Inpress Issue #1140 by TheMusic.com.au

VICTORIA'S HIGHEST CIRCUL ATING STREET PRESS

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CALLING ALL CARS CAL

LINKIN PARK

REGURGITATOR

THE G A NG S T E R S ’ B A LL SKI P P I N G G I R L V I NE G A R JEF F RE E S TA R CHA R L I E PA R R

W E D N E S D A Y 1 5 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 ~ I S S U E 114 0 ~ F R E E

MELBOURNE - MORNINGTON PENINSULA - BALLARAT / BENDIGO - GEELONG / SURF COAST OAST

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Wednesday 15th September

CORALINAS + BARB WATERS

8.30pm, $10 Entry (band room)

Thursday 16th September

GOYIM 5.30pm Free in the Front Bar THE BON SCOTTS + HUSKY +RYANANDTHELION 8.30pm, $6Entry(bandroom) Friday 17th September

STRINE SINGERS 5pm Free in the Front Bar ALIAS AND THE JAMS + THE FRIDAYS + JADE LEONARD 8.30pm, $10 Entry (band room) Sunday 19th September

ROSE TURTLE ERTLER + HEIDI ELVA 4.30pm Free in the Front Bar INFINITE POSSIBLE SHAPES BY ANDREW KEESE 8.30pm, $12 Entry (band room) Tuesday 21st September

CRYSTAL CARAVAN + JEFFERSON FROM VULTURES OF VENUS

8.30pm, $5/3 Entry (Bamd Room)

Coming Up...

Open...MON - THU...from 4pm ‘til late FRI...from 2pm ‘til late SAT - SUN...from 12pm ‘til late

Live Music Bookings wesleyannebookings@gmail.com www.wesleyanne.com.au

22/09: SIMONE GILL + NYSSA BRADSWORTH, 23/09: THE LION AND RYAN, MATT COLLYER AND PAUL O’ROUKE, 24/09: MIKE MCCARTHY (SYD), THE GULBRANSEN BROTHERS, ISAAC DE HEER AND LISA SALVO, 25/09: MEGAN DOHERTY AND BAND + CAT CANTERI

Winter Special Two for one meals on Mondays (excludes steak, fish and specials)

bookings: 9482 1333

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BILLIONS AUSTRALIA and DAPTONE RECORDS present

THE NEW ALBUM “I LEARNED THE HARD WAY” OUT NOW twitter.com/inpressmag

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ISSUE 1140

No.109

WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2010 BRUNSWICK

Thurs 16 September

Stephen Cummings Cummings (from The Sports) springs into spring, playing the first three Thursdays of the month. Rockabilly, honkytonk & Chicago blues. 7.30pm

Sat 18 September

spoonful highly charged rhythm & blues rock band 5pm

Sun 19 September

jvg guitar method

CHARLIE PARR

INPRESS 14 16 16 18 22 24 26 26 28 30 34 34 35 36 36 37 37

It’s over to you with our Mailbag and the week’s best and worst in Backlash/Frontlash The Front Line brings you the hottest industry news In The Studio keeps you turned on to your fave band’s movements Foreword Line brings you all the latest tour announcements Gareth Liddiard crams a lot of words into his songs Blue King Brown found plenty of talent to work with in Jamaica Calling All Cars are sick of talking about AC/DC Regurgitator don’t need no record label Fear Factory are supporting Metallica On The Record reviews new releases by Magic Kids, Murderdolls and Brandon Flowers Charlie Parr has been getting an Aussie outlaw education with help from Ryan Kwanten Linkin Park don’t want to make junk food music Black Mountain’s parents will like their new album more Jeffree Star is quite depraved, actually Tobias Cummings had a tough time making his latest album Useless Children like vinyl The Wonder Years look to The Upsides

FRONT ROW 38 39 40

Emma Stone discusses the new teen comedy Easy A Film Carew takes a look at The Last Airbender Stormie Mills is a Perth street artist making waves overseas

42 43

BACK TO INPRESS 44 44 44 44 47 47 47 57 54 54 54 55 55 62 63 64 69 72

Rich Webb is no longer surfing with the Stiff Kittens The Redcoats are ready for their TV debut Skipping Girl Vinegar have chatted to Ben Harper about songwriting The Velvet Set are swingers Our LIVE section has everything you need to know about the world of Melbourne live music! Do the math with Gig Of The Week LIVE:Reviews bids farewell to Powderfinger Find yourself looking munted in our Social Pics Stu Harvey gives you a ShortFastReport on the world of punk and hardcore Chris Maric steps in with Heavy Shit Kendal Coombs leads the under-18s boardroom in the Department Of Youth Pop culture happenings in The Breakdown Dan Condon blues and roots in Roots Down Jeff Jenkins gets down and local in Howzat! If you haven’t appeared in Fred Negro’s Pub, your mother probably still speaks to you Our Gig Guide fills your diary for the weekend Gear and studio reviews in BTL Find your new band and just about anything else in our classy Classifieds

CREDITS

EDITORIAL

Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast Editor Shane O’Donohue music@inpress.com.au Front Row Editor Daniel Crichton-Rouse frontrow@inpress.com.au National Dance Editor Kris Swales zebra@inpress.com.au Contributing Editor Adam Curley Staff Writers Bryget Chrisfield, Michael Smith

Neilsen, Roger Nelson, Danielle O’Donohue, Matt O’Neill, Jordan Oliver, Adrian Potts, Paul Ransom, Symon JJ Rock, Adam Sharp, Nic Toupee, Rob Townsend, Dominique Wall, Doug Wallen, Rod Yates.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Chrissie Francis, Kate Griffin, Kane Hibberd, Lara Luz, Lou Lou Nutt, Gina Maher, James Morgan, Heidi Takla, Nathan Uren.

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INTERNS

sales@inpress.com.au National Sales & Marketing Director Leigh Treweek Victorian Sales Manager Katie Owen Arts & local advertising Sarah Blaby Bands & local advertising Dean Noble

Andrea Biagini, Dale Brett, Mitchell Brown, Julian Hocking, Stacey Elms-King.

DESIGN & LAYOUT artroom@inpress.com.au Group Art Director Stuart Teague Inpress Cover Design / Art Direction Matt Greenwood Layout Matt Davis, Matt Greenwood, Stuart Teague

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CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors Clem Bastow, Jeff Jenkins Overseas Contributors Tom Hawking (US), James McGalliard (UK), Sasha Perera (UK). Writers Nick Argyriou, The Boomeister, Paul Andrew, Atticus Bastow, Steve Bell, Tim Burke, Dan Condon, Anthony Carew, EJ Cartledge, Peter Chambers, Matthew Cheetham, Chris Chinchilla, Rebecca Cook, Kendal Coombs, Adam Curley, Cyclone, Michael Daniels, Wayne Davidson, Guy Davis, Carolyn Dempsey, Liza Dezfouli, John Eagle, Guido Farnell, Sam Fell, Bob Baker Fish, Johnny Gash, Cameron Grace, Stu Harvey, Andrew Haug, Andy Hazel, Anthony Horan, Rod Hunt, Layne Kim, Cookie Lee, Joey Lightbulb, Michael Magnusson, Baz McAlister, Keith McDougall, Sam McDougall, Tony McMahon, Adam D Mills, Count Monbulge, Luke Monks, Fred Negro, Mark

Cultural Cringe weighs up the new federal Arts Minister DVD Reviews checks out ABC series I Rock A preview of The Gangsters’ Ball

EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting letters to us for publication, you agree that we may edit the letter for legal, space or other reasons. ©

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MAILBAG

letters@inpress.com.au

BACKLASH This man just ate a child

letters@inpress.com.au All letters must have author’s correct phone number, name and address to verify identity – not for publication

NOT SO STREET SMART Dear Inpress, I am writing to express my outrage at Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle’s plan to audition buskers for a limited number of ‘busking licences’. Just when it looked like the state government was waking up to the fact that live music brings in a huge amount of revenue (and good press for Victoria), the City Of Melbourne, according to Doyle, now wants to weed out “dodgy buskers”. “These are our streets. You can’t just set up an amplifier, grab a microphone and warble away at the top of your voice. It does have to be a pleasant experience,” he told the Herald Sun recently. Sorry Councillor Doyle, you seem to be missing the point entirely. There’s a number of reasons why the plan is ridiculous. Music tastes are subjective – one man’s Tom Waits is another’s Guy Sebastian. Who will be sitting in judgement on these buskers? I certainly wouldn’t trust any councillors to be making musical decisions on my behalf. And isn’t the whole point of busking that the artist is starting out, trying to make (a small) amount of cash until other, more profitable avenues open up to them as they continue to practise and hone their craft? I’m sure under Cr Doyle’s plan that bloke who bangs away on upturned buckets would not be granted a licence. And what about the Sonic Manipulator, that weirdo dressed in a tacky spacesuit playing a theremin and producing other weird sounds? It’s hard to see how he (or she?) could sell his act to a panel of judges in less than five minutes (Doyle’s description of the screening process). Hopefully common sense will prevail here, as it seems to have done with the Liquor Licensing situation. Let’s hope we don’t have to organise a troupe of buskers to march on Town Hall.

JASON AKERMANIS Fuck off, tool.

IF AWARDS BEST MUSIC VID NOMS If they’re the best locally-made clips from the past year, we’re donkey voting.

JUNIOR MASTERCHEF Our least favourite kids in the kitchen. And that’s saying something.

FRONTLASH Splatterheads

Name withheld (via email)

SON OF A GUN Dear Inpress, There really needs to be something to stop multiple bands touring under the same name. It hardly seems reasonable for Tracii Guns to walk out on LA Guns and then reform under the LA Guns moniker with a new line-up while the original band continue to play. It misleads the public and is unfair on the band members who were more committed to the cause than him. Not cool, Tracii. Aaron

GAGA’S VMA OUTFIT

Greenvale

If it gets more people checking out hatsofmeat. com, then it can only be a good thing.

Gun fight

THE SPLATTERHEADS The wild Sydney rock’n’rollers’ first Aussie tour in 15 years hits the Tote on Friday. Fuck yeah!

MYKI Brumby says there’s an ongoing “period of grace” in which passengers travelling with an unvalidated ticket won’t get fined. Free travel? Maybe this Myki thing ain’t so bad after all…

GIVEAWAYS Jinja Safari

Email giveaways@inpress.com.au from 5pm Wednesday to life with the help of close friends Joe Citizen (bass), Jacob Borg (drums) and Alister Pattern (percussion), who are also part of Jinja Safari’s high energy live show. We have three double passes to the show to give away. Each winner will also receive a copy of the EP. Grinderman are Nick Cave and Bad Seeds bandmates Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos. They have forged a distinctly different way of working together. Grinderman have cast off musical baggage, shrugged off accepted wisdom, and tested preconceptions about who they are as musicians. Grinderman is no hobby, no dalliance, and clearly no one-off: it is a crucible, an experimental workshop, a disciplined orgy of ideas and action. Grinderman is the one-of-a-kind band. Grinderman 2 is the excellent new album – we have five copes to give away.

After a top set opening this year’s Splendour In The Grass, Jinja Safari launch their self-titled debut EP at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday. Since being Unearthed by Triple J, first single Peter Pan has gone gangbusters, with new single Forest Eyes looking set to follow suit. Their new EP was brought

On the back of releasing their killer EP Come Get Me!, Reptiles are bringing their cow-punk-from-hell sounds to Rats this Saturday. The band described the EP as dealing with being “on the run from the law, psychotically in love, murder, and getting drained in nightclubs by people who can’t handle their ecstasy”. Also on the Rats line-up are Chicks Who Love Guns, Chaos Kids and Fait Accomplice. We’ve got two doubles passes to Rats to give away – each double pass also comes with a t-shirt.

WORD UP TO PRIZE WINNERS: Prizes must be collected from Inpress offices during business hours (9am-5.30pm, Mon-Fri). ID is required when collecting prizes. Prizes must be collected within four weeks of the giveaway being published. Please note, Inpress giveaway policy is that winners are permitted one prize per four-week period only.

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THE

FRONTLINE

IN THE STUDIO

INSTRUMENTS DOWN

WANDA’S ALL WHITE

ACER NAMES NEW GM

WITH BRYGET CHRISFIELD

Jack White will add another impressive production credit to his remarkable CV once Wanda Jackson’s forthcoming album, The Party Ain’t Over, drops. Jackson toured with (and dated) Elvis Presley in the ‘50s when she was still in her teens and released a tribute to The King titled I Remember Elvis in 2006. Often referred to as The First Lady Of Rockabilly, Jackson had a busy 2009 – she was inducted as an early influence into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, had a street in Oklahoma named after her (Wanda Jackson Way) and was also invited into White’s Third Man studio to record a sultry cover of Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good. On teaming up with White, Jackson told The Cincinatti Enquirer, “I was flattered that a younger man could be interested in working with an old dame like me.” The single was released on vinyl and digitally through iTunes in February this year with a version of Shakin’ All Over (originally by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates) also recorded for the B-side. As Jackson’s 73rd birthday approaches, she shows no signs of slowing down. Last week, the legendary singer received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association together with John Mellencamp, Luke Lewis, Brian Ahren and Greg Leisz. White presented Jackson with the award during a ceremony that was held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium before she performed Shakin’ All Over, which also appears on the tracklisting of her upcoming 11-track set. To back Jackson in his Nashville studio, White enlisted the services of many inspired musicians including his wife Karen Elson, Ashley Monroe, My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel, Jackson Smith (Meg White’s husband/ Patti and Fred Smith’s son) and two members of his band The Saboteurs – bassist Jack Lawrence (also of The Dead Weather/The Greenhornes) and drummer Patrick Keele (The Greenhornes). A new LP by The Greenhornes, creatively titled ****, is listed alongside The Party Ain’t Over in the ‘coming soon’ section on thirdmanrecords.com. Jackson’s 32nd studio album is scheduled to drop early next year and the veteran singer is not the first septuagenarian White has sat in the control room for – he also boasts a production credit on country music icon Loretta Lynn’s Grammy-winning 2004 release, Van Lear Rose. “I think people like Loretta Lynn and Wanda, the way they broke down doors for other women, it holds so much more weight,” White opined during an interview with the Associated Press, “it’s so much more powerful and so much more important when you break a door open for people to go through and build on that and make more interesting records years down the road. If it wasn’t for Wanda in the ‘50s breaking those walls down for women, the style she was singing and the topics she was singing about, we wouldn’t have the girls in the punk rock movement 20 years later to do that.”

INDUSTRY NEWS BY SCOTT FITZSIMONS Simon Crean really digs emo and nu disco

US singer Rich Cronin died of complications of leukaemia last Wednesday age 36 – a member of boy band LFO (Lyte Funky Ones), he wrote the band’s biggest hit Summer Girls (1999). Paul Sergeant has been announced as the new General Manager of Sydney Olympic Park’s Acer Arena after the news that predecessor David Humphreys would be return back to Perth to take up the position of General Manager at the new Perth Arena. Sergeant has previously been the Director of both Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium in London and Chief Executive of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff among others, Sergeant is best known in Australia for being the General Manager of Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium between 2007 and 2009. Seargeant and Humphires two will work together initially for the hand over. The naming rights to the venue – formerly Sydney SuperDome – are due to expire early 2011 and there is no indication that Acer has locked in the contract. It is believed that the rights cost a seven-figure per annum amount to obtain.

POSSE AND PLEDGE LAUNCHED Peer-to-peer ticket selling platform Posse has launched its new website at posse.com. Also launching in Australia recently was PledgeMusic, whereby individual users pledge money towards an artist’s project. Recently in Australia for BigSound, Pledge owner Benji Rogers told The Front Line, “I’d like to think that we can be a great option for bands at any level, signed and unsigned, managed or not. The model has worked so well in the States and Europe and so I am excited to see it happen in Australia. Since there is a data capture and fan base building element to what we do I would love to think that the tools we provide would also offer Australian artists a better means and way of communicating with their existing fans.” He also praised the Australian music community’s openness to new business models.

OPERA-LOVING CREAN GETS ARTS PORTFOLIO Under Julia Gillard’s reshuffled Federal Government front bench, the remarkably quiet Peter Garrett – Midnight Oil frontman and hope for the music industry – has been reassigned as the Minister For Schools, Early Childhood And Youth. One time opposition leader Simon Crean has become Minister For Regional Australia, Regional Development And Local Government and Minister For The Arts. Crean said that despite not actively seeking the position, “I did a lot of things with all of the creative arts and the rock music industry to look for nurturing opportunities for young people to get involved, not just in performance but in the industry surrounding it,” The Australian reported. MusicNSW Executive Officer Eliza Sarlos, who was calling for a more streamlined approach to arts policy and an evening of support for ‘traditional’ artistic institutions and contemporary ones prior to the election told The Front Line, “I think it will have a great effect on music across regional Australia having the portfolios of Arts and Regional Affairs together, and I hope that the union will generate some interesting results for musicians and the industry across the whole of Australia, perhaps breaking down that tyranny of distance.” Regarding Crean’s appointment she said, “He’s said he’s passionate about ballet and opera – we’ll be interested in seeing how his appointment impacts contemporary arts practitioners.”

MCFADDEN OLD NEWS

ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER

ARIA Awards organisers recently made the somewhat embarrassing move to remove Brian McFadden from the Best Newcomer category for his third solo album Wall Of Soundz and single Just Say So. The Irish-born singer is eligible for the awards having lived in Australia for five years with fiancé Delta Goodrem, ARIA rules stipulating that performers must have lived in Australia for at least six months a year for the last two. Rules of eligibility have come under increased scrutiny recently with many Australian artists based/ recording overseas. Last year Ladyhawke caused controversy by winning awards despite being New Zealand-born and London-based.

This year’s pre-match entertainment for the AFL Grand Final, held Saturday 25 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, will be headlined by Australian rock stalwarts INXS. With a career that spans 25 years and boasts over 30 million album sales, the band selected their most recent lead singer, JD Fortune, through the reality TV show Rock Star: INXS, which aired in 2005. Despite dumping the singer in 2009, Fortune has since been confirmed as the band’s permanent singer. The band will also play a post-match show at the corporate village. Michael Gudinski, who is involved with organising the event’s entertainment, said they were the appropriate choice.

NA2R OPTS FOR CURRENT TRENDS

INTERNATIONALS SIT PRETTY

The 2010 Helpmann Awards for the live entertainment industry have been announced with Big Day Out winning the Best Contemporary music Festival. Michael Coppel’s P!nk Funhouse tour won the Best International Contemporary Concert whilst Syndey Festival’s Festival First Night won Best Special Event.

The New Artist 2 Radio (NA2R) initiative has been won by Sydney’s competition regulars Radio Ink and Brisbane’s The Smart, both of whom harbour a synthleaning ‘80s electro rock sound (The Smart claim to be “unapologetically reinventing the quintessential ‘80s sound”). Based on the judge’s decisions, it appears the competition were searching for artists that were going to immediately find their way onto stations like 2Day FM and Nova, rather than foster a long-term breaking artist – both the winners are examples of trends prevalent over the last year. Both winners will perform at the NA2R showcase Friday 15 October at Melbourne’s Fusion Nightclub.

Katy Perry remains at the top of the ARIA charts this week with her album Teenage Dream, Eminem bouncing back up into second with the now doubleplatinum accredited Recovery. Debuting in the top ten were Brandon Flowers (Flamingo, fifth) and Stone Sour (Audio Secrecy, sixth) while the highest local release was Blue King Brown with Worldwize Part 1 – North & South in 44. Five Australian acts still sit in the top ten, but Powderfinger only jumped two spots to 28 with Golden Rule, despite currently being on their farewell tour.

James McCartney’s debut release is set to drop later this month. McCartney’s dad Paul co-produced the five-track set with David Kahne (The Strokes) and the resulting Available Light EP was two years in the making. James McCartney penned four original songs for Available Light, which is rounded out by a cover of Neil Young’s Old Man. Thirty-three-year-old McCartney junior plays guitar, mandolin, piano and bass and some of the recording sessions for the EP took place at Abbey Road Studios. McCartney toured with his dad in 2005 and has played on some Paul McCartney solo albums as well as his mum Linda’s posthumous solo album, Wide Prairie. James’s sisters Stella and Mary have already established themselves with high-profile careers in the fields of fashion design and photography respectively. James McCartney is the last of The Beatles’ sons to release music. Julian and Sean Lennon have both contributed musical output and Julian Lennon’s sixth album, Everything Changes, is reportedly finished and due to drop in early 2011. George Harrison’s son Dhani releases music as part of the band thenewno2, whose debut album You Are Here came out in 2008. Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey, has followed in his father’s drumbeats, touring as The Who’s drummer since 1996. Starkey has also played with other esteemed acts such as Paul Weller, Oasis and Johnny Marr.

GOV’S GRANTS ISSUED

YOLANDA NOW SPEAKING AMERICANO

MUSCLE MEMORY

Collingwood’s Bendigo Hotel has put the call out to promoters interested in running a monthly event at the venue. The venue features a 3am licence, large stage and two bars and is looking for an experienced promoter with a grasp of promotional needs. Contact amanda@ bendigohotel.com.au for further details.

BACK TO THE EGG

A first taste from Muscles’ forthcoming EP, Younger & Immature, was rolled out last week with the premiere of the film clip for a song titled Girl Crazy Go. The Beaufort-directed clip was shot on location in Tokyo but probably won’t make it onto the Video Hits playlist any time soon (unless there’s a kiddiefriendly edit). You’ll have to wait until 29 October to hear the other four tracks but Muscles has entered the rave with all glowsticks blazing on the lead single.

RADIO POSTS $60M IN AUGUST The Australian commercial radio industry has announced a 17.31 percent growth in metropolitan advertising revenue in August, amounting to $59.16 million according to Commercial Radio Australia figures. Brisbane saw a 25.42 percent jump, Perth 24.36 percent, Sydney 14.85 percent, Melbourne 14.45 percent and Adelaide 12.42 percent.

ISC’S HIGH-PROFILE JUDGES The International Songwriting Competition has announced its judges for the 2010 competition with Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, Kings Of Leon, Rihanna, Ben Harper, Timbaland, Jeff Beck, McCoy Tyner, Regina Spektor, Black Francis, Ben Folds, K’Naan and more to lend their opinions. For the ninth year the event has also announced an Unsigned Only category for those not signed to a major label, publishing company or distribution deal. The competition is now accepting submissions through songwritingcompetition.com.

BIG DAY OUT THE BEST

The State Government’s Victoria Rocks program has awarded grants totalling over $40,000 recently to various projects around the state. The City Of Darebin received $7,300 for their 2011 Believe in The Beat program, a program for young women in the industry; Healesville Amateur Racing Club $7,136 for the inaugural Music At The Healesville Track Music Festival, an event for local musicians and technicians, Melbourne Jazz Fringe Inc $5,000 towards the 2011 Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival; Multicultural Arts Fitzory $4,795 for Visible Live On Air, project to support refugee musicians; Punctum Inc $6,000 to curate a series of experimental sound art showcases and; The Push Incorporated $10,000 for the 2011 delivery of the Push Songs Program.

FREE’ INDUSTRY INSIGHTS The FreeZACenrtral music industry workshops are approaching, taking place Wednesday at Geelong’s Pan Studios, Saturday at Northcote Town Hall and Tuesday 21 September at the Ballarat Learning Exchange. Aimed at ages 15 to 25, the free seminars cover areas of performance, event management, technical production and stage management. Head to freezacentral.vic.gov.au for full information.

BENDIGO NIGHTS

FREE GIGS AND TRANSPORT The Hi-Fi and Metlink have teamed up once again to provide one person with a double pass to every gig at the venue for a year (including sold out events), plus a yearly Zone one and two public transport ticket. Entries are being taken from the band’s website.

Sydney dance producers Yolanda Be Cool & D-Cup have topped Billboard’s European Hot 100 with their crossover club hit We No Speak Americano. The track has now been in the ARIA Singles Chart for 20 weeks (where it has earned platinum creditation without having reached number one) and has hit the top of the charts in ten countries (including the UK and Germany). The song has also now cracked the top 50 in Canada and is taking off in the US (120 on the mainstream chart and 50 in the club chart). A reworking of a 1956 Italian pop hit Tu Vuo Fa L’Americano, the song has previously been covered by Brian Seltzer and Lou Bega but is best known as the song performed by Jude Law and Matt Damon in the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley.

ITUNES DOWNLOADS NOT “SALES” An appeal by Eminem’s former music production company FBT Productions against the Universal Music Group has been upheld. Last year a jury decided that the rapper was entitled to the 12% royalty rate for iTunes downloads (the standard for physical album sales) but FBT appealed, arguing that a digital download is not a physical sale, rather a license on a master recording which would then demand the 50% licensing rate. Essentially the decision was based upon definitions of the terms “licensed” and “normal retail channels” in the agreement between FBT and Universal, but the decision does importantly make the assumption that digital downloads are not physical sales. In a post-decision statement Universal said, “We will be filing a petition for a rehearing. In the meantime, it should be noted that this ruling sets no legal precedent as it only concerns the language of one specific recording agreement. Any assertion to the contrary is simply not true.”

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AMP OPEN TO BANDS The sixth Australian Music Prize, emerging as one of the nation’s most prestigious album awards, is now open. The award has a $30,000 cash prize for the winner and has been one previously by Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Mess Hall, The Drones, Augie March and last year, Lisa Mitchell, while those who get nominated alone are revered. The AMP was embroiled in controversy last year when an article posted on website Pedestrian questioned the prize’s voting processes. Bands can enter from the website australianmusicprize.com now, with entry $95 per album. An early bird rate runs until 6pm, 1 October.

VIC MUSIC REPORT HAS NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE The Victorian state Minister For The Arts Peter Batchelor has announced a research project to investigate the economic, social and cultural contributions of the state’s live music scene. In reaction to arguments surrounding liquor licensing laws, the possibilities of lockouts and support for original live music, the project has been endorsed by the Australian Hotels Association as well as the Australiasian Performing Rights Association, Music Victoria and Far Go 4 Live Music. The report, the results of which will be released later this year, is part of Brumby Labor Government’s “Live Music Accord”, which was rolled out this year following the public outcry regarding the closure of Melbourne music venue the Tote. The report’s findings are likely to have national implications.

Got news? Announcements? Gossip? Unsubstantiated but hilarious rumours? Send them all to frontline@streetpress.com.au.

THE

FRONTLINE

MOVING ON STRONG

With the ONE MOVEMENT FOR MUSIC festival, showcases and conferences only a few weeks away, Inpress catches up with some of the talkers and talent. GRINSPOON – PAT DAVERN Favourite song of all time? Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith. I always liked the atmosphere created by the instruments on this track. And all the incredible musicians that played in Blind Faith. Favourite song of 2010 so far? Back To The Fuck Yeah by Pulled Apart By Horses. Great rock’n’roll track from a new British band. Awesome energy and vocals. Hopefully will hear lots more from these guys.

Dylan Liddy

DYLAN LIDDY – DIRECTOR – BLUE MAX MUSIC (MANGER HILLTOP HOODS) What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Being part of the last Hilltop Hoods album release (State Of The Art) and working with such a driven and gifted talent. Favourite song of 2010 so far? Anything from Boy & Bear’s EP. Such an amazing sound for such a young act. Predictions of artists you think will ‘break through’ later this year? The acts I really like currently are Art Vs Science (love those guys – so talented and fun), Washington (I was sold at this year’s APRA awards) and the Birds Of Tokyo (great to see a band break through big after a long build). Watch out for King Cannons. What’s your fave song by an Australian artist? For me, bands like Mark Of Cain, Alchemist and of course AC/DC have always been producing quality heavy songs for years (and great to see a new hard rock/metal category in the ARIAs on the subject).

Fave song by an Australian artist? The Way Of The World by Max Q. I think it’s really great lyrically and I love the questioning/blurring-the-edges spirit of this collaboration between INXS’s Michael Hutchence and Melbourne Underground musician Olly Olsen.

RICHARD IN YOUR MIND Favourite musical moment of 2010 so far? Seeing Pavement at the Enmore Theatre was pretty amazing. They still got it. And Malkmus was throwing shapes like a legend. Social media for musicians: friend or foe? Do you buy into Facebook, Twitter and the ‘share everything, all the time!’ mentality? I think it’s good if you have something to say. To me it’s like a big knife – if you need to cut up the food for your dinner its a really useful thing, but if you’re bored and just throwing it around you might accidentally stab your eye out, hmmm… maybe that’s not quite right.

You’re a musician. Why? What compels you? Can’t do anything else. Maybe food service, but it wouldn’t give me the satisfaction that creating and playing music does. Please recommend our readers an amazing band from your hometown. Tre Hombres – these guys are a cross between Frank Sinatra and Metallica, with hot sauce and a couple of hardshell tacos thrown in with a cheap Mexican hooker. The most exciting band I’ve ever heard. Get on them now…

Favourite song of 2010 so far? I have two; I Believe You Liar by Washington and Stylo by Gorillaz. They both blow my mind.

BIURET (KOREA) What’s more important to you: living comfortably from your art (financially), or artistic integrity? Is it possible to have both? I have yet to have a comfortable life through art, so I can not really say, but I will tell you once I experience that. What do you know about Perth, Australia? We participated in One Movement last year and, unlike Korea, it seems like most of the people enjoyed rock music. I was very impressed by the rock festival being held at the heart of the city. I loved it! An amazing band/artist from your hometown? The Koxx, like us they are helping to build the Korean rock scene.

MARK POSTON – EMI AUSTRALASIA – CHAIRMAN & SNR VP MARKETING Highlight of your career so far? Contributing to music, and to the music industry, and to artist’s careers. Meeting and collaborating with talented people and artists. Having music as my career (wow!).

MARK POPE – MARK POPE MUSIC – ARIA AWARDS PRODUCER Highlight of your career so far? If money is the measure, I have scratched and clawed my way to the middle. If life experiences are the measure then I reckon I’m a billionaire. Every day has been a highlight for me. I feel blessed to have experienced so many moments. What’s the hardest part of your job? The hardest part is packing up the tent after the circus has left town. The fact is ten months of work goes into what is for most one night. It’s like your life flashing before your eyes. Fave song by an Australian artist? Most People I Know Think That I’m Crazy – great song, great middle eight, great guitars and eight simple words that capture a life.

WHAT: One Movement WHEN AND WHERE: Wednesday 6 until Sunday 10 October, Perth. Head to onemovementmusic.com for more details.

ON THE STEREO Fields JUNIP Loose Manifesto PEABODY Sky At Night I AM KLOOT Distractions REGURGITATOR No Problem JAMAICA You Am I YOU AM I Write About Love BELLE & SEBASTIAN Kyu KYU Penny Sparkle BLONDE REDHEAD Senior RÖYKSOPP

3RRR SOUNDSCAPE Kudos SURF CITY Pattern + Grid World EP FLYING LOTUS Innundir Skinni ÓLÖF ARNALDS Spring EP BIG SCARY Interpol INTERPOL Me Me Me And Him: The Secret Life Of A Receptionist CLASS A A Path Less Travelled MINAMO + LAWRENCE ENGLISH Penny Sparkle BLONDE REDHEAD You Are Not Alone MAVIS STAPLES No Errors RADIANT CITY

3PBS TIPSHEET You Are Not Alone MAVIS STAPLES Like A Ship… (Without A Sail) PASTOR T.L. BARRETT & THE YOUTH FOR CHRIST CHOIR Warp Riders THE SWORD Southern Filibuster: A Tribute To Tut Taylor VARIOUS ARTISTS Sex With An X THE VASELINES The Well CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE Pattern+Grid World FLYING LOTUS Grinderman 2 GRINDERMAN Audio Projectile DIALECTRIX 100 Miles To Go MITCH KASHMAR & THE PONTIAX

FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

AS HEARD ON TV

Faithless

New York native and indie power poppette Ingrid Michaelson is packing her quirkily endearing stage presence, touchingly heartfelt lyrics and stripped-back, infectious songwriting and heading our way for her debut Australian tour. Having previously shared stages with Jason Mraz, Keane and Dave Matthews, Michaelson has had songs featured in a bunch of TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, Brothers And Sisters, Ugly Betty and this year’s American Idol. Regularly compared to Norah Jones and Regina Spektor, Michaelson plays the Corner Hotel on Saturday 13 November.

FOLK YEAH

New independent music series Soundings launches on Sunday 26 November. Each Soundings event will feature a particular theme, with the first dubbed Folk As Fuck!. Taking place over two stages at Loop, Soundings #1 will feature 11 acts ranging from experimental to traditional interpretations of the genre. Artists performing are Tailor Made For A Small Room, Kieran Ryan (Kid Sam), Bianca Poitevin, Winternationale, Timothy & Wilderness, Genevieve & Jezebel, Transcription of Organ Music, Lyra Will, Laneway, Khancoban and Owl & Moth. Doors open at 5pm, entry is $10.

WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER

KKS PROJECT ELECTRIC EMPIRE ELLA THOMPSON DJ OSCAR ENTRY $12, 8.30PM

THURSDAY 16 SEPTEMBER

ALBUM LAUNCH

KUMAR SHOME THE GENIE OCEAN’S BAROQUE

ENTRY $15, 8.30PM

GOOD FAITH Another awesome summer festival line-up has just dropped, with the Good Vibrations crew announcing pioneering UK dance act Faithless will headline the event, taking place at Flemington Racecourse on Sunday 13 February. Joining them are French indie rockers Phoenix, electronic pioneer Sasha, rap/reggae combo Nas & Damien Marley, Gnarls Barkley’s Cee Lo Green, Kelis, Ludacris, Erykah Badu, Friendly Fires, Miike Snow, Fake Blood, Rusko, Sidney Samson, Janelle Monáe, Mike Posner, Yolanda Be Cool, Koolism, Kill The Noise, Tim & Jean and Fenech-Soler. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Thursday) from gvf.com.au, Moshtix and Ticketmaster.

FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER

THE MOXIE

FORM A KYÜ

Following a stunning set at Brisbane’s BIGSOUND music conference last week, Sydney duo Kyü – Freya Berkhout and Alyx Dennison – release their self-titled debut album on Friday. The pair began making music together in mid-2009, and since then have shared a stage with some of the world’s more interesting pop experimenters (Yeasayer, Patrick Wolf, Why?, High Places, Xiu Xiu), as well as some of Australia’s finest at last year’s Homebake. Most importantly, they have recorded their accomplished debut with friend/engineer/producer/ mixer Daniell Johnston at AudioLoc Studios, Sydney. Commencing with the dark and atmospheric sounds of Foreword, the record embraces diverse and worldly sounds (Sistar, Koi), the feminine (Pixiphony) and the buoyant and joyous (Trains). Kyü launch the album at the Workers Club on Saturday 30 October.

THE PRETTY LITTLES OUT OF THE TREE & INTO THE FIELDS ENTRY $8, 9PM

SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER

ES EN TS

TONIGHT ALIVE SKY WAY APART FROM THIS

THE T HE W WONDER ONDER • SELLING FAST • YEARS Y EARS (U(US (USA) SA) HEROES FOR HIRE ENTRY $30 DOOR, $23 PRESALE THRU MOSHTIX, 8.30PM

SUNDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

PAKISTAN FLOODS BENEFIT

BARON LAND

DWINTON FAREWELL THE LION IFLY CULTURE CONNECT PATAPHYSICS GILIUS

Self-described gypsy metal punk rock seven-piece The Barons Of Tang will release their new EP, Knots And Tangles, on Friday 1 October. With Victoria Rocks juice in their tank, the Barons will inspire dancefloor riots across Australia this spring with a string of headline shows and festival appearances. See them at the Bohemian Masquerade Ball on Saturday 23 October and the East Brunswick Club on Friday 5 November.

JOSH EARL DHAMAL ENTRY $10, 1PM

EVENING

CHASE THE SUN DIRT RIVER RADIO CLAUDE HAY

ENTRY $12, $10 THRU MOSHTIX, 8PM

MONDAY 20 SEPTEMBER RESIDENCY

PROJECT PUZZLES ENTRY $4, 9PM

MELBOURNE JUGGLING CONVENTION ENTRY 6PM $10 JUGS!

TUESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER

THE WHOLE MOLKO WITHOUT WOLVES THE DARTS

ENTRY $5, 8PM

COMING UP:

THE FROWNING CLOUDS (22 SEPT) LEEGIT (23 SEPT) MADRE MONTE (24 SEPT) GRAND FINAL DAY: SIMON WRIGHT & THE ECLECTIVE (25 SEPT) CITY CALM DOWN (29 SEPT) JUNK! (30 SEPT) A-DICTION (1 OCT) SEABELLIES, FIRE! SANTA ROSA, FIRE! (ALBUM LAUNCH)(2 OCT) THOUSAND NEEDLES IN RED (3 OCT) WILFRED JACKAL (6 OCT) TIM MCMILLAN (8 OCT) THE HOLY SEA, THE BROADSIDE PUSH (DOUBLE ALBUM LAUNCH) (9 OCT) THE VAUDEVILLE SMASH (15 OCT) 80 GIGS IN 80 DAYS: ORANGE ROOM (16 OCT) THE DEMON PARADE (20 OCT) KIRA PURU & THE BRUISE (22 OCT) THE CURRENCY (23 OCT) BOHEMIAN MASQUERADE BALL AFTER PARTY (24 OCT) SAN FRAN DISCO (27 OCT) DARLOW (EP LAUNCH) (28 OCT) T (ALBUM LAUNCH) (29 OCT) SKA NATION TWENTY 10 OPENING PARTY (30 OCT)

HUKSY (SUNDAYS IN NOVEMBER) DILI ALLSTARS (1 NOV) RINCON (5 NOV) BREAKING ORBIT (6 NOV)

SMUDGE ADO ABOUT SUPPORTS

Smudge are set to hit the road for their first national tour this millennium, celebrating the release of the 27-track compilation This Smudge Is True as well as the European re-issues of Manilow and Real McCoy, Wrong Sinatra (all three are garnering top reviews, thanks very much). The band have just announced they’ll be joined at their Northcote Social Club show on Saturday 2 October by Japan-born, Melbourne-based Tailor Made For A Small Room and Summer Cats.

CULT CHEMIST

The Chemist’s second EP, Lullabies, is out this week and consists of sweet, soft lullabies – with a twist or two. With a mammoth line-up of shows about to kick off in support of Boy & Bear, Birds Of Tokyo, City Riots and Lowrider, The Chemist have just announced their own headline tour – they play the Grace Darling on Saturday 13 November.

TO THE LETTER

Momentum is building for Ron S Peno, former lead singer with Died Pretty, and his new outfit RSVP & The Return To Senders (Cam Butler – guitars; Mark Dawson – drums; Andy Papp – bass; and Tim Deane – keyboards/ guitars). Peno & Butler have been furiously busy during the past year writing the songs that will make up Peno’s forthcoming release, RSVP (his initials). The band are currently roadtesting the new material with a September residency at the Grace Darling. This Thursday they play with Sonic Scout, on Thursday 23 they’re supported by Harry Howard & NDE and on Thursday 30 they’re joined by Princess One Point Five.

ROACH GETS LEFT BEHIND

Archie Roach has been added to the line-up of the Seven Songs To Leave Behind concert, taking place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday 23 October. He joins Sinead O’Connor, John Cale, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rickie Lee Jones, Gurrumul Yunupingu and The Black Arm Band’s Leah Flanagan, Shellie Morris, Dan Sultan and Ursula Yovich on the line-up. Each will play their first ever song; one from master poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen; a song to share; a song they covet – the one, above all others, they wish they had written; two songs of their own and one for the end of days – a song to leave behind. Artists will perform with Orchestra Victoria and a band of some of this country’s top musos. The seated area is sold out, general admission tickets are on sale now from theartscentre.com.au.

The free music keeps on coming this week with two cracking numbers from a couple of up-andcomers. First up is Brit genre-bender Example, followed by the first single from Matt Walters’ latest EP (which just happens to feature the hotter-than-hot Megan Washington). To get downloading simply head to universalmusic. net.au/freedownloads/streetpressaustralia. Kickstarts [Wideboys Remix] EXAMPLE After being the main support on Lily Allen’s European tour, rhyme-master Example scored three hit singles in his home nation, a number four UK debut album and a sell-out 19-date UK headline tour. Example’s debut album, Won’t Go Quietly, will be released in Australia on 8 October. In true Example genredefying style, Kickstarts juxtaposes heartfelt lyrics with the musical elements necessary for a huge party anthem, making the track feel at home at the hottest festival fields and providing the soundtrack for plenty of summer parties. I Would Die For You MATT WALTERS Die For You (featuring Megan Washington) is the first single from Matt Walters’ second EP, Talking In My Sleep, out next week. Hanging in the air like delicate morning frost, Die For You envelopes the space between isolation and intimate contemplation. With Walters’ voice, each cursive exhale moves effortlessly and earnestly, whilst Megan Washington provides the perfect harmony line. Matt Walters has recently performed as special guest for Ben Folds and Paul Kelly on their national tours, whilst putting the final touches on his debut LP, which will be available in early 2011.

$2 CARLTON POTS EVERY MONDAY 18TH SEP: TOBIAS CUMMINGS ALBUM LAUNCH 25TH SEP: SIB SINGLE LAUNCH 1ST OCT: AMAYA LAUCIRICA ALBUM LAUNCH 22ND OCT: ANGIE HART EP LAUNCH 5TH NOV: BREASTFEST

WED 15TH SEPTEMBER

FRI 17 SEPTEMBER

WEEKEND DJS:

THE LIGHTS+ MINI RES!

THE TWERPS + BITCH PREFECT

TWOBRIGHTLAKE DJS AND SIMON WINKLER (RRR)

+ THE RAPHAELLAS + THE STRING QUARTET

+ WOOLLEN KITS + DJ PEOPLE

SAT 18TH SEPTEMBER

SUN 19TH SEPTEMBER

TOBIAS CUMMINGS ALBUM LAUNCH

ARVO SHOW! 4PM + SOPHIA BROUS

+ ANCIENT FREE GARDENERS + BRENDAN WELCH

TUESDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER

BEG, SCREAM & SHOUT PRESENTS NINEFEETTEETH SHORT FILMS BY INDEPENDENT MELBOURNE FILMMAKERS.

+ LOST ANIMAL + FRANCIS PLAGNE BAND + HUNTER DIENNA

WED 22ND SEPTEMBER GOOD (ZOND/MUMSMOKES/WHITE ELEPHANT) + THIS FREE FIELD (LOVE OF DIAGRAMS/SCOTT & CHARLENE’S WEDDING) + TWIN TWIN (ACID CASUALTY/HISSEY MIYAKE)

SAT 25TH SEPTEMBER

SiB SINGLE LAUNCH TOMMY SPENDER + THE BLACK HILL FIVE

GRAND FINAL ON THE BIG SCREEN IN THE FRONT BAR.

NICCI@GETNOTORIOUS.COM

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS!

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FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

OWL OFF

The Frontier Touring Company has announced that Owl City’s upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand has been postponed until further notice. The Fireflies singer had been scheduled to play the Palais on Wednesday 10 November. A statement read: “Scheduling conflicts have arisen for the multi-platinum-selling artist, which unfortunately clash with the currently scheduled tour dates for Australia and New Zealand. Frontier is currently working with Owl City’s management to determine new dates for a potential 2011 tour, however, patrons are advised to seek refunds in the interim.” Tickets purchased via credit card will receive an automatic refund; for all other ticket purchases patrons should seek a refund at their original point of purchase.

EABODY GET LOOSE

SALL OUT ON TOUR Sally Seltmann has left her New Buffalo persona behind and is quickly gathering a reputation as a true pop contender. Seltmann – who has released two albums under the New Buffalo moniker and is an award-winning songwriter – will be hitting the road this November for a series of shows across the country. The tour precedes Sally’s performances at the Woodford Folk and Falls festivals over the New Year period. She will be performing songs from her much-lauded new album Heart That’s Pounding, as well as some staples from the New Buffalo backcatalogue. Joining Seltmann for the run of dates will be Melbourne’s Oh Mercy. The two acts play the Hi-Fi on Friday 12 November with Jessica Says.

T EN S E PR

Peabody will release their fourth studio album, Loose Manifesto, on Friday 1 October. Over the next few weeks, tracks from Loose Manifesto will become available for preview from the band’s website, peabody.net.au. The band will mark the album’s release with a national tour next month – they play Yah Yah’s on Friday 29 October and the Public Bar on Saturday 30 October, with an afternoon performance at Pure Pop Records also on Saturday 30 October.

THE WRITE STUFF

With Paul Kelly’s memoir, How To Make Gravy, set for release, the Wheeler Centre hosts the singer/songwriter in conversation with former Go-Between Robert Forster at the Athenaeum Theatre on Thursday 30 September. In the book Kelly shares the tales and personal stories behind 100 of his songs from the previous three decades, and with Forster he’ll discuss his unique perspective on the songwriter’s art – from the point of inspiration to writing, honing, collaborating, performing, recording and reworking. Tickets are $20 and $12 concession from wheelercentre.com.

SOUNDWAVE AFFLICTED The Amity Affliction released their second album Youngbloods in June, shocking the Australian mainstream by debuting at number six on the ARIA charts and earning an Independent Music Award nomination in the Hard Rock category. The band sold out their only Australian capital cities run of 2010 in July and as they prepare to spend the better part of the next eight months touring the world, the band have been added to next year’s Soundwave bill. They join a huge line-up that includes Iron Maiden, Queens Of The Stone Age, Slayer, Primus and Slash. Soundwave hits the Melbourne Showgrounds on Friday 4 March. Tickets are on sale now from soundwavefestival.com, ticketek.com.au and oztix. com.au.

MORRIS MAJOR

Singer/songwriter Andrew Morris will launch his new solo album, Shadow Of A Shadow, with an East Coast tour next month. Shadow Of A Shadow will be released on 1 October and is Morris’s fifth solo album, recorded solely while living in Mt Nebo – a mountainside retreat on Brisbane’s outskirts. Morris and band play the Northcote Social Club on Wednesday 27 October.

PON THE MAKE

Perth-born, Melbourne-based outfit Institut Polaire release their album, Make Your Own Mayflower, on Saturday 9 October through Popfrenzy/Inertia. Subtly melding country-tinged tones with psychedelic panoramas, while sneakily adding bubblegum pop and kosmische to the mix, the album is the logical follow-up to their amorphous 2007 EP The Fauna And The Flora, and sees the now seven-to-nine member clique further pushing the boundaries of indie pop. To celebrate its release the band play the Workers Club on Saturday 23 October.

FALLS SELLS OUT

The Victorian leg of the Falls Festival, held at Lorne over four days from Tuesday 28 December, has sold out. Tickets for the Tasmanian Falls Festival, staged at Marion Bay from Wednesday 29 December, are still available from fallsfestival.com.au. Acts playing the festival include The National, Interpol, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Public Enemy (performing Fear Of A Black Planet in full) and Klaxons.

SALMON JAM

BANG THE DRUMS Making their long-awaited return to Australia for the opening night celebrations of Beck’s Festival Bar are Japan’s Boredoms. As the clock strikes midnight, marking the beginning of the tenth day of the tenth month of 2010, Melbourne-based drummers Evelyn Morris, Cameron Potts and Mat Watson will take to the stage of the Forum Theatre to join the Japanese seven-piece percussion powerhouse. Together the ten musicians will deliver Boadrum10, the next instalment of the legendary Boadrum series. Continuing on the numerological pattern, Boadrum10 follows in the footsteps of the earlier large scale events. On the 07/07/07 at 7.07pm, Boredoms coordinated 77 drummers to perform for 77 minutes, forming the legendary 77Boadrum. Expanding on this idea, 88 drummers came together on 08/08/08, led by Gang Gang Dance and Boredoms in Los Angeles and New York for two simultaneous 88-minute performances. Boadrum9, a more stripped-back, intricate piece was realised with a total of nine percussionists, staged at Terminal 5 in NYC. Boadrum10 takes place at Beck’s Festival Bar at the Forum on Saturday 9 October, with the Boredoms on at midnight. Support comes from Kes and Bum Creek.

Just after the Sonic Youth/Scientists Don’t Look Back tour, Thurston Moore (from the former) asked Kim Salmon (from the latter) if he had any ‘bedroom tapes’ for a limited edition cassette series on his Ecstatic Peace label. As it happened Salmon did have an experimental instrumental recording looking for a home. The result was a cassette entitled Wall/paper. Not long after, another US label, My Mind’s Eye, heard the cassette and asked if they could put the recording out on vinyl. Salmon said yes. Currently available on import, Salmon will launch – and be selling – the record at the Workers Club on Saturday 2 October. The gig will take the form of an improvisational performance, where he’ll be joined in part by Dave Brown, known for his work with jazz punk purveyors Embers, Bucketrider and Candlesnuffer.

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FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

GET ROOTED PR

Deep Roots returns to the Espy this October with another serving of the freshest and finest in blues and roots. Hailing from Wellington, New Zealand, The Black Seeds fuse dub, funk and soul with a classic reggae base. The masterful eight-piece are joined by fellow New Zealanders Bonjah, who return to the Espy after spending six months writing and rehearsing new material for their much anticipated second album. The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra will be delivering their contemporary African funk, joined by locals Direct Influence, Jess Harlen, The Maribou Project and Afro Mandinko. It all takes place on Friday 15 October; tickets are on sale now from the venue and Oztix.

THE GOOD SUNS

Back on the horse and fresh from a well-earned holiday after the successful release of their second album Rednecks & Gentlemen, Sydney blues rock maestros Chase The Sun will raise the roof at the Evelyn Hotel this Sunday. Joining them are rising roots star Claude Hay and top local outfit Dirt River Radio.

STACKS ON

To celebrate the release of Planets, the first single from Short Stack’s second album This Is Bat Country, the band will be signing copies of their new single at 9.30am on Saturday 25 September at Sanity Fountain Gate and at 3.30pm the same day at Sanity Sale. This Is Bat Country is released on 19 November.

DEATH TRIP At the forefront of the new psych revival, Dead Meadow have been jamming out riffs since 1998, with a total of five full-lengths, one live record and a feature-length movie under their belts. With original drummer Mark Laughlin back in the fold, the Los Angeles outfit are returning in October. As well as their appearance at Beck’s Festival Bar at the Forum Theatre on Thursday 14 October, they play Geelong’s National Hotel with Nadja and The Frowning Clouds, with the band’s Jason Simon playing the Tote on Sunday 10 October and the Toff In Town on Monday 11 October.

MAKE HAY

Maddy Hay’s debut album, Smoke In The City, already released to great acclaim in Europe, will be available in Australia from Friday. Fourteen rich and sultry songs are delivered in Hay’s beautiful jazz-tinged voice, accompanied by lush string arrangements, piano accordion and a touch of glockenspiel. Her imaginative and unique compositions have both depth and vulnerability and spring from a great musicality, while melding genres from the past and present. Hay launches her album at the Toff In Town on Friday, backed by a nine-piece orchestra.

SULTAN STRIPPED Hot on the heels of triumphant performances at Splendour In The Grass and Womad, and with nominations at the Independent Music Awards and the Deadly Awards, Dan Sultan and Scott Wilson are shifting gears from their powerhouse sevenpiece band and paring it down to just two men and two guitars. Dan Sultan – Up Close And Acoustic is a rare opportunity to see one of the most talkedabout rising stars of Australian rock with his musical collaborator Scott Wilson. Joining them on the road as special guest is one of Australia’s favourite singer/ songwriters, the legendary Archie Roach. Catch the show at the Thornbury Theatre on Friday 19 November.

KEEP UP WITH JONES

Rock’n’roll survivor Spencer P Jones officially launches Sobering Thoughts, the new album with his band The Escape Committee, at Cherry Bar this Saturday with guests including John Nolan, Kim Volkman, Louis & Raoul Woolf and Renee Geyer. Sterling support comes from Brian Hooper and friends (including Mick Harvey!) and Bunny Monroe, with Magic Dirt’s Adalita DJing. Tickets are $12 on the door.

CHILD’S PLAY

Children Collide’s second album, Theory Of Everything, has trumped their previous ARIA chart debut by almost 70 positions (The Long Now, number 74), debuting at a truly impressive number five. Having been as rapturously well-received by critics as its predecessor, Theory Of Everything also seems to be impressing fans with its calculated mash of sounds, from post-punk to soaring pop hooks. While the band have just launched the album with a capital city national tour, they’ve now just announced a string of regional dates. With Brisbane grunge revivalists Violent Soho in tow, they play the Yahoo Bar in Shepparton on Friday 3 December and the Saloon Bar in Traralgon on Saturday 4 December.

DEATH BECOMES THEM

Set for release on 1 October via Flying Nun/Remote Control, Form is Die! Die! Die! like you have never heard them before. Masterfully produced and recorded by Nick Roughan (The Skeptics), Form is the album the band always wanted to write, and the one you knew they would. Is it noise pop? Post punk? Shoegaze? Noise/ post/gaze/pop? Whatever you call it, Form is relentless, reckless and sometimes menacing. It has all the ferocious energy and bursting melodies of their previous releases, and while it can tear through you one moment, it also shows a band trying on something different. Die! Die! Die! launch Form at Revolver on Saturday 9 October and Ballarat’s Karova Lounge on Sunday 10 October.

HOW SMASHING Smashing Pumpkins will play Festival Hall on Friday 15 October. The band’s current incarnation features Billy Corgan, drummer Mike Byrne, bassist Nicole Fiorentino and guitarist Jeff Shroeder. Formed in Chicago in 1988, Smashing Pumpkins released Gish, their influential debut album in 1991, which was followed by the four-time platinum Siamese Dream, the nine-time platinum Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness as well as the platinumcertified 1998 album Adore. Their most recent work is Teargarden by Kaleidyscope—an in-progress 44-song work, with tracks being issued online one at a time for free (four-song physical EPs will be made available as the songs are released). Tickets go on sale from midday tomorrow (Thursday) from Ticketmaster.

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FOREWORD LINE

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

WE’RE ALL DOOMED

The Doomsday Festival debuted in 2009, showcasing a selection of Australia’s finest sludge, doom metal, psychedelic, heavy stoner, post-rock and experimental bands. Doomsday returns in 2010, with San Francisco’s Acid King set to headline. Founded and fronted by tough, motorbike-riding and guitar-slinging Lori S, Acid King have been kicking out the stoner rock and doom metal jams since 1993. Other acts on the bill include Clagg, Looking Glass, Summonus, Sons Of The Ionian Sea, Fattura Della Morte, Adrift For Days, Fear The Setting Sun, Mother Mars, VAN, Pod People, Space Bong, Agonhymn, Whitehorse and Encircling Sea. The event takes place at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday 9 October.

ALL HANDS ON DECKS

HOLLY DAY Two years have passed since the intimate, striking joys of Holly Throsby’s A Loud Call. In that time, she has toured extensively across the globe, releasing the record through Europe, Japan and the UK. This year, Throsby returned to work with long-time friend and producer, Tony Dupé, in a 19th-century Methodist church in Wildes Meadow, New South Wales. They recorded two albums back-to-back: a technicolour, sound-effect laden children’s record due for release next month, and a brand new collection of songs which make up Throsby’s fourth album, Team. The first single, Here Is My Co-Pilot, sees the singer blossom with bright overlapping vocals, thumping box drums and handmade pop arrangements. Mixed by Burke Reid (The Drones, Jack Ladder, The Mess Hall) at Sydney’s BJB studios, it is a warm and emboldened departure. To celebrate this new chapter, Throsby and her band, The Hello Tigers, will hit the road for the first time since 2008 with an East Coast Australian tour. She swings through Melbourne on Saturday 6 November to play the Northcote Social Club.

MANN UP

Marcos Garcia, AKA Chico Mann, grew up in a musical family in New York and New Jersey. His father was the owner of a Latin record label based in Hell’s Kitchen, and the young Mann observed the ins and outs of the biz while practising his guitar and piano. It was then that he began to propagate his deep musical roots with such influences as Afrika Bambaataa, Lisa Lisa, Willie Colón, Celia Cruz and Fela Kuti. Since then Chico Mann has created a musical time machine that warps and morphs the sounds of 1970s Afrobeat, 1980s freestyle and AfroCuban music into one exhilarating musical experience. Last in Australia with Antibalas, Mann is returning with his acclaimed three-piece live act. Catch the man billed as the James Brown of the Casio at the Toff In Town on Wednesday 22 September. Tickets are on sale now from Moshtix and Polyester.

TRUE BLUES

After being included on the stellar line-up of the Great Southern Blues Festival, taking place in Batemans Bay from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 October, two of the acts have joined forces to co-headline a very special Melbourne sideshow. Rick Estrin & The Nightcats feature Estrin, one of the very best harmonica players in the world, and deliver a harmonica-driven, guitar-fuelled rave-up. Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm, meanwhile, come from a new generation of blues greats, playing with a relentless and rhythmically-charged style that features hip hop and funk influences. Grandson of RL Burnside and son of Calvin Jackson, Cedric Burnside’s incredible talent as a powerhouse drummer and strong vocalist are fitting for his legendary musical heritage. Lightnin’ Malcolm, an in-demand session player with a telepathic sense of how to play archaic styles, has joined up with Burnside to create a duo who are bringing new life and energy to the blues. This fantastic bill hits the Corner Hotel on Wednesday 29 September.

After selling out their Saturday 16 October show at the Corner Hotel in just ten days, Yacht Club DJs have extended their Demons Of Gymnastics tour with a second show at the Corner set to take place on Thursday 14. Although the indestructible duo have never officially released an album or EP, their demo mixtape Kleptomania was released online by popular demand and subsequently downloaded more than 15,000 times in just one week. Some copies of the mixtape even found their way onto eBay where they sold for more than $150. Supporting at both shows are Gold Coast lo-fi punk act Bleeding Knees Club.

MEREDITH SELLS OUT

Tickets to the 20th Meredith Music Festival have sold out. Despite record demand 20 years after it started, the festival will stay at the same capacity, will still have just the one and only stage, will still be BYO, will still have no commercial sponsors and no commercial signage onsite, and will still in essence be what it was 20 years ago. The festival runs from Friday 10 until Sunday 12 December; acts playing include Dirty Three, Neil Finn, Girls, Custard and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.

ICONOGRAPHY

Montreal’s masters of brutality, Despised Icon, have marked Australia as the next target on their final world tour before the band ends. November will be the first time that the deathcore six-piece hit these shores, for a run of six shows Australia-wide. Since 2002, Despised Icon have been giving the world a true lesson in musical violence and nowhere is this more evident than in their most recent album, Day Of Mourning. With six releases under their belts and having toured the world with the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder, Behemoth, Hatebreed and Parkway Drive, Despised Icon are now turning their attention to Australia. Joining Despised Icon on the road will be Melbourne’s metal heavyweights The Red Shore and Sydney’s Thy Art Is Murder. The bands play the Hi-Fi on Thursday 11 November.

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FRIDAY

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TRIVIA NIGHT

RICHARD STANLEY PLAYS RECORDS!

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DJ SHORTSLEEVES

DOUBLE DAPPIN’

Heading our way in December for the Meredith Music Festival, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings have announced they’ll play their own show at the Palace on Tuesday 7 December with support from the Victor Valdes Trio and DJ Miss Goldie. Having played hundreds of shows around the world and released another longplayer, I Learned The Hard Way, since their last trip to Australia, The Dap-Kings have also expanded on stage. The inclusion of two of Brooklyn’s finest back-up singers has turned the band into an 11-piece soul revue that is hard to top.

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THE HIRED GUNS

TEGAN & SARA TO SUPPORT JOHNSON Tegan & Sara and Ash Grunwald will support Jack Johnson at his Wednesday 8 December Sidney Myer Music Bowl performance. Johnson’s fifth studio album, To The Sea, debuted at number one and has produced two singles, You And Your Heart and At Or With Me. The latter’s new video features Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live fame (whose SNL skit The Mellow Show is hosted by Samberg playing Johnson) as an over-zealous heckler who gets under the skin of the normally unflappable Johnson, and will soon hit Australian TVs. Johnson’s 2008 tour established a relationship with more than 25 non-profit groups, such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, CERES and the Australian Conservation Foundation, donating money and time to promote their work in the field of environmental education and sustainable agriculture. As well as providing an onsite presence for these groups as part of the Village Green, Jack will once again be donating 100% of his 2010 world tour profits to charity. Learn more about the tour’s philanthropic efforts at allatonce.org.

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OPEN FIRE DINNER 7 NIGHTS LUNCH: SAT 12PM/SUN 1PM BOOKINGS ESSETIAL

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There are only eight songs on the wordy debut solo album by The Drones’ GARETH LIDDIARD, but five run more than seven minutes and one clocks in at 15. “Why write a fourand-a-half-minute song when it’s not gonna get on Triple J anyway?” he asks DOUG WALLEN.

WORDS COUNT

mid a stretch of face-to-face interviews, Gareth Liddiard lounges nonchalantly in a cosy back room of Fitzroy’s Rose Hotel. His keenly awaited solo debut, Strange Tourist, is the reason for these interviews, and yet there’s another Drone present: Liddiard’s partner and the band’s bassist, Fiona Kitschin, who’s running the day’s schedule just as nonchalantly. Kitschin flips through magazines before ducking out at one point. Unruffled and affable, Liddiard is a comforting presence in the corner, giving thoughtful answers that are much more succinct than the babbling brook of songs heard on Strange Tourist. The first topic is obvious: stepping out from his iconic rock band to stand bare, as it were, with just words and an acoustic guitar. “Well, I’ve done lots [of it],” he begins. “When we had time off from touring, I’ve filled in the gaps, pretty much just ’cause it’s fun, and played all The Drones’ tunes. Because that’s how they are, before I go to The Drones.” So is it a low-pressure thing or a source of renewed butterflies? “It’s heaps easier,” he assures me. “More informal, if you can call it informal. It’s not as exhausting, so you can talk between songs. With The Drones it’s more daunting because of the physical workout.” Asked whether the sparser, more folk-based few songs on the last Drones record, Havilah – say, The Drifting Housewife and Your Acting’s Like The End Of The World – foretold his solo album in any way, Liddiard says, “I’ve always had those [kind of] songs. But as far as touring, if we have to take two acoustic guitars as well as two electric guitars, the bills rack up. The potential’s always been there, but with Havilah, we thought, ‘Let’s just do it regardless of whether or not we can play it live’. Then with this, it’s very easy to play it live.”

“

Lightnin’ Hopkins is a big influence… where there’s just no form. There [only] has to be a beginning and an end, and you just take your time and enjoy the ride.”

That’s almost an understatement. Strange Tourist reduces Liddiard’s craft to the simplest of ingredients, feeling as naked and intimate as an eavesdropped confession. The approach puts his words and voice at the fore, his acoustic guitar a meek companion by comparison. With so few frills, there’s nowhere to dwell except on the slow-burn tales of assorted misfits and outsiders, some derived from real life and others simply dreamed up. Liddiard’s voice is as frayed and unpredictable as ever, although he doesn’t raise it often, and he adopts a weedy falsetto on You Sure Ain’t Mine Now. There are only eight songs, but five run more than seven minutes and the closing The Radicalisation Of D is 15. Yet they don’t feel that long, and they’re close-quarters enough to put us right next to Liddiard as the record is being cut in a 19th-century mansion in rural New South Wales. “It was really cool,” he recalls. “Burke Reid was [recording] Jack Ladder and had all the gear there. He was originally gonna come to [us], but when we rang him, he said, ‘Well, it’s all set up’. He swang a cheap price for the ten days we were there, so we just went.”

DRONING ON Pic by Kelli Morris

Even for such an uncomplicated record, ten days isn’t long. Did it feel rushed, or was it fairly comfortable? “It was bordering on rushed,” Liddiard says. “That’s the thing: you can always do more.” But maybe, with this kind of album, it was better to not do more. “Yeah, I reckon,” he cedes. “And just to get it out of the way, rather than worry about it too much.” For most musicians, recording in a mansion would be the most offbeat move possible. But for Liddiard, it shoulders somewhere alongside The Drones cutting Gala Mill on a Tasmanian farm and Havilah at Liddiard and Kitschin’s home near Mount Buffalo. “We always record somewhere weird these days,” he agrees. “It brings an enthusiasm when you’re somewhere exciting.” Befitting the workmanlike vibe of the album, Liddiard and Reid kept busy during the few hours of each day they weren’t recording, from walking the dog to amassing enough firewood to keep the cavernous space heated. Still, it was a relief compared to the punishing pace of making Havilah, also with Reid. “We did it so fast,” winces Liddiard. “That’s a way of recording I don’t want to do again, because we had like eight weeks to do everything. We had no music, no words. At least with this I had all the parts, just in the spare-parts department.” He says the music for Strange Tourist came first, in pieces, and then the words. Told that it’s a very lyricheavy album, he counters, “Well, the alternative was guitar. I mean, I couldn’t do it with the band, because then it’d just be another Drones record. It was an acoustic guitar and me, so it was either more guitar noodling or more words.” As for the decision to let the songs run so long, he explains, “I just let it happen. For me, it’s more unnatural to write four-and-half-minute, radiofriendly things. I think you can have a ten-minute song, and if it has ten choruses, then it’s too long. You can have a ten-minute song, and if it has four choruses, it doesn’t feel like ten minutes. That’s the way I see it.” What about the connecting theme of troubled minds, alienated personalities, and the misunderstood inhabits of life’s fringes? “It seems to be sort of a habit of mine,” reckons Liddiard. “All the words were only written eight weeks before recording… or 90% of them were. It just happened like that. When you write songs, you don’t have the finish line, or the location of the finish line, in mind. You can throw everything in to fill in the gaps, arrange it all, and see where you wind up. And that’s what happened.” As haphazard as it may sound, that approach yielded some of the strongest songwriting of Liddiard’s career. And lest we forget, this is the man who wrote Shark Fin Blues. The solo album is thick with portentous atmosphere, reverberating with the consequences of actions seemingly before they happen. There are also some incidental lines that jump out, like, “Is she a schoolgirl or an ostrich?/She’s all eyelashes and bones” (Highplains Mailman) and, “The stars are shimmering like the cymbals at a Broadway show” (She’s My Favourite). The show-stopping The Radicalisation Of D is sure to be controversial, imagining what might inspire a Caucasian

like David Hicks to become radicalised. Its nearly 1300 words of lyrics touch on turmoil in the Middle East, personal traumas seared in place from childhood and the way the popular perspective can determine whether a tragedy is a global event or a disposal footnote. “With Hicks,” begins Liddiard, “it’s just absurd how that comes up on the news but everyone’s more interested in getting hysterical. They’re not interested in what happened. They’re more interested in letting off steam, fucking huffing and puffing about nothing.” When it came to keeping that song in all its quarter-of-an-hour glory, meanwhile, that was an easy decision. “When I first recorded it, just to listen back and see what it was like, I thought it was seven minutes,” he relays. “And it was like 14. But why write a four-and-a-half-minute song when it’s not gonna get on Triple J anyway?” The openness of that song and others is key to Strange Tourist, which can keep listeners at arm’s length for the first listen or two. After all, so many of us are conditioned to tidy, hummable pop songs, and Liddiard has written pretty much the opposite. But ultimately, they reel us in. And for his part, Liddiard saw no reason to hem himself in. “Lightnin’ Hopkins is a big influence on this sort of thing,” he says, “where there’s just no form. There [only] has to be a beginning and an end, and you just take your time and enjoy the ride.” Armed with a single in opener Blondin Makes An Omelette (“It’s just the shortest song. There’s no other reason”) and ready to launch the album to a mostly seated crowd at the Thornbury Theatre (“I feel a bit guilty for making them stand there for an hour and a half without making them dance”), Liddiard is completely at peace with his solo debut. While he’s working on a special project with The Drones, he seems pleased to let these songs speak for themselves. If he appears especially mellow – certainly compared to his ferocious presence on stage with The Drones – perhaps it’s the result of living in regional Victoria for more than two years now. In other words, he got out of the city and isn’t regretting it one bit. “I really like it,” he confirms. “I mean, it just gets to the point where the whole city is like a giant pub. All you do is get drunk with your friends. I was getting sick of that. It’s just relentless social action, which is draining.” The fact that he said all that while sitting in a Fitzroy pub isn’t exactly ironic – it’s a weekday afternoon and he’s not drinking. But if escaping the crushing hangover cycle of city life can yield an album as open yet pointed as Strange Tourist, perhaps more of us had better pull up stakes and head for the country. Either that, or simply put on Liddiard’s record and let it carry us off somewhere else altogether. His songs are good at that. WHO: Gareth Liddiard WHAT: Strange Tourist (Shock) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 5 November, Thornbury Theatre

ith Liddiard making a solo splash and drummer Mike Noga pursuing his own band as well as backing Augie March’s Glenn Richards, where does that leave The Drones? Well, the band may be between albums, but there’s still activity in the camp. The first order of a business is to finish mixing and editing a live DVD with an unusual premise: showcasing songs the band can’t often play live, due to the logistics of towing extra equipment on the road. “Parts of it were shot at the East Brunswick Club,” explains Liddiard. “I think people were under the impression that that was the DVD. It was actually more to raise money for what we were doing in this big old warehouse in Fairfield: setting up with a bunch of gear we wouldn’t use usually, because we don’t have the money to lug it around. So we set up a massive amount of gear and played songs we can’t usually do and filmed and recorded it all. We’ll put it out next year, after the Christmas and summer rush.” What gear does that include? “Big keyboards. Two people playing keyboards rather than one. Acoustic guitar,” he rattles off. “It was fun to do. We play so much, it can get boring doing the same old shit over and over again. I mean, you basically get this rock’n’roll or punk rock show [usually]. But if we had more money, you’d get something a bit different. You’d get that, too, but more.” Reflecting on the gradual but steady success of The Drones over the band’s dogged career, Liddiard says he’s been able to pursue music full-time – instead of working a day job – since 2006. “It was probably when we won the AMP award,” he recalls. “It was three lucky breaks that came all around the same time. Had it been one or two or had they been more far apart on the calendar, it wouldn’t have happened, but because they came in three and close together, it worked.” The last job he worked – and partner/bassist Fiona Kitschin too – was renting TVs to ailing long-term patients in hospital wards, a soul-sucking endeavour that comes up in the title track of Strange Tourist: “The first time I’d seen a coma on the ward/The sister said he won’t be needing TV now.” “It was the fuckedest job,” he admits. “It was fuckin’ brutal as. The dole made us do it. We had no choice.” While The Drones have remained very much their own band, and somewhat meat-and-potatoes compared to the fashionable overnight successes that clog the airwaves of Triple J, Liddiard says support from that station and others has been key to the band’s financial independence. “We don’t get high rotation,” he points out, “but we’re in there, and that would be one of the main reasons we can make a living out of it. It never seems like we’d get high rotation. With this [solo record], it’s just an acoustic guitar, so I can’t imagine them putting it between British India or Lily Allen.” Finally, though, the big question: what’s the status of the next Drones album? “After we do the DVD, I have to write more songs,” Liddiard says. “And every time me or the band or anyone has a plan, it never works out anyway. So it seems pointless to say when. I could say, and then something else would happen. We always get around to it, but it’s the when part I don’t know. I’ll stay away from that.”

WIZE UP A trip to Jamaica meant a pool of likeminded talent to work with on roots outfit BLUE KING BROWN’s second album, singer NATALIE PA’APA’A tells MICHAEL SMITH.

we need to recognise each other, irrelevant of colour, race, creed, religion. It’s also about being centred and a balanced person, with each direction representing spirituality, mental health, physical health and emotional health. Then there’s a whole belief system behind that and that was really inspiring for me personally.” All that became part of the lyrical fabric of the album, underpinned by what they describe as urban roots, but is heavily based in roots/dub/dancehall reggae. Pa’apa’a’s lyrical concerns have been obvious throughout the band’s career – a commitment to the environment, which earned them a natural berth in the 2007 Live Earth concert series; social justice and equality in all things including gender – but these issues are even more focused on Worldwize. These are then emphasised in the people brought in to collaborate on a number of tracks. “We tracked all the instrumentation for this album in Melbourne and then we took all the tracks to Kingston, Jamaica and recorded all the vocals there, just myself, Carlo and Hailey Cramer, our backing singer at the time. Then we got a local backing singer who was incredible, Rovleta Fraser, as well. Being there in Kingston really opened the door of opportunity for us to work with people like Queen Ifrica, Sly & Robbie and Jah Mason.

“W

hen we set out to create this album, the initial intention was just to make a group of really kick-arse songs; some really solid tracks,” Blue King Brown’s Natalie Pa’apa’a explains of Worldwize (Part 1 North And South), sitting at a table on the balcony of a Surry Hills hotel gratefully soaking up some Sydney sun having left a frosty Melbourne this morning. “Along the way, the whole concept evolved into this double disc – Northside, Southside – and we’ll also be releasing an East and Westside, to complete the four cardinal directions. “So I guess the process was a two-year creative learning curve for us. We obviously wanted to release something that we’re happy with but that we felt would help push us to the next level in our career, and a lot of the sounds that we personally were listening to and getting inspired by were sounds that were coming out from international territories, like the dancehall from Jamaica and a bit of hip hop out of the States and of course world music – we love world music. So we really made a very strong decision to not release this album until we were 100% satisfied with it and if that was going to take two years then so

be it. I think the album is much better for us having gone through this process of learning and perfecting our sound, but also we learnt how to use our studio to its best ability. We did a lot of post-production this time. That’s where most of the time went, with post-production.” Blue King Brown have certainly come a long way from its humble beginnings in Byron Bay where songwriting partners Pa’apa’a and Carlo Santone started out jamming as a percussion duo with locals and anybody who cared to join in. Moving to Melbourne in 2004, by the time they released their debut single, Water, Blue King Brown had grown into an eight-piece. Their debut album, Stand Up, released on their Roots Level label, was also picked up by a Japanese label. But, more importantly, they began picking up international supports not only locally but internationally, hitting US stages in particular opening for the likes of Carlos Santana, Damien Marley and Michael Franti & Spearhead, as well as our own John Butler Trio, with whom they have toured off and on since the band’s beginnings and with whom they’re about to again head out on tour across Australia.

“That’s another reason the record took this amount of time because, at the exact time that we were creating the album, we were also putting our feet in the door, for the first time, in international territories touring. And that takes a lot of energy for a band like us. We’re a big band, we’re independent and it just takes time. But again I feel the album is better for it because the influences that we got and inspiration from touring around the world is reflected in what you hear now in Worldwize. “Just being out there in the world, I personally had a few realisations about how small our planet is. You can fly overnight and be in a completely different country with a whole new language, or not even fly so far, yet we’re all very similar because we’re human. The other main inspiration behind the four directions is the Native American philosophy and the medicine wheel, which is a very sacred symbol to a lot of Native American nations. My grandma’s Native American from south California and the medicine wheel is basically a circle and there’s a cross in the middle and there are four colours that go with it – white, black, yellow and red – and they represent all the people from all four directions of the world and how

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“And I think that we found, especially that track with Queen Ifrica [Women’s Revolution], she’s one of my favourite female lyricists. I love her style, I love the rawness in her style; she’s very clever in her lyrics and she’s a powerhouse. I saw her live when we were there and she totally blew out of the water every other act that graced the stage. And there were some big acts. She’s special and it was such a great thing that we could get her on board for this and obviously her music is very conscious as well. “Bulby [Colin York], who engineered the Southside [which is actually a dub disc], who is Sly & Robbie’s live engineer, hooked us up with Queen Ifrica and he mixed and recorded her in Kingston and then sent us her part. Obviously the rest of the song was recorded so she could hear what it was about and… I know that she’s awesome but what she sent back was just spot on – killer!” WHO: Blue King Brown WHAT: Worldwize (Part 1 North And South) (Lion House/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Festival Hall; Saturday, Bendigo Centre; Sunday, Geelong Performing Arts Centre

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DON’T HOLD BACK Green Day set their stage on fire and AC/DC had them opening on their arena tour. It’s been a surreal beginning for CALLING ALL CARS, guitarist and vocalist HAYDN ING tells TONY MCMAHON.

illed as the definitive debut album, Hold, Hold, Fire from Melbourne three-piece excitement machine Calling All Cars – even though it has been in release since March – seems to have an energy and impetus all its own, with kick-arse singles gaining significant national airplay. Brothers Haydn and James Ing, along with Adam Montgomery, have been busy lately, to put it mildly, playing support slots that most groups would sell their eternal rock’n’roll souls for, so it’s understandable that they’ve only this month gotten around to touring their record. The wait, however, has been decidedly worth it, with what promises to be amazing shows the length and breadth of the country. Interestingly, Haydn Ing says that all the gigging the band have been doing recently has made them a much better studio proposition as well. “Getting all that experience on the road gives you the chance, I guess, to get to know your instrument. And I suppose we learned all about how the other band members worked, just sort of locking in together. We also really wanted to capture that live energy that we have on stage on the record. It was really interesting, actually, because we started the record early last year in Melbourne and only finished it this year, so it was a full process that we went through over 12 months between touring and stuff. It’s kind of hard to capture that live energy, but I think we did an all right job.” Hold, Hold, Fire was produced by Tom Larkin, and according to Ing, the talented deskman, who has produced Young & Restless and The Getaway Plan, was largely responsible for the record’s appealing balance of rawness and slickness. It seems, too, that knob-twisting is not Larkin’s only talent: he’s also not backwards in coming forwards where constructive criticism is concerned. “He was awesome for us. He pushed us to our limits and got the best out of us. He’s the drummer for Shihad, so he’s had a lot of experience both in Australia and overseas. He’s seen how it’s done, so yeah, it was great; he was kind of brutally honest with us. We really needed that. It was fantastic.” Another feature of what is sure to be Hold, Hold, Fire’s continuing success is a familiarity to the music that never approaches pastiche or cliché, but rather revolves around killer hooks and harmonies that present themselves at the same time as both fresh and

So, what about AC/DC? Ing says they were lovely fellas, albeit slightly hard to get to know. “That whole experience was just massive and overwhelming. We tried to get a meet and greet thing happening but it had to go through this guy, who had to go through that guy kind of thing. So it didn’t actually happen. On that tour they had all their family along so they just wanted to spend time with them, I suppose. We did get to bump into them, we did get to say hi and thanks for having us and they were really great, they were really friendly. They told us they really liked our stuff, which was fantastic.”

recognisable. Of course, it could also have something to do with the fact the band have already released singles from the record. Ing says that it’s all about giving the music a proper chance. As well as this, there was a deliberate ‘all killer, no filler’ strategy going on from the moment the album was conceived. “Yeah, we’d already released one of the songs, Animal, off our EP, which is on the album as well. We really wanted to give that song a chance; it’s one of our best songs. The decision wasn’t entirely ours; the label had a lot to do with it. They’ve really gotten behind the record.

“Given it was our first album, we just kind of thought we’d go out and try to write as many singles as we could, see what we came out with. I guess we wanted to make the record a bit of a compilation of who we are and what we are and a bit of an introduction into what we do. I think that’s kind of what we went for. We’ve actually had a few people say it’s a really familiar sound. I guess other bands have also rubbed off on us. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but that’s how it is.” The last year has seen Calling All Cars playing support slots to some of this country and the world’s finest

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION “It’s this payola system of exploitation and corruption.” REGURGITATOR frontman QUAN YEOMANS spews forth exactly what he thinks of major record labels. BRYGET CHRISFIELD listens up. at any particular time. The A&R guy, maybe, but they really care about making a reputation for themselves.” The digital age has offered artists the freedom to release material independently and in a variety of formats and Yeomans believes it’s essential to do this in order match the current listener mentality. “You have the opportunity to release as much as you want or as little as you want and people will pick and choose as much as they like, which is the way I do it so I can’t expect anyone to do it any different to me… I think there are people that are still gonna release bodies of music in whatever size they want, it’s just that you can do it any way. You don’t have to use the old paradigm, which was developed ages ago and is now completely redundant.”

“I

t’s funny, because I just got an email from my manager saying that Kanye West had released a press release basically saying exactly the same thing, except he’s gonna do it every WEEK now,” Regurgitator’s outspoken frontman, Quan Yeomans, says of his band’s intention to release new material on a monthly basis. “Yeah, he’s a psycho,” he adds with a laugh. Future Regurgitator output will be made available digitally, for streaming and purchase, via the band’s online portals with physical copies pressed to tie in with tours. “lt’s back to the days of recorded music being a promotional tool,” Yeomans opines. “Elvis was really the first one that started selling records at a rate that made it worthwhile creating these industries – these corporate industries.” Yeomans speaks candidly about what he refers to as the “incredibly powerful paradigm” put in place by major record labels. “We’ve been a successful band,

rock‘n’roll acts: Cog, The Butterfly Effect, Grinspoon and the daddy of them all, AC/DC. The question of television sets in swimming pools asks itself, of course, but Ing says that it’s the pyrotechnics associated with a certain American punk band that has affected him most deeply. “One of the best stories – it just kind of a crazy experience, really – is about when we got a phone call in December last year from Green Day. It was about two weeks before a show they were going to play in Auckland and they wanted us to support them. At the time I didn’t have a passport so I got one of those quick passports. It all happened so fast but we made it over there and played this stadium with 20,000 people. We played two shows and Tre Cool from Green Day got up on stage with us and he had this wireless pyro remote that sets off all the explosions and stuff. During the chorus of Hold, Hold, Fire he started setting off all these huge fires. Actually, it scared the shit out of us. After the show we got to hang out and have a few drinks with them, too. That was awesome.”

we were very successful, and we sold a lot of records because of the machine behind us,” he acknowledges. “And the amount of money we generated for them was astronomical compared to what we got paid. What these kind of companies are clinging to is money, it’s just complete exploitation. They don’t deserve anything for what they do. It’s this payola system of exploitation and corruption, really, which is like most things. “Another way of looking at it is that when you look at a major record label, what you’re looking at is a bank and they’re giving loans to artists and basically recouping those loans by exploiting the artist. And they’re doing much more than recouping, the interest rate is ridiculous, they’re making so much more money than a bank does, anyway… And half these people don’t give a fuck about music, you know. Like, the guys, they really cared about football – at the top of the chain, especially – they don’t care about what band is doing the most interesting thing

Regurgitator’s latest Distractions EP comprises four songs and Yeomans confesses, “We were a little bit panicky about having something for the tour and stuff like that. It’s not really indicative of how we’re gonna work from now on, I don’t think… That last splash of songs we actually recorded at Head Gap, which is a proper studio, but [it] was a bit of a rush job because we were a little bit overwhelmed by the last project we were doing, which was Akira, which was like three months of our lives pretty much solidly, and we were still in the process of working out how we were gonna approach recording music in the future.” The Akira project of which Yeomans speaks saw Regurgitator commissioned by Sydney’s Graphic animation conference to compose a score that they would perform live during a one-off showing of the anime classic. This event was held last month at the Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House. On whether the band is keen for an encore performance down the line, Yeomans admits, “We’d love to take it to Japan just to see whether people like it. You just need a big projector that makes the movie the most important thing, which is what it is. But that was the interesting thing about working on it – you kind of become secondary to this beast that happens behind you. I mean, it’s an incredible piece of work – that movie is a masterpiece in its own right. So actually we did feel a little bit overawed by it in some ways… I mean, when you listen to the original soundtrack – when we first listened to it – we were like, ‘Damn! This thing is incredible,’ and that movie

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But enough about past gigs, Calling All Cars are about to embark on a huge national tour to promote Hold, Hold, Fire, including a significant number of shows in regional areas, and Ing says that they will be a much different affair for anyone who might have caught them recently in one of their support slots. “I think we’re actually under a bit of pressure to do things differently. In the past, we’ve been taking the approach in the support slots that it’s not our crowd and we need to win them over. When you’re doing your own tour, the crowd are there to see you and you can have a bit more fun with it, I guess. We’ll also be playing a whole lot of new songs, making more of a show of it and just taking it to that next level.” WHO: Calling All Cars WHAT: Hold, Hold, Fire (Shock) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Corner Hotel

took a billion years to make so you can imagine how much time they had on the soundtrack as well. So it was a bit daunting and also a bit scary to try and match it. But I think if the opportunity arises again, it would be great [to do it again], definitely. We put so much work into it, it’d be strange just to do it once.” Another multimedia extravaganza Regurgitator immersed themselves in recently was a contemporary dance collaboration called Rock Show, which Yeomans describes as being “the most physical thing [they’ve] ever done”. “It was an ongoing collaboration,” he explains. “[Gavin Webber, choreographer] mounted the show in six weeks, which is very fast for a dance show – normally it would take about three months. So it was a very chaotic, very intense period of rehearsing and writing. They were writing right up to the very last minute. They changed some of the choreography on the opening night and, as a result, I ran headlong into one of the dancers and gave her a concussion that lasted about ten days. But it’s just par for the course for these guys. The things they do with their bodies, it’s just insane.” Yeomans admits the ‘Gurge “feel more relaxed in makeshift studios and places that are really uncomfortable and weird, like Federation Square” than in a recording studio environment these days. The Band In A Bubble concept was dreamed up by their manager, Paul Curtis, and was a world first in 2004. “I actually loved it,” Yeomans recalls of spending three weeks under public scrutiny while recording Regurgitator’s Mish Mash! album in a glass bubble specifically constructed for the purpose. “I think it was one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever done… The original idea was to be much more of a performance art thing. It had that corporate face because that’s the only way we could afford to do it… We didn’t really care, we were just happy to have the experience and to let people see what a human zoo is like. “There was so much weird interaction going on between us and the outside world. Like, they could hear us but we couldn’t hear them. So they’d have conversations with us on their mobile phones – just typing and pushing [the phone] up against the glass. You could talk to them but they couldn’t say anything back. And then we’d have all this mail every day and kids saying cute things.” WHO: Regurgitator WHAT: Distractions recordings (Valve) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, the Hi-Fi

Presents

FAITHLESS PHOENIX

SASHA

NAS DAMIAN MARLEY CEE LO GREEN KELIS LUDACRIS ERYKAH BADU FRIENDLY FIRES and

TICKETLSE ON SA FROM16 THURST SEP

MIIKE SNOW FAKE BLOOD RUSKO SIDNEY SAMSON JANELLE MONAE MIKE POSNER YOLANDA BE COOL KOOLISM KILL THE NOISE TIM & JEAN FENECH-SOLER

FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE SUNDAY 13 FEBRUARY For tickets and all details go to gvf.com.au 18+ only. Valid I.D. must be shown to gain entry. Public Transport to and from the event is highly recommended.

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REBOOTING THE FACTORY “We got wasted on tequila and we were able to get all our feuds out,” FEAR FACTORY guitarist DINO CAZARES reveals to SAMUEL J FELL of his reunion with vocalist Burton C Bell.

ear Factory, despite being one of the most influential metal bands of our time, are no longer a New Machine. To many, they’re a machine that should have been junked long ago, left to rust in peace with the rest of the soulless multitudes who began something towering and pure in their heyday but who stumbled and fell, refusing to throw in the towel, dead and dying on their collective feet. Personally, I don’t think Fear Factory are a band who ever sank that low, and although their last few records have lacked any sense of diabolical urgency (as their early material had in spades), although they’ve not scaled the dizzying heights of the early to mid-‘90s, although they are an old machine now, they’ve still had that spark, no matter how dormant it’s seemed.

caused Cazares to leave the band back in 2002 – he’s now back in his rightful place, shredding strings for Fear Factory. Bassist Byron Shroud, who joined the band for the Transgression record in 2005 is still contained within the fold, as is new drummer, Gene Hoglan, formerly of Strapping Young Lad. And guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers and original drummer Ray Herrera? As far as Bell and the Fear Factory name are concerned, they no longer exist. Yes, this is a band who currently know what they want and, despite what’s happened, are out to reclaim some much needed respect, admiration, some downright heavy metal credibility. No matter who they have to fuck along the way.

These days, things have changed, and it seems that spark may well reignite once more. Vocalist Burton C Bell has patched up his differences with original guitarist Dino Cazares; differences that

In a nutshell, that’s how Bell lifted this band out of the funk into which it’d descended, and began to revive it. Not to say Olde Wolbers and Herrera (especially) were bringing the band down, but the exclusion of Cazares was the lynchpin, he needed to be brought back, and it seems internal disputes between Bell and “the other two guys” made his decision easier.

“Yeah, it’s been a turbulent ride, but it’s been very exciting, I’ll tell you that,” says Cazares himself, a man very happy to be back where he is. “But Burt decided to bring me back into the band, he decided it was time and he just wanted to put the water under the bridge and move on. And the other two guys didn’t want to do that, so Burt said, ‘Screw you guys, I’m bringin’ Dino back, we’re bringin’ this classic sound back’.”

“None of that affected the writing of this new album at all,” Cazares is at pains to mention, referring to his first record with the band since 2002, Mechanize, released earlier this year. “As an artist you learn how to separate business and creativity, so that’s what me and Burt did, we really focused on writing this album.”

“We wrote the record really fast, and it wasn’t because we were trying to, it just came out that way. It’s fair to say that the feeling in the band is amazing and we’re very excited to be playing together.” It’s almost, at this point in the band’s career, that the focus should be solely on how, and indeed why, they’re operating. Almost. For it’s the music they create from here on in that will confirm or deny what they’ve done, what’s happened to them, over the past year or so. Is bringing Cazares back into the fold for the good of the music? Is cutting ties so severely with Olde Wolbers and Herrera for the good of the band itself, of it’s sound and it’s standing in the world of heavy music? Mechanize, then, has a lot riding on it. Many could care less what happens behind the scenes; all they want is music that connects with them and makes them feel alive. Others watch closely, for it’s what does happen behind the scenes that shapes what comes out of their speakers when the band do release once more. It’s a fine line, and one that seems forever blurred, but with Bell and Cazares back together, this is, perhaps, the most positive point in the band’s career in some time. “I was a little sceptical. I wasn’t sure on how it was gonna be,” muses Cazares about working with Bell once more. “But then we sat down and had a few beers, got a little wasted on tequila and we were able to get all our feuds out and once that happened, we were really able to concentrate on the music, and boom, it just snapped, everything just clicked. We wrote the record really fast, and it wasn’t because we were trying to, it just came out that way. It’s fair to say that the feeling in the band is amazing and we’re very excited to be playing together.” So the question remains then – how good is Mechanize? How is it a return to the band’s roots, if at all? How much of a difference has it been, for original members Bell and Cazares, working with Stroud and Hoglan? “Gene, for the most part, brought something very different to the band as far as drumming goes,” Cazares tells. “There’s a lot of tom and fill work on the album, and we didn’t really have that on previous records because Raymond wasn’t really good at doing that. So we had this opportunity to open it up a little bit and try something a little bit new. Plus, they both [Shroud and Hoglan] come from Strapping Young Lad, who were influenced by Fear Factory, so they both know our style already and so could just jump straight in.” If nothing else, Mechanize has about it an energy that is unmistakably Fear Factory. There’s a new enthusiasm there that certainly hasn’t been present since 1998’s, Obsolete, which ironically is how the band began to seem to many of its longtime fans not long afterwards. This is now, though. A rebirth, a new battle in the eternal war between man and machine, as Bell would no doubt put it, a return to the spineshaking industrialism of old – the cogs are whirring and the spark is brightening. The band are already moving forward. “I’ve already got a bunch of ideas recorded [for a new record],” tells Cazares, “but I’m not really gonna dive into it until sometime next year.”

WHO: Fear Factory WHAT: Mechanize (Stomp) WHEN & WHERE: Tonight and Thursday, Rod Laver Arena

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SINGLED OUT BY CLEM BASTOW

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SINGLE OF THE WEEK

PIKELET REMIX EP Chapter Music

MAGIC KIDS MEMPHIS Remote Control

BOMBAZINE BLACK MOTION PICTURE Letters And Tapes

THE TONGUE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Elefant Traks/Inertia

Evelyn Morris is already such a tour-de-force, particularly when playing live solo, that to bring in a cast of thousands to tinker with her work should seem unnecessary; where could remixes possibly take her music? But this is what’s wonderful about this EP – it takes her work (the magical Gameland and the sweetly melancholy Pillow Castles) to equally grand parallel dimensions. Dan Block and Rainbow Connection tackle Gameland (the former’s an amiable ramble; the latter’s a curious march that reminds me of Ry Cooder’s El UFO Cayo), and Slomo Speedboat’s Pillow Castles twists the song in on itself in beguiling fashion. Remixing the best brings out the best in the remixer.

Cello plus violin and sleighbells – Phone, the opening track on this debut outing by Magic Kids, skips along blissfully and you can effectively sing the chorus from I’m Into Something Good by Herman’s Hermits (1964) over the top of it. These Memphis dweebs sing about dating pre-rsvp.com (“I’ll be waiting here right by the phone/I’ll be waiting here ‘til you come home”) and how ‘signs’ and synchronicity once influenced whether or not a crush would blossom into handholding on the school bus. Lyrics are swoon-worthy throughout (“‘There’s no candy sweeter than my baby,’ she turns to me and says”) and Superball, with its “bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce” BV conclusion, takes you back to an age where a cheap novelty item could entertain for hours.

Motion Picture is a record of real delicacy and composure. It is careful, subtle and, at its best, a profoundly affecting listen: an accomplished second offering from Matt Davis of Gersey’s Melbourne-based instrumental outfit Bombazine Black. Texturally Davis draws on the sort of post-rock palette that will be recognisable to fans of Explosions In The Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but the overall effect is markedly different. Only very rarely, for instance, does Davis break from his clean arpeggiated guitar lines into the sort of blasted chords, distortion and feedback so characteristic of the genre. This is an album which deals in ebb and flow rather than brawny climaxes.

Welcome to the future. The Tongue’s back. The evidence is with us seconds into this album. Our host’s frustrating debut, Shock And Awe, is behind us now and we can embrace a new world chock full of big bangers and catchy choruses. Dancing has rarely felt this redemptive.

WEEZER MEMORIES Epitaph/Shock Once upon a time I was horrified to discover that someone had blown their nose (or blown something else; I didn’t luxuriate in investigation) on my Weezer 1994 tour t-shirt; these days I don’t even know where it is. Memories – all false nostalgia for a rock scene I don’t think Weezer ever properly inhabited, excepting perhaps the Make Believe period (regrettably, the Memories vid features the Jackass crew) – is not only emotionally clanging but musically borderline atonal. Rivers Cuomo was once the shrugging respondent to Undone’s inane party bro (“It’s been a while, man, life’s so rad”); now he has become him.

THIRSTY MERC ALL MY LIFE Warner In spite of my better judgment there’s something about Thirsty Merc that sucks me in every time – a little like Guy Sebastian’s truly mystifying Like It Like That infected the minds of the nation – despite the fact that their songs are, in truth, actually quite awful. All My Life is tailor-made for a stirring end of season finale of Packed To The Rafters, which is exactly all you need to know to know all about it.

This set of tracks is bursting with youthful exuberance and will inspire you to dust off that long-forgotten space hopper and have a bounce. The tinkly sweetness of Hey Boy is closest to a Beach Boys composition (hello, California Girls?) and Magic Kids masterfully incorporate the sounds of a full orchestra into these arrangements. A chorus of backing vixens who could be the protagonist’s conscience – “Hey boy, where’s your girlfriend?/She needs your attention/Hey boy, where’s your girl tonight? ” – add a loving teaspoon of sugar and the song wraps up perfectly like a starched, polka dot neckerchief. Skateland’s plonky piano and electric guitar perfectly demonstrate how traditional instruments can happily coexist with their plugged-in counterparts. Closer Cry With Me Baby has a similar upbeatness to We Go Together (from the Grease soundtrack) and when this under-30-minutes of warm fuzzies draws to a close, you’ll flash back to how you felt when you lost your favourite teddy bear in the department store. Magic Kids could be The Partridge Family’s offspring – “Come on get happyyyy! ” Check out the YouTube footage of Magic Kids playing at back-garden children’s parties. All together now – “Awwwwww, bless”.

That is both to Bombazine Black’s great credit and an occasional stumbling block. Because the weakest tracks here – opener Annelets and Montmartre – are also the most restrained. On these, the attempt to nurture space falls short of the full-blown minimalism that would have been necessary to really draw the listener in, with the result that the slow tempos begin to plod and the sparse instrumentation comes across as limp. On Annelets, especially, the synths sound lacklustre. This is true, in fact, at a number of moments on the record. A modest string section would have worked better on almost every occasion. As far as highlights go, Dark Kellys, The Bell Esprit and Springheel Sunsets all deserve a mention. They work because they are able to maintain the space and subtlety that give Motion Picture its character at the same time as they ramp up the intensity. In this respect trumpeter Eugene Ball is put to particularly good use. The question for Bombazine Black is whether, on their next record, they will have the courage to go for even more still. In either direction would be fine, whether subtler and more sparse or grander and more dense. I can’t help but feel Davis and co have plenty more to give.

You see, there were a few years spent in the wilderness for The Tongue. In 2006 with his EP Bad Education he was one of this country’s youngest, best and brightest. His first album was a serious misstep. Alternative Energy is the return to form. There are stutters (“We filling up med schools with plastic surgeons/so you might not live but your teeth will be perfect” is problematic for so many reasons, the existence of dentists not least among them) but through it all there is a confident smile, character, and a reason to keep coming back and back. Catchiness is a funny thing: missing on Shock And Awe but all over Alternative Energy. The songs you least expect to hang on to are the ones that stick the hardest. Proof Of Life, which comes off initially as ‘the obligatory emotional song on the rap record’, is a slow burner. Tongue’s singing voice carries a subtle, nuanced hook deep enough into your subconscious that it will be stuck for days. Australian Gangster is fun. Enforcer is more fun. Innervision, the stoner-paranoid-politik jam featuring Gift Of Gab, bangs. And – of course – The Show is comfortably The Tongue’s best song to date, and that’s saying something. Now let’s hope this patch of form stays. James d’Apice

James Parker

Bryget Chrisfield

ANGIE HART LOVING HATING IT ABC The best thing about Angie Hart’s more recent output is the way she deftly weaves something approaching lyrical self-psychoanalysis into songs that might otherwise be waved away as pleasant pop folk. Loving Hating It is a curious little song – all plinking, gamelan-ish percussion and determined multilayered vocals – that, when combined with its bracing lyrical themes, takes you on a short, yet slightly confronting, journey. Which is, of course, the glory of good pop.

JAMES BLUNT STAY THE NIGHT Atlantic Does this bastard still exist? Truly one of the most unpleasant facets of the music industry since Nickelback, the feyly-voiced wannabe troubadour is clearly trying to ditch his mopecore past by throwing on a strange hybrid of Irish early-’00s faux-West Coast rock (The Thrills) and mid-’90s chart pop (Ronan et al) while cannibalising far better lyricists’ work (“we’ll share the shelter of my single bed”; Billie Jean; pronouncing California as “Cali-fournye-aye”) in an effort to seem upbeat and sunny. It’s about as convincing as a pederast dressed as St Nicholas.

STROMAE FEAT KANYE WEST ALORS ON DANSE Universal This is so confusing to me: Kanye West, who I could listen to reading a manual on paint drying, combined with the sort of Eurodance that really makes you wonder if all European dance artists and DJs (Stromae is Belgian) suffered some kind of mass brain injury that adversely affected their taste in music. So, Kanye faxing in a serviceably belligerent rap, over skronking saxophones and hysterically camp Belgian spoken word and... god knows. Hold me; I’m scared.

KELIS SCREAM Universal An then on the other hand, we have Eurodance as filtered through people who are a little more sensible: there’s something appealingly odd about the way faintly Darudeish bloops explode out of Scream, which begins as just another earnest R&B piano number, while Kelis does her best impression of a professionally bored ‘80s electro ice queen (“Scream and shout”, she deadpans with all the enthusiasm of Marg Downey’s Fast Forward SBS presenter). The combination of genres should be galling but instead Kelis works it effortlessly.

RADIANT CITY NO ERRORS Wireless Records

MURDERDOLLS WOMEN AND CHILDREN LAST Roadrunner Women And Children Last heralds the return of horrormetal supergroup Murderdolls. Eight years have passed since they released their debut album, Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls, and Murderdolls are just as undead as always. There is nothing on this album, generally speaking, that we haven’t already heard from Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Wednesday 13 (Wednesday 13 and Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13) but, if you’re a fan, then that’s probably just the way you like it. No new territory does, in no way, indicate a bad album, though. Women And Children Last is a highly entertaining album, just like Beyond… was, and while the lyrical theme is still in the same ball park, they’ve managed to keep things fresh enough to retain interest and admiration for their dedication to all things monstrous. As was the case with their debut, all instruments on this album were played by Jordison and 13, except for the appearance by Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars on Drug Me To Hell and Blood Stained Valentine (he also co-wrote them). While there are no surface changes, there are some underlying ones, namely a change in producer, mixer and engineer, with Jordison stepping away from the first two roles, and all three roles being handled this time around by Chris ‘Zeuss’ Harris. One of the best things about this band is their sense of humour (just read the beginning of their ‘thank you’ list in the liner notes for that); after all, with such great titles as Chapel Of Blood; Whatever You Got, I’m Against It; and Hello, Goodbye, Die there’s no way they could not have a healthy attitude towards their most deliciously unhealthy music. If you want rock, they’ve got it in spades – and they’re not afraid to bury you in it. Dominique Wall

BRANDON FLOWERS FLAMINGO Def Jam/Universal As the chief songwriter for The Killers, frontman Brandon Flowers’ solo record was always going to sound a little bit like his bombastic Las Vegas anglophile synth-rock band. The main difference here though, is that Flowers tends to turn inward. He’s given to lyrical introspection rather than the shouty, sing-along anthems his band are best known for. This personal, almost confessional feel is probably what characterises Flamingo as a Flowers record and not another by The Killers. Opener Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas is reminiscent in theme of The Killers’ second album Sam’s Town, an ode to Flowers’ complex, two-faced hometown, and the Vegas theme persists. With its chugging classic rock guitar, sweeping synths, pounding drums and an extended lyrical metaphor playing on gambling jargon, Jilted Lovers And Broken Hearts is possibly the most ‘Killers’ song on the whole album. But elsewhere Flowers’ musical influences range far and wide. There are slight country influences throughout the record, when a little bit of lap steel will fold in with the rock and the synth-pop, as it does on ballad Playing With Fire, while The Clock Was Tickin’ is a bona fide, down-home country boot-stomper where Flowers changes his usual reedy croon to a bassier Southern drawl. There’s also a cheeky little bit of castanet and flamenco guitar on Magdalena. Flowers did indeed pen some of these songs for The Killers, but as the band are on hiatus, he’s done them his own way (with occasional help from drummer Ronnie Vannucci, who plays on several tracks). It’s all a far cry from the likes of Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me, but it works – Flowers alone may tend towards a more sedate, pensive musical experience than his band, but he’s ever evolving. It’ll be interesting to see what he brings back to the band after this experience. Baz McAlister

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There’s something about instrumental bands that always grabs me – especially when they create raucous sounds firmly etched in the tradition of post-punk. Maybe it is the slight arrogance of suggesting the music speaks for itself. Perhaps it’s the freedom of allowing the listeners room to interpret song meanings themselves. Or perhaps I just like abrasive, instrumental rock. Whichever it is, Radiant City’s first LP, No Errors, doesn’t disappoint. It throbs and pulses, squeals and thunders through ten songs and 50 minutes, only pausing to breathe late in the proceedings. The Melbourne two-piece have been establishing their place in the instrumental scene for a while now. With four EPs behind them and having already played alongside a long list of impressive names, it was about time that Radiant City released a full-length. They set up shop in guitarist Andrew McLaughlin’s home, flicked all the switches themselves, before turning to an outsider, James Tulczyn, to finalise the mastering process. From the moment album opener Trailer broke, I was sold. Pushed along by the Kyuss-influenced stoner-rock, it immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. June’s driving drum beat and harmonics wouldn’t sound out of place on a Cog record while Safe And Secure has echoes of a bluesy Shellac. But it is Race To The Red where Radiant City really excel – the drums and guitar playing off each other as if they really were partaking in a mad dash to the finish. The album falters a little towards the end. Tracks like Well Timed and In Japan lack the sense of urgency that make up the first half, and the messy, wandering three-and-ahalf minute intro to Two Against Eight takes away from the insistent riffing that drives the latter half. Small errors aside though, No Errors is a solid debut, bound to impress fans and intrigue newcomers. Luke Carter

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CLAUDE HAY DEEP FRIED SATISFIED Only Blues Music

BLACK MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS HEART Jagjaguwar/Inertia

Hailing from the Blue Mountains, dreadlocked multiinstrumentalist Claude Hay not only built his own house and his own instruments, but also customised his tour van with a kitchen and a recording studio to complete his new album. Whilst his roots credentials may be certified by his DIY lifestyle and musical approach, there are some unnerving musical moments on his new album Deep Fried Satisfied.

Why a psych-rock outfit from Vancouver deems it necessary to relocate in order to build their next release between Seattle and LA is beyond me. The resultant effort, Wilderness Heart, reeks of discarding their collective identity and reinventing themselves as a more commercially viable product. The thing reads like a recipe: fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, power-ballad to heartfelt soulsearcher, and universality-of-consciousness-themed nonsense.

It’s clear from the first track, Get Me Some, that Hay has his musical chops down. Virtuoso performances across slide and finger-picked guitar, bass, percussion and some eclectic vocal deliveries ensure that fans of Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper and John Butler in particular will lap up Hay’s brand of roots playing. What is unclear though is whether Hay is delivering his lyrical content with deadpan sincerity, or with his tongue firmly in cheek. Either way the intent is unclear as to whether the listener should laugh at, or along with, Hay’s “message”. In the aforementioned opening cut, Hay delivers a love song dedicated to New York’s culinary delights with the memorable lines, “Statue Of Liberty, Empire State Building/They’re all great things to see, but the number one prize set by me/Pizza baby, yes it’s New York Pizza now”. Elsewhere on How Can You Live With Yourself, Hay drops couplets that describe an unfaithful computer chip manufactured in China. But the nadir comes on Don’t Give Me That Shit, where our composer describes an incident involving a shady internet car purchase which ends with the lines “I call them up on the radio, expose the dodgy yard, don’t you never ever go”.

Black Mountain’s 2008 LP In The Future solidified the group as a bona fide soldier in the ranks of psychedelic rock’n’roll. They were a band that felt self-assured enough to shun the mainstream in pursuit of their own creative freedoms and leftist leanings. In stark contrast, the new record sounds like they’ve gone out, bought beachside property, invested in the stock market and listened to nothing but hard rock and 1970s fantasy-themed concept albums from their bear-skin couches. Opening number The Hair Song is inoffensive enough but hardly comparable to the explosion of In The Future’s opener, Stormy High. Sadly the recording slides steadily downhill from there with a two-three-four combination that smacks of insincerity in its soaring-eagle clichés and unsurprising sine-wave tempo shifts. We’re granted brief reprieve from the sickening grandeur of the thing with seventh track The Way To Gone, and then callously thrown back to the OTT theatrics of the title song.

And whilst the majority of the songs suffer from the over-use of comical lyrical content, the album is almost redeemed by the closing track Miss You So, which ditches the forced lyrical observations for an emotional chaingang chant set to a spare junkyard back beat. Simply brilliant.

The biggest disappointment here is that I don’t get a sense this is supposed to be funny. What could make for fantastic comedy rock opera, complete with exploding buildings and flying angel stage props (à la Tenacious D), is weighed down by the gravity of belief that Black Mountain bring – they deny the listener the opportunity to laugh. One can only hope this is a minor pot-hole in the street of their story.

Symon JJ Rock

Samson McDougall

RE-RELEASE ME

RECENT REISSUES

Like many Aussie bands in the ’60s and ’70s, Sydney’s Autumn changed with the times, losing and gaining members along the way. The band started out doing bubblegum covers and folded after this second album, Comes… Autumn (Aztec), but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth unearthing. The group set strong vocals and competent songwriting to a tasteful grab-bag of styles of the times. There’s psychedelic folk (Falling), sinister blues (Get It Down), would-be prog (Goblin’s Gamble) and a bit of everything in the seven-minute, horn-heralded Kill My World. The standout is the strings-shaded, aptly titled Sad Song.

Five years after Cold Chisel ran its course, Don Walker introduced Catfish, his project with guitarist/producer Peter Walker and harmonica player Dave Blight. Informed by his travels in the interim, the 1989 debut Unlimited Address (Palomarr/MGM) looked to Russia, pre-war blues and cabaret for inspiration. Although steeped in the decade in which it was made, the album sounds timeless. It’s dark, suave and brilliantly worded, spanning smouldering confessionals and deconstructed funk and Motown. The title track even recalls the moody best of The Triffids. There are no bonus tracks or liner notes, but a redesigned booklet complements this utterly compelling work.

In 1973, Aussie jazz icon John Sangster was commissioned to soundtrack a film promoting Surfer’s Paradise. At his disposal was an orchestra, jazz soloists, male and female vocalists, and recordings of Aussie animals in their natural habitat. The resulting Paradise Volume One (Vibraphonic/Aztec) is at once corny and grand. It’s much more lounge and pop than jazz, veering from Shaft-esque wah-wah guitar to fleeting novelty sounds. Each track is based on a theme – as seen in the recreated LP booklet – and the local meter maids inspire some winking cheek. All in all, this is part lark, part unfettered showcase.

By comparison, 1991’s Ruby (Palomarr/MGM) doesn’t hold up as well, despite the formidable addition of bassist Robert Burton and two members of James Brown’s band. There’s more country, blues and rockabilly, from the romping opener Johnny’s Gone – which would be at home on an episode of True Blood – to the slow-burn closer See You Again. Listen for reverbed country licks on Crooked Smile and back-up singers on Charleville, later covered by Slim Dusty. Ruby has been remastered, with one song partly re-recorded. While it doesn’t have the absolute command of its predecessor, it’s a worthy entry in the canon.

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Doug Wallen

HYPER MUSIC

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First Aid Kit

DAVE GRANEY & THE LURID YELLOW MIST SUPERMODIFIED Cockaigne Records/Fuse

Just as this column had been wrapped up for the week, a last-minute track made an appearance that’s so good it cannot wait another two weeks to be spoken about. A mysterious band known as Boxes have covered Franz Ferdinand’s flagship single Take Me Out, and in the process turned it into a piano ballad of The National/ Regina Spektor proportions. Its beauty lies mainly in how the song has been deconstructed; the delicate play between the vocal and piano lines, as if a bar-room pianist had invited a young lass up to join him and the two began playing off of each other, and it just worked. There’s whiskey aplenty spilled all over this recording; where the original exploded into a dance-friendly, angsty pop anthem, Boxes’ version is a cracked, impossibly fragile love letter… to itself. Get it at boxesboxes.bandcamp. com. The synth-pop revival has progressed to such a point now that it cannot be classified simply as a revival anymore, having remained around longer than most musical fads do. What’s exciting now is that as synths become de rigueur we’re witnessing bands coming out that are creating synth-based music that’s in a league of its own – if you were to avoid the last five or so years’ worth of synth-pop and started listening to bands that’ve just come out of that rip tide you would hardly think of the word ‘revival’ at all. Where revivalists were as much about replicating the look of the artists they loved, these much-later bands seem to simply take on the themes and atmosphere of their influences, adding their own touch and delivering them to a new generation.

Just as James Brown sang “I’ve got soul and I’m super bad” (with Brown reappropriating the term bad to be a positive thing), Dave Graney has done same with his latest release, Supermodified. While this is a new release, the material is not. For the sticklers, though, it has been reinvented – hell, it’s been re-sung, re-strung, re-drummed, souped up and ultimately supermodified. The project became a labour of love kickstarted when Graney was planning to digitally re-release his 2003 album, The Brother Who Lived, recorded by The Royal Dave Graney Show incarnation. Like any good aural mechanic, he began tinkering a little and found he couldn’t stop; a tweak here, an improvement there. And why stop? Ten tracks from that album and he might as well throw in four tracks from Heroic Blues (2001) and another four previously unreleased tracks from that era.

JESU INFINITY Avalanche

NINETYNINE BANDE MAGNÉTIQUE Patsy Records

Justin Broadrick’s latest effort is a sprawling, 49-minute epic of pounding beats, distorted metallic bass and droning, abrasive guitars, punctuated intermittently by synths and vocals. All his usual hallmarks are present: the dissonant chords and angular changes, bleak atmospherics, crushing breakdowns and subtle guitar embellishments, all colliding in his signature sound. Whether it be his work with Godflesh or Jesu, Broadrick’s style is unique and immediately recognisable, an influence on countless other musicians.

Continuing their seemingly unstoppable mission to musically define an indefinable genre, Ninetynine’s seventh album is yet another fine achievement, and one that in any just world would garner thousands of new fans and prodigious airplay. Singer and main songwriter Laura MacFarlane is one of the quiet giants of the Melbourne music scene, having done years ago what most bands are struggling to do now: build a profile, a name that reeks of integrity, a sizeable fanbase from multiple international tours, and enough clout to play overseas festivals – without grants, airplay or any industry help at all, in a commitment to quiet, constant industry.

The resulting overhaul has turned the hulking chassis of two albums into a singular, shiny, classic V8 supercar, firing on all cylinders. And, as an antithesis to Graney’s renowned soft’n’sexy sound, this body of work could be known as the evil’n’sinister sound, representing a tough time through which Graney battled personal illness and the deaths of two close friends, one being The Triffids’ David McComb. That creepy overtone is personified in key tracks I’m Seeing Demons, She Looked At Me From Out Of Her Eyes, I Ain’t Natural and While You Live, I Dream. As with all Graney material, his songwriting skill is steering this vehicle and evident in the standout opener The Brother Who Lived, along with other highlights All Our Friends Were Stars, Are We Going Too Fast For Love?, Anchors Aweigh and A Boy Named Epic. In the end, though, I love the rawness of the original releases, the new-found additional nuances do make this album seem like a new release – great for fans and great for newbies as the originals are nigh on impossible to purchase.

Infinity meanders through many changes, beginning with synths and jangling guitar. Close your eyes and crank the volume and this album will take you somewhere else and possibly make your neighbours wonder if someone just opened a portal to another world. The repetitive nature of the droning riffs is hypnotic, as changes cascade over and over and a pained, roaring vocal crashes in a third of the way through. Double bass drums drive over falling chords, giving way to syncopated beats and discordant jumps, ethereal synth pads casting diffuse beams of light through the murk. Feedback wails and moans halfway through, giving way to mournful, distorted chords in an agonisingly slow descent. Much of Infinity is sorrowful and dirge-like, but then gives way to slow picked arpeggios of haunting beauty, gradually raising the mood to a slightly more optimistic feel. The final ten minutes conjure lighter images and a mood of reflection. Ambient, effect-driven guitar movements slowly fade to static, and then away to nothing. Broadrick is a master of sound, playing all of the instruments on Infinity and carving sonic landscapes that are bleak, haunting, hellish, beautiful and alien in turn. On first listen Infinity may seem to echo previous works, but with repeated spins it takes on an identity of its own. This isn’t music for short attention spans or casual listening, but as is usual with Broadrick’s work it’s certainly interesting and worth the effort.

The Boomeister

James O’Toole

Ol’ mate Kanye West is the best thing to happen to Twitter this year (while 50 Cent can safely be described as the worst), and the man keeps delivering with his current Follow Friday-upping ‘Free Track Friday’ (our words, not his), whereby he releases a new track each week on the last work day. At time of press there’s been Monster and Devil In A New Dress, and it’s the latter that’s the stunner, a track of soul-sampling, record crackling goodness, a throw back to Late Education-era West, which is alright by us. Get it at kanyeuniversecity.com. If you need even more of a reason to hate yourself because you’re 25 and yet to achieve anything, First Aid Kit will help. Comprising two sisters that haven’t even hit 20 yet (one’s not even 18), this Swedish duo make beautiful country/folk music, even featuring tremolo mandolin on the track Hard Believer, which you can get on RCRDLBL.com. Considering you can expect another 60-or-so years of activity out of these sisters get in now before you hit 50, discover them, and then find yourself with 30 back-albums to buy. Finally, if you’re after a laugh, some guy by the name of Mustard Pimp has remixed Will Smith’s Fresh Prince Of Bel Air theme song, and it sounds as bad as you’re imagining (AKA it sounds like something Bloody Beetroots would drop mid-set). If you’re the type that likes hearing ironic ’90s songs dropped whilst you’re munted to infinity and beyond, you still might have a difficult time enjoying this. In short, it sounds like the Outhere Brothers by way of Steve Aoki. It will make you want to kill yourself. If you’re curious, you can find it a few pages back on ilictronix.com.

The opening melodic vitriolic burst of shimmering Casio pop Guest List Girls details the hip, inner city gig-going experience from the stage; a breathless and pointed calling card. It’s hard to believe there’ll be a more beautiful song released this year or a more compelling one in their vast back catalogue than the third track Woods, with its atypical string arrangements, perfectly judged dynamics and Catholic vs Protestant subject matter. That Bande Magnétique will likely just become a high point in a lengthy discography discovered years from now and hailed in distant countries as a triumph rather than win new fans is nothing new for MacFarlane and co, and thankfully won’t stop them making more stellar albums like this one. Andy Hazel

Which brings us to a San Franciscan chap called Blackbird Blackbird, who’s just released a new single through his Bandcamp page called Starlight. It’s an ethereal song, drawing heavy influence on bands as diverse as Slowdive, Fleetwood Mac, Cut Copy and Crystal Castles thanks to the dreamy vocal line by guest Steffaloo and its incessant synth groove. Download from blackbirdblackbird.bandcamp.com. This week’s high-profile track comes courtesy of those wee twee kings Belle & Sebastian, who’re giving away their new single Write About Love for a limited time (or until 20,000 people download it) via matadorrecords. com. The song has a cruisey 1960s mod feel, like a lost track from the Blow-up soundtrack – so it’s pretty much what you’d expect from the Scots. What makes this song a little more interesting, however, is the guest vocals from none other than An Education’s Carey Mulligan – the Jane Birkin to Stuart Murdoch’s Gainsbourg. Another actress, another dabble in pop? Well yeah, but Mulligan’s really good. Album please. Or at least more song featurings.

Despite a beloved back catalogue and a litany of smart ideas and catchy melodies, it’s hard not to feel that Bande Magnétique is the greatest album Ninetynine have yet made, one that succeeds richly in what it sets out to do. Lyrics are concise and evocative, all players on top form, the pacing and arrangements inspired and the production perfectly sympathetic to the band’s instrumentation and vision. Musically, Ninetynine channel the warm throb of evelatory, post-grunge, mid-’90s-redolent riffs, and sweltering and bubbling keyboards courtesy of Meg Butler, which MacFarlane’s gorgeously warm voice leaps above and Cameron Potts’s busy but never distracting percussion drives.

VARIOUS ARTISTS 4ZZZ PRESENTS BEYOND THE BANANA CURTAIN Merenoise Records A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… known as Queensland, the evil lord Joh Bjelke-Petersen was obsessed with destroying the young and their civil liberties. Sound dramatic? Those who lived through it, including this ex-Banana bender, can assure it is no exaggeration and what got many a musician and music fan through those dark times was the radio station 4ZZZ. One of Australia’s oldest community-based stations first went to air in 1975 and to celebrate its silver anniversary in 2000, the sensational Behind The Banana Curtain was released. And what a musical chronicle of the times: The Saints, The Go-Betweens, The Screaming Tribesmen, Custard, Regurgitator, Powderfinger and the mighty Riptides. It also contained two tracks that remained burnt into the collective conscious, Task Force by Razar and The Parameters’ anthem, Pig City. Now, ten years on, this follow-up showcases some of the more recent Brisvegas talent from the last decade. Opening with Brisbane City by Mouthguard is a parochial necessity, before rolling out a few well known class acts in SixFtHick (no strangers to Melbourne venues), The Grates, straight-ahead rock outfit Giants Of Science and Queensland legends The Gin Club. There’s something for everyone with punk outfits Dick Nasty, Disables and blues-punksters Vegas Kings, pop sensibilities in Seaplane, I Heart Hiroshima and Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, electro nods from Sekiden, alt.country pop provided by Texas Tea and Iron On and the thrashing guitar rock styling of Gazoonga Attack, Turnpike, Butcher Birds and Violent Soho. While understandably not reaching the dizzying heights of the first double disc release, this still highlights that our country cousins in the Sunshine State have a thriving music scene of their own. Go Maroons!

JUNIP FIELDS City Slang/Shock Fifteen years in the making and something that might have been achieved sooner if not for the success of vocalist/guitarist José González’s solo work, Fields is the debut album by Swedish based Junip, a three-manned squad that errs on the side of old, experimental jam-folk. Utilising classical guitar, Moog (a type of analogue synth) and a dust-covered drumkit, Junip’s emphasis on timbre is engaging and as good as any release by the aforementioned frontman, who has been jamming with drummer Elias Arayas since they were 14. Filled out with the handy finger work of the sensationally named Tobias Winterkorn, tracks like Rope And Summit and Without You tread that vocally layered, unconventional tuning fans of González’s solo work would be familiar with. Modern poetry and mantra-like choruses adorn many of the songs and there is a casual quietness that envelopes something that manages to feel and sound like a ‘70s Latin record, despite the band’s northern European origins. Where it does fall down is the fact that anyone familiar with that voice is going to be wanting the less is more approach, and while the additional instruments fill out the sound, it will take a number of listens and shakes of the head before those familiar with the music can acclimatise themselves to the different set-up. There are also a few dull moments that delay the point, but it suits the album as a whole. Faded The Grain is a haunting reminder that the simple, classic sounds present in this offering are enough to get it over the line as an enjoyable venture, even if it was more than a decade in the making. Adam Wilding

The Boomeister

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FRAZEY FORD OBADIAH Nettwerk/Shock Frazey Ford is one of the founding members of Canadian trio The Be Good Tanyas, purveyors of fine folk music for the past decade. This little detour takes Ford into soul territory, with a sound somewhere between Natalie Merchant and Al Green. Fans of The Tanyas will not be disappointed, as the departure is not a million miles away from the true spirit of the band. Ford’s vocals are just as honest and she’s recruited fellow band member Trish Klein as guitarist to keep it in the family. The difference in the recipe all comes down to a few added spices. There’s a funky, sexy, soulful blend that oozes charm and class, as opposed to the homey, comfy sound of The Tanyas. Not that this album is pretentious or over-produced. Ford, as always, takes a straightforward approach, displaying real musicians playing in real time. There’s poetry in Ford’s lyrics that are a beauty in and of themselves. Hey Little Mama is a song about being a young mother in a bad marriage – “Between the world of the humans and your expanding heart/you’ve been holding your own hand/ever since the start”. There’s a stunning version of Bob Dylan’s One More Cup Of Coffee that ebbs and swells with the help of a swirling Wurlitzer. The banjo comes out on Mimi Song, and this could just as easily be on a Tanyas recording, in all its melancholic grace. Bird Of Paradise is as chirpy and poppish as Ford gets, with its catchy chorus, lush horn section and a gently smouldering trumpet solo. However, even that has a bittersweet quality with the ability to break your heart. Mainly it’s the quivering sound of Ford’s delicate vocals that dominate and define this recording. A real treasure. Kaz Mitchell

ON THE DVD

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COG THE SOUND OF THREE – 12 YEARS WITH YOU Difrnt/Universal If The Sound Of Three… CD and DVD set is intended as a parting shot from the Bondi progressive rock trio it’s a rather comprehensive one. The live album contains a full show recorded last year at the Coogee Bay Hotel, where the band are in extremely tight form, from the majestic Doors to the serene Sharing Space, and the sound quality is striking in its clarity. The connection between the three players has always been the basis of their performances and this is readily evident again. The DVD component also includes this show – the absence of epileptic fit-inducing edits à la Iron Maiden live DVD releases is most welcome. Cog have taken their polyrhythm-driven rock and made significant headway based around quality music and a determined work ethic. The politicised documentary details their progress from pub residencies to filling theatres and attaining gold records, although more interview footage dissecting the origins of the songs would have been appreciated. Ex-Mammal frontman Ezekiel Ox narrates the action and despite being a little too liberal in his praise – while trailblazers in some respects, the band didn’t reinvent the Australian rock wheel quite as much as is sometimes suggested – isn’t intrusive and revels in the success of his friends. The feature also details the obstacles an Australian band – no matter how well established on these shores – encounters when attempting to crack the oft-insular American market. Alleged tension between the band and producer Sylvia Massy during the recording of 2008’s Sharing Space is briefly referenced, but not expanded upon, likely for fear of slandering other parties. Additional live clips and videos round out a package summating this ‘chapter’, but hopefully don’t represent the end of the story just yet. Brendan Crabb

U2 360° AT THE ROSE BOWL Universal They haven’t invented the technology that can capture the magic that is U2 on stage in full flight. IMAX 3D came close but still missed the mark on many, many levels. This latest attempt is just that. An attempt. Not a bad attempt, but still… The lighting’s all shiny. The sound’s passable but still lacking something in the bottom end. The camera work’s edgy and choppy and the editing is everything a very flash music video should be. But the heart’s missing. Seeing Adam Clayton from 30 different angles is no reason to go out and spend your hard-earned money on this, their eighth live DVD. What you want to see is the new stage set, the one nicknamed ‘the Claw’ and lauded as the latest in a long line of groundbreaking rigs for stadium shows. With all the cameras, including some rather nifty helicopter fly-bys, you never really get a sense of what this stage even really looks like, let alone what neat tricks it can perform. It’s almost too big to be encompassed inside the camera lens. Instead you’re left wondering if Bono has ever been told he can’t dance, where exactly Larry Mullen Jnr keeps his Dorian Gray-like portrait and if The Edge’s wife truly appreciates him. The tracklist is great, with the new songs sitting nicely amongst the classics. The inclusion of The Unforgettable Fire is a treat, and watching Bono put his microphone down to let the crowd sing the entire first verse of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For is magic. Those moments, however endearing, are not worth the price of admission here considering what we get in December. Beck Neilsen

JOHN BUTLER TRIO THESE ARE THE DAYS: THE MAKING OF APRIL UPRISING Jarrah Recording an album can be a tedious task; filming a making-of DVD can be even more monotonous, especially when the band has to do it because management ‘says so’. The John Butler Trio turned the whole process into a fun-filled affair, which really shows in the DVD, in that the viewer believes the band are actually enjoying themselves. Including homemade and professional footage, the DVD provides fans with a sneak peak into the behind-thescenes workings of the band. These Are The Days takes you back to April 2009, to when John Butler and newfound band members Nicky Bomba (drums/percussion) and Byron Luiters (bass) began fleshing out songs for Butler’s fifth studio album, April Uprising. This time ‘round the singer decided to invest in his own rehearsal and art studio at his Fremantle home, referred to as ‘the Compound’, rather than use someone else’s studio. Instead of focusing only on Butler, this documentary looks at the band as a whole, as well as the production team and his family. The crazy antics the boys get up to will have you rolling on the floor with laughter. You also get an insight into Butler’s love for skateboarding and graffiti, and a tour by Butler himself of the Fremantle Market in Perth, where his professional music career began 12 years ago with a spot of busking (sometimes earning him up to $30 an hour). Although the current members have only been playing with each other for a short time, we are shown that they have utmost respect for one another; the chemistry between them is just phenomenal.

SLAYER STILL REIGNING Columbia Even if you don’t like metal – fuck you –you’ve heard of Slayer. This is their 2004 performance of Reign In Blood in its brutal entirety, marking the 18th anniversary of release. For the uninitiated, Reign In Blood is the seminal thrash album upon which metal teeth by the millions were cut and the skulls of both old and new continue to bang back and forth to today. Not only is the scope of its influence evident in the pits of rabid fans still smashing headlong into the guts of its divine hell, but also in inspiring the next generation of demon-driven guitarists to preserve the breakneck sounds of Satan. Thankfully an apeshit Dave Lombardo is back on drums after a decade hiatus. As ever, Tom Araya embodies the voice of red smoke and malevolence while Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King try their furious best to throw themselves around stage like it’s 1986, proving age has not wearied them. Slayer fans are ballistic; from the opening chords of Angel Of Death the crowd surges and sweats, screams and bleeds (there’s some way skanky tits on offer also). The film quality is compromised at times by the constant blaze of lights, which scatter finer details. A choppy editing style is used, presumably to evoke the frantic nature of the Slayer sound, but it doesn’t always work. The sound itself is great, however – slightly low end is what you want from a Slayer show. There is also a short doco and six extra songs from various albums.

Special features include 12 minutes of footage that didn’t make it onto the feature, and additional interviews.

Postmortem is the highlight for me, being an old favourite, but the closing number, Raining Blood, brings just that… a sprinkler system rigged above the stage showers Slayer in ten gallons of the red stuff. Fucking grouse. The sight of Araya swinging his blood-soaked mane while the show crunches to an ecstatic end is metal (south of) heaven.

Lillian Altman

Sean Smith

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DEVILISH DESIRES American folkie CHARLIE PARR has been getting an Aussie outlaw education with a little help from True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, DOUG WALLEN discovers. Blind, Parr sings about Ned Kelly. To be fair, he also tackles the outlaw of the song’s title, I Dreamed I Saw Jesse James Last Night. “My dad was obsessed with Jesse James when I was a kid,” he explains. “You’re not supposed to admire outlaws very much, but you do, especially when you’re younger. And I haven’t really grown up too much yet. When I got to Australia the first time, I didn’t know about Ned Kelly. Then I read all the books and was completely obsessed. He’s now joined Jesse James in my little lexicon of outlaws I’m not supposed to admire.” Parr’s father was a huge influence on him, sharing not just his admiration for roguish sorts but his all-encompassing love of music. “He’s the one that got me listening to folk music,” Parr recalls. “All he listened to was old country, folk, and blues. He had a lot of records around the house. That’s all I remember hearing when I was a kid.” When Parr’s father died suddenly in 1995, it was such a shock to Parr that he began writing songs as a way of coping with the loss. He kept at it for years, not taking it seriously as a profession until he made his first recordings in 2000. Three years later, he was doing well enough touring and releasing records that he was able to leave his job to concentrate on music. Today he has a handful of acclaimed albums as well as a cult fan base that’s growing all the time. And in a musical landscape that’s suddenly ripe with nostalgic folk music and other old sounds, Parr’s gritty voice, world-weary lyrics, and threadbare sound ring extraordinarily true.

or someone who came late to songwriting and doesn’t have the highest opinion of his work, Charlie Parr is doing all right for himself. In advance of his third Australian tour in less than 18 months, the Minnesota singer/guitarist is on the phone from Wales, after playing Cardiff the previous night. Considering the kind of rickety, outmoded folk and country blues Parr plays, perhaps it is strange that he manages to tour the world. His close relationship with Australia is almost a fluke, manifesting after his song 1922 was used in a popular Vodafone commercial. Soon Parr was touring here in support of that titan of Aussie song, Paul Kelly. For someone used to fairly modest gigs, it must have been daunting to face such massive crowds. “That’s a good way to describe it, actually,” Parr admits. He adds,

Beyond the Kelly connection, Parr has landed a song on Underbelly and – much more impressive – provided the soundtrack for the upcoming Aussie film Red Hill, starring True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten. It just happens the director is the same guy who made that Vodafone commercial. “It’s kind of an Australian western,” says Parr. “I haven’t seen it, but I read the script and thought it was fantastic. I had done some music in a couple of independent documentaries in the States, so I was pretty excited to participate.”

In fact, the only things you’ll hear on When The Devil Goes Blind are guitars, banjo, vocals and Parr’s own tapping foot. That’s stripped down even by his standards, considering previous records included guests on harmonica and washboard. “That’s about as complex as it’s ever gotten,” he says. “I’ve never played with a band, and I don’t know if I’d be able to. That’s a different skill set altogether. I like playing by myself, but this is the first time I’ve recorded without any sort of percussionist or harmonica player.” As for touring alone, he adds, “I can’t afford to bring anyone with me, times being what they are. I’d probably bring along a harmonica player for company, if I could.”

Parr’s recent ties to our country don’t end there. On the very first song on his new album, When The Devil Goes

The new album marks Parr’s first time working with a producer, having helmed all his previous records himself.

though, “Paul made it a lot easier. He made me feel right at home. I felt like part of the crew and that helped a lot.”

OUT OF ORBIT L

ast week in LA the six members of alt.rockers Linkin Park sat down to a dinner at guitarist Brad Delson’s house. Though it’s not a rare thing for the members to be getting together, it’s one of the first times in a 14-year career that the band have marked a milestone by taking time out of their busy schedule for a moment of reflection.

Traditional songs are also useful to Parr because he’s not the most prolific songwriter in the world. “For me, personally, I don’t know how to write songs,” he says with his usual directness and lack of self-confidence. “I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. But when it all spills out of you, you feel like that must be a good one. And when you have to work at it, that must be not so good. That seems to be the way it goes.” So he doesn’t fight to make those harder songs work? “I’m kind of ambitionless that way,” Parr replies, with a deadpan flatness. “I’m trying not to be lazy, and my wife is trying to fix me up on that. But I feel like if it’s not there, it’s not going to be there.” WHO: Charlie Parr WHAT: When The Devil Goes Blind (Level Two/Shock) WHERE & WHEN: Wednesday 22, Old Hepburn Hotel; Thursday 23 September, East Brunswick Club

“He likened it to candy or sweets, you know. It’s fun to eat once in a while and when you have it you should definitely enjoy it but it’s not substance and if you eat too much of it you have a stomach ache and your teeth rot out. So he was saying if music is like food then let’s make an album that has substance, that’s got some exotic flavours. It gives you energy. It makes you smarter. It makes you stronger. Let’s shoot for that.”

Sales figures like that in the current music industry seem almost impossible, especially with an album like A Thousand Suns. Already internet talk suggests that fans aren’t entirely happy with the album’s first single The Catalyst. Surprisingly, the rest of the album seems to have stayed off the internet. The first time a lot of people will hear it will be when they have a copy in their hands.

“We have a bad habit of just moving from one thing to the next. We made a point this time to really stop that. So many great things have happened with the band and I feel like we need to slow down a little bit and just appreciate the small moments. We had a little party this week here in LA. We had dinner at Brad’s house one night. We had lunch at my house. We’ve done little things, just get together with the six guys or our families and celebrate it.”

Of the 11 songs on When The Devil Goes Blind, Parr wrote nine, including the standout Mastodon and the harrowing 1890. The remaining two are arrangements of traditional songs, something Parr has a lot of experience with. One is Turpentine Farm, a tune from the 1930s, and the other is Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down, which Parr turns into a ragged, cathartic release that culminates in just his tapping foot and defiant howl. “I’ve known about that one for a good long time,” he admits. “There’s a lot of recordings of church congregations singing it. I haven’t really ever had the gumption to do my own arrangement of it until the last year. I started playing it and it felt pretty good.”

Though Linkin Park have always had fairly vocal detractors, they are currently the planet’s biggest alternative rock band whose members can still say they’re under 35. The band’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, has now sold almost 25 million albums (to put this in perspective, ARIA’s sales figures for last year show 30 million albums were sold in Australia in total).

The milestone the band were celebrating is the imminent release of their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns. It’s been three years since the release of Minutes To Midnight, the band’s third album, and a lot has changed in the Linkin Park world. Celebrating the release date of an album is just the beginning. “We have had a bad habit of not celebrating things like album releases and single releases, finishing records and ends of tours and things like that,” multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda explains.

“This is the format: we meet every week, with or without Rick, six guys on Mondays and we review what’s changed in the songs. Sometimes it’s a little bit and sometimes it’s a tonne. And the reason we do it is because we do tend to come up with a lot of ideas and we always want to make sure we compare the old

He persevered in the end, thanks to the presence of sympathetic producer Bo Ramsey, who has worked with Lucinda Williams and many others. “He listened to the songs,” says Parr, “and gave me a lot of gentle moral support. I did the record in three hours – there’s only a couple of second takes on there – and felt pretty good about it.”

true right now. I think it’s been true for a long time.

For once, LINKIN PARK are taking time to celebrate the release of a new album. MIKE SHINODA tells DANIELLE O’DONOHUE why A Thousand Suns is different.

Though Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington has always been the more public face of Linkin Park, it is Shinoda who leads the band in the studio. On A Thousand Suns, Shinoda shares a production credit with super producer Rick Rubin, but it was Shinoda with his sleeves rolled up taking care of the day-to-day recording. “He knows that we need to obsess over our songs for a while in order to move them forward,” Shinoda explains, “and then when we’re ready to have him come in then he comes in and he gives us the big-picture-like feedback. And he’s awesome at that. I get in the weeds and get obsessed with little things and go off on tangents for five days.

He tried the same this time, but it didn’t work out so well. “I had a terrible time,” he confesses. “A friend of mine had passed away, and a bunch of stuff was going on in my personal life. I tried to do it anyway, and it was bad. Not only bad; it was morally debilitating. I went through a phase of not even wanting to do it anymore.”

one to the new one and that we don’t accidently let something… a wrong turn sneak into one of our songs.” This time around the band were coming up with ideas far different to the usual Linkin Park sound, not just because guitars share album space with synths and keyboards, tribal beats sit alongside the band’s DJ Joe Hahn’s scratching or important speeches from the last century punctuate the music. A Thousand Suns is an intriguing beast because it is an album that must be listened to from start to finish to fully appreciate the scope of it. While tracks bleed into one another with no obvious start or end points, there’s also whole

rhythm patterns that are repeated, lyrics that are sung or phrased a particular way in one song reappear elsewhere on the album and are given new meaning. “When we started working on this album,” Shinoda says, “we sat down in a room over a year ago and started talking about, just really casually, it came up in conversation, ‘What kind of album would you be happy with at the end of this process? What characteristics would it have?’ And one of the things I really loved, one of the ideas that Phoenix threw out that really stuck with me, was that he was saying how, at the time, there‘s a lot of junk food music out there. And I think it’s

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Shinoda’s aware that A Thousand Suns is a much less accessible listen than Hybrid Theory and may take some Linkin Park fans awhile to get used to. “We used to buy a record on vinyl and drop the needle and you’d listen to the whole thing and we miss that a little bit. There’s just something so fulfilling about hearing an artist’s vision in its whole. I love that you had a favourite song at one time and then a few months later you had a different favourite song. Or even you listen to the album and you kind of don’t like it and then a few weeks later you find yourself kind of curious about it again and then you start to pick up on things that you didn’t like the first time because they were not what you wanted or not what you expected. But the more you listened to them you kind of realised even though that’s not the reason I bought this or the reason I got into it, now I’m kind of thinking that’s kind of interesting.”

WHO: Linkin Park WHAT: A Thousand Suns (Warner) WHEN & WHERE: Monday 13 December, Rod Laver Arena. Tickets on sale Friday 24 September through Ticketek.

INTO THE WILD “Our parents will like it more,” BLACK MOUNTAIN vocalist AMBER WEBBER tells SAMUEL J FELL of the benefits of recording their third album with one of the world’s biggest rock producers.

like, ‘Well, I don’t know’, but then he’d try it and it’d work. I mean, it wouldn’t always work, but it was just good to have somebody outside of the gang, outside of the band to put some perspective into things.”

From what Webber is saying, particularly with the band going in for the shorter songs, it seems what Sardy has done for the band with Wilderness Heart is make them more accessible, perhaps easier to digest, easier to fit onto radio, which seems to be at odds with what the band are about. “Yeah, I think it does really, although that wasn’t our goal or anything, we weren’t trying to make music everyone would love, that’s never been our thing,” Webber acknowledges. “But I think it will appeal to more people… Our parents will like it more, anyway. And I kind of hope it will reach more people… and while I like the longer songs, sometimes I just want a straight-up, three or four minute pop or rock song. I see merits in them both, so I think the band needed to explore that.”

Of course, such attention due to a cracker second record is always going to be a double-edged sword. Yes, they’ve more fans and respect as a band, but there’s now that pressure to deliver once more, to lay down a record that will eclipse In The Future, a situation that has the potential to fuck with the minds of any number of bands, no matter how good they are. “Well, we didn’t have too much of that pressure actually,” muses vocalist Amber Webber from the back of a van somewhere in the UK where the band are on tour. “We were just really excited about trying something new because we didn’t want to make the same album again, so I guess that’s why we didn’t really feel that pressure.”

The result, Wilderness Heart, is solid. It is more accessible than Black Mountain’s previous work and the songs are shorter, but it seems “trimming the fat”, as Webber put it, hasn’t done the band much harm. Certainly, there are tracks on the record, like opener The Hair Song, that beg to morph into 15-minute jams, but for the most part everything seems to be in the right place for the right amount of time, although as Webber reveals, after the band were done working with Sardy, they felt there were a few tweaks that needed to be made. “Yeah, after the fact, after we worked with Dave, we actually recorded two songs,” she smiles. “One was Radiant Hearts and the other was, well, I can’t remember now,” she then laughs. “So we recorded these two later and were wondering whether or not they’d go with the rest of the album… because we wanted the album to run together as a whole, and I think it worked out. I mean, we worked really hard on the record and everyone is really happy with how it’s come out. Once it’s done, you can really sit back and enjoy it.”

arly in 2008, Canadian psych rockers Black Mountain released their second record, In The Future, an album that shattered any ‘difficult second record’ concerns and brought the band to the attention of fans the world over. It was nominated for a Polaris Prize – Canada’s most prestigious music award – and set in motion a chain of events that has seen the band touring the world, reigniting love for psychedelic rock’n’roll, the likes of which haven’t been properly seen since the days of Led Zeppelin. These last few years, then, have been a heady time for the band and have set the scene for their anticipated follow-up, the newly released Wilderness Heart.

Black Mountain seem to be a fairly down to earth bunch, three of the five members coming from a social work background – something that would no doubt steel them for the rigours of a drastic life change – plus there are various side projects chugging along that would serve to distract from the rock’n’roll hedonism that eats so many successful rock bands. Black Mountain, then, just wanted to move on, to evolve, and with Wilderness Heart they’ve done that. “If we’d made this one on our own it would have been easy to make the same record again,” Webber tells, the band having produced In The Future themselves. “So that’s why we went with a producer on this one, to try something different and not make that album again.” The producer in question here is Dave Sardy, a man who’s worked with some of the best in the business including Johnny Cash, Children Collide, Rage Against The Machine and the Chili Peppers. This is the first time Black Mountain have enlisted the help of an outsider (they produced their eponymous debut in 2005 as well),

Black Mountain have every reason to be happy with Wilderness Heart – it chugs along with a purpose, sometimes heavy and dark, other times light and moody, but always with that psych-rock edge to it, the length of the tracks not marring their effect at all. “We didn’t have any expectations, we just had a bunch of songs we really liked,” Webber finishes. and it seems with Sardy they’ve not only moved outside that box but have found the ‘difference’ that Webber says the band were looking for. “He really focused the band,” she says. “We have a tendency to write really long songs and he encouraged us to chop them down into shorter songs, which is fairly new to us.

“So he was good for that, but he also pushed us in directions to try things we weren’t particularly comfortable with as well,” Webber goes on. “And I guess that’s a producer’s job really. For example, Josh [Wells, drummer] would have a drum part and Dave would suggest trying something different and Josh would be

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WHO: Black Mountain WHAT: Wilderness Heart (Jagjaguwar/Inertia)

DARK STAR

PRIZE FIGHT

Despite the colourful appearance, internet sensation JEFFREE STAR is actually “dark and depraved”, he tells LIZ GALINOVIC.

It wasn’t easy, but TOBIAS CUMMINGS has finally released his fouryears-in-the-making second album, he tells NIC TOUPEE.

Much like his outrageous photos and his acerbic blog, the response to Star’s uploaded electro rap-inspired tracks was massive. “People were emailing me to book me for shows. I’d never done a show before so I was like ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’ And now I have two EPs out and a full-length CD and I’ve toured the world.” Star describes his music as akin to the first time you have sex – “You’re not sure if it’s going to be good or bad and then you end up enjoying it.” It’s electro rock pop with a hip hop influence, the latter of which he has an obsession with. “I love all the jewellery and expensive cars,” he says with a laugh. “And I love all the female rappers and how dirty they are; they’re just really fun and they don’t really care.”

effree Star is somewhat beautiful and somewhat scary. Tall and slender with make-up and hair that calls for fans to don their sunglasses, Star – born Jeffrey Lynn Steininger – has a body covered in tattoos. His appearance makes it difficult to categorise him or apply a particular gender, but his personality and his music clearly mark him out as one of America’s truly opinionated, abrasive and provocative pop stars. He’s also very friendly. The Jeffree Star story started a few years ago with the internet. “I really used the internet to my advantage,” he says. “When I was graduating high school I was really bored so I’d go on the internet and post lots of pictures of outrageous clothes and make-up and hair and I had a blog where I spoke my opinions on lots of different issues. I generated a lot of attention and a big cult following where everyone would be checking in every week to see what I would say.” Star’s music career started out as a bit of a joke. As a celebrity make-up artist he spent a lot of time dealing with “people with attitude” which, although began to get tiring, also meant he had a lot of friends who were musicians. “Being friends with a lot of musicians [made me go] ‘Well, why am I not on stage?”

Despite the seemingly sex-centric theme to much of his music, Star loathes all the pop stars out there who are merely pretty faces in front of tracks with no meaning behind them. With this in mind his debut album Beauty Killer isn’t the joke he claims his previous releases to be but a response to the stories he hears from his fans. “Being on the internet I’m so connected with my fans and I hear so many stories of people who feel they don’t fit in or they’re picked on all the time, so I’m here to stand up for all the people who don’t feel like they get to say what they want to say.” He’s the perfect leader for the misfits and the picked-on because, in all honesty, he’s not the type you want to challenge. He even admits that his appearance (especially the head-to-toe tattoos) garners more respect than any regular gay guy might get, even in today’s more liberal society. In the same way that his appearance reflects a duality to Star (and gender), there is also a duality clearly reflected in the music, from the content to the titles of his releases – Beauty Killer, Plastic Surgery Slumber Party, Cupcakes Taste Like Violence. “It’s kind of like who I am,” he explains. “I might wear pretty make-up but I’m really dark and depraved on the inside.”

WHO: Jeffree Star WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Billboard

Arts Victoria stepped in to rescue the album in the form of a recording grant, however, by the time the money materialised, the band, disheartened and impatient, had already parted ways.

fter a protracted recording process involving an assortment of producers and the dissolution and then eventual re-configuration of his band, Tobias Cummings has finally released A Trophy, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2006 debut Join The Dots. The years between Join The Dots and now present a most bizarre tale, which Cummings is kind enough to relate. “The record is called A Trophy but there’s a double meaning in the title [‘atrophy’],” he explains. “It felt like things were falling apart with the album and with the way my life was going at that point. So the record ended up being about things falling apart, but then there’s hope on the other side of the dark passage.” “We started making this record not long after the first one came out,” he recalls. “We initially had some interest from a record label in London, and they gave us money to start recording. Because of that, we could work with Scott Horscroft [Sleepy Jackson, Silverchair]. So we started off with him in Sydney, but unfortunately it wasn’t a great recording session,” Cummings laments. “This was my chance to work with a big-shot ‘name’ producer, so the pressure was on, and I got sick. It was a disaster.” After this initial brush with label support failed to materialise into anything more concrete, Cummings and band scraped up the coppers from their personal savings for a further studio session. “The band did the bulk of the recording together, coming together after an extended break, with the guy who had recorded our first album, Tim Whitten. We all knew each other well, and got along well, and we set up a makeshift studio up at a holiday house my family owns on the Mornington Peninsula. We spent about two weeks recording and tracking... and then we ran out of money.”

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“When we were waiting for the Arts Victoria grant – and initially that didn’t come – while we were trying to figure out how to pay for the rest of our record, the band fell apart. Eventually the grant came through, so I used it to finish the album. There were moments where I didn’t think it was ever going to get finished, and when the grant finally came through, I didn’t know how best to forge ahead.” Two producers down and the money finally in his mitts, Cummings initially looked for another big name to give the second album that extra credibility boost but, surprisingly, his attention was drawn to a sound engineer friend, Wez Prictor. “I gave all of the recordings up to that point to Wez, who is a mastering engineer but always wanted to move into production, to listen to. Meanwhile I was thinking about producers and who to speak to about how to finalise the album, but Wez and I started recording vocals and things here and there – always thinking that they were further demos. Then it became apparent that Wez was the best person to finish it with, as he had come to know the record best. To use someone else then seemed silly. Gradually and organically we tried ideas out and did some overdubs getting friends in to help out.” Cummings then had one final quest to complete – reforming the band. “I put a whole new band together, including Wez,” he recollects. “We’re trying to reconstruct the songs as faithfully as we can in a live sense, however, it’s a pretty intricate record with a lot of elements, a lot of overdubs and elaborate production. Recreating that live has been an interesting process.” WHO: Tobias Cummings WHAT: A Trophy (Departed Sounds/Other Tongues) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Workers Club; Friday 29 October, Bella Union at Trades Hall

SKIN TIGHT Melbourne’s USELESS CHILDREN have forged a fast reputation and now have the 7” to back it up. TONY MCMAHON speaks to guitarist ROB BONETT. there’s a bit more room to produce different sounds.” Talking of different sounds, one of the most exciting things about the release of Skins is that it is on 7” vinyl. Not surprisingly, Bonett says that the idea behind doing it this way had nothing to do with commercial considerations: it was all about the love. “I like vinyl records. We all like vinyl records. They feel nice to have and to hold. I don’t know, it’s one of those stupid, impractical things that people like but are completely ridiculous. It’s a nice format and it’s a nice aesthetic and the label that we’re with, they like to do 7-inches and LPs. So, it’s just one of those things that fell into place.”

or local three-piece punk speedsters Useless Children, 2010 has been something of a watershed year. They began supporting legendary US outfit Dinosaur Jr, flew out for a huge, 28-city American tour, have released the stunning, three-track EP Skin, and are now set to tour it along the East Coast. Anyone who has heard Useless Children’s previous releases, or seen one of their super high-energy live shows, knows that they are first and foremost a fast band, yet still, somehow, strangely melodic. Fans are in for something of a surprise with Skin, however, as closing track People Come, People Go, is positively slothful by this band’s breakneck standards. Guitarist Rob Bonett makes the reasonable point that it’s not all that easy to be a rock’n’roll dynamo 24/7. “That’s just how I noodle around on my guitar when I’m lying around on my bed doing nothing,” he says, talking about the uncharacteristic pace of People Come, People Go. “It’s hard to write energetic music when you’re doing nothing, so I suppose it’s just a reflection of how I play when I’m at home by myself. I feel like we’ve been steadily slowing down since we started. Our first EP was quite fast. I’ve got no idea where it’s going to go in the future. I guess we just do whatever happens when the three of us get together in a room and that’s what you end up hearing on this EP. But I do like the slower songs, I like it when

On Useless Children’s recent experiences overseas, Bonett is nothing if not forthright and honest – a little like the band’s music, come to think of it – refusing to couch his language in anything but directness. “It was very up and down. It was definitely a learning experience. We played some really good shows and we played some really terrible shows. We played some shows to heaps of people and we played a whole lot of shows to nobody, so there was no across the board vibe of how we went down, but overall I think it was a really positive thing and we now know what to do and what not to do for next time.” For Skin’s Melbourne launch, Bonett says the band have chosen the exact right venue (though it did take some convincing), that the support acts are of the highest quality and that even the tightest punters around can’t complain about the cost. “It’s a bit of a special thing. Bar Open don’t usually do punk shows on weekends, so we had to convince Luke at Bar Open to do the show. We’re doing it with Agents Of Abhorrence, Skul Hazzards and Collapsed Toilet Vietnam, so I’m really stoked with the bill, how it all came together. They’re all bands that I like, and I’m really stoked that it’s on Friday night and it’s free, and I really like Bar Open. It’s a venue with a really good feeling to it. It’ll just be a really good outing on a Friday night, and you can’t argue with the cover charge. Everyone should come out.”

WHO: Useless Children WHAT: Skin 7” (Criminal IQ Records) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Bar Open

A YEAR IN THE LIFE Philadelphia-based pop punks THE WONDER YEARS get MATTHEW HOGAN thinking about his favourite TV shows from the ‘80s. signed to a new label and have reissued The Upsides. “When we put it out originally, it was growing but it didn’t have far-reaching distro, so we were getting a lot of complaints from people who were saying they couldn’t get the record, it wasn’t in stores near them, etcetera,” says Soupy. “So when we signed to Hopeless Records, Hopeless were saying they’d re-release it and they would get us all these tours and we’d have a push from the label. “I’d been talking to them about it and we decided we didn’t just want to put the record out again; that we should at least take the time to beef it up a little bit and give it some extra content so that it was worth a re-release and we were talking about different ways to make it an interesting re-release instead of just, like, adding acoustic versions of three of the songs on the record and that was it.”

orget Kevin Arnold, Paul Pfeiffer and Winnie Cooper, The Wonder Years these days are a pop punk band headed up by Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell. With more than 200 shows booked this year alone, the band are having the most wondrous year of their existence following the release of their second album The Upsides. But 2010 didn’t get off to a flying start following the departure of founding drummer Michael Kenny, who was farewelled with a t-shirt that read ‘Mike Kennedy Is A Sell-out’. “It’s funny, we just did that to mess with him, but he’s actually back in the band now,” explains Soupy, “and the person that replaced him [Nick Steinborn] is actually still in the band. Just instead of playing drums, he’s playing keyboards and guitar. Mike had a semester of an internship, then following his internship, he was stuck at grad school. He left for his internship and spent about four days in Washington DC and then he decided he had to be in the band because he couldn’t really handle not being in the band, so he called us back and he worked it out.” After releasing the album in January, the band embarked on a “harrowing” launch tour of Boston, Los Angeles, Philly, Cincinnati and Detroit and saw the album chart on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Since then, they’ve

Still on the release front, the band have unleashed a split record, entitled A Split Record, with the band that’s supporting them on their Australian tour, Sydney punks Heroes For Hire. “We were looking for new ways not to raise our profile over in Australia, but just to let people know that we’re coming, and know who we are a little bit more,” explains the frontman. “We’ve always really been into doing limited edition and short run releases of little EPs. So we talked about the possibilities of doing a seven-inch and we ended up doing it with Heroes For Hire. I think the artwork is really awesome and it’s on three limited edition colours. It’s worth owning I think for collectors and for people who want to own the rare vinyl; this is one of the rarest vinyls we’ve ever done.” Before they embark on their first Aussie tour, The Wonder Years have to complete an American jaunt with their own heroes New Found Glory. “It’s just been fantastic,” Soupy says. “When I was 14 and I heard New Found Glory for the first time, I knew I wanted to be in a pop punk band – they were the catalyst for our band existing. So it’s just really amazing to be playing with them.” WHO: The Wonder Years WHAT: A Split Record with Heroes For Hire (Hopeless Records/Shock) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, the Evelyn; Sunday, Phoenix Youth Centre (all ages)

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THIS WEEK IN

ARTS

SLEEPY HOLLOW

WEDNESDAY 15

FRIDAY 17

Semi-Permanent Exhibition – artwork and installations from artists such as Claire Martin, Buck, Beastman, United Visual Artists, Leif Podhajsky and more. Level 2, GPO, 10am to 5pm until 18 September. Semi-Permanent Live Art Jam – as the name suggests, live art jam by Everfresh artists Reka, Meggs, Phibs, Makatron, Prism, and Ron, with works sold to raise funds for charity, while Shannon Crees and Beastman paint murals in a pop-up gallery. Main Exhibition Hall, GPO, from 11am. Semi-Permanent Launch Party – official opening party for the 2010 Semi-Permanent design exhibition/ festival. Main Exhibition Hall, GPO, from 6pm.

Sleepy Hollow – Gothic retelling of the classic American folk tale by the master of the genre, Tim Burton. ACMI, 9.30pm.

THURSDAY 16 The C. Payne Project – first gallerybased exhibition by prominent public artist Clare McCracken of works consisting of text and collage exploring inner monologue and neuroses of a a mother of three from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Opening night. No No Gallery until 9 October. Poetry From The East – Ian Johnston, translator of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy, and Barry Hill, poet and historian, will read from their new books, Waiting For Owl: Poems And Songs From Ancient China and Four Lines East, respectively. Wheeler Centre, 6.15pm. Thyestes – it doesn’t come much darker in Greek mythology than the story of Thyestes, removed from his throne and unknowingly fed a feast of his slaughtered sons. Malthouse are even given this production a recommended 18+ rating. We’re sold. Opening night. Tower Theatre, Malthouse Theatre until 3 October. Works On Paper – exhibition of limited edition works on paper by artists such as Acorn, Delicate Mayhem, Fake, Twoone, Caitlin Rigby, and Kelly Smith. Signed & Numbered, Prahan, 7pm.

SATURDAY 18 Dudley Moore: The Man And His Music – celebration of the jazz and classical musical prowess of beloved actor Dudley Moore by pianist Daniel de Borah. Frankston Arts Centre, 8pm. Semi-Permanent Design Sessions – Australian designers presenting their wares and waxing lyrical, including GPO residents Trimapee, Tim O’Connor, Alpha 60 and Fat, Stephanie Downey (Dress Up), photographer Trevor King and Semi-Permanent founders Andrew Johnstone and Murray Bell. Main Exhibition Hall, GPO, 10.30am to 2.30pm. RSVP required. Semi-Permanent After Party – official closing night party for 2010’s Semi-Permanent, featuring exhibition space with work by SP speakers, Everfresh artists, Beastman and Shannon Crees, with bands and DJs. Main Exhibition Hall, GPO, from 7pm. RSVP required.

SUNDAY 19 Through The Looking Glass – workshop were you get to put yourself inside Tm Burton’s Alice In Wonderland through the use of green screens and actual sets from the film. Studio 1, ACMI, 12pm. Register your interest from 11:30am. The Hunger – brilliant debut film from Tony Scott (Top Gun, brother of Ridley) starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon, fusing vampires, sexy ad-world film techniques, film noir, and Bauhaus (the band). Screen Sect at Bar Open, Fitzroy, 7.30pm.

LONDON INFERNO DESCENDS ON ABBOTSFORD The Laudanum Project make twisted theatre for macabre minds – and we love it. Their latest show, The Penny-Toy Man, prefaces thus: “On the streets of Spitalfields the horror has now all but dried away, but in 1884, the year of our Lord, the East End of London was, for a week or two, in the grip of something… infernal.” Sounds to us like Psychoville meets Garth Marenghi meets From Hell meets Sweeney Todd. But a hell of a lot more warped. The Penny-Toy Men performs at Retreat Hotel, Abbotsford Monday 27 September. More information via twitter.com/laudanumproject.

SCOTT HENDERSON TALKS TO RISING STAR EMMA STONE ABOUT THE NEW TEEN COMEDY EASY A.

REGARDING EMMA Firebrand red hair, husky tones, moxie, and undeniably gorgeous; Emma Stone has the physical goods to set her apart from the next generation of Hollywood stars. They are qualities combined with considerable talent reminiscent of another young actress whose star has fallen in recent times. Unlike Lindsay Lohan, however, Stone has the maturity to avoid tabloid infamy. The comparison is all the more pertinent with Stone’s first lead role in Easy A cut from the same cloth as 2004’s high school hit Mean Girls. Both films feature an outsider teen who rises above the pack thanks to a sharp wit, challenging the accepted order of values and hierarchy that exists in the school. Losing their way temporarily as their acts take on a life of their own, both characters come of age through the experience. “I instantly related to the character,” says Stone. “Olive uses all these big words and makes silly puns and she’s well aware that what she’s doing is kind of dumb but can’t stop herself from doing it. There was so many things that make me feel kinship with the character. I felt that, whether or not it was me, she deserved whoever it was that played her be willing to understand her. It would be easy to go very goofy with her, or read her the wrong way, and I was afraid that if it was the wrong actor they wouldn’t be true to this amazing character.” Losing your virginity can seem like

the be all and end of growing up, although for some mere survival of puberty without a psychoanalyst’s dictionary of neurosis will do. When Olive gets caught in a lie about her own, it is her reputation that goes missing in action as a result. Unsure how to react, Olive instead opts to embrace her newfound faux promiscuity, much to the horror of various factions of the school body. “It’s very clear that Emma is an amazing actress,” waxes director Will Gluck. “She’s very modest and humble, so you don’t know how good she is. I went to her first choreography rehearsal and she was stunning, after which she tells me, ‘I took 12 years of dance’. And then she went into a room and recorded the song, and I was amazed. ‘Oh yeah, I took voice for ten years, too’.” Despite her equally modest years, Stone career as a performer started out in earnest as a pre-teen with youth theatre where she discovered her passion for the stage and, in particular, improvised comedy. It was this experience that planted the seeds of her early roles in comedies such as Greg Mottola’s Superbad (2007), The House Bunny (2008) with Anna Faris, and last year’s cult hit Zombieland. “Comedy is where my heart is, so being around comedians is incredible,” says Stone of working with the likes of Bill Murray, Woody Harrelson, Jonah Hill and Faris. But does she see herself getting back into

improv any time soon? “I really don’t, although I’m thinking about trying to get back into that again, to see if I can be involved with some type of group. I love it. I’ve been lucky enough to get to do it on some movies, though not so much in the last year. But before there was some improv in my parts and incorporating it is always fun because on stage you only really get one chance before it falls flat. On screen you get to try it a bunch of ways.” Stone isn’t complaining, nor will you catch her bemoan the fact that in the year since moving to New York she has barely had time to unpack let alone explore her new backyard. The past six months have been spent commuting between Los Angeles and Mississippi shooting New York Times bestseller The Help in which she stars ahead of a remarkable cast of actresses, including Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek and Viola Davis. A drama set in Civil War-era deep south, The Help represents an important step in her career development, even though she denies it is part of a broader career plan. “Well, I think for me it just depends on the script. I don’t have an ultimate goal to try show my range or anything. I don’t ever want to play a part I don’t think I can play,” continues Stone. “I don’t want to put myself through that kind of thing; there has to be something I

identify with.” That’s not to say the actress hasn’t been enjoying the chance to stretch herself and find the number of career doors held open for her. The night before our interview, Stone was up until 3.30am shooting a small part on Gluck’s next film, Friends With Benefits, a part the director wrote specifically for her. Life imitating art? “Yeah, exactly. Not a bad gig at all.” And it’s this kind of perspective that sets Stone apart from Lohan and will no doubt see her career continue to flourish. “It’s been nice to have the opportunity to be able to make more choices. I definitely would like to go home for a little while, see what sticks, what I’m into and re-evaluate life again… as always. This year has been incredible and it’s a pretty fulfilling job so I’m grateful for it.” You can expect to be seeing much more from Stone in the coming years and it’s highly unlikely to be in tabloid column inches. The actress has met with Paul Thomas Anderson for his next project The Master but is still waiting for news on casting. In the meantime she’ll be happy to spend a little more time just getting to know her neighbourhood. WHAT: Easy A WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas from Thursday

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FILM

CAREW

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

WITH ANTHONY CAREW He’s the Sarah Palin of cinema: a veritable human punchline. M Night Shyamalan. Admit it, you’re laughing already. The filmmaker’s once-promising career has become naught but a joke: the law of diminishing returns made manifest in movies growing direr by the day; a much-bandied internet meme plotting “Night”’s increasingly-low critical scores on a graph plummeting eternally southward, a downward slide towards some cinematic hell. But, beyond such chuckles, one must wonder: why Shyamalan? Why has he become the ultimate critical punching-bag? Why the scathing glee, the unreserved schadenfreude? Sure, he’s working on a run of deliriously shitty movies, but, then

again, so is half of Hollywood. So why is Shyamalan so broadly, brutally attacked? It’s simple: people feel duped. Not just that they believed the hype that he was some new master of suspense, Hitchcock rewritten via Spielberg, but that they went along for the ride with The Sixth Sense et al, and were played like puppets by this master of the moronic, Scooby Doo-ish twist. Shyamalan once lorded over these plebs with his ridiculous reveals, taking them for rides dealing in misdirection and deceit; but now that this Emperor is revealed to be wearing no clothes, the once-hoodwinked are going boots in on his bare ass. For ye olde homie Film Carew, of course, Shyamalan’s too easy a target. Sure, The Last Airbender is

all kinds of idiotic: a crypto-mystical kids-movie parable peddling another chosen-one tale in which a rag-tag gang of fated orphans must come together to fight off evil-peoplewearing-black; this ‘adventure’ already posited as part one of the obligatory trilogy. The franchise’s hook is that these warriors of the fruity-fantasy-realm can ‘bend’ different elements, so you get to watch humans doing bad capoeira moves whilst the CGI flails swarms of air/water/fire around them. The CGI is essentially what the audience is paying for – the Airbendin’ mythology is really dopey, every line of dialogue is exposition, and the strained-for emotional notes all hit somewhere between forced and fake – but, as always, if special effects are actually a reason you go to the cinema, then

you’re getting what you deserve. So, then, instead of taking all your twohours-wasted rage out on ol’ Night, merely ask yourself this: is The Last Airbender really any worse than, like, Star Wars? There’s a moment in The Kids Are All Right loaded with self-aware irony, when Julianne Moore decries the “lack of realism” existent in lesbian porn, which is usually just two straight girls getting it coldly on strictly for the cash. The meta-gag rings loud and clear: here, Moore and Annette Bening get their dyke on as a pair of moms, plural, raising a couple of adolescents in a same-sex marriage. With such celebrities on the marquee, moronic praise/criticism of the film is bound to come along the exact same lines: aren’t these straight starlets great/terrible at pretending to be lesbians! Similarly, most of the discourse will be regarding how progressive/regressive the Hollywood portrayal of gay humans is; all of which is fairly depressing to bother to acknowledge circa 2010. More interesting, cinematically, is the fact that Lisa Cholodenko has arrested her own Night-esque slide (from the awesome High Art to the awkward Laurel Canyon to the awful Cavedweller) with a calm, bemused, slyly sweet portrait of the abstract idea of the modern family. Beyond its redefinitions of the roles of fathers/ mothers/children/etc – and a blunt, unromanticised, warmly affectionate view of what marriage is – The Kids Are All Right succeeds, largely, as just character study. These penned humans are all particularly human: part charismatic, part unbearable; massively flawed in some destructive way; forever struggling to not be a

dick, to not lash out, to not casually hurt those around them. In spite of their shared warmth, and the lingering notion that these are ‘good’ people, they mostly fail; especially Mark Ruffalo’s just-tracked-down spermdonor dad, a self-styled hey-it’s-allgood neo-hippy whose easygoing nature doesn’t stop him from being continually offensive. This role – an extension of most every other role Roofy’s ever played; essentially the culmination of his mumbling-stonerfuck-up career – is too perfect for

Ruffalo; Ruffalo totally nailing his half-witless character’s smirking bemusement as he blithely bulldozes his way into a host of situations somewhere between unexpected and unforgiveable. In a film straining to be a complex portrait of the complexity of family, this man-child sounds the clearest note: he both desperately wanting to be a part of such a sacred union, whilst having no awareness nor respect for the foundations and boundaries upon which a Home is built.

BEACHES

FEMALE MUSOS RETROSPECTIVE COMING Bad name aside, Rock Chicks, the Arts Centre’s upcoming exhibition documenting the lives and careers of female Australian musicians, looks to be a great, expansive exhibition. Featuring video performances, costumes, instruments, lyrics, sets, posters and more from artists as diverse as Little Pattie to Katy Steele, Deborah Conway to Beaches, Diana Anaid to Marcia Hines, the treasure trove of memorabilia from as far back at the 1930s and as current as this year will pay homage to the women that have graced our stages and airwaves. In addition, talks and forums will be held, and many of the artists featured in the exhibition will be coming together to perform for free to mark its opening. Rock Chicks runs Saturday 6 November to Sunday 27 February, with the launch party – featuring live music – scheduled for Friday 12 November. Head to theartscentre.com.au for more details.

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THE PERFECT STORM PERTH STREET ARTIST STORMIE MILLS HAS EXHIBITED IN BARCELONA, LONDON, LOS ANGELES, TOKYO AND BERLIN, AND RETURNS TO MELBOURNE SHORTLY AS PART OF METRO GALLERY’S ON THE WALL GROUP SHOW. HE SPEAKS TO BETHANY SMALL.

“The black is dirt, white is the removal of dirt, grey is the city and silver is dreams.” So yeah, Stormie Mills’ signature palette is definitely symbolic, but it’s also something that’s come out of the practicalities of his work. The monochrome thing is because, when he started spraypainting (about 20 years ago), “all you could get were these Federation colours, green and rust, and, nah…” and the silver made

an entry during his time in London. “London in 1986 was a dark and gritty sort of place, it was the end of the Thatcher era and depressed and it was really, really badly polluted and covered in dust, and writing your name on a wall in black or white it wouldn’t stand out at all, but I saw that kids were using silver and it really stood out.” Alongside the motivated and emotive stripped-down palette, the sparse

c composition of Stormie Mills’ ppaintings invite both psychological aand technical analysis. His figures hhave their gazes turned within the ppaintings, away from the viewer, aand they dominate the pieces as the pprimary and usually the only focal eelement, studies in isolation that aare removed from portraiture by tthe suspension of a contextualising nnarrative. ““I build up texture first,” he explains. ““I think texture’s really important. M Maybe that comes from years of ppainting on walls? But I build that uup and then I draw and paint the ccharacters and they take on the cconcept and the story and the nnarrative is contained within the ccharacters.” TTheir dominance of the space of tthe paintings is both an aesthetic compositional choice and something Mills has drawn from research into art therapy. “There’s the idea that the character is distinctly important to the space that it’s in, and I do that in scale, I guess.” He also draws on Japanese landscapes “where there’s sky and mountains and birds on a flat plane” for his backgrounds, and compares his compositions to fashion photography: “it’s like taking a photo of a model standing up against a wall, it’s a big blank texture, not the whole building.” So who is up against these walls? He’s basically fascinated by “these people out there making this world amazing, doing amazing things”. In his recent Sydney show, In Celebration Of Second Best, he looked at the idea of the underdog as a part of Australian society. “It’s not that it’s just an Australian

idea, idea doesn’t only happen in Australia, but there’s something strong about it here. People rooting for the little guy, and then, when they get successful… I guess betrayal is a good word for it.” His images for this come from childhood, “memories of these old-school boxers on TV, in sepia, these dudes battling it out on spindly little legs, with a view to how did they become that sort of a person?” Some of these works will be on display ay On The Wall, which brings together works by street artists such as Banksy, Blek Le Rat, Shepard Fairey, Anthony Lister, and D*Face. Reflections on progressing from teenage street artist to someone invited to have solo shows with their name in bold face prompt a lot of artists to talk about staying true to a culture, but as far as Mills is concerned he’s been working according to his own vision throughout his career. “I haven’t really changed,” he says. “It was never about breaking the law, proving a point, that was just something you had to do, or maybe I naively thought you had to do. The object was always to make paintings, to create work.” Mills has a really strong sense of his style, of where it comes from and of it having always been about painting. “The works may be quiet and melancholic and sad, but what I’m doing isn’t sad. It’s about communicating visually.” WHAT: On The Wall: International Street Art Group Show WHERE & WHEN: Metro Gallery Monday 27 September to Tuesday 12 October

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C U LT U R A L

CRINGE

SIMON CREAN WITH HER EXCELLENCY QUENTIN BRYCE

WITH REBECCA COOK Au revoir, Monsieur Garrett. Bonjour, Simon Crean, new Federal Minister for the Arts in Julia’s rejigged cabinet.

So what can we expect from Mr Crean? The former leader of the Labor party in Opposition, and until a few days ago the Trade Minister, has few clues on his personal website.

“Simon Crean enjoys bushwalking, tennis, and swimming and football. He is the Patron of the Kangaroos Football Club and enjoys going to their games whenever he can,” it

states. A quick trip to his Facebook profile indicates that, yes, in his ‘likes’ box there are strange generic pages for ‘swimming’, ‘tennis’, and ‘bushwalking’, as if some robotic lackey built the page rather than Simon himself. The only interesting fact on his personal site is that “Simon was at Monash University at the height of the anti-Vietnam war protests, and this sparked his interest in a career in politics”. Considering there’s nary a skerick of personality otherwise expressed on the website, what can we assume about our new Arts Minister’s tastes from this. He likes agit-prop theatre. He’s likely to fund sporting docos, Tim Holding: The Bushwalking Musical, and a complete Australian remake of the Tour Of Duty series. What impact does a Federal Minister have anyhow? In Garrett’s speech on departing the Arts portfolio and taking on Schools, Early Childhood and Youth, he claims the implementation of the royalty resale reform (in June this year after several years of lobbying by visual arts organisations and bodies) was his proudest moment. The legislation means that artists will receive 5% of the sale price when their original works are resold through the art market for $1,000 or more. The resale royalty right applies to works by living artists and for a period of 70 years after an artist’s death. This is a fair achievement and it’s a shame Labor’s pre-election sweeteners were so uninspiring and cheap. The Gillard Government promised an exceptionally generous $10 million over five years to the Australia Council for new works of all disciplines, more fellowships and

more regional and rural presentations. The suits at the Australia Council must be busy applying hand cream there’s been so much expectant handrubbing. What will $2 million a year buy the Australia Council? Don’t be surprised if they start asking staff to bring their own teabags and toilet rolls. Crean is used to doling out much bigger bucks over at Trade. For example in July he gave $50 million to churches in Papua New Guinea and in August $24 million to Pakistan for flood relief. All good and worthy funding. Important business, the Trade portfolio. Cringe wonders how

he’s going to go attending a multimedia production of Hamletmachine performed by a troupe of interpretative dancers? Although after attending all those Asia-Pacific forums he’s certainly used to wearing a lot of funny shirts. A few savvy arts practitioners have already left notes on Simon’s Facebook wall inviting him to the Melbourne Fringe so don’t be surprised if you’re out at the Fringe Club and you find yourself getting down to The Smiths next to a slightly older gentlemen dancing a bit like he’s playing tennis.

TITANIC SAILS FOR LONGER It has been announced that the enormously successful Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition will extend its season by three weeks, continuing past the previous final day of Sunday 17 October to nits new closing date of Sunday 7 November. So if you’re yet to experience the ship of dreams firsthand, you’re got absolutely no reason to any longer. Head to titanicmelbourne.com for tickets and further information.

HORROR FILM SOCIETY TO SCREEN THE BEYOND The Melbourne Horror Film Society are dedicated to bringing the best horror films to all us Melbournites who love a good scare (and dose of blood). Recent screenings have included Friday The 13th, Part II (1981), [REC] (2007), and Deep Red (1975), and this Wednesday 22 September the Society will be screening The Beyond, by Italian gore god Lucio Fulci, a metaphysical ode to the director’s literary idol, Antonin Artaud, a surrealist who coined the term Theatre of Cruelty – theatre that set out to shock its audience. Needless to say, The Beyond is not a film for the weak, involving a house located above one of the Gates of Hell and the shit that happens as a consequence. The film will screen at 1,000 £ Bend. Head to melbournehorrorfilmsociety.com for details.

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR SQUARES Opening yesterday and running for three weeks, Melbourne photographer Douglas E Pope is exhibiting a collection of square photography – appropriately titled 6x6 – at Black Cat, Fitzroy. We’re liking what we’re seeing on the artist’s website, with each picture telling a story, so make sure you preview the show via polaroidboy.tumblr.com.

ALL ADVERTISERS RECEIVE DISCOUNTED RATES AND EDITORIAL. BOOK NOW TO SECURE PLACEMENT.

WOODVALE SOUTH

CALL SARAH BLABY ON 9421 4499

” We build. After we build we kick it down.” Art Day South

FRINGE CLUB – ARTS HOUSE, North Melbourne Town Hall,

OCT 2 & 3,

Inpress, an ofﬁcial partner of Melbourne Fringe 2010.

2.00pm-5.00pm An Arts Access Victoria project.

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DVD

REVIEWS

GOEMON Madman The Japanese ninja-action-fantasy Goemon (2009) can be described as none other than epic. Tagged for western audiences as the legend of the Robin Hood of Japan, the film is loosely based on semi-historical figure who, in similar fashion, stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Scaling cities, mountains, forests, and dynasties of feudal Japan, what begins as a seemingly simple tale of a ‘master thief’ outsmarting the local authorities, gives way to a magnificently, intricate narrative about honour, betrayal, revenge, love and power. In stealing a small, wooden box, Goemon Ishikawa (Yôsuke Eguchi) unwittingly sets in motion a destructive chain of events. Friend becomes foe, foe becomes friend as he comes across the deadly ninja Saizo Kirigakure (Takao Ôsawa), the princess-in-the-tower Lady Chacha (Ryoko Hirosue) and the powerful Hideyoshi Toyotomi (Eiji Okuda) amongst a great number of others. Brimming over with colourful, graphic novel-type visuals, stunning special effects and fantastic action sequences and with the added a hint of the Hollywood blockbuster, the second film of director Kazuaki Kiriya (Casshern) is a big film meant for the big screen. And in watching it in the living room, Goemon does look a little cramped. However, there is nothing like Goemon, so it’s sure to have a huge influence on the ninja and fantasy genres. The DVD’s special features include an insightful Making Of Goemon, complete with detailed deconstructions of filming on a greenscreen set and cast and crew interviews, and the original trailer. ANITA CONNORS

BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD (TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION) Warner Home Video If you have not yet acquainted yourself with DC Comics’ series of direct-to-video film releases, latest effort Batman: Under The Red Hood is all the reason you need to get on board. Easily the strongest in a line that has had some pretty damn impressive releases anyway, Under The Red Hood draws on 1988’s A Death In The Family and 2005’s Under The Hood story arcs, which focused on the murder – and consequent return from the grave – of Jason Todd, Batman’s second Robin, recruited after original Boy Wonder Dick Grayson hit puberty and Bruce totally lost interest.

IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN

I ROCK

Antidote Films

Poet, philosopher, and arse clown Nash Taylor (Josh Mapleston) fronts cheesy indie outfit Boy Crazy Stacey, struggling along in the none too friendly Sydney live music scene and attempting to live the rock’n’roll dream like it’s something he read about once in a book.

The man behind the first featurelength documentary about Mozart (In Search Of Mozart) has turned his sights on the musician’s successor, Ludwig van Beethoven. Stylistically, Phil Grabsky’s portrait is no great shakes; it’s your stock standard birth-to-death tale as shared by talking heads (predominantly old white guys), intercut with contemporary portraits and modern musical performances, all strung together by the plummy tones of narrator Juliet Stevenson. And yet because of this simplicity – or perhaps in spite of it – Grabsky manages to communicate Beethoven’s extraordinary genius in a way that is both easily accessible and marvellously entertaining.

Extras-wise, there’s a lot here, but little worth checking out other than the sweet Jonah Hex short film and the trailer for the upcoming Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

For those with only a passing knowledge of the musician and his works, the documentary expertly locates Beethoven in the context of late 18th to early 19th Century Vienna. Contending with the looming shadows of both Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven comes across as a brash, young upstart, keen to show off his prodigious talents by producing near-impossible piano concertos. Known to have a temper that almost matched his musical virtuosity, the various talking heads in this documentary are to some extent keen apologists, though their bias is mitigated by their palpable exuberance for this man and his music. And what music! Beethoven’s Third Symphony is described as ‘a monster’; his Seventh, ‘an uppercut to the audience’. Such metaphors are accompanied by utterly compelling orchestral performances, as if the long gone, famously deaf composer was reaching through the ages to assert his rite of reply.

MITCH KNOX

ALICE TYNAN

The anime-style art and animation is sharp and well-executed; the voice acting, sublime. Bruce Greenwood rivals veteran Bat Kevin Conroy in donning the Cowl, Neil Patrick Harris charms as Nightwing/Dick Grayson, and Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles nails the tragic and amoral Todd. But it’s John ‘Bender’ DiMaggio’s Joker who steals the show, creating a chilling and hilarious animated counterpart to Heath Ledger’s liveaction “super-sane” psychopath. And it’s violent (read: awesome). Wonder Woman (2009) pleasantly surprised with its brutality, but little compares to witnessing the Joker whale on a teenage kid with a crowbar. Within the first five minutes. Simply: this film rocks.

SNAP-

SHOT CECILIA SECRETLY, 2010 CLARE MCCRACKEN On display at No No Gallery, North Melbourne as part of The C. Payne Project exhibition, running from this Thursday to Saturday 9 October.

ABC/Roadshow

It takes a while to warm to this ABC series by writer and star Mapleston and director Rob MacDonald, but by about episode four of eight, the depth of the writing becomes apparent. Nash’s love interest Comet (Ashley Fitzgerald), initially somewhat cardboard, comes into her own, and – like all good comedy – the underlying seriousness of the subject matter rises quite spectacularly to the surface. Meanwhile, there are enough in-jokes, Extras-like cameos by artists such as Tim Rogers and The Lovetones, class A drummer jokes, and musical and cultural references to keep the inner rock geek in all of us happy. Like Deadwood’s Al Swearengen – though with a lot less ‘cocksuckers’ – Nash is a character that we loath at first but come to feel a strange affection for as the series builds to its hilarious crescendo when Boy Crazy Stacey somehow fluke a guest spot at the ARIAs. Stick with this better than average show, you’ll be glad you did, and pray for a second season, where an initially shaky start should be well and truly a thing of the past and the vast talent on display here gets a chance to really shine. Extras include outtakes, live performances, guest band performances, behind the scenes clips, making of the music featurette. TONY MCMAHON

DICK SMITH’S POPULATION PUZZLE

I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL

Ovation/DV9

Paramount This is the story of a reprehensible bell-end of a man called Tucker Max (Matt Czuchry), a shit-eating grin on legs whose only mission in life is to get pissed, bang chicks and wake up with a story to tell. You might be forgiven for doubting that such a sexist, cocksure waste of skin really exists – but he’s based on a real-life Tucker Max whose booze-fuelled exploits are chronicled in the 2006 New York Times bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. The film is loosely based on the Austin road-trip story from the book, where Tucker, his about-to-bewed mate Dan (Geoff Stults), and misanthropic video game nerd Drew (Jesse Bradford) roll out of town in search of a fabled strip club where touching is allowed. As much as Max is an evil, evil man, his prose stories are pretty entertaining. This screenplay, however, falls well short of the book. While written and produced by Max himself, it’s approximately one-tenth as hardcore! Perhaps if he’d gone all out, the film would have attained minor cult status but as it is, it seems tame, diluted to a kind of sub American Pie level of gross-out. The central narrative is pretty forced, but the sub-plot about Drew falling for a strippin’ single mother (Marika Dominczyk) in a relationship based on hurling inventive insults ends up being quite sweet. You get the feeling it wants to be Swingers, but it’s just so much borrowed money. BAZ MCALISTER

Australian entrepreneur and iconin-the-making Dick Smith is worried about our nation’s future. The concern centres on the oft-intoned desire for a ‘Big Australia’, where ‘big’ could see our numbers swelling to 36 million by mid-century. Never one to sit on the sidelines, this documentary is part of Smith’s plan to jumpstart a national debate on the population forecast and the impact this will have on our climate, lifestyle, food and water supplies. Smith’s folksy, fuddy-duddy charm translates well to television, particularly given the fact that he uses his well-known wealth to his advantage. Flying (himself) hither and thither, Smith is open about the fact it is his fortune that allows him to carve a stage upon the national consciousness and shed light on the ramifications of this ‘Big Australia’ assumption. Politicians are quizzed, farmers commiserated with, while a walk down memory lane takes Smith back to his not so humble beginnings in the leafy North Shore suburb of Roseville. Whether or not you take objection to his rather rose-coloured view of the good old days with quarter-acre blocks, Smith succeeds in one important area: he distinguishes the debate about immigration from calls of racism. Dick Smith’s Population Puzzle isn’t about ‘stopping the boats’ (on the contrary), rather a very timely call for an investigation into sustainability. His concern may sound exclusive and at times simplistic, but more than anything Smith’s snappy, colourful documentary seeks to pique your interest and get Australians talking about whether bigger is necessarily better. ALICE TYNAN

7 UP

MOVIES WHERE GUYS SOLVE PROBLEMS WITH HELICOPTERS BY CAM GRACE 1. Blue Thunder (John Badham, 1973) 2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1977) 3. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001) 4. You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967) 5. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978) 6. Midnight Run (Martin Best, 1978) 7. The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood, 1977)

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WELCOME TO THE GANGSTERS BALL

STEP RIGHT UP, FOLKS. COME ONE, COME ALL. WHAT’LL YER POISON BE? THERE’S WHISKY, WINE AND ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD FOR Y’ALL. POKER? GIRLS? SHARPLY-DRESSED GENTS? THEY’VE GOT THEM, TOO, Y’SEE. ROCKABILLY, SWING AND ALL THAT JAZZ. ROULETTE, GANGSTERS, DIVAS AND CABARET STARS FOR YOU GARBOS AND BOGARTS. IT’S GONNA BE A HELL OF A NIGHT. LET’S INTRODUCE YOU TO SOME HIGHLIGHTS, SHALL WE?

THE SWINGER ROCK’N’ROLL/SWING CHAMPION KELLY ANN DOLL EXPLAINS TO BETHANY SMALL THAT IT AIN’T WHAT YOU DANCE, IT’S THE WAY YOU DANCE IT. “Oh yeah and it’s Ann without an ‘e’,” Kelly Ann Doll mentions at the end of a conversation that proves that, as well being officially the fastest rock’n’roll dancer in the world, she has some championship-level WPM too. While it’s tempting on that note to work up a comparison of her with Anne “Anne with an ‘e’” of Green Gables, it’s equally and more relevantly an indicator of how in charge she is, and how determined

THE DANCER TONY MCMAHON SPEAKS TO AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED QUEEN OF BURLESQUE, IMOGEN KELLY, ABOUT WHAT SHE’LL BE UP TO AT GANGSTERS’ BALL. After more than 3,000 punters, dressed to the nines, flooded the

“And then,” she explains of her transition into broader public performance, “I got to, like,18 or 19 and discovered that there’s a whole social aspect and I’d go out and be the youngest person in the room but the oldest, too, because I’d been dancing for so long.”

Kelly Ann Doll’s performance style, which she’s been honing “since people thought burlesque was an STD or something” fuses together all her different dance influences, and while there’s plenty of Hollywood glamour she’ll “always put a modern spin on it, be a bit tongue in cheek”. Kelly Ann describes herself as “pretty much a staple” of the Gangsters’ Ball, having been there every year, and describes performing at it as “epic: you’ve got this huge crowd and you’re reaching all the way to the back of the room, so I get up there and I’m like, ‘Okay, 150% on top of the 200% I’m usually doing’.” She’s not revealing much on this year’s shows beyond that she’s still working on them, but it’s safe to say she’ll bring out the solo fast footwork, and her two long-term dance partners, Dan and Shannon, will be there for “slow and sexy blues” and “hardcore swing and cool aerials”. “The boys are a really big part of the show,” she says, “and having them there… sometimes it’s hard for guys in burlesque, but they’re so great and, I mean, the girls love them and it can be more comfortable for guys in the audience who don’t feel like they’re just looking at chicks.” Yeah, guys hate that, right? The point being, though, that the act, like the whole Gangsters’ Ball, is “not just circus, not just burlesque, not just vintage. Forget what you think you know.”

2009 Gangsters’ Ball, the glamorous, fully-themed event is back again for 2010 promising to be even bigger and better. Entertainment ranging from rockabilly, burlesque, cabaret, and even cigarette girls all promise to make this one of the do-not-miss events of the year. “This years Gangsters’ Ball is a departure from previous years in that we have a variety of acts,” Imogen Kelly says. “Great lengths have gone into creating the line-up, which involves circus, aerialists and also magicians; not to mention The Velvet Set, who are the jewel in the crown. If you love swing you have gotta see this band. I have a choice of two gorgeous acts: one of my famous headlining numbers Little Red Hot Riding Hood or a brand new one that I’m keeping under wraps for now. I’ll surprise you on the night.” Kelly’s life story – believe it or not – started out in a convent. Naturally, curiosity calls for an explanation about the steps she took to get from that place to becoming a burlesque performer. “How long have we got here? Let’s just say that when I had my interview with the school councillor, she asked what I would be when I left school. I answered without thinking or even blinking, ‘I’m going to be a stripper;

not just any stripper, I’m going to be the most amazing striptease artist this country has ever seen’. She blushed, stuttered and from memory choked a little as she loosened her tight lace collar, but she couldn’t think of any contacts to help me in my search for work experience. She thought she’d saved me by enrolling me into the College Of Fine Arts to study performance. So there’s the first stepping stone. The second stepping stone was my inelegant fall from grace when I took up striptease to pay my way. She should have seen that coming. Don’t cry for me, Mrs… um, I forget her name. Oh well. Onward and upward.” Kelly is also a skilled circus aerialist, as well as a graduate of NIDA. Interestingly, she says that she mainly doesn’t incorporate these skills into her burlesque routine. “Aerials are my passion so I use them where-ever possible. Aerials and burlesque are a bit like water and oil though. Trapeze is not really the right kind of act to perform in the nude for decency’s sake: no one wants to see anyone do a nude splits ten meters above their heads. Holy Toledo, that’s way too much information! My NIDA training has nothing to do with my burlesque work. I was a burlesque dancer before I went to NIDA. ”

to make sure everything goes the best it can. “I put myself under a lot of stress,” she says, “because I change my performances for every show, I never do the same routine twice. I mean the live element is such an important thing in cabaret.” This spontaneity is grounded on really strong technical skills, though, with Kelly Ann having started off in competition as a kid and getting the technical stuff across rock’n’roll, swing, and aerial dancing and Latin (and a bit of jazz that she didn’t like much).

THE MC AURORA KURTH WILL BE PLAYING HOST AT GANGSTERS’ BALL IN BETWEEN BELTING OUT A CLASSIC NUMBER OR TWO. SHE SPEAKS TO PAUL RANSOM. Imagine a sly grog world of flappers and hoods, a den of swing and cigar smoke, where decadence and elegance dance cheek to cheek. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gangsters’ Ball. Graham Coupland’s tri-city themed extravaganza of burlesque cabaret bacchanalia not only gives punters the chance to play dress-ups but

THE ILLUSIONIST JULIA MADOTTI HAS BEEN BLOWING PEOPLE’S MINDS FOR THE LENGTH OF HER CAREER, BUT NOT JUST WITH HER SLEIGHT OF HAND. ALICE MUHLING TALKS CHAMPAGNE AND STEREOTYPES WITH ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S FOREMOST FEMALE MAGICIANS.

invites them into a Prohibition-era fantasy land of subterranean chic. With a ten-piece swing band, circus acts, game tables and circulating cigar girls Gangsters’ Ball is a retro variety theme park. The evening’s MC, Melbourne-based chanteuse Aurora Kurth, is literally fizzing at the prospect. “I’m incredibly excited about the fact that I get to sing and perform in these exquisite venues. Especially the Forum here in Melbourne. To be able to sing on that stage with a big band is a real thrill.” However, rather than just belt out a few standards and introduce the next act, Kurth will be bringing a little more sauce to the proceedings. “I asked myself which one of my various alter egos would be the best woman or man to host the evening. In the end it was Madame Leila Montansano who worked. She felt right. She said yes.” In true cabaret style, Mme Montansano is no mere stick figure. “Leila’s been floating around in and out of my life now for the past five years really. She’s a bit naughty and she’s got a history of bad luck in love, so she’s on a bit of a mission to find the man who stole her heart in Berlin.” Between propping up the bar and providing a narrative thread for the evening, Leila will be performing much-loved tunes from Edith Piaf, Marilyn Monroe, and Nina Simone. According to Kurth it’s all part of

producer Coupland’s overarching vision for Gangsters’ Ball. “He really wanted it to be a solid show rather than a different show in each city, and that’s why Leila has a sort of story to tell.” Successful big production evenings like Gangsters’ Ball are, however, more than the sum of their line-ups. For a start, audiences actively participate, as if they were in a 1930s nightclub. As Kurth observes, “We get to totally remove ourselves from this life for a night. It’s like stepping onto a movie set and I think that’s why people let their inhibitions go a little bit more.” Indeed the advice to punters is to immerse. “You can twist it however you want just as long as you dress up a little bit theatrical so you can really step outside of yourself and explore the night like a kid would with mum’s dress up box.” The size and scale of Gangsters’ Ball also tells us the current vogue for pre-TV nostalgia is still with us. “It’s probably because we’re just desperate to connect with people again. With Facebook and all that I’m connected with hundreds of friends from all round the world… but it’s not real in some way, y’know.” Of course, Mme Leila Montansano and her smoky world of dames and dangerous men is also a fantasy. It’s all part of the allure. “I just love the immediacy. And y’know, I never quite know what Leila’s going to do next.”

When the word ‘magician’ gets mentioned, you wouldn’t be blamed for picturing your embarrassing uncle donning a red-lined silk cape, a fake moustache and a top hat while trying to impress the kids at your tenth birthday party with clumsily executed card tricks. However, when the words ‘female illusionist’ are broached, you should picture parasols, confetti, music, ball gowns, fire, sass and surrealism. You should picture Julia Madotti. As one of Australia’s first female illusionists, Madotti is known for her innovative costumes, impressive staging and intoxicating, characterbased performance pieces. Making a special appearance at the annual vaudevillian spectacular that is the Gangsters’ Ball, Madotti is excited to be releasing her whimsical show on the audience. “What I do now is a lot softer, a bit surreal. I’m not as fast and furious as I used to be. I create an interesting experience for people, and it’s something they’ve never seen before. Because no one does quite what I do.” Madotti started her career as any normal kid would – bussing her talents for trickery around the suburban streets of Melbourne and knocking on neighbours’ doors with a smile. She also worked her magic

on the other kids. “I was always performing. I used to gather all the kids in the neighbourhood and say, ‘We’re gonna do a show’.” Turning her childhood passion into a full-time profession came a few years later. “I lived in Berlin in the ’90s, where there were lots of performing opportunities. That’s when I decided I would be a female magician.” Her chosen career-path hasn’t always been pyrotechnics and parasols. As a female forging her way in a very male-heavy industry, she has faced some challenges. “I think it’s the most male-dominated industry on the plane. If I said I was an electrical engineer, people would accept that. If I said I was an astronaut, people would accept that. There are female astronauts. But I’ve had people say, ‘Who does the magic for you?’. Even massive big theatrical companies have said to me, ‘Are you sexy?’. It’s really patronising. It’s been very hard but if you keep going with it, it’s okay. Magic has quite a conservative reputation. People think I will stand there and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat’. What I do is more character-based. I’ve done a lot of acting, theatre and writing. And I’m really interested in female archetypes, the subconscious and the shadow.”

WHO: Aurora Kurth, The Velvet Set, Circus Trick Tease, Mada vs Vegas, Carni Coconut feat Mark Winmill & Fez, Anna ‘Pocket Rocket’ Lumb, Kelly Ann Doll with Daniel E and Shannon McGurgan, Jamilla Deville, Imogen Kelly, Lou Lou & The Lucky Charms feat Lou Harwood, Julia Madotti, Lena Marlene WHAT: Gangsters’ Ball WHERE & WHEN: Forum Theatre this Saturday

WORLDS APART

SCREEN TIME

RICH WEBB’s fourth solo album is his greatest departure from the surf rock of his former outfit The Stiff Kittens, he reveals to TONY MCMAHON.

They rocked the crowd at Cherry Rock and now REDCOATS are ready for their television debut, ANDREW BRAIDNER informs TONY MCMAHON.

It just all seemed to be coming together and I thought it would be a good idea to record in the middle. So we took a week off. We were in Hanover anyway, which has this very gothic kind of feel. And we ended up in this studio that used to be owned by The Scorpions, back in the day of the huge snare drum. It’s funny, you know, the room they use for drums is about five times larger than the actual recording bit. It’s all about this huge snare sound they get there. It was a completely different way to how I’ve ever made a record before. It was fantastic.”

eautiful World is the fourth solo album from Rich Webb, former singer/guitarist with surf rock outfit The Stiff Kittens. Don’t let that fool you, however. While there is the odd twanging guitar and occasional tom roll, this is an album of gorgeous contradictions and effervescent intensities, about as far removed from any notion of concrete and limiting genre as could possibly be imagined, centred around Webb’s lush, howling vocals and clever, insightful songwriting. So, why the departure? Webb says it’s all about the fact he’s not getting any younger. “We all kind of got a bit older. This is the fourth solo album that I’ve done and it’s probably the first one that’s got a lot of different songs from what I was doing with The Stiff Kittens. I wanted to kind of take it in that solo direction and do some different stuff. It’s not anywhere near as manic. You know, I loved playing with The Stiff Kittens, but you kind of get a bit older and you can’t keep the pace going of that surf rock ‘n’ roll stuff.” Beautiful World was recorded in the legendary Horus Sound Studio in Hanover, Germany, and Webb’s telling of the tale indicates that place was a determining factor in the finished product. “We were on tour in Germany. We’d been over there four times in the last three years, and it just kind of made sense to try and record something half way through a tour where we had the new material together and it’d been tried live. And the band was really starting to work.

Engineering and mixing duties on the album were handled by Howard Bargroff, who has worked with Grace Jones and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Paul McKercher of Cruel Sea and Midnight Oil fame. “A lot of the tracks were put down as much as possible live, but the Germans are right on the money as far as accuracy and their engineering skills. So we found that once we came to mix it a lot of the stuff was really beautifully done. That was an important part of it.” According to Webb, this mix of live recording and exacting German engineering will make for a great live show, even though he seems to be rethinking the record’s design. “Yeah, I should have put the BMW logo on the front of the album. But it works really well live. The show coming up at the Social Club will be slightly different in that we’ve added a trumpet player, so there’s a different influence there, more loungy. It translates live really well; it’s not that far off a live record.” As far as the album launch coming up goes, Webb says it’s being held in the best possible time slot and that it might be one of our last chances for a while to catch him. “There’s a few special guests, and we just want to get as many people down there as we can and have a bit of a party. It’s the best time, I reckon, Sunday afternoon. So we’re doing that and then we’ve got a few more shows before heading off back overseas again. I’m really looking forward to playing.”

WHO: Rich Webb WHAT: Beautiful World (All Killer Music) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday, Northcote Social Club (2pm)

BOOZE BUDDIES

you’ve been doing and listening to, and the effect that you can in hindsight see it having on the piece.” Redcoats played a much talked about set at this year’s Cherry Rock festival. Again, Braidner says there’s an enigmatic element to why it was such a good experience. “Cherry Rock was a good thing to be a part of. There’s a certain thing Cherry has within Melbourne rock. I don’t really know what it is, but it has something. I think the crowd you get at Cherry are the real die-hards who have followed Australian and particularly Melbourne rock’n’roll for years and years, and they are very loyal to it. If you can get a few of those sorts of people turning their heads and noticing it can only be a good thing.”

“L

ike probably any band from Australia, we’ve always wanted to see ourselves on Rage,” says Andrew Braidner, drummer with local psychedelic outfit Redcoats, and it seems their dream is about to come true with a clip for their song Giants. To celebrate, the band are playing a special video launch gig at Northcote Social Club, which should be worth attending for any fan of untamed riffs and desert rock. “I can’t really say that it was all that enjoyable,” Braidner goes on, talking about the experience of making the video, “but it was interesting. It’s always interesting seeing how things in a different creative field of work come together. It seems to me like the process of creativity is often very similar no matter what the format. I think Sam, the guy who put it all together for us really understood what our vibe was about and we couldn’t be happier with the end result.” When it comes to the writing process Redcoats have been putting into practice, Braidner says that, like all good art perhaps, it’s something of a mystery. “The band’s songwriting is constantly evolving as things naturally do. Songwriting is a very strange thing. You never know where the next thing might come from and when a song is done it’s often hard to explain how it came about or where the inspiration was from. We’ve never really set out to engage a certain sound, we just play and a sound appears. It’s always interesting when a song appears and you look back at what

Interestingly, when it comes to the subject of a Redcoats live show, Braidner knows exactly what it is that makes the performance special, both for himself and participants in the audience. “Our live shows have been growing since day one,” he says. “We really love playing live. We’re all for huge rock’n’roll that goes straight through your body and leaves you in awe. This is the sort of thing we all love about the live setting: being able to directly speak to someone through your music with loud noises and flashy lights can be a very powerful thing. In saying that though, I think some of the most powerful performances I’ve seen have been one person with a guitar and a piano exposing their soul to the crowd. Live performances are all about the power of being there in the moment with a band and feeling the energy flow out of them.” For the video launch, Braidner says there will also be some extra elements. “The Social Club gig is the first gig for us where we are incorporating a visual aspect past that of lights. Sam, who did our film clip, has been working on some visuals that are being projected behind us. We really enjoy the idea of giving the crowd something that hopefully visually represents what we are doing with our music. I think often it’s a lot easier to lose yourself in the music and go on the journey when you have something tying things together visually.” WHO: Redcoats WHAT: Giants single (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, Northcote Social Club

INTO THE SWING

With a new single Wasted and some wisdom from Ben Harper, SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR are gearing up for their next album, MARK LANG tells BENNY DOYLE.

GRAHAM COUPLAND tells MICHAEL SMITH how big band swing took him from indie rock to THE VELVET SET, The Gangsters’ Ball and cigarette girls. So he went and bought himself a couple of swing compilations and the die was cast – indie rock had lost him as he tumbled down the slippery slope of big band jazz.

“Y

eah, a bit of rambling,” laughs Mark Lang before local five-piece Skipping Girl Vinegar head out on an East Coast tour to promote new single Wasted. The frontman knows just what the press junket for such an event entails, so in keeping things relatable and light, it’s on to their well-received set at this year’s Splendour In The Grass festival. “I reckon the organisers deserve an Order Of Australia medal,” Lang suggests. “It was a seriously amazing line-up. When we got onstage, I couldn’t believe how many people were there – the tent was pretty much full and we had a really great response and vibe from the crowd.” The experience wasn’t hindered by a new friend made, either. “We met Ben Harper on the first night and ended the night hanging out, talking about songwriting” Mark gushes. “It was just really bizarre to be sitting there but he gave us heaps of time and got really excited about our new album artwork and told us he was going to steal the idea. He gave us some great advice about how to work into your second album when you’ve been busy touring.” The excitement about this second album is beginning to brew with a new single, but Lang explains it won’t be landing until early next year. “We are still working on it,” he states. “We did one song at the start of this year [One Long Week], the Wasted single that’s just come out and four or five other songs that are in different elements of completion. We decided we just wanted to allow things to sit a bit.” Mark says, “I’ll probably go over to Nashville at the start of February so it’ll be a fairly quick turnaround from the point of which it’s been mixed to the point of going out. We want to make sure we go in with our best foot forward.”

Wasted is an old song inspired by “basically getting a little bit silly on the sauce” and the darker side that goes with it, “when you wake up the next morning and go, ‘That was a bit heavy’,” Lang chuckles. But as for it being an indication of the rest of the album to follow, Lang is in two minds. “I think it’s kind of its own thing in a way, but there is sort of an ethos about how we recorded that track that’s kind of spilling into the rest of it. We’ve used a lot of recycled hard rubbish…” Confused? Lang continues. “I had this kick drum we found in a dumpster. It’s like this old marching drum. We were thinking, ‘The kick drum just sounds boring, what would that crazy marching drum sound like?’, so we literally had to gaffer tape it on the ground and it sounded really cool. Then we started going, ‘What are we doing? Who cares? Let’s stop thinking about how much different instruments are, let’s just chase that character!’ And it just so happens that the character we like is junk.” And just like that, ‘DIY hobo pop’ was born. Mark continues to explain, “We used a drink bottle full of rock that’s appeared all over the new record. We got these fresh hobo symbols that we found in the corner of an old abandoned room in a school and all sorts of crazy crap. It’s got this whole hobo pop aesthetic thing going and I’m really loving it. If you don’t have a shaker, just fill up your drink bottle full of rocks and start a band!” WHO: Skipping Girl Vinegar WHAT: Wasted (Popboomerang/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, the Toff In Town

couple of things took Graham Coupland down a path that has led to an insatiable passion for all things 1930s Depression-era America, from speakeasies to swing bands. It’s a path that in recent years has also led him to stage the annual celebration known as The Gangsters’ Ball, featuring elements from that time including swing dancing, cabaret, vaudeville, a gambling den, cigarette girls and DJs spinning rockabilly, swing and rock’n’roll. “Firstly, I think with the demise of [previous band] Platonic, I got tired of spending money so people could hear my music. I thought it would be better to do something where people actually gave me money to hear my music. So what I did, I stopped playing in an originals band – I hit the wonderful age of 30 and figured I was too old to get a record deal, so I set up a studio and was songwriting, producing and recording other bands,” Coupland begins. “A couple of years ago, a band came through my studio and they had a three-piece horn section. It was the first time I’d ever worked with and recorded a horn section and I absolutely loved it. They were a psychobilly band called The Casino Rumblers, so I recorded and produced their first album for them. The horn guys said, ‘If you want to do something with horns, have you considered putting a swing band together?’ and stupidly I sat there and said to them, ‘What’s swing? I’ve never heard of it.’”

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“Of course I knew what swing was, but hadn’t made the connection, so by the time the Rumblers album was finished I’d seconded two of them to help me set up The Velvet Set. It was about a year’s work, but I pulled together ten different musicians from all over Sydney, a couple of fantastic singers, male and female – good rhythm section, good horn section – and when we played our first show in May 2007 we had 400 in the room. So there was obviously a big void in the swing dancing scene here in Sydney. Swing dancing was going crazy in 2006/2007, everyone was learning how to swing dance, but if you wanted to go and have dance lessons you could only go to a DJ night, there weren’t any bands, so we just jumped on that bandwagon – the band to fill that void.” True to his earlier decision, The Velvet Set are a staunchly unoriginal band with no intention of recording and releasing anything, drawing their repertoire from American ‘20s and ‘30s big band, swing standards and crooner classics mixed up with contemporary neo-swing like Royal Crown Revue, Brian Setzer and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. But then something else occurred to the entrepreneurial Coupland. “Around that time there were quite a few burlesque events happening on a slightly bigger scale than the shows I was doing. I was tagging along and I just thought they were rubbish – people were paying $80 or $90 a ticket to go in and see $15 worth of entertainment and I thought, ‘That’s not good enough’ and that’s where The Gangsters’ Ball idea came from, taking the best elements of what I’d seen and the best elements from what I was doing and try and give people a quintessentially themed entertaining night that takes you back into the ‘20s and ‘30s, and give you that experience of what it might have been like to step into a speakeasy or a dancehall.”

WHO: The Velvet Set WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, Forum

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ISSUE 1140 - WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER, 2010

TOURS

Pete and Dave

PRESENTS

THIS WEEK INTERNATIONAL METALLICA: Tonight and Thursday Rod Laver Arena BUCK 65: Thursday Corner Hotel JEFFREE STAR: Friday Billboard THE WONDER YEARS: Saturday Evelyn; Sunday Phoenix Youth Centre KATCHAFIRE: Sunday Corner

NATIONAL GRINSPOON: Tonight Eureka Hotel MONEY FOR ROPE: Tonight Cherry Bar CALLING ALL CARS: Tonight The Loft (Warnambool); Thursday Kay Street (Traralgon); Friday Bluestone (Ballarat); Saturday Corner Hotel WASHINGTON: Thursday Karova Lounge; Friday Corner Hotel; Saturday National Hotel (Geelong) RADIANT CITY: Thursday Bar Open JOHN BUTLER TRIO: Friday Festival Hall; Saturday Bendigo Stadium (Bendigo); Sunday Geelong Performing Arts Centre (Geelong) REGURGITATOR: Friday Hi-Fi RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, PIKELET: Friday National Hotel (Geelong); Saturday Curtin Bandroom CITY RIOTS, THE CHEMIST: Friday Northcote Social Club SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR: Saturday Toff In Town MM9: Saturday Revolver Upstairs JINJA SAFARI: Saturday Northcote Social Club CHASE THE SUN, CLAUDE HAY, DIRT RIVER RADIO: Sunday Evelyn Hotel RICH WEBB & THE WALLFLOWERS: Sunday Northcote Social Club PARIS WELLS: Tuesday Toff In Town

GIG OF THE WEEK FOUR BY TWO FRIDAY, THE ESPY You don’t need to be a mathematician to know the odds will be firmly stacked in the punter’s favour at this (free) night of dynamic duos. With their first album in ten years (!) almost done, The Grapes – Even’s Ash Naylor and country chanteuse Sherry Rich – will be dragging themselves away from their secret Northcote recording set-up to air some new tunes and some well-worn faves. Fresh from a run of shows with the recently re-formed Dingoes, Broderick Smith pairs up with guitar virtuoso Matt Walker for a set of bluesy, roosty rock. Dave Larkin and Pete Satchell, currently occupied with their Gun Street Girls and Pete Sounds projects respectively, reunite to prove why Dallas Crane are one of the greatest rock bands in this country never to have been flogged on Triple M, and Dave Graney and Clare Moore showcase songs from their latest release, Supermodified, and more.

Powderfinger pic by Heidi Takla

Is High), the band themselves slide onto the stage with Love Your Way. From there it’s a collection of wall-to-wall hits that soundtracked a whole generation of Australian music lovers – the country swagger of Lost And Running, the summer anthems of Sunsets and Bless My Soul, and the epic buildups in Thrilliology and Sail The Wildest Stretch. Amongst all this, we get cheeky NRL score updates, jibes about the Melbourne Storm and compliments for our help in the chorus of My Kinda Scene.

Bedouin Soundclash October 14 Prince Bandroom

Following a random video on Russian astronauts interspersed with images of Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine, the band take a leaf out of the Foo Fighters and Coldplay books by proceeding to a stage at the other end of the arena, churning out rockin’ versions of Like A Dog and Stumblin’. And as Jon ‘Cogsy’ Coghill piles out a drum solo with Darren Middleton, Ian Haug and John Collins, Bernard Fanning meanwhile sneaks back down the other end, serenading us with the striking blend of acoustics and harmonica in farewell anthem Whatever Makes You Happy.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CHARLIE PARR: September 22 Hepburn Hotel; 23 East Brunswick Club CHICO MANN: September 22 Toff In Town MAYHEM: September 23 Hi-Fi Bar CYPRESS HILL: September 23 Palace PETER HOOK & FRIENDS: September 24 Palais JIMMY EDGAR, EGYPTIAN LOVER: September 24 Espy Gershwin Room ENTER SHIKARI: September 25 (18+), 26 (U18) Hi-Fi YOU ME AT SIX, KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES, THE AUDITION: September 25, (U18), 25 (18+) Billboard ZENA GEVA: September 26 Espy Gershwin Room SILVERSUN PICKUPS: September 28 Corner Hotel EMILIE SIMON, MELANIE PAIN: September 29 Prince Bandroom ASLAN: September 30, October 1 Clifton Hill Hotel LIL’ BAND O’ GOLD: 30 September East Brunswick Club; October 1 Prince Bandroom GROUPER: October 1 Northcote Uniting Church

RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, PIKELET: September 17 National Hotel (Geelong); 18 Curtin Bandroom THOUSAND NEEDLES IN RED: September 29 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 30 Bended Elbow (Geelong); October 1 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 2 Pelly Bar; 3 Evelyn BIRDS OF TOKYO, SILVERSUN PICKUPS: October 1 Festival Hall SMUDGE: October 2 Northcote Social Club DAN KELLY & HIS DREAM BAND: October 2 The Loft (Warrnambool); 15 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) THE PARADISE MOTEL: October 2 Thornbury Theatre; 9 Palais (Hepburn Springs) SARAH BLASKO: October 7 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 8 Palais; 9 Meeniyan Town Hall BOREDOMS, KES BAND, BUM CREEK: October 9 Forum DEAD MEADOW, STIGMATA, BLARKE BAYER/BLACK WIDOW: October 14 Forum SAGE FRANCIS, DEXTER, HORRORSHOW: October 15 Forum DENGUE FEVER, THE BREAK, JOHNNIE & THE JOHNNIE JOHNNIES: October 16 Forum LOW, PIKELET, PONZU ISLAND: October 21 Forum THE DRONES. K14, THE TWERPS: October 22 Forum MARIACHI EL BRONX, EAGLE & THE WORM, THE UKELADIES: October 23 Forum CLARE BOWDITCH: October 29 Bended Elbow (Geelong); November 1 Forum THE BARONS OF TANG: November 5 East Brunswick Club SHIHAD: November 19 Corner Hotel THE FALL: December 10 Billboard

LIVE: REVIEWS POWDERFINGER, JET ROD LAVER ARENA

nd so the biggest farewell tour for 2010 makes the first of its Melbourne pit-stops. There’s the unique mix of hardcore fans, the casual ones, the veterans and the young ’uns, but either way a jam-packed Rod Laver Arena is ready to relive 20 years of Oz rock gold and say goodbye to Brisbane’s favourite sons, Powderfinger.

The treats continue soon afterwards – Middleton takes on vocal duties in a well-received rendition of the very-old-school (Return Of) The Electric Horseman, while their two classics, My Happiness and Passenger, send the whole stadium crazy. The encore kicks off with an incredibly powerful take on Internationalist standout Capocity, and more classics in the form of breakthrough hit Pick You Up and (Baby I’ve Got You) On My Mind. And to finish it all off, the band return again to close with the tearjerking These Days and one last bow for the crowd.

Former-world-dominators-turned-serial-support-act Jet are given the task of warming things up, and surprisingly their brand of cliché-filled rock goes the distance and fits the bill pretty well. Mega-hit (and Iggy Pop rip-off) Are You Gonna Be My Girl? gets the stagnant mosh-pit dancing, while Cold Hard Bitch and new album track Goodbye Hollywood are also okay. What doesn’t go down as smoothly is poorly-chosen closer Rip It Up and Black Hearts On Fire, which shows just why Nic Cester should stay away from falsetto.

Seven years after I first rocked out to them on the Vulture Street tour in the same venue, Powderfinger remain the consummate, fun-loving and alwayspleasing live act I and so many others have grown to love. Tonight was not just an emphatic reminder of that, but it also showed how much of a gaping hole they are about to leave in the Australian rock music scene, and why they can sail off into the sunset with their heads held high.

Following some interesting waiting music on the Powderfi nger iPod between sets (eg: Blondie’s The Tide

Kiel Egging

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live@inpress.com.au

City Riots Friday Northcote Social Club

EXODUS: October 3 Corner Hotel THE SCRIPT: October 5 Palace PINK MARTINI WITH THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: October 5 Regent Theatre SIMPLY RED: October 6, 7 Plenary; 9 Rochford Wines (Yarra Valley) TODD RUNDGREN’S JOHNSON: October 6 Corner BEN KWELLER, DELTA SPIRIT: October 6 Hi-Fi VILLAGE PEOPLE: October 8, 9 Palms at Crown BOREDOMS: October 9 Forum MULATU ASTATKE: October 9 Order Of Melbourne ALEXISONFIRE: October 10 Palace SUN ARAW: October 10 Empress SARAH MCLACHLAN: October 12 Palais PARAMORE, RELIENT K: October 13 Sidney Myer Music Bowl DEAD MEADOW: October 12 National Hotel (Geelong); 14 Forum BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH: October 14 Prince Bandroom DIEGO GUERRERO: October 15 Kingston Arts Centre GUTTERMOUTH: October 15 Pier Live; 16 Ding Dong; 17 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 18 National Hotel (Geelong) CONCRETE BLONDE: October 22 Palace SOILWORK: October 23 Hi Fi Bar RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: October 24 Palais PAT BENATAR, THE BANGLES: October 26, 27 Palais PAUL WELLER: October 26, 27 Forum ICE CUBE: October 27 Palace PETULA CLARK: October 28 Arts Centre CELTIC WOMAN: October 30, 31 Palais Theatre BRIAN WILSON, CHICAGO, AMERICA, PETER FRAMPTON: November 1 Etihad Stadium ROBIN GIBB, BONNIE TYLER: November 3 Rod Laver Arena ED KOWALCZYK: November 5 Forum ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK: November 5, 6 State Theatre LEONARD COHEN, CLAIRE BOWDITCH, DEBORAH CONWAY: November 12, 13 Rod Laver Arena THE CHARLATANS: November 12 Billboard INGRID MICHAELSON: November 13 Corner Hotel THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: November 13 Hi-Fi METALLICA: November 18, 20, 21 Rod Laver Arena MANIC STREET PREACHERS: November 20 Forum THREE DOG NIGHT, THE TURTLES: November 20 Palais LEO SAYER: November 27 Palms at Crown U2: December 1 Etihad Stadium BLONDIE, THE PRETENDERS: December 1, 2 Palais; 4 Rochford Wines MARY GAUTHIER: December 2 East Brunswick Club; 3 Caravan Music Club HOT WATER MUSIC, THE BOUNCING SOULS: December 4, 5 Corner Hotel ARCHITECTS, COMEBACK KID, THIS IS HELL: December 5 Billboard JACK JOHNSON: December 8 Sidney Myer Music Bowl THE FIELD: December 9 East Brunswick Club CLIPSE: December 9 Prince Bandroom BROADCAST: December 9 Hi-Fi BON JOVI: December 10 Rod Laver Arena; 11 Etihad Stadium THE FALL: December 10 Billboard GIRLS: December 10 Corner Hotel GORILLAZ: December 11 Rod Laver Arena MUSE, BIFFY CLYRO: December 14, 15 Rod Laver Arena EL GUINCHO: December 15 East Brunswick Club THE EAGLES: December 17, 18, 21, 22 Rod Laver Arena

First Aid Kit pic by Lou Lou Nutt

NATIONAL MONEY FOR ROPE: September 22, 29 Cherry Bar WASHINGTON: September 22, 23, 24 Corner Hotel MILES AWAY: September 23 Arthouse; 26 Phoenix Youth Centre THE GETAWAY PLAN, STEALING O’NEAL: September 24 Billboard (U18); 24 Billboard (18+) WEDDINGS PARTIES ANYTHING: September 24 Palace THE MESS HALL: September 24 Northcote Social Club KES TRIO: September 25 East Brunswick Club THE DEMON PARADE: September 25 Retreat PARIS WELLS: September 28 Toff In Town PARKWAY DRIVE: September 29 Festival Hall THOUSAND NEEDLES IN RED: September 29 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 30 Bended Elbow (Geelong); October 1 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 2 Pelly Bar; 3 Evelyn SCOTT SPARKS: September 30 Toff In Town JAGERMEISTER INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS: October 1 Forum DIESEL: October 1 Northcote Social Club; 30 Palms At Crown BIRDS OF TOKYO: October 1 Festival Hall FRENZAL RHOMB: October 2 Corner DAN KELLY & HIS DREAM BAND: October 2 The Loft (Warrnambool); 15 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) SMUDGE: October 2 Northcote Social Club KASEY CHAMBERS: October 3 Capitol Theatre (Bendigo); November 6 Palais CLOUD CONTROL: October 5 Corner Hotel SARAH BLASKO: October 7 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 8 Palais; 9 Meeniyan Town Hall ASHLEY DAVIES: October 7, 8, 9, 10 Northcote Town Hall PAUL DEMPSEY: October 8 Corner Hotel ILLY, SKRYPTCHA: October 8 Palace ILLY SKRYPTCHA, 360: October 9 Ruby’s (Belgrave); 13 The Loft (Warrnambool); 14 Bended Elbow (Geelong); 16 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); November 5 Hi-Fi; 26 Yahoo Bar (Shepparton) THE HOLY SEA: October 9 Evelyn MATT CORBY: October 13 Northcote Social Club POWDERFINGER: October 15 Bendigo Showgrounds (Bendigo); 16 North Gardens (Ballarat); 29 Sidney Myer Music Bowl MARK SHOLTEZ: October 14, 15 Bennetts Lane JUAN ALBAN: October 16 Northcote Social Club YACHT CLUB DJS: October 16 Corner Hotel THE HOLIDAYS, PAPA VS PRETTY: October 21 National Hotel (Geelong); 22 East Brunswick Club

FESTIVALS PARKLIFE: October 2 Sidney Myer Music Bowl and King’s Domain ANGLESEA MUSIC FESTIVAL: October 8-10 WANGARATTA JAZZ FESTIVAL: October 29-November 1 AUSTRALASIAN WORLD MUSIC EXPO: November 18-21 QUEENSCLIFF MUSIC FESTIVAL: November 26-28 SHINE ON: November 28 Pyrenees Ranges STEREOSONIC: December 4 Melbourne Showgrounds MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: December 10-12 FALLS FESTIVAL: December 28-January 1 Lorne PYRAMID ROCK FESTIVAL: December 29-January 1 Phillip Island NO SLEEP TIL MELBOURNE: December 17 Melbourne Showgrounds SUMMADAYZE: January 1 Sidney Myer Music Bowl SOUNDWAVE: March 4, Melbourne Showgrounds

FIRST AID KIT, GEOFFREY O’CONNOR, DAISY TULLEY AND THE TOFF IN TOWN If this is what Sweden has been hiding, then it’s criminal that they’re best known for IKEA and Volvo. First Aid Kit – sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg – are nothing short of spectacular. Geoffrey O’Connor began the night, fronting a minimal crowd with a solitary guitar, an intermittent drum machine and some very good shoegazing. When he spoke to the crowd, it was in a nervous whisper, saying how pleased he was to be out of the miserable sunlight of Brisbane and back in Melbourne’s joyful drizzle. The highlight of his set was the closer, the gorgeous and shimmering Whatever Leads Me To You. The ethereal Daisy Tulley followed soon after. Tulley normally performs with her band Bridezilla, but the diminutive Tully delighted all on her lonesome. I have never been so grateful for delay pedals. Seamlessly, she built up layer upon layer of guitar, occasionally topping it with a wistful violin, which provided an incredible depth of feeling to nuance her bold voice. The end product was Mazzy Star fronted by Beth Orton. The headlining Swedes took the stage with a tubthumping opener that was more Nashville than Stockholm. The country vibe is soul deep in this band, both in their music and in the twang in their accents. They turned swiftly to their single Hard Believer, which allowed an elated audience to indulge in the sisters’ transcendent harmonies. These harmonies are the band’s greatest strength. Klara’s brassier voice supplies a brave lead but Johanna’s thinner breathiness provides the perfect complement. When the voices combine, it is glorious. It is because of this that the band were at their best in their quieter moments, relying on Klara’s guitar as their only accompaniment and letting their heavenly voices take centre stage. It was in this way that they delivered the gig’s two highlights: their covers of Fleet Foxes’ Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Universal Soldier. Like the best covers, they elevated the originals. First Aid Kit are a band that should be heard live. In a studio, with layers of heavy production supplementing their perfect voices, they lose the fragile beauty so evident at this gig. That is beyond a shame. When they next come to Melbourne, you must see them.

Still, he made valiant efforts to rise above it and there were moments of brilliance in his performance. Sudanese and Trishine broke hearts and tickled funny bones and the ubiquitous Northcote (So Hungover) was well accepted by the people it mocks. The highlight was the epic New Media which ended, surprisingly, with a human pyramid. Heazlewood is a great performer with an intelligent and hilarious insight into our great city. All are encouraged to check out his shows. Dickheads are encouraged to stay home. Rob Gascoigne

HELM, FIVE STAR PRISON CELL EVELYN HOTEL Blazing a trail of syncopated madness following the recent release of a brand new full-length, Five Star Prison Cell dove straight into the meat of their wellrefined musical volatility. Perhaps with bionic hearts made of various salvaged metronomes, we were treated to a smattering of jagged, full-force compositions, balanced perfectly with a lighthearted edge, the comic relief from frontman Adam Glynn sparing no expense. One only needed to observe both the puzzled/ amazed/involuntarily-laughing faces to realise the definition of Five Star Prison Cell’s performance. And from one end of the spectrum to the other, Helm quietly took the stage to set in motion their fantastic slow, churning wall of sound. It wasn’t too long before the band were at full momentum, their nuanced slabs of tone spread between the three guitars, captivating every forward-facing punter. Refreshingly, the assumed ‘metal’ discourse and personal application were nowhere to be seen. Conversely, a very genuine Lucas Stone spoke calm and honest banter, laden with thanks. And rather than the archetypal staple-of-rigidity, amongst them resided a dramatically limber onstage presence, matching the shuddering cloud of de-tuned notes perfectly. Watching the frontline of the band fold so loosely in time to the guttural, shimmery chugging of the riffs was almost too wonderfully easy to get lost in. The majority of the time, entrancing climaxes of Star and At The Water’s Edge would waste no time in coaxing the most encompassing of head nods. Material-wise, the obvious talking point was their take on the Icehouse classic Great Southern Land; significantly heavier in reinterpretation, the cover was actually one of the weaker points of the set. But really, Helm are a fantastically polished act. What with such presence and concrete, laid-back togetherness, you’d be a fool to miss them at any opportunity. Atticus Bastow

Rob Gascoigne

XIU XIU, HIGH PLACES, KYÜ

THE BEDROOM PHILOSOPHER, THE BOAT PEOPLE, PINKY BEECROFT & THE WHITE RUSSIANS

EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB

NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB Pinky Beecroft shuffled on stage with his band The White Russians. It was easy to see why this man is an institution. He is a fantastic performer, not least because of the splendid disconnect between the rambling and confused man who talks about the time he woke up at Adelaide airport without his pants and the dynamic frontman who throws himself into his music. The setlist was a blend of new songs and MGF classics, most spectacularly Pussytown. It was good to see him again. The Boat People quickly followed. They sounded great and did an excellent job of energising the crowd. But, as talented as they are, I found their catalogue to be so eclectic that it was difficult to get into. Just when you’re enjoying Soporific’s homage to The Church, it shifts to a song that channels Prince and then switches to REM before turning to The Sleepy Jackson. This ruptured the rhythm of their performance. Still, all was forgotten with their amazing closer, Born In The ‘80s, the perfect high note to end on. The headline act, The Bedroom Philosopher, took the stage to perform Tram Inspector with his fantastic supporting Awkwardstra, suitably attired in Met uniforms. I was struck repeatedly through this gig just how fantastic the band were. Drawing on a range of percussive instruments, towering horns and even a sitar, they deftly elevated Justin Heazlewood’s love letters to Melbourne into epic beauties. It was at the end of this first song that one of the

more unsavoury trends of this set appeared. I don’t know why, but there were a number of hecklers in the crowd. Who comes to Northcote to yell out pointless comments about Tony Abbott? And what idiot thinks it’s funny to pre-empt the punchlines of comedy songs? Heazlewood, who repeatedly asked said dickheads to shut up, was clearly agitated by it.

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Prologue: What a lavish night of increasingly decadent music this was! My mind is so embossed with the experience of wallowing into ever-deeper sonic depravity that I find my memory of it has distorted, casting me on the periphery of 1920s bohemia… Darlings! You made it! Mwah! Mwah! Goodness, I’ll know not to hold my breath next time. Well, Kyü have finished already I’m afraid. Of course, they were wonderful, as always. There was a teeny bit of trouble with a tipsy glock, but they just popped it back up again, the troopers! They have positively imbued the place with a certain… je n’est sais quoi. A spiritual ambience. Perhaps it has something to do with their clarity of sound. None of that typical muddy clash of frequencies one finds in most live rock music. It’s a shame you missed them. They say arriving anywhere at 8.30 is out of vogue, though. They, darling, they! All right, if you insist on being so pedantic: us, then. No matter. Let’s have a teeny bevy in the curtilage. High Places are next up, they’re quite something or so I’m told. Americans, you know. My, have they started already? That thrusting bassline! That devilish, anarchic pitter-patter of tiny beats! Feel my heart, darling! It’s all a-flutter like a schoolgirl’s! Hurry, hurry! It’s a fine line between being fashionably late and not making an appearance at the critical moment. Oh my, what a big strong sound two young folk can make! Look! Here comes our protagonist, Jamie Stewart… Funny, I’d quite expected him to be bigger. It must be his music that puts such ideas in my head. That Angela Seo is a firecracker, isn’t she? Practically throttling her instruments, though I daresay they enjoy it – if instruments could enjoy things – from the sounds

live@inpress.com.au they’re making. Goodness, how frightfully fierce Xiu Xiu are. Dear God I Hate Myself – it’s distinctly faster, more fervent, and more discordant than on the album. What a strange dichotomy exists between they frenzied souls up there and we motionless voyeurs down here. Except for those three louts swaying about in the corner over there. Ugh, how I detest such plebeian physicality. But gosh, hear now those unmistakeable, prepubescent, videogame tones of Boy Soprano! Oh heaven! Or some undermining of its pearly façade…

The set included a mix of old and new tracks from the Chocolate & Cigarettes EP, A Book Like This and Down The Way, with Angus and Julia showing off their musical knack by oscillating between vocals and playing various instruments such as the accordion, harmonica, trumpet and mandolin. While Angus seemed to melt into the starry background, camouflaged by his overgrown beard, it was Julia who shone brightly with an arresting stage presence, swaying ever so sweetly in her hipster-inspired red dress.

Soulfly pic by Heidi Takla

That was over much too quickly. Still, I shall be requiring some somewhat post-coital aid. Where’s my quellazaire? Alice Body

SOULFLY, CITY OF FIRE BILLBOARD City Of Fire are here tonight as part of their first tour in support of a strong debut album, though Fear Factory vocalist Burton C Bell and bassist Byron Stroud are no strangers to these shores. City Of Fire are a very different beast to their other band, with a more melodic and varied approach. They kick off with Carve Your Name and Gravity, two excellent tracks from their self-titled album. They sound powerful live, though there seem to be some guitar tuning issues early on and Bell’s roar struggles to reach some of the higher notes live. These are minor hiccups, however, as their passion and energy throughout can’t be faulted. The crowd reaction is good, though initially a little reserved, only because many are hearing these songs for the first time and Melbourne metal crowds always make new bands work hard for a response. A stunning rendition of The Cult classic Rain is impressive, transformed into a crushingly heavy barrage of guitars, drums and roaring vocals, City Of Fire making it their own. It’s here the tide turns and at the end of their set they receive a rousing roar, winning a tough crowd over convincingly. Soulfly have no problem whipping the crowd into a frenzy from the outset. As the intro of Blood, Fire, War, Hate builds and Max Cavalera begins bellowing the words into the microphone, the floor explodes, heaving in time to the stomping beat. Back To The Primitive showcases one of Soulfly’s main weapons – thunderous groove and plenty of it – while the full throttle thrash of

A highlight of the evening was Julia’s cover of You’re The One That I Want from Grease, quite possibly the most lugubrious version ever heard to date. Julia was quick to break the sombre mood by humouring fans with a comment on her close relationship with her brother – “I wanted to look at Angus but then stopped myself thinking that it might look a bit suss.” A delicate cover of Crowded House’s Four Seasons In One Day also made the set list but this time it was Angus with special guest Paul Kelly, who was welcomed by the crowd with open arms.

Sepultura classics Refuse/Resist and Troops Of Doom plus latter day Soulfly numbers Bloodbath And Beyond, Frontlines and Jeffrey Dahmer keep the set moving at breakneck pace. While the band are firing, the front of house sound leaves a bit to be desired, pushed to the point where the mix is distorting and losing definition. Loud is good at a metal show, but a sonic mess is not. Still, most people don’t seem too bothered and it certainly doesn’t affect the crowd’s enthusiasm for the diverse set. There’s a brief cover of Walk, a thunderous four-way drum jam and of course Roots Bloody Roots, still delivered with venom. A quick burst of Jumpdafuckup and Eye For An Eye finish the night off in frenetic style. Based on this aggressive performance Max Cavalera still has the fire and proves that hitting 40 doesn’t mean you have to mellow out.

Other tracks included Private Lawns, Just A Boy and Yellow Brick Road, and the gig concluded with And The Boys, with pieces of gold falling from the ceiling, leaving fans with a sparkling finish to an already dreamy evening. Black Crow and Wasted made the encore, and after a solid hour-and-a-half the duo left fans with Hold On. There is something enchanting about Angus & Julia Stone that comes to light during live performances, and last Thursday at the Palais was certainly no exception.

James O’Toole

Danielle Trabsky

ANGUS & JULIA STONE

DIRTY F, SHERIFF, CHICO FLASH

THE PALAIS Shy brother and sister duo Angus & Julia Stone gracefully began their sold-out show with Santa Monica Dream, a melancholic song from their most recent album, Down The Way. Perched at the tip of the stage with only their guitars and two microphones, it felt as if their performance was going to be purely acoustic. This assumption quickly vanished during the second track, Bella, when the stage curtains dramatically opened to reveal a magical aesthetic of pink and blue stars and a tree illuminated with fairy lights.

CURTIN BANDROOM Melbourne. Australia’s capital of live music. Where bands come from far and wide to ply their trade. And where the next generation of stars are born. A quick glance around the downstairs bar at the John Curtin shows names like The Temper Trap, Little Red and more found their feet on the stage upstairs, and tonight it’s a chance for a few even fresher bands to get up and have a good time.

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Chico Flash are not what’s expected on a drizzly Thursday night, although bizarrely they fit the scene perfectly. A two-piece experimental outfit, guitarist Matt Haycroft and drummer James Carman smash out a hard-to-explain-in-words sound, which has everyone in the room either standing stock still in awe, or cocking their heads inquisitively at what the hell is actually taking place on stage. Haycroft’s guitar antics are well-intentioned and solid if basic, but the focus of this duo is wild-haired Carman, and the drum kit that he seems intent on destroying. He hits the drums hard – damn hard – yet the precision, speed and diversity that he displays are unfathomable. If you see the name Chico Flash on a bill, make a beeline to wherever it is. Tell ‘em Inpress sent you. Despite the unexpected brilliance of Chico Flash, the highlight of the night comes in the form of Sheriff, a three-piece who have, over the past 12 months, been creating something of a stir in various rock’n’roll corners of our fair city. With burning guitar solos, whiskey-soaked lyrics and a fun-loving attitude, they’re surely going to create something of a stir in more far-reached places in the near future. Despite their ear-battering loudness, guitarist Tom Watson’s riffs hit all the right places, at times sending shivers down the spine, at others forcing the small but devoted crowd into spontaneous bursts of knee slapping, howling ecstasy. They’re playing the Tote this Thursday – to miss them would be criminal. From here, unfortunately, the night takes a downward turn. Because headliners Dirty F don’t actually seem to know what they’re doing. The local four-piece, who released their EP Washed Up recently, seem out of their depth compared to the earlier two bands. An amalgamation of style – the hideous Brandon Flowersesque frilly red shirt of singer James Podhorodecki, the indier-than-thou attitude of bass player Tom Abraham and the hardcore stylings of guitarist Julian Medor and drummer Darren Keane – never really works, and despite a few solid riffs, their songs are frustrated by being pulled in too many directions. A shame, really, because with the quality of Chico Flash and Sheriff, a solid set would’ve capped off a great return to local up-and-comers. Dylan Stewart

live@inpress.com.au

BOSCH GETS WOOD Lloyd Bosch is launching his debut EP this Friday at Bar 303 as part of the Darebin Music Feast. The EP, Lloyd Bosch And Woodcutter, came together with a sense of synchronicity and overseas interaction. Rustic strumming, folk-thick vocals, and ethereal choral arrangements define the tracks. Already, Lloyd Bosch And Woodcutter has received acclaim from established Melbourne artists Charles Jenkins, Suzannah Espie and Nick Barker. Get down and make your Feast one to remember.

Having recently released their single, Lawrence Of Arabia, at a stellar show at the Toff In Town, Melbourne eight-piece My Musical Collective are currently gearing up to release their debut LP. Promising a distinctive sound, simultaneously bold and ambitious with a certain air of understated confidence, the debut was recorded with enigmatic producer Kal Tonuma (Crowded House, Split Enz, The Temper Trap). The band is not afraid of unleashing unexpected orchestral crescendos, swinging out the odd waltz or playing driving indie pop. My Musical Collective will play a special SYNapproved showcase at the Workers Club on Thursday 30 September with special guests Seagull and Khancoban.

CHASING REDNECKS Back on the horse and fresh from a well-earned holiday after the successful release of their second album, Rednecks & Gentlemen, Sydney’s awesome blues rock maestros Chase The Sun will turn up the volume to 11 at the Evelyn Hotel this Sunday night. Joining Chase The Sun for a fun-filled night are rising roots star Claude Hay and great Melbourne outfit Dirt River Radio. Tickets are $10+BF from Moshtix or $12 on the door from 8pm.

Love your football, but hate the hype? Bimbo Deluxe and Lucky Coq are offering you a slightly different way to view this year’s Grand Final on Saturday 25 September. The game will be shown on the big screens – outdoors and complete with your own personal bar. And in true football fashion there’ll be jugs o’ beer and stacks o’ pies plus two chances to win stuff! Yup, they’ve got it all… well, everything but the crowds.

BATEMEN GO PSYCHO New Melbourne-based riff-rock/core/metal/punk/ sleaze outfit Bateman take to the stage this Saturday at Bang. Featuring members from Responder, AUDIO, Caught In the Crossfire and Half Mast, Bateman have the pedigree to deliver some fine tunes. Armed with a rocking set and a fuck-you attitude and, as their bio so succinctly puts it, Bateman “certainly wouldn’t sound out of place at an awesomeness music festival” (are they hinting much?). Entry is $15 from 9pm.

KURT FOR THE WEEKEND Fresh from playing shows for both the Darebin Music Feast and the Oh Nina! Festival, Kurt Jackson is playing two shows this weekend, supporting Adelaide’s The Fridays, both Saturday and Sunday night. Jackson plays the Palais Theatre in Hepburn Springs on Saturday and Richmond’s favourite bar, the Great Britain Hotel on Sunday.

The Scrapes, formed in Brisbane early in 2009, are an unusual duo of feedback-drenched guitar and scraping, epic violin. Their music is rooted firmly in the traditions of western classical music while representing an attempt to break the chains of these traditions. It is music that evokes landscapes and acts of nature as well as cerebral landscapes. Inspired equally by composers such as Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass and La Monte Young, sound artists and pioneers of the drone such as Tony Conrad and Spacemen 3, and the dark, demented sounds of the underground of rock music, they released their debut album, Electric Mourning Blues, in April. They play the Old Bar on Thursday 7 October, the Builders Arms on Sunday 10 and Bar Open on Thursday 28.

Melbourne MC about town Mantra, who has just released his debut album, Power Of The Spoken, and is a tireless community ambassador for hip hop, agrees that Our Backyard is a particularly exciting nexus point. “It’s awesome that it’s an all ages event – I remember that when I was growing up there weren’t many underage hip hop events you could go to. Also, because it is supported by a venue like the Arts Centre, the event is being promoted to a range of people that wouldn’t normally come to see hip hop.”

WHAT ALES YA

few years ago, I asked a Melbourne Hip Hop Personality for lessons in graff. I was watching him teach someone else to do it and, after a small number of months ‘perfecting’ my very ineffectual tag, thought I was ready for the next step. Sadly, said personality wasn’t convinced, and my graffing dreams disappeared faster than a can of blue krylon. If only there had been an Our Backyard event at the time, things may have been very different for my aspirations. This hip hop festival will be taking over the Arts Centre on Sunday to showcase – and share – the best of hip hop culture: freestyling rhymes, a graff wall, tagging space, gaming consoles, breakers, crumpers and DJs all in one place, for all ages. Organiser Arna Singleton – aka dancer/ choreographer Robotgirl – believes that community vibe is what makes Our Backyard something special. “I think it is a unique event. I can’t recall any shows so far this year that have represented all the elements of hip hop under one roof; they’re usually celebrated separately” she observes. “Our Backyard allows us to gain greater understanding of the whole of hip hop culture, and also for the general public to see how talented our performers are, the audience reaction and what a friendly culture it is.”

BRISBANE SCRAPES

The Great Britain Hotel is setting the stage for some folk, country and blues rock shenanigans this Thursday. The Dark Ales are a three-piece band from Melbourne with their own brand of whiskysoaked hybrid rock. Thrown together in a dusty garage, churned up and blasted out with a little too much overdrive and embellishment, The Dark Ales will tear the roof off. Support for the night is Zinnia Blue, inspired by Celtic folk and old countrythemed songs. Their music is evocative, reflective and conjures up the soaring, elevated emotions of love and longing. Entry is free from 8.30pm.

OUR BACKYARD is here to let all ages get their hands on hip hop culture. NIC TOUPEE speaks to organiser ARNA SINGLETON and MC MANTRA. Arna Singlton

FOOTY COQ

ARABIA THE MUSICAL

GOT SKILLS?

HOWL HUNGOVER Busy in the studio working on their upcoming release, Melbourne’s Howl At The Moon have decided that Sunday nights aren’t for sitting on the couch and relaxing and have instead taken on a Sunday night residency at the Edinburgh Castle throughout September. They play two sets at 5pm and 6pm in the front bar, including a short set of songs by Katie solo. Entry is free, so sleep in, crawl out of bed, eat something fried and head up to the EC and hear some of the new tunes!

He also explains that there’s a significant presence of younger artists, some of whom have benefited from his wisdom and mentorship. “This event isn’t just established artists doing their thing but young artists just getting started. People will get to see them doing their thing, which is good for aspiring hip hop artists out there. They are artists that I and a few others mentor at the Arts Centre. We run a mentorship program there and every Tuesday night a bunch of young people come down to record and perform.” Hand-selected by the mentors themselves, this program is set up specifically to assist people showing dedication and potential. It’s not easy to get in, but a show of effort goes a long way. “We choose people who show a keen interest in being a hip hop artist, and our selection criteria comes down to whether we think they have motivation to step up to the next level as a performer. Whilst we don’t have a strict selection process and we don’t choose only people from a certain demographic, we do make sure the people we choose are dedicated and want to go further.” Both Singleton and Mantra see hip hop as having a significant role – more so than a number of other musical styles – in educating, motivating and fostering skills: particularly in young people. “I think hip hop shows a lot of beneficial influence on young people” Mantra explains, “particularly those who are struggling in certain areas. I work with a lot of kids struggling with literacy and numeracy and hip hop and writing beats can get young people thinking about language and numbers without thinking it’s schoolwork. Also other things improve: confidence, selfesteem, social skills, a whole range of things.” “I think that there are women involved in the scene who are quality acts,” Singleton says proudly, highlighting that hip hop is an environment where young women can shine. “What we currently lack in numbers we make up for in quality. Hopefully with the younger generations, as there are more women involved, we’ll have the ability to select and nurture more young women” WHAT: Our Backyard WHEN & WHERE: Sunday, the Arts Centre (1pm-4pm)

LUST FOR PONY

ROCK WITH CRACKERS

In a place far away, far from anyone… Wunderlust. Deep or shallow, broad or narrow… Wunderlust. Monitors of the universe… Wunderlust. Guardians of the soul… Okay, okay, you get the picture. The band have just released their new album, Swammerdam, to some pretty huge praise for their freaky, dazedout and just generally awesome psych pop. If that sounds like your kinda thing, stay up late this Saturday to catch them in the 2am slot at Pony. Bringers of the late-night party… Wunderlust.

Revolver Rock is Melbourne’s longest running rock/retro/electro/cheese night, happening at Revolver Upstairs every single Wednesday night. For over three years, it’s been the place to go for a dose of your fave rock and ol’ school tracks – it’s the place to beat the mid-week blues with your mates, with great Thai food and great tunes! Join DJs Spidey, Mary M, Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Whitt (Spiderbait) every Wednesday night for a night you probably won’t remember for the life of ya.

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SKETCH BURN THINGS

GRAND ADVENTURE Timeless songwriting is at the heart of the matter for Melbourne country soul pop group The Adventure Spirit. The band trace their influence to songwriters such as Bob Dylan, while taking musical cues from artists like Oscar Peterson and Steve Cropper, and are about to release their first full-length studio album, Grand Standard. Recorded by Craig Pilkington at Audrey Studios and mastered by Ross Cockle at Sing Sing, this album affirms The Adventure Spirit’s readiness to reach larger audiences in Australia and abroad. They launch it at the Toff In Town on Sunday 26 September with a stack of regional dates following.

EVERY YOU AND MOLKO Tuesdays in September at the Evelyn have changed. It wasn’t you, it was them. They want to keep your love and affection in their lives, so they’ve added some awesome bands to the bill for the night and dropped the door price to a third of what it was previously. This Tuesday 21 September you can catch Carvel, The Whole Molko, Without Wolves and The Darts playing. It’s only $5 to get in.

LOW SPEED HUMP DAY Low Speed Bus Chase relocated to Melbourne from New Zealand in 2009 and since then have been sharing their rich, vocal harmonies, distinctive arrangements and catchy hooks all across Melbourne. The talented six-piece have settled into Revolver to play every Wednesday this month, including tonight, dishing out their acoustic-driven rock sounds to a building following. They’ll have support from some of Melbourne’s finest up-andcoming talent including The Atlantic Fall, Kids Without Bikes, Villians Lair, Dog With Wheels and more. Doors open at 8.30pm and entry is $10.

Forming just under a year ago, Sketch Club have melded together to produce a sound that evokes feelings similar to that of a new lover. It’s a little bit fresh, a tad unexpected and definitely the type of music you’ll want to take home and put up against the wall and have your way with… more than once. They launch their debut EP, Burn This House, at the Birmingham Hotel this Saturday. Joining them will be Autumn Gray, promoting their critically acclaimed debut LP, plus the emotive Glaciers (formerly Quiet The Few) and new electro folksters Dead Pilot! Entry is $7 from 8pm.

LOVE YA FOOTY Footy’s September residency rolls on and round two sees the psychedelic piano duo team up with zetigeist-riding andrewgaze trio Towels and the awesomely angular Franco Cozzo. It happens tonight (Wednesday) at the Empress Hotel. And if you’re a bit hesitant to go out on a Wednesday, there couldn’t be a better pub to cosy up in and pretend like you’re really just at home and a few awesome bands have decided to brighten up your hump day. Hey, you can tell your workmates you’re red-eyed ‘cause you stayed up watching the Footy. Buddum ching. Entry is $6 from 8pm.

Recorded in a lounge room under a flight path, RADIANT CITY’s new album is epic – but that doesn’t make it postrock, ANDREW MCLAUGHLIN tells ALICE BODY. Then again, it’s fair enough for a musician to want their work to be appreciated beyond some generic framework, “It’s like any band that can’t really be categorised ends up being in a post-rock category,” McLaughlin laments, adding, “At the end of the day we really just want to keep things interesting for ourselves.”

IN THE SIDE Two Cent Side Show are a five-piece melodic rock band from Melbourne. Described by some as “Portishead meets Björk”, the band are known for their emotive intensity and natural tilt toward the experimental. Work is underway on their third EP, due for a January release, but they take a break to play the front bar of the Edinburgh Castle tonight and next Wednesday (22 September). Entry is free and, with two sets from 5pm, that’s a whole lot of something for nothing.

FREEDOM, IT WON’T LET YOU DOWN The Freedom Celebration Concert is a free festival celebrating the freedom we can enjoy here in Australia, as well as raising awareness of the worldwide issue of human trafficking to be held at Queensbridge Square, Southbank, this Saturday, There’s live music, fair trade stalls, kids activities and plenty of ways to learn how to join the fight against trafficking. The concert will be headlined by Ben Cameron, whose track Freedom Song has become the theme for the event. Joining him on the bill is reggae/Afrobeat act Sol Nation, Tasmanian folk rock artist Adam Cousens and R&B group Cocoa Soul featuring Ramona Dee. The action kicks off at 12pm.

’ve been researching instrumental rock and post-rock (and the unequal footing they have with your standard, lyric-based rock) in preparation for my interview with Andrew McLaughlin of local duo Radiant City. (Brad Marshall makes up the other half.) After several years of playing together, the band are finally set to launch their debut album, No Errors. All right, I know Wikipedia can be a wobbly launch pad but I presume McLaughlin will have some sympathy for the sub-genres. I presume wrong. “We’ve always been trying to not be an instrumental band,” McLaughlin says. “It sounds a bit silly but we’re always conscious of that; we were very conscious of making the album interesting and dynamic.” I say there didn’t seem to be any singing on any of the tracks on their Myspace page. “There didn’t seem to be?” McLaughlin echoes to clarify. No. “Well there’s one track on the album that has a little bit of vocal action but whether you’d call it singing I don’t know. There’s voice action.” There seems to be a slight discrepancy in how I understand instrumental rock (rock played using only a bunch of instruments, right?) and how McLaughlin understands it, but a clue lies in the way he similarly distances Radiant City from post-rock. “Oh, that god-awful term,” McLaughlin comments, “I don’t mean that in a bad way, and we do loosely fit into that genre, but at the same time we’re trying to something outside of that as well.”

JOHNNY DROPS A BOMB Who are Johnny Rock & The Limits? They’re the band playing main support to The Skybombers on the first of their four-week residency at Revolver this Thursday. They play music that rocks out and makes you want to dance like a four-year-old to The Funky Chicken. And your little sister’s already got their poster on her wall. Sound like: licking Franz Ferdinand, sipping David Bowie and sucking on a slice of Bloc Party, then dancing to Supergrass while pashing The Killers. Opening the night will be Colour Age and entry is $10 from 8.30pm.

READ THE LABEL

GEOFF DOES IT AGAIN Spring is here and, with it, naturally, come thoughts of romance. And what could be more romantic than a month-long musical affair with a gentle, considerate lover like Geoffrey O’Connor? Every Wednesday in September at the Birmingham Hotel, the Crayon Fields frontman will celebrate the advent of spring and play songs from his forthcoming debut album under his own moniker. His new solo venture is a musical distillation of late-night whispers, expensive cocktails and rumpled bedsheets. Due for release on Chapter Music early next year, it’s set to reveal an elegantly debauched side to O’Connor, hitherto unseen in the much-loved songwriter. In support tonight are Panel Of Judges and Hissey Miyake. Entry is $6 from 8pm.

As an aside: it’s interesting comparing, say, hip hop artists who loudly and proudly – even possessively – devote themselves to their genre against those musicians who could potentially (if ever so reluctantly) fall under the category of post-rock. Tortoise – post-rock godfathers to some – positively revile the label.

So what keeps Radiant City interested with No Errors? “The suburban existence is something that we’ve placed pretty heavily on our influences. Our own interest in art as well as influenced our music considerably. We’re always talking about sound and music in terms of how it looks.” The fact that No Errors was recorded in McLaughlin’s lounge room reflects the suburban theme, as well as the visual component to the band’s music-making. “I’m under the flight path,” McLaughlin says, “I’ve got planes flying over me, and then I’ve got a main road to one side of me, while behind me is the Tullamarine Freeway… It’s quite conducive to the process. And when we have a break, go and sit on the porch and stare into the street and have a chat about what we’re doing, then go back inside and get back into it. It’s a nice way of being in touch with your influences outside of your process of being a musician.” Further complementing the symbiosis the recording process had with its suburban surrounds is the fact that, “All the songs on the record are single takes, there’s nothing fancy going on there.” Almost in the manner of a hip hop artist, McLaughlin is enthusiastic when describing whatever idiosyncratic space Radiant City have forged, adding, “There’s a few things in there that I listen to and there’s one part of my brain that’s like, ‘You really should have done that again. This is an album for god’s sake, like you just whacked it on there’. Then there’s another part of me that says that’s what makes it so great, that you haven’t gone back and redone something that I would have had all the power in the world to do, just to leave all those little discrepancies in there. And that’s where the title [of the album] comes from, too, just a nod to anti-perfectionism.”

WHO: Radiant City WHAT: No Errors (Wireless Records) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, Bar Open

CHRIS GOES SOUTH

WORKING WITH TWERPS

Chris Altmann is celebrating the release of his first solo album, Que Paso, with an intimate performance at the Thornbury Theatre this Saturday evening with his full band and support by The Cartridge Family plus special guests. The album is a blend of southern rock and country soul, with Texas border town sounds. Tickets are $18+BF from thethornburytheatre.com, or $22 on the door from 7pm.

The Twerps have been mighty lazy of late organising their own shows so they’ve decided to right that, and here its is – the band are headlining a gig at the Workers Club this Friday night! They’ve invited two of their favourite bands in the whole wide world, Bitch Prefect and Woollen Kits, to support, along with two of Melbourne’s favourite record-spinning dudes, DJ People. Entry is $10 from 8pm.

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WESTERN RIDERS Leone Western are launching their first EP titled Hearts’ Still Beating at the Edinburgh Castle this Saturday with special guests 8 Bit Love and Cheerleader. Leone Western are a two-piece indie experimental band from the western suburbs of Melbourne who have been surprising punters with their unique and abrasive drum machine-led tracks mashed with dirty guitar and synths, a clear nod to their Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Handsome Furs influences. Check them out first hand – entry is $10 including a copy of their EP from 8.30pm.

ADDICTED TO ANDREW

MESSED UP MOXIE The darker side of alternative rock returns to the Evelyn Hotel this Friday as TheMoxie headline with support from special guests The Pretty Littles and Out Of The Trees And Into The Fields. After a successful Evelyn May residency, TheMoxie revisit with their powerful blend of ambient guitar work, intricate rhythm and intriguing melody. Influenced by artists such as Björk, The National, Interpol, Beach House and Slow Dive, the group manoeuvres between alluring shades of indie rock and atmospheric pop song. This will be one Friday night in spring not to be missed. Tickets are $8+BF from Moshtix and on the door from 9pm.

KEITH’S NO POOPER Get undone this Friday at the Builders Arms for Melbourne’s funnest and bestest gig ever! Keith! Party (Australia’s first and finest rave-rap party posse), BAADDD (rave-death screamcore), Fabio Umberto (Europe’s #1 disco king) and Monkey Fart (exactly what you’d expect) will be partying amongst hundreds and hundreds of balloons! Massive prize for the punter who can guess the exact amount. Don’t be the party pooper, poopin’ on the parade. Just be there! Entry is $7 from 8pm.

PSYCH IN THE SUN Winter has passed, and summer is coming again. The birds are singing and The Sun Blindness are back in the saddle after an introspective winter filled with open fires and rare scotch. Head down to the Builders Arms this Saturday to see our heroes performing their second show of the year, playing songs from their upcoming album, Far Arden, and their debut, Like Pearly Clouds. Support comes from The Ovals and Children, both of whom have taken legal psychedelics with The Sun Blindness and accordingly set their sights on eternity. Entry is $9 from 8.30pm.

MM9 TAKE OVER Sydney-based genre-defying band MM9 are hitting the road to celebrate the release of their latest single, Let It Take Over. The group are fresh from the national tour with Karnivool as the main support, which won them rave reviews across the country from fans and critics alike. The single comes from the band’s debut album, The Air Between, which uniquely combines elements of heavy rock and electro, littered with guitar-driven melodies, and was mixed by Mike Barbiero (Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Anthrax). MM9 launch the single at Revolver this Saturday with support from Bellusira and Head Filled Attraction. Tickets are $15+BF from Moshtix or $18 on the door from 9pm.

Andrew McCubbin & The Hope Addicts are currently in the studio working on the follow-up to their acclaimed 2007 release, Blue. McCubbin, however, steps out to play a rare solo show at the Old Bar on Tuesday 21 September. He’ll be running through new songs worked up on The Hope Addicts’ last European tour as well as some others that have managed to find the light. Also on the bill are Sean Simmons from The Spoils and Erika Lee Attwater. Doors open at 8.30pm and entry is free.

KURTS A SWINGER Haunted by the googly-eyed ghost of legendary German pop star Kurt Weill, down-sized orchestra The Kurts bring back to life the concert hall dance parties of 1920s to 1960s Europe through farcicle storytelling, operatic breaks and rich harmonies. Dress sharp, smell good, and be sure to bring your best dancing shoes as The Kurts tango, waltz and swing you through their show and into another era at Bar Open this Saturday night. Entry is free from 10pm.

MIND GAMES Ahead of their co-headline shows this weekend, RICHARD CARTWRIGHT from RICHARD IN YOUR MIND gives PIKELET’s EVELYN MORRIS a grilling. deep thoughts about the world/people/myself as an attempt at understanding things better. Three: people I’m angry/annoyed with.”

GOT A LIGHTS

Favourite instrument for losing yourself in? “Definitely the piano. I’ve played it since I was very young, so I can make stuff up and mess around on piano for hours without getting bored. Playing drums in fast bands is pretty zen-like also.”

The Lights have found a place to settle down this month, with the blushing passion-popsters taking up a mini-residence at the Workers Club on Wednesdays for the first half of September. This residency also sees The Lights carry over the threshold their brand new bass player: Richard Payne brings a handsome dowry of Britpop cred, as both The Bluetones’ and Dodgy’s keys player. They play the last of the series tonight with The Raphaellas and The String Quartet. Entry is $7 from 8pm.

Is there a time of day that you like best for writing songs? “Generally I like to work on songwriting in the daytime, like from 11am until about 4pm. But usually this time is taken up by work and interrupted by phone-calls and things like that. So I tend to end up working on songs at 2am or thereabouts. Really it doesn’t matter too much to me though when I work.”

LAZY HORSE Sydneysiders The Lazys are burning down the Hume this weekend with a swag of tunes, some hot new CDs and a serious thirst, all in readiness for their album launch this Friday night at Pony. They’ve spent much of 2010 busily recording their debut album Prison Earth, an album that will put all bullshit aside and tell it how it is. They’ll be joined for their launch by good pals Wikked Bliss, The Grain and The Deep End. Don’t miss out, it’s gonna be a scorcher.

KREMLIN WASTERS Fresh out of the studio recording to tape Jack Farley’s (engineer for Love Of Diagrams and Beaches) Transient Studios, The Kremlin Succession will be heading down to the wonderful establishment that is the Tote Hotel this Thursday. With the lead single Time getting spins on PBS, FBi, RRR and 2SER, make sure you get down and familiarise yourself with the new tracks before the 7” launch coming up later this year. Joining them will be French & McCarthy and Sheriff. Doors open at 8pm and entry is $8.

RC: What is your favourite Beatles album and why? EM: “I tend to float somewhere between Revolver and Rubber Soul these days. I can’t really say why though. I’m usually fairly unaware of exactly what it is about music that I like or dislike. It’s kinda just… a feeling. I did grow up on Abbey Road though, so that would probably be the all-time favourite when it comes down to it. I must say though, I have a bunch of friends who tend to argue about this topic when it gets to a certain hour of the morning, and I always opt out of it. They also do the ‘who was the best Beatle’ conversation until the sun comes up.” Do you ever wear contact lenses or like me do they make you freak out ‘cause the world is a little too clear plus it’s weird to have little disks suctioned onto your eyeballs? “I wore contact lenses in Year 8, which means I would have been 15 or so. They were incredibly uncomfortable though. I have a very, very strong prescription and back then when you had a severe astigmatism (which is when your eye or part of it is shaped more like a football than a basketball) you couldn’t have soft-lens contacts. Hard-lens contacts are pretty much equal to the consistency of the plastic they make Coke bottles from.” Do you have a favourite dinosaur? “I like Diplodocus for a few reasons… They have very graceful long necks, and they’re vegetarian. They also have an excellent name which you can kinda choose how you want to say: Di-PLOD-ocus or Diplo-docus.” Favourite book or author? “I’ve been enjoying reading David Sedaris books for giggles lately.” What are the top three things you like to write songs about? “My favourites have changed recently. I used to like to make stories up but lately they’ve been getting more personal and straight-up. So at the moment it is much like this – one: friends. Two:

What is a line in someone else’s song you think is really great? “There is a Bill Callahan song in which he is describing the ocean and he refers to a wave as a ‘lunging panther’. I think that’s quite hilarious and it invokes a certain image in my head that I enjoy.” Do you always get asked about your band name in interviews? If so, do you find it a bit annoying? “Yeah, it’s a very common question. But I don’t really mind it so much because I like to remember the time when I named it. Also part of the reason for running with this name is to remind me of things that are important to me, so each time I’m asked about it I get to think about those important things.” What is one of your favourite happiest musical memories? “Just recently I played a show (in the improv duo I do with my synth player – we’re called Ev & Shags) with a guy called Richard Lockwood. He is from a few bands that were around in Australia in the ‘70s – Extradition and Tully. Extradition’s record Hush is one of my favourite records ever, so seeing him play was quite exciting for me. His songs were beautiful and his voice was so lovely I got quite teary.”

WHO: Richard In Your Mind and Pikelet WHEN & WHERE: Friday, National Hotel (Geelong); Saturday, Curtin Bandroom

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Cumulo play IDGAFF on Saturday and the Toff In Town on Tuesday 5 October. HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? Eli Birchall, guitar/lead vocals: “Absolutely stumbled across one another in the wilderness that is Broome, Western Australia. Insert long drawn out tales of drunken hedonism and foot stomping, addictive music being made here, and you have the beginning of quite an interesting story that’s best saved for another time.” HAVE YOU RECORDED ANYTHING OR DO YOU PREFER TO TOOL AROUND IN YOUR BEDROOM? “We released our self-titled debut EP at the end of 2009. Basically we gigged all over WA and worked like crazy for a year to save every penny we could scrape together and then quite happily blew it all on the tempestuous mistress that is a recording studio.” CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BAND’S SOUND IN FOUR WORDS? “Groove-laden, bluesy, funkfest.” IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND IN THE WORLD, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “Trying to answer this would totally result in a band brawl and I’m going to assume I can say bands that no longer exist, but personally Led Zeppelin at their peak. Enough said.” IF A HIGHER POWER SMITES YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN ONLY SAVE ONE RECORD FROM THE FIRE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “Surely I could sacrifice a family member to save more than one album? Today’s choice will be OK Computer by Radiohead as that is one album that never ceases to alternately inspire and/or blow me away.” DO YOU HAVE A LUCKY ITEM OF CLOTHING YOU WEAR FOR GIGS AND WHAT IS IT? “We’re all hat people, if that makes sense, so lots of pretty funky hats get put on display. Personally I have a pretty good collection of waistcoats, one I call Brother Blue (you guessed it – cotton and blue) almost always gets the nod come game time.”

ALWAYS THE GARDNER Simon Gardner thought he would never again play a gig in Melbourne, which is what he always thinks when it has been a few months since his last venture onto a stage. As always, though, he’s come to his senses and is performing this Thursday from 8.30pm at the Prague in Thornbury. It will be the first time he has ever been able to walk to a gig, and he is somewhat looking forward to it. Because, after all, what more is there to life than gigs and walking?

VOMITING POSSUM Following their announcement as part of the now completely sold out Meredith Music Festival and fresh from supporting the likes of Passion Pit and Dan Kelly respectively, Melbourne’s own psych-out freaks Rat Vs Possum are heading off on a massive nine-show tour with their pop heroes Regurgitator. They play the Hi Fi Bar this Friday, with tickets on sale now.

BUDDHISTS WILL FIX YA If you are anything like us then you have been sipping YEP tea and pushing your bike through some mean icy winds. Maybe you have caught a particularly malicious strain of the flu that seems to have hung on. Sounds like we all need to experience the regular, but perpetually singular, miracle that is spring. Give into nature’s call by attending The Actor Buddhists’ spring residency at the Builder’s Arms on Thursdays in September. Have your transformation further invoked by the plaintive urban country folk rock of the young of age but wise of heart Full Ugly. Count on Milk Teddy to give it to you straight, and transcendent, as they take you on a phased-out tour from the supermarket aisle to the leafy suburban boulevards of carnegian fringe utopias. Entry is $12/$15 from 8pm.

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SHORT FAST

Rise Against

OF YOUTH

REPORT

Hardcore and punk with STU HARVEY shortfast@inpress.com.au

All things under 18 with KENDAL COOMBS accessallages@inpress.com.au

Crime In Stereo have revealed more details in regards to their rather mysterious split that was announced a few weeks ago. “Many of you are requesting that we reveal the reasons behind the break-up. Like any divorce, there’s no one reason. It’s the cumulative effect of many problems left unchecked/unresolved over the course of years. Many of these reasons are personal and we ask that you respect our decision to move on. We appreciate the support that’s been given to us over the years, and we feel truly blessed to have done this for so long. I think the longevity of Crime In Stereo was more a testament to you than it was to us. However, to quell any speculation, we should make it clear that Kristian’s surgery had absolutely nothing to do with the announced hiatus. It was purely coincidence, as Kristian and I had decided to make this move before he got sick. His face/jaw/ voice/throat is totally fine. He’s singing as great as ever and there are no lasting residual effects.”

The Darebin Music Feast – a cultural and music festival – is still happening at venues across the City Of Darebin, and with closing night fast approaching it’s time to sink your teeth into some music before it’s too late. Here’s a couple of ways you might like to celebrate the conclusion of another successful year of music feastage. Anarchy In The MUK is an event likely to turn some heads with the Melbourne Ukulele Kollective abandoning their usual cutesy setlist to take on the best and worst of the UK music scene. Be it Britpop, rock, classic or punk, MUK will give British music a makeover like you never imagined. See it this Sunday at 8pm at the Feast Hub, Northcote Town Hall, Studio One. Tickets are $20.20 through the Northcote Town Hall Box Office on 9481 9500 or northcotetownhall.com.au.

Stadium punks Rise Against are releasing a new DVD, Another Station: Another Mile, in early October. The DVD features performances of 14 songs recorded in locations throughout the world. These are interspersed with interviews with each member of the Chicago-based band revealing the creative process that goes into making a Rise Against song and the history of each individual band member. The band’s introduction explains the title: “Since we put together our last DVD, the snowball that is Rise Against is still gathering size and speed. What you hold in your hands is the continuing story of our band, what it means to us, and what it means to people like you. At our request, all the live footage you see in the DVD is completely unedited; meaning we didn’t go back and fix or re-do anything. We felt it should stand or fall on its own merit, and be embraced for what is, which is live music. Who knows, maybe we’ll feel differently next year. But for now, the moments are captured raw as we make our way to another station: another mile.” Don’t forget No Sleep Til went on sale late last week and from all reports the tickets are flying out the door. Don’t forget… this is your only chance to see Descendents – they won’t be playing any sideshows. Old Man Markley are a band to keep on your radar. Their sound is described as “newgrass” and the nine-member band have just been signed to Fat Wreck Chords. The press release explains the thought process behind the long-running San Francisco label’s decision to sign them: “A penchant for old timey porch-type shit and red,

HEAVY

white and blue acoustic guitars? Violins? Girls in the band? A fucking homemade washtub bass??? That’s right folks, we heard their album and had to have them.” They have a 7” coming out in late October and they release their debut album in early 2011. The album was recorded recently with Bronx guitarist Joby J Ford producing.

SHORT FAST REPORT TOP 5 OFF! Punk rock icon Keith Morris’ new band has finally unveiled some music. Head to tinyurl. com/freeoff to download Upside Down for free. Samiam rarities collection Orphan Works is out now. Available as a double CD or LP it contains studio outtakes, in-studio radio shows and live recordings from the busiest six years of Samiam (the You Are Freaking Me Out and Clumsy eras). Angela’s Dish. Central Coast boys Angela’s Dish will drop their new album Walk Into The Sky on 1 October. You can head to their MySpace now to preview brand new track The Rapture. Soundwave growing! A few more bands were announced (or announced themselves) for Soundwave 2011 last week. Tourists Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon let slip on stage that they’ll be joining the big show in 2011, soon after We The Kings and New York Hardcore legends H2O were announced. Then on Sunday Swedish pop punk faves Millencolin were added. The biggest surprise was Soundwave’s one Australian act on the 2011 line-up – Brisbane act The Amity Affl iction have been invited to try their luck on the tour. Tickets for all Soundwave shows are on sale now and selling VERY fast. The Wonder Years and Heroes For Hire. It’ll be a Philly pop punk vs Sydney pop punk throwdown this Saturday night at the Evelyn.

Alexisonfire

SHIT

The Annual Northcote Campfire is a muchloved yearly event set around a campfire in the Northcote Town Hall Civic Square. All you have to do to get involved is bring a picnic, wine, a rug and your voice. Songbooks are provided so there are no excuses. Hosted by Frank Jones, Brent Parlane, Sally Dastey and Stephen Blackburn, this is no boy scout jamboree. It happens this Sunday at 7pm at the Feast Hub, Northcote Town Hall, Civic Square. This event is free. The City Of Darebin Youth Services, the Darebin Music Feast and Decibels Youth Music Centre present Believe In The Beat 2010, a girls-only dance party celebrating cultural diversity through musical and artistic expression. This event will feature live performances from Believe In The Beat DJs, DJ MzRizk plus dance demonstrations and a delicious free cultural banquet for all attendees. It also takes place this Sunday at 7pm at Reservoir Civic Centre. Entry is $5.

TONIGHT The FReeZACentral 2010 Workshops program heads to Pan Studios in Geelong from 5.45pm. This event is free for those aged between 15-25, but you must register: freezacentral.vic.gov.au

FRIDAY John Butler Trio play Festival Hall. Tickets through Ticketmaster. Bounce featuring Phrase, Polo Club, DJ Perplex & RJMC, The Creep Team and DJ Chaos is on from 6pm at the Narre Community Learning Centre, Narre Warren. Entry is $12 on the door. Escape To Wonderland with DJ Jesse is on at the Koo Wee Rup Community Centre from 5.30pm. Entry is $5 in the door. The Hoist Unplugged featuring Aural Window and Superhero Conversations are playing Signal on Flinders Walk, Northbank (behind Flinders Street Station towards Sandridge Bridge) from 6pm.

Chris Maric gets heavy while The Racket has a week off in Jakarta. Hey rock fans!

SATURDAY

Hope your week has been good! There was certainly enough to keep you busy, just like the week ahead!

Washington and The Vasco Era team up for a very eclectic double bill at the Northcote Town Hall from 3.30pm. Tickets are $10 at the door.

OK, there is some big international action happening this week with Metallica hitting Rod Laver tonight and Thursday before disappearing for a few weeks to return in mid-November. Mrs Ulrich only lets Lars out for two weeks at a time now, y’see… Other internationals coming your way soon are Alexisonfire, who hit the Palace on Sunday 10 October, and Smashing Pumpkins have just been announced to play Festival Hall on Friday 15 October. Pretty late notice indeed but I’m sure Billy’s fans will turn out in force. Mayhem are coming to town next week! They’re at the Hi-Fi on Thursday 23 September to be exact and Attila is in fine form going by the feedback from media about his recent interviews to promote the tour, so look out for some Biafra-esque rants in between bouts of pure black metal fury. If it’s old school thrash you prefer, then Overkill will deliver exactly that on Friday 24 September at the Hi-Fi. Did you know that there is a new Filter record out called The Trouble With Angels? For fans of their heavier, earlier stuff the album kicks off with a scorching opener called The Inevitable Relapse, all about Richard Patrick’s drug-fuelled past and for those who only ever heard them on the radio, they have a ballad called Fades Like A Photograph

DEPARTMENT

which is every bit as good as Take A Picture. Hunt it down now, the packaging is fantastic! Attention glammers and lovers of tight pants, big hair and falsetto. Ted Poley will be coming to Australia for the first time ever and will be playing at the Corner Hotel on Wednesday 10 November. As the voice of Danger Danger, and with a musical career spanning three decades, Poley is regarded as one of the premier hard rock performers in the world. The setlist is aimed to please and tease (I threw that bit in) and he will be backed by Australian melodic rockers White Widow, who recently signed with European label AOR Heaven for the release of their debut album due later in 2010.

UPCOMING TOURS Metallica – Tonight and Thursday; Thursday 18, Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 November, Rod Laver Arena Mayhem – Thursday 23 September, Hi-Fi Overkill – Friday 24 September, Hi-Fi Exodus – Sunday 3 October, Corner Hotel Soilwork – Saturday 23 October, Hi-Fi

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The FReeZACentral 2010 Workshops program hits the Northcote Town Hall from 12.45pm and is free if you register, and includes free entry to the Washington and Vasco Era all-ages show that afternoon. Our Backyard, featuring DJ Peril, All-Star Hip Hop Jam featuring Mantra, Joelistics (TZU), Elf Tranzporter, Little G, Filosopher, Yung Philly, Massive Hip Hop Choir, plus dance crews The Collektive, The Dream, Superhoodz, Melbourne House Dancers, breakin’, lockin’, poppin’ and MC battles, market stalls, live graff and a DJ on the forecourt, takes place from 11am at the Arts Centre. This event is free but get in quick. For Our Hero play an underage show at the Hi-Fi from midday. Tickets are $27 from thehifi.com.au. Underage is happening at the Wyndham Leisure and Events Centre from 7pm. Entry is $8.

TUESDAY The FReeZACentral 2010 Workshops program hits the Ballarat Learning Exchange from 5.45pm. Again it is free to attend but you must register your interest at freezacentral.vic.gov.au.

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THE

The Aztec

BREAKDOWN Pop culture therapy with ADAM CURLEY “You ready?” “Huh? No. For what?” “C’mon, we gotta go before the others catch up.” “I still have some beer left.” “So drink it!” “What’s the rush?” “C’mon, you know.”

“Like this,” he’d said, and screamed into the night.

“All right. Huh? Watch this.”

Yale lets go as the bugs of wetness on my back slow and disappear and we walk under the shelter of ragged orphan trees squeezed into square-foot patches of dirt.

The glass is emptied and I follow him (let’s call him Yale, seeing as at some point of the drinking I’m pretty sure there’d been talk of ‘skull and bones’ tattoos) quickly through the front bar, around the woodcutters and the Aztecs posing near the DJ booth and the pooling lost marbles near the door, Yale looking back frequently with giddy thrill and tipsy paranoia in his eyes. I make mental calculations of the cash in my wallet as the ATM, like a roadside pokie machine, is seen, halted at in blind confusion and bypassed: I think I had a 20, but then I bought that pint – no, two , or was it three? – and there were definitely a few dollar coins, so I have a dollar, or I might be out completely. “The calculations of a lost cause,” I think. “Leave it to the gods.” But the Aztecs are long gone as we dive, hand in hand, past the grisly-looking doorman into the street and the rain. “Hate to run into him in the dark,” Yale calls from in front. “That would be now.” “Hate to run into him in the light, then.” With a hood on and a hand to guide you, it all becomes about the split-second decisions made about the placement of your feet: road, road, road, puddle skip, cobblestone gutter leap, road, stranger foot sideways step and hope for the best. There are other things, though, too, in fairness: the merry-go-round of reflections on the ground that make your brain want to play ‘Name Your Location’ and the whir of sound you think is air but realise is traffic once you get into the backstreets. “Traffic is air,” he once said. “At least, it is if you grow up in the city.” “Then how do you breath?” I’d asked.

ROOTS DOWN

Blues ‘n’ roots with DAN CONDON rootsdown@inpress.com.au You can never have too many festivals, that is a simple fact. So we welcome the third instalment of the Mullum Music Festival with open arms, particularly given the quality of the bill they have assembled! If you’re into roots music of any kind then you’re going to love this festival, with the magical Kaki King headlining alongside a star-studded line-up that includes Washington, Salmonella DJ Sound System, Pieta Brown, Mary Gauthier, Cornerstone Roots, Harry James Angus, Nano Stern, Mama Kin, Tinpan Orange, Jen Cloher, Jordie Lane, Lucie Thorne, Vince Jones, Dick & Christa Hughes, Jojo Smith, Jackie Marshall, Sara Tindley, Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel, Leah Flanagan, Waiting For Guinness, The Re-Mains, Gyan, Ghost Mountain, Heath Cullen & The 45, Space Cowboy & Zoe L’amour, The Magic Bus and many more still to be announced! It happens all around Mullumbimby (15 minutes north of Byron Bay) from Thursday 25 November through to Sunday 28 November. Tickets are on sale now from mullummusicfestival.com and are $68 per day or $210 for the whole shebang. It’s been a mighty triumphant 12 months or so for the wonderful Dan Sultan with AIR and Deadly award nominations, shows at all of the hottest festivals in the country, a starring role in a feature film and a sensational new album called Get Out While You Can. The live show has been lauded all year, with Sultan’s seven-piece band destroying everyone in their wake, but for his next tour he is stripping things right back. With his guitarist and songwriting partner Scott Wilson he’s heading out for a run of intimate dates, and the pair have managed to enlist some mighty impressive talent in support, with the incomparable Archie Roach performing in solo mode. Make

“If more people stay home than go out, then why are the backstreets always so quiet?” That’s the kind of thing she’d say. There she is. Away from the illuminated lives of others, the voice you didn’t even notice had been hushed returns, which is not always good when you’ve taken the hand of a guy you’ve decided to call Yale and have made the commitment to an unrecognisable night. “Away from the illuminated and into the Illuminati,” I think and picture her laughing and let out a loud burst of my own. “You gone crazy, mate?” Yale eyes me. “Maybe,” I laugh. “Well, save it. You’ll need it soon.” We stop at a gate with two gargoyle-like girls huddled together on the other side, cigarettes dripping fizzling fireworks onto the damp cement, and one of them lets out a wolf howl as Yale puts one hand to his lips and the other theatrically into his pocket like a mime and produces a key. He grins and steps inside. “Poisons?” he curls. “Something fast.” “Something big.” “They’ll all be big,” he laughs. The speaker backfires and starts up and the howling girl makes movements those Aztecs couldn’t imagine: wide and wild and wireless. Yale’s kept his promise. We’ll stay here and dance until the others call and we’re illuminated again.

sure you get to the Thornbury Theatre on Friday 19 November to see what will be a very special night of song. Sultan also plays a show presented by the Australian World Music Expo at the Hi-Fi on Thursday 18 November with Ngaiire, New Caledonia’s Celenod, Street Warriors and more. For those of you who can’t resist the charms of the super popular Jack Johnson, we suggest you hurry up and grab a ticket for his upcoming tour as he has just announced an enormous supporting cast for the shows. When he stops by the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Wednesday 8 December he will be bringing the insanely popular Canadian duo Tegan & Sara along with him and Aussie roots sensation Ash Grunwald will open things up in fine fashion. There are still tickets available from Ticketmaster for $92.05, but given this new announcement we’d imagine there won’t be for long. To celebrate the release of his debut album, local lad Chris Altmann is throwing a Spring Tex Mex Fiesta this Saturday night at the Thornbury Theatre. The name of the new record from this singer/songwriter is Que Paso and he launches it with an intimate performance where he will be backed by his full band. On top of that, you can expect his performance to feature backup singers and a horn section to ensure that every little flourish that appears on the record is delivered in fine style. Support on the night comes from The Cartridge Family and The Wildes and the doors swing open at 8.30pm. Grab your tickets from the venue, Basement Discs, 8 Miles High or Polyester for $18+BF. There have been plenty of interesting blues and roots CDs released from some relative veterans of the pop world recently: people’s opinions seem split on Cyndi Lauper’s Memphis Blues (we think it’s terrible), Tom Jones’ Praise & Blame (yes, it is blues! He even covers John Lee Hooker!) and John Mellencamp’s T Bone Burnett-produced No Better Than This, which was recorded at the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, Sun Studios and the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio (where Robert Johnson recorded back in 1936). Let us know your thoughts!

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JUST COPY THE SMITHS Plagiarism Begins At Home will be reviving the memory of one of the most influential English bands of the last 30 years – The Smiths – at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood this Sunday. Drawing from a vast and varied song list, they will be playing Smiths classics, covering their early work from 1982 all the way through to when it all ended in 1987. Entry is free, doors open at 3pm, and support comes from Thomas Henry Walker. You can even feast on a gourmet BBQ in the beer garden – just, y’know, don’t mention that meat is murder.

TASTE TEST One-man blues and roots band CLAUDE HAY talks us through the records that made him the way he is. care… Man, these guys put on a show I will never forget. To be in a crowd of 10,000 to 20,000 at that age for the first time was so exciting.

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HAVE A BATH Award-winning singer and performer Emma Bathgate is in the midst of hosting a onemonth residency at the Builders Arms, playing every Wednesday in September and showcasing her current explorations in spontaneous vocal performance before she departs for India in October to follow the Sufi-Qawwali singers in Delhi. Each night Bathgate will share some of her new work in song (using a palette of syllables, vocalisation, breath, body and sound) as well as a small set of traditional Persian Sufi songs. A variety of guests have been invited to accompany her, ranging from the inimitable Daniel Witton on bass, Simon Eszeky on electronica and perhaps a horn section from the Red Brigade (if she is lucky). Entry is $12/$15 from 8pm.

It’s been a busy year for Brisbane band The Arachnids. After a major band restructure in January, they’ve hit the ground running with two tours of Victoria and a host of packed shows in Brisbane in the first months of 2010. With a genre self-described as “eclectic wank” the band is gearing up for a return to Melbourne, playing the Birmingham this Thursday night. Also playing on the night will be dirty LA-style rockers Attack Of The Mannequins, who’ve been impressing industry types and punters on the Sunset Strip of late and will be headlining the gig, as well as openers The Moonkids. Entry is $5 from 8pm.

MOURNING SOBRIETY Loud, noisy, dirty, chaotic, wasted. Did we mention loud? Showcasing some of Melbourne’s best alternative rock with guaranteed good times to be had, Pony goes off this Saturday night. All known for their intense, hard-hitting live shows, taking the stage will be thrashy openers Inebriator, closely followed by Clowns, whose recent debut has been like a punch in the face from your best mate. Taking you up to midnight, Lucid Sun will be dishing out generous portions of feedback and distortion as always, showcasing their debut EP and some new tracks. To finish the night are hard rockers The Mourning Sons who have been busy as hell touring in support of their debut album. Doors open at 9pm.

TEN YEARS OF POPPIN’ CHERRY This Friday night, Cherry Bar in ACDC Lane celebrates ten years of Friday madness! And what better way to celebrate a decade of dirty local rock’n’roll at Cherry than with the outrageous Viking metal of local thunder rock gods Barbarion with support from the Chinatown Angels. It’s Cherry Friday’s tenth birthday and you’re invited. Entry is just $12 from 8pm.

SET OFF ROCKETS Featuring a line-up to rock your socks off, Rocking The Castle will deliver a fresh mix of Melbourne’s up-and-coming bands at the Edinburgh Castle this Friday. Taking the stage will be Red Rockets Of Borneo, Madie & Alexa (first full band set) and Luca Della Night Owls. Rocking The Castle is a night presented by Victoria University’s Live Performance Management students. Get down and show your support for Melbourne’s rocking live music scene. Entry is $7 from 8.30pm.

The record I put on when I’m really miserable is... I don’t know about miserable, but when the tour van brakes down for the 50th time it’s something like Audioslave. There’s nothing like a bit of loud, distorted guitar and wicked vocals from Chris Cornell to make you forget your troubles.

The best record I stole from my folks’ collection was… I would have to say Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow or one of many Deep Purple albums. But what goes around comes around – later on my mum use to steal my Joe Satriani albums all the time (or should I say cassettes? I’m showing my age now…) I must say my folks’ tastes were a huge influence on me. I still listen to a lot of stuff they were listening to and we still trade CDs. I still crank Creedence Clearwater at least once a week, and my old man was blasting Muse from his house the other day when I was over. The first record I bought with my own money was… Kiss, Dynasty… They ruled my world as a kid, I remember when I was about nine or ten and my sister, a couple of friends and myself broke in to see Kiss at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We got busted the first time and got kicked out, so naturally we tried again and when the security guards turned their heads we bolted in through the crowd. We were obviously small so we could weave between the crowd and the guards couldn’t keep up. We made it down the front and lost each other but had the time of our lives – we were shouting/singing to lyrics like “it’s cold gin time again”. We had no idea what they were talking about but we didn’t

How was the songwriting process for your single/album? “Torturous, protracted and confused, with brief moments of happiness and childlike wonder (two, I think).” Have you familiarised yourself with your competition? “Yes, I know the Rowland Howard, ECSR and Dan Sultan records well. Indra [Adams, Kelly’s bassist] played me some Sia on his phone and it was sweet. And by all reports the Cloud Control record is really good. Very pleased to be nominated in such great company.”

Nominations: Best Independent Artist; Best Independent Album – Dan Kelly’s Dream (Independent/Shock) Where were you when you found out you were nominated for the awards and who was the first person you told about it? “I have a bad feeling it might have been Facebook.” How did you finance your nominated album and how long did it take to record? “Shock gave me some money, I spent all that, then I borrowed some, then I spent that too, then turned to my long-suffering credit card. Then finally some favours, and a spot of blackmail. I wish I was in Eddy Current and not in Dan Kelly!”

Have you ever won anything in the past? “I won a cricket bat signed by the Queensland Sheffield Shield team at the Beenleigh Indoor Cricket Centre in 1987.” Where will you put the trophy if you win? “I have to move out of my house soon. So I’ll give it to mum to look after. She lives on the Gold Coast.” What’s on the agenda for the rest of the year? “Scuba diving the Ganges then a throatsinging conference in Tuva. Then I’m going to marry Poh from Poh’s Kitchen and just eat and read and go for walks and stuff.” The Jägermeister Independent Music Awards take place on Friday 1 October at the Forum.

The most surprising record in my collection is... Nothing too outrageous, most of my stuff is rock or funk. I’m kind of narrow-minded I guess, maybe very fussy, or very particular within my genres… All my blues influence really comes from Crossroads – that movie changed my life forever. It had a huge influence on my guitar playing; I learnt all my licks from those amazing sounds from Ry Cooder and Robert Johnson. I would have to say my most outrageous album would be Suicidal Tendencies’ album Suicidal For Life. That bass player on that record is phenomenal. The last thing I bought/downloaded was... Dallas Frasca’s Not For Love Or Money or maybe Chase The Sun’s Rednecks And Gentlemen. They’re both on high rotation on my car stereo. Great music when you’re on the road. WHO: Claude Hay WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, Veludo; Friday, the Loft (Warrnambool); Saturday, the Blues Train (Queenscliff); Sunday, the Evelyn

SHORT CUMMINGS

THE CONTENDER As we count down the weeks until the 2010 JÄGERMEISTER INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS, BRYGET CHRISFIELD encourages DAN KELLY to ponder his odds.

The record I put on when I bring someone home is... If it’s my lady, Kamahl of course. Or Barry White… ha ha!

DIG DEEP FOR KIDS The Cambodian Kids Foundation Benefit will see some of Australia’s finest and most respected acts: Downhills Home, Matt Walker, Nick Barker and Dead River Deeps join forces for a common cause as they play a matinee show at the Northcote Social Club on Sunday 10 October. The event will be held in order to raise money for children living in poverty in Cambodia. All money raised will go directly to assisting children and their families with education, food, clothing, shelter and medical care. There will be door prizes, raffles and plenty of good music! Entry is $12 from 1.30pm.

It’s been a while between drinks for Tobias Cummings. In 2006, he released his critically acclaimed debut album, Join The Dots. The album was nominated for the Australian Music Prize, received four stars in Rolling Stone and was raved about in street press. Now, in 2010, with a whole new band in tow, Cummings is back on the radar with his highly anticipated follow-up, A Trophy. Produced by the legendary Tim Whitten, the album is a richly textured affair filled with arresting music, searching lyrics and, of course, Cummings’ distinctively plaintive voice. To celebrate the release of A Trophy, Cummings and band will launch the LP at the Workers Club this Saturday with Ancient Free Gardeners and Brendan Welch. Tickets are $12 from Moshtix and $15 on the door from 8pm.

SPACECADET LAUNCHES After receiving generous radio play on Triple J, PBS and RRR, electronica artist Spacecadet Lullabies launches his new album Ghost Songs at Loop Bar on Thursday 23 September. Featuring guest musicians and visuals by Eugenia Lim, Spacecadet Lullabies will be performing his own unique down-tempo experimental electronica. Entry is $10 from 9pm.

MOTORSPORT IS GOOD SPORT Some people like to rock, some people like to roll and some people like to wear sunglasses. Legends Of Motorsport like to do all three. They also like sweating, falling over and the smell of burntout amplifiers, and you’re likely to come across all these when they play the Prague on High Street in Thornbury this Saturday night. They’ll be joined by The Bakelite Age at the new home of northside rock (and presumably roll and sunglasses), as well as Jackie Winter and openers Porcus Vs Equus will lend the night a certain intellectual credibility.

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LOL PUSSYCATS The AFL finals are upon us and given there’s only a couple of teams still in the running, chances are you’re feeling a little bit like a loser right now. Don’t despair, there are plenty of folk in a far worse situation than you. Take Digger & The Pussycats for instance. One of them goes for Richmond, is overweight and still dresses like a teenager while the other guy can’t even kick a football, is hairy and spends his days teaching children how to play The Killers and Green Day songs on the guitar. All this and they’re a pretty crap sort of a band too. So if you need a pick me up, head to the Great Britain Hotel this Saturday and feel good about yourself by laughing at Digger & The Pussycats. Entry is free from 9pm.

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SPLAT ON THE TOTE It’s the return of the inimitable, the one and only Splatterheads at the Tote this Saturday night! The five Sydney longhairs who came together back in 1987 to thrash out some gnarly punk rock but have since left an indelible footprint on Australia’s loud rock’n’roll landscape are back, and if you call yourself a true Aussie rock’n’roll fan you need be there. They’ll be joined by Midnight Woolf, Cockfi ght Shootout and Daddy Long Legs, and tickets are selling fast so grab one now from the Tote front bar, Polyester Fitzroy, Missing Link or the Corner Hotel Box Office.

SISTER ACT REZZALP found inspiration in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for their latest album, MARYANNE and HELENA PLAZZER tell NIC TOUPEE. “It’s a story about confused and messy love and mistaken identity. At the time we were all in really weird places in our own lives, and with relationships. There was always something in the play that we related to and had a laugh or cry with, and I think that’s why we kept going back to it.”

SHAUN’S THE BEST Recently awarded Best Debut Album at the 2010 VIC/TAS Blues Music Awards, young Melbourne blues’n’roots troubadour Shaun Kirk is back home catching up on some sleep after another very successful three-week tour of NSW. Constantly on the move, Kirk won’t be hanging around for long playing only two Melbourne shows during September before sailing south for a tour of Tassie in October. Catch him at the Elwood Lounge this Friday from 9pm and at the Royal Standard Hotel in West Melbourne on Tuesday 28 September from 8pm.

MALICE AT CHERRY Three of Melbourne’s face-melting metal bands will hit the stage on Grand Final night, Saturday 25 September, at Cherry Bar. With the release of their debut album, In Malice’s Wake have taken the thrash scene by storm with a unique style of old school, fist-pumping, shredding thrash. An onslaught of dates around Victoria supporting some of Australia’s biggest rock and metal bands has lead Elm Street to be one of Melbourne’s most exciting classic metal outfits. And celebrating just being signed to Australian-based label Rock Star Productions, you can expect a fast, balls to the wall set from thrash outfit Demolition. Entry is $12 from 8pm.

Equally dramatic, and definitely more tragic, than Midsummer Night’s Dream is the story behind recording In My Dreams.

ZSA ZSA GALORE Zsa Zsa are a new band featuring Karl Scullin (Kes Band), Nisa Venerosa (Fabulous Diamonds) and Ela Stiles (Songs). Halfway through recording their debut album with Jack Farley (Beaches, St Helens), due sometime in 2011, they’ve taken the time out to play Bar Open this Sunday. showcasing their mix of downbeat melodic drone with dual female vocals complemented by guitar wig-outs. Bridging the gap, Abosute Boys bring their ritualistic groove with a punch, and the night will be started with Free Choice Duo(Fabulous Diamonds, Oh Belgium) made up of electric organ and synths that combine to create spacey soul. Doors open at 7.30pm.

WEBB OF INTRIGUE DAN WEBB don’t play guitars. NICK ARGYRIOU catches up with the keysman on the rise. “People are just so generally used to hearing guitars in rock music that the keys had to act as the sound and that has always been the goal,” he informs. Claiming to be in somewhat uncharted territory so far as an Australian frontman playing duel keyboards and singing goes, Webb feels as though he has all the ingredients to begin making a serious impact over the next year or so. Even more so now that his songwriting and musical brains are developing at a rate of knots. But it’s the diverse feedback from friends, family, the public and music critics about who he sounds like that gives Webb most comfort that he is forging his own identity with his wild, oscillating musical style.

an Webb is on a lunch break from his day job where he’s employed in the music department at his old school, Caulfield Grammar. It’s clear that the recently-turned 21year-old, classically-trained pianist is destined for a bright future based on the musical strength of his two EPs, 2009’s Capitulation and the soon-tobe-released follow-up, Hyperspace Clearance. The name is taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy film adaptation – the line in the movie where bureaucrats are “requesting hyperspace clearance” resonating with Webb, who drew a parallel with his own songwriting and musical development and saw the words as a metaphor to moving forward as an artist. Simple, really. But the artistry that the young Webb shows and musical nous is far from it. “I’m more influenced by ‘60s and ‘70s guitar-led bands mostly and of course The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, but it was listening to Ben Folds that got me thinking I wanted to really start rocking out on the keys,” Webb informs. Self-producing and funding his own way through at this point in his musical exploration, Webb managed to procure the services of Matt Voight to mix and engineer Hyperspace Clearance with esteemed Abbey Road mastering engineer Steve Rooke (The Beatles’ Let It Be... Naked and Love, The Breeders’ Mountain Battles, Animal Collective’s Peacebone). Big time indeed. Similar to his debut EP, Webb was keen to layer up the keys in the studio to fill the void of not having a guitar in the mix, and continues the trend on Hyperspace Clearance.

“I’ve been compared to all sorts of artists and it’s really rare that you will find two people that will be saying the same thing… and the best thing about having comparisons is that I can track back the artists’ work and hear it for myself if I am unfamiliar, so I see this as just another way to find more inspiration,” Webb admits as he fully acknowledges the benefits of musical reciprocation. A fan of continuing to change time signatures and suspend his sound both live and in the studio, it’s intriguing to hear that Webb is only backed by a rhythm section, nothing more. I guess that’s the luxury of playing two keyboards simultaneously to make up for guitar breaks and melodies. Interesting. Joined by The Cat Empire horn section for his Northcote Social Club show tonight, Webb also just won the AU Review Incubator Band Competition. For taking out the award he will play shows at Oxford Art Factory and World Bar in Sydney and will have the performances filmed for an upcoming DVD. It’s a great effort for a young lad trying to get ahead and gain exposure in the market, particularly when he manages himself. But with Webb’s manic live shows set to showcase his unique panache, it won’t be long before he’s making the right friends in higher, more lucrative places. WHO: Dan Webb WHAT: Hyperspace Clearance (MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Tonight (Wednesday), Northcote Social Club

omparisons to The Partridge Family are going to hound Rezzalp indefinitely. I guess that’s what happens when four siblings form a band. But this band are anything but prosaic folkists with a combi van and, of course, there’s no ginger brother to contend with. The four blondes are selfconfessed style-loving shoe collectors, studio nerds and Shakespeare buffs. In fact, the Bard gets special props on their new album In My Dreams, singer/ lyricists Maryanne and Helena Plazzer (yep, it’s the band name backwards – more on that later) explain. “Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the inspiration for this album,” Helena – an actor when she’s not singing in bands – relates. “So much so that it became a concept album. We came to the idea by accident. One night I was sitting at the piano, had a chord worked out but was starved for lyrics. There was a book of Shakespeare’s plays on the piano, so I opened it up to a random page. It opened at Midsummer Night’s Dream, and on the page was a lullaby that the fairies sing to Queen Titania to put her to sleep. I put the lyrics over the chords, just temporarily to work a melody out, and that’s where it all started.” “It was only a bit of fun at first,” Maryanne adds, “but then we found another song in the play and kept going at writing songs around it. In My Dreams came out next, and that wasn’t about a particular part of the book but all of the book. After a while we thought, ‘We’ve got all these songs about Shakespeare: what should we do with them?’ Originally we were thinking of doing a play, but the songs ended up more poppy than musical.” A chance meeting between a coffee table book and a hanging chord? Well, perhaps there was a little more to it. Helena adds that there was some personal identification involved, too.

“We recorded the album at several different locations, primarily Studio One in Collingwood. We did some recording out at Strathewen but the studio burned down in the fires,” Helena says sadly. “So that was no longer an option. We were lucky that we didn’t lose any of the recorded material in the fire – it was on the one hard drive that the owner Justin managed to pick up and grab.” A year of deliberation in the company of Shakey, plus the recording complications, meant that the album took three years to complete. Maryanne believes it affirmed their dedication to the project. “I think we definitely learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses as people. We all work nine to five and then worked eight to midnight most nights – you’ve got to have a lot of patience. We learned that even when the shit hit the fan, we’re all still all passionate about this project, whereas in the past if someone had a problem we’d take it personally.” One thing the band have learned not to take personally is their surname. Rezzalp is an unusual name for a band, but they’d rather that than their last name: The Plazzers. “We grew up in really small towns, and in small towns the plaza is the place to go, so we got nicknamed after plazas. My nickname was ‘Horsham’,” Maryanne confesses. “Of course for the band, we didn’t want to be a shopping mall, so we turned it around and never looked back.” WHO: Rezzalp WHAT: In My Dreams (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday, Thornbury Theatre

THE PENSIVE LOOK

DIP IN FOR PAKISTAN

Wry, wistful and whimsically witty, Pensive Penguin are a five-piece Brisbane-based indie rock outfit with a penchant for catchy quirky tunes. Their music combines the soaring harmonies and emotional dynamics of Grizzly Bear with the eloquence and intricacies of Augie March, and the punch, squark and charisma of The Kinks. Catch Pensive Penguin at Yah Yah’s this Thursday for a fine night of indie rock fare, joined by locals Autumn Gray and Elle Skies. Doors at 9pm.

In response to the devastating floods in Pakistan, local bands Valleys, The Solomons, The Grinders and The Routines are staging a benefit gig at the Tote this Sunday to raise funds for the relief effort. Valleys are a new band of old friends playing fed-back, fuzzed-out psychedelic beat-noise, while The Solomons will be shooting scenes for a new film clip, boasting a knack for canny songwriting and a big dip to bands such as The Who and The Kinks. Entry is $10 from 6pm.

SOUNDS LIKE FOLK Sunday 26 September welcomes the official launch of Soundings at Loop Bar, an independent music series that features some of the shining stars of Melbourne’s musical underground and some very special guests from abroad. Programming each event by distinctive theme, Soundings #1 promises to be “folk as fuck”, showcasing a swagger of artists and ensembles exploring the tones and tropes of the genre known for better or worse as folk. Playing over two stages will be Tailor Made For A Small Room, Kieran Ryan, Bianca Poitevin, Winternationale, Timothy & Wilderness, Genevieve & Jezebel, Transcription Of Organ Music (Hobart), Lyra Will, Laneway (Brisbane), Khancoban and Owl + Moth. Entry is $10 from 8pm.

DENNIS LEERY Dennis Band make their debut at Spenserslive with a line-up of outstanding young performers this Friday night. Be a part of this amazing night of great entertainment as the crew take you on a journey with sounds from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s R&B, Motown, funk and pop with songs by Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Brian McKnight to mention a few. Featuring some of Melbourne’s top R&B artists such as MC Yung Philly, Karen Esco, Alex Rosso and Ysh backed up by the awesome dancing sensation Urban Force and a few up-and-coming local talents, this night is not to be missed. Tickets are $15+BF from Moshtix or $20 on the door from 7pm.

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RAM A PIRATE Talk Like A Pirate Day is upon us again this Sunday so why not get along to a show and get a pirate up ya the night before! After some big buzz shows around town, Celtic punk mosh specialists The Ramshackle Army take their scurvy dog backsides to the Bendigo Hotel this Saturday for a special edition Rumble, presented by Route 66. Also on the bill are pirate punkers Sforzando, rockabilly kings Ignition and Damn The Torpedos. A solid bill to keep you entertained on the high seas of the Bendigo Hotel floorboards. And with cheap jugs (ahoy!) to swill and swing about the joint, you won’t have any trouble getting your pirate on. Entry is $10 from 8pm.

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GREATEST

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KATY PERRY TEENAGE DREAM Let’s talk about Katy Perry. A few months ago I would have rather fellated a red hot poker than do anything of the sort, but somewhere deep (after you, rear admiral) within me, I had long since admitted that Katheryn Hudson was fast gaining on Lady Gaga when it came to being pop’s heir apparent/ transcendent. The thing was that her first two singles – Ur So Gay and I Kissed A Girl – were so abhorrent that to come to terms with the fact they might have been red herrings was difficult. I don’t like going back on my word. Slowly but surely, though, it became obvious that there was little I could do to stop the creeping dread. First there was Hot N Cold; I started a Facebook group, I Wish I Didn’t Like Katy Perry’s ‘Hot N Cold’ to try and deal with my inner turmoil. It didn’t help. Fortunately MasterChef’s hammering of Hot N Cold made it easy to forget the song’s strengths; it became “the MasterChef song” and thus could be shrugged off. By the time I heard Waking Up In Vegas, I was powerless to resist any longer. The song – curiously more or less ignored by radio here, at least in comparison to all her other singles – is in so many ways a beauteous pop masterpiece: its subtle lyrical shift from “cash out” (ie. exchange the chips for money) to “cash out” (ie. from an ATM); its pealing outro guitar solo (on a par with those too often snuffed out by FM radio fade-outs/ talk-overs, like Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights); its perfect Frankenstein’s monster of Nashville crossover, FM rock and Swedish hitmaker pop. I can take or leave California Gurls; as an ‘answer song’ to Alicia Keys’ Empire State Of Mind, one of the most evocative pop paeans of the last decade, it fails in fairly inglorious fashion. As another instalment in the postExpress Yourself pantheon inhabited most confidently by Ke$ha, it is serviceable. After all that toing and froing, it was Teenage Dream that finally found Perry neck-and-neck with Gaga in my books. Oddly enough, it’s the song – the title track from her latest (and cotton-candy-scented) album – that people presently seem quickest to dismiss from her current catalogue; they’re going instead for the single-entendres of Peacock or the car-crash appeal of Circle The Drain. When I first heard it, it felt slight; its opening lines hopelessly, well, teenaged. Soon enough I realised that that’s the point. The song is a masterful update on the idea of the American teenager, told in the intense style of Seventeen Magazine holiday fiction supplements and Bonne Bell packaging vernacular. But the true brilliance emerges when Perry’s voice – previously a coy 21st century update on Doris Day et al – turns all Taylor Dane and adult as she barks, “I’mma get your heart racing in my skintight jeans.” Even during her odious debut, that’s what’s been striking about Perry: her voice isn’t suited to pop. It’s harsh and a little bit too deep and a tiny bit country. From within the body of a human Lisa Frank trapper keeper or adult-sized Polly Pocket playset emerges the voice (and sex drive) of a woman. Perry’s ouevre is nasty, sticky and a little bit stupid; it’s a kind of Hello Kitty-themed update on Carry On; fruit-scented lube on a rather imposing black dildo. It works perfectly because the American ideal of the teenager – wholesome and optimistic – is of course at odds with its reality of unprotected sex and casual drug use. Teenage Dream takes American Graffiti and drives it through the front window of Toys R Us. In an age where we wring our hands about sexualising teens/tweens, this former Christian Contemporary artist’s fetishising (remember, she’s marrying a noted sexaholic) of teenagerdom, the great American invention, is arguably more subversive than any of Lady Gaga’s meat dresses. Just don’t ask me to talk about it.

CANCER CREDIT This Friday at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood, six of Australia’s rowdiest punk bands form a united front in the fight against cancer. No Credit, Subject To Change, Doomsday Saints, Public Liability, Flangipanis (QLD) and the Murderballs take over the venue from 8pm. Entry is $10 and all door proceeds going directly to Challenge, supporting kids with cancer. Onya!

IT’S JULY AGAIN After taking out the 2010 St Kilda Festival New Music Audience Award, July Days jetted off to the motherland for their first tour of the UK. Full of confidence and enthusiasm, the band return to Melbourne to launch their highly anticipated debut EP. The vintage-inspired rock popsters take to the Revolver Upstairs stage on Saturday 23 October with an exciting and energetic bunch of rockin’ tunes sure to echo around old Melbourne town. Supported by the most exciting indie kids in town, Swing Set Green and Royal Victorian Chaos, it’s time to get on at ground level with the brightest young rock’n’rollers in town. Entry is $5.

RECHORDS TURN ON Following the huge response to their Sydney and Melbourne album launches, at which they got rid of a stack of records and packed out big halls, The Rechords keep rollin’ on. There’s no rest for The Rechords, as they say (or is that wicked?), so this Sunday they’ll be stepping on stage at the Gem in Collingwood. It’s sure to be a romping end to your weekend. Keep an eye out, too, as the band are set to play the Chopped Weekender the first weekend in October at Newstead.

REPTILES GET SOME On the back of releasing their killer EP Come Get Me!, Reptiles are taking their cow-punk from hell to Streetparty for two special shows in the same week! They’ll be appearing at Freak Out on Thursday and Rats on Saturday evening to promo their EP that spat out the venom about being on the run from the law, psychotically in love, murder, and getting drained in nightclubs by people who can’t handle their ecstasy. Normal kids stuff. Don’t miss.

In the last 25 years, Brian Henry Hooper has established himself as an Australian musician with enviable credentials. An influential member and co-songwriter of three of Australia’s premier rock acts – Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, The Beasts Of Bourbon and Rowland S Howard – Hooper has also built a solo career as a singer/songwriter, first with The Voyeurs and now as The Brian Hooper Band. Catch the living legend at Yah Yah’s this Saturday, in preparation for the launch of his anticipated third solo album Trouble later this year. Supports are Jules Sheldon and Yomi, the new solo project for Sailors & Swine’s Billy McCabe. Doors at 9pm.

ADELAIDE RIOTS City Riots are Adelaide’s best kept secret. For an unsigned band yet to release a debut album, not to mention one hailing from Adelaide, they’ve achieved quite a lot. Sheer single-mindedness led them on a two-year, around-the-world road trip that culminated in the recording of their as-yet-unreleased debut album in Chicago with legendary producer Bjorn Thorsrud (Smashing Pumpkins, Dandy Warhols, Billy Corgan). Returning to Australia in June, City Riots are out on their first co-headline tour with Perth indie crooners The Chemist. The bands play the Northcote Social Club this Friday with The Ocean Party and The Box Rockets. Entry is $13 from 8pm.

ONE KIND OF MONO The debut album Mono/Stereo from Melbourne outfit One Kind is here, presenting their authentic brand of uplifting modern pop rock and featuring debut single Good Vibrations. They will also be doing the soundtrack for an upcoming Frank Howsondirected movie called The Hurtin’ Kind, featuring Chopper and John Savage. One Kind launch their album at the Spanish Club on Friday 24 September, supported by Brothers Crossing, Empra and Andrew McDonald (Tiltmeter). Tickets are $10 pre-sale (via Moshtix) or $12 on the door from 8pm.

SUCK ON WEEKENDER This Saturday the Ding Dong Lounge hosts a vampire Weekender! Wear black and red and check out live bands that don’t suck The Small Print and Small Affairs. Sink your teeth into your vampire’s favourite bands: Vampire Weekend, The Cure, Joy Division, The Horrors, The Knife, The Kills, The Kinks, My Bloody Valentine, Black Rebel MC and songs like Hounds Of Love, Date With The Night and of course Vlad The Impaler. With themed cocktails before 11pm and no doubt heaps of talk about whether Buffy is better than True Blood, it’s gonna be a bloody great night. Entry is $10.

YOUR MIND NEXT This Thursday at Next the gang are giving away copies of the new record from The Red Shore thanks to Roadrunner, as well as clothing packs thanks to Aqua VI clothing and some free condoms in a collectors tin thanks to Four Seasons! Playing live in the main room are Melbourne hardcore stalwarts Mindsnare with support from At War With Gods and Our Solace. Playing acoustic in the beer garden are The Devyls with support from Nick Hauser of The Gun Runners. There are also resident DJs playing the best punk, hardcore, emo, metal, alternative, party, indie and retro across multiple rooms all night! Entry is $12 from 9pm. For more info and weekly club pics check destroyalllines.com or facebook.com/NextNightclub.

A huge week of bands this week at the Retreat Brunswick kicking off with Mike Noga (The Drones) continuing his Thursday night residency this week with Sime Nugent on board. On Friday night it’s The Toot Toot Toots with Cash Savage & The Last Drinks; on Saturday JVG’s Guitar Method is back to rock the front bar as only they can do, followed by Plague Doctor and Straylove out the back until late. Sunday is set to be huge for International Talk Like A Pirate Day – the Retreat staff and punters will be whacking on eye patches and shoulder parrots and getting all salty to The Shivering Timbers, SFZ (Sforzando) and Streams Of Whiskey. Dressing in pirate finery is encouraged, it’s free entry and there will be a donation box and eye patches and t-shirts for sale with all money raised going to Eyes For Africa charity. Fingerbone Bill will also be playing out in the beer garden from 4.30pm. On Tuesday it’s Rock Aerobics classes from 7pm in the main room, so take a towel and $10 and get fit to good music. DJ Shaky Memorial (Mary M) will keep the tunes coming afterwards.

WEEKEND WARRIORS The POISON CITY WEEKENDER hits town this weekend. We take a look at the best of the fest. Leatherface

US, Canada, Europe, UK and Japan, Leatherface are finally bringing their unmistakable brand of melodic punk back to Australia, promising a selection of cult classics from the past 20 years. A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: It’s been four years since A Death In The Family shared a tour van across Europe with Leatherface. While the reunion is sure to incite a decent post-show drinking session, we’re more interested in seeing ADITF rip through their last local show before heading off to Europe next month, this time joining US band Samiam.

HIP HOP TERRORISTS After taking a breather in the last 12 months, Melbourne hip hop outfit Timbre Terrorists will be returning to the stage at Revolver on Friday 24 September, with a new line-up, new songs and new sound. After a hectic 2008 that saw them playing with the likes of Hilltop Hoods, Bliss N Eso, Direct Influence and TZU, plus headlining their own tours, Timbre Terrorists took a much needed rest to regroup and redefine. Now they are back, pushing the envelope with more intense poetics, banging live drums and some insane musicianship. Joining Timbre Terrorists at Revolver will be Pataphysics and Elf Tranzporter! Entry is $10 from 9pm.

NOGA RAGE ROCK

FRIDAY – THE ARTHOUSE BREAK EVEN: This Perth act are arguably this country’s most powerful and exciting melodichardcore band. With latest album The Bright Side only furthering their reputation, and a recent (and extensive) European tour under their belts, Break Even have also been added to December’s No Sleep Til. Their last visit to Melbourne saw them sell out two nights in a row at The Arthouse. THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: They may have started life as a tropical-themed party band, but The Hawaiian Islands are fast becoming one of Melbourne’s most exhilarating live acts. Blending surf guitar, garage punk and catchy-as-hell vocal melodies, the band have tapped into a sound that will appeal to fans of everything from Radio Birdman to Weezer to Eddy Current Suppression Ring. THE GUN RUNNERS: Given the honour of opening the Weekender, this melodic-punk fivepiece come armed with three guitarists, tonnes of energy and ready-made sing-alongs. It’s not hard to see why these local lads have shared the stage with the likes of Bad Religion, Strung Out and NOFX over the past 12 months.

SATURDAY – EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB LEATHERFACE: With a legacy spanning two decades and countless classics to their name, there’s no doubt these Brit punk rock masters are this year’s Weekender fest headliners. The original songwriting team of Frankie Stubbs and Dickie Hammond returned to the studio earlier this year, emerging with The Stormy Petrel. Having recently toured the

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LUNGS: Regular visitors to Melbourne over the past four years, Sydney’s Lungs always manage to deliver a blistering set, chock full of ‘90s punk goodness. Releasing their brilliant new album The Two Chief World Systems back in July, Lungs have spent the past few months touring most parts of the country and New Zealand. KILL WHITEY: The band have been keeping things low-key so far in 2010, but expect these crowd favourites to bring something special as they farewell founding member Matt.

SUNDAY – THE ARTHOUSE LEATHERFACE: (Again.) With only a handful of tickets left for Saturday night’s show, Leatherface have also been added to Sunday’s Arthouse show. GRAND FATAL: The band spent the early part of their existence touring hard and often, quickly working their way up to become Sydney’s most electrifying and inspiring post-punk outfit. Since then they’ve focused more time on writing and recording, releasing Free In Fractions last year. The band are currently working on new material for album number three. GRIM FANDANGO: With their brand new album Birthmark Blues released via Poison City this week, Perth’s Grim Fandango are ready to hit Melbourne with a swag of new tunes. For those unfamiliar with the band, think jangley punk rock with just the right blend of angst and melody. WHAT: Poison City Weekender WHEN & WHERE: Friday to Sunday, the Arthouse and East Brunswick Club

BRENDAN FEVOLA’S 2010 IN REVIEW BOTTIN: OH THE HORROR SOUTH RAKKAS CREW MAKE SOME NOISE A-TO-Z OF GENRES: CRUNK EXPLAINED IN THE STUDIO WITH TOKIMONSTA

N I K E E W S I H T

CHECK US OUT AT WWW. THREEDWORLD. COM.AU ON THE STREET WEDNESDAYS

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Calling All Cars

released a fine debut album and had five singles all over Triple J. When Howzat! asks Calling All Cars, “How tired are you of talking about AC/DC?” this was their reply: “We put out our debut album, Hold, Hold, Fire, in March. It was a long time coming, as most first albums are. It contains 11 of our favourite tracks at the time and, after it being out for a few months, we are happy with how things are going. We are currently on a tour promoting the album. We will be at the Corner Hotel on the 18 September and are really stoked to be doing so. That is how tired of talking about it we are.” CAC’s studio diaries – which can be found at their MySpace page – make for amusing viewing: “If our sound was a woman, she would look a bit like a dude.” They are a band that shows that rock is not dead. “Calling All Cars’ sound is rock’n’roll,” they say. “We don’t try to be anything but.” As well as AC/DC, the guys got to tour with their other rock heroes – Grinspoon. “Phil dedicated More Than You Are to us. Not sure what he was getting at there.” What was CAC’s backstage rider on the AC/ DC tour? “It was just the same as always – three cases premium beer, two bottles Grey Goose vodka, meat platter, fruit platter, sushi chef serving fresh sushi/sashimi, bonbonbonbons, hoisin crispy owl and three 20-cheese omelettes.”

HOWZAT! Local music news by JEFF JENKINS

CALLING CALLING ALL CARS Imagine you got to tour with your rock heroes. You do 11 shows and play in front of hundreds of thousands of people. And then… that’s all anyone wants to talk to you about, even though you’ve

CAC are the biggest thing to come out of Tilba, a village near Narooma. They have since relocated to Melbourne. “The music scene is definitely more suitable here. But most importantly, the coffee in Melbourne is the real reason we moved down.” Is life any different when they return to Tilba? “Not really. The town doesn’t really change much, but it’s always nice to go home to see our parents.” Though I’m sure they all ask one question: did you get to meet Angus? This is the answer: Angus Young (AC/ DC): “Hey, how ya goin’?” James Ing (Calling All Cars): “Oh, hey man, thanks so much for having us.” Angus: “Yeah, no worries.” End conversation.

TOBIAS TAKES THE TROPHY Tobias Cummings’ new album, A Trophy (out now on new label Departed Sounds), is definitely one of our albums of the year. There’s no doubt it was the

difficult second album for Tobias, coming four years after his debut. “I wanted to call the album ‘Atrophy’, but it was a little, well, morose,” Tobias tells Howzat! “It did feel somewhat appropriate though, given my situation at that time. But things got better and I cast aside the other titles floating about in my head as soon as I thought of separating ‘atrophy’ into two words. It became a much more optimistic title – what happier moment is there than receiving a trophy? On top of that, the album felt to me a bit like a trophy, a reward for perseverance, as the end came into sight.” Tobias launches A Trophy on Saturday at the Workers Club.

ARIAS ACTION

Freefallin’ ZOE BADWI (36) Magic Fountain EP ART VS SCIENCE (39) Revolution THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO (40) Eight Aussie albums in the national top 20. Rage And Ruin JIMMY BARNES (number three) Down The Way ANGUS & JULIA STONE (seven) Running On Air BLISS N ESO (eight) I Believe You Liar WASHINGTON (nine)

Voting for this year’s ARIA Awards has closed. It should be a big year for Washington, Bliss N Eso and Sia. Some questions: will it be a breakthrough year for Eddy Current? Will the ’finger have some swansong success? And will Billy Thorpe and Rowland S Howard get posthumous nominations? The biggest question is Howzat!’s usual ARIAs anomaly whinge: how come, for example, we can vote for Perry Keyes’ album in the Best Adult Contemporary and Best Independent categories but not for Album Of The Year? The nominations will be announced on 28 September, with the ARIAs happening in Sydney on 7 November.

Birds Of Tokyo BIRDS OF TOKYO (10)

WHEN GOOD TIMES GO NOT SO GOOD

Golden Rule POWDERFINGER (28)

Tough crowd for The Fauves at the Espy last Friday. After The Doctor’s brilliant rendition of the classic Baby Dale, Coxy was moved to tell the crowd: “We’ve just provided you with four minutes of music and all we can hear is the air conditioning. Just patronise us! In 22 years, we’ve had a lot of shit crowds, but there are conventions of politeness.”

CHART WATCH Little Red score their first Top 40 hit. Plans BIRDS OF TOKYO (number 17) Choose You STAN WALKER (21) Love The Fall MICHAEL PAYNTER (22) Rock It LITTLE RED (28)

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From The Inside Out STAN WALKER (15) Theory Of Everything CHILDREN COLLIDE (16) April Uprising THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO (17) Melinda Does Doris MELINDA SCHNEIDER (24) Illumination MIAMI HORROR (25)

It’s Gonna Be OK ADAM BRAND (33) 40 Years True Blue JOHN WILLIAMSON (34) Immersion PENDULUM (35) Iron Man 2 AC/DC (38) Aphrodite KYLIE MINOGUE (39)

HOWZAT! PLAYLIST Hold, Hold, Fire CALLING ALL CARS Wasted SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR Who Knows Where CHRIS ALTMANN Beautiful World RICH WEBB Exegesis TOBIAS CUMMINGS

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WED 15 As Liberty Falls, Belle Havens, Elisa Card The Arthouse Cherrywood, Pinto, Adrian Whyte The Old Bar Coralinas, Barb Waters Wesley Anne Dan Webb, The Empire Horns, Goodnight Owl, Tessa & The Typecast Northcote Social Club Emily O’Loughlin, Linda Beatty The Toff In Town Emma Bathgate Builders Arms Hotel Footy, Franco Cozzo, Towels Empress Hotel Footy, Franco Cozzo The Empress Geoffrey O’Connor, Panel Of Judges, Hissy Miyake Birmingham Hotel Jo Meares, Paul Rigby The Standard Hotel Julien Wilson, Sam Menzies 303 KKS Project, Electric Empire, Ella Thompson, DJ Oscar Evelyn Hotel Light the Night Photography Walk Loop Low Speed Bus Chase, Revolver Rock in the Backroom, Spidey, Adalita, Mary M, Whitt Revolver Money For Rope Cherry Bar Open Mic The Bender Bar Open Mic with Matt McFarlane Brunswick Hotel Robert Mayson, Laral, Mitchell Brennan, Dave From The Grave Stutter

Swing Classes Reveller’s North (downstairs) The Glorious, Waterford, Firepower, Signal X Esplanade Lounge The Lights, The Raphaellas, The String Quartet Workers Club Toecutter, Fatti Frances, Barrage Bar Open Trivia night Marquis Of Lorne Hotel Two Cent Sideshow Edinburgh Castle Hotel Wine, Whiskey, Women, Abbie Cardwell The Drunken Poet

THU 16 Anna Smyrk & The Appetites, Ducks in the Mud, Woolworths Blues Singers 303 Asami, Salivate, Mr Brady, Cazi John Curtin Hotel Attack of the Mannequins, The Arachnids, The Moon Kids Birmingham Hotel Brunswick Short Film Competition, Leone Western, Without Wolves, Beloved Elk, Infamous Tuesdays Brunswick Hotel Buck 65, Pluto Jonze, Valery Gore Corner Hotel D.R.S.S, The Dirty Sirkus, Volytion, Swear No Allegiance, Slow Dance Pony Danny Walsh The Bender Bar Emperor X, Adam Harding, Claire Birchall The Old Bar Ghost Soul, Mike Kay, Galapogoose, Able Comfortable Chair

BANG FOR FORGIVENESS This Saurday, Bang hosts the official after-party for The Wonder Years, so head there and party in the front bar as the band plays a special guest DJ set – you can even party down with pop punk karaoke! The Bang crew are giving away tickets to the Melbourne Exodus show at the Corner and some free condoms in a collectors tin thanks to Four Seasons! Playing live are club legends Forgiven Rival with support from Bateman. As always there will also be DJs playing your favourite punk, hardcore, emo, alternative, metal, indie, retro and party tracks until the early morning! Entry is $15 from 9pm. For more info and club pics head to destroyalllines. com or facebook.com/BangNightclub. Goyim, The Bon Scotts, Husky, Ryan & the Lion Wesley Anne I Heart Cusack Reveller’s North (downstairs) Junk & Jill, A Day In The Life, The Final Cut, Primary Source Esplanade Lounge Kelly Ripper, Diploid 49ers, The Latonas, Looking For Scarlett Esplanade Basement Kremellin Succession, French & Mc Carthy, Sherrif The Tote Kumar Shome, The Genie, Oceans Baroque Evelyn Hotel Laura Jean, Carry Nation Empress Hotel Maddy Hay, David Cosma, Love Story with 1928 The Toff In Town

Melbourne Poetry Map, Photography Night Walks Screening Loop Mike Noga, Sime Nugent Retreat Hotel Mindsnare, At War With Gods, Our Solace, The Devyls Next Open Mic Barleycorn Hotel Peter Lillie, Chelsea Drugstore The Drunken Poet Radiant City, Miniature Submarines Bar Open Redcoats, Sikap Sempurna, The Dozers Northcote Social Club Rock Aerobics, Pensive Penguin, Autumn Gray, Elle Skies Yah Yah’s

THE CONTENDER As we count down the weeks until the 2010 JÄGERMEISTER INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS, BRYGET CHRISFIELD encourages DAN SULTAN to ponder his odds. How did you finance your nominated single/album and how long did it take to record? “Get Out While You Can was mainly self-financed with some funding from Vic Rocks [Arts Victoria Program] and we recorded it over four months.” How was the songwriting process for your single/album? “A lot of the songs I wrote with Scott Wilson – some are his compositions and some are mine.” Have you familiarised yourself with your competition? “I know some of the acts. There is some stiff competition for me!”

Nominations: Best Independent Artist; Best Independent Album – Get Out While You Can (Independent/MGM); Best Independent Blues And Roots Album – Get Out While You Can (Independent/MGM) Where were you when you found out you were nominated for the awards and who was the first person you told about it? “I was on a tram heading into the city and a friend of mine texted me. I rang my mum – she was pleased.”

Have you ever won anything in the past? “We won a Deadly Award for Song Of The Year (Your Love Is Like A Song) a few years ago.” Where will you put the trophy if you win? “Let’s see if we win first and then I’ll find a spot.” What’s on the agenda for the rest of the year? “Me and Scott are going to do a duo tour and there are some festivals coming up for the whole band.” The Jägermeister Independent Music Awards take place on Friday 1 October at the Forum.

RSVP & the return to the senders, Sonic Scout Grace Darling Hotel Skybombers, Johnny Rock & The Limits, Colour Age, 3181 Thursdays Revolver Soul Safari Cherry Bar Stephen Cummings Union Hotel Brunswick The Actor Buddhists, Evan Meagher, Tailor Made For A Small Room Builders Arms Hotel The Broadside Push Edinburgh Castle Hotel The Dark Ale, Zinnia Blue Great Britain Hotel The Fujiyama Mamas, Tanya Ransom Bendigo Hotel The Resignators, Ebolagoldfish, Loonee Tunes, Humanimals The Arthouse

FRI 17 Barbarion, Chinatown Angels Cherry Bar Bones Blackwood Reveller’s North (downstairs) Break Even, Paper Arms, The Hawaiian Islands, Grenadiers, The Gun Runners The Arthouse Choose Mics, A-Diction, Syntax, M-Phazes Esplanade Basement City Riots, The Chemist, The Ocean Party, The Box Rockets Northcote Social Club Dave Graney, Clare Moore, Dave Larkin, Pete Satchell, Broderick Smith, Matt Walker, The Grapes Esplanade Gershwin Room Dennis Band Spenserlive Dreaming Of Ghosts, Slight Of Build, The Galaxy Folk Grace Darling Hotel Goyim Chair 14 Greasers, Fait Accompli, Myth & Tropics, Garage Joe, Revolver & Sun Birmingham Hotel Heirs, Terminal Sound System, Guests John Curtin Hotel Hell City Glamours, The Devil Rock Four, Vice Grip Pussies, Richie 1250 Yah Yah’s Ildiko The Bender Bar Isis for Balour Reveller’s North (upstairs) Jack On Fire, The Owls, Howl At The Moon, Lindsay Phillips, DJ Drawfour The Old Bar Jeffree Star Billboard Keith Party, Baaddd, Fabio Umberto, Monkey Fart Builders Arms Hotel Lloyd Bosch, Woodcutter 303 Lord, The Eternal, Damnations Day, Aronora, Winterstorm East Brunswick Club

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Mr Nice & Ego Loop Nick Barker & Band, Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves, McKenna, Ronit Esplanade Lounge Nicola Watson Builders Arms, early show Poprocks at the Toff, Dr Phil Smith The Toff In Town Pretty n’ Fatboy, Just Lewis, The Rash of Satan, The Soul-Glo Djs, Revolver Fridays: NQR, Andee Frost, Ooh-ee, WHO, WAX! Weekly Audio Extravaganza Revolver Red Rockets Of Borneo, Madie & Alexa, Luca Della Night Owls Edinburgh Castle Hotel Regurgitator, Rat Vs Possum, Laneous & The Family Yah HiFi Bar Rezzalp, CJ Fortuna Thornbury Theatre Richard In Your Mind, Pikelet, Sleep Decade The National Hotel, Geelong Richard Stanley plays Records Marquis Of Lorne Hotel Splatter Heads, Midnight Woolf, Cockfight Shootout, Daddy Long Legs The Tote Steve Punch, Jon Montes, Syme Tollens Abode Strine Singers, Alias & The Jams, The Fridays, Jade Leonard Wesley Anne Subject To Change, Doomsday Saints, The Murderballs, No Credit, Public Liability Bendigo Hotel The Arachnids, The Weekend People, Swing Set Green, Mercury White Noise Bar The Lazys, Wikked Bliss, The Grain, The Deep End, Fait Accompli, Pink Fitt Pony The Lovetones, Sand Pebbles, The Priory Dolls Ding Dong Lounge The Moxie, The Pretty Littles, Out of the Trees and Into the Field Evelyn Hotel The People, Breakfast Over Gunfire, Book of Ships Brunswick Hotel The Toot Toot Toots, Cash Savage & The Last Drinks, DJ Dave The Scot Retreat Hotel The Twerps, Bitch Prefect, Woollen Kits, DJ People Workers Club Traditional Irish Music Session, Dan Bourke & Friends The Drunken Poet Useless Children, Agents Of Abhorrence, Scul Hazzards, Collapsed Toilet Vietnam Bar Open Vultures Of Venus, Pom Poms Empress Hotel Washington, Dan Kelly Corner Hotel

We The Innocent, And I Swear It’s The Last Time, The Quarters, Straws For Strangers, This Hotel is Insane, DJ Patchwork Wheelers Hill Hotel Wicked City, Nunchukka Superfly, Fans of a TV Evangelist Public Bar

SAT 18 2swai Reveller’s North (downstairs) A Day By the Green #2, Bitter Sweet Kicks, Cold Harbour, GUTstk, Whisky Priests, Vice Grip Pussies, Burn In Hell, Mercy Kills, Rosie Haden St Kilda Bolwing Club Brian Henry Hooper, Jules Sheldon, Yomi, Davey Lane, Kat Spazzy Yah Yah’s Calling All Cars, Numbers Radio, Young Revelry Corner Hotel Chris Altman’s Spring Tex-Mex Fiesta, Cartridge Family, The Wildes Thornbury Theatre Coffins, Gospel Of The Horns, Cauldron Black Ram HiFi Bar Deep Sea Arcade, The Frowning Clouds, Alpine, Phil Para Esplanade Lounge Digger & The Pussycats Great Britain Hotel DJ Shortsleeves Marquis Of Lorne Hotel Forgiven Rival, Bateman Bang Freedom Celebration Concert, Ben Cameron, Sol Nation, Adam Cousens, Cocoa Soul, Ramona Dee Queensbridge Square, Southbank Gold Gull Empress Hotel, Arvo Show Hello Sailor Vintage Fair Grace Darling Hotel

Hello Satelites, Young Werther, The House deFROST, Andee Frost, Skipping Girl Vinegar The Toff In Town Its Your Thing, iLLResponce, D’Fro, D-Visual, Sketchenry Loop Jinja Safari, Strange Talk, Sleepyhands Northcote Social Club Kaysh, Mark J, Samari, Rips, Volta, Johan Elg Mercat Cross Hotel Leonne Western, 8 Bit Love, Cheerleader Edinburgh Castle Hotel Lot 56 The Bender Bar Lucid Sun, The Mourning Sons, Clowns, Inebriator, Wunderlust, Grandmaster Vicious Pony M10, Volytion, Strange Love, Crying Sirens Esplanade Basement MM9, Bellusira, Head Filled Attraction, The Late Show, Boogs, Spacey Space, Matt Cant, Ms Butt, Lewis Can Cut Revolver Nunchukka Superfly, Wicked City, Beat Disease, Fuck Face The Old Bar Oliver Mann Edinburgh Castle, early show Olly G, Syme Tollens Abode Pikelet, Richard In Your Mind John Curtin Hotel Pint on Punt Clip Clop Club Poison City Weekender, Leatherface, A Death In The Family, The Currency, Lungs, Arrows, Kill Whitey East Brunswick Club Rich Davies, The Devils Union Builders Arms, early show Sketch Club, Autumn Gray, Glaciers, Dead Pilot Birmingham Hotel Songs, Love Of Diagrams, Zsa Zsa The Tote Songs of Ships Empress Hotel

JACK IN THE DARK Lost that fire in your belly? Sensing friction in the bedroom? You need a spark – that After Dark Spark. The Old Bar will come alive on Friday with one hot and hellish line-up headlined by Melbourne stalwarts Jack On Fire. They’re joined by The Owls, the exciting new outfit from Newcastle, turning heads having already supported bands such as Cloud Control, Numbers Radio, The Jezabels and The Basics. Smart, dark and moody Melbourne four piece Howl At The Moon join the bill with their PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth and Elliott Smith influenced sounds and the enigmatic Lindsay Phillips rounds things off. Entry for all that is just $10 from 9pm.

Wednesday 15th (Wine, Whiskey, Women) 8pm: Sarah Carnegie 9pm: Abbie Cardwell Thursday 16th 8pm: Peter Lillie 9pm: Chelsea Drugstore Friday 17th 6pm: Traditional Irish Music Session with Dan Bourke & Friends Saturday 18th 9pm: Zeptepi Trio Sunday 19th 4pm: The Bakersfield Glee Club 6.30pm: Spencer P. Jones Tuesday 21st 8pm: The Poetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Birthday Week Trivia Extravaganza!

All Shows Always Free! The Drunken Poet, 65 Peel Street (Directly opposite Queen Vic Market). Phone: 03 9348 9797 www.myspace.com/drunkenpoets twitter.com/inpressmag

gigguide@inpress.com.au South Rakkas Crew, Press Play Dj’s, Mickey P, Hangtime, Swick, Tranter, Mat Cant Esplanade Gershwin Room Spark Iris, McKenna Reveller’s North (upstairs) Speed Demons, The Tear Aways, Miss Nic Burlesque, The Silver Tongued Devils, Casket Radio The Arthouse Spencer P Jones & The Escape Committee, John Nolan, Kim Volkman, Renee Geyer, Louis & Raoul Woolf, Brian Hooper, Bunny Monroe, Adalita Cherry Bar Spoonful Union Hotel Brunswick Stray Love, Plague Doctor, JVG Guitar Method, DJ Xander Retreat Hotel Teskey Brothers, The Hidden Venture St Andrews Hotel The 64 Falcon The Post Office Club Hotel The Book of Ships, Single Twin, The Rant The Empress The Flangipanis, Punch The Clown, Cabin Fever Public Bar The Fridays The Palais, Hepburn Springs The Kurts Bar Open

The Ramshackle Army, Sforzando, Ignition, Damn The Torpedoes Bendigo Hotel The Shredded Vinyls, Greenroom, The Vera Knights, Ash Rancie, Applejack, Shivering Timbers Brunswick Hotel The Sun Blindness, The Ovals, Children Builders Arms Hotel The Wonder Years, Heroes For Hire, Tonight Alive, Sky Way, Apart From This Evelyn Hotel Tim McMillan, Preston Perche, Aluka 303 Tobias Cummings, Ancient Free Gardeners, Brendan Welch Workers Club Weekender, Small Affairs, The Small Prints Ding Dong Lounge Zeptepi The Drunken Poet

SUN 19 Alice Keath, Alex Scott Douglas, Joe Forrester Builders Arms Hotel

Backy Skank, Loonee Tunes, The Operators, The Kujo Kings Birmingham Hotel Baptizm Of Uzi, Losers, Late Arvo Sons Yah Yah’s Chase The Sun, Dirt River Radio, Claude Hay Evelyn Hotel Cherry Bombs, Kooky Karaoke w. Fred Negro & Bec Cherry Bar Continental Robert Susz Williamstown RSL Death Cheetahs, Delusions of Granduer, Dead Albatross, Invader, Cult of the Rocket, Scar Tissue, The Belle Havens Esplanade Gershwin Room Deserters, Royston Vasie, Chris Altman Empress Hotel For Our Hero HiFi Bar Headspace, Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batucada Esplanade Lounge Hello Sailor Vintage Fair, Overload Poetry Fest Grace Darling Hotel Howl At The Moon Edinburgh Castle, early show International Talk like a Pirate Day, Streams of Whiskey, SFZ, Shivering Timbers, Fingerbone Bill Retreat Hotel

Jess McAvoy Carringbush Hotel Jimi Hocking’s Blues Machine Sandbelt Hotel Justine Jones & the Gentlemen Callers Hardimans JVG Guitar Method Union Hotel Brunswick Katchafire, The Red Eyes Corner Hotel Leatherface, Grand Fatal, Grim Fandango, Fires Of Waco, Wil Wagner, Jamie Hay, Darren Gibson The Arthouse Martin Stuart and Friends Union Club Hotel Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves, Falloe, Sean Nicholas McMahon’s Western Union, DJ Shitshake The Old Bar Melissa Main, Opa 303 Michael Meeking Lord Newry Hotel Open Decks The Bender Bar Pakistan Flood Benefit, Valleys, The Solomons, The Grinders, The Routines The Tote Plagiarism begins at Home, Thomas Henry Walker Bendigo Hotel Revolver Sundays, Boogs, Spacey Space, Radiator, T- Rek Revolver

Rich Webb and the Wallflowers, The T Bones Northcote Social Club Rose Turtle Ertler, Heidi Elva, Infi nate Possible Shapes Wesley Anne Sons Of Lee Marvin The Standard Hotel Sophia Brous, Lost Animal, Francis Plagne, Giants Workers Club Spectrum, Rudely Interrupted St Andrews Hotel Spoonful Manhattan Hotel Susy Blue Builders Arms, early show The Bakersfield Glee Club, Spencer P Jones The Drunken Poet The Denotators Young & Jacksons The Flangipanis, The Murderballs, Road Ratz, Another Rotting Corpse, Fitzroy’s Wake Brunswick Hotel The Fridays, Kurt Jackson Great Britain Hotel The Gallant Trees, Prairie Band, Courtney Barnett Empress Hotel, Arvo Show The Hired Guns Marquis Of Lorne Hotel The Megahorns, Kisshead, Rosie & George, The Sunday Set, Andyblack, Haggis The Toff In Town

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Zsa Zsa, Absolute Boys, Free Choice Duo, Crouching Tiger DJs Bar Open

MON 20 Adam & Fergus Marquis Of Lorne Hotel Barry Jones, Hayley Couper Empress Hotel Fruit Jar’s Ol’ Timey Sessions, ‘Crotchety Knitwits’ The Old Bar Josh Owen Band Esplanade Lounge Monday Night Madness! Brunswick Hotel Oceans Baroque 303 Project Puzzle Evelyn Hotel

TUE 21 City of Cool, C.O.B, Lecia Mcphail Bell, Michael Gambino Esplanade Lounge Crystal Caravan, Jefferson from Vultures of Venus Wesley Anne Ivanhoe School of Music 303

CHICKS SHOOT Sydney band Chicks Who Love Guns pop their Melbourne cherry this week with three big shows. This Thursday sees them join local faves Reptiles and fellow Sydney-siders Myth & Tropics at Freakout at the Royal Derby in Fitzroy. Then, this Friday, the boys will play live at Purple Sneakers at Miss Libertine, followed by a late DJ set. And this Saturday they once again join Reptiles, this time at Rats at the Colonial Hotel with Death Valley Band and Fait Accompli. Chicks Who Love Guns recently released their debut EP, Vomit On The Dance Floor, which has received rave reviews around the country Latin Dance Classes Reveller’s North (downstairs) Melbourne Fresh Industry Showcase, Slayain, Julian Flanagan, Fine Young Theives, Grace Lawry, Blue Tongues, Never Cheer Before You Know Whos Winning Revolver Open Mic Empress Hotel Paris Wells The Toff In Town Rock Aerobics, DJ Shaky Memorial Retreat Hotel

Sean Simmons, Evika Lee Atwood, Andrew McCubbin The Old Bar The Brunswick Discovery Brunswick Hotel The Poets Birthday Extravaganza The Drunken Poet The Whole Molko, Without Wolves, The Darts Evelyn Hotel

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BANG Saturday Forgiven Rival, Bateman

BAR OPEN Wednesday Toecutter, Fatti Frances, Barrage Thursday Radiant City, Miniature Submarines Friday Useless Children, Agents Of Abhorrence, Scul Hazzards, Collapsed Toilet Vietnam Saturday The Kurts Sunday Zsa Zsa, Absolute Boys, Free Choice Duo, Crouching Tiger DJs

BENDIGO HOTEL Thursday The Fujiyama Mamas, Tanya Ransom Friday Subject To Change, Doomsday Saints, The Murderballs, No Credit, Public Liability Saturday The Ramshackle Army, Sforzando, Ignition, Damn The Torpedoes Sunday Plagiarism begins at Home, Thomas Henry Walker

BIRMINGHAM HOTEL Wednesday Geoffrey O’Connor, Panel Of Judges, Hissy Miyake Thursday Attack of the Mannequins, The Arachnids, The Moon Kids Friday Greasers, Fait Accompli, Myth & Tropics, Garage Joe, Revolver & Sun Saturday Sketch Club, Autumn Gray, Glaciers, Dead Pilot Sunday Backy Skank, Loonee Tunes, The Operators, The Kujo Kings

BRUNSWICK HOTEL Wednesday Open Mic with Matt McFarlane Thursday Brunswick Short Film Competition, Leone Western, Without Wolves, Beloved Elk, Infamous Tuesdays Friday The People, Breakfast Over Gunfire, Book of Ships Saturday The Shredded Vinyls, Greenroom, The Vera Knights, Ash Rancie, Applejack, Shivering Timbers Sunday The Flangipanis, The Murderballs, Road Ratz, Another Rotting Corpse, Fitzroy’s Wake Monday Monday Night Madness! Tuesday The Brunswick Discovery

BUILDERS ARMS HOTEL Wednesday Emma Bathgate Thursday The Actor Buddhists, Evan Meagher, Tailor Made For A Small Room

VALENTIINE FOR SHIM After their sell out single launch and having recently been spotted at a Roller Derby bout, Valentiine return to the stage to support gender-bending electronica extravaganza Jeffree Star at Billboard The Venue this Friday night. So if your thing is a twisted combination of grunge, electronica, tattoos and bizzare antics, then be sure to witness this once off! Tickets are on sale from Ticketek. Friday Keith Party, Baaddd, Fabio Umberto, Monkey Fart Saturday The Sun Blindness, The Ovals, Children Sunday Alice Keath, Alex Scott Douglas, Joe Forrester

CHERRY BAR Wednesday Money For Rope Thursday Soul Safari Friday Barbarion, Chinatown Angels Saturday Spencer P Jones & The Escape Committee, John Nolan, Kim Volkman, Renee Geyer, Louis & Raoul Woolf, Brian Hooper, Bunny Monroe, Adalita Sunday Cherry Bombs, Kooky Karaoke Kooky Karaoke w. Fred Negro & Bec

CORNER HOTEL Thursday Buck 65, Pluto Jonze, Valery Gore Friday Washington, Dan Kelly Saturday Calling All Cars, Numbers Radio, Young Revelry Sunday Katchafire, The Red Eyes

DING DONG LOUNGE Friday The Lovetones, Sand Pebbles, The Priory Dolls Saturday Weekender, Small Affairs, The Small Prints

EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB Friday Lord, The Eternal, Damnations Day, Aronora, Winterstorm Saturday Poison City Weekender, Leatherface, A Death In The Family, The Currency, Lungs, Arrows, Kill Whitey

EDINBURGH CASTLE HOTEL Wednesday Two Cent Sideshow Thursday The Broadside Push

Friday Red Rockets Of Borneo, Madie & Alexa, Luca Della Night Owls Saturday Leonne Western, 8 Bit Love, Cheerleader

EMPRESS HOTEL Wednesday Footy, Franco Cozzo, Towels Thursday Laura Jean, Carry Nation Friday Vultures Of Venus, Pom Poms Saturday Songs of Ships Sunday Deserters, Royston Vasie, Chris Altman Monday Barry Jones, Hayley Couper Tuesday Open Mic

EMPRESS HOTEL, ARVO SHOW Saturday Gold Gull Sunday The Gallant Trees, Prairie Band, Courtney Barnett

ESPLANADE BASEMENT

Thursday Junk & Jill, A Day In The Life, The Final Cut, Primary Source Friday Nick Barker & Band, Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves, McKenna, Ronit Saturday Deep Sea Arcade, The Frowning Clouds, Alpine, Phil Para Sunday Headspace, Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batucada Monday Josh Owen Band Tuesday City of Cool, C.O.B, Lecia Mcphail Bell, Michael Gambino

EVELYN HOTEL Wednesday KKS Project, Electric Empire, Ella Thompson, DJ Oscar Thursday Kumar Shome, The Genie, Oceans Baroque Friday The Moxie, The Pretty Littles, Out of the Trees and Into the Field Saturday The Wonder Years, Heroes For Hire, Tonight Alive, Sky Way, Apart From This Sunday Chase The Sun, Dirt River Radio, Claude Hay Monday Project Puzzle Tuesday The Whole Molko, Without Wolves, The Darts

GRACE DARLING HOTEL Thursday RSVP & the return to the senders, Sonic Scout Friday Dreaming Of Ghosts, Slight Of Build, The Galaxy Folk Saturday Hello Sailor Vintage Fair Sunday Hello Sailor Vintage Fair, Overload Poetry Fest

HIFI BAR

Thursday Kelly Ripper, Diploid 49ers, The Latonas, Looking For Scarlett Friday Choose Mics, A-Diction, Syntax, M-Phazes Saturday M10, Volytion, Strange Love, Crying Sirens

Friday Regurgitator, Rat Vs Possum, Laneous & The Family Yah Saturday Coffins, Gospel Of The Horns, Cauldron Black Ram Sunday For Our Hero

ESPLANADE GERSHWIN ROOM

JOHN CURTIN HOTEL

Friday Dave Graney, Clare Moore, Dave Larkin, Pete Satchell, Broderick Smith, Matt Walker, The Grapes Saturday South Rakkas Crew, Press Play Dj’s, Mickey P, Hangtime, Swick, Tranter, Mat Cant Sunday Death Cheetahs, Delusions of Granduer, Dead Albatross, Invader, Cult of the Rocket, Scar Tissue, The Belle Havens

ESPLANADE LOUNGE Wednesday The Glorious, Waterford, Firepower, Signal X

Thursday Asami, Salivate, Mr Brady, Cazi Friday Heirs, Terminal Sound System, Guests Saturday Pikelet, Richard In Your Mind

MARQUIS OF LORNE HOTEL Wednesday Trivia night Friday Richard Stanley plays Records Saturday DJ Shortsleeves Sunday The Hired Guns Monday Adam & Fergus

NEXT Thursday Mindsnare, At War With Gods, Our Solace, The Devyls

NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB Wednesday Dan Webb, The Empire Horns, Goodnight Owl, Tessa & The Typecast Thursday Redcoats, Sikap Sempurna, The Dozers Friday City Riots, The Chemist, The Ocean Party, The Box Rockets Saturday Jinja Safari, Strange Talk, Sleepyhands Sunday Rich Webb and the Wallflowers, The T Bones

PONY Thursday D.R.S.S, The Dirty Sirkus, Volytion, Swear No Allegiance, Slow Dance Friday The Lazys, Wikked Bliss, The Grain, The Deep End, Fait Accompli, Pink Fitt Saturday Lucid Sun, The Mourning Sons, Clowns, Inebriator, Wunderlust, Grandmaster Vicious

RETREAT HOTEL Thursday Mike Noga, Sime Nugent Friday The Toot Toot Toots, Cash Savage & The Last Drinks, DJ Dave The Scot Saturday Stray Love, Plague Doctor, JVG Guitar Method, DJ Xander Sunday International Talk like a Pirate Day, Streams of Whiskey, SFZ, Shivering Timbers, Fingerbone Bill Tuesday Rock Aerobics, DJ Shaky Memorial

REVELLER’S NORTH (DOWNSTAIRS) Wednesday Swing Classes Thursday I Heart Cusack

Friday Bones Blackwood Saturday 2swai Tuesday Latin Dance Classes

REVELLER’S NORTH (UPSTAIRS) Friday Isis for Balour Saturday Spark Iris, McKenna

REVOLVER Wednesday Low Speed Bus Chase, Revolver Rock in the Backroom, Spidey, Adalita, Mary M, Whitt Thursday Skybombers, Johnny Rock & The Limits, Colour Age, 3181 Thursdays Friday Pretty n’ Fatboy, Just Lewis, The Rash of Satan, The SoulGlo Djs, Revolver Fridays: NQR, Andee Frost, Ooh-ee, WHO, WAX! Weekly Audio Extravaganza Saturday MM9, Bellusira, Head Filled Attraction, The Late Show, Boogs, Spacey Space, Matt Cant, Ms Butt, Lewis Can Cut Sunday Revolver Sundays, Boogs, Spacey Space, Radiator, T- Rek Tuesday Melbourne Fresh Industry Showcase, Slayain, Julian Flanagan, Fine Young Theives, Grace Lawry, Blue Tongues, Never Cheer Before You Know Whos Winning

ST KILDA BOLWING CLUB Saturday A Day By the Green #2, Bitter Sweet Kicks, Cold Harbour, GUTstk, Whisky Priests, Vice Grip Pussies, Burn In Hell, Mercy Kills, Rosie Haden

THE ARTHOUSE Wednesday As Liberty Falls, Belle Havens, Elisa Card

Thursday The Resignators, Ebolagoldfish, Loonee Tunes, Humanimals Friday Break Even, Paper Arms, The Hawaiian Islands, Grenadiers, The Gun Runners Saturday Speed Demons, The Tear Aways, Miss Nic Burlesque, The Silver Tongued Devils, Casket Radio Sunday Leatherface, Grand Fatal, Grim Fandango, Fires Of Waco, Wil Wagner, Jamie Hay, Darren Gibson

THE DRUNKEN POET Wednesday Wine, Whiskey, Women, Abbie Cardwell Thursday Peter Lillie, Chelsea Drugstore Friday Traditional Irish Music Session, Dan Bourke & Friends Saturday Zeptepi Sunday The Bakersfield Glee Club, Spencer P Jones Tuesday The Poets Birthday Extravaganza

THE NATIONAL HOTEL, GEELONG Friday Richard In Your Mind, Pikelet, Sleep Decade

THE OLD BAR Wednesday Cherrywood, Pinto, Adrian Whyte Thursday Emperor X, Adam Harding, Claire Birchall Friday Jack On Fire, The Owls, Howl At The Moon, Lindsay Phillips, DJ Drawfour Saturday Nunchukka Superfly, Wicked City, Beat Disease, Fuck Face Sunday Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves, Falloe, Sean Nicholas McMahon’s Western Union, DJ Shitshake Monday Fruit Jar’s Ol’ Timey Sessions, ‘Crotchety Knitwits’ Tuesday Sean Simmons, Evika Lee Atwood, Andrew McCubbin

THE STANDARD HOTEL Wednesday Jo Meares, Paul Rigby Sunday Sons Of Lee Marvin

GREASERS PLAY SODA POP Greasers are basically trouble. Boys high on adrenalin from two anti-tight rehearsals and a good dose of frothing from the inner wild child. Starring Dominic Byrne (Little Red) on vocals, Dick Bradbeer (Fearless Vampire Killers) on bass and Sam Raines on skins, their music is on the darker side of a happy good time, with a mouthful of devil may care doo-wop and loose do-it-yourself voodoo. Greasers headline the Birmingham Hotel this Friday night with ex-The Scare band Myth & Tropics, who make the trek down from Sydney, as well as Garage Joe, the new project from Ground Components frontman Joe and also feauring another two Little Red members. Fait Accompli are also down from Sydney and Revolver & Sun will open the night. Whew. Entry is $7 from 8pm.

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THE TOFF IN TOWN Wednesday Emily O’Loughlin, Linda Beatty Thursday Maddy Hay, David Cosma, Love Story with 1928 Friday Poprocks at the Toff, Dr Phil Smith Saturday Hello Satelites, Young Werther, The House deFROST, Andee Frost, Skipping Girl Vinegar

Sunday The Megahorns, Kisshead, Rosie & George, The Sunday Set, Andyblack, Haggis Tuesday Paris Wells

THE TOTE Thursday Kremellin Succession, French & Mc Carthy, Sherrif Friday Splatter Heads, Midnight Woolf, Cockfight Shootout, Daddy Long Legs Saturday Songs, Love Of Diagrams, Zsa Zsa Sunday Pakistan Flood Benefit, Valleys, The Solomons, The Grinders, The Routines

THORNBURY THEATRE Friday Rezzalp, CJ Fortuna Saturday Chris Altman’s Spring Tex-Mex Fiesta, Cartridge Family, The Wildes

UNION HOTEL BRUNSWICK Thursday Stephen Cummings Saturday Spoonful Sunday JVG Guitar Method

WESLEY ANNE Wednesday Coralinas, Barb Waters Thursday Goyim, The Bon Scotts, Husky, Ryan & the Lion Friday Strine Singers, Alias & The Jams, The Fridays, Jade Leonard Sunday Rose Turtle Ertler, Heidi Elva, Infinate Possible Shapes Tuesday Crystal Caravan, Jefferson from Vultures of Venus

WORKERS CLUB Wednesday The Lights, The Raphaellas, The String Quartet Friday The Twerps, Bitch Prefect, Woollen Kits, DJ People Saturday Tobias Cummings, Ancient Free Gardeners, Brendan Welch Sunday Sophia Brous, Lost Animal, Francis Plagne, Giants

YAH YAH’S Thursday Rock Aerobics, Pensive Penguin, Autumn Gray, Elle Skies Friday Hell City Glamours, The Devil Rock Four, Vice Grip Pussies, Richie 1250 Saturday Brian Henry Hooper, Jules Sheldon, Yomi, Davey Lane, Kat Spazzy Sunday*Baptizm Of Uzi, Losers, Late Arvo Sons

BEHIND THE LINES BRUCE KULICK BK3 CLINIC Former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, currently on the road with another legendary American rock institution, Grand Funk Railroad, is taking a quick detour down our way to join the Australian International Music Show (AIMS) event, where he’ll present two of his extremely popular clinics. AIMS takes place on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 October in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre – catch Kulick at midday Saturday and 4pm Sunday.

GEAR REVIEW

odd high-end ‘hiss’ when I used AC power. Because of this I would suggest using battery power instead of AC. If you believe the noise doesn’t sabotage the effects on the POG2 or you prefer using AC power, the people at ElectroHarmonix have thoughtfully installed a true-bypass, just in case some of that noise transfers into your dry sound. The only reason I could think of for musicians like Joe Satriani not upgrading to the POG2 is that it may be a little too complex for their needs, while at the same time, it does take up valuable pedal board space.

MEET MICHAEL JACKSON’S DRUMMER Also attending AIMS is Jonathan ‘Sugarfoot’ Moffett. He has played drums for Michael Jackson and the Jackson family for 30 years and would, had Jackson lived, have performed with on his This Is It tour. Moffett got the nickname Sugarfoot from his fast and articulate bass drum work, playing 16th and 32nd note figures, more usually associated with double-pedal metal drumming, within his funk grooves. Moffett’s credits extend beyond Jackson to include having performed and/ or recorded with Madonna, George Michael, Elton John and Julian Lennon among others. He hosts a masterclass on Sunday 3 October at 3.30pm.

INTRODUCING FIDOCK HANDCRAFTED DRUMS

A professional drummer whose CV includes time with The Reels in the early ‘80s, Stephan Fidock a few years ago decided to reassess the instrument that had given him so many pleasurable years and set up Fidock Handcrafted Drums, in association with cabinetmaker, wood turner and musician Charlie Sandford. Motivated by what he saw as the shortcomings in so many mass-produced drums as well as some of the custom drums available on the market, Fidock sought to push the boundaries in terms of tonal timber and, in his words, “bring drum shells closer to the standard of a really good violin, for instance”. Fidock drums use solid timber, mostly Australian blackwood and Tasmanian myrtle, rather than ply, so the grain runs vertically, and the only glue involved in manufacture is a thin layer between staves, allowing the inherent tone of the shell to flow through with its natural warmth. So you don’t get any wrapping or synthetic material on the outside of the drum shells either. To hear and see the drums, check out the website at fidockdrums.com.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sony in Japan developed a prototype digital audio disc in the late 1970s, independently of the one Philips were developing (that would become the industry standard compact disc with which we’re all familiar). The Sony disc was, however, the size of the then conventional 12” vinyl LP, and the biggest factor against its ultimate adoption was the fact that the available playing time of the disc, more than 13 hours, was felt to be overkill. In June 1980, the two companies in collaboration developed what was called the ‘Red Book’ 16-bit CD standard, while bumping the 11.5cm disc Philips had developed for the 12cm version we use today, because Sony executive deputy president Norio Ohga, a classical music nut, felt the 60 minutes available on the smaller disc was inadequate. His idea of the ultimate standard for any CD worthy of the name was based on a 1951 recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which ran 74 minutes, and the 12cm compact disc held 75 minutes of music playing time.

SOUND BYTES

Ben Folds has been collaborating with English novelist Nick Hornby on a very different project for both – the results, Lonely Avenue, complete with string arrangements by Paul Buckmaster (Bowie, Elton John, Leonard Cohen) will be released on Nonesuch/Warner on Friday 24 September, the deluxe edition including four short stories by Hornby. Folds actually recorded the album specifically to be heard in the vinyl format, so recorded it on two-inch analogue tape and, though it’ll be out on CD as well, will be available on audiophile-grade vinyl, cut with the Direct Metal Master process at Abbey Road Studios and pressed at Pallas Manufacturing in Diepholz in Germany. Elvis Costello managed to spread the 11 days of recording his latest album, National Ransom, across two studios – Sound Emporium in Nashville and Village Recorders in Los Angeles – with producer T-Bone Burnett, the results being mixed by Michael Piersante at Electromagnetic in LA. Melbourne singer/songwriter Amaya Laucirica recorded her new album, Early Summer, at Atlantis Studios with Dave McCluney, then sent the record to expat Australian Victor Van Vugt (The Moodists, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) to mix at Grace Studios in New York, the results then being mastered at Air Studios in London by Ray Staff (Spiritualized, The Libertines).

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

While it may be costly, the POG2 is worth every cent, and if you really want to have a blast with it, try using it alongside the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory and see why Jack White would feel naked without it. James Seeney Supplied by Mortstar Industries, via Australian distributors Lamberti Bros Ltd., lamberti.com.au

ELECTRO-HARMONIX POG2

There are a number of musicians that use the ElectroHarmonix POG pedals but it is rare that a POG2 is actually ever seen on a pedal board, instead of an original POG or the somewhat more popular MicroPog. At first glance it is quite obvious that the POG2 is smaller and much more visually appealing than its predecessor. In addition it also features an Attack Envelope, which proves useful when trying to dial in those organ-like tones, a Low Pass Filter, a de-tune option and the ability to save up to eight presets, making live use a hell of a lot easier. On using the pedal there wasn’t the impression it was indestructible, but I do, however, have complete confidence it will last the distance, assuming it’s not picked up and thrown at an audience member one too many times. I have used mine in the studio for about a year and I haven’t encountered a single problem. It only took a minute to figure out that the POG2 felt 100 times more versatile than its competition and to be honest I was actually shocked at the tonal ability. I expected another cheap-sounding disappointment and I couldn’t have been more wrong – in fact I spent hour after hour trying to find a flaw and all I could get was the

DIGITECH X-SERIES BASS SYNTH WAH Okay, I have to own up to being pretty crap with effects pedals. Because of my own particular playing style, whatever effects I put on the signal need to be fairly clean in the sense that the notes are still articulated and have enough integrity to still represent what my fingers are doing. So my ideal pedal would be a simple stomp box to kick up the volume for those moments all audiences rightly fear – the bass solo – and perhaps a wah effect, just to add a different colour come that dreaded solo. I’m not a slap player either, so the need for ‘super-funk’ kinds of sounds is minimal.

With that in mind, I found the most useful effects on the Digitech Bass Synth Wah – for my style of playing at least – were the Envelope Filter and OctaSub options. The rest, while they’re enormous fun, allowing you to get all manner sounds replicating anything from Star Wars to Dr Who, for my purposes at least, I found a little unwieldy, more often than not swamping the actual notes played in a whirl of swooping fuzz whirr – which of course is the point. Again, I probably needed more time to really get deeper into the possibilities. It seems like it’s a unit that’s designed specifically for the bass player who is

more the soloist than the accompanist, since as great as some of the sounds I got out of the pedal are, within the context of a band, a lot of the sounds aren’t all that useful. Still that’s all a matter of taste as suggested. Like all Digitech pedals, the Bass Synth Wah is a tough little mother, obviously built to cop plenty of stomping from the player as they move from one sound to the next, but as with all foot-operated effects pedals, there are inevitable disadvantages in having a set of controls – in this case sensitivity, control and range knobs and the seven-point switch between effects – down at your feet when you’re on stage. It’s always easier, once you’ve found the sound you most favour, to just leave the pedal set for that so you can just kick it on and off as it’s needed in the set. Having it up on your amp of course allows better access and control, but again, it’s a lot of fiddling about – unless you’re a Victor Wooten and your job in the band is blow everyone else off the stage, which is every bass player’s dream! Michael Smith Supplied by Icon Music, iconmusic.com.au

BACK ON THE HORSE PAUL DEMPSEY recently made an obscure recording project he originally released in 1998 under the name Scared Of Horses available on iTunes. MICHAEL SMITH phoned him in New York, where he’s been working on new material for the next Something For Kate album, to talk about the original recording. After the first Something For Kate album was released, back in 1997, Paul Dempsey recorded what technically was his first solo album, though instead he released it under the name Scared Of Horses. Titled An Empty Flight and released in 1998, the album featured guest vocal and lyrical contributions from Glenn Richards (Augie March), Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss), Heinz Riegler (Not From There), Stephanie Ashworth (Sandpit, then later Something for Kate) and more. “When I made that record,” Dempsey remembers, “it just came together so quickly and it came out so quickly we didn’t really put a lot of thought into it. We did one launch show [in Melbourne] with all the different singers who were involved [and Augie March as the band] and then never thought about it again and got on with Something For Kate. The first pressing was only a couple of thousand copies, so they disappeared and then it was hard to find, though lots of people asked about it. So the idea of putting it up on iTunes and not have to consider the whole logistical thing of releasing a physical CD just makes it easy to make it available by uploading a file, so we thought, ‘Why not?’.” An Empty Flight is a very different record for Dempsey and might surprise those of you who are only coming into the story through his debut solo album proper, Everything Is True, or his Something For Kate work. “I had a couple of days’ studio time booked and it was going to be time for Something For Kate demos and we did some, but didn’t use the whole time we had booked, so I ended up just kind of messing around by myself, putting down drum parts and then laying down bass parts and guitar parts over the top of it and generally just improvising and fooling around. I kind of got on this weird roll and over the course of two or three days I basically recorded all the music, but it was sort of weird and very improvised and kind of loose. It doesn’t have any sort of strict form – it’s kind of rambling – and I didn’t really know what to do with it and then Something For Kate got busy and it just sat there.” Eventually a friend, Karl Richter, finally convinced him to do something with it and organised the various singers that eventually contributed to what became An Empty Flight, “kind of a cool, oddball thing,” as Dempsey describes it. He certainly wasn’t too precious as to clean up the mistakes, a point he jokes about happily. The technical credits included in the artwork are

similarly whimsical: “Original air movement captured electrically @ seed, individual signals summed and transferred to ½” @ hothouse by matt maddock, with the assistance of gordo and cryss. Overall frequency balance level determined by wayne baptist. [sic]” “Pretty wanky really,” Dempsey laughs. “I said to Matt Maddock, who engineered the whole thing, how he’d like to be credited and that’s what he suggested. So I said, ‘Fair enough, I guess that is scientifically correct in some sense – the movement of air through microphones recorded to tape – whatever!’. I wasn’t trying to make a record, so I guess I didn’t have a producer’s hat on; I was literally just improvising and messing around, kind of jamming with myself so I wasn’t being critical or analytical about any of it. It just sort of happened in this frenzy of activity. You can literally hear moments where I stop and think what to do next. “It was all recorded in analogue of course – it was 1998, so though Pro Tools was around it wasn’t very sophisticated at that point. No one was really using it that much yet and for us anyway, we were taking the purist angle of wanting to do everything to tape. So we were recording everything to two-inch tape and then mix down to half-inch tape and to be honest

twitter.com/inpressmag

with you there is a slight difference in the sound, but I think these days Pro Tools has become so good that you can get whatever sound you want to get – it really just depends what sample rate you choose to use. “I actually prefer to work with Pro Tools now because the amount of time we used to spend waiting for the tapes to be rewound – every time you did a take of something, you literally had to stop, press rewind, wait for the tape and then go again – and I really like the sort of instantaneous thing of Pro Tools, literally just moving the mouse to go again. As for editing on tape, there were luckily only a couple of occasions where we cut tape, but only in emergency situations where you had a take of something you liked so much and there was just one thing wrong with it that you’d rather fix it than re-do it. Frankly that was really scary. I used to watch people doing it and think, ‘How much pressure are you under right now?’. I had a talk a couple of years ago with Metallica’s engineer and he was talking about literally hundreds of tape cuts in one song. God, that’s just madness. And so time-consuming – crazy.” Paul Dempsey plays a sold-out Corner Hotel show on Friday 8 October. An Empty Flight is available via iTunes.

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THE CHEMISTRY OF SOUND

As Engineers/Producers our passion is to create tracks that give the listener a hard hitting, fresh sound that sonically sounds PHAT and pushes the boundaries of what music currently sounds like in Australia, which stands up amongst the international market. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE ALL GENRES. We’re located at Level 7 studios and the studio is decorated in some of the most appreciated vintage and modern gear which provides our clients an incomparable advantage in the sense of both the analogue and digital domains. Artists we’ve worked with include: Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Kanye West, INXS, Black Wallstreet and a myriad of local artists such as Hyjak, Potbelleez, Vice Verser, Thundamentals, Fame, Tycotic, Rai Thistlewaite (Thirsty Merc), Wendy Mathews, Gin Wigmore, Tim Freedman (The Whitlams),

Do you live to play? Whether you’ve just bought a new guitar or an old favourite is feeling a little faded, we’ll bring the best out of it! Rockin’ Repairs is based in Point Piper in Sydney, Australia and offers restrings, setups, upgrades and repairs for all guitars and basses; no matter what you play or how you play it, we’ve got the tools and techniques to breathe life back into even the most mistreated guitar. We treat every instrument individually; time, care and love is taken with each job to get the best from your guitar. We work hard to give you the feel and the sound you want. 0405 253 417 tara@rockinrepairs. com www.rockinrepairs.com iFlogID: 5992

TRANSPORT

SINGING LESSONS Certified Speech Level Singing (SLS) Instructor. Learn the Technique of over 120 Grammy award winners. Extend your Range. No more Breaks/Flips. Develop Strength. All Styles. Eastern Suburbs. www.myspace.com/mazvocalstudio Contact Maz - 0412 340 659 - maz@ mazmazak.com iFlogID: 7291

Mastering is one of the most critical stages in the recording process. Matthew Gray Mastering - world class mastering from where you are, right now. Online mastering special rate of $99 (ex GST) per song. Visit matthewgraymastering.com. iFlogID: 7663

Pro Remote Guitar Sessions available. Email your MP3 guide tracks and I’ll record the guitars. All styles. Tracks exported as 24bit waves and you’re sent a download link. Visit www.nathaneshman.com & www.myspace. com/nathaneshman for audio examples. Email info@nathaneshman.com for a free quote.

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Lead guitarist looking to form/ join a heavy metal band,on the central coast. Influences: Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, Metallica,Iron maiden,Kalmah,Dethklok - Blake 0403138542 iFlogID: 7983

looking for a band

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CONTEMPORARY AND MUSIC THEATRE SINGING TUITION. TRAINED WITH LEADING NYC VOCAL TEACHER WORKED WITH ARTISTS IE. AVRIL LAVIGNE, KELLY CLARKESON AND BEYONCE. WORLD RENOWNED VOCAL EXCERSISES TO VASTLY IMPROVE VOCAL TECHIQUE BASED ON EXCSERCISES FROM MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC. LOCATED EASTERN SUBURBS. AVAILABLE TO TRAVEL. ORIGINALS WELCOME. AUDITION COACHING. 0435 426 012

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VIDEO / PRODUCTION HAVE YOU SEEN MIKE HUNT

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Ableton certified trainer and author of Ableton video training for Groove 3 (USA) Craig McCullough is available locally in SE Qld for private Ableton and music technology training. Video training is also availble from www. groove3.com. Mobile: 0431 556 746 email: abletontrainer@optusnet. com.au iFlogID: 4154

ABSOLUTEBEGINNERS 4GUITAR&KEYS

Established singer/songwriter with 2 previous albums taken into Music Australia through National Library/ National Film & Sound Archive seeks guitarist partner M/F with own recording capability to share in new project. Prestigeous National Retailer will distribute. Call Francis on 0458 993 268 Australian Bands Only.Do you have A You Tube Rock Band Video you want to promote,if so Mike Hunt wants to promote it.Just send your link to admin attention Mike Hunt and we will do our best to list you for free worldwide at www.clearhunt.com

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SAXOPHONIST AVAILABLE

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China’s hottest band right now, P.K.14, finally make it to Australia for Melbourne International Arts Festival. Look out for their incendiary live show on October 22nd supporting the Drones. For interviews etc please contact Shaun at tenzenmen@tenzenmen.com. http://www.myspace. com/pk14

Professional illustrator available for any project. Book covers, children’s books, album art and much more. Based in Melbourne, drawing world wide! Excellent rates. www.paulikin. com -Phone: 0403 996 129 or email paul@paulikin.com

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MUSICIANS!

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Special Packages available for artists and bands!! Whether being recording/ mixing. With networks to many studios around town your project will sound great and professional whilst working within a budget!! OUR PASSION IS TO CREATE RECORDS THAT GIVE THE LISTENER A HARD HITTING, FRESH SOUND THAT PUSHES BOUNDARIES, WHICH STANDS UP AMONGST THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET. WE SPECIALIZE IN HIP HOP/R&B BUT LOVE AND DO ALL GENRES. For a full list of our credits see myspace.com/mixinthelab. Contact us on 0424 462 945 or Email at thelab1@hotmail.com

Unlike other DJs, TopShelfDJs have a background in alternative/indie music. So if you want your party to have a distinctly indie/alternative feel or just want a few alternative tunes mixed in, we are the perfect fit for your event! www.topshelfdjs.com.au

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China’s hottest band right now, P.K.14, finally make it to Australia for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Look out for their incendiary live performance, supporting the Drones, on October 22nd 2010. Stick it in your diaries now!

ARTISTS IE. AVRIL LAVIGNE, KELLY CLARKESON AND BEYONCE. COMMERCIAL RADIO PLAY FOR ORIGINALS. LOCATED EASTERN SUBURBS. AVAILABLE TO TRAVEL. ORIGINALS WELCOME OR BEGINNING FROM AFRESH. K.I.S.S. = $$$$$. 0435 426 012 iFlogID: 4454

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Superstar Karaoke & Jukebox Hire is friendly, efficient and affordable. We’ve also got the BIGGEST selection of songs with over 10,000 karaoke tracks and over 5,000 jukebox songs. Plus, we update our song lists monthly so we have the classics and all the newest hits! Visit www.superstarkaraoke.net.au today and see how we can assist you with making your next party or function one to remember.

ROCKIN’ REPAIRS - GUITAR TECH

MUSIC VIDEOS

Experienced saxophonist based in Sydney is looking for bands and studio sessions. Jazz, funky, afro, reggae,latin, rock, folk. If interested contact me at 0410041979. Cheers. Lorenzo iFlogID: 4974

A four week course that gets you playing fast. Individual tuition. Chords, Rhythm, Songs, Theory. 25 years specializing in teaching beginners! Gift vouchers available. Call David on 96603877 Annandale/ Inner West area.

SINGER JASON AYRES

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We are experienced risk takers that not only know the rules, but also know when and how to break them! We have been engineering and mixing for over 15 years and have worked in Sydney’s top studios. We also have our own Mixing/Production studio called The LAB, located at the famous Level 7 studios which is decorated in some of the most appreciated vintage and modern gear in combination of a myriad of assorted software and plug-ins that provides our clients an incomparable advantage in the sense of both the analogue and digital domains. THIS IN COMBINATION WITH MANY STUDIO CONTACTS AROUND TOWN, YOUR PROJECT WILL SOUND GREAT AND PROFESSIONAL WHILST WORKING WITHIN A BUDGET!! For a full list of our credits see myspace. com/mixinthelab. Contact us on 0424 462 945 or Email at thelab1@ hotmail.com iFlogID: 6285

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REPAIRS

Equipped with 13 years of bass guitar and musical experience, Rachael offers an introductory level of tuition for beginning musicians focussing on areas of technique, music theory, rhythm and performance. Open to all ages. Bass ownership not essential, studio location Eastern Suburbs. Contact 0415273252 or rachael.rees@ hotmail.com. iFlogID: 6161

GUITAR LESSONS WITH DANIEL WALSH Lessons available for keen and motivated guitar students in Sydney, all styles catered for at a rate of $60/hour. Contact daniel_john_ walsh@hotmail.com iFlogID: 7343

Bands who have recently made videos with us include El Duende, Line Drawings and Grace Before Meals. Get your band on Rage and Youtube, or make a video for your myspace page. Fantastic concepts and slick production that wont break your budget. See examples of our videos on facebook. com/dynamic.screen.content Call Darrin on 0413555857 (we’re based in Sydney)

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE DRUMMER TOP PRO DRUMMER AVAILABLE

MUSICIANS WANTED BASS PLAYER 18 year old Guitar player looking for a Bass player to start a band with. Influences: GN’R, Led Zeppelin, The Stones. Preferably someone in the south. Call Tom on 0401722767 iFlogID: 7771

BASS PLAYER WANTED

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NY TRAINED SONGWRITING TUITION PROFFESSIONAL ROYALTIES EARNING POP ROCK SONGWRITER AVAILABLE FOR TUITION AND GUIDANCE. TRAINED WITH LEADING NYC VOCAL TEACHER WHO HAS WORKED WITH

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MUSIC PRODUCTION TUITION 1. Master Audio and MIDI. 2. Ten Years Experience in the Industry Tutor. 3. Weekdays or Weekends, Flexible. 4. Learn with Up to Date Technology. 5. Intensive Theory and Practical Sessions. 6. Individual Student Hands-On Practice. 7. Only $30 per hour. contact me on vangelis2133@yahoo. com or on 0449672435 between 8 a:m and 2 p:m or after 6 p:m.

Acoustic Pop-Rock Specialist -www. jasonayres.com-

for gigs,tours,sessions etc. Good equipment, professional attitude. Many years pro experience working with well known artists. Please check out my website, www.mikehague.

Bassist wanted to join melodic metal band with death/black/thrash influence. Must be determined, skilled and have own gear and transport. Easygoing but professional environment. Ages 18-30 Wollongong/ Sydney based. Influences: Dimmu, Old man’s child, arch enemy, children of bodom, immortal, megadeth, slayer, amon amarth etc. Interest gained nationally and internationally with distribution deals on offer for the band. Great opportunity. www. myspace.com/asmodaiaus or email asmodai_aus@hotmail.com iFlogID: 5302

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au 73

BASSIST WANTED! Singer and Guitarist (aged 21) looking for Bassist and Drummer to form rock outfit. Based in Central Sydney. Over 100 songs written and ready to gig on a serious level. Contact August 0404166433 or e-mail at kaibywells@yahoo.co.uk iFlogID: 7784

Christian Rhythm Guitarist 30 over for near established originals some covs band. Exp R/Guitarist, God 1st, team player. Style from ballads, Hard Rock, Latin Rock, to Acid/Jazz etc.Willing to play in Christian & secular Vens pay or no pay. Brisbane 0403752475 iFlogID: 7670

Contact details needed for Andrew Judd - previously living in Newtown and former bass player of Sydney band, Tsunami (circa. late 90s). Former muso friend would like to reconnect. Any help much appreciated. Email - remmosk@gmail.com iFlogID: 7756

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL Dedicated bassist needed to finish the lineup of Brisbane/Gold Coast southern hardcore band. must have own gear and transport. influences include Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster. Demos are available. contact Jon asap at ralphster88@hotmail.com iFlogID: 7370

Our passion for writing original songs are influenced by decades of different styles of music. We would love to have a good bass player who can enjoy creating with us. www. myspace.com/insideoutoz contact Veneita on (0408) 232 110 or email veneita.d@gmail.com iFlogID: 7423

Rock Monster (originals) need a bass player - with vocals would be good. Melbourne, out east. Check us out at http://www.myspace.com/rockmonstermelbourne. Or on our Melband ad http://www.ausband.com.au/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewto pic&p=2180151#2180151

album completed. Melodic music with a touch of the sinister. Distinguished Guest add their own brand of unique music to create a sinners heaven. Contact Dave - (Singer/Songwriter/ Guitarist) serendipity.25@live.com. au for more details/audition www. myspace.com/distinguishedguest DRUMMER WANTED! Singer and Guitarist (aged 21) looking for Drummer and Bassist to form rock outfit. Based in Central Sydney. Over 100 songs written and ready to gig on a serious level. Contact August 0404166433 or e-mail at kaibywells@yahoo.co.uk iFlogID: 7786

DRUMMER WANTED-PRO METAL BAND! Hard-rock / Metalcore band seeks committed, self motivated drummer capable of playing to a Pro standard. Must be available for regular gigs, rehearsal. Must have a great work ethic and be easy to get along with, and share the same passion to pursue music full-time. iFlogID: 6445

Guitarist and Bassist seeking Drummer. Preferably from the inner west and in their 20’s. Call Michael on 0420 371 624 iFlogID: 7511

Mature dynamic metal band based in Hills/Blacktown,Sydney. Infl: Rock, Grunge, Black, Death, Hardcore, Groove, Doom...etc Looking for likeminded drummer, own gear & car. Practice weekly. Gig monthly. https:// myspace.com/cursedwithsanity https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4684637/ Bring%20The%20Rain.mp3 PLEASE NO TIME WASTERS! cursedwithsanity@hotmail.com iFlogID: 7891

ROCK DRUMMER FOR ORIGINAL PROJ

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SYNTHESISERS GENIUS Upcoming talented female singer/ songwriter with personal management in need of a synth/keys player who can also sing backing vocals to join established band. Style of music is a unique blend of rock, pop and the occasional dance groove. Must be able to rehearse in Enmore on Tuesdays and Thurdays between 11:30 - 3pm and available for immediate gigs. Own transport preferred. A small amount of money to cover transport to rehearsals will also be given to the new and successful band member. Current backline and instruments include: - Drummer - Bass Player - Lead Guitarist - Rhythm Guitarist - Singer (who is also responsible for writing all the music) Most of the musicians are between 18 - early 30’s. We’re after someone who has a positive and easy going attitude, open to musical challenges, creative and open to playing rock, pop and dance music. The person must be open and prepared to tour when required. To view the artist and music please visit - www.reverbnation.com/ monannlisawilde or www.myspace. com/monannlisawilde iFlogID: 7859

Young (19-21) Sydney band called INDIGO CHILD needs a bass player!! recently played at WORLD BAR, rehersals in belmore around 1-2 times a week. Male or FEMALE!! Few years experience would be ideal. Check out: www.myspace.com/indigochildau indigochildau@live.com iFlogID: 7830

DRUMMER 18 year old Guitar player looking for a Drummer to start a band with. Influences: GN’R, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith. Preferably someone in the south. Call Tom on 0401722767 iFlogID: 7773

Sydney Mexican Mariachi band requires guitarists who have experience in playing Spanish or Latin music. Please contact Marc on 0415 073 306. For more info see our website: mariachiaustralia.com.au and MySpace: myspace.com/marcsantillana iFlogID: 7898

Sydney Oasis Show need a new Noel Gallagher! Established Oasis cover band after someone with a great voice and a Noel look. Tight rhythm guitar skills neccessary, lead ability is not essential. No time wasters please. Email Anthony at anthony320chmiel@hotmail.com iFlogID: 7530

WANNA BE IN MY BAND??!!! Who wants to be in a all girls original pop rock band hav some fun and make some $$$?! Guitar/bass/ drummer needed. Must be able to sing passable back up vox and luv performing!Practice 1-2 times per week. Gig asap. All ages welcome. www.myspace.com/nicolesero 0435 426 012 iFlogID: 4392

KEYBOARD Singer/songwriter/guitarist creating a new original project is looking for experienced rock drummer. Must have great sound and ability to play with vibe and groove when using click plus experience with both acoustic and electric kits and seq. BV’s also a huge bonus. Check out sample of new cd release: http:// www.myspace.com/remmosk If interested, pls contact via email remmosk@gmail.com iFlogID: 6679

We need a versitile drummer to join our Sydney based originals band. Complete freedom to enhance our song writing with your ideas and drumming skills. Rehearsal in Bardwell Valley (Rockdale area) no studio rehearsal costs. www.myspace.com/ insideoutoz (0408) 232110 Veneita vendel@bigpond.net.au iFlogID: 7887

GUITARIST 18 year old Guitar player looking for another Guitar player to start a band with. Influences: GN’R, Led Zeppelin, The Stones. Preferably someone in the south. Call Tom on 0401722767 iFlogID: 7769

A professional lead/rhythm guitarist who can play covers from the 60’s thru to the 90’s required immediately to join working rock covers band Melbourne. Work waiting. Plse call James on 0411815649. iFlogID: 7621

Christian Rhythm Guitarist wanted for near established originals some covs band. Exp R/Guitarist, God 1st, team player. Our style from ballads, Hard Rock, Latin Rock, to Acid/Jazz etc.Willing to play in Christian & secular Vens pay or no pay. Brisbane 0403752475 iFlogID: 7666

GUITARIST WANTED for established indie rock band about to record debut album. Pro gear and dedication essential. Age required mid 20searly30s. Call 0419 526 978. www. myspace.com/numberstationband

Drummer wanted for Progressive/ Alternative/Lyrical Rock Band. Full

GUITARIST WANTED TO TEACH

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MUSICIANS WANTED

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COVERBAND REQUIRE KEYS Sydney based, agent backed coverband requires a keyboardist. Must have good gear, own transport able to gig most fri / sat nights. We play mostly modern covers and are after ages 18 - 35. Please send your details to brotherbooth@gmail.com iFlogID: 5905

COVERBAND REQUIRE KEYS Sydney based, agent backed coverband requires a keyboardist. We are looking for ages 18 - 35 yrs, and we are playing modern covers. Must have good gear, own transport able to gig most fri / sat nights. Please send your details to brotherbooth@ gmail.com iFlogID: 5903

INDEPENDENT ROCK ARTIST seeks professional SESSION KEYBOARD PLAYER for album launch in October. MUST be dedicated , committed to 3 mid week rehearsals and playing launch. Experience essential- preferably 25+. Music at myspace.com/ tiffanygow. Please CALL Tiffany 0433112429 Thank you

Pianist/Keys/Synth wanted for Progressive/Alternative/Lyrical Rock Band. Full album completed. Melodic music with a touch of the sinister. Distinguished Guest add their own brand of unique music to create a sinners heaven. Contact Dave - (Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist) serendipity.25@live.com.au for more details/audition www.myspace.com/ distinguishedguest iFlogID: 7778

Professional keyboardist req for working rock covers band Melbourne. Work waiting. Plse call James on 0411815649 after 5pm. iFlogID: 7623

Singer/songwriter/guitarist

creat-

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SINGER WANTED TO HELP SONGWRITER $40 PH RATE AND STYLE IS POP ,ROCK,BALLADS, PLEASE SUPPLY INFO WITH VOCAL SAMPLE TO KONEMANNMUSIC@HOTMAIL. COM

SONG WRITER If you want to join a band, form a band, find a new band member, get exposure, or just jam, then www. ozjam.com.au is for you! Whatever instrument or genre of music you play, Ozjam can connect you with other talented, like minded musicians who are looking to jam, gig, and even tour the World! Ozjam is loaded with features, it’s free to join and with over 4000 members its fast becoming the largest online music community in Australia today! iFlogID: 6499

Sydney Mexican Mariachi band requires trumpeters who have experience in playing Jazz and/or Latin music. Call Marc on 0415 073 306. For more info see our website: mariachiaustralia.com.au and MySpace: myspace.com/marcsantillana. iFlogID: 7900

Violinist/Cellist wanted for Progressive/Alternative/Lyrical Rock Band. Full album completed. Melodic music with a touch of the sinister. Distinguished Guest add their own brand of unique music to create a sinners heaven. Contact Dave - (Singer/ Songwriter/Guitarist) serendipity.25@live.com.au for more details/ audition www.myspace.com/distinguishedguest

GET SIGNED TO A 360 DEAL! Male singer-songwriter wanted (experienced)! Drummer is forming a fast paced professional original industrial rock/metal band to get signed to a 360 deal. Must be ambitious, selfmotivated, committed, reliable and have a lot of drive. Musical direction: Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, and Static-X. Age: 18-30. Rehearsing at Wetherill Park N.S.W. Only contact me if you want to get signed to a 360 deal! Phone Will: 0413 772 911.

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Affordable graphic design! CD/ DVD packaging, myspace layouts, web design, posters, bio/press kits, advertising, photography + more! EP’s from $190• Myspace layouts from $100* Check out our cool work online, www.creativeunited.com.au Call 0425 715 465 iFlogID: 7808

FULL COLOUR POSTERS

SERVICES BEAUTY SERVICES BEAUTY FOR A CAUSE CAMPAIGN

LEAD VOCALIST REQUIRED FOR TINA TURNER TRIBUTE SHOW. SYDNEY BASED PROFESSIONAL BAND LOOKING FOR A NEW TINA TURNER.BAND HAS WORK AND AGENT.FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CALL DIANNE ON 0418 122 370 iFlogID: 7425

Male vocalists wanted for Liverpool based dance music project. Please email your details to jnst17@tpg. com.au. (www.mymusicforums.com)

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NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL HI we are a heavy rock band currently residing in sydney, looking for a 17-30 yr old frontman male or female.... melodic vocals some rougher styles as well... we have production and recording lined up... call aidan 0401625915 or email aidanmp@brayke.com

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BEAUTY WEBSITE: COVETED CANVAS

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SINGER NEEDED

If you love beauty, you’ll love Coveted Canvas! We’re the beauty website for you, with tips and tricks, product reviews, salon reviews, competitions, insider advice and a personalised Q&A section like no other. With info spanning from hair to makeup, skin to nails, if it’s beauty related you’ll find it on Coveted Canvas. www.covetedcanvas.wordpress.com iFlogID: 6341

GRAPHIC DESIGN Singer needed for hard rock band. We’re looking for a singer, male or female, for our all original hard rock band. The guitarist and I (bass) have been playing together for over 8 years now and over 3 years with our drummer. We have been writing new songs the last 2 years and continue to work on fresh original material. We have also been playing gigs all over Melbourne for the last year getting some stage experience up but we are really dying to get a frontperson with a voice that works with our music. We’re willing to give anyone a listen, we’re all easy going and in it for the fun above all else, but also been keen to take the next step and make it a serious commitment. Have a listen at our myspace link upon application. http://www.myspace.com/psyecho Please note the myspace recordings are over 2 years old now and we have

100 COLOUR POSTERS ONLY $80

or 1300 283 858 area West Ryde in Sydney

CLOTHING ALTERATIONS & MENDING

CD / DVD

Situated in Mont Albert, we service the Doncaster/Box Hill areas and surrounding areas. With four years alterations experience and working from home in a professionally setup studio we can guarantee you the best price. We specialise in alterations, mending and embroidery services, with pants hems starting from as low as $12. Opening hours 7am - 9.30pm, 7 days per week Call Laura to make an appointment 0435005309

Good condition original Rush Hour DVD. Cannot find one anywhere if you are willing to sell, email me at paulhj@optusnet.com.au

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WANTED

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ILLUSTRATOR! BOOKS TO ALBUMS

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GUITARS LOOKING FOR ESP Looking for an Esp Horizon black. New or used. Email For more info. wtf_juice@hotmail.com iFlogID: 5875

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OTHER

MUSICIAN & BAND WEBSITES ADVERTISE YOUR BAND/BUSINESS ON WWW.ROCKNPOPS.COM LINKS TO BAND SITES- FREE, ALL OTHER ADVERTS- $10 MONTH. 6 CATEGORIES TO CHOOSE FROM. WWW. ROCKNPOPS.COM

Create your presence online and get noticed. Sydney based web designers are here to help you create and design your website with ease. We specialise in building websites that work. When you hire us to design your website we’ll give you a product that looks great and that actually works for your business or service. Packages start from $400 Call Richard or Kelly on 0424 125 169 iFlogID: 6665

PUNK-ROCK/HARCORE BAND is looking for a lead singer with great attitude and passion for music. Our influences can go from Rise Against, Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Good Riddance, to metal and rock bands. www.myspace.com/astateofemergency francishadid@gmail.com iFlogID: 7488

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MYSPACE BAND PROFILE FROM 200$

ALEY GREENBLO, A CURRENT FINALIST FOR MISS EARTH AUSTRALIA HAS RECENTLY BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE FACE OF THE “BEAUTY FOR A CAUSE CAMPAIGN”. ALEY HOPES TO CREATE AWARENESS ABOUT CURRENT ENVIRO PROBLEMS AND HAS SET OUT ON A MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! THIS “DOWN TO EARTH” COMMERCE LAW STUDENT IS EXTREMELY PASSIONATE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT & IS DEDICATED TO ENSURING THAT OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET REMAINS CLEAN & LITTER FREE! ALEY HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY ACTIVE IN PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS & HAS TAKEN ON VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL INITATIVES. “IT IS SO EASY AND EVERYONE CAN HELP BY DOING THE SMALLEST THINGS!”

Can I write a song for you? I will tailor a special song for an occassion, birthday for a loved one, friend or relation. Prices start from $27.50. See myspace/rodashwin or call 0402332779

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KEYBOARD PLAYER NEEDED

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SINGER WANTED FOR ROBBIE WILLIAMS SHOW & SUPRISE PARTY COVER BAND. PLENTY OF GIGS ALREADY BOOKED.

www.blackstar.com.au

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Keyboard player wanted, backing vocals a plus. Own transport a must. Must have good gear and experience. We are currently a Sydney 3 piece looking at expanding to 5 piece. Think most bands on the Creation Records and 4AD labels. Contact Sam on 0415292247 and listen to us on www.myspace.com/ourpendingname

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SINGER

Christian Keyboardist wanted over 30 keyboardist B/Vs? asap for Christian originals band. God 1st d.t.e. Jazz rock to Ballads. Filmier in Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rodes, sympath etc, effects, improvise, instrumentals. Willing to play pay or no-pay venues. Gigs coming soon 0403752475.

progressed in style and skill greatly since then.

WORLD-CLASS GOSPEL SINGERS wanted for international CD project. Whitney Houston style sopranos particularly sought. See www. THE001Music.com for full details. God Bless You!

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Death metal drummer wanted for established Melbourne band. Must be over 18 and have a strong technical ability to play Extreme metal. Contact us at: myspace.com/theophidianascension Or call Blake on: 0406689887 iFlogID: 7863

OTHER We seek guitar players who are looking to earn money teaching guitar. Training and teaching materials are supplied. Teach from one of our schools or your own location. Limited positions available. Visit www.g4guitar.com.au for details.

WANTED Guitarist for Metal Band, influences; Lamb of God, Pantera, Devil Driver, Slayer, COB, Amon Amarth, Sepultura, Gojira & more. We are in our early 20’s, have gigs lined up. Practice at a studio in Syd Newtown. Contact me at Memo.oi@ hotmail.com

Singer/songwriter/guitarist creating a new original live project is looking for experienced rock bass player. Must have great sound, vibe and groove bv’s a huge bonus. Check out triple j unearthed “RemmosK” sample of new cd release. Contact via email. Sydney Hard Rock band Pleasure Overload seeks permanent bass player and keyboardist to complete current lineup. Please contact Mal on 0416101529 or email band@ pleasureoverload.com. Visit www. pleasureoverload.com to check out videos, pictures and audio.

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ing a new original project hoping to find someone using GarageBand to exchange files and collaborate with. Must have great sound, ability to play with vibe - groove. BV’s a bonus. Check out: http://www.myspace. com/remmosk If interested, pls contact “remmosk@gmail.com”

I’m starting a new business in CSS programming and I’m willing to charge very cheap to gather some folio with customized myspace profiles. This price will certanly increase after some productions, so be quick to not loose the oportunity. To know more about my work visit www. fugadalula.com.br/blog To quote: renato@fugadalula.com.br Thanks!

MULTIMEDIA FOR MUSICIANS Reapers Image Design.All your multimedia needs met-logos,cd art & layout design,posters,stickers,video editing & filming,DVD construction, Multimedia solutions. Cheapest rates in Melbourne, we’ll beat any other legitimate quote. reapersimagedesign.com.au <http://reapersimagedesign.com.au>0417 393 706 iFlogID: 5849

MUSIC VIDEOS

SUPER CHEAP COLOUR PRINTING

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OTHER

MISS WORLD AUSTRALIA FINALIST

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With over 20 years experience, ACE Design & Print has gained an unequaled reputation as a reliable supplier of quality printing with exceptional service and competitive prices. Our print services are designed for fast production and fast delivery within your budget. Here are some prices for your consideration, let us know your specific requirements and we can quote & deliver! 100 A4 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $40 250 A6 Leaflets printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $50 250 Full Colour Digital Business cards onto 300gsm gloss = $50 100 A3 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $80 1000 Business Cards in full colour 2 sides with plastic coating = $160 1000 A5 Flyers printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $210 1000 A4 Letterheads printed in full colour onto 100gsm bond = $230 1000 A4 Flyers printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $300 500 A2 Posters printed in full colour onto 150gsm gloss = $490 1000 A5 Booklets 8pp printed in full colour onto gloss = $735 500 Presentation Folders printed in full colour on white board = $795

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Do you need an affordable Illustrator? Freelance illustrator Paul Ikin can create a range of styles for your project. No hidden cost at an affordable price. Album Covers - Film Clips - Book Sleeves - Children Books - Online Images - Fliers - Posters Editorial Artwork. Visit www.paulikin. com - T: 0403 996 129

Premier Posters is Sydney’s leading poster and flyer Distribution Company boasting the most sought after store space and the best locations. Exclusive stores inc : Glue store,Factorie, Globalize, Rush Surf, Zero + loads more. 0417255054 iFlogID: 7504

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SOUND & LIGHTING HIRE Sound and lighting hire for your next party.You can hire speakers to plug into your I pod/computer,DJ equipment,smoke machines,party light,lasers and more.Very easy to do and at adffordable prices.Go to www. feelgoodevents.com.au for more info. Ph -1300 134 493 iFlogID: 6005

TRUCK AND DRIVER FOR HIRE 4 Tonne Truck with Hydraulic Lift available for Hire for deliveries private, commercial or contract (by negotiation) $65 p/hour for man and truck $85 p/hour for two men and truck. Call Derek 0423979396.

ALEY GREENBLO has been selected to represent SYDNEY and attend the NATIONAL FINAL OF MISS BIKINI WORLD AUSTRALIA IN DARWIN. Aley will be competing against 34 other girls and the winner will represent Australia at the international final. Aley is currently MISS GLOBAL AUSTRALIA, MISS SUPRANATIONAL AUSTRALIA and a MISS EARTH finalist and is in search for a sponsor. Diesel Promotions will be filming the 11 day Miss Bikini World competition for a reality TV show which will provide great exposure. Aley will also be photographed during the competition and these photo’s will be circulated through the press and gain major publicity. In return, Aley has allowed her pictures for advertisement purposes for your own business. Additionally your logo and website link will be put on the official MISS BIKINI WORLD AUSTRALIA website as well as on Aley’s blog and other social networking pages. Aley is currently also engaging in Social Media, utilising Facebook as a way to engage with the public, increase my fan base, and raise awareness for local charities to protect the environment. The page will be custom designed, and is offering a sponsor to completely brand her Facebook page. You will also have the opportunity to run competitions on my page, as well as offer discounts, and engage with my audience. Working with a top global marketing company based in Australia, the Facebook fan page will have 10,000 fans by the end of August 2010. These fans are highly targeted towards your demographic, and will be a great way to engage with them. Please see Aley’s blog for more info about her and we look so forward to hearing back from you http://aleygreenblo.blogspot. com/ Facbook: Aley Greenblo Email: aley_greenblo@hotmail.com iFlogID: 5560

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1100 FULL COLOUR POSTERS = $80

X Factor, Australian Idol, Australia’s Got Talent, forgot that! Want to know what people think of your music? Upload your sound to soundornot. com and find out now! All styles catered for! iFlogID: 7841

100 Full Colour A4 Gloss Posters = only $40 100 Full Colour A3 Matt Posters = only $50 100 Full Colour A3 Gloss Posters = only $80 and many more options to choose from Posters • Flyers • Handouts • Business Cards We can print a sample for you while you wait and complete the job within the hour. bsd@zip.com.au

ZUMBA CLASSES @ Bondi Junction

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TUITION Visit our website for an extensive price list and other services! iFlogID: 4554

NOT AVAILABLE FOR FREE ADS. CL People Wanted. We are offering a business opportunity like no other. Multiple Income stream based. Online based. Income earned from offering the world unbeatable value in goods, services & entertainment streaming. Low cost start up. Evolving, expanding, growing rapidly. 0423831660

VIOLIN TEACHER conservatorium degree qualified in Italy, high quality. Prepare for AMEB exams, any style. 30$ half hour. Giuseppe 0415783160

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