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ISSUE 1576W E D N E S D A Y 9 M A Y 2 0 1 2

TIME OFFForeword Line – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash 8Things just keep getting bigger and better for Frank Turner 12The Maccabees are loving the people’s response to their new record 13Kimbra shares her emotions with regards to all her incredible recent successes 14After 25 years, Public Enemy are still pushing the envelope 15A rare Resin Dogs appearance will celebrate Hydrofunk’s birthday in true style 16Heart really is at the core of Simone Felice’s debut solo album 16The Scrapes is becoming more than just an aside to a classical music career 18Life is a bit of a juggling act for Emma Dean right now 18The world stage has been good to Oka so far 18Keep On Dancin’s definitely see themselves as a downer band 18We catch William Whitmore Elliott before his date with our cover star 19Marshall Okell wants to get back to Lennox 19On The Record has the latest, greatest and the not so greatest new musical releases 20Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out 20

FRONT ROWCheck out what’s happening This Week In Arts 22Iron Sky opens this week and we chat to writer-director Timo Vuorensola 22Cultural Cringe gets stuck into Social Media 22Fresh from premiering his new film Trishna director Michael Winterbottom chats about his methods and what drives him to workso tirelessly 23Artistic Director Paul Osuch gets us ready for his second Anywhere Theatre Festival 23Helen Stringer glances down The Looking Glass 23

BACK TO TIME OFF!Get the drum on all the coolest happenings in local music last week, this week and beyond in Live 25Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down 28Lochlan Watt gives you brutal metal news in Adamantium Wolf 28Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown 28Cyclone has the wide urban world covered with some OG Flavas 28Go behind the music Behind The Lines 33iFlog and you can too 34

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Brendan Telford, Rip Nicholson, Cyclone, Amber McCormick, Brad Swob, Siobhain McDonnellFront Row: Baz McAlister, Mandy Kohler, Lauren Dillon, Adam Brunes, Matt O’Neill, Mitch Knox, Jessica Mansour, Guy Davis, Rowena Grant-Frost, Danielle O’Donohue, Helen Stringer, Alice MuhlingPhotography: Stephen Booth, Kane Hibberd, Alex Gillies, Brad Marsellos, Terry Soo, John Taylor, John Stubbs

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Safe stars Jason Statham as a former elite agent, Luke Wright who encounters and rescues a twelve year-old Chinese girl, Mei, who is being pursued by the same gangsters that killed his wife. Mei

is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a “counter”. She holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD would kill for. Realising he’s the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city’s brutal underworld to save an innocent girl’s life... and perhaps even redeem his own. Thanks to Icon Film Distribution we have ten double in-season passes up for grabs!

Thanks to EMI Music we have four copies to give away of the new album by Norah Jones. Little Broken Hearts was produced by Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) and features 12 original songs co-written by Jones and Burton.

To celebrate the upcoming album release Hyper/Hearts, Expatriate are playing two

shows at the Cobra Kai Club at Oh Hello! You can catch them on Thursday 17 May and Thursday 31 May. It has been a long time since they last played in Brisbane, make sure you check them out! We have got one double pass to give away to their May 17 show. Entrants must be 18+.

Weird Wednesdays, the monthly offbeat movie night at Tribal Theatre is screening two schlock rock cult classics back to back on Wednesday May 16. In Hard Rock Zombies (1985), an 80s hair metal musician accidentally raises the dead with rock ‘n’ roll. KISS In Attack Of The Phantoms (1978) is the tale of rock band KISS and their efforts to thwart a diabolical plan by a mad scientist. Thanks to Kristian Fletcher we have three double passes up for grabs! Entrants must be 18+.

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FOREWORD LINEIN BRIEF

TWO OF THE FINESTSimone Felice is a singer, songwriter, novelist and most recently a survivor after a nasty congenital defect left him on the brink of death back in 2010, the artist requiring emergency open heart surgery. This brush with the other side has given Felice a good chance to reflect and has inspired a lot of material on his recently-released self-titled solo record. On the back of that solo record the former mainstay of The Felice Brothers and The Duke & The King is returning to Australia, this time bringing his entire band along with him for a tour that will see him hit venues across the eastern seaboard. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, one of the most lauded American songwriters of the current era, Josh Ritter, is joining him on most of the dates, making this a seriously impressive double bill for any lovers of seriously well-crafted Americana. You can witness both of these incredible talents at the Old Museum on Thursday 5 July; tickets are available through lovepolice.com.au/tours right now for $42 + bf.

FIRST TIME FOR ANYTHING They’ve been together for over ten years and they’ve released four excellent studio albums but it is only now that the amazing Say Anything have decided to head over here and conduct a full headline tour of their own. You may have seen the band when they kicked arse all over the place as a part of the 2009 Soundwave Festival but, good as that was, the prospect of being able to witness their awesome punk rock power in more intimate environs and for much longer sets is something that will have their dedicated fans very excited. It was just a couple of months ago that the band released their latest record Anarchy, My Dear, another great showcase of Max Bemis’ provocative lyrics and quirky music and now we’ll get to hear that killer material as a part of their always eccentric live shows. As if you needed any more reason to get excited, Melbourne’s The Getaway Plan have also been announced as the support act for when the band hit The Hi-Fi on Tuesday 17 July; how good is that? Tickets are on sale from Moshtix as of Thursday morning for $50 + bf.

Adam Yauch (aka MCA), founding member of Beastie Boys has lost his battle with cancer at the age of 47. The band’s first show was played on Yauch’s 17th birthday.

Lloyd Brevett, bassist for and co-founder of influential ska band The Skatalites, has died aged 80 after being treated for a stroke and seizures.

Despite a strong bid by the Gold Coast, Sydney has retained the rights to host the ARIA Awards for the next three years. It is believed the New South Wales government will work with organisers to develop a series of spin-off events for the public.

Melbourne band Oh Mercy have revealed they have entered Portland’s The Family Farm studio to work on their third full-length record with fellow Aussie producer Burke Reid behind the desk.

The deadline for applications to play this year’s BIGSOUND Live series has been extended, artists now have until Friday to apply, which can be done only through the BIGSOUND website.

Young Sydney pop-punk band Tonight Alive have been nominated in the Best International Newcomer category in the UK Kerrang Awards. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London Thursday 7 June.

Veteran Australian promoter Michael Chugg has been named the International Music Person Of The Year at MUSEXPO 2012 in Los Angeles.

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COULDN’T CARE LESSThe new single from Brisbane surf-garage two-piece party-lovin’ men about town Dune Rats is called Fuck It, which might go some way to describing their general outlook on life, which we feel is probably a pretty good one. Much like the song, really, which is a furious little number that is simple and catchy and just about puts together everything we know and love about the band and what they’ve done since they burst onto the scene not very long ago. The hard-working touring dudes they are, the band are getting out on the road in support of the single, just a few short weeks after their tour alongside Bleeding Knees Club wrapped up. They will be playing the following clubs and probably partying relatively hard as they do so. The single is out on iTunes right now, it comes from a new EP which will be out in June and you can witness the apathy in the live setting at Neverland, Coolangatta (with Gung Ho, Pigs Porken and Little Mind) on Thursday 17 May and Alhambra Lounge (with Gung Ho and Pigs Porken) Friday 18 May.

LEFT AND LIEBINGHe’s one of world techno’s most renowned figures and this June Chris Liebing is heading to Australia to satiate the techno faithful who have been waiting ever so patiently to get down to one of his legendary live sets. Working as a DJ since 1990, it was in 1994 that he opened his own club named Spinclub and, not long after that, founded Soap Recordings with a bunch of mates. In 1996 he founded his first label of his own, Audio, but it was in 1999 that shit got serious and his label CLR, which is still around to this day, was founded and he was at the top of his game, regularly receiving epic plaudits from punters and critics alike. The past decade has seen his sound evolve more than ever, though still remain true to his techno roots and allowed him to hold down residencies in clubs like Cocoon and Space as well as turning in a great record and incredible performances in collaboration with Dutch producer Speedy J. But when he’s in Australia this June he’ll be turning in three massive sets all by himself with his state-of-the-art setup. Catch him at Coniston Lane on Sunday 10 June.

EVERYTHING’S ROSEYIt’s been a busy six months for Sydney electronic pop producer Elizabeth Rose, who’s gone from community radio to national airplay quicker than it takes most people to write a song. (Hey, it can be a reasonably long, drawn-out process, alright?). Having already played the likes of Harvest and Parklife, as well as toured with Chairlift and Snakadaktal, Rose is now finally ready to embark on her first-ever headline tour. With Ready, the first single of her new EP due mid-year, in hand you’ll be able to catch Rose providing alluring and interesting sounds for the masses when she swans into Lambda at Alhambra Lounge Thursday 31 May and heads down to Elsewhere on the Gold Coast on Friday 1 June.

HOLD YOUR CARD CLOSEThe people of Australia adore Yellowcard and have done so for many a year, so it’s no surprise to hear that the band are on their way back to our country for a series of shows this September. This will be the band’s first trip over here in a while and we’ve got some catching up to do, last year saw them release the wonderful When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes and by the time they are here we will have had a chance to soak up their brand new, as-yet-untitled eighth studio record. When they are here, they are hooking up with the rapidly rising Heroes For Hire who are kicking some serious goals all over the place right now and Gold Coast dudes Nine Sons Of Dan will be opening the show up, which happens at The Tivoli on Tuesday 18 September. Tickets are on sale through Ticketek from Friday 18 May.

SAYING OUR HELLOSIn what is hands down one of the most exciting tours of 2012, Modular are finally bringing to Australia Tom Vek, he of C-C (You Set The Fire In Me) and I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes fame, who released an absolutely incredible album in We Have Sound on the now defunct Go! Beat back in 2005 and then disappeared for years, only to re-emerge in 2011 signed to Modular and carrying a second album, Leisure Seizure. Not only that, but Vek will be joined by fellow Londoner Adam Bainbridge, aka Kindness, whose male-model looks and penchant for the disco grooves of early DFA outputs and early-1990s Prince makes for one hell of a combination. If you missed out on tickets to The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince then you need to get some Kindness into your life. Finally, local Modular boy doing rather well, Jonathan Boulet, will round out the triple-bill, previewing songs from his upcoming album We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Starts The Heart. See the magic unfold at The Bowler Bar, Tempo Hotel Friday 25 May. Tickets are $44 + bf and available through Moshtix right now.

GET READY FOR PINK SATURDAY Having sold-out her Sydney and Melbourne shows already, one of the hottest names in American rap right now, Nicki Minaj, has added Queensland to her tour schedule, playing the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Saturday 19 May. While many of us first heard of her after she destroyed minds with her incredible verse in Kanye West’s Monster it was with the release of her Pink Friday record that she really took hold of the Australian public. She’s sold a bucket load of those records and apparently she can really deliver the goods live; it’s at least nice to be given the opportunity to find out for ourselves! You can grab tickets to the show through Ticketek right now and they will cost you $99.90, or you can pay a little extra and get a copy of said album to go along with it as well.

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IN BRIEF

YES DEERNow in its third year, the Red Deer Festival is really starting to pick up some steam as people begin to hear about the festival, which is so close to home and so very relaxed. The organisers have decided it’s time to ramp things up a little bit – not too much, but enough to get a few more punters through the gates to realise just how good this festival is – so they’ve snagged a couple of high profile headline acts for the 2012 event that will kick of spring in the finest of ways. Headlining are local legends Regurgitator, pictured, with Clare Bowditch not far behind and a local contingent of acts including Evil Eddie, Darky Roots, Pigeon, Charlie Mayfair, The Lyrical, Oceanics, Asa Broomhall, Miss Elm, The Dashounds, J & The G Beats, Blake Thompson [DJ set], Little Buffalo, Hawkmoon, Brother Fox, The Bright Side, Hailey Calvert, Jackson Dunn, Open Channel Flow and the winner of the RD12 Band Comp. The event is BYO and very laidback, but this means there is a limited number of tickets available; you would be wise to buy one soon after they go on sale from OzTix on Friday 1 June at the cost of $65 + bf. The event happens Saturday 1 September at 291 Foggs Rd, Mt Samson.

FINE DROP Rising folk talent Daniel Champagne has kicked off his national Real Live tour. The singer-songwriter is riding a wave of recent success, which included another appearance at the Byron Bay Bluesfest, where he showed all and sundry how far he has come in recent years. The tour coincides with his Real Live six-song EP, which comes after his debut album Pint Of Mystery was released last year to local and international success. He is doing a ridiculous number of dates on this tour all up and down the east coast of the country, you will have your chance to see him live up here when he plays shows at Blues On Broadbeach Thursday 24 May, Friday 25 and Saturday 26 and returns for headline dates at Sol Bar, Maroochydore Thursday 31, The SoundLounge, Gold Coast Friday 1 June and The Joynt in South Brisbane on Sunday 17 June.

Brisbane-based label Create/Control has announced that The Smashing Pumpkins are the next band to join their roster, releasing their new album Oceania through the label on Friday 22 June. It is believed Billy Corgan was attracted to the label’s “artist-friendly ethos”.

Booking agency Artist Voice have teamed up with Maker Agency to launch Artist Voice Electronic, a booking agency focusing on electronic music.

Kimbra has been awarded the $25,000 Grand Prize for the 2011 International Songwriting Competition. Australians once again dominated the competition with Missy Higgins, Jebediah, Eskimo Joe and The Living End among the many Australian winners in other categories.

DevilDriver cancelled their Australian tour, slated to start last Friday in Brisbane, after frontman Dez Fafara came down with pneumonia.

Sassy singer-songwriter Lanie Lane has topped the APRA Music Awards nominations announced last week, with four nods in the peer-voted competition. The awards, celebrating its 30th year in 2012, will happen Monday 28 May at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Hype-attracting Melbourne electronica-soul artist Chet Faker has signed a deal with America’s Downtown Records, which will see the release of his debut EP Thinking In Textures Tuesday 22 May.

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BACKLASHVALE ADAM YAUCHThe music world is in mourning for the tragic passing of Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died on the weekend following a long illness. Yauch transcended his own work and was an inspiration for all who he touched with either his music or his tireless activism, he shall be sorely missed by many…

RUDDERLESSNews doesn’t come much more disturbing than reports that the X Factor judges are trying to put a ‘One Direction-esque boy band’ together. Don’t those sort of shows do enough damage to the music indus-try as it is, why punish us more?

CRAZY GAGASomeone in Japan just paid the equivalent of $75,000 for a teacup and saucer that Lady GaGa used once. Granted it was for charity, but that doesn’t absolve that person from being an absolute weirdo with far too much freakin’ money…

FRONTLASHREAPING TIME!There were murmurings after last year’s inaugural Harvest festival that it wouldn’t be returning to Brisbane this year because of venue hassles, but awesome news this week with the promoter confirming that the indie festival will definitely be returning to Brisbane in November. Booyah!

WHAT ARIA DOING?Semi-cool news that Queensland tried to hijack the ARIAs and bring them to the Gold Coast. It’s been tied up in Sydney for three more years, but that’s just enough time for them to make the award ceremony not suck so much before we have another crack!

SUCK ON THISIt’s been years since US rock legends The Supersuckers played in Brisbane, so great news that their esteemed frontman Eddie Spaghetti is touring in solo mode in late-June. His country versions of Supersuckers gems are to die for, and his own guff ain’t too bad either…

SUCK ON THIS As frontman of the Supersuckers, Eddie Spaghetti has forged a formidable reputation as bona fide rock’n’roll wild man and as a solo artist, well, he’s not really all that much tamer. The aforementioned band started back in 1988 as something of a less pretentious metal band but a showier punk rock outfit, and as the ‘90s crept on, Spaghetti found that the country music he despised so much in his youth wasn’t all that bad and it eventually began creeping into the band’s sound somewhat, 1997’s Must’ve Been High record a real indication that The Supersuckers had embraced the influence. Spaghetti released his first solo record The Sauce in 2004 and has kept the flame burning for two more since then and at the end of June will hit Australian soil for his first ever solo tour of our country, playing four shows in just three days. Wild man. See the leader of the (self-proclaimed) greatest rock’n’roll band in the world at the Beetle Bar on Thursday 28 June with Jud Campbell. Tickets are available through Moshtix for $30 + bf right now.

GO OVERBOARDMelbourne death-hop outfit, Over-Reactor, have announced a national tour to celebrate the release of their latest single, Mouth Of The Ghetto. This single is the title track of their forthcoming album which is set to drop in the second half of 2012. If your memory requires some jogging, Over-Reactor is the most recent project from the Mammal and Full Scale frontman Ezekiel Ox and, just like all of his previous work, it is packed full of energy and highly impassioned thoughts that he spits out with serious venom. The band’s initial foray into the country’s live scene was unsurprisingly quite spectacular but you can bet that Ox won’t be leaving it there, with plenty more entertaining antics up his sleeve. You can witness it for yourself when the band play the Spotted Cow, Toowoomba Friday 13 July and Basement 243 Saturday 14.

BANK IN TIME Mark Gardener, pictured, former singer and vocalist with shoegaze pioneers Ride, will tour Australia with his full band in August, playing hits from his former revered outfit. The tour will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Ride’s album Going Blank Again, their second album and follow-up to the seminal Nowhere. As if that isn’t exciting enough, he’ll be joined by Melbourne’s iconic Underground Lovers in support, as well as America’s Sky Parade, who will also be Gardener’s backing band for the shows. Although Ride’s early album were considered highlights of their genre, a gradual falling out between Gardener and fellow songwriter Andy Bell led to the band splitting in 1996 following the disastrous Tarantula album. Gardener has kept up musical pursuits since leaving Ride, both with The Animal House and as a solo artist. He’s also been a collaborator – in one guise or another – with the likes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Robin Guthrie and The Morning After Girls. Thankfully Brisbane doesn’t miss out on seeing what is bound to be a very special event for fans of the group, with a show set for The Hi-Fi on Friday 3 August. Tickets are available through Moshtix right now for $57.50 + bf.

WE THINK HE’S AMAZINGOne of the most enduring pop stars of our times, George Michael returns to Australia this November, bringing his Symphonica tour, the concert that was postponed in Europe last year due to pneumonia. Luckily for us, the British superstar’s rescheduled dates have expanded to include a trip to the southern hemisphere while he’s at it. Symphonica finds Michael performing reworked versions of his music accompanied by a large-scale orchestra, sure to be a massive spectacle for any fans of Michael’s extensive catalogue of hit songs. This is only his second Australian tour in 24 years and goodness only knows when his next one will be, so don’t miss your chance to catch him in action at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Tuesday on 27 November. Tickets will be in high demand so make sure you’re quick in getting along to Ticketek when tickets go on sale on Thursday; they start at $110 and go up to $250.

THINKIN’ ‘BOUT THE GOVERNMENTTo celebrate 50 years of music from the man who many consider to be the single greatest songwriter of all time, a bunch of Australian contemporary musicians have decided to come together to pay tribute to the legacy he has created and continues to do so to this day. We speak, of course, of Bob Dylan and the musicians who have been given the gargantuan task of tackling his legendary material include Josh Pyke, Eskimo Joe frontman Kav Temperley, Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell (or Bob Evans if you must) and Brisbane’s own Patience Hodgson, she of The Grates. Together they will select a bunch of material from Dylan’s 47 albums (no easy task, he’s released over 500 songs) and perform them for one special night in cities around the country, with a shit hot band led by Even’s Ash Naylor backing them up. In Brisbane you can witness this spectacle at QPAC Lyric Theatre on Saturday 7 July. Tickets are available from Qtix right now, beginning at $99 and going up to $139.

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HITTING OVERDRIVEBRAGGING RIGHTSAt last month’s Wembley show, Turner was lucky enough to secure the services of one of his heroes, Billy Bragg, as a support.

“I was very happy when he agreed to do the show; I didn’t think he was going to agree to do it. But he said yes and he was a gentleman and a sweetheart and we actually played a Dylan cover (The Times They Are a-Changin’) together during the show, so yeah, it was amazing having him being part of it but again, surreal I think is the word.”

As well as singer-songwriters such as Bragg, there are plenty of bands who incorporate their cultural heritage into their songs, an obvious example being traditional Irish folk-influenced bands such as The Pogues and Flogging Molly. When asked if England Keep My Bones was an attempt to redress any sort of cultural cringe, Turner is circumspect:

“Yeah, there’s that to a degree, although it’s not like I’m trying to launch some kind of new progressive English nationalist movement or anything like that. I love The Pogues and Flogging Molly and bands like that and I love the way they embrace their culture and their heritage and I’d like to do the same thing, but being an Englishman, it’s going to be England that I think about rather than Ireland.”

Turner touched down in Australia last week and despite flying here from the other side of the world he’s been quick to immerse himself in our local culture once again, as this recent blog post details:

“Today, (tour manager) Casey [Cress] and I went croc-jumping. We are in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, fighting the valiant fight against jetlag after getting here from Toronto. With my mind in Canada, my heart in England and my body in Australia, I’m pretty confused about what time it is. Croc-jumping, incidentally, involved being sat in a very small flimsy boat while a manic couple dangled hacked up bits of pig trout over the side of the boat on fishing lines. This encouraged the (fucking massive) local crocodiles rearing up out of the water and jumping for the food, snapping their evolutionarily perfect killing jaws about a metre away from my face. All lots of hearty fun.”

To say Frank Turner has been prolific in the years since his post-hardcore band Million Dead disbanded in 2005 would be a massive

understatement. Between then and now, he’s released four studio albums, four EPs, five split singles, two compilations and played more than 1000 shows.

Since the release of his latest longplayer, England Keep My Bones, early last year, Turner’s profile has been rising rapidly. The album peaked at #12 on the UK charts, earned him critical praise and award nominations from the likes of NME and led to his playing a sold-out show to 12,000 people at Wembley Stadium a couple of weeks ago.

Turner admits he had some trepidation in the lead-up to what was by the far the biggest headlining show of his career.

“Yeah, it was last Friday, that was the big show, and there was a lot of that and a lot of kind of preparation for it and all the rest of it and to be honest, in the end the whole thing feels like a slightly kind of surreal experience to me I think, because it’s kind of so removed from my normal day-to-day,” he reflects.

Turner received rave reviews for his performance but rather than sit and bask in the glory, he opted to get back to basics as soon as he could.

“I’m on tour in Canada right now playing solo opening for a guy called Joel Plaskett, who’s fantastic. I deliberately planned to be getting straight back out on the road as soon as humanly possible after the show to just get on with what I usually do because I don’t want to sort of start getting the idea I’m above my station just because I played a show at Wembley, you know what I mean? I’m just carrying on with what I do so I’m out here with my acoustic guitar and playing some shows.”

Turner admits to being pleasantly surprised – and somewhat relieved – by the enduring success of England Keep My Bones.

“I think any sort of recording artist – whether they admit it to themselves or not – has it in the back of their minds that the vast majority of bands get a two or three album run before people start switching off and stop paying attention to what you’re doing. England Keep My Bones is my fourth studio record and I was a little nervous when it was coming out, [because you can] turn into one of those bands where everyone comes to the shows and they kind of tolerate the new songs and then wait for the old songs because they’re the ones they really like.

“Very quickly after the record came out, people were shouting for the new songs and singing along with

WHO: Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls

WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 13 May, The Zoo

the new songs at the shows over and above some of the old stuff. Obviously it’s very flattering and the rest of it, but it was kind of a relief as well. The thing is I think my last record is the best record I’ve ever done but it’s not necessarily the case that your audience agrees with you on that kind of thing.

“One of the things that was nice for me when making this last record, was that with all the previous records I’ve made, as much as I love them, each time round I had a couple of other records I wanted it to be like. Poetry Of The Deed (2009) I kind of wanted to be like Born To Run and all that sort of thing. Obviously I’m the sum of my influences, but with this record I think it was really refreshing because I think it means I’ve finally figured out how to make records.”

As its title suggests, one of the major lyrical themes on England Keep My Bones is English national identity. One of the most talked-about tracks on the album has been the spoken-word English Curse, which features an unaccompanied Turner without so much as a guitar strum or percussive clap.

“I’d just been listening to a lot of traditional English music in recent years and most of the traditional music from England is a cappella like that, just a voice unaccompanied,” Turner explains of the inspiration for the song. “I was considering kind of digging up an old traditional song to put on the record and then I just thought it might be more fun to try and write one myself... Well obviously I can’t just kind of write a traditional song as such, but to write something that sounded like a traditional song, that had that kind of form, that sort of melody and approach. My validation for it was I played at the Cambridge Folk Festival, which is the sort of mecca for trainspotting traditional folkies in the UK, and I sang the song and then a bunch of people afterwards were asking me where I’d found it and what the provenance was and that kind of thing… So I’d successfully fooled the professionals, that’s kind of good.”

Turner has toured Australia in solo-troubadour mode a couple of times in the last two years, including in 2010 as part of the Revival Tour with folk-punk contemporaries Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry and Ben Nichols, but this visit will be his first with his backing band The Sleeping Souls.

“They’re session players but at the same time they’re the best session players that I can find in the whole world and I love them dearly. They kind of help out with some of the arrangement of the songs and stuff like that, but the actual bare bones songwriting is jealously my preserve.

“But I always wanted to have a backing band and a permanent one like The E Street Band, where it’s not just some bunch of random guys I hired

before going to studio. I’ve known them the whole time and they’re going to be my band as far as I can see into the future at the moment.”

In addition to the capital city shows with The Sleeping Souls, Turner will also be making his first solo foray to some of the country’s more remote areas. Although the regional dates were announced after details of his capital city tour were released, Turner is quick to point out the solo shows were part of the plan all along.

“I can’t, to be 100 per cent honest, say that I know why it was decided to announce them in two batches like that, but it was,” he admits. “Unfortunately I can’t afford to take my band up to Alice Springs and Cairns and Darwin and stuff like that but I’m very excited about going to those places because I’ve never been before.

“Firstly, I like going to new places and secondly, I find that if you go to the kind of further-flung parts of this world you generally end up having better shows because people are appreciative of the fact you made the journey.”

Turner often drops cover songs into his set and has recorded versions of songs by a diverse range of artists including Nirvana, Bad Religion, Take That, NOFX and even Wham for a variety of compilations. Most recently he released a cover of Queen’s Somebody To Love, which was released as a double A-side 7” with England Keep My Bones track, I Still Believe, for this year’s Record Store Day, a brave move considering Turner’s own “Not everyone can be Freddy Mercury” proclamation on England Keep My Bones’ opening track, Eulogy.

“Yeah, well covering Queen, generally speaking, is a risky thing to do but to be honest it came up as a joke more than anything else in the first place,” he confesses. “I was just screwing around in the practice room with my band and somebody, I think my keys player Matt [Nasir], started playing the intro to it and we sort of laughed and went, ‘Well right, yeah, that’s not going to happen,’ but then we actually did and it just so happens that the lineup of my band works really good for covering Queen songs. It felt right when we played it live a few times and people got into it so we thought we’d record it as well.”

When asked if he has any Australia-centric covers planned for this tour, one artist in particular springs to mind.

“Well that’s a good question, actually. We’ll probably get some Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds together or something like that; I’m a huge, huge Nick Cave fan, so maybe we could knock something up. I haven’t kind of rehearsed it as of yet but there’s time, there’s always time.”

Fresh from headlining a sold-out show at London’s Wembley Stadium, English folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner is returning to Australia and this time, he’s bringing his backing band. Daniel Johnson speaks to the hard-working singer-songwriter during a brief break on his recent Canadian tour.

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JUMP POINT

Though London five-piece The Maccabees have had all manner of tags bestowed on them ranging from underrated to Coldplay wannabes, they’ve generally done a good

job of attracting both popular and critical success since the release of their 2007 debut record Colour It In. With their latest Given To The Wild changing the pace from indie guitar pop into a more grown up, ambitious sound aptly hailed by some as The Suburbs of their career, the mid-ranking Brits couldn’t be prouder ahead of their first visit to Australia.

“I’m loving it man,” enthuses a gently spoken Orlando Weeks of the reception for their third record, which peaked at number four on the UK charts. “I think it just feels so… it was quite an intense process and we kind of felt that even though we’d had more time to get stuff done, we found more and more faults with the record or figured out how we could make it better, so by the time we’d actually got around to playing it, it was so nice.”

As perhaps the impetus for changing tack stylistically, The Maccabees began preparation for Given To The Wild by dismantling their successful jam-room writing style to work individually. “We’d finished some pretty heavy touring and we thought you know, we don’t need to make it claustrophobic like that for the first bit – we can all go [do our own thing]. It was a really enjoyable thing; people would email each other bits and pieces and you’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’s amazing’ and then they’d work on it [or] I’d get sent something and then I’d work on it overnight and I’d send it back and we’d talk about it. Or I’d go to someone’s house or they’d come to mine and we weren’t all off totally separate, it was just a nice kind of way of easing ourselves into it and enjoying that bit of it, which for me is the best bit… It’s the best feeling I think, that initial feeling of [getting] something from nothing and then sort of bullying it into shape, making it work.

“You’ve got to!” Weeks exclaims with vigour as he explains his choice of the word bullying. “They don’t want to [come], well not for me anyway – I’ll have an initial thing and then it does, it needs crafting and stuff and sometimes you can’t do it and then thank god I’ve got four other really brilliant bully-ers. And they have a go on it

and help push it to the next bit. That’s how it works for us anyhow.”

Given To The Wild also captures a new lyrical approach for Weeks who is starting to get to that age, the one where having an entire song dedicated to the happenings at your local swimming pool no longer feels appropriate. In Pelican he sings, “One thing’s for sure we’re all getting older/ So we take a lover waiting in the corner/ Before you know it, pushing up the daisies”.

“When we came back from that tour and started working on stuff, we’d been in and out of our homes for about two years and over that time a lot had changed; suddenly we’d come back and people – our friends, really good friends – were getting married or having children and all of that kind of stuff had a big impact on me. I kind of felt like I didn’t want to write songs about lost love or failed relationships or happy relationships or any kind of thing with just one person necessarily and I thought that it was an interesting thing to try and understand. And as soon as you think about these friends of yours that are at this tipping point between a young adult and an adult with responsibilities, you start thinking about your own family and your own responsibilities. So that became enough for me pretty much in terms of where I was going to try and start finding stories worth telling, events worth cataloguing.

“It was just a kind of shock to me. It’s that kind of thing where you know it will happen but you kind of can’t really believe it when it does, especially when someone that you’ve known for years and years and years suddenly has a tiny version of them kickin’ about; they’re gonna be raising this screamy little person and it’s crazy. It had a real… yeah, I felt it,” he trails off.

Recording with Tim Goldsworthy (LCD Soundsystem) and Bruno Ellingham in the iconic Rockfield Studios in Wales, The Maccabees finished the sessions with an incomplete record.

“They suggested this place and it had an extraordinary musical heritage and all of that is kind of slightly off putting I think. It kind of slightly masks the fact that all you really do is you get there and you work and you try and get as much done as you can. We came away from it just feeling a bit like we hadn’t quite nailed it and that it wasn’t exactly right, so then we went back to our studio in Elephant And Castle and patched up a lot of stuff. [We] re-did a lot of stuff, re-recorded all sorts of bits and pieces and quite often found ourselves going back to those really early recordings – demos and stuff – and stealing sounds from those things, just the kind of happy accidents that happened along the way. They don’t seem it at the time, you just think that that sounds like a weird squealing in the background or something, but in the end you think, no, that’s how it sounded and that’s how it should be.”

Playing four capital city shows as well as taking in a host of regional centres on the Groovin’ The Moo bill, Weeks is quite chuffed to be getting to see so much of the country on the band’s first visit.

“I’ve had a brief look [at the tour schedule] but I’ve kind of left it as a bit of a mystery tour… it’s the best way to experience such a huge country; it’s pretty amazing to be getting that as your introduction.”

He has some vague notions of what Australia might be like, though he’s happy to be surprised for the most part. “The first time I went to America, the scale of stuff, the bigness – and I know that sounds silly, but I’m fairly sure that that’s gonna be a similar thing;

As they prepare to embark on their first visit to our shores, The Maccabees vocalist Orlando Weeks talks tipping points, Groovin’ The Moo and all things wild with Tyler McLoughlan.

WHO: The Maccabees

WHAT: Given To The Wild (Fiction/Co-Operative)

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 9 May, The Hi-Fi

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just the kind of grandness of scale, I think I’ll be kind of daunted and impressed by that. But everyone I’ve spoken to has just said that the hospitality of people is amazing and the crowds are really good for the shows. I’ve got a few friends out there; my cousin moved out there last year so I get to go and see him in Sydney – it’s so exciting,” he enthuses, before concluding, “We feel very blessed, very lucky given that this is… [our] jump point for getting to know a place.”

TIME OFF •13

SHARE THE MUSIC

As Australia woke up to the highly-anticipated Splendour In The Grass line-up announcement last

month, Kimbra’s inclusion on the bill became somewhat overshadowed by the news later that day: boosted by a host of live television performances and an appearance in Glee, Somebody That I Used To Know had reached the number one spot on the American Billboard charts.

“I know, it’s crazy!” Kimbra Johnson squeals down the phone from LA en route to Amsterdam. “It’s just so awesome to hear that news. It’s been a massive week for both me and Gotye, playing Saturday Night Live and then going up to Coachella, so it definitely feels

With an ARIA and the top song prize for both the Vanda & Young and the International Songwriting Competition amongst a long list of accolades to come from debut record Vows, Kimbra was doing just fine before Gotye came along. Tyler McLoughlan quizzes the international starlet on how life is on the other side of Somebody That I Used To Know.

WHO: Kimbra

WHEN & WHERE: Townsville Cricket Grounds; Tuesday 15, The Tivoli

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like there has been a really genuine buzz around the song which is probably what helped it to head up the charts a bit.”

Not content to simply sing the duet, Johnson and Gotye (Wally De Backer) physically depict the body language of a couple mid break-up with every performance of Somebody That I Used To Know, the sentiment brought sharply into lounge rooms worldwide with their up-close Saturday Night Live appearance. “Of course the song is emotional you know and it means a lot to us. I think for that performance especially being TV we wanted to make it so that the emotion came across. I always mean it when I sing it… we feel it when we sing it,” she says.

Throwing herself into the break-up zone for four intense minutes at a time, Johnson is able to initiate the jilted lover sequence without finding it at all difficult to return to her regular self. “I guess that just comes from being able to separate the art from the person, you know? And me and Wally have worked together a long time now with the song and we’ve sung it together tonnes of times and I think we’ve come to that place where we walk on stage and we have that moment and then as soon as it’s over, we go back to being friends. I think everyone understands the song obviously isn’t about an actual relationship…”

Even without the outpour of widespread public confidence arising from that song, Johnson’s bold and artistic performance style teamed with songwriting nous beyond her years had already set her on the path for international success, though certainly via a lengthier, more traditional trajectory. Off the back of her 14-date American support slot with Gotye, she was greeted with blocks-long queues for her own headline arrival in LA.

“I didn’t expect that – it was really encouraging to play our first two shows in LA and have this incredible response,” she says humbly. “The first show was [a] KCRW [radio showcase]… which is the one that attracted a couple of thousand people down to the venue, then the second show was a ticketed show at The Troubadour and yeah that sold out in under a minute.

“Of course it feels great; like I said it’s really exciting if you have that as a first response. I guess a lot of people can sometimes struggle when they have their first time coming to the US and maybe playing very small shows, whereas I felt very blessed to have such an incredible introduction to America and also to have such a loyal fanbase from the start. There were people in the crowd singing all the words to the songs; that’s really encouraging,” she says of the response ahead of the May 22 US release of Vows.

Johnson’s American reception has also brought about some shoulder-rubbing surprises for the kiwi. “I’ve kinda become friends with the guitarist of The Dillinger Escape Plan, who are one of the biggest metal bands in the world and I was a really big fan of them when I was in high school. And then he went and looked me up and said, ‘I really love your music lets hang out’. So we ended up becoming really good friends in New York and talking about making music together, so that’s kinda pretty random… It makes me feel very excited to know that I can now, you know, get in touch with some of my idols and people that have influenced me. You know like I ran into Florence & The Machine at Coachella and got to hang with her for a while and it was really nice; it’s cool to meet all these amazing people,” she says brightly.

Back in Johnson’s adopted Australian homeland, the momentum has continued with the release of new single Warrior, a collaborative project with Mark Foster (Foster The People) and A-Trak (Duck Sauce) accompanied by a slick WWF fight style clip. “It was for Converse, so they do collaborations every few months. The last one that they did was with Andre 3000 and LCD Soundsystem, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of it. I think A-Trak and Mark were the ones to select me to be the vocalist, so it was an awesome opportunity to work with two artists that I really, really love…

“It was a pretty crazy process actually. I recorded some of the vocals for that track in the airport of Hamburg in Germany and at the time A-Trak was in Paris and Mark Foster was in Los Angeles, so we were all on different continents writing it together over email. We only just got to be in the same room together the other night at Coachella. The video itself was done to green screen and we couldn’t make it work to be in the same place at the same time, so it’s been a very 21st century collaboration,” she admits.

Making her way back to Australia for Groovin’ The Moo and her first headline shows in almost a year, Johnson’s visit precedes her return to the States for the launch of Vows and an extensive support slot alongside Foster The People. “I’m excited about that one; I mean now that I’m such good friends with the band it’s going to be a really fun little group. We might do some more writing together on tour and that would be fun and we’re gonna get up and do Warrior together, which will be fun,” she says.

Undaunted by her in-demand status across the globe, though admitting that she might need a bit of a rest at some point, Johnson takes a moment to reflect on her path in the past year.

“I guess there’s a few emotions; obviously I’m grateful and excited, but it’s also been cathartic. I’ve spent a very long time working on this record Vows and anticipating the moment where I could come out share the music with people and really connect with people in a way that I feel I’ve been called to. It’s been great to have that moment to share in such a sort of artistic way with Gotye as well.”

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STILL FEARLESS

Chuck D is in his car, driving from Washington DC where he has been attending the Occupy Movement’s Occupy The Justice Department rally on the 58th birthday

of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prisoner who has recently had his life spared after being on death row for over 30 years charged with the shooting of a Police officer in 1981.

To be honest, it’s been hard to get Chuck D on the phone to chat about the forthcoming Public Enemy tour. He’s a busy man, what with guest appearances to make on other records, countless social and political causes to dedicate his time to, a record label to run and generally just, you know, being Chuck D. But what really has him flat out right now is new Public Enemy material. A lot of it. Chuck D, real name Carlton Ridenhour, and his Public Enemy crew plan on releasing two albums of new material this year, after a five-year (relative) absence since the release of How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?

So, why a double album? “Why be regular? Why be normal? Come out with something that will kind of have people scratching their heads, like, ‘What the hell?’” Chuck D says, before making it clear that the very concept of commercial success doesn’t even register with the group. “We have a precise way of putting together an album; whether [the songs] fit the soundscape of today? Well, it’ll be interesting… We create them for ourselves, we’re not trying to compete or create something that’s going against anything else. It’s not made to win Grammys, it’s not made to top the charts; it’s made to actually point to the music-making legacy of a group that’s been around for twenty-five years and is still active - that’s what important for us.”

Grammys are an interesting topic in relation to Public Enemy. While in many eyes they were the most consistently high-quality hip hop group since the Grammys first considered awarding accolades for music of the rap genre in the late ‘80s, victory has always eluded them. Earlier this year Public Enemy were honoured at the Grammy Museum; the band performed a set and were interviewed onstage by the Museum’s Executive Director Bob Santelli. A real honour for any musician, sure, but a bit of a shock for one that, on their 1988 song, Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic, spat “Who gives a fuck about a Goddamn Grammy”. A long time has passed since then, says Chuck D.

“Back when we said ‘Who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy’, that wasn’t personal. It was because the Grammys did not have a rap category yet. So we protested the Grammys and they finally put a rap category on there. So that’s when I dropped my beef with them. The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles is very, very special because they realised that we had a passion and a commitment to the artform. Bob Santelli is a close ally of ours.”

This tour is billed as the group’s 25th anniversary tour, as it’s a quarter of a century since the release of the group’s debut record, Yo! Bum Rush The Show. The record holds strong memories for Chuck. “No question; I was doing the same thing I’m doing right now, I was driving while writing. I was writing that album as a messenger. Certain elements of that record I hear exactly what I was doing at that time. It’s like a birthmark.”

The group is planning on celebrating the entire spectrum of their career on this tour. Though, given their last visit wasn’t long ago, they’re also looking to inject something a little different. “We’re going to have to present something that’s very different, but still deliver those records that people have got into.” Chuck also says not to expect too much of the new Public Enemy material; even though there’s a lot of it. “I don’t think we’re going to perform a lot of new material because y’all haven’t heard it. We might do a couple of things. For Public Enemy the performance is a large part of it. With the performance you’ve got a large amount of spontaneity that goes beyond the recordings - that’s something that you’ve got to keep in mind. That’s just the truth of it all.” He trails off as he stops to pay a toll.

Public Enemy were one of the trailblazing hip hop acts with regards to touring outside of their own country. In a time where few hip hop artists would leave US soil, the band would spread their gospel to just about anywhere that would have them. “This is the sixth time we’ve toured Australia and I think De La Soul has us by maybe a couple of times,” Chuck D ruminates. “But I’m really mind-boggled that my friend KRS-One finally made it down to Australia. I remember in the ‘90s trying to convince him to get down to Australia, and the fact that he went down is just a wonderful thing to see. Probably the most gifted rapper of all time.

“When we first came to Australia in 1990, it was like, for most rap artists at that time it was impossible to comprehend a fifteen-hour flight. Most of them would do three to four hours and be afraid to go out of the country. We set that precedent and helped pave those roads, like for Ice-T in ’92 [the two acts toured Australia together that year]. We were older too, so we weren’t afraid to go, but a lot of artists were like ‘Nah, it’s impossible for me to get down there.’

“But now, the amount of artists going down there in the last five years, it’s mind-boggling for me. Loads of entertainers not only from North America, but South America, Asia and Europe, are really psyched to be coming to Australia, performing and showing their abilities. I just hope that Australian artists, namely Australian MCs and DJs, have equal opportunity to be accepted abroad like people coming down to Australia.”

One thing that hasn’t changed for Chuck D is his willingness to involve himself in styles of music outside the realm of hip hop. In 1990 he appeared on Sonic Youth’s Kool Thing, he covered Black Flag’s Rise Above alongside Henry Rollins for a West Memphis Three benefit record. Recent years have seen him

Public Enemy’s importance in contemporary music over the past quarter of a century cannot be overstated. Their formidable frontman Chuck D talks about life in general with Dan Condon as the band prepare for another jaunt down under.

WHO: Public Enemy

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 10 May, The Hi-Fi

collaborate with the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan and… Meat Loaf. He credits his companions in his most successful collaboration with opening his mind to wider musical possibilities.

“You gotta be fearless to take it on and accept it. When Anthrax wanted to join with Public Enemy and do Bring Tha Noize [from 1991’s Public Enemy album, Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black], that was [Anthrax guitarist and drummer] Scott Ian and Charlie Benante’s idea. They wanted to step up to the challenge of taking on other musical terrain. I learned a lot from those guys.”

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THE ESSENCE

WHO: Simone Felice

WHAT: Simone Felice (Indochine/Warner)

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 5 July, Old Museum

Newly-minted solo artist Simone Felice tells Steve Bell about unravelling the riddle of the heart.

It’s just one of those quirks of the music game, how everyone who’s been introduced to American singer/songwriter Simone Felice in recent times

has been made aware of the life-threatening travails he’s had to overcome over the course of his short life (so far). How he suffered a brain aneurysm and was pronounced dead before he even reached his teens, recovering from brain surgery only to discover, two decades later, that he had a childhood congenital heart disorder that required open-heart surgery, an affliction that again nearly stole him from our midst far too early.

But to focus on these misfortunes would be to miss the point of his incredible journey. Not only has Felice not let these unfortunate incidents derail his passion for life, but surviving them has fuelled his love of existence and creation even further, to the point where a synopsis of his experiences reads like some modern day Huckleberry Finn: fronting punk bands as a teen in New York, an acclaimed poetry career whisking him around the globe, forming a folk-infused band with his brothers (The Felice Brothers, natch), who take the Americana world by storm, leaving the familial comfort zone of that band to form an equally lauded outfit with friends (The Duke & The King), releasing his first novel last year to universal acclaim – it’s a fairytale story of rather epic proportions, all things considered.

Now Felice has taken this artistic progression to the next logical level and recorded his first solo album, a brilliant extrapolation of all that’s come before, the eponymous effort highlighting not only his indubitable songwriting skills but also his talents as a vocalist, musician and arranger. Yet none of these achievements have gone to his head. In conversation Felice exudes not so much a sense of spirituality but rather an all-pervading calm, his laidback charisma thoroughly charming and totally in tune with the gentle, affirming music that informs his debut long-player.

“I put my whole heart into this record, literally,” he tells. “This album is me beating the dust off my wings and opening the door to my new life as an autonomous poet and songwriter. I’ve been involved in so many magical albums and very special groups, and worked with people that I’ve had such a privilege to work with

over the years – all manner of different folks – and I’m just sort of taking everything that I’ve learned and putting it all into my pot and stirring it up.

“It feels very liberating. When I was a kid for five or six years before we started The Felice Brothers I was just writing poems – I was a poet – and I’d go to New York City and be a stand-up poet in these coffee houses, so it’s almost like returning to my roots, but with all of this history and experience behind me as a musician. And I’ve learned how to sing. It’s been a long road for me, but I’m finally learning how to carry a tune. It feels beautiful man, it really does.”

There were plenty of songs to choose from when it came time to cobble Simone Felice together and the artist reveals that it was a quite intuitive process working out which tunes would eventually make the cut.

“I promised myself that I wouldn’t put a song on the album unless it was pure – the delivery, the recording, every lyric, every note, I just wanted it all to be true and pure,” he reflects. “I just wanted to tell the truth and I wanted to tell the riddle of my heart. Some of the songs are heart-on-sleeve and you can tell exactly what I’m talking about, but some of it is metaphor and I wanted to weave this riddle together: the riddle of my heart. More than anyone else it was more for my own self to unravel this riddle – it’s like the meaning of life, isn’t it, trying to understand the riddle of your heart.”

As cohesive as the album sounds it actually had quite a far-flung geographical genesis, more by circumstance than design.

“There were three main places. After my open-heart surgery, I was recuperating at home in the mountains here,” Felice offers of the recording process, referring to his home in the picturesque Catskill Mountains, “and I was blessed enough that my aunt is a nurse in the hospital here, and she sprung me out of the hospital two days after my open-heart surgery so that I could recover in the fresh air and the mountains. Thank the gods for that, because the hospital is the last place you want to be when you’re trying to get better.

“So I set up a microphone in my barn as soon as I could walk and start to sing – a couple of weeks after the

surgery – and I started to record these ideas, because I was on heavy doses of morphine and I wanted to capture these songs that were coming out. Then our beautiful daughter was born at home with a midwife and that inspired a lot of it as well, so I started recording in my barn, really lonely, and then I realised that some of these songs I wanted to bring to life and flesh out. I knew I wanted a lot of it to be really stripped-down and naked, really empty like some of my favourite records like Nick Drake’s Pink Moon or Nebraska by The Boss – those kind of records where you feel like you’re in a hotel room with the guy or the girl – so I went down and did a few songs with my brothers in an old abandoned high school on the Hudson River, so it was a really haunted, very intense experience there. That yielded some of the great songs on the record – Hey Bobby Ray, Ballad Of Sharon Tate and Stormy-Eyed Sarah.

“Then we came back up to my barn and my friend Ben Lovett from Mumford & Sons came up and stayed with me and we recorded the song Gimme All You Got. He said, ‘Man, next time you’re in London let’s do another

one’. So I just had this song I wrote at the same time Pearl was born, You And I Belong – which is just a song about giving praise and thanks for every morning, every breath really – and I took it to London and Ben took me out to this old church called The Crypt. It’s a studio in Crouch End, where the Traveling Wilburys made their records, and Ben brought the song to life and wrote these beautiful harmonies. I was really just following the whisper, following that divining rod to the water, and it really worked.

“It took me a year to make the record and I didn’t want to be in a million dollar studio with the clock ticking, I wanted to make it in a real environment because I wanted it to feel real and pure with life, like the best records feel – they feel like life, they don’t feel like a digital moment.”

Amen.

FIFTEEN YEARS OF FUNK

WHO: Resin Dogs

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 12 May, Hydrofunk 15th Birthday Party, Coniston Lane

Brisbane institution Hydrofunk Records are preparing to celebrate their 15th anniversary. Matt O’Neill speaks to label co-founder and Brisbane music legend Dave Atkins about assembling the equally legendary Resin Dogs for the festivities. Well, he tries.

The legacy of Hydrofunk Records is much akin to that of their flagship artists Resin Dogs. Which is to say: both entities can lay claim to vast,

almost unparalleled, influence and accomplishment – but rarely appear to do so. Resin Dogs, for example, are in possession of a scope of influence within Australian hip hop eclipsing that of even heavyweights such as The Herd and Hilltop Hoods. Indeed, arguably outstripping that of any Australian hip hop act outside of Sydney pioneers Def Wish Cast.

Released in 2000, Resin Dogs’ debut album Grand Theft Audio introduced Australian hip hop to an audience of unprecedented size and variety. Hydrofunk Records having wrangled patronage from EMI, Grand Theft Audio was one of the earliest Australian hip hop releases to benefit from major label support. The record’s earthy blend of old-school hip hop, funk, reggae, and rock, meanwhile, would help shape what would eventually become Australian hip hop’s definitive sound.

“I have to admit – when we put out our first real record and began touring the world and playing at festivals, laying that foundation was quite close to us,” Atkins reflects of the band’s legacy. “I remember someone emailing me a link to a video and it was Andrew G – who was actually a member of a very early version of Resin Dogs – interviewing another hip hop artist, who was saying how great it was Hilltop Hoods had brought Australian hip hop to the Big Day Out main stage.

“Andrew, though, kind of turned around and said, ‘Well, actually, Resin Dogs did that back in 2001 and 2003’,” the drummer laughs. “I mean, we did do the hard rounds. We had to convince pub audiences to enjoy hip hop. We had to sell our first album at a time when the only other real sample band in Australia was The Avalanches – and, yeah, they did their landmark record, but we got signed to the same label at the same time and made our first album with Robert Reed.”

From that debut, Resin Dogs would go on to secure a list of accomplishments which, in retrospect, seems almost unbelievable. They’ve performed seven

times at the Big Day Out (the first Australian hip hop act to secure a main stage billing), supported the Black Eyed Peas, been invited to perform at the international WOMAD festival in Reading and collaborated with legendary acts like the Pharcyde and the Jungle Brothers. Yet, to today’s Australian hip hop audiences, they’re effectively unknowns.

“That’s the shit I actually remember, dude,” Atkins says. “Robert Reed from Trouble Funk outstaying his visa to play with our band. You know, I remember supporting the Beastie Boys and going to give them our record – and them turning around and telling us The Avalanches had already given them our record and they were massive fans. I remember sampling Afrika Bambaataa, meeting him at the Big Day Out, and him telling us he had all our albums. Afrika Bambaataa, man!

“I mean, I really don’t need that other stuff,” he laughs. “I have my memories; I still live off my music. Whether or not people acknowledge it or whatever doesn’t really matter in the long run. It’s not like the Hilltop guys have worked any less for their success – what they’ve done is absolutely incredible. We’ve never claimed to have actually laid that foundation, anyway. As far as I’m concerned, if it wasn’t for Quan Yeomans and Regurgitator, Australian hip hop wouldn’t exist.”

Hydrofunk Records enjoy a similarly obscured legacy. The Brisbane-based label was founded in 1997 by Atkins and serial co-conspirator DJ Katch (co-founder of Resin Dogs and DJ offshoot 2Dogs) and has been quietly flourishing ever since. Hydrofunk have released records by Australian luminaries like Koolism, Downsyde, Def Wish Cast and Afro Dizzi Act and, at one point, were Australian distributors for influential UK label Low Life (Rodney P, Braintax). Again, they’re effectively unknown.

“It’s always been our vehicle. Always. Whatever we do. Katch started a Hydropunk subsidiary and we released a Godnose record through that and we’ll release some more rock records through that. We’re in the process of starting a Hydroworld,” Atkins says of the label. “Hydrofunk was a name Katch used to use to put on hip hop parties in the early-‘90s and, when we met, his

dream was to make a record label so we could release vinyl. Fifteen years and 50 releases later, we’re still here.

“We like to talk about it as the Hydrofunk train,” the drummer says with a laugh. “You know, between me and Katch, there’s always one of us driving the train. I had to take a few years off when my son was born to get shit in order, so Katch drove the train. He just had to do a whole bunch of tours around the world as a DJ, so I’ve been driving the train. We get a little quiet every now and again but we’re always chugging along.”

It’s hard not to make a connection between Hydrofunk, Resin Dogs and Atkins’ own career. Dave Atkins’ work exists in a similar vacuum of popular recognition and, even disregarding Resin Dogs and Hydrofunk, inhabits an equally gargantuan realm of achievement. Atkins was the drummer for Brisbane avant-metal legends Pangaea (Regurgitator were a Pangaea side-project) and, at one point, Wolfmother. He and DJ Katch met when one of Atkins’ bands was supporting Gil Scott-Heron at Ric’s.

“Yeah, it’s kind of true. Unless you go digging, you won’t really know much of the story,” Atkins laughs. “I was one of the luckiest people on earth to be able to play in Wolfmother – dude, reading books on Slash and then playing with Slash? Surreal – but I had to leave to really focus on my work. You know, Katch and I have been hammering away at making music for nearly two decades. Two decades! It’s the kind of thing that makes you stand back and go, ‘Fuck, we’ve done a lot of shit!’”

To that end, Hydrofunk Records’ 15th anniversary celebration warrants excitement because it draws attention to two overlooked institutions of Australian music, and because it appears to herald an invigoration of their respective outputs. Atkins is ambiguous about the shape or sound of a (near-complete) new Resin Dogs record but is determined to “have it out ASAP”. Hydrofunk will release a slew of new records in the next 12 months.

“It almost feels like we’ve gotten more into producing and creating music in general over the past couple of years,” Atkins says. “We’ve invested in our own studio. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do and we’ve finally been able to do it. So, for the past two years, we’ve been developing records and assembling new Resin Dogs material. We’ve got nearly two albums of material. I have three solo albums of beat material, we’ve been working with Mantra, working with Drapht.

“We’re doing work across the board. I actually have no idea how we’re going to release it all!”

16 • TIME OFF

LISA MITCHELLSPIRITUS

watch Lisa’s stunning new videoyoutube.com/lisamitchellmusic

get a free Lisa track atfacebook.com/lisamitchellmusic

Limited Edition Fan EP

OUT NOWCatch Lisa on the ‘Heavenly Sounds’ tour nationally in JUNE:Mon 4 Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, NSWThurs 7 St Stephen's Uniting Church, Sydney, NSWFri 8 St John's Cathedral, Brisbane, QLDWed 13 St Michael's Church, Melbourne, VICThurs 14 Flinders Street Baptist Church, Adelaide, SAFri 15 St Joseph’s Church, Subiaco Perth WA

TIME OFF • 17

themusic.com.au

WHO: The Scrapes

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 10 May, Crossbows Festival, Queensland Conservatorium

CLOSE SCRAPEAdam Cadell, violinist for Brisbane instrumental two-piece The Scrapes, talks to Chris Yates about his unusual playing technique, his firm roots in classical music, and the end of the world.

A musical academic, The Scrapes’ violinist Adam Cadell has been studying music for many years. He also earns a crust showing some of the

youngest members of our education system the ropes on the violin. He explains that as a violin teacher for kids in primary school, he gets some inspiration for his unique style from some of his young students.

“It screeches!” he says of the main noise he hears from his students while teaching. While his scraping style of playing may have some roots here, he has inspirations that are obviously much older. “My playing style is still very classical. Through the years I’ve added pedals and amplifications and just generally I try not to think too hard about it! I guess I’m like a classical player trying to play more freely and loose – without the concerns of getting a perfect tone and stuff like that. Being a bit rock’n’roll about it. Getting my inner punk on.”

He also experiments with some different tunings on the instrument, something basically unheard of in classical violin playing. Well, at least lately. Cadell doesn’t try to pretend he invented the idea. “Actually, it’s something that used to be done a long time ago,” he starts. “I’m talking like the 16th century! People used to change the tuning of the strings to fit the resonance of the instrument more.

“It’s not even my idea to bring it back,” he confesses, “There’s actually an American violinist called Tony Conrad who’s been doing it for a while. He was actually in The Primitives with John Cale and has connections with The Velvet Underground and stuff.”

While playing with The Scrapes is certainly a release from performing classical music all the time, Cadell says that the balance is starting to shift on where his musical priorities lie. “The more we do with The Scrapes the less and less classical stuff I find myself doing,” he says, sounding pleased. “I spent most of my life playing Mozart and Beethoven and all that, while secretly wanting to play rock’n’roll. I got into it

as a teenager, punk and Nirvana and all that, started being rebellious and getting up to no good. I got into guitar and still get into it a bit. I’ve dabbled in it but nothing I’ve played on guitar has made it onto our albums. I wrote most of the first album on the guitar and then when I met Ryan [Potter, guitarist] I gave it to him so he could work with it. Most of the stuff we did on our new album just came out of jams.”

This looser approach to the recordings with the songs being born out of a more spontaneous process is obvious on the group’s second record, Kali Yuga Sunrise, when compared to their debut Electric Mourning Blues. The idea behind the title of the album is quite complicated, but can be basically boiled down to Kali Yuga being the term for the concept of a slow but fatal armageddon.

“It was just this thing I’ve heard about in various places for years,” he explains. “I’ve always been into a lot of metal, and the metal bands are always going on about Kali Yuga and the apocalypse and the death and the violence. Ryan and I are kind of obsessed about this post-apocalyptic kind of sound, and to us our music seems to sound like the kind of landscape that would remain after an event like that.”

WHO: Keep On Dancin’s

WHAT: The End Of Everything (Mere Noise)

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 12 May, Black Bear Lodge

THE END IS STILL NIGHGothic noirists Keep On Dancin’s are still flogging debut album The End Of Everything. Yuri Johnson assures Brendan Telford that it’s no dead horse.

Local purveyors of haunting yet elegiac rock Keep On Dancin’s have been a veritable mainstay on the Brisbane local scene, scoring quality support slots

while also playing in almost every venue and dive across town. Their efforts helped to produce an album, The End Of Everything, a beautiful blend of their elegantly wasted noir pop. That was a year ago. With an impending vinyl launch coming up, guitarist Yuri Johnson is hasty to explain why the release has been so laboured.

“At the moment we’re just trying to get people to listen to the record. Those who have seem to really like it, but it would be cool if more people heard it. We actually did launch the CD version at Woodland last Easter, and it was a great night, but we always regretted releasing the album on CD. It’s a moribund format and the packaging was substandard. Every time I held one of those CDs in my hands, I felt like a chump. Getting the vinyls printed is redemptive for us.”

That said, a lot of time has elapsed since The End Of Everything’s availability on both disc and digital formats, and the band has slogged its wares for some time now. Johnson is adamant that by releasing the vinyl, the songs will reach a wider audience this time around.

“It’s kind of difficult when we rarely play interstate, get no national airplay and there’s a finite number of people in Brisbane willing to listen to any album, but we haven’t given up trying. Doing another launch is a way for us to wipe the slate clean and, hopefully, sell some records. Also, we feel that the album has been a bit of a slow-burner. Nobody really cared for it at first – myself included – but over the past year it’s grown on people and I’m constantly surprised how many people have managed to hear it somewhere and somehow. So, the launch will be a nice way to celebrate the record with those who came late to the party.”

Another noticeable change is the cover art, which now depicts a series of hand-drawn ‘70s and ‘80s-style headshots. The connection to the album itself isn’t overtly obvious…

“That’s because there isn’t any!” Johnson laughs. “Someone suggested we do fresh cover art for the vinyl and we were all immediately onboard. We asked our friend Ben Mangan to hand-draw something for us. What he came up with is as deeply confusing to me as it is probably to everyone else. I’ve never asked him why he chose to draw that and how he thinks it relates to the record. Not everyone likes it, but I really enjoy the non sequitur between the music and the art. It makes no sense at all. I think that’s cool.”

With the album’s laboured gestation period, it’s difficult to see what lays on the band’s horizon, but some things never change.

“We definitely see ourselves as a downer band,” Johnson opines. “Jacinta [Walker] and myself share a love of sad songs, so that’s mostly where it comes from. We also have a limited skill set. I think we’d sound like hell if we tried to play upbeat music. Playing simple, slow, depressing songs is a great way to stick out, too. Nobody does it! A lot of bands seem to throw as much noise and shit at the audience as they can, hoping that something sticks. Maybe they’re worried people will get bored. In my view, playing something simple and hypnotic is far more effective at getting people’s attention. Then again, maybe I’m just an old chunk of coal who doesn’t understand the crazy sounds kids are making these days.”

WHO: OKA

WHAT: Milk & Honey (Vitamin Records)

WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 13 May, The Joynt

STREET JIVEThe multitalented Stu Boga Fergie, one third of aussie groundbreakers OKA, explains to Benny Doyle that although you can take the boys from the corner, you can’t take the corner from the boys.

“I think that’s one thing that really works with our music, whether it’s a little crowd or a big crowd, it still holds the same energy. We have

the same thought process whenever we are playing music, which is just to enjoy that time that we are there and not focus on the crowd too much. Just focus on playing music with each other, then you can get into the energy there before you look out.”

Boga Fergie is relaxing on the Sunshine Coast, enjoying a rare bit of downtime on the tail end of OKA’s east coast tour of the country. The band played to a big crowd at the Apollo Bay Music Festival on the weekend, and he admits that the experience was yet another great one for the trio. But finding their rich blend of sound inciting throngs of people to lose themselves in the moment is nothing new for the OKA boys, who for over a decade have been soundtracking a path that only they are travelling.

Impossible to pigeonhole, OKA have thrived where few Aussie acts have – in the tough overseas market. Their sound amalgamation, tipping its hat to dub, jazz, hip hop and more traditional Australian and Middle Eastern sounds, has seen them take the stage at some massive festivals around the globe, including the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Green Room Festival in Japan. However, for Boga Fergie, the pinnacle of 2011 came from an experience a little more grassroots.

“For me, the highlight of last year was going down and busking on Venice Beach,” he recalls. “We were surrounded by about twenty or thirty homeless people and it was a really strange but amazing feeling; they were loving it, we drew a massive crowd and for me personally, I really dug that. I like the connection on that scale because people are not there to come and watch you. Busking is free, so people will only stop if they dig it. So that was pretty amazing for me.”

Boga Fergie admits that the band try and squeeze in the spontaneous style of play wherever they are in the world.

“We started on the street, that’s how we began a decade ago in Melbourne. Going and playing street festivals, then our first trip was Singapore. People saw us in Singapore, and then we were over in Canada. For us, we probably feel the most comfortable on the street. It’s funny; that’s why we always laugh when we get up on a big stage, because it is always funny watching yourself progress, from a street corner to a big stage where everybody is looking out at you from the back, it’s all a bit over the top, y’know, it’s pretty crazy. But we really value the street, it keeps you honest and humble, and the music only stands up at that base level if people stop and listen to it.”

His unassuming nature is refreshing, and it’s that relaxed vibe which emanates through the music of OKA. Milk & Honey is the band’s sixth studio album and their first, Boga Fergie admits, that was written from the stage to studio as opposed to vice versa. The sounds of these constant journeys are reflected in the diversity across the 14 tracks, the honesty in the music, and simply the band’s honesty themselves.

“Because we travel to so many places, we get inspired by different types of music and beats,” he says. “Everything is different, and our music particularly is a soundscape to wherever we are. I think as long as we keep our music current, it will stay like that.”

18 • TIME OFF

WHO: Emma Dean

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 11 May, Crossbows Festival, Queensland Conservatorium

CON JOBCrossbows, a four-day festival celebrating the diversity of music in Brisbane, is perhaps the perfect setting to experience the pop eclecticism of Emma Dean, as Tyler McLoughlan discovers.

Local lass Emma Dean, touted as a top ten artist to watch in 2011 by the New York Post, is a self-styled mistress of the velvet curtains who

melds theatrical elements amongst eccentric pop. Also an expert juggler able to change performance personas as her creative output demands, Dean is in the midst of a run of dates for her duelling-piano style pop cabaret An End To Dreaming alongside Jake Diefenbach when Time Off catches up with her ahead of her appearance at Crossbows Festival.

“We did Adelaide Fringe Festival and that was really beautiful. We played I think four shows there and then we went to Melbourne and then Sydney, and now Brisbane, and New York after that. It’s the New York International Fringe Festival so my head is kind of about to explode with all of the different shows that I’ve got coming up. I’m just taking it one day at a time,” she sighs, no doubt weary after moving straight into preparation for the show once her role as Sally Bowles in the Australian production of Cabaret ended.

“At the moment I’m juggling three different shows; I’ve got An End To Dreaming, the Crossbows Festival and then my one-woman show called Stripped. In Stripped I actually do play five different versions of myself so that’s a bit of a mindfuck, if I’m allowed to say that. In An End To Dreaming I’m playing, I guess it is a heightened version of myself, and then Crossbows will be a more relaxed, non-theatrical style of a gig… It will be a bit of a smorgasbord I think, the Crossbows festival – some old stuff, some new stuff and different combinations of the various instruments on stage,” she says of the festival of music for small ensembles held at the Queensland Conservatorium.

Dean is particularly pleased to be a part of the Crossbows line-up given that she is a graduate of the Conservatorium.

“I’m an ex-Con!” she exclaims with a giggle. “I studied jazz voice there, and it feels like a lifetime ago but it

also feels like yesterday, I think,” she ponders before showing her enthusiasm about the range of artists billed to perform. “Katie Noonan is playing and she’s an ex-Con graduate, and some other people that went to the Con are performing… I think I’ll be able to catch a bit of The Con Artists which is the big band at the Con, and I used to be the vocalist for The Con Artists… It’s always so great to see the new musicians that are on the rise that come through the Con. They’re so fresh and it makes me really excited,” she gushes.

Considering her left-of-centre performance background, Dean is hugely supportive of events, such as Crossbows, that serve to expose the community to styles of music they may not ordinarily come across.

“I think there’s a lot of music out there that doesn’t necessarily fit into a mainstream box, and people often, like when I’m talking to my friends and I’m telling them about different bands or different ensembles or things that are going on in Brisbane, a lot of them just don’t know about it. So I think just to have this big festival where you’re combining some sort of, I suppose, mainstream names or some of the bigger profile artists with some more fringe type music or some of the more classical music or contemporary jazz that a mainstream audience wouldn’t necessarily hear about or be exposed to… is really important. And hopefully I’ll gain some new fans, and hopefully a lot of the acts will gain some new fans as well – it’s really exciting.”

themusic.com.au

WHO: Marshall Okell

WHAT: Sugar (Independent)

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 11 May, Lennox Hotel, Lennox Head; Saturday 12, Sol Bar, Maroochydore; Sunday 13, Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

SWEET SORROWMarshall Okell talks to Chris Yates about getting a new band together following Marshall & The ‘Fros calling it a day, and of the tragedy that confronted him during the recording of his new EP Sugar.

It’s a frosty day in Sydney and Okell is camped out at a friend’s house in Marrickville, enjoying the local cuisine but cursing the cold and yearning

for his hometown on the beach in Lennox Head.

“Bloody oath,” he says. “I can’t wait to get back there actually. I’ve been on the road for about a month and I’ve got the ‘miss your girlfriend’ blues.”

It’s something he’s more than familiar with. Okell spends as much time on the road as possible, and he particularly loves getting out into more remote communities that don’t get the chance to see a lot of live music. He says he’s learnt to love the long drives, and a new diesel van is making it a little more comfortable these days.

“I’ve got it set up pretty well,” he speaks proudly of the vehicle. “It’s got eskies and gas cookers and shit like that. I just drive while the other guys get their MacBooks out and do business.”

The other guys he speaks of are his new live band, who are moonlighting from their gig as the rhythm section in fellow roots rockers Chase The Sun. Ryan Van Gennip and Jon Howell, both veterans of Aussie rock, are lending their formidable talents to help Okell keep the dream alive. Also helping out for the recording of the EP were Jules Parker and Lisa Gentz from The Gold Coast’s Hussy Hicks. He speaks highly of these collaborators, referring to them as his best mates. He raves about Parker’s guitar prowess, which he was incredibly impressed with.

“She is probably the most cooking guitarist – both electric and acoustic – that I have ever played with,” he gushes. “She’s very tasteful, but with this quirky, shredding guitar style. We just told her to go for it and do whatever she wanted to do so she just went to town.”

Despite the sweet sounds and laidback casual beach vibes of his new EP Sugar, Okell had to survive some incredibly tragic circumstances in order to see the project through to fruition. He speaks so highly of everyone involved in the recording of the

EP, but his voice wavers when speaking of a man he obviously held in extremely high regard.

“The guy that produced it,” he starts carefully, “he was like the most good vibing, 52-year-old, sick surfing, snowboarding, five-gigs-a-week guy I have ever known. He was always dancing around the studio going, ‘More energy!’”

He’s talking about the late Brian ‘Birdy’ Burdett. “Birdy and his two daughters died in a car crash one day before we got the masters back, man. He’s like my second dad and closest friend. The EP just means so much more to us now than it ever could have. It’s given us more spirit to really make the most of everything, and we all just try to celebrate him all the time.”

It’s obvious he hasn’t spoken much about his good friend’s passing yet, and there’s a real sadness that colours his voice when he talks about how he found and lost a very like-minded collaborator.

“Working with him was wicked,” he offers. “I just laid everything on the table and said, ‘Let’s just try anything and everything with it’. I didn’t want to be protective about the songs – it was just the complete opposite of that for everyone involved. As well as the EP, we recorded an album with him as well - it just has to be mixed now, but we really wanted to get this out now.”

WHO: William Elliott Whitmore

WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 13 May, The Zoo

OUTDOOR TYPEFreestyle folk artist William Elliott Whitmore is one of those genuine characters that almost seem too wholesome for a career in music. Tyler McLoughlan learns how rural living has prepared him for a six-album career.

It’s easy to imagine the dirt underneath his nails and the callused skin worn by hard work of both the musical and farm variety when William Elliott

Whitmore catches up with Time Off from the property on which he grew up. The Iowa native who honours the tradition of folk with his own punk, rock, blues and soul quirks introduced his album Field Songs last year with the sounds of chooks and birdsong, so it’s no surprise to hear how he’s spent his day.

“Just doin’ a little gardenin’ today and just kind of enjoying the springtime weather here… In fact I just enjoyed some radishes and some spinach from the garden,” drawls the self-confessed steward of the land. “It’s very influential on my writing and music and I’ve always thought that a person’s environment probably affects them more than anything. For me it’s Lee County, Iowa, by the Mississippi River.”

A thoughtful man, Whitmore enjoys pondering how one’s environment shapes musical output.

“It’s interesting – I think about that a lot actually, you know if I’d grown up on the streets of Brooklyn New York, or in the wheat fields of Australia, or by the beach in California, how it would affect what I do. I’ve always respected musicians that represent where they’re from and sort of paint a picture to the rest of the world about where they’re from. Because I didn’t grow up on the streets of Brooklyn, for instance, I like artists that paint me a picture of what that must have been like,” he offers.

Whitmore has always favoured an unfussy approach to recording, though Field Songs is simply his voice, his banjo and an intermittent kick drum, with the sounds of his surrounds built amongst.

“It kind of represents a day-in-the-life; it starts off and it’s the morning, and it’s morning sounds, and by the end of the record the work day is done and I’ve hopefully

achieved something and I can crack open a beer,” he chuckles. “My cousin who I record all my records with… we kind of hashed the idea for the additional audio that’s on there – if you listen close you’ll hear birdsong and running stream water and sort of outdoor sounds. We wanted to capture that rural feeling and kinda give the idea that you’re sittin’ on the porch with me here in Iowa, just hearin’ me play on the porch. It was really fun to run around and gather that audio, which is all right here on the farm, with a little recorder, and through the magic of recording – which I don’t know anything about but luckily my cousin does – we put it on the record and made the birdsongs part of my songs, and that’s what I wanted to achieve. Just to represent that humans are just animals too, and we have our songs and everything else has their own song, and so if we can put them together in a harmonious way then we’ll have somethin’.” Whitmore shares a similar self-styled approach to folk outside the realms of the traditional scene with Brit Frank Turner, who he follows to Australia for his first visit this month.

“Yeah Frank’s a good ole boy, he’s a good, good ole man. I had the fortune of touring with him before and we’re on the same record label… when he had the chance to go to Australia, he asked me to come along and I jumped at the chance. He’s one of my favourite guys and his music is great, and he’s enjoying some good success, and so I’m gonna ride along on his coat tails basically.”

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INPRESS • 19

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ON THE RECORDSINGLED OUTWITH CHRIS YATES

DUNE RATSFuck ItIndependent

As well as being single of the week, the new single from Dune Rats also wins the award for best cover art of the year so far thanks to Daniel Petchy’s sun flipping the bird. Slack stoner pop recorded in a Brisbane bedroom with little regard for anything other than making sure it is fuzzy, dirty, gritty and beautiful while the lyrics are whined like a lazy complainer who deep at heart really doesn’t care. The chorus is really a refrain of ‘you always bring me down’ while the title Fuck It just drops in when the music drops out for a millisecond. A post chorus of ooohs and the occasional yelping ‘woo!’ all add up to one of the best damn pop songs floating around so far this year. I just listened to this about 15 times and I’m probably gonna wear it out soon so I hope we get some new stuff soon!

THE OFFSPRINGCruisin’ California (Bumpin’ In My Trunk)Sony

The talk around town (ie. the internet) that maybe this new track from The Offspring is in fact a deliberate joke seems to be a bit of a joke itself. Is it because some people who were 12-years-old when Pretty Fly For A White Guy came out think they would not think the same thing about that awful abomination now? The Offspring have managed to milk pretty much the exact same joke for their whole career, but in terms of the modern mainstream this really isn’t that much of a stretch. The worst problem is that they don’t quite understand how to take the piss, or that they pretend to take the piss while making massive hit singles ‘by accident’. They’re obviously total jerks, but still, they’re in no way as offensive to the concepts of punk rock as their contemporaries Green Day.

DEADMAU5The VeldtSony

Deadmau5 is hijacking the summery good-time vibes of the already forgotten forefathers of the glo-fi chillwave movement and cleaning it up for the masses. It’s house pop, but it’s quite restrained really – it’s incredibly minimal at the start and then builds really slowly, with new sounds added very sparingly. The lyrics are apparently based on a Ray Bradbury sci-fi story but it must be a pretty loose interpretation because there’s not really much going on in that department. Chris James provides the vocals and does them justice, all breathy and pompous. I would obviously be enjoying this much more if I were on ecstasy right now, which would be nice.

360ChildEMI

There’s a lot of love for 360 from A LOT of fans across Australia right now, and a lot of hate from the hip hop heavyweights, and you can understand where it is coming from. Despite the fact most of the music industry and critics put his success down to stuff like, ‘Oh, he’s just like really good on Facebook’, he’s easily the biggest musical act in the country right now in any genre, or at least will be by the time the year is out. I applaud him for ignoring the Australian hip hop establishment, most of whom hate anything that doesn’t sound like DJ Premier from 1993. Child is a great example – it’s accessible, personal with a great hook and a unique production.

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DUMBSAINTSomething That You Feel Will Find Its Own FormBird’s Robe

Post-rock is a problematic genre for a variety of reasons, but the biggest hurdle to overcome for any band travelling down this path is to avoid falling into the pit of repetition and familiarity. Sydney trio Dumbsaint throw their collective technical force behind debut Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form - keeping generic tropes such as verbose song titles and quiet-loud dynamics in check - and halfway through opening track Rivers Will Be Crossed it feels like a ballsy, effervescent offering is in store. Not so, unfortunately.

The majority of these eight songs exceed seven minutes, and most of them commit the cardinal sin of feeling bloated. Cinematic starts off with frenetic, crunching riffs and rolling drums that evokes an impending maelstrom, yet by the end feels too generic to be truly breathtaking. Likewise on Lying In Sign, with its Cog-esque guitar and thick bassline, promises an epic number that suffers from laying it on far too thick. Every member is technically fantastic, with Nick Andrews’ heroics behind the kit especially noteworthy, but these compositions overstay their welcome. The only track to keep it relatively short, the four-and-a-half minute Inwaking, works perfectly in its focused drive, something that the other tracks tragically miss. By cutting their songs in half and pinning down their groove with purpose, the intensity could be palpable. As it stands though, Something That You Feel... suffers from its own overblown grandiosity.

★★ ½ Brendan Telford

CANCER BATSDead Set On LivingDistort/Shock

With Dead Set On Living, Toronto’s Cancer Bats show yet another side to their sound, this fourth instalment of their hardcore journey another assured step up the food chain. This album is unforgiving, heavy-handed but also versatile and multifaceted. It is easily the band’s most consistent work, a big part of which is due to Liam Cormier’s relentless oral assault, his lyrics talking directly to the masses and simply commanding the listener’s attention.

Remaining are the sludgy qualities that encompassed their previous release Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones, but coupled with them now is a sharp tonality, the guitars especially stadium-worthy on tracks such as opener Rats and Breathe Armageddon. When they pace up the timing, the intensity levels match it and the songs really kill. Old Blood is the sound of rock music clawing at your skin with a big shouty chorus to rally the troops, while Road Sick is unrelenting in its ability to spit directly in your face, the chorus not so much oozing as seriously exploding out of the speakers. Having the extreme vocal balancing act of DevilDriver’s Dez Fafara and An Horse’s Kate Cooper on Bastards also needs to be commended for its sheer audaciousness.

At times Dead Set On Living recalls Every Time I Die. Eighties thrashers such as Metallica and Anthrax are definitely paid homage to, and more than once it even stirs some old Marilyn Manson dirge to the surface. But this amalgamation is simply 2012’s Cancer Bats. Dead Set On Living has rolled everything great from a variety of metal styles, regurgitating it in the form of an arse-kicking 40 minutes of pure, bruising goodness.

★★★★ Benny Doyle

HERE WE GO MAGICA Different ShipSecretly Canadian/Inertia

Indie rockers Here We Go Magic open up third album A Different Ship with instrumental Intro, fifty-one seconds of atmospheric composition that ushers in their brand of somnambulant-causing pop in a beautifully understated fashion. Blending in nicely to Hard To Be Close, it’s clear to see that the Brooklyn quartet have worked hard at creating a harmonious album that ebbs and flows from start to finish. That isn’t to say that these tracks cannot stand on their own merits – second single How Do I Know is a sweet line in percolating, resonant pop, and Miracles Of Mary wafts over like a warm wave of delectable whimsy. Luke Temple’s sonorous vocals drift and waver, a soothing elixir that floats above the hushed instrumentation.

The issue with A Different Ship is that it feels too languid at times – whilst a track like Over The Ocean on its own is a great exercise in powerful ambience, it doesn’t shine as much when connected to other songs that stick steadfastly to the same aesthetics. Radiohead uber-producer Nigel Godrich ensures that the production is glossy and sanguine, yet by buffing out the eclectic blemishes of past albums, it is at the expense of the pensive originality that the band holds in the live arena.

Here We Go Magic have crafted a nice album, no doubt about it, yet a little more bite would have allowed it to hold more character.

★★★½ Brendan Telford

VARIOUS/NIC FANCIULLIBalance 021Balance/EMI2011 was arguably the finest year yet for the Australian-bred Balance series, with mixes from Nick Warren, Henry Saiz and Deetron each putting a spin on progressive, house and techno which hit the mark quickly yet didn’t wear out their welcome with repeat listens. So Nic Fanciulli had his work cut out for him on his first compilation since his 2009 Global Underground mix sank virtually without a trace, and the man, whose early efforts for Renaissance never quite matched the hype surrounding him, delivers yet another a tradesman-like performance here.

On the plus side, Fanciulli eschews ponderous studio trickery for a club-friendly approach across this two disc set. The build-up from deep to dancefloor on disc one in particular is brief yet beautifully structured, but when 27 tracks from production talents like Maya Jane Coles, Joris Voorn and Lovebirds fly by without anything leaping out until Marco Basanov brings the pianos on the penultimate Up, you can’t help but wish he’d sprinkled another hook or two through the selection.

Disc two sees the Saved Records boss teeing off almost from the get-go as he showcases the sounds of his label – give or take the unexpected drum solo breakdown in &ME’s Matters, it’s throbbing basslines and relentless percussion all the way. Balance has been long overdue a disc which unleashes hell and Fanciulli definitely heats things up, but his idea of a bombing raid is slamming down one monotonous techy weapon after another, each so similar to the last that even their mothers would struggle to pick them out of a line-up.

It’s not terrible, just not terribly interesting either, Balance 021’s cookie-cutter approach making it unlikely to trouble the scorers in any future discussion of “best-ever Balance mix”.

★★★ Kris Swales

GEORGE HARRISONEarly Takes Volume 1Universal

There are a lot of completist Beatles fans out there, which means as long as there are recorded artifacts from the Fab Four’s life – together or apart – being uncovered, there’ll be new stock on the shelves and people to buy it. This collection of demos and early takes of some of George Harrison’s solo material comes in conjunction with the Martin Scorsese documentary Living In The Material World and is interesting, though unremarkable.

The calling card of his solo career, My Sweet Lord, opens the collection, sounding much like the final version, just looser and with its classic lead guitar breaks removed. Run Of The Mill and closer The Light That Has Lighted The World capture the intimacy you want from a release like this; it’s just Harrison alone with his songs. Bob Dylan co-write I’d Have You Any Time is the opposite; gorgeous, lush and replete with Harrison’s unmistakable lead breaks, while the version of Dylan’s Mama You’ve Been On My Mind captures the enormous love and respect the Beatle had for the songwriter’s work which would manifest in plenty of great material in the future. A sweet version of the Everly Brothers’ Let It Be Me sounds as gorgeous as you’d expect, the early take on Woman Don’t You Cry For Me is nigh on unrecognisable without its funked-up, clavinet-heavy production, while All Things Must Pass is stretched to almost five minutes and perhaps misses the overdubbed embellishment most.

There’s nothing on this record that’s any better than Harrison’s actual released solo material, but for those who have to have it all, it’s a worthy addition to any bulky Beatles collection. Don’t start here, wait until you’re obsessed.

★★★½ Dan Condon

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TY SEGALL & WHITE FENCEHair Drag City/Spunk/Co-OpSan Francisco has one of the hardest-working music movements going around today, with a multitude of acts and artists adamant that touring and recording are the lifeblood of music. Two of the newer kids on the SF garage block are Ty Segall and Tim Presley (aka White Fence). Both guys have taken on the 1960s lo-fi psych route and attempted to fuse it with their own individualistic flourishes, thus creating some of the most iconic sounds in the genre of recent years (Segall’s Goodbye Bread and WF’s Is Growing Faith were two of the best albums of 2011). Now Segall and Presley have joined forces on Hair.

The best thing about this collaboration is that it is much more than two like-minded, similar-sounding fellas having a jam at home. If anything, Hair proves how disparate each artist’s sound actually is. The LP opens with Time, and it is apparent early that the resultant racket will be as slipshod and fun as anything either of them has released in the past. Halfway through this track there is a tempo change straight out of the dog-eared, well-worn ‘60s garage and psychedelia playbook. Things rarely veer from this terrain. Yet it is forever to their credit that Segall and Presley don’t sound like bowerbirds, stealing from others in a hodgepodge fashion. Crybaby is a swinging, swaggering party monster; Scissor People segues from a heady paisley jam into a deviant dirge with nary a backward glance.

Hair is an aggressive, frantic and fun record that perfectly showcases what it is that Segall and Presley are actually doing. They aren’t re-inventing the wheel – they are making it infinitely better.

★★★★½ Brendan Telford

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SHADY LANEBuilt GuiltRice Is Nice

Built Guilt is the second album from Rice Is Nice-signed Sydney solo-project-turned-band Shady Lane, and it is quite a leap from the project’s largely delicate 2009 debut Here We Go Down the Black Hole. From the get go, Opener sees nods to psychedelica and even hints at a Pavement influence with its space and texture underneath a somewhat aggressive electric indie guitar line. Second single Convenient Face Hinge recalls the finer moments from Super Furry Animals and is quite the catchy number with its funk-ay bass line and fun lyrics.

The album is as clever as it is musically ranging, from the hilariously vulgar opening line of Gwimmnoddles – “When our dicks go soft/How will we get off?” – and then within the same song the questioning becomes more hopeless with lines like, “Is It mad to think of dying when you can’t get out of bed?” There really are no dull moments when gems such as the electronic What Future? and the weird noise-driven pop of Mother Mountain Rabbit are thrown into the mix. Then the album just offers straight-up great pop songs like the slow building familiarities of Starfish and the happy space electro-pop of album closer Happy Without Controls.

Built Guilt is a really interesting psych-pop sounding album that lures you in from first listen and then forces you to come back for more. The tracks are hooky and will no doubt propel Shady Lane into one of Australia’s better alternative pop exports, just like label-mates Seekae and the similar sounding Richard In Your Mind.

★★★★ Bradley Armstrong

SKY NEEDLERave CaveNegative GuestlistSky Needle beggar belief. The Brisbane quartet define their sound through self-made instruments. Joel Stern plays parping horns made from soft-drink bottles and bike pumps. Alex Cuffe has wrought some kind of bass-related instrument out of a speaker box. Ross Manning is credited with ‘string panels’. Rounded out by vocalist/percussionist Sarah Byrne, their rumbling, primitive sound is impossible to ascribe to any specific instrumentation. Forget genre.

It’s fantastic, though. This is why Sky Needle are so unbelievable. A description such as the above fills the mind with images of noise, abstraction and self-indulgence – or, worse still, quirky kitsch. Sky Needle, though, simply rock it. There’s an unpretentious streak of fun and funk that runs through the band’s work that makes it hard not to love everything they do. Rave Cave is arguably their best work yet. Released strictly to vinyl by respected local imprint Negative Guestlist (the label run by the much-missed Brendon Annesley), the band’s latest album finds them condensing their sprawling sound into nine concise nuggets of sound.

The formula is the same for the majority of pieces – Sarah Byrne’s washed out vocals echo over noisy, percussive soundscapes – but it’s amazing how many variations in mood Sky Needle can find. Radical Fire rides a rumbling, swampy, primal bass into a hypnotic, unwholesome groove; Rest In A Well sounds jazzy and pastoral in its seesawing horns and plucked string textures; Two Way Solo slithers menacingly by in a six-minute drawl. It’s not music easily described – but it is music easily enjoyed. It’s as immediately filthy as it is undeniably artistic. Music very much deserving of your time, in other words.

★★★★ Matt O’Neill

XIU XIUAlwaysPolyvinylThere’s no better time than the present to take life by its stupid balls and do something that scares you a little bit. Go skydiving, call your parents, experiment with a weird fetish – better yet, start listening to Californian noise/art rockers Xiu Xiu. They’re about as well known and accepted as choking yourself to get off, and better that your family walks in on you listening to music than strung up by your belt being made some masked beefcake’s bitch.

Xiu Xiu are certainly trying to make it easier for you to get on board – Always is full-length number eight, and there’s no question that it neatly sits alongside 2004’s Fabulous Muscles in the Hall of Xiu Xiu Albums That Aren’t Totally Alienating. Opener Hi is an easy introduction, its post-punk leanings and the relative restraint of usually melodramatic frontman Jamie Stewart easing listeners in with only intermittent glitches and deviations from the path of melodic agreeability. The uplifting chord progression and hushed, ethereal choral refrain on Joey’s Song gives way to the cautious march of Beauty Towne, which itself gives way to the discordant meandering of Beauty Towne’s second half. Now’s a good time to make the call, because it’s not getting any less strange from here.

Prepare for disingenuous pop in tracks such as Honeysuckle, histrionics (I Luv Abortion, Gul Mudin, Factory Girl), melancholy ruminations (The Oldness) and frenetic, batshit-crazy experimentalism, best demonstrated by the closer, the wonderfully inaccessible Black Drum Machine. Yes, they’re a strange band, and Always is a demanding listen. But take a page from the fetishist handbook and take the leap. You might learn something about yourself – and if it scares you, all the better.

★★★★ Mitch Knox

TIM BARRY40 Miler ResistTim Barry often gets lumped in with folk-punk artists such as Frank Turner and Chuck Ragan, but despite spending his formative years fronting punk band Avail, he clearly draws on more bluegrass and country influences than most of his contemporaries.

Opening track Wezeltown is as instantly infectious as anything Barry has done in the past, a perfect example of his so-simple-it’s-profound lyrical content. Driver Pull is a slow and rather mournful number, with sparse keys, minimal strumming and violin. The title track is up next, with “I got miles and miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles”, one of the album’s most resonating moments.

Adele And Hell, a narrative-based duet with fellow Virginian Julie Karr, tells the tale of a couple from the wrong side of the tracks and the juxtaposition between Karr’s and Barry’s vocals make it one of the album’s strongest songs. On sombre slow-burner Shed Song, Barry seems torn between his troubadour lifestyle and the urge to settle down, before the live-in-the-moment Banker’s Dilemma breathes some much-needed lightheartedness into proceedings. On Fine Foods Market (aka Tim Barry Makes Fun of Tim Barry), Barry proves he has a healthy sense of self-deprecation, poking fun at himself and the wider ex-punks-picking-up-acoustic-guitars community. The final track, Amen (Oshega) is Barry’s defiant battle cry, detailing all the dive bars and festival crowds he’s played to whilst delivering a subtle rebuke to his detractors with its, “Go on kick me in the head/Watch me get right back up again,” refrain.

40 Miler is Barry’s strongest collection of songs to date and although it might lack the instant appeal of some of his contemporaries’ work, his likable, everyman charm is infectious.

★★★★ Daniel Johnson

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Space Nazis from the moon invade planet earth in sci-fi comedy romp Iron Sky. Writer-director Timo Vuorensola tells Baz McAlister exactly what he was smoking.

It began, as all the finest Finnish ideas do, in a sauna.

“It was while we were shooting our earlier film Star Wreck [an internet-released Star Trek parody],” says filmmaker Timo Vuorensola. “We were sitting in this sauna, and one of my friends said our next film should be about moon Nazis. It was a funny idea but we never really thought about it that much until we started looking it up on the Internet and realised there are a lot of people out there with theories along the same lines. It was a really cool idea and we decided to pursue it.”

The result is Iron Sky, one of the most distinctive-looking and fun films you’ll see this year. Nazis have indeed been squirreled away on the moon since 1945, regarding the Earth with envious eyes and slowly but surely drawing their plans against us. Klaus Adler (Gotz Otto) is the militant superman and Renate Richter (Julia Dietze) the doe-eyed ingénue who become the darlings of the media when they land on our world and fall under the spell of spin doctor and PR maven Vivian Wagner (Peta Sergeant).

Vuorensola says that from the beginning, he wanted to make a film that was more than just an outrageous B-movie. “I had this melancholic mood in the back of my head for the film,” he says. “It is a comedy, but I want to carry a message. Very early on we decided we wanted to do a more complex

and layered story, more than just a simple action movie. Rather than call it Evil Nazis From The Moon – Americans can do that if they do the remake! – we wanted to do something deeper.”

Based in Finland, Vuorensola assembled an international team and ended up shooting in Germany and southeast Queensland – in January 2011, battling rising floodwaters all the while. The shoot in Germany proved tricky as well.

“By law you cannot bring any Nazi symbols into Germany, and we had created all our costumes in Finland but there was no way to import them,” Vuorensola says. “In the end it just took a lot of legal paperwork. But when you go shooting – in Australia we had guys standing on the street corner with Nazi uniforms, and no one really cared. ‘Oh, they’re a freaky bunch’ – but in Germany you have to cover all the swastikas up well when you’re not shooting. It’s not really a problem over there – I mean, if you see someone in a Nazi uniform it’s more probable it’s a film shoot than the Nazis have come back – but it’s still something that can cause problems with the police.”

Vuorensola says the film has been well received in Germany already, giving the lie to the old perception that Germans have no sense of humour – but then, a lot of Germans did pay money to get the film made, as did people from all over the

planet as part of Vuorensola’s rather innovative way of raising his budget.

“We used the community to help in three ways,” he explains. “The first was crowd-sourcing, where the idea is you get creative input from the community. All sorts of different things, like do we use a 3D model of a spaceship, or make the posters. The second way is crowd-funding; you sell something like a T-shirt, or War Bonds, so people can say they supported Iron Sky. And the third way is crowd investing, where you put a certain amount of money into the production – starting at 1,000 Euros – and when the film starts to make money, you start to make money because you have a small share in the film. We raised more than one million Euros doing this – and we got an army of advocates, a ready-made marketing team.”

WHAT: Iron Sky

WHEN & WHERE: Opening in Cinemas Thursday 10 May

WEDNESDAY 9 The Hunger Games- in a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed and been divided into the Capitol and twelve districts. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The Palace Barracks, 3.30pm.

THURSDAY 10Fifth Edition- a film director, a photographer, a sculptor, a motion designer and a choreographer create an art exhibition. But it’s not your ordinary art exhibition; it pairs fourteen selected individuals to create seven unique artworks. Far from being ‘high art’, Sw/A seeks to delight and inspire its audience by bringing together creative talents from an array of different creative fields. For artists, it’s a chance to push their work beyond their usual processes. Opening today, Visy Foyer- Brisbane Powerhouse.

Haven- a once abandoned basement on the city’s fringe plays host to this production, a stagnating habitat. With characters inspired from Nick Cave’s psychotically beautiful Murder Ballads and performed in gothic cabaret, Haven is the newest theatrical work from emerging performance collective, Fixate Productions. Part of Anywhere Festival, Opening night, Rabbit Hole Ideation Cafe, 8.45pm until 19 May.

Got Five- a production that asks for five minutes of your time, to view The Heiress, a play by John Burgoyne (1786), however Burgoyne was also a military general and his plays never reached the fame of his military career. Part of Anywhere Festival, Opening night, Queen Street Mall, every five minutes from 7.30- 8.30am, until 19 May.

FRIDAY 11Babycino- written by Krystal Sweedman and directed by Siobhan Finniss. A drama about Melanie who is twenty six and bored. She enjoys frothing milk and blowing steam. Part

of Anywhere Festival, Opening night, Blackstar Coffee, 5.30pm for coffee for a 6pm start, until 19 May.

SATURDAY 12Bang, Crash, Tap - two tap-dancers, a Beat Boxing Champion and a drummer. This dance and percussion performance is an energetic show in the middle of a world tour. Opening night, Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre, 7.30pm until 13 May.

Salvage Garden- a showcase of more than thirty local artists, craft workers and designers who work with salvaged materials/ There will be a diverse range of items on display including fine art works, jewellery, furniture and home wares that are inspired by natural environments and materials The Gremlins are also taking over the Reverse Garbage car park for six nights in as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival. Exhibition opening night, 6-9pm, Salvage Garden, exhibiting until 23 May.

SUNDAY 13Romeo and Juliet- the famous prologue begins, “Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes. A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life…”. Directed by Jennifer Flowers and starring Thomas Larkin and Melanie Zanetti . Closing night, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Playhouse, 7.30pm.

Innoconce 2000- written and directed by Paul Cox, a moving film about the significance of love. Half a century later after a romantic affair in Europe, two individuals are both approaching seventy and the fires of their lost romance are rekindled. This brings problems into her marriage of many years, a marriage in which her husband has basically accepted her as part of the furniture. With reminders of mortality and the frailty of our lives. Part of Contemporary Australia- Women in Film Series, GOMA Cinema A, 3pm.

ONGOINGA Hoax- directed by Lee Lewis, written by Rick Viede whose first play Whore won the Griffin Award, toured to New York and took out the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award. A Hoax is his provocative and hilarious second play and winner of the 2011 Griffin Award. Inspired by the recent spate of fabricated ‘misery memoirs’, this is a vicious satire on the politics of identity, modern celebrity and the peddling of abuse culture. Laboite 6.30pm until 26 May.

CULTURAL CRINGEWITH MANDY MCALISTERThis Sunday is mother’s day. It’s an honourable but odd gift buying occasion. What you’re celebrating is your mother’s ability to a) give birth to you and b) put up with you for the rest of her life. Can you really say thanks for that with flowers? Unfortunately the Franklin Mint doesn’t produce a “crowning baby” ceramic figurine with a brass plaque saying, “Mum, this looks painful, thanks forever.” There’s also no gift card showing your mother next to piles of cash in one frame and with you in place of the money in the next. While these gifts might not be exactly fit for the mantelpiece, it seems somewhat disingenuous to show appreciation for the tenacity required for motherhood by giving mum a nightie. It’s a sentiment that the woman who popularised Mother’s Day in the 1910s, Anna Jarvis, expressed when the popularisation of the day led to commercialisation also. Jarvis spent her later years actively opposing Mother’s Day celebrations and is quoted as saying, “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.”

If only Javis could see us now. What would she make of e-cards? It’s a perfectly delightful, environmentally friendly way of communicating but yes, oh so lazy. On the other hand email means there’s more

written communication than ever so surely that counts as letter writing? Though, it’s said that you can’t type tone, but can you write it? Perhaps the depth of an impression of pen on paper, the slope of handwriting, the dribbles of ink, and the odd illegible word gives a more accurate portrayal of the writer’s mind. Then there’s the luxury of taking your time over a letter. A truly newsy letter is written over the the course of a few days with updates and corrections on events mentioned in the one letter.

The timing is a little off for Mother’s Day but if you do find yourself wondering if Jarvis’ stance applies to you there’s a nifty option for sending mum a letter that’s a bit special. At the State Library, on the first Monday of every month, the Queensland Writers Centre hosts a drop in Letter Writing Club where you can tap out a letter on a vintage typewriter. Brownie points ahoy if you actually get in the post.

Jarvis may have had her heart in the right place but the fact is everyone likes presents. The problem of our age is the commercialisation of days like this tend to fog the brain when it comes to buying them. Is mum really an amateur bread making enthusiast? Does she need another clock/reading light/picture of Jesus? Probably not. Would she secretly like being appalled at receiving a crowning-baby figurine? Yes, definitely. It would keep her in conversation starters for six months. Franklin Mint you have your mission.

F R O N T R O W @ T I M E O F F. C O M . A U

TIME OFF • 23

THE LOOKING GLASSWITH HELEN STRINGERSlightly hungover and poorly dressed, on Sunday I made my way to GoMA to take in current exhibition Contemporary Australia: Women. Staggering and confused, I wondered: why is it a scattershot of ideas so discordant I have to consciously remind myself that they belong to the same exhibition? After deeply pondering the quandary of Women over a restorative burger and a head-sized frozen coke I realised that GoMA remembered something that I had not: women are people too. An exhibition called Contemporary Australia: Women will end up being about as unified as an exhibition called Contemporary Australia: Humans. That a woman-only exhibition doesn’t ring the alarm bells of inequality is proof that feminism is even deader than I thought.Who’s surprised? We’ve got girls carving their bodies so they can look like big-breasted, inanimate objects or wide-eyed, infantilised, anime characters. We’re raising our teenagers on a franchise in which a sparkly, virginal vampire acts out a community service announcement against domestic violence while his offensively useless adolescent victim vacillates between begging for sex and meditating on Mormon morals.Over in America a new conflict has begun that’s been dubbed the War On Women. Presidential candidates want control of American ovaries and they want it bad. They want them so they can make tiny, white, gun-toting, money-worshipping, Jesus-loving Christian fundamentalists who like their women uneducated, pregnant at 16, and back in the kitchen where God says they belong.

We’re safe down here, surely. Except that our former health minister/future prime minister Tony Abbott once used his Catholicism as a legitimate reason for denying women the right to RU486, a drug negating the need for surgical abortions, and doctors the right to prescribe it. In Queensland a few years ago, a Cairns couple was charged with offences relating to their not-so-hastily procured abortion. In response Anna Bligh decided that attempting to change Queensland’s dust-coated anti-abortion laws would be pointless because no parliamentarian courting re-election was prepared to give up the conservative vote and okay termination by choice. The next federal election is likely to deliver a LNP government with a staggering majority, led by a man who’s still living in a decade in which Speedos are acceptable swim wear and who can’t or won’t separate his religious belief from his public duties. Abbott doesn’t belong to a denomination which lets you get away with bi-annual church visits and selective bible re-interpretation. His religious belief doesn’t include women retaining control over their reproductive systems; as a Catholic Abbott can’t believe that contraception or abortion are morally okay or even morally ambiguous. This means he can’t believe in gender equality because gender equality is dependent on reproductive rights. Back at GoMA we should remember that art is not innocuous; it’s representative of society and that society’s views. So if there’s one single thing to take away from Women it’s that we have a depressingly long way to go before we even think to have an exhibition called Contemporary Australia: Australians.

WINTERBOTTOM’S BONEFresh from premiering his new film Trishna at Tribeca – he’s consequently tired of talking about it – director Michael Winterbottom chats instead with Samuel Hobson about his methods, and what drives him to work so tirelessly.

It so often happens, due to the nature of press interviews being so frenzied and impersonal and repetitive, that the interview subject gets tired of talking in circles. Such was the case with Michael Winterbottom, the super-prolific English director of the upcoming Trisha – an India-set retelling of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles – and a man whose directorial career seems impossible to comfortably compartmentalise.You see, Winterbottom simply develops films he likes. Sure, there are probably some subconscious themes he attaches himself to in a lot of his work – getting to the heart of representing a place or a state-of-mind, for one – but they’re never to a ‘style’ that’s discernibly his, or to a theme that’s incisive enough to stick out. Which is a hard thing for a critic to face, you know? (Perhaps something, too, which Winterbottom may himself disagree with, or be offended to hear.) But he’s a bold director, amidst his other, less immediate qualities. He’s done considerable violence and unsimulated sex, yet he’s not a Gaspar Noé; he’s not renowned for those things, nor does he work to break new ground with them. He simply flexes

those muscles when the story calls for it, and then, satisfied, he moves on.However we, as critics, we want to reduce things down to their essence, so people can see how much we’ve considered them, and how we are the ones who can pick up on the silent language of what we’re seeing, and translate it into emotive, human terms: from the visceral into the readable. Tarkovsky speaks to the spirit, we say, as Tarantino reconstructs with esoteric homages, and as Scorsese is unmatchable in drawing emotion from technical prowess. From those directors’ key skills then grows something; the narratives of their films deepen and part under the guide of these keen talents, and that uniqueness becomes a new texture, layered and indelible atop the stories they’re telling.Those directors are specifically those things, but Michael Winterbottom, while containing some essence of all of those qualities, isn’t defined by any one of them. His singularly defining directorial characteristic is that he has no singular, defining characteristic. He leaves no auteur’s imprint upon the narrative in the traditional sense, but he nonetheless makes films that say very definite things.

So, to get to the bottom of this, and to avoid talk about Trishna – his request – the conversation turns to him, and his style.

“I think it’s more enjoyable to be making a film, than not.” Winterbottom explains, in an amiable tone. “When you’re working,” he continues, “you’re talking to writers, and actors, and you’re going to visit locations, and you’re working with your editor. You’ve got a series of very interesting and enjoyable collaborations with a whole bunch of people. When you’re not working, you’re just sitting around fretting, and trying to persuade people to give you cash.”

More than an artistic hand-to-mouth mentality, though, Winterbottom assures that there is method and a pattern to his cycle of making films.

“It’s a question of something you’re interested in,” he answers. “Most of the films I’ve made are things that we’ve developed in the first place. It’s not as if people are sending scripts and I’m looking for something in a script; it’s not so I’ll take [only certain] projects. You start with a vague idea – often – and it gradually becomes a film – sometimes. At the beginning, you’re like, ‘Oh, that sounds

interesting,’ or ‘That place seems interesting’ or ‘That book seems interestng’ or you read something in the paper, or you meet someone: whatever it is, it [makes] a starting point, which is something interesting.”“And normally,” he adds, “we have two or three projects that we’re [concurrently] working on. So you have [these] various ones at different stages. Some just don’t even get made, and eventually they just drop off your radar. With Trishna…” – Trishna! – “with Trishna, we tried to make [that film] seven or eight years ago, and came back to it 18 months ago.”The idea that his oeuvre, unlike that of many other directors who make a great many films, doesn’t neatly define him traditionally as an auteur, is brought to his attention. He’s mildly affronted, and probably rightfully so.“From my point of view,” he rushes, confidently defensive, “going to the cinema, it’s obviously quite handy to know what sort of film you’re going to see when you go in. If a director’s name is an easy label – like if you see a Woody Allen film, you know roughly what you’re getting is a Woody Allen film – that obviously makes it easier, from a critic’s point of view, from a distributor’s point of view, deciding whether you’re going to see [or screen] it.”“But,” he points out, “that’s not my problem. For me as a director, I’m making films all the time, so for me it’s all about, ‘Is this next idea interesting?’ I think, often, if a film feels too close to something you’ve already done, that’s something that makes it feel not interesting. The more films you make, the more you are going to cover areas similar to things you’ve done before, and when that happens, it can be hard sometimes to feel you’re really approaching something fresh.”“So,” he concludes, “[choosing projects] from ideas that at least on the surface [appear] to be something that you haven’t done before, that is something far more interesting, from my point of view.”

WHAT: Trishna WHEN & WHERE: Opens nationally Thursday 10 May

It all began with Brisbane knocking back Sir Ian McKellen. When the famous thesp wanted to come to the River City and put on a production of Waiting For Godot, but couldn’t secure a theatre space, it galvanised Paul Osuch into action. If even Gandalf couldn’t magic up a stage for himself, something was wrong with the model. “That’s what really pushed me along to do Anywhere Theatre Festival,” NIDA graduate Osuch says. “As a director and playwright, I’ve been increasingly doing work outside of theatres, and as someone who likes to go and see performances, I started to find there was a lot more energy and excitement in performances that were happening outside traditional theatre spaces. If I was finding that exciting, I thought other people would.”The inaugural 2011 Anywhere Theatre Festival captured Brisbane’s imagination, and was more than enough for Osuch to build on for the 2012 incarnation.“The overall concept went gangbusters – basically, performing anywhere but a theatre seemed to resonate with theatre companies looking for more performance opportunities, and also audiences.”Osuch says he took further inspiration from a study conducted by Australia Council For The Arts called More Than Bums On Seats, which found that 68% of Australians see just one live theatre performance per year, or none at all.“We were really interested in drilling down on the data they found,”

Osuch says. “Why was that? The main reasons, it turned out, were around actual theatres – whether there were no theatres near them, or they didn’t want to come to the heart of the city because of all the issues around parking or getting a babysitter. It started to eat up an entire evening.”The Anywhere Theatre Festival combats that traditional model by scheduling shows around the clock over its ten-day run, in the most surprising locations.“We’ve got one show that is quite literally ‘anywhere’ – it will be happening here, in Austin, Texas and in London at the same time and people can be watching it on their phone in the toilet at work, if they like,” Osuch laughs. “Actors on different sides of the world will be working together live on scenes from the Hidden Room’s upcoming production of Rose Rage, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy. You can watch that online. The strangest, but the most popular,

On the eve of Brisbane transforming into a theatrical playground where anything can happen, artistic director Paul Osuch gets Baz McAlister ready for his second Anywhere Theatre Festival.

ALL THE CITY’S A STAGE

have been the four shows that come to you, wherever you want them to be, at your house or office or whatever. One of them is Bard Wars: A Space Opera, a mash-up of Star Wars and Shakespeare.”Osuch says it’s impossible to pluck out a favourite show – it would be like picking a favourite child – but other delights of the festival include a butoh performance at New Farm Park kids’ playground, Lightning In A Kettle; a show called Glorifi ed Mixtape that fuses poetry and flash mobs; and a show whose location is still a secret, but with the curious name The Safety Device Of Elisha Otis it’s a fair bet it’ll be happening in and around one of the city’s elevators. Strap in, Brisbane, and expect the unexpected over the next ten days of adrenaline-fuelled theatrics.

WHAT: Anywhere Theatre FestivalWHEN & WHERE: Thursday 10 to Saturday 19 May, various venues (anywherefest.com)

GIVEAWAYSANYWHERE FESTIVALThanks to Anywhere Festival we have double passes to give away to Haven, an unholy, gritty, gothic cabaret set in an abandoned basement on the city’s fringe. For your chance to win tickets to the Thursday 10 May show, go to www.facebook/timeoffmag.com

Also thanks to Anywhere Festival we have double passes to give away to Where the Wild Roses Grow in the tradition of murder-balladeer Nick Cave, the femme fatales of Babushka invite you into their bloody nightmare, q late night cabaret. For your chance to win tickets to the Thursday 10 May show, go to www.facebook/timeoffmag.com

DELICACYDelicacy features a recently widowed Audrey Tautou attempting to move on with her life and, contrary to the film’s title, her efforts at ‘seizing the day’ don’t involve starting a restaurant or bakery. It’s just one of the few surprises this conveyor-belt slab of French whimsy has in store; that it hasn’t been subtitled in Comic Sans is the other. Tautou is fast becoming the Kate Hudson of nominally ‘arthouse’ Gallic fare; with the unique brand of anti-gravitas she lends to each role, she proves in Delicacy’s early scenes to be one of the few actresses twee enough to make bereavement seem like the most adorable thing ever. Following her husband’s death, Nathalie (Tautou) devotes herself to work, navigating two rebound possibilities in her slick, handsome boss Charles (Bruno Todeschini) and Markus (Francois Damiens), a gawky gap-toothed Swedish co-worker she impulsively kisses in a grief-induced

REVIEWFILM

daze of which she later has no recollection. Typical of the film’s perfume-commercial cuteness, this spontaneous gesture fills the hulking Markus with a confidence that leads him to strut through the Paris streets, scored to T-Rex’s Bang A Gong (Get It On), attracting the aroused gazes of gorgeous women passing by. The rest of the film concerns Nathalie and Markus’ sexless courtship, and it’s good-natured, sweet, bereft of surprises and completely facile. Bizarrely lacking in the travelogue value these French trifles usually offer, the action is largely confined to the office, though a scene in which Markus finds romantic courage in an Obama speech on TV (I mean c’mon) scans as an awkward shout-out to Stateside audiences. Tautou needs a career 180, pronto. Ian Barr

WHAT: Delicacy

WHEN & WHERE: Playing at Selected Cinemas

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EDITION

24 • TIME OFF

GUNG HOMembers/roles:Mike McAlary (guitars/vocals), Oliver Duncan (bass/vocals/answering this interview)

How long have you been together?About two-and-a-half years.

How did you meet?High school.

You’re on tour in the van – which band or artist is going to keep the most people happy if we throw them on the stereo?Lately it’s been the classics, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. You can listen to those guys a million times and still not pick up on everything they could teach you.

Would you rather be a busted broke-but-revered Hank Williams fi gure or some kind of Metallica monster?I think we’d like to have our cake and eat it too in this circumstance. To be popular but to also retain our credibility is a definite goal. Although we might be the next broke Metallica, you never know.

Which Brisbane bands before you have been an inspiration (musically or otherwise)?Brisbane’s yesteryear is a big influence on me. Particularly The Go-Betweens; their raw kind of pop-scented post punk couldn’t have come out of anywhere else but home. Also I love Regurgitator’s eclectic back catalogue. I’m all for bands who don’t cement themselves in one sound.

What part do you think Brisbane plays in the music you make?We wouldn’t be in the position we’re in now if it wasn’t for Brisbane’s music community, particularly our pals in Last Dinosaurs, Millions and Dune Rats. They’re the guys we show our music to first and vice versa. We owe a lot to those rad dudes.

Is your band responsible for more make-outs or break-ups? Why?More make-outs for sure. I’d like to think we write the kind of music that brings people together.

What reality TV show would you enter as a band and why?Seeing Mike on Wipeout would probably complete my life.

If your band had to play a team sport instead of being musicians which sport would it be and why would you be triumphant?COD. We spend more time on Xbox than actually writing songs a lot of the time.

What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term?It’s a pretty exciting time for us at the moment. We’ve just dropped our second single, Side By Side, which has garnered some love locally and overseas, and currently we’re putting the finishing touches on our first EP. It was recorded by Sean Caskey from Last Dinosaurs. It’s gonna be a bite-sized concept EP mixing together our early post punk tracks in our set with our more chilled pop singles. So keep your eyes open for that one in the next month or two.

Gung Ho play Cheap Thrills @ The Judith Wright Centre on Saturday 12 May.

Photo by TERRY SOO.

TOUR GUIDE

INTERNATIONAL CITY AND COLOUR: The Tivoli May 9ANDREW WK: The Zoo May 9DIGITALISM: Family May 9THE MACCABEES: The Hi-Fi May 9MUTEMATH: The Zoo May 10PUBLIC ENEMY: The Hi-Fi May 10HARRY MANX: Brisbane Powerhouse May 11FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS: The Zoo May 13BITTER END: Basement 243 May 17, The Loft May 18, YAC Byron Bay May 19MORGAN PAGE: Family May 18PRINCE: Brisbane Entertainment Centre May 18 & 26TIM ‘RIPPER’ OWENS: The Hi-Fi May 19MICKEY AVALON: Coolangatta Hotel May 19DANNY BROWN, MED: The Zoo May 23NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, BACKSTREET BOYS: BEC May 23MURDER BY DEATH: Surfers Paradise Beergarden May 24, Spotted Cow May 25, Jubilee Hotel May 26THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, THE RAVEONETTES: The Hi-Fi May 24THE OCEAN: The Zoo May 24TOM VEK, KINDNESS: Bowler Bar May 25BELL BIV DEVOE, GINUWINE: The Tivoli May 26FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: Riverstage May 26SHOWTEK: The Hi-Fi May 26ANTI-FLAG: The Zoo May 30, Coolangatta Hotel May 31YOUNG GUNS: The Hi-Fi Jun 1ZOLA JESUS: Alhambra Jun 1MARK KOZELEK: Black Bear Lodge Jun 7REEF: The Hi-Fi Jun 7THE BLACK SEEDS: The Northern Jun 7, The Hi-Fi Jun 8, Southport RSL Jun 9

SIMPLE PLAN, WE THE KINGS: Southport RSL Jun 8, Eatons Hill Hotel Jun 9, Caloundra RSL Jun 10GHOSTFACE KILLAH, DOOM, CHINO XL: Arena Jun 8SISTER SLEDGE: The Hi-Fi Jun 9CHRIS LIEBING: Coniston Lane Jun 10TRAIN: The Tivoli Jun 11LADY GAGA: BEC Jun 13, 14, 16BEE MASK: Judith Wright Centre Jun 14EAST 17: The Hi-Fi Jun 14SILVERSTEIN: The Zoo Jun 16THICK AS BLOOD: Thriller Jun 23EDDIE SPAGHETTI: Beetle Bar Jun 28MACABRE: Jubilee Hotel Jun 28JAY BRANNAN: Old Museum Jun 29CARRIE UNDERWOOD: BCEC Jun 30GOATWHORE, IMPIETY: Beetle Bar Jul 5SIMONE FELICE, JOSH RITTER: Old Museum Jul 5CEREMONY: Basement Jul 6FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: Brisbane Entertainment Centre Jul 7TERROR: YAC Jul 9, The Loft Jul 10, The Hi-Fi Jul 11MELISSA ETHERIDGE: QPAC Jul 9, 10THE TEA PARTY: The Tivoli Jul 7ED SHEERAN: QPAC Jul 31MARK GARDENER: The Hi-Fi Aug 3SUBHUMANS: Prince Of Wales Sep 13HANSON: The Hi-Fi Sep 20EIFFEL 65, N-TRANCE: The Hi-Fi Sep 21WHEATUS: The Hi-Fi Sep 23CANNIBAL CORPSE: The Hi-Fi Oct 8THE BLACK KEYS: BEC Oct 26RADIOHEAD: BEC Nov 9GEORGE MICHAEL: BEC Nov 27

NATIONAL SAN CISCO: Elsewhere May 10, The Zoo May 11BALL PARK MUSIC: The Hi-Fi May 11ELIXIR FEAT KATIE NOONAN: Soundlounge May 11, Joe’s Waterhole May 12KIMBRA: The Tivoli May 15CATCALL: Alhambra Lounge May 17EXPATRIATE: Oh Hello! May 17 & 31JOSH PYKE: The Tivoli May 18THE MISSION IN MOTION: Shark Bar May 18, X&Y Bar May 19SPLIT SECONDS: X&Y Bar May 18, SolBar May 19TZU: The Zoo May 19GRAVEYARD TRAIN: Beach Hotel May 24, The Hi-Fi May 25, Woombye Pub May 26ASH GRUNWALD: The Northern May 25, Spotted Cow Jun 14, The Hi-Fi Jun 15, Coolum Civic Centre Jun 16OWL EYES: Oh Hello May 25, SolBar May 26CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN’ RACKETTES: Brisbane Powerhouse May 26CHANCE WATERS: X&Y Bar May 26LANIE LANE: Woombye Pub May 30, The Hi-Fi

BALL PARK MUSICFRIDAY 11 MAY, THE HI-FI

Did you miss local wunderkinds Ball Park Music when they ravaged through town a couple of months ago at the beginning of their 180º Tour? Everyone told you how great it was, and you’re kicking yourself you missed it? Or maybe you saw the show, and liked it so much you’d do anything to see it again? Well fear not, because the BPM kids are closing their massive jaunt like they started it, with a huge blowout at The Hi-Fi! These Brisbanites have been kicking goals left, right and centre, the ever cohesive six-piece building themselves a platform from which to take on first Australia and then the world. Come and check out these prodigies of the local scene in what could be their last local gig for some time, and while you’re at it catch emerging locals YesYou and Cub Scouts in a celebration of all things Queensland!

FEATURE TOUR

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THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, CATHERINE TRAICOSTHE ZOO: 04/05/12Tonight’s proceedings are launched by the songstress Catherine Traicos, who leaves her Starry Night compatriots at home to tackle her wares solo. Unfortunately the fragility that underpins such a performance is mostly overwhelmed by a crowd that is indifferent, most choosing to either duck out for a smoke break or stand at the bar chatting. Those that crowd the stage though are treated to some elegiac country-inflected tunes that resonate. These songs either need room and reverence for the gaps and silences to breathe, or a band to flesh them out. Traicos isn’t blessed with either tonight, yet her endeavours are not wasted, with the devoted few in front of her captivated by her haunting delivery.

John Darnielle and his band The Mountain Goats have carved a devoted fanbase on these southern shores, and it’s with much adulation that the crowd roars when they walk on stage. Launching into For Charles Bronson, it is clear from the onset that this is one tight set, filled with numbers that span the breadth of their musical oeuvre. Darnielle is in a fantastic mood as he regales the crowd with the irony inherent in the phrase that drives Old College Try (“I didn’t know anyone in college that did much of anything”), and his reticence to introduce newer track The Prowl Great Gain because it involves terrible people doing terrible things. The deft balancing of darkness and light is inherent in both lyricism and instrumentation, seen early as the frailty of You Or Your Memory segues into a rollicking rendition of Jeff Davis County Blues. It isn’t long before Darnielle is in solo guise to inhabit these songs on his own, and the brace of songs – We Shall All Be Healed, You Were Cool, The Autoclave and the brilliant Up The Wolves – is an absolute highlight. The band come back together for new songs The Diaz Brothers (the unseen brothers from Scarface who are doomed from the moment Tony Montana knows of their existence) and album title track Transcendental Youth. The festive mood kicks back in with a vengeance as the trio rip through See America Right and Damn These Vampires, before a tempered version of Dance Music and a singalong for Love Love Love brings the house down. Closing out the set with No Children, Darnielle promises never to play it at a wedding, “but I’ll gladly be present when you are signing your divorce papers”, the band exit briefly before coming back for 1 Samuel 15:23 (a great tune that also provides the best jam of the night) and the evergreen This Year.

Brendan Telford

MOUNT KIMBIE, OSCAR + MARTIN, ARUNDELTHE HI-FI: 02/05/12West End’s The Hi-Fi has been open for some time now, but with its Sydney sister venue opening its doors recently and the Melbourne affiliate doing strong, the powers that be have decided to throw a party. The Hi-Fi Shoreline Series starts here in Brisbane, and local artist Arundel is given the baton to kickstart the proceedings. Lucas Arundel uses a variety of effects on his guitar as programmed beats and loops echo from his laptop, somewhat removed from some of his recorded output, but with its trip-hop stylings it’s a trend throughout tonight’s bill. He is met on stage by friends Claire Whiting and Simon Crossley on vocal duties – both are great, with Whiting particularly impressing.

Melbourne duo, Oscar + Martin, don’t have the best start to their set. Their style of experimental wonky R’n’B is a layered mess due to a mixture of sound mix problems and syncing issues. However, the boys hit their stride with the excellent Chaine Maile, one of the best stand-alone songs of the night. Martin (King) tries on a new song solo, a crooning number not too far removed from The Weeknd’s oeuvre, which resonates strongly. They falter again near the end with syncopated beats dropping out – the levels of noise grate against the space that the recorded versions allow them to develop – but finish strong enough, and are affable performers that have won the crowd over regardless.

Hiding behind the thick black curtain, Mount Kimbie is introduced to the crowd in a swathe of smoke and blue lights. The London duo begins with an industrial grind somewhat at odds with the post-dubstep blueprint that has made them household names the world over, but this is merely a ruse. Sticking to the gamut of tracks from breakout album, Crooks & Lovers, they are resilient in holding on to their tense electronic soundscape, refusing to allow the tension to drop. Nothing is easy, nor is it meant to be, with Dom Maker and Kai Campos’ technical brilliance creating an intricate collage of beats and effects that is hard to penetrate. Maybes is the closest to actual dance music that the duo offer, yet it is clear that Before I Move Off is the track that everyone recognises. They are resilient at keeping things sanguine and understated, yet with a noted change in their aesthetic with the added emphasis on vocals, with Campos proving to be more of a focal point than on their previous releases. It’s proof that Mount Kimbie have truly carved their own niche, and their next effort is likely to be just as alluring.

Brendan Telford

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS @ THE ZOOPIC BY JOHN HUDSON TAYLOR

26 • TIME OFF

TIME OFF PRESENTSANDREW W.K.: The Zoo May 9

THE MACCABEES: The Hi-Fi May 9

PUBLIC ENEMY: The Hi-Fi May 10

TIM “RIPPER” OWENS: the Hi-Fi May 19

DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: The Northern May 31, Spotted Cow Jun 1, The Hi-Fi Jun 2

YOUNG GUNS: The Hi-Fi Jun 1

GASOLINE INC: Tempo Hotel, Jun 1, Miami Shark Bar Jun 2

MISSY HIGGINS: The Tivoli Jun 6

BOY & BEAR: Coolangatta Hotel Jun 6, Beach Hotel Jun 7, The Tivoli Jun 8, Lake Kawana Community Centre Jun 9, Empire Theatre Jun 10

TRIAL KENNEDY: The Tempo Jun 8, Miami Tavern Jun 9

THE AUDREYS: SoundLounge Jun 21, Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 22

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: Brisbane Entertainment Centre Jul 7

MICK THOMAS @ BEETLE BARMICK THOMAS @ BEETLE BARPIC BY TERRY SOOPIC BY TERRY SOO

THE DARKNESS, NINE SONS OF DANEATONS HILL HOTEL: 04/05/12Playing to a sea of mullet wigs, spandex, leather jackets and an incredible number of tassels and chains, Gold Coaster’s Nine Sons Of Dan seem like a weird choice for an opening act. Firstly, they offer none of the above, their sharp haircuts and muscle tops at odds with any sort of cock-rock revelry. Sonically, they are equally distant; trading rock pomp for pop punk, their sound far more aligned with Vans sneakers than Van Halen. But what the boys do they do well, and although the room seems indifferent at times Nine Sons Of Dan sound confident, they play tight and their songs are undeniably catchy, new single Diamond Skin a big highlight in an entertaining set.

The room continues to fill until it’s at the verge of bursting, the air thick with the stench of cheap cigarettes and cheaper perfume. It’s not certain where a lot of these people have been hiding but when The Darkness stroll on stage, it’s obvious they have been waiting their whole life for this moment. The roar is painfully volatile and when the band kick off with Black Shuck and Growing On Me, you can barely think. It’s crazy to remember that only a few years ago these guys were also rans in a rock’n’roll abyss. Tonight, the only thing haggard is Justin Hawkins face, the frontman aging a lifetime in half a decade. The music, however, is watertight and with charisma seeping from every corner of the stage, the energy in the room is skyrocketing. With bouffant bassist Frankie Poullain knocking the cowbell with complete focus, One Way Ticket leads a huge singalong while new single Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us and oldie Get Your Hands Off My Woman highlight the consistency in the band’s songwriting. The quartet know who they are, what their fans want to hear and continually get it done. In between hitting the highest of notes vocally, Hawkins shreds relentlessly on guitar, but that’s to be expected. It’s brother and rhythm guitarist Dan Hawkins is the real surprise, his vintage Les Paul singing as he shows a new versatility in his playing, seemingly developed when his brother went AWOL in the mid-noughties. Bras fly on stage and some elusive indoor breast flashing takes place before Hazel Eyes and Is It Just Me rock the foundations of Eatons Hill further, Hawkins even donning his trademark dragon jumpsuit for the occasion. I Believe In A Thing Called Love then rounds out a long set before the band sign off with a three-track encore, closing with Love On The Rocks No Ice to send the ever-loving faithful into complete rock rapture.

Benny Doyle

RICK FIGHTS, KITCHEN’S FLOOR, MARTYR PRIVATEBLACK BEAR LODGE: 02/05/12A surprisingly jam-packed Wednesday night sees a rather interesting night play out at Black Bear Lodge with a cavalcade of Brisbane local talent converging for an intimate evening of re-interpreted classics, familiarities and new workings, all giving the Black Bear Lodge a homely feel, reminiscent of the glory days of The Troubadour.

First up is Martyr Private, the band’s singular rather than usual plural form finding frontman Cameron Hawes taking the stage solo with an electric guitar and delay-driven vocals. The set is interesting, with the solo mode working rather well on the chosen songs. It’s tight, confident and full with the only flaw perhaps being a slight lack in volume even for the intimate atmosphere. Hawes finishes with the string-bending hooks of Native Son and deservedly receives a welcome response.

Casually having a drink in front of the stage and then sleuthing onto stage in his winter attire, Kitchen’s Floor – tonight the sole domain of band’s chief, Matt Kennedy – pulls out an acoustic guitar for soundcheck and straight away jumps into the swing of things, strumming the acoustic and yelling as if the set had a much beefier PA behind it. It’s a take that most definitely works with the reinterpreted brash punk songs,

if anything, more aggressive and deeper. There’s no banter from Kennedy apart from the final ‘thank you’, each song lasting roughly between 90 seconds and two minutes, yet interest radiates from the audience. No Love, Graves and 116 are notable highlights before Kennedy casually strolls off after 20 minutes to no complaints.

Tonight’s headliner Matthew Somers (as with Hawes an alumni of I Heart Hiroshima) playing under the pseudonym of Rick Fights has garnered a rather large audience for his singer/songwriter endeavour. The lights are slightly dimmed as the set begins with Somers crooning over the PA, offering an obviously very different sound to his past ventures. It starts off a tad slowly compared to the pace set by the previous acts but when his element is found it’s a rather enjoyable collection of songs on show, with the clever wordplay of Somers’ lyrics coming through as the pace is heightened. He uses effects on his guitar that sound reminiscent of a sitar, in between jumping from delay to reverb creating textures and then delving into more sparse Gareth Liddiard territory. All ‘round a great end to a great night.

As the patrons spill out onto the streets for cigarettes and banter, nothing but smiles are present with a great evening concluded for the cost of a thank you at the bar. With the Black Bear Lodge hosting more and more shows, the future strangely seems bright in Fortitude Valley again.

Bradley Armstrong

ORBITAL, DJ COSMOTHE TIVOLI: 06/05/12From a position often obscured by darkness on stage DJ Cosmo lays down a solid foundation of beats to stretch and warm the joints to. He doesn’t hold a lot of presence but, in such a situation as this, one would imagine that his only mission is to establish the setting upon which the masters could prevail, and his set does succeed in doing this.

With the infamous looping of Time Becomes playing from a stage of roaming light-beams, the announcement of Orbital’s arrival is communicated loud and clear. While it is a little sad to see that The Tivoli does not quite receive the level of attendance that is deserving of such legends, those that are present exert an enthusiastic outpouring that goes a fair way to creating the atmosphere of a fuller house. When Orbital last played Brisbane two years ago, as part of their reunion tour, it was a celebration in nostalgia that saw them run through a career-spanning, greatest hits variety of setlist. This time around they’ve come packing the heavy artillery of the brilliant new album Wonky, and are determined to assert themselves as a prevailing force of relevance within the current field. The duo don’t beat around the bush, but rather explicitly lay out their mission statement by immediately flying headstrong into Wonky opener One Big Moment. Six diamond-shaped LED screens occupy the area around Orbital’s busy setup, illuminating the stage with a vast spectacle of cosmic spheres and hallucinatory visuals that act as an intensifying extension of their wonderous sound. Paul and Phil share a passionate space on stage and both seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves as they groove around the master controls. They deliver classic Halcyon + On + On in all its radiance, and manage to keep themselves entertained through said mandatory motion by playfully dropping in Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth. If the extremely impressive rendition of Straight Sun is not enough to single-handedly cement Orbital an esteemed position among the field of contemporaries, then Beezlebub goes a measure beyond and knocks it far out of the park. It is so thoroughly exciting to witness these pioneers exploit the archetypes of the dubstep sound and current trends, and characteristically twist them through a creative approach that rewards with thrilling resolution and effect. By the time Where Is It Going? brings the night to a close, Orbital have once more left us with an impression that is far beyond the capability of almost any other whom dares to walk in their shadow.

Jake Sun

themusic.com.au

TOUR GUIDEMay 31MATT MCHUGH: Black Bear Lodge May 30DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: Great Northern May 31, Spotted Cow Jun 1, The Hi-Fi Jun 2, Kings Beach Tavern Jun 10DEF FX: The Zoo May 31MATT CORBY, ALPINE: The Tivoli Jun 1THE FUNKOARS: Great Northern Jun 1, The Zoo Jun 2MISSY HIGGINS: The Tivoli Jun 6THE JEZABELS: Brisbane Convention Ctr Jun 7FRENZAL RHOMB: Kings Beach Tavern Jun 8, Parkwood Tavern Jun 9LISA MITCHELL: St John’s Cathedral Jun 8TRIAL KENNEDY: Tempo Hotel Jun 8, Miami Tavern Jun 9360: The Hi-Fi Jun 10 & 11NED COLLETTE & WIREWALKER: Black Bear Lodge Jun 14BURIED IN VERONA: Toowoomba Powerhouse Jun 15, Beenleigh PCYC Jun 16BLANCHE DUBOIS: Black Bear Lodge Jun 17NEW EMPIRE: Black Bear Lodge Jun 20, The Loft Jun 21, Bon Amici Jun 22THE BRIDE: Snitch Jun 21, Railway Hall Jun 23, Expressive Grounds Jun 24DEEP SEA ARCADE: Cobra Kai Jun 21, Beach Hotel Jun 22THE AUDREYS: SoundLounge Jun 21, Brisbane Powerhouse Jun 22, Woombye Pub Jun 23MUSCLES: Oh Hello! Jun 22INXS: Drift Inn Jun 24, Empire Theatre Jun 26, Twin Towns Jun 28, Eatons Hill Hotel Jun 30THE BAMBOOS: The Northern Jun 28, Coolum Civic Centre Jun 29, The Hi-Fi Jun 30GUY SEBASTIAN: QPAC Jun 29, Jupiters Casino Jun 30 HEROES FOR HIRE: Basement Jun 29, The Loft Jul 1HILLTOP HOODS: Eatons Hill Hotel Jun 29SHANNON NOLL: Fitzy’s Loganholme Jun 29, Twin Towns Jun 30CHARGE GROUP: Beetle Bar Jul 650 YEARS OF DYLAN: QPAC Jul 7BUSBY MAROU: Woombye Pub Jul 12, SoundLounge Jul 13, The Tivoli Jul 14, The Northern Jul 15OVER-REACTOR: Spotted Cow Jul 13, Basement Jul 14KARNIVOOL: The Northern Jul 19, The Tivoli Jul 20, Coolangatta Hotel Jul 21TIM FREEDMAN: Old Museum Jul 21, SoundLounge Sep 21TOMMY EMMANUEL: QPAC Aug 9BODYJAR: The Hi-Fi Aug 24KATE MILLER-HEIDKE: The Hi-Fi Aug 25DAMIEN LEITH: QPAC Oct 5

FESTIVALS COOLY ROCKS ON: Coolangatta Jun 1 – 11DEAD OF WINTER: Jubilee Hotel Jul 14SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS: Belongil Fields Jul 27 – 29 RED DEER FESTIVAL: Mt Samson Sep 1BIGSOUND: Fortitude Valley Sep 12 - 14WHIPLASH: The Hi-Fi Oct 21

TIME OFF • 27

MICK THOMAS, SHELLEY SHORT, THE GOOD SHIPBEETLE BAR: 04/05/12There’s always something fun about watching bawdy local denizens The Good Ship ply their tawdry trade, and tonight is no exception as they open proceedings with a slew of naughty nautical-themed numbers. Their retro costumes add a theatrical bent to the spectacle, but it’s their crudely humorous songs such as Seven Seas and These Are A Few Of My Favourite Flings that are the mainstays of their arsenal, although their ability to throw in stylish covers such as The Decemberists’ The Rake’s Song adds even more to their appeal.

Portland folk chanteuse Shelley Short is up next and she offers a string of lovely plaintive acoustic-based numbers, delivered in her hushed voice and carried by her naïve and simple charm. The large minority of folk who prefer to talk loudly over her music miss out on some gems – indeed one has to move quite close to the stage to hear the lyric-driven narratives at all – but those who make the effort are rewarded with touching songs such as the beautiful June. Short endearingly tells some fairly awful nanna jokes between songs, but doesn’t receive the attention she clearly warrants until joined by Mick and Wal from the headliners for the lilting Like Anything, It’s Small. A nice introduction to a clearly talented artist.

One person who needs no such introduction is Mick Thomas – not for the rowdy mob here in attendance at any rate – and when he enters the fray in solo mode and kicks into new track My Mother’s Guitar the response is immediate and overwhelming. Long-term friend and sidekick Squeezebox Wally enters next, and they run through You Remind Me (Thomas disturbingly changing the lyrics so that he’s mistaken for Eddie McGuire of all people), before the rest of his band The Roving Commission hit the stage (along with Short) and power into All The Roads, also from new album The Last Of The Tourists. From here it’s an equal concoction of the new and the nostalgic, as classic Weddings, Parties, Anything tunes (Rambling Girl, The Infanticide Of Marie Farrar, Knockbacks In Halifax, Rain In My Heart) nestle alongside solo Thomas material both old and new (The Cap Me Granda’ Wore, Gallipoli Rosemary, The Clamorous Warbler), the rapturous fans loving all and sundry. The duet between Thomas and Short of Step In, Step Out is a highlight, as is the languid encore version of Away, Away – surely one of the most unheralded Australian classics of all time – and the obligatory rowdy closer A Tale They Won’t Believe, which as always has fans jumping and bellowing along in unison as they’re regaled with murderous tales from our convict past. One of our best-ever homemade talents is still at the top of his game, and life goes on...

Ahmed Saad

themusic.com.au

SIX FEET UNDERSIX FEET UNDER

METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT

ADAMANTIUM WOLF

Chances are you’re already aware, but late last week DevilDriver were forced to cancel on the eve of their latest Australian tour with Six Feet Under and Darkest Hour as a result of vocalist Dez Fafara getting sick. A statement read, “I’ve never cancelled a tour before. EVER... I have pneumonia and I’m restricted from flying for at least two weeks.” Coming off the recent near-death experience of the band’s touring bassist Aaron Patrick, who was hospitalised with pneumonia back in March and faced severe complications, Fafara’s decision is understandable. Darkest Hour still played last minute shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne – their midnight gig with The Construct on Friday night at The Basement was totally awesome.

In the fallout of this, Six Feet Under have become the first band to be officially confirmed for Soundwave 2013. The band’s latest album Undead is due out late May through Metal Blade Records/Riot Entertainment.

Pre-orders for Parkway Drive’s new DVD/Bluray release, Home Is For The Heartless, are available now from JB Hi-Fi, with the release anticipated for 6 July.

Local progressive death metallers Dead Letter Opener have been added to the line-up at The Zoo on 24 May with German-based The Ocean, Sydney’s Lo!, and Nuclear Summer.

Newcastle punks Local Resident Failure have joined the Pee Records roster for the release of their forthcoming debut album. Entitled A Breath Of Stale Air, the 15-track CD will be released as a digipack in mid-June, with pre-orders available from peer ecords.com and a track streaming on their Bandcamp page now.

Sydney hardcore/punk/metal dudes The Bride don’t seem to take too much time off touring, and will hit the road to officially launch their debut album President Rd, released last year on UNFD. They’ll be joined by Brisbane mosh lords Wish For Wings and Melbourne upstarts Trainwreck. The 18-show tour will kick off on 21 June at Snitch in Brisbane, with other Queensland shows on The Sunshine Coast on 22 June, The Railway Hall in Toowoomba on 23 June, and Expressive Grounds on the Gold Coast on 24 June.

Perth hardcore group BLKOUT will release their new album The Point Of No Return through Resist Records on 6 July. Catch them on tour later this month with US group Bitter End, the bands playing The Basement on 17 May.

US-based Christian deathcore (or ‘gorship’, as they have tagged themselves) group Impending Doom will leave their mark on Australia for the first time ever this September. The band released their fourth album Baptized In Filth through eOne/Shock earlier this year. Gold Coast youngsters Prepared Like A Bride will be tagging along for the ride, and launching their new EP A Dangerous Journey. Queensland shows will take place on 12 September at Expressive Grounds on the Gold Coast, and 13 September at Snitch.

It has been confirmed that the previously announced July/August tour dates for US post-metal group Rosetta just got a little bigger. American group and Translation Loss label mates City Of Ships, as well as Brisbane’s Nuclear Summer will join the trek. For full dates check monolithmonolith.com.

Steel Assassins is set to become an annual Sydney event, with the first epic two-days of thrash, power and traditional heavy metal bands having just been announced for 2 and 3 November at The Sandringham Hotel. Perth’s Voyager will headline the event, with Italy’s Megahera right behind them. Local, Victorian and South Australian groups Soulforge, Overdrive, Metal, Rampage, Dark Order, Silent Knight, The Loving Tongue, Avarin, Fenrir and Temtris have been confirmed, with more to come.

GIGS OF THE WEEK:Thursday: In Hearts Wake, Strength Through Purity, Caulfield, Greenstreet – Snitch.

Friday: Metalwrath, Ignite The Chamber, Not Another Sequel Just Another Prequel, Skulldrag, Brewzer - Monstrothic – now held at the Beetle Bar.

Saturday: Milestones, Little Shadow, Closure, Postblue – Fat Louie’s. Before Nightfall, Grey Matter, Hazmat, Final Thought, My Killing Hands, Stigmartyr – The Tank Hotel

28 • TIME OFF

JOSH RITTERJOSH RITTER

BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDONROOTSDOWN@TIMEOFF.COM.AU

ROOTS DOWN

Have you heard the Neil Young & Crazy Horse version of Oh Susannah from their forthcoming Americana record yet? It’s too early to be making silly comments like ‘album of the year’ because as soon as you do that you’re pretty much ensuring the other tracks on the record are going to be about as good as Fork In The Road (his 2009 concept record that revolved around the electric car), but the first taste is mighty promising. The guitars sound incredible – very different to the claustrophobic (though still awesome) sound of his latest record, 2010’s Le Noise – beautiful tones and blazing lead breaks courtesy of Young and his Crazy companions. It’s a bit of a different take on the classic tune, which is refreshing; particularly because he didn’t fuck it up. It might irk purists, but I get the feeling Americana might be a very special record, even more special that The Offspring’s record of the same name (sorry, couldn’t resist). Anyway, Young’s past few records have been quite polarizing, I’m sure plenty of you have disagreed with my comments on the two recent records above, but at least it won’t be boring.

Last week I had just heard whispers about Lil Band O Gold getting back to Australia in support of their new record and now it’s all been confirmed. They’re not playing Brisbane. It sucks.

Better news is that the organisers behind the Harvest Festival have come out and said that Brisbane will be getting it again this year. Things were a little up in the air after last year’s event; you kind of got the impression that the red tape wasn’t worth it for them and that they wouldn’t be returning. Seeing as last year brought us performances from the likes of the The Family Stone, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Phosphorescent, Bright Eyes and Kevin Devine gives me hope there’ll be some rootsy gems in there again this year. We’ll know very soon.

Two of America’s truly fine modern songwriters are coming out to Australia very soon for a killer double-header; Simone Felice (pronounced Simon) used to be a member of the most excellent Felice Brothers but left them to form The Duke & The King in 2009 and has now released his first solo record! It’s quite good, though I will admit it took a few listens for it to sink in; it’s quite unique and certainly not like your regular singer-songwriter/Americana kind of record. He’s coming out with a full band in a couple of months and bringing the great Josh Ritter with him. Ritter has a bunch of really good records, including his 2010 So Runs The World Away, which is actually only getting its first Australian release on Friday 15 June. Anyway, this will be a pretty great show and you can see it at the Corner Hotel Wednesday 11 July and Meeniyan Town Hall Friday 13 (Felice only). Tickets are available through lovepolice.com.au/tours right now.

The relationship between controversial modern outlaw country/hillbilly artist Hank Williams III and his now former label Curb Records has never been good; likely due to the fact that Curb were solely interested in his incredible country material and none too keen on his questionable heavy metal/hardcore punk rock he produces with his band Assjack. The label finally released his horrible Hillbilly Joker record last year – eight years after its recording and against his wishes – and have just released a new collection of odds and sods called Long Gone Daddy and it is pretty damn great. Williams obviously comes from incredible stock, what with his grandfather being the godfather of country music and all, and this collection of covers and outtakes from his first two solo records Risin’ Outlaw and Lovesick, Broke and Driftin’ shows what a talent this guy is when it comes to interpreting honky tonk country tunes. Good as it is, I can’t help but feel a bit guilty about listening to it; this is the second time in as many years that Curb have released music seemingly without any consultation with Williams and it would be interesting to know Hank III’s thoughts on the matter.

NELLY FURTADONELLY FURTADO

URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE

That new Santigold single, Big Hoops (Bigger The Better), is fire. Only it isn’t Santigold, but Nelly Furtado – oops. It’s funny that the Canadian star should drop a stronger Santigold song than Santigold – and with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. Big Hoops is subliminal dancehall with drum‘n’bass bleeding in at the end – countercultural, even today. Furtado released 2006’s Loose with Timbaland’s input, enjoying a smash in the controversial Promiscuous. She’s since slipped off the radar, last notably issuing a Spanish language LP. But in June, Furtado will deliver The Spirit Indestructible, apparently a return to her alt-oriented debut, Whoa, Nelly!. Everyone from Timbaland to Tiësto to Ryan Tedder is attached.

Santigold (AKA Santi White) could do with a number like Big Hoops on her comeback, Master Of My Make-Believe. The Philadelphia native was one of 2008’s breakthrough acts. White studied African drumming but wound up working in A&R at Epic. She proved very hands-on, penning material for the alt-soul Res, who had a minor hit with They-Say Vision. White also formed a ska-punk band, Stiffed, its bassist John Hill her future producer. Through pal Naeem Juwan, AKA Spank Rock, she met Diplo and Switch and they’d cut Creator. Signed to the indie Downtown Records, White’s solo debut, Santogold, was initially compared to MIA. More of a ‘songwriter’ than the Brit guerilla hip hopper, White soon established her own Afro-punk style, a mash-up of nu-wave, electro and dancehall. Alas, she hasn’t overcome another challenge. Many critics felt that Santogold faltered, offering little beyond Creator and LES Artistes. And Master..., while a progression, is still too repetitive. One standout has gotta be 2011’s dramatic

single, GO!, featuring Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and produced by Switch... and Q-Tip). It harks back to the tribal post-punk of Adam & The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, White big on ‘80s alternative (she loves Devo).

Master... was tricky to make. White experienced writer’s block. Her old buddies – Hill, Diplo and Switch – were busy pursuing fresh opportunities in popdom. Indeed, the Major Lazer duo of Diplo and Switch have done stuff for No Doubt – and Diplo, who helmed Usher’s Climax, is reportedly involved in a Snoop Dogg reggae project. And so she sought different studio allies, like TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek (Theophilus London). What’s more, White’s label was integrated into Warner – and they wanted Euro club hits, suggesting she hire RedOne (Lady GaGa). White refused – and Warner nearly shelved Master... Between records, she wed boyfriend Trevor Andrew, a pro snowboarder.

Master...’s theme is resistance, White inspired partly by the Occupy movement. She’s a longtime critic of reality (talent) shows. “They turned music-making into a factory line,” White told OG Flavas in 2008. “The whole business changed from being art-based to an industry-based thing.” She’s been vocal, too, about pop’s homogeneity, loathing LMFAO. Nevertheless, White cowrote Timbaland’s ...Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya) for Ashlee Simpson. Plus the poppy Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen) appears in the Master... credits. At any rate, White’s fortunes changed once she found sympathetic management in Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Hova kicks arse.

Master...’s best tracks are theatrical. There’s the brilliant Disparate Youth, deep sound system dub with melodic ‘80s synths, conjured by relative newcomer Ricky Blaze. White’s love of Kate Bush is evident on the ethnic ballad, The Riot’s Gone, and alt-pop The Keepers, both with Kurstin. White has contested her being categorised as an ‘urban’ artist, but she brazenly raps on the facetious grinder Look At These Hoes, her collaborators here Juwan, Boys Noize and Diplo. Big Mouth has a post-baile funk rave feel courtesy Portugal’s Buraka Som Sistema – and weird choral bits. But, sadly, other songs – including Kurstin’s atmospheric God From The Machine – don’t really go anywhere. Santigold is delayed in transit.

OG FLAVAS

POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY

It at first appeared a flawed strategy, or one born from a scheduling fumble. As the wait for the video for Justin Bieber’s newest single, Boyfriend, grew longer, the question arose: who exactly was waiting? The song, which hadn’t managed to top the Billboard Hot 100 on its debut, was already slipping in the US charts when Bieber appeared on the American talent show, The Voice, on 17 April to preview a minute-long cut of the clip and announce that he’d be back for the show’s finale episode in May to perform the song live. Dates for the video’s release had been speculated upon, changed, continually pushed back. By the time of its airing on MTV last Thursday night (Friday morning Aus time), it had been over six weeks since the song became available for purchase on iTunes. That’s a long time in the life of a pop song.

But Boyfriend is no regular pop song, and Bieber’s team knew it. Much had taken place in order for the single to make as great an impact on Bieber’s career (present and future) as possible. Subtle movements from teen pop to young-adult R&B had occurred within the lesser songs of Bieber’s 2011 Christmas album, Under The Mistletoe. On that album, too, Bieber had started to talk-rap, further suggesting that his future lay under the influence of his mentor, Usher, and the ‘urban streetwear’ he’d started slinking around in. Those clothes, as well as his hair, had gradually been altered from the style of a regular boy caught up in the world of big-money music, given a credit card and a day-pass to the mall, to that of an entity making definitive choices: sleeker, more visibly planned out, ripped from the ad pages of GQ and detailed with a pair of expensive kicks to give it an ‘edge’.

Boyfriend – essentially a narcissistic reworking of ‘N Sync’s Girlfriend – is the result of all that change and planning. It’s where it all comes together and paves the way for Bieber to become more than the conductor of pre-teen screaming. How does one successfully market a teen singer making a move for the big time, though? Release the track as yet another single, followed shortly by a video, some promo, TV performances, photo opps? Well, there’s no escaping the media cycle, but to get the attention of more than just Bieber’s existing fans, a risk would have to be taken. The importance of the ‘event’ would need to be inflated, new eyes drawn to the story. And it was a risk. It’s always a risk.

So the video was held back, and the volume of online chatter began to grow. Rumours spread. Bieber was noncommittal when asked the date of Boyfriend’s release, possibly because backroom deals with other media were still being finalised, but also as a strategy for hype: it would be soon, just keep watching. Despite the chart drop, the plan was working, allowing Bieber to command the stage of The Voice – which consistently tops ratings for the 18-49 demographic – to slap some palms and show the clip preview.

In fact, the video wasn’t even finished by the time of the single’s release. Team Bieber would save the last bit of filming for the week prior to the video’s MTV launch so that it could happen under the lenses of the paparazzi. His real-life girlfriend, Selena Gomez, who also happened to be promoting a perfume at the time, dropped in on the shoot to plant some public kisses on Bieber, thus ensuring the photos landed in the mainstream tabloid press. New eyes, new ears.

The single, at number five from a top of two on the Hot 100 by this point, gained traction again. Last week, after Bieber confirmed the official release date on MTV, it moved from five to four. It’s a different story in Australia, where the single has dropped from five to last week’s 25. There’s almost no doubt, however, that as Bieber’s big move on the US mainstream takes effect, we’ll also see the effects of it here. As he tells in Boyfriend’s opening sung lines, “I’d like to be everything you want”. He’s no longer only singing to the 13 year old next to you.

THE BREAKDOWN

JUSTIN BIEBERJUSTIN BIEBER

themusic.com.au

ACOUSTIC SCOURGEBrisbane hip-hop group Quorum Consensus are getting ready to play upcoming acoustic set at Jet Black Cat record store at 72 Vulture St in West End. Having recently released their debut EP Scourge Of The Third Rock From The U.V., Quorum Consensus are once again flipping convention on its head by playing acoustically for Jet Black Cat audiences. Happening from 6pm on Wednesday 16 May, copies of their EP and custom t-shirts will be available for sale.

SHIT HAPPENSOriginally from New Zealand and currently living in Melbourne, the lads from Gatherer are set to arrive in Brisbane to mark the release of their debut album, So Be It. Presented by OSCL and Red Tape Records, Gatherer play Crowbar (243 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, otherwise known as Basement 243) on Thursday 14 June. Also on the lineup is On Sierra and Nikko. Tickets are $10 + bf or $15 on the door; if you’d like to take advantage of the savings then hit up Moshtix. Doors open at 8pm on the night.

WELCOME BACKCentral coast alt-folk duo Nick & Liesl spent 2011 touring their debut album Feather, playing shows around Australia and Europe, all culminating in wowing crowds at the 2011/12 Woodford Folk Festival. After returning to Sweden for some family time and to start work on some new music, the Aussie/Swedish duo start the trip up to the Palm Creek Folk Festival in Townsville (Friday 8-Monday 11 June), stopping first at the Upfront Club in Maleny Friday 1 June from 7pm.

MORE THRILLSA line-up change for the first installment of the Judith Wright Centre’s Cheap Thrills gig series over weekend was been announced last week, with the lads from The Well Alrights jumping on board. The local group will perform alongside Melbourne’s King Gizzard & LIzzard Wizard, Newcastle’s Kira Peru & the Bruise and Brisbane’s Gung Ho. The Fortitude Valley arts centre will be playing host to these exciting, emerging artists in the all ages and licensed show on Saturday 12 May from 6pm – 11pm.’

BETWEEN GOOD AND BADBrisbane swamp rock trio The Purgatories are launching their debut “graphic” EP Junk at The Basement, Fortitude Valley Saturday 12 May. Junk is a self-designed Expressionist comic book, “which illustrates the nocturnal wanderings of the eponymous character, reflects the jazz-beat vibe of the title track, using the song’s lyrics as a narrative”. On the night The Purgatories will be joined by The Vampers and Love Hate Rebellion.

CHEAP TRIPFrom the campfire to the stage, Sunshine Coast band Ten Cents In Quebec have gone pretty far in the short amount of time that they have been playing live. The four-piece will soon be releasing their self-titled debut EP, which sees the band continue their penchant for genuine indie surf-rock tunes. They’ll be launching the EP on Saturday 19 May at Kings Beach Tavern in Caloundra. Supporting the evening will be Apollo And The Sun and Ziggy Alberts.

TIME OFF • 29

BRISBANE BOUND

VOLTAIRE TWINSMember/ role: Jaymes – vocals/synthesiser

Home ground: Perth

Describe your live music/performance style as succinctly as possible. Four people jumping up and down; two singing, one drumming, three playing keys.

Is this your first foray to Brisbane? If not how many times have you performed in our midst?

This is our third time in Brisbane. We played here once on the Tim & Jean tour last year and once on our own later last year.

Please relate your impressions of performing in our fair city. We’ve found audiences to be pretty outgoing in Queensland in general. We love audiences that come up and talk after shows – we’ve made a few friends in Queensland from the shows we’ve played.

What can we expect different this time around? Hopefully a more refined version of what we’ve brought over in the past! We’ve got some new songs, and we’ve done a lot more touring, so we’re all a bit more experienced and road-tested these days.

Has anything exciting been happening in your world of late? We just got back from playing at SxSW and Canadian Music Week, and we’ve just released a new single called Young Adult.

Voltaire Twins play Elsewhere, Gold Coast on Thursday 10 May and The Zoo on Friday 11 May. Young Adult single out now through iTunes.

HAVE YOU HEARD

How is your music developed?Carly Dickenson (producer/composer/vocalist): “The Still Life EP is a collection of tracks that capture those moments where you just need to take a breath and for everything to be calm. Most of the music was inspired through playing with samples or syth pad textures, and then developed into song by refining the key message in the vocal and lyrics.”

Sum up your musical sound in four words.“Shimmery and mournful electronic.”

If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be?“Faithless.”

You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be?“Alpinisms – School Of Seven Bells.”

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date?“Being recognised in the female loos.”

Why should people come and see your band?“My live set features a mournful effected string trio, dreamy soundscapes, bass, and vocals. The Still Life set will be a filmic and immersive experience, with an animated set, a strong focus on storytelling and the voice.”

Carly Dickenson launches Still Life (Independent) at Black Bear Lodge on Wednesday 16 May.

CARLY DICKENSON

themusic.com.au

SIXPACK

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HAZMAT LIZ MARTIN

BUCKLEY WARDMICHAEL PETER & THE MAGIC FLEAS

SYDNEY THRASH METAL OUTFIT HAZMAT ARE HITTING THE ROAD HARD TO PROMOTE THEIR DEBUT, SELF-TITLED ALBUM. TONY MCMAHON GETS ALL THE DIRT FROM BASSIST STU TYRRELL.

SUPERB SONGSTRESS LIZ MARTIN IS TOURING HER THIRD ALBUM, DANCE A LITTLE, LIVE A LITTLE, BUT AS SHE TELLS TONY MCMAHON, THE RECORD CAME FROM A PLACE OF SOME PAIN.

ALTHOUGH IT MIGHT BE THEIR SECOND LP, FOR JIMMY ALLEN AND THE BUCKLEY WARD CREW, SO PRETEND IS VERY MUCH THE BEGINNING. HE CHATS WITH BENNY DOYLE.

RETURNING WITH HIS SECOND LP, MICHAEL PETER OF MICHAEL PETER & THE MAGIC FLEAS TALKS TO BENNY DOYLE ABOUT THE LIFE CHANGES THAT WENT INTO THE RECORD.

“Two weeks of blood, sweat and beers,” says Tyrrell, talking about what it was like making the band’s first long-player. “Actually we had dry recording sessions. We wanted to match the professionalism of the production team at Damien Gerrard Studios. They gave us the pro treatment, which made for great experience.”

Renowned for providing a listenable metal experience, HAZMAT have much in the way of cross genre appeal, and this is evident from the way Tyrrell describes their sound.

“The bastard son of Megadeth, Testament and Exodus: slow and heavy to fast and thrashy riffs, catchy choruses with layered harmonies built on a solid rhythm section.”

HAZMAT have supported some major acts recently and are making a couple of appearances in support slots for Tim “Ripper” Owens’ solo tour. Tyrrell explains how this allows the band to explore further tour opportunities both locally and overseas.

“HAZMAT has teamed up with Hardline Media to secure four shows across NSW/ACT on Tim “Ripper” Owens’ Australian tour. We hope this exposure will lead to further tour support opportunities both here and abroad. And who knows, maybe one day we can give up our day jobs.”

What can we look forward to on the band’s upcoming LA Studios 2012 Australian tour? It seems that cooperation means truly incredible line-ups.

“Punters can look forward to seeing an awesome line-up on every show on this tour. We’ve partnered with cornerstones of the Australian underground metal scene. This tour isn’t just about HAZMAT; it’s a testament to the power of collaboration. Our tour partners Metal Evolution, Metal Castle Promotions, Metal Of Honour, Blackbelle Music and Hardline Media have all come through for us to make this tour a success.”

“This time around, I wanted to write from a different place, to keep it light. I was going through a hard time and the last thing I wanted to do was moan. I wanted to escape. I’d had some pretty major surgery, which meant I was flat on my back for about five months. Not long before the surgery my dad had passed away from cancer and with the rest of my family, I’d moved back home for the last few weeks of his life. He was so graceful and loving throughout a very painful process. It was a beautiful gift to leave everyone around him with a sense of peace and calm – that everything’s okay, even though there’s pain. So, when I had this surgery the last thing I wanted was to be a brat. I wanted to find some peace throughout the process. So I chose to write differently. To not write songs of woe is me, but to escape through music, and play. To have a sense of lightness and humour.”

Music as painkiller? Martin agrees.

“As a painkiller, music works well on so many levels. There’s the idea of music and love. When you’ve just fallen in love, the focus of your attention is the most fascinating of people. You can stare at them for hours and it doesn’t become tedious. I find the same with music. When I’m writing a new song, I can spend hours completely focused, drawn in, and seduced. And then, well, there’s the simple thing of music that it just seems to make you feel better whether you’re listening or playing it. You just sing it out.”

“We didn’t have a label, publicist, marketing plan or any idea how you get those things. By the time it was finished, I already hated it,” Allen frankly concedes about their debut. “I knew we could do something a lot better so the whole thing ended up being an exercise in what not to do. Now three years on, we have a label and marketing. We also have a fantastic manager and publicist. We have this entire support network behind us that has forced us to take everything more seriously, but has opened us up to heaps of opportunities. We’re a lot more committed and excited about the future than we were three years ago.”

It’s an honest admission from a member of one of the country’s more exciting indie prospects, but listening to So Pretend, you have to admit that the struggles were worth it. Densely atmospheric, the album is haunting in an uplifting manner and truly feels transcendent. This beauty is even more strange, however, when you take into the equation the line-up change between albums’ one and two that saw two of Allen’s best friends departing.

“I got so bogged down with how the band was supposed to move forward that I started writing music that took me away from that place,” he admits. “I tend to involuntarily visualise places when I hear music, so in turn I write music from where I’d rather be at the time. It’s like an aural screensaver with captions. Maybe if I became a monk I’d write prog metal, but you’re probably safe for now.”

“Since the last LP my wife gave birth to a baby girl,” he tells. “Becoming a father is the biggest change I have ever had in my life. The approach to this album was very different to the last one; I stretched it out, only coming in to the studio for a day or two at a time so I wasn’t away from home for too long. It was a patient approach to recording.”

Peter admits he had more fun with Awake With Birds, forging a courageous path with his warm folk odes. He explains the title has multiple meanings.

“That’s what I liked about it,” he concedes. “It works literally because as a new parent I now get up at very early un-rock’n’roll times in the morning. Metaphorically the birds represent my wife, my daughter and I because we are like birds of a feather doing everything together and we are all now awake to this new cycle of life.”

To bring these colourful songs to life, Peter has called on two of his best friends, in the guise of the Magic Fleas.

“Mind you if they were crap I wouldn’t invite them on tour no matter how good mates we were,” he laughs. “But the fact is they are both extremely talented musicians with a great feel, enthusiasm and love for music and the live show is all the better for it.”

WHO: Hazmat

WHAT: Hazmat (Independent)

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 12 May, The Tank Hotel

WHO: Liz Martin

WHAT: Dance A Little, Live A Little (Independent)

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 10 May, Gold Coast Arts Centre; Friday 11, The Waiting Room

WHO: Buckley Ward

WHAT: So Pretend (Shock)

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 11 May, X&Y Bar

WHO: Michael Peter & The Magic Fleas

WHAT: Awake With Birds (Independent)

WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 6 May, Cafe Scooterini, Gold Coast; Thursday 10, The Rails, Byron Bay; Friday 11, Australian Hotel, Ballina; Saturday 12, Tempo Hotel

30 • TIME OFF

FIRST AND LAST CHANCEMuch missed indie rock outfit Nova Scotia haven’t really done all that much lately and, frankly, they’re not going to be doing all that much in the near future either. That is after this weekend. The full line-up of the band are getting together for a show before members disappear off overseas and interstate again, playing a casual little get together on Sunday afternoon at the Brisbane Powerhouse. You’ll be able to hear tracks from their incredible eponymous debut record of last year and they have promised to play plenty of stuff from both their Maritime Disasters and Bear Smashes Photocopier demo releases as well. If that’s not enough then you’re crazy, but to sweeten the deal there will be The Gonzo Show there to perform, a limited edition Tygar Tees car boot clearance, entrance is free and it’s open to people of all ages!

WHAT’S OLD IS STILL OLDFour bands are rising from the dead this Saturday night, coming together in some kind of bizarre Brisbane indie/punk rock séance that can only be understood by the beating of instruments incredibly loudly and the imbibing of beverages at moderate and responsible levels. Bands who were once omnipresent but have since gone dormant will invade West End’s Waiting Room for an all ages, hell for leather showdown, just like old days. Eat Laser Scumbag! play their first Brisbane show in three years, The

Sips play their first in at least 18 months, Seaplane might have played a little more regularly but still not enough and Pastel Blaze seem like they’re just about ready to start destroying shit on as semi-regular basis again. It begins at 8pm, it ends when it ends, entry is $10 and you can bring your own beverages.

SUPPORT THE CAUSEThis month Amnesty International and ARTillery present Music As A Weapon Against Weaponry. The purpose of the fundraising concert is to inform the local community of the many precious lives lost every year at the hands of weapons that can be better regulated around the world. Headlining the event is hard hitting local rock group Flannelette and they will be playing alongside fellow locals Barefoot Alley and Righteous and the Wicked. Support this cause on Thursday 17 May at the Beetle Bar; the event kicks off at 8pm and entry is a mere ten bucks. Let’s keep the world’s weapons out of the wrong hands.

PLEADING THEIR INNOCENCEBayside reggae band, One Dread, will be launching their new single, Innocent Man, next month at the Mansfield Tavern. Supporting the nine-piece will be local acts Darky Roots, Paua, Kaha and DJ Hemz. The line-up will ensure a night of reggae, blues, funk and rock mayhem. Head along to the Mansfield Tavern on Saturday 12 May for your dose of reggae tunes.

ANDREW WK LISTENING PARTY!Come to the 4ZZZ car park on Wednesday for a listening party, with Andrew WK. Sagittarius Silver Announcement will be taking party related questions to ask AWK and broadcasting interviews with Best Coast, Perfume Genius and a show full of musical goodness and prizes! Head to the 4ZZZ Facebook and post your question to or email brada@4zzzfm.org.au. Some lucky listeners may even get the chance to meet the Party Master!

MIND YOUR Z’S & Q’S This month we’re asking you to complete our listener survey, it’s your chance to help us out by getting to know what you think. Listeners have until 18 May to tell us about themselves, what they like about the station and what can be improved. The best thing of all is that you have the chance to win

some great prizes simply by filling out the survey. You can take the survey online just head to our website or Facebook page.

GRILL’D THINKS 4ZZZ MATTERS!Want to eat a great burger and help out 4ZZZ? We’ve been nominated to participate in the Grill’d Local Matters programme at Grill’d West End this month. Every month, Grill’d West End is donating $500 to local groups and asking customers to decide who the money goes to. When customers buy a burger, they receive a token to put into one of three jars. Whoever has the most tokens at the end of the month receives $300. The other two groups receive $100 each. So do your bit to help us out, buy a burger and pop your token in the jar with the big 4ZZZ sign on it.

WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS!To celebrate National Volunteers Week (14-20 May) 4ZZZ will be putting on a BBQ for all current volunteers on Saturday 19 May from 3pm-5pm to say THANK YOU. 4ZZZ Volunteers are truly ACE and without their help everyday of the year, the station we all love just would not be able to operate. Thank you vollies.... you know who you are xxx

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THURSDAY 10 MAYCOLUMBIA BUFFET (10.30PM) + JOSH RENNIE-HYNES (9.30PM) + DJ VALDIS

FRIDAY 11 MAYDOWNSTAIRS: THE FAMILIARS (9PM) + EDAM’S MARCH (8PM) + DJ VALDIS

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TUESDAY 15 MAYAFTER THIS MOMENT (10.30PM) + AFTERGLOW (9.30PM)

TIME OFF • 31

WED 09Andrew W.K., Aleister X, Scraps The ZooBlind Lemon Prince Of Wales HotelBob Fawaz Downbeat Jazz Band Greenmount Surf ClubCity And Colour The TivoliDigitalism, Beni FamilyElephant Unplugged, Matt Collingwood, Eyes Behold, Kristen Wood, Mark Bono Elephant & WheelbarrowFret Fest, Michael Mcgann, Michael David, Dave Court, Adam Scriven Chalk HotelPete Smith, Mark Z Regatta Hotel, ToowongPommie Night Out, Swingin’ Martinis Caloundra RSLRockschool Challenge, Super Asleep, Wish Fulfi lment, Corruption Of The Innocents, Red Revolver, Half Spoken Southbank Institute Of TechScat Limes HotelSteve & Mitch Mick O’Malley’sThe Bowery Hot Five With Mal Wood The BoweryThe Brodie Graham Band The Tempo HotelThe Eastern, Rattlehand Ric’sThe Maccabees, Argentina, Fingerprint The Hi-FiWednesday Blues Press Club Press Club

THU 108 Ball Aitken The JoyntBerst Duo Elephant & WheelbarrowBixby Canyon, Flannelette, Alexander, Thin White Lines The BasementCarl Wockner, Tom Milek Sol Bar, MaroochydoreCoastfolk Duo, Ebb & Flow Maroochydore RSLColumbia Buffet, Josh Rennie-Hyndes Ric’sCrossbows Ensembles Festival Qld Conservatorium Of MusicF.O.O.L, Sammy K La La LandFemme Fatale Thursdays Exchange HotelI Can’t Believe It’s Not The Satellites The BoweryIn Hearts Wake, Green Street, Stregnth Through Purity, Shorelines X & Y BarJack Carty, The Falls, Maples Black Bear Lodge

John Whyte Twin TownsLiz Martin Arts Centre Gold CoastMarty Hurst, Smooth & Groove Caloundra RSLMatt Vankan, Blind Dog Donnie The Music KafeMental As Anything Woombye PubMutemath, The Cairos The ZooNick Trovas Meet And Mingle Chalk HotelPeter Pellicaan Fibber Magee’s, ToowoombaPublic Enemy The Hi-FiSan Cisco, Voltaire Twins, Oceanics ElsewhereSeen DJs Bowler BarSoula’ Flare Glass Bar & RestaurantStonefox, Take To The Skies Surfers Paradise TavernThe The Preachers Cobra KaiTrace The Tempo Hotel

FRI 11Abbalive Tewantin Noosa RSLAbout Me Locknload West EndAdrian Keys, Alter Egos Elephant & WheelbarrowBall Park Music The Hi-FiBonjah, The Green Room Sol Bar, MaroochydoreBrewzer The Beetle BarBuckley Ward X & Y BarCliff Joins The Beatles QPACCrossbows Ensembles Festival Qld Conservatorium Of MusicDave Bentley Trio Iceworks Lounge Bar - PaddingtonDon’t Ask Fashion Bowler BarElixer, Katie Noonan Soundlounge CurrumbinEuan Cumming Trio QPACHarry Manx Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre La Discotheque, Heko, Lucus Dowling, Audun ElsewhereLiz Martin The Waiting RoomLock & Load, Locky Mick O’Malley’sMager & Smythe: In Search Of Atlantis Metro ArtsMick Danby, Jetstream Chalk HotelOut Of Abingdon Diana Plaza HotelOut Rage Us Club HelensvalePaul Bell, Mark Z Regatta Hotel, ToowongPopular Jazzmusic Waterloo Hotel

QSM Live: Ladies Weekend Queen Street MallSan Cisco The ZooSandra Beynon, Sean Mullen J’s Restaurant & Bar - ToowongShockone, Alex Terrell, Charlie Hustle, Katie K Oh Hello!Spacie, And Oh! La La LandThe Darren J Ray Trio Geebung-Zillmere RSLThe Familiars, Edams March Ric’sThe Green Jam Sessions QPAC GreenThe Local Residents The Tempo HotelWoolie Cookies Fibber Magee’s, Toowoomba

SAT 123 Days Off Chalk HotelAcca Dacca Springwood HotelAjax Bowler BarBig Hits Logan Diggers ClubBonjah, Marshall O’kell Sol Bar, MaroochydoreCalude Hay, Mr Black And Blues Ric’sCanta La Tumba, Harry Manx Woombye PubCheap Thrills, The Well AlrightS, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Kira Puru & The Bruise, Gung Ho Judith Wright Centre Of Performing ArtsCleveland Past Masters Big Band, Brass Roots Big Band, Jindalee Jazz Orchestra Brisbane Jazz ClubCrossbows Ensembles Festival Qld Conservatorium Of MusicDarky Roots, Paula, Kaha, Hemz Mansfield TavernDrawcard, Ninth Of May, Guards Of May, Chamberland The ZooElixer, Katie Noonan Joe’s Water Hole EumundiEugene Hideaway Bridges, Ray Beadle, Jimi Hocking’s Blues Machine, Eric Bibb, Ian Moss, Phill Manning, Jules Boult, The Mason Rack Band, Chase The Sun Fogarty ParkFaker Runaway Bay TavernHazmat The Tank HotelIcons Of Oz, Roy Morris Caloundra RSLJump Up Party Souths Leagues ClubMc Bossy, Paul Bell, Marky Mark Z, Scotty R, DJ Tom Walker Regatta Hotel, Toowong

Mental As Anything, Brass Monkeys Homestead TavernMichael Peter & The Magic Fleas, Superfreak The Tempo HotelMord Fustang, Dennis Sheperd The MetMr Perkins Fibber Magee’s, ToowoombaPigeon, Purple Toes, Rubber Johnson The Loft Chevron IslandQSM Live: Ladies Weekend Queen Street MallRamjet, Matt Hoffman Elephant & WheelbarrowRobert Babicz BarsomaRyan Karup, Phil Barlow, Cruise Control, Kye Cole Band, Dillion James & The Tone-Bakers The Music KafeSam Cahill, Chris Miller, Giv ElsewhereSteve Fothergill Mick O’Malley’sThe Purgatories Basement 243Young Griffo, Therapy Of Noise, Plexus, Blood Relative, Brook Mowett Irish Club Hotel, Toowoomba

SUN 13Chris Ramsay, Owie Fibber Magee’s, ToowoombaClaude Hay Bucca HotelCrossbows Ensembles Festival Qld Conservatorium Of MusicDiscrow, Daniel Webber La La LandFrank Turner, The Sleeping Souls, William Elliott Whitmore, The Smith Street Band The ZooIrish Music Night Mick O’Malley’sJ-Phaze Locknload West EndMarshall Okell Royal Mail Hotel GoodnaMartin Party, Buggalugz Elephant & WheelbarrowMick Danby, Locky, Booster Chalk HotelQSM Live: Ladies Weekend Queen Street MallRoyale Sunday, Snobs, Stretch Paper Cranes ElsewhereSugar Cane Slim, Steve Payne, Maluca Brazillian Lounge, Sean Prior, Better Mouse Treatment The Music KafeTesting Grounds The Tempo HotelThe Gonzo Show, Nova Scotia Brisbane Powerhouse

MON 14Funky Monkey Jam The Music KafeMark Sheils Elephant & Wheelbarrow

TUE 15Casey Fogg Elephant & WheelbarrowDavid Knight, Marcus Cappellazzo The Music Kafe

Doug STuart Maroochydore RSLExpatriate Oh Hello!Indie Folk Escalade, Jenny Biddle The Tempo HotelKimbra, Daniel Merriweather, Sam Lawrence The Tivoli

Mark Sheils Samford Valley HotelMary Brettell, Victoriana Gaye The BugPaul Young Trio Locknload West EndWak’n Woo’n Caloundra RSL

themusic.com.au32 • TIME OFF

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THE NINJASWITH A NEW SINGLE, BOOGIE ON IT, LOCAL GARAGE OUTFIT THE NINJAS ARE ALSO FINDING A NEW DIRECTION, GUITARIST PAT FERRIS AND SINGER JOSH STEWART TELL TONY MCMAHON.

“It’s definitely the direction the sound of the debut EP will take,” says Ferris. “We’ve always had a bit of trouble between two different kinds of sounds and I guess after we finished recording with Magoo [famed producer of Powderfinger and Regurgitator] we found ‘our’ sound. We’re really into the musical works of people like Miles Kane and Sergio Pizzorno (Kasabian): stuff that has pop elements but utilises catchy hooks and sleazy undervibes to give it bit of realism opposed to the standard four-on-the-floor structure of chart music.”

The Ninjas had a lot of success in 2011 and instead of capitalising on it had a lengthy hiatus. Ferris explains why.

“Stewart and I went on a self-funded trip to California and Las Vegas. Basically, we had a bit of cash left over after we finished the single and just decided what better way to blow it all than on blackjack and roulette. While we were over there we met a few local bands, borrowed whatever equipment we could and played at whatever venues would have us.”

Stewart says that being overseas was more than just gambling, though. The experience seems to have inspired him to try and do something with his music to make the world, and specifically his hometown, a better place.

“Well California is crazy considering their state has a larger population than our whole country but it was real inspiring, you’d go out at night and almost always see a band you actually enjoy. Also their genre’s are so diverse, here (Brisbane) there’s sort of just this surfy/indie trend going around at the moment which although there are some standout bands it gets really repetitive and hard to differentiate between.”

WHO: The Ninjas

WHAT: Boogie On It (Independent)

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 11 May, Barsoma; Saturday 26, Ric’s Backyard Festival

SIXPACK

THE PHONCURVESWITH A RICH AND OVERTLY BEAUTIFUL SOUND, THE PHONCURVES MUSIC WILL TRANSFORM YOUR MOOD. BENNY DOYLE CATCHES UP WITH ONE HALF OF THE PAIR, ABBIE ROBERTS.

“Loves, doubts and close friendship are the main themes in our EP,” Roberts admits. “There are also songs that showcase a more ‘frustrated’ emotion. Then there’s the opposite end of the scale with the feeling of spontaneity and taking life as it comes.”

The Phoncurves self-titled EP will enter our consciousness mid-year. Recorded at the Queensland Conservatorium during their final semester of studies, the Brisbane pair are due to bring these songs to life at the school’s Crossbows showcase.

“We had basic sonic ideas before we started,” Roberts explains. “Thick vocal harmonies, acoustic-driven, with elements of folk and country, but we really wanted to stay true to the feel of each song. We were open-minded through recording, as this is part of our songwriting and creative process.

“Bon Iver was a big influence for us at that time, we were inspired by his production,” Roberts continues. “Also Brian Eno, his ambient music and creative approach to recording. Kimbra and Camille were also big ones, for their vocal production. I guess what really brought us together [though] was our love for The Beatles and old style country music; Hank Williams and Gillian Welch.”

Although pitched as a duo, listening to tracks such as A Good Thing and the Jeff Buckley-esque Clockwork reveals saxophones, lines of percussion and other curious sounds. Roberts informs that the girls are excited about bringing the songs truly to life on stage soon.

“We use a sampler to perform more harmonies,” she says. “At the moment we love playing as a duo, but we will look at adding more players for our EP launch later this year.”

WHO: The Phoncurves

WHEN & WHERE: Friday 11 May, Crossbows Festival @ Queensland Conservatorium

CRICOS: 00312F (NSW) 02047B (VIC) 02431E (WA) Please contact relevant campuses for further information regarding open days, tours, course programs and FEE HELP options.

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BEHIND THE LINESTAKING OUT THE TRASH

Not Your Kind Of People is out Friday 11 May through Stun Volume/Liberator Music.

It’s been seven years since Garbage released 2005’s stripped-back Bleed Like Me. Not Your Kind Of People marks their triumphant return. Matt O’Neill catches up with drummer and uber-producer Butch Vig to discuss the unique processes behind their fifth studio album.

Few bands exemplify pop music’s inherent irony than Garbage. It’s long been established that pop is an intrinsically contradictory phenomenon

– a genre sold on celebrity and personality, where its greatest artisans must nevertheless remain invisible to the public. If a listener notices novelty or craftsmanship in a pop song, its architects haven’t really done their job. Such is Garbage’s idiosyncratic, unenviable lot.

Arguably one of the most innovative and experimental acts to have emerged from the ‘90s, Garbage’s flair for old-school songcraft and irresistible pop hooks – combined with the natural charisma of iconic frontwoman Shirley Manson – has nevertheless ensured audiences have rarely comprehended their ingenuity as musicians and producers.

“We’ve always loved doing that,” drummer Butch Vig says of the band’s experimentalism. “Steve [Marker, multi-instrumentalist], Duke [Erikson – multi-instrumentalist] and myself are all lab rats. We’re mad scientists in a laboratory. We love experimenting. We play a lot of keyboards, guitars and drums and we do a lot of programming – but then we process things. We chop things up, layer, remix and just re-process everything.”

The band’s instrumental lineup consists of three production professionals. Vig is perhaps best known for having produced Nirvana’s Nevermind but also handled The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, Sonic Youth’s Dirty and, more recently, Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown (among a slew of other albums). Steve Marker and Duke Erikson

helped build and run Vig’s Wisconsin-based Smart Studios – employed by Death Cab For Cutie, Tegan & Sara and countless other respected artists.

“Initially, when Shirley joined us, we had no plans of touring,” Vig recalls the band’s 1994 formation. “We were going to do one album, put it out and then I was going to go back to producing full-time. When we started making those songs, the chemistry grew. I mean, Shirley didn’t know any of us. She probably felt like a fish out of water. By the time we were finished recording, though, we were very tight and close-knit. It kind of started out as a project, yeah, but it did rapidly become a band.”

Not Your Kind Of People finds Garbage returning to that restless approach. The band’s fifth album arrives after a hiatus spanning nearly seven years, broken only by the release of their greatest hits compilation Absolute Garbage in 2007, and follows two albums that, however exceptional, had taken the band away from their experimental roots. Beautiful Garbage, released in 2001, was a detour into full-fledged pop while 2005’s Bleed Like Me was stripped-back rock’n’roll.

“I knew when we took the break that we weren’t breaking up. I knew it was going to be a long break. I thought it would be maybe two years – but then it stretched into five years. I think in the back of my head I always knew that we would make another record, though – and we may make a bunch more. There’s a creative spark between the four of us that still exists. That was evident from day one in the studio. Ideas just started flying out of us.”

Released on their own StunVolume label, Not Your Kind Of People harks back to the glorious mess of pop, noise and electronics that was the band’s eponymous 1996 debut album. If anything, it’s their rawest and harshest recording to date. The band stepped outside of Smart Studios for the first time in their career and recorded everywhere, from professional studios to bedrooms and lounge rooms. The result is a record that sounds vibrantly, almost offensively, alive.

“On our first album, we didn’t have Pro Tools. We used tape and we used samplers. The first album was done in almost a guerrilla fashion – almost by the seat of our pants – but this album was actually done in a similar way. We did some of it in a really tiny studio in East LA, we did some of it in my home studio, we did some in Steve’s bedroom, in Duke’s bedroom. I recorded drums in my pyjamas with four mics in a bedroom. No soundproofing or anything. It sounded kind of trashy but I dug that,” he laughs. “You know, I don’t think anyone will ever understand our process. The only way anyone could understand it would be to be there from day to day – because each day is completely different. Sometimes Steve will play a melody, Duke will handle noise and I’ll do the drums – but then we’ll all swap. Steve plays some drums on the record. And, with all the processing we do, there’re about six or seven different versions of each song.

“If Shirley wasn’t there to force us to finish, we’d probably never release anything at all!”

WHICH PRODUCER?Chatting to Canadian band The Tea Party recently in Sydney during a promotional visit to big up their forthcoming reunion tour of Australia in July, frontman Jeff Martin, who has essentially be responsible for producing all eight Tea Party albums thus far, made a very pertinent point: “The three of us together, we’d compose it, but I needed to make sure, as the producer, that there was a sonic vision that was understood. Like for instance Jeff Burrows’ drums, I worked on sounds so much; he’d come up to my studio in Montreal and we’d just be bashing away for weeks on end developing a sound, and it was so very different than what other bands were doing. That’s why Tea Party records stand the test of time, because they have these unique sounds that aren’t just homogenised by other producers. You can hire this engineer, you can hire that producer and all that stuff, but nine times out of ten, what you’re going to get is you’re going to get the same sounds that they use for other bands, right? You don’t need that, you know?”

THE FENDER BLACKTOP SERIESFender has now created vintage–style Fender Blacktop alnico humbucking pickups across the full range of their classic guitar lines – the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jaguar and Jazzmaster. Guaranteed to deliver the hot high–gain power required to create today’s most aggressive sounds, each model also includes skirted black amp knobs, an alder body, maple neck, 9.5” radius fretboard, medium jumbo frets, gloss urethane finish and nickel/chrome hardware. If you’re quick, your local Fender outlet might also still have a few of the limited special run of white blonde Telecasters and butterscotch blonde Telecasters they put out recently, each featuring an ash body, modern “C” shape maple neck and three standard single-coil Strat or two hot Tele pickups respectively.

WITH MICHAEL SMITH

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