EMMA LOUISE
WORLD'S END PRESS
LAWRENCE ARABIA
KRISTEN STEWART
EVEN SURES IDYLLS SKY'HIGH
N O W AVA I L A B L E O N I PA D • W E D N E S DAY 2 7 J U N E 2 012 • I S S U E 12 3 0 • F R E E
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BECK SIGUR RÓS
MONDO CANE GRIZZLY BEAR i e’s tton
BEN FOLDS F<I8 58<EUT F4AG<:B?7 64>8 THE DANDY WARHOLS 64>8 G;8 74A7L J4E;B?F G;8 5?46> 4A:8?F 6;EB@4G<6F BMB@4G?< ?<4EF 9H6> 5HGGBAF G;8 J4E BA 7EH:F DARK DARK DARK ... and many more to be announced!
ea uring 5BBG?8: 4??8L G;8 F86E8G :4E78A G;8 64@C9<E8 FG4:8 :BHE@8G 9BB7 7E<A> FG4??F ;B?<FG<6 E8GEB I<AG4:8 4EGF @4E>8GF F<78F;BJF C?HF FHECE<F8F 7854H6;8EL :4?BE8
SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER WERRIBEE PARK
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INPRESS • 3
E89733R
INPRESS • 5
WEDNESDAY 27TH
PLAY LIKE A GIRL WITH SPECIAL GUEST VIKI MEALINGS
6pm
THURSDAY 28TH
TAYLOR/FINN DUO THE NBC + LUCKY + JAMES GOWIN
6pm 8pm $5
FRIDAY 29TH
CAT CANTERI 6pm MELODY MOON CARRIED AWAY EP LAUNCH + FRANKIE ANDREW + TANE EMIA-MOORE 8pm $7 & TOM FRANCIS SATURDAY 30TH
THE BOYS 6pm PAPER CRANE FARWELL SHOW WITH DAN LETHBRIDGE, KATE WALKER, AL PARKINSON AND 8pm $10 FRANKIE ANDREW SUNDAY 1ST
Open...MON - THU...from 4pm ‘til late FRI...from 2pm ‘til late SAT - SUN...from 12pm ‘til late
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NEW 2 AUTUMN MENU 6 • TIME OFF
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OPEN MIC NIGHT
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INPRESS • 7
ISSUE 1230
W E D N E S D AY 2 7 J U N E 2 0 1 2
Thu 28. 8pm - Spacewalk 3 celebrate the union of electronic music, art & moving image Onetalk, 2Fuddha, Polat, Affiks, visual/video intergration artist Chronic Sans Fri 29. 10pm - Skip & Swing moombahton, dubstep, glitch hop & dnb w Kurk Kokane, J.NItrous The Dirty Gipsy,Nabbs, Rick Dirk, Monkee & Aaron Static! Vdmo Kstati
CHARGE GROUP INPRESS
Sat 30. 10pm - Unstable Sounds master of the darkness Dark Nebula,
10 The Front Line brings you the hottest industry news 10 This week’s best and worst in Backlash/Frontlash 12 Foreword Line brings you all the latest tour announcements 16 Flight Of The Conchords love their neighbours 17 The socially retarded World’s End Press 18 Lawrence Arabia is a slave for love 20 Charge Group are a musicians’ band 20 The Dandy Warhols have a fuckload of fun 22 Emma Louise takes the Taste Test 24 I Am Giant could be NZ’s next big thing 24 Sures are still finding their sound 24 Clubfeet are no synth-pop svengalis 24 Sky’High is one of our most intriguing rappers 26 Accidental jazz with Idylls 26 Don’t get mad, get Even 26 Ceremony aren’t standing still for anybody 26 Confessin’ the blues with Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party 28 On The Record rates new releases from Hunting Grounds and Gojira
supported by Jewelz, Azrin, Harry Blotter, Brown Acid & Imperfect Circle Visual picasso's HENK.D & NINJA Mon 2. 6pm - Process Forum emerging architects address new concepts in contemporary architecture Tue 3. 7pm - Pleasure Forum Australia a sex-positive, sexual health, pleasure, adult information evening ft. Australia’s best sex educators & activists
FRONT ROW 30 Check out what’s happening This Week In Arts 30 Kristen Stewart leaves quite the impression on Guy Davis 31 Weird shit with Fragmented Fish 31 Star of Snow White & The Huntsman and The Cabin In The Woods, Chris Hemsworth
The Blackeyed Susans (Trio) The Susans return for their fourth annual winter residency to play five majestic gigs of countrified alt-rock. These are special shows; miss them at your own risk. 5pm
CREDITS EDITORIAL
SATURDAY 30 June
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk
Bar room stompin’ boogie just made for dancing. 9pm
Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast Editor Shane O’Donohue music@inpress.com.au Assistant Editor Bryget Chrisfield Editorial Assistant Samson McDougall Arts Coordinator Cassandra Fumi frontrow@inpress.com.au Staff Writer Michael Smith
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Original guitar pop tunes with 60s rock ‘n’ roll and sweet harmonies. 5pm
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8 • INPRESS
BACK TO INPRESS 35 Gig Of The Week Rocks For Reclink 36 LIVE:Reviews parties with Mosman Alder 42 Sarah Petchell will Wake The Dead with her punk and hardcore talk 42 Andrew Haug takes us to the dark side in The Racket 42 Dan Condon blues and roots in Roots Down 42 Tales from the Big Apple with New York Conversation 44 Pop culture therapy with The Breakdown 44 Hip hop with Intelligible Flow 44 The freshest in urban news with OG Flavas 44 Funky shit with Obliveus 45 If you haven’t appeared in Fred Negro’s Pub, your mother probably still speaks to you 45 Jeff Jenkins gets down and local in Howzat! 46 Fill your dance card with our Club Guide 48 Our Gig Guide fills your diary for the weekend 52 Gear and studio reviews in BTL 54 Find your new band and just about everything else in our classy Classifieds
This week we have a bunch of tickets to a bunch of shows to give away. These include Club Feet at the Toff In Town on Thursday 5 July, The Tea Party at the Palais on Saturday 14 and Youth Lagoon at the Corner on Sunday 29. Get into ‘em!
SATURDAY 30 June
THE UNION HOTEL
31 Reviews R i off MTC’s MTC’ The Th Golden G ld Dragon D and Pixar’s Brave 31 Photographer Nikki Toole gets in the zone with Skater 32 Bangarra Dance Theatre’s new show Terrain opens this week at the Arts Centre 32 Anthony Carew chats to Rémi Bezançon about his new film A Happy Event 33 Arts happenings with Cultural Cringe 33 Corin Nemec levels about Stargate
GIVEAWAYS GALORE!
BRUNSWICK
THE NATIVE PLANTS
20
CONTRIBUTORS
Senior Contributors Jeff Jenkins Overseas Contributors Tom Hawking (US), James McGalliard (UK), Sasha Perera (UK). Writers Nick Argyriou, The Boomeister, Aleksia Barron, Atticus Bastow, Steve Bell, Luke Carter, Dan Condon, Anthony Carew, Rebecca Cook, Kendal Coombs, Adam Curley, Cyclone, Guy Davis, Liza Dezfouli, Lizzie Dynon, Guido Farnell, Sam Fell, Bob Baker Fish, Warwick Goodman, Cameron Grace, Andrew Haug, Brendan Hitchens, Kate Kingsmill, Michael Magnusson, Baz McAlister,
themusic.com.au
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PHOTOGRAPHERS
Senior Contributor Kane Hibberd Jesse Booher, Ricky Dowlan, Chrissie Francis, Jay Hynes, Lou Lou Nutt, Heidi Takla, Sam Wong.
INTERNS
Stephanie Liew, Jan Wisniewski, Alexandra Sutherland
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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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INPRESS • 9
THE
FRONT LINE
INDUSTRY NEWS WITH SCOTT FITZSIMONS frontline@streetpress.com.au
THE GRATES SIGN WITH VAGRANT RECORDS
BALL PARK MUSIC
BIGSOUND ADDS 50 NEW LIVE ACTS
BIGSOUND Live has announced a whopping 50 new acts for this year’s live showcase, which is part of the Brisbane based BIGSOUND music industry conference each year. Following on from the first announcement that featured Kate Miller-Heidke, Violent Soho and others, organisers revealed last week that they expect to have 120 artists playing this year’s event. Taking place Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 September, the bands will play across 12 venues in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Here is the line-up so far: Kate Miller-Heidke, The Aston Shuffle, Closure In Moscow, Ball Park Music, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, The Beards, Violent Soho, David Bridie, The Jungle Giants, Owl Eyes, Eagle & The Worm, Henry Wagons, All The Young (UK), Emperors, The Paper Kites, James Walsh (Starsailor/UK), King Cannons, The Cairos, New Navy,
NEW ZEALAND GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO UNIVERSALEMI MERGER
The New Zealand Commerce Commission has given the all-clear to the Universal Music Group’s $1.9 billion acquisition of EMI Music’s recorded music divisions. As debate rages around the world, the Commerce Commission’s Chair Mark Berry says he is “satisfied” that the deal is “unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any of the affected markets”. In a media release the Commission said that they are “of the view that the merged entity would continue to face strong competition from other major record labels and independent record labels for the discovery and recording of artists, and the promotion and distribution of recorded music. In addition, in the markets for the wholesale supply of recorded music and the licensing or recorded music to third parties, the Commission considers that large retail customers would be able to prevent the merged entity from exercising any market power by restricting access to promotions or shelf space.” Universal is currently in the process of getting clearance for the deal around the world, with the matter going in front of a US Senate subcommittee and the European Commission currently awaiting a response to their list of concerns. Chair of Independent Music New Zealand and owner of NZ label Arch Hill Recordings, Ben Howe expressed his disappointment at the approval of the merger. “I believe that independent and New Zealand artists should have a fair shot at getting both exposure and income from the music they make,” he said. “Unfortunately, the proposed merger would result in market-dominance by one large multinational player and that could make our goal harder. Although we are collectively disappointed with this ruling, I think the final decision will be determined outside New Zealand. We wish our fellow international independents the best of luck in blocking this proposal.”
ALBERTS’ SIGNING SPREE CONTINUES WITH HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY
Brisbane’s Hungry Kids Of Hungary have signed a world-wide publishing deal with Alberts, the latest in a long-list of acquisitions from the publishing house. The deal was confirmed last week with the band in Sydney for the Select Music anniversary event. They played three new tracks from their upcoming second record,
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Northeast Party House, The Snowdroppers, Art Of Sleeping, Boy In A Box, Catherine Britt, Step-Panther, Oliver Tank, Kira Puru & The Bruise, The Darcys (Canada), The Trouble With Templeton, Millions, The Preachers, Velociraptor, Cairo Knife Fight (NZ), Bankrupt Billionaires, Straight Arrows, Voltaire Twins, The Delta Riggs, Grey Ghost, Super Wild Horses, Mosman Alder, Transistors (NZ), Kingswood, Hey Geronimo, Jenn Grant (Canada), Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Strange Talk, Bearhug, The Brow Horn Orchestra, Saskwatch, Winter People, YesYou, Caitlin Park, Gung Ho, Underlights, Current Swell (Canada), Elizabeth Rose and Argentina. Tickets are available for entry across the event, as well as for BIGSOUND Live only. $45 will get you a one-night ticket (60 bands) while $69 will get you entry to the venues across both nights (120 bands). Prices not including booking fee. which was recorded with Wayne Connolly at Albert Studios. The band’s manager Ben Preece told theMusic. com.au, “The band and I are stoked to be part of the Alberts family. It’s been a long time coming and they’ve already been amazing to us with an intro to Wayne Connolly who ended up producing the lads’ second record as well as their international teams. Honestly, they’re probably the nicest and most passionate people in the biz.” A recent European tour took place after the band signed a distribution deal with Rough Trade for the Benelux region. Gold coast based The Oceanics also announced they’d signed with Alberts last week. The band’s lead singer Elliot Weston is “thrilled” about joining the roster. “This opportunity gives us a more secure future. Now we get to concentrate on the importance of song writing rather than just surviving,” he said. “The deal with Alberts will make a massive difference for us. It’ll open up so many new doors and hopefully give us the opportunity to work with some amazing musicians, producers and mentors and further our passion for making music.” Josh Pyke, Tim Levinson, Harry James Angus and Sam Buckingham have also recently signed publishing deals with Alberts.
UNFD FURTHERS INTERNATIONAL REACH WITH EURO DEAL
We Are Unified [UNFD] have announced a partnership with UK-based Essential Music to start their expansion into Europe. Punk/hardcorefocused label and management company UNFD, part of the Staple Group of companies, have existing partnerships with Roadrunner Records, Mediaskare and Hopeless Records in America and have been looking to establish a footing in the European market. The Essential distribution and licensing deal marks their first real foray into the territory, despite having acts like The Amity Affliction and Buried In Verona complete successful tours of the region in the past. UNFD are also working with Little Press for all their publicity in the region. UNFD’s Head Of A&R Marketing Luke Logemann said, “With the Internet making international communities so much tighter, we have started to lean towards making UNFD a worldwide brand, rather than using other labels to launch our acts abroad. Essential provides all the services we need, but enables us to retain control of our product and further strengthen our name to benefit our Australian artists. We couldn’t be happier with being able to launch UNFD via Essential in the European market.” UNFD UK will launch with releases from Buried In Verona and House Vs Hurricane in August.
Brisbane indie-rockers The Grates have been announced as the newest members of the Vagrant Records roster in the US, with their third album Secret Rituals picking up an American release through said label on Tuesday 10 July. The band released their previous records through different labels, with Interscope subsidiary Cherrytree picking up the band’s debut Gravity Won’t Get You High in 2006 before indie label Thirty Tigers released 2008’s Teeth Lost, Hearts Won. Secret Rituals, released in Australia through Dew Process/Universal in June last year, was recorded while the band were living in Brooklyn and is the first album to feature just the creative core of vocalist Patience Hodgson and guitarist John Patterson following drummer Alana Skyring’s departure earlier that year. In a statement, the band acknowledged the American influence on their third album. “Secret Rituals came from two amazing years of living in America, now we’re thrilled that it’s getting a release through Vagrant in its spiritual home. And conceptual home. OK, it’s home (just don’t tell anyone in Australia I said that OK?).” The Grates join the likes of PJ Harvey, The Hold Steady, City & Colour, Placebo and fellow Aussie Missy Higgins, among many more, on the label.
THE AMP OPENS ENTRIES FOR 2012
Entries for this year’s Australian Music Prize – The AMP – are now open and as was reported last week, this year’s competition will be free to enter. The official announcement has confirmed the news and outlined the $30,000 prize’s partnership with D-Star Digital, an online music delivery platform. The new sponsorship deal will allow artists to submit albums digitally. The AMP aims to recognise the best Australian album of the year with the recipient of the $30,000 prize, donated by the PPCA, judged by a team of industry professionals and stakeholders. Peter Skillman, Director of D-Star’s parent The Shooting Star Picture Company said, “Shooting Star has always been a great supporter of Australian music. Our exclusive arrangement with AIR and all the major Australian label distributors for the delivery of audio tracks via our DMDS audio system, is testament to our commitment. We are absolutely thrilled to have D-Star’s DMDS audio system as the delivery mechanism for The 8th AMP. We look forward to expanding our role in the future.” By abolishing the $55 entry fee this year The AMP are encouraging not just artists and their label/ management teams to enter, but anyone who believes an album is worth consideration. To enter an album through D-Star’s DMDS digital delivery platform, log-in and upload the album, choosing The 8th AMP as the destination. To do this type ‘organisations’ and then select ‘8th AMP’. Head to dstar.dmds.com to familiarise yourself with the website. Otherwise you can send a single physical copy of the record
EASY LISTENING EXPERIMENT FAILING IN NEW RADIO FIGURES New easy listening radio station Smoothfm, which was launched with much bravado in a big million-dollar campaign, has taken a solid hit in the latest Nieslen radio ratings. DMG Australia re-branded the new station from Sydney’s 95.3 and Melbourne’s 91.5 and while only the first three weeks are included in the latest survey, figures are down from the last period. DMG would have hoped for strong figures given the interest-factor for listeners immediately after the re-launch. Smoothfm has most of its on-air talent, including Michael Buble, on weekends, and has enjoyed growth there, but the weekday figures have suffered.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS MUSIC AWARDS LINE-UP ANNOUNCED The full line-up of artists who will be performing at this year’s National Indigenous Music Awards has been announced, with plenty of talent from across a wide range of genres being represented at the event, which hits Darwin this August. Heading up the bill is country star Troy Cassar-Daley, joined by Warren H Williams & The Warumungu Songmen, the previously announced The Medics (who have revealed they will be performing with Bunna Lawrie), Yabu Band and East Journey plus other new additions Sunrize Band and Lajamanu Teenage Band, with the triple j Unearthed winner still to be announced. Nominations for the awards themselves are still open; the public are welcome to nominate their favourite act, song, new talent and Album Of The Year at the awards’ website.
CHANNEL V TOP TWO ANNOUNCED Bridget Hustwaite from Ballarat and Marty Smiley from Melbourne, both 21, have been announced as the top two finalists in the Channel [V] presenter search. The overall winner will be announced 10.30am Saturday 30 June on Channel [V]’s show The Riff.
INDUSTRY WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED Music Victoria, in conjunction with The Push and APRA, have announced a series of industry workshops in July for musicians, industry workers and music fans. The panels will focus on getting your music heard with the myriad of distribution channels now available. The workshops will take place on Tuesday 3 July, Ballarat Mechanics Institute; Thursday 5, Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre; Tuesday 10, Courthouse Arts, Geelong; Thursday 12, Abbotsford Convent. Sessions run from 5pm to 7pm and are free, with Yacht Club DJs’ Gareth Harrison, Sal Kimber, Muscles, The Vasco Era’s Ted O’Neil some of the panellists. For details and to reserve a spot head to musicvictoria.com.au/events/workshops.
FRONTLASH
BACKLASH
Foxtel is offering $10,000 to anyone who can come up with a better chant than “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” before the Olympics. Anyone got a suitable rhyme for “bogan”?
Yes, it’s just a charity game of footy, but the goal ump’s howler that robbed the Megahertz of victory at Saturday’s Community Cup took the shine off the day. Boo to the tightwads arcing up about the $10 entry fee as well. It’s for charity you mean cunts.
GOOD SPORTS
HITTIN’ METH A Prahran street was closed on Monday after someone went all Breaking Bad and transformed their car into a mobile drug lab. Between queuing to top up our Myki, buy coffee and drugs we were an hour late for work.
GAGA OVER GAGGLE We’re digging the new album from 21-piece female choir Gaggle. It’s like Jesus Christ Superstar without the god-bothering. Or John Farnham.
music 10 • INPRESS
to: The 8th AMP/DMDS; 60 Upper Deck, Jones Bay Wharf; Pirrama Road; Pyrmont NSW 2009. Full criteria available at australianmusicprize.com.au.
themusic.com.au
MORE THAN A GAME
BAIL OUT
And a boo to our gutless Vic premier Ted Baillieu, who tried to sneak out details of 3600 job cuts at 5pm last Friday. We can think of one more job cut we’d like to add to that list…
VOICE BREAKS
With four songs in the ARIA top five you’d reckon The Voice puppet masters could be aiming higher for Karise Eden than a tour of Westfield Shopping Centres (Southland 2 July, Fountain Gate 3 July). The next Casey Donovan, anyone?
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS OCEANIA
THE NEW ALBUM OUT NOW TOURING AUSTRALIA THIS JULY FOR SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS + SIDESHOWS 26 JULY - CHALLENGE STADIUM, PERTH 31 JULY - ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, SYDNEY 2 AUG - HISENSE ARENA, MELBOURNE HEAD TO SECRET-SOUNDS.COM.AU FOR TICKETING DETAILS SMASHINGPUMPKINS.COM | CREATE-CONTROL.COM
INPRESS • 11
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
THE PRESETS
WEDNESDAY 27 JUNE
RESIDENCY - FINAL NIGHT
VAN MYER THE BON SCOTTS SINISTER MINISTER ENTRY $8, 8.30PM
THURSDAY 28 JUNE
SARITAH SIMMER
PHOEBE JACOBS ENTRY $15, 9PM $2.50 POTS, $5 VODKAS!
FRIDAY 29 JUNE
EP LAUNCH
THE RED LIGHTS THE NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUTH
JAMES MORRISON AWAKENS
Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos are thrilled to announce new additions to the line-up for the fourth annual Winter Ball fundraiser at the Corner Hotel on Saturday 21 July. This year the dazzling Ms Anna Burley and the debonair Craig Pilkington of Killjoys’ fame will join the line-up, as will Charles’ former partner in crime in the much loved band Icecream Hands – the delightfully swoonful Mr Dougie Lee Robertson. This year’s performers also include Melbourne soul queen Suzannah Espie, rock’n’rolla Joel Silbersher, the fabulously dreamy Orbweavers, new kid Alex Lashlie and surf western genius Mikelangelo. Stunning chanteuse Ms Angie Hart, the ever debonair Jon Von Goes, luxe lady Linda Dacio, bourbon balladeer Cash Savage and the brilliant Pony Face will also decorate the stage on the night along with more to be arranged. Tickets are $25+BF presale or $30 at the door if available and all proceeds go to charity Support Act.
PLAYWRITE TEHACHAPI
SLEEP DANCE BANOFFEE (1/2 OTOUTO) THE TOWNHOUSES SCOTDRAKULA DJ’S ENTRY $10 DOOR, 8.30PM
SUNDAY 1 JULY
ALICE D SLEEPY DREAMERS
RESIDENCY – OPENING NIGHT
ANIMAUX
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUTH GRANSTON DISPLAY ENTRY $8, 8.30PM $10 JUGS!
TUESDAY 3 JULY
RESIDENCY
THE SIMON WRIGHT BAND BIG WORDS DJ BIG KAHUNA BURGER DONATION ENTRY, 9PM $10 JUGS!
COMING UP TIX AVAILABLE THRU MOSHTIX: ANIMAUX (MON IN JULY) THE SIMON WRIGHT BAND (TUE IN JULY) ESTHER HOLT (WED IN JULY) THE PRIMARY – SINGLE LAUNCH (5 JULY) SEX ON TOAST (6 JULY) CROOKED SAINT – SINGLE LAUNCH (7 JULY) HIATUS KAIYOTE (12 JULY) HEROES FOR HIRE (13 JULY) FREESTATE-VIDEO/SINGLE LAUNCH (14 JULY) RHYS CRIMMIN & THE TOMS – ALBUM LAUNCH (15 JULY) HEAVY MAG LAUNCH PARTY (28 JULY)
NIGHTFLIGHT ROUND THREE
Kate Miller-Heidke has announced a string of new dates added to her national Nightflight tour, taking place in August. Following double-platinum sales of her last album (2008’s Curiouser), Nightflight recently debuted at number two on the National ARIA album chart, which has been Miller-Heidke’s highest chart position to date. Nightflight is made up of 11 songs that see Kate meditate on homesickness, mortality, love and surrender, in an album that is both sonically lush and emotionally stark, deeply personal and yet utterly panoramic. Kate Miller-Heidke’s Corner shows on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 are now sold out, so hurry up and buy tickets for the newly added Thursday 16 August show at the same venue. Supporting will be Adelaide band The Beards.
Coming off the back of their big win for Best Indie Rock Artist at the Artists In Music Awards 2012 (Los Angeles), playing to a sold-out crowd at the Key Club in Hollywood and being nominated for Best International Artist at the LA Music Awards, Sydney’s Monks Of Mellonwah are gearing up to release their new EP, Neurogenesis. The EP draws on a range of influences including Led Zeppelin, Foals and Muse, and celebrates a masterful and unique blend of intense space, driving riffs and sharp metaphors, really honing in on those epic moments each listener longs to hear. Check out Monks Of Mellonwah at the Grace Darling on Friday 21 September and on Saturday 22 they play Revolver with Number Station as well as a 2am Pony late show.
FACEBOOK.COM/PAGES/THE-WORKERS-CLUB TWITTER.COM/THEWORKERSCLUB Thurs 28 June
KINGSWOOD
Fri 6 July
DAMN TERRAN MONEY FOR ROPE
THE ART OF SLEEPING (BRIS)
Fri 29 June
Sat 7 July
KINGSWOOD MONEY FOR ROPE DAMN TERRAN Sat 30 June
CLAIRE BIRCHALL & BAND ALI E MSG (MIA SCHOEN GROUP) Sun 1 July
DAMO SUZUKI (JPN) WITH NIKO NIKO THE PAUL KIDNEY EXPERIENCE THE KUMIKO SEX BAND Thurs 5 July
I AM GIANT (NZ) VOLYTION BELLUSIRA
12 • INPRESS
LANEGAN TO OPEN DING DONG
Parklife 2012 premieres the long awaited return of Australian electronic royalty The Presets. Armed with a new anthem Youth In Trouble, a new album (released September 2012) and a brand new live show, The Presets’ return will be massive, bold and electrifying on the Parklife stage. Joining them will be the likes of Tame Impala, Nero Live, Passion Pit, Plan B, Justice (DJ set), Ruskom, Tame Impala, Chiddy Bang, Robyn, DJ Fresh, Chairlift, Labrinth, Jacques Lu Cont, Benga Live, Citizens!, Wiley, Parachute Youth, Jack Beats Live, St Lucia, Hermitude, Art Department, Modestep, Charli Xcx, Rizzle Kicks, Lee Foss, Flume, Alison Wonderland and Softwar (East Coast only), with more to be announced. From electro to indie-pop to dubstep to hip hop to house, there’s something for everyone at this year’s Parklife.
SATURDAY 30 JUNE
MONDAY 2 JULY
NOT MONKING AROUND
PRESETS FOR PARKLIFE
THE CORSAIRS TULLY ON TULLY ENTRY $10 DOOR, 9PM
STONED MAGGOTS AMANITA ENTRY $6, 8.30PM
WINTER’S BALLS
After entrancing a lucky audience at his outstanding sold-out performance in Sydney earlier this year, James Morrison has announced a national East Coast tour in support of his third album, The Awakening. The tour will see the Englishman (who has sold 4.5 million copies of his three critically acclaimed records and scored a Brit award for Best Male Artist following his debut in 2007) perform crowd favourites including I Won’t Let You Go, You Make It Real and the song that started it all, You Give Me Something. Joining Morrison on tour will be Kiwi songstress Gin Wigmore and Canberran folk-pop singer Ashleigh Mannix. The Melbourne show’s happening at the Forum Theatre on Wednesday 26 September.
THEM SWOOPS SECOND HAND HEART
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Ding Dong Lounge officially reopens on Friday 6 July. They’ll be open late every night of the week showcasing some of the best live talent Australia has to offer. Keeping in the tradition of great acts that have graced the Ding Dong stage, Mark Lanegan, who you may know from Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age or The Gutter Twins, will be returning to Australia for the second time this year to play two shows before taking off to Europe for a festival tour. His first show on Friday 6 July (with Fraser A Gorman in support) is sold out and there are limited tickets left for the second show on Sunday 8 July (with Mike Noga supporting).
Thurs 26 July
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WE ROB BANKS (EP LAUNCH)
themusic.com.au
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INPRESS â&#x20AC;˘ 13
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
INPRESS PRESENTS
WAR PATH
BIG KAHUNAS
After hitting the road for more than two months, playing 30+ shows to sold-out crowds supporting Boy & Bear, The Jungle Giants aren’t ready to slow down. They’ll be packing up the tour van and hitting the tarmac to celebrate the release of their forthcoming EP She’s A Riot. The Jungle Giants will be causing a ruckus on the aptly named She’s A Riot tour and you can join in on Friday 10 August at the Northcote Social Club.
TOBY MARTIN COMES OUT FROM THE SHADOW
Toby Martin will play a special solo show at the Workers Club on Saturday 28 July to celebrate the release of his debut solo album Love’s Shadow. Following ten years and four albums with rock band Youth Group, the singer/ songwriter has stepped out to share a new collection of songs that see him foreground the aspect of his writing focussed on what might be termed ‘character’ songs: the interior thoughts of impressionisticallysketched protagonists. Since Youth Group played their last show in Brooklyn in 2009, Martin has played a handful of solo shows; a residency at Sydney’s Low Bar and New York’s The Living Room, as opener for Seeker Lover Keeper, and with legendary bands The Triffids and Glide at special tribute shows. Expect to hear songs from Love’s Shadow as well as some Youth Group favourites at Toby Martin’s show.
MISTY-EYED
Having departed Fleet Foxes in 2011 after three years on the drum stool, Joshua Tillman celebrates the release of his debut album Fear Fun under the new moniker of Father John Misty with a trip down under for Splendour In The Grass and a couple of sideshows. Having released solo material since 2003, Tillman’s voice has never been better, while the music maintains a gloomy, secretive and yet conversely playful quality. Lyrically, his absurdist fever dreams of pain and pleasure elicit, in equal measures, the blunt descriptive power of Bukowski or Brautigan, the hedonist-philosophy of Oscar Wilde and the dried-out wit of Loudon Wainwright III. Joining Tillman at his Corner show on Saturday 28 July will be guests Joe McKee and The Trouble With Templeton.
JUSTINE CLARKE POPS UP
Australia’s foremost female children’s entertainer, Justine Clarke, is preparing for a pre-Christmas treat in Justine Clarke’s Pop Up Tour 2012. Clarke will bring the stage to life in a pop-up book theme highlighting the stories we tell through music and song. It will also include a musical reading of her first book The Gobbledygook Is Eating A Book, due for release in late October. Through live music, the magic of story telling and an interactive use of the large screen backdrop, young audiences will be thoroughly engaged with this 55-minute musical odyssey of fun. Get your tickets to the Saturday 15 December show at Dallas Brooks Centre to see Clarke showcase the best of her tunes.
OUT OF THE SHOEBOX
Good songs keep. If they’re made right they’ll see your kids grow and mourn the passing of old friends. The ten songs on Dakota Avenue have done both without leaving a shoebox under Sherry Rich’s bed. After ten years, it’s time they met the big old world they were made for. Dakota Avenue is out now on Pandora Mink Records and Rich will launch it on Saturday 14 July at the Caravan Music Club.
JACKSON’S HISTORY
The world’s number one Michael Jackson impersonator is coming to Australia, touring nationally from Friday 17 August in Melbourne. A thrilling spectacular, Michael Jackson HIStory II is the musical biography of the greatest pop icon in history, in a brand new production. The show hits Her Majesty’s Theatre on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 August. Tickets via Ticketek, get in quick. 14 • INPRESS
MELLOW YELLOW
Kirin J Callinan launches his new 7” single, W II W (Way To War), with a full live band, at the Siberia Records-curated All Night Takeover By Force at the Tote this Thursday 28 June, supported by DCM, Machine, Forces DJs, Juggernauts DJs and Kangaroo Skull playing a late night set. Taken from his forthcoming full-length album, W II W launches with an amazing gif-laden video by acclaimed director Kris Moyes. W II W and its accompanying B-side Thighs, the thematically related, lustful and deluded tale of a sexual predator, were digitally released worldwide on 19 June and will be available on on 7” vinyl on 31 July. A limited number of pre-release 7”s will be available at the launch.
You’ve Been In My Mind is the new album from Dave Graney & The Mistly (aka The Lurid Yellow Mist) – an album of short, whip-smart pop-rock songs with lashings of ideas, flash, wit and bounce. It features Dave Graney on electric 12-string guitar, Stuart Perera on blazing left-handed Rickenbacker, Clare Moore on drums and Stu Thomas on bass, with everybody singing too. To celebrate the launch, Graney and band will play Friday 27 July at the Regal Ballroom with support from Matt Walker and Adele & Glenn.
WATCH SASKWATCH
Continuing an enormous year to date – with appearances at Golden Plains and Falls Festival, supports for Earth, Wind & Fire, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Maceo Parker, on top of overflowing residencies at Cherry Bar’s Soul Thursdays – Saskwatch are proud to announce very special shows in celebration of their third 7” single, Your Love. Your Love is the second single to be lifted from Saskwatch’s upcoming debut long-player Leave It All Behind due out this August. The opening show will go down at the newly renovated Ding Dong Lounge on Friday 20 July.
NOTHING FROM NO ONE
From three separate nations comes the mosh bill of the year. The Nothing From No One Australian tour this August will see Auckland’s Antagonist AD, easily one of the most respected bands in the international hardcore community, cross the ditch for their first national run for the year. Cali metalcore outfit Lionheart join them, making their Australian live debut. As one of the most promising Australian heavy bands on the scene, Sydney’s Shinto Katana provide a solid local grounding to the stellar triple bill. Greater than the sum of its parts, the Nothing From No One Australian tour is stacked up to be the metalcore bill of the year. It comes to Bang on Saturday 11, Phoenix Youth Centre (all-ages) on Sunday 12 and Bendigo’s Musicman Megastore (all-ages) on Tuesday 14 August.
PARTY HARD
Northeast Party House have been progressing very nicely indeed since winning triple j Unearthed back in 2010 and their latest stellar achievement is their new single Pascal Cavalier, which has just recently been unleashed and will be available digitally from Friday 13 July. Of course the band – renowned for pretty damn exciting live performances – wouldn’t just release it and not do anything about it, they’ll be out there playing killer live shows like their goddamn lives depend upon it. Audiences have seen them at Falls and Pyramid Rock as well as supporting the likes of Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Go! Team and Kimbra, but the band take the East Coast as their own next month. They play the Corner Hotel on Friday 13 July with City Calm Down, I Oh You DJs and Diamond.
CARTEL FOR ALL AGES
An additional show has just been announced for Atlanta-based pop-punk quartet Cartel. The allages show will be held on Sunday 16 September at Lilydale Showgrounds, and the first 50 pre-sales will receive a free Cartel tour poster upon entry. Tickets to the Evelyn show on Thursday 13 and Ferntree Gully Hotel show on Saturday 15 September are still available. Joining the bill will be Melbourne upstarts We Rob Banks, who are hitting the road in support of their debut EP, The House Of Gonzo.
MEN’S BUSINESS
I, A Man have quickly become known for their textual washy guitar sounds teamed with layered arrangements and dreamy melodies. They have garnered respect amongst their peers and gathered a strong local following with their honest but polished live show, helping them grace some of the best stages over the past six months. The next single The Scene Route continues with the trademark dulcet vocals of Daniel Moss with the jangly guitars and hypnotic drum beats you would expect. They’re playing Thursday 19 July at Beav’s Bar (Geelong), Saturday 21 at Ding Dong Lounge and Sunday 29 at Pure Pop Records.
themusic.com.au
IT’S THE APOCALYPTICA
Twenty years from inception, Apocalyptica, one of the biggest names in European metal, are finally touring Australia for the first time. Combining classical nuance with brutal breakdowns, this fantastic Finnish four-piece are quintessential Eurock with a difference. They are metal, with cellists. Their most recent album, 7th Symphony, features guests vocalists including Gavin Rossdale (Bush), Brent Smith (Shinedown), Joe Duplantier (Gojira) and Diane Warren (Award winning songwriter for artists like Aerosmith, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion). 7th Symphony has been touted as the band’s most inspired release to date, with equal emphasis on beautiful melodies and heavy, bombastic rhythms. Don’t miss them when the play at the Hi-Fi on Saturday 1 September.
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
DEVO
FOREWORD LINE
PLUTO RETURNS
Sydney-based laptop poster Pluto Jonze is back with his new single, See What The Sun Sees. Having hit the scene running in 2011 with his debut EP, Pluto Jonze has not had any time to look back. He has become known for his genre-melting tunes and explosive live show, having shared the stage with the likes of Buck 65, The Jezabels, Jinja Safari and Cub Scouts to name a few. Following up on his summer smash, Plastic Bag In A Hurricane, the new single can best be described as a psychedelic space calypso nursery rhyme wrapped up in the warm embrace of a pop song. To celebrate its release, Pluto Jonze and band will be hitting the road this July with a lusher than ever arsenal of new songs and even more retro gadgetry. Jonze plays the Workers Club Friday 13 July with guests The Townhouses and Readable Graffiti.
DEVOTEES AND SIMPLE MINDS
They defined a generation, are revered by critics and adored by fans. In an epic career spanning 30 years and more than 60 million albums sold, Simple Minds travelled from the streets of Glasgow to become one of the world’s biggest bands, with a musical majesty that still inspires awe. Devo’s pioneering sound, style and philosophy had a profound effect on the new wave movement. Influential, subversive and downright entertaining, Devo’s cult status quickly spread to the mainstream. In what promises to be one of the most captivating tours of the year, Simple Minds and Devo will perform at the Palais on Friday 29 November as well as A Day On The Green at Rochford Wines in Yarra Valley on Saturday 1 December. Joining them, and adding another highlight to savour, will be some of Australia’s finest, The Church.
THUG LIFE
POPPIN’ AND ROCKIN’
Get your dancing shoes on and your hips shaking for when Cherry Poppin’ Daddies return to Australia for yet more swingin’ good times. Brian Setzer hit big with his Orchestra, David Johansen created an entire alternative career as Buster Poindexter, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy fine-tuned the genre and even Bjork had a go with It’s Oh So Quiet becoming her biggest hit, but nobody does swing rock’n’roll as well as the guys who came up with the idea in the first place: Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. You can catch The Daddies break out their signature foottapping mixture of ska, rock and swing, featuring ear popping horns, big guitars and pop-rivet drums, on Monday 5 November at the Corner.
With over 20 sold-out Australian shows under their belt, Grammy Award-winning hip hop legends Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone from Bone Thugs N Harmony are returning to Australia with a line-up of shows. With over 30 million albums sold worldwide, and tracks recorded with some of the most respected names in the business including 2Pac, Notorious BIG, and Mariah Carey to name but a few, Bone Thugs N Harmony are one of the most popular hip hop groups of all time, and continue to have a cult following to this day. Catch Bone Thugs N Harmony plus guests on Thursday 20 September in the Espy Gershwin Room. Tickets are $39+BF and are on sale through espy.com.au and all Oztix outlets.
FIVESIES
Maroon 5 are rewarding eager fans by returning to Australia for a whirlwind tour with special guests Evermore and The Cab, taking in Sydney and Melbourne for two very special and exclusive shows. Since their last Australian tour the threetime Grammy Award-winning band have seen their popularity grow to new heights with their latest number one single Payphone (featuring American rapper Wiz Khalifa) storming the airwaves and clubs. Don’t miss your chance to catch Maroon 5 and their very special guests as they play an all-ages show on Friday 12 October at Rod Laver Arena.
DEFEATER BLACKLISTED
In what could be one of the worst kept secrets of 2012 we can now confirm Massachusetts band Defeater will indeed be returning to Australia this September just over a year since they were here last. Defeater will be joined by none other than Philadelphia’s ever evolving Blacklisted, touring Australia for the first time since 2008. Defeater are a band that play by their own rules; they write narrative songs about fictional characters, release concept albums and mix melodic hardcore with acoustic ballads. They play Thursday 27 September at the Corner Hotel and Friday 28 at TLC (Bayswater, all-ages).
SHIMMER & SHINE
SHOOTING STAR
Mikelangelo is heading off to the UK with the Famous Spiegeltent where he’ll play upward of 40 shows during the Edinburgh Festival. There is a huge farewell show at the Regal Ballroom on Friday 20 July featuring The Tin Star, St Clare and more. This will be the last Tin Star show for some time as they will get down to recording their next album when Mikelangelo returns from Europe.
Alpine are six friends from Melbourne who make bold, twinkling, sophisticated pop music. Their debut almost-self-titled record is a collection of vibrant songs that shimmer and shine with colourful harmonies and inventive melodies. Alpine traverse diverse themes, ideas and sounds on the album, always assured, but never quite taking themselves too seriously. Alpine’s album tour sees them pairing up with Melbourne’s Clubfeet and Perth’s Georgi Kay at the Corner Hotel on Saturday 8 September.
RACE-ISM
Chook Race are back! But they didn’t actually go. Well, one did. She’s coming back as another is leaving but not before a Homecoming & Going show at the Liberty Social on Friday 6 July. Canberra’s kings of the capital Fighting League, delinquents Ausmuteants and Popolice join them to say sayonara.
CLEAN FACES
Though these three boys were (and still are) clean shaven, for reasons unknown they named themselves The Bearded Gypsy Band. Fresh from touring the country and from performances at the Illawarra Folk Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, WOMADelaide, Brunswick Music Festival, National Folk Festival and the Apollo Bay Music Festival, The Bearded Gypsy Band will be hitting the stage at the Espy to pump out some original pulsing gypsy dance tunes. Catch The Bearded Gypsy Band plus guest Max Savage on Thursday 5 July in the Espy front bar.
SMASHING
Children Collide’s third studio album Monument was released to barrage audiences a few weeks ago. Children Collide will take to the road to bring fans a hefty chunk of their new record on their Monument tour. Drumming duties on this tour will be undertaken by good mate, Melbourne local and former Dardanelles drummer Mitch McGregor. Another big announcement from the Children Collide camp is the news that frontman Johnny Mackay has relocated to NYC where he is setting up home base and writing new material. They play the Corner on Friday 10 August, Yahoo Bar (Shepparton) on Friday 7 September and the Bended Elbow (Geelong) on Saturday 8.
ANTEBELLUM SECOND MELBOURNE SHOW Australia is the final stop on Lady Antebellum’s headlining Own The Night 2012 world tour that has sold over 900,000 tickets across the globe and seen sold-out shows in the US, Canada and Europe. Due to overwhelming demand, LA have added an extra Melbourne show to their schedule. In addition to their sold-out Palais Theatre Tuesday 25 September show, they’ll play the same venue on Wednesday 26. Tickets go on sale this Friday through Ticketmaster.
RED EYES
After an extended hiatus following touring in support of their 2009 self-titled studio album, this August will mark the triumphant return of Behind Crimson Eyes to stages across Australia. After almost a decade as one of Australia’s premier live acts, the Melbourne mainstays are returning to the touring circuit with a run of intimate club appearances in some of the same venues the band played while touring behind their earlier records. Tickets for all shows are available on the door only, so be sure to mark this date in your calendar to avoid disappointment. They play Thursday 30 August at Next.
EAST MEETS WEST
Harry Manx has been dubbed an “essential link” between the music of East and West, creating musical short stories that wed the tradition of the blues with the depth of classical Indian ragas. His unique sound is bewitching and deliciously addictive to listen to. Reserved seating for Harry Manx’s show at the Caravan Music Club this Thursday has now sold out. If you want to catch this string-instrument maestro, you’d be advised to get in quick.
themusic.com.au
INPRESS • 15
BUSINESS TIME
YELLOW FEVER
It’s every entertainer’s greatest dream to be immortalised in yellow on The Simpsons and for the Flight Of The Conchords, this aspiration came true back in 2010 when they starred in the episode, Elementary School Musical, dominating proceedings with scene-stealing roles as counsellors at a performing arts camp attended by Lisa.
On the eve of Flight Of The Conchords’ inaugural Australian headlining tour, the taller of the Kiwi duo, Jermaine Clement, promises Steve Bell that the incessant Aussie bashing of their TV show is all in jest and that they really do love their neighbours.
Y
ou can call the guys from Flight Of The Conchords many things, but you certainly can’t question their courage. They may have moved up in the world since their years spent as New Zealand’s self-proclaimed ‘fourth most popular folk-parody duo’ – a swag of shared awards including a Grammy, as well as individual accolades including an Oscar for Bret McKenzie and an Emmy nomination for his partner-in-crime Jermaine Clement would surely attest that they’ve climbed a few rungs on that particular pecking order – but the pair haven’t been to Australia since their eponymous TV show became a massive worldwide smash, debuting on US comedy giant HBO in 2007 and wrapping up two years later, having made the pair virtually household names on a global scale. But it’s not just the tyranny of distance that makes their imminent live tour of Australia so daunting for the cocky Kiwis; they’re more concerned about how they’re going to live down the incessant Aussie bashing and anti-Australian rhetoric that liberally littered their TV show. Who can forget characters like conniving Aussie sheila Keitha, the cloyingly smug Australian diplomat Maxwell or the montage of the Conchords guys flipping the bird at the Australian Embassy in New York (where Flight Of The Conchords is based), a cross-Tasman rivalry best summed up by their description of Australians in the first series as a “bunch of cocky a-holes descended from criminals and retarded monkeys.” Them sounds like fighting words... “We do not hate the Aussies!” Clement roars laughingly when confronted about their treatment of our nation on the small screen. “Although when we were doing the show – because we have a quite a few Aussie jokes – we did get a bit worried. We were worried about how it would be received, but in general Australians have taken to it with great humour. We thought we’d be ostracised in both New Zealand – for how we made New Zealanders appear – and Australia, and we’d have to live on an island. We’re coming over to apologise for all of the terrible stereotypes we purported. We’re just going to apologise profusely and then leave. “But you know what I find the funniest thing – with all the Australian characters we had we did play around with them a bit, but we always made you guys the winners. We were always the losers. But when Australians make fun of New Zealanders it’s always the same way around too – you guys are the winners and New Zealanders are the losers. So we’re just kidding.”
The Flight Of The Conchords’ quest for contrition finds them returning to their roots, performing live and relying primarily on their hilariously whimsical songs to offset the duo’s naively stunted ‘fish out of water’ worldview and twisted inter-personal relationship. It’s how they started performing in their native Wellington back in the late-‘90s, building up the premise to the point where they were offered a BBC2 radio show in the UK in 2004, which in turn was tweaked to form the basis of their riotous TV series. “Yeah, except our shows when we started were very much like our shows in the TV show – there were hardly any people,” Clement chuckles. “They were more dedicated than in the TV show – we had fans, but they would fit on two couches that would be at the front of the venue. I remember Bret’s dad seeing us early on and saying, ‘You guys are world class!’ and I laughed at him. I thought, ‘That’s a nice dad! That’s a nice thing for a dad to say about his son’s stupid band!’” The ‘Conchords relied on this marriage of music and comedy from the get-go, but in the beginning each brought a particular skill set to the table. “We were just learning guitar, so it was mainly about learning how to play a guitar,” Clement smirks of the pair’s early material. “Actually, at my first gig I was so nervous that I couldn’t move my hand! I’d done comedy stuff before but no music and Bret had done music before but no comedy. Fortunately Bret – having played music gigs before – was confident enough to move his hands, so some sound came out. “We met doing comedy stuff – theatre stuff – in Wellington. Our first songs were just weird songs; they didn’t necessarily have jokes, they were usually about people dying and stuff. I think our very first song was actually the French one that we still do sometimes, Foux Du Fafa, which wasn’t about anything – we just wanted to sound like Serge Gainsbourg. Most of that song only has two chords and then Bret wrote some more chords to go on the end of the song. “Our first gig, we were doing auditions and stuff and Bret was playing in several bands. We were both really poor – we were flatting together – and then a friend of mine got a job booking comedy at a local club. It was the only comedy night in Wellington – it was once a week – and he said, ‘Do you want to be the band at this comedy gig?’ so we did that. Our songs had a few jokes in them [at the outset] and we just got more and more jokes, until eventually it was all jokes almost. But we were never serious, we were always doing stuff that amused ourselves at least and then eventually we started doing stuff to try and amuse others as well as ourselves.”
And amuse others they did, with the duo’s two albums to date – 2008’s Flight Of The Conchords and 2009’s I Told You I Was Freaky – being released on seminal US indie Sub Pop to much acclaim. Now, after years spent making the TV series and some serious forays into the film world – most recently McKenzie worked as music supervisor for The Muppets movie, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for his tune, Man Or Muppet, while Clement stars as the lead villain in Men In Black 3 – the pair are looking forward to once more treading the boards. “When we’re well-rehearsed and everything, it’s the easiest and the funnest and the most interesting thing to do. It’s strange doing really big venues now though. Plus people know all the words now. Last time we toured was about two years ago, in Europe mostly. The biggest one we’ve done is Hollywood Bowl: it’s a massive leap going from ten people in downtown Wellington to playing to 15,000 people at Hollywood Bowl – mostly doing the same stuff! That was so exciting. Usually we’re pretty blasé; it’s really great touring but it’s not like we get amped every show or anything like that, but that time we were actually running around pretending to be rock stars and talking in our stupid rock stars voices, which is like this [approximates grizzled old rocker], ‘Alright, Hollywood!’ That was before the show, before we’d even started! “We used to do that a little bit when we first started doing shows in Wellington, sometimes we’d do this joke and put on these rock star personas before we’d go on and once I did it so much that I lost my voice. It was like the time where Bret had to cover with the guitar, except this time he had to cover with all the singing – I could only talk in a very weak, very distant-sounding freaky voice. “So some things are the same [as the old days], just the amount of people is different. And we get paid now! We used to get paid for those little gigs, but it would just cover the guitar strings that we’d bought for the show, so we’d break even.” With all of this recent film work under their collective belts there’s been strong talk of a Flight Of The Conchords movie in the offing. “Yeah, if we come up with one,” Clement smiles of the prospect of a movie project. “It’s the same as with songs – we only do it if we come up with it. If we don’t come up an idea for it, we won’t do it. But it probably won’t be [a continuation of the TV series], although we’d probably use the same cast. Like Monty Python I guess, where the movies aren’t really related to their TV show. But that’s only because we’ve talked about three stupid ideas so far: ‘What if
“It was a great experience,” Clement marvels. “The best bit was when we did the read-through, we were both in Wellington and at that time we actually lived about two blocks away from each other – coincidentally, we didn’t plan it, it’s just a small town – and so we were both on the phone, me at one end of the street and Bret at the other – and we were on the line to LA and they were all reading the script. It was pretty exciting really, but I had the wrong script and didn’t realise… I had an old version, I was looking on my computer and then I noticed that the lines were different so I was trying to find the updated file before I had my line. But they were all doing the voices and Dan Castellaneta had scenes where he was playing both Homer and Krusty the Clown talking together and listening to that on the phone was pretty amazing. He just switches between them so quickly, it really does sound like there are two people. “Then we went to LA and recorded it with Yeardley Smith. The funniest thing was that a whole bunch of the writers turned up and I don’t know if they were just stroking our egos, but they said, ‘This never happens! The only time all of the writers have turned up before was for U2!’ Makes sense though really...” we’re in medieval times? What if we’re astronauts?’ We haven’t even thought of one really where it’s, ‘What if we continue on from the TV show?’” Irrespective of where their movie project takes them, Clement won’t be bringing too much of his experience filming Men In Black 3 to the table. “I haven’t seen it, but it was a really weird experience, because it was such a different scale – it’s just massively huge,” he recalls. “Both Bret and I would talk often when he was working on The Muppets and I was working on Men In Black about how it’s really hard going from being the boss to not being the boss. It’s really hard for me – I would just tell Will Smith alternative story lines the whole time and he was so sick of me! And the director too! I’d go up to him and go, ‘What about this? What about this, Barry? I’ve got an idea for this!’ When we do Conchords, if I say that everyone just has to make it happen, as long as I get Bret to agree, but it’s a bit different in Hollywood. I don’t think I learnt that until I was thinking about it in retrospect; ‘Oh, they were really sick of me for suggesting things.’ I don’t want to spoil anything, but generally bad guys in movies don’t get the call up for the next sequel anyway, so it’s not the end of the world.” And despite all of their massive success so far, Flight Of The Conchords aren’t really getting ahead of themselves – they’re not even all that surprised at how well things are going. “No, when we were starting out and playing small clubs we were thinking, ‘Why aren’t we really successful? We’re handsome, we can play guitar, sort of...’” Clement deadpans. “I think we had delusions of grandeur even then and they just happened to come true.” WHO: Flight Of The Conchords WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 14 July, The Plenary; Sunday 15, Rod Laver Arena
STOP THE PRESS “We hang out together, we go out, we rehearse together – we don’t actually have any other friends,” World’s End Press frontman John Parkinson confesses, laughing, to Bryget Chrisfield. “Wait, we’re socially retarded!”
I
t’s been a while between releases for World’s End Press, their last being the most excellent Faithful EP, put out at the end of 2010, which was produced by Cornel Wilczek (aka Qua). “He did the job on that one,” WEP frontman John Parkinson reminds. “He’s a lovely chap and I think he’s one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met. He’s a workhorse.” The wait for the band’s debut album continues. “The album itself obviously won’t come out for a while. I think it’s gonna be um, well, dare I say it,” Parkinson hesitates. “Next year? We will be releasing stuff during the year from the album but, I dunno, I think it’s just more like we haven’t released an album for so long we might as well get this one right. “We’re actually just about to go overseas and record it, ‘cause we’ve got all the songs ready. We’re hopefully gonna do it the classic, old-school way of going somewhere completely isolated with no distractions, living together and recording it. Only because we haven’t got the signature on the dotted line, I can’t actually say who it’s with but I can say that it’s overseas and it’s gonna be in a remote…” Area of England? “England, yes. Oh well, Wales in particular.” When asked how he’s gonna manage when reading Welsh street signs, Parkinson chuckles, “Yeah, the street signs are longer than the streets! But a lovely turn of phrase, the Welsh people have.” So how long are World’s End Press planning on spending abroad? “Four weeks. We’re gonna try and get all the tracking done within the month.”
times, but Rhys has always been there with us and only sort of in the last two years have we had the unchangeable bunch of friends that are playing in World’s End Press now, which is just the four of us.” The other two permanent members are bassist Sashi Dharann and drummer Tom Gould and Parkinson adds, “It’s just this absolute connection in what we’re doing. We hang out together, we go out, we rehearse together – we don’t actually have any other friends, haha. Wait, we’re socially retarded.” WHO: World’s End Press WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Corner Hotel
An example springs to mind of how a lengthy span between releases doesn’t necessarily negatively influence its performance – Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, released March 2008, which shot to number one in the ARIA Singles Chart despite dropping almost four years after its predecessor, Bright Like Neon Love, released April 2004. “That’s what we want from something that’s taken us so long to make – that it kinda resonates,” Parkinson observes. “And we’re reaching a time where the live performance is probably more valuable than releases, so we’re not really worried. Nothing good’s ever really made in a rush.” You don’t want to settle for near enough, because then you’re stuck with the finished product for life. “Yeah, it follows you everywhere,” Parkinson agrees. On their latest single, Second Day Uptown, World’s End Press worked with Cutters frontman Dan Whitford. Are there likely to be more collaborative/production credits for Whitford on the forthcoming debut longplayer from WEP? “No, that was just on the single we’ve just released. He and us went off to this fairly enchanted space in Melbourne – it’s this warehouse a few friends have and it’s used for all sorts of storage purposes, but in the middle of all this clutter there’s a little place where recording stuff’s set up and, yeah! That’s where we recorded together. We actually did three songs together with the idea that we were only gonna use one and we just decided that Second Day Uptown would be a good starting point. Something good to set the palette.” So was this warehouse the same as the one Cut Copy recorded Zonoscope in? “No, not that one. It’s literally smack-bang in the middle of the CBD – sort of off Flinders Lane, a bit further towards Queen Street way. It’s a secret, maybe I should keep it under wraps [laughs].” Sounds like Parkinson should move in there permanently. “It would get really cold I ‘spose, ‘cause the ceilings are really high. It’s not very homely, but, the part that we used, a few friends of ours have made it very, very warm and friendly, lots of pictures on the wall, rugs hanging everywhere – there’s a vibe there, a very nice one.” The last time this scribe caught World’s End Press live was as part of the lineup that played the opening night of Melbourne Music Week at the temporary riverside venue KUBIK, on the banks of the Yarra. “That was good,” Parkinson recalls. “It would’ve been awesome if the cube changed colours, that would’ve been nice, but the thing looked amazing and we had fun.” The “thing” of which Parkinson speaks was an enclosure built from large, plastic, water-filled cubes with the potential to glow, change colours and pulse with light. “We played at the start of [Melbourne Music Week] and they were warming up to this frenzy of colours at the end of the week. I think I walked past it a week later and the whole thing was just like Tron or something – a multi-coloured, kind of technicoloured paradise – but for us it was just these soft blue lights. But that’s okay, we got to play in this futuristic sort of space capsule.” The crowd went wild. So much so, it looked suspiciously like rent-a-crowd. “We do definitely encourage that kind of behaviour at our shows. It sort of feels a bit wrong if there’s not people who are up for it – or if people are not really outwardly responding, but they might be appreciating. But I suppose when you’re up on the stage you need big gestures coming from the audience, as much as you’re giving [laughs].” Recalling the band’s first-ever gig, Parkinson laughs: “Well, let’s not mention where our first gig was.” And then artfully changes the subject when asked to elaborate. “Um, ah, I formed the band with Rhys [Richards, synths/electronics] years and years ago, like, probably even ten years ago when we were in school. ‘Cause we started playing music together in Year Eight and we were in the same music class from about Year Nine to, well, through to the end of school. We’ve been around in Melbourne for quite a while, changing lineups a few
themusic.com.au
INPRESS • 17
ARABIAN NIGHTS Prolific NZ musician and all-round good guy Lawrence Arabia explains to Stuart Evans that slaving away is easy, if you’re doing something you love.
H
ow many did a double-take and wondered what Lawrence Of Arabia is doing in a music magazine? A few, perhaps. Blame it on that little word ‘of’, which in this instance is an omitted preposition. New Zealand musician James Milne, also known as Lawrence Arabia (note the missing ‘of’), gets that a lot. “I wanted to have a more mystical name as I’m generally a shy person, but I like to take on new personalities. Part of the joke was that Arabia was my surname,” he laughs. It’s also a brave move to adopt the namesake of Lawrence of Arabia, although luckily for Milne there are parallels. Both are charming, both are talented and both are prolific, albeit in different realms. Milne has plied his musical tools since 2003 and dropped his self-titled debut album in 2006. Milne’s also the frontman for New Zealand band The Reduction
Agents, which also released an album, The Dance Reduction Agents, in 2006. The Reduction Agents had two songs appear in the cult Kiwi movie, Eagle Vs Shark, which starred fellow Kiwi stalwart Jermaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords fame. The abovementioned albums were also co-released by Milne’s own Lil’ Chief Records and Honorary Bedouin Records. “Being the record label boss and the act certainly has its pros and cons,” he admits. “Managing time is the biggest challenge that I face.” Milne admits that he is a man driven by busyness. Internationally, Milne’s known for his work with successful pop outing The Brunettes. He’s also toured with American band Okkervil River, playing bass guitar. Yet despite his collaborations and partnerships, Milne’s preference is still to work solo and focus on his ‘one-man band’ approach. “When you’re in a band you’re really performing a role. Fronting a band also comes with more angst, but when I get the chance to work with talented friends I’ll jump at it. I’m very lucky to be involved with artistic people and lucky that I can continue to work with those people as well as focusing on my own work. I have a few projects happening and like to keep myself busy by spreading myself across lots of projects. It’s good to look for opportunities.” Milne has certainly put himself out there on display in recent years. Aside from touring, he’s won awards back in his native homeland and has tightened his own sound. Of course, flying solo comes with additional responsibilities, including signing off on the finished product. “It can also be harder to write and record on your own as you’re responsible for every decision.” He is also his own worst enemy. “I am generally harsh with myself and am always evaluating what I do well and what I don’t do well. There’s something different when I’m the only one recording tracks, but it’s probably due to me evaluating and being critical.” Yet he appears to thrive despite the additional responsibilities and pressures that come with working unaccompanied. Still, despite his achievements and successes, it’s been an ongoing learning curve for Milne. He reckons the music industry is in a constant state of flux and is an industry that doesn’t always know how to lead. “The music industry is terrified to innovate,” he says bluntly. “I try to do most things myself and avoid corporate intrusion, although it’s important to acknowledge that other people can help.”
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Not that money is in short supply. The music business may have been slow to react to the digital age and the transformation of music purchasing habits, but Milne reckons consumers’ demands for music has remained. “Things are shifting as they tend to do in music. The way that money is distributed and shared continues to change and is something that most are still learning about.” The softly-spoken Kiwi is indeed a talented bloke. He’s produced music for stage and film and his latest bit of drudgery is The Sparrow, his third solo album and a response to his 2010 award-winning Chant Darling. Milne says that The Sparrow was written largely as he toured. “I wrote some of it in a back of a van and in-between shows,” he laughs.
12-13 SEPT 2012 FORTITUDE VALLEY BRISBANE
There’s more to this story on the iPad Where Chant Darling was harmonious and had a sly nod to popular culture, The Sparrow harks back to the musical era of the late ‘60s. Chant Darling spawned the FM hit, Apple Pie Bed, a record that remains notoriously hard to classify regardless of its catchy hooks and rhythm. Rhythm and soul are still prevalent right across The Sparrow, even if Milne has opted for a more minimalistic approach. The witty pop elements can be heard throughout; they’re just harder to find. “I feel The Sparrow is more atmospheric than my previous work.” However, in spite of songs being written on-the-move and in the back of a van, Milne says that the songwriting process was still fraught with frustration. “You always have a goal to record songs by a certain timeframe, but you can’t force it, and it can be frustrating. There wasn’t a magical explosion where all songs were written in one go.”
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He started to work on material for the album back in 2010, whilst on tour with another one of his bands, The Prime Ministers. He was in London for most of the songwriting, hunkering down in a mate’s studio to record the album. “Most of the basic tracks for The Sparrow were recorded live and I got friends to play certain parts. The process was really enjoyable and once the atmosphere was captured it felt destined to have some magic to it.” With his progressive and innovative musical direction, including numerous bands, guises and ventures with running record labels, there remains something old-fashioned and traditional about Milne. He’s a modernist with ears always flapping for what occurred yesteryear. Little wonder he’s often described as a connoisseur of classic songwriting that’s inspired by the sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s West Coast movement. He laughs, “I’m very sceptical of trends and never feel compelled to follow a trend. I’m not really a fashionable person and I listen to a lot of older stuff.” The older stuff he refers to includes The Beatles, which was a recurring sound in the Milne household. “I grew up in a family that listen to that kind of music. There are modern records that have helped give me confidence that good stuff can be made.” WHO: Lawrence Arabia WHAT: The Sparrow (Spunk/Cooperative) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 4 July, Toff In Town
18 • INPRESS
themusic.com.au
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INPRESS â&#x20AC;¢ 19
CHARGING ON Frontman for cinematic-pop band Charge Group, Matt Blackman tells Dave Drayton about their place in Australia’s spoonfed music industry and their self-titled latest album.
T
here’s a term that, for all its negative connotations – those potentially of self-importance, of fretwankery and the like – is actually more innocuously endearing. The term is a ‘musicians’ band’, a term that acknowledges that for all the praise, accolades and respect heaped on a band by their fellow musicians and industry types for all their undisputed skill, mainstream success – entirely deserved in the eyes of those mentioned above – remains illusive. Suggest to Matt Blackman that Charge Group are one such band and it’s clear the thought’s already entered his head and those of his bandmates – drummer Matt Rosetti, bassist Adam Jesson and violinist/vocalist Jason Tampake – and contributed to the extended delay between the release of their debut, 2008’s Escaping Mankind, and the selftitled album they released earlier this year.
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“We’ve always operated this band at a relatively slow pace for a number of different reasons,” Blackman explains. “One is just being aware of the size of the market in Australia for people who like the kind of music that we play – it’s certainly not avantgarde, but it’s certainly not music for everyone at the same time. Compared to places like Europe and America where bands that are taking a few chances creatively can happily make a living, it’s not really that feasible without burning yourself out just touring all the time to play that sort of music in Australia. “It’s probably a reflection of the industry though. It’s an industry that tends to spoon-feed people with, a lot of the time, pretty bad representations of what bands are and what new music is, and I think it’s just coming to terms with that and saying, ‘How are we going to work within these parameters?’ And we’ve just found over the years that it’s good to just spread our energies fairly wide and do good tours and good releases where we can rather than just trying to be another one of those bands that drive themselves into the ground.
You could possibly get away with that – and a lot of bands do in America or Europe – but it’s a bit harder here and I think we’ve chosen to take things slowly as a means of being more practical. We just enjoy what we do so much that we don’t want to become…” he trails off here in search perhaps of the worst case scenario, “I don’t know… We don’t want to take our music or our friendship for granted, you know?” The band certainly has been spreading its energies wide. Between Charge Group releases Jesson and Rosetti spent time in Newcastle guitar rock outfit The Instant, Blackman co-formed Palace Of Fire (whose first show was with Battles, at the Opera House) with ex-Wolfmother men Chris Ross and Myles Heskett, while occasionally sitting behind the drums in Tucker B’s and contributing to indie act Firekites, which Tampake also did between his work as touring violinist for Josh Pyke’s band. Eventually, however, the time was right for Charge Group yet again. They hired out the Christian Science Church in Hamilton, Newcastle, where Blackman’s parents are weekly attendees, and committed themselves once again to Charge Group’s expansive musical vision. “It’s a bit hard to do them both at the same time with the same level of energy without diluting one or the other,” Blackman says of balancing projects, “I’m not really sure if there’s any point doing anything half-arsed I reckon.” Half-arsed it was not. With other projects on the back burner the band relocated into the church and knuckled down to completing the stunning ponymous album. “It’s a church my parents go to, so we took it to a board meeting and we just gave them a token amount and took over the church for a couple of weeks. We had to move out come Saturday nights ready for the Sunday morning service and then load back in on Sunday afternoon and set everything back up again,” Blackman says with a laugh. “It was awesome, it was such a good way to do it.” Clearly their selection of recording environment was not one based on ease of access, but for Blackman, who co-produced and recorded the majority of the album (bar a few bits and pieces recorded by Wayne Connolly at Albert’s studio in Neutral Bay and Bobby Lurie at
Mavericks in New York City), there was something about the acoustics the church provided that was perfectly in sync with their vision for Charge Group. “The main purpose was to just find a good acoustic space where we could just have a nice natural drum sound, and then everything else just sort of fell around that. The acoustic space really affects the mood of the recording for me, especially when I think it’s really key to building that good drum sound, which ends up being the foundation for the whole thing. If you don’t have a good drum sound you don’t have anywhere to go from an engineering perspective. “From a performance perspective we’re doing all these big, singalong moments – of which there’s a few on the record – and standing in the same room singing together in this space, you just hear the sound take off in the room. That’s the cool thing about churches; they’re built to carry acoustics in a certain way. It just has this soaring, magical quality when you’re in a nice big room like that. “A lot of the songwriting concepts came from that recording process as well. There’s a few songs that we really did flesh out and write a good portion of
there and then in the studio. Run and Gold Is Gone are good examples of the songs that were only sort of half-finished by the time we started recording them and then the space informed how they were finished.” Not quite biting the hand that feeds, but admirably refusing to be spoon-fed, Charge Group head out on the road once again this month for their second tour in support of the self-titled effort before once again heading to Europe where, one would hope, they won’t be taken for granted as they too-often seem to be in their home country. “Here it’s more, ‘Chuck your guitar over there, soundcheck’s in ten minutes and then you’re on your own buddy.’ That’s the way most places deal with touring bands, whereas in Europe the way artists are esteemed and the way they’re held in the community is quite different to here, which is really refreshing and quite humbling,” says Blackman, equal parts resigned and resilient. WHO: Charge Group WHAT: Charge Group (Microphone & Loudspeaker) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Tote
THE JANITORS OF ROCK “We have a good time and fuckloads of fun.” The Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor talks to Stuart Evans about the crazy trip of opening their recent shows, being social cheerleaders and not trying to be current.
“W
e’re really good at what we do and our prime musical direction is ensuring we can’t be confused with trying to be current. We are garbage technicians and are sick of electronic samples, sick of drum loops and sick of synthesisers. We’re the clean-up crew of rock – the janitors of rock,” says the always-modest Dandy Warhols frontman, Courtney Taylor-Taylor. As vocalist, guitarist and head producer, TaylorTaylor is not shy in coming forward. “We will always be a guitar rock band as I love to play and love the guitar,” he says. He is also not afraid to spruik the band’s talents and achievements. The band formed in Portland, west coast USA, in 1994 and released their inaugural album, Dandys Rule OK, in 1995, releasing their breakthrough effort, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, two years later. But it was Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia – the album they released at the turn of the millennium – that put the band on international charts and in the spotlight thanks to the huge commercial single, Bohemian Like You. Taylor-Taylor and The Dandy Warhols are infamous for their humour, chart hits and partying. Taylor-Taylor is also a wily businessperson. After he received his share of the royalties, largely thanks to Bohemian Like You appearing in Vodaphone TV adverts, Taylor-Taylor used the profits to build the Odditorium, a recording studio designed and built in the band’s hometown. The complex features enough space for a video production and web design studio and takes up more than a quarter of a city block. He views the song’s association with Vodaphone as a positive: “Because of that relationship it funded the Odditorium and gave us freedom.” They quickly put the recording studio to good use as their 2003 effort, Welcome To The Monkey House, continued to keep the band in the spotlight after it spawned another hit single, We Used To Be Friends. And then things went quiet. Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars (2005) and … Earth To The Dandy Warhols… (2008) received mixed reviews despite the band roping in a swag of cameo 20 • INPRESS
appearances for the latter, including Mark Knopfler and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell. …Earth To The Dandy Warhols… was also the first album recorded on their self-funded label Beat The World Records. If dodgy reviews weren’t enough, it was about to get worse for the Dandys. In 2004, filmmaker Ondi Timoner released Dig!, a documentary about the band that focused on their relationship with friends and fellow west cost band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Dig! became a critical success and won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. However, despite the accolades both bands remain displeased with how they were portrayed. Taylor-Taylor has stated that he felt pressured to be a part of the film. His anger and frustration about the experience remains: “That whole thing was bullshit. It was dishonest and I was lied to about the whole thing. It took years for me to trust people again, particularly people that I toured with.” In the end, both bands thought that the filmmaker’s depiction of Anton Newcombe, The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s lead singer, was constricted and unwarranted. Still, that’s in the past and Taylor-Taylor is focused on the future, which is timely as they’re back with their new studio album, This Machine, an altogether darker, unassuming and contemplative collection. Gone are the snares and gentle synths, replaced with a sobering offering of stripped-back rock. It was a deliberate ploy, explains Taylor-Taylor. “We didn’t really have to think about this album as we said that it felt fresh again, which for us is cool. We wanted to make a simpler record and we didn’t want to do something that everyone else is doing.” Aside from being sick of drum patterns, loops and directors, Taylor-Taylor has another bugbear. “We’re not directed by what other bands are doing or what other bands are doing but not doing well.” He’s also in a reflective mood and is aware of his limitations. “I’m not someone who can just sit there and write countless songs. I have to wait for something real or something that is meaningful for the writing to happen.” Reviews for This Machine ave been mixed, with some media rags comparing the band to reformed alcoholics
who only make decent music when they’re sloshed. The criticism has been fierce and Taylor-Taylor has witnessed it first hand whilst on tour. He says that during recent gigs, when they’ve performed material from This Machine, the crowd has taken a while to get going. “For the first fifteen minutes they stand around in disbelief that we make this futuristic music. When a load of people turn up and ninety-nine per cent of them aren’t on drugs, for fifteen minutes they’re in a fucking trance. We stand on stage, looking at each other thinking this is a crazy trip before we see everyone with their fucking hands-in-the-air and palms out.” What is a given is This Machine is The Dandy Warhols stripped bare. It has more in common with Goth than electronic. “There is normally an arbitrary line between the last record from our previous album and the first record from our current album. For this album, we tried to limit ourselves with the amount of tracks we recorded and it worked well. Our approach has always been the same throughout our time together as we always ask ourselves, ‘What have we not done that we’d like to do?’” The partying – and booze – may have stopped, but the touring has not. Case in point is their latest road trip. “We’ve just been on one hell of a long tour. We had a month touring the USA and then had time in Europe. We have a good time and fuckloads of fun.”
themusic.com.au
Other bands may have excessive demands on their tour rider; not The Dandy Warhols. “We take bicycles and barbecues on tour,” he laughs. “Spending so much time on buses isn’t great, but we have to be accessible as everyone on tour matters. We are the social cheerleaders and try to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone.” But this wouldn’t be The Dandy Warhols without something slightly odd to tell. To be different, the band hooked up with Richard Morgan, respected sci-fi author, to write their bios for This Machine. Taylor-Taylor explains, “It’s really a variation on what we’ve done before. Most bios are dull and we wanted to do something different. Pete [Holmstrom, guitar] bumped into Richard and became friends due to their interest in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.” After nearly two decades of writing, producing and touring, what is left for The Dandy Warhols to achieve? A lot, says Taylor-Taylor. “We’ll be touring and in 2014 it’s our twentieth anniversary as a band. I’m sure we’ll have something planned for that one.” WHO: The Dandy Warhols WHAT: This Machine (Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 11 November, Harvest, Werribee Park
YOU’LL FIND US AT 99 SMITH STREET FITZROY PH: 9419 4920 YAHYAHS.COM.AU BOOKINGS: MARY@BAROPEN.COM.AU
FRI 29 JUNE
FREE ENTRY
THE REBELLES
OPEN TIL 5am
2 SETS
YEAH WEDNESDAY
THU 28 JUNE
SAT 30 JUNE
COMING UP
HELLO SAILOR VINTAGE FAIR & CRATE DIGGER RECORD FAIR
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THE BOXING TOSTADOS
WEEKENDER FEAT. LIVE: BURIED FEATHER RIDE IN TO THE SUN
THU JULY 5 / FREE ENTRY:
FRI JULY 6:
WAVERLEY, ROYAL BLOOD CONSTANT KILLER
12.00 NOON - 6.00PM / FREE ENTRY LATER:
DOORS 5.00PM / BANDS 9.00PM / FREE ENTRY
DAMN THE MAPS
OPEN THU, FRI, SAT, SUN, 5:00PM TO LATE WITH DJs SPINNING YOUR FAVOURITE SOUL, 60s, ROCK’N’ROLL, SURF & GARAGE ALL NIGHT
SEAN SIMMONS
TUNES: LATE / FREE ENTRY
SAT JULY 7:
BASSICK INSTINCT DEAD SALESMEN DUO DOORS 5.00PM / BANDS 9.00PM
THE HIDDEN VENTURE DAMN THE TORPEDOES
SUN 1 JULY
FREE ENTRY
SWAMP MOTH
SHAKY MEMORIAL
LATE TUNES: LATE / FREE ENTRY AFTER MIDNIGHT
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SUN 8 & 15 JULY
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BITS OF SHIT BATPISS, BAD VISION FRI JULY 20:
SHERIFF
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DAN BRODIE AND THE GRIEVING WIDOWS LP LAUNCH
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OPEN 317 BRUNSWICK STREET FITZROY WWW.BAROPEN.COM.AU 03 9415 9601
KIRIN J CALLINAN WED 27 JUNE
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THE AFROBIOTICS 10PM / FREE
THU 28 JUNE
SUN 1 JULY
YOUNG ROMANTIX
FOUR SUNDAYS IN A ROW
HUGO & THE TREATS
STAG BADD ASPS
GHOST ORKID
MON 2 JULY
SCREEN SECT FILM CLUB 7PM
TUE 3 JULY
MAKE IT UP CLUB 7PM
7.30PM / FREE
9PM / FREE
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FRI 29 JUNE
WED 4 JULY: BROTHERS HAND MIRROR (EP LAUNCH) THU 5: CHILDREN OF THE WAVE / BATTLE SNAKE / LEHMANN B SMITH / JASON HELLER FRI 6: TROPICAL SPACE LAB!
THE DUB CAPTAINS 10PM / FREE
JULY SATURDAYS:
PAPA CHANGO
68-70 LIL’ COLLINS ST. MELBOURNE WWW.PONY.NET.AU 03 9662 1026
THU 28 JUNE
“WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU” WANDERING SPIRIT HALCYON DRIVE DEAR LEADER FEATURING
8.30PM
DEUS EX
FRI 29 JUNE
ICONIC VIVISECT THE SEAFORD MONSTER CRADLE IN THE CRATER ARGURIOS
9.00PM
MANATARMS
2.00AM FREE TUNES:
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SLUGGER FONTAINE
GEEK PIE
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KING SALAMI AND THE CUMBERLAND 3 (UK)
CHILE
SAT 30 JUNE
CERES SCALAR FIELDS DEATH BY DANCE DRIVE BY EPIC THOSE WOLVES (QLD)
9.00PM
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CHARGE GROUP
JOE McKEE EAST BRUNSWICK ALL GIRLS CHOIR SAT 30 JUNE FRONT BAR RESIDENCY 5-7PM
ALLY OOP & THE HOOPSTERS W/ GUESTS
BRETARTO FRASSIERI
SAT 30 JUNE
SUGAR ARMY UDAYS TIGER DARK ARTS
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“Shout ‘til you’re a little horse”
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Rockin ‘til 7:00am! BOOKINGS: ANDY FANTAPANTS@BAROPEN.COM.AU PH: 9417 2326
COMING SOON THU 5 JULY: PLASTIC SPACEMAN, FREAKS OF THE DEEP, BULLETS IN BERLIN FRI 6 JULY: BORN LION (SYD) EX- WATT RIOT, INDIAN MYNAH, THE BENNIES, WOLF VS. FIRE FRI 6 JULY (LATE SHOW): THE MURDERBALLS FREE ENTRY SAT 7 JULY: 4TRESS, YOSHITORO, HIDING WITH BEARS, CONSTANT KILLER, THE ANOUSHKA SAT 7 JULY (LATE SHOW): RIDE INTO THE SUN (ADEL) FREE ENTRY THU 12 JULY (LATE SHOW): CLUB CRAIN FREE ENTRY FRI 13 JULY: THE TEARAWAYS, NOT OK (QLD/NZ), THE BENNIES FRI 13 JULY (LATE SHOW): VULTURES OF VENUS FREE ENTRY SAT 14 JULY: CHICO FLASH, FRITZWICKY (EP LAUNCH) COCU VELU, KETTLESPIDER SAT 14 JULY (DOUBLE LATE SHOW): HALFMAST, THE MORNING NIGHT (WA), FREE ENTRY
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COMING UP: THU 5 JULY: THE STEVENS, WHITE WALLS, IGOR FRI 6: SHERIFF, KING OF THE NORTH, MY LEFT BOOT, BATPISS SAT 7: LOVE CONNECTION, NO ZU, VELCRO SUN 8: RAINSHADOW, KATABASIS, INTERNAL HARVEST & BLACK WATER FRI 13: BUDD, WICKED CITY, GOLDEN SHOWER SAT ARVO FRONT BAR RESIDENCY (JULY): OCEAN PARTY TOTE MERCH ON SALE NOW / AVAILABLE FROM FRONT BAR: 2012 CALENDARS / T-SHIRTS / STUBBIE HOLDERS / STICKERS NEW! ‘PERSECUTION BLUES: THE BATTLE FOR THE TOTE’ DVDS ON SALE NOW! 71 JOHNSTON STREET (CNR WELLINGTON ST) COLLINGWOOD PH: 9419 5320 BAND BOOKINGS: AMANDA@BAROPEN.COM.AU WWW.THETOTEHOTEL.COM
TOTE OPEN: TUESDAY - SUNDAY 4.00pm ‘TIL LATE
INPRESS • 21
TASTE TEST: EMMA LOUISE THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY
I think it was an album by… you know Wheatus? The one with Teenage Dirtbag on it? I’m pretty sure it was that one. I think at the time I was like, “I am the coolest 12-year-old,” or however old I was. It was a stage I went through trying to be as cool as my brother.
THE ALBUM I’M LOVING RIGHT NOW
At the moment, I’m really loving the band Baths and I think they have an album called Cerulean. I love all the melodies and production, it’s really good.
MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM
You know, I’m actually not much of a partier. I don’t really listen to that much dancey kind of party stuff but I know if I have a get-together at home or something, we play a few Radiohead albums. But you can’t bring out Radiohead too early at a party, like [you wait until] it’s all winding down.
MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM
It would be definitely Radiohead… pretty much my whole party is a comedown! It’s kinda like, let’s get together, lay down and cuddle. My favourite [album] is King Of Limbs. Also In Rainbows, I love that one. I really like the newest one because it’s got one of my favourite songs, Kodex, on it.
THE MOST SURPRISING RECORD IN MY COLLECTION I don’t really collect records or have a massive collection of music but I really like some Katy Perry songs. There’s a song by Katy Perry that goes, [sings] “Teenage dream… something about skin tight jeans.” That’s an awesome song!
THE FIRST GIG I EVER ATTENDED
That would be Missy Higgins at the Convention Centre in Cairns. That must have been 2004 or 2003, I think 2004. I went home and was like, “That’s what I wanna be!” and I remember writing two songs that night and I bought her DVD. That was when my obsession started with Missy Higgins.
THE WEIRDEST GIG EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD Before I started touring after the EP, I used to play a lot of residencies. I used to make money by playing at really shit cafes and stuff. There would be no one there and
22 • INPRESS
I used to get paid $60 for three hours, three 45-minute sets, and I would pretty much just be writing songs while sitting there. Maybe like two people would come and eat something. So that’s pretty cool, just writing songs while at a gig, supposedly! [Also] at Cairns, at the Tanks [Arts Centre], apparently in my last song – which was a really slow one, 1000 Sundowns – there was this big fight that broke out in the audience between drunken people, so I was singing this tiny little fairy song and there were these people punching each other.
MY BIGGEST NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCES
I guess it’s just like real-life things that happen; situations and feelings. This whole thing that’s happened in the past year and a bit, that’s pretty overwhelming and a good inspiration for different things. I struggle to write a song that isn’t involved with my feelings.
THE COOLEST PERSON I’VE EVER MET
The coolest person I think I’ve ever met is probably my manager [Rick Chazan]. He’s really cool; he’s just
really wise. You know when you were a kid, those glow-in-the-dark stars you stuck on your roof? He invented that; Glow Zone or whatever it’s called. He has all these secret achievements that he doesn’t tell anyone that are just amazing. And he started a company; he just invented all these toys and stuff.
IF I COULD HANG OUT IN ANY TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY
THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH I’VE EVER HAD
IF I WASN’T MAKING MUSIC
I’ve always been really kind of obsessed with Missy Higgins but I haven’t actually met her yet. I actually saw her at a festival; me and Hannah, my keyboard player, we saw her outside our tent. We were peeking through the curtains being like, “Oh my God, it’s her!” I can’t imagine what I would do if I actually did meet her. Apart from that, you know Edward Cullen? What’s his name, Patrick something? [Robert Pattinson.] Yeah, I went through a few months where I was definitely obsessed with him. I just watched Twilight and was like, ‘Wow, he’s a babe’.
themusic.com.au
Probably Woodstock. It seems like they were naked a lot, and playing in mud. I just think it would have been so fun; that’s totally not acceptable nowadays, whereas back then it was the thing to do.
I’d probably be a vet nurse. That’s what I was going to be, but I kind of didn’t do very well in school so I’m very glad this is working out! I worked a lot with animals before I became a full-time musician, so I guess I’d do something with that. There’s a few places around Brisbane that just deal with lots of cats that need homes, and I reckon I could do something like that. WHO: Emma Louise WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 29 June, Northcote Social Club; Friday 27 July, Splendour In The Grass, Belongil Fields, Byron Bay
Malthouse Theatre presents
BRIWYANT Directed by Vicki Van Hout Choreographed by Vicki Van Hout in collaboration with the performers
MONDAY 23RD JULY
LANA DEL REY
TUESDAY 24TH JULY
LANA DEL REY
“ENGROSSINGLY UNPREDICTABLE” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“SOME OF THE MOST IDIOSYNCRATIC AND INVENTIVE [CHOREOGRAPHY] SEEN IN AUSTRALIAN DANCE” REALTIME ARTS
TUESDAY 31ST JULY
MIIKE SNOW TICKETEK.COM.AU, PH 132849 & OUTLETS
SUNDAY 26TH AUGUST
PENNYWISE
TICKETEK.COM.AU, 132849 & OUTLETS AND OZTIX.COM. AU, POLYESTER FITZROY & CITY, ESPY & NATIONAL HOTEL.
THURSDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER
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FRIDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER
HANSON
TUESDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER
HANSON
THURSDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER
EIFFEL 65 & N-TRANCE TICKETS ON SALE NOW OZTIX.COM.AU AND OUTLETS: POLYESTER CITY & FITZROY, ESPY, GREVILLE & NATIONAL HOTEL – ALSO AT TICKETEK.COM.AU, PH 132849 & OUTLETS.
FRIDAY 30TH NOVEMBER
RICK ASTELY
WITH WA WA NEE & THE CHANTOOZIES ON SALE TICKETMASTER 9TH JULY
20 - 30 BOURKE ST CITY - 9650 0180 WWW.PALACE.COM.AU
Fusing contemporary dance with Indigenous performance, Vicki Van Hout’s Briwyant (from ‘brilliant’) will play with humour, history, raw physicality and digital projection to create an entirely original work.
4 – 14 JULY BOOKINGS malthousetheatre.com.au or 9685 5111 Malthouse Theatre’s Indigenous Theatre Program is made possible with the generous support of The Tom Kantor Fund
INPRESS • 23
POWER OF THOUGHT
OVERNIGHT SENSATION
Three parts Kiwi, one part Brit, I Am Giant might just be the next big New Zealand rock export. Michael Smith investigates.
Sures secured an instant audience but are still finding their sound, Matt Hogan tells Doug Wallen.
I
B
t’s no exaggeration to call SURES a young band. How long exactly have the Sydney duoturned-quartet been around? “Maybe like seven months?” muses guitarist Matt Hogan. “Maybe eight.” They’ve made an eerie amount of progress in that time, graduating from being just another band uploading songs on triple j Unearthed to supporting such international touring acts as Best Coast, Real Estate and Wavves. Now they’re signed to Ivy League and have a debut EP, Stars, which pairs the titular single with their earlier home recordings.
ass player Paul Matthews had been in a band in his native New Zealand called Tadpole, then another called Stylus, but had moved to London about five years ago “to play music in a much bigger sort of musical climate, so the idea was to come over here and work with some people and, you know, live a different musical life – and we ended up forming a band.” That band, I Am Giant, turned out to include two fellow Kiwis, drummer Shelton Woolright (ex-Blindspott) and guitarist Andrew Kerr. All they needed was “the voice”, which turned up in the form of Englishman Ed Martin. “It took us about a year auditioning and we looked at 150 guys to find someone who was going to fit. We were open to hearing how a voice could influence our direction, because I think essentially we all just wanted to do what comes to us, and so we pretty much had music we were already writing that was natural to us. Ed did his thing and he fitted in really nicely.” That was 2009, and from there I Am Giant started gigging, did a UK tour, “just getting out there and plying our trade,” Matthews explains, “trying out our songs.” They cut an EP in 2010 but their collective eye was always on the debut album, The Horrifying Truth. For that, they came back to this side of the planet, going into pre-production in Sydney with local producer Forrester Savell, before heading to Melbourne to record. On release in August last year, the album – full of big, anthemic hard rockers – debuted at #2 in the NZ charts. “We’d done quite a few shows in New Zealand,” Matthews continues. “We sort of got away over there on the radio and started building a really great following, so we did a bunch of shows and popped over to Australia from there and stayed long enough to record.” Before that, however, I Am Giant found themselves being nominated the Quiksilver Ambassadors for Europe, which helpfully led to their playing some pretty high-profile gigs including Brixton’s Skate And BMX Jam, Quiksilver’s Chromataphobia and the Quiksilver Pro Tour in Biarritz, France. “Quiksilver
heard some of our stuff and just loved it and thought it would be ideal for their surf and snowboarding videos. That just kicked off a relationship and we’ve been working with them ever since.” That explains how they got world surfing champion Kelly Slater and champion skater Tony Hawk, among others, to appear in their videos. While the songwriting for the most draws from the band’s collective life experiences, their own growing awareness of mortality and the slow loss of innocence, I Am Giant aren’t afraid to tackle the occasional bigger social topic. The album’s title for instance, The Horrifying Truth, for Matthews comes via the final track, After The War. “The horrifying element of that song I guess is the motive for war, and with someone in the trenches, how far away he really is from all the ideals. You’re supposed to be fighting for God and country, and it wasn’t that at all. At the time, I’d been exploring my family tree and I had a great-great-grandfather who was in World War One – he got shot in the throat – and you look at the photo of the guy and he’s like a version of you, and you wonder what was he thinking and what I would be thinking. But there are lots of different topics and thoughts in the music. It’s not like we’re preaching anything; it’s more pondering over thoughts.” WHO: I Am Giant WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 5 July, Workers Club
TWO FEET IN THE DOOR
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One interview makes reference to secret pseudonyms – strange references to South Africa act as recurring motifs throughout reviews. There is a miasma of ambiguity and mystique to their profile, in other words. Yet, Montgomery Cooper – who handles keys and synths within the band – couldn’t be more open. “Ha. Actually, it was totally unplanned. We’re not mastermind geniuses. It just happened by pure fluke,” he laughs. “I think that mystique just kind of happened. I mean, we’re just such mysterious, handsome, international gentlemen. It definitely wasn’t planned. I think it’s just a matter of not touring. All our touring has been done overseas until now and I think people don’t really get to know your band until you’re actually on stage in front of them.” Far from detached or aloof, Cooper seems more surprised. His anecdotes arrive dressed in a perpetually incredulous tone (“You go over to America and someone will ask you why you’re there: ‘Oh, I play in Clubfeet’ ‘Oh, AWESOME, I know Clubfeet!’ ‘What?!’). Each observation is punctuated by a burst of bemused laughter. To hear him tell it, Clubfeet’s career has been pure serendipity. “It just happened a bit randomly. We’re all mates and we were just fooling around and making tunes and that kind of stuff,” the keyboardist explains. “A label in the states – back in the MySpace 24 • INPRESS
Such high-profile slots would be daunting for any young band, but especially one well under a year old, with members ranging in age from 19 to 21. The upshot, then, is that SURES could build their on-stage confidence all the faster than a band stuck playing hole-in-the-wall venues to an audience that may or may not care. “I’m definitely not as nervous as I used to be when we got up to play in front of, like, anyone really,” Hogan admits. “We’re getting used to it a bit.” SURES have now toured nationally, and are hitting the East Coast to support the EP and single. If their success might seem like a fluke, the appeal of a song like Poseidon is undeniably instant. Doused in bottomless reverb and fuzz, it’s got a gooey, up-all-night pop vibe that’s completed by Beach Boys-worthy sighs and an early-Weezer turn to Nicholls’ voice. (We keep expecting him to break into Jamie.) It taps into the slacker beach vibe that’s everywhere right now, as well as the ‘50s nostalgia of everyone from The Drums to Bleeding Knees Club. As for the other song they debuted with, the twominute The Sun hangs on wide-eyed harmonies.
Despite signing to a well-known label and having their first official release, SURES didn’t screw with their homespun vibe. Of the EP’s five songs only the title track was re-recorded. And even though that was done with producer Dann Hume (Evermore, Lisa Mitchell) as opposed to in GarageBand on Nicholls’ computer, it’s not a radical departure. “We just ran [our] version through a better desk. We used all the same plug-ins. We didn’t even use amps. We wanted it to sound like GarageBand, but just bigger.” The next step, of course, is working towards an album. SURES already have an album’s worth of newer songs, but they want to write plenty more before they begin to narrow them down to the strongest batch. That puts their debut album back to next year for a probable release. In that time, who knows how the band will evolve? They already have a habit of changing course from song to song. “When we started the band,” recalls Hogan, “we were still learning how to write songs. And we’re still learning now. Every song sounds really different, because we don’t know how to write in a specific style. You can hear that on the EP. It still works in a way that’s cohesive, I think. I guess we’re still figuring it out.” WHO: Sures WHAT: Stars EP (Ivy League) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 5 July, Northcote Social Club
DOWN TO EARTH
Between their immediate rise and widespread international acclaim, Melbourne’s Clubfeet have already developed a reputation as synth-pop svengalis. Ahead of their debut Australian tour, keys-man Montgomery Cooper explains to Matt O’Neill why they’re really not. ontgomery Cooper is not what you’d expect. Clubfeet are such a mysterious act. In roughly eighteen months, they’ve released a critically acclaimed debut album (2010’s Gold On Gold), secured praise and support around the world (including rave reviews from Pitchfork, The Guardian and NME), performed their debut live set at New York’s CMJ Festival – and done so without even touring Australia. Even today, there’s still precious little information on their lives or careers available to the public.
Hogan and singer-guitarist Jonas Nicholls had another band previously, as well as others “when we were kids”, but this one has already outpaced them all. Thanks to word-of-mouth Unearthed support followed by blogs latching onto the first two SURES songs that surfaced online – Poseidon and The Sun – the duo doubled in size and began playing to much bigger crowds for those support gigs.
So are The Beach Boys huge for these guys, or is it more Beach Boys-influenced acts like Panda Bear? Neither, it turns out. “The harmonies are sort of folky. You don’t really hear folk music in our influences, but we both like Simon & Garfunkel and that kind of thing.” Actually, if you strip the surf guitar and reverb from The Sun, the vocals tip close to, say, Mumford & Sons.
Sydney MC Sky’High is one of the most intriguing Australian hip hop artists. Admired by some of the industry’s biggest names, she’s built a career in just two short years, and recently released her debut album, Forever Sky’High. She spoke to Aleksia Barron. days, around two or three years ago – liked some of the stuff we put up on our MySpace page and offered to put out a single. It ended up getting a lot of good press. It didn’t sell many copies but it seemed to resonate really well in that tastemaker world. “You know, people like Pitchfork loved it, so it seemed logical that when we went to do shows, we would do them over there. It’s where all the following kind of originally began. When we recorded an album, it made sense to put it out there as well,” he laughs. “The album was actually out in the US for a good six months before we even so much as threw a song at triple j. It’s all very surreal.” Which leaves Clubfeet in an interesting position. When you effectively crack America from the outset; how do you tackle Australia? Furthermore; when your earliest experiments are embraced as exceptional, how do you tackle your next release? Clubfeet’s looming tour will actually be the band’s first ever run of Australia dates. They’re assembling their follow-up album in between jaunts (having just released a teaser with double A-side City of Light/This Time). Cooper is pragmatic. “We didn’t really have much of an idea of what we wanted to do when we set out. We don’t have any sort of master plan,” the keyboardist laughs. “I think you’re kind of limited by the skills and the gear you have. Maybe there are some genius musicians out there who have a plan but, really, most bands I speak to have just made what they can with what they had. That’s all we’re really going to do.” WHO: Clubfeet WHAT: City Of Light/This Time (Too Pure) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 5 July, Toff In Town
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khai Gerrey, better known as up-and-coming MC Sky’High, is walking down a busy Sydney street, but that doesn’t mean she’s not up for an interview. Armed with a mobile phone and her standard toughness, she’s ready to go. “What do you want to know?” she says frankly, giving the impression of someone who’ll answer any question put to her. What do we want to know, indeed? There’s a lot about Gerrey that has people curious. She burst onto the Australian hip hop scene startlingly and suddenly, with New Zealand’s super-producer P-Money backing her. She was voted Best Female MC in the 2011 Ozhiphop.com awards and signed to Elefant Traks, a move that was seen as a significant departure for the Sydney label. She’s built a reputation for slick live performances and honest, almost unsettlingly angry lyrics, and her debut album Forever Sky’High has been one of the most talked-about releases of the year. A lot has happened for Gerrey in a relatively short amount of time – she only committed herself to a music career two years ago – but she’s not exactly a newcomer to hip hop. She came across an old TLC CD in her mother’s collection when she was nine years old, and was intrigued by rap after hearing Lisa “LeftEye” Lopes dropping some verses. A few years later, she performed on stage as an MC for the first time: “It was at an Under 18s competition when I was 13 or 14.” How did it go? “It was good – actually, I won.” After her initial success, she gave away hip hop almost entirely. “I didn’t keep going with it. I never took it that serious until two years ago,” she explains. “When I was a teenager, fucking up was more fun to me than rhyming.” Growing up in a Sydney housing commission, Gerrey had some tough teenage years. Surrounded by drugs, violence and crime, she realised that she wasn’t on a good path. “I wasn’t going anywhere with life,” she says. “I thought, ‘What have I got?’ I didn’t have any skills or nothing.
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But I thought, ‘I’m pretty skilled at rhyming – I love it.’” Soon after, she realized that a life change was definitely in order. “What made me go heaps further is, my brother, he was up to the same kind of stuff that I was up to – up to no good,” says Gerrey. “He got arrested. That’s what made me really, really get full-on serious.” Once Gerrey decided to start carving out a stellar music career, there was almost no stopping her. She enlisted Sam Dutch, who she’d known since she was seventeen, as her manager, and caught P-Money’s attention (he would later executive produce her debut album). Before signing with Elefant Traks, Gerrey actually took a couple of other meetings with major labels – and nearly canned the idea of signing with anyone. “I didn’t like them,” she says. “They were just so proper. They were scammers. Coming from the streets, you can tell the conmen, you know? I didn’t feel right.” Fortunately, she found a fit in Elefant Traks, even if she didn’t think it was going to happen. “I was expecting the same thing. But I walked up and sat down with them all in the room, and we were all lookin’ at each other, and I thought, ‘I know you guys. Okay, youse’ll do.’” Then, album time. How long did Forever Sky’High take to write? “To be honest – you’re gonna laugh – probably two months. And I recorded it in two weeks.” Gerrey isn’t the type of MC to spend three months perfecting a verse. “Nah, fuck that. That’s hopeless.” She simply writes what she wants to say – the truth. “I like to tell the truth a lot. Even if it hurts, I like it. I’ve stayed true this far, so I’ll just see how far I go. I’ll go very far with it, yeah.” WHO: Sky’High WHAT: Forever Sky’High (Elefant Traks) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 30 June, Laundry Bar
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THE RIGHT FRAME OF GRIND TWO OF A KIND Doug Wallen interrogates Chris Brownbill of Brisbane’s Idylls about minute-long songs, double meanings and accidental jazz.
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ike many a grindcore band, Idylls are able to make a 50-second song not only stand on its own, but feel like a handful of songs in one. Yet on the Brisbane quartet’s debut LP, Farewell All Joy, there’s also a pair of four-minute tracks that couldn’t be accused of impatience. And while short songs remain a useful arena for breakneck experimentation, some of their newer ones are much longer. “We’ve got one song that’s 16 minutes,” promises guitarist and regular sound engineer Chris Brownbill with a chuckle. “And another that’s 50 seconds. I don’t think much thought is put into the length or even the style; it just happens.” Still, he says, “I’m probably more of a fan of those quicker, grindier songs.” Whatever the length, the songs come from simply jamming in a room together. It’s always been that way, ever since Brownbill discovered housemate Tristan Agostino was “extremely good at drums” a few years ago. Several membership changes later, Idylls are rounded out by bassist James Horgan (formerly of The Vanguard Tic and Ironhide) and vocalist Jordan Pulman. Following the recent Amps For God/Plague Hell 7”, Farewell All Joy is out now digitally and set for vinyl release through Brisbane label Monolith and Sydney label Tenzenmen. For all the hairpin turns and abrasive vocal interplay throughout the album, it’s the slow and spare instrumental closer Susy that proves most surprising, if only for its unexpected restraint. You keep waiting for it to explode, but it never does. It’s even a bit delayed at the start, like a hidden track. “I didn’t really want the record to lose momentum,” Brownbill recalls, “so I wanted it to be an afterthought, I guess. I wanted it to be a bit uncomfortable, like a [heavier] song was gonna kick in, but really it’s just a way to ease you out of the record.” Brownbill recorded the album at his home studio (and live venue) Sun Distortion, where he also records a few other Brisbane bands as well as some friends’ bands from Melbourne. “Just enough to pay bills, really,” he downplays.
It’s been a long time coming but Even and The Fauves are teaming up for a tour. Even’s Wally Kempton talks to Danielle O’Donohue about making musical friends. If Pulman’s screamed lyrics can be tricky to decipher, Idylls’ song titles are so stepped in gallows imagery – bombs, plagues, funerals, nooses – that the band seem to be having great fun exaggerating these familiar tropes. “Definitely,” agrees Brownbill. “It’s cryptic, but not cryptic for the sake of it. It’s kind of inspired by books like Black Spring and Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, and also earlier Nick Cave stuff. And other things, like The Locust records.” San Diego grindcore vets The Locust are a good reference point for Idylls, who change tact with freakish agility while never sacrificing kinetic impact. But just because their songs often have multiple titles separated by back slashes, that doesn’t mean they’re several songs conjoined. “There’s so many different ideas and premises going on within songs,” Brownbill says, “it was hard to pinpoint it with one word. We’d just end up having double meanings and triple meanings.” A prime example would be the channel-surfing Swine/ Virgins/Utopiates, with its contrasted multiple vocals and almost funk-lodged licks of guitar. Or better yet, check out the jazz-like twists and flourishes on Paradise Of Blood, which even turns into a robust rock anthem in its second half. The cymbal work alone points to drummer Tristan Agostino’s time studying jazz, but it’s not some attempt at fusion. It’s simply natural for this style of music that things are always shifting and keeping wildly in the moment rather than fussing over a greater meaning. “It’s an accident that we stumbled across that,” Brownbill argues. “A lot of technicality in the drums is just out of boredom. We write a song and think, ‘Let’s try and make it as interesting as possible, without thinking about how cohesive the song’s going to be.’ Just making it so we’re not bored.” WHO: Idylls WHAT: Farewell All Joy WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 5 July, Irene’s Warehouse (all ages); Friday 6, Gasometer
“It was my favourite tour that I’d ever done since being in Ceremony, was being in Australia,” he recalls. “I skated a lot, I got to meet all these really cool kids, the women were beautiful and everything was fun. I got to go in the ocean a bunch; it was just like vacation but I played shows at night.” The band were last in Australia in 2008 and at that point, from a music fan’s perspective, Ceremony were a very different act to what they are now. Their Violence Violence and Still Nothing Moves You LPs of 2006 and 2008 respectively were as harrowing as their more recent material, but executed at a far more furious pace; old-school thrash hardcore rather than the more muscular, perhaps more considered Rohnert Park of 2010 and Zoo, released earlier this year. Musically, this band have changed a great deal, but that’s about where it stops, says Farrar. “It’s still the same,” he considers of what it is like being a part of Ceremony. “We pretty much work the same way, we like to play with good bands that we respect and enjoy, it’s pretty much the same. It’s just the music has changed a little bit, that’s all.” The band have always been favoured critically, but with the somewhat more marked shift in sound on Rohnert Park they received a new level of praise. Zoo, is being given similar plaudits. “There’s been a very positive reaction so far,” Farrar agrees. “At first people didn’t know what to think about it but that was the same with Rohnert Park, people thought it was kind of strange but they got to really like it and enjoy it after a while and I think that’s kinda what’s happening with Zoo. But I think we’re gonna be throwing people off no matter what, every time we write a record. 26 • INPRESS
“It was last Christmas,” Kempton says. “I’m pretty sure that the first time Even and The Fauves have shared a stage together outside of a Push gig or a Freeza gig was last Christmas at a Christmas Even show.” In the small scene that is the Melbourne music world, though, Kempton has certainly known his new touring buddies a lot longer than that. “It happened over twenty years ago when I was just into the world of music, as were they. I really loved a demo of theirs that I heard because I was a booking agent for a company before anything else. I went and saw them and thought, ‘Fuck. You guys are great.’ “And I was booking The Tote so they played there a lot. I’ve got a close working relationship and friendship with The Fauves and [Even members] Ash [Naylor] and Matt [Cotter] were saying the reason they were a bit confused was their first band The Swarm played with the Fauves back in the ‘80s. That’s how long we’ve all known each other.”
“The way the current record was done, it’s because everyone had lives to lead,” Kempton explains. “Ash
would go, ‘Hey Matt, what are you doing? Have you got a couple of days free next week? Let’s go into a studio’. And Ash would say, ‘This is how the song goes and this is the feel I want’ and ‘Sticks’ Cotter, ‘One Take’ Matt would do it. It would take less time to do the drum tracks than it would to set the fucking drum kit up. Then Ash would take the drum tracks home and do everything else then he’d ring me. “I’d go round to his place and sit in his spare room and he’d play the song over and over and I’d go, ‘Fuck man, that’s awesome’. Three hours later we’d have a bass track down. Then when there were enough tracks together we’d book time in a studio because I’ve always had this inability to feel comfortable singing my guts out in Ash’s spare room while the rest of the family are watching Family Guy in the next room.” With the band’s 20th year fast approaching, surely it’s time for a big Even party? Kempton’s renowned in Melbourne for throwing legendary rock’n’roll parties, and a 20th birthday party for his band has the potential to be huge. “Well, we had a big 16th party so we can’t really have an 16th, an 18th and a 20th. A 21st would be fun. The Meanies [Kempton’s other band] had a 21st. That was a lot of fun.” For now though, Even are just going to be celebrating heading out on the road with one of their favourite bands. It’s a tour almost 20 years in the making – don’t miss it. WHO: Even WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Regal Ballroom
EMOTIONAL RESCUE
Some people hate the new direction Ceremony have taken, says frontman Ross Farrar, but there’s no way this band is changing for anyone. He speaks to Dan Condon.
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Fast forward to 2012 and the two bands are teaming for a much-anticipated tour. Ask Wally Kempton, Even’s gregarious bass player, when the bands first played together and his answer is a surprising one.
This year is Even’s 18th birthday and they’re touring their sixth album, In Another Time. While a lot of bands spend an eternity recording, Even have refined the recording experience to suit its members’ busy lives.
PROGRESSION SESSION or a band as dark and as heavy as Rohnert Park, California’s Ceremony tend to be, their frontman Ross Farrar is one chipper-sounding guy. As he sits in his house, sipping a cup of tea having just finished a shift at work, he speaks over the phone about the fond memories he holds of our country.
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he year is 1996, the city is Melbourne. An alternative rock band called The Fauves and the indie power-pop band Even have both released career defining albums. Both bands can be seen on every stage across the city. While Less Is More is Even’s debut, The Fauves are onto their third long-player Future Spa, an album that boasts two songs in the higher end of that year’s Hottest 100, Self Abuser and Dogs Are The Best People.
Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party prove that confession is good for the soul on new album Liberty Sunset Blue, writes Nic Toupee.
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Because there’s two years in between each record and what you do in that two years is a lot of stuff, a lot of things happen to you; you might do some bad drugs or you might break up with a girlfriend or someone in your family might die; you’re probably gonna hear like 1500 different bands in that time and no matter what, those bands that you listen to are going to affect you in some way. You’re gonna take a little from each band, no matter what; things are gonna change for you in two years, that’s just the way life works.”
ive o’clock, Sunday afternoon. If you’re not paid to do something productive – say cheffing or working behind the bar in a pub – then it’s totally sacred relaxation time. A nice warming brandy, an open fire, a fine book or even replays of Euro 2012 if you’re that way inclined: Sunday evenings are sacrosanct. Unless, of course, you’re Jimmy Hawk. Hawk, singer/songwriter with Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party, certainly isn’t partying today. “I’ve been working this afternoon; I’m a workaholic! Not that being a musician is really work but…“ he trails off in his husky drawl. Surprising, really: the music Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party make – their first eponymous release and now the quick follow-up, Liberty Sunset Blue – sound undisputably mellow.
But music fans can be tough, and one would imagine that the change in direction from Ceremony’s earlier powerviolence hardcore to their more recent fare wouldn’t have exactly been embraced with open arms by everyone in the punk rock world. “Yeah, definitely not,” Farrar confirms. “Some people hate it. They want us to put out Violence Violence eight years in a row. But I don’t think that’s possible for us, we’re always changing. Trying to do something new with our music is like a baby trying different food as it gets older; you’re not just gonna eat pizza your whole life.”
“That’s the trick wth rock’n’roll,” Hawk smirks knowingly, “you gotta make it sound like you’re not trying.”
But the difference of opinion isn’t an issue for Farrar. “No, it doesn’t annoy me. I’ve been in a punk band for so long that I talk to kids and have interactions with kids and I know that a lot of them want some kind of concrete band in their life or something, but lately I’ve also been meeting kids who really like the progression and how we change up our style. I’m not really affected by it… if you like it, you like it.”
“Well, it’s obviously not literal,” Hawk advises, to my relief. “There are lots of different elements aside from soul on the album: folk rock and pop. Obviously in the past we’ve had a slightly Americana-influenced sound, whereas we do think this album is slightly more soul-influenced. Conceptually though it is more soulful; for me ‘soul’ is more of an emotional place,” he concludes, again sounding vague, although his explanation actually makes sense.
WHO: Ceremony WHAT: Zoo (Matador/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 29 June, Irene’s Warehouse (all ages); Saturday 30, Bendigo Hotel
The crib notes which journalists receive before an interview, on this occasion, describe Liberty Sunset Blue as having more of a soul influence, compared to the band’s previous work. Now one doesn’t call oneself an expert on the finer points of the genre, but try as I might, I have failed miserably to find the ‘soul’ element within the album.
Hawk’s conceptual shift makes its way into the album in subtle ways. And, like a Where’s Wally? picture, once you know what to look for, it’s impossible not to see it. “With the first record I made, Echo Park [which Hawk released under his own name, before hitching his wagon to the Endless Party], a lot of it
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was folk rock. And with folk rock music you tend to tell more stories. With this record, it was more confessional on a lyrical and communication level, talking from a first-person perspective. If you listen to Motown – Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke – their songs are like a one-to-one dialogue, rather than a song about a grand journey like folk-rock songs.” While the style might be confessional, don’t get too excited – this is not the moment when you see Hawk’s emotional underthings exposed for your examination. “They’re not about me, no,” he concedes of the songs. “[They] are about art, about… at the end of the day it depends what interpretation you want to put on it. I see making music, or any art form, as a two-way street: at some point it ends up in a performance or on record and that’s when the magic happens, an alchemy that creates something else for somebody else. It doesn’t really matter what I think about the songs,” he offers. Hawk is fond of this idea of sonic ‘alchemy’, and the melding of personalities in a mysterious manner to concoct pure musical gold. He describes the songwriting process within his band as similarly alchemic. “With this band, we’re lucky because there’s a chemistry between us all, very organic,” he says. “A lot of the time songwriting will come from an impulse. The process is very… fluid.” A workaholic he may be, but a control freak Hawk is not. “I think you have to be relaxed about writing songs [with a band] or you go crazy. I know there are a lot of people who like to have more control. but I think you have to lose control to make things beautiful.” WHO: Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party WHAT: Liberty Sunset Blue (First Love Records/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 30 June, Toff In Town
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INPRESS • 27
SINGLED OUT WITH BRYGET CHRISFIELD
ON THE RECORD
THE GRISWOLDS Heart Of A Lion Independent
No Hope Sony “But if you wanna come back it’s alright, it’s alright” – If Ya Wanna by The Vaccines is all shades of mosh-mayhem brilliance. And it’s fitting that the lyrics, “It’s hard to come of age/I think it’s a problem” lie within their new single No Hope, because that’s what it sounds like the band are struggling to do in this sonic experimentation. Vocalist Justin Young is trying on some kind of Julian Casablancas timbre through the choruses, which is kinda hot. But “I hope it’s just a phase” as well. Bring back the youthful exuberance already! What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? More of the same, hopefully.
URTHBOY FEAT DANIEL MERRIWEATHER Naïve Bravado Elefant Traks These staccato beats make you feel like crumping, but then Daniel Merriweather’s molasses croon transforms the chorus. Urthboy’s “duckin’ and weaving” around the intricate beats navigating exploratory wordplay, but there’s something a little Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance about the “oh-oh-oh-ah-oh” inclusion. How-low-can-yougo, spleen-rupturing bass serves as an intriguing contrast to tinkling riffs and sporadic horn blasts. Count Bounce and Hermitude nail the production on this one giving Naïve Bravado immediate international appeal. And Damian Walshe-Howling stars in the (somewhat disturbing) video complete with added, ultra-realistic fistfight sounds.
HOT WATER MUSIC
Near Death Experience
Rise Records
Redcat Sounds
Spooky Records
When Hot Water Music’s frontman Chuck Ragan left the band to embark on a solo folk career, it was uncertain whether he would return. After a considerably long hiatus in which the other members got busy with their own side projects and formed new band The Draft, Ragan has finally returned and Hot Water Music have released their first studio full-length in eight years.
Kicking off with the moody title track, which lifts you up and carries you away on an epic astral travel, In Hindsight immediately promises great things from the band formerly known as Howl. When people are jumping up and down about what you’re doing anyway, it takes courage to adjust the musical template. But there’s talent to spare within the ranks of this Ballarat sextet: Hunting Grounds now boasts three accomplished alternating vocalists, who all bring entirely different personalities to their respective tracks, as well as multiple songwriters (keys master Galen Strachan makes his songwriting and lead singing debut on this release).
Exister
Near Death Experience is the debut album for Harry Howard & The NDE, a band that could be described as a supergroup, containing members of Melbourne’s musical elite. Harry Howard’s musical stripes have been well and truly earned over the years, having previously been a part of some significant local bands (Crime & The City Solution, These Immortal Souls, Pink Stainless Tail). Behind him, forming The NDE, are Edwina Preston, Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
D
VD
VD
THE VACCINES
LIVE
HARRY HOWARD & THE NDE
D
This infectious ditty with manic-paced bass gets under your skin and makes you crazy-dance: ”Wi-itch doctor is tryin’a smite you/Take the medicine that he gives to you.” Are we ever gonna get sick of “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-AH-oh-oh-oh” ‘geezers at sporting event’ sing-alongs? I think it’s on the verge of overkill, but The Griswolds got it in there right on the cusp. There’s a slowmo, underwater feel to the breakdown before a return to propulsive beats that sounds like a percussion store is being looted. Lovin’ it. And the dandy lion cover art just seals the deal.
The album opens strongly with Lies and its catchy organ hook. While the lyrics are biting, they’re not angry and there is no try-hard attitude behind them, and it is this lack of pretension that is incredibly warming and inviting. As you make your way through Near Death Experience, it’s evident that Howard’s lyrical style is honest, very descriptive, and blackly humorous (see Old Man Blues for clear evidence). It is no surprise that Preston, Graney and Moore provide more than competent backing for Howard and his guitar. Funnily enough, though, it’s the closing track, History Is Linear, which stands out the most, with its comparatively minimal musical accompaniment. Part of Near Death Experience’s lies in the dirtiness of the whole thing. It is not clean-cut in any way, shape or form. Instead, it lets the filth of life in through the cracks and is not scared to show it. Harry Howard & The NDE are an excellent example of Melbourne’s rich musical heritage and experience at its dirty best.
Produced by the Descendant’s Bill Stevenson (Propagandhi, Rise Against), Exister is by far the band’s biggest-sounding and best-produced album in their career. Everything sounds crisp, loud and professional. Musically, the album is a mix between Caution and 2004’s The New What Next – not as energetic as the former but faster than the latter. Ragan, the most distinctive of Hot Water Music’s two vocalists, sounds like he’s been smoking 20 cigars a day in the eight years since their previous LP – his voice is very gruff on the album. On paper, this may not sound good, but the change in his voice suits Hot Water Music’s new tunes. Chris Willard puts in an admirable vocal performance too, but Ragan is the album’s star. Song-wise, rocking opener Mainline is an album highlight, as is the title track, and the band’s most commercial song yet Drag My Body is a surprisingly good listen. However, closer Paid In Full will remind listeners what makes Hot Water Music so special. While some of Exister’s songs are forgettable, and the album is by no means the band’s best, it’s still great to have Hot Water Music back. Simon Rundin
Dominique Wall
HUNTING GROUNDS In Hindsight
Standout track Kill My Friends bolts through your speakers like a runaway racehorse whose nosebag’s been laced with crank, Lachlan Morrish’s abrasive yowls varying in intensity. The song’s breakdown is stripped back to incidental keys and drumstick clicks, which lure you into a false sense of peace before the encore aural assault. In Colour, the single Hunting Grounds released as an album teaser last July, is a pause in the spacetime continuum, simultaneously leafing through Howl’s yearbook while Hunting Grounds chart future killer tracks. The stunning Wings is a shimmering, soaring romantic ode that shares lyrical themes with There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths. The band’s lyricism always veers away from the obvious: “Swimming in a rip tide/There’s no elegance in suicide.” This debut longlayer showcases a bunch of ridiculously talented mates who never let ego get in the way of realising a song’s full potential. It’s part Animal Collective with a touch of The Horrors, but producer Paul ‘Woody’ Annison is the whisperer that tames this six-headed beast. In Hindsight proves it’s possible for a band to evolve without alienating diehard fans. Bryget Chrisfield
VAN SHE Jamaica Modular/Universal Tropical percussion, glockenspiel, synth drones and an exultant chorus combine and you can almost smell the coconut oil and gunja. The tempo is suitable for lounging in a deck chair by the pool with your Hawaiian shirt open just so, [insert your choice of summer slacks] and loafers kicked off as you nod along to the beat casting come-hither glances across the bar. There’s definitely an umbrella in your piña colada and some escalating tweaks offer unlimited remixing possibilities (which I’m sure have already been mixed). A promising taste of what’s to come from the band who brought you Kelly (choon!).
JOHNNY RUFFO On Top Sony Who can resist a rags (or in this case probably overalls) to riches story? Just last year, Johnny Ruffo was a concreter in Balcatta, WA before entering The X Factor last year. “I’m on top of the world when I’m on top of you, girl.” Hmmm that’s one suggestive chorus, but there’s something just so likeable about Ruffo that you’d probably buy this for your tween niece without hesitation. “Andy232400” begs to differ via his YouTube comment: “OMG... Common [think he meant come on?] johnny that’s a bit rude don’t ya think. That does not set a very good example to young girls. Girls will think the only time their boyfriend is happy is when he is on top of her. Sad Johnny :(“ Anyhoo, Ruffo can sure back it up live and LMFAO have committed far greater sins to humanity. Happy Johnny :) 28 •INPRESS
THE INVISIBLE
KEVIN PURDY
THE OFFSPRING
Ninja Tune
Soft Records
Columbia Records
The Invisible were born from UK experimental composer Matthew Herbert’s live band. When Herbert offered to put out the solo album for band member Dave Okumu, Okumu roped in friends Tom Herbert and Leo Taylor to release their 2009 Mercury Prize-nominated debut.
In his first album under his full name, the Sydneybased artist formerly known as Purdy returns with a new direction. His previous three solo albums, and his criminally underrated work in Tooth, served up a smorgasbord of sun-kissed psychedelic exotica, with traces of everything from kosmische to electronic pop, yet for Illumination Purdy strips back his ingredients dramatically.
The first half of The Offspring’s Days Go By is as good as any recent release from their ‘90s punk alumni: Pennywise, NOFX, Green Day, Bad Religion et al. It’s a throwback to Ignition (1992) and Smash (1994) without surrendering to nostalgia. Contemporising their sound, along the way they add crunching melodic guitars and a previously ignored social conscience, delivered with a newfound sense of urgency.
What’s left is an E-bow and guitar alongside some synth, as well as field recordings. Interestingly, he’s also stripped back his melodic desire for structure. We’re not talking about songs anymore, rather we’re dealing with evocative pieces of sound, textures that initially bring to mind the sci-fi noir of Vangelis’ Blade Runner score. There’s a density to the music too, with things whirring and bubbling beneath sustained drones and gentle runs of notes.
Six tracks in, however, it takes a turn for the worse. Crusin’ California references 2Pac’s California Love and Katy Perry’s California Girls in more than just title. Exploiting Auto-Tuned vocals and callow lyricism, it’s satirically kitsch. Forty-six year old vocalist Dexter Holland off-puttingly sings about “g-strings” and “bumpin’ trunks” and like Pretty Fly For A White Guy 14 years prior, it slides into novelty rank and rarely overcomes it. OC Guns is shamelessly ‘90s and similarly polarising. Borrowing the offbeat guitar rhythms of the third wave ska craze with nu-metal-like turntable scratching, Holland sings a verse in Spanish, matched by a suitably Mariachi horn section. The song, indicative of much of the band’s later career, is out of place and whimsically deviates from the serious to the dismissive in a number of minutes. The track Days Go By suspiciously sounds like Foo Fighters’ Times Like These. Borrowing the opening riff and lyrical themes, it’s an audacious inclusion. So too Dirty Magic, a re-recording of a track penned 20 years ago.
Rispah
Illumination
The trio’s follow-up some three years later is quite a different beast, irrevocably coloured by the death of Okumu’s mother, which at first disconnected him from music, though later became the anchor point and inspiration for the album. Okumu calls it a “love letter to grief”, and you can hear recordings of his grandmother and others singing spirituals over his mother’s body sampled into a few pieces on this album. Not surprisingly it’s a melancholic album, Okumu’s lush, near whispered vocals are heartfelt and reflective. Musically you can’t help but hear elements of Radiohead in the merging of the electronics and spidery guitar melodies, not to mention Okumu’s vocals, though The Invisible don’t build in intensity or density, keeping everything relatively consistent. Their sound is probably more commercial than Radiohead, containing elements of dance music, even jazz, and there is an understated charm about what they do. They’re at their best when they deviate, however, such as on the wonky psychedelia of The Wall, which makes the listener hear the music differently, confused, warbling strangely distended out of the speakers, but undeniably beautiful. Then there’s the final piece, Protection, which counterbalances Okumu’s gentle croon with a thriving hyper-energetic repetitive electronic rock-out that somehow evolves into the aforementioned Kenyan spirituals, leaving the listener with an overwhelming sense of spiritual peace. Bob Baker Fish
Mountains Dreaming is the only beat-based tune, perhaps the closest to his earlier work, yet it’s slow and heavy, and the textures just float on by. If anything the beats make it feel even more amorphous, a demonstration of what Purdy hasn’t chosen to anchor his sounds to. Here Above, In Silence is the best track on the album; Purdy delves into childlike melodic sound art, with recordings of birds and bizarre unexplained textural sounds, while also fiddling with sweeping, lush synth pads. Cloud Shadows On Hill is an at times atonal experimental piece, with scraping strings and creepy close mic’d wordless vocals from guest Amanda Stewart. It’s Purdy at his most experimental, yet also most creative, on an exciting risk-taking album that really pushes his artistic and creative boundaries. Bob Baker Fish
themusic.com.au
Days Go By
Days Go By, recorded around touring commitments, sounds as staggered and sporadic as the time taken to record it. For a ninth full-length release, it’s unconvincing, with a closing 20 minutes disconnecting any prior momentum. What could have been a career defining statement instead succumbs to style over substance. Brendan Hitchens
COLD SPECKS
EL-P
GOJIRA
KELLY HOGAN
Mute/EMI
Fat Possum/Shock
Roadrunner
Anti-/Warner
Working with the genius producer Rob Ellis of PJ Harvey and Ana Calvi fame, it should be easy to create a palatable record. However, Al Spx of Cold Specks has taken her music further to develop an epic debut in the genre of doom soul.
Arriving five years after 2007’s boundary-busting I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, El-P’s third studio album proper is expected to contend with some pretty hefty expectations. Cancer 4 Cure doesn’t really measure up though. It’s a fine record; it’s simply a different record. In many ways, its intentions seem almost diametrically opposed to those of its predecessor.
Few acts have made such a gigantic statement during their first visit to our shores as Gojira. Fresh from bludgeoning us at Soundwave, they’re now charged with the task of delivering an LP (their first for Roadrunner) worthy of such a reputation. The environmentallyfriendly French progressive death troupe has responded to the dolphin’s cry in monumental fashion.
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead was an exercise in maximalism. Roping in collaborators as diverse as Cat Power, Trent Reznor and The Mars Volta, El-P’s second album was a sprawling exploration of his limits and the limits of his bruising, all-encompassing production style. Cancer 4 Cure is an exercise in precision. It transforms I’ll Sleep...’s lo-fi post-industrial stew into polished blasts of experimental hip hop aggression.
Morbid Angel meets Strapping Young Lad wrestling Meshuggah is still the foundation and it takes mere seconds into opener, Explosia, to confirm their approach is still heavier than a busload of Sumo wrestlers. Planned Obsolescence’s scope is simply enormous and the title track’s seething intensity is in the vein of 2005’s monstrous masterclass, From Mars To Sirius. It’s not just about towering riffs, pinch harmonics, frenetic blast-beats or in the case of closer, The Fall, a punishing, psychedelic nightmare. The heaviness is underpinned by a brooding melodic sensibility, counterpunched by a pulsating ambience, robotic vocal spots and jagged polyrhythms, but all without stooping to unnecessary progressive wankery.
Country and indie rock chanteuse Kelly Hogan has for a decade been best known for being Neko Case’s beautifully-voiced foil both onstage and in the studio – as well as singing on a raft of records by a diverse array of acts such as The Waco Bothers, Tortoise, Silkworm and Drive-By Truckers – but now she’s decided to step back into the spotlight with I Like To Keep Myself In Pain, her fourth solo album but first since 2001.
I Predicted A Graceful Expulsion
I Predict A Graceful Expulsion is the first album to come from this Canadian-born artist. Water, death and faith are themes that run deep in this record with standout tracks Steady, Holland and Winter Solstice drawing heavily from them with lyrics like “I have my gods will you give me thy ghosts/Sons and daughters may you kill/What my blind heart could not.” But perhaps more poignant than the words themselves are the way in which they are delivered. It’s almost as if with each breath Al Spx takes, an invisible third party is reaching into her throat and ripping the lyrics out of her body. Hard to imagine, yes, but just picture something similar to Ursula and Ariel. Such is the power and unique tone of her voice that there is little need for massive musical production to underlay it. The best songs are the ones stripped back to the bare essentials with only light additions of strings, piano and percussion, although there is still the odd rolling drum to amazing crescendo (check out Steady for that one). The team behind this album is quite small with manager Jim Anderson also doing the photography and roping in most of the musicians. This allows for incredibly intimate moments, especially on the last track Old Stepstone, which features only the vocals of Al Spx. As a debut this is one of the most honest records to come out in 2012. Jack Crane
Cancer 4 Cure
I Like To Keep Myself In Pain
L’Enfant Sauvage
The overall make-up is significantly more accessible than El-P’s previous outings. The production is cleaner, brighter and more precise. Genres are more easily teased from the collage. The UK grime kinetics of Works Every Time or abstracted boom-bap groove of Oh Hail No, for example, represent some of the most conventional work of El-P’s career. Drones Over Brklyn is potentially his catchiest work to date. None of which is to suggest El-P has actually compromised his aesthetic. The cerebral patterns and unpredictable song structures remain intact. His bass-heavy, lurching, synth-heavy production is still fundamentally unchanged. The producer/ MC just seems to have shifted his focus – from experimentation to craftsmanship. Matt O’Neill
Once the project was underway Hogan assembled a killer band – including, amazingly, the legendary Booker T Jones on keys, soul pioneer James Gadson on drums and Gabriel Roth (of Dap-Tones and Sharon Jones fame) on bass. She then approached a slew of songwriters – friends or former workmates from various projects – and solicited this batch of songs, which were then worked up as an ensemble.
Gojira were already critical darlings and a cult favourite among metallers, but like Mastodon before them, L’Enfant Sauvage’s marginally more accessible – yet no less impacting – nature appears set to position them as the heavy band of choice among hipsters too. Public Enemy told us don’t believe the hype, but punters can make an exception here, as few metal records of 2012 will surpass this.
Hogan’s sultry voice is still the key ingredient here, but the eclectic depth of songwriting talent on display is staggering: highlights include Vic Chesnutt’s powerful Ways Of This World, M. Ward’s free spirited Daddy’s Little Girl, Andrew Bird and Jack Pendarvis’ We Can’t Have Nice Things, The Handsome Family’s The Green Willow Valley and Stephen Merritt’s touching Plant White Roses, but there are no real duds amongst these 13 tracks. The rich and malleable canon of Case (to whom Hogan dedicates her sole self-written track, Golden) informs the tone and arrangements, but Hogan is an intuitive interpreter in her own right and this sophisticated and solemn blend of country and soul proves that she’s much more than just a pretty background vocal on a clutch of cool records.
Brendan Crabb
Steve Bell
THE CAST OF CHEERS
DIIV
THE MEN
LAWRENCE ARABIA
TRIPLE J FEATURE ALBUM
FEATURES SINGLE “HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?”
★★★★
PLAYING LIVE JULY 4TH AT THE TOFF
FAMILY
Features the singles “Family” and “Animals”. Long awaited debut album out now. See them live at Splendour In The Grass and supporting Django Django.
OSHIN
Rising - PITCHFORK
OPEN YOUR HE ART GUARDIAN
★★★★★
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Best New Band
THE SPARROW
Pre-order the album now at Polyester and receive a freeticket to the gig! In-store and online July 13
- PITCHFORK
themusic.com.au
INPRESS • 29
FRONTROW@INPRESS.COM.AU
THIS WEEK IN
ARTS
WEDNESDAY 27
SATURDAY 30
Bridesmaids and The Five Year Engagement – a double screening of Judd Apatow films, the man behind Freaks & Geek, Funny People, Knocked Up, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Girls to name a few. This double screening at the Astor is sure to have you cringing, laughing and crying. A favourite tweet for Apatow: “Women on a set are just as filthy. Less porn and pot talk. More vaginal references.” Astor Theatre, 7.30pm. At Arms Length – a storytelling chain from Melbourne to Perth to Canberra. Responding to the stories of those affected by the arms trade, featuring new work from Melbourne artists Kirsti Whalen (spoken word), Harley Hefford (video), Aimee Rytenskild (visual), Flo DacyCole (installation) and Sarah Xie (installation). ARTillery is Australia’s largest human rights arts festival run by young people. Loop, 7pm. The Cabin In The Woods – five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods... Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan-favourites Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Avengers) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, Lost) comes a new mind-blowing horror suspense film that turns the genre inside out. Nova Cinemas, 7.30pm & 9.45pm sessions.
To Know A Veil – a photographic installation by Hedy Ritterman, an artist who combines portraiture with the appropriation of public commercial images and public art works, presenting them in oppositional contexts. Closing today, Colour Factory Gallery, artist talk, 2pm.
THURSDAY 28 Simply Barbra – New York cabaret artist Steven Brinberg recreates Streisand’s most famous songs live, coupled with comedy. An affectionate pastiche. Opening night, Chapel Off Chapel, 7pm, until 30 June. 4.48 Psychosis – English playwright Sarah Kane’s final work, a sympathetic and deeply human portrait of a person in the grips of clinical depression, as well as an examination of how our medical system is still grasping at dangerous straws in the attempts to cure and control it. “After 4.48 I shall not speak again.” Rue Bebelons, 7pm, until 30 June.
FRIDAY 29 Sex.Violence.Blood.Gore – written by Alfian bin Sa’at, when this play was first performed, it was in a basement, in secret and the company did not advertise. It was 1999, and it was Singapore. Two working-class teens meet a pair of transvestites on an MRT train. And then there is an apparition who is part pornographic star of the World’s Biggest Gang Bang, part first Prime Minister of Singapore: Annabel Chong + Lee Kuan Yew. Directed by Stephen Nicolazzo. Opening Night, MKA Nth Melbourne Pop Up Theatre, 8pm, until 14 July. Terrain – Bangarra Dance Theatre presents a fusion of contemporary dance and storytelling commissioned by artistic director Stephen Page, set in Lake Eyre, the place of Australia’s inland sea, one of the few untouched natural waterways in the world. Bangarra artists explore the innate connection of Indigenous people to country and how the landscape is a second skin. Opening night, The Arts Centre, 8pm, until 7 July.
30 • INPRESS
ON THE PROMOTIONAL ROAD
SUNDAY 1 Eight – written by Ella Hickson, a play that deals with the contemporary issues of ‘Generation Y’ and growing up in a world in which the central value system is based on an ethic of commercial, aesthetic and sexual excess. Closing night, 7.30pm, No Vacancy Gallery. Tying Knots – a romantic comedy with a political twist about two deeply committed, same-sex Melbourne couples who live together and are best friends. They want for nothing except to the legal right to marry. They decide to marry each-others’ each other to get around the legal problem. Written by Indigo Brandenburg and directed by Oscar Lopez. Closing day, La Mama Theatre, 6.30pm. Raiders Of The Lost Ark – Spielberg’s classic… dah... dah... dadada… dah dah... DahDahdaDah! Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) embarks on the search for The Ark of the Convenant, an artefact that holds the key to human existence. Astor Theatre, 2pm, 5pm & 8pm. Surviving Progress – from the makers of The Corporation and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, this documentary examines the nuances of the “Capitalist experiment”. Inspired by Ronald Wright’s best-selling book, A Short History Of Progress, this doco questions the speed of our evolution. It proposes that humans are running on 50,000 year old hardware that is yet to be upgraded. Opening at ACMI Cinemas, 7pm, until 15 July.
TUESDAY 3 One Lonely Guy – Nick Kesidis recently took first place at The Australian Society of Magicians competition. Kesidis is a unique blend of street performer and entertainer, armed with a pack of cards, a handful of coins and his quick wit that make him a very entertaining night out. Opening night, Northcote Town Hall, 9.30pm, until 7 July.
ONGOING We Are All Flesh – artist Berlinde De Bruyckere uses wax, wood, wool, horse skin and hair to make haunting sculptures of humans, animals and trees in metamorphosis. Based in her hometown of Ghent, Berlinde De Bruyckere’s studio is an old neo-Gothic Catholic school house. From here she creates her sculptures of torsos morphing into branches, where trees are captured and displayed inside old museum cabinets and cast horses are crucified upside down in works that have been described as brutal, challenging, inspiring and both frightening and comforting. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art until 29 July.
Guy Davis plays amateur psychologist based on a 15-minute interview and a Google search (an extensive Google search) and concludes that Kristen Stewart is nowhere near as surly, withdrawn or detached as the Twilight star’s naysayers would have you think. There have been a fair few articles and opinion pieces about the 22-year-old actor’s demeanour, particularly when she’s on the publicity trail (sample headline: ‘Kristen Stewart Is Trolling The World’), but get her talking about what draws her to a project or shapes her performance and Stewart is forthcoming with ideas and impressions. Not all are completely formed, but the fact that she seems to be considering her answers rather than relying on ready-made anecdotes and platitudes is actually kind of cool. Along with co-star Chris Hemsworth and director Rupert Sanders, Stewart was in Australia this week to promote her latest film, the revisionist fairy tale Snow White & The Huntsman, a big-budget fantasy that adds a slight shade of darkness to the story of the ‘fairest of them all’ princess. (That said, have you read the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale lately? Some pretty gnarly stuff in there.) She plays Snow White, imprisoned and victimised by her wicked stepmother Ravenna (Charlize Theron), a witch who retains her beauty by literally drawing the life out of the young women of the land. When Snow White escapes, Ravenna dispatches Hemsworth’s boozy, brawling Huntsman to bring her back. But it’s not long before the two outsiders join forces to take the battle to the evil Ravenna, aided by a band of dwarves played by the best-of-British likes of Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane and Ray Winstone. Stewart believes that most people’s notion of Snow White is the sweet, demure Disney version of the character (“unless they read a lot of
fairy tales as a kid, which I didn’t”), and so she admits that she didn’t really see the potential of a new Snow White story when she first heard about the film. “I didn’t really see why anyone would want to join her cause,” she says. “Back when the Disney version was made, being a caretaker, being delicate and sweet and maternal, was kind of an ultimate goal. But to do the story today, I think she has to do a little more than sweep house. When I read it, I could totally recognise Snow White within this very dark context as someone really, really trying to retain light and not harden. “Right now, a lot of female characters that are trying to be strong are promoted as ‘Yeah, female empowerment!’ but in this case I’m glad she remained a girl, someone trying to find her strength and her steadiness and her compassion and her trust in herself. You know, we rip her heart out and stomp on it, put it back in her chest and see if it still beats... and it does. So I thought it was really impressive, the darkness and the light of this world.” It was revealed this week that Stewart topped the Forbes magazine list of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses, her paydays for the last two Twilight Saga movies earning her more than $12 million (and her cut of her profits ramping it up even more). But her tastes seem to be run more towards the independent end of things, with the actress taking on roles in criticallyacclaimed films like Adventureland, Into The Wild and The Runaways. So she was happily surprised when Snow White & The Huntsman
offered her the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the creative process than she imagined it would. “It’s a big movie with a lot of people involved and a lot of money invested in it,” she says. “The type that’s done by committee... or at least I’ve heard. On this, it was really me and Rupert and Chris – me and Charlize didn’t work much together but sometimes we did – and it felt so intimate. There was a handful of us holding this thing very delicately in our hands. And it changed every day – it was shaped and moulded and rewritten and we were constantly discussing about what we’d be shooting the next day or the next week. And that’s very rare on a big movie like this. I don’t have much experience of big movies but my impression was that smaller movies were a bit freer. But we had a lot of freedom here.” Her next role offers an interesting contrast – in On The Road, Walter Salles’ much-anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel, she plays Marylou, the young wife of freewheeling Dean Moriarty. It’s a project that’s been in development for decades, based on a book that many, many readers are greatly invested in. “I’ve always felt a self-inflicted pressure,” says Stewart when asked if she feels an added sense of responsibility when attached to such a project. “And as soon as you raise your hand and say ‘Yes, I will participate’, you’re putting yourself in a position to either satisfy or let down a lot of people who really love this thing. A movie takes a lot of passion and a lot of investment, and the greatest part of the job is being able to share that with people. It’s
great to share a love for something, and doing that on this scale is so remarkably unique. It will probably never ever happen to me again. When we first started, we didn’t know what was going to happen – it was something we all loved and were invested in. It was this small, quirky movie that blew up and we were lucky enough to take the ride.” I was thinking about how that last statement seemed a little incongruous when talking about On The Road when Stewart exclaimed, “Wait, were you talking about fuckin’ Twilight or On The Road? I don’t know why I inserted Twilight when you said On The Road!” She laughed to herself before starting over, and there’s now a greater enthusiasm and sincerity in her voice than before. “On The Road was my first favourite book. It ignited something inside of me when I read it, and when I sat down with Walter it was clear we loved it for the same reasons. He didn’t even make me audition, which blew my mind. Our expectations are high, impossibly high, as anyone’s. The way that book should become a movie is to have it feel found, stumbled-upon, spontaneous. The only way you can do that is by knowing everything – we basically spent four weeks in school studying it – and then forgetting everything. I know there are so many people with so many expectations and opinions and criticisms and I can say to them that everybody involved in this film squeezed the last bit of soul we could into it.” WHAT: Snow White & The Huntsman WHEN: In cinemas now
FRONTROW@INPRESS.COM.AU
FRAGMENTED
FISH
SOLARIS
WITH BOB BAKER FISH There are only a handful of truly great films. Solaris (Distinction Series) is one of them. It’s often billed as Russia’s answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey, yet while sharing a desire with Kubrick to create intelligent science fiction, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (Stalker) uses the setting merely as a launching pad to grapple with some of the broader existential questions of our existence. Made in 1972, it’s one of the most unconventional love stories you will ever see: a mystical, at times hallucinatory parable of love, loss, and what makes us human. Sent to assess the crew at the remote space station Prometheus (yes, Ridley), in orbit above the mysterious planet Solaris, a psychologist discovers a crew in chaos, exhibiting strange and paranoid, possibly delusional, behaviour. Gradually though he too falls under the spell of Solaris, retreating into his memories and grappling with an unresolved past that threatens to consume him. The film is an artistic masterwork; it’s visually spectacular, particularly on Blu-ray, and Tarkovsky is one of those few directors who know how to fully utilise sound, with incredible musique concrete techniques mixed with score. In fact Solaris redefined the cinematic language. At 166 minutes its effect on you is gradual, sensory and experiential. Don’t be fooled by cheap Soderbergh
THEATRE
THE GOLDEN DRAGON Lawler Studio, MTC The MTC version of The Golden Dragon, directed by Daniel Clarke, is a fine production of an extraordinary text. Set around an Asian restaurant, five cast members each play different characters in a series of related stories. Bizarrely, the more the business on stage reminds you that what you’re seeing is artifice, the more
FILM
imitations. This is the best cinema has to offer. Speaking of which, David Lynch’s remarkable debut Eraserhead (Umbrella) has finally secured a Bluray release. This film too redefined the cinematic language, though sent it confused and whimpering into an entirely different direction. It’s a dark, surreal and unsettling tale that has something to do with childbirth and fear of responsibility. Elevator doors take too long to close, chickens wriggle on the plate while eaten and miniature ladies with bad skin sing from inside the radiator. It has the greatest sound design in the history of cinema, is visually remarkable and funny as hell. No one creates atmosphere or scary cornball wrongness like Lynch. Despite Blue Velvet, or even the incredible Inland Empire, Lynch has never surpassed this act of pure artistic genius. Ex Drummer (Siren) was one of the most audacious, dark and intelligent debuts in some time. The 2007 film’s bleak, at times violent, humour and raw punk energy singled out Belgian director Koen Mortier as an idiosyncratic storyteller unafraid to lurk in the shadows. 22nd Of May (Accent) is his follow-up: a gentler, more arthouse-orientated deconstruction of a bombing in a shopping centre. It’s from the perspective of Sam the security guard who, after the explosion, attempts to save victims trapped in the centre, before becoming overwhelmed and running through the streets until he collapses. This is where it enters Wings Of Desire territory, with the near deserted streets an existential purgatory, populated only by victims of the bombing, who unburden themselves to Sam, some accusatory, some apathetic. Sam discovers lives with hopes and dreams, all extinguished via one senseless act, while also grappling with his own feelings of guilt and complicity. The finale is spectacular. Think Zabriskie Point but with shoes.
REVIEW
strongly engaged you become with the play. Various small stories of suburban horror are acted out or narrated, building on each other with a mesmerising and oddly beautiful theatrical eloquence. The imagery is unforgettable and the accumulated effect of what you see tends towards the visceral. Dana Miltins, in her debut for the MTC, deserves a special mention but all the performances are first rate. Liza Dezfouli Running until 7 July
“HEROIC” HEMSWORTH
Chris Hemsworth chats to Guy Davis about The Huntsman’s deeper side in Snow White & The Huntsman.
ALL HANDS ON DECKS
Need a big, burly guy who can make good, heroic use of everyday workshop tools? Chris Hemsworth is your man. The imposing Australian actor is, of course, well-known for his portrayal of Thor, the swaggering, hammer-swinging Marvel Comics god of thunder in the movie of the same name and some little-known superhero blockbuster called The Avengers. But riding shotgun at the box office is Hemsworth’s other big 2012 blockbuster, the epic fantasy Snow White & The Huntsman. Hemsworth plays the titular Huntsman, a boozy brawler who has a broken heart and an effective way with an axe. After the tragic death of his wife, he’s happy drowning his sorrows until he’s press-ganged by evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) into tracking down Snow White (Kristen Stewart), the only one who can dethrone the wicked ruler. But when he encounters “the fairest of them all”, it’s not long before he locates his inner hero and join forces with Snow White. Theirs is an interesting relationship, and it’s part of what motivated Hemsworth to take part in the project. “I liked the fact that it didn’t follow the regular path,” he says. “She’s the only light in this world of darkness and hatred and pain, and she starts to open him up again. Having someone believing in him reawakens the strength inside him, and that inspires her as well. It’s an odd relationship – it’s got a bit of yin and yang, a bit of a brothersister dynamic and a bit of Han Solo-Princess Leia as well, which I liked.” Working with Stewart proved invigorating to his performance as well. “I always had an idea Kristen was going to be pretty passionate, having seen interviews and that,” he says. “You don’t want someone who’s just going to sit on the fence, you want someone with a definite, well thought-out opinion and she has that. She knew everything about who Snow White was, why she did what she did. That attitude lifts everybody’s game, and it’s fantastic.” As for his own character, Hemsworth admits that he was briefly reluctant to take on a character that seemed
similar to Thor. But the more he delved into the Huntsman, the more he found a “broken guy” with an intriguing backstory and a compelling character arc. “He certainly has his physical strength but he’s also an open wound – he’s suffered this incredible loss, which has led him down this path of drinking and brawling and whatever else,” he says. “I liked the vulnerability he showed in his private moments. These tough, fighting guys can often be two-dimensional, and it’s not often we get to tear them open like this, which is something I enjoyed doing.” There’s already talk of a Snow White & The Huntsman sequel (or even a Huntsman spinoff), which will sit nicely alongside Hemsworth’s other franchises – Thor 2 begins filming later this year, and an Avengers sequel is naturally in the pipeline, given that the first movie has already made something like eighty trillion dollars. But he’s also keen to try his hand at some non-blockbuster projects, with Rush, Ron Howard’s biopic of the respectful rivalry between Formula One legends James Hunt and Niki Lauda due for release early next year. (Hemsworth plays Hunt, Inglourious Basterds star Daniel Bruhl plays Lauda.) And then there’s the cult-sensation-in-the-making The Cabin In The Woods, the horrormovie deconstruction produced and co-written by The Avengers’ Joss Whedon. After a long delay, it’s getting a limited release in Australia... and it’s already winning over audiences. “Someone just asked me about that one, asking what it was about, and I told them ‘You know, I didn’t completely understand it back then, which was four years ago, and even now I’m still a little confused!’” he laughs. “It’s so witty and so clever, there are so many layers, and I’m gonna have to sit down with Joss Whedon at some stage and pick his brain about it a bit.” WHAT: Snow White & The Huntsman is in cinemas now and Cabin In The Woods is screening exclusively at Cinema Nova
There’s a certain focused yet zonedout look that skaterboarders get in their eyes when they’re skating that Melbourne-based Scottish photographer Nikki Toole likes to capture. “When you skate you don’t talk to other people, you’re in your own headspace, you get into a groove, it’s just natural,” says Toole, who is also a skater. “If you start to overthink it, that’s when you fall and have an accident, so you need to be kind of zoned-out and in your own headspace. Sometimes skaters say they think it’s like a meditation, some of them think it’s a way of escaping.” Since the initial idea for the Skater project sparked off in 2008 – it’s a three-phase book project examining skate culture – Toole has travelled the world and has photographed more than 300 skaters. “I started it as a bit of fun because I had this idea about how I feel when I skate and I wanted to see if anyone else feels the same. It was amazing how so many people from all over the world say, ‘Totally, I get that!’ They feel the same thing.” Capturing that feeling is the reason why Toole takes portraits rather than action shots. Skater is a series of beautiful, fine art black and white portraits that capture the thoughtfulness of the skater, rather than their prowess on a board. “There are other people out there who do amazing action shots and
BRAVE
match her fiery temperament. Her role as a princess according to her mother Queen Elinor is to marry a neighbouring prince in order to bring unity to the kingdom of DunBroch. Merinda is having none of it. She strikes off into the wilderness where she discovers and subsequently makes a poorly-thought out deal
with a sinister old lady to change her mother’s mind. Brave was produced using a brand new animation system from Pixar, completely overhauled for the first time in 25 years. The result is a sumptuous feast of luscious colour and dynamic textures that often requires double takes to confirm their sub-reality. The film features
In her portrait shots of skateboarders, Nikki Toole aims to capture the “zonedout” look skaters get when they’re on their boards, writes Kate Kingsmill.
that’s never really been my thing, I’ve always taken portraiture of some kind. The person interests me, the way all the details that I see that I don’t notice when I’m shooting but later I notice their scars and tattoos and what they’re wearing. I just think it’s so beautiful to look at.” It’s a project, Toole says, that could not have been undertaken so easily ten or 15 years ago before social media. Skaters contact her with requests for her to photograph them from all around the world, and Toole now chooses her travel destinations according to where she wants to photograph skaters. “It’s been a really interesting journey in terms of where we travel. You end up hanging out with the skaters.” She spends a few days getting to know her subjects, and having a drink with them afterwards, but the shoots themselves are usually pretty quick, “Because usually they want to skate!” she says. “I just say to people, ‘Can you be in that headspace?’ But I also want them to connect with me in some way, by looking at me or at the camera or around the camera. I just want them to zone out. Some people do it really quickly, you can see it straight away, they just imagine how they feel while they’re skating, and that’s why I think a lot of them look disconnected. It’s almost like an anti-posing. They’re just standing, they’re relaxed and they’re in that headspace and they’re engaging me, rather than just passively viewing.” Toole has photographed skaters in Prague, Germany, California, Japan and Melbourne and has found the same kind of understanding among skaters everywhere. “When you travel, if you skate, you’ve got this immediate connection with other skaters because you understand the same thing, that it can be quite obsessive. You have a connection because you understand and they understand why you feel like it.“ WHAT: Skater – portraits by Nikki Toole WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 30 June until Sunday 9 September, Geelong Gallery
REVIEW
Pixar/Disney Pixar have finally hit double figures with the release of their tenth feature film, the Scottish epic, Brave. The film follows Princess Merinda, a wee lass with flowing red hair to
the token star-studded cast of voices with the timeless Billy Connolly as King Fergus and sets the tone for their movie. A grand adventure of classic form presented with cutting edge technology. Brilliant. Simon Holland In Cinemas Now INPRESS • 31
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ARTIST PROFILE
just look right through you.”
OUR LAND
five minutes with
THOMAS RUSSELL Visual projection and installation artist Thomas Russell is a busy man. Right now he’s on tour doing live video artwork for Melbourne band Tehachapi. He’s soon taking part in the Gertrude St Projection Festival and exhibiting at its after party, Sensory Overload. “My work is about getting my visions and inner imaginations and applying them in practical way to the world.” Russell says. “I explore themes of connectedness and altered states of perception. As well as ideas of human conciseness and its place in the natural world.” For the Gertrude St Festival, Russell will take over the front window of Wild Bar with You Are Environment, an interactive video display. “Giving an audience a chance to interact with an art piece and essentially create the art, reminds them that they are there in that moment, and get back into the ‘now’ in a fun way,” Russell explains. For Sensory Overload, he is producing a projection sculpture called Infinite Wild Flower II (pictured below), a continuation of a piece he showed at the Sugar Mountain Festival last year. “It is partly inspired by the William Blake poem, Auguries Of Innocence. My aim is that the slightly meditative nature of the projection-mapped sculpture will inspire deep thought.” WHAT: Thomas Russell WHEN & WHERE: Opening 20 July, Gertrude St Projection Festival
DAVID PAGE
Bangarra Dance Company has always strived to bring traditional indigenous dance to the mainstream, and as Aleksia Barron learns from Bangarra’s choreographer Francis Rings and composer David Page, their new work continues that with a vivid description of the land we live on. “When you’re on country, it’s like holding a big mirror up to yourself,” Francis Rings, choreographer for Bangarra Dance Theatre’s new work, Terrain, refers to the company’s time spent at Lake Eyre, which informs the show. “It brings stuff up. You get to deal with stuff and let insignificant things go. You get to the core of yourself. And this isn’t an aboriginal thing, it’s a human thing.” David Page, who has composed the music for Terrain, continues the thread: “The land can do that to you. It’s a great magical medicine. Our people have been saying this for years. You can become part of this groove, this channel. It’s been happening for a long time. You slot in, go with it for a while and at the end of it you’re grateful you’ve been able to be part of it.”
A homage to the lake and its surrounds, Terrain is an exploration, an offering, an expression of connection to place, past and present. “Most of Bangarra’s work is land-related,” says Page. The company spent time at Lake Eyre getting to know the local Arabunna elders and making sure they got their stories right. Rings and Page talk about the deep connection they felt with the area. “The lake was full,” remembers Page. “There was all that water and a great silence, a deafening silence.” “It’s this incredible, amazing landscape,” notes Rings. “It resonates with something, a sense of respect for the place; everyone was affected. You’re so distracted in the city but once you get on the Oodnadatta Track and see the elders out there… They
THE BORN LEGACY Post-pregnancy perineums and leaking breasts: few films have portrayed parenthood as honestly as Rémi Bezançon’s A Happy Event, writes Anthony Carew. In Rémi Bezançon’s crowd-pleasin’ familial saga The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life, the French writer-director left off with one of his grown-up children pregnant. It felt, to him, like a dramatic ellipsis, leading towards a subject he’d always wanted to explore. So, when he came across Eliette Abecassis’ motherhood memoir A Happy Event, Bezançon found the source text that led to his next movie. “I’d always been interested in maternity, and, reading this book, it was such a profound portrait of maternity, of how it feels to be a pregnant woman, to give birth, to be a mother,” explains the 41-year-old filmmaker. “Reading it, I had this desire to make a film of this, to go 32 • INPRESS
RÉMI BEZANÇON (MIDDLE) inside the feelings of a woman. I wanted to try and put myself in the experiences of women, and put that into a movie. It was pretty difficult for me to talk about, because I’ve never had any children myself.” Adapting the autobiography into a fiction film, Bezançon worked with his own real-life love-interest, Vanessa Portal, turning the confessions of a new mother into a greater study of how the arrival of an infant radically redefines a central relationship. A Happy Event begins as cute romantic comedy, with artfully unkempt beefcake (Pio Marmaï) sweetly wooing the fiery dame (the unendingly charismatic Louise Bourgoin). Yet, their carefree young-coupledom
comes undone when our heroine becomes pregnant, fast-tracking their lives from idle, fun-loving and unencumbered to the high-stress hells of new parenthood. These plot developments turn what kicks off as a frothy rom-com into a frank, halfway-to-brutal relationship drama; A Happy Event’s title duly tinged with irony. “I wanted to show something that was more realistic than the presumed happiness that comes with having a child,” Bezançon explains. “I think there’s never been a movie that has portrayed maternity in this realistic a way. That’s why, of course, I wanted to tell this story; to show the world that this is not just a happy event, but that it is really
EASY RIDER
Making these experiences into art is Bangarra Dance Theatre’s essential role. Rings explains: “We are translating the stories of Black Australia. We’re getting up and sayin’ ‘we’re here’. As Aboriginals we are always trying to prove ourselves. We’re still here and we have a lineage that traces back 1000s of years. Story is rekindling culture; we can all embrace it, all learn from it. We all come across our challenges and are finding ways to reinvent ourselves. How do we maintain and protect culture, present a living history? When people go, ‘How do you translate that into dance?’ It’s the same way an Indigenous artist does it. You don’t literally paint a hill but there’s an energy, a presence, something that connects your spirit. How do you respond to it? This is our country. This is our voice. The stories affect all of us; you open yourself up to it.” Both artists regard themselves as creative conduits whereby stories of the country tell themselves. “It’s songlines – a tradition,” says Page. “I see myself as a music songman from my culture. I am part of the storytelling process, that traditional storytelling.” Rings is conscious of the responsibility involved in her work on Terrain, her first full-length choreography. “I am following in big footsteps; they’re massive shoes to fill.” Putting the work together is an aptly organic process, sometimes the dance movements come first, sometimes the music. “She’ll arrange a piece of choreography and I’ll come and put my spin on it,“ continues Page. “We throw it back and forth.” WHAT: Terrain WHEN & WHERE: This Friday until Saturday 7 July, Arts Centre hard. And I wanted to show women that they didn’t have to take all this on themselves, to suffer through this by themselves. A lot of women have thanked me for making this movie, because they see it and feel now more understood.” By depicting new motherhood minus the new-age mysticisms of life-giving, by showing how having an infant can be a delirious mixture of transcendent and horrendous, by portraying post-pregnancy perineums and leaking breasts not as comedy but as reality, Benzançon has lost none of the provocative honesty of Abecassis’ confession. Does Bezançon feel like he’s made a feminist film? “Absolutely!” he beams. “And I’m very happy that you asked that question!” That provocative honesty – that feminism – has also meant that the film, on its opening in France, raised the hackles of more, um, conservative critics. Blithely skating over taboos – “In France, 20% of marriages don’t survive the first year after the birth of a child, but it’s something we never talk about” – A Happy Event is anything but inoffensive blandeur. “The reaction to the film has been really extreme,” Bezançon says. “Reviews [in France] were either exceptionally positive or just really angry, very negative. To me, the movie is like a mirror, and the reactions to it reflect the individual, not necessarily the film itself.” WHAT: A Happy Event WHEN & WHERE: Opening Thursday 5 July, Cinema Nova
MATT NABLE BIKIE WARS
Matt Nable talks to Dave Drayton about his journey from postie bike to purring Harley. With Channel 10’s latest primetime delivery, a motor cycle-riddled mini-series based on the Milperra massacre – seven dead as a result of a bloody feud between the Bandidos and the Comanchero motorcycle clubs on Father’s Day, Sunday 2 September 1984 – titled Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms wrapped up a few week’s ago, actor Matt Nable was, among other things, not heavily tattooed, and certainly not sporting a moustache. These may seem like negligible observations, but this image of Nable is in stark contrast to the one he portrayed while inhabiting the character of Scottish ex-pat William ‘Jock’ Ross, Supreme Commander of the Comancheros, for Bikie Wars. With the release of the mini-series on DVD and Blu-ray ‘round the corner, it seemed fitting that Nable cast his mind back to what it was like to be Jock for the camera. “It was a little easier than I anticipated to part ways with the character,” Nable recalls, “because the preparation was fairly intensive – I guess I tried to build the character over a period of time before we started shooting – and by the end of it I was more than ready to let it go. I remember the day we finished, I got clearance at 10 o’clock the next morning to shave my moustache and get my hair cut, so the first thing I did was just aesthetically change back to, well, anything other than what I looked like doing it.
“But it wasn’t the case while I was doing it,” says Nable. “There were moments there where it could take control of you a little bit, but with this one I didn’t have a great deal of trouble throwing it off. I couldn’t wait to do it. I was covered in tattoos, and that moustache... I was really ready to leave it behind, so to look at yourself in the mirror the next day with none of that stuff on, it made it a lot easier to just move forward.” Given the pride, violence and volatile power of his character, it’s unsurprising that Jock presented an intriguing challenge for Nable. But getting into character as Jock was made a little easier when Nable – who had previously only ridden a postie bike – bit the bullet and hopped on a real hog. “I wasn’t the most confident of riders amongst all the guys,” Nable readily admits. “They’re big bikes, and you know, no helmet and you’re going pretty quick – or quick enough to do an unprotected head a lot of damage, so I was always really aware of that. “But you know, in saying that, I can also see the appeal of riding. There were a couple of days where we spent the whole day riding, and as ‘the president’ I was out in front of 15 or 20 bikes and there’s not a lot of acting that goes on there. When you can hear the 20 Harleys behind you, you sort of feel like you could be king of the world. When you’re out in front of 20 guys and you’re leading them and they’re all following you, it doesn’t take much to take that on board and feel it; it was very helpful in acquiring the character.” WHAT: Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms DVD & Blu Ray out now
GIVEAWAYS BE YOURSELF & YOU CAN BE ANYTHING Thanks to Paramount Pictures, we have five double passes to Katy Perry: Part Of Me, a documentary that chronicles Katy Perry’s life on and off stage. For more info about the film go to katyperrypartofme. com.au. Released nationally Monday 2 July. For your chance to win tickets go to www.facebook.com/ inpressmag
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C U LT U R A L
CRINGE
WITH REBECCA COOK It’s a shame that Melbourne’s most exclusive gentlemen’s clubs, such as the Melbourne Club and the Savage Club, haven’t signed up for this year’s Open House Melbourne. Especially as they’re the epitome of what the program stands for; providing the public with a free and rare opportunity to discover a hidden wealth of architectural, engineering and historic buildings in and around the city. Yes, seeing inside the anatomy and pathology museum at Melbourne Uni and getting down into the bowels of Fed Square are certainly appealing but wouldn’t you love to just check out if these elite clubs are all deep brown Chesterfields, brandy snifters and cigars? Anyhow, if by some freak occurrence this Inpress finds its way to the powers that be, there’s still time for you to join 100 other spaces including commercial, residential, places of worship and sporting grounds in opening their doors to the great unwashed. Now in its fifth year, Open House Melbourne will take place on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 July.
some weird and wonderful places on the list (the Victoria Police Mounted Branch anyone?), buildings you might walk past on a daily basis and wonder: what the hell’s in there? Well, I for one will be checking out the Royal Australasian College Of Surgeons that I pass by on a regular basis. And this is exactly the point. The Open House folks believe that “the city and its architecture is a museum of our culture, explaining our past, celebrating our present and offering insights into our future.” The idea is that once I’ve been in for a perv and taken in some of the history, I will feel more connected to the building and therefore more connected to my city on my daily rambles. I’ll certainly feel more intelligent and point it out to anyone within earshot. Although this description is a bit disconcerting: “Tour guides will also provide commentary on the history of the college’s surgical instruments, sharing their knowledge on early medical techniques and explaining (in fascinating and possibly confronting detail) how some of the surgical instruments on display were used.”
The event has grown rapidly from only eight buildings in the first year. Some of the buildings laying themselves bare this year include the Block Arcade, the famously sustainable Council House 2, the Russell Place Substation, Royal Children’s Hospital, Orica House and the Windsor Hotel. You can also take a tour of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s tunnels and towers and what will be (by then) the freshly renovated Hamer Hall. There are
Open House programs are now running in other major cities across Australia as well as overseas. Imagine the program in New York, London or Rome! Ahem! Yes, sorry, back to the big love for our great city. While all of the tours are free, ten of the 100 or so buildings do require pre-booking and a ballot system opens on 1 July. For all the others, check out the tour times on the website and rock up. Prepare to love Melbourne just that little bit more.
STAR SIGNS
any show that is as high-quality and well-received as Stargate so I was just thinking about what I had to do.”
Actor Corin Nemec’s résumé includes ‘90s sitcoms and B-movie howlers, but it’s his role as Stargate SG-1’s Jonas Quinn that has brought him to this weekend’s Oz Comic-Con, writes Guy Davis. Corin Nemec is tough to pin down, which can be a good thing for an actor. Typecasting can be a real drag but Nemec, who’s been working consistently since he was a kid, doesn’t seem to have fallen prey to the typecasting curse. He’s equally well-known for playing the toocool-for-school title character in the so-’90s-it’s-awesome sitcom Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and the pathetic, psychopathic Harold Lauder in the TV miniseries of Stephen King’s apocalyptic epic, The Stand. He’s played heroic types in B-grade science-fiction movies with marvellous titles such as Mansquito and SS Doomtrooper and he’s played real-life serial killers like Ted Bundy and Richard Speck. And while all of these projects (and more) tend to come up in conversation when he attends pop-culture conventions the world over, it’s usually his role as Jonas Quinn on the TV series, Stargate SG-1, that gets the fans fired up. So
Since his Stargate SG-1 run, Nemec has continued to enjoy a diverse run of roles, doing guest spots on the likes of CSI: NY, NCIS and Ghost Whisperer, as well as a brief but memorable run on another cult favourite, Supernatural. But he’s also been busy behind the scenes, developing projects with his production company Everyday Tomorrow Pictures – their slate includes an animated political satire called The American President (with Chappelle’s Show’s Paul Mooney in the title role) and a comedy called Puppet Dicks (with two puppets as private eyes in an otherwise flesh-and-blood cast).
Nemec expects he’ll be fielding a few questions about just that when he’s in Melbourne this weekend for Oz Comic-Con – a geeky groundzero featuring appearances from the likes of Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart, Marvel Comics mastermind Stan Lee and actors from shows such as Game Of Thrones, Dexter and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Nemec’s Stargate character Quinn entered the series late in its run and somewhat under a cloud as he was viewed as a replacement for fan favourite Daniel Jackson, played by actor Michael Shanks. But Nemec
views that short-lived backlash as a “totally natural” reaction for a small but outspoken part of the Stargate fan base, and he found that his character came to be liked and accepted by the show’s followers by the time he exited the series a couple of years later. “The writers did a great job introducing the character, segued quite nicely from the character being introduced to making him a member of the SG-1 team,” says Nemec. “They didn’t do it all in one episode, which I think gave the audience a bit of time to digest this new character. For me, I’m excited to get a job on
And of course he has a number of acting roles coming up, a couple of which are in films that sound like mandatory Friday-night viewing for you and a few of your more disreputable chums. “Wait till you see Sand Sharks!” he laughs. “I have that one and another one called Dragon Wasps coming out. Sand Sharks is a bit more of a comedy and it’s just priceless. It’s not often you get to do one of these low-budget science-fiction movies that has an actual sense of humour. But they’re a lot of fun, those movies, and as an actor I love it. My acting teacher always said ‘You’re only an actor when you’re acting,’ and when I am there’s a real magic that I enjoy very much.” WHAT: Oz Comic-Con WHEN & WHERE: Saturday and Sunday, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
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GIG OF THE WEEK
TOUR GUIDE THIS WEEK
LAWRENCE ARABIA: July 4 Toff In Town
INTERNATIONAL
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: July 14 Plenary; 15 Rod Laver Arena
LADY GAGA: June 27, 28, 30, July 1 Rod Laver THE LIL’ BAND O’ GOLD: June 27, 28 Regal Ballroom; 29 Espy Gershwin Room CEREMONY: June 29 Irene’s Warehouse (AA); 30 Bendigo Hotel EDDIE SPAGHETTI: June 30 Cherry Bar MACABRE: June 30 Corner; July 1 National Hotel (Geelong)
OF MONSTERS & MEN: July 20 Corner Hotel THE SHINS: July 23 Festival Hall HOWLER: July 24 Corner Hotel FRIENDS: July 25 Northcote Social Club DJANGO DJANGO: July 31 Corner Hotel
NATIONAL
BUSBY MAROU: June 27 Bended Elbow (Geelong); 28 Corner KIRIN J CALLINAN: June 28 The Tote KINGSWOOD, MONEY FOR ROPE, DAMN TERRAN: June 28, 29 Workers Club JACKSON FIREBIRD: June 28 Retreat; 30 Settlers Tavern (Mildura) EMMA LOUISE: June 29 Northcote Social Club EVEN, THE FAUVES: June 29 Regal Ballroom HEY GERONIMO: June 29 Grace Darling; 30 Espy MAKE THEM SUFFER: June 29 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 30 BANG; July 1 Phoenix Youth Centre (Footscray); 3 Megaman Music Store (Bendigo) CHARGE GROUP: June 29 Tote WORLD’S END PRESS: June 29 Corner THE RED LIGHTS: June 29 Evelyn; 30 Bended Elbow (Geelong) MIKE NOGA: June 30 Northcote Social Club ABBIE CARDWELL & HER LEADING MEN: June 30 Prince of Wales BREAKING HART BENTON: June 30 Pure Pop Records, Wesley Anne HUGO RACE: July 1 Northcote Social Club HAYDEN CALNIN: July 2 Toff KARISE EDEN: July 2 Westfield Southland; 3 Westfield Fountain Gate
ELECTRIC GUEST: August 1 Northcote Social Club THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: August 2 Hisense Arena THE JUNGLE GIANTS: August 10 Northcote Social Club
MATT SONIC & THE HIGH TIMES
ROCK FOR RECLINK SATURDAY, HI-FI
The Reclink Community Cup may have finished in controversy on the weekend (the Megahertz were robbed!) but this Saturday’s Rock For Reclink show at the Hi-Fi is guaranteed to leave punters satisfied. As part of Community Cup week, a bunch of top-notch local acts are donating their time to assist Reclink in their aim to provide sport and arts activities to the disadvantaged. Acts playing include bona fide legends Kim Salmon and The Blackeyed Susans Trio, You Am I/Pictures axeman Davey Lane (showcasing tunes from his forthcoming solo album), Dave Larkin, local supergroup The Ronson Hangup (featuring members of Even, The Anyones, The Pictures and Cannon), Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collectors, psych rockers Matt Sonic & The High Times and singer/songwriter Leena.
PENNYWISE, THE MENZINGERS, SHARKS: August 26 Palace JULIA STONE: September 6 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 7 Forum; 8 Meeniyan Town Hall XAVIER RUDD: September 13 Palace; 14 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 15 Pier Hotel (Frankston); 16 Costa Hall (Geelong); 19 Kay Street Saloon (Traralgon) TIM & ERIC: Saturday 29 September Forum BASTARDFEST 2012 (featuring Astriaal, Disentomb, Extortion and Broozer): November 3 Espy sdfsdfsdfdsf
MOSMAN ALDER PIC BY ANDREW BRISCOE
EDDIE SPAGHETTI: Saturday 30 June, Cherry Bar (arvo and evening shows)
The moments observed, although limited, show that these guys could well be something special. Between sets some revellers go back past the top of the stairs and into a room to shoot pool and stand by windows and sit on couches by a fireplace. The Grace must have been a real hotel some years ago, this room would be the lounge where people sat and read magazines. A raucous girl with green hair comes in and yells loudly to her friends, “Did you hear them? I fucking loved that!” Back at the stage, I, A Man turn on their amps under a giant, slow-turning disco ball and the washed-out, clean guitars of Five Four begin to flow. Guitarist Ash Hunter, wearing a Sydney Swans football beanie, makes lush, ambient sounds. “I just got my moustache caught in the microphone,” says Hunter. “Sorry if I’m bleeding.” Not exactly comedy gold. They then kick into the rhythmic, skilful drum taps of Sometimes. Diminutive bassist Erik Rene has his sleeves rolled up neatly and produces tightly thrumming basslines, shoulders popping and jamming in time with the grooves. The band show their talent as musicians. Singer Daniel Moss really does have a nice voice; it’s smooth and melodious and gets a great crunch when pushed to a higher register. He breaks into a falsetto in the great chorus of The Scenic Route with the lines, “Everyone else is on fire/I’ve been holding on to simpler times.” They finish with Big Ideas, a rocking track to end a fine set from these talented lads.
FESTIVALS
EMERGE FESTIVAL: June 1-July 31
UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL
LAWRENCE ARABIA: July 4 Toff I AM GIANT: July 5 Workers Club RUSS CHIMES: July 7 Pretty Please SIMONE FELICE: July 11 Corner; 13 Meeniyan Town Hall C&C MUSIC FACTORY: July 12 Red Bennies THE BLACK SEEDS: July 12, 15 Corner SAY ANYTHING: July 13 Billboard ALEX SMOKE: July 13 Brown Alley TERROR: July 14 Corner CANCER BATS: July 14 Hi-Fi THE TEA PARTY: July 14 Palais TERROR: July 14 Corner; 15 Thornbury Theatre (AA) FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: July 14 Plenary; 15 Rod Laver Arena MELISSA ETHERIDGE: July 15 Plenary JAY HOAD: July 15 Northcote Social Club BENJAMIN SKEPPER: July 15 Toff BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTSWICH: July 17 Northcote Social Club LADYHAWKE: July 17 Billboard JAMIE XX: July 17 New Guernica THE XX: July 18 Forum OF MONSTERS AND MEN: July 20 Corner RENNIE PILGREM: July 20 Royal Melbourne Hotel THE SHINS: July 23 Festival Hall LANA DEL REY: July 23 Palace HOWLER, ZULU WINTER: July 24 Corner JACK WHITE: July 25 Festival Hall THE AFGHAN WHIGS: July 25 Hi-Fi FRIENDS: July 25 Northcote Social Club MICHAEL KIWANUKA, BEN HOWARD, TIM HART: July 25 Corner
PRESENTS
MOSMAN ALDER I, A MAN; LOWLAKES GRACE DARLING: 22/06/12
Ricocheting through the Friday night bustle in the bottom bar of the Grace Darling, we work our way up the tartan carpeted narrow staircase, past a long-haired wrist-stamper and through a little wooden door to be greeted by a dense lot of bodies. Perhaps this is the result of a tremendous game of ‘Squashed Sardines’ that had been played throughout the streets of Fitzroy all day. More likely, the bands tonight have some followers. Lowlakes are finishing their set. Caffeinated beats played on electronic drums lay snugly beneath a dreamy flow of plucked guitars and warm keys that drift over an enchanted crowd. The softly bobbing singer, Thomas Snowdan, is captivating and sings like something is muffling up his throat in a way that is entirely to his advantage. Snowdan’s voice is unusual, strong and interestingly soulful, complimenting the ethereal indie sounds in a memorable way.
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When the crowd is becoming decidedly merry, Mosman Alder, tonight’s headliners from Brisbane, take the stage. The band too, as singer Valdis Valodze announces: “We’re all a little bit drunk, but thank you for having us in Melbourne. This is called These Hands.” Valodze has a deep, baritone croon that manages to resonate through the thumping indiefolk sounds of the energetic group around him, who seem like a close collective of friends. In Tokyo 1933, drummer Damian Wood starts with big ride cymbal hits, a marching snare and intermittent kicks before the beautiful Robyn Dawson, a doll in her neck scarf and red boots, comes in on violin with its straining vibrato sounds. Green-haired keyboardist Katarzyna Wiktorski adds huge, swirling chords and the band sounds massive as they rollick along. Valodze ponderously crosses his arms as he studies the band with his back to the crowd, some of whom are dancing with arms struck out at angles to the floor like swaying pyramids. Someone bangs what smells suspiciously like a tequila shot down on the bar. The whole of Mosman Alder join in the repetitive, melodic chants of their amazing single Raisin Heart, which finishes their set triumphantly and caps off a night that is sure to be remembered fondly, if not hazily. Warwick Goodman INPRESS • 35
set with a surprising number of early surf-related tunes, Catch A Wave, Hawaii, Don’t Back Down and Surfin’ Safari follow in quick succession. With an average age of around 55, most audience members are what you imagine The Dude to be like today: a little rotund, unflatteringly dressed, generating a thin stream of pot smoke and just happy to be here.
TOUR GUIDE MIKE NOGA: Saturday 30 June, Northcote Social Club
BAND OF SKULLS: July 26 Corner HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE: July 26 Espy MUDHONEY: July 27 Corner METRIC: July 27 Billboard FUN.: July 27, 28 (U18s matinee show) Hi-Fi FATHER JOHN MISTY: July 28 Corner OLIVER$: July 28 Prince Bandroom HARM’S WAY, PHANTOMS: July 28 Bang; 29 Phoenix Youth Centre (U18) YOUTH LAGOON: July 29 Corner DON MCGLASHAN: July 29 Toff MIIKE SNOW: July 31 Palace ELECTRIC GUEST: August 1 Northcote Social Club THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: August 2 Hi-Sense Arena ROSETTA: August 2 Curtin; 3 National Hotel; 4 Black Goat Warehouse (AA) ED SHEERAN: August 3 Palais MARK GARDENER: August 5 Corner PUNCH BROTHERS: August 6 Melbourne Recital Centre DJ Z-TRIP: August 9 Prince Bandroom TIM BARRY: August 10 Gasometer BELL BIV DEVOE, GINUWINE: August 10, 14 Trak Live Lounge ANTAGONIST AD, LIONHEART, SHINTO KATANA: August 11 BANG; 12 Phoenix Youth Centre (AA); 14 Musicman Megastore (Bendigo, AA) BILLY TALENT: August 12 Billboard TRANSIT: August 18 Bang; 19 Phoenix Youth Centre (AA); 21 Mechanics Institue (Ballarat, AA) NASUM: August 19 Hi-Fi KEITH BARRY: August 21 Forum HAYES CARLL: August 25 Northcote Social Club PENNYWISE: August 26 Palace SLASH: August 28 Hisense Arena THE BEACH BOYS: August 31 Rod Laver Arena APOCALYPTICA: September 1 Hi-Fi AMERICA: September 6 Hamer Hall HOWARD JONES: September 7 Billboard JOOF: September 7 Brown Alley BARRY ADAMSON: September 11 Corner PATRICK WOLF: September 11 Forum EARTH: September 12 Toff; 16 Corner INGRID MICHAELSON: September 13 Corner CARTEL: September 13 Evelyn; 15 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 16 Lilydale Showgrounds HANSON: September 14, 18 Palace SUBHUMANS: September 15 Bendigo Hotel RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: September 15 Hamer Hall WHEATUS: September 19 Corner FUTURE ISLANDS: September 19 Northcote Social Club EIFFEL 65, N-TRANCE: September 20 Palace YELLOWCARD: September 20, 21 Hi-Fi KATCHAFIRE: September 20 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 21 Forum LADY ANTEBELLUM: September 25 Palais JAMES MORRISON: September 26 Forum RUSSIAN CIRCLES: September 28 Corner MARTIKA: September 28 Trak TIM & ERIC’S AWESOME SHOW: September 29 Forum CANNIBAL CORPSE: October 5 Billboard STEEL PANTHER: October 7 Palace COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA: October 10 Hamer Hall JOE BONAMASSA: October 11 Palais WARBRINGER: October 13 Northcote Social Club EVERCLEAR: October 13 Hi-Fi PAUL HEATON: October 18 Corner THE BLACK KEYS: October 31 Sidney Myer Music Bowl CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES: November 5 Corner COLDPLAY: November 13 Etihad Stadium RADIOHEAD: November 16, 17 Rod Laver Arena SIMPLE MINDS, DEVO: November 29 Palais; December 1 Rochford Wines (Yarra Valley)
NATIONAL
GREY GHOST: July 4, 11, 18, 25 Workers Club SURES: July 5 Northcote Social Club CLUBFEET: July 5 Toff KARNIVOOL: July 5 Hi-Fi; 8 Bended Elbow (Geelong) JONATHAN BOULET: July 6 Prince Bandroom 36 • INPRESS
JULIA MESSENGER: July 6, 7 Melbourne Recital Centre THE NIGHT TERRORS: July 7 Toff JUDITH DURHAM: July 7, 8 Her Majesty’s Theatre HAYDEN CALNIN: July 9, 16, 23, 30 Toff THE BRIDE: July 10 Musicman Megastore (Bendigo, AA); 11 National Hotel; 12 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 13 Phoenix Youth Centre (AA) THE RUBENS: July 11 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 12 Corner HEROES FOR HIRE: July 11 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 12 TLC (Bayswater); 13 Evelyn; 14 Thornbury Theatre GEORGIA FAIR: July 12 Toff THE SIDE-TRACKED FIASCO: July 12 Bendigo Hotel SOPHIE KOH: July 13 Northcote Social Club WHITEHOUSE: July 13 Laundry Bar VAN SHE: July 13 Hi-Fi PLUTO JONZE: July 13 Workers Club CAMERAS: July 13 Can’t Say at Platform One; 14 Workers Club; 15 Pure Pop Records FRASER A GORMAN: July 14 Toff SOUND OF SEASONS: July 14 Fist 2 Face; 15 Spensers Live (AA) BERTIE BLACKMAN: July 17 Corner BURIED IN VERONA: July 17 Musicman Megastore (Bendigo, AA); 19 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) DZ DEATHRAYS, YACHT CLUB DJS, BLEEDING KNEES CLUB: July 19 Corner SOMMERSET: July 20 Tote MILLIONS: July 20 Northcote Social Club SASKWATCH: July 20 Ding Dong Lounge THE FUMES: July 22 National Hotel; 21 Workers Club THE NATION BLUE: July 21 Tote MCALISTER KEMP: July 21 Hallam Hotel CHARLES JENKINS & THE ZHIVAGOS: July 21 Corner BREAKING HART BENTON: July 24 Old Bar DON WALKER: July 26 Northcote Social Club; 27 Caravan Music Club TOBY MARTIN: July 28 Workers Club NINE SONS OF DAN: July 28 Revolver; 29 Spensers live (under-18) TINA ARENA: July 28, 29, August 5 Hamer Hall HOUSE VS HURRICANE: July 31 Musicman Megastore (Bendigo, AA); August 1 Bended Elbow (Ballarat, AA); 3 EVs (Croydon, AA); 4 Hi-Fi; 5 Phoenix Youth Centre (AA) FRENZAL RHOMB: August 3 Hi-Fi; 4 Pier Live TIM FREEDMAN: August 10, 11 Bennetts Lane LANIE LANE: August 10 Stones Of The Yarra Valley (Coldstream); 11 Westernport Hotel (San Remo); 12 Caravan Music Club; September 20 Beav’s Bar (Geelong); 21 Loft (Warnambool); 22 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine) JINJA SAFARI, OPOSSUM, WHITE ARROWS: August 10, 11 (U18) Hi-Fi CHILDREN COLLIDE: August 10 Corner; September 7 Yahoo Bar (Shepparton); 8 Bended Elbow (Geelong) LOON LAKE: August 11 Loft (Warrnambool); September 1 Northcote Social Club BUTTERFLY BOUCHER: August 12 Toff ILLY: August 18 Black Swan Hotel (Bendigo); 20 Swindlers (Mt Hotham); September 7, 8(U18) Corner; 8 Kay St (Traralgon) KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: August 14-16 Corner SNAKADAKTAL: August 17 Corner 1927, THE REMBRANDTS: August 24 Palms At Crown HILLTOP HOODS: August 24 Setts (Mildura); 25 Festival Hall; 26 New Albury Hotel THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS: August 24, 25 Corner HUNTING GROUNDS: August 24 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 25 Toff URTHBOY: August 31 Evelyn SHANNON NOLL: September 1 Moama On Murray Resort; 25 BHP Esso Wellington Centre (Sale); 26 Capital Theatre (Bendigo); 27 Wangaratta PAC; October 11 West Gippsland Arts Centre; 12 Ballarat Regent Multiplex; 13 Eastbank Centre (Shepparton); 14 Lighthouse Theatre (Warrnambool) JULIA STONE: September 6 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); 7 Forum; 8 Meeniyan Town Hall THE MEDICS: September 6 Loft (Warrnambool); 14 National Hotel; 15 Toff DREAM ON DREAMER: September 6 Corner; 7 EV’s Youth Centre (AA) THE MCCLYMONTS: September 12, 13 Palms At Crown XAVIER RUDD: September 13 Palace; 14 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 15 Pier Hotel (Frankston); 16 Costa Hall (Geelong); 19 Kay Street Saloon (Traralgon) KATIE NOONAN, KARIN SCHAUPP: September 19 Capital Theatre; 21 Melbourne Recital Centre DAMIEN LEITH: September 20 Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre; 21 Palms At Crown MONKS OF MELLONWAH: September 21 Grace Darling; 22 Revolver, Pony Late Show GOTYE: December 8 Sidney Myer Music Bowl JUSTINE CLARKE: December 15 Dallas Brooks Centre KEITH URBAN: February 2 Rod Laver Arena
Personalities of the band become quickly clear. Love is the leader and the ‘showman’. His sense of humour works at times (his physical intro to Be True To Your School is accompanied by the sound of creaking wood) and doesn’t at others: “Little Deuce Coupe was a song Brian and I wrote about a car I love. I love my new Bentley more though.” Bruce Johnson seems bent on engaging the crowd and is a strong singer – his rendition of Disney Girls is a highlight. Jardine, voice immediately recognisible, is in fine form while David Marks is a deft guitarist and it’s great to see him getting his dues. Wilson of course is typically static but is feted again and again by the band and the audience throughout the night, despite never responding. With 14 musicians, including four keyboards and electronics, the source of much of the music is difficult to locate, but it’s the harmonies and hits we’re here for, and on that level there are no complaints.
THE VASCO ERA PIC BY HEIDI TAKLA
THE VASCO ERA, LUKE LEGS & THE MIDNIGHT SPECIALS, FRASER A GORMAN CORNER HOTEL: 22/06/12
Staying true to their rural roots, The Vasco Era have decided to put on two country acts as their supports tonight. The first is fresh-faced young troubadour Fraser A Gorman who performs a set of country revival to a steadily growing crowd. Next up is Luke Legs & The Midnight Specials who play a solid set of countrified rock and Americana (from Melbourne). Mr Legs displays a great dose of charisma, and although appreciative, the crowd are obviously saving their energies for the headline act. The sold-out Corner Hotel band room fills to capacity before the red curtain is raised and a lone Sid O’Neil of The Vasco Era takes the stage to sing the opening tune. He displays an endearing awkwardness that I’m sure the chicks dig. Out from behind the hair covering his eyes he starts off carelessly singing (way) out of tune, his bottom register making him sound like a sort of bogan Kermit The Frog. However just before it gets cringeworthy, he hits a few perfectly placed high notes that bring it home. A great mix of rock’n’roll rasp and clear, vulnerable falsetto, O’Neil could definitely hold his own as a solo act. After a few minutes the rest of the band join him on stage and the rock show begins. Sid’s brother Ted’s bass firmly carries the mix with a crumbling, overdriven tone that locks in tight with the perfectly elementary rhythms, pounded out by drummer Michael Fitzgerald. And above it all, sits a searing and fuzzy electric guitar, a prime example of just how intoxicating rock’n’roll can be. Halfway into the set, the Corner Hotel is about 30 degrees and smells like a barn. Aside from laughing at Sid O’Neil’s halfhearted comedy shtick, the enthusiastic crowd sing along with the screams and yelps of the frontman, who has traded in his resonator guitar and white-boy blues for a Stratocaster and garage-rock routine that would give Craig Nicholls a run for his money. The kind of whimsical, I-don’t-give-a-fuck shenanigans that you can only get away with if you back it up with some seriously good rock’n’roll, which The Vasco Era certainly deliver. A powering and energetic set, peppered with some solos straight out of an electric guitarist caricature. Whether or not this is the band’s final show or just a pre-holiday send-off, The Vasco Era are definitely leaving Melbourne on a high. Dylan Hewitt
THE BEACH BOYS
GREEK THEATRE, BERKELEY, USA: 01/06/12 As the evening light shines and temperatures ease into the low teens, drummer John Cowsill walks the surfboard-bedecked stage to begin the oftsampled drum intro to Do It Again. Throughout the stately outdoor arena the audience rise to their feet (an action that takes up to ten seconds in some cases) and an announcer and video screen needlessly state: “Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Johnson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, David Marks and… Brian Wilson!” We go nuts for The Beach Boys. Do It Again segues into Little Honda, beginning a
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“We’d like to take an intermission… followed by a nap,” smiles Love after Surfin Safari. “Instead we’ll do a slow dance. This is the first song Brian wrote alone: Surfer Girl,” and Wilson leads us through a stunning version of before singing Please Let Me Wander. Though his voice is familiar and aching, his intonation is often awry and occasionally crackly. Being Brian Wilson, he can be forgiven for anything, but it’s guitarist Jeff Foskett who takes the high notes and carries much of the vocals. Don’t Worry Baby, Cool Clear Water, Sail On Sailor, Wilson’s Sloop John B, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times are highlights of the second set, by which time vocal cords are limber and the band relax. After video contributions from the deceased Carl (God Only Knows) and Dennis (Forever) Wilson, poignancy almost precludes asking some pertinent questions: Do these songs really need six guitars? Why cover Rock And Roll Music when you leave out Caroline No? Are those distractingly cheesy back-screen projections enhancing the show? But this is a gloriously hammy celebration of some of the finest pop music ever made and the overwhelming sense is one of privilege. And yes, they played Kokomo. Andy Hazel
NAYSAYER & GILSUN, TWO BRIGHT LAKES DJS HI-FI BAR: 22/06/12
Good, clean fun? Oh, hells no – not tonight bitches. It’s damn cold outside, so as folks descend the magical stairs to the wondrous world of the Hi-Fi Bar, there’s not only a sense of excitement about the gig tonight, but also a sense of relief to be out of the cold. It might be this relief that sees punters happy to settle in the corner or hang by the bar, but as a result the atmosphere isn’t quite as electric as one would imagine in the lead up to tonight’s gig. Battling manfully at the decks are locals Two Bright Lakes DJs, who do their utmost to inspire some bootyshaking, however without a huge crowd it would be difficult for the most talented DJ to fill a dancefloor at this time of night. Instead, they produce a solid set of background house music, interspersing their beats with pop numbers like Adele’s Rolling In The Deep. At the stroke of midnight, Two Bright Lakes have retired and as soon as the contrasting shots of Clive Owen, Jake Gyllenhaal and George Clooney appear, the crowd is in raptures. It seems a slight false start however, as very shortly afterwards there’s a repeat of the set’s first five minutes, accompanied by Naysayer & Gilsun, who go on to throw down a clever 90-minute set of beat-heavy, pop cultureinspired tracks. The beats and tunes are solid, but somewhat uninspiring. Where Naysayer & Gilsun win the crowd over however, is through their visuals. From Seinfeld and The Big Lebowski to Fiona Apple’s 1997 MTV award-winning “what you think is cool” speech and some epic wildlife clips (who couldn’t watch a great white shark demolish a seal over and over again?), the set mixes video with audio in a way that most of this crowd have not experienced before. It’s fun, it’s danceable and, by the end of the night, almost everyone is leaving with a smile plastered across their face. This is Naysayer & Gilsun. It’s not clean, but it sure as shit is fun. Dylan Stewart
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS PIC BY LOU LOU NUTT
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS, LITTLE SCOUT HI-FI BAR: 21/06/12
It’s a hipster student crowd that sits, scattered all over the Hi-Fi’s lower section floor. Apart from this making it particularly challenging for Little Scout to feed off as they glance at this audience and try to engage, as if you want stains on the arse area of your clothes comprised of dirt from punters’ boots and sticky liquid from spilled drinks? As such, the Brisbane four-piece comes across all withdrawn (not entirely their fault) and during one song one of the female vocalists actually sounds like a poltergeist. During the set changeover, All Out Of Love by Air Supply pumps so loudly from the venue sound system that we suspect it’s a School Of Seven Bells intro tape. It’s not. As guitarist Benjamin Curtis tunes his axe onstage, a fan approaches. She is received warmly and welcomed with a handshake. As soon as they hit the stage, the NYC duo that becomes a quartet for live purposes captivates. They obviously had a band meeting to decide on an all-black stage uniform, which the girls accessorise with a ridiculous amount of gold bling. Remarkably, their sound actually does conjure images of seven bells a-ringing (plus drums). Mallet drumming provides a stirring undercurrent. Three circular areas on the back curtain are decorated by swirling projections and SVIIB certainly know what they’re doing compositionally. After four or five danceable tracks, during which most stamp the heel of one foot into the floor to the beat, a couple of zed-worthy numbers mess with the momentum. What School Of Seven Bells bring live is more jagged and industrial than on record, while maintaining that trademark mesmeric quality. Fluttering keys call to mind Der Dritte Raum’s Hale Bopp. This scribe prefers their rave-inspired shit that makes you wish you’d double-dropped before the show. That fact makes it a bit, ‘Thank God for the Apple Mac up there onstage,’ but at the same time there’s no denying School Of Seven Bells are very classy and tailormade for slow-build festival sets. There are so many sounds coming from the stage that my plus one is sus about how much of it is actually being produced live. Cogsunflower visuals circle on the back curtain heightening the mechanical-yet-beautiful nature of this music. The small crowd in attendance tonight express much enthusiasm through applause and the two-song encore inspires some hippies in the front couple of rows to interpretive dance with abandon. Bryget Chrisfield
BRAD STRUT, K21, P-LINK, SURREAL & FEVA PRES LAUNDRY BAR: 22/6/12
Surreal & Feva Pres open the show with some slick a cappella verses before dropping a couple of tracks from their respective upcoming mixtapes. The night is off to a seriously good start – both MCs show serious lyrical talent and plenty of creativity. Host ‘Alex’ of The Big Issue is a brilliant addition to the night, injecting the crowd with plenty of enthusiasm between sets. One of Melbourne’s most promising newcomers, P-Link is up next, launching his debut solo EP, In My Element. His set is outstanding, lashings of youthful energy and passion, tempered with genuine natural talent. He’s ferocious, and not at the expense of skill. By the end of his set, everyone in the room is talking about him. Adelaide’s K21 steps up, dropping some tracks from his recent debut album, Single Minded Civilian. The former Hilltop Hoods Initiative winner impresses with his sharp
delivery and relaxed physicality onstage, not to mention his ability to keep the gig going even when a punter collapses two metres away from the stage. The show must go on and go on it does, with Heata and Trem hitting the decks to spin some wax, giving everyone time to smoke and get beers before the big finish. The room positively crackles with excitement when Brad Strut takes the stage. His form is impeccable – lyrics are delivered sharply and crisply, with obvious passion. Blue lights, naturally, are demanded from the desk before Never Ending Blue, much to the delight of the crowd. There’s a sense of brilliance in the room, a feeling that this show is special. After all, Strut is a pioneer of Australian hip hop, and his strong stage presence has been honed over a long career. Tornts jumps up on stage, not to drop a verse, but to stand alongside Strut and show his support for the LC crew. Strut plays the crowd like a violin, whipping them into a frenzy. He never falters. In fact, he makes rhyming look deceptively easy. (The punters attempting to rap along with him prove that it isn’t.) He can’t resist giving the speaker suspended from the ceiling a push: you can bet that if there were a chandelier on stage, he’d be swinging from it. Trem joins Strut on stage and the audience is thrilled by the mini-reunion of Lyrical Commission, especially when they drop a few choice tracks including the excellent Incite The Premises. Finally, Strut announces, “I like to play board games!” before closing the set with an outstanding rendition of Monopoly. It’s a strong finish to a truly memorable gig. Aleksia Barron
NED COLLETTE & WIREWALKER, MARY OCHER, INFINITE ORBIT NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB: 24/06/12
Middle-aged rockers Infinite Orbit glumly drop their set to a largely empty NSC bandroom. On a frigidly cold winter’s evening, the few punters who arrive early are huddled together and trying to keep warm. Infinite Orbit dispense noisy, out-of-tune pop jangles accompanied by crazed atonal vocals that climax in an awkward falsetto on their show-stopping finale. They collect random claps from around the room, but most people are chatting or looking kind of numb and staring into space with glazed eyes. Tonight proves to be quite the musical odyssey as Turkish pop music is used to bridge the gap between Infinite Orbit and Mary Ocher’s sets. Hailing from Russia but now residing in Berlin, Ocher is a delightfully zany character whose bizarre set leaves the crowd a little perplexed and giggling nervously. Dressed in a black leotard and bikini top adorned with the kind of gold chains a belly dance would wear, Ocher aggressively plays punk guitar that’s reminiscent of early PJ Harvey. Yet instead of opting for volume and power she channels her guitar through a tiny amp that renders it tinny. Disappointingly, most of her set is accompanied by headache-inducing feedback. Ocher, who has recently been working with King Khan, fiercely screeches and squawks with the intensity of a deranged kewpie doll throwing a prolonged temper tantrum. At times it is hard not to be reminded of Nina Hagen. She is asking us to swallow a nasty, raw and jagged angst-ridden little pill, but because of its bitter taste most just spit it out. At the end of her set, Ocher proves that she is just a big old softie when she reveals that her trip to Australia has been disappointing because she has not yet encountered a koala bear. Surprisingly, the lady next to us turns out to be Ned Collette’s mother and we are talking earthquakes in New Zealand as the curtains go up on Ned Collette & Wirewalker. After all the quirky noise we have endured this evening, Collette and his colleagues sound
supremely slick as they introduce themselves with Il Futuro Fantastico. Collette’s guitar shimmers and the mix is fleshed out with dreamy synths and beats that suggest disco. Celebrating the release of their latest album, 2, Collette and his band continue the set by playing the first five tracks off that album in sequence. While the songwriting remains solid, the arrangements have a kind of pastel-coloured ‘80s feel to them. The ladies swoon as he is looking pretty suave in pristine white jeans and a linen jacket. It is clear that since relocating to Berlin Collette has absorbed a whole lot of continental style. Tunes such as For Roberto and The Pool Is Full of Hats, for instance, showcase Collette’s growing fondness for Spanish-influenced guitar. The synthetic atmospherics that underline much of tonight’s set coalesce into dreamy cosmic disco on Long You Lie, which hits a joyous, feelgood note. It’s hard to believe that Collette was once all-too-easily filed away under folk rock when tonight he is producing a dreamy wash of sound that brings to mind acts like Air. Encoring with What Lights Have You Seen?, which melts into The Country With A Smile, allows the band to slip into an extended jam and get their kosmische on. Collette dominates, a true virtuoso during his spellbinding extended guitar solo. A welcome return to his hometown finds Collette sounding somewhat transformed. Guido Farnell
KING CANNONS, MAJOR TOM & THE ATOMS TOFF IN TOWN: 21/06/12
The Toff In Town’s bandroom is almost empty when Major Tom & The Atoms play their set, but “Major” Tom Hartney does his best to inspire the unenthusiastic crowd. The night, however, belongs to headliners King Cannons, who not only have a recent European tour under their belt, but also a debut album, The Brightest Light, and it’s this album that they’re launching tonight. The Toff is now packed to the brim and, before the curtains even open, the audience let out a roar that could bring down the house as we hear the start of Smoked Out City. It’s surprising, given that this gig is to promote their debut album, that Melbourne’s favourite adopted sons and daughter do not kick off proceedings with a song off said album, but choose instead to open with a song from their two-year-old, self-titled EP. Nonetheless, it’s a popular move, as the crowd go even wilder. Even before we’ve reached the end of the first song, it’s clear to see that Luke Yeoward, Rob Ting, Mikey Ting, Lanae Eruera and Jonno Smith mean business and are as tight as you could wish a band to be. With Dan McKay currently out of the country, drumming duties for the night are more than capably being taken care of by Shihad’s Tom Larkin (who also produced The Brightest Light). Known for their short and to-the-point songs, it isn’t long before they work their way through numbers including Too Young, Too Hot To Handle, Ride Again, Charlie O, Stand Right Up, the beautifully pared-back Everyman’s Tale and Gasoline, with Yeoward keeping the in-between-song banter brief-to-nonexistent. The biggest (and, thankfully, only questionable) surprise of the set comes in the form of their cover of Travelling Wilburys’ End Of The Line, which sees the Ting brothers making their mark on the vocals (and nicely so). There’s no denying that there’s a highly punk-driven, anthemic quality to King Cannon’s repertoire. This would be dangerous ground if they didn’t tread with such conviction. They’ve come one hell of a long way as a live band over the past few years and, while their unbridled enthusiasm can be unsettling for the uninitiated (given that we live in a world where keenness in musicians – in a live sense – is not that common a thing), tonight’s gig sees them keep things nicely reined in, with just the right amount of energy. Dominique Wall
LA BASTARD, THE PEEP TEMPEL JOHN CURTIN BANDROOM: 22/06/12
Ask The Peep Tempel no questions and they’ll tell you no lies. The last time we were in front of this band, bodies flying around and hands in the air, frontman Blake Scott grabbed the mic and looked down at us, screaming “Don’t FUCKING point at me!” Tonight is no exception, as Scott amuses with his blazing skill and whiplash tongue. (Or Is it whiplash skill and blazing tongue?) “This is our next song and if you don’t like it… you must be deaf.” Scott limbers up, stretching his hands above his head, regaling us with a story that somehow stems from one of them having lamingtons backstage (the good ones with jam in the middle) to a “relationship” he had with Gina Rinehart as a teenage boy. Thundering into Collusion, Scott’s clever lyrics and vocal delivery create a potent ambience amidst the forceful stride of their power-punk songs, captivating our focus (or are we just too scared to look away?). New single Mister Lester Moore achieves new manic appeal before they end the show with crowd favourite Thank You Machiavelli. It seems word of this band has spread quicker than Scott’s tongue, for awkward 18-year-old
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girls gaze adoringly at him as he stands at the front of the stage, pulling faces as he plays and mocking us all. La Bastard seems to be the name on everyone’s lips. Their mash-up of Hawaiian-themed, go-go dancing, cabaret-style rock might seem a little much, but the blend of genres somehow rattles the right cage. Singer Anna Lienhop appears nervous at first, but soon starts to rip into the songs with the bite of a scorned soul goddess, the other band members looking on with knowing smiles. Lienhop wails, yet it’s guitarist Ben Murphy that truly steals the show, flying from the front of the stage to land on his knees in the crowd. “What are you guys doing?” Lienhop asks a young couple in front of the stage, who are engaged in an impenetrable snogfest. “Give them a break,” laughs Murphy, but, looking around, there seems to be a hefty amount of people bumping and grinding. As Lienhop immerses herself in the crowd to dance about, our faces are suddenly accosted with her bosom, forcing us to shimmy in response. Credited for being a band of heightened chaos and semi-destructive rock’n’roll tendencies, we hang in the balance to see if La Bastard will live up to their reputation. Hula dancers, stage antics and sexy rockabilly ballads are good entertainment; sans the debatable ‘call and response’ onstage banter, La Bastard deliver. Esther Rivers
OLIVER TANK, MILDLIFE
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB: 19/06/2012 Melbourne four-piece Mildlife are exponents of electronica and inadvertently make the earth move, at least when Melbourne’s earthquake hits, though the Northcote Social Club must be built on solid foundations since the tremor felt is almost as powerful as a massage. Mildlife’s blend of synthesiser, syncopated rhythms, funky bass lines and some stylised drumbeats is impressive. The majority of punters are seated on the floor, but are promptly asked to stand up by a security guard. Seeing punters sitting on the floor of a venue watching a band is one of this scribe’s pet hates and just shows a complete lack of respect for the artist. We aren’t in school assembly folks! Arriving Soon, their latest release, has that slow, sexy, seductive groove sure to inspire some serious dance moves in us all. Every so often an artist comes along who slips under the commercial radar but garners enough of a following, through free music-sharing sites such as Soundcloud and his sheer musical genius, to achieve cult status in a short period. Oliver Tank is such an artist and his three sold-out shows at Northcote Social Club are testament to his proficiency in producing a fine blend of melancholy, ambient, organic and synthetic soundscapes that soothe the soul and resonate with a multitude of fans. The heavy velvet curtain is drawn to reveal the man who won a competition to perform in Iceland at the Northern Lights Festival in 2011, propelling him to the international stage. Tank, the 22 year old Sydneysider, is surrounded by all manner of analogue boards, midis and synthesisers and holds an electric guitar. He is the modern-day version of the one-man band. “My name’s Oliver and I’m going to play music for you.” With that introduction he plays a few notes on his synthesiser and creates vocal effects, showcasing his angelic, soulful voice during the ambient, minimal Up All Night, off his Dreams EP. All the while the backdrop has projections of sea creatures undulating in slow motion and elements of nature such as clouds enhancing the dreamy effect for our viewing pleasure. Past, Present, Future begins with a guitar strum that morphs and repeats throughout the song. A searing highlight is the rendition of Embrace, sans his friend/vocalist Fawn Myers, “who works full-time and couldn’t come to Melbourne.” It is the sparse, oscillating electronic sounds that make it a foray into melancholia, and heartfelt vocals, soaring with the beats, which make this song a masterpiece, and it draws a strong response from fans in the now-packed venue. If this weren’t enough, Tank lifts things up a notch with a cover of Snoop Dog’s Beautiful and the infamous “drop it like it’s hot” sample, whereby Tank professes his adulation of this artist by saying “Snoop Dog’s King.” Tank informs us that he is producing a mixtape, which will have more of a hip hop and R&B feel to it. “I don’t do encores, ‘cause it would be weird, so I’ll stay and do my last song. It’s the first song I wrote in the Oliver Tank name.” Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion was a university assignment and Tank tells us it’s about being unsure about something to the extent that it consumes you. This unassuming, humble fellow puts on a show that is nothing short of brilliant, and to top it off, he invites everyone to come and buy some vinyl and meet him afterwards. Now that is a professional showman and an act not to be missed. Anna-Maria Megalogenis INPRESS • 37
SHOCK AND AWE
HAVE YOU HEARD?
HAVE YOU HEARD?
ROCKET TO MEMPHIS PLAY THE LUWOW THIS FRIDAY 29 AND SATURDAY 30 JUNE
UDAYS TIGER PLAY THE TOTE THIS SATURDAY 30 JUNE
The High Voltage Festival takes over the Corner Hotel this Saturday, with US murder metal heroes Macabre headlining a ten-band bill featuring some of this country’s hardest and heaviest. We talk groupies and the state of metal with a bunch of the bands playing. DESECRATOR
HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH
How did you get together? Razor Jack Memphis, guitar: Noisily, over a pitcher of moonshine. Have you recorded anything or do you prefer to tool around in your bedroom? We prefer tooling around in other people’s bedrooms, but we’ve also managed to release three albums and a vinyl single: Swampwater Shuffle (2007), Hip-Shakin’ Voodoo (2009), Jungle Juice (2011) and I’m Bad (single, 2011). There’ll be a new album early next year. KING PARROT
Can you sum up your band’s sound in four words? Hip-grindin’, voodoo-stompin’ rock’n’roll
DEPRESSION
If you could support any band in the world, who would it be and why? If he was still alive, I’d say Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – for a crazy show and an insane after party! If a higher power smites your house and you can only save one record from the fire, what would it be? That’s a tough one… maybe LaVern Baker’s Voodoo Voodoo. Do you have a lucky item of clothing you wear for gigs and what is it? Leopard skin stilettos for the girls… I wear nothing but a smile. If you invited someone awesome ‘round for dinner what would you cook? Gator curry. What’s keeping your band busy at the moment? Riley Strong, Desecrator: Desecrator have been busy gigging our way around Australia since the release of our debut album, Live Til Death, mid-last year and more recently preparing for our first international assault in July. Bomber, Depression: Fun times. Matt Young, King Parrot: A few gigs around the country. We’ve been writing some new songs and we’re recording our first album in two weeks’ time. Peter Hobbs, Hobbs Angel Of Death: Organising European and American tours as well as going in to record a new record with Harris Johns. What can we expect from your High Voltage set? RS: A no-bullshit, high-energy Aussie thrash attack! B: Punk rock. MY: Squiz – doing windmills and busting out riffs. Slatts – possibly shirtless with penises drawn on his chest and being the funniest dude at the gig. Rizzo – playing drums and being the best drummer ever. Me – abusing people, out in the crowd and screaming. PH: Pure Hobbs brutality! Who are you tipping to take out best on ground honours at High Voltage and why? RS: That’s the best thing about a line-up as killer and as varied as this year’s High Voltage – a tonne of killer bands with careers that span up to 20 years and reputations that spread the world across. There is something in there for everyone and you would be crazy not to witness it. B: Who knows – hopefully some totally wasted punter who has no shame. MY: It won’t be us because we’re playing at 6pm and no one will see us. Most of the bands’ members are over 50, so if they can all make it through their sets then they all deserve best on ground awards. I vote Macabre. PH: All gladiators will enter the arena, the best will be left standing. How do you rate the state of metal in Australia in 2012? RS: I think there are some really exciting things happening in Australian metal across many extreme styles. There are some great bands getting 38 • INPRESS
around and a really healthy crowd responding to it. Metal music is always going to be a hard road in this country but I think existing in that same hardship is what breeds the Australian sound that is talked about all over the globe.
What’s your favourite place to drink in Melbourne? The Gem and the LuWow tiki bar.
B: With bands like Desecrator and Order Of Orias it’s always going to have young bands that have the heart and soul to keep the metal flag still burning. MY: As healthy as it’s ever been. There’s too many bands, not enough venues and lots of ordinary promoters trying to rip bands off. Just the way it should be! PH: I believe the metal scene has every power to regain, and the younger [crowd] has to continue with its legacy. Which band is gonna pull the most groupies at High Voltage? RS: Women go to metal gigs nowadays? B: We will have to wait and see. YouTube could be interesting on Sunday afternoon. MY: I think Maniaxe will get the most groupies, because they are awesome dudes and they’d appreciate it more than any of the other bands.
What have you got coming up after High Voltage? RS: After High Voltage Desecrator are embarking on a tour through South East Asia, dubbed DIY SEA. We are thrashing six dates in four countries over about nine days. A hot climate and crazy metal kids always makes for a memorable time! B: Not much, hopefully record a new Depression record. That would be fun. MY: We’re launching our album some time later this year, and playing Bastardfest and our own gigs around the country in October and November. PH: Hobbs Death Angel start their onslaught on the European market with Headbangers Open Air followed by other shows across Germany, Holland and England.
WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 30 June, Corner Hotel
Award-winning folk raconteur Timothy Carroll has returned home to Australia following a run of shows in Europe, including performances at the legendary Glastonbury Festival in the UK. The past months have also seen the Brisbane (and occasionally Stockholm) based musician return to the studio for the followup album to his heralded 2008 release, For Bread And Circuses. The first single from the upcoming album is If I Were You, which builds layer upon layer of sounds in union whilst Carroll’s stark vocals invoke scenes of stormy seas and bolting mares. Recorded live to tape, Carroll has departed from the warmer tones and soft-brushed snares of his earlier work and wandered into heavier electric lands with driving rhythms and wailing guitars. Catch the single launch at Grace Darling on Sunday 22 July with guests with Ainslie Wills and Nathan Hollywood.
OVERDOSE ON UNICORNS
PH: Every band will be equal in regard to most groupies.
WHAT: High Voltage
A FOLK CARROLL
The Old Bar Unicorns need to raise some funds to pay for all the streamers, ambo costs, smokes, party poppers, booze and lollies that are sacred to every game of pub footy. Come show some love to the team that loves you the most at the Old Bar on Sunday night. Right after the game that day you can see such great Unicorn-affiliated bands as Unicorn Unicorn & The Unicorn Unicorns, The Unicorn Unicorn Unicorns, Unicornslashunicorn, Unicorn One and Unicorn By Unicorns. Awards night, BBQ and a really shit raffle will all be available. Could you ask for anything more? Get in from 7pm with a tenner.
BLUEGRASS SESH TIME The first Monday of the month is coming up again, and you know what that means: it’s time again for Gerry Hale’s Bluegrass Sessions. So bring your banjo, mandolin, washboard, fiddle, flatmate and join in the oldtime bluegrass jam session. Or just come down and watch as the Oldie gets transformed into a scene from an Appalachian mountainside. Free entry from 8pm.
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How did you get together? Nath, drums: Well, I like shorter, lighter-set guys who know how to handle an axe, you know what I mean? Dev is that guy! Have you recorded anything or do you prefer to tool around in your bedroom? Well, as fun as tooling around in your bedroom can be, be it musical or not, we tend to confine that kind of thing to our jam room and proper studios when we have the cash. We’ve got an EP out called Sinners, but we’re due for a new one soon, so keep your eyes peeled for a fresh batch of tracks in some form later this year. You can get our stuff for free via our website, udaystiger.com. Can you sum up your band’s sound in four words? Guitar, drums, loud and noise. If you could support any band in the world, who would it be and why? If it were right now, despite them not being together, it would be Mclusky. If we could go back to 1993 it would be Nirvana when they were touring In Utero. They’re two of the best bands in the world, that’s why. If a higher power smites your house and you can only save one record from the fire, what would it be? In Utero again while I’m on a roll – if it were me doing the salvaging for real though, I’m the kind of guy that people would yell at to, ‘Stop pissing around, this is an emergency you idiot!’ I’d be trying take an armload of shit. On a side note, in this case it could just as easily be Doolittle by the Pixies. Do you have a lucky item of clothing you wear for gigs and what is it? Nah, haven’t ever been into that. If you invited someone awesome ‘round for dinner what would you cook? Lamb, it’s delicious. What’s your favourite place to drink in Melbourne? Old Bar.
PURPLE POP
The Purple Stripes will be playing the cry baby session at the Old Bar this Sunday. The Purple Stripes play fun, lyrical indie pop for kids (and kids-at-heart) of all ages. For this show, The Purple Stripes will play as a two-piece with Kate Oliver guitar/vocals and Laura MacFarlane on drums. As usual, there will be a free BBQ and face painting for the kids. Entry is $5 for adults and $0 for under-15s. It all starts at 1pm.
HIGH TIMES
Matt Sonic & The High Times are Australia’s hottest psychedelic hard rock act right now. This year has seen the release of the incendiary This Love Electric album and a national tour with Fu Manchu that left venues needing to shave the fuzz from their speakers. Cuff is the Thor of the drumsticks. Megan is the redheaded siren of the bass. Who knows what Mikee is doing to those guitar pedals, but his hair sure does look nice. And they don’t call Matt Sonic “the aura” for nothing. So for a good time, head to the Retreat this Friday night. Support comes from Thee Wylde Oscars. Doors are at 9.30pm and it’s free entry.
SWITCH THE CHANNEL
Channel Switcher are stoked to announce their debut EP launch for Latent Vibrations at Revolver this Thursday. You can expect to witness a spectacle of magnificence that exceeds space and time. After searching for weeks for high quality artists to support them, Channel Switcher secured the reggae phenomenon Superjuice and also snagged The Latonas. Doors open at 8.30pm.
DIGGING DEEP Saritah and her band will showcase select new songs off the upcoming album Dig Deep, recently recorded in the hills of Montecito, California. Partly produced by Mario Caldato Jr, the album is due for Australian release in spring. In the meantime, this will be the roots songstress’ last show in the country before she returns to the northern hemisphere for festival appearances and showcases. Delivering a potent combination of feminine spirit, conscious lyrics and heartful melodies, Saritah brings a unique union of roots, reggae, soul, acoustic and dancehall. She has a positive vision for the future that shines through every word she sings and every note she plays. Catch Saritah with full band at the Evelyn this Thursday with special guests Simmer and Phoebe Jacobs. Doors from 8.30pm, $15 entry.
FINEST SWEET COMMUNIST JOKERS
It’s happening again: Brooklyn’s Finest will be gracing the stage at Revolver Upstairs this Saturday for the second time this year. After their first show in February was such a mad affair, the band and their friends have been invited back to do it all again. Along with old favourites The Communists, Brooklyn’s Finest will also be recruiting the talents of The Sweets and The Jokers to make sure the night gets all the great music it deserves. With the combined forces of each band you are guaranteed to get an intoxicating dose of reggae, funk, soul and jazz all wrapped into tidy bite-sized pop packages. For the tiny price of $10 you get four great bands and DJ Bad Love laying down the groove between sets. Doors open at 8.30pm.
THE MORE THE FERRIER
London born singer/songwriter Alison Ferrier began her musical career in Melbourne playing acoustic guitar and fiddle with country duo The Wayward Fancies and then in four-piece band The Hallrunners. She has recently released her debut solo album.
PSYCH MAESTRO
Legendary musician Damo Suzuki formerly of the group CAN returns for a special show alongside Niko Niko this Sunday at the Workers Club. If you haven’t seen this man perform and you dig washes of psychedelic noise, you’d be a moron to miss it. Full of dreamily melodic waltzes, heartsick ballads and haunted blues, Sugar Baby is evocative of the timeless, romantic music of years gone by. She is joined by Tim Murphy on double bass and Matt Green on electric guitar and dobro. Alison Ferrier will be performing from 4pm every Sunday in July at the Retreat Hotel front bar. Free entry.
SUZIE STAPLETON SATURDAY SETS After escaping part of winter at Hothouse Studio, Suzie Stapleton is topping the month off with a special afternoon at the Retreat Hotel. This two-set performance is the last solo show before she heads off to Europe for some summer loving including appearances at France’s Binic Folk Blues Festival (also featuring artists such as Ty Segall, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds and Dan Brodie), as well as shows in Spain, Germany and the UK. First taste of the new release is coming your way very soon. Suzie Stapleton will be performing two sets in the Retreat Hotel front bar this Saturday from 4-6pm. It’s free entry.
SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE
Mikelangelo has returned to the Old Bar to perform four of his favourite albums by monumental artists that shaped his ears as a lad. Each week he has tackled a different album and was joined by different guests on this epic undertaking; he’s done Johnny Cash’s American Recordings with James Seedy, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ Your Funeral My Trial with Julitha Ryan and Tom Waits’ Frank’s Wild Years with Hellhounds. For his last show tonight, he’s be taking on Leonard Cohen’s late-’60s flawed masterpiece Songs Of Love And Hate with Mustered Courage. These are all albums that Mikelangelo has happily fallen asleep listening to over the years, and thus they have worked their strange magic on his dreams and become pivotal influences on his singing and his songwriting.
FEEL IT IN YOUR WATERS
Barb Waters & The Mothers Of Pearl will play Sundays in July at the Retreat Hotel. Deftly supported by a host of great Melbourne bands, Barb & The Mothers... will play tunes from Barb’s
HAVE YOU HEARD?
HAVE YOU HEARD?
PLAYWRITE PLAY THE EVELYN THIS SATURDAY 30 JUNE
THE RED LIGHTS LAUNCH THEIR NEW EP AT THE EVELYN THIS FRIDAY 29 JUNE
How did you get together? Patrick, guitar: We all knew each other from other bands and high school. Have you recorded anything or do you prefer to tool around in your bedroom? Most recently we recorded a single called Borderline which we made a video for, starring two lovely old folks. We also have a self-titled EP that we released last year. Can you sum up your band’s sound in four words? Ecstatic, dark, cathartic, driving. If you could support any band in the world, who would it be and why? Probably Wally [De Backer, Gotye], because he’s such a gracious person and performer and we all love what he does. Plus he’s a local. If a higher power smites your house and you can only save one record from the fire, what would it be? Probably my birth certificate. Do you have a lucky item of clothing you wear for gigs and what is it? We have some fancy felt pendants. If you invited someone awesome ‘round for dinner what would you cook? A dish I invented called eggplant squishy. It’s eggplant stuffed with camembert then baked. It’s squishy. What’s your favourite place to drink in Melbourne? Bill’s Bar behind Huxtaburger on Smith Street. several albums, including those inspired by her country beginnings, to reveal the heart of one of Australia’s finest singer/songwriters. This Sunday’s support act will be Dan Waters & Band. Doors open at 8.30pm and it’s free entry.
TRIPLE HEADER
Combining forces to create a three-headed assault machine that would compel Godzilla to retreat to the depths of Tokyo Bay with his head hung in shame, Melbourne rock maestros Kingswood, Money For Rope and Damn Terran emerge from the primordial ooze to take their rock largesse to the good people. Catch it all this Thursday and Friday at the Workers Club.
A GHOST IN THE MACHINE
Grey Ghost wants to celebrate the release of his first solo single Space Ambassador since the ending of The Melodics. To do so he’s performing every Wednesday at the Workers Club.
EYES ON THE SUN THAT’S RARE, CHILD
Imagine a chance musical meeting between a Romanian gypsy violinist and a guitarist from the bayou. Now imagine this musical pairing backed by a classically trained pianist and some of the tightest beats you’ve heard. What you’re imagining is something like Rare Child. They’re an alternative folk band who like to sing about Flinders Street Station, exploding magpies, dodgy uni friends, love and there’s even an occasional Britney Spears cover with banjo. They combine high energy and honest performances with an authoritative command of their instruments resulting in a striking live performance. So wander down to the Hammy this Friday to see Rare Child play some sweet tunes, while sipping on Melbourne’s renowned syndicate coffee and sampling an array of decadent desserts. There’s no cover charge and doors open from 8pm until late.
RECHORDS RETURN
The ReChords are back for one night only, this time. The ReChords venture back once more to their home away from home at the Gem for a special one night only show on Friday. They’ll be starting the fun around 9pm for two whole sets so get down early as a ReChords show at the Gem is usually a big event. They’re looking forward to seeing all their regular friends and fans there.
Bursting out of the Adelaide music scene off the back of the release of their debut EPs earlier this year, The Sun & The Sky and Little Two Eyes are kicking off their East Coast tour in Victoria next month as part of their joint EP launch tour supported by Arts SA. The Sun & The Sky are a four-piece rocksynth band with an intense and brooding high-energy sound. Little Two Eyes are an alternative synth-pop act that combine brutally delicate and explosive moments with a gritty live energy. Catch them on Thursday 19 July at the Brunswick Hotel and Saturday 21 July 2012 at the Barwon Club (Geelong).
TRIO AT GROCERY
The Amy Ganter Trio’s unique sound hits home and takes the audience away on journeys of love, loss and whimsical joy. They are masters of their instruments, they create an atmosphere that allows the songs to shine. The meeting of the three talents of the Amy Ganter Trio is a
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How did you get together? Dean, guitar/vocals: Dave [bass] and I used to jam a bit in high school – just covers and a couple of scrappy originals. We then met Davin [drums] through a music forum and decided to have a bit of a jam. Lucky for us, we clicked instantly and continued from there. Have you recorded anything or do you prefer to tool around in your bedroom? We’ve actually just released our debut EP called Not In This Town, which we recorded at Red Door Sounds with producer Gareth Leach. We also would record demos at Davin’s house, which we’d chuck up on Facebook and triple j Unearthed. Can you sum up your band’s sound in four words? Something different every song. If you could support any band in the world, who would it be and why? The Strokes are my all-time favourite band so I’d have to go with them, but there are so many great Australian bands going ‘round at the moment like Dune Rats and Last Dinosaurs that I’d love to play with. If a higher power smites your house and you can only save one record from the fire, what would it be? Ahh, way to put me on the spot. Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm would probably be it… Absolutely amazing variety of tracks. But I couldn’t live without The Strokes’ Is This It as well. Too tough! Do you have a lucky item of clothing you wear for gigs and what is it? I have a blue floral shirt everyone seems to hate… So it’s always fun to wear that. I also have these suede boots that have been soaked in that much beer and shit that they’ve completely fallen apart. Always use those! If you invited someone awesome ‘round for dinner what would you cook? Well, that person would be Seal, so literally anything he desired at that particular time. Seal rules. What’s your favourite place to drink in Melbourne? Personally, I really love the Workers Club because it has an all-round awesome vibe and there are always good acts there. I’m also a regular at the Penny Black and love the Evelyn too. rare musical experience, for the musicians and the audience, and they look forward to sharing it with you at Grocery Bar this Sunday.
CARRY ON LIKE A PORK CHOP
After a sold-out sit-down session in March, Jacob Krupnick’s feature-length dance film Girl Walk // All Day will be re-screened, party-style – with minimum chairs, maximum dancing – on Saturday 14 July at the Industrial School at Abbotsford Convent. You can watch the film from the dancefloor. DJ Pork Chop will warm up the room and No Lights No Lycra will join forces with Two Bright Lakes DJs and Rainbow Connection to keep things humming in the latter part of the evening. Box office, bar and DJs from 7pm, the movie from 8pm, then music and dancing ‘til late.
TASTY TRIOS
Templeoftunes are a project headed by Melbourne singer/songwriter Brett Franke. Described as rhythmic, earthy, powerful and sometimes moving, there is no mistaking the unique sound and crafted rhythms that are this band’s signature. They punch out material that you just can’t help but tap your feet and shake your groove thing to. Chambers and folk rockers The Likely Suspects will join Templeoftunes on the Tasty Trios bill at Gertrude’s Brown Couch on Thursday 19 July. INPRESS • 39
those 15 brill women breakin’ hearts and shakin’ hips. Too long, in fact. To celebrate, The Rebelles will be dippin’ into the song bag to hook up some old dancin’ favourites with a couple of hot new treats. And what better way to juice up your jumpin’ June Friday night than with a serve of wild and raucous winter rockin’ on the Yah Yah’s dance floor. Support from Yeah Wednesday.
DIG IT UP
ARC ENEMYS
Hudson Arc use diverse and broad brushstrokes in their musical arrangements – one moment they journey through beguiling lilting sounds that create a peaceful, reflective atmosphere and the next, a blood-pumping crescendo that makes you remember you are alive. It is evident this four-piece, who hail from Newcastle, are all classically trained musicians, and that they like thinking outside of the square in their compositions. Don’t miss Hudson Arc as they perform their own special blend of climactic, string-laden pop at the Grace Darling Hotel on Saturday with support courtesy of The Hazelman Brothers and Gabe Lynch. Entry is only $10.
TALL TALES
Sydneysiders Fabels make their way to Melbourne with their second EP in hand. Their Friday 13 July show at the Edinburgh Castle will be their last before heading to Europe for some late (northern) summer shows in France, Netherlands, Germany et al. Fabels could be labelled dreampop, and they are quickly becoming masters of this form. Glasfrosch are a natural support with their colourful, dreamlike and hallucinatory tones. They have recently launched a remix EP and supported the likes of Sleepmakeswaves, Damo Suzuki, A Lonely Crowd and Mushroom Giant.
TWELVE POINTERS
Stag can often be found at their nearest carbdispensary and beer-scented watering hole in the sunshine state. Having never previously been allowed to leave QLD, Stag now are coming to a watering hole uncomfortably close to you. Following the release of Get Used To It, Stag are bringing their brand of carb-fuelled, banshee funk to Melbourne town. They’ll be joined at Bar Open by some of their very close friends: Young Romatix, Badd and Asps. Get along to join Brisbane’s least notorious band as they sink brews and sing about their [lady] problems. This Thursday from 9pm, free entry.
DUB MARINES
Melbourne’s premier pseudo-reggae band The Dub Captains welcome you to join them for yet another night of merriment at their home away from home Bar Open this Friday. The 13-piece party band will be playing two sets of hits to kickstart the weekend with a night of up-tempo, danceable, reggae-ish fun. Doors open at 9pm and entry is free so get down early to claim a spot on the notoriously busy dance-floor.
TAKE YOUR MEDICINE
The Afrobiotics are a six-piece band that breathe new life into the sound of West Africa and bring a powerful message of resistance to the next generation of Afrobeat. This is Afrobeat medicine administered directly to your soul. Mr Fantastic (Lamine Sonko) is a Senegalese griot musician who has recently migrated to Australia. He is a culture keeper bringing traditional sabar music and dance forms to the band’s compositions as well as a first hand Afrobeat authenticity. The songs flip in and out of traditional tongue, street pidgin chants and English verse regularly punctuated by impossible percussion. Catch them this Saturday at Bar Open.
BAR OPEN SUNDAYS
Hugo & The Treats and Ghost Orkid play Bar Open four Sundays in a row! Hugo is a dedicated esoteric rap exile from the UK, who was just recently invited back to his homeland by one Julian Assange. Assange had come across the online satirical current affairs show Rap News, which is hosted by Hugo himself, and has garnered worldwide attention with sixdigit hits on YouTube. Closer to home, Hugo & The Treats are a feature in the northside hip hop scene, known for their theatrical, comedic and spiritually uplifting shows. Check ‘em at Bar Open during their June Sundays residency. Every show is free. 40 • INPRESS
PIECES OF 8
8 Bit Love have been tucked away for the last few months letting their creative juices flow into what will be their sophomore EP, In 3D. With some of the catchy dance tracks 8 Bit Love have become known for, In 3D also explores some new sounds and styles. This July, the band are returning to the pub scene with a residency at the Workers Club, featuring some new songs. With a live show that can be described as a boisterous frenzy of cowbell playing, screaming and dancing, the Workers Club and its inhabitants will be in for a treat every Tuesday night in July.
BAG A PARTY
The first of many “Partybags” is taking place on Friday at Revolver Bandroom. Headlining are The McQueens along with support from Young Maverick. Each “Partybags” aims to break the industry’s surface by thrusting up-and-coming talent into the limelight. Not just any talent, talent those in the know have been watching with anticipation as they please punters, media and head honcho’s alike. Doors from 8.30pm, tickets $12+BF pre-sale via moshtix or $15 on the door.
MOON SHADOW
TAKING CHARGE Charge Group play loud, dynamic rock music (with an electric guitar, a violin, an electric bass and a set of drums) that can instigate sorrow, health, rapture, rapid eye movement, toothache and intrusive selfassessment all at once. They will light your way home then welcome you at the door with a punch in the guts. After successful European and Australian tours late in 2009, Charge Group spent the majority of 2010 writing and preparing their proudest and most ambitious work to date – the self-titled follow-up LP to Escaping Mankind. Recorded by the band in a church and mixed by Wayne Connolly, herein lies the sound of post-apocalyptic desert landscapes, desperate future-world chase scenes and blinding beacons of warm light. They play the Tote this Friday with Joe Mckee and the East Brunswick All Girls Choir.
BY THE SPOONFUL Sugar Army’s Hooks For Hands Australian tour is just around the corner and they play the Tote this Saturday. They are also psyched to reveal details of a limited edition Hooks For Hands artwork print, which is available exclusively at the show (only 500 printed). In true fair-game style, everyone with a ticket is entitled to their very own piece of the Sugars. Join Sugar Army, Udays Tiger and Dark Arts this Saturday at the Tote.
WASH WINTER’S WILLIES BACK The eighth annual Wash Winter’s Willies Away With Whiskey festival looms again at the Tote on Sunday 29 July. WWWAWW is a treasured little Tote institution and began as a little pub gig in 2005. Both inspired and impaired by the bottle, it serves to showcase and celebrate the music and merrymaking made all throughout Melbourne and its hallowed halls in our lifetime, hosted by old-skool cumrag skumbags Clinkerfield & Co and presented by the deranged helmsmen of Waste Management & Public Bookings. Pre-sales are available for $20 through trybooking. com and the first 50 punters through will have a comp CD waiting for them at the door on the day!
Melody Moon will launch her new EP, Carried Away on Friday at the Wesley Anne. After a successful year of touring and recording, this rising indie folkstress is back with a unique line-up and enticing new sound set to take Australian audiences by storm. Her Björk-esque vocals and honest presence lends itself to daring cello lines, passionate harmonies, tinkles of ukulele and sweeping bursts of trumpet. She’ll be supported by Tane Emia-Moore, Frankie Andrew and Tom Francis. Entry is $7. Visit melodymoon.com.au for more details.
DAMN IT! Their first album sent Damn The Maps touring all over Australia and New Zealand and they had massive success on TV here, in NZ and the US with five music videos and a documentary all in 18 months. In 2013, Damn The Maps will release their much-anticipated second album. They are playing a select handful of dates to showcase the new material before heading into the studio over summer. They’ll be joined by raucous Melbourne four-piece stoner/hard-rock band The Hidden Venture and wild punk/noise band Damn The Torpedoes. This should be a big, loud and beautiful night all in one. This Thursday at Yah Yah’s.
REBELLE-ION The Rebelles, the world’s biggest and rockingest girl group, are polishin’ up the vocal cords, restringin’ the guitars and headin’ back to Yah Yah’s on Friday. Yah Yah’s was lucky enough to host some of The Rebelles’ earliest spectacular celebrations, but it’s been a while since Smith St shook to the sound of
The Crate Digger Record Fair is back on Saturday at Yah Yah’s and will once again be running in conjunction with the Hello Sailor Vintage Fair. As always it’s free entry with doors opening at midday. This time the Crate Diggers Record Fair will all be in one room upstairs. That’s right, all record stalls will be held upstairs. That’s over 15 of Melbourne’s coolest collectors in one room with all those vinyl treats you just need to have in your collection. Downstairs you’ll find the Hello Sailor Fair in all its glory, so there’s something for everyone.
LITTLE FOLK
Brisbane’s Tiny Migrants have finally returned from space and are ready to bestow upon the earth their freshly gained knowledge of psychotic delays, backward surf, western soundtracks and waterlogged pop. Having traded cosmic valuables with the likes of Mark Sultan, Ty Segall, Guitar Wolf and The Black Lips, Tiny Migrants are more than ready to transmit a couple of their own shows. They blow into Melbourne in a homemade hovercraft to play the Grace Darling on Saturday with the party fro-bearing Ross De Chene Hurricanes and mighty slackers Bad Aches.
IN YOUR BLIND SPOT
Heavy on attitude and light on apologies, Slow Chase’s The Blind Spot EP hits paydirt in all the right places. Since the release of first single You’ll Never See Me in mid 2011, anticipation has run white hot for the Melbourne rock band’s debut EP offering. Recorded with the ARIA Award-winning Jonathan Burnside and co-produced by Burnside and frontman Adam Gresty, The Blind Spot bristles with killer riffs, jackboot rhythms and swagger to burn. The soundtrack for your better looking assassins, The Blind Spot EP is three tracks of raw, honest rock’n’roll delivered with snarl and vicious intent. Slow Chase will launch their EP on Friday 6 July at Melbourne’s home of rock, Cherry Bar.
DOUBLE GERONIMO
Here is another great band to have on your radar, Brisbane five-piece, Hey Geronimo, who will be releasing their debut self-titled EP this Sunday 1 July. Part of Brisbane’s indie-pop scene, which is enjoying a renaissance of sorts at the moment (Ball Park Music, Hungary Kids Of Hungary et al), Hey Geronimo are proof that a clever clip and catchy tunes can go a long way. They will be kicking off their first-ever headlining tour this weekend and will be playing the Grace Darling this Friday and the Espy Front Bar this Saturday.
WOWSERS!
Rocket To Memphis, Hill-Billy Jack, Mohair Slim and DJ Swamp-a-billy will be rockin’ up a storm on Friday at LuWow. Entry is $10 (members free) at Fitzroy experience, The LuWow Forbidden Temple.
POISON CITY MONSTER BILLS Now in it’s fourth year, Poison City’s annual Weekender fest is set to converge on Melbourne again this September for three days of friendship, punk rock, bar hopping, hugs and high fives. Taking place at the Tote on Friday 14 September, the Corner Hotel on Saturday 15 and new venue The Liberty Hotel on Sunday 16, this year the Melbourne record label has reached far and wide to assemble the event’s biggest line-up yet! Heading up the festivities is none other than New York post-hardcore supergroup Rival Schools who’ll be joined by The Smith Street Band, A Death In The Family, Extortion, Luca Brasi, I-Exist, Hoodlum Shouts, Paper Arms, Jamie Hay, Grim Fandango, Milhouse, Jen Buxton, Between The Devil & The Deep, Outsiders (NZ), Let Me Down Jungleman, Chinese Burns Unit, Toy Boats, Lincoln Le Fevre, Run Squirrel and White Walls, with more acts still to be announced. Full line-ups for each venue will be announced in coming days and tickets are on sale now.
TRUE RADICAL MIRACLE FINAL SHOW SNAKES IN A BAR
Okay feedback fiends and fuzz freaks, this is your last chance to catch River Of Snakes smash a hole in the barn at their Retreat residency. They’ve been ripping up sound systems up and down the East Coast with cock-rockers Jackson Firebird and Mammoth Mammoth for the last month, but the tour is nearing its end. So on Thursday get your earplugs cleaned, your bad dress on and your cretin’s ‘do out for a night of scuzz-punk mayhem. Entry is free and bands start at 9pm.
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On Saturday 14 July the Gasometer Hotel hosts the final-ever performance from long-running, Melbourne-based, noise-rock unit True Radical Miracle. This final live outing follows recent tours throughout Australia and the United States in support of second album Termites, released on the Seattle-based Iron Lung label in early 2012. Joining True Radical Miracle on this occasion will be Flesh Vs Venom, returning to live performance for the first time in three years. Also playing are vital local rock units Straightjacket Nation and Useless Children, both of whom have brilliant recent releases on the aforementioned Iron Lung label.
THE BIG THREE This Epic Tour sees locals Kingswood, Money For Rope and Damn Terran taking their epic tunes around the country on a tour of unrivalled epic-ness. We get the lowdown from Damn Terran guitar/singer dude Lachlan Ewbank. We are also just days away from kicking off a tour with Kingswood and Money For Rope.
MIRROR MIRROR
Brothers Hand Mirror have just released a freeto-download EP Our Will and will be celebrating this by spitting glitterish raps over tape-loop beats and releasing a booklet of drawings and lyrics to accompany the EP at Bar Open on Wednesday 4 July. Andras Fox and Greivis Vasquez are also on point for the evening to get twirly. Tape decks animated at 8pm, free entry, get sweaty.
AUDIO SYNTHESIS
Keith Fullerton Whitman, the enigmatic maestro of modular synthesis, is heading to Australia this July. Over the past decade he has shapeshifted through the outer reaches of audio, concocting a deeply personal and provocative audio maze that has most recently ventured into complex, voltage-controlled synthesis. He returns to Australia for the first time in seven years and will play the Gasometer on Saturday 21 July with Rites Wild, Circular Keys and DJ Rhonda Pearlman.
WOOLY BULLY TURNS ONE
Celebrating one year of being open, North Melbourne’s absolute best record store/comic shop/café, Wooly Bully, is combining with the Gas Gallery and the Gasometer to present a night of music and artists that love music and art this Thursday. Bands playing include Ausmuteants from Geelong, Terrible Truths and Boomgates fresh off their triumphant Community Cup show. Get along early to check out some art yo.
PROG SPIRIT
We’ve Been Expecting You is a showcase of some of Melbourne’s up-and-coming music acts including the fat jams of prog rockers Wandering Spirit, the insatiable indie anthems of Halcyon Drive and the ear-splitting madness of Dear Leader. This is not a show to say “no” to. Jot it down in your diary, stick a pin in your calendar or voice memo this shit on your iPhone – it’s Pony-time ladies and gentlemen. Cheap jugs and bargain-priced wine and champers. Yum. Thursday night, doors 8.30pm.
DOUBLE X
Deus Ex are a new explosive melodic metal band based in Melbourne’s west, fusing European melody with American aggression. Influenced by bands such as Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy and Megadeth, Deus Ex’s twin-guitar attack and roaring vocals are powerful while retaining a traditional aesthetic.
You claim this tour will be epic. Convince us. This tour is so epic that there has already been an injury (broken arm) before it has even begun. Also you know that earthquake that happened last week? That was Mother Nature being excited.
BLACKER THAN BLACK
What do you know about the other bands on the bill? There are rumours going around that Kingswood have amazing hair. I haven’t experienced this firsthand but will be taking notes throughout the tour. I know that the guys from Money For Rope love AFL and having two drummers. We’re definitely going to avoid playing any sort of sport on tour though.
Doubleblack are winding up their Wednesdays in June residency at Cherry this week with a bang. Special guests for this week are two-piece titans King Of The North. Free entry, cheap drinks; Doubleblack makes Wednesdays better. You can check out Deus Ex’s first released demo Burnt on YouTube. This will be their first gig and they are going in head first, so get down and support this new Australian metal act in the wee hours of Friday morning (1am) at Pony.
Best thing about touring with other bands? More people = more party… plus it makes loading gear in/out a lot easier. What’s your dream triple bill? Future Of The Left, Faith No More, Queens Of The Stone Age.
CUTTING
Since early 2010 Iconic Vivisect have established themselves as one of the heaviest bands around with their combination of speed, crushing riffs and intense live performance. Before the release of their debut full-length, due out later this year through Inherited Suffering Records, they are bringing their brutal act to Pony to lead an evening of Melbourne extreme metal on Friday. Joining the line-up are swamp-slam outfit The Seaford Monster, as well as mathcore band Cradle In The Crater and speedthrash band Argurios. With more intensity than a cerebral aneurysm, this show will blow your mind.
CHILEAN ALT.ROCK
One of the most promising acts of South America have temporarily relocated to Melbourne Australia. Manatarms have already become established as one of the best rock bands in their homeland of Chile with their ruthlessly catchy alternative rock. They’ve got plenty of runs on the board with major shows opening for bands such as Testament and Opeth. They will be appearing for free at Pony this Friday night in the late-night show. Don’t miss out and get down to see a hell of a show.
TURNING IN THEIR GRAVES
After two years of constant shows, bleeding fingers and hoarse throats, Gold Coasters Death By Dance are set to greet audiences of the nether regions with their take on punk, grunge and permeated chaos. With a live show that will have you screaming for more, they fight against a scene that asks for unoriginality and contrived perfection. Death By Dance are the band who will force you to remember what music is supposed to be about. They are playing at Pony on Saturday with Ceres, Scalar Fields, Drive By Epic and Those Wolves. Get down and join the ruckus.
And nightmare triple bill? Bear Grylls, Jared Leto, Kenny G. What’s keeping your band busy at the moment? At the moment we have been planning and writing for our debut album. We’re hoping to get it out for everyone before the year is over. Ali is busy playing in about a million bands as per usual and I have started doing some band management. Leigh recently got a haircut.
RICH KIDS
With the launch of their debut album done and dusted this year, Brazillionaires look forward to recording some new material in the second half of 2012 and making some videos for current songs. They drop in for a show at Pony this Saturday at 2am. It’s going to be late at night, when the fun really happens, so come and have a dance, say “hi” and keep them awake!
JUMPIN’ JUKE JOINTS
Featuring Benny & The Fly By Niters, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk and Three Kings, for one night only Juke Joint Jump will transform the Caravan Music Club into a lowdown, down-home, one-room country shack. It happens this Friday, so you better get down to Oakleigh’s premiere venue and see what all the fuss is about.
BORICH POWER
Beginning with The La-De-Da’s in New Zealand, writing the classic hit Gonna See My Baby Tonight and moving into his Kevin Borich Express and The Party Boys, Kevin Borich has performed at some of the biggest rock events Australia has seen. This Saturday at the Caravan Music Club in
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Three is the magic number because… Ali has a dog called Patti who likes to bark at the TV and lick dirt. This Epic Tour hits the Workers Club this Thursday 28 and Friday 29 June.
Oakleigh, Kevin Borich Express will perform a huge two-set show. Tickets are $27 for a reserved seat and $22 to stand. Get tickets via the venue.
CARAVAN SINGALONG Singalong Society is all about relaxed community singing. Every first Wednesday night of the month at 7pm at the Caravan Music Club, the much-loved Melbourne singer/songwriter Rebecca Barnard will direct things – fun is the prime objective. The next one takes place on Wednesday 4 July and for only $15 it promises to be a cracking night out.
SAMPLING FORUM The Waterfront Campus of Deakin Uni in Geelong will host the Digital Sampling/Remix Culture forum on Friday 6 July. The day will include talks and legal advice from industry professionals, a film screening of Copyright Criminals plus a Q&A with the film makers and will conclude with a music showcase starting at 9pm at Basement 159 in the Geelong CBD. This will feature: local boys 1Fish, Two Fish; The Baroness (featuring Class A MC); Lord Fitness; Bud Bounder and more. Entry is free but registration is essential. Head to the Facebook event page for details.
INPRESS • 41
ROOTS DOWN
THE RACKET
WAKE THE DEAD
BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTSDOWN@TIMEOFF.COM.AU
METAL, HEAVY ROCK AND DARK ALTERNATIVE WITH ANDREW HAUG
HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH SARAH PETCHELL
RY COODER Fancy a visit to the City Of Churches sometime soon? Well, the Adelaide International Guitar Festival is a pretty damn good reason to do just that and it’s creeping up on us too. The line-up is once again pretty spectacular; I get the feeling the event has a pretty good name the world over, with all types of guitar music showcased at the event, which takes place from Thursday 9 to Sunday 12 August. Of most interest to the readers of this column would be artists like such as John Scofield Trio, Punch Brothers, Tommy Emmanuel, Lucky Oceans Quartet, Harry James Angus, Roscoe James Irwin, Ray Beadle Band, Tinpan Orange and The Yearlings, but these are just a mere few of the acts who will be performing. Hit up adelaideguitarfestival. com.au for all the info you will need. Alternatively, if you’re keen to pack up your suitcase and head north for a weekend of sun, surf and music when it starts getting a little warmer – and why wouldn’t you? – then you could be very interested in a visit to the Caloundra Music Festival. It just continues to grow, this not-so-little event on Southeast Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and this year the first line-up announcement is pretty darn good. It features plenty of mainstream-friendly blues and roots goodness that has made the general public very happy indeed. Of interest to some of you will be two of the headliners, John Butler Trio and The Cat Empire, two of the country’s biggest name bands, as will Sydney rockabilly/blues/ rock’n’roll lady Lanie Lane. The most exciting name on the first announcement though is undoubtedly Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, who return to Australia for the third time in around 18 months and the second time this year. They are without a doubt one of the most exciting live New Orleans bands kicking around at the moment and they’ll go off at Caloundra. Also on the first announce is The Living End, The Whitlams, Boom Crash Opera, Ball Park Music and The Beards; but there are still plenty more acts – both Aussie and international – to be announced. It happens from Friday 28 September to Sunday 30; tickets are available through the festival’s website right now. A little closer to home, they reckon this year’s Echuca Moama Winter Blues Festival is going to be the biggest one to date. The line-up is a bit of a who’s who really, with the likes of Dallas Frasca, Claude Hay, Phil Manning, Chris Wilson, Dreamboogie, Lloyd Spiegel, Geoff Achison, Collard Greens & Gravy, Anni Piper Trio, Sweet Felicia & The Honeytones, Andrea Marr Band, Jimi Hocking, George Kamikawa & Noriko Tadano, Brian Fraser, Blue Eyes Cry, Eddie Boyle, Tim Neil & Andy Baylor Duo, Dukesy & The Hazzards, Stringybark McDowell, Jules Boult Trio, Blues Mountain Trio, Mr Black & Blues, Qynn Beardman, Blackwood Jack, Smokin’ Sam & Blues Cargo, Alister Turrill, Chris Harland Blues Band, Jonno Zilber & Eddie Boyle and Catfish Voodoo (as well as a few I’ve probably neglected to mention, my apologies) making the trek to play this great weekend of fine blues music. It happens at a whole heap of venues in and around the Echuca Moama area from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 July. More info can be found at winterblues.net.au. Ry Cooder must have been busy as he also has a new record set for release soon, Election Special, set for a mid-August release in the US and probably a similar date down here as well. Cooder is never one to back down from voicing his opinions on political and social matters and that is certainly no different here; he says that US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “scares” him and that the record is to serve as a “wakeup call” as the US presidential election creeps ever-closer. It’ll be pretty much exactly 12 months since his Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down album, which was his first in three-and-a-half years, so it’s good to see him back to his prolific self. 42 • INPRESS
ROB ZOMBIE Moving away from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween obsession to this! The Pulse Of Radio reports that Rob Zombie’s next film project as a writer and director will be Broad Street Bullies, about the famous Philadelphia Flyers hockey team of the 1970s. They won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and ‘75, and were the subject of a 2010 HBO documentary. Zombie said in a statement about the film, “Each character involved is more outrageous than the next. The backdrop of the turbulent year of 1974 is perfect for this stranger than fiction sports tale.” Zombie reportedly wants the movie to feel like a cross between Rocky and Boogie Nights. Dan Swanö (Bloodbath) is one of three musicians who have recorded special guest appearances on Icarus, the new album from German thrashers Dew-Scented. Commented Swanö: “After touring with them, mixing with them, it was about goddamned time that I also sang a nice tune with them. The interplay between mine and Leif’s [DewScented frontman] vocals worked out perfectly – like a duet between Satan and the Devil.” According to Terrorizer.com, guitarist/vocalist Adam “Nergal” Darski of Polish extreme metallers Behemoth is putting the finishing touches to his autobiography. Enitled Sacrum Profanum the book is “like a really long in-depth interview,” according to Nergal. According to Billboard.com, Seattle progressive rockers Queensryche have officially parted ways
with vocalist Geoff Tate and have replaced him with Crimson Glory singer Todd La Torre. “Over the past few months, there have been growing creative differences within Queensryche,” drummer Scott Rockenfield said in a statement. “We want our fans to know that we hoped to find a common resolution, but in the end parting ways with Geoff was the best way for everyone to move forward in a positive direction. We wish him the best of luck with all of his future endeavours. We can’t wait to bring Queensryche to our fans with Todd behind the microphone.” Last year Jörg Michael announced his departure from Stratovarius after 16 years of incredible drumming, countless tours and nine studio albums. They have been in search of a new drummer and now that decision has been made, with Rolf Pilve added to the line-up. Commented singer Timo Kotipelto: “Although the competition was fierce, Rolf was clearly the best one of the bunch. His precise playing, sureness and right attitude was there right away. He has an astonishing technique and to top that off he has a very musical way of playing, so he can bring something of his own into our old songs as well. Rolf has played a variety of different styles of metal, so fast tempos or more progressive parts will not be a problem. Whatever songs we might compose in the future – I have no doubt that he will be able to play them.” Massachusetts metallers All That Remains have completed tracking their new studio album, A War You Can Not Win, for a September release via Razor & Tie/Prosthetic. The CD sees the band reunited with longtime producer Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage). The record is the culmination of an intense writing period for the group that began shortly after their 18-month tour in support of For We Are Many. Commented singer Phil Labonte: “We really busted our asses and tried to do some new stuff (like we always do) and we’re really happy about what came out of it. Some of it is pretty different and is really gonna blow you guys away. Some of it is gonna sound just like what you expect from All That Remains. And I’m sure all of it is gonna make the internet have a conniption fit!”
NEW YORK CONVERSATION TALES FROM THE BIG APPLE WITH TOM HAWKING tomato sliced thin, with jack cheese – not that first slice, it’ll be hard). It’s a powerful idea and one that’s important to the notion of America as the land of plenty and the place of opportunity. EPIPHANIES CAN STRIKE AT ANY TIME, EVEN WHEN CHOOSING A TOOTHBRUSH Sometimes epiphanies come in great bursts of inspiration. Sometimes they only become clear in retrospect, when you look back upon your life and realise that what seemed an innocuous little decision actually constituted a life-changing moment. And sometimes they come looking at toothbrushes. So it was that your correspondent found himself at Walgreen’s Pharmacy on Flushing Avenue the other day, preparing for a long flight to Australia by actually remembering for once to buy a new toothbrush to take on the plane. The thing with buying a toothbrush is, though, that you can’t just buy a plain old toothbrush anymore. Choosing one requires any number of small decisions: soft, medium or hard bristles? Angled shaft or straight? Large or small head? Faintly gruesome-looking “tongue scraper” or strange pink-ribbed “tongue scraper”? Weird plastic-y gum-cleaning things or no weird plastic-y gum-cleaning things? The notion of consumer choice is a central tenet of the brand of capitalism that America has given the world, for better or worse. But even so, it seems particularly apparent in the country itself – as anyone who’s waited in a New York sandwich shop can tell you, US consumers are the most pernickety and demanding in the entire fucking universe. Everyone has their own preference for exactly how they want their coffee (double mocha frappuccino with a dash of caramel and whipped cream), or their salad dressing (thousand island, not too heavy on the tabasco, served on the side, please), or their sandwich (pastrami on rye, not too thick, with mayonnaise on one side and
But as NY Conversation stands staring blankly at the bewildering array of toothbrushes, a notion coalesces in my head: this isn’t choice. Not really. All these toothbrushes essentially do the same thing. It’s not so much consumer choice as consumer bewilderment, a gaggle of companies trying for endless variations on a simple idea in the hope of turning the consumer’s head towards their particular shade of beige. A lot of what gets presented to us as consumer choice is an illusion. Either you’re presented with a barrage of fundamentally meaningless options, or what’s presented as a choice is no choice at all – you can buy your oranges from Coles or Safeway or Woolworths or IGA, for instance, but what you’re buying most likely came from supply chains that are so similar that for all intents and purposes are identical. The concentration of supply was one of the really fascinating parts of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation – a vast proportion of the meat sold in American supermarkets, for instance, comes from one of several large meatpacking chains, all of which are functionally identical in terms of exactly what flavour of shit sandwich you end up eating. And yet, when it comes to the really important choices in life – who to marry, how and when to die, whether or not you choose to carry a child – the whole notion of choice is controversial. If a choice is considered too dangerous or too important to be left to, y’know, the general public, the right to make any decision at all is denied you. You could also argue the same about the vote. After all, elections these days are fought over demagoguery and trivialities, not the sort of policy issues that make a difference. Your correspondent stood and contemplated this until interrupted by a four year old girl who quickly selected a Hannah Montana-branded toothbrush while her mother looked suspiciously at the strange man who stared blankly at the wall of brushes. And it still took a good 15 minutes to choose a toothbrush.
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ANTAGONIST AD Poison City Records have announced that they will be releasing the debut 7” from punk outfit Chinese Burns Unit just in time to coincide with their appearance on the Poison City Weekender. The Sydney band are somewhat of a ‘90s Aussie supergroup featuring Jay Whalley (Frenzal Rhomb), Glenno (Lawnsmell), Johnny T (The Optionals/Grand Fatal) and John Irish (Crux/Pure Evil Trio). The group play punchy, infectious punk rock that (according to the guys at Poison City) would “slot nicely onto an old mixtape, somewhere between The Meanies, Hard-Ons or Front End Loader”. Pre-orders for a limited edition colour version of the 7” will be available from August via the Poison City e-store. Fans of mosh hardcore, get ready to kick some serious arse in the pit as one of the most moshtastic tours of the year has been announced thanks to Destroy All Lines. The bill brings together three bands from three nations including NZ’s Antagonist AD, Californian metalcore outfit Lionheart and Sydney’s Shinto Katana. All three bands have new releases under their belts, with Antagonist AD set to release their third album Nothing From No One through Mediaskare records on 20 July. Lionheart are building momentum and a hefty fanbase following the May release of their album Undisputed, while (as mentioned last week) Shinto Katana will be releasing their third album Redemption on 27 July through Skill & Bones. You can catch the three bands when they hit Bang Nightclub for an 18+ show on Saturday 11 August or on Sunday 14 August at Phoenix Youth Centre in Melbourne for an all-ages show. Tickets go on sale this Friday. Fans of The Locust, this information is for you! On 3 August Anti-Records will be releasing Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs. The record features 44 tracks of hard-to-find and out-of-print material from the early years of this legendary band. The San Diego group have been blowing musical minds since their inception in 1994, managing to mix together grindcore’s speed and aggression with mathcore’s complexity and new wave’s weirdness. If you’re a fan of the band then this is definitely a release that’s for you. But even if you’re just a fan of weird music, this would be an excellent introduction to a profoundly influential band. The Revelation Records 25th anniversary shows are shaping up to be pretty phenomenal! To top it off a couple more bands who had previously called it a day are looking to reunite especially for the occasion. This week, the announcements were that Texas Is The Reason and Chain Of Strength would be getting back together for the October shows. The bands were announced through some teaser posters which incorporate some of the bands’ imagery with the Revelation logo. I’m not sure if these are one-off reunions but all I know is that it would be cool to see Texas Is The Reason head out to Australia, so fingers crossed! Since the release of their debut album Heartbound, Melbourne’s own Dream On Dreamer have clocked more than 100 shows including an appearance on Soundwave, two US tours, two European tours and a trip through Japan and South East Asia. The band are finally back to hitting towns in their home country, with a tour of the capital cities as a part of the Homebound Tour. Joining them will be US outfit Like Moths To Flames, recent addition to the UNFD roster Hand Of Mercy and In Hearts Wake. You can catch the tour around Melbourne on Thursday 6 September for an 18+ show at the Corner Hotel or on Friday 7 September for an all-ages show at EV’s Youth Centre in Croydon. And just a reminder that the incredible Ceremony will hit town this weekend in support of their new album Zoo. You can catch them on Friday 29 June for an all-ages show at Irene’s Warehouse with Extortion, Straightjacket Nation and White Walls; or on Saturday 20 June for an 18+ show at the Bendigo Hotel with Extortion, Rort and Sex Tape.
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THE GET DOWN
OG FLAVAS
INTELLIGIBLE FLOW
FUNKY SHIT WITH OBLIVEUS
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
HIP HOP NEWS & COMMENTARY WITH ALEKSIA BARRON
bound to be hated on by (male) entertainment journos dismissive of women’s rites of passage.
JUSTIN BEIBER FEATURECAST Lots to hype and not much time or space, so let’s get right to it. Local digital label Lightspeed Recordings have absolutely turned up the funk to maximum with Heartbreak Reputation, the latest disco bomb from Dublin Aunts. I guarantee this will make you reminisce about the time you picked up that bird who slept with Chopper while pulling the Karate Kid crane kick on the litup dancefloor. Either that or I just gave you the blueprint for what you should be trying to do with your life. Regardless of your age, these lads have mastered the cruisy, synth-laden disco it took Diana Ross years to finally make. The original is dope, but the Drop Out Orchestra remix will pull your shirt off. Find this on Soundcloud, pronto. Also needing you to find it is the latest from Lord Nelson, through the London label, Soundway Records. Shango is some tropical soca bizness that will have you reaching for the nearest whistle, but it’s the Daniel Haaksman & DJ Beware remix that wrecks the shop. To say it pulls you in with its ultra-fat percussion is an understatement, because it actually runs you over. I know the words ‘soca’ and ‘tropical’ are being used a lot lately, but this badboy fits its own mold and you won’t be disappointed with your purchase, so make your summer come early and obtain this quick like. Now if that damn Ondatrópica would just hurry up and come out, I’d be in my own private heaven right now. Speaking of heaven, breakbeat heads must be loving the Ghetto Funk label at the moment. Since their launch, the amount of releases available to the masses went into exponential figures and a case in point would be the newest EP from Featurecast, a teaser for his forthcoming album on Jalapeno. Sampling heavily from the Jackson 5, Busta Rhymes and all other party rock anthems (had to throw it in there, sorry), this will turn it out and leave the punters sweaty and violated. You can find and download from their website if you feel inclined. While you’re sitting in front of your computer screen, hit up Juno for the newest album from US natives All Good Funk Alliance. Jacks Of All Trades is filled to the rim with all of the disco-inspired funk, rhymes, catchy vocals and breakbeats we’ve come to expect from these two production masters, but labelling this another breaks release would be doing it a disservice. My pick of the litter would have to be I Don’t Care If It’s Your Birthday for its early-era Freestylers vibe and though all of the songs are good on their own terms, the whole album works well as a longplayer. Also working well for me at the moment is the latest from Alias on the Junkfood label. I happened upon his Empire EP by accident one day, but ever since I’ve been a happier human being. The one that does it for me the most would be his colab with Sola Rosa & Iva Lamkum and it goes by the name of Turn Around. If mid-tempo funk, sweet hooks and muddy bottom bass is your cup of choice, than you have found your new favorite song. I could not recommend it enough. Also worth recommending is one on the cheesy, and cheeky, end of the spectrum and it’s from the lads at Breakbeat Paradise Recordings. Kool Hertz (who has to be Badboe under an assumed name) went all out in the most mashed-up of ways a few months back with his Whatta Joint EP, sampling and mixing in everything from En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa and Cypress Hill. It was, and is, the ultimate party starter/slayer and hasn’t really left my psyche since I heard it, to my wife’s ultimate dissatisfaction. Nice and packed this month, so I’m out of here, party people! 44 • INPRESS
Justin Timberlake metamorphosed from a nerdy teen pop idol into a credible R&B star – but can Justin Bieber? He’s trying. It must help that the Canadian, now 18, has Usher Raymond IV in his corner, being the flagship act on the R&B megastar’s label Raymond Braun Media Group with Scooter Braun. Early on Raymond gave Bieber, a nice Christian boy, his own “swagger coach”. Ironically, Bieber (here next month for a promo tour) is dropping only his second album proper, Believe, on the tail of Raymond’s Looking 4 Myself. (Bieber last offered a Christmas collection.) In many ways, Timberlake faced a greater challenge in attaining ‘cool’. He’d started out in The Mickey Mouse Club, later joining the boy group *NSYNC. Timberlake reinvented himself with 2002’s solo Justified, hiring The Neptunes and Timbaland. But it was the visionary FutureSex/LoveSounds that established him. Today Timberlake has apparently abandoned music – including production – for acting, his role as Napster’s Sean Parker in The Social Network widely praised, and entrepreneurialism. However, he has lost focus. Lately the Southerner, engaged to Jessica Biel, launched a homewares line! Even Timberlake’s bid to become a music mogul with Tennman Records has failed, his Dutch protégé Esmée Denters achieving little. Funnily, Timberlake, too, pursued Bieber. So can Bieber make the transition from not mere teen but tween idol to adult artist – from pop to R&B? This is, after all, a kid who marketed a toy keytar. And anyone who attracts screaming young female fans – in Bieber’s case, the ‘Beliebers’ – is
Believe is a decent record, though no Justified. Bieber jumps on the electro-hop trend with The Messengers’ All Around The World, featuring Ludacris – who previously popped up on Baby (with input from The-Dream). Diplo masterminded Raymond’s Climax and he’s back here, overseeing the romantic, not subversive, Thought Of You (alongside Ariel Rechtshaid). Alas, it’s not a euphoric club banger but rather might be a Dr Luke cast-off. Bieber is also fully embracing his R&B roots – evident in those old YouTube covers. He reveals a real ‘90s influence on the album’s first hit, Boyfriend, with acoustic swing from Mike Posner. Even better is Die In Your Arms, the best of two contributions from Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins (the other is the Big Sean-guesting trance‘n’grind As Long As You Love Me). It symbolically samples Michael Jackson’s early cut We’ve Got A Good Thing Going. Bieber has perfected his own brand of street cute. Yet he shouldn’t try too hard. His duet Next 2 You with the unpleasant Chris Brown was an ignorant move for one with a female following (better was ‘Ye’s remix of Runaway Love with Raekwon). Bieber needs to gather stronger material, take more creative risks, and showcase his musicianship (he plays several instruments). And he could do with a defining song like SexyBack. Bieber’s biggest dilemma? He lacks emotional range (Timberlake’s angsty Cry Me A River was about his break-up from Spears). The teen appears happy with girlfriend Selena Gomez. But he requires a musical narrative. Bieber has much in common with his mentor, Raymond – both were raised by single mums and became child stars in a warily post-Michael era. Raymond has acknowledged that Bieber is unusually centred, telling Q, “In the area of relationships, he’s actually done a lot better than I did. He doesn’t have as many issues. He knows what he wants.” And, like Raymond (and Timberlake), Bieber is astute. He has long learnt how to exploit social media, especially Twitter – and this may yet prolong his career.
THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY cries. We’re beyond that now, into the deeper stuff.
MUSCLES Something wasn’t quite right. Nothing that could dampen the spirits of the faithful and applause-happy audience, but it was there in the room, causing a niggling feeling, drawing out the inner cynic. As part of Patti Smith’s visit for the Melbourne Festival in 2008, her shows at Hamer Hall saw New York City’s south-end treasure play from her then most recent album, Twelve, as well as from a catalogue spanning back some 30 years. As was the festival’s wont, the shows were a celebration of Smith’s career past and present, and we got the works, including rare performances of Gloria and fellow Horses song, Land. The appearance of those songs near the end of Smith’s sets got old and young to their feet, but they also added to the niggling feeling brought on by Smith’s rallying cries and her inclusion of a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. The punk rock message felt a little worn, despite being brandished by one of the women who helped write it. The anti-establishment and anti-conformity mantras were, as they always are, worthwhile, but from the mouth of a writer who had just four years earlier told us that “mercy will embrace” in her song My Blakean Year, there was also a willing naivety to them. There’s none of the same naivety to Smith’s newest record, Banga (Columbia/Sony), aside from the recognisably ‘punk’ stencil cover art. It’s a graceful record, strewn with literary references and set to a clean yet weighty band backing with plenty of piano. In many ways it’s the kind of record New York punk poets are expected to make in their autumn years, immensely listenable and serious. But it’s also beautiful. Lyrically, Smith does what she does best, exploring inner swirlings of unrest and emotional entanglements. There are no rallying
The memory of those Hamer Hall shows, however, is a reminder of how tempting it is for even thoughtful performers to use crowd-pleasing devices that add nothing to the integrity of their songs. Of course we know too well how tempting it is for less thoughtful performers. Listening to triple j in summer can be the cuss-friendly equivalent of watching Play School, where following instructions from rappers and DJs will soon find you with your hands in the air, repeating a line that lets the world know how much you love the season. On his second album, Manhood (Modular/Universal), Melbourne party-beat-maker Muscles is entirely aware of his role as a champion of summer exploits. He always has been, ever since he sang about ice-cream saving the day and worked his way onto summer festival bills. But even on that early single he was aware, too, of the role summer and festival culture plays in the somewhat darker world of working-class Australian males. Ice-cream was saving the day from internal frustration and the ever-present threat of violence. On Manhood, Chris Copulos makes those ties more apparent. Ready For A Fight is a night on the town with a protagonist who doesn’t know if he’s looking for a hug or a punchon. Boys Become Men acts as the means by which boys dreaming at home of girls can break out of that solitude – “I’m gonna be your hero,” Copulos sings, by which he means come to the festival, dance to the song and your real life will begin. The Night puts the violent next to the sublime over oscillating synths: “body-rocking, lips-locking, bottle rocket…” There’s no difference here – this is manhood. As the album unfolds, something of a punk can be heard in Copulos: his irreverence for tone, his slurred words and pasted-together melodies. Like Smith he’s singing about internal unrest and like Smith he has no need for punk’s old rallying cries to make his point. But they are there, echoed in the summer catchcries that tell of so much more. He’s getting beyond them, into the deeper stuff.
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THUNDAMENTALS It seems like barely five minutes since everyone stopped talking about how great Come Together was, but hip hop’s festival season rolls on with the Sprung Festival line-up announcement. No doubt many local hip hop fans will make the trek to Brisbane to see some of Australia’s premier acts performing in the one place – the bill is headlined by the Hilltop Hoods, and also features Illy, Pez, TZU, Vents, Kerser, Mantra, Spit Syndicate, Seth Sentry, Thundamentals, Bias B (coaxed out of retirement once more!), Briggs, The Tongue, Evil Eddie, Mase N Mattic, Bam Bam, Seven, Deathstarrs, Dwizofoz and Kudos. Obviously, this is a strong line-up, and it will no doubt get many of Brisbane’s fans along to the RNA Showgrounds for a day of great tunes, especially given that the vast majority of the artists performing this year aren’t Queenslanddwellers. However, the best criticism of the bill that I’ve seen so far this year came from Fraksha, who tweeted, “Maggot [Mouf], Tornts, Trem, Jakebiz all had albums in last 12 months so was surprise not to see them at sprung, needs more diverse representation.” Good point. Looks like the biggest issue with a triple j-affiliated festival is that the line-up is, well, very triple j. That’s not to take away from the worthy artists chosen to participate, but people producing the quality of work that we’ve seen lately from Trem and Tornts would surely benefit from some increased exposure in such a forum. There’s also a lack of female artists on the bill (odd, in a year that Sky’High, Candice Monique and Sarah Connor are going from strength to strength). Still, maybe the times are a-changing, albeit slowly – Crate Cartel’s Maundz got some triple j loving last week with the title track off his latest album Zero. Looks like the first rays of light may be about to start penetrating the underground. The aforementioned Thundamentals have earned themselves a well-deserved spot on the Sprung line-up, and if you’re looking for an example of their innovation and creativity, look no further than their triple j Like A Version cover of Matt Corby’s Brother, which they performed to great acclaim last Friday. It’s a really smart reinterpretation of the insanely popular track, allowing the lads to stay true to their chilledout selves while delivering some impeccable verses. If you have been living in some sort of cave and have only recently ventured back out into proper society, and hence haven’t heard this yet, you can see the video at bit.ly/MENz29 Come Saturday 30 June, if you are anywhere other than the Laundry Bar, you’re doing it wrong. Sky’High is heading our way to play a show in support of her recent album Forever Sky’High. Supporting her on the night will be grime maestros Smash Bros, plus DJ Sizzle. Sky’High’s become one of the more intriguing figures in Australian hip hop, and her thought-provoking album is matched by her take-no-prisoners stage persona. She doesn’t get to Melbourne nearly often enough, so make sure you don’t miss this gig. If you’re a fan of Sky’High, you undoubtedly also hold the man who had a significant hand in bringing her to public attention in high regard. That man is producer extraordinaire P-Money, who hails from across the Tasman, and who has dropped a great new tune with MayaVanya: Turn Me Out featuring Kaleena Zanders. It’s not hip hop (strictly speaking), but the nightclubthumping production is sublime. Have a listen on soundcloud.com/p_money. Also sounding good in the new music stakes is the new track My Life from Melbourne MC Flea. It’s got a good, relaxed beat with plenty of punch, and Flea’s lyrics have an intriguing honesty to them. Check out the video at youtube.com/laggersgetchopped.
HOWZAT! LOCAL MUSIC NEWS BY JEFF JENKINS I have to confess that Oh Hawke didn’t immediately grab me. It’s not an album that pokes you in the chest. But a mate said, “Stick with it, I think you’ll like it after a few plays.” Good advice. Oh Hawke, which was recorded in Hawke Street, West Melbourne, is a gentle gem. My initial reluctance had me thinking: How many classic albums have I missed? Pick any one of your favourite albums; chances are, you were a little unsure on first listen. And those albums that you instantly loved? Chances are, you don’t play them so much any more. As Dan sings, “The lights may blind our eyes some.” But in the era of instant gratification, how many of us give an album a second listen?
DAN LETHBRIDGE
DAN THE MAN
Shane O’Mara is Howzat!’s favourite guitarist. He’s a pretty nifty producer too. Shane tipped us off to Oh Hawke, the new album from Dan Lethbridge, which Shane mixed. As Shane says, “There is much music around these days, too much.” But Dan’s “deftly crafted” songs grabbed him. “Dan writes a mean tune, sings a mean song, plays a fine Gibson guitar, is one handsome bastard and has made an alluring gem of an album.” High praise indeed.
The cover of Oh Hawke shows an old analogue TV, which is analogous of the album’s contents. These songs are sturdy and reliable. Not throwaway. As Dan sings in Old Jack Frost, “You crave the future, a future filled with things of the past, ’cause those things last.” From the undisco-like Saturday Night Fever to the Cat Stevens-like Go Home, this is an album that gently gets under your skin. These songs should be all over the radio, but we don’t live in a perfect world. “They build you up just to dumb you down,” Dan sings in Make The World Go ’Round, “the radio, it just tells you lies and drags your senses down.” Oh Hawke, out now on Vitamin Records, follows Dan’s 2008 debut, Dreamers Of The World Unite. The musical mind can play tricks on you. I’m amazed that I struggled to embrace this record, a record I now love. But as Dan declares in arguably the album’s standout song, Day Never Comes: “Regrets and redemption – these things they haunt me/ You try to mend what hurts you,
but memories, they never let you/ And lovers, they only linger and then forget you.” Dan and Shane O’Mara are playing at Basement Discs on Friday at 12.45pm, and Saturday night at Wesley Anne.
You Won’t Let Me KARISE EDEN (five, debut)
HERTZ LIKE HEAVEN
Landslide KARISE EDEN (15)
Appropriately, given the day’s theme, many players were cramping as the clocked ticked down to a thrilling draw at the Community Cup. “I’ll have a heart attack in a minute,” Megahertz fan Linda said, re-enacting the 1966 Grand Final commentary. “I’ve already had three!” Howzat! replied. With tireless Timmy Rogers starring for the Rock Dogs (has there been a better Rock Dog?), it looked like the Megahertz were headed for another loss, but somehow they rallied. The Community Cup remains the best day on Melbourne’s music calendar. The big question for Evo is, with the draw, will we be back at Elsternwick Park next Sunday?
MID-SEASON REPORT
Damage Down DARREN PERCIVAL (eight, debut) Nothing’s Real But Love KARISE EDEN (11) For Once In My Life DARREN PERCIVAL (17, debut) It’s A Man’s World KARISE EDEN (21) Sitting On Top Of The World DELTA GOODREM (26) On Top JOHNNY RUFFO (28, debut) Shooting Star RACHAEL LEAHCAR (34, debut) Smile RACHAEL LEAHCAR (34, debut) Back To Black KARISE EDEN (36, debut) I Believe DARREN PERCIVAL (37) Into The Flame EP MATT CORBY (38) Without You KEITH URBAN (39, debut)
It’s been a Voice-led recovery. At this stage last year, just three Aussie singles had cracked the top ten. This year, we’ve already had 20 top ten hits. For the first six months of 2011, we had just 13 Australian Top 40 hits – this year, we’ve had 60 homegrown hits (39 of them have been Voice-related). By mid-2011, we’d had a dozen top ten Aussie albums; this year, 15 local albums have hit the top ten, with four chart-topping albums (compared to one for the same period last year).
Bieber ends Missy Higgins’ two-week reign.
CHART WATCH
Drinking From The Sun HILLTOP HOODS (33)
The Voice winner Karise Eden makes chart history, with four of the top five songs, and eight entries in the Top 40.
The Story So Far KEITH URBAN (number two) The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle MISSY HIGGINS (three) Spirit Bird XAVIER RUDD (11) The Temper Trap THE TEMPER TRAP (15) Falling & Flying 360 (19) Get Closer KEITH URBAN (23)
HOWZAT! PLAYLIST
Day Never Comes DAN LETHBRIDGE
Stay With Me Baby KARISE EDEN (number one, debut)
Nothing On The Go THE FAUVES
Hallelujah KARISE EDEN (two)
Waiting For You EVEN
I Was Your Girl KARISE EDEN (three, debut)
Glutton LIZ STRINGER
Beautiful SARAH DE BONO (four, debut)
Go Quietly LITTLE SCOUT
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INPRESS • 45
WED 27 Coq Roq: Lucky Coq Cosmic Pizza: NHJ: Bimbo Deluxe Fluidlife: Beatport: OneSixOne Halfways: The Workshop Inner City Trash: Lounge Kickstart Wednesdays: The Roxy Mechanics: The Workshop Lounge Wednesdays: Matty Raovich, PCP, Adelle: Lounge Carmex, Baddums: Laundry Wednesday Night Special: Post Percy: New Guernica Wednesdays @ Co: Petar Tolich, Scotty E: Co. Nightclub Whisky Wednesday: Strange Wolf
THU 28 3181 Thursdays: Hans DC, Nikki Sarafian, Jake Judd, Butters, Sean Rault, Jesse Young, John Doe, Hey Sam, Hoops: Revolver Upstairs Billboard Thursdays: Billboard
CLUB GUIDE Bottom End Thursdays: Bottom End Dirty Bit Thursdays: Co. Nightclub Do Drop In: Kiti, Lady Noir, DJ Foo: Carlton Club Dub Step: Eurotrash First Stop Thursdays: Urban Bar Free Range Thursdays: Lucky Coq Heartbreaker: 1928, Weapon X, A-Style, Indian Summer DJs: Revolver Bandroom Loose Joints: The Workshop Lounge Thursdays: Citizen.com, Ghetto Filth: Lounge Love Story: 1928: The Toff Midnight Express: The Toff Carriage Room Mood: Loop New Guernica Thursdays: Post Percy, Awesome Wales: New Guernica Night Skool: Eurotrash Noizy Neighbours: Room 680 Primetime: Seven Nighclub Rehab Vol 2: Royal Melbourne Hotel Rhythm-al-ism: Fusion
Safari Thursdays: Pretty Please Shake Some Action: Street Party, Samaritan, Polyavalanche: OneSixOne Soul In The Basement: Cherry Bar Stoop Dreams: Sammy The Bullet, DJ New Girl, Gaijin Credible, Kid Militan, Get Busy: Laundry Upstairs Switch: EVE The Factory: Trak Thursdays: Liberty Social Tigerfunk: Bimbo Deluxe Trinity Thursdays: La Di Da Wah Wah Thursdays: Wah Wah Lounge
FRI 29 393 Fridays: First Floor 393 Bass Station: 3D Block Party Fridays: Marrakech Bottom End Fridays: Bottom End Breakfast Club: New Guernica Cosmology: Loop Destination: La Di Da
Skip & Swing: Loop Fake Tits: Tramp Fridays at Onesixone: OneSixOne Freedom Pass Fridays: Co. Nightclub, Fusion Freeplay Fridays: Amber Lounge Friday Nights: Cushion Fridays at Eurotrash: Eurotrash Indecent Fridays: Syn Bar Juicy: Bimbo Deluxe La Musica: La Di Da Le Scratch: Laundry La Vida: Seven Nighclub Lounge Friday: Citizen. com, DJ Who, Tahl, Dave Pham: Lounge Midnight Midnight Massacre: Jobin, Mr. George: New Guernica Mi Casa: Damon Walsh, Markie Mark & Obay, Lucca Tan, Nick Jones, Silversix: Revolver Upstairs Mu-Gen, Token: Eurotrash Outrageous Fridays: Wah Wah Lounge Panorama: Lucky Coq PopRocks: Dr Phil Smith: Toff
Pretty Please Fridays: Pretty Please Retro Fridays: Club Retro Revolver Fridays: Who, Safari, Mike Callander, Lewie Day, Sunshine: Revolver Upstairs Sounds of Fusion: Fusion WOW Fridays: Neverland
SAT 30 All City Bass: Brown Alley Alumbra Saturdays: Alumbra Audioporn: Dr. Zok, James Ware, China Hoops, Rowie: OneSixOne Billboard Saturdays: Billboard Bottom End Saturdays: Bottom End ‘C’ Grade: Tornado Wallace, Otologic: Mercat Basement Dark Sky: Same O, David Bass: Laundry Dis You!: The Workshop Empire: Jam Xpress, Seany B, Nino Brown: Co. Nightclub, Fusion Extravaganza: The Workshop Forbidden Saturdays: Amber Lounge
Houseparty: Eurotrash Hotstep: Bimbo Deluxe House De Frost: The Toff Majik Saturdays: Room680 Mashouse Saturdays: 577 Lt Collins New Guernica Saturday: New Guernica Pash: The Roxy Poison Apple: La Di Da Poof Doof: Bottom End Sabor Saturdays: Marrakech Saturday Morning: Sunshine: Revolver Upstairs Saturday Nights: Cushion Saturdays at First Floor: First Floor 393 Sky’High: Laundry Strut Saturdays: Trak Survivor: Bottom End Swindle: Mirror State, Al Good Affiks, Robbanx, Arctic A13: Laundry Textile: Lucky Coq The Dojo: Order Of Melbourne The Late Show: Ransom, Lewis Cancut, Too Much!, Mr ffrey, Who, Paz, Ransom, Booshank, Boogs: Revolver Upstairs
The Weekend: Seven Nightclub TFU Saturdays: Two Floors Up Under Suspicion: Brown Alley Unstable Sounds: Loop Wah Wah Saturdays: Wah Wah Lounge Why Not?: Pretty Please
SUN 01 4AM Sunday Mornings: Wah Wah Lounge Be.: Co. Nightclub Get Wet: Word Bar Guilty Pleasure Sundays: Pretty Please Off Beat: The Workshop New Guernica Sundays: New Guernica Revolver Sundays: Boogs, Spacey Space, Radiator, Silversix: Revolver Upstairs South Side Hustle: Lucky Coq Spit Roast Sundays: Cushion Star Bar Sundays: Star Bar Sundae Shake: Bimbo Deluxe Sunday Sessions: Lucky Coq
The Sunday Set: AndyBlack, Haggis: The Toff
MON 02 Gear Shift: Horse Bazaar IBimbo: Bimbo Deluxe Monday Struggle: Lucky Coq L-Burn Illuminati, DylThomas: Laundry Toasted: Laundry
TUE 03 Almost Famous: Co. Nightclub All That Tuesday: Berlin Bar Bimbo Tuesday: Bimbo Deluxe Cosmic Pizza: Lucky Coq Choose Tuesdays: Post Percy: New Guernica Dumplings: Eurotrash Fourplay Tuesdays: Cushion Harmonics: The Workshop MSG Tuesdays: Laundry Oasis: Tramp Space Hopper: Match
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INPRESS • 47
WED 27 Aerials, Joe Kings, Cotton Sidewalk, Cheet St Espy Lounge Bar Agent 86, Lady Noir, Kiti, Joybot, Mr Thom Lucky Coq Beth Cleary, Zikora The Drunken Poet Bob, Ben Hauptmann Bennetts Lane Bopstretch Uptown Jazz Café Busby Marou, Leader Cheetah, The Hello Morning Bended Elbow, Geelong
Tim Coster, Demystifyer, Nicky Crane Empress Hotel
Incrypt, Rone Kaos, Kilamaine, Keys To Perdition The Prague
Tom Tuena Veludo
Jackson Firebird, River of Snakes, Mammoth Mammoth Retreat Hotel
Van Myer, The Bon Scotts, Sinister Minister Evelyn Hotel Viki Mealings Wesley Anne
THU 28 Adrian Whyte, Chickenstones, James McCann & The New Vindictives Tago Mago Agent 86, Lewis Can Cut, WHO Lucky Coq
Cassawarrior, Dd, Ricka E55
ANCHORS, Cavalcade, Ten Paces, Tigers Next
Chris Frangou’s Sound Theory, Mazy Trip, Cleopatra’s Tattoo Gertrude’s Brown Couch
Andrew Arnold, Amy Tankard Cruzao Arepa Bar
Claudia Osegueda, Oscar Poncell Cruzao Arepa Bar Danny Silver, Manchild, Mu-Gen Lounge Bar
Lil’ Band O’ Gold Regal Ballroom Lo-Res, Moforibale, Adrian Sherriff Bata Project, Tim Pledger’s Sandwich Jesus 303 Bar Mikelangelo, Mustered Courage Old Bar Petar Tolich, Scotty E Co. Nightclub Running Away With the Circus Bebida Bar Spidey, Shaky Memorial, Tracy Crapman Revolver Upstairs The Gianni Maranucci Nonet Paris Cat Jazz Club The Lost Sunnies, The Steins, The Old Faithfuls, Link McLennan’s Amazing Jukebox The Tote
Judy Blue, The Moon Project Veludo
The Vaudeville Smash, Bigmouth, The Mae Trio Thornbury Theatre
Kevin Borich Wellers of Kangaroo Ground Kingswood, Damn Terran, Money For Rope Workers Club Kirin J Callinan, Machine, Kangaroo Skull, Forces, DCM The Tote Kiti, Lady Noir The Carlton
Ildiko, Laura Smock The Thornbury Local
Tim Cannon The Drunken Poet
James Sherlock Trio Uptown Jazz Café
Tim Willis & The End Bennetts Lane
Jehst, Dizz1, RuC.L, Remi, Cammo Prince Bandroom
Wandering Spirit, Halcyon Drive, Dear Leader Pony Young Romantix, Stag, Asps, Badd Bar Open
Joe Chindamo Dizzy’s Jazz Club John Lillis, Nico forte Balaclava Hotel Kevin Borich The Palais, Hepburn Springs
FRI 29
The Rebelles, Yeah Wednesday Yah Yah’s The ReChords The Gem The Red Lights, The Neighbourhood Youth, The Corsairs, Tully On Tully Evelyn Hotel The Worst, Wolf Pack, The Morrisons Cornish Arms Hotel The Wylde Oscars, Matt Sonic & The High Times, Shaky Memorial Retreat Hotel These Hands, Ballads, The Nest Itself, Seedy Reed, Lander Configurations Old Bar
Lowkey The Thornbury Local
Al Parkinson, Davey Simony Band, Baychimo Empress Hotel
Kisstroyer, High Voltage, Electric Shoppingtown Hotel
Victor Pender Cape Café
Alfred Harua, Fox Road Bar Betty
Lil’ Band O’ Gold Espy Gershwin Room
B-Boogie, Jay-J, Johnny M, Joe Sofo, Kitty Kat, Nikkos, Chris Mac Co. Nightclub
Mana Glenlyon General Store
World’s End Press, Romy, Ben Browning, Roman Wafers Corner Hotel
Broz, Dinesh, NYD, Sef, Shaggz Ladida
Mannequin Abode
Charlie & The Smyles Bebida Bar
Make Them Suffer, Signal The Firing Squad, Judge Our Hearts, The Hivemind Karova Lounge, Ballarat Maricopa Wells, The Shadow League, Tim Hampshire, Wil Wagner, Ben David & The Banned Bendigo Hotel
Circuit Bent, Monkey Marc Miss Libertine
Matt Dean, Matty Grant, Phil Ross Billboard
Citizen.com, DJ Who, Andras Fox, Mike Gurrieri, Richie 1250, DJ LA Pocock, Koolism, Ms Butt Lounge Bar
Mikey Madden Dexter Bar, Clifton Hill
Conductors, James Kane, Nu Balance, Post Percy, Negative Magick New Guernica Daggers Mid Flight, TTTDC, Carbs Grace Darling Hotel Damn The Maps, The Hidden Venture, Damn The Torpedoes Yah Yah’s Daniel Champagne Beav’s Bar, Geelong Dave Pham, Uone Bimbo Deluxe Deus Ex Pony Late Show DJ Rowie European Bier Café Emma Louise Northcote Social Club Gator Queen, Abbie Cardwell Lomond Hotel Goregasm The LuWow Forbidden Temple Graveyard Train, Fraser A Gorman, Nathan Seeckts Bended Elbow, Geelong Henry Manetta & The Trip, Chelsea Wilson, Davy Simony Horse Bazaar Ian Wadley, Flathead Great Britain Hotel
Michael Griffin Quintet Bluestone Lounge
Ned Collette & Wirewalker, Dave Graney, East Brunswick All Girls Choir Old Bar Nick Murphy Labour In Vain NuBody Loop Red Hymns, See Saw, Wild Dog Creek, Psalm Beach Brunswick Hotel Red Leader, The Complimentary Headsets, Jacinta & The Jaguars, Wildcat General Strike Espy Sammy The Bullet, Gaijin Credible, Get Busy, Kid Militan, Neu Girl, SK Simeon Laundry Bar Saritah, Simmer, Phoebe Jacobs Evelyn Hotel Saskwatch, Vince Peach, Pierre Baroni Cherry Bar Schroderini Meets Jules Paris Cat Jazz Club Simon Bruce Bar Nancy Sleeping Bag 303 Bar Smokin’ Sam & Synergy Blue, The Justin Yap Band Musicland (Fawkner) Syzygy Open Studio The Brow Horn Orchestra Red Bennies The Daimon Brunton Quartet Gertrude’s Brown Couch
48 • INPRESS
Ignivomous, Destruktor, Malichor, Thrall Bendigo Hotel
8 Foot Felix, Lucas Michailidis Open Studio
Channel Switchers, The Latonas, Superjuice, DJ Audixx Revolver Upstairs
Lady Gaga Rod Laver Arena
The Twoks, Jimmy Daniel Rainbow Hotel
The Mean Times, The Savages Victoria Hotel
Lil’ Band O’ Gold Regal Ballroom
Double Black, King of the North, Bitter Sweet Kicks Cherry Bar
Kavisha Mazzella, Simon Lewis St Kilda Bowls Club
Jess Locke Edinburgh Castle Front Bar
Iconic Vivisect, Cradle in the Crater, The Seaford Monster, Argurios Pony
Brian Mannix, Scott Carne, Dale Ryder Hallam Hotel
Celtic Divas Frankston Arts Centre
Jonnie Murphy Open Studio
The Red Boots Dizzy’s Jazz Club
The Mcqueens, Young Mavericks Revolver Upstairs
Kingswood, Money For Rope, Damn Terran Workers Club
Dizzy’s Big Band, Peter Hearne Dizzy’s Jazz Club
Jamie MacDowell, Al Parkinson, Chris Brooker, Kevin Etcell Horse Bazaar
Jay Brannan, Patrick James The Toff In Town
Hyfrydol Edinburgh Castle Front Bar
The Groove Sharks Musicland (Fawkner)
Ben Hauptmann Uptown Jazz Café
Davey Lane The Standard Hotel
Isaac de Heer, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk Retreat Hotel
The NBC, Lucky, Alana Porter Wesley Anne
Hey Geronimo, Private Life, March Of Real Fly Grace Darling Hotel
Lady Gaga Rod Laver Arena
Busby Marou, The Hello Morning, Leader Cheetah Corner Hotel
Harry Manx Ruby’s Lounge
The Drooling Mouths of Memphis, Wild Comforts, Goyim Empress Hotel
Manatarms Pony Late Show
Brunswick Massive DJ Collective Rainbow Hotel
Matt Rad, Mr George, Phato A Mano, Tom Meagher Lucky Coq
Carmen Hendrix, Arlen De Silva Hotel Max Prince Maximilian
Mindset, Strickland, Our Solace, Surrender Espy Basement
Cat Canteri, Frankie, Melody Moon Wesley Anne
Moth, Master Beta, System of Venus Brunswick Hotel
Ceremony Irene’s Warehouse
New Skinn, Branch Arterial, Glass Empire, Rainbird, Paint Me A Pheonix The Hi-Fi
Chairman Meow, Coburg Market, Mr. Fox, Tiger Funk, WHO Bimbo Deluxe Charge Group, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, Joe McKee The Tote
Papa Chango, Susy Blue, Velvet Cake Gypsies, Lia Avene Fitzroy Town Hall Pheasant Pluckers Lomond Hotel
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Benny & The Fly-ByNighters, Three Kings Caravan Music Club Daimon Brunton Paris Cat Jazz Club Dan Bourke & Friends The Drunken Poet Dan Lethbridge Basement Discs Dead Kings Quartet Elwood Lounge DJ Rowie European Bier Café DJ Sammy Sax, DJ Jules Jay, DJ Jean Paul Veludo DJ Uncle G Bebida Bar Dr Phil Smith The Toff In Town Duchesz, Ooh Ee, Paz First Floor Emma Louise, Dads, Argentina Northcote Social Club Heaven The Axe, Don Fernando, King of the North, The Deep End Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Rare Child The Hammy Rocket To Memphis, Mohair Slim, Hill-Billy Jack The LuWow Forbidden Temple Sordid Ordeal, State Of Silence, Dale Dixon, Plastic Spacemen 303 Bar
Ultrafox feat. Julie O’Hara Bennetts Lane Vultures Of Venus, Go Go Sapien Penny Black
Zack Rampage, Johnny Topper, DJ Stride Horse Bazaar Zoophyte, Straylove, The Demon Parade, The Hiding Espy Lounge Bar
SAT 30 12FU, Slick 46 Lyrebird Lounge Acid Jacks, Lots Of Lasers Prince Bandroom Action Sam, DJ Rowie European Bier Café Ajak Kwai, Lamine Sonko Empress Hotel, Arvo Show Alex Legg St Andrew’s Hotel, Arvo Show Autoportraits, Jess Locke, Igor Cornish Arms Hotel Avalerion, In A Memory, Foundations Fall, Dead September, Roads To Randsome Musicland (Fawkner) Bag O’ Nails St Andrew’s Hotel
Take Your Own, Free World, Right Mind, Tired Minds, Postal Idgaff Bar and Venue
Banda Sin Frontera Cruzao Arepa Bar
The Bennies, Batpiss, Foxtrot, Everything I Own Is Broken, The Gun Runners Gertrude’s Brown Couch
Bellusira, Rise Electric, Cloud City, Freestate, Lords of this World, Fisker, Verona Lights Espy
The Brow Horn Orchestra Westernport Hotel
Benny Walker, Tom Francis Malvern Town Hall
The Detonators Tago Mago
Billy Hoyle, Duchesz, MZ Risk, Wasabi First Floor
The Dub Captains Bar Open
Brazillionaires Pony Late Show
The Fauves, Even Regal Ballroom
Breaking Hart Benton Pure Pop Courtyard
The Good China, Blackchords, Alex Watts & the Foreign Tongue Cherry Bar
Breaking Hart Benton Wesley Anne
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Barry Morgan Regal Ballroom
Brunswick Blues Shooters Lomond Hotel
Ceremony, Extortion, Puerto Rico Flowers, Rort Bendigo Hotel Ceres, Drive By Epic, Death By Dance, Scalar Fields, Those Wolves Pony Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk Union Hotel Brunswick, Arvo Show
Michael Crafter, Wallow, Old Skin, Jurassic Penguin, Kolkkous Black Goat Warehouse Mike Noga & Band, Sweet Jean Northcote Social Club Mike Pipes Idgaff Bar and Venue
Claire Birchall, Ali E, MSG, Michael Plater Workers Club
Pan, Winternationale, Inner Meet Me Empress Hotel
Cold Irons Bound, Them People Tago Mago
Playwrite, Tehachapi, Sleep Decade, The Townhouses, Banoffee Evelyn Hotel
Damion De Silva, K-Dee, Jay-Sin Khokolat Bar Darius Mendoza Prince Maximilian Darren Coburn, Luke McD, Nick Coleman Lounge Bar DJ Samrai, Tate Strauss, Nova, House of Gaga, Chris Fraser, Femme, DJ Shags, White Fusion Nighclub Eddie Spaghetti, Tim Rogers Cherry Bar Frazer Adnam, Scott McMahon Billboard Goyim Bebida Bar Graveyard Train, Fraser Gordon Karova Lounge, Ballarat Hiding With Bears, Fierce Mild, Shane Diorio Band Brunswick Hotel Hudson Arc, The Hazelman Brothers, Gabe Lynch Grace Darling Hotel Jacket Off Veludo Janine Marshall Elwood Lounge Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party, Gosteleradio The Toff In Town Kerryn Fields & The Menfolk Band Thornbury Theatre Keshie, Munro Melano Rainbow Hotel Kevin Borich Express Caravan Music Club King of the North, The Art Of Later Grumpy’s Green Kurtis Gentle, Dan Rolls, Ealey & Tyers Chandelier Room Lady Gaga Rod Laver Arena Large No 12’s Pure Pop Records Les Thomas Edinburgh Castle Front Bar Liana Perillo The Thornbury Local Macabre, Blood Duster, Hobbs Angel Of Death, Earth, Captain Cleanoff, Desecrator, Maniac, Depression, King Parrot Corner Hotel Make Them Suffer, Signal The Firing Squad, Brooklyn BANG @ Royal Melbourne Hotel Mannequin, Catatonic Abode
Polygasm, Hollie Joyce Horse Bazaar Private Life, Them Swoops, Hey Geronimo, March Of Real Fly Espy Lounge Bar Rita Satch Quartet Bennetts Lane Rock For Reclink: The Blackeyed Susans Trio, Dave Larkin Band, Davey Lane, Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collective, Kim Salmon, Matt Sonic & The High Times, The Ronson Hangup The Hi-Fi Rocket To Memphis, Zelia Rose Burlesque, Jumpin’ Josh, Barbara Blaze The LuWoW Sam Lawrence, Café Poet Open Studio Shane Fahey, A Cloakroom Assembley, Justin Fuller, Cooper Bowman The Gasometer Hotel Signal X, Granston Display, Radical Sludge, Raven vs Crow Espy Basement Stella Angelico, Midnight Bosom Great Britain Hotel Sugar Army, Udays Tiger, Dark Arts The Tote Super Magic Hats, Noceans, Readable Graffiti Noise Bar Sustainer Engine, Rich Yeah Ruby’s Lounge Suzie Stapleton, Wild Turkey, Chickenstones, James McCann & The New Vindictives, Shaky Memorial Retreat Hotel Tahl, Jean Paul, Pacman, Moonshine Lucky Coq Tape/Off, Kids Of Zoo, Batpiss, DJ Shitshake Old Bar Terry McCarthy Special Labour In Vain The Afrobiotics Bar Open The Antoinettes, Atluk, Humpback Chameleon Brunswick Hotel - Arvo
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The Blackeyed Susans Union Hotel Brunswick The Boxing Tostados, Bassic Instinct, Dead Salesman Yah Yah’s The Brow Horn Orchestra, Peace Pie, Celphysh Baha Tacos The Communists, Brooklyn’s Finest, The Sweet, DJ Bad Love Revolver Upstairs The D Grades, Los Dominados Victoria Hotel
DJ Max Bay Bebida Bar Emmy Bryce, Kelly Brueur, Laura K Clark Empress Hotel, Arvo Show Gallie Elwood Lounge Havana Lake, Kel Day Bar Nancy Heather Stewart Trio, Shannon Bourne The Drunken Poet Hugo & Treats, Ghost Orkid Bar Open
The Emma Wall Band Northcote Town Hall
Hugo Race, Leek & The War Wick Tragedy Northcote Social Club
The Futuras, Ben Rogers’ Instrumental Asylum Town Hall Hotel
Jacob S Harris, The Disappointments Town Hall Hotel
The Perfections Penny Black
Jimi Hocking The Bay Mordialloc
The Red Lights, Strathmore, Windsor Thieves Bended Elbow, Geelong
Jose Nieto Cruzao Arepa Bar
The Vagrants Golden Vine Hotel Tiny Migrants, Ross de Chene Hurricanes, Bad Aches Grace Darling Cellar Bar
Jurassic Penguin, Michael Crafter, Wallow, Postal, Term Four Bendigo Hotel JVG Guitar Method, Marty Kelly, Aubury Maher Lomond Hotel Kevin Borich Musicland (Fawkner)
The Shards, Flash Forest, The Fuses Brunswick Hotel - Arvo The Space Keys, Medicine, Teknia Idgaff Bar and Venue The Unicorn Unicorn Unicorns, Unicorn By Unicorns, Unicorn Unicorn & The Unicorn Unicorns, Unicornslashunicorn, Unicorn One, DJ Unicorn Milk Old Bar Virtue, Southside Rebel, Midnight Drive Brunswick Hotel
MON 02 Animaux, The Neighbourhood Youth, Granston Display, DJ Thoma Evelyn Hotel Eaten By Dogs, Joshua Seymour Espy Lounge Bar Hayden Calnin, Manor The Toff In Town Lady Noir, Kiti Bimbo Deluxe Lebowskis 303 Bar
Kim Salmon, Angie Hart Bella Union Trades Hall
Shane Fahey, A Cloakroom Assembley, Nun, Young Romantix Northcote Social Club
King Parrot National Hotel
The Juilliard Jazz Sextet Bennetts Lane
Victor Pender Cape Café
Lady Gaga Rod Laver Arena
Wilson/Magnusson/ Grant Trio Uptown Jazz Café
Lo-Res, Mou Trio Open Studio
Uncle Bill, Bluegrass Jam Old Bar
Tom Vincent & Julie O’Hara Quartet Paris Cat Jazz Club Tracy Bartram Dizzy’s Jazz Club Tuko, Callee Bar Betty
Wintercoats, Albatross, Flash Forest, Wooshie, A Colourful Storm The Gasometer (Upstairs)
SUN 01 Agent 86, Phato A Mano, Tiger Funk Bimbo Deluxe Alison Ferrier, Dan Waters Band, Barb Waters & The Mother’s Of Pearl Retreat Hotel
Macabre The National Hotel, Geelong Maddy Serong Carringbush Hotel Make Them Suffer, Signal The Firing Squad, Brooklyn Phoenix Youth Centre Marc Vazquez, Rosie Haden Chandelier Room Master Gun Fighters, Grizzly Jim Lawrie Penny Black Michael Spiby Bay Hotel
Andy Cowan St Andrew’s Hotel, Arvo Show
MJC: Steve Magnusson and James Sherlock Solo Bennetts Lane
Askew, Booshank, Disco Harry, Miss Butt, Peter Baker, Junji, Paz Lucky Coq
Nigel Swift Wesley Anne
Backwood Creatures Labour In Vain Chris Molnar & The Country Blues Cats Victoria Hotel Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Max Crawdaddy Cherry Bar Concrete Life, Igor, Pioneers Of Good Science, Sarah Chadwick The Gasometer (Upstairs) Damo Suzuki, Niko Niko, The Paul Kidney Experience, The Kumiko Sex Band Workers Club Dan Dinnen Rainbow Hotel Dave Callan, Geraldine Hickey 303 Bar
Rohan Bell Towers, George Hysteric The Carlton Rusted Lyrebird Lounge Sleepy Dreamers, Amanita, Stoned Maggots, Alice D Evelyn Hotel Soupolympics Deakin Uni Burwood Campus Swamp Moth, Holy Trash Yah Yah’s Teresa Dixon, Samara Cullen Great Britain Hotel The Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batucada Espy Lounge Bar The Patron Saints The Standard Hotel The Purple Stripes Old Bar, Arvo Show
TUE 03 8 Bit Love, Harts, Polo Club DJs Workers Club Adam Askew Bimbo Deluxe Bob Stamos Lounge Bar Collage Espy Lounge Bar Jeb Cardwell Labour In Vain Jess Ribiero & The Bone Collectors, Sunny The Magosapher, Eugene Holcombe Old Bar Klub M.U.K 303 Bar Lady Gaga Rod Laver Arena Mojo with Peter Foley Dizzy’s Jazz Club
BAR OPEN
Thursday Young Romantix, Stag, Asps, Badd
Friday The Dub Captains Saturday The Afrobiotics Sunday Hugo & Treats, Ghost Orkid Tuesday Shane Fahey, Michael T, Zac Keiller, Sasha Margolis
BENDIGO HOTEL
Thursday Maricopa Wells, The Shadow League, Tim Hampshire, Wil Wagner, Ben David & The Banned Friday Ignivomous, Destruktor, Malichor, Thrall Saturday Ceremony, Extortion, Puerto Rico Flowers, Rort Sunday Jurassic Penguin, Michael Crafter, Wallow, Postal, Term Four
BILLBOARD
Thursday Matt Dean, Matty Grant, Phil Ross Saturday Frazer Adnam, Scott McMahon
BIMBO DELUXE
Thursday Dave Pham, Uone Friday Chairman Meow, Coburg Market, Mr. Fox, Tiger Funk, WHO Sunday Agent 86, Phato A Mano, Tiger Funk Monday Lady Noir, Kiti
Friday Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Benny & The Fly-By-Nighters, Three Kings Saturday Kevin Borich Express
CORNER HOTEL
Friday World’s End Press, Romy, Ben Browning, Roman Wafers
BRUNSWICK HOTEL
Thursday Red Hymns, See Saw, Wild Dog Creek, Psalm Beach Friday Moth, Master Beta, System of Venus Saturday Hiding with Bears, Fierce Mild, Shane Diorio Band
Monday Animaux, The Neighbourhood Youth, Granston Display, DJ Thoma Tuesday The Simon Wright Band, DJ Big Kahuna Burger, Big Words
GRACE DARLING HOTEL
Thursday Daggers Mid Flight, TTTDC, Carbs Friday Hey Geronimo, Private Life, March Of Real Fly Saturday Hudson Arc, The Hazelman Brothers, Gabe Lynch
CORNISH ARMS HOTEL
Thursday NuBody
Friday The Worst, Wolf Pack, The Morrisons Saturday Autoportraits, Jess Locke, Igor
EMPRESS HOTEL
Wednesday Tim Coster, Demystifyer, Nicky Crane
Friday Al Parkinson, Davey Simony Band, Baychimo Saturday Pan, Winternationale, Inner Meet Me
EMPRESS HOTEL, ARVO SHOW
Sunday Emmy Bryce, Kelly Brueur, Laura K Clark
EVELYN HOTEL
Wednesday Van Myer, The Bon Scotts, Sinister Minister Thursday Saritah, Simmer, Phoebe Jacobs Friday The Red Lights, The Neighbourhood Youth, The Corsairs, Tully On Tully Saturday Playwrite, Tehachapi, Sleep Decade, The Townhouses, Banoffee
DJ Andy Black, DJ Haggis The Toff In Town
50 • INPRESS
Sunday Sleepy Dreamers, Amanita, Stoned Maggots, Alice D
Saturday Macabre, Blood Duster, Hobbs Angel Of Death, Earth, Captain Cleanoff, Desecrator, Maniac, Depression, King Parrot
Saturday Ajak Kwai, Lamine Sonko
Shane Fahey, Michael T, Zac Keiller, Sasha Margolis Bar Open
The Simon Wright Band, DJ Big Kahuna Burger, Big Words Evelyn Hotel
CARAVAN MUSIC CLUB
Thursday The Drooling Mouths of Memphis, Wild Comforts, Goyim
Repeat Offender Revolver Upstairs
The Patron Saints Cherry Bar
Sunday Virtue, Southside Rebel, Midnight Drive
Thursday Busby Marou, The Hello Morning, Leader Cheetah
Tuesday Adam Askew
Standish/Carlyon, Fabulous Diamonds, DJ People The Toff In Town
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LUCKY COQ
Friday Iconic Vivisect, Cradle in the Crater, The Seaford Monster, Argurios Saturday Ceres, Drive By Epic, Death By Dance, Scalar Fields, Those Wolves
PRINCE BANDROOM
THE TOTE
Wednesday The Lost Sunnies, The Steins, The Old Faithfuls, Link McLennan’s Amazing Jukebox Thursday Kirin J Callinan, Machine, Kangaroo Skull, Forces, DCM
Friday Jehst, Dizz1, RuC.L, Remi, Cammo
Friday Charge Group, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, Joe McKee
Saturday Acid Jacks, Lots Of Lasers
Saturday Sugar Army, Udays Tiger, Dark Arts
THE DRUNKEN POET
UNION HOTEL BRUNSWICK
Wednesday Beth Cleary, Zikora
Saturday The Blackeyed Susans
Thursday Tim Cannon
WESLEY ANNE
Friday Dan Bourke & Friends Sunday Heather Stewart Trio, Shannon Bourne
THE GEM
Wednesday Viki Mealings
Thursday The NBC, Lucky, Alana Porter
Wednesday Agent 86, Lady Noir, Kiti, Joybot, Mr Thom
Friday The ReChords
Friday Cat Canteri, Frankie, Melody Moon
Thursday Agent 86, Lewis Can Cut, WHO
THE HI-FI
Saturday Breaking Hart Benton
Friday Matt Rad, Mr George, Phato A Mano, Tom Meagher Saturday Tahl, Jean Paul, Pacman, Moonshine Sunday Askew, Booshank, Disco Harry, Miss Butt, Peter Baker, Junji, Paz
NEXT
Thursday ANCHORS, Cavalcade, Ten Paces, Tigers
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB
Thursday Emma Louise
Friday Emma Louise, Dads, Argentina Saturday Mike Noga & Band, Sweet Jean Sunday Hugo Race, Leek & The War Wick Tragedy Monday Shane Fahey, A Cloakroom Assembley, Nun, Young Romantix
OLD BAR, ARVO SHOW
Sunday The Purple Stripes
PONY
Thursday Wandering Spirit, Halcyon Drive, Dear Leader
Friday New Skinn, Branch Arterial, Glass Empire, Rainbird, Paint Me A Pheonix Saturday Rock For Reclink: The Blackeyed Susans Trio, Dave Larkin Band, Davey Lane, Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collective, Kim Salmon, Matt Sonic & The High Times, The Ronson Hangup
THE STANDARD HOTEL
Wednesday Davey Lane
Sunday The Patron Saints
THE TOFF IN TOWN
Thursday Jay Brannan, Patrick James Friday Dr Phil Smith
Saturday Jimmy Hawk & The Endless Party, Gosteleradio Sunday DJ Andy Black, DJ Haggis Monday Hayden Calnin, Manor Tuesday Standish/Carlyon, Fabulous Diamonds, DJ People
Sunday Nigel Swift
WORKERS CLUB
Thursday Kingswood, Damn Terran, Money For Rope Friday Kingswood, Money For Rope, Damn Terran Saturday Claire Birchall, Ali E, MSG, Michael Plater Sunday Damo Suzuki, Niko Niko, The Paul Kidney Experience, The Kumiko Sex Band Tuesday 8 Bit Love, Harts, Polo Club DJs
YAH YAH’S
Thursday Damn The Maps, The Hidden Venture, Damn The Torpedoes Friday The Rebelles, Yeah Wednesday Saturday The Boxing Tostados, Bassic Instinct, Dead Salesman Sunday Swamp Moth, Holy Trash
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PRESS PLAY: GET YOUR MUSIC HEARD BALLARAT
Music Victoria is presenting a free two-hour information session from 5pm on Tuesday 3 July at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute titled Press Play: Get Your Music Heard, with an expert panel discussing how you can best achieve just that. The panel will feature Gareth Harrison from Yacht Club DJs, journalist Andrew Ramadge of the Ballarat Courier and web magazine Mess+Noise, ABC digital editor Jarrod Watt and Music Victoria CEO Patrick Donovan, who will moderate the discussion. You can also meet your local APRA/AMCOS representatives. RSVP by calling 9426 5200 or email victas@apra.com.au.
MICHAEL DOLCE GUITAR MASTERCLASS
You’ve most recently seen him working in the band that provided the live music for contestants of The Voice, but you’ve probably heard a lot more of the playing of Michael Dolce than you realise. As one of Australia’s premier session guitarists, he’s featured on recordings by artists as diverse as Delta Goodrem, Roachford, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Brian McFadden, and 7pm Monday 16 July at Allans Music & Billy Hyde Blackburn, he’s presenting a masterclass explaining and demonstrating his improvisation concepts and approach on getting the most out of one chord vamps. While the masterclass costs $75, students will get free take-home handouts plus an audio CD. The bad news is there are only ten places available so you just might be lucky when you call 9695 0601.
SOLO LOVETONE
The Lovetones’ singer, songwriter and guitarist Matthew J Tow has been working on his debut solo album, which he hopes to release both here and in the US before the end of the year. He recorded it on his home studio and then uploaded files to Brian Jonestown Massacre bass player Colin Hegna, who has a studio in Portland, Oregon called Revolver Studios, which he operates with Nalin Silva. It’s there he, guitarist Ryan Carlson (from The Asteroid No 4 and The Dead Skeletones), and drummer Jason Anchondo from The Warlocks have been putting on their parts. Tow is hoping for an October/ November release both here and in the US.
SOUND BYTES
How the work breaks down across the album we’ll just have to wait and see later in the year when they release their new album, Battle Born, but The Killers used five different producers to record it – Daniel Lanois, Brendan O’Brien, Damian Taylor, Stuart Price and Steve Lilywhite – while Alan Moulder has been mixing it. Due in October on Blue Note, Keith Richards and Don Was co-produced the new album Aaron Neville has been recording, a collection of covers from the doo-wop era, the Stone naturally chucking in a few guitar licks. Sydney singer/songwriter Sera Monson has been working on an EP at Suite 110 Productions in Jones Bay Wharf in harbourside Pyrmont with producers Carlos Velazquez and Shane Crutchfield. Sydneysiders Pocket Of Stones are recording and producing their next EP with a little help once more from producer Eric Chapus (Endorphin) and mastering guru Rick O’Neil at Turtlerock Mastering in Leichhardt. The Amity Affliction recorded their forthcoming album, Chasing Ghosts, with producer Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette (Blessthefall, Incubus). Taking their original demos, recorded on their old fourtrack Tascam Portastudio, to producer Tony Buchan, The Falls recreated something of their emotional lives as they lived it on the stage of The Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills in their EP, Hollywood. Buchan even recorded the reverb featured on the record in the bowels of the hotel in the downstairs men’s toilets. The self-titled debut album from Francophile duo Baby et Lulu, aka former Leonardo’s Bride frontperson Abby Dobson and FourPlay violinist Lara Goodridge, was recorded live at 301 in Alexandria and then at Brighton Boulevard studio by producer Tony Buchen (Tim Finn, Blue King Brown, Washington). Tin Can Radio are going back into the studio with ARIA Award-winning producer Magoo, who produced their current single, It Goes On, to record an EP. Former Catherine Wheel/Honeys/Eva Trout bass player Grant Shanahan recorded and mixed the eponymous debut album for young Newcastle-based singer/ songwriter James Thomson at his Leisure Suit Studios in Mangrove Mountain in the NSW Central Coast hinterland, William Bowden then mastering it at his King Willy Sound facility in Balmain. 52 • INPRESS
Oh Mercy’s Alexander Gow talks to Michael Smith about recording their third album, Deep Heat.
“W
e’re just doing mixing revisions at the moment,” singer, songwriter and guitarist Alexander Gow explains, on the line from the balcony of The Family Farm studio just outside of Portland in Oregon where Oh Mercy have been for two months recording their third album with Sydneybased producer Burke Reid (The Drones, Jack Ladder, Wolf & Cub). “I’ve had a bit of time to wonder about and listen to the mixes and there are just a couple of things I need to fix up but basically it’s all done.” The band was already in the US on tour – they’d just finished up in Los Angeles – when they heard about The Family Farm through some local friends. “The studio was kind of offered to us in a way in that we could spend a fair amount of time in it, and I really wanted to spend that kind of time in the studio because to investigate sounds and ideas you need the leisure of time and I haven’t had that before, so that was the idea of coming here. The other thing is I wanted to put flutes on the record, and one of my favourite saxophonists, Steve Berlin from Los Lobos, lives in Portland, so we got him to play on the record.” Located by a coniferous forest 16km from downtown Portland, The Family Farm is one of those studios that also offers the option to live on site, is all decked out with plenty of exposed wood panelling and offers both digital and analogue equipment, with an API 1608 console with John Hardy and Vintage API summing and a Neve BCM-10 console with BAE 1084s and two Neve 2264s, both of which Oh Mercy used, as well as UAD Quad Omni Satellite digital processing among other things. “There was a lot of acoustic design put into it,” Gow explains, “which was really important ‘cause it’s a unique space – it was basically a three-storey house that was gutted and converted into a studio, which is something I found really attractive because I’ve spent a little bit of time in studios and they all kind of look the same, so you could kind of be in Melbourne or Berlin or Antarctica or something. So to come here and make a record in a house that’s been converted to a studio was wonderful. I mean, just having daylight on your face while you’re making music is a real
treat, and we could open up the front and back sliding double doors and had bees coming through while we were recording and mixing – it’s awesome. “There were also a couple really impressive tape machines that we used a lot as, like, tape delays and used as preamps for guitars – a Scully [280 eight-track 1”] tape machine, which was out of Electric Ladyland – and then it was all dumped down to ProTools.” Oh Mercy worked with high-flying American producer Mitchell Froom, whose CV includes records for artists as diverse as Richard Thompson, Pearl Jam and Crowded House, on their previous album, Great Barrier Grief, and there’s a tenuous connection to Deep Heat producer Burke Reid, who, along with albums for Dan Kelly, The Drones and Gareth Liddiard, produced the latest album, FOMO, for Liam Finn. “Firstly I wanted someone a bit like a renaissance kind of guy that would be able to be the producer and the engineer all in one,” Gow explains of his choice of Reid, “because I really wanted someone that would be able to convert my ideas into sound in real time. I didn’t want it diluted by trying to describe something to someone who then has to describe it to someone else. I would literally be standing in front of the speakers and say, ‘Well, how about this?’ and he’d be able to make that happen for me in an instant, which made it really productive – I knew that’s the kind of guy that I wanted. And he made Jack Ladder’s [2011 album] Hurtsville, which is like a modern Australian classic; I love it. So it was a pretty easy choice and luckily he had the time to do it. “Burke’s an interesting guy. He makes the records the bands want to make. I don’t think that there’s a pre-
production style; he doesn’t come in with, like, an ego or anything like that. He’s there to make the records the bands want to make and do that with as little fuss as possible, which is really admirable, so I suppose he helped me define my ideas and my conceptual approach to the album. He pushed me as a musician to be as creative as possible and made me write a few more songs in the studio, which I did and I’m really glad for – they’ve all made the album. He was just really good at achieving what I wanted. I’m really pleased with the final product.” And just how does that final product sound? “It was important to me not to layer everything up, which is tempting having the time that we did – it’s really easy to fall into that trap of doing overdub after overdub. Something that I learnt from making the record with Mitchell was the power of having a minimally arranged track. Basically I wrote all these songs on the piano and then had this idea that I didn’t want to have any kind of rhythm playing on it, as in no rhythm guitar or no chords running through the entire song. I wanted the chords to be implied by the bass playing, so basically vocals, drums and bass guitar, and flourishes of things here and there. That’s why it was important to have Steve Berlin there as a saxophonist and flautist. I wanted lead breaks with instruments I haven’t used before but always been interested in. So we didn’t stack it up too much and there’s lots of percussion on it as well, where the poly-rhythms make this sound kind of busy where they’re really not.” Deep Heat by Oh Mercy is released by EMI Friday 24 August.
GEAR REVIEW
HOUSE OF MARLEY BAG OF RHYTHM
The House Of Marley is a commercial venture run by the children of reggae legend Bob Marley, providing a high quality range of audio products. Earlier this year, Bob’s son Rohan came out to Australia to help launch the House Of Marley’s product range, which currently includes headphones, earphones and audio systems. As you would expect, the manufacture of the gear created under the Marley name takes into consideration the effect production has on the earth, and ensures that part of the profits go back into making the world a better place via their charity 1love.org. The House Of Marley currently offers two audio players, one a standalone home audio system named Get Up, Stand Up and the other is a very funky portable dockbox named Bag Of Rhythm. If you’re looking to pigeonhole the Bag Of Rhythm in the portable audio market, you could be struggling. Pushed for comparisons… functionality-wise, this unique system is nowhere near as complex as the Lasonic i931 ghetto blaster and aesthetically, way cooler looking than Apple’s own boombox. As you’d imagine, if it has Marley’s name on it, it’s gonna look funky. Housed in a heavy-duty canvas cover, it features a clip-down pocket for your earphones, plus offers the option of shoulder strap or carry handles. The unit’s top facia features an ornate parquetry timber surface, with two impressive circular speaker grilles sitting flush. The Bag Of Rhythm is as idiot-proof as they come, with on/off and volume being the only controls available to ponder. While audio purists may lament the lack of tone management, I defy anyone to fault the sound quality of this unit, particularly at high volume. Plus if you know your way around your
iPhone or iPod, then you may tweak away with apps, tracks and controls to your heart’s content.
Even the packaging it comes in is made from pulp, recycled plastics and recycled paper.
For the technophiles out there, the unit offers twin 1” tweeters, twin 4.5” high definition woofers and a powerful amp capable of pumping out 40 watts of musical punch. The dual 4” speakers and DSP Sound Processing reproduces strong, high-quality highs, lows and mids. It features dual battery power and AC adapter for cordless mobility and power saving, and your iPhone or iPod charges as you play. An aux input also allows for connection to other devices.
At $399.95, you’d be hard pressed to find a more appealing portable iPhone/iPod-based audio system than the House Of Marley’s Bag Of Rhythm... not to mention how much cooler you’ll look with it slung across your shoulder.
All materials used in the unit’s construction are recycled. It is designed and built with FSC-certified Birch wood and uses the most durable of canvas.
themusic.com.au
Greg Phillips For more info head to www. thehouseofmarley.com.au. Originally published in Australian Musician.
themusic.com.au
INPRESS â&#x20AC;˘ 53
EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION DJ AVAILABLE- ANYTIME
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SOUND & MUSIC RemmosK live in full throttle electric mode @ The Wall, The Bald Faced Stag Hotel - Leichhardt - 12-07-12
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STUDIO GEAR Sony DAT Walkman model TCD-D8 original owner perfect condition includes Sony ECM-MS957 stereo mic, head cleaning tape and power plug. $400.00 firm 042 408 1965 or jdmuspub@gmail.com
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MUSIC SERVICES BOOKING AGENTS Wedding & Corporate Entertainment supplied by the Best Musicians in Australia. Visit www.dannyammar.com for more info.
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CD / DVD Attention Musicians, Record Collectors, Universities, Libraries - new Book (print/cdROM/direct download) compiling 100 years of popular music. GO TO www. plattersaurus.com web-site on how to buy. Enquiries: (02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au
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TUITION
MASTERING
Vox AC30/6TB amplifier. Choice of many prominent international artists and bands, the “Top Boost” modification includes 3 tone controls. VGC. Ready to Gig. $2300 ono Ring Phil 0421945280
SALES & MARKETING People needed to send eMails offering a new music Book for sale. Must have own computer - payment by commission via Paypal. Contact Bill on (02) 98073137 or eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au
OTHER FLUTE & RECORDER SHEET MUSIC, most EXC from $3ea! Solo, accompanied & ensemble, including many exam materials. Can quote postage Australia wide. All items listed online www.mediafire. com/?3wtv34dsqzyqr or email jthornley@yahoo.com
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DUPLICATION/ MASTERING CD MANUFACTURING:Acme is Australias best price CD manufacturer. 500 CD package = $765.05: 1000 CD package = $1320.00 Short run also available. www.AcmeMusic.com.au KevinW@AcmeMusic.com.au
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HIRE SERVICES For as low as $100, you get a professional sound/pa mixer system with operator for the evening. Suitable for weddings, pub/clubs band gigs, private parties etc. Infovision@yayabings.com.au. Contact Chris 0419272196
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