Inpress Issue 1279

ABBE MAY

STEREOPHONICS

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W E D N E S D AY 19 J U N E 2 0 13

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

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I S S U E 12 7 9

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FREE

STEVE COOGAN

BABYSHAMBLES BURIED IN VERONA MUNICIPAL WASTE JIMMY EAT WORLD

NOW AVAIL ABLE ON IPAD

www.themusic.com.au

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THE SP RTING CLUB Wednesday

Trivia 8pm Thursday

Salt Lake City 7pm Free Friday

Tango Rubino 7pm Free Saturday

Pavement Serenaders 6pm Free Sunday

King Lucho 6pm Free

27 WESTON ST, BRUNSWICK Tues - Fri 4pm till Late Sat & Sun 12pm till Late

TUESDAY

OPEN MIC

7PM FREE

WEDNESDAY

SIMPLY ACOUSTIC

8PM FREE

THURSDAY

JOHN FLANAGAN AND THE BEGIN AGAINS MARK STEVENS TRIO

6PM FREE 8PM $8

FRIDAY

TRIO AGOGO DELSINKI RECORDS

6PM FREE 8PM $10

SATURDAY

THE WEEPING WILLOWS PROJETO INSPERADO W/ THE FURBELOWS

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SUNDAY

Open...MON - SAT...from 12pm ‘til late Kitchen til 10pm SUN...from 12pm ‘til 11pm Kitchen til 9pm

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

NEW WINTER MENU 6

BRONI GEMMA TULLY AND THE THORN BIRDS

Winter Special

2 for 1 meals weekdays before 6pm $12 jugs of Boag’s and Cider OPEN FOR LUNCH FROM MIDDAY

bookings: 9482 1333

4PM FREE

7PM $5

I N P R E S S I S S U E # 1 2 7 9 W E D N E S D AY 1 9 J U N E 2 0 1 3

LUCKY THURSDAYS THU 20 JUN

P20

LoopHole presents 'Precious Things' an exhibition of glass sculpture - Laurel Kohut Wed 19 7pm - La Trobe Screenings

FEATURE

20 short docs by La Trobe Media students

BILLBOARD SATURDAYS SAT 22 JUN

Thurs 20. 8pm - Tailor BIrds, DD Dumbo, Chasr, Earthwire. Visuals from Xanthe Dobbie Fri 21. 5pm - Condensed Milk Ogiyy from Japan, Slim Charles, Benny Badge, Amin Payne and Jackson Miles. Chronic Sans

MASIF HARD DANCE ICONS FRI 2 AUG

Sat 22. 9pm -Movement, Spacewalk & 50/50 Arctic, Affiks, Chiara KD ,Bevin Campbell Lucianblomkamp, 2Fuddha Visuals : Kit Webster , Chronic Sans Mon 24. 630 pm - Dance Speaks A monthly meet-up for dance artists.

UMMET OZCAN FRI 9 AUG

SHAPESHIFTER FRI 16 AUG

ALL TIME LOW SAT 31 AUG

Mon 25 8 pm - loopdeloop LoopdeLoop is an animation challenge including animators from around the world.

Music has to come from a place of complete honesty, otherwise I don’t really see the point in it.”

FRI 4 OCT

FRI 14 OCT

PORTER ROBINSON AND THE M MACHINE LIVE SUN 20 OCT

- Rebecca Cook in CULTURAL CRINGE (P33)

“The kinda love songs that appeal to me are the ones that deal with adversity and emotional injury and heartbreak.”

- Jim Adkins of JIMMY EAT WORLD

- Brendan Telford reviews BATPISS’S NUCLEAR WINTER (P26)

“She sings like she is laughing and crying at the same time and a surface-level sweetness barely conceals the sex and grit bubbling below.”

P30

- MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, Live Review (P28)

“The music is of course amazing, affirming, spiritual and beautiful – music with both a soul and a social consciousness.”

CREDITS Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast Editor Bryget Chrisfield music@inpress.com.au Editorial Assistant Stephanie Liew Food & Arts Coordinator Cassandra Fumi frontrow@inpress.com.au Staff Writer Michael Smith

ADVERTISING sales@inpress.com.au National Sales & Marketing Director Leigh Treweek National Sales Manager – Print Nick Lynagh Account Manager Andrew Phillips Account Manager Tim Wessling

REVIEW

Kong has upstaged aged everyone.”

- Cassandra Fumi reviews KING KONG

Negro, Mark Neilsen, Matt O’Neill, Paul Ransom, Dylan Stewart, Izzy Tolhurst, Nic Toupee, Dominique Wall, Josh Ramselaar, Matthew Ziccone.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Senior Contributor Kane Hibberd Jesse Booher, Andrew Briscoe, Chrissie Francis, Jay Hynes, Lou Lou Nutt, Heidi Takla, Elaine Reyes, Holly Engelhardt.

INTERNS Jan Wisniewski, Annie Brown, Stephanie Tell.

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. ©

DESIGN & LAYOUT artroom@inpress.com.au Art Direction Matt Davis Layout Matt Davis, Nicholas Hopkins, Eamon Stewart

ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION accounts@streetpress.com.au Accounts Receivable Jarrod Kendall

CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors Jeff Jenkins Overseas Contributors Tom Hawking (US).

Writers Nick Argyriou, 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 Hazel, Brendan Hitchens, Ching Pei Khoo, Kate Kingsmill, Baz McAlister, Samson McDougall, Tony McMahon, Fred

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

“MONA director, David Walsh, seems particularly interested in using the opportunity to reach out to extraterrestrial life.”

“For all the bluster and necrotic noise, Batpiss are indeed taking the piss, and don’t care whether you’re in on the joke or not.”

EDITORIAL

AMORPHIS

- Drew McConnell of BABYSHAMBLES (P19)

- KATIE NOONAN

- Bob Baker Fish reviews ETRAN FINATAWA’S THE SAHARA SESSIONS (P27)

SOILWORK

“I was hit by a car and basically almost died – my spine was broken in three places, and about 15 bones in my body were broken.”

DEADLINES Editorial Friday 5pm Advertising Bookings Friday 5pm Advertising Artwork Monday 5pm General Inquiries info@inpress.com.au (no attachments) Accounts/Administration accounts@streetpress.com.au Gig Guide gigguide@inpress.com.au Distribution distro@inpress.com.au Office Hours 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday

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PRINTED BY Rural Press Victoria

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[NEWS NEWS] n a t i o n a l

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GREAT SCOTT Fusing together R&B, jazz, hip hop and neu soul while managing to apply a personal stamp to all styles, Jill Scott’s music and distinct vocal style has seen her become one of the most celebrated female artists from the past 20 years. Now, she’s excited to announce her very first sojourn down our way, bringing the emotive live experience that she’s renowned for to capital cities around the country. With her 2011 Light Of The Sun hitting the top of the Billboard charts, and having worked with everyone from Will Smith and Lupe Fiasco to will.i.am and Mos Def, it seems like this is one of the Scott’s final artistic accomplishments to tick off, so check out the formidable contemporary queen at these shows and help her do it in style: Sunday 17 November, Riverside Theatre, Perth; Tuesday 19, Palais Theatre, Melbourne; Thursday 21, The Tivoli, Brisbane, and Saturday 23, Enmore Theatre, Sydney.

IN THE STUDIO BEN SALTER

SEEING RIGHT THROUGH

WHERE DID YOU RECORD YOUR NEW EP AND WHY? In random non-studio locations across Europe with a bunch of different folks as part of a collaborative songwriting trip I did in 2012. Then I finished them up at Nowhere Audio in Brisbane earlier this year.

European Vacation out July. Ben Salter touring nationally. Check The Guide for dates.

ALTERNATIVE CAREER TOM SPENDER

Karnivool

SET FIRE TO YOUR LIVES Brace yourself progressive rock fans the country over: Karnivool are back in the fold once more. After four long years, the Perth group are ready to present their third studio record, Asymmetry, and by all reports the quintet are excited about opening new doors and evolving from their ARIA number two record, Sound Awake. And making sure these shows are some nights to remember, the old guard have invited one hell of a new contender to support them on all dates, with Northlane bringing their djent-influenced metalcore to the masses. Reacquaint yourself with one of Australia’s hard rock heavyweights and introduce yourself to the young breed when the two acts play the following shows: Thursday 1 and Friday 2 August, Melbourne Town Hall; Sunday 4, The Big Top, Luna Park, Sydney (licensed/all ages); Wednesday 7, Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane, and Sunday 11, Metro City, Perth. The national tour is proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE GREATS

Dialectrix

IF YOU WEREN’T DOING MUSIC, WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU BE DOING? I’d be the guy that checks your gas meter. It’s very low stress.

Tom Spender is touring. Check The Guide for dates.

THIS WEEK’S RELEASES KANYE WEST Yeezus Rock-A-Fella

YOU AM I (REISSUE) Hourly Daily Sony

DEAP VALLY Sistrionix Island/Universal

‘TRIX OR TREAT Big-time favourite Sydneysider Dialectrix continues to push the envelope on the domestic hip hop scene, and with the prolific MC’s third album, The Cold Light Of Day, the microphone maverick shows once again that when it comes to ‘Trix, you can only expect the unexpected.

Proclaimed as “thinking music”, The Cold Light... is a challenging and ultimately rewarding full-length, with the artist’s soul poured out across the release, his candour and honesty only offered in the hope of others using it to their advantage. Take it all on board when Dialectrix, backed up by turntablist DJ 2Buck, comes to a venue near you, performing Friday 2 August, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle; Saturday 3, The Standard, Sydney; Friday 9, Mojo’s, Fremantle; Saturday 10, Ya Ya’s, Perth; Friday 16, Revolver, Melbourne; Friday 23, Coniston Lane, Brisbane, and Saturday 24, Solbar, Maroochydore. All national dates are proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

Glorious Momentum is the new record from Sydney troubadour Isaac Graham and his three-piece partners in song, The Great Unknown. An album full of spirited folk punk singalongs, this tour marks the first time the full team are hitting the road, making this the perfect chance to either reacquaint or introduce yourself to the startling charm and charismatic storytelling of Isaac Graham: Friday 19 July, Yours & Owls, Wollongong; Friday 26, The Bunker, Coogee; Saturday 27, The Lass O’Gowrie, Newcastle; Thursday 1 August, Crowbar, Brisbane; Saturday 10, The Public Bar, Melbourne; Wednesday 14, Lizotte’s, Kincumber; Thursday 15, Phoenix Bar, Canberra, and Friday 16, Black Wire Records, Annandale. There’s a solid list of local supports too, with fresh faces at almost every gig, so head to theMusic.com.au to find out who else will be joining Graham and co. at a show close to you.

Fantasy JagJaguwar/Inertia

Fresh from ripping stages apart right across Europe, Lo! return home following a 25-date tour with Cult Of Luna and The Ocean to launch their own prize piece of sludge metal decay, Monstrorum Historia. Uncompromising and unable to be contained, the Sydney quartet will deliver three paint-peeling east coast shows with spasmodic post-hardcore supergroup High Tension (featuring former members of Young & Restless and The Nation Blue), happening Saturday 13 July, The Reverence, Melbourne with Jurassic Penguin; Friday 19, Crowbar, Brisbane with The Fevered, and Saturday 20, Spectrum, Sydney with Totally Unicorn.

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

KNOCKOUT BLOW Even with only four bands announced, Hits & Pits 2.0 was shaping up to be a genuine riot. Now, this vision has pretty much been solidified with the addition of Joey Cape’s Bad Astronaut, long-standing Indiana crew The Ataris and old school Brits Snuff. These bands add to the list of already announced headliners, Boysetsfire, No Fun At All, Jughead’s Revenge and Off With Their Heads, the combination pretty much making the event a must-attend for punk fans of any ilk. As previously announced, shows happen Friday 15 November, Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast; Saturday 16, The Hi-Fi, Brisbane; Sunday 17, The Hi-Fi, Sydney; Friday 22, Palace Theatre, Melbourne, and Sunday 24, Capitol and Amplifier, Perth.

Every Time I Die

DIE ANOTHER DAY

THE FULL EXPERIENCE

OUT FROM THE SHADOWS LIGHTNING DUST

They were only together for a single decade (we know), yet The Beatles changed music, and popular culture as we now know it, forever. Between them, Paul McCartney and John Lennon amassed a collection of 23 number one singles and although they can’t play those on stage together anymore, they can be recognised and respected by other artists. Which is where LET IT BE: The Beatles Songs of Lennon & McCartney fits in. Featuring celebrated Aussie musicians Doug Parkinson, John Paul Young, Glenn Shorrock and Jack Jones, this awesome foursome will run through 32 of the songwriting pair’s most famous tracks including Eleanor Rigby, Come Together, Hey Jude and of course, Let It Be. With a limited run of capital city dates pencilled in, you can catch this show: Saturday 24 August, Hamer Hall, Melbourne; Thursday 29, QPAC, Brisbane, and Friday 30 and Saturday 31, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House.

All danceable guitar lines and sharp vocal verses, Halcyon Days, the debut album from Sydney’s Glass Towers shimmers with a summertime glow, even in these cold winter months. The band have fast become a favourite of the national youth broadcaster and are also making inroads into the overseas market, having recently toured both the UK and Japan. Now, the band will be launching the full-length with a national tour featuring Jordan Leser (excluding Western Australian dates), so make sure you check out one of the hottest young indie pop prospects in the country when Glass Towers play the following dates: Friday 9 August, Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; Saturday 10, Amplifier, Perth; Sunday 11, Newport Hotel, Fremantle; Friday 16, The Standard, Sydney; Saturday 17, The Toff, Melbourne; Wednesday 21, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane; Thursday 22, The Loft, Gold Coast, and Friday 23, The Northern, Byron Bay.

Rolo Tomassi

BRINGING THE HYSTERICS Their music twists and snaps with the unpredictability of a desert cobra, and over three albums British mathcore whiz kids Rolo Tomassi have proven themselves to be just as unquantifiable, striving forward on their own watch, leaving club and festival stages smouldering in their wake. Now the quartet return to Australia for the first time in three years, playing national shows with tuck-back titans Totally Unicorn and fellow hellraisers Stockades (not appearing in Perth).

Enjoy these bands all up in your face: Wednesday 25 September, Amplifier, Perth; Thursday 26; Friday 27, The Reverence Hotel, Melbourne; Sunday 29, Wrangler Studios, Melbourne (all ages); Wednesday 2 October, Magpies Club, Canberra; Thursday 3, The Croatian Club, Newcastle (licensed/all ages); Friday 4, The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney; Saturday 5, Black Wire Records, Sydney (all ages); Monday 7, Yours & Owls, Wollongong (all ages); Thursday 10, Crowbar, Brisbane, and Friday 11, Sun Distortion, Brisbane (all ages).

Tickets for all dates go on sale Monday 1 July.

Continuing their dominance as one of the most forwardthinking forces in all of metal, Every Time I Die refuse to be contained by what the genre demands and spread their riff wings far and wide. Fusing elements of Southern rock’n’roll, thrash, hardcore and punk into hedonistic party records with the lyrical sharps of a glistening blade, the furious Buffalo bruisers lead, not follow, and their unwavering onstage energy is the stuff of legend. With latest record, Ex Lives, reaching the Top 20 on the Billboard charts, Every Time I Die are running hot, so get ready to get heavy when the quartet arrives to tear holes in our country. They play Friday 18 October, The Hi-Fi, Brisbane; Saturday 19, Manning Bar, Sydney; Sunday 20, Corner Hotel, Melbourne, and Thursday 24, Amplifier, Perth. Tickets for all dates are on sale this Thursday 20 June.

LET YOURSELF DRIFT AWAY Having sold out all the dates on his God Loves You When You’re Dancing launch tour, Vance Joy is looking to spread the love once more with a national tour to support his recent single, Riptide. With an arresting voice that allows his folk strumming to soar, Joy has fast found fans both domestically and abroad, and after lapping around the US for the past few weeks as main support for Lissie, he’s excited to return home and play for his brethren Down Under.

Joy will perform the following headline dates: Friday 23 August, Fly By Night, Fremantle; Friday 30, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney; Saturday 31 August, The Zoo, and Tuesday 3 September, The Corner, Melbourne.

Fraser A Gorman is supporting throughout.

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11

[NEWS NEWS]

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GETTING CLARKY

INDUSTRY

Gilby Clarke was in Guns N’ Roses, played guitar for the MC5, Nancy Sinatra, Heart and Rockstar Supernova, and was also on production duties for The Bronx, LA Guns and Alice Cooper. Coming here for the first time as a solo musician in acoustic mode, see Clarke on Sunday 7 July at Northcote Social Club with Dead Star Renegade.

NOT IN JEHST One of the UK’s finest lyricists and one of Australia’s best producers are coming together this July to put the finishing touches on their brand new collaborative album. At the end of July Jehst and M-Phazes will come up for air to perform a select group of shows.

Catch them on Friday 26 July at the Laundry Bar. Mick Thomas

Southern rap superstar Yelawolf will be in Australia to support Bliss N Eso’s national tour.

He’ll also be playing a couple of headline shows, including one at the Corner on Monday 8 July.

SO IT GOES Elizabeth Rose The inaugural BIGSOUND Music+Design event has been added to Brisbane’s BIGSOUND program this year. The organisers have enlisted a series of great international speakers to join a raft of local graphic designers like Sonny Day, Ken Taylor and Christopher Doyle speaking about the importance of design in relation to music.

Pop superstar Gotye and hotly-tipped Sydney producer and beat-maker Elizabeth Rose (pictured) are collaborating and have written a track together.

At this stage it’s unclear when, where or if the track will appear and whether they’ll look to work on a more substantial project in the future.

Brisbane’s The Trouble With Templeton have announced that their latest album, Rookie, will be released Friday 2 August through MGM. It will feature previously-released singles Six Months In A Cast and Like A Kid. They’ve also locked in agency deals for the US and Canada following a string of showcases there, including SxSW and Canadian Music Week.

On the opening night of the Leaps And Bound Music Festival, the Yarra Hotel will be home to Brown River – an event about all that is the City of Yarra in song and spoken word. RRR’s Jonnie von Goes will present a night of variety extravagance not unlike one of his BBQ Days or his Stopping All Stations Except East Richmond gigs. The event also features Yarra Hotel publican Mick Thomas, Australasian/ Balkan TV wrestling leisure-wear model balladeer Mikelangelo, Talei Wolfgram free of the shackles of her sisters, plus the king and queen of Melbourne spoken word, Sean M Whelan and Emily Zoe Baker, plus many more. It happens Friday 5 July, starting from about 8pm with $15 entry.

Popular Newcastle festival Fat As Butter will be accommodating 1,500 campers this year as well as the usual single-day revellers. The event is held at Stockton’s Ballast Ground, which is said to have a capacity of 25,000 so those limited camping spots could be in high demand.

Aden Mullens has been appointed into the newly-created role of Head Of indie label etcetc, which will see him step up from his role at Ministry Of Sound. Mullens recently spent seven years as the A&R/Compilations Manager for MOS, of which etcetc is a part of.

Melbourne post-hardcore outfit House Vs Hurricane have broken up after seven years and two albums.

The band will be touring later this month in support of I Killed The Prom Queen. That, along with their River Sessions festival slot will be their last shows.

Songwriter and actor Brendan Maclean has announced he’s inked a deal with Universal Music Publishing. The exclusive worldwide deal is the first time Maclean has signed an industry deal – he currently self-manages and books his own shows.

English indie gods Bloc Party have announced that the band will enter another “indefinite hiatus” following a run of festival dates. It’s not the first time the band has said they’d be throwing the towel in, having already announced two ‘breakups’ in the last five years.

Melbourne indie outfit Big Scary have signed with US label Barsuk Records just before their latest album, Not Art, is scheduled for release here via Pieater/Inertia on Friday 28 June. It will be available in the US and South America sometime in September.

Apple has confirmed its iTunes Radio service will roll out in America this year, with no plans to include Australia in the release yet. The streaming service is set to utilise the catalogue of music from the iTunes store and will be available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC and Apple TV.

Sydney-based alt.rock band Monks Of Mellonwah will hit the road to celebrate the release of Ghost Stories, the first of three instalments of their debut album Turn The People. See them on Tuesday 2 July at Revolver Upstairs, Wednesday 3 at Grace Darling and Thursday 4 at the Tote.

One of Australia’s most successful recording bands from the 1980s, Eurogliders, are reuniting for a run of special shows throughout Victoria. Catch the shows at Chelsea Heights Hotel on Thursday 8 August, Doncaster Shoppingtown Hotel on Friday 9 and Ferntree Gully Hotel on Saturday 10.

WORD

Ladi6

HEY MA

Federal Minister Peter Garrett will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural event for the Australian Institute Of Music (AIM)’s latest initiative, TILT (Tomorrow’s Ideas Leading Today), at Sydney’s campus in July. His appearance at TILT follows on from his speech on live music at the Save Play Bar event that ended in controversy between Labor and the Greens.

Melbourne-raised London-based sibling DJ duo Nervo have cracked the top of Billboard’s Dance/Club Play track chart with their single, Hold On. The track from the sisters – Mim and Liv Nervo – has been growing steadily after it entered the US charts in April.

GHOST MONKS

GRACEFUL GLIDIN’

Back in April, Jagwar Ma had to postpone their East Coast shows due to illness. Well, they’ve now confirmed the new dates and will be stopping by at the Corner on Thursday 1 August, with guests DJ Angelo Cruzman and Guerre.

FIRST LADI Following on from 2010’s The Liberation of... – an album that garnered critical plaudits and multiple awards, including the prestigious Taite Music Prize – Ladi6 will release her highly anticipated third studio album later this year. See Ladi6 at Revolver on Thursday 25 July, supported by Waajeed (Detroit).

MAKE SOME NOISE

Remi

FREE SANGRIA In April of this year, emerging Melbourne hip hop artist Remi dropped a decidedly big tune in Sangria.

Remi has also announced a brand new free mixtape, FYG :: Act 1, as well as his first national run – the Free Sangria Tour. Remi brings his trademark energy, humour and style to Revolver on Friday 12 July.

DEEZ N JONZE In addition to performing at the sold out Splendour In The Grass this July, Darwin Deez will be playing a couple of headline shows, including one at the Corner on Wednesday 31 July. Opening for Darwin Deez will be Pluto Jonze. Dressed with samples, sequenced electronic lines and backed by an explosive live three-piece drenched with lush vocals, pounding drums, melody-soaked guitar and his signature theremin sound, this is what the ‘60s would’ve sounded like on another planet.

ROADTRIP FOR ROADTRIP Wes Carr’s latest incarnation Buffalo Tales will come to life in coming weeks, as he takes the album Roadtrip Confessions on a roadtrip of its own. See the show on the following dates: Friday 19 July at the Elsternwick Hotel, Elwood; Saturday 20 at Ferntree Gully Hotel; Sunday 21 at the Workers Club; and Friday 30 August at Sandbar, Mildura.

TANGLED UP With a new song, Given The Chance, now at radio, Brisbane producer The Kite String Tangle is taking his blend of ethereal pop and ambient electronic beats on the road. An extensive background in composition and production has resulted in a captivating arrangement of handcrafted electronic textures and contorted organic samples. Check him out at Northcote Social Club on Friday 5 July with guests Mammals and Rat & Co.

INTO THE VOID Lars Sandberg aka Funk D’Void is a DJ and producer who has been involved in the global electronic music scene since the mid-90s. House music changed his life. The Detroit techno sound forged his unique sound that would follow over the coming years – visceral, soulful and without compromise. Funk D’Void performs at Brown Alley on Friday 12 July.

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

YELL FOR YELA

As part of the City of Yarra’s Leaps And Bounds Music Festival, Music Victoria presents Make Some Noise: hip hop and electronic music workshops for both emerging and advanced artists. It’s practical, real-world advice on topics including getting a gig, management, sampling, getting airplay, press releases, crowdfunding and grant writing for both emerging and advanced hip hop and electronic music practitioners. Speakers include M-Phazes, Nate Flagrant, Anthony Colombi, Andy Rantzen, Jon Hanlon and Chris Johnston. On Saturday 6 July at First Floor (Fitzroy) there’s a beginners session from 2pm and an advanced session from 3.30pm.

BOOK ‘EM On Friday 12 July at the Reverence Hotel, it’s the inaugural Melbourne Metal Monsters Vol 1. The line-up includes: Harlott, Hybrid Nightmares, Inebriator, Hollow World and Atomic Death Squad. Doors are at 7.30pm and entry’s only $12.

Wordlife will release their new Breakthrough/Small Talk EP on Monday 1 July, and back it up with an East Coast tour. The EP from the bearded Sydney duo is a tasting plate of all the good things Wordlife are bringing to electronic music right now. Check them out at the Palace on Saturday 20 July.

FLEETING MAC Due to the Tuesday 26 November show being sold out, a second Melbourne show has been added to Fleetwood Mac’s upcoming Australian tour. It will be held at the same venue on Wednesday 27.

JONNY BOY Jonny Craig’s musical journey has seen various incarnations, having fronted influential outfits Dance Gavin Dance and Emarosa throughout a tumultuous career, which led to his departure from both acts.

From the ashes came a newly discovered passion for music with Craig firmly setting his sights on his solo material. See him perform at Wrangler Studios on Friday 12 July; Bang on Saturday 13; and Ferntree Gully Hotel on Sunday 14, all with Built On Secrets.

YOU’RE THE JUAN The originator of Detroit techno music and a shadowy but important figure in the birth of Chicago house, Juan Atkins first came to prominence in Cybotron, an early ‘80s techno/electro group which achieved some success but was eventually split by conflicting musical directions. See one of the Godfathers of Techno at Brown Alley on Friday 12 July.

YOU GOT SPRUNG After blowing the roof off Brisbane two years in a row, this year Sprung Hip Hop Festival is heading down south. This all-Aussie, all ages event features ARIA Award winning, chart toppers 360 and Drapht alongside the likes of Seth Sentry, The Funkoars, Horrorshow, Thundamentals, Diafrix, Brad Strut, Allday, The Crate Cartel, Bam Bam, Lazy Grey & Jake Biz, Dialectrix, Purpose, Mr Hill & Rahjconkas, K21, Eloji, Komplete, Chelsea Jane, Savo and Urthboy. It’s held at the Kevin Bartlett Sport & Rec Complex on Saturday 19 October.

GRANEY EVENINGS Dave Graney is doing a run of early shows at the Butterfly Club in the city from tonight (Wednesday) to this Sunday (6pm start on Wednesday and Sunday, 7pm all other nights). Since the 2011 release of his book 1001 Australian Nights, Graney has been doing readings and performances in bookshops and libraries, and he loves it. The Butterfly Club shows are titled Early Folk, for early folk. There will be mulled wine and candles, and he’ll be playing his acoustic 12-string.

KNIGHTHOOD From fronting pop darlings Eurogliders to her wellestablished jazz career, Grace Knight is one of those versatile performers who can turn her vocals to any style effortlessly. As her most recent (and 13th) album Keep Cool Fool attests, Knight just keeps getting better. She performs on Thursday 18 July at Kangaroo Ground, Wellers; Friday 19 and Saturday 20 at Bennett’s Lane; and Saturday 24 August at the Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick.

Empra

WINTER WARMERS Lamenters of that summer festival feeling rejoice.

Queenscliff Music Festival will once again bring you their cosy Winter Warmup to the Queenscliff Town Hall on Saturday 22 June, where the QMF lineup will also be announced. The Warmup features Darren Percival, Eagle & The Worm, Empra, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk and The Frowning Clouds.

YES, PLEASE Yes Please is turning two, so they’re throwing a party.

They’ve teamed up with SYN Radio to make it a SYN APPROVED event at the Workers Club on Thursday 18 July, with live performances from I’lls, Fishing, Wintercoats, Guerre and The Townhouses. Plus DJing in the front bar will be: Oscar Key Sung, Andras Fox, Tim Shiel, Simon Winkler and Adam Christou.

FULLY SICK It’s 20 years since Salmonella Dub played their first shows around the South Island of New Zealand. The band are celebrating this milestone with their first single release Same Home Town from their forthcoming eigth album, due next year. The Salmonella DJ Soundsystem are stopping by the Espy on Friday 2 August.

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[NEWS NEWS] a r t s

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WEDNESDAY 19

UPCOMING IN ARTS

People Who Need People – an exhibition of works by RMIT’s Master of Fine Arts students from Melbourne and Hong Kong. Curated by Rhett D’Costa and Dr Laresa Kosloff. Opening night, RMIT School of Art Gallery, 5pm, exhibiting to Friday 28 June.

The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush – The Arts Centre along with actor Geoffrey Rush have put together an exhibition of costumes, photographs, videos and personal items from the course of his career entitled The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush. The exhibit features his Captain Barbossa costumes from the Pirates Of The Caribbean series, as well as his triple crown of acting: his Emmy Award, Academy Award and his Tony Award. Opens Saturday 6 July to Sunday 29 September, Arts Centre.

Tiny Furniture – a film from the writer and creator of HBO’s Girls, Lena Dunham, about returning home after living away at university. This is the film that caught the attention of Girls executive producer Judd Apatow. Speakeasy Cinema, 7pm.

This House – filmed in London as apart of National Theatre Live, this political drama follows British politics in the 1970s. It has been described as Britain’s answer to the West Wing. Extra screenings have been added due to popular demand. Nova cinemas, 6.30pm.

Domino

FRIDAY 21 Shane Warne The Musical – staring Eddie Perfect as “The King of Spin” Warnie, and Lisa McCune as his now ex-wife Simone, this is show about one of Australia’s’ sporting legends and media celebrity. Arts Centre, Hamer Hall, 8pm.

The Alchemy Of Producing And Casting: Andy Walker – television series producer Andy Walker will talk about his experiences and the role of a casting director and producer. Walker has produced shows such as Laid, Woodley and Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey. Part of Friday On My Mind, ACMI, 5pm.

SATURDAY 22 ExUrban Screens – think the Frankston version of White Night; contemporary media artworks will take over the CBD and Frankston Arts Centre. Come and see the night light up. Walking Tours, 6.30pm and 7pm, to Friday 5 July.

Aphids

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE Aphids and Sydney Performance Space have announced their latest project, Forever Now: an outer space time capsule that contains art works that present time that we live in. The art project looks at our cultural obsession with immortalising ourselves. The project is calling for all artists to submit one-minute works in audiovisual formats, with 44 of the best works submitted to be launched into deep space in digital and physical forms.

Artists submissions have opened for works via the project’s website. NASA’s 1977 Voyager Golden Records was the inspiration behind the project.

Voyager Golden Records was a collection of phonograph records that were launched into space that portrayed life on Earth at the time. They were launched in the hope that future humans or perhaps even extraterrestrial life would find them. All the submissions chosen to venture into space will be screened in Tasmania at the 2014 MONA FOMA Festival. For more information go to forevernow.me

Kiki Of Mont at MIAF

THURSDAY 20 Domino – a play that is set in a time after the end of the world. Five young men are the only remaining humans, playing a game to help pass time. A psychological drama, written by Giuliano Ferla and directed by Danny Delahunty. Opening night, Abbotsford Convent, 8pm, to Saturday 29 June.

Tethered: Logistics Of Suspension – an exhibition from artist, Sophia Dacy-Cole set in an empty room.

The room is one storey up. The person in the projected image climbs up and down the rope, second guessing himself and swaying in the wind. Closing day, Kings ARI.

CASTING CALL Polyglot Space to Play – Polyglot Theatre is seeking artists’ applications to participate in the Space to Play program. The theatre will offer the successful applicant physical space as well as support in forms of mentoring, conversation, advice and consultation. For more info, hit up polyglot.org.au.

Small Works Prize – calling for all artists to enter Brunswick Street Gallery’s Small Works Prize Show and Exhibition. All themes, mediums and styles are welcome.

Artists can enter up to ten works. First prize is $1,000, second prize is an exhibition at BSG to the value of $1,000. All the submissions will be exhibited. Entries close Wednesday 26 June. For more info head to bsgart.com.au.

SUNDAY 23

Voyage – a play about emigration in the 19th century. Directed by Tamara Searle, the ensemble cast act out protagonist Thomas Pender’s diary he kept while travelling 126 days at sea. Opening night, fortyfivedownstairs, 8pm, to Sunday 30 June.

Kati Thanda: Green Desert – an exhibition of aerial photographyi of Lake Eyre by photographer Peter Elfes. Elfes has spent the last five years documenting the climatic event of the flooding of Lake Eyre, Kati Thanda in Arabunna in South Australia. A set of stunning pictures and a nice chance to escape the city and get out towards at the Dandenong Ranges at Burrinja Art Gallery, to Sunday 11 August.

Melbourne International Animation Festival Gala Screening – the opening night of an 11-day festival celebrating animation. Tonight’s gala screening is a collection of films from across the festival’s program. Opening night, ACMI cinemas, 7pm, festival runs to Sunday 30 June.

Once Upon A Pantomime – an Australian version of the famous English celebrity pantomimes. Three classic pantomimes starring Julia Zemiro, Hannah Gadsby, Corrine Grant, John Safran, Lawrence Mooney and many more. The show will raise funds for the Father Bob Maguire Foundation. Palais Theatre, 5.30pm.

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

Gertrude Street Projection Festival – next month will see the buildings of Gertrude Street in Fitzroy light up as the Projection Festival kicks off for the sixth year in a row. The festival will runs for ten days and will display projections against 36 sites by more than 28 artists. Think big colours, big lights and big ideas. Friday 19 to Sunday 28 July, Gertrude St.

The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush

15

[FEATURES FEATURES]

SETTLING A SCORE t was unlikely they’d get even this close, but when RRR funk DJ Chris Gill took a mark 40 metres out from the southern goal mouth of Elsternwick Park with barely a couple of minutes left to play in the 2012 Community Cup, the match hinged on his kick. The game had gotten off to a rugged start with Michael Cini from Money For Rope breaking his arm in the opening minutes (either a fairly innocuous bump or a premeditated hobbling, depending on who you talk to) and the Rockdogs – a riffraff of local musos – had carved out a comfortable lead. In typical Rockdogs fashion, however, they lost momentum in the latter stages of the match and allowed a slowly grinding Megahertz machine – a mishmash of community radio presenters – in with a sniff.

I

RELEASE THE BEASTS Take a look at Community Cups gone by...

Last year’s Cramps theme saw Blue Ruin, along with Boomgates and Bunny Monroe onstage. Referee Brian Nankervis was resplendent in full Lux Interior garb.

The Nick Cave-themed 2011 match featured bands such as Red Rockets Of Borneo, Tumbleweed and You Am I, and there was a stirring rendition of the National Anthem

by Barry Morgan.

In 2010 the mud made for a streaker’s paradise. It was a bumper year for music too with The Blackeyed Susans, The Living End and Nick Barker & The Reptiles all performing.

This year’s ‘Be Suburban’ theme apparently originated from a misheard version of our 2013 headliners Beasts Of Bourbon way back when. They will be joined on the day by Super Wild Horses, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Justine Clarke, Gates open at noon with live music from 12.15pm.

The frigid breeze niggled at Gill’s left shoulder as he lined up in front of goal. Bar the slurping of beer dregs and rustling of pie wrappers, the capacity crowd at the southern end of the ground fell almost silent.

A lone Rockdog inched forward from the mark, jumping and cavorting in Gill’s path to glory. The kick sailed high and true, passing just inside the left-hand upright and the Megahertz faithful erupted on the embankment as the match was won.

And then the unthinkable happened. The goal umpire, who was reportedly stuffing a pie in his face while the winning goal was scored, awarded a point. Not a goal, as it clearly was, but a lousy point to level the scores. The crowd booed and pie-related jeers were thrown at the goal umpire. Everyone

knew: the Megahertz knew, the crowd knew, the commentary team knew, all the well-behaved dogs knew, the kids knew, the umpires (probably) knew, the sausage vendors knew and the streakers knew – even Gill’s afro knew – the game was won by the Megahertz that day, the goal umpire got it wrong.

Kate Boston Smith played her first ever Community Cup last year and recalls the emotional (anti)climax.

“You know what, it was so much fun – the day and the game and all the stuff leading up to it – that it didn’t really concern me,” she says of the draw.

“At least we didn’t lose... by one point. We played in the mud, I grabbed a couple of The Spazzys and pushed them in the mud, and I don’t really remember the outcome of the game, I just remember having a bloody great time and then being told I have to wait.”

It may well have been the afterparty madness that played a large part in erasing Boston Smith’s scars.

Plus, she had substantial silver linings – awarded the Stephen Connolly Medal for best on ground, which she shared with the Rockdogs’ Banjo O’Shannessy, and the Kath Letch Medal for most courageous player.

Fellow Megahert and PBS broadcaster Maddy Mac is equally as reticent about the outcome. “If you reflect on the actual scoreboard [Megahertz 4: 11: 35 to Rockdogs 5: 5: 35], if we’d kicked a few more goals it would’ve been a clear win,” she says, stating the somewhat obvious. “It wasn’t all about those last few seconds... Once everyone had had a touch of the cup it just lay discarded – no one had won, no one really cared anymore.”

These sentiments embody the spirit of the Community Cup. After all the puff and bluster the thing is about raising money for Reclink – a charity whose mission is to provide sport and arts programs to enhance the lives of people experiencing disadvantage. The outcome of the match is incidental provided the fundraiser is a success.

As Mac says, “We’re all pub footy pals at the end of the day.”

This outlook is not necessarily shared by Rockdogs stalwart Kat Spazzy. For Spazzy, the Community Cup is a public amphitheatre for an outlet of 12 months of pent-up aggression.

She was a trailblazer as the first woman to pull on a jumper way back in 2001, and she doesn’t suffer the Megahertz gladly. Gathered at this photo shoot with Rockdogs pal Laura Imbruglia and a couple of Megahertz, Spazzy hides her prickliness well. And while Community Cup day ranks as a high point of her year, when engaged in pre-match speculation the bile is never far from the surface. “It’s my favourite day of the year, I love it more than Christmas and funnily enough I fucking hate football, I hate all sports,” she says. “I find [sports] really boring and primitive but the Rockdogs is my one exception. I

take it really seriously. I can’t stand footy and I can’t play for shit but I love my fuckin’ team.

“We don’t like the Megahertz very much; as far as I’m concerned the Megahertz were only invented as a team for the Rockdogs to play against. It’s curious to me that anyone would go for the Megahertz.”

Spazzy goes on to talk about shenanigans of previous years including bashing the Megahertz mascot, taking great joy in smashing RRR’s Nicole TadPole during a staged pre-match gag, and sharing training sessions with the enemy. “We had one training session with the Megahertz and that was all right, it was all fine and civil... I don’t want the Rockdogs to fall into a false sense of security that they’re our mates, ‘cause [raising her voice so the others can hear] they’re not our friends, they’re our foes...

All year ‘round for me.”

Laura Imbruglia will play in her first Community Cup this weekend. In fact, as a Sydneysider who’s recently made the move south, she’s never even been to the match.

Taking in the surrounds of Elsternwick Park for the first time, she’s a tiny ball of pre-match nerves. “I don’t wanna smash anyone ‘cause I don’t want to encourage anyone [into] smashing me,” she says, when

pressed on who’ll she’ll be targeting come game day.

“I wanna go in with a real, like, ‘Let’s be friends,’ kinda vibe. I’ve got shows coming up, I can’t be breaking fingers... I’ll strap my hands.” A dubious pep talk from Boston Smith (“Stay in the midfield and just be ready to pick up the crumbs and get a handball or take a mark or something... Be a hero”) doesn’t seem to help much.

Spazzy thinks they’ve got it sewn up provided Cosmic Psychos’ Ross Knight is fit on the day: “As long as Ross Knight’s in the team, there’s no beating the Rockdogs.” But Boston Smith has other ideas.

“I really wanna take Banjo down, take him out, squish that ginger beard into the mud,” she says.

“We’ve been in training for ages this time. And considering the Rockdogs didn’t even have a team... Like, I ran one of their makeshift sessions on a Wednesday night when they joined the footy girls to train. I wondered who these strangers were at the Tote footy girls’ training and I found out they were Rockdogs, it didn’t look good.”

Mac believes it’s all about preparation. “It’s our turn, we’ve been working really hard,” she says. “We’ll have them on fitness, it’ll depend what ring-ins they have.”

And she’s not convinced Tim Rogers will have much of an impact. “He doesn’t really seem to train and just rocks up on the day. I reckon he’ll be way out of form – too much rock’n’roll, not enough carrying [his] own gear and working on [his] own muscles.” But there could be, according to Mac, an unlikely dark horse. “I’ve just seen Fraser A Gorman’s new video where he runs in a single shot for five minutes,” she says. “I don’t know if he looks like a footballer but he’s got... I’m not saying pace, but it’s five minutes, single-shot real-time.”

Megahertz be warned: the ego-less muso should be trusted. Imbruglia’s planning on playing it incognito and after a couple of training sessions (she was stoked to have trained with coach Paul Kelly), probably has more of a handle on the standard of footy than she realises. “It’s just funny that there can be so many musos that are uncoordinated,” she says. “You’d think that that’d be a skill... I would associate having coordination musically with having coordination in sport but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand.”

WHAT: Reclink Community Cup WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 23 June, Sportscover Arena, Elsternwick Park

A bloodthirsty trailblazer, a fresh-faced newbie, a hardened captain and a spirited medal winner gather at a photo shoot at Elsternwick Park. Through coded phrases and shifty glances, Samson McDougall pieces together an unexpected picture of the Reclink Community Cup. Cover and feature pics by Kane Hibberd.

FILM

[FEATURES FEATURES]

A SAUCY TALE

In cinemas Thursday 27 June

ED

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WHAT: The Look Of Love

NHA D E NC

NHA D E NC

“R

where bands go out and play the old album in order, I’d compare that to me going out and literally doing the exact same thing that I did on TV years ago. If I went and did the same material, people would say: ‘What the fuck are you doing? We want new stuff!’

It’s the reverse for musicians: people hate new stuff, and they only want to hear the old hits. The curse of being in comedy is that you constantly have to invent new material. Whereas musicians will get a huge cheer just for playing that same song they’ve played a thousand times before; they’ll be commended for that repetition! That’s a pretty big distinction to make.”

ED

eligious fundamentalism, Puritanism, feminism, the exploitation of women, changing social mores: all these things were in the air in the ’70s, and Paul Raymond was a lightning rod for them,” says Steve Coogan. Coogan is talking about Paul Raymond, the one-time ‘King of Soho’, who presided over a property and soft-porn empire —gentlemen’s clubs and magazines— that found him as England’s wealthiest man in the 1970s, and whom the English comedian and actor portrays in the biopic The Look Of Love.

“I’d say anyone under 40 in Britain would have no idea who he was,” says Coogan. “He was the subject of tabloid fodder in the ’70s, so unless you’ve got a long memory, or you’re old, you wouldn’t remember.”

Now 47, the icon of English comedy has a long enough memory – or is, indeed, old enough – to remember a boyhood peering at “top-of-the-shelf soft-porn magazines” at the newsagent. “His photograph was often on the back of those magazines, so he was always this very curious figure for young lads,” says Coogan.

“Looking at him now, his life seemed very colourful and surreal, and it was dealing with sex and sexuality. It seemed in some ways uncomfortable subject-matter, which meant that, paradoxically, I knew it’d be interesting to Michael and interesting for me.”

‘Michael’ is Michael Winterbottom, the workaholic English director whom Coogan has now worked for, as leading man, four times over; The Look Of Love following 2002’s 24 Hour Party People, 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story, and 2010’s The Trip. “Working with anyone else, I feel more in control, but with Michael I feel less in control,” says Coogan. “With Michael I tend not to over think things, and instead just throw myself into whatever he’s suggesting. I feel like I get fresher results. Michael taught me how to act unselfconsciously.

He also helped liberate me from comedy, and let me explore more subtle modes of performance. For that, I’m forever grateful to him.”

Coogan is at pains to point out a distinction between the pair’s last biopic of a smart-mouthed entrepreneur, 24 Hour Party People, and this one; seeing essential differences between Paul Raymond and his prior subject, Factory Records founder Tony Wilson. “Tony Wilson was more a champion of the artist more than a businessman.

Paul Raymond was the opposite, he was a businessman first; anything he did that was creative was wholly accidental,” he says. “Tony Wilson was someone who affected a lot of people’s lives, someone who was beloved by a lot of artists, especially in Manchester. Paul Raymond is someone remembered by very few people, and whose life was questionable in a lot of ways.”

For all its obligatory T&A, and Boogie Nights-esque evocations of pornography in a time long, long before it was anything resembling an ‘industry’, the film never buys into the myth or mystique of its ‘high-life’. “It’s about creating a fantasy world around you and trying to convince yourself it’s reality,” Coogan says. “We created this exact version of Paul Raymond’s luxurious house, but then when you walked behind the set, it was all plywood. To me that serves as the perfect metaphor for his own life, because beyond all the glitz and the tinsel there was nothing of substance. He was a triumph of styleover-substance. He was almost like a living experiment: the way he lived his life was almost like a man who’d picked up GQ, and bought everything that was in the magazine, and tried to live his life by the articles in the magazine. It was as if by accessorising his life, he thought he could make himself happy. And, of course, he couldn’t.”

There’s a whole sub-genre of the sex-industry that plays on the softand-friendly nostalgia of old-timey titillation – see: the burlesque revival – but Coogan cautions on seeing any past era as either being worse or better. “Some people see what they perceive to be a glamorous decade with retrospective chic, retrospective charm, but any simple reading of that time, whether it’s of it being stylish and libertine, or repressive and sordid, is too simple,” he says. “This is, really, a conversation about changing social attitudes. To modern perspectives, it really looks like it’s exploiting women, and perhaps it is; but what I really like about the film is that it’s not some politically correct piece, out to make itself likable to contemporary sensibilities. It’s about portraying the zeitgeist of that time, not pandering to the current zeitgeist.”

The Look Of Love isn’t Coogan’s only top-billing film performance in 2013: he’ll soon be seen in full serious-thesp mode, in Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s much-acclaimed divorce drama What Maisie Knew; and, thereafter, in full comedy-superstar mode, in the long-awaited feature-film debut of Coogan’s most beloved comic creation, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. “It’s in the middle of being edited. It’s being chopped up and assembled, and it’s definitely coming out this year,” Coogan confirms.

“A lot of hot air has been expelled over the years,” he laughs, when talking of the big-screen translation, which was first rumoured to be on its way in 2002. Of course, getting Coogan, writer Peter Baynham (“I couldn’t afford to pay him what Sacha Baron-Cohen pays him”), and satirist Armando Iannucci (“always too busy to call me back”) in the same room proved an “impossible task.” Yet, when brothers Neil and Rob Gibbons turned a cash-grab faux-biography into something more sterling with 2011’s I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan, they then set about writing the film “with a refreshing energy”.

Coogan holds no resentment against the ongoing cult of Partridge; each time he slips on the Conrad Knight socks and dons the Sports Casual wear being by choice. “I’ve always been more enthusiastic about Alan than any other character I’ve done,” he says. “Whenever I have revisited him, it’s because I’ve wanted to, not because I had to; if it was the only thing I did, I’d find it quite frustrating, but I’m glad it’s not.”

When I suggest it’s like a band performing the Classic Album as a choice, Coogan whoops with delight: “It’s like I’m doing an ’80s revival tour!” Yet, as glad as he is to think of himself as Primal Scream, Coogan sees rock’n’roll as a different racket. “Bands can play the same stuff, and people like it, but with comedy, even when you return to the character, you have to do new material,” he sighs. “Those shows

iPA

A very lucky Anthony Carew sits down with the supremely talented Steve Coogan to hear about his latest venture – porn. Well, kind of.

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 17

[FEATURES FEATURES] MUSIC

COLLAGE AT THE ESPY

A MANIC ROAR Manic Street Preachers drummer Sean Moore tells Paul Smith all about the band’s working holiday plans.

hen the Welsh rock trio Manic Street Preachers were last in Australia in late 2010 it was their first visit in over ten years. It is something of a surprise therefore that they are about to come back again already, especially considering they have no new product to spruik. This time it’s the rugby that’s bringing them out here, though. As passionate fans of the game they have long planned a trip to follow the British and Irish Lions tour, and so devised to do their own bonus mini-tour at the same time by playing shows the night before the Lions battle it out with the Wallabies in Melbourne and Sydney. They are also popping across to New Zealand in some downtime to play their first ever show there. “We’ve been thinking about it for a very long time, ever since the last tour,” the band’s drummer Sean Moore explains. “We’ve then been planning it since last year when we started to get the logistics all up together. For us though it was really easy, it was just a matter of telling our agent we wanted to play some gigs around the Lions tour and that was it, it was sorted then.” And as Moore admits, it also makes paying for their trip a bit easier: “Well, that as well, it does help, you know,” he laughs.

W

What kind of music could you expect to hear on a Collage night at the Espy?

Collage artists range from gentle acoustic, thumping roots, indie and alternative styles, rock’n’roll.

Really just about anything as long as it’s original content. Tuesdays, normally five acts from solo to bands; Wednesday, four acts, at least three of them bands. Really, it could be anything!

How do you become part of the Collage family?

Email me your bio etc to collage.scott@gmail. com, [hit up] facebook.com/scott.collage or come down with a CD on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in the front bar of the Espy.

Have you had artists from outside Melbourne perform at Collage?

Collage has included acts from around Australia, Japan, the USA, UK, South America, South Africa, Europe, Canada, New Zealand. From every continent, travellers and touring acts. Not many weeks go by without someone from interstate performing.

That choice of direction has always been central to their music, and has given the band a history of light and dark recordings. Their most recent album of new material was the spirited and commercially minded Postcards From A Young Man (2010), which was in stark contrast to the darker themes and tone of the previous one, Journal For Plague Lovers (2009). It was a very similar situation when their easy-pleasing mainstream breakthrough album, Everything Must Go (1996), followed what many of their original fans regard as the definitive but somewhat heavy going The Holy Bible (1994). By taking extended time to work on new material though Moore reveals they solved the problem of which way to go – by essentially recording two albums’ worth of material. “We got in the studio and couldn’t stop writing. And it was all sorts, all different types of styles and so we came

he Spinning Jenny, Dawn’s debut album, is being released in two parts. The first, composed of Celtic and Western inspired songs, informs the theme of her current tour, while the second will be Eastern-influenced work. Band lynchpin Kimberley Dawn Lysons explains that they’ve split the songs in order to create a story and to let the band theme their tours, but that it’s the melding of those influence that lies at the heart of her writing.

What’s in store for Collage’s Tenth Birthday Celebrations?

Nine [acts] from across the various genres of Collage. First act kicks off at 7pm sharp. Virtue, The Twoks, Zoophyte, LeBelle, Gretchen Lewis, Sunday Chairs, Hazelman Brothers, Jordan Walker, Peta Evans Taylor. Hopefully a lot of people from over the years, players and punters, will come and say hi and celebrate a decade of Collage.

Collage’s Tenth Birthday Celebrations will be held in the Espy’s Gerswhin Room this Saturday 22 June.

With so much focus on recording new material it’s been an unusually long gap between gigs for a band with such a formidable reputation for their live performances. The Australian shows therefore promise to be very special as the band relish the feeling of being unleashed again. “We’re chomping at the bit and ready,” says Moore. “We haven’t done anything live since September last year, though we’ve got a festival lined up in Norway before we go to Australia so we’ll knock a bit of the rust off then.” They won’t provide a first chance to hear what the band have been working on though, as Moore adds. “But we won’t be playing any of the new songs unfortunately as we’re still taking a bit of time to get up to speed and we’re still trying to finish off the second album as well. None of the newer stuff will probably be aired until September this year.” The promised greatest hits set though sounds absolutely perfect for a Friday night before a big game.

FIRST LIGHT The debut album from Dawn ties a wide range of influences into an intricately textured whole. Composer and singer Kimberly Dawn Lysons tells Sky Kirkham about the importance of family and fortuitous collaborations.

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“The theme of east-meets-west really came about from my family’s heritage,” she says. “My dad is part east Indian and his family came over from India, into America, and travelled up into Canada. There was a lot of violence in India at the time, it happened during an uprising, so they basically escaped. They met Irish people and Calgary [folk] and first-nations people along the way and basically ended up settling with them. So, the influences that came about during that time have continued on down the line. It’s just conjured up so many images and is periodically referenced in my music. And that was what Jeff and I really had a lot of fun drawing inspiration from.”

The Jeff in question is Tea Party frontman Jeff Martin, who has produced The Spinning Jenny. It’s an impressive

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

But will there be a temptation to wind up any of the Aussie rugby supporters that are there from the stage? Moore has a simple response to that one: “I don’t think we need to wind up the Aussies. They’re not playing as well as they should. The Australian team will do enough to wind up their own fans!

We’ll soon see. We won’t gloat, don’t worry!”

For their own part, as three patriotic Welshmen, Moore insists they will have no problem if an Englishman should win the game: “It doesn’t matter at all, that’s the whole tradition of the Lions. As long as the Lions win, that’s it. We don’t care who captains it, who scores the last point, it really doesn’t make any difference to us.” He then lays down his prediction with some confidence: “I don’t think Australia are at their best so there’s an ideal opportunity seeing as we’ve got a very, very strong Lions squad. With Warren (Gatland) at the helm I’m sure that he knows a few tricks here and there and he’ll definitely give Australia a run for their money so I’m fairly confident that the Lions will do really well. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a whitewash.”

And this writer’s got a feeling this is a Manics gig not to be missed.

WHO: Manic Street Preachers WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 June, Festival Hall

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Any big artists who got their start in the Espy front bar?

Bonjah (called Bonjahbango when they arrived from NZ) played their first shows with us. Airbourne seem to have done well. Liz Stringer has continued creating fine music and has earned a name for herself constantly writing and touring. The Twoks. LeBelle moved here, played countless gigs, won Emergenza then represented Australia in Germany winning best song, I believe. Scott Mellis (awesome talent) lives in US now and Tim McMillan played his first gig ever with us and now lives in Germany where he is signed. As for ‘big’, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime we get to share our music with others and that’s what it’s all about.

And as for the styles of music on the two albums? “I have to be honest with you, it probably falls into that same pattern,” Moore acknowledges. “There’s the lighter, more popularist sort of an easier listen on the one album whereas the other is a bit edgier and even lyrically is probably a little bit harder to digest. The plan is to release the more radio-friendly album first around September and then, while we’ve distracted everyone with that, we’ll hopefully catch everyone on their blind side with the second album in March/April next year.

Hopefully there will be something for everyone.”

There will inevitably be a large expat crowd at the show, all jumping at the chance to see them perform in a relatively intimate setting instead of the big arenas they sell out in the UK. However, Moore says the band will give their all regardless of whether Aussies or Brits turn out to see them: “I’d like to think there’d be a good mix of both but it’s not going to be any different either way. We just hope that there’s some Manic fans there and possibly some people who wouldn’t normally come along. But we’ll still be giving it all and it will be the total Manics experience.”

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What are some of the most memorable performances?

Notable guests have been: Serena Ryder (Canada), Vivarta from Japan... Weird Al Yankovic’s band rocked up one night and we lent them instruments. They were awesome. A young Airbourne, an underage Vasco Era, Scott Mellis, Liz Stringer, King Of The North (a real standout!), The Twoks, Tim McMillan with Sammy J, Cam & Andy Lee (Zoophyte).

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How has Collage maintained its longevity?

A combination of factors. There is a never ending supply of new acts and return guests alike, from here and elsewhere that want to play their music at the Espy. Changes that keep the night fresh from time to time. Mostly, though, nothing like a good act and fresh passion. It’s contagious.

For such a constantly hard-working band over their almost 30-year history, it will end what appears to have been an unusually quiet time for them over the last few months, with no new studio album since 2010 and no live shows for over nine months. Moore is quick to lay to rest any thoughts that they have been taking things easy, though. “We certainly haven’t been languishing and living the rock star lifestyle by the pool, drinking ourselves into oblivion,” he jokes. “We actually went back into our studio in Cardiff at the end of January 2012 and we’ve just been working on new songs since then, with a few little festivals here and there just to keep ourselves a bit fresh. For us just being in a studio and writing stuff is probably the most enjoyable thing and even in our downtime we’re still constantly thinking about the next thing and where we want to go.”

to a crossroads where you could just group one set on one side and group the other on another side so it was like right, what do we do? Pick the best and put them all into one album and confuse everyone?

But then we just thought we’d still group them but in two bodies of work, so we’d still have the album concept. So for us it was a no brainer and it was then just a matter of convincing the record company.”

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How does Collage help emerging artists?

We assist emerging talent, providing a space for artists of all genres of music and the arts, on a premier and renowned stage with great sound and lights, and allow artists to perform, network, share industry relevant-information and further support young undiscovered talent through sharing what we learn, referring them to other existing organisations and providing residencies. Really it’s the experience, exposure to an audience and other musicians and honest feedback that is most important.

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How was the Collage concept born?

Scott Woodhouse, founder/coordinator: In 2002 I moved to Melbourne from Sydney, became Melbourne Coordinator of the Australian Songwriters Association (ASA), assisted at the time by Ausmusic with an office and priceless information sharing. PBS FM radio got in touch and asked me to hold a songwriters competition. With 190 acts over 25 shows, most of the heats and finals were held at the Esplanade Hotel in the famous Gershwin Room. A month later the Espy invited me to host an unsigned/original music night.

It quickly turned into two nights a week. Over 1,000 shows and 4,000 performances later, here we are.

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Zoophyte

collaboration for a debut album, but from their first introduction Lysons says it’s been a meeting of minds.

“A couple of years ago I was asked to support his solo tour in North Queensland. It was the first time I’d met him and we didn’t even get through a set: after sound-check he said, ‘Can I produce you?’ How could I say no to that?” she laughs. “The influences in my music are very similar to the influences in his music. He’s travelled to all the countries that make up my family history, and so I think we both felt that it was quite an awesome sort of synergy.

“Originally I was up in North Queensland and he was in Byron and I was sending down all of my demos, all of my vocal compositions, and he listened to them and thought about what he could do and which ones he preferred.

And then when I got to Byron, we sat down and almost storyboarded the songs, and had a chat about the vision behind each one. He started out laying down a really spacious soundscape and I would record all of the vocal arrangements. Then he would start layering in the guitar or sitar or esraj – whatever instruments he felt were appropriate – and then we just kept building and building the songs. Even when I supported him for his solo tour at the end of last year, it was so hard not

to work on new material. I think both of us just wanted to keep going, but we had to stop at twelve [songs].”

In the live realm Dawn is a seven-piece band, allowing Lysons to not only match the album’s complexity, but expand on it.

“We’ve gotten away with four- and five-piece arrangements, but I just felt that I didn’t want to compromise anything,” she says. “Some of the songs we’ve tailored a little more to the live environment, made them a little bit bigger, because we’ve got a lot of instruments to play with. We’ve probably added more texture to the music.”

WHO: Dawn WHAT: The Spinning Jenny, Vol 1 (Format Records) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 19 June, Toff In Town; Thursday 20, Workers Club; Friday 21, Caravan Music Club

MUSIC

[FEATURES FEATURES]

BACK FROM THE DEAD At times the career of Babyshambles has seemed as much a media circus as a band, but as bassist Drew McConnell tells Steve Bell, they’re back with a vengeance and ready to give their critics what for.

APP IT UP

WITH EDEN MULHOLLAND

s even their name alludes to, it’s been a torrid ride so far for UK indie outfit Babyshambles since their formation back in 2003. Originally started as a side-project by frontman Pete Doherty during a chaosfuelled hiatus from his main act The Libertines, the outfit eventually became his main concern and then – after two albums, a slew of line-up changes and a regular spot in the tabloids due to Doherty’s increasingly volatile behaviour – seemed to virtually disappear around 2008.

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A clearly recovered McConnell is effusive when quizzed as to what prompted this sudden new phase of Babyshambles action.

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“Songs, man!” he virtually thunders. “All of a sudden there were songs everywhere, and we thought, ‘Fuck, we’d better get all of these down’. They’ve been coming thick and fast from all three of us – all three of us are heavily involved in the songwriting or this record. Some songs have their genesis with Pete or Mick or me and then we all chip away at them, and other songs are true collaborations. And we’ve all been writing with a guy called John Robinson – he’s not in the band but he’s a really good friend of the band’s. He was singer in a

This new record that McConnell is referencing is Babyshambles’ as-yet-untitled third album – following from Down In Albion (2005) and Shotter’s Nation (2007) – which they recently recorded in Paris with acclaimed producer Stephen Street once more at the helm.

“There are some songs which sound immediately like the traditional Babyshambles thing – there’s a song called Maybelline which sounds very much like a Babyshambles song, and there’s one called Nothing Comes From Nothing which I think is instantly recognisable as Babyshambles,” McConnell enthuses. “But there’s other songs which I think people are going to be surprised by.

“Recording in Paris actually had the result that we were more focused; Pete lives there, and then for Mick, Falkner – the new drummer – and myself it was almost like we were on a holiday together. We were in a hotel together, and we’d get up to get our breakfast together, go make the record, and then in the evening we’d go out and have food and a few drinks and socialise. We were in each other’s pockets the whole time, but the whole time we’d just be talking about the songs, and as a result we were really focused – we knew exactly what we were doing.”

RULE #76

Hey Spielberg, stop filming entire songs on your iPhone.

RULE #603

Don’t mosh outside the mosh. That’s what the mosh is for, moshing.

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 26 July, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands

WE ART THE WORLD MOVEMENT IMAGE BY IAN BURNS (AUSTRALIA)

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“That is just the most offensive term,” says May, who’s rocked up an hour early to our interview pleading to use the toilet. In tights, cut-off denim shorts and a near see-through floral blouse, May is Queen of the effortlessly chic brigade and as friendly and warm as the best friend you wish you had. Despite her heavy, darkly-addictive, passion-laden pop sound, May is open and breathtakingly easygoing. Her latest release, Kiss My Apocalypse, was born out of a cocktail of heartache and happiness – both ingredients May insists were essential to the album. “I started writing after a breakup. The writing started out quite angry and upset and there was this bitter thing that kept coming out [in the lyrics] that I felt I needed to spit out. Then, halfway through the album my first niece was born and it just changed me quite a bit and I kind of realised how silly it was to get so wrapped up in my own emotion.”

GIGS GUIDE

WHO: Babyshambles

“Adam Falkner plays drums on the new record,” McConnell informs. “I’ve known him for a while – he

Abbe May has long been heralded as the real deal when it comes to championing an Aussie rock goodness. But, as Natasha Lee discovers, she’s really more friendly than fierce. Just don’t call her a rock chick.

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Furthermore, according to McConnell, Doherty himself is in a good headspace and really happy about the new album. “Yeah, we all are man,” he tells. “We’re all beside ourselves. We feel ‘tooled up’ – for want of a better phrase – we have a bunch of songs that we know are really good, and we’ve recorded them really well so we feel amped. Peter does as well – we’re all in a good headspace.”

“Well if you’d asked me that question seven years ago I would have said, ‘Yeah, it’s terrible! It’s a massive distraction and I’m hugely exasperated with it,” McConnell considers. “But to be honest it’s been years since the tabloids have paid us much attention at all, beyond the occasional cursory mention in the gossip pages which everyone gets. Thankfully they’ve cooled off from putting Peter on the front pages, and that’s no longer part of our lives anymore, so it’s not really a distraction at all. It’s so good to be able to just concentrate on the music and leave all that behind us.”

After having a couple of temporary high-profile replacements on their drum stool – in 2010 outgoing drummer Adam Ficek was replaced by former Supergrass stickman Danny Goffey, and then Stereophonics’ Jamie Morrison was mooted to have usurped the role – it seems that Babyshambles have settled on a more low-key appointment.

MAYDAY

t’s been quite some time since the ‘Girl Power’ moniker reigned supreme. Think The Spice Girls circa ’95. There have, of course, been those pseudofeminists – carefully crafted record label sweethearts who proclaim to be ‘all about the music’. You know the ones. Thank God then for Abbe May. But tread carefully lest you should mention the dreaded ‘rock chick’ term around the raven-haired artist.

and John Robinson had a little project called Hey Tourists, and Adam played drums in that. As a bass player it’s really rare that you meet someone whom you really seem to have an instant telepathy with, and I definitely have that with Adam, so when it came to making this record he was my first choice, and thankfully he was up for it. He’s slotted in hand to glove.

He’s going to tour with us as well – he’s officially the drummer. It’s awesome to keep it in the family.”

And, despite recent reports about him being shacked up in Paris with a skeletal Macaulay Culkin, it seems Doherty has dropped off the notoriously dogged UK tabloids’ radar to an extent, although you’d still imagine that the constant focus and media scrutiny must be hard on his Babyshambles bandmates.

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“We were hampered by the fact that I was in a pretty serious accident a bit over a year ago,” McConnell relates. “I was hit by a car and basically almost died – my spine was broken in three places, and about fifteen bones in my body were broken, so I was out of action for a while. I’m still in the process of doing all the physio and rehabilitation and stuff, but I’m about eighty per cent back to full health. I’m out the other side now, and I’ve got some good songs as a result.”

band called The Bandits, and he wrote I Am The Rain on Peter’s solo record. I live with him, he’s my housemate, and Peter and Mick and John and myself will get together and sometimes just spend a week in a room writing songs and hanging out, and sometimes some great stuff comes out of these sessions. There’s a couple of songs on this record that are co-writes with John.”

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Then suddenly early this year speculation started in the UK press that Babyshambles were back – not just as an ongoing concern but already working on a new album – rumours that came to fruition when the band were announced on the Splendour In The Grass line-up for their first ever Australian sojourn (“we’ve tried coming down in the past, but it’s hard to get visas sorted for Peter and Mick [Whitnall – guitar],” according to long-term bassist Drew McConnell).

The wait was over, and it might have all happened even sooner if it wasn’t for an unfortunate accident – this time one which didn’t involve Doherty.

Eden Mulholland is on tour.

Check The Guide for dates.

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In the intervening years Doherty released a solo album (2009’s Grace/Wastelands) and then reformed The Libertines for a handful of shows in 2010 (including the Reading and Leeds festivals), so it was unclear what sort of future Babyshambles had – if they had one at all. Before this hiatus, and despite Doherty’s continual arrests and frequently unruly behaviour, they’d graduated to arena tours and headlining festival slots in Europe, so it seemed like a lot of hard work – not to mention solid music – was going to waste.

Any particular App on your phone or tablet that you can’t live without when touring?

Bejewelled Blitz and Zynga Poker and Spell Tower. All of which are utterly essential time killers/wasters.

May’s face lights up as she talks about her niece, S Sophia, hi to whom she has dedicated Kiss My Apocalypse, despite her reservations with her brother’s decision to let the youngster listen to it. “My brother plays her songs like Karmageddon and then sends me videos of her dancing to it. Like, I don’t want her to be tainted by it!” laughs May. “She can listen to it when she’s… mature enough.”

Understandably so, with the album boasting such titles as Tantric Romantic, Fuck/Love and Sex Tourette’s. At mention of her song titles, May laughs. “I have a tendency to write down song titles before I actually write down the songs. I’m also a big fan of puns and humorous couplings of words and things like that. Like, Kiss My Apocalypse was one of those song titles that I wrote down before I began the writing process for the album. I just thought it was kind of funny to tell people to ‘kiss my arse’, but I love the added intensity that an apocalypse brings to it.”

The follow-up to 2011’s Design Desire, Kiss My Apocalypse relies less on May’s raucous guitar riffs, instead tumbling down the rabbit hole of what she calls “weirdo pop”. “This album, Sam [Ford, May’s writing/ musical counterpart] and I would work really intensely for a few weeks and then I’d say I needed time off because I was so emotionally drained,” sighs May. “But Sam was the same, you know, he would say, ‘I’m going surfing,

see you in two weeks.’ It was just so all-consuming.”

May adds that despite the emotional turbulence that came with the creative output, the wheels are already in motion for the next record. “Get this. We released the album on May 10 and on May 11, Sam sends me over a new beat to start working on again. I was like, ‘Oh no, I am too hungover for this!’ But that’s the way we work.

We’re always working. Like, for me, I’m always writing heaps of stuff, you know. I’ve heaps of notebooks of just song ideas, just song names and so many of them are just not relevant at all. I tend to write and write and then put them away. But the thing is, the ideas are still in your head and they often come back in some other way.”

Wood, lights, trestle, magnifying glasses, timing system.

Part of Burns’ solo exhibition In The Telling Source: ianburns.net

WHO: Abbe May WHAT: Kiss My Apocalypse (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 21 June, Ding Dong Lounge

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 19

MUSIC

[FEATURES FEATURES]

Frontman Kelly Jones tells Paul Smith how breaking the cycle of album-tour-album gave Stereophonics the chance to make the record they had been building up to.

FAVOURITE CITY TIM ADDERLEY FROM SLEEPMAKESWAVES

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE CITY TO TOUR AND WHY? No favourites! Every city has an exciting aspect about it. Whether it’s because it’s familiar and comfortable, or somewhere we’ve never been. I am however looking forward to some warmer weather at this time of year. sleepmakeswaves touring nationally.

Check The Guide for dates.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK CLOUD CONTROL DOJO RISING

A STEREOPHONIC PEAK

he 21-year history of Welsh rockers Stereophonics has seen them graduate from a pub-based covers act to one of the UK’s premier bands, regularly selling out huge stadiums. Their 1997 release Word Gets Around was as joyous a debut as you will ever hear, as three young lads, who’d known each other since childhood, belted out raw rock with the sort of epic choruses that matched any of their more established peers. Throughout their time the band have seen their sound evolve and frontman Kelly Jones believes their latest album, this year’s Graffiti On The Train, is their most complete (it’s certainly their most grandiose in arrangements) yet. Despite his satisfaction with it though, Jones admits his most memorable moments with the band remain the early days: “I think the best time is when you get your record deal and it’s all just so exciting. You don’t really know what’s going on and you’re meeting all these other bands that you’ve been playing covers of in a pub just six months before!” he recalls. “I remember the three of us travelling around the world and we took all our mates as members of the crew and just had a ball. There was a lot of writing being done on buses and hotels but there was also a lot of drinking and a lot of messing around going on as well. So they were good times!”

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Their first album became even more successful after the follow up Performance And Cocktails (1999) “went crazy on MTV and the radio,” as Jones puts it. Even at that time though, despite the hits and the obvious temptation, he was determined to see the band’s music develop and to always do something a bit different. “For me as a writer and us as a band, we never really want to repeat one album,” he explains. “What we have now is eight albums and each album is quite different from any other. It’s what keeps us excited really. I think if we ever feel that we’re repeating something in the studio we don’t really feel like we’re challenging ourselves.”

Following their first, they have always kept album releases pretty regular, very much riding the albumtour-album roundabout. “I think we’ve always been the type of band that never wanted the band name to get out of sight so we were always very routine,” Jones admits. “Every eighteen months or so there was a new record and then we were back on the road because we never wanted our band to disappear, because so many other bands did.”

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According to Jones, it was actually a revelation while touring their greatest hits album (Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics) in 2008 that finally persuaded them that they would be able to pause awhile and take longer than usual to record an album. “I think when the greatest hits did so well we realised how much people were into our band and that gave us

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The decision to allow some extra time for the new album therefore meant that they could work on some ideas that had actually been around and grown for a number of years. He explains: “It was the first time we ever went to work not worrying about the clock ticking or a deadline and it just felt good. It gave songs time to breathe, songs could be worked on for a few hours one day and not looked at for a few months before coming back to it. That’s how they develop from a forty-nine second clip on your dictaphone to an epic with a thirty-six piece orchestra! I think that’s what you get from giving yourself a little bit more breathing space really and we’d never done that before.

I had about forty or fifty ideas on cassettes, phones, computers and purposely didn’t finish them because I wanted to see which left turns they would take and what production ideas would happen, or if somebody would just play a weird part and we’d see where that would lead. I learned a lot from this record and I would definitely consider doing things that way again.”

Their previous albums have always carried a storytelling approach, but Graffiti On The Train takes that even further. Jones believes that’s down to the band’s constant desire to try and create some sort of filmic atmosphere in their music, and they were just better placed musically to do that than ever before. Overall it is also a darker album than previous offerings. The inevitable thought is that the sudden and tragic death of drummer and co-founding member Stuart Cable in 2010, who Jones fired from the band seven years previously though later patched up a renewed friendship, had a big influence. Jones denies that affected his

writing though: “I don’t think it’s a result of anything that’s happened. Myself and Stuart were mates again for years and speaking right up until the day before he died. The British tabloids put a headline out about regret but it’s never come from my mouth, there wasn’t any regret, like I say, we were mates apart from the first year when we split up really. But no, it was that the album was written at the same time as a screenplay I was writing about these kids who wanted to escape a small town. I actually think it’s quite a hopeful and spiritual record because even though there are some turbulent times in parts of the songs I think most of them come out the other end in an uplifting way.”

Now that the band have jumped back into the system and are touring the album, Jones is relishing being able to pick and choose from eight quite different albums in their live set. The way that the new album has blended in so well and has been so well received seems to surprise him though: “What’s been amazing for us on the first leg of this tour is seeing how eight or nine songs from Graffiti On The Train mix so well with all the other records, they just work together,” he says. The fact that a couple of the new songs, the title track and the stirring Indian Summer, have been on the radio so much in the UK that they’ve become almost as anthemic as their classic Local Boy In The Photograph is the biggest surprise, and relief, though.

As he concludes: “That is so encouraging for us. We didn’t think we had a single on this album and it’s turned out to be one of the biggest air play records we’ve ever had. Which just goes to show I know fuck all!”

WHO: Stereophonics WHAT: Graffiti On The Train (Warner) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 21 July, Palace

GETTING INTIMATE She’s pure of voice, but Katie Noonan tells Kate Kingsmill, “Some of my favourite voices would probably be considered quite imperfect, like Tom Waits or Björk.”

here is a sense of intimacy that flows from Katie Noonan not only through her music but also her public persona. She uses the word a lot in conversation and says a sense of intimacy is vital in order for her to be able to create music.

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“Music has to come from a place of complete honesty, otherwise I don’t really see the point in it actually,” she opines. “As a maker of music, I need things to be as honest and as unedited as possible because, for me, that makes it feel real and it makes it get through to my – like, when I’m listening to music I want to hear achingly honest lyrics because that’s what gets through to me, so I guess I try to do the same with my lyric writing. And it is very exposing and it’s quite scary at times and you have to be in the right headspace to let that stuff out.”

Noonan’s sense of the dynamic of a live gig is also based around intimacy. “The people in the audience are equally as important as the people on the stage to me, and one can’t exist without the other. So I try to keep things as relaxed as possible, and try to make it feel like just a group of like-minded friends hanging out. Because that’s the thing about music, it

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

confidence in ourselves to go, ‘Do you know what, maybe we can take a little bit more time over this than we thought we could’. We didn’t really give ourselves longer than six weeks to make a record in the past.”

does give you that feeling of belonging and intimacy straight away so I guess I try to extend that with the way that I chat and talk onstage as well.”

Boasting a voice so pure that it’s often described as being perfect, Noonan doesn’t seem comfortable with this adjective: “There’s no such thing as a perfect voice. In fact some of my favourite voices would probably be considered quite imperfect, like Tom Waits or Björk – voices that are perfectly imperfect.”

Lately, Noonan has been working on classical music – an album with Karin Schaupp and a performance with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Dance Company that will open at the Opera House in August, and she describes this as a “kind of exciting but scary challenge to get [her] classical chops back into gear“.

Noonan has collaborated with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, photographer Bill Henson and circus company Circa in the past, and says of collaborating with artists from different mediums, “[It’s] one of my big motivations moving forward, as well as continuing my evolution as a student of music. It’s inspiring to work with artists who have a different language because it challenges you as a creator and I’m constantly seeking challenges.”

Her most recent project is Songbook, a retrospective album of sorts that Noonan describes as “a reimagining” of major songs from all her landmark records of the last 15 years. “It was a little bit of a taking-stock moment for me. And it was a practical thing as well because I’ve done so many different projects with different things, I kind of wanted to have one record that could reflect the simple ‘just me’ and my different songs in an intimate setting.”

I wanted to distil all my jazz stuff and my rock stuff and my stuff with an orchestra into one project that reflects all those projects, but in a new, intimate way.”

WHO: Katie Noonan WHAT: Songbook (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 21 June, Substation; Saturday 22, GPAC; Sunday 23, Toff In Town

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LOVE THIS SYMPHONY Reinventing his songs with orchestras, working with Australian legends and the inevitable growing apart from triple j, The Whitlams’ Tim Freedman has a lot on his mind, as Andy Hazel discovers.

espite fronting one of Australia’s most beloved independent bands of the last 20 years, singer and songwriter Tim Freedman is not content to leave his songs as finished products to sit high in triple j ‘…Of All Time’ polls. Reinterpreting them with Australia’s most notable orchestras, he welcomes a chance to perform with the comparatively smaller Melbourne Pops Orchestra; “A leaner, hungrier beast,” he describes with a grin, as we discuss the origins of their show, sitting in a busy cupcake café.

SMARTIES:

THE GENDER STEREOTYPING SWEET

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“It was actually [Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) leader] Richard Tognetti’s idea,” Freedman explains, receiving a cup of green tea. “He likes to do strange collaborations. He got [drummer] Terepai [Richmond] and I to do a tour and arranged about nine songs. Then the West Australian Symphony Orchestra asked us to do a whole concert with a four-piece band and a symphony orchestra and they commissioned a lot of arrangements,” he pauses.

“It surprised us that it worked, so we commissioned more songs over the next four years and did shows all around the country. It just grew organically, and now we’re at this stage where we’ve spent so long polishing the arrangements and the repertoire we can do it reasonably easily. The charts are all in order, musicians can come in for three hours, everything is there for them just to sight-read, and we know how to shut up and let them shine,” he says smiling, sipping his tea. “That’s the secret.”

The experience of rearranging and relearning has brought Freedman into contact with the cream of Australian classical composers, whose breadth of influences he welcomes. “Working with different composers is a blast. Sitting down with Peter Sculthorpe and listening to him compose something on an old beaten up piano – it’s a privilege. He’s one of the giants of Australian modernism. Brett Dean is a world-class composer as well. He just did one song, Buy Now Pay Later, but it’s the most challenging and discordant song in our repertoire.

It took me a while to get used to it, but it’s genius.

He’s always willing to push it further than you imagine in terms of sonic strangeness. That’s one of the reasons the concert is so interesting, I think, because there isn’t just one style of arrangement.

There are eight different composers so the orchestras are playing in a different style and configuration every ten minutes. It’s quite playful for the ears.”

THEATRE

The balance of honouring the often very personal subject of songs – “They’re not precious; they’re just songs,” he laughs dismissively – and keeping things interesting for those familiar with them is something that The Whitlams have become masters at doing,

THE INPRESS CREW ARE... while still acting as a conduit to a certain era for the audience. “They’re remembering a time in their life, I’m doing the same,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Quite a few of the songs are from the 2006 album [Little Cloud], and some are from the 1993 album [Introducing The Whitlams], so it’s those 13 years.

When I’m not playing my new album or playing solo, I’m fulfilling a role that has a nostalgic streak. I don’t mind that, as long as I’m playing it for the people that have come often, and they think it’s changing.

Always different songs, different formats, different stories between songs. As long as I don’t feel like I’m sitting still with it.” Unsurprisingly, Freedman is grateful for the work done by the composers for keeping things fresh. “The composers add a lot of melody lines, so in a song like You Sound Like Louis Burdett we got a lot of great Dixieland brass lines coming through, but now I try to pick them out on the piano when I’m playing in the four-piece because I feel like they’re part of the song. Similarly, Sculthorpe added this beautiful solo violin part and it’s part of the song now. He added this kind of sultry Duke Ellington melody on the violin; they’ve improved the songs, made them richer at least.”

Amidst all this looking back and reinvention, Freedman admits that there are other things occupying his mind besides writing new songs.

“I won’t lie, I haven’t got many plans,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m a single dad and I made some exotic investments that went wrong. I’m just belting my way through the jungle, because you’ve got to have simplicity again, you need a simple life to write songs I guess,” he pauses before smiling ruefully. “I don’t think a song has ever been written about the land and environment court, which is where I spent half of last year but they’re my trials and I’ll get through them.”

While current financial issues may not be presenting him with inspiration, challenges of a different nature recently resulted in a solo show entitled How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Hate Triple J. “It was really just a catchy title,” he says happily, “there’s no hatred there. I told some stories about how you get songs on the radio and how that’s sometimes down to who you know. When I turn it on now it’s so in-your-face that I can only handle ten minutes whereas I used to be able to handle an hour. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m old and grumpy or because they’re playing fewer songs. I tend to listen to FBi in Sydney, it’s a bit more eccentric and all-over-the-shop as opposed to focused and in-yourface. Triple j was so important to me; I wouldn’t have a career without them. They were the only station that played me and I certainly acknowledge that.”

The power of the js to impress Freedman isn’t gone however, as he explains after draining his cup. “I started getting texts one day last year from friends saying ‘The Whitlams are on triple j’, and I was like ‘bullshit’, because we hadn’t been for ten years, so it was a real surprise to turn on and hear these album tracks. I thought someone had dropped acid in my drink but they were playing a whole album because we were like number 17 or something in the Best Aussie Albums Of All Time list. That was a really sweet surprise, and it was nice for MGM to ring up and say ‘man we just sold 120 of your albums on iTunes last night!’,” he laughs. “It’s always nice to be on the radio. It’s not somewhere I’ve been lately, but you live with it.”

WHO: The Whitlams

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From the high school stage with future accountants to the main-stage at MTC’s Southbank Theatre with David Wenham, it’s been quite a journey for Nabben. She’s been a stalwart of the Melbourne stage, appearing in various independent productions next to major gigs at Malthouse and the Sydney Theatre Company, and now finally comes her MTC debut. While there are some important differences arising from being at the

But The Crucible isn’t the sort of independent play Nabben is talking about – it’s a monumental text that has stood the test of time and remains one of the most politically active and incisively intelligent works of the 20th century. Nabben is working through this challenge with celebrated director Sam Strong, and is overwhelmed by his enthusiasm for the work. “It’s a perfectly written script. To have that language and that argument is a great first step,” she says, “and Sam’s main focus is to not impose his own ego onto the play, but to reveal the language of it and get out of the play’s way. He’s so incredibly enthusiastic and excited

Miles Kane - Don’t Forget Who You Are

GOING TO Sheriff this Saturday at the Tote

CHECKING OUT The Reclink Community Cup

WATCHING Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture at the Speakeasy Cinema

READING The Crucible by Arthur Miller

EATING Laksa from Chef Lagenda (next to the King)

DRINKING Santa Vittoria Sparkling Water

FIVE MINUTES WITH DIRECTOR DANNY DELAHUNTY

If you could, would you time travel to the future or to the past?

The past – I’m going to see the future soon enough anyway, and I really wouldn’t want to wreck the surprise.

Actress Elizabeth Nabben chats to James Daniel about the differences between independent and commercial theatre and the parallels between herself and her character in MTC’s The Crucible.

MTC (heating in the rehearsal room for one, and lunch breaks…) Nabben is adamant that the passion that drives independent theatre is just as present in largerscale funded theatre. “We don’t have as much time with independent theatre, though. To assemble everyone on no pay you kind of have to restrict your time. I think you still have to discipline yourself, and it’s just as important to be selective in independent theatre and the discipline has to come from inside. You feel it when you find an independent play that’s really worth doing and might not necessarily happen in a commercial venue.”

LISTENING TO

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 June, Hamer Hall

TRIALS AND TRUTHS

t’s been a while since Elizabeth Nabben first sunk her teeth into the role of Abigail Williams, and although her acting skills have grown considerably, she approaches the text with the same excitement and vigour she had as a 15-year-old. “It’s interesting,” she says, “because it was the most exciting thing I’d done in my life – being in The Crucible – and it was a real coming of age for me. So much of Abigail is about sexual awakening and coming alive, that it sort of had its parallel in my life as well. She’s such a force to be reckoned with and has nothing to lose. I just remember even as a teenager, these guys that went on to be accountants and didn’t ever act again were so excited about the play and there’s definitely that energy still there.”

The Crucible

What is your earliest memory of theatre?

The 1992 arena spectacular of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Angry Anderson had a whip made out of lasers.

Haven’t seen anything quite like it since… about it that it’s a really infectious energy. And he’s so incredibly supportive – there’s about three or four who it’s their first MTC play. He opened up the doors.”

If you were an animal, what would you be?

A polar bear, so I can always win at hide and seek in a whitegoods factories.

And it’s great that MTC – one of the premier theatre makers in Melbourne – is committed to bringing new talent in through their doors. The barriers between independent and funded theatre are starting to break down, with plenty of crossover now present. People are creating the work they’re passionate about, and Nabben is a prime example of this. “If you believe the work is good and worth putting on then it doesn’t matter what venue it’s in.” And is The Crucible a show worth putting on? Definitely, at least as far as Nabben is concerned: “It’s epic,” she says. “It’s such an incredible play.”

What is your favourite game?

Scress – it’s a realistic version of Chess, mixed with Scrabble. When one piece tries to take another you have a round of Scrabble, and the higher point value wins. The defender has an advantage by playing second. You have to be very drunk.

WHAT: The Crucible

If you weren’t a director, what would you be doing?

I’d be Batman.

WHAT: Domino WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 19 to Saturday 29 June, Abbotsford Convent

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 22 June to Saturday 3 August, MTC, The Sumner Theatre

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 21

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JUST ANOTHER LOVE SONG Seen as one of the trailblazers of power pop’s guitar-driven emotional spawn, emo, Jimmy Eat World have managed to survive through trends by simply being honest to themselves. He who devours the globe, Jim Adkins, chats with Benny Doyle.

atching up with Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins finds him hanging out in Phoenix, Arizona, tying up the final loose ends before heading over to Europe to begin the arduous touring cycle for Damage, the quartet’s eighth record. Performance-wise, though, the band are already fighting fit and eager to tackle these dates with vigour, having recently broken in a few of the new tracks with a home state tour that saw them hit five small towns in Arizona – from Sierra Vista to Flagstaff – to reconnect with their roots.

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“That’s something that I wanted to do for a really long time, and it finally worked out that we could do it right now, and it also worked out because we hadn’t played some of these songs out before,” explains Adkins. “It was a great way to give back to local fans who have supported us for a really long time and also try some brand new stuff.”

Twenty years on from their original garage days in the city of Mesa, roughly 30 clicks west of the state capital, Adkins admits it’s a milestone that has been hard to dodge for the band. However, he assures that their latest release is far from a victory lap made simply to pay homage to their career thus far. “It’s really hard not to put into context the entire history of the band, especially when you’re somebody like us who has been a band for a long time. I don’t think Damage has anything to do... I wouldn’t view it as something that sums up [our] career, it’s really only what we know and like and can do with what we have right now.”

However, to still be relevant in a rock’n’roll world with far more bravado than these four gents hold is a solid accomplishment, especially for a band that’s biggest goal was “to get [their] music onto a seven-inch”.

“That was like, ‘Dude, if we could make that happen then it’s legit,’” he remembers. “[The first time I held a pressing in my hand] I couldn’t believe it. It was just a test pressing, and everyone came over, I think we were at our drummer [Zach Lind’s] house at the

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

end of a band practice just getting ready for a show, and we put it on and we just couldn’t believe it,” he laughs. “Like, ‘Hey, it’s me, I’m on the record.’ “[But] the longer that we are a band, I think it’s easier to appreciate [those things] and to appreciate being a band. It’s a huge deal that anyone would want to take their time and spend it... To find something in what we do that relates to them, and that they can choose to make their own experience. It’s a huge compliment that anyone would care. And the fact that we’ve been able to do it so long and people still care, we’re definitely grateful for that. [And] that might be one of the reasons that we’re still around. You have to really take in the good things that are happening and be grateful for them because it truly is an amazing experience.”

Damage sees the band operating as an airtight unit – from the familiar chord-driven bounce of Appreciation and single, I Will Steal You Back, to more fragile moments like Byebyelove, not a moment is wasted during the punchy full-length. Working on the tracks since the beginning of the year, a time that “seems like a while ago now” for Adkins, the quartet were committed to stripping back to the raw ingredients of the band once more and discovering what it was about Jimmy Eat World that swallowed them whole in the first place.

“I think maybe getting away from things, and relying on the studio as an instrument,” he reveals when pushed to discuss their initial goal for the album. “Trying to get more into like [that] four people playing kinda feel. There’s really no rules about how you go about producing or recording a song, it’s all about what you think can make the best presentation of the idea. And sometimes that means throwing the idea of playing that song live out the window, y’know what I mean? It’s just gotta be the song. [But] whether it was conscious or not, the material on Damage is definitely more jamable than some of our other work we’ve done in the past.”

To help peel back the layers of who they were as a band, Jimmy Eat World ventured due west to bunker down at the Los Angeles home studio of Alain Johannes, a man who knows all about the sounds of the desert, having invested plenty of time – in a recording and performance scope – into the music of Queens Of The Stone Age and Eagles Of Death Metal, among many others. “Yeah, that dude’s a shredder,” Adkins understates, “there’s no two ways about it.” But Johannes didn’t push the frontman and fellow guitarist Tom Linton to start wheeling off face melters themselves. That wasn’t what it was about.

“I never felt like that was... I think that getting the best out of us was more about the song as a whole. If anything I think that the material on Damage is less reliant on riffs – it’s really about the song as a whole [throughout]. There [are] riffs all over the place but they’re all complementing the song; I don’t really feel like there’s something, like a riff where the song is built around it.”

The sleeze and steez of the City of Angels didn’t affect the album, either. “We’ve been going out to LA for years now for different things, and I think we’re at a place now where we can have fun with

[making an album]. That’s all we did when we were there, was lived in the recording; it’s not like we were out clubbing or anything. Not like clubbing is something that any of us ever do anyway. It was good to just go somewhere and lock down.”

Instead, the four-piece worked beneath a thematic umbrella – not unlike the one found on the cover of Damage – to deliver the sort of tracks that Adkins has long been drawn to. It directed the lyrical content of the songs, helped shape the overall sound and tips its cap to two decades of emotive rock from Jimmy Eat World, whether Adkins will admit it or not. “I got really into the idea of building the material around a central theme, and just as a basic, basic jumping off point I went with the idea of love songs,” he reveals. “But the kinda love songs that appeal to me are the ones that deal with adversity and emotional injury and heartbreak.

Those are types that I feel are more captivating.”

WHO: Jimmy Eat World WHAT: Damage (Sony)

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HARD TO BE HARDCORE Sydney’s globetrotting heavy-hitters Buried In Verona welcome constructive criticism – even if nobody seems willing to offer it to their faces. Vocalist Brett Anderson gives Brendan Crabb the middle finger salute.

e basically don’t have anything anymore,” Buried In Verona frontman Brett Anderson chuckles when queried about the sacrifices he’s made to help afford the Sydney metal/ hardcore outfit the best possible chance of succeeding.

“I used to have a nice car, apartment and stuff like this, and that’s all gone now. It is some super hard choices, but when you get to tour the world, stand on stage in different countries and even have people singing back at you, no matter where you are, it’s a pretty good feeling that replaces any sadness of losing anything. But I’ve seen bands that have done US and overseas touring, couldn’t handle it and gone back to their day jobs. You’ve just got to sort of decide what is definitely going to make you happy, and then back yourself 100 per cent.

Otherwise you’re going to regret what you’ve done.”

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The members of Buried In Verona are evidently built for such a lifestyle. What’s more, said efforts have noticeably begun to pay dividends. Last year’s Notorious record charted in Australia, and in spring 2012 they supported The Amity Affliction during their extensive run of arena shows. They’ve since trekked through America with Chelsea Grin and undertaken a 30-show jaunt with Emmure in Europe. In addition to this, there are further overseas visits slated for later in 2013, following the Australian East Coast Rampage Tour alongside I Killed The Prom Queen, House Vs Hurricane and Saviour.

To coincide with the tour, they’ve also unleashed a deluxe version of their latest effort. Notorious: Reloaded includes the original album, B-sides, a DVD, revamped artwork and a never-before-released single. New track I Am Hate was recorded while on tour, a reaction to the love/hate relationship Buried In Verona have developed with the hardcore and metal scenes. Although their fanbase has grown exponentially, the band has attracted its share of haters, something they address in the best way they know how – via a musical middle finger.

“I think [it’s] just a build-up of… We copped a lot of shit, and we’re probably not used to copping that much

shit, just because we’ve never grown that much of a band,” the vocalist considers. “That’s just a song trying to get out the emotions of like, no matter what you say, no matter what you do, no matter how much shit you talk on us, we’re still gonna do what we want to do, basically. We’re not going to be pressured into writing an album that we don’t want to sound like.”

Do they encounter much of said hostility at gigs or when out in public? “It’s never, ever, ever face-to-face, or at shows; it’s always on the internet,” Anderson laughs. “Which is convenient for those people, I guess.

I’d be super surprised and probably super respectful if actually someone came up to me and said, ‘I hate your vocals’, or ‘I hate your band’, or something like that. I’d be like, ‘Well, fair enough, at least you’re being honest – now don’t do it on the internet’,” he says, laughing again. “I guess [the online world’s] good and bad. It’s always good for people to have opinions and stuff, ‘cause you can definitely take criticism from what people say. But it’s the ones that sort of purely try to incite hate, or purely try and get at you personally.

They’re the ones that bring the whole system down.”

product to go along with the songs you’ve written helps out a lot, especially in America... It’s an expensive process, but I guess you’ve got to take the risk.”

Soldiering on in spite of the venom, the band plans to head to the US in September to record album number four. “We should be able to announce [more details] fairly soon, but not yet,” the frontman laughs. “[It’s] not all locked in yet. We’ll be saying who we’re recording with and stuff pretty soon. So we’re just trying to get as much material now together, finish off the demos and stuff, [then] head over there for a month and hopefully release early next year.

It’s asked whether I Am Hate is a fair indicator of what the next release will sound like, and whether they’ll similarly draw inspiration from the haters on the next batch of material. “I think it’s definitely an indication of what it is. We still definitely want to have a lot of variety throughout the album. As far as songwriting, heaviness and stuff like that, it’s definitely the way we are heading, and a pretty decent representation of it. From the last album and even the one before that, we’ve never really written about the hate, or channelled it, because we’d rather write songs that are more connected with us personally. I definitely think from experience and copping all the shit, the next album will be maybe fairly angry towards that kind of thing,” the singer laughs.

“If you bring out something with ten absolutely amazing songs on it, I don’t think it’s going to get heard unless the production meets the same standard as your songs. Which is a bit sad, because it used to be the fact where you could write an amazing song and have it sound okay, and it would still do great things for you. But I think kids and the public expect a little bit more these days, so definitely having a good sonic

They clearly won’t be making concessions to the naysayers. Despite their first two LPs garnering their share of praise and earning them high-profile international supports, Buried In Verona were seemingly still searching for a distinct identity. Perhaps too metal for the hardcore kids, and maybe too ‘scene’ or dimea-dozen in the eyes of metal fans, they embraced their hardcore and punk influences on Notorious. The record

placed greater emphasis on shiny, gleaming hooks while infusing hints of the Meshuggah-inspired djent sound, subsequently signalling a shift away from their more overtly metallic, Gothenburg-inspired early fare.

“In our minds, it was kind of time for a fresh change in the band, sound-wise and everything-wise,” Anderson says. “But it worked out really good, and the album went really well. We just basically write an album that we would enjoy playing first, for one-and-a-half, two years, every night. It’s just more about keeping us happy. I think that will reflect in our music, and then hopefully the crowds and the listeners will enjoy it as well. I think if we were playing something we didn’t want to do, or labelled ourselves hardcore, metal and we stuck to it I don’t think we’d enjoy it as much. As far as calling it something, I don’t know; I guess maybe more of a hardcore vibe, just because of the tempo and that sort of stuff. But we’re definitely not hardcore people.”

WHO: Buried In Verona WHAT: Notorious: Reloaded (UNFD) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 21 June, Corner Hotel

DISCOVER NEW MUSIC & TAKE IT WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO

For more interviews go to themusic.com.au/interviews • 23

my OPEN day

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WASTE ‘EM ALL Crossover kings Municipal Waste are getting ready to bring their patented brand of sonic madness to our fair shores. Mark Hebblewhite chats to vocalist Tony Foresta, discussing boozing, thrashing and the legacy of Jeff Hanneman.

sually the word sombre never enters a chat with Richmond, Viriginia’s original thrash wild men.

Beer bongs – yes. Boogie boards in the mosh?

Most definitely. The benefits of smoking weed? No comment. In short, an interview with these guys is akin to one of their shows – loose and a hell of a lot of fun.

Not today, however, as we have the sad duty at the time of the interview of informing frontman Tony Foresta that Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman passed away only hours before.

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“Holy fuck, are you fucking kidding me – that is absolutely awful – I am just so shocked right now – almost speechless,” is all Foresta can initially offer.

After the news sinks in, the praise flows freely.

“Slayer are one of my all-time favourite bands and Jeff was the coolest dude in the band and wrote some of the greatest thrash riffs of all time. Angel Of Death, Raining Blood, you just don’t get better than those tunes.

Man, he will be sorely missed by a lot of people.”

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FEE HELP

And do you have a favourite Hanneman moment that perhaps isn’t as universally praised as the ubiquitous Reign In Blood? “You know what, I’ve always liked that first song (Bitter Peace) off Diabolus In Musica – I know people hate that album and

TAFES OPEN DAYS

The chance for a major Slayer nerd-out cheers up Foresta, who is now happy to talk all things Municipal Waste. “Last time we were here was one of our favourite all-time tours – no lies,” says an enthusiastic Foresta. “The only thing I regret is not trying more of your beers. We actually drank some pretty shitty beers while we were over there – I liked Coopers, though. Things have changed for us since that tour – we’re kind of like beer snobs now, so when we come back no more shitty beers – only the good stuff.”

Foresta is also keen to point out that seeing Municipal Waste live adds a whole new level of enjoyment for fans of the band. “Don’t get me wrong, I really like what we’ve recorded – well except for the really early EPs we did before we knew how to record – but live we’re a completely different beast. I think it’s because we make sure our shows are as fun as possible. Anything can happen and we change things up every night.

Municipal Waste draw fans from both the metal and punk/hardcore scenes. This is a band that brings people together. “Our shows are like those old D.R.I. VHS tapes

from the mid-’80s,” laughs Foresta. “Look in the crowd and there’s metalheads, mohawks, skinheads – you name it. It’s just back then the different groups beat the shit out of each other because they hated each other. Now they just beat the shit out of each other for fun,” he laughs.

As to Municipal Waste’s musical allegiances, they don’t only pay homage to the obvious crossover progenitors such as D.R.I., Cryptic Slaughter, Gang Green and S.O.D. – there’s also a healthy respect for the Bay Area fraternity.

“As I said, Slayer are one of my all-time favourite bands and of course we respect Testament and the more technical bands as well. But when it comes down to it – even though the thrash movement was broad – a lot of the bands didn’t sound like each other – thrash is thrash – it’s all good.”

WHO: Municipal Waste WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 19 June, Bendigo Hotel; Sunday 23, Corner Hotel (under18s, 1pm-5pm; 18+, 7:30pm-11pm)

SEEING TRIPLE It’s Nikki Shiels’ “year of theatre”. Oliver Coleman manages to steal a bit of her time to talk about Malthouse Theatre’s upcoming adaptation of the Soviet classic, The Dragon.

ikki Shiels has just emerged from a morning of rehearsals for the upcoming production of The Dragon at the Malthouse Theatre and is seated in the bustling surrounds of the foyer café. It’s her lunch hour, one of the few breaks she will get during her busy day. She is full of energy – and she needs to be. For the past three weeks she has been rehearsing The Dragon during the day whilst in the evenings playing the lead in the premier production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s True Minds, down the road at the Melbourne Theatre Company. “It’s a bit of a psychological juggle. I need a lot of discipline,” admits Shiels of her hectic schedule.

“I’m calling this year my year of theatre.” As soon as she finishes The Dragon she’ll begin rehearsals on Simon Stone’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard at MTC. “I’m sort of on this conveyer belt of theatre till October.”

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The Dragon, written by Soviet writer Evgeny Shwarz in 1944, is a rarely performed classic of Soviet theatre. The play was controversial in its day because of its satirical take on the Stalinist regime. Shwarz, famous in Soviet Russia for his children’s stories and comedic plays, inverted the conventional fairy tale tropes in his pointed attack. The townspeople of Shwarz’s play are under the iron-fisted rule of a tyrannical three-headed dragon.

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it’s not the best thing that Slayer did – but that first tune is awesome. A real hidden gem.”

Lancelot, the hero of the story, arrives in the town on the eve of the annual sacrifice of a local maiden (Nikki Shiels).

Lancelot vows to kill the dragon, thus saving the maiden and liberating the town. However, the inhabitants of the town have become so used to the rule of the dragon they scorn Lancelot’s calls for resistance. Shiels comments on her character, “She resists very much the type of the fairy tale princess and I think it’s too easy to play her like that.”

The Malthouse Theatre is presenting a new adaptation

by Toby Schmitz. “It’s pretty new. It’s pretty hip. Very poetic,” says Shiels. “It’s got a very contemporary feel to it but Toby has done a very good job of retaining the main action and the main essence and of all of the characters of the play.” One of the most striking additions to this updated version of the play is the musical element. The comedy trio Tripod appear as the three-headed dragon. They’ve written completely original, “quite dark” songs for the production. There are sure to be some surprises with regards to staging a play with a three-headed dragon as a central character. “It’s a process of trial and error on the floor. I shouldn’t give away the production design. But there are some very exciting theatrical things happening,” Shiels suggests.

Looking at Shiels’ recent theatre credits, it is hard to miss the number of comedic roles she’s played. But this isn’t a direction in which Shiels has intentionally headed. “I don’t seek it out. I’ve never really thought of myself as a comic actress. I’ve sort of arrived in a few comedies this year, or the last couple of shows. I feel like I’ve learnt a lot about comedy this year. I’m not the sort of person who can just sniff comedy. I’m working with some amazing comedians at the moment in the show. But for me if I ever approach things as a comedy I can’t make them funny. I always try to seek out a story that speaks to me.

Sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they’re not.”

Shiels is cautious about making plans for the future. “My plan is to keep working. I don’t care where it is or what it is. But it’s nice to be a working actor. I feel like the minute I make plans something comes up. Just to say yes to as much work that comes my way and to keep learning.”

WHAT: The Dragon WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 27 June to Friday 26 July, Malthouse, Merlyn Theatre

EMBRACING THE INSULAR Spawning from Elena Tonra’s solo work, London trio Daughter is making serious waves on the back of debut record If You Leave. Brendan Telford speaks with the singer about honesty amidst the atmospherics.

COLLEGES

One website has everything you need to know about choosing the right tertiary institution for you myopenday.com.au Where every day is Open Day

t is hard to fathom the level of anticipation that seems to have coalesced around If You Leave, the debut record for Daughter: a trio that have taken the spectral skeleton of traditional pop and folk compositions and weaved a darker, atmospheric world for themselves with astonishing results. The rise and fall of the gossamer guitar lines by Igor Haefeli and understated-yet-pivotal drumming of Remi Aguilella provide this esoteric sonic backdrop, yet everything hinges on the ethereal, haunted vocals of Elena Tonra. Embodying both fragility and power, Tonra is a beguiling presence, imbuing Daughter with a mesmeric countenance that is hypnotic and alluring.

I

If You Leave has been heralded in the press as a long time coming, what with the brewing adulation garnered from their previous EPs feeling like the calm before the storm. Yet The Wild Youth came out at the tail end of 2011, and the pressure of releasing a long-player has been something that Tonra has been attuned to yet assuages that there were no problems leading up to it. “It really came down to ensuring we had a whole lot of new songs for it; and whilst it looks like we had a year to make it we had a lot of touring in between,” Tonra explains. “It was this juggling act between writing and recording and being away. It took this time due to

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

practical reasons over anything else. We wanted to take our time and not rush out and knock up something that was like the EP songs smooshed together. The weird thing is, when you look at all the things that have been in front of us over the year, we actually worked quite speedily to get everything to come together.”

Tonra’s lyrics are incredibly sparse and honest, with no holds barred when expressing her perceived insecurities.

“When we wrote the album I didn’t really think about [the lyrics] because we were very much in a solitary area, we kept to ourselves. We were making this album for ourselves in a way, so we weren’t thinking about what other people would think about it. It’s only now that I’m thinking, ‘Oh shit, why am I telling everyone these things?’ But in my opinion you need to be honest; it’s the way I have always written, it’s a way to get rid of all the bad feelings or dark emotions that can build up inside. It’s always been a way to deal with things.

“And for us we never really went out much, we didn’t see people, the whole process consumed us. It was heavy – an enjoyable experience, but something of a challenge. So when the reviews come out and start picking everything apart it’s quite strange. Who knows what my future

songwriting will be like, seeing that I might be selfconscious about it all now; maybe it’s destroyed me!”

There have been moments where Daughter’s musical oeuvre, as embryonic as it is, has been labelled as folk and although Tonra herself doesn’t align herself to a folk aesthetic, she believes there are elements, such as the honesty of the lyrics, that connect with people in a similar way, providing universal truths that ultimately become the hook that draws people in.

“I wouldn’t know how to describe our music! It’s definitely got that songwriting quite present within it. Maybe it’s the way the lyrics present themselves to people that makes [them] think we’re folky, but I don’t really have an answer. We are definitely a lot more electric, a lot darker in that sound.”

WHO: Daughter WHAT: If You Leave (4AD/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday 23 July, Corner Hotel; Friday 26, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands

25

SINGLED OUT SINGLE OF THE WEEK

WITH STEPHANIE LIEW

HAYDEN JAMES Permission To Love Future Classic The varied and progressive kind of sensual, emotional indie electro that is coming out of Australia at the moment is to be applauded, as demonstrated by Sydney’s Hayden James. Built around the refrain “I give permission to love” and a simple funky guitar riff, James takes one idea and plays around with it in a multitude of ways, pitch-bending vocals and letting noises peak and dip and beats pulse and fade so as to become immersive. And at the end of it, when it loosens its hold, we only want more.

Permission To Love is one to up your dopamine levels.

FRASER A GORMAN & BIG HARVEST Dark Eyes Milk Records Remember when you were a child and your parents listened to slow, lumbering songs that all melded together into what you categorised as “boring parents’ music”? You just couldn’t figure out how they were happy to sit there and listen to it, and even enjoy it. Dark Eyes sounds like this. Does no one else think that Gorman sounds like he’s singing through a mouthful of porridge? Even the horns seem deflated. If you listened to this while inside a closed cardboard box it wouldn’t make a difference.

SAFIA

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

[REVIEWS REVIEWS] a l b u m

J COLE

Born Sinner Roc Nation/Columbia/Sony If there was ever a rapper groomed for superstardom, it’s J Cole. A clean-cut college jock with a knack for both building and destroying beats, a couple of superb mixtapes under his belt and the backing of a man who doesn’t make bad business decisions (Jay-Z), he was provided everything necessary to create a classic album. Yet despite all this, 2011’s Cole World: The Sideline Story came out kinda ‘meh’. Not a disgrace by any means, classier and with more depth than 90% of its competition, yet possibly a victim of its own impossible-to-live-up-to hype. Named after that legendary line from Biggie Smalls, album number two, Born Sinner, attempts to hit harder without ditching the subtle, well-thought-out approach of his previous work. Constantly acknowledging his new-found position, roaming amongst the industry’s biggest players, he expresses both his awe and his insecurity; wary, guilty even, of life in the fast lane yet giddy with the glamour and girls it brings. And much of Born Sinner takes aim at the ladies, whether admitting shame for past sins, trying to instill a sense of self-love or just plain trying to get a leg over, such as on first single, Power Trip, with soulster Miguel.

Being a producer himself, Cole puts great care into the music, notably the epic opening Villuminati with its hard funky drums, the gospel choir exhortations of the TLC-featured Crooked Smile or the dream combination of Kendrick Lamar and the same Ronnie Foster sample that powered A Tribe Called Quest’s Electric Relaxation. Though not the classic he threatens to create, Born Sinner remains intelligent, middle-classy mainstream hip hop, a cut above the dumb shit that dominates the genre in 2013.

Darren Collins

BATPISS

BERNARD FANNING

Every Night Is A Saturday Night

Dew Process/Universal

They may have only been together for just over a year, but Melbourne trio Batpiss have somehow crafted their own post-apocalyptic world on Nuclear Winter, one full of molten ash, mesmeric annihilation and maniacal laughter. For all the bluster and necrotic noise, Batpiss are indeed taking the piss, and don’t care whether you’re in on the joke or not.

This is exciting stuff – the long awaited follow up to Tea And Sympathy is finally here with all its bells and whistles. Departures is nothing like its predecessor, but does capture the classic Fanning traits including his love of a simple rock riff and some incredibly catchy choruses. If anything, Departures shares more comparisons to Powderfinger than his previous solo outing.

Nuclear Winter

Recorded by The Nation Blue/Harmony provocateur Tom Lyngcoln (who also recorded The Spinning Rooms’ similarly-themed feverish debut last year) upstairs at the Tote, Nuclear Winter is a bilious rollercoaster from start to finish. Seed is an atonal balltearer, plastering down the band’s intent from the onset, before Drag Your Body comes on, a vehement black dream filled with desperate sweat and seething. Come Here And Fuck Off is what it says on the tin, a sucker punch of raucous abandon; Burn Below sounds like the Bronx on steroids, broken bits of teeth stuck in their steel-caps. Hollywood takes a more speed-punk approach, prepared to tear up the rails, before grinding everything down to their bare, base essentials for the brutal grind of Human. It’s relentless, yet there is an inherent maniacal glee embedded within these tracks that is virally infectious. Pigsblood goes for a wind-tunnel ambient drone intro before devolving into a morass of wanton destruction; Loose Screws is a nihilistic nail-bomb of wanton fury (and arguably the strongest track here); Couldn’t Get Out goes straight ahead, a supercharged bulldozer; Portal maintains a chugging intensity, always threatening yet never releasing; and fiery finale Drone grinds you into the dust.

Be warned, though – Nuclear Winter is brutal, yet brutally addictive.

Departures

The centrepiece to the album is the title track Departures (Blue Toowong Skies) where Fanning expresses the grief for the loss of those in his family circle. Together with the organic Grow Around You, these tracks are central to the heart of the recording and the artist himself. There is also a harder edge to his voice and this suits the nastier songs like Drake. This darker side of Departures reflects the more creative and tricky side of the recording and is a definite move to the left for Fanning. Zero Sum Game fits this description and is Bowie-esque with a glam rock fingerprint. This is where he escapes the limitations of Powderfinger.

Fanning has spent his time wisely and relearned his rock pantheon moves. Loops and a more rhythmic approach has helped him make this album a more exciting adventure. Limbo Stick and Tell Me How It Ends are reminiscent of Neil Finn’s first solo record, which also was driven by great new directions in the studio. Fanning is no stranger to success and failure and this album sees him back on track with an album he obviously has enjoyed recording. Whether the songwriter finally makes a mark overseas is another question.

Sebastian Skeet

Brendan Telford

Listen To Soul, Listen To Blues The A&R Department With a focus on feeling and production (in fact, it was recorded and mixed by two of the band’s members), Listen To Soul, Listen To Blues starts out with syrupy falsetto and sighs on top of airy piano, before lounge beats come in. Then the rhythm builds into something less lounge, more club, and the song moves into full-on, synth-heavy dance territory. And it works like a dream. Don’t question, just go with it.

JESSIE J FT BIG SEAN AND DIZZEE RASCAL Wild

Island/Universal Jessie J’s got attitude and undeniable chops, and there’s a capital ‘C’ chorus, but listening to Wild and appreciating its potential to be a hit still doesn’t compel you to give a shit. Jessie J still hasn’t carved out her own distinctive sound; she’s a mix of Gaga, Rihanna, Perry, Minaj et al, without the self-assurance or personal brand. Big Sean and Dizzee Rascal’s rap verses are adequate but don’t mesh well, making it hard to get into the dance pop side of the song.

MY FICTION

Neon Cola Signs SugarRush Records The swagger, rip and roll of the guitars, the galloping drums, the high-low vocals in unison and whiff of carefree rebellion bring to mind late-night drives through neon-lit cities, with rock pumping from the speakers to top off that feeling of elation. The song whips through you like crisp wind in your hair when the convertible’s top is down. Sugary with a bitter kick, its title couldn’t be more appropriate. Excellent.

CLOUD CONTROL Dojo Rising Ivy League Where’s the glow and charisma that used to emanate from Cloud Control? Dojo Rising is subdued to the point of maintaining a flat level, lacking in dynamics and with a coolly detached air, if this is Cloud Control trying to take their sound into darker territory, it’s a flat attempt. Neither dark nor light, Dojo Rising falls into an overcast area too mild to make an impact either way.

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

JINJA SAFARI Jinja Safari

Independent/Island Having taken a recent trip to their Ugandan town namesake ‘Jinja’, Australian indie darlings Jinja Safari have released their self-titled and self-produced debut album. It’s not difficult to detect the inspiration behind this energetic release. The album has been heavily influenced by a diverse range of world music, but the backbone is primarily African percussion and rhythm samples, the beats completely infectious while representing all things youthful and worldly. Jinja Safari themselves have described the unique tribal style as “forest rock”, and listening to the layers of percussion crash over each other amidst the joyous flute melodies they have created, it’s difficult not to imagine such music being created somewhere in the depths of an isolated, speckled forest.

Despite the tracks being bound together by the Afrobeats and oriental samples, the lyrical content of the album is curiously diverse. There are tales of geographical wanderings and travellers: “In an old rice field/There’s a broken path/And a hermit with eyes like yours” (Toothless Grin). There are voiced frustrations that accompany the coming of age process: “No one respects you when you’re young/ No one believes you when you’re old” (Apple); “Old man I’m talking more like you/But there’s nothing more you can do” (Bay Of Fires). Mombassa On The Line is a thoughtful insight into bridging cultural differences while, in stark contrast, Oh Benzo! describes personal experience with prescription medication addiction.

On first impression, Jinja Safari may strike you as being light-hearted, if not uplifting. Yet beneath the surface, the band has used its infectious music and detailed storytelling to explore some much darker concepts. It’s a captivating album that deserves closer inspection.

Claire Moore

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Siberia/Remote Control

Iceage Productions

There’s a laziness to the Midnight Juggernauts’ sound which often serves them well, but on Uncanny Valley it all feels a little unfocused. The slower pace of the album (sitting just around the magic heartbeat rate) helps to induce a hypnotic resonance but also makes it harder to concentrate on the tunes without drifting away.

This third and final survey of the sounds of underground Melbourne highlights and celebrates the diversity of styles and approaches currently occurring in our midst.

It feels broader than previous outings, and that’s a good thing, acknowledging some of the progressive work occurring in more electronic and beat-based territories.

The eccentric electronics of Worng are a prime example, they sound like zombie acid house music crossed with a John Carpenter score and are probably the highlight of what is a truly eclectic collection of music. It feels like this time around it’s less abrasive than previous outings, with unexpected additions like the gentle repetitive guitar noodling from the appropriately named Sleep Ensemble.

Em Vecue Aquieu also offer gentle meditative atmospheric ambience that’s lush and cinematic yet it’s aggressively ruptured by some piercing electrics of the following track, courtesy of scene mainstay Ollie Olsen, acting like a high priest of noise, corralling all the negative pitches and coalescing them into a cumulative muscular drone piece.

Uncanny Valley

Opening track HCL is not quite an intro and not quite a whole song, it just never quite gets over the line.

Ballad Of The War Machine follows closely and it is one of the most fully realised tracks on the album.

The synth arpeggios double up for the chorus, and the “ahhhs” that make the hook are fantastic – it’s up there with the best songs they’ve written. Straight away they break the mould and go for the disco light of the second single Memorium, which works fantastically with its video, but misses something important without the visuals. Sugar And Bullets takes full advantage of the disco as well, and it really starts to get a bit cheesy. As usual, their darker more subversive songs and moods work better, but these moments are heavily outweighed by the lackadaisical, hammockdwelling apathy that drowns most of the album.

The overall sound of the record, and the cohesiveness really serves it well, but the concepts and songwriting are too loose to provide any real lasting satisfaction. The Juggers have always sounded on the verge of making a really great record, but they still haven’t quite hit it yet.

Chris Yates

The Shape Of Sound Volume 3: Melbourne Australia

Parts feel like they were originally recorded onto cassette, and there’s a definite lo-fi wooziness to a lot of the material here, like the organ and drum machine haze of Rites Wild, which with its reverb and delay drenched washes of sound is simultaneously lethargic and strangely compelling. Robin Fox offers electrics as a field recording, there’s highly textural music concrete from Mitchell Brennan, and Sean Baxter offers some brittle uncomfortable chaos. Matthew Brown’s low-key synthetic experiments are typically amazing, whilst Wife rounds out the collection, sounding like no input mixer feedback loops utilising the most difficult sine tone pitches on the album. It’s strange and beautiful music, startling and even scary at times. Yet this is the sound of 2013 Melbourne.

Bob Baker Fish

a l b u m [REVIEWS REVIEWS]

MORE ONLINE...

THEMUSIC.COM.AU

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

AIRBOURNE

ETRAN FINATAWA

XL/Remote Control

Roadrunner/Warner

Riverboat Records/Fuse

Ah, the third record. You’ve dropped your successful debut out of the blue; yeah, so what? Plenty have done it before you. The “difficult” follow-up is a slog that leaves many bloodied and dying along the road. But if it’s a hit too, then you’ve got a clean slate with the third album. You’ve proved yourself, you’ve defied the critics, and you’ve granted yourself the licence to do something really impressive. And that, dear reader, is exactly what Vampire Weekend have done. They burst out of the blocks in 2008 with their self-titled debut, and backed it up in 2010 with Contra, proving that the four-piece’s blend of minimalist, intelligent pop was a hit. So with the world as their canvas, the band looked no farther than their own home town for inspiration for their third.

Maligned as they are by many Aussies, doubters should witness Airbourne in full flight at a European festival.

This is where the hard-drinking and even harder-rocking Warrnambool crew really resonate. If more cynics did so – or failing that, just caught them in a club – they’d likely be something greater than a cult act in their own country.

There’s something in the texture of the guitar, the desert twang, the repetitive riffs and sparse percussion that connotes not only a sense of wide open space but also struggle. It’s music that first came to consciousness in the west via Mali’s Touareg renegades Tinariwen, whose electric guitars unleashed the toil and frustration of the disaffected in Sub-Saharan Africa. With a continuing tenuous political situation, where in the north rebels have imposed Sharia law, the very act of making music in Mali these days is fraught with danger. Few places are as qualified to sing the blues as those in this region. Over the border in Niger, Etran Finatawa brings together the Touareg and Wodaabe tribes.

Traditionally they’ve been at odds with each other, however, within this band over the course of four albums they’ve fused traditions and created incredible music.

Modern Vampires Of The City

Black Dog Barking

The Sahara Sessions

A city with as much history and diversity as New York City has inspired artists for centuries, and Modern Vampires Of The City, from its haunting cover image to Step – the down-tempo standout that could perfectly accompany a lonely stroll through the crowded Chelsea street – is a moving tribute album to the city. It’s surprising to note that the record was, for the most part, created and recorded in Los Angeles, because even though there’s a summery vibe over much over the record, a dark lining covers the tracks.

Minor chords, vocal transmutations (see the “baby, baby, baby right on time” refrain on lead single Diane Young), and the hauntingly beautiful Hannah Hunt all contribute to a refreshingly mature step for Vampire Weekend. While not a party album like previous releases, Modern Vampires… is, without doubt, Vampire Weekend’s most accomplished record yet.

Although studio albums are merely an entrée for explosive performances, their third LP is again a onedimensional but heavy-duty batch of songs that still translate because they bristle with sheer exuberance.

Mutt Lange controversially offset AC/DC’s raucous blues/ boogie with liberal doses of spick and span on Highway To Hell. Producer Brian Howes’ track record (Nickelback, Hinder, Puddle of Mudd) isn’t overly encouraging either.

Barnstorming sonic gut-punch of an opener, Ready To Rock, bearing only a vague resemblance to their debut EP’s title track, shows Howes also affording Airbourne a marginally more polished sound. Woman Like That and Live It Up scream US rock radio, but this doesn’t neuter them. You can easily envision tireless frontman Joel O’Keeffe head-banging and side-changing during No One Fits Me (Better Than You) and the highenergy title track’s AC/DC-isms, sweat pouring off his perennially shirtless, slender frame. Their previous album was bogged down by a lack of variety towards its conclusion, hence this leaner 35-minute attack.

Their earnestness, cheesy lyrics (“A mouthful of garter/ Is just the starter”) and yes, derivativeness, ensure Airbourne remain an easy target. They’ve released better records too, but Black Dog Barking is a boisterous aural assault that should justifiably have tears of joy welling up in the eyes of many a rock tragic.

You can hear the Touareg sounds here, the links to Tinariwen, both in vocal phrasing and of course those incredible guitar riffs that sound like nothing else in the world. It’s so distinctive that just by hearing the guitar, acoustic in this case, you can pinpoint its origin. The percussion too is traditional: the calabash – which is a drum floating in water – and the tende. It’s blues music all right, but blues with a groove. For The Sahara Sessions they set up in the desert, built a tent, imported Colin Bass from the UK to produce and invited their friends around. Traditions mix with improvisations and spur of the moment opportunities. There’s the captivating polyphonic chorus of the Wodaabe, kids drop by, there’s lots of handclaps and a real jamming atmosphere. The music is of course amazing, affirming, spiritual and beautiful – music with both a soul and a social consciousness.

Dylan Stewart

Brendan Crabb

Bob Baker Fish

YOU AM I

Hourly, Daily (reissue) Sony “[They] utterly overreach, but get away with it, and make something of true greatness.

Hourly, Daily might not be the concept album some want to make of it, but it is certainly of a time and place.” Ross Clelland

YOU AM I

Sound As Ever (reissue) Sony “Brilliant in parts, but in places hardly seeming like the same band from one song to the next.” Ross Clelland

YOU AM I

Hi Fi Way (reissue) Sony “Hi Fi Way wasn’t just about the singles; the other album tracks are among the most loved of the You Am I canon.” Ross Clelland

For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 27

[REVIEWS REVIEWS] l i v e sweetness barely conceals the sex and grit bubbling below. The variety of material presented is an absolute treat and a testament to the range of this musical tour de force. Wainwright’s take on Piaf has the crowd fixated.

She gives lengthy and detailed explanations of each song’s narrative, but it is the fervour of Wainwright’s renditions that provides the true translation, making the French seem completely comprehensible.

Some of the most precious moments in the set are songs Wainwright borrows from her mother – the late, great folk singer Kate McGarrigle – and aunt, Anna McGarrigle.

Wainwright’s performance of Proserpina (the last song her mother wrote before she died in 2010), backed by a small chorus but primarily stripped down to her lilting voice is mesmerising. Wainwright is like an unpolished gem. Hard and coarse, but precious and bloody beautiful. Above all, Wainwright is a great storyteller.

This comes through not only in her music but also in the between-song banter where she invites the audience to share something rather than simply be voyeurs.

Perhaps most impressive though is how Wainwright manages to swing her hips so wildly, whilst keeping her guitar perfectly still and singing at the same time.

AFTER THE GIG WE...

EZEKIEL OX FROM THE NERVE

Izzy Roberts-Orr

FOXTROT, MARICOPA WELLS, LIMITS OLD BAR: 06/06/13

WHAT DO YOU DO AFTER THE GIG IS OVER WHEN ON TOUR? You’ll just have to come to our gigs to find out.

The Nerve now touring. Check The Guide for dates.

Something For Kate Pic by Glenn Waller

SOMETHING FOR KATE, COURTNEY BARNETT FORUM: 14/06/13

I think it’s pretty obvious that the weed belonged to Joel Madden’s hairdresser.

RYAN FITZGERALD (@FitzySA) says what we’re all thinking.

APP IT UP SOUND HOUND Size: 9.2 MB What It Does: Ever hear a tune but can’t for the life of you remember the name of it? Well, this little beauty lets you either whistle or sing a tune into it and it’ll recognise it and hit you back with the title. Cool, huh?

Why It’s Essential: To strengthen your arsenal of songs.

Platform: IOS 5.0, Android

It’s a brisk winter’s evening, and wandering through Melbourne streets amid footy goers, happy hour enjoyers and late night workers showcases everything this town has to offer. Through the foyer of the regal Forum Theatre punters flow, some stopping to check out the merch desk, most making haste to the stage where local lass Courtney Barnett is about to perform.

Opening with her single, Lance Jr, it’s clear from the outset that Barnett is not going to be content just playing background music while Something For Kate fans drink beer and converse. She is unafraid to extend some of her more well-known songs with impressive guitar solos from lead man Dan Luscombe, and plays for nearly a full hour. The sound quality is muddy at times, but by the time she finishes with her critically-acclaimed History Eraser, it’s clear that Ms Barnett is here for the long haul.

After a change of location from the Forum’s booths to the middle of the sold-out crowd (tonight’s is the first of three Melbourne shows, but the only one to be performed in the resplendent Forum), it’s all eyes on stage for hometown heroes Something For Kate. And what an opening; barely saying a word, the band rip straight into a song many thought they’d never play, Captain (Million Miles an Hour). Following that up with Hallways, from possibly the greatest Australian album of the past 20 years, Beautiful Sharks, it’s a massive opening one-two that sets up an amazing and intimate night of music.

ranging from guitar and ukulele to mandolin and violin (at one point used for an impressive classical flourish – show off!), rounded out by frontwoman Emily Lubitz’s incredible voice. Lubitz’s voice shares some of the soft, almost childlike edges of Wainwright and this band’s music touches on dark undercurrents of love, sex and death.

Martha Wainwright is a flirt and the audience loves her for it. Part Patti, part Piaf, she swaggers on stage, challenging the audience not to be swayed by her brash charm and a voice that can uplift and crush you within a single phrase. She is a mass of charming contradictions – beautiful, broken and brazen at once. In some sense, Wainwright’s sound feels too raw and personal for a space as big as the Recital Centre. Her music demands intimacy from the audience and it would have felt natural to be crushed up closer, a drink in hand and a mass of bodies swaying with her rather than sitting in the dark.

However, Wainwright is a powerful performer and her stage presence somehow makes a cavernous space seem intimate. There’s nothing like sitting in a dark room amongst a group of people who are quietly being moved.

Wainwright’s voice is like sandpaper and silk – raw and abrasive yet soft and strong and this is shown off to great effect in songs that are pared back with minimal, complementary instrumentation. She sings like she is laughing and crying at the same time and a surface-level

First on stage at Old Bar tonight is Limits. Watching Limits in the dark band space of the front bar calls to mind drunken misadventures at the Arthouse many moons ago, and the music is also reminiscent of that time. Vocalist/guitarist Jess Shulman really is in her own element onstage and earns comparisons to the punk angst of Kris Roe (The Ataris) as well as Jenny Lewis’s voice. Only three gigs into their career, this band’s dynamic teamed with their ability to keep up with Shulman’s tremendous pace is impressive.

The Maricopa Wells lads know how to belt out a tune, and tonight they back up their music with witty onstage banter (and dad jokes). They borrow Adam Collins (Foxtrot) for drum duty tonight and you wouldn’t know that it’s only his second runthrough. The band play a tight set that makes us grin and get the venue pumped for the warmly welcomed melodic punk styling of Foxtrot.

Tonight’s headliners have a great stage presence, with the fever-paced Collins on drums and Josh Newman leading the charge. They’re not what you would typically expect from a punk band, with their bass man Nick Williams walking all over the place, using the full range of his five-string axe.

Technically and emotionally, Foxtrot warm hearts and remind us why places such as the Old Bar are so important to the Melbourne music scene. Not only do venues like this supply a place for bands such as Limits to play their first gig, but also a warm place for like-minded people to hang out. Melbourne may be known for its café culture by day, but it certainly transforms into a music capital by night.

Hopefully punters will show their support to the Old Bar and other live music venues this winter, especially when amazing, energetic line-ups such as tonight’s are billed.

Nick Owen

Although this tour has been billed the Star-Crossed Cities tour, taking its name from the opening track of SFK’s latest album, Star-Crossed Citizens, the band are not holding back, playing songs from their unparalleled back catalogue. Whatever You Want, Monsters, The Astronaut and Anarchitect all go down a massive treat with an audience who have grown old with the band across their career, and newer tracks, like Miracle Cure and their cover of the Calvin Harris/Florence Welch banger, Sweet Nothing, manage to hold their own amongst the classics.

Clint Hyndman hits his skins with as much power as he ever has, Steph Ashworth spends more time facing the crowd than she used to (fanboys across the country rejoice!) and Paul Dempsey’s freshly-washed hair commands the attention of all. When he plays Strategy on acoustic guitar, accompanied by piano, there is not a dry eye or un-goosebumped arm in the place.

The band does the obligatory encore, finishing with Déjà Vu and the rambunctious Electricity, the near-two hour set once again showing that Something for Kate can truly bring it.

Dylan Stewart

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, TINPAN ORANGE RECITAL CENTRE: 14/06/13 Melbourne support act Tinpan Orange are the perfect precursor to Martha Wainwright. Three consummate musicians playing a variety of stringed instruments

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

Foxtrot Pic by Holly Engelhardt

live happens, so when Marc announces that “the greatest choir that ever walked the earth” (actually just Sex on Toast) is joining the band for a version of Sailor Moon,” it is beyond incredible. It all ends in a big group hug.

The BellRays Pic by Lou Lou Nutt

THE BELLRAYS, THE DEMON PARADE, THEM BRUINS CORNER HOTEL: 12/06/13 Them Bruins get the ball rolling tonight and a tip of the hat to them for not giving a rat’s arse about the minimal attendance. Starting in fifth gear and never wavering, the foursome belt out the solid Coming Home, an up-tempo rip-snorter that leads perfectly into second belter, Shock Rockets. Each song ends with brutal feedback, a testament to how hard these boys abuse their gear. In the half hour that they play, the band manage to cram nine tracks in, each with slamming beats intended to get the hairs on one’s neck to stand up and the nostrils on one’s face to flap. High energy, in your face and a lot of fun.

The Demon Parade take to the stage with the unenviable task of following the first act’s primal purging, but luckily for them the dissimilarities between the two bands mean no comparisons need be made. Looking like he’s just arrived off the boat from Manchester, lead vocalist Michael Badger leans into the mic, eyes half shut as he strums chords that sound grafted from 1960s San Francisco. There’s no avoiding the fact that second track Was I Supposed To Know sounds like The Dandy Warhols’ Boys Better and as the set continues so too the comparisons, with the chorus of Hey Matilda bringing to mind Craig McLachlan’s Mona.

Similarities aside, the band perform tightly, with rock’n’roll histrionics in the form of Badger’s Van Halen-esque scissor-jump off a combo amp ending things nicely.

The BellRays have been around since the early ‘90s in one form or another and tonight deliver the brand of goods a group with their experience should. Vocalist Lisa Kekaula dominates the stage, afro flailing about, never yielding from her attack on the microphone. A bizarre yet bang-on blend of soul with punk, garage and rock, The BellRays smash out song after song with a level of gusto that would put many bands half their age to shame. On Top, with its raucous guitar intro courtesy of Gibson SG-toting and ever-animated Bob Vennum, lets the crowd know the band mean business.

Preaching the virtues of rock music between songs, Kekaula implores the audience to get down, in one instance paying tribute to the godfather of soul’s lyricism as his line “get on up” segues into Infection, from 2008’s Hard, Sweet And Sticky. Taking a breather with Good Behaviour showcases the band’s bluesier side before they kick off the encore with Black Lightning.

Kekaula and co succeed in turning “tonight into Friday night”. They exit the stage with a confident and deserved swagger. Wailing vocals, Chuck Berry guitar moves, pounding drums and solid basslines: make mine a double!

Glenn Waller

THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW, MESA COSA THE TOTE: 12/06/13 We arrive as Mesa Cosa seem to be in the middle of a psychedelic apocalypse with the band repeatedly screaming “save yourself”. The local garage party rockers are in full flight, taking the crowd at the Tote by the short and curlies and slapping us about the head with a raucous noise that is utterly infectious. Wearing their south-ofthe-border influences on their sleeves, they wash up sounding a little like a possessed mariachi band playing covers of The Stooges. Mesa Cosa is a grinding threeheaded monster of a band that deal in delightfully trashy lo-fi noise, featuring three wailing guitars and screamy group vocals. They reveal that after the gig they intend to drive all the way up to Sydney for their next gig. It’s the perfect way to introduce a song that does a whole lot of hating on the harbourside town. There is something about Mesa Cosa that brings to mind the good-natured fun that Thee Oh Sees so effortlessly generate, but as the set progresses it becomes clear that these dudes are obsessed with the occult. A blinding version of Diablo conjures demons through satanic ritual, providing a spectacular end to a set that simply rocked hard.

The devil that Mesa Cosa conjured was of course King Khan, wearing a jacket with the word ‘Lucifer’ emblazoned across the back in a rainbow of colors. After all the Vivid shenanigans a few years back and their consequent ‘break up’, it’s great to see The King Khan & BBQ Show back together and rocking’n’rolling once again. Once the stage is set up they mysteriously leave and return minutes later, Khan looking like a nawab in a glittery cape and sateen boxer shorts and BBQ looking like a blinged up medieval prince. Both are wearing gold lamé headdresses that were probably stolen from Amii Stewart’s wardrobe. Amusingly, they are accompanied by faux Arabian shepherd boys dressed in faux thawbs, keffiyehs and beards, who delight in gogo dancing to the dynamic duo’s riotous explosion of garage rock‘n’roll jams that take in everything from doo-wop to psych to grinding old school punk without ever feeling completely like rockabilly. Their guitars lock into each other with ferocious intensity while BBQ also creates drums loops with his bass drum. In between songs, Khan indulges in lame jokes laced with smut. At times the dirty toilet humour is just plain gross. They definitely don’t take themselves too seriously but when they play it’s obvious they are seasoned shredders. BBQ is quite the romantic, dealing in rather old fashioned ‘50s-styled rock’n’roll ballads and love songs with a somewhat nostalgic wink.

Khan on the other hand does not take us to the Land Of The Freak, but truly freaks us out with his more edgy punk presence, especially when he sings a stomach turning song about eating poop. Sadly something all too many of us do figuratively, Khan takes a more literal approach to the subject matter in a way that might put a smile on your face if it doesn’t make you throw up.

After about half an hour the Khan and BBQ show is over and the duo’s friends from the Middle East become their backing band, which is introduced only as the Tunisian Tamil Monkeys (yes, we know). Khan assures us that this is an exciting first as the duo has never played with a full band before. While the group provide fuller arrangements, we miss out on Khan and BBQ’s guitar playing as they concentrate on singing and playing the tambourine for the rest of the gig. Nonetheless, they provide a carefree evening of guitar rock‘n’roll that has the joint jumping.

Guido Farnell

VAUDEVILLE SMASH, SEX ON TOAST CORNER HOTEL: 14/06/13 Sex on Toast is either a) a condiment, b) a dodgy carnal practice or c) one of Melbourne’s greatest bands.

Tonight, the answer is c. Nine men expelling a musical frenzy of fantastical compositions that are part James Brown, part Prince, part dodgy TV game shows and part pure genius. Lyrics like “Oh Loretta/Take off your sweater” are the cherry on top. They’ve just released their synth-tastic debut single, Takin’ Over, which is shot through with a big Gloria Estefan bass line and Angus Leslie’s massive voice oozing irony throughout.

The artwork for the single references that great ‘80s movie, Cocktail, just so you know where they’re coming from. They finish their set on the enormous, romptastic Potential Sexy. Half the band wear sunglasses onstage. Must be ‘cause their future’s so bright.

The sexy, dancing audience is beyond fluffed and primed for Vaudeville Smash, who are launching their debut album, Dancing For The Girl, tonight. Lead singer/ saxophonist/flautist Marc Lucchesi is dashing in a white suit jacket, offset with an orange v-neck sweater, exactly the kind of outfit a man with a falsetto like his should be wearing. They kick off with Strangest Dream, which could easily pass for a Spandau Ballet track, and before Ghouls kicks in, it could be Eye Of The Tiger. Devil Said opens with an impressive flute solo from Marc and the addition of Sex on Toast’s Bovril Harrison, who does a trumpet solo, is a nice touch.

Sex on Toast take so much piss there’s none left for Vaudeville Smash, whose musical hearts are clearly truly, madly, deeply ensconced in ‘80s pop. On the sliding scale of 1980s irony to earnestness, Sex on Toast and Vaudeville Smash inhabit the polar opposite scales. When the two bands collide onstage, magic

Drummer Dan Lucchesi is pretty much a genius. He produced the record and also contributes a hefty amount of vocals while drumming. He kicks off Dirty Old Man with an excellent, shouty drum solo. The track inexplicably doesn’t appear on the album, and they do an awesome version of it tonight that erupts halfway into Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. “Thanks to Daft Punk for making what we do cool!” grins Marc. James Bowers – talkbox and keyboard player extraordinaire – straddles both bands and his keys solo during Drunken Cowgirl elicits a room of jazz hands.

They play Danny last, which showcases Nic Lamb’s guitar playing that is so smooth you can slide off it. Vaudeville Smash leave the stage and Sex on Toast’s Angus Leslie returns with a bizarre attempt to hype us for an encore – he reckons he’s going to do some comedy but tells one terrible joke before Vaudeville Smash return and do Look At Me and the excellent Hey. Two of Melbourne’s best bands onstage together like it’s 1982. Nice.

Kate Kingsmill

THEM SWOOPS, THE GREASERS, HIDING WITH BEARS

[REVIEWS REVIEWS]

into fifth, with crashing rock-opera keys that shake the dust off. Roscoe James Irwin is the real deal.

What five-piece de Fremery lack in experience they more than make up for with youthful charm. Lead singer William van der Vliet’s vocals sit nicely in the mix and all songs sound measured, with just the right blend of each instrument to sculpt a memorable tune. Slide guitar brings in second track, Keep It Right, to be lifted from their forthcoming EP, and features der Vliet’s soaring vocals, a lovely contrast to the powerful instrumentals of the chorus. Looking forward to the EP release, lads.

Grizzly Jim Lawrie and his band unassumingly take to the stage, opening with the mellow Drenched To The Bone. Having had praise heaped on them throughout the night by all three supports, Grizzly Jim et al go on to prove their mettle. The lively Wish I Was There showcases a band equally as tight as they are laidback.

Songs brimming with happy nostalgia ensue and special mention should be made of Lawrie’s understated and musically sparing band, who make it all appear effortless. What Did We Do? is another masterclass in artful songwriting. The Storm brings with it a solid, hard-hitting drumbeat and fantastic backing vocals.

All four acts performed beautifully at the Old Bar tonight, and all for the mere cost of a Howard-era pint. What more could one possibly demand of a Wednesday night?

NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB: 15/06/13

Glenn Waller

Squeezing past the bottleneck at the bar, we find some of the last available space in the far-back-corner of the Northcote bandroom. On the stage are opening act Hiding With Bears. The young six-piece tentatively work through a track driven by doubled-up percussion, a spindly guitar line and the small-voiced vocals of Ryan Groenewald. Despite what seemed like looks of apprehension shared between a few of the members, the song builds to an impressive crescendo with all the members roaring along without microphones. It’s actually pretty intriguing and a self-directed memo is made to catch a full set from the band soon.

THE BLACK ANGELS, THE LAURELS

The room seems at near-capacity when The Greasers take to the stage. The three-piece are all members of “Melbourne indie supergroup” New Gods and return tonight for a very rare appearance to play tracks from their 2011 album, Night To Night. From the reception they get it seems like there are some long-time fans in attendance.

It’s no wonder. Dominic Byrne’s emotive crooning is exceptional and the band’s unique brand of soulful guitar pop reverberates lushly around the tightly-packed room. A welcome sense of rawness comes during the instrumental breaks as Rich Bradbeer’s bass slides smoothly under Byrne’s blistering guitar. A top-notch return from the trio, which sets the room up grandly for the headliners.

It’s been over a year since an early version of Work Around It found its way onto triple j rotation, but the big turnout suggests Them Swoops have lost little momentum coming into their EP launch tonight. With the aforementioned single playing from the stereo and the stage bathed in green light there is a sense of earnest professionalism about the Melbourne outfit as they enter the stage. With plenty of the band’s material not yet recorded, it’s refreshing to hear the quality of their new tracks as they play through their set. Many of the songs mix standard indie rock with a funky, almost-disco feel.

An early set highlight comes in Holiday Dancer with exuberant frontman Dave McGann swapping his guitar for some shakers and belting out what could become an indie dance anthem in the vein of Friendly Fires. The introduction of the synths midway through the set adds some more layers to the band’s already hefty sound.

McGann repeatedly vocalises his genuine appreciation for the support from the crowd and after welcoming his Aunt Julie to the venue he announces new single, Rollerskate.

With its electronic dashes and a big vocal hook, the track is a clear highlight, outshining both their earlier singles.

Overall, tonight is an excellent showing from Them Swoops, both the band and the crowd surely giving the camera crew that captured the proceedings plenty of good footage to work with.

PALACE: 14/06/13 The Palace sees itself overrun with beards and denim jackets for the Melbourne leg of The Black Angels’ Australian Tour. With the amount of blatant flouting of the ‘no smoking indoors’ law, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d walked into a record attempt for the world’s largest compression sesh.

Sydney-raised four-piece The Laurels bring their well-known mind-meshing and dreamy sound to the stage. Their influences My Bloody Valentine and The Brian Jonestown Massacre shine through in each of their songs, with long driving rhythms and awesome reverberating riffs. The subdued crowd passively absorbs their sound, preparing their drinks and shuffle moves for the headline act.

The dance floor is difficult to manage. At the back is a near impenetrable wall of unmoving, silent punters who smoosh late-arriving individuals between themselves and the bar. For those smart few who pluck up the courage to prod and push their way through, they are rewarded with the strangest occurrence, an epic amount of space in the dead centre of the mosh. The space provides all the dancing room that you could ever want – that is, until the bright lights push you back into the shadows.

The Black Angels’ show is characterised by nonexistent banter and mesmerising live projections.

Their set, on the whole, never feels like it is building towards a set point. Rather, every song shares the same driving pulse that makes you shut your eyes and open your ears. It is this pulse that rhythmically pulls and pushes at you as if you are the puppet and they are the overlords subtly controlling your every move.

The projections are amazing and perfectly complement the wall of sound coming from the stage. They feature live footage of the band, every wonderfully bad acid trip pattern under the sun and random retro footage cut up and inserted into the mix. While on most songs lead singer Alex Maas’ vocals are so washed-out they are barely distinguishable; Broken Soldier is a rare exception and seems to create a different buzz in the crowd. The poor sound quality doesn’t bother the crowd, who simply stare, listen and live the experience.

Black Isn’t Black closes the encore, complete with projections of a trampolinist. With the lyrics “Placed on this planet, darkness at the door” hanging in the air, the audience dopily exits into the clear night air.

Benjamin Meyer

Jan Wisniewski

GRIZZLY JIM LAWRIE, DE FREMERY, ROSCOE IRWIN, ROB MUINOS OLD BAR: 05/06/13 A handful of punters cosy up in the Old Bar to watch opener, Rob Muinos, of local soul sensations Saskwatch, performing his introspective, acoustic ballads. Quite the departure from his other musical venture, Muinos’ songs are heartfelt and delivered with the deft and delicate touch of a pro.

Continuing with the quality sounds, Roscoe James Irwin proceeds to blow everyone’s minds up to the stratosphere. Surrounded by instruments, Irwin gives anyone considering jumping on a loop-station in the near future instant clinical depression tonight. He opens with a trumpet ditty that bitch-slaps the audience to attention and then ends with a multitude of dreamy vocal loops. Second song, Some Day She Will Tire Of Me, is as whimsical as the title suggests, with vocal harmonies that would be right at home echoing through the hills of Ireland. Wake Up features keys over droning notes, accented by some tasteful brass and final track, Fortunate One, shifts the dynamic

The Black Angels Pic by Jesse Booher

For more reviews go to themusic.com.au/reviews • 29

[REVIEWS REVIEWS] a r t s

SPEAKEASY CINEMA TINY FURNITURE

By Their Own Hands Pic by Pia Johnson

BY THEIR OWN HANDS THEATRE

King Kong

“Do you like living here? That is such a ridiculous question, I love living here.”

Screening Wednesday 19 and Sunday 23 June, 7.30pm, Shebeen

CASUALTY OF THE WEEK

Was it motion sickness after experiencing the brilliant King Kong chase scene or too many Banana Daiquiris (which they SO should have served) at the afterparty that made this elegantly dressed guest feel the urge to purge?

WHO ATE ALL THE PIES?

Massive thanks go out to our beautiful models in this week’s featured Community Cup shoot. Particularly the special pooch by the name of Spraynard Kruger who couldn’t keep his eyes off the pies! Oh – and Sam Moore’s Ute was just the ticket for added bogan pride.

KING KONG THEATRE

FRIDAY ON MY MIND EVENT

A vibrant red carpet made for a change from the usual theatrical first-night events seen in Melbourne. We even got to witness the always plastic fantastic Sophie Monk striking a pose to the cameras. On route to our seats we spot Glenn Robbins, Julia Zemiro and David Whenam (who is set to play John Proctor in a new stage production of The Crucible - as well another big screen chapter of the 300 franchise). But King Kong has ridden into town as ‘an event’, so tonight’s opening nighters stretch beyond the usual theatre-going A-listers and crosses into other industries. Michael Gudinski mills around while Red Symons, Geoffrey Rush, Ted Baillieu and Robert Doyle look on. Doyle has misread his ticket number and is in the wrong seat, “I just de-seated our lord mayor, how awkward” can be heard from behind. It’s 1930s New York, and Regent Theatre is the perfect setting for this hyped world premiere. The Regent opened in 1929 and was formerly a cinema, it’s a natural fit to the story of Kong that began as a 1933 film. But, tonight, it is all about the puppet. The backdrop of this newest take on the King Kong tale is a digitally stylized representation of 1930s New York.

Despite having to size up against a giant co-star, Esther Hannaford doesn’t overact as the Hollywood starlet Ann Darrow. This level of honesty in lead performances is rarely seen in big budget musicals. After a lengthy build up, it’s the deafening foot steps of Kong we hear first. It’s Kong’s teeth we see first as the giant gorilla reaches for Darrow, who at this point is tied up in the uncharted depths of the Skull Island jungle. Though Kong’s puppeteers/handlers are visible, it does not take away from the effect that a massive gorilla has overtaken the space. Kong has upstaged everyone. The music by Marius De Vries is brilliant, it enhances the story and utilises the strengths of the performers. This being a beauty-tames-the-beast tale, Hannaford gets to calm Kong with Full Moon Lullaby. This song reprises at different points, it possesses a gentle air about it and perfectly connects with the visual of Kong and Darrow under the moon. Then, in the chase scene, as Kong runs to save Darrow, the soundtrack features the sounds of Justice’s Genesis. The moonlight atmosphere gives way to a spot of silverback gorilla superclubbing – Eursostyle.

The music somehow suits Kong’s modern take on 1930s big band sounds, which feature sweeping equalizer FX. For Hannaford it’s a giant climb from her recent stint, in a shed in Brunswick, for Four Lark’s The Temptation Of St Antony. Chris Ryan gives a strong performance as Darrows lover Jack Driscoll. Director Daniel Kramer has taken some paid-off risks putting together a cast with varying levels of musical theatre experience. And, what emerges is a truth in performance that doesn’t employ the common fluff of musical theatre acting.

Sure, King Kong is an event, but it is also a massive achievement in puppeteering, casting and music.

Every Friday, AFTRS and ACMI hosts a program of talented producers, filmmakers and film related talent in a one-hour interview. This week it was the remarkable Fred Schepisi. An incredibly colourful career, it was an amazing opportunity for film enthusiasts and future moviemakers to either ask a question or learn from this incredible director. From international movies like Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation and Russia House to Australian classics like The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Evil Angels and the recent Eye of the Storm, the interview discussed dilemmas of pre-production to post-production and all his opinions in between. Writing for him plays a central part of the process, and after working with the likes of Tom Stoppard and Steve Martin he wants nothing more than to hear the voice of the writer in his films.

Cassandra Fumi Playing at the Regent Theatre

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

The Hayloft Project’s By Their Own Hands, an adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, is a brilliant example of theatre making from a company dedicated to finding new forms of the art. The audience is presented a stark stage with the theatre lights, power cables and stage markings glaringly obvious under the sterile houselights.

Directors, writers and performers Benedict Hardie and Anne-Louise Sarks enter, introduce themselves and invite a startled audience to come join them onstage.

They then proceed to recount the story of King Oedipus, selecting audience members to be key characters from the tale. The second act sees the audience return to the seats as the performers wordlessly re-enact key points of the plot. The third act, which seems entirely improvised, is a charming but poignant exploration of all the moments in a relationship which no one else ever witnesses. Hardie and Sarks have created an entirely unique and amazing show. The only downsides are that some lighting changes in the third act detract from the action on stage. Furthermore, the performers should compel the audience to take a more proactive role in the narrative in the collaborative sections of the piece. This show, nevertheless, should not be missed. The performances are near flawless, the story is riveting and the imagery is unforgettable.

Benjamin Meyer MTC Neon Festival to Sunday 23 June

Friday On My Mind is an incredibly underrated program running at ACMI. Quite honestly, for a free program like this it is sad to see a lack of young filmmakers there. An event with a man of this calibre should have had a full theatre, and it’s curious to consider: if it was an American director having shot something with cult status, would there be a grander presence? Perhaps this is representative of the knowledge out there on Australian film.

Matthew Ziccone ACMI every Friday night Solomon and Marion

WATCHING (MAD) MEN S6, E12 THE QUALITY OF MERCY

This Week On Mad Men: Bob Benson is out of the closet: his blue-blooded, Beloit-schooled, big-smiling ways a façade; he just another Don Draper, a hustler from the inbred boonies whose CV – whose very identity – is “written in steam”. For Pete, keeper of Don’s secrets, that means keeping Ken close, his newfound nemesis closer. Drunk Dick, dodging his about-to-combust marriage, is now wed to his job; keeping an “eye out” for SC&P by trolling Peggy-eyed Ted, his own in-office rival; daring to lecture another on thinking with their wang.

Don’s a sanctimonious “monster”, whose daughter so longs to avoid him she’s willingly going to boarding school. In oversized bow and schoolgirl plaid, SexualAwakening Sally’s still a little kid; her bad-girl façade – dialing up Creepy Glen and joint-rollin’ pal for some hazing-ritual blazing/drunk-on – not yet extending to actual casual kissin’. No-longer-fat-and-sad Betty, unlikely proud mother, offers Sally a passing-the-torch smoke.

How Big Is Thy Weiner?: In a season filled with extended Rosemary’s Baby homage, a Polanski-aping ad-spot makes it all overt.

Pete Campbell’s Punchable-Weasel-Face Watch: When Pete “nobly” takes Chevy off Ken’s hands, ol’ Mr Cooper punches him with mocking words: “crocodile tears, how quaint!”

Anthony Carew Screening every Monday night, 5.20pm and 8.30pm, on Showcase

SOLOMON AND MARION THEATRE Lara Foot’s Solomon And Marion is a story of unlikely friendship set against the violent backdrop of modern day South Africa. Marion (Gillian Jones) is a tough but familyless matriarch who sits in her decrepit family home, waiting. This waiting is interrupted by the arrival of Solomon (Pacharo Mzembe), a young man with unclear intentions. In the beginning Solomon is animalistic, gnawing on chicken feet in Marion’s lounge room. As the piece plays out, he goes through a transformation that sees him develop an air of supposed sophistication, wearing a collared shirt and even using cutlery at the play’s end. And Marion’s cultural transformation? Well, she learns to say grace in Solomon’s unidentified mother language. Solomon’s painting of the black background to Rice-Paper White, while entertaining to watch, is the extent of insight provided about South Africa’s race issues. The production’s constant but superficial references to the country’s violent past and present only distract from a story that is about the blossoming friendship of the protagonists. It is this story that makes the play worthwhile. The actors’ chemistry is wonderful to watch and leaves the audience invested in their fate. Its conclusion is heart-warming and neatly ties the piece together. The work is a tribute to the individuals rejected from their own cultures who find solace and companionship within each other.

Benjamin Meyer MTC Fairfax Studio to Saturday 20 July

m u s i c [COLUMNS COLUMNS]

THE BREAKDOWN

OG FLAVAS

WAKE THE DEAD

POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY

URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE

HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH SARAH PETCHELL

LL Cool J

Joel Madden It isn’t a requirement that one must be a regular viewer of The Voice in order to experience the symptoms of Voice Guilt. Even those for whom Channel Nine’s flagship talent show exists only in the background of generic life scenes – on magazine headlines outside newsagents or on mumbling airport televisions – can succumb to a fleeting desire to engage. “He’ll never be a pop star, not with that nose,” one might think, followed by the strange need to be immersed in a bath of spirits. Or, “She could really make it globally; just look at the way she holds a note while balancing on a rotating platform in ten-inch heels and holding a chicken between her knees.” That thought might be followed by a few minutes in which the thinker imagines a high-flying career in A&R for Universal Music before blacking out and waking several hours later under a bed amidst a mess of empty chip packets and meth pipes. Voice Guilt transpires in interesting ways, but those ways are usually related to shame and self-harm. Who are we to judge? And what are we judging anyway? What even is a Joel Madden?

Australia has a long history of turning music into a sport. The culture began way back when Rolf Harris won an egg and spoon race against Bon Scott and Ned Kelly awarded him with a record deal. As little as he’s contributed to a meaningful culture of music criticism in recent years, British music writer Everett True wrote a resonating piece about Australian music press in The Guardian in 2008: “Sport is the predominant culture here, and music is similarly viewed as a leisure activity – it’s all about ‘work rate’, ‘dedication’ and ‘goals scored’.” The editors of Australian music titles understandably threw up their arms in response, but there was something we couldn’t ignore in his harsh appraisal. We talk about punters at a gig being won over. We turn our national holiday into an all-day, bet-taking competition between the previous year’s songs and champion Australians to take out the top spot (which they usually do because we’re the ones voting).

At every level, from the dickhead on TV yelling “touchdown!” at a singer, to smiled band-room praise for leaving a pint of sweat on the stage, we have displayed or rewarded a sporting mentality to music in one way or another. Following triple j’s recent countdown of songs that have appeared in the station’s Hottest 100 countdown over the past 20 years (yes, a countdown of a countdown), a local independent label owner posted to Facebook: “Feels good to live in an alternative reality in which music isn’t sport.” That realm of reality is pretty tiny. We judge, we back winners, and because it’s the Aussie way, we often let losers hang around for quite some time out of fairness and then reward them for dues paid. The Voice? It’s our shame dressed in sequins, belting out Olivia NewtonJohn’s Xanadu. We can ignore it all we like, the judging spirit gets us in the end (and that Xanadu cover was a bit of a letdown for Team Delta).

But if Oprah and the Kardashians have taught us anything, it’s that we must air and conquer our shame. We can take ownership of this sporting mentality and see its True Worth (trademark pending). We can release our Voice Guilt. There’s an upside to judgement, to competitions and countdowns, and it’s that they cause us to consider what it is we value in music. Aside from the cynical and snarky surface appraisals, every time we point-score, we’re mentally calculating what it is we hope to hear from a piece of music and rewarding what comes closest. We’re thinking to the future, to what a musician could achieve – to what music could achieve. Sure, this could be done in an intelligent environment through reasoned criticism, but hey, whatever lets us sleep easier at night. Suck it, Madden.

Don’t call it a comeback? Bah! Daft Punk worked with not only Chic’s Nile Rodgers but also, crucially, Pharrell Williams on Random Access Memories – aka ‘Disco For Dummies’. Williams’ pop career has languished ever since his Neptunes (and N*E*R*D) partner Chad Hugo pulled back – and Kanye West emerged. His 2006 solo foray, In My Mind, faltered. But the producer/MC/ singer’s prestigious cameo on Daft Punk’s ubiquitous Get Lucky should revive his fortunes. Williams isn’t alone in reinventing himself. Glam femcee Eve just dropped Lip Lock, her first album in over a decade, while LL Cool J has returned with Authentic. Coincidentally, the canny Snoop Dogg – not Lion – shows up on both joints.

Philadelphia’s Eve Jeffers was repping for femcees way before Nicki Minaj. As Eve Of Destruction, she rapped on The Roots’ beguiling You Got Me with Erykah Badu. The former stripper signed to Dr Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, but was sidelined. Jeffers defected to Ruff Ryders, premiering with 1999’s street Let There Be Eve… Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. She reunited with Dre for her biggest hit, Let Me Blow Ya Mind, featuring Gwen Stefani – and won a Grammy.

Her career stalling with 2002’s Eve-Olution, Jeffers pursued acting roles, her most improbable film The Woodsman about a child molester. Jeffers’ fourth album was continuously bumped, prompting her to quit Interscope. In the meantime, she enjoyed an Australian number one with Guy Sebastian in Who’s That Girl.

The long wait for Lip Lock, out via Jeffers’ own fledgling imprint From The Rib, puts the delay of even Azealia Banks’ debut into perspective. Jeffers has gone EDM on her comeback, hiring largely unknown producers clearly into Major Lazer (she’s collaborated with Wolfgang Gartner in the past). Lip Lock is dominated

by bangers like Jukebox’s She Bad Bad – not far away from Banks’ intense Yung Rapunxel. Missy Elliott joins Jeffers on the dramatic Wanna Be. Snoop materialises on the repetitive Mama In The Kitchen. The incongruous Make It Out This Town (featuring Cobra Starship’s Gabe Saporta) is meant to be the monster crossover single, but it’s generic pop with guitar. (Jessie J’s US ally Claude Kelly is involved.) Jeffers, a reggae fan, ventures into dancehall with Eve. Forgive Me, helmed

by Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse), is Caribbean fusion that, while offering respite from the grinding electro-rap, is too flimsy. Angel Haze has hooked up with Canadian techno rebel Grimes. Eve would benefit from a similarly cred – and original – association.

Is LL Cool J, aka James Smith, still the ‘Greatest Of All Time’? The New York MC is following a different strategy to Eve with Authentic. Instead of modernising his steez, he’s reverted to a ‘90s epic hip hop template.

Smith was discovered as a teenager in the ‘80s

by Def Jam’s Rick Rubin, the man now executive producing Kanye West’s Yeezus. He swaggered impressively on Rock The Bells but also invented the rap ballad with I Need Love (the ‘LL’ does stand for ‘Ladies Love’). Smith responded to the gangsta-era backlash with Mama Said Knock You Out. However, he’d trail Will Smith into Hollywood. The rapper has starred in the sitcom In The House and crime series NCIS: Los Angeles, plus movies like Toys.

Smith expressed frustration at Def Jam, then under JayZ’s stewardship, for not promoting him. He farewelled them with 2008’s Exit 13. Authentic, his 13th album, is a throwback to 1997’s blockbuster Phenomenon. Smith’s lyrics aren’t so deep – 1998’s autobiography, I Make My Own Rules, is more revelatory – but the album is very musical. The smooth MC has roped in outlandish guests, from guitarist Eddie Van Halen to country rocker Brad Paisley to Earth, Wind & Fire (the retro funk Something About You (Love The World)). He’s likewise sought out ‘90s R&B/hip hop producers Trackmasters. Smith’s DJ pal Z-Trip, who led the mash-up boom, co-produces Whaddup, a rock-hop posse-cut with Chuck D, Travis Barker and Tom Morello. The obvious hit is We Came To Party with Fatman Scoop, the rowdy hypeman of Be Faithful infamy, and, yes, Snoop (who appears twice). Oh, and Seal sings huskily on Give Me Love.

ADAMANTIUM WOLF

House Vs Hurricane The first bit of news for this week is a bit of a bummer.

Last week Melbourne act House Vs Hurricane called it quits. The last couple of years have been massive for the band, with the release of their second album, Crooked Teeth, last year earning them extensive touring of both the UK and Europe. This really is a matter of ending the band on a high. The official statement from them said, “After nearly seven years as a band we, House Vs Hurricane have decided it’s time for us to move on and call it a day.

The five of us could have never imagined the amount of support we have received since our beginnings from our fans, friends, families, past members and the amazing team that has been behind us the entire way.” If you want to catch House Vs Hurricane one last time, you can see them during their tour with I Killed The Prom Queen this Friday 21 June at the Corner Hotel for an 18+ show.

Last time Rolo Tomassi were in Australia, they were part of a package tour that didn’t quite (I feel) display how truly amazing this band is. Now, heading to Australia for their first headlining tour and playing venues more appropriate to their style, the English act are set to really show their Australian fans exactly why they’re one of the most exciting bands out right now. Armed with an album released late last year, Astraea, these intimate shows will also feature Totally Unicorn (I wonder what Rolo will think of Drew in his underwear?) and Brisbane’s Stockades. You can catch the tour when it hits Melbourne Friday 27 September at the Reverence Hotel for an 18+ show, and then Sunday 29 September at Wrangler Studios for an all ages show. Tickets go on sale on 1 July.

Another big announcement from last week is that Bring Me The Horizon will be the second English visitors to Australia this October, doing a headlining tour in support of their excellent new album, Sempiternal (Sand Pit Turtle?). Touring with them will be Of Mice & Men and Japan’s Crossfaith. You can catch the tour when it hits Festival Hall in Melbourne for a massive show on Wednesday 9 October. Tickets are on sale now.

METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT

And while we’re on the topic of tours, Anberlin are also heading back to Australia, this time to celebrate their tenth anniversary with some news songs, as well as some classics. This band is still one of my favourite live bands, and with a supporting line-up of The Maine and William Beckett, these shows should be a lot of fun. You can catch the tour on Sunday 8 September when it rolls into The Palace in Melbourne for an 18+ show. Tickets are on sale now.

Karnivool Municipal Waste are gonna fuck you up! Don’t miss the US thrash takeover. Catch them this Wednesday 19 June at the Bendigo Hotel with Metalstorm, Party Vibez and Join The Amish, and again on Sunday 23 June at the Corner with New Zealand’s Shitripper, Extortion and Sewercide.

Speaking of Sewercide, the local death/thrashers have just released a new track. It’s their first with new vocalist Harry Watson, formerly of Queensland metallic hardcore group Acid Snake. Titled Vector Of Disease, the track is currently available from sewercide.bandcamp. com, and is set to see a physical release on a split 7” with likeminded US band, Casket, later this year.

Western Australia’s prog rock/metal masters Karnivool are ramping it up off the back of their forthcoming third album, which was recently revealed to be titled Asymmetry. The band has released a new video/song by the name of We Are, and will release the album on Friday 19 July. With Sydney metalcore sensations Northlane supporting on all dates, you can catch them at Town Hall on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 August.

Every Time I Die have made no secret of their love for Down Under and will be back in October to follow up on their Big Day Out appearance earlier this year. The tour will arrive at the Corner on Sunday 20 October. The band’s sixth album of Southern-styled metalcore, Ex Lives, was released last year. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.

Thy Art Is Murder will support Parkway Drive at the Palace on Friday 20 September (sold out) and Saturday September 21 (under 18s). Confession will also support on Saturday 21 September, and Sunday 22, for which one more act is yet to be announced.

The Schoenberg Automaton have unveiled the disturbing new video for their single, A Stone Face Of Piety, taken from the Brisbane band’s debut album, Vela. Directed by their former vocalist Colin Cadell, you can check it out over at YouTube.

The massive Evil Invaders festival, a once annual occurrence of death, black, thrash, doom and sludge metal in the town of Sydney, will reportedly be no more.

A Facebook posting from promoter Hushy, overlord of underground metal label The Coffins Slave, reveals that he cannot afford to keep it up and running, and that Evil Invaders IV, which took place on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 June, was the last. An excerpt from his statement reads that “although everything from the outside might have looked sweet as, from the inside it’s a rotting corpse.

These shows are supposed to grow in size! Not get smaller. This year was the biggest one we have done so far and much to our surprise once again we have been left in the red, even with three international bands. We needed many more heads to cover our costs! But once again, as the piggy bank of this fest I’m left in the red but this time it’s worse, I have to move my business back home and re-arrange everything from scratch... when it gets to this stage there’s no turning back!”

The second announcement has come through for the Hit And Pits Festival 2.0 happening this November. Joining Boysetsfire, No Fun At All, Jughead’s Revenge and Off With Their Heads will be Bad Astronaut, Snuff and The Ataris (watch as I have San Dimas High School Football Rules; in my head for the rest of the day...). Round one of this festival earlier this year was a load of fun, so I recommend getting your tickets ASAP as this round is shaping up to be even better. Tickets are on sale now for when the festival hits Melbourne on Friday 22 November at the Palace Theatre. And apparently there are still more line-up announcements to come, so stay tuned!

New music is coming out of the No Sleep Records stable, with indie-punk band Mixtapes getting set to release their second album on Tuesday 25 June. Called Ordinary Silence, it follows up a busy year for the band, who released their debut record almost a year ago. Since then they’ve built a solid fanbase and are seeking to expand that further with their solid follow-up.

If you’re a fan of bands like Fireworks, Candy Hearts or The Wonder Years, this is definitely a band for you.

Recent visitors to Australia, Norma Jean have announced the details of what will be their sixth album. Called Wrongdoers, the album will be released in the US on Saturday 6 August through Razor And Tie Records.

The album features 11 tracks, three new members and the tracklisting and album art are online now if you want to check it out. I really like the album art, as it seems like a throwback to the art of some of their earlier albums (particularly my favourite, Redeemer).

Stay tuned for more details, and the possibility of an early release track in the next month or so.

For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog • 31

[COLUMNS COLUMNS] m u s i c ROOTS DOWN

INTELLIGIBLE FLOW

DANCE MOVES

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

HIP HOP NEWS & COMMENTARY WITH ALEKSIA BARRON

NEW CURRENTS WITH TIM FINNEY

October at the Kevin Bartlett Sports Complex. Visit sprunghiphop.com.au for ticketing information.

Here’s some good stuff – the local maestro Remi has just dropped a free mixtape for your aural pleasure.

It’s called FYG Act:1, and is the first in his FYG series (which apparently stands for F**k Your Genre, and stands as a nice reminder that hip hop is not the be all and end all of musical enjoyment). It features the much-adored track Sangria, which triple j can’t seem to get enough of at the moment, as well as an appearance from Hau and production chiefly handled

by Sensible J, plus mixing and mastering from Dutch. This goodness is available as a free download from remi1.bandcamp.com, so get amongst it.

ZZ Top A couple of big – and somewhat related – festival announcements have been coming through the last few weeks, dropping some exciting international artists on our doorstep.

First of all, the first part of the Caloundra Music Festival bill was announced with the likes of Boy & Bear (whose new single is actually pretty great if you’re into cruisy west coast pop), Xavier Rudd, Donavon Frankenreiter, The Basics and Blue King Brown catering to the younger set. There’s a fair amount of vintage Aussie blues and rock action with the likes of Russell Morris, The Screaming Jets and a Time Of Our Lives revue kind of show, that will feature the likes of Joe Camilleri, James Reyne, Ross Wilson and Daryl Braithwaite playing their finest hits.

But we haven’t even started on the international acts, and they’re pretty tasty for fans of somewhat under-the-radar blues, soul and funk. Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk make their first ever visit to Australia to play the festival, alongside The Holmes Brothers, who had already announced they’d be at the Great Southern Blues festival and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, a group who will surely provide the most uplifting performances of the festival. More acts are set to be announced Thursday, so keep your eyes on theMusic.com.au and in this paper for that info as it comes to hand.

Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk have also been announced for the Narooma Great Southern Blues Festival while they are out here, which will make plenty of people very happy, and that bill has swollen even further with the announcement of the likes of Pete Cornelius & The Original Devilles (for their first show together in almost 15 years), The Continental Blues Party and very young up-and-coming indie pop leaning group (and Michael Chugg favourites) Lime Cordiale.

Remi Well, the Sprung line-up is out, and while it’ll certainly bring in the punters, it absolutely reeks of eau de missed opportunity. The three big headliners will be 360, Drapht and Seth Sentry, which should bring in pretty much every hip hop fan aged under 20 in both Brisbane and Melbourne, and the rest of the line-up is similarly predictable. That’s not to say it’s bad, in and of itself – just predictable. After all, Funkoars never met a big bill they didn’t like, Urthboy and Horrorshow are pretty crowd-friendly and regular appearances on even more mainstream festival bills, and Thundamentals are a pretty safe mid-bill bet too. It’s good to see that the likes of Lazy Grey, Brad Strut, Crate Cartel and Dialectrix made the bill, but overall, the line-up seems very, very safe. With only a couple of exceptions, there aren’t many people on it you could describe as ‘underground’, and the hard-hitting style of the Broken Tooth Entertainment crew would have been a nice addition to break up the more pop-leaning styles of most of the acts. It’ll pack the fans in, sure, but this year’s Sprung seems set to be a celebration of a very particular radio-friendly style of hip hop, as opposed to a celebration of everything the Australian scene has to offer. For those who are keen, it’s happening in Melbourne on Saturday 19

As far as forthcoming releases go, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is very much looking forward to getting to hear the new LP from the stunning Neko Case. After the sheer brilliance (and much deserved commercial success) of her most recent LP, 2009’s Middle Cyclone, she has managed to amass quite an incredible fan base and it’s looking like the release of her next record, which will be her sixth, could see her putting her music to more people than ever before. The album is called – wait for it – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, and it will be released through Anti-/Warner on Friday 6 September.

You can hear the first single from it, Man, online now.

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

If you haven’t heard Bitter Belief’s new single Mr Big Man, make sure you check it out. The Perth MC does a good job taking on the topic of young, drunk guys who find themselves all revved up with no place to go. The brassy beat and cuts are courtesy of Bitter’s frequent collaborator Rob Shaker, and the whole thing just smacks of Syllabolix goodness. You can watch the Mr Big Man video clip at bit.ly/11LDWL1.

Oh, and save the date – the 2013 Robert Hunter Cup will take place on Sunday 6 October at Victoria Park, and it’s been announced that there will be another All Stars gig the night before, on Saturday 5 October.

Last year’s game was pretty much the highlight of the hip hop year, and with any luck this year will build on that promising foundation. Go Warriors.

THE GET DOWN FUNKY SHIT WITH OBLIVEUS

On top of this, the Brisbane Festival has confirmed it will bring the mighty Tucson Western-noir group Calexico back to Australia this September, with performances from the likes of Russell Morris, Australian and Timor-Leste collaboration Doku Rai Band and indigenous country master Roger Knox.

Brisbane is beautiful in spring, but if you’re not able to be at the Brisbane Festival there will no doubt be other dates announced soon enough.

The mighty ZZ Top were recently in Australia (my dislike of Guns N’ Roses and the fact they weren’t playing any other shows in my area meant I missed them) and given the quality of their most recent LP La Futura, I was pretty bummed about that. There has been some more good news coming from the ZZ Top camp of late though, with the band announcing their first ten LPs will be remastered and re-released on CD and iTunes (why they don’t do it on vinyl is mindboggling, but there you go). Considering these first records are ZZ Top’s First Album (1971), Rio Grande Mud (1972), Tres Hombres (1973), Fandango! (1975), Tejas (1976), Degüello (1979), El Loco (1981), Eliminator (1983), Afterburner (1985) and Recycler (1990), there’s a whole lot of good time bluesy boogie rock’n’roll to sink your teeth into with these reissues. They were re-released on Friday just passed through Warner, and the ten CD pack sits at around the $60 price point.

The year’s award for cutest release artwork might just get snaffled up by Grey Ghost. He’s released the cover image for his Elixir EP and it’s awesome – he’s depicted in the style of Tintin (even his fearsome dreadlocks have submitted to this artistic treatment).

There’s little doubt that the EP itself will be as quirky, clever and impressive as its artwork, so get excited.

The Elixir EP drops on Friday 21 June, so make sure you grab yourself a copy. Plus, the launch is happening on Saturday 20 July at the Evelyn Hotel, with support provided by Joelistics and Dylan Joel (sadly, Billy Joel and Joel Edgerton declined their invitations to round out this awesomely repetitive bill). Tickets for the gig are available from Moshtix.

Fat Freddy’s Drop Happy winter and chilled vibes everyone and what better way to celebrate the coldest months of the year than to focus a good chunk of this month’s column on the brilliant sounds of reggae. It’s probably because it’s beyond cold up in my crib, but I’m absolutely warming up in roots heaven at the moment with the announcement of another visit from Fat Freddy’s Drop in August.

Melbourne is already setting up for what these Kiwis will bring and I’ve been grasping my ticket in anticipation ever since it was announced. Even though their new album, Blackbird, keeps getting pushed back, first single, Silver And Gold, has been on heavy rotation in plenty of my sets and from what I’ve heard from ‘leaked’ sources, it’s a guarantee that this will be the album of the year and your next summer is already sorted.

It officially comes out on Friday 21 June, so fingers crossed they stay true to their word and deliver another smooth reggae, dubby ride through electronic waters.

Also hotter than an oven is Resonators’ album, The Constant, released late last year through the mighty Wah Wah 45s label. Having firmly entrenched themselves into the Brighton and London dub scenes and shared stages with the likes of Horace Andy, Freddy’s and Mad Professor, these cats give new meaning to the words ‘bass culture’. Sticking strictly to the roots vibes and with catchy vocals supplied by dual vocalists, Kassia Zermon and Faye Houston, this album literally fell through the cracks and should have had way more of a push ‘round these parts, especially as they released about five 45s leading up to the full-length. Well, no time for brooding about so just do yourself a favour and get on this either digitally, on vinyl or CD. My money’s on Try Again for that ultimate good vibe, party feel

but the whole album flows from start to finish and is that good! Moving slightly off centre, we come to My Therapist and his Soundcloud edits. I’ve been rocking his takes on hip hop for the past few months and his blend of a DJ Lowe1 & Willie C’s instrumental with I Shall Proceed by Red Cloud is a stomper. This dude can do no wrong as he effortlessly blends the big beats with big rhymes and if Golden Era hip hop is your cup of tea, you should find him for some free downloads.

While you’re there and since we’re on the topic, have a swing by New Zealander DJ Lowe1’s page for that perfect blend of reggae and hip hop. Try not to nod the head and posture to his blends of classics by Gang Starr, Bounty Hunter, Biggie and Cutty Ranks, but it’s his new re-work of the Richie Spice monster, Youths Dem Cold, that’s gone straight to the top of the heap with the reverb turned way up. Of course, Richie took his riddum from Johnny Osbourne’s all-time classic, Truth & Rights, and, in a bastardised way that makes you love modern technology, I have the Al Fingers remix using the same riddum on 45 from a few years back that takes Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin On far off into the dubby sunset. Don’t you just love it when full circles come correct? While we’re on the subject of Al Fingers, this London DJ/producer has a website you all need to check quickly, because his free downloads are the biz. His Erykah Badu touch up of On & On is primo, but don’t get me started on what he does with India Arie’s Brown Skin and let’s just say Lionel Richie can now be forgiven for what he’s done to the world because the Pass Out Remix of Easy is all up in this place. Those barely scratch the surface of what’s on offer from his site and with those last words, I’m out of here.

Maxmillion Dunbar While listening to Omar-S’ (excellent) recent podcast for XLR8R magazine, I was struck by the realisation that this DJ mix could easily be the work not of a true school Detroit techno believer (which Omar-S undeniably is) but some fashionable new jack from Brooklyn. Which is not a criticism, for the reverse is also true – increasingly, the USA’s next-gen hipster techno scene is producing material that could have come from techno’s underrated stalwart working class heroes.

Like the collapse of the space between past and present – the preponderance of 2013 records that literally sound like they could have been made in 1981 or 1992 or 1999 – this increasing alignment between the authentic underground and the hipster underground is a particularly now-ish, post-post-modern phenomenon: a consequence of everyone knowing and reaching for all available reference points regardless of tribal loyalties.

And while the obsessive-compulsive fanboy-or-girl might be able to point to subtly different resonances at work when Omar-S drops some Hi-NRG dancepop amidst stentorian Detroit techno as compared to when some 20-year old fashion photographer does the same thing, to the less encyclopaedic listener such distinctions may seem more than a bit pedantic.

All of which is a bad thing if you want your taste in music to be about something – be it hedonism, glamour or revolution – and a good thing if you just want more great music in every possible derivation. I was thinking about this new context of meaningless abundance while listening to American Noise, the fascinating and rather exhausting two-disc compilation put out by hip New York techno label Long Island Electrical Systems (or ‘L.I.E.S.’) about six months ago. An excellent survey of the label’s output since 2010, American Noise specialises in abstracted droney machine loop techno, but manages to fit all manner of different images into this vague frame, from mysterious electro-jazz recalling the eighties work of Jon Hassell (Servant Garden’s Jahiliyya Fields) to serene deep house (Marcos Cabral’s 24 Hour Flight) to cubist avant-funk (Bookworms’ African Rhythms). But L.I.E.S. can do ‘focused’ as well: recent 12”s from Steve Summers, Svengalisghost and Delroy Edwards seem to plunge ever further into the hinterlands of unwelcoming acidic techno anonymity.

In recent history, US hipster takes on dance music have tended to focus on pop-culture referencing as much as sonic fetishes – think of the work of Italo-revivalist label Italians Do It Better, with its bevy of would-be pop outfits like Glass Candy and Desire. By comparison, L.I.E.S. can seem quite anti-image in its preference for long, instrumental drones and love of uncompromising techno primitivism. But in truth these distinctions exist on a spectrum rather than in binary opposition: somewhere in between IDIB and L.I.E.S. you’ll find the image-meets-static interzone of 100% Silk, the dance sub-label of underground-noise-pop masthead Not Not Fun, where acts like Maria Minerva and Pharaohs seem to oscillate between dazzle and drone, charisma and confusion. In rock terms, perhaps the best analogy for this environment is Stereolab: heavily invested both in presentation and process, entranced with the styles of yesteryear yet curiously detached from their concrete social contexts and meanings. And, like Stereolab, it’s all ripe for serious collector fetishism.

This can all seem a bit forbidding (and, if trying to follow in real time via vinyl purchases, expensive) for the uninitiated listener, but as a first taste you could do a lot worse than pick up House Of Woo, the latest album from L.I.E.S. soldier Maxmillion Dunbar. House of Woo takes L.I.E.S.’ abstracted revivalist techno and drone obsessions and twists them into surprisingly congenial shapes: Slave To The Vibe is classicist Derrick May techno infused with soothing new age pipes and synth chords; Woo is gorgeously fluttery, stuttery tech-house; Inca Tags is marvellous percussive ambient recalling both early Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada’s Geogaddi. As with Actress’ R.I.P. last year, House of Woo reminds that ‘serious’ techno need not be difficult or obscure, but if you enjoy it enough you’ll probably be open to L.I.E.S.’ more bracing charms.

arts

[COLUMNS COLUMNS]

GOOD TIMING

CULTURAL CRINGE

A COMICS GUIDE TO COMEDY WITH KIRSTEN LAW

ARTS NEWS WITH REBECCA COOK

Bendle There’s a little bit of buzz around town at the moment – and I’m not talking about the Prancercise™ ankle weights everyone’s queuing up to buy. In recent weeks, heapsa brand new comedy rooms have emerged from the proverbial soil, like proverbial daisies pushed up by… Ween. Or rather, by eager (read ‘insane’) entrepreneurial comedians.

One such comic is Bendle, who has birthed a fledgling comedy room at the Clyde Hotel (the one near Melbourne Uni). The Carlton Comedy Club’s raison d’etre is to give comics-in-training a new place to practice their material and have extra time on stage. “Our approach is to have five-minute acts and two headline acts with ten-minute spots at the end of each bracket,” Bendle explains. “Most places only do five-to-six minute spots for comics starting out, so they don’t necessarily get much chance to do longer spots.” How do audiences react to inexperienced folk given such liberties with raw, untested material? If you were thinking with scorn and derision, you were wrong! According to Bendle, when the first Carlton Comedy Club evening happened last month, the audience laughed, was attentive and “stayed, without the use of restraints or threat of physical harm”. Excellent. Don’t let the kids from the nearby colleges reap all the benefits of the Clyde’s plush refurbishment – comedy fans also deserve a touch of luxury! Rumour has it there might even be “tapestries on the wall and fake plants in the bathrooms”.

Southside readers and very eager north-, west- and east-siders, will be familiar with the talented snowflakes at Commedia Dell Parte, a by-donation room at St Kilda’s George Lane Bar, serving Melbourne’s comedy community since 2011. Well, guess what? North-siders no longer have to negotiate the horrors of Punt Road to get the C-Dell-P experience, because there’s a brand new

Commedia Dell Parte room in Collingwood! Sean Ryan, who co-runs said expanding empire, says that when C-Dell-P started, “the goal was to expand it out to multiple rooms and one off events. In winter, St Kilda can get a little quiet.” Once the Parte crew saw the downstairs space at Agent 284 (on Smith Street), everything fell into place. “We knew that it would be a fantastic comedy venue,” says Sean. The programming at Agent 284 is slightly different, because there’s a $10 entry fee, which means that the acts are already established comics and each show has a “feature comic” and a headliner. Has the more structured event drawn a different crowd? “We have noticed some small differences in the audience,” Sean says. “Like, a lot more audience members in suits than in St Kilda. Also, no-one has tried to bring their dog to the show yet.” May I volunteer to be the first? What north-side bar is complete without a resident mutt?

So there you have it – two exciting new rooms to explore, or, perhaps even try to get on the bill of! With even more coverage of new rooms coming up in this space, Melbourne’s comedy scene is looking pretty… pretty… pretty… pretty… pretty good. “The success of the MICF helps explain why punters are up for seeing some comedy,” Bendle says. “I think venues are also keen to do something different on a weeknight.”

Unsurprisingly, though, the driving force behind the rooms is the comedians themselves. “There is lots of demand to start rooms so that they and their friends can practice the craft.” A variety of new venues, with their associated new audiences also allow emerging trends to flourish. Sean says he’s noticed “more awkward comic characters” and “a drive towards personal narrative shows and taboo subjects”. My favourite!

Also, Yawp mag is now online! Wooppeeee! Yawp it up, my friends! My pick of articles in the current issue: Luke McGregor, Welcome to Success Town!

One day, I imagine someone will write a similar headline about me. All I ask is that it doesn’t read: Kirsten Law, Welcome to Snowtown!

The Carlton Comedy Club is held on the third Tuesday of every month at the Clyde Hotel, Carlton.

Commedia Dell Parte is held on Thursdays at Agent 284, Collingwood.

I’m So Excited!

Didn’t win tickets to Dark MOFO at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tassie that kicked off last week? Wish you were there? Never fear, because I plan to recreate the experience here in Melbourne – well, sort of and not quite as conveniently. Running until after the winter solstice (Sunday 23 June), Dark MOFO aims to celebrate the dark through large-scale public art, food, music, light and noise. Creative Director Leigh Carmichael says the ten-day program “will delve into the centuries-old rituals and mythologies that have been arising in response to the winter solstice since Neolithic times”. While MONA director, David Walsh, seems particularly interested in using the opportunity to reach out to extraterrestrial life. “Our first MOFO was four-and-a-half years ago. That means that the waves of aural annihilation (modulated on the E-M spectrum, of course) are just now reaching Alpha Centauri, the second-nearest planetary system.

So if any of the planets orbiting Alpha Centauri are inhabited it’s reasonable to assume the LGM (Little Green Men) are winging their way Earthwards by now (actually they won’t be needing wings), giddy with excitement at the magnitude of our achievement.”

The festival opened with a light projection work titled Spectra by artist Ryoji Ikeda that created a tower of white light reaching 15 kilometres above the Hobart sky.

“Whether the alien invaders will interpret the withering light-storm that is Ryoji Ikeda’s Spectra as an exuberant way finder or an open act of war – when their craft encounters this in about two-and-a-half years – is open to conjecture,” says Walsh in the MOFO program.

Now, while Kym Ortenburg from the Gertrude Street Projection Festival (Friday 19 to Sunday 28 July) isn’t expecting aliens, the Fest does provide that winter lights experience closer to home as electric colour is splashed across Fitzroy’s trendiest street for ten nights.

“No, we probably won’t be attracting aliens,” Ortenburg says, “just heaps of people having a great time – all rugged up and enjoying the free illuminations along the street. After the success of White Night and many of the projections around Melbourne we think people have well and truly embraced projections.” Although perhaps extra-terrestrials will be attracted by one of the feature works. Nick Azidis’ projection will pump a rainbow of colour across the 14 floors of the Atherton Gardens housing estate. If they do come, they will have plenty to entertain them; this year the Fest includes some new elements including a festival hub with bands, DJs, workshops and panel discussions. Another aspect of the Dark MOFO program is the mini film fest of Scandinavian flicks curated by former Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) director, James Hewison.

You can of course get your alternate fill of noir-ish international celluloid at this year’s MIFF – although opening night this year seems to be less about people hanging from meat hooks (which seems to be a predominant theme in the MOFO program) and more about having an outrageously good time with the Australian premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s airborne comedy, I’m So Excited! (Los Amantes Pasajeros!). The film tells the story of a Mexico-bound flight that runs into trouble when its landing gear malfunctions and is put in a holding pattern. On board, the flamboyant cabin crew deal with the situation by drugging economy class to sleep and breaking out the tequila and mescaline in business class, where the passengers include a virgin psychic, a dominatrix, a soap star and a corrupt banker.

Tickets for opening night, which is usually one of the best nights of the Melbourne arts calendar, are now on sale. Now while it’s possible to replace the MOFO visual arts events with a visit to the NGV’s winter masterpiece exhibition – and some of the music acts such as You Am I are also playing Melbourne gigs – I do wonder about replicating the nude solstice swim.

Anyone keen? It will be warmer than Tassie at least.

For more opinion go to themusic.com.au/blog • 33

[THE GUID IDE] PRIMITIVE GOD What happens when Link McLennan and Lochie Cavigan from Bakelite Age join forces and take the best elements from ‘60s/’70s heavy rock and roll and fuse them into heavy garage psych? Introducing Sun God Replica. The three-piece released recently their sophomore album The Devil And The Deep.

With support from Drifter and Leopard Slug, they will be playing at the Prince Public Bar this Friday.

GRUNGE GOES BLACK Dear Stalker will be digging out their dirtiest, darkest riffs for Grunge Goes Goth at DV8, an event celebrating the grunge sound and sentiment with a gothic twist. Opening the night will be female grunge outfit Sub Rosa, making their live debut, while headliner Michael Yule will be unleashing his ferocious new live band. With each band planning something extra special, this promises to be a memorable night of fiercely sludgy goodness. See grunge go black for one night only this Saturday night.

GIG OF THE WEEK

FEEL SO STILLSONS MONO Sunday, Hi-Fi Finally, Australia’s little under-dwelling island has given back to its mainland cousins. Tasmania’s Dark Mofo Festival has drawn the legendary Mono back to Australian shores. The Japanese quartet will appear in Melbourne this Sunday for a little end-of-week instrumental experimentation. Their set will be heavy on material from their latest studio album For My Parents, which continues to push boundaries and bend expectations. The legendary intensity of Mono’s live performances and the inclusion of The Dirty Three’s Mick Turner as the opening act is sure to make this an extraordinary night.

Melbourne band The Stillsons will launch their effervescent second single Feel So Young at the Grace Darling this Friday. They have teamed up with the up-and-coming all female folk group Ravenswood, and the electrifying Rich Davies & The Devils Union for the show. Feel So Young is a highly charged track of lost innocence, that taps into the energy and grit of 1970s super group Fleetwood Mac.

MASCULINE GNASHERS Mantooth Music is presenting the Psychedelic Rock’n’Roll Surf Party Caftan Hoedown as part of the Leaps And Bounds Music Festival. The Mantooth artist roster will be lured to the Tote on Sunday 7 July with The Toot Toot Toots, Immigrant Union, Ali E and The Once Overs all performing. There will be guest DJs, a gourmet barbie and complimentary caftans for the first to arrive (limited to how many we can find for free).

There is also discounted entry for caftan wearers.

SHIT DEFECT Six-piece, Auckland hardcore punk band Shitripper have been playing their brand of fast, angry, straightto-the-point music ever since 2007 and have a new release out, titled Brain Defect. They’re out to Australia for the first time and playing the Public Bar this Friday with Hailgun and Counterattack and then the Old Bar on Saturday with Batpiss, Cuntz and Clowns.

FRONTLASH ALWAYS INDIGO The Black Angels at the Palace had us tripping out and hearing all sorts of colours. Expect this one to be in a few End Of Year lists.

SOLO TWISTER

FLAT MATES

BRING BACK THE BONERS Fronting B# Big Band at the King Kong afterparty, Eugene Hamilton’s suave moves and velvety croon had us all a-flutter. And now we’ve sussed he used to front Stone Cold Boners!

Now that’s a reunion tour we’d froth over.

This year has had its ups and downs for Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats. Now, with a solidified line-up, a whole gang of tunes and their sound finetuned, they are taking over the Old Bar every Sunday in June. This week they are supported by Eaten By Dogs and Winston, who will be launching their EP.

CLAP YOUR HANDS

BERK, FEED ME

When Sia was deemed Songwriter Of The Year at the 2013 APRA Music Awards the other night, the atmosphere in the room proved her a very popular winner. And so she should be confident in her abilities, stating during her pre-recorded acceptance speech: “It’s what I got when god was handing out things”.

This Thursday at the Old Bar will play host to a magical night of punk and partying as headline band Feed My Frankenstein pack up their gear and take a few months off before releasing their debut EP later this year. To help celebrate the occasion punk’n’roll friends As A Rival will come along and show you how to move, along with heavy-grunge heavyweights Euphoria and fun-punk pals Lizard Punch.

LIGHT NOTHING House Of Light were once an underground band from Berlin, although none of the members come from Germany, who now reside in Australia. With roots in new wave, ‘80s and psychedelic music, they will bring their dark and melodic music to Tago Mago this Thursday with support from Nothing Final.

Sia

BACKLASH CAPTAIN SNOOZE People who fall asleep in cinemas and snore. Especially when it’s during Spring Breakers! #needyourheadread.

DESPERATE MEASURES So there used to be loads of articles that listed Eight Ways To Make A Man Love You, but now suddenly this has been condensed to three. Here’s a tip for ya: stop writing such gender-specific articles and turning the tragic desperados who read such things into delusional stalkers.

YOU’RE NOT THE VOICE Some over-styled guy won The Voice and we don’t care. Delta still moves like a half-paralysed Oompa Loompa and we don’t care. Joel Madden threatens to leave Australia – we do care... how fast can he pack?

DANCE’N’ROMANCE Introducing Fire & Theft, who are made with the double cream of Circus Oz, Checkerboard Lounge and Prayerbabies and a dash of sweetened condensed milk. Just be prepared to release your inner swing burglar at Tago Mago this Friday.

CONTRARY AND WESTERN If you’re not a fan of country music, then Prayerbabies are the band for you. With their four-part lemon butter harmonies, guitars, slide, fiddle, bullfiddle and drums for gospel as well as a little Latin and even a bit of Bolero on banjo – this band is more Contrary and Western than they are good old-fashioned country and western. Check ‘em out at Tago Mago this Saturday.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE There’s a triple treat of The Whorls, Local Group and Laurence Szucs on at Tago Mago.

Starting at the civilised hour of 5pm, the music will begin at a whisper and end with a scream.

Szucs will deliver his cutting lyricism and song writing prowess, not before you witness relative newcomers Local Group who possess a live show to be rivalled ending with the customary ragged glory of The Whorls. It all goes down this Sunday.

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

MOONLIT CHILDREN Melbourne based four-piece Shoot The Sun are launching their second single Second Hand People this Saturday at Rochester Castle’s Black Night Crash. With this release they bring feelings of wretchedness to the table, laying bare all of their foibles and exposing a thought bubble of mixed emotions with every chord of dream-like fuzz oozing from their guitars. Supports on the night come from Lunars and The Battery Kids.

HOT DANCE Come and swing the night away this Saturday at the Wesley Anne with two of Melbourne’s hottest, jazziest, swingin’-est outfits. Projeto Inesperado Big Band, an authentic nine-piece samba band, present a samba extravaganza. They are joined by The Furbelows.

Chris Wilson has been an essential part of blues and rock music scene in Australia since taking the stage with the Sole Twisters over 20 years ago.

Stints with Harum Scarum and Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls followed, and by the end of the ‘80s Wilson was renowned as one of our finest vocalists, harmonica players and songwriters. Catch Chris Wilson this Saturday at the Drunken Poet from 9pm.

BY THE COLLARD Ian Collard is a name that needs no introduction to blues fans in this country. Providing the voice and harp to much loved trio Collard, Greens & Gravy (amongst various other outfits), Collard combines the spirit of the Delta with the of sounds of country blues, creating a mood of menace and desire. There are a lot of blues players around, but very few that combine vocal, harp and guitar like Ian Collard. He is playing at the Drunken Poet this Sunday from 4pm.

QUIGLEY’S LAMENT Fresh from her appearance on Australia’s most popular vocal talent show, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Marisa Quigley is gearing up for the release of her latest EP, Gypsy’s Lament. The launch will take place at the Spotted Mallard this Saturday with support from Sarah Carnegie, Alie Penney and Wayne Jury.

LIGHTS OUT Lights On At Heathrow draw on a range of punk, country and blues influences. At the Bendigo Hotel this Saturday, the original LOAH line-up playing one final show to farewell Todd and Liv as they set off on a new adventure. Support comes from the Maricopa Wells, Lunarie and Stowers.

SUNDAY CHAIRS THIS SUNDAY The kind folk at Man With A Van have again united the clans and put together a line up of talented folk for your listening pleasure this Sunday at the Bendigo Hotel. A few of the lads playing on the day include Sunday Chairs, Sherrif, North Meets South and 19th Century Strongmen. Entry’s free.

GOLDEN MONEY Cash For Gold is a collaboration between singer Jack Weaving and producer Stephen Mowat (Matik), who met at a festival when playing in their previous bands. Supported by Johnny McKay’s (Children Collide) side project Fascinator, they will be playing the Prince Public Bar this Saturday.

DREAMS OF JAMAICA Nicky Bomba and the alliance of musical mad men form Bustamento, a tropical shaking sixpiece that pays homage to the upbeat rhythms of the Caribbean, covering the calypso, mento, early reggae and ska styles. They’re known for crowd interaction and having the dance floor jumping at all times. Their Livin’ The Dream Tour hits the Northcote Social Club this Sunday afternoon for two sets with Kilmarnock Steve playing between sets.

CONTENT MEN The Wikimen always find 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 will set up shop at the Spotted Mallard throughout the months of June and July, these free entry shows will occur every Sunday from 4pm. And to celebrate their return the Mallard kitchen is serving up a succulent Sunday roast with all the trimmings.

indie news QUEEN KAHLO

Speed Orange will collaborate with Melbourne artist Matiszig to launch I Never Asked To Be God as a special edition 10” vinyl single, with an extremely limited run of just ten 10” vinyl singles, each with their own hand painted artwork. The one-off event at the Empress this Friday will also feature Roostar and Navaja Negra.

Frida was formed on a whim, but don’t worry, this lady can sing. Backed by a bunch of blokes in shiny shoes and ‘70s suits, Frida’s all about soaring melodies and harmonies that hug, all tightly wound around the funkiest rhythm section known to indie pop. The band play their only headline gig in Melbourne at the Evelyn this Thursday with The McQueens, Farrow and Rouge Wavs.

KEEPING IT REAL Marcus Sturrock lets his performance and passion speak for themselves. He’s played and jammed with artists like Tony McManus, Darryl Braithwaite and Angry Anderson amongst others. He brings his authentic guitar playing prowess to the Empress this Saturday from 3pm.

LURCH & CHIEF Single title?

Josh Lane, bassist: We Are The Same.

What’s the song about?

It’s about ups and downs, smiles and frowns. Everyone makes bad decisions, and then you fix them.

How long did it take to write/record?

We got the skeleton of the song together in a couple of hours. Once in the studio we changed tweaked some things and added some elements, but it still only took one session to record.

Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release?

It’s from our new EP, Wiped Out, which will be released on Monday 12 August.

What was inspiring you during the songs writing and recording?

Everything! We had this period of a few months when everybody was listening to something different, and every time we met up we would write a couple of new songs, all in different styles.

We’ll like this song if we like...

A large variety of ideas and sounds meshed together in the one track.

Do you play it differently live?

Not too differently. There are a couple of small percussion things that we can’t really do live, but the all of the main aspects stay pretty much the same.

HAVE YOU HEARD

THERE’S A STORM BREWING Totally Unicorn (NSW) and Robotosaurus (SA) storm into Melbourne with their upcoming split Together Alone.

You can expect a tour full of debauchery, drinking and nudity in excess as these two five-piece acts that have been long time friends once again share the stage.

Catch all the mayhem at the Reverence this Saturday.

PUNK ROCK AS IT SHOULD BE Remember how punk rock used to be? It was about having something important to say. Let The Choice Of Thieves, who have changed their sound, remind you.

The former local hero will be joined by Dangerous John and Don’t Get Lost. It’s a night of punk rock, the way it’s supposed to be at Bar Open this Thursday from 9pm.

BON VOYAGE Say farewell to The Imprints and 8Foot Felix before both leave our shores to tour abroad in the UK and Europe in July and August, playing at numerous festivals.

Send them off in style at Bar Open this Friday.

How did you get together?

Lachlan Avis, guitarist: Jordan (drums) and Nicole (clean vocals/guitar) started performing together in high school. Troy (vocals) then joined, followed by [me], who they met through playing shows. Finally we welcomed Nigel (bass), another local musician!

Sum up your musical sound in four words?

Energetic, fun, suave, polished.

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be?

Despite other thoughts, Bring Me The Horizon are a professional band that market themselves exceptionally well and cannot be stopped!

You’re being sent into space, no iPod, you can bring one album – what would it be?

If it were today, I’m sure that we would all agree to take Bring Me The Horizon’s Sempiternal as we’re all still jamming that piece of brilliance.

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date?

Playing a local battle of the bands to a packed out hall where 95% of the kids that had never seen us before went absolutely nuts!

Why should people come and see your band?

Support local music. We’re something different and always playing shows with friends around Melbourne and legends from interstate!

When and where for your next gig?

This Saturday 22 June at Musicland in Fawkner with Aveira Skies (WA), and our friends I See The End. Website link for more info? facebook.com/thisfiascoband

Held each year on the first day of the European summer, Fete de la Musique is the world’s largest free outdoor music event, with 450 cities in over 100 countries holding events last year. In Melbourne, The Alliance Française is proud to present Fete de la Musique celebrations this Friday at the Espy featuring Suzie Stapleton, The Woohoo Revue, Kylie Auldist and DJ Ms Butt.

Ecstatic throng Montero launch their new single Passions at the LuWow on Friday 28 June, lifted from their debut LP The Loving Gaze, due in August. Expect thundering drums, vintage synths squiggles, Liberace piano interludes and Ben Montero’s mystic frontman presence, combining to deliver a richly numinous musical experience. They’ll be joined by The Ancients and Swim Between The Shags.

HIGH NOON Four time ARIA award winner Katie Noonan’s technical mastery and pure voice make her one of Australia’s most versatile and beloved vocalists.

Songbook will see Noonan exploring material from throughout her career including songs from George, Katie Noonan & The Captains, Elixir and her acclaimed solo album. An intimate solo performance at the Substation (Newport) this Friday is the perfect setting for Noonan to revisit her most popular songs.

A battalion of musical renegades led by Australian/ Canadian chanteuse Kimberley Dawn Lysons, Dawn have begun their national album-launch tour for The Spinning Jenny EP. They’re playing three shows in Melbourne: tonight (Wednesday) at the Toff with Rapskallion, Thursday at the Workers Club with The Bon Scotts and Friday at the Caravan Club with both.

R&B vocalist Thando and her band are gearing up to set the Evelyn ablaze this Sunday with the release of her debut single. Thando’s sound infuses contemporary R&B with pop, rock, jazz and neo soul to create a sound that is sure to get you off your feet. Supports on the night come from Bella & The Mellows and Tiaryn.

DOORS TRIBUTE SHOW Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of The Doors founding member and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, Absolutely Live: The Doors Show will be paying homage to their idol with a show at the Espy on Saturday 29 June. Also featuring on the night will be The Slight Return, The Jimi Hendrix Live Experience and Whole Lotta Zep.

THE GOOD LIFE Private Life, united under a medley of melodic and kaleidoscopic synth blankets, released their debut selftitled EP in May from which their debut single Mine was taken. They’ll be launching the EP at the Workers Club this Friday with Neighbourhood Youth and Cash For Gold.

MINOR DISCS This Friday, Delsinki Records (aka Craig Johnston), a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, is playing at the Wesley Anne bandroom following the release of his eponymously titled four-track EP along with four companion arthouse film clips. Following him will be Major Chord and The Desperateens.

CROCO ROCKERS

Working from a foundation of precise percussion and heavy synths, Renee Anderson's delivery betrays emotion for sheer coolness. Mine, their debut single and opening track, is the least immediate of the collection but with repeated listens it becomes a standout with a hypnotic quality drawn from its simple structure. Jamie Barlow's idiosyncratic sonic fiddlings give Private Life's sound a much needed point of difference from similar acts and this release will mark them as one of the best young indie-dance bands in the country. Private Life launch the EP this Friday at the Workers Club.

Three garage rocking greats will play Yah Yah’s this Friday for a good old-fashioned punk show. The Kremlings will headline and will be joined by their Geelong brothers Ausmuteants. Kicking off the night will be the gloriously named Rick Moranis Overdrive.

As the name implies, Howlin’ Steam Train are ragged, relentless, and freakin’ fun. They’re a nice, boozy cocktail of rock, soul, boogie and a bunch of other sensual delights you can’t quite pick. Don’t miss their show at the Spotted Mallard this Friday with Papa Pilko & The Bin Rats and Rolling Blackouts.

SPOILSPORT PILLAR Ambassadors of Melbourne’s underground, conscious hip hop and dancehall, the furiously energetic Bastian Killjoy and the raw ferocity of Muma Doesa are combining forces in a mammoth double album launch at Revolver Upstairs this Friday for their respective album releases Painted Landscape and Ms Fortune.

This show features the zenith of Melbourne’s hip hop and dancehall vocalists, including Quashani Bahd, Seeka, The Vytal One and Emjay.

DELSINKI RECORDS Delsinki Records Independent Delsinki Records is the solo project of Melbourne songwriter Craig Johnson, best known for his work as the frontman of alternative rockers Gretchen Lewis.

Johnson takes a new approach to his music, allowing his storytelling to rest easily on his deep vocals. The most obvious example of this departure comes in the cover Gretchen Lewis track Sanchez. Gone is the funky strut of the original and instead comes a country-tinged acoustic stomp. However the strongest material lies in the other three tracks – all equally charming and subtly compelling. Johnson will launch the Delsinki Records EP at the Wesley Anne this Friday.

RUMOUR CONTROL

DARK SPACES Get down to the Tote this Friday for one hell of a rock show. Headlining will be The Attics, curators of moody rock music. Also playing will be The Black Alleys, bringing their brand of dirty, sexy, garage rock to the stage, as well as Magic Bones and Charm.

TUNA SCRAPS The Fish John West Reject bring their unique brand of guitar pop and rockabilly to the Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, this Saturday. Favourites of Australia’s indie music scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, they’re back promising new recordings and a season of live shows. Support on the night will come from local guitar pop group The Steinbecks.

DIRTY DISHES

Rumour Control Independent

The debut EP from Rumour Control is a pleasing ride through various touchstones of dark, '90s alternative rock. With a little help from Jesse Hooper (Killing Heidi) on production duties, frontman Ian Dadon has seen his solo writing evolve into the full force of a powerful band. Dextrocardia is the best example of the deft mix of grunge-era guitar and a Muse-like injection of theatrics. Dadon does rely a little too much on the falsetto but overall Rumour Control produce something very agreeable to the ears. With room to expand into their own, less derivative sound, the Melbourne locals are an exciting prospect. Rumour Control will be playing the Grace Darling this Saturday.

JOSEPH CAPRIATI

Michael Plater takes in various indie, art-rock, Americana and noir influences. His latest solo album Exit Keys is out now so Plater will be bringing his four-piece band to the Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, this Thursday.

They’ll be supported by Ballarat’s king of gothiccountry Matt Malone and Daylesford locals Dirtbird.

This Thursday, Big Yawn will be launching their recorded output Hash Matters/Lowlite 7” at the Tote.

The EP merges industrial and bellicose electronics with an ominous and disruptive swell of beats and rhythms and dually explores sounds both spacious and claustrophobic. Also on the night will be Bonnie Mercer, Jealous Husband and Call Me Professor.

Melbourne-via-Albury-Wodonga five-piece Dirt Farmer return with their second EP. Though they may try to pass themselves off as slackers, their brand of indieguitar pop exhibits a more tuneful nonchalance. The songs breeze past, inoffensive but oh-so charming.

With the echo of a country twang in their guitars and the inevitable harmonica break, the band pay homage to their rural routes. Rather than forcing the tempo, Dirt Farmer embrace their easygoing sound with their succinct instrumental output and lyrical wit making for rewarding results. It's a mark of the quality of this release that it is hard to pick a standout track.

Independent

FULL STEAM

BORED WIFE

Gaga Digi

Private Life

ON YOUR PSYDE

SUNRISE SPIRALS

DIRT FARMER

PRIVATE LIFE

Known for their deep afro-funk grooves and hypnotic, ethio-jazz inspired melodies, Papa Chango are back delivering plenty of bump and grind as only they know how. Don’t miss this unique act at Bar Open this Saturday.

The Psyde Projects bring the ruckus to the Revolver this Saturday night. The three have been fortunate to share the stage with some of the world’s heavy weights of hip hop, and are undoubtedly proud to be teaming up with Mosé & The FMLY for special night.

WITH JAN WISNIEWSKI

Delilah Lightning

MODERN ROMANCE

CHANGO BACK TO TANGO

MELLOWS AND BLUES THIS FIASCO

FRENCH FESTIVAL

SORTED FOR EPS EP OF THE WEEK

SINGLE FOCUS

VINYL REVIVAL

[THE GUID IDE]

Awake/Fratello Drumcode

Italian techno extraordinaire will release his second album Self Portrait in September. To tide us over until then comes a sampler featuring two tracks that will feature on the album that are already prominent in his live sets. The tension on Awake comes with no release.

A smooth pulse pushes the track steadily for nearly its entire nine-minute run time, as Capriati invites you to get hooked on the incremental changes and small builds. Fratello is an eerie anthem, the track's delicate melody sneaking up after an introduction of sharp beats and an underlying wave of enticing noise. A tasty sample from a young star who has already risen.

For more news/announcements go to themusic.com.au/news • 35

[THE GUID IDE] i n d i e

news

HAVE YOU HEARD

FALL TO THE FOUR

WARM INSIDE

This Saturday, The Devilrock Four will launch their brand new album Night Is Falling at the Public Bar. Joining in the festivities on the evening are The Deep End, My Left Boot and No 1 Jones.

Royston Vasie have just released their highly anticipated debut album Tanah Merah. The new single Inside boasts of swirling vocal lines, guitar riffs and captivating chorus which guarantees the track will be a hard tune to forget. To celebrate the launch of Royston Vasie’s debut album, the band will hit the road throughout July with Sydney band Cabins stopping at Ding Dong Lounge this Saturday.

HUNTING CRIMS Here to protect you from the wild of the city streets, the three-headed beast that is Sheriff will warm your brittle bones with a fiery Saturday afternoon residency at the Tote throughout June. This Saturday features special guests The Berkshire Hunting Club.

MATHAS

NAVY WARS

How long have you been making music? Tom Mathieson: I have been at it for ten years. I wrote my first raps and started using a drum machine around 15 years old. I’m much better at it now.

The return of the fabled progressive avant-gardes Orsome Welles to the Melbourne music scene is here.

Orsome Welles revisits the mystic site of their first ever performance, the Bendigo Hotel this Friday. Joining them are enigmatic hard rockers, The Heroines, alternative high-flyers, Aircrafte and melodic masters, Paradies.

Sum up your musical sound in four words?

Warm satirical worldly pisstake.

OUT OF LINE

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be?

If Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert started a band, I would beg for the support.

You’re being sent into space, no iPod, you can bring one album – what would it be?

Kelpe – Ex-Aquarium. That album has a profoundly calming effect on me. I could listen to it forever.

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date?

I always perform with my shoes off. One time I jumped off the stage onto a pile of broken pint glasses and didn’t break the skin. I felt pretty tough.

Why should people come and see your band?

After ten years performing live I still get told I do something vastly different from any other Australian rapper.

When and where for your next gig?

Supporting my pal Abbe May at Ding Dong Lounge on Friday 21 June and at Whole Lotta Love on Saturday 22.

Website link for more info? thecommunity.com.au/mathas

HAVE YOU HEARD

Playing a brand of emo punk that brings to mind Taking Back Sunday and The Gaslight Anthem, Melbourne’s Outlines tackle the Gasometer this Thursday. Support comes from emotional postrock, ambient hardcore band, Fresh Nelson.

DEATH ASCENDENCY Melbourne’s death metal outfit The Ophidian Ascension return to the stage after a busy, yearlong hiatus. Playing alongside will be Melbourne’s brutal, ever-gory death metal exports Whoretopsy.

Supporting on the night will be local progressivemetal new comers Kontact and Melbourne-based death metal slammers The Seaford Monster. You can witness some of the country’s best and heaviest up and coming acts at the Gasometer this Friday.

BORING SAUCE Greg Boring’s debut LP Heavy Syrup is so not boring.

Made up of members of Sky Needle and Cured Pink, the band play a colourful pop music that blends with drum machines and vintage synth tones. They launch Heavy Syrup tonight at the Gaso with guests including Free Choice Duo, Tarcar, Gurner and Zonk Vision.

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

THE WORKINGHORSE IRONS How did you get together?

Scott Henderson, guitarist: Mutual friends, working in bars and a bit of advertising.

Sum up your musical sound in four words?

Chords, notes, words, beats.

SWIFTY & THE SERPENTINE SINGERS Having shared stages with Evermore, Matt Corby, The Paper Kites, Diesel and more, Melbourne locals Andrew Swift & The Rattlesnake Choir have announced the release of a new EP, Up With The Anchor. They’ll be celebrating with a show at the Bendigo Hotel on Saturday 29 June, an in-store performance at Fist2FaceRecords on Sunday 30 and another hometown show at the John Curtin Bandroom on Sunday 4 August.

MOBILE FOOTY SHOW This Friday the Curtin bandroom will hold host to undoubtedly the best Footy Show in Melbourne – because this one has zero Sam Newman and one of the best new drafts in the state, Footy (the band).

The electronic piano-duo launched their debut album Mobile Cemetery at the beginning of May. They’ll be joined on the night by three great local supports: Seagull, Where Were You At Lunch and Sissysocks.

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be?

Rancid, Life Won’t Wait era. They were my favourite band growing up and I’ve still never seen them play.

You’re being sent into space, no iPod, you can bring one album – what would it be?

More Late Night Transmissions With Jaya The Cat. Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date?

Playing Cherry Bar last Halloween to a room full of pissed up punters all in full costume, and seeing our bass player dressed as Fred Flintstone, well, I don’t think anything’s going to top that.

Why should people come and see your band?

Why not?

When and where for your next gig?

Yah Yah’s, Saturday 22 June with I Am The Riot, My Echo and The Beggar’s Way. Website link for more info? workinghorseirons.com.au

GLUTEN-FREE

(MAY CONTAIN GLUTEN)

food

Brendan Hitchens looks at the implications for consumers with coeliac disease if Food Standards Australia New Zealand allowed a minute amount of gluten in products labelled and sold as ‘gluten-free’?

[THE GUID IDE]

BRAD EATS

BRAD PITT LOVES TO EAT ON SCREEN, AT LEAST WE KNOW THE MAN DOESN’T GO HUNGRY ON SET.

MEET JOE BLACK

MONEY BALL

Pic taken at Natural Tucker

A

ustralian standards surrounding food labelling are amongst the strictest in the world, but if the Australian Food and Grocery Council get their way that could significantly change. The group are planning to lobby Food Standards Australia New Zealand to allow a food that contains up to 20 milligrams of gluten per kilogram to still be called and sold as ‘gluten-free’. The proposition, which came to light late last month, has stirred controversy, particularly amongst coeliac sufferers, whose health could be significantly affected if the changes are implemented. Coeliac disease is triggered by the consumption of gluten, a product found in wheat, barley and rye. While the exact intake levels vary from person to person, when people with coeliac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system can respond with symptoms ranging from diarrhea and abdominal pain to irritability or depression.

In October 2007, Dr Robert Anderson, a specialist in adult internal medicine and gastroenterology, put the issue on the agenda, writing to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to change laws surrounding labelling. “I believe it is essential that we have a definition of ‘gluten-free’ that is both achievable in commercial food manufacturing processes and is also safe for coeliacs,” he wrote. “A level of 20ppm will achieve both these goals. It is also essential that the term ‘gluten-free’ be retained as it is used internationally in the medical profession as the treatment for coeliac disease.”

In an official statement recently released through their website, Coeliac Australia said they support changes to a gluten-free standard of less than 20ppm. “A gluten free standard of less than 20ppm would result in more choice and affordability in the gluten-free food market. The high cost of gluten-free food is a significant barrier to compliance with the gluten-free diet, for people with coeliac disease.”

I believe that society has sold out to bigger business at the risk of people’s health.”

- Shane Stephenson (Absolutely Gluten Free owner)

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Health food manufacturer Freedom Foods rebuke Coeliac Australia’s claims. “The Australian glutenfree market is one of the most developed in the world and compares more than favourably in terms of cost, variety and availability,” says company CEO Michael Bracka. “This issue comes down to the simple concept of truthfulness in food labelling. If a product contains 20mg per 1kg of gluten yet makes the absolute gluten-free claim, consumers will have every right to ask whether the product contains gluten or not. The Australian food industry can ill afford to support a proposal that risks increased consumer confusion and erosion of trust.”

Absolutely Gluten Free is a gluten-free grocery store and cafe located in Werribee, Victoria. If their store title wasn’t clear enough, they too oppose the proposal. “This is a subject very close to my heart as I believe that society has sold out to bigger business at the risk of people’s health,” says owner Shane Stephenson, a coeliac sufferer for 15 years.

“I have had many an argument over the introduction of foreign products that are labelled gluten-free that The Australian Food Act does not recognise by our and New Zealand standards as permissible, but we still see introduced to the market,” he says, of the products his store refuses to stock.

Rebecca Kerr, from Scarborough, Western Australia is a coeliac sufferer. So incensed with the issue, she started a change.org petition that in the first fortnight amassed the signatures of close to 19,000 supporters, ranging from fellow coeliac sufferers to food manufacturers and medical practitioners, including Dr Wendell Rosevear OAM. “The reason I am so passionate in the area is because I have coeliac disease and struggle with a rather sensitive version of it. I need to have zero gluten in my diet,” she says. “My thoughts are that if it is labelled gluten-free it should be free from gluten, not contain trace amounts, regardless of what they do in other countries.” Saffron Urbaniak, the Communications and Stakeholder Relations manager of Food Standards Australia New Zealand says that while they are aware of the issue, a formal application has not been received. “Food Standards Australia New Zealand is aware that the Australian Food and Grocery Council is preparing an application regarding gluten-free claims in the Food Standards Code. However, we haven’t received an application yet and if we do, we will consult with all stakeholders before making any decision.”

OCEANS ELEVEN

THE MEXICAN

FOOD TRIPPIN’ EATING AROUND THE USA WITH SOFIE MUCENIEKAS AND LLOYD HONEYBROOK

Taqueria Cancun in the Mission, masssssssive marinated pork burrito, two tacos (one chorizo, one beef head) and a root beer. @lloydhoneybrook #iphoneforperspective

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

[THE GUID IDE]

HOWZAT! LOCAL MUSIC NEWS BY JEFF JENKINS

Mr Black & Blues

GET ON BOARD “Tonight is a special night,” MC Hugo T Armstrong tells the crowd. “For the first time ever … the first ever live recording on a steam train.

You’re gonna be part of musical history.”

But, first, the backstory. Michael Pollitt was planning to be a basketballer. At Monash University, studying business systems and commerce, he found himself out, injured, with a sprained ankle. With time on his hands, he wandered into the student union to discover a young, long-haired Jeff Lang blazing away. It was a life-changer. Michael returned to his friend’s dormitory and picked up a guitar. He carried it with him for the next six months. “I played until

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

I could play,” Michael explains, smiling. He was 19. His basketball dream was over. Tony Forbes, a musician friend of his dad, suggested he check out Tommy Emmanuel, so Michael went to see him at the Continental. Arriving an hour early, he went for a walk down Chapel Street, discovering Muddy Waters Café. He found a spiky blond-haired performer named Geoff Achison, “playing some of the most amazing acoustic music I’d ever heard”. Michael saw Tommy’s gig and then returned to the café.

He bought Geoff’s CD, but it didn’t feature the song that was stuck in his head, Adam & Eve. Michael couldn’t sleep. He got online and wrote to Geoff, asking how he could get a copy of the song so he could learn it. Geoff wrote back: “There’s only one way you can learn that song – come ’round to my place and I’ll teach you.” Michael had discovered the blues. Every Thursday night, he would tune in to Max Crawdaddy’s Triple R show, jamming along to the songs. “Max was my education,” Michael says. “He taught me the history of the blues.”

Michael relocated to London, where he became a session guitarist. He also organised his best mate’s buck’s weekend. At 10am, completely sober, they had a surfing lesson at Cornwall beach. A guy fell in front of Michael. Instead of running over him, Michael decided to flip off the back of his board.

About 20 metres from shore, he thought he’d be okay; he wasn’t. He crashed head first in about 20cm of water, breaking his neck. He was lucky to survive. After being immobile for six months, a doctor asked what he did for a living. When Michael revealed he was a guitarist, the doctor replied, “Terrific, that’s what you’re going to do to get your hand working again.” It was a case of use it or lose it. A year after his accident, Michael was recording his debut EP, The Morning Light.

When a BBC DJ heard Michael’s story, she said: “You’re not Mr Blues, you’re Mr Black & Blues.”

The name stuck. Michael now records as Mr Black & Blues on his own label, Breakneck Records.

Unchained Melody HARRISON CRAIG (number two, debut)

After ten years in the UK, Michael came home in 2010, finding a regular gig on Queenscliff’s legendary Blues Train. Just before Christmas 2011, Michael met one of his heroes, Chris Wilson, at the Rainbow Hotel. Soon after, a booking mix-up led to Michael sitting in on Chris’s set on the Blues Train. “Playing with Chris has been a spectacular education for me. His breadth of experience is extraordinary and he has a calm confidence on stage. He can tune an audience like a radio, able to reach into his musical bag of tricks and pull out exactly what the crowd needs at that moment.” In September last year, Michael and Chris returned to the Blues Train to record the album, Blow These Tracks, Live On The Blues Train (out now via mrblackandblues. com). It was an unforgettable gig. “When you think about a recording studio, a moving train, with all its rattles and squeaks, is about as far as you can get from that environment. When we did it, I understood why no one had done it before!” Hugo T Armstrong, who runs the Blues Train, has written to the Guinness Book Of Records to see if it is, indeed, the first album to be recorded on a moving train. Whatever way you look at it, it’s a remarkable record. And it heralds the arrival of a new blues star.

More Than A Dream HARRISON CRAIG (three, debut)

NICK OF TIME Great to see that the multi-talented Nick Batterham (The Earthmen, Blindside, Cordrazine) has signed to Popboomerang Records and will release a new solo album, Closing Time At Yah Yah’s, in August. The first single is a sublime duet with Amaya Laucirica, Own Worst Enemy.

LOVE HERTZ See you at the Community Cup on Sunday!

Parachute TIMOMATIC (seven, debut) Resolution MATT CORBY (10) Love Is Gone LUKE KENNEDY (22, debut) Caruso LUKE KENNEDY (23, debut) Hello STAFFORD BROTHERS (27) Threads Of Silence KARISE EDEN (28) Sheppard EP SHEPPARD (29) Candle In The Night CELIA PAVEY (32, debut) Alive EMPIRE OF THE SUN (39) Bernard Fanning scores his seventh number one album (five with Powderfinger, two solo).

Departures BERNARD FANNING (number one, debut) Steal The Light THE CAT EMPIRE (23) Flume FLUME (27) The Very Best INXS (28) Keep Moving ANDREW STOCKDALE (32, debut) Beautiful Noise LEE KERNAGHAN (33) The Very Very Best Of CROWDED HOUSE (39)

HOWZAT! PLAYLIST Hand It Over MR BLACK & BLUES WITH CHRIS WILSON Own Worst Enemy NICK BATTERHAM Ghouls VAUDEVILLE SMASH Delegate DAVID BRIDIE

CHART WATCH Harrison Craig is closing in on top spot.

The Beginning And The End Of Everything JOSH PYKE

THU 20TH

GUY KABLE Acoustic from 8.30 pm SAT 22ND

THE TERRY MC CARTHY SPECIAL 5 TIL 7 PM SUN 23RD

DANNY WIDDOCOMBE TRIO (Wilson Pickers) 5 til 7 p,

TUE 24TH

GARETH ED LINDSAY Acoustic from 8.30pm 197A BRUNSIWCK ST FITZROY 3065 (03) 9417 5955

STORE.THEMUSIC.CCOM.AU

PRE OR NOW DER 39

[THE GUID IDE] g i g s

1,000’s of gigs at your fingertips. The Guide at

TOUR GUIDE

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING: July 26 Corner COLD WAR KIDS: July 30 Hi-Fi JAMES BLAKE: July 31 Palais

BORIS: June 19 Corner

PRESENTS YOU AM I: July 3, 4, 6, 7 Forum

KARNIVOOL: August 1, 2 Town Hall

BLISS N ESO: July 6 Festival Hall

CLARE BOWDITCH: August 10 Corner SHAPESHIFTER: August 16 Billboard DIALECTRIX: August 16 Revolver JOSH PYKE: August 17 Corner THE REAL MCKENZIES: August 28 Loft (Warrnambool); 13 Espy; September 1 Barwon Club (Geelong) JAPANDROIDS: August 28, 30 Corner

SLEEPMAKESWAVES: July 6, 7 Evelyn Hotel PLUDO: July 12 Hi-Fi GOLD FIELDS: July 12 Karova Lounge; 13 Corner; 18 Eureka Hotel (Geelong) AIRBOURNE: July 19 Whalers Hotel (Warrnambool); 20 Corner

THIS WEEK

SURFER BLOOD: July 24 Corner

INTERNATIONAL BORIS: June 19 Corner JON ENGLISH & THE FOSTER BROTHERS: June 20 Corner KORA: June 21 Espy SHITRIPPER: June 21 Public Bar; 22 Old Bar ARTURO SANDOVAL: June 22 Palais BASS KLEPH: June 22 Levels MUNICIPAL WASTE: June 23 Corner MONO: June 23 Hi-Fi PAUL THORN: June 23 Northcote Social Club; 25 Hallam Hotel HERMITAGE GREEN: June 25 Portland Hotel; 26 Local (Port Melbourne); 27 Star Bar

NATIONAL DAVE GRANEY: June 19-23 Butterfly Club GO VIOLETS: June 20 Curtin Bandroom BUCHANAN: June 20 Workers Club I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN: June 21 Corner ABBE MAY: June 21 Ding Dong THE MERCY BEAT: June 21 Retreat DELSINKI RECORDS: June 21 Wesley Anne INDIAN SUMMER: June 21 Can’t Say KINGSWOOD: June 21 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) KATIE NOONAN: June 21 Substation (Newport); 22 GPAC (Geelong); 23 Toff THE SINKING TEETH: June 21 Retreat Hotel KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: June 21 St Michael’s Church; 22 Capital (Bendigo); 23 Westside Performing Arts Centre (Shepparton) ROBOTOSAURUS, TOTALLY UNICORN: June 22 Reverence Hotel WAGONS: June 22 Corner BABY ANIMALS: June 22 Hi-Fi LURCH & CHIEF: June 22 Toff THE DEMON PARADE: June 22 Ding Dong HORROWSHOW: June 22 Northcote Social Club QMF WINTER WARMUP ft DARREN PERCIVAL: June 22 Queenscliff Town Hall IN HEARTS WAKE: June 22 Workers Club; 23 Phoenix Youth Centre RECLINK COMMUNITY CUP ft BEASTS OF BOURBON: June 23 Sportscover Arena, Elsternwick Sports Complex TEXTURE LIKE SUN, ELLA HOOPER: June 25 Toff

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL HERMITAGE GREEN: June 26 Local (Port Melbourne); 27 Star Bar MARK SULTAN/BBQ: June 26 LuWow COOLIO: June 27 Red Bennies MANIC STREET PREACHERS: June 28 Festival Hall OBIE TRICE: June 28 Trak BEN OTTEWELL: June 28 Substation (Newport); 29, 30 Workers Club; July 4 Barwon Club (Geelong); 5 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine) A$AP ROCKY: June 29 Festival Hall CANNABIS CORPSE: June 29 Hi-Fi TY: July 5 Espy DEORRO: July 5 Billboard DAYLIGHT ROBBERY: July 5 Public Bar; 21 Gasometer TRUTH: July 6 Mercat FEAR FACTORY: July 7 Palace GILBY CLARKE: July 7 Northcote Social Club PINK: July 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, August 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25 Rod Laver Arena YELAWOLF: July 8 Corner ENABLER: July 11 Bendigo Hotel; 12 Black Goat Warehouse JUAN ATKINS, FUNK D’VOID, PHIL KIERAN: July 12 Brown Alley

ILLY: September 20 Corner

HAIM: July 25 Hi-Fi

RUDIMENTAL: September 21 Festival Hall FOALS: September 26, 27 Palace

BABYSHAMBLES: July 25 Palace

XAVIER RUDD: October 3 Forum

WED 19 JUNE 2013 Edelplastik + Laa + Lo Res: 303, Northcote Chico Flash + Spermaids + Fritzwicky + Afterwhite: Bar Open, Fitzroy Gian Slater & Frostfall: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Vice Grip Pussies + Drunk Mums: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Boris + Special Guests : Corner Hotel, Richmond Mo’Soul feat. Revomatix + DJ Vince Peach + Miss Goldie: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Kate Walker + Guests: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Uncle Rudey + Lawnton Bowls Club + Heath RobbinsPowell: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Catch Release + Lamarama: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Foster & Allen: Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool Open Mic+Various: Music Land, Fawkner Grizzly Jim Lawrie + Brave Face + Kashmere Club + Venice Music + New Gods DJs: Old Bar, Fitzroy Roots of Music feat+Jessica-Jade + Cardinal + Jake Nicholls: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran The Dinner Set feat.

Daniel San: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Claire Patti: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Open Mic Night+Various: Tago Mago, Thornbury Municipal Waste + Party Vibez + Metal Storm + Join The Amish: The Bendigo, Collingwood Open Mic+Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Wine, Whiskey, Women+Aine Tyrell + Kate Mulqueen: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Collage with City Of Cool + Stellarcaster + Damn the Maps + Marylyn Rose & The Thorns: The Espy (Lounge Bar) , St Kilda

40 • To check more gigs online go to themusic.com.au/theguide

JAGWAR MA: August 1 Corner

Pink Tiles + The Clits + Richie 1250: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Tarryn Hawker: The Loft, Warrnambool The Silent Treatment + Jukai Forest + Martin Sleeman (Morning After Girls): The Public Bar, North Melbourne Kim Salmon: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Spurls & Pearls: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Rapskallion + Dawn + Nicole Brophy: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Hollow Everdaze + Fraser A Gorman: The Tote, Collingwood Basement Apes + Virtue + Scaramouche: The Tote, Collingwood Atolls + Contrast: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Simply Acoustic + Various: Wesley Anne, Northcote

THU 20 JUNE 2013 Kickin The B at 303 feat.

Futuras: 303, Northcote Don’t Get Lost + Dangerous John + The Choice of Thieves: Bar Open, Fitzroy Joe Chindamo Trio: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Will Sparks + Orkestrated + Joel Fletcher + Zoolanda + Jamie Vlahos + Matt Watkins + Scotty Lee + Hey Sam + DJ Butters: Billboard The Venue, Melbourne Andrea Marr & The Funky Hitmen + DJ Vince Peach + Pierre Baroni: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Jon English & The Foster Brothers: Corner Hotel, Richmond Matt Walters + Andy Lowdon + Eran James: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Frida + The McQueens + Farrow + Rough Wavs: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Smoky Marigold + Charlie Zulu + Rusty Douglas + Roxy Lavish: Great Britain Hotel, Richmond Op Shop Ball + Bad News Toilet: Karova Lounge, Ballarat

Guy Kable: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Amanda Connell & The Stray Hens: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Karaoke+Various: Music Land, Fawkner Feed My Frankenstein + As a Rival + Euphoria + Lizard Punch: Old Bar, Fitzroy The Naxalities + Winston + The Naysayers: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Zoophyte + Mikey & The Alignment + Poseidon + Forever: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran DJs: Rochester Castle Hotel, Fitzroy Oscar Key Sung + Guests: Shebeen Bar, Melbourne The House of Light + Nothing Final: Tago Mago, Thornbury The Bellastrades + The Anticks + Josh Cashman: The Bendigo, Collingwood Michael Plater + Exit Crowd + Matt Malone: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine The Vocal Lotion + The Porchies + Kite Club + Chapter Ray: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Go Violets + Special Guests : The Curtin, Carlton The Gunbarrel Straights + Teresa Dixon & Tamarin Young: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Heavyweight Double Header+Dub The Magic Dragon + Metals + The Wednesday Experiment: The Espy (Front Bar) , St Kilda Fresh Nelson + Elevator Talk + Ever Rest + Outlines: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Bad Teeth Zine Launch+Trench Sisters + Gutter Gods + Dribble + Velvet Whip + Halt Ever: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood Ross Wilson + James Reyne + Deborah Conway + Willy Zygier + Spectrum + Blackfeather: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne The Lucilles: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg A Gazillion Angry Mexicans + The Ivory Elephant + The Underhanded + The Black Galaxy Experience: The Public Bar, North Melbourne

Salt Lake City: The Sporting Club, Brunswick Delivery Boy + Kylina: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Big Yawn + Bonnie Mercer + Jealous Husband + Call Me Professor: The Tote, Collingwood Auto Da Fe + Auto Portraits + Likedeelers: The Tote (Upstairs) , Collingwood Dawn + The Bon Scotts + Nicole Brophy: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Anna’s Go-Go Academy: Victoria Hotel, Brunswick Mark Stevens Trio: Wesley Anne (Band Room) , Northcote John Flanagan & The Begin Agains: Wesley Anne, Northcote Child + Riff Fist + Borrachero: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy

FRI

King Lucho: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Speed Orange + Rooster + Navaja Negra: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Stronic + Chuck Blaq + DJ Jred: First Floor, Fitzroy Jon English & The Foster Brothers: Gateway Hotel, Corio The Stillsons + Rich Davies & The Devil’s Union + Ravenswood: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Calico Cat + Soft Power + BAADDD + Thhomas + Zonk Vision: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Kingswood + Lurch & Chief: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Haz Beats: Laundry Bar, Fitzroy JVG’s Guitar Method: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East An Evening With Molly Ringwald: Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank Einsteins Toyboys: Music Land, Fawkner Liz Stringer + Van Walker + Flash Company: Northcote Social Club, Northcote TTTDC + Nunchukka Superfly + Mother Mars + Plymouth Reverends + DJ Prog Johnson: Old Bar, Fitzroy Jimmy Stewart + Bulls: Old Bar (Afternoon) , Fitzroy Deeper RootS Music+Various DJs: Onesixone, Prahran

Kate Miller-Heidke: St Michael’s Uniting Church, Melbourne Fire & Theft: Tago Mago, Thornbury Orsome Wells + The Heroines + Aircrafte + Paradies: The Bendigo, Collingwood Fassbender: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Berkshire Hunting Club + The Council + Contangent + A Gazillion Angry Mexicans: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Traditional Irish Music Sessions+Dan Bourke & Friends: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Kora + Liquid Funk Orchestra + Cheap Fakes + DJ Tomtom: The Espy (Lounge Bar) , St Kilda Alliance Francaise De Melbourne+Kylie Auldist + The Woohoo Revue + Suzie Stapleton + Gareth Skinner + DJs: The Espy (Gershwin Room) , St Kilda The Ophidian Ascension + Whoretopsy + Kontact + Seaford Monster: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Multiple Man + Von Einem + Spite House + Asps: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood Gypsy & The Cat: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne

KORA: June 21 Espy

21 JUNE 2013 TSM Showcase + arious: 303, Northcote Sheriff: Baha Tacos, Rye The Imprints + 8 Foot Felix: Bar Open, Fitzroy Audemia + The Goddess + Sons Of Stereo + Theivingbyrds: Barwon Club, South Geelong Donna Dean: Basement Discs (In-Store (12.45pm)) , Melbourne The Italian Project+Virna Sanzone + Paul Grabowsky: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Dawn + Rapskallion: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Spencer P Jones: Cherry Bar (Afternoon) , Melbourne Emerson + Aural Window + Shadows Of Hyenas + Fail The Abstract + DJ Lucy Arundel: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Anna Gilkison Trio: Chi Kitchen, Melbourne I Killed The Prom Queen + House vs Hurricane + Buried In Verona + Saviour: Corner Hotel, Richmond Abbe May + The Chemist: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Danny Stain: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Early) , Brunswick

Juke Baritone: Open Studio, Northcote Grumpy Neighbour: Pause Bar, Balaclava Daryl Roberts: Pirates Tavern, Williamstown Can’t Say with Various DJs: Platform 1, Melbourne La Danse Macabre+DJ Petty Cash: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy The Mercy Beat + The Sinking Teeth: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Mammoth Mammoth + Dead City Ruins + Battle Axe Howlers + more: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Friday On My Mind+Various DJs: Reverence Hotel (Front Bar) , Footscray Bastian Killjoy + Muma Doesa: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Howlin’ Steam Train + Papa Pilko & The Bin Rats + The Rolling Blackouts: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick

Scaramouche: The Loft, Warrnambool The Ronson Hangup: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Sun God Replica + My Left Boot + Drifter: The Prince, St Kilda Shitripper + Hailgun + Counter Attack: The Public Bar, North Melbourne Tango Rubino: The Sporting Club, Brunswick Katie Noonan + Playwrite: The Substation, Newport Harry Hookey: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Poprocks At The Toff+Dr Phil Smith: The Toff In Town, Melbourne The Black Alleys + The Attics + The Magic Bones + Charm: The Tote, Collingwood The Poly’s: The Vineyard, St Kilda

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41

[THE GUID IDE] g i g s

1,000’s of gigs at your fingertips. The Guide at

TOUR GUIDE DELSINKI RECORDS: June 21 Wesley Anne

MELBOURNE METAL MONSTERS VOL 1 ft HARLOTT: July 12 Reverence Hotel JONNY CRAIG: July 12 Wrangler Studios; 13 Bang; 14 Pelly Bar (Frankston) LA DISPUTE: July 12, 13, 14 Corner STEVE VAI: July 13 Palais CLOSURE IN MOSCOW: July 13 Toff MICK FLANNERY: July 13 Spotted Mallard A DAY TO REMEMBER: July 14 Festival Hall GOBLIN: July 14 Billboard ONRA: July 18 Howler TODD RUNDGREN: July 19 Trak; 20 Caravan Music Club; 21 Corner SAINT VITUS: July 20 Hi-Fi STEREOPHONICS: July 21 Palace DAUGHTER: July 23 Corner ROBERT DELONG: July 23 Ding Dong SURFER BLOOD: July 24 Corner HAIM: July 25 Hi-Fi BABYSHAMBLES: July 25 Palace LADI6: July 25 Revolver EVERYTHING EVERYTHING: July 26 Corner FRANK OCEAN: July 26 Festival Hall JEHST, M-PHAZES: July 26 Laundry Bar BLEEDING THROUGH: July 26 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 27 Hi-Fi WAVVES, UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA: July 27 Corner DEAP VALLY: July 27 Tote DIZZY WRIGHT: July 27 Prince (two shows) JAKE BUGG: July 28 Corner MS MR: July 29 Hi-Fi FIDLAR: July 29 Corner PALMA VIOLETS: July 29 Northcote Social Club ALT-J: July 30 Festival Hall VILLAGERS: July 30 Corner LAURA MARLING: July 30, 31 St Stephen’s Uniting Church COLD WAR KIDS: July 30 Hi-Fi PASSION PIT: July 30 Palace; 31 Hi-Fi DARWIN DEEZ: July 31 Corner JAMES BLAKE: July 31 Palais A LOSS FOR WORDS: July 31 Barwon Club (Geelong); August 1 Next; 3 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 4 Phoenix Youth Centre

NATIONAL DAN SULTAN: June 26, 27 Toff THE BLACK CATS: June 26 Public Bar; July 4 Gertrude’s Brown Couch.

THE JANOSKIANS: June 27 Festival Hall STRANGE TALK, HEY GERONIMO: June 27 Hi-Fi; 29 Eureka Hotel (Geelong) ASH GRUNWALD, ANDY STRACHAN, SCOTT OWEN: June 27 Corner; 28 Prince Bandroom; 29 Westernport Hotel (San Remo) AMALI WARD: June 28 Grace Darling SPRAY N WIPE ft ALPINE, DZ DEATHRAYS: June 28 Espy DCUP: June 28 Can’t Say JEN CLOHER: June 28 Corner APES: June 28 Workers Club; August 2 Karova Lounge (Ballarat) MIC CONWAY: June 28 Piping Hot Chicken Shop (Ocean Grove); 29 Butterfly Club; 30 Curly Flat Winery (Lancefield) STOCKADES: June 28 Reverence Hotel FRANKENBOK, ABREACT, DREADNAUGHT, HEAVEN THE AXE, KING PARROT: June 28 Yahoo Bar (Shepparton) THE NERVE: June 28 Sporting Club (Geelong); 29 Northcote Social Club TOM PIPER, KRONIC: June 29 Inferno (Traralgon) SPLASHH: June 29 Ding Dong THE SINKING TEETH: June 29 Reverence Hotel PATRICK JAMES: June 29 Sub Lounge (Hawthorn) COSMO’S MIDNIGHT: June 29 Brown Alley FLAP!: June 29 Theatre Royal (Castlemaine); July 13 Hi-Fi CHRISSY AMPHLETT TRIBUTE ft FIONA LEE MAYNARD & HER HOLY MEN, KERRI SIMPSON: June 29 Yarraville Club THE BREAK: June 30 Caravan Music Club; 31 Thornbury Theatre MONKS OF MELLONWAH: July 2

Revolver; 3 Grace Darling; 4 Tote YOU AM I: July 3, 4, 6, 7 Forum KIRIN J CALLINAN: July 4 Northcote Social Club CLUBFEET: July 4 Corner; 5 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 6 Eureka Hotel (Geelong) BALL PARK MUSIC: July 5 Forum BROWN RIVER ft MICK THOMAS: July 5 Yarra Hotel THE KITE STRING TANGLE: July 5 Northcote Social Club PAIRS, WIL WAGNER: July 5 Long Play DICK DIVER: July 5 Corner; 6 Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine); 12 Barwon Club (Geelong) BAPTISM OF UZI: July 6 Northcote Social Club BLISS N ESO: July 6 Festival Hall THE UV RACE, EARLY WOMAN: July 6 Copacobana SEJA: July 6 Grace Darling MOJO JUJU: July 6 Curtin Bandroom SOMETHING WITH NUMBERS: July 6 Ding Dong SLEEPMAKESWAVES: July 6, 7 Evelyn Hotel SUPER WILD HORSES, TERRIBLE TRUTHS: July 7 Copacobana POLO CLUB: July 11 Fitzroy Town Hall; 19 Workers Club DEEZ NUTS: July 12 Workers Club PLUDO: July 12 Hi-Fi REMI: July 12 Revolver THE MEANIES: July 12 Tote LIME CORDIALE: July 12 Loft (Warrnambool); 13 Workers Club SWEET JEAN: July 12 Caravan Music Club; 13 Northcote Social Club ESKIMO JOE: July 12 Ormond Hall GOLD FIELDS: July 12 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 13 Corner; 18 Eureka Hotel (Geelong) ANTHONY CALLEA: July 13 Palms At Crown LAURA IMBRUGLIA: July 13 Tote LO!: July 13 Reverence Hotel KIM & BENI: July 13 Survivor BEACHES, AUSMUTEANTS: July 13 Copacobana THE AMENTA: July 13 Bendigo Hotel THE NEVER EVER: July 14 Wrangler Studios NUN, EASTLINK: July 14 Copacobana INDIAN SUMMER: July 17 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); August 1 Eureka Hotel (Geelong) KINGSWOOD: July 18 Corner YES PLEASE 2ND BIRTHDAY ft I’LLS: July 18 Workers Club NICHOLAS ROY: July 18 Northcote Social Club LITTLE FOX: July 18 Curtin Bandroom; 20 Workers Club GRACE KNIGHT: July 18 Kangaroo Ground, Wellers; 19, 20 Bennett’s Lane; August 24 Flying Saucer Club (Elsternwick) DAVID BRIDIE: July 18 Loft (Warrnambool); 19 Ararat Hotel Red Room; 20 Northcote Social Club; August 2 Memo (Healesville); 3 Caravan Music Club; 4 Montrose Town Centre CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN’ RACKETTES: July 18 Caravan Music Club; 19 Corner; 20 Meeniyan Town Hall AIRBOURNE: July 19 Whalers Hotel (Warrnambool); 20 Corner WHITLEY: July 19 Hi-Fi TEN THOUSAND: July 19 Newmarket Hotel (Bendigo); 20 Espy BUFFALO TALES: July 19 Elsternwick Hotel (Elwood); 20 Ferntree Gully Hotel; 21 Workers Club; 30 Sandbar (Mildura) MASKETTA FALL: July 20 Bang ATLAS GENIUS: July 20 Toff WORDLIFE: July 20 Palace OOGA BOOGAS, EXHAUSTION: July 20 Copacobana ROYSTON VASIE: July 20 Ding Dong THE POWDER MONKEYS: July 21 Tote BEN SALTER: July 25 Workers Club PSYCROPTIC, KING PARROT: July 25 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 26 Barwon Club (Geelong); 27 Northcote Social Club; 28 Musicland THELMA PLUM: July 26 Northcote Social Club WORLD’S END PRESS: July 26 Ding Dong GREEN STONE GARDEN: July 26 Edinburgh Castle; 27 Wesley Anne SIMON MELI & THE WINDOWBIRDS: July 28 Northcote Social Club

FESTIVALS LEAPS AND BOUNDS FESTIVAL: July 5-21 Melbourne SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS: July 26-28 North Byron Parklands POISON CITY WEEKENDER: September 6, Curtin Bandroom; 7 Corner; 8 Reverence Hotel SPRUNG FESTIVAL: October 19 Kevin Bartlett Sport & Rec Complex HITS & PITS FESTIVAL: November 22 Palace STEREOSONIC: December 7, 8 Royal Melbourne Showgrounds

42 • To check more gigs online go to themusic.com.au/theguide

Private Life + The Neighbourhood Youth + Cash For Gold: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Hugo Race + Steve Lucas: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine The Desperateens + Major Chord + Delsinki: Wesley Anne (Band Room) , Northcote Trio Agogo: Wesley Anne (Front Bar) , Northcote The Angels: Westside Performing Arts Centre, Mooroopna The Kremlings + Ausmuteants + Rick Moranis Overdrive: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy

SAT 22 JUNE 2013 Caity Fowler + Jen Kingwell + Mathew James: 303, Northcote Quarry Mountain Dead Rats: Baha Tacos, Rye Papa Chango: Bar Open, Fitzroy Scaramouche + The Laughing Leaves + Red Eagle: Barwon Club, South Geelong The Italian Project+Virna Sanzone + Paul Grabowsky: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Tenzin + Will Sparks + Zoolanda + Orkestrated + Joel Fletcher + Stan Gravs: Billboard The Venue, Melbourne Tex Perkins + Charlie Owen: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Junk Company + Peta Evans Taylor + Leigh Sloggett: Chandelier Room, Moorabbin Murdena + Two Coloured Koi + Loose Tooth: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Wagons + The Toot Toot Toots: Corner Hotel, Richmond Albert Hofmann LSD Tribute Night feat. The Morning After Girls + The Demon Parade + Facinator + The House of Laurence: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Liam Gerner: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Early) , Brunswick Above Mix: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Spoonful: Elsternwick Hotel, Elsternwick Marcus Sturrock + The Goddess + Tomas Fitzgerald: Empress Hotel (Afternoon) , Fitzroy North July Days + Hands Like Ours + Sharp Sharp Pretty: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North The Electric I + Smokey Seas + Super Fat Fruit: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Live Sessions with +The Pierce Brothers: Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully Grand Wazoo: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Katie Noonan + Playwrite: Geelong Performing Arts Centre (Drama Theatre) , Geelong

Rumour Control + The Naysayers + The Black Alleys: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Barry Savage & the Little Ceasars + James McCann & The Vindictives: Great Britain Hotel, Richmond Terry McCarthy Special: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Alex Burns & Jen Hawley Band: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Narvana + Rearview Mirror + Scar Tissue: Music Land, Fawkner Averia Skies + This Fiasco + I See The End + Nicholas Cage Fighter + Swim Through Seasons + The Rising Tide: Music Land, Fawkner Horrorshow + L-Fresh The Lion + Remi: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Vardos: Northcote Town Hall, Northcote Batpiss + Shitripper + Cuntz + Clowns + DJ Whiskey Cream: Old Bar, Fitzroy Winter Warm Up feat.

Darren Percival + Eagle & The Worm + Empra + Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk + The Frowning Clouds: Queenscliff Town Hall, Queenscliff The High Society: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Totally Unicorn + Robotosaurus + Coerce + Urns: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Inedia + Redfield + Lucid Sun + Pigtail: Reverence Hotel (Front Bar) , Footscray Black Night Crash+Various DJs: Rochester Castle Hotel, Fitzroy The Hub Cats: Shamrock Hotel, Kyneton Marisa Quigley + Ali Penney & Wayne Jury + Sarah Carnegie: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick The Prayerbabies: Tago Mago, Thornbury Lights On At Heathrow + Maricopa Wells + Lunaire + Stowers: The Bendigo, Collingwood The Fish John West Reject + The Steinbecks: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Fresh Nelson + Jurassic Penguin + Love Alone + Pandoran Sky: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Dianne + Peach Noise + Borrachero: The Brunswick Hotel (Afternoon) , Brunswick Kate Miller-Heidke: The Capital, Bendigo Performing Arts Centre, Bendigo Chris Wilson: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Collage 10th Anniversary +Various: The Espy (Gershwin Room) , St Kilda Engine + The Khyber Belt + Self Is A Seed + The Greeting Method: The Espy (Front Bar) , St Kilda Phil Para Band: The Espy (Front Bar) , St Kilda Greg Boring + Free Choice Duo + Gurner + Zonk Vision + Tarcar: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

Broozer + Mother Mars + Riff Fist + Motherslug: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs) , Collingwood Baby Animals + King Of The North: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne Dark Tempo: The Loft, Warrnambool Foster & Allen: The Palms, Southbank Collard Greens & Gravy: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Cash For Gold + Fascinator: The Prince (Public Bar) , St Kilda

Projeto Insperado + The Furbelows: Wesley Anne, Northcote The Workinghorse Irons + I Am The Riot + My Echo + The Beggars Way: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy

SUN 23 JUNE 2013 Darebin Songwriters Guild+Various: 303 (Afternoon) , Northcote

GO VIOLETS: June 20 Curtin Bandroom

Poison Apple+Shameless + Matt Magoo + Various DJs: The Prince (Bandroom) , St Kilda The Devilrock Four + The Deep End + My Left Boot + Number One Jones: The Public Bar, North Melbourne Pavement Serenaders: The Sporting Club, Brunswick Lurch & Chief + The Raffaellas + The Trotskies: The Toff In Town, Melbourne The House deFrost+Andee Frost: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Nunchukka Superfly + Wicked City + The Ruiner + Dead: The Tote, Collingwood Sheriff + Berkshire Hunting Club: The Tote (Afternoon) , Collingwood In Hearts Wake + Counterparts + The Storm Picturesque + Stories: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Swingin The Blues Away feat. The Pearly Shells + Simon Palomares + more: Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury The Hired Guns: Union Hotel, Brunswick Danny Widdicombe: Union Hotel (Afternoon) , Brunswick Ol’ Timey Music Jam with Craig Woodward & Friends: Victoria Hotel (Afternoon) , Brunswick The Angels: Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre , Wangaratta Geoff Achison & The Soul Diggers: Wellers, Kangaroo Ground

The Charlie Brown Band: 303, Northcote Sunroom Funroom+The Mighty Boys + The Shards + Velvet Archers: Bar Open, Fitzroy Test Pilot Molly + Dj Bodz: Barwon Club, South Geelong Motion + Kynan Tan: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Catfish Voodoo + DJ Max Crawdaddy: Cherry Bar (Afternoon) , Melbourne Gossamer Pride + Spunk Machine + Maddison Wilson: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Municipal Waste + Shitripper: Corner Hotel (Under 18 Show (12.30pm)) , Richmond Hugh McInlay: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Improv Planet+Various: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Birds & The Bees Showcase+Various: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Thando & Band + Bella & The Mellows + Tiaryn: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Low Rent + Lonesome: Great Britain Hotel, Richmond Averia Skies + Nicholas Cage Fighter + I See The End + Reeds Of The Temptress: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Danny Widdicombe: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Hawaiian Supremes: Lomond Hotel (Afternoon) , Brunswick East

43

[THE GUID IDE] g i g s Ken Maher & Tony Hargreaves: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Jam at Musicland+Various: Music Land, Fawkner Paul Thorn + Dan Waters Band: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Nicky Bomba’s Bustamento + Kilmarnock Steve: Northcote Social Club (Matinee Show) , Northcote Beersoaked Sundays with Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats + Eaten By Dogs + Winston + DJ Kezbot: Old Bar, Fitzroy The King Kats: On Top Bar, Ormond In Hearts Wake + Counterparts + The Storm Picturesque + Stories + The Approach: Phoenix Youth Centre, Footscray Chris Wilson + Shannon Bourne: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Ribbons Patterns + Brad Vincent + Luke Thomas: Reverence Hotel (Front Bar) , Footscray The Prayerbabies: Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North The Wikimen: Spotted Mallard (Matinee Show) , Brunswick The Whorls + Local Group + Laurence Szucs: Tago Mago, Thornbury

Shanakee: The Bay Hotel, Mornington North Meets South + Sheriff + Sunday Chairs + 19th Century Strongmen: The Bendigo, Collingwood Exit Crowd: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Greens Dairy Angel Ensemble + Urban Ukes + Gator Queen: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Peter Baylor Trio + Ian Collard: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Nudist Funk Orchestra + Dale Ryder Band + Bad Boys Batucada + Ms Butt: The Espy (Front Bar) , St Kilda Mountain Swamp Sessions+Craig Woodward & Friends: The Gasometer Hotel (Afternoon), Collingwood

1,000’s of gigs at your fingertips. The Guide at

Mono + Special Guests: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne Matt Walker: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg King Lucho: The Sporting Club, Brunswick Dan Warner: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Tiaryn: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Katie Noonan + Playwrite: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Anne Of The Wolves + Wayward Breed + James Kenyon: The Workers Club (Matinee Show) , Fitzroy Tolka + Mae Trio + Jenny McKechnei: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Little Sisters: Union Hotel, Brunswick Broni: Wesley Anne (Early) , Northcote

Gemma Tully & The Thornbirds: Wesley Anne, Northcote Kate Miller-Heidke: Westside Performing Arts Centre, Mooroopna

MON 24 JUNE 2013 Lebowskis Present+Christopher Young Group + Liam Werrett Trio: 303, Northcote Allan Browne + Paul Williamson + Mark Hannaford + Sam Pankhurst Quartet: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Cherry Jam: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

IN HEARTS WAKE: June 22 Workers Club; 23 Phoenix Youth Centre

Mangelwurzel + True Funk Soldiers: The Music Of Prince + Rough Wavs + Sex On Toast + Nose Blood Catharsis: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Triple Treat from Pure Pop’s Summer of Classic Albums Series feat, Georgia Fields + The Need Somebodies + Duke Batavia: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Gareth Ed Lindsay: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Unpaved Presents Songwriter Sessions+Cyndi Boste + Bill Jackson + Tony English: Old Bar, Fitzroy Urban Cowboy Band: Old Bar, Fitzroy Frock: Open Studio, Northcote Paul WIlliamson’s Hammond Combo: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Rhonda Burchmore + The Daryl McKenzie Jazz Orchestra: The Apartment, Melbourne Let’s Get Funny at the Brunny+Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick The Pierce Brothers + Rattlin’ Bones Blackwood + Adam Hynes: The Espy, St Kilda Bluegrass Jam Night+Buffalo Nickel: The Sporting Club, Brunswick David Ryan Harris + Al Parkinson: The Toff In Town, Melbourne

Twerkers Club+Woody McDonald: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

TUE 25 JUNE 2013 Steven Barry Trio: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Open Mic+Various: Cape Lounge, Fitzroy The Alan Ladds: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Sambrose + Sid O’Neil: Cornish Arms Hotel, Brunswick DJ Jaguar: E55, Melbourne Kooyeh + Ghost Orkid + The Ages: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Paul Thorn: Hallam Hotel, Hallam Irish Session: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Andy Szikla + The Preachers of Fiction + Krista Polvere + Adrian Sib: Old Bar, Fitzroy Hermitage Green: Portland Hotel, Melbourne Baba Yaga Orkestar: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick The Brunswick Hotel Discovery Night+Halcyon Drive: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick

Collage Feat. Space Echo + Matt Glass + Slugger & the Stone: The Espy (Lounge Bar) , St Kilda Anna’s Go-Go Academy: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Ella Hooper + Texture Like Sun + Gena Rose Bruce: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Willow + Taxidermy Hall: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

WED 26 JUNE 2013 Edelplastik + Trumpet + Trio Agogo: 303, Northcote A$AP Rocky: Arena, Fortitude Valley Bad Family + V Saw + Alex Lashlie: Bar Open, Fitzroy Gian Slater & Frostfall: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Vice Grip Pussies + Bugdust: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Mo’Soul feat. +Revomatix + DJ Vince Peach + Miss Goldie: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Chinese Handcuffs + Guests: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North

Grizzly Jim Lawrie + Canary + Tim Lion + Yeo + Money For Rope DJs: Old Bar, Fitzroy The Dinner Set feat. +Mike Gurrieri: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Baba Yaga Orkestar: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Open Mic+Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Wine, Whisky, Women+Nicolette Forte + Tash Sultana: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Hermitage Green: The Local, Port Melbourne Mark Sultan + Special Guests : The Luwow, Fitzroy The Black Cats + Macondo Blowout + Firefight: The Public Bar, North Melbourne Kim Salmon: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Dan Sultan + Guests: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Hollow Everdaze + Contrast: The Tote, Collingwood Basement Apes + Sun God Replica + Seedy Jezus: The Tote, Collingwood Atolls + Flyying Colours: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Mustered Courage: Yinnar Community Hotel, Yinnar

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44 • To check more gigs online go to themusic.com.au/theguide

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45

IN THE STUDIO

BEHIND THE LINES RECORDING THE MAINE The fourth studio album, Forever Halloween, from Tempe, Arizona five-piece rockers The Maine was produced by Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs, whose CV includes records for The Greenhornes and The Waxwings among others, and was recorded live to analogue tape without the use of computer editing, giving the album an energy the band felt couldn’t be “captured any other way than with five people playing in a room together”.

As frontman John O’Callaghan rather colourfully suggests, “The tape machine was like having an older, wiser, intimidatingly glowing woman in the room. We were all meeting her for the first time, but she already knew everything there was to know about the five of us. In no single way judgmental, but she sniffed out the bullshit and wouldn’t allow us to be anyone we are not. We are now better men for meeting that woman.”

PULLING IT TOGETHER Currently touring the US promoting her third album, Shadows, singer, songwriter and keyboards player Lenka, Sydney-born and now living both here and in Brooklyn, New York, talks about the making of the album with Michael Smith.

n 2007, after leaving Decoder Ring, the Sydneybased experimental rock-electronica and soundtrack exponents she joined in 2004, singer, songwriter and keyboards player Lenka Kripac, who performs and records simply as Lenka, moved to California, releasing an eponymous debut album the following year. A second album, Two, surfaced in 2011, and now, released independently, comes album number three, Shadows, recorded variously in New York, Montreal, Toronto and Sydney.

I

“There were a couple of songs that had never made it onto either of my albums that had been recorded under Epic Records,” Lenka explains. “One [Nothing Here But Love] with [producer] Pierre Marchand [engineered

by Pascal Shefteshy at Pierre Marchand Montreal Studios] – he did all the Rufus Wainwright records and Sarah McLachlan – and one [Faster With You] with [producer] Thomas Salter [engineered by Lenny DeRose], another home studio in Toronto. He’s not really a producer by trade but I don’t care – he can get amazing sounds – he’s someone I cowrite with a lot.

SOUND BYTES The new album, Desire Lines, from Glasgow five-piece Camera Obscura was recorded last December at Flora Recording & Playback studio in Portland, Oregon, with producer Tucker Martine (REM, Spoon, My Morning Jacket).

The latest album, Altered State, from UK prog fivepiece TesseracT was produced, mixed, mastered and engineered by the band’s guitarist, Acle Kahney, assisted by bass player, Amos Williams, at Kahney’s 4D Sounds studio in Milton Keynes.

“And actually that song is vibraphone-based and the vibraphone part was played in 2006 on the original writing session and the original demo that we made, and when I went in to record with Thomas I phoned up Zac Ray, who’s the big LA keyboards player, asking if I could use that recording. So he sent me the stem of that vibraphone and that’s what’s on the record, seven years later.

Four-piece Heaven’s Basement recorded their debut album, Filthy Empire, in LA with producer John Feldmann (Papa Roach, Black Veil Brides, Good Charlotte).

“They’re both beautiful songs; we put so much love into them and I just always loved the tone but they weren’t upbeat enough for those albums, so I started with those. I purchased the masters from Epic, and they set the tone for the rest of the record.

Californian groove metallers Devildriver recorded their new album, Winter Kills, in Florida at Audio Hammer Studios, apart from doing vocals in LA at frontman Dez FaFara’s home studio with Mark Lewis (Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, All That Remains) handling production duties.

“I wanted [the recording process] to be a pretty comfortable experience for myself because of what I was doing with my life [she was pregnant with son Quinn], so I was picking out my favourite producers

that I’d worked with from that perspective; not ‘cause they’re, like, the hottest thing in town and they’ve got the sexiest studio but because I was comfortable with them and I knew that we could make something very sweet and calm together. So a lot of the songs were recorded in a barn in Woodstock with Kevin Salem, who I’d worked with doing a lot of B-sides mostly back on the other two albums. He plays guitar and bass, and then we’d get string players and percussionists and stuff to come in – I’d play the keys, got a Wurlitzer piano – and that’s kind of all we need really.”

A singer-songwriter in his own right, former Dumptruck rhythm guitarist Salem has produced records for Giant Sand, Madder Rose and Tracy Bonham among others and set up a recording studio in a barn next to his rambling 1804 home in the woods outside Woodstock in New York state.

“There are five songs on this album from that session,” Lenka continues. “He would then go afterwards sometimes to New York if he needed to get a New York musician – it’s only an hour and a half away.

I wasn’t involved in those sessions though.

“Then I recorded two songs here in Sydney with Tom Schutzinger, who was in Decoder Ring with me. He has a home studio which he calls Home Studio, into which we’d pop to do bits and pieces back in the Decoder Ring days even though we weren’t recording our albums there. We had just started writing together a bit. He makes film soundtracks and stuff like that more than anything else musically these days, but he has a wonderful sensibility, really, really complex, detailed little tiny bits and pieces all mixed in together to make the sound, and he had actually written some of the tracks already and then I wrote the vocals, which is how we used to work in the Decoder Ring days as well.

The last two songs recorded, Find A Way To You and The Top Of Memory Lane, were recorded last year at

Mission Sound in Brooklyn, which, Lenka points out, is also good for vintage keyboards – “I just have my Nord but I always want to use the real stuff if I can” – and coproduced by Lenka with John O’Mahony, who mixed the album’s tracks at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

“As you can tell it was a bit of a mixed bag,” she admits of the album, “and I knew that I had a hard task ahead of me to pull it all together and make it cohesive. So I was really wanting to get an amazing mixer, and I did some research and ended up with John, who mixed Viva La Vida, the Coldplay album, another album by an artist called Oh Land, which is more sort of synth-poppy but very sweet, and a bunch of other stuff. I thought the combination of those two [Coldplay and Oh Land] he’d have the right ears.

“So he was given the task of pulling it all together. I started with six songs and he did nine mixes and did an amazing job. He’s really anal; he organised everything, from the old stuff, the more recent Sydney stuff – actually Tom Schutzinger came over for the mix session as well because he was very invested in it – and he did such a good job that I then asked him to produce two songs.”

WHO: Lenka WHAT: Shadows (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 26 October, Workers Club

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

BEHIND THE LINES SOUND BYTES

PRODUCT NEWS

Japanese five-piece Crossfaith called on the producer who goes by the moniker Machine, whose credits includes records for Lamb Of God and Every Time I Die, to record their latest album, Apocalyze.

David Bridie recorded his latest album, Wake, at Richard McGrath’s old farmhouse, Cranekelly, Taralga and his own Haus Bilas Studio in Thornbury, with engineer and “co-producer” Brett Doig, Simon Polinski then mixing half of it at Steaming Gents in Black Rock and Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, with the odd overdub done here and there, like the drums and percussion on some tracks, recorded in Michael Barker’s studio “on the swan-filled banks of Lake Rotorua” in New Zealand, while Ryan Coseboom did the other half at The Racquet Club in San Francisco.

Sydneysiders The Never Ever took themselves off to New York City to record their new EP, Ghosts And Ghouls, with producer Shep Goodman (Forever The Sickest Kids, Mandy Moore).

The Toot Toot Toots have been busy recording in The Grove Studio’s Studio 1 up the NSW Central Coast with producer Burke Reid.

The Hot Shots recorded their eponymous album of pub blues favourites with producer Rob Grosser at his Disgraceland Studio, where he also recorded the new album for Chris Turner & The Cavemen.

Slava’s younger brother Leonard Grigoryan recorded his debut solo album, appropriately titled Solo, at Rainbow Studios in Oslo, Norway, with recording engineer Jan Erik Kingshaug, sitting in on several other sessions before his own.

Melbourne hardcore band Warbrain recorded the guitars, bass and vocals for their new album, Void Of Confusion, “in-house” with vocalist Lloyd Carroll at Itchy Brother Studios in Melbourne’s west, while drums were recorded at Three Phase Studios with Sam Johnson, the album mixed and mastered by Taylor Young (Nails, Twitching Tongues, Disgrace) at his studio The Pit in Van Nuys, California.

Thundercat

MEET THE MTD BASS As used by recent visiting bass wizard Thundercat, aka Stephen Bruner, MTD basses are handcrafted

by American luthier Michael Tobias, who has been making instruments since 1974, initially in Washington DC. Most of his early work was on acoustic instruments, often repairing them as he learned about the construction methods of various other luthiers. He began making Michael Tobias Design (MTD) instruments in 1994 in a small shop in Woodstock, New York State, producing, with his son Daniel and fellow luthier Charlie Kniceley, about ten instruments a month. MTD handmade basses are specifically tailored for each customer using state of the art electronics and the finest machined components to date. Thundercat plays a custom MTD six-string through an SWR 750x head with two SWR 4x10 cabs, using either Dean Markley SR2000 (.030–.125) or La Bella 0760M flatwound (.052–.110) strings. “They bring out different qualities in my playing,” he explains of the basses. “Michael Tobias, he handcrafts his instruments and he’s literally spinning his heart into these fine pieces of equipment and you can feel it, you can absolutely feel it in the process of creating. I feel that everything I want to go to on that instrument is what it is.” For details, check out the MTD website or, locally, Thump Music Online.

MUSIC MAN JPXI Ernie Ball Music Man has released the latest in their John Petrucci line of signature guitars put

out a couple of years ago, the JPXI, which features a combination of top appointments from JPX and BFR Petrucci signature instruments. Most notably, the JPXI neck has been streamlined to a symmetric, extra-slim profile featuring a flatter 20” radius, medium jumbo stainless steel frets with a finished mahogany neck and an ebony fingerboard. It features a solid alder body, mahogany tone block and maple top, and, similar to that of the JP BFR line, controls include two threeway toggles perfectly wired for its Custom Dimarzio LiquiFire and Crunch Lab humbuckers, in addition to a redesigned Wide-Spread Pivot tremolo with a Music Man/Fishman piezo system bridge pickup. The JPXI guitars are available in six and seven-string versions, adorned with chrome hardware, mother of pearl inlays and a new onyx finish. You can even play it with the newly released John Petrucci Signature guitar pick. By the by, the next Dream Theater album, self-titled, will be released on Roadrunner, Tuesday 24 September.

THE V-DRIVE PEDAL From clean boost to creamy-smooth sustain to raging harmonic complexity, the new VHT V-Drive AV-VD1 overdrive pedal’s unique controls offer an amazingly wide range of tones and textures. In addition to standard Drive and Volume controls, the VHT V-Drive offers four more unique controls. The 11-position Select switch provides ten different clipping diode configurations plus a clean-boost diode-bypass mode, and replicates the diode type and configuration of the most popular overdrive pedals of the ‘80s and ‘90s as well as some of today’s most sought-after boutique designs. The Texture control adjusts the overdrive texture and harmonic content. Working in conjunction with the Select switch, these two controls provide an unprecedented range of fine-tuneable overdrive choices. The unique 11-position Depth control finetunes the low-end response to perfectly voice the overdrive depth to suit a wide range of guitars, pickups and musical styles. And the Tone knob is voiced higher than is commonly expected.

Unlike most overdrive pedals, it adjusts the treble content without altering the midrange. The Tone control works in conjunction with the Depth control to provide a wider and more useful EQ-shaping range than conventional overdrive tone controls.

IBANEZ’S BTB BASS The acronym for Beyond The Bounds, Ibanez’s latest addition to the world of bass guitars is the BTB range, featuring through-neck construction providing greater sustain, super-deep body cutaways to provide full access to the 24th fret and a 35” scale length to provide tighter, defined tone over an extended range with superior articulation. A Mono-Rail bridge ensures string-to-string isolation, the spring spacing being 19mm for five-string and 17mm for six-string editions, while the BTB 405/1406 five-string boasts Nordstrand ‘Big Single’ pickups and the BTB 675/676 boasts the new Bartolini pickup, which coils provide tighter bottom end in the lower resonant frequencies, while the dual-coil style configuration maximises articulation. There’s also a three-band EQ with mid-frequency switch.

NEXT, THE WOODEN VINYL ALBUM American nanotechnology whiz Amanda Ghassaei from a company called Instructables has produced wooden vinyl editions of albums by Radiohead and The Velvet Underground. As she explains it, “These records were cut on an Epilog 120 Watt Legend EXT to a theoretical precision of 1200dpi (the kerf of the cut and some tricks I used to avoid crashing the laser cutter dropped the actual precision down by ~1/6). The audio on the records has a bit depth between 4-5 (typical mp3 audio is 16 bit) and a sampling rate up to about 4.5kHz (mp3 is 44.1kHz).” These first ever vinyl records were cut onto plywood by a 3D laser printer. Not quite sure how they can be wooden and vinyl, but there you go.

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

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49

REVIEW

REVIEW

REVIEW

REVIEW

MARSHALL HEADPHONES MAJOR GATOR CASES Jerry Freed and Crystal Morris founded Gator Cases in Florida in 2000. Initially they made moulded plastic guitar cases. From there they expanded the product line to include case and bag solutions for pro audio, IT, audio visual, general utility, band instruments and percussion. They now have over a 1000 different lines that are made from vacuum-formed plastics, rotational-moulded plastics, wood and EVA materials. They’re distributed in Australia by Jands and are available at outlets all around the country.

This reviewer checked out three of their cases: a lightweight guitar case, a soft and a hard drum case.

The guitar case is great, very lightweight and durable, and is somewhere between a soft and hard case, with the best advantages of both. The only criticism is that the bag uses a plastic zip and already it is showing signs of not going the distance so maybe a steel zip or Velcro might be longer lasting. Fits a Strat very nicely.

Hard drum cases have never been this reviewer’s thing (unless there’s a truck and crew handy) – they’re bulky and hard to handle and this one is no exception. It has curves that stick out from the main body of the case – a guess is for extra strength – but it just adds to the overall bulk of the case.

The Major headphone model is Marshall’s poster set of portable listening accessories, taking all the style and sound quality that the manufacturer has built its business on, moulding it into a tiny over-head set of speakers that gives you a clean and ultra-responsive listening experience with impressive comfort and style.

There’s nothing really out of the ordinary here – no bells and whistles that you can’t find with almost every top of the range headphones. However, the Major is just so damn cool, playing on that sense of vintage to make the model seem immediately familiar. And the sound is excellent, handling high volumes especially well. For an additional cost you can get an on-cord remote with volume control, which is fine albeit not really necessary, at least not for extra dosh. But the actual remote is positioned far too high, which means you can’t see what you’re doing, which will surely be annoying for some users. And while we’re getting critical, this reviewer found the headphones themselves a bit too constricting over the ears for long periods of time, even with the ultra-soft cushioning.

But in saying that, the average user will not be a music journalist, therefore they probably won’t have them on their head for roughly seven hours a day, almost straight. They are super light, however, and fold away easily for the discerning music lover on the go.

The soft drum case is great, once again lightweight, durable and padded in the right places. Having schlepped these cases around for a few weeks now, they stand up to road treatment very well. All in all they’re a good product and well worth a look.

The Marshall legacy has been more than maintained with the Major. Simply put, these really are great headphones. Every element pays homage to the incredible history of the brand, but does so in a progressive manner that isn’t looking anywhere but forwards.

Jim Finn

Benny Doyle

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

ALLEN & HEATH ZED60-14FX The Allen & Heath ZED mixer range now has 14 models to boast and the ZED60-14FX comes with the AmpliTube 3 software for guitar processing, but for some reason does not come with a USB lead.

The desk can be used as a two-track audio interface, where AmpliTube actually becomes very tangible.

There are eight XLR, two instrument and six line inputs, with 12 source inputs being available at once. The inputs are nice and clean with no noise and the mixer would be easily at home in a live or home studio setup.

The build quality is nice, with the 60mm faders feeling nice, and the onboard effects package is of excellent quality but rather limited with large decay times and plates that require a lot of fiddling with if you want to record a clean and intimate vocal performance.

Therefore, the effects package that this reviewer would recommend is very much focused towards a live use.

This is a 16 bit-only desk, but with onboard effects, a heap of routing options, two instrument inputs and a good quality sound, there’s little to complain about. The only issue would be the USB 1.1 connection, which is a little strange considering the kind of equipment you may be connecting this to. The USB output for recording is the same as the RCA outputs and can be made to output main, record, aux and FX. All in all it’s a neat package, it looks good and it will satisfy the target market. Whether you’re mixing a little band, doing your own two-man shows, recording some home studio projects or recording some location work, this unit will handle it all very nicely.

Barry Gilmour

AUDIO TECHNICA AT2020USB As the name suggests, this is a USB version of the traditional AT2020 and is closely matched to the specification of its older sibling. Here at Sound On Stage in Sydney, we have experience with most microphones on the market and have come across USB models from most manufacturers.

This offering from Audio Technica is as no fuss as it gets. Plug it in and you’re ready to go. There’s no gain control on the mic, so that’s done on your computer and a headphone socket is also not offered on this mic, so again you’ll need to listen from your computer or mixer.

The dynamic response for spoken word is very pleasing, and would offer avid podcasters or home moviemakers an excellent result with a nice presence and tonal reproduction. The frequency response is 20Hz to 16KHz, and the mic delivers consistent tone across a broad range of dynamics when singing or recording acoustic instruments.

When connected there is a little blue LED that confirms you have signal and the package comes with a small tripod stand, which leans the mic towards you, helping with directional response. All in all it’s a neat little package that lets you plug in and get going straight away without any fuss.

There are several quality USB offerings from different manufacturers on the market now, but if signal quality is what you’re after, the AT2020USB has got to be on your list.

Barry Gilmour