the last headline shows from the Gold Coast duo before they bunker down to start work on their second album, and will also give fans the chance to hear many new songs that are earmarked for this next record. They’ll play Friday 23 November at The Standard, Saturday 24 at Transit Bar and Sunday 25 at The Metro.
themusic.com.au
Useless Eaters started in 2008 as a bedroom project to kill the boredom of being a teenager living in Memphis. It didn’t take long for noteworthy imprints like Eric Oblivian’s Goner Records and Jay Reatard’s Shattered label to start flipping the band’s discs. Useless Eaters will be starting their Australian tour at this year’s Maggot Fest followed by a show at The Terrace Bar in Newcastle on Wednesday 7 November with Gooch Palms and The Nugs and another at The Square on Friday 9 with Dead Farmers, Loose Grip and Housewives.
MELLE MEL CANCELS
The Grandmaster Melle Mel tour slated for November has been cancelled. Ticket holders are entitled to a full refund and by this stage should have been contacted by ticketing outlets.
king tide
FR O M NY C
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E E R F
y r t n e
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FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
DOOM BRINGERS
Since Eyehategod descended upon New Orleans in 1988, they’ve become one of the most highly regarded early pioneers of the sludge and doom metal genre. In their 23 years together Eyehategod have created a landmark legacy that’s influenced a whole generation of aspiring doom warriors, whilst creating an undisputed cult-like following that has placed them in the top leagues of sludge and doom artists. In November Eyehategod will be making their maiden voyage south of the equator, playing Thursday 22 November at The Manning Bar and Friday 23 at ANU Bar in Canberra.
I N D U S T RY N E W S W I T H S C O T T F I T Z S I M O N S frontline@streetpress.com.au
CHUGG NAMED FOR VIC CONFERENCE Chugg Entertainment boss Michael Chugg and Violent Femmes/The Break bassist/Mona Foma curator Brian Ritchie have been announced as keynote speakers for this year’s Australasian World Music Expo conference. The event will take place from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 November in Melbourne across numerous venues. Musical showcases have been confirmed from Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Archie Roach’s Into The Bloodstream, Clare Bowditch, The Bamboos and many more. The conference’s director Simon Rayner said, “This is the first year we’ve featured keynote speakers in the Conference Program and to have the likes of Brian Ritchie and Michael Chugg sharing their professional insights is quite a privilege.”
GEORGE MICHAEL CANCELS TOUR OVER ‘MAJOR ANXIETY’ George Michael has cancelled his upcoming Australian tour due to “major anxiety” that has “plagued” him since leaving hospital last December after battling life-threatening pneumonia. Despite playing a number of shows in Europe, he said in a statement that coming back to Australia would be too much – a decision which he said “breaks my heart”. The Australian shows are unlikely to be rescheduled anytime soon and refunds are currently being issued. “All that’s left for me to do is apologise to my wonderful Australian fanbase,” Michael said, “and to promise faithfully that as soon as I complete these shows here in the UK I will receive the treatment which is so long overdue.”
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24 • THE DRUM MEDIA
TO THE COLONIES
PSYCROPTIC BASTARDFEST
Psycroptic are not only this year’s special guest headliners at Brisbane and Canberra Bastardfests, but are now the special guest headliners for Melbourne and Sydney as well. It happens for Drum readers Saturday 17 November at The Sandringham Hotel.
EMPIRES AND LIME
HOT SNAKES SUPPORTS
Sydney pop wizards Lime Cordiale have just been announced to join Electric Empire for their New South Wales shows on their upcoming Changin’ tour. They play Thursday 1 November at The Heritage Hotel in Bulli, Friday 2 at Oxford Art Factory and Saturday 3 at the Hotel Gearin in Katoomba.
Once touted the saviors of rock’n’roll, Hot Snakes have reformed and their Australian tour is right around the corner. With supports now announced, these shows are shaping up to be legendary in their own right. They play Thursday 6 December at The Annandale Hotel with SixFtHick and Dead Farmers.
THEE OH SEES
BACKTRACKING
It’s been a year since Thee Oh Sees tempted Australia with their insane, hectic and cacophonous live shows. Having built a feverishly prolific reputation for their immense output, Thee Oh Sees return to celebrate their 14th release, Putrifiers II, with performances at the All Tomorrows Parties festival and a blitz national tour serving tight psychedelic jams and an unrestrained live show. They play Monday 11 February at Transit Bar in Canberra.
In My Youth will showcase Shannon Noll playing the songs that he grew up with, songs he has always wanted to re-imagine and take on the road. He plays them on Friday 30 November at Coogee Diggers, Sunday 2 December at The Heritage Hotel in Bulli, Thursday 17 January at Clarendon Guesthouse in Katoomba, Friday 18 at Brass Monkey in Cronulla, Friday 8 February at Lizotte’s Dee Why, Friday 15 at Lizotte’s Newcastle and Saturday 16 at Asquith Leagues Club.
themusic.com.au
The Hives will take over The Metro on Monday 7 January for what is now an all-ages show as they deliver blistering proof they aren’t simply part of the royal rock family – they are the kings. Run your little legs to get tickets on Friday 12 October in order to hear these five single-minded men with a telepathic connection slam their instruments against each other and the floor. The Hives are a force to be reckoned with.
Dexys
HIGH TIMES
Dexys Midnight Runners have returned to the music world that they left all those years ago, not just with equal relevance but with all the style, soulfulness and emotional honesty that saw them leave their mark on so many. This November, Dexys make their way to Australia for Harvest and it’s sure be a very special event for those who’ve been waiting almost three decades to see them. They play a festival sideshow on Thursday 15 November at Enmore Theatre.
THE DRUM MEDIA • 25
Those dapper English Mumford & Sons lads are at it again, inviting Australia to join them at the largest campfire singalong you could imagine. As Ted Dwane tells stories, laughs at bad jokes and generally charms, Benny Doyle wonders if there’s a more affable band in music.
GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES Smack in the middle of Mumford & Sons’ massive Australian tour is a date in Dungog. Where you ask? Don’t worry – you’re not the only one. It’s a tiny town in the upper Hunter Valley of NSW – a small dot of dairy country with a little over 2,000 townsfolk, and one of seven lucky locales in various parts of the world being treated to Gentlemen Of The Road stopovers.
KINGS OF THE ROAD W
hen Mumford & Sons arrived on the scene in 2009, this welldressed, better spoken collective of period-styled Londoners didn’t seem to fit any existing box. They were too trendy to be folk, too refined to be deemed an indie group and far too progressive to be considered a Country and Western band. But while music press around the globe were left scratching their heads trying to coin a new niche genre, the general public swooped, not so much interested in which category the quartet’s songs fell into but, more importantly, what their first single sounded like. Like Kings Of Leon’s Sex On Fire before it and Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know following, Little Lion Man became more than just a song. Their banjoled pop smash became a snapshot of 2009, one that will be entrenched in popular culture forever, like it or loathe it. Since that initial explosion of popularity, success has been unwavering for the band, and now after a three-year wait, Mumford & Sons are ready to deliver their fans a second helping by way of Babel. Ted Dwane is making a cup of coffee in his kitchen at home, a scene that the 28-year-old multiinstrumentalist describes as, “all quite civilised”. He concurs that on the eve of Babel’s release, 26 • THE DRUM MEDIA
the band were feeling a different kind of excitement in comparison to the weeks leading up to the release of their multi-million-selling debut, Sigh No More.
“It is and we definitely feel like we owe them one,” Dwane concedes, referring to their passionate fanbase, a collective that has helped position Mumford & Sons as this generation’s most popular folk band. “We’ve battled with the idea of being a prolific band and releasing a lot of records, and also our love for the road, but the two don’t really go hand in hand. This album came together by writing all the songs between tours. We’ve had a few weeks scattered about the last few years writing in various locations, but generally it’s been soundchecks and dressing rooms, so it’s a great feeling to have it done because it’s been a busy three years since Sigh No More. And some of those big festival slots that we’ve been playing, they’ve got you up there for ninety minutes, so to have twice the material out there is just going to be great to broaden the window of which people look into Mumford & Sons – it’s just a bigger picture for people to see what we can do.”
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Against every trend in music and bucking every established idea of what should be topping the charts, these four unassuming Brits – Dwane and fellow buttoned-up bandmates Marcus Mumford, Country Winston Marshall and Ben Lovett – have attracted a fanbase without demographic boundaries or national borders. “We’re endlessly surprised,” Dwane admits. “We get absolutely everyone and it’s such a great thing. I remember when we were first setting out in London and we were a bit trendy and you’d get all the kids in their crazy uniforms, and that was really exciting, I thought, ‘Fuckin’ hell, here we go!’ But that’s very fickle isn’t it? That’s a moment – but there’s nothing more real than two or three generations of family coming together to a gig – that’s the dream.” Babel is the sound of the open road. There’s the expected Mumford warmth across the record’s 12 tracks, but it’s driven by romance, drama and restlessness. Not that they’d plans for any such things. “Not a lot of what we do is very intentional to be honest with you. And it’s an amazing thing for any sort of artist to have the acknowledgment of peers and to receive any sort of success, it does give you confidence. But when it comes to our creative process I think it’s the most un-cognitive thing in the world. We work within
our parameters with the instruments that we play and our ability; we all have various roles that kick in when we are writing or recording together. It’s just the band dynamic. It’s four people that write music trying to help each other and look after each other to create the best songs we can.”
Wanting to really capture the immediate feelings that the band were harbouring and mould them into workable songs, they gave themselves a fresh challenge – the ‘Ten-song game’. Played during a farm stint in Somerset, it was a creative process that highlighted Dwane as the murder balladeer of the group. “It’s true,” he laughs. “I shouldn’t be confirming that but yeah, it’s true. It’s there hidden underneath the jovial exterior.” To play this game, the band had to open the doors to their workshop; however, it’s far from the typical sense of the word. “We always refer to the Mumford & Sons workshop, which is a place full of halffinished songs and ideas that haven’t been fully developed, and I think with the ten-song game you just pull all that stuff out and get it done – you clear the workshop. It’s a really fun and healthy thing to do. When you focus on quality it completely shuts out your inner critic, like [you think] ‘Okay, that’s
a really obvious rhyme, but I’ve got to finish this song because I’ve got to write ten tracks in six hours.’ So you just get it all done, and when you turn off your brain a little bit and just write from a more intuitive place it just comes straight out.”
Introduced to Mumford & Sons by a group of writer pals in London, Dwane calls the ten-song game “the only formal exercise we’ve ever done,” and admits it worked well. “The idea is that at the end of the day you play all the stuff to the other people playing the game. It’s not a competition. You end up just hearing lots and lots of other people’s work and I think in every creative venture, whether it’s music or visual art or whatever, if there’s a bit of a scene it spurs you on.” The band had begun writing for the record in earnest before this, mind you. After a solid 18 months crisscrossing the globe, standing in each other’s shadows, they separated in December 2010. A month later, they reconvened in the heart of Tennessee to begin work on what we now know as Babel. “It was exciting,” Dwane begins. “The Nashville sessions were just writing – we borrowed someone’s house and just lived there and wrote all day long, so quite a few of the songs got solidified and finished there. And it’s
always exciting, like, the writing process for us isn’t at all set in stone – there’s no method at all. Someone will bring an idea in and anyone’s suggestion isn’t theirs by the time we finish with it and by the time it becomes a Mumford & Sons song it’s embellished with everyone’s creativity. And that’s a really important thing. It keeps all of us loving the songs forever. The Nashville week was certainly the first of the intentional time that we gave ourselves towards making the next record, but that was last January so a lot happened after that. We kept touring, kept writing and the album was just made between tours.” This stop-start cycle, Dwane says, is typical for Mumford & Sons, and it perhaps points to a reason why their music, especially on Babel, sounds so well-aged and learnt, like it’s being created by old heads with young hearts. “The creative stuff always happens on the road with us when we’re together. I mean, there’s a lot of travelling and a lot of sitting around and that’s where a lot of playing gets done. When we get into the studio we hope that the ideas are pretty well developed and we just work on getting a great sound.” Such an initial burst of success can afford a band a certain creative freedom to extend themselves on their second record. It’s a point of liberation for many artists, but a position that some inevitably abuse, deserting the sound that made them worthy in the first place. Babel avoids such a bump in the road. Mumford & Sons have paved the way for this album by doing what felt natural to them from the outset. Now, they’ve simply kept on paving. This time though, the results are bolder and more robust than ever before. “You always want to better what you’ve done before – you never want to do something that’s not as good,” Dwane emphasises. “On this record, I think we’re expressing ourselves more effectively and in the studio we recorded a lot more live. Originally, we were mapping click tracks and building the songs out like that, and then we realised that it wasn’t right so we just started smashing it out live and now it works a lot better. We just wanted it to be a snapshot of Mumford & Sons in 2012. A lot has happened in the last few years and that honest representation is Babel.” WHO: Mumford & Sons WHAT: Babel (Dew Process/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 18 October, Sydney Entertainment Centre; Saturday 20, Gentlemen Of The Road (A Camping Stopover), Dungog; Friday 26, Royal Theatre, Canberra
These dates, spliced in between the Mumford lads’ regular touring schedule, are an inspired undertaking, creating a complete experience for punters while injecting a healthy bit of revenue into some small town economies. Not only do they allow the band to connect with fans who otherwise might never have got the chance to witness one of their shows, but it also lets the Brits introduce ears to some new music that they think deserves to be heard on a bigger platform. “I spend a lot of time explaining it to people and very few of them seem to pick up on that being fundamental to the day,” Dwane admits in a rather chuffed manner. “For us, as Mumford & Sons, it’s been such fun, and I think the reason that we’ve always loved touring so much is that we’re very selective about who we tour with. We can’t go out and really deliver a great show unless the support band is someone that we love and gets us really psyched up and ready to play a gig, so that’s always been integral. “As we’ve grown as a band and we play these bigger shows, it’s been a hard thing to try and maintain [that intimacy] – a lot of the bigger venues can be quite cold and vibe-less. The GOTR stopovers are the perfect opportunity to play to 10-15,000 people but very much do it in our own way. We create a whole day – we find the location, make it look nice and the bands are all our favourite bands. We make sure the food is good and the beer is local. We play a lot of festivals now and we used to go to a lot when we were kids and we know what makes a good day, and we’re in a lucky position to try and create that experience, one that we’d enjoy, and it’s been a big hit so far.”
FAVOURITE HAUNTS Back together after a four-year break, TZU have crafted a “really different” concept album inspired by convicts and haunted pubs, Joel Ma (Joelistics) and Pip Norman (Countbounce) tell Kate Kingsmill.
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hen TZU announced they were going on hiatus four years ago, it was easy to suspect that it might have been the end of the band altogether. “I think we all thought that,” says Joel Ma (aka MC Joelistics). “It was never really explicitly discussed but it was the general vibe. It’s sort of like being married and then going, ‘Let’s just be friends for a while’. Which doesn’t usually work out well, but in our case it did!” There were no big issues or bad feelings, just that after eight years playing together and touring together, “We got to a point where we needed to focus on other things in our lives,” Ma continues. “The break was just a chance to catch up on all this other external life maintenance stuff.” And so, after two years of doing all of that life stuff, like having babies, travelling the world, making solo albums and producing music for other artists, the four members of TZU – Ma, Pip Norman (aka Countbounce), Shahab Tariq (aka Paso Bionic) and Corey McGregor (aka Yeroc) – started hanging out again. “It was this really soft approach to getting together and hanging out,” says Ma. “That was the basis of a really good friendship between four guys who went, ‘Let’s get together again.’ And what do we usually do when we get together? Well, we generally play music. So it wasn’t a case of consciously going, ‘Let’s write a new record’. There was no grand plan, we just decided to take two weeks to hang out and write music in the studio, and not have any other stuff going on.“ “And not have any outcomes for it either,” adds Norman. “It wasn’t like, ‘This has to produce a record’. It was just, ‘Let’s just write and if that works we’ll see where to go from there’.” “And if felt really good,” concludes Ma. And so, ten years after they started out busking on Brunswick Street, the four members of TZU were making music together again. Lyrically, the band steered steered purposefully away from the personal stories that they had come to be associated with. They have described Millions Of Moments as a concept album, although the concept is more of a broad narrative that holds the album together. The idea of a time-travelling spirit who inhabits various characters through time and space emerged from the band’s desire to tell other people’s stories.
into our old set. And it is going to be a bit tricky but it’s still all us and still all our own music, so how hard can it be?” asks Norman. Are they still a hip hop band? “I reckon it’s got elements of hip hop,” says Ma. But more to the point, he says, “This is us, this is what these four people made and this is where we are. And let’s start a conversation. Undoubtedly there’ll be strong opinions, but fuck, it’s good. It’s a good thing to do. So let’s keep it TZU. That’s what it is.” WHO: TZU WHAT: Millions Of Moments (Liberation) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, The Patch, Wollongong; Friday 12, Transit Bar, Canberra; Saturday 13, The Standard
There’s more to this story on the iPad “We didn’t stick to it like a burning compass in our mind’s eye but I remember saying to Joel, ‘I don’t want to write about my life. I don’t want to be in the first person,’” says Norman. “And that’s often what’s associated with hip hop is that you’re representing yourself, it’s very first person and it’s very real. And I was very excited about narrative, and other people’s lives and made-up lives and lives from different eras and that was definitely something that we set out to do.” Ma recalls with enthusiasm, “I totally remember you saying, ‘Let’s write convict stories as well’. We even swapped some books and shared like a bunch of stories and source material to draw from. And I just went, ‘Yeah, I love this idea of storywriting’.” In particular, Ma found that there are some spots on Earth where ghosts just seem to linger, leaving an imprint of energy, like a photonegative, on a place. And so ghost stories, colonial history and stories of haunted pubs were woven into the fabric of the record. “All those old folk songs are really dark and awesome stories and really great little dramas and scenarios. We were excited about working with that stuff,” Ma says. In TZU’s downtime, Ma released a solo album (Voyager), continued to write poetry and short stories and recently spent two months working on another musical project in Berlin, a place that he reckons is definitely haunted. “There are heaps of ghosts in Berlin. The café where I used to drink coffee, the façade of the building looks really nice, and then in the courtyard there’s all these bullet holes in the wall. That whole history is right there, and it’s hard to fathom that sometimes.” Beautiful, the latest single from Millions Of Moments, is a colonial ghost story because, says Norman, “Once that banjo line came up, it was clear that it was going to be a ghost story. What else could you write over that banjo line?” “I remember when we were writing that song, lyrically, “ Ma adds. “There was a pub that we played at near Wollongong and it had the most haunted vibe that I’d ever come across. And they had a story about how they’d had a mining accident years and years ago, in the early 20th century, and suddenly this small town had all these dead bodies on its hands and they’d filled up the morgue and they had to store some of the bodies in the basement of the pub. It’s brutal and amazing and gothic and scary, and the pub itself felt really like that to me as well. And so when we sat down to write that song, that was one of the stories I kept referring to. Every pub in every small town has some story that is going to keep you guessing. “ Sonically, the album is based around synthesisers and samplers and sees the band delving further into the ‘80s future-electro sounds that they began exploring on Computer Love four years ago. Indeed at one point, the new music was so different to the old TZU material that the band even considered releasing it under a different name. “It was going to instrumental, it was going to be no lyrics at all and we were going to name it something else,“ says Norman. “Because we are totally aware that it’s really different,” adds Ma. “If you were to listen to Position Correction and then listen to Millions Of Moments, there’s a progression that you can really follow, but this is clearly the furthest step away.” The difference in the sound has posed its challenges for the band in putting together their live set for the Millions Of Moments tour. “We’ve been talking about how we’ll try to incorporate the old stuff into our new set. Or how we will try and incorporate the new stuff
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 27
IN THE MOOD When he pulled Winter People together, Dylan Baskind only really knew he wanted a band. Now that band has given birth to a hauntingly beautiful album. Michael Smith finds out how they got there.
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hen I was younger, actually before I even wrote songs, I was into electronic music, and I just made these very vast arrangements of just everything I could imagine,” Winter People singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Dylan Baskind explains the genesis of his musical journey, “and then I put that aside totally and went to this absolute singer-songwriter type of world, and then there was a point, a few years ago, where I was, like, ‘Okay, well how am I going to make these two ways of approaching music and songs come together?’ And there were a huge number of failures but I suppose through all those years of failing I got a grasp of how to take something from a guitar or something that’s very much a seedling and grow that without losing sight of the intention of the song.”
And then he found two violinists who could sing, and a rhythm section that could also sing, that allowed him to recreate those vast soundscapes and arrangements without having to resort to the computer and electronics. Enter the six-piece Winter People, and with them, he’s been able to translate those ideas and grow those seedlings into a remarkable debut album, A Year At Sea. “It’s come up a lot, but I’ve been quite militant about not resorting to the computer. I hope that’s not dogmatic, but I do feel that there is just something about watching a live band, when there is something recorded, that I just find takes away from what you’re seeing. I want to know that everything that’s being played is the product of what people are doing in the moment. Sometimes [the computer] does actually limit your capabilities. “Luckily, when the band got started, I’d made an album by myself that was fully orchestrated, so it wasn’t like we all got in a room and we had nothing to work from; we had a kind of architecture to build on and to work out what everyone’s role was going to be and where people’s strengths were going to lie. And the good thing about starting the band, for me I just wanted to have a band – there was no more ambition beyond that – so there was a lot of time, months and months and months, which you don’t get once you actually play your first show. We had a long sort of incubation/gestation period where we had these songs to work from already, we had orchestrations that existed, from that previous album, so we could learn to play as a unit.” What these six musicians learned to do together stretches from pastoral a cappella harmonies to sweeping string arrangements, warm acoustic sounds to vast orchestral soundscapes. The first hint of the possibilities inherent in their music came in the form of a debut EP, the single from which, Gallons, garnered plenty of radio love. But there was one more element needed – the right producer – and that came in the form of American producer, Peter Katis, whose CV includes working on records by Interpol, The National and Frightened Rabbit.
There’s more to this story on the iPad “I’m a technical/audio person – I did all the mixing for our first EP – but the primary thing I listen to is the song, and very much the lyrics; that tends to be what I focus on first. And this was the only, the tracks that Peter Katis produced, the first time in my life I’d ever said that, despite and independent of the songs, I enjoy the way they just sound. I knew the way things sounded added to what was the songs, and they help to keep that in the best format possible, but I’d never just said to myself, like, despite everything else, the actual sound of this really appeals to me. “So in my dream box, well I love this guy’s work and I was always trawling the Internet trying to find his little posts on audio forums to see how he did parallel compression et cetera. Anyway, our manager, when we talked to him about the record, was, like, ‘Well, who would ideally want to do some mixing?’ And I said this guy Peter Katis but we’re not going to worry about that because it’s not going to happen, it’s fine. But I thought to myself – I don’t know if this was a large helping of ego – but I felt he just listened, you’d get some kind of response, and to me, had I got a response from Peter Katis that said, ‘How ya doin’, really like it, I’m too busy, good luck,’ I probably would have been really happy. “But I wrote him this letter – my thinking was that if I expressed to him what the band was about and what I feel what his aesthetic sonically is about, and why I felt there was a resonance there, in middle case scenario, he would at least listen to the music. So I thought I’ll send him this letter, it’s likely that he will listen. So I did and sent it off and didn’t hear from him for many months, and then we just got this message saying, ‘Hey, really like what you’re doing, let’s see if we can work together.’ Which to me was a huge validation I guess. Unfortunately his schedule, the project he was working kind of went over time so he could only do these two tracks; I love what he did, and nothing about the process disappointed me.” So the tracks Gallons and Wishingbone, both of which have been released as singles, got the Katis mixing touch. The band then sent the rest of the tracks to various other mixing engineers with middling results until the tracks they sent to Rich Costey, whose credits include The Shins and Bloc Party among many, came back. “Again, I was just surprised and delighted that the guy had even had time to write an email to say, ‘This is good.’ He had just one week, so I went to LA to try and do that with him and it was also amazing and a kind of serendipitous happening.” As for those all-important lyrics, you have to wonder what was inspiring songs about Slaughterhouse Girls at the top of the world to The Antidote, again a very broad canvas to match the sounds. “I guess for me, the thing that defines a song is mood. The music that appeals to me, as songs and literally as music – I love a lot of classical music – and the thing I love about particular types of music is they embody this very particular mood. So to me, I guess when I sit down to write a song, I know I’ve got a song when I’ve got some words and a mood. And whatever it takes, and that’s why I feel I’m not discriminatory in my sounds because the thing for me is the mood and what’s going to be a true evocation of the mood.” WHO: Winter People WHAT: A Year At Sea (HUB The Label/Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, Yours & Owls, Wollongong; Friday 12, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle; Saturday 13, The Factory Theatre; Sunday 14, Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba; Saturday 17 November, Harvest @ Parramatta Park 28 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 29
SETTING STANDARDS Seminal instrumentalists Tortoise continue to defy expectations and buck trends. Brendan Telford speaks to drummer John McEntire about their continuing legacy.
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ortoise often seems like an incompatible name for the Chicago outfit who are now entering their third decade together. The five-piece, comprising of Jeff McEntire, Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, John Herndon and Doug McCombs, have embraced their free-jazz leanings to create serpentine melodic jams that defy definition. Since bringing out their last record, Beacons Of Ancestorship, back in 2009, they’ve been far from idle, busy with various collaborations including one with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and another with Thurston Moore and Brian LeBarton covering Yanni’s Live At The Acropolis for Beck’s online Record Club project; scoring Lovely Molly, a horror film by Eduardo Sanchez, who’s most renowned for The Blair Witch Project; and incessant global touring. Even in their “downtime” the various members have focused on other projects – McEntire’s band The Sea & Cake have just released their new record, Runner – solo albums, production duties and contributions to albums by Bright Eyes, Warm Ghost and others. Yet it hasn’t stopped there, with the 20th anniversary of hugely influential Chicago label Thrill Jockey seeing every Tortoise record garnering reissues. It continues to be a busy time for the band, who have always stayed true to their mission statement – if indeed there is one.
(TNT in 1998), the avant-garde (2001’s Standards) and ambient frameworks (2004’s It’s All Around You) whilst continuing to craft their own niche. Their fanbase is as ardent as ever, and such longevity has proven to be just as much a lightning-in-a-bottle happenstance as it is a dedicated endeavour to keep everything moving forward.
“Man, I don’t even know if I can articulate that, it’s never been established,” McEntire laughs. “(Playing together) is one of the easiest things, all of those things just flow together in a weird way. Even when the situation itself may be very different (for us), it’s still merely making some small adjustments to your perspective. It’s just something that we instinctively know. Every time we get together to work on something, it’s pretty clear, and this goes back to the fact that we have known each other so long that when the five of us get together there is this very specific aesthetic that happens where we are working as one mind. There are no big discussions on the aesthetics or the merits of something; it either works or it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t you can just let it go. I wouldn’t be able to articulate it into specific points, other than to say that it is what it is.”
“We were actually approached directly by the director as well as the producers about another project back in 2004 that never materialised,” he explains. “Yet it was clear that they really wanted to work with us, and when this project was floated we saw it as a really good opportunity. We had been talking about this kind of thing ever since we started the band, yet the offers haven’t been exactly rolling in. But we finally got this, and it was pretty… I don’t want to say easy, but the ability to communicate their ideas to us was great, and they were really happy with the stuff we were submitting, so it was easy to move forward on this. They had specific ideas on what each scene needed; they had families of sounds and themes that they wanted to compact into sound bites, so we had a pretty detailed road map and we were left to fill in the blanks.”
When their second album, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, hit the shelves in 1996, it was met with the kind of critical and commercial credence that was incongruous to the time. Since then they’ve embraced their jazz roots
New material of any kind is likely to excite many, especially as the band’s live show has not diminished in intensity and passion one iota over the past two decades. But the anniversary of Tortoise’s self-titled
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“I’m not sure if there has been any one reason why we’ve focused on touring, because I think any band sees themselves shift in direction from album production to touring as far as a revenue model goes. And we are totally happy to do it. It all has to do with our personalities. We are all pretty mellow dudes, there aren’t any ego issues at all, or ever have been. The other thing is I think we are all relentlessly interested in doing things that challenge and excite us musically; we definitely aren’t trying to make another version of Millions Now Living… again and again and again. The issues that generally break up bands are not at all present in our scenario.” One of those challenges has been the soundtrack for Lovely Molly, an experience that McEntire admits has been a burning desire for quite some time, although the idea of creating something for someone else’s vision was a foreign concept.
debut record has brought along with it a time for introspection and reflection, especially when looking at the trajectory the band has travelled over the years. Being an instrumental ensemble is always a decision that can steer people away, a notion that McEntire understands even though it irks him. “I would never say instrumental music is limiting, but it certainly is challenging, for the performer and the listener. For us it can be difficult to come up with something from a creative standpoint, because the few projects we have done with vocalists has always been like, ‘Oh my God, this is so easy!’ You can get away with murder with what your backing track is doing and in terms of simplicity or repetition. Yet if you are instrumental-concerned and you actually have to create some interest that would fill the void of a vocal track, it is super challenging. It’s one of the reasons it takes so long for us to make records. Yet I think it is totally worth it for all concerned.” Nevertheless while instrumental music may seem hemmed in by such boundaries, it also means that the other shackles that anchor more traditional songwriting
WHO: Tortoise WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, The Hi-Fi
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can be shrugged off and discarded, and that is where the majesty of Tortoise really resides. “It’s super energising,” McEntire admits. “Once we get to a point where we can see how something is going to materialise, it offers up so many possibilities along the way. So now we live in a blessed state where we play together, tour together, all strive for the same goals that we did twenty years ago. We would love to do more film work; it’s something that seems made for our sensibilities. We’d like to do more collaborations too; to work with other artists is proving to be another drive. And then of course we want to keep on putting out solid records as often as we can. Unfortunately, due to doing a lot of touring over the last three, four years, we haven’t paid any particular efforts towards the new album. However we are hoping that this fall or winter we can head back in – everyone’s schedule is finally clear.”
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NO PAIN NO GAIN Los Campesinos! happily marry the fun and upbeat with the sad and morose in their music, but frontman and lyricist Gareth Campesinos tells Steve Bell that he’d much rather be down the boozer with his mates.
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f you listen to seven-piece indie outfit Los Campesinos! on a superficial level you’ll certainly have a whole lot of fun with the vibrant, upbeat energy emitted on both their four albums and in the live realm. But if you scratch below the surface, the band – who were formed in Cardiff back in 2006 by mainly English members, and whose Spanish name roughly translates to “the peasants” – have a deeply melancholic undercurrent, their lyrics possessing a depth and gravitas that can be easily overlooked amidst the fun and frivolity surrounding them.
This, of course, isn’t always so black and white. Their second long-player We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (2008) had more of a musically forlorn bent, as does fourth effort Hello Sadness (2011), both albums giving a hint to their content in their respective titles. On this most recent effort frontman and lyricist Gareth Campesinos (real surname David, like Ramones they’ve adopted the band moniker as their own) had recently gone through a traumatic relationship breakup, and this heartache and sorrow inevitably seeped their way into the album’s very core.
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“It’s 18 months ago now, so it’s bearable,” the erudite and affable frontman recalls of the split. “But at the time it was as any breakup would be, pretty terrible. In that instance the relationship broke down about two or three weeks before we went away to record, and it obviously put me in a very different mindset than I’d been in previously. As it happened the timing was perfect; creatively I find it a lot easier to write songs when I’m unhappy than when I’m happy – there’s much more of an inclination to want to write and feel happy about what I’m writing about when I’m not particularly happy myself. “Also it was good because it took me away from the situation. So often, when a breakup occurs it’s very difficult to let go and you keep wanting to go back there and reconcile again or whatever, but pretty much immediately having to go to Spain to record a record it’s a case of, ‘Well, that’s done with,’ and you’ve just
got to deal with it. And to go abroad and be with the band – who are my closest friends – in this beautiful sunny environment was the best tonic. The studio we recorded in was gorgeous: it had a big swimming pool, a cinema room, table tennis, a pool table – so it was amazing, kind of like being in a holiday resort. It was a very therapeutic time and very welcome relief.” While David’s inner turmoil seems to have been played out very publicly, in his mind he didn’t really have any choice but to document his heartache. “To an extent I don’t feel that I have a choice, because I don’t feel that I have the imagination to make things up or to tell stories, so I just end up writing about myself,” he chuckles. “I think the best thing about it is that when you put these thoughts and feelings and emotions into songs, they stop being yours – when people hear the record they’ll apply their own meaning to the songs, and they’ll listen to the music while they form their own relationships and share experiences with other people. So what starts as being something that’s deeply personal to me becomes part of a personal thing for other people. It stops being my life and starts being part of other peoples’ lives, so when we perform the songs in the concert environment and you’ve got the audience screaming all the words you can see them getting into it and it’s clear that these aren’t just my songs anymore. That makes the things that I’m writing about – the breakdown of relationships or depression or whatever – almost becomes a weird caricature of [themselves] and I’ve been fortunate that I’ve found that it really helps me deal with the things that I’ve been writing about. And as a live band we’re also very visceral and very aggressive, so when I’m singing the songs with all that music and all that noise behind me, that really does help with the release.”
lot of noise and a lot of energy so the music does often veer towards being energetic. I think also in time Tom [Bromley – guitar] – he writes the music, I write the lyrics – his range of writing ability has increased and spread, so I think a lot of the time now our music is a little bit more downbeat and morose than it was previously.
The cathartic nature of the process aside, David believes that the dichotomy between the upbeat music and sad imagery in Los Campesinos!’s music has proved to be one of the band’s strengths.
“But I think as a band we’re [one] you can listen to on different levels. So many people after gigs will say, ‘Oh I love this song so much, it’s so happy and I can’t help but dance to it!’, but in my head I’m thinking, ‘But that song’s about being depressed and heartbroken?’ They’re just listening to the music and being moved by that, and that’s amazing that they can get that from it while other people will listen to the same songs and say, ‘Oh, man, I really feel for you for that.’ That people can get different things from the same song is one of our strengths, and the juxtaposition of the music with the lyrics has in that case worked out well for us.”
“It’s just become what we do, but it’s never been forced,” he ponders. “I think generally the first record [2008’s Hold On Now, Youngster...] was a pretty upbeat record and, because we’re a seven-piece band, that’s a
And, somewhat surprisingly for someone so adept at putting thoughts to paper, when asked about his main lyrical inspirations David admits to having serious misgivings about his chosen profession as a songwriter.
“I would say primarily musical,” he mulls. “There are some authors who I’ve read that have sort of reinforced or enforced my world view and perhaps encouraged me to go in whatever direction I’m going in, but – and it’s terrible that I’m like this – I find any notion of creating art or doing anything creative that shows your emotion to be a terribly embarrassing thing to do. I realise that it’s very hypocritical because I spend a lot of time singing and writing about my feelings, but I hate that – I’m not that sort of person at all, I’ve just found myself in the situation where I do it. I’m much more comfortable just being with my mates and watching soccer and drinking, so when I get into a situation where I’m writing I find that very, very odd. So I don’t think I could ever admit to being influenced by other people’s art – be it literature or art or film or anything – because I find that far too sappy a thing to admit to.” WHO: Los Campesinos! WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 17 November, Harvest Festival, Parramatta Park
DELETED SCENES After 15 years in Death Cab For Cutie, Benjamin Gibbard has emerged with his first solo outing, an album of “leftovers” as such titled Former Lives. Ben Preece jumps on the phone and talks to the man himself about exactly where this record came from.
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t’s near bedtime in Seattle and Benjamin Gibbard is wide-awake. The dust has barely settled on promotional duties for his band Death Cab For Cutie’s seventh record Codes & Keys, yet here he is, sitting poised on the release of a debut solo album, Former Lives. A prolific writer, Gibbard’s musical mind simply never stops creating. In fact, he writes at a much greater rate than any band could and probably should commit to in any release schedule. But he claims he’s not searching for any kind of new beginning with Former Lives. Instead, it closes a chapter and wipes the slate clean, a move that’s simultaneously freeing and terrifying as he now has no backlog of material to pilfer ideas from in the future. “I’m really happy that I got to this place, you know, some of these songs are relatively new, some of them are much older, but a song like Broken Yolk [In Western Sky], if I think about it, I was playing it at solo shows in 2004,” he says, outlining exactly where all these songs came from. “I didn’t purposely try to, you know, ‘date’ the songs or change any of the names to protect the innocent, so to speak. When I started recording these tunes, I wasn’t really sure I was going to get a record out of it or if it was just going to be a recording project to kill some time while we working on Codes & Keys, but I feel really good about how it all turned out and I guess we’ll see if people like it or not.”
doesn’t serve the story in a film, it’s not allowed a place in the film, not because it’s an inferior scene but because it doesn’t work with the overall story. I see these as my deleted scenes, some of them from a long time ago, but also some from the not so distant past.” Despite whispers of the members of Death Cab not being able to stand each other, Gibbard insists that the health and creative output of the band has never been better and that Former Lives, just like his work with The Postal Service almost a decade ago, is simply an extension of what he does. “It wasn’t weird at all. It would be weird if I was viewing this record as some sort of moment to step out and try to launch myself as a solo artist or as if this record was meant to be a step in a new direction for me that was just me, if I was trying to do that on the sly. I started Death Cab For Cutie, why would I want to stop doing it? The impetus to do a record like this or to do anything outside of the band is not because I wasn’t satisfied with how my creativity is expressed within the band. It’s because I find myself with more material or material that doesn’t fit with the band or I’m listless and want to do a soundtrack with my friend Steve Fisk or I make a record with Jay Farrar or I do a record with The Postal Service on Sub Pop. These are all extracurricular activities, just because I like making music.
Gibbard’s distinctive voice drives Former Lives, much like some would say it drives the songs of his day job. The album isn’t Death Cab-lite, though; it’s a mixed bag that stylistically moves from one place to the next all without a sense of stringent cohesion. “Everything I write finds its way and comes across the desk of Death Cab For Cutie. For the most part, the way we make records, I have a cache of songs and we end up weaving the songs together that make stylistic sense or a narrative sense or they just flow in and out of each other to make a record in some sense; a more of cohesive statement.
“I didn’t go in with the idea of making a record,” Gibbard admits. “I was able to go through my cache of songs that I’ve always enjoyed but never taken the time to record properly. It started by going into the studio with Aaron Espinoza from Earlimart, playing all the instruments myself and recording two songs one month, two months later recording another couple – just doing it very leisurely over the course over a year. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh fuck, I need one more song for this record, I’d better write one.’ The songs were all there, it was just a matter of curating which ones I was going to record and how to sequence the record, because it’s very much a mixed bag. It’s all over the map, but that’s something I personally like.”
“I guess what I am saying is that the particular songs that don’t fit into that narrative, they don’t sit on the record. In a way, I see some of these songs as orphans or they’re the deleted scenes from a movie – if a scene
The album kicks off with whimsical a cappella Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby – recorded on an iPhone – and bounces around from there; Teardrop Windows was Gibbard’s attempt at writing “a Big Star song” while the beautifully
32 • THE DRUM MEDIA
pessimistic Duncan, Where Have You Gone? sounds like the product of a Teenage Fanclub binge. But when Gibbard began to think outside of the box, that’s when the gold really shines. “I play virtually everything on the record but there’s a couple of songs – Broken Yolk In Western Sky and Lady Adelaide – that I had my friend Jon [Wurster] from Superchunk come in and play on and, you know, another guy on bass. We recorded in New York. “We did a version of Something’s Rattling and it wasn’t really working the way we presented it. While I was trying to clean up the track, I kind of had this idea to bring a Mariachi band in – why not? The song was about getting lost in Los Angeles and disappearing into the city, so why not disappear into another band, take it to another conceptual level and completely disappear in this band? I was fully expecting to spend the money to bring this band in and have it not work, but it was all fantastic. That was one of those trigger-happy decisions that happened really well on that record.” It’s easy to predict what’s next for Gibbard. It’s uncertain whether we’ll see a solo tour come as far as Australia,
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though he does admit that he could be tempted. For now, there are promo duties for Former Lives and then it’s back to his one true love. “We’ve always had the ethos that whatever we’re doing away from the band always benefits the band,” he says, explaining that Death Cab For Cutie will always be “a thing”. “I’ve always got songs, there’s always something in the well, always something on the front burner. I’m always working on music but I think this was a good opportunity for me to present some of these songs I’ve always enjoyed myself. I’m just in a time where I’m able to work on and find songs for the next Death Cab record and start to think about what that may be like – it’s too early to even speculate but hopefully sometime next year we can get together and punch out some ideas. “We’ve been in this band for 15 years, we’ve established it’s important to us.” WHO: Benjamin Gibbard WHAT: Former Lives (Spunk/Cooperative)
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facebook.com/manningbarsydney twitter.com/manningbar THE DRUM MEDIA • 33
YOUNG BLOOD, OLD BONES Marcus Whale, one half of soulful and spooky electronic act Collarbones, talks Kristy Wandmaker through celebrity, teen dreams and the magic of the Internet.
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ow releasing their second album, Die Young, Travis Cook and Marcus Whale make music together under the moniker Collarbones. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m using the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;togetherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; loosely here. Hailing from different states, the boys create their music by sharing pieces over the interwebs. While obviously not your normal band set up, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something that is intuitive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty instinctive for us to interact in that way,â&#x20AC;? Whale explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably the truth for a lot of my generation, being that we spend so much time on the Internet. So many relationships form out of Internet interactions these days. So in truth itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really quite natural. For Travis and I, even though we see each other in person fairly often these days, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still a lot easier to work on music when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not in the same room. I think it helps that neither of us are very protective of the music that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making and are willing to let one or the other of us finish off the tune.â&#x20AC;? The new album Die Young is a follow up to their debut Iconography, which saw them nominated for a SMAC and an AIR award. It sees the duo embracing their personal pop-hero nostalgia as they head into the epoch of their 20s. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were always thinking about celebrity and people that had been in a media memorial that we all have for dead celebrities,â&#x20AC;? Whale continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We all interact with them via watching them replayed over and over again. It ultimately fed into the art [on the album sleeve], where itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an iconographic representation of teenagers.
Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more to this story
on the iPad
â&#x20AC;&#x153;It started out of the dead celebrities thing, primarily because the title track on the album was originally made out of a track that Travis made in his solo project, Cyst Impaled,â&#x20AC;? Whale explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That track, when he put it on Soundcloud, had a picture of River Phoenix; not necessarily that it had anything to do with him, aside from this sense of reminiscence about the song. When I heard it, I heard this whole song over the top of it, and it was all along the lines of this youth fragility thing. About the transience of these people, but still being made narrative by everyone that sees what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been on film or in
photographs. Which means that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kind of embalmed in a way, by everyone seeing them. It also extended to me reminiscing, looking at old teen diaries. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of embarrassing, but they were an inspiration for the extremity, naivety and stupidity of a lot of those feelings, which to me I think felt really profound at the time.â&#x20AC;? River Phoenix also provided the inspiration behind French director Michael Salernoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual interpretation of the album. Salerno travelled to Sweden to photograph and video River Phoenix lookalikes in a freezing forest. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He paid his own way to Sweden to do this!â&#x20AC;? Whale exclaims. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He said Parisian boys have a particular look that he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t looking for in this thing.â&#x20AC;? While drawing from youth ideals and experiences, Die Young is not a light-hearted romp down memory lane, but rather a gritty deconstruction of the yearning and loss that feels so deep to those so young. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about dying to be someone, dying for something and dying publically. Whale doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t advise playing it at your funeral, though. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty bleak. I guess some people play music at funerals that is bleak. I just have no idea how that would work. What would be appropriate? You want people to cry and be completely destroyed by your funeral service. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty easy, just put on some Sigor Ros and then everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in tears. But I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know whether a funeral should be like that. Or at least my funeral.â&#x20AC;? Whaleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s funeral is more likely to have a boppier soundtrack. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some fun â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;90s R&B, like Aaliyah, early Destinyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Child, No No No Part 1. A bit of TLC. They can be talking about completely horrific subjects and still sound optimistic and bubbly. Waterfalls is serious, but it feels really great to listen to.â&#x20AC;? The new release marks a small but significant shift for the duo; turning their sampling styles towards reconstruction, rather than stringing pieces together, in an experience they had recently with Big Scaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s track Bad Friends. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was actually a really really nice experience, because Travis and I really enjoy remixing really straight-up songs,â&#x20AC;? Whale says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fabric is really malleable. Like, when someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just playing an acoustic guitar and singing you can do anything, and if you keep the song intact it can keep its own identity. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve only really come to respect and work with in the past year. I spent all my teen years being really pretentious and saying, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing good about pop music, you guys are really mainstream
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When asked about the possibility of reverse engineering the process, where a Collarbones track is played straight-up on traditional instruments, Whale lights up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think for some of these songs on [Die Young] it might be possible. I do want to do that somehow. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a piano at home and I can play some of the songs. Some of them ended up being like that. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d try and work out what to sing over the top of them by playing on piano to try and get a conception of what the song would be. The last album was not like that all. It was a whole lot of instrumental tracks and interludes and bits of things, kind of more about the references than the songs. Whereas this oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely the first big attempt Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever had at doing straight-up songwriting.â&#x20AC;? For a first attempt, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty damn good. Whale seems to have a good grasp of structure and storytelling, evident on the new single Hypothermia,
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34 â&#x20AC;˘ THE DRUM MEDIA
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and his album favourite Missing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We actually only finished it [Missing] a couple of weeks before it came out as a single. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t originally part of the album. Originally there was a kind of ambient track in the middle there, and it felt a bit regressive to have a bit too much of that interlude-y stuff on an album which is more dependent on the songs. So we made [Missing] and it came about really organically, eventually.â&#x20AC;? While itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little odd to hear an electronic, sample-based, Internet-connected musician talk about things happening organically, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s testament to the pairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent that they try new things, embrace any and all styles of music and just muck around with things until they produce something complete. WHO: Collarbones WHAT: Die Young (Two Bright Lakes/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, The Standard; Saturday 10 November, OutsideIn, Factory Theatre; Sunday 11, Newtown Festival, Camperdown Memorial Rest Park
THE DRUM MEDIA • 35
LIVING WITH OUR GHOST Everclear are returning to Australia for the first time in 14 years to right some long-standing wrongs. Frontman Art Alexakis tells Steve Bell about pain, redemption and feeding the emotional hunger.
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verclear’s inaugural tour to Australia back in 1998 should have been a triumph, but was instead an unmitigated disaster. At the tail end of a hectic world tour promoting their 1997 third album So Much For The Afterglow – and only a couple of years since their 1995 sophomore effort Sparkle And Fade had become a huge hit in Australia on the back of ubiquitous radio singles Heroin Girl and Santa Monica – the Portland trio’s Australian shows were plagued with bad luck from the outset: frontman Art Alexakis was hit by a shoe in Wollongong and cracked some teeth, a ‘fan’ disrupted the Melbourne show by letting off explosives onstage, gear was stolen at the Gold Coast and eventually – amid much in-fighting and acrimony
– the tour was cancelled so that the band could limp back home to lick their wounds and recuperate. The Everclear returning to Australia this month for the first time since that tumultuous experience are a new outfit – only Alexakis remains, former bassist Craig Montoya and drummer Greg Eklund having since been replaced by a seemingly fluid roster of musicians – and should be unsullied by the prior experience, the songwriter explaining that he’s really excited about the opportunity to atone and hopefully put the band’s best foot forward. “It was crazy, we were touring so much, and there were certain members of the band drinking and drugging too much, and just the travel caught up with us as well,” he reflects of their previous Australian sojourn. “We kind of bumped heads and people went home and everyone made a big deal about it – I knew it was just a temporary thing. Two weeks later everything was fine. Unfortunately we haven’t been back to Australia for 14 years, and that might have had something to do with it. “For a few years we did really well [in Australia] – the first time we came down there was like 500 people waiting at the airport, I was like, ‘So this is what it’s like!’ It wasn’t quite like The Beatles, but for us it was pretty close. It was totally cool and we had a blast, I’m really looking forward to coming back down, it was so much fun. I’ve wanted to come back. We just needed to put out the right record, and now’s the right time.” The record he’s referring to is Everclear’s seventh studio effort, Invisible Stars. In the six years since their last studio effort Welcome To The Drama Club the band have released two ‘best of’ collections and a covers album, making this something of a return to form with its reliance on loud guitars and ‘70s-sounding synths. “Musically I wanted it to be a rock record,” Alexakis admits. “I was writing rock songs and I wanted to have an added touch to it, but I didn’t want to go to the organ or use the soft strings that I’d been using recently – that really doesn’t work well with heavy guitars, it kind of softens everything and waters it down. I’ve always been a fan of old analogue-sounding ‘70s and ‘80s synthesisers like The Cars and Devo and bands like that used, so I started screwing around with those sounds, and I made my keyboard player get into it [and] listen to a lot of that old stuff. One of my favourite bands is Split Enz – a New Zealand band from back in those days – and they did some great, great things with synthesisers. That’s kind of how the sound came about. “I didn’t really write a lot for a long time – just a few songs here or there – but I hadn’t been in the mood to write a record until about two years ago, and I just started writing, mostly on electric guitar, and I think that helped shape what I was writing and put a certain edge on it. Lyrically it’s still the same old me – a little bit older and hopefully a little bit wiser – plus I moved back to LA with my wife and my youngest daughter about a year-anda-half ago after living in Portland for 20 years, and I don’t know what it was but I got the fire in my belly again. I’m not hungry like I used to be physically but emotionally I am, and I think the record shows that. There’s a hunger there, and I feel empowered again and excited to play music. Anything gets old after a while – I feel bad for porn stars, if you’re doing that every day where’s the fun in it?” he guffaws. “I guess, I don’t know...” Having harked back to Everclear’s glory days, Alexakis reflects on Sparkle And Fade – he didn’t know at the time that he was writing a special batch of songs, but once they’d done the job in the studio he was pretty convinced that they’d constructed something out of the ordinary. “I didn’t know that [it was special] per se, but I knew that I had made the best record that I could make, and I knew that it was a better record than a lot of people gave us credit for making,” he reminisces. “I remember the night we mastered it with Bob Ludwig – who’d worked with U2 and Springsteen, and he was so helpful, he worked with me all day and was so patient – and going to my hotel room and popping the mastered CD, all sequenced and sounding like the record, into my Discman and listening through headphones and it just sounded like a rock’n’roll record, like a big label rock record. I just remember my heart pounding and calling the guys in the band, and we were all freaking out and screaming over the phone while I’m playing it over the phone in the hotel – it was like an epiphany, a real exciting moment. “And then of course three months later I play it to the president of Capitol, and he’d barely listened to the record and didn’t really remember who I was, and I was, like, ‘Man, is this going to work? Did I make a mistake?’, but despite the upper crust at Capitol it just kept going and going, people just championed the record and it finally broke. It took about a year-and-a-half and it finally broke. It went worldwide, all the way down to you guys – it broke big in Australia and New Zealand. English-speaking countries really seemed to latch onto it. I know it sounds clichéd saying it but I was really just writing from the heart – some stuff was autobiographical, some of it was an outside perspective, but it’s all real and it’s all me and my voice. To this day people tell me how much that record and ...Afterglow connected with them, and it’s really cool. I feel really flattered and blessed that I’ve been able to be a part of something like that, it’s really cool.” WHO: Everclear WHAT: Invisible Stars (Entertainment One) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, The Hi-Fi
36 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 37
ALL ENCOMPASSING Steve Aoki is Los Angeles’ most glamourous superstar DJ. But as Cyclone discovers, the Dim Mak Records boss is less about playing the “Hipster King of LA”, as Mixmag called him, than embracing dance music’s new egalitarianism.
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n January Steve Aoki, broadly associated with electro house, finally presented his debut album, Wonderland, a composite of EDM, urban and rock. He’s been touring ever since – last stop Australia. “I always judge how the album is doing by crowd reaction from all the different shows. Whenever you see kids lip-syncing or singing along with the song, it’s probably one of the best feelings in the world.” Wonderland has an epic guest list, including Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, Wynter Gordon, will.i.am, Lil Jon, Chiddy Bang, LMFAO (R.I.P), Nervo, Lovefoxxx of CSS, KiD CuDi, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and ex-Exploited guitarist Big John Duncan. As Aoki describes it, the album was completed by way of a huge studio crawl. “I think me being in LA made it really easy and convenient for people to work with.” Will.i.am, with whom Aoki cut 2010’s crossover club joint I’m In The House, works nearby. Barker’s studio is 10 minutes away, and Cuomo’s 20. Then Aoki has his own set-up – and here Lil Jon, KiD CuDi and Chiddy Bang popped by. “Basically, my studio is the den of my house that I’ve outfitted, or retrofitted, to a studio spec to my liking.” The Hollywood DJ originally known as Kid Millionaire was born in Miami to the late Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki, a Japanese wrestler who founded the US Benihana restaurant chain, and his first wife, Chizuru Kobayashi. Steve’s parents separated when Kobayashi discovered that Rocky not only had a mistress, but also a child with her. Steve, growing up in California, had limited contact with his father. In later years Rocky battled his children (though not Steve) for legal control of the family’s assets. Aoki attended the University Of California, Santa Barbara, majoring in Sociology and Women’s Studies (he was one of two males in his final year). “It’s kinda an odd thing to do – it questions your own sexuality, it questions a lot of ‘man-ness’ in you or masculinity,” he says of his interest in feminism. “But I have no problem with what society or people think of me. [If] they don’t think I’m man enough, because I’m a Women’s Studies graduate, they can go fuck themselves.” Momentarily Aoki sounds almost terse. In fact, he has a sly sense of humour. When recently the DJ’s extravagant tour rider went viral, he blogged a funny
38 • THE DRUM MEDIA
commentary: “Two bottles of Cristal is definitely a ballin’ move. Do I need it? No, but if I can get it… sweet!” It was as a college student that Aoki, a hardcore punk, threw himself into music. He hosted gigs in his digs. Aoki was in the band This Machine Kills. He conceived Dim Mak, its name (the martial arts ‘death touch’) a twisted homage to Bruce Lee, in 1996. Meaningfully, he self-funded it; Dad not involved. Aoki issued music by The Kills, Gossip and Bloc Party. But, like Kele Okereke, he soon gravitated towards electro, emerging as a key proponent of indie-dance. Dim Mak subsequently signed MSTRKRFT. Aoki began to produce, initially with Blake Miller. He’d go on to remix Michael Jackson, Duran Duran and Drake, not to mention Lady GaGa (along with every other DJ). And he’s collaborated on bangers with, among others, Armand van Helden, Laidback Luke (the Lil Jon-featuring Turbulence), and Afrojack (Olympian Michael Phelps has cited their No Beef as a motivational record). In 2008 Aoki offered Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles – more mixtape than mix-CD. Though he deserted academia, Aoki still views DJ culture in sociological terms. Now in “a position of power”, he strives to be “fair”. “In a way, I got into my school, which is a really great school, due to affirmative action – they needed more people of colour in that school. So I really take that into light with everything I’m part of. At least, I try to.” In 2012 EDM is the sound of America, Aoki the country’s top-grossing DJ, according to Pollstar. “I think that the reason why it has been bubbling with so much energy and passion and vigour is from all the youth – this is the youth’s generation’s choice of music.” What appeared to be a reboot of ‘90s electronica is more grassroots. “It’s a whole lifestyle – it’s not just the music, it’s a culture.” Aoki did much to stimulate LA’s underground, eventually becoming resident (and music director) at Wynn Resorts’ Surrender Nightclub in Las Vegas. While oldtimers mock the ‘EDM’ tag, Aoki sees it positively as an “all-encompassing” concept. There’s no tribalism in the current scene – it’s “a more harmonious environment”. “Before trance artists would never play a dubstep song, and a dubstep artist would never play
an electro record.” Dim Mak secured the psy-trance duo Infected Mushroom for this year’s dubstep-inspired LP Army Of Mushrooms. Aoki himself has teamed up with the trance Tiësto (Tornado), strayed into dubstep on Wonderland, and dabbled in moombahton on the new single Beat Down with Iggy Azalea (for July’s Wonderland Remixed). “I’m influenced by all these different genres,” he says. “As an artist, and as a producer, I’m really just taking what I feel is the best from every genre and using that as my mood board to create new music.” Aoki has expressed disillusionment in (indie) rock – and, ironically, even stadium heroes Muse are going dubstep. The DJ suggests that rock acts learn from EDM, appealing to potentially passionate young audiences via social media. After all, (major) labels no longer hold sway with marketing. “Music is completely decentralised.” As a label mogul, Aoki believes in “strategically” giving music away. “Before people were afraid of leaking music and how it’s gonna affect your album sales, how it’s gonna affect your career… Some indie artists I remember, there’s one in particular, didn’t release an album because it got leaked early! Now it’s like you wanna leak your album, you want people to circulate that music… I always say that the most important thing is: circulate the music first and then we can sell music later.” Aoki is inherently entrepreneurial. He’s long had a Dim Mak streetwear (well, merch) range, but he has
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spoken of launching a fully-fledged fashion label, DASA, with his half-sister Devon, the supermodel and Sin City actor. “We’re still figuring out what we’re gonna do with this line.” Aoki is mates with Australia’s Ksubi crew and joined them in a restaurant venture in LA (Dad would be proud). However, as “all-encompassing” as EDM is, a gender imbalance exists in the DJ ranks. The Women’s Studies grad has his own theory about that. The impetus is on DJs to produce, he says, yet the studio domain is populated by male geeks. “I think that the issue there is to be more inviting and find more ways to bring women into that world, so it’s not so daunting of a task.” Regardless, Aoki points out, women dominate dance in a way men never can: as vocalists. His Aussie DJ friends Nervo have used that ability, to compose melodic “toplines”, to their advantage, covering different bases. Aoki has enjoyed some of his “most memorable shows” in Australia, first visiting around 2005. This time he’s excited about maximising the benefits of playing indoor venues. “It’s always about the crowd to me.” WHO: Steve Aoki WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, The Enmore; Sunday 14 October, You+1 Festival, Darling Harbour
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THE DRUM MEDIA â&#x20AC;˘ 39
WINNING BY PROXY At last year’s annual Jägermeister Independent Music Awards, artists not in attendance delivered an inordinate number of acceptance speeches via video message. Bryget Chrisfield makes some predictions based on the assumption that this trend will continue (with a little help from the 2012 RSVP list). Best Independent Artist nominees: 360, Ball Park Music, Chet Faker, The Jezabels, Royal Headache. We have it on good authority that both The Jezabels and Ball Park Music will not present at the seventh Jägermeister Independent Music Awards. The Jezabels won in absentia last year, so that means Ball Park Music could very well score this year. Best Independent Album nominees: Falling And Flying – 360, Bloodstreams – DZ Deathrays, Prisoner – The Jezabels, Royal Headache – Royal Headache, The Temper Trap – The Temper Trap. Missing in action on the night will be DZ Deathrays, The Jezabels and The Temper Trap. The Jezabels collected two transparent square trophies last year, so shouldn’t be greedy. The Temper Trap’s previous album was better than this one. Whoo-HOO! DZ Deathrays! Deserving winners in this category and also worthy ambassadors of the herbal digestive we’ll all be consuming on the night. For evidence, check out the Bris Vegas duo’s video for The Mess Up, which follows this basic premise: “two guys, one bottle of Jägermeister, three minutes.” Breakthrough Independent Artist Of The Year nominees: Chet Faker, Husky, San Cisco, Royal Headache, The Rubens. Not attending: Husky, San Cisco, The Rubens. Last year this one went to Emma Louise, whose radio smash, Jungle, penetrated the global consciousness through savvy syncs on Grey’s Anatomy, The Slap and US MTV’s Awkward. Much like San Cisco’s catchy tune, Awkward, which makes the Vodafone Infinite TXT ad so memorable. Let’s go with the charming and youthful Perth quartet then, shall we? Best Independent Single Or EP nominees: Boys Like You – 360, Gasoline – Alpine, Thinking In Textures – Chet Faker, Drums – Oh Mercy, Awkward – San Cisco.
Since San Cisco are the only band in this category who will be MIA on the night, our theory makes them a shoe-in for this award also. Best Independent Hip Hop Album nominees: Falling And Flying – 360, The Quickening – Funkoars, Deep Impressions – Katalyst, Future Shade – The Herd, Standing Strong – Yung Warriors. So ‘werd’ has it that Katalyst and The Herd are keeping their distance from the JIMA ceremony this year. The Herd took out this very same category in 2008, so put your hands together for Katalyst! Ashley Anderson is one of this country’s most criminally overlooked DJ/producers, so this result should attract thunderous applause. Best Independent Blues And Roots Album nominees: Troubles Door – Ash Grunwald, Tin Shed Tales – John Butler, To The Horses – Lanie Lane, Leave It All Behind – Saskwatch, Spirit Bird – Xavier Rudd. Ash Grunwald, John Butler and Xavier Rudd haven’t RSVPed. Butler’s already got two of these seethrough statuettes in the poolroom – Best Performing Independent Album (2007) and Most Popular Independent Artist (2010). If we had to pick one, it’d be Rudd after his fantastic theMusic.com acoustic session. And he also has (marginally) better hair. Best Independent Hard Rock Or Punk Album nominees: Dancing With A Dead Man – Calling All Cars, Bloodstreams – DZ Deathrays, Smoko At The Pet Food Factory – Frenzal Rhomb, Crooked Teeth – House Vs Hurricane, The Peep Tempel – The Peep Tempel.
Thinking In Textures – Chet Faker, Twirligig – Jonti, Dreams – Oliver Tank, Dance Music – T-Rek, Doomsday Deluxe – Sampology
DZ Deathrays or Frenzal Rhomb both had better offers for Tuesday 16 October. In 2009, The Nation Blue got up in this category for Rising Waters, which was a popular result, and so perhaps this is an opportunity to give the heritage-listed some love? DZ rule though, so let’s allow for joint winners here.
The only possible confirmed sightings you’ll have on JIMA night 2012 are of Jonti and/or Oliver Tank. This category historically favours artists who are making their mark abroad – Midnight Juggernauts (2010) and Pnau (2011). Considering Jonti’s been supporting Gotye on his recent US tour – ‘nuff said.
Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album nominees: HyperParadise – Hermitude,
Best Independent Dance/Electronica Single nominees: Terms And Conditions – Chet Faker, Sleepless
EAR PUNCHERS
As is often the case with a style of music that evolves outside of the usual genre tags, Grim says his band turned to like minds for support. “When we first started, we didn’t fit into anything – we were playing metal gigs or country gigs because they knew we played blues but we kind of play it with such a driving force they just didn’t quite know where to put us. Then what happened was we all would come across another band of a similar kind of ilk, like you know we discovered The Snowdroppers years ago and then we played together a lot, then Graveyard Train and so on and so on. And as soon as you’d meet a band that was kind of in this same kind of space, you just started lookin’ out for each other. And this is the extension of that – some of the old guard and then a lot of the new bands that are coming up through the ranks, so it’s really just a celebration and also a showcase…” he says. 40 • THE DRUM MEDIA
WHAT: Jägermeister Independent Music Awards WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 16 October, Revolt Art Space, Kensington
Sydney band Tigertown’s motto is “keeping the mystery”, but Matt O’Neill attempts to get to the bottom of the group’s rapid rise.
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“It all kind of started when this promoter asked me… about the bands that we play with in this scene that people are talking about, and he goes, ‘Well, what is it?’ and I was like, ‘That’s a good question’,” laughs Grim. “And then I was thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Fuck, we’re all just the bastards of our parent’s music – the one commonality we have is that we’re all inspired by old time music of some kind, whether it’s country or blues or early rock or hybridisations of all’. It’s just celebrating this weird hybridised blues movement that has been kind of bubbling under the surface for a while now.”
Flume and Tonite Only will not be hiring suits and heading to Revolt for the ceremony this year. The BIGSOUND buzz on Flume was massive. So give the young lad his trophy, already!
OUT OF NOWHERE
As the Drunken Moon Festival rolls north this week, Tyler McLoughlan gets the downlow on the scene it represents from Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders’ frontman James Grim. ith a belief in the birds of a feather mentality that keeps niche scenes alive, James Grim has curated the inaugural tri-state Drunken Moon Festival to celebrate the modern, sweaty, boisterous number on bygone musical eras that bands such as his own Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders enjoy dishing out.
– Flume, Can’t Get Better Than This – Parachute Youth, L.G.F.U. – Tom Piper and Daniel Farley, Go – Tonite Only
Varying the line-up between the states in an effort to showcase both local and interstate talent, Grim is particularly excited about the inclusion of a legendary local headliner for the Brisbane chapter. “I think SixFtHick really sum up what Drunken Moon is all about – if you want a band in Australia that epitomises hard work for no other reason than pure rock fury, that’s the band. They are exceptional live performers, fantastic musicians and they’re not gonna care whether there’s two people in the room or 2000 people in the room – whether they’re opening the night or whether they’re closing the night it makes no difference to them because they just feed off an audience wherever it is. That basically sums up what we’re all about. And then you’ve got a band like Jackson Firebird which are a fantastic duo, and they just do things with anything that’s in front of them that you probably wouldn’t have seen before – they’re just insane. And that’s the band incidentally that the Melbourne venue Cherry Bar turned down Lady Gaga for. Venues look after their own here, it’s really good,” says Grim, who also considered the practical elements required for a great night of music. “The whole evening has basically been put together so that you just start, walk in, the first band will blow your mind and then you’ve got about ten minutes to quickly get yourself another drink and then the next band will blow your mind – and so on and so on! It’s basically about punchin’ you in the ears with some good shit.” WHO: Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, Drunken Moon Festival, Digger’s Club, Wollongong; Saturday 13, Drunken Moon Festival, Manning Bar
t’s been hard to avoid Tigertown over the past 12 months. The Sydney five-piece have gone from strength to strength since releasing their selftitled debut EP in 2011. They sold out their first ever live show at Sydney’s Raval Theatre, later hit triple j with breakthrough single Lions And Witches and have since delivered support duties for Matt Corby, Husky, Emma Louise and Founds (among others).
One gets the feeling he doesn’t want his band (or its members) to become some kind of product.
“We’re always pretty surprised at how fast it’s happened,” singer/guitarist Chris Collins muses. “When we put together the CD ourselves, it got played on triple j, like, later that week. A month later, we got the Matt Corby tour and then we got the Husky tour. It all happened pretty quick. We only really formed in April of last year, so we’ve kind of only been touring and playing shows for about 12 months.”
“We do like a bit of mystery. We definitely use that word a lot – ‘keeping the mystery‘ is a phrase we like to throw around,” the singer laughs. “If anything, we’re probably trying to avoid sounding like more bands or genres than we are trying to sound like ones. Now that we’ve been an actual band for a while, we have to catch ourselves when we start writing to a specific sound and remind ourselves that the original songs didn’t come from that place.
Yet, for all of their accomplishments to date, there remains precious little information about the band or their formation. It’s not commonly circulated, for example, that the band are a family affair – husband and wife Chris and Charlie Collins rounding out their songwriting partnerships with their respective siblings – or that both Chris and Charlie Collins were in longstanding bands before Tigertown (Chasing Bailey for Charlie, The View for Chris).
“Originally, we were just writing together and seeing what happened – and I think we want to hold onto that. We have an acoustic guitar and lots of harmonies so we know that we’re always going to get handed those kind of folk/indie-folk titles, but we’re definitely trying to keep a step out of that world. When we started, there were heaps of folk bands. We’re trying to push more of the indie side than the folk side, if that makes sense.
“Yeah, when we met, I was in a band I’d been in since I was 18 and Charlie was in another band with her family,” Collins says of their history. “When we met, we started writing songs together in our bedrooms and it all just kind of grew from there. It’s kind of been a second chance for both of us, in a funny sort of way. Because we’ve all been in bands before, everything runs a lot smoother for Tigertown.” Mystique appears to be very much a part of the band’s identity. Their sound is a gorgeous wash of song and subtlety – quiet and layered. Their online presence is notable but bereft of substantial detail. It’s telling that, when discussing Tigertown’s sound, Collins specifically avoids words such as ‘folk’.
themusic.com.au
“Fleetwood Mac is our fallback, when we look at our sound,” Collins reflects, before laughing again. “Still, if they came around today, everyone would probably call them indie-folk too. Who knows, really? We’re really proud of this new EP. We took it in more of a band direction and I think that’s really where we want to go in the future.” WHO: Tigertown WHAT: Before The Morning EP (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, Brighton Up Bar; Friday 12, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle; Saturday 13, Heritage Hotel, Wollongong; Sunday 14, The Brass Monkey, Cronulla; Saturday 17 November, Harvest, Parramatta Park
THE DRUM MEDIA • 41
TIME MASTERS
BITCHING OUT New Jersey’s fuzzed-out rockers The Atomic Bitchwax are headed our way for the first time and are bringing an arsenal of monumental riffs with them. Brendan Crabb prepares for doomsday by talking to bassist/ vocalist Chris Kosnik.
M
any stoner rock fans will attest that in the majority of cases, it’s all about the power of the riff. If this element hits the spot, everything else tends to fall into place. Therefore, given that latest record The Local Fuzz is a 42-minute, single-track instrumental essentially bolting dozens of riffs together, for fans of the style it likely resembles a psychedelica-drenched, ‘70s-worshipping nirvana. “It’s funny the way it worked out,” bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik says, chuckling at the suggestion. “When I write music, I write at home, on my computer and I’ll just keep on noodling until I find a riff that I like. I’ll just record the riff. Then I’ll take like three or four of them and bring them to band practice, with a drum beat, like a drum loop or something so everybody can get the idea of what it’s supposed to sound like. But I ended up having like thorty of them at the end of a couple of months,” he laughs. “So we just got the goofy idea to start connecting them and see which ones worked with which. Each one of those riffs that’s on the record was a potential song on its own. Then it just became this one big mix of all of them.” Beginning life in the early ‘90s as a side project for Kosnik (formerly of metallers Godspeed) and now featuring drummer Bob Pantella (a current member of Monster Magnet), the trio didn’t release their first record until a half-decade later. “If you listen to the first record, that’s like five years of jamming. That’s usually why everybody’s first record is everybody’s favourite too, because that’s the purest version of the band, you know what I mean? I don’t know how old the average stoner rock fan is, but I’m forty-three, so I grew up playing those kinds of riffs. So it’s completely normal and natural to me; that’s the way I’ve always played. I played that way before the word stoner rock became like a genre. We just sorta fell into the stoner rock thing;
42 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Melbourne natives The Paper Kites are heading out on yet another lap of Australia. Lead singer Sam Bentley chats to Chris Hayden about rowdy crowds, playing in a punk band and rap battles with Josh Pyke.
“I
we weren’t intentionally trying to be a stoner rock band or anything like that. But I guess people need to put you in a box and label you somehow. But I like a lot of stoner rock bands, so we’re in good company I think.” The band will also make their Australian debut in fine style, headlining the heavier-than-a-busload-of-Sumo wrestlers Doomsday Festival. “We usually do two songs from every record and then we play twenty minutes of the latest record. We play the first half then throw a couple of Pink Floyd covers in.” The festival will feature countless examples of gigantic riffage, prompting a request for his all-time favourites. “That is putting me on the spot. I couldn’t just say, ‘this is my favourite riff.’ [With] a lot of riffs, it’s not necessarily that you’re playing something technically difficult, so I guess it’s more the attitude you’re playing it with. You can play the same thing ten different ways. You can play it slow and melodic, fast and heavy, super distorted, and it’s all the same riff. Nobody’s reinventing the wheel; they’re just kinda using whatever else they’re influenced [by] around [them] to play the same riffs. Here we are, forty years later from the first Sabbath album and so it’s everybody’s version of those riffs. It’s the time period you grew up in; there’s kids half my age playing those riffs. So we’re not reinventing anything, but at the end of the day, I really love doing it. We’ve been a band for over fifteen years already, so I must like it,” he laughs. WHO: The Atomic Bitchwax WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, The Sandringham Hotel; Saturday 13, ANU Bar, Canberra
actually have punk roots,” explains Sam Bentley. “Growing up in school I played in a punk band. We did a few festivals, supported The Living End. It was fun but not really what I was meant to do.” What he was meant to do, it seems, was bring together five of his closest friends and form The Paper Kites, one of Melbourne’s most talked-about new outfits. Bentley, the band’s lead singer and principal songwriter, is celebrating the recent release of their second EP, Young North. Coming on the back of tours with Josh Pyke and Boy & Bear, The Paper Kites have achieved a fair slab of airplay from the likes of triple j, some extremely choice Grey’s Anatomy syncs and literally millions of YouTube views of the delightfully DIY videos for their tracks Featherstone and Bloom. It’s interesting to note, then, that it took the disintegration of his interest in his punk band (coincidentally named Best Before) to lead Bentley to his new guise as a folk soothsayer. “It wasn’t until I hit seventeen or eighteen and was out of school still playing in the punk band that I saw a folk band play and really thought about playing that kind of music. I can’t remember who it was, but I remember wondering what the hell I was doing. I didn’t even like punk music that much anymore. It was one of those things: I was playing in a band because I thought it was cool but all of a sudden I realised I wasn’t playing the music that I listened to at home. I was really into The Beatles and The Middle East and just not enjoying what I was doing musically.” A shift had to be made then and Bentley decided the best way to do it was to enlist a few of his closest friends to form a new outfit. Although it seems the agreement between the new collective was never formalised. “There was never really a conversation that said, ‘Do you want to start a band?’ We’ve still never really had that conversation,” Bentley admits. “Christina [Lacy – guitar and vocals] and I had this little gig in a café every week, and it was really just something we did for fun. Then we got offered this festival in Queensland so we had to pull a band together. We asked Dave [Powys], Sam [Rasmussen] and Josh [Bentley] and we managed to pull it all together. We kind of just fell into it.”
themusic.com.au
As an outfit, The Paper Kites deal in the kind of delicate harmonies that have been so prevalent in the Australian music landscape over the past few years. It’s always tough at the start though. “When you play the kind of music that we play, you have to go into shows thinking that people may talk over you. It’s different everywhere you go though: Melbourne are like zombies, in a good way; Sydney is similar; Brisbane always seems to be pretty rowdy. I guess they just want to party, although it’s still very respectful. Personally, I’d much rather be in a room of respect and silence than I would a room of people partying. If you build up a vibe that people shouldn’t be talking while you’re playing though, usually they’ll start to listen.” Starting with a lap around the country with Australia’s lit-pop king Josh Pyke, the band also took on tours with Boy & Bear and Ball Park Music. It was on their first tour with Pyke though, that they discovered what it really takes to get to the top. “When we got offered the Josh Pyke tour, we didn’t really have any managers or a booking agency, so it was pretty scary heading out and not knowing what we were doing. We were so cautious to not get in anyone’s way and not annoy anyone – trying to stay out of Josh’s way. I remember one night backstage though, Sam started having a rap battle with Josh Pyke. Josh was saying all this stuff about Sam’s mum and Sam came back and just destroyed him. It was the whitest rap battle of all time. Sam was crowned the winner, so we sort of cracked it from then on. We were accepted.” WHO: The Paper Kites WHAT: Young North EP (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, Heritage Hotel, Wollongong; Friday 12, Oxford Art Factory; Saturday 13, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
kwp!CPR11768
THE DRUM MEDIA • 43
THE FIFE & DRUM BLUES
DROP THE DEBT
They met, they fell in love, they formed a duo and they travel the world together. Now Hat Fitz & Cara are finally finding their sound, as Cara Robinson tells Michael Smith.
On their debut album, The Spitfires chart tales of the modern age while they prepare to blow up Sydney, as they reveal to Jason Kenny.
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e’s a towering, be-hatted, bearded presence, all gruff voice and growling pre-WWII swamp blues guitar. She’s a petite blonde Irish lass with a sparkle in her eye, a surprisingly soulful voice, a flair for tin whistle and a love of the drums. Originally meeting when he was touring Ireland, Hat Fitz & Cara have become quite the fixture at folk, roots and blues festivals and pubs across the country, and it’s out there, on the road, that the pair have found the meeting point in their respective musical paths that’s been distilled in their second album together, Wiley Ways. “It’s more of a meld, rather than Fitzy as a separate identity and myself as a separate identity,” Cara Robinson explains of the difference compared to their first album together, 2010’s Beauty N’ The Beast. “I was a lot in the background of our musical journey, but now that I’ve sort of found my feet with the drums being my first instrument, I think we’ve found our feet together as one sound. But I don’t think we’ll ever make a ‘modern’ album,” she laughs. “From what I’m hearing, there’s a lot more soul in what we’re doing now, and there’s a bit of Celtic influence there. [Title track] Wiley Ways is strongly both of us, in our sound together, with the drivin’ trance-ing guitar and the washboard and sort of percussive vocals, and we both sing throughout it. A lot of the songs come to us while we’re on the road and his lyrics come from experiences – it has to be something that means something to him – and I love his style of writing; it’s very gentle and also could be quite ferocious as well. And I’m really getting into stories from the past – [events] that are really important to me, interesting quite unique stories.” One of the meeting points where their respective musical paths have crossed is the ‘fife and drum’ music of America’s Deep South. Fitz has of course built his whole career on the early blues stompers but, for Robinson, the roots of the fife and drum were there, present, in the Ireland of her childhood. “On the 12th of July, that’s when they come out,” she recalls the annual celebration of the defeat of
the ousted Catholic King James II by the forces of the Protestant William of Orange in 1690, supporters trooping through the streets of Belfast under orange banners. “The fife and drums is very blood-stirring music but very war-like. When the Deep South black American population took up the fife and drum, they would play for life, love, death, birth – it was also a party atmosphere, and I just love the energy of it.”
nyone who’s experienced a set from The Spitfires can attest that it’s a high energy, all or nothing, take no hostages, primal colour affair, full of punchy guitars and vocals. There’s something of a throwback to their nature – not in a retro sense but in the ethic of the band. It’s an outspokenness and directness in their songwriting that underlies their records. Take single Suffer Kate as an example, a diatribe on the English Royal family caring nothing for tact or apology. Though they might seem like a punk rock band, it’s best not to mention that in earshot of the band themselves. “I think the punk scene should be flattered that we’re even being associated with it,” says frontman Sean Regan, with all the modesty you’d expect.
This time around, the pair also scored the services of one Jeff Lang to record and produce the album with them. “We were sittin’ ‘round the kitchen table really and he was askin’ who we were gettin’ to engineer our album, and produce it, and we said we had a couple of names and a couple of studios around the place that would like to do it, and he said, ‘Oh well, I’d like to do it, you know. What about here?’ [his home studio The Enclave Recording Facility] And we both instantly – and it wasn’t even a matter of thinkin’ about this, it was, like, ‘Yep, definitely!’ He’s known Fitzy for years and I think it’s something where you feel so comfortable and so secure in putting your music in his hands, with his genius ears that he has. He really knew where we were coming from, both of us.” WHO: Hat Fitz & Cara WHAT: Wiley Ways (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, Lizotte’s Dee Why; Friday 12, Camelot Lounge; Saturday 13, Katoomba RSL; Sunday 14, Lizotte’s Newcastle; Thursday 25, Harmonie German Club, Canberra; Saturday 27, Illwarra Builder’s Club; Sunday 28, Sydney Blues Festival, Windsor; Sunday 28, Lizotte’s Kincumber
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“I’ve started rolling my eyes every time people say we’re punk. That’s not because I think it’s inaccurate, we do have that in our sound and a bit of an anarchistic streak in us. It’s just a pain in the arse being lumped in with a bunch of bands I personally consider to be rubbish. Mind you, we’ve mixed a lot of garage, surf and thrash into the new album to help set us apart. It should be a bit trickier for people to put us in with that lot.” So what’s happened to all the punk rockers in this damned year of Our Lord, 2012? “Buggered if I know,” says Regan. “I expect they’ve all become greasers or got into hardcore. I think punk’s still irreparably tainted from all that ‘90s crap, so it’s a long way from being anything that the general public will take seriously. Shame really, as a punk revival would be quite handy for us right about now.” While some of the record, by the band’s own admission, is little more than throwing a brick through a window, there are tracks where the riotous social commentary is much more purposeful. Their second EP, Dead? Good! featured a track satirising Fox News, among other things. Songs From The Debt Generation continues in
that vein of social commentary. “It’s a big part of why the band continues to do what it does,” Regan confirms. “Whenever we see something we disagree with or think people should know about, we write a song about it. I think it serves as a release valve on the frustration we’re feeling at the time, always good to get something off your chest and we hope that it resonates well with the public.” They’re hardly preaching here. There are likely to be few loyal monarchists or subscribers to Fox News’ version of world events front of stage at a Spitfires gig. Regardless, there’s a humour in The Spitfires’ songs, and it spills into their shows. “I think a band trying to write songs about political issues who don’t incorporate a bit of a sense of humour into it will end up coming across as too self-righteous or, worse than that, boring.” The length of recording – the band went through three drummers over the recording time – let the band merge their two alter egos. Dead? Good! sometimes sounded far too removed from the sweaty band on the stage. This record goes someway to bridging the gap. The Spitfires have an EP lined up to be released before the end of the year before focusing on their second LP. The EP coincides with their relocation to the sunny shores of Sydney. Early experiences inspired fear in Sydneysiders. “Paul blew up the back of the old house with the gas barbecue while he was packing up, so we got off to a good start there,” Regan says. “I’ve heard the term difficult second release thrown about quite often, though after how easily we got that cloud of propane out I honestly can’t see what the fuss is about.” WHO: The Spitfires WHAT: Songs From The Debt Generation (Firestarter) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 10 & Saturday 13 October, Lansdowne Hotel
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44 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 45
SINGLES/EPS WITH ROSS CLELLAND
ON THE RECORD
Martha Wainwright
Almost contradictorily, Eagle & The Worm amp up both the Americana hints and the synths across their Strangelove EP (Warner). If the eight-piece didn’t have enough going on already with the brass and the harmonies colourings, and the sheer default catchiness in most of their songs. Only occasionally does it trip over itself in all those elements jostling for space, which again speaks to their ability. The grass is almost completely blue for Fraser A Gorman & Big Harvest. A Double-A side single (Independent) contrasts the perkier blues of Last Four Dollars with the harmonica-driven downbeat lament with gentle regret of Blossom & Snow that has plaintiveness of someone singing in a room to just you. A nagging, sad, aching, lovely thing. Bigger, less subtle, but still with at least some of their indie charm in place, Hungry Kids Of Hungary are setting themselves up for one of the feel-good hits of the summer with the album due early in the new year. Sharp Shooter (EMI) is the first preview of that. The guitars are loud without being rude, the harmonies hit the peaks aimed for, and the youth network will likely be flogging it to death as you read this. And if not, they should be. Probably on the next level of rotation down, Jess Cornelius as Teeth & Tongue offers The Party Is You (Dot Dash/ Remote Control). Those drawing a long bow try to conjure names like PJ and Patti Smith in comparison, but this is a quieter but still curiosity-invoking song which can gnaw at you that is somehow both real but just distant enough to suggest the arty side of it. It’s the one that will surprisingly just appear in your head some hours after listening as you lean in trying to feel what she’s saying. The genuine soul and individuality of Mama Kin never quite transferred from its Westralian surrounds last time round. Was It Worth It (MGM) seems to have a danger, a threat, to it that is both seductive and a bit nerve-tingling at once. It strolls down a neon street and insists you follow. Quite persuasively. Again, new album in new year. She might get it right this time. More straight-up bluesy, but with some indie feeling, and slidey bottleneck guitar at its centre, Taos’ Snake Eyes (Independent) keeps rolling at you in a manner that will have beardy fellows at the stagefront air-guitaring along with it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Orthodox in its approach, but pretty good within the boundaries it sets for itself, The Cribs are one of those bands people keep telling me how much I should like, but maybe for that very reason I keep looking for the similarities to so much else rather than what sets them apart. Glitters Like Gold (PIAS/ Liberator) has a place for everything, and everything in its place, but maybe a little too much order? They always seem of that Razorlight school of happy being second division, but unwilling or unable to take that risk to be something more. Perhaps call that the Frightened Rabbit syndrome, although a band by that name wear their Scots-ness like a sword, shield and wound, all across their State Hospital EP (Atlantic). Their ache is both quiet and yet widescreen. If the bombast holds away, the Americans will love them. If they turn it inward, they may be something more. Results pending. 46 • THE DRUM MEDIA
AXEWOUND
Elefant Traks/Inertia
Sony
Capitol/EMI
There are various criteria for judging a rapper’s greatness. Perhaps they make excellent choruses. Or the lyrics are incredible; maybe delivered with a unique voice. Perhaps greatness is being able to take any four bars, loop them and make a chorus you’d listen and re-listen to. Urthboy posesses all these and more. And Smokey’s Haunt is a treasure. Stories opens proceedings, reminiscent of previous big singles: high production values and a catchy hook. Naive Bravado is up next. Released months ago as a standalone single it didn’t bang as we might have expected. However here, in context, it truly is hypnotic. Pop sensibilities meet great raps. Completing the hat-trick: Cleopatra, a reflection on pokies that rumbles ominously and, impossibly, turns an everyday tragedy into a grand dirge. The Big Sleep is a lingering heartbreaker, On Your Shoulders a restrained, but assured, rallying cry. Hey Diane matches Urthboy’s combustible take on a flawed relationship with Bobby Flynn’s caramel crooning. On Glimpses, Knee Length Socks and Orphan Rocker our host gets autobiographical in a way he hasn’t before. Only Empire Tags falls below the standard set. Listenable, but little more; the album’s least interesting idea punctuated by its least impressive hook. The untitled secret track at the end of Orphan Rocker (which might be called Cold Front) is a rare joy. All plinky pianos, urgency and menace, it’s the song we’ve been hoping to hear from Urthboy for nearly a decade. We leave the album with this searing polemic ringing in our ears, without its descending to naming names. His stance is not confrontational, but dismissive: “I’m saying I don’t think that you’re dangerous”. He’s right, of course. A truly great rapper he’s above all that.
As band names go, nothing could be more ludicrous and totally out off left field than metal’s newest supergroup Axewound, but thankfully there’s a lot of substance here than the band’s name may suggest. Fronted by Cancer Bats singer Liam Cormier doing the screaming vocal thing, melodic vocals by Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck, and rounded out by members of Pitchshifter, Glamour Of The Kill and Rise To Remain, Vultures is an intense album comprising ten brutal tracks of insane riff-a-mania. There are times when parts of some tracks sound like BFMV, but these are thankfully shortlived.
Having spent much of last year on a hugely successful world tour that included two sold-out shows at the LIVE Sydney Opera House, the enchanting Bat for Lashes is back with her third album, The Haunted Man. Taking on a more upbeat and bolder style than its predecessor, Two Suns, the new album shows a new side to singer Natasha Khan that is as magical and mesmerising as ever, but with a touch more oomph.
BAT FOR LASHES
Vultures
James d’Apice
The Haunted Man
Post Apocalyptic Party holds down a deep groove with some subtle Slipknot influences creeping in, whilst Cold is a more uptempo chord-based song with some classic screamed verses and sung chorus. Title and opening track Vultures shows off the band’s energy with a blistering intro before breaking relentlessly into a barrage of time changes and fat rhythmic sections. Exochrist would border on generic if it weren’t for an inspired bridge that is way too short to be much more than an afterthought. The piano and keys intro to Collide is at first somewhat out of place amongst the barrage of metal, yet provides needed contrast for the more brash numbers like Blood Money And Lies and Victim Of The System to shine. Vultures is, with a few exceptions, a dirge-filled angry metal record that the two frontmen might not have been able to fully realise with their main projects. The album doesn’t play out like riffs have been cut and pasted to suit each song; every track has its own individual character and highlights the apparent musical aptitude of the band’s members.
Opener, Lilies, features Khan’s beautiful, angelic vocals
that she does so well, but with a much more positive VDtone than on her usual ballads. Strings make for a strong
D
Smokey’s Haunt
lift in the chorus and her signature autoharp returns. All Your Gold is the standout track on this album, starting with an intro uncannily similar to Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know, building to a catchy, poppy chorus that is as fantastically addictive as Daniel. The upbeat melody hides a sad story about the pain of a previous relationship as Kahn sings: “I let him take all my gold, and hurt me so bad/Now for you, I have nothing left”. There are, too, some traditional Bat for Lashes numbers here, like the tribal drumming of Horses Of The Sun, the enchanting melody of Rest Your Head and the chilledout final track, Deep Sea Diver. Of course the album wouldn’t be complete without a sprinkling of ballads about a solo protagonist, so the synth-heavy Marilyn and beautifully emotive Laura make a necessary appearance.
D
Even with King Gizzard and rhyming bits that follow making some racket that seems to break out of the indie ghetto, their bass player, Lucas Skinner (note surname) has a diversion of his own in Atolls. The 20-year fashion cycle again proved as Mumble (Independent) does sound for all the world like Dinosaur Jr in its fuzzy-edged fumble for the first cone of the morning. Not quite as off-focus but also possibly having a nod to those times despite referencing another in the title, Beatles Party (Independent) is Black Fox making pop music with synthesised strings and drums falling in behind a chorus that reaches out from the stage to the girls hip enough to know. Dane Robertson is a frontman of charisma, even without the pictures. And this is rather slinky in its way.
URTHBOY
VD
Mixing Roman mythology, death, Christmas and the eternal changing parameters of a mother-daughter relationship is another odd tangent for pop music to take. But Martha Wainwright has never been much beholden to the conventions. Proserpina (Warner) adds another layer of intimacy as it was actually the last song written by mother, the also gifted and special Kate McGarrigle, as she faced her impending mortality. This is music of the heart. With added hands and guts from guests like Wilco’s Nels Cline and Jim White of The Dirty Three. Even without the background information, this is obviously something more than a fat Korean pantomiming riding a pony.
Perhaps the most interesting track on this album though is Oh Yeah, which features a funky beat and synths that really push Khan’s style, whilst her ethereal voice comes over the top to pull it all together before a classic piano fades out to the end. The Haunted Man is a total triumph and arguably her best work to date.
James Dawson
Helen Lear
BENJAMIN GIBBARD
FRANK TURNER
KISS
Spunk/Cooperative
Epitaph/Warner
Universal
Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard once again proves he’s just as good solo with his debut album, Former Lives. After listening to the album, it should come as no surprise that these 12 tracks were written over quite a long period; each track acts as a signpost marking the various paths he’s taken in his personal life, completely disparate to his work with the band and obviously much more personal.
An honest and passionate troubadour from England, Frank Turner quickly found a home for his singalongs in Australia, and this country seems to have embraced the singer/songwriter with gusto. Each tour has seen Frank play to more people, and in March next year he’ll perform to his biggest crowds yet as part of Bluesfest.
Considering Gene Simmons proclaimed to gaggles of journalists at the Download Festival several years back that, “The record industry is dead,” it’s somewhat surprising rockers Kiss returned via 2009’s Sonic Boom. Perhaps the blood-spitting four-stringer saw numerous marketing tie-ins associated with another record.
To make it easy for the people who may not have known Turner when he was in punk band Million Dead or when he first started out on his own, a highlights package has been put together for local release. This collection casts Turner in a similar light to a songwriter like Tim Rogers; self-deprecating, wry, forever exploring his craft and what it means to be a touring musician. The beauty of Turner’s writing is his ability to tap into universal experiences by telling very specific stories, as he does in Dan’s Song or Long Live The Queen.
Which brings us to Monster, sporting one of the tackier-looking album covers in eons. If Sonic Boom signalled Kiss having a fling with analogue, opener Hell Or Hallelujah’s boisterous riff indicates a full-blown, lipstick-coated romance. Simmons has been trotting out the “mix between Destroyer and Revenge” line for so long it’s become empty rhetoric. Monster has elements of the former, certainly, but for all the trumpeting (to the extent of calculation) of its predecessor being a “classic ‘70s-sounding record”, this is more successful in that regard, warmly channelling the spirit of their first few records. No ballads, keyboards or orchestras, but more cheap innuendos than you can thrust a studded codpiece at. While Simmons sometimes phones it in, Paul Stanley (whose voice is understandably thinning after four decades) seems enamoured of rediscovering early sources of inspiration. Channelling The Who (Freak), Stones-like swagger (Eat Your Heart Out) or Simmons’ childhood obsession with The Beatles (Wall Of Sound) shows Kiss were once a hungry band and not merely a bloated brand. Axeman Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer also expectedly, if capably, lend lead vocals to a track each among the customary filler.
Former Lives
Last Minutes And Lost Everythings
Opener, Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby, lasts a mere 50 seconds, but in that short space of time Gibbard sets the tone for the entire album. He has an amazing gift in that his voice can make something quite mundane sound so beautiful and enticing. Teardrop Windows is not unexpected, but in the best possible sense – it’s dulcet, bittersweet and a real delight. Bigger Than Love proves that it’s not just vocals that set Gibbard apart. Yes, his voice is amazing and the chorus duet is catching, but the lyrics really make this track before the beat takes it to a different level again and really adds to the emotion. Lady Adelaide showcases some really emotive songwriting; as with all the tracks on this album it sounds reasonably upbeat, but the lyrics are so full of woe as he sings of a woman who “waited all those years for those three words that never reached her ears, they just went unheard”. There’s no other way to say it – the album is amazing. And how could it not be? Gibbard just has one of those voices that makes you feel like everything’s going to be okay, even if it’s not. Former Lives will not disappoint die-hard Death Cab fans and should definitely earn him a whole new fanbase as well.
The music Turner builds around his poetry, whether acoustic in his earlier work or with the band as things started to grow in scope, is mostly simple and vibrant and made for singing along to. Because while putting Frank Turner on at home and shuffling around the kitchen or singing along on a road trip is fun, nothing makes these songs sound better than when yours is one of many voices raised in song in a dark, sweaty pub with a couple of beers under your belt and Turner telling his amusing anecdotes and flashing the grin of someone having his lyrics sung back at him with quite a lot of gusto. Danielle O’Donohue
Katherine Edmonds
Monster
There isn’t a Kiss Klassic here, but a reasonable number of solid, albeit workmanlike songs. After nearly 40 years, Kiss still make big, dumb arena anthems about as deep as a puddle, but should satisfy their dedicated army. Brendan Crabb
themusic.com.au
MOON DUO
LISA MITCHELL
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT
THE DATSUNS
Freeform Patterns/Fuse
Warner
Indochine/Warner
Hellsquad/MGM
It was only last year that Moon Duo gave us their debut album, Mazes, a record which showed that though guitarist Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips) was still operating in similar terrain to his nautical pals, the addition of Sanae Yamada’s synth textures provided plenty of new angles to discover and bliss out to. Circles takes that template and stretches and tightens it even further by maintaining the essential ingredients of drone and psych, but this time injecting more swagger and melody to the sound.
Martha Wainwright’s dramatic vocals are the result of justified confidence and swagger built on unquestioned talent, and her new album simply finds another home for them. Kicked off beautifully with I Am Sorry, she sings about a ‘seven-year itch’, but here why she’s sorry doesn’t need to be spelt out any further. The cheeky theme is continued into the next song, Can You Believe It, which begins “I really like make-up sex/ It’s the only kind I get” – Martha, my dear, say it ain’t so! The album continue with this type of play, and in that way serves as a great support to her last effort, 2008’s I Know You’re Married But I Have Feelings Too. However in both cases the offering is clearly too outrageous to be played straight down the line.
Holyshitballs this record is LOUD! The album follows what is written on the packaging, with death metal, some rattling rock and some arse-shaking boogie as you progress through the tracklisting.
In a musical space bound by drone and repetition, Circles continues the impeccable quality control and songwriting of Ripley Johnson. It adheres to the principal of finding a groove and digging in deep and for those who love the cerebral and physical immersion that comes from that, this will be an essential addition to their collections.
Providence, the opening track of Lisa Mitchell’s second album, builds over a simple piano motif, Mitchell’s whisper soon augmented by a crowd of voices. And from there she takes her cue. Mitchell’s voice has a beautiful sweet strain; it’s a whisper with the force of a gale. Spiritus, released as a single/EP earlier in the year to stoke the fire, is still pop gold; the indecipherable charming mess of Mitchell’s babbling-brook vocals and the Graceland-era Paul Simon-channelling scatterbrained euphoria of it all. And it’s in fine company with equally jubilant tracks like So Much To Say (which features a wonderful harpsichord segment); The Raven And The Mushroom Man, and the surprisingly rollicking ode to NYC, Pretty Thing, as well as another ghost from the Spiritus EP, Diamond In The Rough. Dann Hume’s role as producer cannot be overlooked, nor understated – Mitchell has a beautifully quirky and unique voice, and songwriting chops to boot (she can turn more than her fair share of phrases brimming with whimsy and wit, and doles out dreamy, expansive takes on ditties), but Hume’s skills in the studio allow the rest of the music to match the fantasy in her musical horizons. The instrumentation is wonderfully expansive; the harpsichord and horns on So Much To Say, the sitar in The Present… An eight-minute jam that seems the perfect accompaniment to The Present ends the album, a spaced-out, floating and ethereal vocal exploration (once again, the lyrics are damned-near impossible to decipher, but the angelic quality of Mitchell’s voice offset that fact) set atop slowly morphing chords and White Albumesque rambling drums. Mitchell has long been quaint, unassuming even, but Bless This Mess is anything but.
Chris Familton
Dave Drayton
Circles
I Can See is a prime example of Moon Duo making subtle sonic adjustments. It has a playful hiccuping beat with a ghost-house organ swirling around it like a phantom menace. As it digs a hole in your head it casts a positively uplifting shadow over the early part of the record, making for a sense of euphoric trance rather than a drugged-out, sleepy head nod. The interstellar country haze of Sparks and the hypnotic sway of Trails finds them slowing things down and heading into Brian Jonestown Massacre territory, while Free Action ramps up the boogie quotient and returns them to their Suicide comfort zone. The influence of the New York no-wavers borders on worship, but Johnson has found ways to filter it through his effects pedals and garage psych rock headspace to breathe new life into the sound.
Bless This Mess
Come Home To Mama
Where this breaks is the lullaby, Proserpina, a cover of a song written by Wainwright’s late mother Kate McGarrigle just before she died – it’s sad, yes, but a completely enchanting tribute. Hang in ‘til the end for a significant and interesting gear change with All Your Clothes, a relatively plain performance that lets Wainwright show her ability while just floating a bit. Finale, Everything Wrong, is open-mouthed and so simple it’s staggering, with the endearing unapologetic honesty of her dad Loudon Wainwright’s One Man Guy, but decidedly less self-obsessed. Addressed to the next chapter of the dynasty, infant son Arcangelo, she promises to “not lie and not cry too much in front of you”. It’s part nursery rhyme, part new folk song, and perhaps part new direction? Here’s to more as she, and the new clan, develop. Liz Giuffre
themusic.com.au
Death Rattle Boogie
As the opener to their fifth LP, in their tenth year as a band, Gods Are Bored reintroduces the fury of The Datsuns straight up. The album moves into psychedelic turf with Gold Halo, but always with the metal Iron Maiden-style backbone that has served them so well over the years. Axethrower steps into concept album territory with dodgy wind effects and a serious storytelling vocal, while Bullseye plays more to the poptastic side that radio appreciates. Skull Full Of Bone leans towards the funky, and Shadow Looms Large provides a ‘60s garage rock straight four to tap along with. Wander The Night provides a lengthy musical interlude mid album sounding vaguely Doors-like, minus the Hammond. The latter half of the album holds up to the first, with single after single leaping out of the speakers to smash your face with a blood orange ripe with moshable chord madness. Helping Hand, Hole In Your Head, Fools Gold, Goodbye Ghosts (hello Jerry Lee Lewis jangle keys!), Brain Tonic... they could all fill the current void of real rock on mainstream and indie radio tomorrow. Album coda, Death Of Me, combines all three aspects of the album to nicely round out the Death Rattle Boogie experience. They set out to crystalise their legacy, capture the essence of The Datsuns and offer it to the gods of the listener as ritual sacrifice for their ballsout rock talent. In doing so they have produced the best rock album of 2012. Holyshitballs. Kristy Wandmaker
THE DRUM MEDIA • 47
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THIS WEEK IN TUESDAY 9
ARTS
Morph – one of the first plays written by Brendan Cowell, directed by Harriet Gordon Anderson. An intimate piece of theatre about love, loss and an experiment in human connection, starring Luke Carson and Stephanie King. Opening night, The Cellar Theatre, 8pm to Friday 12 October.
WEDNESDAY 10 Ralph Gibson: 50 Years – for the first time in 20 years, photographer Ralph Gibson returns to Sydney to showcase a selection of works. “I embrace the abstract in photography,” says Gibson, whose bold images redefined the boundaries of black and white images. Opening, Point Light Gallery, 4pm, Gibson will also give a Public Lecture at AGNSW on 13 October, 6pm. Aida Verdi – American soprano Latonia Moore makes her Opera Australia debut in the title role as the Ethiopian princess in this production of Graeme Murphy’s vision of Ancient Egypt. Sydney Opera House, 7.30pm to Saturday 13 October. The Ambassador – a documentary from Mads Brugger about the corruption and the illegal diamond trade in Africa. Brugger buys himself a consular posting to the Central African Republic and records his encounters. Opening night film of the Antenna Documentary Festival, Dendy Opera Quays, 7pm festival runs to Sunday 14 October.
THURSDAY 11 Between Two Waves – a play written by Ian Meadows directed by Sam Strong. A politically charged relationship drama set against a climate change backdrop. “You think we’re like, actually all fucked? Like rising seas, and hurricanes and judgement and shit?” Griffin Theatre, 7pm to Saturday 17 November.
down,” says Ansari. “I turned twenty-nine a few months ago, and that’s the way it seems to be.” And it’s this phenomenon that Ansari is exploring in his new stand-up show Buried Alive, which he’s bringing to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this month in his first Australian performances. As the title might indicate, Ansari isn’t that keen on taking the plunge into domesticity just yet – in a recent Los Angeles Times profile, he referred to himself as an “indecisive commitmentphobe” – but he’s still fascinated by those who have, especially the ones who seem ill-equipped to do so.
FRIDAY 12
Sex With Strangers – the title might suggest a bawdy romp, but this is a love story from playwright Laura Eason who asks who we are in the digital age, how much should we share online and whether our addiction to technology is turning us into twits. With Ryan Corr and Jacqueline McKenzie, STC The Wharf, 8pm to 24 November.
SATURDAY 13 Medea – Anne-Louise Sarks’ refocusing of Medea. Two children on a stage play games, while offstage and unheard their parents are having a very famous showdown. At some inevitable moment in the next hour the children will be drawn away from their games and into their parents’ bitter argument. From there they will enter mythology as the most tragic siblings of all time. Opening night, Belvoir Downstairs, 7pm to Sunday 25 November. Story Of The Red Mountains – written for NIDA by Patrick White Award-winning playwright Ben Ellis and directed by Tim Roseman. About a group of communists and sympathisers in 1951 Australia who are riven with anxiety. Carriageworks, 7.30pm to Monday 15 October.
A STAND UP GUY
Making his Australian debut, American comedian and actor Aziz Ansari puts a microscope over couples his age in Buried Alive, as Guy Davis discovers. For stand-up comedian Aziz Ansari, the age of 30 is on the horizon. And he’s started to notice that friends and acquaintances – actually, pretty much everyone – of a
similar vintage is starting to tie the knot and begin producing the next generation. “But to me it all just seems so far away, that idea of getting married and settling
Ansari is not just intrigued by An people taking the plunge but by the pe connections that seemingly give co them the courage to do so. “That’s th what else I talk about in Buried Alive w – how hard it can be to find people you connect with that much. Finding yo that deep, deep connection is tough because a lot of people from my generation… they’re kind of bozos. You talk to women, ask them what they’re looking for in a man, and they’ll say ‘Oh, you know, a nice guy who’s got a job and who makes me laugh sometimes.’ I’m like ‘There must be plenty of those around.’ There isn’t! There’s, like, three!
SUNDAY 14 Dark Side Of A Softy – an exhibition from painter Paul Gilsenan who has undertaken various murals around Sydney and is probably better known for his alter-ego, Duckman, who regularly stars in Sketch the Rhyme. 107 Projects to Sunday 21 October.
MEDITATING ON MEDEA
The cast of Medea offer their take on a story that was written two-and-a-bit thousand years before their collective life spans discovers Dave Drayton.
Ralph Gibson: 50 Years
“Friends of mine who are really dumb are having kids, and I’m like ‘Whaaaat?’” he laughs. “You lik know? ‘There’s no way this is kn going to work!’ I don’t know if it’s go the same way in Australia but th where I’m living in New York and w LA you just start seeing it happen constantly with people of this age.” co
Sydney’s stages have seen myths done in some interesting ways recently – a contemporary, featherweight Thyestes that packed a heavyweight punch; a sexy and soaked adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and now, Medea, Euripides’ tale of revenge wreaked by a woman scorned – the cost of which includes the lives of her two children – reworked by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Lousie Sarks, who will also direct the production, coming to Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre in association with Australian Theatre for Young People.
In this version of the story, viewed from the periphery, the tragic events unfold in the peripheries as centre stage the two doomed children play – we see this story from their perspective. “I’m quite drawn to the Greeks,” says Sarks, “and it’s a good story, really fertile and malleable and there’s heaps that you can do with it, and especially as a contemporary theatremaker, I can do anything I want to it, and that’s quite exciting. “I was also really curious about the engery of kids on stage – I’d seen a version of A Doll’s House where this child was brought out at the end – when Nora’s deciding whether
to leave her husband and her kids or stay – and this child came out and it just changed the play; it went from being a play to having this real person on stage and it shifted the perspective for me of what that moment meant, it felt so real. So I wondered what would happen if that was a whole work, if that wasn’t just a walk-by moment but the children were at the centre of that, how would we relate to that? How would we experience that? Would the air in the theatre feel different?” They’re large questions, and ones that Sarks has grappled with over extensive rehearsals and workshops with the young stars of the production, Joseph Kelly, 14, and Rory Potter, 11, (both with little to no prior performance experience), from which Mulvany drew to write the work.
It’s so hard finding someone you really like and can connect with.” Still, Ansari shrugs off the notion that his busy work schedule – when he’s not playing would-be mogul and ladies’ man Tom Haverford on the popular US sitcom, Parks & Recreation, he’s appearing in movies like Funny People and Observe & Report or performing stand-up – might keep him from finding that special someone. “It doesn’t change it that much,” he says. “It’s still a job.” (Admittedly it’s a job where he can appear in a music video alongside buddies like Jay-Z and Kanye West.) It’s one he takes very seriously, though. He’s done plenty of formal and informal research into marriage, parenthood and divorce for Buried Alive, and he’s spent time in comedy clubs around LA, “to make sure it’s all tight before I come down to see you guys. “I feel like stand-up is a really interesting art form,” Ansari. admits “It’s like a one-man play – you do a one-hour set that is very tightly scripted and constructed and honed. But people don’t always treat it like that. They go ‘Oh, that guy is up onstage talking about funny stuff,’ like it just popped into the comedian’s head at that moment. Yeah, stand-up is often really misunderstood.” WHO: Aziz Ansari WHAT: Buried Alive WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, Just For Laughs, Sydney Opera House
So, five weeks into rehearsals, how do Kelly and Potter see their take on this ancient Greek epic? “It’s kind of modern day, it’s not like Ancient Greece. We’re just two kids,” says Potter. “We’ve been locked up,” adds Kelly. “Yeah,” Potter confirms enthusiastically. “Our parents are fighting and getting divorced and then our dad has this ‘special friend’.” “Which is his girlfriend,” clarifies Kelly, “And the mum hates her, so much.” “Mmm,” more agreement from Potter. “And the mum’s kind of like really sad because she ran away from home with him. Our characters just don’t get why they’re acting so weird. We don’t get why they don’t get back together.” “We’re just being lied to, I guess,” Kelly suggests. “We’re just like, ‘Why is mum acting so weird?’” adds Potter, “We don’t really realise what’s actually happening. At the end we’re just thinking it’s a great big adventure.” “Yeah, so, a massive lie. And now we’re going to die,” Kelly gives a sense of the epic’s ‘tragedy’ before continuing, “We’ve been separated from the real world. We don’t have a phone or anything that can tell us what’s happening or anything.” And I ask: Almost like prisoners then? “Yeah,” says Kelly. “But with toys. And nice beds.” WHAT: Medea WHERE & WHEN: Thursday 11 October to Sunday 25 November, Belvoir Downstairs Theatre
THE DRUM MEDIA • 51
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REVIEWS
C U LT U R A L
THE WORDS FILM One choice can have a profound effect on countless people. That’s a lesson Rory Jensen (Bradley Cooper) learns all too quickly when he makes a rather large error in judgement that he’ll have to live with forever. Without giving too much of the plot away, The Words shows us there’s a fine line between fiction and reality, but, unfortunately, it just simply isn’t captivating. It’s a very tangled web, but not one that the audience cares about unravelling. Three intertwined stories are told, and although each story begins promisingly they quickly fall flat, leaving the audience bored and looking at their watches. The plot is quite clichéd and you can see almost everything coming. The
LEGALLY BLONDE MUSICAL The success of Legally Blonde, a bright, fluffy musical based on the hit 2001 movie about Malibu princess-turned-Harvard Law student Elle Woods, hangs on the ability of its leading lady and in Lucy Durack, this production has a shining, smiling star. Durack, floating on a cloud of pink, was a thoroughly likable Woods and led a strong supporting cast, including Rob Mills as heartbreaker Warner, David Harris as the scruffy Emmett and Helen Dallimore as Elle’s hilarious beauty parlour confidante Paulette. Dallimore got some of the musical’s best moments, especially her interaction with UPS guy Kyle. And both Dallimore and Durack felt the benefit of performing alongside the show’s cutest cast members,
52 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Chloe Sesta Jacobs In Cinemas Thursday 11 October
Moments of the show descended into cliché and there were some clunky stereotypes in the minor characters, but the feel-good nature of the story kept the laughs coming, especially in the courtroom scenes. And though the original nature of the songs means audiences won’t be walking out of the theatre singing a memorable hit, the songs pushed the story along and kept things fairly true to the movie’s plot.
WITH JAMELLE WELLS Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s current adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie is the final production at its Potts Point venue. The company moves into its new home, the Eternity Playhouse, next year. Miss Julie thus marks an end of an era for the group, who have been based in the Darlinghurst Theatre for more than 11 years. The company has worked in support of over 1000 independent artists and helped many, among them Griffin’s new Artistic Director Lee Lewis and Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre, Mark Kilmurry, develop their careers. Following the premiere of Tim Winton’s Signs of Life for Perth’s Black Swan company earlier this year, the Sydney Theatre Company is presenting the production with two new cast members. Heather Mitchell and Aaron Pederson are rehearsing with George Shevtsov and Pauline Whyman for the show, which opens at the Opera House in November. It’s a story about people with uncertain futures and a sequel of sorts to Winton’s hit novel, Dirt Music. The seven finalists for next month’s Blake Poetry Prize include David Musgrave and Carmel Summers from New South Wales. They’ve been picked from 400 entries. The $5,000 prize encourages Australian poets to write about religion and spirituality Full marks to Queensland MP George Christensen who is trying to get the BBC to film an episode of Dr Who in Australia. The federal Member for Dawson has started an online petition asking producers to film in the Whitsundays. He reckons kangaroos, crocodiles and drop bears could team up with the Doctor’s usual enemies.
Unfortunately the Greek chorus idea of having Elle’s sorority sisters pop back up at various points to explain parts of the story sometimes made it hard to focus on the lyrics but fans of the film are sure to enjoy this rainbow-bright production. Danielle O’Donohue Running at Lyric Theatre until Saturday 16 December
It begins in a very cinematic fashion – perhaps to be expected with Jocelyn Moorhouse directing – quotes from Salinger, Plath, Rushdie and more, flitting across the set, projected, before the title of the play emerges. These are opening credits that place us in the bookish world of Ethan Strange (Ryan Corr), a successful young, slightly brattish novelist and the older and less successful author Olivia (Jacqueline McKenzie). It’s a device that will recur through the first act, though the quotes remain interesting, relevant too, as the technique and the not so charged sexual frolicking begin to become predictable, and then plain. The filmic quality can also be seen in the intimacy of the short scenes, despite the large space (a stunning
Urban art is a bit of a funny term. Turn up to an exhibition and you’re just as likely to encounter spray cans as you are to find video or even installation work. But diversity is also the genre’s biggest strength – and with 50 street artists from around the country, it’s something that Living In A Glass House seemed determined to prove. If there was a theme to the evening, colour was certainly it. Everywhere you looked, big, bright works were competing to catch your eye. Highlights included pieces like Gerald Leung’s Apollo Kamikaze 666, a giant, colourful image of a cartoonish three-eyed dog, and the Melbourne-based Conrad Bizjak’s Untitled Emotion, an explosion of
For a story that should be absolutely dripping with tension, it’s remarkably dry and dull. There is plenty of emotion in The Words, but it doesn’t seem authentic, because of both the writing and performances. Cooper’s success in the Hangover films and even in The A-Team makes it’s a little difficult to take him seriously in dramatic roles and you’ll forget this performance before you leave the cinema. As brilliant as Jeremy Irons is, he cannot save this film alone, especially when the melodrama is so high. It’s quite ironic then that a film titled The Words has relatively little to say.
chihuahua Bruiser and bulldog Rufus.
SEX WITH STRANGERS THEATRE
LIVING IN A GLASS HOUSE EXHIBITION
ambiguity of the ending leaves the audience frustrated rather than curious, all the while wondering what the point actually was.
bright triangles that parted to reveal a woman’s face. But not all those involved gave the colour palette such a workout – Brisbane’s Benjamin Reeve produced Mendax, a sombre portrait of a concerned, wearylooking Julian Assange that would have looked not at all out of place in the Archibald gallery, and Adelaide artist Joel Vdk’s contribution was Unravelled Thoughts, a portrait of a lady in profile, her hair a fantastic jumble of black and white loops and swirls. It’s worth checking out if only because so rarely does so much urban art talent come together under one roof. Plus, it’s a great chance to visit the city while avoiding the retail mayhem surrounding the recent Topshop opening. Jake Millar Running at Glasshouse to Friday 2 November
CRINGE
modern cabin and apartment brilliantly designed by Tracy Grant Lord) and two-person cast. The romance and chemistry between Corr and McKenzie seems to lack a certain charge, the spark that would be expected between such a disparate pairing, though each owns their character; Corr lazing in entitlement before buzzing, his pacing matching that of the constantly connected world that’s helped him sustain his fame, McKenzie meek and appropriately proper, punctuating the submissive role with occasional coquettishness. Sex With Strangers bubbles along with romcom pace, though by Act II the sex has all but fizzled out, and the strangers know each other too well as bickering about books takes the fore. Dave Drayton Running at Sydney Theatre Company Wharf 1 until Saturday 24 November
TRAILER
Aussie movie, The Wedding Party, has secured a North American distribution deal for a 2013 release. Starring Josh Lawson, Isabel Lucas, Essie Davis, Steve Bisley and Nadine Garner, the comedy drama will be distributed through Mousetrap Films. The movie has undergone a re-cut since premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival, where it won Most Popular Australian Film. Rosie Dennis starts her new job this week as Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects. The Sydney-based performer and director has had her work presented at festivals across central Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. st year she conceived the award-winning Minto: Live for Sydney Festival and wrote and performed Driven To New Pastures, which was also presented at the Festival. Guests at the Lyric Theatre premiere of Legally Blonde last week included New South Wales Arts Minister George Souris, Danielle Spencer; X Factor judge Natalie Bassingthwaite, Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Simon Burke. The UK producer of the show Howard Panter and his Australian co-producer John Frost joined them at the after party in the Marquee nightclub. Director Peter Evans has been named as John Bell’s likely successor to run the Bell Shakespeare Company. From 2013 Evans will move up from being an associate director to co-artistic director with Bell. The company has produced most of Shakespeare’s plays over the past 22 years and following the lead of Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company is now also producing classics by other writers.
TRASH
WITH GUY DAVIS Look, I don’t wanna brag or nothing but it’s clear that when I talk, Hollywood listens. I am of course referring to the last edition of Trailer Trash, in which I humbly suggested that the fine folks at 20th Century Fox might wish to consider filmmaker Matt Reeves as the director of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, the upcoming instalment in their rebooted primates-are-doin’it-for-themselves franchise. Lo and behold, a few days later the trades were abuzz with the news that Reeves seemed to have landed the gig. Now I’m not saying I had anything to do with that. I’m saying I had everything to do with that. (Disclaimer for the irony-deficient: I really didn’t. It was a combination of educated guess and wish-fulfilment that somehow paid off. But I’m pretty happy about it, and if you dig talented filmmakers getting a chance to bring their game to potentially cool material you should be too.) Speaking of potentially cool material, here’s something that edges beyond ‘potentially’ into ‘almost definitely’ territory: the fact that Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater have been a trio of sly boots by surreptitiously shooting Before Midnight, the follow-up to their beautiful, bittersweet love stories, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, in Greece. There’d been rumours circulating for a while about a third film chronicling the turbulent relationship of Hawke’s Jesse and Delpy’s Celine, who first met on a Vienna-bound train and spent one evening in each other’s company before going their separate ways, then reunited nine years later in Paris to ruminate over the night they shared and their subsequent lives. And now it appears those rumours weren’t rumours at all – Before Midnight is reportedly done, dusted and bound for
the big screen in 2013. Before Sunset ended on a deliciously ambiguous note, with Jesse happily ensconced in Celine’s apartment, seemingly happy to miss the flight that would take him home to America. It would have been a perfectly legit way to close out the story, offering some sense of resolution while raising all manner of questions (the best kind, where you speculate on motives and outcomes) leaving the audience wanting just that little bit more. Would I have been happy to leave it there? Sure. Sunrise and Sunset are, as their titles indicate, well-matched bookends of the same story, and both are equally wellwritten (the actors and filmmakers all collaborated on the scripts), welldirected and well-performed. But I’m greedy, I’ll admit it, and I would like to see how these two people, connected on so many levels but still figuring each other out on so many others, are doing. And quotes from the main players indicate that Before Midnight will bring the story to an actual conclusion. “We’ll see, we’ll see,” Hawke told an interviewer when asked about the longevity of the series. “You never know, but it feels like the story is reaching its resolution.” Linklater, however, admits that he’s waiting to see how viewers respond to Before Midnight before bidding Celine and Jesse farewell forever. “It’s hard to say how people will respond to this, and that’s the farthest thing from my mind,” he admitted. “After the second, I didn’t know anyone would want a third! It was like, ‘Oh God, there were only three people in the world that wanted a second one, now everyone wants a third one.’ That almost kept us from doing it. I know for sure that people who like the first two, who are invested in those characters, will totally get something from the movie. This is for them.”
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targets. Top of the (s)hitlist at the moment are coffee tables. “They’re hopeless! They’re horrible! They’re too short to be any use for anything apart from coffee, and even then they’re a pain,” Franklin explains with great intensity. “You sit down on a nice, deep, comfortable coffee, and they’re too deep to reach so you have to lean all the way forward to pick up your coffee, and then you lean back and spill it in your lap. They just take up floorspace and hit your shins.”
(S)HITMAN HEATH
GREAT GADSBY
“I’vve plateaued at pleasant.” So says Heath “I’ve “Ch hopper” Franklin to Sarah Braybrooke “Chopper” on why he’s adorning the criminal character once more for his latest show, The (s)hitlist.
Currently in the midst of a prolific period in her life, Hannah Gadsby tells Jake Millar how Bill Cosby got her career started. Hannah wants a wife. It’s the title of Hannah Gadsby’s new comedy show, but it’s also a fact – or, at least, she’d like it to be an option. Hannah Wants A Wife sees the comedian take on gay marriage and the debate surrounding it in a show that promises to be interesting, topical and thoroughly thoughtprovoking – but mostly it’ll just be hilarious. “I thought I’d do a show about gay marriage because it’s in the Zeitgeist,” Gadsby explains. “But I got a bit sidetracked so the show looks at marriage in general and the institution that people claim gays would destroy. “There seems to be a big argument in the community about gay marriage but most people I know actually tend to be pretty relaxed about it. Even my mum thinks gay marriage would be a great idea.” Gadbsy introduced the show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has also performed it around Australia, fine-tuning it along the way. “It’s definitely been tweaked,” Gadsby admits. “I get bored so I have to introduce new stuff and since I first wrote the show there have been other developments so I refer to those too.” Perhaps best known for her work on Adam Hills’ In Gordon Street Tonight, Gadsby first toured back in 2007 with Hannah Gadsby Is Wrong & Broken, though stand-up didn’t always seem to be a likely path. “I was having a pretty rough time before I started comedy and I was a bit directionless in my mid-twenties. I was a seasonal worker on farms, planting trees with no real hope for good employment.” Though she discovered some unlikely guidance in Bill Cosby, of all people.
“I had a Cosby tape and I used to poach his material and pass it off as my own, which is tricky given that he was a middle-aged black man who lives in America and I was a young white girl living in Tasmania.”
Some people have bucket lists; lists of places they would like to go and things they want to do before they die. Not Chopper comedian Heath Franklin, whose latest show is called The (s)Hitlist. As he explains, “Apart from being an exploration of the wonderful
So what’s on the cards after this? “There’s more Gordon Street, I’m working on a documentary project, I’ll be doing a bit of live work in the UK, and I’m also writing a book,” she says of her impressive schedule. “Gosh, I’ve got lots on!” But Gadsby says her current workload is unusually heavy. “In the scheme of comics, I’m actually not very prolific, but I like to think of myself as thorough. Though others might just say I’m lazy.” Thorough? Lazy? Who knows? But there’s no denying she’s funny. WHAT: Hannah Wants A Wife WHERE & WHEN: Wednesday 10 to Sunday 14 October, Sydney Comedy Store
Franklin has finely honed the art of the rant for the new show, and he’s taking on some unexpected
Fresh from a sseries of shows at the Edinburgh festival, Franklin has a host of award nominations and TV appearances to his name, but Chopper remains his most enduring role. After more than seven years sticking on the moustache and heading out onto the comedy stage as Chopper, Franklin admits he wouldn’t mind performing as himself sometimes. “I’d like to be one of those real comedians that just tells jokes in what they’re wearing instead of carrying around a costume … [but the advantage
ANTENNA DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL
Gadsby could always count on getting a few laughs at the pub – thanks to Cosby, no doubt – and a friend suggested giving comedy a try and entered her into the Raw Comedy competition, which she happened to win. “It’s all been a bit of a snowball effect, so I feel very fortunate,” she says of her career. “After winning Raw Comedy, the opportunities kept popping up and I was lucky enough to make the most of them.” Opportunities like a regular gig on In Gordon Street Tonight, which has introduced her to a national audience. “In the early days when Adam Hills was workshopping the show, he got a few comics to help out. I was lucky enough to be asked, and I complemented him quite well.”
world of lists through the eyes of a career criminal, it’s also just a targeted list of things that Chopper despises.” So, less of a bucket list, more of a ‘fuck-it’ list, then.
Other entries on Chopper’s shitlist restaurant food served include restaur cold, getting sstabbed by a friend, and the word ‘‘chillax’. Sometimes Chopper puts ssomething on the Franklin actually quite list that Frankl says, “We try not likes, but he sa to bring those things up because cause of tension. they’re the cau We both have a shared love vocally complaining. for quite vocal Venn diagram of So that’s the V issues there really.” common issue
Returning for itss secound year w previews The Anthony Carew Antenna Documentary Festival. The Ambassador kicks off proceedings, finding shit-stirring, situationist-minded satirist Mads Brügger using bluster, bribes and blackmail to buy his way into corrupt African diplomacy and, in turn, the blood diamond trade; this like some colonialist critique by way of Borat. We Are Legion also shows those who use monkeyshines as social crusade, chronicling the collective of hackers who turned from smartarse trolls to mobilised political force, their devotion to freedomof-expression making them active players in the Arab Spring. Five Broken Cameras is a work of stark, direct-cinema humanism etched with defiant political sedition: five
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cameras handed out to West Bank residents, and turned into a frill-free citizen’s portrait of the cold realities of life for those Palestinian residents living alongside the construction of a new dividing wall. Putin’s Kiss dwells in the ever-widening divide between Russian politics and its populace, trailing a buxom posterchild for Putin’s Hitler Youth-esque Nashi corps who experiences a crisis of conscience in the face of the increasing totalitarianism in her beloved homeland. Colombianos has the intimacy of a family drama at it follows a pair of SwedishColombian brothers who repatriate back to Bogotá, one out to start an Internet business, the other going
through detox; these bros both the best of friends and the worst of i l TTropicália i áli is i a wild, ild colourful, l f l rivals. crowd-pleasin’ portrait of the Brazilian psychedelic epoch, chronicling the social circumstances that gave birth to one of music’s greatest-ever moments, and coming blessed with a raft of eye-opening, ear-pleasing archival footage of Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa et al. Mongolian Bling looks at a far-less-interesting musical subculture: Mongolian hip hop. Yet, what it lacks in interesting sounds, the film makes up for in its window-ontoanother world; Benj Binks’ portrait of youth culture in Ulaanbaatar a side of Mongolian culture effectively never before seen on screen. Detropia surveys the savaged remains of Detroit chronicling the Motor City’s demise from birthplace of the middle-class to America’s poorest major city. It takes onthe unenviable
of playing a character] is a little bit like the Colbert thing, where you can either be someone who hates right-wing conservatives quite vocally, or you can pretend to be a right-wing conservative and bring everyone’s attention to the issue a bit ironically. So it allows that and it means that you can say things that you don’t have to justify to people really… [It means I can] take on issues from the perspective of a man who is thirty years older and has spent most of his life in prison.” Franklin seems just a tad disappointed by the comparative lack of murder and mayhem in his own life. “There are a lot of other comedians who get material out of mistakes that they have made here, an international adventure that went wrong there, a horrible relationship. But I’ve kind of managed to avoid all of that stuff. So maybe that’s why I need to do character comedy. Unlike someone who has been to prison and has killed people. Because my own life has been really nice, and really good, but totally uninteresting. I’ve plateaued at pleasant.” With that the interview ends and he heads off to glue on his moustache for the next show. WHAT: The (s)Hitlist WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 11 October, Riverside Theatre
task of following Florence Tillon’s transcendent Detroit Wild City, a series of remarkable landscapes that felt like a window windo onto humanity’s shared ppost-oil-collapse future and, in compa comparison makes Heidi Ewing and Rac Rachel Grady’s film feel mediocre, itits interest in Detroit only ‘human interest’. Into The Abyss look looks at a familiar cinematic subject — prisoners on death row and, thus, the very idea of capital punishmen punishment — but, oh, it’s really all about the man m doing the looking: Werner Herzog. Herz The impishly inquisitive cinematic titan sounds positively overjoyed to be chewing the fat with a couple of hardened crims and asks the kind k of questions only Werner would. God G bless him. Another legend of the documentary form form, Agnès Varda Varda, is hailed in an incredibly tiny retrospective: a three-film arc from her landmark breakout 1962’s Cléo From 5 To 7, a near-real-time drama both playful and profound, to her best-known film, 2000’s The Gleaners And I, an amiable essay on scavanging, and, finally, a self-eulogising memoir of her cinematic career, 2008’s kinda-silly The Beaches Of Agnès. It’s, of course, anything but thorough (the absence of Vagabond means it’s barely even a survey of her highlights), but it’s a fine introduction for those who’ve never made Varda’s acquaintance. WHAT: Antenna Documentary Festival WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 10 October to Sunday 14, Dendy Cinemas
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FEATURE TOUR
SOMETHING FOR KATE Something For Kate are embarking upon their first national Australian tour in five years to mark the release of their new album Leave Your Soul To Science. After recently previewing new songs to a lucky few hundred fans at the Annandale Hotel, the band now take to larger venues throughout October to play more tracks from their new album, as well as their expansive back catalogue. Joining them on the road will be Ben Salter (The Gin Club) in solo mode. They play Friday 12 October at the Metro Theatre. Robyn @ Parklife Pic by Angela Padovan
FRONTLASH JAMES BOND
With the release of newie Skyfall soon, there’s all this hoopla about it being the 50th year of Bond in film. Who was the best Bond aside, it’s quite an achievement to keep a series running successfully for that long. Nero @ Parklife Pic by Angela Padovan was a quiet moment in a set, you could hear the thump from another stage forcing its way across the park. The skittery beats that kicked off Benga’s set seemed to be the order of the day with the current obsession with dubstep informing much of the music being played.
Chiddy Bang @ Parklife Pic by Angela Padovan
PARKLIFE
CENTENNIAL PARK: 30/09/12 Sydney’s tradition of raining on dance festival attendees has been broken with a dry, but rather chilly, Parklife. The blazing sun early in the day gave way to a very cold evening, so those lucky enough to be wearing jumpers could’ve made a bit of coin selling their warm gear at an inflated price to the many punters in singlets and shorts offering serious money to get warm. Early on at the Atoll stage Citizens! played bright and breezy melodies to suit the sunshine, but it was Chiddy Bang, asking for pandemonium on the main stage, that fired up the crowd. Over in the Kakadu DJ tent, as Art Department wrapped up their set to make way for Benga, some massive beats could be heard floating out of the tent. Sound bleed between the stages seemed to be a problem for most of the day. Every time there
Faith SFX gave the main stage crowd a demonstration of some pretty impressive beatboxing (including dropping The Prodigy’s Breathe and Reel 2 Real’s I Like To Move It) before introducing his bandleader UK multi-tasker Plan B. Plan B combined the smooth soul sounds from his previous album The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, starting off with She Said and ending with Stay Too Long, with the darker rhymes from new album Ill Manors. With his lively band bouncing behind him, it was the covers that were his set’s highlights; including a very Parklifefriendly version of Stand By Me and a punk version of Pieces, the song he recorded with Chase & Status. Back over on the Atoll stage, grime star Wiley played Wearing My Rolex early though it was clearly a crowd favourite. He spent most of his set exploring the very edges of the stage to get as close as possible to his fans, while he and guest J2K kept up a frenetic rapping pace. A quick swing past the main stage as Jacques Lu Cont dropped Mr Brightside was only a minor distraction on the way to see Labrinth at Kakadu. The British rising star brought with him a live drummer, bassist, synth player and DJ. Not quite the full stage set-up of his shows at home, but enough to give Australian audiences an idea of his talent. His R&B had a real UK drum’n’bass flavour and his reworking of NWA’s Express Yourself was built around a chunky rhythm and a funky horn sample. British duo Nero sat above a bank of TVs to drop an intense set of dubstep floorfillers. Vocalist Alana
Watson added her soaring voice to proceedings while a crazy light show welcomed the twilight. While most people were watching Nero, Tame Impala played their hazy psychedelic soundscapes under the huge moon hanging over the park. As the festival headed towards its climax, punters seemed to desert the Atoll stage despite Swedish pop songstress Robyn delivering the set of the day. The Robyn faithful who were prepared to miss The Presets were rewarded by the petite blonde’s dynamic dancing and electro-pop classics. Early on, We Dance To The Beat and Fembot were the perfect start to her energised, synth and live drum set, but it was the middle section pairing of singles Dancing On My Own and Indestructible that sent the crowd into a frenzy. A Justice DJ set, with their big white cross illuminated behind them, kept the main stage crowd warm as the temperature dropped. The French duo populated their dark and sexy set with songs that would slowly build to raving crescendos and occasionally transform into familiar refrains such as Felix Da Housecat’s Silver Screen Shower Scene and Junior Senior’s Move Your Feet and rounding things out with their own We Are Your Friends.
STEEL PANTHER Yeah their show was awesome and all, but they got themselves a numberone DVD in Australia. You think they’re gonna party upon hearing that fact?
JULIAN ASSANGE Thinking about suing Julia Gillard for defamation. We will watch this with interest. Wonder what he thought about the telemovie just aired? Should the producers be worried?
BACKLASH WEST CONNEX
So Infrastructure NSW does its big report and its centrepiece is… another road. Once again, public transport was pretty much ignored (sorry, but tunnels for the buses under the city just doesn’t cut it).
ALAN JONES
Dance festival favourites The Presets may have been showing off a new album, but there were plenty of old hits given a run. Julian Hamilton’s commanding vocals rung out clear across Centennial Park as they started with Kicking And Screaming and later during If I Know You and Are You The One?
Everyone’s pretty much said it already, but the apology without saying sorry and all the hoopla surrounding his comments – seriously, he needs to be off the air, now.
Dubstep may have been the order of the day, but it was pure dance pop peddled by the headliners that sent crowds home with a smile on their faces, a song in their hearts and goosebumps on their arms.
Oh dear God how we want him to win, but what was with that stumbling performance in the first Presidential debate? Don’t give the Republicans any openings at all!
Danielle O’Donohue
themusic.com.au
BARACK OBAMA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 55
GARY CLARK JR, JACKSON FIREBIRD, DOC HOLLIDAY TAKES THE SHOTGUN
Clare Bowditch @ The Factory Pic by Angela Padovan
ANNANDALE HOTEL: 28/09/12
Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun had the opening honours and proceeded to rip up the memo that says the support band has to battle shitty sound, a disinterested sparse crowd and not upstage the main act. The singer and bassist spent the set lurching madly around the stage and dancefloor looking vaguely menacing between cheesy grins. Their sound sat somewhere between the early deconstructed blues of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Gun Club and straight up rock and cowpunk and they play it well. All the components were there in terms of musicality and attitude and they looked like they were having a barrel of fun. Mildura’s Jackson Firebird have been circling the blues and rock scenes for a few years now and as you’d expect they’re a well oiled machine, though not at the expense of a playful live show. The duo kicked out their boogie jams with a very short set, the highlight of which was drummer Dale Hudak pounding out primitive beats on his bottle bin while Brendan Harvey carved hip shaking riffs from his guitar. The crowd quite rightfully went nuts for them, calling for an encore that never came.
CLARE BOWDITCH, THE ROYAL JELLY DIXIELAND BAND, PACKWOOD FACTORY THEATRE: 28/09/12
A banjo accompanied by a cello and a violin is hardly commonplace at a modern-day contemporary pop gig, but at a Clare Bowditch show, it’s best to expect something a little bit different. Packwood, the band playing the banjo, cello and violin in question, is the brainchild of Sydneysider Bayden Packwood Hine and normally consists of a few more members, but as a trio tonight it worked beautifully. With a unique approach to musical phrasing, Packwood’s melodies were fragile and slightly off-kilter, but the crowd slowly warmed to the unexpected performance. The Royal Jelly Dixieland Band evoked another time with their eight-piece jazz. Though they were playing a very old-time musical form, it was cheeky and modern with lots of humour and a great rendition of Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It). Vocalist Harriet O’Donnell was a real find and provided a beautiful counterpoint later to Clare Bowditch when she guested on several tracks by the headliner. With her latest album exploring ideas of happiness, Clare Bowditch took the stage alone to sing Amazing Life as a stunning opener, then brought out an almost vintage line-up of guitarist Tim Harvey, drummer Marty Brown and bassist Warren Bloomer. With the experimentation of 2010’s Modern Day Addiction behind her, Bowditch really put her voice on show and it has rarely sounded better. Songs such as the moody and dark Prinz Willy and the spot-on harmonies of the Tim Harvey co-write The Big Happy showed off not only Bowditch’s voice but her warm and generous onstage personality, while a moving tribute to recent murder victim Jill Meagher on Your Love Walks With Me, which included Bowditch reading some of a poem by Stephanie Dowrick, resulted in quite a few misty eyes in the audience. Members of the Royal Jelly Dixieland Band appear on Bowditch’s new album The Winter I Chose Happiness, so it made sense they would flit on and off the stage during her set, providing horns, keys and O’Donnell’s voice. The end of the set’s Cocky Lady, Thin Skin and that Offspring song You Make Me Happy were joyous and exuberant, and the perfect way to celebrate Bowditch’s remarkable talent.
The half-empty room finally filled out to see King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and the front rows were a mess of sweaty, violently jumping ladies and gentlemen. King Gizzard played a flawless set that heightened the dynamics of their tracks with their live sound of thrashing guitars and percussion. The Melbourne boys have a unique gift for live shows and their ability to bring the best out of audiences was on show, somehow managing to combine enthusiasm with a conversely relaxed approach to the music. King Gizzard’s shows are made by the audience driving the band’s energy. There was no one track that was given the most love by the crowd, who threw their bodies off the stage along with the band and onto other people from beginning to end. By the end of the set, the crowd no longer needed umbrellas for the rain outside, already drenched in sweat and various thrown liquids as they were. Just to add the occasion, there was an art installation of a naked man in a bathtub in a glass room to stare at when leaving the venue. Weird, and awesome.
TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS, FLUME OXFORD ART FACTORY: 04/10/12
Kristy Wandmaker
Brendan Crabb
Matt MacMaster
THE PATCH: 28/09/12
Sincerely, Grizzly love their guitar pedals. As a three-piece from Adelaide, they can’t quite afford a symphonic orchestra to back them, but their use of loops to expertly create a chorus of chords live on stage means they don’t have to. Their sound is hard to box – there’s some Front End Loader heavy in the mix, some Birds Of Tokyo throat rock and there’s some Foster The People dancey fun. It’s jangly, it skips and hops, it’s grungy and it’s melodic. And it stole the show. I, A Man continued the importance of punctuation for the evening and filled the line up nicely with their Augie March-cum-Triffids sparse swirly stoner rock, sometimes edging towards a mainstream sound, but mostly staying in the Mars Volta-on-Xanax jam space. There were times when it seemed each person on stage was playing a different song in a different time signature on a different planet.
Kahl Wallace’s raspy vocal has greater timbre and depth than the recordings afford him, while the tightness of drummer Jhindu Lawrie and bass player Charles Thomas is a cat’s bum that sucked a lemon (you could argue Thomas dances a bit that way too, but in a good way). Then there’s guitarist Andrew Thomson. He’s unassuming, he’s concentrating on his thing and he’s the secret weapon in this amalgam of talented lads.
56 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Danielle O’Donohue
Hailing from Far North Queensland, the boys are used to playing small towns and genuinely appreciate anyone who takes an interest in their sound. How many drummers have you seen lose their shit and go wailing through the crowd screaming ‘til his lungs hit the back of his teeth? How many drummers have you then seen get around and shake the hand of every person in the audience to thank them for coming out?! These guys are special in who they are as people and fucking astonishing when they come together as a band.
HIGH ON FIRE, SUMMONUS MANNING BAR: 29/09/12
THE MEDICS, I, A MAN, SINCERELY, GRIZZLY
In celebration of their debut album 12 Bar Bruise, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard dropped a hectic set onto Oxford Street. Early birds waiting around Oxford Arts for things to begin enjoyed their choice of handmade t-shirts on sale while Royal Headache took to the decks to play a mix of delicious tunes and made the crowd wish they were actually playing live rather than a DJ set. Up first in band form were The Fabergettes. The Sydney band is known for their fun pop tunes and attitude, but they managed to drop the ball on Friday night. Their act didn’t have the liveliness audiences have come to expect with the bass player and guitarist holding looks of boredom and disinterest for the entire set. The lead singer had a bit more buzz, but the rest of the band overshadowed her bubbliness. It may have been just a one-off bad night, but it was a shame because tunes like Ding Dong are so great to listen to and it was disappointing not to see this translated onto the stage.
It’s hard to believe that it was over 15 years ago that Regurgitator released their groundbreaking debut album Tu-Plang and their multi-platinum follow-up Unit. Both albums could easily have come out in the last couple of years and still been just as thrilling and visceral. And for a band that is so comfortable playing around with genre, their supports for the first of their two Sydney gigs were the Chinese dreamy, fuzzy guitar pop band Hedgehog and Indonesian duo Senyawa. Trio Hedgehog were driven from the back by some great drumming from dynamo Atom. Around her work, guitarist Zo and bassist Fun interspersed their droney pop with built up squalls of sound with Zo and Atom’s vocals mixed low. Senyawa combined the unusual extended vocal techniques of Rully Shabara with the homemade bamboo string instrument played by Wukir Suryadi. The sounds Suryadi was able to draw out of the stringed tube of bamboo were mesmerising, at times playing it like a cello, at others delicately finger picking it or summoning these epic almost modern metal sounds from it. In contrast, Shabara seemed more of a distraction than anything. With footage of John Travolta getting hot and sweaty in aerobics class welcoming Regurgitator onto the stage in their ‘80s tribute double denim outfits, the four-piece blasted through their first two albums with boundless reserves of humour and energy. Though Tu-Plang had its share of crowd favourites – Kong Foo Sing and Couldn’t Do It getting things joyously underway – it was definitely the show’s second half focus on Unit, when the band returned in their silver lycra body suits, that the crowd really let loose. There was barely a moment’s respite as the band tore through hits I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Everyday Formula, Black Bugs and Polyester Girl. With Seja Vogel taking care of all the synth and keyboards, Quan Yeomans was able to occasionally forgo the guitar and stalk around the stage like a rapper while Ben Ely bounced up and down like a kid on a pogo stick. Even though some of these songs barely ever get a run live, the band were locked in and super tight. These albums may have come out 15 years ago, but their legacy was certainly felt at this gig.
The one-two opening punch of recent cuts Serums Of Liao and Frost Hammer laid the foundations, resonating with bowel-loosening force. A monumental 10,000 Years (from debut LP The Art Of Self Defense), crushing Speedwolf and Devilution delved further into their back catalogue, while latest effort De Vermis Mysteriis was also explored again. The band’s appropriately bare bones delivery – a complete absence of expansive light shows or Pink Floyd-esque production values – was complemented by the minimal stage banter, Pike only having to announce the name of the next song before savagely ploughing into it. This no-frills ethos extended to the encore, the band forgoing the usual cliché and remaining on-stage for a phenomenal Snakes For The Divine to wrap up a well-paced 75 minutes that didn’t outstay its welcome. Judging by the widespread approval of their first headlining foray into these parts, the power of the riff continues to compel thee.
Cara Sayer-Bourne
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD, THE FABERGETTES, ROYAL HEADACHE DJS OXFORD ART FACTORY: 28/09/12
Chris Familton
THE HI-FI: 29/09/12
In a flawless victory for Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, the Oxford Art Factory truly lost control during the final moments of his inaugural Sydney show. Several hundred bodies exorcised kilos of sweat, girls brandished lady bits and the support got his arse handed to him (pro tip: the crowd might love you, but bouncers don’t give a shit) in a (hilariously) miscalculated attempt to party with the headliner. After the ever reliable Future Classic DJs massaged our ears with their usual classy selections, Sydney blog hero du jour Flume opened with a disposable set of paint-by-numbers post-dubstep r’n’b. His production chops are fine and his work is slick. He’s in demand and enjoys the attention with humility and hard work, but as a live act he’s lacking. It was a “press play” affair with only light tweaks here and there. His focus moved from a decent interpretation of LA’s hip hop scene to a brash fratstep marathon. He gleefully dropped crumbling bass passages like a GP drops a hammer on your knee: your body can’t help reacting. It’s effective but lazy – and that’s what lies at the core of the argument against artists like Skrillex. There was little to connect Flume to his work save the minimal tinkering on his equally minimalist equipment and in the end it was a hollow experience that evaporated as soon as he left the stage. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is the brainchild of Orlando Higginbottom from Oxford. Despite his dinosaur costume (and his glitter guns) he’s not one for useless theatrics. It’s all carefully choreographed to create a character silly enough to provoke friendly amusement but stops short of caricature (*cough*deadmau5*cough*). He had arranged his various machines in a protective barrier around him and likewise his soft unassuming voice hid behind a wall of sparkling synth and bouncing electronic doodling. The juxtaposition between quiet performer and blistering performance was striking, but any details like that faded away as the night grew increasingly unstable, eventually spilling over in a glorious final 20 minutes of anarchy. Higginbottom has a great ear for music, allowing him to jump from 2-step to garage to big beat to rave to electro pop, blending them seamlessly (big beat is fairly relentless for example, while 2-step is fidgety - matching the energy is tricky). The show’s secret weapon wasn’t the impressive pop songwriting or the great musicianship. There was no constant push-pull mechanism going on. It was simpler than that: build consistent tension for about 40 minutes and follow that with the most intense release for the final 20. The place exploded. For 20 solid minutes, the Oxford Art Factory zoned out in a bursting moment of beer-fuelled mayhem. Well played Higginbottom; well played.
The Medics have clearly been on the road a while. You can tell, not so much form the odour, but from the down-to-business attitude. On tour to promote their new album, Foundations, it’s hard to believe it’s their debut. While most comparisons seem to herald names such as Mars Volta and Brand New, live there’s more a feeling of timelessness and talent that screams Cream.
Danielle O’Donohue
Gary Clark Jr. looked every inch the star even before he played a note, sauntering onstage with a coy smile, bling necklace and wide brimmed hat. Clark Jr. and his understated band eased into the set, building the tension and mood before Clark Jr. unleashed the first of his many solos of the night. What quickly became apparent is the range that he covers in his playing. From straight up rock’n’roll to psychedelic electric blues and Memphis soul, the guy can do it all – and seemingly with ease. Between songs there was little banter, yet when he closed his eyes, dropped his shoulder and let his fingers do the talking, the results were sublime. When he dropped the tempo for the magical Please Come Home, complete with audience screams and yelps, he showed he can also coax tender and fragile tones from his instrument. The biggest cheer came with the tough groove of single Bright Lights late in the set before an encore that included a wonderful acoustic solo spot. Clark Jr. showed he is the real deal and an exceptional guitarist with a voice that contrasts and complements his playing perfectly. This was a show that justified the hype.
REGURGITATOR, SENYAWA, HEDGEHOG
Of all the acts who would likely have sold their souls to the stoner metal gods to play such a show, you’d have struggled to find a more befitting pick than Sydney’s seasoned sludge lords Summonus. Channelling the unforgiving spirit of Eyehategod and Iron Monkey, frontman Rod Hunt purposefully, repeatedly stalked the stage, his caustic tones the ideal foil for Iommi-an riffage and leads. They didn’t exactly have the room in raptures – polite nodding between sips of beer being the general consensus, bar a few exuberant disciples up front. A strong display though and a welcome profile boost, given the rapidly filling venue during their 40 minutes. Packing a sound thicker than the cloud of weed smoke at a Phish concert, High On Fire continue to redefine the term “power trio”. More focused in the wake of perennially shirtless frontman Matt Pike’s newfound sobriety, he quickly proved that you can give up the booze and still crank out riffs that could level buildings. Further fuelled by the formidable rhythm section of Jeff Matz and Des Kensel, anyone who showed up without earplugs would have been scrambling for a pair within nanoseconds of the Californian metallers kicking off. They would likely have returned swiftly even if said search proved fruitless though, for fear of missing something special. Hipsters, crust punks, Slayer fans and numerous punters sporting the headliners’ hilarious new Richard Pryor-themed shirts all banged their heads in unison to their primal attack.
themusic.com.au
DAPPLED CITIES, JAPE
METRO THEATRE: 04/10/12 Thursday night at The Metro was a night given over to exploring music with electronic elements – sometimes euphoric, wild and excitable; sometimes dark, foreboding and gothic. It was a night that established the dynamic capacities of electronic music. Irish electro band Jape opened the show. Already quite a high-profile act, The Metro was virtually packed out during the band’s set. Despite high, cloying melodies, synthesised beats and would-be innocent lyrics, Jape’s music has a dark, sinister element to it. The looping of tunes and the strange dualism of lyrics – from “We took our first pill when the music was shit” to “The world makes more sense when your hands are in mine” – add to the impression that there are two faces to Jape’s music: a simple, electronic pop facade and a dirty, dark, gothic underside. Dappled Cities made the audience wait for them to take to the stage, but when they appeared, it was to rapturous applause and cheering. The band, humble as ever, seemed completely overjoyed to see so many people in the audience. After over ten years of touring as a band, one might have thought that the band would have taken a smooth, indifferent, seen-it-all attitude. Instead, guitarist and vocalist Dave Rennick stood on the edge of the stage and declared, “It’s so fuck… oh, whoops, sorry, this is an all ages show, but it’s so good to be here.” The band’s on-stage behaviour is charming, from the small smiles they exchange amongst themselves, to Rennick’s dancing, which must have reminded the audience collectively of their fathers. The setlist was dominated by tracks from the band’s latest album, Lake Air, which is a dynamic, intense piece of work. The sounds that the band was producing were not only incredibly diverse, but every track seemed to carry an air of intensity. That’s the really incredible thing about Dappled Cities: their fusion of indie rock with synthesised melodies and beats enables them to transgress a popular format, adding complex, haunting synthesised sounds to grittier guitar and drum pieces. The audience demanded an encore and, with the announcement, “We never prepare encores,” the band played one final track. From the high-pitched harmonies, smooth verse vocals and light, excitable mood of Born At The Right Time to the darker, heavy, irrepressible, clashing drum beat of set-closer Run With The Wind, Dappled Cities gave a performance that was thrilling, reflecting hundreds of different moods and ideas. Jessie Hunt
OH MERCY, MILLIONS, THIEVES THE STANDARD: 29/09/12
Local indie-rockers, Thieves, were first up on a busy Saturday night at The Standard. The cool looking four-piece seemed to struggle with the sound throughout the set and the overbearing lead guitar drowned out the violin, which was a shame as it really added depth to the tracks. Older songs made an appearance alongside new tracks like The Blues and Silver Horse from the band’s upcoming EP. In contrast, Millions were impressively tight and confident on stage, particularly for such a young band. The Brisbane quartet looked as clean cut and fresh as their music sounded as they performed a number of tracks from new EP Nine Lives, Six Degrees. Singer Dom’s polished voice cut through the air and if you shut your eyes, could easily be mistaken for Arctic Monkeys’ singer Alex Turner. A theatrical voiceover stopped the crowd’s chatter in its tracks and made everyone look around for its source before a single spotlight illuminated the Oh Mercy drummer, Angus Tarnawsky, sat solo on stage. Then in signature dramatic fashion, singer Alexander Gow skipped onto the stage in a sparkly gold jacket with Deep Heat embroidered on the back, covering a singlet and impressively hairy chest. The showman had arrived.
The rest of the cool looking band, replete with a sunglasses wearing saxophone player, joined the stage for the title track to their new album, Deep Heat. A number of other tracks from the new album followed including Rebel Beats and Fever as Gow squeaked and cheekily grinned through each one, eagerly shaking his egg shaker. Things picked up the pace when he grabbed his guitar for some of the more uptempo tracks like Suffocated and the ska-sounding Still Making Me Pay, before Thieves and Millions were welcomed back on stage to dance around and play whatever instruments they could find to Drums. As the song came to its climax, golden ticker tape exploded over the crowd, which was a real show stopping moment that should have been the last song. However, two more tracks followed with less impact than they perhaps could have had. It was an interesting set choice and a very entertaining gig. Helen Lear
SNOW PATROL, STEVE SMYTH STATE THEATRE: 01/10/12
With his wild hair, overgrown beard and an enthusiastic delivery that often verged on the aggressive, Steve Smyth at times appeared more like a crazed vagrant than a singer-songwriter. His eccentricity is so well channelled through his music though that his whole soul is thrown into every song. His treatment of the powerful A Hopeless Feminist was so rough that he actually broke two strings during it. In contrast, at times he stepped away from the microphone to call out unamplified whilst his vocal became positively sweet during the delightful Stay Young. It was an incredible performance of unabashed freedom and sincerity that won over a lot of new fans, this writer included. Last time they toured here, Snow Patrol did the arena tour extravaganza. This time it was with a scaled back three-piece playing in much more intimate surroundings. Following a very low-key wander on stage, frontman Gary Lightbody commented that Australia was the only place they would play such a stripped set. When he then launched into Dark Roman Wine, accompanied only by keyboard, it was immediately clear that any void in the intensity of the full band sound would be more than compensated for by the depth of his resonating vocal. At times Lightbody seemed to wrap his voice around his songs, particularly those with which he had a personal attachment – such as Belfast in Take Back The City or to his father where the beauty of his sentiment was magnified in Lifening. It also exposed the sheer lyrical beauty of Run with its emotional pull and the poetry of old song An Olive Grove Facing The Sea. Sarah Blasko joined them on stage for a beautifully transparent Set The Fire To The Third Bar. Not that an ‘acoustic set’ meant that everything was subdued though. The break-free chorus of This Isn’t Everything You Are resembled an arena singalong by the end and Lightbody took on Open Your Eyes as if he was playing to a stadium. Unfortunately the theatre ushers didn’t see it the same way and had a constant battle throughout trying to prevent anyone from having a dance. Lightbody’s comment, “What’s the deal here, are people not allowed to stand? There’s not going to be a riot for fuck’s sake!” being typical of the relaxed banter he enjoyed throughout the show. With a history of doing Australian band covers on their tours, the audience was treated to a keyboardintense version of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, but it was Chasing Cars that got the biggest reaction of the night. It may have been half a band, but it was far from a halfhearted performance.
Attendees rarely glimpsed frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher’s face; the man-mountain with a neck so thick tree trunks would be proud to call it their own having his mug covered in a mass of sweaty, tangled hair. That’s when he wasn’t windmill headbanging in typically hazardous fashion. His concrete larynx was assisted by lethally tight, energetic players, particularly bassist Alex Webster. Opening with a barrage from new disc Torture and covering expected bases (Hammer Smashed Face, Stripped, Raped And Strangled, Covered With Sores et al) the fan-satisfying display referenced each of their 12 studio albums, vicious The Time To Kill Is Now and Make Them Suffer both standouts. This ensured a gore-obsessed family friendly favourite for everyone. Fisher’s closing reminder to “keep supporting fucking death metal” was a no-brainer, because as long as the US brutalisers keep returning in such form, grizzled diehards will continue to do just that. Brendan Crabb
CANNIBAL CORPSE, PSYCROPTIC, DISENTOMB, ENTRAILS ERADICATED Four death metal bands on one bill can be a tad draining for an audience. Both Perth destroyers Entrails Eradicated and Brisbane’s Disentomb acquitted themselves well and will be better off for playing with one of the field’s biggest acts. The former’s technical prowess and undeniably crushing fare went over the better with the already rowdy and well-lubricated crowd, partially thanks to vigorous headbanging and groove-loaded songs. Their appeal waned due to being somewhat one-paced, but was longer-lasting than that of their Queensland cousins, who packed enthusiasm but few memorable tunes.
Returning for a brief encore with massive hit Need You Now, Lady Antebellum’s big lights, big hits and shiny presentation was in stark contrast to the lo-fi and intimate support by local Boy & Bear-er, Tim Hart. Chatting happily between songs and relying on simple structures delivered in fine voice with a folk bent, if Hart was chosen to show Australian commercial country (maybe?), it was at least proof that we do things differently here. Liz Giuffre
BIG TOP LUNA PARK: 05/10/12 When the proclamation “It’s about time for us to disappear” receives easily the loudest reception of your half-hour set, it was an uphill battle for The Art. Despite an indifferent reaction, the Sydney sleaze rockers are almost old hands at opening for huge acts and at least looked and sounded the part. The glammers put in a sizeable effort, including a flamboyant drum solo to garner a response. If they’d popped up on the Sunset Strip circa 1987 they likely wouldn’t have made much of an impact either, but did try. Had Steel Panther appeared in Hollywood 25 years ago, they may have been run out of town for their deadon, razor-sharp parody. Or, more likely, punters would have wildly embraced their filthy, sex and drugs-fuelled glam without a hint of irony. Either way, the passage of time heals all wounds for even the most maligned genres (see the recent nu metal “nostalgia kick”) and the sold out, positively rabid crowd was further proof that these LA lads have carved themselves a big ol’, spandex-wearing niche. Plenty of dudes and dudettes behaving like the ‘80s never concluded meshed with others who likely weren’t even born then. All got into the spirit via stylishly ripped shirts, bandannas and enough hairspray to tear the ozone layer a new one. The quick-witted duo of vocalist Michael Starr and axeman Satchel (whose classic metal hits-drenched solo gained some of the evening’s biggest cheers) have chemistry and repartee only a decade-plus of performing together can create. It also affords them the perspective that blurring lines between sending up and paying homage to the genre’s misogynistic overtones by introducing several young females all-too-willing to flaunt their wares was a crowd-pleasing move regardless. The pair’s stand-up comedy (much of it at the expense of verbal punching bag, hilariously preening and pouting bassist Lexxi Foxx) and more poses than a Mr. Universe competition aside, their musical credentials are impressive too. Community Property remains a gloriously executed, stitches-inducing ode to infidelity and Just Like Tiger Woods, Asian Hooker, Fat Girl (Thar She Blows) and Death To All But Metal are bona fide singalong anthems.
Brendan Crabb
Paul Smith
and calling it the Sydney ‘Opree’ House. They then sent the band backstage for a mid-set scale back, allowing Kelley to bring out his trademark red piano, letting Scott get her chops around her favourite song, Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me and a sweet three part harmony all in with When You Got A Good Thing. As the band came back they then invited a singalong, a strange reggae inspired interlude that began with Bob Marley’s One Love, but then morphed into bits of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, Travie McCoy’s Billionaire and Brooks & Dunn’s Put A Girl In It, concluding with Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire to return to some proper country roots.
STEEL PANTHER, THE ART
Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee doesn’t get the joke, but countless heavy rock fans are laughing themselves silly. Positively bitchin’.
METRO THEATRE: 06/10/12
Dappled Cities @ The Metro Pic by Angela Padovan
perspective much since 1990 (although have become far more proficient, both musicianship and songwriting-wise), but remain a box office hit.
LADY ANTEBELLUM, TIM HART SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL: 01/10/12
From Scissor Sisters to Germaine Greer, the Opera House Concert Hall had seen and heard a lot in a week. Tonight was another gear change to big American contemporary country pop outfit Lady Antebellum. The band began by getting the devoted crowd up and out of their seats and, although there was more room to observe rather than participate later, it got the devoted in exactly the right place. The large light show was impressive and the tightly layered five-piece backing band made sure the commercial country outfit sounded as shiny as their recordings.
Having visited Sydney less than two months earlier supporting Nasum, Psycroptic cleverly shuffled their setlist around to avoid any semblance of staleness. Tasmania’s tech-death masters were tighter than a duck’s arse, seeming nigh on unstoppable right now. Their latest material is more measured, but no less potent and this was readily apparent live. Fusing new cuts with earlier fanvourites, the quartet made it all look frighteningly easy. A headlining tour, please?
By second song Stars Tonight, a more traditional Opera House concert mode was established and Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott relaxed back from big stadium mode to the still impressive, but decidedly non-arena space of tonight’s gig. A devoted few fans remained standing throughout and most striking were the diverse audience in attendance (with nanna and granddaughter sitting behind and in front of us). Traditional pop-country was the flavour with upbeat songs Our Kind Of Love and Perfect Day, while the slower guitar-based Dancin’ Away With My Heart and Love Don’t Live Here gave country a slight swing.
Cannibal Corpse don’t win too many new converts nowadays. Instead, they sustain themselves due to an incredibly loyal core of fans that come out to every tour, buy a shirt and proceed to go berserk for 80 minutes. They haven’t altered their
Last in town as supports for Keith Urban, the band were clearly chuffed to be playing to such strong crowds in the harbour venue, with Haywood joking that he had an urge to draw out the Nashville side of the event and “Redneck-ify” the room, dropping into a southern drawl
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Velociraptor @ Goodgod Pic by Maclay Heriot
VELOCIRAPTOR, PALMS, THE DEAD HEADS GOODGOD: 04/10/12
One half of 12-piece Velociraptor hit up Sydney as a part of their national tour in support of fun times mini-album The World Warriors. First up was Sydney band The Dead Heads and even with their lead singer incapable of opening his mouth due to a broken jaw (the guitarist took over vocals for the night), the band played a solid set. The Dead Heads did however raise one of life’s unanswered questions: why do so many tambourine players feel the need to emulate someone on crack in order to seem awesome and out there? Making slow and sensual love to a mic stand and then falling on your knees with your back to the crowd to bash the tambourine on the floor, often out of time, just distracts from the music. Palms manage to make garage rock their own in a scene where bands can often all sound the same. They held the crowd with the self-deprecating but lovable attitude and strong musicianship. The bass player has been in the band for a mere few weeks and yet it was hard to tell as he melded seamlessly into the songs. They’re well known for The Summer Is Done With Us but the rest of their tracks were equally as good, if not better. After an impromptu dance to Duran Duran, Velociraptor took to the stage to a full house. A Velociraptor gig is the definition of a performance. Though they had to restart several songs, their set was otherwise faultless as they all fell into their parts, maintaining the same energy as they would with double the members present. Main vocalist Jeremy Neale spent most of the set singing and jerking his body with the front row like a beautiful and giddy swan. In return, the front row – most of whom were adoring female fans – performed the lady-version of a mosh pit: jumping around and swishing their hair while shaking their hips. Meanwhile, the tambourine player joined in with the commotion of the front row, while the guitarists kept a cool air and the drummer smashed out the beat before taking over vocal duties. The boys threw around dialogue with the character of a summit of the Rat Pack, bouncing jokes and comments off one another and the crowd. Velociraptor have an undeniable charisma that makes them one of the best live acts in Australia. Cara Sayer-Bourne THE DRUM MEDIA • 57
ROOTS DOWN
THE HEAVY SHIT
BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTS@DRUMMEDIA.COM.AU
METAL AND HARD ROCK WITH CHRIS MARIC
Marduk Texas Tea I have really been enjoying the new record from Brisbane country duo Texas Tea in recent weeks. Entitled Sad Summer Hits, it’s the band’s third full-length proper (they have a couple of EPs and singles and a bizarre b-sides/live LP which is excellent) and, while I’ve adored just about everything they’ve done, this record takes them to a whole new level. You could put this down to a number of things: working with ARIA Award-winning producer Magoo out at his soonto-be-defunct Applewood Lane Studios; the fact it sees them with a proper drummer and bassist for the first time; that they took something in the vicinity of three years to write and sift through songs before committing them to tape; or just the simple fact that they are maturing as songwriters and getting better at playing to each other’s strengths. I can’t tell you why it is, but there’s a certain confidence on the record that has them sounding better than ever, but it’s still got that restrained simplicity that has always been a massive part of the duo’s appeal. You’ll be able to get the record through record stores via Mere Noise Records as of Friday 12 October, and you can see them launching it with a show at The Newsagency on Saturday 3 November. While it’s not going to be the kind of release adored by your regular blues fan, I know there are going to be a lot of Australian fans wishing and hoping for the new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion record Meat & Bone (out now on Freeform/Fuse) to be a return to their ferocious, gritty form. Well I’m pleased to tell you that it most certainly is. The band’s first new studio record since 2004’s Damage has them seeming somewhat reinvigorated and creatively on point. Jon Spencer was difficult when I last interviewed him about a new Heavy Trash record; an offhand reference to the Blues Explosion forced him into saying that he, in no uncertain terms, was willing to mention that band. Whether or not the guy is a douchebag, he makes fucking fantastic music and has been responsible for some of the most wonderfully fucked up rock’n’roll, rockabilly, blues, funk and soul ever committed to tape by a white man. Damage wasn’t a bad record at all, but it lacked the kind of punch of 1996’s Now I Got Worry or 1998’s Acme; I’m not saying Meat & Bone lives up to those two records – I doubt anything they ever release from here on in will – but it has a certain spirit to it that the couple of records before that lacked. The recording is more lo-fi than the band have been in a long while and the songs are straight up-and-down; there’s very little funk and almost none of the studio trickery that made them so thrilling in the ‘90s but isn’t quite as exciting all these years later, and there’s more focus on the band of Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell Simmons, who remain one of the hottest trios in rock’n’roll. Well worth a listen if you’d given up on the band at the turn of the century. Unwelcome Company, the new EP from Henry Wagons, features him in duet with a few wonderful lady vocalists in what has to be a loosely Hazlewood/Sinatra-inspired turn, as well as a song with the legendary Robert Forster and one by himself. The songs are pretty damn good, running the gamut of different country music styles, but the performances are just magnificent. Wagons’ baritone anchors as always, while the respective women – including The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Sophia Brous and Jenn Grant – absolutely soar over the top. The only thing that could overshadow them is Wagons’ instrumentation; he plays almost everything on the record but it comes together so seamlessly, it sounds stunning. It’s out through Spunk/Co-Operative Music now, and Wagons joins the Laneway tour next year with band The Unwelcome Company. roots@drummedia.com.au 58 • THE DRUM MEDIA
So it’s ARIA time again and well, not everyone likes the nominations but at least the board has the category included. They could easily just go back to ignoring it altogether. This year’s nominations for Best Metal/Hard Rock release (even though they really are two distinct categories) are Sleepmakeswaves, House Vs Hurricane, Frenzal Rhomb, DZ Deathrays and Buried In Verona. Nightwish have parted ways with the very sexyvoiced Anette Olzon (check her duet on the NW side project Brother Firetribe – very ONJ). So whatever direction the band want to go in obviously isn’t the way Anette or Tarja are headed. Their tour in January is still on and they’ve recruited the equally qualified Floor Jansen from Dutch bands After Forever and ReVamp. If anyone is fit to fill the frontwoman shoes, it’s her. Whether she remains in the band permanently or just for this tour remains to be seen. Marduk are one of the most consistent black metal bands ever. The AC/DC of BM maybe? They’re making their way here for the first time in five years in support of their twelfth album, Serpent Sermon. The Panzer Division rolls through town Saturday 12 January to play the Hi-Fi with the very dark Portal and the very black Order Of Orias as the canon fodder. Our Last Enemy’s 10,000 Headless Horses will be included on not only on Rock Band 3 as I’ve mentioned before but also on Rock Band Blitz! Both games are on the Xbox/PS3 format and will be out for Xmas. It’s a huge score for the guys with the games being available in 27 countries around the world. Better than a banner ad campaign eh!
For those old enough to remember, Iron Maiden released a bunch of 12” vinyls in about 1990 of all their singles up to that point with extra songs that were live or unreleased etc. Commonplace now but 22 years ago, that was a big deal. The best part wasn’t the extra music you got but the 10-to-15 minute tracks at the end called Listen With Nicko, where you spent that whole time in stitches laughing your arse off at his comic genius as he told you stories about the songs on that particular release. Fast forward and EMI are yet again milking the Maiden cow with a set of heavyweight gatefold picture discs from the band’s self-titled debut up to Seventh Son. They’ll release one each month between October (this Friday) and February. Why? To commemorate their current Maiden England tour, which is focusing mainly on stuff from those albums. Can’t wait for that tour to roll though here next year.
WEDNESDAY There’s a huge night of thrash to be had down at The Basement in Canberra with Warbringer finally arriving to kick everyone’s arse. Pre-arse kickings will be dished out by Festering Drippage, Nekrofeist and Tortured. In Sydney, Canada’s Reverse Grip bring their sleazy glam to the Valve Bar.
THURSDAY If you’re down Wollongong way, head to Haworth’s Drum Room in Albion Park where Red from Segression will be showing off his damn fine sticksman skills Chicago post rockers, Tortoise are delivering unveil their amalgam of rock, dub, dance, jazz, techno and minimalism at The Hi-Fi. Their combo of multitude synths, double drummers, seam-splitting bass lines and polished guitar melodies has been honed to perfection since the bands early ‘90s beginnings.
FRIDAY Those crazy kids from Frenzal Rhomb are playing the Uni Bar in Wollongong tonight and I just had a flashback to
the mid ‘90s when I used to read this very same line in this very same mag and go to that very same show. You wanted the best! You got the best! No Life Til Leather returns to Hermann’s Bar this evening with a sleaze-rock extravaganza, celebrating all that is decadent and debauched in the world of ’80s metal! From Faster Pussycat to LA Guns, Guns N’ Roses to Motley, DJs Sultan Of Sin and Colonel Knowledge will be playing all the best sleaze, glam, hard rock and metal from the ’80s. Plus, the first ten payers will receive a copy of the new Kiss album, Monster. The annual Doomsday Festival will be in full swing by the time it descends on Sydney tonight having destroyed NZ and Melbourne before arriving at The Sando, headlined by first-time visitors The Atomic Bitchwax and with a who’s who from the local fuzzed-out scene including Clagg, Daredevil, Arrowhead and Law of the Tongue.
SATURDAY
It’s Canberra’s Day Of Doom with the Festival coming to the ANU. Adding to the Bitchwax are Mother Mars, Fattura Della Morte, Law Of The Tongue and Marcus DePasquale. If you’re up for more pace then get over to The Basement in Belconnen where Hazmat and Osmium Grid have a tonne of riffage for ya. Frenzal Rhomb play The Bar On The Hill in Newcastle. See my above mention, it’s pretty much the same scenario. As in Canberra, there’s an alternative option in Newy too. Frankenbok will be at Bunker Party 9 along with Deprivation, War Faction and The Seer. For the disgusting among you, The Valve Bar hosts Festering Drippage launching their mentally deranged EP, Fungally Infected Fistathon! Helping out are Darkhorse, New Blood, Exekute, Throat Of Dirt, Infested Entrails and The Holiday Project. Afterwards, head over to Venom for the Wednesday 13 tour party and catch Scatterfly, Fringo, Occulus, Sounds Of Coma all playing live. heavy@drummedia.com.au
WAKE THE DEAD PUNK AND HARDCORE WITH SARAH PETCHELL
Jamie Hay It’s back for its fourth year! The team at Dogfight Records have announced their fourth annual Takedown Festival and in 2012 they have continued their tradition of bringing together a diverse line-up of both new and old punk and hardcore acts from across Australia. It really is an excellent snapshot of where Australian hardcore has come from and where it’s heading in the future, and this year’s line-up is no exception. Headlining will be Melbourne’s Hit List. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the band were reforming and that their self-titled debut would be getting the vinyl treatment courtesy of Midnight Funeral Records. This will be their second show since reforming. Also on the line-up are locals Relentless, who are keen to show off new tracks from their soon-to-be-released third album, Turn The Curse which they recorded with Nick Jett [Terror] back in June. Add to this Mark My Words from the Central Coast, Melbourne punk outfit Anchors, Thick Skin, Thorns, brand new Sydney act Hell On Earth playing their first show and Final Frontier, and this is one night not to be missed. Takedown 2012 takes place on Saturday 17 November at the Bald Faced Stag in Leichhardt, with tickets on sale Monday 22 October. One of my highlights of this year’s Soundwave was seeing Underoath live again, and it turned out to be a good thing because the band announced last week that 2013 would be the end of the band. After 15 years, the Floridian six-piece are calling it a day. To
cap off their career, the band will be returning to Solid State records to release a greatest hits record. Called Anthology 1999-2013, the release will feature 15 old favourites as well as two new songs. There are also plans for a farewell tour next year, with more details on that to be announced in the coming weeks. The statement from the band read, “Groundbreaking metalcore act UNDERØATH are formally announcing their plans to disband following a remarkable 15-year career that made a monumental impact on millions of fans and forever changed the face of heavy music. It’s sad to say that we feel like it’s time to close this chapter, but we have never seen things more clearly.” Says vocalist Spencer Chamberlain: “These have been the best years of my entire life, and I owe that to every single person who ever supported this band along the way. This wasn’t a quick decision by any means. It’s just time for us to move on.” In much more positive news, Crime In Stereo have announced an end to their two-year hiatus. Apparently they missed one another that much that not only are they going to head back out on the road together, but they are going to be writing and recording new material as well. Considering that 2010’s I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone was one of my favourite albums of that year, it is really exciting to see what these guys are going to come up with next. The band announced on their Facebook page, “Hiatus rescinded. We are immediately returning to work on recording/releasing new music. We know. We were “only” broken up for two years. Two years was long enough. We love/d making music together. Its absence was felt deeply by all of us. So we return. We will resume performing live. We will play one show in 2012. We are focusing our energy towards the release of new music. When new music exists, we will play more shows. That’s all we can say, for now. Come sing with us. Loudly. We miss your smiling faces.” Adelaide-based Clarity Records have announced their most recent release, which is set to hit stores 9 November thanks to Shock. The band is called The Weight, the album Prisoners Of The Flock and if the hype is anything to go by, then this will be the most-anticipated release to come out of Adelaide this whole year. Citing similarities to Terror, Trapped Under Ice, No Warning and
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Cold World, their brand of heavy hardcore has seen quite a few Facebook posts about them from other bands. The album is 12 tracks of heavy grooves, shredding guitar leads and anthemic, enigmatic vocals, making it easy to see why so many people are talking about this band and this release. With a DIY ethic and a clear goal in mind, this is definitely an album well worth checking out when it drops, or pre-ordering now through the Clarity Records BigCartel page. Jamie Hay is one of the best-loved names in punk circles thanks not only to his role in A Death In The Family but also because of his incredible solo work. And now fans of Hay can rejoice, as he is finally releasing his debut full-length solo album thanks to Hobbeldehoy Records. Called King Of The Sun, the album is a haunted collection of material tracing stories of resilience, courage, heartbreak and tragedy. At times, the music strips down to just Hay and his guitar and at others, he is backed by a band of friends, including Adrian Lombardi (Blueline Medic), Carl Burnett (Arrows), Matt Bodiam (A Death In The Family) and tour-mate Lincoln Le Fevre. The album is available for pre-order through Hobbeldehoy right now for release on either CD or a white vinyl. Last up, this week is a HUGE week for album releases, with so many fantastic albums hitting store shelves. The most important of these is of course All We Love We Leave Behind by Converge. I’m calling album of the year right now because this record is absolutely flawless. Keep an ear out for Coral Blue and the title track as some of the highlights of this record. If Converge isn’t your thing, also released is The Afterman: Ascension by Coheed & Cambria; Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab For Cutie fame) is releasing his latest solo album Former Lives; Anberlin are releasing their new album Vital and Between The Buried And Me return with The Parallax II: Future Sequence. Lastly, All Time Low are releasing Don’t Panic and The Acacia Strain drop the weirdly-named Death Is The Only Mortal. Big week for releases all round! wakethedead@drummedia.com.au
GET IT TOGETHER
OG FLAVAS
YOUNG & RESTLESS
HIP HOP WITH VIKTOR KRUM
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
ALL AGES WITH DAVE DRAYTON
Kanye West
Eddie Bo Ours is a pretty homophobic scene. Alternatively – at best – ours is a scene no less homophobic than society at large. That means we have a problem. A symptom of the problem is the language we use. We also say a possible way to fix the problem could be to think more carefully about the language we use. When was the last time you called someone a ‘faggot’? Recently? But you didn’t mean it in a homophobic way, right? You watched that South Park episode and now you have a Get Out Of Jail Free card on saying ‘faggot’, right? Because it no longer means ‘gay’? Yeah. We don’t accept that. It’s muddled thinking. Language is always changing and there will probably come a time – perhaps very soon – when ‘faggot’ just means a dickhead, a goose, a tool or whatever. But let’s be clear: Now Is Not That Time. To use the word ‘faggot’ as an insult is to conjure up the first use of that word. For those who haven’t seen Louie or can’t use Wikipedia, the first use of that word was to denigrate gay men; that is, men who should be burned alive. But burning gay men alive wasn’t worth the trouble of setting up a stake and going through the rigmarole of tying the gay man to the stake to make sure he didn’t move. Much easier – and because a gay man was such a pathetic, despicable creature – the gay man could just be thrown on the fire with the “faggots”; the kindling, essentially, that you use to get a witch-burning fire going. ‘Faggot’ is a hateful word, designed to repress people. And it has not yet shed that hateful past. If you use it hatefully, or ignorantly, or absent-mindedly, or lightheartedly you are still part of the problem. Of course, we are hypocrites. We have said ‘faggot’ before. We have told people to ‘eat a dick’. We have had a giggle at a Tweet with the hashtag #nohomo. That makes us part of the problem. For as long as malicious, or casual, or ignorant, or accidental homophobia (for that is what language like that is) continues there is a level on which we are saying it is OK to discriminate against homosexual people. We don’t need to be alarmist – discrimination is bad enough – but discrimination can, and has, led to much worse. So whether it’s talking about homosexual men, lesbians, Scientologists (tough one. Our prejudices there run pretty deep), Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, people who arrived in Australia seeking asylum, or whatever, it is important to remember the power language has. It is also important to remember that – even though some older hate speech, like ‘poppycock’, has lost its sting as language has changed – using homophobic language (as we certainly do; too often) makes us part of the problem. Miley Cyrus can tell you about how much a “top down” solution to the problem might work i.e. not at all. So why don’t we all take a moment and challenge ourselves to improve our scene, and improve the society we live in? If you’re in the mood for a shock/guilt trip, head to nohomophobes.com. It’s revealing. And more than a little dispiriting. Let’s get to work. Just to lift your spirits after that deflating dissertation: some lawyers are about to get richer! We seem to check in with this issue every few weeks. In part it’s because we are interested, and total copyright law experts. But it’s chiefly because the number of these claims is increasing. And we say that the more copyright litigation there is, the less freedom there is for artists to make the music they want. And we think that’s bad. The latest suit is about samples of an Eddie Bo song being over-used, above – beyond the original agreed use – in the Kanye West tracks Lost In The World and Who Will Survive In America, from his 2010 classic, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. getittogether@drummedia.com.au
There are two Kanye Wests. One exists in supermarket magazines. He is reality star Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend. And he’s an egomaniac who bumrushes winners’ speeches at award shows. These gossip writers occasionally call him a “singer”. The other ‘Ye is beloved by the music media. He’s a prolific, mad, game-changing genius. He enlivens – nay, subverts – scripted award shows. And he’s a rapper, if a contradictory one, producer, and rather indulged martyr. Now ‘our’ West, who last offered Watch The Throne with Jay-Z, is back with the muchhyped Cruel Summer. This flossy compilation – or collab album – is primarily a marketing exercise for the Chi-towner’s (vanity) label, GOOD Music, which doesn’t yet have the brand recognition of Bad Boy, So So Def or, heaven forbid, Death Row. GOOD (‘Getting Out Our Dreams’) has had mixed fortunes since its 2004 launch. There have been triumphant discoveries – John Legend and KiD CuDi. Then GOOD has revitalised the careers of Common, Clipse’s Pusha T and possibly spoken word poet Malik Yusef. It’s also home to relative newcomers Big Sean, who quietly debuted with 2011’s Finally Famous, CyHi The Prynce (signed in a joint deal with Akon’s Konvict Muzik) and former Star Trak diva Teyana Taylor. GOOD lately picked up Nigeria’s D’banj. All appear on Cruel Summer – even that supposed GOOD defector Common, who rocks the mic with Raekwon on the otherwise nondescript minimal rap The Morning. A notable absentee is Brit Mr Hudson – who, along with A Tribe Called Quest’s ally Consequence, GOOD failed to break. Oh, and where’s GOOD’s Mos Def? But, really, Cruel Summer is like a Yeezy mixtape. The arty mogul actually co-directed a (thematically unrelated) short promo film – starring CuDi – that premiered at, yes, the Cannes Film Festival. You’ll already know
four of Cruel Summer’s 12 tracks. April’s maleficent lead-off Mercy, a GOOD posse-cut with outsider 2 Chainz, and a grimy low end, sets the tone for a synth-heavy yet stripped-down street album with a sublimated dancehall influence that hollers ‘Major Lazer’. Mercy is handled by in-house producer Lifted, who samples Super Beagle. Like his hero RZA, West is recruiting studio acolytes. The MC opens up about his romance with Ms Kardashian on the chiptune-ish Cold (AKA Theraflu), fashioned by GOOD’s Hit-Boy, the guy responsible for Niggas In Paris. Miami’s DJ Khaled does his hypeman thing. (West jumped on his anthem I Wish You Would.) West himself produces New God Flow, favouring Wu-style piano riffs. It flips Ghostface Killah’s Mighty Healthy off 2000’s Supreme Clientele, the rap legend returning for extra lines. The aptly-titled current single, Clique, on which Hova joins West, is tense early-2000s clip hop (so Clipse!), again from Hit-Boy. As for the new songs, Cruel Summer opens with West’s epic To The World, R Kelly vociferously singing an almost Bohemian Rhapsodylike chorus. Kelly, his ‘90s R&B today deemed kitsch, is apparently on the comeback. The crooner also features on a new duet version of the late Whitney Houston’s I Look To You from a forthcoming best-of. It’s a pity Kelly’s recent Write Me Back received zero promotion locally… West embarrassed George W Bush during a Hurricane Katrina telethon. On To The World, he takes a shot at Republican Presidential candidate and alleged tax evader Mitt Romney. It’s among several songs here with input from Glasgow’s Hudson Mohawke – like Flying Lotus, an auteur of experimental hip hop. But, if there’s a surprise guest on Cruel Summer, it’s rapper-cum-preacher Ma$e. Diddy’s protégé drops insensitive lyrics about his old pal Loon, a Muslim convert, on The-Dream’s auto-tuned R&B Higher with the hardcore Pusha T. The album’s highlight is West’s dramatically defiant piano ballad, The One, ex-Floetry member Marsha Ambrosius channelling a gangsta Rihanna on the hook. Bizarrely, Cash Money’s Mannie Fresh is its creator. The best non-West songs? A tie between CuDi’s upbeat synth shuffler Creepers and Mohawke’s Bliss, an ‘80s boogie duet with Legend and Taylor.
THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY label. Head to frondland.com for a listen.
Fishing It is always surprising how little it’s recognised that music and mental health are intrinsically linked. Even aside from the people who make music in order to provide/find something akin to a life’s meaning, there’s a wide scale of effects for listeners. It can be a simple release from work or study, or a more necessary social connection for those who find it difficult or impossible to make one. This week is Mental Health Week, which seeks to raise awareness of mental illness and mental health issues in Australia. To honour it, let’s dig into some summery new tracks for a little therapy. Blue Mountains duo Fishing got their name out in 2011 by pushing out so many post-instrumental-hip hop “ocean-scapes” (their word) it was impossible not to come across them. Their first official release is a 7” featuring moving new single Choy Lin (out through Yes Please), which, for classification’s sake, sits somewhere between contemporaries Max Crumbs and Perfume Genius. It’s a brilliant example of bringing pop joy while providing deep emotional release and some cooing natureorgan sounds. Listen at fishingsounds.com. Melbourne duo Superstar, featuring regular Geoffrey O’Connor band member Esther Edquist, have been making brooding synth-and-guitar scores for half a decade, though the early years saw them mostly improvising on the floors of art spaces and at house shows. These days they’re a little slicker: their primitive ‘witch house’ has become delicate and dusty pop music for late nights. It’s all there in new single Fine Wine, from their upcoming LP, A Toast To… Superstar, out through Bedroom Suck in December. The album follows a cassette release in the US through the small Night-People
Melbourne’s Children Of The Wave have released their second album, The Electric Sounds Of Far Away Choirs (Sensory Projects), the follow-up to their excellent 2008 debut. The album is an intricately and imaginatively created journey using field recordings, a range of percussive instruments (including a self-made instrument called “The Wang”), piano, synth, beats and harp. There’s a real physicality to the nine songs; it’s easy to imagine not only being in the presence of the duo as they piece the songs together, but the places around the country that provided many of the sounds. The success of Beach House has no doubt boosted the profile of San Francisco duo Tamaryn, named after their singer and with a second album due, Tender New Signs, out on Mexican Summer this month. Though their debut offered sweltering shoegaze under New Zealand-born Tamaryn’s whispered choirgirl vocals, new single Heavenly Bodies pushes it up a notch with dramatic, twangy guitar lines and bigger production, making them the desert cousins to Baltimore’s finest. Bratty synth-pop ahoy on the 7” from Melbourne’s Nun. Solvents (out through Nihilistic Orbs) is rambunctious, pulsating and just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek. The title track, which can be streamed at soundcloud.com/nun-4, also gives up the great chorus line, “Will you still stick our heads in solvents/Now there’s none?” The band recently launched the 7” in Sydney with Jack Mannix and MOB, and will do the same in Melbourne this Saturday at the Gasometer with Lakes. Repairs and The Zingers. We could end with the awesomely breezy new single from Twerps, but instead we’ll go with another Chapter Records band, Primitive Calculators, and their new(ish) track, Cunt Life. The song, originally from pre-Calculators band The Moths in 1977, is a soundtrack to general daily fury. Grab the 7”, Sick/ Cunt, and sing along: “Soon as you’re born you feel like nothing.” Happy Mental Health Week. breakdown@drummedia.com.au
themusic.com.au
Grim Fandango Here’s the thing; Dead China Doll are hands down one of the most awesome/weird bands you will come across. They’re hard to pin down, don’t play nearly regularly enough, and are ridiculously inspiring. The good news is, they’re playing this Saturday as part of an all ages show at Blackwire Records with Making, and MekareKare (JAP) and Bamodi (WA), who are launching a split 7” they teamed up on. Get down! I kind of thought any hope of doing this chronologically out the window when I got too excited about Dead China Doll, but that’ll just make it more interactive. Travelling back to Friday night, Skyway play their last ever Sydney all ages show at Alpha Park Hall, Blacktown. Things kick off at 5.30pm, it’ll cost you 15 bones and the supports – Wake The Giants, Built On Secrets, Monuments, Highways, and Hearts Like Wolves – are top notch. Now, travelling forward in time once again to Saturday there a few little treats to compete for your attention alongside Dead China Doll. Firstly, the opportunity to meet Urthboy! Old mate is about to release is fourth album, Smokey’s Haunt, and to celebrate Elefant Traks are putting on a special all ages instore signing at 567 in Newtown. It’ll run from 3 til 4pm and every signed copy sold goes into the running to win an Urthboy banner, used on his 2010/11 tours that has been signed by the Elefant Traks family! There’s also a barbeque, and some artists doing graff out the back, what an arvo! From 4pm that same day (Saturday, that is – time travel is tough!) the Lucky Oz Tavern play host to another afternoon of all ages madness. They’ve got the likes of Kaimera, Grandville, Coredea, and The Damned Humans playing for a measly $10 entry. There’s a couple of cool shows for you on Sunday too. First up, Coerce and Totally Unicorn, who have teamed up to go on the road in support of their respective new releases, are playing an all ages arvo show at Wollongong’s favourite musical nook and/or cranny, Yours & Owls. Support comes in the form of Nothing Rhymes With David. And then: two super enjoyable interstate bands are teaming up and coming through town this weekend, El Alamein and Grim Fandango. They both play good time jangle rock (kinda) and with an all ages show happening on Sunday at Spaceport One in Marrickville to close the Sydney leg of the tour, we caught up with Grim Fandango drummer Robin Bray for a little chat. How would you describe Grim Fandango to the average joe? We are four dudes from Perth who enjoy making music, you could call it punk, or alternative rock, indie, or post-hardcore… Or none of these things. Call it what you want… It’s the music we love making. What’s the all ages music scene like in Perth/WA? Definitely strong, and growing… We try and play as many AA shows as we can. Awesome venues like The Chamber are really supportive of AA shows. They’re fun to play, there’s always a good vibe because everyone’s there for the music. Why do you think it’s important to play all ages shows? It’s important because those young music lovers are going to be the ones attending your 18-plus shows when they are old enough (hopefully). And music at a young age is so important, so as an “adult” it becomes even more important to support the exposure of music to young crowds. The floor is yours, sell us Sunday’s show at Spaceport One… I’ve never been to Spaceport One but it looks sick! I can’t wait to play there, with amazing bands like El Alamein who are on tour with us from Brisbane, and Sydney’s Harbourers and Nuns, it will be an awesome day! You should come. Any tips for young musos? Practice as much as you can. Go to as many different gigs as you can. Don’t let fashion dictate your music choice. allages@drummedia.com.au THE DRUM MEDIA • 59
BLOW
MUSICNSW
JAZZ/WORLD WITH MICHAEL SMITH
WORDS FROM THE PEAK BODY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IN NSW WITH KIRSTY BROWN
QUICK RESPONSE GRANTS – ROUND THREE NOW OPEN
Undy Trio Saturday 13, the Panichi Big Band and the Dave Jackson Quartet Tuesday 16, French chanteuse Tricia Evy Wednesday 17, Hammerhead Thursday 18, The Pinks Friday 19, and the Manins/ Muller/Nock/Dewhurst Quartet Saturday 20. Dig Arguably the greatest jazz/Latin/funk/fusion percussionist on the planet, Bill Summers has played and/or recorded with, among many, Alice Coltrane, Billy Cobham, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Herbie Hancock, and, having completed another Australian tour, he’s saying goodbye to Sydneysiders Tuesday 9 October – yes tonight! – down at Blue Beat in Double Bay in what’s being billed as the farewell Descarga Jam Session, which will also feature Dauno Martinez and friends. As part of the annual Sydney University Verge Festival, the University Dome in the main campus is hosting an evening of jazz courtesy David Theak’s Elective Jazz Orchestra, featuring saxophonist Mike Rivett, and the Luke Liang Ensemble, tonight, Tuesday 9 October, while Wednesday 10, the action moves to the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Café with the Axel Powrie Ensemble, the Michael Gordon Ensemble and the Charles Casson Ensemble. In July last year, pianist and composer Tal Cohen performed at the Melbourne Jazz Festival with a quartet that featured New Yorker Ari Hoenig on drums, the now New Yorker Sam Anning on bass and Jamie Oehlers on sax. That performance is now due to be released and Wednesday 10 October, the Tal Cohen Quartet, featuring Oehlers, Phil Stack on bass and Tim Firth on drums, will be launching it at 505 in Surry Hills. Also playing 505 over the coming fortnight are the Ben Carr Trio and 10 Guitar Project Tuesday 9, the Sonic Mayhem Orchestra celebrating their artistic director’s 40th birthday Friday 12, Marialy Pacheco (solo) and the Cameron
Drawing deeply on their traditional roots, Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord bring their award-winning sounds to Marrickville’s Camelot Lounge Saturday 13 October. Meanwhile, mixing Balkan rhythms with jazz improvisation, the multi-ARIA Awardwinning Mara! – Mara Kiek on vocals and tapan, Llew Kiek on bouzouki, Sandy Evans and Paul Cutlan on saxes and Lloyd Swanton on double bass – take to the Camelot Lounge stage Sunday 14. Also coming up at Camelot is the ten-piece Brazilian Big Band Kriola Collective, Friday 19. The man who gives his name to them mysteriously disappeared in 1944 while flying from London to Paris during WWII, but a version of the Glenn Miller Orchestra will be coming to the State Theatre Thursday 11, Friday 12 and two shows Saturday 13 October, the Canberra Theatre Saturday 20 and Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre Sunday 21 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Directions In Groove, AKA dig, featuring Scott Saunders, Tim Rollinson, Alex Hewetson, Rick Robertson and Terepai Richmond, with guest singer Laura Stitt, celebrate their return to the Basement Friday 12 October with a free download EP of remixes and live recordings, available at digdirectionsingroove.bandcomp.com. The main city concert happens Saturday 27 October, but Katie Noonan & Karin Schaupp will be showcasing their debut album together, Songs Of The Southern Skies (ABC Music), at Lizotte’s Newcastle Thursday 11, Laycock Street Theatre in Gosford Friday 12, two nights, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 at the Street Theatre in Canberra. blow@drummedia.com.au
Jinja Safari This month, MusicNSW has a full program of initiatives and grant opportunities available, as well as workshops and an incredibly exciting regional all ages tour!
INDENT PARTNERSHIP GRANTS – STAGE YOUR OWN EVENT! Indent, a project of MusicNSW, has opened applications for its next Partnership Grants. Two grant categories are available – the Grass Roots Grant and the Event Development Grant – and are for youth music events happening in 2013. The grants program, funded by Arts NSW, has been specifically developed for young people to stage all ages, drug and alcohol-free music events across NSW. The Partnership Grants program also assists young event promoters and emerging artists by offering support, advice, workshops and the resources required to create a sustainable and accessible culture of live music in their local areas. The Grass Roots Grants are specifically aimed at entry-level events like band comps, open-mic and local band nights and are set at $2,500. The Event Development Grants are available to those who have successfully acquitted a Grass Roots Grant in 2012 and are looking at expanding their event scope by engaging the professional music industry. Event Development grants are set at $5,000. Indent Partnership Grant applications and guidelines are available from www.indent.net.au. Applications will close on Friday 9 November and only those postmarked on or before that day will be accepted.
INDENT TOUR 2012
Now in its third year, Sydney’s Jinja Safari are this year’s headliners of The Indent Tour. Teams of young people, who will gain practical skills in event management and music business from leading industry professionals, will stage each show.
TUE
NICK VAN BREDA
SUN
JONNY GRETSCHS WASTED ONES
9 OCT
14 OCT
60 • THE DRUM MEDIA
MusicNSW, through support received by Arts NSW, has announced round three of their Quick Response Grant program to support artists and artist managers in developing export opportunities while attending Australian industry conferences, trade fairs and other opportunities in 2012/2013. MusicNSW is proud to announce that we have recently funded $23,000 in quick response grants to bands and their managers. Recipients attended the recent BigSound conference in Brisbane and were able to showcase, network and create export opportunities with the funding assistance. Recipients included Winter People, The Preatures, Caitlin Park, Shady Lane, Fishing, Oliver Tank, Straight Arrows, Flume, Aston Shuffle and managers Andre Calman (Jack Ladder), Anthony Zaccaria (Loon Lake) and Neal Hunt (Sticky Fingers). This program focuses on attendance at Australian conferences and trade fairs (for example, if you are heading to AWME or Face The Music, you are eligible to apply, or if you have a major tour-support opportunity) as a means to develop relationships in international markets prior to travelling overseas, and to assist in the development of business skills required at international trade events within the familiar environment of a national conference. It is also available to support career-defining opportunities that would otherwise be cost prohibitive to artists. Head to www.musicnsw.com for more information. Applications close Tuesday 16 October.
themusic.com.au
+ NATHAN MARTIN
TUNED IN
SECOND IS FIRST, REALLY
TUNED IN
With the release of their second EP, The Trobes reckon they’ve finally started to work out who they are. Michael Smith investigates.
IN THE LEAD UP TO 2SER-FM’S RADIOTHON, WE PROFILE SOME OF THEIR PRESENTERS.
IN THE LEAD UP TO 2SER-FM’S RADIOTHON, WE PROFILE SOME OF THEIR PRESENTERS. Name: Peta Waller-Bryant
Name: Simon Morgan What show do you present and when is it on? I present Saturday Breakfast every weekend from 8am – 11am. What areas/genres do you cover? I like to give our listeners the right start to their weekend with a relaxed and ‘light-hearted’ program. The show covers live music gigs, interviews with artists, information on local events, quirky news and media stories and current music. The genres that get played can range from indie pop/rock, blues, jazz, funk, hip hop, beats and reggae to electronic soul. We try to avoid death metal on the weekend. Why is community radio important to Sydney? It provides our airwaves with an alternative to mainstream and commercially-produced radio. It’s created for locals by locals. It gives people who are passionate enough to want to share great music, arts, news and views a platform to do so, at the same time providing Sydney with fresh independent radio. If people don’t support community radio, what horrors await us? Mediocrity, a real horror… Do we want every radio station in Sydney to all sound the same? To play the same music? To talk about the same things…?
“The first EP [September 2011’s Lend Me Your EP] was a demo,” singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist with Western Sydney pop/rock five-piece The Trobes, Anthony Silvestrini admits. “It shouldn’t have been a release really. But this next EP, I think, is kind of the first Trobes EP, because it’s the first time you get to hear what we do live, which is James [Walsh, electric guitar], Ümit [Hibbert, bass] and Doug [Bryant, alto sax, bass]; they all sing lead vocals. You get to hear Conno’s [Chris Conroy] drums in full flight, ‘cause they sound amazing.” The new EP, Out & In Focus, is certainly a major step forward for The Trobes, not least because Silvestrini has changed his approach to his vocals and brought Hibbert forward on a couple of songs to sing counterpoints to his lines, but also because, while that first EP is attributed to the band, it was originally intended to be a home-recorded solo album he’s now grateful never saw the light of day, having pulled together a line-up that has given him so much more scope to explore his resolutely pop melodic ideas. A year on from pulling that band together as much to compete in last year’s BLU-FM Battle of the Bands as to get out and promote that
first EP and establish the name, Silvestrini is justly proud that The Trobes really are a band, and with a few solid months of gigs under their collective belt. In winning that particular competition, The Trobes won recording time at Sound Heaven in Wentworth Falls, which is where they not only recorded Out & In Focus, which covers the gamut from pop to rock to country pop, but also found their engineer/producer, Jordan C Thomas. “He’s got such a good musical vision, similar to ours in pop sensibility, which is great,” he says. “He also added his talents on the guitar and helped in every other way, but most important, he was just really fun to hang out with. Getting him was a fluke – John [Stuart, owner of Sound Heaven] just mentioned, ‘Oh, you’re going to be working with Jordan.’ Jordan just works there, and thank goodness.” WHO: The Trobes WHAT: Out & In Focus (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 12 October, The Lair
What show do you present and when is it on? Overdrive, Fridays 4pm – 6pm What areas/genres do you cover? When you tune in, you’ll hear a selection of musicians who are in town for the weekend chatting and playing live on the show. You’ll also hear the pick of the 2SER playlist to get your weekend started. Why is community radio important to Sydney? Sydney can often feel like a very large and anonymous place to live. Community radio brings us all onto the same page, giving us a way to connect with our city and community. If people don’t support community radio, what horrors await us? Without community radio, you can expect a bunch of terrible music and loud advertising that doesn’t represent your needs as a listener. Great musicians would lose their platform and independent current affairs would be swept under the rug. Name one good thing that will come of people supporting the radiothon. Only one?! Unfair! The best thing is that we can keep making radio. That means musicians will continue being supported.
PRE BOOK TICKETS NOW! anmm.gov.au/cwbf
CLARE BOWDITCH LIVE SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER FREE for children (15yrs & under) $10 Day ticket $20 Night ticket Special appearances by Dorothy the Dinosaur and Captain Feathersword Day and night performances by familiar faces from The Voice such as Danni Da Ros and Carmen Smith Hurrica V which features in the upcoming film The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio Over 70 classic boats, competitions, kids workshops, marine art and crafts, boat rides, pop-up bar and much more!
12-14 OCTOBER 2012 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM 2 Murray Street Darling Harbour 02 9298 3777 © 2012 The Wiggles Pty Ltd. The Wiggles and Paul Paddick do not appear at this event.
themusic.com.au
THE DRUM MEDIA • 61
HAVE YOU HEARD
GHOSTS, POETS & PAUL KELLY
Cowritten by Paul Kelly and Australian National Academy of Music’s resident composer for last year, James Ledger, Conversations With Ghosts is a song cycle based on texts by Kelly and poets Les Murray, WB Yeats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This Wednesday evening, Kelly will join recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey and ten musicians from the Academy in the Capitol Theatre to perform it.
PRIMITIVE FRIENDS
Joining Icehouse on their Primitive Colours tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of their biggest album, Man Of Colours, are a swag of emerging acts group leader Iva Davies feels deserve a leg up. So Wednesday night at Waves in Wollongong and Thursday at Wyong Leagues, it’ll be Bears With Guns; then next Tuesday 16 October at Dee Why RSL, it’ll be ZuZu Angel.
THE KATIE & KARIN SHOW BUCK & DEANNE (AKA THE AMAZING 3) Your music is…? Steamy country and bluesy twang. Which acts inspired you to produce your own music and why? Deanne cut her teeth in community choirs and has always favoured big harmony bands like The Eagles, LRB, Beach Boys and Beatles. Buck likes the itinerant bluesman tradition, the singersongwriter troubadours like Guthrie and Dylan, early field recordings of Alan Lomax and no-name musicians cutting tracks in hotel suites before the Depression. Poet Walt Whitman inspired us to create our own music: “That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”
A LITTLE LANG BEFORE CIDER
Thursday night, the mighty Jeff Lang takes to the Hotel Steyne in Manly, supported by the Big Blind Ray Band, the perfect warm-up to the weekend’s Australian Cider Festival being held there, 2-6pm, with Beaten Bodies, Little Bastard, Frank Sultana and Bellyache Ben & The Steamgrass Boys on Saturday and Nick Saxon, Kate Martin and V Tribe doing the honours Sunday. Oh, and the $25 entry fee gets you a tasting glass, ten tasting tokens and a program. Obviously you need to 18 and over.
Why should we come and see you? To see for yourself that there really are some people in the world that will do whatever it takes to keep on making their own music and avoid getting “a real job”.
What’s your greatest rock’n’roll moment? Robert Smith from The Cure spoke to us. He said, “Who are you?” For more info see: www.buckanddeanne.com Next available at: The Factory Floor Marrickville, The Artist’s Shed Queanbeyan, Mars Hill Cafe Parramatta, The Illawarra Folk Festival... check the website for details.
HAVE YOU HEARD
KOOII, WE’RE COMING
DAMN IT ALL
Way beyond any mere tribute to the Grand Wazoo, Petulant Frenzy reinvent the best of Frank Zappa in their own unique way, as the mainstream critics have all happily conceded. Why not, then, taste their wares for yourself? Petulant Frenzy take over Live at the Brewhouse, Darling Harbour, this Saturday night.
Showcasing the hits of Randy Crawford, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and more, Sydney’s own Jo Elms, Kim Hart and Liza Ohlback are The First Ladies Of Soul, and they bring their sensational show, backed by some of Sydney’s finest musicians, to Notes in Enmore, right across from the Theatre, this Friday night.
Your music is…? Pop/jazz/indie/minefield Which acts inspired you to produce your own music and why? Regina Spektor, for her truthful ‘out of the blue’ words.
How do you find the local live scene? Getting better.
Next available at: Wednesday 10 October at Yours and Owls, Friday 12 at The Eastern Lounge (Roseville), Saturday 13 at Hibernian House 62 • THE DRUM MEDIA
MILLIONS OF MOMENTS
Australian hip-hop outfit TZU have just embarked on their first ever national tour, promoting their newly released album, Millions Of Moments, fusing wistful, yearning lyrics and winding, elegant narratives with dark hip hop beats and wild dubstep melodies. TZU will be launching their album in Wollongong this Thursday night at The Patch, in Canberra this Friday night at Transit Bar, and in Sydney this Saturday night at The Standard.
Indie-folk maestros and darlings of independent radio, Melbourne’s The Paper Kites are releasing their new EP, Young North, this week. Delicate, energetic and emotional, the album fuses gorgeous folk instrumentals with dark, haunting lyricism. Having toured with Josh Pyke and Boy & Bear, The Paper Kites are set to head off on an East Coast tour of their own, pulling into NSW this week. They’ll be playing The Heritage Hotel in Bulli this Thursday night, then the Oxford Art Factory Friday night, and Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel Saturday night.
Why should we come and see you? Because you won’t get bored, every show is a little different.
For more info see: www.facebook. com/misselmmusic
Melbourne post-punk outfit Damn Terran, known for their authentic, gritty and growling post-punk sounds, have been receiving rave reviews for their searing live shows since early this year. The band have just released their single, Rebels, as well as a brand new track featuring Shane Parsons of DZ Deathrays, ahead of the release of their debut album this December. In celebration, Damn Terran are playing a string of shows along the East Coast, pulling in at MUM at The World Bar this Friday night alongside Bang! Bang! Rock ‘n’ Roll and The Go Roll Your Bones, Doc Holiday Takes The Shotgun, Danger Dannys, Thunderchief, The Jeff Chinky Fan Club and Colonies. The MUM DJs in residence will keep the party going between sets.
GO FLY A KITE
What’s your wildest ambition for your music? To be touring, constantly, in every weird and wacky dress shop in the world.
PYKE SPARROWS FLY
Singer-songwriter Josh Pyke is currently running around the country in solo mode on what he’s dubbed his Only Sparrows tour, promoting his latest album, and this week, that sees him play Wednesday and Thursday nights at Lizotte’s Kincumber, Friday at the Fitzroy Hotel in Windsor, Zierholz at the University of Canberra Saturday, the Heritage in Bulli Sunday, all with special guest Jack Carty.
HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO
Saturday night is club night at The World Bar. This week, renowned audio-visual DJ Sampology will take to the stage, alongside Blaze Tripp, Chris Arnott What So Not and Katie Valentine. Pipemix, Bentley, Mike Hyper and MK1 will rip up the Main Room, and CTRL ALT Delicious, Kotoloshe and Ben Morris take care of the Tearoom.
Sydneysiders Seaworthy and King Tears Mortuary have scored the support slots opening for Japanese psych-pop duo Tenniscoats Thursday night when the visitors take to The Square stage to showcase their latest album, All Aboard!, and more.
ZAPPA IN A FRENZY
MISS ELM
Propaganda is Sydney’s sweetest and sweatiest interstellar Indie night. This week, as promised, the World Bar has got three rooms of pop-party hyperspeed. The Propaganda DJs will be at the decks, spinning their usual collection of indie gems of all vintages. The Spice Cube DJs will also be turning things up in the Tearoom with their wild, sweaty, pop-dominated show, Pop-a-ganda. This event is totally free for students.
BALL BOYS, KINDA
Seven-piece Brisbane Afrobeat/reggae/funk combo Kooii, the musical vehicle for singer, songwriter and trumpeter Peter Hunt, hit Blue Beat Saturday night to launch their new EP, Call Out, opening for The Strides, who will be featuring MC Mana, with special guests NZ’s Sky Lounja and Bam Bam Boogie. Sunday they head down to Canberra’s Honky Tonks.
LADIES OF SOUL
What’s your greatest rock’n’roll moment? The time I hit the ‘funk’ rhythm button on my keyboard and didn’t realise it was playing ‘beats’ until the end of the set. But playing at Red Deer and Caloundra Music Festival is going on the list too.
BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA No, actually, The Fearless Vampire Killers, whose name was inspired by the quirky Roman Polanski film of 1967, are from Melbourne, and Friday night, they’ll front up to the FBi Social in the Kings Cross Hotel bearing not stakes but the first single, Mexico, from their forthcoming second album. Hold the garlic.
What’s your wildest ambition for your music? In the early days we thought, “Support our art until our art can support us” – having that actually come true one day would be our wildest ambition.
How do you find the local live scene? The good news is anyone can be a part of the local live scene and the bad news is anyone can be a part of the local live scene.
This Wednesday night, The World Bar will once again be putting on their usual bizarre-yet-perfect mix of visual art and dubstep. This week though, The Wall has a special treat for purveyors of low frequencies: a special appearance from Birmingham’s Emalkay, renowned creator of down-home dubstep. He’ll be accompanied by Pat Ward, Big Dogs and Clockwerk.
MEXICAN VAMPIRES?
They recently won the first round of the Emergenza International band competition, and now The Patriarchs are gearing up for the grand final. For that, the Sydneysiders need their fans to help them get to Europe, so you’re all invited to join the cause Friday night at The Factory Theatre.
After spending the last couple of months in Austin, Texas recording their debut album with Grammynominated producer Chris “Frenchie” Smith, The Dead Love are returning to Sydney, prepared to completely stun their home town with one of their signature wild, irrepressible shows. The band will play The Annandale Hotel on Friday 12 October, supported by Blackbreaks, The Hungry Mile and Safer With The Wolves.
HIT THE WALL
Pop/jazz/opera diva Katie Noonan has hooked up with the usually classical guitarist Karin Schaupp and cut an album of their favourite contemporary rock and pop songs from, among others, the Finn Brothers, Cold Chisel, Nick Cave and Icehouse. Called Songs Of The Southern Skies, Thursday night they’ll be performing those songs at Lizotte’s Newcastle, Friday at Laycock Street Theatre in Gosford and Saturday and Sunday nights in the Street Theatre in Canberra.
PATRIACHS AHOY
IS LOVE DEAD?
ALL THROUGH WINTER
Sydney six-piece Winter People released their debut album, titled A Year At Sea, late last month. In the process of recording, the band have sprawled into a six-piece, featuring singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dylan Baskind, two violinists and five vocalists. The band work to combine the pastoral harmonies of the old world with the bitter edges of the new world. Winter People will be playing in Wollongong this Thursday at Yours & Owls, in Newcastle this Friday at The Cambridge Hotel, in Sydney this Saturday at The Factory Theatre, and in Katoomba this Sunday at Clarendon Guesthouse. At the Cambridge and Factory, Founds join them.
themusic.com.au
EQUINE HYPNOSIS
Straddling, according to their press release, “the divide between blissful and brooding,” Melbourne three-piece Pony Face are heading to Sydney to showcase their latest single, Silver Tongue, from their album, Hypnotised, Thursday at the Junkyard in Maitland, Friday at the Green Room and Saturday at Yours & Owls in Wollongong.
HAVE SOME SOUP
This Sunday night is Soup Kitchen night at The World Bar. As well as being exactly as it sounds like - a night to eat some soup in one of Sydney’s coolest venues - this is also a night for the team of Soup DJs, including Cotolette, Manjazz, Junior, Ethan Winzer and Deli, to take over.
TOTALLY THOMAS
Notorious, raucous post-punk outfit Totally Unicorn and the might Coerce have announced supports for their East Coast tour, which will stop off in Wollongong, playing Yours & Owls on Sunday and Monday night. On Sunday night, they will be supported by Snakes Get Bad Press and Nothing Rhymes With David in a licensed, all ages show; on Monday night, in an over-18s show, the bill will include Thomas Covenant and Mowgli.
DRUNKEN MOON WEEKEND
It began as a list of his favourite bands currently working the burgeoning hybridised Australian blues scene, but the rest of us now get to experience that list in action as James Grim brings his sexvoodoo-Delta blues-a-billy Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders up the Hume to present his selfcurated Drunken Moon Festival. It hits Wollongong Diggers’ Club Friday night with Kira Puru & the Bruise, Mother and Son, Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids, Papa Pilko & the Binrats and Howlin’ Steam Train, and then the Manning Bar Saturday night with Gay Paris and Jackson Firebird instead of Kira Puru and Frank Sultana.
SABOTAGE
Sabotage is a new setup across two rooms at the Forbes Hotel, with the Level 1 band room dedicated to exposing the best unsigned bands Sydney has to offer, and level three offering “a pumping rumpus room” complete with DJ. This week will feature bands Pink Ribbon, Tall Tree Nation and Kate Martin as well as Quaila DJs pumping bass tunes on Level 3.
IN THE GREEN ROOM
LAST CHANCE
After performing to packed houses in Brisbane and Melbourne, Kirin J Callinan will play his final hometown show of 2012 in Sydney this week. It will be held at The Oxford Art Factory this Thursday, Callinan then heading off to wow New York City with his irrepressible indie rock. There to help raise funds will be veritable post punk deviants Scattered Order, formed in 1979, as well as bent Naked On The Vague and Holy Balm offshoot Four Door, plus several other special guests to be announced.
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
A very special concert will be taking place this Friday night at the Presybterian in Springwood as part of the Live in the Village concert series. Rescue Ships, comprising vocalists Elana Stone and Brian Campeau, are a quirky duo who draw on rock, pop and folk to create a truly gorgeous, meaningful sound. Bellyache Ben and the Steam Grass Boys are a two-year-old bluegrass outfit whose cacophony of mandolins, banjos, guitars and bass was a hit of the Blue Mountains Music Festival this year. Together, the two bands will take to the stage in a rare, intimate live performance.
A SPECIAL SIGN
This Saturday, fans of Urthboy’s are in for a treat: the artist will be available for a record signing and meetand-greet at 567 King in Newtown. This will be to celebrate the release of Urthboy’s latest record, Smokey’s Haunt. There’ll be a barbeque going from 3 until 5 pm, and each copy of the record that is bought and signed will go into the draw to win an Urthboy banner, used during the artist’s tours last year. A collection of local graffiti artists will also be demonstrating their craft.
This Thursday night at The Enmore Theatre’s Green Room, Piers Twomey, Edward Deer and Miss Little, three much-talked about, virtually unique Australian acts, will take to the stage for intimate live sets backto-back, starting at 8.30pm sharp and concluding by 10.50pm. And because the venue of choice is Enmore’s laidback Green Room Lounge, entry will be free.
MORE FRENZAL
LIVING IN THE EMPIRE
Renowned Australian act New Empire are currently enjoying one of the busiest periods of their career as a band. They will be hitting up The Upstairs Beresford this Friday night, along with Goldsmith, Karl Brodie and DJ Kirsty Lee.
DIGGIN’ IT
dig (an acronym for “directions in groove”) will return to the Basement this Friday night, once again showcasing their new album, Clearlight, as well as revisiting favourites from the back catalogue. The original lineup of Scott Saunders, Tim Rollinson, Alex Hewetson, Rick Robertson and Terepai Richmond is these days augmented with vocalist and co-writer Laura Stitt. The band will be supported by Righteous Voodoo.
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
This Sunday in Jamberoo, the Illawarra Folk Society will hold their annual Folk In The Foothills event. The festival is designed not only to bring music to the NSW South Coast, but also to host an intimate folk festival in an idyllic natural environment. This year’s event will feature a host of remarkable folk talent, from Canadians Le Vent Du Nord, who also play Camelot Lounge in Marrickville Saturday night, and San Diego’s Gregory Page to Brisbane folk outfit Sunas and Victorian bluegrass band The Stetson Family.
VAUDEVILLE SMASH Song title: Best Night What’s the song about? It’s about an extremely crazy and wonderful night in Lagos, Portugal. The chorus is a mantra we’ve been singing for years – we’d sing it when a night was just getting good. Is this track from a forthcoming/ existing release? It’s the first single off our debut album, out next year. How long did it take to write/record? Our guitarist (Nic) came to me with the groove and general feel pretty much laid out, but no lyrics and a chorus that wasn’t that memorable. We rehearsed it that night with the full band and it came together immediately. We’d been wanting to throw the ‘Best Night’ mantra into a song for a while and it worked beautifully. The lyrics – while pretty simple – took AGES. So… from mantra start to final recorded note – three years or so. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Trying to think about the greatest night I’d ever had. That and lil’ Mikey Jackson.
Melbourne band I Am Duckeye, who describe themselves as “trainwreck comedy rock”, are hitting up Sydney once again this week, playing The Town Hall Hotel this Friday night and The Square this Saturday night for two shots of their explosive, energetic and completely politically incorrect sets.
What’s your favourite part of the song? The YEAH YEAHS after the last chorus into the synth hook. It reminds me of the 12345 pinball song off Sesame Street and that makes me happy.
ALPHA OMEGA
ALWAYS THERE
Australian indie/roots band Marlow are in the midst of a national tour in celebration of the release of their latest single, Always There. This Saturday night, they will be stopping at The Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle. Entry to this show will be free.
Do you play it differently live? There’s a lot going on in the recording. LAYERS MAN! We don’t use any sampled tracks live so have to rework our parts to try and incorporate all the parts on the recording. The structure, groove and vibe is pretty much the same though. Will you be launching it? Yep – Upstairs Beresford, Saturday 13 October For more info see: www.thevaudevillesmash.com
JOIN THE CLUB
The Musos’ Club Jam Night is on again this week, stopping at The Bald Faced Stag Hotel in Leichhardt on Wednesday, and the Carousel Hotel in Rooty Hill on Thursday night. You can dust off your old guitar and join the fray, or just sit back and enjoy the roots/blues vibes. Just get onto Jim Finn and Al Britton when you get there.
EP FOCUS
NOT FINNISHED
Led by the charismatic racounteur drummer Jim Finn and styling themselves the last of the travelling blues-based minstrels, this weekend, roots/blues band Finn will be playing The Edgeworth Tavern on Friday night, and then at the Bald Rock Hotel on Sunday.
ON THE QUAY
This Saturday night at The Taverner’s Hill Hotel, Wards Xpress will be burning through their set list of covers and originals with the kind of infectious energy that has become their signature. Onya Bruce, the loose goose behind the kit.
Jazz comes to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park tonight, Tuesday from 6pm courtesy the Rebekka Neville Trio, while Neville, in duo mode with guitarist Michael Story, also plays Pier 26 Seafood Restaurant in Summer Hill Saturday night.
BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Combining the best of gypsy swing, baroque, Spanish classical, Latin American, Eastern European and Arabesque genres, Richard Calabro’s Alpha Omega is a trio of guitars that brings to life music from all over the world. The trio will be taking to the stage at The Brass Monkey, Cronull this Thursday night.
SINGLE FOCUS
BEK NOODLES FOR YOU
Stormcellar make a welcome return visit to the Janalli Inn this Saturday, bringing out some of their old tracks, and some of their new material, including songs from the band’s forthcoming album, Hire Guns & Borrowed Glory.
Currently on their Free Beer And Guaranteed Fun* Australian tour, Frenzal Rhomb have two more NSW shows, starting with the Unibar in Wollongong Uni Friday night, them the Bar on the Hill at Newcastle Uni Saturday night.
Sydney duo Buck & Deanne are preparing to launch their second album this Saturday night at the Factory Theatre. The pair fuse country, folk and blues, and received critical acclaim for their first album, Demons Past. Their latest record, The Busker & The Choirgirl, takes the romance, downhome folk and bluesy twang of their vocals to the next level. This Saturday night, they will be joined by a hosts of collaborative guests, including Trev Dunham, Paper & String, Michael-John Azzopardi, Jim Stubbs, Nick Williams and Phil Blatch, plus Sydney’s own indie-folk artist Chelsea Gibson in support.
ABOARD THE XPRESS
Buoyed by the success of their debut EP last year, Sydney’s Tigertown have just released their new single Morning Has Finally Come. To celebrate, Tigertown will play The Brass Monkey this Sunday night, with support from Tourism and Karl-Kristoph.
RETURN TO STORMY WEATHER
THE BUSKER AND THE CHOIRGIRL
This Saturday night, Sydney vocalist Geoff Yule Smith will be hitting up the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay. His set list will include a mix of covers, taken from some of the greatest blues and jazz albums of our generation, as well as some of Yule Smith’s own originals. There will be no cover charge.
TIGERS IN TOWN
NOT ASLEEP
THE DRIFTING
ARIA-nominated instrumental rock band sleepmakeswaves will be supporting Americans Tortoise this week. Sans vocals, sleepmakeswaves are renowned for their technical skill and force-ofnature live performances. You’ll be able to catch them at The Hi Fi in Sydney this Thursday night.
What’s the title of your new EP? The Drifting How many releases do you have now? One. How long did it take to write/record? One and a half years.
RAISE YOUR VOICE
Originally from New Zealand, Sharon O’Neill’s music successfully spanned the ‘80s and early ‘90s in Australia. She was part of the Countdown Generation, and received awards for her voice and songwriting both in her native New Zealand and here in Australia, and her songs have been covered by both local and international artists - but she never sold out to the fashionistas or crumbled before label pressure to sell her face rather than her music. This Friday night, with support from Bob Stamper and Andrea Geange, she takes to the Brass Monkey stage in Cronulla.
JUST DRIVE
Led by guitar maestro Peter Northcote, Saturday night at The Brass Monkey will be a celebration of rock music’s greatest tracks from bands such as Queen, Deep Purple, The Police, Paul McCartney and more, performed by a collection of hand-picked vocalists and guitarists, including Brydon Stace, Virginia Lillye, Lloyd G and Bobby Poulton.
Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Yes, recording in the studio for the first time was challenging and yet inspiring. It’s amazing what you can make out of the many takes to create the track. What’s your favourite song on it? Inspired.
DARREN DOES NEWPORT
If you haven’t discovered it yet, Saturday night is the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with one of Sydney’s newest live music venues, the Newport Arms. That’s the afternoon it hosts a free concert in the beergarden, from 3pm, presented by long-time Drum favourite and The Voice finalist, Darren Percival.
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Will you do anything differently next time? Yes, rehearse even more and look at as many different production styles as possible to suit each individual song. Will you be launching it? Yes, at Notes in Enmore this Wednesday 10 October. For more info see: http:// soundcloud.com/thedrifting THE DRUM MEDIA • 63
TOUR GUIDE
PRESENTS
TRIPLE TREAT feat. ARGENTINA, TOKYO DENMARK SWEDEN, THEM SWOOPS: Oct 20 FBi Social
NATIONAL
LONG WAY TO THE TOP: Oct 9 Newcastle Entertainment Centre MISS ELM: Oct 10 Yours & Owls; 12 Eastern Lounge; 13 Hibernian House THE SPITFIRES: Oct 10 & 13 The Lansdowne ICEHOUSE: Oct 10 Waves; 11 Wyong Leagues Club; 16 & 17 Dee Why RSL; 30 Southern Cross Club; 31 Rooty Hill RSL; Nov 2 Revesby Workers Club; 3 Enmore Theatre NORTHEAST PARTY HOUSE: Oct 11 UNSW Oktoberfest TIGERTOWN: Oct 11 Brighton Up Bar; 12 Cambridge Hotel; 13 Heritage Hotel; 14 Brass Monkey TZU: Oct 11 The Patch; 13 The Standard WINTER PEOPLE: Oct 11 Yours & Owls; 12 Cambridge Hotel; 13 The Factory; 14 Clarendon Guesthouse PONY FACE: Oct 11 Junkyard; 12 Green Room; 13 Yours & Owls KATIE NOONAN & KARIN SCHAUPP: Oct 11 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 12 Laycock Street Theatre; 13 & 14 Street Theatre Canberra; 26 Illawarra PAC; 27 City Recital Hall THE PAPER KITES: Oct 11 Heritage Hotel; 12 Oxford Art Factory; 13 Cambridge Hotel HATZ FITZ & CARA ROBINSON: Oct 11 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 12 Camelot Lounge; 13 Katoomba RSL; 14 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 25 Harmonie German Club; 27 Illawarra Builders Club; 28 Lizotte’s Kincumber THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS: Oct 12 FBi Social COLLARBONES: Oct 12 The Standard REGULAR JOHN: Oct 12 Great Northern Newcastle; 13 Annandale Hotel THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Oct 12 & 13 Mona Vale Hotel SOMETHING FOR KATE: Oct 12 The Metro FRENZAL RHOMB: Oct 12 Wollongong UniBar; 13 Bar On The Hill VAUDEVILLE SMASH: Oct 13 Upstairs Beresford KOOII: Oct 13 Blue Beat DARREN PERCIVAL: Oct 13 Newport Arms & Belmont 16s; 14 Australian Brewery; Nov 18 The Studio; Dec 1 The Cube; 2 Southern Cross Club; 8 Smithfield RSL; 14 The Juniors; 15 Concourse Theatre COERCE, TOTALLY UNICORN: Oct 14 & 15 Yours & Owls; 19 Sandringham Hotel MARK WILKINSON: Oct 17 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 18 The Basement; 19 Heritage Hotel; 20 & 21 The Front; Nov 8 Brass Monkey; 9 Mars Hill Cafe; 15 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 16 Clarendon Guesthouse CROOKED SAINT: Oct 17 Lizotte’s Central Coast; 18 Front Gallery; 19 Clarendon Guesthouse; 20 Heritage Hotel; 24 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 25 Old Manly Boatshed; 26 Beresford Hotel LISA MITCHELL: Oct 18 Bar On The Hill; 19 The Metro, 20 Wollongong UniBar THE PRETTY LITTLES: Oct 18 The Phoenix SUGAR ARMY: Oct 18 Goodgod ANTONIO PAUL: Oct 19 Forbes Hotel; 20 Exchange Hotel AXOLOTL: Oct 19 Beresford SETH SENTRY: Oct 19 The Factory; 20 Transit Bar THE ASTON SHUFFLE: Oct 19 Academy; 20 Standard CAULFIELD: Oct 19 Lanyon Youth Centre; 20 The Lair (early) & SFX (late) TRIPLE TREAT feat. ARGENTINA, TOKYO DENMARK SWEDEN, THEM SWOOPS: Oct 20 FBi Social LAST DINOSAURS: Oct 20 & Nov 9 The Metro; 10 Zierholz NEOTOKYO: Oct 20 Annandale Hotel THE RUBENS: Oct 20 Mona Vale Hotel; 25 Entrance Leagues Club; 26 Club Forster; 27 Cambridge Hotel DOCTOR WEREWOLF: Oct 20 The Clubhouse 64 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE SIREN TOWER: Oct 20 Fitzroy Hotel; 21 Brass Monkey HUSKY: Oct 21 Oxford Art Factory ANDREW MORRIS: Oct 24 Oxford Art Factory WE ALL WANT TO: Oct 24 Great Northern Hotel Newcastle; 25 Yours & Owls; 26 Clarendon Guesthouse; 27 Brighton Up Bar RAY BEADLE: Oct 24 Clarendon Guesthouse; 25 Brass Monkey; 26 Heritage Hotel; 31 The Basement Circular Quay; Nov 1 The Abbey BALL PARK MUSIC: Oct 24 Wollongong UniBar; 26 Newcastle University; 27 The Metro THE BEARDS: Oct 24 Bar On The Hill; 25 Wollongong UniBar; 26 Baroque Bar; 27 Beachcomber Hotel; Nov 2 The Metro THE PREATURES: Oct 25 The Phoenix; 26 Goodgod; Nov 1 Hotel Steyne; 2 Yours & Owls; 3 Cambridge Hotel STEVE BALBI: Oct 25 Vanguard; 26 Brass Monkey CATHERINE TRAICOS: Oct 25 Green Room CABINS: Oct 25 Annandale Hotel BENJALU: Oct 25 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 28 Moonshine Bar; Nov 21 34 Degrees South; 22 The Vanguard; 23 Heritage Hotel; 24 Cambridge Hotel BLACK MUSTANG: Oct 25 Brighton Up; Oct 26 Cambridge Hotel; Oct 27 The Phoenix IN HEARTS WAKE: Oct 25 Hot Damn; 26 Blacktown Masonic Hall; 27 Hot Damn Road Trip; 28 Bald Faced Stag DALLAS FRASCA: Oct 26 Black Face Stag; 27 Cambridge Hotel STEP-PANTHER: Oct 26 Brighton Up Bar; 27 Yours & Owls BRITISH INDIA: Oct 26 The Patch; 27 Fitzroy Hotel; Nov 2 Manly Fisho’s; 3 Standard DIAFRIX: Oct 26 Great Northern Newcastle; 27 Goodgod TIN SPARROW: Oct 26 Standard TARA SIMMONS, PLUTO JONZE: Oct 26 FBi Social BLKOUT: Oct 26 The Gladstone Feeling JOE ROBINSON: Oct 27 The Vanguard; 28 Sydney Blues & Roots Festival; Nov 16 The Glasshouse; 22–25 Mullum Music Festival; Dec 1 5 Church St; 13 Street Theatre; 15 Festival Of The Sun DOMNICKS: Oct 27 Sandringham Hotel; 28 The Patch THUNDAMENTALS: Oct 27 Hotel Gearin; Nov 9 Oxford Art Factory CLAUDE HAY: Oct 28 Grand Junction; Nov 15 Heritage Hotel; 16 The Front; 22 Peachtree Hotel; 23 Oxford Art Factory Gallery; 24 Katoomba RSL; Dec 21 The Vanguard MAMA KIN: Oct 30 Camelot; 31 Clarendon Guesthouse DELTA GOODREM: Oct 31 & Nov 2 State Theatre KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON: Oct 30 Civic Theatre; Nov 1 Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre; 2 Seymour Centre ANGUS STONE: Nov 1 Enmore Theatre; 2 Newcastle Leagues Club; 3 Waves HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY: Nov 1 Standard; 2 Wollongong UniBar OCEANICS: Nov 1 Transit Bar; 2 FBi Social; 3 Great Northern Newcastle ELECTRIC EMPIRE: Nov 1 Heritage Hotel; 2 Oxford Art Factory; 3 Gearin Hotel VOYAGER: Nov 1 Hamilton Station; 2 Sandringham Hotel; 3 The Patch; 10 The Basement Canberra THE SALVADORS: Nov 2 FBi Social; 3 Great Northern Newcastle LITTLE SHADOW: Nov 2 Spaceport One; 3 Roxbury Hotel CHARLIE HORSE: Nov 3 Factory Floor GOOD HEAVENS: Nov 3 Brighton Up Bar PURPLE SNEAKERS DJS: Nov 3 FBi Social TEXAS TEA: Nov 3 The Newsagency GAY PARIS: Nov 3 Transit Bar; 7 Cambridge Hotel;
TIGERTOWN: Oct 11 Brighton Up Bar; 12 Cambridge Hotel; 13 Heritage Hotel; 14 Brass Monkey WINTER PEOPLE: Oct 11 Yours & Owls; 12 Cambridge Hotel; 13 The Factory; 14 Clarendon Guesthouse TZU: Oct 11 The Patch; 13 The Standard REGULAR JOHN: Oct 12 Great Northern Hotel Newcastle; 13 Annandale Hotel MARLOW: Oct 13 Great Northern Newcastle; 20 Annandale Hotel, 24 Lizotte’s Central Coast MUMFORD & SONS: Oct 18 Sydney Entertainment Centre; 26 Canberra Royal Theatre TRIPLE TREAT feat. ARGENTINA, TOKYO DENMARK SWEDEN, THEM SWOOPS: Oct 20 FBi Social BILLY BRAGG: Oct 23 Canberra Theatre; 27 & 28 Enmore Theatre THE BEARDS: Oct 24 Bar On The Hill; 25 Wollongong UniBar; 26 Baroque Bar; 27 Beachcomber Hotel; Nov 2 The Metro BALL PARK MUSIC: Oct 24 Wollongong UniBar; 26 Newcastle University; 27 The Metro SYDNEY BLUES & ROOTS: Oct 25 – 28 Windsor THURSTON MOORE: Oct 26 The Hi-Fi JON CLEARY: Nov 1 The Basement GAY PARIS: Nov 3 Transit Bar; 7 The Cambridge; 8 The Steyne; 9 The Sando; 10 The Patch GYPSY & THE CAT: Nov 8 Metro BASTARDFEST: Nov 9 & 10 The Basement Canberra; 17 Sandringham Hotel BEIRUT: Nov 14 Enmore Theatre JEFF MARTIN: Nov 14 Clarendon Guesthouse; 15 The Abbey; 16 The Fitzroy; 17 Coogee Bay Diggers; 18 The Basement; Dec 10 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 11 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 12 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 14 The Factory; 15 The Heritage; 16 The Vanguard; 18 & 19 Brass Monkey JORDIE LANE: Nov 22 Smith’s Bookstore; Dec 14 Great Northern Newcastle; 15 Notes; 16 Clarendon Guesthouse CITY RIOTS: Nov 22 The Terrace; 23 The Patch, 24 FBi Social; 29 Rock Lily REDCOATS: Nov 29 Great Northern Newcastle; 30 Annandale Hotel; 1 December Transit Bar DI’ANNO VS BLAZE: Nov 29 Cambridge Hotel; 30 Manning Bar; Dec 1 Waves PRIMAL SCREAM: Dec 5 Enmore Theatre HOMEBAKE: Dec 8 The Domain EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: Dec 20 The Metro PEATS RIDGE: Dec 29 – Jan 1 Glenworth Valley BEACH HOUSE: Jan 3 Enmore Theatre BLOOD RED SHOES: Jan 4 The Hi-Fi THE HIVES: Jan 7 The Metro GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: Feb 14 Enmore Theatre EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: Feb 22 Enmore Theatre THE CIVIL WARS: Mar 6 St Stephen’s Church BLUESFEST: Mar 28 – Apr 1 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm
TUE 09
ANDREW DENNISTON, PETER WILLIAMS, LAURA BISHOP: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks BEN CARR TRIO, 10 GUITAR PROJECT: 505 - Surry Hills BRIEN MCVERNON DUO: Orana Hotel - Blacksmiths CAROLYN WOODORTH, JONNO READ, THE BACKYARD BANDICOOTS, JAMES SEYMOUR, DAVID SATTOUT, + GUESTS: Merton Estate Hotel - Rozelle DARREN BENNETT, JAMES STUART KEENE, PETER PHELPS: George IV Hotel - Picton HOME BLITZ, RAW PRAWN, DRUM DRUM: The Square - Haymarket MANDI JARRY TRIO: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney NICK VAN BREDA, NATHAN MARTIN: Botany View Hotel - Newtown
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OLD SPICED BOYS: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney RUSSELL NEAL, + GUESTS: Taverners Hill Hotel - Leichhardt THE THROSBIES: Beauford Hotel - Mayfield TIM HEIDECKER: The Vanguard - Newtown
WED 10 AVALANCE CITY, THE FALLS, CONICS: Beach Road Hotel, Rex Room - Bondi BATMAN FOLLIES OF 1929: The Vanguard - Newtown BRENDAN DEEHAN: Observer Hotel - The Rocks BRETT WINTERFOLD, PAUL GREENE, MELANIE HORSNELL: The Newsagency - Marrickville CASSIAN: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont DAN SPILLANE: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee
DEREB THE AMBASSADOR: The Mac - Surry Hills EDWARD DEER, PIERS TWOMEY, MISS LITTLE: Green Room Lounge - Enmore EMALKAY, GLOVECATS, SUBASKE, BOCUE, + MORE: World Bar - Kings Cross GANG OF BROTHERS, LIONEL COLE: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont GREG SITA, SAMANTHA JOHNSON, NAOMI CRAIN: Cookies Lounge & Bar - North Strathfield HANNAH GADSBY: Sydney Comedy Store, The Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park ICEHOUSE: Waves Hotel - Wollongong JAMIE LINDSAY: Northies, Sports Bar - Cronulla JOSH MCIVOR: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill JOSH PYKE, JACK CARTY: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber MICROWAVE JENNY: Front Gallery & Café - Lyneham, ACT MUSOS CLUB JAM NIGHT: Carousel Inn - Rooty Hill REVERSE GRIP, TRUSH, RATTLESNAKE, BECOME THE CATALYST: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe RUSSELL NEAL, GAVIN FITZGERALD, PAUL MCGOWAN, KEN MCLEAN, JOHN CHESHER: Coach & Horses Hotel - Randwick SENANI: The Basement - Circular Quay STEVE TONGE DUO: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross TAL COHEN QUARTET, Jamie Oehlers: 505 - Surry Hills THE CAIROS: Uni Bar, Wollongong University - Wollongong
BRAZILLIAN LOVE AFFAIR: 505 - Surry Hills HANNAH GADSBY: Sydney Comedy Store, The Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park HARBOUR MASTER: Sackville Hotel - Rozelle HAT FITZ & CARA: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why ICEHOUSE, BEARS WITH GUNS: Wyong District Rugby League Club - Kanwal JAMES PARRINO: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee JEFF LANG, BIG BLIND RAY & BAND: Moonshine, Hotel Steyne - Manly JOSH PYKE, JACK CARTY: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber KADE & THE KARNEEZ, FIVE COFFEES, + MORE: Sandringham Hotel, upstairs - Newtown KATIE NOONAN, KARIN SCHAUPP: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton KEYIM BA, EPIZO BANGOURA: The Basement - Circular Quay KING TIE, RIGHTEOUS VOODOO, DJ SOUP FREE: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont MARTY from RECKLESS: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown MATT JONES TRIO: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney MICHAEL MCGLYNN: Greengate Hotel - Killara ORLY, CARRIE LAKIN: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay PANORAMA DUO: Paragon Hotel Circular Quay PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks PROPAGANDA DJs, + MORE: World Bar - Kings Cross
FOUNDS: Friday 12 October, Cambridge Hotel; Saturday 13, The Factory
THE DRIFTING, DAN HOPKINS & THE GENEROUS FEW, NATASHA ELOISE: Notes Live - Enmore THE SLOWDOWNS: East Sydney Hotel Woolloomooloo TOMMY PICKETT, + GUESTS: Cat & Fiddle Hotel - Balmain
THU 11 031 ROCK SHOW: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney ANDREW DENNISTON, + GUESTS: Forest Lodge Hotel - Glebe ANTHEMS OF OZ: Orient Hotel - The Rocks BATMAN FOLLIES OF 1929: The Vanguard - Newtown BLAKE PARDNEY, BROKEN HANDS, NIGHT ATTACK: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe
RICHARD CALABRO’S ALPHA OMEGA: Brass Monkey - Cronulla SONS OF MERCURY: Bull & Bush Baulkham Hills STEVE TONGE: Observer Hotel - The Rocks TENNISCOATS, + GUESTS: The Square - Haymarket THE CARIOS, UNDERLIGHTS, THE NECTARS: Annandale Hotel - Annandale THE EASTERN: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville THE GRISWOLDS: Uni Bar Beergarden, Uni of NSW - Kingsford THE PAPER KITES: Heritage Hotel - Bulli THE PHONIES, BIG VILLAGE GUESTS: The Mac - Surry Hills THE ROCKWELLS: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs - Newtown
THE STRANGERS: Lansdowne Hotel - Chippendale TIGERTOWN, TOURISM, GNOME: Brighton Up Bar - Darlinghurst TORTOISE: The Hi Fi, Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park TZU, MILLIONS, SIETTA: The Patch - Fairy Meadow
FRI 12 ALI PENNEY & THE MONEY MAKERS, MISS ELM, KATE LUSH: Eastern Lounge - Chatswood ALISON WONDERLAND: Beach Road Hotel, Rex Room - Bondi AUST. GUNS N ROSES SHOW: Bull & Bush - Baulkham Hills AZIZ ANSARI: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House - Circular Quay BATMAN FOLLIES OF 1929: The Vanguard - Newtown BLUES CONTROL, RUINED FORTUNE BAND, MOB & JON HUNTER, DJ MELBLANK: The Square - Haymarket BROTHERS GRIMM & BLUE MURDERS, KIRA PURU & THE BRUISE, MOTHER AND SON + MORE: Diggers Club - Wollongong CADE, STOLEN MEMORIES, ADAM TRIPODI BAND, LADY IN WAIT: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe CALIGULA’S HORSE, HEMINA, AVARIN & CARMERIA: The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag - Leichhardt CHICK FLICK, 2BUSY2KISS: Candy’s Apartment - Potts Point COLLARBONES, NAYSAYER, GILSUN: The Standard - Darlinghurst DAMN TERRAN, BANG BANG ROCK N ROLL, DANGER DANNYS, DOC HOLLIDAY TAKES THE SHOTGUN, + MORE: World Bar - Kings Cross DAVID CAMPBELL: Wentworthville Leagues - Wentworthville DIESEL, CARMEN SMITH: The Cube - Campbelltown DIG, LAURA STITT, RIGHTEOUS VOODOO: The Basement Circular Quay
DOUGIE DE KROO’S KENTUCKY MOON: Town & Country Hotel - St Peters EVERCLEAR: The Hi Fi, Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park FIRST LADIES OF SOUL: Notes Live - Enmore FRENZAL RHOMB, EPICS, COLLAPSO: Uni Bar, Wollongong University - Wollongong GANG OF BROTHERS: The Mac - Surry Hills GO WITH COLOURS: Lansdowne Hotel - Chippendale GREEN DAY SHOW: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney HANNAH GADSBY: Sydney Comedy Store, The Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park HAT FITZ & CARA: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville HELLO CLEVELAND: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee I AM DUCKEYE, BERKSHIRE HUNTING CLUB, BLOODY KIDS, SPACETICKET: Town Hall Hotel - Newtown JADE DIARY, MERISE, RAY JOHN: Annandale Creative Arts Centre - Annandale JAMES RYAN, SONIC MAYHEM ORCHESTRA: 505 - Surry Hills KIM CANNAN TRIO, CHRIS TAYLOR: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber LITTLE BASTARD: Coogee Diggers - Coogee MATANZA: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay NEW EMPIRE, GOLDSMITH, KARL BROADIE, DJ KRISTY LEE: Upstairs Beresford - Surry Hills ORIGINAL SIN - INXS SHOW, SWINGSHIFT: Penrith RSL, Showroom - Penrith PINK RIBBONS, KATE MARTIN, TALL TEE NATION, SABOTAGE DJs: The Forbes Hotel - Sydney PROUD MARY: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why QUALIA DJs: The Forbes Hotel, Level 3 - Sydney SATELLITE V: Rose of Australia Hotel - Erskineville SHARON O’NEILL, BOB STAMPER, ANDREA GEANGE: Brass Monkey - Cronulla SOMETHING FOR KATE, BEN SALTER: Metro Theatre - Sydney
STAN WALKER, CHECK YOUR HEAD: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont STEVE AOKI, TENZIN, VENGENCE: Enmore Theatre - Enmore TAMARA STEWART, FELICITY URQUHART: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton TEN PART INVENTION: Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre - Chippendale tHE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, CLAGG, DAREDEVIL, ARROWHEAD, LAW OF THE TONGUE, + MORE: Sandringham Hotel, upstairs - Newtown THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Mona Vale Hotel - Mona Val THE DEAD LOVE, BLACKBREAKS, THE HUNGRY MILE, SAFER WITH THE WOLVES: Annandale Hotel - Annandale THE FADERS: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont THE GOOD STUFF: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown
AT LAST: THE MUSIC OF ETTA JAMES: The Basement - Circular Quay BATMAN FOLLIES OF 1929: The Vanguard - Newtown BERKSHIRE HUNTING CLUB, I AM DUCKEYE, UGLY BICH, SWINE, HIVEMIND, PICKLED TINK: The Square - Haymarket BIGPHALLICA, DJ URBY: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont BROTHERS GRIMM & BLUE MURDERS, GAY PARIS, JACKSON FIREBIRD, MOTHER AND SON, + MORE: Manning Bar, Sydney Uni - Camperdown CABARET OF THE FLESH: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton CHE FU, BULLETPROOF, P MONEY, OPTIMUS GRYME, ASKEW 1, GLOVECATS, + MORE: Greenwood Hotel - North Sydney CHRIS GUDU: The Mac - Surry Hills ENDLESS SUMMER BEACH PARTY: Orient Hotel - The Rocks
COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA: Saturday 13 October, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
THE MANE THING, A-TONEZ, ROYALSTON, LINKEN, + MORE: Chinese Laundry - Sydney THE PAPER KITES: Oxford Art Factory - Darlinghurst THE PIGS: Heritage Hotel - Bulli TIGERTOWN, TOURISM, DAN SOUTHWARD: Side Bar, Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle TZU, MILLIONS, SIETTA: Transit Bar - Canberra ACT
SAT 13 A TASTE OF KISS: Notes Live - Enmore AME: The Spice Cellar - Sydney
FESTERING DRIPPAGE, DARK HORSE, NEW BLOOD, BURIAL CHAMBER, THROAT OF DIRT, INFESTED ENTRAILS + MORE: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe FRENZAL RHOMB, LOCAL RESIDENT FAILURE, HAZARDS: Bar on the Hill, Newcastle Uni - Newcastlek GEOFF YULE SMITH: Sir Stamford Hotel - Circular Quay HANNAH GADSBY: Sydney Comedy Store, The Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park HAT FITZ & CARA, CHRIS GILLESPIE: Katoomba RSL - Katoomba HEATH BURDELL: Northies, Sports Bar - Cronulla
TOUR GUIDE GREGORY PAGE: Oct 12 The Royal Exchange; 13 Humph Hall; Nov 1 The Vanguard; 2 The Garden; 3 McCrossin’s Mill; 9 Merry Muse; 11 The Front RUDIMENTAL: Oct 13 Chinese Laundry SLUGABED: Oct 13 One22 SAMPOLOGY: Oct 13 World Bar; Nov 2 Trinity Bar; 4 King Street Hotel MAROON 5: Oct 13 Sydney Entertainment Centre COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA: Oct 13 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall THE SWELLERS: Oct 16 The Basement; 17 The Patch; 18 Hot Damn; 19 Cambridge Hotel XIU XIU: Oct 17 Goodgod GOMEZ: Oct 18 Newcastle Panthers; 19 The Hi-Fi ALT-J: Oct 18 Oxford Art Factory LEFT OR RIGHT: Oct 18 Valve Bar; 19 Great Northern Newcastle; 21 Yours & Owls MUMFORD & SONS: Oct 18 Sydney Entertainment Centre; 26 Canberra Royal Theatre JAY SEAN: Oct 18 The Cube; 26 Enmore Theatre SMASH MOUTH: Oct 18 Waves; 19 Rooty Hill RSL; 26 UNSW Roundhouse THEESATISFACTION: Oct 19 Goodgod GRAILS: Oct 19 Oxford Art Factory LEE RANALDO: Oct 20 Oxford Art Factory FUNK D’VOID: Oct 20 Chinese Laundry THE BLACK KEYS: Oct 21 Newcastle Entertainment Centre; 22 & 23 Sydney Entertainment Centre HOT CHELLE RAE: Oct 22 Enmore Theatre; 28 Canberra Royal Theatre BILLY BRAGG: Oct 23 Canberra Theatre; 27 & 28 Enmore Theatre JILL BARBER: Oct 24 Clarendon Guesthouse; 25 Brass Monkey; 26 Heritage Hotel; 31 The Basement; Nov 1 The Abbey ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: Oct 25 Cockatoo Island MATCHBOX TWENTY: Oct 25 AIS Arena; 30, 31 Sydney Entertainment Centre; Nov 3 Hope Estate; 6 WIN Entertainment Centre EASY STAR ALL STARS: Oct 25 Rock Lily PURO INSTINCT: Oct 25 The Square HOME BREW: Oct 25 Civic Underground MADLIB: Oct 26 The Metro ELAINE PAIGE: Oct 26 State Theatre; 28 Canberra Theatre THURSTON MOORE: Oct 26 Hi-Fi WEDNESDAY 13: Oct 26 Manning Bar SHELLAC: Oct 28 The Metro KELLY JOE PHELPS: Oct 30 Blue Beat; 31 Camelot Lounge; Nov 1 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 2 Lizotte’s Newcastle LIGHTHOUSE TRIO: Oct 31 Venue 505 CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES: Nov 1 The Factory ELECTRIC EMPIRE: Nov 1 The Heritage Hotel; 2 Oxford Art Factory; 3 Hotel Gearin AT THE GATES: Nov 1 The Metro BEIRUT: Nov 14 Enmore Theatre JEFF MARTIN: Nov 14 Clarendon Guesthouse; 15 The Abbey; 16 The Fitzroy; 17 Coogee Bay Diggers; 18 The Basement; Dec 10 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 11 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 12 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 14 The Factory; 15 The Heritage; 16 The Vanguard; 18 & 19 Brass Monkey DI’ANNO VS BLAZE: Nov 29 Cambridge Hotel; 30 Manning Bar; Dec 1 Waves PRIMAL SCREAM: Dec 5 Enmore Theatre
themusic.com.au
BILLY BRAGG: Oct 23 Canberra Theatre; 27 & 28 Enmore Theatre
EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: Dec 20 The Metro BEACH HOUSE: Jan 3 Enmore Theatre BLOOD RED SHOES: Jan 4 The Hi-Fi THE HIVES: Jan 7 The Metro GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: Feb 14 Enmore Theatre EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: Feb 22 Enmore Theatre THE CIVIL WARS: Mar 6 St Stephen’s Church
FESTIVALS
DOOMSDAY: Oct 12 Sandringham Hotel; 13 ANU Bar DRUNKEN MOON: Oct 12 Digger’s Club; 13 Manning Bar PURE SERIES: Oct 13 Greenwood Hotel GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD: Oct 20 Dungog Showgrounds WHIPLASH: Oct 20 Sandringham Hotel; 26 Cambridge Hotel; 27 ANU Bar SYDNEY BLUES & ROOTS: Oct 25 – 28 Windsor STONE DAY: Oct 26 University of Canberra SURRY HILLS FESTIVAL: Oct 27 Prince Alfred Park PROGFEST: Oct 27 Annandale Hotel STEEL ASSASSINS: Nov 2 – 3 Sandringham Hotel BASTARDFEST: Nov 9 & 10 The Basement Canberra; 17 Sandringham Hotel A DAY ON THE GREEN: Nov 10 Bimbadgen Winery RAZOR BLADE FESTIVAL: Nov 10 The Square GRAPHIC FESTIVAL: Nov 10 & 11 Sydney Opera House OUTSIDEIN: Nov 10 Factory Theatre NEWTOWN FESTIVAL: Nov 11 Camperdown Memorial Rest Park HARVEST: Nov 17 Parramatta Park MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL: Nov 22 – 25 Mullumbimby FORESHORE FESTIVAL: Nov 24 Commonwealth Park Canberra STEREOSONIC: Nov 24 Sydney Showgrounds HARBOURLIFE: Dec 1 Fleet Steps HOMEBAKE: Dec 8 The Domain FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Dec 14 & 15 Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park PEATS RIDGE: Dec 29 – Jan 1 Glenworth Valley BIG DAY OUT: Jan 18 Sydney Showgrounds SOUNDWAVE: Feb 24 Sydney Olympic Park CMC ROCKS THE HUNTER: Mar 15 – 17 Hope Estate BLUESFEST: Mar 28 – Apr 1 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm
THE DRUM MEDIA • 65
HUE WILLIAMS: Crown Hotel - Sydney IGNITION: Beach Palace Hotel, Cider Room - Coogee KEEP THE FAITH BON JOVI SHOW: R.G McGees - Richmond LE VENT DU NORD: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville MARIALY PACHECO, CAMERON UNDY TRIO: 505 - Surry Hills MARK ISSACS TRIO: Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre - Chippendale MARTYS PLACE: Kellys on King - Newtown MATT SCHLAM: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown MYSTERY GUEST: The Belvedere Hotel - Sydney OAKES & LENNOX: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks PETER NORTHCOTE’S DRIVE, BRYDON STACE, VIRGINIA LILLYE: Brass Monkey - Cronulla PETULANT FRENZY SINGS ZAPPA: King Street Brewhouse - City REGULAR JOHN, + SPECIAL GUESTS: Annandale Hotel - Annandale RICHARD IN YOUR MIND: Transit Bar - Canberra ACT RICHIE ST JAMES, BRAD MYERS, TOMMY PICKETT: Mars Hill Café - Parramatta
66 • THE DRUM MEDIA
RUDIMENTAL, TOMMY FOUR SEVEN, DEFINED BY RHYTHM, KID SAMPLE, + MORE: Chinese Laundry - Sydney RYAN ENRIGHT: Sir Joseph Banks Hotel - Botany SAMPOLOGY, WHAT SO NOT, BLAZE TRIPP, CHRIS ARNOTT, + MORE: World Bar - Kings Cross SEEK THE SILENCE, FAR AWAY STABLES, CLOUD FOUR: The Forbes Hotel - Sydney SHERLOCK BONES, SMS, SCOTT COLE: Candy’s Apartment - Potts Point TAMARA STEWART, FELICITY URQUHART: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, MOTHER MARS, FATTURA DELLA MORTE, LAW OF THE TONGUE, MARCUS DE PASQUALE: ANU Bar - Canberra ACT THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: Mona Vale Hotel - Mona Vale THE BUCK & DEANNE BAND: Factory Theatre (early) - Marrickville THE DAMNED HUMANS, COREDEA, GRANDVILLE, KAIMERA: Lucky Australian Tavern - St Marys THE DEFECTS, BASTARD SQUAD: Sandringham Hotel, upstairs - Newtown
GIG OF THE WEEK
REGULAR JOHN
Strange Flowers is the second album from the Sydney based four-piece Regular John. Heading out on tour to support it, the band promises to treat audiences to a psychedelic journey through heartbroken melodies, fuzzed out guitars, kraut inspired jams and the cosmic wall of sound for which Regular John are fast becoming known for. They play Friday 12 October at the Great Northern Hotel Newcastle and Saturday 13 at the Annandale Hotel.
THE FOO FIGHTERS SHOW: Emu Plains Sport & Recreation Club - Emu Plains THE LONELY BOYS: Mercantile Hotel - The Rocks THE PAPER KITES: Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle THE ROCKBUSTERS: Ettamogah Hotel - Rouse Hill THE SPITFIRES, CADRES, THE DEAD HEADS, THE WATER BOARD: Lansdowne Hotel - Chippendale
THE STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why THE STRIDES, KOOII, MC MANA, SKY LOUNJA: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay THE VAUDEVILLE SMASH, I AM APOLLO, ALISA FEDELE, THE KING BEES, DJ BERT & BERNIE: Upstairs Beresford - Surry Hills TIGERTOWN, TOURISM: Heritage Hotel - Bulli TRILOGY: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee TZU, MILLIONS, SIETTA: The Standard - Darlinghurst
WARDS XPRESS: Taverners Hill Hotel - Leichhardt WINTER PEOPLE, FOUNDS, JORDAN LESER: Factory Theatre - Marrickville
SUN 14 50 MILLION BEERS: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs - Newtown BARNSTORMING THE BARNES/CHISEL SHOW: Towradgi Beach Hotel - Towradgi
themusic.com.au
BATMAN FOLLIES OF 1929: The Vanguard - Newtown BIG BEN: Oscars Hotel - Pyrmont BRYEN WILLEMS: Penrith RSL, Showroom - Penrith CAMBO: Observer Hotel - The Rocks CONTINENTAL BLUES PARTY, KEVIN BENNETT: Rock Lily, The Star (afternoon) - Pyrmont COTOLETTE, MANJAZZ, ETHAN WINZER, + MORE: World Bar - Kings Cross
FACEBREAKER, LETTERBOMB, VANITIST, UNTIL DARKNESS FALLS, OF THRONES: Lucky Australian Tavern - St Marys FOLK IN THE FOOTHILLS: Jamberoo Valley Lodge - Jamberoo HANNAH GADSBY: Sydney Comedy Store, The Entertainment Quarter - Moore Park HAT FITZ & CARA: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton HAYFEVER: Annandale Hotel (afternoon) - Annandale JELLYBEAN JAM: Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel - Woolloomooloo JONNY GRETSCH’S WASTED ONES: Botany View Hotel - Newtown JULIA MORRIS: Enmore Theatre - Enmore LANA NESNAS: Commodore Hotel McMahons Point MARA!: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville NO BRAKES: Marrickville Bowling Club - Marrickville PETER HEAD TRIO, + FRIENDS: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks PETER NORTHCOTE, VIRGINIA LILLYE: Bridge Hotel - Rozelle PROUD MARY: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber ROB HENRY, ED PATRICK: Observer Hotel (afternoon) - The Rocks ROCK SOLID: Narrabeen Sands - Narrabeen
SMALL TALK: The Roxbury Hotel - Glebe SPENCERAY: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee STEEL SWARM, ARMORIAL, PARENTHIA, THE BLACKENED BENEATH, EMERGENCY SYNDROME: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe STEVE AOKI, RUDIMENTAL, + MORE: The Starship, Wharf 4 - Darling Harbour SUITE AZ, DJ KITSCH78: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont THE OMISSIONS, ERIK THE RED, ANNIE MCKINNON: Annandale Hotel - Annandale TIGERTOWN, TOURISM, KARLCHRISTOPH: Brass Monkey - Cronulla WES CARR introducting BUFFALO TALES: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why
MON 15
CARL FIDLER: Observer Hotel - The Rocks RUSSELL NEAL, ANGEL AWAKE, SUE CUNNINGHAM, 2 PICKS NO STICKS, HUNTLEY MITCHELL, IVONA BUDYS: Kellys on King - Newtown
BTL - BEHIND THE LINES
EST. 1999 REHEARSAL STUDIOS, HOMEBUSH
STILL CHEAP! WE WONT KICK YOU OUT AT 9PM FOR ANOTHER BAND COMING IN! WE STILL DO 7 TO 10 OR 8 TO 11 SESSION
7 STUDIOS! PRICES STARTING AT $55 FOR 3 HRS
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MADCDs cos Cos we g ive a sh it
Photographer For bands and events $200 for the day
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YOUR AD IN THIS SPACE CALL JAMES AT DRUM MEDIA ON 9331 7077
SoundEdit Services Audio Editing/Mastering, Format transfers Artwork design /layout/ printing CDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, DVDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
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July/August Special 100 CD Copies with 4 page colour insert (single fold) , & rear inlay supplied in standard cases
(from 1 master)
$275 inc GST
www.soundedit.com.au brett@soundedit.com.au Mob: 0418 232 797 Ph: 02 8002 4029 THE DRUM MEDIA â&#x20AC;¢ 67
CD / DVD
EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION Dedicated/Versatile Singer & Guitarist (19yrs) available for any genre - from soul to alternative rock! Drummer 18-26yrs preferred. Also seeking Bassist and Keyboardist. Northern Beaches. Ph:0432872290 - Ziggy.
iFlogID: 19151
Attention Musicians, Record Collectors, Universities, Libraries - new Book (print/cdROM/ direct download) compiling 100 years of popular music. GO TO www.plattersaurus.com web-site on how to buy.
DRUMS
Experienced Manager required for established Brisbane based artist. Must have industry contacts, previous and current experience and be ruthless.
High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL...
iFlogID: 18332
www.youtube.com/user/sydneypollak
iFlogID: 19087
iFlogID: 19832
Experienced original rock band looking to play with other established gigging bands. Will return favour with dates in Sydney venues such as The Wall, Valve Bar, Town & Country. RemmosK@gmail.com
TAMA ROCKSTAR 5 PIECE FUSION KIT IN BEAUTIFUL LIQUID AMBER FINISH, MATCHING TIMBER SNARE, STARCAST SUSPENSION MOUNTS, CYMBALS AND HARDWARE, GREAT CONDITION, BARGAIN, $675. PH 0419760940
iFlogID: 19270
iFlogID: 18330
FUNK GUITARIST NEEDED Sydney based covers band seeks a FUNK/ROCK guitarist. The band plays at all the cover band staples in the City and is currently gigging up to 3 times per week. If you can play funk AND rock and have played in professional bands before then contact Will at willdieu@hotmail.co.uk
Vintage Drum Kit Imports new and Custom Made kits for sale. Also cymbals, stands, pedals, guitars, accessories and much more. info@atlargemusicstore.com http://facebook.com/aTLargeMusic 93362190 0421987370 Hampton Rd, Fremantle, WA
iFlogID: 18453 ZILDJIAN 16” DARK THIN K CRASH BRAND NEW $250. ZILDJIAN AVEDIS 18” FAST CRASH BRAND NEW,$250 16” FAST CRASH BRAND NEW,$230. ALL NEW IN PLASTIC BAGS, PH 0419760940
iFlogID: 18328
From $299 Services include Seo, Social network marketing Includes free 1000 Facebook likes, 22k twitter followers.
ZILDJIAN Drum Stick Clearance $10 PAIR!!: 5A, 5B, 7A, Wood / Nylon Tip – Plus Travis Barker, Brooks Wackerman, Ronnie Vannucci & Dennis Chambers Series. Lamba - 02-97588888 - www.lamba.com.au
Contact - info@earthgoat.com
iFlogID: 19716
iFlogID: 19089
KEYBOARD PLAYER WANTED!! Keyboard player wanted for inner west based quirky folk band. EP recorded and released last June. Must be willing to rehearse weekly and be available for gigs and festivals. Ability to sing backing vocal harmonies is desirable but not essential. Please contact Susie at susiehurley@live.com, 0404 067 051
iFlogID: 19566 RADIO SYDNEY possibly the worlds largest digital Radio Station with 100 music channels is offering bands and solo artists their own feature promotional channel visit the Indie channel on www.radiosydney.com.au
iFlogID: 18316 Seo Marketing ~ Facebook likes, YouTube, Twitter views Promote your business online with Seo services Facebook likes 1k - 10k
GUITARS Acoustic Yamaha Guitar, Solid Top, Great Sound and Condition, Comes with Carry Case, $420 ONO May Swap or Trade, 0421690000, jman0023@gmail.com, QLD
iFlogID: 19700 Matts Vintage Guitars - Fender Gibson Martin Rickenbacker Guild Gretsch Vintage and USA Buy-Sell-Trade Ph.0413-139-108 www. mattsvintageguitars.com
iFlogID: 19724
OTHER Sennheiser HD25-1 II Headphones – The industrys leading Studio, Monitoring and DJ headphones. Get the genuine article for $279.00 with FREE DELIVERY AUSTRALIA WIDE from Lamba - 02-9758-8888 - www. lamba.com.au
iFlogID: 19714
PA EQUIPMENT
Youtube views 1k - 100k Twitter followers 1k - 100k Prices start from $20
iFlogID: 19091
ENTERTAINMENT Lighting operator wanted for busy western Sydney nightclub Friday and Saturday nights. Experience with Martin Lightjockey and Oracle laser software preferable. Please send resumes to hire@lamba.com.au or call 02-9758-8888. www.lamba.com.au
iFlogID: 19866
SALES & MARKETING People needed to send eMails offering a new music Book for sale. Must have own computer - payment by commission via Paypal. Contact Bill on (02) 9807-3137 or eMail: nadipa1@ yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 13289
VOLUNTEER Full training provided by musicians/producer with 30 years plus industry experience in all facets of live music production. Must be keen, honest, reliable and have car. Contact RemmosK@gmail.com for details.
iFlogID: 19530
FILM & STAGE SOUND & MUSIC RemmosK returns to “The Wall” in full throttle electric mode with special guests Blow @ The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt, Sat 03-11-12
iFlogID: 19910
FOR SALE BASS Fender Jazz bass as new, approx. 12 years old with metallic case. Midnight Blue finish. $1350 ono. 97590970
iFlogID: 19963 Mark Bass 2x10” speaker cab (two). As new, only used 3 times. 400 watts each box. Retail $1300 each, sell $600 each. Will separate. Ph. 97590970
iFlogID: 19965
iFlogID: 18953
PHOTOGRAPHY Detax will maximise your tax refund or minimise your tax liability, by applying years of Entertainment & Arts industry tax knowledge into your tax return. Individual Tax Returns from only $99. Discounted rates available for multiple years. Fully Qualified Accountant & Registered Tax Agent. www.detax.com.au
iFlogID: 18987
MANAGEMENT A Manager is required for a successful Singer/Composer/Performer/Recording Artist, pop-rock band/show. Maintain the success, work up with us to next level: international success. Phone Extraordinary Entertainment 99691179 (Mosman).
iFlogID: 19704
www.atlargemusicstore.com
iFlogID: 19693
Get your Band/ Business online with affordable website design.
Speaker re-cones (most models), hand built base-bins, guitar cabs, P.A. cabs and monitors, using all top quality components. Can also do custom road cases to suit any type of audio equipment. 0414355763.
iFlogID: 13287
iFlogID: 16083
Shure SM58 vocal microphone – The industry standard. Get the genuine article for $129.00 with FREE DELIVERY AUSTRALIA WIDE from Lamba. Call us on 02-9758-8888 to get yours today. www.lamba.com.au
iFlogID: 19712
STUDIO GEAR Roland Boss Digital Recording Studio 8 Track and Professional CD Burning and Mastering System All in One, Portable with Multi Effects and Loops, 0421690000, May Swap Trade, jman0023@gmail.com QLD
iFlogID: 19698
MUSIC SERVICES BAND MERCHANDISE For all your production needs, upto 20,000watt systems.Tailored to your requirements.Delivered,setup & operated by professional engineers. Loud ‘n’ Live Sound Systems Ph 0417 268850
iFlogID: 19284
DUPLICATION/ MASTERING CD MANUFACTURING:Acme is Australias best price CD manufacturer. 500 CD package = $765.05: 1000 CD package = $1320.00 Short run also available. www.AcmeMusic.com.au KevinW@AcmeMusic.com.au
iFlogID: 13117
HIRE SERVICES For all your production needs, upto 20,000watt systems.Tailored to your requirements.Delivered,setup & operated by professional engineers. Loud ‘n’ Live Sound Systems Ph 0417 268850
iFlogID: 19286
PA Hire – Systems to 16000 Watts. Only the best: Dynacord, EV, Allen & Heath, DBX, Lexicon, Yamaha, Soundcraft, JBL, Shure, AKG. Speakers, Monitors, Mixers, Microphones. Professional Advice. Lamba 9758-8888 www. lamba.com.au
REHEARSAL ROOMS SWEETLEAF REHEARSAL STUDIO MTDRUITT open 7 days, 3 rooms, aircon, food & beverages, Flat lug, Parking, PA & Lighting Hire Call - 9832-8890
MASTERING Audio Mastering, mixing, recording. CD-R music & data duplication, cover artwork, colour disc printing, online global distribution. Full studio package deal for EP or full album projects. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578
iFlogID: 15156 Audio Mastering, mixing, recording. CD-R music & data duplication, cover artwork, colour disc printing, online global distribution. Full studio package deal for EP or full album projects. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578
iFlogID: 15162
OTHER ++ play more chinese music - love, tenzenmen ++
Image is everything! If you have a band wanting to get ahead let me capture the next gig. High quality pictures say everything. http://roybarnesphotography.com/
1.Doing Instrumental version of any song for $40 2. Mix your multi-tracks for $50 and produce personalized original instrumentals for $50. 3. Check lovenabstudio on soundclick.com email: vangelis2133@yahoo.com
iFlogID: 18269 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see
iFlogID: 17120
iFlogID: 15452 High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL... www.youtube.com/user/sydneypollak
iFlogID: 19834 Music publicity. Do you want to get noticed? Affordable exposure for your band by someone that actually cares! www.perfectlywrite.com. au Drop me a line!
iFlogID: 15737 RemmosK returns to “The Wall” in full throttle electric mode with special guests Blow @ The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt, Sat 03-11-12
iFlogID: 19912
PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING
Complete Album & Demo Recording, Production, Instrumentation,CD Mastering. I’m committed to achieving for you the highest quality in a creative, friendly environment. ph 02 9654 8143, mob 0400 323 982, johnertler@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19183 Even if you’ve never written a song before, YOU CAN BE A RECORDING ARTIST! Contact Australia’s no1 production house for the independent artist to find out how-MUSIC ENTOURAGE www.musicentourage.com studio@musicentourage.com
iFlogID: 19278 Have you got a song in your head? Music Producer available to turn your imagination into reality. Professional results and affordable rates. Music Entourage Australia’s no1 production house for the independant artist! We’re not just a recording studio / We’ll help you get your music to the masses! www.musicentourage.com studio@musicentourage.com
iFlogID: 19274 Recording a single, EP or Album at Radio Release quality isn’t as hard or expensive as you might think. Stop wasting time! www. musicentourage.com studio@musicentourage.com
iFlogID: 19276 iFlogID: 17084 Recording Studio, Parramatta, $30hr casual rate. No kits! Singers, songwriters, instrumentalists for acoustic, world, classical genres specialist. 25+yrs exp, multi instrumentalist, arranger, composer, producer. Ph: 02 98905578, 7 days.
iFlogID: 15152 Recording Studio, Parramatta, $30hr casual rate. No kits! Singers, songwriters, instrumentalists for acoustic, world, classical genres specialist. 25+yrs exp, multi instrumentalist, arranger, composer, producer. Ph: 02 98905578, 7 days.
650W FOLD BACK, $250 WITHOUT ENGINEER, PICK UP,
VIENNA PEOPLE RECORDING STUDIO
CALL STEVE 0400606650 steveshifter@hotmail.com
iFlogID: 19706 Experienced, energetic and proactive live audio engineer for $300/event + equipment hire (passed on directly from Lots of Watts). Free preproduction - call Helmut on 0433946982 to discuss your event.
iFlogID: 19670 P.A hire using top quality outboard gear; Lexicon, Allen & Heath, Sure 4.800, DBX drive-racks, 160SL compression, 4-way front-of-house, 3-way active fold-back. 30years+ experience in the music industry. 0414355763.
iFlogID: 18949 P.A hire using top quality outboard gear; Lexicon, Allen & Heath, Sure 4.800, DBX drive-racks, 160SL compression, 4-way front-of-house, 3-way active fold-back. 30years+ experience in the music industry. 0414355763.
iFlogID: 18951
Gold Coast ParallelHarmonyStudioRobina. 30 square metre live room, large vocal booth. Handsome range of range of topoftheline Neumann, Rode and Shure microphones. Call 0755808883 for details. www.parallelharmony.com.au
iFlogID: 18640
TRANSPORT BUS HIRE SERVICE (with driver); 19-seater coaster-bus with wheelchair access available for airport-transit, festivals, functions and party-hire. Drive home safely with an experienced driver at the wheel. Please call Ray for a quote on 0414 355 763.
iFlogID: 17906
Graduate Diploma in Music Pedagogy (Voice) University of Sydney.
Email me on ww@wfinance.com.au, call 0405379345.
Eastern Suburbs guitar/ukulele/bass/slide lessons with APRA award winning composer. Highly experienced, great references, unique individually designed lessons from Vaucluse studio. Learn to play exactly what YOU want to play! www.matttoms.com
Professional performer in the music industry for over twenty years.
Cheers
iFlogID: 16690 Experienced and qualified electric bass and double bass tutor. Lessons tailored to exams or for leisure, expert to beginner. All ages, levels and styles welcome. Call Jeremy, 0452442022 for information.
iFlogID: 19830 GUITAR TUITION IN PADDINGTON 5 week course
Contact: 0403 086 266 Free!
I look forward to hearing from you.
iFlogID: 19926
iFlogID: 19767
TEACHER TO THE STARS!
iFlogID: 17747
willing & able to adapt to your event. Low hourly rates. Easygoing, flexible entertainment.
Children & Adults
Call for a quote today.
*Friendly mentoring approach
KN!VZ Entertainment Group
*Great Results Guaranteed
Ph:0415680575
Enquire Now
iFlogID: 16661
Paddington Ph: 0416960673 E: nikolaidis@live.ie
iFlogID: 19683
DJ Gear Hire – CDJs, Turntables, Mixers, Speakers, Lights, Lasers. Only the best equipment. Delivery available. Pioneer consoles $70, Full Systems with 2x 625W speakers $120. Call Lamba 9758-8888 www.lamba. com.au
Beginners to Advanced levels welcome.
For availability call on 0408461868.
$99 Special Promo
Please call Mitchfor rates and times available.m.0418267827
5 week course
e.mitch@mitchfarmer.com wsite.
Beginners Welcome
For a free e-copy of my book ‘On Becoming a Singer..A Guide To How’ email me on sostrow@bigpond.net. au.
www.mitchfarmer.com
Drummer available for paid work Influences funk jazz drum n bass prog rock. Rex_matthews@hotmail.com 0401237147
TUITION LEARN GUITAR
MITCH FARMER DRUM TUITION Professional all round live/studio drummer with 28 yrs experience.
iFlogID: 19159
Children & Adults *Friendly mentoring approach Enquire Now
Music Lessons at Beat Industry Tuggerah. Guitar, Drums, Vocals, Keyboard, Bass. Certificate courses and AMEB available. Free introductory lesson. www.beatindustry.com
Paddingotn
Ph: (02)4353 4749
*Great Results Guaranteed
Lessons include the entire scope of singing...voice production, musicianship, interpretation, performance skills etc. I look forward to hearing from you.
iFlogID: 18602
iFlogID: 19801
DRUMMER iFlogID: 19880
iFlogID: 19882 A1 TOP PRO DRUMMER AVAILABLE FOR SESSION FREELANCE WORK, TOURS ETC. EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE, TOP GEAR, GREAT GROOVE AND TIME.SYDNEY BASED, WILL TRAVEL. PH 0419760940. WEBSITE www. mikehague.com
iFlogID: 18334
iFlogID: 19038
Ph: 0416960673 E: nikolaidis@live.ie
iFlogID: 19765
ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR! A few lesson slots available with Chris Turner. ‘One on One’ guitar lessons. Lilyfield phone now 9552 6663 www.big-rock.com.au Starters to Pro.
iFlogID: 19929
CENTRAL COAST GUITAR LESSONS Beginner to advanced all ages, tailored lessons to suit you, most styles catered for, everything from basic open chords to scales and theory. Call Fred on 0400 347 955
iFlogID: 19748
CREATIVE GUITAR TUITION
Music tuition, classical / flamenco guitar, celtic harp, theory & harmony, arranging. 9am - 9pm, 7 days. Parramatta area. $40 hr, $30 half hr. Mature & patient. Harps for hire.
Visit: http://www.vocalhub.com.au
looking for easy going people with a positive outlook.
iFlogID: 17102 Want to play Guitar... but don’t know where to start? Tailored Tuition at your Pace... with Guitarist for Sydney Band ROCKMONSTER
$40 hr, $30 half hr. Mature & patient. Harps for hire.
Rock & Blues
Ph: 02 98905578
PH: 0422 868 959
iFlogID: 19650
iFlogID: 15158 PICKS AND STICKS STUDIO. Private Guitar lessons from an experienced teacher.
Wanted left handed electric guitar teacher
DRUM LESSONS
Age group 35 plus NO DRUGS ph Mark 0422 173 728
iFlogID: 19470 Experienced Soul Reggae R’N’B Blues Funk drummer (36yo) available for work preferably in Northern Beaches. Call Michael 0402 549423 email siczex@ yahoo.com.au
Contact John at... rodt1114@yahoo.com
iFlogID: 17324
iFlogID: 16308
Improvising, Theory, Song Writing, Technique Seven Hills, Sydney. Call Dave 0410 963 972 or email davemormul@hotmail.com
iFlogID: 16948
Singing tuition - 40yr pro-muso teaches all comtemporary genres.
School Holiday Special!!!!
Semi Acoustic music
See me playing drums: www.youtube.com/ user/sydneypollak
Parramatta area,
All levels, All ages, All styles.
PRO SINGING & GUITAR TUITION
Petersham/ Sydney. Real guitar for committed students in a fully equipped music studio. Learn Jazz, Rock, Blues, Contemporary , Funk, Latin , Gypsy, Folk, Country and other popular styles. Learn at a pace and in a direction you want to go. Beginners to advanced, all aspects of guitar are supported. Comprehensive digital recording available. Ask about special introductory offer and gift vouchers. Contact Craig Corcoran: 0430344334 creative-guitar@ hotmail.com
Seeks orginals band/ fill in work
iFlogID: 15154 Music tuition, classical / flamenco guitar, celtic harp, theory & harmony, arranging. 9am - 9pm, 7 days. Parramatta area.
EXPERIENCE MALE DRUMMER
VocalHub - Sing like no one is listening! Singing lessons for vocal technique and care, audition tips and repertoire in a encouraging and supportive environment.
Ph: 02 98905578
Guitar tuition - 50yr guitar playing veteran teaches all contemporary genres. 4 lessons x $30 each or $40 per single lesson. Maroubra based. Pls contact Moses: Mob: 0415 745 181 Email: chasemarketing2012@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19790 Pro Tools, Logic Pro & Studio One Training. Advice on Home & Professional Studio Recording. Learn from a pro with over 30 years experience. Contact John Ertler 9654 8143, 0400 323 982, johnertler@gmail.com
SINGING LESSONS THAT >>ROCK<<
PROFESSIONAL DRUM TEACHER WITH DRUMMING AND EDUCATION DEGREE. All styles and levels welcome
WWW. KALEIDOSCOPETUITION. COM.AU Learn to play the kaleidoscope way Unique colour coded method guitar or piano Teach yourself or have lessons 0428335874 books available at dymocks or buy online www.kaleidoscopetuition.com.au
iFlogID: 19647
VIDEO / PRODUCTION D7 STUDIO MUSIC VID FROM $250. Live gig edits, multi angles, fr $125 a set, 1 live track $100. All shot in full HD. d7studio@iinet.net.au 0404716770 syd based
iFlogID: 13368 Kontrol Productions is a highly professional production company that specializes in the production of music video’s. We ensure that our products are of the highest industry standards. For enquiries www.kontrolproductions.com
iFlogID: 13827 LIVE RECORDING.. Pro shot single cam video plus multitrack audio up to 24track. Mastered to DVD, HD youtube files, suitable for showreel, online promotion. from $350 www.livelinegroup.com or 0411342989
iFlogID: 19797 QUALITY MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION Immersion Imagery strives to offer quality & creative music videos to suit your style & budget. Portfolio of over 30 artists. www. immersionimagery.com info@immersionimagery.com facebook.com/immersion.imagery
Tips to make it in the industry provided.
iFlogID: 18477
School Holiday Bargain Prices
MUSICIANS AVAILABLE
10 percent off 5 lesson block 15 percent off 10 lesson block
***Every song Produced, Mixed & Mastered to Radio Release Quality*** studio@musicentourage.com www.musicentourage.com
Dubstep to Drum&bass
Everything negotiable.
Beginners Welcome
iFlogID: 19185
You’ll never regret recording your songs... but we garuntee you’ll ALWAYS regret not doing it!
DJ Dj available
Drummer available for paid work Influences funk jazz drum n bass prog rock. Rex_matthews@hotmail.com 0401237147
iFlogID: 19344
iFlogID: 19708
iFlogID: 19836 Mature age bass player requires fill in or permanent work. Very experienced in most types of music, have great gear & I am reliable. High standard. Please phone 0403357019
All styles and topics covered,check website for details.
iFlogID: 19850
www.creativeguitar.com.au
Situated in Annandale, Vienna People is a recording studio and production house, priding itself on its creative atmosphere, quality gear and strong relationships built with all artists. Packages for all styles and budgets, and strong connections with session musicians/mastering engineers + record labels. Call Scott on 0421791427 and come and check it out!
Warren (Waz)
First Lesson is
Steve Ostrow, New York voice teacher and vocal coach who discovered and nurtured the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Peter Allen, Stevie Wonder and countless others now Sydney City based and welcoming students on all levels; beginners, advanced and performers; Rock, Pop, Classical etc.
iFlogID: 19807
PARTIES/DJ’S/SMALL BANDS
Need a mixer? Hire desks up to 32 channels – Dynacord, Allen & Heath, Yamaha, Soundcraft, Presonus. PA, Foldback, Microphones, processors also available. Hire the best gear from Lamba 9758-8888 www.lamba.com.au
STUDIO HIRE
I’m 47 been playing bass since I was 17, professionally for 15 years. I can play any style. Pro gear, reliable transport, good creative player.
$99 Special Promo
iFlogID: 15160
$350 WITH ENGINEER SET UP & DELIVERED,
iFlogID: 18062
iFlogID: 19034
SINGING TEACHER Qualifcations: Bachelor of Arts (Performance Studies) - University of Sydney.
www.lee-carey.com
Call Timo 9484 4374
Recording? Hire the state of the art Presonus Studio Live 24.4.2 desk for your next project. A feature packed integrated hardware-software system. $200 weekly. Call Lamba 9758-8888 www.lamba.com.au
!! P.A SOUND SYSTEM FOR HIRE !! 2000W FRONT OF HOUSE,
All repair work and setups.
RECORDING STUDIOS
RECORDING STUDIO $30ph
www.bizwebsites.com.au
Professional Guitar Tech and Luthier. Clients have played with Jimmy Barnes, Guy Sebastian, Human Nature, Short Stack, Moving Pictures etc.
POSTERS
iFlogID: 18131
Award-winning Experienced, Qualified Music Producer:
GUITAR REPAIRS AND SETUPS
iFlogID: 18648
www.tenzenmen.com
iFlogID: 14468
REPAIRS
0414 243 811
GOLD COAST BYRON BAY NORTHERN NSW Poster distribution for touring artists & bands. Fast, efficient & reliable service at a competitive price www.thatposterguy.com.au
DRUM TUITION. Drum Tuition in Stanmore with a Billy Hyde trained Teacher. Dip Ed, Dip Drums. All levels and all styles taught. Beginners Welcome!. Call Lee 0403307796.
iFlogID: 17546
iFlogID: 19672
eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au
DRUM KIT WANTED, anything considered. Also looking for vintage drum kit ludwig/ Gretsch etc , snare drums or cymbals, ph 0419760940
Contact Justin - info@earthgoat.com
WOOHOO IT’S TAX TIME!
Enquiries: (02) 9807-3137
DJ AVAILABLE- ANYTIME www.djzokithefab.com -0416306340 for any dj service club or home or birthday call anytime-GET A REAL DJ NOT MP3 PLAYER OR CRAPPY DOWNLOAD.......VINYL DJ ROCKS
LEGAL / ACCOUNTING
Drum Studio in Roselands & Mobile Service
BASS PLAYER
iFlogID: 19814 Your voice has the ability to sing at the Audioslave/Muse/Aretha/Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs level because of Design. Increase your range sing with effortless power-learn to sing the right technique. Microphone-recording-technique, songwriting Newtown 0405-044-513
Electric & upright bass. Good gear. Comfortable in most styles. Experience performing live and in the studio. Check out my website if you wanna hear more. http://www.wix.com/ steelechabau/steelechabau
iFlogID: 19961
Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au
iFlogID: 16159
PROFESSIONAL DRUMMER AVAILABLE Im currently seeking like minded musos/bands to collaborate with. I’ve studied under some of Australias leading drummers, have professional gear and my own studio. My style - Solid hard hitting grooves with progressive influences.. Think.. Helmet, Faith No More, Alice In Chains, Tool, COG, Karnivool. PROFESSIONAL MUSOS ONLY. NO COVER BANDS. Scott 0400800875 marriott_scott@yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 19618
Professional drummer/percussionist/vibraphonist available for performances/recording. Toured with international acts such as Dianna Krall, David Campbell and Patrizio Buanne. Have huge range of instruments including vibraphone. More info at www.davekemp.info
iFlogID: 17317 Professional mature-age Drummer/Vocals/ reads/back acts/shows - all styles including jazz - available for casual work. phone:(02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 16562 Professional mature-age Drummer/Vocals/ reads/back acts/shows - all styles including jazz - available for casual work. phone:(02) 9807-3137 Mob:0413-931-897 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 17160 TOP INTERNATIONAL DRUMMER available. Great backing vocals, harmonica player and percussionist. Gigs, tours, recording. Private lessons/mentoring also available. www.reubenalexander.net
iFlogID: 14261
GUITARIST 19 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, The Sex Pistols. I live in SydneyCronulla. Call tom on 0401722767.
iFlogID: 13358 Musician/Guitarist seeking fame. I play blues and have a good ear for melody and improvisation. Im looking for likeminded people who want to start touring. Go to peterbuckley.me
iFlogID: 18014
OTHER Guitarist, Singer & temporary Drummer (19yrs) need to start band! We play anything Tool, Amy Winehouse, Evanescence, Michelle Shocked (rock/blues/altmetal/funk/reggae/ soul) Would like versatile bassist & keyboardist! 18-25yrs preferred! Northern Beaches. Ziggy: 0432872290!
iFlogID: 19240 RemmosK returns to “The Wall” in full throttle electric mode with special guests Blow @ The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt, Sat 03-11-12
iFlogID: 19914
SINGER Quirky singer, keyboard player, musician available. Lots of experience. Paid situations only please. Call Stephanie ph: 0403 250 560.
iFlogID: 19884
MUSICIANS WANTED BANDS Band looking for a BASSIST to form Power Pop/Punk band in Sydney. Think THE RAMONES meets CHEAP TRICK. No time wasters and committed musicians only. Contact 0403 995 832
iFlogID: 19373
BASS PLAYER REQUIRED Looking for bass player for up and coming band. Skill required. Influences include, but not limited to, slipknot, slayer, nirvana, fear factory, the offspring, primus. Looking to gig ASAP. Should be open minded and a can do attitude. Creative input optional. Looking to gig in Sydney and the Central Coast.
ROOTS BAND NEEDS MUSCIANS! Roots bands needs mainly melodic muscians to create a bigger sound. Looking for muscians who are fairly experienced, who are committed enough to practice once a week, who are good at composing and improvising and have an interest in a multi-genre approach to music. We will be preforming and composing mainly originals, genres will be persuing include not just roots but Latin, Jazz, Blues, Funk, Reggae, Folk and World music styles. I’m looking for mostly melodic musicians such as horn brass players, woodwind, strings (violins, cello’s) mandolin or a lead guitarist versed in these genres would be nice, also anyone who plays a cultural signifcant instrument (sitar, buzuki, Ude) would be cool, and a percussionist is also wanted. I already have a drummer and a bassit. We are based around the east, south and inner city. I want to create music, do gigs, record, as well as love and live the music. If your up to the task call Jackson on 0423649365 or email me on funkymonk07@hotmail.com
iFlogID: 19626 Seeking experienced lead & backing singers, bass, keyboard, sax & trumpet players for REGGAE band in Northern Beaches. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@ yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 18612
SINGER /VOCALIST WANTED
Original progressive rock band ‘TIME ARROW ‘ requires a Drummer and Bassplayer to add there creativeness and integrity to our collective call Dallas 0409830216 or Wendy 0431737927
Dead In Motion needs a drummer who can double kick! Metal, with influences such as Disturbed, Evanescence, In This Moment, etc, and Japanese visual kei. Contact Dead_In_ Motion@hotmail.com for more details.
iFlogID: 19935 Drummer 18-25 needed to complete lineup. We like: My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Joy Division/New Order, The Verve, Spiritualized, Blur, Pulp, Sonic Youth, Nick Cave/Grinderman, The Smiths, Ride, Fugazi. contact moonfieldmusic@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19959
DRUMMER NEEDED
DRUMMER WANTED FOR ORIGINAL INNER WEST GARAGE/PUNK/ROCK BAND. Refer to ad under
0410 296 627 or therollindice@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19492
Influences QOTSA, Foo Fighters, Nirvana… www.myspace.com/mollydredd 0411 372 469
iFlogID: 19621
iFlogID: 19906
iFlogID: 16936 Guitarist & Singer (19yrs) need to start band! We play anything Tool, Amy Winehouse, Evanescence, Michelle Shocked (rock/blues/altmetal/funk/reggae/soul) Would also like versatile bassist & keyboardist! 18-25yrs preferred! Northern Beaches. Ziggy: 0432872290!
iFlogID: 19244
NIGHT FLIGHT - LED ZEP TRIBUTE Drummer wanted. You must have great timing, feel, pro kit & own transport. We are not a look-a-like band. Rehearsing weekly at Northshore Music Studios Hornsby. Gigs waiting. Age 30 - 50 m/f. Contact scottm@ y7mail.com
iFlogID: 19702
ENTHUSIASTIC PLAYERS NEEDED Musician/producer who’s recording an album. Need a French horn, baritone/tenor sax and a trombone player who loves to jam/improvise, friendly & collaborative, loves playin’ ska, rock, funk, classical. If this sounds creative and inspiring to you then contact me. 0421 876 205 nmur029@gmail.com
Guitarist, Singer & temporary Drummer (19yrs) need to start band! We play anything Tool, Amy Winehouse, Evanescence, Michelle Shocked (rock/blues/altmetal/funk/reggae/ soul) Would like versatile bassist & keyboardist! 18-25yrs preferred! Northern Beaches. Ziggy: 0432872290!
iFlogID: 19242 Guitarist/Songwriter/Vocals seeks bass player to co-write songs for recording. Influences John Paul Jones, Rob DeLeo, The Cruel Sea, Hendrix, Gomez, The Bronx. Good gear essential. Call Peter 0413948946
iFlogID: 19945
iFlogID: 19852
Experienced singer/songwriter/guitarist has created a new original project and has many Sydney gigs booked. Currently looking for other original acoustic duo’s/bands with a following to do shows together. RemmosK@ gmail.com
iFlogID: 19290 Guitarist, Singer & temporary Drummer (19yrs) need to start band! We play anything Tool, Amy Winehouse, Evanescence, Michelle Shocked (rock/blues/altmetal/funk/reggae/ soul) Would like versatile bassist & keyboardist! 18-25yrs preferred! Northern Beaches. Ziggy: 0432872290!
iFlogID: 19248 guitarist/singer needs a guitarist, bass player & drummer to start a piss poor sydney rock band. louddirtyrocknrollbased musak with a touch of twang. 0403508102
iFlogID: 19654
Looking for a reggae bass player for a Northern Beaches based band. Call Michael on 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com.au.
iFlogID: 19193
NIGHT FLIGHT - LED ZEP TRIBUTE Night Flight - Led Zeppelin Tribute band require a bass player. You must have excellent playing ability, feel, tone & timing. Rehearsals are weekly at Northshore Music Studios Hornsby. For more information & a set list please contact scottm@y7mail.com
iFlogID: 19601
DJ
iFlogID: 19674
PLAY JAZZ Jazz band has an opportunity for singers and wind players - intermediate level plus. For more information contact band leader on 9807 8866 (Dave) or email : oddsocksmusic62@yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 19603
Thrash/Punk drummer..wtd for Sydney band..EP released...songs waiting & ready.. dont contact if you have never played thrash... we need POWER and SPEED like none other! Think Municipal Waste... Suicidal...Slayer.. Poison Idea...D.R.I...http://dsmb.bandcamp. com/ 0417041950 - Thrash!
iFlogID: 19846 we need you. we tried to ignore it but can’t any longer. please come bang our pots and pans. www.entermagnus.com
DRUMMER band playing originals seeks drummer. rehearsing twice weekly minimum in the inner west. demo, some airplay. influences: the cure, the church, fauves, JD, hoodoo gurus, the ‘Mats. ph.0423420029
Looking for an experienced reggae guitar player for a Northern Beaches based band. Call Michael on 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 19558 Musician/producer seeks guitarist to play on cover of Eagles track New Kid In Town for rec studio website, contact Jules on 02 99745821 or julianweir976@yahoo.com
iFlogID: 19952
HORN Looking for an experienced sax & trumpet players for a horn section for a Northern Beaches based REGGAE band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com. au.
iFlogID: 19776
GUITARIST 19 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, The Sex Pistols. I live in SydneyCronulla Call tom on 0401722767.
iFlogID: 13407 Acoustic Guitarist interested in friendly jam on Friday evenings. Lower Blue Mountains Location Music Creedence, Beatles, Dylan, James Taylor etc, Contact David 0411 618 536.
iFlogID: 19759
Ability,Commitment and desire to embrace the role are essential.Firm gig base in Sydney and Central coast areas with management and agency backing.Transport and good attitude a must. Website for details www.australiangnrshow.com Ben 0438625750 Roger 0404044808
iFlogID: 19904
Looking for an experienced sax player to form a horn section for a Northern Beaches based REGGAE band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com.au.
iFlogID: 19219
SINGER
DRAG QUEEN SINGERS WANTED
The Frocks have been one of the most established and most sought after iconic all girl bands in the scene today! The Frocks go beyond your average cover band and after 10 years working the entertainment circuit they are stronger than ever and continue to travel down more and more avenues. Only this year The Frocks were nominated for a MO AWARD for Best Dance Band in Australia.
Looking for female backing singers for a Northern Beaches based REGGAE band. Call Michael on 0402 549 423 or email siczex@ yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 19556 Looking for other original acoustic duo’s/ bands with a following to share the bill and do live gigs together. Contact RemmosK@ gmail.com
iFlogID: 19954
NEUROTIC DENTISTS NEED SINGER
Please send your interest and details to contact@thefrocks.com.au If you’d like to check out our web site log onto www.thefrocks.com.au
The Neurotic Dentists, garage punk band (playing all original songs) are looking for a front man to lead Sydney and perhaps the world out of the musical wilderness and the pain of painsville, awaken minds and the neighbors with some down and dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll and on stage brou ha ha. Would like to start gigging ASAP. Aiming for November, December. A dynamic performer who can engage and interact with the audience.
Can sing with feeling and breathe life into the lyrics.
Contact Dead_In_Motion@hotmail.com for more details.
Rock, Jazz, Funk, Groove, Pop, Soul, Hip Hop, R’n’B, Alternate, Acoustic, Heavy, Musical, and moreeeeee +++
iFlogID: 19246 Keyboard/Synth player wanted to complete 5 pc lineup for country rock band. Mix of covers and originals. Rehearsals/audition at Botany. Harmony vocals an advantage. Paid gigs waiting. Email bio: alteregoprom@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19730
KEYBOARDIST FOR “HERDING CATS” Keyboardist wanted for Sydney based “Herding Cats”. 7 piece Soul, Funk, Ska, Reggae group with brass section. 3 sets ready to go - lots of unique groove covers, as well as originals. Pls see website for examples & recordings (which are just from rehearsals, proper mixes coming soon). Reading to gig when keyboardist is comfortable. Good bunch of people, weekly rehearsals at Marrickville, usually on Saturdays. David 0421 167 337 www.herdingcatsband.com
iFlogID: 19886
Guitarist/Singer and Drummer looking for keys player to form Guitar Greats Show. Must be able to handle bass parts as well as harmony and some lead playing. Backing vocals necessary. Weekly rehearsals in Sutherland Shire area, with aspirations for weekly performances. Only professional or aspiring profession musicians to apply.
iFlogID: 19872
iFlogID: 19795
FEMALE SINGER WANTED
The Frocks have been one of the most established and most sought after iconic all girl bands in the scene today!
Why risk your vocal performance with substandard gear? Hire the industry standard Shure ULX wireless system + Beta58A microphone, lapel or headset. $60, 2 for $100. Call Lamba 9758-8888 www.lamba.com.au
iFlogID: 19195
SINGER NEEDED
- weekly commitment to rehearsals is required
Dynamic Vocal ability and exceptional stage presence is a must.
iFlogID: 19805
WOLLONGONG BAND NEEDS SINGER
Confident, Crazy,Fun,Hot, Sweet, Talented Performers!
Wollongong based band searching for Singer. We have enough original music ready to record an album and perform live and we and are looking for a singer (age 20-30) to add lyrics and melodies to complete the songs and front our band (the next Chris Cornell, Myles Kennedy, Steven Tyler, Steve Lee etc)
Apply now at contact@thefrocks.com. au with your contact details.
Contact: jonathanrkennedy82@gmail. com or 0419978835
The audition is open to 22-35 year olds. WE WANT:
Check out our web page at www.thefrocks.com.au
iFlogID: 16754 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see
A comprehensive 2 day course that covers basic audio principles, the progression of technology, common audio components, terninology, signal flow, soldering 101, microphone and speaker placement, EQing and more. Handty reference booklet supplied. Optional third days training at a live music venue available. www.zenstudios.com.au 02-9950-3977
iFlogID: 19367
SCHOOL OF ROCK - ZEN STUDIOS
www.bizwebsites.com.au
iFlogID: 15450 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY- from $299 including UNLIMITED pages, Logos, Hosting and 5xemail addresses and much more! Contact info@bizwebsites.com. au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au
iFlogID: 13864 Limited Edition mens tees and hoodies with a sense of humour. All hand-screened and numbered. monstrositystore.com
iFlogID: 13611
OTHER BUS HIRE SERVICE (with driver); 19-seater coaster-bus with wheelchair access available for airport-transit, festivals, functions and party-hire. Drive home safely with an experienced driver at the wheel. Please call Ray for a quote on 0414 355 763.
iFlogID: 19848 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively from $299 including Hosting, Shopping Cart and 5 email addresses!
School of Rock teaches students from primary school to high school, from anywhere in Sydney with any level of musical talent. School of Rock helps students form a suitable band based on each of their musical likes and level of experience. Classes run every day of the week (Weekdays: 4.30pm – 6.00pm, Saturday/Sunday: 8.30am – 10.00am) at $320/per term (including all teacher fees, room and instrument rental). Each term includes a free recording session @ Zen Studios and a live show at The Valve Hotel in Tempe. Contact Ash 0450-406-201. www.schoolofrockinnerwest.com.au
iFlogID: 19523
Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au.
iFlogID: 15454 If you want to use DRUGS, that’s your business If you want to STOP, we can help. Narcotics Anonymous 9519 6200 www.na.org.au
iFlogID: 16217 Learn massage! Thai massage shop jobs available $40/hr no experience necessary Central location 0450 758 399
iFlogID: 18957 What happens when you start paying attention? When you become an active member and start participating in this elusive thing we call life. WWW.WHATISTHEHAPS.COM
iFlogID: 17980
TUITION
iFlogID: 19361
Serious singers need only apply.
-must have own transport
iFlogID: 19933
iFlogID: 19870
You’ll do shows and events singing RnB, Funk, Pop, Dance, Motown, Rock, all the fun stuff etc as well as sharing Backing Vocals with other members. Ability to sing intricate and strong harmonies is a must.
Email - cjwilsonmusic@gmail.com
Musician/producer seeks guitarist and singer to work on cover of Eagles track New Kid In Town for rec studio website, contact Jules on 02 99745821 or julianweir976@yahoo.com
Are you a rock oriented singer (male or female) looking to join an experienced band playing rock covers from classic to current with focus on quality, melody and harmonies? Give Steve a call on 0403 994 558 and lets talk.
Experienced Progressive Heavy Groove Band seeks, Strong Heavy/Melodic Vocalist. READY TO PLAY!!! Call Sven - 0421540972
- the ability to work in a team.
OTHER
ROCK VOCALIST WANTED!
The lead singer and manager of the all girl band The Frocks is now forming a NEW “sister” band and we are looking for a FEMALE vocalist to be part of this new powerful female fronted band.
Age 21-35
iFlogID: 19197
iFlogID: 19678
Seeking an experienced lead & backing reggae singers for Northern Beaches based band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com.au
Perfomance experience necessary.
iFlogID: 19950
CALL ANYTIME ON THE WEEKEND.
The Frocks go beyond your average cover band and after 10 years working the entertainment circuit they are stronger than ever and continue to travel down more and more avenues. Only this year The Frocks were nominated for a MO AWARD for Best Dance Band in Australia.
- ideally, availability for 1-2 gigs per week
Looking for an experienced reggae keyboard player for a Northern Beaches based band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@ yahoo.com.au
CONTACT, Phil or Allan. Phil: 0439 026 480 (Txt details during work hours and will call back later) Email: yodelingteapot@hotmail.com ( send a bio, a demo, whatever you’ve got really. Just drop us a line and let us know what you’re into and what styles you like etc etc) ALLAN: 0407 924 841 ( after 4pm on weekdays)
Female Singer wanted to join male guitarist for rock/pop covers duo. Playing songs from 70s/80s to current day, paid gigs, based in Hawkesbury area. duovocal@tpg.com.au or 0411342989
WWW.BLACKSTAR.COM.AU
PREFERRED ATTRIBUTES
WE WANT:
Only serious enquiries
iFlogID: 17428
100 SRA3(32 x 45cm) full colour on Gloss = $80
Dead In Motion is looking to add a keyboard player! Metal, with influences such as Disturbed, Evanescence, In This Moment, etc, and Japanese visual kei.
iFlogID: 19824
iFlogID: 19109 Fully Qualified & 8yrs Experience, Thai Massage $49/hr or Sensual Balinese Aroma $69/hr. In/Out calls, Male/Female Welcome. www.takecaremassage.com.au - By Anson 0433646338
100 A3 full colour on Gloss = $80
A dynamic vocal range and various singing styles.
Guitarist, Singer & temporary Drummer (19yrs) need to start band! We play anything Tool, Amy Winehouse, Evanescence, Michelle Shocked (rock/blues/altmetal/funk/reggae/ soul) Would like versatile bassist & keyboardist! 18-25yrs preferred! Northern Beaches. Ziggy: 0432872290!
Free haircuts and blowdries Thurs mornings at cool salon in Surry Hills. Colours are charged at cost of product used. Please call Wednesday on 0420371161 to organise an appointment.
100 A3 full colour on Plain = $50
The audition is open to 22-35 year olds Confident, Crazy, Fun, Hot, Sweet, Talented Performers!!!!!!!
BEAUTY SERVICES
LIVE SOUND COURSE, 2 DAYS
FREE HAIRCUTS AT COOL SALON!
100 A4 full colour on Gloss = $40
Has a flare for the dramatic and a penchant for the theatrical.
KEYBOARD
SERVICES
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Dynamic Vocal ability and exceptional stage presence is a must.
Please send some recent photo’s, and experience details. It would also be great if you could send a video (or a link to a video), SHOWCASING YOUR FANTASTIC VOCALS. Quality of video not important. If this is not possible, we will be holding vocal auditions where you will then have the opportunity to display your talents.
iFlogID: 19221
FULL COLOUR BAND GIG POSTERS @ AMAZING PRICES
Frocks entertainment are now looking for Drag Queen vocalists to form a new act.
Dance skills an advantage but not essential.
TRUMPET Looking for an experienced trumpet player to form a horn section for a Northern Beaches based REGGAE band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo.com.au.
iFlogID: 19528 Musician/producer seeks male singer to sing on cover of Eagles track New Kid In Town for rec studio website, contact Jules on 02 99745821 or julianweir976@yahoo.com
Location: Sydney, Australia
iFlogID: 19401
KEYS PLAYER WANTED
info@entermagnus.com
Australia’s Premier Guns and Roses Tribute Show are seeking a new Slash and Duff(Bass)
DJ Gear Hire – CDJs, Turntables, Mixers, Speakers, Lights, Lasers. Only the best equipment. Delivery available. Pioneer consoles $70, Full Systems with 2x 625W speakers $120. Call Lamba 9758-8888 www.lamba. com.au
iFlogID: 19920
MUSICIANS WANTED & www.myspace.com/ therollindice for song demos. Call or message
0410 296 627 or therollindice@gmail.com
DEATH-METAL BASS PLAYER WANTED- WE REHEARSE NEAR ST MARYS- BAND IS CALLED LOWER BACK PROBLEMS LOOK IT UP ONLINEHEAVY AS SHIT VOCALS A PLUS! CALL JOSH- 0403-679-099 FAAA!
GUITARIST WANTED Guitarist wanted who can sound like my bloody valentine, built to spill, blonde redhead - pedals and noise. Contact theaerotropeguild@gmail.com for more info.
iFlogID: 19750
Experienced drummer with a commitment to practice and regular rehearsals required for Melbourne-based alternative rock band.
DEATH METAL BASSEY WANTED
iFlogID: 19494
The SideTracked Fiasco seeks guitarist.. Influences RHCP, RATM, Primus, Sublime. Pro gear/attitude. You can listen to songs @ www. thesidetrackedfiasco.com. Rehearsals Petersham. Contact Johnny 0434-970-561.
MUSICIANS WANTED & www.myspace.com/ therollindice for song demos. Call or message
iFlogID: 19490
0410 296 627 or therollindice@gmail.com
iFlogID: 19722
iFlogID: 19937
info@entermagnus.com
MUSICIANS WANTED & www.myspace.com/ therollindice for song demos. Call or message
vlucantonio @yahoo.com.au
iFlogID: 19822
www.entermagnus.com
iFlogID: 19820
SAXOPHONE
GUITARIST WANTED FOR ORIGINAL INNER WEST GARAGE/PUNK/ROCK BAND.Refer to ad under
swing/jazz guitarist to join working combo in Sydney playing same, also some blues and rockabilly. Tab charts & cd, some rehearsals required .95192440 m.0417089964
Contact Dead_In_Motion@hotmail.com for more details. Are your bass balls so low and groovy they become an instant obsession?
Dead In Motion needs another guitarist! Metal, with influences such as Disturbed, Evanescence, In This Moment, etc, and Japanese visual kei. Contact Dead_In_Motion@hotmail. com for more details.
iFlogID: 19818 Drummer & guitarist wanted to form new original band. Alt/grunge/groove band with dark edge. No beginners must be over 25.
Super Match Game are looking for an experienced drummer. Indie Rock. Currently gigging and recording first album. http://www.facebook.com/SuperMatchGame
BASSPLAYER WANTED FOR ORIGINAL INNER WEST GARAGE/PUNK/ROCK BAND. Refer to ad under
ENGINE ROOM AND PULSE WANTED
iFlogID: 18719
BASS PLAYER Dead In Motion needs a bassist. 5-string preferred. Metal, with influences such as Disturbed, Evanescence, In This Moment, etc, and Japanese visual kei.
iFlogID: 19810
iFlogID: 19629
Contact Anton: 0426822750
iFlogID: 19902
BASSPLAYER, DRUMMER & GUITARIST WANTED FOR ORIGINAL INNER WEST GARAGE/ PUNK/ROCK BAND. Influenced by 50’s rock n roll with a punk attitude, Detroit Cobras, Otis Redding, Eddie Current Suppression Ring, Dead Kennedys, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ramones, Easybeats. Experienced muso’s, backing vocals, females encouraged to apply. Check out www.myspace.com/therollindice for song demos. Call or message 0410296627 or therollindice@gmail.com Dead In Motion is looking for band members. Metal, with influences such as Disturbed, Evanescence, In This Moment, etc, and Japanese visual kei. Contact Dead_In_Motion@hotmail. com for more details.
Between 18 - 25, own gear and transport is required.
we are looking for a singer to front our rock covers band /you will need to be experienced and dedicated to rehearsal ,ideally a fast learner for upcomming gigs ,transport required and versatile we cover a vast variety ,proffessional mics are supplied
iFlogID: 19778
iFlogID: 19856
CAN YOU HIT STUFF GOOD?! Indie rock duo from Campbelltown looking for a dedicated drummer.
DRUMMER AND DRUM LESSONS
STAND-UP COMEDY WORKSHOP Have fun learning invaluable communication, presentation and humour skills from ARIA nominated Robert Grayson. 15 years experience. “Amazing! Fantastic! Liberating!” Jess Capolupo, Hot-Tomato FM. www. youstandup.com / Robert@youstandup.com / 0401 834 361.
iFlogID: 19948
TUITION BASS, GUITAR, DRUMS
Avaliable in Gladesville Teach all Levels, ages and experience.16 years experience. I studied at The Billy Hydes Drumcraft Academy and Obtained a Diploma in Drummig. $60/HR Mob: 0402663469 Michael
iFlogID: 18762
PIANO LESSONS Piano and keyboard teacher. Creative and patient. All styles of music, plus theory and songwriting. Exams or pleasure. 20 years experience. Close to Broadway and Central. Paul 0417171993
iFlogID: 19056
The School of Rock offers tuition in singing, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums and song writing techniques. Our instructors have years of experience showing young musicians how to play and take that talent onto the stage. For more information visit our website at www.schoolofrockinnerwest.com. au or www.zenstudios.com.au. Ph: 9550 3977
iFlogID: 19181
iFlogID: 19844
We will contact you with further information regarding auditions.
iFlogID: 19868
iFlogID: 19792
WANTED OTHER Looking for music that is fresh and original??? Check out www.thesecretcity.com.au
iFlogID: 19736
Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au
WITH MICHAEL SMITH
2012 ARIA ENGINEER & PRODUCER OF THE YEAR Congratulations to Francois Tetaz on picking up the Engineer of the Year Award in this year’s ARIAs for his work on Gotye’s Making Mirrors album, and to his fellow nominees, who also deserve a round of applause – Lachlan Mitchell for The Jezebels’ Prisoner, Matt Fell for Tim Freedman’s Australian Idle, Scott Horscroft and Phillip Threlfall for 360’s Falling & Flying, and Wayne Connolly for Josh Pyke’s Only Sparrows. Congratulations too to Stylaz Fuego on picking up Producer of the Year for his work on 360’s album. Ditto Chong Lim for Sarah McKenzie’s Close Your Eyes, Lachlan Mitchell for The Jezabels album, Lanie Lane for her own To The Horses album and Virginia Read for Sally Whitwell’s The Good The Bad And The Awkward.
THE ACE FREHLEY “BUDOKAN” CUSTOM LES PAUL When KISS hit the legendary Budokan in Tokyo in 1977, not only did they make rock history by selling out four nights at the venue, but guitarist Ace Frehley made his Les Paul something of a guitar icon. Now Epiphone has recreated that guitar with the faded Cherry Sunburst finish in the limited edition Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom Outfit. Featuring a mahogany body with the same classic lines of the original with Les Paul Custom-style 7-ply white and black binding on both the top and back, the 24.75” scale length is also exact to the original’s specifications. As you’d expect, Epiphone and Frehley took great care to recreate the power of his original Les Paul, though while that only had the bridge pickup connected, the Epiphone Custom version is all wired up with three DiMarzio pickups – PAF-style humbuckers in the neck and middle positions and a “Super Distortion” humbucker in the bridge position to draw out the “stage-rattling” tone of the mahogany body.
70 • THE DRUM MEDIA
WINTER HARVEST PREPARATIONS Sydney’s Winter People are threequarters of the way through a national tour. Soon after the tour ends, the six-piece will reconvene, rehearse and head out again on the prestigious Harvest Festival tour. Greg Phillips spoke with Winter Person and frontman Dylan Baskind about their debut album and Harvest.
L
istening to Winter People’s debut album, A Year At Sea, filled my mind with visions of a lush, pretty, mountainous terrain. Okay, I was actually driving through Victoria’s scenic Yarra Valley at the time and basically just looking out the window, but the music is so apt! This is real music. Broad, layered harmonies and authentic fretted instruments played honestly by talented musicians. It’s a gorgeous mix of digital ambience and organic acoustic, embellished by some shoe-gazing fuzz. For Baskind however, there was never any grand plan as to a sonic picture for the album. “For me it doesn’t matter what the overall aesthetic of an album is,” Dylan said. “Each song is a self-contained unit to stand on its own two feet. It’s the same way I feel about modern art, you don’t need a piece of paper to explain the artwork. The song should work separate from its companion. For each song, I had a very clear picture of how it should sound, but not necessarily for the album as a whole.” Acutely aware of time and budget, the band was fastidious in their preparation for the recording, laying down the tracks first in Baskind’s bedroom studio. “The tracks were really complicated but having said that, we demoed out everything. Every piece of instrumentation on the album was played out. We basically recorded the album twice. We recorded it in my bedroom and got all the levels right. I mixed so that I could see if it was all going to work, then we went in and recorded it.
We had a very clear idea of how it was supposed to be and a lot of the fiddling got done outside of the studio.” Once inside the studio, instrumental parts were recorded in isolation. Recording together as a band was never going to be an option. “I think the producer’s quote was something like, ‘Holy smoke. I have never seen so many tracks in my whole life.’ The orchestration was very rich. We had mini orchestras and like twenty guitar parts so playing together was never going to be possible so we recorded separately. We also had a very limited amount of time to do it in with a very limited budget to work with. That was the way we could be most likely to get everything done.” Winter People’s instrumental cache is a mix of the acoustic, electric and exotic and all are well represented in the final cut. “In the studio we had a multi-amp situation. Our workhorse guitars were Fender Strats, and Teles going through a Deluxe amp. I really do like the Deluxe. It is fantastically raw and can also do a beautifully clean sound. We had that going next to a clean cabinet which we just put in to try to mess with the sound a bit to have this other track. A lot of credit to (producer) Tim Whitten too. I can’t even imagine how many tracks we would have had if he didn’t do this … he mixed down all that stuff in the studio. He made that call on the sound and mixed it down, one track, one room mic. If we hadn’t stemmed down that stuff, it would have been untenable. The Strat and Tele have this whole different sound and I guess I never really appreciated that until I got into recording. The Strat has this ... not compressed but there is something modern about it. It has like a singing tail when you hit a high note. The Tele has a whole different feel.” Pedals were used too but blended in rather than being at the forefront of the mix. “Yeah, a lot of them on everything, hidden away,” Baskiind explains. “A bit of delay. No wah, I am anti-wah!” Anyone who has viewed the YouTube clip of the band’s second single, Gallons, would have spied a curious looking acoustic instrument being played,
themusic.com.au
a mutation of a ukulele and a lute. It’s actually a Charango, a South American instrument. Add two violins and five vocalists in the band, it’s no wonder A Year At Sea is such a rich life pageant. It’s that very sound Winter People will be seeking to bring to life on the Harvest festival tour but Dylan certainly isn’t concerned about reproducing it note for note. “In the future if we had more capacity, we could try something to recreate it more accurately. I think the songs on the album are the songs as they are supposed to be heard. What we do live is a cover version. They are approximations of what I consider the songs to be. “At Harvest I will enjoy it (playing outdoors) because the whole crowd aesthetic is a different kettle of fish. Generally though I like being indoors. I actually want to listen to music as opposed to having a social experience. If I am going to see someone play music, I want to be indoors, seated. That’s my ideal situation.” WHO: Winter People WHAT: Harvest Festival WHEN: Saturday 17 November, Parramatta Park
THE FIRST EVER BLACK EAU DE PARFUM
H AU S L A B O R ATO R I E S .C O M FA C E B O O K .C O M / H AU S L A B O R ATO R I E S