opinion QMUSIC NEWS
ADAMANTIUM WOLF
OG FLAVAS
QMUSIC NEWS HOOK UP SOME NEW CONNECTIONS The QMusic Hook Up Sessions are a chance to get up close and personal with a diverse range of music industry movers and shakers. Two sessions will be held in March: ‘Sound’ (18 Mar) Hook Up with local studio owners, engineers and producers, and ‘Funding Your Music’ (25 Mar) Hook Up with writers, publishers and crowdfunding experts. Info and bookings via qmusic.com.au.
METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT
URBAN AND R’N’B NEWS WITH CYCLONE
SUCCESSFUL APPLEWOOD ARTISTS ANNOUNCED APRA | AMCOS, Applewood Lane and QMusic are thrilled to announce the successful participants in the inaugural Indigenous Songs Of Applewood songwriting retreat. Catherine Satour (Alice Springs), Andrew Walker (Darwin), Luke Thomas (Townsville), Dukebox (Inverell) and Nicolas Wymarra (Cairns) will all be flown to Brisbane to partake in four days of songwriting and collaboration, with the opportunity to record with ARIA Awardwinning producer, Magoo. AMERICANA SHOWCASE SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN Showcase submissions for the 2014 Americana Music Festival and Conference in Nashville, Texas, and will be accepted through to 28 Mar. Selected artists will showcase during the Americana Music Festival and Conference, 17 – 20 Sep. For more info on how to submit visit americanamusic.org. WANT TO KNOW MORE OR BECOME A QMUSIC MEMBER? For these stories, memberships and more, go to qmusic.com.au.
42 • THE MUSIC • 5TH MARCH 2014
THY ART IS MURDER
The first week of ‘Soundwave time’, or ‘heavy music festivus’ as I like to call it, has been an absolute blast. There really is nothing else like it. I’ve seen bits and pieces and occasionally even full sets from Amon Amarth, Hacktivist, August Burns Red, Five Finger Death Punch, The Black Dahlia Murder, Volbeat, Thy Art Is Murder (yes, I was present at the nowinfamous and very overblown stage invasion incident), A Day To Remember, Suicide Silence, Korn, Jimmy Eat World, Down, Devil You Know, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Avenged Sevenfold and probably a couple that I have forgotten. I’ve interviewed a bunch of the aforementioned, passed countless band dudes in the streets of both Brisbane and Melbourne, and drank in bars surrounded by members of Trash Talk and Terror, as well as Mastodon, Gojira and Baroness… By the time you have read this the wonderful Tony Abbott will have had his head bloodily and gloriously removed by Gwar at least seven times. The members of the Australians For Constitutional Monarchy have really got their knickers in a twist about that one! With that plus the Thy Art Is Murder incident, I don’t think heavy music has had this much attention in the mainstream media since like… Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine shootings? My mother even told me that she heard on a local radio station that Thy Art Is Murder had actually “set fire” to the stage at Soundwave – what a load! The mainstream loves to pounce on us from their angle of maligned misunderstanding
when they have the chance… enjoy it while it lasts. Making sure we’re still spoiled for choice post-Soundwave, the annual Break The Ice line-up was announced last week and it’s absolutely insane. Happening in Melbourne on 10 & 11 May at the Lilydale Showgrounds, it has some amazing hardcore/ metalcore bands from all over the USA and Australia appearing. We’ve got Ringworm (USA), Misery Signals (USA), Mindsnare, Foundation (USA), Twitching Tongues (USA), Disgrace (USA), Iron Mind, I Exist, Endless Heights, Warbrain, Shackles, Blkout, Outright, Starvation, Legions, Colossus, Mood Swing, Manhunt, Downside and Born Free. Absolutely massive! This also means that we can expect tour announcements from all of the international bands (with the exception of Disgrace) in the very near future. So Morbid Angel have just announced that their 20th anniversary tour for their classic Covenant album will be making its way Down Under in April! The death metal visionaries (sans two original members) will perform three shows only on 22 Apr, The Hi-Fi, Brisbane; 23 Apr, The Hi-Fi, Melbourne; and 24 Apr, Metro Theatre, Sydney. The full line-up for Northlane’s Free Your Mind tour that has been gradually drip-fed to us has now been published in full. It features Thy Art Is Murder, US groups Veil Of Maya and Volumes, as well as Make Them Suffer. And Propagandhi tickets went on sale last week, with the hyper-political shred punks here for a massive ten shows across May and June. Fuck the border!
Do stadiums work for rappers? Marshall “Eminem” Mathers has twice toured monster venues in Australia, with 2014’s Rapture show (and setlist) close to 2011’s sold-out blockbuster. The Detroiter was joined by a host of impressive supports, including Kendrick Lamar (who, coincidentally, raps over Tame Impala’s Feels Like We Only Go Backwards for the upcoming Divergent soundtrack). But, since he’s the drawcard, finances for opening acts should be redirected into his own production. Mathers, inherently blue-collar, will never have the outlandish stage show of Kanye West, but he might overcome his apparent disdain for gimmickry (early on Shady did use that mask and chainsaw as props). Mathers was accompanied by a rock band, and homies Mr Porter and Royce Da 5’9”, but it’s a bit meh. The Rap God also stuck to his policy of performing only snatches of classics like Stan. Mathers’ tour merch was diverting in itself. He’s actually flogging Miley-style foam fingers. More than any other Detroit MC (Big Sean, Danny Brown, Angel Haze), Mathers has subsumed the broken city into his mythos – and branding. His childhood home, last depicted on the cover of 2013’s comeback The Marshall Mathers LP 2, was recently burnt (arson is a popular local recreation). Nonetheless, it’s immortalised on those key rings. Mathers also lately released MMLP2’s fifth single, Headlights, featuring fun.’s Nate Ruess. Directed to his estranged mom, it’s among his most eloquent. Life’s good. @therealcyclone
EMINEM