the music (sydney) issue #147
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The Music is a free, weekly magazine of newsstand quality. It features a diverse range of content including arts, culture, fashion, lifestyle, music, news and opinion. A national masthead, there is still a large focus on local content from up and coming bands to local independent theatre productions and more. With a fresh new design and look, it is a magazine for a new age.TRANSCRIPT
Sydney / Free / Incorporating
13.07.16
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Issue
147
2 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
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Entries close:31 July 2016
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www.thebasement.com.au
SATURDAY 8 JUNE
ANA POPOVIC(USA)
FOLLOWING THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT OF HER VERY FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR, MITCHELL CREEK ROCK AND BLUES FESTIVAL HEADLINE
ARTIST, ANA POPOVIC IS BRINGING HER TRILOGY TOUR TO AUSTRALIAN
AUDIENCES FOR AN INTIMATE, UP-CLOSE AND PERSONAL SHOW SHOWCASING HER
STUNNING NEW ALBUM ‘TRILOGY’.
COMING UP...
WEDNESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER
THU 28 JULYMASHA MNJOYAN AND BANDSAT 13 AUGAY PACHANGA!SAT 01 OCTTHE MARVIN GAYE EXPERIENCE
FOLLOW US: ON FACEBOOK @ THE BASEMENT & ON TWITTER @ #BASEMENTSYDRESTUARANT OPENS AT 11AM, SERVING FOOD ALL DAY
1976SAT 23
JULY
DRAGONTHE COUNTDOWN YEARS
FRI 15
JULY
THE MONDAY JAM
AVIIDATHE DEAR ME EP TOUR + SUPPORT ACT BLOOM
MON 25
JULY
WED 27
JULY
THE MONDAY JAMMON 18
JULY
ROTARY’S ROAD TO BROADWAYTHE BEACON FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER
THU 21
JULY
DON’T MISS!
A BOY NAMED CASHJOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE SHOW WITH MONTY COTTON (ONE MAN BAND)
SAT 16
JULY
SOUL TORMENT PRESENTS:METALCORE SHOW WITH “VALHALLA MIST”SUPPORTED BY “NOOSE FOR A NECKTIE” AND MANY MORE
OATH MATE OATH PRESENTSMASSACRING THE VALVEFEAT: “THE PLAGUE”, “BASTARDIZER”, “MURDER WORLD”, “GUTTER TACTIC”
FATHER SYDNEY PRESENTS:FATHER BASS CLUB WEEKLYBASS MUSIC CLUB NIGHT NOT TO BE MISSED FEAT: MYRNE, HATCH, LUUDE, HOLLY AND MANY MORE
PUNK SHOW WITH: “CATCHES & HALVES” SUPPORTED BY: “COLYTONS”, “PUZZLES”, “AWOL”, “ POSTMENTALIST”
HEATHER’S BIRTHDAY PARTYWITH “RED GAZELLE”, “THE FOSSICKS”, “FURIOUS MONK”, JONATHAN DEVOY, HEATHER AND ANDREW
YES RAVE PRESENTS:“B00BJOB” ‘BROWN SHANE WARNE’ SINGLE LAUNCHSUPPORTED BY: ZSA ZSA LAFINE, LAXE LUTHER, KING SINGLE, DWEEB CITY, BATESY, SHAKY HANDZBASS SESSIONS PRESENTS:
15.07 BREAKSBREAKS, TECHNO, ELECTRONICA, GARAGE, 170 FEAT: 8 DIAGRAM, MATT LUSH, SCATTERBRAIN, ANDREW WOWK AND MANY MORE
FRI 15TH 8PM
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LEVEL ONE
SAT 16TH 2PM
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SUN 17TH 4PM
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THU 14TH 8PM
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SAT 16TH 9PM
LEVEL ONE
COMING UPThu 21 July: 8pm Basement: Dirty Blues Show with “Joey Eugine and the Glue Factory” supported by: “Hibernia”, “Sophia
Koop” and many more; Fri 22 July: 8pm Basement: 316 Valve Bar Album Launch, Hip Hop Show feat: 316, Jah Thung, Hyjack, Little Hunta, Sub C & Creep, Asp.P, Mr. Nat, DJ Skae, and DJ Jimmy New; 9pm Level One: Louie Minarti Lounge
presents: Trap City/Trapped In Bass feat: DJ’s Elwood, 6ftSound, Terabyte, Thierry D, Chenzo, Arbee and many more ; Sat 23 July: 8pm: Stigmata promotions presents: At Dawn They Sleep, Sydney Slayer Tribute Show feat: “Haunting The Chapel”, “Herratic”, “Direblaze”, “Cerebral Contortion”, “Basikk Ekstasy”; 10pm Level One: Father Sydney presents: Father weekly, Bass Music club night not to be missed, feat: Myrne, Hatch, Luude, Holly and many more; Sun 24 July: 4pm Basement:
Punk Rock Show with: “Scene Of The Crime” and many special guests
Music /
6 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Rosie Waterland
A Day To Remember
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Max’s Mini Tour
R&B juggernaut Maxwell has announced he will return to
Australian stages later this year. He’ll play two exclusive shows in
Sydney, 24 Aug, before heading down to Melbourne on 26 Aug.
Better Cate Than Never
Welsh-born avant-pop star Cate Le Bon is heading exclusively to Sydney and Perth this October, touring her new album Crab Day. The singer’s maiden voyage to our shores will feature a mass of hits from her impressive back catalogue.
Cate Le Bon
Maxwell
/ Arts / L
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Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Remember This
US hardcore and pop-punk favourites A Day To Remember have slated in a massive December tour of the country. Their new album Bad Vibrations is out in August, and the tour will feature special guests Of Mice & Men.
VodCons
Sydney-based author and comic Rosie Waterland has locked down a number of tour dates in August for her new one-woman show, My Life On The Couch (With Vodka), which made a sold out debut at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Banana Field Music
A ream of exceptional Australian musicians are lined up to take part
in the inaugural Banana Field Music & Arts Festival in Coffs Harbour, with acts likes Illy, British India,
Phebe Starr and more headlining the all ages event.
British India
Credits
PublisherStreet Press Australia Pty Ltd
Group Managing EditorAndrew Mast
National Editor – MagazinesMark Neilsen
Arts EditorHannah Story
Gig Guide EditorJustine [email protected]
Contributing EditorBryget Chrisfield
Editorial AssistantsBrynn Davies, Sam Wall
ContributorsAdam Wilding, Andrew McDonald, Anthony Carew, Brendan Crabb, Cameron Cooper, Cameron Warner, Carley Hall, Cate Summers, Chris Familton, Chris Maric, Christopher H James, Cyclone, Daniel Cribb, Danielle O’Donohue, Dave Drayton, Deborah Jackson, Dylan Stewart, Eliza Berlage, Guido Farnell, Guy Davis, Hattie O’Donnell, James d’Apice, Jonty Czuchwicki, Kassia Aksenov, Liz Giuffre, Mac McNaughton, Mark Beresford, Mark Hebblewhite, Matt MacMaster, Mitch Knox, Neil Griffiths, Paul Ransom, Mick Radojkovic, Peter Laurie, Rip Nicholson, Ross Clelland, Sam Murphy, Samuel J Fell, Sarah Braybrooke, Sarah Petchell, Sean Maroney, Sebastian Skeet, Simon Eales, Steve Bell, Tanya Bonnie Rae, Tim Finney, Tom Hersey, Tyler McLoughlan, Uppy Chatterjee, Xavier Rubetzki Noonan
PhotographersAngela Padovan, Cole Bennetts, Clare Hawley, Jared Leibowitz, Josh Groom, Kane Hibberd, Leila Maulen, Pete Dovgan, Peter Sharp, Rohan Anderson
Advertising DeptGeorgina Pengelly, Sammy Blades-Moore [email protected]
Art DeptBen Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia
Admin & AccountsMeg Burnham, Ajaz Durrani, Kathy [email protected]
Contact UsPO Box 2440Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
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Phone (02) 9331 [email protected]
—Sydney
The number of seconds Beyonce had silence in her Glasgow
crowd in memory of those killed by police offi cers in America.
15
Music /
The number of long term members that will be left in AC/DC
once bass player Cliff Williams leaves after
the band’s current tour.
1
8 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Back In Fashion
It’s been a couple of years since we’ve heard from Aussie pop-
rockers End Of Fashion, but it looks like the Perth boys are heading back on tour this September, to celebrate the tenth anniversary
of their debut album.
House Party
Northeast Party House fans are on tenterhooks as they wait patiently for the band’s second album, Dare. Have no fear; the boys will tour nationally in September and October to celebrate when the new release finally drops.
Don’t Be Koi
Freo’s Koi Child have announced a return tour after a huge run promoting their debut album. The alternative hip hop act will play a string of shows in WA this August, before heading over to the east coast.
Northeast Party House
Koi Child
End Of Fashion
Violent Soho
Sohot Right Now
Just when were staring to get withdrawals Violent Soho are it again with the announcement the four Mansfield mates are hitting the national circuit this October/November with The Bronx, Luca Brasi and Tired Lion.
Arts / LifReleases
Peter Garrett A Version Of Now
Sony
Jack & Amanda PalmerYou Got Me Singing
Cooking Vinyl
DarkstarMade To Measure
Warp/Inertia
Community RadioLook Now You’re Cursed
Novella
This Week’sReleases
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 9
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Bailey Made It
Musical comedian phenomenon Bill Bailey has confirmed a massive Aus tour for later this year. Larks In Transit celebrates Bailey’s 20-year anniversary of touring, and it all kicks off in Darwin this October.
Refused Return
Swedish punk legends Refused are returning to our shores next year for a massive tour of hardcore tunes. The four-piece will be joined by veteran rockers Sick Of It All and Melbourne band High Tension.
Richie Returns
With his new album Cellophane on the way, Richie Ramone has decided to come back to Aus for a second time this year. The veteran punk will hit the east coast this October and November.
Refused
Bill Bailey
Richie Ramone
Music /
10 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Another Dimension
Art-rock aficionados The Stiffys are pushing the boundaries this September, when they head out on a 3D tour for their new album. The shows will feature visual effects coming to life with 3D glasses handed out at every show.
Laugh Your Grass Off
Those heading to Splendour In The Grass will be spoiled for comedic choice during the festival this year. Wil Anderson, Tom Ballard, Aunty Donna and plenty more will be performing at the 2016 run of the festival.
Super
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emma Louise has announced a massive 13-date national tour throughout October and November. The tour supports her second album Supercry, which is out this week (15 Jul).
Rev’ Heads
It has been announced that venerated psychobilly icon The Reverend Horton Heat is bringing his eponymous band back to Australian shores for a scorching run of shows around the country this September.
The Reverend Horton Heat
Wil Anderson
Emma Louise
Arts / LifOn three we both say one thing we don’t like about our relationship one...two..three “the constant lizard references” “iguana have more sex”@Amusitr0n
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 11
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Lash
es
Sound Of Silence
Deathcore giants Suicide Silence have announced a huge headline tour of Aus this September. The US quintet will play
six dates around the country with special guests popping up along the way.
Suicide Silence
The Stiffys
Escape The Fate
Backlash
Frontlash
AC/DC
With the news bass player Cliff Williams is soon to call it a day, leaving only guitarist Angus Young as the sole long-term member of the group, it’s seeming more and more like the power should be pulled on the band.
Pokemon GO
While the app itself is fun, man we’re sick of the crowds of people playing it, as well as constantly hearing about it too.
Fire Rae
Manager Rae Harvey (for The Living End, 360 and more) lost everything in a fire a mere week after moving into where she was setting up a new wildlife refuge. We are warmed by the massive response to the GoFundMe campaign launched to help out this noted music industry veteran.
A Regular Dose Of Negan
He was only in it for a brief part of the season finale of The Walking Dead, but we were so impressed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character Negan we’re stoked he’s been made a regular on the show’s next season.
Courtney Barnett
We’re loving her new cameo-filled video clip for Elevator Operator. Watching it should turn into a drinking game: drink every time you spot an indie muso.
The Election
Finally! We have a winner. Man that was way more painful than it should have been. Getting to a result was almost as prolonged as the campaign itself.
Elevator Operator – Courtney Barnett
Fate Expectations
American emo rockers Escape The Fate have confirmed a massive national tour this October. With tracks like Remember Every Scar still in the limelight, the boys will be joined by local hardcore act Dream On Dreamer for support.
12 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
“Rock’n’roll saved my life,” says James Alex Snyder, frontman of Philadelphia’s Beach Slang.
Anyone who’s heard his band’s thundering, superfuzz’d debut LP, 2015’s The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, knows that Snyder is sincere about such a sentiment, the record an earnest, joyous shrine to the positive powers of rock.
“Discovering the punk rock community gave me a place to go when I felt pretty hopeless, and had no one,” says Snyder. “I could throw all this angst into that thing, that energetic outlet. It’s always been bigger than just music for me. The music’s a really cool part of it, but it was that sense of community: finding where I fit in, not feeling alone. That was the bigger part of it. And you see that pretty directly reflected in the stuff I write. It’s me remembering this thing that was so good to me at a time in my life when not many things were.”
Snyder isn’t your standard buzz band figure. In an era in which beat-makers are fetishised for their proximity to puberty, Snyder released his breakout album at 41. He grew up in the ‘80s, in a Navy family, bouncing around New England and Pennsylvania. He didn’t have a relationship with his birth father, and calls his childhood ‘difficult’. “I’ve never really super opened up about it,” Synder offers. “I just don’t wanna look like a charity case. Let’s just keep it broad and say: I had a lot of rough-and-tumble stuff. It wasn’t a very nice way to grow up. I had such a crummy childhood that, once I became my own person, once I became able to reclaim my life as my own, I just said: from hereon out, I’m going to make it amazing. You can be a victim or an overcomer, and I just didn’t want to get
playing drums until earlier this year, and only once they’d recorded their debut EP, 2014’s Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken?, did they became a band proper. Another EP, Cheap Thrills On A Dead End Street, soon followed, after which Beach Slang signed with Polyvinyl, recorded their debut LP, and hit the road. After years of toiling away, Snyder was suddenly living the rock’n’roll dream.
Which made it strange that, in late April, Beach Slang broke up on stage in Salt Lake City, in the middle of a cover of Can’t Hardly Wait, by the famously tempestuous Replacements. Snyder, however, turns to a different iconic rock band to talk about what happened. “We thought we were The Kinks,” Snyder says. “Just another band fighting amongst themselves, succumbing to the pressures. We’ve been on tour for a year, with very little breaks, and we just had a moment of dumb, little infighting. Stuff that we know was bubbling under the surface, but [because] this thing has taken off so quickly, we never had the time to properly suss it out. We’re a rock’n’roll band, one who wears their hearts on their sleeves, and we had a little disagreement on stage that bubbled over into something.
“I walk away from that, and the thing I’m most disappointed about is that’s the
bogged down in the muck. Just because things start off wobbly, they don’t have to stick and be that way for good. If the first decade or two were a little bouncy, I wanna make sure the last six are amazing. This is the one life I get, I want it to mean something.”
Once Snyder went to see The Ramones as a 12-year-old, he was hooked, his entire adolescence spent strumming a guitar. In 1992, as an 18-year-old, he joined his first band, the cult pop-punk act Weston. “I started off being a fan of theirs, then their guitarist split, and they were just like: ‘Look man, you’re at all these shows anyway, you wanna just start playing?’ It was that small and dumb — just because I dug going to shows, and seeing this one particular band — but it lead to this whole life.”
Snyder spent the next two decades playing guitar in Weston, and almost the entirety of the ‘90s on tour. The band slowed down in the new century, going on hiatus in the early ‘00s, then reuniting to play sporadically. In 2011, when his old pal JP Flexner filled in on drums for a Weston show, Snyder played him the songs he’d spent years writing on the side. Flexner heard their big riffs and big heart, and convinced Synder to preserve them. So, Beach Slang was conceived as a recording project, with Flexner
Beach Slang’s James Alex Snyder admits to Anthony Carew that the band’s meltdown in Salt Lake City was a cliche not entirely unexpected. Cover and feature
pics by Elena Vilain/EV Shots.
Music
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 13
When & Where: 20 Jul, Oxford Art Factory; 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
most cliche thing we’ve ever done. To be just another band who fights on stage. It wasn’t like this catastrophic event, which is obviously how it appeared when press picked up on it. There isn’t any real juice or bite to it. We knew those tensions were there. Unfortunately it came out in a public place. Our regret is that we should’ve made the time to talk about it in a place that made more sense, not on stage at a rock’n’roll show.”
The next day, Snyder publicly stated that the blow-up had blown over, and that Beach Slang would continue on, even citing a passage from the Replacements biography Trouble Boys, where Paul Westerberg claims he destroys the things that he loves. “I think there’s a part of me that has a real fear, now, of this thing that I have,” Snyder admits. “It’s like if I destroy it before I lose it, then I never failed. I just gave up. And that’s a horrible, horrible way to approach things. But, in a moment where there’s outlier tensions and other things happening, that kind of thinking sort of starts confusing your head a little bit... I just wanted to put it out there: we’re human,
This is the one life I get, I want it to mean something.
Beach Slang may have spent the past year on tour, but it hasn’t stopped them from recording the follow-up to The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. Snyder mixed the ten song LP — A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings — while on the road, and it’ll be coming out in September. “I’m really excited about it,” he says. “It’s been such a wild year, in such a cool way, touring around and meeting all sorts of people that, through that — meeting these people, hearing these stories, the whole gamut of life experiences — a lot of these songs became about people I’ve met since
putting out that first record.
“Then, musically, I sort of reached a little deeper into my record collection and pulled some other things out. My love for the Psychedelic Furs is a lot more apparent on this record. I think my love for shoegaze and British new wave — bands like Catherine Wheel and Swervedriver and Chapterhouse — is showing itself a lot more on this record. It absolutely feels and sounds like a Beach Slang record, but I wanted to evolve a bit, too. I don’t wanna become a Xerox copy of ourselves. I don’t wanna write one song for my career. I’m hoping it’s intelligent evolution. We’ll see how other people
feel when it comes out.”
and there needs to be a margin-for-error for human flaw. Here’s an honest representation of that night. I look at it that I’m really lucky, living this dream life; I get to make a living at the thing I love more than anything. But, even
in that, you can lose sight of it momentarily.
“You can lose sight of life. We’re humans: we go up, we go down, we have the whole deal. But, at the end of the day, there’s something really beautiful about remembering that we have this fleeting amount of time, and making the time count. So,
I suppose these [songs] are like these little two-minute reminders: ‘You’re here, you’re alive, bite into that.’ Now, it’s sort of become this battle-cry. So, I get to shout that out to people, and it really connects with people that really do chomp into life.”
14 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
After observing that a lot of bands these days write songs about “drinking beers all day and sunshine and stuff like that”, Musa felt compelled to address “social pressures... in an accessible way”. “I feel like there should be more people — through music and through anything — saying to teenagers, ‘It’s okay’,” he opines. He believes that we can all benefit from the realisation that “everyone’s got their shit to deal with... everyone’s just as crazy as everyone else, you know; no one’s normal kinda thing.”
Reflecting back on what he describes as “an interesting upbringing”, Musa shares, “My family moved around a lot”. “It was a strange time, basically. So I had a lot of time to myself just to think and to create music.” Back in the day, Spring King guitarists Pete Darlington and Andy Morton hung out with Musa “in the skate park over the summers”. “We just used to skate all day and by night we’d just not go home or everyone would come back to my house, because I had a free house.’
Years later, James Green was recruited through a mutual “Manchester promoter” friend’s Facebook status that spread the word Spring King was looking for a bass player. Musa remembers that although “loads of people replied”, he chose Green “for some reason”. “He was smiling in his profile picture,” Musa jokes before exalting, “He smashes it! James is a musical genius”.
Courtney Barnett took Spring King out on their “first serious tour” supporting a “big headliner”. “We learnt a lot,” Musa extols. He “had a chest infection at the Sheffield show” and Musa recalls “having to cut the set short”. “Courtney came down and was like, ‘Are you alright? ‘Cause you’ve got three more songs left, don’t you?’ And she was really concerned and, you know, kinda cared about us.”
Musa is in awe of Barnett’s songwriting, “I’m definitely nowhere near as good as Courtney Barnett when it comes to writing lyrics. I don’t think I can express myself with her ability... I’m always trying to get better at writing lyrics, but I do find it quite hard, actually.”
He’s obviously doing something right, however, because Spring King’s City was chosen by Zane Lowe as the first song to ever be played on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio in June last year. Record labels came knocking, but Musa reveals, “Everyone wanted to hear new music and we just said to every single label, like, ‘No, you’ve heard enough... there’s enough out there for you to sign us if you want us’. But a lot of labels are like, ‘Oh, we need to hear more stuff, we don’t know where the album’s gonna go, we dunno what you’re gonna do next’. Except for Island [Records]; Island just let us do what we wanted.”
Even though they signed with a major label, Musa points out, “We’ve done it in a very indie way”. Island offered Spring King an advance and Musa informs, “Actually we downgraded our offer because we didn’t want as much as they were offering in the first place.” Spring King ended up going for a “very small” advance “because [they] already kinda had [the album] done”. Tell Me If You Like To, the band’s debut album, “was produced for free”. “We did it ourselves,” Musa elaborates, adding that mastering only cost “a couple hundred pounds”. They did negotiate “a really good tour budget”, Musa stresses: “We just wanna tour — that’s all we want to do.”
When & Where:20 Jul, Oxford Art Factory; 22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
When Spring King’s original drummer had to leave the band (“he had other commitments to other bands”), Tarek Musa was on guitar and
vocals (although he did “play the drums on the recordings anyway”). “We needed a drummer within about eight days or something like that,” Musa tells, before admitting, “At first, it was really difficult... I was really worried that I’d never be able to do this in my life; I thought it was impossible”. After “a bit of practice”, however, Musa got it down and now fancies learning “jazz drumming”.
Musa took a year off after finishing high school, worked in a supermarket and saved “as much money as [he] could” to purchase some recording equipment. “By the end of the year I was like, ‘I’m just gonna record loads of bands’.” Then one of his previous teachers “really pushed” Musa. “He was like, ‘You really should apply to university’... he convinced me right.” He went on to study sound engineering at “Paul McCartney’s university in Liverpool” [Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts] and Musa commends, “A lot of the people that leave that degree go into the industry and they all work; you know, Mike Crossey went to LIPA and he did, like, The Arctic Monkeys and Blood Red Shoes and The 1975... But when I graduated, I just I kind of put that to one side a little bit more and started focusing on writing songs”.
Go Your Own WayEven though Spring King signed to Island Records they did so “in a very indie way”. Vocalist/drummer Tarek Musa tells Bryget Chrisfield his band “downgraded” the major label’s advance offer and negotiated “a really good tour budget”.
Muswe juenouwantmorewe d[Rec
I’m defi nitely nowhere near as good as Courtney Barnett when it comes
to writing lyrics.
Music
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 15
16 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
an Ice Epidemic over here. “We don’t have it in England at all,” he states. Why’s that? “Do you know what? I have no idea. I’ve really thought about it, because — I mean, it does exist in England, but in a very weird way: the only people who take it are these kind of like very rich, in the kinda upper echelons of the drug scene — [it’s] the older kind of druggies that take crystal meth... There’s no tweakers. It’s weird.”
When told crystal meth is a gutter drug in this country, Adamczewski continues, “I know, yeah, and you see it everywhere in America. I mean, it’s a fucking devastating drug; it’s as bad as crack or heroin, isn’t it? I really don’t know why it hasn’t taken off in England, because you can also buy all the stuff you need to make it over the counter in England, which you can’t [do] in other countries. All my Australian friends are like, ‘Wow, man, you guys should fucking like buy this shit, you know?’ You can make it here, but no one does it.” Could this be because cocaine is so cheap in England? “Yeah, coke is cheap and shit in England, and people like it cheap and shit.” When asked whether he thinks those who indulge feel fancy when they take cocaine, Adamczewski offers, “I mean some do. I don’t because I know that my coke costs, like, 40 pounds and is mostly made up of, like, stuff that they give to babies who are having teething problems.”
When & Where:22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands; 23 Jul, Oxford Art Factory
“This is Saul, I’m gonna do the interview.” But we were allotted time with the band’s vocalist Lias Saudi? “Well I’m sorry; you’re just going to have
to interview me instead... I write the music as well; it’s my band as well, you know?”
Fat White Family’s lead guitarist Saul Adamczewski is in Paris at the time of our chat and, when not touring, he divides his time between the City Of Love, New York and “[his] mum’s sofa in South London”.
Although he’s “really proud of the record” Songs For Our Mothers, Adamczewski admits “there are parts of
that album that, like, I regret”. “There was certain points where I was just being really belligerent in the studio,” Adamczewski recalls, adding, “[I like to] see how far I can go with my friends, and just to see what I can get away with”. Adamczewski speaks in a slurred fashion. He also seems fascinated by word usage: “Funky? Man, I’ve never heard anyone use the word ‘funky’ for a long time”; “Oh, man, I love that expression ‘shithouse’”.
Severin Black, Fat White Family’s drummer, actually lived in Melbourne “for a year just before he came back to join [the] band”. “I hear the music scene’s great over there,” Adamczewski commends. But he wants to clarify something: “I just hear the drugs are very expensive over there. Are you going to say crystal meth is cheap? Is that what you were going to say?” Well, we do have
Drug HabitsFat White Family’s lead guitarist Saul Adamczewski tells Bryget Chrisfield he can’t understand why crystal meth hasn’t “taken off” in England when “you can buy all the stuff you need to make it over the counter”.
Coke is cheap and shit in England, and people like it cheap and shit.
Music
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 17
SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL
18 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
“We’ve heard lots of different takes on our new album — my wife calls it ‘post-yacht’,
as in ‘post-yacht rock’,” lead John Steel Singer Tim Morrissey explains of the band’s newbie, Midnight At The Plutonium. “She did say never to say that to anyone, but I love it so much, we’re going to roll with it.”
The new album for the Brisbane band has been more than a few years coming, and if “post-yacht” doesn’t turn you on as a teaser, then frankly, dear listener, you need to take a good hard look at yourself. To be fair, Midnight At The Plutonium is less about getting out on deck in your chinos than about an epic ‘70s funk-styled night out, but the dreaminess vibe remains. In addition to singles Weekend Lover and Can You Feel The Future, it’s hard to go past the magic that is Luke Perry’s Lips. Ah, ‘90s fanboys and girls — it’s a moment to relive some love. “Yeah, lots of people have been drawn to that one,” says Morrissey, unsurprised. “Often when we have a jam we come up with just a placeholder name to go in the song, and I don’t know why Luke from our band [McDonald, guitar], came up with that particular name. But then when it came to writing the lyrics he was able to keep that theme in there as well, so it fit really well the
whole album’s flow.”Not only is it a
draw, but the track, and the album’s “retro-futuristic” style begs a bit of research for the young ones listening, too. “Yeah, a lot of kids listening to [our] music probably weren’t even born when 90210 was in its heyday,” he continues. Scary how quickly pop culture moves.
While the band stops short of calling Midnight At The Plutonium a concept album
— “I think it’s a bit of a dirty word,” says Morrissey — the idea of capturing one type of event is something that appealed in terms of consistency and focus. “With concept albums it’s easy to do hits but also misses, so we’ve got a theme that’s focused, but not constricted.” The album starts at midnight, then draws the listener through “the hours of darkness in the club all the way through ‘til dawn, making the track listings run through smoothly too”.
In addition to the band, Morrissey has also taken over a major venue in Brisbane, Black Bear Lodge. “It’s a pretty well known venue on the Brisbane touring scene, and you know, we’ve been touring extensively for like ten years and not doing uni or anything else, so after a while you’ve got to start thinking about what else to add,” Morrissey explains. Along with the bar, The John Steel Singers also built their studio for the new release, The Plutonium, which they recorded in as well as developed to hire out. So far Cloud Control and Tame Impala have set down sounds down there. Morrissey jokes he’d happily be the Sam Malone of the place in a Cheers-like set up, “or there’s that Louis CK series Horace And Pete, set in a bar, that kind of vibe would work too”.
Man Of Steel
Tim Morrissey of The John Steel Singers tells Liz Giuffre about his wife coining the term ‘post-yacht’ to describe their latest release Midnight At The Plutonium.
What: Midnight At The Plutonium (Plutonium Records/Create Control)When & Where: 25 Aug, Transit Bar, Canberra; 26 Aug, Newtown Social Club
Music
COURTNEY CAMEOS
The Year Of Courtney’ has been extended indefinitely, folks. She’s just dropped a brand-spankin’ new clip for Elevator Operator, with a collection of famous people playing odd characters, from Sleater-Kinney as tourists to Magda Szubanski pushing the red button.
Here are our fave moments: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy gets his
banana snatched by Barnett as he contemplates a chess game.
There is an angry, indoor-bowling Paul Kelly. Barnett throws the bowling ball at him. Not rolls… throws.
Tim Rogers in board shorts and a cowboy hat, on a beach.
Michael Leunig in the midst of painting one of his characters.
Celeste Potter of Ouch My Face transforms from harmless jogger to a bloodsucking monster.
Garrett Huxley, Will Huxley and Gabi Barton wearing glittery morph suits, blue faces and ‘70s wigs.
The East Brunswick All Girls Choir as boogying nuns.
Jo Syme (Big Scary) self consciously brushing her teeth in a flowered one-piece ski suit.
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 19
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20 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
“This is the first time I’ve ever said g’day to an Australian without completely taking the piss,”
laughs Davis as the The Music is connected through to his hometown of Liverpool, England. It soon becomes apparent that after their first jaunt to our shores in 2014 (in support of the superb Blood Eagle LP) that Davis harbours a reservoir of good will towards all things Australian.
“I was amazed at how at home we felt in Australia - a lot of similarities to back home but without a lot of the bad things that come with it (laughs). On a musical level all the interactions we had were phenomenal. People looked after us well, the bands we toured with were amazing and the crowds really got what we were about. We can’t wait to come back.”
Since bursting eardrums way back in 2010 with the bludgeoning Horseback Battle Hammer EP Conan have developed a well earned reputation as one of the most exciting and consistent bands in today’s doom movement. The reason for this acclaim is simple: unlike many bands, they realise it’s not enough just to play slow. For Conan riffs actually matter.
“Having a bit of mix is important I think,” offers Davis. “We love the whole ‘low and slow’ approach but we also have some more upbeat moments. We think about the crowd and I often wonder how a crowd of neutral punters would take a band who just play one tempo the whole gig. How interesting would it be for them?
“In the modern music industry you have to take a few risks to get people’s
interest. We haven’t got more upbeat deliberately but we’ve definitely changed things up a bit on our records - especially on the new one. I’m also a big believer in ensuring that the musicianship is always top notch: look at a band like Samothrace - they play slow but the songs are always interesting and well written - and that’s what we try and do.”
Despite their ongoing success Conan have (band member-wise) suffered from ‘revolving door’ syndrome with only Davis himself surviving from the original 2006 incarnation. But, as Davis himself admits, in today’s music world this is par for the course.
“The reality is that when you are in a band like ours that tours so much - we did 150 shows last year - the pool of available musicians becomes smaller and smaller. You simply have to be available to do those shows and we’ve had members in the past that just couldn’t due to their personal and work commitments, which I totally understand: people have lives. Even I don’t make a living solely from being in this band - I do some tour management work and have a studio and a record label. That’s just how it has to be if I want to survive.”
Battle Hammer Doom
Liverpudlian doom Neanderthals Conan are back to drop their sizeable bottom-end sound on unsuspecting Australian audiences. Mark Hebblewhite cornered main man Jon Davis for the lowdown.
When & Where:15 Jul, Manning Bar
Music
Alberts Acquired
Australian publishing and recording house Albert Music has been
acquired by global juggernaut BMG, so we went back through their
history for some highlights.
1929
Frank Albert won tender for a three-year contract to run the government’s national
broadcasting service.
1964
Frank’s grandson Ted Albert established Albert Productions –
Australia’s first independent record label – and signed acts such as The
Easybeats and AC/DC.
2000
Continued their relationships with artists including Gotye, San Cisco,
Josh Pyke, Megan Washington, Urthboy, Ellie Goulding, AC/DC,
David Guetta and more.
2008
Alberts invested in both Sound Alliance (now Junkee Media) and, until 2012, Hub Artist Services as well as supporting various music
initiatives including FBi Social, The Seed Fund, Music NSW, Nordoff
Robbins, Support Act and Mission Australia’s Creative Youth Initiative.
UrthboyMegan Washington
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 21
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22 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
IndieIndie
Leadfi nger
NarlyThe High Learys
Album Focus
Answered by: Stewy Leadfinger
Album title? Friday Night Heroes
Where did the title of your new album come from? Ultimately it’s a song about playing live — the unpredictability of venues, turnouts and people. But it was originally inspired by how we usually party heroically Friday night, and are hungover the rest of the weekend!
How many releases do you have now? Friday Night Heroes is our fifth album since 2007. Leadfinger have also released three EPs and a single.
How long did it take to write/record? We started writing and developing the songs in January 2014 and it was recorded and mixed through winter 2015 at Linear Recording in Leichhardt, Sydney.
Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? We purposely tried to develop these songs as much as possible in the rehearsal room. This was the same for lyric ideas and melodies, which mostly came
Have You Heard
Answered by: Johnny Polhe
When did you start making music and why? In 2013, mainly just for fun, it made me feel good. I also used it as an escape, especially writing. I’ve only really taken it more serious as of late though.
Sum up your musical sound in four words? Narly, wavey, kinda chill.
If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Sticky Fingers - Caress Your Soul. Everything about it is just musically beautiful.
Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? Freestyling on stage with Dylan Joel at The Workers Club last year was pretty cool.
Why should people come and see your band? It will be pretty special, it’s my very first headline shows.
When and where for your next gig? 17 Jul, The Lair, Metro Theatre
Website link for more info? narlytunes.com
When it comes to quick success in the rock scene, The High Learys know where it’s at. Based in Perth
and formed in 2011, the band have toured internationally twice through Germany, France, Italy, Spain and England, had their single Clear My Mind chart at number one in the AMRAP charts in 2014, signed an endorsement with Vox Amplification Australia, featured in Timothy Gassen’s garage rock publication The Knights Of Fuzz and worked with Rob Grant [Tame Impala, Miley Cyrus, Lenny Kravitz].
“[I] formed the band back in 2011 with myself, my cousin Matt [Williams] and our high school friend Mike [Nutt]. We recently recruited our new drummer Mitch [Benson] and since have been writing and recording a lot of new material,” said bassist and lead singer Jamie Turner. “I think we all really enjoyed touring Europe and playing shows back in 2013 and again in 2014. Getting to travel to so many great pockets of the world was an amazing experience. We got to meet some amazing people over there and the crowds were insane!” They’re already working on new music but aren’t sure “if it’s going to be an Album or an EP yet,” hints Turner. He voices his support for Australia’s music scene, saying “I think Australia in general has some incredible talent to offer. I’m always finding bands around at the moment who are writing great songs and who can really put on a good live show!”
When & Where:17 Jul, Newtown Social Club
spontaneously from the music and the moment.
What’s your favourite song on it? The second song Heart On My Sleeve is my favourite.
Will you do anything differently next time? It’s way too early to think about that! I’m looking forward to this album coming out and people hearing it. It’s got heaps of bottom end and is our best yet.
When and where is your launch/next gig? 15 Jul, Factory Theatre.
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 23
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24 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Marta “Martika” Marrero went from recording the US #1 power ballad Toy Soldiers to teaming
with Prince for the enduring Love... Thy Will Be Done. Then she mysteriously retreated from popdom. But now the Cuban-American songstress is bound for Australia’s Totally 80s tour. Marrero will perform with a local band assembled by Wa Wa Nee’s Paul Gray, teasing, “They have requested the biggest singles.”
The Californian was a child star, appearing on the television show Kids Incorporated before embarking on a music career. Marrero’s eponymous debut came out via Sony in 1988. The teen had penned Toy Soldiers about a friend battling drug addiction. Marrero also transformed Carole King’s I Feel The Earth Move into a dance track. For her second album, she approached Prince to collaborate, culminating in Love...Thy Will Be Done.
Pre-interview, Marrero’s management clarifies details about her connection to Prince, stating that “Martika was NEVER in a relationship with Prince”. The singer-songwriter had already commenced work on 1991’s LP when, accompanied by her
momager, she met Prince at Paisley Park in Minneapolis. “It was pretty amazing, ‘cause I was such a huge fan. To even go to ‘Paisley Park is in your heart’ was just amazing to me — and the fact that, when I got there, he was like, ‘Welcome to Paisley Park’ and handed me a sheet of paper with the lyrics for Martika’s Kitchen on it, I was just so blown away. I’m thinking, ‘The guy wrote me a theme song!’” That
song became her second album’s funky title track. Though Marrero had hoped that they’d share a session, most of the collab happened remotely. “In a way, it was fine because we didn’t know each other,” Marrero reasons. “You’re more comfortable on your own.” Prince set music to words from her notebook, sending tracks back to Los Angeles. He turned “a prayer” Marrero wrote into “a beautiful hymn” — Love... Thy Will Be Done.
Shockingly, Martika’s Kitchen — featuring a duet with Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa — didn’t even crack the US Top 100. Marrero all but quit the biz. In later years Marrero began a Chicago house album, The Mirror Ball, airing the Toy Soldiers-riffing Flow With The Go. But she shelved it following a family loss. “I just got completely out of the zone we were in with that project,” she says. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll ever come back around to that or not, ‘cause you just move on.”
Today Marrero is unsure about a full comeback. But she has relaunched her website — complete with merch line. “It’s kinda hard to pick it up after so long. I’m not really basically career-driven like I was back when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, I wanted to take over the world.”
Still Marching
Marta “Martika” Marrero got her own theme song from Prince. Ahead of Australia’s Totally 80s tour, she tells Cyclone some of the highlights between now and then.
When & Where:16 Jul, Enmore Theatre; 27 Jul, Revesby Workers; 28 Jul, Civic Theatre, Newcastle; 29 Jul, Penrith Panthers
Music
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 25
for trouble - how many bands have fallen apart from rising tension in the confined space of a tour bus over the years? But Big White are “kind of like a - for the lack of a better cliche - a family I suppose”, he says bashfully. “I was in London recently and we ran into our mates from Hockey Dad, and their manager was like ‘So you’ve been on tour for a while now, are you guys still friends?’” he laughs. “And I was like, ‘I
wouldn’t say we’re more than friends, I’d say we’re beyond friends.’ We already love each other, but I guess we kind of learnt to get along. When you’re cleaning up after someone or they’re cleaning up after you... you kind of learn to be civil.”
They must have it down pat - even splitting the songs evenly between their three singers for live gigs sounds like it’s done without protest. It’s outsiders that’s the problem. “Every, I’d say, two out of the three reviews that we get have said ‘Nicholas Griffith’s singing on Teenage Dream blah blah...’ and they always muck it up, every time. And how do you know? You gotta look at a picture of someone and go ‘He looks like he has a deep voice/he looks like he yelps like a puppy.’ Everyone’s got their favourites... You don’t wanna get caught on the Ringo side of things, that’s for sure!”
After covering “9,200 miles” of touring in America, and multiple dates across Europe, Big White have become a little more worldly. Wotton reckons that “rock’n’roll is still alive” in the USA, observing bands like their own “constantly touring... They link up all these circuits, it’s crazy. There’s an optimism”. As for Europe, “There’s a lot more venues [than Sydney]. And Europe is completely different - the way you get treated as an artist. I was just saying to a friend: you get fed you, get watered, you get bedded, you get paid well. Europe’s next level in that sense, they’re really organised. Europe is like ‘wow’, a bit of gratitude.”
When & Where:16 Jul, Chippendale Hotel
Ghosts are something rarely seen. For Jack Wotton, the spirits that haunt the house he shares with his fellow Big White band
members exist as a “feeling” rather than a physical entity. “There are energies in the house, like, if the air has stayed still for too long and no one’s moved through it, and then when you do go through your house it’s quite close to solid and a bit icy. When I first moved in... there hadn’t been anyone living in the back house for a month. I remember the first night walking
in, it was dark, which didn’t help, and there was a strange energy. I’ve noticed it since. You don’t really wanna be on one side of the house alone. It’s a bit etch,” Wotton describes with a shiver. The sharehouse has a history that could be attributed to such paranormal energies - beginning as a surgery, it was subsequently transformed into a brothel, a boarding house, a “houso” block and “now it’s a sharehouse for hopeless people in their early to mid 20s. It’s a bit of a madhouse, it’s falling to bits”.
Living with five bandmates sounds like a recipe
Haunted HouseBig White’s Jack Wotton tells Brynn Davies about the ghost story he lives every day.
I remember the fi rst night walking in, it was dark, which didn’t help, and there was a strange energy.
Music
26 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
In biblical use, leviathan refers to a sea monster, identified with the Devil and sometimes described as a whale, and,
in an Australian twist. More generally it has come to mean a large and powerful, often autocratic, thing.
Sydney-based actor Emily McGowan, while not wrestling crocs, is grappling with a leviathan in preparation for Depot Theatre’s production of Paul Gilchrist’s Cristina In The Cupboard, to be directed by Julie Baz. It’s common for an actor, when discussing the processes of preparation for a particular character, to talk about getting into their heads - as though they’re occupying and exploring the brains of the body they will become.
McGowan isn’t the only actor trying to get into the head of the titular Cristina, not simply because Sylvia Keays took on the role in a 2013 production at Tap Gallery, but because every character in Gilchrist’s introspective comedy occupies space in Cristina’s mind.
“You notice little things where the other characters say the same line as Cristina and [in] that confusion - are these people figments of Cristina’s imagination or are they memories? - things double up and blur,” McGowan explains. “Looking at specific moments and going: in this moment, is this a memory, or is this a fantasy, or is this a moment to fear? There’s a hybridity too, you can have a memory, which is Cristina’s interpretation of what happened, which may
not actually be real. I think when you look at yourself and the way you remember things, it’s always from your perspective and its always got your insecurities or your favourite parts heightened in that memory.”
To try and better get into Cristina’s head, McGowan’s been allowing Cristina to enter her own: “A lot of it is being in situations and being aware enough to think: ‘Oh, that’s how
Cristina would feel right now in this situation, that’s what she’s experiencing in her world,’” she explains.
“I was at Circular Quay during Vivid and I remember feeling very overwhelmed and quite uncomfortable in this moment standing in front of a work and that moment, it was Cristina: there was a lot going on and it was a strange looking piece and I was drawn to it, despite being made uncomfortable. That’s what Cristina is, she feels uncomfortable and doesn’t like things, but she tries to figure them out.”
Having graduated from the Wesley Institute in 2013, this will mark McGowan’s fourth outing at Depot Theatre, but her education is far from over.
“I feel like as an actor it’s great to learn from your characters. With Cristina, I feel like she’s a deep thinker an she wants more from the world and she’s desiring more, she’s looking for more, searching for true happiness. And alongside that she searches for moments of quiet, she removes herself. I mean, think about how anxious you become if you leave [your] phone at home. To remove yourself from that is quite powerful. Cristina in many ways is fearful, but she’s looking for something greater, she doesn’t just withdraw or run away, she’s searching.”
Real Talk
Moments, memories and fantasy: Emily McGowan talks Cristina’s blurred realities with Dave Drayton.
What:Cristina In The CupboardWhen & Where:13 - 30 Jul, The Depot Theatre
Theatre
TVReboots
The Night Of
Intense HBO remake of UK series Criminal Justice. Reunites The Wire writer Richard Price with The Wire star Michael Kenneth Williams. That’s Omar, folks. Starts 17 July on Foxtel’s Showcase.
Westworld
Another HBO remake, this time of the cult ‘70s robot film. JJ Abrams produces and Ed Harris takes over the iconic Yul Bryner role. Set to start on Showcase in October.
Lost In Space
Netflix have announced a remake of the camp ‘60s sci-fi show. This means we can finally wipe the ‘90s big screen remake with Matt Le Blanc from our collective memories. Coming in 2018.
The Night Of
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 27
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H A N G O V E RC U R E 1 0 1
You open your crusty eyes, glitter and fluoro paint stuck to the side of your face with dried sweat and the remnants of your last drink still visible in splotches on your clothes. Your mouth fills with saliva, nausea bucks your stomach and your head pounds like the bass in the club/festival/house last night. You’re hungover.
Here’s how to fix it.
Step 1: Evacuate
We’re just gonna come out and say it. Tactical vomiting (also known colloquially as a ‘tack-vom’) is sometimes a disgusting
but necessary task.
Step 2: Rehydrate
Don’t even think about touching food before you’ve had a good hydration session. Your fail-safe is always a decent amount of water before you go to bed, but if you were a naughty punter, one
Powerade does the trick.
Step 3: Re-Fuel
Carbs. Plain and simple. Start with half of something – half a B&E roll, for example. There’s protein and good fat in there as well as bread to soak up the excess booze. You’ll be ready to crack open another beer
by noon.
28 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Electronic dance music has long flirted with psychedelia. But London’s eccentric Beyond The Wizards Sleeve
— Erol Alkan and Richard Norris — have developed a heavier variant influenced as much by rock as acid house and Balearica. Now the DJ combo have dropped their debut, The Soft Bounce, via Alkan’s Phantasy label — touting it as “a trip album in the widest sense”. Alkan and Norris are both veterans. Norris has had a particularly serpentine career. In the late ‘80s he formed The Grid with Soft Cell’s David Ball, airing the infamous Swamp Thing — techno-meets-banjos. Recently, he’s worked as The Time And Space Machine. Meanwhile, Alkan promoted the fabled ‘90s indie-electro club Trash. He’d pioneer the mash-up. Alkan then became a go-to producer, guiding Late Of The Pier’s classic LP Fantasy Black Channel.
Trash brought Alkan and Norris together. “It just sounded like an indie disco, but on steroids,” Norris enthuses. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve would do something similar to Trash — smash together “disparate” styles, in this instance ‘60s psych and electronica. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve switched between editing ‘60s records, to crafting (official) “re-animations” of contemporary acts such as The Chemical Brothers. Says Norris, “We like a challenge, and we like putting things together — try things out
that you wouldn’t imagine would work but that, when they do, it’s magic.”
In 2014 Beyond The Wizards Sleeve “reanimated” English neo-psychedelia band Temples’ Sun Structures album, prompting them to finally consider making their own. “I suppose it gave us an inkling as to what it could become,” Alkan recalls. “What we did with Temples was more of a journey. It felt that, if we were gonna make a record,
our record should be a journey as such. It wouldn’t be a meteoric instrumental record or anything like that. It had to have songs and moments and corners, mountains...”
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve’s aesthetic has evolved. Their single Diagram Girl is more shoegaze disco. “I think it’s always been quite a wide-ranging brief,” Norris ponders. “We’re just fans of a lot of different types of music... The majority of it started as ‘60s records, and weird ‘60s records, but it’s gone quite a way beyond that.” The biggest surprise on The Soft Bounce are the curated vocalists — Mystery Jets frontman Blaine Harrison, folkie Jane Weaver, and US singer-songwriter Holly Miranda. “We chose them on their talent,” Alkan shares. “Also it’s fair to say that the actual songs or the backing tracks that they eventually sang on kinda chose them as well, ‘cause you can be sitting in the studio and it’ll just come to you. You’ll say, ‘Wouldn’t be great if this person was on it?’ The people that we chose were people that all could be seen as outsiders in their own right. They’re all people who, within their own careers, have done things their own way and are very interesting and very left-of-centre — and I think that’s something that’s very important to us. We didn’t particularly go and choose who the hottest new vocalist is or someone from a band who’d just come off a successful record or such.”
Beyond Weird ‘60s Records
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve’s Erol Alkan and Richard Norris chat with Cyclone about the journey of their debut The Soft Bounce.
What:The Soft Bounce (Phantasy/[PIAS] Australia)
Music
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 29
Eat / DrinkEat/Drink
We’ve all been there — it’s day three of the festival, you can’t be arsed going into town for supplies (and let’s face it, you’re too hungover to get the shuttle) and you’re left in need of sustenance with minimal ingredients.
Food has become an integral part of Australia’s festival culture. We’ve
gone from hot dogs and tinnies to raw cheesecake and boutique brews made by hipsters with beards. So when we say Splendour’s festival goods will make you drool, we’re not talking chips on a stick — vegan, raw, paleo, gluten free, organic, you name it, it’s on the expansive list of food vendors they’re rolling in. The best bit? They’re available in the campground.
No More Crap Camp Food!
Crappy Camping CuisineWe asked around the office and found out what weird, wacky and quite frankly, inedible creations have been consumed in festival campgrounds.
Brad: “Someone used all the milk for coffee, so I had coffee with fruit loops... was odd.”
Leigh: “I ate two cigarette butts thinking they were beer nuts. Needed more salt.”
Felicity: “Not necessarily weird but I drank six Up & Gos in a row so they wouldn’t go to waste.”
Zoe: “My last resort is more beer... beer is greater squashed stale camping food.”
Leigh: “Jerky, jerky and more jerky and Melbourne Bitter — the diet of a camping festival veteran.”
Brynn: “I had a mate eat beer and weetbix in the absence of milk or juice. I myself had three-day-old stale bread with tinned tuna. Yuech.”
Georgie: “I caught a fish with my bare hands and ate it raw. Psych!”
Yep, you read that right. No more hunger pains at midnight when you’re craving carbs after a long day running around on the sauce. “It’s a long haul, you’ll need your energy and the foodies in the campground are open before and after the music has happened. Food staves off hangovers, allows you to dance longer and impress people,” says Splendour Camping Manager Jeremy Sheaffe.
So hop over in your sleeping bag to the ‘Food Pods’ dotted around the campsite. “’Food Pod’ is the name we give to the assemblage of individual stalls in a variety of easily accessible locations throughout the campgrounds. They are lined up adjacent to a tent for shade, because it’s not going to rain, obviously, and serve as a meeting point, landmark and a chill out zone when required,” Sheaffe enthuses.
As for the morning after, they’ve got you covered on the hangover front. “It’s very hard to beat a strong coffee and B&E Roll with relish — however this is subjective, punters may prefer a curry, a pizza or fresh yoghurt,” Sheaffe suggests.
For those health conscious, with dietary requirements or just feeling the effects of morning yoga and wanting to continue that glow, they’re catering for you too: “There will even be standard festival fare presented
in a vegan/vego/raw style. Chia pudding anyone? Cold-pressed turmeric latte?” As intriguing as a cold turmeric coffee sounds, what’s even more interesting is a particular method of waste disposal involving pigs. They’re implementing multiple waste disposal methods, “From the bins to the trucks to the pigs to the staff to the signs to the garbage bags — there are so many systems in place to ensure that not only are the campgrounds kept spotless, but once the waste is cleared it is sorted, recycled, reused, fed to the pigs, turned into Barbie dolls in China or used to generate electricity in Ipswich.” Well, we’re sold — where can we buy a garbage pig?
30 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Rhys Nicholson. Pic: Daniel Boud
Becky Lucas
Gen Fricker
Justin Hamilton. Pic: Regina Magner Karon
In Focus
Comedyish Gala:The Bits We Kept
A small room in Giant Dwarf once housed nervous comedians trying out their new jokes in the lead-up to comedy festival season. Some got laughs, some didn’t. Some comedians took it on the chin, some didn’t. These very same comedians have now finessed these jokes, honing them in comedy rooms across the country into guaranteed belly-laughers, and now they’re breaking out of the small room into the main room for Comedyish Gala: The Bits We Kept.
The line-up boasts Rhys Nicholson, Zoe Coombs Marr, Geraldine Hickey, Justin Hamilton, John Cruckshank, Gen Fricker, Becky Lucas, Kyran Wheatley, Michael Hing and Adam Richard.
Comedyish Gala: The Bits We Kept is on Friday at Giant Dwarf.
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 31
and singing this sort of beautiful music, and really abandoning yourself to absurdity, and risking a lot, and putting yourself out there emotionally as well, I felt like I was very in touch with a young part of myself.
“I like that the film addresses things that we all do but somehow hide. There’s so many parts of ourselves that we hide in life and in the world. I’m not sure that always make sense and it certainly doesn’t to a kid. So when they ask ­- like a Manny - why would you not do that, it’s very hard to explain. And the answer’s not always good. We’re all still learning to always be ourselves, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Swiss Army Man is Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s - collectively DANIELS - first feature-length film, the pair known for creating the video clip for DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s Turn Down For What, as well as for their innovative short film collaborations. “I was a fan of the Daniels already,” says Dano. “And I had actually, the first time I saw their music video of Turn Down For What I thought ‘Whatever juice those guys are drinking, I want some,’ and I watched everything I could find of theirs online.”
Dano noticed that Kwan and Scheinert were working at the Sundance Institute’s Directors and Screenwriters Labs - and coincidentally about a week later was sent the Swiss Army Man script. “I think I knew on like page two or three when my character rides the dead body like a farting human jet ski across the ocean that I was going to do it, because I thought that image alone was so funny and absurd, which made it kind of beautiful as well. It was something that was like the kind of thing I wanted to tell people about.”
The farting human jet ski scene ended up being one of Dano’s favourites to film: “When we got to that scene, which was the third week of our shoot, that was a culmination of something. I was so excited by that, it was like just an image in my mind and it couldn’t have been more fun to film. There was a boogie board and then Daniel Radcliffe laying on top of the boogie board, me straddling him, and then a speedboat pulling us. And singing at the top of my lungs.”
And that’s only the beginning of the intimacy shared between Radcliffe and Dano. Both Dano and his girlfriend Kazan have now kissed Radcliffe, Kazan playing opposite Radcliffe in romcom What If. And Dano has kissed Radcliffe’s girlfriend Erin Darke, in Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy. When asked about working alongside Radcliffe, Dano describes every day working on the film as “crossing a new barrier of intimacy”. “After talking for about an hour, he was like ‘Do you wanna put your hands in my mouth? Should we start sort of like getting used to this kind of stuff?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, well, y’know, I think we can wait a little bit.’ He was ready to go. It was super intimate. Obviously I spent five weeks carrying him around. He’s a joy to work with. He’s balls out and committed and super sweet... Every day was something. The grossest thing to me was when there’s water coming out of his mouth into a cup and I had to drink it. We had this hose rigged up that went around his ear and into his mouth, and I could see the water sitting in his mouth.”
What:Swiss Army Man
“I sort of don’t want to perpetuate a rumour that he can. Are you making a joke or is that out there? Because I tried to start that rumour.” The rumour
is that Daniel Radcliffe, as Manny in Swiss Army Man, can fart on command. “I said that joking, I sort of said that deadpan jokingly in a few interviews now, so I’ll, yeah...” Is it true? “I can’t answer that... Shit. It’s funny,” Dano laughs.
Paul Dano has retreated inside after playing a game of basketball on a “beautiful” evening in New York. He’s about to cook dinner with his girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, his Ruby Sparks co-star, but takes time out to talk to The
Music about the DANIELS’ “farting corpse movie”, Swiss Army Man, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance.
But the film is more than just an hour-and-a-half fart joke. Dano plays Hank, a desperate man marooned on an island. Just as Hank is about to commit suicide, having given up hope of rescue, a very flatulent corpse, who Hank later dubs Manny, washes up on the shore. The magical corpse becomes both a tool and companion for Hank as he journeys home, Hank teaching the speaking, singing, and still farting corpse the facts of life, and learning a few things himself.
“What the directors said to me that really resonated was that they wanted to make a film where the first fart makes you laugh and the last fart makes you cry,” Dano says. “What I got from [the film] myself was, y’know I think being in the woods and playing make-believe
A Farting Human Jet SkiPaul Dano neither confirms nor denies to Hannah Story that Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man could fart on command.
There was a boogie board
and then Daniel Radcliffe laying
on top of the boogie board, me
straddling him, and then a speedboat
pulling us.
Film
SydneyOn Ice
If there’s one reason to the love the snotty season it’s the chance to strap razor-sharp boots on and run around on a sheer surface. That’s right people, it’s ice skating season.
Winter Festival, St Mary’s
Cathedral until 17 Jul
Hit the ice in the forecourt of the stunning St Mary’s Cathedral. Or, if you’rE not keen to skate, go for the European-style market, live music and tobogganing.
Bondi Ice Rink, Bondi Beach
until 17 Jul
The Bondi Ice Rink has the impressive distinction of being Australia’s only outdoor ice rink, so you can nail that triple arabesque by the surf and under the sky.
Winter Wonderland, Luna Park
until 18 Jul
As if there wasn’t enough going on at Luna Park they have a whole Winter Wonderland over the winter break, where you can take on the Collision Course Outdoor Ice Rink.
32 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Funnyman Maz Jobrani first made his name as part of The Axis Of Evil Comedy Tour before venturing solo
into the stand-up comedy realms. He also possesses an extensive acting resume, is a published author and recently wrote, produced and starred in his debut feature film (the well-received Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero) — a pretty incredible effort for someone of humble Iranian-American immigrant stock.
“My first challenge coming from an immigrant background is that immigrant parents don’t want their children to be comedians — they want their children to be lawyers and doctors and engineers,” Jobrani laughs. “There was many years of back and forth with my family until I finally realised that I’ve got to live my life for myself and not for my parents.
“But once I got into it was actually a beautiful thing because I was in my mid-20s — I started late for a comedian — and I realised that you live one life so you’ve gotta do what you love doing. So I enrolled in some improv acting classes and I ended up taking a stand-up comedy class, and one of the first things they told us was ‘you’ve got to get onstage as much as you can and write as much as you can’. So I took that to heart and I’d just show up wherever, and I’d make sure that the circumstances were stacked
against me and I’d just get on stage and make myself get through it.”
That’s a rather inspiring worldview for someone ostensibly just trying to make people laugh.
“I wrote a book called I’m Not A Terrorist But I’ve Played One On TV and I really tried to drive that point home, I said, ‘You only live once, follow your dreams,’” he continues. “I always say that you’re inspired by
greatness and you’re inspired by mediocrity. I remember when I was in college before I decided to pursue this professionally I saw two comedians in a stand-up comedy competition and they were really bad, and I thought, ‘You know what? Next time there’s a competition I’m gonna do it!’ So I was inspired by mediocrity and just went for it. Life’s too short, man. We always say, ‘I’m going to do something tomorrow, I’m going to do it tomorrow’, then you wake up and you’re ten years older and you never got to doing it. So just do it.”
A lot of Jobrani’s routines deal with subverting stereotypes, does he feel that popular culture can help affect change?
“Yeah I definitely think so,” he reflects. “I grew up in America so I grew up watching a lot of the American comedians, and I think that my first goal as a comedian is just to be funny, but if there’s some sort of message underneath that comes with it then I think that’s kinda icing on the top. So if you look at somebody like Richard Pryor and what he did for black people in America, or you look at Cheech & Chong and what they’ve done for Latinos, I think it really helps to bring the foreign culture into the mainstream.”
No Regrets
Comedian Maz Jobrani is a bona fide jack of all trades, and he tells Steve Bell that it’s all about chasing your dreams.
When & Where:14 Jul, Enmore Theatre
Comedy
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 33
26.07.16
S YDNE Y hordern pavilion
TICKETS VIA secretsoundstouring.com
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
mark pritchard
OPINION
34 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Opinion
So I’m back home now, but I’m
already planning on making my return to Europe for next year. Let me tell you why...
After the 50-odd strong crew of the Heavy Metal Truants rolled into Download Festival and shed our pretty lycra for more metal attire, we were confronted with one of the most epic downpours in recent British
A Tribute To Nina Simone, expertly covering Love Me Or Leave Me off Simone’s 1958 debut Little Girl Blue. The teen’s belated debut, FMA (Forgive My Attitude), mines the same ‘60s sounds as Amy Winehouse. Alas, FMA is now less ‘retro’ than passe - Sewell following other Antipodean ‘nu-Amys’, Gabriella Cilmi and Gin Wigmore.
More buzz are the scene’s emerging avant-soulsters. Ngaiire’s bold second album Blastoma has received much acclaim. This year fellow Sydneysider Okenyo, who guested on Urthboy’s leftfield single Second Heartbeat alongside Sampa The Great, signed to Elefant Traks. Okenyo is juggling music with an acting career. Her current single 10 Feet Tall, produced by Adelaide’s BadCop (Tkay Maidza), is CHVRCHY New Wave - albeit more soulful. Finally, Melbourne’s Tre Samuels has already established himself as an international model. The “future-soul” vocalist recently aired the EP Lost In Translation, led by the slinky Flying Without You. Samuels cameos, too, on L-FRESH The LION’s LP Become. His nocturnal vibe is somewhere between Trey Songz, The Weeknd and Oscar Key Sung.
Australia is experiencing a boom in
soul acts. Last year, having struck a US deal, Brisbane’s
Grace Sewell topped the charts here with a hip hop soul version of Lesley Gore’s feminist anthem You Don’t Own Me, featuring G-Eazy. Crucially, it was supervised by the legendary Quincy Jones - and Brit producer Parker Ighile (Jessie J). Sewell has since popped up on the Lauryn Hill-blessed Nina Revisited...
Urban And R&B
News With
Cyclone
Metal And Hard
Rock With Chris
Maric
Visual Art Wank
And Theatre
Foyers With
Dave Drayton
In which we look at Picasso, Van Gogh,
Cezanne, and a $20 million game of rochambeau.
In 2005 Japanese electronics
corporation Maspro Denkoh decided to auction off its art collection. With works by Picasso, Van Gogh, and even Cezanne’s $16 million Large Trees Under The Jas de Bouffan in the collection the contract was obviously highly sought after and reputable auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s emerged as the two frontrunners.
The company’s CEO Takashi Hashiyama had previously displayed a taste for chance - when the company was first listed on the stock market he decided which insurance company the contract would go to by throwing dice.
Maspro Denkoh settled matters in the only fair way - a scissors, paper, rock battle between the two auction houses.
On the advice of the 11-year-old twin daughters of Nick Maclean, who was then running the Impressionist and Modern Art department at
Christie’s New York offices, Christie’s played scissors. They won, and the impact of the pep talk was so notable as to be included in Time’s Quotes of the Week section, attributed to Alice: “Everybody knows you always start with scissors.”
Why are we revisiting this wonderful oddity of art auction history?
Because it’s nice to dream of being so flippant when faced with a difficult decision.
ModeratelyHighbrow
OGFlavas
The HeavyShit
X
X Download FestivalGrace
Paul Cezanne, Large Trees Under The Jas de Bouffan
OPINIONWHAT S ON�
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Opinion
memory. The guys on the ride actually asked me if I brought the weather with me as it was perfect during the ride, and I’m glad it held off ‘til literally 20 minutes after we arrived. Riding the last mile in torrential rain would’ve totally sucked.
Anyway, we’re in and met with the side of a farmer’s field almost a kilometre square. Cars and tents right up to the gates, literally 100,000 people in the middle of nowhere, united by metal and having such an awesome old time sloshing about in the grass that, within an hour, was a foot underwater in places and an utter mud bath. Any attempts to tiptoe around to more stable ground were proved instantly futile, so with the sneakers I rode in on getting trashed we move from stage to stage, soaking it all in. Korn and Babymetal get the main stage, moving as one in the mid-afternoon, and by the time Rammstein take the stage at 10pm it’s still fully light in the sky. Their pyro show is rendered mute by the rain, but they still put on a mental show.
Somehow I make my way to Nottingham, 45 minutes north of the site, to my accommodation. Not having to get up and ride for the first time in days I sleep in ‘til noon and miss the early bands on day two. However, by the time I get back to mud city (now with a decent pair of boots underfoot), Sixx: AM prove Nikki has much more to offer post Crue and Megadeth tear through a great set with Soilwork’s Dirk Verbeuren on the kit.
There’s wrestling going on somewhere and I see Triple H wandering around the media area. He is dwarfed by his giant security posse — like he needs it...
Before I know it the day is drawing to a close and myself along with a dozen Truants climb about halfway up the hill to watch Black Sabbath absolutely nail it in the pissing rain. This might be The End but they are going hard ‘till then.
The third and final day kicks off late again for me, but who’s watching the clock? By the time I get there Disturbed have the main stage in a huge sing-song, Gojira absolutely destroy their stage and Tremonti’s muscular riffage has the Brits pretty impressed.
I manage to get up the sloppy hill right to the very top where the merch is, and from there it’s people as far as you can see waiting for Maiden. I end up in the photo
pit for their first song with a photographer friend, but I’m soon booted out, so we head again halfway up the hill and join Maiden management — once again in the pouring rain — and watch Bruce, Eddie and the boys prove once again why they are untouchable! A flawless show, but I skipped the last few songs so I could get off the site without getting stuck in the exodus. Somehow I ended up at the hotel Maiden were at and sat at the bar drinking with Bruce for a few hours... Next edition, the Hellfest update!
36 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Album / EAlbum/EP Reviews
One of the most instantly recognisable voices and worldviews in Australian music is back after a lengthy lay-off, with erstwhile Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett escaping the cutthroat world of party politics only to dive back into the music industry shark tank with his first ever solo foray.
The dense imagery of opening track Tall Trees speaks directly to this return, just as following track I’d Do It Again is a straightforward address of his time in the political sphere (Garrett reflecting on this era of his life with head held high). No Placebo acts like an existential treatise on nationalism, the recurring motif of home drives Kangaroo Tail and Homecoming, while Great White Shark (nearly an Oils song back in the day) proves that Garrett’s environmental empathy still runs rampant. He deals directly with affairs of the heart and familial commitment with Only One and Night & Day, before closing with redemption treatise It Still Matters in a burst of rapidfire sentiment reminiscent of his vocal take on the Oils’ Who Can Stand In The Way.
The album’s lyrics are clearly imperative but the music also plays an important role, a considered rock backing less powerful than his alma mater but serving these songs well. Throughout Garrett proves as passionate and thought-provoking as ever, showing that you can address the necessity for change and contemplation while remaining completely comfortable in your own skin.
Steve Bell
This sibling quartet took out Unearthed High in 2010, but even back then they didn’t sound like a kiddie rock band. Stonefield have always held their own, but As Above, So Below surpasses all preconceived notions of the sonic terrain these rockin’ sisters can effortlessly traverse. The band’s killer riffs and headbanging opps prevail, but subtler tracks such as Midnight and Lonely demonstrate a previously uncharted emotional depth; Stonefield can take it down a notch while still demanding your full attention.
From the psychedelic keys and Amy Findlay’s impossibly prolonged vocal roars in the album’s opener Sister all the way through to closer Eagle with its shimmering cymbals, sustained pace and squally guitar riffs, we’re won over.
This project began as an excuse for Amanda Palmer to see more of her dad, Jack, after her son was born, Palmer never shy of walking the line between art and life. The title track (and Leonard Cohen cover) is led by Jack and, while his allegiance to Cohen is clear, his low and strong linger has clearly made its way to Amanda. The low-pitched, slightly eerie duet style continues throughout the album, tightly sung in close harmonies. Making their way through an eclectic collection of original artists (from Cohen to Lucy and Carly Simon, Richard Thompson to Melanie, Sinead O’Connor and Noah Britton), each are supported with echoey keys and simple strings. The result just kicks you like the best old school, earnest country-folk
StonefieldAs Above, So BelowWunderkind
★★★½
Jack & Amanda PalmerYou Got Me SingingCooking Vinyl
★★★
But we’re especially obsessed with standout track Changes! It’s self-assured, with sparkling harmonies and meandering riffs – everything is exactly where you want it to be. There’s a wistful quality to the guitar work in Love and the grungy vocal style previously underutilised by Amy suits her well. Jamming with Kram has obviously guided Stonefield toward stylistic approaches they may never have otherwise explored. The visual of the four Findlay sisters working diligently on songs in The Shed on their parent’s Darraweit Guim property remains, but there’s an added worldliness that should propel them global in no time.
Bryget Chrisfield
should (In The Heat Of The Summer), while there are some sweet pauses too (Amanda’s Kimya Dawson cover All I Could Do retells being just on the edge of motherhood).
There are also some moments that are wonderfully strange (1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Louise Was Not Half Bad), with the latter sounding like a leftover from The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs. To bring it home are songs you didn’t realise you knew (the traditional Skye Boat Song), serving to draw the listener out of comparisons and towards just enjoying the unusual collection of songs.
Liz Giuffre
AlbumOF THEWeek
Peter GarrettA Version Of NowSony
★★★★
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 37
EP ReviewsAlbum/EP Reviews
Good CharlotteYouth AuthorityMDDN/Kobalt
★
Once there was a man who lived in the mountains.
The clouds were his newspaper, birdsong and the wind his clock. One day, he heard a curious sound sail across the valley. Enchanted, he ran until he happened upon an abandoned shack. Inside, a lonely record player; Good Charlotte’s new LP loaded. He pushed the start button. The mindless cacophony and wretchful lyrics alarmed and distressed the man so terribly that he ran at high speed towards the shut door behind him and knocked himself out. The man moved to suburbia after that, despising the cruel trick the mountains had played on him.
Mac McNaughton
Trade WindYou Make Everything Disappear
BlindspotSelfie Titled
SkeggsEveryone Is Good At Something
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au
Emma LouiseSupercryLiberation
★★★½Emma Louise has never been one to shy away from her emotions, and on her second album Supercry she lays everything on the table. Three years since her debut record and it’s clear some heavy introspection has taken place at some point during her apparent absence from music. Underflow is a brooding masterpiece, while the echoed vocals of power ballad Colours create intricate layers and depth. Unsurprisingly the record’s key strength is Louise’s vocals, while lyrically she flits between sultry and subdued musings and emotionally raw revelations. Supercry is the kind of thoughtful pop that has you still thinking about the songs days later.
Clare Armstrong
Lucy RoleffThis ParadiseLost And Lonesome
★★★½Lucy Roleff brings a melting pot of emotions, introspections and stylistic embellishments to the table with This Paradise.
Distinctly her own artist, she fits neatly into the folk genre along with a great number of peers, however she doesn’t play the same game as them. Like Nick Drake or Joni Mitchell before her, Roleff has definitive ambitions for her music and she remains stoically faithful to them. She sings with a haunting, intimate voice — so close and quiet that you’d swear she was whispering in your ear.
Lukas Murphy
GLTouchMidnight Feature/Plastic World
★★★½Melbourne duo GL bring back the ‘80s with their debut album Touch.
The synths and electro grooves of Contact and Stars will get the boogie going on the dance floor, while Number One and Indigo take over with a slower beat and a hint of pop thrown into the mix. With heavy synth bass and drum machines Hallucinate could be a track from an ‘80s movie, packing heartfelt lyrics and hypnotising vocals from Ella Thompson. Touch is infectious from start to finish with its funky synths, catchy lyrics and soaring vocals, making it a delightful debut.
Aneta Grulichova
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
38 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Album / EAlbum/EP Reviews
Michael KiwanukaLove And HatePolydor/Universal
★★★★
Michael Kiwanuka’s 2012 debut Home Again was a surprise packet, a soulful collection of grooves made for lovers.
He’s taken his time to dust off album number two, but Love & Hate proves that it’s been time well spent. Sure, there are the tender moments that made Home Again so impressive, as do the diverse sounds - think the album’s Morricone-esque opening five minutes, or the downright bluesy guitar licks that litter the record. Faith is important to Kiwanuka and it shows on tracks like Father’s Child, but it never alienates the casual listener or those simply with an enjoyment of fine music.
Dylan Stewart
Steven TylerWe’re All Somebody From Somewhere
NeedtobreatheH A R D L O V E
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au
DarkstarMade To MeasureWarp/Inertia
★★★½Tapping into the UK’s despondent mood last year, the icy glumness of last album Foam Island didn’t provide the commercial breakthrough Darkstar might’ve hoped for.
But there are plenty of signs of creativity here as guest vocalist Empress Of develops her promising portfolio further on Reformer, snapping into Darkstar’s sound like the missing piece of a jigsaw. Similarly, GAIKA’s elastically toned rap drapes its way round the angular funk of Black Ghosts. Scheduled to return to the studio in the very near future, the signs are still promising for Darkstar’s future.
Christopher H James
Community RadioLook Now You’re CursedNovella
★★★½Boasting two members of Sydney band Youth Group, the second album from Community Radio finds them capturing the essence of their elegant and skewed indie-guitar-pop.
The melodies are endlessly autumnal, melancholic and often heavy-hearted while the guitars chime and weave hypnotic, riffing patterns. The rhythm section shows plenty of inventiveness, making this an album on which all instruments sound like they’re simultaneously approaching Cameron Emerson-Elliott’s songs from different and fascinating angles. Oasis heads into Stereolab blank-cool territory while the contagious pop of Love To Get High and the soft-psych of Real Transformation finds them channelling both The Go-Betweens and The Chills.
Chris Familton
Jenny Broke the WindowFeels GoodIndependent
★★★½This is breezy and echoey modern indie-pop with some smarts and abilities about it to be something more than the average.
Bleachers has them “...knowing about the cool kids” but being a bit better than that. They conjure a range of feelings including that bittersweet modern melancholy as you wave from the observation deck as the Airbus backs away from the terminal, as in Airport Love. Add Black Skeleton, which has a nice insistence and slightly scuffed polish to it. Harmonies, synths and guitars are all present in the proper balance and proportion and their whole racket comes across as pretty assured and pretty neat.
Ross Clelland
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 39THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 39
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40 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Live Reviews
George MapleMetro Theatre8 JulA sold out show at the Metro seems like an appropriate way to kick off producer/singer/songwriter/Future Classic darling George Maple’s biggest tour to date. Slinking onto stage in a gold-sequined jumpsuit and boxy kimono, shrouded in smoke and with the help of a massive drum kit behind her, Maple channels the arena rock of divas past. She opens with the drippy Sticks And Horses, the fruit of a recent collaboration with GoldLink. She immediately announces as charismatic and in sexy, self-assured control of her body. This is break at the knees and grind your hips sort of music, after all. A carefully backlit silhouette, Maple’s figure produces the same smooth lines and warm shapes as her voice. She’s slinky, confident and completely inside her production. The drummer and bassist behind her go a long way to turn her radio-ready tracks into big club sounds.
Maple reveals herself to be a master of drama, completely in control. She uses her voice to tease suspense and offer her audience salvation: on her highs, her audience screams with her (and there are many: plenty more big, belting crescendos than her discography implies). Such is Maple’s power. By the time she is into the mellow, sultry part of her repertoire, the audience is hooked on every slow, soaring note and oozing drop.
After a costume change, she reemerges in more gold and more sequins, this time in thigh high boots, a leotard and suit vest. She teases the audience, promising to take off items of clothing the more they cheer. She is clearly at home centrestage, with all eyes and ears on her. Self-assured she may be, selfish she is not —
Maple brings out collaborator and MC Tkay Maidza for a short set. The pair are raucous on stage together and Maple lets Maidza have the floor, backing her up while Maidza delivers her sharp and buoyant as ever rap.
Samantha Jonscher
Glass Animals, James CrooksMetro Theatre9 JulThe tribal beats and tropical motifs of Glass Animals tracks, coupled with the gritty, grimy vibes of the Metro made for one hell of a night of euphoric revelry.
Loosening our hips and lips were James Crooks’ sparse electronic tracks, Crooks choosing to fill the dancefloor with some genuine beats. He thanked us for our appreciation and snapped an Insta pic of the full Metro before heading off stage.
The tribal beats and sensuous vocals of Life Itself was the perfect opener for Glass Animals’ set; it released something primal in us, causing everyone to grind their hips and groove along to track, setting a sultry tone for the evening.
Dave Bayley and co are party
starters, showing us all up on the dancing front, with Bayley shaking his booty like it was nobody’s business as he sang slinky track Hazey (which describes how most us started to feel as we further indulged in this exotic universe).
George Maple @ Metro Theatre. Pic: Peter Dovgan
Glass Animals @ Metro Theatre. Pic: Angela Padovan
George Maple @ Metro Theatre.
Pic: Peter Dovgan
Glass Animals @ Metro Theatre. Pic: Angela Padovan
The Creases @ Newtown Social Club. Pic: Clare Hawley
The Creases @ Newtown
Social Club. Pic: Clare Hawley
Maple reveals herself to be a master of drama, completely in control.
e v i e w s
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 41
Live Reviews
The thing that sets Glass Animals apart and makes them so intriguing are the details and influences they imbue into
their tracks, and this was not something that was not forgotten during their live set. Tropical motifs allowed you to traverse the South Pacific; melodies shimmered and swelled, crisp and popping beats transported you to a Caribbean cruise — all of it expertly held together by drummer Joe Seaward.
Gooey was out of this world, and the atmosphere carried through as they played a smattering of new tracks. Nothing was going to maim this rendezvous from reality, enforced by encore cries after sultry closer Toes.
Glass Animals returned to cover Love Lockdown, with this evening’s experience being arguably better than any Kanye concert. Pools was a jubilant end to a euphoric set, and it was smiles all ‘round as we bounded out.
Melissa Borg
The Creases, Planet, Las VaguenessNewtown Social Club9 JulIt wasn’t hard to see where local five-piece Las Vagueness got their cute (too cute?) name: their sound is woozy and spaced out, coloured by plenty of effected guitar and gentle synths. Even their simplest songs were
polished, with an effortlessly listenable balance of guitar, keys and harmonies. Debut single Plug Me In received a cheer of recognition before the band had even started playing it, and the song’s rousing chorus and terrific bridge explained why: easily the band’s strongest material, you could really feel them warming up during its appearance towards the end of the set.
A glance at Planet’s three-guitar composition might have suggested Nashville band Diarrhea Planet had snuck onto the bill, but the bands are plenty different - this Sydney five-piece mix it up with well integrated acoustic guitar, lush ‘60s bass, and super lively drums. Frontman Matty Took’s vocals, somewhere in the Placebo/Oasis register, complement the atmospherics perfectly. The band have an expansive psych sound which they deployed to great effect where it made sense to do so (those three guitars attention-grabbing at first, but almost hypnotic once you got used to them), but their effects never distracted from the hooky songwriting: singles like Undermine and Frosty
show off the band’s knack for penning some seriously propulsive rock’n’roll! Hard to think of a better support for the headline act.
Speaking of which, hey, The Creases are in town again! Back for the first time this year, the
Brisbane band sound tighter, more energetic and focused than ever, but they don’t forget to have a good time on stage either. Impact, the single the band are in town to launch (despite it being about two months old now) is an absolute ripper, and even better live - bass, bright keys and guitars weaved in and out, building to a chorus that begged to be sung along to. I Won’t Wait, introduced as the first Creases song, took on a somewhat nostalgic tone, but with band members sharing microphones to sing harmonies, the band’s playfulness and joy were contagious. The band sprinkled in a couple of new tunes, including their thrashy closer, which saw the effects pedals cranked up, and while each new track hinted at exciting things to come, it was breakout single Static Lines that the punters were humming to themselves on their way to the merch desk.
Xavier Rubetzki Noonan
Dave Bayley and co are party starters, showing us all up on the dancing front.
The Brisbane band sound tighter, more energetic and focused than ever.
More ReviewsOnline
theMusic.com.au/music/live-reviews
Jack The Stripper @ Factory Floor
Ngaiire @ Oxford Art Factory
Boo Seeka@ Oxford Art Factory
42 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Arts ReviewsArts Reviews
Dance Magic Dance:
The Wedding Reception
TheatreGlebe Town Hall, 9 Jul
★★★★
The air smells of the ‘80s. The colour palette is a pastel purple and shoulder-pads are the height of fashion. The bridal party is nervously starting to dance and the wedding reception is set to be a grand old time. There’s only one thing missing: the bride and groom. But they’ll be here, they’ll be here soon.
This is the setup for The Boon Companions’ immersive performance project, Dance Magic Dance: The Wedding Reception. It’s ambitious and bold and puts a major onus on the audience to enjoy themselves by indulging in different parts of the set-up. There’s an old-timey caravan with tarot readings inside, a room for tantric meditation, a wall the audience contributes to of what they remember happening on the buck’s night. The main event, though, is the bar and the music. With both a DJ and a big band the dancefloor is constantly awash with golden oldies.
Immersive pieces are always difficult to execute well. The role of the actors is changed from articles of entertainment to facilitators of the audience. There is a subtle chord between authenticity and anachronistic fun that needs be struck. The piece could have been more engaging for a greater number of the audience and the tantric meditation room lacked any authenticity that would have made it a more enjoyable ride — there’s fun to be had in misguided sincerity far more than in a speech built on one-line zingers.
This being said, the aesthetic was designed masterfully, and the music had gusto and made the audience want to jive all night. The narrative was ancillary and there is definitely room to grow their craft, but all in all the Boon Companions presented a unique, tantalising experience. Long live the ‘80s.
Sean Maroney
FilmIn cinemas 14 Jul
★★★★½When Swiss Army Man premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, many audience members walked out of the cinema due to its peculiarity and affinity with farts. Seeing the whole film, does it prove to be more?
The film finds marooned man Hank (Paul Dano) about to commit suicide, only to find a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the shore. After discovering that the body may have the tools for him to survive, a strange bond develops.
Directed by Daniels (Daniel Scheinert and
Swiss Army Man
Dance Magic Dance: The Wedding Reception.
Daniel Kwan), known for music videos, the film is utterly, gloriously bonkers. The script is darkly funny, surreal and truly embraces every eccentricity it has. It proves to be more than a farting dead body, but a funny and deeply moving story about life, identity and companionship. The execution is vibrantly creative, with dynamic cinematography/editing, wonderful handmade design and a beautifully incorporated soundtrack that reverberates throughout.
It is primarily a two-hander between Dano and Radcliffe. Dano proves again his talent for layered, tortured and desperate characters with a penchant for quirky comedy. Radcliffe (ironically) shows immense range as Manny the dead body, fully committed physically and vocally, with great comedic timing and heart.
Swiss Army Man is a must-see experience. It is entertainingly different and a bold film that isn’t afraid to be what it wants to be.
Sean Capel
Swiss Army
Man
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Comedy / Gsleepmakeswaves: 8 Aug Uni Bar Wollongong; 10 Aug Cambridge Hotel Newcastle; 11 Aug ANU Bar Canberra; 12 Aug Metro Theatre
44 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
Wed 13 Spike Vincent + Ruth Carp & The Fish Heads + Phanosland Little Bear + DJ Bura Bura: Bank Hotel, Newtown
SOSUEME feat. GG Magree + Surfdisco + Bernie Dingo + DJ Sports: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
The Lazys: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
Baltic Bar Mitzvah + Devil On The Rooftop + Djangologist: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville
Songwriting Society of Australia Showcase feat. John Chesher + Gavin Fitzgerald + Paul McGowan + Russell Neal + Pete Scully: Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale
Spencer Scott + Boots Porter + Rachel Maria Cox: Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington
Fla + Lucy Lowe + Jasmine Siarn: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Live & Local feat. Kate Rella + Alex & Michael + Throw Me To The Wolves: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Manouche Wednesday feat. Gadjo Guitars: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Dua Lipa: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Paul Winn: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Fox & The Hound + Ekko + Solid Esteem + The Galactic Factory: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Musos Club Jam Night: Ruby L’Otel, Rozelle
The Fever Pitch Rhythm N Blues + Various: The Hideaway Bar, Enmore
End Times Variety w. Chris Endrey: The Phoenix, Canberra
Billy Crystal + Andrew Denton: The Star Event Centre, Pyrmont
Boo Seeka + Gold Member: Transit Bar, Canberra City
Thu 14 Lucie Thorne & Hamish Stuart + Chris Abrahams: 505, Surry Hills
Sarah McLeod + KJ: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Balko + Cosmic Flanders + Special Guests: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst
Dream It! Do It! Live It! with Madison McKoy + Kirsty Bolton: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Riogh: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
Velvet Bow: Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington
Musos Club Jam Night: Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill
The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase 2016: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Joel Creasey: Comedy Store (7pm), Moore Park
Maz Jobrani: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Taste: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
Babe In The Woods + Kit & The Cub + Peta & The Wolves: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville
Phondupe: Golden Age Cinema & Bar, Surry Hills
M.E. Baird: Grand Junction Hotel (The Junkyard), Maitland
Zappo + Longnecks + Southern End + Eleven Eleven: Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington
Zack Martin + Kenneth D’Aran: Harbour View Hotel, Dawes Point
Lepers & Crooks: Hotel Steyne, Manly
Colin Jones & The Delta Revue: Lass O’Gowrie, Wickham
Blake Tailor: Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale
Live & Originals feat. Jonathon Holmes + Pat O’Grady + Just Kidding: Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks
The Snakemen: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Willie Watson + Josh Hedley + Elwood Myre: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Chris Cooke Duo: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
GL: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
Lime & Steel + Bonniesongs + Giffen: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham
The Guide
The Music PresentsBello Winter Music: 7 – 10 Jul Bellingen
Jack The Stripper: 8 Jul The Basement Canberra; 9 Jul Factory Floor
The High Learys: 14 Jul The Basement Canberra; 17 Jul Newtown Social Club; 21 Jul The Small Ballroom Newcastle
Beach Slang & Spring King: 20 Jul Oxford Art Factory
Jack Garratt: 21 Jul Metro Theatre
Mark Lanegan Band: 23 Jul Factory Theatre
James Blake: 26 Jul Hordern Pavilion
sleepmakeswaves: 8 Aug Uni Bar Wollongong; 10 Aug Cambridge Hotel Newcastle; 11 Aug ANU Bar Canberra; 12 Aug Metro Theatre
Bob Evans: 12 Aug Newtown Social Club
Vintage & Custom Drum Expo: 14 Aug Factory Theatre
Whole Lotta Love: 20 & 26 Aug Laycock Street Theatre Gosford; 27 Aug State Theatre
Dead Letter Circus: 20 Aug Metro Theatre; 21 Aug Cambridge Hotel Newcastle
Liz Stringer: 31 Aug Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club; 14 Sep Grand Junction Hotel Maitland; 15 Sep Lizottes Newcastle; 16 Sep Camelot Lounge
Wollombi Music Festival: 24 Sep Wollombi
Gregory Porter: 28 Sep The Basement
Emma Louise: 13 Oct Street Theatre Canberra; 14 Oct Uni Bar Wollongong; 15 Oct Cambridge Hotel Newcastle; 4 Nov Metro Theatre
A Day On The Green: 5 Nov Bimbadgen Winery Rothbury
Vote Seth
ARIA-winning Seth Sentry is barraging through Australia on a mission to bring hip hop to the people with his 1969 Campaign Trail tour. He’s joined by pal REMI at the Enmore Theatre on Friday.
Narly As
Narly is launching his new track Anywhere at Metro Theatre this Sunday. The Melburnian brings raspy raps and soulful vocals to big, sunshiney electronica sounds. Think Sticky Fingers and All Day inside a dreamscape.
The Feeling’s Right
The ‘80s are back at Enmore Theatre this Saturday, with the pop star behind Toy Soldiers and Love… Thy Will Be Done, Martika, headlining the event. Berlin, Limahl of Kajagoogoo and more will play the Totally 80s event.
Narly
Martika
Seth Sentry
Gigs / Live
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 45
The Guide
Crate Diggers with Various DJs: Play Bar, Surry Hills
Dumb Punts + Wash: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Chad Morgan: Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill
Wallace + Lyre Byrdland + Sagrada Familiar: Slyfox, Enmore
The High Learys: The Basement, Belconnen
Dai Pritchard: The Bradford Hotel, Rutherford
Witch Fight + The Dead Rats + Love Buzz + Grimm: The Hideaway Bar, Enmore
Baltic Bar Mitzvah + The Parlour Social: The Phoenix, Canberra
Advocates + Of Divinity: The Small Ballroom, Islington
Dream On Dreamer + The Brave: Uni Bar, Wollongong
Red Gazelle + The Fossicks + Furious Monk + Jonathan Devoy : Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
The Fallen Gentry: Vic On The Park, Marrickville
Fri 15 Marlene Cummins & The Blues Experience: 505, Surry Hills
Michael Kopp: 99 On York, Sydney
A Tribute To Sublime feat. The Lou Dogs: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
The Owls + Rackett + Darren Cross: Bank Hotel, Newtown
Belvie: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
Rumours - A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
The Jim Mitchells + Gypsys Of Pangea + Velvet Elevator: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst
Keyim Ba: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
Ramblin’ Nights + M.E. Baird: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Walter Nanni: Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington
Steve Crocker: Chatswood RSL, Chatswood
The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase 2016: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Ted Nash: Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee
Cool River: Coogee Diggers, Coogee
William Crighton + Claire Anne Taylor: Courthouse Hotel, Mullumbimby
Michael Fryar: Crown Hotel, Sydney
Dirt Track Demons: Dundas Sports Club, Dundas
Seth Sentry + Remi: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Shihad + Grenadiers: Factory Theatre, Marrickville
Leadfinger + Powerline Sneakers + Rangers Of The Universe: Factory Theatre (Factory Floor), Marrickville
Dave Anthony: Figtree Hotel, West Wollongong
Sarah McLeod: Heritage Hotel, Bulli
Winston Surfshirt: Hotel Steyne, Manly
Sam Newton: Hunters Hill Hotel, Hunters Hill
Yesterday Once More: Classic Carpenters with Dami Im: Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong
Flamin’ Beauties: Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park
Big Mama & the Love Express + The Red Rattlers: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
The Foreday Riders + Ray Beadle: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
DJ Sam Wall: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Weedeater + Conan + Lo! + Thorax: Manning Bar, Camperdown
Queen Porter Stomp: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Marcus Whale: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Swingshift - Cold Chisel Show: O’Donoghues, Emu Plains
Reckless: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Ladyhawke + Gideon Bensen: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
Mirella’s Inferno: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst
Blake Tailor: Penrith Panthers (Squires Terrace Bar), Penrith
The Holy Soul + The Exile Co + The Maladies + Melodie Nelson: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham
Why We Run: Plan B Small Club, Sydney
Rafiki + Nick Thayer + I Am Wolfpack: Proud Marys, Erina
Luke O’Shea + Aleyce Simmonds: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Jellybean Jam: Revesby Workers, Revesby
The Headliners: Riverstone Memorial Club, Riverstone
Make Way For Man + Advocates + Of Divinity: Studio Six, Sutherland
Benj Axwell: Tahmoor Inn, Tahmoor
The Countdown Years with Dragon: The Basement, Sydney
Fe5tival 15: The Basement, Belconnen
Battle of The Bands Heat 1: The Beach Hotel, Merewether
Glasgow Steel: The Bradford Hotel, Rutherford
Shatter The Crown + Disclaimer + Last Dig Acadamy + Barside: The Chatswood Club, Chatswood
Danielle Deckard: The Front Cafe & Gallery, Lyneham
Whale Of A Time
Inland Sea is the solo electronica record from Marcus Whale that explores the queer and colonial history of Australia. The member of Collarbones, Black Vanilla and Tennis Boys is celebrating his solo breakout at Newtown Social Club on Friday.
Weekend Warriors
Wollongong twin-guitar rock band Leadfinger are launching their fifth album, Friday Night Heroes, at the Factory Theatre this Friday. They will be supported by Powerline Sneakers and Rangers Of The Universe.
Radelaide’s Bangers
Punk rockers Grenadiers have snagged the support slot for Shihad at Factory Theatre on Friday. Having played BIGSOUND, supported British India, and just returned home from their first international tour, Grenadiers will heat the night up right.
Marcus Whale
Leadfi nger
Grenadiers
Comedy / G
46 • THE MUSIC • 13TH JULY 2016
The Guide
Lou Dogs (Sublime tribute) + Tropical Wax + Love Buzz: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Michael Gorham: Red Cow Hotel, Penrith
One Hit Wonders: Revesby Workers, Revesby
Adrian Joseph: Rocks Brewing Company, Alexandria
Straight No Chaser: Seymour Centre (York Theatre), Darlington
Black Label: South Hurstville RSL, South Hurstville
A Boy Named Cash feat. Monty Cotton: The Basement, Sydney
Liberties + The Beautiful Monument: The Basement, Belconnen
Bad Luck Kitty: The Beach Hotel, Merewether
Chantal & Cesar: The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney
Dave Anthony: The Bourbon, Potts Point
Rebecca Johnson Band: The Bradford Hotel, Rutherford
Big White + Betty & Oswald: The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale
Luke O’Shea + Aleyce Simmonds: The Front Cafe & Gallery, Lyneham
Set Mo: The Grand Hotel, Wollongong
Matt Gresham: The Oxford Circus, Darlinghurst
Brother Be + Spindrift Saga + People I Love: The Phoenix, Canberra
Dream On Dreamer + The Brave + Stepson: The Small Ballroom, Islington
Valhalla Mist + Noose For A Necktie: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
The Plague + Bastardizer + Murder World + Gutter Tactic: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Sarah McLeod: Old Manly Boatshed, Manly
Songs On Stage feat. Bill Hunt: Orange Grove Hotel, Lilyfield
GJ Donovan + The Single O Band: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Dappled Cities: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
Sarah Belkner: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst
Blaming Vegas: Panania Hotel, Panania
Motor City: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham
Sarah Connor: Plan B Small Club, Sydney
Terace: Proud Marys, Erina
The Macs: Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill
Dense + Pika: Chinese Laundry, Sydney
The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase 2016: Comedy Store, Moore Park
The Doug Anthony Allstars: Comedy Store (7pm), Moore Park
Glenn Esmond: Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee
Steve Crocker: Crown Hotel, Sydney
The Headliners: Dundas Sports Club, Dundas
Totally 80s feat. Martika + Berlin + Limahl + Katrina + Paul Lekakis + Stacey Q + Men Without Hats + Wa Wa Nee + Real Life: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Finn + Dave Tice: Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor
MMRS feat. Atlantis Of The Sky + Hollow Heart + Isotopes: Hermanns Bar, Darlington
Queer And Now with Scabz + India Sweeney + Neon Hexes + Gryff: Janes Wollongong, North Wollongong
Fletcher Pilon + Joel Leggett: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Anthony Toomie: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Neko Nation: Manning Bar, Camperdown
Diamond Platnumz: Max Watt’s, Moore Park
COG + Sleepmakeswaves: Metro Theatre, Sydney
The Adele Experience: Mounties, Mt Pritchard
Katcha: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
feedtime + Ill Winds + Phone: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Imogen Clark: The Oxford Circus, Darlinghurst
Joseph Liddy & Skeleton Horse + Jordan Ireland + Bo Loser: The Phoenix, Canberra
The Sounds Of Paul Simon: The Record Crate, Glebe
Cheap Banter feat. Colour Castle: The Small Ballroom, Islington
Dave Debs: The Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard
Wildcatz: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Sports Bar), Towradgi
Boobjob + Zsa Zsa Lafine + Dweeb City + King Single + Laxe Luthar + Shaky Handz: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
15.07 Breaks: Valve Bar (Level One), Ultimo
Karma Keg feat. Dyan Tai + Julia Why?: Vic On The Park, Marrickville
Sat 16 Nida: 505, Surry Hills
Seth Sentry + Hayds: ANU Bar, Canberra
Queen & The Stone Age: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
Yours feat. Hounded + Spaces: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
The Foreday Riders + Ray Beadle: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Woodstock Anniversary Tribute + Various: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Peter Head: Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown
Yesterday Once More: Classic Carpenters with Dami Im: Canberra Theatre (The Playhouse), Canberra
The Green Hand Band + Krista Pav + The Social Fabric + The Black Turtles + Didgematix + Buddy Roberts: Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington
Hear The Lear
Head over to Newtown Social Club on Sunday night to catch Perth rockers The High Learys, who are doing a lap of the country after recent European tours and the release of their single Cabinet.
Dreamy
Ambient metal crew Dream On Dreamer are travelling the country for The White Rose tour. You can see the five-piece with special guests The Brave supporting at Uni Bar Wollongong this Thursday.
Eternal Flame
Do you like the April sun in Cuba? Iconic 40-year vets Dragon do, and they’re currently on tour to celebrate the hits of the ‘70s and game-changing show Countdown. You can see them at The Basement, Friday.
The High Learys
Dream On Dreamer
Dragon
Gigs / Live
THE MUSIC 13TH JULY 2016 • 47
The Guide
TUE 19 Josh Wade + Jason Morrison: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Rock n Roll Karaoke: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal: Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill
Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin: Kellys on King, Newtown
Steve Hunter Band: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Live & Originals feat. Justine Wahlin + Jessey Napa + Mojo Jojo: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Tom Trelawny: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Sam Tsui + Kurt Hugo Schneider + Tiffany Alvord + Mike Tompkins + Andie Case: The Concourse, Chatswood
Steve Crocker: Rocks Brewing Company, Alexandria
Logan’s Heroes: The Beach Hotel, Merewether
Benj Axwell: The Mill Hotel, Milperra
Imogen Brave: The Stag & Hunter Hotel, Mayfield
Colin Jones & The Delta Revue: The White Horse Hotel, Surry Hills
Melancholy Flowers: Town Hall Hotel, Newtown
Eddie Boyd: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Sports Bar), Towradgi
Unity Hall Jazz Band: Unity Hall Hotel (Upstairs), Balmain
Catches & Halves + Colytons + Puzzles + AWOL + Postmentalist: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
MON 18 Frankie’s World Famous House Band: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal: Kellys on King, Newtown
Sonic Mayhem Orchestra: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
John Maddox Duo: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
Swerve Society feat. Treehouse + more: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Marty R: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
The Monday Jam: The Basement, Sydney
The Bootleg Sessions feat. A Band Called Horse + The Fuelers: The Phoenix, Canberra
Winter Sessions with Somatik + DJ Brenny B Side + DJ Tim Boffa + Joyride: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
COG + Sleepmakeswaves: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Narly + Dex: Metro Theatre (All Ages/The Lair), Sydney
Playing Brazil: Mr Falcon’s, Glebe
The High Learys + Mount Zamia + Sun Sap: Newtown Social Club, Newtown
Michael Kopp: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Ed & Astro + Cover Note: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Devil On The Rooftop: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham
Blues On Stage feat. Andrew Denniston + The Honeysippers + Master Tiger + Phyllis Foster + Kenneth D’Aran: Red Lion Hotel, Rozelle
Father Bass Club: Valve Bar (Level One), Ultimo
SUN 17 Shawnuff Swing Band: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt
See You Sunday: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
Nathan Cole: Crown Hotel, Surry Hills
Erin Crowley: Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor
Nerdlinger + The Flangipanis + Ivan Drago + Wasters + Raised As Wolves + Josh Arentz: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
Imogen Clark: Hotel Blue, Katoomba
Lj: Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown
Happy Birthday
Head to down Valve Bar Thursday on for Heather’s Birthday Party and cop an earful of Red Gazelle, The Fossicks and Furious Monk, who will all be there to help celebrate the special day.
GG Gold
Wednesday night at Beach Road Hotel the main stage is going to be stacked with Sydney’s own deck-crushing GG Magree as well as special guests Surfdisco, Bernie Dingo and Sports.
Mad Punts
Three-piece punk punters Dumb Punts are headed up the east coast for their 7” Oz tour and they are stopping in at Rad Bar on Thursday night with support from mates WASH.
Red Gazelle
Dumb Punts
GG Magree
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