PRIMAL SCREAM
EVIL EDDIE
MONEY FOR ROPE
JORDIE LANE
VINTAGE FEATURE SARAH SILVERMAN REEL BIG FISH NIKKO
N O W AVA I L A B L E O N I PA D • W E D N E S DAY 2 8 N O V E M B E R 2 012 • I S S U E 12 52 • F R E E
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PERKSOFAWALLFLOWER.COM.AU
Mature themes, drug use, sexual references and coarse language
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SAT 1 DEC - ROCHFORD WINES, YARRA VALLEY
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS
SUNNYBOYS JO JO ZEP & THE FALCONS DARK HORSES FEAT TEX PERKINS STEPHEN CUMMINGS
SAT 26 JAN - ROCHFORD WINES, YARRA VALLEY ADAYONTHEGREEN.COM.AU 12
CH [V], Fasterlouder & Street Press Australia presents
The
Tour with special guests
K INGSWOOD
& EMPEROR S
Fri 15-Mar-13 ~ Tivoli, Brisbane QLD Sat 16-Mar-13 ~ Metro, Sydney NSW Thu 21-Mar-13 ~ The Gov, Adelaide SA Fri 22-Mar-13 ~ The HiFi , Melbourne VIC Fri 05-Apr-13 ~ Prince of Wales, Bunbur y WA Sat 06-Apr-13 ~ Capitol, Perth WA Thu 11-Apr-13 ~ Waves, Wollong ong NSW Fri 12-Apr-13 ~ Capital, Wag g a Wag g a NSW Sat 13-Apr-13 ~ ANU Bar, Canberra ACT Sun 14-Apr-13 ~ New Albur y Hotel, Albur y NSW Wed 17-Apr-13 ~ Entrance Leag ues, Entrance NSW Thu 18-Apr-13 ~ Panthers, Newcastle NSW Fri 19-Apr-13 ~ Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW Sat 20-Apr-13 ~ The Big Pineapple Music Festival, Woombye QLD Sun 21-Apr-13 ~ Cooly, Gold Coast QLD Wed 24-Apr-13 ~ Bended Elbow, Geelong VIC Thu 25-Apr-13 ~ Pier Live, Frankston VIC Fri 26-Apr-13 ~ Inferno, Traralg on VIC Sat 27-Apr-13 ~ Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully VIC
TICK ETS ON SALE NOW www.grinspoon.com
NEW ALBUM BL ACK R ABBITS OUT NOW
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THE SP RTING CLUB MONDAY
Roo & Wine for $9.99 TUESDAY
$12 all you can eat paella WEDNESDAY
Trivia - $12 Jugs all night THURSDAY
Two for One Entrées FRIDAY
Lizzanne Richards 6:30pm FRIDAY
DJ LEWIS 9pm SATURDAY
Groove Collective 6pm Sunday
Dan Watkins and Paddy Montgomery 6pm
27 WESTON ST, BRUNSWICK Tues - Fri 4pm till Late Sat & Sun 12pm till Late
WEDNESDAY
PLAY LIKE A GIRL FEAT. MIA DYSON
7.00PM
THURSDAY
GABRIEL LYNCH
6PM
CHARLOTTE NICDAO, TIARYN & OFFICER PARROT
8PM $8
FRIDAY
LAUREN BRUCE MUNRO MELANO EP LAUNCH, THE SKIES, MECAHNICAL PTERADACTYL THE BOYS
6PM
8PM $10
SATURDAY 6PM
SUNDAY
Open...MON - SAT...from 12pm ‘til late Kitchen til 10pm SUN...from 12pm ‘til 11pm Kitchen til 9pm
MELTING POT PRESENTS SONGWRITERS IN THE 2PM $8 ROUND DIVINA PROVIDENCIA, AMY GANTER & THE LOVE & SQUALERS 8PM TUESDAY
Live Music Bookings wesleyannebookings@gmail.com www.wesleyanne.com.au
OPEN MIC NIGHT
Spring Special NEW SPRING MENU 16
2 for 1 meals weekdays before 6pm and all day Mondays $12 Jugs of Cider till 6pm. OPEN FOR LUNCH FROM MIDDAY
bookings: 9482 1333
7PM
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ISSUE 1252
W E D N E S D AY 2 8 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2
Wed 28. 6:30pm - Swinburne 1st Year Screen & Media -End of Year Screening Thu 29. 6-8pm - LoopHole presents Rebecca Armstrong The Bower Bird Collection Fri 30. 10pm - Uncomfortable Beats 'Technology Box' Compilation #4 Release Ghostsoul, Stinkwood, Able8, Amin Payne (DJ Set), DJ ShiKung, Bevin Campbell & VJ Chronic Sans Sat 1. 10pm - In:Session liquid, deep and dark drum & bass Deall, Rubix, Tommy Dub, Lickweed, SK, Freeform, Token & Deep Element Visuals by Dougstep Mon 3. 6:30pm - Process The annual Arch^Up debate Tue 4. 7pm - Pleasure Forum Australia sex-positive adult information evenings
GAY PARIS INPRESS 20 Foreword Line brings you all the latest tour announcements 22 Moves and shakes with Industry News 24 The art of the matter with Gotye 26 Money For Rope ooze the sound of the Melbourne underground 26 Bertie Blackman digs up her childhood 27 Evil Eddie takes a stroll through Flavour Country 28 Primal Scream hit you with their rhythm stick 28 Jordie Lane vs the USA 30 Life gets in the way for Hot Snakes 30 Reel Big Fish had no choice but to go independent 31 Birds Of Tokyo take the Taste Test 32 Drunken nude photo shoots with Nikko 32 Gay Paris don’t do anything by halves 32 Where in the world is Saritah? 32 The Ocean Party are riding a wave 34 Rickrolling with Rick Astley 34 The Pretty Things still look the goods 36 Will & The People make a connection 36 Over-Reactor are the voice of the ghetto 38 On The Record rates new releases from Lisa Miller and Sexyparty
FRONT ROW 41 Check out what’s happening This Week In Arts 41 We chat to Sarah Silverman ahead of her first Australian tour 41 Tom Savini talks about acting in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower 42 Reviews of Pompeii, LA and Goblin playing Suspiria
BRUNSWICK
SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER
Liz Stringer &What Van Walker a treat. Two superb singer/songwriters team up for an arvo session of original, acoustic tunes. 5pm
SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER
Chris Wilson & Band Expect astoundingly good
CREDITS EDITORIAL 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
ADVERTISING
SUNDAY 2 DECEMBER
artroom@inpress.com.au Inpress Cover Design/Art Direction Matt Davis Layout Matt Davis, Nicholas Hopkins, Eamon Stewart
DESIGN & LAYOUT
COMING SOON A Very Union Christmas Sunday 23 December
THE UNION HOTEL
BRUNSWICK 109 UNION ST, BRUNSWICK 9388 2235
18 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
BACK TO INPRESS 45 Gig Of The Week goes to World’s End Press 45 Live:Reviews loves Radiohead 48 Sarah Petchell will Wake The Dead with her punk and hardcore talk 48 The freshest in urban news with OG Flavas 48 Dan Condon blues and roots in Roots Down 48 Quality control with Good Or Shit 49 A look at the box with The TV Set 49 Fresh flavours with Dance Moves 49 Hip hop with Intelligible Flow 49 Heavy shit with Adamantium Wolf 50 The best Live gigs of the week 53 A look at the best Vintage Stores in Melbourne 58 If you haven’t appeared in Fred Negro’s Pub, your mother probably still speaks to you 58 Jeff Jenkins gets down and local in Howzat! 60 Our Gig Guide fills your diary for the weekend 64 Find your new band and just about everything else in our classy Classifieds 66 Gear and tech talk in Muso
Head to the Inpress Facebook page where there’s a bunch of gig tickets up for grabs, including Primal Scream, Sam Sparro, Jordie Lane and Red Bull Music Academy’s Do-Over party.
sales@inpress.com.au National Sales & Marketing Director Leigh Treweek National Sales Manager – Print Nick Lynagh Account Manager Anna Moull Account Manager Okan Husnu
The Junes
42 We spend five with Four Larks’ Jesse Rasmussen and Repertory Theatre’s Jason Cavanagh 42 Cultural Cringe and Fragmented Fish 43 War Of The Worlds revisited 43 Michael Connell levels about the upcoming Comedy Court finale 43 Rafael Bonachela chats about his new dance work, 2 One Another
GIVEAWAYS GALORE!
harmonica, mind-blowing blues guitar, banter extraordinaire and that big band sound as Wilson cuts loose. 9pm
This irrepressible country/ swing supergroup is back with stellar harmonies, lots of laughs, stripped back boomchicka and the mighty bull fiddle. 5pm
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ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION accounts@streetpress.com.au Reception Kathleen Dray Accounts Receivable Anita D’Angelo
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, Sarah Braybrooke, Luke Carter, Anthony Carew, Rebecca Cook, Adam Curley, Cyclone, Guy Davis, Liza Dezfouli, Dan Condon, Simon Eales, Guido Farnell, Sam Fell, Bob Baker Fish, Warwick Goodman, Cameron Grace, Chris Hayden, Andrew Haug, Brendan Hitchens, Kate Kingsmill, Michael Magnusson, Baz McAlister, Samson McDougall,
Tony McMahon, , Luke Monks, Fred Negro, Mark Neilsen, Danielle O’Donohue, Matt O’Neill, James Parker, Josh Ramselaar, Paul Ransom, Antonios Sarhanis, Dylan Stewart, Izzy Tolhurst, Nic Toupee, Rob Townsend, Dominique Wall, Doug Wallen.
PHOTOGRAPHERS Senior Contributor Kane Hibberd Jesse Booher, Ricky Dowlan, Chrissie Francis, Jay Hynes, Lou Lou Nutt, Heidi Takla, Sam Wong.
INTERNS Jan Wisniewski
EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting letters to us for publication, you agree that we may edit the letter for legal, space or other reasons. ©
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FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
COME DOWN KINGS
INPRESS PRESENTS
In 2011 Cordrazine released their sophomore album Always Coming Down, a full decade after their debut album From Here To Wherever. But as quickly as they reappeared, the band disappeared again after only three live performances. Now Cordrazine will play a strictly one-off show at Northcote Social Club on Thursday 20 December. It’s also provided the perfect excuse to finally release the almost lost video for Always Coming Down.
WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER
RESIDENCY – FINAL NIGHT
ECHO DRAMA
Sum 41
KESHIE THE SEVEN UPS DJ R.E.L
ENTRY $7, 8.30PM
THURSDAY 29 NOVEMBER
SINGLE LAUNCH
OVER-REACTOR SELF IS A SEED (SYD) TBC
ENTRY $15 DOOR, $12 THRU MOSHTIX, 8.30PM $2.50 POTS, $5 VODKAS!
Cat Empire
NO NEED FOR THE BLUES The latest Bluesfest release focuses on Australian and New Zealand artists and brings a perfect selection of well-known and up-and-coming homegrown talent to the Bluesfest stages. This announcement includes The Cat Empire, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Xavier Rudd, Rockwiz Live, The Break, Beasts Of Bourbon, Karise Eden, The Bamboos, The Beards and Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Add these to the already enormous line-up and you get a picture of one of the strongest festival line-ups ever seen in Australia. It takes place over Easter at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm near Byron Bay.
DJANGO SUPPORTS OUT
FRIDAY 30 NOVEMBER
ENGINE THREE SEVEN
Joining Django Django on their forthcoming Australian headline shows are three exciting Australian up-andcoming outfits: Palms, The Griswolds and Twinsy. They all play Saturday 12 January at the Hi-Fi.
GLASS EMPIRE SWERVE – ALBUM LAUNCH THE VILLAIN EPIC
NO FLIES ON MOULD
ENTRY $15 DOOR, $12 THRU MOSHTIX, 8PM
Bob Mould’s show at the Corner Hotel on Wednesday 13 March has sold out and tickets for his second and final show on Thursday 14 are on sale now. Get ‘em from metropolistouring.com and the venue.
SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER
FESTMAS – ROOFTOP + BANDROOM SHOW
POUR HABIT (USA)
ANCHORS HIGHTIME TOTTALLY UNICORN THE BENNIES + 6 EXTRA BANDS ENTRY $33, 4PM
SUNDAY 2 DECEMBER
EP LAUNCH
RETURN TO YOUTH THE DARJEELINGS SEVEN YEAR ITCH TANE EMIA-MOORE ENTRY $6, 1.30PM
EVENING SHOW
TBC MONDAY 3 DECEMBER
RESIDENCY – OPENING NIGHT
PSYCHODASIES THE CLITS FRANNY AND THE INFIDELS ENTRY $2, 8.30PM $10 JUGS!
BARNESY’S BACK BAD MEDICINE Adrian Edmondson was a teenager when punk arrived. The songs of Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers were the soundtrack to his life through the late-‘70s and early-’80s, and like a lot of people of his generation he was fond of playing these songs to himself at home on his acoustic guitar. He’s subsequently teamed up with a couple of talented mates to form The Bad Shepherds, and they play punk music on folk instruments. They’ve announced a tour and will play Monday 29 April at the Corner.
GET INTO THE GROOVE Groovin’ The Moo have hatched a handful of the plans in store for 2013. Next year’s events will take place on Saturday 4 May at Bendigo’s Prince Of Wales Showground. In the meantime, GTM are inviting all local artists, graphic designers, students, professionals and amateurs to submit work for the annual cotton and ink muster, GTM TEE – asking participants to respond to the theme “Homegrown” for a singlesided t-shirt graphic. Entries for GTM TEE open 28 January. Head to gtm.net.au for all the details.
THE SUM OF IT ALL More rebellious and pissed off than ever, Sum 41 have set their sights on their Australian fans and are set to deliver a blistering shows along with Soundwave performances. Ever since breaking onto the scene in 2003 Billy Talent have been capturing the spirit explosiveness of rock. These two come together for a show on Thursday 28 February at the Palace Theatre.
ALL RAD AT WOMAD WOMADelaide, Australia’s favourite outdoor festival, have announced the full line-up for the 2013 festival, to be held in Adelaide’s Botanic Park from Friday 8 to Monday 11 March. Joining the extraordinary line-up of 29 bands announced last month are Salif Keita, Adnaan Baraky, Alim Qasimov Ensemble, Arpaka Dance Company, Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba, The Bird, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, DJ ClicK, East Journey, Golonka, Goran Bregovic & His Weddings & Funerals Orchestra, Heather Frahn & the Moonlight Tide, The Herbaliser DJs, Illapu, Kingfisha, LA-33, Mia Dyson and a heap more. For tickets and further information visit womadelaide.com.au.
Having tasted glory as one the most successful Australian rock’n’roll singers, Jimmy Barnes has been there and back. Barnes is still making music and will return on Thursday 17 January at Trak Bar for an exclusive headline show. Tickets are on sale now via ticketmaster and the venue.
ISLAND TIME Given that his musical exploits (and alter egos) require devoted travel and continual hard work, Bobby Alu has relied on visiting Samoa to slow down and take time out from heavy touring. A recent tattoo applied traditionally in Samoa means he now has a constant reminder of the relaxing time, connection and epiphanies he has had during his many visits in the past year. He’s announced a summer tour and will play Wednesday 5 December at Suzuki Night Markets, Friday 7 at the Torquay Hotel, Saturday 8 at Folk Rhythm & Life Festival at Bilyana Amphitheatre and Sunday 9 at the Workers Club.
GRUNWALD TO GERSHWIN Multi-award-winner Ash Grunwald is bringing his blues and roots to the Espy’s Gershwin Room on Friday 11 January.
TRIPLE TREAT Kitty, Daisy & Lewis infuse a variety of sounds that lean retro, but also push the boundaries of today’s music. It’s been a rapid rise for the two soulful sisters and their brother, who share songwriting and combine multi-instruments. Since the release of their debut a mere four years ago they have become style leaders for a generation of ‘50s-obsessed, retro-clad 20-somethings. They’re touring once again and will play Wednesday 27 March at Billboard.
TUESDAY 4 DECEMBER FACEBOOK.COM/PAGES/THE-WORKERS-CLUB TWITTER.COM/THEWORKERSCLUB FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM - @THEWORKERSCLUB
RESIDENCY – OPENING NIGHT
SEX ON TOAST ENTRY $5, 8.00PM $10 JUGS!
COMING UP TIX AVAILABLE THRU MOSHTIX: PSYCHODASIES (MONDAYS IN DECEMBER) SEX ON TOAST (TUESDAYS IN DECEMBER) THE PRIMARY (WEDNESDAYS IN DECEMBER) THE BOMBAY ROYALE (THURSDAYS IN DECEMBER) MYRIDIAN – ALBUM LAUNCH (DEC 7) COPIA & FREESTATE (DEC 8) THAT GOLD STREET SOUND 7” LAUNCH (DEC 14) BOOMGATES – ROOFTOP SHOW (DEC 15) BINARY SOLO #1 (DEC 15)
WED 28 NOV
RUBY BOOTS
(SINGLE TOUR – WA) MATT GLASS AND THE LOOSE CANNONS THU 29 NOV
KUJO KINGS LARK LILY & KING FRI 30 NOV
SMUDGE
(SYD) SCOTDRAKULA BANOFFEE SAT 1 DEC
SUN 2 DEC 2012 (MATINEE SHOW) ‘TIMBER & STEEL PRESENTS’
LOREN
FREYA HANLY
SAT 8 DEC
SAT 15 DEC
SUN 23 DEC (MATINEE SHOW)
HALFWAY TO FOURTH CHRIS CAVILL
THE TIGER & ME
LAUREN GLEEZER
SHAUN KIRK
TUES IN DECEMBER RESIDENCY SUN 9 DEC (MATINEE SHOW) ‘TIMBER & STEEL PRESENTS’ PLAYWRITE CARL FOX - 9PM, KIKUYU BOBBY ALU (4DEC) SARITAH (SOLO) TULLY ON TULLY - 9PM, WED 5 DEC
BEN WELLS & THE MIDDLE NAMES BUCHANAN TOM MILEK THU 6 DEC
WILL & THE PEOPLE CITY RIOTS (UK) BRISCOE
(ALBUM TOUR) THE PRETTY LITTLES THE RED LIGHTS
SUN 2 DEC
FRI 7 DEC
CHARLOTTE NICDAO
(ALBUM LAUNCH) MERE THEORY (LAST EVER MELBOURNE SHOW)
VAUDEVILLE SMASH AFTER THE FALL
20 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM
THEWORKERSCLUB.COM.AU
WED 12 DEC DCUP PRESENTS
‘CHOOKIE CHRISTMAS PARTY FEAT.’ DCUP THU 13 DEC
SEVEN YEAR ITCH (EP LAUNCH) THE DARJEELINGS WINDSOR THIEVES FRI 14 DEC
GREY GHOST HAILEY CRAMER REMI
PAPA PILKO & THE BINRATS
BABERAHAM LINCOLN
SUN 16 DEC (MATINEE SHOW)
FRI 28 DEC
JOHN FLANAGAN & THE BEGIN AGAINS
(BRIS – FALLS FESTIVAL SIDESHOW)
MUSTERED COURAGE WED 19 DEC
JAY HOAD
(VIDEO LAUNCH) SAT 2 FEB
THE TROUBLE WITH MR CASSIDY (EP LAUNCH) TEMPLETON DAVE LARKIN (SOLO) WED IN JANUARY RESIDENCY
COURTNEY BARNETT MADRE MONTE
ARAKATAKA (2 JAN) LAMINE SONKO & THE AFRICAN INTELLEGENCE (RHYTHM
FRI 21 DEC
SUN 27 JAN (MATINEE SHOW) ‘TIMBER & STEEL PRESENTS
SAT 5 JAN
MON 4 FEB ‘MISTLETONE & LA NIGHTS’ PRESENTS
NITE JEWEL
(USA – LANEWAY FESTIVAL TUE 5 FEB
MINIBIKES
POLO CLUB
HOLY OTHER
SAT 22 DEC ‘WHO THE HELL – XMAS FUNRAYS / RELAUNCH PARTY’ FEAT. THEM SWOOPS HARTS BUCHANAN
SAT 12 JAN
EVERY MONDAY!
UP & ATOM ADMIRABLE ACKBAR’S
JONES THUGS & HARMONY (MON 26TH) $10 PINT + BURRITO BEFORE 10PM)
REMI
CHRIS DUKE & THE ROYALS
(UK – LANEWAY SIDESHOW)
LA NIGHTS
21
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
SPIEGELTENT SHOWS Arts Centre Melbourne have announced the next wave of shows that will inhabit the Famous Spiegeltent from Tuesday 5 February to Sunday 21 April. Joining the existing line-up that includes The Trip with David Pereira and The Ceasar Twins, and Katie Noonan in Love-Song-Circus, will be Ireland’s Ponydance with Anybody Waitin’, Trevor Ashley’s I’m Every Woman and an Opening Night Gala featuring Spiegeltent stars. The Gala kicks off the season on Wednesday 6 February. For all tickets, program info and details, head to artscentremelbourne.com.au.
I N D U S T RY N E W S W I T H S C O T T F I T Z S I M O N S frontline@streetpress.com.au
Hoodoo Gurus
DIG IT UP! TO RETURN IN 2013 The critically acclaimed Dig It Up! touring festival, which was promoted by Feel Presents and curated by the Hoodoo Gurus in its inaugural year, will return for 2013. Posting on the Hoodoo’s page, frontman Dave Faulkner wrote, “I’m very pleased to announce, we will be doing another run of Dig It Up! shows with a whole new crop of bands – young and old, from far and near – similar to the shows we did early this year. Once again it will take place on and around Anzac Day [Thursday 25 April], beginning a week earlier in Brisbane and finishing in Perth on Sunday 28. I’ll give you more details about the exact dates and the line-ups in the new year but what I can tell you is this year we will be performing Mars Needs Guitars in its entirety.” As part of the update Faulkner also revealed he’ll be playing his first full solo set in the new year.
Lucha VaVoom
VA-VAVOOM
ROCK SOLID LINE-UP
AC/DC INDUCTED INTO GRAMMY HALL OF FAME
AC/DC’s album, Back In Black, has been inducted into the 2013 Grammy Hall Of Fame as part of the Recording Academy’s 40th anniversary celebrations. Recordings are included in the Grammy Hall Of Fame on the basis of musical, cultural and historical significance. Released in 1980, Back In Black was the band’s first recording with current singer Brian Johnson after the death of Bon Scott. A staple of rock’n’roll, it has sold 50 million copies, becoming the highest-selling album by an Australian act.
INERTIA PARTNERS WITH CROWD-FUNDER PLEDGE Independent label Inertia have announced a partnership with PledgeMusic that will allow them to offer their roster retail and fundraising opportunities through the crowd-funding platform. The PledgeMusic platform allows fans to make financial contributions towards an artist’s project, such as recording an album or releasing a vinyl edition, in return for often exclusive incentives. Inertia’s Managing Director Colin Daniels told theMusic.com.au the value of the partnership will be through the “seamless” relationship with the label and Pledge and that they’re “seeing this as a pre-order system… artists can get fan-funding before the album’s made.” Largely intended for emerging artists on the Inertia Access platform, the Pledge option will be available to artists across the label’s roster. Daniels said the label’s experience in working with crowd-funding will give artists on Inertia an advantage. “We’ve got experienced people who know how to use the system… We have more access to Pledge, we know what works and we know what doesn’t and how to set it up properly.” He added, “sometimes artists will have a deal with Pledge and a deal with a label or a distributor. This way we can manage the release campaign the whole way through.” Artists currently using PledgeMusic to fund projects include Ben Lee, Kate Nash and Saves The Day.
UNIVERSAL SIGNS JONTI TO PUBLISHING DEAL South African-born, Sydney-raised, Los Angelesfrequenting Jonti Danilewitz has signed an exclusive global deal with Universal Music Publishing. Danilewitz, who is signed to Stones Throw, is best known under the band moniker Djanimals and now the name Jonti. UMPG’s Director of A&R Heath Johns said Jonti has, “established a global reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative and adventurous songwriters. His CV to date is as diverse as it is impressive and I believe that it is just the beginning for Jonti.” Aside from his own projects, Jonti has collaborated with Mark Ronson, Santigold, Duran Duran’s John Taylor, The Avalanches and Odd Future’s Hodgy Beats.
PRESENTED BY
Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes
Direct from the US, the Lucha VaVoom troupe will be putting on a show quite unlike any other at Big Day Out. Lucha VaVoom is non-stop, action-packed surrealism where Mexican-masked wrestlers perform breathtaking acrobatic feats in a fast-paced, fun-filled, character-driven style. The Chow Town restaurant line-up has also been announced and includes: Andrew McConnell from Golden Fields, Daniel Wilson from Huxtaburger, Karen Batson from Cookie, Raph Rashid from Beatbox Kitchen and Taco Truck and a whole lot more. Watch and eat it all at Big Day Out on Saturday 26 January at Flemington Racecourse.
XMAS EVEN
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Solid Rock and a 30-year musical journey, don’t miss Other Side Of The Rock at the Forum on Saturday 8 December. Shane Howard has gathered his musical friends from across the nation to join him and capture the great spirit that was raised at the unique concert held at Uluru in October. Joining Howard for this milestone concert are Alan & Steve Pigram, Tonchi McIntosh, Archie Roach, Thelma Plum, Mark Atkins, Yirrmal & The Yolngu Boys, Bart Willoughby, Neil Murray, Amy Saunders, Emma Donovan, Ross Hannaford and more guests to be announced. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or shanehoward.com.au.
For the 13th year running, Even will celebrate Xmas in style and this year is a treat to behold. Joining Even will be Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos, The Bedroom Philosopher and DJ Francis Leach at the Hi-Fi Bar on Saturday 22 December. There will also be some nice little onstage surprises for all to behold. Doors open at 8pm and tickets are $25+BF from thehifi.com.au.
SWEDISH STARS
RING RING RING
Sweden’s Deathstars are hailed by some as the deathglammer kings of sleaze. In the world of metal, that’s quite a reputation to live up to, and they certainly seem intent on doing so. Synthesised programming, ubergothic touches and pounding riffs are a good enough place to start, as is their highly refined image, drawing some comparisons with Marilyn Manson, KISS and Rammstein. They’re gearing up to hit Australia and will do so on Saturday 4 May at the Corner Hotel.
De La Soul have gained respect within and outside the hip hop community with their contributions to rap, as well as jazz, funk, soul and alternative genres. Not only are their musical innovations acclaimed and respected worldwide, but they paved a path for many alternative rap groups to come after them. After the huge success of their two 20th anniversary shows in 2009, De La Soul return to the Espy on Thursday 3 January.
UPWARD TRAJECTORY
GET JADED
Sydney natives High Highs have now relocated to Brooklyn; but the chaos and cold have done little to diminish their dreamy, atmospheric sunkissed pop. Tipped as a band to watch on the strength of their debut EP, High Highs will be home in Australia to show off their wares at Laneway Festival. Melbourne fans will also be treated to the hypnotic live experience with an intimate show at The Toff In Town on Wednesday 30 January.
Samantha Jade has been crowned with the title of The X Factor-winner 2012, her single What You’ve Done To Me has debuted at number one on the ARIA singles chart this week, and she will be the headline act for The X Factor Live Tour that hits the road in January. Joining Jade will be top-six finalists The Collective, Bella Ferraro, Nathaniel Willemse, Shiane Hawke and Jason Owen. On Friday 11 January the show hits Festival Hall, with tickets selling fast through ticketmaster.com.au.
‘REALITY’ DJ
SEEKERS TURN 50
For the first time in Australia, DJ Pauly D will play a Festival Hall show on Friday 25 January. Pauly D is recognised for his talent as well as his reality-star status on MTV’s highest-rated show, Jersey Shore. Tickets on sale now.
As part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations, The Seekers will share their music live in concert with their Australian fans throughout May. Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley have reunited for The Golden Jubilee Tour. Together, they will take their fans down memory lane with stories, memorabilia and video clips on the big screen. You can catch the show at Hamer Hall on Tuesday 14 May. Book at theartscentre.com.au or Ticketek.
PLEASURE ROSE
Fresh from the release of her debut single, Guilty Pleasure, Ruby Rose will turn her considerable talent to arena stages as she opens the show for Nicki Minaj during her Australian Pink Friday Reloaded Tour. The tour touches down at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday 5 December.
JANGLE BERRIES It’s been a year since Thee Oh Sees tempted Australia with their insane, hectic and cacophonous live shows. Having built a prolific reputation for their immense output, Thee Oh Sees return to celebrate their 14th release, Putrifiers II, with performances at All Tomorrows Parties festival and a blitz national tour, serving tight psychedelic jams and an unrestrained live show. They’ll play Monday 28 January at a Sugar Mountain Festival satellite show at Schoolhouse Studios, Thursday 31 at the Hi-Fi Bar and Wednesday 6 February at the Barwon Club (Geelong).
22 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news
DOUBLE DOSE OF SOUL Melbourne’s two soul big-band contenders come together for one smasher of a party when Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes come up against Saskwatch on Saturday 29 December at Hi-Fi Bar. It’s been a big year for both bands and they intend to celebrate with each other, your mother and all their friends in their hometown to ring out 2012 with a bang.
COUNTRY COOK Prior to her first visit to Australian shores, Elizabeth Cook will release her album Welder in January. Welder, the follow up to her 2007 album Balls, was produced by the legendary Don Was (Rolling Stones, Lucinda Williams, Kris Kristofferson) and recorded with a band to die for. Cook will be featuring at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January and will also play Friday 1 February at Northcote Social Club.
EXTRA HOUSE SERVICE Swedish House Mafia are heading to Melbourne to service the south eastern fans that missed out on tickets for their Sydney show. Victorian, Tasmanian and SA Ticketmaster account holders who bought Sydney tickets will be contacted by email and given the option to have their Sydney tickets refunded if they wish to attend the Melbourne show. One Last Tour will be the final time for Australian fans to see Swedish House Mafia and the Melbourne show is scheduled for Friday 1 February at Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
LAST OF THE GOOD HUSTLE The Good Hustle is presented and filmed on a purpose-built stage set in an 18th century former industrial school at Abbotsford Convent. The setting provides a truly unique staging of live music. The final show is this Saturday and will feature World’s End Press and Collarbones. The Shadow Electric Bar will be open from 1pm serving up savory and dessert crepes, beers, chocolate, cheese, wines, spirits and cocktails all day and all of the night.
BOUNDARY SWEEPER Jose James is a musical omnivore, an artist that resists being pigeonholed, equally at ease on stage with jazz legend McCoy Tyner as he is in the studio with rapper Oh No or electronica pioneer Flying Lotus. After an all-too brief appearance in Australia with shows at Melbourne International Jazz Festival and a less-than 24-hour stop off in Sydney for the soldout Future Now show, James will take in a series of shows to present his brand-new album No Beginning, No End. James will play Friday 22 February at the Hi-Fi Bar, with special guests Hiatus Kaiyote.
FLOWER POWER TUDE DUDES Hermitude have risen to new heights in 2012 off the back of their HyperParadise album and hit single Speak Of The Devil. Hermitude’s rise is set to continue as they announced a new single and 2013 tour. As well a bunch of festival dates, The Villain Tour takes flight late-January and touches down on Friday 1 February at the Corner Hotel.
Award-winning Australian musical Flowerchildren – The Mamas & Papas Story returns to Melbourne for a strictly-limited season from Saturday 18 May to Sunday 23 June at the Comedy Theatre. Penned by AFI Award-winning writer Peter Fitzpatrick, the musical explores the distrust, dangerous passions and complex entanglements behind this group who sold 40-million records worldwide and were the first group to knock The Beatles from the number-one spot on the Billboard charts. Head to ticketmaster.com.au or flowerchildren.com.au for bookings and details.
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
FOREWORD LINE
ALMOST THE JAM From The Jam’s upcoming tour will not only feature classic The Jam tunes, but will also showcase some of the latest tracks from their recent album, Back In The Room. Released this year, the record was recorded by current From The Jam members, as well as special guests Paul Weller and Steve Cropper, and former member of From The Jam and The Jam, Rick Buckler. It’s time to suit up and get your mod on in 2013 when From The Jam head down under to play the Hi-Fi on Saturday 2 February.
INDUSTRY NEWS WITH SCOTT FITZSIMONS frontline@streetpress.com.au
LIFE OF REILLY John C Reilly is a familiar face on the silver screen and the boards of Broadway, but now he’s bringing his bluegrass music project to the East Coast for two special shows. The musicallyinclined actor and his friends Tom Brosseau and Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark will play the Northcote Social Club on Thursday 6 December.
360, Missy Higgins, Dougy Mandagi (pic by Kane Hibberd)
ARIA NOMINEES TIP GOTYE TO WIN
EVEN MORE PINK Pink’s added even more dates to her The Truth About Love Tour. The new Melbourne date is Friday 23 August at Rod Laver Arena. Tickets on sale at 9am on Thursday 6 December.
MAYBE THEY CAN In Canada, Glasgow-born Norman Blake and Joe Pernice from Massachusetts began a low-key collaboration in a Toronto tavern. Their performances were marked by plenty of banter, open-tunings and sublime pop smarts. Now they bring their two-man show to Australia under the guise of The New Mendicants. They’ll play Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 January at Northcote Social Club.
CHILD’S PLAY With a unique blend of hip hop spanning multiple genres, combined with a lyrical genius, Childish Gambino has gone from a viral cult following to a mega sensation. This summer the wunderkind makes his Australian debut when he plays Big Day Out and has also announced he’ll play Wednesday 23 January at the Hi-Fi.
YOU-HOO Rising Brisbane production duo YesYou have announced supports for their debut headline tour this December, in support of their recently-released debut EP. Melbourne duo Willow Beats make gorgeous downtempo beats overlaid with compelling vocals courtesy of Kalyani Ellis and will join YesYou at the Toff In Town on Thursday 6 December.
FANTASTIC MR FOX
Following the release of King last month and his last national tour in July, Perth indie-pop-tronic artist Carl Fox will be sippin’ Kool-Aid and flippin’ pop-poms across Australia with his six-piece band during November/ December to promote the new record. They are playing the Toff In Town on Saturday 1 December with The Knocks (NYC), Alison Wonderland and 96 Bulls; and Tuesday 4 at the Workers Club with Playwrite.
NATURAL CHRISTMAS OTEP ON IT Led by artist, activist and loudmouth Otep Shamaya, Otep have been producing their own brand of uncompromising alternative metal since 2000. Showcasing a passion for justice and the preservation of the arts, Otep create uncompromising soundscapes with heart and substance. They’re bringing their Sounds Like Armageddon Tour to Australia next year and will play Friday 26 April at the Hi-Fi Bar.
MORE WILCO With tickets for Wilco’s first Melbourne show on Wednesday 27 March almost sold out, they’ve announced a second and final show at Hamer Hall on Thursday 28. Tickets are on sale now through the Hamer Hall box office. Support for both shows will be Melbourne indie group Boomgates.
One of the most successful vocal groups in Australian history, Human Nature will return to Melbourne next month for a special run of Christmas concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. To be held at Hamer Hall on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 December, Human Nature – This Is Christmas is a festive concert for all the family. The Melbourne concerts are part of a national tour which will see Human Nature perform an evening of Motown hits and Christmas celebrations.
ON A KNIFE EDGE Homegrown talent Bayonets For Legs can’t be summed up by only one genre or the aid of a hyphen. With an appreciation for alternative country, their lyrics are both meaningful and quaint. They are heading out on a small East Coast tour this December to roadtest a collection of new tunes for their upcoming debut album. They’ll play Thursday 13 December at the Spotted Mallard and Friday 14 at the Retreat Hotel.
SUNKISSED Stemming from Byron Bay, and with an upbringing surrounded by the sounds of The Beach Boys and The Get Up Kids, Skyways Are Highways’ sound combines a flood of sunshine pop upon thick bass lines. On Friday 14 December, Skyways Are Highways headline the Noise Bar to celebrate Western Australian indie kids Mezzanine’s EP launch along with Columbia Buffet and The Sunsleepers.
BRYAN ADAMS SUPPORT The recent announcement that Bryan Adams would be embarking on a national arena tour left fans across Australia overjoyed. The excitement doesn’t stop there with this week’s news that UK and Europe superstar Amy Macdonald is confirmed to support. They play Saturday 20 April at Rod Laver Arena. Tickets available through Ticketek.
FOU THE FIDDLER At 27, Chapelier Fou (aka Louis Warynski) is not only an outstanding musician on stage, he has the sonic ability to be able to create a new formula for each track. After performing to strong reviews at WOMADelaide in 2012, the violin virtuoso returns to Australia. While here, he will stop in Melbourne for a one-off, intimate show at The Toff In Town on Saturday 5 January.
While gathered at the Street Press Australia ARIA cover photoshoot by Kane Hibberd, nominees 360, Missy Higgins and Dougy Mandagi of The Temper Trap all tipped Gotye to sweep up the majority of awards at this year’s ARIAs, which take place this Thursday. “Gotye will win all his shit,” laughed 360. All three artists are up against Gotye in the Album Of The Year category, all three claim they have no chance. Higgins believes she has no hope this year, “I think I share my categories with Gotye so we all know what’s gonna happen there!” Although she graciously added, “He absolutely deserves it.” Mandagi backed the other two as well, “Gotye will probably win everything except ‘most exotic looking lead singer of a rock band’, which belongs to me.”
ESKIMO JOE TURN TO CROWD FUNDING Multi-ARIA Award-winning Perth alt.rock stalwarts Eskimo Joe have announced they’re looking to raise $40,000 through crowd funding to record their next album, campaigning direct to fans via the Pozible platform, setting themselves 80 days to reach the target. The crowd-funding system works by offering incentives to fans in exchange for the donations towards the recording and production of the record, including advance copies of tracks, unreleased material, a BBQ with the band or a performance of the album from their studio The Wasteland. The band told theMusic.com.au, “We feel like this sixth record is a new start for us. It seems like there’s a real sense of freedom in the studio and having our own workspace has allowed us to just enjoy playing music together, rather than rushing to record.” At time of printing, the band had raised over $28,000 in just five days.
WEDDOS PLAY ‘FINAL SHOW’ Legendary Australian band Weddings Parties Anything have played their ‘final show’ at a Melbourne award ceremony last week. Inducted into the EG Awards’ Steve Waldon Hall Of Fame, the band played their debut album, Scorn Of The Women, in its entirety. Last week the band’s frontman Mick Thomas broke the news the band would be splitting up – again – following the set.
TASSIE’S ASTA JOINS SELECT MUSIC Tasmania’s triple j Unearthed High winner Asta has signed to booking agency Select Music, the company announced, joining a roster that boasts Josh Pyke, Ball Park Music, Lior, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, DZ Deathrays and Gold Fields. Asta has already made an impact with two singles, My Heart Is On Fire and Escape, making the top 100 ARIA singles chart. Select’s Rob Giovannoni said, “Asta is a true talent – a career artist. The future looks amazing both here and internationally. We look forward to being part of the team.”
LISA GERRARD, LIOR, WIN AT SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS Santana
UTES AND BLUES The Deniliquin Ute Muster has long been on the local calendar as the “must go-to” event. Now comes the exciting news that the site will become a regional event centre, with a new musical event announced for the facility at Easter next year – the Deni Blues & Roots Festival. The first-time two-day event will be held Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March with headline names including Santana, Steve Miller Band, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Isaak and more. Head to denibluesfestival.com or ticketek.com.au for tickets and details. Santana and Steve Miller Band will also team up for a co-headline at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday 21 March. Tickets are on sale from 9am Friday 7 December via Ticketek.
Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard, former Models member Roger Mason and singer-songwriter Lior have picked up Screen Music Awards for their work composing for Australian film and television. Mason won Best Music For A Short Film (This Dog’s Life) and Lior took home Best Original Song Composed For The Screen (Hey Hootabelle from Giggle & Hoot). Sydney composer Antony Partos led the night with awards for Best Television Theme (The Slap), Best Music For A Mini-Series Or Telemovie (Mabo) and Best Soundtrack Album (The Slap). Gerrard won the big gong in the form of Feature Film Score Of The Year (Burning Man).
PRESENTED BY For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news • 23
REFLECTIONS OF SUCCESS
Keen to make amends for his last “shit” performance in Australia, Wally De Backer – known to 335 million YouTube fans as Gotye – is promising his upcoming homecoming tour will feature his “most vibey” shows yet. In the meantime, he just wants US radio to stop playing his song, he tells Paul Smith. outer “Wally” De Backer, under his Gotye moniker, has gone from creating music in his bedroom to playing it in huge arenas all over the world. Those who have got to know him within the last year or so as a result of his Making Mirrors album, and a certain song in particular, probably assume that it has all happened very suddenly. In reality though things built up for him over the course of more than over a decade. “It all felt very gradual I guess,” he recalls. “And to be able to say that I think I’m very lucky because something a lot of musicians struggle to obtain with their career, whether it’s the business side of it or finding an audience or just being able to sustain working on music for a period of even a few years, is getting a momentum that continues. I’m fortunate with my Gotye project that through a combination of things over the last ten years it has been a constantly upward momentum. In retrospect I feel like I’m quite aware of different reasons why that’s been and I certainly can still step back and realise that it’s quite incredible. I guess I could kind of rationalise it a bit as well and see that it’s not all just because I’ve made a certain type of music but it’s also because there’s a whole lot of persistence and one thing falling in place in front of another, and that kept happening over a period of time.”
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There is no doubt that the massive success enjoyed by 2011’s Making Mirrors album added considerable thrust to that momentum. Prior to the album’s release though, De Backer was really unsure how it would be received. “I actually had a lot of doubts because it was quite a struggle to get it to sound the way I wanted it to,” he admits. “It took a lot longer to write the material and finish mixing it than I hoped – probably a year longer than I planned to spend on it – so there were times where I felt a bit like I’d missed my own subconscious deadlines and somehow as a result that made me a bit on edge about it. I was just feeling a bit like people wouldn’t respond to the material positively and like this could really fall flat on its arse.”
Ubiquitous single Somebody That I Used To Know alone took care of any concerns he may have had. The song and its video (which has a staggering 335 million-plus hits on YouTube) seemed to immediately entrance everyone who heard and saw it. It does make you wonder if Gotye would be in the same place he is now had that song remained an album track, rather than being selected as a single. “Well, that’s true,” he agrees. “It was the last song that was finished for the album and it did take five to six months almost of holding the whole record up to finish the song, so I guess that was partly because I had an inkling that it would be one of the strongest songs on the record. Up to then I’d sort of pencilled other songs in as singles but I also felt a bit like some of the strongest songs that I had finished on the record were actually some of the least single-worthy songs. But from the second I played Somebody to my managers and to a friend and my folks, when I’d just demoed the female part myself and even before I’d finished the arrangement of the second chorus, almost everybody seemed to think there was something quite engaging about that track so I had a pretty strong feeling already that it was worth waiting to finish. I don’t know, I just had a belief that it was a good single choice, that it was just idiosyncratic enough to be not an obvious single but that it did work as a pop song.”
REAL STILL LIFE Thought the cover shot of Gotye was a painting? Nup! It’s Gotye painted and then photographed. Gotye’s obviously no stranger to body paint – maybe you’ve seen a little video of his called Somebody That I Used To Know – but this image was created by US artist Alexa Meade, whose work lies at the intersection of painting, photography, performance and installation. Her style is explained on her website thus: “Rather than creating representational paintings on a flat canvas, Alexa Meade creates her representational paintings directly on top of the physical subjects that she is referencing. When photographed, the representational painting and the subject being referenced appear to be one and the same as the 3D space of her painted scenes becomes optically compressed into a 2D plane.” That said, we just reckon it looks mighty fine.
It has now become one of those singles that in its time has received airplay overload (up there with the likes of James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful and anything by Adele). De Backer believes that the song has now been overplayed in Australia but reveals that has also been the case in the US, where it also found him success, but that often it’s not even his own version that gets played. “I don’t know how much you know about American radio formatting, but there are so many different subcategories,” he explains. “Some of them played the original which has been great but what they call the rhythmic or R&B stations, the real super-pop dancey kind of stations, I think felt that because it has been such a commercial success and got so much attention they couldn’t not play the song but they didn’t really want to play the original. Then instead of actually even playing an official remix that I’ve at least approved they’ve just chosen to either commission or randomly search for someone to edit it that adds some really bad bottom end
drums and some cheesy hi-hats on the top end, just kind of layered over the top of the master recording. They then put that on their playlist and they announce it as if it was the original song. I just don’t think it’s cool for radio stations to play something that’s not a song and call it the song, so I’m definitely at the point where I would prefer US pop radio not to play edits and these dance versions of the song that are unofficial. I do wonder how many people might come to my concerts having heard these edits that the pop stations back announce as if they’re the original, and then go, ‘Hang on, where are all those beats?’” With people now coming to the party late his live performances are inevitably attracting a mix of old and new fans. It’s those that have clearly been with him all the way that have suddenly and unexpectedly provided him with fresh motivation, as De Backer explains: “I can tell quite clearly in the audiences at gigs that some only know the single, are only
interested in hearing the single and then will leave the gig. At the start of the tour there was the odd moment where a few of us in the band got a little demoralised when we noticed 100, 200 people leaving the venue after we played the hit single. But then again some people are very, very deeply invested in the music I make and I can see them mouthing every single word. So we are getting all sorts at the concerts. I feel like I’m doing these shows for those latter people though and when I see that energy I sometimes feel overwhelmed, like a kind of responsibility. It really made me refocus and appreciate that those are the people that you play shows for. That moment for them is obviously so special and such an energy and I remind myself of that.” De Backer is now particularly looking forward to bringing his live show show back home to Australia at the end of the year, not least because he harbours some disappointment at his last performances here. He believes he and his band were just too nervous and on edge about replicating the sound from the record when they played the Sydney Opera House show around the time the album was released. He then got sick with the flu for a series of Australian dates and recounts having to heave himself around them all, and self-deprecatingly describes his vocal for those shows as being “shit”. He is certain things are going to be very different this time around though. “I’m really excited to come home and play these shows in Australia because I think very easily hands down they’re going to be the greatest sounding, most vibey and best Gotye shows that I’ll ever have done. Having done so many shows internationally now I feel I’m just really connecting strongly musically with the other guys in the line-up. I’m also looking forward to spending Christmas with my family, girlfriend and her family. And I guess I’m quite excited about the idea of then just starting with a blank page next year.” WHO: Gotye WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Sidney Myer Music Bowl
CHART TOPPIN’ IN THE USA
Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know became the first US Billboard number one single from an ‘Australian-based’ artist since 2000. In all there have been 28 of them since they began the thing, though it’s an accolade actually only shared by ten acts (five bands and five solo performers) due to the fact that several have enjoyed more than one moment perched at the top. With the Bee Gees, Air Supply, INXS, Men At Work and Savage Garden making up the elite, which individuals have done Australia proud Stateside? Helen Reddy did it three times in the early ‘70s, but each only managed a single week. Of those, I Am Woman (1972) has been the most enduring and is still referenced to this day. Olivia Newton-John achieved it five times, with a little bit of help from John Travolta for one of them, You’re The One That I Want (1978). She also still holds the record for the longest run at the top when she got Physical (1981) and managed ten weeks of pushing aside any competition. Andy Gibb was the first male solo artist (of any nationality) to land three consecutive singles at the US number one spot, with all of those being just inside a year. His biggest success was the seven weeks of Shadow Dancing (1978) which was co-written with his Bee Gee brothers, no strangers to the American dream top spot themselves. Rick Springfield had just the one US number one with Jessie’s Girl (1981) which held the honour for two weeks but had the added claim to fame to be sitting there when MTV launched. Gotye‘s stint at the top earlier this year is made all the more impressive considering it managed eight weeks there and is bettered only by Physical. Belgium born (he moved to Australia at two), Gotye also became only the second Belgian (solo or otherwise!) to achieve a US number one single. The previous one was way back in 1963 when a certain Sœur Sourire, otherwise known as The Singing Nun, took Dominique there for four weeks.
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A SOUND IS A CITY Billed as oozing the sound of the Melbourne underground, Money For Rope’s debut, self-titled album does indeed do just that. Tony McMahon speaks with frontman Jules McKenzie. his introduction does, however, beg the question: what does the Melbourne musical underground sound like? We’ll get to that, but it’s probably worth pausing for a second to acknowledge just how brave it is to impose such a label on your own work. This aside, Money For Rope is also worth noting for its very nearly uncanny and seemingly effortless blend of dark lyricism and plain old, good time rocking out. It was also a fair while in coming, this record – Money For Rope have been playing celebrated live shows around town for some time now. And, while the album does have the feel of carefully constructed music, there’s also an immediacy and sense of urgency in each of the nine tracks – no small balancing act. Lead singer Jules McKenzie is, understandably, pretty stoked about the album’s positive reception, but is waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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“Yeah, it’s been [fairly] great up to this point. We’ve had some positive reviews so far, but they can’t all be positive, can they? I’m waiting for someone to hear it and go, ‘What’s the point?’” And it has been some time coming, hasn’t it? It would probably be diplomatic to say that the band really wanted to take their time and deliver a supremely crafted sonic soundscape, or something like that, but McKenzie is reasonably straightforward about the whole thing. “We feel like it’s been a long time coming, for sure. We’re pretty aware that there have been a lot of great bands who’ve taken their time, but we really wanted a record out, and it took a long time. Momentum is a really important thing for a band at our level. To get it and maintain it and build on it. Honestly, we should have done it a year ago, but it’s taken this long to get it happening. Whether or not that’s a bit of laziness on our part or not, I don’t know. It probably is. There were just a lot of things we didn’t think about, things like artwork and design. I guess we were a little naive. Hopefully, we’ll know better for next time.” When it comes to what he hopes the album will do for his group, McKenzie touches on interesting issues surrounding being seen as a genuine outfit as opposed to a live-only band.
“A lot of people, when they made any reference to us, it would be as a live band. Partially I think that’s because we don’t really have anything out besides some 7” singles and a couple of other things here and there. Until you’ve really got a full record out, you’re not a legitimate band; you’re just a band who plays some gigs. We’re a physical band and we like to be physical when we play. We’ve damaged a few guitars along the way, which has led to some tuning issues, but it’s hard to judge us on anything else until we’ve got something out, y’know?” As mentioned earlier, Money For Rope are not afraid to position themselves as part of a long line of Melbourne underground acts with a very distinct sound, the most obvious example of which would probably be The Birthday Party/Bad Seeds. But while comparisons are not all that useful in this band’s case, it says a lot about McKenzie and his cohorts, and the mindful nature of their music that they’ve thought long and hard about matters such as these. “One thing that we’ve always kind of valued about the scene we’ve been part of is that it’s Australian sounding music. For me, that’s always meant music that’s got a bit of backbone to it and is pretty direct and up front. I would consider that the Melbourne underground music scene has that inherent value in it. There’s something to me about Melbourne where I reckon you pick a Melbourne band, you know. Let’s say a band like The Devilrock Four or something like that. They have this kind of Melbourne rock band sound. I suppose it’s got to do with the venues we have down here as well. A lot of the bands that come out of Melbourne have played a lot of gigs. While a lot of Sydney bands, for example, will sound like they’ve been put together for a specific purpose – not that there’s anything wrong with that – a Melbourne band’s sound is generally developed by the playing.” Anyone who’s seen Treme knows this is an interesting conversation on a number of levels, not the least of which is anthropologically. Given Inpress is the paper of record on such matters, we decide to pursue the question of a Melbourne sound further. What are its other constituents? How much do we actually owe to Nick Cave?
“Cave’s important, obviously, but the band I was thinking about when I spoke about the sort of sound of Melbourne was Radio Birdman, even though they’re not Melbourne. I think it’s kind of about a rawness. It’s gotta come from an honest place. I’m kind of tempted to say it’s hard working music, but it’s not that because we’re not really going for a blue-collar rock thing. The thing about The Birthday Party is, I’d call that kind of thing courageous. I think a lot of times it’s also a naive style of music, y’know? Just going out there and doing something and not really worrying about whether you’re going to be appreciated. You’re doing it because it’s the sort of music you want to play and there’s going to be people out there who hate it but you play it regardless.” When it comes to launching the album, McKenzie seems as excited about the supports as he is about finally getting the record out there. And punters having fun is obviously important, but should this not happen for whatever reason, it appears that Money For Rope will be having enough for everyone. “We’re still trying to sort of piece together what we want the night to be like. We’ll certainly be having a bit of a party. I hope people who’ve seen a few Money
For Rope shows and people who have just been generally supportive come down. I’m sure they’ll be pretty happy to build a vibe for a bunch of guys who are pretty happy to have a record out. There’s talk of a few things we’re thinking of doing to make it more than just like we’re playing a normal gig. But I don’t know. We’re really lucky to have Mother & Son playing with us. They’re this two-piece who play this awesome surf rock. The other band we’ve got playing is Fraser A Gorman & Big Harvest. Fraser’s been a mate of ours for a while now, so it’s great to have him there too. The really cool thing about this night is that we get to play with bands we really want to see. We’re going to be having a really great time. I’m not sure about everyone else, but we’ll be certainly having a literal release.” WHO: Money For Rope WHAT: Money For Rope (Thornbury Records) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 30 November, Barwon Club, Geelong; Saturday 1 December, Ding Dong Lounge; Sunday 16, The Corner Hotel
PAINT IT, BLACK Bertie Blackman’s “extremely personal” major label debut sees the singer digging up “all kinds of stuff” from her childhood and, with her illustrations adorning the CD booklet, letting the “Blackman shadow” come to the fore, writes Stephanie Liew. he title of Bertie Blackman’s recently released fourth album is inspired by Francis Bacon’s 1953 painting, Study After Velazquez’s Portrait Of Pope Innocent X, which is a distorted, dark re-interpretation of Diego Velázquez’s famous 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X. In Bacon’s painting, the pope is screaming, with purple and yellow lines falling around him like bars of a cage.
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“My father knew Francis Bacon quite well in the ‘60s. They used to live in the same building so there’s bit of a family connection,” says Blackman, explaining why she chose Pope Innocent X for her album’s title. “I was just looking up all kinds of art stuff online and this painting came up, which is really quite a horrifying painting but I guess it’s kind of like being sucked into a world, and for me it says a lot about something yet nothing at all, so you can put your own spin on it. It’s a great painting.” A year and a half in the making, Pope Innocent X began to form while Blackman was in Chicago, writing and “de-fragging” from 2009’s Secrets & Lies, asking herself questions such as, “What do I want to do next?” and “Who do I want to be and what do I want to express?” “As you do every few years when you make a new record,” she says. Sprung from the exploration of the lost years of Blackman’s childhood – she can’t remember anything for a period of about three years from when she was a little girl – Pope Innocent X inadvertently developed into a concept album. “They’re tales from the perspective of being an adult and being a child, filling in the gaps and the fantastical way you would do that if you’ve gone through some pretty full-on things because usually memory loss is some kind of trauma-related thing. So the tales are kind of beautiful and mad and twisted, and very much stories within themselves.” Blackman considers the album to be very much a collaborative effort with producer François Tétaz, who worked with her on a few songs from Secrets & Lies and has also produced for Gotye, Kimbra and Architecture In Helsinki. Time was spent in deep
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conversation, digging up memories from long ago and picking their brains to find a certain word to go into a certain place. “I’m really lucky to have had the time to be able delve into those things, so it’s an extremely personal record for me,” Blackman says. “It’s certainly not glossing over anything, and has been a bit of a dig-up of all kinds of stuff.” As ideas for the songs’ subject matter and sounds began to take shape, visual representations followed. However, Blackman initially had some conflicted feelings about using her illustrations for the album. “I just started drawing when I started writing the record and my manager pushed me to keep doing it. I was like, ‘I don’t wanna use the Blackman thing, the Blackman name, the Blackman shadow’. [But] it’s connected to me, and in its way, it’s time to let that shadow come to the fore a bit more,” she says. “It comes out in the record as well and I think it’s the strongest way to tie through how I feel and see the kind of creatures and stories that are in the record.” The album’s booklet features her striking images, “the illustrated tales of the songs”. Blackman describes this record as the most true reflection of herself; not just because of the content, but sonically too. It’s a mixture of the strongest parts of her previous albums. She clarifies that the songs’ subject matter is not necessarily darker this time around, but rather she is able to portray it with more depth. “That just comes with time and confidence, I guess; being able to go, ‘Why don’t we make all these sounds and paint the world,’ rather than sitting at home and going, ‘Cool, I’m gonna do this electro stuff, that keyboard sounds rad,’ and doing things like that and being like, ‘That’s done, moving on!’” Whereas the making of Secrets & Lies involved piecing a lot of parts together and discovering noises serendipitously, Blackman says Pope Innocent X was an extremely laboured process; you can hear the amount of work that has gone into it. “It’s been talked [about] a lot between Frank and I, just getting the right sentiment for each song and doing those stories justice, to get them across in a way that is understandable for other
people rather than just a cacophony of madness, which is a lot of what my mind is, so I guess what Frank was doing was ciphering that out and going, ‘Well, where are you going with that?’ We have a great creative connection and work really well together, and it’s really challenging and really good.” Pope Innocent X is Blackman’s first major label release, released through Universal’s Mercury Records. Having been independent for her entire career up until this point, it’s a brand new experience for Blackman, but one that she has embraced with open arms. Being on a major label means more people to work with, more muscle, and she is now at the stage where she’s comfortable in such a situation. “Having had a career, you know you can approach labels and go, ‘This is the kinda thing I wanna do’,
rather than going in as a young, impressionable thing and being a bit scared and tiptoeing around certain aspects, so it’s been really great working with all these people because we all have a mutual and known respect for each other,” she says. “I guess I know who I am – in a way as much as we all do in moments where we’re sure of ourselves – but certainly as to what direction I wanted to go in and what kind of record I wanted to make, I was very sure of that.” WHO: Bertie Blackman WHAT: Pope Innocent X (Mercury/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 2 December, Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas, South Beach Reserve, St Kilda; Saturday 8, Sidney Myer Music Bowl
EVIL RISING One-time leader of now-defunct Brisbane institution Butterfingers, ‘Evil Eddie’ Jacobson has taken nearly three years to deliver his debut solo album. Matt O’Neill gets the story behind Welcome to Flavour Country. here’s perhaps more to ‘Evil Eddie’ Jacobson than one would expect. As leader and mouthpiece for Brisbane hip hop crew Butterfingers, Jacobson’s long since been associated with filth and frivolity. For most of the last decade, his reputation and creative output was tied almost exclusively to a band defined through offcolour humour and a willfully brash mix of hip hop, rock and ska.
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That party-friendly aesthetic obscures some rather impressive realities about the MC. Namely, he’s a hell of a musician. Not so much in regards to technical ability (though he’s obviously more than sound) as sheer artistry and ambition. The majority of Butterfingers‘ output can be laid at Jacobson’s feet while, for his new solo album Welcome to Flavour Country, he actually attempted to write, play, record and mix the entire record solo. “Well, I didn’t get as close as I liked with that,” Jacobson laughs. “I can’t play drums, and there’s a lot of live drums on there, and I can’t play horns, so I didn’t play the horn parts – but, I mean, I wrote them all. I wanted to mix it all myself but I’m just learning to do that. I feel like I’ve got a grasp on it and I’m happy with what mixing I did but, to get it out on time, I had to get help on a couple of tracks – because, yeah, it’s a learning curve for me.”
but that doesn’t actually bother me that much,” he reflects. “The people who I respect, generally speaking, can see the work that goes into my music. I feel I’m more misrepresented as a person, really. People who like my music meet me and think I’m going to be this loudmouth. “And, really, I’m not like that at all. I’m actually a fairly mellow sort of guy.” WHO: Evil Eddie WHAT: Welcome to Flavour Country (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 30 November, Karova Lounge, Ballarat; Saturday 1 December, Northcote Social Club; Thursday 6, National Hotel, Geelong
In actual fact, Jacobson’s prodigious output is one of the reasons he’s found himself releasing a solo album instead of a third Butterfingers record. Tiring of handling the majority of the band’s songwriting, the MC tried to take the band in a more collaborative direction. When those sessions eventually didn’t work out, he began work on developing a solo career. “Oh, yeah, I mean... It’s hard to put your finger on a single thing, really,” Jacobson counters. “You know, I was going through a real period of writer’s block and was really struggling to come up with new material that I actually enjoyed... And I felt like the burden was on me to make it happen and make it good for the rest of the team, you know? I thought, ‘If I’m doing all this and stressing about it, maybe I should just do it for myself?’ “So, as a band, we decided that the next release was going to be a collaborative effort. We went into practice rooms and started jamming together and working as a band and, really,
There’s more to this story on the iPad that was the first time we’d ever done anything like that,” the MC continues. “You know, we’ve probably got enough music for an album-and-a-half but, I don’t know, as we drifted apart, the songs just never got completed. Life gets in the way, really.” In the years that followed, you could almost see Jacobson running away from that workaholic nature. He would release the occasional single or EP but he’d dart around genres, rarely play shows and generally fly under the radar. His decision to join local hardcore punk mob Spitfireliar as guitarist seems representative of a man grown a little tired of writing and performing music nonstop. “There’s no pressure on me in that band,” the MC smiles. “You know, not being the frontman, I feel like there’s eighty per cent less pressure on me to perform. You don’t have to be the focus of attention. I honestly feel like I’m more of an introvert than an extrovert. Being on stage as a frontman and being the centre of attention is actually really hard for me. “But, obviously, I still love playing music, so Spitfireliar is great for me like that. That’s a place where I can get out all my heavy riffs and keep things separated, so to speak. I mean, deep down inside there’s a heavy metal kid dying to get out of me, and I’ve been friends with all of the guys in the band for years, so, yeah. It’s a good thing to have around.” This could explain why it’s taken Jacobson nearly three years to actually deliver the debut solo record. The multi-instrumentalist began work on the album almost immediately after Butterfingers‘ demise in 2009 (and will freely admit much of its material was originally intended for Butterfingers) and has been releasing singles for the record since 2010. Yet, it’s only just been unleashed. “Yeah, the first single was Queensland and that came out in 2010. The plan was always to roll it out as soon as possible after the first single but, yeah, I don’t know,” Jacobson laughs. “I had that kind of writer’s block thing going on at the end of Butterfingers and I suppose I was still dealing with that. It just took me this long to kind of get a process I could rely on and actually make it happen. “I mean, I reckon for a good three or four years, I’ve had a solid process for my daily routine. You know, I’d write a sixteen bar verse every day, a beat every day. I was still doing that and I’m still doing that,” he clarifies. “But I was looking back on the work and just not liking it and not knowing why. It’s hard to explain but I kind of had to develop a process to make sure the music I was making had everything it needed to make me happy.” In any regard, Welcome to Flavour Country should go some way towards dismissing the myth that Jacobson is some kind of comedy prankster musician. Still colourful and entertaining, Evil Eddie’s debut solo album is also very much a musically accomplished piece of work. Eddie’s rhymes are tightly written, his productions eclectic and idiosyncratic and the songwriting genuinely stronger than ever. “Yeah, I’ve kind of got a mental grasp on how to attack writing a song now, whereas before it was mostly just luck,” the MC laughs. “Most of the Butterfingers stuff was seriously just luck. I’d write something and it would be cool and we’d use it. When that doesn’t just happen though, you have to know how to make it happen. That was really what the process of this record was about, I think. “I don’t know, though. I think a lot of people do just skim the surface of what I do and just see that kind of brash, funny side of things –
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LET’S DANCE Primal Scream have built their career on getting people to lose their inhibitions. Bobby Gillespie explains to Brendan Telford the importance of rhythm in rock. Cover inset pic by Chrissie Francis. randishing metric tons of euphoria and overflowing bravado, Bobby Gillespie and his Primal Scream cohorts have eternally burnt themselves onto the retina of modern rock music; such is the strength of their seminal Screamadelica album of 1991. In a career littered with genre-defining moments, and an unquenchable thirst to find new ways to rock and/or roll, they remain a force to be reckoned with. Now prepping their tenth album, Gillespie remains affable, exuberant and cocky.
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“The album is done, and we’re in the process of working out a release with a record label,” Gillespie explains. “It’s in the hands of the lawyers now. We’re hoping for an Easter release – you know, resurrection and all that.” Such a wry comment isn’t wholly unfounded. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Primal Scream in the past few years – in amongst the seemingly perpetual highs has been the departure of Mani to work with The Stone Roses. This shift has also seen the injection of a female presence in the band, firstly with Debbie Googe (My Bloody Valentine) and now Simone Butler taking up bass duties. Gillespie is quick to assert that Mani’s exit was nothing but amicable, and that the change in line-up hasn’t changed their aesthetic one iota. “I’m not comparing us to James Brown or George Clinton and Funkadelic, but like James and George had different line-ups over the years, their music remained the same, held the same essence throughout; that’s what Primal Scream is. Me and Andrew [Innes, guitar] make the music, and whoever else is involved brings their own take to it, but the way we write, we make people play in a particular style. Losing Mani, that was sad because he’s a great friend and the experiences with him in the band have been amazing – he’s a real character, a great bass player and a fantastic guy – but it hasn’t changed the band at all. Kevin Shields [My Bloody Valentine] plays guitar on [the album], and I guarantee that you won’t see where his parts end and Andrew’s begin.” Armed with the new songs, it’ll be interesting to see how they nestle alongside their various sonic shifts throughout the years. Work on Primal Scream’s forthcoming album commenced almost three years ago and the process brought about unexpected dividends. “We worked with
David Holmes,” Gillespie explains. “Me and Andrew write the songs, and we did two exploratory trips to Belfast to work in David’s studio around 2009, 2010, just to see whether this relationship was going to work or not. I mean, we’ve known him since the ‘90s, we had both played on some of his solo albums, but working with people and them working with you are two completely different ideas. So he would play us these really obscure, abstract pieces of music, and Andrew and I would respond to that, which I tend to think was David’s way of creatively provoking us. And it worked, because we started writing songs because of that.” Holmes’ confrontational style of production helped Gillespie and Innes to push the boundaries of what they saw Primal Scream to be which, for a band continually stretching boundaries, created a unique atmosphere for the pair to open up new avenues to explore. “He is great at developing an atmosphere and mood, and he’ll throw in different samples or loops just to get a reaction. The songs came quickly, the ideas and atmosphere and riffs. He would also listen to things we had written and just go, ‘No, I’ve already heard that. C’mon, we’re making a classic here, guys.’ And his instincts were right – when he pointed to something we did that was strange or differently paced, we knew that that was what we needed to work on. When Andrew and I write, the best songs tend to write themselves, it’s pretty fucking instant. It didn’t happen that way; we went back to our London studio and worked on these songs, adding bits and taking bits away, but out of this mess and confusion came these songs. We’ve been doing this for a long time, so we are confident in what we have created – truth is, we’ve never been happier.” The band’s writing process has never been a conventional one, however, with a heavier focus on how rhythm develops within the framework of a song. “It’s hard talking about the process; we have never been ones to write songs on an acoustic guitar,” Gillespie stresses. “A lot of our writing is rhythm-based, rather than focusing on melody. We love rhythm music like funk or soul, reggae even. We are a rhythmic band, and I think we make music that people can dance to. And I mean that not as in dance music today, but as in rock’n’roll.
Like the origin of music is rhythm and blues, rockabilly – it was dance music for people on a Saturday night, heading into a juke joint and boogie on down.” This idea of rock as dance music is something Gillespie feels is becoming further and further from the norm in the 21st century, and he’s not happy about it. “I think the idea of dancing to rock music has been lost along the way somewhere. When it became labelled as ‘rock’, it ceased to be dance music. You can’t dance to it, and I really think it’s because there is a lack of rhythm guitar. I don’t want to sound like an old git moaning about the state of modern rock music, because there is so much out there that I do like, but I honestly think that the further you get away from the source, the less genuine rock is. The older guys grew up playing blues; no one can play blues anymore, the way Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters played it, because that came out of a culture born in Mississippi, born in the South, born in oppressive times. But the guys from the ‘60s, they try to play it but can’t really because they are of a different culture, so they play rock music. Then another culture comes along, listens to the ‘60s rock, and it becomes heavy metal. All of these types of music are fine in themselves, but eventually it becomes a hand-me-down, which is never as good. Metallica are probably the biggest rock band in the world, and good for them, but you can’t dance to that the way you could to Led Zeppelin, their idols. And then
you can’t dance to Led Zeppelin the way you could to Jerry Lee Lewis or Gene Vincent or Elvis, who were their idols… Your culture and what you’re exposed to affects the way you play, and we are getting further and further from that rhythm, that rock music that you can dance to.” Nevertheless, it’s clear that Gillespie will always attempt to rectify that – even if it means being the last bastion, the last island in the sea – and will always endeavour to create and spread the love. Many of these new creative outlets will get their first airing when Primal Scream touch down in Australia. Nonetheless, there’s more to look forward to than rock/dance shows. “I can’t fucking wait,” Gillespie enthuses. “We are ready to play these songs, with this band. I honestly believe that this album is up there with our best. Plus it’s two weeks in the sunshine. Here right now it’s a typical sunny London winter day – it’s ashen grey. We’re a depressing and depressed country – can you believe we won the Second World War?” WHO: Primal Scream WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, Palace; Saturday 8, Meredith Music Festival, Supernatural Amphitheatre
TWO LANE BLACKTOP Melbourne singer-songwriter Jordie Lane tells Danielle O’Donohue the bright lights of Nashville might be just a little too bright. t first glance Jordie Lane seems like a Nashville kind of guy. His music is laced with a rich alternative-country seam and many of his musical heroes have passed through that notorious US city on their way to stardom. But if Lane has a spiritual home in the US it isn’t the glittering country musical capital; it’s somewhere a hell of a lot more peaceful. “I think LA is,” he admits. “Actually, scrub that, it’s Joshua Tree. It’s just so simple and peaceful even though most of it is just on the edge of the highway and it looks like a dirty highway on the way to Vegas. You go out into the park and it’s the only time that I can start to wind down and get into a real relaxed state and a more connected state. It sounds cheesy but more connected with myself and the universe.”
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Joshua Tree is a national park about two hours from east of LA. It was at Joshua Tree that Lane found the inspiration to begin work on his second album, last year’s acclaimed Blood Thinner, and once again Joshua Tree has worked its magic on Lane to provide impetus for album number three. In the early stages of recording the new album, he’s released a new single, Fool For Love, that’s bringing him home for an East Coast tour. “Nashville just felt like big, car-guzzling highways. I just haven’t spent as much time there, I guess. It feels like a better place to go for just little bursts. “It is very industry. There’s a lot of pop, hip hop and garage rock because Jack White is based there. That’s bringing a whole bunch of that scene with it. East Nashville is one of the trendiest neighbourhoods I’ve seen in America. Even on top of like Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s kind of like a rebellion against the westside, showbiz, glitter, country showbiz Hall Of Fame. “I feel like it’s competitive in Nashville. I don’t feel like Los Angeles is like that. I mean it is, but I don’t think with music. LA’s more based around the film industry so I kind of feel like I’m on the outskirts of that and I can just look in and observe and do my thing. Where I’ve been living in LA is on the outskirts of town so it’s like living in the hills. It’s really nice.”
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Despite the grievances a lot of visitors to LA have with the place, Lane is definitely a fan. “I just love that it’s a city built on hopes and dreams and anything is possible but then the reality is that three quarters of the people there are either not in the film industry and are just working their day job anyway and then the rest of the people have been trying for so long and they’re still trying despite the fact that maybe it’s not going to work out for them. I love that because people are so open minded. Some people can’t stand the fact that they think it might be fake and that people are just being nice on the surface. I guess because I still feel like I’m looking from the outside in that I just love it all. “When I travelled through Europe, if I didn’t reach out to people not a single person would reach out to me in a day and that can be scary and tiring. Whereas in America you just have so many strange experiences because people are just so friendly or very forthcoming with their feelings: ‘Oh you’re from Down Under? That’s amazing’. So many people who haven’t travelled, which is most of the people over there, think it’s amazing that you’ve come all this way. You do feel like this little special visiting animal at the zoo and I guess the trick for me is to not feel like I’m locked in that metaphorical cage. It’s nearly two years that I’ve been living out of a suitcase.” These days Lane spends just as much time in America as he does in Australia and the Melbourne singer/ songwriter says he is beginning to feelvery much like the wandering minstrel. “I’ve really missed Melbourne. I did a tour with Lanie Lane around the country and flew out of Sydney to Nashville and Canada and did all of that and flew back through Sydney straight to Hobart and started the Billy Bragg tour. So the last three months or so I didn’t step foot in Melbourne. So when I had the one day with Billy Bragg in Melbourne and the one day to stay with my folks, I got really homesick… But it’s the first time I’ve felt like that in five years.” Not that the singer is complaining. He has, after all, just spent a fortnight on the road with a UK songwriting legend. “I knew it would be good,” he gleams. “I’d heard around the traps that he was a good guy. Billy
was like really down to earth. On the first day from across the big hall he’s like, ‘Hey you there, support act, come over here’,” Lane says, putting on a pretty impressive thick English working-class accent. “He’s like, ‘I really respect what you do. And that’s why I’ve got you on the tour. We’re going to have fun. I heard The Moody Blues only gave you 12-minutes on stage. That’s okay. What do ya’ say guys? We’ll give him ten.’ They were just smart arses from the start. They were really generous, the whole crew. They were very good at their jobs. He just went out there every night and just smashed it.”
I hear this other guitar and he walks out and he’s like, ‘A’righ? Sing it.’ And we very quickly worked out harmonies and arrangements and sung it in the bathroom a millon times. He wanted it to be perfect. And we did it every night for the next six shows.
Bragg was right. Lane did have a lot of fun. It didn’t hurt that Bragg was happy to not only get Lane out on stage to sing with him during his set, but Bragg also popped up at the mic for a song during Lane’s set at the last show in Perth.
And so it seems Lane might be missing Melbourne for a little while longer...
“He heard that I’d done the Gram Parsons play and we were just talking backstage and he said, ‘We should do that song Sin City.’ Then I was doing my soundcheck at the second show and
“Then on the final night I’m doing a song called Reason To Believe by Tim Harden. Billy talked about how he got to sing that song and Sin City with Emmylou Harris and Joan Baez, and he came out and did Reason To Believe during my support set. He gave me a hug at the end and he was like, “When are you coming to England?”
WHO: Jordie Lane WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 29, Friday 30 November and Sunday 2 December, Northcote Social Club; Saturday 1 December, Baby Black Café, Bacchus Marsh
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PAST LIVES US rockers Hot Snakes are back after a lengthy hiatus, and guitarist John “Speedo” Reis talks to Steve Bell about life getting in the way of rock’n’roll dreams and how to keep the full family happy. t took US post-hardcore garage proponents Hot Snakes six years after they broke up to get the band back together, which was roughly the same amount of time that they’d spent together in their original tenure. They sure didn’t muck around between 1999 and 2005 though, releasing three acclaimed studio albums plus a live album (2006’s Thunder Down Under, essentially a triple j live session recorded during their till now sole Australian jaunt, back in 2005) and one of the last Peel Sessions recordings.
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Hot Snakes were the third band to have coalesced around the creative partnership of guitarists John “Speedo” Reis and Rick Froberg – they’d previously shared revered outfits Pitchfork (1986-1990) and Drive Like Jehu (1990-1995) – and like those previous acts the band dealt in face-melting rock’n’roll, innovative but predominantly powerful. When Hot Snakes split asunder the pair quickly moved on to new pastures, Froberg firing up Obits in 2006 and Reis starting The Night Marchers in 2007 (incidentally containing Hot Snakes bassist Gar Wood and their original drummer Jason Kourkounis). When those bands toured together in the States in 2010 the seeds for a Hot Snakes reunion were planted. “I don’t know if it was the impetus – it could have been,” Reis muses of the reunion’s genesis. “This was some time back when both bands played together. We did a West Coast tour together and at the end of the tour we did a couple of Hot Snakes songs just because it would be fun and fairly easy, and it would make people happy and make us happy. It was just something that seemed like a fun thing to do, and pretty innocent, but after that we got an offer to do something more substantial about a year and a half later and we thought, ‘Yeah, that might be a fun thing to do!’” Some break-ups are so acrimonious that you could never imagine the protagonists sharing a stage again, but in the case of Hot Snakes the split was more due to logistics (the band all living in different states and cities) and, in the case of Reis, wanting to embrace a normal life for a change (in 2005, the same year that he split up Hot Snakes, he also pulled the pin on his long-serving outfit Rocket From The Crypt).
“For me logistics definitely had something to do with it because it was a bit frustrating, just not being able to be together as much as we’d like,” he admits. “But even more than that, I’d been playing in bands for a long while and I tend to immerse myself in things, and I was looking to have a kid and was bracing myself for a transition in life that I didn’t really know exactly what it entailed – this mysterious terrain that I was going to enter. So I didn’t really know how much I’d be able to really commit [to], or even think about, playing. So, for me – just as much as I commit myself mentally and sometimes physically to what I do music-wise – I needed to give that part of my life the same amount of attention. So that’s kind of what it was for me, more like I was just going through some changes in my life.” Speedo had, after all, been on the road pretty unrelentingly for a long time when he made the decision, but he’s happy with his lot in life now. “Most of the time I wasn’t gone all that much, but there was a period of time – especially with Rocket – where I was definitely gone more than I was here. There was a period of like three years between ’95 and ’98 when I was only home for three months out of that entire time. But it’s all good now, definitely. It’s not only a great balance, but it’s not really like world domination is in my sights, so I look at things a bit more realistically and have a lot of fun with what I’m doing.” Once the decision was made to reform Hot Snakes – they played ATP and some other US festivals last year – Reis says that the chemistry returned almost immediately. “It definitely didn’t seem like we were that far removed from it. Musically I definitely didn’t feel that far removed from it – I didn’t feel like I was playing songs that were from a different era of my life, it still seemed musically really fresh and relevant to me. And although we did our fair share of playing around the States and whatnot back in the day, the songs still had a freshness to me, and I definitely didn’t feel like I’d outgrown it or anything like that. It still felt not only fun to play, but the music felt alive.” Sometimes when a band has had line-up changes during their original time together it can be tough
to work out which version of the band to reform, but Hot Snakes – who had two drummers over the duration, RFTC skinsman Mario Rubalcaba replacing Kourkounis when the latter fell ill in 2003 – are just bringing everyone. “Well it was kind of strange, because when we were asked to start playing again it was one of those things where it was hard to say, ‘Well we’re just going to bring one person and not the other.’ The terms on which we stopped playing with Jason were a bit of a bummer, and then with Mario he was the last drummer of the band so it made sense to play with him as well, so the first thing was just to see if both of them were interested, and after they both expressed that they did want to play we had to work out a way to make it happen, so it’s just a matter of us saying, ‘Why don’t you play the ones that you played on, and you do the ones that you recorded?’ It not only works really good, but it respects the music that was already created. We don’t always play with both drummers when we get together because of scheduling, but the times
when all five of us can get together and play it’s really cool, it’s really awesome. It feels like we’re honouring those songs by trying to recreate them in the same manner that they were made.” And with Reis about to release a second album by The Night Marchers (plus a cryptic message on Swami Records’ Facebook page being posted about RFTC being reactivated in 2013) he can’t see any new Hot Snakes music on the horizon. “I don’t think so, but we’ll see,” he suggests. “There’s still that distance between us that makes it hard for us to collaborate and create something new. But that said, who knows? There’s definitely no plans to do anything and I don’t see it happening, but then again I never saw us getting back together and playing shows either.” WHO: Hot Snakes WHEN & WHERE: Friday 7 December, Corner; Saturday 8, Meredith Music Festival
SKA COATED FURY Thought ska was a passing fad? Well, someone forgot to tell Reel Big Fish, who are now in the strongest position of a long and illustrious career. Mark Hebblewhite sat down with Dan Regan to discuss the beauty of independence and riding the crests and waves of the fickle tastes of the music-buying public. e decided to ‘go independent’, as it were, because we had no choice,” explains Dan Regan. “In 2005 we got dropped from Jive records. But instead of moping, we hit the ground running and started doing everything ourselves. We were in a good position to do this because we had already been mailing out tapes to fans and promoting ourselves since the early ‘90s. But now with social media and all the other tools available to bands, it’s so easy to do it by ourselves. So as it turns out, being independent has really suited us and the music we play.
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“Besides, I hate to say it but the record company model that bands of the past used is dead,” continues Regan. “Everyone is scrambling to figure out what to do these days. Labels now expect new bands to have done a lot of the work they would have done themselves in the past. And I get why. There’s less and less money to be made from selling records and labels don’t want to take a chance on completely unknown bands. They want at least some guarantee that a band will sell. It sort of sucks for all the new bands coming up, but on the other hand bands now have the freedom to do things the way they want. I mean, we make our money through concert sales, merch – things we have control over. For new bands, it’s getting to that level where you can make enough to live that’s the problem. It took us a long time to build things up – and we’re still not swimming in cash. The road is now that much harder for a new band try to make a career out of their music.” Taking on the responsibility of complete independence hasn’t hurt the band’s creative impulses. This year’s Candy Coated Fury is the best Reel Big Fish album in years, something Regan himself is quick to confirm. “All of us – including Aaron (Barrett) who writes all the songs – are really happy with the songs on this record. Not only does the whole thing sound great, but it’s also the record where we felt that we had the
30 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews
most control over everything and how it turned out. We’ve done some great records in the past – and all of them have their place – but this one is special simply because we didn’t make any compromises and had complete freedom in every step of the process.” Despite enjoying periods of mainstream attention for their infectious brand of ska-infused good time punk, Reel Big Fish have always considered themselves an underground band. So Regan is philosophical when it comes to the phenomenon of the ‘casual fan’. “We’re pretty cynical guys, and we saw the same thing that eventually happened to us happen to a lot of other Southern Californian bands. Ska music is pretty unique in that it attracts young people, so every couple of years we have this crop of 13-17 year-old kids getting into the band. Good knows where they get it from – siblings, school – who knows. We’re sort of like a ‘marajuana band’ – a gateway drug if you will to ska and punk music. So of course we don’t keep all these fans – some of them go off and listen to terrible music after us (laughs). This has been happening to us since the early ‘90s – and of course you don’t keep all the fans that you attract at one point in time. But what’s great about these ebbs and flows as it were, is that they build and build because at least some of these casual fans in each wave become lifers.” “But after saying all that I still think we’re an underground band at heart,” continues Regan. “What I mean is that we’re part of a long tradition of punk rock and ska that music critics hate, that parents hate, that all these people hate, but we don’t care. We’ve never gone out to try and ‘crack the charts’ – I mean these days there’s not even much point in doing so. For us, it’s about the integrity of the music and making sure that the kids who support us are getting our support right back.” These claims may sound a little strange for a band that has made being goofy and playing off
the wall cover songs (Take On Me anyone?) an art form. But according to Regan, having fun and integrity are not mutually exclusive concepts. “Ska and punk rock both have an absolute joy to them – both to play and to listen to, but both are also very subversive at their heart,” he explains. “Both styles are steeped in the politics of class, and in the case of ska the politics of race. I was too young to hear the original Jamaican ska music when I was growing up but I did get to hear Madness and The Specials. What really appealed to me was the ethics of the movement – racial equality, an uncompromising sound and, of course, a real working class ethos. It was a perfect fit for the early punk movement, which embraced ska in England, just as we did a decade later in Southern California. Ska bands, punk bands and bands that mixed the two built the Southern Californian scene – and it was a struggle. So, just because we have fun and
goof around doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten our roots and the ethos behind the music we play.” And as far as the upcoming Australian Tour is concerned, what can Reel Big Fish fans expect? “We’ve been touring pretty much straight for the last 20 years,” laughs Regan, “so I can promise you that we are tighter now than at any time in the band’s history. We’re coming over with Goldfinger and Zebrahead – who are old friends of ours – so you’re all going to get some real bang for your buck. I never overpromise about these things – all I like to say is that when you come and see us you get a fun show performed by guys who live for this stuff. You’ll walk away smiling – I guarantee it.” WHO: Reel Big Fish WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 2 December, The Palace
TASTE TEST: ADAM SPARK THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY
teenage kid and I got really stoned with my friends beforehand – had a purple, collared Billy Corgan type of shirt because I was a massive fan. Yeah, I was so stoned that I didn’t remember most of it, but I remember every time Billy was bathed in red light it felt like there was this demon staring down on us. It was really fucking freaky but awesome.
THE ALBUM I’M LOVING RIGHT NOW
THE WEIRDEST GIG EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD
It was a cassette of Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. I was a little kid in a poor neighbourhood so I kind of identified with them as a skinny little red-headed white kid growing up in WA. That was in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. The one I’ve been blasting at the moment is the new Godspeed! You Black Emperor record. I’ve loved this band for a long time and I know they just put out the single, so they’re about to put this album out. It’s just so gothy and post-rock and doomy. There’s these 20-minute drones and all this. It’s just the density and the texture. It’s my little soundtrack to my solitary lounge room at the moment, which is a bit depressing but I love it.
MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM Whenever I’m at a party or someone lets me have control of the player or whatever I always go for Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. That’s about as happy as I get. I’ve always seen myself as never quite cool enough to be taking the reins and controlling the vibe at a party. I’m the kind of guy who’ll turn up and put on My Bloody Valentine and bring everybody down while I’m thinking it’s the greatest thing in the world. I’m not a DJ.
MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM
It’s hard to go past Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. It’s got a little bit of The Velvet Underground-y mournfulness to it. It’s this really haunting, acoustic, droney type of thing. I found it later in life – only eight years ago or something – but it’s always been a killer for me.
THE MOST SURPRISING RECORD IN MY COLLECTION I’ve got this record by Lady Antebellum. I think I got it from my record label and I’d never listened to it until the other day. It’s proper country, pretty slick. I’d seen it sitting there for a little while and I’d never really quite known what it is. Now I know – it’s not really my bag.
THE FIRST GIG I ATTENDED I went to see The Smashing Pumpkins in 1996 when they had Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness out and it was the tour for that album. I was a
We were working on our record in LA this year and we got invited to this gig at a bookstore. We got there and there’s all these people drinking coffee and egg-nog and shit like that and there was this ten- or 12-piece drum and brass band who were just walking around the bookstore just screaming at the top of their lungs. It was so bohemian and arthouse and yeah, borderline bullshit but also fucking awesome. I was walking around drinking a can of Coke looking at books on the shelves and there’s three dudes with drums standing behind you just belting their drums playing this really syncopated marching band stuff. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was really quite bizarre.
MY BIGGEST NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCES It’d have to be all the other great artforms in my world: books, art and films. I’m a huge film nut – I’ll watch anything. Same with books. I’m always fascinated at the lifestyles of artists in different faculties and the lengths that great artists have gone to for their work, or great filmmakers or photographers or painters. I probably get as much out of that, if not more, than musical influence.
THE COOLEST PERSON I’VE MET Warren Ellis. We did the Big Day Out a few years ago and Grinderman were on there, and I finally built up the courage to go up there and talk to him. He was really, really nice: Just a really sweet, ocker, cool, relaxed-as-fuck dude. I got to speak to him about film soundtracks – he did The Proposition and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and stuff. So that was my huge fan boy moment. I just think he’s the most stylish dude in the world as well. Let’s face it, we all get older and we’re all gonna go bald and have grey hair and all this shit – he’s the epitome of staying stylish until you’re pretty much dead. You can’t get cooler than that.
THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH I’VE HAD
IF I WASN’T MAKING MUSIC
Daniel Day-Lewis. I’ve kind of loved him since My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father and even through the modern stuff like Gangs Of New York and There Will Be Blood. The things I would do for that man. He just fascinates me. You always have your hand in your fist going, “Yes! You’re a fucking bad arse.”
I’d probably either still be doing psychology or I’d be an architect. They were both things I started studying but gave up at various points. Maybe I’d be an architect first. I gave up on psychology only because I didn’t agree with the format of university – I actually really liked studying.
IF I COULD HANG OUT IN ANY TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY
Interview by Chris Hayden
Game Of Thrones has been ruling our world for the last few years and I’m probably way off the mark with the actual years but I’d have to go back to that old gothic, mythic feudal type of life where you can just eat meat off the bone and hide from dragons. Maybe pre-lute, maybe postlute. I don’t know. Wherever dragons would be, that would be badass. If I could ride a dragon – I’d go to that time.
WHO: Birds Of Tokyo WHAT: This Fire EP (EMI) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 5 December, Ormond Hall
live in concert, playing songs from Fisherman’s Blues, including The Whole Of The Moon, This Is the Sea, An Appointment with Mr Yeats and all their very best
the waterboys on their first australian tour
wedneday 30th january hamer hall tickets on sale this fri 30th nov from artscentremelbourne.com.au or ticketmaster.com.au 136 100
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COMING UP GOLDEN
PARTY RESURRECTION
Nikko are back with the vinyl release of their second album. Ryan Potter tells Brendan Telford about drunken nude photo shoots.
Gay Paris doesn’t do anything by halves. Wildman Luke “Wailin’ H” Monks explains to Brendan Telford the method in the madness.
urveyors of apocryphal gothic Australiana, Nikko have had a tumultuous year. Kick-started with a short-lived sojourn to Melbourne, the quartet (sans bassist Sam Whiting, who still lives there) winged their way back to Brisbane. The separation hasn’t stopped them releasing their overtly ambitious second album Gold & Red, and it’s a triumphant testament to their growth in stature and prowess. The record feels like a massive progression from 2010’s debut release The Warm Side, with much more emphasis on the structure and atmosphere that they are able to generate.
ydney reprobates Gay Paris are a force to be reckoned with. The quartet wallow in the muck of their swampy blues-rock, gleefully pulling everyone within groping distance into the mire with them. Their exuberant live presence is something to be seen to be believed, and singer Luke ‘Wailin’ H’ Monks is ready to show it to everyone.
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“The record is basically a collection of songs we were writing since 2010; there wasn’t any particular focus or shift in mind,” guitarist/vocalist Ryan Potter muses. “We made it in May 2011 over five days at the Old Museum with Cam Smith (Tiny Spiders, Tape/Off). The venue allowed for a natural, big sound and we recorded it all live, only adding vocals and strings at Cam’s studio over the next few months. We handed the tracks over to Aaron Cupples [The Drones, Dan Kelly, Snowman] and he took things into a different direction, which we’re really happy with.” While Cupples may have boosted their sound even further, the tracks on Gold & Red are indicative of a constant evolution of the Nikko sound since their inception seven years ago. They have taken their initial post-rock leanings and infused it with a haunting melodicism, coupled with Potter’s antiquated lyrics and baritone, creating a unique soundscape that stands apart. “It’s taken time, but I think we know how to go about things differently [and] more subtly,” Potter states. “We have worked hard at our writing so that instead of sounding as brutal as we can be, the dynamics of the band have become more important, working on subtleties and changes in time. There is more form in these songs; while a focus for the album as a whole wasn’t apparent for a while, there was a focus on what each song could be – what we could do with it. There wasn’t any one thing in particular that we
changed or that we felt needed changing, more so that everyone knows what to do to a Nikko song. When I bring a song to the band, we all sync in together.” The launch is for the red and gold double-vinyl issue of Gold & Red, which is an achievement in itself, and Potter is quick to assert that it is the medium that all music should be presented on. “We are selling more vinyl than we are CDs, and it makes sense. I think the vinyl of the album sounds better, and the whole nature of it makes people appreciate the music more. I hate seeing people with their iPods in or walking their dogs, almost getting run over because they can’t hear anything. It’s not how music is meant to be listened to.” However, it was the way in which it was presented to the wide world – guitarist Jackson Briggs holding the vinyl over his nether parts wearing nothing but a world-weary stare – that had tongues wagging and Potter wryly shaking his head. “Sam wanted photos taken of the vinyl to put up for our pre-order sales,” Potter says. “He asked Jackson to look after it. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing there was quite a lot of drinking involved. There were a lot of photos too; they must have sat there for a while.” WHO: Nikko WHAT: Gold & Red (Tenzenmen) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 29 November, Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine; Friday 30, Public Bar; Saturday 1 December, Reverence Hotel
FROM THE INSIDE Drawing inspiration from a journey around the world, Saritah has created a truly international album in Dig Deep, Michael Smith discovers.
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Among those locations was a caravan in Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, a beach shack in Mozambique, a waterfall in Bali and five weeks with a shaman in South Korea. “It has the intention of calling on the spirit world,” Saritah explains of the shamanic experience, “so it’s a whole other level of singing. The time I spent with those shamans really opened up my voice. I can sing in different ways that I couldn’t before… It’s kind of hard to explain but as well as it working on other levels than ‘I’m going to sing now’ – it’s so much more than that – they had some exercises they gave me that really are effective; I really notice the difference. I can’t remember exactly how they phrased it, but it’s not just what you sing out but it’s also what you sing within yourself at the same time that matters – the quality of the sound. So it was something totally new and really profound.” Not that you’ll hear anything remotely as brutal as Korean shamanic vocalising on Dig Deep, a vibrant collection of songs that draws on all Saritah’s favourite genres – roots reggae, dancehall, Afrobeat and soul – recorded in a studio in the hills of Montecito, California. “I have a manager who’s based in Santa Cruz in California, so when we were putting together the vision for the album, everything just pointed there. He just had really good connections with the studio and musicians and producer, so he just made it all happen.”
32 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews
New album The Last Good Party is on the horizon. Rather than a harbinger of terrible times to come, preceding single The Demarcation Of Joseph Hollybone is emblematic of the good times Gay Paris brandish – both in and out of the bedroom. “Those tracks are likely to make you party until your trousers fall off, and you’re on top of someone or they’re on top of you,” Monks espouses. “Part of the song gives off that ‘fuck me’ vibe, the other half – I’d like to say it makes you want to jump on a horse and wear tight trousers, the other guys are likely to get on their motorcycles and smoke cigars. It’s the crossing of erotic bedroom ballads that have nothing to do with ballads, with highway stoners staying up all night. I don’t know if the word ‘fucky’ is a thing or not, but it is definitely fucky.” The Demarcation Of Joseph Hollybone has the title befitting a ballad, and the album is awash of the backstory of the titular stranger that Monks explains is intrinsically linked to debut record The Skeleton’s Problematic Granddaughter’s villainous character. “Our last record was a concept record, and it featured
the dastardly devil Future Wolf. I’m not saying anthropomorphism is dead in the animal kingdom, but I wanted to put a human suit on that wolf, his name is Joseph Hollybone, and he is the reversal. “These two albums stand alone, but to me they are an epic, like Paradise Lost and Paradise Gained. Although there are terrible consequences throughout, this is Future Wolf’s redemption, even if he is still the worst person I’ve ever encountered. He’s the best of the bunch on this record, and he reigns in a story about drinking, sex and dancing, because that’s what everyone wants to hear about.” The Last Good Party was funded by growing fundraising website Pozible, where their goal of $3000 was easily reached thanks to a rabid fanbase willing to be a part of Gay Paris history. Well, that and the prizes on offer, such as doing people’s assignments and re-enacting the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally in a McDonalds. “I’m clearly fluent in English, but the word doesn’t exist for the emotion I felt when we reached our target, then pretty much doubled it,” Monks states. “I can’t say it was humbling because I lost the ability to feel that a long time ago, but it was definitely fucking touching. I don’t want to get on my high Pegasus, yet the 150 or so who contributed shows how dedicated they are to the cause. So it makes sense that we give a little back – and if that means debasing ourselves for them, well, who are we to argue?” WHO: Gay Paris WHEN & WHERE: Friday 30 November, Tote
SUNNY DEPOSITIONS The Ocean Party have whisked off two albums of lackadaisical guitar pop in the space of 12 months. Bassist Snowy Nasdaq drifts away with Brendan Telford.
orn in the South Korean capital Seoul, but growing up in Perth, the now Melbourne-based artist Saritah had already experienced a lot of travel in her young life, but two years ago she decided to take on the world, thanks to an Arts Council grant, the ultimate result of which is her third album, Dig Deep.
“I went on a big round-the-world trip in 2010,” the singer-songwriter explains, on the line from Brisbane airport waiting for a flight home, having spent the previous few days at the Eclipse Festival three hours north-west of Cairns. “And that travel inspired a lot of songs – they were written in some pretty faraway places!”
“We don’t see ourselves as a travelling freak show, because we think that that’s how everyone should be acting, but we are probably beyond the norm,” Monks enthuses. “I don’t know if it’s the same for the other three because they’re goddamn savages, but for me as a man of spiritual power, I see performing as an enthusiastic experience, almost as if something has come into me, and that’s how it’s always been. It takes an incredible amount of energy to give the people what they need, which is salvation. And while we just recorded the best second album ever, you need to be able to touch us and get our scent.”
elbourne five-piece The Ocean Party are making 2012 their own. After releasing The Sun Rolled Off The Hills in February, the band already have their follow up, Social Clubs, in hand. “It’s been pretty full on, that’s for sure,” Snowy Nasdaq concedes. “There’ve been switches within the band because our guitarist Curtis [Wakeling, of Velcro fame] moved over to New York. We had to work out how to tour without the main member of the band, so it’s been real whirlwind for sure.”
M Just as the songs drew inspiration from her travels, the musicians assembled were themselves something of a united nations of music. “The keys player [Seth Theodore] is very much a reggae player, played with a lot of the big-name Jamaican artists that tour through California regularly. The drummer [Abou Diarrasouba] plays a lot of reggae and also Afrobeat – he’s from the Ivory Coast but lives in New York City. The bass player [Luis Garcia] has more of a Latin flavour to his playing – he’s Puerto Rican – and then you’ve got the guitarist [Ryan Kihn], who’s mostly a rock player but can play anything.” All of whom have helped create a beautifully seamless sound built on the music Saritah demoed in her bedroom in Melbourne with her guitar, creating bass lines as well as the arrangements and harmonies. And it’s harmony, of mind and spirit, that is the essence of this album. “Tears Of Joy, the first single, I was so inspired by being out travelling in the world and meeting new people and seeing new places and just feeling so blessed by, really, following that inner voice. Amazing things were happening as I was stepping out of my comfort zone. But then you have other things, like on that same journey I got my whole suitcase stolen. At the time of course I was pretty devastated but that inspired the song Heaven, which has the line, ‘It’s on the inside where the true gold resides/They can never take that away’. That’s a common thread through this whole album.” WHO: Saritah WHAT: Dig Deep (MGM) WHERE & WHEN: Friday 30 November, B.East
Two albums in one year can sometimes be overkill, yet Social Clubs finds the band in a more cohesive form, their take on slacker pop more akin to the sleepy, sunny whimsy that Real Estate harness than their more immediate contemporaries such as Twerps, Dick Diver or Pageants. Nasdaq admits that such a comparison isn’t a mistake. “For one, I think we are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by these bands that we get to go and see every week; to be able to walk down the road and see Dick Diver or Twerps is incredibly inspiring. But on the other hand, it hasn’t been a focus of ours to sound like. On the last tour we spent much of the time driving around listening to Real Estate’s It’s Real, and it’s that more expansive sound that really connected with us as we travelled on the road. There’s something a bit magical about that album and that sound that we didn’t want to re-do, but we wanted to capture the essence of it. It isn’t merely a bouncy album – there is something mystical about it.” Running under a half-hour, Social Clubs doesn’t outstay its welcome. Yet with the three singers and effort put into cohesion, the ten tracks on display are surprisingly layered with an immediacy that isn’t strictly short term. “We are still fond of a lot of the songs from the first album, yet Social Clubs was more of a labour of love,” Nasdaq states. “The first album had to happen because those songs had been building up for a
while. We focused on capturing the live sound more than anything else. With Social Clubs, we wrote the songs just before that first one came out, and within a few months we had it all together and recorded. We explored more, and there are different singers which was the biggest thing for all of us. We had a good set up at the house, we were all unemployed, and so we focused on giving each song room to breathe. It felt like we had the ball rolling for the first time.” But the true lynchpin of The Ocean Party is the band’s insistence to nurture the pop aesthetics inherent within each song. “We have no desire to rock out on record. It’s a conscious effort to continually capture that content, relaxed vibe,” Nasdaq asserts. “We all would rather listen to something that has consistent mood and focuses on songwriting within that. And when we were writing these songs last summer, which was the mood we were in, content and lying around drinking in the sun, somehow we managed to write a bunch of songs at the same time. I think that this album will really hold up for us because it really captures a time in all our lives. There are darker elements to the songs that I think makes it even more interesting and we are fond of having within our sound; it’s the subtleties that make pop endearing. The Go-Betweens had it in spades, but you can’t try too hard to make something nostalgic. Those kinds of things just happen of their own accord.”
WHO: The Ocean Party WHAT: Social Clubs (Sounds Of Melbourne/Birds Love Fighting) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 1 December, Grace Darling Hotel
33
ROLL ON “It bores me a little bit when people say, ‘Oh, no. I only do it for the love of it’.” Bryget Chrisfield discovers Rick Astley would rather work hard for the money.
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WWW.PALACE.COM.AU 34 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews
ittle known fact: Rick Astley first got into music playing drums “in different bands and stuff at school”. He still jumps behind the kit in a band comprising a few mates on the odd occasion. “We just do charity gigs,” he clarifies before goodnaturedly adding, “It’s really a midlife crisis is what it is.” So does he ever hijack the drum stool at his own gigs? “It depends how the show’s going. Very often I’ll throw in a couple of tunes just because I fancy doing it, and if the audience are up for it.”
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Astley is an affable character. He’s also self-aware. “I just sorta think, ‘I’m never doing this when I don’t enjoy it anymore,’ you know?” he explains. “I am bothered about what they pay me. I think that’s a big part of it, to be honest. It makes me feel good to get paid. It makes me feel like I’m worth something, if you know what I mean. Because I still get a nice cheque every six months from the label, which is great, but I don’t do anything for it. It’s weird, that. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it and I’m more than happy to receive it: I think that’s great, because on the one end, you know, I did those tunes and they’re still earning a few bob so, great! But it’s not something I can take a whole heap of pride in, ‘cause I don’t do anything to collect that money, whereas when I go and sing, I think if I’ve really done a good job then I’m worth paying for it. And I don’t shy away from saying that in interviews, because it bores me a little bit when people say, ‘Oh, no. I only do it for the love of it.’ “The thing with money and music has always been an odd one, because most people start because they just love music and they wanna do music and that’s it… I genuinely believe that when you’re in bands when you’re fifteen, seventeen, whatever, you don’t care about the money: you’ll play anywhere for nothing, you’ll play for beers – you’re not bothered… Then once they realise, ‘Wow, I can actually make a living,’ and then they think, ‘Wow, I can actually, like, proper make it.’ “And, to be honest, when you’ve really cracked [the big time], you sorta feel the same. The money’s
immaterial ‘cause you’re making so much of it there’s no point counting it, do you know what I mean?” His official reason for retiring from music in 1993 was to concentrate on raising a family, but Astley is more than happy to discuss other contributing factors. “At the end of the day, and we can’t forget this, it’s show business and I think that’s one of the things that was a nail in the coffin for me. Towards the end, there were a few things I didn’t like about it… It is pretty much bullshit, you know? There’s a massive amount of stuff going on that’s got nothing to do with why you started as a kid in the garage with your friends, do you know what I mean? It’s like, ‘This isn’t about making music.’ And listen, I don’t mean to sound like I’m moanin’, I loved what I did, I really enjoyed it, I’m ever so grateful for it. I feel more appreciative of it now than I did when it was happening because, as a kid, when you’re in the middle of the storm of it all, you don’t know what’s happening and people just keep giving you champagne and things and you just keep going, ‘Yeah, groovy.’” The decision to give it all up did not come easily for Astley “‘cause it’s really seductive... It’s nice having black cars pick you up all the time. Even though you take it for granted, it’s your stamp of approval. It’s like, ‘Oh, we need to look after you. You’re somebody.’ And even though that’s absolute bullshit, it doesn’t feel like that. There’s something about it that is a bit of a trap, I think.” WHO: Rick Astley WHEN & WHERE: Friday 30 November, Palace; Saturday 1 December, Chelsea Heights Hotel
STILL SO PRETTY One of the most influential British bands of the 1960s to never really have a hit, The Pretty Things are finally coming to town. Michael Smith talks to original member Dick Taylor. hile The Beatles took British pop to the top of the US charts in the ‘60s, and The Rolling Stones reintroduced Americans to the blues, it was a band called The Pretty Things whose uncompromising stance eventually spawned a whole other stream – garage rock – that inspired everyone from Iggy & The Stooges and The MC5 in the US; The Purple Hearts, The Wild Cherries and The Missing Links here in Australia; right through to the Sex Pistols in the UK. David Bowie covered two Pretty Things songs on his Pin-Ups album, and the band can fairly claim to have recorded the very first, and most credible, concept album, 1967’s SF Sorrow. Not bad for a group formed by a guy who actually walked out on the chance of being a Rolling Stone back in 1962 because they were getting too commercial. So here’s another UK rock institution celebrating its 50th anniversary.
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“Obviously, it’s Phil [May, singer and harmonica player] and myself who are the originals in it,” that guitarist, Dick Taylor explains, on the line from his unseasonably rainy home on the Isle Of Wight, “and I’m really delighted to still be doing it because I can’t think of anything that is more fun to do,” he laughs. And with lead guitarist Frank Holland, bass player George Perez and drummer Jack Greenwood filling out the line-up, The Pretty Things are still recording, their last studio album being 2007’s Balboa Island, and a live record more recently they’re releasing on vinyl. “What we did was we went to the 100 Club in London,” Taylor explains about that live album, “which is where we first had a residency, in 1964, and we played our first [self-titled] album live and used as near as we could original equipment and what have you and recorded it on analogue two-inch tape, so we had to stop halfway though,” he chuckles, “while they changed the reel. Then we’re talking about a new studio album. We’ve done some recording with our current rhythm section who’ve been with us four
or five years now and it’s very easy recording with them somehow – they’re a very lively pair of lads because they’re both, what, 22 now, which is great.” As to their influence on so many bands then and later, (their first three singles, Rosalyn, Don’t Bring Me Down and Honey I Need are all garage rock gems) obviously had no idea of their impact across the pond in the US. “That garage thing in the States, we didn’t know we were actually influencing them. We thought, ‘Oh yeah, there’s some interesting stuff coming out from America.’ It was only later we found out that we were kind of one of the favourite influences of people like The MC5 and The Sonics and those type of people.” While they may have begun as a defiantly purist blues/old school R&B band, The Pretty Things’ sound, as did the sound of so many bands at the time, evolved very quickly into something much more original. “Yes, I think so,” Taylor agrees, “although when we play the SF Sorrow stuff, you actually start realising that it does all kind of tie together pretty well. I mean you can try and do different things but you’re the same player inside. Certainly for me, I can only play the way I play, and you know, it all kind of fits together more than maybe you or we realised at the time.” WHO: The Pretty Things WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 4 December, Corner Hotel; Thursday 13 and Friday 14, Caravan Club
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35
SHARING THE FUN It’s all about connecting for UK party starters Will & The People, so expect plenty of audience participation, Michael Smith discovers from Will Rendle. e kind of try and have fun with it, and just make as much different types of music as we could.” Will Rendle, Brighton, UK born and raised, is somewhere in darkest country Norfolk taking time out for a week before returning to an increasingly hectic touring schedule he and his band, Will & The People, have been immersed in these past 18 months. The plan is to chat about their new album, Friends, and their second tour of Australia this year – they were here in February/March. The only problem is he’s discovered Norfolk has shit mobile coverage and keeps dropping out. He presses on regardless...
As Over-Reactor prepare to hit the festival circuit, Mark Hebblewhite catches up with the band’s Ezekiel Ox to talk disconnected politicians, death hop and having a laugh.
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“The songs were there and we just kind of threw as many things at them as we could – and it came out like that. The dynamics really stem from the live shows. It’s so much more fun when you see a live show which takes you up and down, so we tried to capture that on record somehow.”
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on the iPad
Though he’s been working with various line-ups of Will & The People for some four years, the band that came to Australia earlier this year only really came together just before they played last year’s Glastonbury and weren’t featured on debut, Morning Sun. “This is our debut album really,” Rendle agrees, “as far as this band’s concerned. It’s the first record I’ve ever made with a group of people where we lived together and we ate, breathed and jammed every day and made music together, and this record is the result of that. “This album and probably the majority of the next as well is the result of the last five years that I’ve spent writing songs, and in fact us coming together is really an issue based around those tunes and us writing together is something that’s started as a result of us living together. There are a lot of songs
36 • For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews
IN THE GHETTO
in there that still haven’t been recorded that I’ve written, which we can have a lot of fun arranging.” Over the past 18 months, Will & The People have been hitting the festival circuit hard, playing Secret Garden Party, Beach Break Live and Green Man in the UK, and found themselves particularly lauded by the Dutch, where they found themselves scoring a Top Ten hit in Lion In The Morning Sun, off their first album, leading to sell-out shows in Amsterdam and Utrecht as well as a headline slot at that country’s biggest free festival, Appelpop, before some 40,000 punters. “It’s been really nice to get that success,” Rendle admits, naturally. “D’ya know what? All I’m going to say is that Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers kicked off in Holland before anywhere else. I’m very pleased we started that way. “The fans in the UK have been coming to the shows for the last four years, so it’s really nice for them as well, seeing us get a bit bigger. We’re all in it together really. Hence we’re Will and The People. The initial inspiration was about being in a room and music bringing people together. We’ve got this ethos at the moment, people have just been jumping on stage when we start playing Lion In The Morning Sun, and we’ve got into a bit of trouble for it but I absolutely love it, that energy when there’s no gap between the stage and the audience. I feel a lot of our fans feel like they can just get up on stage and steal our hats and shit!” WHO: Will & The People WHAT: Friends (Baggy Trouser Music/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 1 December, Workers Club
he tag ‘death hop’ was actually a description a fan gave our music – we liked it and took it on as our genre,” explains Over-Reactor’s vocalist Ezekiel Ox. “As to what ‘death hop’ actually is, I would say that conceptually it’s like nu-metal – even though we don’t sound anything like that genre and even though I am a child of the ‘90s who formed his musical opinions during that era. What I mean by that is that nu-metal saw artists blending diverse genres like hip hop and metal together to make something new. We’re doing the same sort of thing except in our case it’s the aggression and political stance of hardcore mixed with electronica. We’re experimenting with sounds, we’re experimenting with forms and we have those political roots you find in a genre like hardcore.”
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Ox is just as passionate about politics as he is about music. Describing his views as ‘radical’, he freely admits that Over-Reactor’s music has a very clear and defined political edge, as can be heard on their album Mouth Of The Ghetto. “The title for the latest album comes from the lyrics, but it works well in describing what we do,” says Ox. “In a sense we are the voice of the ghetto. We are making music for people grinding it out and working hard. The ghetto – in my opinion – is expanding; things are getting more expensive, people are feeling more pressure to hang onto their houses and pay the everyday bills they need to pay in order to survive. There really is a growing sense among a larger swathe of the community that they are slipping and our music is a vitriolic response to that feeling. It’s us saying we see what’s going on, we know what’s going on and hopefully we can add some dialogue from the perspective of those who are oppressed.” It’s not just economic justice that sets Ox’s heart racing. He also feels a keen commitment to a number of progressive social causes. “The federal politicians who just voted against marriage equality should be ashamed of themselves. If you can’t take a stand for civil rights – that every human being should have the same right to pursue the same
things that other human beings can – then you are seriously disconnected to what’s important in life.” Just because Over-Reactor are politically passionate doesn’t mean they are po-faced, self-righteous ideologues. These guys like a laugh and never take themselves too seriously. “Oscar Wilde said it best – if you want to tell the truth, make it funny, or they’ll kill you,” says Ox. “We’re very aware of the fact that we are here to entertain and that this is show business. Life’s pretty short, so you may as well laugh as much as possible. We have a nod and a wink to a whole range of genres; we use irony to get our point across – but most of all we just enjoy being able to perform for people. I think people see that in us and they know that we’re not self-righteous people.” If ever there was a band you needed to see live to get their full impact, it’s Over-Reactor. Ox is particularly keen to discuss the group’s upcoming appearance at the Stamping Grounds Festival. “We are a completely live beast and we believe that we do it live like no other group. I want to say to people to come and check out the shows. Apart from getting to see our show, people will be able to check some amazing bands like Gay Paris, Cash Savage – she’s amazing – and heaps of others. Don’t miss it.” WHO: Over-Reactor WHAT: Mouth Of The Ghetto (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 20 October, Espy
37
SINGLED OUT WITH BRYGET CHRISFIELD
ON THE RECORD
THE RED LIGHTS Ghosts iTunes
Fool For Love iTunes Being a Fool For Love may not necessarily be the most original type of knave, but Jordie Lane’s song sounds nostalgic and authentic as if triggering memories of the music that soundtracked family road trips down the Great Ocean Road when you were just a child. Exactly the right amount of colour has been added thanks to the choir of angels BVs, chugging guitars and occasional keys, but all recede to allow Lane’s John Denver-esque timbre (one you can’t teach) pride of place during verses. He makes a great Gram Parsons, and more pairs of ears are bound to embrace Lane himself on the strength of this one.
THE MIRACLES CLUB U & ME (Nile Delta Remix) Cutters Records There’s a definite Balearic quality to this, but occasional trills and chirps also call to mind bush (or beach) doofs. Honey Owens‘s vocal is superbly insouciant, the bongo frenzy adds urgency and then hi-hats will coax all hands in the air. U & ME sounds like the signal for drop o’clock in Ibiza circa 1994, back when Privilege was called Ku and you were allowed to jump into the swimming pool for a dance (or a secret wee if no one told you about pool urine indicator dye).
EXAMPLE
THE HOT 8 BRASS BAND
(III)
The Evolution Of Man
The Life And Times Of…
Shock Records
Hussle/Ministry Of Sound/Universal
Tru Thoughts/Fuse
So Ethan Kath replaced all his digital toys with vintage analogue synths for this third set from the Canadian duo, but they stuck with their first-take policy (show offs). Cue alarm bells for Crystal Castles and Crystal Castles (II) obsessives. The good news is that the genesis of what makes this twosome unique and addictive remains. Theirs has (and always will be) a twisted pleasure, somewhat like picking a scab or shagging your partner’s best mate without permission.
The UK music rags have dubbed his music “bosh pop”, yet judging by his success it probably doesn’t matter how the hell Elliot Gleave (Example)’s music is described as long as he’s making coinage. So the sometimes aloof UK singer/rapper Example is back with his fourth album, which sees the well-‘ard London boy in reflective mode as he poses questions that only he can answer. Nice.
It’s hard not to see the HBO series Treme as the main vehicle in recent times to popularise the music of New Orleans. In fact, The Hot 8 Brass Band not only contributed a song to the soundtrack, but Treme actually borrowed part of the Hot 8 story, notably the death of member Joseph Williams, who was killed by police under mysterious circumstances. There’s a song called Can’t Hide From The Truth, written by trumpeter Raymond Williams, which is a specific message to the police involved. “You can run, but you can’t hide, the truth will set you free,” the band offer amidst swirling horns and a jazz-funk swagger. The emotion is palpable. The trumpet in particular is urgent and searing. It says everything. But something amazing happens; this is what New Orleans brass bands – often called on to play funerals – do best. The anger is harnessed by the music and transformed into a life-affirming funky-arsed stomp. It’s a celebration of life, a celebration of Williams.
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JORDIE LANE
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CRYSTAL CASTLES
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This Melbourne trio have definitely got it going on. If you dig Two Door Cinema Club, this’ll be right up your well-lit aisle. Vocalist Dean Valentino effortlessly scales incredible heights mid-phrase and lyrics explore a fledgling romance and the thrill of sneaking around: “See you at the back door after your parents have gone to bed.” The stick click-heavy verse percussion will have a devastating effect on your dancing feet. It’s a happy little ditty with warm guitar tones, well-placed harmonies and satisfying nuances. Good on ‘em!
It’s always intriguing to read Crystal Castles lyric sheets – there’s mention of plague, christening, pneumonia – and it’s virtually impossible to sing along with these caterwauling sonic purges anyway. Alice Glass is an alluring frontwoman who is equal parts fragile and indomitable. Her vocals bring (III) together as a cohesive piece of work, although your granny still wouldn’t deem this music. Plague begins with the TARDIS firing up, Wrath Of God opens with what sound like whale calls, and shrill noises akin to Furbies being tortured inhabit Pale Flesh. Devices are taking over the establishment during Insulin, with Glass struggling to be heard above their whirring mechanics. Transgender could be a workout tape for gremlins. At first you’ll feel like rushing out to the gelati van when the music box tinkles of closer Child I Will Hurt You filter in, but the song’s overall effect is similar to a nursery rhyme used in a slasher flick – you can’t entirely trust it and Mr Whippy has probably put razor blades in your soft serve. Have you seen footage of lunar landscapes? Those rocks, kinda like Pop Rocks with Elephantitis, which look capable of exploding on impact? Crystal Castles create a fitting soundtrack for such pyrotechnics on the moon – either that, or robot wars.
If Playing In The Shadows, his third album, was euphoric and stirring, The Evolution Of Man is melancholic and has more in common with the floppy-haired Seattle grunge scene and early-‘90s stadium rock than what electro mushrooms are after. The electro-pop stuff that proved oh-so-popular on previous Example albums is replaced by unwelcoming guitar riffs, with Gleave rapping and singing over the top. No theme is off the shelf – drugs, shagging, infidelity, Asperger’s and modern living are topics raised, with references to Nixon and misquotes of Shakespeare also blatant. The album is replete with guitar riffs, electro stabs, beats, bops, bass and a bit of Balearic – it has more of an assortment than a box of Celebrations. Still, some trademarks of his electro prowess remain; listen to his collaboration with Calvin Harris on We’ll Be Coming Back for an insight into Gleave as his best. If the partnership between electro and rap music is ending and tracks like Say Nothing, Come Taste The Rainbow and Queen Of Your Dreams represent the future, then God help us. Gleave hasn’t really evolved; he’s taken a sideways step until he contemplates what he wants to do next and why. Stuart Evans
The Hot 8 Brass Band predated Treme; their debut album yielded one of the greatest cover versions this writer has ever heard, a take on Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing. The sexy smoothness made way for a kind of street swagger that even five years on still sends chills up the spine. The Life And Times Of… is a post-Katrina album; tunes reference Mardi Gras, traditions and the band’s love of the city, none better than Steamin’ Blues, from fallen member Williams. Elsewhere, they’ve opened up a little more to hip hop with guest vocalists, such as on the infectious stomp of Let Me Do My Thing, and covers of The Specials’ Ghost Town and Basement Jaxx’s Bingo Bango are only icing on the cake. Gold. Bob Baker Fish
Bryget Chrisfield
RUBY ROSE & GARY GO Guilty Pleasure Island records/Universal Well she certainly looks the part, but does Ruby Rose have the chops to become a pop star? She trades verses with British singer-songwriter-producer Gary Go and so his vocals tend to carry hers and the first few “SAVE me”s that Rose warbles don’t exactly hit and sustain the intended notes. For what it is, Guilty Pleasure isn’t a bad song, but Gazza could’ve done a better job solo. Take singing lessons for at least five years, Rose, and then get back to us.
MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA The Best Things In Life Are Free ABC Music Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson? “…Now that I’ve discovered what you mean to me.” Incorrect. This is a cover of the 1920s classic, which may sound familiar if you’ve seen the latest Freeview TV ad. The Nicky Bomba-led 30-piece orchestra sounds full and celebrator. Everything’s in its right place including Balinese percussion, brass solos and a beat that’s beyond-satisfying to skank to. Pat Powell’s vocal sounds like Darren Percival, but the question remains – does this improve on the original? The version from Good News the musical is charmingly understated, a lot slower in pace and has a melancholy tone. Jack Smith (aka The Whispering Baritone) is definitely worth a Google. MSO’s version is not necessarily better, just vastly different and oodles more danceable.
FRIGHTENED RABBIT Dead Now Warner Usually, I hate vocalists’ accents front and centre, but there are some exceptions and Scotsman Scott Hutchison makes the perfect example. Even when he sings, “I’ll piss on your front porch,” it sounds endearing. Unexpected ‘secret sound’ percussion, plucked bass (sometimes substituted by bass piano notes), flailing guitar tones and barely audible “OH-oh-oh-oh”s all add to this intoxicating Frightened Rabbit brew. J’adore.
38 • For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews
KORA
LED ZEPPELIN
LISA MILLER
Light Years
Celebration Day
Meet The Misses
Remote Control
Atlantic/Warner
Raoul/Inertia
The piano chimes. Five... Four... Countdown is progressing... Three... Two... The Kora family’s rocket ship is good for launch. One... Little Star thrusts us right into a celestia populated by smart soul and Giorgio Moroder-esque disco grooves. When you have four brothers (and one other bloke) all pulling diplomatically in different directions, it’s natural that the trajectory goes a bit spacey. Laughton and Francis Kora share lead vocal duties, keeping the sound assuredly ‘street‘ while thankfully giving the traps of straightforward R&B a wide berth. Hit The Wall bounces like Tigger wearing a bandana on vodka Red Bull, commanding all and sundry to “Hit the wall, hit the wall, ‘cause we gonna rise tonight”.
By breaking up at the height of their powers, Led Zeppelin managed to retain a mystique that the Stones, Purple and Sabbath all forfeited by trudging on. Thus each of the post-breakup releases from the Zeps has been met with genuine excitement – their rarity makes them actual events. The band’s one-off reformation in 2007 with Jason Bonham filling in for dad on drums was certainly such an event and this live release of the gig captures it perfectly. The band are amazing, and the sound is authentically live yet crystal clear. You can feel the palpable excitement of the thousands of well-heeled 50-something lawyers and doctors who were lucky enough to blag tickets and relive their youth. This was certainly something to tell the teenage kids about.
This album sees Lisa Miller reinterpreting some of her back catalogue with Shane O’Mara at her side on guitar and general moral support. As with all her albums there is that gentle Mazzy Star element and an array of intimate lyrical musings. Miller goes about the process with a quiet, subtle attitude that belies her attitude and focus. Meet The Misses doesn’t set the world on fire but it does reflect fortitude and an ability to top her previous best.
Light Years sometimes runs the risk of trying to be too many styles in too short a period – dub, soul, funk and hip hop all have their orbits – but it’s a smooth ride through them. Galaxy Express, for example, stops short of using obvious swearwords (“So far, but I don’t give a...”) and is what Al Green might sound like if he were starting out today. It’s not like they’re consciously pandering to commercial demands, it just means they don’t get lumped in with some of their much lazier contemporaries.
Best of all though is the setlist, which mixes reliable standards like Black Dog, Rock N Roll and Whole Lotta Love, not to mention the obligatory Stairway To Heaven, with enough deep catalogue classics to keep things interesting. No Quarter sounds suitably mystical, Misty Mountain Hop is a joyously timeless romp, and Nobody’s Fault But Mine and In My Time Of Dying are great leftfield inclusions. In fact apart from the absence of Communication Breakdown and the blistering Achilles Last Stand, there’s nothing whatsoever to complain about here.
The recent Drum cover stars still have some work to do to win over Aussie audiences but Light Years is packed with the material to do it. It may have taken four years to arrive but the time has been spent wisely. At the end, you’ll be ready to dig out Prince, Parliament and even Outkast records. And that’s no bad thing. Mac McNaughton
This is no second-rate cash grab. Celebration Day confirms the genius of Zeppelin and leaves us all wishing they would do something else, be it an album or tour, to cap off a remarkable career. Mark Hebblewhite
Having lost the rights to two of her previous albums, she has re-recorded tracks that are obviously close to her heart. Rule #1 is a luscious opener with O’ Mara mastering the acoustic guitars and creating a dense background. Safe As Houses is also a witty track that is thematic for the whole album with its twists of irony. While younger singers tend to dramaticise their voices in the current folk tradition, Miller lets her vocals glide along in the most casual of ways. There is no pretence in her delivery. The album that really captured her moment in time was the Car Tape album, which was both user friendly and an interesting enough take on covers to be noticed. Meet The Misses, which refocuses on the first two albums, is a tribute to the strength of her own writing. Obviously, the album works as a paean to herself as she is now able to look at that early creative period and see that justice is done to her songs. Sebastian Skeet
MEMORY TAPES
SEXYPARTY
THE SIREN TOWER
BOY
Grace/Confusion
Sexyparty
A History Of Houses
Mutual Friends
Pod/Inertia
Independent
Firestarter
Decca/Universal
Dayve Hawk, aka Memory Tapes, has never been one to chase the spotlight. He’s a Luddite (avoiding mobile phones and TV) and this, together with his fixation with the ‘retro’ musical aesthetic that lies at the core of chillwave, provides him with a strange, unfocused identity. He’s recorded under several stage names (mostly referencing ‘memory’ or ‘cassettes’) and his music, starting with 2009’s Seek Magic, has a heavy-lidded dreamlike quality that belies his strengths as a songwriter.
Sometimes you’re trawling through music blogs, and you listen to a single from a band with a funny name and it’s kind of great; weird, but you like that. So you pick up the album and 47 minutes later, mind thoroughly blown, you’re having a strong cup of tea and a cigarette, trying to work out what exactly just happened. This is the experience of the frighteningly unsexy Sexyparty.
A History Of Houses couldn’t sound more uniquely Australian if it was cracking tinnies while frying up some snags with the cricket and footy blaring simultaneously in the background. There’s heat in these songs; natural beauty that exudes through the lyrics of Grant McCulloch. The record has heart, resolve and rawness; a genuine reflection of the trio who’ve grafted the music.
Much like the three-lettered moniker Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass have chosen to perform under, the songs the pair have put together are simple and without fuss. Yet, what could have been a perfect collection of folksy/indie-pop goodness is marred by a couple of questionable inclusions late in the album.
The album is mostly improvised, so there’s plenty of long jams where ideas are fleshed out and thrown away and winding side-tracks cut through any central themes. Vocalist Chris Patterson seems to be torn on whether he wants to fuck or fight, working through the pros and cons of each. There’s the violent and bombastic High School Massacre, where Patterson embodies the twisted defiance of youth “I didn’t want to have to explain it all, I didn’t wanna draw the fucking picture for you/I didn’t wanna have to point out the flowers and the hearts”, then the equally twisted Just Don’t Say That You Love Me, possibly the creepiest seduction song in recent history (“I’ll slap those thighs!/I just wanna give it to ya when you look at me with those eyes”).
Some of the songs are built around fictional narratives, others around experiences and truthful tales; all intriguing and colourful, vividly delivered by the versatile voice of McCulloch. The music, meanwhile, provides every shade of a sunburnt country, from the orchestral folk of The Banishing Of Williams McGuiness and the thumping rock of Floods, to the stuttering steps of City Of Light. It’s familiar in tone and texture but reinterpreted with a rock edge, tipping its cap to the heavy alternative background of the three Perth-based players. And if the music wasn’t enough to envelop you in a complete blanket of nostalgic warmth, the packaging of the release certainly will. Not so much a CD case as a genuine book, the disc is stored within a hardcover photo album – A History Of Houses, if you will. It couples old snaps of the various homes that have shaped the band members’ lives with stories about the structures and the related song, as well as the lyrics that have developed from such inspiration.
Grace/Confusion continues Hawk’s fascination with retro textures, but gone are the nostalgia and the sound bites of kicks skidding on basketball courts. There’s a glossy sheen over everything, and the album rockets along and disappears in under 40 minutes. Considering two songs clock in together at around 15 minutes there’s not much fat to chew on. The songwriting is still strong. Sheila is a pulsing eight-minute deep house jam that builds up more energy than just about anything Hawk has done so far. Safety has a soft, rubbery, electro buoyancy that gets better the more you listen to it. The album lacks cohesion though, and it never feels like it stretches too far to achieve its goals. The energy needed to make a memorable album this short is more than what’s on display here. There’s a lack of both visceral and intellectual fire that makes it seem like Dayve isn’t trying anymore. This sucks because, technically, the music is more than passable. This feels like an old report card – ‘If he only applied himself he could do great things…’ Matt MacMaster
The romantically unromantic and wistful closer Sincerely, C. Patterson seems like a perfect, put-abow-on-it resolution, with lyrics about letting go and gentle country-tinged backing. But that’s a little too neat, so after four minutes of silence the track returns as a distorted, unhinged freak-out that makes sure you never really get comfortable with this record, and have to come back to it again and again. Madeleine Laing
It’s this care and attention to detail that sets A Siren Tower apart from their contemporaries and also what makes this debut release from the Perth trio a genuine victory.
The appropriately-named This Is The Beginning opens and is a pleasant enough number that sets the tone for the next three-quarters-of-an-hour or so, with its acoustic bent and easy-going tone. There are a number of tracks that pick up the pace a little (such as Waitress, Little Numbers, Oh Boy and Silver Streets), but there is something that doesn’t quite sit right as you make your way to the end of the album. There is no denying that, as a generalisation, Boy are producing some rather inoffensive, middle-of-the-road indie pop – that’s not the problem. The issue arises when Steiner and Glass try and change that sound and make it harder edged with Boris and Skin. It just doesn’t work with the prettiness of the surrounding tunes, and there are some very pretty tracks on offer. Drive Darling is perfect for warm summer evenings spent relaxing on a porch, while note must be made of Railway for its hauntingly beautiful ending, which helps it stand out from the rest of the tracks on the album, and July for being a perfect ending to this debut, with its dreamy, soft lullaby-esque tones. If you can skip the tracks that don’t seem to fit with the rest of the album, then Mutual Friends works; but this is strictly for those who like their indie light and sweet. Dominique Wall
Benny Doyle
FriDAY 11 JanUARY
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THIS WEEK IN
ARTS
SubUrbia
Tom Savini
KILLING HIM SOFTLY Tom om Savini has moved out of blood and gore ake-up effects and bit parts into some ‘normal’ make-up roles. Guy Davis chats with the used-to-be splatter king about some of the perks of being that guy.
WEDNESDAY 28
SUNDAY 2
Opera For A Small Mammal – a play written by Margaret Cameron in creative development with Jethro Woodward and David Youn. La Mama Theatre, 7.30pm to Thursday 29 November. SubUrbia – a play written by Eric Bogosian and directed by Adam Spellicy. A portrait of mid-90s existential angst that focuses on a group of young adults who hang around their local convenience store. Abbotsford Convent, 7.30pm to Friday 7 December.
The Piano Thief And Other Short Plays – four original Australian plays written and directed by Gareth Ellis (The Piano Thief, A Very Short Tragedy, Small Town Awaiting and Remote). Performed by Kali Hulme, James Tresise and Mark Tregonning. Little Feat Theatre, Thornbury, 5pm.
THURSDAY 29 Ambience 2012 – a solo exhibition from Nabilah Nordin, featuring a collection of painting, sculptural and video works. Opening, Basement 24 Lincoln Street, East Brunswick, 6pm to Tuesday 4 December. IT Girls – a discussion about the first season of Girls by Lena Dunham, who could very well be the ‘voice of a generation’. Including Clementine Ford, Sam Cooney, Michaela McGuire and Byron Bache, this panel will take a look at TV’s newest group of girls. ACMI, 7pm.
MONDAY 3 Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas – who doesn’t recall bat country? This is the film version of Hunter S Thompson’s psychedelic classic about his road trip across Western America. The Astor Theatre, 7.30pm.
been an actor ever since he was a kid. A fair few of his roles have seen him doing double-duty. For instance, in addition to coming up with the gruesome make-up for the disturbing 1980 slasher movie Maniac, he also played the bit part of Disco Boy, who came to a very messy end thanks to a blast from the title character’s shotgun. But nowadays Savini is concentrating primarily on acting, with the occasional directorial gig
TUESDAY 4 Monopolife – a solo exhibition from artist Georgina Lee who is known for her large-scale installations. This exhibition features an oversized board game allowing viewers to be human figures in this life-sized game of reality. An exploration into status anxiety and the sacrifices made to meet society’s expectations for wealth, lifestyle and success. Opening, Seventh Gallery, 6pm to Thursday 20 December.
FRIDAY 30
UPCOMING IN ARTS
Hatched House Party – a festival of new theatre from this year’s St Martin’s Hatched participates, spread across the entire St Martin complex. Innovative performances, utilising everything from an Ethiopian circus to 3,000 plastic bags. St Martins, 7.30pm to Saturday 1 December. Spanish Heart Of Fire – an improvised, 52-hour soap opera directed by Patti Stiles, who holds the record for being the first female performer to last the entire 52 hours. This production will star 45 actors. Broken Mirror Studios, playing nonstop from Friday 30 November, 6pm to Sunday 2 December, 10pm.
Candice Breitz: The Character – the first major solo exhibition in Australia from South African artist Candice Breitz. Explores the extent to which our lives are scripted for us by the media we consume and other influences that we encounter in our intimate and social environments. Through re-edited interviews, fan performances and montage cinema sequences, Breitz’s works present a new take on contemporary portraiture. Opening at Federation Square, Thursday 6 December to Monday 11 March.
SATURDAY 1 The Dark Knight Rises – this hit film raises the roof on Melbourne’s beloved rooftop cinemas. This is the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s gritty Batman trilogy. Part of Rooftop Cinema, 9.30pm.
The name Tom Savini is synonymous with blood and guts. That’s what happens when you’re regarded as one of the masters of motion picture make-up effects, responsible for the ingenious and disturbingly authentic gore in modern horror classics such as Friday The 13th and George Romero’s original Dawn Of The Dead. But there’s another side to Savini, one that predates his career as a make-up artist – he’s
Monopolife
SILVER FOX
It won’t be long now before Sarah Silverman has infiltrated pretty much every area of popular culture, writes Guy Davis.
If you haven’t jumped aboard her bandwagon already, now would be an opportune time to do so, especially given the multi-talented comedian, actor and author is coming to Australia on her first stand-up tour, performing one show in Sydney and Melbourne.
Of course, you’re a person of surpassing taste and refinement, so you’re already aware Silverman is pretty fucking funny, whether she’s on stage, on screen (starring in her hilarious TV series The Sarah Silverman Program, or making guest appearances on the likes of Mr Show with Bob and David, Bob’s Burgers and Louie, just to name a few) or on the page (as evinced by her recent memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee). And then there’s the legendary viral video ‘I’m Fucking Matt Damon’, in which she enlisted the Bourne Identity star for a good-natured stab at her former
on the side. “I tried to play a part in every film I did make-up effects for, which led to more parts, and now parts is all I do,” he says. “I don’t do make-up effects for a living anymore.” What’s more, he’s working with some pretty cool filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez among them), and sometimes on projects where nary a drop of blood is spilled. Take the teen drama The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, for example. Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, who adapted his own novel for the screen, it’s a coming-of-age story the introverted revolving around th Charlie (Logan Lerman) Lerm and how his friendship with Sam (Emma Patrick (Ezra Miller) Watson) and Patric helps bring him out of his shell. surprised when asked Savini was surprise to audition for the rrole of highschool teacher Mr Callahan in the shot in Pittsburgh, film, which was sh hometown to both Savini and movies are shot Chbosky. “Lots of m in Pittsburgh – The Dark Knight there – but by the Rises was filmed th time they arrive in ttown they have everyone they need, and they’ll usually just use local people if they need extras,” says Savini. “But Stephen was from Pittsburgh, he was a fan of mine when he was growing up, and he asked me to audition, so I did, and I got the part. I only just saw it for the first time a few nights ago and it’s so powerful and emotional. I burst into tears at one point and I’m really not the kind of guy who does that!” Nor is Savini traditionally viewed as the kind of guy who takes on relatively normal roles (this is a guy who’s played characters such as The
Demon Slayer, Osiris Amanpour),but he enjoyed the experience and defying expectations. “People don’t expect to see me in something like Wallflower they say things like, ‘You’re so soft’,” he laughs. “Normally they see me running around with a shotgun, blowing people away like I did as Osiris in Machete, but here I’m this high-school teacher and I think it surprised a few people.” However, fans of Savini’s harder side can rest assured he’ll be playing some larger-than-life characters again in the not too distant future. He’ll be reprising his role as killerfor-hire Osiris in Machete Kills, Robert Rodriguez’s sequel to his grindhouse tribute Machete (“They did kill me in Machete – it took two days to shoot my death scene with this elaborate effect – but Robert didn’t put it in the movie because he wanted to bring me back!”), and playing one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “slave trackers” in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. “What was so great for me was in the script my character’s name was Tracker Stu but when I got there Quentin had changed the name to Tracker Chaney because he knew of my absolute love for Lon Chaney,” smiles Savini, referring to the silent-movie star known as The Man Of A Thousand Faces due to his pioneering make-up work. “Chaney’s the reason I started doing what I do, so that was a really nice thing Quentin did for me.”
partner, talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel. (He replied with his own video, ‘I’m Fucking Ben Affleck’.)
released hilarious video shorts about the voting process prior to the American presidential elections both this year and in 2008 – but she admits that the bulk of her material will focus on “social issues, social politics and also just straight-up silliness”. Oh, and the TV series Lost, with which she has a teeny bit of an obsession. “I watched every episode of every season and I just loved it and that love has bled into shows I’ve done,” she says. “I always seem to write a Lost reference somewhere in the shows I’ve done since it’s been on.”
But as of late, Silverman has been expanding her repertoire, taking on a supporting role in Sarah Polley’s acclaimed drama Take This Waltz, and, perhaps more shockingly, lending her voice to the big-screen Disney cartoon Wreck-It Ralph, in which she plays a anime-inspired video game character with the awesome name of Vanellope von Schweetz. “I connect to Vanellope so much,” says Silverman. “She takes the thing that holds her back in life and makes it her superpower. I love that.” (To learn more, check out Wreck-It Ralph when it opens in cinemas Boxing Day. Seriously, do. It’s really good.) “I have such different fans depending on what they know me from,” she adds. “There are the people that know me from stand-up and internet videos, people who know me from my show, people who know me from [the TV series] Monk and family-friendly stuff, kids’ shows like Yo Gabba Gabba and of course Wreck-It Ralph, so it’s a very eclectic and [an] often random sampling of people.” But while she is increasingly known for a variety of different roles and projects, stand-up remains one of her great loves. “I love stand up,” she says. “It’s scary and raw and in the moment, and you can only be as good as the crowd you’re talking to.” There’s sometimes a political edge to Silverman’s material – she
WHAT: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower WHEN & WHERE: In cinemas Thursday 29 November
Something else audiences can expect from a Sarah Silverman show? Swearing. Let’s face it, the lady has a reputation for slanging a few choice four-letter words about. (One article described her as ‘cuss-prone’.) But she’s not simply deploying profanity for profanity’s sake. “I think swearing has to be a specific choice to be funny,” she says. “Not peppered in an attempt to show irreverence – that never works – but a choice of words. Even if that choice is pure gratuitousness. Is that a word?” (It is.) Overall, however, audiences should prop themselves for a “loosey-goosey” night of comedy that’s “just me and a mic and you,” says Silverman. “Also, the brilliant Todd Barry and Australia’s own Wil Anderson! Woo-hoo!” WHAT: Sarah Silverman WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 8 December, Palais Theatre
To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 41
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REVIEWS
C U LT U R A L
POMPEII, LA THEATRE Los Angeles exists under constant threat of earthquake, and that charged sense of imminent doom pervades this surreal and often darkly funny play. It begins casually enough, with a scene between Judy Garland and her young make-up artist, but the scene quickly morphs into a scene of trauma. There has been a car accident, and the play quickly transforms into surreal treatment of self-destructing American culture and the screwed-up side of celebrity and child stardom. Scenes flip, reality fluctuates – it’s dreamlike. A Lindsay Lohan character collapses on set; a TV dad reminisces about his life as a fake father; Jonathan Brandis has been in an accident. A read-through of the movie Volcano erupts into a surreal scene of static
GOBLIN PLAY SUSPIRIA FILM/MUSIC Winning the award for the most unexpected tour in recent years are over-the-top Italian prog-rock maestros Goblin, who made a name for themselves via their excessive soundtracks for the likes of Dario Argento and George A Romero in the 1970s. They’re responsible for Argento’s golden period and the crowning achievement is of course Suspiria. The beauty of Suspiria is its overthe-top nature. The music comes in loud in inappropriate places – way too excessive for the moment. The film itself is demented, at times nonsensical and even horribly kitsch, where exposition occurs with the subtlety of a chainsaw.
enveloping Judy Garland miming to You’ll Never Walk Alone, which is reminiscent of the nightmare elements of David Lynch. Halfway through Pompeii, LA is a nightmarish scene of virtual darkness where abstract sound throbs, lights flash through the black blanket and several people sweep up detritus from an accident, wordlessly. White noise pierces the dark. It is a darkly atmospheric sensory overload – an LA nightmare. Under Matthew Lutton’s direction, the strong cast of six have a lot to work with. Playwright Declan Greene’s sometimes abstract script takes on cleverly the self destruction of American culture, and the stagecraft is dramatic and more complex and clever than it first appears. Kate Kingsmill Malthouse Theatre until Sunday 9 December
But this brew combined with the insanity of the music adds up to something incredible. So out comes Goblin to rapturous applause from the sold-out audience. From the opening keyboard arpeggio’s it’s on as the five-piece, seated underneath the screen, offer up their chiming feverish sounds, and it’s incredible. They have banks of keys, an epic kit, some kind of bouzouki and bass, and everyone mutters, whispers and breathes into their mics, “Witch”. It’s spooky as hell, their ability to effortlessly tap into the darkness and reconstruct their iconic score in front of our eyes is incredible. Genius. Bob Baker Fish Part of Melbourne Music Week, ACMI
ART JESSE RASMUSSEN What was appealing about adapting a text from the past? Four Larks have an ongoing fascination with mythology, history, memory and adaptation. The company is preoccupied by the many ways by which we narrate our lives, or create a version of them, or attempt to recall them. The act of adaptation is about connecting to a text that bears its own history, and reimagining it through your own highly subjective lens. In retelling that history, or transposing it to another medium – like novel to play – you inevitably make it your own.
How have you modernised The Temptation Of St Antony? Well, it should be noted that Antony is written as a play, but was never intended to be performed. That’s always a tantalising challenge. In terms of process and approach, the company always works with a large and varied ensemble of actors and musicians; the combined skills and qualities of whomever makes up that group are hugely influential in our creative process. And we don’t ever set out to ‘modernise’ a text, we just set about finding our own pathway in imagining it through our own lens, so as to create a framework that we can work and dream from. What excites you about theatre
as a medium? That’s a weighty question. Um… everything. Its liveness and fullness in an era saturated with screens and disassociation. Theatre surrounds you and you have to smell it and hear it hiccup and you get to see real people holding up imaginary walls for you. It’s a collective act of believing. There, those are some things! What was the motivation behind holding the show in a secret location? To us each show exists in a completely new world, and we like to invite the audience to participate in that journey a little. I mean, you don’t know what the show’s going to be like – why should you know exactly where it takes
place? Part of the fun is immersing the audience in the journey even before you step in the door. Describe the Four Larks theatre company in five words. Ambitious, playful, sonically-charged, broke. WHAT: The Temptation Of St Antony WHEN & WHERE: Friday 30 November to Sunday 16 December, secret location, Brunswick
S TA R T E R
JASON CAVANAGH What made you decide to do repertory theatre? I feel like the best art is made under the most trying circumstances, and repertory theatre was a hugely popular and hugely challenging form in its time. The tight schedule and the physical challenge of constant contact, day and night, is producing some really interesting results, both for the individuals involved and the actual finished performances. What challenges do you face as one of the five actors? Well, you have pretty much
“Now his big generative jockey was inside her pelvic saddle, riding, riding, riding, and she was eagerly swallowing it swallowing it swallowing it with the saddle’s own lips and maw – all this without a word.” I know it’s a bit late for Cup Day but I thought you might appreciate this equinethemed sex scene from the pen of Tom Wolfe – it’s in the running for this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Or perhaps if you’re hungry, how about this contender from The Yips by Nicola Barker – “She smells of almonds, like a plump Bakewell pudding; and he is the spoon, the whipped cream, the helpless dollop of warm custard.” And I swear to you, these are not the worst of the examples provided this year. Try this on for size by Nancy Huston in Infrared – “This is when I take my picture, from deep inside the loving. The Canon is part of my body. I myself am the ultrasensitive film — capturing invisible reality, capturing heat.” The annual award run by UK magazine Literature Review, has been running for 20 years and in that time plenty of big names have found themselves on the nominations list, including Norman Mailer, AA Gill, Sebastian Faulks, Jonathan Franzen, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Haruki Murakami. Our very own Christos Tsiolkas has made the cut with The Slap and Dead Europe (which has just been released as a film) and Nick Cave scored a nod in 2009 for his novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. You would have thought the field was wide open this year with fifty shades of erotic fiction everywhere, but the
no life outside of the theatre… as a special treat I got to go visit my niece for a couple of hours the other day ‘cause we got a morning off, that was nice. But again, the intensity of the project is, artistically, very invigorating. Do you feel the pieces are fresh as they have been rehearsed in five days? Couldn’t possibly be more fresh – straight out of the ocean! It’s funny actually by the end of the week, because you are so far into the rehearsal process for the next show, you feel like you’ve been performing that show for a really long time. Pygmalion feels like months ago.
42 • For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews
With two weeks to go how are you feeling physically? Physically fine. You have to be here all the time but you’re not needed the whole time, so you can sneak down to the shops, or take a little nap out in the sun every now and again. Of course there is always something to do. For example right now I should be learning my lines for Hamlet! What can audiences expect from the final two pieces: Falling Petals and Hamlet? Falling Petals is a great, black, quirky, funny little piece. The characters are all really nasty to each other… which has been rather fun. There has been a lot of laughing in rehearsals.
For Hamlet, expect a tight oneand-a-half hour show set in Australia with lots of singing and sword fights… so not a typical Hamlet. Of course I’m just going on what I’ve been told, we don’t start rehearsing that for another couple of days! WHAT: 5 Pounds Of Repertory Theatre WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 26 November to Saturday 8 December, Owl & The Pussycat
prize doesn’t cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature. JK Rowling was tipped to get a licking (oops) this year for her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, but she was apparently too light on in the ‘front parlour, back room’ analogies to make the cut. The sheer talent of the annual nominee list illustrates how difficult it is to write a good sex scene. I am currently attempting a scrap of a crime book and let me tell you, it’s “The lights went out, then they woke up in the morning naked” kind of territory. Why is it so hard? Is it because you imagine your mother pursing her lips as she reads it? Or is it because it feels like you’re revealing way too much of yourself or your experience? Or is it because they’re so much about the emotion involved that they’re hard to write but also hard to read? I went searching for some tips on writing good sex scenes and in among some pretty rational advice, such as never use genital euphemisms and don’t let real people talk like they’re in a porn film, was this piece of gold – “Remember it’s ok if you turn yourself on.” Absolutely no danger of that, but thanks, because from now on when I read a sex scene I will imagine the author getting off on it while sitting at their desk. In brief, if you enjoyed those few opening lines from Tom Wolfe then perhaps Melbourne Museum’s next SmartBar (Thursday 29 Nov) is for you. Okay, no, not really, but this Thursday’s open night is titled Harlot’s Web and will delve into Melbourne own historical scandals, such as Phar Lap’s death and the rise of the Queen of Harlots madam, Madame Brussels.
FISH
WITH BOB BAKER FISH
ART Five minutes with
WITH REBECCA COOK
FRAGMENTED
S TA R T E R
Five minutes with
CRINGE
So Al Gore was right. We have destroyed the earth. He tried to tell us and we wouldn’t listen, or at least that’s the central premise to Abel Ferrara’s latest film 4:44 Last Day On Earth (Icon). It’s a doomsday flick from one of the most depressive filmmakers you could imagine, the sleazebag behind Bad Lieutenant (the good one), Dangerous Game (Harvey Keitel and Madonna) and King Of New York. His films have always been seedy as hell, and for a while in the early-’90s he was the seedy it guy. But times have changed, and his budgets have shrunk, because apparently people don’t want to see Harvey Keitel molesting teenage motorists anymore. Which leads us back to 4:44 Last Day On Earth. Early on we know that at 4:44am the world will end, now we just have to work out what to do in the interim. If you know Ferrara you’d be expecting a savage dose of violent sexual wrongness and perhaps a spot of looting. But no, at the age of 60 the former terror of New York is acting somewhat restrained. We follow actor and reformed drug addict Cisco (a craggy-looking Willem Dafoe) and his much younger artist girlfriend Skye, as they attempt to make sense of their lives as the clock is ticking. Skye is determined to finish her art, while Cisco is a mess, trying to score dope and futilely reconnect with his ex wife, daughter and friends via Skype. In fact, technology plays an important role in Cisco’s life; their New York loft resembles a media unit, with newscasters, a new-age guru and baseball games playing
out endlessly. Connections occur via technology, yet it still feels real. There’s a beautiful scene where they let the guy who delivers their Chinese take out Skype his family. When he says goodbye he closes the computer and leans down and kisses it. In between, the characters screw, bicker and meander in some kind of existential fog. But no mistake, Abel Ferrara is a sleazy old bastard. Or at least he was in 2007. What 55-year-old is so porn starved he decides to write and direct a film set in a strip club, purely to film naked strippers? And then what 55-year-old could be so delusional as to make it a warm-hearted nostalgic, somewhat quirky almost comedy? Because everyone knows strip clubs are just one big happy family, right? Ferrara has always been idiosyncratic, marching to he beat of his own drum. But surely there’s a limit. And Go Go Tales (Eagle) is it. Willem Dafoe plays Ray, a lotto-addicted manager of a strip club that’s slowly going down the tubes. It’s a fantastical vision; Ray engages in cabaret, singing sad songs between strips, Asia Argento tongue kisses a dog, a chef supplies organic hot dogs to patrons. There’s even a stripper talent show where Matthew Modine inexplicably turns up playing a miniature piano, with a miniature dog. It’s an unfocussed film with a real lacklustre quality. Ferrara seems disinterested, perhaps understandably so, only rousing himself when filming the gratuitous nudity. When people aren’t flashing their fleshy bits they’re screaming at each other. Why?
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MARS ATTACKS…
LAUGHS NOW IN SESSION Ahead of his appearance at Comedy Court, Michael Connell tells Simon Eales of his dreams to do Deaf Comedy Jam, and not any more hardcore/screamo band gap-filling slots.
Comedy Court is probably funnier than real court. It is also probably funnier than the fact one of its resident comedians, Michael Connell, does the odd stand-up spot at the Dan O’Connell Pub in Carlton. Connell. O’Connell. Funny, no? Anyway, Comedy Court, purported to be the funnest fun craze out of the States since the slinky (Philadelphia, c1945), is a comedy spot starting up in the CBD where a bunch of semi-pro stand-ups perform gags and their audience judge – via electronic judge-pads! Over a beer at his (almost) eponymously-named pub, Connell suggests that Comedy Court, created by American ex-pat Donte D1, is an exciting new platform for comedians to spurt their stuff. “It’s been running in Sydney at the casino for five years now. Donte goes up there, has up-and-comers – they’re looking for rising stars – and they do their best five minutes. It’s quite fun, but the kicker is he’s actually got an actual electronic button pressing thing. It’s full on! “It’s a very American show-biz sort of deal. It’s my chance to live out my dream of being on Deaf Comedy Jam,” he laughs. Melbourne is yet to live up to its potential as a comedy city, Connell says. “People don’t realise that comedy is year’round. We have about eight rooms and 300-odd comedians, so they’re all fighting over them. See, it’s huge during the Comedy Festival, then the festival ends and they look around and go, ‘errrgh, what’s happening?’” As we dodge the cues of kids playing pool, Connell continues. He explains the lengths he’s gone to
WITH HOLOGRAMS!
to make his own comedy happen. “I MCed the dog-jumping show at the local agricultural centre once, out at Healesville. They said, ‘Okay, we have these dogs. They’re going to jump over bales of hay’. They have 20 dogs. They each jump over a bale and then they keep loading up the hay until it eliminates all the dogs. “I thought it would be a laugh, but these dog jumpers, they took it so seriously… They said, ‘While the judges tally it up, just run out some comedy’. So I was like, ‘What’s the deal with dogs?’ and ‘Border collies be like this’, and, ahhh… Yeah.” And then there’s always the genuinely hostile crowd. “I once won the comedy competition for Australia’s funniest university comedian. Because of that, Victoria Uni said, ‘Come and MC the band competition’. I’m like, ‘yeah, that’ll be fun’. What they didn’t tell me was that every band in that band comp was, like, heavy-metal, hardcore, screamo. They don’t do humour. Especially not my kind of humour. They’d be doing windmill screamo arms and I would come out and be like, ‘What’s the deal with exfoliant? How cute are puppies?’ People threw bottles.” In the face of an already loaded Melbourne cultural calendar, Connell suggests comedians go down a similar road to Donte D1 with Comedy Court, and get proactive. “You need to be out there and making your own gigs. You could go, ‘Hey, you’re having a dog jumping trial, and I’m trying to start up this comedy thing…’ Look for other ways, and other opportunities.“We’re fighting against TV, radio, the internet, but I think people are starting to realise that you can’t have as fun an experience as coming and sitting in a room with a comedian when he’s doing his magic.” WHAT: Melbourne Comedy Court Finals WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 6 December, Red Violin
Thhere aare three men that There forever be associated will ill ffore martian invasions: with m Wells, Orson Welles HG We rock opera composer and roc Wayne who chats Jeff W to Paul Ransom about of War a new version v Of The Worlds. The sole survivor, Jeff Wayne, scorched himself into the cultural memory with his late ‘70s musical blockbuster, famously starring Richard Burton and David Essex.
Indeed, whenever you mention War Of The Worlds most everyone older than 30 will respond with the ear-worm classic: “Dun-dun dun, da-da-da, da-da-da”. The release of a fully re-recorded and expanded double album and the world premiere of the new and holographic enhanced stage show generated a new wave of interest in Wells’ original 1897 classic. Reflecting on one of sci-fi’s truly defining moments, Wayne says, “He was writing it through the eyes of Victorian humanity, when all we would have had to defend ourselves would have been rifles and cannons against this super-intelligent force invading Earth with incredible machines and amazing weaponry.”
However, Wells’ vision extended well beyond interplanetary war. Not only was he was a utopian socialist but a man deeply concerned with the emergence of technological power. As Wayne explains, “He predicted the atomic bomb in a book he wrote before the First World War.” Dig a little deeper though and beneath Wells’ generally liberal views, there’s a tantalising hint of darkness. “In the War Of The Worlds he created an artilleryman who hhad a vision for mankind’s survival w which involved taking the best of tho those who survived underground to build the brave new elabo world,” Wayne elaborates. “But deep within that is th the consideration of who has the choic choice of picking those people who go underground; and from that you lea learn that he had a bit of leaning towar towards what the Nazis believed in. ”Fa ”Fast forward 40 years and cross the Atlantic A and b War Of The Worlds became real for one calamitous night in 1938 when Orson Welles terrified America with his devious and ingen ingenious Mercury Theatre radio version version. “It was pretty convincing because, y’know, Welles set it in contemporary America and did it as little newsflashes coming in and interrupting an orchestra playing until all of America panicked.” Roll forward another four decades and amid the furore of punk and the mirror balls of disco, Jeff Wayne’s grand rock operatic vision of Martian might once again conquered the world. The original double vinyl record sold more than 15 million and sat in the UK charts for five years. “If you’d asked me before it came out what was my dream for it, the honest answer would have been to get a release because my
POETRY IN MOTION
Rafael Bonachela’s big new work rk for the Sydney Dance Company, 2 One Another,, explores human relationships and even includes a poet in its creative team. Bonachela shares some love with Liza Dezfouli. In creating his first full-length work since 2010’s We Unfold, Sydney Dance Company’s artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, wanted to a make a big show. “I want audiences to feel that ‘wow’,” says the dancer/ choreographer, whose third major work with the SDC, 2 One Another, opens in Melbourne in November. To create his big ‘wow’, Bonachela brought together an impressive team including Brisbane Festival creative director Tony Assness. “He’s not afraid of ‘big’,“ notes Bonachela. The music is by Nick Wales, a close friend Bonachela has delayed working with in order to avoid any charges of cronyism.
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2 One Another explores and expresses human relationships. This theme could so easily expand into something very abstract, so how did Bonachela narrow his ideas down in order to grasp something concrete to start with? “It had to come from the room,” he explains, meaning the rehearsal room. “It had to be about us, drawing from within.” He gave himself a rule – to focus solely on the relationships between his troupe of dancers. 2 One Another comes from his observing their interactions. “For three-and-a-half years I have worked with talented inspiring individuals,” he notes. “Wonderful human beings. The
work is fed from that interaction. 2 One Anotherr is about them: about are, their presences presences. who they are As a group they are united and strong.” 2 One Another includes Helpmann Award winner Charmene Yap and nominee Chen Wen. Bonachela’s seeing his dancers as ‘bodies’ has fed the work in terms of creating the choreography, something that extends into looking at non-dance movement. “In January last year I had two injured dancers on the floor,” he remembers. “I spent three days looking around, looking at different interactions, capturing gestures, the different looks between two people, those small detailed general phrases – all of these are triggers I use to create a dance.” Uniquely, 2 One Another is a work developed in close collaboration with a poet, Sam Webster, who was there watching and writing
record company, CBS, had the right to refuse,” Wayne recalls. “So, I would have died a happy man if it came out and made the UK charts for one week.” Jump to this week and Wells leaps into the digital age as Jeff Wayne brings War Of The Worlds back to the stage and onto iTunes. Starring Liam Neeson, Gary Barlow, Joss Stone and Ricky from the Kaiser Chiefs, the 2012 version is bigger and more holographic. “Liam will appear in three different ways in the upcoming show, two of which are holographic, one of which is a full body hologram where Liam interacts with the musicians on stage and evens hands a glass of water to one of the live characters.” While that’s all appropriately spectacular, the burning question is why? Isn’t there just a hint of shameless cash-in here? Acknowledging this, Wayne says, “It’s a fair question and I had to convince myself that it was genuinely valid. I wanted to do it for the right reasons: to expand my story, expand my score and use today’s recording techniques. Y’know, I composed and produced the original when the punk revolution was happening and disco was king of the dancefloor and I was influenced by what was going on around me, but that’s all in the past now.” With its blend of 1890s Fabianism, eugenic stain and futuristic storytelling, War Of The Worlds is anything but ‘all in the past’ and, as one the trio of who have helped to immortalise it, Jeff Wayne is hoping to keep the Martian terror real enough for another century. WHAT: War Of The Worlds (Sony) throughout. “He wrote pages and pages,” Bonachela recalls. “He wrote great stuff looking at us interacting, creating a vocabulary. His sentences became dance movements; we gave them to the dancers to find their essence. He saw me and another dancer improvising on the floor, feeding from each other and made a beautiful abstract sentence. ” With such vast creative resources available to him, isn’t there a temptation for Bonachela to want to tell his own stories? “There are a lot more interesting stories than mine!” he says. He emphasises the dances he creates will be inspired by something but are never simply about something. “The end result becomes something else, l something hi more than h ddoing i something about something,” he continues. “It becomes something new, something squished out of that feeling or that emotion.” 2 One Another has had a season in Sydney, resonating with audiences in intensely personal ways, judging by the responses Bonachela has received. “Everyone has their own world view from their own life experiences that they’ve been through,” he continues. “Those moments of, ‘Oh my god, that happened to me!’ It might not be what I wanted to say… Their experiences give meaning to things.” WHAT: 2 One Another WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 21 November until Saturday 1 December, Arts Centre, Playhouse
44
GIG OF THE WEEK
WORLD’S END PRESS, COLLARBONES SATURDAY, ABBOTSFORD CONVENT The Good Hustle has brought us some killer shows over the past couple of months, but the series of intimate performances at the Abbotsford Convent comes to an end this weekend with one of the series’ best bills yet: World’s End Press with Collarbones (check out clips from previous shows at youtube.com/user/TheMusicComAu). World’s End Press will be showcasing songs from their forthcoming debut album, due out next year. The band have been recording with Tim Goldsworthy (DFA, Mo’ Wax) at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Massive Attack Studios in Bristol. Collarbones, meanwhile, will be playing tunes from their excellent new album, Die Young, “a tribute to the modern mythology of youthful desire”.
FRONTLASH TORTURED TWEETS
We wanna thank Aziz Ansari for tweeting a link to the tweets of one @SergeantBrody. Oh yes, Homeland fans, that Sergeant Brody. Beware of spoilers and very funny fanboy humour.
ROYAL SERVE A new Prince song went up online with little fanfare last week. Rock And Roll Love Affair’s laidback groove is the best thing he’s done in years, and shows the Purple One has made up with the internet (he once declared it “dead”). The little fella will be planking next.
CLIP ART Staggering that Psy’s Gangnam Style has become the most watched clip in the history of YouTube with 830 million views. When we filmed ourselves in a lift thrusting our groin at someone all we copped was a few views down the local cop shop and a good behaviour bond.
BACKLASH Radiohead pics by Jay Hynes seems. His tortured soul vocals take us back through unresolved emotional pain like regression therapy.
RADIOHEAD
ROD LAVER ARENA: 16/11/12 As we sit on the grass outside the venue waiting for tardy plus ones, a young dude approaches with a desperate look on his face. He explains that he’s travelled all the way down from Canberra on the off chance he can purchase two tickets for tonight’s Radiohead show. Considering scalpers/arseholes have been reselling tickets on eBay for around $500, we don’t like his chances but wish him all the best. Volunteers with clipboards assemble just inside the arena turnstiles and of course we sign the Australia: Stand Up For Tibet petition. We learn from the kid holding the clipboard that he’ll be admitted into the GA section just in time to watch Radiohead for his troubles. He’s suitably chuffed. Some fans in the house tonight
would have been forced to obtain refunds back in 2004 when Radiohead cancelled their final Melbourne show due to Thom Yorke’s illness. We’re on tenterhooks inside the stadium, willing the band to appear. Seeing multitudinous happy snaps of Radiohead’s stage set-up on Facebook, since all other states got to witness the band’s majesty ahead of us, could never adequately prepare us for the subsequent two hours. Fittingly – since it was our first taste of King Of Limbs, which is also this particular Radiohead tour name – the band open with Lotus Flower. A dozen suspended LED tiles hover above the stage, creating an eerie Big Brother (as in George Orwell’s 1984) element: all constantly reposition, both horizontally and vertically, within the stage space as if leaning in for a closer monitoring. Yorke brandishes triple maraca action and immediately shows us how to dance to these complex time signatures: like a jellyfish being electrocuted, it
There are times when three sets of drumsticks pummel skins: two bald drummers on upstage risers – Phil Selway and Portishead’s Clive Deamer (Radiohead’s additional touring drummer) – plus Jonny Greenwood, whose hair paints wild invisible arcs in the air behind his stage-level kit. Selway and Deamer drum in perfect unison while Greenwood takes care of the fills. Colin Greenwood’s bass penetrates your spine and guitarist Ed O’Brien cups his hands around his mouth where necessary to flawlessly replicate BVs. Myxomatosis proves this band is comprised of human metronomes. The fact that Yorke’s no oil painting adds to the pathos and that ponytail certainly does him no favours. Quieter moments such as Videotape showcase Yorke solo at the piano, which serves to highlight the dervish tracks such as Bodysnatchers. At times the backdrop resembles an intricate 3D mosaic made of bronze. The LED tiles join and lower to form a makeshift roof, limiting the height under which the band perform and illuminating the musicians as if we’re being given a rare glimpse inside their rehearsal crypt. Paranoid Android borders on terrifying; the combination of notes is so perfect we fear hearing this sequence performed live will cost us – like hearing an owl howl thrice means you will soon die. But it’s the perfectly executed song segues that totally do us in: There There (such wounded guitar sounds!) into Karma Police (cue deafening crowd sing-along that temporarily summarises our collective consciousness: “And for a minute there/I lost myself/I lost myself”) and a segment of (Björk’s)
THE AGE OF STUPID
Anyone else completely sick of the way The Age links to every story on its website with some stupid, edge-of-your-seat you’ll-never-guess-whathappened-next intro? We’ll tell you what’ll happen next – people will stop using your shitty website just like they’ve stopped buying your newspaper.
SHRILLS & SPILLS Nice move by the Libs to set Bishop onto Gillard over AWUgate (What?! Our media not gone there yet?). But poor old Abbott couldn’t help himself and called our PM shrill on Monday. Wonder how often he describes male counterparts as that?
GOT MILK? New internet trend ‘milking’ – filming yourself pouring milk on your head – makes ‘planking’ look like doing a physics degree. The good news for internet tools is that we’re already across the next online craze – it’s called ‘grow a brain or fuck off and die-ing’.
Unravel into Everything In Its Right Place, for which a Tibetan flag adorns Yorke’s electric piano. The two encores equal half the amount of songs presented in the main set, but it’s still not long enough. The only thing that could’ve possibly made this experience better is the inclusion of Creep. And mainly to satisfy our desire to hear both this song and Beck’s Loser (which we did at Harvest festival) in the same week – a twofold celebration of the underdog. Radiohead magnify the beauty in misery. Bryget Chrisfield
For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 45
20 BIG ONES – CHAPTER MUSIC 20TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
rock‘n’roll, without which none of us would even be reading this publication, and tonight we bear witness to two distinctly variable, though related, forms.
NORTH MELBOURNE TOWN HALL: 17/11/12
First up is the adorable Kutcha Edwards: raconteur and possessor of one of this country’s most resonant and soulful voices; more stately than a statesman and with a keen eye for despair balanced by a wicked sense of humour. Opening number Scars sets the tone for the rest of the set: a deftly balanced coming together of sadness and hope, laughter and horror, rhythm and blues. Just like James Taylor in his guest spot in The West Wing, Edwards treats us to a cover of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come. Penultimate number Roll With The Rhythm is a real showstopper, in the best sense the word could possibly evoke. Finally, closer Get Back Up Again says it all, really.
Twenty years in any industry is an achievement. Twenty years in the Australian music industry is Herculean. That it’s been done by focusing on defiantly uncommercial music speaks to the passion Chapter Music honchos Guy Blackman and Ben O’Connor have for music that is distinctly Australian and yet ignored by most of Australia. Whatever it is that they look for in an act is amply displayed today in a celebration that encompasses ten hours, two stages, a small cinema and a large merch table. Kicking things off in a formidably distinctive style are ‘90s legends Clag. Inadvertent inventors of their own genre “kindergarten pop”, though as much in debt to the Brisbane grindcore scene as they are to Mr Men books, the six-piece sound like they’re struggling with their instruments as much today as they were 15 years ago when they released the legendary Manufacturing Resent EP. To a near-capacity room of sharply dressed 30-somethings and their transfixed children, Clag hammer out a set that features Goldfish complete with gargling solo, Broken Brain, Fresh and finishes with a spectacular Chips And Gravy. It’s hard to think how a band this accidentally brilliant could exist again.
Weddings, Parties, Anything pic by Andrew Briscoe
THE AGE 2012 EG MUSIC AWARDS BILLBOARD: 20/11/12 After opening pleasantries have been exchanged and the free drinks cleaned out, tonight’s The Age EG Music Awards (this year run in conjunction with Melbourne Music Week) fires up with a barnstorming performance by fast-rising funsters The Murlocs. These Geelong boys manage to push themselves above the industry din with an excellent line in harmonica-led garage rock, warming us up for our first awards segment. On hosting duties is the ever-chipper Myf Warhurst, who is accompanied by what looks like Nikki Sixx’s girlfriend on trophy-handling duties. Warhurst wins the crowd over by letting us know that she herself was once a struggling freelancer before the bright lights of Spicks And Specks beckoned. Pretty soon after that she reminds us that Spicks And Specks is no more and it’s all a bit awkward. Bombay Royale are handed the Best New Talent gong and Lanie Lane is Best Female, all while poor old Courtney Barnett (who was nominated for both) stands ready onstage and watches. She responds with a typically laidback set that leaves no one in any doubt as to whether she gives a fuck or not (she doesn’t). As the night wears on and the Coopers starts to kick in, Jack White’s Festival Hall extravaganza is touted as Best Tour and Oh Mercy’s quantum-funk leap is acknowledged as an Outstanding Achievement. Tim Rogers is, and always will be, Best Male and he responds by letting us know that he, “fucking loves this town”. We all do by this point, especially when Ash Naylor and the regular RocKwiz orchestra (tonight billed as The EG All-Stars) start tearing into a choice selection of Best Song nominees. Starting with the eventual winner – Tame Impala’s peerless psych odyssey Elephant – they are joined by the likes of Emma Russack (exhibiting her best ‘Elaine’ dance), Mikelangelo, Jess Cornelius, Alex Gow of Oh Mercy (who goes all Curtis Mayfield on The Bamboo’s I Got Burned), Angie Hart and Ben Salter – each of them doing justice to what is a stellar list of tunes. Alpine then take out Best Album for the pristine A Is For Alpine and The Temper Trap are awarded Best Group with wannabe Mrs Sixx handing the trophy to Michael Gudinski in the band’s absence (they’re in a stadium somewhere discussing fireworks and lasers with Chris Martin). Rogers then enters stage right and gives one of the alltime greatest Hall Of Fame induction speeches. It’s long and wide-ranging: he constantly apologises, threatens to fuck someone’s girlfriend and eventually ends by describing Weddings, Parties, Anything singer Mick Thomas’s eyebrows as looking “like a tarp over an open barbeque”. The “Weddos” (past and present) are duly and deservedly inducted before what will be their final show. Thomas begins by reading a note from the cousin of departed former bassist Janine Hall and it’s a nice touch as Hall and violinist Jen Anderson become the first females to join the ranks of Paul Kelly and Hoodoo Gurus in the EG Hall Of Fame. Displaying famous humility, he then announces that he’s “got a gig to do” and kicks into She Works from WPA’s classic debut Scorn Of The Women. At this point, the whole thing becomes less an awards night and more an emotional celebration of one of the all-time great Australian bands. The first record is played in full and the guys and gal (joined tonight by original guitarist Dave Steel) throw in as many classics as they can before the bar closes around 12.30am. Shotgun
46 • For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews
Wedding, Fathers Day and a rousing version of A Tale They Won’t Believe has punters, industry types and artists alike arm-in-arm standing side of stage, on the floor and all the way up Billboard’s cascading set-up. Maybe it’s those damn Coopers again, but by the time they arrive at For A Short Time from 1997’s Riveresque, there’s not a dry eye in the house. Awards are one thing, but they’re a result of smaller things. Lugging gear, writing set lists, tuning strings, sharing beers, testing a new song or revelling in an old one – these are the little moments that lead to the shared experience of being in a band. Witnessing a hard-working, much-loved outfit like Weddings, Parties, Anything share these things for the last time before they descend into discography after nearly 30 years is a humbling experience and, on a night designed to award the music industry, it feels like the ultimate prize. Chris Hayden
THE ABYSSINIANS, JOHNNY CLARKE, IRATION STEPPAS, KINGFISHA HI-FI: 17/11/12 There’s something about these AWME shows, where even early on there’s a palpable sense of energy in the air. Brisbane six-piece reggae outfit Kingfisha really draw on the vibe of a crowd ready to party, delivering their brand of roots-reggae from the golden years. UK legends Iration Steppas huff and puff and select some of their own productions, mashing them up and vocalising over the top. “Here’s a tune from my cousin,” offers Mark Iration, “it’s gonna be big,” before dropping her sweet take on Dawn Penn’s You Don’t Love Me (No No No), name-dropping Iration Steppas in the lyrics. A little cheesy, yes, but still a lot of fun. Next up is Jamaican vocalist Johnny Clarke, probably best known for his work with Bunny Lee. Here Mista Savona supports him and he looks incredible in some kind of safari suit and little hat. Age hasn’t weathered Clarke’s vocals as he lumbers around the stage while waving a scarf bearing the Jamaican colours in the air. They rip through some classic tunes such as Roots Natty Roots and Every Knee Shall Bow. When Clarke unfurls his African roots, taking off his hat to reveal almost-ankle-length dreadlocks, the crowd goes wild. “Fasten your seatbelts,” we’re warned as The Abyssinians take the stage to thunderous applause. Dressed in matching tracksuits, with their big white beards and beatific grins, they look amazing. And for old guys they know how to move, treating us to some incredible boxing moves: uppercuts, roundhouses and a few kicks. While Wicked Men and Declaration Of Rights are early highlights, they want to clarify something: “This is not Bob Marley music, this is Rastafarian music.” But there is no denying what people have come to see. Almost immediately, with that signature slinky horn, the reception to their biggest hit, Satta Massagana, is deafening. They stretch it out and give it back to the crowd, who sing some of the verses. The Abyssinians end with djembe – one of the vocalists sits down and bashes away with wild abandon. You can’t fake the kind of joy etched on his face. As he enters some kind ecstatic percussive nirvana, the crowd, who seem to sense this, scream and keep screaming. Wow. Bob Baker Fish
Battling a misbehaving sound system, Beaches are on resolutely arresting form. Featuring several new songs, the band’s capacity to issue pulverising waves of riff has only been hardened by their time away from the gig circuit. What they lack in dynamic shifts and brevity, they more than compensate for in the nuances that reward close attention. The fluidity of Gill Tucker’s bass, Antonia Sellbach’s spidery lead lines and the sheer force of their combined vocals, as on killer track He Doesn’t Know, is enough to show there is far more going on here than the reductionist rock that a cursory listen suggests. Final track Good Comet Returns is both new and a highlight. Shooing the kids horsing around by the stage, Marty Frawley leads a tight and brilliant Twerps through a blinder of a set. Unfolding song after song of loose music played tightly, they sound sadder and angrier than on record. New song On My Shoulder allows Frawley to wield a 12-string as Julia MacFarlane (one of the finest guitarists anywhere right now) steps up to the mic to reveal yet another weapon in the band’s arsenal. Another act going from strength to strength are Pikelet who today generate more positive word of mouth than any Pitchfork review could engender. Highlighting songs from their forthcoming album (tentatively titled Calluses), defying genre and making old synths seem like something beamed back from the future, there is something entirely ‘next level’ about the set tonight. Singer Evelyn Morris and synth maestro Shags Chamberlain have mastered the art of combining arresting sounds without ever swamping the song or distracting from the deft rhythm section. Tracks Pressure Cooker, Forward Motion and closing Fleeting amaze with their capacity to get the crowd dancing and responding as though they’ve known the songs for years. “Are you ready for some folk music?” asks a relaxed and affable Laura Jean. We are. Wielding guitar and autoharp to evocative effect – and with help from a keyboard-stroking Guy Blackman – Laura Jean sings story after story of cold winters, trapped miners, sorry marriages, Smooth FM and reluctant love. She’s spellbinding, humble, funny and never anything but wholly honest, and we respond loudly and warmly. Meanwhile, downstairs is where DJs lurk as well as an acoustic stage on which Dick Diver pull out all manner of jangly dourness and sporadic hilarity. Songwriting skills shine on new songs such as Water Damage from their forthcoming album and it’s these that really impress. As does latest Chapter Music signing Johnny Telafone, a prolific bedroom composer who seemingly lives trapped between copulating robots. Electro explosions anchor songs such as Broken Hearts Are Hard To Fix, Make Your Pussy Cum and comparatively chipper single Spirit Man, though it’s Telafone’s stage presence that truly impresses. Whatever it is that unites these artists in the eyes of Chapter Music, if you were anywhere else Saturday night, you missed out on something utterly remarkable. Andy Hazel
BOUBACAR TRAORÉ, KUTCHA EDWARDS PLAYHOUSE: 17/11/12 World music and the blues are not necessarily peas in a pod that spring instantly to mind. This night, however, thanks to the Australasian World Music Expo, we are provided with an opportunity to think about this dichotomy in a more than interesting and thoroughly enjoyable way. There’s something fundamentally exhilarating about the blues, the basis as it is for
Mali blues man Boubacar Traoré hits the stage armed with his guitar, a percussionist playing some kind of instrument this scribe has never seen before, a worldbeating harmonica player whose accompaniment is more like language than music, and a suit that looks like it was designed by an African Jackson Pollock. The music we hear for the next hour is beautiful and uplifting, the lyrics sung in a language very few of us understand, and specifically designed, it seems, to move us in ways we aren’t often moved. A young African girl dances in the aisle in a manner that this writer has only ever seen in James Bond films, and somehow this says more about Traoré’s music than mere words ever could. The voice we are hearing is every bit as soulful as that of Edwards, though obviously coming from a very different place geographically. Despite the miles, though, and the wildly different timbre of the sounds, there is more that unites these two artists than separates them, and we are truly privileged to be in their presence. In the end, of course, this is a big part of what world music is all about, and this particular evening is a stunning success. Tony McMahon
OLIVER TANK, LOST ANIMAL, NO ZU WHERE?HOUSE: 20/11/12 Any thoughts you might have to “come inside for a drink in the historic Argus Building” as the sign outside Where?House states (“Ooh lovely, I’ll bring mum!” says one), are banished swiftly by the abrasive sounds jarring off the concrete walls echoing from inside and the hundreds of joyous punters, many released from exams and contemplating summer. So much care has gone into this Where?House – its provisions, events and the line-up – that this is more like a ten-day festival than a mere temporary venue. The juvenile percussion-fest of No Zu is at once colourful, danceable and full of gestures to Afro, Caribbean and funk. Their use of delay and copious bongo is reminiscent of pop’s first embrace of ‘world’ music in the early-‘80s, and they get the crowd moving in no time. Wild timbale and synth jams are anchored by some of the tightest basslines since Gang Of Four’s Entertainment! Songs feature everything and the kitchen sink from beginning to end, hampering some of the intricacies. No one cares and everyone dances. Without any warning at all, and before a crowd that must be nudging 800 people, Lost Animal bassist Shags Chamberlain walks on stage wearing a vinyl jacket, a grubby Bruce Lee t-shirt, a pair of jocks and a devil-maycare attitude. Though the raw, animal sensuality exuding from this hirsute beanpole of a man is almost palpable; somehow, the music becomes the focus of attention. Opening with Don’t Litter, singer Jarrod Quarrell is instantly fired up. Not just because that’s his usual state when spitting and sneering his way through a set, but also because this concrete bunker is geared up more for the bass thud of a rave than the complex combination of synth percussion, programmed drums and melody lines. Between every song he barks instructions to the sound engineer. Regardless, the crowd is hooked. New song Do The Jerk sounds even more tense and misanthropic than its more famous counterparts, while formidable closer Lose The Baby has lost none of its power. From such aggression and incisive intellect we move to the equally fascinating Oliver Tank: a bashful, electro, sonic wizard who creates tiny universes of warm, intimate and reversed compressed clicks in his bedroom. Based in Sydney though sounding like he lives in the attic of a house shared by The Postal Service, múm and a rampant pothead, Tank knows a lot about making a mood. The dry ice and projections against the concrete roof are reminiscent of a rave in slow motion. Almost all of his songs are about dreams and rely on repeated motifs and cyclical lyrics, bar the burst of Drop It Like It’s Hot, which sends arms in the air, girls on the shoulders of boyfriends and everyone nuts. The whole gig feels like a movement as songs segue into each other, but, amazingly, for music this gentle and intimate, the crowd react like it’s a Big Day Out, once or twice even bringing a smile from behind Tank’s dangling fringe. Andy Hazel
Elton John pic by Jay Hynes
ELTON JOHN, 2CELLOS, SCHMIDT ROD LAVER ARENA: 18/11/12 Elton John’s merch includes a few varieties of novelty sunglasses: yellow oversized star-shaped frames with blue tinted lenses, or a more realistic-sized pair with red flashing flames. A smattering of fans wear the latter on their heads inside the arena, but it’s a far cry from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto wristband effect. When Schmidt appear on stage, we’re not convinced the singer isn’t a tranny. My mum comes in handy as plus one right away, advising that the wrists are usually a telltale sign. And Elisa Schmidt’s are slender. She may very well have forgotten the lyrics at the end of Macy Gray cover I Try, but gets mum’s seal of approval: “They’re all pretty songs.” There’s a pleasing array of instruments onstage, including double bass and three woodwind instruments, but the poor guitarist suffers a string of technical difficulties tonight. Via pre-recorded video message, Sir Elton John himself introduces the next support act – 2CELLOS. This pair of Croatian cellists open with Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal (which broke them via YouTube) and each
of their bows is a flurry of broken strings. Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser mercilessly attack their bodiless instruments and mum shares, “They look all right, too.” It’s cello like you’ve never seen or heard it before and they aptly close tonight with AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, with a little help from some members of John’s backing band as they trickle on stage and join in the jam. The pink and gold drum kit is as flamboyant as Elton John as he wanders onto the stage modelling a blinged-out coat in a very unflattering length. “He is portly,” mum observes. As well as amazing drummer Nigel Olsson, who beams with excitement throughout the two-plus hour show, John’s backing band also welcomes a separate percussionist. One of the female backing vocalists executes her choreography with a lot less enthusiasm than her three companions and when this scribe expresses annoyance, mum retorts, “Don’t look at her then!” When John later introduces his outstanding backing band, we learn it’s Rose Stone; one of the leading singers in Sly & The Family Stone and also a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, no less. Her daughter Lisa is also on the payroll and looks joyous as she belts out perfectly formed notes that linger in the air
for impossibly extended time periods. When it’s guitarist Davey Johnstone’s turn to be introduced, we learn he’s been by John’s side for the best part of 40 years.
SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80, THE BOMBAY ROYALE
Many times throughout the night our ears tune in to John’s wonderfully descriptive lyrics. He’s meticulous in painting mental pictures of individuals or capturing a specific moment in time. Take the opening line of Tiny Dancer: “Blue jean baby/LA lady/Seamstress for the band.” Daniel strikes a similar chord as lucid visuals materialise in our mind’s eyes. John tells us that of all his performances over the years, the most memorable would have to be the “concert for 9/11” (The Concert For New York City) in Madison Square Gardens. He jokes that he couldn’t exactly play Crocodile Rock at the event, so instead chose Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters, which mentions New York within the lyrics. This introduction adds gravitas to John’s subsequent bare-bones performance of the song.
HI-FI: 19/11/12
John points to individual fans in between songs although we wonder whether he can actually see that far these days. Tears well just below the surface during Candle In The Wind and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The search light effect throughout Rocket Man (which has now been around for 40 years) directs our gaze to the periphery of this vast stadium. John’s various shades of bedazzled blue outfit embodies I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues and mum’s particularly into this song. We even rise to our feet to jig along with Crocodile Rock and Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting. Before the encore, John signs pretty much everything his security guard passes up from outreaching hands in the front rows (including a shoe and a personalised “ELTON” number plate). John then dedicates Your Song to all of us and we’re left with the following touching sentiment that’s enough to make sublimely satisfied singles ache for a life partner: “I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words/How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” As we wander back down Olympic Boulevard towards the car, points of discussion include John as piano virtuoso and his ability to tickle the ivories while facing away from, and pointing at, the crowd. He used to put his leg up on the piano though, didn’t he? “Oh, no!” Mum insists. “That was Billy Joel. Elton’s never been able to get those little legs up anywhere. He’s what – five foot nothing?” Bryget Chrisfield
Melbourne’s The Bombay Royale look to Bollywood for inspiration, buying into a fantasy world of surf guitar, super villains and damsels in distress. There’s a cruise ship captain and the horn section wear masks. In front of a typically excitable Australasian World Music Expo (AWME) crowd they tear through tracks from their recent debut album You Me Bullets Love, the searing funk of Sote Sote Adhi Raat a highlight. When Egypt 80 take to the stage, the Hi-Fi Bar is bursting at the seams. Their sound is well honed after decades of performing: taut, primed and ready to explode. Afrobeat doesn’t get more urgent, more life-affirming than this. Seun Kuti appears and is immediately onto the sax, kicking everything up a notch. He’s playing his father’s Zombie “out of respect for the man”, and it’s incredible to the point of being overwhelming. Next up they launch into Fire Dance from their debut album and the band feel even tighter. This is the way music should be: relentless, primal and precise. Kuti is all over the stage, writhing in time with the music and offering urgent sax solos, though also stopping occasionally to talk politics. “Africa is the world’s experiment,” he proclaims. “You want austerity? We’ve had it for years. You should send over the Europeans, we can train them in austerity and then send them back.” He chuckles to himself before launching into Rise Up. This title track felt a little indulgent on his last record, but is a welcome breather from the relentless energy when performed live. The Good Leaf is also preceded by a monologue, with Kuti pondering how marijuana, something that occurs naturally, could be illegal. Earthquakes kill many more people yet they’re legal, he suggests. Tonight, most of the tunes come from his recent From Africa With Fury: Rise album, and Kuti is a passionate spokesperson for his continent. It’s not just in his banter with the crowd, or his lyrics, but also his energy, intelligence and sheer musicianship. The band is of course a weapon – they know no other way than totally uncompromising pedal to the metal. In the audience, bodies are flying everywhere – the effect this music has is remarkable. When he finally leaves the stage, the roar for an encore is among the loudest noises that this writer has ever heard. But this is what Kuti and Egypt 80 do; they ignite the listener, in both body and mind. Bob Baker Fish
Drawing
For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 47
ROOTS DOWN
ADAMANTIUM WOLF
WAKE THE DEAD
BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTS@INPRESS.COM.AU
THE HEAVY SHIT WITH LOCHLAN WATT
HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH SARAH PETCHELL
up is pretty killer: Extortion, The Day Everything Became Nothing and Internal Nightmare will kick things off from 8pm. Female-fronted US metal group Otep will return to Australia for three shows in April with Darkc3ll from the Sunshine Coast. You can catch them at the Hi-Fis in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on 25, 26 and 27 April, respectively.
The Break This week’s column comes to you from a macadamia nut farm in Fernleigh on the North Coast of NSW, apparently just down the road from the house where a lot of the surfers featured n the classic 1972 surf film, Morning Of The Earth, were based. Of course half-anhour down the road lies Byron Bay, the home of Bluesfest, which last week announced its first round of Australian acts for the 2013 event. There weren’t too many surprises in the announcement for me; the hugely popular The Cat Empire appear to be well and truly back in festival mode, Xavier Rudd had a huge record released this year and Kiwi’s Fat Freddy’s Drop are doing huge business in the live arena right now. But the two exciting acts in my often less than humble opinion had been announced as supports for a couple of Bluesfest sideshows already and I was hoping like hell they’d be included. Beasts Of Bourbon are, for me, a perfect band to play Bluesfest for a number of reasons. Their music, while undoubtedly more aggressive than forlorn, is steeped in the blues, but in such a gritty, gutsy way. I know everyone raves about their 1984 debut, The Axeman’s Jazz – and it’s a great record – but, for me, it’s the dirgy, intoxicated romp that was their second record, 1988’s Sour Mash, that shows them at their best. Next time you’ve found yourself halfway through a bottle of something dark late on a Saturday night, give it a spin. They’re still a fucking killer rock’n’roll band as they approach 30 years since their formation and it’s nice to see them back. I consider The Break’s Church Of The Open Sky to be one of the more underrated Aussie records of recent years and I’ve heard whispers that it won’t be very long before the band release their follow-up. I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but I feel there has been a resurgence in the popularity of Midnight Oil in the past couple of months as the band issue a new compilation and get a little more media attention and it has, personally, reminded me of what a vital band they were. Hearing members of The Oils direct their aggressive style of playing into the surf genre is really exciting, particularly given the way that “surf music” has been perceived in Australia over the past decade or so (no disrespect intended, but Jack Johnson and his ilk don’t exactly inspire me to wax up the stick and start chasing those long green barrels again). With new material in hand the band are going to hopefully turn a few more people onto this more classic surf music at Bluesfest 2013. On a similar note, I was very interested – and excited – to hear that Deniliquin are getting a slice of the Bluesfest pie with the Deni Blues & Roots Festival featuring some killer acts like Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Cliff, Santana, Tony Joe White and Steve Miller Band. What I found even more interesting though was the fact that they’ve added a string of local acts already that I think are going to be a great fit for what I can imagine will be a pretty rock’n’roll blues event. Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Chris Wilson/ Geoff Achison Band, Gallie & Shannon Bourne, Collard Greens & Gravy, Morgan Evans, Ward’s Xpress and the Marco Goldsmith Band are all on the bill, which just makes the event seem even more fun. The intimate event holds just 9000 people and takes place in Deni over Saturday 30 March and Sunday 31. I have to be completely honest; I’ve never heard a single song from John C. Reilly and Friends, but I will admit to laughing my arse off at a few of Reilly’s films and would definitely be taking the gamble on seeing him play as a part of a bluegrass trio. If you’re willing to let intrigue get the better of you, make your way to either The Factory Theatre in Sydney on Monday 3 December or Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club on Thursday 6. It can’t be worse than that Tim Robbins set a few years ago, can it?
48 • For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog
King Parrot This week’s column comes at you from a living room in Malaysia. The vocalist of a band called Daighila lives here – we were lucky enough to play with them in Singapore the other night and witness their unique mix of progressive, violent punk and metal sounds. Turns out they were meant to tour Australia back in May 2008 but were sent home after spending a day in detention at Melbourne Airport, under suspicion of wanting to immigrate illegally and find work, despite having already booked return flights home. Sure, they didn’t have the proper entertainment visas, but I can assure you that a large portion of touring bands don’t and the white guys never get questioned. That same year I brought a US group into Australia to play similar shows on tourist visas and we didn’t have a single problem with immigration. Doesn’t that seem to highlight an obvious spot of racism to you? Australia is physically much closer to Asia than we are Europe or America, and stronger relations between our underground music scenes need to be encouraged. Next year is looking to work out better for the group. Fast-rising local grind/thrash lords King Parrot launch their 12” LP Bite Your Head Off this Saturday at the Tote. The line-
Bloodline Festival, a charity metal show for autistic children, has been confirmed to take place at the Hi-Fi in Brisbane on 17 March. A lot of bands have already been confirmed: Lynchmada, A Breach Of Silence, As Silence Breaks, Alice Through The Windshield Glass, 4 Dead In 5 Seconds, I Shall Devour, Down Royale, Beserkerfox, Kyzer Soze, Devour The Martyr and Absolution. Expect more to come. Local post-black metal group Nontiuum have released a new EP, which is available for free download. Check out The Stars You Gathered, The Stars I Destroyed over at nontinuum.bandcamp.com – if you choose to donate $10 or more for your download, they’ll send you a free t-shirt. Former host of triple j’s The Racket, Andrew Haug, has finally launched his own 24/7 digital radio station, with live shows happening on both Monday evenings and Tuesday mornings. Check out andrewhaug. com for the various ways you can stream. Swedish goth/electro metallers Deathstars are coming back next year – they’ll play at the Corner Hotel on 4 May. The Czech Republic-based Extreme Obscene Festival will be touring around the world early next year, hitting Melbourne from 12 to 13 April at a venue TBC. Swedish grindcore group Rotten Sound have been the first group confirmed to play – hopefully they can manage a few more shows up and down the coast.
GOOD OR SHIT ALTERNATIVE POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH LIZ GALINOVIC
No Doubt The details are sketchy. It was 14 or 15 years ago, a Saturday night, we were about 14 or 15 ourselves. I remember losing my dragon necklace in the grounds of a primary school where we’d been engaged in a terrific evening of underaged drinking and acid trips, the latter being all the rage when I was a teenager. The memory of the dragon necklace indicative of the layers and layers of brightly coloured petticoats I would have been wearing as outerwear and a pair of Doc Martins to boot (ha, sorry). What I remember of that evening with the most clarity is sitting on the steps of a building on Sydney’s Norton St with two of my girlfriends singing No Doubt’s Sunday Morning. The mental footage is old and grainy. Cracked, crinkled, parts of it completely destroyed. I don’t remember going to meet our guy friends that night, I don’t remember sitting on a footbridge that went over a main road and spitting on the cars below (as I was recently informed), but I do remember sitting on the steps singing that song and every time I hear that song I remember it. “You came in with the breee-eeeeze...” Of the three girls sitting on the steps that night, only two are alive today. Our friend Chantelle is dead. Learning about No Doubt’s new album gave me the weirdest feeling. Certainly I was apprehensive about the actual music, but conversely – and kind of bizarrely – I was very excited. Almost a little ‘Yay! The team is back together and now everything is going to be OK’. The hype was
huge. It was all ‘Diplo has produced parts of it! And … Diplo has produced parts of it! And… no that’s it! Diplo has produced parts of it!’ I eagerly brought up YouTube and began playing the first two singles – Settle Down and title track Push And Shove, the latter of which Diplo has produced parts of. And it was nice to see these oddballs at it again. And they really are quite odd. Very over the top in a, ‘Yeah, we’re weird and we don’t give a fuck’ kind of way. And the tunes have the same sort of awkward mashing of genres that the band is famous for. Not so much ‘avant garde’, more chaositivity. I’m not going to say it’s shit, but I’m not going to buy the album and listen to them on my way to the station. It’s just not my thing. Not quite hitting a mark I wanted it to hit. However, I feel this bizarre sense of loyalty to them. As though they’re my close friends. As though they know me. As though the day Gwen and I took the big pink ribbon off our respective sets of eyes, back in nineteen-ninety-whatever, was the beginning of a defining period. And as the dancehallish Bollywood-ish beat of Diplo produced Push And Shove moved into the slow head-banging rock of the chorus, I knew where I had to go and who I had to go there with. I emailed the women I was closest to back then and we went back to Tragic Kingdom. Back then, No Doubt was what we needed. And what they’ve got now isn’t hitting the same spot. And maybe that’s because that spot isn’t there anymore? Maybe we have grown up and grown out of it? And maybe No Doubt should too. Tragic Kingdom, as one of my friends said, is a very defining and memorable place in time for us. And a couple of years ago, sitting in a coffee shop one afternoon trying to get used to living in a world without our friend Chantelle, I mentally begged her for a sign. Some people say that the dead never really leave you and I desperately wanted to believe that was true. As soon as I’d asked for this sign, the music in the cafe changed abruptly mid-track. They started playing No Doubt’s Sunday Morning. Adam Curley is on leave and The Breakdown will return soon.
Northlane I want to start off this week and salute the solidarity that the Australian hardcore scene has shown in speaking out against the misogynistic and downright foul violence depicted in the video clip by a certain Gold Coast-based band. Labels, members of the scene in general and promoters have all spoken out against the video that depicts a girl cheating on her boyfriend and being brutally murdered by the aforementioned boyfriend in retaliation. A lot has been made about the reaction with discussions on both sides, but this is an opinion column so I’m going to express my thoughts. The depiction of this type of violence – no matter which way you look at it – is wrong and it is something that should not be stood for. Broken Hive Records said, “Boycott violence against women or any violence based upon sexual preference and gender. Any band that supports or promotes such actions has no place in hardcore and we shouldn’t stand by and accept such views.” For me, it is disgraceful, completely unacceptable and to quote Poison City Records, it will “never be condoned”. It’s not ironic, it’s not a joke, it’s not funny. It’s just violence for the sake of violence, there is no defence for it and that is the end of it. It has been a long while but Bad Brains have released a new album and it’s causing a bit of a ruckus, with people not quite sure what to make of it, which is interesting considering that the band are calling it their purest work since the very early days. The album, titled Into The Future, is their first since 2007 and was released last week through Megaforce Records. Said guitarist Darryl Jennifer, “Into The Future is the purest Bad Brains recordings since the ROIR cassette. A treat for the hardcore Bad Brains’ fan, with a variety of styles and creative progression not seen in years.” Geoff Rickly (ex-Thursday vocalist) has been touring as a solo act. In the last week, Rickly has released a mixtape of solo material which can be downloaded free of charge from his Bandcamp. Called simply Mixtape 1, the collection of tracks sounds a lot like the material that Thursday released on their last album, No Devolucion. The thing that makes it a bit more surreal is that apparently the majority of the material on the mixtape was written while Rickly was in his apartment during Hurricane Sandy. Said Rickly of the recording: “There are no strings attached, no hidden marketing games. This doesn’t reflect my belief that music should be free or any desire to revolutionise an industry. I just want to do this myself, for now. No art-by-committee, no selling music. Just me and my friends at home, making songs (bedroom songs, songs not too polished up). I’ll keep making more of these and giving them to you when I finish. Maybe someday I’ll make a proper record and sell it. Maybe not.” One of the bands that have made waves in 2012 are Sydney’s Northlane. Following the release of their debut full-length Discoveries, the band have supported the likes of Parkway Drive and August Burns Red, as well as numerous tours of their own. Now the guys are getting set to embark on one of their most ambitious tours to date, a massive regional tour. In January 2013, Northlane will be heading down the East and along the South Coast of Australia, playing the types of shows that earned them their reputation in the first place. Called the Worldeater Tour, the band will be playing small rooms with cheap ticket prices, bringing along for the ride their UNFD labelmates In Heart’s Wake and Sydney up-and-comers Endless Heights. You can catch the tour when it hits the Neil Wilson Pavilion in Wodonga on Friday 18 January, the Mechanics Institute in Ballarat on Saturday 19, and Kulcha Shift in Warrnambool on Monday 21. Tickets are on sale now. Last up this week, it’s that time of year again where you need to hit up Stu Harvey and tell him what your favourite albums of 2012 were. I’m of course talking about the Short.Fast.Loud end of year poll. This year, voting has been made super easy. All you need to do is head to triplej.net.au/shortfastloud and click the big icon that says VOTE HERE. Go and do it, and if you need any inspiration here’s a few: Hoodlum Shouts, The Ghost Inside and Converge.
THE TV SET
OG FLAVAS
INTELLIGIBLE FLOW
ANDREW MAST TAKES A BIG LOOK AT THE SMALL SCREEN
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
HIP HOP NEWS & COMMENTARY WITH ALEKSIA BARRON
scheduled for Laneway is Company Flow MC El-P, his Cancer4Cure comeback hailed by critics.
Lianne La Havas Plan B hit Parklife on the back of iLL Manors – and now other international hip hop, R&B and soul acts with hot releases are touring Australia this summer. For starters, Compton lyricist extraordinaire Kendrick Lamar is here next month for his first headlining trek. Dr Dre’s newest protégé has just unleashed his major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Samantha Jade My mum loves Samantha Jade. Like most people, however, my mum had never heard of Samantha Jade a few months ago. Now Jade has the number one single in the country – one of the fastest selling singles of 2012, one that has been certified platinum within days of release. To be quite blunt – Jade’s single What You’ve Done To Me is awful. But we never expect that much from our TV talent show winners. A generic song must be ready to roll out within minutes of the winner being crowned in the hope that viewers will click the iTunes ‘buy’ button while still riding the wave of euphoria they experience from watching the conclusion of this ‘rags to riches’ story. Long before The X Factor, Jade switched careers from child model to R&B singer. Back then (the late noughties) she was signed to the Jive label and her family relocated to LA to support her singing career. Yes, that Jive – the label that gave us Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Jade was put to work straight away – Jive rarely muck around. Soon Jade was in the studio with the likes of Timbaland, Lil Jon and Rodney Jerkins – heavyweights of the US R&B scene back then.
The revered Afro-futurist Flying Lotus lately dropped his fourth LP, Until The Quiet Comes, which broke into the US charts. He totally reinvents psy-trance with Erykah Badu on the jazzy See Thru To U. The Californian auteur will appear at Perth’s Origin NYE and Melbourne’s Let Them Eat Cake festival, but not (as of yet) in Sydney or Brisbane. Strange. FlyLo isn’t the only Australia-bound alt.urban producer. Glasgow’s Hudson Mohawke is returning, as is AraabMuzik, who this year produced Azealia Banks’ Succubi and Slaughterhouse’s Hammer Dance. They’re joining Mark Ronson (DJing) at Summadayze/Field Day/Summafieldayze. The hipster rapper – and sometime comedian – Childish Gambino, who broke out with 2011’s Camp, is touring with the Big Day Out (the commercial BoB is billed, too). Dude recently cameo-ed on Leona Lewis’ less cred Trouble. As well as his BDO slots, Mr Gambino is also doing sideshows. Indie kids are loving post-dubstep soul, and Jessie Ware is a buzzworthy Laneway act, together with Poliça. Plus she has sideshows. The Brit has teamed with mysterious Japanese producers BenZel to cover ‘90s New Jill Swing group Brownstone’s If You Love Me – a viral sensation. Meanwhile, Universal is plugging the latest single from her Devotion LP, Night Light, with Joe Goddard’s (Hot Chip) remix applying Factory Records cool to ‘80s boogie. Likewise
The TV Set watched bits and pieces of this year’s The X Factor. It’s not as excruciating as some purists would have you believe but it certainly isn’t as fun as watching Michonne slice off zombie heads in The Walking Dead (though The X Factor at times could do with a judge as forthright as Michonne). But the inane prattlings of The X Factor judges makes for sad television. Yeah, yeah, having to look pretty and sound like everyone else is honest enough advice but what did that do for Random? Random! Yeah, they won the first local X Factor in 2005. (Hell, whatever happened to Altiyan Childs?*) How about one of the judges saying: “That was a bit pitchy but do you have a good lawyer to look over any future contracts you might sign?” Or “Do you write your own material? Are you signed up to APRA?” Or “Do you know about syncing deals?” What has The X Factor and its disappearing ilk been teaching the next generation of wannabe singers? A Christmas number one is all you need and then the world of spruiking weight loss programs is at your feet. When hard work and good songwriting doesn’t pay off, a hard-luck story and mimicking this week’s number one pop singer will. *My mum doesn’t know what’s happened to Altiyan Childs either. Check out more The TV Set ramblings at themusic.com.au/blog
Not into the new electronic urban? Lianne La Havas, playing the Sydney Festival and other East Coast dates in January, is a female counterpart to the folk’n’b Michael Kiwanuka – although she’s not necessarily a traditionalist. La Havas adores Lauryn Hill and her autobiographical debut Is Your Love Big Enough? – like Kiwanuka’s Home Again and Ware’s Devotion nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize – recalls Hill’s MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, especially the song Mystery Of Iniquity, but it’s subtler and more polished, and less preachy or indignant. La Havas has been compared to Corinne Bailey Rae, but happily OG ain’t hearing it. The South London art student sang backing vocals for Paloma Faith before issuing last year’s Lost & Found EP, encompassing No Room For Doubt, a gentle duet with US folkie Willy Mason. Is Your Love… has songs led by acoustic guitar (the wry Age) and piano (dramatic Gone), but the best are those with intricate and textured arrangements – no doubt influenced by producer Matt Hales, aka Aqualung – such as the Latin-flavoured Au Cinéma. The album opens with Don’t Wake Me Up, which begins as a multi-tracked a cappella somewhere between Hill’s classic doo-wop and Bon Iver’s ambiently AutoTuned Woods. The title-track is neo-soul with bluesy inflections (think Jess Harlen). The fervent Forget is exotic electronic funk-rock. And They Could Be Wrong is Ronny Jordan-mode acid jazz. Bring on the tour!
THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY
Jade dropped a single, Turn Around. It was a sweet lil’ R&B burner, no great shakes but it at least showcased a voice that showed some promise. But the single lacked radio support, the album never surfaced, Jive fell off the face of the planet and Jade’s family returned to Perth.
Yet more urban stars are down for March’s Future Music Festival, none bigger than PSY. Nicki Minaj may be in the country right now, coinciding with the repackage of her half-assed Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, but more va va voom is the prospect of the aforementioned Azealia Banks embarking on a full Australian tour. Sure, Banks’ slot at Splendour In The Grass was a letdown but, come FMF, her debut Broke With Expensive Taste will be out and she’ll have sufficient material.
Rod Stewart The woman hasn’t wiped away the hair pasted with sweat to her forehead. There’s no point. It’s too hot. The heat is everywhere. She looks out the door of the caravan park reception office, which doubles as the entrance to a cement-and-tin bar, then back to me and squints. “I’ll have to check,” she says. I copy her, surveying the rows of caravan sites outside. The vacant rows. The many vacant rows. “Sure,” I say as she exits to retrieve a shotgun or a biker gang or the chains she’ll use to tie us up and gut us like the fish in the photos on the wall, held by thick men in bandanas clutching Jack Daniel’s tinnies in their free hands. I look to my friends behind me. They smirk. This was probably a bad idea.
are in fact permanent fixtures – weeds in their tyres and awnings bolted to their roofs. A bone-thin man with a convict beard watches me as I pass. He’s in a foldout chair nursing a gin UDL. He’s singing to himself and crying. Sobbing. I nod to him. Offering a sign of peace seems a good idea; in the event it clicks that the police haven’t tracked him down yet so he might as well add a few city hipsters to his victim tally. He doesn’t return the gesture. My friends go for a walk on the beach and I stay at the van to read. I soon realise I’ve left my sunglasses on the bathroom counter and go to retrieve them. They’re gone. Big surprise. I half expect to see the old convict sporting a pair of knock-off RayBans when I pass him on my way to the office. He isn’t, but there is a pair remarkably similar in the sunglasses rack next to the office counter. The price tag demands $39. I pick them up and look at the woman. She glares at me. I put them back. Another woman stops me before I reach the van. She’s lost everything. Kids are gone. The nests in the trees are green ants. She’ll leave me alone.
Clairview was a last-minute but obvious choice as a place to stay a couple of nights on our ten-day road trip along the Queensland coast. It’s one of the few points where the Bruce Highway meets the ocean, and we’re avoiding bigger towns, the comforts and aqua aerobics classes of Big 4 parks. But we weren’t expecting this and there are no towns for hours either side. We took the exit and crawled past a single line of houses – about eight in all – to a public toilet fronted by a sign reading Community Centre. We only noticed the skull and crossbones flag flying at the caravan park’s base after the sunburnt woman at reception had lain her scowling eyes on us.
As the sun sets the locals come. My friends are still walking. The weathered couples trundle up the dirt drive and take their spots in the bar. They greet each other with hard pats and hurled nicknames: “Pig! Bertie!” Their conversation comes in fragments and threatening cackles, punctuated by the shrieks of the lorikeets in the trees. “Leave me alone you old perv,” a woman groans. Not long after, a man: “Everybody’s gotta die sometime.” I close my eyes and listen, trying to find a place here, seeking out the invisible space where I’m not concerned, not amused. Trying to avoid the fear that I belong here more than I’d ever admit.
She returns with a slow, sad-looking man in a cowboy hat who wearily approves us and we drive the van to a corner spot overlooking the water, away from the other caravans and as far as we can get from the office/bar, which is still close enough to sense the woman’s eyes on us as we set up. I walk to the bathroom and see that most of the caravans
Eventually music starts up. I look over and they’re gathered at the tables, glued to a television. Rod Stewart’s face glows and makes scruffy silhouettes of them. It’s a live concert. He’s singing The Great Pretender, an old memory, boofy hair. They’re fixed to it, silent. Behind me the old convict is still faintly crying. I hear his sobs at every break in the notes.
The Silent Titan Producers don’t always find their way into the limelight as easily as MCs. Everyone loves a killer beat, but they don’t always have the same fanbase-building currency as a catchy chorus. Touring is tricky too – it’s harder to work a crowd from behind the decks and laptops. However, producers play an inarguably vital role in hip hop, and the breadth and depth of Australia’s production talent pool has gone a long way to lifting the local scene to new heights. There have been some great albums released in 2012 by dedicated producers, including Ishu’s Hand Made and The Silent Titan’s Outer Circle Movements. Both artists have stepped up to centre stage to tell Intelligible Flow a little bit about their work. When did you start making music? Ishu: I studied classical guitar as a teenager, then got into the acoustic singer-songwriter scene in Sydney. I was studying a diploma in music and decided I’d start trying to record myself at home so got interested in the production side of things. After a few years, I slowly started producing beats and put down the guitar. The Silent Titan: I first started making beats in high school, around 2000, using an Akai MPC 1000. My dad has a decent record collection of mainly ‘60s and ‘70s psych, R&B and soul, so I had pretty good leverage as far as being a sample-based producer. How do you feel about your new album? Ishu: Relieved! So much time and effort goes into the production of an album from start to finish, it’s a relief to finally say, ‘It’s done’, and put it out there. The Silent Titan: I’m super happy with how this record turned out. I set out to make a record that didn’t sound like it was from any corner of the globe. The record doesn’t sound like it was made in London, doesn’t sound like beats out of Brooklyn and definitely doesn’t sound like some kid twiddling knobs in his little studio in the Blue Mountains, Australia. First beat you ever made? Ishu: A song called Unoriginal... a dark, industrial beat with metallic-sounding samples. It wasn’t really hip hop, more like just a general sound design thing. Worst beat you ever made? The Silent Titan: The worst beat I’ve ever made included a loop from Michael Jackson’s Thriller with some awful weak drums over the top. From that day forward, I knew that classics shouldn’t be fucked with, unless you’re going to cut them up beyond recognition! What was your favourite moment in putting this album together? Ishu: The reality of it being finished really hits home when you receive the final production run of hundreds of CDs. You know then that there’s absolutely nothing more you can do to it in terms of production. The Silent Titan: Definitely getting the chance to have Oddisee rap on my beats. The guy is a beast on the mic, has the work ethic I strive for, and has had a huge influence on my production too. If you haven’t heard these records, make sure you check them out. Ishu’s Hand Made is creative and complex, and features the likes of Jeswon (Thundamentals), Mantra, 1/6 and Omar Musa. He’s also got a gig coming up on Wednesday 19 December at Bar Open’s Uncomfortable Beats night. The Silent Titan’s Outer Circle Movements is chock-full of interesting samples and demonstrates a commitment to musical composition, and the Oddisee track, In The Middle, is absolutely sublime. Producers may not draw the easy glory that MCs at the front of the stage can command, but they sure craft some incredible music.
For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog • 49
SINGLE FOCUS
RED ALERT Simon Burke & The Meltdown are a new eightpiece soul/jazz group that plays the dance music of the ‘60s. It’s just what you need this Friday night at Bar Open. The doors open at 10pm with free entry.
THE ART OF LIVE MUSIC The latest exhibition by Hola Holga at Old Bar looks at the architecture of the bars, pubs and clubs that put on local bands. On Tuesday 11 December Ali E, Rich Davies and Mightiest Of Guns will all appear to open the show. Head along after a heavy weekend at Meredith.
DOING THE DO Red Bull Music Academy presents the Australian debut of famed Hollywood party The Do-Over this weekend, with hosts Aloe Blacc, Haycock and Strong, plus mystery guests. Founder Jamie Strong tells us about the party’s inspiration. What’s been the most memorable Do-Over you’ve staged? London during the Olympics was pretty epic. We threw a block party with ?uestlove, Benji B, Damian Marley, Wayne Marshall, J Rocc, Nicodemus and Phonte. There were thousands of people dancing in the rain.
DAISIES PLAY EASY TOMAS STRODE & THE TOUR GUIDES – THE SWORD What’s the song about? Tomas Strode, singer-songwriter: In short, it’s about blame. I think we are all very quick to point the finger, but never really take the time to look at our own actions. That’s what it’s roughly about anyway.
Livingstone Daisies will launch their debut single Blue Solitude/Keep Searching on Sunday 9 December at the Tote Hotel. The line-up starts at 3pm with Grizzle Jim Lowrie and Jacky Winter.
HARRY, STU DO THE TANGO The Stu Thomas Paradox are descending on the Gasometer on Saturday 1 December. The headline act on the night is Harry Howard & The NDE, with the newly reformed punk-goth, pop-psych trio Gold Tango.
Is this track from a forthcoming/ existing release? It’s the first single from our forthcoming album Graceful Mistake, which is due for release in mid-2013. How long did it take to write/record? The song itself came together pretty quickly, but the arranging and recording of the song and album has been a year-long project.
For more info see: tomasstrode.com
SEVERED HEADS King Parrot launch their debut album Bite Your Head Off at the Tote this Saturday with a monster line-up featuring Extortion, The Day Everything Became Nothing and Internal Nightmare.
IN THE CITY Tonight Bar Open hosts some good old psychedelia and shoegaze. It’s the debut gig for Lioness Eye, and they’ll be joined by Lunar Ghost and The Citradels.
HOWARD’S ALL AT SEA Sea Legs are joined at Bar Open this Thursday by Howard, Koala Kings and Emily Shobbrook. Something a bit different for a Thursday night. The doors open at 9pm with free entry.
System Of Venus
THANKS FOR THE BLUES Shaun Kirk isn’t slowing down. He plays the Commonground Festival (Mansfield) this Friday, Ruby’s Lounge (Belgrave) on Saturday, Grind N Groove (Healesville) on Friday 7 December and the Workers Club on Saturday 8.
CHEERS TO FRANKENBOK Frankenbok play the Mynt Lounge in Werribee with Diprosus in support on Friday 7 December. Their new album will be released in early 2013.
SMASHING SUNDAY Vaudeville Smash bring in the summer with a final 2012 show at the Workers Club this Sunday. They will be supported by Charlotte Nicdao. Door tickets are $12.
For those of you on the westside itching for a good show, get yourself along to the Sound Bar in Hopper’s Crossing this Saturday and catch System Of Venus, The Trembling, Long Holiday and Grossgod.
SERPENTINE STREAM River Of Snakes are returning to Cherry Bar as part of the ‘The 2012 Best Of The Wednesday Residencies’ month throughout December. They will be joined by Geelong’s newest sludge punks The Kremlings. So head down to Cherry Bar on Wednesday 5 December.
WHAT’S THE GO-GO Anna’s go-go classes have been described as “inspiring”, “a retro hit parade… everything from Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock to AC/DC’s Jailbreak”, and a “high energy dance party” with the hostess with the mostest. Head along this Thursday to the Vic Hotel from 6pm.
RON’S RUM Luwow and Ye Olde Rum Club are hosting the launch of their very own official LuWOW tiki mug tonight with Ron Jeremy splashing around cocktails featuring his ‘rum for adults’. Half-price rums all night!
50 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news
Any clues as to who the mystery guests will be? Hmmm… three of our personal favourite DJs all residing from the States. The Do-Over takes place at the Circa Pool Deck from 2pm this Sunday 2 December. Entry is free; rsvp at thedoover.net/melbourne.
MILES AHEAD Simone Page Jones and Miles O’Neil’s songs are set in the folk/country tradition. Catch Miles & Simone as they play the Retreat this Thursday night after Benezra at 9pm. Entry is free.
LIGHT GRAVE Buried Feather return to the Retreat Hotel this Friday. With support from Honey Badgers at 9.30pm, this is sure to be a night not to miss. Entry is free.
THE MAIN ATTRACTION The Sideshow Brides are sisters Layla and Rhianna Fibbins. Catch them this Saturday afternoon from 4pm in the Retreat Hotel front bar followed by Wild Turkey at 7.30pm. Entry is free.
WINNIN’ IT Rosencrants are aggressive, psychotic and sensual. They will be putting on a night of garage rock‘n’roll this Saturday with The Naysayers at the Retreat Hotel. It’s free entry with The Naysayers beginning at 10pm.
VOODOO SPACEMEN
Deserters team up with good mate Davey Lane for a special evening do at Yah Yah’s this Sunday. Come see what the fuss is about, from 7.30pm.
What can Melbourne party-goers expect? Expect the unexpected.
It’s the last show for Chris Altmann’s Wednesday night residency at the Retreat Hotel front bar tonight. Then, this Saturday at the Caravan Music Club, you can catch The Chris Altmann Revue, a night of country soul featuring Henry Wagons, Van Walker, Liz Stringer, Suzannah Espie and more. Doors open at 8pm.
Kutcha Edwards will take to the stage for his debut performance at the Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine) this Saturday to play songs off his newly released album Blak & Blue. The doors open at 8.30pm with entry $12.
THE DESERTION OF DAVEY
Why did you choose Melbourne for your first Australian Do-Over? We heard Melbourne would best appreciate the three things above.
CHEERS CHRIS
CATCH KUTCHA
Flyying Colours are playing with a huge lineup at Yah Yah’s this Saturday including Warmth Crashes In, Ovals and The Laughing Leaves. The music starts at 9pm with free entry from 5pm.
What are three things every good party needs? Good music, good vibes and a good ratio of women/men.
Ballarat Ska Orchestra will get you jumping, moving and grooving with their big dance sound. They play LuWOW Forbidden Temple this Thursday from 8pm with $10 entry or free for members.
Performing every Sunday in December are Sean McMahon’s Western Union at the Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine). The band will be playing songs off their latest album Live At The Last Hotel.
EASY PASS
And all-time fave summer jam? Leo’s Sunship – Give Me The Sunshine.
MUSIC FROM THE RAT
TO THE BRIDGE
Voodoocain, Plastic Spaceman and Two Headed Dog will play Yah Yah’s this Thursday. The music starts at 9pm with free entry from 5pm.
ALL SYSTEMS GO
What was the inspiration behind the very first Do-Over party? My birthday party as well as wanting to try something different. All of the daytime/ outdoor events were cheesy pool parties and that wasn’t really our vibe so we wanted to throw the exact opposite of that. More of a backyard house party vibe with good music.
How has the party grown over the past seven years? It’s allowed us to bring our musical platform to a much bigger and international audience, but the vibe and overall experience is quite important to us no matter the location.
We’ll like this song if we like… Angus & Julia Stone, Mumford & Sons, Boy & Bear, Bon Iver.
Will you be launching it? We will! At the Grace Darling Hotel on Thursday 29 November. We have some cool supports too: Rat & Co and Nigel B Swifte.
Haycock, Strong and Aloe Blacc
What do you remember about that first party? Not much. It’s hard to remember what happened at our last party this past weekend.
What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? We definitely had a big listen to what Bon Iver and Feist did on their latest albums. We ended up going for a more ‘70s-style production with this song though, a bit more of a Bob Dylan or Nick Drake sound, I guess.
Do you play it differently live? It honestly depends on our band for the night. We aim to play it much the same at the single launch. We have all the instruments covered anyway.
Perfect summer drink? Sangria.
UP PERCH CREEK
Sheriff
Perch Creek Family Jugband play this Friday at the Caravan Club with special guests Bearded Gypsy Band and launch their new single on Saturday at new Brunswick venue the Spotted Mallard.
HEAD WESTWOOD Craig Westwood brings his weekly ol’-timey music jam session across from the Lomond Hotel to the Vic every Saturday afternoon from 4.30pm.
RUB SALT IN THE WOUNDS
Jack Carty’s album Break Your Own Heart sees a darker, more dynamic turn in Carty’s songwriting. Catch him this Sunday as he starts his December beer garden Sunday afternoon residency at the Retreat Hotel from 4pm, followed by Ben Salter at 6pm. Entry is free.
WILD WEST Sheriff open for the mighty Barbarion at the Reverence Hotel (Footscray) this Friday. Along for the ride will be the very seductive Vice Grip Pussies. Doors open at 8.30pm.
WED DEC 5 KAROVA LOUNGE BALLARAT THU DEC 6 RUBY’S LOUNGE BELGRAVE FRI DEC 7 CHERRY BAR MELBOURNE SAT DEC 8 NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB MELBOURNE
ALBUM LAUNCH
THORNBURY THEATRE, VELVET ROOM 859 HIGH STREET, THORNBURY, MELBOURNE
FRI 14TH DECEMBER 2012 8:30PM Advance Tickets: $12 / Conc. $10, Reserve Seating: $17 / Conc. $15, Door: $17 / Conc. $15 P: 9484 9831 | Online bookings www.thethornburytheatre.com
51
SORTED FOR EPS
THESE THREE MEN
SERIAL DRAMA
The Three Kings play the Retreat Hotel this Sunday night at 9pm following The Dorothy-Jane Gosper Band, Ben Salter and Jack Carty. Entry is free.
ELIZABETH ROSE
NEIGHBOURHOOD MAN
Melbourne eight-piece dub/reggae outfit Echo Drama are taking to the Evelyn for Wednesdays in November. For the last show in their residency they are joined by Keshie, The Seven Ups and DJ REL. The doors open at 8.30pm with free entry.
WITH STEPHANIE LIEW
Crystallise Independent/Inertia Elizabeth Rose’s songs are at once club-ready, commercially appealing and cleverly constructed. Utterly suited to the dance-pop genre, her voice is complemented by galactic glitches of noise and fuzzy bass synths on Ready. The choir-like harmonies on Fight Or Flight elevate as whirrs lead us into the climax, and layers built upon layers battle it out to be heard above the rest. UK producer Sinden lends a hand on Again, whose hip hop beat reverberates underneath Elizabeth Rose’s harmonies and a pitch-shifted synth riff. A pristine collection of mature dance-pop songs with glossy production, Crystallise cements Elizabeth Rose’s position as one of triple j’s Next Crop artists for 2012.
SUZIE STAPLETON Obladi Diablo Independent Roughly translated as “pop music is evil,” Obladi Diablo lives up to its title. There’s nothing remotely pop about it. From opener My Cons Are Making A Cripple Out Of Me, it’s damp and earthy, the guitars and vocals dense with bitterness and melancholy. The lyrics of stand-out track Song Of The Artesian Water are adapted from a poem by Banjo Paterson. Stapleton’s vocals cut through the swampy instrumentation; a slow, grainy growl almost spiteful in tone, aggressive, raw and persuasive. Similarly, the bleak imagery of Bring Back The Night matches its distortion, and the gritty tremor of shredded guitar strings brings the slow violence of the words Stapleton sings (“Drown me out where the beggars bathe/A watery grave”) to life. The EP ends on a more positive note in The Last Note, making sure it is not bereft of at least tentative optimism.
CYBERNETIC EXPRESS Love Rocket
Neighbourhood Youth will play this Friday at Ding Dong for the launch of their EP Holiday. Support is from Private Life and Sunk Junk. Entry is $12 on the door.
MIDNIGHT MUSIC From midnight this Saturday, Ding Dong presents Midnight Run: a late night and early morning jaunt through the best dance tracks of the last 60 years. DJs Kieran, Pinball, Bennis, Dan Watt, Gupstar and others will spin tracks all night long.
VANDALISM
BROKEN SPLENDOUR Broken Splendour Independent An amalgamation of old-school foundations and new-folk, tenderly sung stories and guitar solos with personality, Broken Splendour’s selftitled EP spans from the delicate to grandiose (sometimes both in the same song, as with opener Little Brown Chairs). Initial simplicity gives way to subtle nuances noticeable only on the second and third listens. There’s an inquisitive country twang in song for wanderers All Your Friends, and traditional violins and guitars juxtaposed with unconventional song structure and the occasional low thuds of the bass drum in Black Stars. Closer Love Will Wait sees background taps and ticks peeking through a bright bass line and radiant synths as acoustic and electronic come together; vocals ring out over it all in that big, empty-room way.
Engine Three Seven have been hard at work writing and recording their debut album and will headline the Evelyn Hotel this Friday. They will be supported by Glass Empire, Swerve and The Villain Epic.
IN THEIR YOUTH Return To Youth are now set to release their new Sail Away EP this Sunday at the Evelyn. The Darjeelings, Seven Year Itch and Tane EmiaMoore will also appear. Doors open at 1.30pm.
What’s the song about? Ben Wells, vocals/guitar: The song is about wanting to be surfing when you’re stuck at work and a kind of wanting for those summer months to be at the beach, free to do as you please with no worries.
Strong Push play the Tote with support from Pan and Gen & Flora tonight. Doors open at 8pm with $8 entry.
Is this track from a forthcoming/ existing release? I’m not sure yet? We’re going in the studio to record an EP early next year. We’re experimenting with a lot of sounds and styles at the moment, so time will tell whether it finds a place on the record.
EMERGENCY EXIT Three-piece synth practioners The Emergency launch their third full-length album Last Exit at the Tote this Thursday. They are joined by Superstar, Constant Light and Towels. The doors open at 8.30pm with $12 entry.
California’s Pour Habit, Hightime and Totally Unicorn play this Saturday at the Evelyn and Sunday at the Tote. Anchors will also be along at the Evelyn.
PAYNTED REVOLVER Michael Paynter will be returning to Revolver to celebrate the launch of Roots Of Music Ent, with support from Jessica-Jade and Chris Mitchell. The doors open at 8.30pm with $19 entry.
ADDICTIVE AUDIO
Audio Caffeine Returns is the latest performance brought to you by the Go Live music group from Prahran Mission. Catch the group at Revolver tonight (Wednesday). It kicks off at 5.30pm with poetry and readings by the writing group with music commencing at 6pm.
THEY’VE GOT PLUCK Mustered Courage are ready to bring their rocking bluegrass again to Melbourne and can’t wait to preview their brand new tracks to their fans. They’ll play the Workers Club on Sunday 16 December.
MONSTER FACTS To celebrate the release of his acclaimed debut album About Monsters, Sydney’s Edward Deer will be performing his only Melbourne show for 2012 at the Gasometer this Thursday. Support for this one-off event comes from Gabriel Lynch and Kate Walker.
A SHORE THING The long awaited EP from psych-pop-rocksters Heavy Beach has arrived. The launch is this Friday at the Gasometer. Supports will be from Lowtide, Nite Fields and Atolls.
WHAT’S THE BUZZ Buzz Kull’s sound is flooded with eerie romantic swells of reverb and delay that wash over a distorted drum machine. This Friday at the Gasometer Upstairs will be Buzz Kull’s debut show outside of Sydney with supports by Melbourne bands B Deep and Straylight & Hyperborea.
FATTI’S RELEASE
HERE COMES THE SUN Sun Rising made their celebrated debut in mid2012 and continue to enthrall audiences with their passionate renditions of the classic and little known tracks that made Sun Records legendary. Catch Sun Rising live on Friday 14 December at the Palais (Hepburn Springs) and Saturday 15 at Cherry Bar.
Fatti Frances is the left field R&B alter ego of Raquel Solier; formerly drummer for Melbourne experimental and indie bands Jemima Jemima, The Ancients, Geoffrey O’Connor, Nathan Hollywood, Oh! Belgium and many more. As Fatti Frances, Solier has run from responsibility to selfishly indulge in her love of sweet and dirty chart topping R&B music. Her new EP is launched this Sunday at the Gaso with supports from Asps, Moon Dice and Maturity.
This Thursday at Revolver are Slow Down Earth, Glasfrosch and The Black Galaxy Experience. The doors open at 7.30pm with entry $10.
FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS
HIGH HIPS
Steph Hill & The Missing Fundamental present their debut single, Crawling this Friday at Revolver. Support acts include Marmoset, Diana’s Bow, Lauren Glezer and Dann Webb. The doors open at 8pm with $18 entry.
This Saturday, it is Hipshaker at the LuWOW – a night dedicated to searching for the best in underground dance music from the 1960s. This week there will be live music that makes you wanna shake that thing like live pounding raw ‘beat’ lads, The High Leary’s, will stir up an R&B dancefloor frenzy while DJs spin the best in ‘60s soul, original R&B, early funk, mod, garage, freakbeat, psych and other dance gems. Entry is $10 from 8pm, while members are free. The High Leary’s also play Yah Yah’s this Friday.
This Saturday at Revolver supercharged 11-piece ska funk extravaganza Strada9 will perform. Alongside Strada9 are Admiral Ackbar’s Dishonourable Discharge and Slowjaxx & His Flying Bong Brothers. The doors open at 7pm with $15 entry.
52 • For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news
How long did it take to write/record? It didn’t take long to write – it’s one of those songs that spurted out when I got home after a rough day at work during last summer. It took about three days to record; we did it in my studio I have set up at my house. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? It was the first time we’d recorded at my house so it was pretty exciting seeing what kind of sounds we could get from different places. We also had a lot of different amps to fuck around with and get a kick arse sound. We’ll like this song if we like… Los Coronas or The Jungle Giants. Do you play it differently live? Yeah, when we do it live there’s a big harmony breakdown. Will you be launching it? Wednesday 5 December at the Workers Club with Buchanan and Tom Milek. For more info see: benwellsandthemiddlenames.com
RIBEIRO’S RIVER Jess Ribeiro has made quite a name for herself as an acclaimed country folk artist following the release of her debut album My Little River through Gaga Dig in May 2012. She’ll be performing a special oneoff show at the Spotted Mallard on this Thursday accompanied The Bone Collectors and Laura K Clarke. The doors open at 8.30pm with free entry.
DEVIL DRIVE The Demon Parade are a psychedelic explosion of pop goodness. In recent memory they have supported acts such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre (USA), Swervedriver (UK), British India and The Cruel Sea, and played various festivals including Playground Weekender and Cherry Rock. The Demon Parade will perform at the Spotted Mallard, this Friday with support from The Quivers and House Of Laurence. Entry is $10 from 8.30pm.
MEN OF THE PEOPLE
SLOW ROTATION
PARTY9
BEN WELLS – BEAR IN A BIRDCAGE Artist name: Ben Wells and the Middle Names
STRONG SHOVE
Rubber Records Essentially a bizarre space-rock opera inspired by early-‘70s/late-‘80s Italian disco, Love Rocket sounds like a joke album from a daggy TV show. The content of the songs revolves around a security force called Cybernetic Express that travel through time and space on a mission to save Earth from cyber-terrorism and attempt to prevent a cyber war. More of a fantasy/scifi soundtrack than individual songs (that have titles such as Cyberpower, Intergalactic and Final Frontier), there is little variation throughout. It reaches its quota as far as repetitive disco, funk bass lines and vocoder go, and high synth lines become less fun and more piercing as the EP wears on, riffs meshing with one another until they become indistinguishable. A deep, disembodied, creepy voice announcing, “Squadron leaders, we have some foreigners who have arrived, they say they are the Cybernetic Express”, doesn’t help you take Love Rocket seriously. But then again, maybe that’s the point.
MOTOR NUMBERS
The Vandas play their first show in nearly two years at the Spotted Mallard (Brunswick) on Friday 14 December. Special birthday guests are The Gung Hoes and Cold Irons Bound. The doors open at 8.30pm with $12 entry.
POURING DOWN
SINGLE FOCUS
The Wikimen have played forever and a day. Throughout their daily toils and tribulations they always find a time to sting up the double bass and polish the vibraphone for a new sonic adventure in the realms of early 20th century pop jazz. The Wikimen are performing special matinee shows at the Spotted Mallard this Sunday and Sunday 9 December. The shows start at 4pm with free entry.
MAN YOU ARE As the end of 2012 draws near, I, A Man will bring their textual washy guitar, layered arrangements and dreamy melodies to the Espy front bar stage on Friday 14 December, for one last show before they well and truly disappear over the summer to finish recording their debut album due for release in the first half of 2013. Joining them will be moody dream-pop four-piece Lowlakes, wall of fuzz trio Atolls and Pourparlour. The music starts at 9.30pm with free entry.
LOST AND FOUND MARKET
SALVOS STORES: WINDSOR
1-5 Perry Street, COLLINGWOOD
115-117 Chapel St, WINDSOR
THE LOST WEEKEND
salvosstores.com.au
511 Lygon Street, EAST BRUNSWICK lostandfoundmarket.com.au
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Lara L’Estrange, store manager, Windsor Salvos Stores: The store is full of every style of clothing you can imagine. We receive donations from all periods of the 1900s as well as new contemporary labels. We call the store a lucky dip.
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Kat, manager: A mad and wonderful gathering of vintage fashion, furniture, books, records, hi-fi, lighting and industrial from the highly collectable to the just plain fun.
Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? At times we receive new stock (often with tags still on) as well as contemporary Australian brands.
Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? Strictly vintage.
From where do you source your products? Mainly donations.
From where do you source your products? Here, there and everywhere. What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? 1980s denim overalls and cut-offs. Also 1970s hi-fi is going gangbusters. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? 1980s G-string swimwear; 1960s skateboards; 1970s Weltron space-age hi-fi on pedestal. What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? 1950s dentist’s station. We now use it on shoplifters! Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself? 1955 polished aluminium caravan (12 metres long). Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? Grant Featherston’s own chair from 1951. Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? Demand changes for different things all the time. If you’re not adapting, you’re in the way.
Chapel Street Bazaar 217-223 Chapel Street, PRAHRAN
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Jonine Versace, co-founder: Chapel Street Bazaar is a Melbourne icon. Fantastic collection ranging from taxidermy, funky retro fashion, clothing and furnishings, jewellery, cameras and toys from your grandparents and your childhood. Big on vintage and retro chic. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? Ninety percent of our stock is vintage.
What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? Taxidermy has made a huge comeback and industrial schoolhouse is the new kid on the block. Not selling: shabby chic. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? 1950s American cocktail shaker in the form of a fire hydrant, fab quality: $265; taxidermy fallow deer head, excellent quality and rare: $950; Northern Territory taxidermy mud crab: $350.
What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? Colour, bright, prints and neon. Pants and denim not selling as well. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? Gorilla-look fur cape; ‘70s wicker pink floral seats; long, blue sequined dress. What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? The Age from early 1900s, personal massage kit circa 1950s. Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself? Anything from Alexander McQueen. Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? Wish I bought for myself a floral Versace mini dress, also Vivienne Westwood’s Destroy Sex Pistols uniform. Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? People seem to be after the ‘50s era more, but the vintage landscape is ever evolving!
To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 53
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Jodie Meeking, manager/vintage treasure hunter: We are vintage wholesalers by appointment during the week and open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday offering well-below-average vintage store price points.
HUNTER GATHERER 274 Brunswick Street, FITZROY 82a Acland Street, ST KILDA Royal Arcade, MELBOURNE
Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? We sell vintage, retro and recycled clothing and accessories for women, men and are soon to bring our children’s collection into the store. Oh, and we also have vintage fabrics and vinyl.
bsl.org.au/hunter-gatherer.aspx
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Megan Searls, manager, Fitzroy: Hunter Gatherer, or HG as it is fondly referred to, is an eclectic mix of curios and recycled handpicked fashion and bric-a-brac. Each store has its own unique style and all proceeds go to charity. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? Hunter Gatherer stocks not only traditional vintage items but also retr-inspired fashion, and contemporary on-trend items. Fitzroy also stocks local artists’ handmade up-cycled accessories. From where do you source your products? As a social enterprise of the Brotherhood Of St Laurence, HG has access to the hundreds of thousands of donations that the Brotherhood receives every year. In the HG stores these donations have been pre-sorted for the customer, so you get an amazing selection to choose from. So shopping with HG not only means you’re finding unique items, but your funds help the charity to deliver its many programs and services that help disadvantaged Australians – win win! What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? Everything seems to be selling well; the items that are flying out the door are: denim, especially highwaist shorts and cut-off jackets; frocks, frocks and more frocks; men’s shirts; bowties; and men’s and women’s boots and shoes. However, the handselected and always interesting bric-a-brac, vinyl and books (Enid Blyton!) are also very popular. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? A Hammond organ, platform ‘70s knee-high boots and everything else is equal third!
From where do you source your products? We source both locally and internationally so it’s a mixture of Australian, European and North America with the odd Japanese pieces coming through.
What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? The strangest would be a real stuffed cane toad and the rarest would be a 200-year-old handmade quilt from a small town in England. Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself? What don’t I want?! Things like ‘70s/’80s bunny lights and similar bedside lamps are amazing, but I also collect old board games and velvet jackets. In particular I am on the hunt for an emerald green jacket to finish my collection. However, I do also love vintage bathers/swimsuits.
What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? Men’s 1940s woollen bathers. Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself?
facebook.com/YesteryearRetroClothing
What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? A PVC catsuit. That might have been worn recently as a halloween costume. Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself? I would love to find an authentic Japanese souvenir tour jacket. Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? It happens every time I’m sourcing. Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? With any retail business there are ebbs and flows, however, I do think the public demand for more accessible and reasonably priced, less boutique-style vintage stores offerering a really broad range of styles and eras is growing.That’s where we come in!
Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? Yes, of course we are competing with online stores/ market now, however, the beauty of only having one of every item means you just may miss out on your dream purchase if you don’t pop in to the store. We get new stock weekly, so it keeps everyone interested. We also have some of the lowest prices in the vintage arena in Melbourne.
SACRED HEART MISSION OP SHOPS SHEILA VINTAGE 382 Brunswick Street, FITZROY sheilavintage.webs.com
Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? Strictly vintage.
What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? Leather cowboy chaps; 1950s satin cape with mink fur trimming; and original American college jackets.
What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? There are lots of hidden treasures instore but if I have to name a few, probably a pair of leather cowboy chaps; a 1949 souvenir scarf of Queen Elizabeth’s first Australian visit; and some amazing leopard print velvet platforms that are heartbreakingly small.
84 High Street, PRESTON
Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? Every day.
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Cindy Filips, manager: We’re an eclectic mix of real vintage from the 1940s right through to the 1980s, offering a great range of men’s and women’s quality and affordable apparel and accessories.
What items are customers currently loving? Customers are currently loving ‘80s surfwear, ‘60/’70s swimwear, jumpsuits and denim jackets.
What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? Anything ‘90s is still seemingly the trend. Longer boots have been slower in favour of ankle boots and Doc Martens the last few seasons.
YESTERYEAR RETRO CLOTHING
87a Grey Street, ST KILDA 271 Centre Road, BENTLEIGH 86 Riversdale Road, HAWTHORN 486 Glenhuntly Road, ELSTERNWICK 365 Clarendon Street, SOUTH MELBOURNE 86 Chapel Street, WINDSOR 415 Inkerman Street, EAST ST KILDA sacredheartmission.org
Original 1950s fringed dress in immaculate condition – for me! Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? Not really, I’m always happy to see beautiful items go to a good home. Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? It changes regularly – one minute it’s Mad Men, the next it’s ‘80s Mambo. As a vintage retailer you have to go with the flow.
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Wade Piva, op shops manager: Our stores pride themselves on being visually appealing, creating a fun atmosphere – thanks especially to our volunteers – and having an exceptional range of affordable stock. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? We sell almost anything and everything. Everything is donated, so it could be brand new, or it could be incredibly old. The quality of donations we receive, old or new, is often very humbling though. We’ll receive bric-a-brac and jewellery from the Depression, furniture from the ‘50s through to the ‘70s, and clothing from great-grandma’s closet, all the way down to the great-grandson’s. From where do you source your products? As mentioned, we rely on the generosity of the community for all of our donations – be they from individuals or businesses – and we really could not survive without their support. It’s not uncommon, though, for our best customers to become our best donors, and vice-versa. What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? The range of clothing at all of the stores is always hugely popular. You could find a vintage designer dress or skirt or shirt or hat… and it really is that one-of-a-kind item. Obviously LPs and musical instruments are always popular too, and anything remotely collectible (which is most things these days). There’s generally something for everyone. We did have a lot of copies of a selfpublished book that we had trouble selling at one stage, which I dare say is probably why it was self-published. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? By the time this is published, they’ll most likely be sold, but we have a fantastic ‘70s-styled, orange
54 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
modular lounge at our Grey Street store; a whole wardrobe’s worth of vintage dresses at Hawthorn; and I know there was some pretty amazing vintage jewellery at our new Bentleigh store recently. What is the strangest vintage item you’ve come across in your travels? It’s definitely too rude to mention. Although we have had things like old barbershop chairs, seating from old cinema houses, animals that have been stuffed, or fashioned into hats and shoals. We recently had a second-hand, one-piece Borat-styled mankini. You name it, we’ve probably seen it. Is there a dream item you would love to locate to either sell or keep for yourself? We’re always hoping for that something special to be donated, as that means we can get a good price and raise those much-needed funds. Along with the Fundraising Department, our op shops are responsible for raising over 40% of the funding needed to sustain the programs and services that Sacred Heart Mission provides to those people who are homeless or disadvantaged, so the better the donations, the more money we can raise. Have you ever sold an item in hindsight you wished you’d kept for yourself? Not really. I think you almost have to detach yourself from the goods being donated, or else all your pay cheque would be going straight back into the store. What’s quite bizarre though is when a customer enquires as to whether you have a certain item, which we might not at that time, and within 48 hours it has been donated. Have you seen demand for vintage items change in the time you’ve been running your store? They’ve always been some of the most sought after items but I think the demographic of those doing the seeking has expanded somewhat. You see a lot more young people who really know the era they love and know exactly what to look for, and a lot of people are increasingly aware that op shopping is a great way to recycle and revamp older goods, and support a good cause at the same time.
55
SIXES AND SEVENS
AMERICAN RAG
259 Smith Street, FITZROY
Terrace Level 3, QV
facebook.com/pages/Sixes-and-SevensVintage/145249598871334
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Linda Deleo, owner: We have a range of vintage: old and new, retro and things I’ve designed. We’ve got clothes, accessories and soon we’ll have jewellery and lingerie. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? In addition to men’s and ladies’ vintage from as far back as the middle of the last century, we also sell new items that are vintage inspired, designed and made in Melbourne. From where do you source your products? Locally and overseas. What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? The green dresses on the mannequin closest to the door move faster than a red car. The poor thing is half naked half the time… What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? Our extensive range of silk and satin scarves, our cute make-up bags and the wondrous little gems in our $10 rack.
americanrag.com.au
DEAR GLADYS 296 High Street, NORTHCOTE deargladys.com.au
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Melissa Westwood, retail manager, Fitted For Work: A not-for-profit whose proceeds support Fitted For Work, helping women get and keep work. Beautiful, quality women’s vintage and contemporary clothing, accessories, homewares and gifts. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? We also sell contemporary fashion and accessories, homewares, gifts, stationery, jewellery, skincare and more! From where do you source your products? A small portion of our products are donated. Gladys also spend hours hunting vintage treasures from all over Australia and internationally. Dear Gladys will soon have her own capsule range of clothing designed for our discerning customers. We already make our own special products and stock products from local designers.
Tell us about your store in 25 words or less. Eileen Carney, managing director: American Rag is Melbourne’s premium vintage store. Are you strictly vintage or do you sell new items as well? We’re 100% vintage. From where do you source your products? All products are lovingly sourced from the USA. What items are customers currently loving and what items aren’t selling as well? We sell everything from vintage ‘50s dresses through to denim overalls for men and women. We aren’t completely trend-focused as many other retailers are so it’s difficult to say what sells well and what doesn’t when it really depends on every individual customer’s style. We cater to all age groups and style types so everything does well pretty well. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? Victorian lace dress which is over 100 years old, is delicate and absolutely stunning; Miu Miu biker boots; men’s Levi’s big E blanket lined denim jacket.
What items are customers currently loving? At this time of year it’s all about beautiful frocks, especially ‘50s and ‘70s. We are also selling loads of gift vouchers in the lead-up to Christmas. What are the three most interesting items you currently have on sale? We are so in love with our 1950s mustard tulle party dress! Gladys is also swooning over her collection of ‘70s maxi dresses, and of course our new collection of gorgeous ecocotton vintage-inspired designer swimwear by Billy & Lola – super-flattering!
& NEW
VINTAGE
FOR ALL YOUR VINTAGE NEEDS
217-223 2 17-223 -2 223 Chapel Cha Ch hapel ap pel St St 259 Smith S
t, Fitzroy
(03) 9417 1336 56 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
(03) 9510 0813
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A SHOPPING EXPERIENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE Now with seven locations: • St Kilda • Bentleigh • Windsor • South Melbourne • East St Kilda • Elsternwick • Hawthorn. Visit www.sacredheartmission.org and click on Op Shops.
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57
HOWZAT! LOCAL MUSIC NEWS BY JEFF JENKINS thought of these two recollections while reading The Dingoes’ Lament, the brilliant new book by Dingoes bass player John Bois ($29.95, Melbourne Books).
The Dingoes
THE DINGOES ALMOST DID IT A few years back, Howzat! had a chat with an Australian A&R man. Based in the US, he was looking for songs for a new act he’d signed. He grew up with The Dingoes and dug out their three albums. “But you know what,” he remarked, “the songs weren’t as good as I remembered them.” Maybe it was the time and the place. Jimmy Barnes still has fond memories of the band. Indeed, he tells Howzat!: “The Dingoes were, for me, the inspiration for Cold Chisel. They made music on their own terms. It wasn’t about selling records, it was to suit what they wanted to do. I would see them every single night they played in Adelaide – I’d go six nights in a row, as would most of Cold Chisel. And every time I heard one of their records, I thought, ‘This is a record that’s not made just for Australia, it’s made for the world.’ Incredible band.” Howzat!
58 • For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog
Rarely have the words floated from the page of a rock book as beautifully as they do in The Dingoes’ Lament. John Bois writes like a poet, gently and gracefully. “I was very unhappy,” John writes. “I felt the calmness of the days but it seemed more like the calmness of a river just before it reaches the waterfall. I could not enjoy it. I still sweated over the band’s quality or lack of it.” Most rock books are filled with bluff and bluster, but this offering is an insight into insecurity. “We were either ignored somebodies or celebrated nobodies,” John states, “and no one, least of all ourselves, knew which.” The band are on the verge of breaking up when their big break comes – the Stones’ tour manager, Peter Rudge, wants them to relocate to America. He gets them a deal with A&M, they make an album with Elliot Mazer (who produced Neil Young’s Harvest), and the plan is they will go on the road with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then the Skynyrd plane crashes, killing singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines. “We’re fucked,” reacts Dingoes singer Broderick Smith. But John depicts a band that were never confident enough to conquer the world anyway, at least in his eyes. “I longed to be an audience member who could casually walk out of my life and into their trouble-free existence of limitless possibility,” he writes after one anxiety attack. “But I was stuck.” The band found themselves “scared of the future, in need of the past”. “We tried hard,” John concludes.
“But, try as we might, we were nothing more than little Aussie battlers: brave but pathetic.” But there’s a happy ending. The Dingoes reformed to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. And one final tour is planned, with the band playing at the Caravan Club on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 December.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON FEVER Two of Howzat!’s favourite acts are teaming up for a special Sunday afternoon double feature. Georgia Fields and Dan Lethbridge are playing live and launching their new videos at the Northcote Social Club Sunday 9 December. It’s the premiere of the video for Saturday Night Fever, the opening track on Dan’s acclaimed second album, Oh Hawke, while Georgia is debuting the Rohan Spong-directed clip for her new single, Snakes And Ladders. “I wrote the song about the games we play in relationships,” Georgia tells Howzat! “It’s also about the Sisyphean cycle; working as hard as you can to get ‘somewhere’, only to find yourself slipping down the python’s back to right where you started. Sometimes this process is a dance, and you kind of enjoy moving ’round in circles. Other times it’s a wretched struggle. Snakes And Ladders is more about the former.” It’s not Georgia’s favourite board game. “I actually haven’t played Snakes & Ladders in years, and I never enjoyed it as a child. I used to get very angry at the random injustice of the dice. My favourite board game is Scrabble – safe, rational, meritocratic Scrabble.” Georgia’s song name-checks the legendary Lauren Bacall: “I’m not ready to become the girl from next door, I’d rather be your Lauren Bacall,” she sings. “The Lauren Bacall reference is actually there for my ex,” Georgia reveals. “He’s a big Lauren fan. I’ve only seen her in To Have And Have Not, but yeah, I could get why he likes her so much. She’s got this fragility in her frame and brutality in her stare.”
CHART WATCH X Factor winner Samantha Jade debuts on top, while Guy Sebastian scores his 11th top ten hit. What You’ve Done To Me SAMANTHA JADE (number one, debut) Get Along GUY SEBASTIAN (five) Battle Scars GUY SEBASTIAN (17) Heartless SAMANTHA JADE (29) Party Bass BOMBS AWAY (32) Rock Star REECE MASTIN (35) Wish You Were Here DELTA GOODREM (40) AC/DC’s new live set lands at #11. Armageddon GUY SEBASTIAN (number four) Live At River Plate AC/DC (11, debut) Flume FLUME (15) The Rubens THE RUBENS (23) Child Of The Universe DELTA GOODREM (24) The Sapphires SOUNDTRACK (25) Beautiful Nightmare REECE MASTIN (26) Essential Oils MIDNIGHT OIL (31)
HOWZAT! PLAYLIST Breathe LAUREN BRUCE Broken Heart Attack BEKI COLADA Saturday Night Fever DAN LETHBRIDGE Snakes And Ladders GEORGIA FIELDS Boy On The Run THE DINGOES
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TOUR GUIDE
PRESENTS
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: Saturday 29 December, Festival Hall
JORDIE LANE: November 29, 30 and December 2 Northcote Social Club; December 1 Baby Black Café (Bacchus Marsh) EVIL EDDIE: November 30 Karova Lounge (Ballarat), December 1 Northcote Social Club; 6 National Hotel (Geelong) JEFF MARTIN: December 5 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 6 Ruby’s Lounge (Belgrave); 7 Cherry Bar; 8 Northcote Social Club PRIMAL SCREAM: December 7 Palace PIGEON: December 14 Platform One EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: December 18, 19 Corner Hotel
THIS WEEK INTERNATIONAL NICKELBACK: November 28 Rod Laver Arena IWRESTLEDABEARONCE: November 29 Corner Hotel; 30 TLC Bayswater MAJOR LAZER: November 29 Hi-Fi SIMPLE MINDS, DEVO: November 29 Palais; December 1 Rochford Wines (Yarra Valley) WILL & THE PEOPLE: November 30 Whalers Hotel (Warrnambool); December 1 Workers Club THE SELECTER: November 30 Corner Hotel MICHAEL MAYER: November 30 Prince Bandroom THE KNOCKS: December 1 Toff MARK FARINA: December 1 Mercat POUR HABIT: December 1 Evelyn; 2 Tote REEL BIG FISH, GOLDFINGER, ZEBRAHEAD: December 2 Palace COLOR ME BADD: December 2 Alumbra SOULWAX: December 2 Red Bennies OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ: December 2 Corner Hotel BLONDIE: December 3 Sidney Myer Music Bowl THE PRETTY THINGS: December 4 Corner
NATIONAL JACKSON MCLAREN: November 29 Gertrudes Brown Couch THE PRETTY LITTLES: November 29 B.East INDIAN SUMMER DJS: November 29 Eureka (Geelong); 30 Can’t Say OVER-REACTOR: November 29 Evelyn Hotel NIKKO: November 29 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine); 30 Public Bar; December 1 Reverence Hotel YUNG WARRIORS: November 29 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) JORDIE LANE: November 29, 30 Northcote Social Club; December 1 Baby Black Cafe (Bacchus Marsh); 2 Northcote Social Club HANDS LIKE HOUSES: November 30 Beaconsfield Community Complex; December 1 Bang; 2 Musicman Megastore (Bendigo) GAY PARIS: November 30 Tote NITE FIELDS: November 30 Gasometer EVIL EDDIE: November 30 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); December 1 Northcote Social Club SAN CISCO: November 30 Bended Elbow (Geelong); December 1, 2 Corner Hotel MONEY FOR ROPE: November 30 Barwon Club (Geelong); December 1 Ding Dong SARITAH: November 30 B.East THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS: November 30 Barwon Heads Hotel; December 1 Apollo Bay Hotel BRISCOE: December 1 Workers Club CARL FOX: December 1 Toff In Town KUTCHA EDWARDS: December 1 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine) WORLD’S END PRESS: December 1 Abbotsford Convent CLAUDE HAY: December 1 Blues Train; 2 Westernport Hotel (San Remo) KIKUYU: December 2 Grace Darling RUDELY INTERRUPTED: December 3 secret location MISSY HIGGINS: December 4 Palais
UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL JEFF MARTIN: December 5 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 6 Ruby’s Lounge (Belgrave); 7 Cherry Bar; 8 Northcote Social Club OMAR SOULEYMAN: December 5 Hi-Fi GRIMES: December 6, 7 Corner Hotel SPIRITUALIZED: December 6 Hi-Fi JOHN C REILLY: December 6 Northcote Social Club DJ KENTARO: December 6 Espy HOT SNAKES: December 7 Corner Hotel PRIMAL SCREAM: December 7 Palace TYGA: December 7 Prince Bandroom TODD TERJE: December 7 Liberty Social TURBONEGRO: December 7 Hi-Fi
MAYDAY PARADE: December 8 Billboard LAGWAGON: December 8 Bended Elbow (Geelong); 9, 10 Corner Hotel HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS: December 8 Bang; 9 Pelly Bar (Frankston) JENNIFER LOPEZ: December 11, 12 Rod Laver Arena ALEXISONFIRE: December 12 Festival Hall THE PRETTY THINGS: December 13, 14 Caravan Club REGINA SPEKTOR: December 14 Plenary SHIHAD: December 14 Espy PAUL KALKBRENNER: December 14 Billboard JB SMOOVE: December 15 Thornbury Theatre EVAN DAND0, JULIANA HATFIELD: December 18, 19 Corner Hotel MORRISSEY: December 19 Festival Hall THE DATSUNS: December 20, 21 The Espy LOST ANGELS: December 21 Hi-Fi KENDRICK LAMAR: December 21 Palace Theatre THOMAS GOLD: December 22 Alumbra TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS: December 29 Corner COSMO JARVIS: December 29 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine); January 3 Corner DJ NU-MARK: December 29 Espy TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: December 29 Festival Hall SHARON VAN ETTEN: December 30 Corner BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB: January 1 Regal Ballroom SBTRKT: January 2 Billboard BEST COAST: January 2 Hi-Fi WILLIS EARL BEAL: January 2 Northcote Social Club MAXIMO PARK: January 2 Corner FIRST AID KIT: January 2 Forum BLOOD RED SHOES: January 3 Hi-Fi DE LA SOUL: January 3 Espy 65DAYSOFSTATIC: January 4 Corner Hotel CHAPELIER FOU: January 5 Toff In Town THE HIVES: January 6 Forum SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS: January 6 Summer Of Soul Festival; 8 Corner Hotel BEACH HOUSE: January 9 Forum HOT CHIP: Janurary 9 Palace VENGABOYS: January 10 Espy BEN SOLLEE: January 10 Northcote Social Club; 11 Meeniyan Town Hall; 12 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine) PETER MURPHY: January 11 Corner BASEMENT JAXX: January 11 MCG MARDUK: January 11 Hi-Fi DJANGO DJANGO: January 12 Hi-Fi GARY JULES: January 12 Corner; 13 Trak Lounge SABATON: January 13 Corner DRAGON: January 13 Mildura Waterfront Soundshell; February 2 Kryal Castle (Ballarat); 3 Victory Park Soundshell (Traralgon); March 30 Warrnambool Racecourse; 31 Mansfield Showgrounds; May 11 Palms At Crown NIGHTWISH: January 14 Palace DAVID BYRNE & ST VINCENT: January 14, 15 Hamer Hall WEEZER: January 16 Sidney Myer Music Bowl; 17 Palais ALESTORM: January 18 Hi-Fi YANNI: January 19 Palais MAHMOUD AHMED: January 20 Arts Centre Playhouse HUNX & HIS PUNX: January 20 Tote A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS: January 20 Corner Hotel GARY CLARK JR: January 22 Corner Hotel THE KILLERS: January 22 Palace AGAINST ME!: January 22 Hi-Fi CRYSTAL CASTLES: January 22 Billboard BAND OF HORSES: January 23 Palais OFF!: January 23 Corner Hotel SLEIGH BELLS: January 23 Billboard CHILDISH GAMBINO: January 23 Hi-Fi JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD: January 23 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine); 24 Corner Hotel ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: January 23 Palace THE NEW MENDICANTS: January 22, 23 Northcote Social Club BLOODY BEETROOTS: January 24 Palace ALABAMA SHAKES: January 24 Forum
60 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
KINGSWOOD: December 21 Cherry Bar; 31 Espy TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB: December 29 Festival Hall BALL PARK MUSIC: December 29 Ding Dong Lounge (U18) BORED NOTHING: January 5 Gasometer THE HIVES: January 6 Forum BEACH HOUSE: January 9 Forum YEASAYER: February 6 Hi-Fi MS MR: February 7 Northcote Social Club GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: February 15 Forum FATHER JOHN MISTY: Februray 17 Hi-Fi PAUL KELLY & NEIL FINN: February 16, 18, 19, 20, March 4 Palais; March 2 A Day On The Green, All Saints Winery (Rutherglen) EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, MICK HARVEY: February 19 Palace CAT POWER: March 7 Forum DINOSAUR JR: March 7 Corner Hotel PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL (featuring Arlo Guthrie, Gurrumul, Glen Hansard): March 8-11 Port Fairy TORO Y MOI: March 9 Corner Hotel FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL: (featuring The Stone Roses, The Prodigy, Steve Aoki): March 10 Flemington Racecourse JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION: March 15 Espy; 16 Corner Hotel GRINSPOON: March 22 Hi-Fi; April 24 Bended Elbow (Geelong); 25 Pier Live (Frankston); 26 Inferno (Traralgon); 27 Ferntree Gully Hotel BONNIE RAITT, MAVIS STAPLES: March 27 State Theatre IGGY & THE STOOGES, BEASTS OF BOURBON: March 27 Festival Hall
Major Napier, Yes/No/ Maybe, The Menstrual Cycle Liberty Social Mammoth Mammoth, Dog Hair Jacket, Cowsmuff Cherry Bar Melody Moon Open Studio Michael Paynter, Jessica Jade, Chris Mitchell Revolver Upstairs Nash Lee Bennetts Lane Open Mic The Thornbury Local Open Mic Night, Brodie Brunswick Hotel Open Stage The Bridge Hotel Play Like A Girl Wesley Anne. Band Room Robert Forster, Toby Martin Caravan Music Club Ruby Boots, Matt Glass, Loose Cannon, Collector The Workers Club Sandwich Spotted Mallard - Brunswick Secret Walls The Order Of Melbourne Strong Push, Pan, Gen & Flora The Tote The Book of Ships, The General Assembly, Ballads, DJ Cosmic Dolphin The Empress The Church, Rain Party, The Moderns Corner Hotel The Citradels, Luna Ghost, Lioness Eye Bar Open The Hidden Venture, The Balls, House of Laurence The Espy, Lounge Bar
THU 29 A Date With Effie, Xavier Michaelidis Caravan Music Club Big D & The Kids Table, The Resignators Ding Dong Lounge
Howlin’ Wind Toorak Uniting Church - Toorak iwrestledabearonce, In Hearts Wake, For All Eternity, + More Corner Hotel Jackson McLaren Gertrude’s Brown Couch Jane MacArthur, Frankie Andrew, Bridgewater Lomond Hotel Jess Ribiero & The Bone Collectors, Laura K Clark Spotted Mallard - Brunswick John Montesante Quintet, Wilbur Wilde The Commune Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Ryan Nico Northcote Social Club Kujo Kings, Lark, Lily & King The Workers Club Lachly Doley Trio 303 Low Key Midweek Beats The Thornbury Local Major Lazer, Dillon Francis, Krewella The Hi-Fi Max Savage & The False Idols Prince Bandroom Miles & Simone, Benezra Retreat Hotel Miss Daisy, Marquee Moon, Smoking Toddlers, + More Laundry Bar Nikko, Cherrywood The Bridge Hotel Over-Reactor, Self Is A Seed Evelyn Hotel Pencil, Jonny Telafone, Nervous, Moon Dice The Gasometer (Upstairs) Phantom Hitmen, Monkey’s Pirate The Empress Reflejos Northcote Town Hall
THE SELECTER: Friday 30 November, Corner Hotel
BLUESFEST: (featuring Ben Harper, Iggy & The Stooges, Wilco): March 28-April 1 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm (Byron Bay) ROGER HODGSON: March 28 Palais BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA: April 3 Hamer Hall
WED 28 Agent 86, Lady Noir, Joybot, Kiti, Mr Thom Lucky Coq Alexis Nicole & The Missing Pieces, The Tiger & Me, The Bon Scotts The Toff In Town Austin Brady Bebida Bar Baddums, Carmex Laundry Bar Bearded Gypsy Band Prince Bandroom Chris Altmann, Mikey Madden Retreat Hotel Danny Silver, Manchild, Mu-Gen Lounge Bar Dash Veludo
Dizzys Big Band, Peter Hearne Dizzy’s Jazz Club Echo Drama, Keshie, The Seven Ups, + More Evelyn Hotel Emma Gilmartin, Tim Stevens Trio Paris Cat Jazz Club Guy Kable Kent Street Bar, Fitzroy Hayley Couper Band, Ali E, Cabin Inn Public Bar Jenny Biddle, Cookie Baker The Drunken Poet Leon Thomas, Aleister James Assembly, Alexi Kaye Grace Darling Hotel Magnusson & Wilson Quartet 303
Charlotte Nicdao, Officer Parrot, + More Wesley Anne. Band Room Christophe Genoux, Gianni Marinucci, Roger Clark, Rory Clark Trio Dizzy’s Jazz Club Dirty Chapters, The Dosage, The Try Hardz Reverence Hotel, Footscray Edward Deer, Gabriel Lynch, Kate Walker The Gasometer Hotel Gabriel Lynch Wesley Anne, Front Bar Geek Pie Pony Late Show Howard, Sea Legs, Koala Kings, Emily Shobbrook Bar Open
Salt Lake City, + More Red Bennies Slow Down Earth, Glasfrosch, The Black Galaxy Experience, + More Revolver Upstairs Smoky Seas, Super Fat Fruit, Obvian Great Britain Hotel Spencer P Jones Tago Mago T-Byrds, Lachlan Bruce Band, Stevie & The Sleepers, Kid Wolf Brunswick Hotel Terrorbyte Stripes, Son of Set, Tone Sonic, Shoot the Sun, Poison Fish, Charm Pony
The Ballarat Ska Orchestra The LuWow Forbidden Temple The Belligerents, The Red Lights, Young Mavericks, Skyways & Highways The Espy, Lounge Bar The Emergency, Superstar, Constant Light, Towels The Tote The Putbacks, Vince Peach, Pierre Baroni Cherry Bar Tomas Strode, The Tour Guides, Rat & Co, Nigel B Swifte Grace Darling Hotel Vance Joy, Ali Barter, Grizzley Jim Lawrie The Toff In Town Voodoocain, Plastic Spaceman, Two Headed Dog Yah Yah’s Waylon Joes, Zeon The Drunken Poet Yung Warriors Karova Lounge, Ballarat
FRI 30 A Million Dead Birds Laughing, The Mung, The Seaford Monster, Whoretopsy, Iconic Vivisect Pony Alex Watts & the Foreign Tongue The Penny Black And He Sang, Never the Empress, Little Flame, The Strings Within, Trio Agogo 303 Andy Riley, Inland Knights, Jay Shepheard, Sonny Fodera, + More OneSixOne Barbarion, Vice Grip Pussies, SHERIFF Reverence Hotel, Footscray Bitter Sweet Kicks, + Guests Prince Bandroom Burried Feather, Honey Badgers, Dr Ludwig Retreat Hotel Buzz Kull, B.Deep, Stray Light, + More The Gasometer (Upstairs) Cat Or Pillar, Bear The Mammoth, Auxilla Ruby’s Lounge Chris Wilson Cherry Bar, Arvo Show Circles, Aural Window, Caulfield, Evacuate The Fallen John Curtin Hotel Claude Hay, 8 Ball Aitken Harvester Moon Café Cockfight Shootout, Dozers, Mr Sharp Pony Late Show Cotton Sidewalk, The Kilniks, Easy Please, Brooke Russell Brunswick Hotel Dan Bourke & Friends The Drunken Poet Dany Maia, Daniel Gassin Trio Dizzy’s Jazz Club Demon Parade, The Quivers, House of Laurence Spotted Mallard - Brunswick DJ Carlos, DJ Surrender, + More The Hi-Fi Duck Duck Chop, High Tea, Kane Ikin Cornish Arms Hotel
Engine Three Seven, Glass Empire, Swerve, The Villain Epic Evelyn Hotel Gay Paris, Peep Tempel, The Stiffys The Tote Hands Like Houses Beaconsfield Community Complex Heavy Beach, Lowtide, Nite Fields, Atolls The Gasometer Hotel Howlin’ Steam Train Elsternwick Hotel Indian Summer DJs Can’t Say Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Ryan Nico Northcote Social Club Junes Lomond Hotel Kim Salmon & The Surrealists Tago Mago Lachey Doley Baha Tacos Lauren Bruce Wesley Anne, Front Bar Live Music The Thornbury Local Mark Pellegrini, Jason Digby, Mas, Jay-J, + More Silk Road Massive, The Mercy Kills, Kill Shot, 12FU, The Corsairs, Nicholas Acquroff The Espy, Lounge Bar Mezzanine Abode Midnight Woolf, The Yard Apes, Humbug, Tiller The Palais, Hepburn Springs Money For Rope, Fraser A Gorman, Mother & Son Barwon Club Munro Melano, The Skies, Mechanical Pterodactyl Wesley Anne. Band Room Neighbourhood Youth, Private Life, Sunk Junk Ding Dong Lounge Nigel Wearne, Steve McEwan Piping Hot Chicken Shop - Ocean Grove Nikko Public Bar Perch Creek Family Jugg Band, Bearded Gypsy Band Caravan Music Club Rick Astley, Wa Wa Nee, The Chantoozies Palace Theatre Rose Tattoo, Jackson Firebird, Fine Art Dealer Ferntree Gully Hotel San Cisco, The Belligerents Bended Elbow, Geelong Saritah, Ee’da Brahim East Brunswick Club Sash Billboard Sheilas Of The 70s Flying Saucer Club Signals In Silence, Anna Salen, Alex Anonymous, TWSS, Paint Me A Pheonix The Espy, Gershwin Room Simon Burke & The Meltdown Bar Open Smudge, Scot Drakula, Banofee The Workers Club Steph Hill & The Missing Fundamental, Marmoset, Diana’s Bow, + More Revolver Upstairs Super Wild Horses, Teeth & Tongue, Pageants Grace Darling Hotel
The Detonators, Wild Turkey Lucky 13 Garage The High Learys, The Kave Inn, The Perfections Yah Yah’s The Selecter, Strange Tenants, DJ Sarah Corner Hotel The Sundanze Kid, Valley Of The Dolls Pony Early Show The Tiger & Me, Jim Kenyon The Bridge Hotel The Toot Toot Toots Barwon Heads Hotel
Gosti, Louis Majiwa, Joe Forrester The Empress (afternoon) Hands Like Houses Bang Harry Howard & the NDE, Gold Tango, Stu Thomas Paradox The Gasometer Hotel Joe Chindamo Dizzy’s Jazz Club Julien Wilson Uptown Jazz Café Kerryn Fields, + Guests The Thornbury Local
POUR HABIT: Saturday 1 December, Evelyn; Sunday 2 Tote
Thrilling True Stories, Sam Antone, Jo Meares The Empress Waylon Joes Highway 31 White Summer, Guests Of Ghosts, Max Crawdaddy Cherry Bar Will & The People Whalers Hotel Warrnambool
SAT 01 Acoustic Covers Bended Elbow, Geelong Admiral Ackbars Dishonourable Discharge, Slowjaxx & his Flying Bong Brothers Revolver Upstairs Andy Murphy, + Special Guests Seven Nightclub Australian B-Boy Championships Northcote Town Hall Brian Cadd, Russell Morris Flying Saucer Club Claude Hay Blues Train Dern Rutlidge, Matt Sonic & The High Times, DJ Mermaid Cherry Bar DJ Kyonshi, Gamera, Scuttlebuttons, Captain Snax Horse Bazaar Doors Of Perception, Kisstroyer, Appetite For Destruction, Australian Bon Jovi Show, High Voltage (The AC/DC Show), Los Amigoes The Hi-Fi Epithets, Nikko, Ballads, On Sierra Reverence Hotel, Footscray Evil Eddie, Polo Club, + Special Guests Northcote Social Club Fest-Mas 2012 feat, Pour Habit, ANCHORS, Hightime, Totally Unicorn, + More Evelyn Hotel Flyying Colours, Warmth Crashes In, The Ovals, The Laughing Leaves Yah Yah’s
King Parrot, Extortion, The Day Everything Became Nothing, Internal Nightmare The Tote Kutcha Edwards The Bridge Hotel Lamarama, Ghost Orkid Bar Open Lucy Lehmann, Wildflower Lomond Hotel Madder Lake St Andrew’s Hotel Mark Farina, Sonny Fodera, Mike Gurrieri, + More Mercat Cross Hotel Megan Bernard, Cat Canteri 303 Miles Away, Cruel Hand, Away From Now, + More The Gasometer (Upstairs) Milos Karadaglic Melbourne Recital Centre Miss Ink Finals, Sunset Riot, Massive The Espy, Gershwin Room Money For Rope, Fraser A Gorman Ding Dong Lounge Moonee Valley Drifters, The Detonators Highway 31 N-Tice Abode Paul Colman, Scott Darlow, Adam Agee Thornbury Theatre Perch Creek Family Jugg Band, Bearded Gypsy Band, Ruby Boots Spotted Mallard - Brunswick Perico, Great Western, Mark Stinton The Empress Peter Chapman, The Straightsmen, Susan Lily, + More Spotswood Hotel Phil Manning St Andrew’s Hotel, Afternoon Richie 1250 & The Brides Of Christ, The Murlocs, The Night Party, Elvis Angel The Old Bar Rick Astley Chelsea Heights Hotel
TOUR GUIDE DJ PAULY D: January 25 Festival Hall DIRTYBIRD: January 25 Brown Alley OSAKA MONAURAIL: January 25 Espy ELVIS COSTELLO: January 26 Rochford Wines THEE OH SEES: January 28 Schoolhouse Studios; 31 Hi-Fi; February 6 Barwon Club (Geelong) RICHARD HAWLEY: January 29 Forum JESSIE WARE: January 30 Prince Bandroom THE WATERBOYS: January 30 Hamer Hall PERFUME GENIUS: January 30 Northcote Social Club OF MONSTERS & MEN: January 31 Palace Theatre AMANDA PALMER: February 1 Forum SLEEP ∞ OVER: February 1 Liberty Social ELIZABETH COOK: February 1 Northcote Social Club SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA: February 1 Sidney Myer Music Bowl EXPIRE: February 1 Bendigo Hotel; 3 Phoenix Youth Centre ABOVE & BEYOND: February 2 Hisense Arena FROM THE JAM: February 2 Hi-Fi EARTH CRISIS: February 2 Corner NITE JEWEL: February 4 Workers Club DIVINE FITS: February 4 Northcote Social Club POLICA: February 4 Corner Hotel CLOUD NOTHINGS: February 5 Ding Dong KINGS OF CONVENIENCE: February 5 Hamer Hall BAT FOR LASHES: February 5 Palais Theatre EL-P: February 6 Corner THE MEN: February 6 Northcote Social Club YEASAYER: February 6 Hi-Fi JULIA HOLTER: February 6 Toff In Town CELTIC THUNDER: February 7 Geelong Arena; 9 Hisence Arena GIN BLOSSOMS: February 7 Hi-Fi MS MR: February 7 Northcote Social Club THE HOLLIES: February 9 Hamer Hall DESCENDENTS: February 9 Festival Hall DEER TICK, TWO GALLANTS: February 9 Northcote Social Club STARS: February 10 Corner DIRTY BEACHES: February 10 Tote BARRY GIBB: February 12 Rod Laver Arena MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS: February 13, 16 Corner DAVID HASSELHOFF: February 14 Corner Hotel CONVERGE: February 15 Billboard SWANS: February 15 Corner Hotel GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: February 15 Forum JENS LEKMAN: February 15 Garden Party Southbank MACKELMORE & RYAN LEWIS: February 16 Corner RINGO STARR: February 16 Festival Hall CLIFF RICHARD: February 15, 16, 18, 19 Hamer Hall FATHER JOHN MISTY: February 17 Hi-Fi CAROLE KING: February 18 Plenary EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: February 19 Palace DR FEELGOOD: February 20 Caravan Club; 21 Corner NORAH JONES: February 21 Plenary JOSE JAMES: February 22 Hi-Fi HOW TO DRESS WELL: February 22 Corner
NATIONAL BOBBY ALU: December 5 Suzuki Night Markets; 7 Torquay Hotel; 9 Workers Club BIRDS OF TOKYO: December 5 Ormond Hall BUCHANAN: December 5, 22 Workers Club THE RAY MANN THREE: December 5 Toff In Town TAME IMPALA: December 5, 6 Forum; 7 Meredith; 31 Pyramid Rock BEN WELLS & THE MIDDLE NAMES: December 5 Workers Club; 6 Beav’s Bar (Geelong) CITY RIOTS: December 6 Workers Club YESYOU: December 6 Toff THE OWLS: December 6 Espy KRISTA POLVERE: December 6 Ding Dong REECE MASTIN: December 6 Hisense; January 26 Geelong Arena THE PRETTY LITTLES: December 6 Workers Club; 27 Revolver Upstairs; January 3 Retreat Hotel; 11 Loft (Warrnambool) YUNG WARRIORS: December 7 Sand Bar (Mildura) MERE THEORY: December 7 Workers Club LISA MILLER: December 7 Northcote Social Club; 8 Flying Saucer Club CHRISTINE ANU: December 7, 8 Bennetts Lane THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS: December 8 Meredith; 22 the Loft (Warrnambool) CLARE BOWDITCH: December 8 Arts Centre OTHER SIDE OF THE ROCK: December 8 Forum JOE ROBINSON: December 8 Toff COVELESKI: December 8 Old Bar GOTYE: December 8 Sidney Myer Music Bowl ZOOPHYTE: December 8 Ding Dong MESSRS: December 8 Grace Darling SAM SPARRO: December 9 Prince AFTER THE FALL: December 11 Workers Club THE LIVING END: December 11-17, 20, 21, 22 Corner Hotel BAYONETS FOR LEGS: December 13
REDD KROSS: Tuesday 12 March, Espy
Spotted Mallard; 14 Retreat Hotel MIKE NOGA, BEN SALTER: December 13 Karova Lounge; 14 Old Bar SHANNON NOLL: December 13 Spirit Bar & Lounge (Traralgon); 14 Wellers Restaurant (Kangaroo Ground) CATCALL: December 13 Toff In Town SKYWAYS ARE HIGHWAYS: December 14 Noise Bar HARD-ONS: December 14 Northcote Social Club KING CANNONS: December 14 Tote MEZZANINE: December 14 Noise Bar PIGEON: December 14 Can’t Say JUSTINE CLARKE: December 15 Dallas Brooks Centre CUB SCOUTS: December 15 Toff In Town EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: December 19 Corner Hotel THE BENNIES: December 20 Revolver ABBE MAY: December 20 Toff In Town CORDRAZINE: December 20 Northcote Social Club THE DEMON PARADE: December 21 Can’t Say DARREN HANLON: December 21 Northcote Social Club KINGSWOOD: December 21 Cherry Bar; 31 Espy SPENCER P JONES & THE NOTHING BUTTS: December 21 Thornbury Theatre PARKWAY DRIVE: December 22 Festival Hall EVEN: December 22 Hi-Fi HUMAN NATURE: December 22, 23 Hamer Hall MISTLETONE MANATEE MATINEE XMAS: December 23 Northcote Social Club SOMERSET BARNARD: December 27 Retreat Hotel; 29 Dandenong Market; 30 Armageddon Cake (Geelong) CHILDREN COLLIDE: December 28 Espy THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON: December 28 Workers Club CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN’ RACKETTES: December 29 Hi-Fi BALL PARK MUSIC: December 29 Ding Dong (U18) SPIDERBAIT, SOMETHING FOR KATE ET AL: December 31 Espy YACHT CLUB DJS: December 31 Ding Dong EBOLAGOLDFISH: January 4 Revolver BONJAH: January 4 Torquay Hotel; 6 Baha Tacos (Rye); 18, 19 Espy Gershwin Room BORED NOTHING: January 5 Gasometer KID MAC: January 5 Espy KSSR: January 11 Liberty Social NEW GODS: January 11 Northcote Social Club ASH GRUNWALD: January 11 Espy THE X FACTOR LIVE TOUR: January 11 Festival Hall ICEHOUSE: January 13 Geelong Performng Arts; 15, 16 Palms At The Crown JIMMY BARNES: January 17 Trak Bar TWELVE FOOT NINJA: January 18 Corner Hotel; 19 Ferntree Gully Hotel NORTHLANE: January 18 Neil Wilson Pavilion (Wodonga); 19 Mechanics Institute (Ballarat) DEEZ NUTS: January 18 Central Ringwood Community Centre; 19 Corner Hotel KIKUYU: January 19 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine) PUTA MADRE BROS: January 19 Northcote Social Club SHAUN DIVINEY: January 19 Ding Dong DZ DEATHRAYS: January 23 Billboard SUN CITY: January 25 Can’t Say DUB FX: January 25 Hi-Fi Bar HIGH HIGHS: January 30 Toff In Town HERMITUDE: February 1 Corner KEITH URBAN: February 2 Rod Laver Arena DEAD CAN DANCE: February 6 Palais Theatre TINA ARENA: February 12 Hamer Hall COLIN HAY: February 12 Performing Arts Centre (Hamilton); 13 Light House Theatre (Warrnambool); 15 Frankston Arts Centre; 16 Athenaeum Theatre; 19 Capital Theatre (Bendigo); 20 River Links Performing Arts (Shepparton) SARAH BLASKO: February 14 Hamer Hall NEIL FINN & PAUL KELLY: February 16, 18, 19, 20, March 4 Palais Theatre; 2 March All Saints Winery AT LAST – THE ETTA JAMES STORY: February 19 – March 3 Athenaeum Theatre URTHBOY: March 2 Corner THE ANGELS 100%: March 9 Palms THE MARK OF CAIN: March 15 Hi-Fi
To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 61
Rosencrantz, The Naysayers, DJ Adalita Retreat Hotel San Cisco, The Preatures, + More Corner Hotel Smudge Pure Pop Records The Bakersfield Glee Club Labour In Vain The Boys Wesley Anne, Front Bar The Caning, The Pass Outs, Berlin Postmark Prince Of Wales Public Bar The Chris Altmann Revue, Henry Wagons, Van Walker, Liz Stringer, + More Caravan Music Club The Dojo The Order Of Melbourne The DorothyJane Gosper Band The Palais, Hepburn Springs The Engagement, Scarlar Fields, The Winters, Stolen Fields, Finding Alice The Espy, Basement The Frowning Clouds, Super Wild Horses, Jeremy Neale, Winter Moon The Espy, Lounge Bar The Greasy Hawaiians, The Volcaniks Great Britain Hotel The High Learyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Soosie Wong, Sye Saxon The LuWow Forbidden Temple
The Knocks, Alison Wonderland, 96 Bulls, + More The Toff In Town The Last Ride at PONY feat, Deaf Wish, The Onyas, The Thod, + More Pony The Ocean Party, New Estate, Cat Cat, + More Grace Darling Hotel The Paul Kidney Experience, Wonderlust, Elizabeth Pistol Club Tago Mago The Sideshow Brides Retreat Hotel, Afternoon Show The Sideshow Brides The Retreat Hotel The Stone Moggers, Rosencrantz, Unicycle Inventors, Musterd Brunswick Hotel The Toot Toot Toots Apollo Bay Hotel Tinker Moustacha, The Taylor Project The Drunken Poet Vice Grip Pussies, + Guests Prince Bandroom Wild Turkey Retreat Hotel Front Bar Will & The People, Briscoe The Workers Club Wired Elsternwick Hotel Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s End Press, Collarbones Abbotsford Convent
SUN 02 A Very Kitty Christmas III The Order Of Melbourne Adana Twins, Dr Dru Revolver Upstairs Alanna & Alicia Egan Open Studio Artist Proof, Mel Calia Brunswick Hotel - Arvo Big Gospel Breakfast, Tracey Miller, The Sinner Men Caravan Music Club Charles Jenkins, Art Starr Carringbush Hotel Chris Wilson, Chris Russellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chicken Walk Cherry Bar, Arvo Show Claude Hay Westernport Hotel Dan Warnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Corner Band Lomond Hotel (afternoon) Divina Providencia, Amy Ganter & the Love & Squalors Wesley Anne. Band Room Fatti Frances, Asps, Moon Dice, + More The Gasometer Hotel Hands Like Houses Musicman Megastore, Bendigo Humbug, Tiller, Kid Ory Cherry Bar Jack Carty Retreat Hotel, Afternoon Show Jack Howard Pure Pop Records
Jayne In, Rashi, Riv & The White Guys 303 Jon B, Color Me Badd, Soul For Real Alumbra Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Al Parkinson Northcote Social Club, Arvo Show Loren, Freya Hanly The Workers Club (afternoon) Love Migrate, Jimmy Tait The Toff In Town Luau Cowboys Victoria Hotel Marty Kelly & Aubrey Maher Lomond Hotel Melting Pot Wesley Anne, Afternoon Michael Spiby The Bay Hotel, Mornington Mike Haynes Great Britain Hotel Monkey 15th Anniversary Reunion OneSixOne Nudost Funk Orchestra, Dale Ryder Band, Bad Boys Batacuda, Ms Butt The Espy, Lounge Bar Omar RodriquezLopez Group, A Dead Forest Index, + More Corner Hotel Open Decks The Thornbury Local Plymouth Reverends, RPGS Brunswick Hotel
Pour Habit, Totally Unicorn, Hightime, Declaration, Up and Atom The Tote Raised By Eagles The Standard Hotel Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Zebrahead Palace Theatre Return To Youth, The Darjeelings, Seven Year Itch, Tane EmiaMoore Evelyn Hotel Rich Davies Prince Bandroom Rob Farnham, + Special Guests The Empress Roesy The Drunken Poet Rory Ellis St Andrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hotel, Afternoon Ruby Boots, The Death Rattles The Old Bar San Cisco, The Preatures Corner Hotel, Arvo Show Sean McMahonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Western Union The Bridge Hotel (afternoon) Skyscraper Stan, Ben Wright Smith, Willow Darling, + More Trunk Bar - Melbourne Space Cactus, Glass Bricks, Creaks Bar Open Super XX Men, Kikuyu Grace Darling Cellar Bar
Swamp Moth, The Underhanded Bendigo Hotel The Deserters, Davey Lane Yah Yahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Detonators, Paulie Bignell & the Thornbury Two Williamstown RSL The Hired Guns Labour In Vain The Last Ride at PONY feat, The White Goods, Teenage Mothers, Fathoms, + More Pony The Rusty Cutlery Conductors, HVRS Grace Darling Hotel The Saturday Knights, The Yard Apes, The Mightiest Of Guns The Empress (afternoon) Three Kings, The Dorothy-Jane Gosper Band, Ben Salter Retreat Hotel Vaudeville Smash, Charlotte Nicdao The Workers Club Voodoo Swamp Daddies, The Reprobettes Tago Mago Waterline, Temple Of Tunes, + More 303, Arvo Show Waz E James The Drunken Poet, Arvo Show
THE KNOCKS: Saturday 1 December, Toff In Town
WikiMen Spotted Mallard - Brunswick Young Guns Thornbury Theatre
Abbie Cardwell, The Chicano Rockers, Mexicali Mammas, + More The Toff In Town Collage The Espy, Lounge Bar Ildiko, J Walker, Jim Patterson Northcote Social Club Irish Session Lomond Hotel Klub M.U.K 303 Missy Higgins, Gurrumul, Emma Louise Palais Theatre Open Mic, Nicolette Forte Prince Bandroom Open Mic Night Wesley Anne. Band Room Preshil Dizzyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jazz Club RDZJB Vineyard Red X Cherry Bar
MON 03 Cherry Jam Cherry Bar Monte Diamonte, Blackmolls Prince Bandroom Passionate Tongues Poetry Brunswick Hotel Slumber Race, Mingus Thingus 303 Tantrums, Constant Light, How Love Northcote Social Club The Shelf The Toff In Town Zoophyte, Tom Tuena The Espy, Lounge Bar
TUE 04
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Live At The Lomondâ&#x20AC;? THU 29TH 8.30PM
140 Sydney Rd
BRUNSWICKHOTEL.NET
9387 6637
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+ Frankie Andrew Trio + Bridgewater Trio (Contemporary roots)
NO COVER CHARGE
WEDNESDAY THE 28TH OF NOVEMBER - 8PM
THE BRUNSWICK HOTELâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S OPEN MIC NIGHT
WITH YOUR HOST BRODIE EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT REGISTER ON THE NIGHT FROM 7PM ONWARDS $10 JUGS OF BRUNSWICK BITTER
JUNES
FRI 30TH 9:30PM
SAT 1
(Junes in bloom)
LUCY LEHMANN & WILDFLOWERS
ST
9:30PM
THURSDAY THE 29TH OF NOVEMBER - 8PM TILL 1AM
$3 SCHOONERS OF CARLTON DRAUGHT - $5 BASIC SPIRITS 8PM
T-BYRDS
WITH GUESTS LACHLAN BRUCE BAND, STEVIE AND THE SLEEPERS, KID WOLF
(Alt country & old-timey)
DAN WARNERSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; CORNER BBQ BAND
SUN 2ND 5:30PM
FRIDAY THE 30TH OF NOVEMBER - 9PM
COTTON SIDEWALK
FEATURING: THE KILNIKS, EASY PLEASE, BROOKE RUSSELL
(Danâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cookinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; !!)
SUN 2ND 9:00PM
SATURDAY THE 1ST OF DECEMBER - 9PM
THE STONE MOGGERS
WITH GUESTS ROSENCRANTS, UNICYCLE INVENTORS, MUSTERD SUNDAY THE 2ND OF DECEMBER - 5PM
ARTIST PROOF FEATURING MEL CALIA 8PM
PLYMOUTH REVERENDS FEATURING RPGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S
MONDAY THE 3RD OF DECEMBER - 8PM
PASSIONATE TONGUES POETRY HOSTED BY MICHAEL REYNOLDS OPEN STAGE READINGS AND SPOKEN WORD WELCOME WITH FEATURE PERFORMERS EVERY FORTNIGHT $10 JUGS OF CARLTON DRAUGHT TUESDAY THE 4TH OF DECEMBER - 8PM
THE BRUNSWICK HOTEL DISCOVERY NIGHT
GIVING CHANCES TO UP AND COMING LOCAL TALENT!
62 â&#x20AC;˘ To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
JANE McARTHUR
TUES 4 8:00PM
Lachey Doley (Syd)
SAT 1 DECEMBER
President Roots SAT 8 DECEMBER
Blake Saban (NSW)
+ Jess
Porter
FRI 14 DECEMBER
Lee Rosser
MARTY KELLY & AUBURY MAHER
The Harlots
IRISH SESSION
Ghost Orkid
(Acoustic roots)
TH
FRI 30 NOVEMBER
ALL GIGS FREE
(Fiddley nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;diddley)
~ EXCELLENT RESTAURANT AND BAR MEALS
+
Ben Smith Band
SAT 15 DECEMBER FRI 21 DECEMBER + El Moth
VENUE GUIDE BAHA TACOS Friday Lachey Doley
BAR OPEN Wednesday The Citradels, Luna Ghost, Lioness Eye Thursday Howard, Sea Legs, Koala Kings, Emily Shobbrook Friday Simon Burke & The Meltdown Saturday Lamarama, Ghost Orkid Sunday Space Cactus, Glass Bricks, Creaks
BILLBOARD Friday Sash
BRUNSWICK HOTEL Wednesday Open Mic Night, Brodie Thursday T-Byrds, Lachlan Bruce Band, Stevie and The Sleepers, Kid Wolf Friday Cotton Sidewalk, The Kilniks, Easy Please, Brooke Russell Saturday The Stone Moggers, Rosencrantz, Unicycle Inventors, Musterd Sunday Plymouth Reverends, RPGS
Monday Passionate Tongues Poetry
CORNER HOTEL Wednesday The Church, Rain Party, The Moderns Thursday iwrestledabearonce, In Hearts Wake, For All Eternity, + More Friday The Selecter, Strange Tenants, DJ Sarah Saturday San Cisco, The Preatures, + More Sunday (Arvo) San Cisco, The Preatures Omar Rodriquez-Lopez Group, A Dead Forest Index, + More
EVELYN HOTEL Wednesday Echo Drama, Keshie, The Seven Ups, + More Thursday Over Reactor, Self Is A Seed Friday Engine Three Seven, Glass Empire, Swerve, The Villain Epic Saturday Fest-Mas 2012 feat, Pour Habit, ANCHORS, Hightime, Totally Unicorn, + More
Sunday Return To Youth, The Darjeelings, Seven Year Itch, Tane Emia-Moore
GRACE DARLING HOTEL Wednesday Leon Thomas, Aleister James Assembly, Alexi Kaye Thursday Tomas Strode, The Tour Guides, Rat & Co, Nigel B Swifte Friday Super Wild Horses, Teeth & Tongue, Pageants Saturday The Ocean Party, New Estate, Cat Cat, + More Sunday The Rusty Cutlery Conductors, HVRS
LOUNGE BAR Wednesday Danny Silver, Manchild, Mu-Gen
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB Thursday Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Ryan Nico Friday Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Ryan Nico Saturday Evil Eddie, Polo Club, + Special Guests
Sunday (Arvo) Jordie Lane, Liz Stringer, Al Parkinson Monday Tantrums, Constant Light, How Love Tuesday Ildiko, J Walker, Jim Patterson
PALACE THEATRE Friday Rick Astley, Wa Wa Nee, The Chantoozies Sunday Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Zebrahead
PONY Thursday Terrorbyte Stripes, Son of Set, Tone Sonic, Shoot the Sun, Poison Fish, Charm Friday A Million Dead Birds Laughing, The Mung, The Seaford Monster, Whoretopsy, Iconic Vivisect Saturday The Last Ride at PONY feat, Deaf Wish, The Onyas, The Thod, + More Sunday The Last Ride at PONY feat, The White Goods, Teenage Mothers, Fathoms, + More
PONY LATE SHOW Thursday Geek Pie
Friday Cockfight Shootout, Dozers, Mr Sharp
Saturday Epithets, Nikko, Ballads, On Sierra
PRINCE BANDROOM
REVOLVER UPSTAIRS
Wednesday Bearded Gypsy Band Thursday Max Savage & The False Idols Friday Bitter Sweet Kicks, + Guests Saturday Vice Grip Pussies, + Guests Sunday Rich Davies Monday Monte Diamonte, Blackmolls Tuesday Open Mic, Nicolette Forte
Wednesday Michael Paynter, Jessica Jade, Chris Mitchell Thursday Slow Down Earth, Glasfrosch, The Black Galaxy Experience, + More Friday Steph Hill & The Missing Fundamental, Marmoset, Diana’s Bow, + More Saturday Admiral Ackbars Dishonourable Discharge, Slowjaxx & his Flying Bong Brothers Sunday Adana Twins, Dr Dru
PUBLIC BAR
THE BRIDGE HOTEL (AFTERNOON)
Wednesday Hayley Couper Band, Ali E, Cabin Inn Friday Nikko
REVERENCE HOTEL, FOOTSCRAY Thursday Dirty Chapters, The Dosage, The Try Hardz Friday Barbarion, Vice Grip Pussies, SHERIFF
Saturday Tinker Moustacha, The Taylor Project Sunday (Arvo) Waz E James Roesy
Sunday Sean McMahon’s Western Union
THE DRUNKEN POET Wednesday Jenny Biddle, Cookie Baker Thursday Waylon Joes, Zeon Friday Dan Bourke & Friends
Monday The Shelf Tuesday Abbie Cardwell, The Chicano Rockers, Mexicali Mammas, + More
THE HI-FI
THE TOTE
Thursday Major Lazer, Dillon Francis, Krewella Friday DJ Carlos, DJ Surrender, + More Saturday Doors of Perception, Kisstroyer, Appetite For Destruction, Australian Bon Jovi Show, High Voltage (The AC/DC Show), Los Amigoes
Wednesday Strong Push, Pan, Gen & Flora Thursday The Emergency, Superstar, Constant Light, Towels Friday Gay Paris, Peep Tempel, The Stiffys Saturday King Parrot, Extortion, The Day Everything Became Nothing, Internal Nightmare Sunday (Arvo) Loren, Freya Hanly Pour Habit, Totally Unicorn, Hightime, Declaration, Up and Atom
THE STANDARD HOTEL Sunday Raised By Eagles
THE TOFF IN TOWN
YAH YAH’S
Wednesday Alexis Nicole and the Missing Pieces, The Tiger & Me, The Bon Scotts Thursday Vance Joy, Ali Barter, Grizzley Jim Lawrie Saturday The Knocks, Alison Wonderland, 96 Bulls, + More Sunday Love Migrate, Jimmy Tait
Thursday Voodoocain, Plastic Spaceman, Two Headed Dog Friday The High Learys, The Kave Inn, The Perfections Saturday Flyying Colours, Warmth Crashes In, The Ovals, The Laughing Leaves Sunday The Deserters, Davey Lane
&WFSZ 5VFTEBZ $12 JUGS & $5 WINE
8FEOFTEBZ UI /PWFNCFS
ALL KILLER NO FILLER
LOCAL DJS SPINNING GREAT TUNES
5IVSTEBZ UI /PWFNCFS
SPENCER P. JONES (SOLO) DAN KIRK
'SJEBZ UI /PWFNCFS
KIM SALMON & THE SURREALISTS FINAL SHOW FOR 2012
4BUVSEBZ TU %FDFNCFS
THE PAUL KIDNEY EXPERIENCE WONDERLUST THE ELIZABETH PISTOL CLUB
4VOEBZ OE %FDFNCFS
VOODOO SWAMP DADDIES REPROBETTES 4.00PM
Bar: 9484 1470 Band bookings and venue hire: tagomago@bigpond.com To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags • 63
64
EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION Experienced Manager required for established Brisbane based artist. Must have industry contacts, previous and current experience and be ruthless. Contact Justin info@earthgoat.com iFlogID: 19087
Experienced Sydney original rock band looking to play with local interstate bands. Will return favour with string of Sydney dates in venues such as The Wall, Valve, Town & Country. RemmosK@gmail.com
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65
PRODUCT NEWS WE STILL LOVE VINYL
According to ARIA statistics released earlier this year, while it’s obviously nowhere near the figures for downloading, Australia’s love affair with vinyl records saw sales top 65,000 for 12” albums and 15,000 for 7” singles/EPs last year, and that doesn’t include sales of vinyl by unsigned bands and boutique indie labels or imported pressings. More often than not, bands wishing to press their releases on vinyl have had to go overseas, so perhaps we need to champion Australia’s only operating vinyl record pressing facility, Zenith Records, based in Sunshine in Victoria and run by Chris Moss, who pressed his first vinyl for Astor Records in Huntingdale back in the late 1960s. Handling mostly small-run pressings – no run too small is the company motto – Zenith’s 7” press seems to be the company’s busiest, but they obviously cover the full range from 7” 45s to 12” albums, ranging in weight from 130g to the high-grade 180g, and also replicate existing vinyl records, as well as record direct-to-disc. The plant runs Australia’s only high-quality G Neumann Record Cutting Lathe, and produces its own record matrix masters as well as new, pure nickel record stampers, all run by experienced staff. For details and prices, call Zenith Records on (03) 9311 0075 or head to their website.
SOUND BYTES Greek six-piece symphonic metal band Nightfall recorded their new album, Cassiopeia, in four different places, with vocals and keys recorded at Soundflakes Studios and Cyberia in Greece, the drums tracked at Soundlodge Studios in Germany, and guitars and bass at Boomcave studios in Nashville, Tennessee. World’s End Press have spent the last few months working on their debut album with Tim Goldsworthy (DFA, Mo Wax, The Rapture) at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Massive Attack Studios in Bristol. Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye are back in the studio with producer TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek. Boulder, Colorado hardcore/grind/punk quartet Ironhorse recently wrapped up recording their debut album, Dragged Down A Dead End Path, at The Boar’s Nest in Salt Lake City with Andy Patterson. Scottish quintet Frightened Rabbit recorded their fourth studio album, Pedestrian Verse, at the famed Minnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, south Wales, with producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne, Grace Jones). Aldershot, UK four-piece Our Lost Infantry’s singer and guitarist Thom Ashworth produced their prog art-rock debut, The New Art History, which was recorded, mixed and mastered at Opus Studios on the Surrey/Hampshire border. Cameron Webb (Motörhead, Danzig, Social Distortion) mixed the new album, Now And Forever, from Swedish glam-metal four-piece Sister Sin. The eponymous debut album by Melbourne six-piece Money For Rope was recorded and mixed by Steven Schram (The Vasco Era, Devastations, Little Red), with whom Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes have also once again been working up new material.
STOKING THE HOLY FIRE Oxford’s Foals chose London’s Assault & Battery studios to create their next album, Holy Fire. In a Muso exclusive, Sasha Perera was invited to witness the tape roll. n yet another chilly and Autumnal day in London earlier this month I find myself making my way to meet up with Foals’ members Yannis Philippakis and Jimmy Smith, who are putting the finishing touches to their forthcoming album, Holy Fire. The album – scheduled for release in February 2013, soon after their Big Day Out appearances across Australia – is being recorded at Assault & Battery Studios, owned by Alan Moulder and Flood, the producers of that new album. Previously used by the likes of The Killers for Sam’s Town, Arctic Monkeys’ Favourite Worst Nightmare, White Lies’ To Lose My Life and Bloc Party’s Intimacy, among many other projects, the studios are tucked away in a nondescript suburban side-street in West London.
O
Inside the complex, apropos of nothing, a chirpy Pete Doherty bounds happily up the stairs singing Jackie Wilson’s Reet Petite to himself, whilst squirreled away in Studio 2, Yannis and Jimmy, in equally good spirits, are sitting back ready to break down the recording process for their third album for me, following a preview I get of seven out of 11 of the new album tracks. Interestingly enough, this is the Foals’ first experience of recording an album on home turf in the UK. Their first album – 2007’s Antidotes – was recorded in New York with TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, while 2010’s Total Life Forever was recorded in Sweden with Clor’s Luke Smith. “It’s less distracting being here, because we’re used to being around here,” shrugs Yannis. “Instead of going to New York and spending a week freaking out about the cornon-the-cob, or the women, or the basketball games, or the shopping or whatever, instead it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re in Willesden…’” Even though they’ve been happily recording in the grey suburban locale, the seeds initially germinated on our own sunny shores in Australia. “We started writing on the road – we started jamming during gigs, and bits of the set were improvs, so it kinda started back then,” Yannis recalls their last Australian tour, in 2011. “We did some recording in Sydney in a river house in Woronora with our friend Jono ‘Jaguar’ Ma, so we demoed some shit there, and that got us interested in a baggier, swampier sound on some tracks. Then we carried on touring, and we continued writing back home in Oxford. After that we met up with a bunch of producers, and we decided on Flood and Moulder, so we came down to record at these studios. “We got here about the beginning of March, but we had already started work with Flood and Moulder in Oxford and we’d been chopping
away at tracks, but we only started recording properly when we got to these studios.” Notoriously picky, having remixed the original production work of Dave Sitek on their debut album, this time around the band have used the skilled and experienced Flood and Moulder to both produce and mix the new album. The results are a bigger wall of sound; not necessarily any less raw, but definitely more audacious than previous albums. It seems that working with these studio talents has brought a more polished sound to the band without necessarily losing the essence of their original presence. “More than anything it was just kind of humbling and flattering to have them want to work with us,” Yannis admits. “They made us feel confident about being a band that in today’s climate is still around and can make a record, and not have been in the kind of structures where we could’ve been dropped or chopped or fucked over yet. They made us feel courageous about the way to make the record, and I think it’s only been a good thing for us, and it’s quelled the neurotic self-questioning, and - at times - crippling selfdoubt that would enter the band. It’s just made us feel like, ‘Fuck it – let’s just do all these things we wanna do, and not have any fear.’” With a series of ideas from their sessions in Australia already in the bag, the band waited until they were in the recording studio to flesh the songs out. “Inhaler was one that was chiselled out in the studio. We would put on this little dictaphone when we were practicing – we had these 27-minute long versions of Inhaler which didn’t make any sense, but then it all just came together. There were a couple of other tracks written on the spot in the studio, and then there were a few other tracks that were just keyboards and voice which we purposely kept that way until we got into the studio. We didn’t let the rest of the band play with them too much until we got into the studio and we were under the guiding presence of the producers because we felt that people’s individual appetite to play wherever they could would interfere with those songs. That’s something we did on the last record as well – it’s kind of like a trick of ours.” With first single, Inhaler, rebooting the band with a heavy dose of dirty, bass-fuelled indiefunk, the stage has been set for a diverse new album that isn’t afraid to bounce between radiofriendly singles such as My Number, through to less-traditional band jams like Cleaver.
“Any fans that are still listening and are aware of the trajectory of the band are not going to be expecting the same thing as the last record, because they know we’re contrary bastards and we’re going to change up what we’re doing.” Ensuring the studio was set up to enhance their “free-thinking”, the band made sure the ambiance and mood were suitably arranged. “We had candles obviously, and we had some bones around the place that we got from the butcher’s,” Yannis says casually. “They were supposed to be played as instruments – rhythm bones,” Jimmy adds by way of explanation. “It kinda worked out and it kinda didn’t. There was a huge basically-dinosaur bone on the roof.” “We got into the idea about bringing organic artefacts into the studio,” Yannis expands, “coming from that Woronora River-vibe where there were these big-arse spiders, and it was just sweaty, and we were doing vocal takes out in the garden, and you could hear the bugs everywhere. On the song Milk & Black Spiders, we sampled bees on the track, and we liked the idea of putting ‘living’ sonics into the tracks. The album opens with a track that has swamp-filled recordings - it’s got a recording of a fly in a jar put together with a drumbeat and it’s got a weird texture to it. It just feels fertile in that fascinating and slightlydisgusting way that marshlands can feel like. “If landscape could be sexual it would be like that, so it’s got that clicking and the sweatiness of bugs and stuff. Anyway we also decked out the studio upstairs with plants and loads of vegetation. We made it so that it felt like a jungle. So instead of being able to draw upon the edgy street-culture of Williamsburg, we made our own little environment here and in our own internal environment, which is in our skulls.” With the album near completion, the band are now getting ready to switch their focus to the live shows. “We’re doing a small tour around the UK soon – playing some real shitboxes – and then we’re on our way to Australia for Big Day Out,” Yannis says, adding that they’re looking forward to some downtime down under. “Yeah, we schedule a three-day mushroomtrip in Byron Bay every time we go!” WHO: Foals WHEN & WHERE: Big Day Out, Flemington Racecourse Jan 26
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66 • To check out the mags online go to themusic.com.au/mags
Visit: openday.qantm.edu.au Call: 1300 136 933 WEB DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT GAMES PROGRAMMING GRAPHIC DESIGN GAMES DESIGN ANIMATION