Drum Media Sydney Issue 1139 by TheMusic.com.au

SYDNEY’S LARGEST CIRCULATING FREE MUSIC PUBLICATION • 4 DECEMBER 2012 • 1139 • FREE

JOHN BUTLER

TRIO

ALEXISONFIR

JB SMOOVE

INSIDE: • TURBONEGRO • HOT SNAKES • MAYDAY PARADE • FOUR TET

ON SALE 9AM THIS THU 6 DEC SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY SYMPHONY AND FBI RADIO IN ASSOCIATION WITH BILLIONS AUSTRALIA PRESENT

WITH PLAYERS FROM THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY

26 & 27 FEB PERFORMING CLASSIC AND NEW MATERIAL FOR THEIR OPERA HOUSE DEBUT, PART OF THE EVENING WILL FEATURE MEMBERS OF THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY.

‘MUSIC AT THE HOUSE’ 6

TO BOOK: SYDNEYOPERAHOUSE.COM/MUSIC

th f e or ha m rperl hoy te

OPEN ‘TILL 3AM

MUSO’S NIGHT ROCKIN WEEKLY BLUES JAM

FREE ENTRY FRONT BAR

TIFFANY BRITCHFORD + JACOBIDE + DIRTY LITTLE IMMIGRANTS

THU 6 07.00PM

MILES AWAY + CRUEL HAND (USA) + THE OTHERS

FRI7.00PM 7

$10 DOOR

PRE $21 DOOR $25 ALL AGES

+ VIGILANTE + HARBOURER

CHASING ORA + GENERAL PANTS & THE PRIVATES

900 PRINCES HIGHWAY, TEMPE PH: 9559 6300 www.valvebar.com.au

WED8.00PM 5

SAT8.00PM 8

PRE $10 DOOR $12.50

+ MAYFAIR RISING + HE SHE WONDERLAND COMING SOON:

15/12 PSYCHOTIC TURNBUCKLES, 16/12 UNDER THE SUN FESTIVAL, 29/12 ANTI-FLAG (USA) ‘GOBOOKEM.COM’

IMMORTAL BAND COMPETITION

WED 5TH 7PM

ELECTRIFYING COMPETITION WITH EXCITING PRICES TO ENTER/PERFORM PLEASE CALL 95193978

THU 6TH 7PM

“THE CLEANSKINS”

FRI 7TH 7PM

“SLICK 46”

SAT 8TH 12PM

“EMERGENCY SYNDROME”

SAT 8TH 7PM

“SIDE TRACKED FIASCO”

SUN 9TH 12PM

“POUR HABIT”

SUN 9TH 5PM

SCHOOL OF ROCK

BLUES SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM MANY SPECIAL GUESTS

PUNK/SKA SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “EAGER 13” , “RUST” , “DARK HORSE” , “HIVEMIND”

PROG HARDCORE SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “THE WORLD IN CINEMATIC” , “AT THE GALLOWS’ AND GUESTS

GROOVE CORE SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “COSMIC KING” , “CLOUD FOUR” , “THE NINTH OF MAY”

PUNK ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “TOTALLY UNICORN” , “HIGHTIME” , “EPICS” , “BATFOOT”

SHOWCASE OF FINEST YOUNG TALENT

COMING UP: Wed 12 Dec: Punk/Comic/Indy Show with “Arse Eyes” , “Glen Chesthair” , “Micko The Sicko” and many more ; Thu 13 Dec: Reggae Show with “Kingston Flavas” and many more ; Fri 14 Dec: Rock Show with “Evil Ugly” - Album Release, “After Thirteen” , “Domino” , “Fatal Effect” ; Sat 15 Dec: 12pm: Indy Rock Show with “Colour Therapy” , “Laugh Riot” , “The Wildbloods” and guests ; 7pm: Rock’n’Roll/Punk Show with “The Corps” , “Dark Horse” , “Hostile Objects” , “Inebrious Bastards” , “Unknown To God” , “Roadside Burial” , “ ; Sun 16 Dec: 12pm: Christmas Rockout Show with “Amalgam” , “Stellar Addiction” , “The Damned Humans” , “Parenthia”, “The Chase” , “Jimmy Hale” , “Perception” , “Shift” , “Mike Danger” , “This Is Animal”

For band bookings please email valvebar@gmail.com

Bistro open Lunch and Dinner !!

WEDNESDAY 5TH DECEMBER

BACK TO BLACK: DYLAN AND CO

+ Evil J & Saint Cecilia + Georgia & Becca

THURSDAY 6TH DECEMBER

SONS OF SUN

- THE SAM PHILLIPS STORY FRIDAY 7TH DECEMBER

DRAGON SATURDAY 8TH DECEMBER

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

- A TRIBUTE TO THE EAGLES SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER

THE ROCK N SOUL REVIEW FEAT: CHRIS E THOMAS & WARDS XPRESS

WEDNESDAY 12TH DECEMBER

GRIND PRESENTS:

RICHARD CALABRO’S ALPHA OMEGA + The Book Of Vilah

COMING SOON Thursday 13 December 2 Voices Friday 14 December Rumours Saturday 15 December Classic Rock Show Sunday 16 December Alloway Tuesday 18 December Jeff Martin Wednesday 19 December Jeff Martin Thursday 20 December Caravãna Sun Friday 21 December King Tide Saturday 22 December King Tide Sunday 23 December Professor Groove And The Booty Affair Friday 28 December Tim Freedman Monday 31 December Ray Beadle Thursday 3 January Folk Uke Friday 4 January Half Moon Run Saturday 5 January Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson

OFX ZFBST new years rs ร TUBHFT 10 stag stages g es ร EBZT 3 dayss "35*454 */$-6%*/(

+PIO #VUMFS 5SJP ร 'SJFOEMZ 'JSFT %+ TFU ร 4IBSPO +POFT UIF %BQ ,JOHT ,SBGUZ ,VUT WT " 4LJMM[ ร ,",* ,*/( ร -6,& 4-"5&3 ร 5IF #MBDL 4FFET 6OLOPXO .PSUBM 0SDIFTUSB ร 5IF )FSE ร 5)&0 1"33*4) ร #-00% 3&% 4)0&4 %":40'45"5*$ ร HBVEJ ร UJKVBOB DBSUFM ร &-&$53*$ &.1*3& NBU NDIVHI UIF TFQFSBUJTUB TPVOE TZTUFN ร 5)& 50/(6& DMBJSZ CSPXOF UIF CBOHJOร SBDLFUUFT

IPVS OPSUI PG TZEOFZ 3Jฤ รฌS4ฤ รซF $Bฤ รทJOฤ ร .Bฤ รบJWฤ "ฤ รปT 1Sฤ รฎSBฤ ร 'Bฤ รชZ %Sฤ รบT ร $Iฤ รณE3ฤ รตT 'Fฤ รปJWฤ รณ

MOJO

HOME OF THE NEW

KELTS BAR

MIC Y EN ER OP T EV AY H D NIGHURS TIONS T TRA M

47355300 - 1 Leonay Parade Leonay 2750

7P GIS RE ROM F

AL OP L AG E E E NM S SU VERY IC ND RE GIS A FR TRA Y OM

FRI 7 DEC

TI 4P ONS M

KING TIDE SUPPORTS

COOKING WITH CAUSTIC, BACKYARD LAB, A BLANK CANVAS, PLUS DJ SPINNING BEATS FROM

Tickets $15 plus bf Presale or $18 plus bf on the door. Free Courtesy bus. Tickets available at www.moshtix.com.au, 1300 GET TIX (438 849) on your mobile & all moshtix outlets SAT 8 DEC FRI 21 DEC SAT 22 DEC FRI 18 JAN SAT 23 FEB

PETER GRANT CONNECTION - Free FLEETWOOD MAC TRIBUTE - Free THE END OF THE WORLD PARTY

FRONT END LOADER PLUS SUPPORT

ONE NON BLONDE -

Free

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR Uk touring artist, who won the best Blues award in the uk and recently played for the Queens Jubilee

WWW.EMUSPORTSCLUB.COM.AU

BAND BOOKINGS TO ARM.PRODUCTIONS@HOTMAIL.COM

Secret Sounds presents

with and

THE JUNGLE GIANTS

THU 3 JAN • HORDERN PAVILION ticketek.com.au, 132 849 (Licensed All Ages)

TICKETS ON SALE NOW twodoorcinemaclub.com secret-sounds.com.au

NEW ALBUM BEACON OUT NOW. FEATURES THE SINGLES SLEEP ALONE AND SUN.

WE’RE IN THE FINAL COUNTDOWN UNTIL THE SANDO BECOMES TAFKATS*

GIVEAWAYS songwriter Ricky Bloomfield, and he wants to give away two copies of the digital-only single. Winners will be given the download code.

SO COME ON DOWN AND SAY GOODBYE AND GRAB A BEER WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!! - THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE SANDO

WED 5 DEC THU 6 DEC

STREET LEVEL BAR:

FREE

PAUL HAYWARD’S LIVE PUNK ROCK KARAOKE FREE

FRI 7 DEC

The Trouble With Templeton are touring their latest single, Six Months In A Cast, and play Brighton Up Bar Wednesday 12 December. We have two double passes and copies of their debut, Bleeders.

MEET RICKY BLOOMFIELD Saturday night, The Lansdowne Hotel hosts the launch of the first single, Don’t Ask Me, from singer-

$12

HELLBRINGER (ALBUM LAUNCH)

+ THE WIZAR'D (TASMANIA)

+ RAMPAGE + CONVENT GUILT STREET LEVEL BAR:

FREE

$10

THE PREHISTORICS + MP5 + THE GRAND UNION

FREE

STREET LEVEL BAR: DAVE TICE AND MARK EVANS 4PM-7PM DJ KAKI 8PM-LATE

SUN 9 DEC STREET LEVEL BAR:

THE SHOUTIES “SKETCH CLUB”

MON 10 DEC STREET LEVEL BAR:

FREE

DRUM 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 brings you the latest news on tours, releases and more.

We look at the chemistry that will make this year’s Homebake even better.

Reanimated and very pleased to be, sonicanimation return.

“The Bitch is back!” Turbonegro assure us.

Another reunion to celebrate – Hot Snakes.

John Butler ponders the common sense of sustainability and Peats Ridge.

More pop-rock than pop-punk, say Mayday Parade. 36 Happily and defiantly independent, Four Tet is more successful than ever.

Long Beach punks Pour Habit remain laid back; Australia’s favourite Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman returns; the church continue to surprise and Kutcha Edwards channels the songlines. 38 The “crooked turns” of being Charles Jenkins and live is where the Tedeschi Trucks Band really show their colours. On The Record reviews new release albums and singles from The Coup, AC/DC, Blur and Led Zeppelin among others.

“THE SONGWRITER SESSIONS”

FREE

(USA)

(2 SHOWS – 8 ALBUMS) *** WWW.OZTIX.COM.AU *** ***NB: THIS SHOW IS NOW AT THE WALL (THE BALD FACED STAG) IN ANNANDALE***

20 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags

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; MusicNSW gives you the heads up on stuff to get involved in and Michael Smith delivers some Blow with jazz and world music news. 51 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.

Your guide to Homebake 2012 with map and times. 54

Muso – everything you need to know about the making and recording of music, from studios to gear and beyond.

PUBLISHER Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

iflog.com.au

CLASSIFIEDS ART DEPT artwork@drummedia.com.au Dave Harvey, Matt Davis

Mark Neilsen

COVER DESIGN

FRONT ROW EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

ANTI-FLAG

We talk to Homebake comedian, Tom Ballard and review Don’t Take Your Love To Town and

Cassandra Fumi frontrow@drummedia.com.au

SAT 29 DEC

Reviews of the past week’s big gigs including Redcoats, Alpine, Oh Mercy, Missy Higgins and Reel Big Fish.

Check out what’s happening This Week In Arts, Bobcat Goldthwait chats about God Bless America and we level with JB Smoove about his smoove moves.

COMING SOON

*** WWW.MOSHTIX.COM.AU ***NB: THIS SHOW IS NOW AT THE WALL (THE BALD FACED STAG) IN ANNANDALE***

LIVE

STREET LEVEL BAR: ADAM PRINGLE AND FRIENDS - FUNKY AS F#CK + TOOHEYS $6 NEW JUGS (7-8PM)

PSYCHOTIC TURNBUCKLES

Funny man Matt Okine has a chat pre-Homebake and comedy legend Stephen Merchant levels about his new DVD, Hello Ladies, while half of independent theatre darlings, Sister Grimm’s Ash Flanders chats about Psycho Beach Party. 45

The Classies – need a singer/bassist/drummer/ any other service/product you can think of? Your answer is here. And on iflog.com.au.

FRONT ROW

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Michael Smith, Scott Fitzsimons

SAT 15 DEC

Rapid White: Hollywood Ending, while Cultural Cringe gives us the art news and Trailer Trash gets into 007.

It’s all here: Tour guide, what’s happening in indie news this week, gig guide and more.

EDITOR

TUE 11 DEC

Mixed by Nervo and the Stafford Brothers, Future Entertainment and EMI Music have proudly just released the two CD set, Future Sound Of 2013, curated by the Summadayze and Future Music Festival. We have three copies of Future Sounds Of 2013 to give away.

T H E D R U M M E D I A I S S U E 1 1 3 9 T U E S D AY 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2

GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast

UNHERD OPEN MIC

FUTURE SOUNDS NOW

FOR MORE GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK HEAD TO FACEBOOK.COM/DRUMMEDIA AND CLICK ON THE GIVEAWAYS TAB

Alexisonfire bid Australia – and the world – farewell. 30

VIDEO JUKE BOX

SAT 8 DEC

Sydney’s own international dance music maestro Sam Sparro is back in town this Friday night at The Standard – we have two double passes to the show on offer.

TEMPLETON TROUBLE

ANDY GOLLEDGE + SPECIAL GUESTS

STREET LEVEL BAR: + $3 SCHOONERS OF SANDO LAGER

SPARRO’S BACK IN TOWN

The Trouble With Templeton

THE SANDRINGHAM HOTEL - 387 KING STREET NEWTOWN / 9557 1254 BOOKINGSCONTACT SANDO@ATOMICDROP.COM.AU

Adam Curley CONTRIBUTORS Adam Wilding, Alex Hardy, Anthony Carew, Bethany Small, Brendan Crabb, Brent Balinski, Bryget Chrisfield, Celline Narinli, Chris Familton, Chris Maric, Cyclone, Dan Condon, Danielle O’Donohue, Dave Drayton, Guy Davis, Helen Lear, Huwston, Jake Millar, Jamelle Wells, James d’Apice, James Dawson, 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, 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

Dave Harvey ACCOUNTS DEPT accounts@streetpress.com.au GIVEAWAYS/GIG GUIDE Justine Lynch THE DRIVERS Grant, David, Julian, Ray, Paul, Al, Mark PRINTING Rural Press (02) 4570 4444 DISTRIBUTION distro@drummedia.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions are $2.20 per week (Minimum of 12 weeks) – Send your details with payment to Subscriptions Dept, The Drum Media, PO Box 2440 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 (cheques/money orders to be made payable to Dharma Media Pty Ltd) ADDRESS Postal: PO Box 2440 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Street: Level 1/142 Chalmers St Surry Hills NSW 2010 Phone (02) 9331 7077 Fax (02) 9331 2633 Email info@drummedia.com.au www.themusic.com.au The Drum Media is also available on iPad via the iTunes App Store

www.thebasement.com.au

The Home of Live Music Since 1973 THURSDAY 6 DECEMBER

JOHNNY G

& THE E-TYPES STAX SOUL CHRISTMAS REVUE, FEATURING SYDNEY’S HOTTEST NORTHERN SOUL BAND

JAMES MORRISON

TAKE A LOOK

W/ KONRAD PASZKUDZKI & JEFF CLAYTON

FRI 7 DEC

RAY BEADLE + GUESTS

SAT 8 DEC

IDEA OF NORTH

WED 12 DEC

NIC JEFFRIES

THU 13 DEC

‘SINATRA’ ROCKS

FRI 14 DEC

OUR FAVOURITE JAZZ MAN, WITH SPECIAL US GUESTS

SYDNEY’S GENTLEMAN OF BLUES GUITAR

CHRISTMAS GOES A CAPPELLA – AN ANNUAL TRADITION

THE SOUL OF CHRISTMAS FROM THE RISING JAZZ STAR

THE BASEMENT

JEFF DUFF SINGING SINATRA IN YULETIDE MODE

TRUE FUNK SOLDIERS: A NIGHT OF PRINCE

THE HITS MEET THE RAREITIES IN THIS HOMAGE TO THE PURPLE ONE

SAT 15 DEC

SHAMELESS SEAMUS TUE & THE TULLAMORE DEWS 18 + DOG TRUMPET

JIM MOGINIE (MIDNIGHT OIL) GOES IRISH

DEC

NEWS FROM THE BASEMENT OUR FEATURE WINE FOR DECEMBER IS ROBERT OATLEY’S AURELIA SPARKLING. CHECK IN ON FACEBOOK EACH THURSDAY & FRIDAY TO RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY GLASS, THEN $4.50 PRICES FOR THE NIGHT. FOLLOW US: ON FACEBOOK @ THE BASEMENT SYDNEY & ON TWITTER @ #DOOR_DIVA CHECK IN ON FACEBOOK EVERY THURSDAY & FRIDAY FOR DISCOUNTS AT THE BAR 21

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

DOUBLE AXE ATTACK Already announced for festivals around the country, this coming Easter will see two of the planet’s biggest rock acts come together in a dynamic double-bill when Santana and Steve Miller Band take the stage. The co-headline show hits Sydney Entertainment Centre on Wednesday 27 March. Tickets are on sale from 9am Friday 7 December.

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

Robert Cray

BEST OF THE BLUES Gotye @ The ARIA Awards. Pic by Cole Bennetts.

ARIA AWARD RATINGS SLUMP DESPITE STAR APPEAL Television ratings for last week’s ARIA Awards were down on last year’s, but the broadcast still topped the free-to-air multichannels for the night. Bringing in 304,000 viewers, the show failed to crack the top 20 overall shows. It was the second year that the awards have been screened on Nine’s digital multichannel Go! and last year – when it was held on a Sunday – it rated with 369,000 viewers as the 19th most watched show of the night. A delayed broadcast, pundits have speculated that live tweeting and the rapid spread of information from the night may have turned off viewers who were interested in the Awards’ winners. The ARIA Awards moved to the digital channel after the continual eroding of ratings on the primary free-to-air networks, which culminated in the universally-panned ‘Opera House’ year of 2010 when Ten saw 634,000 viewers tune into a live and messy ceremony. At the same broadcast time Channel Nine aired Getaway, which attracted 633,000 viewers. Taylor Swift and Russell Brand brought some international appeal to the night, with UK website The Guardian running a photo of Swift. The BBC also ran a story highlighting Gotye’s four wins, as did the San Francisco Chronicle. Rapper Nicki Minaj’s impact on the night was less notable. The awards ditched the traditional tables set up for arena seating at the Sydney Entertainment Centre this year, with the industry dinner served at half-time via ‘food stations’ in the foyer. The highlight of the ceremony was undoubtedly an emotional performance from Hall Of Fame inductees Yothu Yindi, who were joined on stage by Paul Kelly, Peter Garrett, Jessica Mauboy and Dan Sultan. Performing their classic, Treaty, before being inducted by Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett, the Sydney Entertainment Centre’s crowd was on its feet in unison during the performance. Iconic vocalist Mandawuy Yunupingu gave a moving speech in accepting the induction on behalf of the band, calling for support to fight kidney disease in the Aboriginal community and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. At times struggling with the auto-cue, the audience – including the younger public who had been extremely vocal for Taylor Swift and other pop stars throughout the night – was immensely respectful during the speech. As mentioned, Gotye managed to pick up four awards during the night – Album Of The Year, Best Male, Best Live Act and Best Pop Release – with Kimbra nabbing Best Female, The Temper Trap Best Group and Matt Corby the fan-voted Best Song.

SPICKS AND SPECKS BACK IN 2013 The much-loved ABC music quiz show, Spicks And Specks, is set to return to the public broadcaster in 2013. Announced as part of their 2013 program, a spokesperson confirmed that the show will have a new host, new team captains and new games in its revival. The show was previously hosted by comedian Adam Hills, currently working in the UK, with team captains Alan Brough, performing in the Sydney production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Myf Warhurst. It aired for seven years. The ABC have not set a date for the announcement of the new hosts or captains. The show announced it would be stopping in May 2011 and music industry stakeholders complained it was a loss for music programming. At the time a spokesperson from the ABC told theMusic. com.au, “It’s not our choice to finish it; the guys have decided that they want to call it a day. It’s not the ABC’s decision to finish the show; obviously we’d love to keep it because it’s such a popular show.” Also announced was a new series from Angry Boys and We Can Be Heroes creator Chris Lilley and a revamp of their market-leading online catch-up service, iview.

PRESENTED BY

In the latest Bluesfest sideshow announcement, three legendary artists will play together on one incredible bill. Robert Cray, Taj Mahal and Shuggie Otis will come together for a run of shows to rival any blues line-up you’ll see anywhere next year bar none. They’ll play Enmore Theatre on Saturday 23 March.

OUT OF THE BEDROOM The Red Bull Bedroom Jam is nearing its end for this year. The last hurrah is naming six bands to take to the stage at Homebake on Saturday 8 December at The Domain. The winners are Go Mason Go (NSW), The Vanns (NSW), Altitude (Vic), Syd Kids (NSW), Tired Lion (WA) and Blueberry Circuit (NSW). Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters

SENSATIONAL NEWS Following the announcement of his appearances on Byron Bay’s Bluesfest, Robert Plant will also now be performing a series of headline shows along with his band the Sensational Space Shifters, which in Drum parts is at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Thursday 28 March. The Sensational Space Shifters are described as a loose band “inspired by the roots music of Mississippi, Appalachia, Gambia, Bristol and the foothills of Wolverhampton and drawing on influences collected in a lifetime of meander and journeying.”

BLUE MOUNTAINS MUSIC ADD BANDS The Blue Mountains Music Festival have announced the addition of yet more superb artists to the line-up of their 18th festival, including Kate Miller-Heidke, Go Jane Go, Baby Et Lulu, The Popes, Mama Kin, Jordan Millar and The Barons Of Tang. The festival takes place in and around the Clarendon Guesthouse in Katoomba over the weekend of 15 – 17 March.

ONE MORE NIGHT ONLY

TAKE YOUR MEDICINE The Rock ‘n Soul Medicine Show is a series of national performances that bring together Tim Rogers of You Am I and soul/funksters The Bamboos. The seeds were sown earlier this year when Rogers collaborated with Bamboos bandleader Lance Ferguson on I Got Burned, which was included on the Bamboos album, Medicine Man. The full ten-piece onstage line-up for these shows will be led by Rogers on vocals and bandleader Ferguson on guitar and they play Thursday 7 March at the Hi-Fi.

SWISS FOLK METALLERS Part of the self-described “new wave of folk metal”, Swiss octet Eluveitie will finally land on our shores in May. Get ready for a tour that will expose your ears to their musical genius – the band are considered one of the best live acts in folk metal. They play Saturday 25 May at the Metro Theatre.

ALEXA AS JLO SUPPORT Melbourne singer-songwriter Kate Alexa will be joining pop superstar Jennifer Lopez for JLO’s first ever Australian tour, which commences next Thursday in Perth. The Friday 14 December Allphones Arena show is sold out but there are still tickets available for the Saturday 15 show at the same venue.

22 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

After playing a string of sold-out shows here in 2010, The Tallest Man On Earth’s highly anticipated return to Australia is finally happening in February. The Tallest Man On Earth has incredible guitar skills and beautiful vocals, and considering the speed at which the last Australian shows sold out, it’s recommended you get your tickets early. He plays Tuesday 5 March at Sydney Opera House and Wednesday 6 at Zierholz in Canberra.

BRYAN ADAMS SUPPORT The recent announcement that Bryan Adams would be embarking on a national arena tour left fans across Australia overjoyed. The excitement doesn’t stop there with this week’s news that UK and Europe superstar Amy Macdonald is confirmed to support. They play Thursday 18 April at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, Friday 19 at Sydney Entertainment Centre and Friday 26 at Newcastle Entertainment Centre.

Joining Django Django on their forthcoming Australian headline shows are Palms and Twinsy. They all play Friday 11 January at The Metro Theatre.

FUTURE CLASSIC LANEWAY STAGE

BLOCK PARTY

Tim Rogers and Lance Ferguson

BEAN POLE

DJANGO SUPPORTS OUT

Future Entertainment returns with their series of One Night Only events and on Friday 4 January at Home in Darling Harbour they are set to deliver their biggest line-up to date. Who’s playing? Who knows! You’ll have to wait until New Year’s Day when all will be revealed.

Since its inception in 2010 Big Village has been a collectively-run and forward-thinking label with a strong focus on raising the quality and diversity within the Australian music scene. The label’s throwing an Xmas Block Party at GoodGod Small Club on Saturday 22 December to celebrate. The line-up features Daily Meds, True Vibenation, Loose Change, Mute & Kit Complete, Suburban Dark, Tenth Dan & Grub, DJs Klue, Roleo and Migz.

The Tallest Man On Earth

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

GET SEEDY Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced they will bring their new show to Australia in February and March. With it they will bring music from right across their 15 studio albums, including the “rich inquisitiveness” that is their new long player, Push The Sky Away, to be released in February. The tour will kick off in Sydney on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 February with their debut shows at Sydney Opera House, where parts of the show will feature members of the Sydney Symphony. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.

CHOW DOWN IN CHOW TOWN Big Day Out’s Culinary Outlaws, Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz of Porteno/Bodega have secured a line-up of some of the hottest, spiciest and tastiest names in Australian food to become a part of the inaugural Chow Town at Big Day Out. The food will be provided by Louis Tikaram from Longrain; Mark LaBrooy, Darren Robertson and Shannon Debrecency from Three Blue Ducks; Gregory Llewellyn from Hartsyard; Jonathan Barthelmess from The Apollo and Alejanandro Urbina of Rojo Rocket. BDO Sydney happens on Friday 18 January at the Sydney Showgrounds.

The 2013 Laneway Festival will feature a stage presented by Future Classic, the Sydney-based collective responsible for numerous electronica-based projects. Appearing on the Future Classic Stage in February will be Nicolas Jaar, Flume, Holy Other, Shlohmo, Jessie Ware, Julia Holter and Nite Jewel. You can check out the Laneway-themed mixtape Future Classic made for you at the Future Classic Soundcloud page. Laneway takes place on Saturday 2 February at Sydney College Of The Arts.

FIRING UP Indie folk duo The Firetree are hitting the road this summer to promote the release of their brand new single, After The World Ends, as well as their debut live album, Live At The Basement. They play Tuesday 8 January at The Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle, Sunday 13 at Terrigal Hotel, Tuesday 15 at Cafe Lounge, Friday 18 at The Beresford, Saturday 19 at Mars Hill Cafe, Sunday 20 at Bucklers Canteen and Monday 28 at The Front Gallery in Canberra.

SYDONIA TO SYDNEY Sydonia have announced a pre-Christmas jaunt to NSW. After a hugely successful Words Tour in September, the explosive band returns to jam pack The Square on Friday 14 December. Local main support Milkk are set to destroy and the always dangerous Berkshire Hunting Club will open.

MORE MOTLEY KISS Fans from all over Australia have come out in force for the biggest, baddest rock tour of the summer and as such a second KISS, Mötley Crüe, Thin Lizzy and Diva Demolition show has been announced at Allphones Arena on Sunday 10 March.

Bring Me The Horizon

ENDS OF THE EARTH Bring Me The Horizon have been working hard to cement themselves as a dominant force in the heavy music scene. With their new album, Sempiternal, to be released in time for their Soundwave appearances, they will also be tearing Sydney and Melbourne a new one as part of their sidewave shows. Joining the bill on support duties are Pierce The Veil. The show will touch down on Tuesday 26 February at The Hi-Fi.

THURSDAY 6 DEC

THE

DREY ROLLAN BAND

+ COOP DE VILLE + DJ SINEAD DECEMBER ROCKABILLY THURSDAYS THURSDAY 13 DECEMBER

THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS + MOTHER & SON + DJ JACK SH*T

THURSDAY 20 DECEMBER

JORDAN C THOMAS + THE HIGHTONES + DJ BRIAN

THURSDAY 27 DECEMBER

THE DREY ROLLAN BAND

+ MISS PIA ANDERSON & HER LONESOME PLAYBOYS + DJ Dylabolical

NO cover charge

WED-SUN 5pm til late

LEVEL 1 - THE STAR, 80 PYRMONT ST, SYDNEY - 1800 700 700 facebook.com/rocklily.live - STAR.COM.AU The Star Pty Limited ABN 25 060 510 410. Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858 www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au. Guests must be aged 18 years or over to enter the Casino.

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

DING-A-LING Jonny Telafone is a Melbourne-based bedroom auteur responsible for a series of cassette and digital releases over the last five years. After destroying audiences at the 20 Big Ones shows in Melbourne and Sydney this month, he’s announced a series of launches for his new self-titled record on Chapter Music, a best-of taking the unusual form of a foursong vinyl EP accompanied by a 20-track CD. Telafone plays Friday 4 January at The Terrace Bar in Newcastle and Thursday 10 at GoodGod Small Club.

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

Taj Mahal

IT AIN’T OVER YET For Bluesfest 2013 the question “aren’t they done yet?” can be answered with a clear “no”. There is no stopping Bluesfest and they’ve dropped another announcement bomb. Newcomers to the packed bill include Counting Crows, Ben Harper (solo), The Lumineers, Taj Mahal, Shuggie Otis, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Ben Howard, Tav Falco & The Panther Burns, JD McPherson, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Soja, Jake Shimabukuro and Damien Dempsey. For the full festival line-up and the latest playing schedule go to bluesfest.com.au. Tame Impala

BIG FELLAS

TAME IMPALA TOP NME BEST ALBUM LIST World-beating Perth psych-rock outfit Tame Impala have topped British magazine NME’s influential Best Albums Of 2012 poll, with spin-off project Pond also landing in the top ten. Confirming the world’s current love affair with that Perth scene at the moment, Tame Impala’s lauded Lonerism has become the first Australian release to top the list, beating out releases from Mercury-winners Alt-J as well as Grimes, Frank Ocean, Crystal Castles and The Maccabees. Coming in at seven was fellow Perth rockers Pond, who share members Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson with Impala, with their album, Beard Wives Denim. Tame Impala also won triple j’s J Award earlier this month.

CON GALLIN CONFIRMS PURCHASE OF ALLANS BILLY HYDE Melbourne-based musical instrument retailer Con Gallin has confirmed the purchase of the Allans Music and Billy Hyde. Gallin, who is the Managing Director of Australian Musical Imports and Gallin’s Musician’s Pro Shop had been the highest-profile bidder on the debt-ridden stores since parent company Australian Music Group Holdings went into receivership. He repeatedly told theMusic.com. au that his bids for the retail store chain had been knocked back but has now confirmed a deal. Gallin has also confirmed that of the existing stores, the Southport (Qld), Sydney, Alexandria, Parramatta (all NSW), Adelaide (SA) and Blackburn and Bourke Street, Melbourne (all Vic) locations will continue to trade, with the “majority” of staff from those locations to be kept on. Although this means there will be losses, it is a far better outcome than was feared. Gallin said, “My first job part-time while at school was at Allans Music in Collins Street, Melbourne and now I bought the company, although it wasn’t an easy decision as it’s going to take a lot of hard work and commitment to rejuvenate these stores. We couldn’t sit back and let Allans’ 160-year history and Billy Hyde’s 50-year history of supplying instruments to musicians disappear forever. Mozart bought his first keyboard somewhere 250 years ago and The Beatles bought guitars and drums 50 years ago – the world will always need music and music stores offer everyone an opportunity to create it!” The deal is effective immediately. The current liquidation sale will continue, with stock from the AMI/Gallin’s warehouse and suppliers set to replenish those existing stores and extend the sale to Christmas.

ARIA STREAMING CHART TO LAUNCH 9 DECEMBER ARIA’s much-touted streaming music chart will officially launch Sunday 9 December, ARIA CEO Dan Rosen confirmed last week. Following in the footsteps of the UK market, the service will aggregate listens across the streaming services in Australia. Announced at the inaugural ARIA Week’s ARIA Masterclass conference, it was not confirmed if all the streaming services currently active in Australia – which include Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, JB Hi-Fi Now, Mog, Rara and others – would be included in the chart. Rosen also confirmed that the streaming chart’s ‘second phase’ will include its incorporation into the singles chart, which is primarily based on digital downloads in the current climate.

PRESENTED BY

The Presets

JUST PRESS PLAY The Presets have announced their long-awaited return to Australian stages with their first national tour since 2009. Having headlined Parklife Festival earlier this year, The Presets play Monday 11 February at Enmore Theatre with Parachute Youth and Light Year.

TOWNES EARLE TOUR Justin Townes Earle is returning for another Australian tour in February. Joining Townes Earle on this trip for his first foray down under will be burgeoning Houston singersongwriter Robert Ellis, who earned widespread acclaim for his debut album Photographs. They play Tuesday 5 February at The Basement, Wednesday 6 at Coogee Diggers, Friday 8 at The Heritage Hotel in Bulli, Saturday 9 at Milton Theatre, Sunday 10 at The Annandale Hotel and Wednesday 13 at Lizotte’s Newcastle.

NOAH’S ARK Experimental voyagers Animal Collective return to our shores for their third Australian tour this January, and are pleased to announce Africa Hitech will be joining them opening the shows. They play Wednesday 16 January at Enmore Theatre.

Dumbsaint

BIG CHOPPERS Melbourne genre-hoppers Twelve Foot Ninja have managed to snare a handful of exceptional acts to join them on their Silent Machine Tour. Joining them at The Cambridge Hotel Newcastle Thursday 10 January and The Annandale Hotel Friday 11 are the epic post-rock instrumental outfit Dumbsaint, along with up-and-coming alt.rockers Teal.

Margaret River locals Stillwater Giants have established a blend of dreamy coastal pop and thundering rock over the last 18 months or so. As they set their sights towards a debut full-length record in 2013, the band have accepted the task of bridging Australia’s great divide – announcing a run of tour dates for the East Coast for the first time. They’ll play Wednesday 12 December at The Beach Road Hotel in Bondi.

EXTRA MACKLEMORE/LEWIS

BIRD IS THE WORD English singer-songwriter Jasmine van den Bogaerde (aka Birdy) is heading over for her first Australian tour and will present an all-ages show at Sydney Opera House Friday 12 April. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Wednesday 12 December.

24 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

Julia Stone will be touring in February next year for Heavenly Sounds. Stone’s new solo album, By The Horns, has been receiving rave reviews worldwide, while her recent tours saw her captivating audiences in Europe, the UK and her sold-out national tour here in Australia. For these new concerts, Stone will be touring with Ross Irwin (Cat Empire, The Bamboos), Ben Edgar and Ed Fairly (Gotye), who will all be playing a variety of instruments. She plays Thursday 14 February at St Stephen’s Uniting Church.

MARDI GRAS MUSIC A sparkling line-up of international and Australian stars will be heading to Sydney to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Mardi Gras. Performers at Mardigrasland include British legend Heather Small, Delta Goodrem, The Presets, Jake Shears, Crystal Pepsi, Wayne G, Bimbo Jones, Garçon Garçon, Stereogamous, Shaun J Wright and more. Sydney’s Harbour Party will get party-goers pumping with superstar house music DJ David Morales. There’s also Sydney’s famous Laneway Party, and this year the event plays host to Samantha Jade. There is tons of entertainment over the three-week festival.

WAZZUP Brisbane locals Hey Geronimo are celebrating summer with the release of a brand new single, Dreamboat Jack. Having also just been announced as the national support for next year’s Presidents Of The USA shows, the band are helping punters through summer with a run of side shows. As well as Homebake this weekend, they’ll play Friday 28 December at The Beresford Hotel, Saturday 29 at The Great Northern Hotel Newcastle and NYE at Peats Ridge Festival.

SMIDGE OF DIDJ As a whitefella, Charlie McMahon has successfully straddled the divide between vastly different cultures and in doing so he has taken didj music to the world. McMahon has toured and recorded with Midnight Oil, Snakefinger, Jane’s Addiction, Hisashi Shirahama, Ed Keupper and many more. He’s launching his new CD, Didj Heart, and will play a show at Tortuga Studios in St Peters Friday 14 December.

In Conversation is 2SER and Groovescooter’s live Q&A event’s next edition features one of the most adventurous artists in Australian pop – Sarah Blasko. With new album, I Awake, and more to discuss, Blasko will be in conversation with 2SER Music Director Andrew Khedoori from 7pm Wednesday 12 December at The Green Room (Enmore). You’re encouraged to RSVP by emailing inconversation@2ser.com.

Kerser is back with his second album, No Rest For The Sickest. and a national tour that boasts huge supports at every stop including At Large, Rates, Jaydee and many more. He performs Thursday 31 January at Entrance Leagues Club and Saturday 2 February at The Hi-Fi.

STONE COLD

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have announced a third and final show for Sydney on Monday 11 February at The Metro. The group’s album, The Heist, has also just been announced as triple j’s Feature Album of the Week this week. Their other two Metro dates have sold out.

BLASKO IN CONVERSATION

NO REST FOR THE SICKEST

Julia Stone

Death Grips

GET A GRIP Following a gamechanging year of turning the internet on its head and what is expected to be an explosive appearance at Big Day Out, the uncompromising force that is Death Grips will launch a full-scale assault on audiences this January with their own headline shows. Death Grips’ rare live shows are a visceral experience described as a bloody, toothy kiss on the mouth that will bring you to your knees. Cop it on Saturday 19 January at Oxford Art Factory.

SMITH STREET SUMMER SHOWS The Smith Street Band won a lot of hearts this year with much-loved second album, Sunshine & Technology, and some seriously extensive touring. Next, they’ll celebrate summer with buddies Bomb The Music Industry (USA) and Melbourne bros The Bennies by visiting a whole bunch of fun new places, as well as some familiar favourites, as part of their Young Drunks Tour. Catch it all on Friday 15 February at The Annandale Hotel, Saturday 16 at The Great Northern in Newcastle and Sunday 17 at a venue TBC in Canberra.

GUITAR LEGEND TOUR From his early work with the legendary John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to his work with the biggest band on the planet, The Rolling Stones, along with his own solo work, guitarist Mick Taylor is renowned for his consummate skill and impeccable taste. Forty years since he last visited Australia with the Stones and fresh from his recent anniversary shows with the legendary band, Mick Taylor is coming back with his own band of musical heavy hitters and will play Friday 26 April at Lizotte’s Newcastle and Saturday 27 at The Metro.

HOLIDAY ROAD Half Moon Run

MOON WALK Half Moon Run’s unique sound fuses the restless elements of indie, pop and roots with rhythmic harmonies, delicate guitar lines and a hint of electronica, and combine varied musical backgrounds, often trading instruments to great effect. Their complex arrangements are probably best explained by seeing them live. You can do so on Wednesday 2 January at The Vanguard, Thursday 3 at Yours & Owls in Wollongong, Friday 4 at The Brass Monkey in Cronull, Saturday 5 at The Standard and Thursday 25 at The Steyne in Manly.

The Griswolds celebrate their first year with the release of their third single, The Courtship Of Summer Preasley, and will mark its release with a series of Sydney shows and festival appearances across the summer. They play this Wednesday at The Beach Road Hotel, Homebake on the weekend, Friday 21 December at The Backroom and NYE at Peats Ridge Festival.

TRAICOS TO TOUR With the critical platitudes and success awarded the In Another Life album and tour, Catherine Traicos is pleased to announce some new shows stretching across summer as well as the launch of her very own Facebook app. She plays this Saturday at Petersham Bowls Club and Thursday 28 February at The Green Room Lounge.

ON SALE NOW TICKETS FROM MOSHTIX.COM.AU 1300 438 849

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

ORPHANS XMAS 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

LOCAL STREAMING MARKET ‘WILL BE CARNAGE’ The music streaming market in Australia was given a blunt assessment by experts and stakeholders last week. The panel, part of ARIA Week’s ARIA Masterclass, featured representatives from locally available streaming services Spotify and JB Hi-Fi Now as well as video giants YouTube and Vevo. Scott Browning, Marketing Director of JB Hi-Fi, whose streaming service was one of the first to enter the market but hasn’t been the most prominent, admitted there was a lot of competition in the market with as many as ten services launched in the last 12 months. “The nature of competition is that it favours winners, so there’s going to be a lot of losers,” he said. “It’s going to be carnage, but it’s going to be fun.” Current streaming services in the Australian market include JB Hi-Fi Now, Spotify, Rdio, Mog, Deezer, rara and Songl as well as specific device-aimed Sony Music Unlimited, BBM Music, Xbox Music and Samsung Music Hub.

SONY MUSIC RE-SIGN LABEL DEAL WITH ALBERT’S Sony Music Entertainment Australia have re-signed their label deal with music rights management house Albert’s in a “long-term” agreement for Australia and New Zealand. Albert’s also manages the music publishing rights of established and developing creatives including the works of AC/DC, Vanda & Young, Wally DeBacker (Gotye), Megan Washington, writer/producer Lee Groves, plus up-andcomers Hungry Kids of Hungary and San Cisco.

PRESENTED BY

Stan Ridgway

TV DJ DUDE

STAN, VOODOO MAN Stan Ridgway will be joined on his first Australian tour in over 15 years with long-time cohorts Pietra Wexstun on keyboards, melodica and vocals, Rick King on guitar, bass and vocals and Bruce Zelesnik on drums and percussion. Expect a thoroughly entertaining evening with one of America’s greatest songwriters and storytellers as Ridgway draws on his impressively deep catalogue of classic solo albums and Wall Of Voodoo favourites. He plays Thursday 16 May at The Basement and Friday 17 at Factory Theatre.

BEST ON GROUND Sneaky Sound System, Zoe Badwi and Sarah de Bono complete the headline acts to be named by Cricket Australia to perform at this summer’s Commonwealth Bank Series. This follows Cricket Australia’s recent announcement that Grammy Awardwinners Basement Jaxx would be coming down under to play a DJ set during the series. At the SCG, on Sunday 20 January at Australia v Sri Lanka Basement Jaxx will play and on Friday 8 February at Australia v West Indies Sneaky Sound System will perform.

CLOVEN HOOFED FRIENDS From humble beginnings as an obscure San Francisco noise act, Deerhoof have become one of indie music’s most influential bands with their unruly take on pop. Deerhoof are returning to Australia on the back for their 12th self-produced release, Breakup Song, which is a slice of Cuban-flavoured party-noise music. They’ll play Saturday 2 March at The Annandale.

SLEEPER AGENT Oh, Sleeper stand armed and ready to annihilate Australian stages once again this summer in support of their third full-length album, Children Of Fire, a

26 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

Three years running, Sunburnt Christmas is one of Australia’s biggest Christmas Day festivals and it takes place at Bondi Beach. The festival targets international students and backpackers who are away from home on Christmas Day and want to enjoy the beach with great DJ acts. Headlining this year’s festival is UK act DJ Yoda and he’ll be joined by Ember, Nukewood, Helena (UK), Johnny B, DJ Pooch, Social Hooliganz, Monty (UK), Danny Simms, Shipwreck, Urby (UK), Valentine and more.

career-defining statement. They’ll be supported on this tour by Sydney’s For All Eternity and Melburnians Storm The Sky. They play Saturday 2 Febuary at The Annandale (18+) and Sunday 3 at The Wall (all ages).

DROPPIN’ UKE BOMBS Folk Uke are Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson. Though they were raised on the road by two of the most revered families in music, they held out against the idea of going into the “family business” for as long as they could. They began playing with lyrics and various musical instruments and eventually stumbled into a music store and bought a ukulele. Folk Uke was born. They’re heading out for Woodford Folk Festival and will play Thursday 3 January at The Brass Monkey and Friday 4 at The Basement Circular Quay.

CITY AND COUNTRIES In support of their recently released single, When It Breaks, Tokyo Denmark Sweden have released a new film clip and announced an East Coast tour. After the great success of their debut single, Little Quarters, When It Breaks has been added to triple j, triple j Unearthed and Radar and is also receiving love on community radio. They’ll play Friday 7 December at World Bar and Friday 11 January at The Beresford.

Acclaimed actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter and general all ‘round funk dude, DJ Craig Charles is touring Australia for the first time. The Coronation Street and Red Dwarf star has carved out a highly successful DJ career on the side and will showcase his skills at The Basement on Saturday 2 February.

IRISH EYES Having performed at WOMADelaide and Port Fairy Folk Festival earlier this year, Irish singer-songwriter Sharon Shannon returns to Australia for a more extensive national tour and will play Saturday 5 January at Lizotte’s Dee Why, Sunday 6 at Lizotte’s Newcastle, Tuesday 8 at the Clarendon Guesthouse in Katoomba and Wednesday 9 at The Basement Circular Quay.

Guerre

STANDARD SUMMER FARE Saturday 8 December The Standard are hosting Free Party with a talented line-up of local Sydney bands featuring Cogel, The Mountains, The Cadres, DJ Devola and DJ Shantan. Then on Saturday 15 get along to The Standard and witness the forefront of Sydney’s experimental beats movement when Half Time presents Guerre, Moon Holiday, Gnome and Lanterns, plus the Astral DJs.

As an observer at our Homebake shoot, Bryget Chrisfield notices definite chemistry between Kimbra, Daniel Merriweather, Sam Sparro, Seth Sentry and Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos). With press shots in the bag, this potential Aussie/Kiwi super-group need to book studio time immediately. Cover and feature pics by Kane Hibberd. t was a fun shoot,” Daniel Merriweather extols when we sit down on a couch for a chat in the photographer’s studio once the session’s wrapped. “I think, like, one thing that Blondie did was always have amazing visuals, they always looked great and it was definitely a cool theme to emulate today. Everyone in the room knew each other and are fans of each other’s. We kind of feel like we are in a band in a way.” Given the five artists who will all be gracing this year’s Homebake stage infiltrated each other’s personal space to recreate Blondie’s self-titled debut album front for this cover shot, it’s fortunate they were already acquainted. Merriweather was kind enough to bring an extra black dinner jacket for Seth Sentry, who admits, “I don’t know anything about Blondie. I grew up listening to rap music and stuff. I couldn’t name a Blondie song. Still. Is that bad? You tell me a Blondie song and I’ll tell you if I know it.” Ummm… Rapture Rapture?? “Oh, yeah, okay, all right. Like, to me that’s a KRS-One song. There’s a KRS-One song [[Step Step Into A World (Rapture’s Delight) Delight)]] that samples that and that was a massive, massive song for me growing up. So I do know Blondie. I guess she’s crossing genres.”

“I

Sam Sparro laughs, “I’m shocked!” When asked when he first became aware of Blondie, Sparro shares, “It just seems like they’ve been around forever. I mean, they have been around my whole life but, yeah! I think I’ve got about three of their records at home on vinyl, but I’m such a disco head. And I love how they came from the CBGB scene and, like, punk bands kind of didn’t take them seriously in New York. They were sort of more pop and their songs were more musical. And then they segued into disco, which I think is really cool, but a lot of the other bands on the scene in CBGBs apparently just hated them. They were so ahead of their time. The fact that she was a white chick rapping on records! And, you know, she was 30-years old when they broke through, which, in this business, that’s quite amazing! That really doesn’t happen much these days and she’s always looked so good. They’re such an influential band. They’ve certainly had an influence on my music, yeah.” “She’s probably had an impact on people that inspire me,” Merriweather considers, “but I never really had direct contact with the band, you know, they were before my time and anything old that I listened to was definitely R&B. But they’re an amazing band and she’s still hot to this day.” “She’s cool,” Lance Ferguson, songwriter/ guitarist with The Bamboos offers. “And, you know, I didn’t wanna

say, ‘I thought she was hot’ [laughs]. I remember as a child listening to Heart Of Glass and I knew there was some controversy at the time ‘cause she sang the lyric ““pain pain in the ass ass”” and I remember, even as a little kid, realising that was some risqué thing she’d done. Although objectively [it’s] hardly outrageous by today’s standards: just turn on a TV and you’re gonna hear far worse than that. But my first memory of Blondie is really liking that song and going, ‘She kind of swore in it and that’s cool. That’s fucking cool’.”

There’s more to this story

on the iPad

Kimbra was recently reminded of Blondie’s catalogue while she was touring with Mini Mansions, Queens Of The Stone Age bassist Michael Shuman’s new side-project, in the States when they ripped out a cover of aforementioned song. “They supported me on a couple of shows in LA and they do a cover of Heart Of Glass Glass,” ,” she explains. “They do this really dark version and it starts really low, but then you realise what it is and I just was reminded – it’s such a great song! And then it made me go back to listen to the original again…[Debbie Harry’s] definitely got her thing going: a signature sound, a signature look and for a female artist, you know, that’s an inspiring thing.” On whether she’s invited artists up on stage for guest appearances during her shows, Kimbra reveals, “I’ve done it in America. I had, um, I don’t know if you know the band The Dilinger Escape Plan? A mathcore metal band. I’ve started doing some work with the guitarist in the States and, since we were both in New York together, at the New York show he got up and did a ripping guitar solo

in Come Into My Head. Head Everyone was like, ‘Is that Benjamin Weinman from Dillinger Escape Plan?’ I’m like, ‘Yep,’ but I like that as well because I need a way to be spontaneous.” The Kiwi chanteuse recruited Merriweather for support duties on her last Australian tour and it turns out he’s also in demand when it comes to being summoned to the stage during other people’s sets. “That was kinda my first introduction to touring, was being on the road with Mark Ronson and a guest on his album, you know? I was the mainstay for the whole of his campaign so that was a lot of fun.” Sparro has also been a special guest star during Ronson’s live shows. “I’ve got up and sang with him before when we’re on festivals together,” he confirms. “The band had learnt Black And Gold and [Ronson] did like a version of it and then

actually when Daniel was away for a while I went up and did one of his songs, Stop Me Me.. There was a summer when Daniel and I were pretty much doing all the same festivals and I was seeing him everywhere. We’ve known each other for years.”

crews,” Sentry contributes. “Like, Horrorshow, 360, Pez – at the Sprung Festival the other day I got this dude called Grey Ghost up to kick some freestyles with me. That’s what’s cool about doing rap music as well; because you do so many collaborations with people – more so than any other genre, I think – if the two of you happen to be at the same festival, you can add that track to your setlist. You can do your verse and they don’t have to do your verses for you. I like that and it seems to go over pretty well with the crowd as well when you’ve got a little surprise mystery guest.”

When asked whether he has invited anyone of note to share his stage, Merriweather says casually, “Well Adele came on stage with me when I played Shepherds Bush Empire in London. I did two nights there. It was great. I mean, we sold it out and everything and she was kind of hard to get in contact with. I finally got in contact with her and she came up and performed the song I do with her, Water And A Flame Flame.. And that was a nice moment. She walked out and the crowd went wild.”

Speaking of surprise mystery guests, here comes a spoiler alert via Ferguson: “That may be happening at this very festival. I can’t go into too much detail at this point, but I can say, ‘Yes, I certainly have [invited guest artists on stage] and that this is the festival’. It’s sort of weird at festivals, you look at all these lists of names of people and you go, ‘Oh, yeah, they’re there, we’ll hook up with them,’ and it’s just not that easy ‘cause there’s millions of people everywhere. Someone might be coming in, doing their gig and flying straight out so it’s not actually always that easy. But the planets have aligned this time and we’re gonna do something. [Points to Merriweather and whispers] That guy there might be involved.” WHO: Kimbra, The Bamboos, Seth Sentry, Sam Sparro, Daniel Merriweather and more WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Homebake, The Domain

“We’ve done that before with a bunch of rap

GOING GLOBAL When Blondie was announced as the first ever international act to headline Homebake in the festival’s 17-year history, laptop gangstas went off on patriotic rants. Our cover stars are asked where they stand on the subject. “To be honest, I didn’t actually realise it was more of an Australian artist-oriented thing, I just thought, ‘This is cool’,” says New Zealand-born Bamboos’ member Ferguson. “Now the [festival] name explains everything. Obviously some people would take issue with that, but, I mean, at the end of the day, they’re trying to put on a festival to entertain people and Blondie are legends of the post-modern era and I think it’s great.” Having never experienced Blondie live before, Daniel Merriweather is equally excited. “Who would be annoyed at having Blondie play at a festival!? We’re the only country in the world that has a festival that’s only Australian acts and I think as much as it’s really great to, I’m sure I probably wouldn’t have a slot on that bill if it was open to everyone in the world,” he chuckles. Kimbra also chimes in. “From what I can see, there seems to be a lot of opportunities for bands to get on the stage in Australia.” After relocating to LA with his family when he was ten, Sam Sparro’s spent more time abroad than in Australia. “I’m not a patriot,” he stresses. “I don’t feel like the world is so divided like that, nor should it be, and I think if Blondie want to come here and celebrate Australian music as well that’s really nice.”

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

“I don’t really have an opinion either way,” Seth Sentry hesitates. “I don’t wanna say anything ‘cause my thing is, like, they had this whole identity of the festival, which was that all-Australian thing – there’s nothing really like that – and once you start opening the floodgates to that then where do you kind of draw the line after that, you know? I think it might also send the wrong message that could be perceived as people thinking that maybe an all-Australian line-up won’t sell tickets or something, without assistance from an international… But I think Australian music is strong enough to sell itself.”

FIGHTING FIRES “You go to Australia and it’s just nothing but flat whites and delicious seafood,” George Pettit reflects on a decade with Alexisonfire, and tells Dave Drayton why Australia was a must visit on their farewell tour. espite peddling music with more than its fair share of aggression – with a decade in the game, and a large portion of that time at the top of said game (Alexisonfire certainly did their part in bringing heavy music to a wider audience) – the Canadian five-piece could hardly be accused of taking themselves too seriously. You need only glance at their vault of ridiculous music videos – from the gang-fight farce of their first, Water Wings (And Other Pool Side Fashion Faux Pas), to Hey, It’s Your Funeral Mama, where a series of doppelganger Alexisonfires are trained to take over the tour-weary band – or the ridiculously high-spirited cover of Moneen’s Passing Of America from the 2005 split between the two bands to see Alexisonfire’s sense of humour.

It’s no real surprise then that the band’s often-bearded and near-always bespectacled frontman, George

Pettit, starts our conversation with a joke. “I’m laying in bed. It takes [it] out of you, I gotta do a bunch of interviews in a row here, so I’m trying to spice it up a little bit,” he says playfully. “I’m still wearing the clothes that I wore to the gym earlier today, so drink that in a little bit: dirty gym shorts!” Since the August 2011 announcement of the band’s intent to break up, it has been these small things – going to the gym, family, a life outside a band – that have dominated Pettit’s life. Having spent the majority of his adult years touring with Alexisonfire, of the break-up, he says, it’s time for a change. Where other members of Alexisonfire continued their musical endeavours, most notably guitarist/vocalist Dallas Green with solo project City & Colour, and Wade MacNeil in his new posting as Gallows frontman, Pettit opted to remove himself from the scene. “When the band was done I didn’t have a lot of desire to dive right back into playing music. If anything that I really missed out on by playing in the band – not that I really feel like I regret anything about doing this band for as long as I did – is that I didn’t go to school, I didn’t learn a lot of skills outside of ones that were pertinent to playing music, so I’ve gone back to school. And then family has obviously been extremely important to me, so since I’ve been home I’ve got a little guy who’s going to be three in December, his name’s Owen and he has been taking up a lot of my time,” he says with a paternal chuckle. “So between those two things and my beautiful wife I’ve just been spending a lot of time with family and school.” With a 15-date farewell world tour set for December to commemorate the band’s decade-long existence and four studio albums – 2002’s self-titled debut effort, 2004 breakout album Watch Out!, 2006’s CASBY Award-winning Crisis, and Old Crows/ Young Cardinals – Pettit will obviously be once more entering the ring. Though in the flurry and frenzy of the announcement of the band’s break-up, a mere 18-months ago, it seemed as though any possibility of future farewell shows or reunions were to be doubted as rumours of an unamicable split abounded. The post made by Pettit on the Alexisonfire website is still there to read: “Was the break up amicable? Not really. Was it necessary? Probably.”

There’s more to this story on the iPad With the time and space to allow wounds to heal, however, a final tour ‘done right’ – as opposed to the European, Canadian and Australian tours completed in 2010 guarding the knowledge that Green planned to leave the band – began to take shape. “We mentioned it at the actual break up, we talked about, you know, ‘We should probably do one more farewell run’, and the last few tours we did we were living under the knowledge that Dallas was going to be leaving, and we didn’t share that with anybody because we didn’t know what our next move was going to be, we didn’t know who we could find to replace Dallas, and we worked on that for a while. There was a lot of – I don’t want to say anything to dramatic like ‘darkness’ or anything – but yeah, it wasn’t fun for the last two tours, we were staring down the end of the band and we were doing it privately,” Pettit reveals. “Whereas this is more something that we can do, you know, this feels right. We’ve all had time to digest and to move on to new things and now we can come back and celebrate ten years of being in a band and do it one last time with everybody, and not just privately in the backstage. There’s no pressure to do anything, it’s not like we’re sitting here thinking about, you know, ‘Oh, we gotta make another record. We gotta do whatever’. It’s just like: let’s just look back on the things that we did and we can do it with everyone involved, everyone knows, and that’s a good feeling. I think that’ll be a good feeling for everybody.” The only question that remained to be answered was whether it was going to be a farewell show, or farewell tour, and if the latter, just where exactly a band that spent the better part of a decade travelling the world would go to say goodbye. Australia, says Pettit, rapidly revealed itself to be a no-brainer. “Australia has always just been overwhelmingly supportive, and not to mention that touring down there – the touring in Australia is just so stress free, it just feels like vacation to us more than it does tour. We did some hard touring I think at times, where we weren’t necessarily enjoying ourselves, or there were stresses on the road, you know: the bus is breaking down, we gotta switch buses four times, we gotta do this, and we’re all on no sleep and everyone gets sick and all this stuff. You go to Australia and it’s just nothing but flat whites and delicious seafood and you’re sitting on the beach and people are friendly and nice. “And the shows, you know,” Pettit continues, the excitement in his voice hinting at the optimism of a band embarking on their first tour out of their home country, “the shows got progressively bigger, the records were always really warmly received in Australia and that’s just it. There’s nothing but positive experiences for us down there.” And so it was that Australia, alongside Canada, UK and Brazil, were lined up to send the band out in style. And according to Pettit, it was down under that knocked nearer neighbours USA off the list. “No disrespect to the Americans, and a lot of people in America are feeling slighted that we didn’t go down there and play any shows, but I mean we live 45 minutes from Buffalo. I live like maybe half an hour from Buffalo, New York, and we chose to go to a 37-hour flight to Melbourne over that, and I think that speaks volumes about our love for Australia and how supportive they’ve been for us. We love Australia and I’m done blowing smoke up your arse here, but this is serious: we love Australia.” WHO: Alexisonfire WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 11 December, Hordern Pavilion

30 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews

REANIMATED Having disbanded in 2005, scene pioneers sonicanimation skipped town just before Australian dance music exploded. From his new home in Canada, vocalist and founding member Rupert Keiller tells unapologetic fanboy Matt O’Neill of the group’s potentially triumphant return. istory has not been kind to sonicanimation. Not kind enough, anyway. At this point, they’re perhaps best remembered (if at all) for a handful of pseudo-novelty hits and an incredible live show – aforesaid novelty hits like the tongue-twisting Theophilus Thistler... An Exercise In Vowels and hip hop piss-take Super Showbiz Star delivered alongside two gigantic furry animals (named, aptly enough, Robert Roley and Theophilus Thistler). This isn’t really fair. A respect for their flair for absurdity is certainly justified – 2002’s I’m A DJ is arguably the greatest sledge against celebrity DJs a dancefloor will ever see – but their career encompassed so much more than spectacle and novelty. They were and remain one of Australia’s most accomplished dance acts. Signing off in 2005, sonicanimation left behind a back catalogue of unmatched diversity and innovation.

The sheer stylistic depth of their work was remarkable. Across any given album, multi-instrumentalists Adrian Cartwright and Rupert Keiller would explore and synergise hip hop, trance, breakbeat, dub, techno, house, funk, electro, rock and worldbeat. Furthermore, they would do so with a lyrical and tonal palette that could flexibly stretch from the utterly ridiculous to the profoundly poetic and back again – occasionally, within the same song. “Underrated? Oh, I don’t know,” Keiller laughs. “I think, in order for me to think of us as underrated, I’d have to think that we deserved to be rated. There are so many musicians at this point in history. So many people making music. Especially now, with access to technology being what it is. Really, I’m just happy for people to hear what we do. It’s just be nice to be rated at all, really.”

a culture still freshly enamoured of dance music. Furthermore, they actually have an opportunity to reinvent their prankster image. “Oh, it’s so hard to know what will happen,” Keiller says fatalistically. “You know, ideally, we’d get to write and release some music and people would like and be excited by that – but, like I said, there’s just so much new music out there. Really, I don’t have any expectations. I just want to keep writing music. I want to be more prolific – because for years there I just wasn’t doing anything at all.” WHO: sonicanimation WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Homebake, The Domain

Given that, Keiller is not what you would expect. The vocalist of the pair, he’s largely responsible both for sonicanimation’s larrikin reputation and their less-celebrated moments of pathos. Yet, he’s actually quite reserved. Self-effacing almost to a fault, Keiller speaks with a quiet earnestness that belies both his flamboyant artistic persona and considerable accomplishments – only reluctantly does he admit his frustrations. “Well, yeah, actually. It has always bothered me a little bit that people only think of us as that kind of band,” the frontman responds when pressed. “I feel like there’s all different sides to a person’s personality. Sure, they can have a sense of humour, but, sometimes, they might be sad or depressed and they might want to write a song like that. It’d be nice to be able to write music like that and just have people listen to it for what it is. Because, you know, I do feel there is this expectation that we be this kooky, quirky, satirical electronic act – but I don’t always write those songs,” he says diplomatically. “That track, in particular. I’m really happy Theophilus Thistler was so successful but, I think like any artist who has an especially successful song, it’d be nice if people heard the other stuff. So, yeah, it’s a little bit tough when people think you’re just there for amusement.” The pair went their separate ways in 2005. In the years since, there has been minimal activity from either Keiller or Cartwright. The occasional DJ set or remix but little else. Keiller moved to Canada shortly after the duo’s farewell run with the Big Day Out in 2006. He’s largely been idling his time away as a DJ for Australian tourists (under his long-term DJ alias, DJ Rsk). “After we did what we thought would be our last record, I went travelling for a few months. A couple of my friends were living in a village called Rosalind in Alberta, Canada and I ended up staying with them,” Keiller says of his time in the wilderness. “When I finished travelling, instead of going back to Australia, I came back to visit my friends and, yeah, I just never left. I had intentions of making new music but, yeah, I just dragged my feet. I think we both wanted a creative change,” the frontman says of the split. “You know, I love everything about touring and making music. Concerts, recording, interviews, videos – I love all of that stuff. We’d just been doing it for so long. I felt like I needed a holiday, a trip. I needed to go away and come back to music with a fresh approach. I just didn’t think it would take so long for that to happen.” They eventually reunited in 2011. Initially, it was simply a remix for world music group Delhi 2 Dublin. Later in the year, they dropped an EP of original material and remixes – sonicanimation. Today, they’re preparing to perform at Homebake and putting the finishing touches on a new album of material. Tentatively scheduled for a January 2013 release, it will be their first album ‘proper’ since 2004’s sprawling Defective Perspective. “We’ve got the next single for the album ready to go. What we’re really hoping to do is shoot a video at Homebake. Because everyone in the world has a camera phone now, we’re going to ask everyone to shoot this one song at Homebake, send us all the footage – and then we’ll edit it all into a video,” Keiller enthuses. “If that all works, we’ll release the song straight after that and, hopefully, have the album out in January. You always think it sounds great, obviously, but I think it’s all sounding great,” the vocalist laughs. “I think it’s sounding really cool. It’s like a newer version of what we’ve done in the past. You can still tell it’s sonicanimation but, obviously, there are newer sounds and different programs. I still love electronic music and, as a DJ, I have to stay on top of it. You know, we didn’t get stuck in 2004, if you know what I mean.” It’s intriguing to think what the band could accomplish on a second go-around. Will You Dance To This Song?, a classically satirical cut from sonicanimation, found a home on triple j late last year. They’ve also had the grace or good fortune to return to

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 31

DENIM DEMONS Once more the epic saga of Norway’s Turbonegro looked to be done and dusted, but bassist Thomas “Happy-Tom” Seltzer looks Steve Bell in the eye and proclaims, “The bitch is back!” ith their long-term adherence to the doctrine of good times and parties being the be all and end all of the rock’n’roll raison d’être, the hedonistic lifestyle favoured by Norwegian deathpunk proponents Turbonegro was always going to take its toll. So when volatile frontman Hank Von Helvete abandoned the band – again – in mid-2010 it seemed that the juggernaut had reached the end of the line. They’d chalked up seven albums, had innumerable adventures and somehow survived more than two decades as the epitome of rock’n’roll cult heroes, but this time it really was over.

“Absolutely, that was the end,” stresses Thomas “Happy-Tom” Seltzer, Turbonegro’s founding bassist and creative heartbeat. “We were sick and tired of being in the band too for years because of Hank’s

health issues, drugs. Then when he quit to get into Scientology and start a goth band we were like, ‘Okay, this is it. Fuck this.’” Of course Turbonegro had found themselves with their backs to the wall before and prevailed – Von Helvete’s drug addictions had caused them to go on hiatus between 1999 and 2002 whilst he recovered – so it wasn’t totally a surprise last year when they emerged phoenix-like with a new singer, Tony Sylvester. The former frontman for UK rockers Dukes Of Nothing was well known to the band – he’d been head of the London Turbojugend (the fanclubs formed by hardcore Turbonegro acolytes in various cities) for years – but the way in which he joined the party was still rather random. “The Turbojugend in Hamburg were going to have their annual convention, and they said, ‘Do you guys want to come down and play a party karaoke show and have different singers come and do different songs?’” Happy-Tom recalls. “And we said, ‘Yeah, what the hell!’ We don’t take our legacy that seriously, we were like, ‘Fuck it man, let’s do it!’ I thought Tony could help us make a list of singers – he’s always been a good friend of ours – so I emailed him and asked him, and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s weird because I’m coming to Oslo in two days with some friends to see a band.’ “So he came to Oslo and we sat down and said, ‘Who can sing a few songs?’ We thought Keith Morris and Jello Biafra would want to do it, and we had a few other people like Mike Patton who might want to do it, and Damian from Fucked Up. Then a few days later it just struck me, ‘Fuck, Tony could do some songs!’ So I called him and said, ‘Why don’t you come and try?’ So we played some songs, and the first minute into the first song I looked over at Euroboy [guitarist Knut Schreiner] and Rune [Grønn – guitar] and they had smirks on their faces, kind of like Mona Lisa smiles, and I asked them later, ‘Why were you smiling a minute into that first song with Tony?’ and Euroboy said, ‘It’s the best I’ve ever heard the band sound!’

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“So we decided to try it out. We had to go to Hamburg and play, and we have very conservative fans – they’re always like, ‘Why did you make a new record? The new record sucks!’ - a lot of them are German and have no sense of humour – and we thought it was going to be a nightmare. So we went there and played to five-hundred Turbojegend and after the first song there was silence for about two seconds and then there was this huge roar, and we were like, ‘What the fuck?’ People were crying and throwing themselves off the balcony – between songs! We just looked at each other, like, ‘What the fuck man?’ and then we just knew – ‘Fuck! We’re back!’” Even after that triumphant realisation Happy-Tom still had concerns about beginning a new chapter for Turbonegro. “It’s a mixed feeling,” he laughs, “because playing in Turbo is such a blessing, you’re playing in your favourite band, but at the same time we’ve always been jinxed with all kinds of shit – it’s like being married to this beautiful woman who also has huge mental health issues. It’s like, ‘The bitch is back!’ Our beautiful deranged bitch was back from the fucking asylum, and we’re like, ‘No!’ and ‘Yeah!’ at the same time!” The culmination of this revival is new record, Sexual Harassment, which (vocals aside) seems to be typical Turbonegro fare but in fact had a rather abnormal genesis. “About three years ago Euroboy and me and Tommy [“Manboy” Akerholdt], who is now our drummer – who used to be our drum technician and guitar tech for years – we started a band with Nick Oliveri called The Germans, and half of the songs on Sexual Harassment were written for The Germans,” Happy-Tom reveals. “If you look closely at the credits on the album you’ll see that Nick’s credited on several of the songs, because he co-wrote some of them. He came over to cut some demos – that didn’t pan out – but when we got back together with Turbo we knew we had those songs. Then we wrote the other half with Tony, which was a big change because he’s such a big music nerd and a big punk rock and rock’n’roll history nerd, but he’s also an internationally famous Northern Soul DJ, and you can kind of hear that in his voice. Plus Hank never wrote any material, so for us to have a singer who actually writes in the studio with us was a big change creatively.” Now Turbonegro are returning to Australia for the first time since their glorious 2003 debut, and HappyTom beams when discussing that inaugural trip.

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“We loved it! We loved Australia! I’d never been there, I’d been to New Zealand – which looks a lot like Norway, which was weird – but we’d always been huge fans of Australian music, everything from Radio Birdman to The Hard-Ons. Australia’s always been this magical rock’n’roll country, and the people are sort of like Scandinavians in some weird way, so it’s sort of like coming home but also the most different place in the world. The response was amazing – it was almost like the crowd was treating it as a homecoming, there was a weird connection. Maybe being descended from criminals and being descended from Vikings is kind of like the same thing.” And, finally, the use of blackface and rampant homosexual innuendo that highlighted Turbonegro’s early years – was this to shock or for their own amusement? “Homoerotic aesthetics was always like a sore point for hard rockers,” Happy-Tom deadpans. “We’re from the same little village as Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon and Mayhem and Darkthrone, so we had to think, ‘Okay, these guys burn down churches, what can we do? Let’s be a homo band just to scare them!’ That’s the only thing that scares our friends, but they loved it, they just embraced it straight off. It was all just about pushing buttons and having fun.” WHO: Turbonegro WHAT: Sexual Harassment (Volcom)

mcmanusentertainment.com 32 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews

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WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, The Hi-Fi

PAST LIVES US rockers Hot Snakes are back after a lengthy hiatus, and guitarist John “Speedo” Reis talks to Steve Bell about life getting in the way of rock’n’roll dreams and how to keep the full family happy. t took US post-hardcore garage proponents Hot Snakes six years after they broke up to get the band back together, which was roughly the same amount of time that they’d spent together in their original tenure. They sure didn’t muck around between 1999 and 2005 though, releasing three acclaimed studio albums plus a live album (2006’s Thunder Down Under, essentially a triple j live session recorded during their till now sole Australian jaunt, back in 2005) and one of the last Peel Sessions recordings.

Hot Snakes were the third band to have coalesced around the creative partnership of guitarists John “Speedo” Reis and Rick Froberg – they’d previously shared revered outfits Pitchfork (1986-1990) and Drive Like Jehu (1990-1995) – and like those previous acts the band

dealt in face-melting rock’n’roll, innovative but predominantly powerful. When Hot Snakes split asunder the pair quickly moved on to new pastures, Froberg firing up Obits in 2006 and Reis starting The Night Marchers in 2007 (incidentally containing Hot Snakes bassist Gar Wood and their original drummer Jason Kourkounis). When those bands toured together in the States in 2010 the seeds for a Hot Snakes reunion were planted. “I don’t know if it was the impetus – it could have been,” Reis muses of the reunion’s genesis. “This was some time back when both bands played together. We did a West Coast tour together and at the end of the tour we did a couple of Hot Snakes songs just because it would be fun and fairly easy, and it would make people happy and make us happy. It was just something that seemed like a fun thing to do, and pretty innocent, but after that we got an offer to do something more substantial about a year and a half later and we thought, ‘Yeah, that might be a fun thing to do!’” Some break-ups are so acrimonious that you could never imagine the protagonists sharing a stage again, but in the case of Hot Snakes the split was more due to logistics (the band all living in different states and cities) and, in the case of Reis, wanting to embrace a normal life for a change (in 2005, the same year that he split up Hot Snakes, he also pulled the pin on his long-serving outfit Rocket From The Crypt). “For me logistics definitely had something to do with it because it was a bit frustrating, just not being able to be together as much as we’d like,” he admits. “But even more than that, I’d been playing in bands for a long while and I tend to immerse myself in things, and I was looking to have a kid and was bracing myself for a transition in life that I didn’t really know exactly what it entailed – this mysterious terrain that I was going to enter. So I didn’t really know how much I’d be able to really commit [to], or even think about, playing. So, for me – just as much as I commit myself mentally and sometimes physically to what I do music-wise – I needed to give that part of my life the same amount of attention. So that’s kind of what it was for me, more like I was just going through some changes in my life.” Speedo had, after all, been on the road pretty unrelentingly for a long time when he made the decision, but he’s happy with his lot in life now. “Most of the time I wasn’t gone all that much, but there was a period of time – especially with Rocket – where I was definitely gone more than I was here. There was a period of like three years between ’95 and ’98 when I was only home for three months out of that entire time. But it’s all good now, definitely. It’s not only a great balance, but it’s not really like world domination is in my sights, so I look at things a bit more realistically and have a lot of fun with what I’m doing.” Once the decision was made to reform Hot Snakes – they played ATP and some other US festivals last year – Reis says that the chemistry returned almost immediately. “It definitely didn’t seem like we were that far removed from it. Musically I definitely didn’t feel that far removed from it – I didn’t feel like I was playing songs that were from a different era of my life, it still seemed musically really fresh and relevant to me. And although we did our fair share of playing around the States and whatnot back in the day, the songs still had a freshness to me, and I definitely didn’t feel like I’d outgrown it or anything like that. It still felt not only fun to play, but the music felt alive.” Sometimes when a band has had line-up changes during their original time together it can be tough to work out which version of the band to reform, but Hot Snakes – who had two drummers over the duration, RFTC skinsman Mario Rubalcaba replacing Kourkounis when the latter fell ill in 2003 – are just bringing everyone. “Well it was kind of strange, because when we were asked to start playing again it was one of those things where it was hard to say, ‘Well we’re just going to bring one person and not the other.’ The terms on which we stopped playing with Jason were a bit of a bummer, and then with Mario he was the last drummer of the band so it made sense to play with him as well, so the first thing was just to see if both of them were interested, and after they both expressed that they did want to play we had to work out a way to make it happen, so it’s just a matter of us saying, ‘Why don’t you play the ones that you played on, and you do the ones that you recorded?’ It not only works really good, but it respects the music that was already created. We don’t always play with both drummers when we get together because of scheduling, but the times when all five of us can get together and play it’s really cool, it’s really awesome. It feels like we’re honouring those songs by trying to recreate them in the same manner that they were made.” And with Reis about to release a second album by The Night Marchers (plus a cryptic message on Swami Records’ Facebook page being posted about RFTC being reactivated in 2013) he can’t see any new Hot Snakes music on the horizon. “I don’t think so, but we’ll see,” he suggests. “There’s still that distance between us that makes it hard for us to collaborate and create something new. But that said, who knows? There’s definitely no plans to do anything and I don’t see it happening, but then again I never saw us getting back together and playing shows either.” WHO: Hot Snakes WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, Annandale Hotel

34 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews

FOR PEATS’ SAKE The organisers have been chasing John Butler for years and he finally headlines this year’s Peats Ridge Festival, surely a natural fit for this musical eco-warrior, asks Michael Smith. uesday 13 November, John Butler found himself in the NSW Parliament House receiving a Support Act “Excellence In Community Support” Award, an award presented annually recognising “members of the music industry who, by their tireless efforts and charitable works, have made a difference and enriched the fabric of the broader Australian community”. Butler was an obvious candidate for, among other things, his co-founding of The Seed program of grants that seek to improve artistic diversity, the full team for which he accepted the award on their behalf, as well as his political activism advocating peace, harmony and environmental protection. Only the month before he’d joined 150 or so people protesting outside the BHP Billiton headquarters in Melbourne over the corporation’s involvement in the proposed James Price Point gas industrial complex in WA’s Kimberley region near Broome.

All of which makes him the obvious headliner for the Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts & Music Festival, held annually in the three days leading up to New Year in Glenworth Valley. Joining the John Butler Trio at Peats Ridge 2012 are Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Black Seeds, Friendly Fires (DJ Set), The Herd and far too many more to list here – 200 artists all up performing across ten stages over three days.

songs advocating social or environmental change, “I sort of let my political activities, benefits and concerts, be that direct link, you know, going to blockades and stuff like that. I’m less and less writing about it, ‘cause I have, like I’ve written those songs and they sometimes get extremely boring to write because they’re so literal. So if I am going to write about them, they have to be kinda done in some sort of storyboard where it’s interesting. The last song I did like that was Kimberley, but I tried to make it about a young lady rather than a campaign and a region.” WHO: John Butler Trio WHEN & WHERE: Monday 31 December, Peats Ridge Festival, Glenworth Valley

While the interest in the festival inevitably surrounds its always impressive entertainments, the organisers of Peats Ridge have always based it on the premise of its not only being sustainable, as in as ensuring it leaves a negligible carbon footprint, but also to raise awareness among its patrons, through a dedicated eco-living education program as well as extensive environmental initiatives, of ways to live more sustainably in general. As such, Peats Ridge won the 2010 Australian Event Award for Most Sustainable Event in Australia and has been officially acknowledged by the UN for its work in Environmental Education. “I think it’s amazing that a festival takes the initiative to do that,” Butler feels. “I’m sure it’d be easier not to on the part of administration and logistics. Sustainability in general is important to me, just because it makes perfect sense,” he chuckles. “It seems to me a logical way of surviving, so I don’t see it as much of a political thing or an environmental thing but just something that makes a lot of sense.” As someone who has played a lot of festivals around the world, Butler admits he hasn’t come across any other festival committed to the concept of sustainability. “There’s the Folk, Rhythm & Life Festival [held at Bilyana in Victoria over the past two decades], which I haven’t played but have heard about for years. They went a long way to lower emissions and lower their impact by creating self-composting toilets and things; and those guys ended up doing Falls Festival and ended up going around the world and doing it for other festivals too. So I’ve certainly seen certain individuals who are thinking outside the box and go round and really share that dream and really, once again, it’s common sense. Those toilets ended up costing them less money and less hassle and were better on the environment. I guess that’s the coolest thing about looking at sustainable technology; it just makes sense. It’s like a triple bottom line it’s so large. “There are nice little creative and kooky ways to make things sustainable, like I worked a gig in the States where one stage was completely run by people riding on bicycles,” he laughs. “It was awesome! It was a small stage,” he reassures, “but a stage all the same.” Butler’s environmental credentials are well-known. A supporter of The Wilderness Society, he has been active in the Save Ningaloo Reef and Save The Kimberley campaigns, the latter seeing him performing in a free concert organised by The Wilderness Society in Melbourne’s Federation Square this past October alongside Clare Bowditch. For all that, Butler has to admit that it’s incredibly difficult to reduce one’s carbon footprint as a touring artist. “I guess that’s one of the reasons why I try to balance it with other acts. As far as the music industry is concerned, it’s quite energy intensive. There have been times we’ve, on our tours, bought accredited Green Carbon Credits from New Zealand, wind factories and solar fields and things like that, but it’s such early days that a lot of times, with the carbon trading and carbon taxing and all that, it’s all kind of up in the air; you kinda don’t know whether you’re efficiently and sustainably spending your money in the right direction. “So I guess it gets down to reducing and seeing how much what we can do. When organising a tour, if we can road-freight it and just cut the carbon down by not leaving it too late and having the air-freight everything, then that’s what we do – try to slow-freight as much as possible. That’s just one way. Unfortunately, the bus culture in the States, and in Europe, they won’t insure your bus if you run anything more than b20 [20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent diesel], because of filters and stuff like that, so it’s like the insurance companies stop you from actually wanting to do the right thing. But where we can, we do, you know? I’m in my garden as we speak and I’m really enjoying seeing my garden grow.” In the end of course, Butler most accessible contribution to the debate is his music. As he puts it, “the measurable impact is hard to measure, but I definitely think that music changes people and people change the world. Art changes people”. In terms of

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 35

ALARM BELLS They arguably have more in common with Gotye than The Clash, but Floridian pop-rockers Mayday Parade have no illusions about their place in the current musical climate, frontman Derek Sanders tells Brendan Crabb. guess there’s not a whole lot that’s very punk about us, but definitely like that kind of pop-punk idea is a big reason why we’re in this band and play the kind of music that we play,” Derek Sanders, lead vocalist-keyboardist-guitarist for America’s Mayday Parade says of being regularly linked to pop-punk. “Back when bands like New Found Glory, Saves The Day and Sunny Day Real Estate… started that kind of genre and influenced us towards this style of music, they’re a big reason why we are in this band.”

“I

They may not view themselves as remotely punk rock, but have been strongly associated with the recently reborn pop-punk sound. For one, their cover of Gotye’s monster hit Somebody That I

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Used To Know (featuring Pierce The Veil’s Vic Fuentes substituting for Kimbra) was a successful single from the Punk Goes Pop: Volume 5 compilation, selling thousands of copies inside of a week. “When we’re asked what kind of music it is or whatever, I just say pop-rock, because there’s so many different genres and sub-genres,” Sanders explains. “I just say pop-rock, but I mean, we’re all just pumped to be playing music and doing this, we love doing this. [We’re] glad that we’re still around seven years later and still able to go to Australia and do all of these things.” What artists tend to inspire them these days then? “I still listen to a lot of the same,” he says. “There’s a lot of newer stuff that I’m behind on, it takes me longer to hear newer things that come out. But I listen to all different kinds of stuff. Some of my favourite artists are Brand New, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World. There’s a lot of ‘90s rock that I have gone back to and started listening to again just because I grew up listening to a lot of it, like Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Oasis; going back to listen to all the ‘90s rock stuff that I used to love. We listen to a lot of different kinds of music and try and take something from all of it, or learn something from all of it.” It’s remarked that this must make for a curious mix of sounds emanating from the band’s tour bus. Or not quite, it seems. “I feel like back in the van days, when what you would listen to in the van was like, there was just something different about it because the whole band would be in there, all listening to something together. You’d have to choose what to listen to together and stuff. Now, we tour in a bus where everyone’s got their computer with the headphones on, all listening to music in their bunk or whatever. We don’t listen to music as a group like we used to as much. It kinda makes me sad too, because there are so many albums that I associate with touring and that we would listen to on the road. It’s a little different these days.” Listening to music isn’t the communal experience it once was for the band, but having graduated from a cramped van to a (relatively) luxurious bus during overseas runs must have its advantages. “Yeah, there are certainly good things about it… I mean, we’re very lucky to have the tour bus; it’s super comfortable and convenient. But there’s certainly things that I miss about touring in a van, just ‘cause ever since I graduated high school, we all left, got in the van and did it for years and years before we ever got to the point that we were in this band in a bus. So there’s definitely things I miss about it; having the freedom to go wherever you want, staying at people’s houses and meeting different people in every city and crashing at their house, things like that. It was a really special time, you know? But right now, everything’s been going good, there’s a positive energy in the band, for sure.” Not long after their Australian tour alongside fellow Warped Tour mob, We Are The In Crowd, and local stars Heroes For Hire (there’s that pop-punk connection again), the band will momentarily step off the tour bus to focus on their fourth album since forming in 2005. The vocalist spouts more than his share of clichés when quizzed on their next record, although to his credit does sound genuinely enthused about the new material that’s in the pipeline. “We’re gonna sit down, probably in January we’re going to spend the whole month as a band writing, bringing all of the ideas together and writing the next album,” he says. “Then we’ll record it, hopefully by February or March, and then keep on doing the same old thing. We just get together and write naturally whatever we want to write, and then go record it. I mean, a lot of things will stay the same; little things change. We’ve grown as musicians and we’ve hopefully grown tighter as a band and how we work together as a band. I imagine that some things might be a little different, but for the most part it’s just the five of us in there together, writing songs that we want to write and then going in to record them.”

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This polite, likeable, if rather inoffensive ethos extends to the singer’s attitude to the music industry’s future. “I don’t know; it’s tough to say,” he muses. “I think the good thing is that music will not die. It’s not like people are going to stop creating music, or people are going to stop listening to music. It’s certainly a hard time for labels or artists or whatever, but to me, that doesn’t really matter as much. It’s exciting that you can accomplish so much on your own these days, without the support of a label, and that a song that has no push behind it whatsoever can blow up and become huge, just for being a good song. I think that’s a good thing, and the way that maybe it should be. But I think labels will adapt and find a way to move to the digital age, where they’re not selling nearly as many CDs anymore and eventually find some way to make it work. “But it doesn’t matter, people are still going to create music and people are still going to listen to music, so it’s like everything will be fine and work out, however it does. It’s interesting, but an exciting time, kinda for everything; the world is just changing so fast. It’s hard to say where it will go, but it’s certainly exciting. Hopefully, when it’s a genuinely good song and a really good artist, (they) can get themselves heard without a label shoving it down people’s throats or whatever. The radio thing isn’t a big deal to us and never really has been. If we don’t ever get a lot of airplay that’s fine, we’ve kind of built ourselves without that.” WHO: Mayday Parade WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, The Hi-Fi

36 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews

LAISSEZ FOUR Having walked away from the hip Domino label to release his music himself, Kieran Hebden – known to fans as Four Tet – is now selling his music without even trying. “I just stopped doing everything conventional related to marketing music,” he tells Cyclone. our Tet, aka Kieran Hebden, has released albums through London’s hip über indie Domino Records, and picked up new fans from Radiohead’s endorsement, but now he’s going underground. This year the Brit IDM stalwart dropped his sixth album, Pink, independently with intentionally negligible promotion. Still, Hebden is touring globally, venturing to such exotic destinations as Romania. Next month he’ll bring the Four Tet live show to these shores for his inaugural Meredith Music Festival with side-gigs in Melbourne and Sydney. “For me, coming to Australia is like the most exotic – it’s as far away as I could possibly go,” Hebden enthuses. “I’ve got to travel all over through what I do, which is pretty amazing, really.”

Hebden formed the post-rock band Fridge while at Elliott School, the teen trio signing to Trevor Jackson’s Output. Yet Fridge’s sometime guitarist was soon attracted to electronica and began experimenting as Four Tet. Hebden presented his debut solo album, Dialogue, on Output in 1999 before switching to Domino for 2001’s ‘folktronica’ Pause, his profile raised by a cred Aphex Twin remix, and then stunning critics with Rounds. Hebden took up DJing – and he’s actually mixed compilations (the most recent FabricLive.59). He toured with Radiohead in 2003 and subsequently remixed their tunes, starting with Scatterbrain. He had a shot at production, bunkering down with Boston psychedelics Sunburned Hand Of The Man. More curiously, he co-composed the end credits music for the James Bond flick Quantum Of Solace. Nevertheless, Hebden is apparently proudest of his exchanges with the late American jazz drummer Steve Reid. Last year the versatile Londoner, a closet bass head, impressively snuck out the 12” Ego/Mirror with Thom Yorke and William “Burial” Bevan. “I went to school with Burial, so I’ve known him a long, long time. We’re good friends. I really enjoy working with him – we work quite well together.” Spookily, other Elliott alumni include members of The xx, whose music Hebden has remixed. Hebden released Pink, the follow-up to 2010’s There Is Love In You, digitally on his Text Records (Japan got a CD) in August. Essentially, it’s a collection of clubby singles he’d pressed on vinyl over the previous year. That Hebden has turned his back on Domino for an LP is a surprise, but he wanted “just to have a different experience”. “I was like, ‘Okay, well, I wanna have a go at doing it myself now and see how that works out’. It feels nice to see the record there in the shops and know that I’ve done every element of it myself. It’s there in a very pure state. Nobody else has come and put any of their influence to it, it’s just been done my own unique way. I think nowadays it’s very easy to communicate directly with people through social media and all that type of stuff, so it feels like an exciting time to be self-releasing records as well.” Pink’s release wasn’t merely DIY, it was laissez-faire – which is surely why Hebden doesn’t sound stressed. “It’s no work at all! I’ve done it in a very weird way. No promo copies of my record went out, there was no marketing of any sort done at all, the record was just put out… I’ve done about three interviews all year – and this is one of them. I just stopped doing everything conventional related to marketing music… People have responded really, really well to the music and they’re encouraging and excited about the way I’ve released it. It feels very kind of simple and very honest and straight-ahead.” Few may realise that Hebden has had his own label since 2001, its recordings infrequent. “It existed more just as an outlet for certain things that I didn’t have a label for, or [that] I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do with.” However, when it came to disseminating Pink, Hebden was pleased that this infrastructure was established. He now means to focus more on Text, with up to five issues a year – though they’ll mainly be 12”s. “I’m not gonna employ anybody or get an office or anything like that.” Nor is Hebden looking to recruit acts, Text sticking with projects in which he’s involved. Hebden lately put out a second album by Chicago singer-songwriter One Little Plane (aka Kathryn Bint) that he produced called Into The Trees. Come the new year, he’ll air tracks cut with London band RocketNumberNine. Above all, Text won’t become a powerhouse. “I’m definitely not hanging around at SXSW with a chequebook thinking like, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta find a hot new act ready for the label’,” Hebden quips. The one convention Hebden is reluctant to abandon is the album, even as many electronic types are privileging singles or EPs. He is attached to the format and reasons that listeners have often discovered him that way. Is the album relevant, then? “It’s relevant for me because a lot of the music I love the most is in that format, especially old – like I listen to a lot more old music than new music, I think. I’m putting on records from the ‘60s and ‘70s all the time, and the album format is so well crafted around then. When I make music I kind of want to be part of that history a lot of the time. The idea of being able to make a record that can sit on the shelf next to my Jimi Hendrix record or whatever, that seems important to me.”

Hebden’s Meredith show will be loosely based around Pink, being “more improvised” and “a bit more abstract”. “I don’t really plan it too much. There’s no planned set lists or anything like that. I very much like to make up a lot of what I’m doing there and then in the moment.” Crucially, it’ll also be more ‘dancey’. “The material I’ve got at the moment is probably a bit more techno-y and more pumped-up than the stuff in the past so, especially at festivals, it’s been working really well.” WHO: Four Tet WHAT: Pink (Text Records) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Metro Theatre

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While Hebden is broadly classified as IDM, his sound is nebulous, with flakes of jazz, folk, hip hop, kosmische, house, techno and, latterly, post-dubstep. He continually challenges himself. “I just try to keep stuff always moving on and changing,” He ponders. “I don’t wanna get stuck anywhere. I want it always to be evolving and changing somehow… Who knows what the next record will sound like? But I just hope that what I do keeps moving on. It’s definitely not gonna sound like the one that just came out.” He’s aiming to spend time in the studio next year. Kanye West teamed with Glasgow glitch-hopper Hudson Mohawke for GOOD Music’s Cruel Summer, which Hebden considers a “brilliant” manoeuvre. It’s not impossible to imagine him, with his Radiohead affiliations, doing something similar. And he wouldn’t be against to the proposition, providing it’s “a true collaboration” and not “forced”. “I don’t care how big they are,” Hebden says of potential partners. “I’m totally up for it. I’m open to all sorts of things. But I’m not pursuing stuff like that, ever. I like to just bump into people on my travels and see what happens.”

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new album out now

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 37

PUNK HABITS

OMAR COMING

Long Beach punk rockers Pour Habit have only managed to record two albums in five years: are they lazy or just really, really relaxed? Mark Hebblewhite grills drummer Colin Walsh.

Who could have guessed that one of the most hotly tipped visitors to Australia for the upcoming summer of party madness would be a wedding singer from Syria? With the help of an unnamed interpreter, Chris Yates chats to Omar Souleyman about his return to the party scene to do what he does best – make people dance really fast.

ude, what time is it? I forgot this interview was on. In fact I don’t even know what’s going on.”

“D

These aren’t the words we’re hoping to hear after placing the interview call. But, as it turns out, our stereotype of weed-smoking punk-rock slackers is misplaced. “I’ve been drumming all afternoon,” says Pour Habit drummer Colin Walsh – the band’s hectic touring schedule means it pays to stay sharp. “We’re coming down to see you guys in Australia soon and we don’t want to let you down, so we’ve been practicing a heap.”

While Pour Habit albums come around very rarely, when they do arrive people inevitably like what they hear. “We got a great response to last year’s record [Got Your Back],” Walsh admits. “Some of our long-standing fans were a little surprised because we did some different things but overall we kept the fans we had and brought in some new ones. So all in all it was a very successful record.”

Not surprisingly Pour Habit consider Australia as something of a second home. “We’ve [been] down there a few times now and we always have amazing experiences. I know all the punk bands from our neck of the woods love coming to Australia because of all the similarities it has to back home. Any country you go where you can end up having a beer with just about anyone is a good place in my book. We love you guys so much we’re putting out an Australian-only single with a different version of Matter Of Opinion called Punisher Mansion and an old demo track called Survive.”

Walsh also reveals that the band are getting ready to up the pace when it comes to recorded product – a new Pour Habit album is already around the corner. “I can’t tell you too much but right now we have nine or ten new songs and hope to put together another five or six songs before we go into the studio. It looks like we’ll be recording in early 2013 and hopefully we’ll have the album out by February or March. Everything’s up in the air at the moment, I doubt we’ll even be playing these tunes when we come down to Australia because we haven’t practiced them enough. But I want everyone to know that a new album is happening.”

Walsh admits that an extensive touring schedule has meant that Pour Habit haven’t got to the studio as often as they like. But he also points to other factors. “Drugs, alcohol and money, that’s what’s stopped us recording more songs,” he laughs. “In all honesty we’re a touring band who likes to have fun. We get out and play around the world because we enjoy the hell out of it and because we have to if we want to survive financially. We don’t have lots of money lying around – so the road is where we make a living.

And should we expect any surprises? Leftfield excursions; wacky covers; a disco number? “We’re not really that kind of band,” laughs Walsh. “Pour Habit fans know what they’re going to get from us. That’s not to say it’s going to sound the same as Suiticide but we’re not going to completely change what we do just to try and be different. It sounds like a cliché but all we want to do is play good punk rock for people who appreciate it. If we can do that we’re happy.”

“Do I wish we’d managed to record more? Yeah I guess – but things have turned out the way they have and that’s that. I think it comes down to the fact that we’re not one of those punk bands that are really into themselves. We just come together, make music and do our thing. We don’t really plan too far ahead.”

WHO: Pour Habit WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Annandale Hotel; Sunday 9, Valve Bar (arvo) and The Patch, Wollongong (evening)

MASS APPEAL

But it’s always been in the fractious nature of The Church over their 30-year history that any gig could be the last. True now, as ever. “Do we still argue? Are you fucking kidding?” the singer laughs darkly. “Tim [Powles – drummer] suggested one day we let the audience in and just have us sitting onstage having the endless arguments we always have. That can sometimes be far more interesting than actually have us play,” he half-jokes. Matter of fact, it’s happening now. A national tour with Simple Minds and Devo will see The Church doing the ‘greatest hits’ set for arena audiences and A Day On The Green attendees, but punctuated with what is being billed as an ‘art rock’ show at The Factory. So Steven, what is an ‘art rock’ show? “Ha! Maybe you should tell me,” he sighs – slightly wistfully, slightly sardonically. “Ah, okay, there’s a bit of controversy in the band at this moment as to what exactly it is going to be. Some of them, er, some of us,” he corrects himself, “say it should

38 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews

Omar says music has always been a very important part of his life, and his earliest memories attest to this. “From earliest childhood I kept always singing to myself,” he says. “When I was older I started singing in front of others too, like in family gatherings or such. People around me started telling me that I should make something out of this gift. I went to a recording studio and told the owner that I wanted to record a cassette – he was very sceptical at first. He told me that no one would buy the cassette but I insisted. “I recorded the cassette and the studio owner distributed it in a few places. Then people who bought the cassette started asking the studio owner about me and he started sending me to weddings, private parties to perform. And then the circle became wider, more and more people asked me to perform on their events and there were times when I performed every single evening and especially at weddings.” Performing at weddings is where Omar originally made his name, and eventually he would be invited to perform at Syrian weddings overseas, which is where his international reputation started to flourish. Even to this day, he still sees these performances at weddings as integral. “I love playing to crowds. I feel best when I get a huge audience to move. Given my last experience

Given the current political situation in Syria, Omar is not releasing any music there these days. Instead, he is happy to take his own take on the country’s traditional music further than it has before. “Dabke is a tribal music style,” he explains. “It is traditionally played in weddings. It is rather slow and people take each other by the hand and dance to dabke in circles. I perform an altered form of dabke, as I sped up the rhythm dramatically. My dabke is fast and thus brings people to move. There are many musicians in Syria who, like me, make music using melodies of the Arab Peninsula. There are many shades, some with more modern influences, some with less – but I think nobody plays the dabke as fast as I do.” Omar says he enjoys the opportunity of travelling overseas, and takes up the opportunity to tell people about a part of the world they hear about in the news but may not know much more about. “People always ask me about my country,” he admits. “They are very interested and curious. I usually get much friendly feedback from the people. Many of them want to take pictures with me. I am sad that I don’t speak any English, because then I could communicate better with all these great people.” WHO: Omar Souleyman WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, Oxford Art Factory

Three years ago, Kutcha Edwards was losing himself in depression, but his wife and a new friend helped him rediscover his muse, he tells Michael Smith. on-indigenous Australia would just see three albums sitting in front of them,” begins singer, songwriter and guitarist Kutcha Edwards, talking about his three solo releases to date – 2001’s Cooinda, 2007’s Hope and the recently released Blak & Blu. “As Aboriginal people, what I am trying to understand is that my existence has been predetermined even before my birth, and will be predetermined even after my death. We call it a songline, one’s life. Just ‘cause I wrote a song yesterday doesn’t make it a day old. I’m trying to understand all that and trying to reclaim the existence of that true sense of songline. So what you really need to do is go back, listen to those albums in their entirety and you’ll hear the narrative, you’ll hear the river flowing within what it is that is the songline of Kutcha Edwards.”

“N

This occasionally causes consternation. Business aggravations with The Church’s American distributor led to a recent online rant that has passed into folklore. “I just feel frustrated when things are fucked up, and rather than just sitting there I started kicking and screaming.” In high dudgeon Kilbey threatened to wind up the band and walk away from it all. He later climbed down a bit, with demands for an audit of the US company now in train.

in Australia, I am expecting everybody to dance to my performance. Like in the weddings, I love to get people to move. I try to find rhythms that make people interact, dance. Like in weddings, I love when I can make people spend some good hours forgetting themselves and just let the rhythm take over.”

THE SONGMAN

Although the latest round of rumours reporting their demise have again proved exaggerated, Steve Kilbey admits the dynamic of The Church can be a mystery – even to those in the band. Ross Clelland listens to the explanations. nce upon a time, rock stars were an otherworldly and aloof breed; a personal word to fans was rare – and to be honest, in some cases, the less they said was often the better. The Church’s Steve Kilbey went with that role. “Be secretive, play the part. But gradually, you turn into the thing you hate,” as he explains. So came his often rambling, often abrasively honest, often near-poetic, blog The Time Being – along with announcements and pronouncements on his Facebook feed – giving him an utterly direct and personal connection with his followers. “The blog made me learn the incredible power of telling people everything. Everything!” he adds with a zealot’s enthusiasm.

hile he may be making a name for himself in Australia on the open-minded dance party scene, Omar is well known in his home country across all walks of life. His music is available at bootleg markets across Syria – the lack of copyright law in the country means that his back catalogue of over 750 released recordings have been reproduced countless times.

be a flat-out, wild, feedback-screaming, pounding thing. And some of us are saying it should be more delicate; anything off the beaten track. It will be a contrast to the Devo shows – in whatever way we eventually decide.” He clarifies and philosophises: “Sometimes the problem with democracy is that nothing fucking works. And in The Church’s democracy, all it takes is one person to say no and it’s off the agenda. And what’s more, it doesn’t get discussed any further. A veto rule – it makes us as strong as our weakest link. And that link can change from moment to moment…” Said veto can sometimes be his own, even of the band’s best-known songs: “For myself, I can sing Under The Milky Way and you’re safe. It’s an eternal kind of song – a child could sing it. An old man or woman can sing it, and there’s no contradiction. But Unguarded Moment,” he sighs heavily again, “I feel ridiculous; I feel I’m indulging the audience. To me, that song just feels very naïve and feels full of youthful… mopeyness. I refused to sing it for a long time. And honestly, I’d be happy to never sing it again. “But it’s like cigarettes. Oh, just have one – just sing it once. Then since you did it once, you do it again. And soon you’re back on a pack a day. And you’re hooked. Even if you may well still hate the fact you are.” WHO: The Church WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, Factory Theatre; Friday 7, Sydney Entertainment Centre; Saturday 8, Bimbadgen Winery, Hunter Valley; Wednesday 12, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

A Mutti Mutti man born near Balranald on the Murrumbidgee River – he calls his mix of roots, blues and rock ‘Bidgee’ music – Edwards, like his dear friend Archie Roach and so many others, is a member of the Stolen Generations, forcibly removed from his parents in 1967 to live in institutions for 11 years. The experience inevitably informs but never overwhelms his music. As he explains, “I’m not bitter at society but I’m bitter... and bitter and anger are two different things, and I’ve learnt to deal it, and the way that I deal with it is song; [the] debriefing of one’s life internally but coming to an ideology that I can do it externally through song.” So he celebrates in song having overcome those early hardships. Blak & Blu, however, might have never seen the light of day because, about three years ago, Edwards found the indifference of an industry to which he had given so much thrusting him into depression. “My wife saw me crawl into this depression,” he continues. “You don’t know it’s depression, but that’s where Get Back Up Again [on Blak & Blu] sort of comes from. It was 2011 – [I performed at] the Nukkan Ya Ruby concert at the Domain in Sydney, a tribute to Ruby

Hunter – Archie’s related to me through my great-great grandfather – so we’re all very close, all been down that road together – and got to yarn to Craig Pilkington, who played guitar at that concert. He sent me an amazing email a month-and-a-half later: ‘I’ve been thinking about our conversation, thinking what we can do together’.” With Pilkington producing – he also produced Roach’s new album, Into The Bloodstream and engineered both of Gurrumul’s albums – what they ended up doing together was Blak & Blu. “To go forward I have to go back,” Edwards admits. “The very first song I ever wrote was Roll With The Rhythm – track number two on the album. I wrote it in 1989 – I’d gone to see Robert Cray at [Melbourne’s] Festival Hall, and I saw this man and I was just immersed not only in his music, the Strong Persuader album, but I knew every lyric, so we jumped at the opportunity and then went home and wrote this very basic lyric, ‘Roll with the rhythm, go with the flow,’ and then the song created itself. “So in understanding Roll With The Rhythm, I wanted to go back to its genesis, and then songs started evolving themselves. I have this sense of myself as to if something pops into my head I question it. My belief is that it’s not my conscious self, it’s the old people divining me to go back to the songlines – my ancestry tapping me on the shoulder.” WHO: Kutcha Edwards WHAT: Blak & Blu (MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, GoodGod

IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD Charles Jenkins makes music of style. In fact, there’s been a slightly different style for each of his albums. The former Mad Turks and Icecream Hands member discusses his sometimes crooked turns with Ross Clelland. ach of the five albums bearing Charles Jenkins’ name on the marquee have been both identifiably his, and undeniably different from each other. Among them, there’s been the very rock’n’roll one, the one built around a 16-piece string section, and now one he calls ‘the folkcountry chart-topper’ – the poetically-titled Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart.

“Oh, yeah – I try to make each album different,” the artist sometimes known as Chuck explains. “Although I’m not quite sure if I succeed sometimes. It might just come from working in a record shop for many years – and listening and picking the different shades and moods of what a singer was doing with each record.” Those of you unfamiliar with the historical term ‘record shop’ are advised to ask your parents or search Wikipedia. “Of course, I can simplify that list of records – it’s pretty much a fast one, then a slow one, fast, slow,” he laughs. And then happily self-deprecates: “I’ve actually been aiming on the slow ones to end up being just me and a guitar. But then I get confused, or don’t have the songs to fit, and then ring the band.” Said band, otherwise known as The Zhivagos, has players such as keyboardist Matty Vehl and Davey Lane (yes, the You Am I one). It’s not a bad fallback position. Or, as Jenkins describes it, “I’ve got the two best strikers in the Premier League, and no Russian billionaire can take them from me. Guys of that quality to help with my songwriting, let alone playing live. Davey tends to play ukulele through the first bit where we concentrate on the new record, then straps on the ‘Red Special’ to go to other places. Although lately we’ve been getting out older things like [Icecream Hands’] Obvious Boy or Rain Hail Shine with the uke.” “But the songs are pretty much folk tales, stories. But the instrumentation fits with that country mould. They tend to be songs of not many chords.” This

ALL IN THE MOMENT Fronted by American musical royalty, Tedeschi Trucks Band play incendiary jamming blues rock that harks back to the 1970s, but that’s fine by them, as singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi tells Michael Smith. ith some bands, it’s what’s on the record that matters, and those bands try hard to replicate their records. For the 11-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band, the studio album is very much a sketch of what you’ll hear when you catch them in concert, true to the tradition from which they spring despite most members still only being in their 30s. It channels the glory days of 1970’s blue-rock jamming, when bands from Led Zeppelin to The Allman Brothers Band would really stretch out and blow their thunder.

W is also of circumstance, as he explains it; “I was dealing with and listening to people – like Suzannah Espie – who were doing so much with so few chords. And [I] started thinking I was just putting too much stuff in my songs. So I just tried to cut it back.” As much as Crooked Heart has been well-received by critics and Jenkins’ audience, those doubts of his kept coming through. A few got dissipated at The Age 2012 EG Music Awards recently, however, where he was nominated. “Ben Salter got to sing [album lead song] Pray My Dear Daughter. That kind of thing worries me – particularly when on the night a couple of other people’s songs sang by other people, umm, didn’t quite fly. But it becomes a thrill when it does work.” And a bonus. “I got the editor to introduce me to him – and Ben opened with the line ‘We know a lot of the same people – most of them say you’re a cunt’. I warmed to him straight away.” As well as his work, Charles Jenkins remains a fan – which now comes with a generational twist. “I spend time going to see old bastards like You Am I or young up-and-comers like Tiny Giants or King Gizzard.” He’s even passed the musical gene, with offspring Henry a bass player in instrumental funk band Cactus Channel. Does Dad Jenkins offer advice on how to avoid the pitfalls? “Ah, he and the band are well up and running in the land of mistakes,” he deadpans. “But they have had the good idea of not having a moaning lyricist in the band – they’re the ones that tend to cause the trouble.” WHO: Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos WHAT: Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart (Silver Stamp) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, Notes

The Allman Brothers reference is apposite of course when talking about the fiery guitar playing of Derek Trucks. The guitarist’s uncle, Butch Trucks, is the founding drummer and Derek has been playing off and on with him since 1992, when he was 13. Derek has also played in Eric Clapton’s band and fronted his own act until 2010, when he decided it was time to share the bill with his wife, Susan Tedeschi, an exceptional singer and guitarist in her own right whose band often shared the bill with Trucks. As Tedeschi Trucks Band, they released their debut album, Revelator, last year, the album winning the Best Blues Album category at this year’s Grammy Awards. But it’s live on stage that these musicians really shine, which is why the next logical step was the release of a two-CD live set, Everybody’s Talkin’. “Well, the band is so animated and so creative – everybody is,” Tedeschi explains. “So it’s really fun each night to play because you never know exactly what people are gonna do, and there’s different energy, depending on the audience and the band, depending on how they feel on the night, so it’s an exciting band to be in for sure. It’s a blast, no doubt about it.” Drawn from a dozen or so concert recordings from their American tour last Northern autumn, Everybody’s Talkin’ is a vibrant mix of originals and covers, which peaked in the top three best-selling albums in the US Billboard Blues Chart. The set included a 16-plus-minute version of Stevie Wonder’s Uptight.

“Some of the songs, of course, are from our first band record and some of them are just fun songs for us to cover and ones that have good energy and, you know what, are fun to play and things that people tend to like,” she chuckles. “You know, all the time we try to incorporate new music into our set, whether it’s writing new original stuff or covers of old classics, just different things that inspire us at the time, and we try and dwell on arrangements of things that we do cover so they’re sort of an original arrangement. “And we try to play some songs that will show off different band members, maybe give the drummers [JJ Johnson and Tyler Greenwell] a solo or give our trumpet player [Maurice Brown] a solo, or our tenor sax player [Kebbi Williams] or keyboards player [Kofi Burbridge, from The Derek Trucks Band], or Derek, of course, or me, or we get a different singer, get [backing singer] Mike [Mattison] to sing lead. So we try and mix it up all the time, and it’s growing and growing. We already have a bunch of new material and it’s hard to not play it, ‘cause we wanna play new stuff, but we’re holdin’ because nowadays, with the way that everybody videos and YouTubes, you just can’t keep anything fresh without people putting it out there – unlike the old days – so it’s definitely a different game.” WHO: Tedeschi Trucks Band WHAT: Everybody’s Talkin’ (Sony) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 28 and Friday 29 March, Bluesfest, Byron Bay; Sunday 31, Enmore Theatre

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 39

SINGLES/EPS WITH ROSS CLELLAND

ON THE RECORD

Mia Dyson

Bryan Estepa also makes music from that previous century’s model. It’s always been smart pop of a classical template, this coming with a gentler conversational edge. Seachange (Laughing Outlaw) will rightly get words like ‘bittersweet’ and ‘wistful’ attached. Feel free to tap foot and sing along. Still sticking by their self-proclaimed status as ‘second best band in Warrnambool’, The 80 Aces. The big QOTSA-lite rumble of Magic Shoes (Independent) suggests their own muscle and guts, and begs the question of who is the #1 band in town, ‘cause they’d have to be rather good. Her power and emotion are usually inwardly aimed, but Mia Dyson’s new single, Jesse (SGC Media), has her channelling the pain and loss of a forced adoptee – a gloriously dated moral practice that was still in play probably more recently than you realise. This comes with Dyson’s typical bluesy passion, and a certain weight of worthiness. The breathy artifice of Melodie Nelson is not a million miles from the Del Reys of this world, but still seems to come with more honesty, even in the role play. Spin The Bottle (Broken Stone Records) comes with a constructed backstory, a suitable distraction in its delivery, and a knowing way in its pop. Best Coast’s take on a slightly retro pop of a California that probably never existed in the first place is all shiny and Rickenbacker ringy. The Only Place (Popfrenzy) waxes on and waxes off. Possibly in a Mustang convertible. It’d be a ’67 model. In candy apple red. While retaining a fine name – actually taken from a ‘60s London gaff where the likes of Townshend, Jagger et al tended to just chill, man – The Scotch Of St James have done away with a few members and their management and Your Man (Independent) is the first of the new(er). Nicely stuttering guitar and with some swivel in its hips, there be nothing new in the style, but they do it well. Also sans band, Roland Kay-Smith makes an EP of just his voice, guitar and harmonica. Blue & Green (Independent) belies its colours with the red dust of Dirt Farmer Blues. Its country of now, with grimness and occasional kicking against the pricks. Do we even have to say Dylan and Young as reference? Oh, just did. In Perth, it’s bright, not even striped, sunlight sound. The aptly named Sun City’s synth pop is well-lit and fuzzily fizzy as it should be. Set Alight (Independent) has the insistent energy of young people watching the sun come up, and convincing themselves as much as anyone, they can keep going until after playlunch. Fellow westerners and also roughly of the electro-pop genre, Mulder’s world is a bit more shadowy, but retains the hope of the Young (MGM). There is some disaffection and affection for humanity, possibly depending on which way the coin comes down. They’re having a whinge, certainly. But not oppressively enough that you stop listening. Righteous sneering at mankind is a justifiable stance. Been using it for ages myself. New Navy have a touch of that fashionable tropical tribal in the backbeat there may be a little too much of at the moment, but redeem themselves a bit with the slightly cocked eyebrow of their worldview. Regular Town (Future Classic) swings, then walks out on you. They’re strong that way. Conversely, The Pretty Littles announce I Am Not From A Small Town (Independent). They appear to have a shitty on with the world, or parts of it. There’s just enough slur in yelling to suggest they might have had a couple of beverages to get up the courage to make the point. This they do, and then repeat. It thumps a bit, never quite falling over.

40 • For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews

DEAR TIME’S WASTE

JASON LYTLE

Sorry To Bother You

Some Kind of Eden

Dept. Of Disappearance

Anti-/Warner

Spunk

Anti-/Warner

For Californian prophets of rage The Coup, ‘consciousness’ was never a trend. They began their socialist campaign for the redistribution of wealth and power way back in the early ‘90s when groups like Brand Nubian, Public Enemy and X-Clan were simultaneously taking it up to governments, corporations and pop charts. Yet unlike most (except PE of course) they have stayed the course, although while the message remains strong, the sound has changed markedly. Like a Trojan horse sent to penetrate the ‘white’ world, with their first album in over five years, The Coup come over like a rock group pushing fuzzy guitars and shouty pop-punk hooks – music to get frat boys crowd surfing to the sound of black revolution.

New Zealand’s Dear Time’s Waste, the performance name of gothic dream popper Claire Duncan, first appeared in 2009 with the Room For Rent EP and was followed up with the 2010 LP, Spells. These records, Spells especially, shimmered with the throwback beauty of lush ‘80s post-punk. The new full-length, Some Kind of Eden, channels the same avenues for inspiration, but ends up at a fairly different conclusion.

Jason Lytle has always been a creature of contradiction. His work with Grandaddy straddled paranoia, anxiety, LIVE whimsy and humour, and his new solo album does much the same. The ultra-soft delivery of loaded lines such as, “You’ll never get away with it/You’ll never get away with me”, carries a strange mixture of child-like denial and a very adult sense of conviction. His appearance – a plaid-shirt-wearing, trucker-cap-sporting, stubble-faced individual – is completely at odds with the baby-soft voice barely brave enough to float out of the speakers.

The set opens with fuzzy punk rock attitude that’s unleashed on the American high school system, record companies, governments, materialistic rappers and fake revolutionaries. Though it sounds heavy going, the messages are surreptitiously embedded inside feel-good music in such a way that you’re given the option of dancing or thinking (or both). With its 1970s rock funk lean, musically Hendrix and Sly Stone are undeniable influences and the recent non-hip hop work of Andre 3000 is comparable, yet The Coup, with rapper/singers Boots Riley and various female vocalists sharing mic time, have their own sound that can never be totally removed from its roots, something that is demonstrated on the closing track, WAVIP, alongside the intriguing pairing of Das Racist and Killer Mike. Existing between, and possibly looking to bridge, different worlds, Sorry To Bother You manifests the spirit of the experimental and interracial 1960s revolutionary movement, yet whether it can bring together today’s hip hop and indie heads is highly questionable.

VDHis new collection, Dept. Of Disappearance, is a

The sounds are now even more minimal, with very few moments of full band sound appearing on this 45-minute album. This is of little wonder, considering Duncan imposed a situation of self-isolation to create the record. The opening sampled and clipped drum sounds, sustained keyboard tones and lush, bansheewailing vocals of Hands set the tone for the entire record perfectly. Traditional instrument sounds are sparse here, with Dear Time’s Waste opting for an even more ethereal and otherworldly sound than ever before. Tonally, the record’s electronic atmosphere becomes stronger and more claustrophobic as it goes on. Six Feet Down is a downright gothic rock classic that would have been right at home on a Small Wonder Records compilation. Following on, Head To Toe’s inward-looking gaze would be impenetrable were it not for the gorgeous and soaring vocals delivering it to a higher plane. These two late tracks serve to break up the tonal coherency of the album, which does tend to fall into monotony.

surprisingly epic collection of songs that have a striking lucidity and a haunting cinematic design care of sweeping chord structures and production aesthetics that feel like everyone involved was staring off into the horizon when not staring at the mixing desk. The gamut of emotions covered in the record hovers around the melancholy spectrum. The sad yearning of Matterhorn rubs up against the bristling agitation of Young Saints, while Hangtown feels like a regretful recollection of a small town life long ago. Get Up And Go attempts to counterbalance it with a lethargic positivity – it’s the theme song for a home improvement show for slackers and burnouts.

Another returning after a longish absence, Seabellies present Paper Tiger (Albert). Pizzicato strings give way to one of those epic and dramatic pop confections, suggesting a band getting something of the budget to realise their visions. And getting it pretty much right. Of a somewhat grittier and grumpier place, Adelaide’s Lowrider return from their overseas recording sojourn with Days Of Boredom (Illusive). They too appear to be informed by staring into a screen, even slipping ‘hashtag’ into the lyric. If this gives them musical relevance to the kids, best of luck to them. Guitar crunch and volume remains much the same as the 20th century.

THE COUP

It’s probably redundant to ‘review’ a new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds single. So, we will simply inform you that We No Who U R (Bad Seed) exists. The title suggests Nicholas has been listening to a lot of Prince, or that the upcoming album is informed by him meandering around the interwebs. Likely the latter. It – and the rest – is likely to contain references to paranoia, death and/or dark romance. And you’ve already decided if you need it or not.

The Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie Sioux comparisons are inevitable and warranted, though those looking for a gothic, romantic and legitimately creepy dose of modern dream pop could do much worse. The album is surely no Eden, but it’s certainly from another place.

There’s a sly smile buried deep underneath all the theatrical pathos however. Lytle enjoys exploring the blue-tinged worlds he creates, and he’s good at exploiting all the elements his emotionally resonant music contains, but his tunes also have a grounded sense of humour and irony and it makes him seem more fallible and infinitely more human. This is an arresting and highly recommended record.

Andrew McDonald

Matt MacMaster

EVERMORE

KUTCHA

MEMORY TAPES

Follow The Sun

Blak & Blu

Grace/Confusion

Universal

MGM

Pod/Inertia

After a three-year break, the young Kiwi lads are back with their fourth album, Follow The Sun. Like its predecessors, the band aims at big melodies, memorable chants and defining hooks. Follow The Sun is imaginative at times, especially in the production department, but it does seem to slip into the FM radio format a little too easily.

Kutcha Edward’s third solo album Blak & Blu is all about the search for reconnection to past, family and culture. Born into an Aboriginal community on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales, Kutcha is among those displaced of the Stolen Generation. This is Kutcha’s soul, his culture and his pain.

Dayve Hawk, aka Memory Tapes, has never been one to chase the spotlight. He’s a Luddite (avoiding mobile phones and TV) and this, together with his fixation with the ‘retro’ musical aesthetic that lies at the core of chillwave, provides him with a strange, unfocused identity. He’s recorded under several stage names (mostly referencing ‘memory’ or ‘cassettes’) and his music, starting with 2009’s Seek Magic, has a heavy-lidded dreamlike quality that belies his strengths as a songwriter.

Darren Collins

Shines On Everyone sets the mood and is promising with its harmonies and meditation in a simple nursery rhyme fashion. The band manage to try out some new styles on pop tunes like Run Away, which adopts those classic ‘80s synth sounds. Then a little later the band tries to vary things on That’s The Way, which gets back to the more traditional sound that lean towards the folk music at the heart of their music. Before the band’s hiatus, they toured around the world with P!nk and then took their time to record this new album. The elder brother Jon has used his production talents to guide the record through its paces. Strangely enough, the album could have done with more refining and additional input from outside their circle. Another pair of ears may have helped - perhaps younger brother Dann’s, which have served Lisa Mitchell and Matt Corby so well. Follow the Sun is perhaps a side step for a band that needs to look beyond their youth and past successes. They could take a few tips from their fellow countrymen, the Finn brothers, and be a bit more daring next time. Sebastian Skeet

Blak & Blu has the decency of a folk album, the soul tingling of a blues album and the spine-jittering of a funk album. It takes you to deep places while maintaining a groovy flow, utilising a tension/release format with a slow, mellow song being followed by an on-your-feet blues jam across the record. It is a swanky album that reeks of deep emotion and respect. Blind Joe’s Creek takes you to the country with minor strummed chords and rounded guitar tones topped with deep vocals, until it transforms into an uplifting, horn-driven chorus. Lil Bit Of Lovin’ demands at least one part of your body keep its rhythm with its distorted slide guitar-driven tastiness and sweet woman’s vocal accompaniment. Wait’n settles back down to a reminiscent gaze as Kutcha tells the story of his people, searching for truth and closure. The gliding rhythm swells under Kutcha’s soulful voice as he tells of the pain of waiting for answers that may never come. Bidgee Blu’s features horns and piano to create an uplifting track that deals with torment in a contagiously rousing way. Kutcha’s Blak & Blu is a contemporary album, but the content is more than 40,000 years old. This is just a debriefing of his people’s story. Nick Leighton

Grace/Confusion continues Hawk’s fascination with retro textures, but gone are the nostalgia and the sound bites of kicks skidding on basketball courts. There’s a glossy sheen over everything, and the album rockets along and disappears in under 40 minutes. Considering two songs clock in together at around 15 minutes there’s not much fat to chew on. The songwriting is still strong. Sheila is a pulsing eight-minute deep house jam that builds up more energy than just about anything Hawk has done so far. Safety has a soft, rubbery, electro buoyancy that gets better the more you listen to it. The album lacks cohesion though, and it never feels like it stretches too far to achieve its goals. The energy needed to make a memorable album this short is more than what’s on display here. There’s a lack of both visceral and intellectual fire that makes it seem like Dayve isn’t trying anymore. This sucks because, technically, the music is more than passable. This feels like an old report card – ‘If he only applied himself he could do great things…’ Matt MacMaster

AC/DC

MACHINE HEAD

BLUR

LED ZEPPELIN

Live At River Plate

Machine Fucking Head Live

Parklive

Celebration Day

Albert/Sony

Roadrunner/Warner

EMI

Atlantic/Warner

Though certainly not shy about making a buck, of their classic-rock peers AC/DC have kept their brand better intact than most. Not adhering to Kiss’ inexhaustible entrepreneurial spirit (bar those questionable wines, so-so Thunderstruck movie and finally caving in to iTunes), dusting off a seemingly endless line of compilations (The Rolling Stones), issuing regular live recordings (Iron Maiden), publicly feuding among themselves (Aerosmith) or engaging in questionable collaborations (Metallica), they’ve done it their way. You won’t see Angus Young on Idol anytime soon. DVDs and box-sets have been executed with fan consideration too. Irrespective, it’s still surprising Live At River Plate is their first live record in 20 years. The accompanying DVD was released last year, recorded in Buenos Aires during the 2009 Black Ice tour. Nearly 200,000 fans (over three sold-out nights) welcomed AC/DC back after a 13-year absence from Argentina. Unsurprisingly, capturing the even-more-rabid-than-usual vibe of a single South American city is more engaging. You know exactly what it sounds like, decades-old, bluesy staples included, but fans pay for that reliability. Rather than naughty young boys, they’re professional dirty old men nowadays. Underrated Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be and Dog Eat Dog get a run, and the enthusiasm with which punters greet mediocre new cuts (Big Jack, War Machine) says plenty about their loyalty and fanaticism. Available as a 3-disc red vinyl and a 2-CD package featuring multiple covers, AC/DC have not missed a marketing opportunity.

In the digital age (YouTube, iPhones) the live album isn’t as vital, or the avenue for a commercial breakthrough a la ‘70s luminaries KISS and Peter Frampton, as it once was. Also, considering this may be Machine Head’s swansong to their long-time label lends further weight to the argument such releases are mere contractual obligations. Regardless, on this subtly-titled effort, the US quartet pours copious amounts of blood, sweat and beers into 100 minutes of visceral, life-affirming heavy metal. Considering the absolute tear they’ve been on lately (three brilliant records in a row, culminating in last year’s monumental Unto The Locust), a live document at arguably the height of their powers was a necessity. Given their only previous concert album was 2003’s middling Hellalive, recorded while the band was in a vastly different (ahem) headspace both musically and otherwise, makes this double LP’s arrival, culled from several cities, even more mandatory. Opening with the one-two knockout of I Am Hell and Judas Priest-esque harmonics of Be Still & Know, there’s no stopping this train once it hurtles out of the station. Locust’s colossal groove and the ferocious Imperium sit alongside staples (Davidian, Old), the sonic maelstrom only briefly pausing for the introspective Darkness Within. Some of usually charismatic frontman Robb Flynn’s banter can be hamfisted, and the incessant “Machine fucking Head!” crowd chants grate, but the tight players’ chemistry, especially Flynn and fellow axeman Phil Demmel is jaw-dropping, and rabid response undeniable.

Too often the only differentiating factor between live recordings and a studio version is the obligatory audience roar in the background. Parklive is not unlike 2009’s All The People – both recorded in Hyde Park in London in summertime. Yet this time the atmosphere is different; the energy emanating from Parklive is euphoric and mostly patriotic. Which makes perfect sense considering the performance is taken from Blur’s headlining spot at the London Olympics Closing Ceremony concert. They sound animated and excellently recorded from the moment that infamous Girls & Boys refrain sounds, Damon Albarn’s Essex drawl still audible over thousands of screaming voices. The setlist indulges Anglophilia, with London Loves getting a resounding cheer as Albarn calls for the crowd to shout the city’s name passionately. The other stunning factor is that audience, so vast that the echoes can be heard in waves. The softer moments are intangibly sweet; Out Of Time introduced with a brief political aside, Tender being led by the audience rather than the band, and a rare live performance of Sing, on which the piano is heart-wrenchingly powerful. Fans will be pleased with the first official live recordings of old B-side Young And Lovely and the newbie, Under The Westway, the latter getting an unexpected singalong given how soon after its release this was. Parklive is, of course, a snapshot in time: the summer when London blossomed under the Olympics banner, when every word Blur had ever sung of their fine country perfectly fitted the moment.

By breaking up at the height of their powers, Led Zeppelin managed to retain a mystique that the Stones, Purple and Sabbath all forfeited by trudging on. Thus each of the post-breakup releases from the Zeps has been met with genuine excitement – their rarity makes them actual events. The band’s one-off reformation in 2007 with Jason Bonham filling in for dad on drums was certainly such an event and this live release of the gig captures it perfectly. The band are amazing, and the sound is authentically live yet crystal clear. You can feel the palpable excitement of the thousands of well-heeled 50-something lawyers and doctors who were lucky enough to blag tickets and relive their youth. This was certainly something to tell the teenage kids about. Best of all though is the setlist, which mixes reliable standards like Black Dog, Rock N Roll and Whole Lotta Love, not to mention the obligatory Stairway To Heaven, with enough deep catalogue classics to keep things interesting. No Quarter sounds suitably mystical, Misty Mountain Hop is a joyously timeless romp, and Nobody’s Fault But Mine and In My Time Of Dying are great leftfield inclusions. In fact apart from the absence of Communication Breakdown and the blistering Achilles Last Stand, there’s nothing whatsoever to complain about here.

Brendan Crabb

Sevana Ohandjanian

This is no second-rate cash grab. Celebration Day confirms the genius of Zeppelin and leaves us all wishing they would do something else, be it an album or tour, to cap off a remarkable career. Mark Hebblewhite

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For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 41

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ARTS

Rinse and Repeat Wall by Phibs

TUESDAY 4 Beers And Bards – a spoken word poetry, craft, dumplings and beer night with poets Eleanor Jackson, Squizzy Rider and Edwina Blush who were in town for the National Poetry Slam. Yulli’s Screening Room, 6.30pm.

WEDNESDAY 5 I Get The Music In You – an evening with Queenie Van De Zandt playing Jan Van De Stool, this performance revolves around a mock therapy session. Parade Studio Theatre, NIDA, 7.30pm.

THURSDAY 6 Rinse And Repeat – an exhibition showcasing 12 Australian street and graffiti artists including Cam Wall, Phibs and Carl Steffan. Opening, aMBUSH Gallery 6pm; to Sunday 9 December.

FRIDAY 7 God Bless America – Bobcat Goldthwaite’s new black comedy following a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde as they eliminate some of modern society’s obnoxious pests. Dendy Newtown Cinemas

SATURDAY 8 Dov Davidoff – a one-off solo show from US comedian Dov Davidoff, who has been seen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Last Call with Carson Daly. The Comedy Store, 7pm. Homebake Arts – this year’s Homebake Comedy Stage has the biggest line-up yet with Tom Ballard, Matt Okine, Rhys Nicholson, Ronny Chieng, Tien Tran and The Human Jukebox, Benny Davis, as well as a film stage curated by Australian director Kieran Darcy-Smith, which will screen short films. The Domain, Royal Botanic Gardens, starting midday. Alla Prima – a new exhibition by Victor Alejandro Peralta, all the works are Alla Prima, a technique whereby instead of building colours up with layers, the painting is

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

completed while the paint is still wet. Opening, Tap Gallery, 5pm; to Sunday 16 December.

MONDAY 10 Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale – a screening of this festive cult film about a group of Finnish people living near the Korvatunturi mountain who discover the secret behind Santa Claus. District 01 Pop – Up Cinema, 7.30pm.

UPCOMING IN ARTS Open Air Cinemas – the 2013 program has been announced for the Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas. The season will open with Cloud Atlas; an Australia Day special will be Mad Max, and for the lovers, on Valentine’s Day Pretty Woman will screen. Also screening during the season are Django Unchained, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life Of Pi and This Is 40. The closing night film will be Impossible. The Openair Cinemas runs from 25 January to 3 March on the Dolphin Lawn next to the Bondi Pavilion, overlooking the beach. For more info head to openaircinemas.com.au. New Theatre 2013 Season – in a welcomed programming shift, four of the nine plays in New Theatres 2013 season are written by women and seven will be directed by women. The season has four Australian premiers, including MilkMilkLemonade, which is in association with the Sydney Mardi Gras and will be directed by Felicity Nicol. It also features the writer of Seven Psychopaths and In Bruges, Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman, directed by Luke Rogers, and Patrick White’s The Ham Funeral, directed by Phillip Rouse. The season also includes Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Enron, Humble Boy and Jerusalem, and will end with an adaptation of Nicholas Erdman’s The Suicide, the Australian premier of Dying For It, directed by Harriet Gillies. The season runs from 9 January to 21 December, New Theatre.

GOD BLESS AMERICA Snarling actor-cum-challenging film director Bobcat Goldthwait’s take on modern America was built to be an imagination, not a reality, as Anthony Carew finds out. In Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America, a modern-day Bonnie & Clyde – a laid-off forty-something salary man (Mad Men’s Joel Murray, aka Bill’s brother) and a vicious teenage vamp (child-star survivor Tara Lynne Barr) – go on a killing spree across America, gunning down all that they see as evil: reality TV stars, Westborostyled hate preachers, neo-con talking heads. It’s a comic cry of rage from 21st century America, but in one scene its fantasy collides with real life tragedy, when its vigilantes gun down people in a cinema, painfully echoing the very-real massacre of Dark Knight Rises viewers at a midnight screening in Colorado.

“The current events – all the things that happened before and after this movie – would’ve happened anyway, regardless of whether or not I made this movie. I don’t believe I’ve influenced the world in a violent way,” offers Goldthwait, the 50-year-old comedian-turnedfilmmaker. Where the producers of depression-era action movie Gangster Squad staged much publicised reshoots in the wake of the shootings, Goldthwait sneers at the notion. “The people who are reshooting that movie should be ashamed of themselves. Like, they thought showing people getting shot in a cinema was okay, but then something like that actually happened so it wasn’t?

Bobcat Goldthwait

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was inspired by an all-day binge on the horrendous reality-TV landfill, My Super Sweet 16. “I was so repulsed that I was struck with the thought: these people deserve to die,” he laughs, in recollection. “Well, at least in my fantasies.”

They’re just a bunch of cowards. They’re just worried about taking a hit at the box office. They’re not people that have anything to say, cinematically; they’re just a bunch of pussies trying to make a lot of money, and real life just happened to get in their way.” God Bless America marks the ongoing reinvention of the career comic stooge – “I got on Letterman when I was 20, and after that I started making Police Academy movies [and] got caught up in doing things for money” – as provocative filmmaker. 2006’s Sleeping Dogs Lie, a black comedy in which an instant of misguided, youthful bestiality is a symbol of the modern-day digital reputation; 2009’s World’s Greatest Dad, finding a father reinvents his son’s post-mortem reputation from a misanthropic masturbator to heroic teenage loner. God Bless America

Yet, as much as its fantasyfulfilment, it’s no simple liberal fantasy, especially given the vigilantes’ actions carry conservative belligerence. “My conservative friends have had far less of a problem with it than my liberal friends, because that’s how they understand the world,” Goldthwait offers. “‘You don’t like someone, you get a gun!’ But liberal audiences are troubled by that violence, and that’s what I wanted... I wanted to make it all fall apart, so the responsibility for this fantasy fell back on the viewer, and people had to ask, ‘Am I part of this problem?’” Though maybe that sense of responsibility hasn’t always been felt by the audience; most of whom seem to be in support of its cinematic bloodshed. “I read this comment on the web that genuinely shocked me,” Goldthwait offers. “Someone said ‘I was 100% behind these two people until they called President Bush a hillbilly’... The feds should find that person and lock them up. People shouldn’t be blindly on the side of these two when they’re watching this movie, they should be horrified!” WHAT: God Bless Amercia WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, Dendy Newtown I just thought I was gonna go on tape and that was gonna be it. But I walked in the room and Larry David’s standing in the middle of the room and they told me, ‘Okay, you’ve gotta improv with Larry’. I said, ‘Oh, cool! Let’s do this, Larry.’ I said, ‘All right, my man. Let’s sit down, Larry.’ And once he started laughin’, that gave me an indication that he liked what I’m doin’.”

SMOOVE MOVES

Through his Curb Your Enthusiasm character, ter, JB hat ass’. Smoove taught Larry David how to ‘get in that Bryget Chrisfield’s laughing gear gets a workout. “No matter what you do as an actor, as a comedian, as a producer, as a director – I think you’re doing it to make a body of work that people can relate to later on, and in the moment,” JB Smoove shares, and you’d swear you were in conversation with the character he plays on Curb Your Enthusiasm. “So I try to do that: I try to write things and do things that I feel like – I’m like a motivational-speaking comedian almost. I think I do a whole lot of motivational speaking when I’m on Curb… you know?

Even though Leon [Black]’s making crazy dumb sense – stoopid sense, in some ways – what he’s saying is absolutely right, but it’s just how he presents it to Larry [David] that makes it funny.” Leon Black’s phrases are very quotable, which a quick Google will ascertain even if you’re not familiar with the comedy series. Smoove has a particular soft spot for ‘get in that ass’. “’Cause that is, to me, the most amazing metaphor for life in general,” he elaborates. “It’s just so powerful to me. I

remember the first time we did that scene. Larry had no idea what idea. ‘get in that ass’ meant – no idea His face was so baffled, like, he didn’t know what the hell I was talkin’ about, which is so damn funny to me.” In case you’re still perplexed, Smoove offers: “[It] doesn’t mean physically kickin’ the man’s ass, it’s a metaphor for, ‘Defend yourself and make him feel as bad as he made you feel.’” Smoove actually entered the Curb Your Enthusiasm audition room in character. “I kinda already knew who the Leon character was in my head and I was all over Larry from the moment I walked in the door,” he tells. “‘Cause I had no idea that I had to improv with Larry directly,

Within a few days, Smoove was hired. “Certain Certain things worked for me: if I had gotten renewed for SNL [Saturday Night Live] in season four, I wouldn’t have been [at the audition]; if my buddy didn’t pass away, I wouldn’t have been in LA. So some things had tto get out the way in order for new things to come in,” he reflects. As far as his stand-up goes, Smoove points out, “It’s like wha what I do on Curb: I’m a motormouth, I talk. My act is very physical so, for me, I just put a funny spin on situations situations, you know? Anything as simple as how to meet a woman, or I could do 15 minutes on a sneeze!” When asked what makes him guffaw, Smoove answers instantly: “I just like real, genuine stuff. Like, for me, I can put in an old Peter Sellers movie and just be lovin’ it to death even though I’ve seen it ten times.” Does he love The Party? “I loooove The Party! If someone gave me the opportunity to do a movie over, and it wouldn’t hurt the original, I would do The Party.” WHEN & WHERE: Friday 14 December, Factory Theatre

To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 43

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Ballard interviews three guests about their lives, careers and a specific song choice that is then played for the audience. With the month-long Listening Party experiment drawing to a close, it seems only fitting that Ballard will combine comedy with music once more, with a set on Homebake’s Comedy stage at the upcoming festival.

ROCKING LAUGHS

“There’s that old saying that every musician wants to be a comedian, and every comedian wants to be a rock star.” Tom Ballard talks to Dave Drayton about bringing comedy to music festivals.

You may know Tom Ballard from his years on the stand-up comedy circuit (an impressive feat in itself given his young 23 years). You may know him from slots on various television programs. You may know him as one half of triple j’s morning breakfast team. Or you may even know him from his most recent endeavour, Listening Party, a live show where

“I’m all about comedy at music festivals,” says Ballard, who was also billed on last year’s Homebake. “I think it’s really fun – in the UK it’s really big and I think more and more festivals are taking it on around here and that’s good. There’s a huge crossover between music audiences and comedy-goers, and lots of comedians fit into that middle-ground.” Ballard then rattles off some rather impressive examples: “Bill Hicks used to open for rock acts, Nirvana used to have Bobcat Goldthwait open for them when they were touring, so there’s a bit of tradition there.” Given his recent efforts, I request a little Listening Party-esque run down of Ballard’s top picks for the festival, and among fellow comedians Mel Buttle and Rhys Nicholson, there’s a nice spread of musos. “I do like Tim Minchin. I

think it’d be really cool to see him in a live festival context. Blondie I think will be bizarre, but great, you know, it’s odd that they’re on this line-up, but it’s cool too, they’re great pop people! And Tame Impala – I think people are just going to go apeshit for them, they’re so much fun and they make really interesting music. So they’re the big ones for me.” While he’s all for more comedy at music festivals, there is the small problem (which, granted, bands are not excused from either) of timing clashes. With The Saints and Ball Park Music scheduled for sets while Ballard brings the laughs to the comedy stage, I ask him – in good spirits – what he’ll offer that they won’t. “Well, The Saints are punk legends of the Australian music scene, and Ball Park Music are one of the most interesting bands kicking around at the moment who put on an incredible live show. So… I have been on the telly, and, um, there’s shade. I won’t go on for ages, and I won’t sing songs that you don’t know, I won’t sing any songs at all! Did I mention there’s shade? And if you want to throw empty beer bottles at me I don’t mind so much.” WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Homebake, The Domain

REVIEWS DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN THEATRE Leah Purcell is the undisputed queen of the one-woman show. Following the huge success of her autobiographical Box The Pony is Don’t Take Your Love To Town, a play about the life of Aboriginal elder and author Ruby Langford Ginibi, who died last year aged 77. Ginibi grew up on a mission in northern New South Wales but lived much of her later life in Sydney, juggling the two cultures. She had four partners, nine children, was a victim of domestic violence and endured much poverty. Her book writing didn’t start until she was 50, but she published Don’t Take Your Love To Town in 1988, winning the Australian Human

Rights Commission’s Human Rights Award For Literature and a NSW Premier’s Literary Award. The story of this proud woman’s life could easily become two hours of whinging and self-indulgence, but in Purcell’s hands it is anything but that. Her high-energy monologue is a moving celebration of a remarkable life and theatre at its best. She is a brilliant storyteller and we are moved to tears during sad moments, such as when Ginibi finds out her father died without anyone being able to contact her.

CRINGE

WITH JAMELLE WELLS Tributes are still pouring in for Sydney-based author Bryce Courtenay, who passed away at the grand age of 79 from cancer. In his lifetime, he sold more than 20 million books and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1995. Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Andrew Upton has appointed three resident directors - Sarah Goodes, Kip Williams and Sarah Giles - who will each direct a main stage show in 2013. They’ll also run workshops, take part in artistic programming and represent STC at community programs. In the annual Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture at Belvoir St on Sunday, Upton talked about how theatre must evolve with our culture and live in a contemporary context. Romance movies Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom, which both star Aussie Jacki Weaver, have each scored five nominations in the Spirit Awards for independent film. Both are competing for the best picture award in the competition that’s a lead-up to the Oscars. Aussie actor Toni Collette is being sued for $1.6 million by the couple behind menswear clothing company Industrie. Documents filed with the NSW Supreme Court show the actor and her musician husband David Galafassi signed a contract to buy a Paddington terrace house from Susan and Nick Kelly in 2011. They apparently agreed to pay $6.35 million and put down a

TRAILER

Jamelle Wells Belvoir Downstairs Theatre until Sunday 6 January

RAPID WRITE: HOLLYWOOD ENDING THEATRE CJ Johnson’s Hollywood Ending or How A Washed Up Director Made A Crappy Movie That Almost Destroyed The World went from inception to the stage at SBW Stables in eight weeks; that’s four weeks of writing, two weeks of rehearsal, rewrites and about a fortnight with a finished script before it came to be. The timeframe is ambitious and requires a hell of a cast, sharp directing and an attention-grabbing story to work. Thankfully, Hollywood Ending possesses all three. Start with the story; an evershrinking budget for a film that has a deadline creeping closer and closer. On top of that there’s family drama, (not so) hidden political agendas and a plot that allows movie titles like Para-Anal Activity 2, Glad-He-Ate-Her and Porn Raider to be bandied about. Then there are the characters: Terry Serio dialling up the sleaze he showcased recently in Belvoir’s

BStreet soap opera, appearing here as Don, a washed-up porn director trying to make his mark as a legitimate filmmaker while simultaneously trying to earn his daughter’s respect; a wonderfully camp Tony Llewellyn-Jones, a relic from Don’s porn-making days with plenty of sass; and the car-wreck-can’t-look-away dynamic of the ‘brains’ behind the operation, Amy (Briallen Clarke), a deceptively cute and conniving alpha to the overlyexcitable, juvenile and barely bearable Randy (played too well by Blake Erickson). Caroline Craig seems a little under-used as Don’s daughter, but she brings a sceptical energy that charges the father/daughter subplot. There’s a lot of comedy – and some high stakes – crammed into 80-minutes, and while some punch lines don’t quite land and the rapid transitions occasionally jolt, Tim Roseman’s no-holdsbarred direction allows this snappy no-frills comedy to shine. Dave Drayton SBW Stables until Saturday 15 December

$317,500 deposit, but pulled out of the deal when they couldn’t get a buyer for their Bronte home. The Performance Space’s Sexes Festival has wrapped up with a party to mark World AIDS Day. The Absolutely Positive dance party celebrated the lives and contributions of HIVpositive artists. ACON collected donations on the night. Screen Australia is investing in a second series of the landmark ABC television drama, Redfern Now. The series, which centres on contemporary inner-city Indigenous life, will once again, in six standalone episodes, tell the stories of six families whose lives are changed by a seemingly insignificant incident. Writers from the first series, Steven McGregor, Adrian Wills and Jon Bell, plus new Redfern Now writers Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell, will be taken through an intense development process led by Jimmy McGovern, the writer of The Street, Cracker and The Lakes. The ABC’s 2013 line-up includes the return of the brilliant Chris Lilley in a new comedy which remains a surprise and Spicks And Specks. There are 24 new local productions including a 13-part drama about generations of a family, The Time Of Our Lives, Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, the second chapter in the real-life publishing drama that started with Paper Giants and the telemovie, Carlotta, chronicling the rise of legendary Kings Cross entertainer Carlotta, which will star Jessica Marais.

TRASH

WITH GUY DAVIS

Purcell is backed on stage by musician Nardi Simpson from The Stiff Gins and hangs eight paintings depicting Ginibi’s life by artist Lorna Munro as her story unfolds.

44 • For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews

C U LT U R A L

My man Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”, and he was right to do so, partially because one should never pass up the opportunity to drop the word “hobgoblin” into everyday conversation, but primarily because he made a whole bunch of sense. Hell, even Oscar Wilde thought so – he chimed in to state “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative”. Now I’m guessing neither of these esteemed gents was talking about comic-book movies or the James Bond franchise but, hey, they’re both dead and I’m writing Trailer Trash. Advantage: Davis. Consistency is the next phase in the evolution of the big-ticket blockbuster, it seems. Or maybe it isn’t, but for the purposes of this article let’s suppose it is, okay? You see, with the release of the latest 007 adventure Skyfall – which some folks feel is the conclusion of a James Bond origin story and resumption of the ‘original’ series rather than simply the next instalment of Daniel Craig’s run as the character – there’s been a bit of chitchat about whether Bond is actually just a cover, an identity passed from agent to agent over time, meaning that all the 007 movies are part of a continuum. I don’t subscribe to this theory, and I trust you don’t either. It’s nuts, and it’s too complicated by half. But some people like that. They like the idea of connectivity when it comes to their favourite sagas. That’s why when the announcement that Disney had purchased your childhood dreams the Star Wars saga from George Lucas was made, they started wishin’ and hopin’ that the likes of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker might make a comeback, despite the fact that Harrison Ford hasn’t really seemed engaged in any performance he’s given THIS CENTURY and Mark Hamill, while a marvellous voice actor, was never much of a screen presence and is in fact rather unpleasant to

look at these days. Here’s the great thing about Lucas’ universe – it’s a big one, and the ideas that he hatched can be explored in exciting new ways while retaining some sense of familiarity. So why not do that, huh? Same goes for the twittering (some of it on Twitter!) that Joseph GordonLevitt, who looked set to inherit the cape and cowl at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, was rumoured to be playing Batman in that Justice League movie Warner Bros has reportedly fast-tracked since The Avengers made all the money, ever. Now, I like JGL. For someone who seems so slight and unassuming, he carries himself with a confidence and a bravado that works very well indeed. He was actually kinda badass in Looper and Inception. And as the casting of Michael Keaton has taught us, your Bruce Wayne/ Batman doesn’t necessarily need to be some square-jawed lug. But JGL’s character wasn’t Bruce Wayne, and the way Christopher Nolan closed out his trilogy of films had a cool finality to it. Let them be, WB, and start fresh with a new Batman for Justice League and his own solo adventures. (I recommend Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston. He’s handsome, can act, is on the rise but ain’t too pricey yet). Consistency – it’s gonna be with us for a while yet, and the aforementioned Avengers is one of the reasons why. Look, I kinda admire what Marvel has done with its cinematic universe, giving Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, etcetera their own separate stories that eventually tied together into one big grab-bag. But the downside to that continuity, especially if it expands to include more and more characters, is that there’ll be a sameness to their movies. It feels churlish griping about that, especially when they’re perfectly good movies. But wouldn’t you prefer each Marvel movie to have a vivid personality all its own? Consistency isn’t without its charms, but variety? Well, it’s the spice, innit?

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IT’S OKINE OF MAGIC On a high after his Best Newcomer win at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival, Matt Okine is one of a talented bunch of comics keeping Homebake’s coolest chill-out room chuckling, writes Baz McAlister. “Comedy at music festivals is a thing that’s really late to take off in Australia, but it’s such a fun thing to have,” muses comedian Matt Okine. He’s joining such names as Tom Ballard, Heath Franklin’s Chopper, Daniel Townes, Anthony Salame and Mel Buttle – plus a dozen more mirthmakers – to provide a haven for Homebake punters who’re desperately in need of a sit down and a laugh. “Everyone needs a break from the dancing and loud music and being in the sun,” Okine says. “You don’t want to just sit on a hill and not do anything. So it’s great to be able to come into the comedy tent, watch some comedy, have a laugh, recharge and head back out again.” The line-up of comedians will be delivering their best material in ten-minute spurts to provide a respite from the music (although Okine, as he did last year, might bust out the odd hip hop song). Last year was the comedian’s first experience of doing comedy at a music festival but he soon clicked into what it was all about. “I was terrified at first; I’d never seen comedy at a music festival before,” he says. “All I could think about was when I was 19 at a festival, just going hard and not caring too much about what was on the stages. With comedy you have to sit down and really listen. But I think people appreciate the focused energy of sitting down and listening to something when they’re exhausted. I did a gig at Reading Festival in the UK to a tent of 3000 people, and no matter how big the festival is, the people who come to a comedy tent genuinely are there to listen. It’s really awesome. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole idea of comedy at

music festivals takes off properly in this country. Comedians like to think that we’re rock stars so it also helps our precious little egos.”

SURF, SAND AND PSYCHO

“Bad taste is great taste! If bad taste is done really well…” Ash Flanders talks to Dave Drayton about the best bits of the worst genres and Charles Busch’s Psycho Beach Party. Melbourne-based actor and theatre maker Ash Flanders has a big year ahead on Sydney stages. From the end of November, he will take to the stage at Bondi Pavilion as Chicklet, a nerd with dreams to surf and a handful of different personalities in the Stephen Nicolazzo-directed Psycho Beach Party; in March his

company with Declann Greene, ent their hit Sisters Grimm, present t Little Mercy at Sydney Th Theatre Company; and in November 2013 another Sisters Grimm work, Summertime In The Garden Of Eden, graces the stage at SBW Stables. The unifying thread through all the productions for Flanders – not least of all the psychodrama/ beach movie/slasher film parody Psycho Beach Party – is their subversion of filmic genre. “For me as an actor and as a theatre maker, I can’t overstate my love of cinema, and just these narratives that I’ve grown up with and styles that I absorbed without really realising it. There’s a big trend at the moment to do theatre that’s based on the sexy, Australian

Not that Okine needs any more ego-stroking this year. In April he took out the Best Newcomer award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his debut hourlong show Being Black N Chicken N Shit. “Winning Best Newcomer doesn’t have the reputation with the ladies that winning an ARIA does. Nobody’s saying ‘Ooh, I can’t wait to go home with him, he told jokes for the first time really well’,” Okine laughs. “But I’m stoked about the award. I held off doing a festival show for a long time because I wanted my first show to be as good as it could possibly be.” Okine worked hard, taking feedback, trying new material and tweaking the show night after night until it got to the point where he was so happy with it, he took it to the UK and just finished a two-week run in London. In truth, he’s been too busy with other projects in the past few years to think too hard about a festival comedy show – he’s done a web series, a TV pilot and a short film that got into Tropfest. “It wasn’t like I was just sitting on my arse,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of work to back me up for those years, so if someone goes ‘Where were you between the years of 2008 and 2011?’ I can say I’ve done heaps of stuff – I just didn’t focus on a onehour comedy show because I didn’t think I was ready. Some comedians stretch their good five minutes into a terrible 50 minutes – it happens all the time! I’d rather wait 20 years to do a good show than burn my good material on a bad show.” WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Homebake, The Domain

HELLO STEPHEN Long-time Ricky Gervaiscollaborator Stephen Merchant is branching out for his own stand-up tour. Guy Davis finds him stepping out from behind the hilarious shadow cast by his various successful TV shows.

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Anyone who has ever set foot on a stage with only a microphone and a collection of stories, impressions, one-liners and anecdotes an audience will hopefully find funny will tell you that stand-up comedy is a tough racket. But when you bring a little extra baggage onstage in the form of a CV that includes some of the most hilarious television of the last decade, it can be even tougher.

adaptation of a classic text, you know? And I prefer my art to come ffrom a llow culture lt accessible ibl point. i t “I don’t believe that everyone needs to have read the classics or even needs to see the classics,” reasons Flanders, “I would rather talk about what people are into and what people actually like, you know, the guilty pleasures that we love – that’s exciting to me – and it ties into my love of camp and of kitsch and the audacity of praising something that seems glib or supercilious. Make a wild, fun, sexy, funny experience for people in the theatre, which is a big thing for me; I don’t like my theatre to be too stuffy or too preachy, I don’t want to go to a play about some leftist issue, effectively where

Stephen Merchant is well-known for co-creating The Office, Extras and An Idiot Abroad with longtime collaborator Ricky Gervais, and having such credits to his name made his return to stand-up comedy with his show, Hello Ladies, now available on DVD, “quite intense”. While he has a number of strings to his bow as writer, director, broadcaster and actor, Merchant started his entertainment career as a stand-up, admitting that “the first week I did really well, the second week I died on my arse.” Over the course of five or so years, he continued to perform semi-professionally but once his television career started to gather momentum “I kind of knocked it on the head – I never took enough pleasure from it.” When he made the decision to take a second shot at it with Hello Ladies, which wittily chronicles the lanky, six-foot-seven Merchant’s at-times awkward interactions with the opposite sex, he found “people had certain expectations, so it was like building the act from the ground up and starting again but this time with this weight of expectation.” He needn’t have worried though – Hello Ladies is funny stuff, with Merchant displaying a stage presence and storytelling style that deftly combines confidence and self-deprecation. “What I’d done originally was more of a character piece,” he says of his early comedy. “Here I wanted to be more honest, more of a storyteller.

they re preaching to the choir they’re because a lot of people coming are already lefties. I’d rather go and see blood, see vomit, see sex, see men in dresses, see things that take me out of my life and take me beyond. I’m so not against a good old fashioned curtain up, razzle dazzle, show must go on, turn step pivot high kick. I love all of that, put on a show! People are paying money, give them a show!” Psycho Beach Partyy certainly offers blood, sex, and men in dresses (well, at least Flanders in dresses, and a bikini) in spades as it tells the story of a series of mysterious deaths in a beachside town populated by surfers, a B-movie actress and the many moods of Flanders’ Chicklet. Once again returning to his love of cinema, Flanders’ excitedly rattles off the hit-list of actors inspiring his multifaceted multifaceted, flat-chested teenage character. “I maybe am quite similar to Charles in the female women of cinema that I idolise and I guess as a lot of gay men do, camp icons of Joan Crawford or Betty Davis, or a sassy black woman, I feel like a lot of gay guys have those voices within them and I’m just getting excited to bring mine out to the forefront and do my terrifying dominatrix Ann Bowman,” says Flanders, seeming more than ready to inhabit Chicklet’s sexually aggressive alter-ego. WHAT: Psycho Beach Party WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday November 28 to Saturday 15 December, Bondi Pavilion Theatre I guess I wanted to define myself for people because I’d been seen in various things and I was known for working with Ricky but there’s a kind of comic attitude I have that people may not be aware of. I thought it was a good opportunity to tell people where I’m coming from, and the romantic strand was the thing I latched on because it always struck me as the funniest thing of the stories I would tell, even just amongst friends. My romantic misadventures seemed like the best way to introduce myself to audiences.” Not to mention endear himself to audiences, although Merchant certainly doesn’t come across as clingy or longing for the audience’s affection. “I wanted people to go away from Hello Ladies felling relieved, I guess, and feeling that they may have learned something about me. I mean, I like one-liners and I like surreal comedy but the confessional kind of comedian is probably my favourite. And once you’re on TV, there’s this assumption that your life is somehow easier, which it is in some ways, but it doesn’t change who you are at your core, and the hopeless idiot you were at the age of twentyone is still lurking inside you. So I wanted people to go away from Hello Ladies thinking ‘Jeez, at least my dating life isn’t as bad as his!’” WHAT: Hello Ladies Tour WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Theatre Royal; Sunday 9, Sydney Opera House

FEATURE TOUR

PRIMAL SCREAM After 30 years as a band, British game-changers Primal Scream remain at the cutting edge, blending rock, psychedelia and electro into a space where echoes of the past meet a beautiful future. Last seen in 2011 performing their era-defining album Screamadelica in full, Primal Scream, fronted by Bobby Gillespie, return to Australia armed with classics, fan favourites and brand new songs. They play Wednesday 5 December at the Enmore Theatre.

FRONTLASH TREATY

The all-star version of Yothu Yindi’s Treaty at the ARIA Awards was one of those chills up the spine moments and will go down as one of the ARIA Awards moments of all time, as was the strength and determination of frontman Mandawuy Yunupingu’s speech, despite his obvious ill health.

FROM SOMEBODY TO NOBODY Walking the red carpet behind Reece Mastin with screaming teenagers, then being confused about whether you’re somebody or not.

ARIA WEEK Most ARIA Week parties felt like ARIA Awards after parties, so we knew exactly what to do when the big moment came.

BACKLASH OVERSEAS IMPORTS Battleships @ Upstairs Beresford Pic by Angela Padovan

The Trouble With Templeton @ Upstairs Beresford Pic by Angela Padovan

It’s something we say every year – why do we need overseas talent at the Australian Recording Industry Association Awards? If they’re there to supposedly boost ratings, it didn’t work this year. Let’s do ourselves a favour and show the great talent we already have on offer.

SWIFTY And Taylor Swift didn’t even play the song from the Hunger Games soundtrack on ARIA night.

DZ NO RAYS No chaotic live performance from category winners DZ Deathrays. #nextyear

The Falls @ Upstairs Beresford Pic by Angela Padovan

Oceanics @ Upstairs Beresford Pic by Angela Padovan

ARIA WEEK: LIME CORDIALE, BATTLESHIPS, THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON, THE FALLS, OCEANICS UPSTAIRS BERESFORD: 28/11/12 The ARIAs maybe be the biggest, daggiest school awards night in Australia, but it has some upsides, with the plethora of showcases in the lead-up to the night being the biggest SMOR-GAS-BORD!

Gold Coast boys Oceanics were down a man (shout out to Jackson!) but happy to bring the party with their costal pop tunes. They were tight, mixing Vampire Weekend-style melodies with Supergrass strumming fuzz to land somewhere near Mystery Jets. That address again: Funville, population everyone in the room. The Falls chilled us out a bit more with their James Taylor/Karen Carpenter-like folk storytelling. They are a little like Tigertown in their Fleetwood Mac vibes, but with the mini-orchestra joining them onstage they skillfully made a sparse sonic landscape seem very full. The tracks Million and Hey more than measure up to the phenomenal debut single Home.

The Trouble With Templeton are buzzing. With the vocal range of Thomas Calder echoing some of the best in business, his opening solo version of I Wrote A Novel was simply captivating. Live, they lose a little of their poptasm, but gain pulsating electricity. The singles Six Months In A Cast and Bleeders become anthemic without blowing out or losing the features that make them special, like the sweet piano lilts. There’s a blues-rock style bass stomp that underlies the indie-folk front section and it launches everything into hyperspace. There needs to be a new genre created to encapsulate bands that emulate and evolve from The National. How about nu-chamber rock? It’s a little bit classical,

a little bit haunting, but rhythmic and danceable. Hello Battleships. Early Muse, The Knives Of Neptune, The Boxer Rebellion are all comparable but none contemporaries as the lads stand isolated in their pop-washed nu-chamber rock. Lime Cordiale are a band that play a party gypsy ska brand of music; they’re musicians who are clearly trained but not tamed. In Australia that is bound to see them mentioned in the same breath as The Cat Empire, but Lime Cordiale are more funk and more disco than the feline ones. They would fit on a bill next to Sharon Jones, or supporting No Doubt or even Prince. Given their musicality and backing by a certain industry big wig, any of those things are entirely possible. Any of the five bands may be featuring in next year’s ARIAs, but even if they don’t, playing the showcases gives you all the perks of being a rock star without sitting through the crap. Kristy Wandmaker

For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 47

a dark and dirty drawl in an instant and the band follows suit. One minute the crowd was being lulled by the tenderness of Stay, Please Stay and the next seduced by the reggae-inspired Still Making Me Pay. Alpine brought the night to a close with an hour of enchanting tracks from their debut album. With two of the sweetest voices in music, leading ladies Phoebe Baker and Lou James sang breathily into the microphones, cooing the audience with their celestial harmonies and off-kilter but sensual movements around the stage. Meanwhile, the gentlemen of the band stood coolly in the background, offsetting their light voices with driving, heavy beats. Their songs are replete with a melancholy that slyly urges you to abandon any sense of prudence for impulsive dancing. The rhythm of Alpine was contagious on the floor as the audience mimicked the sounds of the stage with their hips. Cara Sayer-Bourne

ARIA WEEK: THE RUBENS, YESYOU, ASTA OXFORD ART FACTORY: 27/11/12 Redcoats @ The Annandale Pic by Angela Padovan

REDCOATS, ROYSTON VASIE, THE DEAD LOVE ANNANDALE HOTEL: 30/11/12 Rock is still well and truly alive at the ‘Dale and louder than ever and, maybe this reviewer is getting old, but it was the first time a pair of ear plugs were requested from the bar person, a steal at a buck a piece. That said, it suited The Dead Love’s sweaty pub-rock-inspired set that had a lot of energy and drew a substantial crowd early on. The Sydney trio demonstrated some tight playing, theatrics and a lot of ambition, with their sound being a mixed bag of progressive rock, indie and even metal. The gathered crowd and an enthusiastic mob up the front were obviously very much enjoying the moment. Melbourne’s Royston Vasie started slow and more subdued – a stark contrast to the preceding band – but the crowd grew bigger and bigger as the songs kept coming. Probably contributing to the growing crowd was the band’s well-known single, You Want It Now, which was inevitably their most well-received song. However they displayed a surprising amount of backbone and depth with a lot of their other tracks, cementing a sound that’s two parts pre-Bohemian Like You Dandy Warhols and three parts pre-Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings Of Leon. Also from Melbourne were prog rockers Redcoats, whose persistence on the live circuit is paying off as they attempt to build a following outside of their local scene. Sounding a lot like early The Butterfly Effect if they were semi-influenced by Liquid (remember those?) and perhaps the Desert Sessions, not only were most present very into it, the band themselves were stoked, taking time out at the end of the encore to get a photo on stage with the audience in the background. Frontman Emilio Mercuri was a focal point for the band and when not flexing his falsetto, spent a lot of time getting into the music or as one person commented, ‘making love to the atmosphere’. Judging by the night’s performance, the ‘Coats may be looking at booking bigger venues in the near future. Adam Wilding

ARIA WEEK: ALPINE, OH MERCY, OLIVER TANK UPSTAIRS BERESFORD: 26/11/12 Oliver Tank opened up the night and produced an incredible set that was as luscious as the hair on his head and face. The rich and textured sounds of tracks like Up All Night reverberated off the walls of the Beresford in a way that was the very definition of atmospheric. The 22-year-old managed to transform Snoop Dogg’s Beautiful into something that was haunting to hear, with echoing vocals and melodies. You could stand in a daze and get lost in Tank’s musical dreamscape for hours on end. This isn’t a hyperbole – if the musician was willing to play his back catalogue on loop, he would succeed. On first appearances, Oh Mercy seemed doomed to disappoint, but quickly turned their set around. It could have been the sound issues that were smoothed out during the first two tracks that lost the audience, but it became irrelevant as the lights dimmed and the foreboding keyboard melody of Pilgrim’s Blues grabbed the crowd. From that point the Victorians gained momentum and breezed through tracks from their most recent two albums. Lead singer Alexander Gow keeps you on your toes with a vocal range that can go from soft and sugary to

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An event part of the inaugural ARIA Week, the room was packed out with triple j Unearthed Party’s ticket winners before any bands started. With breakfast DJs Tom and Alex MC-ing the night, the crowd was in the mood before Unearthed High winner Asta and her keyboard accompaniment had even walked on. The high school leaver’s first Sydney show could hardly have gone better. Her ‘80s synth sound with modern pop vocals harkened back to Annie Lennox’s groovier efforts, but she was a funky entity unto herself. The ‘80s vibe continued with Brisbane’s YesYou, who quickly filled the room with lush synthesised keyboard tones and indie pop rhythms. The band has great chemistry and obviously a real love of playing. Their male/female vocal sound is quintessential 21st century disco and a SBTRKT cover in the second half really got the crowd moving. Though the group did get a little rockier as the set went on, their super saccharine sound did become a little much over a 45-minute set. Headlining radio favourites The Rubens commanded stage presence as soon as they walked in front of the audience. The band, still on what could be called their debut record tour, opened with current hot radio track The Best We Got and the crowd ate it up. The ‘70s revivalist blues rock sound is very in vogue these days and The Rubens are a great addition to the pantheon, especially live. Frontman Sam Margin’s rock‘n’roll swagger is backed up by consistently powerful vocals and the entire band are musically as tight as ever. The band rocked and flowed largely through their self-titled record and proved, as if it was needed, they deserved all their recent accolades. The Rubens may not be the world’s most innovative group, but seeing them live you’d be hard pressed to argue against them as one of the most professional, bankable and downright fun rock outfits to recently come out of New South Wales. Andrew McDonald

REEL BIG FISH, GOLDFINGER, ZEBRAHEAD UNSW ROUNDHOUSE: 01/12/12 Almost like clockwork, Reel Big Fish returned to Australia for yet another animated, lighthearted and stupidly fun performance. It’s not that Zebrahead are untalented or that they can’t faithfully reproduce their songs live. Indeed, they are all great musicians and they delivered a tight live performance with the occasional bit of improvisation (watching Ben Osmundson playing bass at a million miles an hour was definitely impressive). It’s just musically they were so out of place amongst the rest of the line-up that it was almost impossible to really appreciate the set. The seriousness and “fuck you” nature of their set was such a huge contrast to the playful, almost total piss-taking of Goldfinger and Reel Big Fish. Goldfinger, featuring late ring-ins Aaron Barrett from Reel Big Fish and Mike Herrera from MXPX, delivered exactly what we’ve come to expect from their shows: frantic on-stage energy, plenty of crowd participation (the left vs. right side of the room singing contest was particularly great), hilarious banter and a wide crosssection of their material. Classics from their earlier work, like Here In Your Bedroom and 99 Red Balloons, were given a fresh coat of paint and still sounded as poignant as ever, while newer cuts like Get Up and even some as-yet-untitled gear from a new album in the works demonstrated that they still have it. As bold, brash, animated and downright hilarious as they’ve ever been, Reel Big Fish took to the stage with the kind of grandiosity only they can get away with. The departure of Scott Klopfenstein last year was disappointing as he had been a vital part of the band for such a long time, but his replacement, Matt

Appleton, did an amazing job stepping into such a huge role and in some ways the recent line-up shuffle has been invigorating for the band. The setlist, usually filled with the same rotation of crowd favourites, was considerably more varied and even featured a fair chunk of material from their latest album, Candy Coated Fury, as well as some of their often overlooked gems such as Thank You For Not Moshing. Of course the classics like Everything Sucks, Trendy, She Has A Girlfriend Now, S.R. and Where Have You Been? received a run, but it was great to hear them slightly reinterpreted and tweaked, and often filled with hilarious mid-song breaks for crowd participation and on-stage banter (the Star Wars Imperial March midway through Where Have You Been? and Billie Jean breaking up She Has A Girlfriend Now were especially epic). The trademark Reel Big Fish silliness was almost in overdrive throughout and it was wonderful to see a band that has been around as long as them still having that much fun. Andrew Wowk

MISSY HIGGINS, GURRUMUL, EMMA LOUISE WIN ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE: 27/11/12 Emma Louise has a voice like Megan Washington and sings like Sia. She can pull it off, without even taking a deep breath, but her lower register, as heard on Boy, is just so perfectly warm as it hits your ear that it’s a shame she doesn’t use it more. Cages provided some fuzzy melodies and gave an interesting sneak peak of her upcoming debut album. Jungle was of course a highlight, but topped by 1000 Sundowns, which tugged at the heartstrings of the room as though accompanying her with a harp. The most confronting thing about Gurrumul is how overtly bursting with love for music he is for such a tiny man. After playing with him in Perth and becoming slightly obsessed, Gurrumul managed to splice some Angus Stone Wooden Chair love into his set and then seamlessly slipped in some outback reggae fusion by dropping the one on “Pussy Cat Dance” (Marwurrumburra). His duet with Missy Higgins was nothing short of amazing. Who knew such a flat vowel could sound so perfect when paired with the highly contrasting soft murmur of a tumbling native tongue? Missy Higgins is dinky di in the best possible way. No fake encores, just longer sets. Always playing all of her hits. Letting slip little secrets about surprise performances at awards ceremonies. Even making her producer and collaborator Butterfly Boucher play an original in the middle of her own set is such an Australian thing to do to your friend. All of these things, combined with the brutal honesty of her songwriting and her phenomenal voice, are why she is one of the most disarming and enchanting arrangements of atoms to ever take the stage. It is her level of relaxed comfort that pulls you in and makes a stadium show feel like an intimate gig. After the story of her grandmother’s dementia was laid bare in Cooling Of The Embers and guttural angst put into Gotye’s Heart’s A Mess cover, there was barely a dry eye in the stadium. Her second album featured heavily with Warm Whispers providing a Coldplay-style climax and Peachy striding into a swampy alt country groove. Tracks from the newbie sat alongside them nicely, with All In My Head and Unashamed Desire both gobsmacking. Welcome back Missy! Kristy Wandmaker

and Sunshine Showers really lifted the energy in the room and Windsor had to placate a fan who loudly requested Mirror Mirror a couple of songs early. While After The Fall have always known how to write crunchy rock, their real talent lies in the light pop hooks that turn their songs into infectious choruses. The gorgeous pop sheen that was layered over The Fighter was testament to their talent to reproduce that perfect balance between grunt and glimmer live. Sure Harbourer played music that was a little louder and a little coarser than the headliners, but for all three bands on this bill, music has never been a fashion accessory. It’s something you play with your mates because you couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Danielle O’Donohue

BLAZE BAYLEY, PAUL DI’ANNO, HAZMAT, DRAGONSCLAW WAVES: 02/12/12 Considering the former Iron Maiden frontman guested on their latest album and vocalist Giles Lavery is the biggest Blaze Bayley tragic you’ll encounter, Sydney power metallers Dragonsclaw’s inclusion was a no-brainer. Hitting impressive high notes, Lavery exhibited the exaggerated, dramatic hand gestures mandatory for a band of this ilk and was accentuated by tastefully symphonic keyboards. Fellow Sydneysiders Hazmat didn’t elicit much enthusiasm, packing less genuine songs. Their melodic thrash owed much to Megadeth, Testament and early Metallica and wasn’t without energy. They injected vintage stage moves, but failed to set the world afire. Former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno was feeling every inch of his 50-plus years; not only being helped onto the stage due to numerous injuries, but hampered by illness and relegated to incomprehensibly grunting through certain passages. He was aided by eager punters and an efficient backing band, featuring members of local metallers Killrazer, Darker Half and Hazmat. Although agitated by his own coughing and spluttering, cracks at Julia Gillard, ex-wives and Australian beer in his typically Cockney fashion endeared him to many. Solely playing material from the first two Maiden records meant classics (Wrathchild) and under-rated cuts Steve Harris and company haven’t aired in eons (Remember Tomorrow, Killers). The uneven display concluded with a piece of fanboy history; original vocalist Paul Day (now residing in Australia) joining for a well-received Running Free and Iron Maiden. “I am Blaze Bayley and I am here to play heavy metal!” Attendance thinned fractionally for the next former Maiden frontman, who regardless revelled in an extended set backed by the same players. Bayley is (sometimes unfairly) the least celebrated of their three singers to appear on record for Maiden, but the leather-lunged one was in fine voice and even greater spirits. Also solely delving into his tenure with the UK metal giants and bristling with energy, he possessed an insatiable desire to get everyone in the moderately attended room involved. Greater stamina and humility made him instantly likeable. Cherry-picking from the two Maiden efforts he appeared on (The X Factor – under-rated; Virtual XI – mostly forgettable) resulted in standouts, the infectious Futureal and oft-overlooked epics Sign Of The Cross and The Clansman sounding far more vital live and getting the crowd invested.

AFTER THE FALL, MERE THEORY, HARBOURER

No dual encore featuring the co-headliners ensued as touted. Although Di’Anno’s unlikely to grace these shores again given his imminent retirement, a Bayley return visit would be welcome. Maybe then he’ll get his due.

THE WALL: 30/11/12

Brendan Crabb

Some guys look like they got into music so they could walk around in cowboy boots and talk about how they’re in a band. Other guys just hang out in their mates’ garages and play music. Then they start playing gigs here and there and suddenly they have an album out and being in a band is part of who they are. Harbourer definitely belong in the second category. But though they may have looked like they’d just come straight from a rehearsal, their big wall of sound had a lot of strength behind it. They were a tight unit, crafting intriguing tunes but with hints of lighter melodies threading through the heavier rock. Adelaide four-piece Mere Theory are using this After The Fall tour as their farewell. Always under-appreciated on the east coast, the quartet’s melodic rock made the most of guitarist Nigel Black’s incredibly skilled fretwork and frontman Chris Mellow’s crystal clear vocals. With a new album, Bittersweet, seeing a return to the punchy, efficient rock of their early days, After The Fall were sure to drop a couple of new songs into the set, including the album’s title track and a chargedup Same Old Thing. At the front, singer Ben Windsor worked the stage, constantly making a connection with the closest dedicated fans. Though the new songs went over well, old favourites such as Concrete Boots

Blaze Bayley @ Waves Pic by Jodie Mathews.

so on a stool, left of centre, as he sang his stories and reminded us of how much joy you can get from living. Having cheated death more than once provides a reason as to why Pierce’s songs continually defy the status quo, remaining rich and intimate in their composition and all that was on display tonight, in particular moments where outros turned into five minute epilogues, harmonies reminded you that the voice remains one of humanity’s greatest assets and guitar pedals can still drown it all in wash while managing to engage and mesmerise. Having lived the torrid life of a rock star and following that, having an almost improbable susceptibility to chronic illnesses, it’s part of the appeal that sadly contributes to how well the songs are received. A colleague commented midway through that you could literally hear every word that was sung, despite some moments where the playing was frantic and fast, which really does add to the charm of the band’s live shows.

Spiritualized @ the Sydney Opera House Pic by Josh Groom

SPIRITUALIZED

Along with a light setup that could at certain moments induce a colour seizure and at other times emanated a rich and warm glow, it was live music at its best, but so much more. You could tell a lot of work went into the production of the show. It was a thoroughly engaging spectacle – continue cheating death J. Spaceman, making music and holding the need to perform live. Adam Wilding

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL: 02/12/12 For someone who has no trouble expressing himself through song, J. Spaceman, a.k.a. Jason Pierce, frontman of ‘space rock’ outfit Spiritualized, is a man of very few words. The band were in new album mode after having played their iconic album, Ladies And Gentlemen... from start to finish at the same venue as part of last year’s Vivid festival. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Pierce and co. weren’t looking forward to treating the audience to the sublime songs that make up 2012’s contender for album of the year, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, given that no word of recognition let alone a nod were forthcoming from the man who – and this is said with affection – looks like he makes a living selling crack cocaine. But from the first few notes of the opening track of the latest album, it was clear the crowd were in for a treat as the band looked to be completely at home and their leader even more

ARIA WEEK: URTHBOY, SETH SENTRY, PEZ, GREY GHOST OXFORD ART FACTORY: 28/11/12 Well that was great. Four MCs – two of whom make rap music for people who don’t like rap music, one of whom remains unproven despite his promise and one of whom enjoys certified legend status – playing for more than two hours with no breaks. Grey Ghost, all caramel chords and rat-a-tat delivery, opened proceedings beautifully. Whether spitting braggadocio over Sex by Slugabed, or inviting a UFO to take him away, he oozed charm. For the rap nerds, seeing our hero’s amazing breath control live was stunning too. Either ghosts have no need for oxygen or GG was born with an extra lung or two.

Pez was (for this writer) the unexpected highlight of the night. Wearing an old t-shirt and an infectious smile he was charisma incarnate. We were invited to put our hands in the air. The response wasn’t unanimous. So, Pez singled out those of us who were less enthusiastic than he’d hoped. “Don’t puss out”, he instructed. The laggards obeyed. Obviously, The Festival Song (sans 360) got a run. Less obviously, Pez dropped a verse over Arrested Development’s Everyday People. “Are you drunk yet?” he asked a gentleman in the crowd. “He’s dancing like a fuckhead”. Cue laughter. Tonight Pez held the crowd – including us, cynics who have never enjoyed a Pez song before – in the palm of his hand. Seth Sentry, arriving on stage Nerf guns blazing, was almost as good. Dear Science got a huge response. Room For Rent, as huge. The Waitress Song, more huge. The set was crowd-pleasers punctuated by Ricky-Gervais-meets-a-water-pistol-armed-Jack-Black banter. We liked it. And we hadn’t expected to. Bravo. Finally, Urthboy. Possessing the best back catalogue of any of the acts playing, it was obvious to us that Urthboy’s live set would be the best too. Not to be. The crowd response to Stories, the stunning opener to Urthboy’s new album Smokey’s Haunt, did not hit as hard as the big Pez or Seth Sentry songs. This was an audience amped to engage; to be a part of the show. They were noticeably less keen on simply sitting back and watching. They gradually warmed up though. We Get Around, Shruggin’ and the surprising absence of Naïve Bravado all featured prominently. Urthboy closed with The Signal. The best song of the night was the last song of the night. Oddly, it was played by an act who, perhaps for the first time ever, was upstaged by the undercard. James d’Apice

NICKI MINAJ, TYGA SYDNEY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE: 30/11/12 Demonstrating her remarkable ability to hopscotch between genres of hip hop, electronica and pop, Nicki Minaj’s live performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre offered a seamless balance between luscious aesthetics and vocal theatrics. Although her selection of songs was designed a

little more to appease ‘new school’ fans, mainly consisting of young girls and displeased parents, she strived to ‘keep it real’, skimming through some of her older gems and mixtape rhymes. Kicking off the show was collaborator and friend of Minaj, Tyga, who played an entertaining 25-minute set where each song was filled with ritual air horn and southern inspired gunshots sound effects. The soft-core Cali rapper brought out a series of girls from the audience at one point, referring to the seven-year-olds as “sexy girls” and allowing them to sing along to his repetitive hit, Rack City. Quickly jogging through popular tracks Faded and G Shit, Tyga rather laughably managed to play Rack City twice in his brief set, reflecting an obvious lack of material and focus on his ‘one hit wonder’ status. Shortly following the abrupt close of Tyga’s set, a graphic countdown of Nicki Minaj began, followed by deafening, falsetto screams from the premature audience as she emerged behind the smoke from a rocket on stage. Opening with Come On A Cone, a new joint that channels her signature ‘badass’ rap style, a blonde Minaj passionately spat dope rhymes, continuing this theme into track Roman Reloaded, where she roared the words “Bang, my shit bang” incessantly. Though Minaj touched upon her ‘harder’ rap persona who she often refers to as ‘Roman’, playing stormier tracks such as Beez In The Trap and verses from Bottoms Up, Monster and mixtape jam Itty Bitty Piggy, she perceptibly focused on her younger audiences as she performed more pop orientated songs mainly from album Pink Friday. As she dove into her newer material such as The Boys and Va Va Voom off Roman Reloaded: The Re-Up, Minaj whipped out her aggressively provocative choreography, moving against her lavish neon pink ‘Casa De Minaj’ backdrop. When it came to pitch in these vocally strenuous songs, however, Minaj stumbled somewhat. Although she consistently engaged the crowd through her infectious stage presence and sincere banter, she struggled to deliver vocally in songs such as Super Bass and Fly. She compensated, however, with her incredible energy, confirming that Minaj is not so much a ‘singer’ as she is a ‘performer’ in the truest sense. Ava Nirui

SILENT MACHINE TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

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ROOTS DOWN

THE HEAVY SHIT

BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTS@DRUMMEDIA.COM.AU

METAL AND HARD ROCK WITH CHRIS MARIC searing melodies of the pipes and flutes and jig with your stein in hand when the hurdy gurdy comes crashing in! Bring your bier horn to the Metro on Saturday 25 March.

Deathstars Taj Mahal It’s really difficult to not talk about the 2013 Bluesfest each Roots Down column when the festival keep dropping massive line-up announcements every week! I’m honestly not quite sure how Bluesfest manage to keep pumping out acts for their 2013 event; they just keep coming and every announcement has had some seriously impressive shit on there. I loved the latest announcement because it goes back to the classic Bluesfest tradition of bringing bands and artists who aren’t necessarily all that popular, but puts them on a platform so they can establish a following amongst the Australian music-loving public. Of particular interest to me this time around is Shuggie Otis, an artist who has never been to Australia and has been known to be somewhat of a recluse over the past couple of decades. He is the son of Johnny Otis, one of the most important figures in blues, soul, rock’n’roll and popular music in general (listen to him right now if you don’t know him), so was brought up around seriously amazing music (stories of his dad giving him a fake moustache and sunglasses as a 12-year-old so he could go to shows are rampant) and proceeded to make a fair bit of it himself. His 1969 debut record Here Comes Shuggie Otis was a seriously wild and wonderful cut of psychedelic soul that drew equally from the legacy he had learned from his old man and the music of the time – Hendrix, Sly, Funkadelic et al. The most mindblowing thing about it, though, was that it was recorded when Otis was just 15 years old. He released a couple more great records in Freedom Flight (1971) and Inspiration Information (1974) but didn’t really achieve much commercial success until 1977 where his song Strawberry Letter 23 was recorded and released by The Brothers Johnson to huge success; it hit the top spot on the R&B charts and made the top five of the mainstream charts upon its release. I have no idea how Otis is going to be after all these years, but the prospect of actually seeing some of these songs live is really exciting. Any Bluesfest that features Taj Mahal – and there have been seven or so – is guaranteed to be a lot of fun. The 70-year-old bluesman was there when the resurgence of blues was at fever pitch and has continued to write, record and perform a wide variety of blues-leaning music for decades. His live shows are always entertaining; he’s a very engaging performer and isn’t afraid to take the piss out of himself a little bit. There was a really interesting compilation released this year called Hidden Treasures Of Taj Mahal, which compiles a whole heap of unreleased material from the late-‘60s and early-‘70s, so if you’ve worn out your old Taj Mahal records then this is well worth sinking your teeth into. Of course there were a shitload of other awesome acts announced – head to the Foreword Line section at the front of this mag for the full list. Finally, last week saw us receive the great news of Justin Townes Earle returning to Australia for the 15,000th time in recent years (slight exaggeration) and, honestly, any self-respecting music fan ought to be jumping for joy. Yes, he tours here a lot, but that oughtn’t dissuade anyone from going along to see him play as he is one of the best singersongwriters currently kicking around. If there’s any justice his Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now record from earlier this year will feature prominently in a bunch of end-of-year lists, it’s a stunning piece of work and deserves great acclaim. Earle comes back to Australia for a pretty extensive East Coast solo tour in February and around these parts you can see him playing The Basement on Tuesday 5 February, Coogee Diggers Wednesday 6, Heritage Hotel, Thirroul Friday 8, Milton Theatre Saturday 9, Annandale Hotel Sunday 10 (matinee) and Lizotte’s, Newcastle Wednesday 13. The Love Police website and respective venues are your best bet for grabbing tickets. Fellow American singer-songwriter Robert Ellis is joining in on the action for all of these dates as well.

50 • For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog

Ahh, the ARIAs crack me up every time! The Curse Of Jethro Tull reigns supreme. I know we all get our leather panties in a knot about it every year, but do we really care what 14-yearold Taylor Swift fans think of our stuff? A bunch of new tours have been announced for next year too! Sweden’s death-glamour kings of lust, glitter and sleaze, Deathstars, are bringing their uber goth touches and industrial tinged riffs back here next year. They look like an SS-inspired Manson meets Rammstein and are described by their vocalist Whiplasher as like “group sex between Samantha Fox, The Village People and Satan”. So a usual Friday night at Heavy Shit’s place, eh? The Manning Bar gets all dressed up on Friday 3 May. From goth to Viking now – Ensiferum are also heading back our way after gaining a swathe of new fans on their 2010 tour. They will be performing tracks off their latest album Unsung Heroes as well as their classics, so get your battle gear on and be at The Hi-Fi Friday 15 March. The perfectly suited Bane Of Isildur and Soulforge have been chosen as the advance raiders. Self-described ‘new wave of folk metal’ Swiss octet Eluveitie will finally land on our shores in May! There has been an explosion in the folk metal genre over the last few years but these guys are one of the originals. They take traditional death metal elements and mix them seamlessly with European folk instruments such as flutes, hurdy gurdies, violin, bagpipes, fiddles, mandolin and pipes. Bang your head to the heavy parts, whisk yourself away to an ancient land via the

Melbourne top-notch thrashers 4ARM have scored the tour support of a lifetime and will join Testament, Overkill and Flotsam and Jetsam on the Dark Roots Of Thrash tour that will smash head first through 25 shows across the US in February. Now, if the nice American bands on the bill would be so kind as to repay their service to the guys via a return tour here, we would be most appreciative. Bumblefoot, my friend and rather long-time guitar player for Guns N’ Roses, has a new acoustic project called Tony Harnell & The Wildflowers, with of course the great Tony Harnell. Instead of the usual record label deal they have decided to let fans be a part of the process directly via Pledge Music, which is a great charity that fights for proper Breast Cancer Research. It’s fan-funded and people can pre-order the music and are offered some amazing incentives. Go to pledgemusic.com/projects/tonyharnell for more info. Melbourne’s Hatchet Dawn are now in pre-production for the follow-up to last year’s Rebirth album. They tell us to expect more evolution and an overhaul of their grotesque music style that’s seen them support Manson and The Misfits on recent tours. Deranged Humanity have recruited former Darkest Hour lead guitarist Kris Norris, who is back in town after filling in with Threat Signal on their recent tour with Death Angel. There’s some good shit for the bio right there! After a four-year hiatus, the legendary good time stoner-punk-death-boogie-sex-rock showcase that is Devil’s Kitchen is back and will take place at The Stag on Saturday 12 January. It stars Nunchukka Superfly, King Parrot, Chainsaw Hookers, Wicked City, Mother Mars, The Sure Fire Midnights, Adrift for Days, Low Fly Incline, Arrowhead, Bloody Kids, Battle Pope, Witch Fight and Yanomamo and costs $25 via OzTix or will be $30 on the door. A compilation of the bands is available via a free download from Art As Catharsis.

Riot Entertainment is having a huge bastard of a record sale! More than 2,000 titles will be on sale starting at $5 from all their big labels. They have 50,000 units to get rid of so go to their Farcebook page, RiotEnt, and grab a serious bargain!

FRIDAY Club Fuck presents A Twisted Xmas at the Sly Fox on Enmore Road this evening. Melody Black, My Secret Circus, Hansel, Rattlesnake and Black Diamond will all be playing in dressup with their drummers dressed as Santa (may not be true). Tix are $15 at the door. Club Fuck will also be hosting the official Lost Angels after party on Saturday 22 December.

SATURDAY The Basement Bar at Erskineville’s Imperial Hotel is hosting an evening on cult zombie and Christmas horror films as well as some DJs with spooky names such as Cutthroat, Demonika, Jay The Ripper and The Satanic Mechanic. 10pm-4am, $10. Up over the bridge and around the corner at The Town Hall, you can enjoy some doom, grind, sludge and stoner – maybe we call that DoGSS as an all-encompassing genre now? It would save my word count! Fear The Setting Sun, Battle Pope, Spaceticket and Yanomamo are part of this collective new genre and will be playing for free tonight. Mr Devoy will be playing at The Hard Rock Café in Darling Harbour tonight and is opening for his very good friends from Melbourne, My Secret Circus. Way out in the heat at Wagga’s Home Tavern they will be celebrating Dime Day with LORD, Segression, Vanishing Point, Frankenbok, Cowboys From Here, Dead City Ruins, Electrik Dynamite, Nemesphyxia and Nekrofeist all doing their best to honour the great man. heavy@drummedia.com.au

WAKE THE DEAD PUNK AND HARDCORE WITH SARAH PETCHELL acquisition of Alexisonfire’s entire back catalogue). The six-song EP features AOF material reworked by Dallas Green and Wade MacNeil taking on either an acoustic or noise-rock interpretation. Some of the classic tracks that have received the treatment include Midnight Regulations and Happiness By The Kilowatt.

Pierce The Veil Having established a strong online presence over the past year Rest Assured zine are broadening their horizons by entering the world of record releases with the DIY label Rest Assured Records, a boutique label specialising in vinyl releases for the Australian punk and hardcore scene. Already, they have two releases ready to go. The first is currently at the pressing plant and is the debut, four-song 7” from new Sydney hardcore band Boneless. Formed by ex-members of Bad Blood, the band mark a return to the traditional short, fast, loud hardcore of Sick Of It All or Last Nerve. Keep an eye out this week for pre-orders as the record will be dropping January 2013. The second release will be the debut full-length from Newcastle’s Hazards. Fronted by Luke Dolan (The Dead Walk, Life Love Regret, Pitfall) Hazards offer up a unique style of ‘80s or ‘90s era, melodic punk rock (think Husker Du or Dag Nasty). The band are set to hit the studio in early 2013, but in the meantime you can visit their Bandcamp page and download their demo for free. As Alexisonfire are just a couple of weeks away from hitting Australia as a part of their tenth anniversary farewell tour, some of the details of their special release plans in commemoration of their time together are starting to see the light of day. The first of these is the Death Letter EP, to be released on Dine Alone Records sometime this month (a result of the band’s and Dine Alone’s recent

With a new album, Sempiternal, set for release just in time for Soundwave, it makes sense that Bring Me The Horizon would be one of the first bands to have a sidewave announcement made. With their last album, There Is A Hell, debuting at #1 on the ARIA charts and a legion of fans worldwide there’s the expectation that these shows will go off. Joining BMTH at both the Sydney and Melbourne sidewaves will be Pierce The Veil. The band reinvented themselves on their most recent album, Collide With The Sky, and the result is a reinvigorated band set to reap the rewards of their hard work. Tickets for the sidewave go on sale Thursday 6 December, and you can catch it when it hits The Hi-Fi in Sydney Tuesday 26 February. Everyone’s favourite UK ‘90s-worship band, Basement, played their final shows almost two weeks ago now and have released a final statement to their fans on their Facebook page saying: “Last weekend was incredibly special for us, it was the perfect way to say goodbye. Thank you so much to everyone for everything. We only ever did what we wanted whilst we were a band, and the fact that people got behind that means a lot. It’s nice to know we were on the same page.” Their most recent record, Colourmeinkindness, is set to be a feature on many people’s top five or ten of 2013 list, and footage of the final show (which was officially shot on behalf of the band) is floating around the internet. In a quick follow-up to the announcement of the mega Descendents tour two weeks ago, in a recent interview Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton talked about the band’s status and their future plans, including a brief discussion on the possibility of new material from the band. Egerton is quoted as saying, “Yeah, that is sort of in the works. We don’t have any

kind of a timeline set up for it yet, but everybody is definitely wanting to do it, and everybody is writing for it, so I’m very sure it will happen, and we’re all very stoked to do it. We’ve been having a good time writing songs, and so I’d say we’ve got well over half of it written but not recorded yet. So unfortunately we can’t follow a very strict timeline the way we would if we were a full-time band, just because it doesn’t fit in for us. We have to sort of work around the rest of our lives, but I would like to think something could happen as early as the middle of next year.” As Green Day are set to release their third in a trilogy of albums this week (aptly called Tre!) it’s appropriate to talk about the other part of this string of releases, a documentary called Quatro!. Though the physical and final release is not expected until 2013, highlights have premiered on VH1 in the US. The film promises to “pull back the curtain and take fans inside the world of Green Day, from the various spontaneous live performances in select cities across the US to the chronicling of their creative process while conceptualising and recording their current trilogy of albums. !Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!.” I think I speak for most people when I say that this documentary will also be the most interesting part of this album series, which so far has been largely underwhelming. That said, it’s doubtful that the thing everyone wants to know about (Billie Joe’s admission to rehab) will be mentioned at all. Lastly for this week, No Heroes magazine is currently conducting a poll of the 50 greatest Australian heavy albums of all time. They’re using the term “heavy” a bit loosely to encompass punk, hardcore AND metal genres, with the results being published in their 20th issue in mid-January. If you want you vote to be counted, you can hit up the No Heroes website (noheroesmag.com) for all the details, and then email your top five through to info@noheroesmag.com. wakethedead@drummedia.com.au

BLOW

OG FLAVAS

MUSIC NSW

JAZZ/WORLD WITH MICHAEL SMITH

URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE

WORDS FROM THE PEAK BODY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IN NSW

The Idea Of Worth Camelot Lounge in Marrickville hosts an evening with American jazz violinist Christian Howes Tuesday 4 December, supported by the Simon Kinny-Lewis Band. As The Chicago Reader described him, “not since Jean-Luc Ponty has a violinist ranged from pure classical to fuzz-tone rock to convincing jazz with such authority.” Howes also plays Jazz At The Gallery at Canberra Grammar School on Wednesday 5. Meanwhile, back at Camelot, you can also catch Waiting For Guinness there Friday 7, the 15-piece Latin big band Mucho Mambo Saturday 8, Cumbiamuffin Thursday 13, Katie Noonan Friday 14, a Christmas show from Monsieur Camembert Saturday 15 and, Sunday 16, Bobby Singh on tabla and Adrian McNeil on sarod, and special guest, Iranian artist Afref Toloei. It’s the final run to year’s end for the Sound Lounge shows presented by the Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA), and naturally it’s quality all the way. Friday 7 December sees the return of The Catholics, previewing the album they’re in the process of recording, while Saturday 8 sees veteran pianist and composer Mike Nock and his Project, featuring saxophonists Karl Laskowski and Peter Farrar, trumpeter Phil Slater, trombonist James Greening and drummer James Waples, presenting a new suite inspired by the work of SIMA. Friday 14 it’s the Josh Kyle Quintet, the Australian singer launching his UK-recorded debut album Possibilities, with pianist Greg Coffin, tenor saxophonist Sean Coffin, bass player Brett Hirst and drummer Nic Cecire, and Saturday 15, Greening return to deliver some Greening From Ear To Ear. Friday 7 December, multi-instrumentalist James Morrison is joined at the Basement, Circular Quay, by WA-born New York-based pianist Konrad Paszkudzki and American alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton. Then Wednesday 12, The Idea Of North return for some preChristmas a cappella cheer, while Friday 14, the days of the Rat Pack are recalled by Jeff Duff, Frank Bennett and Grant Galea. The vibraphone-led Daryl Pratt Sextet, featuring saxophonist Richard Maegraith, keyboards player Matt McMahon, bass player Emile Nelson, percussionist and electronics man Philip South and drummer Jared Underwood, present a suite of new pieces at Colbourne Ave in Glebe Thursday 13 December. That same night, over at Blue Beat in Double Bay, Emma Pask showcases material from her latest album, Some Other Spring, and more, accompanied by pianist Kevin Hunt, double bassist Phil Stack and drummer Tim Firth. Monday 17 December, Susan Gai Dowling launches her new album, In Summer, with longtime collaborator guitarist Carl Dewhurst, at 505 in Surry Hills. You can also catch her Saturday nights at Jazushi. Meanwhile, you can see Dewhurst in trio mode at 505 Wednesday 5 with guest horn player Dave Ades, while Thursday 6 it’s Melbourne’s Leigh Barker & The New Shieks and Geoff Bull & The Finer Cuts with guest Pugsley Buzzard; Friday 7 Gang Of Brothers in “unplugged” mode, Saturday 8 Miriam Lieberman, Tuesday 11 Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection and the Mick Stuart Polymba Trio, Wednesday 12 Jonathan Zwartz, Thursday 13 The Sirens Big Band and Saturday 15 Lily Dior & The Soul Contenders. 505 host two further album launches – Monday 10 saxophonist Willow Nielson launches his album, Lightbulb Life, recorded in Shanghai, and Friday 14, pianist Steve Barry takes the quartet, featuring guitarist Carl Morgan, bass player Alex Boneham and drummer Tim Firth, into 505 to launch his debut album. Jazzgroove take over 505 Tuesday 18 for its Christmas party, with The Swingin’ Blades – who otherwise continue their Marrickville Golf Club Sunday afternoons – The Dilworths and John Maddox & The Hair, Hair, Hairs. Percussionists Robbie Avenaim and Dale Gorfinkel from Sonic Systems Laboratory are joined by pianists/electronics manipulators Chris Abrahams from The Necks and Cor Fuhler in an afternoon exploring the question, ‘What Is Music?’, combining traditional and extended techniques with physical modification of the artists’ instruments, at Old Darlington School from 3pm Saturday 8 December. blow@drummedia.com.au

Rihanna The sticker on Rihanna’s latest blockbuster, Unapologetic, says it all: “The new 7th album in 7 years from Rihanna.” First, that isn’t quite accurate. Robyn Rihanna Fenty, who debuted with 2005’s Music Of The Sun (remember Pon De Replay?), didn’t release an album in 2008. What’s more, RiRi is being celebrated for her copious output, not her consistency. In fact, like last year’s Talk That Talk (and, before it, Loud), Unapologetic is hit and miss. But at least this time the good is very good, and there’s a narrative. The brilliant beat ballad Diamonds is the obvious hit. The darkness of Russian Roulette makes way for lustrous romance. The single – a joint effort from Fenty’s old allies StarGate, Benny Blanco, the co-creator of Trey Songz’s comparable Heart Attack, and Sia Furler – has even been afforded a remix with Kanye West. The number of those contributing to Unapologetic may yet exceed Fenty’s entourage in size. Surprisingly, the Bajan hasn’t rehired Calvin Harris, mastermind of the exalted We Found Love. Instead, she’s sought her Who’s That Chick? pal David Guetta. Guetta is anxious to reinvent himself and his LP opener Fresh Off The Runway, co-produced by The-Dream, is assuredly distinct from Euro-house – it’s a Prodigy-style hardcore throwback, however, Fenty stops short of rapping on the attitude-fuelled banger. Though the pop star indicated that she was aiming for a “new sound” on Unapologetic, she’s a bit behind. The singer has finally cut full-on dubstep, but after Justin Bieber (and RiRi wannabe Rita Ora). She actually hauls in Labrinth. Staggeringly, bass convert Guetta is responsible for the corrosive Right Now. But the album’s killer dubstep choon is the Chase & Status-assisted Jump, partly because it ingeniously samples Ginuwine’s Pony (an early Timbaland treasure), but also because of the OTT synths. It’s a future hit. However, if Fenty wants to be a game-changing female pop artist, as Madonna

once was, she needs to commit herself. Don’t play safe. Ironically, her boldest foray of late, Harris’ song aside, was that Chris Martin duet Princess Of China. Otherwise Solange Knowles is still miles ahead. And, following Madonna, Fenty seems destined to become a singles act. Only 2009’s gothic Rated R qualifies for ‘classic’ status, the set referencing Fenty’s painful separation from then boyfriend Chris Brown, who was convicted of assaulting her earlier that year. Fillers abound on Unapologetic, one of them No ID’s token dancehall No Love Allowed. Ideas are undeveloped. Numb is half-hearted experimental dub, courtesy of Miguel producer Oakwud. Eminem, Fenty’s cohort on Love The Way You Lie, drops a superfluous rap. The curious micro-suite Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary, pseudo Lady GaGa, lacks drama. Ultimately, the best songs are the ballads, not club bangers. The piano-led beauty Stay, with the lesser-known Mikky Ekko, is a little emo. Fenty sings, “Funny, you’re the broken one/But I’m the only one who needed saving.” As it happens, the song’s co-author is Justin Parker, Lana Del Rey’s collaborator for Video Games and Ride. Stay might be Lana, but it’s less avant. Regardless, it’s Unapologetic’s cred equivalent to The xx-spiked Drunk On Love on Talk... The most controversial track has gotta be Nobody’s Business, with Fenty reuniting with Brown. The lyrics are tacky, if not creepy. (The mellow ‘90s house groove is incongruous, considering.) We wonder what Fenty’s disapproving mentor Jay-Z thinks. Then again, Brown did cameo on her Birthday Cake remix. And Nobody’s Business is apt for an album that thematises reconciliation as much as defiance. Fenty recently told Vogue that, while she’s moved on from the ‘incident’ with Brown, “To the world, I feel like there’s no closure.” Possibly, Unapologetic is intended to serve as a companion, or bookend, to the raw Rated R, Fenty rebelling against those urging her to be a role model. She really does “choose to be happy”. The Queen of Twitter, and ‘event’ albums, surely disregards, too, critics who dissect her music – and why shouldn’t she? Unapologetic has given Fenty a US #1 album, at last. Tellingly, the sleeve reveals the star’s new tattoo, an image of the Egyptian goddess Isis (the name means ‘throne’), on her chest.

THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY

Charlie XCX Have we reached a stalemate on the representation of women in pop music? With women dominating the pop sphere and recently copping it from all sides of politics, there’s no doubt we’ll be getting many “what is a woman?” columns as we near the end of 2012. But as media reach for things to say, the industry and major-label targets themselves are doing really very little to talk about. This week saw more than a few brain-freezes when it came to comments on gender roles in pop. The week began with the media heralding the change of pace of Ke$ha’s second album proper, Warrior, which includes a duet with Iggy Pop and a folksie song featuring a real guitar. Simon Reynolds in The New York Times praised Kesha Sebert for jointly writing her own songs. The Atlantic called Ke$ha’s new memoir, My Crazy Beautiful Life, “2012’s answer to The Feminine Mystique,” citing Sebert’s dedication to her art, her rejection of conventional beauty and her subversion of phallic imagery in her shows. Scratch the surface of any of these claims and we’re left with not much. Warrior begins with no less than six songs built to the exact pattern of her previous dance-pop hits. Most pop singers now ‘jointly’ write their songs, though the real meaning of a songwriting credit is nowadays nil as the credit is a thing and can be gained by adding a word here and there. As for The Atlantic, though they did not insinuate that Ke$ha is the only feminist musician, it seems a stretch to remark upon a singer who celebrates unthinking (as a noun) and who began her career by responding to a call from producer Dr Luke seeking a female singer as meal ticket. Then we got Rihanna’s 777 Tour, little about which needs to be said other than that it was the moment

the media realised how boring Rihanna is as a media personality. The real flick in the head is why anyone thought anything interesting would come from a week spent with a singer whose career is based on expressionless photos, songs she ‘jointly’ wrote, videos conceived by other people and a relationship everyone talks about but her. So everyone went back to talking about Rihanna’s relationship with Chris Brown, condemning her for excusing his actions by including him on her latest album, Unapologetic, and calling her irresponsible over rumours the two are back together. Yes, if the singer says nothing, put words in her mouth. English dark/new/rap/internet-wave star Charli XCX released the video for her Cloud Aura single, featuring rapper/internet-Grimes-video-star Brooke Candy. The track is from Charli XCX’s great Super Ultra mixtape, released earlier this year through Warner Music, an event that brought with it the question: what even is a mixtape? Pitchfork pointed out that the video is “interspersed with clips of famous female stars or movie characters – Britney Spears, Lauren Conrad of The Hills, Honey Boo Boo, Sissy Spacek as Carrie among them – crying on camera.” Others made the same dull-eyed observation, and it was clear from this fact and Brooke Candy’s involvement that the clip had something to do with… women? Of course, not a lot more could be said of the clip because there is no obvious reason for the images being played over Charli XCX singing, “Baby, what hurts the most is when you become so cold”, and Brooke Candy aggressively clutching her breasts. Paging Azealia Banks and Lana Del Rey. Art wants its intention back. Perhaps the clearest statement came from Lana Del Rey, who returned to Later… With Jools Holland following her television debut on the show in 2011. That first awkward performance caused a whole lot of discussion about female singers, sexuality and authenticity. Last week LDR got on stage in jeans and a baggy jumper and conveyed no vulnerability, no ego. It was as blank a performance as possible, and no one wrote anything much about it. breakdown@drummedia.com.au

Senator Stephen Conroy

SAVE AMRAP In about three to four weeks, the Australian Radio Airplay Project (AMRAP) will be forced to shut-up shop and close down its services distributing the music of Australian recording artists to community radio stations across the country. The closure of such an important service comes not because of any identified failings of the project, or lack of success in meetings its goals and aims, but an oversight that moved AMRAP out of one ministerial portfolio into another. AMRAP originally belonged to Senator Stephen Conroy’s Department Of Broadband, Communications & The Digital Economy (DBCDE) and through reasons unknown to AMRAP, at the time of the budget, it was hand-balled into the Arts portfolio, and again, without AMRAP being informed, had its funding axed. Since 2008, AMRAP has helped to create and foster a unique environment of support for Australian music. It has helped community radio stations around the nation increase their Australian content from 25 per cent to 37 per cent – in the meantime distributing 90,000+ song files and 70,000 CDs to stations around the country. Additionally, it has trained over 900 presenters (mostly volunteers) to promote and support Australian music through AMRAP, and hosted over 150 workshops at community radio stations to encourage Australian music airplay. To say then that AMRAP is a valuable service for musicians and broadcasters across the country would be a bold understatement. Even Senator Conroy, while flip-flopping on announcing any actual funding restoration to the project, can admit that AMRAP is a hugely important and valued tool. During a Senate meeting in October, Greens Senator Ludlum pushed Senator Conroy on what the funding cuts meant and if Conroy, in principle, supported Australian music and community radio. Senator Conroy replied, “We are conscious that it is a very worthy program… As you well know – you have long been a supporter, as have I – we do believe it is a very important forum, particularly in the new digital world. We are working through the challenges at the moment. If we are able to make an announcement we will make it as early as we can.” Three months later, AMRAP is still awaiting that announcement and in the meantime is faced with the inevitability that the program will not return in the New Year. If the funding to AMRAP is not restored, it becomes incredibly difficult for artists, their managers and publicists to distribute their music to stations around the country in a financially viable manner. They also lose the ability to target their music to specific presenters and niche genre shows, without doing huge amounts of leg-work to create these databases for themselves. The radio stations also lose – instead of having a centralised point of contact to receive new music, it becomes all too easy for presenters (who are largely volunteers with limited time and particularly in regional and rural Australia, limited access to new content) to revert to playing international pop artists, classic hits and established Australian artists. We will certainly see a decline in the percentage of local content being played across Australia and most likely a decrease in the diversity and quality of local music. And given that commercial radio is currently lobbying to have their local content quotas reduced and also eradicated for digital stations, we should all care about the whittling away of our own cultural output. Australians have been creating and performing excellent, world-class and highly accessible music for years. It’s time we stood up for that and acknowledged that we do not suffer from the kind of cultural self-loathing that would see us destroy our own ability to create and play music from our own backyard. To help save AMRAP: ASK Senator Conroy to restore the funding to cuts to AMRAP, by calling his office on (03) 9650 1188 or emailing minister@dbcde.gov.au. or TWEET your support using the phrase “Senator Conroy & @DBCDEgov must fix @AMRAPsairit funding! Community Radio deserves access to #AusMusic”.

For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog • 51

GET IT TOGETHER

YOUNG & RESTLESS

HIP HOP WITH VIKTOR KRUM

ALL AGES WITH DAVE DRAYTON

Big Boi We have a view that music news about successful artists will eventually become just retweeted photographs, complaints about delayed release dates and gobsmacked reflections on the settlement of copyright disputes. Of the three, it’s the last that interests us the most. That’s not just because it’s fun to see rich people arguing about who is going to become richer and who is going to become slightly less rich. It’s because copyright is the legal framework enveloping all artists. It is the law that stops you from making a copy of our painting, or our architectural plans, or our late-night freestyle spat direct into our smartphone, without our permission. To make (commercially viable) art the law of copyright is required. That means, we say, that a discussion about the future of copyright is an important element in any discussion of the future of (commercially viable) art. So we turn to a recent copyright dispute. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse recently commenced proceedings against Pizza Hut and Home Depot, two American companies, for using tracks from El Camino without permission. As you and we know, to use an artist’s work (or, in Australia, a substantial part of an artist’s work) without the artist’s permission is a breach of copyright. That breach gives the artist a right to sue. If the court accepts the artist’s argument that there has been a breach then the artist gets an award of damages. That’s what The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were after. And… they didn’t get damages. Or did they? The dispute was resolved before it came before the court. Details of the settlement weren’t released. No big fight then. Ho hum. So where does that leave us as music fans, as students of copyright law? None the wiser, it seems.

Or maybe not. This dispute is the latest in a growing line of (alleged) copyright infringements that were subsequently settled out of court. We’d call it a trend. Perhaps it shows that some companies are prepared to be a little casual about getting approval from the artists whose songs they use. If the artist takes up the issue, a settlement out of court is available. Payment is made, just a little late. So the artist eventually gets their due, they just have to pay their lawyers first. Pretty crappy system, hey? Hmm. Let’s see what the future holds. Fans of this column (there are some) may know that we aren’t huge fans of Big Boi’s raps. Having won the lottery by ending up sitting next to Andre 3000 in high school, he’s always come off as the least talented person in the room. But – crucially! – you cannot fault his work ethic or his self-awareness. He knows he’s not the strongest card in the deck, so he surrounds himself with people whose company elevates him. He knows that he’s lacks the charisma to really capture our imagination over a long period of time, so he stays relatively productive (relative to Andre, at least). With the imminent arrival of Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumours, BB has been getting tracks out to ensure he’s caught everyone’s attention. Well, In The A certainly has. Our hero has sourced the talent, guests T.I. and Ludacris, and put together a neat love story to the three protagonists’ home town of Atlanta. J Dilla has been dead nearly seven years. There are six-year-olds – walking, talking, shoplifting six-year-olds – who did not exist at the time when Dilla, for some the greatest producer ever, tragically passed away in 2006. There were heaps of posthumous releases in the following years; Dilla’s catalogue was a gift that kept on giving. The releases are drying up these days (at a surprisingly slow rate) but you now have a chance to get Dilla’s masterpiece, Donuts, spread out across seven 45s, with a bonus eighth record of rarities. It’s called a Box Of Donuts. Get it? RIP. getittogether@drummedia.com.au

Or catch some top notch punk. Touring Australia for their third time in just about as many years, California’s Pour Habit will be playing their breakout album, Suiticide, in full at an all ages show this Sunday from midday at the Valve Bar. Joining them are Hightime, Totally Unicorn, Epics, and Batfoot. We lined up Pour Habit drummer, Colin Walsh, for a chat to find out more.

Pour Habit Well, well, well… It is an exciting week for all ages hip hop gigs. So exciting that you might say my knees are weak, my arms are heavy and my mum makes great spaghetti. The two biggies are both this Saturday, so we’ll list them here in chronological order (like bitter twins, they’re only a few hours apart). From 2.30pm the Lucky Oz Tavern (known for their awesome all ages heavy music gigs – in fact, there’s one on Sunday from 2pm headlined by One Night Paris that only costs ten bones!) will play host to the Got Beef? Spit City interstate hip hop event. Some of the best MCs from Sydney and Adelaide (and even one old mate, Briggzy, from the UK!) will be going head-tohead with their rhymes on stage. There’s also a bloke called Donatello ‘spitting’, so you know, cowabunga! Later that evening, Hip Hop Projections takes over the Switch Digital Arts Centre in Parramatta. Now in its seventh year, Hip Hop Projections involves mentoring young people aged 15 to 25 to create their own original hip hop works with assistance from industry pros. The showcase, which runs from 6-9pm, will reveal the fruits of their labours over the past six weeks and highlight some of the young, fresh talent in Western Sydney hip hop. And in case you were wondering, no, I haven’t forgotten about the heavier stuff. Catch Canberran conquerors of the US of A, Hands Like Houses, on Friday at The Loft, Newcastle, and on Saturday from 2pm at the Masonic Hall, Blacktown with a huge ten-band bill. Or politely mosh next to me at The Wall on Friday night for Miles Away’s all ages ten-year anniversary show.

For those living under rocks, what can you tell us about Pour Habit? We are a five-human punk band from Long Beach, California. Basically we like to play loud, drink hard and jizz fast. What keeps you coming back to Australia? No one goes off like Australia! We have always had great shows out with you. We were introduced to you crazy asses by NOFX and Bad Religion and have loved it ever since. Really is my favourite place. It’s great to see there are some all ages show throughout the tour. Why do you think it’s important to play those kind of gigs? All ages shows are important because when you are young, you need the opportunity to experience the world and what’s out there. Who knows, maybe we can inspire kids to be losers like us! How’s the all ages scene in California? The all ages scene is very limited but when kids go to shows, they have a lot of fun. Hopefully I’m not the creepy old dude at the all ages show. I still think I’m rad… kids still say that right? The floor is yours, sell us Sunday’s show at the Valve… Don’t be a bitch, come to our show at the Valve. Any tips for young musos? Seriously, for all new musos, don’t let anyone ever tell you how to be. If you like it, do it. If it sounds cool to you, play it. If you believe in it, go for it. But if it’s stink in the pink, run, don’t even think. allages@drummedia.com.au

WED 5TH DECEMBER

SAT 8TH DECEMBER

LUNCH BREAK

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FRI 7TH DECEMBER

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SATURDAY NIGHTS 55

TASTE TEST

TASTE TEST: ADAM SPARK

SINGLE FOCUS

We were working on our record in LA this year and we got invited to this gig at a bookstore. We got there and there’s all these people drinking coffee and egg-nog and shit like that and there was this ten- or 12-piece drum and brass band who were just walking around the bookstore just screaming at the top of their lungs. It was so bohemian and arthouse and yeah, borderline bullshit but also fucking awesome.

THE COOLEST PERSON I’VE MET

OVER-REACTOR Answered by: Ezekiel Ox, vocals The best record I stole from my folks’ collection was… Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy The first record I bought with my own money was… Madonna – Like A Virgin The record I put on when I’m really miserable is… Galactic – From The Corner To The Block The record I put on when I bring someone home is… The Black Crowes – By Your Side

THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. I identified with them as a skinny little red-headed white kid growing up in WA.

THE ALBUM I’M LOVING RIGHT NOW The new Godspeed! You Black Emperor record. It’s just so gothy and post-rock and doomy.

MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM Whenever I’m at a party or someone lets me have control of the player or whatever I always go for Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. That’s about as happy as I get. I’ve always seen myself as never quite cool enough to be taking the reins and controlling the vibe at a party.

Warren Ellis. We did the Big Day Out a few years ago and Grinderman were on there, and I finally built up the courage to go up there and talk to him. He was really, really nice: Just a really sweet, Ocker, cool, relaxed-as-fuck dude. I got to speak to him about film soundtracks – he did The Proposition and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and stuff. So that was my huge fan boy moment.

THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH I’VE HAD Daniel Day-Lewis. I’ve kind of loved him since My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father and even through the modern stuff like Gangs Of New York and There Will Be Blood. The things I would do for that man. He just fascinates me.

Is this track from a forthcoming/ existing release? It’s the fourth single from our debut album, Wish Upon A Paper Crane, released in August this year.

IF I WASN’T MAKING MUSIC

The most surprising record in my collection is… The Essential Dolly Parton

It’s hard to go past Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. It’s got a little bit of The Velvet Underground-y mournfulness to it. It’s this really haunting, acoustic, droney type of thing.

The last thing I bought was… Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back

THE FIRST GIG I ATTENDED

I’d probably either still be doing psychology or I’d be an architect. They were both things I started studying but gave up at various points. Maybe I’d be an architect first. I gave up on psychology only because I didn’t agree with the format of university – I actually really liked studying.

Website/contacts: www.over-reactor.com

IMPERIAL HELL Saturday night, The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville has Solid Gold Hell presenting its Zombie Christmas Party, with DJs The Satanic Mechanic, Danger Coolidge, Inner Psyche, Demonika, Cutthroat and, direct from Berlin, Jay The Ripper, along with Undead go-go girls and cult zombie and Christmas horror movies screening (screaming?), the action kicking off 10pm for a night that promises to be ghoulishly good fun.

I went to see The Smashing Pumpkins in 1996 when they had Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness. I was so stoned that I didn’t remember most of it, but I remember every time Billy was bathed in red light it felt like there was this demon staring down on us.

THE WEIRDEST GIG EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD

Wednesday night at the Brass Monkey, Dylan Wright, in his band guise as Dylan And Co, will be showcasing his particular take on indie roots and soul. He’s joined on the night by extra special guests Evil J & Saint Cecilia and Georgia & Becca.

STANDARD SPARRO

Regular John have scored the plum support gig opening for one of Australia’s finest and most prolific musical institutions, The Church, at the Factory Theatre this Thursday night. Church drummer Tim Powles, of course, has recorded and produced both Regular John albums.

Forming only in May this year, The Hadron Colliders have obviously been impressing enough people to score themselves a headlining show at Livesound in the Lewisham Hotel this Friday night, supported by Black Matches, The Relics and Jules Backman/Dave Phillips.

JOHN GOES TO CHURCH

Dust Tones will be celebrating its seventh birthday in style Sunday night down at the Oxford Art Factory with special international guest, direct from Japan, DJ Kentaro, along with a cracking support line-up featuring Mike Who, Typhonic, Frenzie and Bentley.

TOWNIE MAGGOTS Sydney sludgemeisters Yanomamo take over the Town Hall Hotel in Newtown Saturday night to launch their debut EP, Maggots, which they’re releasing on cassette! Yup, first vinyl, now cassettes, and helping them out on the night are Battle Pope, Spaceticket and, from Queensland, Fear The Setting Sun.

World music exponents the Joseph Tawadros Trio, featuring Egyptian Australian brothers Joseph and James Tawadros on oud and Egyptian percussion respectively and jazz pianist Steve Hunter delivering a vibrant set of original material Thursday night at Red Rattler.

Bringing together local artists, performers, writers, storytellers, poets and musicians, Sunday night, the Yoga To Go Studio in Petersham sees Summer Rumpus come alive Golden Orb, Daniel Green, Harriet Harding & Cleo Mees, Thomas Knox Arnold and more in aid of Whitelion, an organisation dedicated to help disadvantaged NSW youth. Bring along something to pass on and make a kid’s Christmas a little brighter.

LISTENING TO TOM

LAST SOLO FOR PHIL Taking advantage of a break in the tour schedule before the big summer album tour, Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson has been playing a few low key shows solo, but that all finishes up Sunday up at Lizotte’s in Kincumber, where his special guests are Evil J & Saint Cecilia.

56 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

How long did it take to write/record? This track was one that came later in the writing process of the album; in fact, it was one of the final ideas offered. Generally, we write as a live band and then take the completed track to the studio, however, this was one that was finalised as we recorded. Having recorded the album in our makeshift bedroom studio (Adam’s bedroom), we had the advantage of making changes and tweaks to the tracks as they progressed when tracking. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? I don’t think there is ever any one specific inspiration with us, when it comes to writing. That’s why we have six members in the band; to draw from a variety of inspirations and new ideas, then pulling it all together once each member has offered a part. What’s your favourite part of the song? The interlude. It has this big swelling ending that provides the start of a huge sounding tail end. Do you play it differently live? The ending is a hell of a lot more involved and filled with sounds/extra playing. Sometimes I don’t even know where the sounds are coming from! Will you be launching it? Saturday 8 December, Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar) supporting The Khanz w/ Tales in Space For more info see: www.fairchildrepublic.com.au

LUCKY SEVEN

WORLD & JAZZ COLLIDE

A RIGHT OLD RUMPUS

Talk about the best support spots ever! If you’re serious about your garage rock, then you need to catch the guys that originated it back in the ‘60s, UK legends The Pretty Things, in concert Saturday night at GoodGod, supported by our own Straight Arrows, Dull City Destroyers and Kill City Creeps’ Daniel Darling.

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, Annandale; Saturday 8, Homebake, The Domain

BACK TO BLACK

Well, it is that time of year after all, and everyone else is releasing Christmas albums so why not chuck in the odd carol, just for fun? That’s what you’ll get Saturday night when The Square hosts an evening of Christmas cheer with six up and coming bands – Kill Appeal, Kassandra, The Poet And The Thief, Kaato, Stanley’s End and Thrush take the stage from 7.30pm.

SUPPORT ACTS

WHAT: This Fire EP (EMI)

All things hirsute will be celebrated Wednesday night at the Beach Road Hotel when Adelaide’s champions of fuzz, The Beards, take over to relaunch Sosueme, with a little help from Alison Wonderland, The Griswolds, Devola and more. The Griswolds, who are showing off a new single, The Courtship Of Summer Preasley, will also be playing Homebake at The Domain Saturday.

COLLIDING LIVE A SQUARE CHRISTMAS

WHO: Birds Of Tokyo

BEARDS OVER BONDI

Of course, there’s absolutely nothing standard about Sam Sparro, but Friday night he will be gracing the stage at The Standard performing songs from his eponymous debut and latest album, Return To Paradise, our own international dance/soul artist back in town. Saturday of course, Sparro is at The Domain performing alongside Blondie at Homebake – he’s so excited!

Song title: Tear Us Down What’s the song about? It explores the advantages and disadvantages of hindsight and what it has to offer to direction into the future. Basically, what would you do differently if someone was to give you a second chance at it? Would you do it completely different? Would you change nothing at all?

MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM

Upcoming shows: Saturday 7 December, The Burdiken; Friday 14 and Saturday 15, Festival Of The Sun, Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park, Port Macquarie

FAIRCHILD REPUBLIC

Comedian Tom Ballard has obviously cottoned onto something with his Listening Party Wednesday nights at The Standard. This Wednesday he’s got the feisty Claudia Karvan, fellow comedian Wil Anderson and indie icon Josh Pyke dropping in to chat about their lives, works and favourite songs, while Max Lavergne will keep the laughs going and Shed Muzak will get the hips moving.

UP THE CREEK It seems there’s quite the mystery surrounding one of the more unusual musical flowerings out of Perth. The Perch Creek Family Jugband has everyone baffled though the Europeans obviously get it, since

they’re just back from two months of touring there. Catch them at the Hotel Steyne Thursday or one of their two shows at The Newsagency Sunday and Tuesday 11 December and see if you can figure it out.

A SLOW CHRISTMAS They might call themselves The Slowdowns but there’s nothing slow about these hillbilly disco kids, as you’ll find when you join them at Redfern’s newest watering hole, Arcadia Liquors, to see in the Silly Season in style, with tap dancer, meat tray raffle, firebreathing and DJ TomBob, Sunday from 5pm, free.

GOODGOD! WORLD’S END Well you never know do you – Mayan calendar and all that. But wait, this isn’t that world’s end. It’s the band World’s End Press, who, along with Collarbones, invites you to share Thursday night down at GoodGod Small Club with them, and special guest local supports Polographia, for one mighty boogie down.

MORE FROM BEC Rebecca Moore is showcasing her latest EP, Closing The Distance, Wednesday at the Northern Star in Newcastle, Thursday at Ryan’s in Thirroul, Friday the Front Gallery in Canberra and the Centennial Hotel in Helensburgh Sunday.

SANTA’S GOT CASS The always-effervescent singer-songwriter Cass Eager decided to have a bit of fun a couple of years ago with a seasonal release called Santa’s Got Soul. It became a show – a popular one at that – and so she’s bringing out the sleighbells and does it all over again Friday at the Mac in Surry Hills and Saturday at Katoomba RSL.

SINGLE FOCUS

WINE COCKTAILS AND MILK DREAMS

SINGLE FOCUS

In the lead up to their co-headline tour starting this week, we asked Ben Salter and Mike Noga to come together a little earlier to share the love. Planning any covers as duets for the gigs? If so, what?

RICKY BLOOMFIELD

BS: Yes, the show is basically Mike and I on stage doing songs together, talking crap and being awkward. We’re not sure exactly how it’s gonna play but yes, there will be covers. Some Boss, Nick Lowe, Triffids and probably heaps more. There will also be special guests. Eeek! How exciting.

Song title: Don’t Ask Me feat. Anja Nissen What’s the song about? Don’t Ask Me is about a man who’s been unfaithful to his woman, and her reaction when her suspicions are confirmed.

Mike Noga

How long did it take to write? I wrote this song with my housemate late one night in our place in Enmore. It happened fairly quickly I think? My memory of it is a little hazy...

List three things that are great about touring solo compared to with a band. Ben Salter: There are no arguments about where to eat, where to stay, what to play; the rider generally works out better; and less gear.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? It’s come a long way since that first night in Enmore almost four years ago. I played it around live for a while and tuned it up a bit, then started recording it two years ago and only recently got it finished. If I had the money to record it all at once, the structure, lyrics and arrangement probably wouldn’t have developed as much as they did.

Mike Noga: The spotlight is mine! All mine! Although on this tour I’ll have to compete with ol’ ‘look at me’ Salter; no sharing rooms with anyone. Although on this tour I’ll have to share with ol’ ‘share a room with me’ Salter; and seven seats to choose from in the Tarago... although on this tour I’ll have to compete with ol’ ‘now there’s only six seats to choose from’ Salter.

What’s your favourite part of the song? There’s a really cool moment at the end of the second chorus where Anja and I harmonise for the only time in the song, and Gordy (the drummer) lets rip some killer accents to bring it into the break. It gets me air drumming every time I hear it!

Will you be launching it? Saturday 8 December, The Landsdowne Hotel with Andy Golledge and The Mountains playing from 8pm (free entry)

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Petersham Bowls Club; Sunday 9, Front Gallery, Canberra

JAH, IT’S HANSEL Novocastrian glam rockers Hansel complete their Spring Into Your Spandex tour with one massive final show this Friday night at The Sly Fox celebrating the success of their debut album, Never Say Die, along with Melody Black, Melbourne’s My Secret Circus, Rattlesnake and Black Diamond.

WHO: Ben Salter & Mike Noga

favourite acts – Nantes, Andy Bull, The Preatures, Step-Panther, Toucan, Tokyo Denmark Sweden and The Walking Who, as well as DJ sets from Jake Stone, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, DZ Deathrays, The Holidays, Rüfüs and Elizabeth Rose.

SOUL CHRISTMAS

NEW FAB FOUR Four of Australia’s most promising bands – Highways, The Monster Goes Rawrr, Breakaway and Brightener – are getting together for one special show at Live At The Brewhouse in Darling Harbour Saturday night. Software, Olympic Ayres and more. Saturday night join Bec & Ben and friends before Staggman and his crew of DJs take you into the early hours of Sunday.

Song title: Indecision What’s the song about? Ryan Miller, vocals: Confusion, not knowing the right way to go in a relationship, the bad behaviour and decisions made along the way that inevitably lead to one fucked up situation causing both people involved a head full of mess! So we thought getting tarred and feathered by a gas mask wearing, drag queen punk, and paraded through Hyde Park in a shopping trolley was the perfect metaphor... That and cheesecake. Is this track from a forthcoming/ existing release? It’s from our recent EP Enter the Motivational Sasquatch. How long did it take to write/record? It’s a track that came about over time. Jamming on it in the studio and live.

MN: It can get very lonely in the spotlight; at night, alone in your hotel room, when there is no one to talk to, it can feel very sad; no one to share beautiful, long drives with.

If you were there at the Trade Union back in the day or you love the post-punk thing that happened in Sydney, head to the Terrace Bar in Newcastle Saturday night to experience, for the first time in 26 years, the mighty Pel Mel (get googling!), supported by Swami Binton, The Limp and Leather Feather.

As always, the week kicks off 1pm Wednesday with Lunch Break, featuring The Khanz. Thursday at the Kings Cross Hotel has FBi Social presenting a night of folktronica with Anton Franc, Wheat Fields, Mammals and Gnome. Friday it’s Elizabeth Rose showcasing her debut EP, Crystallise, with buddies

MN: Cocktails and dreams.

Ben Salter

PEL MEL RETURN

THIS WEEK AT FBI SOCIAL

BS: Wine and milk.

BS: There is no gang to be a part of; if everything comes unglued during a performance there is no one to cover you/blame; there is no van or associated sick, gallows humour.

For more info see: www.facebook.com/rickybloomfieldband

Thursday night from 7pm, The Green Room hosts the next big In Conversation, 2SER’s live Q&A event, and when we say big, we’re talking Devo! They’re playing the Sydney Ent Cent Friday with Simple Minds and The Church, but here you can get up close and personal – seating permitting (it’s free) – and learn about all things Devo.

Finish this sentence: Noga and Salter go together like...

List three things that are shithouse about touring solo compared to with a band.

Do you play it differently live? The Lansdowne will be the first time I’ve played it live since it was finished, so I’m not 100 per cent sure what to expect.

CHATTING TO DEVO

MN: We sure is. We’ll roll out some covers from our extensive catalogue (mine extends to about three). We’ll also be helping out on each other’s tunes. If Ben doesn’t let me help him sing his song Gas Guzzler I will be very upset. We’ll be onstage a lot together. Think the two old guys from The Muppets, but not as funny or talented.

THE SIDETRACKED FIASCO

Down at the Basement, Circular Quay, Thursday night, guest vocalists Rebekah Jensen, Simon Meli and Sam Bennett will be joining Johnny G & The E-Types Memphis Soul Revue in celebrating the legacy of America’s Soul Factory, Stax Records, in a very soulful Christmas show.

LIGHT WIND The extraordinarily prolific flautist Howlin’ Wind launches his 50th album, Morning Light, tonight, Tuesday 4 December, at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Manly, with special guests guitarist Jim Moginie and drummer Rob Hirst from Midnight Oil/The Break.

BROKEN CHRISTMAS

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Cheesecake… Seriously, we ate some rancid cheesecake and it did bad things to us. It was one hella queso messo! One minute we’re in Main Street Studio sound checking drums, next thing I know we’re on the wings of the mighty griffin, piloted by Kadouche the Voodoo Tickler. He suspended us from our left testicles and plucked feathers from the griffin’s wings. Feathers for tickling! When we came to, Indecision was recorded. What’s your favourite part of the song? It’s the middle section of the bass solo, the way it locks in with the drums and just rolls out gets me every time… love it! Will you be launching it? We’ve been doing a pretty big east coast tour for the release of this track and we still have Saturday 8 December, The Valve Bar and Friday 14, The Patch, Wollongong to go for anyone yet to receive a good sized scoop of FuNkCoRe… For more info visit: www.thesidetrackedfiasco. com; www.facebook.com/thesidetrackedfiasco.

DOUBLE THE EPS Down at Blue Beat Friday night, you get not just one but two EP launches, as The Conscious Pilots take the stage to launch their EP, Flight Path, while singersongwriter John Vella showcases his EP, Here/Now.

WHO’S COVELESKI? Well, you’ll have to ask them when Coveleski front up at the Roxbury Friday night to launch their eponymous debut EP with a little help from Epics, Ted Danson With Wolves, Karl Marx and Oslow.

After supporting Rick Astley on his recent tour, Chris E Thomas is heading into the Brass Monkey for one last Rock’n’Soul Review before Christmas with good friends Ward’s Xpress, featuring Carolyn Packer, Sunday night.

Broken Stone Records is celebrating Christmas with a huge showcase of all its artists, including the newest, Melodie Nelson, Saturday from 4.30pm at St Stephen’s Church Hall in Newtown, so get along for your fill of Christmas cheer with Sister Jane, The Maple Trail, Caitlin Park, Magnetic Heads, Kelly Dance, The Killing Words and, of course, Melodie.

THE F BOMB

REASON TO BOUKABOU

Friday night, Finn begin their series of launch dates for the release of their new album, Bomb The World (With Kindness), at the Cat & Fiddle in Balmain, supported by Bonez, then head out to the Bald Rock Hotel in Rozelle Sunday. Before that though, the evil genius behind it all, Maestro Jim Finn will once again host the Musos Club Jam Nights at the Bald Faced Stag Wednesday and the Carousel in Rooty Hill Thursday with bass phenomenon Al Britton, who himself rejoins his blues buddies, The Bondi Cigars, at The Beach Club in Collaroy Friday night.

The Old Manly Boatshed, right there on the Corso, is hosting the launch of another slice of timeless rock and big choruses that is the new single, Reason, from Boukabou, they’ll be followed by our very own American soul brother, Doug Williams.

JACKSON IN ARCADIA

NEW BUCHANAN

HANDS DWELL HERE

Melbourne four-piece Buchanan have an early Christmas present for you – a free download of their new B-side, When The Sun Comes Round Again, from their forthcoming debut album, and to sweeten the deal, they’re heading up the Hume to play it and more for you Friday night at The Forbes Hotel, where they’re opening for No Illuminati, and Saturday night Upstairs at the Beresford, opening for King Tide with Sea Legs.

Signed to US indie label Rise Records, home of Hot Water Music, Canberra exports, six-piece Hands Like Houses have been touring relentlessly both here and in the US on the back of their debut album, Ground Dweller. Home for a summer tour, they land at Hot Damn Thursday night, head up to The Loft in Newcastle for an all ages show Friday and then hit Blacktown Masonic Hall Sunday for another all ager.

CHRISTMAS MONKEY

SELECT MUM Select Music have had a huge year and they’re sharing the love Friday night at Mum in the World Bar with a Christmas party that features all their

58 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

GOOD ALLDAY Thursday night, the Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar hosts an evening with hip hop artist Allday, who is up our way to showcase his contribution to the triple j Unearthed Mixtape, So Good, and more, supported by Seven and Ruthless.

This Wednesday night sees Jackson McLaren and The Falls do their last show of their Wednesday residency at Arcadia Liquors.

FREE

FRIDAY 7

THE ARCHAIC REVIVAL

FRIDAY 14

THE HEAVIES PLUS GUESTS

MILKK, BERKSHIRE HUNTING CLUB,

SATURDAY 8

SATURDAY 15

KASANDRA, THE POET AND THE THIEF, KAATO, STANLEY’S END, THRUSH

(MELB) BEEF JERKM, KING TEARS, MORTUARY, FULL UGLY (MELB)

KILL APPEAL

THURSDAY 13

SYDONIA

(ACOUSTIC SHOW) PLUS GUESTS

SYDONIA

MILK TEDDY

SATURDAY 22

WHISKY SMILE

THIS WEEK’S ISSUE NOW LIVE www.the

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VIDEO CLIP FOCUS

IT’S RIGGSED Our very own Delta Riggs will be doing the honours opening for legendary re-energised Scottish six-piece Primal Scream when they play the Enmore Theatre Wednesday night.

DEMONS R THEM Melbourne four-piece The Demon Parade have a new EP, Chameleon, and they are coming up to showcase in person this Friday night in The Velvet Cave at Club 77, supported by Sister Jane, and the Old Manly Boatshed Saturday night.

TOUR BUDDIES There seem to be a lot of tour buddies out there joining forces to present more entertaining shows by supporting each other right now, and among them are Adelaide’s Kelly Breuer and Toowoomba’s Bart Thrupp, who hooked up at September’s BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane. Monday 10 December the two singer-songwriters will be heading into Kelly On Kings in Newtown, then the Harbourview Hotel in The Rocks Tuesday 11.

WEAPONS OF CHOICE

BEN WELLS & THE MIDDLE NAMES Song title: Bear In A Birdcage Director: Simon Treweek What’s the concept behind the clip? The concept of the clip was to go along with the idea of the song, without being to obvious. So I was stuck in an office having a shitty time while there are shots of awesome empty waves in the opposite screen. We also wanted to have the whole band involved with a really summery vibe so they cut in between the waves and the office. How long did it take to make? Shooting the office vision and the band playing only took us a day. Simon shot the waves over a period of time during the year. Simon is a sick surfing cinematographer and has produced a couple of feature-length films. Where did you film it? We filmed a lot of it around Hobart’s streets and in a big office space. The band was shot in a studio. All the waves are from different locations along the east coast of Tassie; can’t say where though! Who filmed it and how’d they film it? Simon filmed everything. Most of the waves were shot from the water with a housing for the camera and filmed on a Sony NX5P. The band, office and street vision were shot on a Canon DSLR.

PETE GOODING What tunes never leave Pete Gooding’s hard drive? AZTEC MYSTIC Knights Of The Jaguar Underground Resistance (1999) This is one of those rare tracks that crossed so many musical genres and boundaries. So many different DJs played this track – house, techno and trance – and it has a timeless quality and energy that never fails to ignite any dancefloor! LIL LOUIS French Kiss FFRR (1989) This is probably my favourite house track of all time. It reminds me of being in Amnesia in Ibiza in 1989 and every time I hear it I get goose bumps and special memories come back from my early days in Ibiza. 23-years-old and still so amazing.

What’s your favourite part of the clip? Probably at 0.27 when Jordy does the slappin’ the bass thumb lick ha ha. Will you be launching it? We’re playing Friday 7 December, The Front, Canberra and Saturday 8, Kittens, Spectrum

WESTERN INFIDELS With a new single, Talk, to showcase before they settle into the studio to record the follow-up to their debut album, I Know This Now, Perth’s Timothy Nelson & The Infidels are taking a quick sprint around the nation that sees them hit the Red Rattler in Marrickville Friday night. Joining them are The Faults and Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids, so make ‘em feel welcome. The West Aussie group last year celebrating winning a Western Australian Music Industry Award for Best Song, so you know there’s some talent on those instruments!

METRO AREA Miura Late Night Tales (2000) The first time I heard this was in Café Mambo – Italian DJ Frank O Moriagi played it and I instantly freaked out thinking what the hell is this and it’s still so relevant now; proper sexy house music at its finest. It never fails to rock a party with its simple but deadly beats and bass. Upcoming Release? Pete Gooding & Jonathan Cowan feat Kellie Allen, Limbo (Toolroom Records); No Logo, No Logo [artist album] (Melodica Recordings); Pete Gooding feat Kellie Allen, Those Eyes (Seamless Recordings); Pete Gooding, Malibu (Seamless Recordings); Pete Gooding & Tryell D, Get Loaded [remixes] (Stripped Recordings); Pete Gooding & John Moss, This Music (Refine Music); Pete Gooding, Illusion (Refine Music) and more... Upcoming Gigs? Saturday 8 December, Miller City Sessions, PJ’s Irish Pub

60 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news

FREE MOSS This time last year he was blitzing the nation with the old firm, which of course then released a new album, No Plans, and promptly headed for London for some northern summer festivals. Saturday from 4pm, free, in the beer garden of The Newport Arms, you can experience the artistry of Cold Chisel’s Ian Moss up close and personal.

TOUR GUIDE

PRESENTS

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: Jan 3 Hordern Pavilion

NATIONAL THE GRISWOLDS: Dec 5 Beach Road Hotel; 21 December The Backroom THE WIGGLES: Dec 5 AIS Arena; 8 & 9 AIS Arena; 12 Newcastle Entertainment Centre; 19 Wollongong Entertainment Centre; 22 & 23 Sydney Entertainment Centre HANDS LIKE HOUSES: Dec 6 Hot Damn; 7 The Loft; 9 Blacktown Masonic Hall WORLD’S END PRESS: Dec 6 Goodgod ALLDAY: Dec 6 Oxford Art Factory ANTON FRANC: Dec 6 FBi Social; 7 Great Northern Hotel CHARLES JENKINS: Dec 7 Notes BEN WELLS & THE MIDDLE NAMES: Dec 7 The Front; 8 Spectrum SAM SPARRO: Dec 7 The Standard BIRDS OF TOKYO: Dec 7 Annandale Hotel NITE FIELDS: Dec 7 Black Wire Records COVELESKI: Dec 7 Roxbury KUTCHA EDWARDS: Dec 7 Goodgod TOKYO DENMARK SWEDEN: Dec 7 World Bar; Jan 11 The Beresford BUCHANAN: Dec 7 Forbes Hotel; 8 The Beresford OVER-REACTOR: Dec 7 Burdekin; 8 Cambridge Hotel DARREN PERCIVAL: Dec 8 Smithfield RSL; 14 The Juniors; 15 Concourse Theatre THE SIDETRACKED FIASCO: Dec 8 Valve Bar; 14 The Patch MIKE NOGA, BEN SALTER: Dec 8 Petersham Bowls; 9 Front Gallery COGEL: Dec 8 The Standard CATHERINE TRAICOS: Dec 8 Petersham Bowls Club; Feb 28 The Green Room Lounge REECE MASTIN: Dec 8 Hordern Pavilion; Jan 19 Newcastle Entertainment Centre; 20 Penrith Panthers; 22 Wollongong Entertainment Centre; 23 AIS Arena PHIL JAMIESON: Dec 9 Lizotte’s Kincumber KELLY BREUER & BART THRUPP: Dec 10 Kelly’s On King; 11 Harbourview Hotel; 12 Lass O’Gowrie; 13 Macquarie Hotel THE MESS HALL: Dec 12 Annandale Hotel SARAH BASKO: Dec 12 Green Room STILLWATER GIANTS: Dec 12 Beach Road Hotel THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON: Dec 12 Brighton Up Bar; 13 Front Gallery; 14 Barcode; 21 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 22 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 23 Lizotte’s Dee Why THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS: Dec 13 Rock Lily; 14 The Junkyard; 15 Great Northern Newcastle; 16 Yours & Owls; 17 The Phoenix JOE ROBINSON: Dec 13 Street Theatre CUB SCOUTS: Dec 13 Goodgod TAME IMPALA: Dec 13, 14 Enmore Theatre BATTLESHIPS: Dec 14 Oxford Art Factory KINGSWOOD: Dec 14 Goodgod CHARLIE MCMAHON: Dec 14 Tortuga Studios SYDONIA: Dec 14 The Square KATE ALEXA: Dec 14 Allphones Arena JORDIE LANE: Dec 14 Great Northern Newcastle; 15 Notes; 16 Clarendon Guesthouse SUN CITY: Dec 14 The Beresford; Jan 11 Brighton Up Bar GOTYE: Dec 14 Sydney Entertainment Centre DARREN HANLON: Dec 15 Street Theatre; 22 St Stephens Anglican Church CATCALL: Dec 15 Goodgod SPENCER P JONES & THE NOTHING BUTTS: Dec 15 Annandale Hotel PARKWAY DRIVE: Dec 15 Hordern Pavilion; 17 Panthers MEZZANINE: Dec 18 The Lansdowne ABBE MAY: Dec 19 Goodgod HUMAN NATURE: Dec 19 State Theatre

LOVE PARADE: Dec 20 The Union MIKE MCCARTHY: Dec 20 Lizotte’s Kincumber CLAUDE HAY: Dec 21 The Vanguard SOMERSET BARNARD: Dec 21 Beresford; 22 Rabbit Hole Bar; 23 Little Guy THE BENNIES: Dec 21 Annandale Hotel; 22 Yours & Owls; 23 Cambridge Hotel LYALL MOLONEY: Dec 22 Cosmos Rock Lounge IRRELEVANT: Dec 22 Annandale Hotel BAYONETS FOR LEGS: Dec 22 Lass O’Gowrie; 27 The Patch DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: Dec 27 Entrance Leagues; 28 Fitzroy Hotel; 29 Waves HEY GERONIMO: Dec 28 The Beresford Hotel; 29 Great Northern Hotel CASEY DONOVAN: Dec 28 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 29 Lizotte’s Kincumber; Jan 24 The Basement; Sept 14 Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre KARNIVOOL: Dec 28 Waves; 29 Metro Theatre DIRTY SOUTH: Dec 31 Marquee REGURGITATOR: Dec 31 Rock Lily JONNY TELAFONE: Jan 4 Terrace Bar; 10 Goodgod MAT MCHUGH: Jan 8 Brass Monkey; 10 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 11 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 12 Heritage Hotel THE FIRETREE: Jan 8 Great Northen Hotel; 13 Terrigal Hotel; 15 Cafe Lounge; 18 The Beresford; 19 Mars Hill Cafe; 20 Bucklers Canteen; 28 Front Gallery TWELVE FOOT NINJA: Jan 10 Cambridge Hotel; 11 Annandale Hotel BORED NOTHING: Jan 10 FBi Social NORTHLANE: Jan 12 The Loft; 13 Rhythm Boat Cruise; 15 Oasis Youth Centre; 17 Koonanwarra Community Hall NEW GODS: Jan 12 Goodgod DEEZ NUTS: Jan 13 The Hi-Fi; 14 Cambridge Hotel; 15 Oasis Youth Centre; 16 Woden Youth Centre ED KUEPPER & MARK DAWSON: Jan 17 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 18 Notes; 19 Clarendon Guesthouse SHANNON NOLL: Jan 17 Clarendon Guesthouse; 18 Brass Monkey; Feb 8 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 15 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 16 Asquith Leagues Club SARAH BLASKO: Feb 17 & 18 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall GRINSPOON: Mar 16 Metro Theatre; Apr 11 Waves; 13 ANU Bar; 17 Entrance Leagues; 18 Panthers Newcastle

INTERNATIONAL PRIMAL SCREAM: Dec 5 Enmore Theatre WILL & THE PEOPLE: Dec 5 The Loft UTS; 7 The Junkyard; 16 The Beachcomber; 20 The Boatshed; 21 Great Northern Newcastle; 22 The Beresford THE PRETTY THINGS: Dec 5 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 7 Factory Theatre; 8 Goodgod BLONDIE: Dec 6 Enmore Theatre HOT SNAKES: Dec 6 Annandale Hotel OMAR SOULEYMAN: Dec 6 Oxford Art Factory TURBONEGRO: Dec 6 The Hi-Fi SIMPLE MINDS, DEVO: Dec 7 Sydney Entertainment Centre; 8 Bimbadgen Winery; 12 WIN Entertainment Centre MAYDAY PARADE: Dec 7 The Hi-Fi POUR HABIT: Dec 8 Annandale Hotel; 9 (arvo) Valve; 9 (evening) The Patch NICK WARREN: Dec 8 Chinese Laundry FOUR TET: Dec 8 The Metro REGINA SPEKTOR: Dec 8 Enmore Theatre; 10 & 11 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall JEFF MARTIN: 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 GRIMES: Dec 10 & 11 Oxford Art Factory ALEXISONFIRE: Dec 11 Hordern Pavilion HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS: Dec 13 Hot Damn; 14 Cambridge Hotel

62 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags

PRIMAL SCREAM: Dec 5 Enmore Theatre HOMEBAKE: Dec 8 The Domain JEFF MARTIN: 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 KINGSWOOD: Dec 14 Goodgod JORDIE LANE: Dec 14 Great Northern Newcastle; 15 Notes; 16 Clarendon Guesthouse EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: Dec 20 The Metro REUNION FESTIVAL: Dec 22 Entrance Leagues Club PEATS RIDGE: Dec 29 – Jan 1 Glenworth Valley HALF MOON RUN: Jan 2 The Vanguard; 3 Yours & Owls; 4 The Brass Monkey; 5 The Standard; 25 The Steyne BEACH HOUSE: Jan 3 Enmore Theatre TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: Jan 3 Hordern Pavilion BLOOD RED SHOES: Jan 4 The Hi-Fi THE HIVES: Jan 7 The Metro HOT CHIP: Jan 8 Enmore Theatre BORED NOTHING: Jan 10 FBi Social NITE JEWEL: Jan 31 Goodgod YEASAYER: Jan 31 Metro Theatre MS MR: Feb 4 Oxford Art Factory GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: Feb 14 Enmore Theatre SARAH BLASKO: Feb 17 & 18 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall FATHER JOHN MISTY: Feb 19 Metro Theatre EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: Feb 22 Enmore Theatre CAT POWER: Mar 1 Newcastle Panthers; 2 Enmore Theatre FUTURE MUSIC: Mar 9 Randwick Racecourse JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: Mar 9 The Hi-Fi NEIL FINN & PAUL KELLY: Mar 10, 11, 12, 17 & 18 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall DINOSAUR JR: Mar 16 The Hi-Fi GRINSPOON: Mar 16 Metro Theatre; Apr 11 Waves; 13 ANU Bar; 17 Entrance Leagues; 18 Panthers Newcastle SETH LAKEMAN: Mar 20 Notes; 21 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 22 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 23 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 24 Brass Monkey WANDA JACKSON: Mar 23 Factory Theatre; 25 Lizotte’s Newcastle JOAN ARMATRADING: Mar 24 Enmore Theatre; 25 Penrith Panthers RODRIGUEZ: Mar 25 Enmore Theatre THE LUMINEERS: Mar 27 Metro Theatre JIMMY CLIFF: Mar 28 Metro Theatre BLUESFEST: Mar 28 – Apr 1 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND, TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE: Mar 31 Enmore Theatre TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE: Apr 1 Lizotte’s Newcastle SHAWN COLVIN: Mar 31 The Basement JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Mar 31 Lizotte’s Newcastle; Apr 1 Lizotte’s Central Coast; 3 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 4 The Basement BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: Apr 1 Enmore Theatre BONNIE RAITT & MAVIS STAPLES: Apr 3 Enmore Theatre ROGER HODGSON: Apr 3 & 4 State Theatre BEN CAPLAN: Apr 3 Notes JON ANDERSON: Apr 3 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 6 Factory Theatre BETTYE LAVETTE: Apr 5 Factory Theatre STAN RIDGWAY: May 16 The Basement; 17 Factory Theatre

TUE 04 ADAM PRINGLE, + FRIENDS: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs - Newtown CAROLYN WOODORTH, EVA-MARIA HESS, YETTI, COLLIN GOSPER, THE MAD PRICE, + GUESTS: Taverners Hill Hotel - Leichhardt

DARREN BENNETT, BLACK DIAMOND, + GUESTS: George IV Hotel - Picton HOWLIN WIND, JIM MOGINIE, ROB HIRST: St Matthews Anglican Church - Manly JAMES RYAN’S TRIAL BY FIRE, MARK LOCKETT TRIO: 505 - Surry Hills

WED 05

ANDY GOLLEDGE, KATASTROPHY, SANDO LOCALS: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs - Newtown ANDY MAMMERS DUO: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney BACK TO BLACK: DYLAN & CO, EVIL J & SAINT CECILIA, GEORGIA & BECCA: Brass Monkey - Cronulla CARL DEWHURST TRIO, DAVE ADES: 505 - Surry Hills CARTOON, COURAGE FOR CASPER: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay DAN SPILLANE: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee DAVE POWER: Mercantile Hotel - The Rocks DAVE SEASIDE: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly DISMANTLE: World Bar - Kings Cross FBI SOCIAL feat., THE LAUGH STAND: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross FBI SOCIAL feat., THE KHANZ: Kings Cross Hotel (afternoon) - Kings Cross GANG OF BROTHERS: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont JACKSON MCLAREN: Arcadia Bar - Redfern JOE ECHO: Summer Hill Hotel - Summer Hill JOSH MCIVOR: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill MUSOS CLUB JAM NIGHT: Bald Faced Stag - Leichhardt RAHZEL, DEF WISH CAST, SOUL BENEFITS, RAINE SUPREME: Annandale Hotel - Annandale REBECCA MOORE: Northern Star Hotel - Hamilton RUSSELL NEAL, MONICA & THE EXPLOSION, LORIAS JAMES: Cat & Fiddle Hotel - Balmain

ZOE K, BURNT EARTH, HATS BENNETT, PIECEMIEL: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton

THU 06 ABBY DOBSON: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville ANDREW DENNISTON, NICK DOMENICOS, SPENCER MCCULLUM, PETER PHELPS, LAURA & SUSIE, + GUESTS: Kogarah Hotel - Kogarah BAD EZZY, KATO, DJ MAX GOSFORD: Beach Road Hotel, Valley - Bondi BEN FINN DUO: Ettamogah Hotel - Rouse Hill CHASE THE SUN: Wickham Park Hotel - Newcastle COOKIN UP COMEDY: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton DAVE POWER: Mercantile Hotel - The Rocks DOUG WILLIAMS: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay GABBY DEVER: The Oxford Hotel, Supper Club - Darlinghurst ISRAEL CANNAN, SAMARA: Lizottes, Central Coast Kincumber JAMES PARRINO: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee KATRINA BURGOYNE: Dee Why Hotel - Dee Why MANDI JARRY: Sir Joseph Banks Hotel - Botany MARK HOPPER: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly MARTY from RECKLESS: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown

THE PRETTY THINGS: Dec 5 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 7 Factory Theatre; 8 Goodgod

SOFTWAR: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont SOUND OF SEASONS: Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle STEVE TONGE DUO: O’Malley’s - Darlinghurst TAOS, JOHN CHESHER, GAVIN FITZGERALD: Coach & Horses Hotel - Randwick THE LYRICS, KELLY GRIFFITH: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber THE PERCH CREEK FAMILY JUGBAND: Yours and Owls Wollongong WENDY MATHEWS: The Abbey - Canberra, ACT WINTERS END, VIKTORIA BOLONINA, TJ BOWDEN: The Vanguard - Newtown

MENTAL AS ANYTHING, RICHARD PERSO: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why NICKY KURTA: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord OWEN CAMPBELL: The Workers - Balmain PAUL HAYWARD’S PUNK ROCK KARAOKE: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs - Newtown PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks REBEKAH JENSEN, SIMON “MEMPHIS” MELI, SAM “SOUL MAN” BENNETT, JOHNNY G & THE E-TYPES: The Basement Circular Quay

RUSSELL NEAL, THE BACKYARD BANDICOOTS, + GUESTS: Forest Lodge Hotel - Glebe SAM & JAMIE TRIO: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney SONS OF SUN: THE SAM PHILLIPS STORY: Brass Monkey - Cronulla STEVE TONGE: Observer Hotel - The Rocks SWING BOOTY, REBECCA MOORE: Ryan’s Hotel - Thirroul TAOS, SENANI, MONICA & THE EXPLOSION, + GUESTS: Olympic Hotel - Paddington TERRY BATU: Jannali Inn - Jannali THE CHURCH, REGULAR JOHN: Factory Theatre - Marrickville THE CLEANSKINS, + SPECIAL GUESTS: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe THE DREY ROLLAN BAND, COOP DE VILLE, DJ SINEAD: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont THE MONSTERS OF ROCK: Penrith Hotel - Penrith THE NEW SHIEKS, THE FINER CUTS, PUGSLEY BUZZARD: 505 - Surry Hills THE PERCH CREEK FAMILY JUGBAND: Steyne Hotel - Manly THE SHUFFLE: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney WILDCATZ: Paragon Hotel - Circular Quay

FRI 07 031 ROCK SHOW: Cabbage Tree Hotel - Fairy Meadow ABBASBACK: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton ADAM MASTERS: Beach Road Hotel, Public Bar - Bondia ARBORI: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly ARCHAIC REVIVAL, THE HEAVIES, + GUESTS: The Square - Haymarket BACKLASH: Penrith Gaels - Kingswood BEN FINN TRIO: Narrabeen Sands - Narrabeen BIG WAY OUT: Australian Brewery Hotel - Annangrove BONDI CIGARS: The Beach Club - Collaroy BONGO LIRO: Oatley Hotel - Oatley CONSCIOUS PILOTS, JOHN VELLA: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bayn DAVID AGIUS: Cronulla Leagues - Cronulla DIESEL, LYN SMITH: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why DOUG WILLIAMS, BOUKABOU: Old Manly Boatshed - Manly DRAGON: Brass Monkey - Cronulla EBOLAGOLDFISH, BATFOOT, EASY TIGER, THE DELTA LIONS: Side Bar, Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle ELIZABETH ROSE, SOFTWAR, OLYMPIC AYRES, JUBILANTS, ANTOINE VICE DEBONAIR: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross FINN, BONEZ: Cat & Fiddle Hotel - Balmain FLUX, DANIELLE TODD: Dee Why Hotel - Dee Why

GANG OF BROTHERS UNPLUGGED: 505 - Surry Hills GARY BRADBURY, + GUESTS: Laugh Garage Comedy Club - Sydney GIMME FIVE, SHAMUS, DJ MIKE SILVER: Cohibar - Darling Harbour GRAND THEFT AUDIO: Exchange Hotel - Newcastle GREG POPPLETON’S BAKELITE BROADCASTERS: Seymour Centre, Courtyard - Chippendale HIGHWAY TO HELL-AC/ DC SHOW, KROSSFYRE, SEPTEMBER CHASE: Orana Hotel - Blacksmiths HIT SELECTION: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee HOOK N SLING: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont HUE WILLIAMS: Everglades Country Club - Woy Woy JAMES MORRISON, KONRAD PASZKUDZKI, JEFF CLAYTON: The Basement - Circular Quay JIMMY BEAR: Tall Timbers Hotel - Ourimbah JON STEVENS, OLLIE BROWN: Taren Point Hotel - Taren Point KURT WILLIAMS: Chatswood RSL - Chatswood LAURA JACKSON: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney LIONEL ROBINSON: Nags Head Hotel - Glebe LIQUID SKY, ROBUST, NIGHTMARE: Candy’s Apartment - Potts Point MAD SEASON ‘MATCHBOX 20 SHOW’: Pioneer Tavern - Penrith MANDI JARRY: PJ Gallaghers - Drummoyne MARK TRAVERS: Castle Hill RSL - Castle Hill MATT PRICE DUO: Crows Nest Hotel (early) - Crows Nest MENTAL AS ANYTHING, RICHARD PERSO: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber MILES AWAY, CRUEL HANDS (USA), VIGILANTE, HARBOURER: The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag - Leichhardt NEILL BOURKE: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross ORIGINAL SIN - INXS SHOW: Unity Hall Hotel - Balmain OUTLIER, CONRAD GREENLEAF: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont PEACHY: Campbelltown Catholic Club, Club Lounge - Campbelltown SHESED: Winston Hills Hotel - Winston Hills SLICK 46, EAGER 13, RUST, DARK HORSE, HIVEMIND: Valve Bar & Venue - Tempe SONNY SORIANO: Oasis on Beamish Hotel - Campsie SONS OF MERCURY: Crows Nest Hotel (late) - Crows Nest SOUTHERLY BUSTERS: Engadine Tavern - Engadine SPRING BREAK: Customs House Bar - Circular Quay STEVE EDMONDS BAND: Bull & Bush - Baulkham Hills TED NASH: Figtree Hotel - Wollongong

THE CATHOLICS: Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre - Chippendale THE GOOD STUFF: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown THE HADRON COLLIDERS, BLACK MATCHES, THE RELICS, JULES BACKMAN, DAVE PHILLIPS: Lewisham Hotel - Lewisham THE MATCHBOX TRIBUTE SHOW: O’Donoghues - Emu Plains THE NICKELBACK SHOW: The Ranch Hotel - Marsfield THE PERCH CREEK FAMILY JUGBAND: Coogee Diggers - Coogee THE STIFFYS: Lansdowne Hotel - Chippendale THEY CALL ME BRUCE: North Ryde RSL - North Ryde THUNDERSTRUCK-AC/ DC SHOW, TATTOO FOR YOU - ROSE TATTOO TRIBUTE SHOW: Colyton Hotel - St Marys TIMOTHY NELSON & THE INFIDELS: Red Rattler - Marrickville

DAVID CAMPBELL: Dee Why RSL - Dee Why DIANA ROUVAS: Blue Beat Bar - Double Bay DIESEL, LYN SMITH: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why DISCO DISCO feat., SHERLOCK BONES, STALKER: Candy’s Apartment - Potts Point DJ GREG PERANO: Beach Road Hotel, Public Bar - Bondi DJ MAIA: Beach Road Hotel, Valley - Bondi DOLLSHAY: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill DRAGON, REBECCA HENRY: Lizottes, Central Coast - Kincumber EMERGENCY SYNDROME: Valve Bar & Venue (afternoon) - Tempe FALLON BROTHERS: Narrabeen Sands - Narrabeen FBI SOCIAL feat., BEC AND BEN, + FRIENDS: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross FLAMIN’ BEAUTIES: Royal Hotel - Springwood GHOST ROAD: Orana Hotel - Blacksmiths

REGINA SPEKTOR: Dec 8 Enmore Theatre; 10 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

TONY CINI’S BLUES EXPLOSION, TOM RICHARDSON PROJECT, ASHLEIGH MANNIX, KANE DENNELLY: The Vanguard - Newtown TOURMALINE: Kincumber Hotel - Kincumber WAITING FOR GUINNESS: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville WES CARR: Mars Hill Café - Parramatta WHISKY JAM: Overlander Hotel Cambridge Park YUKI KUMAGAI, JOHN MACKIE: Wellco Café & Wine Bar - Leichhardt ZOLTAN: 3 Swallows Hotel - Bankstown

SAT 08 031 ROCK SHOW: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney ABSOLUTELY 80S feat, BRIAN MANNIX, ALLY FOWLER, SCOTT CARNE: Belmont 16’s, Star Lounge - Belmont ALLON: Bar Petite - Newcastle AUSTRALIAN PINK SHOW: Guildford Leagues Club - Guildford BACK TO THE 80’S: Unity Hall Hotel - Balmain BAND DOWN UNDER: Penrith RSL, Castle Lounge - Penrithl BIG WAY OUT: Orient Hotel - The Rocks CASS EAGER & THE MO’DEBLEYS: Katoomba RSL - Katoomba DAVE WHITE EXPERIENCE: Crows Nest Hotel (late) - Crows Nest

GRANITE REVOLUTION: Oatley Hotel - Oatley GREG AGAR: Kirribilli Hotel - Kirribilli GREG POPPLETON’S BAKELITE BROADCASTERS: Square Waffle - Leumeah HANDS UP!: Kings Cross Hotel (late) - Kings Cross HEATH BURDELL: Sir Joseph Banks Hotel - Botany HIGHWAYS, THE MONSTER GOES RAWRR, BREAKAWAY, BRIGHTNER: King Street Brewhouse - City HOTEL CALIFORNIAEAGLES TRIBUTE: Brass Monkey - Cronulla HUE WILLIAMS: North Ryde RSL, Marble Bar Lounge - North Ryde IAN MOSS, KIRK BURGESS: Newport Arms Hotel - Newport IGNITION: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown JIMI HENDIX TRIBUTE SHOW: Tall Timbers Hotel - Ourimbah JON STEVENS, OLLIE BROWN: Rocksia Hotel - Arncliffe KAFE KOOL: Fairfield RSL, Supper Club - Fairfield KILL APPEAL, KASANDRA, THE POET & THE THIEF, KAATO, + MORE: The Square - Haymarket KINGSWELL, DJ URBY: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont LOOSE BAZOOKA: Belmont 16’s - Belmont MAINLINE: Carousel Inn - Rooty Hill

TOUR GUIDE SUICIDAL TENDENCIES: Dec 14 UNSW Roundhouse JLO: Dec 14, 15 Allphones Arena PAUL KALKBRENNER: Dec 15 The Hi-Fi THE DATSUNS: Dec 16 Annandale Hotel EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: Dec 20 The Metro KENDRICK LAMAR: Dec 20 Enmore Theatre MORRISSEY: Dec 21 Enmore Theatre; 22 Sydney Opera House LOST ANGELS: Dec 22 Metro Theatre THOMAS GOLD: Dec 26 Marquee THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS (DJ SET), KNIFE PARTY, FEDDE LE GRAND: Dec 31 Bondi Beach UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA: Jan 1 Anita’s Theatre; 2 The Standard KERRI ‘KAOZ’ CHANDLER: Jan 1 Space MASTERS AT WORK: Jan 1 Ivy UKF DJS: Jan 1 Space Nightclub HALF MOON RUN: Jan 2 The Vanguard; 3 Yours & Owls; 4 The Brass Monkey; 5 The Standard; 25 The Steyne COSMO JARVIS: Jan 2 Annandale Hotel RODRIGO Y GABRIELA: Jan 2 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall 65DAYSOFSTATIC: Jan 2 The Hi-Fi BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB: Jan 2 Factory Theatre THE CRIBS: Jan 2 Oxford Art Factory BEST COAST: Jan 3 Metro Theatre MARIAH CAREY: Jan 3 Allphones Arena MAXIMO PARK: Jan 3 The Hi-Fi FIRST AID KIT: Jan 3 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall FOLK UKE: Jan 3 J Brass Monkey; 4 The Basement WILLIS EARL BEAL: Jan 3 Goodgod TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: Jan 3 Hordern Pavilion BEACH HOUSE: Jan 3 Enmore Theatre BLOOD RED SHOES: Jan 4 The Hi-Fi MIA: Jan 4 Enmore Theatre SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS: Jan 4 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall SHARON SHANNON: Jan 5 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 6 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 8 Clarendon Guesthouse; 9 The Basement BEN SOLLEE: Jan 5 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 6 Clarendon Guesthouse; 9 Notes SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER: Jan 5 Metro Theatre SHARON VAN ETTEN: Jan 6, 8, 9 The Famous Spiegeltent THE HIVES: Jan 7 The Metro HOT CHIP: Jan 8 Enmore Theatre NAVICULA: Jan 10 Manning Bar GARY JULES: Jan 11 Factory Theatre DJANGO DJANGO: Jan 11 Metro Theatre NIGHTWISH: Jan 11 Enmore Theatre LOS CORONAS: Jan 11 & 12 The Famous Spiegeltent MARDUK: Jan 12 The Hi-Fi VENGABOYS: Jan 12 Coogee Bay Hotel; 17 Hornsby RSL PETER MURPHY: Jan 12 Factory Theatre ROKIA TRAORE: Jan 13 The Famous Spiegeltent; 18 Sydney Town Hall; 20 City Recital Hall SING THE TRUTH feat. ANGELIQUE KIDJO, DIANNE REEVES, LIZZ WRIGHT: Jan 14 & 15 State Theatre ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE JAZZ: Jan 15 City Recital; 16 The Concourse Chatswood ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Jan 16 Enmore Theatre THE KILLERS: Jan 16 The Metro CHILDISH GAMBINO: Jan 16 The Standard SANDI THOM: Jan 16 Brass Monkey; 17 Notes DAVID BYRNE & ST VINCENT: Jan 17 & 18 State Theatre CRYSTAL CASTLES: Jan 17 The Hi-Fi ALABAMA SHAKES: Jan 17 The Metro JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD: Jan 17 The Standard OFF!: Jan 17 Annandale Hotel AGAINST ME!: Jan 17 Manning Bar YANNI: Jan 17 Sydney Entertainment Centre NITE JEWEL: Jan 31 Goodgod YEASAYER: Jan 31 Metro Theatre MS MR: Feb 4 Oxford Art Factory GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: Feb 14 Enmore Theatre FATHER JOHN MISTY: Feb 19 Metro Theatre EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: Feb 22 Enmore Theatre

BLOOD RED SHOES: Jan 4 The Hi-Fi

CAT POWER: Mar 1 Newcastle Panthers; 2 Enmore Theatre TORO Y MOI: Mar 7 The Standard JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: Mar 9 The Hi-Fi NEIL FINN & PAUL KELLY: Mar 10, 11, 12, 17 & 18 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall DINOSAUR JR: Mar 16 The Hi-Fi SETH LAKEMAN: Mar 20 Notes; 21 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 22 Lizotte’s Kincumber; 23 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 24 Brass Monkey WANDA JACKSON: Mar 23 Factory Theatre; 25 Lizotte’s Newcastle ROBERT CRAY, TAJ MAHAL, SHUGGIE OTIS: Mar 23 Enmore Theatre JOAN ARMATRADING: Mar 24 Enmore Theatre; 25 Penrith Panthers RODRIGUEZ: Mar 25 Enmore Theatre SANTANA, STEVE MILLER BAND: Mar 27 Sydney Entertainment Centre THE LUMINEERS: Mar 27 Metro Theatre JIMMY CLIFF: Mar 28 Metro Theatre TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND: Mar 31 Enmore Theatre TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE: Apr 1 Lizotte’s Newcastle SHAWN COLVIN: Mar 31 The Basement JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Mar 31 Lizotte’s Newcastle; Apr 1 Lizotte’s Central Coast; 3 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 4 The Basement BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: Apr 1 Enmore Theatre BONNIE RAITT & MAVIS STAPLES: Apr 3 Enmore Theatre ROGER HODGSON: Apr 3 & 4 State Theatre BEN CAPLAN: Apr 3 Notes JON ANDERSON: Apr 3 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 6 Factory Theatre BETTYE LAVETTE: Apr 5 Factory Theatre STAN RIDGWAY: May 16 The Basement; 17 Factory Theatre

FESTIVALS HOMEBAKE: Dec 8 The Domain FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Dec 14 & 15 Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park REUNION FESTIVAL: Dec 22 Entrance Leagues Club SCORCHER FEST: Dec 22 Valve Bar SUNBURNT CHRISTMAS: Dec 25 Bondi Beach PEATS RIDGE: Dec 29 – Jan 1 Glenworth Valley FIELD DAY: Jan 1 The Domain SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Jan 5 – 27 various venues around Sydney BLUES & GROOVES: Jan 6 Beachcomber Hotel SPUNK TONES: Jan 12 Bangalow A&I Hall JAZZGROOVE SUMMER FESTIVAL: Jan 17 – 20 various venues in Surry Hills and Redfern BIG DAY OUT: Jan 18 Sydney Showgrounds RIVERBOATS FESTIVAL: Feb 15 – 17 Echuca Moama SOUNDWAVE: Feb 24 Sydney Olympic Park WOMADELAIDE: Mar 8 – 11 Adelaide Botanic Park FUTURE MUSIC: Mar 9 Randwick Racecourse BLUE MOUNTAINS MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mar 15 – 17 Katoomba CMC ROCKS THE HUNTER: Mar 15 – 17 Hope Estate HITS & PITS: Mar 23 UNSW Roundhouse; 27 ANU Bar BLUESFEST: Mar 28 – Apr 1 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm DENI BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL: Mar 30, 31 Deniliquin THE GUM BALL: Apr 25 – 28 Dashville Hunter Valley GROOVIN’ THE MOO: Apr 27 Maitland Showground; 29 University of Canberra

To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 63

MATT PRICE, JESS DUNBAR: Town Hall Hotel - Balmain MATT TOMS: Bexley RSL - Bexley MENTAL AS ANYTHING, RICHARD PERSO: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton MIND ELECTRIC: Marquee, The Star - Pyrmont MIRIAM LIEBERMAN: 505 - Surry Hills MOONLIGHT DRIVE DUO: Cessnock Supporters Club - Cessnock MUCHO MAMBO: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville MYSTERY GUEST: The Belvedere Hotel - Sydney ONE WORLD: Crown Hotel - Sydney ORIGINAL SIN INXS SHOW: Oatley RSL - Oatley PEL MEL, SWAMI BINTON, THE LIMP: Terrace Bar - Newcastle PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks POTBELLEEZ: Cremorne Hotel - Cremorne RAY BEADLE, + GUESTS: The Basement - Circular Quay REBECCA JOHNSON BAND: Warners at the Bay - Warners Bay REPLIKA: Brewhouse - Marayong

RICKY BLOOMFIELD, THE MOUNTAINS, ANDY GOLLEDGE: Lansdowne Hotel - Chippendale ROB HENRY: Observer Hotel - The Rocks RUSSELL BRAND: Sydney Entertainment Centre - Sydney SAMPOLOGY, DEVOLA, SILVER AGE: Beach Road Hotel, Rex Room - Bondi SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM: Pacha, Ivy - Sydney SPACE TICKET, FEAR THE SETTING SUN, BATTLEPOPE, YANOMAMO: Town Hall Hotel - Newtown STAR WARS BURLESQUE: The Vanguard - Newtown STEVE CROCKER: Rose Bay Hotel - Rose Bay TERRY BATU: Mortdale Hotel - Mortdale THE BEATELS: Ettamogah Hotel - Rouse Hill THE DEEP: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee THE DONOVANS: North Ryde RSL - North Ryde THE HITMIX: Macarthur Tavern - Campbelltown THE MOUNTAINS, THE CADRES, DJ DEVOLA, DJ SHANTAN: The Standard - Darlinghurst THE ZILLERS: Belmore Hotel - Newcastle V-DUBS: The Stag & Hunter Hotel - Mayfield

GIG OF THE WEEK

Blondie

HOMEBAKE The annual celebration of Australasian talent that is Homebake takes place again this Saturday 8 December at The Domain. This year there’s a twist though to the “Global Edition” as an honorary visa has been granted to Blondie (pictured), who will headline the festival. They’re backed up by a fine line-up of locals including Tim Minchin, Hilltop Hoods, Kimbra, Angus Stone, Birds Of Tokyo, Julia Stone, The Saints and many, many more, including a great array of comedians.

WARDS XPRESS: Taverners Hill Hotel - Leichhardt WES CARR: Front Gallery & Café - Lyneham, ACT YELLOW SOX, TOBY NEAL: Cohibar Darling Harbour YUKI KUMAGAI, JOHN MACKIE: Wellco Café & Wine Bar - Leichhardt

SUN 09 AIMEE FRANCIS: Salisbury Hotel - Stanmore

ANTOINE: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross CAMBO: Observer Hotel - The Rocks DAVID AGIUS DUO: Ettamogah Hotel (afternoon) - Rouse Hill DEVOLA, HANSOM: Beach Road Hotel, Public Bar - Bondi DIESEL, LYN SMITH: Lizottes, Sydney - Dee Why DRAGON: Lizottes, Newcastle - New Lambton DUAN KAKA: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord

TUE

HANDASYD WILLIAMS

SUN

HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS

4 DEC

9 DEC

+ MARK LUCAS - FREE

+ BARELY LEGAL

64 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags

DYNAMITE: Bar Petite - Newcastle ENDLESS HEIGHTS, CIVIL WAR: Yours and Owls - Wollongong FINN: Bald Rock Hotel - Rozelle GEMMA: Observer Hotel (afternoon) - The Rocks HAMMERHEAD: Bohemian Grove - Surry Hills HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS, BARELY LEGAL: Botany View Hotel - Newtown

HUE WILLIAMS: Overlander Hotel Cambridge Park JAMES CHATBURN: Royal Federal Hotel - Branxton JENNY MORRIS, CASEY DONOVAN, JOE MOORE: Speers Point Park - Newcastle JESS DUNBAR: Mona Vale Hotel - Mona Vale JOE ECHO: Horse & Jockey Hotel - Homebush JOHN VELLA: Bayview Tavern - Gladesville

KICKSTAR: Oatley Hotel (afternoon) - Oatley KLASSIC BLAK: Belmont 16’s - Belmont LETS GROOVE TONIGHT: Beverly Hills Hotel - Beverly Hills MANDI JARRY: Kirribilli Hotel - Kirribilli MIC CONWAY, ROBBIE LONG, GLENY RAE VIRUS & HER PLAYBOYS: Camelot Lounge - Marrickville NADINE LANDRY, SAMMY LIND, THE BUTCHER BOYS: Cat & Fiddle Hotel - Balmain NICKY KURTA: Mill Hill Hotel - Bondi Junction OLIVER THORPE: Rock Lily, The Star (afternoon) - Pyrmont PETE HIBBERT: Town Hall Hotel - Waratah PETER HEAD TRIO: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks RICHIE RYAN, OMAR VARTS: Beach Road Hotel, Valley - Bondi ROB HENRY: Observer Hotel (early) - The Rocks RUSSELL NELSON: Oscars Hotel - Pyrmont SHINDIG: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill SPENCERAY: Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar - Coogee STAR WARS BURLESQUE: The Vanguard - Newtown STEVE EDMONDS BAND: Premier Hotel - Broadmeadow

SUITE AZ, DJ KITSCH78: Rock Lily, The Star - Pyrmont TERRY BATU: Mirage Hotel - Minto THE PERCH CREEK FAMILY JUGBAND: The Newsagency - Marrickville THE ROCK N SOUL REVIEW feat, CHRIS E THOMAS, WARDS XPRESS: Brass Monkey - Cronulla THE SHOUTIES: Sandringham Hotel, downstairs (arvo) - Newtown THE SLOWDOWNS: Arcadia Bar - Redfern THE SWINGING BLADES, SATELLITE V: Marrickville Bowling Club - Marrickville WATUSSI, KING TIDE: Annandale Hotel (afternoon) - Annandale

MON 10 CARL FIDLER: Observer Hotel - The Rocks DARREN BENNETT, SAMANTHA JOHNSON, BLACK DIAMOND: Wentworth Hotel - Homebush STAR WARS BURLESQUE: The Vanguard - Newtown WILLOW NIELSON: 505 - Surry Hills

BTL - BEHIND THE LINES

YOUR AD IN THIS SPACE CALL JAMES AT DRUM MEDIA ON 9331 7077

REMOVALIST & DELIVERY MAN matt the mover

Too hungover to move your gear? Ã¤ 7DLORU PDGH GHOLYHULHV WR VXLW \RXU QHHGV Ã¤ 2QH RU WZR PDQ UHPRYDOV DYDLODEOH Ã¤ 6HUYLFLQJ WKH ,QQHU :HVW (DVWHUQ 6XEXUEV DQG 6\GQH\ &LW\

0412 823 595 www.mattthemover.com.au

YOUR AD IN THIS SPACE CALL JAMES AT DRUM MEDIA ON 9331 7077

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

ENGINE ROOM AND PULSE 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

iFlogID: 20507 Experienced Manager required for established Brisbane based artist. Must have industry contacts, previous and current experience and be ruthless. Contact Justin info@earthgoat.com

iFlogID: 19087 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

iFlogID: 19270 Get your Band/ Business online with affordable website design. From $299 Services include Seo, Social network marketing Includes free 1000 Facebook likes, 22k twitter followers. Contact info@earthgoat.com

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PA HIRE PA hire for DJ’s / small bands. Top quality equipment Hire includes, delivery, set up & operator. Prices start from $150 per night Call Stan for further information 0414 364 257

iFlogID: 20445 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 Youtube views 1k - 100k Twitter followers 1k - 100k Prices start from $20

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CD / DVD 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. Enquiries: (02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au

iFlogID: 13287 Radiohead Fully Illustrated Book & Interview CD. Sealed. Brand New. $10 Ph: 0449 713 338

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DRUMS DRUM KIT WANTED, anything considered. Also looking for vintage drum kit ludwig/ Gretsch etc , snare drums or cymbals, ph 0419760940

iFlogID: 18332 High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL... www.youtube.com/user/sydneypollak

iFlogID: 19832 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

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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.

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FILM & STAGE PRODUCTION

FILM, EDITING, WEBSITES

Music Clips, Live Performances, Promos, Showreels. Let us help you to promote your work or shoot your next gig. $50 per hour for filming and editing. For DVD and online delivery. We also do websites and blogs. A Edit Website Design Film or Make-up www.aeditwebsitedesignfilmor make-up.com.au wendynhislop@bigpond.com Phone: 0421 302 045

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Quality showreels compiled and produced for actors at affordable rates by Melbourne based production company. Call Aaron 0451 208 675 http://cardboardemporium.net

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FOR SALE AMPS Peavey XR8600 PA amp, 1200 watt, 8 channels, equaliser & effects. As new, case included. 0417089964 vlucantonio@yahoo.com.au

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BUSINESSES RECORDING STUDIO FOR SALE RECORDING STUDIO FOR SALE One of Sydney’s longest running independent Studios is for sale. Hit the ground running with a fully operational recording studio. Classic desk and mics, 4 separate recording spaces, high visibility website. We don’t advertise, the work comes in from Website and reputation. Will provide income immediately. Low rent, long lease, parking, easily operated as a co-operative. 20 mins from the CBD. $73K Call 0423 681 978

iFlogID: 19286 P.A - SOUND SYSTEM FOR HIRE 2000W FRONT OF HOUSE, 650W FOLD BACK, $250 WITHOUT ENGINEER, PICK UP, $350 WITH ENGINEER SET UP & DELIVERED, PARTIES/DJ’S/SMALL BANDS CALL STEVE 0400606650 steveshifter@hotmail.com

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LEGAL / ACCOUNTING BUSTED ? Lawyer- All Criminal Law/Traffic Law/ Family Law matters (reasonable fixed fee rates) call Shad Barends 0422776889 24 * 7 shad@barends.com.au First Consultation Free

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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

Cliff Richard, Aled (not Alan) Jones and the Saint Winifred School Choir all wrapped into one for THE Christmas hit of 2012! Get it at www.thespaced.com

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OzSoundSolutions is proud to launch our all new range of LINE 6 PA systems, ranging from 1,400 to a massive 10,000 watts. Features include; Wireless Vocal Mikes, Anti Feedback Technology, Compact Design for a BIG sound in small and large venues, Professional Presentation for that First Class look, In-Ear Monitor for the drummer (no wedge required), Up to 24 LED Par 64 Lights on Trees and Trestles. ***SPECIAL OFFER***: ALL NEW BOOKINGS WILL RECEIVE YOUR ENTIRE PERFORMANCE (UP TO 3 HRS) RECORDED FREE OF CHARGE - 16 CHANNELS PLUS STEREO FRONT OF HOUSE IN 24 BIT WAVE FILE - RECORDED PRE-EFFECTS!! REMIX IT IN A RECORDING STUDIO AND CREATE YOUR OWN LIVE ALBUM. CONTACT FOR FULL DETAILS

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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.

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MERRY F’ING XMAS

P A HIRE + FREE LIVE RECORDING

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Matts Vintage Guitars - Fender Gibson Martin Rickenbacker Guild Gretsch Vintage and USA Buy-Sell-Trade Ph.0413-139-108 www.mattsvintageguitars.com

OTHER

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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

NEED CASH FOR XMAS?

ESP/LTD F250 Electric Guitar FOR SALE, $400. PICK UP ONLY, Inner West. In near perfect condition, barely played. Regrettable sale. For more info or pictures email joel on joeldrahc@gmail.com

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

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: 18951 Christmas is almost here so now is a great time to get your 2012 tax return lodged in order to get your refund in time for the festive season. Detax are Entertainment & Arts industry tax specialists. Discounted rates available for multiple years. Fully Qualified Accountant & Registered Tax Agent. www.detax.com.au

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

iFlogID: 20247

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.

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

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PHOTOGRAPHY 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/ 0414 243 811

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iFlogID: 20497 TOOL Concert Poster - Big Day Out, Auckland MT Smart Stadium 21Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition of 100. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $70 Ph0449713338.

iFlogID: 20495 TOOL Concert Poster - Big Day Out, Gold Coast Parlands 23Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph0449713338.

iFlogID: 20493 TOOL Concert Poster - Brisbane Entertainment Centre 24Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd # Edition of 50. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph: 0449 713 338.

CD and Vinyl Mastering Services. The best of analogue and digital gear. Manley, Avalon, Apogee, Lexicon, Protools HD. Tube limiting for extra warmth. Affordable rates. Reaktor Studios 0412792912

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OTHER ++ play more chinese music - love, tenzenmen ++ www.tenzenmen.com

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96 ROSEVALE PLACE Do you have a question about the music industry? Email me boss@96rosevaleplace.com - I just might be able to help.

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TOOL Concert Poster - Melbourne Myer Music Bowl 02Feb2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition # of 100. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph0449713338.

Award-winning Experienced, Qualified Music Producer: 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

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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

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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 www.bizwebsites.com.au

VINYL

iFlogID: 15452

RADIOHEAD Supercollider / The Butcher 12” Vinyl. Available Record Store Day only. Rare/Out of Print. Brand New/Unplayed! $40 Ph.0449 713 338

High Definition YouTube video demonstrations of cymbals. ZILDJIAN, SABIAN, PAISTE, UFIP, MEINL, WUHAN, STAGG, PEARL... www.youtube.com/user/sydneypollak

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Thom Yorke, Burial, Four Tet 12” Vinyl. A side: Ego, AA side: Mirror. Rare/Out of Print. $60 Ph: 0449 713 338

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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

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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 Transfer your old master AUDIO DAT or MINI DV tapes to media files. Full quality, no compression. Call Aaron 0451 208 675 http://cardboardemporium.net

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LIVE VENUE AVAILABLE Town & Country Hotel St Peters is one of Sydney’s smaller and interment venues. We offer the opportunity for all types of bands DJs and music to play live. We supply the Venue, PA, Mics, lights, mixing desk, advertising & Sound Engineer free. Available 7 days a week with a percentage of bar sales going to the bands. Door charge is available. For further information or booking enquiries call Brandon or Dionne Ph 02 9519 1965

POSTERS GOLD COAST BYRON BAY NORTHERN NSW Poster distribution for touring artists & bands. Fast, efficient & reliable service at a competitive price www.thatposterguy.com.au

Premium CD packaging & CD replication, Australia wide. 70% recycled card at no extra cost.

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RECORDING STUDIOS >>3m²<< DEMO RECORDING STUDIO Sound engineer/producer included. Disappointed with your home recordings. Then use our 1hr weakly Recording workshop Ideal for Vocalists Guitarist Rap-Artists or Instrumentalists. $40PH Composer/Guitarist and session-musicians available rehearsals $15PH with PA CALL Brian 0405-044-513

iFlogID: 20433 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.

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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!

Junior engineer looking for work. Based at western sydney with a protools HD, Marshall/Mesa amps available for hire. Niflheimmusic@gmail. com for info/prices. Reamping, midi or live drums, mix only/full production.

iFlogID: 15737

PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING 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: 18062 LIVE RECORDING. Available to gigs in Sydney/ Metro area. Multitrack audio up to 24trk, Isolated signal splitters, Dedicated HD plus DAW backup, Focusrite preamps. Raw tracks for mixdown, $250 www.livelinegroup.com 0411342989

PHONE JOHN: 0431953178 Professional and established inner city studio for Lease. Established and fully constructed with floating floors, sound proofed, acoustically treated. Extensive outboard/ analogue gear, live room + control room + loft area. $475 / week, includes all expenses (electricity, internet, water, etc), minimum 6 months lease. Contact Zak 0414991236

iFlogID: 20390

iFlogID: 20055 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

iFlogID: 20372

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

RECORDING AND LIVE ENGINEER

Experienced Engineer / Producer with great studio setup. Many previous credits. Live mixing and recording also available Very experienced in all audio work. I can make you sound great. If required I can supply musicians and instruments. Call 0412621330

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

In North Rocks, Marsfield, St Leonards. Fivestring banjo in the three-finger/Scruggs style, exploring all facets including advanced techniques a la Béla Fleck. Dave Carr 0407 376 939. www.myspace.com/dcarrmusic

iFlogID: 20431 Recording, Mixing and Mastering services Inner West, Sydney Digital Editing, Analogue Tape Recording, Full range of microphones and equipment. Contact Peter Holz: 0437 712 927 www.phmelectronic.com

iFlogID: 20286 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

iFlogID: 17747

REHEARSAL ROOMS

GUITAR LESSONS! In North Rocks, Marsfield, St Leonards. All styles and ability levels. Flatpicking, fingerstyle, extended techniques, acoustic and electric. Contact Dave Carr 0407 376 939. See www.myspace.com/dcarrmusic for more info.

iFlogID: 20050

GUITAR LESSONS

BENNETTS GUITAR TUITION

With experienced and fully qualified tutor. Who has 20 years of studio and live performance. Most styles including Rock, Pop and Jazz. Learn to play your favourite songs, practical theory, improvisation, proper technique, etc. etc. Beginners to advanced are welcome. In the convenience of your own home. Good results guaranteed. Phone Oles on 0407413143 or email olesguitarlessons@yahoo.com

GUITAR TUITION BY MAL EASTICK

iFlogID: 20301

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: 20439

CREATIVE GUITAR TUITION

One on one tuition, customised to the standard, style & goals of the individual. Rock & blues my specialties. Categories avail: hands-on playing, style & technique, theory, improvising, ear training, equipment, tone, songwriting, band arrangements, career guidance. Family member of younger students welcome to sit in. All levels avail through personal experience, from beginner, to playing just for fun, to paid gigs, through to professional performer & recording artist. Enquiries: M: 0407 461 093 E: mal@bluefishrecords.com

iFlogID: 20447 GUITAR TUITION IN PADDINGTON $99 Special Promo 5 week course Beginners Welcome Children & Adults *Friendly mentoring approach *Great Results Guaranteed Enquire Now Paddington Ph: 0416960673 E: nikolaidis@live.ie

iFlogID: 19765

Studio and Equipment repairs. All work done by qualified technicians. Computer music workstations. Studio installations and repairs. Console repairs and customization. Callouts available. Steve 0412792912

iFlogID: 20409

STUDIO HIRE 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: 15154 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. Ph: 02 98905578

iFlogID: 16948 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

iFlogID: 19185

SINGING LESSONS NRTHRN BEACHES At MELODIQUE you can: - Learn correct vocal technique - Learn songs - Build your confidence - Develop your musical style - Increase your vocal range - Learn performance technique * p. 0412 119 053 * e. melodique.technique@gmail.com * f. http://www.facebook.com/melodiquetechnique

iFlogID: 20425

SINGING LESSONS THAT >>ROCK<<

Your voice has the ability to sing at the Audioslave/Muse/Aretha/ Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs level because of Design. Sing with effortless power increase your range to Robert-Plant Chris-Cornelle Axl level. Microphone recording techniques songwriting Newtown 0405-044-513

iFlogID: 20536

SLIDE GUITAR TUITION

iFlogID: 20435

REPAIRS

iFlogID: 19038 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. Ph: 02 98905578

iFlogID: 19683 LEARN GUITAR $99 Special Promo 5 week course Beginners Welcome Children & Adults *Friendly mentoring approach *Great Results Guaranteed Enquire Now Paddington Ph: 0416960673 E: nikolaidis@live.ie

CALL Brian 0405-044-513

iFlogID: 17546

iFlogID: 20226 Music Lessons at Beat Industry Tuggerah. Guitar, Drums, Vocals, Keyboard, Bass. Certificate courses and AMEB available. Free introductory lesson. www.beatindustry.com Ph: (02)4353 4749

LEARN HOW TO SING

>>3m² REHEARSAL STUDIO<< Ideal for vocal/groups-guitarist-keyboards-horn Duos-Trios. Room too small for full drum kit. 2hr blocks Minimum. $15PH with PA. Guitar keyboard amps available. NEWTOWN

SWEETLEAF REHEARSAL STUDIO MTDRUITT open 7 days, 3 rooms, aircon, food & beverages, Flat lug, Parking, PA & Lighting Hire Call - 98328890

The best kept secret among musicians is that they move for a living (and for fun). Learn to move well to take the pressure off your body and improve performance. Helps reduce pain, increase flexibility and free the musician within! Monday evening class, Tuesday voice class, Private lessons at St Leonards now. SydneyAlexanderTechnique.com 0408 257 174

iFlogID: 15158

iFlogID: 20427

Experienced and professional teacher based in Croydon, Sydney. -Tuition of Electric, Acoustic, Bass and Theory -Individual or Group Lessons -All ages and skill levels very welcome -Step by step method covering most styles -Accurate and clear scores and transcriptions provided aimed to suit the students musical goals *One Free Introductory Lesson for Anyone Interested!!* Please contact Michael @ 0420 371 624 mbennetts_@hotmail.com

MOVE, SING, PLAY BETTER

PICKS AND STICKS STUDIO. Private Guitar lessons from an experienced teacher. All levels, All ages, All styles. Improvising, Theory, Song Writing, Technique Seven Hills, Sydney. Call Dave 0410 963 972 or email davemormul@hotmail.com

iFlogID: 20374

iFlogID: 19807 You’ll never regret recording your songs... but we garuntee you’ll ALWAYS regret not doing it! ***Every song Produced, Mixed & Mastered to Radio Release Quality*** studio@musicentourage.com www.musicentourage.com

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.

BANJO TUITION

iFlogID: 17084

iFlogID: 15160

iFlogID: 16690

Up-Picking (Pete Seeger Style) and 3 Finger Picking (Scruggs Style). tel. John 0431953178

RECORDING STUDIO $30ph

Recording Studio, Thirlmere, $25hr available for singles and album. Relaxing environment. I have many years of experience with quality gear. Ph: 0425 246 253, Alex Email: alexander12345@bigpond.com

iFlogID: 19984 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

iFlogID: 20052

iFlogID: 20540

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.

DRUM TUITION IN STANMORE 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. www.lee-carey.com

iFlogID: 19830

BANJO LESSONS

iFlogID: 17120

PRINTING

AAA EXPERT TUITION

All levels and most styles including: Fingerstyle guitar, open tunings, slide guitar, flat picking, improvisation, rock, country, blues guitar (acoustic and electric), folk, celtic styles, music theory, arranging, ear training, singing, bluegrass and folk style banjo and mandolin. www.acousticfingerpicking.com

iFlogID: 18953

iFlogID: 15162 Prince 21 Nights Oversized Harcover Book w/CD. 13.8 x 9.9 x 1.2 inches 2.4 kg Sealed. Brand New. $25 Ph0449713338

PRO AUDIO STUDIO FOR LEASE

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 www.creativeguitar.com.au

iFlogID: 20039

DRUM LESSONS School Holiday Special!!!! PROFESSIONAL DRUM TEACHER WITH DRUMMING AND EDUCATION DEGREE. All styles and levels welcome Tips to make it in the industry provided. School Holiday Bargain Prices 10 percent off 5 lesson block 15 percent off 10 lesson block

Are you interested in learning how to sing? Becoming the next x factor winner, or just singing for the pure love of it? Well its now your time to shine. How do I do this you may ask? Just pick up the phone and book your lesson with me... I am Hayley Milano, I have been performing professionally and teaching for over 10 years. I have toured Australia and have a lot of contacts in the industry from people to gigs to inside the studio. I enjoy nothing more then sharing my love and passion for singing with others. I’m looking for dedicate hard working students who are committed to reaching there goals and want to grow in the music industry. I have students ranging from 8 years old to 65 years. Its is very important for me to have a connection with my student so I can unlock the performer within..

Drum Studio in Roselands & Mobile Service

iFlogID: 19814

iFlogID: 19850

iFlogID: 20004

iFlogID: 20394

Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au

iFlogID: 20512

All styles both acoustic and electric from Blind Willie Johnson and Son House to Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. tel. John 0431953178

iFlogID: 20378

TEACHER TO THE STARS!

DJ Dj available Dubstep to Drum&bass willing & able to adapt to your event. Low hourly rates. Everything negotiable. Easygoing, flexible entertainment. Call for a quote today. KN!VZ Entertainment Group Ph:0415680575

iFlogID: 16661 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. For availability call on 0408461868. For a free e-copy of my book ‘On Becoming a Singer..A Guide To How’ email me on sostrow@ bigpond.net.au. Lessons include the entire scope of singing... voice production, musicianship, interpretation, performance skills etc. I look forward to hearing from you.

iFlogID: 20385

VOCAL TUITION Do you have pitch problems? Are you experiencing damage due to incorrect support, placement and breathing? Phone John for some quick and easy remedial attention tel. 0431953178

iFlogID: 20376

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: 19801

DRUMMER Drummer available for paid work Influences funk jazz drum n bass prog rock. Rex_matthews@hotmail.com 0401237147

iFlogID: 19880 Drummer available for paid work Influences funk jazz drum n bass prog rock. Rex_matthews@hotmail.com 0401237147

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: 17102

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 See me playing drums: www.youtube.com/user/ sydneypollak

Want to play Guitar... but don’t know where to start? Tailored Tuition at your Pace... with Guitarist for Sydney Band ROCKMONSTER Rock & Blues PH: 0422 868 959

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

VocalHub - Sing like no one is listening! Singing lessons for vocal technique and care, audition tips and repertoire in a encouraging and supportive environment. Visit: http://www.vocalhub.com.au

iFlogID: 19650

WWW. KALEIDOSCOPETUITION. COM.AU Learn to play the kaleidoscope way unique colour coded method made simple download your books and stickers and you will learn in no time www.kaleidoscopetuition.com.au have heaps of fun as well.

iFlogID: 20358

VIDEO / PRODUCTION CHECK OUT finncut’s channel on Utube Music Videos produced by Matti finncut@gmail.com

iFlogID: 19971 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, perfect for showreel, online promotion. $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 immimagery@gmail.com facebook.com/immersion.imagery

iFlogID: 18477 You want music video produced? Visit finncut’s channel on Utube Contact Matti finncut@gmail.com

iFlogID: 20211

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE BASS PLAYER 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: 16159

LEFT HANDED BASS PLAYER WANTED BEATLE MAGIC......... AUSTRALIA’S MOST AUTHENTIC SOUNDING BEATLES TRIBUTE SHOW REQUIRE A PERSON THAT CAN TAKE ON THE ROLE OF PAUL McCARTNEY. HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES, ALL GEAR SUPPLIED. BASS , AMP COSTUMES ETC... MUST BE AVAILABLE TO TOUR FROM TIME TO TIME AND OF COURSE HAVE PASS PORT. DEDICATED , PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE ONLY , NOT TIME WASTERS

iFlogID: 20269

MATURE BASS PLAYER with gig experience and professional attitude, looking for cover band playing classic rock-pop, Beatles, CCR, Elvis, Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Santana, Queen, Free, Clapton, ZZ Top. Interested in friendly jams too. Sydney area. Mob: 0414 707 171

iFlogID: 20416

iFlogID: 17324

iFlogID: 17317 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 Sydney-Cronulla. Call tom on 0401722767.

iFlogID: 13358

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

SINGER Metal vocalist. Clean and dirty, cute but crazy, female ready to rock! Looking for band with intention to gig. No collab crap unless you’re awesome industrial wanting to gig. marikogray@destroyermariko.com

iFlogID: 20143 Quirky singer, keyboard player, musician available. Lots of experience. Paid situations only please. Call Stephanie ph: 0403 250 560.

iFlogID: 19884 SINGER SEEKING A GRADE BAND THAT HAS THEIR S**T TOGETHER. PRETTY OPEN IN REGARDS TO GENRE BUT PREFERABLEY ROCK. FOR VOCAL REFERENCE VISIT www.facebook. com/delsantomusic Please contact: steveshifter@hotmail.com

iFlogID: 20356 Singer/harmonica player to join guitarist to play old time jazz, rag & blues. Gigs available as duo and with upright bass & drums. Vince 0417089964 or 95192440.

iFlogID: 20441

MUSICIANS WANTED BANDS BLUES/ROCK LEAD GUITARIST looking for a bass player,drummer,singer is influenced by zz top,guns,acdc preferably between ages 18-25...other guitarists need not apply! looking to jam and write some riffage...i have songs on soundcloud.com under the name of sneaky attack call mitch 0423478128

iFlogID: 20312 Drummer and Bass Player wanted for alternative rock band. Music influenced by Something for Kate, Muse, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead. The previous incarnation played at venues such as The Hopetoun, The Gaelic Club, the UNSW Roundhouse and the Lansdowne and Sandringham. The music is pop-infused, alternative rock with indie flavours and some heavier riffs. Give it a listen at www. myspace.com/markmcintyremusic or www.starnow.com/markmcintyre and let me know if you’re interested. Email: markmcintyre81@gmail.com Phone: 0414 528 954.

DRUMMER WANTED for Originals 5 piece band. Must be reliable, easy going & enjoy playing different styles as our music is varied from funk/indi pop/rock/ska. Email Veneita at Insideoutband@ bigpond.com.

iFlogID: 20075 DRUMMERS/BASSISTS/GUITARISTS needed for garage punk rock ‘n’ roll band. check out soundcloud.com/the-new-orleans for demos. gigging asap after finding the right people. m/f. pref under 30. contact Tanner on 0403508102.

iFlogID: 20334 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

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: 20294 ORIGINAL CENTRAL COAST BAND.... looking for a reliable BASS PLAYER & KEYBOARD PLAYER. Must have good gear and be committed. gigging and touring opportunity’s. Influences : Sevendust, Karnivool, Birds of tokyo, The Temper trap, Soundgarden, Rage against the machine. Ex Singer & guitarist from Illusion Of Despair. contact James : 0434422995

iFlogID: 20344

singer, guitarist and drummer seek bassist for pop/rock band. hav over 20 melodic catchy songs ready to gig now, influences beatles, bowie, arcade fire, ph, Mass 0405450022, rehearse st. peters

iFlogID: 19654

iFlogID: 20515

Isobel Galloway - acoustic soul/pop duo seeking percussionist for cover set, already gigging amy winehouse, tracy chapman. no full kit, cajon/ shaker etc.

Wollongong rock band searching for Bass Player. Currently writing original music to record and perform live and looking for Bass Player (age 20-30) to join the band. Contact: jonathanrkennedy82@gmail.com or 0419978835

Find us on soundcloud to listen, and email anthony320chmiel@hotmail.com

iFlogID: 20088 Keyboardist wanted for Sydney based “Herding Cats” 7 piece Soul, Funk, Ska, Reggae outfit. 3 sets ready - lots of unique groove originals & covers. Website has audio currently just from rehearsals, recordings coming soon. Weekly rehearsals at Marrickville. Late December gig booked. David 0421 167 337 www.herdingcatsband.com

iFlogID: 20534

REALLY BORED GIRLS W/ GUITARS.

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/guitarist looking for versatile drummers and bass players influenced by Beatles, Bowie, Hendrix, James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic. I write my own tunes and looking for bandmates to add beats and bass lines. View to serious gigging if things work out. Contact Javier on 0450 459 869. Music is pop/pop - rock, as in the influences above.

iFlogID: 20530 Want to form hard rock/heavy metal band. I Need bass, drum, vocals. I play guitar. Influences: Yngwie Malmsteen, Sepultura, Thin Lizzy, Metallica, UFO, Lynyrd Skynrd. Email metalmitcha@hotmail.com or call 0401620221

iFlogID: 20380

BASS PLAYER Established Sydney Indie/Pop/Rock band need Bass Player, hopefully with multi instrumental talent. Maybe Keys & Backing Vox. Current JJJ Play, EP for January. Contact/SMS Sash 0409579688 and he will email music

iFlogID: 20029

GREEN DAY SHOW REQUIRE BASSIST We are after a pro bassist with good BV’s for the green day show working around Sydney. please no beginners etc. paid gigs www.greendayshow. com Rick 0419 437 794

iFlogID: 20510 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 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 Looking for bassist for black metal/heavy metal band. Intermediate - Advanced level. Want to play originals and covers. Influences - Immortal, Darkthrone, Bathory, Sepultura, Yngwie, Ozzy. or

iFlogID: 19674

DRUMMER BASS PLAYER WANTED FOR SIGNED ARTISTS: if you’re a pro at Rock/Pop, gig & tour ready & have your own quality gear, send a youtube link to you playing live to auditions@musicentourage.com CAN YOU HIT STUFF GOOD?! Indie rock duo from Campbelltown looking for a dedicated drummer. Between 18 - 25, own gear and transport is required. Contact Anton: 0426822750

iFlogID: 20525

email metalmitcha@hotmail.com 0401620221

DJ 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

call

iFlogID: 20471

METAL BASSIST WANTED Sydney metal band with complete lineup, gig ready with full length album about to be released requires metal bassist. Must have good gear, dedication, transport, employment, and be image conscious. Our influences are Lacuna Coil, Evanescence, Lamb Of God, Nightwish & Slipknot. Pick player preferred. Contact Jason: jason.metal. knight@hotmail.com

iFlogID: 20399

Australia’s Premier Guns and Roses Tribute Show are seeking a new Slash and Duff(Bass) 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.

CALLING ALL GHOULS

iFlogID: 19759

Website for details www.australiangnrshow.com Ben 0438625750 Roger 0404044808

iFlogID: 19904 Drummer looking for collaborative muso’s with the aim of writing commercial tunes and performing live large. Can program and record. All influences. Dance, funk, rock, blues, Metal, reggae, ..

iFlogID: 20348

iFlogID: 20240

iFlogID: 20235 Looking for 2nd guitarist for black metal/heavy metal band.

email metalmitcha@hotmail.com 0401620221

Email: joelliedormant@gmail.com for more info.

vlucantonio @yahoo.com.au

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: 19401

KEYBOARD 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: 19246 hi Piano/keyboard player wanted. We rehearse in Marrickville. Our music is alternative with jazz, blues and rock elements. Nick Cave, Kasabian, tv on the radio, Dresden dolls. Tom 0411874673

iFlogID: 20517

iFlogID: 20547

Experienced drummer with a commitment to practice and regular rehearsals required for Melbourne-based alternative rock band. Influences QOTSA, Foo Fighters, Nirvana… www.myspace.com/mollydredd 0411 372 469

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 Looking for drummer for black metal/heavy metal band. Intermediate - Advanced level. Want to play originals and covers. Influences - Immortal, Darkthrone, Bathory, Sepultura, Yngwie, Ozzy. email metalmitcha@hotmail.com or call 0401620221

iFlogID: 20473 NIGHT FLIGHT - LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE, great timing, feel, pro kit & own transport. Not a looka-like band. Rehearsing at Northshore Music Studios Hornsby. Age 30 - 50 m/f. Contact scottm@y7mail.com

iFlogID: 20549 Sydney Indie/Pop/Rock band seeks Drummer, with ability to play/program electronic beats. Fresh new sound, EP being recorded now. JJJ play current Single. Contact/SMS Sash on 0409579688 to get emailed music.

iFlogID: 20031

GUITARIST 19 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, The Sex Pistols. I live in Sydney-Cronulla Call tom on 0401722767.

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.

Keyboard player wanted to finish line up for sydney alt rock band, influences muse, birds of tokyo, at the drive in, RHCP. Call robert on 0421851708

iFlogID: 20544 Keyboardist Wanted - Guitarist looking to put together a band to perform a night of James Bond Theme songs. Contact Darren - dlacey75@ gmail.com

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KEYBOARD Keyboard player wanted for working band can be male or female must have good gear and a car we rehears in sydney and play in all of the Sydney leading clubs. Please contact the manager for further infomation on 0421901147

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KEYS PLAYER WANTED FOR SIGNED ARTISTS:must be versatile, gig & tour ready & be pro at software like Omnisphere. Send a youtube link to you playing live to auditions@musicentourage.com

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The Cleftomaniacs (pun intended!), the enthusiastic 25-member a cappella choir who brought you the most recent Sydney A Cappella Festival, invite new members (especially those lovely tenor & bass blokes). Eclectic repertoire from Sting to gospel to classical polyphony and we love to gig! Rehearsals school term Thursday evenings in Waterloo. Contact Catherine on 02 93887010 or flittie@iinet.net.au

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Female Singer wanted to join male guitarist (36yrs) for rock covers duo. Playing songs from 70s/80s to current day, paid gigs, based in Hawkesbury area. duovocal@tpg.com.au 0411342989

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FEMALE SINGER Electro\Funk band requires female vocalist for live & studio recordings in Sydney metro area. Awesome opportunity for right person. Serious project only serious people apply .Age 18 - 30 Contact Jay 0400906618 Mick 0415739292

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GRAPHIC DESIGN FULL COLOUR BAND GIG POSTERS @ AMAZING PRICES 100 A4 full colour on Gloss = $40 100 A3 full colour on Plain = $50 100 A3 full colour on Gloss = $80 100 SRA3(32 x 45cm) full colour on Gloss = $80

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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: 19528 Looking for vocalist for black metal/heavy metal band. Intermediate - Advanced level. Want to play originals and covers. Influences - Immortal, Darkthrone, Bathory, Sepultura, Yngwie, Ozzy. email metalmitcha@hotmail.com or call 0401620221

iFlogID: 20475 Seeking an experienced lead & backing reggae singers for Northern Beaches based band. Call Michael 0402 549 423 or email siczex@yahoo. com.au

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SINGER NEEDED Experienced Progressive Heavy Groove Band seeks, Strong Heavy/Melodic Vocalist. READY TO PLAY!!! Call Sven - 0421540972

iFlogID: 19361 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: 19805 Wollongong rock band searching for Singer. Currently writing original music to record and perform live and looking for a singer (age 20-30) to join the band. Contact: jonathanrkennedy82@gmail.com or 0419978835

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

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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

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We are a specialist drum and percussion team dedicated in guiding you through your musical path. We teach all levels Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, our lessons cover all styles and you will gain all the skills to maximize your drumming potential. Certificate courses available for Basic, Intermediate and Advanced players. visit www.aaodap.com.au or call 0424 422 650

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

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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

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To hear current demos and get contact details, goto: www.reverbnation.com/borahorza Feel free to email borahorzaband@ hotmail.com

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Sydney band The Wire are auditioning drummers for an upcomming action packed 2013. Must be: proffessional, handsome, proficient, enthusiastic, Available to gig. https://www.facebook.com/ thewireaus check us out, and email scat. lives@gmail.com

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Rhythm/Lead Guitarist Wanted for an exciting pop-rock Band/Show, Albums on iTunes. Reliable, talented Guitarist who can also play jazz or country. Paid performances. Phone Extraordinary Entertainment* 99691179 (Mosman).

SINGER WANTED for Sydney based progressive rock band. Looking for permanent male lead vocalist to complete 5 piece line-up. Not necessarily Ian Kenny, Mike Patton, Thom Yorke or Jeff Buckley required. Looking for a creative, professional and motivated individual. Originality is encouraged as the music is open to a range of vocal styles and expressions.

iFlogID: 20501

Intermediate - Advanced level. To play originals and covers. Influences - Immortal, Darkthrone, Bathory, Sepultura, Yngwie, Ozzy.

swing/jazz guitarist to join working combo in Sydney playing same, also some blues and rockabilly. charts & cd, some rehearsals required .95192440 m.0417089964

DRUMMER WANTED: THE WIRE

10th Annual Australian Cabaret Showcase. Sydney/Melbourne/Noosa. HUGE prize package inc. fully produced tour, cash + more! Now taking entries until Dec 10. More Info/Entry forms visit: www.yourenterprises.com

iFlogID: 20443 GUITARIST WANTED FOR SIGNED ARTISTS: if you’re a pro at Rock/Pop, gig & tour ready & have your own quality gear, send a youtube link to you playing live to auditions@musicentourage.com

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CALLING ALL SINGERS!

Guitarist required for melodic metal/metalcore band. Must have own gear, transport, drive and be available to rehearse, gig and record. Demo tracks www.myspace.com/liedormant. Email: joelliedormant@gmail.com for more info.

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Ghoulish singer wanted for Horror Punk band. Must be able to scream like Wednesday 13 and provide haunting cleans like Michael Graves and/ or Wednesday 13. Serious applicants only. Email: j_fraser101@hotmail.com

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Guitarist to play old time jazz, rag and blues with singer/harmonica player. Work available as acoustic duo or with upright bass & drums. Vince 0417089964 or 95192440.

SINGER WANTED

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Established Sydney band looking for Guitarist! Capable of singing/multi instrumentals is preferable. EP finalised, Triple J play, FBI rotation, touring 2013. SMS Sasha 0409579688 with details for links to music

Drummer wanted for melodic metal/metalcore band. Must have own gear, transport, drive and be available to rehearse, gig and record. Demo tracks www.myspace.com/liedormant.

DRUMMER WANTED FOR SIGNED ARTISTS: if you can play to a click/are a Rock Pop pro/gig & tour ready/have quality gear/send a youtube link to you playing live to auditions@musicentourage.com

SINGER Attractive Female Backing Vocalist, personalityplus, Wanted for a pop-rock band/show with current Album. Paid performances. A professional, reliable Singer, melodic voice required. Phone Extraordinary Entertainment* 99691179 (Mosman).

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Musical girls, I encourage you to seek out and DESTROY your boredom- join the babe brigade. JAM/CREATE. This is not for profit or fame, apply if your lame. Bec 0414215861

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.

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! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au.

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

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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.

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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

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PRODUCT NEWS BEHRINGER RELEASES AX CONTROL SOFTWARE

BEHRINGER is pleased to announce its EUROCOM AX Series Amplifier Control Software is available for immediate download. A must for AX Series installations, AX Remote Connect V1.1 provides the ideal way for integrators to set up, control and monitor all EUROCOM AX Series DSP models with a local PC via the front panel USB connector or remotely over a network via the rear panel Ethernet port. A convenient front panel LCD display also allows setup and adjustments directly at the amplifier, no PC required. Additionally, AX Remote Connect V1.1 allows full access to the AX Series’ onboard test section, which includes pink noise, white noise and a fixed/sweeping sine wave generator. This allows the installer to verify system operation without the need to connect an external source generator or use the AX series amplifier as a powerful sound-masking processor. www.behringer.com

ERNIE BALL 7 STRING COBALT ELECTIC SETS Earlier this year Ernie Ball thrilled the guitar-playing community with the release of a game-changing guitar string made from a patented cobalt alloy. Ernie Ball has heard the cries of the detuners and shredders who have been lamenting the fact that six-string players got access to Cobalt performance first and they’ve now released three sets of sevenstring Cobalt electrics. Gauges are .10/.56, .10/.62 and .11/.56 and will be in store early November. Ernie Ball Cobalt Strings are a new spin on Ernie Ball’s best-selling set of strings, which have been played by the likes of Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Steve Vai and many more. Engineered to maximize output and clarity, Ernie Ball Cobalt Slinky Guitar Strings are the latest innovation in string technology. Seeking to provide guitarists and bassists with a new voice, Cobalt strings have an extended dynamic range, incredible harmonic response, increased low end, and crisp, clear highs. Cobalt provides a stronger magnetic relationship between pickups and strings than any other alloy previously available. Cobalt Slinkys are also soft and silky to the touch, making string bending a breeze.

THE BEATLES Stereo Vinyl Box Set EMI ttempting to shed new light on The Beatles is practically impossible – everything worth writing about the band was long ago written – but the release of remastered versions of the group’s “core catalogue” on vinyl does demand some attention. Surely the most-discussed band in pop history (a recent article described two competing scientists endeavouring to identify the exact source of A Hard Day’s Night’s opening chord), any official release from The Beatles’ stable is guaranteed to get those cash registers ker-chinging. With a growing acceptance that the CD format is dead, and digitally delivered music is never going to satisfy the true audiophile (will Neil Young’s PureTone digital service, which the singer spruiks at length in his recent autobiography, change all that?), it was only a matter of time before The Beatles’ back catalogue was given a make-over on vinyl. (Fun fact: the band’s 1969 classic, Abbey Road, has been the highest-selling vinyl album in the US the past three years – it shifted 41,000 copies in 2011.)

Completists will already have this one in the collection (it was released two weeks back), but for those with a spare $500 looking to flesh out their Beatles back catalogue beyond the bog-standard best-ofs, this is about as good as it gets. The band’s 12 original UK albums – from 1963’s Please Please Me to 1970’s Let It Be – are included, along with the US-released Magical Mystery Tour (unreleased in the UK during the band’s lifetime) and Past Masters, comprising nonalbum A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities. The box set – limited to 50,000 copies worldwide – also features a 12” by 12” hardcover book written by BBC radio producer and Beatle nut Kevin Howlett. The 252-page gem features a chapter on each album and boasts a number of photos not seen in the 2009 CD remaster series (and if there’s anyone who cares about unseen photos, let’s be honest, it’s a Beatles fan). Each album’s original artwork has been reproduced (though not all packaging has been exactly replicated), including Sgt Pepper’s’ cardboard cut-out sheet, Magical Mystery Tour’s 24-page accompanying booklet and The White Album’s fold-out lyric sheet.

Commonly known as comedian John C Reilly, the sometime musician uses a film promo junket to play some Australian shows as John Reilly and Friends. Greg Phillips reports.

HIWATT TUBE SERIES HEADS AND COMBOS UPGRADES

www.cmcmusic.com.au

When the decision was made in 2004 to remaster The Beatles’ catalogue, it was agreed it should not be remixed. The original analogue tapes were used with two exceptions: producer George Martin had remixed both Help! and Rubber Soul when they were issued on CD in 1987, and those were now considered the definitive versions. The brief for the vinyl remasters, according to Howlett’s book, “was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with the absolute minimum of compromise to the sound.” The first step was to decide on the type of disc required for vinyl manufacture. A Hard Day’s Night, with ten seconds of silence at each end, was used in a blind listening test to choose between a Direct Metal Master steel disc coated with a copper alloy, or the older method of a nickel disc coated in soft lacquer. The lacquer process won, partly due to its perceived warmer sound.

The albums were then cut in chronological release order at Abbey Road on the Neumann VMS80 lathe; the 24-bit remasters, rather than the 16-bit versions required for CD production, were used. The vinyl remasters do not feature any of the limiting that was added to the 2009 CD remasters, and feature the same amount of silence between tracks as the original albums (there are shorter gaps between songs on the remastered CDs). Sound problems such as inner-groove distortion and sibilance – that hissing sound that can come from poorly pronounced words with the letters s or t – were corrected after listening to initial test cuts, while test pressings were carefully monitored for stray noises or clicks. Amazon is peppered with negative reviews of the box set (more from the US than the UK); the decision to use the digital remasters rather than the analogue masters has many up in arms, and there are numerous tales of warped records and bad pressings. Our albums, we are pleased to report, are issue-free. EMI will be paying close attention to fans’ feedback – they’ll hope to have any kinks ironed out by the time The Beatles mono vinyl box set is released next year. Shane O’Donohue

JOHN REILLY IN DROPPED ‘C’

www.cmcmusic.com.au

Hiwatt’s popular Tube series of valve heads and combos has been upgraded to include both channel-switching and reverb-switching from an optional footswitch. These extremely affordable all-valve amps have always had a switchable reverb function, but as of this past November 1, all T20 and T40 heads and combos now include the additional option of footswitchable channel changes. Hiwatt’s Tube series pricing starts at $299 for the T10 head and ranges to $999 for the Fane-equipped T40 combo.

Each album has been pressed on 180-gram vinyl and the sound quality, on all records in our box set, is excellent. (For the record, Love Me Do, PS I Love You, Only A Northern Song, Love Me Do [original single version], She Loves You, I’ll Get You and You Know My Name [Look Up The Number] are presented in mono.)

hether you know American actor John C Reilly from his comedy role in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story or for his performance as Dr Steve Brule in Tim And Eric’s Awesome Show, most will agree he is a very funny and talented guy. Reilly is currently in Australia on a promotional tour for the Disney animated film, Wreck It Ralph, in which he lends his voice. John is also a musician, plays an old school brand of country music and has taken the opportunity to play a couple of shows while here. John ‘hoodwinked’ Disney into letting him bring along two of his band mates, Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau, who also play in LA-based indie folk band Lavender Diamond. “She was like a starburst of a

person full of life and curiosity,” he said of Becky. “Tom Brosseau... when I heard his voice, my jaw hit the floor.” For Reilly, the film Walk Hard was a breakthrough moment as he got to record around 35 original songs over a six-month period. “I was in the studio for a long time. As a result of some of those relationships, it grew into this roots review that we do now.” On stage, John (who drops the C from his name for his music project) relishes the chance to play his beautiful 1944 Gibson acoustic guitar and harmonise with Becky and Tom. ”What we really love to do is stand around a central-area mic like they used to do with the Grand Ole Opry and perform like that. I think it gives an intimacy and it’s great how the voices mix together with the instruments.” Reilly and Friends recently released a couple of country singles on vinyl through Jack White’s Third Man label. “He is really committed to what is really important in music,” John said of White. “He doesn’t get bogged down in all the weird bells and whistles of technology.” Read more on themusic.com.au

WHO: John Reilly and Friends WHERE & WHEN: Monday 3 December, The Factory,

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68 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags

BEHIND THE LINES INDENT FREE Q & A WORKSHOP WITH JINJA SAFARI Indent, an initiative of MusicNSW, is presenting a Q&A workshop, In Conversation With Jinja Safari, at the Youth Arts Warehouse in Gosford from 5pm Friday 7 December. Sydney jungle-pop five-piece Jinja Safari won triple j’s Unearthed competition in 2010 and has shared the stage with both local and international bands such as Miami Horror, Boy and Bear and Art vs Science. To reserve your spot at the free Q&A, email the Indent Communications Manager on scarlett@musicnsw.com with your name. Places are inevitably limited so first in best dressed. Jinja Safari will be performing in the venue that evening, entry $10, and supports are Sons of Alamo, Safro Lionza and Mystic Flare.

CAPTURING MADNESS Madness are back with album number ten, Oi Oi Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, recorded at the appropriately named Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London with not just one but six different producers – Clive Langer, Liam Watson, Owen Morris, Stephen Street and Charlie Andrew – as the band’s second singer, Chas Smash explained to me: “Charlie worked on some of the tracks, Stephen on some of the others, Owen on some of them, Clive, who we’ve worked with for years, on a couple, and Liam runs Toe Rag. So it was quite experimental – we probably spent far too much money – but because we’ve worked with one set of producers [Langer and Alan Winstanley] for all our albums, it was an interesting departure.” On the subject of becoming a Madness producer, Andrew, who also coproduced the latest Eugene McGuinness album, The Invitation To The Voyage (Domino), with Langer, explained to online music magazine DIY that, “I was originally put in the room with Madness to do some programming but then I ended up bringing my whole rig to their rehearsal room and recording all their new songs over quite a few weeks. The original idea was just for demo ideas but they have taken on a life of their own and as the record developed quite a few of these have remained.” Andrew also drums in his own band, called The Laurel Collective, and has produced or recorded albums for Alt-J, Eagulls and Micachu & The Shapes. Toe Rag boasts an analogue eighttrack EMI mixing console, originally from Abbey Road Studios, and a Studer A80 tape machine.

SOUND BYTES Reach Beyond The Sun, the fourth album from US hardcore/prog metal four-piece Shai Hulud, was produced by current New Found Glory guitarist, Chad Gilbert, who was also the singer on Shai Hulud’s debut album, Hearts Once Nourished With Hope And Compassion, and who has added his vocals to the new album. Long resident in the US, former Noiseworks/ Electric Hippies keyboards player turned producer Justin Stanley (Nikka Costa, Beck, Sheryl Crow), who coproduced his 2010 album, simply titled Clapton, with the man himself and Doyle Bramhall II, has again done the honours on the forthcoming Eric Clapton album. btl@drummedia.com.au

GEAR REVIEWS YAMAHA A3M ACOUSTIC/ ELECTRIC GUITAR

GRACE POTTER SIGNATURE GIBSON FLYING V

FENDER BLACKTOP SERIES STRATOCASTER

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Yamaha released its A Series acoustic-electric guitar line in July at Summer NAMM in Nashville, the first time Yamaha has produced a guitar line in conjunction with American designers. With the A Series, Yamaha has given us a slick new neck profile and a cutting edge pickup system, the best of new and old world craftsmanship. The A3M model is a concert-sized guitar with cutaway body, featuring a beautiful vintage sunburst finish. Materials used include a very playable mahogany neck, solid sitka spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, an ebony fingerboard and bridge. The most impressive feature is the new Studio Response Technology preamp/pickup system (SRT System66 pre amp/SRT saddle/piezo pickup) which emulates three microphone models: a Royer R-122, Neumann U67 and Neumann KM56. It also offers two distinct mic positions to colour your tone. Using the SRT pre amp, you’ll introduce a deep bass frequency and the tone can be altered to suit your sonic needs via the Blend and Resonance controls. The nut width is 43mm, string length 650mm and it carries die cast chrome tuners.

Grace Potter and her band The Nocturnals will be in Australia for the first time next Easter playing Bluesfest and some side shows. In a Muso interview in November Potter explained what she wanted from her new Gibson signature model Flying V electric, which was released at Summer NAMM. Often playing in high heels, the main factor was something that was comfortable to play on stage and didn’t weigh her down. Crafted from Grade-A tonewoods and loaded with premium hardware and two of the finest contemporary recreations of legendary PAF humbucking pickups, the Grace Potter Signature Flying V includes a hand-sprayed Nocturnal Brown gloss nitrocellulose top finish and satin natural back, sides and neck, and cream-painted Lexan pickguard with custom silkscreened art deco border. Crafted in solid Grade-A mahogany, its glued-in Grade-A mahogany neck is carved to a “Slim V” profile that measures .8” at the 1st fret and .85” at the 12th, and topped with a luxurious dark-brown chechen fingerboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets. A PLEK-slotted Corian nut ensures a maximum amount of that crucial neck resonance.

With so many players choosing to build Frankenstein versions of classic Fenders, it makes perfect sense that Fender themselves should tinker with tradition. Fender’s new Blacktop Series provides us with souped-up versions of the Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster and Jag featuring dual highgain humbucking pickups (the Jazzmaster features one humbucker and a P90 in the neck). When Strat players want to exchange the guitar’s classic sparkling clean tone for full-throated thickness and high-gain roar, their favorite way is to modify their beloved Strat with humbucking pickups. That’s the concept behind Fender’s new Mexican made Blacktop Stratocaster HH guitar. To that end, the model is a success as it offers deep rich, rock and roll riffs. Streamlined and amped up, it delivers heavy highgain tone from its dual over-wound alnico humbucking pickups. Other features include skirted black amp knobs, synchronised tremolo bridge, alder body, maple neck with 9.5”-radius rosewood or maple fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, gloss polyester finish and chrome hardware. The Blacktop Stratocaster, at 25.5” scale length, is available in Sonic Blue, Black and Candy Apple Red.

TAKAMINE EF-407

AUDIO TECHNICA AD1000 HEADPHONES

EPIPHONE ES-339 PRO

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Epiphone introduces the much-anticipated ES-339 PRO, a new instrument with its roots planted firmly in the classic era that helped define the Epiphone and Gibson Kalamazoo factory as a leader in cutting edge instruments. Today, this new semi-hollow body from Epiphone turns back the clock while simultaneously rocketing the playerfavorite into the future. Introduced in the late ‘50s, the ES series became an instant classic by bringing the feel of an archtop to players who had wholly embraced solid body classics like the Les Paul. The first in the ES series, the ES-335 became an instant success but for many players, its body was slightly too big. The new ES-339 PRO is the perfect remedy, featuring body dimensions that are smaller while still retaining the bell-like tones of all ES series guitars as well as the classic shape. The Epiphone ES-339 PRO features a reduced-size laminated Maple body with a solid centre block. The SlimTaper “D” profile 24.75” Mahogany neck has 22 jumbo frets with a 1-11/16” nut and is hand-set and glued with a Mortise and Tenon neck joint with Titebond Glue.

www.promusicaustralia.com The EF-407 is a concert-style body shape which Takamine refer to as their NY-style guitar. It’s like a blend of a Martin acoustic and a Weissenborn slide guitar and features Hawaiian Koa top, back and sides, and a mahogany neck capped with an Indian rosewood fingerboard. Naturally, the Koa timber features quite a pronounced, figured grain with knots and flames which can be very prevalent. Picking the guitar up, the neck profile impresses, solid without being cumbersome, and the body, although it feels a little on the frail side, actually adds to the guitar’s ‘airiness’. Giving the guitar a strum, there’s a pronounced mid-range bark, almost like the chords are bursting out of the guitar. One small feature some players often overlook is the material the nut is made of. This instrument possesses a bone nut that greatly enhances the open nature of the tone. Dropping the guitar into DADGAD tuning really made the tone of this instrument bloom. The D’Addario EXP16 strings really suit this guitar and have a brilliant tonal quality.

With the ever-increasing improvement in sound technology, you’d expect, with every new release of personal listening gear, that as an end user you really should be blown away. The folks at Audio Technica are always up for the challenge and with their top of the range AD1000 open-back model of air dynamic headphones, they have delivered something special, offering superb sound quality and dynamics with deep balanced bass. The unique self-adjusting bearing armband (a world first, people!) with newlydeveloped 3D “wing support”, allows comfortable and enjoyable listening. The headphones feature a large 53mm aperture driver made with high-purity bobbin-winding OFC-7N voice coil for superior sound reproduction. Designed with light-weight aluminium honeycomb casing for total comfort around your ears, it really is easy to forget that have them on. Audio Technica have delivered a fine product - it’s up to you though to discover whether they are for you or not.

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