33,560 OCTOBER 2012 MARCH 2013 - AUSTRALIA’S HIGHEST CIRCULATING STREET PRESS
FEATURE INSIDE
PAT CHOW
THE TRIP TO ITALY
THE MEAT PUPPETS
TALI
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NEWSDESK
LOCAL NEWS
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GLOBAL NEWS
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
360’S UTOPIAN DREAM
THE BOB IS BACK Last seen in WA at the 2011 West Coast Blues N’ Roots festival, living legend Bob Dylan will return our way as part of his ‘never-ending’ tour in August. Upon his 73rd birthday, Dylan let it be known that he would be visiting Australia and New Zealand for a monthlong run that hits Perth at the Riverside Theatre on Wednesday, August 13, and Thursday, August 14. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, June 3, from ticketek.com.au (132 849).
Aussie hip hop king, 360, will be back in Perth in September as part of his national Utopia tour, which he says “will change your of opinion” of him. The rapper thanked his fans in a statement released earlier this week, saying he understood the art of rap and had stepped up his game to another level. 360 will perform at Metro City on Friday, September 19, and an all-ages show at the Astor Theatre on Saturday, September 20. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 6, via 360music.com.au The Utopia album will be released on Friday, June 13.
Frontier Touring has confirmed the rescheduling of Lorde’s Australian tour. The new dates, which include Saturday, July 5, at Challenge Stadium, come after Lorde’s April/May 2014 tour was postponed due to illness. Ticket holders need not worry as their existing tickets and seat positions will remain valid. Fans unable to attend the new shows are able to secure a refund from their original point of purchase prior to 5pm on Friday, June 6. For more information visit Ticketmaster.com.au.
360
Lorde - Pic: James Lowe
LORDE RESCHEDULES
RULE NO. 1: TALK ABOUT RECORD CLUB Beginning next Thursday, June 5, the Newport Hotel will hosting a weekly Record Club in which WA’s finest musicians will be performing classic albums in their entirety. The classic list beings with The Date delivering Lou Reed’s Rock N’ Roll Animal and continues with others such as The Beatle’s Abbey Road (Kenji Kitahara & Guests), Nirvana’s Nevermind (Justin Burford & Guests) and Pink Floyd’s The Wall (Mal Clark & Friends). The nights begin at 8.30pm with DJs/ organisers Steve Parkin (Autopilot, Basement Birds) and Mal Clark (Sleepy Jackson, Weapon Is Sound) performing ‘til late. For tickets and further information visit Oztix.com.au or the Newport Hotel bottleshop.
Bob Dylan
ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL ACTS! Unearthed High is back and searching for Australia’s best high school music act thanks to triple j. The winning act will be flown to triple j’s studio to have a song professionally recorded by the station’s music producers and then played on triple j and triple j Unearthed. Winners will also play alongside Seth Sentry at their very own school concert! To enter, upload an original track to triplejunearthed.com and name which high school you attend. To be eligible at least half of the band members need to be in high school. Entries close at midnight on Monday, July 21.
JAC LIVES HERE The JAC are celebrating the completion of their first year on the live scene and the success of their EP, Love Dumb, by throwing an impressively named party by the name of KAPOW! As they prepare for an international tour in 2015, go see the pop’n’roll quartet deliver sweet tunes alongside The Chevelles and Custom Royal. KAPOW! will take place at 8pm on Saturday, May 31, at The Odd Fellow (Norfolk) in Fremantle. The JAC
GROOMING MUSCLES Spinning Top have released the first taste of Felicity Groom’s upcoming sophomore album, Hungry Sky, by making the track Move Your Muscles available for free download through spinningtopmusic.com. Combining sweet and sultry tones interspersed by bursts of wailing and growling, Groom looks set to capitalise on the interest in her debut LP, Gossamer, one of Triple J’s feature albums in 2011. Stay tuned to Spinning Top’s website for Hungry Sky release information, plus other goodies. Felicity Groom
AUSTRALIAN WHISPERS Passenger will be retuning to Australia as part of his Whispers tour in 2015 including a Perth show at the Red Hill Auditorium on Saturday, February 7. The tour comes after Passenger recently released his new single, Heart’s On Fire, from his upcoming sixth studio album, Whispers, which is set for release on Friday, June 6. Tickets for Passenger go on sale at 11am, this Friday, May 30, through passengermusic.com. Passenger - Pic: Jarrad Seng
TOP O’ THE BONFIRE Metropolis Fremantle will be set ablaze as two of the best Aussie rock tribute acts, Bonfire and Over The Top, combine forces for a night of Bon Scott-era AC/DC hits and Angels classics (respectively) this Sunday, June 1. The event will also feature a guitar and amp, door prize giveaway thanks to Kosmic Sound alongside an Aussie rock DJ to commemorate the WA Day long weekend. Tickets available at the door 8pm or from Oztix. Bonfire
PERFORMING IN HARMONY The Gyuto Monks of Tibet are back again for to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their yearly trip down under. Over three huge weeks the monks will deliver a comprehensive daily program including meditation sessions and live performances. Having previously performed at the Sydney Opera House and Splendour in the Grass, the monks have no issues captivating audiences on Australian soil. Their tour will begin at the Fremantle Yoga Centre from Monday, June 2, until Saturday, June 7. The monks will then visit Dunsborough and Toodyay the following weeks. For more information visit www.gyuto.co. 4
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SHE’S PLAYING LIKE BETTY WHO OUT THERE! Australian-born songwriter Betty Who and Swedish Indie-pop artist Tove Lo have been announced as Katy Perry’s special guests for the Australian leg of her Prisimatic world tour, kicking off on Friday, November 7, at Perth Arena. Betty Who’s recent EP, Slow Dancing, peaked at #1 on the iTunes pop charts, whilst Tove Lo’s EP Truth Serum peaked on the Swedish Album charts in March 2014. For further information visit ticketek.com.au or daintygroup.com. Betty Who - Pic: Sean Hagwell
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WIN
N E W S L E T T E R - S I G N U P AT W W W. X P R E S S M AG . C O M . A U F O R E XC L U S I V E C O M P S
PRINT AND DIGITAL EDITIONS PUBLISHER/MANAGER Joe Cipriani
EDITORIAL - 9213 2888 MANAGING EDITOR Bob Gordon: editor@xpressmag.com.au FEATURES & DANCE MUSIC EDITOR Merran Reed: featuresed@xpressmag.com.au LOCAL MUSIC & ARTS EDITOR Travis Johnson: localmusicarts@xpressmag.com.au GIG & EVENT GUIDES CO-ORDINATOR guide@xpressmag.com.au COMPETITIONS win@xpressmag.com.au For band gigs and launches - plugyourgig@xpressmag.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Rachael Barrett, Guang-Hui Chuan, Daniel Craig, Brandon D’Silva, Max Fairclough, Daniel Grant, Sammy Granville, Matt Jelonek, Emma Mackenzie, Callum Ponton, Denis Radacic, Bohdan Warchomij, Michael Wylie CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Leah Blankendaal, Nina Bertok, Aaron Bryans, Joe Cassidy, Hayley Davis, Chris Gibbs, Alfred Gorman, Shaun Cowe, Predrag Delibasich, Jayde Ferguson, George Green, Alex Griffin, James Hanlon, Chris Havercroft, Joshua Hayes, Brendan Holben, Coral Huckstep, Ellie Hutchinson, Tom Kitson, Charlie Lewis, Daisy Lythe, David James Young, RK, Naomi Faye, Lauren Wiszniewski, Andrew Nelson, David O’Connell, Shane Pinnegar, Jessica Willoughby, Sean Drill, Zoe Kilbourn, Jo Campbell
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CIRCO FESTIVAL The Claremont Showgrounds will come alive on June 28 with a truckload of Oz indie and dance music megastars, including Nina Las Vegas, Touch Sensitive and Violent Soho, and WA producer Sable. You can expect international underground dancefloor brilliance from Mykki Blanco, Kele (Bloc Party), Visionist, Odesza, Beneath and Ryan Hemsworth, with some jaw-dropping production values instore that include staggering soundsystems, mega-watt lighting, nextlevel projection, blacked out warehouse vibes and spine-tingling surprises all night. Thanks to CIRCO, we have a double pass up for grabs (valued at $198!). Email win@xpressmag.com.au to win.
Perth’s hardest rockin’ scuzz pop trio Pat Chow will launch their long awaited debut EP Good Deed, Friday, May 30 at Mojos. Pat Chow will be joined by Melbourne’s Royston Vasie, who will soon release an album on Courtney Barnett’s Milk Records. Also along for the ride at the launch will be the “world famous in Perth” indie rock super-group, The Community Chest, as well as new kids on the block, Black Stone From The Sun and Aborted Tortoise, who you last saw at your local dive bar moshpit. Email win@xpressmag.com.au to win a double pass to Friday’s gig.
Kele
Pat Chow
PAT CHOW AND GOOD DEEDS
NEW DISNEY, NEW FREE STUFF Maleficent is the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty. A beautiful, purehearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceful forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom— and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well. Email win@ xpressmag.com.au to land a double pass to see the film.
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ADMIN / ACCOUNTS - 9213 2888 Lillian Buckley accounts@xpressmag.com.au EDITORIAL DEADLINES General: Friday 5pm, Eye4 Arts: Thursday 10am, WIN: Friday 5pm, Salt Clubs: Monday 5pm , Local Scene: Monday Noon, Gig Guide: Monday 5pm ADVERTISING DEADLINES Cancellations: Monday 5pm, Ads to be set: Monday Noon Supplied Bookings / Copy: Tuesday 12 Noon, Classifieds: Monday 4pm Published by: Columbia Press Pty.Ltd. A.C.N. 066 570 803 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No PP600110.00006 Suite 55/102 Railway Street, City West Business Centre, West Perth, WA 6005 Locked Bag 31, West Perth, WA 6872 Phone: (08) 9213 2888 Fax: (08) 9213 2882 Website: http://www.xpressmag.com.au WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY Advertisers and/or their agents by lodging an advertisment shall indemnify the publisher, and its agents, against all liability claims or proceedings whatsoever arising from the publication. Advertisers and/or their representatives indemnify the publisher in relation to defamation, slander, breach of copyright, infringement of trademarks of name of publication titles, unfair competition or trade practices, royalties or violation of rights or privacy and warrant that the material complies with revelant laws and regulations and that its publication will not give rise to any rights against or liabilities in the publisher, its servants or agents. Any material supplied to X-Press is at the contributor’s risk.
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WIN: AN EVENING AT THE THEATRE David Rail, a prominent lawyer, awakes in a hospital room with no idea of how he got there. Dr Alice Lowe scrambles to piece together the mystery because in fifteen minutes time David Rail will forget everything all over again. The House On The Lake is a labyrinthine mystery that hides at its dark heart a hideous crime. From award-winning playwright Aidan Fennessy comes a taut psychological thriller where truth and memory are scattered like broken glass. Email win@ xpressmag.com.au to win a double pass. A House On The Lake
A FAIRYTALE. OR SOMETHING Nymphomaniac: Volume I is the story of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac who is discovered badly beaten in an alley by an older bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), who takes her into his home. As he tends to her wounds, she recounts the erotic story of her adolescence and young-adulthood (portrayed in flashback by newcomer Stacy Martin). Volume I also stars Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen and Udo Kier. Email win@ xpressmag.com.au to grab a DVD.
A Castle In Italy follows Louise (Valeria BruniTedeschi), an ex-actress struggling to hold her once wealthy family together and keep them connected to their beautiful estate in Piedmonte. Life becomes more complicated when Louise begins a relationship with smouldering Nathan (Louis Garrel) whose father Louise may already know too well. As the film moves along briskly, it deftly and intelligently deals with family relationships, love, responsibility, commitment and the risks of genuine honesty. The story is semi-autobiographical, drawing from Valeria BruniTedeschi’s own experiences. Email win@xpressmag. com.au to grab a double pass.
Uma Thurman
A Castle In Italy
NYMPHOMANIAC
REVISITING THE 80S Long assigned to dusty tomes and the realm of legend, the Red Parrot was the place to be in Perth during the mid-to-late ‘80s. Set to show the young whippersnappers how it’s done, last year saw Red Parrot ex-pats get together to celebrate the glory days with the Red Parrot Reunion. With the event selling out in two days, organisers took the hint and have announced this year’s Red Parrot Reunion Revisited at the Astor Theatre on Saturday, June 14, with special DJs and appro-parrot live performances. Email win@xpressmag.com.au to win a ticket.
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FLESH
NEWS - INTERVIEWS - REVIEWS - CONTENTS
RUBY BOOTS Solitary Ma’am Ruby Boots perform this Saturday, May 31, at State Of The Art in the Perth Cultural Centre and launch a new EP at the Astor Lounge on Saturday, June 7. BOB GORDON catches up with Bex Chilcott. From the outside looking in, it seems as though after these last few years, that hard work, momentum and opportunity have met up for Bex Chilcott and her musical entity, Ruby Boots. Chilcott has worked tirelessly over the years, both on her own music and helping others work towards performing theirs. With a new EP release and an album around the corner, it seems plausible that in 2014, the planets may have aligned for her at last. It’s not generally easy for me to take any praise or compliments for my work,” Chilcott reflects. “I’m always very much looking to the next thing I can do to keep pushing on and often forget to look back. “But you are right, I am really feeling a lot of love and support at the moment and have been very sentimental lately as a result, it makes a nice change.” The context of where she is now and where she came from to get there dawned on Chilcott last weekend when she was in Kununurra to perform at The Kimberley Moon Festival. “It’s been exactly 10 years since I first picked up a guitar in Broome when I was working on the boats, playing along to The Waifs’ record, Sink Or Swim. It’s probably the only time I’ll ever believe in the notion of love at first sight - or listen! - but it just felt like at that moment that life started to make sense for me. I had never really understood why I was here before that, I remember it so clearly, learning the song, When I Die, and playing it over and over until I had learnt my first song from top to bottom. “Standing in the crowd last Saturday night, just up the road from Broome where it all began for me, watching The Waifs play one of the songs Vikki and I wrote together out in Utah, and then closing the set with When I Die, it really struck me how much unwavering passion and love for something can take you in a full circle... of course with the help of people who stick out their hands and often their necks out for you along the way. I’m really excited about releasing the record this year!” The new era of Ruby Boots is hinted at on the just-released self-titled EP, which features the songs Solitude, Oh Lover, Cola & Wine and Kellie Anne. “I have had a much stronger vision for the sound I wanted for my latest work and the EP is a taste of that,” Chilcott notes. “Solitude and Cola & Wine I recorded with producer, Tony Buchen, in Sydney. Tony is such a joy to work with and a very unique bass player, also. I really wanted a more guitar and keys-driven sound and both of these songs give the listener that. “Kellie Anne was recorded in Nashville last year. Working with players over there was an eyeopening experience, it was great because I had never intended to go over and write and record a song that sounded like the slick side of Nashville, I worked and wrote with producer, Robin Eaton, he’s so laid back and down to earth and the recording has that side of him in
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News Win Flesh Music Northlane, Darren Middleton, Brant Bjork Propagandhi, Hard-Ons, Epica, Parquet Courts Pat Chow, Kim Churchill New Noise Eye4 Cover: The Meat Puppets The Trip To Italy, The Double The Hit List Arts Listings, Fashion Salt Cover: Tali News, Testpad Hercules & Love Affair, Luka Lesson, Lancelot Rewind: Lauryn Hill Salt Nights Out Club Manual What’s On In June Scene Live: Gary Numan, Fucking Teeth, Highway Breakdown Local Scene: The Disappointed Tour Trails Tour Tale - Dune Rats Gig Guide Volume
FRONT COVER: Ruby Boots perform this Saturday, May 31, at State Of The Art in the Perth Cultural Centre and launch a new EP at the Astor Lounge on Saturday, June 7. SALT COVER: Tali heads to Villa this Saturday, May 31. 8
Bex Chilcott, Ruby Boots
there, more feel than something too polished. “The track that seems to be getting the most attention at the moment is Oh, Lover which was recorded in Melbourne with producer, Anna Laverty. I was so sick the day we recorded it, I remember having to go and lie down every so often so as not to pass out from the fever! Luckily enough, Anna came over to Perth a few weeks later so I could finish off the vocals. She picked some of her favourite songs out of a whole bunch that I sent her and she was really excited about working on that track. Anna has a real sense of togetherness when working with you, you really feel like she is fully invested in what you are doing. So I am glad people are digging it.” Chilcott explains that the EP release is a precursor to her 10-track album, which will be released late this year. “I wanted to include Solitude as I think it sums up the essence of the thread that is running through the album which addresses the necessity of being alone, spending that time with yourself and feeling things to their fullest capacity, giving people a taste of that was important to me,” she explains. The first line-up of the Ruby Boots came to an end about two years ago, replaced by not only a new Perth line-up but a completely fresh angle on touring. “I am taking a very different approach these days and am really enjoying it,” Chilcott says. “It’s far less stressful and I can say yes to so many more opportunities that come my way and just jump on a plane when I have to at the drop of a hat. “I’ve got a band in WA, Victoria and NSW and all of the guys and gals are a dream to work with, it’s been really enjoyable working with an array of such great musicians. That said, I have been using my secret weapon, Mr Lee Jones on as many shows I can around the country, he just can’t be beat! I took him over to Sydney to help out with the last tracking session, and we had pushed through three songs in one long day/night, that particular line-up just seemed to bring some kind of magic to the record, there was some serious chemistry happening in the studio. Lee had a big part to play in that, in fact he contributed to a lot of the record and is an absolute joy to work with, kind of feels like having a Derek Trucks or Dave Rawlings by your side, a kick-arse musician and someone that gets what you are trying to do musically without having to talk about it too much, you just have to play. “The Perth gang are really sizzling together, such great players, the launch will have all six of us on stage, we’ll be cooking with gas. It’s a very easy and relaxed environment to be working in.” Do some people think your name is actually Ruby? “Yes,” Chilcott laughs, “all the time, and I am starting to get used to it. It’s kind of nice to have a different name for the musical me!”
THE BEARDS Beard Nation The Beards return to WA this week, kicking off on Wednesday, May 28, at the Pier Hotel, Esperance; Thursday, May 29, at the White Star, Albany; Friday, May 30, at Settler’s Tavern, Margaret River; Saturday, May 31, at the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, and Sunday, June 1, at the Astor Theatre. Vocalist and Minister for Beards and Beard Services, Johann Beardraven, lends his thoughts. Mr Beardraven, what are your hopes for beards and bearded Australians in light of the Federal Budget? It is a good time for beards at the moment. Lots of people have beards and that makes me feel really good. We must allocate money for people who have beards, particularly those whose beard is preventing them from getting a job. They should have access to beard funds, subsidised beard combs
and beard shampoos. It’s about time our clean-shaven government did something for the bearded man. Following Austria’s bearded lady Conchita Wurst’s win at Eurovision, Russian leader Vladimir Putin declared it the “end of Europe.” Could this beard cause a war? We were thrilled when we heard about Conchita. When we released our latest single, All The Bearded Ladies, we hoped to inspire people worldwide so we’re very proud to have obviously influenced that result. Regarding that clown Putin’s comments, he has problems with a lot of things but he doesn’t have a beard so I don’t give him any thought. We’re against beard hate … any kind of hate. We don’t care which way you swing as long as you have a beard. As a sign of protest from the Minister for Beards I shall make a personal visit to the Kremlin, bring another bearded man and hold his hand as we walk in. And what do you have to say to the hateful Open Letter to Bearded Hipsters by Nicki Daniels? As long as you have a beard, that’s number one. There’s no bad reason to grow a beard. The hipster beard, the big bushy beard, the lazy beard, they’re all beards. What we don’t want is for the trend to end. DANIKA NAYNA/BMA
TIM FERGUSON Sticking It To The Man
Australian comedy icon Tim Ferguson, veteran of the Doug Anthony All Stars, Funky Squad and, er, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, will be signing copies of his autobiography, Carry A Big Stick, at Kaleido Books from 5.30pm on Friday, The Art Of Our State May 30, and teaching his Comedy State Of The Art happens at the Perth Writing Masterclass at the Australian Cultural Centre this Saturday, May 31, as Writers Guild on Saturday, May 31, part of the WA Day long weekend and Sunday, June 1. TRAVIS JOHNSON checks in.
STATE OF THE ART
The main attraction, hosted by Celebrate WA, features Drapht, Eskimo Joe, San Cisco, The Stems, The Blackeyed Susans, The Kill Devil Hills, Kim Salmon, Split Seconds, Bitter Belief and Sable at a cost of $35. A new concept, SOTA Surrounds, will feature a free stage to showcase up-and-coming artists The Brow, Dallas Royal, The Amani Consort, Tired Lion, Warangka Band, The High Learys, Silver Hills, Moondog, Jake & The Cowboys, Kat Wilson and Cri$i$ Mr Swagger. Some 40 other local acts will spread out across the festival grounds, Including Morgan Bain, Steve Parkin, Timothy Nelson, Catherine Traicos, Leure, Patient Little Sister, Adam Livingston (Emperors), David Craft, Joe Bludge, Luke Bostelman (ex-Flanders), The Ghost Hotel (duo), Lucy Peach, The Jayco Brothers (duo), Methyl Ethyl, Rachel Gorman, Mei Saraswati, Davey Craddock, Steven Aaron Hughes (Usurper Of Modern Medicine), Rob Walker, Luke Dux, Polly Medlen, Adrian Hoffman (The Morning Night), Junior Bowles, Elk Bell, Michael Strong (The Disappointed), Alex Arpino (The Autumn Isles), Chris Gibbs, Turin Robinson, Fox Cat Rabbit, Black, Swan, Jane Azzopardi, Todd Pickett, Dan Durack (Tenderhooks), Latehorse, Jordan McRobbie, Lucinda Nicholls, Elli Schoen, TJ O’Donovan, Northshore Shoals, Franca Dobbin and Bernardine. Another new component is the MC battle, which sees Azmatik, Complete, Two Worlds, Selekt Few, Bryte One, Intellect, A.Saxon, Chani, Bfumes, Intrusive Thoughts, Shadow & Chef, Frenze and Tonight battle it out for the name of SOTA hip hop champ. A map and playing times can be found on page 13. More details at sotafest.com.au.
There’s a topic that always comes up whenever Tim Ferguson is interviewed these days: multiple sclerosis. Since announcing he had the condition a few years back, it’s been a perennial point of conversation with the press, although not one they’re keen to dive into, he explains. “Nobody wants to talk about MS and quite often I’ll spend half the interview with the journalist circling ‘round and ‘round the garden like a teddy bear. They’ll take one step, two step and finally I’ll say, ‘So, you gonna ask me about my brain?’” It’s always, he says, the elephant in the room, but he contends that his interrogators are always more uncomfortable with the topic than he himself is. “People find it awkward because it’s a health thing – well, they think it is. It’s got nothing to do with health. Dear God, if it had something to do with health, I’d eat more carrots. It’s just that my brain doesn’t work. Millions of other Australians show that their brains don’t work in a variety of ways: often in a car, often in a nightclub when they’re asking that first, tenuous line. People are a little bit nervous but, dear God, if I’m not used to it, I don’t know who is.” It is, naturally, a topic broached in his memoir, Carry A Big Stick, but he is at pains to point out that it’s not the only subject of the book. “If you read the memoir, you’ll see that MS is actually, like the shark in Jaws, only circling around and only towards the end does the fin surface and we see what it is. If
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someone does have MS or anything in front of them, the one thing they can gain from the book is the knowledge that I don’t really think about it all that much. Like ugly people – they can’t be obsessed with being ugly all the time. Sometimes they’ve just got to forget it and get on with their lives. Liberal voters, the same thing – they vote and then they just have to block it out until the next election.” Naturally, the Doug Anthony All Stars, the transgressive comedy troupe that consisted of Ferguson, Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler, feature heavily in the tome. In their heyday, the boys didn’t so much break barriers as ignore them completely, something Ferguson thinks is sorely lacking in the modern Australian comedy scene. “We thought someone else would take over,” he laments. “We thought we were starting a movement. Turns out we were the movement – it was a bowel movement and once it was done, people moved on to easier to eat matter. There are great comedians, but there’s nobody on every week making people shout at their televisions and I don’t know why.” For information on Tim Ferguson’s Comedy Writing Master Class, go to cheekymonkeycomedy.com.
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MUSIC
VIEWS
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INTERVIEWS
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STORIES
DARREN MIDDLETON Post-Finger Touring in support of his debut solo LP, Translations, Darren Middleton performs at Ellington Jazz Club this Saturday, May 31, and Mojo’s on Sunday, June 1. AARON BRYANS reports.
NORTHLANE Mind Games Northlane are joined on the Free Your Mind festival by Thy Art Is Murder, Veil Of Maya, Volumes and Make Them Suffer this Wednesday, May 28, at the Fly By Night and Thursday, May 29, at Capitol. AARON BRYANS reports. It’s been almost five months since we last caught up with Northlane; fresh off the 2013 release of their sophomore album, Singularity, which debuted at #3 on the ARIA charts and received the #1 album of the year award by Short Fast Loud and The Racket. In that time the Sydney metal quintet have been taking on the world, starting with a huge US tour alongside the unstoppable and momentous Bring Me The Horizon. “More than anything I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the tour,” vocalist, Adrian Fitipaldes, reveals. “All the bands were really open and friendly and up for hanging and having a good time, even Bring Me The Horizon themselves. We spent a lot of time hanging out with those dudes. They were very welcoming and very open. In regards to the shows, it was really cool. A lot of people knew who we were, a lot of people got involved and were participating in the show and showing us some love, which means a lot to us when we’re so far from home; it makes it so much more worthwhile. It was a really good opportunity to expose ourselves to a larger audience in the States. We do want to spread as far as we can; go to Asia possibly and hopefully one day go to South America.” Back on Australian soil, the boys wasted no time announcing their biggest step forward yet; the Free Your Mind festival in collaboration with their label, UNFD, which sees the band team up with Thy Art Is Muder, Veil Of Maya, Volumes and Make Them Suffer for a 10-date national tour.
“I actually can’t remember who came up with the idea originally or if it was a collaborative idea,” Fitipaldes says, “but we wanted to create or attempt to create something we could possibly repeat every year or every two years as a miniature festival. Rather then having three or four bands we could have five to six or even seven bands some years and really give people an action-packed musical experience with a lot of bands from all around the world. With this tour we don’t want to make it so much about us and make it more about all the bands and it’s also going to be something that other bands can headline in the future. It won’t be Northlane’s tour and Northlane’s tour only; its definitely going to be something that other bands can take part in, in the future.” “I haven’t been this excited before; it’s probably the most excited I’ve been for a tour just because it’s such a good line-up. We’ve put a lot more thought into the production side of things and we really want to give people less of a vibe where we are just playing songs back to back and instead really take the audience on and give them an experience they can remember.” A l o n g s i d e t h e F r e e Yo u r M i n d announcement Northlane have released the deluxe edition of their Singularity LP which features an instrumental version of the entire record along with a booklet that explains the themes of each track. “I think it’s going to give people a deeper appreciation of the musicianship and what’s actually happening underneath,” Fitipaldes explains. “The vocals can be a highlight and a main point of focus when you’re listening to music so when you take that out of the picture it really forces you to listen to how the music’s been written and how all the instruments are arranged and hopefully give people a deeper appreciation of that side of the spectrum.” Northlane’s extensive touring won’t hold the group back however; as Fitipaldes hints, new material may be coming sooner then we think. “We haven’t got a whole album ready to go, it’s still in the works. We’re taking some time off after this tour to jam and write as a band in person with each other and really get back into touch with what it means to be a band. It’s exciting. I’d like our fans to start getting excited because from what I’ve heard so far its very promising.”
BRANT BJORK Light My Fire Brant Bjork brings his new band, The Low Desert Punks, to Astor Rocks, along with The Meat Puppets, The Love Junkies, Axe Girl, The Shakeys, FAIM, Sun Gods, Doctopus, Painkillers, Coalminers Sect and Heard Of Cows, on Monday, June 2, over two stages at the Astor Theatre. Bjork chats with AARON BRYANS about the twists and turns of his musical career and the birth of The Low Desert Punks. When Brant Bjork and Chris Cockrell put down the skateboards and formed the iconic band Kyuss (originally under the banner name Katzenjammer) Bjork had no clue what a huge impact he would have on the music industry. Recording four albums with Kyuss, five with Fu Manchu and one under the revamped Vista Chino, Bjork has taken the next step in expressing his musical 10
When you say the name Darren Middleton, it’s hard to avoid the connotations and memories of his old Powderfinger days. However, Middleton is back in the spotlight, reinventing his impressive career in the form of solo artistry and he loves it. “At the moment I’m enjoying it more,’ he reveals. “At the moment I’m loving it and not missing that wall of sound and the rhythm of the drums and the bass. But I know that at some point it might be nice to have a band again. The most exciting part to me is being able to sing a little bit better then I used to and being able to perform live as a solo artist. I really love playing again. At the moment I’ve got a duet partner, Kelly Lane, but it’s a really stripped-back kind of sound. I’m loving that element of music making. It’s really minimalist but hopefully big enough to survive on next to nothing.” Following the breakup of Powderfinger in 2010, Middleton was left with more questions then answers of where to go next. Deciding to get back into the music industry was an inevitable move however, and one he’s facing with suitable attitude and determination. “Obviously the big difference for me now, as opposed to Powderfinger days, is that I wasn’t really the lead singer of Powderfinger so people don’t really know my voice and that I can sing as well. There’s obviously some die-hard fans that are turning up. The gigs are pretty quiet, not huge crowds but intentionally intimate. They’re really chatty. My theme for the gigs is kind of a conversation; I talk off mic and people talk back to me. It’s very much a two-way conversation with a whole bunch of songs thrown in. I really enjoy that element ‘cause we could never do that in the past. With Powderfinger there’s thousands of thousands of people out there, you can’t hear anyone or talk to anyone. You do what you’ve got to do and then you hop off stage. This is kind of the reverse of that and its really nice.” Darren’s debut LP Translations, which was released November last year, has been a huge progression for him musically, expanding from his previous vocal work in the band Drag. “I found with this album; there’s a lot more of a pointed focus particularly lyrically and also thematically on the record. There’s a real thread that runs through the story. Drag was lot of fun but as a lyric writer it was a bit wishy-washy. Lots of metaphors, no real heart to the metaphors. It still feels like a stepping-stone doing this kind of acoustic thing; I quite enjoy that. But a few people are saying ‘are you going to bring the electric guitar out?’ so maybe I will? I’m not sure what I’m going to do next but I am in the process of writing some demos for a new EP called Splitzers which will kind of be leftover Translation sessions. I might work with different people this time; might even bring Kelly on board to do some recording because her and I click really well together… I may still ask some guests on board if they’re in town and if the song suits them.” The biggest task facing Middleton is touring, as he fights to build image awareness and draw crowd numbers. However, the intimacy and simplicity of his acoustic shows has been a joy. “This tour has taught me, to a degree, that I need to recognise that I’m starting again and
I need to make people aware of it. So part of it is simply getting out and playing and people telling their friends and coming back next time with them. For this particular tour, I’ve got a duo partner (Lane) who plays some violins and keyboards and does backing vocals. For me I’ve brought a bit of my electric guitar rig on the road so I’ve got some pad sounds I can create with my acoustic guitar and a bit of looping stuff and a stomp box. I’m trying not to make it a folky strum-strum acoustic gig; it’s a bit more textured so it has some of the textures from the album on it. It’s me and the guitar and Kelly and her violin and keyboard and that’s it. It’s really fun. I think if it was just me without a partner; after a while I’d find it really lonely but having just one other person makes it really good… I’ll also be playing a couple of Powderfinger songs in these gigs.”
creativity in The Low Desert Punks. “There’s been many different bands that I have worked with over the years to perform my music. This particular band is very exciting for me because the vision of this particular band was about having good times, having maximum fun but also getting maximum rock out. These guys are all dear friends of mine, I’ve known some of them for years, I’ve worked with some of them for years. It’s going to be a big difference between this band and other bands I’ve worked with in the past and I think people who come out to our shows are going to see that.” Bjork’s evolution as an artist has been clear throughout his musical journey, venturing into new styles to suit his requirements and broad exploration. “In a lot of ways I’ve changed; in a lot of ways I’ve stayed the same,” Bjork explains. “The thing that excites me about music is there will always be this thing that is my love and my spark of inspiration that comes from hearing music and rock’n’roll as a kid. That shit just lights my fire. That is always burning. What have I done with that inspiration, that fire? I’ve kind of, over the years, taken that fire and cooked a whole lot of different foods.” It hasn’t always been a positive journey for Bjork who was faced with an unexpected lawsuit from long time friend and bandmate Josh Homme, after Bjork attempted to revive Kyuss under the name Kyuss Lives! “I don’t have a relationship with Josh,” Bjork calmly states. “I need to be brutally correct with that situation. Josh and I were friends when we were younger and kids. We were friendly enough to play music together and be in a band but we were never
on the same page; we kind of came from different worlds. I accepted our differences over the years and chalked it up, as people are different and that’s okay; there was enough room for both of us and both of our trips. But the lawsuit for me was a really unnecessary thing; I think his insecurity went way too far and now it’s really simple for me to say I just don’t like that dude. For me he’s just a dude I have no respect for.” Whilst Bjork is well known for his efforts in Kyuss and his other associated acts; he has also had an incredible career as a solo artist, releasing seven LPs with many being entirely performed by Bjork himself. “When I shifted into my solo work it was interesting because I was literally a solo artist in the truest sense. I was creating music all by myself, I was playing all the instruments, writing all the music of course, performing all the tracks. In terms of recording that was really satisfying in terms of being an artist and wanting to fully express your vision. It’s kind of apples and oranges. I love the commodity of the band, I love working with people; I love bouncing ideas off people and the creative process. That’s where I was born as a musician, the call-and-response of being in a band with guys and having that team spirit. That’s where I was originally from. Do I have a preference? It kind of depends on the time and the place and what it is that’s inside me that needs to come out. “Sometimes there’s something inside me that needs to be fully expressed by myself. Sometimes I have a concept where I need a band and that’s where I’m at right now. I need a rock band to do what I’m feeling right now.”
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PROPAGANDHI Act Local Failed States, the sixth offering from Canadian politico-punk greats Propagandhi, see the band flesh out their patent for forward thinking in an even more surprising way. JESSICA WILLOUGHBY catches up with drummer, Jord Samolesky, ahead of their show at Amplifier Bar on Tuesday, June 3. Propagandhi drummer, Jord Samolesky, is in a ponderous mood. “Sometimes I think everyone, myself included, needs a wake-up call to figure out how we spend our time on Earth,” he says. “Do we enjoy spending our time being deluded, or trying to fight back and save this world we’re in?” Canadian punk stalwarts Propagandhi have never been ones to shy away from spreading their own political agenda. Wearing their preferences and theories on their sleeves, they have spent the last 28 years spitting intellectually-charged lyrical venom at the governmental powers that be. But it was their most recent album, Failed States, that saw this four-piece really hit their stride. Released back in 2012 via Epitaph Records, their sixth offering was the first album in their career to be recorded in their hometown of Winnipeg. To continue on the ‘going local’ line, they also chose to go with a producer who was not only a old mate of theirs – but had also played in and worked on a few albums by bands in their town. “John (Paul Peters) used to play in some local bands,” Samolesky says. “He’s done some recordings at his studio, that’s literally a 15-minute walk from where I live. It just felt completely organic. He’s from a small town around Manitoba, like we are. We all from smaller areas in the country. I’ve always had a good experience with pretty much everyone that we’ve worked with, but it was fun to do it locally with a guy that I just hit it off with. Everyone was pretty pleased to work with him. It was a really different dynamic for us, rather than working with a complete stranger or somebody that you know through other bands. We’ve always travelled far distances to do this kind of thing. It felt like we’d hit our stride a bit this time around, just doing it here in Winnipeg.”
HARD-ONS Dirty Thirty
This album, according to Samolesky, also took the band into unchartered territory musically – through the exploration of different writing patterns, longer songs and even more insightful vocal commentary. “The song, Note To Self, especially, was sort of a step in songwriting for us that has kind of been a long time coming,” he says. “The lyrics that Chris (Hannah, guitar/vocals) put on it at the end made it into what it is. The booze, the sports – that kind of line – sums up where a lot of us are at. There are a lot of large political struggles – the environment, the situation with global warming, climate change. It’s so bleak, you feel like every kind of effort you try to take and spread the word about worthy causes tends to make you realise what you are stacked up against is so huge. “The things that you turn to dull the pain of that turn out to be these kind of ‘anti-things’. It sort of reflects that struggle to remain committed to doing the right thing is in your own heart and living a life where you are enjoying yourself at the same time. Trying to put all those things together is tricky.”
The Hard-Ons return for their 30th Anniversary Tour, playing at the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, this Friday, May 30; Augusta Margaret River Football Club on Saturday, May 31; the Railway Hotel on Sunday, June 1, and the Astor Rocks on Monday, June 2. SHANE PINNEGAR chats with vocalist/guitarist, Peter ‘Blackie’ Black. Hailing from Punchbowl, in Sydney’s Western suburbs, the Hard-Ons have spent the past three decades – they played their first official gig on June 20, 1984, and released their debut 7-inch single, Surfin’ On My Face, in 1985 - wilfully defying categorisation. An ultra-fast blast of hyper-riffy, supercatchy punk energy, it also had a surf-rock vibe and some of the sweetest melodies since the ‘60s girl groups like The Vandellas and The Supremes. Hyperactive, hyper-addictive blasts Girl In The Sweater and All Set To Go followed in quick succession and it seemed like there was no limitations, musically, for the band at that time. “No, none whatsoever,” Blackie agrees. “We just liked music so it didn’t matter what sort as long as it was good. But obviously you can tell from what we play that we basically like rock ‘n’roll.”
The band’s stew of influences hooked many instantly – punk attitude, metal riffs, pop melodies, pub atmosphere and a sense of humour. It was like everything to love about music all wrapped up in one sweaty package. “We loved it all,” Blackie notes. “We just wanted to be a part of it. We were enthralled by it and wanted to do it too.” It wasn’t long before Blackie started experimenting with feedback and noise, incorporating more metal riffs into the Hard-Ons’ sonic attack. As the band’s sound evolved, their attitude stayed exactly the same, and they enjoyed a run of 17 consecutive #1 singles on the Australian Alternative charts, from the metal psych-out (and signature cue for Blackie to go wild on his axe) Suck & Swallow, to their collaboration with the mighty Henry Rollins on a cover of AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock, to later walls of noise Crazy, Crazy Eyes and She’s A Dish. “I would like to think we evolved,” Blackie says, “but I think even from our first record we’ve had sort of straight ahead pop with quite elaborate metal like Made To Love You. So, we feel we’ve done that sort of shit from day one. Sometimes you’re feeling melodic and other times you’re feeling abrasive.” Blackie says that childhood friendship with his bandmates, bassist Ray Ahn and singer/drummer, Keish DeSilva - who left the band in 1991 and now only performs with them sporadically, but will be onboard for this tour - is key to how they’ve put up with each other for so long. “We just know each other really well,” he explains. “So even when someone’s at their worst, the other person knows how to deal with it. We are probably friends more than we are bandmates, but we’re also very musically close bandmates, too. We met at primary school - not just at high school but primary school. To me we just seem like the same old farts.”
PARQUET COURTS. PIC: BEN RAYNER
PARQUET COURTS Blitzkrieg In The Sun
EPICA Deep And Musical Epica have just released their new album, The Quantum Enigma. SHANE PINNEGAR chats with vocalist, Simone Simons. Having a newborn baby in the studio was hard work, Epica’s Simone Simons, says, but in a situation when most new mothers take time off, the singer stepped right back into the fray to record a new album, The Quantum Enigma. “I took him with me during vocal recordings in the studio last December,” she says, “because he was only two months old and I didn’t want to stop breastfeeding. “That was really heavy to have him with me in the studio, breastfeeding and then doing vocal recordings. Vocal recordings are already so superdemanding on your body and soul, but then having a little baby there, it’s like… whew. “It was one of the hardest jobs ever, but I managed.” Simons, who describes motherhood as “beautifully life-changing,” asserts that The Quantum Enigma - Epica’s sixth studio album – is their best yet. “It’s the most diverse, heavy, catchy Epica record to date. All of our guys wrote songs for the record. There’s been extreme, tight teamwork going 12
on. We had a new producer, we had a new studio. We still kept the Epica sounds, the choirs, the orchestra and made it super heavy. The guitars are definitely very prominent this time. We wrote for the bigger choir, with the string ensemble, so everything is bigger and better!” Epica’s records can get quite philosophical lyrically, and The Quantum Enigma is no exception. “The Quantum Enigma is basically standing for our search of reality,” Simons explains, “because when quantum physicists were observing particles they found out that when we directly look at them, they take a shape. When you look away, they change their shape. So does that mean that when we don’t look the reality’s changing? So through our observation we determine our reality and that’s very cool. The power of the human mind, the circle of life, those are all topics in our lyrics. So it’s very philosophical, very spiritual, very scientific.” Epica have tackled a lot of philosophical, socio-political and religious themes on their six albums – it’s a long way from ‘rock and roll all night and party every day’. Does Simons ever wish that she could just go on stage in jeans and a t-shirt and sing a party song? “Well, I think that for the guys they can do that in the karaoke bars,” she says in all seriousness. “I mean, we’re also having a good time. Our lyrics do have a deeper meaning to them, but it’s still for everybody to have a good time and to be happy and enjoy music. But the lyrics definitely have a deeper meaning to them. The music takes you away on the journey and makes you forget about daily life and the lyrics makes you reflect on daily life.”
Brooklyn punk act, Parquet Courts, have caught the attention of the majority of critics and fans alike over the past year to become one of the buzz groups of the moment. CHRIS HAVERCROFT speaks to leading man Andrew Savage about their monumental rise and new album, Sunbathing Animal. As Parquet Courts spent most of 2013 on the road turning heads and winning hearts, the latest offering, Sunbathing Animal, wasn’t knocked out in the whirlwind fashion of previous releases. The more demanding schedule meant that it was put to tape in three separate recording sessions and it is this relentless travel that would also shape many of the tunes. “The last record came out more recently in Australia than it did in the USA (where it came out in August, 2012) so we were very ready to make another record,” says Savage of the seemingly quick follow up. “We recorded in May, then October and finished in January. It is a strange way for Parquet Courts to make a record, but it isn’t that strange for other bands to do it that way. It was a more considered kind of record because when we recorded Light Up Gold we didn’t really have an audience and now we certainly do have.” This knowledge that the band now had an audience they had to consider was something that influenced Sunbathing Animal without informing too heavily the tracks that were included. Savage was
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aware that there would be expectation on the band, yet instead of shying away from this, he relished the opportunity. “It’s not very punk rock to admit that it completely dominates your writing process. It doesn’t go that far, but if you have fans you want to make sure that they also get something new. I would say that Sunbathing Animal wouldn’t be alienating for anyone who was into the band before, but it is different. It doesn’t sound like Light Up Gold, exactly. It sounds different whilst still maintaining the same nucleus.” Sunbathing Animal was recorded by Jonathan Schenke, who had been with the band during their previous two releases. Savage is comforted to have a man at the helm who can so readily nail the band’s sound. The success of Light Up Gold did give Parquet Courts the opportunity to explore new equipment and new studios. “Light Up Gold wasn’t even recorded in a studio at all, it was in our rehearsal space. Sunbathing Animal is a slight step up. I think we are now about as high definition as a band like us can get. I think I have a different opinion of fidelity than some people. Sometimes people try to tag us as a lo-fi band but that would only be if you are comparing us to Beyoncé or something on pop radio. All things considered, and considering the stuff we listen to we are pretty happy with where the sound is at.” Parquet Courts recorded in the vicinity of 30 songs for the album, with just over a dozen making the final cut. The title track and proceeding single is something that Savage considers would be a lot faster than most people anticipate. He describes it as a song that is supposed to give the listener a different feeling, kind of like they are on a ride that they are unable to get off. “There is a seven-inch version of the single and the record sleeve folds out into the sheet music for the song. I first started playing double bass when I was in the orchestra at school so I am acquainted with sheet music and know how to read it. Mostly we thought it would be funny to make sheet music for a song as ridiculous as Sunbathing Animal that basically has one note.”
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OUT OF 5
NICK MULVEY
PAT CHOW Caught By The Scuzz Pat Chow launch their debut EP, Good Deed, this Friday, May 30, at Mojo’s with guests Royston Vasie, The Community Chest, Black Stone From The Sun and Aborted Tortoise. BOB GORDON checks in with bassist, Andrew ‘Goldy’ Meredith. Pat Chow tout themselves as a scuzz pop trio and in listening to their debut EP, Good Deed, it’s a description that sits pretty well. For a first recorded glimpse, it’s a nice mesh of overdriven guitars and hints of old ‘90s trios, but with the more youthful exuberance of doing it right now. “We were really just trying to get down something that captured what we do live,” says bassist, Andrew Meredith. “I think there’s a bit of variety on the EP, so I guess in that way it gives a glimpse in to what we’re about. We were mainly interested in capturing a decent performance of the songs.” It was a modest aim, but certainly one which has extended beyond that premise. The songs have kicked about for a while and deserved, at the very least, a good airing. “I joined the band in late 2012 and these were the newer songs that were kicking around then,”
KIM CHURCHILL Sounds Of Silence Touring in support of his new album, Silence/Win, Kim Churchill performs at the Indi Bar next Wednesday, June 4; Mojo’s on Thursday, June 5, and the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, on Friday, June 6. AARON BRYANS reports. Now well-known for his unbreakable attitude and incredible talent, Kim Churchill is somewhat infamous for the manner in which he wooed fans at the Byron Bay Bluesfest three years ago where he showed off his outstanding multi-tasking abilities to provide the most layered and groovy acoustic tunes of the festival. However it was in the years prior that Churchill’s musical commitment was inked in when he first went out touring internationally. “I was fortunate because I got lucky,” Churchill explains. “I was at an age where I didn’t have anything else in my life other than music and I made it that way specifically. So travelling overseas with my music was one of the number one things I wanted to do; and I think as well being young, there’s a certain energy to a young performer when they’re on stage. “Especially in that first year of touring where there’s this appreciation to your job being very young and vulnerable and excitable and that quality comes out in the live show.” Churchill made a big impression in Canada, 14
RON POPE
First Mind Fiction Records/Caroline
Calling Off The Dogs Brooklyn Basement
Former Portico Quartet member, Nick Mulvey, has spent the past few years forging a role as a solo performer with a more modern approach than the somewhat more staid territory of the jazz coming from his former outfit. Mulvey cut his musical teeth in Cuba at the age of 19 where he studied music and set while jamming with other students and finding a taste for rum. After a couple of EPs, First Mind is the debut from the multi-instrumentalist from the UK. The well travelled musician is served well with guitar in hand with his flurry of picked notes and irregular timings that show the Eastern influence in Mulvey’s tunes. The title track plays like a modern folk songs that borders on the territory of Jose Gonzales without the beguiling accent. Inspired by the DH Lawrence poem, Cucurucu, Mulvey begins in spoken word form before instruments join in and the song becomes as much about creating a groove as it is a story. Mulvey has made an effortless transition from quirky jazz chap to the modern troubadour. His unique strumming and smooth voice are sure to get heads turning, with First Mind being a more than solid debut.
Ron Pope’s talents first reached many fans’ ears when he put out his beautiful single, A Drop In The Ocean, in 2005. Since then, though having independently released 10 albums and countless other singles, it seems Pope hasn’t made a major splash. Now, Pope branches out from his alt-country and folk roots, choosing to go a little more ‘pop’ as he returns with Calling Off The Dogs. The chaos of colours on the cover really represents the variety of sound you’ll find throughout this record. Starting off with some catchy and upbeat pop, Pope makes things slower, deeper and more thought-provoking once Explain hits the speakers. For any fans of his breakout single, the track, Silver Spoon, will really hit home, with the voice that we heard back then really shining through. Meanwhile, guest vocalist Alexz Johnson’s powerful tones come through to great effect on Nothing. A good listen overall, Calling Off The Dogs offers plenty of variation, right up until Pope explores his higher register on Blood From A Stone. It’s an odd way to end a sprawling record.
Meredith explains. “We recorded the EP a while ago now and at the time we just really wanted to get them down. We’ve got a bunch of newer songs now and we mix our set up a bit, but we always play a few of these.” Winning is the lead track and single. Charlie Sheen would no doubt #approve. “It’s probably our fastest song and pretty direct,” Meredith says. “When we worked on Winning there wasn’t much to it ‘cause it’s just a lot fun to play how Ben (Protasiewicz on vocals/guitar, drummer Jamie Gallacher completes the trio) wrote it. I think it’s kind of a break-up song but pretty tongue in cheek. CHRIS HAVERCROFT It’s all about victory!” The Love Junkies’ Mitch McDonald stepped into the producer’s roleon Good Deed and by all OUT OF 5 accounts excelled behind and beyond the desk. “Mitch was great to work with,” Meredith says. “He was very hands-on and came up with some great ideas; not just with the sound but also things like harmonies and guitar parts. He’s a swell guy with a good brain, so it was a good learning experience to ENO . HYDE work with him.” Pat Chow are obviously happy to have a Someday World debut EP released, but are also mindful that it is a Warp Records/Inertia gateway to other steps forward. “Well it’s just good to have it out there You would be hard pressed to find a more recognisable for people to listen to,” Meredith notes. “Hopefully name in ambient music than chief innovator, Brian Eno. some of them like it! We are launching it on Friday For his latest project he teams up with Karl Hyde, who night at Mojo’s, and doing a couple of shows over has been an electronic music mainstay himself as one east in the next few weeks. If it helps generate half of the supremely successful Underworld. The two gents have known each other for close to 20 years, yet more opportunities for the band, of course, that Someday World is the first full-length they have made would be great.” together. Eno had the beginnings of many tunes that he had been struggling to complete for one reason or another, and it took the pairing with Hyde to turn them into the nine songs here. The Satellites has the feel of an authentic ‘80s tune with larger than life cheesy synths and the severely dated drum roll that would be perfectly housed inside a Casio keyboard. Ambient music may be the area that Eno most often habituates, but Someday World is full of in your face melodies with Hyde and Eno both chiming in for the vocal duties. Will Champion takes time out from Coldplay duties to assist on the tune Witness and is one of the record’s high points, while his wife Mariana adds a differing voice to much of the proceedings. Eno and Hyde aren’t breaking new ground by any stretch of the imagination, but they have done their fair share of genre bending work in the past to be excused this time around. Instead they have put together a record that not only sounds like it was fun signing to Indica Records. It was there that he to make, but offers hours of pleasure for punters who began to settle down and deeply analyse his musical won’t be able to help but sing (and dance) along. direction, deciding to re-record eight tracks from his independent release The Sword And The Shield for the CHRIS HAVERCROFT release of his official self-titled debut LP. “I felt that they were the first bunch of songs that I’d written; they’d been coming for a OUT OF 5 long time. There was a big chunk of time that the material covers because you’ve built up so much to get there and you’ve been writing since the beginning of writing. It was time for me to release Sword And Shield when I did, but a year down the track I felt the material was too much a part of me to not go back and maybe give it the credit that it was due. Because CONOR OBERST at the beginning we recorded them the best we could, Upside Down Mountain but there was that desire to give them a polish up. Nonesuch/Warner That was the whole purpose was to repackage it to make it up-to-date.” Conor Oberst hasn’t had the best time in the media Churchill’s highly anticipated new album, spotlight as of late, but it’s not something that will be Silence/Win, was recorded in Vancouver. Produced discussed in detail here. Away from the court cases and by Warne Livesey (Midnight Oil, Matthew Good), allegations, the man behind Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos it’s Churchill’s first release through a major label in and Monsters Of Folk is simply a musician. Australia, Warner Music. It’s this back-to-basics approach that makes Alongside the release of Silence/Win, Upside Down Mountain such an enjoyable listen, filled Churchill will finally be able to get back on the road with broad strokes of acoustic guitar, choral backing after a large amount of time off sorting out his new vocals and tinkered piano ambience. Perhaps an record deal. immediate comparison line to draw is to Oberst’s 2002 “I get to play at Glastonbury music festival release under the Bright Eyes name, Lifted Or The Story in England which is a bit of a dream come true and Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground. It runs the line-up is incredible. We’re starting to do a lot a similar gamut of centralising itself around Oberst’s more in Europe and we’re playing at a bunch of the darkly vivid storytelling and oft-startling imagery, leaving surf competitions on the coast of France and the its surrounding instrumentation to take a back seat board masters in England. But I think more then with the occasional flourish (such as on the mariachianything I’m excited to tour hard again. Last year flavoured Artifact #1). Upside Down Mountain shows I didn’t tour as much because we were making the depth and a bold maturity – and considering Oberst album and then I had odd amounts of time off in sounded like an old soul when he first started making Australia because we were trying to sign a record deal music as a teenager, this is certainly saying something. with Warner and there were legal issues with prior After some years of silence, it’s truly a delight people I’d been working with. So all of a sudden I had to hear Oberst making music again. At the end of the to sit there and wait for things to work out naturally. day, it’s what he knows best. “Now that the album’s out I feel like I can DAVID JAMES YOUNG get back to what I was doing.”
AMY THEODORE
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SWANS To Be Kind Mute/Create Control After 2012’s The Seer, Swans found themselves the most popular they’d ever been in their entire 30-year career. With To Be Kind, they’ve decided to double down with another two-hour, double-disc collection of the most brutal, hypnotising music you will ever hear. Their new album is considerably lighter in tone, with many of the tracks having a rhythmic pulse. But in many ways, it is The Seer’s sequel; louder, more explosive, more violent. Its similarity to The Seer will no doubt inspire debates over which is better. That album featured long passages of drone music, which made the explosive parts that much more effective in an album setting. To Be Kind features 10 masterpieces, assembled in a way that can be draining to listen to in one sitting. Which isn’t a bad thing. Every track is its own perfect monolith, and this music was made to be extreme, from the mutant blues of opener, Screen Shot, and the engrossing mantra of the 34-minute Bring The Sun/Toussaint L’ouverture to the spasmodic Oxygen. These are pieces to get lost in, to fight your way through to the other side and see if you survive. LEONARDO SILVESTRINI
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KILLER BE KILLED Killer Be Killed Nuclear Blast Much will be made of the sum of the parts that make up Killer Be Killed. With a pedigree that boasts bands like Soulfly, Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan, it results in a beast with blood on its teeth, spitting out the tattered remains of a chew toy and the neighbour’s cat. Killer Be Killed, as a result, is kind of a big deal. Rather than come across as some bizarre Gregg Gillis mash-up experiment, the day job of each band member is blended into something fresh and new. It’s ferociously confident in its approach and confidently ferocious in its execution, leaping from clenched-fist choruses (Wings Of Feather And Wax, Melting Of My Marrow) to drilling riffs that require so much headbanging it would leave Willow Smith in a neck brace. There is barely a moment of reflection, or even a chance to catch your breath. Then again, listeners needing either of those things probably wouldn’t be interested in this album to begin with. A world away from the usual kind of supergroup indulgence, Killer Be Killed feels like the start of something truly promising. It’s a world where there’s only one rule: don’t you dare listen at any volume below maximum. DAVID JAMES YOUNG
They influenced pretty much every decent rock band of the ‘90s, with Nirvana notably citing them as a guiding light. Now, after two break ups and dramas too numerous to mention, Meat Puppets are coming to Perth, playing at The Astor on Monday, June 2, as part of Astor Rocks, along with fellow veterans Brant Bjork, The Hard Ons and a heaping helping of local support acts. We caught up with founding member, Curt Kirkwood.
When we speak to Curt Kirkwood, singer and guitarist of Meat Puppets, he’s taking some hard-earned downtime after an extended period on the road. In fact, he sounds like he’s in stasis - he doesn’t get up to much, he admits, when he’s not playing. “I haven’t been doing a lot,” Kirkwood tells us. “I’ve been off the road since September. I’ve just been hanging around the house, doing a lot of nothing, really. We did a lot of touring last year and now I’m kinda shut down, just hanging out with the pets. You know, I really am just lazy. I sit around the house a lot, drink coffee and some beer maybe. I’ve got birds - I’ve got cockatiels and dogs. I’m pretty uninteresting when I’m not working.” When he is working, he’s part of Meat Puppets, the seemingly indestructible band he founded with his brother, bassist Cris. In fact, it’s now even more of a family affair, with
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Curt’s son Elmo playing second guitar when they tour. Adding a third Kirkwood to the line up seemed like a natural step. “You know,” Kirkwood muses. “He grew up around it. He knows it as well as anybody alive and he and I played together quite a bit the last 10 years or so, doing acoustic stuff. He fits right in. “It feels kinda the same because our style allows for a lot of extrapolation and diversion. We have two guitars now, so that’s a little different - we didn’t have that before. But it kinda feels the same. What I’ve always liked about this band - I don’t really know about other bands, I’ve just been in a couple of other ones - is that it’s a very loose sort of thing. I’m playing with my brother and my son and our old buddy, Shandon.” TRAVIS JOHNSON
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Nikola Coster-Waldau
SUPER STARS AT SUPANOVA The latest big name to join the roster of sci-fi and fantasy icons heading our way for the Supanova Pop C u l t u re E x p o i s t h e K i n g s l ay e r h i m s e l f , D a n i s h ac t o r N i ko l a C o s t e r - Wa l d a u , w h o p l ays t h e swo rd - sw i n g i n g , s i s te r - ba n g i n g Jaime Lannister on HBO’s Game Of Thrones. CosterWaldau joins Torchwood/Doctor Who/Arrow star John Barrowman, Charmed veteran Rose McGowan, Jon “Napoleon Dynamite” Heder and more at Australia’s premier festival of the fantastic, which takes over the Perth Convention And Exhibition Centre from June 20 – 22. Supanova.com.au has all the news.
RETURN TO THE SCENE CrimeScene WA is returning for 2014. Western Australia’s own crime fiction conference/convention takes place at the Rydges Perth Hotel from October 11 – 12. A range of panels and lectures on the art and practice of crime writing will be on offer, including sessions on Science In Crime TV, Cold Case Investigations, Deconstructing The Serial Killer, Sherlock Holmes On Screen and more. Guests this year include Michael Robotham, Tony Cavanaugh, Livia Day (aka Tansy Rayner Roberts) and Julie Szego, plus local writers Dr Stephen Dedman and Lee and Lyn Battersby. For further details, head to crimescenewa.com.au.
IN THE FRAME The new play Frames deals with issues that affect a huge number of young Australians: anorexia, body image, self-esteem, identity, substance abuse and more. As young couple Elizabeth and Ben descend into body dysmorphia, depression and self-harm, the play, written by Louise Helfgott and directed by Helen Doig, unpacks the traumas afflicting Australian youth and the effects on their families. It runs at the Subiaco Arts Centre until May 31 before moving to the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre for a season from June 4 – 7. Tickets are available through ticketek.com.au and manpac.com.au
Marcus Beilby, At the end of the day, 2005, Fremantle Realists
KEEPING FREMANTLE REAL 24 years on from their remarkable, era-defining exhibition at the Art Gallery Of Western Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre once again reunites artists Ken Waldrop, Ray Beattie and Marcus Bealby. The new exhibition, Fremantle Realists, draws works largely from the artists’ private collections and brand new works. It presents a fascinating view of our port city and the emergence of realism in WA art. The exhibition runs from Saturday 31 – May, and there is an Artspoken event on Sunday, June 1, where the three artists, along with FAC curator Ric Spencer, will give a guided tour of the show. Go to fac.org.au for more.
DRUNKOSAURUS The Western Australian Museum’s recent after hours pop-up bar in their new – and stunning – Dinosaur Discovery Exhibition was such a success that they’ve decided to make it a regular thing. The Cretaceous Pop-Up Bar will be operating every Friday night from May 30 –June 27, featuring a cash bar plus themed snacks such as Caveman Pretzels and Dinosaur Jerky. Entry is $20 – book via museum.wa.gov.au.
CINEFESTOZ FILM PRIZE WINDOW CLOSES Filmmakers keen for a crack at the $100,000 2014 CinefestOZ Film Prize had best get a move on, as the hard deadline for entries is 5pm WST, Friday, June 6. Submissions are open to Australian fiction and documentary features that meet CinefestOZ’s criteria, and shortlisted entries will premiere at the CinefestOZ Film Festival, which runs from August 20 – 24. For full details, scoot over to cinefestoz.com.au.
THE TRIP TO ITALY La Dolce Vita Directed by Michael Winterbottom Starring Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan Once again Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan set off on a trip to take in beautiful scenery and feast upon some of the best fare in this sequel to their 2010 venture. Like its predecessor, The Trip, this film allows the opportunity for the two comedians to improvise with each other, providing some hilarious comic moments. Yet between the Michael Caine impersonations there is an air of melancholy and reflection, as both comedians contemplate the direction of their careers, their aging and even their own mortality. In truth this is more of the same, but in the best possible way. The Trip To Italy realises this and makes comment on it, breaking into a discussion on the diminishing returns of sequels - an ominous prophecy it fortunately avoids by producing a similarly enjoyable experience to its forerunner. Whether this statement breaks the fourth wall is an arguable matter, because it is highly questionable if that wall was ever in place. It’s more a nominal notion of a barrier, like a chalk line or a velvet rope. If you look at it, The
Trip’s format is a fictionalised account of fictionalised versions of real actors, played by those actors. Reality is a nebulous concept, and it is something this film occasionally delights in poking fun at to great effect. The Trip To Italy represents the third time we have seen this pair under the direction of Michael Winterbottom since Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story (2005), and everyone seems remarkably relaxed in their roles. Coogan and Brydon bounce off each other, working jokes on the fly and really squeezing out every last drop of potential humour. From Batman to Bond, the pair dissect a wide swathe of popular culture in some glorious improvisations. There is also a slight reversal in roles here, with Brydon undergoing a similar arc to what Coogan experienced in the 2010 outing. Yet narrative has never been that important to The Trip. There is enough here to propel the action, but like the premise of the Grand Tour (following in the footsteps of the Romantic poets), the meals themselves, or the wonderful Italian landscapes, all is just background to the two comedians’ witty banter. Even the historical city of Pompeii provides grist for comedy for Brydon to perfectly articulate his “small man in a box” routine. However it is also a meditation on the mortality in front of him. It is that note of pensiveness to the comedy, that slight bitterness that prevents the proceedings becoming too saccharine. Life may be good, but nothing is ever perfect. Laughs, landscapes and lunches, The Trip To Italy provides exactly what you want in a sequel. DAVID O’CONNELL
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THE DOUBLE Twin Peeks Directed by Richard Ayoade Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska Set in an Orwellian dystopia (ala Terry Gilliam’s Brazil), The Double follows the attempts of mild mannered Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) to regain control of his life from a more confident and aggressive doppelganger. This second film from director Richard Ayoade (best known as Moss from The IT Crowd) is a brilliant adaptation of the novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, produced with a very careful and stylish directorial eye. Simon James is a meek and hard done by cubicle drone. He is unknown and under-appreciated at work, his life is a series of banal annoyances, and the girl of his dreams, Hannah (Mia Wasikowska) barely knows he exists. Then one day a dynamic new employee arrives at the work place, bearing an uncanny resemblance to him, both in looks and in name, James Simon (again, Jesse Eisenberg). Soon Simon James is caught in a struggle to regain control of his destiny as James Simon aggressively seeks to assert his dominance and steal every aspect of Simon’s life from him, and - worse still - be more successful at it. Part of the reason that The Double works is it taps into the neurosis, isolation and lack of confidence 16
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that all of us experience at some time or other. That crippling self doubt you might experience at 2am on a sleepless night (that if only you had done better) is made physically manifest. Ayoade handles it with a light touch, drawing much black humour out of the surreal nightmare his character finds himself in. All set against the background of a beautifully shot (but deliberately drab) world of mundanity. Governmental office cubicles, soulless housing tenements and dreary subterranean stations are the reality of Simon James. Yet there is always a deep existential void continuously threatening to swallow him, emphasised by the background sound effects. Often a bleak howling wind or the grind of machinery threaten to overwhelm all sense of thought or reason. Each element of the film is carefully crafted and in the right position. Eisenberg (The Social Network) is given the freedom to run between the two extremes his choice in roles has been favouring of late. As Simon James he is often nebbish, shy and servile. As James Simon he is confident, devious and ambitious. However, as the film progresses and the stakes increase, both show characteristics of the other and the lines of identity become deliberately blurred. Meanwhile, Wasikowska (Tracks) plays more than just an object of desire, and grants Hannah a fragile beauty while having a core of steel. A deftly handled second film by Ayoade, The Double brings us a darkly humorous view of a absurd bureaucratic nightmare. DAVID O’CONNELL
GOLDEN DAYS MARKETS The Rosemount Hotel Sunday, May 25, 2014 The Rosie once again drew an early morning crowd to pore over vintage fashions, second hand music, jewellery and bric-a-brac while enjoying a hot breakfast or a sneaky early pint. Photos by Dennis Radacic
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Pete, Zelda
Peter, Eve Lola
Tilli
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CIRQUE MOTHER AFRICA Theresa Muteta Multidisciplinary variety show Cirque Mother Africa is a heady taste of the vibrant and disparate forms of music, dance and culture the vast continent has to offer. We caught up with one of the performers, Theresa Mueta, to find out what was so unique about Cirque Mother Africa. “We have nine different countries coming together from all over the continent,” Theresa Muteta tells us. “Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Guinea, South Africa, you name it. And with Mother Africa we have acrobatic acts, live music, dancing – a journey through Africa for Australia.” Originally hired for her musical talent, Muteta had to learn a variety of roles. “I’m dancing and I’m singing and I’m bringing an instrument from Zimbabwe called a mbira. I’m singing a song from my home country, from my own culture, in my mother tongue. Which makes me very proud to be holding such a position. In Mother Africa it has been quite an experience, as I came as a singer but I’ve seen such a growth in dancing and in all these act we’ve been doing.” As for her instrument, the mbira, it is a traditional instrument with 15 metal keys and a wooden resonator. “It has a soothing sound - that’s the best way I can explain it. For someone who has their problems, you have to come listen to the instrument.” Muteta grew up in the city of Masvingo in Zimbabwe with six siblings and started music at a young age. “We had music at primary and high school, and that’s where my passion grew. I was in the music room all the time. I took it up after my high school, and decided, this is what I will do with my life, this is
my passion from now on.” She joined the troupe in 2011 after being selected by the show founder, Winston Ruddle. “Training was something else. The very first week was the challenge for me, as once we get there everyone is concentrating and focusing on the act. We literally had 10 days to put the show together. So we would start at nine o’clock in the morning and finish at nine o’clock in the evening. But once you get there it is more that everyone is at their highest professional level. Everyone is concentrating on their act. So that whatever we are going to dish out is at the highest possible standards.” “We are done by the time we get out in the evening. We just want to see our beds and wake up as late as possible.” Muteta is also proud of the joy Africa has, despite all its problems. Mother Africa not only demonstrates this joy, but takes steps to help. “Each ticket there is a proportion of which that will go to Ethiopia. There is an organisation that Mother Africa works hand in hand with, and each year the funds for food and education. That’s something that Mother Africa takes care of every year.” DAVID O’CONNELL
Cirque Mother Africa performs at Kalgoorlie’s Goldfields Art Centre on Wednesday, May 28; Perth’s Crown Theatre on Friday, May 30; and Geraldton’s Queens Park Theatre on Saturday, May 31. For tickets, go to cirquemotherafrica.com.au. WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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Jasper Jones: State Theatre Centre Barking Gecko Theatre Company presents a stage adaptation of Craig Silvey’s acclaimed novel, written for the stage by Kate Mulvany and directed by John Sheedy. It runs from July 17 - August 9. Go to barkinggecko.com.au for more information.
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Patyegarang: State Theatre Centre This new production from Bangarra Dance Theatre tells the story of the eponymous Aboriginal woman who taught her language to Lieutenant William Dawes of the Colonial Fleet. It runs from July 30 - August 2 for five performances only. Tickets are available via Ticketek.
FESTIVALS The Human Rights Arts And film Festival Running at Luna On SX from June 3 - 5, this festival works to highlight human rights issues around the world. Go to hraff.org.au for more info. The Australian Tattoo & Body Art Expo 2014 A celebration of skin art, rockabilly and alternative culture, burlesque and more. Over 200 tattoo artists and guests will congregate at the Perth Exhibition And Convention Centre from June 6 - 8. Go to tattooexpo.com.au for more.
EAT AT: THE FLYING TACO Because it’s going away! After six-and-a-half years, The Flying Taco, a forerunner of the current Mexican cuisine craze that’s gripping the city, is saying adios. It’s final trading day is this Saturday, May 31, so stop by for one final bittersweet burrito. The Flying Taco
As You Like It - Pic by Gary Marsh Photography
VISUAL ARTS DILLIGAF: Linton And Kay Galleries Perth Andy Quilty’s latest solo exhibition examines icons of masculinity in the modern suburban milieu. It runs until June 3. Go to lintonandkay.com.au for full information. Ukiyo-E - Japanese Prints Of The Floating World: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery An exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of Ronald and Catherine Berndt. It runs until June 28. Head over to lwgallery.uwa.edu. au for details.
DRINK: GAGE ROAD BREWING COMPANY This local independent brewery has been doing (brewing?) great things under the stewardship of beer connoisseurs Bill Hoedemaker and Peter Nolin. Head down to The Bird to try their new Rapid Fire American IPA. Gage Road
Dinosaur Discovery - Lost Creatures Of The Cretaceous: WA Museum Combining life-size moving models and 3D augmented reality technology, this world-class exhibition brings the unfathomably distant past to life. There will also be fossils and specimens on display, interactive activities and more. It runs until August 3. Go to museum.wa.gov.au for more information. Pinkification - Rethinking Pink: Spectrum Project Space Deedee Noon’s photographic portrait exhibition consists of 34 portraits of WA women showcasing their favourite colour. It runs until June 7. Go to ecu. edu.au for more. For Collector’s Eyes Only: Elements Art Gallery A group exhibition featuring works by William Boissevain, Pierre Bonnard, Camille Jean-Baptiste Corot, Elizabeth Durack, Robert Juniper, Paul Klee, Aristide Maillol, Helen Norton and more. It runs until June 8. Go to elementsartgallery.com.au for more. Trace And Aura - Spectrum Project Space Daniel Nevin explores ideas of aura and photography using alternative photographic techniques. It runs until June 7. Go to ecu.edu.au for more.
SHOP AT: MANY 6160 Head for the ground floor of Freo’s old Myer building (seriously, our kids will still be calling it that) for a day’s worth of shopping. You can find homewares, fashion, art, clothing, skate gear and more all under the one roof. MANY 6160
GO TO: THE PERTH CITY 2014 WINTER ARTS SEASON LAUNCH Slip down to Forrest Place from 5pm this Friday, May 30, for the launch of the Perth City 2014 Winter Arts Festival, featuring highlights from the upcoming season plus a miniature Perth Winter Supper Club to make sure you don’t go cold and hungry. Forrest Place 18
HOW TO REPEL MEN If you’re a woman and you leave the house in something that Vogue or Elle deems on-trend then you will repel men. Women will coo over you, men will avoid you and pensioners will ask you if you are feeling OK. LAUREN WISZNIEWSKI reports. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a certain wardrobe is not going to get a boyfriend any time soon. While leggings, uggboots and flatforms are considered to be offending material, the whole premise of ‘The Man Repeller’ is about dressing for yourself and liking what you’re wearing. Fashion designer Betsey Johnson puts it best, “Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves and, of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys they’d just walk around naked.” Female empowerment is at the core of wearing what you what, where you want. The words ‘Man Repeller’ were first defined by blogger Leandra Medine in 2010. After a shopping expedition to Topshop where her friend noticed all the items Leandra found appealing (Harem shorts; a white muscle tee emblazoned with the word “Mom”; a floral-print denim vest; sequin hot shorts) were guaranteed to repel men. The two wrote up a dictionary definition: “man re.pell.er
The Collector: Venn Gallery Tané Andrews presents his latest solo exhibition until June 27. Go venn.net for further information. Fremantle Realists: Fremantle Arts Centre An exhibition of works by Ray Beattie, Marcus Bellby and Ken Wadrop, three artists who, working from a shared studio space in Fremantle’s High Street in the 1970s, looking at WA through the lens of photorealism. It runs from May 31 - July 17. Go to fac.org.au for further information. Eggtooth: Spectrum Project Space A fundraising exhibition held in conjunction with Birdlife Western Australia, this sees 42 local artists create works relating to various threatened or endangered avian species. It runs from June 13 - June 21. Hit up ecu.edu.au for more details.
Supanova Pop Culture Expo Since 2002, Supanova has brought the best of sci-fi and fantasy fandom to hordes of ravening fans. This year’s guests include Jon Heder, Rose McGowan. John Barrowman, Laurie Holden, George Lazenby, Richard Kiel and more. It’s on at the Perth Convention And Exhibition Centre from June 20 - 22. go to supanova. com.au for all the details. Revelation Film Festival From July 3 - 13, treat yourself to some of the best in edgy, underground and outré films from across the country and around the globe. For full info, go to revelationfilmfest.org. The Scandinavian Film Festival The first ever Scandinavian Film Festival brings together the best cinema from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. It runs at Cinema Paradiso from July 24 - 30. Go to scandinavianfilmfestival.com or lunapalace.com.au for details.
THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE As You Like It: State Theatre Centre Shakespeare’s beloved romantic comedy comes to the stage once more courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Roger Hodgman and starring Jovana Miletic and James Sweeney, it runs until June 1. Visit bsstc.com.au for more. Werewolf Priest! The Lamentable Ballad Of Father Hank Grimby: The Blue Room Theatre Effects makeup, music and monsters meet in this epic horror/comedy/musical theatre experience. It runs until June 7 - hit up blueroom.org.au for tickets and session times. Rabbithead: The Blue Room Theatre Director Ian Sinclair and Little y Theatre bring us a surreal and disturbing psychological drama that takes place on a fairy floss set, with an original soundtrack by Catlips. It runs from June 14. Go to blueroom.org. au for tickets and info. (mahn-ree-peller) - noun: outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex. Such garments include but are not limited to harem pants, boyfriend jeans, overalls (see: human repelling), shoulder pads, fulllength jumpsuits, jewellery that resembles violent weaponry and clogs.” Any item that confuses, confronts or scares those with XY chromosomes is thought to be man repelling. The media continually bombards us with tips and tricks to lure a man and then once you have him, how to keep him. Unlike a pet, a man will not love you unconditionally. Sacred wisdom passed down to Miranda Kerr from her grandmother included the words, “Men are very visual. If you want to keep a man you must always put a little bit of make-up on and put on good underwear.” If a woman doesn’t wear makeup (or enough makeup), she will be asked if she is ill. On the other hand wearing ‘too much’ makeup will make a woman look like she is trying and she is not the flawless beauty that she should naturally be. Her fuckability goes out the window as men wonder what they will wakeup to in the morning. Women are expected to be virginal beings created purely for men. Displays of overt sexuality and individuality will have the patriarchy running for the hills. In an era of Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, the female silhouette is becoming more and more obscured. Yet man repelling isn’t about getting dressed and thinking of how to repel a man, it’s about getting dressed and feeling good. When wearing your new harem pants, you may feel judged by your male counterpart, but hey sister, at least you’re doing it for yourself.
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Snabba Cash 3 - screening in The Scandinavian Film Festival
To have your performance, exhibition or cultural event listed, get in touch via
localmusicarts@xpressmag.com.au For more Art Stories head to
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Leandra Medine, blogger at Man Repeller
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Having moved back to New Zealand from the UK some two years ago, Tali is enjoying the beauty of its North Shore. Of course during this time, things have continued to move at the speed of light for the first lady of drum and bass - but there is much more to this welloiled machine than just beats. Now Tali is doing many different things, including producing music with a decidedly simpler, chilled out vibe. RK talks to the woman who still owns the microphone ahead of her gig at Villa, Saturday, May 31. “I have still been enjoying the opportunity to produce my own music over the last couple of years,” she explains. “And this year will see the release of my fifth studio album and my first completely solo effort.” As well as that, Tali has been involved with plenty of collaborations with producers in New Zealand also – and has been hitting up mics up and down the country at all the major festivals, as well as playing gigs in Australia, the UK, Russia, Japan and America since her return home. The lass has also scored a radio show on George FM (the biggest electronic music station in the country) and started Sheppard Artist Development, a kind of mentoring business that helps create links between independent artists and the music industry. “This involves everything from advice and guidance, to helping write songs, vocal produce and develop the artist’s brand,” she chimes. “I love the idea of being able to give something back to our industry. It is also hopefully setting myself up for a position in music for the future - and one that doesn’t just involve being an artist!” Musically, Tali professes she has a new album coming out that is a fusion of what she refers to as an ‘electro soul meets gangsta jazz’ as it melds together all of her biggest inspirations. The LP is to be called Wolves and is the first project where she has produced all the beats and written and recorded everything herself. And indeed, being a woman in a male dominated world hasn’t always been easy, but the MC has afforded herself the protection required to stand the test of time. “I allow myself to be more feminine and gentle these days,” she reflects, “but when I was around a lot of boys either DJing or MCing in the past, I felt like I had to have a bit of a front and be staunch in order to protect myself. Nowadays I couldn’t care less about that. I’ve earned my place in the history books so have nothing to prove - and being back in NZ, I am working around a lot more women in the scene, which is so refreshing.” Finally, Tali describes how much fun she’s had down under during her travels over the last decade and shares a few words on what her fans can expect: “It has always been good times, good vibes and heaps of energy. I freestyle when I MC so I mostly just sing about whatever I am feeling or getting off of the crowd at that moment. I will always bust out some of my ‘set’ rhymes because its fun for the crowd to rhyme along to, but for the most part I just go with wherever my mind wants to take me. I think I consciously try to lift the crowd and leave them feeling really happy, so I give a lot of positivity and love out when I am MCing through my words.”
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FANS SLAM FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE
MATE, 360 IS TOURING STRAYA King of Aussie hip hop 360 will be back in Perth come September 19 as part of his national Utopia tour, which he says “will change your of opinion” of him. The rapper thanked his fans in statement released on Monday, saying he understood the art of rap and had stepped up his game to another level. Check out 360 Friday, September 19 at Metro City, and Saturday, September 20 at Astor Theatre for an all ages show. Tickets from oztix.com.au. 360
Lauryn Hill fans lashed out at Fremantle Arts Centre after the venue cut power during the artist’s set Saturday. The hip hop artist, known for playing in 90s group The Fugees, started an hour late, forcing FAC to cut power after 90mins, as per a 10pm curfew imposed by the City of Fremantle. FAC released a statement via Facebook on Sunday which explained the reason behind the decision. “Last night’s Ms. Lauryn Hill concert at Fremantle Arts Centre was ended just after 10pm in line with the venue’s noise curfew,” the statement reads. “This was done by the Arts Centre in agreement with the promoters of last night’s concert. The artist chose to arrive on stage just after 8:30pm, an hour after the agreed start time. The event’s promoters made the artist aware of the curfew requirements and unfortunately Ms. Hill chose not to arrive on stage or finish at the agreed time. FAC has hosted many concerts over the past six years and this is the first time the artist has ignored the curfew. Despite this, we hope audiences enjoyed Ms. Hill’s hour and a half show. “Fremantle Arts Centre regrets these circumstances but we are an outdoor venue in a residential area and as such we have a responsibility to our neighbours, with whom we have built a strong relationship over many years.” Fans have taken to social media to slam the venue and
the council for its “nanny state” mentality. One Facebook user said, “Unbelievable. She’d already said it was her last song, as if you couldn’t bend the rules for another few minutes, she is a super talent and drew a huge crowd who all wanted to hear her sing, surely the audience outnumbered the neighbours! And so what if she was on stage late, two wrongs don’t make a right, and cutting her off mid song is just rude. You should
be embarrassed Freo Arts Centre, there is more to life than following the regulations to the letter!” Some people pointed out it was reprehensible to cut her set short on her birthday, while other users stated her birthday wasn’t actually until Monday. Promoters responsible for the event, Horizons Touring, were not available for comment. Lauryn Hill. Photo by Daniel Craig
HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR Matters Of The Heart Andy Butler is the virtuoso behind the discohouse revival band, Hercules And Love Affair. Featuring an ever changing lineup, male falsetto and a box full of analogue synths, Hercules is a distinct voice in a club landscape that threatens to become homogenous. Now entering its 10th year as a project, Hercules released its third studio album, The Feast Of The Broken Heart on May 26. SIMON DONNES reports. “I started the same way I always do, experimentation and exploration with the gear in front of me. I was working with this Austrian co-producer who had this really beautiful private studio, so private that the only thing this place had been used for before was their own stuff,” Butler said. The Feats Of The Broken Heart is a dark, tumultuous house experience, a decision not clear to Butler from the start. “I toyed with all these modular analogue synths, making these arty ambient soundscapes for three months and then went the other way and made this very direct track That’s Not Me. So we got a local vocalist in. Her sound just set us on a really different course again. It clicked that we could craft these very poppy, structured songs but with a tough, gritty house backing.” “It sounds like I’m very self-aware about my process but really I’m not removed enough to say ‘I’m going to do a new spin on this famous house track or copycat this’. It all starts with a simple chord progression and flows on, and it taps into a personal memory bank which is where a lot of the sounds come from. I started writing and playing music from a very young age, and having left the world of learning the piano and “higher art” I wanted to prove that electronic music, particularly house music was worthwhile.” Listening to Hercules, it’s clear more is going on than simple homage to the heyday of Disco. “It’s been something of an agenda for me because disco and house are almost treated like throwaway music, something for a very specific time and place, but I think it stretches far beyond that and has a real lifestyle and is legitimate.” Of the festivals they’re invited to, Hercules gets shoved in with more mainstream club producers, and was last touring in Australia playing Future Music Festival in 2012. Andy has some strong thoughts, on the EDM craze. “The nicest way to put it is, I’m not a fan. I think the best composers know how to challenge themselves and while we all have a toolbox to draw on now and then, this is just the same cheap tricks repeated: all about the drop, the over-compression and the peaking. I’ve got nothing against aggressive music but it makes me feel like I’m insane, listening to it. “As much as Skrillex might be a nice person, I don’t understand his musical mission.” 20
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LUKA LESSON Poetry in Motion Luka Lesson doesn’t care whether you’re rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight, old, young... he wants you to hear his new album. His second LP, Exit, can be downloaded from his website in a pay-whatever-you-want form. He spoke with DAVID JAMES YOUNG on free media, writing and miseducation ahead his show at Peyote in Northbridge, Saturday, May 31. “I want to give this album to 20 million people – that’s the goal,” he says on the line from Brisbane; where he has just performed over the weekend past. “It’s available in as many avenues as possible – if you want to throw in a few extra dollars, you can; and there’s a deluxe edition with super highquality master files, some videos and a making-of doco about the album. I want it to be accessible to all people.” Luka – real name Luke Haralampou – says that it’s his fans who inspired him to push the album and create a movement with it. “It’s about establishing something beyond what I have,” he explains. “I really believe in my work; and everyone that I’ve ever performed with or shared my work with has helped me do that. I figured that in order to get it across to people, I had to create an army of people who know what I do. My fans have been amazing in that regard.” The album, like all of Lesson’s work, involves a combination of his love for spoken word, beat poetry and hip hop. Although a love of hip hop has guided him for nearly his entire life, there was a time when the world of poetry seemed foreign. “I hated poetry in high school,” he confesses. “At least, I hated the way it was presented to us – all that we were made to do was merely imitate what we were studying. There was no creativity – there was nothing that resonated with me.” It’s for this reason that Luka is a fervent campaigner for the use of hip hop in the classroom as an educational tool. “No one ever explained to me that the hip hop I was listening to every day was poetry,” he continues. “It’s a use of language that is completely creative – you’re in charge of the time, the place, the
story. A lot of people don’t even realise that the biggest names in hip hop are all super dorks when it comes to language and the use of words. I now push other teachers to use hip hop when they’re teaching English classes – and they’re loving it!” Luka has just begun a national tour, entitled The People Tour. It takes him to many Australian capital cities as well as a run of smaller regional areas. He will be performing a mix of his music and his poetry in both public places and in houses and DIY spaces. Although he appreciates every crowd that watches him perform, Lesson confesses there’s something about smaller places that strikes a chord with him. “There’s a lot of passion out in more regional and remote areas,” he says. “There’s a lot of hunger for the art form; and a lot of thankfulness and gratitude from the people who come out to see it. Often it’s not much of a hip hop crowd, but that’s the beauty of being a poet – I can adjust what I do accordingly and make it work for them. There are people all over the country who are into this sort of thing for all kinds of reasons. I’m very lucky that I get to experience that.”
LANCELOT DANCE A LOT From teaching himself guitar to classical music training to producing and DJing for a living, Sydney’s Lancelot aka Lance Gurisik has always strived to create honest music he can be proud of. TOM KITSON chatted with the former baseballer and John Paul Young fan ahead of his visit to Geisha Bar on Friday, May 30. With his new J.O.B. EP now available and backing up his hugely successful track Givin’ It Up, Gurisik’s love for and influence from house music has found him on an unexpected career path. “When I started going clubbing I made the transition from listening to progressive rock to trying the electronic sound palette,” he says. “I was really inspired by The Presets, Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, guys who were doing the Australian sound at the time.” Dropping his guitar and spending big on synthesizers was his next step, and he’s been making a living as a DJ/Producer for the last three years now. “Being relatively new to it still, I tend to find stuff that some people might call ‘throwback,’ but to me it’s new and exciting,” he says. “I’m definitely not a deep house producer - the moniker of Lancelot does involve house music, but I do many other things and am first and foremost a musician.” Revealing his passion for baseball at a younger age, Gurisik was intent on forging a career in the sport until the tables turned and he found himself working hard on his music instead. “Up until the age of 16 I was a pretty serious baseball player, playing tournaments overseas and thinking of that as my future,” he says. “Then everyone else was growing except me, and those kind of physical restraints meant the dream faded away. “At the same time I was learning guitar and joining bands, which I was able to switch focus onto and dedicate time to.” Valuing the simplicity-over-complexity approach to music has him deeply ingrained in the nature of house music and its many evolutionary forms. “What I love about house music as a genre is that often the most effective stuff is just so simple - it’s beautiful to unlock that simple, four bar fragment rather than over-decorating your music. “Givin’ It Up is a really simple track,” he says. “It’s the little things that make it work, like the syncopation, piano rhythm and how it’s stripped back with each element complimenting another.”
One track he likes to drop on the odd occasion for a different sort or crowd reaction is none other than his own edit of John Paul Young’s Love Is In The Air. “Sometimes people lose it on the dance floor when I play it, and other times people are wondering what I’m doing,” he laughs. “It’s risky but also fun, and the best parts of a set are always those unexpected songs that people remember.” Gaining recognition for his heartfelt, artistic approach to music hasn’t fazed him, despite airplay on Triple J and now embarking on a national headline tour. “Nothing’s changed,” he says. “I do what I do, and most importantly I try to make honest, melodic music that I’m proud of. “If that ever changes, then something’s gone very wrong!” WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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3.5
3
OUT OF 5
OUT OF 5
ASTRONOMY CLASS
GUERRE
Mekong Delta Sunrise Elefant Traks
Ex Nihilo Yes Please/Remote Control
Mekong Delta Sunrise may be the most un-Australian album to be released in local hip hop this year. This has nothing to do with some kind of Today Tonight set of values – here, the term is applied literally. For their first album in five years, the Astronomy Class collective took to Cambodia, cratedigging and immersing themselves in the local culture. In their travels, they came across vocalist Srey Channthy, who – in case you couldn’t tell by the album’s cover – is the centrepiece of the new record, narrating stories of lonely city nights and national conflict in her native tongue. The beats stem from Khmer music, creating a distinct and lush atmosphere for Channthy and frontman Ozi Batla to share their respective sides of the same coin. This is particularly effective in songs like Woman Wants To Drink and Father – although most listeners may not be fluent in the language themselves, they will find it easy to be drawn into the narrative. It’s an old hip hop adage that it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. Mekong Delta Sunrise attempts to strike a balance between the two – and, for the most part, it succeeds.
‘Ex Nihilo’, meaning “out of nothing” is often connected to creation—“creation out of nothing”. Whether this was organic or deliberate in the production of Guerre’s debut record Ex Nihilo, the Latin phrase was at the heart of his creative process. The Canadian-born, Sydney-based producer made small changes to the record over an extended period of time. The sounds emanate this sentiment, as though they grew from a profound silence, disjointed to begin with then coming together towards the end. Guerre attempted to remove a level of himself to produce Ex Nihilo with a sense of detachment, deviating from previous sentimental productions. Evocative of Gregorian chants Premier lightly hypnotizes, preparing you for Deatheat and Silo which intensify with intrepid drumbeats. The simmering of sound in these tracks is almost the sound of anxiety itself, an inescapable foreboding. The echoes of eerie piano keys in Ribs Aut are met with sedated beats and vocals in Mukatse (Tunning) and Kone/Bone, which taper the tension off before the apprehension builds up again. With help from Marcus Whale (Collarbones), Guerre focuses on rhythm rather than melody for Ex Nihilo, and this messes with your neurology. It’s uncomfortable in moments but deeply therapeutic in others. NAOMI FAYE
2.5 OUT OF 5
RÖYKSOPP & ROBYN Do It Again Cherrytree Records/Interscope Heaps chiller. These Scandinavians have united to produce a typical Röyksopp concoction assimilating the best of their glitchy beats, youthful vocals and poppy drum loops… with some Robyn thrown in. The first track, and the mini-album’s standout, Monument, is composed of groovy, dark basslines feathered with airy synths colliding into a
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dissonant wall of sound. A desert of layered synths sits right in the middle of the track, before being pierced with Robyn’s candid vocals, pouring over it all and pooling into a bath of dark lyrics. It’s polished off with decorative, translucent alto sax; a really nice touch. Both Sayit and Inside The Idle Hour Club are repetitive and not quite juicy enough to really demand undivided attention. However, Every Little Thing, like What Else Is There? on 2005’s The Understanding, is a nicely understated slice of pop. The album’s marketing campaign will undoubtedly be funded almost entirely by Do It Again and its permanent residency on Nova’s playlist for the next three months. It’s catchy and fruity, but borderline too contemporary; it’s almost too influenced, Guetta-style. LIZ ELLESON
WED 28/05 AMPLIFIER BAR Academy Unofficial Free Your Mind After-Party ft. Common Bond Elegist Hollow Ground Protagonist THE BEAT (DOWNSTAIRS) Street THE BIRD Vibe Vibe Vibe – The Final Vibe Jack Doepel Sleepyhead Raaghe James Ireland BRASS MONKEY Burlesque Night Sugar Blue Burlesque James Ess DJ Vicktor CAPITOL Harlem Wednesdays ft. Genga Peter Payne J.Yes Philly Blunt Lenox Ave Pussymittens BMB Benny P XowlX CAPTAIN STIRLING Lokie Shaw CHALLENGE STADIUM Ellie Goulding CLUB RED SEA Cheek CONSERVATORY ROOFTOP BAR Horseplay THE DEEN Manic Mondays FLYRITE Floor Fillaz GOLD BAR Famous THE GOOD SHEPHERD Thinkfar GROOVE BAR (CROWN) 5 Shots HULA BULA BAR Island Nite LLAMA BAR Akuna Club THE LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan METRO FREO C5 Next Gen NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays – Student Night OCEAN ONE BAR Brazil Night ft. Xoxote THE ODD FELLOW DJ Beryl Streep SOVEREIGN ARMS FIVE0 VILLAGE BAR Village People Wednesdays THURS 29/05 BRASS MONKEY Karaoke Brass Monkey Style BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke BREAKER BAR Allday THE BRIGHTON Squinty
AKUNA CLUB Answered by? Christina Kostopoulos Name of night? Akuna Club When and where is it held? Llama Bar Subiaco Wednesday nights Opening/closing times? 9pm-1am What can we expect to hear? House and beats Upcoming acts? Jessie Andrews (USA), Chrome Sparks (USA) and Go Freek (Syd) You should attend if ...you dig happy hour, which is between 9pm-10pm. $5 off entry, plus a $5 drink.
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THE SHED
THE COURT
DELICIOUS @ ROCKET ROOM
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THE CAUSEWAY Xport Thursdays THE CLAREMONT HOTEL Institution Thursdays CLUB RED SEA Thursday Night Revolution CONNECTIONS Bingay THE CRAFTSMAN FIVE0 THE DEEN Chase The Sun Thursdays DJ Don Miji GOLD BAR OG Thursdays HULA BULA BAR Hi-Fi Lounge LEISURE INN DJ Peta LOST SOCIETY The Collective LUKCY SHAG James Wilson NORTHSHORE TAVERN GrooVe FRI 30/05 AMBAR Señor Roar AMPLIFIER Fridays are back ft. Kla AVIARY WA DAY LONG WEEKEND ON THE ROOFTOP Paradise Paul NDORSE THE BAYSWATER Mario Zuli BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) Play THE BRASS MONKEY James Ess Green George THE BRIGHTON DJ Peta CAPITOL (UPSTAIRS) I Love 80s & 90’s ft Darren Tucker THE CARINE J!mmy Beats THE COMO Byron O’Neill CRAFTSMAN Jawsh DAILY PLANET Sundowner Sessions THE DEEN Student Night EVE NIGHTCLUB Recharge Fridays FLAWLESS Monarch Fridays FLYRITE Allday GEISHA BAR Lancelot THE GEORGE NDORSE DJ Neil Viney GINGER NIGHTCLUB Mondo Dance Party GOLD BAR Vanity THE GOOD SHEPHERD Thinkfar GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Decoy DJ Crazy Craig THE GRAND Jay Mckay HULA BULA BAR Shakin’ It
LAKERS TAVERN Grizzly LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Sky’s The Limit Hip Hop Showcase ft. RnB Old School LIBRARY Dorcia LUCKY SHAG DJ Richie G MALT Nu Disco Hip Hop METRO FREO Clique S-Man Angry Buda DJ Mr-Phat Whytehype METRO FREO C5 Trap’d Olithagod Midsole D’Vaus Brothers MINT Club Retro MULLALOO BEACH HOTEL Flaunt Fridays DJ Darren Wize MY PLACE Karaoke NORTHSHORE TAVERN Chalk N Cheese Fridays PARAMOUNT Paramount Party Crew PLAYERS BAR RÜFÜS THE QUEENS Jon Ee DJ Reuben THE SAINT Britty THE SHED Crush DJ Glen SOVEREIGN ARMS DJ Az-T WHALE & ALE Danny B YAYA’S ACE Fridays DJ Pup SAT 31/05 AMPLIFIER Pure Pop ft Eddie Electric AVENUE Lokie Shaw AVIARY WA Day Long Weekend On The Rooftop Zel Paradise Paul THE BAKERY Official After-Party For State Of The Art Festival BAR ORIENT The Reggae Club BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) Canvas BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) Underground Revival Spinecode Fanatics Zimma Outtacontrol Ol Bill Maloonatic Ash Stylez Derailed BOHEME Tastes Like Chicken
BRASS MONKEY DJ Peta Grizzly THE BRIGHTON Squinty CAPITOL Death Disco CAPITOL (UPSTAIRS) Cream Of The 80’s ft. DJ Roger Smart THE COMO Moe-Hee-Toe CORNERSTONE Mario Zuij THE DEEN Saturdays EAST END BAR SÜFÜR (Rufus DJ Set) FLAWLESS LQ Saturdays FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE RÜFÜS THE GENEROUS SQUIRE Defanutly GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Juice GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Hero DJ HULA BULA BAR Sailor Saturdays LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Texas Country Music presents Rumours LIBRARY MKT LOST SOCIETY Chalk LUCKY SHAG DJ Richie G METRO CITY EDM Saturdays METRO FREO Metropolis Saturdays ft. Darren Tucker Dr Wazz Benny C DJ Shane METRO FREO C5 I Love 80s And 90s ft. Dr Sunich DJ Shane MOJOS Runner Dianas Lanark Childsaint NEWPORT HOTEL Gravity DJ Tahli Jade DJ Tom Drummond NORTHSHORE TAVERN Howie Morgan Project PARAMOUNT Saturday Nights ft. Felix PEEL ALE HOUSE Byron O’Neil THE QUEENS DJ Az-T 3Manuel THE SAINT Crackers THE SHED HUGE DJ Andyy SOVEREIGN ARMS Jinx Project VELVET LOUNGE House To House ft. Ali Elmerthudd DJ Beltdrive
Deadline Monday 5pm. The Club Manual is a service to advertisers listing all DJs & Dance Music. All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press. Email guide@xpressmag.com.au
METROPOLIS FREMANTLE
AMPLIFIER
Fast Eddie The Flexxxmen Untitled Sound Alliance Jackin House VILLA NIGHTCLUB Chur Dose Trei & Tali Truth THE WHALE & ALE Sonny WOLF LANE Jon Ee YAYA’S ARCADIA @ Yaya’s DJ Cookie SUN 01/06 AMPLIFIER DSB’S Animal House THE AVIARY Aviary Rooftop Sessions Party Eagle and the Worm The Brow Miss Demeanour DJ NDORSE BRASS MONKEY Grizzly CLAREMONT HOTEL Sunday Driver CLUB BAY VIEW Lokie Shaw GEISHA BAR Phil Kieran HULA BULA BAR Tiki Time Sundays LUCKY SHAG Sunday Session Hans Fiance MULLALOO BEACH HOTEL Sunday Sesh THE QUEENS FIVE0 Sam Spencer THE ROSEMOUNT (BEER GARDEN) The Get Down Charlie Bucket Klean Kicks Nick Sheppard THE SAINT Jon Ee Az-T THE SHED The Healy’s Blue Hornet MON 02/06 BRASS MONKEY Monkey Madness THE DEEN Manic Mondays THE ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Wide Open Mic YAYA’S Big Tommo’s Open Mic TUES 03/06 THE BIRD The Bird’s Open Mic Night BRASS MONKEY Acoustic Open Mic Night MUSTANG BAR Danza Loca Salsa Night
I LOVE 90s @ CAPITOL
THIS WEEK ELLIE GOULDING 28 Challenge Stadium ALLDAY 29 Breaker Bar 30 Flyrite PARADISE PAUL / NDORSE 30 The Aviary RÜFÜS 30 Players Bar 31 Fremantle Arts Centre LE CLUB 30 Connections Nightclub LANCELOT 30 Geisha
SEÑOR ROAR 30 Ambar TOTAL FREEDOM 30 The Bakery MAIKO 31 Geisha ZEL / PARADISE PAUL 31 The Aviary LUKA LESSON 31 Peyote SWEATWERX PRESENTS HOUSE TO HOUSE ft. Da SweatPosse, Prince Ali Elmerthudd, DJ Beltdrive, Fast Eddie, The Flexxxmen 31 Velvet Lounge SINJIN HAWKE 31 Gilkisons Dance Studio PERTH’S 1ST ANNUAL HOUSE MUSIC AWARDS 31 The Velvet Lounge
STWO, SANGO, POMO THE BAKERY, SUNDAY, JUNE 1 SCHOOLBOY Q + ISAIAH RASHAD 5 Villa Nightclub EJECA 5 Geisha
LADYWOOD June 6 The Manor
CIRCÓ 28 Claremont Showgrounds RTRFM FREMANTLE MUSIC FESTIVAL 28 Mojos, North Fremantle Bowls Club, Railway Hotel, Swan Basement, Swan Lounge
HENRY GAIZ 6 Geisha
JULY REMI 4 The Bakery
KORLESS June 6 The Bakery
LORDE 5 Challenge Stadium
PARADISE PAUL / MICAH 6 The Aviary
DEATH DISCO WITH JUST A GENT 12 Capitol
PARADISE PAUL / SAMUEL SPENCER 7 The Aviary
CROOKED COLOURS 12 Amplifier
BOK BOK & LVIS-1990 7 The Bakery
GARETH EMERY 19 Metro City
TROY DIVISION / BEN SEBASTIAN 8 The Aviary
METRONOMY 23 Astor DECADE OF VIPER ft. MATRIX & FUTUREBOUND, BROOKES BROTHERS, THE PROTOTYPES & ROCKWELL + MC DELON 25 Metro City
CHUR ft. DOSE, TREI & TALI, TRUTH 31 Villa Nightclub
TLC 13 Metro City
SÜFÜR (RUFUS DJ SET) 31 East End Bar
J-TRICK 13 Parker
STWO SANGO POMO 1 The Bakery
YEO 14 The Causeway 15 Indi Bar
AUGUST THE ASTON SHUFFLE 23 Amplifier
INHIBIT PRESENTS DANNY BYRD, HAMILTON 14 Villa Nightclub
KID INK 25 Villa
PHIL KIERAN 1 Geisha AVIARY ROOFTOP SESSIONS 1 The Aviary JUNE THE PRESETS (with the Australian Chamber Orchestra) 4 Concert Hall
CHET FAKER 17 & 19 Astor Theatre CHECK THIS 21 Parker COIN BANKS 27 Amplifier
SEPTEMBER KANYE WEST 5 Perth Arena 360 19 Metro City (18+) 20 Astor Theatre Perth (Licensed all ages)
LAURYN HILL Photo: Daniel Craig
Fremantle Arts Centre Saturday, May 25, 2014 While she’s been here once before four years ago for a slot at the Raggamuffin festival, this was really Hill’s first proper headline tour, and music lovers of all sorts and ages turned up to show respect to the Fugees hip hop, R&B superstar. After emerging from a short stint in prison for tax evasion last year, Ms Hill seems fiercer than ever, but it was only positive energy she brought to the Fremantle Arts Centre on Saturday night. Perhaps an odd choice of venue this time of year, we were blessed with no rain for the duration of the concert. Hill’s tour DJ did a great job of warming up the crowd, dropping familiar classics by Dr Dre, DeeeLite and even AC/DC. By the time the band took the stage, an hour later than scheduled, the anticipation had reached fever pitch. A full complement of keyboards, drums, DJ, bass and guitar, all took their positions and struck up a jam; as well as three gorgeous backing singers who were each incredible in their own right, locked in harmony and groove. Hill finally made her entrance, looking regal in a white hooded jacket, pulling back her hood, to reveal a shaved head and hoop earrings. Still a striking, commanding stage presence, she’s reminiscent of Nina Simone. After a very different, dubbed out take of Killing Me Softly, they launched into an awesome live version of Everything is Everything. Final Hour featured some rapid-fire rapping from Hill, proving she’s still one of the best in the game. Two more cuts from The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, To Zion and Lost Ones followed, before the band left the stage, leaving Hill seated with an acoustic guitar, her lead guitarist and keyboardist. She led them through a selection of her more stripped back acoustic songs from her lesser
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known, unofficial second album, MTV Unplugged 2.0. The gentle, folky strumming on Mr. Intentional, allowed her rich, honeyed vocals to take centrestage, while she revealed some religious ponderings on Adam Lives In Theory and Oh Jerusalem. Pretty soon the whole band was back on stage with Hill asking, “How many Fugees fans in the audience tonight?” There were a lot judging by the reaction, as they dropped into Zealots, followed by another classic from The Score, How Many Mics. A rocked-up version of Fu-Gee-La really got everyone moving, before she teased the crowd, “Are you ready?!”. The sombre synth introduced Ready Or Not, before the breakbeat dropped, igniting the crowd. Killing Me Softly also got a welcome reprise, this time in its original form, before launching into a wonderful rendition of Bob Marley’s classic Could You Be Loved as sweet, pungent smoke wafted through the cold night air. Then, just as the night seemed set to finish on a high, things became shambolic. The gig was scheduled to finish at 10, and it had just passed 10, but Hill had one more in store for us, her big single Doo Wop (That Thing) - but as she launched into it, it became apparent the sound had been cut, though Hill carried on unaware, while the crowd cried out for sound to be restored. If that wasn’t bad enough, Hill’s children even came out onstage to make an announcement and present her with a birthday cake. No one could hear what was being said, which frustrated everyone. Nevertheless the crowd incited a singalong of Happy Birthday and applauded wildly. It was an unfortunate, anti-climatic ending to an amazing show from one of the great female vocalists of our time. ALFRED GORMAN
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THE DARK SIDE FIERCE Models and monkeys will come together at long last in June. The Brass Monkey will host the Crazy Sexy Cool model comp Ice, Ice Baby every Friday in June. The first heat is Friday, June 6 at 9pm with the grand final set to take place on June 27. The event is free, so get your fierce self down there early before it packs out. Crazy, Sexy, Cool
SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOP The Aviary Rooftop Sessions are back. For its 11th edition of free groovy tunes Eagle And The Worm will star on Sunday, June 1, prepping us for their forthcoming album release. The roaring seven-piece will be aided by local brass quintet The Brow, Miss Demeanour and NDORSE. The night begins at 4pm on and will finish 10pm.
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC Songwriters Night returns to Clancy’s Canning Bridge in June with a fantastic show case of local talent. Next month features; Wednesday, June 4 – Mike Elrington (double set), Wednesday, June 11 – Dan Durack & Shane Corry, Wednesday, June 18 – Simon Kelly (double set). For an intimate night and a rare insight into these artists make sure you check out one of these showcases. Clancy’s Fish Pub, 903 Canning Hwy.
British India
LUCKY 13 US songwriter Steve Poltz will be returning down under for his 13th Australian tour. Dubbed the Lucky 13 tour, Poltzy will be bringing his larrikin persona and eccentric stage presence to Perth with shows on Tuesday, June 17, at Four5Nine Bar (Rosemount Hotel) and Wednesday, June 18, at Mojo’s. Having worked magic with the likes of Jewel and Glenn Tillbrook, Poltz’s show will be one you won’t want to miss.
Eagle And The Worm Steve Poltz
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Melbournian indie rock group, British India are heading to Perth as part of the Coopers After Dark tour. The quartet will be performing at Ya Ya’s on Thursday, June 5, alongside down and dirty rockers, Custom Royal. If you’d like tickets, well, you can’t have them! You’ll have to grab a six-pack, carton or glass of Coopers Dark Ale and head to coopers.com.au for the chance to instantly win VIP gold passes for you and three friends.
TONY AND THE JETS West Side Story, the tale of star-crossed lovers, Maria and Tony, struggling against the backdrop of a bitter Manhattan gang war, will be hitting the stage at the Regal Theatre as the Western Australian Academy Of Performing Arts performs the multi award-winning musical in June. Directed by senior Music Theatre lecturer, Crispin Taylor, the cast features 38 vivacious theatre students and a 22-piece orchestra. The show will run from Saturday, June 14, to Saturday, June 21. Tickets are available through Ticketek.com.au. West Side Story Pic: Kathy Wheatley
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FREMANTLE WINTER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2014 RTRFM are set to warm your chilly minds with its Fremantle Winter Music Festival on Saturday, June 28. The Railway Hotel will be a Psychedelic Rock room, featuring SpaceManAntics, Aborted Tortoise, Methyl Ethel, Electric Toad, and The Love Junkies. The Alt-Folk & Country room at The Swan Lounge features soloists David Craft, Childsaint, Ruby Boots, Ben Witt and Stu Orchard with five-piece band. The Swan Basement will turn into The Dub/Reggae Cave with Earthlink Sound, Crucial Rockers, DJ Corby, KBI Sound System DJs, and RTRFM’S Jonny Hopper. Mojo’s will be your destination for Electronic & Beats with The Boost Hero Man, Diger Rokwell, Hugo Gerani, D-Jeong, and Basic Mind. RTRFM’s Saturday night dance program Trainwreck will take over the Mojo’s Courtyard with sets from the entire crew – Declan Doherty, Aarom Wilson, Craig Hollywood, Viv Gauntlett, Pussymittens and Dr Gonzo. The North Fremantle Bowling Club has the Surf, Rockabilly & Roll stage with Shotdown From Sugartown, The Insinnerators, The Honourable Schoolboys, Tenderhooks, and Thee Gold Blooms. Tickets are available at rtrfm.com.au, it’s $15 for subscribers and $20 for the general public.
FLEET WEEK Two weeks of Fleet actually. Greg Fleet is back at The Laugh Resort for two very special shows. On June 4 he will be mastering your ceremony accompanied by an amazing headline act, Toby Muresianu (USA). The following week, June 11, Michael Connell (Melbourne) will be your hilarious MC and Fleety will hit the stage as your headline act- guaranteed to be a night of chortling mayhem. Tickets available at the door from 8pm. Or online at www.thelaughresort.com.au
Basic Mind
TWERK IT
For lovers of the daring and tropical, RTRFM and PS Art Space are joining forces to present World In A Warehouse, on Friday, June 6, an array of island grooves, Tiki bar swing, art and tropical food. The night will feature a cavalcade of performers, including afro-Creole songstress, Grace Barbé, electronic folk outfit, Joni In The Moon and visual artist Steven Aaron Hughes, as well a host of DJs, including Jade Nobbs, Claude Mono and Charlie Bucket. And if you’re feeling peckish, there will be an array of South East Asian and Venezuelan meals to munch on while you’re there. Tickets are available through rtrfm.com.au or at the door.
The Court’s turning itself inside out and upside down for one night only on Friday, May 30 and it’s going to be so hot it’s blazin’. To honour the Perth leg of Nino Brown’s incredible Blazin’ tour The Court are thumping the R&B beats you love outside and pushing the house inside. They’ve got Blazin’ 2014 CDs, G Shock watches and Monster Lil Jamz Ear Buds to give away. Also, practice your twerk as The Court is hosting twerking contests and searching for the hottest dancers on the night. Don’t miss Australia’s #1 urban DJ when he returns to his favourite Perth club (only because they promised to name a pizza after him, allegedly). Plus Hannah Conda and the girls will be shaking it up with booty popping shows. Free entry before 10pm, $5 entry after 10pm. If you think you can handle the heat, grab a Blazin’ Nino Pizza while you’re there!
Joni In The Moon
Nino Brown
WORLDWIDE
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WINTER IS COMING Sail And Anchor is bringing you the biggest and best brews from Scandinavia; Mikkeller, Nogne-Ø, TOØL, Dugges, Beer Here, Flying Couch, Amager and more. Add to that hearty winter food, mulled wine, warm cider and men with hip beards and you have a month of good pillaging at the Sail.
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GARY NUMAN The Astor Theatre Sunday, May 24, 2014 One has to admire Gary Numan. There are not many artists in the popular music field that have been around as much as him and maintained their creativity and popularity without compromising with either. He survived huge success and kept on going, changing his style and not so much kept reinventing as kept developing it. The night was dark and gloomy, with sporadic rain, and it was great to see the audience consisting of three generations of Numan lovers. When the show was about to start the mood lifted up one notch and from when the band came on stage until the end of the encore there was nothing but excitement in the air. They started, as seems to be the case on most recent shows, with Resurrection and I Am Dust. Sound mix was amazing from the beginning – loud enough, but never ear-piercing – and each instrument perfectly balanced in the mix. It must be said that the band is on par with Gary. It was a true pleasure hearing all four members having their own moments during the set, as well as working incredibly well with each other and the group as a whole. N u m a n ’s vo c a l p e r fo r m a n ce w a s immaculate. He delivered every line with precision and passion and he was theatrical enough to suit the mood of the songs. From memory, he only spoke to the crowd twice, just saying thanks, but he was never cold and the audience could feel it and responded with very positive vibes. Despite the volume and intensity of Gary Numan and his band’s music, the songs they produce together are basically great pop songs, with hooks and choruses. Thumping beats, pumping bass, screaming guitar and ominous keys hide inside very catchy tunes, regardless of their mostly dark mood. It’s rarely that the show is great without the great audience and the Sunday’s night crowd was nothing but. Most people filled the front area, with a few of us watching it from the back. In recent years Numan has been enjoying what one could call a cult status almost bordering with big success. The punters
Highway Breakdown - Photo by Rachael Barrett
HIGHWAY BREAKDOWN The Cold Acre/Hello Colour Red/Approaching Opposite The Civic Hotel Friday, May 23, 2014
Gary Numan - Photo by Michael Caves
at the show were there to see him and his band and they loved every second of it. The artist carefully placed two of three old hits in the middle of the set – Down In The Park was slightly slower and more sinister, while Cars was played at the volume of 11, however the audience reacted even better to his newer stuff. Are Friends Electric was left for the encore, together with I Die: You Die and My Last Day. We left into the night happy. PREDRAG DELIBASIC
An intimate and passionate group of fans assembled for the launch of Loaded Gun, the debut EP of up and coming blues rock outfit Highway Breakdown. Inspired by a heavy and creative classic rock sound, these boys were almost mechanical in their precision and set in their desire to get heads nodding. Approaching Opposite got the night rolling on a more alternative note with their fresh expressions in grunge. Mellow and well considered moments of gentleness made way for explosive cavalcades of heaviness. Similarly, the vocals meandered softly and melodically, breaking and wavering with immense energy at the climactic breakdowns. Hello Colour Red were up next and brought the energy even higher with their up-tempo yet atmospheric sound. Lashings of effects and dark melodies built a powerful nervous energy in the room. This music strikes a perfect balance between a ‘considerate’ indie sound and more ruthlessly heavy, almost punkish emanations. Some fantastically high paced guitar work by the lead player widened eyes and set faces glowing. The Cold Acre made their way up to the plate next with their unforgiving Rock sound. Heavy, groove laden riffs were belted out with a casual air which could not belie the talent. Crunchy and dirty, the
epitome of grungy, guitar lines and powerful, emotion laden vocals set hearts soaring and the floor vibrating. Without so much as a pause, the act of the evening made their way to the stage. Filthy as a muddy bayou and brutal like the flesh-eating crocodiles that dwell within, Highway Breakdown breathe a youthful new life into the blues rock genre. Lead guitarist Clayton Brown was given ample opportunity to show off his immense ability with his instrument, with enough pinch harmonics and devilishly fast solos to plaster the faces of the audience with a permanent expression of ‘Oooo Yeaaaah!’ Lead vocalist Alex Watson was something of a revelation, his booming voice and hefty stature creating a commanding presence on stage which fit this style of music beautifully. Amongst all this energy was that sweet bluesy tone, which, when executed with this sort of accuracy, provides a vivid image in itself. The Perth musical landscape will never be boring as long as young musicians and artists like these continue to create for creations sake. It seems that our origins as the strange frontier town that we used to be has created an affinity with the blues sound that is unlikely to ever die. If you want a guaranteed display of ability and organic musical expression, keep your sights locked on Highway Breakdown for what is sure to be an exciting year of new music. JAMES HANLON
Fucking Teeth - Photo by Rachael Barrett
FUCKING TEETH Hamjam/ SpacemanAntics/Dream Rimmy/Electric Toad The Rosemount Hotel Saturday, May 24, 2014 Saturday saw local Perth punk rockers Fucking Teeth host a collection of rock bands with their own unique twists on late ‘60s - early ‘70s rock music. First up was the SpaceManAntics side project Dream Rimmy. Ali Flintoff fronted a band with four of the six members through a series of Floydian influenced rock music with her angelic lead vocal sound and crystalline lead guitar playing. Backed ably with multiple vocal harmonies from drummer George Foster and keyboard player Jack Gaby with his modern take on vintage ‘80s synth sounds, their EP due out in July is something to watch out for. Next up, the aforementioned SpaceManAntics. If there’s a space between early Pink Floyd and a Close To The Edge era Yes, these guys occupy it well. They ran through a very tight three song set, the bulk of which taken up with an extended live version of crowd favourite, The Man From Mars. The influences from Pink Floyd epics are very clear, right down the extended saxophone and Moog keyboard solos with bluesy lead guitar playing. It’s great to see a young band still being influenced by that style of music and not being derivative. Electric Toad then took to the stage. My first impression was that they were some ironic hipster country band; but as the set went on I figured out that
was a rather harsh assessment. The boisterous lead vocal lent itself to more of a grunge band, which when backed by something of a country-rock influenced sound, made for an interesting performance. They’re a very tight live act and the audience were right along with them but given the two bands before them and, with hindsight, the one to follow, frankly, they were a bit outclassed. Not that the music was unappealing to listen to: it just wasn’t very memorable. Having not heard the music of Fucking Teeth before the gig, I could only guess from the name that I was for a treat of raw pounding heavy rock music. And that’s exactly what I got. What I wasn’t expecting was the idiosyncratic and at times, very funny, lyrics from singer/guitar player Peter Bibby backed with the shrieking vocal sound of drummer Anetta Nevin. The vocal and enthusiastic crowd were loving the music and it isn’t hard to see why they’ve built such a loyal fan following from gigging over the last three years. After Fucking Teeth left the stage, two thirds of the audience left as well – which probably should have given me an inkling was about to hear next. Hamjam was up next, a loose collective of the night’s players with a few of their mates on stage thrashing out in a sort of garage band/jam fashion, which sounds exciting if done properly. Unfortunately, while a dozen guitar players, half a dozen percussionists, at least two keyboard players with half a dozen people singing along in a mass jam might be great fun for the musicians and their mates, for the majority of the remaining audience, it wasn’t. But apart from that, it was a highly enjoyable night of modern interpretations of early ‘60s hard and space rock. Certainly a lot to look forward to in the coming months with the EP debut of Dream Rimmy and frequent live performances of SpaceManAntics, Electric Toad and Fucking Teeth. As long as they quietly shelve the Hamjam, I’ll happily continue to support local live music. ALEX HOGG WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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BIG SPLASH MEET & GREET Mojo’s Monday, May 27, 2014 After a kick-arse inaugural year, The Big Splash band competition made its presence known for 2014 with a meet and greet of organisers, band members, sponsors and friends. Founders, Andrew Ryan and Maria Florides, welcomed guests with the news that the competition now has a naming rights sponsor, 4Pines, a Manly-based brewery, on board. A new look logo and website was also unveiled and SpaceManAntics played a sonically delicious set. Get ready for eight heats and three finals at some of Perth’s favourite live music venues - The Bakery, The Rosemount, Mojo’s Bar, The Bird, The Odd Fellow, Ellington Jazz Club and Flyrite - as 32 bands (culled from 187 entrants) play their hearts out for the $10,000 cash prize and other goodies such as a $1500 voucher from Kosmic Sound. Heat #1 happens at Mojo’s on Tuesday, June 3. For more details, head to thebigsplashbandcomp.com.
Sam, Dave, Comal, Jack
Photos by Rachael Barrett
Brandon, James Chance’s Tribe - Wilson, Ethan, Gonz, Scott
Bob, Andrew, John (Kosmic), Maria, Peter (4Pines)
Chris, Lucy, Dave, Josh, Sam
YAYA’S On Friday Sprawl are launching a new EP titled Aleph, their first as a three-piece and their first recorded in a bona-fide studio! They will be supported on the night by local talents Dust, Ducks On A String and Lila Chanesar. Saturday sees Melbourne based psychrockers Royston Vasie as part of their Trouble Maker tour! Special guests for the night include Trigger Jackets, Race To Your Face and Flowermouth. As always don’t forget to hang around on Friday and Saturday for ACE and ARCADIA after 11, resident DJs Pup and Cookie spin your favourite party starters to help you dance the night away!
MOJOS
Sprawl
INDI BAR This Sunday, May 31, celebrate the WA Day long weekend in style with local singer/songwriter Matt Angell and band who is launch his new EP Are You Ready with extra special guests James Wilson and Cam Ellis. Doors 6.30pm and entry is $10.
RAILWAY HOTEL
Kerry B Ryan
ROSEMOUNT HOTEL
THE SWALLOW BAR
This Wednesday, May 28, catch Carthasy, Welcome The Wildfire, Havoc and Arkiro, and then on Thursday The Georgians hit the stage along with Custom Royal, Nevsky Prospekt and Triangle Fight. Friday sees The Disappointed launch their new EP with a huge support lineup including Red Jezebel, Tired Lion, Dexter Jones (SA), Shimmergloom and Dux & Downtown, while Saturday Grim Fandango headline with special guest from Melbourne Lincoln Le Favre (with band) along with Dead Glorious, Ratking and Loners, and on Tuesday Bex and Turin’s open mic night continues.
Live music kicks off on Thursday night with a bang! Shotdown From Sugartown will get the walls shakin’ with their honky tonk blues from 7pm. Saturday night, catch the fabulous DJ Charlie Bucket on the decks for a night of disco. Sunday Sessions will be hosting the cheeky Jessie Gordon Duo from 5pm. Get your groove on, folks!
This Friday, May 30, Upstairs at The Beat posthardcore aficionados We Run With Wolves get set to rip up the stage from 8pm with support from Kites, Dawnbreaker and newcomers The Wretched.
This Friday, May 30, it’s metal heaven when No Redemption hosts Amidst The Broken, Got Sharks?, Gates Of Perdition and All This Filth along with burlesque acts throughout the night. Doors 8pm and entry is $10 Sunday night it’s legendary Aussie punk-rock institution The Hard-Ons joined by special guests Leeches!, The Reptilians and Agitated. Doors open 6pm and tickets are available from oztix.com.au
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Wednesday, May 28, Kerry B Ryan plays the Fremantle Blues & Roots Club. Joined by Limpin Dave Foley & His Straight Legged Freaks as well as The Bonekickers on the night, this man’s shows don’t come around often be sure to get down for his authentic blues rock. Entry is $10 from 8pm.
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THE BEAT NIGHTCLUB
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A QUICKIE WITH... THE DISAPPOINTED After a lightning national tour, The Disappointed launch their new EP, Weird Peace, at The Rosemount Hotel this Friday, May 30, with a truly impressive lineup of local talent in support: Red Jezebel, Tired Lion Shimmergloom and Dux & Downtown, plus South Australian outfit Dexter Jones. While they plied their trade in the east, we traded war stories with guitarist Mark Neal. How’s the tour going? It’s going really well. We finished up our regional WA run last week, and we are currently on the east coast playing Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Played in Melbourne last night, got to share the stage with some really great bands, bands who we’ve made friends with over the years. Tell us about Weird Peace. Weird Peace is a bit of a monster. We recorded with Dave Parkin again, this time around was a totally different experience. We changed a lot since the last EP, Stranger. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, just part of our natural evolution as a band and songwriters. this EP feels a lot more aggressive to me. Some of the lyrical content is really honest, and we wrote a lot of rock songs. You guys seem particularly savvy when it comes to marketing. How vital a skill is that for a band these days? I think it’s really important. I push the band to try and think outside of the box when it comes to marketing, Its important to keep whatever fanbase we have interested in checking out our tunes and coming to shows. We spent a lot of money and time making this EP, I want people to know it’s out there. What’s the standout track on the EP? I Disagree With Myself. We’ve had a lot of arguments and fist fights choosing which songs to send to radio and which songs to make music videos to. I always loved I Disagree With Myself. Usually if a song doesn’t come together in the first couple of rehearsals we scrap it. I
Disagree With Myself took a long time to perfect, but there was always someone fighting to keep it alive, and in the end its catchy pop goodness was undeniable, it almost demanded to be a single. What’s on for the rest of the year? We’ve got a pretty exciting international opportunity coming up at the end of this tour. then we start writing for the next release. We have another east coast tour booked in July, and we are going to do a split single with Dexter Jones at the end of the year. We’re trying to keep productive. I’ve spent too many years fucking around. We wanna keep touring and pushing this band as much as we can before we all get too old, and bust a hip or something! That and I think we get bored easily. There’s only so many times you can watch Event Horizon and jerk off! Not at the same time.
GET JUNKED Experimental noisepunk explorers Like Junk make a welcome return to the stage this Wednesday, May 28, when they take over YaYa ’s w i t h t i m e l y assistance from Soon, C y c l o n e Te s s a n d Escelade. Doors open at 7.30pm, entry is $5. Like Junk
ARE WE NOT MEN? Our Man In Berlin ask the extremely pertinent question, Is It Right? That, at least, is the title of their new EP, which gets launched this Friday, May 30. Support comes from Lilt, Leure and Run Fox Run. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $15. Our Man In Berlin
DIS-MANTL-D GRIM TIDINGS Good old Grim Fandango seem to be back in the “actually playing live” business for real, as they’re headlining a killer night at The Rosemount Hotel this Saturday, May 31. Also on the bill are Loners, Ratking, Dead Glorious and Lincoln Le Fevre. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10. Like Junk
Always is the new single from Mantl, and it’s getting shot out into the world this Friday, May 30, at The Civic Hotel, with help from Serial Killer Smile, September Sun and Dry Dry River. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $10.
NARNIA BUSINESS It’s a big, loud lineup at Four5Nine this Saturday, May 31, with Shit Narnia, King Crime, Emu Experts and Laurel Fixation on the bill. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $5.
LO C A L & L AU N C H I N G 30/05 30/05 30/05 30/05 31/05 05/06 07/06 07/06 07/06 13/06 13/06 14/06 19/06 20/06 20/06 22/06 23/06
MANTL Always Single Launch @ The Civic OUR MAN IN BERLIN Is It Right? EP Launch @ Amplifier PAT CHOW Good Deed EP Launch @ Mojos THE DISAPPOINTED Weird Peace EP Launch @ The Rosemount RUNNER Cloud Kingdom Album Launch @ Mojos THE INSATIABLES For The Living Video Launch @ The Rosemount KUČKA Unconditional Single Launch @ The Bird LEURE Lightfields EP Launch @ Mojos RUBY BOOTS Self Titled EP Launch @ The Astor Theatre SCALPHUNTER There Will Be Change Video Launch @ The Rosemount WISEOAKS Not Here Single Launch @ 78 Records ARKARION Lessons In Futility Album Launch @ The Rosemount READY TO FIRE Self Titled EP Launch @ YaYa’s DROWN THE FAITH Blood On The Page EP Launch @ The Civic MT MOUNTAIN Self Titled EP Launch @ The Rosemount THE DATE Looking Down Single Launch @ The Flytrap MATT CAL WILD Horses/Breathe Single Launch @ The Ellington WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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TOUR TRAILS
ELLIE GOULDING, MAY 28
THIS WEEK FREE YOUR MIND ft. Northlane, Thy Art Is Murder, Veil Of Maya, Volumes, Make Them Suffer 28 Fly By Night Club 29 Capitol ELLIE GOULDING & BROODS 28 Challenge Stadium THE GRID 28 Ellington Jazz Club LARRY CARLTON 28 Astor Theatre ALLDAY 29 Breakers Bar, Geraldton 30 Flyrite ROYSTON VASIE 29 Mustang Bar 30 Mojos Bar 31 Yayas THE BEARDS 29 The White Star Hotel, Albany 31 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury 1 Astor Theatre STICKRAD TRIO FT. LUCKY OCEANS 30 Ellington Jazz Club RÜFÜS 30 Players Bar, Mandurah 31 Fremantle Arts Centre WE ARE SCIENTISTS 31 Amplifier Bar THE HARD-ONS 30 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury 31 Margaret River Football Club 1 Railway Hotel DARREN MIDDLETON 31 Ellington Jazz Club STATE OF THE ART ft. Drapht, Eskimo Joe, San Cisco, The Stems & more 31 Perth Cultural Centre DARREN MIDDLETON 1 Mojos Bar DREAM IN COLOUR ft. TJR, Chain Smokers, Stafford Brothers, Arno Cost and more 1 Metro City EAGLE AND THE WORM 1 Aviary ASTOR ROCKS ft. MEAT PUPPETS, BRANT BJORK, HARD-ONS 2 Astor Theatre PROPAGANDHI 3 Amplifier Bar
JUNE KIM CHURCHILL 4 Indi Bar IN HEARTS WAKE 4 YMCA HQ 5 Amplifier Bar ALEX LLOYD 5 Settlers Tavern YO GABBA GABBA! LIVE! 7 Riverside Theatre FOREVER ENDS HERE
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TOURS LIVE
ROYSTON VASIE, MAY 29 -31
& WITH CONFIDENCE 7 YMCA HQ FRENTE 7 Astor Theatre LA DISPUTE 7 Rosemount Hotel 8 YMCA HQ DEAD LETTER CIRCUS 4 Pier Hotel, Esperance 5 The White Star Hotel, Albany 6 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River 7 Prince Of Wales, Bunbury 8 Rosemount Hotel BETRAYING THE MARTYRS 11 YMCA HQ CARCASS 12 Capitol LOOSE CHANGE 12 Flyrite 13 Mojos Bar JAMES BLUNT 12 Crown Theatre 13 Riverside Theatre THE CAIROS 12 The Brighton, Mandurah 13 The Odd Fellow 14 Amplifier Bar DUNE RATS 12 Mojos Bar 13 Amplifier Bar NIRVANNA: THE ULTIMATE NIRVANA EXPERIENCE 12 Astor Lounge 13 Dunsborough Tavern 14 Northshore Tavern 15 Highway Hotel 19 Kalamunda Hotel 20 Leisure Inn 21 Gosnells Hotel RON POPE 13 Astor Lounge TLC 13 Metro City JOSH PYKE 15 Divers Tavern, Broome SLIM JIM PHANTOM & FIREBALLS 15 Astor Theatre STEVE POLTZ 17 Rosemount Hotel 18 Mojos Bar EARTH 18 Rosemount Hotel BASTILLE 18 Challenge Stadium CHET FAKER 19 Astor Theatre THE PAPER KITES 19 Artbar 20 Prince of Wales, Bunbury SAFIA 20 Mojos Bar LITTLE BASTARD 21 Mojos Bar GRAVEYARD TRAIN 21 Rosemount Hotel 22 Mojos Bar FINNTROLL 22 Amplifier Bar MONDO ROCK 22 Regal Theatre SUPERSUCKERS 25 Astor Theatre COIN BANKS 27 Amplifier Bar
PHIL JAMIESON 26 The Northshore Tavern 27 Leisure Inn Rockingham 28 Dunsborough Tavern 29 The Prince Of Wales Hotel SASKWATCH 27 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River 28 Amplifier Bar 29 Mojos Bar BEC LAUGHTON 27 The Odd Fellow 28 Settlers Tavern 29 The Aviary THE GUTYO MONKS OF TIBET 28 Toodyay Memorial Hall KEITH URBAN & SHEPPARD 29 Perth Arena
JULY PHIL JAMIESON 2 The Saint George 3 Wintersun Hotel 4 Divers Tavern THE CRIMSON PROJEKCT 2 Fly By Night VIOLENT SOHO & SMITH STREET BAND 2 & 3 The Bakery (SOLD OUT) THE AUDREYS 4 Fly By Night SOMETHING FOR KATE 4 Astor Theatre LORDE 5 Challenge Stadium BON BUT NOT FORGOTTEN 5 Charles Hotel TINY RUINS 5 Mojos Bar BELL X1 6 Capitol JAMES MULLER TRIO 9 Ellington Jazz Club CROOKED COLOURS 12 Amplifier HIGH ON FIRE 18 Rosemount Hotel GARETH EMERY 19 Metro City THE 1975 24 Capitol THE WHITE ALBUM CONCERT TOUR ft. Chris Cheney, Phil Jameson, Josh Pyke & Tim Rogers 26 Riverside Theatre CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, WEEDEATER & LO! (CANCELLED) 26 Rosemount Hotel PELICAN 27 Rosemount Hotel THE ANGELS 31 Newport Hotel
LITTLE BASTARD, JUNE 21
AUGUST THE ANGELS 1 Wintersun Hotel, Geraldton KATE MILLERHEIDKE 1 Astor Theatre DAN SULTAN 1 Settlers Tavern, Margaret River 2 Astor Theatre 16 Roebuck Hotel, Broome THE ANGELS ft. DAVE GLEESON 2 Charles Hotel 3 The Ravenswood Hotel KASABIAN 5 Metro City NEUROSIS 6 Capitol I AM GIANT 7 Amplifier Bar PAUL GRABOWSKY 7, 8, 9 Ellington Jazz Club ROY ORBISON & DEL SHANNON TRIBUTE 7 Albany Entertainment Centre 9 Crown Theatre SLEEPMAKESWAVES 8 Amplifier Bar BOB DYLAN 13, 14 Riverside Theatre BONJAH 14 Northshore Tavern 15 Indi Bar 16 Amplifier 17 Dunsborough Tavern HANSON 15 Metropolis Fremantle TINA ARENA 15 Crown Theatre BODYJAR 15 Capitol BJÖRN AGAIN 16 Crown Theatre LADY GAGA 20 Perth Arena KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES 21 Villa Nightclub THE DANDY WARHOLS 21 & 22 Astor Theatre TIM FREEDMAN 22 Ellington Jazz Club NORTHWEST PILBARA WEEKENDER 22 – 24 Port Hedland Turf Club QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT 22 Perth Arena THE ASTON SHUFFLE 23 Amplifier Bar MAN IN BLACK: THE JOHNNY CASH STORY 26-31 Regal Theatre KING BUZZO 26 Astor Lounge GEORGE GARZONE 28, 29, 30 Ellington Jazz Club
SEPTEMBER DIEGO ELCIGALA 1 Regal Theatre ANBERLIN & THE GETAWAY PLAN 3 Metropolis Fremantle KANYE WEST 5 Perth Arena MARINA PRIOR 5 Albany Entertainment Centre 6 Astor Theatre 7 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre CANNIBAL CORPSE 9 Capitol ROBBIE WILLIAMS 11 Perth Arena BIFFY CLYRO 12 Metro City CASEY DONOVAN 12 & 13 Ellington Jazz Club GRACE KNIGHT 19 & 20 Ellington Jazz Club JOE BONAMASSA 19 Perth Concert Hall ANDREA BOCELLI 24 Perth Arena INGRID MICHAELSON 24 Fly By Night Club BOY & BEAR 25 Albany Entertainment Centre 26 Bunbury Entertainment Centre 28 Fremantle Arts Centre WAVE ROCK WEEKENDER 27-28 Wave Rock Caravan Park VERUCA SALT 28 Rosemount Hotel
OCTOBER THE HIGH KINGS 1 Crown Theatre RICK SPRINGFIELD 7 Crown Theatre JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE 8 Perth Arena CHRISTINE ANU 17 & 18 Ellington Jazz Club THE ROLLING STONES 29 Perth Arena
NOVEMBER THE ROLLING STONES 1 Perth Arena KATY PERRY 7 & 8 Perth Arena TOXIC HOLOCAUST & IRON REAGAN 13 Rosemount Hotel
FEBRUARY 2015 PASSENGER 7 Red Hill Auditorium ROXETTE 14 Perth Arena HISTORY OF THE EAGLES 18 Perth Arena ONE DIRECTION 20 Pattersons Stadium
TO U R TA L E S
DUNE RATS Tours And Tribulations A three piece stoner-punk band out of Brisbane, Dune Rats have rapidly risen from humble beginnings to make a real name for themselves via the simple expedient of constant touring and constant recording. Of course, winning the Triple J Unearthed competition didn’t hurt, either. TRAVIS JOHNSON caught up with drummer and vocalist, BC Michaels. BC Michaels is getting ready for the road again. Well, that’s not exactly true. He knows he has a tour in the very near future, but at the moment he’s just making guacamole (“I’m just mashing up avocado with a fork,” he says.) His attitude to packing is fairly laissezfaire - almost zen, in fact. “Just go with the flow,” he muses. “I still haven’t packed for the tour yet. I’m leaving for Sydney on Saturday morning, so in less than 48 hours. I don’t know - I do a last minute pack bring the snare drum and cymbals and hope that I haven’t left anything behind.” Is there anything he couldn’t leave behind? “Nah, not really. Sometimes I’ve been on tour and just taken a backpack with, like, a couple of shirts and shorts in there and just pick everything else up on the way. I’m pretty sweet.” In the near future, Dune Rats will be returning to South Africa, something he’s looking forward to. “Yeah, dude,” he enthuses. “We toured there last year. It was fucking awesome! There were so many people at the shows, between three hundred and three thousand people would turn up at all of the
gigs and it was sweet! I thought it was gonna be heaps more dangerous than what it was but it was actually fun. As long as you’re walking around at night with a friend, you were usually pretty sweet.” In retrospect, Michaels feels South Africa’s rep for danger is overstated - at least in his personal experience - “Everyone was talking it up heaps, but it’s not too bad. I guess it’s like Kings Cross - it’s easy to get into trouble but it’s easy to stay out of it.” and culturally, finds the country close enough to Australia. “They’ve got a pretty similar set up with the beach, but they don’t have as much money there - or some people don’t. It’s pretty chilled. It’s pretty laid back and regular. Some of the bands play pretty similar music to us and (fellow Brisbane outfit) Last Dinosaurs - they toured there as well, through the same guys who book our shows.” Having someone book shows is something he’s still getting used to. Dune rats started out as a down and dirty DIY duo, but recent successes have added not only a third member, with bassist Brett Jansh joining Michaels and partner Danny Beusa, but the beginnings of what sounds like an entourage. “We are pretty in charge of what we’re doing,” Michaels maintains. “We signed to Warner, but we release on our own label. It’s a print and distro deal and we have all the creative control there. We got a manager to help us out with all that kind of stuff because it just got too hectic doing it all ourselves. But we still have all the say in what we do, but we just have more people on board helping us out.” Even with those extra bodies on board, Michaels insists that the music, at least, will remain theirs. “When we wrote the album,” he says of their upcoming self-titled LP, due out on June 1. “We didn’t really talk about it - we just played our instruments together in a room and then what came out was what the album is. Whatever comes naturally is what we’ll release in the future.” Dune Rats play Mojos Bar on Thursday, June 12, and Amplifier Bar on Friday, June 13. For tickets, go to oztix.com.au.
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GIG GUIDE
CARTHASY/THE ROSEMOUNT HOTEL/ WEDNESDAY 28 WEDNESDAY 28/05 THE ALBION HOTEL Quiz Night AMPLIFIER BAR Common Bond Elegist Hollow Ground Protagonist ASTOR THEATRE Larry Carlton Hill Street Blues Carole King Michael Jackson Steely Dan THE BAKERY Fresh Faced Follies BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) Street THE BIRD Vibe Vibe Vibe – The Final Vibe Jack Doepel Sleepyhead Raaghe James Ireland BRASS MONKEY Sugar Blue Burlesque CAPITOL Harlem Wednesdays THE CARINE Open Mic Night Shaun Street CHALLENGE STADIUM Ellie Goulding Broods CHARLES HOTEL Funky Bunch Trivia CLANCY’S CANNING Songwriter’s Night Matt Cal Leah Miche CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Bingoteque ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Grid Night Cap Sessions FLY BY NIGHT Northlane Presents. Free Your Mind 2014 Northlane Thy Art is Murder Vail of Maya Volumes Make Them Suffer THE GREENWOOD Bernardine GROOVE BAR (CROWN) 5 Shots INDI BAR Kyle Taylor John Read Lightning Jack LANEWAY LOUNGE Adam Hall And The Velvet Playboys LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Gerry Azor LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Decoy Duo THE LUCKY SHAG Howie Morgan MOJOS BAR Kerry B Ryan Limpin Dave Foley & His Straight Legged Freaks The Bonekickers THE MOON CAFE Going Solo ft. Pinky McBlue Rabbit Island MUSTANG BAR CoverUP
THURSDAY 29/05 BAR ORIENT Acoustic Night THE BIRD Velveteen Anna O Childsaint BRASS MONKEY Rhythm Bound Karaoke BREAKERS BAR (GERALDTON) Allday BROOKLANDS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke CAPITOL Free Your Mind Northlane Thy Art is Murder Veil of Maya Volumes Make Them Suffer CAPTAIN STIRLING Trivia Night THE CAUSEWAY BAR Xport Thursdays CHARLES HOTEL Comedy Lounge THE DEEN Howie Morgan Project DEVILLES PAD Rock’N’Roll Karaoke DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Open Mic Night Kris Buckle ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Cathrine Summers Masina Miller Night Cap Sessions FLY BY NIGHT The Heartstring Quartet Them Little Secrets THE GATE Greg Carter GRAND CENTRAL PARK Justin Cortorillo GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Dr Bogus INDI BAR Open Mic Night LANEWAY LOUNGE Jessie Gordon
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APACHE/MOJOS/THURSDAY 29
OCEAN ONE BAR Brazil Night ft. Xoxote THE ODD FELLOW DJ Beryl Streep PIER HOTEL (ESPERANCE) The Beards 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Tommyhawks ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Carthasy Havoc Welcome The Wildfire Arkiro ROSIE O’GRADY’S NORTHBRIDGE Laugh Resort Comedy THE SWINGING PIG Open Mic Night Greg Carter UNIVERSAL BAR Retriofit THE VIC Trivia Night X-WRAY CAFE Singer Songwriters Showcase ft. Michael Lane Blake Lockett YAYA’S Soon Like Junk Cyclone Tess Escelade
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LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Jack & Jill LUCKY SHAG James Wilson MOJOS BAR Apache Hideous Sun Demon Moana Dream Rimmy King Cactus MOONDYE JOE’S The Dice Band MUSTANG BAR Royston Vasie Rag N Bone NEWPORT HOTEL Culture Clash Open Mic NORTHSHORE TAVERN Groove OCEAN ONE BAR Turin’s Open Mic Night THE ODD FELLOW Abbe May Mei Saraswati Odette Mercy Jon Fernandes THE PADDO Dove PEEL ALE HOUSE Open Mic ft. Danny Bau PRINCE OF WALES (BUNBURY) Jetpack 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Burning Fiction White Oak Stuyvesant Piano Donkey The Monicans ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Nevsky Prospekt Custom Royal Triangle Fight The Georgians SETTLERS TAVERN (MARGARET RIVER) Open Mic Night Claire Warnock THE SHED Midnight Ramblers SWALLOW BAR Shotdown From Sugartown UNIVERSAL BAR Off The Record VERANDAH BAR Let’s Get Quizical WHITE STAR HOTEL (ALBANY) The Beards X-WRAY CAFE Jack Doepel Jazz Quartet YAYA’S Mind Canary Zyklus Pony James Atlas Sinead O’Hara FRIDAY 30/05 THE ALBION HOTEL Jen de Ness THE ALEXANDER Little Ebony AMPLIFIER BAR Our Man In Berlin Lilt Leure Run Fox Run THE BAKERY I Can’t Stand Still Collective Total Freedom THE BALMORAL The Mojos BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) Play BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) We Run With Wolves Kites Dawnbreaker The Wretched BEAU RIVAGE Courtney Murphy BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ Mike Nayar THE BELMONT Siren & Assassin BEST DROP TAVERN Pretty Fly THE BIRD Rhythmatism #38 DJ Pete Chris Reid Ben Taaffe Ben Mifflin THE BOAT Ben Merito
WE RUN WITH WOLVES/ THE BEAT NIGHTCLUB/FRIDAY 30 BRASS MONKEY Jamie Powers THE BRIGHTON Ross Lowe BROOKLANDS TAV Light Street THE CARINE Jimmy Beats CHASE BAR & BISTRO James Wilson CIVIC HOTEL Always Single Launch Mantl Serial Killer Smile Dry Dry River September Sun CITRO BAR Seasons of Perth Jeanie Proude CLANCY’S CANNING DJ Boogie CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Russel Holmes Trio CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Old Blood COMO HOTEL Fiona Lawe Davies 3 Byron O’Neil THE CORNERSTONE Halo CROWN PERTH Mother Africa CRUISING YACHT CLUB Barry Gee DEVILLE’S PAD Go-Go Fridays DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Cuddles EAST 150 BAR Adam James EDZ SPORTZ BAR One Trick Phonies ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Stickrad Trio Lucky Oceans Suite 191 EMPIRE BAR Howie Morgan FLY BY NIGHT Blow The House Down FLYING SCOTSMAN MattyTWall FLYRITE Allday THE GATE Choppa GEISHA BAR Lancelot GOSNELLS HOTEL Vanerty Bros THE GREENWOOD Ryan Webb GREYHOUNDS (MANDURAH) Elemental GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Decoy DJ Crazy Craig HYDE PARK HOTEL (COURTYARD) Justin Cortorillo INDI BAR Palatial Digs Yokohomos and Squid Live KALAMUNDA HOTEL Vendetta Sydney Hotshots LANEWAY LOUNGE Amanda Dee Soothe Trevor Jalla LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Sky’s the Limit Showcase DJ Illicit LITTLE CREATURES Naughty To Naughty Cabaret LONDON CAFÉ AND BAR G & G Acoustic Shenanigans M ON THE POINT Retriofit MAHOGANY INN Sophie Jane MARKET CITY TAVERN Joe Simich Elise Hudspith Jana Fischer Greys n’ Blues Eleanore and Harry Ben and Jerry’s Sharkbait Taylor Cox Em METRO FREO Frat House Fridays
MIGHTY QUINN TAVERN Indigo Duck MOJOS BAR Pat Chow Royston Vasie The Community Chest Black Stone from the Sun Aborted Tortoise MUSTANG BAR Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Flash Nat & The Action Men NEWPORT HOTEL Karaoke Classic @ The Two Sparrows Bar NORTHSHORE TAVERN P!nked OCEAN ONE BAR Mad Agents THE ODD FELLOW Sugar Shack THE PADDO Reilly Craig Flyte PEEL ALE HOUSE Siren Song Enterprises PIER HOTEL (ESPERANCE) Jet Pack PIRATE BAR Matt Keesing PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Tandem PRINCE OF WALES (BUNBURY) The Hard-Ons Leeches! The Bloody Hollys Kettle Fingers THE PRINCIPAL Blackbirds RAILWAY HOTEL No Redemption Amidst The Broken Got Sharks? Gates of Perdition All This Filth Burlesque Acts ROCKET ROOM Chainsaw Hookers The Decline Ebolagoldfish Medicine Black Witch ROLEYSTONE COUNTRY CLUB Kat Kinley 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rust Proof Worst Possible Outcome The Lungs New Husseins The Reptillians ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Disappointed Red Jezebel Tired Lion Dexter Jones Shimmergloom Dux & Downtown ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Madam Montage ROSIE O’GRADYS NORTHBRIDGE Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts SAIL AND ANCHOR Acoustic Royale SETTLER’S TAVERN (MARGARET RIVER) The Beards THE SHED Crush DJ Glen SOUTH ST. ALEHOUSE Robbie King Karaoke SWINGING PIG Greg Carter UNIVERSAL BAR Nightmoves VERNON ARMS TAVERN Greg Carter THE VIC Jonny Dempsey WHITEHOUSE HOTEL Luke Meyers WINTERSUN HOTEL Leon Tioke X-WRAY CAFÉ DJ Willy Suede YAYA’S Sprawl Dust Ducks On A String Lila Chanesar
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AMIDST THE BROKEN/THE RAILWAY HOTEL/FRIDAY 30 SATURDAY 31/05 AMPLIFIER BAR We Are Scientists THE BALMORAL Chris Gibbs Trio BAR ORIENT The Reggae Club BEAT NIGHTCLUB (UPSTAIRS) Canvas BEAT NIGHTCLUB (DOWNSTAIRS) Underground Revival Spinecode Fanatics Zimma Outtacontrol Ol Bill Maloonatic Ash Stylez Derailed THE BELMONT Adrian Wilson BENTLEY HOTEL In The Groove THE BIRD FAIT EP Launch Methyl Ethel BOAB TAVERN Chill Devine THE BOAT Gary Fowlie THE BROOK Adam James Duo THE CARINE Frank G CHASE BAR & BISTRO Stackjammer CIVIC HOTEL Women In Rock Tribute CLANCY’S CANNING Rae & Natalie Mae CLANCY’S FREMANTLE King Of The Travellers The Aunts THE CLAREMONT HOTEL Antics John Black CRAFTSMAN Rock Candy DEVILLES PAD Black Magic Disco DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Steve Spouse Jonny Taylor ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Darren Middleton Ruby and the Remedy FLY BY NIGHT Theona Councillor FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE RUFUS Hayden James Crooked Colours THE GATE Greg Carter GEISHA BAR Maiko Rob Sharp Luke P Carl Drake Reece Woodward Shaddow Brothers La Gooch GOSNELLS HOTEL P!nked GREENWOOD Passionworks GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Proof Hero DJs HIGH RD HOTEL Murphy’s Lore HYDE PARK HOTEL Afterglo INDI BAR Blue Shaddy Andrew Winton KALAMUNDA HOTEL Celebrations Karaoke LAKERS TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke LANEWAY LOUNGE Dean Anderson Astrid Ripepi LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Texas Country Music Club Rumours LOBBY LOUNGE (CROWN) Why Georgia? LONDON CAFÉ AND BAR G & G Acoustic Shenanigans LUCKY SHAG DJ Richie G M ON THE POINT Rhythm 22 MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke METRO CITY Dream In Colour
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METRO FREO Metropolis Saturdays MUSTANG BAR Shot Down From Sugartown Milhouse DJ James MacArthur MOJOS BAR Runner Dianas Lanark Childsaint NEWPORT HOTEL Gravity DJ Tahli Jade DJ Tom Drummond Karaoke Classic @ The Two Sparrows Bar NORTHSHORE TAVERN Howie Morgan Project OCEAN ONE BAR Desert Bells THE ODD FELLOW The JAC The Chevelles Custom Royal THE PADDO Cheeky Monkeys PADDY MAGUIRES Cherry Lips PARAMOUNT NIGHTCLUB Felix PERTH CULTURAL CENTRE State Of The Art Drapht Eskimo Joe San Cisco The Stems Optmaus The Blackeyed Susans The Kill Devil Hills Kim Salmon Split Seconds Bitter Belief Sable Felicity Groom The Floors Mathas Kuĉka Slumberjack Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse Ruby Boots Simone and Girlfunkle Gunns Axe Girl Pat Chow Indigo Kevin Parker (DJ set) PIER HOTEL (ESPERANCE) Jet Pack PRINCE OF WHALES (BUNBURY) The Beards PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Stu Mckay QUARRIE BAR & BISTRO DJ Eugene ROCKINGHAM HOTEL Midnight Boulevard The Lunettes iChora 469 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Shit Narnia Kring Crime Emu Xperts Laurel Fixation ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Grim Fandango Lincoln Le Fevre & The Insiders! Loners Ratking Dead Glorious ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Flava ROYAL PALMS RESORT Big Steve Spouse Duo SAIL AND ANCHOR The Gypsy Minions THE SHED HUGE DJ Andyy SPRINGS TAVERN Luke O’Connell THE SWINGING PIG Frenzy SWALLOW BAR DJ Charlie Bucket TWO ROCKS TAVERN Indigo Duck UNIVERSAL BAR Soul Corporation WHITEHOUSE HOTEL Luke Meyers X-WRAY CAFÉ DJ Jiminy Kickit YAYA’S Royston Vasie Trigger Jackets Flowermouth Race To Your Face
SUNDAY 01/06 ASTOR THEATRE The Beards THE AVIARY Eagle And The Worm The Brow Miss Demeanour NDORSE THE BAKERY Stwo Sango Pomo THE BALMORAL Superseeds THE BELMONT Jonny Dempsey THE BRIGHTON Choppa John Read BROKEN HILL HOTEL Justin Burford THE BROOK Chris Gibbs BROOKLANDS TAVERN Steve Hepple THE CARINE Justin Cortorillo THE CAUSEWAY Acoustic Sunday CHASE BAR & BISTRO Light Street CITRO BAR Seasons of Perth Bernardine CLANCYS CITY BEACH Sunday Brekky Sesh The Limelights Jazz Trio Salt Shaker Sundays DJ Boogie The Salt Shaker Selectors CLANCYS FREMANTLE Dr. Fish w/ very special guest. Bobstock DEVILLE’S PAD The Kids Are Alright Mod Squad Jam Pact Parkerville Youth Care Fundraiser DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Kris Buckle ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Ali Bodycat Quintet Late Night Sunday with Danny Martin FLINDERZ HILLARYS Justin Kutylowski THE GATE Mike Nayar GEISHA BAR Phil Kieran James A vs J Dubs THE GREENWOOD Johnny Cash Tribute GROOVE BAR (CROWN) Peace Love INDI BAR Matt Angell James Wilson Cam Ellis INDIAN OCEAN BREW CO Retriofit KALAMUNDA HOTEL B.O.B LAKERS TAVERN Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts LANGFORD ALE HOUSE Gerry Azor LAST DROP TAVERN Rick Twine LUCKY SHAG Hans Fiance METRO CITY Dream In Colour TJR Chain Smokers Stafford Brothers Arno Cost Mel Bee Simon Paiker Lukas Wimmler Blayze EMBT Bart Duys Scotty Knows Chalk & Cheese Jay Francisco Jack Martin METRO FREO Bonfire Over the Top MOJOS BAR Darren Middleton The Morning Night M ON THE POINT Great Gable NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Hardcore Rust Proof
MIDNIGHT BOULEVARD/THE ROCKINGHAM HOTEL/SATURDAY 31 Worst Possible Outcome Vanity Beer Fridge Idle Eyes Ruthless Protest Friendzone Rat King NORTHSHORE TAVERN DJ Andrew C Sessions PEEL ALE HOUSE Thierynno PIER HOTEL (ESPERANCE) Jet Pack PORT KENNEDY TAVERN Greg Carter QUARIE BAR & BISTRO The Gypsy Minions RAILWAY HOTEL The Hard-Ons Leeches The Reptilians Agitated THE ROSE & CROWN HOTEL Blackbirds 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Ebolagoldfish Chilling Winston Blindspot Silver Foxes At The SpaceJam ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Get Down Charlie Bucket Klean Kicks Nick Sheppard THE SAINT Howie Morgan Project SAIL AND ANCHOR (UPSTAIRS) Childs Play SEAVIEW TAVERN Christian Thompson SETTLERS TAVERN (MARGARET RIVER) Acoustic Session ft. Michelle Spriggs Trio THE SHED Ghostbuskers Healys Renogade SOUTH ST. ALEHOUSE Open Mic Night SWALLOW BAR Sunday Sessions Jessie Gordon Duo SWANBROOK WINERY Matt Waring Alex Cooke Logan Crawford SWINGING PIG Siren & Assassin UNIVERSAL BAR Off The Record VERNON ARMS TAVERN Luke O’Connell WANNEROO TAVERN Matt Williams WHISTLING KITE James Wilson WHITEHOUSE HOTEL Luke Meyers THE WINDSOR Adrian Wilson WORKER’S CLUB Zydecats THE X-WRAY CAFÉ The Charisma Brothers DJ Click Brown Fox YAYAS Kirstie Witt Ellie Schoen Market Street Lindsay Wells
MONDAY 02/06 ASTOR THEATRE ASTOR ROCKS Meat Puppets Brant Bjork Hard-Ons The Love Junkies Axe Girl The Shakeys Faim Sun Gods Doctopus Painkillers Coalminers Sect Heard of Cows BRASS MONKEY Wire Birds MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic THE PADDO Gang of Three ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Quiz Meisters THE X-WRAY CAFÉ Mint Jazz Band YAYA’S Big Tommo’s Open Mic Variety Night TUESDAY 03/06 AMPLIFIER BAR Propagandhi The Decline Leeches! THE BIRD Electric Superbike Launch ft. Ben Taeffe BRASS MONKEY Open Mic Night Shaun Street THE CHARLES HOTEL Perth Blues Club Darren Foote Steely Blues Resonator CLANCYS FREMANTLE Quiz Night CONSERVATORY ROOFTOP BAR Rooftop Comedy ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Harry Winton Trio LANEWAY LOUNGE Open Mic Night LUCKY SHAG Ben Merito MERRIWA TAVERN Celebrations Karaoke MOJOS BAR The Big Splash Band Comp Silver Hills Lilt Eloise Ashton MUSTANG BAR Danza Loca Salsa Night OCEAN ONE BAR OVERGROWTH Open Mic Night THE ODD FELLOW Mexican Bingo ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex ‘n’ Turin’s Open Mic Night SWINGING PIG Siren Song Enterprises YAYA’S Courtney Conway Hannah Mae & The Hoodwinks YMCA HQ In Hearts Wake Dream On Dreamer Being As An Ocean Endless Heights Sierra
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MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY
JEFF LANG Depth Of Field Touring in support of his new LP, I Live In My Head A Lot These Days, Jeff Lang hits the Fly By Night on Saturday, June 7, and the Ravenswood Hotel on Sunday, June 8. Lang tells BOB GORDON about the approach he took to recording the new album. Jeff Lang fell in love with sound a long time ago and he continues to do so. Different musical instruments, different styles, different sounds and different ways of making, hearing and creating them. It’s a lifetime passion that certainly informs the music on his new album, I Live In My Head A Lot These Days. “The way the title came up was through a Canadian friend of mine,” Lang says. “I was on Facebook chatting with him and what started off as ribbing him about remembering a tour I’d done over there, I maintained that he’d got us largely lost in the backroads of Ontario and he was disputing this. It was a bit of friendly ribbing going on then the conversation moved onto other things. “Usually, as soon as anyone hits upon a silly-sounding phrase, it usually gets bandied around as an album title. There’s been a lot of those that have never been taken seriously, but then he came out with I Live In My Head A Lot These Days and then he followed it up with, ‘there’s your album title. You’re welcome’. I said, ‘you know what? I think you’re right. I’ll credit it!’”
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CLASSIFIEDS
It’s far more than a silly-sounding phrases, however, given how much music is in Lang’s head and what he does for a living. In recent long-haul flights, listening to old jazz recordings from the ‘50s-’60s through headphones, he noticed a depth of field not present in most ‘normal’ recordings. It’s the sort of difference where you feel that a band is playing in the room you’re in and simply knowing that you are listening to a record. “It’s not quite as cut and dried as saying that it’s better if it feels like there’s a real band playing in front of you as opposed to a record,” Lang qualifies, “because I’m kind of in love with records and all the different types. I love the process; it’s kind of magical, like time travel or something. “But there was something I’d noticed about certain recordings with that perception of depth of field and it just got me thinking about ways you could achieve that and different ways you could achieve it. Rather than just copying something and going, ‘well how did people do it on these specific recordings? I’ll try and mimic that,’ I wasn’t really interested in that so much as thinking of it as a concept and then thinking of ways you can achieve it that take into account that for certain instruments, in terms of volume on recordings, it won’t be democratic. “If you’re playing an acoustic guitar and you’ve got a drum kit playing fairly loudly then the drum kit’s going to be far louder than the acoustic guitar and it’s going to be difficult to achieve a balance with minimal mic-ing, where you’ve perhaps only got a stereo mic and that’s the listener’s ears and you’ve got to arrange everything around that. If you’ve got a drum kit with brushes playing with horns, then it’s kind of easier to get a balance of those things, relative to one microphone. With things with disparate volumes it’s harder to achieve... and I was thinking, ‘how can I get that? What are some ways I can employ some kind of approach to achieve that depth of field like those things had a volume balance that was more equal?’.
“And so the approach I used on this record was an outgrowth of that, just thinking about things that might be fun to try and experiment with.” In recording the album, Lang ran every instrument’s recorded track back through a monitor speaker each. The speakers were subsequently arranged around a stereo microphone like they were the players on those early jazz sessions. A recording of a recording, in other words. Even so, losing a generation, however, was not a consideration. “I thought about that,” Lang says, “but it’s not quite the same thing, it’s not like dubbing a cassette onto a cassette and losing a generation of quality. “Imagine you’ve got the master tape of a recording and you just play it through some speakers in a studio. There’s no generational loss there; you’re just listening to it. When you transfer that and get it mastered, you’re going another generation, and getting it pressed is another one, but once you’re in the realm of the world of digital there is no generational loss to speak of. “So basically, the initial thing was all recorded to tape, but then that was played back through all the various speakers and the microphone was recording that, and that was going straight back in through a really high quality pre-amp into the computer again. So it crossed my mind at first, if it would be an issue, but the microphone was supplanting the listener in a sense, and off we went. And really, it all comes down to ‘does it work? Does it provide a sound quality and a dimension that I find pleasing? If it doesn’t let’s see if we can alter it and if not let’s abandon it and do something else’. “It’s not like this approach will be what I use for everything from now on, but it did prove to me that it can work and so it does offer up some possibilities for further projects. It definitely imparts that dimension and space.”
FENDER STARCASTER HOLLOW-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR Initially a short lived and unpopular guitar in the mid to late 1970s, the Starcaster took on a cultish following in the intervening years (being a favourite of players as diverse Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and funk legend Leo Nocentelli) hence its recent modern player re-issue. The new model takes some liberties with the original specs, adding a tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tailpiece. It looks beautiful, in a very un-fender way; it’s rounded, off-center, semi-hollow body more reminiscent of Gibson. But to be honest, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. It’s got a nice chewy fuzz to it that suits funk playing, but no matter what the pick-up setting, there’s muddy growl underlying its tone that, while it sounds fine, I would like the option to be rid of. One wonders if this is a slight case of nostalgia for the sake of it. RRP $1,099.
GIBSON LES PAUL LPJ CHERRY
GRETSCH G9515 JIM DANDY FLAT TOP
What might be described as an entry level Les Paul, the LPJ Cherry offers that iconic shape and (to a degree) sound at a fraction of the cost of a standard model. It has a mahogany body with carved maple top and a maple neck. It has a hand-rubbed nitro finish, meaning the wood grain is visible, which may bug those wanting that glowing, mirror finish of, say, the desert burst. More importantly, though, it plays beautifully, with a rosewood fretboard, and sounds lovely – it’s got 498t and 490r humbucker pickups (grandly styled as ‘modern classic’ by Gibson) in the body and neck – the neck giving a lovely warm jazzy tone, and the body a brighter, more compact stab. At $829, the Cherry is the cheapest version of the already cheaper LPJ series and well worth investigating.
At a diminutive 24 inches and sporting a delightfully kitsch pink choral burst finish, Gretsch’s self -conscious nod to its guitars of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s could uncharitably be accused of gimmicky retro appeal. It has a clangy, thwacking sound, perfect for driving folky rhythm or twanging blues lead. However, that same quality means open chords don’t ring out as you might like, with the top strings in particular deadening quite easily. In addition, the smaller stature can make quick chord changes awkward and unwieldy. However, at $299 it’s not going to break the bank and offers a good option for people at the rootsier end of the musical spectrum.
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BURNS BARRACUDA SPECIAL Following the tuning of a standard six string guitar but one octave below, the distinct and versatile Barracuda can be used as a six string bass or a rumbling lead or rhythm guitar. Its twanging lead sound made it attractive to 1960s instrumental band like The Shadows, but I can also imagine it being a useful addition to a metal band repertoire, equally capable as it is of ominous drones and grunting stabs. I don’t find it that nice to look at (the headstock particularly bizarre) but I loved the variety of tones – from sweet and jazzy to low and sludgy - and potential uses. RRP $1,099 CHARLIE LEWIS
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TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** The Guitar Institute. Online bookings. Beg to prof, all styles. Catering to WAAPA and AMEB standards. All tutors have WWC clearance. Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484 / www.clifflynton.com BASS GUITAR LESSONS AVAILABLE by WAAPA tutor. A practicle approach to learning. .All styles.Years of experience. Tony Gibbs 9470 6131
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