The Music (Melbourne) Issue #7 by TheMusic.com.au

# 0 7 • 2 5 . 0 9 . 1 3 • M E L B O U R N E • F R E E • I N C O R P O R AT I N G

JINJA SAFARI T H E Y W E N T O N AN ACC T UA L J I N JA S A FA R I . . .

sport

FOOTY OOTY

oral history

POWER OWER AN AND ND THE PASSION

SETH GREEN

fashion

ALEXANDRA EXANDRA LEKIAS

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 3

4 • THE MUSIC • 25TH september 2013

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 5

6 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 7

themusic 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

#007

INSIDE FEATURES

Jinja Safari Madrid Fashion Week Hofesh Shechter Hugo Race Oral History: Power And The Passion The Basics The 1975 Seth Green MGMT Reel Anime Festival The Bloody Beetroots Swervedriver Seabellies Asking Alexandria King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Man Man Montero The Civil Wars

REVIEWS

Album: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Live: Amanda Palmer Film: Lovelace Arts: Fringe Festival Gear: The Great Australian Songbook Game: GTA V

feature “I BELIEVE IN THE WHOLE HEALING-MUSIC THING BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, ESPECIALLY WHEN PEOPLE HAVEN’T BEEN IN GOOD PLACES THEY KNOW HOW IMPORTANT HEALING MUSIC CAN BE.”

“I JUST FIND IT INTERESTING HOW THERE’S THESE LITTLE RITUALS THAT HAVE EMERGED IN OUR YOUTH CULTURE THAT ARE COMMON AROUND THE WORLD,”’ - ALEXANDRA LEKIAS, ARTIST (P81)

- BEN MONTERO OF MONTERO (P35)

“I ALWAYS SAID THAT IF THE DOCKERS EVEN MADE THE GF I’D HAVE A CARDIAC ARREST IN THE FIRST QUARTER AND DIE NEVER KNOWING THE RESULT.” NICK ALLBROOK ON THE FREMANTLE DOCKERS (P64)

review “IT’S A DELIGHT HEARING KIDS AND ADULTS REACT IN THE SAME WAY AT POO JOKES.” - STEPHANIE LIEW REVIEWS HARD RUBBISH ON THEMUSIC.COM.AU

THE GUIDE

Cover: Beastwars Local News Gig Guide Eat: Food At The Footy Drink: Sitting In Bars Alone Travel: Mbantua Festival Culture: Ghost Tours Fashion: Alexandra Lekias Sport: AFL Grand Final Day The End: Open Ya Eyes Ref!

8 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

live

“TOWERING BASSIST MARVIN NYGAARD MANAGES TO PLAY HALF A SONG STANDING ON TOP OF PUNTERS’ SHOULDERS BEFORE CROWD-SURFING BACK TO THE STAGE,” - JAMES O’TOOLE REVIEWS KVELERTAK (P53)

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THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 9

CREDITS

PUBLISHER Street Press Australia Pty Ltd GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast EDITOR Bryget Chrisfield ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR Cassandra Fumi EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Stephanie Liew MUSO EDITOR Michael Smith GIG GUIDE Justine Lynch vic.giguide@themusic.com.au SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR Jeff Jenkins CONTRIBUTORS Aleksia Barron, Atticus Bastow, Steve Bell, Luke Carter, Anthony Carew, Oliver Coleman, Rebecca Cook, Adam Curley, Cyclone, Guy Davis, Dan Condon, Simon Eales, Guido Farnell, Sam Fell, Tim Finney, Bob Baker Fish, Cameron Grace, Tom Hawking, Andrew Hazel, Brendan Hitchens, Jeff Jenkins, Kate Kingsmill, Baz McAlister, Samson McDougall, Tony McMahon, Fred Negro, Matt O’Neill, Josh Ramselaar, Paul Ransom, Dylan Stewart, Stephanie Tell, Izzy Tolhurst, Nic Toupee, Dominique Wall, Glenn Waller, Matthew Ziccone

THIS WEEK THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK • 25 SEPTEMBER - 1 OCTOBER 2013

watch

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Kane Hibberd

win

PHOTOGRAPHERS Andrew Briscoe, Holly Engelhardt, Jay Hynes, Lou Lou Nutt NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Brett Dayman ADVERTISING DEPT Leigh Treweek, Tim Wessling sales@themusic.com.au ART DIRECTOR Nicholas Hopkins ART DEPT Eamon Stewart, Brendon Wellwood, Julian De Bono vic.art@themusic.com.au ADMIN & ACCOUNTS Loretta Zoppolone Shelley Neergaard Jarrod Kendall Leanne Simpson accounts@themusic.com.au DISTRO Anita D’Angelo distro@themusic.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS store.themusic.com.au CONTACT US Tel 03 9421 4499 Fax 03 9421 1011 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au 584 Nicholson St, Fitzroy North 3068 Locked Bag 2001, Clifton Hill VIC 2001

MELBOURNE

Perhaps even more impressive than Ylvis’ video for The Fox is Ohio University’s marching band performance of the “What does the FOX SAY?” song, which includes ‘foxy’ choreography. The 110-memberstrong brass band also performed Gangnam Style, so you know they’re pretty serious about their camp covers. Then again, now that Ylvis have been on Ellen they’ve probably already jumped the shark.

The Toff In Town plays host to Mandek Penha’s Melbourne Fringe Festival residency. For those who weren’t previously aware, Mandek Penha is actually an ancient immaterial being and the creator of South Yarra (sorry, South Sarra – a kind of Garden of Eden underneath North Korea, apparently). Throughout their Fringe residency they endeavour to raise awareness of the alien race IMZ who are in possession of the key to salvation. On 30 Sep they’ll perform with The Red Brigade and The Do Ya Things. Join them and be converted.

To coincide with the release of his swoonworthy third studio album Lost, we have some stylish official merch from Danish producer/multi-instrumental whiz Trentemøller to give away. Stalk our Facebook page for your chance to win and look smokin’.

see

welcome

After visiting Hawaii, Florida and Wyoming, the cast of Modern Family are in talks to spend their next group holiday in Australia, with executive producer Steve Levitan divulging the info at a preEmmy Awards event. Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara or Jesse Tyler Ferguson; not sure who we’re more excited to see.

$$$

lol

At all the things with more women in them than Tony Abbott’s cabinet: triple j’s Hottest 100 of All Time (a whopping 9), Zoo Weekly’s staff meeting (3), and the Indonesian government cabinet (4). It’s not really a laughing matter, but making jokes is how women have been dealing for centuries. It’s pretty ridiculous that Julie Bishop is the only woman in the government’s upper echelons (maybe Gillard was psychic?), but Tony justifies his decision to ignore half the population. There are plenty of women knocking at the door, the PM would just rather they use the staff entrance.

It’s been revealed how you too can be one of Australia’s richest people under 40: sell chocolate or coffee, model, be really, really good with computers, make muesli, be the daughter of a media mogul, or play sport. These are some of the professions people hold on BRW’s list of the 100 wealthiest young Australians. The list also suggests this cashed-up generation would rather live in San Francisco and are mainly dudes.

serenity

This is either the greatest or most confusing sportscast you’ll ever watch, depending on which side of the Seinfeld fence you sit. But for mega fans this is, “Gold Jerry, Gold!” Louisville sports anchor Adam Lefkoe drops 41 Seinfeld references into a five-minute broadcast, touching on everything from Junior Mints to the Soup Nazi. The greatest TV show of all time continues to give. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 11

national news news@themusic.com.au

SLIPPERY LITTLE SUCKERS

Loud, proud and rather overwhelming on stage, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard continue to prove they’re so much more than a novelty band name. 12 Bar Bruise was a revelation upon its release last year and has shown itself to have plenty of longevity and with many muttering from overseas wondering just who the heck this Aussie garage punk beast is, the septet look set to take their warped brand of rock as far as it will go. All hail the King when they head out on their Float Along – Fill Your Lungs tour, playing Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 19 Oct; Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, 1 Nov; The Standard, Sydney, 2 Nov; Ya Ya’s, Perth, 8 Nov; and Mojos Bar, Fremantle, 10 Nov.

BUILDING AN EMPIRE THE PRESETS

HOMEBAKE’S LEGAL!

Turning 18 is always one hell of a party, so it’s no surprise that Homebake has turned out all the stops for their monumental celebration. The birthday party will take place over THREE massive days on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt and surrounds, with things going something like this: 6 Dec: Paul Kelly, Gurrumul, Eskimo Joe, Vance Joy, Thelma Plum and Sheppard; 7 Dec: The Presets, The Cat Empire, Architecture In Helsinki, The Aston Shuffle, Way Of The Eagle (ft Dan Sultan, Daniel Merriweather, Amy Findlay, Harry Angus & Lachlan Mitchell), Deep Sea Arcade and Bam Bam; and 8 Dec: Birds Of Tokyo, Bernard Fanning, The Rubens, You Am I, Beasts Of Bourbon, Kingswood and Courtney Barnett. Along with comedy, markets, bars and other entertainment, you can be sure this 18th is going to go off! Proudly presented by The Music.

DIE, DIE, DIE

When a band changed everything you know about a genre, then no matter who you are or what you listen to you’ve got to pay them dues. Misfits fucked the ideals of punk right up when they arrived on the scene more than three decades ago, mixing horror stylings and imagery with highintensity jams and going on to influence everyone from Metallica to AFI. Still at the top of their game after all this time, pray at the Misfits altar when they perform at The Zoo, Brisbane, 16 Jan; Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 17 Jan; Factory Theatre, Sydney, 18 Jan; and Amplifier, Perth, 19 Jan.

SEEDS ARE SPROUTING

It’s hard to believe that Gossling is yet to give us a debut record, such is her continued prominence on the Australian music landscape and the quality swag of tunes she’s already managed to accrue through her career thus far. Things are all set to change, however, with the Melbourne indie pop wonder ready to present Harvest Of Gold on 1 Nov, and will be leading a full band along the east coast for three special evening showcases. Be moved by the unique tones of Gossling when she plays 15 Nov, Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane; 20 Nov, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; and 23 Nov, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney.

“SAW A PHOTO OF MILEY CYRUS WITH HER TONGUE STICKING OUT. WOW! SHE SHOULD DO ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE!” REALLY, [@STEVEMARTINTOGO], WHERE? 12 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Brisbane indie faves The Cairos write offensively catchy tunes and have a killer live show to boot. You don’t need any more. Crazy that they still haven’t got a debut out, but that’s happening soon; in the interim, we’ve got new single Obsession and a run of dates right around the country: 17 Oct, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane; 18 Oct, FBi Social, Sydney; 19 Oct, Workers Club, Melbourne; 20 Nov, Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; 21 Nov, Mojos Bar, Fremantle; and Ya Ya’s, Perth.

ISLAND ARTS

Mysterious Providence crew Daughters look set to make good on the promise shown by their output in the early-noughties, making a return to the stage and trekking Down Under for a few rare shows. Check them out 9 January, Crowbar, Brisbane; 10 Jan, Bald Faced Stag, Sydney; 11 Jan, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle; 14 Jan, Amplifier, Perth; and 17 Jan, Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne.

STEEL PANTHER

BRING PROTECTION

When you’re calling your tour Spreading The Disease, you know something infectious is coming. No doubt the Steel Panther boys know all about STDs and will probably be testing the waters once again when they return to Australia for their biggest headline shows yet. Catch Michael Starr, Satchel, Lexxi Foxx and Stix Zadinia when they slip into their lycra at the Brisbane Riverstage, 6 Dec; Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, 7 Dec; Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, 8 Dec; and Metro City, Perth, 12 Dec. Incredibly, everywhere except Perth is actually all ages so kids – get along! Tickets for all dates are on sale this Friday.

national news news@themusic.com.au PATRICK JAMES

STONEFIELD

ROCKIN’ ROCKS

Catch the red hot Findlay sisters on the upcoming Stonefield headline tour, which is hitting loads of dates throughout the next few months: 24 Oct, UQ, Brisbane; 25 Oct, The Racehorse Hotel, Ipswich; 26 Oct, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; 2 Nov, The Loft, Warrnambool; 8 Nov, Karova Lounge, Ballarat; 13 Nov, Zierholz, Canberra; 14 Nov, The Beach Bar, Wollongong; 15 Nov, The Annandale, Sydney; 22 Nov, Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane; 23 Nov, The Other Side, South Stradbroke Island; 23 Nov, Villa Hotel Noosa; 24 Nov, The Northern, Byron Bay; 29 Nov, Ferntree Gully Hotel; 13 Dec, Meredith Music Festival; and 14 Dec, Festival Of The Sun, Port Macquarie. The sisters and drummer Manny Bourakis will also act as one of the supports at Fleetwood Mac’s shows, 16 Nov, Hope Estate, Hunter Valley and 30 Nov, The Hill Winery, Geelong. This is in support of their selftitled debut album which lands 11 Oct.

SOOTHE YOUR SOUL

One of the biggest finds at the recent BIGSOUND music conference was Sydney’s Patrick James, who, backed by a magnetic band, drew the entire floor at Ric’s under his spell. Venture out and discover your new favourite singer-songwriter when the velvet voiced artist gets a few more dates in before bunkering down to put the finishing touches on an already anticipated debut. James will perform 7 Nov, Rad Bar, Wollongong; 9 Nov, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney; 14 Nov, Ellington Jazz Club, Perth; 15 Nov, The Fly Trap, Fremantle; 22 Nov, Northcote Social Club, Melbourne; 24 Nov, Queenscliff Festival, Bellarine Peninsula; and 27 Nov, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane. Proudly presented by The Music.

ARIA READY?

It’s been a pretty incredible year for Australian music, what with ten Aussie records hitting the top of the charts and a 50 per cent increase in the number of artists and recordings nominated for ARIA Awards by members compared to figures from 2012. With voting underway, we’re excited to tell you that the nominees for this year’s awards will be announced on 15 Oct at the Art Gallery of NSW along with winners of Fine Arts and Artisan awards. The full glitzy shebang that is the 27th Annual ARIA Awards will then take place at The Star on Sydney’s Darling Harbour come 1 Dec.

BOZ SCAGGS

MORE ACTS FOR BLUESFEST ’14

And so it gets bigger and better. After a modern first list of acts, Bluesfest 2014 is getting back to the influences of many of those artists – alongside some further fresh faces of course – adding to the festival bill with Doobie Brothers, Aaron Neville, Gregg Allman, Boz Scaggs, India.Arie, Dr. John, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Jamaican Legends ft Ernest Ranglin, Sly & Robbie and Bitty McLean, Suzanne Vega, Jimmie Vaughan, The Wailers, Ozomatli, CW Stoneking, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station, Grandmothers Of Invention, The Magic Band, Robben Ford, The Paladins, Music Maker Foundation ft Little Freddie King, Cool John Ferguson, Pat Wilder. Huge names there – and the beautiful thing is there’s still more to come.

“IMAGINE BEING KNOCKED OUT BY SOMEONE WHO’S FRIENDS WITH JUSTIN BIEBER” INDEED [@SCOTTDOOLS], IT’S A CAREER ENDER. SENSORIAL EXPLOSION

Not men to back away from new experiences, The Bennies have taken their party-hardened mix of punk, funk, ska and psych to venues far and wide this year. From a 30-date tour with their buds The Smith Street Band to a bush doof psy-trance festival, they’ve got sweaty in places of every ilk, all in the name of a good time. Now, before they fire up our Asian friends with shows in Japan and China, the Melbourne blokes will dangle their second album, Rainbows In Space, in front of us, playing Crowbar, Brisbane, 24 Oct; Island Vibes, Stradbroke Island, 25 Oct; House show, Bunbury, 1 Nov; Ya Ya’s, Perth, 2 Nov; Phoenix Lounge, Canberra, 7 Nov; Black Wire Records, Sydney, 8 Nov; Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle, 9 Nov; Karova Lounge, Ballarat, 14 Nov; and Ding Dong, Melbourne, 16 Nov. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 13

local news vic.news@themusic.com.au BRIGHTER LATER

FIVE POINT TWO

Due to overwhelming demand and the first show at Palace Theatre on 3 Nov selling out so quickly, Five have added a second Melbourne date to their Big Reunion Australia 2013 tour. The new show will be at the same venue on 4 Nov. If ya gettin’ down after all these years you’d best nab yourself a ticket.

YES, BOSS

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band continue their love affair with Australia, with extra shows now confirmed, including another at Hunter Valley, Hope Estate on 23 Feb; the 22 Feb show is now sold out. The Rubens and Dan Sultan will support.

ABOVE PARR

LATER, BRIGHTER

Having released their debut album The Wolves earlier this year to critical acclaim, Brighter Later will play at the Northcote Social Club on 13 Oct for their final headline show for 2013, in full eight-piece band splendour. Guests are Pony Face frontman Simon Bailey and electro siren Brite Flight. The show comes after they were handpicked to support Martha Wainwright on her recent tour here, and their second single Come & Go getting shortlisted for the Vanda & Young songwriting award.

WATCH YOUR MEMBER

Influential UK new wave/post punk/reggae band The Members make their long-awaited return to Australian shores after a 34-year absence, bringing original members JC Carroll and Chris Payne together with punk rock legend Rat Scabies on drums. The Members were one of the initial pioneers of the era’s cross-cultural amalgamation of reggae’s offbeat rhythm with punk’s rebellious aggression. They hit the Corner Hotel on 12 Nov.

AND... CUT

To coincide with Spectacle: The Music Video Exhibition, opening on 26 Sep, ACMI, triple j and Rage have teamed up for a competition that asks directors under 30 to create a music video for the new Jinja Safari track Mombassa On The Line. Finalists’ videos will screen in the ACMI exhibition, alongside some of the greatest music videos ever made. The winner will receive a grand prize. To enter, head to abc.net.au/triplej/comps/ cut_to_the_beat.htm. Entries close on 3 Nov.

HANDS UP

Sydney bruisers Hand Of Mercy are capping off the biggest year of their sixyear life the only way they know how: more touring. Having already lapped Australia, the UK and the vast majority of continental Europe, the band will return to Europe on the monster Impericon Never Say Die 2013 tour. Reuniting with Emmure and their labelmates in Northlane, the month long-trek will see Hand Of Mercy returning to the sweaty clubs of Europe. See them off when they play Bang on 28 Sep.

BEER AND MALT

As part of Malthouse Theatre’s 2014 Season Launch, it was announced that the home of Malthouse Theatre, a unique former brewery site in Melbourne’s Southbank, will henceforth be known as The Coopers Malthouse. According to the official release, the new partnership and naming rights deal cements a relationship between two iconic Australian brands known for their passion and commitment to quality, craftsmanship and creativity.

“NOTHING IS MORE HEARTBREAKING THAN WALTER WHITE DOING THE RIGHT THING” IT’S GONE HEARTBREAKING BAD FOR KUMAIL NANJIANI [@KUMAILN]. 14 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Charlie Parr’s heartfelt and plaintive original folk blues and traditional spirituals are returning to our shores. See him showcase tunes from his latest album Barnswallow at Caravan Music Club on 31 Oct; Theatre Royal, Castlemaine on 1 Nov; Way Out West Blues Club, Williamstown on 3 Nov; and Mechanics Hall, Apollo Bay on 4 Nov.

A SONG WITH HEART

Australia’s powerhouse of contemporary Aboriginal music Black Arm Band together with the virtuosic Melbourne Symphony Orchestra present the world premiere performance of ngangwurra means heart – the stunning partner to Black Arm Band’s internationally acclaimed dirtsong. A major new visual music theatre work created in collaboration with some of Australia’s most revered artists, ngangwurra means heart is a one-off event and will be held at the Princess Theatre on 30 Nov. ROBERT ELLIS

NASH YOUR TEETH

After amassing plenty of new fans from his support slot for Justin Townes Earle earlier this year, Nashville singer Robert Ellis (pictured) returns to Australia for some east coast shows. Co-headlining will be Cory Chisel, showcasing tunes from his Nashville-recorded second album Old Believer. Melbourne-via-NZ artist Marlon Williams will open all the Victorian shows: The Substation, Newport on 15 Nov; Theatre Royal, Castlemaine on 16 Nov; and The Workers Club on 17 Nov.

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CHIC AND NILE RODGERS FRI 13 DEC

THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;¢ 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 â&#x20AC;¢ 15

local news vic.news@themusic.com.au

CHECK IT OUT

Darebin Arts’ Speakeasy is putting on a new performance work by Family Of Strangers. Featuring live music, an original score and grandeur design, A Checkov Triptych is a collection of three of Checkov’s one-act plays – Dangers Of Tobacco, The Bear and Swan Song – treading the line of comedy and tragedy. It plays at the Northcote Town Hall from 24 Sep to 5 Oct.

SMASH THE DEVIL

Vaudeville Smash are proud to announce the release of the new video for Devil Said, which is the third single from their debut album Dancing For The Girl. From the Jethro Tullesque flute intro to the 24-piece string section, Devil Said is disco reincarnated. The video was filmed in and around Melbourne’s most iconic hot spots, from Croft Alley to the State Library. To celebrate, the band will be performing at the Northcote Social Club on 1 Nov.

DIVA POWER

Nina Simone Black Diva Power tells the story of one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century – an icon of music who crossed the genres of jazz, blues and soul and was a passionate civil rights activist. Starring Ruth Rogers-Wright as Simone and written by Neil Cole, the play runs at Chapel Off Chapel until 28 Sep.

EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS

LOOK SHARPE

Already confirmed to appear at the iconic Bluesfest in Byron Bay this coming Easter, it is now confirmed that LA natives Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros will also be performing a couple of headline gigs. See their joyous and uplifting live show at the Palace Theatre on 15 Apr before they hit Bluesfest on 17 Apr.

“I LOVE A MOJITO – IT’S A HANGING BASKET IN A GLASS”

ON THE ROCKS

Removed from her guise as Oz rock queen, Sarah McLeod is paying her dues to the ‘50s and ‘60s classics that she grew up with on new EP, 96% Love Songbook. She’s going to channel all the lounge greats of that era on a run of dates, playing 24 Oct, Thornbury Theatre and 25 Oct, Ferntree Gully Hotel.

THE GUDINSKIS

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

The Mushroom Group’s father-son executives Michael and Matt Gudinski are set to appear on stage together this year at Melbourne’s Face The Music conference. Arguably the Australian music industry’s top ‘power family’ Michael was judged to be last year’s most powerful industry person in the AMID Power 50 last year, and was ranked second this year, with Matt at 19. Also added to the FTM program is the ‘Discovery’ presentation and Q&A session to be hosted by Spotify’s Rene Chambers. For more info and to see the full list of speakers so far, visit facethemusic.org.au. 16 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

@ALANCARR SEES THE WORLD THROUGH MINT-TINGED GLASSES

KILLING IT

Ten years after first banging out tunes around Perth in 2003, The Kill Devil Hills are set to release their first live album, Past And Future Ghosts. Comprising live versions of songs from the band’s three studio albums and other single releases, as well as two previously unreleased tracks, this reveals the full feverish range and breadth of the band on stage, thunder through to tender. The band are going on a launch tour, stopping by the John Curtin Bandroom on 9 Nov.

CROOKED PIECES

The Crooked Fiddle Band are set to release their second LP, Moving Pieces Of The Sea, on 1 Oct. From their roots in post-rock, prog, folk, world music and punk, and displaying an inherent ability to withstand easy classification, with this release the band has evolved their own intensely distinctive sound. They’re hitting the road in support of the album, performing at Corner Hotel on 25 Oct with The Barons of Tang and The Quarry Mountain Dead Rats.

KINKY VISITS

Musician, author, politician, entrepreneur, animal saviour... Kinky Friedman has worn many hats over his long career that began in 1966 with the obscure, oneoff single with his university band, King Arthur & The Carrots. Not slowing down even as his 70th birthday looms next year, Friedman returns to Australia for his Bi-Polar World Tour to celebrate the release of his new Live From Woodstock album. See him at The Toff In Town, 27 Nov and Caravan Music Club on 28 Nov.

DO WHAT THEY WANT

Never a band that’s bowed down to rules or expectations, Closure In Moscow look set to continue taking alternative rock to planets unfound with their brand new album, Pink Lemonade. As colourful on stage as the album title suggests (and that’s not even mentioning lead single The Church Of The Technochrist), see what’s been going on in those wonderfully wide-scope minds by heading along to Ding Dong Lounge on 22 Nov.

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music

OPEN TO EVERYTHING Words Benny Doyle. Photo Shantanu Starick.

The enthusiasm with which Jinja Safari tackle life helped shape the band’s long-awaited debut. Now, Pepa Knight and his comrades want to show you the world through their eyes, writes Benny Doyle.

he blissed-out sounds. The Afrobeat percussion. The more sun we’re getting on our skin, the more Jinja Safari’s music feels right. But as much as their refreshing blend of indie seems perfect for all that good summer gear, like road trips, barbecues, bonfires and early morning surfs, it goes a bit deeper than that – a bright, shimmering reflection of the inspiration and experiences behind the songs. For it was with wide eyes and open ears that Jinja Safari founders Marcus Azon and Cameron ‘Pepa’ Knight explored foreign lands, and when the eccentric multi-instrumentalists returned with new tools and stories they released that unbridled energy into the band’s first record. “It’s been pretty cool where we’ve got this project where we could go to these places and record samples from each place we went to and we got more of

we went to, no one spoke English there so you’re doing a lot of hand signals,” he recalls, “but when it comes to music it’s like a universal language in a way, hey. It was nice just being able to enjoy each other’s company and smile at each other and have a little jam.” One need only listen to Jinja Safari briefly to marvel at the magical collision of sounds and instrumentation surrounding the vocal harmonies. Suitably, the band broke through into the mainstream with their song Peter Pan, and that idealistic Lost Boys wonderment still plays heavily in their musical make-up and visual aesthetic.

I’m going to use parts from and do some arts and crafts and see if I can come up with this keytar,” he adds. “It might go horribly wrong but we’ll see how we go. I’m really keen to get an autoharp [also], but at the same time I have collected a lot of instruments, and a lot of them I can’t even play yet so maybe I should start learning the ones I have before I start buying other ones?” he ponders. No matter which angle he’s coming from, Knight’s enthusiasm for music is tangible. Case in point: the shaggy-haired muso should be happy resting on his laurels with Jinja Safari’s long-awaited debut finally in the bag – he produced the thing, after all. However, The Music discovers he’s already getting restless for the future. Knight mentions that his head’s a bit spacey and cloudy today after getting too into the recording of new ideas: “Forgive me if I’m a bit strange,” he chuckles a little sheepishly, before expanding on the statement. “At the moment, ‘cause obviously we’ve released the album earlier this year so now it’s time to start thinking about what we can do next, so I was just riding my bike and had some inspiration so I had to quickly get it down before the interview,” he remarks in a pretty surprising admission. “I’ve got so many dodgy little ideas on my phone and most times I

“I’M REALLY KEEN TO GET AN AUTOHARP, BUT AT THE SAME TIME I HAVE COLLECTED A LOT OF INSTRUMENTS, AND A LOT OF THEM I CAN’T EVEN PLAY YET SO MAYBE I SHOULD START LEARNING THE ONES I HAVE BEFORE I START BUYING OTHER ONES?” an understanding of where the sound we’ve been so influenced by, where it’s coming from,” says Knight. “It has been a cool little experience being able to see these places and get a lot out of it.” The locales were found off the beaten track and away from any sort of culture that resembled the life he and his fellow bandmates enjoy in Sydney. Travels throughout the African continent provided his running mate Azon with great scope for the record’s lyrical content, and also allowed him to connect with the Ugandan township of Jinja – his grandmother’s home and the place that spawned the band’s name. For Knight, however, his soul was squeezed in the subcontinent. “I spent a lot of time in India and I absolutely love the way they live over there; they live so simply over there. But everywhere I went, you heard this amazing traditional Indian music that had really crazy and complex rhythms and melodies, and the whole time you’re there your head is just bursting with ideas. And being able to meet musicians in each place that we went to, and getting to record with them and getting some of those sounds on the album was a really cool thing.” And even in sleepy towns and hidden villages, the power of a melody or the beat of a drum allowed Knight to share moments with locals that may not have blossomed otherwise. “The Himalayas where 20 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

“I’ve got some new instruments that I’m using this tour so I’m keen to give them a try,” Knight reveals with glee. “I’m going to be taking the harmonium with me; I got that in India – Delhi – but I’ve been recording with it. A lot of the songs have the harmonium in it in the recordings but it’s been too delicate to travel live, but Marcus just made a massive padded box for it so it looks good, it looks like it’s going to be very safe. “And I’m making a keytar at the moment – I lost my other one – and so what I’ve been doing is getting scraps from the backyard and I found an old MIDI controller that

listen back to it and [it’s] like, ‘I’m not even sure what that is or why I came up with that’. But [I work] quickly, even if it’s just recording down the MIDI parts in Pro Tools and just getting it out of my head and quickly arranging it; so just then I put in a core acoustic guitar and put in some bass and a simple drum beat just to get the vibe I had in my head.” Creativity sprouts fast in Knight’s mind, but he’s dedicated when it comes to seeing things through. Nothing gets forwarded to Azon before it’s at least “half-decent”, and following that there’s much to-ing and fro-ing between the creative lynchpins before it’s time to work the song up with the rest of the band. He admits that he hopes listeners take the same care with the record, especially since the quintet are adamant the best gem is found in the full-length’s final moments. “The songs sort of all work as a whole in my opinion, but I think all of us agree that our favourite song on there would be Bay Of Fires,” he opines. “It’s the last song on the record and it has a bit more of that Indian drone and has that raaga scale included in there, and it’s a good ol’ sing-along live. Out of the songs we have played live that one has been getting a really good response, so we’re naming the tour after it because we like it so much and we want other people to listen to the whole album until the end and make sure they hear it.”

MUSICAL ATLAS From their band name to album covers, film clips to fashion, Jinja Safari clearly look further than their neighbourhood familiarities for inspiration. Their unapologetic global sounds are as free as the band members creating it, and their eponymous debut references this curious nature more than once. Mombassa On The Line Good spot; there is indeed an extra ‘S’ in this song title. We’ll assume though that the track is speaking of Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya. Referencing lepers, child soldiers and soulless media, its political lean is well hidden beneath warm instrumentation.

The Afro-indie troupe are excited by the opportunity to deliver an extended and more rounded setlist on this run of dates. Knight admits that after touring with the Locked By Land material for the past three years they’ve sailed that ship to shore. And although the band have been operating as a five-piece for many years – Azon and Knight’s song templates brought to life by Jacob Borg, Joe Engstrom and Alister Roach – this most recent batch of tunes are recognised as the first that have really been penned with a band in mind, a fact which now makes their live set feel more natural and fresh. The Bay Of Fires tour wraps its way around the country throughout the next month, and will see Jinja Safari extending the sensorial thrills for fans more than ever before. They want you to be a passenger in the jeep with them, and have developed ways to maintain the tribalism of those old shows, without the breakage bills that would follow. “We’ve got some visual artists from Sydney to help put a projection show together, and we’re making it more of a concept

show; we want people to feel like when they come to our shows it will be a bit of a weird cult experience. We also wanted it to relate to our latest clip to Dozer,” Knight adds, referencing the playful sect like story that’s played out. “Our past shows have gotten a bit out of

hand, to be honest, and we’ll climb on the wrong lighting rig or have too many people on stage. Some people can get pretty cranky when we do things like that and so we’re looking at ways that we can make our shows bigger and at the same time be safe – have fun but have safe fun.”

WHEN & WHERE: 25 Sep, The Loft, Warrnambool; 26 Sep, Barwon Club, Geelong; 27 Sep, Forum Theatre; 28 Sep, Karova Lounge, Ballarat

Source Of The Nile Obviously in relation to the longest river in the world, the lyrics in fact delve deeper, referencing Blue Nile – one of the most important tributaries of the Nile – which starts in Ethiopia and runs through Sudan before connecting up with the main flow to head through Egypt and out into the Med. Bay Of Fires Growing up in Tasmania, Marcus Azon’s lyrics mention this incredible stretch of north-eastern coast in the Apple Isle while talking about leaving voices of the past behind. A suitable song to conclude the record on, this track seems like a fitting finale for these upcoming tour dates, but we’ll leave that decision with the boys.

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 21

fashion

MADRID ON THE GRID Carloz Diazâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2014 Spring-Summer collection was unveiled earlier this month at Madrid Fashion Week. Bombarded with the noise of global fashion weeks, it took bold statement to catch our attention. We believe Carloz Diaz has done that with his latest line. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an impressive fusion of raver fashion, spider motifs, bold block colours, blunt bangs and short shorts. Pics from Image.net

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 23

dance

WHERE THE SUN SHINES

disorienting. “More than anything,” he says, “I try not to think about it too much. I wake up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and I’m not exactly thinking what the whole world maybe expecting of me. But y’know, I am aware of it and there is something very exciting about it, something that can be very energising.”

When one of the dance world’s brightest names chooses to premiere his company’s new work at the Melbourne Festival, you can be sure that the glare of the spotlight will be intense. However, as Hofesh Shechter warns Paul Ransom, the light is a double-edged knife. Perhaps, given the weather and the time of year, it is entirely appropriate for UK-based, Israeli-born dance superstar Hofesh Shechter to stage the world premiere of his new work, Sun, here in Australia. Having already made two previous Melbourne Festival appearances, Shechter’s company are well used to

antipodean acclaim. Their 2011 piece Political Mother left locals looking for more and Shechter keen to bring back something entirely new. “Sun can be kind of a festive event but also something that could make people uncomfortable. So I think perhaps it’s a good balance to strike in Australia. It may be relevant.” For the rock-drummerturned-choreographicvirtuoso, the journey from early works like Fragments and Cult to universally lauded festival attraction has been fast and potentially

music

Known for creating works that attract clichés like ‘raw physicality’ and ‘darkly evocative’, Shechter reflects that Sun is a piece that is more consciously ambiguous. “There is something extremely playful with Sun but somehow it ended up playing with fire,” he explains. “So there is something quite dangerous about it. There is this sense of both a very heavy and a very light feeling and it I think it depends a lot on how the audience read it. It has everything that should be extremely positive but it’s not necessarily so.” As it is for every artist working with the language of movement, for Hofesh Shechter one of the principal challenges is to engage audiences more used to the spoon-feeding aesthetic of cinema and TV. Although great contemporary dance will always retain its abstract roots, there is a need, Shechter argues, to give audiences a way in. “I don’t come out with statements but I do feel that it’s useful for everybody and it’s more powerful if you do understand the environment you are in. For an audience to have a grip on the sort of emotions we are dealing with is important, otherwise it becomes so abstract that it’s too difficult for them to have an emotional response...I think that there is something very powerful about connecting ideas and emotions.” WHAT: Sun WHEN & WHERE: 11 to 16 Oct, Melbourne Festival, Arts Centre, Playhouse

UNDER CONTROL One of Melbourne’s finest exports Hugo Race is bringing Sacri Cuori, his Italian backing band in Fatalists, to our shores for the first time. Simone Ubaldi learns more about this “surf-rock band mixed with Italian soundtracks”.

prodigal son of our fertile ‘80s rock scene, Hugo Race spent the better part of two decades living and working in Europe. Now resettled in Melbourne, the former Bad Seed and founding member of The Wreckery is bringing a taste of Europe to Australia. Hugo Race Fatalists is the latest project in a diverse and prolific career. Formed in 2010, it is a collaboration between Race and members of the Italian instrumental outfit Sacri Cuori; a fusion of Race’s dark voice and their rich, desert-rock atmospherics. Inspired by blues, folk, psychedelia and Italian film soundtracks of the ‘60s and ‘70s, According to Race, their unique sound brings a depth and space to his introspective songwriting. “They have developed this whole telepathic bond between them,” he says, “It’s almost like jazz. They don’t sound like jazz – they’re more like a surf-rock band mixed with Italian soundtracks, to put it loosely – but they have this flexibility when we’re playing to do really surprising things.” Race first met Sacri Cuori guitarist Antonio Gramentieri at Italy’s Strade Blu Festival, joining forces with him for a series of experimental performances with a rotating roster of musicians. When he realised 24 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

that the performances had given new life to his music, the Fatalists project was born. In and around Race’s solo albums, albums with Hugo Race & the True Spirit and the Afro-inspired band Dirtmusic, Fatalists released a self-titled debut and the 2012 album, We Never Had Control. We Never Had Control is a very personal record for Race, jigsaw pieces fit together to create an impression of a period of time, drawn from scraps of life as mundane as text messages. “If the record has

a theme, I guess it’s just the brevity of life and how you can’t slow it down or shape it too easily. Things tend to happen, for reasons or just randomly, and you just can’t stop it,” Race explains. Hugo Race Fatalists will tour Australia for the first time in September, and Race hopes that he will find a welcoming audience for his Italian bandmates. While Sacri Cuori have a considerable profile in Europe, they have yet to grace local stages. “They’re an unknown quantity here, but I think Australian audiences will be surprised by how charming they are as a live performance... They’re unlike any other band I’ve played with.” WHAT: We Never Had Control (Rough Velvet Records/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: 29 Sep, Post Office Hotel

oral history

THE MAKING OF THE POWER AND THE PASSION MUSIC VIDEO Sydney history, artists’ rights and the perfection of the Midnight Oil “formula” – it’s all wrapped up in the making of the Power And The Passion music video, as Kris Swales discovers when he tracks down three of the key players.

t’s a cement pylon like many others under the Woolloomooloo viaduct – covered in the ubiquitous markings of an inner-Sydney graff writer, with a forlorn pile of plush toys rotting at its base. This particular pylon may be stripped bare, but the large painting on the next pylon along is one of nine surviving from the Woolloomooloo Mural Project. Conceived in 1982 as a community statement against rampant development and a document of the area’s history, the project also included seven temporary paintings, including Robin Heks and Graham Kime’s now iconic I Love A Plundered Country where the plush toy shrine now stands. With those five words, Heks and Kime captured some of the spirit of Midnight Oil’s Power And The Passion, released later that year. Then the music video, shot under the viaduct, announced them to the rest of the world. Rob Hirst (Drummer): I think Ray Argall and co went looking for a place that would also represent this sense that we had back then – which, by the way, is very much still alive – of the big media barons, ahem, Rupert – and others and big corporate greed running the show against the endeavours and the passions of the little guy. So we found that location down in Woolloomooloo. Merilyn Fairskye (Artist/Curator, Woolloomooloo Mural Project): We had a real run-in with Midnight Oil at the time because they didn’t ask our permission to shoot in front of the murals. Ray Argall (Director): It is interesting that now we live in a world where Intellectual Property is a really crucial issue and I’m acutely aware of it in all the work I do. However 30 years ago the process we went through

26 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

was a very simple, straightforward clearance with the Council to work in a public area. Merilyn Fairskye: As one of the two organising artists on the project I did go and speak to their manager* – who, I have to say, was rather hostile. Ray Argall: I think Gary [Morris, Midnight Oil’s manager until July 2013] would’ve been the main person that negotiated with them to resolve anything. I have to say that in my experience, Gary and Peter [Garrett] both deal with the absolute most integrity. Merilyn Fairskye: Eventually they agreed to pay the two artists a usage fee of $50 [$157, adjusted for inflation]. Ray Argall: The [music video] budgets were not big. Anywhere between the lowest for around $1000 [$3,144, adjusted] and

the highest probably didn’t get above 10, and we were probably in the middle ground somewhere. Merilyn Fairskye: I don’t want to make out that we hate Midnight Oil or anything like that! It’s just because we were so involved at the time with defending artists’ rights; we were all real activists around it. Ray Argall: Once we’d found that area to work in... If you look in the clip you can see when we’re circling around, there’s quite a little crowd of people. You know, there’s music playing and it’s probably a warm late spring night or something. Rob Hirst: It was a really cold winter’s night, I remember. I was sick as a dog and didn’t really want to do it. I got dragged out there but as soon as the music started we were kind of on. Ray Argall: We rolled the playback pretty much from beginning to end and I just captured that energy not unlike I would’ve on stage, however there was no audience so I was able to go everywhere with the camera. We were probably there for a couple of hours. We did around four runs of the song. Rob Hirst: Pete’s dancing and his performance is just great. It really just defined that unique dancing style. After I kicked the drums off the thing I had nothing more to hit, so I just grabbed a drum and sort of do this weird, Whirling Dervish thing along with Peter. Ray Argall: I also got them the next day to basically do the same thing, a few runs of the song in a studio against a chroma key background. That was going to give me the parts, what I needed from them, to work with all of the other images I was going to put together.

“THE WAY TO SEDUCE PEOPLE IS TO GET A KILLER BEAT, GREAT MELODIES, THEN GET PETE DANCING.”

Rob Hirst: This is the one that featured all the cut-ins that became a real Midnight Oil feature in so many of our clips for the next 10 or 15 years – fast edited cuts of corporate greed, the media and Big Macs and McDonald’s and crook lawyers and greedy accountants and what have you. Ray Argall: I had some stuff in my own archives that I’d shot, and I just went around capturing images that I thought would work. Rob Hirst: It’s all thrown into the mix, cut up really fast, and then that lovely animation as well which kind of gives the other side of the coin, which was that “get into the panel van and just drive up the coast with a sack of brown rice and go surfing” kind of thing. Ray Argall: The animation came from a guy called Graeme

Jackson, who was a very experienced animator who’d worked overseas and so forth, and that was something that the band, they’d come across him somewhere and obviously discussed it with him. Rob Hirst: The overriding theme of Power And The Passion of course is the little guy fighting big corporate greed and media lies and some other very familiar and favourite Midnight Oil topics of the ‘80s! After what News Limited showed to be capable of with the hacking in Great Britain and elsewhere, and News Limited’s influence on the recent Australian elections, you’d have to say “well, sorry folks, nothing much has changed there”. Ray Argall: I just cut all those other elements to the music so that that would give that, if you like, acceleration of thematic ideas, it would inject it into the song. Because really, at the end of the day all of the themes and concepts and ideas are great, but it really has to work with the music. Rob Hirst: I think what we learned was that the way to seduce people is to get a killer beat, great melodies, then get Pete dancing. Then, by stealth, the message goes in. I’m sure that Power And The Passion was the first of the clips and the songs where it dawned upon us, the right formula. *NB – Gary Morris was unable to be contacted before deadline. Read a longer version of this story on theMusic.com.au

WHAT: Spectacle: The Music Video Exhibition WHEN & WHERE: 26 Sep to 23 Feb, ACMI THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 27

music

BACK TO... After an indefinite hiatus that saw various members crisscrossing foreign continents, The Basics have returned. Matt O’Neill speaks to band co-founder Kris Schroeder about not conquering America.

ver the past three years, The Basics’ fate has often come into question. Following the release of 2010 live album, the band went on hiatus. During that time, co-founder Wally De Backer released his third solo studio album as Gotye and, through Somebody That I Used to Know, conquered America’s (and everywhere else’s) charts. Fellow co-founder Kris Schroeder, meanwhile, left Australia and the world behind almost entirely – relocating to Kenya to offer humanitarian aid with Red Cross. Until late last year, neither of The Basics’ two songwriters seemed to have any particular reason or inclination to return to their under-appreciated origins in a Melbourne pop-rock outfit. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the band when I went overseas and Wally’s Gotye thing took off,” Schroeder says. “I don’t know if this is a full-fledged comeback thing – it’d be normal for most bands to be off the road for three years. but it’s good to be playing together again.” Schroeder has always been known as the most candid member of the band. Previously, his direct comments about triple j’s role within the Australian music industry (among other topics) have positioned him as something of a difficult interview subject. When it comes to his mysterious retreat to Kenya, he doesn’t deny it was tied to the band. “It was a slow build. I’d written some grants and got funding for a couple of programs taking the band out to rural and remote high schools and Indigenous communities,” he says. “We went out and did some shows and some classes and workshops with high schools and Indigenous youth and I got a taste for humanitarian work back then. “In 2011, I’d had a bit of a relationship breakdown and I wasn’t sure what was going on with the band. So, it just seemed like a good move. Turning 30, time to do something different,” he elaborates. “All of the stars just seemed to align. Didn’t feel like that at the time, of course, but that’s how it happened.” It wasn’t until the band’s management invited them to put together a compilation that they started to consider the possibility of continuing. The process of compiling 2012’s Ingredients ‘best of ’ was so affirming that it led to a subsequent rarities compilation (2013’s Leftovers)

28 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

and, finally, a reunion tour. “The compilations definitely seemed to bring us back,” Schroeder confirms. “They lit a bit of a match. You know, listening to our old stuff... I don’t know, maybe it was sentimentality or maybe just a new appreciation of what we were doing before... We

“And then you start to think maybe you’re not that good as a band. You know, if you can’t get played on there, then what’s the point? You start buying into what other people think [of your music]. And that obviously flows on into a personal thing. You know, what part of it was me? What part of it was the other guys? You eventually just retreat back into yourself... So, yeah, a lot of personal things had to happen, but I also think it all works together somehow.” “I mean, I also think Wally had to experience that level of success to appreciate the simpler things,” he says. “He was always chasing, not that level of success, but recognition. I think, once he found that, he could

“ONCE THAT TRIPLE J SUPPORT TRICKLES OFF, EVERYTHING ELSE DOES TOO.” got to talking a lot more and it just happened out of that, I guess.” A common myth is that The Basics resented being seen as De Backer’s sideproject – but it seems to have more to do with the contrast between their worldwide popularity and relative ignominy within the Australian music industry. “We started to have quite a bit of momentum in 2009 and then, of course, once that triple j support trickles off, everything else does too,” Schroeder explains.

appreciate that The Basics didn’t ‘fail’ because of who we were or weren’t. It just happened that way.” At times, Schroeder speaks of The Basics as something that will always be around on some level. When asked directly, he’s more pragmatic. “We’re not thinking beyond the end of the year, at the moment. I don’t think it’s wise,” he chuckles. “We did talk about the idea of doing another record. It’s been mentioned a couple of times. But, I would never say it’s a surety... I think we’re content to just do these shows and see what happens after that.” WHEN & WHERE: 26 Sep, Theatre Royal, Castlemaine; 27 and 28 Sep, Northcote Social Club; 29 Sep, Corner Hotel; 24 Nov, Queenscliff Music Festival

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 29

music

GOLDEN YEARS It may have taken The 1975 ten years to knuckle down and record their debut album, but still, lead singer Matthew Healy seems surprised to inform Dylan Stewart, “There’s so much bullshit that happens when your band starts to break.”

t’s Friday morning in Manchester and Matthew Healy, lead singer for British group The 1975, has a pretty big weekend on the cards. “Our album comes out on Monday so I’m just fucking busy as anything. I’m in my home town for the first time in about six months and back to London this afternoon to prepare.” Preparation is something that Healy and his bandmates have had plenty of leading up to their debut LP release. “[Over the past ten years] we fucked about, we quit the band and we got back into the band,” Healy reflects. “One of us went to uni then dropped out of uni, until we got to age 23 and decided to put out an album.” It seems the time was right to put the band first. “The last six months have been a very humbling time. We’ve been a band for ten years and we’ve never released music… Now, as a band who have been together for so long and never played a headline show, we’re embarking on, essentially, a world tour of sold-out shows. It’s been incredible.” With the backing of Sony Music and the production techniques of Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Foals) on board, there’s certainly an air of expectation; something the band embraced in the studio. “All the music on the album was written way before anybody knew us,” Healy reveals. So, when the band went in to record, “It was more a process of preservation. We gave a lot of credit to the actual recording process. I’m a firm believer that physically recording a record is a task enough in itself. All the creative elements of the music need to be locked in before you can go into a studio and experiment with production ideas.” And deciding on Crossey? “There’s so much bullshit that happens when your band starts to break. Everybody involved is like, ‘Oh, you need to make a record with this guy and this record sold XYZ amount. You need to do a record with Justin Meldal-Johnsen because he did that new M83 record and it sounds aaah-mazing.’ Do you not know why the M83 record sounds amazing? It’s because M83 are fucking amazing!

So in my mind the best person to produce a 1975 record is us. Mike Crossey was the first big producer to come along and say, ‘You’re totally right, and what I want to do is help you embrace all of your demos and make [them] a grander sonic expression’.” A step

to return to a country in which he spent some of his formative years. “I actually lived in Melbourne from when I was about two to when I was about four years old. Aside from that, though, the boys and I have never really been to Australia and we’re really excited about it. We’ve been to Los Angeles, we’ve been to Japan; but I think Australia’s going to be the farthest away we’ve ever been from home. And it’s your summer, isn’t it? We’ll be having this kind of endless summer that we’re all really excited about. We’ve heard plenty of stories about the Big Day Out, so it’s fair to say we’re all pretty bloody excited about it.” So what can audiences expect from The 1975 live? “It’s everything you find on the album, except it’s all exaggerated a little bit on stage. That lustful energy that’s inherent in our music is really brought to life in our live show. The album has elements of being fantastical and overly romantic… but we want live audiences to laugh and have fun, not only think about the music.” Now it’s time for the question that Healy must get asked in every interview: What’s with the “The”? “I met an artist in New York when I was an impressionable 19-year-old,” he enlightens. “When I left he gave me a pile of literature,

“I THINK WE MIGHT BE THE FIRST BAND WHERE ‘THE’ HOLDS A LOT MORE SIGNIFICANCE THAN THE WORD THAT FOLLOWS IT.” away from the standard synth-pop music that has seen a mini-renaissance over the past 12 months (think Bastille, Atlas Genius), The 1975 release is much more guitardriven yet symphonic. Soon The 1975 will be bringing their album to Australia as part of Big Day Out 2014’s epic line-up. Healy is more than a little excited

full of beat poetry and Kerouac and that kind of thing. One of the books had been used as a diary by a previous owner and there were notes all over it. It was dated really strangely; for instance, the first of June, The 1975. It’s quite a jarring thing to see. To my knowledge, there’s never been a band where the word ‘The’ had held any relevance. I think we might be the first band where ‘The’ holds a lot more significance than the word that follows it.” WHAT: The 1975 (Sony) WHEN & WHERE: 24 Jan, Big Day Out, Flemington Racecourse

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 31

there’s a reason he’s long had a reputation as one of the nice guys of the biz. That holds with fans — be they of Robot Chicken, Austin Powers, Family Guy, Greg The Bunny or Buffy; those shows headlining a career filled with intersections to cult institutions — who view Green with a friendliness and an affection.

“I’m not all that threatening. I’m not a big dude. I’m not so handsome that their girl’s going to leave them. I’m not gonna beat them in arm-wrestling. I’m glad that I can be non-threatening to so many of [my] fans. I’m not Brad Pitt. Nobody wants my underwear or to rifle through my garbage. To be honest, the thing most fans seem to want from me is to get high with them. People want me to come hang out at their house and eat pizza whilst we watch TV whilst we’re stoned. I get the most basic, non-elaborate friend requests.”

ONE LUCKY DUDE

As well as his most famous roles – if we have to create a hierarchy: his turn as Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies and his grating voice-role as Chris Griffin in Family Guy would be at the top – Green has a long and vaguely unbelievable CV rolling out behind him. He was in The Wonder Years and Pump Up The Volume, two landmarks of my own childhood. He was in Can’t Buy Me Love and Can’t Hardly Wait, two similarlynamed films that stand as sublimely middle-of-the-road landmarks in the teen comedy uprisings of the ’80s and the ’90s. As a kid he was in Stephen King’s It and Tales From The Darkside; as an adult he played himself, mockingly, on Entourage and hosted a WWE Raw.

Self-confessed Stars Wars nerd Seth Green has been part of your TV and film life longer than you ever imagined. Anthony Carew pilots you through the wonder years.

“W

e’ve got a good case to say that C3PO is gay, but I don’t know if there’s as strong a case for R2,” says Seth Green. “I feel like R2 was more the begrudging suitor, sort of politely resisting the unwanted advances of his partner.” When you’re talking to Green, it’s no surpr ise that the conversation turns to Star Wars. The 39-year-old veteran of screens big and small grew up as both a child actor and a self-professed Star Wars nerd. Years later, as one of the key creative forces behind the anarchic stop-motion sketchcomedy cacophony, Robot Chicken, Green got to air out that nerdery for all to see. The series has mounted three separate Star Wars specials steeped in Lucasfilm lore and geeky in-jokery, with Green serving as writer, director and producer thereof. “I’ve loved Star Wars for as long as I can remember,” beams Green. “As an adult, now, I love it for being non-idealised science-fiction. It takes place in a future in which people have clothes as opposed to metallic jumpsuits. The ships they’re piloting aren’t these gleaming beacons paying testament to human ingenuity and success, they’re these beaters and junkers, falling apart because the people who pilot

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“I’ve worked a lot,” is all Green can say, with a selfdeprecating laugh, when you take a tour through the craziness of his IMDB page (Mr. Belvedere! The Facts Of Life! The X-Files! The OG Beverly Hills, 90210!). “I’ve been really lucky, and I’ve worked really hard, and I’ve always just tried to pick things that seemed interesting or fun. I’ve never just been ‘that guy’ from just the one thing. People have a lot of different points of access for me.”

them can’t afford it. So, even though it’s a very fantastic universe, it feels very relatable. “But the thing I most remember from watching it the first time, when the movie came out, when I was a little kid, was C3PO and R2D2. There was something about the colour, and the shine, and the robots, and the purpose they served in the story; that’s always stuck with me, always remained for me. It’s served me throughout my life as a great point of inspiration.” Shooting the shit with Green, whether about gay robots or not, is a pleasure;

Green cites persistence, hard work, good luck and other generic-sounding-but-undoubtedly-sincere reasons for his career longevity. But he also credits variety: looking to engage with various forms of work and, when presented with a lull, the ingenuity to create your own. That was part of the impetus for Robot Chicken, which began life as a ‘second job’ for its principle creators – Matthew Senreich, Douglas Goldstein, Tom Root – that had no imminent career payoffs. It was a cult born with very little ambition: first it was a two-minute short film. After some investment cash came in, it became 12 two-minute short films for the nascent frontier of internet content – “it was pre-broadband, so no one actually got to watch what we were doing” – and, then, after four years of shopping the shorts as a ‘pilot’, eventually landed on Adult Swim. “Because it came from such small beginnings, we’ve never anticipated it was going to go anywhere. That’s why we end every season with us getting cancelled, because we will never assume that this thing is actually going to keep going.” Yet, when the show became an unexpected success in its first season, in 2005 – “we got a million viewers, which no one could understand; it didn’t even seem possible” – suddenly the Robot Chicken dudes “had to think what [they] actually wanted to say.” Which is? “Well, we don’t have any mandates. We’re not out to poison children’s minds in any discernible way. We’ve always just worked to the goal of making things that are funny, that we all like, that make us all laugh, and every once in a while we’ll throw in some subversive social commentary. Even though, obviously, we’re not South Park in that regard. We think of it more as being akin to the same way that Monty Python was both incredibly silly and culturally informed.” Local Robot Chicken nerds will get to come face-to-face with the show’s creative crew when they trip down to Australia to present a live ‘show’ as part of the Graphic

“BECAUSE IT CAME FROM SUCH SMALL BEGINNINGS, WE’VE NEVER ANTICIPATED IT WAS GOING TO GO ANYWHERE. THAT’S WHY WE END EVERY SEASON WITH US GETTING CANCELLED” Comic and Visual Art Festival soon taking over the Sydney Opera House. “It’ll be a bit of a unique program, especially compared to some of the more elaborate presentations they’ve had at the Opera House,” Green says. “We’re thinking of it as an intimate conversation with our fans, much more than a big stage show.” And though Green insists that usually fans are “polite and respectful and reasonable” — and maybe just want to get stoned and watch trashy TV with him — there sometimes are those who are a little more ‘out-there’. “It really depends on the fan,” he laughs. “Usually it’s warm-and-fuzzy; but when people are a little more wild and aggressive and unruly, then it can go to dark places. “People give me a lot of home-made stuff. But, most of the time, I can usually appreciate where that sentiment is coming from, because I like art-makers. They’ll give me things they’ve made, that they’ve painted, that they’ve sculpted, that they’ve customised, that they’ve sewn. I never see it as creepy, I always see it as sweet; I can see how many hours they’ve put into this thing.” These days, staring at 40, with 30 years of work behind him, Green’s relaxed enough to take it all as it comes. “When I was in my early-twenties, I used to go to concerts and if I saw someone who wasn’t dressed like me, I’d be offended. ‘How dare they show up dressed like that? They haven’t earned being here, I saw this band play years ago back in Berkeley, these people aren’t real fans!’ And, eventually, I just came to adopt a different philosophy, which is more like, ‘Wow, here’s this person who I would’ve thought I would have nothing in common, but here’s this one thing that we both share, that we both like’. I started looking at it from that perspective; instead of trying to emphasise the differences, I started trying to highlight the similarities. It’s great that we’re all involved in this ongoing conversation, but some people find these ideas a little later. If someone’s only just watched something I did years ago, that’s great. I try and choose projects that are interesting to me, and I’m glad they can be interesting to people years later. If you can have a conversation with your hairdresser about Party Monster ten years after it came out, that’s actually just awesome.”

WHAT: Robot Chicken Live WHEN & WHERE: 4 Oct, Graphic Festival, Sydney Opera House; CREATORS OF ROBOT CHICKEN SETH GREEN AND MATTHEW SENREICH

Robot Chicken airs Mondays, 9pm; The Comedy Channel Robot Chicken S6 (Madman) released 20 Nov THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 33

music

MASS MOTIVATION Exploring alternative musical realities in far flung galaxies might seem a stretch, musically speaking, but as MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden shares with Guido Farnell, he’s just a hippy who believes.

he self-titled third offering from MGMT takes the fascination for psychedelia that was clearly spelt out on 2010’s Congratulations and mixes it up into a more playful electronic context. As we move across the album from the freaked-out funk of Aliens Days to the drifting, spaced-out vibes of An Orphan Of The Future, the New York duo offer listeners the kind of trip that even Lucy in the sky might enjoy with some diamonds. It’s reassuring to see that major artists can still stand their artistic ground and deliver delightfully idiosyncratic daydreams for our ears. The idea of releasing an eponymously titled album actually started as a joke. “We always used to laugh about releasing a self-titled album but in the end it became appropriate,” Andrew VanWyngarden enlightens. “It needed to be self-titled because I think this album is truly representative of our sound. A lot of the album was recorded like the music we made when we were 19 or 20 and recording the first album. We had no idea what we were doing and were just making sounds for the sake making a noise,” says VanWyngarden. As Mystery Disease swirls with synthesisers, the duo start to sound a little like The Black Angels plugged into synths. “It took me a long time to hear a soul or spirit in electronic music,” says VanWyngarden. “I think I have evolved a better appreciation of electronic music. Ben [Goldwasser] has probably become more interested in synths than myself. I guess I am still exploring the possibilities that electronic music offers. I like these little bubbles of atmospheres you can create on a synthesiser that can take you to a whole other world.” Once again teaming up with producer Dave Fridmann, VanWyngarden acknowledges that he was also heavily involved in the creative process. “A lot of the songs on the album came out of improvisation from which we would try to build upon. Dave would record hours and hours of improvisational jams and listen back to it and guide or encourage us on what he thought should be developed. He provided a lot of motivation and encouragement.” Interestingly, this album was almost entirely written in the studio. “It’s something that we had never done before. Usually when we have gone into the studio the songs

34 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

are pretty fleshed out in our minds in terms of what we want to record. Alien Days was the only song I had written prior to the sessions. All up the album took about a year to complete. We ended up doing about six sessions for this album and each of them lasted two weeks. It was nice

see how it would be easy to interpret songs like Your Life Is A Lie as being negative or cynical. We feel it’s a pretty common sensation for many people that when you think that you are out there and living your life there is a nagging feeling that there are some mysterious hidden people who are making decisions for the world. Nobody particularly agrees and it just feels wrong. The song is some sort of attempt to revolt against the people who are making those decisions and seem to be in control of everything. It would be nice if you could take a song like that and aim it back at those people. I guess I’m just a hippy who believes that focused thoughts are energy

“WE REALLY WANT MGMT TO SOUND LIKE WHATEVER WE ARE FEELING AT A PARTICULAR TIME.” to have some time in between the recording sessions where you didn’t have to think about the music or the album. It helped take a little of the pressure off and remain open to different ideas. We really want MGMT to sound like whatever we are feeling at a particular time.” Despite their seemingly whimsical approach, some songs may leave listeners wondering if VanWyngarden is feeling cynical. “I can

and our imagination can have real life effects in the real world. I think it is used against us a lot. So why not try to use it for more positive means? It is difficult because we never want to be blatantly political or have some social message that we put out there. But at the same time we try to construct our music with these little encoded messages in them and try to be subtle about it. We really appreciate fans who dig deeper and find their own meaning. This is why I don’t want to come off as being cynical. We want to be positive and motivational and give [people] energy and encouragement to work out what’s going on around them.”

WHAT: MGMT (Sony) WHEN & WHERE: 28 Dec to 1 Jan, Falls Festival, Lorne

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film

GET REEL

grieving and growing up.

Anthony Carew delves into this year’s Reel Anime program. Whether you’re into pseudo-medieval worlds, futuristic mythos or coming of age tales, this celebration of Japanese animation has got you covered.

hen that grand master of anime, Hayao Miyazaki, announced his retirement from filmmaking, various career eulogies recycled that oft-used but perennially-inaccurate cliché: that Miyazaki was to Japanese animation as Walt Disney was to American. You can dismiss it easily – one was an animation auteur, the other a salesman; one a master of storytelling, the other marketing. But the argument falls down at its most basic level. Madman’s Reel Anime mini-festival is an annual reminder at the incomparable

music

levels of artistry and sophistication at work in Japanese animation – in the way films are allowed an identity far beyond being a vehicle to shill toys. This year’s highlight is Hiroyuki Okiura’s A Letter To Momo, a Miyazaki-esque portrait of a 12-year-old girl arriving on a remote island in high summer, moving back to the town where her mother grew up after the death of her father. She’s watched over by three Japanese deities reincarnated as zany goblins, and the film strikes a sweet balance between metaphysical-realm hijinks and the pain of

Makoto Shinkai follows last year’s Children Who Chase Lost Voices with The Garden Of Words, another piece of profound cinematic romanticism. Here, he’s obsessed with recreating, in animation, highphotorealist depictions of water; his film filled with constant rainfall, which leads to droplets splashing up, dripping down, and running along everything. The film tells a tale of a near-tragic attraction between two school-skipping daydreamers, and doesn’t even reach an hour-long, but it packs a mighty emotional wallop. The Garden Of Words works like a perfectly-mounted power-ballad: over-the-top, manipulative, and almost embarrassingly sentimental, yet one that crests with a crescendo that’ll dent even the hardest of hearts. Otherwise, Reel Anime plays much more to genre nerd-dom. Berserk Movie 2 – The Battle For Doldrey follows last-year’s Berserk: The Egg Of The King with the second-part-of-the-trilogy saga of hyper-masculine warriors at war in a pseudo-medieval fantasy-world ripe with testosterone and liberally littered with carnage; it feels like there’s as many sword-fights in 90 minutes than in Lord Of The Rings’ 10 combined hours. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo and Ghost In The Shell: Arise make no concessions to any viewers not already steeped in the lore of their highly-sexualised near-futureworld mythos. And 009: Re-Cyborg reboots an old, beloved manga serial for a new age; its tale of cybernetic heroes dusted off for an alternate-2013. WHAT: Reel Anime WHEN & WHERE: 3 to 16 Oct, Nova Cinemas

SHAPESHIFTER MUSIC The unlikeliest collaborators enhance the new release from The Bloody Beetroots, but it’s about creating the future as Bob Cornelius tells Cyclone.

taly’s electro-punk The Bloody Beetroots, led by the charismatic Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo (aka Simone Cogo), headlined the Boiler Room at last summer’s Big Day Out. Now the sometime DJ has teamed with rock royalty in Sir Paul McCartney and Killing Joke bassist-cum-feted producer Martin ‘Youth’ Glover for the rocktronica Out Of Sight on The Beetroots’ latest album, Hide. Cogo started his music career playing with punk bands in beautiful Venice. He’s currently based in Los Angeles. The Bloody Beetroots originated in 2006. Three years on, Cogo furnished the Australian crossover LP, Romborama, taking in his signature Cornelius, on Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak. Over time he’d develop The Beetroots into a live band. Now Cogo is back with Hide and it has several implausible guests, from Mötley Crüe drummer and EDM convert Tommy Lee to seasoned UK guitarist Peter Frampton, hipster MC/singer Theophilus London and soulful expat Sam Sparro. “The intention behind this [album] was really to get my listeners to understand how history can create the future. Working

36 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

with new collaborators really helps to cement influences from the past who have led me to create the sound that I have.” Arguably, Hide’s most intriguing cameo is McCartney on Out Of Sight. Cogo recycled a song by McCartney’s experimental (and electronic!) ‘90s vehicle The Fireman. “I was in the studio with Youth and he basically helped make it happen. He asked me who I would like to collaborate with on my new album and I told him Sir Paul McCartney. He actually had

an old song from Paul – one thing led to another, and Out Of Sight was created not long after.” Latterly Cogo has suggested the “layered” Beetroots is not only ‘punk’ musically, but also ideologically, talking up his online “cultural movement”, The Real Church Of Noise. “My message doesn’t really change year by year – it’s more about the philosophy behind music and art and culture. I want more kids today to stand up for what they believe in – even if that’s not straightforward.” Indeed, Cogo is no militant punk. After all, he did remix Britney Spears’ Ke$ha-authored Till The World Ends (not to mention the theme to MTV’s supernatural series, Teen Wolf), although possibly that was subversive. “Anyone who knows me knows I like to take something and rip it apart and create something new from it. So that’s what I did – I wanted to destroy and recreate the track.” WHAT: Hide (Hussle/Ministry Of Sound) WHEN & WHERE: 7 Dec, Stereosonic, Royal Melbourne Showgrounds

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 37

music

FEEL SO REAL One the eve of revisiting their debut album Raise for the first time, Swervedriver mainstay Adam Franklin reminisces with Steve Bell about flogging the guts out of his Mum’s car, and his attempts to escape mundanity via volume and distortion.

rash Oxford guitar four-piece Swervedriver had already unleashed a cunning strategic plan to boost their profile before their debut album Raise hit the shelves in late-1991. Instead of singles they’d released a string of strong EPs in the leadup to the album’s release, meaning that when their debut dropped there were a lot of eager ears keen to revel in the scorching guitars, pummelling rhythms and evocative (albeit downcast) lyricism. The album was a stunning continuation of the UK ‘shoegaze’ sound pioneered by bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine, even though the Swervedriver aesthetic was rooted more in the tuneful racket produced by US precursors and contemporaries like Hüsker Dü, The Stooges, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Now decades after the fact the recently-reformed outfit are touring Raise in its entirety for the first time, and frontman and chief songwriter Adam Franklin is clearly excited to be revisiting this fruitful creative era from his youth. “I think over time you realise that people don’t really change that much, so people generally have the same overall mindset,” he reflects. “I think there was a mixture of youthful aspirations and enthusiasm, and it was exciting because we were just starting out as a band, and getting to travel to places that we’d never been to before to play shows was the dream come true. I think also alongside that youthful thing, there’s also a lot less confidence – probably paranoia, although the paranoia wouldn’t properly kick in until a few years later. Sometimes you imagine going back to these things and you think you’d probably do it better – you’d probably operate in a much more logical manner – but at the same time, the music wouldn’t have been what it was without that youthful mindset. And we certainly never thought of it as being a career, that was like an anathema to us – ‘This is just what we’re doing now, we’ll be doing something else in five year’s time blah blah blah’ – so on that level it’s amazing to be asked back to play this album twenty-two years later.” From a lyrical perspective Raise was concerned primarily with youthful notions of escape – all fast cars, open

38 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

roads and evading the drudgery of everyday life. “You know, the first car that I ever drove was a Ford – it wasn’t a Ford Mustang, it was my Mum’s Ford Escort and I used to take that out,” Franklin smiles, referencing Raise single, Son Of Mustang Ford. “I remember one time

and even though a song like the b-side Afterglow had lyrics about driving across the desert, it was really about a relationship. I think lyrically there was just a lot of ‘boys’ stuff ’ in there – cars and space travel and stuff like that – but at the same time it’s also grounded in reality, there’s songs about young relationships and break-ups that mean the end of the world until you meet another girl the next week. I think there’s a balance there. “Someone who saw one of the original Swervedriver reformations in London said to me that there was always a certain world-weariness to Swervedriver so it suited us being older – we might’ve had more hair back

“I THINK ALSO ALONGSIDE THAT YOUTHFUL THING, THERE’S ALSO A LOT LESS CONFIDENCE – PROBABLY PARANOIA.” taking it to one-hundred miles-an-hour on the Oxford Ring Road, almost like a mythical rite of passage – ‘I’ve got to do this!’ – something that I’d never dream of doing now. But all of those driving analogies were almost like a wanderlust in a way, the car imagery was like a vehicle itself for the lyrics. Rave Down is about small-town boredom and wanting to have something to do – have gigs to go to or shows to go to –

then, but we weren’t just singing about teenage lust, so it still works as older guys. I think it’s an interesting balance between youthful enthusiasm for the world and wanderlust, and there’s that world-weariness as well.” Musically, Raise has stood the test of time impressively. “In some ways you think we were sixth down the list or something, but people are still talking about it today. I think the most rewarding that was that people definitely got the Swervedriver ‘thing’ – there was definitely imagery involved and a certain individualistic style – and I think that people really grasped that. I think that all bands are an amalgam of their favourite things, and people sort of got what we were about from the outset.” WHEN & WHERE: 28 Sep, Corner Hotel; 29 Sep, Northcote Social Club

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SINK OR SWIM

synthesiser stuff,” he adds, “we really enjoy that [mix] of instruments, being a big band and all.”

After writing debut record By Limbo Lake in their hometown of Newcastle, Trent Grenell and Seabellies got out of their element the second time around, learns Benny Doyle.

omfort zones were a memory when it came to Seabellies sophomore release, Fever Belle. Born two-and-a-half years ago during a fiveweek residency in Melbourne, the Novocastrians then dispersed around the globe, clearing their individual headspaces before reconvening in Berlin, bunkering down in the studio with former Philly J’s main man Berkfinger. “It [was] a really weird, haphazard way to [begin putting] an album together,” says creative lynchpin Trent Grenell. Returning a year later to finish off the full-length in Sydney with Tim Whitten (Powderfinger, Augie

March), a decent bout of heartbreak stretched the process out further, with emotions taking Grenell back to Berlin where conclusive mixing of the album finally took place. “I was very attracted to finishing the record [in Berlin], especially with Berkfinger – he’s a pretty crazy guy,” he explains. “And you’re just surrounded by musicians and artists and everyone is doing something wacky so it definitely pushed us to have a different take on [things]. “We made the [album] a little dirtier than the first record; we’ve gone back to our roots, blending programming and electronica and

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Grenell’s statement is all but backed up by the record’s first single, It’s Alright, with its gradual sonic swelling, intriguing percussion, textural layering and atmospheric tones. “That’s why we came out of the blocks with [that song],” he agrees, “it’s a bit of a departure. Most of the singles from the last album were quite sunny, and we’re proud of them, but I think songs like It’s Alright are a bit more trademark of what we first set out to be as a band.” Injecting these new elements into a live set has been a challenge, but one Seabellies are rising up to with the help of instruments and machines more traditional than current tech trends. “Even though a lot of it’s programmed we still like to do it as much live on stage without backing tracks or anything,” he states. “We still play the old hardware instrument versions of things; instead of having Ableton Live we’ll have a Roland 307, which is quite primitive now but it’s still a lot more fun because you actually have to manipulate sounds and twist knobs and buttons and still get timing right – you feel like you’re still playing the song.” And with the hard yards now behind them, the freshly broken quintet are all but focused on spreading their sounds right across the country. “I just want us to get back on the scene, get involved and feel like part of the Australian music community again like we once were,” he levels. “I want to reconnect with people, and hopefully [fans] get something out of this album further than they did on the last [one].” WHEN & WHERE: 26 Sep, Workers Club

WILD LIFE

Asking Alexandria are returning to Australia, and as Ben Bruce tells Benny Doyle, this time they’re coming for the koalas.

“W

hen I started the band my goal was never to even reach this sort of level,” admits Ben Bruce on the phone from Texas. “I would have been happy pottering around on tour, playing in front of four-five hundred people a night – that was what I was aiming for then. As time’s gone on and we’ve got bigger and set new goals we have new visions of where we want to take the band now, so each time we grow and reach a goal we strive to move onwards and upwards and create new goals. It’s a problem when you hit the roof and stop there.” Up until this point, the career of Asking Alexandria has played out as a thing of increments. Since forming the group in 2008 while based in Dubai, guitarist Ben Bruce has been tirelessly working towards discovering the band he always wanted to lead. With From Death To Destiny, the British quintet’s third record, he’s just about there. Charting in the Billboard top five – a first for the York hardcore act – From Death To Destiny sees Asking Alexandria pushing towards a more classic rock sound, the group somewhat turning their back on stylistic trends that Bruce now considers stale. “We fell into a little pigeonhole from the last record of being a breakdown band and just playing a lot of open breakdowns so we really tried to steer clear of that 40 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

this time,” he says. “We concentrated more on writing driving riffs or licks and weird passages and stuff and bigger and better choruses instead of relying on breakdowns to make the song heavy. We were so open with where we wanted to be and we were finally brave enough to release a record where we were like, ‘We’re going to play exactly what we want to play and showcase a lot of our different influences, from Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe to Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, to Slipknot and Korn. As a record it’s so diverse and it reaches out to so many different kinds of people and different audiences.” About to embark on a

heavy touring schedule throughout the coming months, Asking Alexandria should have these new songs on lock by the time they land in our parts once more for Soundwave 2014, their second appearance at the festival following a successful run in 2011. And Bruce confesses he also has a personal agenda this time around. “Well, it’s got nothing to do with music but last time I was too scared to hold a koala bear, so I might try [that this time],” he laughs awkwardly. “I heard they had syphilis or some shit like that, so I was like, eww, I don’t want to touch this bear and then come home to the missus and try to explain to her, ‘I swear I wasn’t cheating on you, I got it from a koala bear’. [No one’s ever buying that story], it’s like the ‘dog ate my homework’ bit.” WHAT: From Death To Destiny (Sumerian/ADA) WHEN & WHERE: 28 Feb, Soundwave, Flemington Racecourse

Risky business? Maybe. No doubt some fans will resist investing 16 minutes in something that only loosely resembles the music of a band they once knew. But, hey! A western frontier-style concept album was hardly what anyone would’ve expected for their second LP, and that’s exactly what they did. Radio’s not gonna touch it, at least outside of the few community broadcasters that have already jumped on board, but that doesn’t seem to be the point. What they’ve managed to do is capture that moment we non-musicians can only dream about, and a lot of bands let slip through their fingers – the moment of spontaneous inception, the point at which a song is created. They’ve caught the energy of this on tape and laid it out for the world to see, and it’s a beautiful thing. “The first time we played it we just sat on the same kind of groove for, like, 45 minutes and we were just like, ‘This is insane!’” continues Moore. “It was like the coolest moment we’d had jamming and we didn’t get tired of it and everyone was just in the song... Once you’ve done it once it’s hard to recapture that energy so it took us a lot of tweaking to get it back to that original vibe where everyone was like, ‘This is sick!’ the whole way through... You can just get lost in it.”

GROOVE ADDICTS King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s drummer/multiinstrumentalist Eric Moore geeks out with Samson McDougall about the jam that led to their latest single: “It was the best thing we thought we’d ever done in a song.”

here’s a new King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard song out and it’ll probably go down as the most smokin’ Australian psychedelic release of the year. Head On/Pill is actually more like two songs wrapped up under the one banner; it’s 16 minutes of flower-pop groove realisation, complete with sitar breaks, metronomic double drumming and echoed vocals buried in the deepest hallucinogenic furrow imaginable. It’s an aural acid trip to get lost in and by far the boldest statement of intent the band have made. Forget the undercooked (and at times derivative) fuzzy floppiness of their debut 12 Bar Bruise or the frontier cowboy motifs of their second album Eyes Like The Sky, with Float Along – Fill Your Lungs King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have finally arrived. Buy the ticket, take the ride. For those who are new to the band, the Victorian country kids have never shied away from revealing their influences in their music and they aimed high: Pavement and Thee Oh Sees, amongst others. If that sounds like your thing, until Head On/Pill that’s pretty well exactly what you got. Now they’ve added extra strings (both plainly and figuratively) to their bows, but the fundamentals are still there. It’s freaky outsider pop music and where the debut album trod a knife-edge of heard-it-all-before familiarity, their latest release finally establishes the band’s voice. On the impression San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees left on the band, Eric Moore, one half of the KG&TLW beats department, says, “We saw them when they first came out to Australia and they had a pretty big impact.” This impact is there in spades on their debut, but the new record’s sonic pedigree is much more diverse. “Everyone obviously had their own taste in music, lots of older stuff like Beatles, Stones – classics,” he says. “Also a lot of the garage stuff, like, the Nuggets and Pebbles comps and all these weird twisted bands from the ‘60s... I always thought that

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everyone in the band’s got pretty good taste in music and that’s pretty important, I think, when it comes to actually being in a band and writing songs.” The band knew they were onto something special with Head On/ Pill. The thing grew out of a 45-minute original jam session that left the collective peaking. “When we finished that song it was like, ‘Oh wow!’ It was the best thing we thought we’d ever done in a song,” says Moore. But then they had to decide what to do with it. “We talked about putting it at the end of the album but that was pretty obvious and people would probably skip over it. As the first track it’s pretty hard to miss. We really wanted people to hear it and not think it’s just a long jam that people think is not worth listening to.” As an album opener, the song asks a heavy question: are you with them or not?

For newcomers, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs is gonna be a solid place to start. If you already know the band, the other songs on the album hinge on elements of the KG&TLW of before but there’s a breeziness to it that will further alienate some listeners and no doubt entice others. The sitar popping up throughout gives the songs a decidedly brighter attitude and the used-to-be-a-bit-brittle edges are all smoothed over.

“I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE ROCK UP EXPECTING A MASSIVE SHITFIGHT BUT THERE’S A FEW TAMER TRACKS.” The flow of the album also works. When you make it through the brain melt of the opener the rest of the listen floats along in the afterglow, but there are enough little flecks of colour amongst the quartz to keep you in there. Then there’s the six-and-a-bit minutes of the title track closer that ties it all back to the start. It’s doable on repeat, and the album as a whole is made to be played live, which is exactly what the band have been doing. Having now showcased the album in its entirety to a few select audiences around the country, KG&TLW are getting a feel for the responses to the record and Moore says they’ve been strong so far. “I think a lot of people rock up expecting a massive shitfight but there’s a few tamer tracks and stuff,” he says. “I think people are comin’ around to ‘em.” And coming into summer, soon these numbers will be comin’ around to all of us. It’s time to get paisley. WHAT: Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (Flightless/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: 19 Oct, Corner Hotel THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 41

music

INSIDIOUS POP Fake voices, isolation, carnivale grotesquerie – Philadelphia’s Man Man know no boundaries. Frontman Ryan Kattner ushers Brendan Telford into their heady world.

ver the course of four albums, idiosyncratic rock collective Man Man have crafted a sonic world steeped in warped variation. Steadfast in their convictions of subversive lyricism, and inhabiting their vignettes with garish brushstrokes, the band defy categorisation simply because the fluidity of their music leaves nothing to hang a label to. It’s all weirdly immersive, continuing with On Oni Pond, an album that the band has stated is both a natural progression from 2011’s Life Fantastic and a musical reboot. Ryan Kattner

(who immediately breaks the ice by speaking in an intentionally ridiculous deep voice) maintains that it’s the contradiction inherent within the band’s aesthetic that continues to fuel the band’s seemingly boundless propensity for creativity. “It’s a natural progression because I constantly evolve, which helps when not feeling bogged down by what people’s expectations are of what you should or could be,” Kattner explains. “To evolve is to stay relevant, to remain hungry, to force challenges upon yourself.” This conscious shift in focus on the construction of music mirrors

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Kattner’s shift in emotional weight over the past few years, resulting in a hitherto unseen restrictive veil being lifted. “[Life Fantastic] was written in a pretty bad place, whilst On Oni Pond was written with my drummer Chris (Powell),” Kattner explains. “By stepping away from bouncing ideas off of four guys, the intimacy of working with a partner allows you to take stock more wholeheartedly. I didn’t want to gravitate towards the personal world that the last record inhabited, and the reality of the situation was that Chris was the only one who wanted to write songs with me. Plus we had decided that if the songs didn’t come by the end of the summer, we might have to go our separate ways. It was a terrifying thought, and made us put the blinkers on. It was like, ‘Fuck it, let’s make a great record’. It’s not like we have 401K or mortgages; we have nothing to lose. If nobody likes it, fuck ‘em.” On Oni Pond encapsulates the fearlessness, intellect and absurdity that pervades the band. The sequencing of the tracks swings from carnivalesque jeers to jaunty eclecticism, the musical intricacies reflecting the juxtaposition between melody and subject matter, and Kattner sas that he is only getting started. “I get really bored with one-dimensionality; we are not onedimensional beings, so why should music be? Why can’t a song break your heart, make you laugh, contain nightmarish imagery, be a children’s story – why can’t one song embody all these things, and still be catchy and poppy? That’s the insidious nature of the lot of our songs; they are catchy in really sneaky ways. I feel like has congealed into something special here. I feel like an overzealous father showing everyone photos of his hideous kids. They are beautiful to me, promise.” WHAT: On Oni Pond (Anti-/Warner)

SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE Ben Montero’s band Montero “just came together by accident”. Samson McDougall learns that despite the impressive skills of its players, this outfit remains free from “insecurities”, “defensiveness” and “sarcasm”.

ontero’s debut, The Loving Gaze, has been a stupidly long time coming, five years in fact, and when you take a look at the personnel on the thing it’s no wonder. The brainchild and namesake of local visual and musical artist Ben Montero, the band consists of Montero’s good friend and pretty much lifetime collaborator Gerald Wells on synths and vocal harmonies, the no-need-foran-introduction Guy Blackman on piano, crazed beatman Cameron Potts on drums, producer Robert ‘Bobby Brave’ Bravington on bass and a little-known chap by the name of Geoffrey O’Connor on guitar. The songs are big, often grandiose affairs brimming with vocal harmonies, proud instrumentation and lyrical exuberance. According to Montero, many of the songs were never intended to be for anyone but himself. “They were just written on the piano for fun really, just for me, and I didn’t think there was gonna be any band,” he says. “I’ve just been collecting them all up and the band just came together by accident. It was only s’posed to be a one-off thing.” But with mates of the musical calibre of Montero’s, you’d be mad not to get them back on board. “Everyone playing in [the band’s] kind’ve got a really unique sound to me,” he says. “You know, the drums could only sound

42 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

like Cam and the synths could only sound like Gerald... Last night in rehearsal, I went, ‘Wow, these guys are kicking arse!’ I was just sitting there with a microphone and just goin’, ‘Shit,’ y’know, I’m really lucky. They actually really can play their instruments amazingly and, y’know, it makes me [feel] very proud and lucky.” Montero paints pictures in bright colours in The Loving Gaze – it’s a complete microcosm that he builds and it belies the seeming lack of coherent focus in the process (“It’s not something I’ve thought about really consciously, the whole sound

of the record”). The presser touches on a concept of taking the listener by the hand and inviting us all on a journey, and in this sense it delivers. The world created is fantastical, filled with notions of healing and love. It’s a breezy world but is not without sonic challenges – the kind that you’ll be better for exploring. It’s the kind of world that should be listened to and picnicked to widely; perhaps not so much attempted to be written about. “I believe in the whole healing-music thing because, you know, especially when people haven’t been in good places they know how important healing music can be. In the past couple of years, especially with the band, I’ve been in a fantastic place,” he says. WHAT: The Loving Gaze (Mistletone) WHEN & WHERE: 27 Sep, Howler; 15 Nov, Melbourne Music Week Opening Night, Birrarung Marr, The Residence

LET’S START A WAR

music

The Civil Wars’ second album has shot straight to the top of the charts; only problem is, they’re no longer speaking to each other. Joy Williams tells Dan Condon about their passion and her pride.

ultiple Grammy Awards, packed houses the world over, hundreds of thousands of record sales and widespread critical acclaim; The Civil Wars seemed to have it all when they made the shock decision to stop touring late last year – cancelling an Aussie tour in the process – but something wasn’t right. Joy Williams and John Paul White have called it “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition” that have kept them apart, but somehow they managed to make a stunning record amongst this turmoil. With a record like their second LP, The Civil Wars – a deep, dark, brooding piece of music absolutely heaving with emotion – all of a sudden people project all manner of scenarios and hypotheses about your creative and personal relationships read through the filter of your lyrics. “I do feel like the fire has been ignited in a stronger way,” Joy Williams says. “Added scrutiny is certainly challenging in a lot of ways because there are moments where I think people are trying to gumshoe the lyrics rather than really let the songs wash over them. “But in the sense of people trying to put two and two together, I don’t think you can on this album. We wrote this album over the course of a few years, songs like O Henry we wrote two weeks before (debut album) Barton Hollow was released. For people to think that we wrote within one concentrated session of a great deal of tension; that would be inaccurate. “The reality is, we were travelling on the road a great deal and you get to know somebody really well when you’re spending that amount of time together and you’re working that hard and that consistently together – which we all agreed to doing. The sheen wears off a bit and you’re left with the reality of who that person is and how we interact. In a way, with the varnish being removed, it allowed for an even more visceral process of creating. With that having been said, while we blend autobiography and fiction and metaphor and real life much like we did on Barton Hollow, because we’d spent

so much time on stage and singing together, it took on a life of its own.” Bands dream of being in the professional position The Civil Wars are in; a number one album with rave reviews the world over. Williams admits there’s a nasty sting in the tail of their success, but takes solace in the simple fact that they have made a great LP. “It’s very bittersweet; I’ve had moments where

remember that, amidst the turmoil, there was a beautiful body of work created from that. “I do ache that we’re not on the road playing these songs; some people I’ve noticed have imagined that it was because of me having a baby within the last year and a half, that that was the reason the band took a hiatus. But the reality is I’ve always loved being on the road and I’d still love to be on the road singing these songs. I hold out hope.” White has been unwilling to make any comment on the band, the dispute, the album or their future for months. Williams is careful to protect his wishes. “In truth, I couldn’t answer that,” she says. “The reality is you need to ask John Paul that. I believe he has his reasons, but it would be disrespectful to answer for him.”

“IT’S VERY BITTERSWEET; I’VE HAD MOMENTS WHERE I’VE BEEN EXCEEDINGLY ANGRY AND I’VE HAD MOMENTS WHERE I’VE BEEN EXCEEDINGLY DISCOURAGED.” I’ve been exceedingly angry and I’ve had moments where I’ve been exceedingly discouraged and I’ve had moments where I’ve had to wipe mascara tears off of my face,” she admits. “And then there’s days I’ve sat in my car, pressed play and listened to the music, and

“Any time a creative relationship finds itself under a strain, there’s pain involved,” she concedes. “I do feel pain over the fact that John Paul and I aren’t out doing what we do well, I do find myself feeling sad about that, but in the midst of all this I’ve learned that I have a great deal of strength, more than I thought that I had, quite frankly. I also feel really passionate about speaking up for this album; if no one spoke up for the album it might not get a chance to live.” WHAT: The Civil Wars (Sony) THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 43

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reviews

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

This week: we get lost in the world of Grand Theft Auto V, get deep inside Lovelace and Haim prove to last beyond the hype.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD Float Along – Fill Your Lungs Flightless/Dot Dash/Remote Control When it comes to making soundscapes that punk rockers and pop enthusiasts can enjoy together, they’re fine purveyors. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (which, by the way, is much more fun to say with the emphasis on each word’s final syllable) have returned with arguably their most polished release to date. Having settled themselves somewhere between surf rock and drone-scuzz-pop – as far as made-up hybrid genres go, it’s quite descriptive of the album’s sound – Float Along – Fill Your Lungs sees KG&TLW driven and focused on making a rollicking record that never gets too far ahead of itself. Taking a leaf out of Neil Young’s book and opening with a 15-minute double-whammy opus Head On/Pill totally works and sets the tone for the following seven tracks.

★★★★½

TRACK LISTING 1. Head On/Pill 2. I Am Not A Man Unless I Have A Woman 3. God Is Calling Me Back Home 4. 30 Past 7

5. Let Me Mend The Past 6. Mystery Jack 7. Pop In My Step 8. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs

It’s difficult to escape the sitar and theremin across much of the release, but neither is ever used in a gimmicky way – rather to reinforce the dreamlike and, it must be said, late-era Beatles sound across each song. With seven members it makes sense to include only eight tracks on the album, so that each has time to build, sway and ultimately come tumbling down around one’s ears with no restrictions. There is no rush to get through any song (God Is Calling Me Back Home being the possible exception). The album traverses aural landscapes regularly occupied by San Cisco (Let Me Mend The Past) as well as The Black Angels (Mystery Jack) proving that there is something on Float Along – Fill Your Lungs for everyone. Dylan Stewart THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 45

album reviews

TUMBLEWEED

VARIOUS

Sounds From The Other Side

Crucible – The Songs Of Hunters & Collectors

Shock The hard-rocking boys from Wollongong are back and they haven’t missed a step. When Tumbleweed got back together for live gigs a few years ago, I’m sure there were dudes in their 30s and 40s all over Australia who couldn’t wait to relive their teenage years and 20s of beer, bongs and maybe even the odd beer bong. Well, now that experience is available anytime, anywhere, with Sounds From The Other Side, Tumbleweed’s first long player of originals in over a decade. Sounds From The Other Side isn’t about reinventing the wheel, but it never sounds like a lazy rehash of the good old days either. Night Owl is all denim and leather swagger, which turns into an “ooh and aah”-infused chorus. A real stand-out, Dirty Little Secret sounds like the kind of song you’d need cranking on your car stereo if you were being chased down an outback highway by a rogue semi-trailer. Things go a little

Liberation

★★★½ vintage with Drop In The Ocean, which owes a lot to Bowie’s Heroes musically, thematically and lyrically. And Queen Of Voodoo is Tumbleweed singing about the kind of chick you want Tumbleweed to sing about – a bit of rough trade on the banks of the New Orleans everglades who knows how to party. It’s dirty; it’s big muff guitars; it’s the almost monotone yet somehow melodious vocals of Richie Lewis. Aaaah, Tumbleweed’s Sounds From The Other Side is just like being back in the warm, loving embrace of 1995, and it couldn’t feel more like home. Pete Laurie

TRENTEMØLLER

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At the other extreme, Something For Kate’s When The River Runs Dry and The Living End’s Say Goodbye are perhaps too straight. While Husky’s echoey Blind

Eye, The Panics’ surprising Alligator Engine and Abbe May’s Dog, obviously in heat, are among some of the interesting sidetracks. Meantime, Oh Mercy appear to think Bob Dylan should have sung The Slab. So to the most iconic (and problematic) of all – Throw Your Arms Around Me. Even its originators admit to never quite getting it right and Neil Finn has had repeated goes at it. Here, he offers a soundcheck version duet with Eddie Vedder’s swallowed melodrama that again doesn’t damage the hymn, but equally doesn’t add much to it either. Overall? Flawed, but mostly sincere. Ross Clelland

Days Are Gone Universal

In My Room/Balance/EMI

For instance, sharp, echoing drum patterns give lengthy track Still On Fire an ‘80s electro flavour reminiscent of New Order. Its reverb-drenched, pulsating bassline creates the impression of a polyphonic ringtone being played underwater. Likewise Trails impresses with

As ever, tribute albums remain a schizoid beast, some artists doing the testimonials by simply covering, while others seek to recast completely. In that latter category – and one of the major talking points – elements of the long-missing Avalanches taking to the early industrial funk of Talking To A Stranger, and cut-and-pasting their fingerprints all over it.

★★★½

HAIM

Lost

Lost lacks a coherent vision, instead wavering between trip hop in the vein of Portishead and modern club fare. Operatic, watery opener The Dream as well as Gravity and Candy Tongue each feature a different female vocalist (Low, Jana Hunter and Marie Fisker respectively) to the detriment of Trentemøller’s style. This isn’t to say the singers are bad; rather, their vocals dominate the tracks’ structures while the music itself meanders in the place of his usual, sophisticated electronica. In fact, it’s the instrumental sections of Lost that really shine.

It is probably time for Hunnas to get such a reappraisal; a superlative live band, and Mark Seymour’s songs – often illustrating the inarticulate angst of the Australian male – all a bit lost as they became best-known for an accidental footy anthem, and embraced by those blokes in wife-beaters who were probably being critiqued in the first place.

★★★ its Nintendo 64 aesthetic – shimmering chimes contributing to a busy, ecstatic sound. What these two tracks, as well the cinematic, tribal beat of Never Stop Running have in common is that they stray from gentle, minimal electronica, instead going all out in energy and texture. While Lost isn’t mind-blowing, it’ll be difficult to find someone who doesn’t like at least a few songs here. Though previous fans may be unconvinced, more experimental tracks such as the spooky, oriental-influenced Morphine, which employs various percussion elements to great effect, burn brightly through the regressive elements of the record. Stephanie Tell

It’s easy to be cynical about Haim. On one hand it all seems so contrived: three sisters who’ve previously had pop star aspirations finding their place in the spotlight via not-quite-underground indie circles playing an excessively polished brand of groovy pop that is frankly irresistible and oh-so-bloggable. But their first album makes it hard to deny that they have the songwriting and performing nous to back it up. Days Are Gone starts in familiar territory; we’ve had time to sit on Falling, Forever and The Wire – practically perfect pop songs – but they proceed to prove they have more where that came from. The soulful pop-leaning title track is a sure-fire radio single, the dirty and dark R&B of My Song 5 channels Prince, while Running If You Call My Name has Haim jumping on the big

★★★★ cavernous, reverb-laden synth pop that’s so prominent in the indie scene right now. Frankly, this is a record destined to be played in hairdressing salons all over the world; it’s slick, sexy and just edgy enough to not feel like a guilty pleasure. Rest assured Haim will become very popular in the coming months and years; there’s simply no way they can’t. But even if and/or when that hype dies down, we’ll still realise their songs are great and that they’re the kind of band we need far more of in the realm of commercial pop. Dan Condon

album reviews

★★★★

★★★★½

JAE LAFFER

When The Iron Glows Red Dew Process/Universal

★★★★

ALTER BRIDGE

MAZZY STAR

OBITS

Roadrunner/Warner

Rhymes Of An Hour/ Balance/EMI

Sub Pop/Inertia

Fortress

The Panics’ voice does the almost obligatory solo thing, in a manner that will appeal to enthusiasts of the band, and may find some new fans. For the most part, Iron is a little less lush than some of the band’s work, the focus more on Laffer’s plaintive voice and storytelling, sometimes with a social conscience, as in the workingman’s tale of the title track. There’s some Paul Kelly-style tales of memories and affection too, like the lighter To Mention Her, a duet with Angie Hart’s equally distinctive tones. Overall an understated listen.

Those Creed paycheques must feature numerous zeroes if threequarters of its membership seem willing to continue peddling grunge-lite tripe there, while their musical (ahem) alter-ego craft increasingly potent, searing hard rock. Boasting pure songwriting chemistry with Myles Kennedy and his golden pipes, virtuoso guitarist Mark Tremonti plays a key role in their hardest-hitting, most metallic effort (see The Uninvited). Highly accessible but soulful, Addicted To Pain’s anthemic hooks, All Ends Well’s uplifting refrain and mini-epic title track fit snugly alongside the groovy, syncopated riffs of Cry A River and Bleed It Dry’s startling Tremonti solo.

Ross Clelland

Brendan Crabb

★★★

Seasons Of Your Day

Bed & Bugs

Californian slow-core pioneers Mazzy Star stand firmly in the earth of their own woozy sound garden, and sound like they never stopped playing. After a relatively light-hearted opener, In The Kingdom, incorporating a softly gurgling reggae organ riff, Dave Roback and Hope Sandoval dive back into opaque, velvet dreamscapes and familiar melancholy passages. Lead single, California, is a standout, offering a simple acoustic arrangement that unwinds at a leisurely pace, stretching off into the night. The album never takes off; it’s a sweetly woozy listen without a natural start or finish.

Bed & Bugs offers a slightly different inflection of garageinfused punk than previous Obits releases – not a jarring shift, just a tangibly different vibe. It’s not laid back per se, just slightly more relaxed, and touches of psych-folk (Machines), surf (Spun Out) and even swampy blues (Malpractice) come into play, although footto-the-floor rockers (I’m Sick, I’m Closing In, Taste The Diff) still rule the roost. Frontman Rick Froberg’s immaculate pedigree is still prominent; another fine batch of slightly off-kilter but otherwise pristine rock’n’roll from one of the best guitar-slingers around.

Matt MacMaster

Steve Bell

★★

★★★

★★★½

ZEAHORSE

MOBY

INVSN

THE OCEAN PARTY

HUB/Inertia

Warner

Razor & Tie/Shock

Spunk

After a promising few years on the Sydney live scene, Zeahorse completely dropped off the radar only to return with a new label (Inertia) and a long-awaited debut. On Pools, the Sydney band demonstrate an evolution into a much tighter unit which maintains the baritone guitar noise fundamental to the Zeahorse sound; it wouldn’t be them without the super down-tempo of tracks like opener Career, lead single Tugboat (a personal favourite), the aptly titled Familiar Faeces and a banjo hoedown in Junktown Train. It’s music that is clearly made for their own pleasure – and fuck the rest if they don’t like it.

Moby’s status as a techno pioneer is well deserved, but as Janet Jackson once asked: what have you done for me lately? His 11th release pads the lack of innovation by being a collab-fest cast of thousands rehashing moods already well explored. Results range from Mark Lanegan growling superfluously just like his host (The Lonely Night), Wayne Coyne being typically happy-hippy (The Perfect Life) and Cold Specks’ Al Spx who fits techno-blues quite snugly on two tracks. All this simply extends his trademark into the realm of over-familiarity; thus Innocents comes off as a greatest hits without any hits.

Dennis Lyxzén is not one to sit still. Even after a wonderful career in near-perfect hardcore outfit Refused and great political punk rockers The International Noise Conspiracy, the man has more to say. So comes INVSN (that’s “Invasion” for those reading aloud), the man’s latest work. What it lacks in anger and surprises, it partially makes up for in pop hooks. Easily the most straightforward release attached to the man, the record never really escapes the trappings of its style. This is neat, to-thepoint, pop-influenced punk rock and it knows it.

Churning out three LPs in as many years would take its toll on most bands, but Split shows us that The Ocean Party are capable of pumping out a steady stream of lackadaisical lo-fi pop tunes with no apparent decrease in quality. With every band member contributing as a singersongwriter on the record, you would be forgiven for thinking that Split could have ended up a discordant mash-up of competing egos. Yet Split flows seamlessly from leisurely opener Quarter Life to dreamy closer Outside with impressive cohesion. With a total running time of just over half an hour, Split is definitely worth a lunch break listen.

Adam Wilding

Mac McNaughton

Andrew McDonald

Ash Goldberg

Pools

Innocents

INVSN

Split

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 47

singles/ep reviews

★★★½

BLOOD ORANGE FT CAROLINE POLACHEK Chamakay

Domino Records/EMI The equally buttery timbres of Dev Hynes and Chairlift’s Polachek glide over marimba, Caribbean percussion and a wiggling bass line. Riveting work.

BRITNEY SPEARS Work Bitch

RCA Records/Sony First three quarters seems like a build up to ‘the drop’. Killer bridge doesn’t make up for the lacklustre remainder; Brit ain’t got the conviction to pull off this housey pep talk.

LORDE Team

★★★★

MY SAUCE GOOD

ROSIE CATALANO

Independent

Playing a fusion of blues, jazz and cabaret, this eccentric duo’s exotic taste and distinct European obsession is conveyed by the sultry Laura Brozky singing in French on the opening/title track. Their smooth, smoky burlesque sound seems like it would naturally thrive in a performance setting rather than on record. Refusing to be pigeonholed, however, Wake The World offers some experimental artistry in the vein of Laurie Anderson while the solid, infectious house beat of Orphan Spirit Joshua Isaac Dance Remix informs a stand-alone track in terms of accessibility. They play 1 Nov at the Spotted Mallard.

Don’t be put off by the gaudy cover – this EP exudes charm and substance. Catalano conveys understated emotion through her voice as it melts into gentle acoustic songs, carrying their melodies effortlessly. These simple compositions consist of warm percussion elements and smooth male/female harmonies. The strong title track is haunting – backed by a chorus of spectral female vocals. Catalano also injects some wit into the track: “My dreams are their horror flicks and/Nick’s are their pornos”, she croons, suggesting she isn’t as prim as she might appear. She plays on 18 Oct at Empress Hotel.

Stephanie Tell

Orphan Spirit

Dreams Are Just Movies

★★★½

TURTLE & FOX The Plight Of The Stern Tern Independent This folksy release is grounded by the twee girl/boy vocals. However, it opens with the first of three instrumental interludes – a quaint soundscape featuring ukulele, water sounds and crickets. Interlude 2 blends cacophonous vocal sounds with a bellowing didgeridoo. Interlude 3 fuses campfire ground noises with soaring, wordless vocals. These distinctive tracks provide an interesting break from the dominating politeness of much of this EP. However, the hazy ‘60sinspired pop of Stern Tern and the brooding, saloon aesthetic of Solitary Drink provide variation within this lengthy offering through their darker approaches. Stephanie Tell

Universal A step up from her already impressive Love Club EP material; all crunchy handclaps and synth under Lorde’s peppery vocals. Epitomises idealistic youth.

MADE IN JAPAN History

Independent The ideas in History are more interesting separately than together. Drags until the final minute; too little, too late.

★★★

★★★★½

THE SMITH STREET BAND Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams

THE ARACHNIDS Lack Of Control

Independent/Green

Overwrought ballad meets shiny daytime lite-banger. When Sia’s songwriting is filtered through Dion’s angular vocals, both lose.

This unrelenting EP’s title track immediately conveys the band’s spirited, unpretentious pop, with its basic chord-driven format and punky essence. Frontman Wil Wagner’s unapologetic Australian accent drives his off-key, shouted vocals with power and charisma. Though Kids is one of the EP’s most emotionally driven songs, its casual swearing and prominent bass line still lend themselves to a furious track that doesn’t get too sentimental. These lengthy songs tell a story – their distinct segments of varying dynamics and instrumentation spanning different moods and energy levels.

Simple but effective pace and rhythm changes are weaved into opener, Until The Sun – an infectious, expansive pop tune. The harmonising finish is also executed brilliantly. Unfortunately the style and understated quality of this track isn’t revisited, though the energy is cranked up. Daydreaming begins the shift towards naïve yet catchy pop-rock songs with funk influences and a little edge. These tracks also demonstrate some skilled, crooning vocals, though they do come off as a little contrived. The EP’s lack of sophistication is partially made up for by the band’s liveliness and commitment to their craft.

Stephanie Liew

Stephanie Tell

EVES Zen

Independent Airy, spacey, earthy and dark all at once, yet with grit and guts, the intriguing Zen sees Hannah Karydas transform into Eves.

CELINE DION

Loved Me Back To Life Columbia Records/Sony

48 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Poison City Records

★★★½

DAVEY LANE

The Good Borne Of Bad Tymes Field Recordings/MGM This melody-driven release presents a familiar brand of contemporary electro-pop through its various shimmering, well-produced layers. You Got Me On Side is a marathon of a track, and a particularly glossy and glimmering one at that. It consciously displays psychedelic influences, finishing off with what sounds like a UFO taking off. This high quality indie rock would serve as perfect ‘goodtimes’ summer party music, as it maintains an intense pace for its relentlessly upbeat duration. Davey Lane plays at the Karova Lounge (Ballarat) on 3 Oct and The Tote on 5 Oct. Stephanie Tell

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THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 49

50 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

live reviews

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA, DIE ROTEN PUNKTE Forum Theatre 20 Sep Proceedings start early so we miss out on most of Aussie duo’s Die Roten Punkte set. A comedy act of sorts, they get their faux Berliner on and bring down the house with the electro bump of Ich Bin Nicht Ein Roboter (I Am A Lion). Palmer, wearing a tee with a slogan that tells the Prime Minister where to go, has a lot of fun just dancing on stage.

the main event. Meow Meow, looking like an extra from Cabaret, introduces Palmer & The GTO. The show gets off to a fiery start with Do It With A Rock Star. The GTO are not so much an orchestra as a fiercely rocking band that features The Swans’ Thor on drums. Palmer energises fans when she dives into the audience sending security and fans scurrying in her wake. Resplendent in a lacy bra and corset, Palmer is in fine form. Throughout the evening fans randomly throw presents, flowers and bras on stage. There is a lot of banter in between songs and at one point Palmer talks about guilty pleasures, suggesting that we should not feel guilty about the things that please us. Palmer’s guilty pleasures tonight are the covers she slips into the set. A pretty wild version of Smells Like Teen Spirit keeps

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA @ FORUM THEATRE. PIC: ANDREW BRISCOE

After a short break, Palmer introduces body poet Sabrina D’Angelo. Part clown, part mime, she works with a plastic supermarket bag and imaginatively turns it into a phallus of sorts before some sticky goo ends up on her face and a weird pair of underpants. A largely silent audience gasps with amusement as she finally turns into some kind of hopping ninja and bounces off the stage. As soon as D’Angelo’s done, Amanda Palmer returns with The Grand Theft Orchestra’s bass player Jherek Bischoff who whips up wild, out-of-control loops on his bass guitar to create one nasty, rocking groove with plenty of thump. Playing only two songs, Bischoff leaves many wishing he had played for longer. After the outlandish Brendan Maclean performs two songs (his own song Stupid and then Katy Perry’s Firework), it’s time for

showcases the best of what she has to offer. She crowd-surfs in a dress with a very long train during Bottomfeeder. Citing Paul Kelly as an influence, Palmer traces a path From St Kilda To Fitzroy, which is her ode to all things Melbourne. Leeds United brings down the night and has everyone smiling, dancing and feeling pretty fine. Guido Farnell

BEACH FOSSILS, TERRIBLE TRUTHS, MINING BOOM Corner Hotel 21 Sep The night begins with two great local outfits. Openers Mining Boom are a garage-pop four-

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA @ FORUM THEATRE. PIC: ANDREW BRISCOE

us jumping, but Common People and Sweet Dreams (dropped later in the show) feel like filler. They cover Noah Britton’s I Love You So Much with a sincerity that is affecting. Disappointingly, the melancholy sadness of Bat For Lashes’ Laura is replaced with torch song schmaltz and a touch of cheese. Meow Meow, fresh from guesting on the new Pink Martini album, duets with Palmer on the old Dresden Dolls tune Missed Me. Palmer’s last album Theatre Is Evil was recorded in Melbourne and she also will move here early next year to write a book. Appearing keen to make friends with locals, Palmer introduces Kate MillerHeidke, who goes it solo on the piano to give us the very droll Are You Fucking Kidding Me? Later, Missy Higgins drops in with an unfinished song tentatively called ‘I Can’t Find You’. As the pace of the show slackens, Palmer accompanies herself on ukulele or piano and

stage” incident at their Sydney show, Payseur invites us to get as keyed up as we like before playing Daydream. Though luckily genital free, this echoing, melodic crowd favourite sees fans at their liveliest for the night. Payseur conspicuously sports a Korn T-shirt, which can’t help but draw attention to the fact that Korn are possibly the furthest things from Beach Fossils’ fluttering, watery sound. However the band are clearly aware of the irony, frequently telling us that they’re Korn and that “Beach Fossils are on next”. Another enjoyable ‘bit’ is the ongoing, somewhat sexual, guitar battle between Payseur and guitarist Tommy Davidson during some sprawling segments. They lean in close, whispering into each other’s ears as they play, at one

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA @ FORUM THEATRE. PIC: ANDREW BRISCOE

piece distinguished by their ‘80s-style keyboard tones as well as blurry vocals and catchy drum patterns. They’re followed by Terrible Truths, who perform melody-driven, indie-punk rock to a now sizeable crowd. The two frontwomen are true all rounders; flaunting powerful, dual vocals and switching bass and guitar throughout their performance. This, plus their airy guitar riffs and rolling drums, strongly evoke local favourites Beaches. Brooklyn four-piece Beach Fossils play a revved-up version of the trebly, jangly pop of Real Estate and Wild Nothing, mixed with some edgier postpunk elements. This is partially felt through the emo tinge of frontman Dustin Payseur’s emotive, lovesick vocals with their strong American twang. Citing an unexpected “dick on

point even collapsing on top of one another. Impressively, this doesn’t impede their playing. Beach Fossils certainly get full marks for showmanship; Payseur chats almost incessantly to his audience and even sings a large portion of Clash The Truth mid crowd-surf. The band end their encore with the upbeat, poppy Twelve Roses, however the song takes a surprising turn. Payseur performs some bizarre, barely audible spoken word over a dense instrumental section. His emotionally driven rant seems to fall somewhere between letting off steam and a wacky attempt at beat poetry, or, most worryingly, perhaps he’s having some sort of breakdown. It deliberately goes on for that little bit too long, the crowd growing uncomfortable and restless before the curtains finally close. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 51

live reviews Payseur is soon after seen, with the rest of the band, chatting with fans at the merch table while receiving a massage. This reassures us that he’s in good hands, the encore proving a divisive but memorable end to a night of great music.

20 Sep

The precision demonstrated onstage sees wide-eyed glances exchanged by the crowd. You’d swear one woodblock rhythm was a sample if you couldn’t see the musician responsible. And Francesco Giampaoli’s economical bassplaying defies the powerful, resounding results. A string of artificial red carnations borders the bass drum. And Diego Sapignoli’s drumming? Utilising various alternatives to the humble drum stick, he artfully fuses the roles of drummer and percussionist. If The Beach Boys were Italian, playing The Pink Panther Theme, that’s Sacri Cuori.

The hush inside this venue would rival a library and when a saw is played during The Spoils’ opening set it’s perfectly

Hugo Race has the kind of presence that draws your eyes towards him wherever he stands in a room. Always

Stephanie Tell

HUGO RACE FATALISTS, SACRI CUORI, THE SPOILS The Workers Club

HUGO RACE FATALISTS @ THE WORKERS CLUB. PIC: CHRISSIE FRANCIS

melancholy. A few of the band’s extended jam outros don’t quite go as planned, with the musicians not entirely gelling, but their music is bewitching with an unconventional selection of instruments that serves them well. What sounds like a film soundtrack wafts through the speakers and draws our attention back towards the stage. Antonio Gramentieri, Sacri Cuori’s lead guitarist, sums this Italian band up well when he recommends we forget what we thought we knew about “romantic Italian music”. He also explains their “luggages” arrived a day late, which meant the quartet had to borrow various instruments for their first-ever show in Australia last night: Thankfully, The Wreckery’s Charles Todd (who’s present in the audience tonight) was on hand with a baritone sax. 52 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

congregation are impressively attentive. One enthusiast drops to his knees in worship, remaining there for almost an entire song’s duration. Despite warnings that there will be no encore, Race and co return to the stage, after much coaxing, to throw down a couple of covers. Romeo Void’s Never Say Never (“I might like you better if we slept together”) is cheeky but never smutty when performed by Fatalists. And Springsteen’s I’m On Fire is delivered reverently, making us fall in love with the song all over again. This is one of those shows where musicians need congratulating if sighted on one’s way out. Our current crop of artists could learn a lot from these legends. Bryget Chrisfield

HUGO RACE FATALISTS @ THE WORKERS CLUB. PIC: CHRISSIE FRANCIS

impeccably styled, tonight in a three-piece suit with matching tie, you can’t imagine he’d own a pair of trainers. Race starts with a solo number. That commanding, effortless baritone caresses while extracting maximum meaning from every word as the audience shuffles closer to the stage. Once joined by Fatalists, it’s as if time suspends. This show is an immersive experience. With exactly the same combination of instruments as The Wreckery, Hugo Race Fatalists bring something that would be impossible for other musicians to replicate. Too Many Zeroes and Ghostwriter are standouts and considering much of the material performed tonight is unfamiliar, lifted from their latest We Never Had Control release, the

NGAIIRE, LESTER THE FIERCE Northcote Social Club 21 Sep Lester The Fierce, aka Anita Lester, fixes the problem of the empty semi-circle in front of the stage by telling everyone to move forward, which the halffilled room’s worth of punters oblige. From the dark, dramatic ballad Holland, to the heartstopping, jazzy chamber pop of O Father and the theatrical, ‘50s-tinged Colours, Lester The Fierce captivates the audience with their impressive versatility. Lester and her capable (and endearingly mismatching) band finish with current single Howl, a highlight of the strong set. Ngaiire is resplendent in a denim jacket adorned with spiky studs and patches of dinosaurs

and Donald Duck faces; not to mention her pom-pom decorated boots and plastic palm tree crown. However loud her apparel is, it doesn’t have a chance of overshadowing Ngaiire’s performance, as she begins with the bang of Rabbit Hole. Technical difficulties mar the first half, but once these are smoothed out it is synth-and-beats R&B central, courtesy of her three gun bandmates who are dressed in white jumpsuits with fluoro space-doodle patches. Ngaiire’s between-song banter is bubbly, charming and natural as she shares some amusing song inspirations: “Here’s a song I wrote when I was really angry; it’s called Die,” and a one about a guy she once dated whose party trick was that “he wees in his own mouth”. Latest single Around receives one of the biggest cheers of the night. So does the heartrending

HUGO RACE FATALISTS @ THE WORKERS CLUB. PIC: CHRISSIE FRA

ABCD, in which the combination of Ngaiire’s vibrato and sombre piano sends chills into the still audience. The lack of harmonies here actually emphasises just how impressive Ngaiire’s vocal expression and control are. Conversely, the addition of two backing vocalists for Dirty Hercules works a treat, with her talented band elevating the “why don’tcha” reprise into a sprawling psych-out. They also ‘rock’ up other tracks, giving Uranus a drum’n’bass duel and performing Ordinary (which appears on the album Lamentations as a ballad) in its original dance-banger incarnation. As well as making singing look as easy as talking, Ngaiire puts her whole body and soul into the notes that come from her, moving uninhibitedly with the music and feeling every word that comes out of her mouth. Stephanie Liew

ANCIS

live reviews

THE NATIVE CATS, BITCH PREFECT, EXHAUSTION

The Gasometer Hotel 21 Sep Bleeding from a sound check into an experimental noisefest, three-piece Exhaustion waste no time in confounding expectations about what constitutes a ‘song’. Moving from empty percussion thwacks to full-throttle jet engine distortion, the band play hard and loud, bullying their songs with unexpected twists and turns. Almost better suited to a party at a dysfunctional sharehouse than a gig, Exhaustion channel a Germs-like snotty dissatisfaction

mood, as vocalist, circuit-bentNintendo tweaker and melodica blower Peter Escott begins his doleful intelligent intimations. Wearing a long red dress, he cuts a fascinating figure as the duo move track by track through new album Dallas. Escott’s expressive voice and strident lyrics gain strength from their casually menacing dispatching. Highlights I Remember Everyone, brilliant new single Cavalier and the mournful C Of O demonstrate their peerless songwriting and disorienting construction; “They tell you strangers come and go and if you want you can pretend/Now I’m running out of people I thought I’d never see again/I’m seeing them again,” Escott sings archly. Sometimes danceable, other times more suited to

KVELERTAK @ CORNER HOTEL. PIC: JAY HYNES

and rage, expressed via feedback squalls, busy tom-heavy drums, simple basslines and drowned vocal yells. Their short, acerbic set is a powerful blast that keeps their rising profile on course. Similarly fuelled with bratty discord, Bitch Prefect follow and the cut and thrust of rapidly strummed clean guitars fills the room. Dissonant vocals stab and drone as the songs rise and hang. The trio channel The Vaselines and Flying Nun while adding a galvanising neurotic buzz. Dense and dynamically even, their set mostly comprises songs from 2012’s Big Time, although earlier single and setcloser Holiday In America stands out for its brilliant simplicity. Playing the second date on their national tour, The Native Cats take the stage to a nowpacked room. Bassist Julian Teakle sets the starkly muscular

17 Sep

somehow manage to pull it off. It’s a disorienting combination for the casual listener and at times it’s hard to follow, particularly when all the lyrics are in their native tongue, but there’s no denying the primal energy onstage.

King Parrot are riding a wave generated by regular touring and their amusing and excellent video for Shit On The Liver. They play to an almost-full room, which is an impressive feat for a support band, especially at a weeknight gig. Livewire frontman Matt Young roams the crowd atop an assistant’s shoulders during Bozo and likes to get up close and personal with the crowd and involve them throughout the set. The band includes several local scene veterans and their experience shows as they play hard and tight, reeling out grindcore riffs with speed and

Kvelertak’s live show is all about this energy and chaos rather than precision, with plenty of headbanging, stage diving and guitar acrobatics. Towering bassist Marvin Nygaard manages to play half a song standing on top of punters’ shoulders before crowdsurfing back to the stage and shirtless, bearded berserker vocalist Hjelvik dives into the crowd more than once. This is sweaty, highoctane rock‘n’roll, with the volume cranked to maximum throughout. The volume is the only area where Kvelertak hit a slight speed bump, as the sound is punishingly loud and some of the intricacy of their

Corner Hotel

KVELERTAK @ CORNER HOTEL. PIC: JAY HYNES

headphones and a walk through dark streets, their music maintains a delicate balance between knowing irony and galling sincerity. Dallas and this gig make a strong case for The Native Cats being one of the most interesting and strikingly original bands in the country, though it’s highly unlikely they’d give a shit about any sort of assessment like that. As their dazzling encore of Shovel On Shovel finishes (introduced as “a song about a recurring dream where I smoke a cigarette and regret it”) and the noise from the rowdy crowd fades, the duo share a glance and nod before leaving the stage. “Thank you Melbourne,” Escott wryly confesses. “I’m slowly coming around to you.” Andy Hazel

KVELERTAK, KING PARROT

KVELERTAK @ CORNER HOTEL. PIC: JAY HYNES

precision as Young screams, wails and gnashes his teeth. The reaction to King Parrot from Kvelertak fans who roll up early is equal parts shock and enthusiasm, one bewildered punter at the bar overheard saying “Who the hell is this?” while wearing a grin from ear to ear. He’s just one of the new fans King Parrot pick up tonight with an energetic and brutal performance. Kvelertak frontman Erlend Hjelvik takes centre stage during the opening guitar lines for Apenbaring – wearing the familiar open-winged owl head-piece seen in the band’s videos – and, from the moment the rest of the band kick in, Kvelertak’s set is a relentless onslaught. Fusing the blast beats and screaming vocals of grindcore with blues rock, metal riffs, gang vocals and guitar harmonies sounds like an odd mix, but these Norwegian maniacs

playing – and combination of styles – is lost as the mix loses clarity at times, swamped by the low end of the guitars and bass. As a side effect, the band seems to only have one gear in flat-out, which works, but it makes the show one dimensional when their music is anything but. The crowd of devoted Kvelertak followers seem pretty happy with the delivery though and you have to give the band credit for pushing such a frantic pace for 75 minutes. The high pace is such that they don’t even bother leaving the stage to return for an encore at the end, instead proclaiming, “Let’s pretend we left and came back, you deserve more Melbourne!” They leave nothing in reserve and after a wall of feedback and epic final song Utrydd dei Svake, Kvelertak leave the satiated crowd to file out with battered senses and ringing ears. James O’Toole THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 53

fringe

IT’S HAPPENING IN THE SPACE BETWEEN MY FACE AND YOURS Performance

Sketch and Tulip to 2 Oct A group of young friends renting together have their world shattered upon the disappearance of one of their clique in It’s Happening In The Space Between My Face And Yours. Written by Izzy-Roberts Orr and directed by Nick Fry, the play tackles the weighty subject of death and the effect it has on those left behind. Throughout the performance and from the outset, the missing woman, Jack, periodically stands front and centre to address the crowd on the tragedy of the situation. The creeping sensation created by this spectre from beyond juxtaposes well with the internal drama facing the group and how they each choose to cope with the situation.

developing acts brought energy that carried them through the opening night of their 11-night Fringe run. Megan McKay is the best of the bunch. Though relatively new to comedy, she already exhibits a strong command of delivery and, importantly, likability. Her set mixes gallows humour with workplace humour with pleasing results. Other comics include Dick Wakefield, whose set-ending metaphor about Campbell’s soup and depression demonstrates a comedian with promise, unafraid of probing darker territories. Frederich Jones’ macabre nursery rhymes are hit-and-miss, but perhaps the beginning of a more fully-developed concept. Events like this will always be a little raw and rough around the edges, but it will be rewarding to watch this group test their material over the course of their run – developing what works and discarding what doesn’t. Anthony Collebrusco

LAIKA AND WILLS

Sound is used evocatively, heightening the sense of isolation at times, and the cast handle the delicate subject matter with grace. Not one that should go unnoticed, this play is deserving of packed seats and open minds. Glenn Waller

LINE UP COMEDY Comedy

Portland Hotel to 6 Oct Line Up Comedy is a showcase for five young comics honing their craft. It’s not always consistent, but each of these 54 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

playing homage to the gangster genre of the ‘20s and a hint of ‘wogzploitation’ Aussie underbelly stereotypes. It carries a form of lightness preventing the crime subject matter from becoming too overwhelming through insulting quips between characters and exaggerated actions. The protagonist struggles to find his own identity and the title Not Axel Harrison is continually dropped through the performance, reiterating the significance of who he isn’t but not who he is, signalling to the masquerade that most gangster personalities project. Well worth checking out. Georgia Sampson

TONY MARTIN: THE YETI Comedy

The Butterfly Club to 29 Sep While the story behind the warren-like temple of kitsch that is The Butterfly Club would be a show in itself, a glimpse into the fertile mind of comic legend Tony Martin brings a packed room of excitable and

TONY MARTIN: THE YETI

NOT AXEL HARRISON Performance

Revolt Melbourne to 29 Sep A male florist trying to prove he is not a “pansy” gets entangled amongst dim-witted gangsters with only the mobster’s daughter seeing any sense. Characters are tied together through phone conversations, where flickers of comic relief are juxtaposed with violent tensions between hitmen, corrupt cops and drug dealers. The play eludes to film noir styles resonating aspects of Bugsy Malone suspenders by

well-dressed 40 to 45-year-olds out on this opening night. Even if you don’t fit into this niche, you would be hard-pressed to find a more relatable and better written show this Fringe. Presented as an episodic narrative of his life in an Auckland boarding house, The Yeti is an adaptation of highlights from his book, Lolly Scramble, and Martin embodies the warmlywritten characters brilliantly, with only a slight shift in physicality, relying on his peerless observational comedic writing and voicing to set us right amongst the cheap furniture and smoky fug of the house.

Seeing one of our (seemingly ageless) comic legends at work and maintaining his unmatchable form is not a chance to pass up. Andy Hazel

ART, SEX AND SNACKS Special Event

Tuxedo Cat to 24 Sep Art, Sex And Snacks is a live talk show led by a female comedian in conversation with a group of artists about their differing art practices. I was excited to see it. I imagined it would be a humorous and insightful experience. But it wasn’t. It was half-drunk dribble, hijacked by a couple of loud empty barrels who took away opportunities from the quieter artists to contribute their opinions and experiences. At times I had to hold back from getting up and asking the presenter what the hell was going on. After the show I was left wondering who this was made for besides the creators and their few close friends. At least on a TV talk show it starts on time and you can change the channel. Sharron Boyd

ART, SEX AND SNACKS

LAIKA AND WILLS Performance

Fringe Hub, Lithuanian Club to 27 Sep Laika And Wills retells the story of the first dog in space and the intrigues that surrounded it, set against the backdrop of an Indigenous boy’s homecoming. Sounds complex, but it’s well executed. Seanna van Helten has written a careful, affecting and poetic script that occasionally flops into dull exposition, which is a shame ‘cause parts of it are incredibly beautiful. The

fringe monologues from all actors are well-crafted and realised. The dialogues, on the other hand, are non-events, partly because of the scripting, and partly because of the uncohesive acting styles. The hyper-reality of Needle (Leila Rogers) and the conversational world of William (Ian Michael) don’t gel. And the relationship between Needle and her father Scott (Michael Wahr) is empty. The sound design is poor and distracting. The set design is ugly. I understand that it needs to be packed down at the end of each show, but an alternative is better than a compromise – the alternative in this case being no set. The story and acting are great enough to hold our attention. The way the script weaves delicately between the three worlds is deft, and there are moments of genuine poignancy. But goddam that squeaky stage. Cordelia Butane

DISQUIET Dance

Fringe Hub, North Melb Town Hall to 27 Oct Disquiet is a half-hour physical rumination on the state of

stillness is deafening. The show’s title evokes an internal commotion that will not be calmed. The scale to which individual audience members experience the intention of the work will no doubt vary greatly. Disquiet has the capacity to be both enlightening and ineffectual, depending on our engagement with it. Suzanne Truman

RED LIKE OUR ROOM USED TO FEEL Live Art

Fringe Hub, North Melbourne Town Hall to 5 Oct Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (where it was among the best reviewed of all productions) Ryan Van Winkle’s oddly beguiling show is a truly memorable and disarming discovery. Inviting you one by one into a small curtained-off alcove, warmly decorated as a share house bedroom, Van Winkle offers a cup of tea or port and invites you

WOLF CREEK THE MUSICAL

anxiety. Choreographer Melissa Jones encourages an experiential relationship with the work as we are asked to notice our own bodily and emotional experience throughout the dance. In a society where anxiety affects many of us as an insidious infringement on our enjoyment of life, it is relevant to return the phenomenon to its physical root. For despite its recognition as a mental health disorder, anxiety manifests in the body and can be empathised with in this way. The choreography isolates anxiety’s symptoms in an anatomical context, the effect of which however acknowledges the emotional burden of extreme restlessness. The craving for inner

WOLF CREEK THE MUSICAL Comedy

Fringe Hub, Lithuanian Club, to 5 Oct The notion of making a musical comedy based on Aussie horror flick, Wolf Creek, is a giggle in itself, but to attempt to pull it off is something else entirely. Writers/ comics Demi Lardner and James McCann, have given it a crack though, and have upped the shameless pantomime element to the nth degree with the production of Wolf Creek The Musical. There’s a very Monty Pythonlike cross-dressing element at work here, with Lardner playing male lead Ben (complete with erratically drawn-on facial hair), alongside a particularly hirsute and piggy-tailed Kristy, played by Chris Knight (whose efforts to mask his masculine baritone are in vain). The lo-fi production value adds charm to the tonguein-cheek proceedings, with musical accompaniment provided by a solitary keyboard, underscoring the comedic cheapness of it all. The performance had the crowd lapping up the absurdity from

RED LIKE OUR ROOM USED TO FEEL

to curate a short collection of his poetry. A welcome seduction away from the hustle and clamour of the festival, RLORUTF seeks to make a personal connection more than any show here, and overwhelmingly succeeds thanks to Van Winkle’s unprepossessing nature (and, perhaps, the port). As a model for poetry, it’s exciting. As a short, 20-minute dip into an under-appreciated art form, it’s glorious. And as a way to feel as though something here has been made specifically for you, it’s unmatched. Finally, and fittingly, it’s free. A subtle and dazzling highlight. Andy Hazel

beginning to end, in what is a blackly funny, over-the-top spoof. Glenn Waller

THE GOOD GIRL Performance

Fringe Hub, Upstairs at Errol’s to 27 Sep Set in the future, Olivia Monticciolo plays the assertive, business-minded caretaker of an elite robot sex worker and James O’Connell plays the goofy, softhearted maintenance man who makes sure the robot’s doing what it’s programmed to. The pair has

great chemistry, evident in the various ways their relationship progresses after the discovery of an unusual development in the robot’s behaviour – one that boosts the business while also challenging the characters’ ideas of what’s ethical when applied to an inhuman but human-like object. It pushes right to the boundary, displaying some of man’s ugliest desires; in fact, one scene – though not graphic – is so confronting and potentially distressing that there should have been some kind of warning. Nevertheless, The Good Girl is an engaging, thoughtprovoking piece from Emilie Collyer that manages to tackle an incredible amount in 45 minutes. Stephanie Liew

A MIDNIGHT DREARY Performance

Samurai AV to 4 Oct In a dark and quiet street in Coburg, performer Stefan Taylor boldly takes on four frightening tales spanning over 100 years of literature and storytelling. In arguably the most famed tale – Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven –

DISQUIET

Taylor fixates himself on the ebony bird, guaranteeing to the audience that the beady-eyed creature is poised only metres above. The Open Window, The Moonlit Road and The House On The Road are performed with equal conviction. Taylor is witty, crazy, gentle, terrifying and thus, an amazingly diverse actor. He moves seamlessly from man, to ghost, to child, to beast, and more than once the audience jump in unbridled astonishment at his rapid and convincing character evolution. Will you see a one-man effort of such calibre again? Nevermore quoth the reviewer, nevermore. Izzy Tolhurst THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 55

muso

STUDIO CREDITS

PRODUCERS: Kasey Chambers & Matt Fell

RECORDING ENGINEER: Nash Chambers

STUDIO: Foggy Mountain Studios, NSW Hunter Valley

MIXING ENGINEER: Matt Fell @ Love Hz Studios, Leichhardt

MASTERING: Jeff McCormack @ Music Cellar Studios

ARTWORK: Warner Music (in-house)

HANGING WITH FAMILY After being part of Kasey Chambers’ touring band the past couple of years, fiddle and mandolin player Ashleigh Dallas called on the country star to co-produce her debut. She talks to Michael Smith.

n accomplished fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar and banjo player as well as a singer, Tamworth-local Ashleigh Dallas hadn’t necessarily thought of herself as a songwriter, but with a friend and mentor in Kasey Chambers, in whose touring band Dallas plays, there was no way she was going to neglect that side of her creativity. The result is a debut album, Dancing With A Ghost, culled from 76 songs and co-produced by Kasey Chambers and Matt Fell. “To have Kasey come in to put her heart and soul and herself on the line to co-produce my very first record was something I thought I could only ever dream,” admits a still stunned Dallas. “Kase threw in lots of ideas musically and she understands me as a person and I feel that was important because the whole time she never lost focus that it was my record and essentially I’m a musician. So she made sure I played fiddle on every track that a fiddle could be appropriate in, and I played acoustic guitar. I felt she brought a lot of herself to the record. “And it was important to have the instrumental track [Slapsister] on there. That was such a big thing for me, because obviously I do play a bunch of instruments and play in Kasey’s band as a band member, and that’s something I don’t want to lose. As much as I love [being] the singer-songwriter, I’d love to be the musician singer-songwriter.” Chambers’ co-producer Matt Fell is himself a multi-instrumentalist and played bass, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ and a couple of other instruments on the album. He’s been making quite an impression on the Australian

56 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

country music scene, winning the Producer of the Year gong at last year’s Country Music Association Awards in recognition of his 2011 production on albums by Graeme Connors, McAlister Kemp, Tracey Killeen and Sara Storer. “I found Matt really interesting to watch; you can see his mind ticking over. He was very good too with the percussion, suggesting different feels that would take a song away from where it might typically go. He was much more about layering and also the sounds of instruments, and I felt Matt and Kase really complemented each other because I guess Matt’s a lot more technical but Kase would bring it back to the more country elements – then they’d blend them together and create more ideas. But because Matt was also playing bass, so he wasn’t always thinking producing, he was thinking let’s make it more a band, and it worked really well.”

“I NEVER FELT LIKE I WAS IN A STUDIO AND THAT WAS A BIG THING FOR ME.” Very much a family affair, Dancing With A Ghost was recorded by Kasey’s brother Nash Chambers at his Foggy Mountain Studios in the NSW Hunter Valley. “Nash also sang harmonies on one of the tracks. Foggy Mountain Studios is one of my favourite studios in Australia. It’s got this real homey and earthy vibe, the control room is that big and feels very comfortable the minute you walk in there. Then he has three separate rooms – a drum room which is also a vocal booth when we don’t have the drums in there, another room at the back with a vocal or a guitar booth, and a little one in the middle, and it’s all set up brilliantly and sounds awesome. I never felt like I was in a studio and that was a big thing for me because I wanted to feel more comfortable and at home, like I was just hanging out with friends.” Fell then mixed the album at his own facility, Love Hz Studios in innerSydney Leichhardt on the studio’s HD ProTools rig with its Apogee Converters. Jeff McCormack then mastered the album at Music Cellar Studios. Dancing With A Ghost by Ashleigh Dallas is out now on Essence Music through Warner Music.

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 57

muso

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SONGBOOK Published and distributed by Music Sales Australia, The Great Australian Songbook: The Ultimate Collection is just that – more than 300 of the most popular songs of the last 60 years and more written by Australian songwriters, presented in alphabetical order, with (as is standard these days) guitar chord tablature above the musical scores and lyrics for those of us who still don’t read music, so we can bash the songs out on battered old acoustic guitars at parties. Not every song is Australian-composed – UK singer-songwriter Tom Springfield wrote The Carnival Is Over for The Seekers, who made it a number one hit – but they’re certainly songs that are part of our musical DNA, from the ‘traditional’ The Wild Colonial Boy, through A Pub With No Beer to AmericanAustralian John Butler’s Zebra. All up, hours of fun. Michael Smith

MOOER PURE OCTAVE

RRP: $89.95 The Mooer Pure Octave is another pedal in their range that packs a big punch for such a pint-sized stomp box. The unit is based on the hugely successful Boss OC-2, although it also lets you add an octave higher, and two octaves higher, without any added distortion. The pedal has three mini knobs for sub octave, dry signal and upper octave and a large mode knob that gives you the ability to combine up to four octaves (two below and two above) on top of the original 58 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

MOOER MICRO DI

RRP: $89.95 Mooer’s range of mini pedals goes beyond the norm to include products like the nifty little Micro DI box. For those out there unfamiliar with the term ‘DI’, it essentially means ‘Direct Injection’, or a way to balance, boost or attenuate your signal before it hits a PA or Audio Interface. Mooer’s Micro DI is much quieter and smaller than the majority of DIs on the market, and with the inclusion

of an on-board cabinet simulator that’s incredibly useful to have. Picture this scenario: you’re a guitarist or bass player who’s been called in to play a gig at a venue you know has good foldback (or are running in-ears), but you don’t have the room on stage for your amp. Easy – chuck the Micro DI at the end of your pedal chain, throw on the cabinet simulator and you’ll get similar results to a mic’d amp. Reza Nasseri

MAYONES REGIUS 8 GUITAR

guitar signal. There’s just about every combination of octaves you can imagine, but the best part about the pedal is the tracking, so accurate it can hear just about every note in a chord clearly. My personal favourite setting was in the four-octave mode (two octaves above and below), with all the knobs cranked, placed in front of my Marshall Plexi with a driven tone. Here I was able to get a sort of church organ sound, which was unlike anything I’d ever heard come out of a single pedal.

The Mayones Regius 8 is like your dream custom 8-string because every little detail has been painstakingly completed. This instrument is interestingly made of swamp ash, with a Flamed-Maple top, a 27”/11-ply Maple neck and a silky Ebony fingerboard. A pair of Seymour Duncan-8 Blackout pickups sound the business, providing low noise with maximum output and clarity, and if this wasn’t enough, add eight Sperzel Trim-Lok tuners and an awesome ABM fixed bridge (probably the most comfortable bridge in the world) into the mix. As soon as I held this guitar in my hands, I knew it was incredible, and as soon as my pick hit the strings it was love! The strings have the perfect amount of tension, the set-up and intonation was bang-on, the tuning pegs held pitch perfectly (even with a low F#), the bridge felt amazing and the pickups produce the ultimate in ‘Djenty’ goodness.

Reza Nasseri

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the guide

Answered by: Matt Hyde How did you get together? I went to a show a long time ago when the other guys were performing as an instrumental three-piece. One thing led to another, we had some drinks, I wrote some words and became their singer. Sum up your musical sound in four words? Wall of howling noise. If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? Led Zeppelin, just so we could see them play; it must have been great! To think of the bands we’ve already supported like Melvins, Helmet, High On Fire and Kyuss is still hard to believe. Every time you play with one of those bands you learn something new. You’re being sent into space, no iPod, you can bring one album – what would it be? The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective. It’s a great ‘best of ’, close-on 40 tracks, and is always good music on a journey. I imagine space would be the perfect place to hear these tunes. Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? The night we opened for Kyuss Lives in our hometown of Wellington. Our debut album had just come out and it seemed the planets aligned, as far as putting out a record and getting the chance to play to a big audience. It’s just grown from there. Why should people come and see your band? We had a great time when we were here in May. Our last Bendigo Hotel show was up there with our best New Zealand shows – it was packed and the audience were flipping out, crowd-surfing – it was mental. Every band feeds off the audience and that was a fantastic welcome to Melbourne. Can’t wait to do it again.

BEASTWARS

When and where for your next gig? We’re coming to Victoria for a marathon five shows in four days. It’s gonna be cool. 26 Sep, The Espy; 27 Sep, The Tote; 28 Sep, The Bendigo; 29 Sep, Barwon Club, Geelong (4pm) then later that night at Cherry Bar. Website link for more info? Facebook.com/beastwars666

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footy

FOOTY FEVER

Grand final day greets us for another year this Saturday and, as always, Australia’s AFL and non-AFL lovers will come together to celebrate a truly national day. For the AFL diehards among us, and whether or not your team has made it to the last dance, grand final day marks the end of a season which began some ten months ago, most likely at a point when one of your club’s lesser-known assistant coaches declared each player as having ‘trained the house down’. Those four painfully overused words provided fans with optimism about their teams’ chances in the forthcoming season and that maybe, just maybe, this was going to be ‘their’ year. But alas, the last Saturday in September is upon us and once again most of us are watching on impartially, our team’s hopes dashed like a federal Labor party campaign worker a few weeks ago. We’re once again left to lament where it all went wrong… 62 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Nick Birrell breaks down the biggest day on the AFL calendar for the lovers and the shruggers. For those less enthusiastic AFL followers across the country, grand final day is a bit like a nonracing fan’s Melbourne Cup Day. Although most people around you at Flemington or in the pub are about to watch their one and only thoroughbred race for the year, suddenly they’re a ridgy-didge racing enthusiast and form analyst. Similarly, grand final day seems to bring together a

Illustrations by Sophie Blackhall-Cain group of people who inexplicably, quite magically, have recently acquired a wealth of AFL-knowledge that allows them to dissect the contest to a point where they can confidently pick the game’s first goal kicker and the Norm Smith medallist. Yet the reality of grand final day for non-footy fans is that it is essentially a day to get together with close mates and/or family, an excuse to let the hair down, maybe glance at the TV a couple of times during the game and to imbibe a few bevvies. Regardless of whether you’re into AFL, it’s one of the most exciting days on the calendar and we as Aussies choose to celebrate it in a variety of ways. For those lucky enough to be part of the 100,000 strong crowd at ‘The G’ on the day, the experience is simply unforgettable. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend six grand finals and irrespective of who’s playing, the atmosphere is almost indescribable.

footy The buzz around the ground in the lead up is festive and there’s a nervous excitement in the air, as diehard supporters of each side dare to dream of their team gracing the dais as premiers come 6pm. One of the most exhilarating parts of being there is hearing the roar of the crowd as the national anthem – this year performed by Australian music icon and long-time France resident Tina Arena – draws to a close. The near-deafening, goose-bump inducing sound is something in Australian sport that remains unrivalled from year to year – although 95,000 Liverpool fans may argue this after their spine tingling rendition of the clubs anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone, at the same venue back in July.

If you decide on the pub, then you needn’t worry about suitable viewing as most pubs will put the game on TVs dotted about the venue, or maybe even hire a projector that’s big enough to cater for expected crowds. But of all the great upsides in heading to the pub – freeflowing beer and food, good company, cheerful banter, as well as the chance to maybe strike it lucky post-game – it should be noted that there are some downsides. Be prepared for fellow pub-goers to drown out the game’s commentary (which can be a good or bad thing), and other less interested watchers might try to annoyingly capture your attention as you attempt to focus on the game. You may also find yourself subjected to an overzealous, reptilian-like supporter who’s bitter about missing out on a ticket and who you really won’t want to be around regardless of whether their team wins or loses. Those after a more relaxed setting will decide that a barbie at a mate’s place is the way to go. But take careful note when accepting any invitation to a friend’s house and do so only after careful research of the prospective host’s audio-visual set up and potential guest list. The TV has to be a minimum of 160cm and if the attendees appear to potentially be a group of disinterested stiffs, seek an alternate gathering – as a matter of urgency.

Shortly after finishing high school, a friend of mine selflessly put his hand up to host a group of 40 or so people for the Geelong versus Port Adelaide grand final in 2007. For some reason he thought that a TV set up in his garage, no bigger than the laptop I’m typing on, would cater for his guests – but oh how wrong he was. Unless you were seated in the first row you spent that afternoon crowded around the car radio. Thankfully, the day was saved as all of us wannabes drunkenly reminisced about how good we thought we were in our early playing days and if not for a few injuries how we all would’ve been at the MCG that day in a far more important capacity. So whether you’re a footy fan or not, AFL grand final day is one of this sport-loving nation’s favourite days. It’s an excuse to gather together, to celebrate how lucky we are in so many ways, to forget about our troubles for a while, maybe sip a frothie or two (or ten), a sparkling, enjoy the company of others, and if you’re lucky, raise your glass high to your team who have – with skill, dedication, bravery and a lot of luck – somehow managed to clinch that holiest of Aussie grails, the premiership cup.

Attendees at this Saturday’s game will hopefully not only enjoy the most fiercely contested and exciting game of the AFL season, but also be uplifted by pre-match entertainment provided by Perth favourites Birds Of Tokyo. Ticket-holders will also be treated to a half-time performance by Aussie music royalty Hunters & Collectors. Their hit, Holy Grail, has become synonymous with football’s biggest day and will no doubt please the masses come Saturday. That said, if John Williamson turned up and played the spoons for three songs, then whistled dixie out of his butt, it would still be ten times better than the utter shite dished up by Meat Loaf back in 2011. For those who aren’t as fortunate to secure a ticket to the game (and you can thank those undeserving corporates who year-in, year-out are seemingly gifted tickets), there’s the option of either heading to your local pub or to the home of whichever one of your mates has the biggest TV screen. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 63

footy

efore 1995 I didn’t really care about footy. I lived in Derby, in North West Australia, and my friends and me were too innocent and far from the rest of the world to have any sporting loyalties based on nationality or geography or time. We were into NBA of the early ‘90s and late ‘80s or whatever was at the video store. Derby was such a footy-centric place, too. I remember one of my dad’s friends asking me why I “didn’t like sport”. I said I did, I liked basketball, but that wasn’t what he meant. The irony passed me by. Then one joyous day, Dad announced that Fremantle were starting an AFL club and we were all to be devoted fans. His enthusiasm was infectious. I started designing a logo immediately. ‘The Stingrays’ was my submission for the team name. Looking back

DICKIN’ AROUND Not everyone gets to follow a footy team from its inception. Nick Allbrook from Pond shares some of his memories – the good and the bad – of the Fremantle Dockers through the years.

THE SPINNING TOP GUIDE TO THE DICKY DOCKS SON-SON

Michael Walters

PANTS

Aaron Sandilands (Sandilands – Sandypants – Pants)

DOG

Nat Fyfe (Fyfe Dog)

THE PIG De Boer

GUM

Stephen Hill (looked like Jay Watson on debut, before bulking up)

ZOONG

Tendai Mzungu

AND FROM THE RECORDING STUDIO WHICH POND CURRENTLY OCCUPY JAMIE TERRY

“They gonna slay them Sydney dogs.”

JOE RYAN

“I hear purple is the colour of sexual frustration.”

JAY WATSON

“As long as all my flat whites are the colour of Pavlich’s thighs I’ll be happy.”

LUKAS GLICKMAN “I don’t know anything about them.”

64 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

it seems strange that I was actually trying to decide what name I’d like my footy team to have. To think there was a time when the Dockers didn’t exist! This entity, this tribe, that’s been so central to my life since was once no more than an idea. Crazy, mang. So anyway, I jumped straight on the bandwagon. I was converted. Out with Alonzo Mourning and Scottie Pippen, in with Shaun McManus (I know). Dad got me a membership. I got beanie, a poster, a football, a scarf (still got it too, spammed it all over USATV – *swag*). I even got a tape of the song and, no bullshit, listened to it on repeat so, so many times. Oh, the promise of glory! The tribal drums! The hulking masculinity of the chant! Oh, how my young heart did swell when that massive key change burst out of the breakdown and ushered in the soaring triumph of pinch harmonics! Holy crap, get me a glass of water. Some ‘90s Fremantle session shredder needs to be given the key to the city for that one. But those days didn’t last. Soon we realised the song was nothing more than a stolid dirge – a flat, dull chant perfectly representative of the Dockers’ lacklustre on-field performances. The anchor was no longer a symbol of strength and maritime heritage, but of our destined position on the ladder. When my family moved to the big city (Perth is so a city) and the innocence of rural childhood drifted away, even the colour purple (always my professed favourite as a sprout) was shown to have far more dire implications. High school is cruel. Purple is ‘gay’. The Dockers are shit. Dockers victories were so sparse and desperate. I hold only one or two glorious memories of jumping around the lounge room with Dad, ecstatic, screaming to high heavens the names of Peter Bell or Jeff Farmer. Dark days. As everyone in high school constantly reminded me, the Dockers were shit. But wait… WAIT! This is the whole point of the article! This is why I’m not too embarrassed to go ahead with writing this! The Fremantle Dockers were shit! WERE! Past motherfuckin’ tense! In fact, now we’re looking pretty dang good for a spot in the... No. Don’t say it. It’s too precious, too sacred to even say aloud. I’ve been waiting too damn long. I always said that if the Dockers even made the GF I’d have a cardiac arrest in the first quarter and die never knowing the result. And now it’s getting close. Here’s hoping I can hold it together, maybe keep it to an embarrassing but far less permanent pant-shitting or window-smashing or just a good old cry. I’m excited either way. They’ve done so well; Ross Lyon has built them into a fearsome unit. The young players are killing it. The old are killing it. They’re winning convincingly. No more “oh we’re ahead, it’s half time, let’s just chill and hope for the best, good job anyway, lads!” type bullshit that defined the early days. The anchor is again strength. Purple is pride. The chant is manly. Now, at long last, I am the proud, unwavering supporter of a champion team – and all the years of sorrow and gloom and shrinking under the smug-ass gaze of Eagles supporters and East Coasters has just made it that much sweeter. No matter what happens, Pav, Ross, Fyfe, Hill, Walters, Tendai… Everyone, you’re all invited to my house for a beer. You deserve it. Pond will be performing on the following dates: 12 Dec, Metropolis, Fremantle; 13 Dec, The Gov, Adelaide; 14 Dec, The Zoo, Brisbane; 18 and 19 Dec, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; 20 Dec, Metro Theatre, Sydney

footy Any footy fan who’s ever cheered over a goal while balancing a beer in one hand and a pie in the other knows food is a major component of the footy-watching experience. Dylan Stewart looks at how humble stadium fare has transformed over the years. Illustration by Sophie Blackhall-Cain

HOT PIES, COLD BEER – AND THEN SOME O

ne of my most vivid childhood memories is sitting in the old Ponsford Stand of the MCG, tugging at my late grandpa’s sleeve for some coins while he – once again – watched his beloved Fitzroy Lions get torn apart by the opposing team. When half time came, he’d slip some coins into my pudgy, juvenile hand and I’d drag my brother to the heavenly world of the food stall underneath the grandstand. We’d line up, debating how many donuts or chips we could buy while still having enough left over for a can of Coke. Trenchcoat-wearing Fitzroy tragics would line up either side of us, mourning the slow death of their beloved Roy Boys. My brother and I were oblivious to the cursing, the spitting, and the rain that dripped off their coats onto our crisp, woollen beanies. Our eyes were on the prize: handing over those few dollars and racing back to our (wooden plank) seats to scoff our way through our food. It didn’t matter that grandpa wasn’t there when we got back; we knew he’d return by the start of the third quarter smelling like beer and meat pies. And he always did. Food at the footy is a tradition that stretches back centuries and across continents. German football games are invariably attended by bratwurst-wielding fans. 1893 is regarded as the year that the first hotdog was served at an American baseball game (by St Louis Browns’ owner – and bar owner – Chris Von de Ahe). Strawberries and cream are an intrinsic element of Wimbledon, and in Brazil, churrasquinho, or barbecued meat on a stick, is enjoyed by football-goers the country over. On Grand Final weekend in Australia – and around the world – the food and drink that accompanies the game has changed somewhat over the years. Sure, in an underground bar in Prague, ex-Fremantle Docker players

don their purple scarves and hoe into egg and bacon rolls and steins of beer. And in Aussie pubs across the UK, a £5 cover charge will undoubtedly include a can of VB and a warm (at best) pie. But at the ground, in that holiest of cauldrons, things have changed. Food at the footy in 2013 doesn’t just mean chips and hot dogs any more. Half time is no longer simply a game of how many pies you can smuggle into your bag of donuts before the kid on the cash register notices (the most, by the way, is two; and you need to make a return trip for sauce). If you’re lucky enough to find yourself at the MCG this Saturday, take a stroll before the game and you’ll find culinary options that defy the crusted-on stereotypes. Gourmet burgers, pulled pork sandwiches and wood-fired pizzas are all on the menu these days. Stale Carlton Draught is

still offered, but it now sits alongside pale ales, low-carb ales, ciders and half-decent wine options. In the MCC, microbrews and premium European beers abound, as do multiple wine options for the “discerning” footy-goer. Sausage bars (think bratwurst, debrecener and the like) are sprinkled around the MCG as well as Etihad Stadium, and well-known fast food franchises like Red Rooster and Nando’s do a roaring trade on game day. Barista coffees and chocolate-dipped churros are on offer for a quick pick-me-up at three-quarter time, and freshly-made sandwiches appeal to those who might have forgotten to make themselves a roll before catching the train into the ground. Sure, many of these options are double – or more – the price of a bucket of chips, but it seems that, in a reflection of general society, game day crowds want options when it comes to satisfying their hunger. And if the crowd wants options, then the vendors will supply. Spotless (MCG) and Delaware North (Etihad) shell out solid coin to run the bars and food outlets at the grounds, but their duopoly over Melbourne’s sporting arenas works only to the point that attendees buy their goods. It seems more than likely that the smorgasbord of options will eventually hit a breaking point, and footy fans will revert to the foods their dads and grandpas ate – the pies, the chips and vinegar, the Carlton Draught. But in the meantime, if we’re going to sit in the cold, the rain, the wind, then let us enjoy the finer things while we do it. The Fitzroy Lions might not be around anymore. My grandpa is most likely still sitting on a (wooden plank) bench somewhere, cheering them on. They’ll be winning. But he’ll still smell like beer and meat pie. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 65

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FRONTLASH

LIVE THIS WEEK

BONAFIED LOVIN

Chromeo’s “New Album Trailer” on YouTube promises shimmering neon funk by way of Over Your Shoulder, with SNAG lyrics that would defo work on us: “Stop looking over your shoulder/’Cause if it was up to me, I would make you feel right.” We can also anticipate contributions by LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney and Solange.

CROOKED CHARLES

POWER OF THREE

One of the true treasures of our city, Charles Jenkins, is playing at the Drunken Poet on 28 Sep. Head down and hear songs including those from his most recent album, Love Your Crooked Neighbor With Your Crooked Heart, live.

Catch The Dames (pictured) on the afternoon of 29 Sep at the Northcote Social Club. The trio will launch their selftitled album, which has been mixed by acclaimed icon of UK post-punk and ‘90s film funk music, Barry Adamson.

NEEDS SUPPORT

JACK JACKY JACKY

Tonight the Drunken Poet’s weekly Wine, Whiskey, Women night invites y’all to come together to raise some dollars for Breast Cancer Network Australia. Donate what you can, have a drink and listen to Al Parkinson and Flash Company.

Yah Yah’s is chuffed to have Jacky Jacky & The Blackies back for Grand Final Night on 28 Sep. This supergroup of Indigenous musicians will perform hit songs of Aboriginal bands from the ‘70s-’90s that are now classics in the Indigenous community.

CLIMATE CONTROL

ANCIENT GREECE

HORROR BREW

A third AAMI ad with Rhonda and Ketut is two too many.

Brisbane six-piece Big Dead (pictured) bring a world-weary abandon to their particular brand of jazz-infused rock, soothing as many feathers as they rustle. They launch their EP Eudaemonia at The Tote on 29 Sep.

After a four-year wait, Horrorshow (pictured) are back with their new album King Amongst Many, which was released in August. Their national launch tour includes a show at Ding Dong Lounge on 29 Sep.

SAFE IN REVOLVER

PRE AND POST

GF night on 28 Sep at Revolver Upstairs is kicked off by the laidback chillwave beats of Safe In Houses and Dylan Hill, followed by the electronic dance and hip hop of Embode. Visual spectacles will also accompany the performances.

Before and after the game, Victoria Hotel’s got you covered. On 27 Sep there’s a free Grand Final Day Eve party featuring Sons Of Lee Marvin, The Cants and The Hybernators. Then The Drunken Poachers take over on 28 Sep.

ITALIANS DO IT BETTER Sacri Cuori, Hugo Race’s Italian backing band for his Fatalists project, are a must-see.

KARDASHIAN WATCH We love a good celebrity sighting, even if it’s fake (see picture). The thought of Kris Jenner quaffing at London Tavern in Elsternwick during pensioner hour is just too, too good.

BACKLASH ROAD RAGE Traffic detours because of the footy.

TIGHT ARSES Bums in Lycra. And the lame MAMIL (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) acronym.

THIS WEEK’S RELEASES… TRENTMOLLER Lost Balance/EMI HAIM Days Are Gone Universal ZAKK WYLDE’S BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Unblackened Shock KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD Float Along – Fill Your Lungs Remote Control

66 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

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LIVE THIS WEEK

SINGLE FOCUS

MIND OVER MATTER EYE OF THE TIGER

SUPER SATURDAY

Sydney outfit Tigertown (pictured) will launch their new EP Wanderng Eyes over two nights at the Workers Club. MTNS will join them for both. On 28 Sep Tully On Tully will support and Kate Martin will open on 29 Sep.

AFL Grand Final Day at the Cornish Arms sees an Aussie supergroup (including The Fauves, pictured) playing pub rock covers straight after the game on 28 Sep. Beer, food and a big screen plus live tunes afterwards? Bring it on.

WE’RE DOOMED

FLYERS AND WALKERS

New Zealand’s masters of doom Beastwars are throwing a party to signal the end of their Blood Become Fire Tour. Head down to Cherry Bar on 29 Sep to help them celebrate. Also playing are Matt Sonic & The High Times and Brooklyn Hookers.

Two songwriters of depth and intensity, Ross McLennan (pictured) and Matt Walker are heroes of Australian independent music and have had fascinating and weighty careers. They come together for one evening at the Flying Saucer Club on 27 Sep.

Answered by: MC Willow Single title: Somebody’s Love What’s the song about? It is about the many attempts we go through trying to find love and a deep connection. How long did it take to write/ record? We worked on it over a period of six months, while working on other songs at the same time. Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? It will be on Mind Over Matter’s upcoming album, This Way To Elsewhere. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? We have been through similar experiences ourselves as the ones described in the song, and can really relate to that search for a deep connection with somebody. We’ll like this song if we like... Hip hop music with some tempo and a chorus that is sure to get you singing along. Do you play it differently live? We play it live with Ernst Carter Jr as back up, DJ Ntaprize performing cuts/percussion and beat mixes and Reichardt on guitar/keys. When and where is your launch/next gig? 27 Sep, The Workers Club.

GRAND KENYON James Kenyon sings about the Australian experience: the broad skies, passing wheat silos, river crossings, grey suburbs and power lines, merging memory and imagination in song. See him play with his slow-grass ensemble at the Retreat Hotel on 1 Oct.

Website link for more info? mindovermattercrew.com

THE HOLIDAYS Answered by: Simon Jones Single title: Voices Drifting What’s the song about? Well I guess it’s about eloping with someone who is pretty great. How long did it take to write/record? About a year and a half to get it right. It was written reasonably quickly but it took a while before the pieces all fell into place. Is this track from a forthcoming release/ existing release? Yes, forthcoming second album. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? Lots of stuff, but I took a mid-album break in Japan and absorbed a lot of that strange wonder and isolation of being a Westerner in Tokyo. We’ll like this song if we like... Fuzz pedals, choral pads, spring reverb, subwoofers, not giving a damn. Do you play it differently live? Slow and low, baby. When and where is your launch/next gig? 3 Oct, Northcote Social Club. Website link for more info? facebook.com/ theholidaysband

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LIVE THIS WEEK

JUST VISITING

PALM Answered by: Toshihiko Takahashi Have you been to Australia before? If so, was it for work or pleasure? Palm went to Aus tour in 2005 and 2007, so this time is third. We are very luck about that. We are grateful to friends for cooperating. What are you looking forward to experiencing while you’re down here? It’s great that we can hang out with people who have different race and language through music. That is very important experience for our lives! What are you looking forward to showing us while you’re down here? Gig is that various kids enjoy one music, so I think playing is precious time! Do you have a favourite Australian band (or bands)? The Rivalry, Whitehorse, Krömosom, Heirs, Robotosaurus, Night Hag, Nuclear Summer, A Secret Death, Stolen Youth, Carpathian, I Exist and AC/DC! What’s in the pipeline for after the trip? We have some shows in Japan. We want to release new album next year, so first we have to write songs and recording. Thank you for interviewing us! When and where is your next gig? 1 Oct, Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood with A Secret Death, Collossus and Caged Grave.

WIN We have ten copies of South Park Season 16 on DVD up for grabs. Yes, that’s right. It came out across the country last week, and now you can take it home to show your mum and watch while stoned or just nostalgic about the earlier seasons you can now quote by heart. Chocked full of brilliant things like the UPS delivery man and Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s take on Honey Boo Boo and Barrack Obama. You know you want to. For details, head to our Facebook page.

APP IT UP SAM OLIVER FROM THE ARACHNIDS Any particular app on your phone or tablet that you can’t live without when touring? Google Maps. Screw Apple Maps, we’ve been lost too many times. Oh yeah, and Bad Piggies, that game is super fun. The Arachnids’ new EP Lack Of Control is available now.

SEVEN IN HEAVEN

FOOTY FEVER

After kicking around the Melbourne funk scene for almost two years, The Seven Ups are finally launching their debut Eight Revolutions 7” on Grand Vinyl Day, 28 Sep, at the Evelyn Hotel. Support comes from Echo Drama and DJ Miss Goldie.

Boonananza happens on 28 Sep at the Reverence Hotel. Lincoln Le Fevre (TAS - pictured), Grenadiers (SA), The Union Pacific, Kissing Booth, Lucy Wilson, Toy Boats (QLD) will play, with proceeds going to Edgar’s Mission.

JAZZY K

GET A GRIP

Zoe K is a new force on the Australian music scene, with a remarkable voice that pays tribute to the bygone greats of jazz and blues. Head to the Retreat Hotel on 26 Sep to witness her for yourself. Supported by Oh Pep!

Vice Grip Pussies are celebrating Grand Final Night in rockin’ style in The Espy’s lounge bar. Also getting things going on the evening will be The Mercy Kills (pictured), The Submarines and Red X. Everyone’s a winner, even the losing team.

QUIET BROADCAST

CRAZY FITS

Never content to stay idle, Private Radio’s energetic style of rock creates a sound larger than the sum of their three members. They play at the Bendigo Hotel (Collingwood) on 25 Sep with High Suburban and Honest Mike.

Ukulele songstress Hissy Loco hosts an afternoon of songs, stories and visual delights with artworks from Rachel Dixon and Chaya Smith displayed. She’s launching her EP as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival on 29 Sep at Agent 284 (Collingwood).

SQUATTING STRAYS

KIDS’ TOYS

To celebrate the release of Wildcats, the first single off her new album Nobody Ever Leaves, Tracy McNeil and her band have been playing a matinee show at the Spotted Mallard every Sunday this month. Catch them on 29 Sep.

Having brought their unique brand of dark, melodic-pop back to the Grace Darling Hotel every Wednesday night in September, Return To Youth finish off their first ever residency on 25 Sep. Supports come from The Kilniks and Nothing Hurts Robot.

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LIVE THIS WEEK

SWEET CHERRY

EASY PREY

Cherry Bar will host a welcome back show for Melbournebased rock, swamp and blues outfit Bitter Sweet Kicks (pictured) on 27 Sep after a long tour stint in Europe. They’ll be joined on the night by Submarines and Red X.

Coming off an impressive soldout launch show promoting their debut EP, Glimmers, Them Swoops (pictured) have settled into the Northcote Social Club for a Tuesday night residency this month, including a show on 1 Oct with Slow Dancer.

SINGLE FOCUS

DAVE DI MARCO Single title: When I Get Home

INTERIOR DECORATION SAM RASMUSSEN FROM THE PAPER KITES Do you hang anything on the walls to inspire you when recording? We are passionate about achieving the optimal lighting in the studio. Each song required adjustments of various lighting fixtures and positions. Occasionally, we record in the dark. This technique produces inconsistent results.

COLD AND LONELY

KIDS THESE DAYS

After a 14 show tour of California, Lone Tyger (pictured) are running red hot and will officially wrap up the tour in Melbourne. They play Yah Yah’s, on 27 Sep. Winter Moon will support with their soulful, psychedelic blues-rock.

Following the launch of their second LP You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are Now, local quartet Dancing Heals (pictured) will headline Watts On Presents at the Toff on 25 Sep with Neighbourhood Youth, Albert Salt and Loose Tooth.

The Paper Kites are touring nationally. Check The Guide for dates.

EATS ON TOUR JOSH JOHNSTONE FROM VIDA CAIN What is your staple meal when on tour? I wish there was some kind of staple meal! Whatever is on offer, dumplings where possible! Vida Cain are touring nationally. Check The Guide for dates.

RETRO RONNIE Ronnie Charles, the voice of chart-topping Melbourne ‘60s band The Groops, is still going strong today. See Ronnie Charles & The Retro Bandits perform at the Flying Saucer Club paying tribue to the likes of The Beatles, Dylan and Elvis.

What’s the song about? The comfort of home when you are away and realising the importance little things play in your life. How long did it take to write/record? I sat on the song for a fair while before recording it. It’s always been a strong point in my live set, so I felt it was only necessary to put it down on record. Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? The song features on my debut EP Deep And Down These Walls, which I released earlier this year. The title of the record is actually taken from the lyrics of this song. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? I wanted the record to come from real personal experiences. It only seemed fitting to record this song as it is a ode to the things I love and miss while I am away. We’ll like this song if we like... Handclaps. Harmonies. Home. Do you play it differently live? I like to finish with this song offstage and right up and personal with the listeners. It seems easier to connect with people when you are on their level. When and where is your launch/next gig? 4 Oct, Grace Darling Hotel. Website link for more info? facebook.com/ davedimarcomusic

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opinion

OG FLAVAS

ADAMANTIUM WOLF

WAKE THE DEAD

URBAN AND R’N’B NEWS BY CYCLONE

METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT

PUNK AND HARDCORE WITH SARAH PETCHELL

Some peepz reckon John Legend’s fifth outing, Love In The Future, is MOR or ‘soft’ R&B. Ignore ‘em. In fact, the Grammywinner, born with the more prosaic name John Stephens, has learnt a few tricks from illwavers Frank Ocean, The Weeknd and Miguel.The Ohio native, once a session pianist for Lauryn Hill, has always been an anomaly, emerging long after the ‘90s neosoulsters vanished. He was the first act signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music, premiering with Get Lifted. The singer’s last, 2010’s nostalgic covers set, Wake Up!, was made with The Roots. Love... is Stephens’ most rounded – and opulently romantic – album (he’s engaged to swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen). Yeezy is more involved than previously as a producer – and brings in two former members of A Tribe Called Quest – with the sonic aesthetic evoking his early solo output. The most overtly hip hop number is Who Do We Think We Are with Rick Ross – unlike much of Love..., it’s not preoccupied with romantic love but material possession (which Stephens questions). Kimbra sings backing vocals on the stellar Made To Love, which, awesomely, samples Chicago houser Lil Louis. Elsewhere, Stephens offers traditional neo-soul, quality hip hop soul, piano ballads and retro covers (Bobby Caldwell, Anita Baker). There’s even a “bonus” duet with properly MOR Seal. The LP’s most avant song comes near the end: Asylum is a twisted power ballad about the madness of love. ogflavas@themusic.com.au

JOHN LEGEND 70 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

What do labels like Broken Hive, Hobbledehoy, Midnight Funeral, The Lair, Poison City and Monolith all have in common? They’re boutique labels only run by one, maybe two, people – three people if they’re extra lucky. And one of the things I’m noticing by trawling Facebook accounts, Tumblr pages and the like is that there seems to be a few misconceptions about indendent labels.

PALM

This week’s Adamantium Wolf comes at you from the door of YMCA HQ – an all ages venue in Perth that has a sick skatepark out the back. Over the last six months I’ve been organising a massive tour for a metal/hardcore band from Osaka, Japan by the name of Palm, and this is show number six out of 18. A Secret Death from the Gold Coast/ Melbourne are on the majority on the run as well. So far we’ve visited Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney, Brisbane, and this is the second Perth show. Alice Springs, Adelaide, Mildura, Bendigo, Melbourne, Hobart, Melbourne again, Gold Coast, Brisbane again, Rockhampton and Cairns are still to come. We’re also being accompanied by filmmaker Wilson Bambrick in order to turn the whole journey into a feature length movie.

Sadness aside, this tour has been an absolute pleasure. There’s something rather special about touring a band from such a polite culture – every time a drive is over, calls of “thank you Rochran!” come from the back of the van. This is a far cry from most American bands I have toured, a recent one in particular... it’s pretty disheartening when you put your heart and soul (and ALL your finances) into a tour for a band you love, only to have the whole experience tarnished by a strangely unrealistic attitude that doesn’t quite fit a small band on their first Australian tour. Vocalist Toshi, drummer Kenta, bassist Yoshi, and guitarist Ryota are all extremely appreciative of the opportunity, and have been making sure this is understood at almost every opportunity, despite their limited English.

Tomorrow’s gig at Santa Teresa (a remote indigenous town 85km from Alice Springs) has just been cancelled due to the passing of a young man in the community earlier today. I’ve had venues be shut down, promoters wig out, bands cancel... but I’ve never had a show canned due to death. But then again, I’ve never attempted to book such a gig before. As is tradition, the community will spend three days mourning their loss, and plonking a metal show right in the middle of it all just isn’t appropriate. Everyone was looking forward to playing in the centre of the outback to an entire community, but it’s looking like we’ll do a second show in Alice Springs, most likely in a house or alleyway. South East Desert Metal, who are as far as I know Australia’s only all-indigenous metal band, will still perform at the official Alice Springs show.

This tour has already fortified my faith in the DIY approach. Though Palm have been here before, they are still a relatively unknown quantity. It’s totally possible to pull these kinds of tours off with the support network that exists in underground metal and hardcore across Australia. Local promoters and bands have been extremely happy to help organise gigs, and even though most of the people I’ve been working with hadn’t heard of Palm before, the fact that an international band wanted to head to places like Mildura, Alice Springs and Cairns has made people lose their minds. We’re yet to get to these crazy places, but if the turnouts and hype so far are anything to go off, we’re in for a mental two-anda-half weeks to come, and we’re on track to cover costs. Pick up next week’s issue for chapter two!

The reality is quite different. What is often the case is a person wants to help their mates’ band release a record so they’ll do that – and it will build from there. But there aren’t huge staffs and there aren’t huge amounts of money going into these ventures. Most of these people have day jobs – whether actual jobs or study – and money is scraped together to release music they actually love. There is a huge list of variables that go into the production of a record – record manufacture, shipping (usually from overseas), customs, not to mention the time and cost it takes to assemble the packaging, stuff it in the mail and sending it out to you. I feel that most smaller labels have a good connection with their customers because of the fact that it’s one person (most of the time). It’s easier for them to communicate delays and most are pretty transparent when there are issues. These are a few people trying to deliver a product to you with the odds stacked massively against them. All I’m asking is that we, as fans of music, should perhaps exercise a little patience when it comes to waiting for releases. wakethedead@themusic.com.au

opinion

GOOD TIMING

BEYOND THE SPEAKERS

WITH KIRSTEN LAW

FILLING THE DEAD AIR WITH RACHEL CORBETT Ever since the conductor of our At this point we could have all-girls school choir realised all just raised our glasses to we could add tenor parts to ‘Hire A Hubby’ and moved on arrangements because I have a with our lives, but while they voice that loves hanging out an may have their contracts and octave below middle C, there legal pads, I have a team of has been some question about producers whose job it is to make whether I should have been born ridiculous ideas come to life with testicles. So it was fitting and so Man School was born. that a few weekends ago I packed Flash forward a couple of my tool kit, put on my King Gees months and Mez, Jules and I and trundled off to Man School. were standing in the middle of This concept was born from a a remote campground trying dinnertime discussion with a to ignore the Deliverance banjo few of my oldest mates from a echoing remotely in our ears, greeting 12 strangers who previous life at law school. They were in desperate need of our have all gone on to become assistance (or the assistance of solicitors and barristers working the professionals we’d hired to on high-profile cases and standing teach them). Surrounding us were up for ‘the little guys’, while I men who laid floorboards that tell funny stories and give away expanded and trapped families in Cold Chisel tickets, but once a their own homes, and men who month they do me the favour of attempted to change a washer getting together and pretending and flooded their neighbour’s I’m still intelligent enough for apartment. Even Jules, in the past, their company. During one of called an electrician to change a our catch-ups, my mate Rob light bulb – twice. Basically, these lamented the fact that he never were guys who needed help not learned many of the tasks he only to save their pride, but also now feels obliged to know as to protect the structural integrity a man. His dad never taught of their homes and the homes of him how to change a washer or the surrounding neighbourhood. fillet a fish, and now he was a 34-year-old professional, fully By the end of the day I had capable of identifying the mens rea punched a hole through a wall necessary for criminal negligence, and plastered it over, grouted tiles, but incapable of identifying a built a fire from scratch, filleted a Phillips head screwdriver in a fish and broken down a lamb. All toolkit. As he peeled back the with an ease that suggested that layers of shame he felt at not I, too, have what it takes to be a having the assumed knowledge man. What began as an idea to his private parts implied, the endow blokes with the skills they other boys started throwing down were missing ended up with the their perceived inadequacies too, realisation that I may have missed until we had a comprehensive out myself. It’s lucky I know a list of all the things they wished good lawyer in case I ever decide they didn’t have to pay other to sue God for sending me off without the appropriate tackle. people to do for them.

SONIA DI IORIO

I must say, it was heartening to see a large-ish audience for the opening night of Three Little Gigs at the Imperial last week. I guess people do care after all! Though, if you haven’t yet seen any Fringe shows, be warned: there are only 11 days left to squeeze in all the things you swore you’d go see. And don’t tell me you’re one of those people who tells their comedian friend they’ll “be there” and then has three weddings and a mysterious “punctured lung” pop up at the last minute. Please tell me you’re not one of them. Tell me you’re the kind of person who remembers everything comedy has done for you. Like when your comedian friend paid for your dinner at Mamasita and never once asked you for the $68.30 (plus tip) back. Even if she’s taking a well-deserved year off the Fringe, I suggest you show your love for the independent shows, you know, so you can be one of those people who “supports the arts”. There are a slew of wonderful options at the Imperial and the Tuxedo Cat, including many first-time comedians doing collaborative or (eek!) solo shows. Anyone is worth a try, but my picks are Sam Allen in Inside The Egg – a chilling “expose” of life as an Anne Geddes baby; Isabel Angus and Rachel Davis’s Edge! starring “11-yearold” Stella Wilkenson, and Don’t Kiss The Weird Girl, with its eponymous heroine Sonia Di Iorio (pictured).

FRAGMENTED FREQUENCIES OTHER MUSIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE WITH BOB BAKER FISH

BIOSPHERE

Stromboli (Ash International) is an active volcano on the northern coast of Sicily. It’s also the title of the latest LP (yep, vinyl) from Norwegian sound artist Geir Jenssen. Jenssen went to the volcano in July last year and recorded on the crater’s edge. What he captured was a series of minor eruptions. It’s an immense boom that reverberates around the crater; sounding like he’s employed phasing effects, but the reality is that he’s recording beside the biggest reverb chamber in the world. There’s something about the unpredictability of the sound. Despite the relative warmth and beauty of the explosions, you can hear the violence and destructive power that underlie it. The B-side is his dub, where he appears to have employed some slight delay and perhaps arranged the piece in a more dynamic manner, offering fewer gaps between explosions. It’s a remarkable and compelling recording, though to be fair he has some form in this area. In 2000 he released Cho Oyu 8201m: Field Recordings From Tibet (Ash International), documenting his 45-day climb to the top of the sixth highest summit in the world. Recordings have rarely one this high before and, aside from a compelling diary, the recordings feature everything from tabla to snowstorms, with perhaps the most compelling moment being when you can actually hear his panicked shortness of breath. Jenssen is better known as Biosphere, and his series of gorgeous ambient sonic flourishes for Touch, though whether it’s his music or volcano explosions, you always know with Jenssen, it’s quality. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 71

opinion

HOWZAT! LOCAL MUSIC BY JEFF JENKINS

GREAT DAMES

Clare Moore and Dave Graney are one of the greatest partnerships in Australian music. They’ve been making music together since the late ’70s, through Sputniks, The Moodists, The Coral Snakes, The White Buffaloes, The Dave Graney Show, The Lurid Yellow Mist and The mistLY. But Clare has now formed a female supergroup, The Dames, with Kaye-Louise Patterson (Acuff ’s Rose) and Rosie Westbrook (who contributed the haunting double bass to Aussie Crawl’s Reckless). So Howzat!’s big question for Clare is: Is it weird when you’re drumming away in The Dames and you look up and Dave’s not there? But the Moore/Graney partnership is so strong, he’s even part of a female supergroup – Clare reveals Dave is playing guitar in The Dames. “The only difference is I’m not staring at his arse this time around,” adds Clare, who will be focusing on her vocals.

72 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

The band’s self-titled album opens with the sparkling single, All Mine, which includes the line, “You can take the agony, the ecstasy is all mine”. “I guess my inspiration for the song comes from the euphoric feeling I have when playing drums onstage,” Clare explains, “particularly when I can look out at an audience who are thoroughly uncomfortable for one reason or another. Schadenfreude, I guess, or, as I think Barry Humphries said, ‘I go on stage to get some peace and quiet’.” Clare and Kaye started playing together when Kaye released her first solo album, International Travel. Clare and Rosie have played in various bands, and also produced a couple of Arts Centre shows, Rock Chicks and Southern Belles. The Dames album – which is being launched Sunday afternoon at Northcote Social Club – was mixed by another old friend of Clare’s, former Bad Seed Barry Adamson. They met in London in the ’80s. “He had been the bass player of Magazine and then with Nick

THE DAMES

Cave & The Bad Seeds and was about to embark on his solo career. We have kept in touch over the years and he put his hand up to mix our album when we supported his band at the Corner last year.” It’s a diverse, vibrant record. How does Clare describe The Dames’ sound? “I guess it’s a female west coast US sound (Kaye’s songs), mixed with a sci-fi, TV show kind of vibe (my songs).” In All Mine, Clare declares, “Regrets, there’ll be a few”. What’s been the biggest regret of her music career? “Why, nothing, of course!”

HIP HIP

The legendary Olivia Newton-John is 65 tomorrow (Thursday). And we remember the wonderfully warm and witty Greg Ham from Men At Work. Greg would have celebrated his 60th birthday on Friday.

HOT LINE

“I meant when I said I loved you the best/That doesn’t mean I won’t love someone better” – Nick Batterham, Tall And Pretty.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Live At The Lomondâ&#x20AC;? THU 26TH 8.30PM

HARRY BORLAND & UGANDAN NATIONAL CHOIR (Contemporary roots)

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FRI 27

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BAKERSFIELD GLEE CLUB

9:30PM

(Honky-tonky country cousins)

9:30PM

SUN 29

HARMANIAX (Zydeco-A-Go Go)

5:30PM

NICK CHARLES & BLUE STRINGS (Swinginâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pickinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; blues)

SUN 29TH 9:00PM

KEN MAHER & TONY HARGREAVES (Acoustic roots)

TUE 1ST 8:00PM

IRISH SESSION (Celtic ďŹ ddlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; & diddlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;)

ALL GIGS FREE ~ EXCELLENT RESTAURANT AND BAR MEALS

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25th, 28th, 1st. - Simon Chugg is: Living the dream Fringe Festival comedy show $15

25th, 30th, 1st. - Twice Shy Fringe Festival comedy show $15

Fri 27. 10pm - Skip & Swing DnB & Dub Step DJ Monkee, Undatone, Aaron Static, Halcyon, Daggers Visuals by Alt Esc Del. FREE ENTRY

Sat 28. 10pm - Unstable Sounds Techno & Psy-trance One Tasty Morsel, Ish, Azrin Namarrkon, Volta. FREE ENTRY

Sun 29. 3pm - Soundscapes Experimental and ambient electronic music. Big Yawn live. FREE ENTRY

Wed 2. 7.30 - Electric Shorts Electric Shorts showcasing films that have been fully self-funded by the filmmaker. FREE ENTRY

THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;˘ 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 73

the guide vic.gigguide@themusic.com.au

THE MUSIC PRESENTS Jinja Safari: Sep 25 The Loft (Warrnambool); 26 Barwon Club (Geelong); 27 Forum Theatre; 28 Karova Lounge (Ballarat)

The Cribs: Oct 26 Ding Dong Lounge

Foals: Sep 26, 27 Palace Theatre

Boy & Bear: Nov 1 Wool Exchange (Geelong); 2, 3 Forum Theatre

The Paper Kites: Sep 28 Forum Theatre

Nancy Vandal: Nov 2 Reverence Hotel

Horrorshow: Sep 29 Ding Dong Lounge; October 17 Karova Lounge (Ballarat); 18 Wool Exchange (Geelong)

Bonjah: Nov 2 Ding Dong Lounge

Xavier Rudd: Oct 2, 3 Forum Theatre

Dan Sultan: Nov 2 Thornbury Theatre; 9 Theatre Royal Castlemaine

Twelve Foot Ninja: Oct 4 Corner Hotel

Violent Soho: Nov 4 Corner Hotel

The Jungle Giants: Oct 4, 6 The Hi-Fi; 5 Karova Lounge (Ballarat)

Jordie Lane: Nov 7 Beav’s Bar Geelong; 8 Theatre Royal Castlemaine; 9 Thornbury Theatre; 10 Caravan Music Club Oakleigh

Asta: Oct 4 Northcote Social Club; 5 Phoenix Youth Centre Yo La Tengo: Oct 18 Hamer Hall Archie Roach: Oct 18, 19 Arts Centre Playhouse Katchafire: Oct 19 The Hi-Fi Andy Bull: Oct 20 Northcote Social Club Wolf & Cub: Oct 24 Northcote Social Club

The Barons Of Tang: Nov 8 Corner Hotel Face The Music Conference: Nov 15, 16 Arts Centre Patrick James: Nov 22 Northcote Social Club Pond: Dec 19 Corner Hotel

New Empire: Oct 24 The Toff In Town

Future Music Festival: Mar 9 Flemington Racecourse

Active Child: Oct 26 Melbourne Recital Centre

Billy Bragg: Mar 13 Palais Theatre

WED 25

Tim Pledger’s Sandwich Jesus + Lo Res: 303, Northcote Open Mic + Various: Bonnie & Clydes Cafe & Cocktail Bar, Thornbury Jackson Firebird + Smoke Stack Rhino: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Calexico + Quarry Mountain Dead Rats: Corner Hotel, Richmond Dizzy’s Big Band + Peter Hearne: Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond Tulalah + Andalucia + Howard: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Return To Youth + The Kilniks + Nothing Hurts Robot: Grace Darling Hotel (Basement), Collingwood Jennifer Kingwell: Jewell of Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Ben Mason + Monnone Alone: Northcote Social Club, Northcote A Chekhov Triptych: Northcote Town Hall, Northcote Roots Of Music feat + The Mere Poets: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Matt Kelly: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Secret Good Times Club (Open Mic) + Various: Tago Mago, Thornbury Open Mic Night + Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Vanishing Point + Albatross + Crimsonfire + Alaskan Thunder: The Central Club, Richmond I Know The Chief + Nebraskatak: The Curtin, Carlton Flash Company + Al Parkinson: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Collage + Various: The Espy (Lounge Bar), St Kilda Jinja Safari + Cub Sport: The Loft, Warrnambool

James Teague: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Dancing Heals + The Neighbourhood Youth + Albert Salt + Loose Tooth: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Heads Of Charm + Sierra + Seesaw: The Tote, Collingwood Simply Acoustic+Liam Gerner + Guests: Wesley Anne, Northcote Warwick Capper + Simon Patrick + Dick Wakefield: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

THU 26

Clayton Doley Trio: 303, Northcote Tax + A Gazillion Angry Mexicans + Malcura: Bar Open, Fitzroy Jinja Safari + Cub Sport: Barwon Club, South Geelong Bob Evans: Beav’s Bar, Geelong The Sweethearts + DJ Vince Peach + Pierre Baroni: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Next feat. Trainwreck + Term Four + Disasters + Fight The Avalanche: Colonial Hotel, Melbourne Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: Corner Hotel, Richmond El Moth + CC The Cat + Up Up Away + Purple Tusks: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Roger Clark Quartet + Nicola Milan: Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond Diane + Kindling + Peach Noise: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North The Migrations + Yes/No/ Maybe: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Stolen Violin: Gertrudes Brown Couch, Fitzroy Citizen Sex + White Hex: Grace Darling Hotel (Band Room), Collingwood

GIG OF THE WEEK FOALS: SEP 26, 27 PALACE THEATRE Papa Vs Pretty + Apes + The Pretty Littles: Howler, Brunswick Harry Borland and the Ugandan National Choir: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East The John Steel Singers + Baptism Of Uzi + Dirt Farmer: Northcote Social Club, Northcote A Chekhov Triptych: Northcote Town Hall, Northcote John Flanagan & The Begin Agains: Northcote Town Hall (The Bain Marie), Northcote Enchanted Sound Circle + Melody Moon: Northcote Uniting Church, Northcote Foals + Alpine: Palace Theatre, Melbourne Initials + Hug Therapist + Angry Seas + Lachlan Hicks: Reverence Hotel (Front Bar ), Footscray Yakks + Worm Crown + Korean BBQ: Reverence Hotel (Band Room), Footscray Melbourne Fresh Industry Showcase + Various: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Alek - Hurdy Gurdy + The Northtones + Soul Machine: Tago Mago, Thornbury Denouncement Pyre + Cauldron Black Ram + Hellbringer + Altars: The Bendigo, Collingwood Emlyn Johnson + Peter Bibby + Fireman’s Ball: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Kristy Jinx Band + Altamira + Rabid Zulu + Aaron Laguda: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Cassius Clay + Alice D + Riders Of Sin: The Curtin, Carlton Ben Whiting + Manisha: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Beastwars + My Left Boot + Hotel Wrecking City Traders + Rainy Day Women: The Espy (Lounge Bar), St Kilda Rocking Horse Race + The Black Alleys + The Caning: The Espy (Basement), St Kilda Wire Bird + Woodlock + The Winter Suns: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood PCP Eagles + Laura Palmer + Teen Kong + Dad Jokes: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Sing For Your Supper + Various: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Delivery Boy: The Thornbury Local (9pm), Thornbury Tiny Ruins + Emma Russack + Brighter Later: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Slow Club feat. Heads Of Charm + Hex On The Beach + Premium Fantasy: The Tote, Collingwood Seabellies: The Workers Club, Fitzroy The Basics + Hoy: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine

Anna’s Go-Go Academy: Victoria Park, Abbotsford Broni: Wesley Anne (Front Bar/Early), Northcote Anatman + more: Wesley Anne, Northcote The In The Out: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy

FRI 27

Nun Of The Tongues + The Summervilles + Loose Tooth + Shit Sex: 303, Northcote CC The Cat: Baha Tacos, Rye Revomatix + Purple Tusks: Bar Open, Fitzroy Steve Clisby: Bennetts Lane, Melbourne Martin Pearson + Jakk’s Azimuth: Burrinja Café & Bar, Upwey JVG’s Grand Final Eve Pie Night + Various: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Rock Dungeon feat. Mother Slug + Child + Bricks: CBD Club, Melbourne Chris Wilson: Cherry Bar (5.30pm), Melbourne Bitter Sweet Kicks: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Rufus + YesYou + Crooked Colours: Corner Hotel, Richmond Way Of The Eagle + more: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Roger Clark Quartet + Gil Askey: Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond New Dub City + Zulu Flow + Birdz + Muma Doesa: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Emerson + Left For Wolves + Damn Hearts + Refractions: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Slow Train: Famous Blue Raincoat, South Kingsville Cheap Frills: Farouk’s Olive, Thornbury Ross McLennan & The New World + Matt Walker & The Lost Ragas: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Jinja Safari + Cub Sport: Forum Theatre, Melbourne Ben David + Dan Cribb: Gertrudes Brown Couch, Fitzroy Rainy Day Women + Velma Grove + When We Were Small: Grace Darling Hotel (Band Room), Collingwood The Gruntled + The Paul Kidney Experience: Grace Darling Hotel (Basement), Collingwood Montero + Andras + Prudence Rees-Lee: Howler, Brunswick The Bakersfield Glee Club: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Aimee Francis: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo

1000S OF GIGS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU 74 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Lurch & Chief: Mynt, Werribee The Basics + Hoy + Louis Spoils: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Amor Sentimental Musica feat. Alma Mater + Madeleine Page: Northcote Town Hall, Northcote Santa Taranata: Open Studio, Northcote Foals + Alpine: Palace Theatre, Melbourne Rolo Tomassi + Totally Unicorn + Stockades: Reverence Hotel, Footscray House of Honeys + Mantis & The Prayer + The Grunes + Duende + Steels Range: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Demian + Tulalah + Amanita + Silentjay: Shebeen Bar, Melbourne Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: Star Bar, Bendigo Jeremy Woolhouse’s Silverbeat + Nicola Milan: Surrey Music Cafe, Box Hill Crouching Rocket Hidden Venture + Red Rockets of Borneo + Hidden Venture: Tago Mago, Thornbury King Fate + Stormbane + Diabolical Demon Director: The Bendigo, Collingwood Barbarion + 180 Proof: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine The Baron + Ziah Ziam + Dan Krochmal + Shut Up Jackson: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Dave Graney: The Cornish Arms, Brunswick The Tipplers: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Traditional Irish Music Session with Dan Bourke & Friends: The Drunken Poet (6pm), Melbourne Over-Reactor + The Deep End + China Vagina + Super Saloon: The Espy (Lounge Bar), St Kilda Nick Lynar + Rob Taylor + Friendships + Edarcy + Subdapper x Od Soc: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Apart From This + Featherweight + Mowgi + Love Alone: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Naysayer & Gilsun + Otologic + Two Bright Lakes DJs: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne Hipshaker 60s Dance Party + The Gogo Goddesses + Various: The Luwow, Fitzroy Flyying Colours + The Grand Rapids: The Prince, St Kilda Priestessa: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Beast Wars + Special Guests: The Tote, Collingwood Slow Club feat. Throwing Frisbies + Tiprats + Ripsnorter + The Mighty Boys: The Tote, Collingwood Mind Over Matter: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Regurgitator + Wampire + Sun God Replica: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine Grand Final Eve with Sons Of Lee Marvin + The Cants + The Hybernators: Victoria Hotel, Brunswick Ben Carr Trio: Wesley Anne, Northcote Lone Tyger: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy Into The Mystic - The Songs of Van Morrison + Various: Yarraville Club, Yarraville

THU 26TH

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BRUNNYʼS GRAND FINAL DAY! FEATURING THREE QUARTER BEAST, RIFF FIST, JAJU CHOIR, ROSENCRANTS, TWIN AGES, THE HIGH SUBURBAN BBQ! FOOTY LIVE ON THE BIG SCREENS! INSIDE AND OUTSIDE! SUNDAY THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER - 7PM

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the guide vic.gigguide@themusic.com.au

SAT 28

Emma Wall & The Urban Folk + Little Wise + Lauren Glezer: 303, Northcote El Moth + CC The Cat: Bar Open, Fitzroy Slowjaxx & The Kozmic Love Orkestra + The Velvets + Sophie Officer + more: Barley Corn Hotel, Collingwood Hanks Jalopy Demons: Bella Union, Carlton South DV8 with Subculture + I Am Duckeye + Son of Set: CBD Club, Melbourne Murdena + Alex & The Shy Lashlies + Kapow! Kraken: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Matter + Raff Korman + Sekkt: Circus Bar & Nightclub, South Yarra Performing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Raiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Swervedriver + Guests: Corner Hotel, Richmond Chinatown Angels + The Love Bombs + Kill Shott: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Joe Chindamo Trio: Dizzyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jazz Club, Richmond Mark Gardner: Dogs Bar, St Kilda The Strange + Tooth & Tusk + The Popeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assassins: Empress Hotel, Fitzroy North Grand Final Day feat The Seven Ups + Echo Drama + Guests: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Ronnie Charles & The Retro Bandits: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick The Paper Kites + Special Guests: Forum Theatre, Melbourne Red Spencer + Counsellor Of Aging + more: Grace Darling Hotel (Basement), Collingwood Jinja Safari + Cub Sport: Karova Lounge, Ballarat The Harmaniax: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East The Basics + Hoy + Louis Spoils: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Chris Russellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chicken Walk: Northcote Town Hall (The Bain Marie/1pm), Northcote Byron & The Gypsy Cats: Open Studio, Northcote

Boonananananza! Edgarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mission Fundraiser feat. Lincoln Le Fevre + Grenadiers + The Union Pacific + Kissing Booth + Toy Boats + Lucy Wilson + The Shadow League + Dreamboats + Adeline Pines + Summer Policy + Heath Anthony + Mara Threat + more: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Safe In Houses + Dylan Hill + Embode: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Bang feat. Hand Of Mercy + The Rose Line + The Evercold: Royal Melbourne Hotel, Melbourne Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: Saloon Bar, Traralgon t:ny t:wns + Hello Satellites + Milk Teddy + The Motifs: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Grand Final Night Special with Spencer P Jones + Leaders of The Three Worlds + Special Guests: Tago Mago, Thornbury Beastwars + TTTDC + Batpiss + Broozer: The Bendigo, Collingwood McAlpines Fusiliers: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Brunnyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grand Final Day feat. Three Quarter Beast + Riff Fist + Jaju Choir + The Rosencrants + Twin Ages + The High Suburban: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Awaken Solace: The Central Club, Richmond Grand Final Day Extravaganza! + Various: The Curtin, Carlton The Vanguards: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Vice Grip Pussies + The Mercy Kills + The Submarines + Red X: The Espy, St Kilda Young Magen David Adom Fundraiser + Various DJs: The Espy (Gershwin Room), St Kilda The Baron + Big Volcano + Sean Peters & The Motherfucking Boogaloo Allstars + The Frankston Ladies Choir: The Espy (Basement), St Kilda Lindsay Tuc + Angel Eyes + Glamour Lakes: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Love Of Diagrams + Spitehouse + Bruff Superior: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Regurgitator + Wampire + Sun God Replica: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne The Woohoo Revue: The Loft, Warrnambool Afrobiotics + Dan The Man + DJ Jumpinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Josh + The Gogo Goddesses: The Luwow, Fitzroy

Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Fa + Remi + DJ Manchild: The Prince (Public Bar), St Kilda Marlon Williams: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury The Cannanes + The Stevens: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Slow Club feat. Ondas Alpha + Sleep Decade + Pepperjack: The Tote, Collingwood Teenage Libido + Cocks Arquette: The Tote (Front Bar/4pm), Collingwood Tigertown + MTNS + Tully On Tully: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Grand Final Day with The Drunken Poachers: Victoria Hotel, Brunswick Alex Watts + Gosti + Seri Vida: Wesley Anne, Northcote Los Cougarmen + Movement 9: Wesley Anne (2pm), Northcote Jacky Jacky & The Blackies: Yah Yahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Fitzroy

SUN 29

Bois et Charbon: 303, Northcote Sophistacoustica: 303 (4pm), Northcote Red Lantern Colony: Bar Open, Fitzroy Raw Brit: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Cherry Arvo Blues with Rod Payne & His Full Time Lovers + DJ Max Crawdaddy: Cherry Bar (2pm), Melbourne Beastwars + Matt Sonic & The High Times + Brooklyn Hookers: Cherry Bar, Melbourne The Basics + Hoy + Louis Spoils: Corner Hotel, Richmond Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: Ding Dong Lounge (All Ages), Melbourne Joe Matera + Kim Humphreys: Empress Hotel (4pm), Fitzroy North Michaela Jayde + Tane Emia Moore + Ebony Hare: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy The Winters + 23AOA + Sons Of Joe + Morning Bliss: Evelyn Hotel (1.30pm), Fitzroy Vincs & Wakeling: Famous Blue Raincoat, South Kingsville Nick Charles & Blue Strings: Lomond Hotel (5.30pm), Brunswick East Ken Maher & Tony Hargreaves: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East

The Dames + The Morning After Girls: Northcote Social Club (2pm), Northcote Performing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Raiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Swervedriver + Infinite Void + Lunaire: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Howlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Steam Train + The Harlots: Northcote Town Hall (The Bain Marie), Northcote Big Dead + Storyhorse + Underlander: Old Bar, Fitzroy Chris Wilson: Rainbow Hotel (4pm), Fitzroy Darren Gibson + Tim Hampshire + Heath Anthony + Lachlan Hicks: Reverence Hotel (Front Bar/3pm), Footscray The Prayerbabies: Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North Mat Dynon: Shamrock Hotel (1pm), Kyneton A Show For Casey feat. You Am I Allstars + Missy Higgins + Paul Dempsey + Regurgitator + Lisa Mitchell + Adalita + The Bamboos + Dan Sultan + Yacht Club DJs: Simonds Stadium, South Geelong Tracy McNeil Band: Spotted Mallard (4.30pm), Brunswick Lords Of The North + Matt & Sam Ellis + Schina Coy + Andrew Bonnici + Kinch Kinski + Joe Oppenheimer: Tago Mago (5.30pm), Thornbury Japan For + Angry Seas + Kill Taker: The Bendigo, Collingwood The Bellwethers: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine Archeology + Residual: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Charles Jenkins: The Drunken Poet (4pm), Melbourne Beautiful Change: The Drunken Poet, Melbourne Dale Ryder Band + Bad Boys Batucada + Ms Butt: The Espy (Lounge Bar), St Kilda Hugo Race + Sacri Cuori: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Moosejaw Rifle Club: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Lani Stanistreet: The Thornbury Local, Thornbury Big Dead + Storyhorse + Ben Snaith: The Tote, Collingwood Tigertown + MTNS + Kate Martin: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Lovesick Blues: Victoria Hotel (Beer Garden/4pm), Brunswick Rolo Tomassi + Totally Unicorn + Stockades: Wrangler Studios, West Footscray

MON 30

Lebowskis Present +Curious Fingers + Jacob Evans Quartet: 303, Northcote Cherry Jam + Various: Cherry Bar, Melbourne The Baudelaires + Lands + Calypso: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Monday Night Mass feat. Footy + Where Were You At Lunch + School Girl Report + Tlaotlon: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Paul WIlliamsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hammond Combo: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Rihanna: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne The Daryl McKenzie Jazz Orchestra + Wilbur Wilde: The Apartment, Melbourne Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Get Funny At The Brunny+Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Lillis + Rattlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bones Blackwood + Adam Hynes: The Espy (Lounge Bar), St Kilda Bob Evans: The Loft, Warrnambool The Black Molls: The Prince (Public Bar), St Kilda Mandek Penha + The Red Brigade + The Do Ya Thangs: The Toff In Town, Melbourne

TUE 01

Klub MUK: 303, Northcote The Patron Saints: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Smith Street Soul Train + Various: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Irish Session: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Them Swoops + Slow Dancer: Northcote Social Club, Northcote A Secret Death + Palm + Collossus + Caged Grave: The Bendigo, Collingwood Discovery Night + Various: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Harrison Craig + John Foreman + Bob by Fox: The Palms, Southbank Open Mic Night with Nicolette Forte + Friends: The Prince (Public Bar), St Kilda

Applications for 2014 close November 1. aftrs.edu.au/awardcourses

2012.

AUSTRALIAN FILM TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL 1000S OF GIGS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU 76 â&#x20AC;˘ THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;˘ 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 77

culture AUSTRALIAN GHOST TOURS 1.

PEEK A “BOO”!

Port Arthur, TAS A lantern-lit walking tour to experience the Port Arthur Historic Site by night

Old Melbourne Gaol, VIC Explore all three levels of this old prison (including the execution area)

J Jessica Ribeiro invites you y to join j h l d her on a multi-award-winning Ghost tour in Melbourne, an unexpected bit of Fringe.

once had a boyfriend who didn’t believe in ghosts. He worked as a chef down the road from where he lived and had a ritual of coming home every night to take use the toilet upstairs. On this particular night while on the toilet he could hear the downstairs doors opening and closing and the sound of a rowdy group of people walking around the house. They were laughing, talking and knocking things loudly about. He could smell cigarette smoke too and assumed his other housemates were home and had brought with them a drunken party. When he’d finished in the bathroom he walked down the hall and came to the top of the stairs. At that moment he heard a woman yell and the party below fell silent. He ran down the stairs calling out to his friends but all he found was darkness. All the doors and windows were closed and he couldn’t smell any cigarette smoke either. He thought his friends were playing a trick on him so he called them up. They were down at the pub wondering if he was going to come out for a beer. He also called me to tell me what had happened and confessed that things like this had taken place before but he didn’t want to tell me because he thought I’d stop visiting. The house he lived in was a two-storey shopfront that was used as a bakery back in the late 1800s and then a brothel during the 1980s. I guess there are lots of old buildings filled with haunted tales about their past, and most of us know someone who reckons they’ve seen a ghost. If you have any interest in this kind of thing you might like to take a ghost lantern tour durin this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. I’d never been on a ghost tour and after looking at the website was already cringing at how tacky I thought it was going to be. Photos of tour guides holding torches up to their faces in the dark, some of them wearing purple crushed velvet medieval costumes. It looked like something from a Gold Coast amusement park adventure ride. I wasn’t keen but I forced myself to go.

78 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

Fremantle, WA Every Friday night, through the Fremantle Prison, The Roundhouse and the old asylum at Fremantle Arts Centre

We met Ross the tour guide (who didn’t wear a costume) at Federation Square and headed to St Paul’s Cathedral. He described to us the early days of Melbourne. He told us ghost stories about iconic places around the city. These included the Chloe painting at Young and Jackson’s Pub and the old fisherman ghost who walks up and down platform ten during sunset at Flinders Street Station. He took us to many familiar laneways to share tales about famous crimes from the past. He even suggested that notorious murderer Frederick Deeming, who came to Australia in the 1880s and was caught and hung here, may have been Jack the Ripper. Everything he told us is based on true events. You can look it all up. I felt like we were on an excursion with someone’s eccentric historian uncle rather than a paranormal ghost tour. Ross told us that he had explored theories on “All at once time”, supposedly similar to the Aboriginal Dreaming. His theory was that the earth is alive with a memory of everything that has ever happened. He believed that time was not linear so occasionally living events may get stuck on a loop for centuries. Like the story of Room Number 11 at the Windsor Hotel. The cleaners claim to often hear a women speaking and then a small group of men laughing over and over again. Of course when they open the door the room is empty. I wasn’t scared during the tour but I have to admit that last night when I went to bed I woke up in the dark, feeling afraid, wondering if a ghost had attached itself to me and was in my room following me to the toilet. What makes a ghost tour scary - besides the weird people who go on the tours (God love them)? Lying in bed in the dark thinking about the stories after the tour is over. Lantern ghost tours run all year round throughout Victoria and Queensland. Old Melbourne Ghost Tours is a special event, part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival and runs to 6 Oct

The Rocks, NSW Every night of the week you can head on this two hour tour of The Rocks

Old Surfers Paradise, QLD Discover the dark side of the coast and the ghosts that still linger in our Bris Vegas

drink

WHAT YOUR DRINK SAYS ABOUT YOU

HOW TO BE ALONE

BEER

Lonely bastard/ salesman.

RED WINE

Student/artist.

WHITE WINE Bring on pain, you’ve had a shit one.

VODKA RASPBERRY

Next time you see someone one sittingg alone at a pub pub, p , don’t dont h ’ a better b go and say hi to them; just kknow they’re person than you, writes Scott Fitzsimons.

Willing to chat in an hour.

WHISKY

The cabinet at home is empty.

CIDER

Where is the beer garden?

PORT

I’ll be dead soon. You can have my chair then.

’m not sitting alone in a pub to write this because my time spent sitting alone at the bar is too precious. There’s too much to do; too many people to watch, too many problems to solve, too many glasses to stare into. Some people write alone at pubs, some people read, but I’ve never understood how they find the time. What matters is that everyone has their own way of sitting by themselves at a pub and that the act truly is one of life’s great pastimes. But it’s one that is slowly becoming misunderstood, not unlike a Slim Dusty album: you know it’s vital, but can’t quite remember why. It’s important to remember that you’re never truly alone in a pub, because God is always with you. Whether your God is a book, sketches or scribbles on a notepad, David Ireland or a seven of draught, you make your own religion in a pub. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter what you do, because the pub won’t judge you. The bar, the walls, the stools are all dripping with history. The pub’s seen it all before; nothing you can do will surprise it now. As such, it’s the safe haven you need to live your life in: the human race’s ultimate refuge. If you’re unlucky enough to get a cluster of uni students at a trivia session, desperate to win free drinks all night because they spent all their money on Entourage DVDs, you just have to bear it (grinning optional). Stick to your stool, be polite and know they’ll leave when their inability to name the capital of Panama leaves them without a jug of beer. The bar staff and the publican will look after you as you’re joined in a silent mutual understanding that these blow-ins are a necessary evil. Even if the bastards have barely spent a fiver. Your counterparts on the other side of the bar will look after you, because they always do. They know your order, so you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to. They know you’re good for the money at some point, so there’s no delay in the stream of drinks. They understand the frustration when you can’t get your regular seat because some tourist has taken it to try and chat up a barmaid and they’ll keep a watchful

eye when you’re the target of the unwanted attention. They’ll share the 1967 Playboy the art students left behind after lunch, if only to marvel at ‘60s comics and the number of photography editors in the credits, and they’ll back you when you pretend to be a glassie just to infiltrate the bucks party raging on in the function room. The pub is a second home and the publican, particularly, is virtually family. Always good for a conversation about the weather if you feel like a chat, they’ll even pretend to care when – in your weaker moments – you divulge the struggles of the past week. People cry out about the death of all the good pubs, but it’s these same people who judge watering holes by the price of novelty tacos and the vicinity weekend markets. “It’s the publican what makes the pub,” a wise man once said. The publican and their ability to provide us with a safe place to sit. They’ll know the habits of all their regulars – from the old man tired with life, to the young woman tired with love and from the student who needs to read (textbook or otherwise) in peace, to the salesman who needs to jump right in to the drink. Where else in your life can you receive such unconditional and personalised understanding and acceptance? And if you don’t have these relationships at the pub you’re sitting at, vote with your feet and find a new one. Now it’s also okay to not want to sit alone in a pub; some people find it quite uncomfortable. They crave conversation and human interaction, perhaps scared of where their thoughts will linger off to if left to their own devices. They’re the type that’s rarely without a partner, but whose relationships are often disposable. They seem to love life, but they’re really just scared of death. It’s not that they’re bad people; it’s that they’re just not ready yet. Their time will come, and we’ll see them at the pub by themselves in the future. We won’t talk, but we’ll exchange fleeting glances to one another, both understanding the importance of the sanctuary that is the pub. THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 79

travel

CULTURAL CELEBRATION Giuliano Ferla writes about a new Indigenous culture festival in Alice Springs called the Mbantua Festival, and how it celebrates Australian identity.

SOME USEFUL INFO FOR MBANTUA FESTIVAL HOTELS Aurora Alice Springs Alice in the Territory Chifley Alice Springs BACKPACKERS Haven BackPacker Resort Alice Springs YHA Alice Lodge BackPackers CAMPING GROUNDS Old Ambalindum Homestead

he inaugural Mbantua Festival opens pretty soon. It’s a festival to celebrate Indigenous cultures throughout central Australia. It brings together 14 different Indigenous language groups, gathers culturally significant artists from throughout Australia, and draws upon musical and cultural traditions that have been passed down for thousands of years. It also includes Jessica Mauboy. The festival’s co-artistic directors are Rachel Perkins and Nigel Jamieson. Before Mbantua Festival, Perkins directed the films Bran Nue Dae and Mabo, as well as the TV series, Redfern Now. She spoke to me about how the festival, at its heart, is about bringing the legacy of Indigenous culture to broader Australia. “We want people to not only understand [Indigenous culture] more but make it part of their own heritage, in a similar way to how they have in New Zealand… We want to make an opportunity for people to share an ownership of it, a pride in something that is their inheritance by being born in this country. That it’s something that makes up their identity.” She has brought in artists from mainstream Australia who have a close connection to Indigenous culture. Missy Higgins, arguably one if the biggest altpop artists in Australia, acted in and contributed to the soundtrack of Bran Nue Dae and will be performing at the festival. As is Bernard Fanning, who in 2007 did the Across The Great Divide Tour with Powderfinger and Silverchair – a tour which expressly sought to bridge the gap between Indigenous and migrant Australia. Dan Sultan, member of the Black Arm Band, is playing. Jessica Mauboy is launching her album there. The Bungalow Song, a new work created with Opera Australia, is making its world premiere at the festival. But these big acts seem like the self-conscious drawcard, because behind them Perkins and Jamieson are building a festival of substance. Perkins talks about the intimacy of it: “It’s in the natural landscape. It’s designed so that people can sit down with the senior men, these old stockmen, and you can carve a boomerang. Through 80 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013

sitting down with these old men and talking you get to sort of enter into their world… [It’s] a festival that Australians can connect with Indigenous culture through, in a very deep, profound and intimate way.” This is, at its core, the message behind this festival. Ownership and pride. Not just from the Indigenous peoples, but from wider Australia. Rachel’s vision is to make Indigenous culture a central part of Australian identity. And there’s a real key thing in what Perkins is saying, and in the festival’s mission. See, I am not immune to lurid sensitivity or bouts of political correctness when it comes to Indigenous matters. But it seems to me that it is more important to step forward with a sense of ownership and participation than to step forward with overzealous care and compassion. I mean, if I want to call myself an Australian I should be able to talk confidently not only about the culture of my European ancestors, but also about the cultures of the First Australians. That it should be part of my national identity. I ought to feel self-assured in that. But I don’t. Because I am ignorant of it. And am embarrassed by that ignorance. I don’t talk about it because I am worried that I will upset someone, which, if you think about it, is really dumb. I know it is born out of some desire to be compassionate or careful or whatever, but I gotta say this sentiment is totally misplaced. Anyway, I’m trying not to be groping and over-earnest. The point I want to make is that it seems that only when you are invested in something and are actively participating in it, do you feel like you own it. And only then does it become part of your identity. The Mbantua Festival Alice Springs runs from the 9 to 13 October and is $240 for a full access ticket. They also do weekend and single-day passes. As far as getting and staying there goes, Territory Discoveries do a four-day ‘Alice Escape’ package which includes flights and accommodation. It’s pretty cheap if you’re flying out of one of the major cities.

Heritage Caravan Park Stuart Caravan and Cabin Tourist Park TRANSPORT TO MBANTUA FESTIVAL Public transport Bicycles for hire Parking at venues For more info head to territory discoveries.com MUSICAL ACTS Missy Higgins Bernard Fanning Dan Sultan Jessica Mauboy Tjintu Desert band

fashion

SELFIE SOCIAL SCENE

Artist Alexandra Lekias’ new exhibition is inspired by the modern ‘selfie’. She chats to Cyclone about how the selfie can be subversive and why she’s fascinated by online documentation.

n the digital era fashionistas share their fabulous looks on social media, especially Instagram. Now Perth artist Alexandra Lekias is examining the ‘selfie’ phenomenon, driven by the smart phone boom, in her new exhibition, Selfie Sourcing Pudding Party, at the Friends of Leon Gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney. Ironically, it’s not photographic – Lekias works with line drawing, using pen, ink and watercolour. The pop culture fan – who’s long explored the concepts of memory, nostalgia, identity, and coming-of-age – is particularly concerned with how people construct their own personae through online images. But the specific theme of Selfie Sourcing Pudding Party is the “post-party ritual” – chronicling the night as it unravels. “I just find it interesting how there’s these little rituals that have emerged in our youth culture that are common around the world,” says Lekias, who, it turns out, has been doing all-nighters to ready her collection. That Lekias prefers illustration is curious since she double-majored in Film and TV and Creative Advertising Design at the Curtin University of Technology. Has she given up film? “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘given up’ on. I’m just taking things as they go; whatever feels natural to me to be doing, I’ll do it. I did a double-major, so I did Film and TV, and my favourite part of that was writing. And I loved doing storyboarding and telling a story visually. But I loved studying film, that was awesome, and I’d love to get back into it – just telling stories in whatever medium.” Lekias relished art in school but was “discouraged from pursuing it” due to a supposed lack of job prospects. She “had a crack” at the advertising industry, hoping to be an Art Director. However, Lekias was left disillusioned by her interning experiences. “It’s just such a boys’ club – it’s not far from Mad Men,” she recalls. “It just wasn’t for me.” What’s more, when Lekias graduated, the GFC hit, leaving few openings. That proved liberating – “a blessing in disguise” – as she returned to her Plan A. “I’ve had more luck with art.”

those paparazzi shots of self-destructive celebrities falling out of clubs – and even ads. And, beyond any association with narcissism, or controversy about pornderived sexualisation, the selfie is potentially subversive. The female self-photographer rejects the patriarchal paradigm of male gaze/female object by capturing herself – looking into a digital mirror, with all its possibilities of reinvention. Not that Lekias is necessarily making a feminist statement. “I’m not terribly well versed in [feminism]!” she confesses. “[But] my subject is always girls, it’s always female, and [I’m] telling stories that are intimate. I guess they are empowering of women, and very contemporary.” Lekias, not being active in the transitionary realm of social media, first heard the term ‘selfie’ from a young cousin. She instantly came up with her collection’s “fun title”. Initially, Lekias was intrigued by the “institution” of self-portraiture. “I’m personally not into the whole selfie thing – I don’t really construct my identity online like some people do – but I find that really fascinating, this constant documentation and curation of yourself online, just with profile images. But I find it a bit odd because it is so constructed. It’s presenting a version of yourself that is curated by yourself – it’s not someone else’s interpretation of you. But it’s kind of like an interesting postmodern form of portraiture and it’s very current and of this generation.”

The playful Selfie Sourcing Pudding Party counters the way young women are depicted in glossy mags –

Self ie Sourcing Pudding Party by Alexandra Lekias opens at Friends Of Leon Gallery, 28 Sep, 6pm, to 19 Oct.

Lekias has drawn her own self-portraits, which she found “awkward”. Her next undertaking could be more obviously fashion-related. She’s informally engaged in a ‘365 Dress Project’: “When I was about 17 I just decided I only wanted to wear secondhand party dresses so I started just wearing that exclusively and collecting. I was like, ‘If I had 365 dresses, then I only need to do one wash a year!’ I’ve been meaning to document it, but I’ve not been terribly rigourous with that. Maybe next year or something I’ll really document it for prosperity.”

THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 • 81

the end

OPEN YA EYES REF! VFL GRAND FINAL 1979 PARTIES INVOLVED

Carlton Blues and Collingwood Magpies.

PLAYING CONDITIONS Wet and muddy, with Carlton barely hanging on to a late lead.

RUB OF THE GREEN Wayne Harmes dives over boundary line, contentiously punches ball back in, sets up winning goal.

LEVEL OF IMPAIRMENT Depends on which supporters you ask. We say one eye closed.

THE FINAL HOOTER All the fuel needed to further fire up one of Aussie sports great rivalries.

WEEK 1 NRL FINALS 2013 PARTIES INVOLVED

Cronulla Sharks and North Queensland Cowboys.

PLAYING CONDITIONS Elimination final for two perennial underachievers.

RUB OF THE GREEN Sharks score a seventh tackle try, go on to win by two.

LEVEL OF IMPAIRMENT Bottom of the remedial maths class. Need more attention at home.

THE FINAL HOOTER Anti-Queensland conspiracy theories abound. Refs gear up for Centrelink.

SUMMER OLYMPICS 1972 PARTIES INVOLVED

USA and USSR men’s basketball teams.

PLAYING CONDITIONS The most important gold medal game ever played, in the heart of the ‘second Cold War’.

RUB OF THE GREEN Seconds put back on the clock allowed the USSR to throw a full court pass, score and win by a point.

LEVEL OF IMPAIRMENT Drunker than a Soviet bucks party.

THE FINAL HOOTER America refuse their silver medals after protesting. The Cold War gets colder. 82 • THE MUSIC • 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013