The Music (Brisbane) Issue #12

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

#12 • 3 0 . 1 0 . 1 3 • B R I SBANE • F R E E • I N C ORP ORAT I N G

STARING DOWN THE STARING DOWN THE HIP HOP PURISTSHIP HOP PURISTS

WEDNESDAY13

tourCHARLIEBROOKER

tvJORDIELANE

tourHALLOWEENLOOOOWWWLOW

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THE MUSIC • 3OTH OCTOBER 2013 • 3

4 • THE MUSIC • 30TH OCTOBER 2013

themusic30TH OCTOBER 2013

#012

INSIDEFEATURES

Illy

Wednesday 13

Jordie Lane

Ursula Meier

Lightning Bolt

Saviour

Psychic Expo

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Hellions

Eskimo Joe

Charlie Brooker

The Siren Tower

8 Ball Aitken

Dollar Bar

McKisko

Joey Cape

REVIEWSAlbum: M.I.A.

Live: Adalita

Arts: Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Games: Pokémon X

THE GUIDECover: Marville

Food: Paleo Eating

Drink: Ginger Drinks

Fashion: Halloween Costumes

Local News

Gig Guide

Obituary: Lou Reed


feature

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE WOULD DO, BESIDES SET OUR HEADS ON FIRE OR SOMETHING.”- WEDNESDAY 13 TREATS US TO SOME POTENTIAL TRICKS (P20)

“I CAN SMELL SOMETHING ELSE IN HERE BESIDES THE INCENSE. I THINK IT MIGHT BE BULLSHIT.”- GIULIANO FERLA FINDS NO FORTUNE AT THE PSYCHIC FAIR (P26)

“IS REFLEKTOR WORTH THE HYPE? THE SHORT ANSWER IS YES. JUST.”- DYLAN STEWART ON THE NEW ARCADE FIRE LP (P40)

review

“BY NOW, EVEN THE LADIES OF THE NIGHT SIDE OF STAGE ARE LOSING IT.”- BEN DOYLE REVIEWS LIMP BIZKIT (P46)

READ A GRIPPING EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM NEW BOOK THE YOUNGS: THE BROTHERS WHO BUILT AC/DC BEFORE IT’S RELEASE.- HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU

STREAM NEW RELEASES FROM JEREMY NEALE AND MINOR ALPS.- EXCLUSIVELY ON THEMUSIC.COM.AU THIS WEEK

valeWE PAY TRIBUTE TO THE INCOMPARABLE, NOW SADLY DEPARTED LOU REED.

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK • 30 OCTOBER - 5 NOVEMBER 2013THIS WEEK

Here in SEQ at this time of year we have one of the most glorious climates for relaxing outdoors imaginable, which is why it’s the perfect time for the annual Grass Roots Festival. Celebrate spring this Sunday in the gorgeous Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens in Toowong and be entertained by Queensland’s blues, country, folk and roots artists. It’s free and open to everyone.

This year marks the 21st

birthday of Brisbane’s

2high Festival, the annual

celebration of all things

homegrown and cultural.

The not-for-profit

extravaganza celebrates

up-and-coming local

artists of all persuasions,

and features 20 bands as

well as shows and exhibits

and all manner of fun

activities. It’s open to folks

of all ages, and takes over

every nook and cranny of

the beautiful and iconic

Brisbane Powerhouse this

Saturday from midday

to late night. Support

our local cultural elite

in the making!

This weekend marks the beginning of the inaugural Containerval Festival, held at Northshore Hamilton from 2 Nov through 17 Nov. Utilising shipping containers and transforming them into pop-up retail stores, installations and performance spaces, the festival offers live music, markets, food stalls and an open-air cinema – something for everyone in a unique and fun environment.

relax

adapt

revel

BRISBANE

CREDITSPUBLISHER

Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

GROUP MANAGING EDITORAndrew Mast

EDITORSteve Bell

ASSISTANT EDITORBenny Doyle

ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR

Cassandra Fumi

MUSO EDITORMichael Smith

GIG GUIDE EDITORJustine Lynch

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTORSAdam Curley, Amorina

Fitzgerald-Hood, Anthony Carew, Baz McAlister, Ben

Preece, Benny Doyle, Bradley Armstrong, Brendan Telford,

Carley Hall, Chris Yates, Cyclone, Dan Condon, Daniel Johnson, Dave

Drayton, Guy Davis, Helen Stringer, Jake Sun, Jazmine O’Sullivan, Lochlan Watt, Madeleine Laing, Mandy McAlister, Matt O’Neill,

Mitch Knox, Sam Hobson, Sky Kirkham, Tom Hersey,

Tony McMahon, Tyler McLoughlan

PHOTOGRAPHERSFreya Lamont, John Stubbs, John Taylor, Kane Hibberd, Rick Cliff ord, Sky Kirkham, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo

NATIONAL SALESMANAGER

Brett Dayman

QLD SALESZac Gould

[email protected]

ART DIRECTORNicholas Hopkins

ART DEPTBrendon Wellwood, Eamon

Stewart, Julian DeBono

ADMIN AND ACCOUNTSJarrod Kendall, Leanne

Simpson, Loretta Zoppolone, Shelley Neergaard

[email protected]

DISTROAnita D’Angelo

[email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONSstore.themusic.com.au

CONTACT USPhone: (07) 3252 9666

[email protected]

www.themusic.com.au

Street: Suite 11/354 Brunswick Street Fortitude

Valley QLD 4006

Postal: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006

THE MUSIC • 30TH OCTOBER 2013 • 9

Yes, it’s Movember again, the perfect opportunity for your seedy uncle to finally fit in with your local hipster gang. Grow a mo for charity and help raise awareness of men’s health issues such as prostate and testicular cancer. Just remember to actually raise some money this time, instead of using it as an excuse to keep your three-day fuzz for 30 days. You looked like a barely pubescent 16-year-old. Head to au.movember.com.

On laughs, and ice-cream. The official Anchorman 2: The Legend

Continues trailer has just been released, and Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 news team look set to take hilarious stupidity to the next level. And if Brian Fantana’s world famous jimmy cabinet didn’t look enticing enough, how about Ben & Jerry’s paying homage to Mr Burgundy with his very own flavour, Scotchy Scotch Scotch. As McBain once said, “Let’s get silly.”

After a two-year wait, Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole And A Half:

Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms

Mayhem, And Other Things That Happened is finally about to occupy prime position on your shelf. It was originally a popular web comic, drawn using Paintbrush, and featuring anecdotes about the Alot, her mentally challenged dog and being a small child. It’s genuinely side-splitting and now in book format. It’s out on 1 Nov, and you can pre-order your copy now from Amazon, Random House, or Brosh herself.

Fancy yourself as a problem solver? An individual that can handle all kinds of pressure in different circumstances? Are you keen to jet-set around the world, check out some of the most iconic sights on the planet and potentially win a large chunk of cash? Then you best be entering The Amazing Race Australia, which is returning to television screens in 2014. Grab your spouse, friend, sibling, parent, pet... no. Look, buddy up, enter at au.tv.yahoo.com and you could be the next Amazing Race champion.

mo-grow

read

race gorge


BLUESFEST FAIRYTALESA regular at the festival since his first appearance back in 2002, Jack Johnson is making a welcome return to the main stage at Bluesfest 2014. Continuing his incredible worldwide success with his latest LP From Here To Now To You, the former professional surfer has plenty of new treats for Aussie fans, and slides into the bill seamlessly, as does Elvis Costello, who’ll be leading The Imposters through his legendary canon. Also added to the line-up: Passenger, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Kasey Chambers, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Trixie Whitley and The Soul Rebels, as well as television game show RocKwiz, which will happen live at the festival. Bluesfest’s 25-year anniversary celebrations take place 17 to 22 Apr, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay.

national news

JACK JOHNSON

FEELINGS

STONEFIELD

ALL HAIL THE QUEENShowing no signs of slowing down, Nashville country royalty Dolly Parton is set to share a few more special nights with her adoring fans Down Under, showcasing her latest record, Blue Smoke, as well as pulling favourites from a back catalogue that stretches almost half a century. She plays 11 Feb, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne; 15 Feb, Hope Estate Winery, Hunter Valley; 18 Feb, Sydney Entertainment Centre; 21 Feb, Brisbane Entertainment Centre; and 27 Feb, Perth Arena. Tickets are on sale this Friday.

YOUNG AND RESTLESSPlay out all your hedonistic fantasies when the 27-year-old producer Adrian Lux spins tunes (including his new stormer, Wild Child) along the east coast, playing 2 Nov, Pacha, Sydney; 8 Nov, King Street Hotel, Newcastle; 9 Nov, The Met, Brisbane; 14 Nov, Trak Lounge Bar, Melbourne; 15 Nov, Academy, Canberra; and 16 Nov, Platinum Nightclub, Gold Coast.

WARPED ATHLETES ANNOUNCEDWarped Tour isn’t just about the music – there’s also a sporting component, which features some genuinely mad skateboarders and BMX riders for your jaw-on-the-floor viewing pleasure in 2013. How’s this for a list: Steve Caballero, Renton Millar, Omar Hassan, Dennis McCoy, Neal Hendrix, Pedro Barros, Vi Kakinho, Murilo Peres and Coco Zurita. Undeniably epic times! For full event details head to The Guide on theMusic.com.au.

EATING THROUGH THE FLESHFrom their original powerviolence days back in the mid-’90s, masked San Diego punks The Locust have been brutalising anyone that cares with screeching bursts of hardcore noise and mathy time signatures. Off the map for a while, the quartet returns 5 Feb, Crowbar, Brisbane; 6 Feb, Annandale Hotel, Sydney; 7 Feb, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; and 10 Feb, Amplifier Bar, Perth.

WE LOVE KANE HIBBERDAlthough it might be hard to tell because last week we forgot to credit the award-winning photographer for his wonderful Stonefield shoot. So, just for the record, the above shot of the band was shot exclusively for us by Kane Hibberd. (Kane, please don’t hate us.)

SHINING IN THE SUNHeaded up by a formidable trio of American metalcore heavyweights – Blessthefall, Like Moths To Flames and The Color Morale – Boys Of Summer will return in 2014, happening 8 Jan, The Rev, Brisbane; 9 Jan, Eagleby South School Hall, Brisbane (all ages); 10 Jan, Panthers, Newcastle (licensed/all ages); 11 Jan (18+) and 12 Jan (all ages), The Annandale, Sydney; 14 Jan, The Basement, Canberra; 15 Jan, Arrow On Swanston, Melbourne (all ages); 16 Jan, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; 18 Jan, Amplifier, Perth; and 19 Jan, YMCA HQ, Perth (all ages) (The Color Moral don’t appear on the WA dates).

“I BET BRITNEY HAS A HARD TIME USING FEDEX”SHE PROBABLY HAS A HARD TIME WITH LOTS OF THINGS ALEC SULKIN [@THESULK].

BATTLE OF THEMSELVESDo you want to get weird? Feelings have just released their debut record Be Kind, Unwind and are set to launch that baby with some gigs. Standard so far, yes? Well, this is where things take a turn from the strange. The support band for all dates: Philadelphia Grand Jury, making an east coast return after a few years in hiatus wilderness. So you’ve got the same three guys, two separate bands and so much indie pop awesomeness – yeah boi. These nights of curious musical déjà vu will take place 28 Nov, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; 5 Dec, The Rev, Brisbane; 6 Dec, Small Ballroom, Newcastle; and 7 Dec, The Standard, Sydney, with all shows proudly presented by The Music.

[email protected]


national news

ON ANOTHER LEVELAt 23 years of age and standing on top of the EDM mountain, there are few beat makers as big or in demand as Swedish superstar Avicii, and next year Australia gets the producer at the height of his powers. The man responsible for mega anthems like Levels and Wake Me Up will play his first ever headline dates Down Under, bringing his inspired arena show to the following venues: Brisbane Riverstage, 24 Jan (all ages); Centennial Park, Sydney, 25 Jan (15+); Melbourne Showgrounds, 26 Jan (15+); and Perth Arena, 27 Jan (all ages). Tickets on sale noon, 8 Nov. Presented by The Music.

TRIPLE J FOR ADULTSAdding a third notch to their belt, triple j have just taken control of ABC’s Dig Music, with a major rebrand set to take place over the next six months. The station, which is able to be streamed through digital TVs, will aim at reconnecting with an older demographic that has perhaps turned their backs on the current triple j playlist, with artists such as Sarah Blasko, Billy Bragg, Tim Rogers and Moby set to program material in the future.

AVICII

METRIC

BAD//DREEMS

THEY’RE ALIVEIncredibly popular, though a band that

still seems to fly under the radar like some

amazing little secret is Metric. The secret

may finally be out for good, however, with

the quartet jetting across the Pacific again

to shake capital cities this summer. You

can spend a balmy evening with Metric

when the Canadian indie new wavers play

Metro City, Perth, 7 Dec; The Forum,

Melbourne, 9 Dec; The Tivoli, Brisbane, 11

Dec; and Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 12 Dec.

Tickets are on sale today (Wednesday).

MORE THAN A NIGHTIt used to be just about the ARIA Awards; now, it’s about the ARIA Week! There’s loads of cracker performances in the lead-up to the gala evening on 1 Dec, including Andy Bull, Chance Waters and The Cairos, Oxford Art Factory, 26 Nov; Jackie Onassis, Safia and Remi, Oxford Art Factory, 27 Nov; DZ Deathrays, Palms and I Oh You DJs, The Standard, 27 Nov; Glass Towers, Oxford Art Factory, 28 Nov; and Bliss N Eso, The Standard, 28 Nov. The Music is also hosting a couple of late nights at Upstairs Beresford, partnering with Chugg Music, 26 Nov and MGM, 27 Nov, with Bad//Dreems helping us party at the latter. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we’ll be announcing the full list of acts for both those bills!

THE FREED MENFans here thought all their birthdays had come at once when Sebadoh returned in 2011, touring after a long hiatus away. Understandably, those same crew are going to be bouncing with news the American indie legends are visiting us once more, showing off their first LP in 14 years, Defend Yourself, with capital city shows. The trio play 21 Mar, Corner Hotel, Melbourne; 22 Mar, Annandale Hotel, Sydney; 23 Mar, The Zoo, Brisbane; and 25 Mar, Rosemount Hotel, Perth. “FUCKIN TERRORISTS. NOW

EVERY TIME I FLY I GOTTA FIND CLEAN MATCHED DECENT SOCKS”WHAT’S WORSE THOUGH [@DEANJNORRIS], CLEAN SOCKS OR BLUE METH?

[email protected]

TIME IS RUNNING OUTYou’ve never experienced Muse quite like

this. Muse – Live At Rome Olympic Stadium showcases one of the biggest bands in the

world delivering their largest live production

in 4K Ultra High Definition, the first concert

film to ever use such technology. Witness

the British trio through 8.8 million pixels

when the film is screened around the country

for one night only, 7 Nov, 7pm at Event

Cinemas: George St, Sydney; Chermside,

Brisbane; and Innaloo, Perth, as well as

Village Cinemas: Jam Factory, Melbourne.

RECLAIMING THE DARKNESSRekindling over 30 years of gothic dreams, former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy will sidestep his solo outings to plough into the material that made him famous, performing an entire Bauhaus set in full band mode. These Mr. Moonlight shows will be the first time in almost a decade that Murphy has played a complete set of material from the iconic British group, taking place 10 Dec, The Hi-Fi, Brisbane; 11 Dec, Manning Bar, Sydney; and 12 Dec, Corner Hotel, Melbourne.


PAYING YOUR DUESDetroit native Carl Craig helped put the Motor City on the techno map. Infusing jazz and soul flourishes into his chunky cut beats, he’s seen as a pioneer, yet one who’s still performing at the top of his game. He’ll take over Bowler Bar on Valley Fiesta weekend, 22 Nov alongside Cosmo Cater, Fuzion, Strange Yonder DJs and Percy Miracles, with first release tickets on sale now through Pulse Tickets for $20+BF.

local news

CARL CRAIG

STARRY EYED SUPPORTSWith a voice designed to move you whole, Patrick James is a name you’re going to be hearing a whole lot more of in the future. After announcing a national tour a couple of months back, the Sydneysider has now revealed the full bill of supports that will join him at Black Bear Lodge, 27 Nov. Having already shared a stage together at BIGSOUND this year, The Starry Field will be coming to the party once more, while local ladies The Phoncurves will also play an integral part in proceedings. Tickets are still available through Oztix, with the evening proudly presented by The Music.

STUFF THIS INTO YOUR STOCKINGSAll you want for Christmas is to lose your front teeth... Alright, probably not, but that’s more likely than gaining them when South Oz party animals Hightime visit our Sunshine State to tear us a new one. They headline the free A Hooting Tooting Christmas, Fat Louie’s, 6 Dec with Driven Fear, Army Of Champions and Stolen Bikes Ride Faster, before playing Time Machine, Nambour, 7 Dec and Rock N Roll BBQ, 633 Ann, 8 Dec.

WAITING FOREVERSorry gang, but the upcoming tour from California’s Forever Came Calling has been postponed. The band was scheduled to play with Monuments at Trinity Church Hall (afternoon/all ages) and Thriller, Coniston Lane (evening/18+), 30 Nov and The Grid, Toowoomba (all ages), 1 Dec. When we find out more info regarding rescheduling you’ll be the first to know.

FIESTA QMASHOWCASE ANNOUNCEDBig ups to Brisbane City Council for throwing another few names into the Valley Fiesta pot, with a sweet mix of Queensland’s finest joining the line-up on 24 Nov. The Queensland Music Awards Showcase will play host to Cub Sport, Kingfisha, MKO, Ange Takats and Harmony James, with the event all free and all fun from 2pm on the Brunswick Street Mall Stage.

LARGE TIMESThe Gentleman Giant of Brisbane, Jimi Beavis, will release an album entitled exactly that, but not before he previews some of the new tracks at Black Bear Lodge, 1 Dec. Cut with his band at Parsonage Studios, he’ll bring that same personal energy to the stage, with support on the night coming from rock’n’roll revivalists Johnny & The Fembots and lovely lady Sahara Beck.

“I’M NEVER ACCIDENTALLY LATE TO SEE YOUR BAND”JOHN VIENER @MYGIVEUP OFFERS NO EXCUSES.

[email protected]

GUINEAFOWL

THE RAILWAY MAN

BIG BIFF BILL FOR 2013 The Brisbane International Film Festival has just unveiled its extensive program for 2013, with 137 films, including 45 Australian premieres, to be screened across the event’s 12 days, from 13 to 24 Nov. Opening this year’s BIFF will be The Railway Man, filmed in south east Queensland starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, while the festival will conclude with 12 Years A Slave, a stirring piece of cinema produced by Brad Pitt that recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. For the full program, cinema details and more, head to biff.com.au.

FOWL LANGUAGEI Hope My City Loves Me Still is the new EP from Sam Guineafowl Yeldham, a short, sharp collection of songs that shows the Sydneysider’s continuing maturation as a songwriter. Hear all the gorgeous twists, moments of introspection and elements of pure joy that these new cuts hold when he fleshes out the work on stage 12 Dec, Alhambra Lounge and 13 Dec, Beach Hotel, Byron Bay, with summery three-piece Set Sail. Guineafowl will also act as support for the Birds Of Tokyo show, happening 11 Dec, Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast.

BOMBS AWAYContinuing to deliver captivating indie rock, Sydney’s Battleships will show their worth on local stages across the next few months. The band are here in the coming weeks supporting Boy & Bear during their national tour (7 Nov, Beach Hotel, Byron Bay; 8 Nov, Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast; 9 Nov, The Tivoli), but will return for headline shows in the summer, playing 13 Dec, Solbar, Maroochydore and 14 Dec, The Hideaway, with Vancouver Sleep Clinic and Govs.


THE TEMPO HOTEL388 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley.

18+ ID Required. Management reserve the right to refuse entry.

WED 30 OCT from 7:00PM

FREE ENTRY

THURS 31 OCT from 7:30PM

$34.70

FRI 1 NOV from 7:00PM

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SAT 2 NOV from 7:00PM

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SUN 3 NOV from 6:00PM

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MON 4 NOV from 7:30PM

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TUES 5 NOV from 11:00AM

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WED 6 NOV from 7:30PM

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THURS 31 OCT from 9PM

FRI 1 NOV from 10PM

SAT 2 NOV from 10PM

TUES 5 NOV

SUN 10 NOV

FRI 22 NOV

THURS 5 DEC

FRI 6 DEC

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THURS 31 OCT

HALLOWEEN GOONS OF DOOM, ELEGANT SHIVA, THE SINGLE FIN

1,2,3 NOV

BYRON LATIN FIESTA

FRI 8 NOV

THE NEW HIGH

SAT 9 NOV

LIME CORDIALE

FRI 15 NOV

FYAHWALK

SAT 16 NOV

MY BYRON RIOT

THURS 21 NOV

MIKAL CRONIN

FRI 22 NOV

BAND OF FREQUENCIES

SAT 23 NOV

THE FUMES

SUN 24 NOV

STONEFIELD

FRI 29 NOV

THE BADLANDS

SAT 30

A LITTLE PROVINCE

MON 9 DEC

THE MELVINS & HELMET

WED 18 DEC

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE

local news

IMPOSSIBLY AMAZINGShowcasing the formidable songwriting talents of twin masterminds Timothy Carroll and Oscar Dawson, Holy Holy’s anticipated debut record will get shown off when the modern indie band stir the pot at Black Bear Lodge, 21 Nov. This show looks set to cap off a monumental year for the band in style, so be part of the action – tickets through Oztix.

HOLY HOLY

CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN’ RACKETTES

FALLS ROUND UPThe final acts have been announced for Falls Festival this year, with Anna Lunoe, Born Ruffians, Cub Sport, Lunatics On Pogosticks, Potato Potato, Questlove DJ Set, Touch Sensitive, Tyler Touche, Wave Racer all adding a little something something to the bill at North Byron Parklands, 31 Dec to 3 Jan. In other news, Hot 8 Brass Band won’t be visiting us due to illness; luckily, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes will maintain the sexy quota for some Boogie Nights, while comedians Amos Gill, Dave Callan, David Quirk, Michael Hing, Nath Valvo and Ronny Chieng are in it just for laughs.

JUNGLE GIANTS ARE DOUBLE DATINGThose young scamps in The Jungle Giants don’t want to leave any fans

high and dry during their Learn To Exist launch tour, which is why they’re

putting on one more under-18 date,

happening at Alhambra Lounge, 2 Nov,

with support from The Belligerents and The Missing. Tickets via Oztix.

TWIST AND SHOUTFans of rockabilly culture will be kicking up

their heels at the family-friendly BrizVegas Kustom Karnival which is rolling into

town this Sunday, taking over Acacia Ridge

Hotel from 11am to 6pm. Alongside some

sexy arse hotrods you can also see musical

performances from Texas’ very own Marti Brom, the Roy Kay Trio from Seattle,

and Aussie acts Dan & The Dualtones,

The Hi-Boys, The Zephyr Project and DJ Leapin’ Lawrie. Tickets can be

purchased now through the event website

for $20+BF, with children under-15 free.

SET TO MOVEIt’s going to get hectic this Friday night

at Bowler Bar when progressive genre

fuckers Âme return to Brisbane with fellow

European beat maker Matthias Tanzmann for an absolute rinse out underneath The

Tempo Hotel. Tickets can be purchased

through Pulse Tickets for $20+BF, and with

local acts Tim Fuchs, Fergus Alexander and Jaime Forson also stepping into the

booth, this night is going to go all the way.

“THERE’S NOTHING MORE SATISFYING THAN BREAKING YOUR 3D GLASSES AFTER SEEING A $19 IMAX FILM”EVEN GRAVITY ISN’T HOLDING @HARMARSUPERSTAR BACK.


[email protected]

SONIC ORGYYour senses are going to be fucked. Yeah, we

said it. Singaporean techno is set to come at

you courtesy of Xhin, who is headlining the

Halloween weekend edition of Illegal, with

a tidy list of other players involved including

DJ Wolf, DJ Zombi, Domestic Sphe,

Straylight, Leaper and Club Sound Witches.

Set across two rooms at 113 Alfred Street,

4ZZZ Radio’s Bastard Theatre presents these

sounds from the underground on 1 Nov.

MAKING THEIR VISIT COUNTVenturing north from the surf coast of

Victoria, Victoriana Gaye will be exploding

into your hearts and minds with their

colourful mash-ups of sounds. Already

set to play Mullum Music Festival,

Mullumbimby, 23-24 Nov, they’ll be

arriving in our region a few weeks early,

playing 10 Nov, The Treehouse, Byron

Bay; 12 Nov, The Bug, New Farm

Bowls Club; 14 Nov, The End; 15 Nov,

Queen St Mall (5pm); 16 Nov, The

Up Front Club, Maleny; and 17 Nov,

The She Oak Shack, Fingal Head.

CASTAWAYSThey’re set to drop their debut album

early next year, but before we get a

full-length to hook on to, Sydney duo

Fishing are going to hold a few special

club nights next months. Eager to show

off their tasty little remix of Flume’s

Insane, you can get your weekend freak

on at Alhambra Lounge, 16 Nov.

SOWN ACROSS THE LANDAfter gallivanting about during the winter with

the likes of Tim Rogers and Mick Thomas, Sal Kimber will lead her group The Rollin’ Wheel north for a headline show, 21 Nov, at The

Joynt with Swamp Thing from New Zealand.

The band will also appear at the Mullum

Music Festival, Mullumbimby, 22 to 24 Nov.

HITCH A RIDESeen as one of the pioneers of glitch beat,

German sound manipulator Oval will give

his belated introductions to Australians

on 7 Nov, with the creative brains behind

the moniker, Markus Popp, bringing his

plethora of sounds to the stage at the

Institute Of Modern Art. Free from 7pm.


Basement Level - Wintergarden Centre Queen Street Mall - Brisbane City

PH 07 3211 9881 FAX 07 3211 9890 Email [email protected]

MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER

MIC’S TRIVIA 7PM

FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER

LOCKY 5PM

STRINGS FOR AMMO 9PM

DJ BRYSENBERG- HALLOWEEN PARTY 12AM

SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER

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HALLOWEEN PARTY

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TIME TO GET ILL

music

He quietened the haters with his last album, but now Melbourne MC Illy feels comfortable to explore his unique rappinghood on Cinematic. “I love writing big hooks,” he admits to Aleksia Barron.

Photos Kane Hibberd.

Back in 2009, Googling “Illy” produced a page of hits related to the Italian coffee brand. The other Illy – an up-and-coming young hip hop

artist from Melbourne – was only just beginning to sneak onto the radar with his debut album Long

Story Short and its hit single Pictures. These days, the Illy known also as Al Murray commandeers the top few spots on Google, with the coffee brand relegated to halfway down the page. The fresh-faced young artist of 2009 is now a bona fide veteran of Australian hip hop, and he’s got plenty of gas left in the tank. He’s overcome a severe back injury, played hundreds of shows and is gearing up for the release of Cinematic, his fourth studio album and the first released on his own label ONETWO.

Cinematic represents a return to stylistic form for Murray, as well as renewed confidence in his work. Laden with grandeur and packed with lush, genre-skipping beats (largely courtesy of his longtime collaborator M-Phazes), it represents the evolution of Murray’s songwriting and worldview. Anyone with triple j on their radar will likely already be familiar with the album’s lead single On & On, which has enjoyed plenty of airplay over the last few weeks. Guests on the album range from hip hop royalty Drapht and Hilltop Hoods to Daniel

at least hold my own.” The album featured some of the country’s most skilled MCs, including Reason and Mantra, and there wasn’t a single singer letting loose over a big hook to be found. In departing from the safer trajectory of making another more fan-friendly album, Murray knew he might alienate his most ardent supporters. “I’m very proud of [Bring It Back], but it didn’t have the same impact that The

Chase did, and I had a lot of people who were fans – where it left them a bit confused,” he says. “I knew that was going to happen, it’s the nature of what the album was, but [with Cinematic] I wanted

longtime producer and friend M-Phazes who took on the lion’s share of the work for Cinematic. According to Murray, neither of them can still quite believe the record is finished. “It’s like a weight that I’m still grappling with: the fact that it’s not there anymore,” laughs Murray. “I still have an inexplicable stress.”

Cinematic is likely to delight rather than shock Murray’s longtime fans, but the biggest surprise of this album might lie in how proud he is of it. He seems to have overcome the industry-driven anxieties that compelled him to prove his old-school hip hop chops on Bring

It Back, and is ready to make the case for the sort of music that he loves. Asked about his new material, he says: “They’re not ‘hip hop tracks’, they’re like songs. There are some banging tracks on this album – it’s not like it’s a pop record, but I enjoy it. I love writing big hooks. I think that’s a skill that I have that I enjoy and I think a lot of people connect with [this]. I think my best songs are when I’m in this mode.”

Murray is blunt when asked how he feels about criticism of his songwriting style. “It’s harder to write this stuff, that’s why not many people do it well,” he responds firmly. “It takes more than just having flow and having lyrics and having bars. I think people will appreciate it for what it is but, if they don’t, that’s not my problem. These tracks aren’t easy to write.”

Merriweather and Amity Affliction vocalist Ahren Stringer, who lends his rock sensibilities to the album’s second single Youngbloods. Packed with likely hits, Murray’s new record feels like the follow-up to his highly successful sophomore album, 2010’s The Chase. The funny part is that Cinematic is not the follow-up at all, chronologically speaking. That would be his unexpected boom-bap record Bring It Back, which he dropped last year.

“Bring It Back was a bit of a departure,” explains Murray. “I really just needed to dip my feet and remind people that I could do that sort of thing.” Despite his origins in the Crooked Eye crew, working with the universally respected M-Phazes and being signed to Obese Records when he was barely out of his teens, Murray’s career has been accompanied by a soundtrack of criticism that he doesn’t make “real” hip hop – and it only got louder as his profile increased. With the success of The Chase, which included the hits It Can

Wait featuring Owl Eyes and the hip hop ballad Cigarettes, Murray became the face for a new, genre-shifting style of rap that wasn’t afraid to hold hands with pop, and a target for people who wanted to see hip hop remain separate from other musical styles.

Murray admits that he made Bring It Back in an effort to quieten the haters. “I felt like I needed to do that, just to remind people that I can go on a track toe to toe with the best dudes in the country and, if not own it,

to bring it back – no pun intended – to what wouldn’t surprise them.”

In fact, the roots of Cinematic existed even before those for Bring

It Back – Murray was performing Youngbloods as early as 2011. “I had [Youngbloods and] a couple of demos ready, and then I started working on Bring It

Back and those tracks were sort of put on the backburner,” he says. “The real work [on Cinematic] started in earnest in January this year, and it really kicked into gear around February. The last six months have been flat-out with it.” The record features production from the likes of Jan Skubiszewski, Stylaz Fuego and Cam Bluff, but it’s his

In fact, the hip hop purist attitudes are less important to

Murray than ever. “I think that attitude has been dying

for a long time. My generation are like the third real

generation of Australian hip-hop artists and we’re not

the young guys anymore,” he muses. “We’re coming into

our own and there’s people underneath us who don’t

give a fuck about any of that shit. The kids these days

just want to rap. They’re listening to every genre, and all

these genres coming together, and they’re rapping over

Flume. They’re rapping over house shit. They don’t care.”

Cinematic is an apt title for Murray’s new album – he’s

ready to put himself on the biggest screens possible, to

show his work to all and sundry and proclaim that this

new, boundary-pushing direction of hip hop is what he

loves. The album represents his total commitment to his

style, having been designed for end-to-end listening –

similar to the experience of watching a film. “Cinematic

feels like a really big, epic album,” he explains. “It sounds

big. It has an air of grandeur about it.” Of course,

nothing feels grander than owning and loving what you

do, and it seems like Murray has finally arrived at that

point. There won’t be any need for another throwback

album now that he’s harnessed his forward momentum.

“THE KIDS THESE DAYS JUST WANT TO RAP. THEY’RE LISTENING TO EVERY GENRE, AND ALL THESE GENRES COMING TOGETHER, AND THEY’RE RAPPING OVER FLUME. THEY’RE RAPPING OVER HOUSE SHIT. THEY DON’T CARE.”

WHAT: Cinematic (ONETWO)


BOYZ N THE HOODIlly recruited some of Australia’s finest artists to work on his latest release. Aleksia Barron seeks the dirt.

A particularly significant coup for Illy was getting Aussie hip hop royalty, Hilltop Hoods, to feature on the album. “One of the first shows I went to was a ‘Hoods show at the Corner,” reminisces Illy, aka Al Murray. “I got a fake ID, got snuck in – and now ten years later, to be doing a track with them, it’s crazy.” The track, Coming

Down, even overcame the tyranny of distance. “We did it over two different trips to Adelaide and recorded it in Debris’ studio.” So what are the Hoods like in real life? “You know, you hear all these stories of people meeting people that they’ve looked up to for a long time, and it sucks. I’ve had that: meeting people who turned out to be dicks.” (He wouldn’t name names on the record.) “But those dudes are just kings in the truest sense of the word. They were just the most welcoming and humble dudes. They are the example for how to conduct yourself, no matter what level of success you have. It’s inspiring.”

Daniel Merriweather also appears on Save Me. Merriweather has become something of the feature artist du jour in recent times, cropping up on all sorts of tracks, but Murray reckons he had dibs stretching way back. “Dan’s the guy who sort of picked me out eight or nine years ago,” he says. “I was playing a show in Brunswick to about 20 people and he was one of them. He approached me after the set and invited me down to the studio he was recording at.” In fact, that’s how Murray met the likes of Phrase, Jan Skubiszewski and, eventually, M-Phazes.

M-Phazes is, after all, the yin to Murray’s yang, the Dre to his Eminem. “Phazes is a genius,” says Murray emphatically. “He’s easily the best producer in the country, by far. Without any doubt, he has always made me expect and demand better of myself as an artist. Working with him is amazing.”

Get your candy selection ready, Australia – horrorpunk’s chief ghoul scout Wednesday 13 will be knocking on your door shortly. Brendan Crabb tries to avoid having his house egged.

Taking into account his affinity for schlocky

horror flicks, theatrical rock’n’roll and overall

ghoulish aesthetic presentation, there’s one

annual event whereby demand for glam-punker Wednesday 13’s services must be at its zenith -

Halloween. The American vocalist is surely inundated

with invitations to perform on 31 October each year,

which makes the band’s decision to spend the occasion

touring Australia, where said American institution

has but a cult following, somewhat intriguing.

“We get offers all the time,” Wednesday (real name: Joseph Poole) explains, nearing the completion of

a nine-hour tour van drive. “Everyone wants us to

play their backyard; people plan their own private

Halloween parties and offer us a tonne of money

and stuff like that. But we just really worked on

Australia the past couple of years and I think Australia

deserved a Halloween show, so we couldn’t deny that.

I couldn’t think of a better place to spend Halloween

this year. [We want to] give them the best possible

Halloween experience we can, without dying.” The aforementioned visit includes a Sydney gig on

Halloween night so expectations for the (ahem) spook-

tacular event are high, as Wednesday and band will truly

be in their element. “We played London last Halloween,

and that probably set the bar as far as what we can expect

from Halloween shows. I thought the only place that

could even remotely, probably go head-to-head with what

London brought would be Australia. So Australia, you’ve

got something to prove – you’ve got London to beat. “As far as like doing anything super crazy, out of the blue

for Halloween, I don’t think we’re going to do anything

too different. We’re pretty much our own band that’s

Halloween, 365 days a year, so stepping up to make it

even more crazy for Halloween, I don’t know what we

would do, besides set our heads on fire or something. We

don’t have the production to do that, so we just kinda rely

on the whole spirit of Halloween; this is Halloween night

for us. I think the vibe will be in the air. Australia seems

to be the most rabid, crazy place for my fans right now.”

“I’m not on a major label right now, [so] I kinda gotta

get my name out as much as I can. I get bored a lot,

and a lot of my fans see me having to play a lot of

the same places over and over, so a new release for

them can get older quicker than it could to us. So

to constantly be able to put out an EP or something

else… The next thing we’re doing right now is a DVD.

We’ll have a DVD out probably in March or April.

“We’re still working on it, but it’s going to basically

cover our week-long tour that we did in the UK in

Down Under is indeed a

hotspot for the sometime Murderdolls co-leader. “I’ve just seen it build and

build every year, so I don’t

know if it’s just people

are starting to catch on

to what I do, or what. I’m

not going to complain

about it; I love it and it’s

HALLOWEEN ALL YEAR

WHEN & WHERE: 30 Oct, The Hi-Fi

“WE’RE PRETTY MUCH OUR OWN BAND THAT’S HALLOWEEN, 365 DAYS A YEAR.”

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March. Showing like a day in the life of Wednesday

13: what we do and how our fans are. It’s more

or less a behind-the-scenes, as opposed to being

a DVD with surround sound. The live clips are

going to be what they are: basically show the band,

and show what we do. I think that’s what fans

want to see more of, as opposed to a 5.1 surround

sound concert DVD. We’re not doing that. I can

post videos of us playing a song that I think is

a great performance, then I’ll post a video of us

being stupid, throwing up and doing something

dumb, and it’ll get 5000 more views than the actual

concert. It seems that the fans want to see us, being

ourselves, behind what they can normally see.

“As far as the next musical thing Wednesday 13 does,

I’m going to take my time on it… I’m hungry again,

I want to feel like I’m in my youth again, when I first

started writing music and had something to prove.”

a good thing, it’s a good

problem to have. Our

fans are insane… What

we’ve created is a truly

unique, amazing thing.”

Aside from maintaining

a strong connection with

his disciples via avenues

such as social media,

the frontman is reliably

prolific, conditioning

devotees to expect a

new release of some

description each year. Although a follow-up to

latest solo disc, The Dixie Dead, is a little way off (“We won’t start working

on new stuff until March

or April”), another venture

should fill the void.


Sydney’s Jordie Lane is a restless troubadour, and this year’s travels to North America spawned an EP. He tells Ben Preece of the journey, talks formats and these new songs.

As arguably one of Australia’s most acclaimed yet perhaps most underrated troubadours, Jordie Lane has been tirelessly slogging the hard yards

for years now. He’s toured around the country as both aheadliner and as support for the likes of The Moody Blues, Billy Bragg and Ruthie Foster and released a pair of well-received full-length albums. So while releasing an EP at this point in his trajectory could be deemed odd, Lane still defends the album format wholeheartedly.

“I think an album is a great thing to do, you know – take people on a journey – and I hope it sticks around,” Lane says. “Obviously, the singles thing has come in as being really popular, probably more in the pop industry. I’ve heard people starting to release stuff on cassette tape again, which is really funny, and I always wanted to release Blood Thinner

on that because I recorded it on cassette, but I know people don’t want to waste physical materials and stuff. It’s cool that stuff is out there on digital but that will all just get lost in computers falling apart, so yeah, let’s hope the physical release sticks around.”

Which leads us to Not Built To Last, five tracks recorded during his recent journey overseas where he settled in Los Angeles for a couple of months.

“The inside of it is I went in with an album worth of tracks but I had two different producers I wanted to work with – one in LA and one in Nashville – so I broke it in half,” Lane explains. “We were thinking about putting them together but it was always going to be only if the songs wanted to go together. So we ended up deciding to leave them separate and get this EP out straightaway. Hopefully, there will be another one around the corner.”

Flicking through the credits on the EP, the physical copy no less, it becomes quickly apparent that this is no typical affair for Lane. Well, the songwriting side of him at least.

“It was a back and forth. The first track [Here She Comes] was a collaboration with a poet named Benjamin Wild who features on the front cover of my Sleeping Patterns album with dynamite strapped to his chest. He’s been sending me these poems for years and I finally had a look

Dempsey. That song was always my favourite and it really spoke to me. It was the first time I felt a cover song was made for me to sing and it worked with a country band in the studio, so that one had to go on there.”

Touring can be hard at the best of times, any band will testify to that. But Lane not only indulges in the exercise a lot, but he does it alone.

“To be honest, I’m getting lonely,” he laughs, almost shyly. “I’m getting lonely on the road. During that last tour in Canada my SIM card wouldn’t work. So that was isolating – no Facebook, no checking out Instagram

through them about an hour after a flight from LA early this year and I just started singing a melody and recorded it on my iPhone. That song came out like that and was a totally different way for me, using someone’s lyrics. Showing it to him when it was all done was cool.

ANOTHER MAN’S WORDS

WHAT: Not Built To Last (Vitamin Records)

WHEN & WHERE: 31 Oct, Spotted

Cow, Toowoomba; 1 Nov, Black

Bear Lodge; 22 Nov, Mullumbimby

Music Festival, Mullumbimby

“THE INSIDE OF IT IS I WENT IN WITH AN ALBUM WORTH OF TRACKS”

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or Facebook likes or anything. It was strangely one of the most disconnecting, confronting times in my life. It was scary, I was thinking about things that I’ve been trying to put away – those deep, dark feelings you don’t want to think about. But the sad thing was, I’d find myself looking for places each day with wi-fi and then be posting the shit out of, like, ten photos at once. But it was a good experience and I think everybody should put their phone down for a week and try and deal with some things that are going on deep down. Things I really don’t want to talk about right now.”

“The second track [Dead

Of Light] was co-written with [Brisbane’s] Clare Reynolds in Nashville in the week before recording. Lost In You I had five years ago or something that didn’t feel right at the time. I showed it to Skylar Wilson, the producer, and finished that one in Nashville as well. That final track, Think

I Always Thought, was written and recorded by Brendan Welch from Melbourne; he did an album with Paul



French-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier talks to Anthony Carew about her new film, Sister.

When French-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier made her first feature, 2008’s house-by-a-highway parable, Home, she wrote the two

main roles for her two main actors: Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet. Finding the child actor who’d play their eight-year-old son was far trickier, with Meier discovering novice Kacey Mottet Klein on the street. Having never acted, Meier worked more with Klein than any other cast member, undertaking endless rehearsals to help him understand his new craft. “After, I wanted to go further with him, deeper in the work,” says Meier,

calling from Brussels. “He was in my head.”

So she set about writing her second film, Sister, inspired by a childhood memory — from the mountains by her home in Bescançon, France — of a ski lesson during which the instructor warned the kids away from a nearby child-thief who ‘worked’ the resorts. “I was so fascinated that there was a thief in this very expensive place, but also that it was someone my own age, who was always without friends, without parents.”

Shooting for Sister had to start by the time Klein was 12, “because, at that age, he’s not still a child, but not yet a teenager; he’s caught in-between”. Initially,

the younger actor cast a “moral judgment” on his character, a thief providing for himself and his ‘sister’ (Léa Seydoux) by hawking stolen skiing goods on the black market. But Meier slowly taught her young charge the socio-political ideas of the film, inherent in the simple visual of a glittering mountain towering, sunlit, above the smoggy, dirty council towers of a glorified truckstop town down below.

“You have the population of this industrial town that lives merely five minutes below the mountain, but they never go up; it’s like a different world. With just a simple vertical view of these few elements, you can show an image that really says something about our world, about this divide between the people at the top of the mountain and the people at the bottom.”

Sister captures the close proximity of extreme wealth and McJob drudgery. Meier is keen to show the workers’ squalid conditions — “it’s like showing the back of the stage, behind-the-scenes, the place that allows the performance out front to happen” — and even cast Martin Compston. “I liked taking [Compston], who comes from a more socio-political cinematic universe, and putting [him] into this place, which is so very clean, very beautiful, very wealthy.” It wasn’t the only piece of international casting that particularly tickled the filmmaker. “I was excited to cast Scully from X-Files!” Meier laughs, of a role as a glamorous regent of the Alps. “Because Gillian Anderson is like a phantasm, an apparition, this beautiful model of this life — she’s rich, she’s a mother, she loves her children — that, for [Klein], almost seems like science-fiction.”

CAUGHT BETWEEN

WHAT: Sister

In cinemas 31 Oct

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FILM STILL FROM SISTER

As one of the wildest, most frenetic drummers on the planet, Brian Chippendale is a man apart. He breaks down the perceived intricacies of Lightning Bolt with Brendan Telford.

Lightning Bolt have crafted a truly unique trajectory into the world of noise rock. The duo, comprised of Brian Chippendale (drums, vocals)

and Brian Gibson (bass), have evolved in their own inimitable way, crafting five albums in the process. Yet it’s always been in the live arena where Lightning Bolt have held their own, intent on smashing out incendiary performances that constantly break down the fourth wall.

“Yeah, we’ve always had that interest in the physicality of the performance, the weird inclusiveness of performance and all of that,” Chippendale says. “For me on the drumming side pushing myself physically in some ridiculous way would make sense. Most of our shows are compacted, so it’s as if four hours went by because it’s 110 degrees [Fahrenheit] in the room and there’s zero air, so everything’s compressed. Maybe that’s why people like music shows, because you’re judging it on energy expulsion, you’re dealing with three hours of time in a forty-five minute set or something.”

Lightning Bolt started as an art project, and certain features of their shows - playing in amongst the crowd, Chippendale’s crudely-crafted mask and the staccato anything-goes delivery of both instrumentation and vocals - are alluring aspects of this enigmatic act.

“The process has made them, or reinforced the themes and steered the ship in that direction, for sure. That is one thing that I am grateful for from playing on the floor for so long is that it’s made me become a much more physical drummer than I was. I mean I have always been fairly physical about it, I’ve put everything into it, but it’s stopped me from getting lazy. There are many shortcuts for a drummer, but if you are on the floor, not willing to use a PA and really need to go for it to properly fill out a room, there’s not a lot of shortcuts left.”

The duo have other creative outlets – Chippendale with his solo guise Black Pus as well as his artwork and comic strips, Gibson a video games artist – yet it’s the catharsis of getting behind the kit that really drives Chippendale.

“For the last two years the elevator in the building where Brian and I practice has been broken, so after I play, say, a solo show, I’ve got seven hundred pounds of really

for me, and it’s important – it’s survival, like my daily dose of mental stability. Not that I go crazy otherwise, but it’s a healthy way to get through a lot of stuff.”

The incremental shifts in aesthetic have been from something garish and larger-than-life to a willingness to embrace their darker side.

“At the very beginning I think we were very cartoonish, and I think over time we lost a little of that. Definitely not as people, but for some reason the music has lost a little of that sense of humour, I sometimes think. Maybe even my vocal stylings have gotten a little more serious

awkward equipment to carry up these three really long flight of stairs. When I take it down it takes a day; it’s like twenty-three trips or something up and down these stairs. But I noticed recently after a solo show I was lazy, so it took me two days to get it all upstairs, then

POSITIVE AGGRESSION

WHO: Lightning Bolt

WHEN & WHERE: 31 Oct, The Zoo

“AS SOON AS I GOT IT ALL AND SET IT UP AND SAT DOWN TO DRUM, I FELT GOOD AGAIN.”

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whereas before it was a little chirpier... when I listen

back to the first couple of albums we did, especially our

second album, Ride The Skies, it’s all super jerky and

quick changes and loads of starts and stops, and it feels

hyper, like kids... I mean I put on a freaking mask! It’s

this strange balance; some of our shows can be quite

aggressive, which then turns the set into something

pretty dark. But at the same time it feels weird, I mean,

c’mon! This is Lightning Bolt! We’re not Slayer or

anything. For the most part people are there to have a

good time, and whilst the music can go to a dark place...

We’re not dark people, you know? So the cartoonish

aspect comes from aggression rooted in positivity.”

set the shit up on the third day, and I felt kind of depressed for those couple of days. Then as soon as I got it all and set it up and sat down to drum, I felt good again. As the years have gone by, for better or worse, I’ve become addicted to the act of drumming. I mean, I could probably switch over to running or something; it’s a form of exercise. It moderates my brain and moderates my energy levels, it’s great for that sort of thing. It’s a great exercise routine



With numerous solid tours and second album, First Light To My Deathbed, now behind them, Perth group Saviour stands poised to become one of the next Australian metalcore sensations. Vocalist Bryant Best speaks to Lochlan Watt.

Saviour have toured with almost every successful Australian band of their ilk: I Killed The Prom Queen, Northlane, Make Them Suffer, Dream On Dreamer. With a

new record deal with UNFD and a headlining tour just around the corner, they’re certainly on the right track. It wasn’t always going to be this way, however, with the band having apparently “piss-farted around” for a couple of years prior to getting serious in 2009.

“One day we were like, ‘Man, what if we actually made a proper band?’ Our first goal was to just play a show in Perth, and the couple of weeks leading up to that was the most nerve-wracking time in our band’s history. All of a sudden that was no longer a big deal and we moved on to bigger and better things.”

Heavy and melodic, emotive and aggressive, the five-piece deliver dynamic music that traverses a wide spectrum. With their second album, the band expanded things further and tried their hand at a conceptual release. The album title works on multiple levels, First

Light being the point of birth and Deathbed being, well, you know, but Best reveals that it’s also “a concept album about a couple going through drug addiction”.

“I’ve had a few friends go through it pretty bad. It was one of those ones that I felt quite strongly about. I wanted to portray a message through it. Leading up to the writing of the album I was watching a lot of films as well. I was influenced [by] movies like Requiem For A Dream and Trainspotting, just those sort of films to get me into the feeling and into the mood of the gravity of the situations I was writing about. It was awesome writing like that – I was able to really connect with the characters I created, even though they weren’t necessarily about myself.”

Does this mean that Saviour is a band that has a stance against drug use, or is the album more from an objective angle? “I’m not too strongly against [drug use] in that sense. I’ve got friends that are recreational users, and that’s fine. With this I was just trying to… it was more about the people that are really stuck in the rut. This album was more just telling a tragic tale of what it can do to you, and how it can affect people around you.

“This album compared to our last is a lot more polished. We had more direction with where we were going with it. We had the storyline set before we even started writing the first song. Musically we knew what we wanted a bit more. Just writing around emotion as well, we kind of came up with the saying ‘emotion is the potion’, and if we weren’t feeling anything from the song we’d ditch it.”

STIRRING THE POT

WHAT: First Light To My Death Bed (UNFD)

WHEN & WHERE: 7 Nov, Snitch,

X&Y Bar; 8 Nov, Tall Poppy Studio (all ages)

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music

Giuliano Ferla watches the cards turn at the Melbourne Psychic Expo.

21ST CENTURY SNAKE OIL

culture

It’s a windy and wet Sunday and I am hungover.

I’m going to the Darebin Performing Arts and

Entertainment Centre to see the Melbourne

Psychic Expo. I am not full of faith. I’m tired and

cranky, but I want to give this thing a fair chance. I

sit in my car with the heater on and repeat to myself,

“Keep an open mind.” I walk to the entrance and

pay the five dollar admission. The smell of incense,

which hits me like a perfumed brick, is a bad omen.

I start poking around the foyer to see what I’m in

for. The first stall I see is full of crystals and cast-

iron dragons. A woman (the customer) sits at a

table. She holds a crystal, while a man (the seller)

waves his hands over the top. He wears a sombrero

and a pair of Adidas button-down trackpants.

He augurs. I can smell something else in here

besides the incense. I think it might be bullshit.

There are a bunch of free talks going on so I check

the timetable. I’ve missed ‘An Introduction To

Witchcraft’, which sucks, and nothing else really grabs

my attention. I walk through the foyer to the main

expo room where psychics’ stalls are set up in a big

circle. Each psychic has their own particular divination

style – tarot, palmistry, astral readings, etc. I do the

lap a few times. Every stall, from Aura Photography

to Zodiac Charts, is occupied, apart from the lonely

Scientologist’s. Bad press seems to have followed

Scientology even into this spiritually yearning, New

Age crowd. I stop and take stock of what I see.

Common Words:Crystal

Reiki

Healing – esp. in its noun form, and then always preceded by a noun adjunct, e.g. Crystal Healing or Reiki Healing.

Ancient

Master

(‘Free’ was an almost completely absent word. Its sole appearance was for the ‘Free Stress Tests’ at the lonely Scientologist’s stall.)

Identifiable Types:The Hippy – dreadlocked, paisley-patterned.

The Gypsy – headscarved, heavily eyelined, costume-bejewelled.

The Suit – only one, lended him an air of authority until I saw the Phrenology bust on his table. Quack.

The Viking – never actually dressed like one, but their stalls were always cluttered with dragon (dragyn?) statues serpentinely curled around crystals.

The Christian – never actually promoting Christ, but superficially informed by the Christian aesthetic, i.e. angels, demons, etc.

A lot of these identifiable types were mixed. It wasn’t uncommon to see a Viking/Christian or Hippy/Gypsy. The rest, who made up about a third, were cliché-free.

I sit down at a Gypsy fortune-teller’s stall. I choose her because she seems the tackiest and therefore most entertaining. After I sit down at her table I see that she charges $40 for 15 minutes. Choking a little bit with surprise, I say, “You charge $40 for 15 minutes.”

“Yes,” she says.

There is a long pause as I process this information, during which a few awkward glances are shared. I get up quickly and keep walking.

I pause for a little while and look out the window at the Bell Street McDonald’s. I start to process what this expo is all about. The five dollar entry fee, the $40 psychic readings, the quackery, the crystals, the hope. All these things have added up in my mind to tell me that this expo is all about commerce. Commerce is the engine that drives this entire thing. I ask myself how the McDonald’s is different from this expo, and why does this expo annoy me more? It doesn’t take me long to realise


“THIS EXPO IS A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO SELL

BELIEF, BUT SHOULD BELIEF BE SOLD LIKE THIS?”

that I am annoyed because this expo is selling things for people to believe in. The McDonald’s across the road sells food, a basic human need. And let’s just say that belief is another human need. Then this expo is a place for people to sell belief, but should belief be sold like this? Can hope be commercialised? The customers here have laboured for their dollars, dollars that are now being spent on the quest for spiritual meaning, but spirituality isn’t something that you can pay for; spirituality is something that needs to be cultivated. And that’s what really rubs me, here at the psychic expo. The crystals, the prayer beads, the aura photographs: these things are just as hokey as that pseudo-gypsy fortune teller. They’re meant to represent the soulful awareness of the purchaser. But they don’t. What they do represent is the purchaser’s desire to be perceived as soulfully aware. But in reality it comes across as cheap faker. It’s the spirituality industry.

I feel I’m being a bit black and white here. To clarify, I believe that there are things in the universe that are way beyond humanity’s grasp or our capacity for understanding. For this reason I’m hesitant to completely write off things like extra-sensory perception or even foreknowledge; I’d be a fool to think that the world can be reduced to only the material and measurable. I remember going to the Mind, Body, Spirit expo with my mum. I would’ve been 17 at the time, and in deep, pubescent need of guidance and reassurance. I went to see a (free) psychic there, and she told me that I was on my path

and that I should invest in myself more, which encouraged me. And maybe encouragement and self-discovery and belief are enough of a benefit to justify the psychic industry.

I did another lap of the stalls and landed again at the Scientologist’s table, the only stall that offered a free service. I sat down and chatted to the guy. His name was Mark and he built verandahs for a living. Mark manned the Scientology stall on Sundays for a few bucks an hour. I grabbed the e-meter and we started talking. He told me about the analytic and reactive minds. He asked me questions. He didn’t preach, push or ask anything of me in return. We just shot the shit for 20 minutes. He was a nice guy.


just because it’s so long and jammy – and then with the rest of them it’s different with every song, just with the arrangements and recording and putting them together,” he outlines. “The recording is mostly not all of us in one place – it’s usually a few of us recording some bits somewhere, and then we’ll go and record some other shit somewhere else. Then someone comes up with an idea for a keyboard part or something and we’ll put that on – it’s all very much built around a framework of ‘whatever happens happens’ kinda thing.

“When we started putting this record together I think the first song we recorded was Head On/Pill, and in a way we built the rest of the album around that. We probably did 15 or 20 tracks – either finished or half-finished – and there’s only eight on the album. I think we just found songs that fit with that vibe and just built them around that, so it’s vaguely conceptual... it’s sort of a sonic and vibe concept. I think we just didn’t want to make a punk album, in a lot of ways. Not that we don’t want to do that ever again, just that with this album we wanted to make it sonically deep and kind of more psychedelic in the classic sense than we’ve ever done before – we were working around those vague ideas. And I think just the music we were listening to at the time – we were listening to a lot of T-Rex, although I don’t know whether that comes through. I think it does to us, but whether it makes that much sense to anyone else is hard to tell.”

King Gizzard definitely has a core sound – a trippy surf-garage-psych concoction – but there are plenty of deviations into further sonic realms, a trait that Mackenzie explains is entirely conscious.

“Yeah, I like to think that we deliberately try to widen what we’re doing,” he smiles. “I reckon that ten years

They may have one of the most inane band names in rock’n’roll, but Melbourne outfit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are far from a joke. Frontman Stu Mackenzie tells Steve Bell that with this band if it’s no fun it just ain’t gonna happen.

When pundits discuss prolificacy amongst recording artists they often cite the halcyon days of yore when high profile bands like The

Beatles and The Beach Boys would churn out two – sometimes even three – albums in a year, rushing to satiate the massive demand for their product in a nascent pop market where they were yet to experience any substantial competition. For the most part, though, those days of such creative freedom are well and truly over – unless, of course, you’re multi-headed Melbourne psych exponents King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, in which case (as their name suggests) you just do as you damn well please.

The esoteric seven-piece dropped their debut long-player 12 Bar Bruise in September last year, then followed that up with the awesome spaghetti western-inspired concept opus Eyes Like The Sky

less than six months later. Now they’ve capped an incredible creative streak by releasing their excellent third album Float Along – Fill Your Lungs

barely 12 months on from introducing their debut. Anyone can churn out music at a rate of knots, but doing so and maintaining quality control throughout the process is no mean feat, something the King Gizzard crew have managed with ease.

“I think we’ve just being getting more and more into home recording, and just getting deeply kind of obsessed with that,” explains frontman Stu Mackenzie. “It’s almost like we accidentally came out with all that material. I think other people might write a bunch of songs and then stress over them and learn them and change them and do all this stuff and then record them after a long time has passed, whereas I think that we’re more likely to just write a song and record it that day and do it that way. It’s a pretty efficient way of getting shit done.

“I think the band – even if it doesn’t come across that way – is first and foremost a recording project. Pretty much all of the songs that we’ve ever done have come about as a recording first before they’ve been played live or anything. So it’s a recording project more than anything, especially Eyes Like The

Sky which is an obvious example of that.”

Mackenzie is King Gizzard’s chief songwriter but far from their sole creative force, and he explains that the process has been getting more collaborative – and more piecemeal – as time goes by.

“On Float Along...

Cook [Craig – guitar] wrote Pop In My Step, Ambrose [Kenny-Smith – harmonica] and I wrote Let Me

Mend The Past together, [opening 16-minute opus] Head On/Pill was pretty collaborative with everybody – probably more than anything we’ve ever done before,

A MAGIC SPELL

WHAT: Float Along – Fill Your Lungs

(Flightless/Dot Dash/Remote Control)

WHEN & WHERE: 1 Nov,

Alhambra Lounge

“I’M SEMI-A.D.D. SO I GET BORED WITH THINGS EASILY.”

down the track if the band’s still going that if we’ve done whatever we wanted to do, in terms of making whatever kind of style of music we wanted to, that would be cool. Plus I’m semi-ADD so I get bored with things easily and want to do something different all the time.”

And don’t bother trying to get to the bottom of King Gizzard’s lyrics either...

“I wrote the bulk of the lyrics, but I dunno, it’s probably easier for someone else to analyse where they’re coming from – for some reason being on the inside of it, it’s hard to think, ‘What does this all mean?’ I suppose there’s some central theme, but I’m not a hugely wordy person so in terms of the lyrics I write I want them to be simple and open. I don’t like being too personal either, because if I write really personal stuff it just makes me feel sad,” Mackenzie laughs heartily. “That’s no fun.”

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of hardcore they all loved. “With our previous bands, everything was really eclectic and there was such a mix of influences. For this band we weren’t sure whether to stick to one sound or keep that experimental vibe and have a variety of sounds on the record. There were a lot of late nights and long chats about how we wanted to sound. And I think in the end, after a few arguments, we just figured that we’re a new band, so we can do what we want. So we just started writing and keeping ourselves happy was the only real goal.” Hellions then got into what would become Die Young, the most auspicious debut the Australian hardcore scene has seen in a long damn time. “We went in and started laying down rough tracks. It didn’t really take too long at all. Within two months we had most of the record written and ready to go.”

It’s been a fast ride for Hellions, but it’s one indicative of the band’s immense talent. And while it hasn’t allowed very long for fans of House Vs Hurricane and The Bride to grieve those bands’ passings, Caruso hopes that kids will soon embrace Hellions for what they are. “Fans of the previous bands tend to get defensive about the new band’s sound and stuff like that. And it’s kind of hard to take sometimes. We accept it, and it’s just what people do, but it’s a little bit of a bum out when you see a flyer and it says ‘ex-The Bride’. There’s not really any need for that any more. We’ve been around for a few months and people know the deal by now.”

With Die Young, Sydney’s Hellions are poised to supersede the band’s impressive pedigree. Drummer Anthony Caruso talks about the group’s formation with Tom Hersey.

“At the start, we wanted people to know who we are, and where we’ve came from. But we don’t really want to be compared to our

previous bands; we want to be able to stand on our own two feet as Hellions.” Unless you’re Josh Homme, Dave Grohl or Ian MacKaye, if you leave one band to start another, chances are people will talk about your new band with a caveat about ‘featuring members of…’ Like death or taxes, it’s pretty much inevitable in the music world. Therefore, discussing the debut album of post-hardcore outfit Hellions, it’s impossible to ignore the

fact that the band was formed out of members of The Bride and House Vs Hurricane. “When The Bride called it quits, three of us weren’t ready to give up writing music so we decided to start something new and fresh. Dylan played bass in House and was a really good friend of ours and when House disbanded he was keen to jump on board.”

After Hellions had sorted out their personnel, Caruso says the band got straight into deciding what they were going to sound like. They wanted to escape the somewhat prominent shadow of their previous bands, but stay true to the type

A BRAND NEW HELL

WHAT: Die Young (UNFD/Warner)

WHEN & WHERE: 3 Oct,

Snitch, X&Y Bar; 31 Oct, The

Tempo Hotel; 1 Nov, Expressive

Grounds, Gold Coast (all ages)

music

Working with a producer who doesn’t like their music, peeing with ghosts, being heckled by Phil Jamieson – it’s been a crazy trek through Eskimo Joe’s Wastelands. Kav Temperley lays it out for Carley Hall.

“We played at the oldest working theatre in Australia last night and it had a haunted bathroom, so every time you

went for a wee, like, midstream you’d get really scared. Everyone was putting off going for a wee all night.”

Not the typical rock’n’roll anecdote one hears from tales on the road: more of an awkward ice-breaker. But then Eskimo Joe never claimed to be a typical rock’n’roll outfit, according to singer and bassist Kav Temperley. The Fremantle trio kicked off their now indisputably solid career in the throes of Western Australia’s indie rock uprising in the late ‘90s, launching themselves onto the fickle scene with indie rock pop gems like Who Sold Her Out and Sweater. Then came the record contracts and a push towards a rockier sound. By the time Black Fingernails, Red Wine arrived in 2006, it came as no surprise to anyone when the lads won ARIAs, APRAs and WAMis all to the tune of ‘best rock band’, that is except Temperley, guitarist Stuart Macleod and drummer/guitarist Joel Quartermain.

“We never try to make the same record twice,” Temperley stresses. “And I think, and it’s no fault of anybody, that what happened post-Black Fingernails, Red Wine is that we started to make those kind of records. We didn’t really consider ourselves a rock band. We came from Freo indie pop, listening to things like Blur and Grandaddy. And then we ended up in this world where people were like, ‘Oh, you guys are this big rock band’. And we were like, ‘Are we? Oh okay’. So we got stuck with that for a while but then it started to get a bit boring.”

At the close of the promotion cycle for Eskimo Joe’s fifth album Ghosts Of The Past, that had last year’s highly rotated single Love Is The Drug, Temperley reflected on it via their website and said the band felt “dusty”. With an album released every other year and masses of touring in between, he says the band’s hectic work schedule was a wake-up call. “I just felt exhausted by everything, by the industry, by the kind of Groundhog Day of we do a tour, then we sit down and write a record, we record the record, we do a tour,” Temperley admits. “You know, a bit of the spontaneous magic goes out of it.

producer to oversee what was going to be their sixth album. And his response?

“He said, ‘You know guys, I’m not really a fan of what you’ve done [in the past]’,” Temperley laughs. “And we said, ‘That’s fine, because that’s not what we’re doing this time’. We’d been following his stuff for a while and he’d been developing a reputation for getting bands to make a left-hand turn, and quite successfully. We sent him a couple of demos and he said there’s definitely something in there, keep sending them. So he came over and we just went for it, and he was really great at pushing us out of our comfort zones.”

“It wasn’t like I was going

to quit the industry and

go and work on a farm or

something, but I needed

a complete change of

pace and direction. So

I put that to the guys

and said, ‘We’ve gotta

do something different,

I’m fucking over this’.

And they were like, ‘Yep,

cool let’s do it’. So we

BRAND NEW DAY

WHAT: Wastelands (Dirt Diamonds)

WHEN & WHERE: 31Oct, The Hi-Fi

“IT WASN’T LIKE I WAS GOING TO QUIT THE INDUSTRY AND GO AND WORK ON A FARM OR SOMETHING, BUT I NEEDED A COMPLETE CHANGE.”

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Another aspect of the Joe’s foray into new territory was the Pozible funding campaign behind Wastelands. While Temperley rejoices that it banished the line between the band and their fans created by their former relationship with Warner, Grinspoon’s Phil Jamieson called shenanigans on the move, saying, “Eskimo Joe shouldn’t need to go to those sort of lengths, considering their past success.” “I think he’s getting as much press out of this as we are!” Temperley laughs. “Bless, someone’s got to keep it interesting.”

sat down and we had a lot of fights in the first few weeks of recording because everyone has a different idea of what the new sound should be.”

After a year-and-a-half of writing songs for new album Wastelands, Temperley says the band eventually arrived at the same place at the same time. Enter Gerling’s Burke Reid. The Joe approached the now esteemed


Could we live beyond life through our social media footprint? This is just one thought that intrigues Charlie Brooker, as he tells Guy Davis.

AFTERLIFE AS A HASHTAG

Charlie Brooker would like to make it clear he hasn’t abducted a child. The intermittent cries in the background are coming from his

own young son Covey, “a very upset media consumer” unhappy that his favourite Mr Men video has come to an end. After placating his child with the latest exploits of the accident-prone Mr Bump, Brooker returns to the task at hand, slightly amazed that his offspring has already become tech-savvy at an alarmingly young age.

“He goes over to the TV and tries to swipe it like an iPad,” Brooker marvels. “He’s 18-months-old and he’s probably disgusted by how lo-fi the TV is. He’s never going to sit still and watch something his dad made. Why would he?”

Oh, there are plenty of reasons why, primary among them the fact that Brooker is one of the more interesting, provocative voices out there in terms of the kind of humour that adds a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Brooker being Brooker though, he does tend to lace even that sugar with a dash of strychnine.

As an example, here’s the multi-talented writer, columnist and broadcaster on White Bear, an episode of Black Mirror, his series of teleplays looking at society’s complex and sometimes troubling relationship with technology: “It’s The Truman Show meets Groundhog

Day meets oh my fucking God get me out of here.”

That said, White Bear is probably among the least humourous of the Black Mirror storylines, and that’s saying something when you’re talking about scenarios that include a terrorist forcing the British prime minister

to fuck a pig on live television. (That was the set-up of The National

Anthem, the first Black

Mirror episode to air.)

Still, there’s a wicked cackle in Brooker’s voice when he says Black

Mirror is “designed to massively unsettle”. His view of the world, at least the way it exhibits itself in his work (such as his annual Screenwipe television specials or his columns for The

Guardian newspaper), can combine the humorous and the harrowing. But he claims he’s nowhere near as caustic or cynical as he may appear.

“When people meet me, and they know me from the ‘wipe shows or The Guardian columns, they think I’m going to be this furious, massively opinionated arsehole... when really I’m just an arsehole.” He laughs. “I tend to

be goofier than people expect, and probably a lot more ignorant and stupid and shallow than people expect.”

Brooker is being more than a little self-deprecating here, and viewers may agree after catching any of Black

Mirror, the two seasons of which are now available on DVD. Slightly futuristic in their tone and style, each Black Mirror story explores how aspects of technology – be it social media, interactive entertainment or even just our increasing reliance on mobile phones and other such gadgets – are infiltrating our lives and changing the way we relate and react to one another. (The title, Brooker says, refers to the dark screen of a computer monitor, a television or a smartphone.)

In episodes like Be Right Back, for example, a grieving widow finds that she is able to communicate with her late husband through an app that uses every email he ever sent, every voicemail he ever left and every social media status update he ever posted to recreate his personality. And in White Bear, a woman wakes from a coma-like state to find some kind of virus has turned ten per cent of the population into violent killers...and the other 90 per cent into mindless zombies happy to record the carnage on their camera-phones.

“There you go; there’s a feel-good parable for the modern age!” chuckles Brooker. “We like to put in at least one that will drag you down to your lowest depths, and that was it this time around.”

Inspiration for the White Bear episode was drawn from a number of sources – Brooker says he was rattled by news footage of people filming the dead, desecrated body of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.


tv

CHARLIE BROOKER BEHIND THE SCENES FROM BLACK MIRROR EP1, S1

TOM CULLEN (BLACK MIRROR S1)

“I TEND TO BE GOOFIER THAN PEOPLE EXPECT.”


WHAT: Black Mirror Collection

(Madman Entertainment)

Be Right Back, however, had its origins in Brooker’s own reliance on Twitter and other social networks for human interaction following the birth of his son.

“You spend a lot of time up late at night, and that was my only contact with the outside world. I remember thinking ‘What if this is an illusion and all these people are dead?’ And that then led to this idea about software that could mimic you based on what it knew about you. It’s quite an intriguing notion because the more you think about it, the more you think about whether it would be you. Because are you really you on social networking sites? I think the answer is no; I think it’s a performance.”

A self-confessed “gadget geek and video-game nut”, Brooker admits his relationship with technology is “conflicted”.

“Broadly speaking, I’m pro-technology,” he admits. “It’s an interesting frontier. But at the same time I’m a scaredy-cat and I sometimes worry that we’re creating things we can’t control. Social media, for instance, is ‘an absolute miracle’ in many ways, something that allows people to communicate and share important information almost instantaneously. On the other hand, you can have a situation where thousands of people tell a 13-year-old girl to kill herself because she recorded a song they didn’t like. So it’s the rough with the smooth. I don’t know if it’s made us any happier. It’s made us more efficient and more informed but it’s also made us more confused.”

DANIEL KALUUYA AND JESSICA BROWN FINDLAY (BLACK MIRROR S1)

GIVEAWAYWe have two

Charlie Brooker packs to give

away per state.

They include a copy of the Black

Mirror collection and Dead Set. To

enter, head to The Music Facebook.

CHARLIE BROOKER AND TV

The 11 O’Clock Show – Brooker was one of the writers of this satirical late-night sketch comedy. (Channel 4, 2000)

The Kit – At the turn of the century Brooker was a co-host with Gia Milinovich on The Kit, a short- lived show about gadgets and technology. (BBC Knowledge 1999-2000)

The Art Show – Brooker wrote an episode titled How To Watch Television for The Art Show. It’s an animated guide on how to watch television. Do you yourself a favour and head to YouTube to watch part one. (Channel 4, 2003)

Screenwipe – Created and presented by Brooker, this show ran for five seasons and most of it was filmed in his living room. (BBC Four 2006- 2008)

Black Mirror – This TV mini drama series created by Brooker shows the dark side of technology and stars Daniel Kaluuya, Tom Cullen and Hayley Atwell in episodes. It just wrapped on SBS and is now out on DVD. (Channel 4, 2011 to 2013)

10 O’Clock Live – A comedy news programme presented by Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and David Mitchell. (Channel 4, 2011 to present)

Newswipe – Created and presented by Brooker, this was a news review programme. The opening credits were by electronic artist Nathan Fake. (BBC Four 2009- 2010)

STILL FROM HOW TO WATCH TELEVISION


Perth’s The Siren Tower shirked their hard rock roots for something more rustic and intricate. Brody Simpson talks about the heroics of testing character to Brendan Telford.

Perth four-piece The Siren Tower strangely came to be from a kneejerk reaction to two of the members’ other bands, hard rock acts Heavy Weight Champ

and Antistatic. The way the new direction gelled came as quite the surprise. “We’ve been doing this (as The Siren Tower) for a little while now, but it’s certainly different from what we’ve all done in the past and deliberately so,”

drummer Brody Simpson explains. “There is only so much you can do before things get old, and we all love that rock sound, but we didn’t want to kill it. That was around when Grant (McCullough) and I started jamming; one of our clear goals was to not rehash anything either of us had done in the past. There wasn’t one point, this glorious moment where we worked out what this might mean. It presented itself to us, really, and we’ve all been doing this long enough to recognise when something is working, and working naturally. So we went with it.”

The shift has paid dividends, with last year’s album, A History Of Houses, causing quite the stir with its plaintive Australianness in terms of emotive lyrical content. The depth of lyrical exploration and its attraction to colonial myth and aspects of modern Australian identity have been core band aesthetics.

“That element of things came both naturally and from Grant who is really interested in those Australian folklore and Australian stories. The album itself is supposed to be about everyday people and everyday situations, and how you don’t have to save a thousand lives to commit to a heroic act. Either getting up in the morning to do what you do so you can support your family, or helping others out – how a reasonable deed can be a massive thing. I think it’s a nice thing to focus on – you don’t need to write vague, esoteric lyrics that everyone will connect with. When I was a kid I’d sit down and read through all the lyrics of my favourite records, and it meant so much more when the lyrics grabbed me, meant something to me.

“It’s really tested us out.” Simpson laughs, as he speaks about writing a new album. “It’s one of those things where it may come naturally, but we’ve still had to slog our guts out to get everything to come together the way it has so far... It does really test our character. But at the other end we feel that if we weren’t slaving away at this we would be lost. There isn’t anything else we want to do, and those challenges are as exciting as they are frustrating. If you can have one person come up to you at a show or get in contact with you and say they connected with what you were saying, that’s the fire you need. Luckily we’ve been getting those sparks to keep us going.”

ALL THINGS WILLCHANGE

WHEN & WHERE: 31 Oct, Great

Northern, Newcastle; 1 Nov, The Beresford

music

Currently in the midst of a gargantuan tour, 8 Ball Aitken talks to Samuel J Fell about one of his favourite stops, the Grassroots Music Festival.

Ask any young band what they want in life and the answer will always be, “To play as many shows as possible.” Because that’s what it’s all about, right?

Between early October and Australia Day next year, country-blues picker ‘n’ pounder 8 Ball Aitken will play 66 shows, plus however many he manages to pull off at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in late January. At least 66 shows in almost four months!

“People ask me if I get tired, and I say, ‘I get tired

every night and I fall asleep, and then I wake up and get to the next gig’,” Aitken says of his gruelling schedule – he’s been doing it in this country for a decade.

It’s through touring of course that self-managed bands spread their music; it’s where they’re able to connect directly with fans, it’s where they sell CDs, it’s where they make their money.“I think it’s the best way to go,” Aitken, who’s released five records since 2004, concurs. “Everything I’ve done has been based on playing live everywhere. I’ve done seventeen countries now, including Australia. And I’ve had three songs used in TV shows in America this

year… so it’s nice when that kind of thing happens, but honestly, I just hit the road and just play my music live almost every night to people.”

Aitken, who has been based in Nashville for the past two years, has just finished recording a new album, Southern Hemisphere and will be playing tracks from it at the Grassroots Music Festival. It’s held in the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Brisbane in early November, and is an event Aitken started, last year attracting well over 1000 punters.

“We’ve steadily built it, and we didn’t have any idea that it’d get this popular. I went up there for a picnic about ten years ago, then we applied for a Brisbane City Council grant to make it happen. And this is the ninth year, and we’ve just been given a letter from the Council saying they’re going to put it on for another three years. So it’s keeping going, and we’re just really excited to bring a new lineup of Brisbane roots, blues, country, folk, all kinds of organic music, every year. We’re just excited that there’s always new performers to play it with all their original songs.”

This year is no exception with Morningside Fats, The Company, Anita Ree, Getano Bann, Bec Laughton and The Leaping Lizards all gracing the stage, plus of course the man himself.

“The ethos is pretty simple. Springtime weather in Brisbane, people in an outdoor setting… listening to Brisbane musicians who write their own songs.”

BACK TO BASICS

WHERE & WHEN: 3 Nov,

Grassroots Music Festival, Mt.

Coot-tha Botanic Gardens; 7 Nov, The Joynt

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There were grins everywhere, so it didn’t take much to go from there to trying to write some new ones.”

The fruits of this laconic labour take shape in the form of Paddington Worker’s Club, a sophomore ten years after the eponymous debut. The songs themselves show that the boys haven’t gotten stale; in fact the songwriting has become more intricate and audacious whilst still intrinsically Dollar Bar. The title itself echoes their journey – a hallowed hall, now defunct, yet just the murmur of its name brings memories flooding back.

“That name came from social media in a way, because there are connections we’ve made since starting up again with younger fans who all cited that period – with the Worker’s Club and The Alley at Milton Bowl, the all-ages shows – as when Dollar Bar was at its height,” McCabe muses. “There were lots of bands doing it, like Sekiden and Girls Germs and The KT26ers, playing all ages at tiny venues. I think that period inspired the next wave of people to look to start their own bands, their own venues, to open it up to people. I’ve always liked albums named after or for a place, and to give it a real Brisbane feel. It ticked all the boxes.”

Paddington Worker’s Club has nary a lick of polish on it, eschewing the production values of the band’s previous releases for a more ad hoc GBV-influenced approach to recording. It lends a sense of urgency, a wilful carelessness, that McCabe feels embodies what the band have always stood for.

“It was a deliberate kneejerk reaction to the way we’ve done things in the past,” he offers. “That polished sound was something I liked at the time, and I still do. But when we released a lot

Three years after reactivating, seminal guitar pop doyens Dollar Bar are releasing a new album. Brendan Telford speaks with bassist/vocalist Patrick McCabe about the cyclical nature of new beginnings.

Once upon a time, somewhere in the early-2000s, you couldn’t sneeze without falling over Brisbane indie stalwarts Dollar Bar in

a dingy den, bashing out perfectly solidified chunks of acerbic pop charisma. Starting out in its nuclear fashion as a launchpad for Dale Peachey’s barbed bedroom compositions, the ideas spread like wildfire until Chris Yates, Patrick McCabe and Brendan Rosenstengel forged a dynamic that channelled their shambolic power. Yates and McCabe grew as songwriters in their own right, and by the launch of 2004’s debut self-titled album it seemed that the world was about to become their dominion.

Then they fizzled up and went away.

It seemed an almost inconsequential dissolution – the world continued to turn, and churn out other acts to take their mantle – yet Dollar Bar’s impact was felt most when three years ago they “reformed” for a friend’s birthday. The itch was back. But things weren’t easier, not least because they were by now geographically spread up and down the east coast.

“So much has happened since 2004; we have all got things going on, jobs and families and such, that the tyranny of distance wouldn’t make that much of a difference in trying to all be in the one place at the one time,” bassist McCabe counters. “But we do fit it in. Back in the day we used to rehearse weekly, and we did that for a very long time. We could work wholeheartedly on the band, and Chris and I were running a record label too. But I think we do still work on Dollar Bar a lot, it is all just so remote now. I think in many ways that is why it’s working so well.”

Not that McCabe believes they need the space; yet inadvertently the time apart has led Dollar Bar to come

full circle to what drew them together in the first place. “I think we just got drained back then,” McCabe admits. “We had been going for a while and looking back, a mature me would have put his hands up and said, ‘Hey, this is getting a little much, let’s just take a break for a little while’. But instead, I decided to leave wholesale and move overseas for a while, and was willing to leave it at that. We had been pushing so hard to get supports, get on the radio; things I certainly don’t regret, but I think we went away from enjoying music by trying to make it absolutely everything. So when we came back and started playing, it surprised us that it clicked so well; there was muscle memory on most of the songs, and you come to think, ‘Holy shit, these songs are really great!’

UNIVERSAL TRUTHS AND CYCLES

WHAT: Paddington Worker’s Club (Mere Noise)

WHEN & WHERE: 2 Nov, Beetle Bar

“IT REALLY IS ONLY ABOUT HAVING A GOOD TIME NOW”

of demos and live tracks on Bandcamp a couple years ago, we were listening to a lot of first takes where the vocals are rawer, which is us in a live setting. Plus because we live in different cities, we don’t have a lot of time together. Once we had a take we were happy with, we moved on. ‘Next’.”

The energy is back; the expectations and fervour heightened due to the “special” nature of their sporadic shows. The shows themselves are looser, more carefree, just the way we like ‘em. So, what’s the future hold for Dollar Bar?

“Whenever we get together now it is fun,” McCabe enthuses. “The recording and the mixing, hearing the songs back, it was all an enjoyable experience. And seeing as gaining support or attention doesn’t matter at all to us anymore, we can make things raw and rough; we care a little less about making things perfect. It really is only about having a good time now; hanging out, playing great music with your best mates.”

music


inspired moments enlarged by late night explorations,

Eximo is stamped with Franzmann’s sparse construction

style yet layered with oodles of raw charm, not least

her effortlessly clear and haunting vocal. It’s a record

that reveals and rewards with repeat listens; it’s not

an easy, packaged-for-radio effort – it feels like art.

“[It’s] got a bit more going on sonically,” Franzmann

admits. “On Glorio the songs were simpler and there

was more of a folk element; I was just playing them and

[producer] Jamie [Trevaskis] was just catching them. This

album’s more produced; we’ve spent more time [bringing

in] different sounds and thought about the layers more.”

Crediting her engineer, producer and drummer

Kurt Read as a crucial element to the album’s

sound, the pair are touring the nation as a multi-

instrumental duo. As Franzmann prepares to watch

the character of Eximo develop and grow in a

live setting, she’s excited to be bringing her other

significant creations along for the ride, too.

“We’re all going in a van and we’re away all of October

– it’s gonna be good!” she giggles, contemplating the

logistics of taking her family on the road. “[The format

will be] Kurt on drums and me on keys and guitar and

he’ll play a bit of guitar, and he’s got a marxophone

too – a great old folk instrument. And then there’s

a lot of other little things like melodica and glock

coming in as well... I’m pretty happy with our set-up

at the moment; it feels really perfect for this album.”

Latin for ‘release’ or ‘unleash’, Eximo is a fitting title for McKisko’s second record built from stolen moments over the past three years. Helen Franzmann, the woman behind the moniker, details the techniques of her striking style to Tyler McLoughlan ahead of a national tour.

Five months pregnant with her first child when she toured stunning 2009 debut Glorio, Helen Franzmann – aka Brisbane artist McKisko –

jokes that she’s given birth to three children since: two baby boys and her sophomore album Eximo.

“I record more things on my phone than I used to,” she says of her creative schedule since Glorio. “I go to the place that used to be [Red Hill performance space] The

Hangar one night a week

so I can just sit with

music there. It’s cool. If I

think about the way that

I wrote my first album,

I took a lot of time – I’d

play the beginning of a

song and then I might

like it and just continue

to play that for the

entire day so it locked in

and became something,

whereas now I will record

it on my phone when I

catch it and I have to wait

until the night that I have

[for music] to go and

finish it, so that’s a really

different process for me;

it’s a bit hard sometimes.”

An album that captures

the beauty of those

MAXIMO EXIMO

WHAT: Eximo (El Niño El Niño Records)

WHEN & WHERE: 31 Oct, Black Bear

Lodge; 1 Nov, Cooran Municipal Hall

music

music

Hot on the heels of the Gimmes’ Oz tour, US singer-songwriter Joey Cape is doing another lap of the country in troubadour mode. He talks to Daniel Johnson about fitting in with us locals.

“I went lawn bowling on Saturday and my friend John is professing that he’s going to get me in whites and have me playing cricket. I don’t know about

that, we’ll see … it might be taking it a little far,” jokes Joey Cape, on the phone from Melbourne.

Cape, who plays guitar in all-star punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, says the tour he just completed with his bandmates rates as “one of the best times I’ve had here”.

“Those tours are always fun, it’s an automatic holiday at every moment,” Cape reflects. “It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes… more notes is our mantra. It’s just super fun and there’s no consequences; I just generally have a few drinks and have a blast with that band. This time we had such good crowds.”

Cape is still best known as the singer of So-Cal punk legends Lagwagon and also fronts the more indie-leaning Bad Astronaut, who will be undertaking a rare tour as part of the travelling Hits & Pits mini-festival next month. In the meantime, he’s focused on the shows he will be performing with keyboardist Brian Wahlstrom. Cape says the setlists for the shows with Wahlstrom will cover the gamut of his career, and will also include a few

songs by former No Use For A Name frontman Tony Sly, who tragically passed away last year.

“We always have to do a few Lagwagon songs… I shouldn’t say I have to, because I enjoy playing those songs and it feels like the songs get honoured in a way they don’t with the band. I think the only thing I won’t do is play Bad Astronaut songs because there’s a Bad Astronaut tour following shortly after – but maybe one for good measure.

“Of course we do quite a few Tony songs. We kind of always throw a set together right before depending on the mood and how we’re feeling.

Generally we put all the Tony songs in one block and we say, ‘We’re going to play some songs by our friend now’, and then it’s a nice synergy with the audience if they were fans of his, as we are. It’s also very sad and difficult to do, but cathartic all the while I suppose.”

Cape and Wahlstrom are giving local artists the chance to get some exposure on this tour, encouraging singer-songwriters to submit tracks through Cape’s website, with the winner in each city being given a few minutes of stage time during the main set.

“The idea is getting a songwriter on stage to play with you, but if they come up and play by themselves and they play their own song in your set when everyone’s in the venue, not just as an opener, I think it gives them real exposure. Assuming people come to the shows.”

CAN’T GET ENOUGH

WHEN & WHERE: 1 Nov, Crowbar;

2 Nov, The Loft, Gold Coast


M.I.A.MatangiUniversal

A dubby minimal breakdown at standard intro length signals the start of M.I.A.’s fourth album, and it’s surprisingly subdued and minimal. This creates a false sense of security however – it’s actually unsettling when the title track immediately follows, with the rhythmic drum circle broken up with short sharp, eardrum penetrating samples. By the time the track gets going, the tempo and frenetic energy continue to build until a massive tempo drop at the end brings it all crashing down in its ultimate climax.

This production style creates the texture for the record, alongside the familiar elements of big drums, exotic instrument samples and her familiar vocal style. It’s a hard record to get your head around the first listen. Warriors is a great example of this – there’s barely a consistent drum beat for more than a few bars and it seems to just start over every minute or so. It’s the first instant of another unusual production flourish where there’s a really over-the-top vocal overdub like it’s a radio announcer or mixtape DJ spruiking over the top. It also happens when she delivers her anti-YOLO reincarnation anthem Y.A.L.A (You Always Live Again).

Bad Girls has been out for so long that its familiarity makes it an obvious focal point of the album, but it also sits apart from most of the record due to its much more simple arrangement and production.

It’s an astonishing record that mashes so many ideas culturally and musically and builds on her already impressive discography in all the right ways.

Chris Yates

ALBU

M O

F TH

E W

EEK

1. Karmageddon

2. Matangi

3. Only 1 U

4. Warriors

5. Come Walk With Me

6. aTENTion

7. Exodus

8. Bad Girls

9. Boom Skit

10. Double Bubble Trouble

11. Y.A.l.A

12. Bring The Noize

13. Lights

14. Know It Ain’t Right

15. Sexodus

★★★★


reviews

TRACK LISTING

This week: watch political and historical events

unfold through a different perspective in Lee

Daniels’ The Butler, Arcade Fire return with rhythm

and reflection and Midlake steep their slowburning

aesthetic in pastoral psychedelic mores.


album reviews

ARCADE FIREReflektorEMI

Even after the brilliant title track announced a new direction for Arcade Fire, it was a brave fool who’d predict what the rest of Reflektor would bring. For all the secrecy, the viral campaigns, the 22-minute, star-studded film clip (for Here Comes The Night Time – one of the record’s best tracks), though, the question remains. Is Reflektor worth the hype? The short answer is yes. Just.

It’s nothing like Arcade Fire have released before, but it creates a need for future listens more than any of the band’s previous albums. Gone is the reliance on Win Butler’s lyrics; instead his voice is caught in the many layers that create a cacophony of sound for much of the record. Inspired by their time in Haiti, the rara music indigenous to the Caribbean is all over Volume I. Basslines reminiscent of Michael Jackson (We Exist) and The Clash (You Already Know) drive the disc, with steel drums and maracas providing a booty-

GOSSLINGHarvest Of GoldDew Process/Universal

Much like its cover art, Gossling’s debut LP, Harvest Of Gold, bursts with colour. Songbird Helen Croome’s catchy collection of pop tunes marks a progression from her usual folk roots to an experimentation with ambient electronica and disco – in many ways a rhythmic celebration of her long-awaited full-length release.

Alternating between a brooding low register and delicate top notes, opener, Big Love, is a sonic burst of vocal and musical energy that is maintained from the album’s beginning to end. It’s very easy to get swept up in the singer-songwriter’s joyous pop and forget about her velvet smooth set of pipes, six of the ten tracks easily pleasing any mover and shaker ready for a dance.

However, it’s a completely different story for the four remaining songs, touching as they do on the sentimental and harking back to what fans fell in love with in 2009. While

CUT COPYFree Your MindModular/Universal

Cut Copy’s fourth album lovingly pays homage to the second summer of love that was fuelled by acid house and rave. The big fat rubbery bump of the anthemic title track, Free Your Mind, which evolves into piano house complete with soulful female backing vocalists, takes us back to the early ‘90s when Andy Weatherall was producing Screamadelica.

As if taking their cue from Primal Scream, Cut Copy craft buoyant pop songs whilst toying with all the conventions of underground dance styles of that era. The lyrics across this album work over a multitude of dance music clichés as the band put their faith in the power of dancing all night long and making friends with Molly in the hope that our minds will be set free and connect with a higher plane of consciousness. If Cut Copy don’t free

MIDLAKEAntiphonBella Union/[PIAS] Australia

When a band has a roster change, there’s a determinism from the fans that this incarnation will emulate, or indeed transcend, what has come before. When the chief songwriter and singer departs, such enthusiasm wavers and diminishes. For every Pink Floyd, there is a Phil Collins-led Genesis. 2013 sees Texans Midlake trying to buck this unenviable trend, breaking away after Tim Smith’s abrupt departure to release Antiphon.

From the opening title track, it’s clear the remaining members have steeped their slow-burning aesthetic in pastoral psychedelic mores. An obvious trend, seeing as so much of Midlake’s oeuvre flirts with this terrain, but a clever subterfuge – the tracks here hint at familiarity (and in Aurora Gone we have one final vestige of what came before) whilst effectively distancing themselves from Smith’s iconic harmonies and lyrical bent. The clear outré highlight is Vale, a

shaking backbone. The second

disc is more reflective and, despite

the continued layering of sound,

less dance-able. Here Comes The

Night II is the antithesis of its

namesake, and It’s Never Over

(Oh Orpheus) carries a dark,

Depeche Mode-y vibe with it.

Months of work have gone into

the track structure of Reflektor,

and it shows. Where the first

disc is carried by rhythm, the

second is pushed along in a

slow-burning, hypnotic state,

culminating in the album’s apex,

Afterlife. The layers will work

themselves out over future listens,

but there’s plenty on Reflektor

to warrant further spins.

Dylan Stewart

the production of Harvest Of

Gold’s pop contingent is to be commended, surely nothing can compare to the symphonic beauty of Pulse, its boisterous orchestral styling fronted by Croome’s intimate and innocent storytelling. Similarly, record closer, A Lover’s

Spat, is pure in its simplicity, and duet, Songs Of Summer, featuring Sparkadia’s Alex Burnett, pairs femininity with a deep masculine vocal in an effective tale of lost love. But it’s vocal masterclass Vanish that hits completely new heights, the response to the tragic death of Jill Meagher tearing its way into your heart and erupting, making those dancefloor offerings seem anti-climactic in comparison.

Mat Lee

your mind then Alexander Skarsgård in the video and Jason Pierce, who weighs in with a killer remix of the song, surely will. The joyous carefree vibes of tunes like Let Me Show

You and Meet Me In A House

Of Love are intoxicating.

Cut Copy have loaded this album with hooks and luscious textures that are easily consumed. The view in Take

Me Higher is mind-expanding; the comedown isn’t a crash-landing. It’s a visit to church for the glorious gospel-infused Walking In The Sky that feels likes the lads are jamming with Spiritualised. We emerge feeling free and reborn.

Guido Farnell

sinuous instrumental that weaves its way through the band’s past before blasting forth into an elongated space breakdown. It’s breathtaking in its precision and energy. Eric Pulido’s vocal output is arresting in its own right. He rightfully avoids aping Smith’s style, instead evoking a lighter presence that complements rather than becomes the focal point, most evidently on the track The

Old And The Young. The only detractor is the insistence of the band to forge ahead as Midlake. Antiphon proves the ambition that always marked them out as folk-rock outsiders burns fiercely within them still, albeit with a new, crystalline focus.

Brendan Telford

★★★★ ★★★½

★★★½ ★★★★


DARREN MIDDLETONTranslationsMGM

More widely regarded as guitarist for dearly departed Brisbane powerhouse Powderfinger, Middleton has quietly chipped away at his familiar yet maturely composed songcraft since his sleeper success with alt-rock outfit Drag. On Translations he presents that same knack for engaging melodies and driving motifs, but couples it with homespun yarns amongst a loftier, intimate setting. Opener Can’t Hide Sad sets the bar high: melancholic harmonies, string embellishments, lamenting vocal. His voice mixes croon and everyman storytelling, prominent in the blissed out Failing Now. A variety of pace and structure keeps things fresh throughout.

Carley Hall

PRIMITIVE CALCULATORSThe World Is FuckedChapter

Thirty-five years on and Primitive Calculators are as depraved and derelict as ever. The songs on The World Is Fucked don’t mince about, keeping titles brief and abrasive, and the sonic furniture is flayed and piked for all to see and fear. Their innovative industrial punk grind is as dreadful as is intended, forever contorting convention in favour of bilious violence and pitch-black humour – an atonal mess of Cenobite proportions. They laugh harder the more painful it gets. And this is their first proper album? The end is nigh.

Brendan Telford

65DAYSOFSTATICWild LightBird’s Robe

The fifth proper album from electro glitch rockers 65daysofstatic is arguably their most refined to date. The record blends all of the band’s previous work into a new, cohesive sound that grooves hard and rocks harder. Fans of the skittish and wild breakbeat-influenced rock from the early days may be left disappointed, as may recent converts to the more techno-influenced vibes, but this is an album the band needed to make. Wild Light is a brilliant and mature record that never loses sight of its multifaceted goals – whether it branches out to dance, rock or noise.

Andrew McDonald

PEAK TWINSPeak TwinsBedroom Suck

Peak Twins follow up various splits and 7” releases with their proper debut album and Liam, Joel and their players making good on the promises these previous releases have suggested was possible. While the album bounces between the vague structures of different styles of music ranging from ‘60s rock’n’roll sounds to proper country and whatever else, it all becomes skewed through the band’s twisted lens and turns into something else entirely – something awesome. The album is strong, but immediate highlights like China White are impressive well beyond heightened expectations.

Chris Yates

MADE IN JAPANTame All Those ThoughtsMGM

It was only last year these Sydney-based upstarts released their debut album, yet here they are with a solid second release of top-shelf dream-pop, sounding in no way like a rushed affair. A luscious journey across nine songs, the band has outdone themselves here and delivered what can only be touted as a solid step forward – Follow The Fool is the remarkable centrepiece, with Greenwood-esque guitar and hypnotic production overall, while the opening Community is just one of the many future favourites. Now to a show!

Ben Preece

MINOR ALPSGet ThereStop Start/Inertia

For an album with such a bleak album cover and a lyrical focus on longing and solitude, Minor Alps’ debut record is pretty upbeat. Then again, that’s probably what happens when you combine two revered pop musicians like Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf fame) and Juliana Hatfield (of Juliana Hatfield fame) and they put their heads together.

Sure, there are some quiet, reflective moments (like the final song Away Again), but with jangly, clean electric guitar and charming harmonies ever-present, Minor Alps have delivered a solid record that belies the fact that it’s their first.

Dylan Stewart

OH LANDWish BoneADA

The third and latest release from Danish songstress Nanna Øland Fabricius, aka Oh Land, is upbeat and instantly likeable thanks to Bird In An Aeroplane. Things go awry, however, with My Boxer. The track, where Fabricius speak-sings – almost to the point of rapping – is a little too quirky and doesn’t sit well with the rest of the record. The Brooklyn, NYC resident manages to redeem herself with the mighty fine Next Summer and Sleepy Town.

Despite a few minor drawbacks, Wish Bone, with its light, electro pop-driven tunes, is the perfect accompaniment to the coming summer months.

Dominique Wall

WHITE DENIMCorsicana LemonadeDowntown/[PIAS] Australia

If White Denim’s albums were social activities then their first two albums would be boozy all-nighters, D would be a country ramble and their latest, Corsicana Lemonade, would be a sumptuous barbecue groover. In other words, White Denim have your entire weekend covered.

Having shaken off the ambitious jazzy time signatures and occasional over-reach that characterised previous album D, White Denim have seemingly found whole new levels of expression by playing comfortably within their limits, proving that, just like my Italian cooking, things are almost always best kept simple.

Christopher H James

★★★★

★★★★

★★★½

★★★½

★★★★

★★★★

★★★

★★★★

album reviews


albums/singles/eps

HARMONYDiminishing Returns Poison City

Harmony turn things upside down with massive vocals and a stilted piano line that eventually and seamlessly turns into a guitar. Harrowing yet beautiful.

NATHAN ROCHESeraf ina Fartpound

Roche plays in almost every band in Sydney and on the first track from his solo album his big voice and interesting instrumentation bring his simple song to lo-fi life.

TOURETTES ChernobylIndependent

NZ rapper Tourettes hasn’t released a lot of material under his own name lately, but his first track back is sophisticated and brooding, his poetic raps sharp and typically intelligent.

M.I.A.Y.A.L.A.Universal

M.I.A switches up the concept of YOLO to suit reincarnation with You Always Live Again, also gets a product plug in for Cointreau.

STRAIGHT ARROWSMake Up Your MindRice Is Nice

Make Up Your Mind is delivered brilliantly, the crunchiness of the recording the only evidence that this isn’t a long forgotten ‘60s relic of amazingness.

BLANK REALMFalling Down The StairsFire

Very long overdue album coming soon, this track has been floating around for ages so it’s nice it finally has a home. Incredible stuff.

Chris Yates

ST. LUCIAWhen The NightSony

After last year’s tantalising September EP left souls affected with its dazzling ‘80s-tinged electro pop, Jean-Philip Grobler – aka St. Lucia – returns with another batch of captivating gems with When The Night. His cited influences of Peter Gabriel and other bombastic powerhouses are certainly plain to hear on single Elevate, polishing those jagged edges with floaty horns and glossy harmonies, and in Wait For Love’s falsetto, jungle rhythm and shimmering synths. The closing title track is the raciest and ends things on a high. A promising debut which satisfies the senses.

Carley Hall

LILY & MADELEINELily & MadeleineSpunk

“I’ll sing a song that sounds like

somewhere” promise teenage sisters Lily & Madeleine on the opener of their folky debut LP. Listen to their sweet sibling harmony and you’ll picture that ‘somewhere’ as a set of rolling hills of the deepest green. These former YouTube stars may be young, but songs like And

Tonight and Lost Upon The Sea will convince you that there is no substitute for the vibrant hum of a melody sung by two people that have been making music together for most of their lives.

Ash Goldberg

PER PURPOSECircle The StainsBedroom Suck

Unhinged in almost every facet of their being, Brisbane’s Per Purpose still somehow manage to weave a heady melodicism through the fractured Own

Accord on Circle The Stains. While Glen Schenau’s bent-vowel vocalisms still evoke a clapped-out Gareth Liddiard, the band is more synonymous with his band’s moniker – an atonal, jerking drone of bent strings, smashed beats and frenetic bass lines.

Brendan Telford

TIM HECKERVirginsKranky

Many may find this work dark and haunting, while others may find it mostly envelopes them in spaces of beauty and wonder. No matter one’s inclination to sway toward either extreme, there’s little doubt that Virgins majestically communicates the vast paradoxes of experience; or more appropriately, what it is to experience sound. This experience may be at odds with the quick-fix satisfaction and disposability of our time, however, it possesses great potential when married with concerns of site-specificity. Oh yeah, and it may just be Hecker’s best!

Jake Sun

THE STEVENSA History Of HygieneChapter

Melbourne’s scratchy soothsayers The Stevens have shoehorned 24 tracks in under three-quarters of an hour on debut LP A History Of Hygiene, via quick-fire tales of chagrin told with foppish charm. A febrile dynamism lurks within the likes of twee fragility of Scared Of Other Men and the sepia unease of Hindsight too; but honestly, this record keeps on giving, like sugar and salt mainlined into the cerebral vortex. Put Flying Nuns and Chapter sons aside; The Stevens are their own beast. You won’t be (C)lean, but you won’t want to be either.

Brendan Telford

COURTNEY BARNETTHow To Carve A Carrot Into A RoseMilk!

Centred round the gloriously deadpan little medical drama of Avant Gardener, the words-of-thought process just seem to fall from Ms Barnett, with no control gate between brain and mouth. But maybe that’s the trick, because a line like Don’t Apply Compression

Gently’s – “I might not be 100

per cent/But at least I’m not

with you” – is laser-aimed, even if delivered with apparent offhandedness. The music is similarly carefully casual as it strolls behind her, or wobbles like a wonky bike wheel. Just a thing of nonchalant brilliance.

Ross Clelland

★★★★

★★★★½

★★★½

★★★½

★★★★½

★★★★½


arts reviews

THE BUTLER

FLY ME TO THE MOON

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLERFilmIn cinemas 31 OctInspired by an article written about Eugene Allen, who worked as a butler at the White House through eight presidential administrations, Lee Daniels’ The Butler charts the civil rights movement in America across 50 years, as seen through the experiences of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker).

In a film like this, which deals with such sensitive, charged and important issues, there is a lot of room to fall flat. However,

by watching the political and historical events unfold through Gaines’ eyes, and balancing this equally with familial and personal storylines (loosely based on Allen’s life), the film succeeds in conveying the weight of the situation with very little heavy-handedness – no mean feat.

While Gaines slowly and gently gains the presidents’ trust and respect, his eldest son Louis becomes a political activist, joining the Freedom Riders. The scenes contrasting Gaines serving the elite of the white and his son protesting for black rights work in tandem; the first one hits the hardest, playing out like a waltz, with movements and dialogue overlapping and interlocking so that they apply to both contexts, yet take on different meanings.

Among the star-studded cast, Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, who plays Gaines’ wife Gloria, deliver particularly stirring performances. Ultimately, it is the Gaines family’s hopes and struggles, rooted in matters of racial discrimination, which drive Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

Stephanie Liew

FLY ME TO THE MOON FilmIn cinemas

Even in the frothy world of romantic comedy, some believability has to exist. Fly Me To The Moon stretches believability to breaking point, but the blow is softened by the two delightful leads, Diane Kruger and Danny Boon.

The gorgeous Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), who’s recently played an American in TV series The Bridge is a versatile linguist, this time speaking French (she’s German, of course). As Isabelle,

she’s on the verge of marrying longtime love Pierre (Robert Plagnol), but there’s a hitch. The women in her family have a curse – all their first marriages end in divorce but their second ones last. Isabelle decides she has to marry someone else first so she can get a quickie divorce and tie the knot with Pierre. What could possibly go wrong?

When the first arranged marriage doesn’t happen, the desperate Isabelle latches onto unsuspecting Jean-Yves (Boon), a travel photographer. He’s as good as anyone to marry so she follows him to Kenya where they end up having a Masai wedding. Like we said, believability issues. Of course, we sense that their fake relationship is going to start to feel a lot more real and that’s where the complications arise.

Okay, it’s pleasant and there’s some great scenery from Africa and Moscow. Directed by Pascal Chaumeil and produced by the same people who gave us the popular Intouchables, Fly Me To The Moon will be an enjoyable diversion for many.

Vicki Englund

games


I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAMThe Dreamers Guild (via Steam)PC/Mac

I Have No Mouth, And I Must

Scream is the rerelease of the 1995 game from the now almost defunct click-and-point adventure genre, built from acerbic science fiction author Harlan Ellison’s short story of the same name. Ellison himself collaborated heavily on the game, and voices the primary antagonist, AM, a psychotic supercomputer amusing itself by conducting obscene

SUPER AMAZING WAGON ADVENTURESparsevector PC

In the interest of transparency,

I chose to review this game

because I’d had a rough day

and something needed to die.

The shitastically named Super

Amazing Wagon Adventure looked promising in that it would

be neither super, amazing or

much of an adventure. As a posse

of three American migrants, you

set off in a wagon in the Wild

West – a Wild West populated by

psychological experiments on the last five surviving humans on Planet Earth. Eat your heart out, GLADOS.

The player chooses the role of one of these five humans, clicking their way through a warped psychological odyssey based on the idiosyncrasies of their character’s past. In essence, I Have

No Mouth… is a series of very horrible experiments involving the extreme promontories of the human psyche. Unfortunately, the brilliance of the game’s premise and narrative is hamstrung by the puzzles, which are occasionally illogical or arbitrary. Some scenes involve more patience and luck than logic, as you fall back on scanning the image with your mouse to unveil the next point of plot progression. Furthermore, like too many contemporary titles (Mass Effect, Bioshock), the game has a binary good versus evil morality system, although as the game predates the aforementioned games by 15 years it’s forgivable. Challenging, compelling and nostalgic, I Have No Mouth,

And I Must Scream remains a must-play title 18 years later.

Callum Twigger

graphic blocks posing as deadly skunks – shooting everything in sight (historically accuarate). My randomly generated posse looked vaguely Mexican, were identical and named John, John and Susan. Bring it on.

Oddly I developed a fondness for the idea of the game despite the pain it was causing my eyes. SAWA is actually more of a set of randomly generated mini-games embedded into a storybook written with a geeky humour that would make those small clusters of eight-year-olds gathered around a shitty school computer erupt into peels of laughter. Since they are generally persistent little bastards, they would probably play SAWA to death and gather rich memories from the jokes. It’s a hard sell to a fully functioning adult, however, as the gameplay is indeed as shit as it was intended to be. Mission accomplished there. The soundtrack is killer once you make it past the excessively happy first stage, and the presence of boss-like super beasties at least gives the illusion of progress. Kids and retronauts only.

Simon Holland

POKEMON XNintendo3DS

Pokémon X sends players out into the Kalos region, a sprawling landscape based uniquely off France. Parisian style streets and Versailles gardens give Pokémon

X a style never before seen in Pokémon. The new 3D engine makes us of this, zooming out or swooping around to give the player a view of the glorious backdrops. Pokémon X tries a little bit too hard at this in Paris equivalent, Lumiose City. The camera zooms in tight, giving a street level view of the bustling metropolis. These sections are awkward to navigate and the camera flat out refuses to give you an ideal viewpoint; 3D is a real hit and miss affair.

Pokémon X is the definitive multiplayer Pokémon experience. The online functionality is amazing, allowing you to link up with anyone in the world to trade, battle or share power-ups. A new feature, Wonder Trade, works like a lucky dip. Players cast a Pokémon into the interwebs and receive a random Pokémon from somebody else. Results are mixed; expect a wealth of worthless level three Pidgeys before you get something noteworthy.

A slew of new mechanics changes have been implemented to great effect. Fairy type (kudos to nine year old me predicting it) makes its debut, giving the elemental matchups a real shakedown. Sporting resistance to dark, fighting and immunity to dragon, Fairy looks set to become a real powerhouse. Slight adjustments to abilities and moves are too numerous to discuss in detail; Pokémon X has changed battles for the good. Both casuals and hardcore will be happy to hear that the mathematical nightmare that is EV and IV training has been simplified. That being said, breeding and training the perfect Pokémon is still an undertaking, rewarding players who stick at it.

Pokémon X also introduces mega-evolutions, a battle mechanic that turns certain Pokémon ‘super-saiyan’ during battle. The cosmetic changes are impressive, as are the staggering stat boosts that will render most of these mega-behemoths banned from competitive play. If anything, mega-evolutions serve to aid in the campaign, giving the player an OP Charizard to tear through every Lass, Youngster and Hiker dumb enough to start a battle. Unfortunately, the campaign is mediocre. The characters are bland and the usually entertaining villains fail to hit the mark. As well as being too easy, the post-game content is deploringly shallow, putting a strict timer on players who don’t want to stick around for the PvP.

Pokémon X is both a triumph and a letdown. For the hardcore trainers, it offers everything you’ve ever asked for in a Pokémon game. It’s a shame the campaign is so vanilla - casual pokefans be warned.

Andrew Sutton

★★★ ½

★★

★★★ ½


ADALITA, LAURA JEANThe Zoo24 Oct

With a penchant for raw and wild balladry, Laura Jean Englert is quite a perfect opener for a national tour with one of Australia’s finest ladies of rock. With her trademark yellow SC Gibson, a prize from APRA’s 2009 Professional Development Award and the talisman for moving into a more rock-heavy sound for 2011’s excellent record A Fool Who’ll, she cuts a lone figure as she gets down to the business of pouring out her heart. Missing You is a love song, plain and simple; a heartache so lonely it reaches into every corner. A

Love. Laura Jean mesmerizes again when invited onstage to provide backing vocals for the waltzy He Wrote; the pair have a great connection. Stripping back to solo, Srsen offers a slow, calculated and intensely hot version of Fool Around, while Perfection feels like an old friend. Heavy Cut is something else though; large, furious and beautiful, the switch between Srsen’s regular level of dirty guitar and max-power distortion is utterly thrilling. With the band back, current single Trust Is Rust is predictably a highlight, while Too Far Gone is epic, soaring and hopeful as it teases the set to a close of drawn out shredding. A vibrant encore of Blue Sky comes too soon, but the damage of witnessing such an intense roller coaster performance is already

never know what kind of crazy antics Kernaghan will pull off. Tonight he stumbles into the crowd mid-song, leaving his guitar on stage, before a rowdy audience member proceeds to pick it up and starts playing it, which earns roars of approval from the crowd. Later in the set, Kernaghan climbs onto his amp and proceeds to play from its daunting height. Almost begrudgingly, the group finally oblige the demands from the crowd to play Aerial, after which Kernaghan jokes, “I don’t know why you guys wanted to hear that song, it’s terrible!”

Next up it’s the side project for Jindhu Lawrie and Andrew Thomson of The Medics – Surfin Bird – who have a large group of fans ferociously dancing for the entirety of

time headliners Velociraptor take the stage, and it’s not uncomfortable; rather, it feels like a totally raging house party with plenty of good vibes. Seven of the 12 ‘raptors are present tonight and amp up the festivities by launching into Hey Suzanne, Oh Yeah and the incredibly danceable Jnr Astronauts. The most notable of the absent ‘raptors is James X Boyd, who usually adds an almost sexual, dramatic flair when taking up vocal duties for Do The Ruby and Mystery Man, and even though Julien James does an admirable job of filling the role, you can’t help but miss Boyd’s theatrics. Frontman Jeremy Neale takes advantage of the punters’ raucous energy by engaging in a brief stint of crowd surfing mid-set, which

mournful yet beautiful cover of Lana Del Rey’s Summertime Sadness follows, and when Englert hits the high notes of Australia, the execution is imperfect, but it conveys an emotion more real and touching than any flawless delivery could manage.

Rolling onto stage with her guitar slung low and a “G’day Brissie”, Adalita Srsen pushes straight into the trance-like, repeated chord framework of Annihilate Baby until the unrelenting melodic drone is felt internally. The opener of her new solo record All Day Venus sports an extended outro to signal the ease with which Srsen has assimilated with her three new band mates, while the title track returns to the fat, punishing guitar tones once the Magic Dirt legend has shown she can be sweet and feminine too with I Want Your

done – Srsen and co. have put on one of the shows of the year.

Tyler McLoughlan

VELOCIRAPTOR, LITTLE ODESSA, SURFIN BIRD, THE KRAMERSGrand Central Hotel 26 Oct

As Trainspotters are celebrating their first birthday tonight, balloons float freely throughout the venue, which adds to the chaotic energy The Kramers instigate when frontman Ethan Kernaghan sporadically pops them during the band’s set. There’s always an element of unpredictability with The Kramers as you

their set. It’s not hard to see

the appeal with these guys;

they have an undeniable

feel-good energy embedded

within their surfy garage-pop

that translates effortlessly to

this adoring crowd. Lawrie

really shines as frontman; his

vocals are crisp and powerful,

particularly in the crowd-

pleasing track You And Others.

Sixties-inspired rock quartet

Little Odessa are next to take

the stage and by this point

the party is pumping, and

the general demeanour of the

crowd is blissfully inebriated

and celebratory. Little Odessa

keep the good times rolling

with some stylish little ditties

such as My Girl and a cover of

Elvis Costello’s Pump It Up.

The venue is practically

bursting at the seams by the

only adds to the celebratory nature of the evening. With few tracks reaching the three-minute mark, the set flies by all too quickly, wrapping up with Ramona, Cynthia and In The Springtime. Way too much fun!

Jazmine O’Sulivan

THE CRIBS, THE NINJAS, FILTHY JACKALThe Zoo25 Oct

There are about six punters

in the room as openers Filthy Jackal take the stage. Not even

an extensive Google search will

reveal just who the fuck they are,

but if you throw your estranged

Dad and three of your least

live reviews

ADALITA @ THE ZOO. PIC: TERRY SOO ADALITA @ THE ZOO. PIC: TERRY SOO ADALITA @ THE ZOO. PIC: TERRY SOO


STONEFIELD @ UQ. PIC: TESSA FOX LIMP BIZKIT @ BRISBANE RIVERSTAGE. PIC: RCSTILLS

favourite high school teachers

on stage, give them guitars,

you might begin to grasp what

we’re dealing with here. What

you won’t grasp is just how

rotten they are – points and

all are perhaps deserved for

even getting up on stage, but

these cats simply should’ve

remained in the garage. Also,

points for covering a great

Tom Waits tune (Big In Japan)

but as a disgruntled punter’s

tweet read: “Unless you are an

extremely good band, do not

try and cover Tom Waits.”

Brisbane garage rockers The Ninjas are up next and sound

like a million bucks after

the last lot. Seemingly brand

new, they deliver their canon

of quality tunes with serious

Jarman brothers with an

extra guitarist hiding in the

shadows plough through a

no-holds-barred greatest hits

set that effortlessly reaches

beyond the anthemic heights

of the recordings. Case in

point is the recent single,

Come On, Be A No-One, which

appears early in the set and,

at just over 12 months old,

already sounds like a classic.

It’s actually the setlist that

steals the show tonight –

Cheat On Me, We Share The Same Skies, newbie Leather Jacket Love Song, I’m A Realist and, of course, Men’s Needs –

they’re all here and delivered

with the relevance of a band

on their debut album.

Ben Preece

Walker keeps lyrics beside

him for; probably best to leave

that one at home next time.

Junior Arcade bring a posse

of their loudest fanbase with

them. Richard Wong appears

to be singing for the ladies as

he projects his crooning voice

and throws knowing smiles into

the audience, while guitarist

Jack Dooner shows his love for

a liberal use of wah pedal to

drive home their vintage vibe.

As soon Blonde On Blonde

brace the stage of the Red

Room it’s clear that they’ve

been performing their

overdrive-ridden psychedelic

rock for a number of years,

though with this comes an

underlying sense of self-

importance. Blasting the room

a natural high. There are so many smiles onstage – each of the sisters look truly at home and fulfilled, even if the venue is only half full.

Along for the tour is session drummer Manny Bourakis. Amy Findlay only plays drums in Move Out Of My Shadow, To The Mountains and Diggin My Way Out. This appears as somewhat of a gimmick, though she commands attention as a frontwoman. During Ruby Skies the crowd are told to “dance!” which doesn’t take any convincing as Manny bangs a cowbell, accentuating the country undertones of Amy’s outfit and voice.

As the set wraps up, a chant of voices break out demanding

concentration and occasional glimpses of a great rock’n’roll swagger. Their tunes are pretty straight-up and when hitting their stride – as they do with radio-single Yeah Yeah, and another called Kill ‘Em All – they do reveal true brilliance. The musicianship is sharp, the delivery falls somewhere between the formative stages of the ‘Stones and The Libertines and hopefully it will reach what massive potential the five-piece hint at soon.

“I hear Limp Bizkit is in town tonight,” guitarist Ryan Jarman snickers as The Cribs leap onto stage. “So you had a choice of washed-up rockers tonight and you chose us.” Delivering a set that doesn’t resemble anything close to washed-up, the three

STONEFIELD, BLONDE ON BLONDE, JUNIOR ARCADE, JAKARTA CRIERSUQ Red Room24 Oct

As most of the early turnout

enjoys their student night

close to the Red Room’s bar, Jakarta Criers play their set to

a three-person crowd. The indie

rockers play a string of mostly

new songs containing more

choruses than you can keep

count of. Among the list is a

song so new that vocalist James

into action, Zara Bennett takes a break from her vocal and keys duties onstage as she jumps into the crowd and beats a cowbell to everyone’s dancing feet during My Oh My.

The room falls into suspense as an intro track of samples is played from a darkened stage. Tonight is the first show of the album tour Stonefield are to play over the remaining three months of the year. Bringing blues licks and high-heeled kicks, the audience is in awe once the Findlay sisters enter the fray. Starting the set with Black Water Rising, Amy’s voice is utterly powerful. They break into a number of tracks from their debut album, including Over And Over, which is reminiscent of a female version of Dead Meadow on

one more song. The lights aren’t on yet and soon enough the sisters strut back onto the stage and perform their latest single, Put Your Curse On Me, as the room claps in time to the drums.

Tessa Fox

LIMP BIZKIT, DJ SKELETORBrisbane Riverstage25 Oct

Swarms of nostalgic nu-metal fans have to wait a little while longer to get their drop D fix with Franko Carino, aka DJ Skeletor – Limp Bizkit’s touring beat man following DJ Lethal’s drug indiscretions – filling the night with industrial-sized techno. Relishing his solo time in the spotlight, Franko

live reviews

STONEFIELD @ UQ. PIC: TESSA FOX


LIMP BIZKIT @ BRISBANE RIVERSTAGE. PIC: RCSTILLS VIOLENT SOHO @ THE ZOO. PIC: STEPHEN BOOTH VIOLENT SOHO @ THE ZOO. PIC: STEPHEN BOOTH

creates a pulsing, unrelenting soundtrack that puts everyone on notice for what’s to come.

Cigarette smoke hangs thick and stale in the air, there are cargo shorts aplenty, while believers readjust their red Yankees caps for the tenth time tonight. 2013 has become 1999 in an instant, and when Limp Bizkit walk out on stage the reaction from the crowd only solidifies that vibe further. The quintet get old school straight up, opening with Pollution, off their 1997 debut, Three Dollar Bill, Yall, before bleeding the song into Show Me What You Got. The now middle-aged men from Jacksonville, Florida still perform with the energy of their younger selves, and all the former stylistic oddities remain present, be it

My Generation and Livin’ It Up.

During all this Durst takes a

moment to remember Jessica

Michalik, urging people to look

after each other, while elsewhere

his banter veers to the random

as he reps the hell out of the

corn on the cob stand at the

back of the hill. The riffs of

old keep on coming, with My Way and Re-Arranged moving

into a cover of Rage Against

The Machine’s Killing In The Name that the band knock

out of the park, before Nookie sends the joint into fits, with

a mini Fred lookalike plucked

from the crowd to wax lyrically

on the mic with Durst. By

now, even the ladies of the

night side of stage are losing

it. An encore sees another

cover aired as they tackle

so that they can make an all-too-rare appearance opening proceedings tonight, their steady stream of frenetic and catchy numbers pelted at the growing crowd with a vigour that’s both compelling and uncompromising; it’s enough to make one sad that we don’t get to see this great band often enough these days.

Next up are Sydney’s Straight Arrows, clearly chuffed to be dragged along by Soho for the national run and able to get their brand of energetic garage rock into the ears of vast and sympathetic crowds. They lock tight into their cruisy grooves and allow frontman Owen Penglis to show off his wares, tracks like Mind Control and Something

chance to get hands on with

the new material, so songs

like Lowbrow already seem to

fit snugly like a pair of gloves

or a well-worn old jumper

– friendly and familiar – as

the night’s first crowd-surfers

let loose, guitarist James

Tidswell offering, “There’s

nothing like a hometown

gang” before they thunder

into Love Is A Heavy Word and Neighbour Neighbour. The

dark Eat Your Parents seems

even more caustic next to

the catchy-as-fuck Saramona Said, which takes a whole new

lustre in the live realm and

seems confident and vibrant

and bristling and perfect.

Every member of Soho

does their bit – frontman

Luke Boerdam is the brain,

the lightsaber-esque bass of Sam Rivers or guitarist Wes Borland’s all white Power Ranger-cum-I, Robot suit, which lights up like Daft Punk’s outfits through hundreds of little programmed lights. Frontman Fred Durst is wearing the expected baggy red pants and white hoodie, although the Duck Commander hat is a new addition. The rock moves, however, are just as you remember them, complete with fist pumps and pelvic thrusts.

As the band work through a setlist pretty much pulled from their two biggest records – 1999’s Significant Other and 2000’s Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water – the mosh pit starts folding in on itself, shirtless men smashing into each other to the sounds of Hot Dog, Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle),

Jane’s Addiction’s I Would For You before running home with Take A Look Around and Break Stuff, which we do, and how.

Benny Doyle

VIOLENT SOHO, STRAIGHT ARROWS, UNDEAD APESThe Zoo26 Oct

Hometown heroes Violent Soho have sold out two nights at The Zoo to launch their Hungry Ghosts opus, and fate has been kind in that it’s delivered all four members of local punk outfit Undead Apes together in Brisbane at the same time

Happens clearly making their mark on the by-now packed house before them. Penglis mutters “This is a new song and it goes out to us” before the four-piece (featuring a bloke standing in for absent bassist Angie Bermuda) smash into brand new single Make Up Your Mind, a bratty but imperative tune which augers very well for their next long-player.

There’s a tangible sense of parochial pride filling the room, and from the emphatic build into the intro proper of vital new number Dope Calypso Violent Soho have the adoring crowd eating out of the palms of their sweaty hands. Hungry Ghosts has been out quite a while before the national launch tour, and this lag has clearly given fans the

drummer Michael Richards is the muscle, the hairy Tidswell is the band’s soul and livewire bassist Luke Henery is the heart, exuding every ounce of effort as they smash though Liars and In The Aisle before a raucous Jesus Stole My Girlfriend has hair flying everywhere both onstage and throughout the room. They power though song after song with well-drilled precision, finishing with Eightfold, new single Covered In Chrome and Tinderbox, before being coaxed back to finish a brilliant night with OK Cathedral and the evergreen Muscle Junkie. Tonight Violent Soho take no prisoners, and the jubilant rock fans of Brisbane town are the lucky beneficiaries.

Steve Bell

live reviews


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MARVILLE

the guideeat

drink

tv

fashionMember answering/role: Ash – guitaring, singing.

How long have you been together? Linda came along early in 2011. Before that I was playing solo.

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? If you play anything from Magic Dirt’s back catalogue, I’m pretty much sorted. However, I don’t drive... So in the interest of peace-keeping and diplomacy, I’ll say anything off of Linda’s iPod.

Which Brisbane bands before you have been an inspiration (musically or otherwise)? I think that a lot of the bands kicking around at the moment are pretty inspirational. Bands like HITS, New Jack Rubys, Sabrina Lawrie and The Hunting Party, Lords of Wong... the list goes on! Also, it’d be illegal not to mention The Saints.

What part do you think Brisbane plays in the music you make? I think being involved with such an impressive community of bands and artists certainly rubs off.

Is your band responsible for more make-outs or break-ups? Why? Weaccept no responsibility for your choices (poor or otherwise), and won’t be liable for any damages, loss of property, pets or dignity incurred.

What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term? We are launching our very first album, Vayan Con Dios, this Friday at Beetle Bar. El Motel, You In Reverse and The Steady As She Goes are playing too, so you’d be a fool to miss it!

Marville play Beetle Bar on Friday 1 Nov.

Photo by TERRY SOO.

It’s a glorious morning, the midday sun has only just shone and I’ve already skinned a rabbit and bludgeoned a kangaroo. And so reads my journal,

The Secret Diary Of A Cave Girl. I’m going to guess that this is the first impression most Paleo converts had on their family and friends – I know I did. “Paleo... that’s the one where you eat dinosaurs, right?” Ah, stegosaurus, the staple savoury dish. Paleo gets its name from the Palaeolithic era for its return to the food groups that our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived on. I can’t speak for the entire community but we tend to forgo the loin cloths and clubs, instead lounging about in work-out gear complaining that the salmon isn’t wild-caught or the beef grass-fed. We’re likely to be found ordering a burger without the bun, and hitting up Aunt Maggie’s for coconut flour amongst the diet-modifying elite. Show me to the ghee I ask an employee (and that’s a wrap on the Paleo poetry, I promise); oh wraps, I haven’t scoffed one of you feta-filled pitas down on a rushed work break in months. But wait, just who have I become? I used to think that people who passed on the cheesecake didn’t understand the meaning of life and that the term ‘lifestyle change’ was for wankers. Now I praise the virtues of my newfound health perks including more energy, a calmer mental state, clearer skin and shedding 15kg. The Paleo way of eating – “Now, I’ll just stop you right there,” I hear anyone who’s ever unfriended a gym junkie say, “It’s a diet, mate, an Ashy Bines bullshit and all diet.” But it isn’t, I sing. It IS a lifestyle change. As I was saying, the Paleo way of eating can seem like the Everest of diet modification. No grain, sugar or dairy – just wholesome seasonal produce and lean meats, with an emphasis on healthy sources of fat like olive oil, avocado and coconut. In a nutshell, the Paleo plate is made up of unprocessed foods. It is a step, nay, giant caveman spear throw away from the hormone and additive-treated food-like products we have come to consume en masse. But these foods, the sceptical will protest, they provide comfort and happiness. Where would Liz Lemon be without her night cheese? Joey Tribbiani without his

Suzanne Truman explains why the Paleo way

of eating has nothing to do with dinosaurs

or diets. Pics Holly Engelhardt

PALEO IN COMPARISON

sandwiches? Hipsters without their quinoa? The answer

is somewhere between an epic tantrum and life changing

health benefits.I researched Paleo for months as a way of

procrastinating the change I was about to make – scared

of a life without alcohol and cake, and alcoholic cake.

Then around three months ago I said ciao to the tiramisu

and decided to start. Apart from a few deviations, I

haven’t looked back. I say deviations as some choices I

have occasionally made haven’t been Paleo, but they have

been exactly that – choices, not cheats or failures. Paleo

preaches that when you are equipped with the knowledge

of how food affects your body, everything you eat is a

choice. If I make the choice to have a beer it isn’t the end

of the world. I will probably get a funky tummy and then

it’ll be Paleo for the next meal. No big deal. No spiral

into self-loathing and ‘diet starts Monday’ bullshit. If

you plan to eat in a way that nourishes you for the rest

of your life, then a cookie is no cause for the devastation

or health goal abandonment that accompanies the usual

fad-diets. Unlike the Atkins Diet, or Weight Watchers,

Paleo isn’t owned by any one person or company. It’s a

body of knowledge, with a thriving internet community.

As such, the Paleo way is a highly personal and tailored

experiment, with widely acknowledged variations. The

‘Whole30’ by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig is a 30-day

program that follows a strict and excruciatingly specific

plan. Their website and book is an incredible resource for

understanding the science behind Paleo eating, from the

optimal digestion of food for vitamins and minerals to

the effect foods have on hormones in the body. The Paleo

way may sound hard, but it has benefits which make it

easier. When you get past the cravings and completely

omit sugar from your diet, real fruit and vegetables come

alive. Their taste intensifies and satisfies. The clarity

you get from the regulation of your hormones makes

everything easier. Suddenly it’s just food, not reward or

guilt. It simplifies eating – no counting or measuring, just

responding to your body’s hunger with tasty, real food.

PALEO PLAYERSCheck out Melissa and Dalls Hartwigs ‘Whole 30’ Program. The information, advice and forums are all free unless you want to sign up to daily emails whole9life.com/category/whole-30/

Mark from marksdailyapple.com has a great beginners guide to Paleo; don’t let the primal label confuse you and remember girls can be Paleo too, it’s not just for male abb-defined athletes.

Sarah over at everydaypaleo.com has some excellent recipes. Check out the beyond easy Paleo pulled pork, I felt like an organised mother of five prepping that bad boy in the slow cooker.

SO HUNGRY YOU COULD PUNCH A CAMEL MEAL IDEASI always loved a mean taco, now I just make them without the shells. I spice the meat myself (you can find recipes online) and add a heap of Paleo-approved toppings.

Bacon. Bacon for dinner. Bacon for Lunch. Don’t let the old ideas from the normal western diet crush your creativity. I regularly enjoy bacon wrapped broccolini for breakfast and then fried eggs come dinner time.

Keep some pre-boiled eggs in the fridge for an instant protein hit.

eat


“AND, OF COURSE, THE FUNNIEST FOOD OF ALL, KUMQUATS”- GEORGE CARLIN

FOOD TRIPPIN’

FOOD IS ART

eat/drink

So we couldn’t leave NY without heading down to Williamsburg for the much anticipated breakfasting at Pies & Thighs, and I’ll tell ya this place did not disappoint! Lloyd Honeybrook & I ordered up big - we’ve got here the Carolina pulled pork sandwich with pickle & mac, above it the Bob Evans - sausage gravy, egg & cheese on a biscuit (the surprising winner!!!) and a side of burnt ends baked beans. What a feast of Southern magnificence it was! Full as we were we followed it up with a banana cream pie a la mode & a malted cream-filled raised donut. Yes! A charming farewell indeed #ForYourThighs.

EATING AROUND THE USA WITH SOFIE MUCENIEKAS AND LLOYD HONEYBROOK


NY to PhillyNY to Philly

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Mon-Sat 7am–3.30pmSun 7am–2.30pm

693 Brunswick St, New Farme [email protected] p 3254 2883

breakfast, lunch & afternoon tippler

mon-wed 6.30am-3pmthurs-fri 6.30am-6pmsat 7am-6pmsun 9am-6pm

BAR PROFILE

EMPIRE HOTEL Answered by: Mel Froude

Address: 339 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley

Briefly describe the design/atmosphere of the bar? Built in the late 1880s, the Empire Hotel has managed to maintain its original charm, lively atmosphere and genuine hospitality. Catch all of the best live sport action on one of the three big screens and get good food and great prices.

Does the bar have a music component? A mix of live music and dance beats, the Empire Hotel transforms from an afternoon of relaxing live entertainment to upbeat tunes guaranteed to get you dancing!

Does the bar offer food? If so what style and what’s your specialty? The Empire Hotel serves delicious pizzas all day! Treat yourself or share with friends accompanied

with an icy cold beer or

a frozen daiquiri. Pizza

and beverage specials

available Tuesdays,

Wednesdays and Sundays.

Briefly describe the crowd that frequents your bar? Popular among males

in their 20s, the Empire

Hotel attracts those

who have a passion

for sport. They love a

good match and love

to watch it live and

loud on the big screens.

The Empire Hotel also

attracts groups of young

revellers who enjoy a

good dance to some of

the best and greatest

dance beats of now!

Who’s cooking and pouring and what makes them special? Krystal, Tamara,

Charlie, Hannah rock

it out over the Empire

Hotel bar every Friday

and Saturday night.

Website: katarzyna.com.

au/venues/empire-hotel

At age 11, on a tour of Japan organised by our local rugby club, my childhood friend was struck down by gastroenteritis. A trip to the GP – translator

in tow – resulted in perhaps the best prescription I’d ever heard of: drink a lot of Pocari Sweat. Pocari Sweat is like Asia’s far superior version of Gatorade, and to have a sports drink prescribed by a doctor felt like a minor miracle.

There’s evidence – loosely medical, largely steeped in wives tales – that plenty of refreshing beverages also harness healing properties: a flat lemonade for a belly ache, a hot toddy for a sore throat... But there’s one ingredient, one colloquially medicinal miracle, that’s been used in drinks for thousands of years in cultures the world over – ginger.

It’s not just the dusty bottle of Stones wine your gran keeps in the back of the pantry, or the surely spiked stubby of Bundy ginger beer your drunkle is wielding at 10am at the family barbecue - though both have their place – ginger’s now even at three of the juice stations in your local Westfield food court.

The list of ailments ginger is reputedly a remedy for is extensive: cataracts, amenorrhea, heart disease, migraines, stroke, angina, athlete’s foot, colds, bursitis, chronic fatigue, tendinitis, flu, coughs, depression, dizziness, fever, erectile difficulties, infertility, kidney stones, Raynaud’s disease, sciatica and viral infections. You can add to all that the fact that researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Centre have found that ginger not only kills cancer cells, it also prevents them from building up resistance to cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

Inspired by this spicy and delicious panacea, we’ve compiled a helpful little list of the best ginger-driven concoctions and the myriad maladies they’ll assist you in battling. It should go without saying that I am far from a medical professional, and much like having a can of Monster, you should probably run this by your doctor before you start foregoing medical treatment, or replacing chemotherapy with a Canada Dry.

There was a time when a pound of ginger would

have cost you a whole sheep – that was 14th

century England. Now your pocket change can

get you a ginger beer that might change your

life. Dave Drayton gets to the root of it.

There was a time when a pound of ginger wouldThere was a time when a pound of ginger would p g g

h t h l h th t 14th

THE MIGHTY GINGER

Ginger Beer – AlcoholicGinger increases saliva and other digestive fluids, it

also decreases flatulence, nausea and swelling. So even

if you take a tumble on the walk home the analgesic

properties of ginger will chip in to reduce the swelling

of the chip on your shoulder. A hangover generally

comprises dehydration, nausea and an uncomfortable

amount of porcelain pollution – a ginger beer the night

before may not preemptively alleviate the hangover

altogether, but it will put you in much better stead.

Ginger WineDon’t let the fact that you’ve only seen gran having sips

of the communion wine on Sundays fool you – ginger

wine can be misleadingly serious business. At nearly 14%

it’s not surprising how many of your high school friends

found a bottle of Stones, then God, then a large pile of

regret at the back of the kitchen cupboard... But, enjoyed

responsibly, ginger wine – alongside ginger beer, and

to a lesser extent, whisky and dry – allows for the rare

equilibrium where the thing getting you drunk is also the

thing laying the foundations for your hangover recovery.

Ginger Beer – Non-AlcoholicYour guts feel rancid, you’re struggling to even hold down

dry toast and like my friend in the land of rising sun,

you are in need of a liquid solution. The oleoresins (or oil

resin) of ginger acts as an emetic, a substance that helps

inhibit nausea and vomiting, and the sugary goodness

this helps you keep it down will give your bodily-fluid

soaked almost-corpse some much needed energy.

Ginger TeaGrab yourself a fresh ginger rhizome and shave or grate

a tablespoon’s worth off and place in a mug of boiling

water for a simple, effective and deliciously spicy hot tea.

Popular in Jamaica, the tea is perfect if you’re the kind of

enviably clean living soul who steers clear of the sleeping

pills the rest of use to make long distance travel bearable.

GINGER COCKTAILSGINGER ICED TEAA punchy version of your run of the mill alcoholic iced tea, this combines the clean living, spicy goodness of ginger tea with sugar, lemon and the not-so-clean goodness of a shot of vodka once it’s cooled.

MOSCOW MULEInvented in New York and popularised in 1950s LA during the ‘vodka craze’, this not-actually-Russian, simple (but effective) cocktail mixes ginger beer with vodka and lime, and sometimes with mint as well.

SUMMER SANGRIAThis recipe is up to interpretation, but consider taking Martha Stewart’s advice and switching red wine for white, mixing with fresh ginger, orange liqueur, and summer fruits like mango and pineapple with fresh basil (or mint) and lemon juice.

BOURBON HIGHBALLThough most often made with soda water, mixing this cocktail with ginger ale, bourbon and a twist of lemon is scientifically proven to be the best way to pretend you’re a film noir detective.

GINGER-CIDER SHANDYHalf ginger beer. Half cider. The perfect mix of sweet and spicy.

drink


fashion


DARK MAGIKFeel the heebie jeebies as All Hallows’ Eve descends upon us. Pumpkins, parties, trick or treat – meh. It’s time to get creative by weaving your own dark spell of intrigue, mystery and magic.

CONCEPT AND STYLING: Celeste Macleod

[email protected]

HAIR, MAKEUP AND PHOTOGRAHPYAlexandra Anderson

Alexandra Studios

www.alexandrastudios.com.au

MODELS:Kurt Medenbach,

Matt Badura, Molly Arnol and Izzy Roberts-Orr

POSITIVE INFLATIONThis Saturday head down to West End Music at 4pm where Golden Age Of Ballooning will perform a free show, along with solo artist Joel Myles who’ll be supporting the five-piece. Get up close and intimate with some local faves.

PUMPKIN UPA Halloween bash is being put on by Say Do Now this Friday at The Waiting Room, featuring their pals Belltalk and other special guests. In a ghoulish twist, everything will be stripped back and frightening. Potentially. $10 from 7pm, costume on.

ROYAL FLUSHGet some Pugsley Buzzard when he shows off his new LP Chasin’

Aces at Bangalow Bowling Club this Saturday, and Currimundi Hotel, Sunshine Coast (2pm) on Sunday, followed by a late session at Black Bear Lodge that night.

SQUASHED DEADTonight, Wednesday, make sure you get to The Hi-Fi early if you’re heading down to catch Wednesday 13 because industrial destroyers Witchgrinder will be opening up the show – and the pit – with a deafening roar. Limited tickets are still available.

SAY IT AGAINGive yourself a nice coat of fake blood and come down to Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas this Thursday, where you can see a Halloween double-header featuring Beetlejuice and The Lost Boys from 6pm. Prizes for best dressed and free ice-cream!

GIGGITY-GIGGITYThe irresistible pop rock of Set The Record is hard to ignore, with the debut single Real from their forthcoming Above the World

EP receiving some serious airplay. The official launch is this Sunday at the Old Museum. Get along!


the guide

TOURING THIS WEEK

FOR MORE HEAD TO THEMUSIC.COM.AU

[email protected]

MORNINGSIDE FATSName: Paul Renton

Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? A very thick vinyl album titled Please Please Me by some guys called The Beatles.

First record you bought? For a blues guy this may sound strange, but upon receiving my first ever pay check for school holiday work I went straight out and purchased Never Mind

The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols.

Record you put on when you’re really miserable? This is always changing. Lately it has been Igor Prado’s Blues And Soul

Sessions. Some incredibly soulful performances by Igor and a whole raft of special guests.

Record you put on when you bring someone home? Junior Watson’s If I Had A

Genie for social occasions. Sam Cooke’s 30 Greatest Hits if I’m looking for lovin’.

Most surprising record in your collection? The Jook Joint Johnnys Live at the Paddo

Workers. Rare as hens’ teeth.

Last thing you bought/downloaded? It’s been around for a while but I recently got myself the Igor Prado and Lynwood Slim album Brazillian Kicks.

Morningside Fats plays Grass Roots Festival at Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens on Sunday 3 Nov.

PERSONAL BEST RECORDS

FRONTLASHMO GOLDThe Golden Plains crew have done it again in 2014. Public Enemy, Neko Case, Yo La Tengo and heaps of quality Aussie rock – this boutique shindig keeps going from strength to strength.

DOUSING THE FLAMESTony Abbott mightn’t be everyone’s cuppa, but you have to admire him for putting his years of training to use and helping to fight the Blue Mountains fires.

GO BULLS!Congrats to the Queensland Bulls one-day team for winning the Ryobi Cup final, in the process extending NSW’s eight-year trophy drought in cricket!

BACKLASHVALE LOU REEDWords can’t even express the feeling of loss throughout the music world as it comes to terms with the passing of Lou Reed. Cantankerous he may have been but his canon of songs are untouchable.

RIP MARCIA WALLACEMarcia Wallace’s distinctive voice became known to Simpsons fans worldwide as the irrepressible Edna Krabapple, and she’ll leave a massive whole in Springfield after passing away this week.

HOMEBAKE-OFFThere’s a lot of gnashing of teeth about festivals at the minute, and the cancellation this week of Homebake isn’t going to slow that down. Homebake had a lot of residual goodwill, so the fallout will be interesting to follow.

VALE EDNA

CYCLICAL TREADSThe sound of early ‘90s shoegaze has found resurgence in Flyying Colours. They’re playing east coast dates next month, including shows at Black Bear Lodge, 14 Nov and The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba, 16 Nov, both with Soviet X-Ray Record Club.

GOOD VIBRATIONSWhen Melbourne three-piece Whitaker were asked about their five-track EP, Wichita, they said nothing mattered more than “the vibe”. Here’s your chance to soak it all up before the 22 Nov release when they support Gossling at Alhambra Lounge, 15 Nov.

HEAR ME ROARL-Fresh The Lion has asserted himself as a much-needed voice for our generation. His latest single Faithful touches on some harsh realities with flowing conviction, and now you can witness the power when he visits the Transcontinental Hotel, 9 Nov.

THE HILLS COME ALIVEYou’re going to fall in love with the no-nonsense style of Claude Hay when the Blue Mountain multi-instrumentalist ventures north to perform at The Loft, Gold Coast, 23 Nov, with Cleveland Blues and Kenny Slide.

WAKING UP IS EASYDistinguished rock gentlemen The Hello Morning headline Eumundi Live on 24 Nov. Happening on Memorial Drive from midday, the bill also features Floating Bridges, Go Van Go and The Strangest Dreamers.


MASKETTA FALLAnswered by: Big Red

EP title: Parachute

How many releases do you have now? This is our second release, following up from our debut EP, Something Beautiful.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Our amazing fans (aka ‘Masketeers’), who always stand by us, and surviving our skydiving adventure that came about during the filming of a music video for one of the tracks off the EP!

What’s your favourite song on it? Let There Be Light is top of my list. It has a strong meaning and sends a very positive message.

We’ll like this EP if we like... Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Hot Chelle Rae, Panic! At The Disco.

Masketta Fall play Old Museum on Sunday 3 Nov.

EP FOCUS

the guide


FUTURE SOUNDS

[email protected]

ALBUM FOCUS

THE CROOKED FIDDLE BANDAnswered by: Joe Gould

Album title: Moving

Pieces Of The Sea

Where did the title of your new album come from? A letter Jacques Cousteau wrote to his son whilst living underwater in the Red Sea as an experiment – yes, this really happened. It seemed to suit our watery-themed album perfectly.

How many releases do you have now? This new one joins our debut LP, Overgrown Tales, and a couple of earlier EPs, in the Crooked Fiddle pool room.

How long did it take to write/record? Writing took a year, around touring, whilst recording took ten days. For Albini, even ten days is extra long for an album, but we wanted to add extra layers this time round.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? We usually write to a narrative – this time, cinematic images of tidal waves, fish with murderous intent, dancing crabs. Plus our tour last year around Scandinavia threw us some inspirational fjords, lakes and seas.

What’s your favourite song on it? Seems rude to choose a favourite child, but closer Deepwater Drownings is an embodiment of our epic, intense crooked sound.

Will you do anything differently next time? We won’t let Gordon buy the beer. He always chooses based on how amazing the artwork is. It rarely works out for the best, though Rasputin Dark wasn’t so bad.

The Crooked Fiddle Band play Solbar, Maroochydore on Friday 1 Nov, The Joynt on Saturday 2 Nov and Queen St Mall on Sunday 3 Nov.


321 BRUNSWICK STREET MALL, FORTITUDE VALLEY

C A F É - B A R

FREE LIVE MUSIC AND INDIE DJSWANT TO PLAY? EMAIL [email protected]

WWW.RICSBAR.COM.AU

30TH OF OCTOBER

ANTI-THESIS (9:30PM) + GUESTS (8:30PM) 31ST OF OCTOBER

LULU AND THE CUTTHROATS 10:00PM + F.T. COKER 9:00PM + THE HALLS 8:00PM + DJ VALDIS

1ST OF NOVEMBER

CAPITOL CONTROL 9:00PM + GUESTS (8:00PM) + DJ VALDIS (

2ND OF NOVEMBER

MESCALITO BLUES 9PM + GUEST 8PM3RD OF NOVEMBER

ALEX BOWEN 9:30PM + NIKOLAINE MARTIN 8:30PM4TH OF NOVEMBER

ELOISE MAREE 9:30PM + GUESTS 8:305TH OF NOVEMBER

FELICITY BURDETT 9:30PM + NIKOLAINE MARTIN 8:30PM

BAY STREET BYRON BAY

(02) 6685 6402www.beachhotel.com.au

THURS 7TH:

BOY & BEAR

FRI 8TH:

LEIGH JAMES, HEY GERONIMO

+ TOM LARK

SAT 9TH:

HOT DUB TIME MACHINE

SUN 10TH:

KELLIE KNIGHT & THE DAZE

WED 13TH:

RAW SHOWCASE - ‘ENCOMPASS’

TUE 19TH:

‘LOVE YOUR SISTER’ FUNDRAISER

W/ SAM JOHNSON

SUN 23RD:

STEREOSONIC LAUNCH PARTY

DEC 31ST:

NYE PARTY

THURS 31ST FROM 9PM

CLOCKS AND DICE

FRI 1ST NOV FROM 5PM

BEACHY FRIDAYS $4 SCHOONERS OF COOPERS

PALE ALE, OTHER DRINK SPECIALS AND NIBBLES

W/AKOVA

RAGGA JUMP 9:30PM

SAT 2ND NOV FROM 9PM

RHYTHM & CUTLOOSE

SUN 3RD NOV FROM 4:30PM

JAFFER HORRORSHOW 8PM

MON 4TH NOV FROM 8PM

‘HIT THAT HIT’ MUSICAL BINGO

TUES 5TH NOV FROM 1PM

MELBOURNE CUP @ THE BEACHY W/ LISA HUNT

WED 6TH NOV FROM 8:30PM

BILL JACOBI

THIS WEEK:

COMING UP:

ALEX BOWENName: Alex Bowen

Home ground: Newcastle

Describe your live music/performance style as succinctly as possible: Soul and blues. Upbeat electric blues powerhouse songs to stripped down acoustic ballads and everything in between.

Is this your first foray to Brisbane? If not how many times have you performed in our midst? I’ve been to Brissy a number of times with previous bands. Under my own name this is my fourth visit.

Please relate your impressions of performing in our fair city: One thing I have found from Brisbane is that the old fashion ‘word of mouth’ really takes off. My first Brisbane show was to 20 people and the following show was completely sold out.

What can we expect different this time around? Solo, intimate, acoustic and raw.

Has anything exciting been happening in your world of late? Touring all summer around Australia, both solo and with my blues trio. Then back to the studio for single number two.

What will you be taking home as a souvenir? I’ll surely be taking home some good moments and memories from the show.

Alex Bowen plays Mandala Organic Arts Cafe, Gold Coast on Saturday 2 Nov and Ric’s Bar on Sunday 3 Nov.

BRISBANE BOUND EP FOCUS

the guide


FUTURE SOUNDS

EVAN & THE BRAVEAnswered by: Daniel Mifsud

EP title: Island

How many releases do you have now? This is our first official release!

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? The concept of being really direct both musically and lyrically was important. We had Blur, Springsteen, The Smiths and Elbow all in our heads when recording the EP.

What’s your favourite song on it? Stay This Way. I like how manic/desperate the lyric is. Plus the pretty sounds and chords in the background.

We’ll like this EP if we like... The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Elbow, Bruce Springsteen, New Kids On The Block and Michael Jordan.

Evan & The Brave play Cafe Le Monde, Noosa on Thursday 31 Oct, The Hideaway on Friday 1 Nov and The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba on Saturday 3 Nov.

[email protected]


BIG SCREEN DREAMSSoula launch new single Over

Our Head at Kings Beach Tavern, Caloundra this Saturday, before playing Surf Air Tavern, Sunshine Coast, 10 Nov; The Loft, Gold Coast, 15 Nov; The Tempo Hotel, 16 Nov and Café Le Monde, Noosa, 1 Dec.

DIY PUNKColumbus have just crafted their second EP, a release full of emotion and grit. They’ll present Sad Songs and Sing-Alongs on 14 Dec at Transcontinental Hotel with Flangipanis, Whiskey and Speed, Trigger Warning and a whole bunch more.

HUG IT OUTThis Sunday at Rock N Roll BBQ, 633 Ann, you can catch Thee Hugs, pictured, showing off their latest Drug Use

And Alcohol Abuse, as well as Ironside, The Sentimental Favourites and Cowboy Bob And His World Of Smut.

THE GLORY OF LOVEEponymous local duo Warmwater, featuring Lena and Luke, will be spreading their joyous brand of folk far and wide at Shucked Lane this Sunday from 12.30pm. Get some inspiration after a big Saturday night.

MATCH IT UPThe good crew at Double Denim are putting on a free gig at The Hideaway, 13 Nov, stocked heavy with fantastic artists. Leading the way is emerging local songwriter Wafia, pictured, in full band mode, while Andrew Markwell and Fossils also front up.

EP FOCUS

the guide

EVIL ELVISName: KC Carlisle

Best record you stole from your folks’ collection? Too many to mention, but one of the best was Hank Williams and Conway Twitty, cool country for sure!

First record you bought? A Canadian heavy metal band called Triumph I think? Yeah, just like the Motorcycles which is what probably drew me to that band! The album was Rock’N’Roll Machine! Then they started sucking bad!

Record you put on when you’re really miserable? There are many. For sad emotion I usually go with Amy Winehouse, but I’ll even put on blues like Muddy or John Lee! For anger I usually go hardcore psycho like my bros The Brains or metal like Pantera.

Record you put on when you bring someone home? I go Elvis – women melt when they hear his voice! Winehouse would be good for that, too.

Most surprising record in your collection? ABBA – seriously it was a joke gift but those fuckin’ Swedish bastards could write a catchy song damn it!

Last thing you bought/downloaded? Last thing was a Zombie bobble head but in music I’d have to say it was The Monster

Within by The Brains.

Evil Elvis plays Beetle Bar on Friday 1 Nov.

PERSONAL BEST RECORDS


ELIZABETH ROSEName: Elizabeth Maniscalco

Single title? The Good Life

What’s the song about? This song is about me wanting to move out of home... ha! About wanting independence and finding my own way.

How long did it take to write/record? The process was quite quick – though it had a totally different vocal in the first draft. The quickest things that came out were the chords and the beat then the lyrics came last!

Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? It sure is... I have a brand new EP coming out in the new year!

What was inspiring you during the songs writing and recording? I was getting into some old R&B jams that I grew up listening to – artists like Brandy, Aaliyah, Destinys Child, etc. I wanted to bring that side of me out in the new material.

We’ll like this song if we like... ‘90s/early-‘00s R&B vibe mixed with Disclosure-esque production.

Do you play it differently live? A little bit yeah... I like to start it with a special intro and add some new samples in here and there.

Elizabeth Rose plays Alhambra Lounge on Saturday 2 Nov.

[email protected]


FLOCK TOGETHERTouring with The Paper Kites and winning triple j Unearthed’s Indigenous Music Award has added a few feathers to Robbie Miller’s cap. Now he’s headlining at The Hideaway, 7 Nov, supported by folk songbirds Meredith and amorina.

MORE PLEASELocal rock foursome Columbia Buffet have given us another emotive gem in the way of new single, Shapes. Hear how they make the infectious sound easy when they play Ric’s Bar, 16 Nov with The Delta Lions.

DRIFT AWAYIf you’re a fan of American dream pop artists like Beach House and Wild Nothing, then get a taste of some Aussies doing it just as well when I Know Leopard arrive to play Trainspotters, Grand Central Hotel, 16 Nov.

SPLISH SPLASHMar Haze’s single tour for Dancing In The Water is following our surf coast, so if you want to catch the Sydney quartet head to The Loft, GC, 1 Nov, where they’ll play with The Midnight Antics, Rory Switzer and Matt Scully.

ADDITIONAL DOUCHESBluejuice are set to get douchey on their upcoming S.O.S

tour, and bring with them some fellow Sydney rascals in the way of Sures, pictured, while locals Rolls Bayce open proceedings. The gig takes place 9 Nov, The Hi-Fi.

FUTURE SOUNDS


opinion

VALLEY FIESTA QMA SHOWCASE ANNOUNCEDJust when you thought Valley Fiesta couldn’t possibly get any bigger, Brisbane City Council is pleased to announce some of Queensland’s finest musical exports are joining the line-up with the Queensland Music Awards Showcase. Joining the showcase on Sunday Nov 24 are Cub Sport, Kingfisha, MKO, AngeTakats, and Harmony James. The free event kicks off at 2pm on the Brunswick St Mall Stage.

ARTS QUEENSLAND MUSIC FUNDING SUBMISSIONS OPENSubmissions for Arts Queensland’s Play Queensland Touring Fund and the Super Star Fund are now open. The Playing Queensland Fund provides funding for performing arts touring. Super Star Fund is a new funding program that promises to deliver superstar performances exclusive to Queensland. Apply at www.arts.qld.gov.au.

HELP JAZZ QUEENSLAND CELEBRATE ITS 30TH BIRTHDAYJazz Queensland Incorporated is proud to announce its 30th anniversary as Queensland’s peak jazz service and presenter organisation. Jazz Queensland will be holding a party at the Jazz Music Institute ( JMI) on Thursday 21 Nov from 6.30pm till late, featuring performances by some of Queensland’s most accomplished jazz artists. For more info, see www.jazzqueensland.com.

WANT TO KNOW MORE OR BECOME A QMUSIC MEMBER?For these stories, memberships and more, go to www.qmusic.com.au

QMUSIC

Before Essex homegirl Jessica Cornish became famous as urban pop divette Jessie J, she co-wrote Party In The USA – giving it to Miley Cyrus. “I kinda felt like it was cool, but it was too safe for me at the time,” Cornish told OG in 2011. Now Cyrus is topping charts with her risqué country/urban/rave Bangerz – and Cornish’s predictable Alive, the follow-up to Who You Are, is floundering.

The singles didn’t bode well – the lead-off Wild, here featuring trans-Atlantic rappers Dizzee Rascal and Big Sean, is a B-grade Beyoncé-mode party banger, Aussie hit or no. The latest, StarGate’s Thunder, is more promising, evoking the synth rock of Lady Gaga’s underrated Born This Way. While the Brit possesses a spectacular voice, she’s abandoned an R&B paradigm for a generic pop/rock/EDM mash-up. Cornish is even working with the same US-based producers – Dr Luke! – as everyone else. It’s My Party is too Katy Perry. The acoustic reggae Harder We Fall is faux RiRi. And the Sia Furler-penned ballad Breathe is a poor lass’ Wrecking Ball, complete with wub-wub. Cornish’s duet with Brandy, Conquer The World? It’s utterly forgettable. The best song is ‘80s electro-boogie Daydreamin. Cornish is reportedly prepping fresh material for a 2014 US repackage. Meanwhile, she joins Mary J. Blige on Do You Hear What I Hear? off the latter’s A Mary Christmas.

[email protected]

JESSIE J

OG FLAVASURBAN AND R’N’B

NEWS BY CYCLONE

There’s a little over a month left before we’re going to have to start brainstorming our top ten albums of the year. The frequency and high calibre of heavy music being released just isn’t showing any sign of slowing down. I’m certain some older or more jaded readers might have just scoffed, but I’m trying to stay relevant here, and dread the day when all of a sudden everything sounded better back when I was spritely and not held down by the trap of adult life. For now I ride the snowballing wave of brutality and frustration – as the world spirals further into destruction and chaos, so does its musical output. Australia is totally complicit in this too, so here’s some choice albums that the state of Victoria has produced in recent times…

Jack The Stripper – Raw Nerve

I had the privilege of seeing this absolutely hectic band perform a couple months back, and within minutes the vocalist was bleeding profusely from the head... because he had quite literally glassed himself in the face. The sound of Raw Nerve is pretty much on par with such a violent outburst. Their sound could be compared to such Australian noise/metal/core/grind/whatever greats as The Rivalry, Totally Unicorn and Robotosaurus, but Jack The Stripper possess a certain level of metallic savagery that exceeds all that have come before them in the relatively obscure scene for domestic chaos. Unrelenting in power and technically staggering, this is some world class Armageddon.

Circles – Infinitas

Released by UK label Basick Records, the debut album from

progressive metal/djent (no point

fighting it – it’s a legitimate term

by now) group Circles sees them

on a roster occupied by such

international greats as Misery

Signals, The Algorithm, Chimp

Spanner and Ion Dissonance.

Yeah, they’ve been with the label

for a couple of smaller releases

prior, but I’m more just using that

as a point of reference for the

level of quality we’re dealing with

here. Periphery and TesseracT

eat your hearts out – Circles

are doing the sing/scream post-

Meshuggah thing as good as

anyone else with Infinitas, an

album that traverses a universe of

sounds. The group has recently

been showcasing their wares

in Europe alongside this little

act called The Dillinger Escape

Plan – not bad at all for a band

that hasn’t toured locally as

much as you’d expect. Hats off!

Mason – Warhead

No point denying it – Australia

was pretty lacking in seriously

good thrash bands throughout

most of the ‘00s, but in recent

years the tables have done a 180,

and now Melbourne in particular

is just overflowing with world-

class thrash metal. Through

their own self-admission I

learned that Mason began as just

another high school band that

covered all the usuals – Pantera,

Metallica, Slayer… but now their

debut album Warhead sees those

influences strengthened into

a solid collection of originals.

The title track even proclaims

it: “wearing your heart on your sleeve/Fighting for what you believe!” Save for the modern

production, the record is

without a new-age gimmick or

trend to be heard, and is retro

thrash through and through.

JACK THE STRIPPER

ADAMANTIUM WOLFMETAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT


opinion

THE LOOKING GLASSA JOURNEY THROUGH ARTS WITH HELEN STRINGER

The apocalypse is nigh. Again.

Admittedly, end of the world

prophesies have a fairly poor

batting average, what with the

world having failed to end on

every occasion someone has

unequivocally asserted our time

was up, but this time those

hollering mass destruction have

evidence on their side: two giant

deep sea fish have washed up on

a Californian beach. According

to Japanese fable they are a

harbinger of earthquake-related

doom. Last time the terrifying

oarfish started popping up it

was in Japanese waters – directly before the 2011 tsunami. No reasonable human being can dispute that when two unusual but otherwise completely unrelated things happen one after the other the only explanation is we’re all going to die.

Scientists are saying that “there is no evidence whatsoever to believe that a dead fish has any kind of bearing on cataclysmic tectonic disturbance” and that drawing any meaning from the appearance “is barely within the realms of coincidence”. They also

released a statement that was read in the UN Special Sitting for the Significance of Oarfish which states, “If someone turns this into a conspiracy theory we’re getting in our secret spaceships and leaving you to fend for yourselves, you fucking ingrates.” We all know that a categorical refutation means an attempted cover-up and that the more strenuously the authorities dismiss convoluted apocalypse theories the more accurate they are. This leads free-thinking people to the only logical conclusion: this time the apocalypse really is nigh.

Like all good apocalypse-prophesying the truth only reveals itself by combining unrelated mythologies from different cultures, misrepresenting scientific fact and using tenuous links to arrive at a weak approximation of a logical hypothesis. Conflation and fabrication are the key to unlocking the facts. For instance, fish are heralding this newest end of days. We can clearly see that ‘fish’ has four letters. How many horses of the apocalypse are prophesised? Four. Don’t tell me that’s just a coincidence.

There’s even more damning evidence. Forbes recently released a list of filthy rich Brits under 30 and boy band One Direction topped it, knocking Harry Potter into second place. There are at least two blindingly obvious signs. First, it’s an open secret that Potter is an angel for good; we can assume his dethroning is a portent of evil to come. Second, and tying in with the previous, scientifically sound numerological analysis of the indicators of the end times, there are four letters in ‘fish’, four horsemen of the apocalypse and four members of 1D. Don’t contradict me: the one who isn’t Harry, Zayne, Louis or Niall could be replaced with a cardboard cut-out with nobody really noticing, ergo he doesn’t exist.

Tweens will be joyfully lining up in their thousands to be smote by Niall, Louis and Zayne. The coup d’état will be Harry Styles emerging resplendent astride a black stallion.

The evidence is nonsensical and therefore virtually irrefutable. Only Bruce Willis can save us now.

BRUCE WILLIS

CULTURAL CRINGEWITH MANDY MCALISTER

Who would have thought that ten years after the conclusion of Dawson’s Creek anyone would give a crap about James Van Der Beek? Certainly not me. I came up on Beverley Hills 90210, so by the time Dawson’s Creek hit Australia I was too far gone on the pill-popping, risk-taking, swagger and pomp of rich kids to care about the precious innocence of virginal country darlings. I watched a couple of episodes hoping to be sucked into the drama so that I might have one more thing in common with my co-worker crush. He even wrote me a catch-up synopsis when I was working nights but rather than being enthralled by the curves of his vowels, I was struck by just how little I wanted to read about these mundane teen morons. Of course, being teen morons was what I had most in common with my crush. We’d both taken jobs at a Nightowl because Kevin Smith taught us that working in a convenience store you’ll learn valuable life

lessons, which we did. He learned that working graveyard shift is the time most likely to be held up at syringe point and I learned that I really didn’t want to work in a convenience store or date someone who thought Dawson’s Creek was a good show.

Anyway, Van Der Beek. My beloved sister’s viewing habits include Gossip Girl and Hart Of Dixie, shows I’m quick to label “American wish-fulfilment super-trash made for a tabloid-reading audience”. So I was a little slow to take on her latest recommendation, sitcom Don’t Trust The B---- In Apartment 23. But hell, Breaking Bad was done, and it was off-season for The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones. I thought I might as well give it a watch, mainly to see what Krysten Ritter ( Jane from Breaking Bad, bitch) could do with a lead role. Don’t Trust The B... follows the rags-to-rags story of country girl June (Dreama Walker) who moves

to New York and winds up rooming with conniving it girl and apartment 23 dweller of the title, Chloe (Ritter). Van Der Beek plays Chloe’s vacuous, party boy, actor BFF, James Van Der Beek. Yep, Beek does Beek. Surprisingly he’s actually pretty good in this show... or rather, was pretty good in this show. It’s not slated for a return season, which is not that surprising; there was little room for the characters to develop in any meaningful way given the show’s momentum thrives on fantastical, only in New York, scenarios. Though it may turn out to be but a blip

in TV history, Van Der Beek proves to have solid comic timing and the Dawson’s Creek pisstaking makes watching well worthwhile. Stash this one in the file labelled, “American guilty pleasures stuffed with Gen X pop culture references”. Consider it a post-Breaking Bad chill-out room. Channel 10 are airing the first season of Don’t Trust The B... Tuesday nights, and you can catch it from episode 1 on their online viewing app, TENplay. The network is reported to have picked up Van Der Beek’s new show, Friends With Better Lives, air dates are yet to be announced.

DAWON’S CREEK

the guide

Dan Sultan: Old Museum Oct 31, Woombye Pub Nov 1

Jordie Lane: Spotted Cow Oct 31, Black Bear Lodge Nov 1

The Crooked Fiddle Band: Solbar Nov 1, The Joynt Nov 2

Horrorshow: Spotted Cow Oct 31, The Zoo Nov 1, Solbar Nov 2, Beach Hotel Nov 3

Grass Roots Festival 2013: Mt Cootha Nov 3

Boy & Bear: Beach Hotel Nov 7, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 8, The Tivoli Nov 9

Golden Days Festival: Coolum Sports Complex Nov 9

Mullum Music Festival: Mullumbimby Nov 21-24

Patrick James: Black Bear Lodge Nov 27

The John Steel Singers: Spotted Cow Nov 28, The Zoo Nov 29, Solbar Nov 30

Philadelphia Grand Jury vs Feelings: The Rev Dec 5

Festival Of The Sun: Port Macquarie Dec 13-14

Pond: The Zoo Dec 14

Bonjah: Solbar Dec 28, The Northern Dec 29

Woodford Folk Festival: Woodfordia Dec 27-Jan 1

Half Moon Run: Solbar Jan 2, Old Museum Jan 3, The Northern Jan 4

Future Music Festival: RNA Showgrounds March 1

Billy Bragg: The Tivoli Mar 20

Steve Earle & The Dukes: The Tivoli Apr 15

Allen Stone: The Zoo Apr 16

Byron Bay Bluesfest 2014: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Apr 17-21

KC & The Sunshine Band: The Tivoli Apr 19

Lachlan Bryan + Aleyce Simmonds: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill

Prom Night Halloween feat. Rhys Bynon + Sammy Owens + Matt Kent + Jaxon + Aaron Young + more: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

Friends of Ben: Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane

Rag Doll Duo + Jabba: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane

Trichotomy, Froy Aagre Electric: JMI Live, Bowen Hills

Steven Jaymes Band: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane

Ballad Boy: Loving Hut, Mount Gravatt

The Not So Secret Halloween Party feat. various: Mick O’Malley’s (Crypt Bar), Brisbane

Dan Sultan + guests: Old Museum, Bowen Hills

A Very Ric’s Halloween feat. Lulu & The Cutthroats + F.T. Coker + The Halls + DJ Valdis: Ric’s (downstairs), Fortitude Valley

Stephen Head + Casey Talbot + Jordan Shulte + Asher Treleaven: Sit Down Comedy Club, Brisbane

Sue-Anne Stewart + Mitch Davis + Andrea Kirwin: Solbar, Maroochydore

Open Mic Night with David Smiedt: Stones Corner Hotel, Stones Corner

Quinn Band: The Boundary Hotel (Public Bar), West End

Eskimo Joe + special guests : The Hi-Fi, West End

Sahara Beck: The Hideaway, Fortitude Valley

Josh Lovegrove + Pat Tierney + O Little Sister + Jackson James Smith: The Loft, Chevron Island

Will Day: The Plough Inn, Southbank

Open Mic Night feat. various: The Retro Bar, Kenmore

Jordie Lane + guests: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba

Dream On Dreamer + A Skylit Drive + No Bragging Rights + Hellions + As Paradise Falls: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Get Spooky feat. various: The Tempo Hotel (Bowler Bar), Fortitude Valley

Frazer Goodman + friends: The Vault, Southport

Lightning Bolt + Sewers + Magenta Voyeur + Slow Riots: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

Snitch feat. Kissperience + Let’s Jump Ship: X&Y Bar, Fortitude Valley

FRI 01 Friends feat. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard + Tiny Migrants + Babe Rainbow: Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley

Darren J Ray: Beenleigh Sports Club, Beenleigh

Marville + El Motel + You In Reverse + The Steady As She Goes + DJ Wolvie Trash: Beetle Bar, Brisbane

Scramjet: Coolangatta Hotel (Public Bar), Coolangatta

McKisko: Cooran Hall, Cooran

In Tribute To Tony Sly feat. Joey Cape + Brian Wahlstrom + Jud Campbell + Matt Hoara: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

Halloween Party feat. various: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill

The Ottomans + Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun + The Ether: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

Dream On Dreamer + A Skylit Drive + No Bragging Rights + Hellions + Kings At Heart: Expressive Grounds (all ages), Tallebudgera

Diva Demolition: Hotel Lowood, Lowood

B-Rad + Jabba: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane

Women In Docs: Joe’s Waterhole, Eumundi

Le Breeze: Lambert’s Restaurant, Kangaroo Point

Strings For Ammo + Locky: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane

Red Remedy: Prince of Wales Hotel, Nundah

Green Jam Sessions with Euan Cumming Quartet: QPAC, Southbank

GIG OF THE WEEKENSLAVED: 3 NOV, THE HI-FI

DAN SULTAN: 31 OCT, OLD MUSEUM

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


[email protected]

WED 30 The Kin + Slip On Stereo + Kisshead: Alhambra Lounge, Fortitude Valley

Jam Night feat. various: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta

Trainspotters feat. Naked Maja + Day Ravies + Nite Fields + Barbituates: Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane

Locky: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane

David Smiedt + Asher Treleaven: Jupiters (The PA), Broadbeach

Open Mic Showcase feat. various: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane

Anti-Thesis + guests: Ric’s, Fortitude Valley

Mark Sheils: Royal George, Fortitude Valley

Wednesday 13 + Witchgrinder: The Hi-Fi, West End

Captain Dreamboat: The Joynt, South Brisbane

Open Mic Night feat. various: The Loft, Chevron Island

Candice: The Plough Inn, Southbank

Tempo Acoustic Sessions + Zac Court + G.D. Browning + Bart Thrupp + Moonshine Sally: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Lesyah: The Vault, Southport

The Cantillate Club feat. Scramble + Kendall Layt + Samuel Cooper + Chris Nance: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

THU 31 McKisko: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Louise Isackson Quartet: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Evan & The Brave: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa

Pyre & Ice + Hugo Slide: Captain Cook Tavern, Kippa-Ring

Halloween Alpha Beta Party + Remedy + DJ Euphoria: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta

Tim Chaisson + Logan Dove: Dowse Bar (Iceworks), Paddington

Jordie Lane + guests: Black Bear Lodge (early evening show), Fortitude Valley

Gershwin & Porter + Di Clark Quartet: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Lachlan Bryan + Aleyce Simmonds: Burleigh Underground Drummers, Burleigh Heads

Sons Of The Soil + Demonfire + The Poisoners + Lavidius: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley

DJ Ryan Shearer: Coolangatta Hotel (ICON Nightclub), Coolangatta

Anh Do: QPAC Concert Hall (Lyric Theatre), South Bank

Capitol Control + DJ Valdis + guests: Ric’s (downstairs), Fortitude Valley

DJ Simon: Ric’s (upstairs), Fortitude Valley


The Crooked Fiddle Band + The Mouldy Lovers: Solbar, Maroochydore

Tijuana Cartel: SoundLounge, Currumbin

Rumblefish: The Boundary Hotel (Public Bar), West End

THE MUSIC PRESENTS

BERNARD FANNING: 3 NOV, SIRROMET WINERY

the guide

21 Hundred feat. Nick Conomos: The Boundary Hotel (Beer Garden/5pm), West End

Gus G’s Firewind + guests: The Hi-Fi, West End

Evan & The Brave: The Hideaway, Fortitude Valley

Bullhorn: The Joynt, South Brisbane

Mar Haze + The Midnight Antics + Rory Switzer: The Loft, Chevron Island

3 Thieves: The Plough Inn, Southbank

APATE + Reud Mood + Irukandjii + Icarus Complex + Electric Samurai: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Jazz & Shriaz feat. Bob La Castra + The Full Stops + Lesyah: The Vault, Southport

Say Do Now + Belltalk + special guests : The Waiting Room, West End

Pludo: The Waterloo Hotel, Newstead

Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

A Million Dead Birds Laughing + The Schoenberg Automaton + Aeon Of Horus + Medusa’s Mirror + The Ophidian Ascension: Upstairs 199, West End

Illegal feat. Xhin + Straylight + DJ Wolfe + Domestic Sphere + more: Warehouse, Fortitude Valley

Dan Sultan + guests: Woombye Pub, Woombye

SAT 02 The Jungle Giants + The Belligerents + The Missing: Alhambra Lounge (Under 18’s/afternoon), Fortitude Valley

Elizabeth Rose + Charles Murdoch: Alhambra Lounge (evening), Fortitude Valley

Dollar Bar + Undead Apes + Tape/Off + Roku Music: Beetle Bar, Brisbane

Jim Kelly Group + Laura Nobel: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Jimmy Poulos + Matt Marr + Terry Hansen: Colmslie Hotel, Morningside

Thriller feat. Antagonist AD + The Lane Cove + Nightmare + Winteress: Coniston Lane, Fortitude Valley

DJ LP: Coolangatta Hotel (ICON Nightclub), Coolangatta

Cheezwagon + Dan Hannaford: Coolangatta Hotel (Public Bar), Coolangatta

A Million Dead Birds Laughing + The Schoenberg Automaton + Aeon Of Horus + Scumguts + The Ophidian Ascension: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

Five + guests: Eatons Hill Hotel (Grand Ballroom), Eatons Hill

Halloween Massacre-ade 2013 feat. Giv + Stretch + Sessionkatz + Troy Donis: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

Locky + Berst: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane

Alex Bowen: Mandala Organic Arts Cafe, Mermaid Beach

Alter Egos + Tullamore Tree + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane

Sahara Beck: Peregian Originals, Peregian Beach

Mescalito Blues + DJ Valdis + guests: Ric’s (downstairs), Fortitude Valley

DJ Cutts: Ric’s (upstairs), Fortitude Valley


Horrorshow + Home Brew + Jimblah: Solbar, Maroochydore

Luke Peacock + Wolf & Napoleon: Southside Tea Room, Morningside

Exit 34: The Boundary Hotel (Beer Garden/5pm), West End

The Walters: The Boundary Hotel (Public Bar), West End

Skypilot + Ages Of Earth + The Evershow + Kick The Butterfly: The Calamvale Hotel, Calamvale

Ill Gates + Dub Terminator + J:Kenzo + Pr:incest + more: The Hi-Fi, West End

Horris + Rosie Peaches & The Radiowaves: The Hideaway, Fortitude Valley

The Crooked Fiddle Band + The Mouldy Lovers: The Joynt, South Brisbane

Ingrid James + Julian Jones: The Lido Cafe & Restaurant, Ascot

In Tribute To Tony Sly feat. Joey Cape + Brian Wahlstrom + Tim Johnson + Benny Willis: The Loft, Chevron Island

Karma: The Plough Inn (afternoon), Southbank

Blue Steel: The Plough Inn, Southbank

Evan & The Brave: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba

The Siren Tower + The Reversals + Bright Lights + Christian Patey + Wasabi: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Dangerous Dan: The Tempo Hotel (Bowler Bar), Fortitude Valley

Starq: The Vault, Southport

LeSuits + The Given Things + Big Dead + HRBRT: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

Evil Elvis + The Dead Ringers + Regular Gonzales: Transcontinental Hotel, Brisbane

The Golden Age of Ballooning + Joel Myles: West End Music (In-store/4pm), West End

SUN 03 Rock n Roll BBQ feat. Thee Hugs + Ironside + The Sentimental Favourites + Cowboy Bob & His World of Smut: 633 Ann (2pm), Fortitude Valley

BrizVegas Kustom Karnival feat. Marti Brom + The Roy Kay Trio + Dan & The Dualtones + The Hi-Boys + more: Acacia Ridge Hotel, Acacia Ridge

Pugsley Buzzard: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Ruby Blue + DJ Nato: Cafe Le Monde (3.15pm), Noosa

Boo Tree + The Wet Fish + Honey Collins + Bear Pilots: Club Greenslopes (1.30pm), Greenslopes

DJ LP + Woody: Coolangatta Hotel (Public Bar), Coolangatta

Ella Fence + Will Watson + Josh Lovegrove: Dowse Bar (Iceworks) (4pm), Paddington

Royale Sundays + Snobs + Stretch Paper Cranes : Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

Strings For Ammo + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane

Megan Cooper & The Pretty Pennies + Pat Tierney + Set The Record: Old Museum, Bowen Hills

Alex Bowen: Ric’s, Fortitude Valley

The Warmwaters + Tom & The Sex Meteor: Shucked Lane, Newstead

A Day On The Green feat. Bernard Fanning + The Cruel Sea + Sarah Blasko + Bob Evans + Whitley: Sirromet Winery, Mount Cotton

Lazy Eye Band: Solbar (2pm), Maroochydore

DJ Danny Cool: Stoke Bar (2pm), Southbank

Ben Morris + MC Losty: Surfers Paradise Beer Garden, Surfers Paradise

Jazz On The Terrace feat. various: The Greek Club (Odyssey Bar/12.30pm), South Brisbane

Enslaved + Rise Of Avernus: The Hi-Fi, West End

John Malcolm: The Joynt, South Brisbane

Retro Room: The Plough Inn (afternoon), Southbank

Yank Tank + Lucy Street: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

MON 04 Open Mic Night with Lindsay Webb: Newmarket Hotel, Newmarket

Rockaoke feat. various: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

TUE 05 Melbourne Cup: Party By The Beach feat. The Average Joes: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta

The Bug feat. Rachel Regan + Ask Mary: New Farm Bowls Club, New Farm

Mark Sheils: Samford Valley Hotel, Samford Valley

Gold Coast Comedy Club feat. various: The Loft, Chevron Island

Escalate feat. various: The Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Gold Coast Big Band: The Vault, Southport

HORRORSHOW: 1 NOV, THE ZOO



[email protected]

DAVE CLARKE: 3 NOV, BEETLE BAR

tour guide

INTERNATIONALWednesday 13: The Hi-Fi Oct 30

Lightning Bolt: The Zoo Oct 31

Gus G’s Firewind: The Hi-Fi Nov 1

Joey Cape: Crowbar Nov 1, The Loft Nov 2

Evil Elvis: Transcontinental Hotel Nov 2

Enslaved: The Hi-Fi Nov 3

Dave Clarke: Beetle Bar Nov 3

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus: The Hi-Fi Nov 7

Oval: IMA Nov 7

Fliptrix: The New Globe Theatre Nov 8, The Brewery Nov 10

Scott Kelly And The Road Home, Jarboe: The Zoo Nov 9

Adrian Lux: The Met Nov 9, Platinum Nov 16

One Republic: The Tivoli Nov 11

Salt-N-Pepa: Jupiters Hotel Nov 12

Neutral Milk Hotel, M. Ward, Superchunk: The Tivoli Nov 12

Smokie: Brolga Theatre Nov 12, Empire Theatre Nov 14, QPAC Nov 15

Nile: The Hi-Fi Nov 14

Big Sean: Arena Nov 14

Fleetwood Mac: BEC Nov 14, Dec 2

Useless ID: Crowbar Nov 15

Between The Buried And Me: The Zoo Nov 15

Martha Davis And The Motels: Twin Towns Nov 15

Olly Murs: BCEC Nov 16

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: The Hi-Fi Nov 17

Franz Ferdinand: The Tivoli Nov 17

Moonsorrow: The Hi-Fi Nov 20

Jill Scott: The Tivoli Nov 21

Neck Deep: Snitch Nov 21, Trinity Hall Nov 22 (AA)

Mikal Cronin: Alfred’s Apartment Nov 21, Black Bear Lodge Nov 22, The Northern Nov 23

Carl Craig: Bowler Bar Nov 22

Sonny and the Sunsets: QAG Nov 22

Justin Bieber: BEC Nov 26, 27 (AA)

Dale Watson & His Lonestars: Black Bear Lodge Nov 28, Morningside Services Club Nov 29

City and Colour, Twin Forks: Brisbane Riverstage Nov 30

Leonard Cohen: BEC Nov 30

Kataklysm: Crowbar Dec 4

Cave: The Zoo Dec 4

Insane Clown Posse: The Hi-Fi Dec 5

Steel Panther: Riverstage Dec 6

Guitar Wolf: Beetle Bar Dec 6

Passenger: The Tivoli Dec 6, Dec 7 (AA)

Taylor Swift: Suncorp Stadium Dec 7

Joey Bada$$: The Hi-Fi Dec 7

Melvins, Helmet: The Hi-Fi Dec 8, The Northern Dec 9

Deerhunter: The Zoo Dec 9

Muse: BEC Dec 10 (AA)

Peter Murphy: The Hi-Fi Dec 10

Metric: The Tivoli Dec 11

Sage Francis: The Hi-Fi Dec 12

Alicia Keys, John Legend: BEC Dec 13

Kylesa: The Hi-Fi Dec 13

Hopsin: The Tempo Hotel Dec 13, Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Dec 16

Jack Johnson: QPAC Dec 14

Chic featuring Nile Rodgers: The Tivoli Dec 15

Todd Terry: Cloudland Dec 15

The Brian Jonestown Massacre: The Hi-Fi Dec 15, The Northern Dec 18

Bon Jovi, Kid Rock: Suncorp Stadium Dec 17

Mac DeMarco: The Zoo Dec 18

David Dallas: Alhambra Lounge Dec 19

Waka Flocka Flame: The Hi-Fi Dec 21

Half Moon Run: Solbar Jan 2, Old Museum Jan 3, The Northern Jan 4

Deafhaven: Crowbar Jan 8

Paramore, You Me At Six: BEC Jan 9

Daughters: Crowbar Jan 9

Mayhem: The Hi-Fi Jan 12

Misfits: The Zoo Jan 16

We Are Scientists: The Zoo Jan 22

The Locust: Crowbar Feb 5

Dash Berlin: Riverstage Feb 9

The National: Riverstage Feb 11

Ed Kowalczyk: The Tivoli Feb 12

Eminem: Suncorp Stadium Feb 20

Dolly Parton: BEC Feb 21

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: BEC Feb 26

The Wonder Stuff: The Zoo Feb 27

Brian McKnight: QPAC Mar 2

Bruno Mars: BEC Mar 7

Iced Earth: The Hi-Fi Mar 14

Toby Keith: BEC Mar 14

Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails: BEC Mar 17

Sebadoh: The Zoo Mar 23

Thirty Seconds To Mars: Brisbane Riverstage Mar 30 (AA)

Steve Earle & The Dukes: The Tivoli Apr 15

Allen Stone: The Zoo Apr 16

KC & The Sunshine Band: The Tivoli Apr 19

Jason Derulo: BEC May 5

Michael Buble: BEC May 12

James Blunt: BCEC Jun 2

Dragon: Kedron Wavell Services Club Jun 20, Twin Towns Jun 21

NATIONALDyson, Stringer, Cloher: Byron Bay Brewery Oct 31

Dream On Dreamer: The Tempo Hotel Oct 31, Expressive Grounds Nov 1 (AA)

Eskimo Joe: The Hi-Fi Oct 31

Horrorshow: The Spotted Cow Oct 31, The Zoo Nov 1, Solbar Nov 2, Beach Hotel Nov 3

Dan Sultan: Old Museum Oct 31, Woombye Pub Nov 1

Jordie Lane: The Spotted Cow Oct 31, Black Bear Lodge Nov 1

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Alhambra Lounge Nov 1

The Siren Tower: The Tempo Hotel Nov 2

Elizabeth Rose: Alhambra Lounge Nov 2

Bernard Fanning: Sirromet Wines Nov 3

Boy & Bear: Beach Hotel Nov 7, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 8, The Tivoli Nov 9

Sarah McLeod: The Manhattan Club Nov 7, SoundLounge Nov 8, Coolum Hotel Nov 9, Bon Amici Cafe Nov 10

Lime Cordiale: Alhambra Lounge Nov 7, Solbar Nov 8, The Northern Nov 9

Saskwatch: Black Bear Lodge Nov 8, The Spotted Cow Nov 9

Nancy Vandal: The Zoo Nov 8, Miami Tavern Shark Bar Nov 9

Don Walker: Old Museum Nov 9

Def FX: Beetle Bar Nov 9

Bluejuice: The Hi-Fi Nov 9

High Tension: Crowbar Nov 9

Gossling: Alhambra Lounge Nov 15

The Aston Shuffle: Elsewhere Nov 15

Allday: Bowler Bar Nov 15

Jeremy Neale: Solbar Nov 15, The Zoo Nov 16

Screamfeeder: The Spotted Cow Nov 15, Beetle Bar Nov 16

Alex Lloyd: Springwood Hotel Nov 16, Lismore Workers Club Nov 17

Fishing: Alhambra Lounge Nov 16

John Butler Trio: The Zoo Nov 17

Jessica Mauboy: BCEC Nov 19, Jupiters Casino Nov 20, Caloundra Events Centre Nov 22, Empire Theatre Jan 8; Lismore Workers Club Jan 10

Harrison Craig: Star Court Theatre Nov 19

Seabellies: Alhambra Lounge Nov 21

Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel: The Joynt Nov 21

Holy Holy: Black Bear Lodge Nov 21

Stonefield: Alhambra Lounge Nov 22, Villa Hotel Noosa Nov 23, The Northern Nov 24

Bodyjar: The Hi-Fi Nov 22, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 23

British India: The Zoo Nov 22, 23

The Living End: Eatons Hill Hotel Nov 23

Patrick James: Black Bear Lodge Nov 27

Air Supply: Jupiters Casino Nov 27

The John Steel Singers: The Spotted Cow Nov 28, The Zoo Nov 29, Solbar Nov 30

Whitley: Alhambra Lounge Nov 28, Woombye Pub Nov 29, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 30

Circles: Transcontinental Hotel Nov 29

Machine Translations: The Hi-Fi Nov 30

Closure In Moscow: The Spotted Cow Dec 5, Alhambra Lounge Dec 6

Tumbleweed: The Tempo Hotel Dec 5

Colin Hay: The Tivoli Dec 5

Philadelphia Grand Jury, Feelings: The Rev Dec 5

Courtney Barnett: QAG Dec 6

I Exist: Sun Distortion Dec 6 (AA)

The Screaming Jets: Eatons Hill Hotel Dec 6, Coolangatta Hotel Dec 7

Birds Of Tokyo: Coolangatta Hotel Dec 11

Guineafowl: Alhambra Lounge Dec 12, Beach Hotel Dec 13

Gareth Liddiard: QAG Dec 13

Battleships: Solbar Dec 13, The Hideaway Dec 14

Katie Noonan, Abby Dobson: Old Museum Dec 14

Pond: The Zoo Dec 14, The Northern Dec 15

Clairy Browne: The Hi-Fi Dec 19

Miami Horror: Oh Hello! Dec 21

Bonjah: Solbar Dec 28, The Northern Dec 29, Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Dec 30

Hunters & Collectors: Sirromet Wines Feb 2

Kerser: The Hi-Fi Feb 22 (AA and 18+)

Kate Miller-Heidke: The Tivoli Apr 5

FESTIVALS2High Festival: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 2

BrizVegas Kustom Karnival: Acacia Ridge Hotel Nov 3

Golden Days: Coolum Sports Complex Nov 9

Hits & Pits 2.0: Coolangatta Hotel Nov 15, The Hi-Fi Nov 16

Mullum Music Festival: Mullumbimby Nov 21-24

Valley Fiesta: Fortitude Valley Entertainment Precinct Nov 22-24

The Other Side: South Stradbroke Island Nov 23

Warped Tour: RNA Showgrounds Nov 29, Coffs Harbour Showground Nov 30

Stereosonic: RNA Showgrounds Dec 7-8

Festival Of The Sun: Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Dec 13-14

Woodford Folk Festival: Woodfordia Dec 27-Jan 1

Falls Festival: Byron Bay Dec 31-Jan 3

Beachlife: Surfers Paradise Beach Jan 4-5

Boys Of Summer: The Rev Jan 8, Eagleby South School Hall Jan 9 (AA)

Big Day Out: Metricon Stadium and Carrara Parklands Jan 19

Laneway Festival: RNA Showgrounds Jan 31

Soundwave: RNA Showgrounds Feb 22

Bluesfest: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Apr 17-21

Groovin’ The Moo: Townsville Cricket Grounds May 4



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FRANZ FERDINAND: 17 NOV, THE TIVOLI


café &wine barbreakfast. lunch. dinner. drinks ‘til late. open 7am weekdays.Lower Burnett Ln. Brisbane CBD. 07 3211 4242.

music.thursday31/10.Peter Hunt Quartet 8pm.

saturday2/11.Lachlan Mitchell Trio8pm.

AMAZING CITY VIEWSCOCKTAILS COOPERS ON TAP

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Releasing NationwideThursday October 31st

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American singer-songwriter Lou Reed passed away on Sunday 27 October at a hospital in Southampton, New York State, aged 71. Having spent much of his life as a hard-drinking, heroin-soaked

rock’n’roll iconoclast, Reed fi nally succumbed to complications from a liver transplant he’d undergone in May.

Born in Brooklyn on 2 March, 1942, Reed’s unlikely fi rst recording was as a member of a doo-wop-style group called Th e Jades. However, the innate cynicism that underpinned much of his musical output began to show itself during his time as an in-house songwriter at Pickwick Records. His fi rst minor hit single Th e Ostrich included the line “Put your head on the fl oor and have somebody step on it” – hardly the stuff of pop singles at the time.

Pickwick hooked Reed up with Welshman John Cale to form a band called Th e Primitives. Th is was meant to “capitalise” on the single’s “potential”. As a viola player, Cale wasn’t an obvious pop choice. Th e pair got along nonetheless, Th e Primitives faded out and, inviting college acquaintances, guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, they formed art-rock combo Th e Velvet Underground.

Conceptual artist Andy Warhol saw something in them, decided to manage them and they became part of his various multi-media events. Hooking them up with German-singer Nico, Warhol secured the band a deal and she featured on three songs on their debut album, Th e

Velvet Underground & Nico, released in March 1967 to almost universal indiff erence. Th e Velvet Underground released second album White Light/

White Heat in January 1968 – minus Nico, again to universal indiff erence. By now, Reed and Cale’s relationship had become fractious and Cale quit in February the following year. An eponymous third album came out in March 1969 – with a live album recorded though not released until 1974 – followed by a last album, Loaded, in 1970, Reed quitting that August to pursue a solo career. [Reed and Cale collaborated together on the Songs

For Drella album in 1990 – a project dedicated to their then recently dead original mentor Andy Warhol. Th e original line-up of Th e Velvet Underground then reunited in 1992, though the volatility between Reed and Cale meant the reunion was short-lived.]

Reed’s eponymous debut solo album, recorded in London and released in April 1972, was also ignored. But his second album Transformer, released in November that year, wasn’t ignored, co-produced as it was by that year’s biggest name, David Bowie and his Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson. Th e single Walk On Th e Wild Side got to #10 in the UK and #16 in the US Billboard charts, the album reaching #13 in the UK – Lou Reed had fi nally ‘arrived’ – and almost inevitably, Th e Velvet Underground posthumously became one of the most infl uential bands of all time.

A series of critically acclaimed albums followed: 1973’s Berlin, 1974’s Rock’N’Roll Animal and Sally Can’t Dance, and 1975’s Lou Reed Live. Reed then confounded fans and critics alike with the, for many, unlistenable double album, Metal Machine Music – an hour of over-modulated feedback and guitar eff ects. In the album’s liner notes Reed claimed to have invented heavy metal. Art music exercise, fraud or a cynical exercise in fulfi lling a recording contract he wanted out of, the album remains controversial.

Another 16 solo albums followed, with a few collaborations along the way, most curious perhaps the 2011 album Lulu, recorded with Metallica, while an alternative career in fi lm, mostly as himself, kicked off in 1980 with his performance in Paul Simon’s One-Trick Pony. In an interview he gave for Rolling Stone’s 20th anniversary issue in November 1987, Reed asserted his goals as a writer were “to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music” or to write “the Great American Novel in a record album”. He certainly achieved the former.

Michael Smith

obituary


LOU REED[1942-2013]

The Music (Brisbane) Issue #12

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Transcript of The Music (Brisbane) Issue #12