Time Off Issue #1531 by TheMusic.com.au

AIRBOURNE

THE JAPANESE POPSTARS

THE VINES

JJ ABRAMS

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GIVEAWAYS The Trip is an intelligent British comedy about the importance of friendship and good food, reuniting Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. When Steve is commissioned by a newspaper to review half a dozen restaurants, he decides to mix work with pleasure and plans a trip around the North of England with his food loving American girlfriend. But when his girlfriend decides to leave him, Steve is faced with a week of meals for one, not quite the trip he had in mind. Reluctantly, he calls Rob. Thanks to Madman Entertainment we have ten double preview passes up for grabs! The screening is at Palace Centro on Wednesday Jun 22 at 6.30pm. Releases Jun 30. Written and directed by Julia Leigh, and starring Emily Browning, Sleeping Beauty is a haunting and erotic fairytale about Lucy, a student drawn into a hidden world of beauty and desire. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission. This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops a need to know what happens to her when she is asleep. Thanks to Transmission we have ten double passes to give away to a preview screening being held on Monday Jun 20 at Palace Centro Cinemas at 6.30pm. Releases Jun 23. Seminal hard rock band Helmet released their seventh album Seeing Eye Dog in September last year – their first since 2006s acclaimed Monochrome. After sold-out tours of the U.S. and Europe, the LA post-hardcore rockers are gearing up to head back to Australia for the first

time in three years! They play the Coolangatta Hotel Wednesday Jun 22 and The Hi-Fi Thursday Jun 23. We have one double pass up for grabs to their gig at The Hi-Fi! Entrants must be 18+. The latest artist to hit the Oz hip hop/R&B scene, Jes McGarry, is proud to announce the launch of his debut album, Everyday Is A Holiday, available from iTunes. In 1999 Jes lived out his dream by joining the Australian Army which included serving a tour of duty in East Timor before he was discharged medically due to a parachuting accident and a series of injuries. He spent the next three years rehabilitating before moving to Gold Coast in 2007 to pursue another dream of releasing a hip hop record. All profits from his single Really are being donated to Legacy to help diggers and their families in need. A launch party is being held at Shooters Superclub Jun 28, and we have six copies of the album to give away! In celebration of his third long-player, Spunk Records is pleased to announce Jack Ladder’s Hurtsville album tour. The tour coincides with the release of the new album which is now available in stores, and is the first occasion that its songs will be unveiled in full within a live setting. You can catch Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders’ album launch in Brisbane at the Alhambra Lounge on Friday Jun 17, and we have got two double passes up for grabs! Entrants must be 18+.

DARYL BRAITHWAITE & BAND

Head to facebook.com/timeoffmag for heaps more giveaways!

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 1531

TIME OFF

Get your music industry news from The Front Line Lowdown – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash Though he started it musically directionless, Bon Iver is immensely satisfied with album number two We chat to a rejuvenated and re-energised The Vines Take a look at the highs and lows of Airbourne’s career Haters gonna hate but Helmet will live on Email issues played a surprisingly big part in The Japanese Popstars’ new record Little Red have found that sometimes the events that seem the smallest can have the biggest impact Call Mick Harvey what you like, just don’t call him a songwriter Wrangling the members has been the hardest part of getting Harmony together I Exist are starting to take things seriously You won’t hear any “happy 808 shit” out of Onyx All that matters is that Ghost Notes are trying their hardest Devolved clear up the nature of their upcoming ‘reunion’ Want to play a festival? Make like The Dashounds and organise one yourself, you lazy motherfucker We get the goss from Los Huevos’ recent road adventures Let us give you a run down on this year’s enormous Fete de la Musique event

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On The Record has the latest, greatest and the not so greatest new musical releases Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out

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Get the drum on all the coolest happenings in local music last week, this week and beyond in Live Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown Lochlan Watt gets brutal in our new metal column Adamantium Wolf Sarah Petchell has enough punk rock to Wake The Dead Cyclone has the wide urban world covered with some OG Flavas Brad Swob gets deep with Subdetritus We take you behind the music Behind The Lines iFlog and you can too

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CREDITS EDITORIAL Group Managing Editor: Andrew Mast Editor: Steve Bell Front Row Editor: Daniel Crichton-Rouse Contributing Editors: Dan Condon, Adam Curley ADVERTISING Advertising Account Executives: Melissa Tickle, Adam Reilly DESIGN & LAYOUT Designer: Matt Davis Cover Design: Stuart Teague ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION Administration: Leanne Simpson Accounts: Marcus Treweek CONTRIBUTORS: Time Off: Lawrence English, Ben Preece, Dan Condon, Craig Spann, Daniel Johnson, Chris Yates, Matt O’Neill, Justin Grey, Alex Gillies, Mark Beresford, Adam Curley, Lochlan Watt, Roberta Maguire, Kenada Quinlan, Carlin Beattie, Tyler McLoughlan, Mitch Knox, Sam Hobson, Rachel Tinney, Tony McMahon, Benny Doyle, Lily Luscombe, Jake Sun, Sarah Petchell, Helen Stringer, Brendan Telford, Rip Nicholson, Cyclone, Amber McCormick, Brad Swob

Front Row: Baz McAlister, Mandy Kohler, Lauren Dillon, Adam Brunes, Matt O’Neill, Mitch Knox, Jessica Mansour, Guy Davis, Rowena Grant-Frost, Danielle O’Donohue, Helen Stringer, Alice Muhling Photography: Stephen Booth, Kane Hibberd, Alex Gillies, Silvana Macarone, Brad Marsellos EDITORIAL POLICY The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder. © PUBLISHER: Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Suite 11/354 Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 POSTAL: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Phone: 07 3252 9666 Email: info@timeoff.com.au PRINTED BY: Rural Press

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INDUSTRY NEWS INDUSTRY PLAYS NICE TO APPLE’S ICLOUD Apple’s anticipated iCloud was announced last week, the move coming after Google and Amazon had announced their cloud-based storage/streaming systems but without deals lined-up with the major labels. The system will allow for wireless syncing of content across devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) instantly which means that no matter where a user is they will have access to their library of music (along with other content such as documents and photos). The kicker is that the free storage is available for things purchased through iTunes only, if you want to put songs you acquired elsewhere (CDs, downloads from artist websites/other retailers) you’ll have to pay the annual $25 fee for their iTunes Match service. That works by ‘matching’ the content in your library with Apple’s 18 million track-strong library of material and you’ll have access to the corresponding file (if it can’t be found, then you’ll be able to upload that track). The industry responded positively for the most, with some media outlets around the world calling it ‘revolutionary.’ Locally, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR) raised concerns that the match service might legitimise piracy. Speaking to Melbourne newspaper The Age AIR General Manager Nick O’Byrne said, “Why buy at ‘full price’ when you can pirate as many songs as you like and absolve yourself of guilt by paying $25 a year?” International independent licenser Merlin were unusually in favour of the system. “Apple is the most experienced player in the digital music space,” they said. “We have absolutely no reason to believe that Apple, (unlike others) have not materially recognised the integral value of independents to their service and are paying them fairly and equitably... we think this goes a long way to monetising music in a new way” American industry website Billboard were hesitant in their assessment, writing, “As for the music, it flatly beats both music locker offerings from competitors Amazon.com and Google in terms of both cost and features… But in the grand scheme of digital music, this is not the revolutionary new music experience so many had hoped for.” Talking to Rolling Stone, ex-EMI executive Syd Schwartz said, “It is one way to make someone pay for music they’ve already bought. It’s pretty ingenious. I’m sure someone in an executive office at a major label somewhere is going, ‘At least that’s one way we can monetise the stuff people stole from Napster over the years.’” The outspoken Recording Industry Association of America were surprisingly positive in their reaction as well – likely because unlike Google, Apple had finalised deals with the major labels. They commented, “This groundbreaking new model exemplifies the unique cultural benefit that springs from the partnership between music and technology. ”

LADIES LEAD ALBUM CHART The ARIA album chart is dominated by females this week, with Adele taking the top spot back from Lady Gaga. Australia’s own supergroup featuring Holly Throsby, Sally Seltmann and Sarah Blasko Seeker Lover Keeper debuted third with their self-titled album. Other debuts included Arctic Monkeys which managed fourth with Suck It And See, Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs in sixth and The Vines’ Future Primitive in 24th.

KYLIE BIOGRAPHER TAKES ON POWDERFINGER The controversial biographer that claimed Kylie Minogue lost her virginity in a school closet in a 90s book has co-written the official Powderfinger biography, Footprints. A former editor of Rolling Stone and Juke magazines, Dino Scatena co-wrote the book with the band, which is due for release Nov 8. A press release from publishers Hachette said the book is the “inside story” of the band from “their slow rise to music

Girl Vinegar receive $5,000 to work with AUM’s Chryss Carr. The Management Workshop Initiative will hand out $45,000 to emerging managers with the following names the successful participants.

AUSSIES NAMED AS WORLD’S BEST Brisbane’s DZ Deathrays, pictured, Gold Coast’s Bleeding Knees Club and Sydney-now-New York’s High Highs have been given a huge mark of recognition from the UK with hype-generating paper NME including them both in their 50 best new bands of 2011 list. Coming in at eighth on the list, the mag described DZ Deathrays as “exploding grot punk.” Vocalist and guitarist Shane Parsons told Your Daily SPA, “Industry has seemed to be really getting behind us and supporting [us] which is really surprising as we have only toured the UK once. I guess we just got on a great tour while we were there which also put us in front of some decent crowds who were honestly just excited about new music,” he said. “There were shows where the crowds were under 50 people but the fact that you still get five or more come up and talk to you about the show means that we might being doing something with our music that could definitely grow into something more than we ever expected overseas.” Their new-found markets won’t be their sole focus though – with Australia firmly in their sights. They’ve tours supporting Children Collide and Dananananaykroyd coming up. “At this stage our main focus is actually on Australia and overseas. It’s been split 50/50. We have a couple of tours coming up in Australia over the next few months and then it’s looking like we could be back over in Europe and the UK in late September. We are trying to keep the buzz going overseas from the last tour and using that to help push out immediate plans in Australia. It’s a bit of a juggling act.” Riding the garage-slacker-surf wave, Bleeding Knees Club are came in at number 21 on the list (described as “thrillingly off-kilter surf-pop) and are currently recording their debut album in New York. They posted to their Facebook “we have no idea where they [NME ] got this photo from but?” High Highs – who are now based in New York – were number 39. New Zealand’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra managed spot 15 in a list that also featured local favourites Foster The People and Dom. dominance and the reasons behind their break-up.” In a statement Scatera said, “They are genuinely five of the sweetest, humblest and funniest guys you’ll meet in rock’n’roll. That won’t come as a shock to anyone who knows anything about Powderfinger. What will surprise is the story these very private men finally share here about their extraordinary 20 years together.”

EPITAPH JOIN WARNER Music newsletter Your Daily SPA are reporting that flagship punk label Epitaph are changing their Australian distribution from Shock to Warner, ending a 20-plus year partnership between the label and the indie distributor. Over that time Shock has handled releases from the likes of The Offspring, Weezer, Refused, Rancid, Bad Religion and more. It is believed that Shock and Epitaph will part ways at the end of June.

APRA TO PAY-OUT MORE OFTEN APRA [Australasian Performing Right Association] members will receive their domestic revenue payments earlier in a new quarterly payment system to be introduced by APRA in August. Speaking to Your Daily SPA, APRA’s Head Of Member Services Sally Howland said of the August payment, “essentially that is getting paid three months earlier than usual.” APRA pays its musician members royalties based on the use of their tracks on radio, television and at public events and the August hand-out will now cover domestic revenue January through March that otherwise would have been issued in November and covered the first three months of the year. Included in the payments are royalties from

Jesse Barbera (The Cairos/Wherewolves/Velociraptor/ Young Men Dead), Brendon Boney (Microwave Jenny), Nicole B-Z (Gay Paris/Kira Puru/Art Rush), Julia Bridger (Inland Sea), Sam Buckingham (self managed), Dan Ceh (Oceanics/Fiona Franklin/Ryan Murphy), Rick Chazan (The Boat People/Dan Parsons/ Emma Louise/Skinny Jean), Derek Downing (Simplex/ Social Change), Byron Georgouras (New Navy/Rapids/ The Spirits), Nick Lynagh (Numbers Radio/My Fiction), Brendan Maclean (self-managed), Adrian McNamara (The Tableland Drifters), Dominic Miller (Ben Salter/ Texas Tea), Karinda Mutabazi (Roscoe James Irwin), Kris Nelson (Minute 36), Julian Origliasso (The Veronicas/Sons Of Midnight/Jungle George), Jon Owen (Cameras), Tash Parker (self-managed), Cesar Rodrigues (Harmless/Kate Vigo/Video Day/Cuban Ash), Hannah Shepherd (Charlie Mayfair), Bel Skinner (The Walkabout Boys), Jake Snell (Split Seconds/Boom! Bap! Pow!), Mark Spillane (The Growl), Steph Travaglia (Ghostwood), Bridget Turner (Boys Boys Boys!/Simone And Girlfunkle) and Laura Wallbridge (Gossling).

FRESHLY INKED New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based Kimbra has signed a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records who’ll look after the release of the 21-year-old’s debut album Vows, later this year. The deal comes on the back of strong showings from singles Settle Down and Cameo Lover. Warner Bros. Records chairman Rob Cavallo commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Kimbra to the Warner Bros. Records family. She is an authentic young voice who brings something new and exciting, both musically and visually, to the pop singer-songwriter landscape.” Her manager Mark Richardson said, “Kimbra is an exquisite talent. We are excited that in partnering with Warner Bros. Records she will have access to a wealth of expertise to help build her creative and commercial future. Artist development is in their DNA.”

radio, concerts, downloads and the like. TV has not yet made the switch to quarterly because “one of the problems is getting the details from the broadcasters.”

Melbourne based Dream On Dreamer have signed a further deal with UNFD for the release of their debut album Heartbound.

Howland said it was something they’ve been working on for a while and expect to announce the changes properly in July. “There are quite a lot of system designing that has to be done… [we’re] in the stage of user-testing at the moment.”

Los Angeles’ soul revivalists Fitz & The Tantrums have signed in Australia to Dew Process.

JAZZ’S TOP BRASS The finalists for the 2011 Freedman Jazz Fellowship have been announced, with the winner revealed following the public Freedman Jazz concert at the Sydney Opera House’s Studio Friday Jul 8. The four finalists are Perth based pianist, composer and trio-leader Tom O’Halloran, Perth and Melbourne based session drummer Ben Vanderwal, Sydney drummer and Musica Viva participant Evan Mannell and Sydney saxophonist, composer and director Matt Keegan. All four finalists – and their bands – will perform at the Opera House show.

THE SEEDS PAYS OUT MANAGER GRANTS The recipients of the latest funding from The Seed – totaling $97,500 – have been announced with $18,200 of that provided to the new Publicise It project. Boy & Bear’s manager Rowan Brand received a $5,000 grant to work with Kathleen Hore of Secret Service PR, self-managed Dallas Frasca receives $4,200 to work with Shiny Entertainment’s Steven Stavrakis, Mista Savona and manager Blair Stafford have $4,400 towards their work with Alison Pearl and Skipping

Fuse Group have added !K7 and its partner labels to its roster. Along with the main electronic label, partner imprints include Strut (funk/soul), Gold Dust (hip hop) and Rapster (urban). Recent and upcoming releases have/will come from Arnaud Rebotini, Wolf & Lamb vs Soul Clap, Nigeria 70 Vol. 3, Electric Wire Hustle. They’ve also announced that Belgian label Crammer Discs will also become part of the Fuse roster in Australia.

WOLFMOTHER’S SOUNDTRACK SUCCESS In the US, Wolfmother are reaping the rewards of another successful soundtrack sync. The band’s Love Train features on an album featuring music from box office hit The Hangover Part 2. The album has bulleted to 106 in the US albums chart and sits at number seven in the US soundtracks chart (where Glee CDs hold out six of the top 15 positions). Wolfmother have now appeared on over a dozen US film soundtracks from Spider-Man 3 and Shrek The Third to 500 Days Of Summer and the first Hangover film.

AWARD JUDGING UNDERWAY Judging for the Queensland Music Awards has begun while fans are currently able to cast their votes for the publicly voted awards at queenslandmusicawards.com.au.

PEN TO PAPER

With the 2011 APRA MUSIC AWARDS just around the corner, The Front Line grabbed songwriting nominees DANIEL RANKINE, SCOTT WILSON, MELANIE HORSNELL and DENZAL PARK to pick their brains about the method behind the madness.

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Denzal Park (Kam Denny And Paul Zala)

he 2011 APRA Music Awards are taking place next Tuesday Jun 21 at CarriageWorks in Sydney, with nominees and winners in each category handpicked by the voting members of APRA (there are over 30,000 eligible voters), members of the APRA board or APRA-based statistical analysis. Over the 12 categories of the awards, songwriters and publishers in the music industry have been given the opportunity, over the last 25 years, to be recognised and honoured for their achievements and contributions to the music industry. This year’s songwriting nominees include Daniel Rankine, who’s been nominated twice for Urban Work Of The Year for co-writing Rapunzel with Drapht and Light You Burned with Hilltop Hoods; Scott Wilson, nominated as Breakthrough Songwriter Of The Year with co-writer Dan Sultan; Melanie Horsnell, nominated for Country Work Of The Year for Can’t Change A Thing with Catherine Britt; and Denzal Park (Kam Denny and Paul Zala), nominated for Dance Work Of The Year for co-writing Zoe Badwi’s Free Fallin’. Obviously songwriting is quite a diverse and idiosyncratic craft, with no two approaches quite the same – especially when co-writing comes into the equation, there must be preferences as to whether the penmen enjoy fleshing out ideas solo or with a partner in crime. “I definitely prefer making tunes with somebody else who chooses a snare or a loop that I usually wouldn’t if I were making a jam by myself, I think it’s food for the ears’ pallet, or something,” Rankine shares. “On the flip side, writing solo is great because you can steer the ship in any direction, so if you want to write that song about your favourite unicorn learning parkour you can – the only downside is that you sometimes end up writing that song!” “Those bits you get stuck on are much easier to work through when you can bounce off someone else, especially when you find you have a spark with the other songwriter,” says Horsnell, a fan of the collaborative process. “Collaborating also helps stopping you being lazy and forces you to write and finish a project.” Wilson would agree – “I think it’s easier to collaborate; it’s definitely quicker in my experience. Maybe because the co-writer has expectations and pushes it to a conclusion. Most of my songs I write by myself and it can take ages, overanalysing and procrastinating, then going back to my original idea.” Another perspective comes from Denzal Park, who admit other writers can bring overlooked aspects to the table including more experience and vocabulary, but that “often it is easier to write solo, as each part of the writing process seems to finish a lot quicker and minute decisions can be made instantly without delegation.” They also

Melanie Horsnell share that “if the back-and-forthing of ideas is a chore then the track usually doesn’t work out that well… The ones that do work out seem to be a little more effortless, they just gel and you know where to go from there.” Most of the songwriters agree that it’s easier to write tunes with someone if they’re your mate and you’ve got a good relationship going and if they’re willing to put in the same amount of effort, making it a truly collaborative affair. As Horsnell – who light-heartedly recounts a tale of being told off by a Swedish songwriter who didn’t like her lyrics – tells, sometimes it becomes a family matter too: “It was pretty funny writing with Catherine Britt also because we had my one-year-old crawling all over me and making noise and carrying on, and yet we came up with some lovely songs. She was lovely to put up with that!” The songwriting process, as anyone’s who’s ever tried to bash one out themselves would know, is not one that has rhyme or reason to it, necessarily, which differs for everyone. “I sometimes wake up with a tune in my head that I most often forget in a few minutes,” Wilson tells. “I have a crappy little 80s four-track recorder that I have plugged in all the time in case I want to mumble something into it before it’s forgotten.” “My best flow starts from a little lyric line that finds a melody – then I’ll expand off on the melody from there, letting lyrics dribble into place, even if they sound funny,” says Horsnell. Creative processes are sometimes hard to measure, especially when they’re as personal as a song – sometimes songs never get finished, or there’s more that you think of later to add to them. So how do you know when you’re done? Horsnell’s approach is simple: “When you have said what you wanted to say. It may only be a short ditty, but if the story has been told there is no point stretching for no reason. I do like to take a new song to a gig though and feel it out in front of an audience – it’s a good way of seeing how much you really enjoy the song, how it starts and finishes, and if perhaps you want to take it somewhere else, riding on the vibe of a good show.” A bit more of an abstract answer from Rankine, whose inspiration (and criticism!) clearly comes from the ghosts of musical past. “I sometimes imagine that I am writing the song for Elvis, or Muddy Waters, or whoever I can imagine doing the song in its ultimate form, and I think about how they would react when handed the song,” he begins. “I don’t want to give these guys a half-arsed song. I don’t want Elvis to say, ‘This is underdeveloped; come back when you’re fair dinkum, you drongo!’”

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IN BRIEF Jack White and his soon to be ex-wife Karen Elson are throwing a party together to celebrate their divorce.

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW Talk about a blast from the past! Three bands who we haven’t heard from in an awfully long time are getting together to embark on a three date Australian tour that we would have gone sick for in the early-90s and are absolutely giddy about now! Jesus Jones, pictured, were best known for their massive hit Right Here, Right Now but they managed to continue pumping out awesome music up until a few years back; they hit Australia for the first time in eons this August and they don’t come alone. When you hear the words The Wonder Stuff, those of you who know who we’re talking about probably think immediately of two things; lead singer Miles Hunt and their hit single Dizzy. These guys reformed back in 2000 and have become a festival favourite in the UK in recent years and they’re going to prove why in a couple of months’ time. Rounding out this epic bill is The Clouds, who were such an integral part of the Australian alternative music boom in the early-90s. All three acts play The Tivoli on Thursday Aug 18; tickets are on sale from Ticketek as of Friday Jun 24. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

STAND UP! Brisbane rockers Dead Letter Circus are none too thrilled about the process of hydraulic fracturing (otherwise known as ‘fracking’), a controversial method of mining gas and oil that puts our water supply in serious danger of contamination. So to raise awareness of the campaign to stop this happening and potentially putting our environment in great danger, they have announced the No Fracking Way tour, an extensive run of dates around the country that will feature the band’s kick arse brand of modern rock music and dynamic live show as well as more information about this campaign and petitions to be signed. They play Lismore’s Uni Bar Friday Aug 12, the Parkwood Tavern Saturday Aug 13 and The Zoo Tuesday Aug 16. All three shows will see the band supported by the great Closure In Moscow and Wolves.

SOLO MAN The inspiration for Go Don’t Stop, the new solo EP from Mat McHugh, was borne from a solo tour the artist recently did through the United States in support of John Butler. He reconnected with the travelling troubadour style of performing and felt it was something he needed to pursue further, so he’s recorded the aforementioned EP and also stripped back some of the best songs from the past ten years of his songwriting career and he’s taking them on the road this August to let us be a part of this newfound intimate connection he has formed with his music. You can see him at the Byron Bay Theatre Thursday Aug 11, the Gold Coast’s The SoundLounge on Friday Aug 12, the Old Museum Saturday Aug 13 and Coolum Theatre Sunday Aug 14. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

Nonesuch Records, on behalf of The Black Keys, have sued the company who made a television advertisement for the Valley National Bank, after their song Tighten Up was used without permission. Joan Jett and Cherie Curri of The Runaways are suing the makers of an upcoming Runaways tribute album, saying that the record has been promoted using their names and implying their blessing. Willie Nelson has been fined $500 and ordered to pay $287 in court costs after his charge for possession of marijuana.

THE PRIMITIVE HAVE EVOLVED Say what you will about The Vines, their tenacity and longevity is to be admired. While they started off as something of a privileged group, being in the right place at the right time with the whole ‘rock is back’ hoo-haa, recent years have not been as kind as they’ve dealt with personal issues and a changing perception of their brand of rock music. They’ve stayed strong though and now they are ready to deliver their fifth full-length record Future Primitive and their first Australian headline tour in many, many years. The record is said to be the band’s most consistent since their debut Highly Evolved and sees frontman Craig Nicholls tackle themes about his unwillingness to adapt to certain elements of modern society. It’s exciting to have them back and you can see them alongside the very hotly tipped up-and-comers Papa Vs Pretty and Bleeding Knees Club at Byron Bay’s Great Northern Hotel on Thursday Aug 25 and at The Hi-Fi on Friday Aug 26. Tickets are available from OzTix and Moshtix respectively from Friday morning.

IN BRIEF

The much anticipated second album from UK’s Male Bonding will be called Endless Now and comes out through Sub Pop at the end of August.

In an interview with the Dallas Observer, Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars has announced he’s been jamming with jazz great George Benson.

Die Antwoord collaborator, DJ and artist Leon Botha has passed away at the age of 26. Botha suffered from a rare degenerative disease called progeria. Apple have finally unveiled their cloud based music service iCloud. Brian Ferry has been awarded the Commander of the British Empire title for his services to music. There is a Metallica version of the Monopoly board game being released this week.

HIGH TIME! We already told you about the very exciting The Gathering festival happening this September, but it just got even better with the news that the incredible The Screaming Tribesmen, pictured, are reforming to play the show! This will be the first time this line-up has played together since 1987 and at this point in time there are no other shows booked so there is every chance this might be your last opportunity to see one of Queensland’s truly legendary garage rock bands play in this form. They will join The Wilson Pickers, Toothfaeries, The Vaudeville Smash, Band Of Frequencies, The Rooftops, The El Caminos, Glokenspiel, The Informants, Toxic Garden Gnomes, Lil’ Fi & the Famous 4, The Jim Rockfords, Bertie Page Clinic, Bon Fromage, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, John Malcolm, Bang Bang Boss Kelly and Dave Flower Band on Saturday Sep 17. Tickets are available from OzTix for $61.20.

POUR IT ON THE FIRE

GOOD HABITS They have been turning heads in the global music scene for a few years now, but this August will mark the first ever Australian tour from US alt-rockers Neon Trees and it couldn’t have come soon enough. The band’s mish-mash of 80s pop and big, bombastic choruses that’ll make your spine tingle have really captured the attention of a wide audience lately, over here they became radio darlings with their Animal tune and their debut record Habits has been connecting with a wide range of punters since its release. The band are going to be hitting Brisbane with a bang in a couple of months, you can catch them doing what they do best at The Tivoli on Friday Aug 5. Tickets are available from Ticketek from Friday morning.

If you like your punk rock to be of the highest quality, then there are two bands coming our way you simply need to check out. Pour Habit are heavy yet melodic and are one of the most ‘out there’ bands on the Fat Wreck Chords label at present – their genrebending antics keep everyone on their toes but they manage to pull off just about everything they attempt musically. Smoke Or Fire, another Fat Wreck band, are definitely more straight-down-the-line, but there’s also more to them than meets the eye (or ear). Their new record The Speakeasy is a sensationally ferocious slab of melodic punk rock with oodles of substance and it sees this veteran band sound as fresh and relevant as ever. Both acts hit the Miami Shark Bar on Saturday Oct 8 and the Step Inn on Sunday Oct 9.

MORE CORNELL Unsurprisingly, tickets for the recently announced Chris Cornell solo show at QPAC’s Concert Hall on Saturday Oct 15 sold out in no time flat, but if you missed out then you needn’t despair! There has been a second show announced that will take place at the same venue on Monday Oct 17. Tickets are available from Qtix right now from $87.10 to $203.90.

Damn Dogs is the name of the new side project from Jet members Chris Cester and Mark Wilson. They have just announced Sydney and Melbourne dates but have no Brisbane show scheduled.

FEELING SUPER Sarah McLeod has been a little quieter than we would have liked in recent times, but we can announce this week that she is blowing out the cobwebs with an upcoming acoustic tour that will see her play some very cool intimate shows across the country. She promises that these dates will see her visit material from all throughout her career, beginning with the killer songs from 90s alternative rock mainstays The Superjesus and going all the way through to her more recent solo material. Her massive fanbase are going to be champing at the bit to catch these very special shows that hit the Hinterland Hotel on the Gold Coast on Thursday Jun 23, The Globe Theatre Friday Jun 24 and Joe’s Waterhole. Eumundi Saturday Jul 25.

Serial collaborator Jim O’Rourke has readied two new albums, one with Swedish avant trio Fire! called Unreleased?, the other with renowned multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi called Indeed. The new album from bass hotshot Thundercat is called The Golden Age Of Apocalypse, produced by Flying Lotus and features guest vocals from Erykah Badu. Performance artist Kalup Linzy and Oscar-nominated heartthrob actor James Franco have released a collaborative EP called Turn It Up under the name Kalup & Franco. First Seed Ripening, the second album from Katie Noonan’s Elixir and first in eight years will be released through Universal on Friday Aug 5. The new album from British rock dynamos Kasabian will be called Velociraptor! and will be released through Sony Music Friday Sep 16.

THIS IS LIVING The man we call JOOF, the man his family calls John Fleming, the man whose record sleeves call him John ‘00’ Fleming – let’s face it, if you’ve even the slightest interest in psychedelic trance music, the man needs no introduction. Though it’s not really fair to pin Fleming down to that one genre, he’s tried his hand at so many different styles of electronic and dance music and it seems as if that has gone relatively well for him, considering he’s sold a lazy 10 million records in his time. He has had singles on every compilation worth knowing about and has remixed some of the world’s biggest acts – from Nine Inch Nails to Gloria Estefan and beyond. Fleming is coming back to Australia on the back of his Nine Lives album and you can catch him working the crowd into a massive frenzy when he plays Barsoma Sunday Jul 31 and the Gold Coast’s Platinum on Friday Aug 5.

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IN BRIEF Dino Scatena’s Powderfinger Footprints: The Inside Story Of Australia’s Best Loved Band, the first authorised Powderfinger biography, will be released on Tuesday Nov 8. Twenty-one year old New Zealand born, Melbourne based singer Kimbra has signed a worldwide deal with Warner Music. General Pants have signed three more acts to their Major Label record label; Olympic Ayres, Myth and Tropics and Crops. Biohazard bassist, co-vocalist and founding member Evan Seinfeld has left the band.

A TOUCH OF PARADISE The Surfers Paradise Festival is almost about to begin and it looks like being one of the finest events on the Gold Coast calendar for the entire year. There are plenty of super exciting events planned over the few weeks that the festival runs, most of which are family friendly and will undoubtedly show how friendly a place Surfers Paradise really is, despite any bad media it may get on occasion. The Launch It! party that is kicking the whole shebang off has just been announced and there’s a hell of a bill been put together to make it appealing to a very wide demographic. You’ll catch the likes of Pete Murray, pictured, Clare Bowditch, The John Steel Singers, Busby Marou, Dan Hannaford and Clay Blyth and Frankie and The Moon playing their tasteful tunes and getting you up and dancing through into the evening. This happens at Surfers Paradise Beach from midday on Saturday Jun 18. It’s open to all ages, it’s free, there’ll be fireworks – it’s just going to rule.

Speaking to the Sun Herald, Sarah McLeod has said that reforming her old band The Superjesus is on her to-do list.

MINDS WILL BE BLOWN If you like your music heavy and technical then do we have a tour for you! For the past few years Periphery have blown minds in the heavy music world, with their sheer brutal power and absolute precision of their playing meaning they will make your jaw drop further than your average epic band might do. Their debut record has been praised by heavy music fans the world over and they are all set to bring the beautiful brutality to Australia next month. They bring with them fellow prog-metal masterminds Tesseract, who came bursting out of the UK prog metal scene last decade and have since built up a solid following for their unpretentious brand of progressive metal madness. You can catch both of these heavy heroes smashing it out at The Zoo on Friday Jul 29. Grab your tickets from OzTix and outlets as of Friday morning.

TRIUMPH THROUGH TRAGEDY The tragic fl oods that ravaged our city early this year have been a massive source of inspiration to so many creative types in recent times, none more so than the wonderful Catherine Traicos. The name of her new record Gloriosa came to her when she saw a lone fl ower growing out of the mud after the fl oods; Traicos was moved by this image, mostly, she feels, because the fl ower was a Gloriosa Superba – the national fl oral emblem of her native Zimbabwe. Her new record sees Traicos and her band The Starry Night traverse the genres of alt-country, blues, roots and folk with nothing but class, unsurprising given they were under the direction of amazing producer Paul McKercher, and it showcases Traicos’ gorgeous, ethereal voice better than any release has before. In support of the record you can see Traicos appearing in solo mode at The Hi-Fi’s Vinyl Bar on Sunday Jul 24 before the whole band rollick into Byron Bay’s The Rails for a show on Thursday Aug 4. Both shows are free and proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

CARS ARE QUICK Calling All Cars are still quite a young band in the scheme of things, but at the rate they are working they are going to seem like veterans in no time. The band are going to have album number two on the shelves at the start of August and are preceding that with the release of its first single Reptile, a blistering little number packed full of energy that explodes into an epic melodic chorus. The band are renowned for their hard touring efforts as well, so of course they will be on the road in support of the album following its release to give punters all over the country a solid dose of their incomparably energetic live shows. Up this way CAC swing by Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel on Thursday Aug 18, the Tempo Hotel Friday Aug 19 and the Coolangatta Hotel Saturday Aug 20; two of the country’s hottest emerging rock acts in Boy In A Box and Redcoats support all dates. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.

YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW Local dudes and lady Ball Park Music have been kicking goals left, right and centre lately and you can bet that they are just getting started. The band are taking the next logical step and heading out on their first ever headline tour, which they’re calling How I Met Ball Park Music and they want anyone who has not yet been acquainted with their sweet brand of revved up indie-pop to get along and do so before they explode and become everyone’s favourite band. What we’re saying is, this could be your final chance to say “I saw them before they were famous”. The band have toured incessantly in recent times so it ought to come as no surprise that their live show is kicking some serious arse right now, but that can also be said for their support act, Adelaide rockers City Riots, who are turning heads all over the country at the minute. You can catch both of these awesome bands taking hold of Alhambra Lounge on Saturday Jul 23; tickets are available from OzTix right now for $12 + bf or you can try your luck on the door where it’ll cost you $15.

ROUND RUSSIANS Instrumental prog-metal power trio Russian Circles have been held in super high esteem since their inception back in 2004, their wild mix of insane and discordant metal and soft, delicate, melodic music have certainly placed them within a certain niche sector of the music loving public, but that group of people are certainly passionate about their music and you can bet that there will be many very excited to hear of the band’s first ever visit to Australia. The Chicagoan trio are one of the most popular bands in that arty metal scene and their most recent record Geneva even managed to land a spot in the Billboard charts! Their epic, sprawling tunes will be blowing the roof off The Zoo come Saturday Sep 10.

TAKE THE PRESSURE DOWN It’s the news that probably very few of you have been waiting to hear, but those of us who actually like John Farnham are very excited to hear that the man is getting back out on the road and celebrating the 25th anniversary of his iconic Whispering Jack album in the kind of fashion that it deserves. Haters gonna hate, but Farnsey still delivers on the live stage; he’s charming, has a killer voice and can afford to employ the best band possible to make his songs totally kick arse in the live setting. Don’t be embarrassed, get yourself along to QPAC on Wednesday Nov 2 and Friday Nov 4; tickets will be available from Qtix as of Tuesday morning starting at $99 and going up to $149.

TAKING THE CROWN If you’re the kind of person who holds grave fears for the future of extreme music, then you’re the sort of person who needs to start listening to Suicide Silence as soon as possible. The Californian quintet have been making a hell of a lot of noise all around the world for the best part of a decade now and with their third album The Black Crown, they’re looking to push the boundaries of metal even further. That record isn’t out for a month or so, but the band have already announced they’ll be coming to Australia on the back of its release and so they should – we fucking love that shit down here. The band’s live show is ferocious and explosive, so brace yourselves for complete and utter destruction when they hit our shores for a big all ages show at The Tivoli on Friday Sep 9. Tickets are available from Ticketek from Friday morning.

WHAT VOICE?

YOU’RE SO HIP!

Oh for fuck’s sake, come on! Another John Farnham tour? Give it a rest Farnsy! You have to promise this will be the last time, your accumulate ‘good guy’ goodwill is just about exhausted…

The classic line-up of Queensland garage legends The Screaming Tribesmen are reforming and playing in Brisbane for the first time in (what seems like) a million years! Amazing band, amazing news – the inaugural The Gathering Festival just got serious…

RIP SETH PUTNAM

WORLDS COLLIDING

Most of you won’t have heard US grindcore merchants Anal Cunt, but even if you just check out their incredible song titles they could be your new favourite band. Sadly frontman Seth Putnam has passed away, condolences to family, friends and (twisted) fans.

Don’t you love when great bands cover other great bands? Head to The Onion’s AV Club to see The Mountain Goats doing a great rendition of the legendary Jawbreaker’s epic Boxcar.

PUP BITES KAT

WHAT A DICK

Australian cricket selectors have dumped Simon Katich – unbelievable. It’s their first move since Michael Clarke inherited the captaincy, but surely it wouldn’t have anything to do with the time Katto choked Pup for putting Bingle above the team?

Not a fan of uber-DJ Moby? The YouTube footage of him being electrocuted at an Amsterdam show has been taken down, but the more computer-literate should be able to track it down. Hilarious stuff with a happy ending (no serious injury), a win all around…

THE SCREAMING TRIBESMEN

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MOJO JUJU & THE SNAKE OIL MERCHANTS

TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE www.thenorthern.com.au 15

The birth of BON IVER was inexorably shrouded in rural mythology, but as founder JUSTIN VERNON tells STEVE BELL, for the second instalment he wanted it to be all about the music.

WAY OUT WEST Of all the strange things that have happened to Vernon since the breakthrough with For Emma..., possibly the strangest would be his collaboration with Kanye West when the hip hop icon sampled the song Woods (from 2009 EP Blood Bank) for the track Lost In The World from his megasmash 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Vernon was eventually hustled over to Hawaii to join Yeezy in the studio, contributing vocals to a number of cuts and generally just hanging out in comparative luxury. “It just made sense to me,” he recalls. “I mean I was really grateful that he asked, but at the same time it just sort of felt like, ‘Okay, this is next! Here’s the next crazy thing that I’m being asked to do!’ It really felt like something that I wanted to do, not just something that I should do because of career opportunity or something. I really like his music and I like everything that he’s done, so for me it was a no-brainer. “I mean you could definitely look and see the separation between our two worlds, but it’s not altogether different. There are differences between anybody and their thing and their career and how they do it – and by no stretch of the imagination there are vast differences between the way that he and I do our thing – but at the same time other than that I don’t see a lot of that separation. Granted we come from different places, but we listen to the same kind of music. When we would sit down and just be hanging out, or listening to music in the car or something, it’s like we’re not listening to crazily different things, if that makes any sense.” Vernon has collaborated with so many people and acts recently – is this purely due to the fact that he likes working with others? “Yeah, I just like playing music and doing things, so the more I do I feel like the more I’m snagging this opportunity to be a musician,” he tells. “Before I was looking for any excuse to play music, and now I have every opportunity in the world at my disposal and I just feel like I want to do it – I want to do it all if I can, as long as it all is good music and we have enough time to make it good and work on it, then I’m into it.”

OUT OF THE WOODS T he success of Bon Iver’s first album For Emma, Forever Ago back in 2007 has already become stuff of legend. Wisconsin-bred musician Justin Vernon was at a crossroads in his life – he’d split with his band, split with his girlfriend, was in poor health and basically directionless – so he holed up in his father’s log cabin in the desolate northern Wisconsin woods for the entirety of a bleak winter, living off the land as he crafted the batch of songs that would eventually become Bon Iver’s debut. The process was one aimed at catharsis rather than reinvention, but the initially self-released album was soon picked up US indie Jagjaguwar and then spread around the globe like wildfire, spurred as much by this curious tale of inception and redemption as it was by the gorgeous, restrained music contained within its nine tracks. Soon Vernon was ubiquitous in the upper echelon of musical circles; when not performing somewhere as Bon Iver, he was just as likely to be found gigging in one of his numerous side-projects such as Gayngs or Volcano Choir, or collaborating with celebrities such as Kanye West or David Byrne. He was living the dream and, seemingly, having the time of his life. Soon, however, it was time to deliver the next instalment in the Bon Iver saga, so he holed up in a remodelled vet clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin with the band that had coagulated around him during the touring cycle for For Emma... and recorded as he wrote what was to become the eponymous second album, Bon Iver. It’s a different beast to its predecessor – richer, broader in scope and utilising far more players and instrumentation – but still clearly the work of Vernon: his circumstances may have changed dramatically, but not his musical acumen. “I feel like I’m a humble person and thankful and all that, but I feel like I really completed what I wanted to do, you know?” the affable songwriter offers of his new opus. “I set out to do something and I did it, and I feel really proud of that.” Despite this assertion that he’d been involved in a musical quest of sorts, Vernon wasn’t even sure what he was looking for while writing for the album.

“I’m not really sure what was actually in my brain – there were a lot of questions and a lot of searching,” he confides. “It was more for me just putting my bloodhound brain on and starting to search for what I wanted to do, and that took a lot of time and experimentation. It’s hard to say what was constantly on my mind, but I was looking for sure.” The search wasn’t specifically for either the music or adroit lyrics which ended up comprising Bon Iver, more for a general fog of inspiration.

“It’s hard to say, [the music and lyrics] kind of came at the same time for some of the songs, but very slowly; every song came pretty slowly, and I amended them over many, many months – like years for a couple of them,” he continues. “Almost all of them were a year in the process, as far as getting them up and then massaging it into place both lyrically and musically, so I can’t really say – each one’s a little bit different, but they all took a really long time, and musically and lyrically they were all kind of swirling all together. “I mean I wanted to finish it – it was exciting the idea of finishing the album – but I didn’t really know what the album was until I finished it, so I had to wait. I had times of frustration, but mostly it was just exciting that I knew that I was unravelling and unfurling whatever it was going to become.” The ten tracks which make up Bon Iver are each named after geographical locales, although Vernon contends that this alludes to more than mere physicality. “Each song represents a place, but those places also can represent anything about a place, meaning their time or their emotional context. Some of the places aren’t necessarily just places to me... to be honest I still don’t have a good answer to that question,” he chuckles. “I know that the songs mean something to me, and that each one of the songs are supposed to be called what they’re supposed to be called. I could give you very in depth answers about each of those songs and why they’re called what they are, but I know that the albums starts with Perth and ends with Beth/Rest, and that

to me is like the beginning and the end – it’s like a life cycle, like summer and fall, winter and spring. They’re all named after places in their very literal meanings, but there are also illiteral meanings as well for each song.”

So with each of the song titles being emotional markers, the fact that he starts the record with Perth alludes to the enjoyable time that he had in Australia during his inaugural tour to our country in January, 2009. “I really enjoyed that tour – it was the favourite tour that I did in that entire two years on the road,” Vernon recounts. “I dunno, it came at the end of a lot of touring and I was really tired, and it was really hard to do a lot of that touring and put yourself out there that much, but when we got to Australia it was the middle of winter in Wisconsin – it was January – but it was warm and beautiful down there, and I just got there and there was something about the people and the place and I just sort of woke up, and all of the pressure and stresses of doing what I’d been doing since the record took off – the press, and being in the public eye and all that, to whatever degree that I am – was lifted. Being in Perth was like the starting over. It was the beginning of the [Australian] tour, and when I decided that I was truly was going to try to enjoy and understand what it was that I had been asked to do, and really try to be present and do as good a job as I could, and feel like it was a blessing to be in a place as beautiful as that. Perth is also a really isolated city – the most isolated capital city in the world – and there are a lot of songs like that, that talk about isolated places, places that aren’t influenced as much by the New Yorks and the LAs and the Londons of the world. And being from Wisconsin I’m in tune with that.” The incredible critical and commercial success of For Emma... came out of the blue for Vernon, but despite the inevitable spotlight he was now operating under – miles removed from the isolated genesis of the last recording process – he maintains that this didn’t lead to any massive levels of external or internal pressure, because at the end of the day he was once more aiming to please primarily one target market only: himself. “I’m still astounded by [the success], but luckily it never got to my head and I was never really worried by it,” he

muses. “Not to say that weren’t days where I was making my album and thinking, ‘I don’t know if this makes any sense’, but there was never a part of me that was worried that people would hate it or something, because luckily I don’t really care – I think I learned a good lesson with For Emma... coming out and being successful, in that the main reason that I loved the album and that I was happy that it took off was because I truly couldn’t have been happier with it anyway, and it wouldn’t have mattered what anybody said about it, negative or otherwise. I was just so happy with the result, and I saw it through, and I feel the same way about this record. So I’m not too hung up on that: as a matter of fact, I always tell everyone at the label and my management and so on, ‘Hey man, if one of my albums just gets panned I’ll be happy just to go back to Wisconsin and just sort of keep doing what I do, and not have to deal with all of that other stuff’.” Even the mythology of the ‘cabin story’ became a bit of a millstone for Vernon, although not one that he let distract him from the bigger picture. “Not a distraction, frankly it just got a little old,’ he admits. “But at the same time I didn’t shy away from the fact that it was a weird thing, and yes I did move away and do all that stuff, but everything gets Hollywoodified and to me I think it actually diminishes what actually happens in people’s lives. I like a good movie, but there’s something to actually understanding how it actually goes on to me, so when people would ask me about it I would be a little bit just like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah’, or whatever. But I look back at that time of my life fondly, and I’m proud that I actually had the balls to do that, but at the same time it’s weird to be asked about that particular three months of your life over and over again, because I don’t remember that three months better than any other three month period of my life just because it was ‘quote/unquote’ pivotal.”

WHO: Bon Iver WHAT: Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar/Inertia)

STREAMING

NOW

IF YOU’VE NOT SEEN NASHVILLE BROTHERS JAKE AND JAMIN ORRALL PLAY LIVE AS JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD, THEN THERE’S SOMETHING TO ADD TO YOUR BUCKET LIST. THE TWO PLAY THE RAWEST GARAGE ROCK’N’ROLL AROUND - AND THEY PERFECTLY CAPTURE THAT BASIC ESSENCE IN THE STUDIO. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS IS THEIR LATEST LONG-PLAYER, PRODUCED BY ROGER MOUTENOT (YO LA TENGO, SLEATER-KINNEY), AND IT’S RELENTLESS, STRIPPED-BACK ROCK.

ON SALE JUNE 17 WORLD

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INSIDES IS THE SECOND SINGLE FROM THEIR DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU ALBUM. THE UK BAND WILL BE IN AUSTRALIA LATER IN 2011 FOR SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS AND SIDESHOWS IN ADELAIDE, PERTH, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.

MISSION TO HEAL Around 2005, THE VINES weren’t exactly down and out, but the count was quickly approaching ten. Following the band’s return from the edges of insanity though, they have been on a gradual build of quality that has hit the high water mark with new album Future Primitive. BENNY DOYLE sits down with drummer HAMISH ROSSER and guitarist RYAN GRIFFITHS to talk about the exciting long player.

itting across a rather formal looking boardroom table in the Brisbane offices of Sony Music, the band’s new label home, Hamish Rosser and Ryan Griffiths, drummer and guitarist for The Vines respectively, look at ease and understatedly confident. They look to have that glint in their eye that went hand in hand with the release of their debut album Highly Evolved, all the way back in 2002. Now, almost a decade on, it’s returned on the eve of their fifth album Future Primitive. Actively looking to forge a new path and take some risks with Future Primitive, the band enlisted Canberra’s quirkiest producer in the way of Bumblebeez main man Chris Colonna. More than happy with Colonna’s creative

zeal and his zest for giving everything a go, the band are already mentioning his name for the follow up to the album. “He reminds me of Beck where there is no real boundaries to his style,” Rosser relates, “He’ll hear these songs and go, ‘This one can be heavy metal, that one can be jazz and this one can have any instrument on it at all’. He’s not trapped in by any genre. That’s why we chose him for sure.” “And he’s willing to use anything,” Griffiths continues. “He could be using the sounds from Donkey Kong or whatever, and if he’s got an idea, he’ll exhaust it, y’know? With some producers, if you have an idea, they’ll give you one shot and then go, ‘Don’t worry’. With Chris, he’s willing to play around with it which is cool.” Adding to the all-star cast behind the most creative and adventurous album The Vines have produced is Jono Ma, who the band recorded with at Studios 301 in Sydney, and Cassius producer Phillipe Zdar who helped with the mixing duties; another man the band felt “was the right guy to go with to get the sound we were looking for.” And internally, although certain parts of the process remained the same, the band do admit that Future Primitive came together slightly differently from their other works. “Craig [Nicholls – frontman and songwriter] will bring in the backbone, like he’ll have the melody, really basic bar chords. Then we’ll get in, sort of nut it out and it slowly forms but it’s always been that sort of way,” Griffiths explains. “He’s always open to any ideas though.” “This time the process was a bit different though,” Rosser continues. “I mean we were doing songs pretty fast, they’re all live takes and we just listened to the rough edits and went, ‘We’ll take that, we won’t take that’. We’re much better players than we were ten years ago and really, you’d be surprised at how much you can put into a two-and-a-half minute song. A lot of songs are unnecessarily long. But then once that was down, that’s when we started adding the flavours and pulling parts out and putting new sound textures in.” “I thought it was good not to become to anal about it because you become that person sometimes so it’s good to let someone deal with it,” Griffiths laments on the process. “It was going back and forwards for some time purely because we weren’t there but I think it’s turned out good. It’s a fair bit tricky when you send off the music, the mixes come back overnight, you look at them the next morning and go, ‘That’s not right’, then email back. It can take a bit longer to get things done than if you’re in the room and go, ‘Do this – okay it’s done’. But when you’re communicating that way it takes a bit longer.” Taking a bit longer wasn’t an issue the band were worried about. In fact, it was arguably trying to squeeze in too much, which combined with Nicholls’ erratic behaviour and mental health battles, led the band to the brink of implosion in the mid-noughties. “It’s not a nice thing to be around,” Rosser understates. “There were some low points and that’s when it stops, that’s when we fell off the radar. It couldn’t have continued like it was, we couldn’t have gone any further. Like, we were all falling apart, it wasn’t just Craig, although he was out of control, but it had to stop when it did. To carry on it was going to do more harm than good so that’s when we closed ranks and went, ‘Alright, we need to sort ourselves out to carry on’, which we did. When you have to cancel shows and tours, you lose a bit of goodwill with promoters and everything so we’ve got to rebuild that now. We’re on a mission to prove that we’re worthy.” “Constant touring never helps,” Griffiths accepts. “You’re up all night and you’re doing whatever, then with Craig on top of that... It’s easy to put the blame on Craig, like I guess it did hinge on Craig, but we were all being a bit ridiculous at that stage. It was a recipe for disaster really. Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have been doing as much because Craig just hated it at the time.” Rosser expands ever so slightly just what reacted with Nicholls. “In Craig’s condition, not having a routine is really uncomfortable for him, and with all the travel, finding it hard to sleep, it’s never a good thing. But now, Craig’s in a really good place and we know not to book endless tours. It’s good camaraderie these days – we’re a band of brothers. We’ve been through the highs and lows.” As fans will attest, the band’s recent sizzling performances at Splendour In The Grass and the Big Day Out festival have gone a long way towards proving to people that The Vines are healed, just by showing up on time and putting on a good show. It’s this new professionalism and unity that the band are looking to take with them back overseas when they make another tilt at the foreign market. “We’re ready to get back over there,” Rosser drives home. “I don’t think we’ve really gone back [overseas] since [2004’s] Winning Days, since it all collapsed, touring extensively that is. Since then we’ve only done two overseas trips. We just found out we’ve got overseas release in a whole list of new countries. Places such as Argentina, Sweden, Canada, France, Japan... I’d like to think we’ll go straight over and get stuck into touring as it’s a good setup if you can go over, play a festival in the UK or US or anywhere, and they’ll finance your flights and all that, then on the back of that you can do your shows. But essentially, we’ve got an audience over in the UK and the US from our earlier days of touring and we really just want to reconnect with those people.”

WHO: The Vines WHAT: Future Primitive (Sony) WHERE & WHEN: Splendour In The Grass,

Woodfordia Friday Jul 29 – Sunday Jul 31, Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay Thursday Aug 25, The Hi-Fi Friday Aug 26

‘BOURNE THIS WAY AIRBOURNE have been arguably the most successful Australian rock export of the past ten years. As the Victorian pub-rockers prepare to assemble their third album, MATT O’NEILL corners guitarist DAVID ROADS to discuss their remarkable success story.

irbourne are an act exceptionally easy to dismiss. Heavily indebted to the traditions of Australian pub rock, their music is stylistically generic by design – predictably defined through obnoxious shouted refrains, barrelling guitar lines and glibly delivered lyrical themes of violence, drunkenness and debauchery. Their work, described as such, sounds like nothing more remarkable than the work of a thousand other bands. In honesty, such a description actually does them no disservice. Airbourne’s music is that of a very direct and very simple functionality – it’s meant to be fun. The standard musical priorities of innovation, experimentation, originality and sophistication don’t really apply to their work. It isn’t really Airbourne’s job to change the world. Their sole duty is, to the best of their abilities, to make it a more enjoyable place for those who live in it. They know it, too. “We try to stick to a certain colour when we’re writing,” guitarist David Roads reflects. “Airbourne’s more the hard, driven sort of rock style and we try not to venture too far away from that. We always try to stay true to ourselves and our music. We’ve definitely become more of our own band over the years but you can still hear elements of our influences in our music. You’re always going to hear our influences. There’s always Rose Tattoo and all sorts of Aussie bands in there.”

their years of commitment. The last Brisbane performance alone saw Joel O’Keeffe guitar solo-ing from the audience, the top of the bar and the balcony of The Hi-Fi’s second level without so much as missing a beat. “I’m really looking forward to this next tour of Australia,” Roads enthuses. “We’ve obviously been in writing mode these past couple of weeks and, personally, I’m really looking forward to getting out and doing something else. We’re touring Australia in June and then we go over to Europe in the month after and it’ll just be great to be back on the road again. After that, we’re hoping to go straight back into the studio.”

WHO: Airbourne WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Friday Jun 17

It would be a mistake, however, to actually dismiss the band as mediocre or unremarkable. If nothing else, their successes dwarf those of any of their contemporaries. Airbourne have supported The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, Motörhead and Iron Maiden. Their 2007 debut album Runnin’ Wild charted in the top 100 charts of Australia, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand and the UK. 2010 follow-up album No Guts No Glory secured top 10 charting positions worldwide. “I guess I am a bit surprised,” Roads muses. “We’ve always been a hard-working band. On the tour side of things, we’ll play back-to-back shows for months on end and we put a lot of energy into our shows. I’d guess a lot of our fans were won over by that too. I am definitely surprised at how quickly things have moved for us in the UK and Europe, though. It’s only been the past couple of years we’ve been playing there but the crowds we’re playing to have been unbelievable.” That said – the real point of difference between Airbourne and their peers is the sheer amount of the work the band have invested in their success. Often viewed as something of a spontaneous success story by those unfamiliar with their history, Airbourne’s accomplishments are actually the product of nearly a decade of gruelling hard work. For some perspective, their touring schedule is so unrelenting as to leave David Roads unsure of where the band are actually based. “Well, Warrnambool’s home and always will be. You know, it’s where we formed the band,” the guitarist attempts to explain. “We tend to think of Melbourne as the base of operations but, when we go on tour, we’ll be overseas for ten to 11 months at a time which tends to complicate matters a bit. It’s the funny thing with this kind of job. You spend so long working on an album in one place but then you’re overseas for a year touring it – and then you just repeat that cycle.” Formed in Warrnambool in 2003, the band’s initial couple of years were spent toiling in obscurity – their career consistently fluctuating between astounding breakthroughs and crushing disappointment. The release of debut EP Ready To Rock in 2004 saw the band signed to a five album contract with Capitol Records and recording their debut album in America – only be dropped from the label following the completion of recording in 2007. “It was a dark time. You know, our first record deal was with Capitol Records and I remember we were on the road with Dallas Crane going around Australia and we got a call from our manager telling us that there was going to be a corporate takeover and Virgin were going to buy Capitol out,” Roads recalls. “Make a heap of their staff redundant, get rid of 70 percent of their bands and we all just went, ‘Shit!’ “We hadn’t even released our album yet,” the guitarist continues. “And that’s what we were worried about. We’d just recorded it, it was a whole lot of money and it was all ready to go. If we got dropped, they would have shelved our album and it would have ended our career there and then. Fortunately, our lawyers fought for it and the guy who took over the label let us have the record. We got let go from the label but we got let go with a free album – which is actually pretty cool.” While the band have since settled into a more comfortable (and decidedly more successful) career dynamic, they’ve never forsaken the work ethic that they cultivated in their formative years. The product of almost single-minded ambition, the band’s developmental period was spent rehearsing together in their lounge room, discussing tactics for live shows, overhauling songs, tightening their musicianship – essentially spending every waking hour refining their craft. “Joel and Ryan [O’Keeffe – guitarist/vocalist and drummer respectively] being brothers, they’ve always wanted this. Ever since they were kids,” Roads laughs. “When I met Joel, I was 18 and I loved playing my guitar and my mentality was, if I could make a living out of it, I’d pursue it – until I met Joel and Ryan. Their drive was just so full on. They were willing to go to the edge of the earth for it – and that energy’s kind of spilled over onto me. “From those early days, we made that decision that we had to move down to Melbourne together in order to make it work. We became like a bunch of brothers – a little family. We lived together, we did everything together and we went through everything together. It’s all kind of sprung from that and, thinking back on it, it’s all gone very quick. There have been dark times but they’ve always led to better times in the end.” One can see as much in their live show today. While the band have never left their audiences wanting on record (and are determined to surpass themselves on their soon-to-be-recorded third album), it is their ridiculous gonzoid live show that is demonstrative of

PROTECT YOUR HEAD Sticking to your guns in an increasingly fickle musical environment could well be the secret to longevity if you just want to rock around the world, a remarkably frank and humble PAGE HAMILTON tells CHRIS YATES as he recounts the history of his band HELMET.

elmet have never really been a cool and fashionable band. Even at their most popular point during the golden era of early-90s noisy rock, they stood apart from the flannelette wearing slackers, coming across as a bunch of very regular middle class dudes with short hair who just wanted to rock out in drop D tunings. “I’ve seen the audience grow and shrink but after 21 plus years I’m still really fortunate that we can still get around the world and play shows and I still love doing it,” frontman and chief songwriter Page Hamilton says with a genuine passion and enthusiasm that defies his 51 years of age. “I don’t know how I would even try and accommodate people at a record label these days. Jimmy Iovine at Interscope actually asked me if I would consider changing my image, and I was like, ‘What?!’ I didn’t even know what the fuck he was talking about. I don’t have an image – I’m a

guy wearing jeans and sneakers and a t-shirt and I play my music, there’s no salesmanship. I don’t have like a rock look. I mean, I love that stuff – I love T Rex and David Bowie and Marilyn Manson has a cool look going and it’s great, but it’s not my thing and it’s not what Helmet has ever been about. It’s not what I’m good at.” What he is unarguably good at is making records that sound like Helmet records. His clear vision for the band has remained consistent, with very little changing to the band’s sonic palette over the 20 year plus history of the group. It’s something that Hamilton has clearly put a lot of focus on, and he is unashamedly very proud of the unique sound that he has lovingly crafted. “I write the Helmet tunes in dropped tunings, which is something that I kinda stumbled upon in,” he says without apology. “I guess it was the first year of the band in 1989, and from [1990 debut] Strap It On and forward, all those songs are in dropped tunings and essentially I keep the instrumentation essentially about two guitars, bass, drums and a guy singing, with the exception of a song like LA Water (from the most recent 2010 Helmet album Seeing Eye Dog) where I did 85 tracks of strings and all kinds of orchestration on there. I don’t think I could sit around and try to contrive something that people will like, which I know is a big part of the pop and rock industry, but I came up at a different time when bands tried to be different. “It’s funny you know,” he continues. “Tommy Victor from Prong and I are old pals and he was playing with Danzig and they were playing at the same building as we were in Dallas, Texas and he said, ‘I just admired the fact that you always stuck to your guns’. He felt when he was with the major labels that they always had to please people and sell more records and he feels like he didn’t stick to his guns for a minute, but it came full circle, and now he’s gone back to what he wants to do.” He laughs heartily at the idea that he might have been able to even try and keep up with the fluctuating fashions of heavy rock music for more financial security. “I’m not trying to write hits,” he says. “I’m not trying to write music for anyone else – I’m trying to write music that I enjoy and it’s coming from a place where I want the music. I’m not sitting around thinking about a target audience. There’s no ambition (laughs) which was apparently a problem with my last relationship as well. ” Yep, bands can get in the way of relationships for sure, but relationships inside bands can be just as fragile, especially when commitments and success mean that members are forced to endure each other’s company for endless tours and recording studio lock-ins. After undergoing a myriad of line-up changes and the headaches involved with all that, Hamilton disbanded the group in 1997 after the album Aftertaste, and it took a whole seven years before he felt comfortable in getting new musicians together to add more chapters to the Helmet legacy. “Familiarity can breed contempt after a while,” he admits. “Bands break up, you know? It’s not earth shattering. It’s not life or death. I was bummed out when the band broke up, I would have been happy just to take some time off. We’d been going at it really hard for ten years and you get sick of each other. It’s just part of the thing when you’re in a band. If we had taken a year off we may have been able to continue instead of having seven years between Helmet albums and me reforming with other members. I don’t regret it, I’m proud of the work we did together and I’m still friends with everyone who played in the band with the exception of John [Stanier] and Henry [Bogdan], we don’t keep in touch. I have no animosity towards them whatsoever – I have great respect for both of them and I have no hard feelings. I feel very thankful that they played with me and helped me get the music out there. I’ve always been extremely motivated to write and record and make records and you need like-minded musicians that are capable of pulling it off in order to do that, because I can’t do it on my own.” Hamilton is the first to admit he is no one-man band and although he has always felt a degree of ownership of the band itself as an entity, it took a pep-talk from one of his idols before he felt completely comfortable to re-start the group. “People always acknowledged that Helmet was my band, including John and Henry. I mean they were a big part of the band but I formed the band from the ground up with an ad in the paper and enlisted Peter [Mengede] because we were pals. I’ve always done the bulk of the writing, been the singer and the main guy. I was have a conversation with [Killing Joke’s] Jaz Coleman about it who said, ‘You started this thing.’ He was like, ‘You worked hard to build this thing, why would you just abandon it?’ and he’s one of my great heroes, and it made sense to me.” Was Hamilton concerned that Helmet’s old fans might see his reformation as a sell-out, or was there any concern that he would be judged more harshly by critics because there were no other original members of the band in the so-called reunion? Not likely. “I’ve been given bad reviews because I have straight teeth or because I banged a movie star,” he cackles. “It’s incredible the amount of bullshit that people engage in, things that have nothing to do with music. I just can’t dwell on stuff that is completely out of my control and I try to be blind to it and play dumb. Haters are gonna hate no matter what, you know?”

WHO: Helmet WHERE & WHEN: Coolangatta Hotel

Wednesday Jun 22, The Hi-Fi Thursday Jun 23

JUNK EMAIL GETTING ME DOWN From Northern Ireland, THE JAPANESE POPSTARS’ GARETH DONOGHUE briefs CARLIN BEATTIE on songwriting, professionalism and haunting Robert Smith’s spam folder.

pproaching the European festival season, Gareth Donoghue is excited about the The Japanese Popstars’ new live show.

“We’re just finalising our sets now for the festivals over here and getting ready to go out and tour the States,” he tells. “The sets are normally one hour or more of very electronic music. It’s sort of a half club-half festival set… Very electronic and very four-tothe-floor. We make it something uplifting for the crowd to keep them dancing and really enjoy with their hands in the air, jumping around and having a good time. That’s what it’s all about.” With the release of upcoming album Controlling Your Allegiance on the horizon, Donoghue explains the band’s intent with the record. “We wanted to make an after-club party album, which you could put on after you’ve been in the club with your mates to keep the party going,” he divulges. “We didn’t spend a lot of time actually thinking about the signature of the album, but it’s similar to our live shows. We like to start with something big to engage everyone and grab their attention. Once we have people’s attention we can take them on that awful word – on a ‘journey’. It’s just one of those sequencing things where we’d take things a bit slow and then keep the interest. We didn’t want it to be too scene-y at any point. I think there’re enough different sounds and different textures on the album to keep people interested and involved in what’s happening. I guess at the end, in a certain way it’s a sort of building up and a winding down... Like a party. We just tried to make that transition slow so it all sounds like it belongs together.”

bedrooms. We were all working fulltime and didn’t have much time of our own, so made excuses to ourselves and maybe didn’t do all the things that we should have done. This time was just a dream. Now that we’re signed to EMI we’ve been able to give up our fulltime jobs and take this on as a fulltime occupation – if that’s what it is. There’ve been times in the last three to six months that we’ve realised that everything’s a lot more professional. There’re a lot of deadlines and things, but the most problematic aspect is that I’m not a great flyer… It only takes a couple of times for us to go up in the air and I’ll end up wiped out on a ride round the skies of Europe. It’s not the best part of the job, but it’s a part of it all. We try not to take it too over-seriously. At the end of the day, it’s the music that’s not going to die.”

WHO: The Japanese Popstars WHAT: Controlling Your Allegiance (EMI)

“We didn’t want it to be too scene-y at any point.” As he continues, Donoghue divulges on the thought process that’s taken the band from a Northern Irish house trio, to international electronica collaborators. “When we sat down to write, we didn’t want to do the same album again – and there were a lot of ideas there that sounded similar to the first album,” he continues. “We wanted this one to have more depth and musicality. One of the ways of getting that musicality and opening the album up to a bigger audience was to bring vocalists in. The way the production and the songwriting happened, was that we came up with the structure of the track and maintained the centerpiece and content of the tune before involving a vocalist in ideas on figuring out the vocals. “In all honesty, whenever you’re working with vocalists like Robert Smith [of The Cure] and Morgan Kibby [from M83], you don’t want them to be particularly void of the work that they’ve done before – you want them to bring that with them. It’s all about logic, especially for those two vocalists… M83, for example: I’ve been a massive fan theirs – as have all of us guys – for the last few years. We’ve seen them play and it’s just incredible. The thing is, I couldn’t write an M83 track. I don’t think anybody in our band could write an M83 or a Cure track. We can only do what we do and bring in vocalists that are happy to work with us. It’s not really a choice, but the way things are. We just have our own sound and make sure that each track represents us. We try and keep our identity very strong.” Having revitalised their approach to recording, Donoghue suggests that the group’s latest contributors have perhaps delivered the safest or most reliable ingredient to their live show. “We’ve been playing as a live act or electronic act for about four years,” he offers. “Our setup onstage is a CD mixer, live synthesisers, samplers, drum machines and laptops – so lots of things can go wrong. In that time, even though we didn’t have a lot of our own vocals we’d worked on a lot of remixes with vocals. So we’re coming from the old school, sort of Chemical Brothers vibe for most of the shows. We toyed with the idea of maybe taking a vocalist along with us, but ended up thinking that it would take away the specialness and individuality of the tracks. In some cases it just seemed to do it an injustice, so rather than bringing an artist on and trying to emulate what Robert Smith or Green Velvet would do, we just sample that all in and spit it back out at the crowd electronically.” As Donoghue reveals, the inclusion of heavyweight contributions to the album’s vocals tracking was no chance of fate, but rather part of the band’s mission statement from note one. “When we sat down to write this album, we put together a wish list of vocalists we’d like to approach and this started to develop more as we penned further original ideas. Robert Smith was in there from the start. We never realistically thought that we’d be able to work with him, but we wanted to approach him anyway. When we had a couple of ideas,” Donoghue continues, “we contacted our manager, who’s a little bit of a… well, he’s a guy from Liverpool prone to getting his hands on the contact details of people that he probably shouldn’t. He managed to get Robert’s personal email address, so we approached him. We introduced ourselves on email and sent through the ideas. After hearing nothing back for six months we just thought, ‘Oh, he doesn’t have to reply to us,” so moved on with the idea. One day, of the blue we got an email from Robert apologising, saying that he was sorry and the email went into his Junk folder. He asked us to re-send the tracks through and really liked it – the track he picked, Take Forever. We just sort of continued the relationship there and went on going. He’s an absolute gentleman to work with; so down to earth and so knowledgeable. We’re all such big Cure fans. It’s a real pleasure.” Donoghue confesses that while working with Robert Smith was a personal objective of The Japanese Popstars, it’s the professional milestones that are delivering the group its greatest triumph. “When we were writing the first album, we were still learning how to produce and how to write,” he states. “It was all done very lo-fi in our

ROCKIN’ AMBASSADORS With the wisdom of well-travelled hindsight, keyboardist/vocalist TOM HARTNEY looks back at LITTLE RED’s past year with their sophomore album Midnight Remember, telling TYLER McLOUGHLAN why they can’t wait to get back to the studio to Rock It all over again.

celebration of Australian arts and culture and they took us over for that. We played three shows. One was in a village, an old traditional village and we were in the town square and everyone stopped work and came and watched us!” The experience put their jobs as touring musicians very much into perspective, and made the trip an opportunity to connect with a new culture rather than the act of collecting another stamp to count in their passports. “They’ve got a lot of problems there with law and order and just things that we don’t even think about. They’ve got a lot of foreign companies there just mining all their resources and I don’t think they make much money out of it. They’re really generous people and welcoming… Once you’ve been to a place like that, you feel like there’s a bit of a connection, and you’d like to go back and do some more if you can,” he says honestly. “I don’t think we could pretend that it affected our music, although we’ve been exposed to a lot of different bands just travelling around, but just more as people; we get to see different cultures and you realise there are different ways of doing things and we don’t necessarily do things the best way in Australia, but then again, we’ve also got it very lucky. Our standard of living is just so good compared to some places, even places like Paris where it’s just overpopulated, too crowded and too much traffic. We’re just pretty lucky, I reckon.” For Hartney, Little Red’s time in Papua New Guinea completely exceeded the hype surrounding their recent industry showcases in the UK and US even though the outcomes were far more commercially significant.

ome bands pop in and out of Australia’s musical landscape, only to be largely forgotten outside of the confines of a release strategy; throw in growing popularity overseas and we’re lucky to get a lot of bands back. Though Melbourne’s Little Red have spent much of their time since releasing their second long-player Midnight Remember on foreign stages, the five-piece pop gurus – who make no apologies for their unsuppressed throwbacks to the glory days of rock – know exactly how lucky they are to call Australia home. “We’ve done heaps; I probably can’t even remember,” sighs Tom Hartney before jogging his memory of the events beyond Little Red’s last Australian headline tour in October 2010. “After that tour first thing we did was we went and supported Blondie and The Pretenders at A Day On The Green tours. And that was really good because they were all in very picturesque locations – wineries –

around the country, so we got to see places outside of the city for a change which was nice. And playing with those two iconic bands was great. Then we did the Big Day Out tour which again was fantastic – touring with amazing bands like Iggy & The Stooges. We’ve been doing some forays overseas this year, just sort of sporadic trips; one to America for South By Southwest, we went to England for The Great Escape, Japan that was great, Germany, and oh, [Papua] New Guinea,” he adds, before continuing in an excited tone that wasn’t present as he ticked off his many overseas destinations of late. “That was probably the highlight of everything ‘cause it was just one of those places that you’d never really go. Well I would never have gone unless I had an opportunity like this; it was fantastic. It’s like our closest neighbour but it’s so different. The Australian High Commission [in Port Moresby] have Australia Week so they have a cultural

VETERAN AMATEUR

Australian alt-rock stalwart and Bad Seeds co-founder MICK HARVEY might have been writing songs since adolescence, but he’s not a songwriter; not really. Don’t give us that look, that’s exactly what he told MITCH KNOX. they kind of came out in quick succession. So I suppose I realised there was the seed of a project there that I could pursue. So I sat back for a little while and decided whether I wanted to try and do that or not: the prospect of writing 15 or 16 songs to choose from was a daunting one, because I’d certainly never done anything like that before.

“Personally I find them a real drag,” he says of playing industry showcase events. “But in terms of outcomes I think that they’re gonna put out the album Midnight Remember in America, so that’s good I guess,” he admits with a little chuckle, thinking about what that actually means for Little Red in the near future. “Although we did put out that album in Australia more than a year ago or something, I guess we’re gonna have to go over there and tour on the back of it now; do it all over again.” Their local and international success is due in no small part to a little song called Rock It, which led Midnight Remember to the airwaves back in June last year and didn’t stop until it had taken out triple j’s number two song in Australia Day’s annual Hottest 100 poll. “Yeah, I think we knew,” offers Hartney when pressed on whether Little Red could tell Rock It would be such a special song. “Well you don’t know if people are gonna like it, but we knew that we liked it, we knew

“I

Humility – that’s what this is. For a man with a role so integral to the success of iconic acts such as The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds, Mick Harvey doesn’t seem to think all that much of his compositional abilities. He seems a little resigned to the role of perennial sidekick – for a long time, the Andy to Nick Cave’s Hamish; the Dr. Phil to his Oprah. Sure, he’s released solo stuff before – a couple of cover albums honouring the works of Serge Gainsbourg in 1995 and ’97 (Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants) and then two more cover albums of your more standard variety: 2005’s One Man’s Treasure and Two Of Diamonds (2007) – but he’s never really sat down and written an album. For Harvey, this was the most jarring aspect of compiling his most recent release and first fully self-penned full length, Sketches From The Book Of The Dead. “I write music, I compose music and stuff from time to time and every couple of years I’d write a song – one would pop out – but that’s about it, y’know?” he explains. “But when I started the writing process – when I wrote the first one it wasn’t really a process at that stage. It was a couple of years ago… four years ago now, I wrote the first two or three songs, and that was unusual in itself because I actually wrote two or three songs together –

It all sounds like a lot of work, honestly. Besides, Harvey seems to prefer the company of others anyway, a more collaborative setting, as evidenced by his lengthy guest spot on PJ Harvey’s international tour this year while he deviates for the odd solo show along the way. “I think I prefer working collaboratively, actually,” he confirms. “I like the exchange, and like I said, I don’t really consider myself a songwriter as such. I really enjoy being a part of a group and getting a chemistry going and helping get the right atmospheres for everything; it’s fun… but I don’t feel a great drive to become the front and centre of attention.”

WHO: Mick Harvey WHAT: Sketches From The Book Of The Dead (Mute/EMI)

WHERE & WHEN: Gallery of Modern Art Friday Aug 19

“I’m glad it’s been pretty successful; it’s been more successful than our first album so that’s all we really could have asked for,” he reasons. “We’re playing bigger rooms and we’ve sold more copies, but what we’d really like to do is keep making music and get onto making our next one. The difference was the first album we did independently, the second album we put out through a label; because they invest in you they want you to take your time with it and do everything right so it takes a lot longer. It’s terribly frustrating to not be able to get back and start making the third album immediately but we’re the ones who’ve reaped the benefits of all that, so we can’t really complain, but that’s the one thing we’re looking forward to,” he says before admitting they already have a handful of songs starting to take shape, which are all quite different to Rock It. “Maybe the record label will ask us to do a re-write of Rock It, you know, turn it around, play the chords backwards like The Kinks did with You Really Got Me,” he chuckles dryly. “We’ll see. We’re not aiming for something that’s really commercially successful – we just want to make a really good album.” For now, Little Red are back on the road again, with their first national headline tour since last October. “It feels great,” Hartney admits, pausing to articulate the growth of the band over the past year. “Just to play for our fans from a long time ago, it’s always really nice that those people supported us and bought the album and they know the songs; they’re not likely to start booing so that’s something.”

WHO: Little Red WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-Fi Saturday

Jun 18, Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay Thursday Jun 30, Coolangatta Hotel Friday Jul 1

The genesis of Melbourne’s HARMONY may have been rooted in wedded bliss, but the musical result is something more dark and brooding. TOM LYNGCOLN tells BRENDAN TELFORD about embracing a wider musical palette and going with the gut. thought of – I knew him a bit, The Nation Blue has played with Mclusky twice – he didn’t reply to our message for ages. So before contacting the next person on our list, I thought I’d call him, see what was up, and he hadn’t even listened to the demos yet! (laughs) It was three months later and he hadn’t even listened to the disc! It still took him another two months to get back to us, but when he did he was like, ‘Yeah, just listened to the songs, I love it, I’m in!’ We got him in and in two days he had thrashed out 12 songs with us.”

The songs themselves all tell tales of loss and memories of the past, but even reflective narratives must fit together in an appropriately linear way to ensure smooth flow. Harvey agrees.

don’t normally write songs; I’m not normally a songwriter.”

Hartney is a straight talker who is modest about his band’s achievements, particularly when it comes to the gold-selling status of Midnight Remember, though he makes it very clear as to which aspect of Little Red he is itching to get back to.

GOING ORGANIC

“Once the writing was done and I had what I thought was the requisite number of songs, y’know, the rest – going and recording the album – was just fine. I’m very familiar with that process.”

“The sequencing of an album is a really important facet of putting an album together, I think,” he says. “It doesn’t necessarily always show, but a great deal of care is put into it. You spend a lot of time on these songs and then you sit down and listen to them together and go, ‘Oh, that song can’t come after that one,’ – it’s really like that. Those three songs are too similar to each other, so you have to separate them… but there was a pretty clear sequence that I felt the songs needed to be in, yeah.”

that when [singer/guitarist Dominic Byrne] brought that song to the band we were just like, ‘This is great, this is pretty much a perfect song’. We were really excited and enthusiastic. We started playing it live quite a long time ago, well before we ever recorded it and it always stood out in the set; even when people didn’t know it, immediately they’d look up and start smiling.”

With the logistics aside, Lyngcoln maintains that the recording process was a largely instinctual one.

om Lyngcoln may be more famous for being one third of Melbourne’s stalwart noise rock act The Nation Blue, however it took getting married to Alex Kastaniotis back in 2009 for the wider public to hear what else lay in Lyngcoln’s musical bag of tricks, with the couple deciding to write and record a song each Saturday until they had enough for an album and a 7”. “Yeah, that was basically a launch pad to create a time for us to do it, so that we could amass a body of songs,” he tells. “Since then, we’ve only had to sit down and write a couple more songs, which I have mixed and recorded. We have the album about to come out, so I’ve been spending all my time doing that too, but having that time set aside to just create music is pretty exciting.” This creative experiment forms the basis of Harmony, an act that has Lyngcoln and Kastaniotis as its creative core, and then fleshes out with a trio of backing vocalists (Maria Kastaniotis, Amanda Ruff and Quinn Veldhuis) and a bassist in the form of ex-Mclusky member Jon Chapple. Getting everyone together in one place was the hardest part. “Jon’s always around [the Melbourne music scene] – he’s done some solo stuff that I’ve helped him record, he plays in bits and pieces, he paints, he reads a shitload of books, he watches a shitload of movies...,” Lyngcoln continues. “So even though he was the first person we

“Everyone in the band was the first choice for the band, who we thought would be best suited for each part, and they agreed,” he marvels. “The performances are generally the first thing we get down, in the first couple of takes. So hopefully when the record comes out that people will hear the organic environment and that it’s not the Pro Tools shit that a lot of people try to go for these days. It is no mistake that there are mistakes, it’s just what sounds best. A lot of my favourite albums are by people who can’t technically play – I kinda prefer that aspect of music.” Harmony’s upcoming tour marks the first time Lyngcoln has been on the road with a group larger than a trio, and he ruefully admits it’s causing some stress. “We are having to shift a lot of people around the country, and coming from a three-piece it’s a massive undertaking. In the past I’ve just been the music guy, and now I’m the organisation, the caller of people, the whole bloody tour manager falls to me. But seeing as we are playing with The Gin Club, I’ll be paying very close attention to Ben [Salter] and the crew to see how it’s done!”

WHO: Harmony WHAT: Harmony (Casadeldisco) WHERE & WHEN: Spotted Cow,

Toowoomba Friday Jun 17, Tym Guitars Saturday Jun 18 (all ages, 2pm), The Zoo Saturday Jun 18

DEVOLUTION

It’s been ten years since Gold Coast metallers DEVOLVED launched Technologies onto the world. BRENDAN TELFORD speaks to frontman NIK CARPENTER about the impending reunion shows and what lies in the future. The excitement of reliving the glories that the heights of the album brought has been infectious since the very first rehearsal sessions.

APOCALYPSE DUDES Bouncing back and forth between stoner metal and heavy hardcore, Canberra’s I EXIST have delivered their sophomore album a little over a year after their first. Gravel-throated vocalist JAKE WILLOUGHBY has a chat to LOCHLAN WATT. The album was recorded at Melbourne’s Goatsound Studio, owned by Blood Duster bassist Jason PC, where said bassist actually tracked the band’s last album. Willoughby confirms he still had some involvement.

“Absolutely,” Carpenter agrees. “It’s been five or so years since I’ve seen Brett, he had been in the States doing his thing with Devolved there, and so it’s been great catching up with the old music playing in the room. To be honest, I think it’s because of that length of time between playing together has made this the most fun tour I’ve ever been on.”

“Unfortunately for Jase his biggest contribution for the whole thing was fixing his gear. He didn’t have much luck. I believe he was playing a 50 Cent track through his desk when it exploded, and so he got to spend most of the time fixing his shit, which was really unfortunate, but he’s still a great engineer.

Even so, ten years is a long time removed from a potential fanbase, however Carpenter believes that the length of time has actually benefited the group.

t is difficult to believe that it has been ten years since Devolved subjected the amazing Technologies album onto the collective metal consciousness. Much has happened in this time, with the current incarnation of Devolved currently situated in the US, hurriedly putting together the last touches on their new album Oblivion. That Devolved is a much altered beast, with only founding drummer John Sankey still in the midst. However, back over this side of the pond, the anniversary has been the impetus for the other contributors to the album – Brett Noordin, Nik Carpenter, Patrick Brown, Joel Graham and Mark Walpole – to reform and hit the road once more, performing Technologies in its full-blown entirety. “I can’t remember whose initial idea it was [for doing the tour],” vocalist Nik Carpenter says. “There were a few words floated around about a ten year reunion tour for the album, and once it was mentioned everyone’s here on the Gold Coast – it’s been ages since we had all played together, so it seemed like a perfect idea.” The line-up isn’t complete, as Sankey is still heavily involved with the American manifestation of Devolved. “There were a few issues initially when Sank was worried that what we wanted to do was an effort to take over the band, but once we spoke to him outright and said that it was a one off, ten year reunion tour, touring the album Technologies, celebrating what we all did with that as a band, he was okay with it. We have no interest whatsoever in taking away from what he’s doing or taking the band over.”

“It’s been a case of a lot of guys at the time the album came out were underage or just 18, so playing it now it’s a blast from the past for these guys who can now enjoy it live, y’know?” he chuckles. “You just get to meet the old fans who are out, and then there’s these other younger guys... It’s like the audience has doubled in size!” One such admirer is also the new addition, taking over Sankey’s role behind the skins. “Yeah, we’ve had Todd [Hansen] from The Berzerker. When the album first came out he was a huge fan, so when we asked him to play for us he was really excited about it. He’s actually living in Canada now, so he flew back just to do this tour, which is a pretty good education on how keen he is! And whoever knows Toddy knows he’s more than capable – he’s super fast, an insane drummer, so no dramas there at all!” The tour finishes up here in Brisbane, where Carpenter intimates that a surprise is in the works. “Initially when we started the tour it was all about having fun and seeing what happens, with no commitments after that. But the other guys from the band have written enough songs for half an album, and it’s all been so much fun. So we are going to have a meeting going down to Adelaide, and we were thinking of making the Brisbane show the announcement of the name of the new project. It looks like it’s all on again!”

WHO: Devolved WHERE & WHEN: Step Inn Saturday Jun 18

FIRST NOTICE

Local instrumental outfit GHOST NOTES are finally releasing their debut album By The Cover Of Night. MATT O’NEILL speaks to drummer CAMERON SMITH about the band’s evolution to date.

ixing grooving styles both bluesy and ballsy with 2010 debut I: A Turn For The Worse, most of the underground hardcore scene as well as legendary Sydney label Resist Records took notice of I Exist. With the prospect of recording II: The Dark Passage for release on the label in mind, Willoughby recalls how owner Graham Nixon said they “‘should shoot for the stars and give me a list of people you want to work with.’” At the top of that list was Billy Anderson, a legendary producer renowned for his work with the biggest names in the sludge, stoner and doom worlds such as Eyehategod, Sleep, Bongzilla and Neurosis. “We disclosed some names, some big ones and some not so big ones, but I guess Billy was the one we wanted to do it with most of all. We shot him an email, sent him some stuff, and he was into it straight away. He came on actually quite strong – there was no ‘sort of, maybe’ about it, he definitely wanted to do it.” And was the experience everything the band had hoped? “Yeah, and a little bit more,” Willoughby marvels. “We’d never done anything with a producer before. I don’t think any of the guys had worked with a producer before in any of their other acts either. With a producer it can go either way with how much input they have. They can be the guy who sits in the back of the room and gets pissed and has a say here and there, but as Bill was, he’s a bit of an engineer as well. He’s very hands-on.”

“This is probably one of the easiest bands to run, so to speak, I’ve ever been involved with,” drummer Cameron Smith offers by way of explanation. “Everyone is so well-organised. We rehearse every Monday night, if we have a show we do a couple more and, on the weekend, some of the guys will get together for writing sessions. We tend to write really quickly. You know, we haven’t even launched this album in Brisbane and we’ve already got about 25 minutes of new music.” In another sense, though, it’s the result of many years of work – much in the way Ghost Notes are the culmination of many different artistic trajectories. Something of a minor supergroup of the Brisbane underground, Ghost Notes formed from the ashes of well-regarded experimental outfits Buildings Melt and Mass Migration. Ghost Notes’ debut album, with that taken in mind, is not the product of one band – but three. “There are similarities, certainly,” Smith concedes. “I would say, though, that you would listen to those two

“We looked at bands that take as much from jazz and folk as much as rock music,” Smith explains. “As far as bands we held up as examples to inspire us to do something different, we were thinking bands like The Necks, Dirty Three, Do Make Say Think, some of the earlier Silver Mount Zion stuff. Basically, stuff that’s a little bit more subtle about what it’s doing – even if it does all still end up as a big pile of noise at the end. We were looking for a different way to kind of do things. “Whether or not we succeeded, well…” the drummer trails off with a sheepish laugh. “The point is that we’re trying!”

WHO: Ghost Notes WHAT: By The Cover Of Night

(Incremental Records)

WHERE & WHEN: Beetle

Bar Saturday Jun 18

I Exist will hit the road with US supergroup Doomriders in July, and then come back for Bastardfest in September. It seems the plate has come forth and that this band is ready to step up to it. “We’re not just six dudes banging out jams anymore,” Willoughby emphasises. “We’re trying to take things a little more seriously. We all still want to be chilled about the whole thing, but I guess to accomplish what goals we all personally have and as a band, just pulling up our socks a bit.”

WHO: I Exist WHAT: II: The Dark Passage (Resist) WHERE & WHEN: The Zoo Friday Jul 22,

Bastardfest @ Jubilee Hotel Saturday Sep 3

ONYX keep the beats strictly to the streets and don’t do any of that happy shit, as FREDRO STARR tells CYCLONE. called Yung Onyx. He worked with them “boot camp” style and they aired a mixtape, but his neophytes ended up in the pen. “I had to keep my shit moving,” Scruggs rues. In 2008 Onyx issued a commemorative DVD as well as a ‘best of’. However, Scruggs is wary of the east coast leaders trading on nostalgia and fans can check out new songs like Mad Energy on YouTube. “We’re just staying hip to what’s going on right here, we’re just staying new – it’s old but it’s new,” Scruggs offers, using the analogy of a new car model. “So, with this album [Cuzo], we got the same kind of beats that we like – strictly for the streets, kinda like the samples through the basslines. Not any of that happy 808 shit that motherfuckers is doing. We’re sticking to what we’re doing... We’re not with that happy shit. The ‘madface’ rules the world.” ‘Madface’, of course, is Onyx’s logo – the antithesis of acid house’s smiley face.

All of which could explain why, in addition to possessing an interesting genealogy, Ghost Notes’ debut album is also in possession of a deeply intriguing sound. Simultaneously ephemeral and visceral, the band’s music is based on a stripped-back, experimental blend of jazz, folk, rock and contemporary chamber music – By The Cover Of Night morphs fluidly from lyrical trumpet solos and skittish rhythms to field recordings and swollen, distorted cacophonies. “There definitely seemed to be an idea behind the band,” Smith reflects. “You know, it started from the breakups of two other bands and those bands were kind of post-rock bands. The idea for Ghost Notes was to take some of those ideas but make it a bit more organic and a bit more subtle. A little bit less standard post-rock. To try and do something a bit more interesting than most other post-rock bands are doing at this point in time.

Speaking of the concept, Willoughby elaborates: “the sort of theme that was going on in A Turn For The Worse was a bit of an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world thing. This one’s now a bit of a post-apocalyptic thing, and I guess a tongue-in-cheek look at the way the world would be after that sort of an event. All the songs sort of fit in to that.”

MADFACE RULES

bands and then listen to Ghost Notes and think it’s obviously the same guys. You know, Buildings Melt was quite jazzy with lots of keyboards and Mass Migration was more along your Mogwai-style of post-rock. Maybe I’m too close to it but, to me, what we’re doing now sounds quite removed. It’s a lot more mature. A lot better, really. More focused, better ideas, better playing.”

y The Cover Of Night has an interesting genealogy. In one sense, it has arrived significantly sooner than expected. The debut album of Brisbane instrumental ensemble Ghost Notes, …Night has arrived only approximately two years after the band’s formation and a little over a year since the release of their eponymous debut EP. In comparison with most debut albums, it would appear to have had a very brief gestation period.

“I probably had half of it ready before I went in,” he explains of his vocals. “I guess I struggle a little in being able to, because these are concept albums, I struggle to grasp a direction until shit is starting to get real, and then it starts to flow a lot better. I probably had half of it before I went in, and in the first week of being down there in the studio, I wrote all but one more song, which was written right in between the two days I did my vocals.”

ew York’s Onyx were the hardcore black version of the Beastie Boys. They signed to Def Jam and, mentored by Jam Master Jay, blew up with 1993’s Bacdafucup, home to the hit Slam. Now, as they prepare for their inaugural Australian tour, Onyx – stripped down to rappers Fredro Starr (aka Fredro Scruggs) and Sticky Fingaz (Kirk Jones) – are staging an auspicious comeback. “We got new music coming out right now,” Scruggs announces. “We’re just working out the distribution deal right now. We have a few offers where we’re going with the best one. It’s going to be called Cuzo – that’s the first joint we’re dropping for the streets. That’s just for all the real Onyx fans.” Onyx has shed members over time, leaving the two cousins, hence the title. Big DS quit post-Bacdafucup, while, more recently, Sonsee (Tyrone Taylor), always eclipsed by the others, went solo. “It’s always majority rules,” Scruggs says philosophically. Originating in the late-80s, Onyx might have long retired. They followed Bacdafucup with All We Got Iz Us, ultracred but not crossover. The trio parted with Def Jam after the guest-laden Shut ‘Em Down in 1998, becoming one of the first major rap acts to brave the indie domain. They last unleashed Triggernometry in 2003 and Scruggs and Jones have both pursued solo careers in the past decade. Five years back Scruggs assembled a group

The Onyx MCs have found a successful sideline as actors, often – and smartly – contributing to any soundtracks going. “We were like, yo, this is another opportunity for some kids from the ghetto who never had anything to make some money and to do somethin’ that they like to do.” Scruggs made an impressive debut in HBO’s urban drama Strapped, which now Oscar winner Forest Whitaker directed. “Forest always told me be passionate about your work – if you’re not passionate about it, then don’t do it.” Scruggs has since appeared in Spike Lee’s Clockers, Save The Last Dance and TV shows like CSI. But, for the present, music is his focus. The ultimate proof of relevance for the hip hopper is to be embroiled in a feud and Onyx have sparred with 50 Cent. Ironically, they gave Fiddy a break – on their joint React – but, alas, he’s an ingrate. Scruggs sighs. “It’s like this – things happen. We’re all from Southside, Jamaica, Queens... Things happen... There’s really nothing to discuss. Nothing is resolved but, at the same time, there’s no problems. So I was gonna leave it at that. At one point we had respect for each other – musically and personally – and that’s just not the case any more. But that’s what it was. For the love of Jam Master Jay, we came together and made great music. That’s all I got to say.”

WHO: Onyx WHERE & WHEN: Step Inn Thursday Jun 16

CLOSE TO THE GROUND REIN IN SPAIN Organising a music festival, juggling band duties, and of course that utter hassle that is day-to-day life. It’s a herculean workload, but SEBASTIAN ‘BAS’ PELLY wouldn’t have it any other way. THE DASHOUNDS member talks to BENNY DOYLE about coping with the busy schedule.

Faux Spanish, psychedelic surf rockers – you know that’s what Brisbane is all about. LOS HUEVOS guitarist WILL O’BRIEN gushes about their recent Dandy touring experience and talks about travels south of the border with BENNY DOYLE. to playing at The Palace or The Enmore, and it’s been awesome to have that spectrum of gigs to go from. Looking off stage from these bigger venues, into these amazing, beautiful rooms, some that reached higher than we could see, it was just like, ‘Ohhh, man, better turn around, look back to the drums and just keep playing,” he admits with a naive air. “It was fun though and everyone seemed to dig it too. We got rid of a bunch of CDs and we’ve learnt from all of them and been able to take away something positive which we can bring to our own shows now, which is great.”

go to New York for sixth months, and we all ended up going over and visiting him and jamming over there. We wrote some stuff and when we came back, we had some great music with us and some really good ideas and we’re pumped now, we’re really looking forward to making a good push of it. So we’re writing some new tunes and we’ll be recording towards the end of the year. It’ll be really cool to put out an album but I guess it’ll start with just a few single tracks and see how that goes.” For all us punters out there, it’s pretty easy to buy a ticket, check out some bands and drink some beer without giving too much thought to the tireless work put in behind the scenes to make things happen. Pelly agrees, providing just the small tip of the Red Deer iceberg.

oing in to its second year, The Red Deer Music Festival is a shining example of taking hold of your ambitions and making a dream your own. Pelly is one of three young organisers behind the Mt Samson-based music festival. With an awesome natural amphitheatre, understanding land owners and a host of solid local talent spanning a myriad of genres, the day is once again shaping up to be good time affair. “Certainly, unless you’re really into organising things, I wouldn’t do it,” Pelly chuckles when asked about advice for budding music promoters out there. “For us though, the end product is definitely worth it, we really love it and for us [The Dashounds], playing that gig is one of the best gigs of the year if not the best. It was the best show we did last year and we’re hoping it even tops that this year.” Pelly’s band The Dashounds are just one of the quality acts to check out on the day. He tells Time Off where the positive vibed three-piece are musically at right now. “We basically took a year off and we’ve just recently got back together and we’re really enjoying our music at the moment – we’re writing a lot which is cool,” Pelly says. “One of my mates had an opportunity to

“It’s all the little things that you’d never think to worry about, they just keep coming up,” Pelly explains. “Just making sure the bands have got all their information and the stage guys have got all their information about what they need. Making sure there are contingency plans for if this happens or that happens. Making sure the volunteers know what they’re doing and then there’s the promotion... Just heaps of things. Like one of the guys that does it with me, he must spend a couple of hours each night just creating things, y’know, like documents, just talking about what we need to do. And lots of computer time – lots more computer time than you would think. I think it’s a job of 15 people what we’re doing.” However Pelly is quick to counter this talk of workload with the personal essence of why anyone takes on a project of passion – sheer personal joy. “We love festivals essentially and we go to a lot of them,” he enthuses. “Our favourite one I think is probably Falls, both the one in Tasmania and Victoria, we always talk about how good they are. There’s just a really local vibe and we like that. We try and learn from them as much as possible and certainly we empathise with how much work they really put in.”

WHO: The Dashounds WHERE & WHEN: Red Deer Music Festival, Mt Samson Saturday Jun 18

“W

e were friends with someone in the sound crew for the tour and we gave our CD to The Dandy Warhols guys through him and they liked it so we got on.” Sounds fairly simple; record some rocking tunes, send to large band, score support. O’Brien, a member of Brisbane group Los Huevos, is understated about the experience that led the relatively unknown band to be the main support for the former last junkies on earth national tour. But that’s a general emotion for the relaxed axeman and he is no less grateful for such an opportunity and gushes about their time shared on the road. “They’re so friendly man – Brent and Courtney are super friendly – they’re awesome,” he recalls.”They were just really fun shows, although The Dandys seemed to be running a bit of a tighter ship than we were. Like Courtney was saying he quit smoking because of the tour because he wanted to take care of his voice and you could really hear it. You could tell that they were on their best behaviour but they were kicking arse because of it.” Supporting a big name international on iconic stages should be as harrowing an experience as it is inspiring. It’s also a chance to learn some lessons within a young band’s self. O’Brien talks about their gains from the tour dates. “We’ve learnt that we are the kind of band who can pretty much deal with anything from a house party

With the tongue-in-cheek Spanish referencing, O’Brien admits that a few of the guys have been inspired to take it a step further and try and learn the language. Well, not quite. But they’ve definitely had some culture infiltration that is recalled with fondness. “Jeff [Hahn – drums] and I, we both went to South America about the same time a couple of years ago and I recently went to Mexico also. It is an amazing language and I’ve started taking different shards from different lessons but yeah, we’d love to learn it,” he chuckles. “There’s some great music. Not so much the flute bands but the mariachi stuff was amazing. I managed to learn enough Spanish to speak to a couple of them to try and teach me a song or two. But I ended up just taking their fundamentals and have tried to use them a little.” Combine that with the classics of eras bygone and the band have 40 to 50 years of clichés ready to exhaust. “We’ll trawl right through the lot,” O’Brien laughs. “Surf is the same as garage, y’know. They’re songs that you think you may have heard before, but it’s the twist that each individual brings to it which is the exciting part. When we have everyone out in force, like the saw and the horn and Steve [Palmer]’s on the theremin; we try and take people through that spectrum of dynamics that can actually take listeners through a series of moods. I don’t want to say journey but...”

WHO: Los Huevos WHERE & WHEN: Beetle Bar Friday

Jun 17, Flavours of Scuzz Saturday Jul 9

TUESDAY JUNE 21 - FREE MUSIC ALL DAY

FEATURE BE BEATZ

BEATRONICA

BE BEATZ PLAYS THE EDGE, STATE LIBRARY QLD AT 1.20PM AND HQ MALE GROOMING AT 9.30PM

BEATRONICA PLAY JUGGLERS ART SPACE AT 9PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? (Ashley Town – drummer, producer, frontman) “The chance to play really unique venues and reach a broader audience is a big attraction. I have played at this event the past two years and I hope to continue this tradition for many years to come.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “All gigs are equally important and I do my best create a fresh and exciting show for the audience and myself.” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “I have had the pleasure of playing mostly in the various pubs and clubs around Queensland – the ‘normal places’– however the weirdest place I think would be cool to play is on a traffic island.” Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “Because I’m the only person in Brisbane doing what I do.” Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “Croissants!”

PEAR AND THE AWKWARD ORCHESTRA PEAR AND THE AWKWARD ORCHESTRA PLAY QPAC MELBOURNE ST GREEN STAGE AT 1PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? Stephanie Barros Lees (frontperson/one woman army); “I think the concept of music everywhere that’s really accessible to everyone (i.e. free) is fantastic, the atmosphere is great and people really enjoy it as something out of the ordinary.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “Not particularly, other than that I normally don’t play shows at 1pm on a Tuesday!” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “I once performed at a wedding quite near an extremely high cliff edge in the Lamington National Park.” Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “Pear’s music is sweet and delicious and perfect for a lunch-time chill-out!” Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “Sophisticated literature and fantastically striped cardigans.”

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? de Beat (drummer and MC): “[To] support the arts. [It’s] great to be part of a full global musique day, [it] should be a public holiday. Mars Girl was biting at the bit to take the people higher with her soulful big voice.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “The gig is at Jugglers, an artist based exhibition area, we’d be keen to add extra visual content to our VJ Crazy Nafe’s armoury and do something extra. The tunes are great, the backpackers love us, we turn on a unique Euro edge that’s a definite crowd pleaser.” Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “The gigs are multimedia, multisensory, transcendental journeys through the realms of electro rock and psychedelic trip-hop.” Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “The French gave us Fete de la Musique, language, Films, Croissants, and fashions, there’s probably more.”

SIMONE PITOT AND THE ALBUMS

LIAM GRIFFIN LIAM GRIFFIN PLAYS ALLIANCE FRANCAISE AT MIDDAY, GARUVA TRANQUILITY BAR AT 5PM AND GRILL’D, WEST END AT 7PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? “I have wanted to be a part of Fete de la Musique for years, but other commitments have always got in the way of that happening. I heard last year there were musicians playing on the back of the pedal carts that get around the city. I love the idea that music can be performed and enjoyed by audiences in all different atmospheres and venues. It’s so French!” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “The Armidale (NSW). They say two heads are better than one, but I’m not so sure…” Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “I have spent a few weeks in France, and in the French speaking parts of Canada, so I would say firstly, the French language. It’s so tasteful and passionate, it seems when you speak French, you mean what you say, and you say what you mean. Secondly, the artwork – Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Cezanne – so amazing and inspiring; hugely significant to the cultural history of France and to the development of other artists all around the world. Thirdly, there’s something about the French women that is unmistakable.”

TAPE/OFF TAPE/OFF PLAY X&Y BAR AT 9.50PM

SIMONE PITOT AND THE ALBUMS PLAY GROOVE TRAIN, KING GEORGE SQUARE AT 6PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? Simone Pitot (lead singer); “The opportunity to wear an ice queen costume and perform in situ within a winter wonderland complete with an ice skating rink and faux snow sounded a little too good to pass up.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “New songs, new line up, new sound, new outfits...” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “Once, I performed solo in the middle of the food court at the Morayfield local shopping centre as a social experiment. During the gig, two food court regulars insisted my music was an offensive accompaniment to their fried chicken. I was also asked on a date by a local north-sider. “

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? Nathan Pickels (guitar/vocals); “We were actually a part of it last year when we played in the mall dressed as members of Zit Remedy from Degrassi Junior High. None of us could get work off, so we had to play in disguise.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “I was thinking of hitting the guys up to walk in single file whilst yelling, ‘the champs are here,’ but I am not sure how that will fly.” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “Last year we played in the middle of the Chinatown Mall and this one little dude was rockin’ out instead of eating his lunch – his mum wasn’t very happy, but we were stoked.”

LION ISLAND LION ISLAND PLAY THE EDGE AT 4PM, KING GEORGE SQUARE AT 9.30PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? Julian Cerreto (drums); “It’s always a great buzz to be playing out in the open air and to be able to perform to people who might not often see live music. The live music scene is often something people have to actively seek out, so festivals and public events like this are really important.” Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “This one time we drove well out into the middle of nowhere to play an engagement party for someone who asked us really nicely. The roads were dark and scary and we found ourselves hopelessly drunk, lost and scrambling to the top of a rock pile to try and see any light in the distance. You could possibly say at that point we were playing rock’n’roll... or maybe better not to say that.” Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “We just recorded a new track, Sixteen Days, as part of the 100 Songs Project, and if we get it back in time we’ll hopefully be giving it away. But really, when it’s all free and in the city, why wouldn’t you see heaps of bands, including us? There’ll be plenty of great music on show, so get into it.” Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “I can only speak for myself, but I’d have to say French blue cheese; and the stinkier the better.”

THE MOULDY LOVERS THE MOULDY LOVERS PLAY BREW CAFE AT 9.40AM, OLD MUSEUM AT 11.45AM, QUEEN ST MALL AT 3PM AND GARUVA HIDDEN TRANQUILITY BAR AT 5.40PM

What made you decide to be a part of Fete de la Musique? Louis Whelan (piano accordion, banjo, guitar and vocals); “It’s just a really interesting event. We think it’s awesome that it happens all around the world and the way that all kinds of venues and bands get involved is cool.” Will you approach this performance differently to a regular gig? “Well we are doing four gigs in one day so it would make sense for us to pace ourselves but we probably won’t. Just gonna treat it like every other gig really; we’ll put all our energy into it and try and get as many people dancing as we can.”

Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “We’re performing in front of an ice rink. If the song writing, progressive melodies, soaring vocals and poetics don’t get you there, come and see King George Square dressed up as a snow globe.”

Why should people come and see you out of all the bands playing at Fete de la Musique? “If we can’t entice you with our tunes, you might enjoy the stage banter replete with references to early nineties cartoons, the brilliance of the North Sydney Bears, and WWC wrestling.”

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played? “A traditional Taiwanese day out in Sunnybank. We played on this big stage with red curtains and a standing piano in front of a hundred blank seated Taiwanese folk. Afterwards Matt’s (trumpet) dad found us some sweet back room curry in a giant pot so ended up being a pretty rewarding gig.”

Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “Silent ‘t’s at the end of last names…”

Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “Pencil moustaches? Oui!”

Fete de la Musique originated in France; what’s the best thing French culture has given us? “Éclairs, croissants and the guillotine...”

TUESDAY JUNE 21 - FREE MUSIC ALL DAY

FEATURE ALLIANCE FRANCAISE 12:00 NOON

Liam Griffin

ANNERLEY LIBRARY 10:00 AM 12:00 NOON 2:00 PM 4:00 PM

Daddy Loops Taka & Yuji Tony Mockeridge JEKKS and The Priests of Heka

BEMAC - KANGAROO POINT PARK 2:00 PM 3:50 PM 4:45 PM 5:40 PM 6:30 PM

Beni MC Squared Istanbul Gypsy, Groove - Behzat C Project Tantz Balkanique JEKKS and The Priests of Heka Grupo Izalco

BLEEDING HEART 11:00 AM 11:45 AM 12:30 PM 1:15 PM 2:00 PM

The Pleasantries Tim Steward and Ruby Roberts Mark Shortis Andrew Redford Amy Janson

BRACKEN RIDGE LIBRARY 10:00 AM

BREW 8:00 AM 09:40 AM 11:20 AM 6:00 PM 8:30 PM

T J Swing

The Winter of Reason The Mouldy Lovers Friends of Ben Silent Feature Era James Halloran

ERA BISTRO 2:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:00 PM

EVERTON PARK LIBRARY 11:00 AM

10:30 AM 4:30 PM 4:00 PM

10:00 AM 11:30 AM

St Thomas’ Catholic School

11:30 AM 3:00 PM

Kathryn Forster - Celtic Heart Ebony Rose

CARTEL BAR 7:30 PM 8:30 PM 9:30 PM 10:30 PM 11:15 PM

Bity Booker April Collection Plastic Wood Junkyard Paranoia Brave Pioneers

CENTRAL STATION

ShereekaAND THE PEAR Bity Booker Vic Tromp ORCHESTRA AWKWARD Express Male 9:30 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:15 PM

Hannah Rosa The TaNK (Andrew Stennett)

CHELSEA BISTRO - BARRACKS LANEWAY 07:00 PM

Rose Water

CHERMSIDE LIBRARY 10:00 AM 12:00 PM 2:00 PM 6:00 PM

William Watson T J Swing Our Lady of the Angels – Middle Melodies Simone Townsend

CHINA TOWN MALL 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 4:40 PM 5:00 PM 5:40 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM

Daddy Loops Eyes Of Azure Grape Soda! Taka & Yuji Candice McLeod William Fairbairn 3 to Tango William Fairbairn Bang Bang Boss Kelly Beauty and the Beats SHEPPARD!

CITY TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH 12:15 PM 1:00 PM 1:45 PM

CITYCATS 8:09 AM 8:29 AM 8:38 AM 4:13 PM 4:17 PM 6:18 PM

Leslie Martin Brisbane Bells Le Chaile

Hannah Rosa Stars of Thursday Jodie Cowie Kitsunegari Little Sister Gina Horswood

COORPAROO BOWLS CLUB 6:30 PM 7:30 PM

Hungry Shepherds Hannibal and The Mechanic

COUNCIL BUSES 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 11:05 AM 11:30 AM 7:45 PM

Candice McLeod Lauren Moore Lilly Rouge Hannah Rosa Ebony Rose

MacGregor State High School Nigel and Paul

GARUVA HIDDEN TRANQUILITY RESTAURANT AND BAR 5:00 PM 5:50 PM 6:30 PM 7:20 PM 8:10 PM 9:00 PM

Liam Griffin The Mouldy Lovers Grannt Burrge Fort Knox Istanbul Gypsy Groove - Behzat C Project Azure

GOODWILL BRIDGE 5:00 PM 5:30 PM

Missus Hits Peace ‘n’ Choir

GRILL D WEST END

CANNON HILL KMART PLAZA CARINDALE LIBRARY

Hannah Rosa

GARDEN CITY LIBRARY

10:45 AM 11:45 AM 1:00 PM

11:00 AM

Chris Sheehy Pete Vance

FOODWORKS SOUTHBANK

12:00 NOON 7:00 PM

Terzina String Trio William Watson Luna Junction

Voices of the Valley

FAIRFIELD LIBRARY

BRISBANE SQUARE LIBRARY 11:00 AM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

Jason Ruttley The Jason Recliners DJ Archie Jacobson of Honky Kong

Lauren Moore Liam Griffin

PIG ‘N’ WHISTLE – INDOOROOPILLY 2:00 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM

T J Swing Jodie Cowie Stars of Thursday Jenna Brooks Little Sister

PIG ‘N’ WHISTLE – RIVERSIDE 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM

Pete-n-Pam Dadadada Colleen South Nicki and The Mann Arton Hillbillies

QPAC MELBOURNE GREEN STAGE 11:00 AM 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM

Gavin Doniger’s Mescalito Blues Billing Aquadrome Pear and the Awkward Orchestra

QUEEN STREET MALL – CENTRAL STRUCTURE 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM

Carolina Robleros Mama Juju Candice McLeod Nadia Sunde Kim Cook

QUEEN STREET MALL – EDWARD ST 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM

Hannah Rosa Go Violets Pamela White Sugar Cane Slim

2:00 PM 3:00 PM 3:30 PM 4:00 PM 4:30 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 6:30 PM

Quaternity Brisbane Bells Carolina Robleros Express Male Leslie Martin Terzina String Trio Embers Women’s Acapella Choir Vocal Manouevres Academy

STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND 10:15 AM 11:00 AM

Nadia Sunde St Peter Chanel Primary

SCHOOL CHOIR (THE GAP) 12:30 PM 1:15 PM 2:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:00 PM

Brigidine College St John Fisher College Vocal Ensemble Dorado Avenue Maddie Lang Vocal Manouevres Academy

SUNNYBANK HILLS LIBRARY 2:00 PM

William Fairbairn

THE BEETLE BAR 7:00 PM 7:45 PM 8:30 PM 9:15 PM 10:00 PM

Lilly Rouge Red on Red Fornika Dana Gherman The Louie Louies

THE BOUNDARY HOTEL 4:00 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM

Elbury HannahClare Eyes Of Azure Sugar Cane Slim

QUEEN STREET MALL – FIG TREES

THE EDGE – INSIDE STAGE

HOLLAND PARK LIBRARY

10:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 2:30 PM

HQ MALE GROOMING

QUEEN STREET MALL – MILANO

THE EDGE – OUTSIDE STAGE

HOARDERS TOOWONG

10:00 AM 3:30 PM 7:30 PM 8:30 PM

Le Chaile Alex Campbell Gary Cramb

Gina Horswood Amy Janson

Dan Acfield and the New Tonic Young Griffo

INDOOROOPILLY LIBRARY 6:00 PM

The Pleasantries

JUBILEE HOTEL 7:00 PM 7:45 PM 8:30 PM 9:15 PM 10:45 PM 11:30 PM

SuBDuFuZe The Drive Rogue State Honeyflood LEDbelly Awake & Unafraid

JUGGLERS ART SPACE 6:00 PM 6:45 PM 7:30 PM 8:15 PM 9:00 PM

Pools and Trumpets Fuzzy Polaroid Shotgun Daisy Grape Soda! Beatronica

KAPLAN INTERNATIONAL COLLEGES

09:30 AM 10:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 2:30 PM

Ebony Rose Elbury RachelLee & J. Brown Daddy Loops Azure HannahClare The O’Brien/ Fowler-Roy/ Green Trio 3 to Tango Ian Bennett Pat Tierney Little Sister

QUEEN STREET MALL – STAGE 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM

Tantz Balkanique Luna Junction The People People Stormchasers Archer The Mouldy Lovers Mambises Brisbane Babas Band

QUEEN STREET MALL – VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE

KENMORE LIBRARY

10:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 2:30 PM

KURILPA BRIDGE

QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY

11:45 AM

11:00 AM 5:30 PM 5:30 PM

LARUCHE 8:00 PM

Jordan Lawrence

Chapel Hill State School Choirs

Deep C Divas Rivercity Steel Band

Clare Reynolds

MT GRAVATT LIBRARY 10:30 AM

Joe Tee & Afrodisa Band

MT OMMANEY LIBRARY 2:00 PM

Pete Vance

MUSEUM OF BRISBANE 11:00 AM 12:30 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

Pat Tierney The O’Brien/ Fowler-Roy/ Green Trio Kitsunegari Jodie Cowie

NORTH QUARTER LANE 7:30 AM 8:15 AM 10:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 2:30 PM 3:30 PM

Laura Leighton LycheeTime Kandy Jenna Brooks Chris Sheehy Anton Goodchild 2 Tuned (Ivan Collins/Ian Bennett) Sunset blush

PEPES MEXICAN COORPAROO 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM

GAM Pamela White William Watson

1:30 PM

Istanbul Gypsy Groove - Behzat C Project Stars of Thursday Peter Green and The Midnight Prophets Christina Baulch Toby Straton Band Tantz Balkanique

REDDACLIFF PLACE 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 NOON

Kitsunegari Peter McKEnzie Hayley Dunstan

RIC’S CAFE BAR 4:00 PM 4:45 PM 5:30 PM 6:15 PM

Unsought Duke Bodywire Steamhorse Love Like Hate

1:15 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 3:45 PM 4:30 PM 5:00 PM 5:45 PM

12:00 PM 1:00 PM 1:45 PM 2:30 PM 3:15 PM 4:00 PM

Be Beatz Simone Townsend Daddy Loops Gina Horswood RachelLee & J. Brown Sugar Cane Slim Tim Steward and Ruby Roberts Grape Soda! The Climatics wheeleR Fort Knox [Array] Ensemble Lion Island

THE GROOVE TRAIN – KING GEORGE SQUARE 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 NOON 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:30 PM 8:30 PM 9:30 PM

Chedene Byrne The Winter of Reason HannahClare Gina Horswood Billing Aquadrome Orphan Ann Sue Ray Jessica Holz Simone Pitot & The Albums The O’Brien/ Fowler-Roy/ Green Trio Sally Cooper Lion Island

THE GROOVE TRAIN – RIVERSIDE 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 9:00 PM

Peter McKEnzie Kitsunegari Pat Tierney Stars of Thursday Tony Mockeridge

THE MUSIC KAFE 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 9:00 PM 10:00 PM

The Verge Brizband Lattitude The Fun team Nothing But Trouble

THE OLD MUSEUM 11:00 AM 11:45 AM 1:15 PM

The Cordobas The Mouldy Lovers Bremen Town Musician

RIVERLIFE

THREEWORLDS ROMA ST

RIVERSIDE GREEN SOUTHBANK

TOOWONG LIBRARY

7:00 AM 8:00 AM

12:00 NOON

Pat Tierney The People People

Queen Bee

PINEAPPLE AND MR SMITH 1:00 PM 1:15 PM

Voices of the Valley King of the Kids Tim Jackman

SOFITEL BRISBANE CENTRAL 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM

Accordionist Domenico Gamble et’ Kitt French Gypsy Swing style

ST JOHN’S CATHEDRAL 10:00 AM 12:00 NOON 1:15 PM

Luna Junction SENCABAH RachelLee & J. Brown

12:30 PM 4:15 PM

12:00 NOON 2:00 PM

JEKKS and The Priests of Heka Truth Serum

April Collection Tim Steward and Ruby Roberts

WONDER FACTORY – ROYAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL 3:30 PM 4:30 PM

wheeleR Dorado Avenue

WYNNUM LIBRARY 3:30 PM

Cheri

X&Y BAR 6:30 PM 8:10 PM 9:50 PM

Sawtooth Go Violets Tape/Off

SINGLES BY CHRIS YATES

BON IVER

EAGLE AND THE WORM

BELLES WILL RING

(Jagjaguwar/Inertia)

(I Want To Be Loved Pty Ltd/Warner)

(Dot Dash/Remote Control/Inertia)

Bon Iver

SHIT ROBOT

Losing My Patience (DFA)

Thanks to the always crisp, fragile and poptastic vocal style of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Shit Robot – aka Irishman Marcus Lambkin – has turned his blippy-retro-electro into pure gold just like a synthesiser alchemist. Actually it’s more like he put Hot Chip in a time machine and set the controls for 1979 and invented electronic pop music, saving everyone decades of embarrassment. The Hot Chip remix included in this single package removes lots of the charm and lo-fi atmosphere from the original, but definitely revs it up enough for indie hipster dancefloors. Another bunch of Unabomber remixes strip it right back to nothing and make for even more good times. Shit Robot’s album From The Cradle To The Rave is full of gems but Losing My Patience is certainly one of the shiniest.

PNAU

Solid Ground (etcetc)

With a dancefloor feel reminiscent of Empire Of The Sun’s Walking On A Dream, Pnau are unleashing a no-holds-barred attack on the pop ‘charts’ with their new single Solid Ground. The similarities to the aforementioned track are not without reason when you consider that Pnau’s Peter Mayes produced it himself. The song is actually quite a different kind of creature. Pop guitars are prominent, including some very Californian style guitar slides creating wordless hooks from the opening bars, and thick backing vocal ‘oh ohs’ add to the timeless feel of the carefully-crafted song. Still, the pseudo house dance drums looping over everything make the intentions of the track clear, and despite the fact that it’s not the catchiest thing the group have written, it’s destined to be on high rotation everywhere for the remaining half of the year.

Dispelling any myth of the “difficult second album”, Wisconsin’s Bon Iver has seemingly sneered at the pressure of following up the behemoth debut For Emma, Forever Ago and moved out of the cabin in which it was created without completely destroying it. This self-titled second album is an absolute beauty in virtually every way – those familiar with Justin Vernon will recognise his vocals immediately but gone is the isolation this time around and in its place is a sound larger, more layered, sonically progressive and, most importantly, one that doesn’t recreate For Emma... but builds upon it beautifully. There are many reasons to completely fall for this album, but predictably high on that list is the haunting vocal delivery of Vernon – he holds the spotlight throughout with his stunning falsetto, poetic lyrics and a bold, brilliant reinvention. The plucked acoustic guitars on the likes of Holocene and Michicant holds some similarities with the debut but a lot of the rest is very far removed – the opening Perth builds upon quiet keys and militant snares until it reaches machine gun drums and brass while the closing Beth/Rest is also horn/ pedal steel-heavy and perhaps even a little cheesy in its delivery, spookily reminiscent of Chicago with Peter Cetera on lead vocals. Minnesota, WI is an early, albeit jarring, highlight with its finger-picked guitar and double bass drum while lead single Calgary is the one to show off the newly-added synths and fuller sound.

Good Times

Melbourne’s Eagle And The Worm seemingly dropped out of thin air sometime last year, the brainchild of Custom Kings and Joe Neptune’s Jarrad Brown and a collective group of mates who simply headed into a studio one day to record some of his leftovers. Now with a fulllength debut under their belt, Eagle And The Worm’s Good Times is summed up quite simply in its title and, as a listening experience, feels something like snooping through your parents’ record collection and assembling your own cohesive mixtape. Brown and co. clearly take cues from music’s greatest radio hits, simultaneously sounding like everything and themselves all at once while creating something of pure joy without sounding naff. The 12-string strum intro of the opening Summer Song goes from sounding like something on an Eagles record to a psychedelic freak-out in just under the five-minute mark paves the way for the subsequent 1-2-3 pop assault of Futureman, All I Know and the title track. These three cover everything from Weenesque vocals wrapped around party anthem brilliance to Tom Jones-horns and Beck-flavoured radio slacker rock respectively. The following Come Home Love and Not Coming Home aren’t of the same shindig even remotely though are as brilliant in what comes across as a deep and sad side to the eclectic outfit.

There’s still that sense of longing threaded throughout Bon Iver and Vernon utterly shines as the ringmaster with a cast of cohorts behind him to handle the extras. With each and every song painted beautifully and rewarded with eloquent attention, this might not necessarily be crossover material, but it very well could be Vernon’s Sistine Chapel.

Eagle And The Worm might not necessarily be reinventing the sonic wheel on their debut, but the songwriting prowess can’t be denied, nor can the utter joy and passion that bleeds from each and every track – something only a true student of music could achieve. Good Times provides a diverse listen that will certainly get under your skin, squeezing relentless hooks, blatant charm and incredible warmth across ten tracks that demand to be replayed.

★★★★½

★★★★

Ben Preece

Crystal Theatre

Sydney’s Belles Will Ring have been setting hearts aflutter for some time now with their sprawling alt-folk that could so easily soundtrack anything from Get Smart to Underbelly, and sophomore album Crystal Theatre keeps them firmly in the be-still-my-beating-heart category. Holing up in country New South Wales to self-produce Crystal Theatre as a band, key track Come To The Village bemoans small town loneliness, an underlying theme of the album along with a sticking feeling of menace and mystery within their bush surroundings; at times it feels much like the sense of ambiguity created by Frederick McCubbin’s beautiful yet claustrophobic landscapes. The band’s key songwriters Liam Judson (who also produced Bliss Release for fellow Blue Mountain alumni Cloud Control), together with Aidan Roberts create an atmosphere that switches between surefooted western (complete with vibraslap, but minus the country) and lay-out-a-rug-in-the-autumn-leaves lovely. Throwing back to varied influences from surf rock to The Kinks circa Waterloo Sunset era, a foreboding psychedelic edge is never far away. Ethereal girl harmonies, hillbilly guitar twangs, a seemingly innocent shuffle snare, a shock of vocal recoil, unfriendly hand claps; there’s trickery lurking in every corner of prairie-reeking I Hear Your Voice On The Wind, and it’s made more alluring as its orchestrators try to fool the listener into thinking the end is nigh at several junctures, as they do consistently throughout Crystal Theatre. The River stop-starts skillfully around the lush 60s girl-group refrain of Lauren Crew, only to return again and again to the barrelling surf-inspired guitar riff over its six minutes. Belles Will Ring manage the intricacies of clashing jagged with wistful without coming across as over-ambitious noise muddlers. Whilst this makes for a difficult singalong, Crystal Theatre’s non-traditional structures will bear more and more delightful discoveries as it ages. ★★★★

Tyler McLoughlan

SPRING SKIER Chelsea

(Independent)

Kane Mazlin and Remy Boccalatte from Brisbane indie poppers Hungry Kids Of Hungary have started this side project Spring Skier, and while similarities to their main project are evident, they’re drifting further to the fringes with this outfit than HKOH have ever dares to do. While there’s a Simon And Garfunkel feel to the song with harmonised vocals and even borrowed melodies, the instrumentation and production are a little more off kilter, with big thumping floor toms and stop start rhythms building an intricate background mosaic that frames the very traditional song in a more obtuse setting. The backing vocals are a little over the top and operatic – more space would have helped the main vocal line capture some attention – but it’s a minor criticism for what, on record at least, is an outstanding and somewhat unexpected debut.

JAMES BLUNT I’ll Be Your Man (Warner)

Titled with a threat the likes of which would terrify all but the most lonely housewives, Blunt’s I’ll Be Your Man is unnecessary proof that when an ‘artist’ reaches a certain level of international profile they can churn out any old bullshit and get away with it – for a little while at least. Elton John learnt the hard way that resting on your laurels and former glories only gets you so far, while many other stadium rock casualties such as Billy Joel unfortunately did not. When Blunt sings “Everything that I’m trying to say just sounds like a worn out cliché” he displays a remarkable level of awareness in his own feeble talent that implies a sense of self doubt and guilt that probably keeps him awake at night.

VARIOUS/HENRY SAIZ

ARCTIC MONKEYS

(Balance Music/EMI)

(Domino/EMI)

Balance 019

Much like the trailblazing Global Underground before it, the release of a new edition in the Australian-made Balance series is now an event. And while calling on veterans like Timo Maas and Nick Warren for the previous two instalments was seen by some as a regressive move, order has been restored with rising Spanish producer Henry Saiz taking the helm for Balance 019. Saiz’s approach sits somewhere between traditional DJ mix and artist album, with over half the 31 tracks featuring either a writing or remixing credit from the man of the moment. The result? Perhaps the most cohesive release to bear the Balance stamp, a wonderfully constructed voyage through a mesmerising sonic maze. Saiz opens disc one atmospherically before tuning the dial to the right frequency and rolling along on a languid 105-ish bpm groove, hitting an early high with Hal Incandenza’s beautiful Mystical Tree and peaking nine tracks in with his own remix of the majestic vocal of Cora Novoa & Spaceman’s Black Heart before easing back the tempo over the remaining five tracks. Surely it’s no coincidence that the chord sequence of Saiz and Pional’s closing Uroboros echoes The Final Countdown. Disc two lifts the velocity, Saiz signalling his intentions four tracks in when his remix of Eelke Kleijn’s guitar leaddriven The Lone Ranger commences lift-off proceedings. Or does it? The Spaniard isn’t afraid to take some introspective detours on his road to nirvana, dropping bursts of euphoria like his Dosem collab Zen Boat and Ricardo Tobar’s Outhouse-esque Together through a journey which falls just short of the perfect crescendo. Is Balance 019 the best dance music release of 2011? Perhaps. Is Balance now the go-to mix set for fans of forward-thinking house the world over? No doubt. ★★★★½ Gloria Lewis

Suck It And See

Five years ago The Arctic Monkeys were the biggest thing EVER. And deservedly so too – their debut album Whatever You Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not was a pure mainline hit to the veins of guitar rock, producing a beautifully snarky and moribund wordsmith in thenteen Alex Turner, and making Sheffield, England the go-to town for working-class rock acts (although that proved to be a wishful thinking kind of deal – no offence, Reverend and The Makers...). Since then they have hit the difficult second album syndrome, sludged it up with Josh Homme, and scored awkward coming-of-age indie films. So – where’s the Monkeys’ heads at? Suck It And See, their provocatively titled fourth album, dares you to find out. So let’s get on our knees... Hey, you can let out that keenly-held breath – the album is great, another interesting chapter in the evolution of these lovable rogues. In fact, the album serves up the calm confidence present on last album Humbug (and Homme’s presence is still felt on Brick By Brick and the rifftastic Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I Moved Your Chair) with the rambunctious nature of their debut, seeing them at their most assured. Turner’s wordplay is still at its snipey best, even as he croons “If you’re gonna try and walk on water/Make sure you wear your comfortable shoes” on the excellent Piledriver Waltz. In fact, whilst there aren’t ever likely to be immediate hits added to the AM back catalogue that their first album offered in spades, the compromise is the promise of smart, assured writing that will stand the test of time. Not a bad trade-off, really. ★★★★ Brendan Telford

THE VINES

Future Primitive (Sony)

Like just about every person you speak to, this reviewer has a love/hate relationship with Craig Nicholls and his Vines. Ready to give up on them two albums in after the obnoxious, ridiculous attitude of Nicholls, a torrid performance at the Big Day Out some years ago and co-founder Pat Matthews jumping ship, Nicholls disappeared to the margins, the supernova of his rock star image ebbing away, then bounced back with 2006’s Vision Valley. That album was the first time that Nicholls had lived up to the hype that his vintage rock/grunge-straddling sonic psyche that NME and their ilk had pushed to the nth degree – and it was alright to like The Vines again. Fast forward another five years though, and no one cares once more. That’s a harsh summation, yet a simple way of stating the lack of importance, relevance or even likeability of their fifth album, Future Primitive. The album is certainly not bereft of quality tunes, especially in the middle third – the meandering beauty of All That You Do, the ground-down outro to cracker Black Dragon or the tacky space-affected tones of the titular track. It’s just that the evolution hinted at on Vision Valley is nowhere to be seen here. Gimme Love is quite simply one of the most disappointing tracks that Nicholls has ever penned; how he gets away with plagiarising every simple two-minute rock tune in music history here is a miracle in itself. He also continues to offer us nothing with his lyrics, all obtuse and blasé without offering either emotional countenance or psychedelic epiphany, and is constantly content to travel the safe route – whilst it may be an adequate track, the world did not need a fourth Evening Shade. That just about sums up The Vines too. ★★½ Brendan Telford

LE BUTCHERETTES

GUY J

(Rodriguez Lopez Productions/Other Tongues)

(Bedrock/Balance Music)

Sin Sin Sin

1000 Words

Originating from Mexico, now making a go of it in the US with a different line-up, Le Butcherettes is a band that ticks all the boxes to become big in hard rock circles. Sexy, literate lead singer who blows kisses and kicks heads in, all whilst dressed in a provocative novelty outfit (aprons drenched in blood)? Check. Backing by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the hardest working man in left-field rock? Check. Enlisting members of seminal underground acts The Locust and Hella to be your tour buddies? Check.

Having the John Digweed seal of approval is all but a golden ticket into the hearts of club fiends everywhere – being one of the flagship acts on his Bedrock label guarantees ears far beyond the dedicated prog scene will prick up at the mention of your name. So Guy J’s second album 1000 Words is expected to deliver quality by association alone, especially given his 2008 debut long-player Esperenza was such a beautifully constructed downtempo journey through progressive realms.

So the pedigree is for real. Pity Sin Sin Sin doesn’t consistently reach these heady heights. Opening one-two punch Tonight and New York are straightforward rock numbers, the synth line in the first track endearing and the second’s spike passable, but the end result is more like a by-product of Metric or Pretty Girls Make Graves rather than anything worthwhile. It does step up though – The Leibniz Language is a seductive dark crawler, whilst Bang! ’s only concern is viciously fucking your eardrums. Tainted In Sin has a Karen O slink that infuses its debaucheries, and Dress Off is a simple drumbeat and singer Teri Gender Bender’s chant imploring you to take her dress off...

The Israeli producer has turned up the pressure valve on himself by spreading his talents over two mixed discs this time round (a third presents most of disc two’s more club-focused numbers in unmixed form), if anything taking a more expressive approach then he did last time round. It’s a risky venture, particularly when recognised bombs like Lamur are stripped back to all but their melodic core, but the rewards are there for patient fans willing to take some time exploring both discs.

Granted, Gender Bender is a strong voice, a confident lead, and these tracks probably would be electric in the live arena. Indeed, many tracks stand alone as rollicking, attitude-skewered ball tearers. But collectively, when polished up in the studio, the tracks on Sin Sin Sin come across as bland. And for a band that espouses theatricality with their punk aesthetic – they brandish real pigs’ heads on stage, for God’s sake! – that is pretty unforgivable. Juliette Lewis can do this in her sleep – now that’s saying something.

Norwegian chanteuse Miriam Vaga makes an impact on the few occasions she ethereally wafts into view, particularly on You early on disc one, but for the most part this is head music – if the loopy FX madness of The Right Place doesn’t suck you into a K-Hole you’re made of sterner stuff than most. Only the big synth progression of Electric Tale really lifts the first disc off the floor, while even disc two takes a while to embark on the anticipated full-scale assault – but once the multi-layered melodic techno of Sahara signals a seven-track run home which will have lasers leaping out of your wall by the time Azimuth and I Lost My Head storm the barricades, you’ll be hitting repeat as soon as the warm-down atmospherics of Whirlpool have drifted off into the ether.

★★★ Howie Tanks

★★★★ Gloria Lewis

SEASICK STEVE

You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (Play It Again Sam/Liberator)

Seasick Steve isn’t gassin’ when he says You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks. Although the spotlight is relatively new to this American bluesman, a few dollars in his pocket ain’t gonna change the man. A guitarist’s doyen, a songwriters epitome, these songs are straight-up southern fried, a roots and rock album that transcends because of the talent and personality of ol’ Seasick. With a new guitar on almost every song, as well as a few repeated appearances of his ‘haunted’ 3-string Trance Wonder, each song has its own individual character and feeling. You can travel between the complete electric freak of the title track, the drunk’s ode Whisky Ballad and the almost tribal What A Way To Go and still feel connected to the man and his music. It’s a voice and style that is as friendly as it is homely, and seems to come from the warmest of hearts. The fact that John Paul Jones lends his all-time bassline to a few songs doesn’t hurt the LP either. And yes, that is the groove of Led Zeppelin we are talking about. Seasick is a big deal and this album is a testament to his sexy and swingin’ style of blues. With his toothless smile, sailor tattoos and surprisingly sculpted physique, the yogi-bearded 70-year-old is a swampy roots pirate, a genuine rock firebrand who is so unique yet so eternally classic, that it’s hard not to dive right into this album. From the whispering introduction of Treasures, all the way to the extended drawled ramblings of It’s A Long Long Way, You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks is the most ruckus of bonfire hoedowns, these songs practically roasting the marshmallows for you. ★★★★

Benny Doyle

CITY AND COLOUR Little Hell

(Dine Alone/Shock)

Recording under the moniker City And Colour, Dallas Green has garnered a considerable following since supplementing his hardcore career with an acoustic side project. With third studio release Little Hell Green cements his status as the reigning darling of the ‘hardcore to acoustic’ crossover fad which seems to be all the rage for tattoo-plastered post-hardcore frontmen. Green sets himself apart by being a genuinely talented songwriter who’s also been unfairly endowed with an angelic voice. Whereas City And Colour’s previous releases were hardly groundbreaking, for Little Hell Green has challenged himself and the final product is sometimes breathtaking. Sprawling opener We Found Each Other In The Dark is no giant leap for Green, showing off his falsetto in a typically down-tempo style. But by satisfying the hunger for his heart-string pulling prettiness early on, Green is given the opportunity to swiftly depart from his much-loved formula, even if he refuses to relinquish it entirely. The record hits its stride with The Grand Optimist; the track still centres on Green’s impeccable vocals, but their soul-tinged arrangement is a nod to the experimentation to come. With Fragile Bird Green gets his rock’n’roll on, before reverting to his tried-and-true acoustic method with Northern Wind. Each deviation is wisely followed by a satiating slowdown; to push the point home the album finishes with haunting key-augmented vocal indulgence Hope For Now. There’s little to fault on Little Hell without nitpicking at minor details. City And Colour fans might be disappointed to hear Green widening his sound, but listening to a hugely talented musician lazily regurgitate the same acoustic ballads is infinitely less interesting than hearing them challenge themselves to produce what is, ultimately, a fragile and beautiful record. ★★★★ Helen Stringer

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

THIS WEEK IN WEDNESDAY 15

ARTS

Full Metal Jacket – final night screening of Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanising process that turns people into trained killers. Tribal Theatre. Reservoir Dogs – final night screening of Tarantino’s debut film about a simple jewelery heist going terribly wrong. Tribal Theatre.

THURSDAY 16 A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick’s most notorious film, starring Malcolm MacDowell as Alex Delarge, a troubled youth who is jailed and volunteers for a rather dubious government experiment. Opening night. Tribal Theatre until Wednesday Jun 22. Dancing With Bach – Lucid Dance Theatre in collaboration with cellist Louise King present their third full length work Dancing With Bach. Drawing inspiration from Bach’s life and the beautifully evocative Cello Suites, the work will weave a thread through the emotional, artful, and somewhat mysterious life of Bach to explore the inspiration behind these arousing works. Opening night. Judith Wright Centre until Saturday Jun 18. Le quattro volte – An idyllic village in Italy’s mountainous region of Calabria is the setting for Le quattro volte, an exquisitely filmed take on the cycles of life. Structured in four parts, per its title (“four times”), it opens with a shepherd tending his herd of goats, then shifts focus to one goat in particular, the tree under which he seeks shelter, and the industrialised fate of that plant. Opening night. Tribal Theatre until Wednesday Jun 22.

FRIDAY 17 Finbar Furey & Brendan Grace – an evening of Irish mirth and music starring folk legend Finbar Furey with Ireland’s award winning funny man Brendan Grace (Father Ted). QLD Irish Club, 7pm.

SATURDAY 18 Wunderkammer – hailed by critics as the hit of last year’s Brisbane Festival, Circa’s Wunderkammer returns to the stage by popular demand. Music, song, light and circus combine in this exquisite cabaret of the senses. Sexy, funny and explosive – Wunderkammer offers a cocktail of new circus, cabaret and vaudeville with glances to sideshow and burlesque; where moments of beauty and humour jostle for attention. Closing night, 7.30pm. Judith Wright Centre.

SUNDAY 19 Colourfest – Australia’s first national short film festival dedicated to the works of culturally diverse Australian filmmakers. The Edge, South Bank, 4pm.

When The Dead Heart Beats: A collection of works by Alex Gilles and Murdoch – over the past year Alex has collaborated with Murdoch to create a series of images of a more macabre nature which feature in their show. Based around Japanese demonology, the show’s centrepiece is the work When The Demon Knife Weeps, which measures three metres across by one-and-a-half metres high. Closing day. Nine Lives Gallery.

TUESDAY 21 Blackswan – as part of the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) key Industry performances and their Season Black, an enticing dance triplebill with choreography from some of Australia’s foremost choreographers. Opening night. Judith Wright Centre until Wednesday Jun 22.

ONGOING Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams – a landmark exhibition of surrealist works direct from the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. The exhibition presents a historical overview of Surrealism, charting its evolution from Dada experiments in painting, photography and film, through the metaphysical questioning and exploration of the subconscious in the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico and Max Ernst; to the readymade objects of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray’s photographs. Also included is a remarkable selection of paintings and sculptures by surrealists Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Victor Brauner, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst and Paul Delvaux. Film and photography are also represented throughout the exhibition, including films by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, René Clair and Man Ray. Important photographic works by Hans Bellmer, Brassaï, Claude Cahun, Dora Maar, Eli Lotar and Jacques-André Boiffard also feature. The exhibition is rounded out with late works that show the breadth of Surrealism’s influence, and includes major works by Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky and Joseph Cornell. GoMA until Sunday Oct 2. Faustus – Queensland Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare join to present this adaptation by Michael Gow and inspired by Dr Faustus. Powerhouse Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse until Saturday Jun 25. World Press Photo 2011 – the 54th annual World Press Photo exhibition profiles the globe’s top press photographers and showcases the world’s best press photos of 2010. World Press Photo is the leading international competition in press photography. Brisbane Powerhouse until Sunday Jun 26.

FILM REVIEW

GET LOW Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) has been doing a lot of thinking about funerals lately. A recluse of some 40 years’ standing, this grizzled, antisocial old coot lives in the middle of nowhere in 1930s Tennessee and fills his days with taking potshots at teen trespassers and agonising over the mysterious event that led him to pursue this life of loneliness. When he comes to hard-up funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) with a big ball of cash and a few odd requests – like having a ‘funeral party’ before he’s actually dead – all of a sudden he’s thrust back into the community and has

to re-forge old connections he’s almost lost. One of these is with Mattie (Sissy Spacek), with whom he shares some history. He also develops a somewhat curmudgeonly paternal role in the life of Quinn’s assistant Buddy (Lucas Black). But his ultimate goal is to bring to light the truth of what drove him out of town all those years ago. Get Low is loosely based on a true story and is the first feature for director Aaron Schneider, a former TV cinematographer who must have felt like all his Christmases had come at once when he scored Duvall, Spacek, and Murray. The entire cast put a lot of heart and soul into these quirky characters, the dialogue is razor-sharp and everyone walks a fine line between comedy and dramatic tragedy in this gentle meditation on redemption and absolution. WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

BAZ MCALISTER

THE HEART AND SOUL OF SUPER 8 JOSH WHEATLEY TALKS TO JJ ABRAMS, CREATOR OF LOST AND CLOVERFIELD, WHOSE NEW FILM SUPER 8 IS BRINGING GOOD OLDFASHIONED STORYTELLING BACK TO CINEMAS. One of Hollywood’s biggest names, JJ Abrams has unveiled his latest blockbuster on multiplex screens: Super 8. Known for producing the TV juggernaut Lost and monster movie Cloverfield, as well as rebooting the Star Trek franchise in Apple Store splendour, Abrams’ latest film nods to his youthful roots in the medium. “The inspiration for Super 8 was just wanting to go back in time and revist the era of making movies with friends on Super 8 film,” he says. “The whole thing was built on the simple foundation of wanting to go back and tell a story about that group of kids.” Along with the desire to relive the glory days of childhood, Super 8 came out of the filmmaker’s hope to work with one of his inspirations, Steven Spielberg. With a spirit of adventure akin to The Goonies and the dysfunctional suburbia of E.T., Super 8 fondly recalls the glory days of Spielberg cinema. “I was nervous working with Steven in this way because I have admired him for so long, so enormously, that I did wonder that if this doesn’t go well... it could be bad,” admits Abrams, laughing. It was necessary to forge a collaborative relationship, for the benefit of the project. “His ideas were incredible, and when they didn’t apply for me, for one reason or another, he was never precious about them. It ended up being what any collaboration is, which is a mutual respect and an understanding that you’re all there to do the same thing, which is make the project better. It wouldn’t have served me any good to either be bashful or sycophantic with, certainly in the moment I had to work with, someone who’s a hero of mine for so long.” Super 8 follows a group of bicycle riding youths in ’79. They’re making a movie in their spare time, developing pre-pubescent crushes and having tiffs with their parents. It’s all fun and games of course, until a train crashes, the lens flares have a party and things fall out of the ordinary. Much of the film’s charm comes through its young cast, led by first time actor Joel Courtney. For Abrams finding the right ensemble was a time consuming process, searching through thousands of kids. “A lot of it was just looking for months and months, and finally narrowing it down to the few that felt like they could work together,’ he says. “How do they look as a group when they’re all together? Audiences can get confused

very easily. How do you differentiate all these characters, how do you make sure that they’re all serving each other well.” A “proposterously funny” group of youths in a nostalgic coming of age story, Super 8 recalls the free-spirited innocence of Stand By Me and the supernatural suburbia of Stephen King. “I was enormously impacted by the TV that I loved at the time, the books I read, and I was reading Stephen King books before I should have been. I remember vividly reading the Night Shift collection, which was basically like watching The Twilight Zone in a book. He was an incredible influence. It’s no coincidence I think that the movie has threads and touches that I’m sure impacted me. Stand By Me is a great example of the voice of a great storyteller dealing with the idea of childhood and crossing that threshold in to the ugly realities of what it is to be an adult.” Bucking the current trend, Super 8 was shot in traditional 2D, and Abrams doesn’t see himself filming in an extra dimension any time soon. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I was looking forward to some movies that are gonna be using that technology, something fun to see,” he says, “but a movie being in 3D doesn’t mean anything if you’re not interested in seeing the movie anyway. The irony for me is that what movies do, what books do, what television can do, is far more profound than three dimensions. When you’re involved in a movie you are inside the movie. It goes to a place that’s far more powerful than what your eyes are seeing, an emotional involvement. I’m not saying it can’t be somehow enhanced by 3D, sure. But when you’re really involved in a movie, what your eyes are doing is not the most important component. It’s what your heart and soul is feeling, that means you’re invested inside the movie to a point where actually 3D can be a distraction from it. I’ve actually chosen to go see movies in 2D sometimes just because I would rather watch it. I’d rather see a good movie in 2D than a mediocre one in 3D.” For an action packed summer blockbuster, it is surprising that Super 8’s most powerful scenes are rich in sentimentality. For Abrams, movies are the business of emotion. “Super 8 is far from a perfect movie, but it’s something that at least the ambition of the film is to evoke feeling.

There are movies that seem to be trying to out-spectacularise each other and show increasingly spectacular visual effects and sequences and action. That’s all fun and fine and good. The thing that strikes people again and again when they see a movie is they find themselves emotional. Tearing up,

THE LOOKING

or on the verge of it. People want to feel. A lot of us are so jaded and feel like it’s uncool to feel something, and they look at the idea of sentimentality as a thing from the past, or something beneath them. To me, all the spectacular visuals in the world mean nothing if you don’t love, and care, and feel emotionally for those people in the middle of it all. And that thing to me is the most important.” WHAT: Super 8 WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

GLASS

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW

WITH HELEN STRINGER Devoting an unhealthy amount of time to watching daytime TV I’ve reached some conclusions about kids’ programming. First, the attention span of your average child must have substantially decreased to a range somewhere between one and three minutes, hence the shows aimed at the very young are hosted by teenagers apparently suffering from serious cases of ADD who spout patronising nonsense and talk at an incomprehensible speed. Second, if a TV show even borders on being educational it’s absolutely forbidden that this purpose be achieved overtly; education must be secondary to entertainment, a subliminal message undetectable to seven-year-olds. Having grown up in a family that treated the television like some kind of abomination whose bad influence had to be limited to a strictly educational hour a day I find this tendency quite disturbing. Dora The Explorer freaks me out. Afternoon Disney makes me nauseous. The ABC needs to bring back Mr. Squiggle to defend the next generation from the frenetic adolescents that dominate afternoon television. As Australia’s longest running children’s programme, Mr. Squiggle, the man from the moon, with a pencil for a nose and a host of grumpy puppets for friends, piqued at least two generations’ interest in art. Any kid could have their

squiggle turned into a work of art by the loose-legged marionette (it’s one of my greatest regrets to never have had my own squiggle accepted onto the show). Usually this artistic feat was miraculously performed with the original picture hanging upside down and an unimpressed talking blackboard interrupting the star puppet’s endeavours by imploring him to hurry up. Children’s television has gone dramatically downhill since Mr. Squiggle was cancelled in 1999. If the ABC can’t resurrect Mr. Squiggle then Antiques Roadshow should be made compulsory viewing for kids. Perhaps it’s the colonial in me, but I find British TV hosts with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Victorian furniture quite comforting. Antiques Roadshow is like a spectator sport for nerds. Guessing the value of an English watercolour from the early 21st Century or an American oil-on-canvas while a well-suited expert authoritatively informs me of the painting’s history is pretty much the highlight of my Sunday night. Admittedly I now know more about obscure but collectible artists from the 19th Century than can possibly be useful, but as a reality television show the Roadshow is surely more worthwhile viewing than amateur cooks crying over burnt garlic or the public humiliation of obese Australians. Perhaps the internet is slowly killing kids TV – or at least killing the attention spans of children. Perhaps a generation brought up with wireless internet would no longer be impressed by a puppet making upside down art out of squiggles. It’s probably too much to ask for kids permanently connected to wireless internet to sit through long-winded explanations of a painting’s provenance. Regardless, while the forced viewing of Antiques Roadshow might be unattainable, I’m intent on campaigning for Mr. Squiggle’s return to save our youngsters from an art-less upbringing.

frontrow@timeoff.com.au

AMAZING GRACE

VETERAN IRISH COMIC BRENDAN GRACE HAS THEM ROLLING IN THE AISLES 40 YEARS INTO HIS CAREER. TEAMING WITH LEGENDARY FOLK MUSICIAN FINBAR FUREY, HE’LL BE MAKING SURE AUSSIE EYES ARE SMILING, AS HE TELLS BAZ MCALISTER.

OUTSIDE THE LINES AFTER ITS SUCCESSFUL OPENING IN SYDNEY, THE COLOURFEST FILM FESTIVAL HAS HONED ITS BEST-RECEIVED FILMS, AND THIS WEEK BRINGS THEM TO BRISBANE. SAM HOBSON EXPLAINS WHY THIS WILL BE A COLLECTION OF FILMS UNLIKE ANY YOU’VE EVER SEEN. Post-Colonial theory is a body of modern, critical thought that examines the phenomenon of minority cultures – specifically colonised cultures – subverting objects native to white, or colonial culture as a means of reclaiming, and reasserting power, and of continuing the story of the cultural histories that’d been erstwhile lost to Christian and Western dogma upon their nation’s colonisation. It’s an adaptive move, using populist white-culture objects like ‘the novel’ to disseminate the truths of a smothered people – the utilisation of the format of mass texts gives the post-colonial subject an equal platform, and an equal voice within the majority culture. That’s its defining achievement. The work of authors like Salman Rushdie, Chinua Achebe, and Arundhati Roy exist to reclaim what’s been diluted by white-colonisation – Rushdie, for India, with a text like Midnight’s Children, Roy, similarly, with The God Of Small Things, and Achebe, a Nigerian, with Things Fall Apart – and specifically employ the means and objects of the dominant culture in subversion – rearranging standards of grammar, form, and subject traditional to Western storytelling – to re-assert their stolen power, and de-throne one particular standard of expression from ubiquity. And, while Colourfest could not be explicitly considered a post-colonial response to anything, some of its core values remain similar; that is, it exists as a platform for marginalised stories to

be told, and does so through relatable, populist means. And that’s because Colourfest is a festival of short films that promotes and celebrates migrant art, specifically with the goal of exploring the tales unique to the migrant condition in Australia. With the aim to de-otherise the marginalised voices in modern, Australian art – much like its cousin, the post-colonial text – Colourfest works to enrich and perhaps realigns people’s perceptions of its subjects. Its founder, Sri-Lankan born Gary Paramanathan hopes to promote the harmony in difference, presenting a selection of works that speak to a body of people he feels aren’t often seen on Australian screens. And, to rope this back in to the earlier comparisons to the ideals of the post-colonial text, all this is very edifying of film as a universal language. The subtleties one is capable of in this mode of storytelling hold in them the beauty of film as a limitless form of expression. Just like Rushdie re-wired Western grammar, so to can the syntax of cinema be moulded to better espouse the unique realities of the migrant condition. The festival’s Best Film award, this year went to Ashley Fairfield’s Vinyl, which tells the story of a Sudanese refugee in Sydney, who has to reconcile living in a sudden and relative idyll, learning to balance a new life with hidden scars, and the shock of suddenly not being under constant threat. AY RSD THU S RT STA

Brendan Grace was first shoved into the limelight in his late teens, on a tour of Ireland with his fledgling showband The Gingermen. Two members short that night, the band was dying a death, and Grace was called upon to mollify the crowd with some impromptu stand-up. Thus a comedy career lasting the next four decades was born. Probably best-known to Aussies for his performance as rude, intimidating, jungle music-playing priest Father Fintan Stack in Father Ted, he’s been on stand-up tours here but not since the 90s, so has anything in Australia changed this time around? “Well I don’t see any changes really,” says Grace, “but the one thing I’ve noticed is that the letters BYO don’t appear as often. Maybe that’s because there are a lot of Irish people in Australia now and that wouldn’t suit our nature, to bring our own drinks to a bar. If BYO was the order of the day in Ireland the streets would be blocked with Guinness delivery trucks.” Grace now makes his home in Florida but was born in Dublin and rode out a traditionally tough Irish childhood. “This is my 40th year in show business, and I’ve been funny in and out of recessions, and we Irish always turn up again. We’re like a bad penny. We have the ability to survive, and it’s in recessions that my profession comes to the fore. The one business that thrived in the horrible 20s recession in the

The Best Writer/Director Award was given to Tresa Ponnor’s Sosefina; a film about a Samoan girl ashamed of her family being different from what she considers ‘perfect,’ an ideal perpetuated by the example around her. Though it’ll only take up two hours of your day, next Sunday, the films shown at Colourfest will stick with you for some time. Give it a look. WHAT: Colourfest Film Festival WHERE & WHEN: The Edge, South Bank Sunday Jun 19, 4pm

United States was vaudeville. There’s a bit of vaudeville in my act because I learned my craft from the vaudevillians, like Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Ken Dodd, and Frank Carson. It still works for me, and I still wear my tuxedo. The kind of comedy I do is very old-fashioned to look at but I’m very modern in my approach to it. I wouldn’t go onstage in a T-shirt, I’m a dinosaur when it comes to that.” Throughout his career, Grace has entertained presidents, princes, and religious figures. He got what he describes as “a huge break” when he was drafted in to entertain Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr on their night off when they were on the Irish leg of their Ultimate Event world tour. “It was the most precarious moment of my entire life for I was brought in to entertain the entertainers,” Grace says, but it worked out fine; he had the whole American entourage in paroxysms of laughter and was subsequently booked to open for Sinatra on his European tour. Now teaming up with renowned folk musician Finbar Furey, Grace is hitting the road throughout Australia as the pair bring their evening of music and laughter to the regions. “We’ve known each other for millions of years, you know. It’s a lovely combination. At the end of the night I do a song or two, and he’s got some funny stories. Finbar is singing at his very best and singing songs that made him famous, as well as some new stuff. People that have known us for years will be familiar with the style of what we do but the material will be different. It’s like making a shepherd’s pie with a different gravy.” WHO: Brendan Grace & Finbar Furey WHERE & WHEN: Queensland Irish Club Friday Jun 17

BRIDESMAIDS (MA TTHURSDAY, 16 JUNE 2011

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FRIDAY, 17 JUNE 2011

MONDAY, 20 JUNE 2011

10:30 AM, 1:00PM, 3:30 PM, 6:30 PM, 9:00 PM 10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 6:30PM, 9:00 PM

SATURDAY, 18 JUNE 2011

10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 6:00PM, 8:30 PM

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FILM REVIEW angry, shouty and sweary Nick (Simon Stone) – they drive out into the bush to Bernie’s lonely house they force their way in. From this point it becomes apparent how slipshod and off-the-cuff their “plan” is. When their attempt to off Bernie and make it look like a suicide fails, the five start coming apart at the seams as they scrabble around for alternative ways to do him in.

BLAME

Despite the out-and-out ludicrousness of the five’s plot – they use each other’s names, slop their fingerprints and DNA over everything and drop their iPhones at the scene of the crime – this is an impressive debut from writer-director Michael Henry. Kestie Morassi and Sophie Lowe are solid as the suicide’s sister and best friend respectively, and de Montemas is good at engendering sympathy despite the antipathy the revengers bear him. Shots are framed beautifully and the pace of the film evokes genuine tension and reveals just enough before dropping a nice twist in near the climax.

In Aussie thriller Blame, a gang of five young would-be vigilantes head straight from the funeral of their young to exact revenge on the man they believe drove her to suicide – a piano teacher with wandering fingers, Bernie (Damian de Montemas). Led by the dead girl’s boyfriend – the impossibly

WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas from Thursday Jun 16

BAZ MCALISTER

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10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 6:00PM, 8:30 PM

10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 6:30PM, 9:00 PM

TUESDAY, 21 JUNE 2011

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WEDNESDAY, 22 JUNE 2011

10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 9:00 PM

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WED 10.30, 3.10PM THU- TUE 12.50PM

FRI 6.30PM

PARIS OPERA & BALLET: COPPELIA (CTC) (NO FREE TIX)

SAT 11.30AM SUN 1.00PM (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX)

THU/ TUE 10.40, 1.15, 3.50, 6.30, 9.10PM FRI/ MON 10.40, 1.15, 3.50, 6.20, 9.10PM SAT/ SUN 10.40, 3.40, 6.30, 9.10PM

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JULIA’S EYES (MA15+) WED 12.00, 9.15PM THU 4.45PM FRI/MON/TUE 4.20PM SAT/ SUN 1.15PM

GET LOW (M) WED 10.00, 6.15PM THU/ SAT/ SUN/ TUE 10.20, 4.30, 6.40PM FRI 10.15, 2.20PM MON 10.20, 4.30PM

MRS CAREY’S CONCERT (PG)

WED 2.10PM THU 12.40PM FRI/ MON/TUE 12.20PM SAT 9.40AM

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THU-TUE 10.45 (FRI BABES), 1.15, 3.45, 7.00, 9.20PM

WED 10.45, 1.00, 3.10, 7.15, 9.20PM THU/FRI/MON/TUE 11.30, 1.45, 7.15, 9.25PM SAT/SUN 1.45, 4.00, 7.15, 9.25PM

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frontrow@timeoff.com.au

C U LT U R A L

CRINGE

TONI COLLETTE IN UNITED STATES OF TARA

WITH MANDY KOHLER Much to fans’ dismay, this coming Monday will see the last episode of United States Of Tara airing in the US. Created by Diablo Cody, the show was cancelled by Showtime in late May, meaning the end of the third season would be the end of the series for good. With no official finale to wrap up any lose ends, fans can only hope to find a satisfying conclusion to a series that was just starting to warm up. Cody came to prominence in 2005 with her memoir Candy Girl: A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper. However unlikely a stripper a well raised office worker living in Minnesota is, she made for an even less likely Oscar winner. At the end of her tenure in the sex industry Cody wasn’t simply writhing

around onstage to The Rolling Stones but had moved on to performing in a peep show booth. There are many good reasons for women to make the leap into a profession that sees them ostracized from polite society but in spite of good intentions you don’t often expect them to make good. Certainly you don’t expect that for such folk a few short years will be the difference between butt plugs being a genuine tax deduction and standing on stage at the Oscars accepting the award for best original screen play for Juno. But make good she did. For a while Cody was the hot new writer setting tongues a wagging in Hollywood. However when her next highly anticipated feature film, Jennifer’s Body, was canned by

critics in the US and failed to score an Australian cinema release, it looked like the love affair with Cody’s kidult characters was over. However, just as any film can be hyped to the heavens it sometimes goes the other way and it became somewhat trendy to give the film the thumbs down. It’s not Juno Part II, it’s a comedic teen monster movie and for what it is Jennifer’s Body is a fun flick. Given the lacklustre reception of Jennifer’s Body, United States Of Tara was somewhat of a revelation. Created by Cody, UST was exec produced by Steven Spielberg, and stars Toni Collette, television long stayer John Corbett, and to a lesser degree comedian Patton Oswalt. The show, which deals with a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder, allowed Collette to deliver sucker punch performances in multiple roles. So why did it get canned? Perhaps in a culture where reality TV stars continue to grab attention for the most idiotic reasons it’s not that surprising that there’s little space to pay attention to something that attracts little ridicule. It’s easier to commentate on something that sucks rather than something that doesn’t. Over three seasons Tara’s struggle with her alters has ebbed and flowed eventually washing up on darker shores. Given the recent shift in tone, it’s unlikely that the series’ end will be completely satisfactory but don’t let that put you off giving it a crack on DVD. Your time will still be infinitely better spent in awe of Collette than it would be watching people with barely one personality a piece who think they can cook/ dance/sing.

FILM REVIEW

SUPER 8 At last Super 8 is gracing cinema screens, after a seemingly interminable campaign of secrecy at the behest of its writer-director JJ Abrams. Remember that tantalising trailer showing something huge and powerful busting out of a steel train carriage? What did the title refer to, eight superheroes? And what was the creature, a baby Cloverfield alien? Turns out the tale is much simpler.

It’s a small-town American yarn with late 70s sensibilities about a bunch of small-town buddies who aren’t a million miles from the Goonies or Elliott’s buddies in E.T. Led by director Charles (newcomer Riley Griffiths) and dreamer Joe (newcomer Joel Courtney), these 12-year-old creatives spend their time making movies with a Super 8 camera, until one fateful night where they accidentally capture a spectacular train crash on film. When the army starts

sealing off the town and other odd events creep into their lives, the kids turn amateur investigators. Abrams had it right – the less you know about Super 8 the better, but it harks back to the feeling of magic you got from a Spielberg (who produced Super 8) film as a kid. Just like you wanted to meet ET or sail off in search of One Eyed Willie’s treasure, you’d give up almost everything to be one of these amateur filmmakers in an innocent, beautiful time before iPhones and games consoles. The train-crash plotline and what comes out of it, while the effects are grand, is the weakest part of the film story-wise; the internal drama going on with the group of kids is ten times as compelling. But overall Super 8 is a beautiful, nostalgic piece of cinema where Abrams deliberately recaptures a bygone age while retaining all the power and technological advancement of modern cinema. WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

BAZ MCALISTER

CALL-OUT FOR TRASHARAMA ENTRIES Trasharama is a horror and sci-fi travelling film festival that started in Adelaide (appropriately) in the 1990s and has since gone on to grace screens in major cities across Australia. This year, ten cities (both capital and regional) will feature in Trasharama’s national tour, bringing films from first-time directors and veterans alike. Each event will feature more than just film screenings, with bands and commentary and belly dancers and snakes and all sorts of devilishly good things. The tour’s not until October, but in the meantime the organisers are asking for filmmakers to submit entries or the chance to screen at the festival. As per their poster, they’re on the look-out for short horror and sci-fi films, “grindhouse gore”, “baad taste comedies”, “dodgymentaries”, “cheesy animations”, “Z-grade schlock”, and “slasherific sinema”. Head to trasharama.com for more information.

ROTTOFEST ON THE SEARCH FOR AUSTRALIA’S FUNNIEST FILMMAKERS Rottofest, the film festival held on Rottnest Island in Western Australia (near Perth) is yet to announce their programme, but they’ve sent out the carrier pigeons to spread word of their Search For Australia’s Funniest Filmmakers competition. All you have to do is make a funny short film (three to 15 minutes) or skit (up to three minutes) and submit it by Friday Aug 12. Highlights will be then shown during the festival, which takes place Saturday Sep 3 and Sunday Sep 4, with the overall winner announced at the end. Head to rottofest.com.au for entry details and to apply.

ISSUE 1531 - WEDNESDAY 15TH JUNE 2011

SECRET BIRDS NAME/INSTRUMENT PLAYED:

WHICH BRISBANE BANDS BEFORE YOU HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PERFORMING? (MUSICALLY OR OTHERWISE)? Secret Birds – Djembe, thumb piano, Casio SK1, Roland Juno 60, bells, Gibson SG, Boss drum machine. Five years.

YOU’RE ON TOUR IN THE VAN – WHICH BAND OR ARTIST IS GOING TO KEEP YOU HAPPY IF WE THROW THEM ON THE STEREO?

Sylvester Anfang II, Topping Bottoms, Wet Hair, Black Sabbath, JD Emmanuel, High Wolf, Nonhorse, Agitation Free, Outkast.

WOULD YOU RATHER BE A BUSTED BROKE-BUT-REVERED HANK WILLIAMS FIGURE OR SOME KIND OF METALLICA MONSTER? All I’d ask for is for someone to trawl through their music collection at some point and come across my recording and go, “Oh I remember that, that’s good”.

Deﬁnitely the Blank Realm kids and the whole Disembraining noise axis. Also loved the good old days of the Trapdoor Tapes. If you guys are still going I’ve ﬁnally got that recording ready for you. Mostly though my inspiration is Jimi Kritzler of Slug Guts. He’s a true gentleman and scholar.

I think you could deﬁnitely start a heavy petting session to Peace Forest. It would be intense and beautiful.

IF YOU HAD TO PLAY A SPORT INSTEAD OF BEING A MUSICIAN WHICH SPORT WOULD IT BE AND WHY WOULD YOU BE TRIUMPHANT?

Deﬁnitely basketball, it’s by far my favourite sport. I think I could run the point and distribute to the big men pretty well. Having directed many people onstage before I feel I have an edge.

WHAT PART DO YOU THINK BRISBANE PLAYS IN THE MUSIC YOU MAKE?

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE FOR YOU MUSICALLY IN THE SHORT TERM?

IS YOUR MUSIC RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE MAKE-OUTS OR BREAK-UPS? WHY?

Secret Birds play Woodland on Saturday Jul 2, and are in residence at GoMA throughout the duration of the The Savage Eye: Surrealism And Cinema season (see qag.qld.gov.au for details). Photo by ALEX GILLIES.

It only plays a part in that I feel a need to escape when I’m here musically. My mental image of Brisbane is of a dustbowl, open and empty. For better of worse I don’t really respond to that in terms of my music. Living in Tokyo made a lot more sense to me.

I’m doing live score for the duration of the Surrealist Exhibition Film Program at GOMA. Then the ﬁrst Australian Secret Birds gig in 18 months is on at Woodland on July 2nd. After that a short tour of Australia, and then several more releases this year on overseas labels.

TOUR GUIDE

GIG OF THEWEEK

INTERNATIONAL

BAD MANNERS: Step Inn Jun 15 CRUEL HAND: Byron bay YAC Jun 15, X & Y Jun 16, Sun Distortion Studios Jun 17 CUT OFF YOUR HANDS: Alhambra Lounge Jun 16 ONYX: Step Inn Jun 16 MILEY CYRUS: BEC Jun 21 HELMET: Coolangatta Hotel Jun 22, The Hi-Fi Jun 23 VAN DYKE PARKS, KINKY FRIEDMAN: Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 24 & 25, Joe’s Waterhole Jun 26 JOSHUA RADIN: The Zoo Jun 25 BRIAN MCKNIGHT: The Arena Jun 26 MICAH P HINSON: X & Y Jun 29 THE BLACK ANGELS: The Hi-Fi Jun 30 TY SEGALL: Woodland Jul 7 RISE AGAINST: BEC Jul 18 DOOMRIDERS: The Zoo Jul 22 RANDY NEWMAN: QPAC Jul 22 NO USE FOR A NAME: The Zoo Jul 23, Coolangatta Hotel Jul 24 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS: BEC Jul 25 AVENGED SEVENFOLD: BEC Jul 28 PERIPHERY, TESSERACT: The Zoo Jul 29 THE BLACK SEEDS: Coolangatta Hotel Jul 30, The Zoo Sep 9 JOHN ‘00’ FLEMING: Barsoma Jul 31, Platinum Aug 5 FORBIDDEN: Jubilee Hotel Aug 4 NEON TREES: The Tivoli Aug 5 FUNERAL PARTY: The Hi-Fi Aug 9 OWL CITY: The Tivoli Aug 15 JESUS JONES, THE WONDER STUFF: The Tivoli Aug 18 PINBACK: The Zoo Aug 18 BIG BOI: The Tivoli Aug 26 LIAM FINN: The Zoo Aug 27 TITLE FIGHT, TOUCHE AMORE: Old Museum Sep 8 SUICIDE SILENCE: The Tivoli Sep 9 RUSSIAN CIRCLES: The Zoo Sep 10 ABOVE & BEYOND: Family Sep 16 SUZI QUATRO: Twin Towns Sep 17 & 18, Empire Theatre Sep 20, Events Ctr Caloundra Sep 22 MOTELY CRUE: Brisbane Riverstage Sep 21 SEBADOH: The Hi-Fi Sep 22 CHRIS CORNELL: QPAC Oct 15 & 17 STEELY DAN, STEVE WINWOOD: Sirromet Wines Oct 23 MAD SIN: The Hi-Fi Nov 3, Shed 5 Nov 4 KINGS OF LEON: BEC Nov 8 K.D. LANG: Riverstage Nov 22 DOLLY PARTON: BEC Nov 25 & 26 ELTON JOHN: BEC Nov 30

THE GIN CLUB

THE ZOO SATURDAY JUN 18 Another day, another national tour from The Gin Club. Don’t these people sleep? The consummate folk conglomeration are returning to our part of the world bearing gifts, as if you need encouragement to check them out... Firstly, all people who attend this run of shows will receive a free download for Hissy Fit Volume 2, their second collection of rarities and b-sides (there are upsides to having 27 songwriters after all). Secondly, they’ll be wrangling together a line-up of bands far better than them – Melbourne outﬁt Harmony (featuring members of The Nation Blue and Mclusky) who are releasing their debut self-titled album, local loop maestros Dreamtime, and Sydney songstress Laura Imbruglia, one of Australia’s most underrated performers and the true talent of her family. You can catch the Ginners and their interstate friends at the Spotted Cow, Toowoomba on Friday night and the full contingent at The Zoo on Saturday night. Get amongst it or there will be a real hissy ﬁt...

THE MIDDLE EAST: Old Museum Jun 15, Joe’s Waterhole Jun 16 BAD MANNERS: Step Inn Jun 15 STORM IN A TEACUP: Mullum Civic Hall Jun 18 THE BLACK ANGELS: The Hi-Fi Jun 30 THE GRATES: The Hi-Fi Jul 1 MIAMI HORROR: The Zoo Jul 1 WAGONS: Spotted Cow Jul 1, The Hi-Fi Jul 2 BELLES WILL RING: Sol Bar Jul 7, Step Inn Jul 8 ART VS SCIENCE: The Tivoli Jul 9 FLAVOURS OF SCUZZ FESTIVAL: Jubilee Hotel Jul 9 SEEKER LOVER KEEPER: Mullum Civic Hall Jul 15 VENTS: Spotted Cow Jul 21, Step Inn Jul 22 CATHERINE TRAICOS: Vinyl @ The Hi-Fi Jul 24 MATT MCHUGH: Byron Bay Theatre Aug 11, The SoundLounge Aug 12, Old Museum Aug 13, Coolum Theatre Aug 14 JESUS JONES, THE WONDER STUFF, THE CLOUDS: The Tivoli Aug 18 CALLING ALL CARS: Beach Hotel Aug 18, Tempo Hotel Aug 19, Coolangatta Hotel Aug 20 BASTARDFEST: Jubilee Hotel Sep 3 SEBADOH: The Hi-Fi Sep 22

THE MEDICS, THE HONEY MONTH, BABAGANOUJ

Bliss N Eso @ Brisbane Riverstage by John Hudson Taylor

THE ZOO: 09.06.11

Babaganouj frontman Charles Sale gives it his all for the most part, but the low slung guitar and lower-key fashion recalls Michael Cera and his Scott Pilgrim ensemble Sex Bomb-Omb. The tunes are catchy enough with the dual melodies of bass player Harriette Pilbeam inviting, albeit totally underused, but they can’t seem to shake the ‘battle of the bands’ vibe, the three-piece lacking swagger or the stage presence that leaves you longing for more. On some of the slower “45” type numbers, when the chords hang in the air and the feedback scratches your ears ever so slightly, Babaganouj show some real crack songwriting and give the listener the climatic highs and lows which bring mood to a set. A late Katy Perry Teenage Dream cover however doesn’t help to make the blue light vibe any dimmer.

NATIONAL

THE MIDDLE EAST: Old QLD Museum Jun 15, Joe’s Waterhole Jun 16 DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: The Zoo Jun 16 MARK SEYMOUR: The Tempo Hotel Jun 16, Joe’s Waterhole Jun 17, Lonestar Tavern Jun 18 AIRBOURNE: Villa Noosa Jun 16, The Hi-Fi Jun 17, Coolangatta Hotel Jun 18 EVIL EDDIE: Step Inn Jun 17, Jun 18 Sol Bar Maroochydore JACK LADDER AND THE DREAMLANDERS: Alhambra Lounge Jun 17 JOSH PYKE: Beetle Bar Jun 24 GEORGIA FAIR, DANIEL LEE KENDALL: Ric’s Jun 30, The Loft Jul 2, Railway Friendly Bar Jul 3 LITTLE RED: The Hi-Fi Jun 18, Great Northern Jun 30, Coolangatta Hotel Jul 1 STORM IN A TEA CUP: Mullum Civic Hall Jun 18 COERCE: Sun Distortion Studios Jun 24, Fat Louie’s Jun 25 FIREBALLS: Shed 5 Jun 24, The Hi-Fi Jun 25 KARNIVOOL: The Hi-Fi Jun 24 & Jul 4, Coolangatta Hotel Jun 25, Caloundra RSL Jun 26 SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR: Old QLD Museum Jun 24, Great Northern Jun 26 SPARKADIA: Birdee Num Num Jun 27 MIAMI HORROR: The Zoo Jul 1

PRESENTS

BLISS N ESO, HORRORSHOW, BIG B BRISBANE RIVERSTAGE: 10.06.11

With his shirt off and man boobs jiggling, the sight of inked up American rapper Big B isn’t exactly the figure to produce a fawning crowd from the outset. Even with his floppy presence though, Big B does a commendable job at keeping the crowd amused, but with stock beats behind a hot and cold flow, he isn’t about to change the face of the game. In fact, the best part of the entire set is when Jay Z’s Death Of Autotune fires up following the large one’s exit. Sydney’s Horrorshow are the next act to be dwarfed by both the hulking Brisbane Riverstage and the sheer magnitude of the event, the DJ/MC combo not so much overwhelmed as plainly unable to command any sort stage ownership, really through no fault of their own. The smooth rhyming of Nick Bryant-Smith partners the deft turntabling skills of Adit Gauchan naturally, highlighted on class singles No Rides Left and mass hands-in-the-air closer The Rain. But without any stage show to help hold attention, the set drifts by without any real punch. Such engagement issues, however, are null and void for Bliss N Eso, the lauded Sydney hip hop crew squeezing as much life out of “the biggest hip hop

show in Australian history” as they can muster. Immediately making the impressionable audience a key part of the night through an iPhone app that allows fans to fi lm the show for DVD, the roar that greets the MC pairing as they burst on stage is staggering. Quick fire takes on Flying Through The City and Woodstock 2008 leave the already hungry audience practically salivating for more and from there, the performance never lets up, the hit parade wheeled out end to end. Family Aff air and Happy In My Hoody are received with a hero’s reception, while the backdrop visuals are crucial to bringing the Kasey Chambersassisted Late One Night and the Angus and Julia Stone-sampling Eye Of The Storm to life. The “family” chant dragged from the scum of Insane Clown Posse is fairly cringeworthy but following a mid-set DJ solo from group beat keeper Izm, the second half of the show sees the evening really come to life. A fishing comedy skit to introduce Down By The River is a laugh, but it’s the live piano work of MC Eso’s cousin James Illingworth that steals the night, yellow hazed mist permeating the sky during At Midnight, while MC Bliss beatbox battling the live keys is gripping and inspired. Following awesome renditions of Reflections and Addicted to conclude the set, only the brave or stupid would deny that Bliss N Eso deserve their position atop the current Aussie hip hop tree. BENNY DOYLE

On the other hand, The Honey Month swoop the stage like feral animals, frantically attacking their instruments with the fury and buzzing intensity of a pack of rabid wolves. But the double bass freak-out of David Leonardi, the jarring percussion – it’s all a facade. There are some real moments of clarity like the refreshing glockenspiel sounds worked through the keyboard, and the gorgeous, haunting enchantment of the vocal harmonies bouncing between members in The Owl. But after the gung ho nature the set captivated the room in, the following half hour honestly seems like an anticlimax. If the start was at the finish and vice versa, people would have been left stranded, mouth agape. Instead, we are left wondering where the band wandered off to. The Medics, however, haven’t sounded better – in fact, many bands at The Zoo haven’t sounded better. A big sprawling instrumental opener begins the set, uplifting and gripping you in equal measures. Recalling the beautiful yet intense nature of Sigur Ros, with the right mix on the soundboard, the right acoustics in the room, the big guitar lines roll over you like a set wave crashing into the ocean. Every member, every instrument, although working in a structured form, manages to create something incessantly powerful and it’s hard to not let your emotion become dictated by the music and Kahl Wallace’s voice. Additional stick work helps make Beggars even more driving and pounding, while Golden Bear is a multi-tiered epiphany that sees even Eminem fans bouncing around the front rows, the song putting an utter spell on the crowd. The sound, the show – basically, it’s breathtaking. The Medics effortlessly make tonight visceral and incredibly inspiring to watch. The music makes this a complete event. If there is a better band doing the Brisbane circuit presently, you just lost your pedestal. BENNY DOYLE

Pajama Club @ The Zoo by Stephen Booth

visions of late-90s alt-prog that has the attention of a large circle of punters at the front of the stage. They hit their stride quickly and are refusing to let any energy drop, though ears prick up as their set rolls over to See Right Through Me and its intro that sound uncannily like Britney Spears’ Toxic. The crowd seems to have doubled as No Quarter arrive on stage, and it isn’t long before they break out Psychotic Highway. Frontman Nic Tango still appears to be the glue of the group as he holds position of the stage with a delivery reminiscent of Travis Meeks, but as the nerves appear to take hold of him, the cracks in the rest of the band follow. Loss of timing, missed notes, feedback issues and a general look of dishevelment plagues the first half of their set and dismembers While The City Sleeps. While this could be considered a fault of epic proportions, the focus shifts on the more effective section of their performance, with Tango’s storytelling lyrics during Hold On giving the crowd something to sink their teeth into. It’s obviously the catalyst they need to get their shit together as their final dig of All Or Death shows the true potential of a band still to find their feet, but one having a red hot dip and enjoying the search.

Without much delay No Anchor launch into their set, determined to be the loudest, most dissonant act on tonight’s bill. Treading a nice balance between their break-neck screaming anthems and apocalyptic drone numbers, the two bass-one drum combination continues to tear holes in the ozone layer, the heat from their aural assaults are that intense. Closing with the suitably monikered The End, the boys once again prove that there isn’t a better suited band out there to score the annihilation of this planet, when it inevitably occurs. Blistering stuﬀ.

PAPA VS PRETTY: X & Y Jul 1 PAPER SCISSORS: Great Northern Jul 1, Step Inn Jul 2 THE GRATES: The Hi-Fi Jul 1 THE WINDY HILLS: The Brewery Jul 1, Coolangatta Hotel Jul 2, Noosa Surf Club Jul 8, Brisbane Powerhouse Jul 16 WAGONS: Spotted Cow Jul 1, The Hi-Fi Jul 2 OSCAR+MARTIN, PETS WITH PETS: The Hangar Jul 2 BELLES WILL RING: Sol Bar Jul 7, Step Inn Jul 8 ART VS SCIENCE: The Tivoli Jul 9 SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM: Family Nightclub Jul 9 JINJA SAFARI: Alhambra Lounge Jul 14 TINY RUINS: Black Bear Lodge Jul 14 SEEKER LOVER KEEPER: Civic Hall Mullumbimby Jul 15 SHORT STACK: The Tivoli Jul 15 & 16 JAYTECH: The Met Jul 16 THE PANICS: The Zoo Jul 16 THE POTBELLEEZ: Chalk Hotel Jul 21 VENTS: Spotted Cow Jul 21, Step Inn Jul 22 CLARE BOWDITCH: Joe’s Waterhole Jul 22, Old QLD Museum Jul 23 PAUL KELLY, PAUL GRABOWSKY: Brisbane Riverstage Jul 23 THOUSAND NEEDLES IN RED, FLOATING ME: The Hi-Fi Jul 23 CATHERINE TRAICOS: The Hi-Fi Jul 24 DAMIEN LEITH: Jupiters GC Jul 29 JAMES BLUNDELL, CATHERINE BRITT: Coolum Hotel Jul 29, Hinterland Hotel Jul 30, Jimboomba Tavern Jul 31 JORDIE LANE: Beetle Bar Aug 4, Joe’s Waterhole Aug 5, Mullum Civic Hall Aug 6 MAT MCHUGH: Byron Bay Theatre Aug 11, SoundLounge Aug 12, Old Museum Aug 13, Coolum Theatre Aug 14 CALLING ALL CARS: Byron Bay Beach Hotel Aug 18, Tempo Hotel Aug 19, Coolangatta Hotel Aug 20 REGURGITATOR: Great Northern Aug 18, Coolangatta Hotel Aug 19, The Hi-Fi Aug 20, Kings Beach Tavern Aug 21 ASH GRUNWALD: Coolum Civic Ctr Aug 21, Byron Bay Beach Hotel Aug 25, Coolangatta Hotel Aug 26, The Hi-Fi Aug 27 FELIX RIEBL: Byron Bal Community Ctr Aug 24, Old Museum Aug 25 THE VINES: Great Northern Aug 25, The Hi-Fi Aug 26 GURRUMUL: BEC Sep 1 THE CAT EMPIRE: The Zoo Sep 29 & 30, The Tivoli Oct 1 JOHN FARNHAM: QPAC Nov 2 & 4

It has been a long time since Brisbane-via-Europe-viaMelbourne “local” noise act Scul Hazzards splattered a local stage with sonic viscera, and they do not waste any time showing all and sundry that the long stretch between innings has been well utilised. There is a lot of material that harks back to their 2009 Landlord release, yet these are infused with a greater sense of urgency, a barely reined in fervour that is as addictive as it is unnerving. Steven Smith still commands the stage, his David Yow-like barks perfectly weighted with the intricate buzz saws that ﬂy from his amps with wanton fury. Tiﬀany Milne’s bass has never sounded better either – the Step Inn may not always get top marks for its mix, but that bottom-ended bass sound is enough for the admission price tonight alone. Leigh Fischer is all hair, sticks and vitriol, attacking his kit with tightly coiled aggression. At times Scul Hazzards have struggled to harness the energy inherent in their collective being – but tonight it is controlled power, and all the better for it. Welcome back guys to the upper echelons of noise.

LAUNCH IT!: Sufers Paradise Festival Jun 18 RED DEER FESTIVAL: Mt Samson Jun 18 LIQUID ARCHITECTURE 12: Brisbane Powerhouse Jul 1 FLAVOURS OF SKUZZ: Jubilee Hotel Jul 9 QUEENSLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL: Multiple Venues Jul 15 – 31 QUEENSLAND FESTIVAL OF BLUES: Hamilton Hotel Jul 22 – 24 SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS: Woodfordia Jul 29 – 31 GREAZEFEST KUSTOM KULTURE FESTIVAL: Rocklea Showground Bar Jul 5 – 7 BASTARD FEST: Jubilee Hotel Sep 3 REGGAEFEST: Missingham Park Sep 17 – 18 THE GATHERING FESTIVAL: Old Museum Sep 17 SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION: RNA Showgrounds Sep 24

MARK BERESFORD

SCUL HAZZARDS, NO ANCHOR, TURNPIKE, MARTYR PRIVATES STEP INN: 10.06.11

Martyr Privates are new to the Brisbane music scene, the only thing known about them being that I Heart Hiroshima’s Cameron Hawes is a member. The three-piece dish out a short, ﬁve song set that steeps their sound in buzz-drenched garage blues, displaying a little BRMC, a little Cramps, a little MBV, a little disaﬀection and a lot of potential. They are playing a few local supports in the next few weeks – be sure to check them out.

PAJAMA CLUB, GLASS TOWERS THE ZOO: 12.06.11

There can’t be too many bands on the planet who can head out on a tour of some of Australia’s most renowned mid-sized rock venues before they’ve released an album. But where Neil Finn goes, people will flock, and tonight we see precisely why. First up Byron Bay’s Glass Towers give their all with an incredibly slick show. It’s pop most modern, which, of course, means it owes a fair amount to pop of the 80s. Their songs are occasionally atmospheric, occasionally jaunty and tonight all played with utmost precision. They’re a young band and tonight’s is an old crowd, but it’s all inoffensive enough for there to be some kind of mutual respect shown. A killer soundtrack of some of pop music’s most freaky moments finally fades out as Neil Finn, his wife Sharon, multi-instrumentalist Sean Donnelly and drummer Alana Skyring stroll unassumingly onstage – our first sight of new outfit Pajama Club. A stagnant, rock solid bass line propels their opening track with a kind of spooky groove, before These Are Conditions takes us back into far more familiar Finn territory. It sounds genuinely like mid- to late-80s Crowded House, probably more so than anything Neil has done in years. The only Pajama Club song we have actually heard, the great rolling motorik number From A Friend To A Friend falls in on itself halfway through. The band stop, Finn stating staring towards his monitors unhappily before quipping, “We’ve got some major shit going on up here. I think we have the right to stop when we have some major shit going on”. It doesn’t matter, the band strike up once the problem’s amended and we’re more than happy to hear it all over again. Diamonds In Your Eyes skips along jollily, before TNT For Two sees Finn really hit the massive notes he still pulls off so impressively. The relative familiarity of Suff er Never from 1995’s Finn album elicits a cheer from the faithful, probably even more so than the great, slamming cover of Gary Numan’s Are Friends Electric that it runs into.

The solid backbone of Skyring and Sharon Finn is evident on The Games We Like To Play, allowing for the gents to layer some crazy sounds over the top, while Golden Child is simply gorgeous and shows the fantastic vocal connection between both Finns. The set storms home with the ecstatic singalong of Daylight, a sultry groover featuring Finn on drums and the fantastic Little By Little, lifted from the last 7 Worlds Collide album. “We could have joined the golf club or played bridge,” Finn quips midway through tonight’s set. “But we decided to make some noise”. And there are a couple of hundred people here tonight who are incredibly glad they did. BARRY KOBARMA

NO QUARTER, THE SECRET SILENCE, ALIBRANDI, MOFOISDEAD THE ZOO: 10.06.11

The usually busy sidewalk in front of The Zoo stairs is bare tonight as the cold forces everyone upstairs early, and as a result they get the happy byproduct of enjoying the already blistering sounds of MofoIsDead. The Gold Coast three-piece are stoking the ﬂames with explosive riﬀ s over the thumping gallop of a perfectly weaved rhythm section. Guitarist and vocalist Paul Galagher has developed an intense stage presence that is met by the power of his vocal range as they rip through The Pretty Ones and a colossal take on The Unnameable to show they don’t need a full house to make an impact. A quick follow-up brings on Alibrandi with the impressive duo of David Williams and Lachlan Day holding a strong guitar line while vocalist Nathaniel McManus tries desperately to get through the vocal duties of If You Play Now You Pay Later, but the frustration is evident in his face as notes break from a current throat illness. With an inspiring display of grit they push on to Even Lions May Fall and save face in a hard situation. Bringing in some Drop D glory, The Secret Silence emerge hard and fast with new tracks that insight

TOUR GUIDE

Th is could very well be the only time Brisbane’s – nay, Australia’s – best noise rock band Turnpike takes to the stage in 2011, and they produce a typically blinding set. Seriously, do these guys spend their time in cryogenic chambers? They sound just as angular, shambolic and joyously destructive as the ﬁrst time this scribe saw them at 4ZZZ Market Day back in 2001. Opening with an instrumental and stretching their ﬁnal two tracks so as to complete their set on time, the band are furiously on form – Tim kills the bass whilst jerking around like a stop-motion skeleton, Adam’s frenetic fretwork and feverish howls obliterate and Chris sweats blood and pierces skin. Th is support slot is not enough to get through the year – someone convince them to get out of their cave and back on stage, pronto!

FESTIVALS

BRENDAN TELFORD

SIX PACK Q MUSIC IS A NOT FOR PROFIT ORGANISATION SUPPORTING QUEENSLAND MUSIC, MUSICIANS AND INDUSTRY WORKERS. THIS COLUMN WILL PRESENT YOU WITH INFORMATION ON GRANT AND EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES, CONFERENCES AND THE GENERAL LOW-DOWN ON THE STATE’S MUSIC INDUSTRY.

OPPORTUNITY TO PERFORM AND TOUR IN CHINA Planetary, Split Works and Sonicbids are oﬀering an opportunity for artists to perform and tour in China in September 2011. One act will receive an all expenses tour to China, including airfare, hotel, meals, and a performance slot at the Black Rabbit Music Festival in Shanghai and Beijing. All logistics are taken care of but you must be over 18 years of age to participate. Visit the Q Music website for more information.

RECORDING OPPORTUNITY WITH ‘LIVE @ THE TRAIN STATION’ Beau FM and Scenic Music are seeking expressions of interest from musicians and bands to perform and be recorded live for the “Live @ The Train Station” project, July to November 2011. Performances will be mixed and mastered in house for airplay on Beau FM. As well, selected songs will be made available to other community radio stations through AMRAP’s digital download service “Air It”. All genres of music are encouraged to apply. Applications for Live @ The Train Station will close Thursday Jul 22. For more information and application forms please email john_beaufm@yahoo.com.au

EMPTY ROOMS? NOT LIKELY There’s no buzz in Brisbane more intense than that surrounding young local singer-songwriter emma louise and we are very excited to announce that she is now doing a full blown launch tour for her debut EP Full Hearts & Empty Rooms, which has already seen her achieve a huge degree of success since its informal launch last month. Hot on the heels of a very successful tour alongside Boy & Bear, emma louise will be headlining intimate shows in and around the southeast, kicking oﬀ with a free show at Byron Bay’s The Tree House on Friday Jul 1, before hitting the Arts Centre Gold Coast’s The Basement on Thursday Jul 7 (tickets $12.50 on the door) and the Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse on Saturday Jul 9 (tickets $15 from the venue’s box oﬃce). You will not want to miss this beguiling performer playing such intimate rooms, because if the hype can be believed, she won’t be playing them for much longer.

UNIQUE MELODY

Mountain Static is the brainchild of Melbourne musician Simon Gibbs, formerly of Tic Toc Tokyo, born from the desire to create music that speaks to the heart and not the head. Gibbs embraces the instrumental and melodic on debut album Research and to celebrate will be touring this month playing shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Th is will be Mountain Static’s ﬁrst ever Brisbane show and promises to be a one-of-a-kind performance, so don’t miss out. Mountain Static play the Beetle Bar, along with Ghost Notes and McKisko, on Saturday Jun 18.

Realise Your Dream nurtures Australia’s best emerging creatives with a professional development programme in the UK. Five lucky people will be awarded $8000, a return flight to Britain and a chance to connect with UK creative leaders. Applications are open to people of any age, from any creative field and living anywhere in Australia. You just need to be in your first ten years of creative practice and tell us how you’ll benefit from the chance to connect with Britain’s best. Visit www.realiseyourdream. org.au to apply and find out more. Entries close Friday Jul 4.

THE PRODUCERS CLUB AT THE EDGE The Producers Club are workshops that are about learning and appreciating musical creation. Open to producers, musicians, audio engineers of all skill levels and experience The Producers Club will be held at The Edge on Wednesday Jun 15 and Thursday Jun 30 (5.307.30pm) and are free. Email book.it@edgeqld. org.au to book in.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? For these stories and more, go to www.qmusic.com.au.

WANT TO BECOME A Q MUSIC MEMBER? For membership details and application forms, go to www.qmusic.com.au.

EVER EVE

HOO HAA

INSPIRED BY 90S GRUNGE, LOCAL TRIO STOHR, MALICE AND WADE ARE RELAUNCHING THEMSELVES AS EVER EVE. TONY MCMAHON CATCHES UP WITH VOCALIST AND BASSIST BRIAN MALICE FOR THE LOWDOWN ON A BAND TRYING ADMIRABLY TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

LOCAL FIVEPIECE HOO HAA ARE PUTTING THE SEX BACK INTO MUSIC. IN FACT, THOMAS E DOONEY, VOCALIST, BAND LEADER AND BATON TWIRLER, TELLS TONY MCMAHON THAT ROCK’N’ROLL WAS ORIGINALLY A EUPHEMISM FOR BONKING.

Interestingly, Malice says that the inspiration for Ever Eve came from the band themselves being disillusioned punters. “We write honestly and angry, and play loudly, and that’s what we want to see when we go out. We were so sick of sterile ‘safe’ artists that didn’t oﬀer the intensity we were after as punters, so we thought we’d write the kind of music we love and would want to see live.” And where did the fascination with the 90s come from? Malice says it’s about, well, malice. “One of the craziest times in music was the 90s because artists had that real stand up and shout, break all barriers, angst-driven approach to songwriting and performing. They had plenty to say and scream about. We all connect with that decade in music and are inspired by what came out of it. We’re young, pissed oﬀ and have a lot to say. This is our way of letting you know.” Are there groups around at the moment that have a similar combination of angst, passion and exhilaration? Only one springs to mind for Malice. “I hope there’s artists out there not holding back or following certain trends. It’s what music needs again. Not being afraid to scream it like you mean it, get rowdy, bring back passionate hectic performances. Everything seems to sound so similar, look so choreographed these days. One band we love from Brisbane is Violent Soho. Recently bought their album and saw them live and they just blew us away. I hope there’s a lot more bands out there with the same ‘punch in the mouth’ sound and attitude.”

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR REALISE YOUR DREAM AWARDS

DANCING IN THE GRASS You already know how fucking rad the Splendour In The Grass line-up is, but for those of you who are more dance music inclined, the announcement of acts playing the Tipi Forest is probably of just as much interest to you as the main program. If it’s not then it should be because the organisers have put together a pretty damn awesome array of dance acts, producers and DJs to keep you on the danceﬂoor all weekend. Alice Space Doll, Blunt Instrument, pictured, Captain Kaine, Creten, Cutloose, Daniel Webber, Danny T, Dakini, Dee Dee, Deegs, Goosebumpz, Landsoaken, Moista Cloista, MSG, N-Zed, Operon, Si Clone, Slinky, Soundwave, Sun In Aquarius, Uberhammer and Zenna have all been given the nod, so make sure you pay them a visit when you’re at Woodfordia from Friday Jul 29 to Sunday Jul 31. Tickets are still available through Moshtix, though all camping has sold out.

SIX PACK

Given all this, what’s an Ever Eve live show like? Reasonably exciting, Time Oﬀ would venture, but Malice goes even further. “Like taking your substance of choice, drinking a lot of beer and losing self control.”

“Sex is a part of life, a pretty big part if you think about it. Music is stories about life, so you know at times we all like to get a bit sexy. Sexual dynamics and sexual politics, it’s an endless muse really. The diversity of the subject provides much inspiration. The difference can be seen in [Hoo Haa] songs like Blue Eye Stare, Sugar Daddy and She Wears The Pants.” How did Hoo Haa come by their formula of rock, soul and reggae to arrive at their sound? And how do they know how much to use at any one time? According to Dooney, it’s a horses for courses thing, a little like cooking perhaps, adding the right ingredient at the right time. “Not so much a conscious formula as kind of, just how it turned out. Our vibe is a mixture of many influences. We are about creating original music. Songs have a life of their own; you just got to give it what it needs. Sometimes a little rock and sometimes a little roll.” Hoo Haa shows have the reputation of being more like parties than gigs, and Dooney says that this is very much philosophical position on the part of the band. Apparently, it’s also got something to do with cars. “Hoo Haa is a hot rod, a five seater pleasure machine. Not built to be thrashed around the ‘burbs every other night, but for coast to coast cruises. It’s all about a good time, definitely a philosophical position. At The Joynt we’re playing with Thatchworkcity a high-energy band with a strong following, and DJ No MC who has been spinning dance floor tracks in Brisbane for years. With this mix of entertainment and the vibe of the venue it is sure to get loose.”

WHO: Ever Eve

WHO: Hoo Haa

WHERE & WHEN: Jubilee Hotel Saturday Jun 18

WHERE & WHEN: The Joynt Saturday Jun 18

WOLVES AT THE DOOR

If you’re heading out to see kiwi indie masters Cut Oﬀ Your Hands at Lambda on Thursday night then you might want to think about getting there nice and early. Not only will it ensure you a decent spot to see them in action, it will also give you the opportunity to catch hot Brisbane act Wherewolves in one of their all too rare awesome live performances. The band have started playing shows again in 2011 after dedicating the majority of their 2010 to kicking out the jams in the studio, changing their musical direction and capturing their debut album. Doors open at 8pm and entry is just ten bucks or a ﬁver if you’re a student.

SLIPPERY SWIMMERS

As always, there’s plenty of awesome shit happening at Gold Coast party palace Elsewhere and this week sees three-piece garage kids Dolphins ﬁnally launch their debut EP Happy Being Slippery. The band’s brand of super hip rollicking garage pop lends itself to super energetic live performances so we reckon this will be a pretty special one, particularly seeing as they have enlisted like-minded Brisbane dudes Dune Rats to play support and when the band’s aren’t making a hell of a racket, you’ll have Audun and Private Velodrome making sure the dance ﬂoor is never empty. It happens this Saturday night from 10pm and entry will cost you a cool ten bucks.

CoopersTV is a dedicated YouTube channel featuring all the great stuff Coopers are into. Things like music, food, grassroots sport and of course, beer. Check out Rock ‘n’ Roll BBQ with comedian Matthew Hardy, The Australian Music Prize (AMP), RocKwiz Road Stories with Brian Nankervis, plus much more. All exclusive to CoopersTV.

cooperstv.com.au

kwp!CPR11118

We’ve brewed a TV channel.

Hardcore and punk with Sarah Petchell. Email punk news to wakethedead@timeoff.com.au Smoke Or Fire

Not sure how well this fits in with a punk/ hardcore column, but I figure that there is enough crossover that will warrant this particular tour announcement’s inclusion here. This September (which is shaping up to be an amazing month for tours) will see Suicide Silence returning to the country for the first time since last year’s No Sleep Til Festival. The band are set to continue the buzz surrounding them with the release of their third album The Black Crown. Brisbane, you can catch Suicide Silence on Friday Sep 9 at The Tivoli, with tickets on sale this Friday Jun 27. Back in April, Pour Habit released their new album Got Your Back, and around the same time they also announced their intentions to return to Australia at some stage this year. Well never fear, fans of Pour Habit and excellent punk alike, because the guys kept good to their intentions and October will see them embark on a nine show, whirlwind jaunt around the countryside with fellow Fat Wreck Chords label mates, Smoke Or Fire. Tickets went on sale yesterday (Tuesday), there is plenty of time before the tour commences to check out both the aforementioned Pour Habit release and Smoke Or Fire’s new one, The Speakeasy. You can catch the tour on Saturday Oct 8 for a show at Miami Shark Bar on the Gold Coast; and then in Brisbane at the Step Inn on Sunday Oct 9. All shows are 18+ and tickets will be available through Moshtix. Never was there a hardcore super group than the likes of S.O.S.. I mean, you throw in Scott Vogel and Nick Jett from Terror, Matt Henderson who is formerly of Agnostic Front and Madball, Sam

Trapkin of Trapped Under Ice, and Chris Beattie from Hatebreed, and you get this explosive mix of hard riffing hardcore with a definite New York sound. The band have unveiled a track from their forthcoming EP, I Owe You Nothing, which is to be released through Good Fight/RIOT! on Jun 21. From what I hear, the EP will definitely appeal to fans of any of the projects the members are already involved in. It was recorded in the midst of a New York winter, at the helm of the production was Dean Baltulonis (whose resume includes the likes of Agnostic Front, Madball and Miles Away’s new one, Endless Roads). You can check out a track from the EP titled Part Of The Disease at stereokiller.com/SOS and stay tuned for more info about the EP. The time has finally arrived! I Exist’s follow up to last year’s amazing I: A Turn For The Worse, hit stores this Friday Jun 17. Two tracks from II: The Broken Passage are ready to assault your ears on the band’s Facebook page, so check the tracks out and make sure that you pick up the album, because I am sure that it is most definitely going to make a number of Top 10 Albums of 2011 lists. I’ve already mentioned previously that you can catch these guys on tour with the amazing Doomriders this July. Dead Souls Records have announced that pre-orders for the new Iron Mind record are now available through their webstore (deadsoulsrecords.com). To be shipped in midJuly, the vinyl version of this ten-track record is extremely limited to 100 copies for the pre-order. Called Hell Split Wide Open, this is the first full-length from this Melbourne hardcore outfit, who have been turning heads with their brand of heavy hardcore. There are a few pre-order packages available, so head on over to Dead Souls Records now and place your orders, and they are extremely limited. Finally, do not forget that the Cruel Hand and Phantoms tour commences this week. You can catch the tour on Thursday Jun 16 at Boys & Girls nightclub in Brisbane for an 18+ show and then on Friday Jun 17 at Sun Distortion Studios for an all ages show.

US metallic hardcore group Cruel Hand trample Brisbane for the ﬁrst time this week. The band, who is on tour with Sydney group rap-metal group Phantoms, will play at Boys & Girls on Thursday night with Third Strike, and at Sun Distortion Studios on Friday night with Marathon, Thick Skin and Milestones. Tickets are $20 at the door.

shows. With former members of the group going on to join such groups as Machine Head, Exodus, Slayer and Death, the current line-up features members of Vio-lence and Nevermore. While never as popular as their peers, they play a technical and original mix of styles that is apparently just as worthy. You can catch them upstairs at the Jubilee Hotel on Aug 4.

‘Environmental nu-thrash band’ F.U.C.! will launch their debut EP at Monstrothic this Friday night. They’ll be joined by Bonesaw, Fear The Setting Sun, Duramata and Prophets Of War. Entry is $10 from 8pm. Don’t forget Monstrothic has moved to the Jubilee Hotel!

The third and final announcement for Bastardfest at the Jubilee Hotel on Saturday Sep 3 has been made official. Extortion, D.usk, The Dead, Ironhide, Synthetic Breed, Happy Camper and Through Plagues will join the previously announced Psycroptic, Blood Duster, The Dreamkillers, The Kill, Pod People, Claim The Throne, I Exist, Shellfin, Dead Letter Opener, Jack Flash, The Ovaries, The Last Outlaw and Magnertron. Tickets are on sale now for around $30.

The Fevered will play their first show with new vocalist Anthony Oliver (formerly of From These Wounds) this Saturday at Fat Louies with The Quickening, Nectar and Mr Painful Memory. It’s free with bands from around 8pm. Adelaide’s dark hardcore workhorse Night Hag will be hitting the east coast Jul 15-23 in support of their debut full length. Gilded Age was recorded by Jimmy Balderston at Capitalsound Studios, Mastered by Carl Saff (Coliseum, Young Widows) and will be released nationally on Capitalgames records in July. You can catch the band at the Step Inn on Jul 15 with No Anchor, Marathon and Exploder, and again at Sun Distortion Studios on Jul 17 with Shock Value, Acid Snake and Open Sea. Post-Meshuggah American band Periphery have announced a return journey to Australia, this time headlining three of their own shows with support from fellow UK ‘djentlemen’ Tesseract. They’ll play at The Zoo on Jul 29, with tickets going on sale on June 17. Old school Bay Area thrash band Forbidden is hitting up Australia for the first time for six

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

The Greazefest Kustom Kulture Festival is almost upon us and with the line-up the organisers have put together this year they have once again ensured that Brisbane will be a vital destination for any fans of rockabilly music and culture this August. The event will again be held over three massive days at its new home out in Rocklea and will feature not only the ﬁnest in rockabilly music but also cars, art, tattoos, fashion, markets and more. On Friday Aug 5 you will be able to catch Tennessee’s Jason Lee Wilson, Melburnian Western Swing purveyors The Starliners, locals Miss Teresa & Her Rhythmaires and Perth’s The Blazin’ Entrails. Saturday Aug 6’s event will feature American rockabilly forefather James Intveld alongside Detonators frontman Paulie Bignell & The Thornbury Two, Scotty Baker and West Texas Crude. On Sunday Aug 7 you’ll catch music from The ReChords, The Flattrakkers, Pat Capocci Combo, The Creepers, Pia Anderson, The Vampers, The Sugarshakers, Red Crown Radio, The Ten Fours, Paulie & His Crazy Rhythm Boys and The Knights of Sin. It all happens at the Rocklea Showgrounds and you can get heaps more information at greazefest.com. It seems as if one great blues festival ends and another starts right up again. Last week saw the ﬁrst line-up announcement for this year’s Great Southern Blues Festival drop and it once again shows the organisers’ penchant for programming bills that are diverse and somewhat left of centre. It’s fair to say that the festival copped a fair amount of criticism after the 2010 event; complaints about sound and general audience vibe weren’t helped by the fact that the crowd numbers left quite a bit to be desired. Such is the

nature of such boutique festivals though and it’s exciting that the organisers have not only stuck to their guns in continuing the festival in its new Batemans Bay location, but have decided to make some changes to make things more comfortable to the punter. There will be just two stages this year, which I think is a great idea (though recent conversations have led me to believe I am in the minority there) and there has apparently been a fair bit of re-arranging of the site. Most important is the acts who will be appearing; the first announcement includes only five acts, but they are all of supreme quality; Kasey Chambers is the headliner with locals Backsliders, Jeff Lang and Blue King Brown the big Aussie acts and the fantastic Kenny Neal from the USA the sole international act announced thus far. There’s heaps more to come so keep your eyes on this column; the festival happens at Mackay Park in Batemans Bay from Friday Sep 30 through to Sunday Oct 2. You can get tickets now from bluesfestival.tv for around $185 if you’re quick, that price goes up to $200 real soon though. I don’t know why, but I’ve never been able to get into Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. It’s bizarre because they have just about everything that gets me off on a blues/roots act; youthful vigour, a genuine appreciation of the old world, vintage instrumentation and recording techniques, but I think it has all felt a little contrived to me. Their eponymous record from a couple of years back was okay, but left me feeling a little flat and their live show did nothing for me earlier this year. But they’ve just released their latest record Smoking In Heaven and I can see myself coming around to their charms very soon. I think the important element this record has that the last one didn’t is a certain element of swagger, a sexiness – trust me, I use that for want of a better term – that was missing from the last record. Everything here hangs a little looser, swings a little more relaxed and just sounds more mature, more accomplished and like so much more fun. I’m happy to recommend it and I hope that it will finally solidify the relationship I feel should have always existed between this band and myself!

Pop culture therapy with Adam Curley

Metal with Lochlan Watt

The Devolved Technologies band will bring their national tour with Widow The Sea to a close this Saturday at the Step Inn with Abraxis and The Schoenberg Automaton. Tickets will be $15 on the door and it starts at 8pm.

Blues ‘n’ roots with Dan Condon rootsdown@timeoff.com.au

In other Bastardfest-related news, the epic US metallic hardcore band Ringworm has been announced to play the Melbourne installment of the festival, of which Mindsnare is also scheduled to perform at. Given that said two bands toured the country together back in 2005 and the recent rumours of a split 7”, here’s to hoping that a national tour is soon announced.

Cambodia

It was a 30-hour ferry ride across the Adriatic Sea from Venice to the port of Patra in Greece. I was 19 and working on the kind of budget forged from endless hours of bartending and an ever increasing desire to keep going, which is to say, I’d been travelling for months and could only aﬀord the 100-euro ticket that left me sleeping out on the steel deck of the ship. Luckily, I’d also bought a camping mat for when I ﬁnally made it to the islands, so I found a cosy spot between two upturned lifeboats and rolled it out, then lay there as the sun went down and the other thrifty journeyers drank wine from bottles and spoke to each other in their languages around me.

Local death metal lords Defamer will begin recording their second album next week.

It wasn’t long before the clouds broke and the thin shelter provided by the lifeboats wasn’t going to be enough to save me from freezing to death, so I rolled up my mat and snuck inside, following the cabin hallways to a tiny laundry room that had been mostly overtaken by a giant pile of dirty sheets, which – after a quick weighing of my options – became my bed for the night. It was then that I really heard David Bowie’s Hunky Dory for the ﬁrst time. Not just listened to it but heard it – Bowie’s search for a place to belong in the world mirroring my own search, his transitioning from an oddity into Stardust mirroring my own dreamed-up transition from suburban nothing to… well, who knew? Hey, I was 19 – my thoughts were allowed to (or could only) make grand, romantic gestures.

The Poisoners have a new song up at reverbnation.com/thepoisoners. The local lads recommend it to fans of “d-beat, screamo, Ministry, Converge, and Today Is The Day”.

And then I was 25 and listening to the tumble of words I didn’t understand bellowing over the train station in Trebon in the south of the Czech Republic, a place of which only those with a

Suicide Silence is coming back to support their third album The Black Crown. Catch the brutal deathcore poster boys at The Tivoli on Sep 9. British doom pioneers Cathedral, having already announced that 2011 will be their last year of playing live shows, have added Australia to the list of final places they plan to hit before they hang up the guitars with one final show in their hometown on Dec 3. The band promises a final album early next year as their epitaph.

curiosity for carp farming need make note. I had some time on my hands, though with my bag on my back and the sun going down, not too long before the confusion over which train to catch would become a question of where I’d be spending the night. With five rail lines and no platforms, it was a game of guess and see, and so I did, waking to the sight of the sun rising over the flat green bohemia, and that’s when Cass McCombs’ Dropping The Writ came to life, the lilting guitar of the song Morning Shadows and the words I’d heard before but never really heard – “A pane of glass fogged by breath from nostrils/Keeping me at bay from a world less hostile.” There’s something about travelling that does that to you. Makes you hear. Maybe wandering off to where you don’t understand what’s being said, where there aren’t any distractions, is the only way you can really listen to the words of other people who work long and go deep for their messages, and maybe not having any idea what you’re doing and surrendering yourself to the tides of whatever it might be is the only time you can listen to yourself. Maybe it’s all nonsense and you listen when you choose to listen, or when you need to the most. As I write this I’m looking at an empty bag that refuses to pack itself and a library of CDs, new and old, most of which I haven’t ever bothered to load onto my iTunes. I can’t decide which to load up, what I’ll want to listen to, because, really, I know that it doesn’t matter what I think now. It’s all going to be a stab in the dark. Tomorrow I’m going to Cambodia for five weeks. I don’t really know what I’m going to do when I get there, to be honest, but that’s kind of the point. I’m diving into the big blue nowhere, as my uncle used to say whenever talk turned to travel, which means, too, that I’m taking a month’s leave from The Breakdown, my first since starting this as a weekly column three years ago. Hopefully I’ll come back with some new ideas borne from having no idea. Hopefully I’ll get lost and hear things I’ve never heard before. All I know is that I’m willing to listen.

OGFLAVAS

SUBDETRITUS

with Cyclone

Lady GaGa, aka Stefani Germanotta, may never have been formally classified as an ‘urban’ act, but she’s certainly left her mark on the scene. Akon was early to recognise the New Yorker’s talent, scooping her up for Kon Live. Since 2008’s hit debut, The Fame, KiD CuDi has collaborated with her (fun when you think that Germanotta’s other celebrity fans include Stephen Fry). But her influence is largely visual, symbolic and, yes, market-driven, not musical. Now Beyonce Knowles, Germanotta’s Telephone duet partner, is amping up her look. Even Nicki Minaj is modelling herself more on Germanotta than Lil’ Kim. She rendered Christina Aguilera obsolete. Still, while this performance artiste did much to bring dance (and disco) beats into urban, to date her overproduced music hasn’t been so unique. But on her latest album, Born This Way, she transcends R&B – and her digital-era pop is all the better for it. Many compare Germanotta to Madonna in the same way 50 Cent is likened to Tupac Shakur – and the perceived similarities between the single Born This Way and Express Yourself have compounded that. Yet Germanotta is more musically literate than Madonna – she plays piano, plus she’s a ‘real’ singer. Alas, in her Warholian machinations, Germanotta has sublimated her musicality. She’s a fashion rather than music icon (mind, her arrival in Hussein Chalayan’s egg – or “vessel” – at the Grammies was genius). Madonna presaged pop culture’s shift from music to image, but in the Twitter age Germanotta must constantly reinvent herself to stay relevant. In a Who album review, Barry Divola suggests “[Germanotta’s] music isn’t nearly as outré as her couture.” Indeed, her pop is closer to Idol than any subculture. Recent albums by Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez aren’t far away from Just Dance. Nevertheless, on Born..., Germanotta finally forges her own sound, creating an ambitious new hybrid. She returns to her roots in heavy (hair!) metal, glam (Queen through to Kiss) and 80s power-rock (Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Bonnie Tyler) and fuses that with her Donna Summer-does-electroclash.

Bass Culture with Brad Swob Marry The Night is Whitney-esque – a diva dervish. Germanotta’s producers are regular popsmiths, not edgy – but it no longer matters. Notably, RedOne is marginalised (he’s been busy doing stuﬀ for J-Lo’s Love?), though he oversees Judas – Bad Romance wit’ attitude. Germanotta has a new studio cohort in Fernando Garibay, who orchestrated Paris Hilton’s Stars Are Blind (oddly, GaGa attended the same posh convent school as Hilton). His Government Hooker (with DJ White Shadow) is rock-opera-meets-Berlin-electro. Yoü And I evokes 80s Heart, sampling Queen (Brian May plays guitar). For this, Germanotta worked with rock dog Robert John Lange. Germanotta’s music hints at the ironic electro cabaret of 80s subversive Claudia Brücken, who led Propaganda, but she ultimately favours retro kitsch to burlesque. However, Germanotta’s lyrics, dealing with themes of liberation, are bolder. Americano is her protest against stringent US immigration law. Like the Italian-American Madonna, Germanotta was raised a Roman Catholic and has the angst to show for it. On Bloody Mary she celebrates Mary Magdalene, the contested 13th disciple. It’s gothic, it’s feminist, it’s heretical and it’s also one song on Born... that isn’t an obvious ‘anthem’. Germanotta challenging the infallibility of pop? Imagine it as excommunication funk. What Germanotta has that Madonna lacks is a latent vulnerability that makes her relatable. Her motivations aren’t those of a material girl. She’s already bankrupted herself once. Germanotta is true blue. So what, then, of Born...? Germanotta remains suﬃciently self-contradictory to fascinate. She’s abundantly ‘meta’ to justify intellectual discourse. And there’s enough controversy here to ensure that every media type has an opinion. Her appeal to the urban contingent? Glamour. “That’s what marries the rock, metal and hip hop communities,” Germanotta told Q last year, “the decadence and the glamour. It’s just that for hip hop it’s cars and for metal it’s women and powder.” Can OG Flavas join your Little Monsters, GaGa?

Electronic music purveyors have long recognised that watching someone on a dark stage twiddling knobs or mixing records isn’t the most thrilling concert-going experience visually. Over the years electronic acts have deployed light shows, lasers and projected visuals to accompany and compliment the music in a live setting. This month in Subdetritus we look at bass music’s dichotomic relationship with live visual stimulus and its relationship with multimedia art at large.

clear, in your face and inescapable. Fast forward to the last few weeks, and Amon Tobin has just kicked oﬀ his latest tour in support of brand new album Isam. The album itself has received mixed reviews as Tobin continues to push his challenging sound manipulations into new and less familiar territory, but in an interesting ﬂip, the live show he has assembled for this record could go down in history as one of the most unique multimedia performances of our time.

From the earliest days of rave culture back in the late-eighties, parties were something of a visual spectacle – ravers dressed in ﬂuorescent colours, warehouse spaces decked-out in UV décor, strobes, lasers and all manner of mind-altering lighting displays. This wasn’t necessarily the blueprint that all electronic music parties followed in subsequent years, particularly bass and sound system culture. Many drum’n’bass and dubstep parties were, and continue to be, very conscious of a certain “hoods up, heads down” mentality towards the music and how it should be enjoyed in a live setting. One of the most famous of the original dubstep parties – Mala, Loefah and Coki’s mighty DMZ night in Brixton – would pride itself on being no more than a dark room with one sparse blue light and the mother of all sound systems. No ﬂashy visuals or strobe lights, just: “Come meditate on bass weight”.

The ﬁrst show of the tour was in Montreal on Jun 1 and is currently being staged in select cities across Europe. Videos have since been uploaded to amontobin.com of the performance and its design, and scores more have surfaced from fans on YouTube. Described in a press release as featuring a “stunning 25’ x 14’ x 8’ multidimensional/shape shifting 3D art installation surrounding Tobin and enveloping him and the audience in a beyond 3D experience”, the footage has to be seen to be believed. The marriage of his dense electronic compositions with such a jaw-dropping visual accompaniment is light years ahead of its time and makes his contemporaries who seek to oﬀset the visual boredom of DJ sets by wearing giant mouse heads look frankly ridiculous. On top of all of this, Tobin teamed up with respected artist Tessa Farmer whose unique visual style based on reconstructions or organic material has been the centerpiece of an art installation that has been on display in galleries in London and Paris to coincide with the launch of the album.

This has been a staple of many bass gigs around the globe: spare no expense on the sound system and the rest should be simple and raw. It’s a cry back to original Jamaican sound systems and a statement that the music itself should be the primary focus. It was an ethos that one-time smoked-out jazzy junglist turned innovative sound artist Amon Tobin employed on his 2007 tour of Europe supporting his album The Foley Room. “Fuck visuals,” he was famously quoted as saying. “We’re sinking every last penny into the sound system!” And from all accounts he wasn’t fronting – the music was loud, bass-heavy, crystal

Flying Lotus is another that has been pushing the visual element harder than most in terms of cover art, live performances, interactive web applications and ﬁlm clips. There are plenty of others in bass music who are embracing other media in an attempt to compliment and enhance the sensory experience of their music, including crews here in Brisbane. The future looks bright and ﬂashy in the murky world of bass.

SIX PACK ABBY SKYE

LAST MINUTE

BRISBANE SONGSTRESS AND COMPOSER ABBY SKYE IS LAUNCHING AN EXTRAORDINARY SERIES OF MULTI PLATFORM SHOWS CALLED TRUE EXPRESSION. A SUPER EXCITED TONY MCMAHON GETS THE LOWDOWN.

IN THE TEN YEARS SINCE THEY FIRST FORMED, LOCAL PUNK ROCK STALWARTS LAST MINUTE HAVE SEEN AND LIVED THROUGH IT ALL, INCLUDING HAVING MEMBERS MOVE INTERSTATE. BUT THAT WON’T STOP THEM FROM COMING OUT GUNS BLAZING AT THIS YEAR’S RED DEER FESTIVAL, AS MATT JACOBSON TELLS MITCH KNOX.

“The idea behind True Expression is to explore artistically and expand through what is considered the norm, in this case, the platform is performance art. The series comprises six completely unique shows where we play original and interpreted music in a new genre, lineup and theme each week. It’s quite theatrical by design and all new sets are designed and backdrops hand-painted each week. There’s an amazing team of people making it all happen who have all come together through a shared passion for music, so it has evolved very beautifully and organically as a concept.” Talking of True Expression evolving organically, Skye says that the impetus for the project came from an actual venue. “I’ve always written and performed in various styles and all my projects tend to be a bit multifaceted, so when Bruce at O’Malleys asked me to put together a concert series for the venue, it seemed only obvious how it should be structured. Plus it provided the perfect platform for me to finally showcase my catalogue of songs, which until this opportunity came along had been difficult to conceive.” So, how did Skye design the show to actually suit the venue? It seems it was a combination of hard work and holding herself back. “We just worked out what our constraints were, what things we could work with to maximise effect for minimal outlay and of course, all the input, requests and direction from the venue management. After that, loads of time on the thinking rug with lots of paper and colour pencils! After that, many late nights of painting, sewing, rehearsing, meetings, workshopping, arranging, designing, etc.” When it comes to the musicians she’ll be working with, Skye is full of nothing but praise. “Every musician and crew member in True Expression is someone who fate has introduced me to, that I’ve worked together with on past projects and has been chosen based on their phenomenal gifts in their respective fields.”

HYH

SIX PACK

“Obviously with the long distance between us it is difficult to get together regularly, so we try to make each gig memorable for us and our legion of loyal followers,” Jacobson explains of Last Minute’s sporadic ability to perform. “We thought there was no better way to kick off the year than with an outdoor festival in lovely Samford, on the farm site of an old friend, amidst the prancing red deer and 600 of our nearest and dearest, new best friends. It’s a camping, BYO festival in its infancy… Who wouldn’t want to be involved in the party of the year?” Although – playing a show isn’t all that happens when the band members have their brief reunions; no, says Jacobson, there is much more at stake, though the necessary gig is up there. “Settling old scores… finishing unfinished chess games… watching everyone slap Fanny Packer, our bassist (this is something one must see to understand)… discussing world events… but more importantly the chance to play together is what we all really look forward to the most – catching up and having a few beverages is alright too!” Of course, the performers shouldn’t be the sole festival-scene beneficiaries – there’s supposed to be something in it for the audience, and though Last Minute aren’t planning on disappearing for long, they’re bringing everything they’ve got. “Everyone should expect to be on their feet, because what we deliver can only be digested standing up, bouncing around and with one raised fist pounding back and forth in the air,” Jacobson crows. “Punters should prepare for a wave of heart-pounding grooves and sonic, death defying melodies that will sweep them away in ecstasy. “Bring your dancing shoes, peeps – this is gonna be an ol’ fashioned hoedown!”

WHO: Abby Skye

WHO: Last Minute

WHERE & WHEN: O’Malleys Irish Pub, Thursdays Jun 16 – Jul 7

WHERE & WHEN: Red Deer Festival, Samford Sunday Jun 26

HAVE YOU HEARD?

QUEENSLAND GOES BLUE The Queensland Festival Of Blues is back again for 2011 and this year sees it expand to a massive degree. The event will be held at the Hamilton Hotel over three nights, with what one would have to say is the best line-up the organisers have assembled thus far. Friday Jul 22 will be the awards night and features performances from The Walters and guests. The festival proper happens on Saturday Jul 23, and you’ll be treated to performances from The Mighty Reapers, pictured, Psycho Zydeco, All Star Rhythm and Blues Revue feat: Mojo Webb, Sweet Felicia & Mark Gibbons, The Blackwater Fever, Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, Mexico City, Morningside Fats, Diamond Dog & Mark D, Mike Frost and the Ice Men. It all wraps up on Sunday Jul 24 with Colonel Mark D’s 3rd Annual Blues Harmonica Blowout, this year featuring ‘Continental’ Robert Susz, Blind Lemon, Jamie Symons, ‘Colonel’ Mark Doherty and many more still to be announced. Tickets for the entire shebang are currently available from Ticketmaster for $30 + bf and you should deﬁnitely get amongst that because it’s gonna set you back $10 for Friday, $40 for Saturday and $30 for Sunday if you wait and grab your tickets on the door.

WHALE OF A TIME

If you’re looking for something to do tonight and this cold weather is getting you down, then why not embrace a bit of surf rock and dream of gorgeous summers and endless rolling barrels. Local band the Narwhals haven’t played their psyched out brand of surf music on a local stage since the release of their debut 7” record so we’re sure they are just gagging to get back onto a live stage to bring their heavy vibe to Ric’s Bar tonight from around 8pm. They will be joined by local group Puke Party, who are playing only their second show in their current incarnation, and entry is free. We get the feeling things might be a little busy, so get there early.

JUST THE TICKET

Helical Sun play Crown Hotel, Lutwyche on Sunday Jun 19 (2pm) How did you get together? Heli Puhakka (vocals/guitar): “I met Cal in the 90s when I used to play in an all girl grunge band called Gravelrash, and Cal was playing in Acid World. We re-met mid last year at The Zoo BUMS gig and started playing gigs as a duo, then the magnificent TJ joined us on drums early this year.” Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Psychedelic, gothic dream rock.” If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Definitely Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds! Nick Cave writes the best lyrics...” You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “Hmmm that’s a tricky one, as there’s so many that I would want to take with me, I would have to say Portishead’s Dummy album.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “When Gravelrash supported Courtney Love’s band Hole during their first Australian tour in the 90s...” Why should people come and see your band? “Come and see us play as I feel that we’ve created our own unique style of goth dream surf rock...”

The psychedelic grunge rock of Spaceticket will be hitting Brisbane for the ﬁrst time next weekend and we can’t wait to see whether the band live up to the reputation they have earned for their highly energetic live shows that apparently showcase their super catchy tunes perfectly. The band are playing a couple of awesome shows while they’re up here – they get the party happening at Alhambra’s debauched Lambda night on Thursday Jun 23 (with Dolphins) before they head out to the other side of the CBD to play a show at the Beetle Bar alongside local heroes Babaganouj and Buick Six.

PERSONAL BEST RECORDS

with EVIL EDDIE

Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? Muddy Waters – Hard Again. I used to hear it a lot at parties my parents took me to as a kid but by the time I was in my teens I really thought that blues was the daggiest form of music around so it wasn’t til I was in my 20s that I grew to appreciate this record to the fullest and now I love it. His best work in my opinion. First record you bought? Tone Loc – Loc After Dark. I didn’t technically buy it, I asked my Grandad to buy it for me and he did. Rad. Oﬃcially though my ﬁrst purchase was The Cult – Ceremony. I had a voucher for the CD shop that I got for my birthday, they didn’t have any Red Hot Chili Peppers CDs and I thought the front cover looked cool on The Cult record so I bought it. Record you put on when you’re really miserable? Ministry – In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up (Live). That’s a good anger burner. If it’s not to get the aggression out but to just chill, it’s Ernest

Ranglin – Below The Bassline. Record you put on when you bring someone home? Marc Ribot – The Prosthetic Cubans. Instrumental (mostly) moody jazz/country/Cuban guitar album from the guy that plays on all the best Tom Waits records. Makes me look sophisticated and deep. Most surprising record in your collection? Rodney Dangerﬁeld – Rappin’ Rodney. It’s ridiculous, tacky, hilarious and I bought for 25 cents. I guess it’s not that surprising now that I say it out loud. Last thing you bought/downloaded? Leadbelly – Anthology. Doing some research. It’s good to hear the original version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night? after listening to Nirvana’s cover of it for so long. Evil Eddie plays Step Inn on Friday Jun 17 and Sol Bar, Maroochydore on Saturday Jun 18

HOLIDAY ROAD One of the fresher faces on the Australian hip hop/R&B scene is Gold Coast lad Jes McGarry and he is just about set to drop his brand new record Everyday Is A Holiday and is of course throwing a massive party to celebrate this exciting step in his career. At Shooters Nightclub on Tuesday Jun 28 you will catch McGarry performing a full set of his great new material as well as performances from fellow up-andcomers Danny Fai Fai, Kevin Keepa and Taj McCaskill, making for an awesome night of original music. Doors swing open at 9pm and entry will set you back ten dollars at the door.

HYH HAVE YOU HEARD?

The Dirty F Holes play Beetle Bar on Friday Jun 17 How did you get together? Andrew “Simmo” Simmons (guitar): “We already knew each other through the Brisbane rockabilly scene, then early this year Chuck (vox) proposed we should get together for a jam and try to write some songs. It’s worked out well so far.” Sum up your sound in four words. “Loud, obnoxious and fun.” If you could support any band – past or present – who would it be? “None of us really listen to the same bands. The Cramps would probably go well with our sound.” You’re sent into space and there’s only room for one album – which would it be? “Bone Machine – Tom Waits.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “Probably the usual….playing cool tunes with sweet bands in front of fun crowds and getting paid to do it.”

SIX PACK OH YES IT’S LADIES’ NIGHT You don’t need us to tell you that there are hundreds of amazing women performers in the Brisbane music scene, this ought to be obvious to anyone who ever interacts with original music in and around our beautiful city. The Beetle Bar wants to really celebrate the women of Brisbane music though and are doing so by putting on their Ladybugs showcase every month. The ﬁrst of these is happening at the venue this week and it looks like it will be pretty damn special; a great opportunity to see some of Brisbane best established female artists alongside some great up-and-comers. The ﬁrst show features the talents of Carrie & The Cut Snakes, Kellie Lloyd, pictured, Sabrina Lawrie, Emma White, Mel Fraser and Bity Booker and if you’re a female into music yourself it also provides a fantastic opportunity for you to mingle and make connections with likeminded folk. Also, if you’re an up-andcoming musician, you can contact the bookers at beetlebarbookings@gmail.com.

BOOGIE ON DOWN

A little rock, a little reggae, a hell of a lot of groove and sweet rhythm is all you need to have a good time, so say local group Hoo Haa. We tend to agree with them which is why we have no issues with suggesting you might want to get down to The Joynt in South Brisbane to catch the collective – who at diﬀerent stages of its life has included alumni from Regurgitator, Numbers Radio, Butterﬁngers and Resin Dogs – busting out some highly danceable tunes. They will be joined by the super cool Thatchworkcity and the always awesome DJ No MC from 9pm on Saturday night.

Why should people come and see you? “We’re deﬁnitely a band worth seeing at least twice. Not only are we handsome blokes, but also we put on a darn good show.”

FLYING HIGH Local electronic wonders Pigeon have just come oﬀ a rather successful bunch of shows both at home and a little further south and they are using the momentum that they built through those performances to get back into the studio and smash out their second release. Because of this we wouldn’t be surprised if they were somewhat absent from the live scene for a little while, but they have informed us of one upcoming show which will be taking place at Gold Coast hotspot The Loft. They will hit said venue on Saturday Jun 18, appearing alongside Kennigo, Veryln and Jhonny Russell & The Mystery School. Entry will set you back just ten bucks on the door. Look out for the new release around August.

MOUNTAIN STATIC

THE GINGER WITCHES

FORMER TTT (TIC TOC TOKYO) MEMBER SIMON GIBB HAS SPREAD HIS SOLO WINGS AS MOUNTAIN STATIC. THE ONE-MAN PROJECT, AN OUTLET FOR THE MUSICIAN’S SENSE OF EXPERIMENTATION AND DEVELOPMENT, HAS CULMINATED IN THE RELEASE OF DEBUT FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH. HE TALKS TO MITCH KNOX.

THE GINGER WITCHES MIGHT BE NEW ON THE SCENE, BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF FAMILIAR FACES AMONG THEIR WELL-HEELED LINE-UP. THEY’VE BEEN POPPING UP A FAIR BIT AROUND THE PLACE, TOO – SO MITCH KNOX CHECKS IN WITH GUITARIST TOM FULLOON TO GET UP TO SPEED.

To Gibbs, the reasons for taking up the Mountain Static moniker are simple: “I wanted to make a record which had emphasis on voice and percussion,” he explains. “I had played in a band for ﬁve years and wanted to try something that used less conventional instrumentation.”

“The band joined as I used to work with two of the boys from Villains of Wilhelm,” he explains, although there are actually three ex-Villains among the ranks, between guitarist Dylan Atherton, bassist Liam Keats and drummer Jonny Pickovance (also of Blonde On Blonde). “After going to some shows and getting excited I wrote a few songs. After Villains called it quits we decided to make The Ginger Witches.

The instrumentation, however, was not the only element of the record that could be called unconventional – at least not from Gibbs’ perspective. In fact, he says, many aspects of Research’s creative process were new to him, though not necessarily unpleasant. “At ﬁrst it was strange because I was making all the decisions – as opposed to a band – but it soon became very easy,” he says. There is a thematic wanderlust throughout the album – the meaning of travel and interacting with your environment. Gibbs seems to have drawn inspiration from personal experiences, though he’s reluctant to single any out. “I think lots of things really,” he says of the inﬂuences on Research’s direction. “Places I have visited, landscapes, architecture, the work of artists and musicians. I prefer things to be innate rather than thought out, so having to pinpoint something being an inspiration isn’t easy.”

GREAT AMBITION Th ree incredibly promising emerging Brisbane bands are going to be showcasing what they have to offer with a big show at The Judith Wright Centre on Saturday Jun 25, each of them proving the intensity of their ambition. Nikko, pictured, have been busy working on the follow up to their only recently released debut record The Warm Side and will no doubt have plenty of new songs to show off when they headline this massive local show. Newcomers Screens have made sure they showed the Brisbane music scene their ambitious attitude straight off the bat and it seems to have worked wonders for them thus far, their atmospheric audio visual performances getting some great reviews. Big Dead have been around since 2008 but they come at us now with a refreshed line-up and their debut EP A Very Short Story, though when you see them perform you’ll realise that these guys are best when they’re improvising. The show kicks off at 7pm and you can get tickets from the venue now for $20 + bf.

SIX PACK

Promising “Elizabethan costume and folk dancing” when he graces our city, it will be worth keeping an eye out for future releases from his corner of the country – and Gibbs has plans: “a dub remix album in August followed by new recordings later in the year.”

“With simplistic rhythms and the experience I have behind me we’ve always been able to find a certain momentum and its just been getting easier to jam and be creative.” This melting pot of ideas has resulted in “a collage of heavily 60s-influenced music, from basic blues progressions to punchy garage with a surf pop twist”, says Fulloon – and the local scene has been all too happy to help them tweak their sound. “The Brisbane music scene is great,” Fulloon enthuses. “Whilst keeping a low profile we have played a few shows around the place to build some experience. Now we finally feel we are at a level to start trying to push things a little further.” If you’ve missed them so far, don’t fret – there’s plenty more to come. “We currently are playing some local gigs to try and get a bit more of a Brisbane fanbase,” Fulloon says. “[We’re] looking forward to playing with Los Huevos and the Dirty F Holes at Beetle Bar, and then the Home Festival. We plan on getting through these shows and starting some recordings. We are looking to release an EP by the end of September and then plan on doing an east coast tour.”

WHO: Mountain Static WHAT: Research (Inertia)

WHO: The Ginger Witches

WHERE & WHEN: Hangar The Beetle, Beetle Bar Saturday Jun 18

WHERE & WHEN: Beetle Bar Friday Jun 17, Home Festival, Kangaroo Point Sunday Jun 19

FRESH SOUNDS

All you fans of Gold Coast musician David Aurora must be getting pretty excited with the news that his third record has pretty much been written and will be recorded sometime in the next couple of months. Of course before he hits the studio Aurora wants to give the true fans a chance to hear the material and he’ll be keen to make sure the songs stand up in the live arena, so he’s doing a few ﬁnal shows around the southeast of the state before he knuckles down in the studio. He plays the Music Kafe on Saturday night and The Loft, Gold Coast on Friday Jun 24.

BUILDING TO THIS

Between working on the mines in Karratha and writing new material constantly, local lads Ever Eve have been pretty busy lately. They’re pretty conﬁdent it will all be worthwhile in the end though and they want to prove this to Brisbane audiences when they get out and play a much anticipated show this weekend. Their brand of 90s inﬂuenced grunge and hard rock is packed full of angst, passion and exhilaration; not to mention some very catchy hooks and you can see it all for yourself when they hit the Jubilee Hotel’s Apollo Club this Saturday night with Ghost Audio, Feed and Cassia. Doors open at 8.30pm.

WED 15

Alter Egos Royal Exchange Hotel Bad Manners, Blowhard, Kamikaze Thunderkats Step Inn Cameocast, Moses Gunn Collective, Sugar Mountain Army Club 299 Cruel Hand, Phantoms, Third Strike, Shackles, Facehate YAC Byron Bay Dog and Dry, Esteban Vihaio, Tiger Beams, Blonde On Blonde (DJ Set) X & Y Bar Iretro Elephant & Wheelbarrow Lyrics Born, Dexter, Fdel, DJ Katch (Resin Dogs) The Hi-Fi Mace Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Mick Danby The Tempo Hotel Open Mic: Rules Of A Diagram, Anthony Branagan The Loft Chevron Island Open Mic Night Birdee Num Num Open Mic Night The Music Kafe Rumba Latina’s Brazilian Party Mick O’Malley’s Soula’ Flare Glass Bar & Restaurant The Bowery Hot Five With Mal Wood The Bowery The Middle East, Leader Cheetah, Grand Salvo Old QLD Museum Tyson Faulkner Fiddlers Green

THU 16

Abby Skye Mick O’Malley’s Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio Fusion Villa Noosa Alter Egos Victory Hotel Ballad Boy Loving Hut Boys and Girls: Cruel Hand, Phantoms, Third Strike X & Y Bar Dan England Coolangatta Hotel Dave Ritter Logan Diggers Club Dead Letter Circus, Galaxy The Zoo

I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Satellites The Bowery Jazz Night: The Root Note The Loft Chevron Island Kerbside Collection Glass Bar & Restaurant Kindread Ric’s Lambda: Cut Oﬀ Your Hands, Wherewolves Alhambra Lounge Mark Seymour, Alan Boyle, Bodywire The Tempo Hotel Onyx Step Inn Pascal Schumacher Quartet, Dave Kemp Jazzworx Slide Winder, Sencabah, Love Like Hate, Connor Cleary The Music Kafe Snez Lismore Regional Gallery Spike Hamilton Hotel Stone Chimp, Sons Of The Soil, Hack The Beetle Bar The Febs Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba The Middle East, Leader Cheetah, Grand Salvo Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Woody Elephant & Wheelbarrow

FRI 17

Adrian Keys The International Hotel Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio The Hi-Fi Andrew Baxter’s Blues Extravaganza Burleigh Underground Drummers Andrew Campbell Club Hotel Waterford Blindchase Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Blindchase, Glenn Esmond Transcontinental Hotel Brendal Leggatt, Steamhorse, Cortez And Crow, Marcy Prospects, Bear Pilots, We The Ghosts The Music Kafe Burton, Sunde And Fix Soundlounge Currumbin C4 Benowa Tavern CC The Cat, Marshall & The Fro, Anarchist Duck Great Northern Hotel Byron Bay Cruel Hand, Phantoms, Marathon, Milestones, Thick Skin Sun Distortion Studios

Dan England Brothers Ipswich Daryl Murphy Gazebo Restaurant, Hotel Urban Dos Voce’s Edinburgh Castle Hotel Downlode Hinterland Hotel Duck Duck Goose, Them Jeans Bowler Bar Electrik Lemonade, His Merry Men, Jayden Courts The Loft Chevron Island Evil Eddie Step Inn Face Ache Coolum Beach Hotel Fans: Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders, Little Casinos Alhambra Lounge Finbar Furey, Brendan Grace Qld Irish Assoc Fridays at The Point, Geoﬀ Green With Friends, Lachie Mitchell, Stu Barry The Point Restaurant Fuzzy Polaroid, The Mental Charms Globe Theatre Generation Jones Kedron Park Hotel Jan Lennardz J’z Jazz Crew The Lido Café Restaurant Junkyard Diamonds Basement 243 Kaos Redbank Plains Tavern Kate Herrington, Dead Shades, Bacon, Sangers, Maggie Collins X & Y Bar Locky, Chester Mick O’Malley’s Los Huevos, The Jim Rockfords, The Ginger Witches, The Dirty F Holes The Beetle Bar Macka Everton Park Hotel Mark Bono Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Mark Seymour, Alan Boyle Joe’s Water Hole Eumundi Mark Sheils Soﬁtel Meridian Albany Creek Tavern Michelle Brown Duo Alexandra Headlands Surf Club Mr Perkins Cleveland Sands Hotel Out Of Abingdon Diana Plaza Hotel

PJ Hooker Cannon Hill Tavern QSM Live: Brianna Carpenter, Greshka Queen Street Mall Rattlehand Bangalow Hotel Relish Dublin Docks Tavern Rhett Chapman Centenary Tavern Rob Cini, Berst Elephant & Wheelbarrow Rob Reeves and His Virtual Guitar Orchestra Samford Homestead Restaurant Rushmore Gilhooley’s Chermside Scooby Don’t Miami Tavern Seals, Tin Can Radio, The Jungle Giants, Moses Gunn Collective The Zoo Six-String Theory, Superfreak The Tempo Hotel Solar Rush Victory Hotel Steve Trubble Horse & Jockey Warwick Stevenson St Parkwood Tavern The Blue Rhythm Aces Royal Mail Hotel Goodna The Front Alderley Arms Hotel The Gin Club, Harmony, Laura Imbruglia Spotted Cow The Green Sinatras Stones Corner Hotel The Jimmy’s Crown Hotel Lutwyche The Residents: Blame Ringo Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform The View From Madeleine’s Couch Brisbane Jazz Club Treva Scobie Southern Hotel Toowoomba Troublekarmaﬂow Ric’s Upsize, Jak, Dirty Liars, Vile Prince Of Wales Hotel Venus Envy Broadbeach Tavern Well Hungarians Murrumba Downs Tavern Who Killed Kenny Jimboomba Tavern

SAT 18

22 Hotels Alexandra Headlands Blue Bar Adrian Keys Brisbane Lions Club Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio Coolangatta Hotel Andrew Baxter’s Blues Extravaganza Live At The 8 Mile Bob Mouat Southern Hotel Toowoomba Bowls Club Bowler Bar Carrie Underwood Queen Street Mall Chris Vale Quartet Brisbane Jazz Club Deon Powter The Palace Hotel Downlode Broadbeach Tavern Draw First Blood, The Violet Alibi, The Last Outlaw, Facepalm A Pinata Globe Theatre Ever Eve, Ghost Audio, Feed, Cassia Apollo Club, Upstairs Jubilee Evil Eddie Sol Bar, Maroochydore Forever The Optimist Crown Hotel Lutwyche Ghost Notes, Mountain Static, Mckisko, The Scrapes The Beetle Bar Glenn Esmond Kenmore Tavern Gung Ho Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Hoo Haa, Thatchworkcity The Joynt Inferno Miami Tavern Shark Bar Ingrid James Lionel Perry Park Jabba Elephant & Wheelbarrow Jo’s Boys Noosa Heads Jazz Club Junkyard Sessions 2nd Birthday Step Inn K2 Duo Miami Tavern Kombi Killers, Punxie & The Poison Pens, Myrtle Place, Messiam, Road To Ransome Prince Of Wales Hotel Launch It Oﬃcial After Party Hard Rock Café

Launch It!: Frankie And The Moon, Dan Hannaford, Clay Blyth, Busby Marou, The John Steel Singers, Clare Bowditch, Pete Murray Surfers Paradise Festival Little Red, World’s End Press The Hi-Fi Mark Bono Manly Hotel Mark Seymour, Alan Boyle Lone Star Tavern, Gold Coast Mark Sheils Simons Tavern Matt Southon Bayswater Hotel Michelle Brown Duo River Lounge Noosa Mick Danby, The Wind Up Dolls The Tempo Hotel Mojo Bluesmen, Bluesville Station, Mojo Webb & Band Palmwoods Hotel Monkey Business Royal Exchange Hotel Pigeon, Kennigo, Veralyn, Jhonny Russell & The Mystery School The Loft Chevron Island QSM Live: Texas Tea, Drew Wilson Queen Street Mall Scott Sullivan Centenary Tavern Snez Lulu’s Café, Mullumbimby Solar Rush Hamilton Hotel Sonic Porno Basement 243 Storm In A Tea Cup: Tin Pan Orange, Husky, Jordie Lane, Jen Cloher, Harry James Angus, Liz Martin Mullumbimby Civic Centre Superfreak, Murphy’s Pigs Mick O’Malley’s Taka & Yuji, David Aurora, The Impressionists, Rear Vision The Music Kafe The Big Boy Narangba Valley Tavern The Blackwater Fever, Adam Toole Ric’s The Blenders Robina Community Ctr The Gin Club, Harmony, Laura Imbruglia The Zoo The Red Cherries Paciﬁc Pines Tavern

The Red Deer Music Festival: The Cairos, Dubmarine, Inland Sea, The Lyrical, Tim Nelson & The Cub Scouts, The Dashounds, Julz & The Grimly Beats, More Mt Samson The Videomatics, Electric Fooling Machine, Aniki X & Y Bar TLD Wharf Tavern Toni Zaﬀa and Band Woombye Pub Turbine Jazz: John Reeves Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Venus Envy Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Vertigo Racehorse Hotel Wayne Ranson Redland Bay Hotel

SUN 19

2 Not Out Brothers Ipswich Adrian Keys The Breakfast Creek Hotel Block Party DJs Elephant & Wheelbarrow Blowhard, Ironside, Generation Jones, Helical Sun Crown Hotel Lutwyche Blue Sunday, Asa Broomhall The Tempo Hotel Bob Mouat, Owie Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba Chico Mendez, Signature Series All Stars Locknload West End Clark Brick Waterfront Hotel Dan England Blue Paciﬁc Hotel Decahedron Brisbane Jazz Club Exposed Sundays: Van Diemen, Spook Hill, Youngsmith, Gentlemen Electro, Interim Ric’s Fat Albert Miami Tavern Hard Rock Brazilian Folia Hard Rock Café Hippopotamus Broadbeach Tavern Jess Preston Burleigh Heads Hotel Leah Rush Canvas Bar Leith Stuart Chatswood Hills Tavern Little Chris, Sexypie X & Y Bar

Live Spark: Pear & The Awkward Orchestra, Texas Tea Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Mark Boersma Benowa Tavern Mark Bono Southern Hotel Toowoomba Michelle Brown Duo Rococos Noosa Peter Hunt Trio Era Bistro QSM Live: Mardi Lumsden & The Rising Seas, Wirebird Queen Street Mall Ross River Fever Redland Bay Hotel Snez Nimbin Markets Snez Sphinx Rock Café Stewart Fairhurst Cleveland Sands Hotel Sugar Shaker Dog And Parrot Tavern Sunday Bloody Sabbath Sessions, Ruby Farley, Murray & Ski, Skritch The Beetle Bar Sunday Irish Session Mick O’Malley’s The Quimms, Dave & Corey, Vulpine Choir, The Buzzbees, Pools & Trumpets The Music Kafe The Satellites The Bowery Venus Envy Royal Exchange Hotel

MON 20

Band Auditions, Enversity, Trash People The Music Kafe Double Steel Ric’s

TUE 21

Amber Williams Elephant & Wheelbarrow Caught Jester Ric’s Fete De La Musique All Over Brisbane Gonzales 3 The Bowery Miley Cyrus Brisbane Entertainment Centre Pop Electro Escalate, Zeus Baby, Goodbye Gravity The Tempo Hotel The Bairn, Present Company The Bug Tyson Faulkner Fiddlers Green

BEETLE BAR 350 Upper Roma St. Brisbane beetlebarbookings@gmail.com

THUR 16TH JUNE

STONE CHIMP

+ SONS OF THE SOIL + HACK 8PM - $8

FRI 17TH JUNE

LOS HUEVOS

+ THE JIM ROCKFORDS + THE GINGER WITCHES + THE DIRTY F HOLES 8PM - $10

SAT 18TH JUNE

HANGAR, THE BEETLE 01

GHOST NOTES (ALBUM LAUNCH) + MOUNTAIN STATIC (MELB, ALBUM LAUNCH) + MCKISKO + THE SCRAPES 8PM - $10

SUN 19TH JUNE

SUNDAY BLOODY SABBATH SESSIONS

SKRITCH

+ MURRAY & SKI (FROM CRYSTAL RADIOS) + RUBY FARLEY FREE ENTRY - 2PM - LATE

TUE 21ST JUNE

FETE DE LA MUSIQUE SHOWCASE! THE LOUIE LOUIES + DANA GHERMAN + FORNIKA + RED ON RED + LILLY ROUGE FREE ENTRY - 6PM

THU 23 JUNE

‘LADYBUGS’- LAUNCH 321 BRUNSWICK STREET MALL, FORTITUDE VALLEY WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE SECRET SHOW DOWNSTAIRS!

FRIDAY 17 JUNE DOWNSTAIRS:

TROUBLEKARMAFLOW 9PM + TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE 8PM + DJ VALDIS 9PM TIL LATE UPSTAIRS:

DJ WILDEBEATS (8PM)

SUNDAY 19 JUNE EXPOSED #2 (HEAT 7) 7PM HIS MERRY MEN (2 SETS) 10:30PM & 9:30PM

THURSDAY 16 JUNE DOWNSTAIRS: KINDREAD

9.30PM + ROSHAMBOOS 8.30PM + DJ VALDIS 9PM TIL LATE

SATURDAY 18 JUNE THE BLACKWATER FEVER 9:00PM + SILENT FEATURE ERA 8:00PM + DJ VALDIS 9:00PM - LATE UPSTAIRS: DJ CUTTS (8PM) DOWNSTAIRS:

MONDAY 20 JUNE DOUBLE STEEL

TUESDAY 21 JUNE CAUGHT JESTER

FREE LIVE MUSIC AND INDIE DJS

WANT TO PLAY? EMAIL BOOKINGS@RICSBAR.COM.AU

WWW.RICSBAR.COM.AU

CARRIE & THE CUT SNAKES + EMMA WHITE + SABRINA LAWRIE + KELLIE LLOYD + BITY BOOKER $10 - 8PM

FRI 24TH JUNE

JOSH PYKE ‘FANS FIRST TOUR’ supported by JACKSON MCLAREN SOLD OUT 8PM

SAT 25TH JUNE

BABAGANOUJ (EX YVES KLEIN BLUE) + SPACETICKET + BUICK SIX 8PM

SUN 26TH JUNE AFTERNOON SUNDAY BLOODY SABBATH SESSIONS

DAN IRONSIDE

+ REBECCA REDSTAR + SKRITCH FREE ENTRY - 2PM - 5PM

EVENING SHOW

LLOYD$10SPEIGEL - 7PM 45

ALHAMBRA LOUNGE Thursday Lambda: Cut Oﬀ Your Hands, Wherewolves Friday Fans: Jack Ladder And The Dreamlanders, Little Casinos

APOLLO CLUB, UPSTAIRS JUBILEE Saturday Ever Eve, Ghost Audio, Feed, Cassia

BIRDEE NUM NUM Wednesday Open Mic Night

BOWLER BAR Friday Duck Duck Goose, Them Jeans Saturday Bowls Club

BRISBANE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE Tuesday Miley Cyrus

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE TURBINE PLATFORM Friday Blame Ringo Saturday Turbine Jazz: John Reeves Sunday Live Spark: Pear & The Awkward Orchestra, Texas Tea

COOLANGATTA HOTEL Thursday Dan England Saturday Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio

ELEPHANT & WHEELBARROW Wednesday Iretro Thursday Woody Friday Rob Cini, Berst Saturday Jabba Sunday Block Party DJs Tuesday Amber Williams

GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL BYRON BAY Friday Cc The Cat, Marshall & The Fro, Anarchist Duck

HARD ROCK CAFÉ Saturday Launch It Oﬃcial After Party Sunday Hard Rock Brazilian Folia

MIAMI TAVERN Friday Scooby Don’t Saturday K2 Duo Sunday Fat Albert

MIAMI TAVERN SHARK BAR Saturday Inferno

MICK O’MALLEY’S Wednesday Rumba Latina’s Brazilian Party Thursday Abby Skye Friday Locky, Chester Saturday Superfreak, Murphy’s Pigs Sunday Sunday Irish Session

RIC’S Thursday Kindread Friday Troublekarmaﬂow Saturday The Blackwater Fever, Adam Toole Sunday Exposed Sundays: Van Diemen, Spook Hill, Youngsmith, Gentlemen Electro, Interim Monday Double Steel Tuesday Caught Jester

STEP INN

FUSION VILLA NOOSA

Wednesday Bad Manners, Blowhard, Kamikaze Thunderkats Thursday Onyx Friday Evil Eddie Saturday Junkyard Sessions 2nd Birthday

Thursday Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio

SURFERS PARADISE BEER GARDEN

GLOBE THEATRE

Friday Blindchase Saturday Venus Envy

Friday Fuzzy Polaroid, The Mental Charms Saturday Draw First Blood, The Violet Alibi, The Last Outlaw, Facepalm A Pinata

THE BEETLE BAR Thursday Stone Chimp, Sons Of The Soil, Hack Friday Los Huevos, The Jim Rockfords, The Ginger Witches, The Dirty F Holes

Saturday Ghost Notes, Mountain Static, Mckisko, The Scrapes Sunday Sunday Bloody Sabbath Sessions, Ruby Farley, Murray & Ski, Skritch Tuesday Fete De La Musique Musicfest: The Louie Louies, Dana Gehrman, Fornika, Red On Red, Lilly Rouge

THE HI-FI Wednesday Lyrics Born, Dexter, Fdel, DJ Katch (Resin Dogs) Friday Airbourne, The Casanovas, Numbers Radio Saturday Little Red, World’s End Press

THE TEMPO HOTEL Wednesday Mick Danby Thursday Mark Seymour, Alan Boyle, Bodywire Friday Six-String Theory, Superfreak Saturday Mick Danby, The Wind Up Dolls Sunday Blue Sunday, Asa Broomhall Tuesday Pop Electro Escalate, Zeus Baby, Goodbye Gravity

THE ZOO Thursday Dead Letter Circus, Galaxy Friday Seals, Tin Can Radio, The Jungle Giants, Moses Gunn Collective Saturday The Gin Club, Harmony, Laura Imbruglia

X & Y BAR Wednesday Dog and Dry, Esteban Vihaio, Tiger Beams, Blonde On Blonde (DJ Set) Thursday Boys and Girls: Cruel Hand, Phantoms, Th ird Strike Friday Kate Herrington, Dead Shades, Bacon, Sangers, Maggie Collins Saturday The Videomatics, Electric Fooling Machine, Aniki Sunday Little Chris, Sexypie

TIME WARP CLUB GUIDE

Jun 15, 1989 – Public Enemy

break up after group member Professor Griﬀ makes anti-Semitic remarks. They reassemble two months later.

Jun 16, 1975 – John Lennon sues the US

government, claiming that oﬃcials tried to deny his immigration through selective prosecution.

Jun 17, 1965 – The Kinks arrive in

New York City to start their ﬁrst US tour.

Jun 18, 1977 – Johnny Rotten (of The Sex

Pistols) is slashed on his face and hands by some kids armed with knives, who’d been oﬀended by the recent release of single God Save The Queen.

Jun 19, 1988 – Over 3,000 East Germans gather at the Berlin Wall to hear Michael Jackson. Jacko was performing a concert on the other side of the wall in West Berlin.

Jun 20, 1969 – Jimi Hendrix earns the largest paycheck (to that time) for a single show when he’s paid $125,000 for a single set at the Newport Jazz Festival. Jun 21, 1955 – Johnny Cash’s ﬁrst single, Cry Cry Cry, is released.

4ZzZ FM NOW PLAYING 1. Walls AN HORSE 2. Sport RE:ENACTMENT 3. Are You Entertained/Friends In Danger BLONDE ON BLONDE 4. Barefoot Daze LUNCH TAPES 5. Harsh Mistress TINY SPIDERS 6. Traitor INLAND SEA 7. By Cover Of Night GHOST NOTES 8. Our Hearts Are Wrong JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD 9. Turn Me On THE GRATES 10. Sexy Beach DUNE RATS

CHANNEL [V] VIDEO MUSIC CHART 1. Party Rock Anthem LMFAO FT LAUREN BENNETT & GOONROCK 2. Give Me Everything PITBULL FT. NE-YO, AFROJACK & NAYER 3. Rolling In The Deep ADELE 4. All Of The Lights KANYE WEST 5. Judas LADY GAGA 6. Ready 2 Go MARTIN SOLVIEG FEAT: KELE 7. We Run The Night HAVANA BROWN 8. Feeding Line BOY & BEAR 9. Run The World (Girls) BEYONCE 10. We Love SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM

ON THE TIME OFF STEREO

Head Injuries MIDNIGHT OIL Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses TEX PERKINS & THE DARK HORSES Hurtsville JACK LADDER Unknown Mortal Orchestra UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Kingdom Of Fuzz YIS Pinkerton (deluxe reissue) WEEZER Arabia Mountain BLACK LIPS Secret Rituals THE GRATES The Revolution Will Not Be Televised GIL SCOTT HERON Live At River Plate AC/DC

WED 15

Blush Wednesdays Vanity Dog & Dry, Esteban Vihaio, Tiger Beams, Blonde on Blonde X&Y Bar Gavin Boyd Kerbside Bar Heat 5 of the Zoo Swimsuit Calendar Search 2011 Shooters I Love House Music Brett Allen, Apollo Flex Shooters Jam Night with Open Mic Alloneword Karaoke in the Front Bar Casablanca Love You Long Time Barsoma State of Origin Game 2 Shooters Squark Open Mic Night Birdee Num Num Vegas Style Wednesdays Tom Starks, Brent Dee Sin City

THUR 16 Boys & Girls X&Y Bar DJs Juicy, Vita, Tuini, Otto, Karim, Bounce & Maxwell Beach House Mt Gravatt DJ Bure Fringe Bar Glamorous Zuri Heat 4 in pursuit of Mr Right Brett Allen, Apollo Flex, K-Otic Shooters I Love RnB Ladies Night Sin City Katch Kerbside Bar Karaoke in the Front Bar Casablanca Ladies Night/Corona Club Vanity Lambda Lambda Lambda Alhambra Love Cats Student Night Alloneword Notorious B.I.R.D Birdee Num Num Onyx, Ciecmate, Deadbeat Society, DJ Complex, Fortay Step Inn Too Damn Glam Brett Allen, Apollo Flex, K-Otic Shooters Too Damn Glam Ea Kut, Dezastar, Masta K, Fortafy Republic Too Damn Glam Masta K Rendezvous We Are Nocturnal presents Milk Skyroom

FRI 17

A-List Fridays Kronic, G-WIzard, Tom StarksSIN City Andee, Pete Smith, Nick Galea The Met Bossy feat Sharif D, Mr Sparkle. Coco Bamboo Brand Spank’d Rage Crew presents NIC’D Family Top Floor

Club High Life Reggae and Calypso, DJ Misqo Casablanca Craig Roberts, Joey Mojo Platinum Cutloose, Ben Reeve, Katch Kerbside Bar DJ Bacon, DJ Sangers, New York with Maggie Collins X&Y Bar EP Loves Electro Harvey, Private Property, Murray Brown, Monique Unique, DJ Real, Adam Madd Electric Playground DJ Rickey D, DJ Climate (Hitmen Crew) Pressure Lounge DJ Adam, DJ Matty Wow Squeeze Club DJs Christo, Bart, Arsee Fringe Bar Friday Arvo Social Club Birdee Num Num Fridays @ Family present Basement Crew Family Basement Hello Australia DJs Coco Obsession Vanity Provocateur Zuri Ryan Rushton, And Oh! LaLa Landr Vision Fridays Craig Obey, Brett Allen, Apollo Flex Shooters Vision Fridays Owe, Ea Kut, Mister P, MC Premix Republic Vision Fridays Masta K, Mister P Rendezvous We Are Nocturnal presents Them Jeans (LA), Bricksta, Bowler Bar DJs Bowler Bar

SAT 18

7Whatevers presents Light Year (Bang Gang 12’), Trip Kicks DJs, Stretch and more The Northern Byron Bay Bag Raiders DJ Set Monastery Club High Life DJ Misqo Casablanca Cutloose, Charlie Hustle, Chris Kelly, Zach Salar, Ill Kid Alhambra Danny Cool, Ben Reeve, Chris Kelly Kerbside Bar Devolved Technologies Step Inn DJs Aaron, Bart, Olie Fringe Bar Hey! Hey! presents Jordan Who?, Dr Rob, Aniki, Geecee Family Top Floor Hip Hop RnB Night DJs Otto, Mista, Tuini, Climate, Master D, Metal Jacket Mystique Arena Jeremy Illiev, Tim Plunkett, Jason Morley, Habebe Family Basement John Course, Craig Roberts, Joey Mojo Platinum Junkyard Sessions 2nd Birthday DJs Static, Speaker Wrath, Villephant, Dr Dom, Kosha D Step Inn

Mr Sparkle, Disko Diva, Pete Smith, Andee, Nick Galea The Met Niko, Malcolm feat Ellie, Jason Rouse Coco Nu Disco/House DJs Alloneword Paul Bell, Mr Sparkle, Roman Flachs Bamboo Rhys Bynon LaLa Land Saturdays @ Zuri Zuri Saturday Sessions Birdee Num Num Sensation Club Craig Obey, Brett Allen, Apollo Flex Shooters Sensation Club Ea Kut, Juno, Mister P, MC Premix Republic Sensation Saturday Masta K, DJ LP Rendezvous Stiletto Saturdays Kronic, G-Wizard, Tom Starks Sin City Surrender Your Saturdays Vanity The Videomatics, Electric Fooling Machine, Aniki, 7’ to 12’ Inches of Love X&Y Bar Touch Saturdays Dezastar, Ea Kut, Mister P, MC Loudmouth Len Mybar

SUN 19

Daniel Webber, Discrow LaLa Land Downlink, Pedestrian, Tripp, Munky Bar, Huntah Step Inn Keiron C, Danny Cool Kerbside Bar Little Chris, Sexypie X&Y Bar Play Dirty Masta K Rendezvous Salsa Seduction Casablanca SIN on Sundays Vanity Shooters RnB Fest Fat Man Scoop, Dirty Mob Shooters We Are Nocturnal presents Tightknit Skyroom

MON 20 Industry Night DJ Jon, Mike D SIN City Trivia and Bar Wars Birdee Num Num

TUES 21

Envyus Main Shooters Karaoke in the Front Bar Casablanca Ladies Cocktail Party Sin City

BEHIND THE LINES FULL CIRCLE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

BEHIND THE LINES WITH MICHAEL SMITH BTL@STREETPRESS.COM.AU

ENTECH INTECH 2011

Australia’s leading biennial trade show for the entertainment, live events and corporate installation sectors, ENTECH INTECH returns to the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, 10am-6pm Tuesday Jul 19 through Thursday Jul 21, and once again will include showcases of the latest in pro audio, lighting and audio-visual equipment along with the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) conference and exhibition. Fresh from the PLASA Focus show in Leeds in the UK, international keynote speaker, audio engineer and author Dave Swallow, who has mixed artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Seasick Steve, Corinne Bailey Rae and most recently La Roux, as well as many of the world’s biggest festivals, will be bringing along his seminar series and book, Live Audio: The Art Of Mixing A Show. Among the local audio engineer/producers presenting seminars is Michael Carpenter of Love Hertz Studios in Leichhardt. For full program details and to register, go to the website.

THE JOAN JETT BLACKHEART It doesn’t just have to be a guitar for the girls! Gibson USA has released the Joan Jett Blackheart, a guitar based on the black solid mahogany 1977 Melody Maker she has used right through The Runaways and her years with her own band The Blackhearts. Featuring a quartet-sawn solid mahogany neck with a 17-degree headstock pitch, a Tune-o-matic or ABR-1 bridge with stopbar tailpiece and a Corian nut as well as a single zebracoil BurstBucker 3 pickup on the bridge position, the Joan Jett Blackheart has a volume and a tone control and a “kill switch” that lets you “cut the noise for dramatic breaks”. Check your local Gibson retailer to see if you can take one for a test drive.

SOUND BYTES Having done his obligatory jazz album, last year’s Bold As Brass, Cliff Richard has been over to Memphis recording an as-yet-untitled soul album with producer Lamont Dozier, who was of course one third of the triumvirate of songwriter/producers, with brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, responsible for the bulk of Motown’s output in the 1960s, assisted by Ashford & Simpson, with David Gest as executive producer. The Black Keys’ singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach recorded, produced and engineered the first label album release for Ohio native, singer songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield, Tell Me, in his Easy Eye Sound System studio in Akron, Kennie Takahashi mixing the record that was then mastered by Brian Lucey at his Magic Garden Mastering in Columbus. Due for release mid-September, the new album, Heritage, from Sweden’s Opeth was produced by the band’s frontman and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt and mixed with Porcupine Tree frontman and guitarist Steven Wilson. The Kooks called in Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Belle & Sebastian) to produce their third album, Junk Of The Heart, due for local release September, recording it in The Sound Factory in Los Angeles and Sarm Studios in London.

With his latest album, The Road To Memphis, three-time Grammy award winner and multi-instrumentalist BOOKER T. JONES finally tells his story. He chats to MICHAEL SMITH about the making of the album.

had a couple of songs I’d had from years before,” Jones, on the line from his condo in Los Angeles, explains the genesis of the new album, “but probably just over 50 percent of them I wrote in the seven months before we went into the studio. I made demos on a program I use called Ableton Live and I know pretty much the parts I want so I played the guitar, played the bass, played the organ parts and made demos and then I transcribed the MIDI parts into [notation software] Sibelius and then I would read the music calls in the studio. Then the band added their own groove.”

“I

T on his 2009 album, Potato Hole, which won the Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy and on which the backing band was the Drive-By Truckers.

Joining Booker T. in MSR Studios in Manhattan, New York City – the largest full-service recording facility in fact in that city, where the album was recorded and engineered by Gabriel Roth – were Philadelphia-based hip hop/neo-soul band The Roots, whose drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, along with Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliot Smith), co-produced the album with Jones.

Also contributing guitar to the album was another veteran, this time from the classic Motown days, Dennis Coffey, while alongside Sharon Jones, who sings on the track, Representing Memphis, the most autobiographical cut on the album, are Matt Berninger of The National, Lou Reed talking through The Bronx, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, who sings on the track, Progress.

“I met them [The Roots] through Jimmy Fallon [American late night TV talk show host, broadcasting out of New York City and for which program The Roots are the house band], sitting in on his show, doing walk-ons, and our styles seemed to really merge well. They’re a hip hop band but they use traditional instruments so it’s nice to play with young people that have a respect for what you’ve done.

“Lou [Reed] was absolutely the perfect person to perform that song. I think he was a Booker T fan – he had recorded a song called Booker T in the early-70s [actually the name Velvet Underground gave a jam that eventually became White Light/White Heat]. Jim James, I actually wanted to work with his band when I was writing the Potato Hole album, because he has a band that can do what the Drive-By Truckers did – but I think I got the perfect band for it in the Drive-By Truckers because they three have guitars, My Morning Jacket has two guitars.

“With Gabe, I’d admired his work with Amy Winehouse and I had met him through Sharon Jones [of The Dap Kings] – she came and sat in with us when I was playin’ with the MGs in Brooklyn. Gabe was a great choice because he accomplished his purpose, which was to get a sound that was something like what we were doin’ in the mid-60s, and it was full circle for me, which was perfect for my time and for the story I was telling and the place I’m in in my life right now.” Roth’s approach to recording has always been steeped in that old-school sound which, to a great extent, was pioneered by Booker T back in his early days as part of the house band at Stax Studios in Memphis, where, with the original MGs, he not only created timeless instrumental hits with tunes like Green Onions, but created the template for the “Stax soul sound” behind artists like Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. The Roots too of course have built their career

Co-produced and mixed by multi-Grammy Awardwinner Tim Biller (Beck, Kanye West, Karen O), the second album, Blood Thinner, due for release mid-July, from Melbourne’s Jordie Lane, was mastered by another Grammy winner, Reuben Cohen, at Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood. The album itself was recorded variously between, as Lane’s press release tells it, “a remote desert motel room, a basement and, finally, a bleeding hot garage in Eagle Rock, LA.” Sydney four-piece Eye On You are recording their as-yet-unnamed second album at Cloud Studios in Wyong on the NSW Central Coast.

sampling Booker T & The MGs as much as on their own creativity. So to some extent, Jones’ “coming full circle” on these album sessions was as much about returning to the old-school approach to recording. “It was similar in that we were all sitting in a circle like [the old days] – just the sound and the process was really similar. Gabe didn’t make use of all of the microphones that were available at the studio. Very often I’d look around and he’d have only one or two mics on the drums. Every song was recorded differently; he experimented with every song – that’s why they all sound so different from one another. It was just a little game he was playing. It took a lot of time to get this album because we would play and then we would change the sound and play again. He worked really hard to get unique sounds on the album.” Schnapf, who mixed the album at Mant Studios and Senora Recorders in Los Angeles, worked with Booker

“Matt [Berninger] is one of the nicest persons in the music business – he just completely gave hive himself over to me and to Sharon. He allowed Sharon to direct in recording the vocals to that song [Representing Memphis]. Their voices were opposite but perfect. And then Dennis [Coffey] and I were talkin’ and we were so much closer than we ever knew all these years; we should have been playin’ together back then. He played on so much great music from Motown in the late-60s and early-70s, but we missed each other back then.” Mark Chalecki mastered The Road To Memphis at his Little Red Book Mastering studio in LA, while the executive producer was Andy Kaulkin. The Road To Memphis is out now on ANTI-/ Shock.

ENGINEER PROFILE JAMES DEAN JACKSON (JD PRODUCTION)

The API Lunchbox with API EQ inbuilt. It’s such a handy piece of equipment with great tonal qualities and is an industry must have as far as I’m concerned.

WHAT SONG/ALBUM CAN WE LISTEN TO TO GET THE BEST IDEA OF YOUR WORK?

The revivified Dragon, led these days by bass player Todd Hunter, has cut a new album, Happy I Am, due for release late July, with tracks, vocals and most of the backing vocals recorded by Nick McKinley at The Robertson Brothers Studio in Springwood in the Blue Mountains, acoustic guitar and more vocals recorded at The Bondi Pavilion Studio by Nick Mainsbridge, Johanna Pigott’s backing vocals recorded at Axle Studios, and, according to their website, “everything else recorded on Apple Mac Powerbooks by (drummer) Pete Drummond, Hunter and (guitarist) Bruce Reid.” Drummond then mixed and William Bowden mastered the album at his King Willy Sound in Stanmore. Sydney four-piece FisherKing took themselves into Revolution Studios in Alexandria, owned and operated by Genevieve Maynard (ex-Bughouse, Stella One Eleven) who produced, engineered and mixed everything on their debut album, Circles, bar two tracks that were mixed by Cameron Potts at Sebastian Trios Studios in Yowie Bay, with William Bowden mastering it all.

“I was very glad to be able to meet Rob because, like [the late engineer/producer with Atlantic Records] Tommy Dowd, he’s a relaxed person who’s very capable musically himself. Sonically, he had a lot to do with not only the final mix but he also added musical parts. Sometimes he’d pick up the guitar and add something he thought was missing in the rhythm, that type of thing.”

My latest production is from a Gold Coast band called The [F] Bots and their debut single 2013 (TwentyThirteen) featuring Derek Boyer.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO SEE FROM AN ARTIST OR BAND IN THE STUDIO? Confidence in themselves and their ability as musicians.

HOW MUCH HAS THE RECORDING INDUSTRY CHANGED IN THE TIME YOU’VE BEEN AN ENGINEER? WHAT AREAS OF ENGINEERING DO YOU SPECIALISE IN? Generally I prefer to be in the box as a creative overseer and working the desk during my sessions; But mixing is definitely my specialty.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE KIND OF PROJECT TO WORK ON? I really like working with mainstream rock and pop artists but of late have enjoyed delving into the world of electro and hip hop.

IS THERE ANY GEAR THAT YOU COULDN’T GET BY WITHOUT?

I’m a bit of a newbie in the recording industry so not a lot has really changed for me. I guess I am doing the changing and adapting as I learn to use new gear and work with different artists and between genres.

ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING FOR A STUDIO OR ARE YOU FREELANCING? I am a freelance producer but I have access to some great studios both on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN STUDIO? IF SO WHAT KIND OF SETUP ARE YOU USING? Hopefully one day soon, for now I work out of a range of different studios using a good balance of analogue and digital gear. I have access to all of the outboard and digital gear I need to polish a good sound.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR YOUNG OR INEXPERIENCED ARTISTS WHO ARE HEADING INTO A RECORDING STUDIO? Talk to as many people as you can and learn from them. There is always someone out there who can teach you something new. Be open minded and confident and hopefully you will make it in this industry.

WHAT NOTABLE ACTS/ PROJECTS HAVE YOU WORKED WITH/ON? Being relatively new on the job I have been concentrating on honing my own skills and making sure I can deliver the best quality product to the client and to do this you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. I’m no Rick Rubin or Mutt Lange but I hope that one day soon people will be coming to see me because they’ve heard something I’ve worked on and loved it.

DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS OF WISDOM FOR THOSE WANTING TO BECOME AN AUDIO ENGINEER? The world’s second most stressful job is that of an Audio Engineer. Make sure it’s what you really want to do and have a back up…just in case.

WHERE ARE YOU BASED? Between the Gold Coast and Brisbane but being freelance I can work out of any studio anywhere in the world, so if you don’t want to travel I can come to you.

CONTACT DETAILS: exec@jdproduction.com.au www.jdproduction.com.au ph: 0414906604

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EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION VIA STUDIOS has 10 spacious, airconditioned, soundproof studios with 500w PA’s. Central location, flat load, fully equiped shop, backline for hire and lockable storage makes it a pleasure for all! Book now Ph: (07) 3252 1127. Come see what the fuss is all about. www.viastudios.com iFlogID: 13689

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Want your music on CD? forums.indiemunity.com! iFlogID: 13801

SALES & MARKETING Looking for fun, ethical, paid work? Love meeting great people? Looking for a little more out of your career? Check out www.funwaysing.com iFlogID: 13785

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Additional words 10 cents each.

iFlogID: 13500

People needed to send eMails offering a new music Book for sale. Must have own computer - payment by commission via Paypal. Contact Bill on (02) 9807-3137 or eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 13289

FOR SALE AMPS VASE ‘TRENDSETTER 60’ GUITAR TUBE AMP

BOLD HEADING

iFlogID: 13500

BOLD HEADING

original 1960’s.2 2/12 matched cabs. HUGE sound.perfect condition.Aussie made.$1200 ono. Ph.0428744963.Cooroy. iFlogID: 13025

LANEY GH120 GUITAR HEAD 120 watt.2 channel.f/switchable.reverb. direct out.very punchy.great tone.UK made. VGC.$400.Ph.0428744963.Cooroy iFlogID: 13021

iFlogID:

SUPER BOLD HEADING 13500

$1.50

SUPER BOLD HEADING

500

iFlogID: 13500

PEAVEY BANDIT 80WATT 12” GUITAR COMBO 2 channel.footswitchable.great fat tone. reverb/saturation etc.USA made.VGC.$350. Ph.0428744963. Cooroy iFlogID: 13019

PEAVEY WINDSOR SERIES 400WATT 4/12 SLANT CAB. supreme XL speakers.HUGE bottom end grunt.AS NEW cond.$500.. iFlogID: 13023

ADD COLOUR TO YOUR HEADING

50c

COLOUR HEADING

BASS GIBSON EPIPHONE SG BASS GUITAR. solid mahogany.great fat tone.VGC.$450. Ph.0428744963.Cooroy. iFlogID: 13029

Ernieball Musicman Stingray5. Great condition, Black body, includes Musicman hardcase. $2200 ono, call Nick 0450196936. Paddington. iFlogID: 13725

COLOUR IMAGE

iFlogID: 13500

COLOUR IMAGE

13500

COLOUR BORDER

COLOUR BORDER 500

OUND COLOUR BACKGR 500

iFlogID: 13555

All prices include GST

VISIT IFLOG.COM.AU TO PLACE YOUR BOOKING NOW.

OTHER CYPRESS HILL 2004 Australian Tour Shirt. Brand New, Black, Medium. Til Death Do Us Part image on front and tour dates on back. $20 Ph.0449713338 iFlogID: 13445

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING GUIDE

DRUMS TAMA Drums Shirt signed by John Tempesta (White Zombie, Rob Zombie, The Cult, Testament, Exodus, Helmet), Black, XL, New. $30 Ph0449713338

WANTED VINTAGE DRUM KIT, old Ludwig, Gretsch etc. Also want vintage snare drums etc. Sydney based but will pay top $ and arrange courier. Ph 0419760940 iFlogID: 13234

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES #13 Basketball Jersey signed by Mike Muir - blue, Medium, As New. $45 Ph0449713338 iFlogID: 13455

THE TEA PARTY Long Sleeve 2004/05 Tour Shirt, Black, XL, As New. Serpent/ Tree of LIfe front w/Seven Circles image/ tour info on back & sleeve print. $60 ono Ph0449713338 iFlogID: 13447

TOOL Concert Poster - Big Day Out, Auckland MT Smart Stadium 21Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition of 100. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $70 Ph0449713338. iFlogID: 13479

iFlogID: 13732

SCHECTER OMEN-6 ELECTRIC GUITAR - - BRAND NEW-- best offer, Craig -0449156490 iFlogID: 13734

iFlogID: 13703

VIDEO / PRODUCTION D7 STUDIO MUSIC VID FROM $250 music vid $250. Live gig edits, multiple angles, from $150 or 1 live track from $80. All shot in full HD. d7studio@iinet.net.au ph:0404716770 iFlogID: 13368

Kontrol Productions is a highly professional production company that specializes in the production of music video’s. We ensure that our products are of the highest industry standards. For enquiries www. kontrolproductions.com iFlogID: 13827

iFlogID: 13473

iFlogID: 13825

TOOL Concert Poster - Brisbane Entertainment Centre 24Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd # Edition of 50. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph0449713338. iFlogID: 13471

TOOL Concert Poster - Melbourne Myer Music Bowl 02Feb2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition # of 100. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph0449713338. iFlogID: 13477

TORI AMOS Dew Drop Inn 1996 Tour Shirt, White, XL, Excellent Condition. 3 Boys for Pele images on front and Caught a Light Sneeze image on back. $30 Ph0449713338 iFlogID: 13451

TORI AMOS Original Sinsuality Tour Shirt, White, Medium, Excellent condition/worn only 3 times. Tori/apple front image w/tour dates & snake on back. $35 Ph0449713338 iFlogID: 13453

MUSIC SERVICES DUPLICATION/ MASTERING CD MANUFACTURING:Acme is Australias best price CD manufacturer. 500 CD package = $765.05: 1000 CD package = $1320.00 Short run also available. www. AcmeMusic.com.au KevinW@AcmeMusic. com.au iFlogID: 13117

OTHER Want your music on CD? forums.indiemunity.com iFlogID: 13803

PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING

iFlogID: 13603

iFlogID: 13086

Drum Lessons avaliable in Gladesville Teach all Levels, ages and experience. Played for 16 years. I studied at Billy Hydes Drumcraft, Obtained Dipolma in Drummming Mob: 0402 663 469Michael

TOOL Concert Poster - Big Day Out, Gold Coast Parlands 23Jan2011. Adam Jones Artwork - Ltd Edition. Mint Condition. 60 x 45cm on Heavy Card. $90 Ph0449713338.

iFlogID: 13027

SCHECTER OMEN-6 ELECTRIC GUITAR - - BRAND NEW-- ,best offer, Craig -0449156490

DRUMMER AND DRUM LESSONS

MUSIC VIDEOS offer a great way to gain exposure. Immersion Imagery has worked with a variety or artists and strives to offer quality & creative Music Videos. Visit www.immersionimagery.com email info@ immersionimagery.com

genuine 1980’s.all original.in case.great tone/action/condition.very rare.$2500 ono. Ph.0428744963.Cooroy

GODIN MIDI GUITAR ACS SA Nylon string semi-solid body with piezo and 13-pin MIDI output plus the Terratec Axon AX100 Synth controller & AX101 MIDI pickup. $2,400 including delivery. THE001Music@ hotmail.com

iFlogID: 13300

iFlogID: 13449

NEED HELP WITH THE SOUND FOR YOUR BAND RECORDINGS, LIVE SHOWS, FILM, OR GAME? Don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m a qualified freelance Sound Engineer available all hours, with equipment. Prices negotiable. rdholliman@gmail.com

FENDER PINK PAISLEY STRAT.

One on one, tailor made DJ/Production lessons with industry professional DJ/ Producer. Cut years off your learning curve. All equipment can be provided. Affordable rates. We’ll come to you. facebook.com/ nuperspektivedjschool PH: 0416935787

iFlogID: 13844

iFlogID: 13914

iFlogID: 13287

DJ & MUSIC PRODUCTION LESSONS

Professional bass lessons, rock, funk, slap, groove, blues, etc. Theory, scales, chords, riffs. $25 half hour, $45 full hour, all ages, kids, adults (Blue Card), Hamilton Brisbane, jakefehres@gmail.com or 0405483058

iFlogID: 13707

CD / DVD

TUITION

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING GUIDE - Stepby-step guide shows how to use Facebook successfully in marketing. Great advertising tips. Why Facebook is less expensive and more targeted than Google Adwords. Visit: http://fbag.info

Vintage Perl Gold bass guitar in perfect condition for sale. A unique guitar that has been restored to original condition. A must see! $1100 Ph:0402327153.

iFlogID: 13457

COLOUR BACKGROUND

iFlogID: 13084

VIOLIN 3/4 Ashton, purple, with hard case, bow, rosin, chin rest and 3 exercise books. Needs new strings but otherwise Perfect Condition. RRP new: $269, Sell $190. Ph 0449149338.

Attention Musicians, Record Collectors, Universities, Libraries - new Book (print/ cdROM/direct download) compiling 100 years of popular music. GO TO www. plattersaurus.com web-site on how to buy. Enquiries: (02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au

iFlogID: 13500

KEYBOARDS KORG TRITON Extreme88 synthesizer in new condition with keyboard stand and damper pedal. Worth over $7,000 sell for $4,295 including delivery. Currently in Perth. Phone 0439301165 Email: THE001Music@hotmail.com

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE BASS PLAYER Bass player looking for a band and/or regular jam. Have been playing a bit under 18 months. Committed, reliable and keen to learn. Sydney (Hills/West). Email: scather@ hotmail.com iFlogID: 13691

DRUMMER A1 PRO DRUMMER AVAILABLE for freelance gigs, tours etc. Extensive touring experience, gret time/tempo/groove, great drum gear and pro attitude. Sydney based but will travel. More info, ph 0419760940. www.mikehague.com iFlogID: 13230

Brisbane based drummer available for fill in work (studio, live, film clips etc) around existing live and recording schedule. email - todd@thebloodpoets.com , www.youtube. com/thebloodpoets .

NOEL GALLAGHER required for SYDNEY based OASIS cover band. Must have good gear, transport and band experience. Lead ability not essential. Good vocals. Call karl 0415 877 918 iFlogID: 13432

SINGER WANTS ROCK/BLUES GUITARIST Fortitude Valley Area.To write, play and eventually gig Contact Nat: NatalieRKirby@gmail.com

iFlogID: 13869

iFlogID: 13348

OTHER

GUITARIST

www.ozjam.com.au is free to join, and with over 5000 members its fast becoming the largest online music community in Australia! If your looking to join or form a band, find a band member or get exposure check Ozjam out today!

18 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferably in South. Call Tom on 0401722767.

iFlogID: 13743

iFlogID: 13358

SINGER

MUSICIANS WANTED BASS PLAYER Musician wanted to play bass brisbane band. Influences- neil young & crazy horse, nick cave, the birthday party, the saints, ed kuepper, radio birdman, beasts of boubon, QOTSA. gooch_ness@hotmail.com

GOSPEL SINGERS WANTED for nondenominational music ministry to record triple-CD in Perth. World-class, passionate and devotional vocalists sought. View www.THE001Music.com for details. Jesus is KIng! Reverend Eslam. God Bless You! iFlogID: 13088

YOUNG MALE R&B SINGERS

iFlogID: 13550

OTHER COMMUNITY ACUPUNCTURE

RISE HIGH COMMUNICATIONS

Multi-bed clinic space in West End. $25 per session. Group Healings. Treating aches and pains, anxiety, rehabilitation, depression, creative blocks, addictions and much more. We are @ Earth Awakening Yoga Studio, 9 Browning St (Opposite Melbourne Hotel, down driveway) West End. Tues & Wed- 12 midday-- 3:00pm. more info: comResumes Your Resume is your munityacupuncturebrisbane.com.au | acufirst impression bris@gmail.com | 0479 042 484 Mike We insure that your first impression is your best! iFlogID: 13877 We assist you to put your best foot forward and toorsecure that interview Get your Band Business Online Cost leading to the PROFESSIONALLYjob of your dreams. from effectively and $399Using including UNLIMITED pages, our exclusive process Hosting we andtailor 5xemail and much more! youraddresses resume focusing on the Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see future and what you have to offer www.bizwebsites.com.au. your next employer. We will get the best from you to iFlogID: 13862 create your professionally written unique resume. We will then prepare your resume and deliver it to your home within 5 working days. Your resume will be professionally printed and ready to be sent to prospective employers or taken to your next interview. Take that next step today and call 043 800 4444 or email us at www.risehighcommunications.com.au www.risehighcommunicatrions. com iFlogID: 13583

Looking for male R&B singers, age18-30, interested in forming an R&Bgroup in Sydney 0422259451

DRUMMER DRUMMER WANTED

TATTOO

iFlogID: 13757

Drummer wanted for Sydney band, we rehearse regularly in inner Sydney and are waiting to gig and record. Think BRMC, Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, Les Savy Fav. Check out: www.myspace.com/genevasoundstheband iFlogID: 13459

Musician wanted to play drums in brisbane band. influences-neil young &crazy horse, nick cave, birthday party, the saints, ed kuepper, radio birdman, QOTSA etc... must be able to play repetative patterns. gooch_ness@hotmail.com iFlogID: 13548

GUITARIST

SERVICES GRAPHIC DESIGN Full Colour Band Posters @ Amazing Prices 100 A4 full colour on Gloss = $40 100 A3 full colour on Plain = $50 100 A3 full colour on Gloss = $80 Go to WWW. BLACKSTAR.COM.AU for a full price list iFlogID: 13768

Monstrosity Dreadlocks, Sydney. Dreads and maintenance special: All service $30 per hour. Professional, guaranteed service. Kings Cross. Call 0421356410 iFlogID: 13613

TUITION GUITAR TUITION. Bris. 30 yrs playing. Beginners a specialty. 0406017022 iFlogID: 13494

Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY- from $399 including UNLIMITED pages,Logos, Hosting and 5xemail addresses and much more! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au

18 year old guitar player looking for another guitar player. Influences: GN’R, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferrably someone in the south (Shire). Call Tom on 0401722767

Limited Edition mens tees and hoodies with a sense of humour. All hand-screened and numbered. monstrositystore.com

iFlogID: 13407

iFlogID: 13611

WANTED OTHER

iFlogID: 13864

OTHER PLAY MORE CHINESE MUSIC love, tenzenmen. www.tenzenmen.com iFlogID: 13077

GUITAR BROTHERS ARE MERCHANTS OF TONE! OFFERING THE FINEST NEW, USED & VINTAGE INSTRUMENTS WITH A BEST PRICE GUARANTEE

PH: 3367 3558

95 MUSGRAVE RD, RED HILL, BRISBANE QLD WWW.GUITARBROTHERS.COM.AU

World-class mastering, from where you are right now. Check out Online Mastering at matthewgraymastering.com

RECORDING STUDIOS Do you want to hear your song fully produced before you hit the recording studio? Any Instrument. Any Genre! First song is free!! For more information: 0435556985 llewellynstudios@live.com.au www. youtube.com/llewellynstudios iFlogID: 13120

Dont have a lot of money and want guaranteed best release quality product? Our live recordings sound better or rival local or international releases. Call, check it out. Ph 0404066645 iFlogID: 13261

RJS AUDIO PRODUCTIONS RJS Audio provides singer/songwriter musicians with the opportunity to record without the cost. RJS also specialize in corporate, multimedia journalism and sound design. Contact today! rjsaudio@gmail. com. www.vimeo.com/rjsaudio iFlogID: 13695

For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au