ROOTS DOWN
OG FLAVAS
ADAMANTIUM WOLF
BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTSDOWN@TIMEOFF.COM.AU
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT
FRANK OCEAN
MUMFORD & SONS Mumford & Sons confirmed on their Facebook page earlier in the week that they will indeed be putting on a Gentlemen of the Road stopover while they are in Australia this October, as was speculated from the moment they announced their tour. Now, I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t really get what fans of this band are on about, but they sure know how to pick a line-up, with the likes of Justin Townes Earle, Simone Felice, St Vincent (who is Guy Clark’s niece! Whoa!), Dawes, Michael Kiwanuka and heaps more joining them on these mini-festivals that the band have curated in the UK and US so far this year. Details of the Australian show are going to be announced as you read this, apparently, and it’s going to be in either one of these towns; Dalby, Coober Pedy, Lightning Ridge, Katherine, Karumba, Dungog, Longreach, Charleville, Yamba, Candelo, Newman, Mullewa, Denmark, Streaky Bay, Tumby Bay, Apollo Bay, Strahan, Beechworth, Harrietville or Mallacoota. I’m backing Dungog. Anyway, I have no word on whether there are any other acts from overseas getting in on this show (the band will already have Willy Mason and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes on the road with them) and I kinda think they won’t, but there will almost certainly be some good Aussie acts added. Stay tuned for the full announcement! You’ve probably already seen it by now, but just in case Roots Down is the only reading material you can handle in a week (I wouldn’t blame you), then let me tell you about the lineup for this year’s Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts & Music Festival. The lineup is another massive one and, as per usual, it’s jam-packed up with a bunch of roots-inclined fare that is going to keep plenty of people happy. The festival has finally secured the John Butler Trio as headliners for the event in 2012, after nine years of trying to get them onboard, a serious coo for them. Acts like American Daptone Records soul powerhouse Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (my personal highlight), Kiwi reggae masters The Black Seeds, Kaki King, King Tide, Mat.McHugh & The Seperatista Sound System, Gossling, Hat Fitz and Cara, Microwave Jenny and Brow Horn Orchestra are among the bands who’ve signed up for the festival who are appropriate for inclusion here, though there are a whole heap of other big names from a variety of genres to check out as well. The festival hits its Glenworth Valley location from Saturday 29 December through to Tuesday 1 January, 2013. General public tickets are available from OzTix as of 10am Monday 20 August. So if you feel like a bit of journey this New Year’s, keep it in mind. I was very excited to receive a copy of the brand new Texas Tea album Sad Summer Hits during the week and I’m pleased to say it is their finest work to date. The Brisbane country/ soul/Americana/roots/folk duo are in fine form songwriting-wise and this record, made with a full band and recorded by Magoo, really brings that out of them with more clarity than ever before. The first single I Don’t Write No Sad Songs is a really cool song, but it’s honestly not particularly indicative of the rest of the album; for starters, Kate Jacobson sings the majority of the tracks on the record and most of them are far shorter than that first cut. It isn’t being released until October, but the second single Heart Says Yes (Head Says No) is out Monday 13 August so make sure you jump on the band’s Bandcamp to have a listen for yourself. The band are also doing two shows in support of the release, with an in-store performance at Jet Black Cat Records at 6.30pm on Friday 17 August, which the band will perform in duo mode, before a full band showing at the Black Bear Lodge later on that evening (from around 8pm). Both shows are free! 36 • TIME OFF
Those colour forecasters Pantone declared that 2012 would be all about Tangerine Tango, a “reddish orange” denoting energy. “Sophisticated but, at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” announced Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman. That’s an apt description, too, of Frank Ocean’s wonderful (official) debut, channel ORANGE – though, befitting the zeitgeist, there are also darker shadings, like a sunset. Along with Canadian alt-soulster The Weeknd, Ocean has pioneered a genre OG is dubbing illwave – a sublime, sometimes even sinister, urban variant on chillwave. Illwave taps into Sade’s quiet storm, Timbaland’s experimental R&B, and James Blake’s nightbus. Ocean, who legally changed his name from Christopher Breaux as a nod to Frank Sinatra (and the rat pack flick Ocean’s 11), was born in Los Angeles but raised in New Orleans. Following Hurricane Katrina, the aspiring muso returned to Cali. He found himself writing for Justin Bieber, among others. Ocean signed to Def Jam – which sidelined him. Meanwhile, he connected with Tyler, The Creator’s eccentric hip hop posse Odd Future, who surely influenced his increasingly avant-garde approach. Last year Ocean aired the cult mixtape nostalgia, ULTRA. On the atmospheric, spare and downbeat channel ORANGE, the hipster hero writes about his own interior life (Bad Religion) and his environs (Crack Rock), the singer’s lyrics surreal, dreamlike and occasionally mystical. In contrast to nostalgia..., Ocean avoids samples, his instrument of choice the electronic keyboard.
Prior to the album release Ocean leaked his sleeve notes on Tumblr, revealing that his first love was a guy (it was unrequited) – and he sings of a ‘he’. Ocean hasn’t explicitly stated that he’s gay or bisexual, but “a free man.” This is, after all, the dude who in January ambiguously told NME that channel ORANGE “sounds like there’s a cloud moving underneath it”. Still, it was astonishing news, Ocean being a member of the notoriously ‘homophobic’ Odd Future (as is the lesbian Syd The Kyd). The urban scene is grossly homophobic – something that stems from, not only American religiosity, but also latent anxieties about black masculinity arising from slavery and colonialism. It goes beyond any casual use of the ‘F’ word. Hatas spread gay rumours to discredit successful hip hoppers. Kanye West has bravely questioned such prejudice. And Ocean’s openness has been praised by everyone from Elton John (a fave in the black community!) to ‘80s soulster Boy George to, importantly, Russell Simmons… and Tyler. Yet channel ORANGE – its colour-synesthetic title inspired by Ocean’s memories of that summer he fell in love – challenges stereotypes of how a gay male soulster might project himself. Indeed, the straight Cee-Lo Green is camper. Channel ORANGE thematises love over sex, especially on the gorgeous organ- and string-laden Bad Religion – on which, when not using his falsetto, Ocean sounds very like Daniel Merriweather. Since R Kelly, R&B has been fixated on the bump‘n’grind. Sam Sparro recently lamented that contemporary pop, per se, has sacrificed raunch for romance – and lost its emotional innocence. (“Everybody’s so insecure,” he told OG. “It lacks depth.”) Ironically, Sparro foreshadowed Ocean’s illwave with his existentialist electro-soul Black & Gold. Ocean opens channel ORANGE with his most accessible song, the velvety Thinkin Bout You. Fertilizer is warm, evoking Stevie Wonder’s ‘70s electro-funk, but brief. Pharrell Williams co-produced the minimal ballad Sierra Leone – imagine Jamie Woon fronting N*E*R*D. The jazzy Sweet Life echoes Randy Crawford’s Street Life, while Lost is a bit psychedelic Prince, a bit New York indie-dance.
THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY time of the song’s appearance (early 2011) gaining popularity via witch-house. The Wanted – well, they’ve benefited from both the talk of a boy-band revival and from the ubiquitous amalgamation of rave and vocal-heavy pop on the radio. PURITY RING The MTV Video Music Awards has announced nominees for this year’s US edition to be held in September. As usual, the list of names has been met with knowing nods and shrugs; Rihanna, Katy Perry, Drake, and so go the charts. The category of Best New Artist, however, has had a few calling a shift in the culture of pop music, including, according to The New York Times’ Arts Beat column last week, some of the program directors of the awards. Exactly which names are causing this (quite possibly publicity-chasing) observation doesn’t exactly read as a ticking bomb in the centre of commercial arts practice. On the list are Carly Rae Jepsen, fun., Frank Ocean, One Direction and The Wanted. Separately, each act can have its place in the category justified in terms of sales, radio play and worldwide reach. Separately, too, the song each act is nominated for can be easily traced to ongoing trends in pop music, which is to say that none have exactly struck out on their own and found success with wildly different sounds to those already in the pop consciousness. Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe, with its string-aping synthesisers, followed a line of pop songs utilising synth-string sections, including Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream album, which itself was largely informed by Swedish producers trading on an indie zeitgeist of washy production and orchestral chorus sweeps. One Direction, more than being a boy-band comeback, have followed the same path from Swedish production house to American charts by incorporating elements of ‘90s pop-punk (now old enough to be a new teen discovery) and even chillwave. Fun.’s We Are Young is from the post-MGMT school, while Frank Ocean’s Swim Good furthered Kanye West’s interest in gothic electronica, at the
When you take the origins of these acts as a whole, it’s a pretty good picture of how pop music works. Sounds and aesthetics get introduced to radio playlists slowly; one act has some success with a song that fits the radio format but has been tweaked with a sound not yet heard on the radio (influenced often by something else happening outside radio’s awareness) and they will be followed by another act furthering that sound. Soon enough, that sound is a ‘pop sound’. But that isn’t to say there’s a formula. As much as all the acts on MTV’s Best New Artist list have been backed by teams of industry professionals and by large sums of money, each has fought their own battle to occupy a unique space on the pop landscape. Jepsen is comparatively old for a female pop singer at 26, having gone at it for years following a place in the finals of Canadian Idol in 2007. Fun.’s hit was the success of their label, Fueled By Ramen, who nurtured them and pushed them into radio programmers’ hands as they did Fall Out Boy and Paramore, also unlikely hit-makers. There was never any guarantee of American attention for a British act like One Direction, nor of mainstream attention for Frank Ocean, an R&B singer seemingly uninterested in writing songs with the bpm rate of a radio hit. The Wanted – well, their battle was perhaps against being so generic that they could have fallen into a pit of apathy were publicity dollars not hurled at media fast and hard enough. They are, in this scenario, the odd one out, the group at the latter end of a pop-music trend’s life. The current scale could be set with The Veronicas’ latest single, Lolita, at the almost-dead end and Purity Ring’s album, Shrines (4AD/Remote Control), near the beginning of a new fascination with garage and trip-hop beats. But it is right to say that the MTV’s Best New Artist list signifies a shift in pop music culture – because pop music is always shifting by increments, fuelled by commerce, yes, but if you look closely enough, also by ideas.
themusic.com.au
Supports have been lined up for Canada’s Burning Love and things are looking pretty awesome. The Brisbane show at Crowbar on Thursday 16 August will feature support from Ghost Town, Shields and The Fevered. Other bands confirmed to play interstate include Epics, Lo!, a reunited Fattura Della Morte, Vanity, Hydromedusa, Starvation, Urns, Pity Scissors and more. Tickets are available only at the door for this one. Tasmania’s Psycroptic has been added to a couple of the forthcoming Cannibal Corpse shows – which also feature Brisbane’s Disentomb and Perth’s Entrails Eradicated – namely on Friday 5 October at Billboard, Melbourne and Saturday 6 at The Metro Theatre, Sydney. No further information about local supports has been disclosed for the Brisbane show at The Hi-Fi on Monday 8. If you’re interested in winning a signed copy of the latest Cannibal Corpse album, Torture, as well as a signed tour poster, buy a pre-sold ticket and email your proof of purchase to promo@soundworkstouring.com to win. Local punk rockers No Trust are set to launch their new EP at Fat Louie’s on Saturday 18 August with the help of Headaches, Meanwhile In Hell and Vomit Bullets. The Trust Issues can be downloaded for free from notrust.bandcamp.com. Melbourne’s Hopeless, who now feature ex-Break Even vocalist Mark Bawden behind the microphone, have had the venue for their upcoming Brisbane all ages show changed over – you can catch the band at The Waiting Room on Wednesday 15 August for an Ekka Show Holiday special. They’ll be joined by Melbourne newcomers Outsider’s Code as well as locals Milestones, Waiting Room and Ill Temper. It’s $15 and starts at 6pm. Adelaide’s metallic post-hardcore group Valiant Jones has confirmed the details of their debut album Departure. It follows up on their 2010 EP release, and will see a release on Friday 17 August through Capitalgames Records (home to Coerce, Robotosaurus, The Burning Sea and more). You can stream the first single Centrefolds at valiantjones. bandcamp.com or another track by the name of Sunset Memorial over at triple j Unearthed. Pop-punkers Heroes For Hire have confirmed the details of their new album – No Apologies will be released on 28 September through Halfcut Records. Recorded by New Found Glory guitarist Steve Klein, the band has a new video online for the title track, and will hit the road with US group Yellowcard in support of the release throughout September. Locals can check it out at The Tivoli in Brisbane on 18 September with Nine Sons Of Dan. Ricky Sheahan, vocalist of Brisbane metalcore band The Construct, is this Thursday launching a radio show for the Perth-based, digital radio station thepit.fm. Tune in from 3-5pm for a mix of music from all over the world with a specific focus on Queensland thrown in. Surprisingly, Wednesday 13 sold enough tickets to his show at The Annandale in Sydney on 26 October that it sold out and was upgraded to The Manning Bar. The goth rockin’ metal punk will play Brisbane at The Zoo on 25 October. Sydney mosh metallers Shinto Katana released their third album Redemption just last week on Skull And Bones Records. Go check it out if you like it mid-paced and crushingly heavy, okay?
GIGS OF THE WEEK: Thursday: Rosetta (USA), City of Ships (USA), Nuclear Summer, Hope Drone – Crowbar. Dead Letter Opener, Therein, Caligula’s Horse, Interim – The Zoo. Awaken I Am, Amberain, Call The Shots, Sunny Side Up – X&Y Bar. Friday: Lynchmada, Truth Corroded, Kyzer Soze, Icarus Complex – Beetle Bar. Saturday: Flangipanis, Blackie (Hard-Ons), Death By Death Ray, Whiskey & Speed, Shit For Dickheads – Prince of Wales Hotel. Azreal, My Killing Hands, Dead End Kings, Phantom Lighter Thieves, The Recalcitrants – Crowbar. Tuesday: A Breach Of Silence, DeadYet?, 4 Dead In 5 Seconds, Illicit – Crowbar. Hopeless, Tyrants, Outsider’s Code, Postblue – X&Y Bar.