The Music (Sydney) Issue #30

t h e m u s i c | t h e l i f e s t y l e | t h e f a s h i o n | t h e a r t | t h e c u l t u r e | y o u

#3 0 • 1 9 . 0 3 . 1 4 • SY DNEY • F R E E • I N C ORP ORAT I N G

SALLY SELTMANN

ALLYALLYtour

THE PRESETSPRESETSPRESETSfestival

AROUND THE WORLDUND THEUND THEdrink

INTERPLAYERPLAYERPLAYdance

2 • THE MUSIC • 19TH MARCH 2014

THE MUSIC • 19TH MARCH 2014 • 3


www.towradgibeachhotel.com.au 170 Pioneer Road, Towradgi 2518 | 02 42833 588

Fri 21st March

The Suicide Girls + Blackheart Burlesque

Tour

Sun 6th April

Cloud ControlCorona extra

3pm - 4:30pm - FREE GIG

thu 17th april

Thirsty Merc

+ Special GuestsSat 22nd March

Wendy Matthews+ Special Guests

Fri 18th April

Bodyjar+ Kohji + Rude Rahlis

+ Crash Tragic + Lower Coast Skies

+ Under The InfluenceGOOD FRIDAY



themusic19TH MARCH 2014

#030

INSIDEFEATUREDArctic Monkeys

Sebadoh

Michael Franti & Spearhead

The Government Inspector

Bobby Keys

Shapeshifter

Baths

InterplayAbsu

Sally Seltmann

The Presets

REVIEWSAlbum: La Dispute

Live: The Holidays

Arts: Only Lovers Left Alive

...and more

THE GUIDECover: Smokin’

Mirrors

Eat/Drink

Indie News

Opinion

Gig Guide

The End

review

IT WAS MILLER-HEIDKE’S TERRIFIC AND UNIQUE VOICE THAT BOUND IT ALL TOGETHER.XAVIER RUBETZKI NOONAN REVIEWS KATE MILLER-HEIDKE [P.33]

ABSU’S MUSIC IS A FORMATION OF CHAOS AND MAGICK, BECAUSE I BELIEVE I CAN CHANGE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES AND OBJECTIVE REALITIES.PROSCRIPTOR MCGOVERN OF ABSU [P.25]

THIS IS ‘GET OUT OF YOUR SEAT AND DANCE’ MUSIC, IT IS ‘NOD YOUR HEAD AND STOMP YOUR FEET ‘MUSIC.SEVANA OHANDJANIAN REVIEWS BLACK LIPS [P.30]

FILM CAREW WILL POINT YOU IN THE DIRECTION OF CINEMATIC BLISS, THIS SATURDAYON THEMUSIC.COM.AU

GET THE FINAL REPORTS FROM OUR WEEK IN AUSTIN AT SXSW ON THEMUSIC.COM.AU

L-FRESH THE LION EXPLORES ISSUES IN AUSTRALIAN HIP HOP IN A NEW VIDEO SERIES ON THEMUSIC.COM.AU

review

watch

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE. PIC: JOSH GROOM


TUEMAR18

FREEENTRY

TRIVA$5 Steak NightFront Bar 7:30pm

MUSOS’ NIGHT+ Rockin’ Weekly Blues JamFront Bar 8pm

CASPIAN [USA]+ Meniscus + Guests 8pm

KILLRAZER+ Lethal Vendetta + Head In A Jar 8pm

THE DULCET TONES4pm

BETTER THAN THE WIZARDS [VIC]+ Jehan + Avin + Secret City 8pm

FREEENTRY

FREEENTRY

PRE $35$50 DOOR

PRE $12$15 DOOR

PRE $10$12 DOOR

WEDMAR19

WEDMAR19

FRIMAR21

SATMAR22

SUNMAR23

For band bookings please email [email protected]

@ Agincourt871 George street, Sydney City, [email protected]

www.valvebar.com.au

WED 19TH 7PM

THU 20TH 7PM

VIBRATIONS AT VALVEGREAT BAND COMP/ EXCITING PRIZES

BLACK DIAMOND TOURING PRESENTS “THE COVERS FACTORY” ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM: “ZOMBONIMO” , “THE WHITE STROKES”

“ANGEL AT MY TABLE” ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM: “DRESS TO RIOT” , “SUMMER’S MIXTAPE” , “EXIT ROW” , “FLICK THE BEAN”

DARK SUN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS “MELODY BLACK”ROCK SHOW/LAUNCH WITH SUPPORT FROM “COREDEA” , “DOMINO” , “IN HYDES SHADOW”

FRI 21ST 8PM

BASEMENT

LEVELONE

FRI 21ST 9PM

BASEMENT

SAT 22ND 8PM

LEVELONE

SAT 22ND 8PM

BASEMENT

SUN 23RD 5PM

“STAND ALONE”ROCK’N’ROLL SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM: “THE VEEBEES” , “SIN 4 ME”

“C.O.F.F.I.N”PUNK/HARDCORE SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “DEADLY VISIONS” , “BIRDS EYE VIEW” , “DEATH SLEDS” , “THE HUMAN WRONGS”

“ELSTON GUN”ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “WAR FLOWER” , “CLAIRE & THE COPS” , “DELTA EDGE & THE HOUNDS”

COMING UP Wed 26 March: Punk/Oi! Show with “Stars And Stripes” (USA) , “Stanley Knife” , “Disintegrator” , “Eye Gauge” , “Unknown To God” ; Thu 27 March: Hip Hop/Alt Show feat: MC Filth Wizard (USA), “Angry Beige” , “Stay Close Minded”; Fri 28 March: Basement: Metal Show with “Temtris” , “Amora” , “Hazmat” , “Fenrir” , “Omniscienta”; Level One 9pm: Electroshock V feat: “Pink Industrial Whores” ,

“Cybridian” , “AR12” , “Upside Down Miss Jane” , “Machina”; Sat 29 March: 8pm Basement: Rock’n’Roll Show with “The Archaic Revival” , “Los Hombres Del Diablo” , “Looking Glass”; Level One: Communications Records presents: Still LIfe 001 feat: Dean Dixon, Ilz, Mobius

, Loft , Swampy , Nuck Fames , Venn Q , Hagbard Celine - in evening of Futurebeat/House/Techno/Boogie ; Sun 30 March: 5pm: Hardcore Show with “Shitripper” (NZ) , “Quinnipiac” , “Atomic Death Squad” , “Disintegrator”

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK • 19 MARCH - 25 MARCH 2014THIS WEEK

On Thursday, Side Pony Productions’ The Pride premieres at Bondi Pavilion Theatre, as presented by Rock Surfers Theatre Company. This black comedy about lions, their “pride” and territorialism runs until 5 Apr, following rave reviews at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe and in WA. Written by director Zoe Pepper and the cast, The Pride may make you snicker, balls-out laugh, or get a little sniffly, for only $35.

Learn to swing dance

with our friends at

Swing Patrol. Try it

out in Newtown,

Paddington, North

Sydney, Glebe,

Petersham, Rozelle or

Stanmore (that’s a lot

of options). Just check

the timetable online at

syd.swingpatrol.com to

make sure you head

along on the right

night and to the right

level, from social to

Level 3. There you can

learn the art of the

jitterbug for only $15

per class on a totally

casual, ‘come one, come

all, whenever you

want’, basis.

The 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire runs from Friday until 9 Jun at Cockatoo Island. It’s our largest contemporary visual arts event, held biannually, and free. There’ll be artist talks, forums, tours and family days, as well as the main event: contemporary artworks including film and installation works, displayed in a picturesque setting. Noted artists involved include Tacita Dean, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

theatre

art

dance

CREDITSPUBLISHER

Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast

EDITOR Mark Neilsen

ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Story

ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR Cassandra Fumi

MUSO EDITOR Michael Smith

GIG GUIDE EDITORJustine Lynch

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTORS Adam Wilding, Andrew

McDonald, Anthony Carew, Ben Meyer, Benny Doyle,

Ben Preece, Bethany Cannan, Brendan Crabb, Brendan Telford, Callum Twigger, Cam Findlay, Cameron

Warner, Cate Summers, Chris Familton, Chris Maric, Chris Yates, Christopher H James,

Cyclone, Dan Condon, Daniel Cribb, Danielle O’Donohue,

Dave Drayton, Deborah Jackson, Dylan Stewart, Glenn

Waller, Guido Farnell, Guy Davis, Helen Lear, Jamelle

Wells, James d’Apice, Justine Keating, Kristy Wandmaker, Liz Giuff re, Lukas Murphy,

Luke Dassaklis, Mark Hebblewhite, Mat Lee, Matt

MacMaster, Paul Ransom, Rip Nicholson, Ross Clelland, Sam

Hilton, Sam Murphy, Sarah Braybrooke, Sarah Petchell, Scott Fitzsimons, Sebastian Skeet, Sevana Ohandjanian,

Simon Eales, Steve Bell, Tim Finney, Tom Hersey, Tyler

McLoughlan, Xavier Rubetzki Noonan

PHOTOGRAPHERSAngela Padovan, Carine Th evenau, Clare Hawley, Cybele Malinowski, Jared Leibowitz, Jodie Mathews,

Josh Groom, Kane Hibberd, Peter Sharp, Rohan

Anderson, Th omas Graham

NATIONAL SALES MANAGERBrett Dayman

ADVERTISING DEPTBrett Dayman, James Seeney,

Andrew [email protected]

ART DIRECTORNicholas Hopkins

ART DEPTEamon Stewart, Brendon

Wellwood, Julian De Bono

ADMIN & ACCOUNTSLoretta Zoppos,

Shelley Neergaard,Jarrod Kendall,

Leanne [email protected]

DISTROAnita D’Angelo

[email protected]

[email protected]

CONTACT USPO Box 2440

Strawberry Hills NSW 2012Level 1/142 Chalmers St

Surry Hills NSWPhone (02) 9331 7077 [email protected] www.themusic.com.au

SYDNEY



UNLEASHING SOME EMOTIONArriving with unheralded depth and diversity, ‘Til My Tears Roll Away, the fourth studio record from The Audreys, showcases the blues/folk act at the height of their powers. Catch the three-time ARIA Award-winners 5 Jun, The Abbey, Canberra; 8 Jun, Factory Theatre, Sydney; 14 Jun, Ormond Hall, Melbourne; 21 Jun, The Zoo, Brisbane; and 4 Jul, Fly By Night, Perth. Tickets are on sale from this Friday, with the tour proudly presented by The Music.

national news

GET THE JUMP ON BIGSOUND 2014!Don’t let the biggest music showcase in the southern hemisphere pass you by! Early bird tickets for BIGSOUND 2014 are on sale now, and applications are also open for artists keen on playing the event. Happening 10 – 12 Sep in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Entertainment Precinct, it’s three days and two nights of parties, forums, seminars and cracking live music. Bands can get involved by heading to the QMusic website (applications close 9 May) while discounted tickets for delegates can be purchased at bigsound.org.au. Proudly presented by The Music.

OVER BEFORE IT BEGANYou know how we were all excited that Action Bronson was coming Down Under again? Well scrap that because the Queens rapper has pulled the pin on his headline shows and Groovin The Moo appearances due to recording commitments. We’ll let you know when new dates are announced.

THE AUDREYS

LORDE. PIC: CYBELE MALINOWSKI

ADALITA @ BIGSOUND. PIC: STEPHEN BOOTH

ALL LOVED UPHunx & His Punx are bringing the sexy back to stages across the nation, and making for the sweetest of love-struck line-ups, fellow US garage exponents Shannon & The Clams will also be visiting from across the pond. Touching on everything from ‘80s hardcore and ‘90s riot grrrl sounds to ‘60s bubblegum pop, the two acts will feast the eyes and ears when they play 17 Apr, Copacabana, Melbourne; 19 Apr, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney; 20 Apr, Farmer & The Owl Laneway Party, Wollongong; 22 Apr, The Zoo, Brisbane; and 24 Apr, Rosemount Hotel, Perth.

NO ONE LEFT BEHINDAlternative rock rulers Dead Letter Circus are set to take their sounds rural later this year, with The Insider Tour hitting locations across the land. Catch the band 15 May, Surfers Paradise Beer Garden, Gold Coast; 16 May, Racehorse Hotel, Ipswich; 17 May, Big Pineapple Festival, Sunshine Coast; 18 May, Tatts Hotel, Ipswich; 20 May, Collector Hotel, Parramatta; 21 May, Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith; 22 May, Carmens, Miranda; 23 May, Hornsby RSL; 24 May, Entrance Leagues Club; 28 May, Black Swan Hotel, Bendigo; 29 May, Village Green, Mulgrave; 6 Jun, Settlers Tavern, Margaret River; 7 Jun, Prince Of Wales, Bunbury; and 8 Jun, Rosemount Hotel, Perth.

INSECTS AND STARSBetween the pair of them they’ve released over a hundred albums, and via their respective groups they’ve created plenty of timeless classics, so you can be guaranteed of a setlist spilling over with goodness when Robyn Hitchcock of The Soft Boys and The Church’s Steve Kilbey take their guitars on the road. Catch these two fine gentlemen when they join forces for a few special evenings, happening 26 Apr, Fly By Night, Fremantle; 3 May, Arts Centre, Melbourne; 10 May, Metro Theatre, Sydney; and 16 May, New Globe Theatre, Brisbane.

BLACK BOOTWe’re feeling the full force of Victorian prog metal powerhouse Sydonia once more, with their new album Reality Kicks showing why they’re so respected in the Aussie hard rock community. Supported by Helm and Red Bee (except dates marked *), Sydonia launch this latest triumph 3 May, The Espy, Melbourne; 15 May, The Basement, Canberra; 16 May, Towradgi Beach Hotel, Wollongong; 17 May, Bald Faced Stag, Sydney; 23 May, Crowbar, Brisbane; 24 May, Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast; 25 May, The Northern, Byron Bay; 6 Jun, Musicman Megastore, Bendigo*; 4 Jul, Amplifier Bar, Perth*; and 5 Jul, Burlington Hotel, Bunbury*.

“THE GOOD THING ABOUT SCIENCE IS THAT IT’S TRUE WHETHER OR NOT YOU BELIEVE IN IT”TRUST NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON [@NEILTYSON] ON THIS ONE.

ALL HAIL THE QUEENThe biggest NZ pop culture explosion since those hobbits first chased that ring around, Lorde has taken her moody pop gems around the globe and back, winning Grammy Awards and legions of admires, all before the age of 18. Having already lived up to the hype at Splendour and Laneway, you can now catch the Kiwi world-beater on a massive headline tour around the country: 24 Apr, Festival Hall, Melbourne; 29 Apr, Challenge Stadium, Perth; 2 May, Hordern Pavilion, Sydney; 4 May, Newcastle Entertainment Centre; and 6 May, Brisbane Riverstage. Tickets on sale this Friday.

[email protected]



HAY, CLAUDERoots-rock loop artist Claude Hay joins forces with a couple of real musicians to release the double A-side single Borracho/Run this April under the moniker of Claude Hay & The Gentle Enemies. See ‘em at The Old Manly Boatshed, 28 Mar; Katoomba RSL Club, 29 Mar; Grand Junction Hotel, Maitland, 4 Apr; O’Neill’s Pub, Canberra, 16 May; Lewisham Hotel, 17 May; The Stag & Hunter Hotel, Newcastle, 30 May; Towradgi Beach Hotel, Wollongong, 1 Jun. Proudly presented by The Music.

local news

CLAUDE HAY

THE MOBGreta Mob are playing two dates in Sydney to present to their fans their forthcoming EP, out 28 Mar. The EP includes new single and title track Gypsy Town (Revisited) which features Spencer P Jones on guest vox. They play Jam Gallery on 21 Mar and The Standard Bowl on 3 Apr.

GETTING CHILLYIt’s the first announcement of the line-up for Thredbo Jazz Festival on 2 – 4 May. Acts performing include Mahalia Barnes, Ms Murphy, Monica Trapaga with Bob Barnard, George Washingmachine, Tricia Evy, Ray Beadle & Barry Leaf, Chris Gudo & Afro Pamoja, Harry Brus Funk, Jews Brothers Band, Brasil Oito, Jeff Duff Trio, Righteous Voodoo, Todd Hardy Trio, Acca Daicquiris, Illya Szwec Band, Nigel Gavin & Richard Adams, and more.

ONE DARRENDarren Middleton, guitarist from Powderfinger, went solo last year and released his debut album, Translations. He’s heading off on an acoustic tour through April and May, hitting up Rock Lily, 8 May; Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba, 9 May; Coogee Diggers, 10 May; and Bombie Bar, Wollongong, 11 May.

DNB BROSUK producers Fred V & Grafix (aka Fred Vahrman and Josh Jackson) will be bringing their drum and bass grooves to Oxford Art Factory on 9 May in anticipation of their forthcoming album. With support from Royalston, A-Tonez, The Bassix, Linken, Axe and Struz.

A UNIQUE SOULDarwin duo Sietta are taking their blend of alt-soul on the road this month. On the back of their second album The Invisible River, singer Caiti Baker and producer James Mangohig are hitting up Goodgod Small Club on 1 May.

“NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO CONTEMPLATING THE VOID/LIFE AFTER TRUE DETECTIVE. I GUESS I COULD DO WORK.”NEITHER ARE WE @ELMO_KEEP, NEITHER ARE WE.

[email protected]

OWEN CAMPBELL

ROBBEN FORD

CURRYING FAVOURAmerican jazz and blues veteran Robben Ford has been forced to make some last minute support changes after guitarist Walter Trout pulled out of Bluesfest 2014. Ford will now play Factory Theatre with 17-year-old phenomenon Matthew Curry on 17 Apr.

VENUE REIGNITEDThe former live music venue for goth, indie and metal bands, The Lewisham Hotel, re-launch themselves as a live music hub on 5 Apr with their Rock And Roll Re-Launch Party. The night includes sets from Front End Loader, Chase The Sun, The Lazys and The Morrisons, who will play the 71-year-old venue with gusto.

WHATCHA OWENOwen Campbell’s celebrating his new single Remember To Breathe by taking his show on the road. He hits Lizottes Central Coast, 16 Apr and 4 May; Old Manly Boatshed, 17 Apr; Deniliquin Blues & Roots Festival, 17 Apr; Gerogery Hotel, 27 Apr; The Abbey, Canberra, 2 May; Camelot Lounge, 3 May; Lizottes, Newcastle, 4 May; Towradgi Beach Hotel, 11 May. Proudly presented by The Music.

PRESLEY SIGHTINGCatch a glimpse of Lisa Marie Presley on 20 Mar from 6pm at Red Eye Records on York St in the CBD where she will be holding an in-store signing of copies of her latest album, Storm & Grace.

IT TAKES TWOAmerican pop duo MKTO are returning to our shores for the first time be touring their self-titled debut: Enmore Theatre, 25 Apr.


local [email protected]

25TH BIRTHDAY HELENIt’s the 25th anniversary of Melbourne folk quartet Things Of Stone & Wood, so the original line-up is reforming to play a host of shows along the east coast. They haven’t played together since 1997, which is a long time in music years, and hit The Vanguard, 23 May.

(S)CREAMINGFollowing a SXSW slot, Canada’s spicy soul singer Saidah Baba Talibah lands in Oz in support of her new album (S)Cream. Check her out when she performs at Byron Bay Blues Festival on 20 & 21 Apr; Upstairs Beresford, 24 Apr; Beach Hotel, 26 Apr; and Brass Monkey, 27 Apr.

THINGS OF STONE & WOODSTEVE SMYTH

MORE GUM!The Gum Ball in the Hunter Valley have announced an extra morning of performances from Steve Smyth (pictured), Melody Pool, David Garnham & The Reasons To Live and The Septembers, running from 9am until midday on 13 Apr. They’ll be joining an already jam-packed line-up for the fest on 11 & 12 Apr.

KEEPS ON GIVINGCloud Control will be headlining a charity event on 26 Mar at The Basement for Melanoma Institute Australia and in particular, the late Tess McGowan, whose brother Raphael embarked on a 1900km bike ride to raise money for the Institute. Cloud Control will be joined by Brett Winterford and Eleanor Dunlop.

HARBOUR BLISSARIA-winning hip hop juggernauts Bliss N Eso will be holding the next exclusive [V] Island Party on Sydney Harbour, 27 Mar, before they embark on their own national tour.

SHHH, IT’S SECRETThe Farmer & The Owl are holding a not-so-secret laneway party on 13 Apr. The line-up will be a psychstravaganza, full of reverb-driven shoegazey sets, including King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Walking Who, Day Ravies, The Grease Arrestor, Miners and a Los Tones DJ set. Plus video projections and a light installation to match.

ALPHA DELTAFollowing the success of AMP-nominated album HEX.LOVER.KILLER, Melbourne’s The Delta Riggs are heading on tour to drop single Supersonic Casualties from their forthcoming second album, Dipz Debazios. The groove-makers bring their beat-inspired jams to The Roller Den on 17 Apr and Moonshine Bar on 24 Apr.

IT’S FAWLTYAustralia’s tribute to BBC’s iconic ‘70s sitcom, Fawlty Towers, returns to Sydney Opera House for a second season. Faulty Towers – The Dining Experience is a shambolic, interactive event that sees Basil, Sybil and Manuel entertaining their audience in a highly improvised show whilst simultaneously serving them a ‘70s-style three-course meal. A string of nine shows takes place from 27 Jun to 4 Jul.

THE THREE FACTORABC3 is on the hunt for charismatic, quirky talent to join their talented team of presenters. Demonstrate your ‘three factor’ with a short three minute video, fill out an online application and submit your video by 28 Mar to make your mark in TV-land. More details at abc.net.au/abc3.

FLYING HIGHOn 17 Apr at The Hi-Fi you’ll be able to catch Flying Circus in the flesh. Hear founder Audiofly, Tiefschwarz, Alex Niggemann, and locals Start:Cue drop club jams this Easter long weekend.

ROARING MADTickets for Katy Perry’s Prismatic tour sold out so fast that the triple-platinum singer has announced another swag of shows. The California Gurl is now playing Allphones Arena 21, 22, 24, 25 Nov and 12 & 13 Dec.

ROCKERS GET THE BLUESCoronet Blue will take the stage at Bluesfest 2014 for a long-awaited, select live show. The blues group, founded by John Rooney, reads like a list of rock royalty, with former Stones, Eagles and Beach Boys. The Vanguard, 16 Apr.

LEAN ON MEFor Today and Prepared Like A Bride are inviting City Lit Skies, Failure and …Is Dead to The Basement, Canberra, 15 Apr; Staunch, Heiress and Bite Back to Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, 16 Apr; The Ocean The Sky, Polaris and Caught Out to Q Bar, 17 Apr; Hourglass, Justice For The Damned and At The Gallows to Towradgi Surf Life Saving Club, 18 Apr; and Elegist, Bare Bones and Spectrums to The Lair, 19 Apr. Yacht Club DJs will be partying into Oxford Art Factory, 24 Apr with local support Remi. Folk troubadour Devendra Banhart has enlisted Yon Yonson as his 16 Apr, Factory Theatre, support. Bone-crushing metallers The Acacia Strain, Aversions Crown and Graves have announced their slew of supports: Reigner and Machine Genova at The Basement, Canberra, 29 Apr; Reigner and Blind Oracle at Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, 30 Apr; Vices and Hunt The Haunted at Lansdowne, 1 May; and Final Frontier and Spheres at Studio 6, 2 May. Russian Circles will be supported by Dumbsaint and Mish at Manning Bar, 3 May. Maples will open for Frente at The Basement on 30 & 31 May.

“LOVE IS A SMOKE AND IS MADE WITH THE FUME OF SIGHS. SEND A DICK PIC.”@SARAHKSILVERMAN, EVER THE ROMANTIC.


Just another bunch of British rock heroes to have fallen in love with the US of A, the Arctic Monkeys have used the country as a colourful backdrop to explore their sound and create the most electric material of their career. Sticksman Matt Helders chats with Benny Doyle about the band’s growing American songbook and how they avoided making an R&B record.

The astonishing debut album from the Arctic Monkeys, 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, was a soundtrack to

mid-noughties England – fast paced, rebellious, yet with just the right amount of cheek to get away

things about recording here; the availability of things. There’s plenty of studios and every piece of equipment you could ever imagine is available like that afternoon, so the logistics of it make a lot of sense. But [also], the enjoyment and how fun it is to be in a city like that; the journey to the studio and back is completely different to what it would be back in Sheffield.”

Since 2009’s brooding turn, Humbug, the band have embarked on this American lean to great success. The payoff for us fans is a live show that’s currently more bombastic and diverse than ever. There’s a real sense of freedom right now in the Arctic Monkeys camp,

Helders is quick to add that for the Arctic Monkeys, making records has always equated a good time – “We always come out saying that’s the best one we’ve made” – but with AM things felt different for the quartet. From the creation process – the band more playful in the studio with additional instrumentation like keys and drum machine – to the vibe immediately after, Arctic Monkeys’ fifth full-length was and is a celebration of what they’re now capable of. More than ten years since forming in Sheffield’s north, Helders is pleasantly surprised the band are still moving forwards in such a positive way.

“We never took it for granted in that way, [because] you never know what the next record is going to go down like,” he reasons. “Our ambitions have always been modest, or one step at a time: to make a record, to put a record out, to tour the world – it’s all happened in steps. I remember getting asked when we first started where do you see yourselves in five years and just not having a clue, saying I’ll be happy if I’m still doing this and still having fun, and here we are. We’re ambitious obviously, but we don’t expect any of this; we’re not like, ‘Yeah, obviously we should be here’, we never think like that. It definitely helps us appreciate what we got.”

with any ill behaviour. However, recent years have seen the quartet edge further and further from that winning Brit-rock formula, but rather than being chastised for such a move, fans around the world have embraced this new direction with vigour.

With five studio albums in a seven-year stretch, the band are about as prolific as an arena-filling, festival-headlining act can be in this day and age. If they emerged in the ‘60s or ‘70s, they’d probably have a back-catalogue as littered as The Rolling Stones. And like the Stones, the longer the quartet have held the limelight, the more they’ve found inspiration in the beating heart of America, a land forever romanticised about, especially by British rock bands. According to Matt Helders, the lengthy stints recently enjoyed Stateside have really taken the band’s popularity to the next level. “Just in terms of shows, we’ve noticed that our fanbase has grown here more than anywhere else; it’s more noticeable, and the fans here are really passionate about us.

“We recorded these last three albums in America, in California, and we definitely fell for the place a little bit,” Helders continues. “When we first went to Joshua Tree it was pretty life changing in a way; it certainly changed us as a band, musically as well. [And] I think [Los Angeles has] got a lot to offer. There’s the basic

and it’s clear that for the four lads – Helders, bassist Nick O’Malley, guitarist Jamie Cook and frontman Alex Turner – anything is possible.

“Between all the shows we’ve done this year we’ve played every song from the new album; it’s probably the first time we’ve done that really, got every song ready to play, so we can switch it around depending on how we feel that day,” admits the drummer, phoning in before a show in Seattle, Washington. “And it is a good sense of freedom because people are open to it now as well, like the new album went down that well that we can pick

and choose from it.”

After touring the US extensively with The Black

Keys in early-2012, Arctic Monkeys were quick to

begin work on a follow-up to 2011’s Suck It And See, but were in no rush to complete the record.

With Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford in the

production chair once more, the men spent almost a

year putting AM together, confident they were onto

a winning formula following the response given to

R U Mine? upon its release in February ’12. In many

ways it was the track that set the tone for AM.

“We didn’t expect it [to do so well],” remarks Helders.

“It was a single that we put out on its own, just for

that tour we did in America with The Black Keys,

we wanted something new to play, and for Record

Store Day, so we decided to do that. But it’s like a

highlight at the moment on the live show – we play it

last and it seems to be the one people are waiting for

which is strange, considering the other songs we’ve

had out – it even goes down better than I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor or anything like that,

which is amazing, because we love playing that song

as well – but it’s a lot of fun to play R U Mine?.

“And the next thing we did after that was Do I Wanna Know?,” he continues, referencing the second single

dropped from AM in June ’13, “and we were kinda like,

“OUR LIVES AND OUR FRIENDSHIPS DON’T REVOLVE AROUND THE BAND, WHICH HELPS BECAUSE WE CAN SWITCH OFF.”

THE NEXT IN LINE

music


WHEN & WHERE: 6 May,

Qantas Credit Union Arena

let’s keep doing falsetto R&B backing vocals and then the rest of the track can be a bit dirtier. It didn’t have to be all the same pace or heaviness of R U Mine?, but there was certain aspects that we wanted to keep from it. I don’t think we could have got away with it without that [balance], or it would have just been an R&B record.”

With Helders only 27 years of age, and his bandmates on roughly the same page in that regard, a little bit of burnout – some cracks around the edges – could be expected by now. But five albums in and no Arctic Monkeys release sounds stale, though Helders has no idea why.

“It’s not even like we listen to different inspirations every time,” he ponders. “This time we were listening to music we kinda always listen to, like ‘70s rock and hip hop came through a bit more this time. But we do definitely go into the studio with an aim to make a different [record] to the last one, but it’s gotta still make sense, like hoping the last one led to this, or R U Mine? led to this. It is a conscious decision for us but it seems like an obvious thing to do, just to move on a bit and do something different – it’s quite natural.”

It’s hard to comment objectively when you’re part of the pack, but it’s clear for us outsiders what the secret to Arctic Monkeys success is. Music is a solid glue to

bring people together,

but friendships are a far

more stable platform to

build greatness from.

And for these working

class heroes from the

former steel heartland

of England, nothing’s

held more dearly.

“It’s been important

for us and how we’ve

gone about things,”

confirms Helders. “Our

relationship as people was

very much established

before the band started,

so even day-to-day

things, we’ve got a lot

more in common and to

talk about than just the

band. Our lives and our

friendships don’t revolve around the band, which helps because we can easily switch off. When it comes to working and making music then we’re ready to go, and if we don’t wanna we can just sit on the bus and talk about nonsense, and I think that’s quite important. Obviously it can work the other way as well, like people get together just because they’re musicians and still make amazing music, but for us we’re kinda on the same page a lot of the time, steering the ship in the same direction as it were.”

POINT AND SHOOT“The thing that’s got it all fucked up now is camera phones” moaned

Mike Skinner back

on The Streets’

2006 track, When You Wasn’t Famous, and technology has

only become faster,

smaller and more

shiny since then.

This has made

Sheffield life as an

Arctic Monkey a

bit harder than it

once was – local

legends and all

that – but Helders

isn’t complaining

too much: “I’d

probably be the

same,” he shrugs.

“[We can

disappear] less and

less as we go on,

like we’ve been

back [to Sheffield]

a few times recently

and it does get a

bit hectic,” admits

the drummer. “We

still want to go out

at night and see

all our friends – a

lot of [them] have

bars there and

stuff – but they’re

in town and they’re

busy so you can’t

really go without

a camera phone

being in your face.

“We were there

at the end of [an

era]; well, at the

start of the new

era of how people

are. And now, even

the quality of the

phone that you can

take [video] with

[is much better].

Before you’ve got

home that night

it’s already on

the internet – it’s

mad. People know

where I am and

will tell me I was

in a place before I

can, like, ‘Cool, you

were in that bar

last night’, and I’m

like, ‘Yeah... why

do you know?’.”

shows in cities where before we’d played to

hundreds of people and suddenly we were playing

to a dozen people. It was a remarkable failure.

“But the new material really came from us going back

and doing these shows where we were playing a lot

of the stuff from Bakesale and Harmacy and [1993’s]

Bubble And Scrape and kind of tapping into that

older energy of the band. I think when we tackled

the new recordings that’s what influenced it.”

As with most Sebadoh material, Barlow’s contributions

– he splits songwriting evenly with bandmate Jason

Lowenstein – is characterised by its brutal honesty,

although he attests that this approach is in his creative

DNA rather than some contrived quest for catharsis.

“They’re all pretty much break-up songs,” he tells

of his contributions to Defend Yourself. “I don’t mind

them being so personal – that’s what I’ve always

done. I’ve embarrassed myself countless times – I

don’t even think about it anymore, I just do it. I’m not

US indie icons Sebadoh have taken their reunion to the logical next level with the release of new album, Defend Yourself. Band mainstay Lou Barlow talks to Steve Bell about grasping second chances and following that little voice in your head.

It gets to the stage with any full-blown reunion of a seminal band where nostalgia is no longer enough to keep either the protagonists or punters coming

back for more. At that juncture there’s only two clear-cut options – either put the project back in mothballs or conjure with some compelling new music. The latter option is of course fraught with danger – not least the possibility of tarnishing one’s ‘legacy’ – but the prevailing viewpoint is that a band eventually needs new tunes if they’re to be seen as a relevant ongoing concern.

In the case of ‘90s US indie legends Sebadoh they’d survived by revisiting their former glories since reforming back in 2007 – they’d toured both different incarnations and different eras of the band – before deciding that enough was enough, eventually hitting the studio and emerging with last year’s excellent eighth album, Defend Yourself (their first long-player since 1999’s The Sebadoh). Fortunately founding member and co-frontman Lou Barlow had recently been through a similar process with his other reformed alma mater Dinosaur Jr, so he had firsthand experience which proved that going back to the well – if approached correctly – can indeed pay handsome dividends.

“I used the model of Dinosaur – the new material for Dinosaur really revitalised the band,” Barlow remembers. “I’ve been in the reincarnated, reunited version for twice as long as I was in the band originally so it worked – it’s actually amazing. We just out ourselves to the challenge of making new music with Dinosaur and we just did it in a very natural way, and with Sebadoh that’s what I used as the model – if we just go in and put some microphones there and record we will make a new Sebadoh record, and it will be Sebadoh. We always had our own musical identity and our own little sound, in the same way that Dinosaur does, so I knew that it could work if we just let it happen.”

Sebadoh’s sound changed quite dramatically over the initial journey, and Barlow admits that they returned to these various eras as a template for the new music – namely their super-fertile mid-period, eschewing what they saw as the shortcomings of their later releases.

“I did [have an agenda for the sound] a little bit,” he continues. “With [1996’s] Harmacy that was our

big follow up to [1994’s] Bakesale and it was meant to be our ‘breakout record’, but it was obvious to me at the time – I knew when we were recording it – that it would not be our breakout record. I just knew that you

ON THE ATTACK

WHAT: Defend Yourself (Domino/EMI)

WHEN & WHERE: 22 Mar, Factory

Floor (matinee and evening shows)

“THE NEW MATERIAL REALLY CAME FROM US GOING BACK… AND KIND OF TAPPING INTO THAT OLDER ENERGY OF THE BAND.”

naming names or anything like that, but I’ve always done it that way and it’s basically the only way I can do it because if I try to make something clever or tried to put a lot of metaphor in my songs or tried to describe something by describing something else, I wouldn’t even know how to remember the words.

“Unless I’m speaking directly from my own experience and what I’m actually thinking – unless I’m speaking almost directly from that little voice in my head – then I can’t remember the lyrics when I play live, and that to me is unacceptable. To me it has to be easy – it has to be natural and easy – so, especially with Sebadoh, I default to purely autobiographical, stark language.”

music

couldn’t really take our

basic thing and polish

it up and make it into

something more than

it was, and I think

it actually detracted

from what we had

trying to do that.

“And I actually like

The Sebadoh, but that’s

a pretty complex and

deep record – that

one was also reviled.

That one was really

disliked among fans

and was the end of

an era for us, because

we ended up playing



“The music industry is up and down and it’s hard to have a career that endures,” Michael Franti acknowledges. Dylan Stewart discovers the humanitarian musician opened a yoga hotel in Bali, where he is also heavily involved with fundraising initiatives for the Bumi Sehat clinic and the Green School.

It’s a heady life, that of a musician. Michael Franti and his band, Spearhead, recently wrapped up the final shows of an extensive American tour and,

although that would be a decent excuse for a break, not much about Franti’s work ethic suggests that the band will be resting on their laurels any time soon.

Having played in small cities and large for the best part of five months last year, it’s the chance to play the smaller gigs that gives Franti the most enjoyment. “When you play in one of the smaller cities like Port Chester, New York [population: 29,000], the people are so appreciative. They don’t have gigs here seven nights a week like they do in, say, New York City, so they come out with such enthusiasm and energy.”

After two decades of performing to audiences around the world, Franti is more than happy to share that energy. All across the band’s eighth studio record, the part-party/part-acoustic All People, Franti’s enthusiasm is obvious. “We love this record; it’s great to be out on the road playing it. Fans love it too and people know all the words already.

“The other thing is that, we’ve been together for so long, we have an intuition that we share as a band. All it takes is a glance from me to our drummer to take the song in another direction, and we always change our setlist every night. Otherwise it gets stale for us, and if it’s stale for us, it’s stale for the audience.”

Those holidaying in Bali over the Christmas period might have seen a poster or two with Franti’s name on it; for the Soulshine Festival in Bali, in late December. A family-friendly festival that supports the Green School Bali – an environmental school that teaches children of all ages – it’s obviously a passion project for Franti, who first set it up years ago. “As well as the Green School – it’s also to raise funds for the Bumi Sehat clinic, which is a birthing clinic in Ubud that I’ve been supporting over the last five years,” he continues. “The first time I went to Bali I met the woman who runs it, and in 2011 she was named CNN’s International Hero Of The Year. It’s a great cause.”

But one would think a trip to Bali wouldn’t be complete without some serious R&R. “I opened a yoga hotel there three years ago so I go and spend about a month there,” Franti elaborates. “We just eat coconuts, swim,

“I think it’s our sixth or seventh time [playing Bluesfest]. We’re really excited about it. I always mark places on our tour schedule that we’re really excited about going to with a big red heart, and this is one of them. Everyone’s already talking about how excited they are about heading back to Byron Bay.”

When Franti was just starting out, the opportunities to connect with his fans were limited. Email was in its infancy; YouTube, Facebook – hell, even Napster and MySpace – were still years away. Rather than fend new technologies off, Franti has embraced these as tools to

surf and practice yoga for a month; that’s what we do to escape the San Francisco winter. The whole band comes; we sort of take over the hotel. Everybody brings their kids and wives, and we make it a big Spearhead family experience.”

MUSIC FOR ALL PEOPLE

WHEN & WHERE: 15 Apr, Metro Theatre; 19

Apr, Deni Blues & Roots Festival, Deniliquin; 20 –

21 Apr, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

“I ALWAYS MARK PLACES ON OUR TOUR SCHEDULE THAT WE’RE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT GOING TO WITH A BIG RED HEART, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM.”

music

reach his audience. “The internet has been a godsend for us as musicians. A lot of people in the music industry have been resistant to the change, but we’ve always looked at it as a great opportunity to get as many people to hear our stuff as possible. It’s been the greatest thing to also keep in contact with our fans. Before they used to write snail-mail letters; we’d get 100 and I’d respond to ten. Then email came along and we’d get thousands in a year and I’d get to write maybe a hundred back. Now with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can reach hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the day.”

With Australian audiences gearing up to see Michael Franti & Spearhead play at Bluesfest, it’s hard to tell who will be more excited – Franti or his fans. “The music industry is up and down and it’s hard to have a career that endures,” he acknowledges. “So we just feel grateful and thankful that the people of Australia are happy to come out and support us.


LIZOTTE’S NEWCASTLE02 4956 2066

LIZOTTE’S SYDNEY02 9984 9933

AWARDED BEST ENTERTAINMENTRESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA

MARRYING TWO OF LIFE’S GREATEST PLEASURES

GREAT FOOD AND MUSIC

LIZOTTE’S CENTRAL COAST02 4368 2017

w w w . l i z o t t e s . c o m . a u

Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd

Dee Why

Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St

Lambton

Lizotte’s Central CoastLot 3 Avoca Dr

Kincumber

Calling all artists for Live and Locals! Contact [email protected]

19MAR

22MAR

23MAR

25MAR

26MAR

28MAR

29MAR

19MAR

20MAR

21MAR

22MAR

23MAR

26MAR

26MAR

27MAR

28MAR

29MAR

30MAR

23MAR

20MAR

19MAR

21MAR

22MAR

Peter Rowan Bluegrass Trio (USA)

Parissa Bouas & Feel The Manouche Featuring George Washingmachine

Karise Eden

Marsala Band – A Night of Gypsy, Balkan & World Music

Weekend Warriors Big Gig presented by Mall Music

Fairplay Entertainment presents Coopers LIVE & LOCAL

A Night At The Crossroads – A Tribute To Robert Johnson

Ms Murphy

Dewayne Everettsmith


Damien Leith – Duo

Karise Eden

Lazy Sunday Lunch with Ross The Boss Wilson

Lior – Scattered Reflections Tour



Amber Lawrence & Jason Owen – Islands In The Stream Tour

Ms Murphy


Morgan Evans – Album Launch Party

Songs In The Key Of Life – The Stevie Wonder Songbook

The Crowdies Show – A Tribute To Crowded House & Split Enz

Karise Eden

Lior – Scattered Reflections Tour


Galapagos Duck

Ms Murphy

Amber Lawrence & Jason Owen – Islands In The Stream Tour

27MAR

28MAR29

MAR

21MAR

30MAR


Bobby Keys has played on heaps of your favourite records. He tells Dan Condon a little about it.

There’s not enough space on this half-page to cover the depth of Bobby Keys’ discography. Here he is discussing a sample of the setlist you can expect

when his Suffering Bastards come to town; he played on all these original recordings. “A lot of the material is taken from the Stones stuff, Exile On Main Street and Sticky Fingers, that period of time,” he says in his friendly Texan drawl. “Also some stuff from Joe Cocker I did with Mad Dogs & Englishmen, some hit records I did with George Harrison on All Things Must Pass and some John Lennon things people would be familiar with; Whatever Gets Your Through The Night and Power To The People.”

That’s barely scratching the surface; you could go into classic albums from Warren Zevon, Dr John, Eric Clapton, Donovan, Harry Nilsson… Even the personnel on Keys’ eponymous 1972 debut solo album are staggering, “There’s some great players on there. Clapton plays a lot of guitar on there, George and Ringo, Billy Preston, some excellent musicians…”

The Rolling Stones will always be the band Keys is best known for his association with; he’s been with them almost 45 years and has been a vital part of their sound. He says when he first went in to lay down a sax part on the Let It Bleed album, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. “Didn’t have a clue. The first track I played on was Live With Me, which was also the first track that Mick Taylor played on.”

After all these years, he never gets sick of playing with or listening to the Stones. “Nope, I really don’t. The band have never become a parody of themselves, they’re not just going through the motions or any of that jazz – I’d get sick of that real fast. I don’t get sick of playing with people that are playing on the kind of level they are – I’ve played Brown Sugar 2000 times or more, and I still put everything into it as much as I did the first time I played it – as do they.

Having played on so many hugely influential recordings, it’s interesting to hear where Keys himself found his early inspiration. The late 1950s was a big time for the saxophone in

rock’n’roll. “My approach to music was influenced by King Curtis and saxophone players of the late ‘50s on the Atlantic label, they had so many great saxophone players – The Coasters’ records, LaVern Baker… That’s when I became really aware of the saxophone as a rock’n’roll instrument. And those old r’n’b records, Fats Domino, Little Richard – everyone had saxophones! Then it changed and everybody had guitars.”

He comes to Australia with The Suffering Bastards, a band put together by a friend for a bit of fun. “It all came about primarily because I was looking for something to do; a sax player in Nashville is not the busiest guy in town. I ran into this fella Chark [Von Kinsolving]; he had a place to play and knew musicians and it worked out real well.”

RIP THIS JOINT

WHEN & WHERE: 23 Mar, The

Basement; 24 Mar, The Hi-Fi

music

Simon Stone’s take on the Russian satire The Government Inspector takes a look at the politics of human relationships, but is also “silly and fun”, actor Zahra Newman explains to Oliver Coleman.

Since graduating from drama school in 2008 Zahra Newman has become a well loved frequenter of the main stages of Melbourne and Sydney theatres

in roles such as Amanda in Belvoir’s Private Lives or Camae in The Mountaintop. She came to Australia from Jamaica at the age of 14 and at that time didn’t really consider acting a viable option as a career. “But then being in Australia, there were courses. You could get government assistance. And I thought I could do this. When I thought about what I’m going to do with the

rest of my life, everything else seemed like I would not be satisfied.”

I catch up with her during the second last week of rehearsals for The Government Inspector at the Malthouse Theatre. Originally Malthouse and Belvoir had teamed up to produce an adaptation of The Philadelphia Story to be directed by Simon Stone. However, towards the end of last year after the 2014 season was announced, an unforeseen issue with the rights arose and the production was swiftly cancelled. Stone had to quickly come up with another play to direct. He decided on NikolaI Gogol’s 1836 Russian satire The

Government Inspector and carried across the entire cast of The Philadelphia Story into the new production.

Stone claims that of all his adaptations, this is the one that bears the least resemblance to the original text. The original play takes place in a provincial Russian town. Its corrupt officials fear the arrival of an inspector from the central government. A lowly public servant is mistaken for the inspector and he takes advantage of the bribes that are lain at his feet. Stone and his compatriots have taken the core themes and relationships of the original text and combined them with the circumstances that surrounded the creation of their production. Newman explains, “It’s a group of actors who were about to stage a play but they’ve had their rights taken away from them so they have to find something else to put on in a short amount of time. Which is very similar to the situation we were in and we make references to that and we all play a version of ourselves in parts of the show.”

Gogol’s original is a biting satire that unmasks petty government corruption and inane bureaucracy. Newman explains that their deconstruction deals more with the politics of human relationships. “It’s more about the politics about the dynamic between people. And you do get the politics of theatre: egos, administration and money.” As well as exposing the sausage factory that is the rehearsal room, Newman points out, “The show is also really silly and fun and it’s just sort of like an appreciation of theatre. It’s about the love of what we do. There’s nothing wrong with just entertainment and I think that is what the show is saying as well.”

INSPECTION TIME

WHAT: The Government InspectorWHEN & WHERE: 27 Mar – 18 May,

Belvoir, Upstairs Theatre

theatre

ZAHRA NEWMAN WITH GARETH DAVIES. PIC: BRETT BOARDMAN



Devin Abrams of New Zealand drum’n’bass giants Shapeshifter chats to Scott Aitken about winning over strangers and how some Upbeat opinions have helped their most recent work.

After the critical and commercial success

of their fifth album Delta last year, New

Zealand’s Shapeshifter have been touring

non-stop to promote it throughout their homeland

and Australia. Now the band are set for a lengthy

international tour starting in Europe in April that

also includes dates in the US and Canada, both firsts

for a band that’s played together almost 14 years.

“It’s always really, really nerve-wracking but at the

same time it’s the most rewarding,” founding member

and synth player Devin Abrams admits of touring

new places. “You go to places and pretty much

your audience hardly knows you so you’ve got to

really earn that crowd straight off the bat.

“In Australasia and Europe, people know our music so well that it’s a party straightaway. In new places you’ve got to work your arse off to get that crowd engaged, and it’s really rewarding when you pull it off.”

While the prospect of playing to unfamiliar

faces might be nerve-wracking, Abrams says the five-piece are excited to get back to Australia to build up extra confidence for the North American tour.

“I’m probably most excited about Perth to be honest, it’s probably our biggest crowd in Australia. To be able to get over 2000 people every time we play there now is just huge so we’re always really excited to play there, and obviously stoked to give Adelaide and Byron Bay a gig ‘cause we missed them out on our album tour so hopefully there will be some happy campers there.”

Currently the band are putting the finishing touches on a new EP, which they made with New Zealand production duo The Upbeats. Apart from their own success, the pair are known by fans for their work mixing Shapeshifter’s last album. Abrams says this time round, the duo is on an equal playing field with the band in terms of creative input.

“The writing process didn’t really change at all,”Abrams says. “But we definitely had to let go a little bit when we brought them onboard and let their opinions percolate and have value so it was definitely different but I really enjoyed it. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we pretty much said to them straightaway we want to do another album together so we really enjoyed working with them.”

And for those looking for a little more to chew on, a new LP is also on the cards. “We’ll drop this EP in September but then we’re straight back into the studio [to] start writing the next album and bring The Upbeats onboard again to help us.”

EARNING THEIR KEEP

WHAT: Delta (Truetone)

WHEN & WHERE: 22 Mar, Manning Bar

music


While recording Obsidian, his third album as Baths, Will Wiesenfeld realised he wanted more freedom live – the ability to perform as a lead singer. That meant expanding the band. He talks to Sky Kirkham about the impact the change has had.

“It’s been more fun,” Wiesenfeld reflects, on

the addition of Morgan Greenwood (of

Azeda Booth) to Baths. “It’s a different sort

of atmosphere. The set feels more flexible and more

interesting to perform, whereas by myself I felt more

limited in the actual sounds that I could make and

things that I could do. One of the biggest contributions

that Morgan made was being adamant about having

improv in our sets, improvisational electronic bits. I was really sceptical at first, but it’s become the most fun parts of performing live for us, because each time we get to one of those sections it’s kind of like a free-for-all and it’s really exciting.

“Morgan is one of the only people that I can even fathom doing a full record with. It’s taken a year of us doing stuff together [for me] to feel comfortable with the idea, [but] we’ve already sort of made a song together. I have a new EP coming out soon and the fourth track on it is one that we worked on together,

so that will be the first thing out in the world that is of that collaboration, fully. I think for the next full-length record we’re trying to actually work together. I may start a lot of the productions on my own, but he’s going to be heavily involved in a way that I haven’t had someone involved before, so it’s going to be interesting.”

Obsidian is a much darker album than Baths’ first, Cerulean. Interestingly, Wiesenfeld says while he is inspired by music, his main influence is actually visual. “It’s hard to make it make sense, but the deepest inspiration for me is crazy Japanese art, and a lot of weird, rare, gay art from Japan. And animation in general. I’m constantly saving images on my phone or buying movies, or downloading things; searching through forums or Pixiv. So, at least in the past couple of years, that’s been my main thing: I can’t get enough of it and it always inspires me to try to write music that feels like the images I’m looking at.

“A small idea can still have a really broad sense of inspiration that you can’t really explain. One of the songs on Obsidian, No Past Lives, was just a sonic idea. I wanted to have a sharp jittery piano part that falls into something very loud and kind of earthquakey and slower, and then jumps between the parts a bunch, so that it’s very jarring, and the timing is different each time so it feels kind of uncomfortable. And I had that in my head before I’d made a single note of that song. Sometimes a single word will be a big inspiration and then I can write a whole song around that, so it will have small seeds, or sometimes it’s a very big idea that gets smaller. For me the fun of recording is that it’s always different.”

IMPROV ELECTRO

WHEN & WHERE: 21 Mar, Oxford Art Factory

music


Sydney Dance Company spring into the year with a deliberately disconnected triple bill. As Rafael Bonachela and Gideon Obarzanek insist, Interplay will not be themed. Dance correspondent Paul Ransom joins the dots.

What’s the difference between a trio of dips and a triptych? Delightful interplay, of course. No wonder Sydney Dance Company are

calling their upcoming triple bill Interplay. Powered by a 16-strong ensemble, the company launch into their 45th anniversary season with short works by three world renowned choreographers. The evening begins with SDC’s artistic director Rafael Bonachela debuting his new work 2 In D Minor. Following that, Italian dancer/choreographer Jacopo Godani’s Raw Models,

before coming back to Australia for SDC alumni and Chunky Move founder Gideon Obarzanek’s long-awaited return to main stage dance, L’Chaim! (Hebrew for ‘to life’).

But what holds these pieces together? “The company itself – the 16 dancers,” Bonachela declares. “I wanted to give the audience an evening that had light and shade. This comes from having gone to see triple bills and seeing the same piece three times.” For Gideon Obarzanek the brief was clear. “I haven’t approached this at all with any attempt to connect, which is kinda unusual.” Bonachela expands

the point, “There has been a lot of thought about the order and the flavour of the work but we’re not trying to influence one another. I obviously commissioned the work and I did suggest to Gideon that I would love him to use everyone, the entire ensemble.”

Since leaving Chunky Move in 2011, Obarzanek has been writing a play and dabbling in short film. His return to dance has clearly refreshed his vision. “Y’know, when I stopped I needed a break but also I really felt that, as a choreographer, I had really done pretty much everything I imagined I could do... But Raf gave me the challenge to come back to dance and work with this group of technically very strong dancers and it seemed so interesting that, y’know, it was kinda hard to resist.”

In his role as SDC director, Bonachela has a keener eye than most on the ensemble, who will dance all three pieces, finishing with Obarzanek. “I always love it when I see them acting or doing something that I’ve never seen before,” he enthuses. “It’s almost like speaking three different languages with the one body … For an audience to see a dancer doing my work, when perhaps they are maybe familiar with my style, and then see them doing something that I don’t do; this is what excites me about this kind of work.” As to whether Interplay is a kind of snapshot of where contemporary dance is right now, Bonachela is unsure, but he certainly has his own view: “It’s constantly moving, so magical. What’s going on is so wide-ranging. Y’know, there are people now making work that has no dancing in it. I think you can compare it to contemporary art, where you have people doing conceptual or video art. It’s almost like a playground.”

DANCE PLAYGROUND

WHAT: InterplayWHEN & WHERE: until 5 Apr, Sydney Theatre

dance

Having faced down Hurricane Sandy, Taylor Momsen is ready to take on the world. The provocative frontwoman chats with Kitt Di Camillo ahead of the release of album number two from The Pretty Reckless.

After more than two years of solid touring, The Pretty Reckless were a well oiled machine when it came time to record a follow-up to

their breakthrough debut album Light Me Up. The line-up of guitarist Ben Phillips, bassist Mark Damon, drummer Jamie Perkins and irrepressible frontwoman Taylor Momsen won over the initial doubters through a brutal live show by refusing refusal to go any direction but their own. Raring to go and with new tracks already in the bag, the band quickly found recording more of a mission than anyone could have expected.

“This record took a lot,” explains Momsen. “We were working at this studio called Water Music in Hoboken New Jersey, and it was just our room, totally our vibe, our shit, and everything was flowing and it was great. Then Hurricane Sandy came in, wiped out the studio, took all our gear and guitars and recordings with it. So that was not fun! And from there we had to rebuild and find a new place to record because the studio was getting rebuilt. When we got a new studio we started recording again, and right as everything was starting to go great again our producer’s wife passed [away] very suddenly overnight. She was like a mother to everyone in the band. It doesn’t get any closer than that. I get choked up every time I talk about it – no one’s over it yet. The

record’s dedicated to her. So that stopped everything again and then during that break we actually wrote the song Fucked Up World, and then ended up recording the final songs for the record – the last songs we recorded back at Water Studios – so it came full circle. But death makes a hurricane look like nothing. So we went through a lot of tragedy and a lot of hardships, but I think that you can hear it in the record.”

Beneath Momsen’s media-baiting antics is a powerful voice that defies any misconceptions stemming from her acting background, proving that her Gossip

Girl days are now far behind her. “It definitely was a struggle to overcome the actress-turned-musician stereotype. When really I was a musician way before I was an actress anyway. I play piano, I play guitar, I’ve been writing songs since I was a kid, I’ve been singing since before I can remember. “But there definitely was a bit of struggle to get the public to see that. If you watch someone on a television show week after week playing a character, it’s just that – it’s a character. I look the same, I have the same face, I have the same voice, but I’m saying someone else’s lines. So to get someone to see you outside of that definitely took some time. But it’s been five years now since I acted and that transition has definitely happened. The people coming to shows aren’t bringing Gossip Girl DVDs to get signed, you know? They’re bringing records and they know every word to every song, they’re there for the music.”

RECKLESS GOSSIP

WHAT: Going To Hell (Cooking Vinyl)

music


Mythological Occult Metal is not only a thing - for founding Absu oddity Proscriptor McGovern, it’s a way of life. Lochlan Watt investigates their tongue-twisting ideas for Australian tour number two.

“I still think that I’m projecting a vivid objective behind the band,” comments McGovern, drummer, arranger, vocalist, lyricist, and

sole remaining original member of Absu.

“I think any musician can say that they’re trying to create the perfect picture of what the band’s projection is all about, and so I decided that I’m still trying to perceive that goal, and that’s something that I’ve been trying to do since ‘89.”

Absu is a unique entity in the world of underground metal. McGovern believes that the band stands out against “the normal unit of extreme metal music on a universal basis.”

With six full-lengths alongside numerous splits and EPs, McGovern reveals that the band is aiming to release yet another full-length, the final of their self-titled-but-spelled-differently trilogy, in early 2015.

“The next album is the concluding instalment of the trilogy - it’s the Sumerian spelling of the band moniker. I decided some years ago that the three albums in the trilogy

would primarily be related to and based on everything that is related to what Absu is all about. I refuse to name the last three albums with unique titles, as I simply wanted to name each one as Absu, the English spelling; Abzu, the Mesopotamian; and Abzu, which is the forthcoming album, but differentiated by their different cover designs. That’s the objective so far.”

So what is Absu all about exactly? “On a lyrical basis I combine mythology, paranormal, and metaphysical-related topics, and when writing Absu’s music I try to express my lyrical content and ideologies as vividly as possible. Absu’s music is a formation of chaos and magick, because I believe I can change subjective experiences and objective realities. On a lyrical aspect, Absu’s music is based on OTO - Ordo Templi Orientis, Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn, Thelemic Magick, Enochian Magick, Tasseomancy and Necromancy, and also the adoration of Sumerian, Mesopotamian, and Celtic mythology. So that’s basically all the formations that make up the lyrics inside of Absu’s music.”

Although the band doesn’t appear to tour full-time, “everything is dedicated to Absu. That’s it. We’ve basically broken away from tour agencies and everything is pretty much dedicated to doing it ourselves. We book our own shows, we manage the band… it’s definitely full-time employment. Outside of that it’s constant studying and memorising occult science, magick and mythology on a daily basis for myself, and for what I incorporate into the lyrical conceptions of Absu. Outside of that everything else is dedicated to the businesses and the musical writing of the music.”

OCCULT METAL

WHEN & WHERE: 22 Mar, Factory Theatre

music


feeling and relating to at the time,” she says. “I just felt like all of those sorts of songs were just coming out of me. I’d come straight off doing all the touring and stuff with Seeker Lover Keeper and I was feeling like I’d been working so much and I was really exhausted and I felt like my album Heart That’s Pounding felt kinda like my big pop album. I kinda just thought I wanted to make an album that was more like stressing all of the different things that we should feel...

I just sat down at the piano and the songs just came out. So it was like, ‘Well, this is the body of work that I have’. That felt like a good

says of the decision to steer clear of using her own name at the time. “I was kind of naming the music, and I just felt more comfortable doing that back then.”

In 2007 the New Buffalo album Somewhere, Anywhere was nominated for the ARIA for Best Adult Contemporary Album and earned Seltmann the first of two Australian Music Prize nominations. 2010’s Heart That’s Pounding saw the beginning of the Sally Seltmann-titled material (interestingly Seltmann’s her married name, but you’ve got to admit it has a pretty nice ring to it), and it scored the songwriter her second AMP finals spot.

Throughout her life as a musician, and under her various guises, Seltmann has played a large hand in the production of her recorded music. As with her approach to songwriting, Seltmann relates that it’s a practice born out of pragmatism rather than any deeper design. Being in control of the production, she says, simply allows her to carve the songs as she envisages them.

“The main reason why I kind of got into [production] was ‘cause Darren [of The Avalanches fame], my husband, really encouraged me to record and produce my first New Buffalo album [The Last Beautiful Day] by myself... I kind of was a bit afraid to do it at first, but after I did it and spent all the hours learning how to use

(in Sydney suburb Bankstown, no less), lamenting a love lost. It’s a creepy kind of series of scenes; there are even weird fairies (also Seltmanns) dancing in the garden – it’s more than just a wee bit Lynchian Gothic.

“I just wanted to have a song where I was being like a character, so I’m this woman who’s singing about Billy,” says Seltmann of the single. “I wanted the song... It’s kind of basically talking about relationships and how much freedom to give your partner in order to keep your relationship alive. She gives her partner Billy freedom to be dangerous, ‘cause that’s what he desires, but that kills him. But at least she loved him so much that she gave him that freedom. So that’s kind of the whole story behind the song.”

As a taste of the new record, Billy sets the scene. On Hey Daydreamer Seltmann has set out to “create a collection of songs that express the full spectrum of human emotion” – no mean feat, one would think, and not your average method for constructing a pop record. It’s an approach that most would shrink from; it’s overwhelming in its scope. But Seltmann says the ‘concept’ of the album stemmed more from the songs as they amassed themselves, rather than any grandiose design.

“Usually the way I work for my own albums is that it’s all just emotion and, I don’t know, the songs that I want to put on my own albums are songs that I am really

way for me to work – sort of like not really overthinking everything.”

Listening to Seltmann’s music now, it’s odd to think that her early musical output came in the form of a four-piece rock outfit called Lustre 4 (“like a two girls and two guys guitary kind of punk band with harmonies”). She formed the group with friend Lara Meyerratken, with whom she shared the writing duties, and they played the Sydney bar circuit before Seltmann moved to Melbourne. It was in Melbourne that she started playing and recording under the moniker New Buffalo. “I thought that it suited me more at the time to play under a different name,” she

Pro Tools and everything it just felt really empowering to be able to program tracks and record everything on my own... You can have ideas going around in your head and you can actually lay the ideas down on your own, so it makes you feel independent and strong.”

There are elements of Hey Daydreamer that reveal an ever so slightly harder edge to Seltmann’s craft. The cover artwork itself is suggestive of an introspective experience – Seltmann stands among an acid-tinged landscape, tangled brush behind her and a path running off into the bush. The cover dares the listener to indulge in something bold; it entices investigation. Seltmann says she knew the artwork had to be very Australian in look – a kind of sly wink at her recent move to LA. “I kind of call it ‘psychedelic Australiana’ – the look of the cover,” she laughs.

The album bio describes the song I Will Not Wear Your Wedding Ring as “a dark fairytale for grown-ups”, occupying the gloomier end of the human emotional spectrum. “I felt like I have no kind of tough songs,” Seltmann laughs, by way of explanation. “I just wanted to write a song that was a bit darker and a bit tougher... I really like how we got it sounding really primal – how percussive it is – it’s got that kind of feel to it.”

On Hey Daydreamer, Seltmann shared production duties with Darren, something they hadn’t done before (though in 2001 Darren produced the first New Buffalo

“YOU ALWAYS LEARN SOMETHING FROM ANYONE YOU EVER WORK WITH, EVEN IF YOU LEARN THAT YOU KNOW YOU NEVER WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, YOU’LL ALWAYS COME AWAY WITH SOMETHING.”

“Y

music

From an indie-rock four-piece to her acclaimed New Buffalo material into her self-named work and various collaborations, Sally Seltmann remains somewhat a musical chameleon, Samson McDougall discovers.

Photo by Kane Hibberd.

ou always follow through with your dangerous pursuits/With open arms I always say to you/I say I want you to feel like a man/I need you

to feel like a man,” sings Sally Seltmann in her new track Billy – the lead number on her latest album Hey Daydreamer. The video features a glamorous-yet-housebound woman (Seltmann) in various stages of dress, meandering through the rooms of a large house

EP About Last Night in a solo capacity). “That was him being fully in control of all of the production whereas this one we kind of shared that role so it felt new and made the whole experience seem really kind of personal, which felt like it really suited the songs,” she says of the approach. It makes sense, given the depth and personal nature of the material, that she’d not be bringing too many outsiders in to the process. And what better person to turn to than your musically accomplished husband for the role. “[Hey Daydreamer] felt good; all of his ideas that he had for it I just really loved, so it felt really great

DREAM ALBUMS It was July 2013 when Sally Seltmann settled on the name Hey Daydreamer for her latest album but she had to keep it under her hat in January this year. “That’s the frustrating thing about making music, I guess,” she says. “There’s a lot of time when you can’t tell people anything... [But] it makes it exciting.” The concept of daydreaming fits nicely with the subject matter – the expression of the full spectrum of human emotions – on the album, and as a titular choice it finds itself in some notable, if varied, company.

For many readers of The Music it’d be Sonic Youth’s 1988 LP Daydream Nation that springs to mind when conjuring albums whose titles hinge on the act of daytime contemplation. The album was the band’s last minor label release before signing to Geffen to release Goo in 1990. Interestingly enough, Daydream Nation was the band’s choice of go-to album for their Don’t Look Back tours in 2008 (yeah, it was the 20th anniversary of the thing, but of all the Sonic Youth albums to play start-to-finish it was a bold move).

Daydream (1995) by Mariah Carey is obviously a very different kettle of fish than either of the above but it would be remiss not to mention it here. Naturally, it charted incredibly well (six weeks at number one in the US is pretty decent) and had a bunch of number one singles to boot. Possibly the most (only?) surprising thing about the record was that despite its six Grammy noms at the 1996 ceremony, and the thing’s massive chart successes, she failed to pick up a gong.

The album Daydreaming (1987) by Morris Day possesses perhaps the most garishly incredible artwork of all time. Morris, in a pimp suit, stands open-armed as he soaks in a private jet, which I’m surprised he was allowed anywhere near, parked on a tarmac next to a Cadillac he’s obviously borrowed from some other bloke named ‘MORRIS’ (as the numberplate suggests) and a yellow bathing-suited honey languishes on the concrete. Aspiring rappers take note: this is how it’s done. Sadly, despite the great cover and the clever-ish play on his own name in the title, if he was looking for a hit record he was clearly (day)dreaming.

working together and I really love all of the things he brought to the songs,” she says.

Of late, Seltmann has been no stranger to musical collaborations of the songwriting sort. A co-writer of Feist’s Grammy-nominated hit 1234, and member of acclaimed ‘supergroup’ Seeker Lover Keeper (alongside noted songwriters Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby), Seltmann says she finds inspiration in working with other writers. And although she has remained an independent force in her solo stuff, the act of collaboration is something she immensely enjoys. “Both of those [collaborations] were natural and felt easy to do,” she says of working with Blasko and Throsby, as well as Feist. “I just think that, y’know, writing songs for a while and recording your own music it just feels natural to me to branch out and try other things so that’s kind of the path I’ve taken... You always learn something from anyone you ever work with, even if you learn that you know you never want to do something like that again, you’ll always come away with something. [It’s] very important for creative people to constantly be having sparks that go off in their brain that makes them think things and then create something with those thoughts.”


WHAT: Hey Daydreamer (Caroline)

WHEN & WHERE: 3 Apr, Lizotte’s, Kincumber; 4 Apr, The Vanguard


When you’ve got #1 albums, armloads of awards and world tours to your name, what do you do? If you’re The Presets, you release a remix package, tour the country’s premier regional festival and settle in with one of the world’s best chamber orchestras, that’s what, as Dylan Stewart discovers from Julian Hamilton.

Julian Hamilton is one half of The Presets, and right now he’s hunkering down in preparation for a hectic schedule. “You just try and get a bit zen,

organise your day properly and hopefully get through everything you’ve gotta get through,” he says. “Whether that’s making new songs or rehearsing or touring or preparing kids’ school lunches… We did the hard yards as all young bands do; we can handle it again.”

The Goodbye Future remix bundle (of which an exclusive club edit of Goodbye Future was first released to streaming service Rdio before anywhere else) gives an opportunity for Hamilton – and his partner-in-crime, Kim Moyes – to reflect on the difference between making music for their fans and music for themselves.

“You want your songs to be played on radio. (But) you need them to be three minutes long and all that nonsense. We like to go and make extended mixes because that’s the kind of music that we really love. Radio’s never going to play a six-minute version of a song but we’d much rather listen to that six-minute version.”

Hamilton is realistic when it comes to compromise. “We still like to make pop songs and sometimes – especially for commercial radio – you need to edit things down stupidly. You’re cutting out words and lyrics; things that are really important to a song. It’s like selling a car and taking the wheels off, but certainly you have to make some severe edits in the hope that the national radio might play it.

“Sometimes television commercials will use our music and they’ll hack it to shreds and that’s fine, because we’ve already released the song the way we’ve envisaged it. [It’s] the same with the remixes; people can do all sorts of crazy and weird and wonderful things when they remix our songs but because we’ve already put it out ourselves, we’re happy for it to be released in all these other directions.”

Timeline is a run of shows The Presets are creating with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Billed by the ACO as ‘a kaleidoscopic surge through 42,000 years of music’, the concept may be intimidating but it offers the band an opportunity to do something completely different.

Also in The Presets’ immediate future is

Groovin The Moo, and there are similarities

when it comes to preparing for each show.

“[Timeline] will see the audience sitting down and having

a more cerebral response to what’s going on, whereas

with Groovin The Moo we’re presenting music that’s for

the body to jump around and dance to. So they’re very

different responses we’re looking to get from different

audiences. That being said we want them both to be

interesting. Whether we’re making a three-minute pop

song or a two-hour orchestral work or a 55-minute festival

show we always want to make it as good as we can.

From the Renaissance to Radiohead, Hamilton has enjoyed immersing himself deep into music’s history. “There’s a lot of music that has passed down through oral traditions like folk music, and a lot of that you can have only vague approximations of because some of the instruments don’t even exist anymore.

BALLS IN THE AIR

WHEN & WHERE: 26 Apr, Groovin The Moo,

Maitland; 27 Apr, Groovin The Moo, Canberra; 1

May, Metro Theatre; 19 May, Wollongong Town

Hall; 20, 21, 23 & 24 May, City Recital Hall; 25

May, Vivid LIVE, Sydney Opera House

Concert Hall; 29 May, Vivid LIVE, Sydney

Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre

“RADIO’S NEVER GOING TO PLAY A SIX-MINUTE VERSION OF A SONG”

music

“There’ll be moments that we’re really popular and really super cool and there’ll be other moments when we’re daggy and people don’t like us and you can’t really have control over any of that. The one thing you can control is making music that you dig. That’s the goal; make music that we dig.”

“Some of the old African drums or some of those Norwegian horns from the 1300s; we don’t really know what those things looked like. We have a vague idea but it is tricky presenting some of that stuff. But that’s part of the thrill of it.

“We’ve been doing this band for ten years and making our own music for a long time so it’s been nice to delve back into the past a bit more to explore music from all of history; it’s been really fun for us.”


album reviews

LA DISPUTERooms Of The HouseBetter Living/Resist

If you want to feel what life is like between North America’s Great Lakes, then disappear into La Dispute’s third LP. The stories told on Rooms Of The House are average tales. They’re pulled from frontman Jordan Dreyer’s life – his family, his friends, himself – and the commonality of the verses – coffee boiling on the stove, cutting his hair short – means there’s something that relates to our own existence as well. Dreyer’s subject matter is so specific that it’s impossible not to quickly paint a picture, and it helps build his Rooms Of The House, and ours.

His spoken word/screamo delivery provides a full palate of emotion for the music to envelope around, and it does so with just as much nuance as the vocals. The two-part movement Woman (in mirror) and Woman (reading) is striking, with a beautiful guitar node that swells and swells until bursting AL

BUM

OF

THE

WEE

K

ALOE BLACCLift Your SpiritInterscope/Universal

It’s too easy to label a new pop direction as a sell-out; evidence is needed for a conviction. A sophisticated cut above the rest of the neo-soul funkateers, Aloe Blacc already had two decent albums and one of the slickest live shows around, so tight in fact that even the gaps between songs were exquisitely timed. But things changed last year when he co-wrote and sang on Swedish cheese carousel Avicii’s excruciatingly large mega-hit, Wake Me Up. Abandoning his established retro style, Blacc has fearlessly leapt into the realm of pure, unabashed pop.

A cynic might say he’s spotted a dormant CeeLo Green-sized hole in the market. A supporter might say pop’s the right outlet for his optimistic nature and elevating voice. But pop’s an altogether different animal to soul; it often works best when it contrasts happiness and sadness. With the exception of the doom-mongering Ticking

BLACK LIPSUnderneath The RainbowVice/ADA

Black Lips’ latest is a continuation of their rockabilly-flecked psych-rock. Boisterous, uncontained enthusiasm married to irrepressible percussion makes Underneath The Rainbow the soundtrack you want on a road trip.

The mood switches between frenetic and mid-tempo, every song dipped in cowboy swag, like the casually catchy Waiting or opener Drive-By Buddy, each telling stories equal parts grit and guts, teamed with an overwhelmingly fun energy. The songs are either drenched in murky reverb or delivered crisp and clean, each having their place on the record. There’s greater appeal in ‘60s-tinged songs like Smiling, the vocals in not-quite-singing, not quite-shouting purgatory. It’s brash, messy and undeniably entertaining. Production from Tommy Breneck (The Dap-Kings) and Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) has

TEETH & TONGUEGridsRemote Control

Melbourne-via-New Zealand chanteuse Jess Cornelius has been responsible for some fascinating soundscapes in the past, with 2011’s Tambourine and acclaimed debut, Monobasic, in 2008 introducing us to a stark world where drum beats and raw vocals reign. It’s a testament to Cornelius’ ear for a winning formula that despite this lone girl territory being encroached upon lately by more young lasses, Grids still manages to sound familiar yet oh so different to them all.

From the first breathy pout on Good Man, Cornelius captivates. With an almost theatre-like backed soaring vocal underpinned by thin key notes that are soon turned on their heads by that space-filling drum beat, it’s the perfect first page to an incredible story. Single, Newborn, cashes in on a very catchy central motif, with that voice and organ reaching and dipping to bounce

climactically in the final stage of

the reprise, while First Reactions After Falling Through The Ice is intelligent abrasion at its best.

The respect this music has

been given by the considered

production means that each

element is captured to full

effect. Every sound you hear

is deliberate, and the flow of

the record makes more sense

with every listen. Rooms Of The House is an album that you’ll

keep coming back to, even if

you’re not quite sure why; there’s

just something homely here,

something that you can relate to,

which is why this incredible post-

hardcore statement rings so true.

Benny Doyle

Bomb, Lift Your Spirit goes

all-out on positivity, and boy

is it saccharine. The lyrics

don’t help either. Loaded with

every cliché in the book, it

chimes like a corporate video

for unmotivated workers. Feel

like you’ve been crushed under

the wheels occupational stress?

Just remember that “Love is the answer” and try to “Lift your spirit” even though “Life ain’t fair”, especially when you’re

“caught up in a dream” and

you “only have two hands”.

Lift Your Spirit is an indigestibly

sweet, sticky pop pudding.

Not recommended to

anyone over the age of 14.

Christopher H James

certainly helped the quartet hone their musical mania.

There’s no stand-out catch-all song here in the way Modern Art or Family Tree captivated on 2011’s Arabia Mountain, but there’s a new stylistic constant that makes Underneath The Rainbow an easy listen. Dorner Party is total ‘50s surf beach party teamed with psychobilly antics, and Do The Vibrate puts a sinister twist on an old-fashioned jiving dance tune, lyrics like “Put your phone in your crotch and set it on vibrate” dripping with filth.

This is ‘get out of your seat and dance’ music; it is ‘nod your head and stomp your feet’ music.

Sevana Ohandjanian

around a woody, percussive

bottom layer, seeming to mirror

the internal rollercoaster of lyrics

“What do you want and want do you need, I don’t know, it’s not for me”. It’s that struggle that’s

reflected so well throughout,

musically and lyrically, helping lift

this album beyond expectations.

I Feel Good, for instance, uses

a fascinating and ear-pleasing

mix of raw piano and sampled

voices to again evoke a high

drama that leaves Cornelius front

and centre where she belongs.

Grids is an album to be

appreciated for its ability to

present entrancing music by

deceptively simple means.

Carley Hall

★½

★★★½ ★★★★

★★★★


FUTURE ISLANDSSingles4AD/Remote Control

Baltimore synth-pop trio Future Islands mark their 4AD debut with fourth album Singles. It isn’t a best of – but it kinda is, because this is the most cohesive release they’ve put together to date. The hi-fi gloss and glam ups the ante on Samuel Herring and co’s woozy dancefloor ballads, balancing new wave whimsy with wistful heartbreak on a dangerous knife’s edge. Gerrit Welmers and William Cashion’s taut yet gossamer instrumentation is sublime, driven by new conspirator Denny Bowen (Double Dagger) on drums – but it’s Herring’s vocals, warbling maudlin barbs with fervour, that drives Singles into the stratosphere.

Brendan Telford

POSTBLUEI Hope They’re Praying For MePoison City

Byron Bay youngsters Postblue wear their influences bloodily tagged to their sleeves on their debut record, I Hope They’re Praying For Me, and don’t yet have the ingenuity or nuance to make these inspirations their own. A stylistically lightweight album that attempts to take on angst-ridden issues with the kind of brio that the likes of Violent Soho laid to waste in their fledgling days, the tracks here remain uninspired melodic grunge numbers that teeter precariously on the MOR side of the rock’n’roll highway.

Brendan Telford

SKRILLEXRecessOWSLA/BigBeat/Atlantic/Warner

Dubstep titan Skrillex has pulled his foot off the accelerator in his latest release Recess, favouring more reggae and dub-heavy tracks rolled over a smooth house backbeat. There’s still plenty of that trademark ‘robot coitus’ sound, but the focus has shifted well away from bass drops and breakdowns, and Recess sees Skrillex taking chances and flexing his creative muscles. Noticeably so in tracks like Coast Is Clear (ft Chance The Rapper), which slams out with trip hop and jazz influences, and Dirty Vibe (ft k-pop gods G Dragon and CL), which turns on gothic hardstyle and old-school electro samples.

Bailey Lions

THE PRETTY RECKLESSGoing To HellCooking Vinyl

You should know that Taylor Momsen, of The Grinch and Gossip Girl fame, has taken to The Pretty Reckless as her new career move. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get this album – the apparent combination of a Scott Weiland drug fantasy and an LA strip club – out of the way, too. Between admittedly rocky riffs and horrible balladeering, there’s ‘rawk’ sexuality that pretty much puts the Riot Grrrl movement back 20 years. Some riffs work, but don’t dig this out of the hole. This reviewer hopes some greasy producer is enjoying their money.

Cam Findlay

I AM THE AVALANCHEWolverinesRude/Rocket

Throw on your denim vest and get ready for a late one, I Am The Avalanche are back with a third helping of honest punk from the streets of NYC. Line-up changes haven’t slowed things down in the slightest, Wolverines spilling over with fist-in-the-air anthems like The Shape I’m In and Save Your Name. These are tracks designed to share with your best friends, and sonically it’s hard to find a weakness across the board. The release lacks the same levels of reckless whimsy that previous LP Avalanche United held in spades, but you can’t deny Vinnie Caruana and the boys have tightened every facet of this rock’n’roll operation.

Benny Doyle

SHIT ROBOTWe Got A LoveDFA/[PIAS] Australia

Shit Robot’s (aka Marcus Lambkin’s) releases have always entertained a distinctly New York house, and electro-disco state of mind. Lambkin’s latest moves in the same direction, delivering a classy selection of tunes designed to set dancefloors in motion. The illustrious Reggie Watts’ lending his R&B falsetto to the joyous title track steals the show. Elsewhere, Nancy Whang does her best Gina X, and Luke Jenner of the defunct The Rapture gets his Barry Gibb on with the Bee Gee-esque Feels Real. A hidden ten-minute house jam provides the after-party to bring the vibes down gently.

Guido Farnell

THE PERCH CREEK FAMILY JUG BANDJumping On The HighwireVitamin

The Melbourne collective – most of whom are related – come into Jumping On The Highwire eager, road-refined and with a bag full of ideas. At times, too many ideas. With so many songwriters, Jumping On The Highwire never really settles into a rhythm, party-jigs backing into bleak murder ballads and Depression-era blues swings leading into round-the-campfire singalongs. Thankfully the best moments are intoxicating enough to throw the need for consistency out the railcar door, the band’s own coherency the only glue they need.

Scott Fitzsimons

THUMPERSGaloreHUB/Inertia

The fact that they’re only two people doesn’t stop Thumpers, aka. Marcus Pepperell and John Hamson Jr, from layering up their sound like it ain’t no thing. Galore is full of full, lush pop tunes that’ll have your girl/boyfriend swooning and you lying back sipping on a mojito feeling like a boss. Lifelong friends, their music is comfortable without ever seeming complacent, and their arrangements – while diverse – are never overcrowded or weak. It’s not always easy (Sound Of Screams for instance), but Galore is a very worthwhile listen and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Dylan Stewart

★★★★

★★★½

★★★½

★★★★

★★

★

★★★★

★★★½

album reviews


albums/singles/eps

GRETA MOBGypsy Town (Revisited)Independent

The important bonus brackets read ‘(ft Spencer P Jones)’, and his trademark distant dirty twang of guitar adds the necessary atmosphere to the Mob’s Australiana gothic and haunted choir.

THE STEINBECKSI, RadioPopboomerang

An absolutely Australian biography and history, semi-spoken word and classic pop racket to reflect a life soundtracked by community radio, and your falls in and out of love with same as you grow.

TIFT MERRITTTravelling AloneYep Roc

About to tour with the estimable Jason Isbell, this may confuse the issue as it shares a title with one his best tunes, but this is something of sweet melancholy underlined by her Carolinian lilt.

HELLO SATELLITESHollering SaintsTwo Bright Lakes

The brass has an insistent blurt, the handclaps and just scrappy enough layers of harmonies give it a skip that you’re not quite sure is away from or towards you, but you’re enjoying the mystery in either case.

COLDPLAYMidnight Parlophone

New Coldplay music counts as ‘news’, apparently. Midnight’s vaguely electronic (and electronically vague) nature makes it a little different. But you’ve already decided if you care or not.

Ross Clelland

MY SAD CAPTAINSBest Of TimesBella Union/[PIAS] Australia

Half the members of this London-based quartet are practising artists, so it’s no surprise their third LP plays like a delicately designed piece of art. Just close your eyes and listen to the keyboard strokes and synths, placed like intricate brushwork upon Wide Open and instrumental, Keeping On, Keeping On, respectively. As artwork goes, however, Best Of Times isn’t going to stop any gallery-goer in their tracks. Calming as the nine songs of barely spoken vocals and unassuming melodies may be, none are striking enough to warrant a place as the centrepiece of your attention.

Ash Goldberg

BENMONT TENCHYou Should Be So LuckyBlue Note/Universal

Benmont Tench has written a few hits in his time, but it has taken 40 years to release his first solo record; one listen to You Should Be So Lucky proves that this is a dire shame. When you’ve spent almost your entire life hanging out with Tom Petty, you’d have to imagine some skills rub off, and there’s a lot of that influence here. It’s classy Americana with majestic production from Glyn Johns and great guest appearances from Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings and Petty himself.

Dan Condon

ADAM ECKERSLEY BANDThe First AlbumIsland/Universal

Southern-fried rock with a wash of country, The First Album might be the first proper drinking album of the year. Eckersley does the rousing (Sex & Money), the lamenting (Tomorrow Night, Same Again) and the vital (Crazy Woman) with equal artistry. There’s still room to refine and mature as a recording band, a continuity we’re seeing develop on stage, but this is surprisingly layered for an album written before the band began writing as one. The First Album has a depth and potential revealed over multiple listens.

Scott Fitzsimons

KEVIN DREWDarlingsArts & Crafts/Create Control

Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew has stepped outside of his super collective in the past, most notably on his 2007 debut Spirit If. Darlings is a far more focused and purposeful release, yet this determination manifests itself in far safer songwriting than we’re used to from the man. Drew is at his best when his emotions sprawl out wildly and the music races to keep up – Darlings is an entirely enjoyable and pleasant acoustic rock record, yet outside of the electro groove of highlight Bullshit Ballad, this is really only an essential album for completionists.

Andrew McDonald

MORGAN EVANSMorgan EvansWarner

The Aussie-Nashville thread runs consistently through this debut album from Newcastle country poster-boy Morgan Evans. Intelligently crafted, the songwriting’s certainly showcased through stadium-rock cuts, ballads and a Kasey Chambers duet – although Evans’ own chops aren’t as thoroughly tested. Tenacious One Eye For An Eye stands out as an album highlight – even if Evans’ disposition isn’t as dark as the song seems to crave – because it sounds critical. When Evans is at his best live he’s incredibly persuasive, but here he’s more passive. You walk away enjoying this, but waiting to see if you love him. Single fodder.

Scott Fitzsimons

SUN GOD REPLICAThe Devil And The DeepSpooky

Sun God Replica are all about sweaty, booze-soaked rock. But as the faux choir on Anthem suggests, there’s always just enough of a wink beneath the surface of The Devil And The Deep to let you know they take their rock seriously, just not too seriously. There’s been a lot of throwbacks to the ‘70s recently, and while most just come off as cheap cover bands, Sun God Replica inject enough of themselves into The Devil And The Deep that it’s more ‘inspired by’ than ‘cheap rip-off ’. Listen to it loud.

Pete Laurie

★★★★

★★★

★★★★

★★★

★★★

★★★½


KATE MILLER-HEIDKE @ SEYMOUR CENTRE. PIC: JOSH GROOM THE HOLIDAYS @ OXFORD ART FACTORY. PIC: JOSH GROOM

songwriter was accompanied by an ‘unplugged’ backing. In spite of the toned-down production, the set never felt empty or lacking. The acoustic format suited her ballads best, and while songs like Last Day On Earth stuck out at a past show at the sticky-floored Annandale Hotel, the intimacy of the Seymour Centre’s theatre led to a real connection with the crowd. Even the ultra-emotional, cards on the table Caught In The Crowd shook off any allegations of schmaltz.

The set balanced these moments of intimacy with what felt like a series of experiments. Some were (hit and miss) attempts to recapture the glory of the full-band versions: break-out hit Words presented an extremely effective example of this, with Keir Nuttall busting out a terrific acoustic

still producing quality records – latest release Fade is perhaps their best since their high-water mark in the late ‘90s – and playing excellent live shows. Lead singer Ira Kaplan is still a phenomenal artist in his own unassuming way, prying open ordinary urban lives and examining the contents using roughly hewn passages of guitar noise. Their current tour boasts the neat central conceit of two sets: Quiet and Loud, and explores a deep catalogue with satisfying results.

The Quiet set lets everyone settle in and establish their own headspaces. The gentle cosmic flow of Ohm sounded sublime in the concert hall, and every now and then we would glance up at the shimmering lights bathing the ceiling while we all melted away underneath.

The sounds he achieved with his guitar were elaborate and exciting, and even though he seemed poised to maim it several times he resisted any destructive impulses. It was fun rolling with the tension. The final 15-minute reverie was approaching unbearable, but, finally, Kaplan peeled away,the last metallic shrieks dying in the cool blue spotlights.

Matt MacMaster

THE HOLIDAYS, THE CAIROS, HIGH-TAILSOxford Art Factory14 Mar

A pulsating, packed-out Oxford Art Factory was the setting on

was a bit lacklustre amongst

their other tracks, with Obsession

gaining a fervent response from

the crowd and Shame taking

the gong for audience fave.

The Holidays took to the

stage, haloed by vibrant, warm

stage lights, and treated the

audience to a plethora of tunes

from Real Feel. Starting with

the intriguingly layered Voices Drifting, the boys then moved

onto the first single off the

album, the dreamy, synth-

pop track All Time High.

There was a good selection of

older tracks from their popular

debut Post Paradise thrown

into the setlist as well. Golden

oldies like Moonlight Hours and Broken Bones were a good

divider between newer material,

having been perfected by the

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE, SWEET JEANSeymour Centre12 Mar

Sweet Jean, a folk duo from Melbourne, ushered the crowd into what would be a muted evening of pleasure. Parachutes, a simple but heartfelt ballad which featured Alice Keath on autoharp, hit just the right balance of sweetness and darkness to create something pretty mesmerising, while closer Shiver And Shake captured some of the Fleet Foxes lusciousness that a few songs had been missing.

Kate Miller-Heidke celebrates the launch of her fourth album with this tour, and it was something of a surprise to see the usual densely layered pop stripped away for the evening, as the Brisbane singer-

guitar solo, while Can’t Shake It is pretty silly and unsubstantial no matter which way you slice it. Along with these were attempts at creating something special within the confines of the acoustic show, and these were easily the set’s highlights. One song had Nuttall take lead vocals as his alter-ego Franky Walnut for a hilarious dedication of love, while the band’s flamenco-guitar-fueled cover of Beyoncé’s Run The World (Girls) was spot-on. While the set had a few rough moments, each one was soon forgotten with the advent of some new delight, and it was Miller-Heidke’s terrific and unique voice that bound it all together.

Xavier Rubetzki Noonan

YO LA TENGOSydney Opera House13 Mar

New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo have never endured a late career slump,

I’ll Be Around and The Point Of It felt like warm blankets

in winter, and for a while it

almost seemed like we were

bearing witness to a rare lull

in YLT’s live reputation as

ferocious pop artists. Not so.

The Loud set was a heady mess

of amorphous feedback and

glorious noise art. Bassist James

McNew remained steadfast

in his loyalty to rhythm and

tempo, anchoring Kaplan’s wild

machinations with help from

Georgia Hubley, whose drum

work never overheated, despite

her husband’s enthusiasm.

Kaplan frothed over every inch

of his guitar trying to find

new ways to make noise. At

one point he calmly offered it

to a person in the front row,

who squealed for a number

of minutes while Kaplan got

lost in his own intonations

and chanting on stage.

Friday night for Sydney lads The Holidays, with many fans itching at their bits to hear material off the band’s new, long-awaited album Real Feel. The boys were in good company for the night, supported by Wagga Wagga’s High-tails and Brisbane boys The Cairos.

Impressive opening set by the High-tails, who are still very new to the game but have a lot of potential, with some really catchy songs and a good live energy. Maps was a highlight from their original material, and their cover of Elton John’s Bennie And The Jets was a great addition to their set. These guys are ones to watch.

There was an influx of onlookers into the venue when The Cairos came on to play. The boys are certainly more confident in their live shows and have definitely honed their craft in the past 18 months or so. New single Desire

live reviews

YO LA TENGO @ SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. PIC: PETER SHARP


LIONEL RICHIE @ ALLPHONES ARENA. PIC: ANGELA PADOVAN

BILLY BRAGG @ SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. PIC: PETER SHARP

EMPIRE OF THE SUN @ BIG TOP. PIC: ROHAN ANDERSON

band over the years. New single

Home stood out, its colourful

percussion managing to hook

the audience, but beyond its

catchiness there didn’t seem

to be much else underneath.

Having waited patiently for Real Feel for four years, fans of The

Holidays seemed very content

with the band’s new material.

The boys have delivered a fun,

colourful album, wrapped up

in dream-pop goodness, which

translated easily to a live setting.

Caitlin Summers

LIONEL RICHIE, JOHN FARNHAMAllphones Arena13 Mar

Two musical legends took the

stage last night at Sydney’s

Allphones Arena, showing the

13,000-strong crowd that they’ve

Farnham’s mantra as he made his

way through all of his greatest

hits, ending his set with You’re The Voice, and treating fans to an

encore of It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll).

Entering the stage almost 40

minutes late, Lionel Richie,

seeming a bit drunk, screamed,

“Sydney, Sydney are you

ready?” before launching into a

rendition of Just For You. The

highlight of his set was his

dedication of Endless Love to

a guy in the audience who had

just proposed to his girlfriend,

having the audience stand in

for Diana Ross and sing along.

To be honest, his set was a little underwhelming: few people stood when he asked them to get up and dance, and a sea of people exited the arena early. It was hard not to feel bad for him as people filed out en masse during Dancing On The

storytelling was the perfect opener, her short set broken up with amusing banter that lead cleverly into songs like Avant Gardener, arousing some chuckles from the captivated audience.

Billy Bragg is a gregarious, warm-hearted personality on stage. Generous with his band, quick with a sharp retort to hecklers and overflowing with amusing anecdotes, Bragg had the audience warmed to him the minute he stood under the spotlight. Between a slew of songs including the melodically catchy Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key, he rambled jovially on everything from Gina Rinehart, to Morrissey (Bragg hasn’t read the autobiography and wants to know if he’s mentioned in it), and safe words for rough sex (his is Lonnie Donegan).

It was fitting that the concert fell on the same day as the

into a boisterous rendition of

Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, that made the

set all the more poignant.

Sevana Ohandjanian

EMPIRE OF THE SUN, RUDIMENTAL, MIGUEL, SAMANTHA JADEBig Top Sydney12 Mar

Hoards of volunteers from the

Optus RockCorps program piled

into the Big Top at Luna Park

for the first act of the one-off

concert, Samantha Jade. Looking

every bit the mini-Kylie Minogue

in shiny black hotpants and a

still got it. First up was our John Farnham. Opening with Age Of Reason, The Voice stole the show, announcing he was “bloody rooted”. He joked that he hadn’t worked in a while and had to write down his lyrics, but that this was “not another bloody comeback!” His Human Nature collaboration Every Time You Cry was a crowd favourite that saw everyone up out of their seats and dancing, but it was when he slowed it down a bit with Survive that it really got interesting. An adorable little old lady approached the stage with a hot pink bra and handed it to him; Farnham was unable to regain his composure, laughing throughout the whole song, saying, “That was just really funny… it was still warm!”

“I’m 65, I’m not dead,” was

Ceiling, Hello and All Night Long (All Night). There were some good moments; every time he sat down at the piano he drank another glass of wine, which got a laugh from the audience, and his voice is still pitch perfect and incredible, but his showmanship left a little to be desired.

Deborah Jackson

BILLY BRAGG, COURTNEY BARNETTSydney Opera House16 Mar

Courtney Barnett took to the intimidating task of playing to a half-full Concert Hall with naught but her guitar with a quiet confidence. Barnett’s casual

March In March protest, at which Bragg had been present. His songs, some over 30 years old, still strike a chord with their all too familiar themes of social inequality, workers’ rights and economic strife. This made even clearer when Bragg introduced his cover of Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home – from Bragg’s last record – with the addendum that the original was released over 70 years ago, but its themes are undoubtedly prevalent. The crowd was on his side through his impassioned speeches, and voices were quick to join in on A New England and Sexuality. Yet it was his call to the audience to drop the cynicism that holds people back from fully fighting for change, before launching

corset with mannerisms to boot,

Jade and her backing dancers got

straight into their routines with

hits Soldier, Heartless and a cover

of Sneaky Sound System’s UFO.

Hot from his tour with Bruno

Mars, Usher/Michael Jackson/

Prince hybrid Miguel generated

huge screams from the girls in

the crowd as he gyrated and

thrusted through tracks Sure Thing, #Beautiful and How Many Drinks?, asking everyone to raise

their glasses in a toast to all the

volunteers for their hard work.

London four-piece Rudimental, replete with a bevvy of backing

singers and musicians, bounded

onto the stage with great

enthusiasm, starting off with

hit Right Here. Mega track Not Giving In followed, creating

a surge of dancing both on

live reviews


live reviews

arts reviews

stage and on the dancefloor. DJ Locksmith encouraged everyone to ignore the security guards and get on shoulders for Free, before an epic rendition of Waiting All Night really raised the roof. Hit single Feel The Love finished the set with the band singing a great a cappella version to close.

In stark contrast, psychedelic visuals and four dancers dressed in jellyfish-like costumes with Daft Punk-style helmets welcomed a rather sombre and dramatic Empire Of The Sun’s Luke Steele to the stage, noticeably without co-founder Nick Littlemore. Dressed to excess in a glittery outfit with an extravagant headpiece to match, Steele got straight into Standing On The Shore. With all the glitz and glamour of the show, the vocals were unfortunately a little lost, hidden in an array of effects and distortions.

DNA from new album Ice On The Dune followed before hit We Are The People, complete with a full outfit change by everyone on stage. More tracks from the first album followed including Walking On A Dream before

new hit Alive, which seemed to be the one track the crowd knew as they began bouncing up and down with hands in the air. A theatrical group bow finished the set as the crowd piled out, eager to get home early on a school night.

Helen Lear

POKEY LAFARGE, MUSTERED COURAGEThe Basement13 Mar

Mustered Courage opened the show and had to deal with a decidedly sub-par sound mix. Vocals struggled to cut through the other instruments and the banjo sounded like it was being picked underwater. Those frustrations aside, the string-centric quartet played a rousing and enthusiastic set complete with a guest appearance by Choirboys singer Mark Gable for a pleasingly un-gimmicky bluegrass rendition of their 1987 hit Run To Paradise

Pokey LaFarge and his

five-piece band received a

heroes welcome and set about

befriending everyone in the

room with their hybrid of

western swing, jazz, folk,

country and blues sounds. All

of the players were masters

of their instruments: clarinet,

trumpet, upright bass and

guitar, especially bearded

and be-hatted sidekick

Ryan Koenig on harmonica

and various percussion.

Though LaFarge was the

consummate showman, singer

and player, his guitarist Adam

Hoskins deserves special

mention for his note perfect and

effortless solos. The exuberant

yet respectful crowed were

treated to album highlights

such as Central Time, Kentucky Mae and In The Graveyard Now

plus a smattering of covers

such as Bob Wills’ My Window Faces The South and the 1920’s

drinking song Show Me The Way To Go Home. Essentially it was

the band’s audience interaction,

virtuosity and unassuming

professionalism, combined with

LaFarge’s charm, authentic

musicality and versatile voice that

made the show so enjoyable and

impressive. We guarantee we’ll

be back to see him again soon.

Chris Familton

POKEY LAFARGE @ THE BASEMENT. PIC: JARED LEIBOWITZ

A.C.O.D.

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

A.C.O.D.DVDOut now

In the lead-up to his younger

brother’s wedding, Carter (Adam

Scott) discovers that as a child

he unwittingly participated in

a study of children of divorce,

which was published in a book.

Its author, Dr Judith ( Jane

Lynch), decides to do a follow-up

study of the now adult children

of divorce (aka A.C.O.D.). During

all this Carter’s caught up by

new complications in his parents’

messy divorce and somewhere

down the track realises that

his self-appointed role as the

voice of reason might not be

particularly helpful or reasonable.

The appealing cast – Richard

Jenkins and Catherine O’Hara

as Carter’s parents Hugh and

Melissa; Amy Poehler as Hugh’s

sharp third wife; Mary Elizabeth

Winstead as Carter’s long-term

girlfriend; Jessica Alba as a

seductive fellow ACOD – are

not given much to work with,

Carter’s somewhat dickish

character hogging all the screen

time. The absurd plot, while

not totally predictable, doesn’t

offer much in the way of laugh-

out-loud moments, with only

occasional throwaway lines

eliciting a few chuckles. A.C.O.D. examines the complexity of love

and relationships – as well as

the way our parents shape our

capacity for and view of those

things – but lacks any real depth

or shred of emotion. In fact,

we gain more insight through

the credit snippets of real-life

ACODs answering questions

about their own experiences.

Stephanie Liew

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVEFilm In cinemas 17 Apr

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play Adam and Eve, two estranged vampires drifting back into each other’s lives. Adam is a rock star falling prey to both celebrity fatigue and weltschmerz, and calls for help. Swinton is great to watch as she sweetly tries to add levity to his life while fending off the rapacious Ava (Mia Wasikowska). Anton Yelchin is Ian, a loyal, naïve and remarkably

resourceful PA/confidant for Adam; his screen time is woefully inadequate. Together they drive through a decaying Detroit, shot beautifully under Yorick Le Saux’s yellow-green lens.

At first blush, Only Lovers Left Alive may seem cold, and those not familiar with the occasionally glacial pace of Jim Jarmusch’s oeuvre will be challenged by its stubborn refusal to move its own plot forward. It’s a film preoccupied with itself, much like its central characters who have lived for so long time is no longer important.

The ‘vampire as aesthete’ idea is not original, but with subtle changes made to traditional vampire mythology and tired cinematic ideas on the subject largely ignored, Jarmusch’s fairy tale feels fresh and sometimes fun, and is covered in his fingerprints. This is a recommended return to form after the disappointing The Limits Of Control, and feels like a nice coda to the current wave of Vampire Cinema.

Matt MacMaster




SMOKIN’ MIRRORS

Answered by: Emmy Mack

How did you all meet? Promise I’m not just rubbing grease on your nips, but The Music! Sam, Matt andI had been playing birthday parties in exchange for free booze since we were about 18, but we didn’t become a full-blown band ‘til we found Alex through the Drum Media classifieds.

What part do you think Sydney plays in the music you make? The mounting desolation of the Sydney live music scene has led to a fierce camaraderie between its proponents. Our rock and metal brothers and sisters constantly inspire us to write better music, and work harder to succeed and bolster each others’ success. Also we like the zoo.

Is your band responsible for more make-outs or break-ups? Why? I’d probably have to say make-outs, there’s an excessive amount of man-love between the guys in this band, especially after they’ve been sipping on a few white wine spritzers. They tell me it’s all just WWE moves but I’m pretty sure John Cena doesn’t dry-hump The Rock at Wrestlemania.

What reality TV show would you enter as a band and why? Australia’s Next Top Model because our bass player Matt already won it back in 2009. Seriously, look up the Cycle 5 winner, Tahnee Atkinson, and compare their photos. It’s the same person.

What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term? We’re hitting the road for an east coast tour with stops in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and the Central Coast across March. 21 Mar, Hermanns Bar.

Pic by Josh Groom

the guide


eat/drink

As an alternative to your regular beer/wine/spirit/liqueur of choice, try one of these not-so-local varieties. The world is a big place, filled with alcohol. Explore your options.

ALCOHOL AROUND THE WORLD

VEGOS OF THE WORLD

Estimated % of population who are vegetarians

CountryCHINA

ISRAEL

INDIA

AUSTRALIA

SPAIN

BRAZIL

UK

CANADA

USA

ITALY

FRANCE

GERMANY

BAIJIU Translating to ‘white liquor’, this is a Chinese strong distilled spirit, usually made from sorghum (though other grains may be used) and generally around 40–60% alcohol by volume. Comparable to vodka, and is commonly consumed in shot glasses.

UMESHU A Japanese liqueur made from steeping ume ( Japanese/Chinese plum) fruits in shochu (a type of Japanese liquor) and sugar. It’s got a sweet and sour taste and alcohol content of only 10–15%, is often used in cocktails, and can be consumed chilled or with ice, at room temperature or even hot.

our options.

PALM WINE Palm wine is created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms and coconut palms. It’s common in many countries in Asia and Africa – including Nigeria, Ghana, South India, Indonesia, Phillipines, Kenya and Borneo – and known by many names. It has a vinegar-like taste and plays an important role in some cultural ceremonies.

CHICHA DE JORA From South and Central America, this type of corn beer is traditionally made from Jora corn from the Andes. Its flavour ranges from weaker and sweeter to stronger when mature, and brings to mind a hard apple cider or sour/tangy beer.

TEPACHE A cold fermented Mexican beverage made out of the flesh and rind of pineapple, sweetened with brown sugar or piloncillo, and cinnamon. It has a very low quantity of alcohol (though in Mexico it is often served mixed with beer), and is easy to make at home.

TEPACHE

UMESHU

CHICHA DE JORA


DRINK UPin our Public Bar or head upstairs to our Bistro, Rooftop Cocktail Bar and Courtyard.

Does the bar have a music component? Wednesdays 8pm, resident Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra bring their own unique blend of blues and funk to Cooper’s. Thursdays 8.30pm, an array of talented, eclectic, local bands perform live at Cooper’s Hotel Auditorium for our Big Gig Thursdays!

Does the bar offer food? Our Bistro delivers an ever-changing seasonal menu and specials board sporting delicious

meals which go far beyond regular pub grub. Finalised for the AHA Awards for Best Casual Dining 2013, and Chef of the Year for our Head Chef Ashley O’Sullivan. $10 bar meals also available from the Public Bar.

Briefly describe the crowd that frequents your bar? Setting our venue apart from the rest is our ability to cater for both the local pub-goers, and the alternative eclectic market of Newtownians and visitors to the area frequenting the many bars, pubs and restaurants along King Street.

Newtown chic, Cooper’s Hotel transcends from your homely local to a sophisticated rooftop garden bar & bistro. Enjoy a few chilled drinks, a sporting match, a game of pool, or some live entertainment downstairs

COOPER’S HOTEL 221 King St, Newtown coopershotel.com.auBriefly describe the design/atmosphere of the bar? Encapsulating

Shop 15 ‘The Beach House’ 178 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beachpaperplanesbondi.comThree words that describe the place? Vibrant, eclectic and fun.

If you were a patron of your establishment what would you select from the menu? Entree: King fish carpaccio with ginger and mirin sauce, tobiko, chilli oil and jalapeno tempura, served with Ginger and

Lychee Martini. Main: Pan-fried barramundi fillet with dill and miso butter, lemon and sautéed zucchini, served with Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling. Dessert: Tokyo Pop Plant lemon cheesecake with lemon curd and popping candy, served with Espresso Martini.

What’s the average price of a main? $25.

Three ingredients everyone should have

WHO’S COOKIN’

JIN KUNG @ PAPERPLANES

IconPark, a crowdfunding platform for hospitality projects, is recruiting the public to decide what Sydney’s next innovative dining destination will be. Six concepts battle it out: Sedgwick Ave brings some hip hop flavour making art in the form of beats, coffee and sandwiches; Black Cats (pictured) bring cool jazz and gin; Min Joo

Special are dishing out Korean BBQ with a twist of K-pop; Stanley St Merchants champions foraged and

sustainable local produce; Ruby’s BBQ brings the South down under, along with honky-tonk tunes; and British India brings the elegance of both British and Indian

culture – and can you imagine the tea selection? Head to iconpark.com by 24 Mar to vote for your favourite

and pre-purchase an evening at the restaurant!

YOUR CHOICE

in their pantry? Eggs, salt and olive oil.

If your food was compared to music what style would it be? Symphony, because it is a collaboration of flavours and cooking techniques working harmoniously together.

What music is likely to be playing in the kitchen when you’re cooking? Pop music, because we all like a bit of karaoke and a singalong.

Where do you usually eat after your shift? Korean BBQ, Golden Century or at home.

What’s your dish of choice to enjoy after work?

Homemade soup, Asian

greens, dumplings.

Is your chef lifestyle more Anthony Bourdain or Pete Evans? Anthony

Bourdain; I love to

travel and experience

different cuisines from

different cultures.

MANU FEILDELThe harsh but fair Frenchman charms many contestants on My Kitchen Rules, most recently and notably the show’s ‘naughty nanna’ Deb Payne.

GEORGE CALOMBARISAs well as being entertaining on MasterChef Australia, George “needs more salt” Calombaris has also opened seven restaurants in Melbourne (way to hog all the Calombaris, Melbs) plus one in Mykonos.

POH LING YEOWThe runner-up on MasterChef 2009 and host of Poh’s Kitchen is not just an ace chef, but also works as an artist, graphic designer, illustrator and actress.

MAGGIE BEERThe cookbook author, TV show host and businesswoman was awarded Senior Australian of the Year in 2010 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 “for service to the tourism and hospitality industries”. Also her company makes some of the best ice-cream you’ll ever find in the supermarket frozen food aisle.

CELEBRITY CHEFS

MY KITCHEN RULES

eat/drink


the guide

FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU

[email protected]

FRONTLASHMARCH IN MARCHGlad that thousands turned

up in Sydney, even when the

weather was threatening, to

express their displeasure at

the current government.

SXSWSo many good bands to emerge

from the festival it was hard to

keep up. Let’s hope some of those

names make it our way soon.

SYDNEY VENUESAmid the doom and gloom of

the live scene, you still see venues

fighting back, with the past week

bringing news of a relaunch

at the Lewisham Hotel and

renovations at the Lansdowne

to enhance live music.

BACKLASHVALE SCOTT ASHETONThe Stooges now find itself

without an Asheton present,

as drummer Scott Asheton

passed away over the weekend.

Although he hadn’t performed

much with them in recent

years, it will still leave a hole

and is the end of an era.

SXSW CRASHSo some drunken driver goes

and ruins it for everyone by

crashing into a crowd at the

SXSW conference in Texas. But

credit to everyone getting and

carrying on in the face of tragedy.

WALTER TROUTIt’s a shame he’s had to pull out

of Bluesfest and his sideshows,

but good to see he’s finally

receiving treatment for his

illness related to his liver. We

look forward to him returning

fitter than ever next time.

FLIGHT OF PYKEAfter a considerably extensive run, Josh Pyke’s east coast album launch tour will be petering to a close this weekend. You can catch the last couple of dates on Friday at the Small Ballroom, Newcastle and Saturday at Zierholz, Canberra.

BEARDY BEERThe two most majestic B-words in the English language will be celebrated this Friday evening, as The Beards head to the Jam Gallery for the very first Jam tap takeover, which sees all the country’s most beloved microbreweries featured on tap.

SIBLING GANGGang Of Brothers have toured both domestically and internationally with names as big as a the Beach Boys and Michael Franti in the past, but this Saturday sees the well travelled genre-benders play a more intimate set at the Jam Gallery.

TIN TIN GOES TO TEXASThe voice behind Melbourne Metro’s infamous Dumb Ways To Die campaign is heading to FBi Social on Friday as the frontwoman of Tinpan Orange. Joining the outfit is All Our Exes Live In Texas.

THE NOT-SO-LAZYSUnlike their name would suggest, Central Coast rockers The Lazys are keeping themselves occupied with a lengthy tour to preview material off their forthcoming album. They’ve got a show coming up for this Friday at the Lansdowne.

STICKY SOLUTIONFor those that missed out on tickets to see Sticky Fingers on Friday, the lads have been kind enough to meet the demands of their fans and have added an extra show for Saturday. Both are at the Metro Theatre.

POWER GROUPA former Yves Klein Blue member joined forces with two members of Go Violets and the ex-Inland Sea drummer. The result is power-pop by the name of Babaganouj, and they’re playing this Friday at World Bar and Saturday at Brighton Up Bar.

LISA & LEEFresh from last week’s launch of Petersham Bowlo’s Porchlight Sessions, Leroy Lee will be appearing at the Hornsby RSL on Wednesday, Castle Hill RSL on Friday and The Cube in Campbelltown on Saturday as Lisa Marie Presley’s support.

LETHAL WEAPONOn 21 Mar, Lethal Vendetta and Killrazer will be co-headlining, with Atomesquad and Til Rapture in support, bringing the best brash local metal to The Bald Faced Stag from 8pm.

SEEING REDCrossing Red Lines are making their return to the music realm this Thursday after having involuntarily taken seven months off. Upon their return, they’ll be playing at the Oxford Art Factory with the support of Thunderfox and Angel At My Table.

TIME AFTER TIMEAlternative rockers The Nymphs have a new album, one that demonstrates just how versatile an outfit these Melburnians are. To ring in the release of It’s Been A Long Time Coming, they’re playing at the Vanguard on Thursday.

SUNBEAM DREAM TEAMMelbourne dream-pop outfit Sunbeam Sound Machine made their live debut at the end of last year, having released their debut album. They’re now returning to play a show this Thursday at Brighton Up Bar with Cull.

LIVE THIS WEEK

MARCH IN MARCH SYDNEY. PIC: COLE BENNETTS


www.thebasement.com.au

SKETCH THE RHYME– SKETCH KOMBAT ROUND 3

THU27

MAR

JAMES MORRISONFRI28

MAR

SWINGTIME TUESDAYS

TUE25

MAR

M – A MUSIC FUNDRAISER FOR MELANOMA AWARENESSFEAT. CLOUD CONTROL

WED26

MAR

WED19

MAR

UNCLE JED+ FERNANDO ARAGONES

SAT22

MAR

BOBBY KEYS & THE SUFFERING BASTARDS(USA)

SUN23

MAR

HANGGAI(MONGOLIA)

SATURDAY 8 JUNE

THE STRAY SISTERS(OF THE WAIFS)

DONNA SIMPSON AND VIKKI THORN OF THE WAIFS ARE RETURNING TO THE STAGE

TOGETHER TO PERFORM NEW MATERIAL AND REWORKED WAIFS FAVOURITES OVER TWO

BIG NIGHTS.

NEWS FROM THE BASEMENT

THU 20 + FRI 21 MAR

DON’TMISS

COMING SOON... SAT 29 MARCHRISTINE ANU PRESENTS REWINDTUE 01 APRTHE ANGELSTHU 03 APRANTONIO SERRANO (SPAIN)

FOLLOW US: ON FACEBOOK @ THE BASEMENT & ON TWITTER @ #BASEMENTSYDRESTUARANT OPENS AT 11AM, SERVING FOOD ALL DAY


the guide

FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU

[email protected]

GOODBYE GERNERFor the past two Sundays of this month, troubadour songwriter Liam Gerner has been showcasing his debut album Land Of No Roads at the Menagerie at the Welcome Hotel. This Sunday marks his last performance as part of that residency.

SO SLEEPYWA’s Tired Lion have been described as ‘indie grunge darlings’ since they formed in 2011 and have remained in the public eye, supporting Papa Vs Pretty, and releasing their debut EP. They play a set at Captain Cook Hotel on 22 Mar.

BIRTHDAY BIRDFBi Social has been a thing for three years now, and they’re putting on a celebratory affair to mark the occasion this Saturday with the assistance of Shining Bird and The Walking Who, plus a secret act.

PARK & RECREATIONThe release of Caitlin Park’s second LP is drawing nearer, so the Sydney songstress has decided to offer a little teaser with a launch show at Oxford Art Factory this Friday to support the release of the album’s first single.

MAN IN BRASSThe voice of Johnny Cash The Concert – the Man In Black - is returning to the Brass Monkey this Wednesday with Solitary: another performance paying tribute to one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century.

SISTERLY PURSUITWithout the accompaniment of Josh Cunningham, Vicki Thorn and Donna Simpson of The Waifs are The Stray Sisters, and the sibling duo will be performing under this new name for the first time this Thursday at the Basement.

SON OF A GUNNFor the first time in the newly erected music career of Elston Gunn, the Brisbane rock‘n’roll/blues punk three-piece will be heading to Sydney. They’ll be making their Sydney debut this Sunday at Valve Bar.

HARPER’S STARRFollowing closely in the wake of a collaboration with a Swedish textile artist for Harper’s Bazaar, Sydney pop songstress Phebe Starr is launching her latest single this Saturday at Goodgod.

CASPIAN SEAThis Wednesday marks the return of post-metal locals We Lost The Sea, who will be sharing a collection of new music in their first show of the year at The Bald Faced Stag, where they’re supporting post-rock epics Caspian.

LAUNCHING THIS WEEK

THIS WEEK’S RELEASES…

ALOE BLACC Lift Your SpiritUniversal

BLACK LIPS Underneath The Rainbow Vice/ADA

KEVIN DREW Darlings Arts & Crafts/Create Control



the guide

SINGLE FOCUS

ALBUM FOCUS

BABAGANOUJAnswered by: Charles Sale

Single title: Too Late For Love

What’s the song about? It’s a

song about the end of love,

after a late night or after a long

relationship. Or something.

How long did it take to write/record? The song fell together

pretty quickly in my bedroom

late one winey night, but the

recording took a long time

thanks to the weird drum set-

up – we recorded kick, snare

and cymbals separately.

What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording?

Around that time I was listening

to a lot of British bands for the first time, like My Bloody Valentine and The Boo Radleys. The Australian twee influence is also pretty strong I think!

We’ll like this song if we like... Classic power pop and weird guitar bands like The Hard-Ons – this song is inspired by their song Sorry.

When and where is your launch/next gig? We will be touring the east coast in March, with dates in Melbourne, Sydney and then in Brisbane. 21 Mar, World Bar; 22 Mar, Brighton Up Bar

Website link for more info? facebook.com/thenouj

ROKU MUSICAnswered by: Innez Tulloch

Album title: Collider

Where did the title of your new album come from? It’s the title track of the record, and maybe something to do with the cover art.

How many releases do you have now? One cassette, one digital EP and now one vinyl.

How long did it take to write/record? It took around a year. With one ‘scrap it and start again’ moment.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Wine/beer, MBV, the cats,

fighting each other, reverb pedals, the infinite universe...

What’s your favourite song on it? Ended. It beautifully captures the abstract melancholy of great shoegaze songs.

Will you do anything differently next time? We’re looking at spending a month away recording. Different approaches to songwriting with drum machines and synths.

When and where is your launch/next gig? 20 Mar, Tatts Hotel, Lismore; 21 Mar, The Square; 22 Mar, Great Northern, Newcastle; 23 Mar, Black Wire Records.

Website link for more info? rokumusic.com

CARAVÃNA SUNAnswered by: Ant Beard

Album title: AYA

Where did the title of your new album come from? We needed

something that encompasses

everything we stand for as a

band. AYA is a lifestyle, the way

we play and the way we live.

How many releases do you have now? Our debut record

Rising Falling pays homage to

our roots, while AYA focuses

on our raw live energy.

How long did it take to write/record? We road-tested the

tracks live for a few years and

recorded over two months.

While touring Australia, Europe and fitting in time to surf, we managed to create something of which we are truly proud.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? We recorded the album in an old water tank in the Currumbin Valley, with a bird’s-eye view of Mt Warning. If that doesn’t conjure up some wild emotions, I don’t know what will!

What’s your favourite song on it? All That I Know. We recorded the end in one take. By far my favourite track to play live.

Will you do anything differently next time? Yeah, for sure! I’d focus on finding amazing locations and people to record with. I’ve realised how much I become a product of my surroundings. Atmosphere is everything!

When and where is your launch/next gig? 22 March, Oxford Art Factory.

Website link for more info? caravanasun.com

FUN MACHINEAnswered by: Geordany Pict

Album title: Bodies On

Where did the title of your new album come from? Every

song is about bodies or

physicality in some way. There

is hunger, sex, inebriation,

absence, rage, excitement,

embarrassment and others.

How many releases do you have now? Three! More Is More, Desert Creatures and Bodies On.

How long did it take to write/record? The writing length

varies even within itself, some

songs were written a long

time ago, but are completely

different now to when they were first made. Recording was sort of two months? Three?

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Bodies. Scotch.

What’s your favourite song on it? That’s like asking what your favourite limb is.

Will you do anything differently next time? Probably most things! Every time recording is such a titanic learning experience that it can be hard to relate to yourself from the start to the end of a project.

When and where is your launch/next gig? The 21st of March at the Great Northern in Newcastle! Then 22 March, Spectrum.

Website link for more info? mostfunmachine.bandcamp.com

ALBUM FOCUS

ALBUM FOCUS

[email protected]


the [email protected]

EP FOCUS

ALBUM FOCUS

SLUMBERHAZEAnswered by: Sash Mishevski

EP title: Rhyme, Rhythm & Romance - (Part 2)

How many releases do you have now? Two. This EP is Part 2 of

a three-part journey beginning

mid-2013. A trilogy dubbed

Rhyme, Rhythm, & Romance.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making?

Yes, proving to ourselves that

we have a niche sound, a point

of difference, and simply to

do what we love and build

something worth living in.

What’s your favourite song on it?

I Lose Control. I love nighttime

and this track is a ballad about it and its beautiful creativity.

We’ll like this EP if we like... I’d say if you have a taste for Outkast, Pink Floyd and soul. The trilogy is focused on Rhyme, Rhythm & Romance and you can hear it in every track.

When and where is your launch/next gig? Our EP launch is on Saturday 22 March at Oxford Art Factory (The Gallery). It’s free, and we have as special guests the amazing Monchichi and The Ivory Drips.

Website link for more info? facebook.com/slumberhaze

KING OF THE NORTHAnswered by: Andrew Higgs

Album title: Sound The Underground

Where did the title of your new album come from? We stole it off a train.

How many releases do you have now? We have a self-titled EP

and Sound The Underground

is our debut album.

How long did it take to write/record? 14 songs were written

in one to two months and 13

were recorded in three to four

days at Hothouse Audio in

St Kilda; 12 made the album,

13 on the vinyl version.

What’s your favourite song on it? Paradise. It’s dark, a

different mood with a multi-

layer guitar looping section that

came out really powerful.

Will you do anything differently next time? There are a few,

but with the tour looming

and focusing on playing Sound The Underground for the next

few months it will be hard

to think about much else.

When and where is your launch/next gig? 23/03 Frankies; 8/05

Transit Canberra; 9/05 Cambridge

Hotel Newcastle; 10/05 Spectrum

(dual launch with The Dead Love)

Website link for more info?

kingofthenorth.com.au

CAITLIN PARKSingle title: Hold Your GazeWhat’s the song about? It’s about fighting for someone, turning your lover into a partner. Convincing someone to be brave. A call to battle.

How long did it take to write/record? I wrote it over a couple of months. A little while I was in the UK in May last year. But it all came together quite quickly in the end.

Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? Yes, it is the first single from my forthcoming album, The Sleeper. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and

recording? Tribal drums, skinny people in the winter. Cold hearts getting warmer.

We’ll like this song if we like... Feist. Big drums. Lots of vocals. If you want to find the courage to tell someone what’s what!

Do you play it differently live? A little bit, yes!

When and where is your launch/next gig? Next show is on Friday 21 March at Brighton Up Bar! Support from The Phoncurves and Alyx Dennison.

Website link for more info? caitlinpark.net

MENISCUSAnswered by: Daniel Oreskovic

How did you get together? We

are just a group of people that

are equally passionate about

creating music that resonates

with us and the world around us,

and we just so happened to find

each other at the right time.

Sum up your musical sound in four words? Enya

with loud guitars.

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

The Drive-In. They are the

embodiment of everything I

look up to in a live band.

You’re being sent into space, no iPod, you can bring one album – what would it be? Tough to pick one, but it would have to be Dive by Tycho. Something about hovering over Earth, while hearing those smooth synth-driven soundscapes in zero-gravity really fits.

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? Seconds before our set, at Fusion Festival, Germany. A freak storm came ripping through the grounds, forcing everyone to evacuate the tent. We waited it out, got back on stage, wiped the rain off our gear, and played on.

Why should people come and see your band? We’re honest about what we do and it translates live. We play delicate music in the most violent way possible.

When and where for your next gig? 19 Mar Bald Faced Stag.

Website link for more info? meniscusband.com

SINGLE FOCUS

HAVE YOU HEARD


opinion

WAKE THE DEADPUNK AND HARDCORE

WITH SARAH PETCHELL

BASEMENT

After the excitement of tours and festivals and albums being recorded, it’s time for a negative tone to be taken with this week’s column and the target of my ire is reunion tours. Specifically, when a band has broken up for about 15 minutes gets back together and starts playing shows again. I mean, is it really a reunion tour when you’ve broken up and little more than a year later you’re playing shows again?

I forked out the money to see Refused. I would pay a buttload of money to see Champion again (yeah, right). It’s really great that The Gifthorse are back playing again. There are even a few Australian bands that have broken up recently that I miss A LOT (I’m looking at you Fires Of Waco and Colossus) that I would love to see play shows again.

But I’m sorry, Basement, you can’t break up late in 2012, then decide to play shows back in January and call it a reunion tour. I mean, there wasn’t even a chance for fans to really miss you. The average band puts out one record every two years. An international band may hit Australia every two or three years. It has not even been that long.

Perhaps it isn’t the band’s fault that shows are being touted as reunion shows, as the band never said they broke up – what they did say was that they “put things on hold”. Whatever you call it, I will still probably go and see the band play when they hit Australia in July.

[email protected]

METAL AND HARD ROCK WITH CHRIS MARIC

DISTURBED: RUMOURED TO HEADLINE SOUNDWAVE 2015

It’s only been three weeks and already everyone is turning to the rumours that abound for Soundwave 2015.

Not sure if you saw, but the Future Music Festival which happened two weekends ago was an underage event that saw a stack of kids jumping the fence to get in and a bunch of idiots trying to start a circle pit while an electronica act was playing. The difference being, the pit looked way more aggressive and violent than any I’ve seen at a metal show and even a metalcore show. They seem to miss the point entirely.

Anyway, recently SW Boss AJ Maddah was grilled online over some potential acts slated to appear on the next festival – minus Perth, of course. Those that have more than a strong chance of coming down are Disturbed, who have been touted as potential headliners; Dimmu Borgir, let’s hope they play later and don’t have any gear fuck-ups; Lacuna Coil, whose new album is great and it’s been ages since they’ve been here anyway; Anvil, well, sure, why not? And Victory have proclaimed Conditions as the next A Day To Remember and if so, SW is the perfect platform for them to test that. Fear Factory are no strangers to Aussie festivals but are way better inside, at night, under lights. And AJ also said he is going after Manowar “big time”. Can you fucking imagine? Ticket prices will be 300 bucks, haha.

The SW maybe pile is huge as to be expected with Manson, Opeth and Lamb Of God on the wishlist. One that stuck out as interesting was Rush, who will definitely bring a crowd of their own if they come and

THE HEAVY SHIT

the younger mathcore kids will get a taste of the masters. Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society will likely run rampant backstage again. With so many bands already familiar with the festival it’s easy to come up blank with who else could possibly do it and so we turn to the past with King Diamond, Bloodhound Gang, Godsmack, Fishbone, Infectious Grooves, Pop Will Eat Itself, Turbonegro and Sepultura all sitting in that maybe pile. You know what, a line-up with all that on it would actually be pretty fucking awesome!

There are a few long shots according to AJ and I also tend to agree that there isn’t much chance you’re going to see Maiden, SOAD, Rammstein, The Prodigy or Skunk Anansie (who were on this year’s bill but apparently asked for too much cashola). Apparently Good Charlotte are begging for a spot, but are getting told to stand in the corner too, haha. I don’t know the details, but apparently they’ve been trying to secure Rancid for a tour for over ten years too.

Finally the no chances. There is no chance of SW15 or (any SW) featuring the following: Guns N’ Roses, Priest, Soundgarden, Saxon (‘cause if you cancel on AJ, he cancels on you), Puddle Of Mudd, Nightwish (pissed him off too much to win him back) and there’s no consideration for Twisted Sister or Marianas Trench and the dear old Sabbath boys just can’t handle to hectic schedule of the festival. As always, the entire list above can change from one hour to the next, so don’t believe a damn thing.

[email protected]

OG FLAVASURBAN AND R&B NEWS

WITH CYCLONE

PHARRELL WILLIAMS @ FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL.

PIC: ANGELA PADOVAN

There’s a viral joke that the eternally youthful Pharrell Williams is a vampire. Certainly, he’s omnipresent. He lately won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, while his Australian chart-topper Happy (from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack) was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. Williams’ giant Vivienne Westwood hat has its own Twitter account. He raps on Major Lazer’s club banger, Aerosol Can, and even “mentors” on Rihanna’s reality show, Styled To Rock.

The (ex-) N*E*R*D frontman just toured with Future Music Festival, performing a hit megamix alongside DJ Eque and dancers. Happily for Sony Australia, this coincided with the release of G I R L – Williams’ first solo album since 2006’s underwhelming In My Mind.

Interviewers know Phazza as the OG grumpy cat. But at G I R L’s heart is his endearing, eccentric, blithely sexy pop persona. Williams ostensibly made a celebratory ‘feminist’ LP to counter the chauvinism of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines. Musically, G I R L carries the same breezy retro funk and r’n’b grooves as Happy and, going back, Frontin’, with Williams occasionally singing falsetto. The catchy new single Marilyn Monroe has highbrow strings. However, the handclappy Come Get It Bae (with Miley Cyrus!) is Blurred Lines II. Williams offers decent duets with pal Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys, but Daft Punk’s robo-disco Gust Of Wind, though redolent of Lose Yourself To Dance, rules.

@therealcyclone


opinion

YOUNG & RESTLESSALL AGES

WITH DAVE DRAYTON

MARITIME MUSEUM

I’m well aware that for some of your musical endeavours getting a foot in the door isn’t anywhere near as simple as plugging the tiny PA your uncle uses to call bingo into your mum’s garage power point and chucking a house show.

Things are going to be a little more difficult to get off the ground if you’re trying to find a nice place to start as a slacker rock band. For a young composer though, things can be tougher. Writing the music could be easy enough, but not so getting access to the required equipment. Likewise, it can be hard getting your music out there – I’m fairly sure the number of blogs and web zines dedicated to upstart rock or pop bands far outweighs that of similar publications dedicated to upstart composers.

With all that in mind, I’m more than a little excited to share a fantastic opportunity with all you budding composers. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has teamed up with the Australian National Maritime Museum to offer ‘young’ composers (aged 18–26) the opportunity to create a soundtrack for a five-minute clip of a silent film of Australia’s first naval battle in the First World War.

The winning entry will be included in the exhibition Test Of War – Royal Australian Navy In WW1 at the ANMM later in 2014, with travel to regional and metropolitan museums around Australia planned from June 2015 through late 2018. Head to http://nfsa.gov.au/whats-on/test-of-war/ to enter.

[email protected]

VISUAL ART WANK AND THEATRE FOYERS WITH DAVE DRAYTON

KEITH HARING’S COLLINGWOOD MURAL

In which a bad tattoo helps the mind time travel to the 1980s and back again while conservation and street art collide.

I’ve spent the last three weeks travelling the country with a man by the name of Max Stern, playing at being musicians by playing songs. I first met Max doing something somewhat similar a year ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later in Cleveland, Ohio. The two things that these cities have in common at slightly-before-this time of year is this: they are fucking cold. As a result of this, I saw Max clad only in long sleeve shirts. Now, in a ferocious but apparently fading Australian summer, Max, clad in a T-shirt – and denying Ted Leo’s prescription, wearing shorts – can roll a sleeve up while playing a song, Commuters, as visual stimulation for a line sung with wry cheek: “The arguments I had with you stayed with me like a bad tattoo you laugh about but secretly regret”.Having listened to the song for over a year before new concrete meaning emerged; inked on the shoulder is a skateboarding Keith Haring image.

The day the tour rules in Melbourne I discover that Haring’s infamous mural on the wall of the former Collingwood Technical School in the city’s inner-north in 1984 had been restored. Last year, conservator Antonio Rava had restored the original mural, bringing it entirely back to life with a renewed sense of Haring’s vibrancy in his work. It was also last year that the long-missing and presumed lost-for-good door that bore Haring’s signature on this mural was returned, anonymously, in a garbage bag, in the mail, to

MODERATELY HIGHBROW

one Jessica Hochberg. Many objected to the work’s restoration, claiming that Haring would have preferred the work be left to age naturally – Haring can’t weigh in himself, having died in 1990.In response to that, however, I think that Rava’s work on this work of art only served to extend its capacity to age, and to change with the city around it. On January 24 the mural had been tagged again, despite its listing on a Victoria Heritage Register, an Arts Victoria spokeswoman told The Age in the aftermath – like a juvenile with a can and an axe in hand to grind would bother to check such registers. But here was proof that a work that was painted in front of a teenage crowd, a work that burst with so much youth, could appear once again like a fresh target for a young rattling painter.

The song I was talking about earlier, it’s on an album called Aging Truths, which takes its title from a line that occurs towards Commuters’ end: “Our aging truths could always coexist”. The image of art as truth that ages and coexists with us, in light of these lines and those, more vibrant than they had been in decades, of Haring, lodged itself in my brain. And I thought more of the age-defying ilk of Rava, who practice their own particular and peculiar brand of death-defying art. And then I thought of a magazine dedicated to this very intriguing breed of artist that had recently launched, The Condition Report, a compendium of all things culturally conservational. And I thought to tell you about it so that perhaps you may find the inclination to extend the life of an artwork, either by cleaning the wall on which it resides or remounting it on skin.

GET IT TOGETHERHIP HOP

WITH JAMES D’APICE

FRANK OCEAN

In almost any argument, against almost any opponent, I will always be inclined to sit in the Frank Ocean corner. Recently, he went toe-to-toe with Chipotle, an American restaurant chain with a reputation for promoting sustainability and animal welfare. It led me to pause a little in my unwavering support of Frankie.

The dispute concerns the performance of the song Pure Imagination in an advertisement put out by Chipotle last year. That song’s from the 1971 Willy Wonka movie. Ocean agreed to record it and accepted the $212,500 advance on his $425,000 fee. He saw the final cut of the ad, was upset at the prominence of the Chipotle logo, and decided to leave the project. Chipotle sued.

Straightforward, right? Moody artist, and a company trying to get its money back? Maybe, but Chipotle have been pretty cynical with this campaign. The song (the new version, performed by Fiona Apple) plays over a depiction of Evil Corporate Big Agriculture mistreating animals. This is contrasted with Chipotle, setting up a simple, homespun burrito stand selling a vegetarian burrito. What we don’t learn from the ad but do learn from a cursory Google search is that i) Chipotle sells a lot of meat, and ii) Chipotle’s record on animal welfare is hardly stellar. Its chicken is not free range – or not all of it – and much of their beef is “feedlot finished” or: taken off the grass and put into a large room weeks before slaughter. Both practices are barbaric. So! Mr Ocean deserves our support again (now that he’s returned the money).

[email protected]


Jurassic 5: 19 Mar Enmore Theatre

Caspian: 19 Mar Bald Faced Stag

Billy Bragg: 19 Mar Canberra Theatre

Calling All Cars: 20 Mar Manning Bar; 1 May Transit Bar Canberra; 2 Small Ballroom Newcastle; 3 Oxford Art Factory; 4 Studio Six Sutherland

Absu: 22 Mar Factory Theatre

Shapeshifter: 22 Mar Manning Bar

Caravana Sun: 22 Mar Oxford Art Factory

Stonefield: 27 Mar, Miranda Hotel; 28 The Roller Den, Erskinville; 29 The Small Ballroom, Newcastle

The Jungle Giants: 28 Mar Metro Theatre

Melbourne Ska Orchestra: 28 Mar The Hi-Fi

Claude Hay & The Gentle Enemies: 28 Mar The Old Manly Boatshed; 29 Katoomba RSL; 4 Apr Grand Junction Hotel Maitland; 16 May O’Neill’s Pub Canberra; 17 Lewisham Hotel; 30 The Stag & Hunter Hotel Newcastle; 1 Jun Towradgi Beach Hotel Wollongong

Ella Hooper: 29 Mar The Vanguard

Bam Bam: 2 Apr Happy Club, Newcastle; 3 Apr, Manning Bar

Sally Seltmann: 3 Apr Lizotte’s Kincumber; 4 The Vanguard; 5 Clarendon Guest House Katoomba

Monster Magnet: 4 Apr The Hi-Fi

Loon Lake: 4 Apr Oxford Art Factory

Harmony: 4 Apr Goodgod Small Club; 5 The Phoenix Canberra

Residual: 4 Apr World Bar; 5 FBi Social

Cloud Control: 4 Apr (early evening) Coogee Bay Hotel (Beer Garden); 4 (late) Manly Wharf Hotel; 5 (arvo) Bucket List; 5 (early evening) Newport Arms; 6 Towradgi Hotel, Wollongong; 6 Northies Cronulla; 11 (early evening) Queens Wharf Brewery Newcastle; 11 (late), Shoal Bay Resort Newcastle

Bliss N Eso: 12 Apr Nobbys Beach Reserve Newcastle; 17 The Domain

The Magic Band, The Grandmothers Of Invention: 12 Apr Metro Theatre

Beth Hart: 12 & 13 Apr The Basement

Allen Stone: 13 Apr Metro Theatre

Jimmie Vaughan, Nikki Hill: 16 Apr Metro Theatre

The Soul Rebels: 16 Apr The Basement

Robben Ford: 16 Apr Lizotte’s Newcastle; 17 Factory Theatre

Owen Campbell: 16 Apr, 4 May Lizotte’s Central Coast; 17 Apr Old Manly Boatshed; 2 May The Abbey Canberra; 3 Camelot Lounge; 4 Lizotte’s Newcastle; 11 Towradgi Beach Hotel

Morcheeba, Chali 2na: 17 Apr Metro Theatre

KC & The Sunshine Band, WAR: 17 Apr Enmore Theatre

Bluesfest: 17 – 21 Apr Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Byron Bay

Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite: 19 Apr Sydney Opera House

The Wailers, Sly & Robbie & The Taxi Gang: 19 Apr Enmore Theatre

Trixie Whitley: 19 Apr The Basement

Larry Graham & Graham Central Station: 20 Apr The Basement

Jake Bugg: 20 Apr Enmore Theatre

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80: 20 Apr Metro Theatre

Suzanne Vega, Seth Lakeman: 20 Apr Factory Theatre

Devon Allman, Gregg Allman, Gov’t Mule: 21 Apr Enmore Theatre

North Mississippi Allstars: 22 Apr The Basement

Steve Earle & The Dukes, Kasey Chambers: 23 Apr Enmore Theatre

KT Tunstall: 23 Apr Lizotte’s Newcastle; 24 Lizotte’s Central Coast; 25 Lizotte’s Dee Why; 26 The Basement

Aaron Neville, Dr John & The Nite Trippers: 24 Apr State Theatre

India.Arie, Joss Stone: 24 Apr Enmore Theatre

Ozomatli: 25 Apr Factory Theatre

Booker T Jones, Valerie June: 26 Apr Factory Theatre

Groovin The Moo: 26 Apr Maitland Showground; 27 University of Canberra

The Jezabels: 28 & 29 Apr Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Arctic Monkeys: 6 May Sydney Entertainment Centre

The Beards: 8 May Studio 6; 9 Tattersalls Hotel Penrith; 10 Collector Tavern; 5 Jun Mona Vale Hotel; 6 UniBar Wollongong; 7 The Abbey Canberra; 8 Captains At Mariners Batemans Bay; 11 Carrington Hotel Katoomba; 23 Jul Bar On The Hill Newcastle; 24 Entrance Leagues Bateau Bay; 25 Fitzroy Hotel Windsor; 26 Factory Theatre

Free Your Mind ft Northlane: 23 May, Metro Theatre; 24, Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle; 25, Zierholz, Canberra

Vivid LIVE: 23 May – 1 Jun Sydney Opera House

Frente: 30 & 31 May The Basement

DZ Deathrays: 30 May Rad Bar, Wollongong; 31 Oxford Art Factory

Kingswood: 30 May The Hi-Fi

The Audreys: 7 Jun Lizotte’s Newcastle; 8 Factory Theatre

WED 19 The Mango Balloon: 505, Surry Hills

Lounge Sounds: Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly

Youngbloods feat. Andrew Denniston + Guests: Avalon Beach RSL, Avalon Beach

Caspian + Meniscus + We Lost The Sea: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt

Musos Club Jam Night: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt

Icehouse + Michael Paynter: Belmont 16’s, Belmont

Billy Bragg + Courtney Barnett: Canberra Theatre, Canberra

Elision: Carriage Works, Eveleigh

Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra: Coopers Hotel, Newtown

Jurassic 5: Enmore Theatre, Enmore

Mingus Amongst Us: Foundry 616, Ultimo

The Widowbirds: Frankies Pizza, Sydney

Lisa Marie Presley + Leroy Lee: Hornsby RSL, Hornsby

Ben Goldstein: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction

FBi Social Lunchbreak feat. Sunbeam Sound Machine: Kings Cross Hotel (1pm), Kings Cross

Baby Lips & The Silhoettes: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin + Guests: Leichhardt Bowling Club, Leichhardt

Coopers Live & Local feat. Taralee & Ryland Cosstick + Mark Fizsummons + Shane Edwards + Rhythm & Melody: Lizottes Central Coast, Kincumber

Coopers Live & Local feat. Cormack & Emily + The Gemini Project: Lizottes Newcastle, New Lambton

Peter Rowan Bluegrass Trio: Lizottes Sydney, Dee Why

Prepared Like A Bride: Oasis Youth Centre, Wyong

Mark Travers: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra: Pyrmont Point Hotel, Pyrmont

Songs On Stage feat. Peach Montgomery + Guests: Sackville Hotel, Rozelle

Amy Rose + Cake Shop: The Vanguard, Newtown

Vibrations At Valve: Valve @ Agincourt (7pm), Sydney

THU 20 Johnny Nicol + Judy Bailey: 505, Surry Hills

The Smith: Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly

Angelena Locke: Bexley North Hotel, Bexley North

Tribute to Russell Shelford with Bump City: Bondi Bowling Club, North Bondi

Wendy Matthews + Charlie A’Court: Brass Monkey, Cronulla

JJ Duo: Brighton RSL, Brighton-Le-Sands

Sunbeam Sound Machine + Culls + Driffs + Moon Halls: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst

Spooky Mens Chorale: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville

Cath & Him: Campbelltown Catholic Club (Cafe Samba / 6pm), Campbelltown

Die! Die! Die!: Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington

Neil Finn + Joshua James: Civic Theatre, Newcastle

Ian Blakeney: Club Belmore, Belmore

Ben Bennett: Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee

Bunker Bluegrass: Coogee Diggers, Coogee

Various Artists: Coopers Hotel, Newtown

A-Team Duo: Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest

Greg Byrne: Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why

Orphaned Land + Voyager + Orsome Welles: Factory Theatre, Marrickville

Songs On Stage feat. Peach Montgomery + Warren Munce + Guests: Forest Lodge Hotel, Forest Lodge

Tony Deveaux: Frankies Pizza, Sydney

David Agius: Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill

Tin Sparrow + Luke Escombe: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar), Manly

Malo Malo: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction

FBI Social feat.Food Court + The Trotskies + Will & The Indians: Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross

The Wisemans Circus: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

Jam Night+Various Artists: Lennox Hotel, Lennox Head

Morgan Evans + Kaylens Rain: Lizottes Newcastle, New Lambton

Parissa Bouas + Feel The Manouche + George Washing Machine: Lizottes Sydney, Dee Why

Dave White Duo: Maloneys Hotel, Sydney

Calling All Cars: Manning Bar, Camperdown

Chloe Papandrea Duo: Newport Arms Hotel, Newport

Redlight Ruby: O’Malleys Hotel, Kings Cross

Cambo: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

Souled Out: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Crossing Red Lines + Angel At My Table + Thunderfox: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst

Shauna Jensen: Pyrmont Point Hotel, Pyrmont

Icehouse + Michael Paynter: Rooty Hill RSL (Tivoli Showroom), Rooty Hill

Hot Damn! feat. Prepared Like A Bride + Vices + Rivalries + Justice For The Damned + Blind Oracle: Spectrum, Darlinghurst

Glen Hansard + Lisa O’Neill: Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall), Sydney

Various DJs: Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith

The Stray Sisters + Ruby Boots: The Basement, Circular Quay

EK Collective: The Spice Cellar, Sydney

The Nymphs + A Man Called Stu: The Vanguard, Newtown

P Party with Purple Sneakers DJs: Uni Bar, Wollongong

The Covers Factory + Zombonino + The White Strokes: Valve @ Agincourt (7pm), Sydney

The Hello Morning + Guests: Yours & Owls, Wollongong

FRI 21 Beaten Bodies + Martha Marlow: 505, Surry Hills

Elizabeth Rose: Academy, Canberra

Andy Mammers: Adria Bar & Restaurant, Sydney

Klay: Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill

The Rewbies: Avoca Beach Hotel, Avoca Beach

Killrazer + Lethal Vendetta + Atomsquad + Til Rapture: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt

Katrina Burgoyne: Bar Petite, Newcastle

Eddie Boyd & The Phatapillars: Beaches Hotel, Thirroul

Joshua James + Dylan Wright: Brass Monkey, Cronulla

Ian Moss: Bridge Hotel, Rozelle

Caitlin Park + The Phoncurves: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst

Twin Lakes + White Walkers + Bigger Cages + Hey Lady!: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West

First Ladies Of Soul: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville

Vardos: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville

Lisa Marie Presley + Leroy Lee: Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill

GIG OF THE WEEKCASPIAN: 19 MAR BALD FACED STAG

1000S OF GIGS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU

THE MUSIC PRESENTS



SUN23 MAR

MANGROVEBOOGIE KINGS 7.00

TUE 7.00SIMON PAPAROA BRAND NEW ACOUSTIC SHOW EVERY TUESDAY

HOTEL

facebook.com/corrimalhotel

PH 02 4284 4086 [email protected]

FRIDAY MARCH 21ST

KALEIDOSCOPETHE ACID MONKEYS, THE

STRAWDOGS, SLEW, SHELLY MAY EVANS

8:30pm - Lounge Bar - Free

SUNDAY MARCH 23RDACOUSTIC SESSIONS

EVERY SUNDAY

GNARLYSHELLY MAY EVANS

5:00pmDownstairs in the Lounge Bar - Free

FRIDAY MARCH 28TH

HOLLOW GODST - REX RADIO,

THE ESCARPMENT, SCARBOROUGH

9:00pmUpstairs in the Live Room - Free

SATURDAY MARCH 29TH

CONTRABAND9:00pm

Downstairs in the Lounge Bar - Free

FRIDAY APRIL 4TH

COZZA PUB PUNKFEST

FEAT. FESKIT, SKINPIN, CULT KILLERS, ALISONS

DISEASE, TWO FACED, RUDE 9:00pm - Upstairs in the Live Room

Free Entry

FRIDAY APRIL 11TH

JONES THE CAT9:00pm

Upstairs in the Live Room - Free

SUNDAY JUNE 8TH

STEVE EDMONDS

BRAYDEN DENMEADE60S MUSIC FESTIVAL

1:30pmStation Bar, Lounge Bar, Ivory Room

SATURDAY APRIL 5TH

WHERE’S GOOCH 9:00pm

Downstairs in the Lounge Bar - Free

w

MondaysTRANNY BINGO

Wednesdays

MITCH ANDERSON & HIS ORGANIC

ORCHESTRA

BIG GIG THURSDAYS March 20th

Shauna Jensen March 27th

Sugarcane CollinsApril 3rd

Gabby DeverApril 10th

Thunderfox

Rooftop Garden, Cocktail Bar & Bistro

SundaysSUNDAY ROAST

12pm

WeekdaysHAPPY HOUR

4pm-6pm

WeekendsFANTASTIC $5

3pm-5pm

EverydayFREE TILL 3

12pm-3pm

Everyday

$15 JUGSAll Day


Leon Fallon: Castle Hill RSL (Terrace Bar), Castle Hill

Kurt Williams: Chatswood RSL, Chatswood

Prepared Like A Bride: Chatswood Youth Centre (All Ages), Chatswood

Heath Burdell: Clovelly Hotel, Clovelly

Hue Williams: Club Ashfield (7.30pm), Ashfield

Party Central: Club Cronulla, Cronulla

JJ Duo: Club Windang, Windang

Finn: Collaroy Beach Hotel, Collaroy

Gerard Masters: Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool

Dom Turner & Supro: Coogee Diggers, Coogee

Kaleidoscope + The Acid Monkeys + Strawdogs + Slew + Shelly May Evans: Corrimal Hotel (Live Room), Corrimal

Black Rose: Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst

Joe Echo Trio: Cronulla RSL, Cronulla

Tom Buckley: Crown & Anchor Hotel, Newcastle

Hand Picked: Crown Hotel, Sydney

David Agius + Matt Price: Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest

Uncle Jed: Dee Why RSL, Dee Why

Undercover + Hooper & O’Toole Trio: Dicey Riley’s Hotel, Wollongong

Hooray For Everything: East Hills Hotel, East Hills

Steve Edmonds Band: Engadine Tavern, Engadine

Corpus + Initials + Harbourer + Mowgli + Waits: Factory Theatre (Factory Floor), Marrickville

Kate Oakley: Figtree Hotel, Wollongong

Takadmi: Foundry 616, Ultimo

Craig Thommo: General Gordon Hotel, Sydenham

Darren Johnstone: Grand Hotel, Rockdale

Fun Machine: Great Northern Hotel (Tiki Bar), Newcastle

Triple Shot Trio: Harbord Beach Hotel, Freshwater

The Villians: Heathcote Hotel, Heathcote

Smokin Mirrors: Hermanns Bar, Darlington

The British Blues: Hibernian House, Surry Hills

Victoria Avenue: Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill

Black Bird Blue: Hotel Jesmond, Jesmond

Zoltan: Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn

Jam Tap Takeover with The Beards + Greta Mob + Jimmy Swouse & The Angry Darts: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction

The Ex’s: Kareela Golf & Social Club, Kareela

Hard Rocking Amigos: Kiama Leagues Club, Kiama

FBi Social feat.Tinpan Orange + All Our Exes Live In Texas: Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross

Dave White Duo: Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point

The Lazys: Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale

She Rex: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

General Pants & The Privates + Guests: Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham

Damien Leith + Greg Gould: Lizottes Central Coast, Kincumber

Songs In The Key Of Life - The Stevie Wonder Songbook: Lizottes Newcastle, New Lambton

Karise Eden: Lizottes Sydney, Dee Why

SCNDL: Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown

Dub FX + Opiuo: Manning Bar, Camperdown

Brown Sugar: Marble Bar, Sydney

G-Wizard: Marquee, Pyrmont

Sticky Fingers: Metro Theatre, Sydney

East West: Norooz Dance Party with Kazillion + DJ EFM Ehsan: Metro Theatre (The Lair / 10pm), Sydney

Chickenstones + The Overtones + The Complaints Department: Mona Vale Hotel (8pm), Mona Vale

Soul Station: Nelson Bay Diggers Club, Nelson Bay

Black Diamond Hearts + Gerard Masters: New Brighton Hotel, Manly

Am 2 Pm: North Sydney Leagues, Cammeray

Brendan Murphy: Northumberland Hotel, Lambton

Jess Dunbar: Novotel Darling Harbour, Pyrmont

Chris Turner: Oasis on Beamish Hotel, Campsie

Mashed Fridays feat. DJ Shalvy: Oatley Hotel, Oatley

Brad Johns + Rob Henry: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

Lianna Pritchard: Ocean Beach Hotel, Umina

Morgan Evans: Old Manly Boatshed, Manly

Reckless + Jonathan Jones: Orient Hotel, Sydney

AJ Duo: Ourimbah-Lisarow RSL, Ourimbah

Baths + Collarbones + Rainbow Chan: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst

Music Makers Club with Leura + Thyrsday + Western Front + more: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst

Rapture: Padstow RSL, Padstow

Ryan Thomas: Parramatta RSL, Parramatta

Skyz The Limit: Penrith Gaels, Kingswood

Irish Hooley: PJ Gallaghers, Leichhardt

Marc Malouf Duo: Rock Lily, Pyrmont

Courtyard Sessions feat. Borneo: Seymour Centre (Courtyard), Chippendale

Greening From Ear To Ear: Seymour Centre (The Sound Lounge), Chippendale

Christo Jones: Seymour Centre (Courtyard), Chippendale

Dewayne Everettsmith: Southern Cross Club, Woden

Nicky Kurta: Stacks Taverna, Sydney

In Solitary with Daniel Thompson: Street Theatre, Canberra City West

Neil Finn: Sydney Opera House (9pm), Sydney

Rock Solid Duo: Taren Point Bowling Club, Taren Point

Gay Paris + Skinpin + Psyrens + Whiskey Smile + Hoon: Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith

Rewind - The Aretha Franklin Songbook with Christine Anu: The Abbey, Nicholls

The Stray Sisters + Ruby Boots: The Basement, Circular Quay

Toehaugen + Trolhider: The Basement, Belconnen

Hornet: The Exchange Hotel, Hamilton

Moonlight Drive: The Mark Hotel, Lambton

Josh Pyke: The Small Ballroom, Newcastle

Soft & Slow feat. Fantastic Man: The Spice Cellar, Sydney

Roku Music + Broadcasting Transmitter + Narrow Lands + Yes, I’m Leaving: The Square, Haymarket

The Hello Morning + Hot Spoke!: The Vanguard, Newtown

Antoine: The Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard

Ryan Daley: The Windsor Castle Hotel, Newcastle

Suicide Girls: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Waves), Towradgi

Killers Show: Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi

Bang Shang A Lang: Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain

Messrs + Tequila Twins + Karl Broadie + DJ Ray Antonelli: Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills

Angel At My Table + Dress To Riot + Summers Mix Tape + more: Valve @ Agincourt (Basement / 8pm), Sydney

Melody Black + Coredea + Domino + In Hydes Shadow: Valve @ Agincourt (First Level / 9pm), Sydney

Grand Theft Audio: Warners at the Bay, Warners Bay

Alex Hopkins + DJ Marty: Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville

Muddy Feet: Windsor Leagues Club, South Windsor

Babaganouj + Chicks Who Love Guns + The Cathys: World Bar, Kings Cross

Mum feat. Tink + MKO + Astrix + Various DJs: World Bar, Kings Cross

Julia & The Deep Sea Sirens + Guests: Yours & Owls (RAD Bar), Wollongong

SAT 22 Wildcatz: 3 Wise Monkeys, Sydney

DJ Matt Meler: 5 Sawyers, Newcastle

Alice Terry + Jimmy Rigg: 505, Surry Hills

Glenn Esmond: Abbotts Hotel, Waterloo

John & Mindy: Absolute Thai, Charlestown

Luke Dolahenty Duo: Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill

Better Than The Wizards: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt

Stormcellar: Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle

Cam Hughes Duo: Bar Petite, Newcastle

Jack Daniels & Co: Bay Hotel, Bonnells Bay

Messrs + more: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach

Kirsty Larkin: Beauford Hotel, Mayfield

Kit & Kaboodle: Belmore Hotel, Maitland

A Day On The Green with Jimmy Barnes + The Angels + Ian Moss + Daryl Braithwaite + Richard Clapton + Boom Crash Opera: Bimbadgen Winery, Polkolbin

Weekend Detention: Bradbury Inn, Bradbury

Rumours - A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac: Brass Monkey, Cronulla

Babaganouj + Bell Weather Department + A.D.K.O.B.: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst

80s Flashback: Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills

Rock Solid Duo: Cabramatta Leagues Club, Cabramatta

Holly Who + Daniel March: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West

Monsieur Camembert: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville

Stefan Grossman: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville

Armchair Travellers Duo: Campbelltown RSL, Campbelltown

Generation Crash: Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill

David Agius: Castle Hill RSL (Terrace Bar), Castle Hill

Angie Dean: Castle Hill RSL (Piano Lounge), Castle Hill

After Party Band: Castle Hill RSL (Cocktail Lounge), Castle Hill

Take A Hit: Club Belmore, Belmore

Mescalero feat. Steve Edmonds: Coast Hotel, Budgewoi

Rick Fensom: Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool

Swag Collective: Coogee Diggers, Coogee

Nice n Tight feat. Loretta Palmeiro: Corrimal Hotel (Lounge Bar / 3.30pm), Corrimal

Craig Thommo Duo: Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst

Cath & Him: Crown Hotel, Sydney

Dave White Experience + Nicky Kurta: Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest

Lethal Vendetta + Killrazer + Johnny Roadkill + Paralysis: Dicey Riley’s Hotel, Wollongong

Dave Live!: Duke of Wellington Hotel, New Lambton

Open Mic Electric with Champagne Jam: Dundas Sports Club, Dundas

Mystery Guest: Eastern Suburbs Legion Club, Waverley

JJ Duo: Ettalong Memorial Bowling Club, Ettalong

The White Brothers: Ettamogah Hotel, Kellyville Ridge

Absu + Portal + Denouncement Pyre: Factory Theatre, Marrickville

Sebadoh + Fait Accompli + Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys: Factory Theatre (Factory Floor / 5pm & 9pm), Marrickville

The Lazys: Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor

Vince Jones: Foundry 616, Ultimo

Jay Seeney: Gerringong Bowling Club, Werri Beach

Bob Allan: Gladstone Park Hotel, Leichhardt

Charades feat. A1 Bassline (UK) + Wordlife + Preacha + U-Kham + Adi: Goodgod Small Club, Sydney

Shatner Fest with Sumeru + Staunch + Heiress + The Scott Street Tragedy + more: Great Northern Hotel (Tiki Bar), Newcastle

Roku Music: Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle

Tim Shaw: Greystanes Inn, Greystanes

Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin + Starr Witness + Guests: Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown

Steve Tonge: Harbord Beach Hotel, Freshwater

Not Another Boat Party feat. Basenji + Wordlife + Kilter + more: Harbour Cruise (Aquarium Pier / 5pm), Sydney Harbour

AJ: Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks

Alex Hopkins: Helensburgh Workers, Helensburgh

The Cyril B Bunter Band: Heritage Hotel, Bulli

SoLoco Saturday: Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill

The Levymen: Hotel Jesmond, Jesmond

CALLING ALL CARS: 20 MAR MANNING BAR




Doug Parkinson: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction

Gang Of Brothers: Jam Gallery (8pm), Bondi Junction

The Prannies: Katoomba RSL, Katoomba

Trouble Is: Kiama Leagues Club, Kiama

SCNDL: King Street Hotel, Newcastle

Hands Up!: Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross

FBi Social’s 3rd Birthday!+Shining Bird + The Walking Who + Yon Yonson + more: Kings Cross Hotel (8pm), Kings Cross

Greg Agar: Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point

Luke Escombe & The Corporation: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

RezFest feat. Carbon Black + The Blackened Beneath + HAZMAT + more: Lewisham Hotel (2.30pm), Lewisham

Karise Eden: Lizottes Central Coast, Kincumber

The Crowdies Show: Lizottes Newcastle, New Lambton

Marsala: Lizottes Sydney, Dee Why

Anthems of Oz: Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown

Loaded Six Strings: Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale

Shapeshifter + Black Sun Empire: Manning Bar, Camperdown

Black Diamond Hearts: Marble Bar, Sydney

Havana Brown: Marquee, Pyrmont

The Flattrakkers: Matraville RSL, Matraville

Matt Jones Duo + Ben Finn Trio: Mean Fiddler Hotel (Courtyard), Rouse Hill

The Lonely Boys: Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks

Rebel Rousers: Merrylands RSL, Merrylands

Sticky Fingers: Metro Theatre, Sydney

Rewind - The Aretha Franklin Songbook with Christine Anu: Milton Theatre, Milton

The Big Bang: Nelson Bay Diggers Club, Nelson Bay

Kirk Burgess: Newport Arms Hotel, Newport

Rapture: North Sydney Leagues, Cammeray

Wonderbrass: Oatley Hotel, Oatley

Michael Saracino + Carl Fidler + Brendan Deehan: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

Party Central + Dave Mason Cox: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Crazy Minian: Ourimbah-Lisarow RSL, Ourimbah

Caravana Sun: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst

Slumberhaze + The Ivory Drips + Monchichi: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst

Yum: Penrith Gaels, Kingswood

Cyndi Boste + Jeremy Edwards & The Dust Radio Combo + more: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham

Touchwood: Picton Bowling Club, Picton

Lady GaGa Show: Pioneer Tavern, Kingswood

Peter Byrne’s Forever Diamond: Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale

Joe Echo: PJ Gallaghers, Moore Park

Mark Oats & Cara Kavanagh Duo: PJ Gallaghers, Leichhardt

VIP: PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta

Gemma: Quay West Magenta Shores, Magenta

Big Way Out: R.G McGees, Richmond

Kash & Ko: Revesby Markets, Revesby

Morgan Evans: Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill

Mainline: Royal Hotel, Bondi

Jane Irving Quartet: Seymour Centre (The Sound Lounge), Chippendale

Blake Tailor: Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany

Fun Machine: Spectrum, Darlinghurst

Macson: Springwood Sports Club, Springwood

Amber Lawrence + Jason Owen: St Georges Basin Country Club, Sanctuary Point

Zoltan: Stacks Taverna, Sydney

Lior: Street Theatre, Canberra City West

Neil Finn + Joshua James: Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall), Sydney

Roar Of Lions + Lion Calamity + 30three + The Reunion + This Dance Floor: Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith

Uncle Jed: The Basement, Circular Quay

Youngbloods feat. Andrew Denniston + Ryan Thomas + Guests: The Beach Club, Collaroy

Greg Lines: The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney

Lisa Marie Presley + Leroy Lee: The Cube, Campbelltown

Incognito Band: The Exchange Hotel, Hamilton

Pacha feat. Joel Fletcher + Ember + Savage + John Glover + Baby Gee + more: The Ivy, Sydney

Chickenstones + Hell Crab City + The Overtones: The Record Crate (8pm), Glebe

Knowledge feat. L-Fresh The Lion: The Roller Den, Erskinville

Legions + Hurt Unit + Ether Rag + Vile Ways + Controlled: The Square, Haymarket

Gabriel Emilia Duo: The Windsor Castle Hotel, Newcastle

The Stray Sisters + Ruby Boots: Tilley’s, Lyneham

Paul Hayward + Friends: Town & Country Hotel (4.30pm), St Peters

Adam Katz + Sammy Hinks + more: Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills

Stand Alone + Vee Bees + Sin 4 Me: Valve @ Agincourt (Basement / 8pm), Sydney

C.O.F.F.I.N + Deadly Visions + Birds Eye View + more: Valve @ Agincourt (First Level / 8pm), Sydney

Funkapedia: Warners at the Bay, Warners Bay

Dirty Deeds - AC/DC Show: Warragamba Workers & Sporting Club, Warragamba

Yuki Kumagai & John Mackie + Tony Burkys: Well Connected Cafe (8pm), Glebe

Panorama Duo + DJ Marty: Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville

McAlister Kemp: Young Services Club, Young

Bin Juice + Guests: Yours & Owls (RAD), Wollongong

Josh Pyke: Zierholz @ UC, Canberra

SUN 23 Matt Jones Duo: 3 Wise Monkeys, Sydney

The Dulcet Tones: Bald Faced Stag (Front Bar ), Leichhardt

DJ Nicolas Duo): Bar Petite, Newcastle

Klassic Blak: Belmont 16’s, Belmont

Roku Music: Black Wire Records, Annandale

Sydney Blues Society: Botany View Hotel, Newtown

The Babe Rainbow + The Red Wine Roses + Montes Jura: Brass Monkey, Cronulla

Fundraising Concert in Memory of Katia Torkinski: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville

Brian Gillett: Campsie RSL, Campsie

Lost Picnic feat. Megan Washington + The Rubens + Emma Louise + Dustin Tebbutt + more: Centennial Park, Paddington

Yuki Kumagai & John Mackie + Paul Furniss + Tony Burkys + Bob Gillespie: Central Coast Leagues Club (2pm), Gosford

Urban Guerrillas: Club Bundeena, Bundeena

Franky Valentyn: Club Five Dock, Five Dock

Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin + Chris Brookes + Guests: Ettalong Memorial Bowling Club, Ettalong

Mark Travers: Ettamogah Hotel, Kellyville Ridge

Greg Agar: Family Inn, Rydalmere

Harbour Master: Fortune of War Hotel, The Rocks

King Of The North: Frankies Pizza, Sydney

Heath Burdell: Harbord Beach Hotel, Freshwater

Sarah Paton: Heathcote Hotel (1pm), Heathcote

Sunday Social+Various DJs: Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill

King Tide: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar), Manly

Dream Tambourine feat. Mark Wells: Jewells Tavern, Jewells

David Agius: Kemps Creek Sports Club, Kemps Creek

Quini Duo: Kiama Leagues Club, Kiama

Money Killed Jonny: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

Sunday Soundtracks with Simon Meli: Lewisham Hotel (5pm), Lewisham

Lazy Sunday Lunch with Ross Wilson: Lizottes Central Coast, Kincumber

Karise Eden: Lizottes Newcastle, New Lambton

Weekend Warriors Big Gig: Lizottes Sydney, Dee Why

Jess Dunbar: Manly Skiff Club, Manly

Hunter & Suzy Owens Band: Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville

Irish Hooley: Mean Fiddler Hotel (Courtyard), Rouse Hill

Alex Hopkins: Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction

Nicky Kurta: Narrabeen Sands, Narrabeen

Mick Jones: Nelson Bay Diggers Club, Nelson Bay

Sunday Sounds Acoustic: Oatley Hotel (2pm), Oatley

Sunday Sessions with DJ Alter Ego: Oatley Hotel (6pm), Oatley

Rob Henry + Three Wise Men: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

The White Bros + U2 Elevation: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Finn: Ruby L’Otel, Rozelle

Lisa Marie Presley + Leeroy Lee: Southern Cross Club, Woden

Little Earthquake: Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club, Terrigal

Bobby Keys & The Suffering Bastards: The Basement, Circular Quay

Andy Mammers: The King Street Brewhouse, Sydney

The Snape Brothers: The Mark Hotel, Lambton

Joshua James + Lakyn: The Vanguard, Newtown

Master Tiger: The Victoria Room, Darlinghurst

Liam Gerner: The Welcome Hotel (5pm), Rozelle

Matt Price: The Woolwich Pier Hotel, Woolwich

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington

Elston Gunn + War Flower + Claire & The Cops + Delta Edge & The Hounds: Valve @ Agincourt (Basement / 5pm), Sydney

Craig Thommo: Waverley Bowling & Recreation Club, Waverley

Marty Stewart: Western Suburbs Leagues Club, Leumeah

Steve Edmonds Band: Wickham Park Hotel, Islington

Mandi Jarry Duo: Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo

MON 24 Jam Night with Michael Muchow: Avoca Beach Hotel, Avoca Beach

Tranny Bingo: Coopers Hotel, Newtown

Frankies World Famous House Band: Frankies Pizza, Sydney

Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin + Chris Brookes + Massimo Presti + Rick Taylor: Kellys on King, Newtown

Sonic Mayhem Orchestra: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville

Bernie: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

Sammy Baker: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Tranny Bingo: Pyrmont Point Hotel, Pyrmont

Big Swing Band: Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith

Bobby Keys & The Suffering Bastards: The Hi-Fi, Moore Park

Songs On Stage feat. Helmut Uhlmann + Sam Phoenix + Guests: The Loft, UTS, Broadway

Civil War + HurtXUnit + Tired Minds + Distance + more: The Small Ballroom, Newcastle

TUE 25 Underground Tuesdays feat. John Martin + more: 34 Degrees South (Downstairs / 8.30pm), Bondi Beach

Old School Funk & Groove Night: 505, Surry Hills

The Rolling Stones: Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park

Words + Paul Foot: Comedy Store, Moore Park

Dave Kemp Group + Passionfruit: Foundry 616, Ultimo

Ray Beadle & The Silver Dollars: Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction

Lior: Lizottes Central Coast, Kincumber

Steve Tonge: Observer Hotel, The Rocks

Nick Kingswell: Orient Hotel, Sydney

Greg Agar: Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney

Russell Morris: Southern Cross Club (8.30pm), Woden

Chu Hip-Hop & RnB: World Bar, Kings Cross


BILLY BRAGG: 19 MAR CANBERRA THEATRE



backstage/classies

REHEARSAL STUDIOS

HOMEBUSH WEST

(02) 9763 7030

your ad in this space

call andrew on 9331 7077

classies.themusic.com.au

MUSIC SERVICES

DUPLICATION/MASTERING

CD & DVD DUPLICATION Editing/ Mastering and Artwork design available. See www.soundedit.com.au for specials. Ph:0418232797

Ad ID: 1-13343


backstage/classiesclassies.themusic.com.au

POSTERS

FULL COLOUR BAND POSTERS

100 A4 Gloss only = $40 100 A3 / SRA3 Gloss only = $80 250 SRA3 Gloss only = $150 100 A3 Matt only = $50 MANY more options www.blackstar.com.au call 9264 4776 BlackStar Design 104 Bathurst Street Sydney

Ad ID: 1-12960

RECORDING STUDIOS

Parramatta’s innovative production/recording/songwriting studio - free no-obligation pre-production - bunkbed-beats.com

Ad ID: 1-13560

REHEARSAL ROOMS

REHEARSAL STUDIOS AT WINDSOR ** 3 Rooms with Vocal PA ** 1 Large Room with fold back ** Open 7 days Contact: 02 4577 9777

Ad ID: 1-13531

TUITION

AAA GUITAR TUITION SYDNEY www.sydneyguitartuition.com.au tel. 0431953178

Ad ID: 1-13613

ADULT BEGINNER GROUP GUITAR

Always wanted to learn guitar? Our successful Guitar 101 classes for Begin-ner Adults is the perfect way to start. Learn the fundamentals of basic tech-niques, chords, tab-reading, theory, song playing and more. Experienced teachers, small intimate group. 8-week course, 1-hr weekly lesson. $279pp includes materials. Marrickville Inner West. More info/enrol for next term www.allagemu-sic.com.au, [email protected], 80060363, 0415123111

Ad ID: 1-13783

GUITAR LESSONS 1XFREE LESSON

$40 per/hour 10YEARS Teaching 0405-044-513 NEWTOWN

Ad ID: 1-13786

GUITAR LESSONS

Guitar Lessons Eastern Suburbs Ad ID: 1-13703

PIANO TUITION Pop, Blues and Roots Piano Tuition. Now taking students for 2014. Professional musician Don Hopkins has been teach-ing piano for over 25 years. Individual sessions. Beginners to advanced. Piano techniques. Improvisation. Songwriting skills. Don Hopkins Music. [email protected] 0425 201 870

Ad ID: 1-13564

SINGING LESSONS THAT >>>ROCK<<

OUT-SING Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Cornell, Axl Rose, etc 0405-044-513

Ad ID: 1-13787

SPECIAL OFFER ON TUITION

Teaching Piano, Violin, Guitar, Drums and Vocals. 1 on 1. All ages. Exams or Pleasure First trial lesson only $17.00 for 30 mins Only for new students. Huge discounts on musical instruments in store. inquiries: [email protected] or 9707 3111

Ad ID: 1-13784

TEACHER TO THE STARS!

Steve Ostrow, New York voice teacher and vocal coach who discovered and nur-tured the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Peter Allen, Stevie Wonder and countless others now Sydney City based and welcoming students on all levels; beginners, advanced and performers; Rock, Pop, Classical etc. For availability call on 0408461868. For a free e-copy of my book ‘On Becoming a Singer. A Guide To How’ email me on [email protected]. Lessons include the entire scope of singing...voice production, musician-ship, interpretation, performance skills etc. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ad ID: 1-13145

VOCAL TUITION For people having problems with pitch placement and breathing. tel. 0431953178

Ad ID: 1-13614

MUSICIANS WANTED

DJ

ELECTRONIC/DANCE GROUP 20 year old guitar player forming Elec-tronic/Dance group, looking for synth-player/DJ. Infl uences: New Order, Empire of the Sun. Tom:0401722767

Ad ID: 1-13645

KEYBOARD

KEYBOARD PLAYER WANTED Super Match Game are looking for a keyboard player to jam with and if the right fi t, join the band writing their fi rst album and touring. Email supermatchgame@gmail .com and tell us about yourself, include your contact details, and links to some of your music. We rehearse weekly and gig monthly. Catch us on https://www.facebook.com/SuperMatchGame

Ad ID: 1-13745

SINGER

METAL SINGER WANTED

METAL band from Sydney looking for a frontman. Needs to have own transport, great attitude, profes-sionalism and able to commit to the band to take it as far as possible. The band was previously established in Sydney but after some person-nel changes new members have joined and we have spent the last few months getting up to speed. We are well organised and ready to play shows. Sounds like: The Black Dahlia Murder, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage etc If you fi t the part and you’re keen give us a call.

Ad ID: 1-13775

SERVICES

GRAPHIC DESIGN

BAND POSTERS

Full Colour Posters 100 A4 Gloss only = $40 100 A3 / SRA3 Gloss only = $80 250 SRA3 Gloss only = $150 100 A3 Matt only = $50 MANY more options www.blackstar.com.au call 9264 4776 BLACKSTAR DESIGN 104 Bathurst Street Sydney

Ad ID: 1-12912

SINGING LESSONS - SURRY HILLS Contact: 0401 842 568 [email protected]

Ad ID: 1-13793


MOLLY VS IGGYRED CORNER, BLUE CORNER

Australia’s favourite hat-wearing music journo, Molly Meldrum; leathery punk legend and then-tweaker Iggy Pop.

WHY IS THIS A THING?Countdown survived on two things: interviews

with artists, and then letting them mime.

MOST EMBARRASING MOMENTProbably Molly telling Iggy to calm down while he jumped

around like a crazy person (probably not surprising).

ON THE PLUS SIDE...This might have been some of the footage

that convinced Iggy to clean up.

FROST VS NIXONRED CORNER, BLUE CORNER

British super-journalist Nick Frost; Richard Nixon, prototype for novelty masks.

WHY IS THIS A THING?Nixon trying to get back in the public mind after a very

successful and well-respected presidential career. Wait, what?

MOST EMBARRASING MOMENTThe fact that Frost had to pay Nixon for the

interviews. Man, that’s just depressing.

ON THE PLUS SIDE...Did you see the movie? That was a pretty cool movie.

KYLE VS LORDERED CORNER, BLUE CORNER

Internationally renowned songtress Lorde; Internationally renowned dickhead Kyle Sandilands.

WHY IS THIS A THING?Lorde obviously was promoting her tour.

Kyle can’t avoid a chance to spout bullshit.

MOST EMBARRASING MOMENTKyle aksed Lorde if she was in a lesbian relationship with Taylor Swift,

and then seemed to insinuate being gay is a bad thing. Yes, really.

ON THE PLUS SIDE...Well, Kyle Sandilands is “on the plus side”. Geddit?

the end

BEST/WORST INTERVIEWS



Date post:	23-Feb-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	themusiccomau
View:	239 times
Download:	14 times

The Music (Sydney) Issue #30

Documents