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LOCAL NEWS
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GLOBAL NEWS
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
DEATH CAB FOR METRO CITY Having just released their latest studio album, Kintsugi, Death Cab For Cutie, have announced a return to Australia with a national tour in July/August, complimenting their already scheduled appearance at this year’s sold-out Splendour In The Grass festival. It will be the band’s first Australian visit since 2012 when they toured in support of their Grammy -nominated album, Codes And Keys. The band will tour with a five piece live line-up - core members Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr will be joined by touring members Dave Depper and Zac Rae who will contribute with guitars and keyboards.. Catch Death Cab For Cutie at Metro City on Thursday, August 6. Tickets are available now through via Oztix.com.au. Death Cab For Cutie
PARISIAN BEATS
RUNAWAYS
Parisian beat-maker Onra is coming to Perth as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Night Series. Onra is renowned for his unique approach to music making, such as his Chinoseries collections which were made from scratch with samples he found while travelling in Asia. With inspiration from genres as diverse as soul, jazz and rock, Onra has taken his individual sound around the world. Catch him at the Parker Night Club on Friday, May 15. The event is free but RVSP is essential at dashtickets.com.au.
Kim Salmon and Spencer P. Jones, old Beasts Of Bourbon bandmates, have been performing and deconstructing tunes as a duo since 2012. Eventually they came up with 12 songs they could put onto their possibly only ever album together, Runaways, an album of monologues, rants, blues and rock’n’roll. With support from The Wilds, Luke Dux and Todd Pickett, Salmon and Jones will be joined by locals Pete Stone and Pickett to perform tracks from Runaways along with a pick of Beasts Of Bourbon songs at Mojo’s on Sunday, June 7. Tickets from Oztix.com.au.
Onra
Kim Salmon and Spencer P. Jones
NIGHTWISH Finnish Symphonic metal band, Nightwish, are heading back to Australia to play one show only in selected capital cities. Their latest album, Endless Forms Most, charted at number 16 on the ARIA album charts and Nightwish will be performing these new tracks plus all the classic and fan favourites. This tour sees VIP meet and greet passes available for only 20 people each show, available at metalobsession. net, and as their last Australian tour completely sold out, it’s best to get in quick. Nightwish will play at Metropolis on Friday, January 15, 2016.
ART MEETS SCIENCE GERMAN DUO German experimental duo, Schneider Kacirek, are coming to Australia to perform a series of intimate gigs. Individually the pair have worked on multiple bands and projects, working with the likes of Klaus Dinger from Neu! and Kraftwerk and HansJoachim Roedilius from Faust. The duo’s first two albums were created in Kenya with field recordings gathered from tribal musicians. Their latest album, Shadow Documents, was recorded using a different approach, composed with drums and synthesisers that interchange between percussive and melodic roles. See Schneider Kacerik at the Rosemount with support from Alex Dew Decimal System and Original Part Life at the Rosemount Hotel on Sunday, June 21, Tickets available via rosemounthotel.com.au. Schneider Kacirek
West Australian artist Cecile Williams is returning with her first solo exhibition in five years. Since her last exhibition, Contained, at the 2010 Perth International Arts Festival, Williams has been exploring ocean environmentalism with ghost nets, unlawfully lost or discarded fishing nets left in our oceans. In this new exhibition, Trapped, Williams uses ghost nets and marine debris to explore the damage these nets do to our marine life by trapping sea animals and damaging coral reefs. The artworks also tell personal stories from Williams’ time in remote communities affected by ghost nets. Trapped shows at Gallery Central from Monday, May 18, to Thursday, June 11. A free event, Immersion, will see science meet art with a conversation about the impacts of marine debris in our oceans featuring a talk from Williams, on Saturday, June 6, at 10am. For more details head to gallerycentral.com.au. Cecile Williams with her work, Forget Me Knot (detail) Pic: Michael Hemmings
Nightwish
JAM FOR POVERTY For the first time OXJAM is coming to Australia. Having been running in the UK for nearly a decade, and featuring the likes of Coldplay, Fatboy Slim and Hot Chip, OXJAM is a month long music festival raising money to fight worldwide poverty. Created by Oxfam, the festival will be running this August nationwide, featuring 100s of locally organised music events. And it’s not just event managers and venues that can organise music events for OXJAM. You can organise your own OXJAM gig in your backyard, just register your gig at oxjam. org.au and charge an entry fee with proceeds to Oxfam. The full line-up for OXJAM launch events will be announced in June.
WHAT’S SUPPY? Californian pop-punkers The Story So Far and New Jersey’s Man Overboard are teaming up for the Suppy Australia Tour 2015. With multiple acclaims, several records and new albums on the horizon between them, together the two bands will bring 10 nights of non-stop pop-punk to Australia. Supporting them on the tour is Melbourne’s Apart From This, who’ll bring their own blend of post-hardcore 90’s punk. Suppy Australia Tour 2015 starts off in Perth at Amplifier Bar on Wednesday, September 2, and YMCA HQ (all-ages) Thursday, September 3. Tickets at destroyallines.com. The Story So Far
SCREENING FOR CANCER
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KINGS OF DOOM METAL YOB SET TO HIT PERTH WITH A BOOM
Every day about 50 Australian women are diagnosed with breast or gynaecological cancer. A fundraising screening of Entourage: The Movie aims to raise money for one particular family affected by this disease. The event includes a private film screening, silent auction and licensed bar, with 100 per cent proceeds donated to the family in need. This event will take place at Cinema Paradiso, Thursday, June 11, at 6pm. To book tickets and donate silent auction items, email kelly@covetedevents.com.au.
American Doom Metal band Yob are headed to Australia for a national tour this August. Holding their audience transfixed with brief moments of engagement, atmospheric and almost ambient respite, before pulverising them with a massive, brutal crush of noise Yob are set to perform over two decades of material at the Rosemount Hotel on Sunday, August 9. Tickets are available now through the Rosemount Hotel and Oztix.com.au.
Tattoo art by David Allen for breast cancer survivor Adriana
Yob
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WIN
N E W S L E T T E R - S I G N U P AT F O R E X C L U S I V E C O M P S
RELATIVE HAPPINESS Teenager Casey (Britt Robertson) stumbles upon a pin that transports her to a fantastical, futuristic land. Curious to know more, she tracks down former boy-genius Frank (George Clooney) and together they find themselves on dangerous mission to unearth the secrets of Tomorrowland, a place caught between time and space. From Brad Bird director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille and also starring Hugh Laurie. We have 10 movie passes to give away via the X-Press App.
Plus-sized and 30 years-old, Lexie Ivy (Melissa Bergland) is a feisty Bed & Breakfast owner who desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. When Adrian (Jonathan Sousa), a handsome and charming guest, arrives and seems to take an interest in Lexie, she thinks all her problems are solved. But she misreads the situation and believes her romantic dream has slipped away, maybe forever. After a series of hilarious mishaps Lexie discovers that love may be a lot closer than she thought. Based on the novel of the same name by Lesley Crewe, we have five DVD copies to give away via the X-Press App.
Tomorrowland
Relative Happiness
TOMORROWLAND
GEMMA BOVERY
AKOUSMATIKOI
From Regency Film Distribution, Gemma Bovery sees English couple Gemma (Gemma Arterton) and Charles Bovery (Jason Flemyng) move into a small French village, and also newly arrived baker Martin (Fabrice Luchini) is curious to see that not only are their names are similar to his favourite book, Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, but their behaviour seems inspired by the events of the novel. We have 10 move passes to give away via the X-Press App.
Staged as part of the The 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival 2015 Akousmatikoi is an immense and immersive experience of spatial art works of West Australians – Chris Cobilis, Cat Hope, Stuart James, Dobromila Jaskot, Steve Parsakos and Kynan Tan. Utilising a multi-storey 32- piece loud speaker orchestra, the event will be a visceral sonic experience. We have two double passes to give away to the performance on Saturday, May 16, from 8pm at the Western Australian Museum Foyer.
Gemma Bovery Akousmatikoi
HELL ON WHEELS SEASON 4 After the American Civil War, former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) is still troubled by horrific memories of the death of his wife during the war. Series four of Hell On Wheels focusses on the conflict arising between the government and businesses, ranchers, homesteaders and the railroad, as all of those interests compete with one another for control of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the most important railroad hub in 1867. We have five DVDs to give away via the X-Press App.
PRINT AND DIGITAL EDITIONS PUBLISHER/MANAGER Joe Cipriani
EDITORIAL - 9213 2888 MANAGING EDITOR Bob Gordon: editor@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
ADVERTISING - 9213 2888 LIFESTYLE STRATEGY MANAGER – AGENCY / DIRECT Tim Milroy - entertainment@xpressmag.com.au Jennifer Groves - advertising@xpressmag.com.au ENTERTAINMENT ACCOUNT MANAGER ENTERTAINMENT / VENUES / LIVE AND DANCE MUSIC PROMOTERS / RECORD LABLES Tim Milroy - entertainment@xpressmag.com.au CLASSIFIEDS LINAGE classifieds@xpressmag.com.au
ANDREW STRONG TOUR After launching his career in 1991 via cult-classic film The Commitments, paired with the success of the international best-selling soundtrack, Irish soul and blues singer Andrew Strong has established himself as one of the world’s most endearing and entertaining frontmen, consistently selling out shows in the UK, Europe and Australia. Strong and his live band perform at the Astor Theatre on Friday, May 29, and we have five double passes to give away via the X-Press App. Andrew Strong
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT - 9213 2854 CONTENT COORDINATOR Anthony Jackson - production@xpressmag.com.au ART DIRECTOR Dwight O’Neil DESIGN + PRODUCTION Andy Quilty, Anthony Jackson, Rachel Del Borrello PRINTING Rural Press Printing Mandurah DISTRIBUTION - 9213 2853 - distribution@xpressmag.com.au 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
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS The Black Swan State Theatre Company presents Glengarry Glen Ross, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Mamet about salesmen struggling to stay afloat in the cut-throat world of Chicago real estate. Equal parts snappy dialogue, black humour and verbal abuse, Glengarry Glen Ross follows four real estate agents presented with a dilemma: sell undesirable property to unwilling buyers or find a new job. The four men will go to any lengths, including bribery, threats and burglary, to close the deal. Glengarry Glen Ross stars Peter Rowsthorn, Will O’Mahoney and Damian Walshe-Howling. We have five double passes to give away via the X-Press App. Glengarry Glen Ross | Pic: Robert Frith 6
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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
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33,560 OCTOBER 2012 MARCH 2013 - AUSTRALIA’S HIGHEST CIRCULATING STREET PRESS
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FLESH
NEWS - INTERVIEWS - REVIEWS - CONTENTS
TOTALLY HUGE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL
DALLAS FRASCA Army Of Me Touring in support of a new album, Love Army, Dallas Frasca performs this Thursday, May 14, at Mojos; Friday, May 15, at the Indi Bar, and Saturday, May 16, at the Indi Bar. BOB GORDON has a chat.
By Name And Nature Tura New Music presents The 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival, a massive 10-day event packed with concerts, installations, workshops, screenings and featuring a one day symposium. The definition of new music is sound created by composers living and practicing today, from any genre or form, that explore new ways to act out creativity in their chosen field. The aim of The 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival is to bring to Perth the most exciting and innovative new music from around WA, Australia and the world. There’s something for everyone on this year’s program. For lovers of classical instruments there’s Dark Twin by Zubin Kanga (8pm, Friday, May 22, Art Gallery of Western Australia), a solo pianist who plays with the concept of a piano recital by using computer interaction and multimedia, as well as piano pieces by multiple composers, to explore the idea of multiple identities and doppelgangers. Or there’s Friedrich Gauwerky’s Amour (5pm, Sunday 17 May, Callaway Auditorium, a German-born cellist who celebrates the cultural ties between Australia and Germany, as well as his own personal connection with the two countries, by performing five pieces written by both German and Australian composers. For lovers of local music, head to Jimmy’s Den in Northbridge for Club Huge (Thursday-Friday, May 21-22), two nights of diverse and boundary breaking sounds, both electronic and acoustic, seasoned musicians and those just starting out. Exploring the history of WA’s new music is the exhibition A Backwards Glance at the State Library (Library Hours, Friday 15 May - Sunday 24 May, Theatre Foyer). The exhibition will include scores, posters, a listening station featuring some of WA’s finest new music pieces, and a collection of ruined pianos. Bringing new music to the everyday is the mobile installation Sonic BollART (All day, Friday, May 15, to Sunday, May 24, Perth Cultural Centre and Club Huge). The bollard is a common urban barrier, and an underused space for art. This exhibition aims to reclaim this urban infrastructure by turning bollards into vessels for music, by placing in them a theremin, and a wi-fi music dead-drop that features music from artists of the festival. Fans of film and documentary will enjoy the free premiere screening of Invitation To Ruin (7pm, Thursday 21 May, State Library Theatre). The documentary was created by filmmaker
Robert Castiglione as he travelled for 10 years with renowned ruined piano artist Ross Bolleter in his search across Australia for the broken instruments. A major item in the program is The 12th Totally Huge New Music Festival Symposium, an all-day event (9am - 5pm, Thursday 21 May, State Library Theatrette featuring speakers on the theme of Western Australian Art Music Activity: 1970 – 2014 to celebrate the launch of the WA New Music Archive, a digital archive of WA art music from 1970 to the present day. Keynote speakers include ABC Classic FM’s Stephen Adams and the WANMA Project Leader, Associate Professor Cat Hope. One returning event is Breaking Out (8pm, Wednesday 20 May, PICA Performance Space), the annual night of the festival that gives graduating music students from WAAPA and the School of Music at UWA, as well as young people creating music outside institutions, the chance to perform at PICA’s performance space. For more information on the program and purchasing tickets, go to thnmf2015.tura.com.au. th The 12 Totally Huge New Music Festival runs from Friday, May 15, until Sunday, May 24. Zubin Kanga, 12 th Totally Huge New Music Festival
BEAUTIFUL BEADS Perth music legends The Rosemary Beads and Beautiful Losers are coming together for one night of Perth music at its finest. Both bands were pinnacles of the ‘90s local music scene, Rosemary Beads with their feisty rock with wraithlike vocals and Beautiful Losers with their grungy ballads and quirky pop. They bands will be performing a selection of their finest material alongside brand new songs, at the Astor Lounge on Friday, May 15, starting 8pm.
What was your intent for your new album, Love Army, and what does it say of where you are at in 2015? Our intent was to write the best songs with the knowledge we have. The album was written over 18 months - amongst three European tours a lot of the material was written in an apartment in Paris as well as a grimy pub basement in South London. The band also faced some of its biggest challenges to date with this record. In hindsight, it’s our most confident album to date and everything surrounding us at the time fuelled the fire that made the songs. We went into the studio in early 2014 and recorded about three-quarters of the album and felt like we just didn’t quite meet the mark of what we were aiming for - expensive mistake to make, yes - then we lost a member due to family commitments, so we decided to enlist Danny Leo (King Of The North) to go back in and start again from scratch. This time with our guru producer and beautiful friend, Mr Andy Baldwin in Woodstock Studios, Melbourne. I think partly because our supporters/fans raised $22,000 in crowd-funding there was something in their belief in the band that drove us to push ourselves further musically than we had before. To hit the Top 30 ARIA Charts in its first week of release caused a huge celebration for the band. This year we also signed with an Australia label, Social Family Records - and French label Verycords in 2013. So to get in the charts after nine years together proves that persistence always wins… oh and of course the songs! Describe the chemistry between the three of you having been through so much together and so many shows by now? (Laughs) Yes! We have over 700 shows as a band under our belts now, so lots of tour van and aeroplane time together, many shared rooms, creativity sessions and a lot of looking at the same person all the time, haha. Jeff (guitar) and I as cofounders pretty much know the ins and outs of each
other personally. We know how recognise when the other needs encouraging and we also how to push each other’s buttons (laughs). We are like brother and sister. Josh Eales joined the band last August and it’s a pleasure to play with someone on the same page as Jeff and I. It’s all about the band; we want to become better musicians, better songwriters and better live. I think once that feeling fades, it’s probably time to find something else to do. Until then we fucking love it! Siren Tower are playing with you in Perth, tell us about that long and strong connection? Yes, we have The Siren Tower and The Tommyhawks on board for Mojo’s Bar and the Indi Bar and Said The People for the Bunbury show. It’s gonna be ace! The Siren Tower frontman Grant (McCulloch) and I go waaaaaayy back! We were brought up in the same area in North East Victoria, I remember watching Grant’s early bands in high school and thought he was pretty rad. I also lived in Perth for a small time and used to go and watch him play with Heavy Weight Champ, I loved that band. We’ve watched each other grow as humans and as musicians over the years and I’ve loved every project Grant has been a part of. This weekend is going to be almighty! What’s the plans for the rest of the year? We have our sights set on Europe still - we just launched the new album to 0.25 million people on a French TV show, CANAL PLUS – Album De La Semaine, so we just gotta keep working at it. The album has only been out for four weeks so we haven’t even started yet! I know there is talk of a more extensive Australian tour towards the end of the year, plus festivals, plus we still have a few singles off the album up our sleeves. Pretty excited about returning to WA though, that way I can hang out with Grant. See you soon! Dallas Frasca
CONTENTS
The Rosemary Beads | Pic: Chris Cruikshank
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BOOMETRICK
Rubber Soul and Revolver are two of The Beatles most renowned albums, and four of Australia’s most talented musicians will be playing them back to back, track by track, live on stage. The Beatles’ Rubber Soul/Revolver Concert stars Husky Gawenda, lead singer of indie-folk outfit Husky, roots music star with velvety timbre vocals Jordie Lane, 24-year old alt-country troubadour Marlon Williams, and frontman of Melbourne rockers Kingswood, Fergus Linacre. Joining them to perform all 28 songs from Drive My Car to Tomorrow Never Knows, will be a dozen musicians. See this unique music experience at the Riverside Theatre on Saturday, August 1. Tickets at ticketek.com.au.
Boomtick Events - the people who brought you Ambar, Flyrite, Parker, Villa, Breakfest, Listen Out and countless tours - have teamed up with Metric Promotions, the folks behind club nights such as Akuna, Cheek, COLT, Mondo, Father, Frayed, Speakeasy and Father Villa Takeovers, plus events such as Wonderland, Castaway and Circo - have joined forces to open a new music and event venue, “with a twist.” They promise “a positively epic experience for Perth’s club music lovers.” That’s all they’re revealing of the big news for the moment. We’ll keep you posted on tasty updates.
Rubber Soul/Revolver tour
Boomtick meets Metric
RUBBOLVER
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Newsdesk Win Flesh: Totally Huge New Music Festival, Dallas Frasca Music Mötley Crüe, Everclear Circa Waves, The Mountain Goats, Nickelback State Of The Art, The Angels New Noise
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Culture Hub Cover: Glengarry Glen Ross Lifestyle, Hitlist Once We Were Kings, Arts Listings Mad Max: Fury Road, Royal Night Out Infini, Pitch Perfect 2 Feature: ETC Education & Training
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Scene Cover: Hot Chip Miami Horror, Tenderhooks Local Scene: The Joy Evelation Live: Opeth, Final Curtain @ The Bakery, Ace Frehley
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X-Press Guide Social Pics/Volume
Front Cover: Mötley Crüe’s farewell tour brings them to Perth Arena on Saturday, May 23, with special guest, Alice Cooper. Scene Cover: Hot Chip release their sixth album, Why Make Sense?, this Friday, May 15.
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EVERCLEAR Sparkle Never Fades It was 20 years ago almost to the day that Everclear released album number two, Sparkle & Fade, and burst onto the playlists of a global audience with the singles Heroin Girl and Santa Monica and their tales of drug damaged lives and hope. Art Alexakis brings the band back to Perth for a show at On The Road To The End the Rosemount Hotel this Thursday, May Mötley Crüe’s farewell tour brings them to Perth Arena on Saturday, May 23, 14, to play the album in its entirety. SHANE with special guests, Alice Cooper and Amberdown. PETER HODGSON speaks PINNEGAR has the story. with drummer, Tommy Lee. Pumpkins album.
MÖTLEY CRÜE The rock world needed Mötley Crüe right when they came along. Led Zeppelin were gone, Van Halen were too fun, Black Sabbath were too dark and punk didn’t have enough sex. So the Crüe stepped in to fill the void. They were loud. They were glitzy. They sang about the devil like Black Sabbath, and getting laid like Van Halen. It felt like Mötley Crüe would beat up all the dudes, bang all the chicks then party ‘til dawn. There were some hiccups along the way - a fatal car accident involving vocalist, Vince Neil, a heroin overdose for bass player/primary songwriter Nikki Sixx, tabloid fame and jail time for drummer Tommy Lee, a debilitating spinal condition for guitarist Mick Mars, a grunge-influenced album with a different singer and unprecedented megascale tours. And now it’s over. Mötley Crüe are putting an end to the madness once and for all. The band is swinging by Australia one last time to lay waste to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth with Alice Cooper as main support. And then that’s it. No more Crüe for you. Once upon a time, Lee says, the band considered it a huge, huge deal to book a trio of shows at the Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip; now those days seem a million years ago. “It’s so weird, man. It’s weird to even explain. It’s the most bizarre, multi-emotional thing. Shit, man. We came, we saw, we kicked its arse and we’re gonna walk away from this thing with the legacy intact.” Lee is already planning his life away from Mötley Crüe, and although he’s released his own music in the past (including his Methods Of Mayhem band), in a way, his new creative freedom started last year when he recorded the drums for the latest Smashing
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“That was cool. Billy just said, ‘Man, do your thing’. He told a funny story where he was sitting there working on the demos and he said to the other guitar player, Jeff Schroeder, ‘I want it to sound like a Tommy Lee groove right here’. And Jeff goes, ‘well, why don’t you just fuckin’ call him, dude?’ That’s when I got the call from Billy, it was so cool. I’m sitting there tracking the drums and I look into the studio at Bill and I see him jumping up and down, so excited. That for me was like, ‘Okay, this is the shit now’. It was good stuff, man.” And beyond drums and vocals, Lee is a multi-instrumentalist. “When I was about 12-years old I was taking piano lessons and I was playing marching drums in the marching band. I was getting frustrated, pissed off, ‘This isn’t what I wanna do. Basically I wanna rock shit. I’m not feeling this piano business’. So I got my mum and dad to help me out and buy a little Epiphone or something, some not-so-great guitar and a secondhand amp, and I just remember getting my hands on that thing and turning the distortion all the way up and going, ‘Fuck yeah’.” I couldn’t let Lee go without asking about the 1994 Mötley Crüe album with John Corabi on vocals. “It’s huge. Honestly dude, it’s one of my favourite Crüe records. Sonically, the songs and the playing on that record is gnarly. We worked our arses off on that record. We had so much to prove: Vince was gone, we had a new singer who also plays guitar and writes and he brought a whole new element to this. But once fans are used to a certain thing, they just didn’t want to know about any other version of Mötley Crüe. That’s understandable but when you break it down, that record still sounds rad today.”
Everclear have a shiny new record, their ninth, called Black Is The New Black. Art Alexakis says he wanted to tap into the very essence of what Everclear is all about for this album. “That was the idea; make a classic, old Everclear record. Contemporise it, modernise it, more mature lyrics because I’m older. I’ve got a great band so I just pushed them to the nth degree.” Featuring some of his best songwriting in years, Black Is The New Black is as inspired as anything he’s done before. “Honestly, and I know it’s weird,” he shares, “as you listen to the record you can tell it’s a dark, heavy record, lyrically and musically. But I think the fact that I’m happy in my life and I’m in a place in my life where I’m really grateful and present and really in touch with my sobriety and everything else that’s good in my life, my family, my friends, I think it gave me the security and safety to go into the dark places. Trust me: I’ve got plenty of dark places inside of me. I was able to go into them, and come back out again with songs like that.” Alexakis says that although the current tour presents the entire Sparkle & Fade album, they’ll still feature a few of the new tracks. “One of the great things about coming to Australia is we’re playing the whole Sparkle & Fade record from the beginning,” he explains. “And then we’ll take a break and come back and play some other hits, fan favourites and new songs. It’s going to be a great set. I’m pretty stoked. “Half of the songs on the record we play live anyway. We play them all the time. I can’t do a show without playing Santa Monica: it’s just impossible. There are about six songs that we haven’t played in a while, and we’re going to work on those songs, most of the
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songs on side two. I’m looking forward to getting into them – it’s just like playing new songs that people know and can sing along with. It’s pretty exciting.” The legacy of Sparkle & Fade is a pretty special thing to have on your resume, no doubt. It must be great, knowing that that’s out there and people still love it? “It’s awesome – and the record that followed it was an even bigger record, So Much For The Afterglow,” Alexakis says. “Hopefully we’ll do a 20-year anniversary of that in a couple of years. Yeah, I’m really blessed, man. We’ve made a lot of great music. We’re still making great music. I get to go out, and I’m really grateful to be able to be a part of it and have that as a legacy.” The band have a gruelling schedule ahead, with seven shows in eight nights on their Australian tour. On their last visit Down Under, in 2012, the strain was showing on Alexakis’ voice by the last gig of the tour, so I ask him how he copes? “I think it’s more from flying,” he says. “That’s the problem in Australia: you’ve got to fly everywhere because those cities are pretty far apart. You can’t get on a bus like in the States. But I’ve been working out and trying to take care of my voice. I’m doing a solo tour while getting my voice in shape. I think we’re going to have a lot of energy by the time we get to Perth this next time. I’m going to be well aware of that - I’m not going to talk to anybody! I’m just going to have a sign that says, ‘fuck off, don’t talk to me!’”
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“From having zero money and working jobs that we hated, we’re now getting to travel the world and live our dreams.”
CIRCA WAVES Salvation UK outfit Circa Waves hope to return to Australia to tour in support of their justreleased debut album, Young Chasers. NATALIE ROGERS reports. Growing up in Liverpool, you’re forced to ask yourself one simple question – Lennon or McCartney? At least that’s the way Kieran Shudall tells it. Though it appears that the Circa Waves frontman and chief songwriter is in a quandary – he refuses to pick a side. “But for those two people to have found each other and started a band is such a fortunate thing,” he says. “It must have been fate – it’s so bizarre to think that it actually happened.” Shudall’s own chance encounter, however, happened at the Liverpool Sound City Festival in 2013, where he met fellow band members Sam, Colin and Joe. Little did he know at the time that it would lead to the start of something big. “We all needed to be in a band at that point in time. We all sort of felt like lost causes,” Shudall says.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Ready To Rumble The Mountain Goats have been operating under the radar for the past 12 months with frontman, John Darnielle, being tied up with his debut novel, Wolf In White Van. That is all about to change with their new album, Beat The Champ. CHRIS HAVERCROFT speaks to John Darnielle about book tours and wrestling as well as the new record. John Darnielle couldn’t be happier with the response to his debut novel, Wolf In White Van, it landed in the New York Times bestseller list and garnered endless invitations for him to participate in readings and book tours. It’s a different style of touring for a man who is used to taking his guitar and cramming into touring vans for some late night driving between gigs. 10
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“We were all in separate bands that weren’t going well and doing jobs that weren’t very good – in fact we hated them. So I think Circa Waves came at the right time for everyone. It’s been a salvation for us and has changed all of our lives drastically. From having zero money and working jobs that we hated, we’re now getting to travel the world and live our dreams.” And now they have a debut album under their belt; Young Chasers was released late last month. According to Shudall, they wanted to maintain the lo-fi quality that his home recordings produced, and did so by simply playing. “That’s something we admire about a lot of debut records, the fact that it sounds like a live band playing… we recorded these songs simply by all playing together, just like we would at a live show, and that’s why it sounds the way it does.” As simplistic as that sounds, Shudall believes that the raw power and authentic quality would have been almost impossible to recreate without the help of engineer, mixer and producer Dan Grech, who has worked with the likes of Radiohead, Lana Del Rey, Kaiser Chiefs and The Kooks. “In terms of a safe pair of hands, you don’t really get any safer than Dan Grech. He’s so collaborative. We both worked together on everything,” Shudall says. “He loves taking on everyone’s ideas and trying to work out how to get the sounds that are in my head onto the record, if you know what I mean.” While it may sound like everything was hunky dory during the recording process, Shudall hinted that there may have been a few rows over choosing the final track list. “We recorded about 18 or 19 tracks – it was quite difficult to whittle it down to those 13. So we decided the best way to keep the peace was to include four or five songs that didn’t make the cut onto the deluxe record and that way everyone was happy.” Young Chasers is brimming with English indierock anthems. Their singles, Get Away and So Long, have become instant favourites among fans of early-sounding Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines and The Strokes – and their latest, T-Shirt Weather, is no exception. “It’s horrible here in England, so I feel bad that I wrote a song about t-shirt weather when it’s freezing cold. Australia was definitely on my mind,” Kieran says. “We’ve been down to play for you guys twice in less than 12 months. We played at your Splendour In The Grass festival last year – that was a mad gig! I think we might be playing it again this year. I hope that we do.” “A book tour is having conversation on stage and stuff and it’s cool, but you never get a release from it,” says Darnielle of his new life. “If you play music in Margaret River and there is only five people there, even if some of them are there because they stopped in to have a beer, you on that night get a release from playing music. If people enjoy it that’s cool, and if not I still enjoyed playing the music. “A book reading is different, as there is no real release as you don’t do that thing when you build up to a point of excitement and then fall over exhausted. A book reading is more formal and is more of a social exhaustion, because you are meeting people and saying hello and that is unnatural for me.” The Mountain Goats new album, Beat The Champ, uses Darnielle’s love of the sport wrestling to explore the trials and tribulations of daily life. The band has a strong and loyal following in Australia who may not have been exposed to the history of the regional territories of wrestling but are well versed in the glitz and glamour that was created with Wrestlemania. The ‘80s was a great time for wrestling. The performers then had been around long enough that they had been able to hone their craft, and wrestling was ready for its big pop. The athletes that came around at that time were ready for the big stage nationally and internationally like Hulk Hogan and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage. The appeal of wrestling was that it scratched a few itches at once from sport, acting, fantasy and comic book culture. “You get to watch sport even though it has a predetermined outcome, who cares? It is still an athletic struggle and guys really get hurt in there. It is also grand theatre not only in the interviews but also during the match. It has three or four of the arts rolled in the one thing.” In-jokes litter the record with tunes such as Foreign Object leading the way. When somebody grabs something during a fight, the announcer wouldn’t say what it was as it sounded scarier that way. The terms that they would always use was ‘foreign object’. Foreign object only means that it is something that doesn’t belong in the ring. It is mysterious and threatening and it could be just a pencil. “I don’t mind a little bit of blood. I try not to overdo it so as it is effective when it lands but I have always had a bit of time for the gore. Every inward characteristic has an outward manifestation. I give my life to music and I don’t regret it at all, but it is not the same as getting other people to throw you around. When people use the word staged and say that it is fake I would question that. Just because you have learnt how to roll with the punches, doesn’t mean that those guys don’t give up their bodies. Obviously it is a performance and there is that term of comparison, but the wrestler’s craft demands more of the body than I would give as being a musician.”
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NICKELBACK The Line Between Love And Hate Nickelback return our way with a show at Perth Arena on Tuesday, May 26. TYSON WRAY looks at one of the world’s most despised yet loved bands. I fucking love Nickelback. I think they are, quite simply, one of the most incredible bands of alltime – and I say this with no jest. They are truly one of the greatest inspirations in my life. The reasoning for this adoration is not because I feel that they write meticulously complex musical motifs, that their lyricism reaches emotional poignancy deeper than Marianas Trench, or that their own ardour for their artistic endeavours is unyielding in spite of an ever-challenging global climate. No, my love for Nickelback comes not from any adherence to the concept that personal illumination can be reached via a spiritual connection with music. I find Nickelback inspiring because they are quintessential proof that you can be successful by taking people that hate you and manipulating them to your advantage by simply just not giving a fuck. Alongside socioeconomics and politics, Nickelback are one of the greatest representatives of the divide between the cross-cultures of contemporary society. In my own social circles (and those adjoined) not a single person would consider themself a fan. In fact, the only person I know of that genuinely loves Nickelback is Joe Hockey, because the cigar-smoking entitled dickhead constantly tweets about them. However, Nickelback’s popularity is undeniable - and it is gargantuan. Over the course of 12 world tours they have sold more than eight million tickets. Their 2005 record, All The Right Reasons, spent 112 consecutive weeks in Billboard’s Top 200 and sold more than 11 million copies. In fact, with their overall worldwide album sales exceeding 50 million, their status as the best-selling foreign act of the 21st century in the US is edged out by only The Beatles. To put it in layman’s terms: if you hate Nickelback, everyone around you hates Nickelback. If you love Nickelback, everyone around you loves Nickelback. It’s in this segregated sense that they are a fascinating anomaly. “If your name is ubiquitous, well then, it’s a double-edged sword,” laughs Ryan Peake, guitarist and backing vocalist for the group. “If your name is out there all of the time, then people see you and they hear about you. Whether it’s good or bad. It all goes back to that old saying, ‘There’s no such thing as bad press.’” According to this ideology, Nickelback are unrivalled. For whatever reason, since their formation in 1995, the group have found themselves at the butt of every joke that any meandering music journalist could muster. Yet, it’s this constant compulsion to allude to their supposed lack of artistic merit that has led to the continuation of their global success. A reply to a tweet, a comment on a Facebook status, any form of self-publication of your distaste for this band will expose them to people who, unbeknownst to you, enjoy their music, thus perpetuating their status and allowing them to reach a new fan base. You – the hater – fuel their success. Try to get your head around that fucker of a paradox.
“I can’t exactly say that this is how I envisioned my career would go,” chuckles Peake. “But, you are what you are, you can’t control how people perceive you. If people like you, that’s great, but if they don’t then they just don’t. You’ve just got to get ready for whatever they have to throw at you.” Peake and the rest of the band are incredibly self-aware, which allows them to jovially take any e-abuse in their stride. “We make fun of ourselves pretty badly backstage,” he laughs. “We’re always making fun of Chad’s (Kroeger, lead vocalist and guitarist) various haircuts. You have to have a sense of humour and be able to laugh at yourself. If someone’s trying to be rude to us, but it’s done in a creative and clever way, then it’s hilarious. You can tell when people are just being gratuitous and trying to make fun of you. But hey, if you can make it funny, then I’m all for it. I truly am. I’m a huge fan of comedy. Just, if you’re going to screw with us, make sure you get it right.
“You have to have a sense of humour and be able to laugh at yourself. If someone’s trying to be rude to us, but it’s done in a creative and clever way, then it’s hilarious. You can tell when people are just being gratuitous and trying to make fun of you. But hey, if you can make it funny, then I’m all for it.”
“People think that we care,” notes Peake when detailing their intake of hate mail via various channels. “But really, we just truly, truly don’t care. We know where we sit. We know about the sentiments that people have about our band. But we know how to use this to our advantage. I’m living extremely well. Surely that’s the best revenge for anything? I see hateful comments and they just bounce off me. I’ve got a great life, I’ve got a great family and I get to go and play music for a living. That’s it. There’s really nothing that can knock me off that high.” WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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Alphabet City Australian rock legends The Angels bring their A-Z tour to the Charles Hotel on Friday-Saturday, May 15-16. SHANE PINNEGAR reports. Playing one hit for each letter of the alphabet, Rick Brewster, lead guitarist of The Angels, expects the shows to last two-and-a-half to three hours each, and feature plenty of songs to thrill casual fans and die-hards alike, including their new tie-in single representing the A and Z of the show – a rerecording of their 1976 breakthrough classic, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, and a cover of ZZ Top’s La Grange. A founding member of the band, and the only constant member throughout their long history and many line-up changes, Brewster explains their motivation for revisiting the 40 year-old single, which will be available on CD and vinyl at the shows. “When the idea came up to do the A-Z Tour,” he says, “John (Brewster, Rick’s brother and rhythm guitarist) then thought it would be a good idea to do the A song and the Z song, to record them and have it available at the gigs to sell. Then the idea went further. We recorded on analog tape like the old days, and we’re putting it out on 7” vinyl, as well as CD. Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again obviously had to be the A song. The Z song – well, we didn’t have a Z, but we all like ZZ Top and decided to record La Grange with a blistering harmonica solo from John. 12
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BLUR
WE ALL WANT TO
The Magic Whip Parlaphone / Warner Bros. Records
A Gig As Big As A Bloody Big Brick
THE ANGELS
STORIES
4.5
STATE OF THE ART 2015 This year’s State Of The Art festival continues to grow with the announcement of over 35 WA artists to two free stages – the PICA Stage and the Wetlands Stage. There’ll also be stripped back sets performed by emerging acts near the WA Street Food area. In other (BIG) new, courtesy of Etihad Airways, a lucky local music fan will win two return economy flights to London, plus VIP camping tickets to Bestival, appropriately featuring WA’s own Tame Impala and Pond. To enter, just purchase your ticket to SOTA and answer a few simple questions (those who have already purchased their tickets will receive notification as to how they can enter). The competition is now open and will close on Friday, May 29, at 11.59pm WST. Head to sotafest.com.au for full details. The SOTA Surrounds stage will feature: Boys Boys Boys, Brad Hall, Custom Royal, David Craft, Dream Rimmy, Ensemble Formidable, Flooded Palace, Husband, Joni In The Moon, Legs Electric, Little Lord Street Band, Maurice Flavel’s Intensive Care, Moana, Odette Mercy And Her Soul Atomics, Our Man In Berlin, Patient Little Sister, Rachael Dease, Riley Pearce, The Weapon Is Sound, Wanma Presents: Decibel’s Stuart James Plays The Infinity Machine and Pinata Percussion, plus the return of the MC Battle. Along with stripped back performances from Ben Witt, Charlotte Vinney, Claudia Tero, Helen Shanahan, Hindley, Jacob Diamond, Justine Walshe, Katie J White, Pete Byfield, Robbie Jalapeno, Russell & Tom, Segers and Xanthea. Then there’s the Rough Love Sessions at PICA Bar showcasing some of Perth’s best upand-coming DJs and producers from 6pm until late: Dave Samuel, Kid Deep, Lenard Lewis ft Giorgio Bano, Mot3k, +1 and Tenru.
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Of course they’ll be joining Birds Of Tokyo, You Am I, The Scientists, Downsyde, Gareth Liddiard, Katy Steele, Sable, The Love Junkies, Timothy Nelson & The Infidels, Rob Snarski, Holy Rollers (Reunion Show), Rainy Day Women, We Two Thieves, Lois Olney, Mt Mountain, Lower Spectrum, Grace Barbe, Boom! Bap! Pow!, Koi Child, Hideous Sun Demon, Lilt, Rag N Bone, Marksman Lloyd and The Community Supergroup (feat. Diger Rokwell, Empty, Wisdom 2th and more). Tickets for the licensed all ages SOTA are $55 (plus booking fee) on sale from sotafest.com.au. BIRDS OF TOKYO PATIENT LITTLE SISTER | PIC: DANIEL GRANT
“We thought we would do Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again pretty much exactly as we did it when we first recorded it with George (Young) and Harry (Vanda – producers of The Angels’ early albums) in 1976. Then it was sort of a struggle to try and recapture those guitar sounds, but we came very close. If I put it on now, I could swear it’s the original single.” The harmonica solo on their new version of La Grange is scorching indeed, but Rick said he had to talk his brother into letting loose. “Yeah, I had to push John to do it. He’s very modest about his harmonica playing. He doesn’t hold his hand up usually to do it. I said from the start, ‘look if we’re going to do La Grange, I don’t want to play a guitar solo. If I want to hear La Grange with a guitar solo, I’ll listen to Billy Gibbons! But it’s a perfect song to play harmonica on’. And John said, ‘no, I couldn’t do that’, but he did it in one take. We’ve played it live and it goes down really well. It’s one of those songs that I’ve always wanted to play.” The other letter the band couldn’t fill was Q – and they thought up an innovative answer to that omission – making it stand for ‘Question’. “We’ll just throw that to the audience,” chuckles Rick, “that should be fun. You can request whatever you’d like - hopefully we’ll know how to play it. Some of them, we have two or three songs that we could do for a particular letter, so we might throw that at the audience as well – ‘here are the choices, what do you want to hear?’” It sounds like a good way to keep it fun and mix things up for the band as well as the audience. “Oh definitely,” agrees Rick, “mix it up and then play some songs we wouldn’t normally play, because we’ve got the time in a two-and-a-half to three-hour show.” What prompted The Angels to go old school and press a vinyl single? “The sound.” He says without hesitation. “Everyone knows vinyl sounds better. It’s weird these days to get an opportunity to hear it on vinyl. I was given one for Christmas, a turntable - I’ve cleaned up a few of the old vinyl records. They just sound brilliant. And there’s something about vinyl. Not just the sound, either. It’s the fact that you have to turn it over to play side-B. The image of Rick Brewster, statue-like on stage even whilst playing fiery guitar solos and hard rocking tunes that virtually defined the Australian pub rock sound, seems a road less ordinary for the young lad who originally trained as a classical pianist and then formed a hillbilly jug band in his teens. “Yeah, it was a bit weird to go from playing Beethoven to playing the washboard, then going from that to playing lead guitar – when I didn’t have a clue how to play lead guitar! It was a very, very steep learning curve, because we already had gigs booked. When John and Doc (Neeson) and I started the band, we went straight out on the road, and I just had to give myself a crash course in trying to learn how to play a Chuck Berry solo.”
The Haze MGM
With a few exceptions – the playful Ong Ong, the 1994 timewarp Lonesome Street – the album is a moody affair, capturing the bristling tension of later Blur albums. But instead of being directed within the band, it’s at the world at large. New World Towers, My Terracotta Heart, Pyongyang; these are all songs searching for something but not really knowing where to look. There are a number of reference points from Blur and Damon Albarn’s career to give you an idea of what sounds they’re mining: a relaxed 13, Think Tank with good arrangements, Everyday Robots fleshed out. Really, none do it justice – The Magic Whip is a new phase. No more is this evident than on album highlight, Thought I Was A Spaceman, a sprawling, ever-evolving track that takes cues from Blur’s last few albums (Albarn and Graham Coxon trading verses, a heavy reliance on ambience) and brings them into new areas of dream-pop and neo-psychedelia. There are a few things that lifelong fans will nitpick over – Coxon’s otherworldly guitar is underutilised, and knees-up Parklife diehards might have a hard time – but overall this is one of the best bands of its generation adding an essential chapter to its storied career.
We All Want To are made up of stalwarts of the Brisbane music scene, with the unmistakable voice of Tim Steward leading the way. The former Screamfeeder frontman is well versed in the power of crunchy guitars and memorable melodies, and these are again his stock in trade for the band’s third album, The Haze. The songs on The Haze are shorter and more direct than previous We All Want To albums, with tunes such as Everybody’s Damaged being a study in simplicity while Young Love has all the verve and punch that should be plastered all over the airwaves. Steward has always been a great proponent of a memorable chorus with boy/girl vocals and Road To Ruin is no exception, being as catchy as the dose. Its not all a case of running things at breakneck speed though, with Skye Staniford taking over vocal duties for Remove The Arrow to deliver a smouldering beast. The Haze is said to be the most difficult album that We All Want To have made, which has resulted in some line-up changes for future efforts. Making authentic, reflective records isn’t meant to be easy business, but The Haze is worth any anguish that may have met it along the way.
LEONARDO SILVESTRINI
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
3.5
2.5
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EVERCLEAR
MUMFORD & SONS Wilder Mind Island/Glassnote It was inevitable Mumford & Sons were one day going to hang up their banjos. Despite the instrument being what makes them stand out of the multitude of folk indie bands, the banjos were often seen as a gimmick. As a whole, Wilder Mind is a competent rock album. The instruments, vocals and production are competently put together to create a slicker sound than previous Mumford & Sons albums. However, individually, there is very little to distinguish each song from the next. In fact on my second listen I discovered three songs had played when I thought I was still on the first song. Mumford & Sons have still retained their familiar song format; quieter verses where Marcus Mumford’s vocals muse over a simple instrumental refrain, and louder choruses where guitars are played full speed and the whole band chime in on the vocals. But the sing-along melodies and lyrics that made previous hits like Little Lion Man at least memorable are gone, leaving only bland lyrics and a uniform sound in their place. The songs that stand out, Monster, Cold Arms and Ditmas, are ironically the more acoustic songs of the album. While normally artists perform acoustic versions of their songs, Wilder Mind is the opposite - an electronic version of Mumford & Sons original acoustic style only minus the originality. Wilder Mind is a proficient rock album, but without the banjos it doesn’t stand out from the crowd.
Black Is The New Black The End Records/ADA Art Alexakis has taken Everclear back to their classic sound for their ninth album, and as aficionados of the band will know, that means heavy riffing indie rock underpinning tales of drug damage and darkness of the soul, with just the right amount of hope shining through the black. The Man Who Broke His Own Heart sounds like Alexakis is still trying to make amends for the sins of his addicted youth, while American Monster is a modern horror story of a bad person doing horrible things. It’s gripping listening and so insightful, like being riveted to a fascinating news story. Not entirely autobiographical, Alexakis has the ability to inhabit his characters as insightfully as he taps into his own past, and songs like You, about an abused child struggling with the emotional fallout of the horrors inflicted upon them, are completely believable, shocking, and somehow still relevant to all of our lives. It’s the glimmer of hope that Alexakis shines into the darkness of his songs that make them resonate with so many people – who of us haven’t felt we were ‘simple and plain’ (Simple & Plain), and longed to hear the affirmation that we don’t need to ever change? Or that when we’re going through bad times, that Anything Is Better Than This. There’s a light at the end of every pitch black tunnel, Alexakis shows us. SHANE PINNEGAR
LUCY RUTHERFORD
2.5 OUT OF 5
3.5 OUT OF 5
WHITESNAKE SURFER BLOOD 1000 Palms Spunk
The Purple Album Frontiers
Florida four-piece, Surfer Blood, stormed onto the scene with a debut that was a perfect exponent of mixing sunny Californian melodies with the slacker sound. After being loaded with the ‘next likely to’ tag, they signed to a major label, got into the headlines over domestic disputes and their career stalled. Now back in the more comfortable pastures of an indie label, Surfer Blood reboot with 1000 Palms. There is still a healthy reliance on guitar as the band stick with the formula that they know best. They tick all the right boxes as they mix harmony that a Wilson would be happy with and guitars that jut out at all the right angles on Sabre-Tooth And Bone. The band embrace the return to a more DIY approach without the watchful eye of the bean counters cast over them. There are moments that are chaotic and John Paul Pitts is more introspective than ever, making this an interesting listen that is not as bright or carefree as their debut. On a sour note, guitarist Thomas Fekete has left the band after recording, 1000 Palms due to cancer having spread to his lungs and spine. Hopefully the laying of hands and 1000 Palms will bring peace and healing, while his band Surfer Blood are back with gusto.
You’re on particularly thin ice when you start rebooting 40 year-old tracks which are beloved of many diehards. No matter the job you do, there will be a percentage of people who are anti the project. Why David Coverdale has chosen to revisit his days in the soulful Deep Purple Mk III & IV line-up by taking his shit-hot band into the studio to remake this collection of tracks from the Burn and Stormbringer albums is anybody’s guess. Coverdale is Coverdale, of course, and his honeyed vocals, now deeper and with a side order of gravelly gravitas, make the most of opener Burn and Lady Double Dealer, but where the slow burn of Mistreated and Holy Man never previously failed to impress, here Cov’s voice struggles on the former. Soldier Of Fortune is one of the better offerings, but Lay Down Stay Down - ham-fistedly re-imagined with the oomph of Cream behind it – fares less well before the album finishes with a pretty faithful reading of Stormbringer. It’s an enjoyable enough romp through an underrated phase of Deep Purple’s – and Coverdale’s – career, but it is an undeniably unnecessary folly, and in turning the heavy rock-o-meter up to 11, Coverdale has unwisely sapped many of the songs dry of the very thing that made them stand out in the first place: their soul.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
SHANE PINNEGAR
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L I F E S T Y L E & C U LT U R E
Perhaps most familiar from his work in Blue Heelers, The Reef, and as the host of Channel Seven’s Crash Investigation Unit, Australian actor Damian Walshe-Howling is also a veteran of the stage, and he’s about to sink his teeth into one of most notorious American plays of all time - David Mamet’s towering Glengarry Glen Ross. “When Kate (Cherry, director of this production and artistic director of Black Swan State Theatre Company) called me last year and said, do you want to do Glengarry, I nearly fell over.” Damian Walshe-Howling says. Glengarry Glen Ross is undoubtedly Mamet’s most famous work. The play, which uncovers the foibles and insecurities if an office full of blustering, macho real estate salesmen with remorseless clarity, won the Pulitzer in 1984 and was later adapted to the screen by James Foley. It’s a tremendous work - and a somewhat intimidating one, given the long shadow of its reputation. “I think as a play...” he trails off as he plumbs his memory for his first experience of Glengarry Glen Ross. “As a movie it was back in the ‘90s, probably the early ‘90s. I only saw the film once, years and years ago - I remember it pretty well. I remember it being a really dynamic piece of writing. Then in the late ‘90s, 1999, I studied in New York at the Atlantic Theatre Company, which
is (David) Mamet and (William H.) Macy’s theatre school which they started in the ‘80s - about the time that he wrote this, actually. We were reading playwrights from all over America but we were obviously reading a lot of Mamet because the school is very dedicated to his way of working. There were two plays that I discovered at that point: this and a John Patrick Shanley play called Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, which was a great piece of writing. So, around that time I was getting interested in a great deal of American theatre and I read a lot of Mamet, and this one really stuck out.” Walshe-Howling’s experience at the Atlantic left him with a high opinion of Mamet as an artist, although he allows that the famed playwright is a fractious figure. “I think he’s a highly intelligent person, intellectually and emotionally - I think he has an incredible balance of those two things. I think he’s someone who famously has struggled with his own emotional life in a way, but I think he, like a lot of people who struggle with their emotions, has a lot of sensitivity. I think the play, it’s all about this high octane world that people like to call masculine, but I always think to myself ‘What the fuck is masculine?’ It’s all about survival really, and all that aggression, when it comes out, it has to be based on vulnerability, it has to be based on what these guys have to lose. If they had nothing to lose, they wouldn’t be fighting for anything. So I think there’s a lot of vulnerability in the show and, even though it’s not outwardly expressed, it’s there.” TRAVIS JOHNSON
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A R T S & C U LT U R E
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PERTH NUMISMATICS SOCIETY FAIR Stamp Of Approval Walking around a numismatics fair is a fascinating experience. For those not in the know, numismatics is the collecting and studying of coins, medals, and banknotes. Seeing everyday items from other eras on display gives a certain tangibility to moments in history: banknotes and coins made to be spent and/or to commemorate an occasion, stamps created for postal purposes, medals given in recognition of someone’s actions. Numismatics lets us connect with years gone by.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Perth EAT AT: TASTE OF PERTH Bit of a no brainer, that one. It’s on at Langley Park Numismatics Society. There are five fairs scattered throughout the year. This Saturday, May 16, the from Friday, May 15, until Saturday, May 17. Society is holding a Coin, Medal, Banknote, and Stamp Fair at the South Perth Community Hall. Dr. Walter Bloom, President of the Perth Numismatics Society, says the society has about 150 members, but the fair is open to the
Rachel Motteram
DRINK AT: EZRA POUND Still one of Perth’s best small bars.
Dyslexicola Look Book Image by Tom de Peyret
The grand old dame of Perth model and hobby shops, it’s been a Mount Lawley icon for ages. And Rod Stewart shopped there on his recent visit!
KURT COBAIN LANDING Aberdeen, Washington. In October 2012, X-Press Magazine’s Global Correspondent BEN WATSON packed his bags and waved goodbye, after 19 years, to Perth. His mission: to see the whole damn world while he can.
With its hulking steel infrastructure and aging timber ruins, ambling seamlessly from quiet shorelines down into the murky guts of the Wishkah River; Aberdeen, Washington, could not feel further from the ‘60s boom-town remembered by [Kurt Cobain’s mother] Wendy O’Connor in Brett Morgan’s brilliant biopic Montage Of Heck. Nor is it, by any means, as grim as the grey, haunted streets presented by Nick Broomfield in his 1998 clusterfuck Kurt & Courtney – although even in the dazzling, uncannily-sunny weather of September 2014, it’s easy to imagine the place inspiring the grim sounds of Nirvana’s Bleach, or indeed that of The GO TO: PERTH CITY FARM Melvins, who originated 10 miles up the highway in HAWKERS MARKETS Montesano. In the present day, these are faded, Everything you want in a night market in East Perth’s frontier towns. Aberdeen is only an hour’s drive from long-running community garden. 14
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public, with free entry, so everyone from serious collectors to people who walk in off the street enjoy the occasion (and children are even given the gift of free coins). The fair also offers free evaluations, handy for those who’ve inherited coins, banknotes, stamps, and medals. In terms of what’s on offer, he says coins are probably the most popular, from older coins through to modern issues, and there’s a good selection of medals, both war and commemorative, as well as a few stamp dealers with a wide offering. Bloom says supply and demand is the main aspect to keep in mind when considering numismatics and the value of particular items. “In the case of what we’re talking about—coins, medals, banknotes, stamps—it depends how many were made. But just because a small number are made doesn’t mean they are popular, or if a large number was made, it doesn’t mean they’re unpopular. There are also fads with collecting.” He says that in general you can’t go wrong with getting something that’s rare and desirable. For those wanting to start their own collection, Bloom says, “When recommending to people who are wondering what to collect, when they collect coins for example, I say, first thing is there’s no point in collecting anything you don’t like (that’s just a general comment). The second thing is, if you’ve worked out what you like to collect, you’ve got to decide on what period you collect, and what grade or condition you collect.” Also of interest on the West Australian Numismatics front is a recent discovery outlined in a paper by John McDonald and Dr. Walter Bloom on the medallions issued to celebrate the Anzac landing. “This, of course, is very topical as we just had the 100 year anniversary of that on the 25th of April. One of the interesting aspects of this article is the first Anzac medallion struck
Looking for the perfect party ensemble to bedazzle a crowd? Want to invest in a show-stopping piece from an up and coming label? Sounds like you should check out the divinely fresh offerings from Dyspnea, Commonwealth Bank Designer For Tomorrow winners at the 2015 West Australian Fashion Awards. They’ve been catching the eye of fashion followers for the last few years. From the excitement their designs are generating, the spotlight is only going to get bigger.
DYSPNEA
SHOP AT: STANBRIDGES HOBBY SHOP
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“Our aesthetic runs around the meaning ‘shortness of breath’ - Dyspnea,” says Rachel Motteram, one half of the duo behind the label, along with co-designer Jameen Zalfen. The pair showed their initial collection at the Perth Fashion Festival in 2013. Since then it’s been more of a shooting-for-the-stratosphere kind of progression than a slow burn. “The label took off itself and we’ve just hung on for the ride,” says Motteram. “We’ve experienced and learnt a lot building our own business from scratch.” Dyspnea’s pretty but bold, eye-catching fashion concoctions project an intoxicating signature fusion of delicacy and strength: primarily complex offerings (although there are some sleek, striking numbers in the mix) with touches of fluffy feather detailing and other textural features that combine with beautiful fabrics and well-cut designs to create unique and unusual pieces. They don’t so much stand out from the crowd as leap. Or skip. Often while sparkling and shimmering like a constellation gone rogue. Washington’s state capital, Olympia, but it feels like a lifetime away. And it’s fitting, given Nirvana’s output and Cobain’s socio-political standpoint that the Young Street Bridge – immortalised in Something In The Way – is not one of Aberdeen’s hulking steel industrial bridges, but a quiet residential street, where the river runs free amid unexplained timbers of the past. It would be a disservice to an artist who operated mostly within the intuitive realm to be overly academic, but in the context of Aberdeen’s macho, lumberjack, industrialised modernity; it’s surely not far wrong to suggest that the place where Cobain spent much of his youth – or was, at least, special to him – represents the tender, feminine realm. In any case, the area which has been named ‘Kurt Cobain Landing’ is an incredibly special place, quiet, humble and mostly devoid of the pretence and blowhard bluster that has surrounded much of its namesake artist’s all-too-short life and career. Next to the bridge itself is a community park – KC Riverfront Park. Largely thanks to unwillingness of some members of the Aberdeen community to memorialise an artist whose personal life was fraught with public controversy, the park itself is a community concern. There is very little in the way of advertisement around town. Indeed, but for a few small signs hammered to street poles about the place, one could drive through Aberdeen and not even know this place existed. That’s a relief, in many ways, as there are many aspects of the story that are best not glamourised. Pleasantly, such things seem a million miles away when one is under the bridge. To be honest, folks, I found it difficult to leave. It was a very peaceful place. Only much later would I read that some of Cobain’s ashes were
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Perth Numismatic Society
back in 1915 was in fact struck in Perth. The Australian War Memorial has on its website that it was struck in Sydney in mid to late July, but it’s known for a fact there was one struck in Perth at the beginning of July.” Bloom says the details have been sent to the Australian War Memorial, who will check the information before making any changes to their website. GILLIAN O’MEAGHER
When asked whom the designs would appeal to, Motteram replies, “The party chica and the show stopper.” The bright and wild pieces make one wonder if they’re a reflection of personal style, or do the designs come from a different place? “The colour comes from what goes on inside our brains. On the outside we are a denim jeans and tee girl, but on the inside our imagination runs wild.” With pastel designs reminiscent of fashion and confection fusions, as well as past reference to Paris Hilton’s pet as inspiration, there’s a definite sense of fun to Dyspnea’s brand of sass-infused glamour. The duo met at TAFE four years ago and kickstarted their design partnership from there. In terms of future plans, Motteram says “Jameen and I would eventually like to open our own boutique and showcase a collection at New York Fashion Week.” They seem to be on track to achieving their goals; the lookbook for the Paralysis collection was shot in Paris by Tom De Peyret and featured model Garance Rochoux-Moreau. Obviously, fashion this resplendent makes for fabulous runway fare (Not to mention red carpet, with a number of Dyspnea designs scattered through the 2014 ARIA Awards). Their favourite runway show so far, according to Motteram, was Sydney Fashion Week 2015 (Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia 2015), hands down. “It was one of the wildest rides of our life. A fairytale we didn’t want to end.” At present, the duo is divided between Perth and Sydney. “A lot of our business and customers come from Sydney but we jump between the two cities. Perth will always be home.” You can check out their designs at dyspnea.com. au or Nasty Gal. GILLIAN O’MEAGHER
scattered nearby. That makes sense, I suppose. Certainly there was a temptation to get grounded, to meditate at length and get right to the heart of the essence that created such powerful music. Instead, I walked back across the bridge and returned to my vehicle, where I sat silently and looked at the steering wheel for quite some time. Then I pointed the car back down the street, over the bridge, through the town, round the mountains, into the trees, and onward through Olympia and Tacoma to Seattle and the great beyond.
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LAZY LAZARUS Written by David Burton and directed by Thomas Dimmick, Lazarus Won’t Get Out Of Bed sees the titular character literally refusing to get up and face the world, much to the consternation of his friends Panda and Mackenzie. The Black Martini Theatre production runs at Murdoch Drama Workshop from Thursday, May 14, until Saturday, May 16. Tickets are available via trybooking.com.
TIGER TIGER BURNING BRIGHT GET BACK TO THE YABBA WITH AUSTRALIAN REVELATIONS Wake In Fright, Ted Kotcheff’s searing, confronting 1971 outback thriller, is the latest classic Australian film set for an airing at Revelation Film Festival’s monthly Australian Revelations screenings. Nick Cave once called it “the best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence.” so that’s gotta be worth something. It screens at Backlot Studios Perth on Monday, May 25, preceded by the WA-made short, Cetaphobia. For tickets and info, shoot over to revelationfilmfest.org. Wake In Fright
A Pulitzer-nominee is coming to Playlovers Theatre in Floreat this month in the form of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo. Directed by Andre Victor, it’s a comedic drama about a couple of US Marines who, together with their Iraqi translator, have a run-in with a tiger on the streets of wartime Baghdad. It runs from Thursday, May 14, until Saturday, May 23. For tickets and session times, go to playlovers.org.au.
GRAVITY WELL The next cab off the rank in Moana Project space’s 2015 program is Specific Gravity, a new group exhibition of sculpture, drawings, image and video works from Simon Finn, Saskia Doherty, Andrew Wood, Lisa Sammut, Oliver Hull and Emma Hamilton. It runs from Friday, June 5, until Sunday, June 28. For more information, get over to moana-ari.com.
GREAT SCOTT! MONKEY COLLECTIVE ARE BACK! The latest classic flick to get the Monkey Collective interactive movie treatment is Robert Zemeckis’s immortal Back To The Future Part II - quite apt seeing as we’ve now hit the year of the film’s primary setting, 2015. Get on down to Luna Leederville on Sunday, May 24, for an evening of time-hopping fun replete with mad scientists, implied incest, mad science and hoverboards - plus goodie bags and shouting at the screen, as is customary. Head to lunapalace.com.au to book your seats. Back To The Future Part II
ONCE WE WERE KINGS Mustafa al Mahdi
Once We Were Kings
The Blue Room doesn’t shy away from presenting provocative works, and Once We Were Kings by Dure Rey Khan is poised to be the front-runner in provocation this season. The show’s publicity imagery is enough to stir debate in itself: it features a person (male or female?) covered in a bedsheet styled to look like an Afghaninfluenced blue burqa, with fishnets, bright red pumps and fingernails, cigarette in hand, sitting in a wicker chair whose arm winds around the person like a snake. It’s a striking image that cuts through the media jungle like a scythe, challenging cultural stereotypes and raising questions as it goes. The show’s producer/director Mustafa al Mahdi created the image while wearing one of the many hats independent theatre-makers inevitably must and love to wear. “Dure came to me with a very early draft of the script, and she said, ‘I’ve got the script and I need everything else done.’ My role is director/producer but I’m in charge of marketing and branding as well. Really the only reason it’s been manageable is because I’ve got a really great team. Everyone does their role on time and
everyone’s been really good. We’ve been lucky,” al Mahdi says. This is al Mahdi’s first time working as a theatre director, although he has directed film; he says the directing process is different for theatre in that he doesn’t have the luxury of doing take after take to get the result he wants from the actors. “In theatre, I can only give them an in point and an out point. It’s kind of like, I go from home to work every day but sometimes I might stop at a deli on the way, sometimes I might take a different route, but it’s always the same destination.” The destination of Once We Were Kings seems to be an understanding of what it means to be part of a third culture and a discussion around the process of cultural assimilation. Al Mahdi explains that when migrants come to a new country, there is first a period of doubt and conflict where notions of tradition, religion and custom are challenged as potential contaminants to the dominant culture; then there is a period of epiphany and acceptance where these traditions are no longer seen as contaminants; and finally there is the celebration and empowerment stage between the two cultures. “I think right now with Muslims and Middle Easterners, we’re at the conflict stage,” al Mahdi says, but he doesn’t seem daunted by the struggle. “It’s great to trigger and be part of that conversation right now while it’s still in its infancy.” But he warns that the show isn’t meant to be taken as a kind of political or religious statement. “Because of its nature and what it’s trying to say, a lot of people think it’s some sort of protest or that it has some sort of underlying religious or political agenda. But really, it is just following the stories of people in the community who have gone through experiences and putting those experiences on stage. Because the queer conversation and the Muslim conversation are in the news, if you do anything, even if it is with an artistic intention, it will be automatically associated with protest.” In the end he says the show is very classical theatre with a lot of metaphor, poetry and storytelling. ”It’s this huge collage, this very very honest painting of a lot of experiences that have been consolidated into three metaphors of people. The three characters are clusters of experiences, so anyone watching this will identify with at least one of their struggles.” CICELY BINFORD
Once We Were Kings runs at the Blue Room Theatre until Friday, May 29. For tickets and session times, go to blueroom.org.au.
The Song Was Wrong - Photo by Thinh Dong
VISUAL ARTS For Love Of Country: The Art Gallery Of Western Australia Commemorating the centenary of World War One, this exhibition draws various works from the State Art Collection to present a fascinating look at how art has responded to war and conflict over the past century. It runs until Monday, July 20. Go to artgallery.wa.gov.au for full details. Escape Artist: Heathcote Museum & Gallery Shot in rural Spain by photographer Pablo Hughes, this is exhibition is a kind of autobiographical travel document about the beauty of imperfection. It runs until Sunday, May 24. Go to melville.wa.gov. au for more info. Rebirth: The Art Gallery Of Western Australia Japanese artist Mariko Mori has created Rebirth, an immersive experience comprised of installations, LED sculptures, photographs, drawings and videos. It’s on display until June 29. For more information, go to artgallery.wa.gov.au The Visitors: John Curtin Gallery Celebrated Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson presents his ambitious nine channel music video installation to Perth as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. It runs until Sunday, May 16. Go to johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au for more information. The Struggle Is Not Real: Koolroom This group exhibition by Perth-based art collective Ten K (RLSM, Cheeks, Debt and Ferly) looks at the choices and sacrifices we make to live and survive in the modern world. It runs from Saturday, May 30, until Friday, June 5. Hit up tenkblog.tumble. com for more.
The Song Was Wrong: State Theatre Centre An epic love story spanning three generations, Perth Theatre Company’s production of Melissa Cantwell’s new play stars Astrid Grant, Felix Jozeps and George Shevtsov. It runs from Thursday, June 4, until Saturday, June 20. Go to perththeatre.com. au for more. Jesus: No Ordinary Life: The Blue Room Theatre Damon Lockwood’s sketch comedy looks at the religion of celebrity and the celebrity of religion in a wonderfully weird scenario wherein a PR outfit is hired to find just the right Jesus to promote the church’s brand. It runs from Tuesday, June 16, until Saturday, July 4 - go to blueroom.org.au for tickets and session times.
FESTIVALS Taste Of Perth Treat your palate to the best cuisine Perth’s chefs and restaurateurs have to offer as this sumptuous three day event once again comes to Langley Park. It runs from Friday, May 15, until Sunday, May 17 tasteofperth.com.au has all the details. Audi Festival Of German Films The Goethe-Institut proudly presents this showcase of new German-language films, which runs at Cinema Paradiso from Thursday, May 28, until Sunday, May 31. Go to lunapalace.com.au for tickets and session times.
Hyper Vision: Midland Gate This year’s exhibition of works by local young people is built around the theme of “What’s Missing”, with the artists broadly interpreting it in a range of media. The works stay on display at Midland Gate from Monday, July 6, until Sunday, July 26. Go to hyperfest.com.au for more details.
THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE Médée: Fremantle Arts Centre Darius Milhaud’s 1938 opera is brought to life by new opera company Lost & Found. Featuring infidelity, insanity, vengeance and infanticide, it runs until Sunday, May 24. For tickets and sessions times, head over to fac.org.au. Once We Were Kings: The Blue Room Theatre Written by Dure Khan and directed by Mustafa Al Mahdi, Once We Were Kings is a look at the world through the eyes of young, queer Muslims. The show is accompanied by a special art exhibition of pieces from artists who have been censored in their own countries. It runs from Wednesday, May 13, until Saturday, May 30. Go to blueroom.org.au for tickets and session times. Glengarry Glen Ross: State Theatre Centre Director Kate Cherry brings to life David Mamet’s prowling, venal powerhouse of a play with an all-star cast that includes Luke Hewitt, Peter Rowsthorn, Damian Walshe-Howling and Will O’Mahony. It runs from Saturday, May 23, until Sunday, June 14. Go to bsstc.com.au for full details. Jesus: No Ordinary Life - Photo by Paul Robinson
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Daniel MacPherson in Infini
PITCH PERFECT 2 A Capella-ypse Now Directed by Elizabeth Banks Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld Two successful national championships have past since the Barden Bellas’ first win, but after a disastrous wardrobe malfunction involving the President of the United States and Fat Amy’s genitalia, their heyday may be coming to an end. So when a new recruit (Hailee Steinfeld) arrives at the fraternity house to audition, she instead finds Becca (Anna Kendrick) and the group looking to go their own way. Stripped of their titles, the only way for the Bellas to survive is to win the world-wide a capella competition (sort of a choral quarter quell), a feat which no American team has ever accomplished. The second Pitch Perfect isn’t the breathe of fresh air that the first was. Weighed down by it’s own success it lumbers a bit, with no clear sign of which direction it wants to go in and unsure of what it wants to really do. The only sense you get is that it desperately needs to be loved like the first, so it repeats themes and situations, to lessening returns. The plot is a predictable mess, with many of the characters getting little of interest to do. The pacing is equally terrible, with a number of scenes falling flat and going nowhere. So how is this an enjoyable experience as a movie - and make no mistake, even with everything against it, this film certainly is enjoyable. Despite the
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large dead patches, when it hits the right note Pitch Perfect 2 hits it hard. This is a film perfectly capable of delivering a tonne of laughs with it’s razor sharp dialogue, as well as those satisfying emotional beats. When it does then all the magic of the Bellas is back. A lot of this magic rest on the shoulders of Rebel Wilson. Pitch Perfect 2 really seems like the ideal platform for her, and Fat Amy is a character that resonates with audiences. Wilson has taken what could be a one note character and given her nuance and depth, creating a confident character that subverts expectations but is still capable of doubt. Part of this film’s message is about leaving a legacy and in turn respecting that which has been left for you, but it is also about moving on: to realise what you actually want in life beyond the confines your comfort zone and taking that risk. Amy and Bumper’s romantic arc plays perfectly into this theme. It leads to some genuine surprises and growth in the characters, as well as an awesome Pat Benatar number ‘cos, well... Pat Benatar! Add to this the return of the Bellas, other fan favourites such as the disturbingly inappropriate announcer duo (John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks- who is also serving as director) and an underground a capella death match and you have a movie that manages to keep you laughing through out the majority of its runtime. Far from note perfect, instead Pitch Perfect 2 is rather a likeable piece of disposable pop music. A catchy tune, rather than a classic track. DAVID O’CONNELL
Infini With the science fiction thriller Infini getting a VOD release last week, we had a chat to Logie winner, triathlete, actor and TV show host Daniel MacPherson, about his first lead film role, and Aussie sci-fi. Infini certainly earns it’s science fiction credentials bringing a lot of different concepts such as slipstream and time dilation to the fore. A bit of a change from hosting Dancing With The Stars, but one MacPherson quickly adapted to. “I was surrounded by sci-fi connoisseurs and I had a real crash course. So I was very well briefed. I felt it was my job to make it accessible to the audience, no mater what the set up is. Whether it is someone fighting for their life in present day Western Sydney, or on a deep space mining station light years from Earth, to allow the audience to connect you have to keep it in simple human terms.” Working with director Shane Abbess proved a rewarding and intense experience, as a lot of effort was placed into creating a gritty and tense future. “It was a long way from Wild Boys, I tell you. Just the totally immersive process Shane sets up in all his films. I was ready for that. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into that level of commitment. By day three it was the most challenging job I’ve ever had as an actor, and also the most rewarding.” “I was surrounded by an ensemble of incredible actors, and everyone in this show had something to prove, both personally and in
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character. I was out to prove I wasn’t just an affable TV presenter. Abbess was out to prove he wasn’t a one hit wonder. Brian Cachia (co-writer, composer) is the same. Luke Hemsworth was fighting against his last name. Everybody on that set had something to prove. What that meant was everyday on that set everyone brought their A game and more. It was the most demanding, challenging, and intense set I have ever worked with. Everyone was pushing each other, it was all a very ‘method’ way of acting.” The production ended up converting two factory spaces in Western Sydney for sets, offices and living space. “It was truly independent film making. Everything happened there – from production office to set building. Some of the crew lived there. I lived there for the eight weeks of the shoot. We all inhabited this base, and it took a lot away from the distractions that come with staying in a hotel in the city and being driven to your set.” The result is a production look comparable to big budget sci-fi films. MacPherson’s next project is playing an Elven prince in the MTV series Chronicles Of Shannara, a series based off Terry Brooks’ popular fantasy novels, “John Rhys-Davies is playing my father. So I go to work most days and debate the realm of the Elven people with John Rhys-Davies. Which is not a bad way to make a living.” Can’t argue with that. DAVID O’CONNELL
Infini is available to rent or purchase on iTunes and other digital platforms.
MAD FACTS
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10 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About The Road Warrior Forget Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Star Wars Episode 7, and whatever else is on your cinematic radar: for a large (and largely Australian) audience, the most important film heading our way in 2015 is the long awaited Mad Max: Fury Road, which sees original auteur George Miller directing Tom Hardy in the role made famous by Mel Gibson. While the anticipation ramps up and the early, overwhelmingly positive, reviews roll in, here are a few things you may not know about the leather clad desert warrior. 1. Director George Miller was inspired by his work as a doctor. Before he turned to film, George Miller was a qualified MD, and the horrific injuries he saw from road accident victims he treated while working the emergency ward inspired him to make a movie rooted in Australia’s car culture. 2. Mel Gibson won the role thanks to his temper. When the young Mel Gibson attended auditions with his close friend Steve (Jim Goose) Bisley, he was sporting a messed-up mug from a fight he’d been involved in the previous night. The casting director told him to come back for a second reading, saying “We need freaks.” 3. Hugh Keays-Byrne was a Shakespearian actor. The noted character actor has built a career playing villains and weirdos in everything from Mad Max to Stone to Salute Of The Jugger, but he originally came to Australia as part of a Royal Shakespeare Company tour, electing to stay to pursue an affair with a “... gorgeous hippie girl.” 4. Lord Humungous was originally an old friend. The villain in Mad Max 2 is a scarred and
Mad Max
masked bodybuilder, but in an early draft he was actually revealed to be Max’s old partner Goose, turned evil following his disfiguring in the first film. The idea was eventually dropped during preproduction. 5. Fury Road didn’t have a script. ...not as normally understood. Miller worked with comic book artist Brendan McCarthy to develop the story via creating 35,000 storyboard panels, with dialogue and detail being added in later. 6. Global warming ruined the planned Australian shoot. Fury Road was originally going to be filmed at Broken Hill, but unseasonal rains made the desert bloom with greenery, forcing the shoot to relocate to Namibia. Some limited shooting took place in Sydney. 7. There’s a new trilogy planned. Miller has said that, if Fury Road proves popular, he has “...two more stories to tell.” Hopefully they won’t take as long. 8. Mad Max made the Guinness Book Of Records. ... as the most profitable film ever, taking in over $100 million worldwide against a budget of about $380,000. It wasn’t until The Blair Witch Project came along that the record was beaten. 9. Maurice Jarre has a thing for deserts. The score composer for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome also created the iconic music for David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia. Fury Road’s score, however, is by Junkie XL. 10. It was almost a cartoon. After years of gruelling development hell, George Miller considered doing the film as a 3D animated feature. Reckon we dodged a bullet there. TRAVIS JOHNSON
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A Royal Night Out
A ROYAL NIGHT OUT Keep Calm And Party On Directed by Julian Jarrold Staring Sarah Gaddon, Jack Reynor, Emily Watson There are times when you have to take “based on actual events” with a pinch of salt, at other times the entire Dead Sea. A Royal Night Out is probably closer to the latter, but it doesn’t stop it from being a rollicking good time. Provided, of course that this is your cuppa tea. It is VE day 1945, and Britain is celebrating surviving its darkest hour. With the war finally over Princesses Elizabeth (Sarah Gaddon) and Margaret (Bel Powley) seek a respite from their royal duties and the gilded cage of the palace, hoping for one night out, incognito amongst the people. When Margaret manages to give their incompetent chaperones the slip and decides to head out for a proper night on the town, it is up to the more responsible Elizabeth to chase her wayward sister. With the help of a young airman, Jack (Jack Reynor), she must make sense of the world outside of the palace gates and try and protect her sister from herself. A Royal Night Out trades heavily on various forms of nostalgia, be that for England, the Royals, the Swing era, or the Spirit of The Blitz - it all harkens back to a moment when all is once again right with the world and things were apparently simpler. However even though this sense of nostalgia may be this production’s stock in
trade, it is not something that it blindly does, always willing to present a counter point to it. Often this is in the form of Jack, be it in his proletariat attitude or his brutal war experience, but plenty of other examples exist throughout. Never enough to derail or utterly subvert it, but just enough to give that hint. Director Julian Jarrod does a fine job of conveying the period and the celebratory atmosphere of the night, showing a real press of humanity on the screen. He is helped along in this regard by the relentless and upbeat soundtrack (full of swing classics that highlight the era, keeping everything moving at a cracking pace), as well as a solid cast. Gaddon puts in a solid performance as the young Elizabeth, managing to sink some depth and nuance in what could easily be a caricature. Yet it is Bel Powley as Margaret (or “P2, the spare princess” as she refers to herself) that is really the show stealer. Her combination of raw enthusiasm and complete naivety could easily come across as annoying, but the young actress has enough charm to pull it off. Rupert Everett and Emily Watson round out the Royal family as the King and Queen, putting in the quality performances you would expect from two such actors. Ultimately A Royal Night Out is as about lightweight as a barrage balloon, and as historically accurate as a fairy tale. Still, it is a romp. If you allow yourself to go with it, just for Queen and Country you understand, then it is all a bit of jolly good fun. DAVID O’CONNELL WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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SETH SENTRY Australia’s hip-hop favourite Seth Sentry has announced a new album and a new single. A follow up to his critically acclaimed first album, Strange New Past sees a new more introspective Sentry as he explores issues of identity, but still with his trademark humour and observations. Sentry’s first album This Was Tomorrow debuted at number 6 on the ARIA charts, and two singles from it Dear Science and Float Away both placed on Triple J’s Hottest 100 for 2012. The second single off Strange New Past, Hell Boy, will be debuted on triple j this Sunday, May 3, and the album is set for release Friday, June 5.
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Seth Sentry
Melbourne future soul band Hiatus Kaiyote has announced a new album and a new tour. Choose Your Weapon is an 18-track, 70 minute musical experience that juxtaposes acoustic and electronic genres to create a sound that the band describes as cinematic. Forming in Melbourne in 2011, only two years later the four-piece were nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Performance for their song Nakamarra from their first album, Tawk Tomahawk. The band are touring nationally and will be playing at the Rosemount Hotel on Saturday, August 29. Tickets available at rosemounthotel.oztix.com.au. Hiatus Kaiyote
FREE STUFF Local genre-bending rapper Mathas is releasing his latest single Free Shit, you guessed it, for free. The fourth single off his upcoming album Armwrestling Atlas, Free Shit is an exploration into how consumerism and brands have a role in a child’s upbringing. Mathas has been awarded the WAM Award for Urban Act of the Year three years running and has released singles collaborating with the likes of Abbe May and Mei Saraswati who sings guest vocals on this track. To get Free Shit for free on Bandcamp upload a photo to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter of yourself donating something, tag @mathasoffical for Facebook or @mathasasquatch for Twitter and Instagram, and include the hashtag #freeshit. You can see Mathas live supporting the Funkoars on their national tour at the Prince of Wales in Bunbury, Friday, May 29 and Amplifier Bar, Saturday, May 31. He will also be supporting Coin Banks at the Aviary for Rooftop Sessions, Sunday, May 31. Tickets for the Funkoars shows are available at oztix.com.au and the Rooftop Session is free but tickets can be reserved at tickets.myguestlist.com.au. Mathas
STYLEAID 2015 The annual WA fashion fundraising event STYLEAID has announced this year’s theme, Go Go, a celebration of the mods of the ‘60s. In its 18th year, STYLEAID was established to raise funds for the WA AIDS Council to support those suffering from HIV/AIDS and has so far raised $1.25 million. The event is also a showcase of local designers and artists with the STYLEAID 2015 parade featuring the 2015/2016 Spring/Summer collections from the likes of Aurelio Costarella, Ae’lkemi, Yuuki, One Fell Swoop, Salasia and Wolfgang & Sons. The highlight of the event will be six wearable paper dresses in mod era styles, painted, printed and embellished by six local artists which will be available for auction on the night. Tickets for the event include a three-course meal, gift bag, event magazine and access to an exclusive cocktail bar. STYLEAID 2015 happens Friday, July 31, at the Grand Ballroom at Crown Perth. Tickets available at styleaid.com.au. STYLEAID 2015 | Dress Design: Nico Greene
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ISABELLE SMITH ART Isabelle Smith is a lifestyle and fashion blogger, studying and living in Perth. Via her Instagram and blog she posts a collection of my ongoing travels, collaborations with Australian labels, support for Perth talent and local labels, favourite food spots, photo shoots, discount codes, adventures around WA and the most exciting fashion events she’s attended. She hope that anyone who reads my blog can use it to help themselves develop a unique personal style, an appreciation for Australian fashion and also to embrace living in Perth. Instagram: instagram.com/izzysmithh Blog: fawnjournal.tumblr.com/ Contact: isabellasmithart@hotmail.com Isabelle Smith, wearing Lunar The Label
GALIBELLE SHOES
SUMMER HUES American producer and DJ TOKiMONSTA is returning to tour Australia. With a background in classical piano, TOKiMONSTA has become renowned for her woozy, cosmic electronica, infectious R&B and jazzy beats. She was the first female to release music with Flying Lotus’ label Brainfeeder and played the acclaimed sunset slot at this years Coachella. Playing tracks from her latest EP Desiderium, TOKiMONSTA hits Gilkinsons on Saturday, June 13. Tickets at moshtix.com.au.
Summer Hues is a boutique makeup artistry service in the metropolitan areas of Perth. With over five years experience in the industry, Taryn will create a flawless, beautiful look that will have you glowing for your wedding day or special occasion. Using only high end cosmetics such as MAC, NARS, Urban Decay, Makeup Forever and Arbonne to name a few, Summer Hues knows quality counts for an amazing makeup application. Summer Hues Makeup is also available for TV & Commercial, Fashion and Editorial shoots, get in contact for their daily rates. For more details head to Summerhuesmakeup.com.
DJ TOKiMONSTA | Pic: Nikko La Mere
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TOKIMONSTA
Galibelle Shoes are a revolutionary shoe design that is changing the way women shop for shoes. With the ability to choose one sole and multiple straps that all interchange these Brazilian designed and made shoes allow you to have endless options for creating your own unique style at the change of a strap. With Galibelle launching right here on the shores of WA before hitting any other state in Australia these shoes are a must for all travellers, holiday makers and shoe lovers everywhere. Galibelle.com. Galibelle
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E D U C AT I O N , T R A I N I N G & C A R E E R S
Curtin University’s Ignition program in action
CURTIN UNIVERSITY’S IGNITION Passion And Ambition As a budding entrepreneur with an idea for a new business of product, it can be hard to know where to start to transform that idea into a reality. Curtin University’s Ignition aims to do just that with its week-long intensive entrepreneurial program packed full with practical sessions, lectures from business experts and the opportunity to network with the entrepreneurial business community. Program director Jane Garrett says Ignition is open to ideas from all aspects of business and no prior business experience is needed to apply. “Ignition is industry agnostic, so we accept people with ideas and businesses from any market sector,” she says. “The only essential criteria is that the idea or businesses has a large market potential. All applications to Ignition are assessed to ensure they adhere to the assessment criteria: the novelty of the
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business or idea innovation, the likelihood of business sustainability, and a large market potential. “We encourage applications to Ignition by the owner or originator of the idea or business and specifically encourage new and aspiring entrepreneurs with limited experience of starting a business to attend, as they will gain the most value from the program. Passion and ambition to take the idea forward and make it happen are highly important attributes for success at Ignition and more important than prior business skills.” Each day in the program focusses on a different aspect of business as Barrett explains. “Monday is marketing, Tuesday is business models, Wednesday is finance and Thursday is all about team building and presentation skills. In mentor sessions delegates apply the knowledge gained in the morning to their own ideas and businesses and build the 10 minute business plan or investor presentation that they will deliver in the pitch panels on Friday afternoon. “For those seeking investment it is an opportunity to trial their pitches in a ‘safe’ environment and offers the opportunity to meet investors and go forward if there is interest. The sense of relief after delivering their pitch is immense; many say they need a drink!” Among the applications on offer for the program are 10 female scholarships. Barrett says that encouraging more female entrepreneurs through these scholarships has seen a rise in female participation. “Women, specifically older women who were brought up to ‘service the needs of their husbands and
bring up the children’, may not have had the same opportunity as men, so may need some extra help to ‘get going’. Not necessarily by providing knowledge but by providing them the ability to think ‘I can’. “Thankfully that world has now changed and women are better able to compete with their male counterparts in business. The Department of Local Government and Communities are sponsoring 10 places on Ignition for female entrepreneurs. They have supported Ignition for the last two years and in that time, female participation in Ignition has risen from 27 per cent in 2013 to 46 per cent in 2014.” One of the many successful ideas to come out of past Ignition programs was created by mum and housewife, Erica Ferguson. “As golfer she had a concept for a device to put on sunscreen without getting cream over your hands. We remember Erica as being very nervous prior to delivering her 10 minute pitch but she did it and since Ignition has brought her concept to market as sunSmudg!” “Other notable examples include Sharon Grosser from SEQTA software, as well as Steve Carolan from CV Check and Clinton House, and Sam Judd has given up her day job to focus on her growing business that produces the FlipLid lunchbox and is going forward to look at other innovative new products.” Applications are now open for Ignition which runs from Sunday, August 23, to Friday, August 28, at Curtin University. LUCY RUTHERFORD
Sam Judd attended Curtin Uni’s Ignition series in the lead up to launching her FlipLid lunchbox business
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Empyrean Education Institute, Northbridge
EMPYREAN EDUCATION INSTITUTE Looking to learn skills in hospitality or business? Then look no further than Empyrean Education Institute. EEI offers courses in Commercial Cookery, Hospitality, Business and Management and all courses are accredited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. Located in the centre of Northbridge, the EEI training facilities include the chance for students to train in a ‘live’ environment at the onsite commercial bar, performing arts theatre and function centre which host real customers and events. Students also have the option of flexible study to gain Australian Certificate and Diploma qualifications. Apply by Thursday, May 28, for a discount in course fees for terms starting Monday, July 6, or Monday, September 28. For full details head to eei. wa.edu.au.
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“We wanted to have ideas and feel confident in the simplicity of an idea rather than feeling like it had to be accompanied with more sounds.”
Ahead of the release of their sixth studio album, Why Make Sense?, this Friday, May 15, Hot Chip’s Felix Martin speaks to JAI CHOUHAN. Stripping back the layers on Why Make Sense? Hot Chip have put their heads together for one of their most exciting efforts yet. “There’s still an element of complexity, it was more just feeling like we wanted to have ideas and feel confident in the simplicity of an idea rather than feeling like it had to be accompanied with more sounds,” Felix Martin says. “It’s a lot more difficult to do than just add more stuff which is maybe what we’ve done in the past, we’ve tended
to just keep layering things on because it’s fun to do but this is was harder and took a lot longer.” When asked about the inspiration behind the album, Martin opens with the record taking, ‘about a year-and-a-half to make’. “There wasn’t one thing that we were inspired by that we sort of sat down and agreed on. It was more just, as we went through the sessions recording stuff, we would tend to have certain things in mind; like we wanted it to be more stripped back, we wanted it to have fewer elements, we wanted it to have something in common with the R&B productions from the early 2000s and late ‘90s that we really like. There were some kind of guiding principles, but there wasn’t really a set of 10 commandments about how we were going to do it.”
Collaborating on the album, the group’s friends and affiliates came to be an important part of the release. “Sarah Jones, the drummer from the live band was a huge part of the sessions, enabling recording to be set up more like a band.” Mark Ralph, who was involved with the recordings on Hot Chip’s last album, In Our Heads, also sat in again for the electronic icons’ sixth release. “He’s just sort of part of the family really,” says Martin. “He gets where we’re coming from and he gets what we wanna do, so it makes it easy and fun to work with him.” Also involved on Why Make Sense? was De La Soul’s Posdnuos, featuring on the second track of the album. “It was just kind of like, ‘oh, we could just ask one of our musical heroes to contribute to the
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album. Okay, lets do that then’, and that happened. It was something that was really exciting when he came back because it was really funny, kind of unique sounding and a bit of a departure for us, something that we haven’t really dabbled in before.” With the album released this week, Hot Chip will follow up with heavy touring until October, hitting both the US and Europe. Although there’s no Australian dates set in stone yet, Martin is sure they’ll make it out in time for festival season. “ I i m ag i n e i t wo u l d b e i n yo u r summertime,” he says. “We’ve always had such a good following there and had such a good time that I think we’ll definitely be back. I just don’t know where or when at the moment.”
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TENDERHOOKS Flamily Ties Tenderhooks launch their self-titled album on Saturday, May 23, at Jimmy’s Den with help from The Community Chest, The Coalminers Sect, Tracksuit and Matthew De La Hunty. BOB GORDON catches up with vocalist, Dan Durack. When Dan Durack returned to his native Perth after nearly a decade spent in England, the former Three Orange Whips vocalist wanted nothing more than to get a band rolling once again and to do it with good friends. Tenderhooks is the result and they have just released a self-titled debut album, showcasing their fine wares. “At the start there was just a big bunch of songs I’d been storing up overseas,” Durack says of the band’s beginning in 2013. “Songs that were unsuitable for the garage punk band I was playing with. I always wanted Stu Loasby (The Burton Cool Suit, Majestic Kelp, 6s & 7s, Datura) to be a part of it. We’d been blathering about getting something happening for years. It might sound boring but it’s become a lot of what I’d hoped it would be – a lively bunch of fellas I enjoy hanging out with who are also great players.” During his time away Durack played with a band called Thee Savage Kicks, which served to remind and confirm for him his strengths as a writer and a performer. “When I moved to England I stopped playing for a while but never stopped writing,” he says. “I hid behind a guitar once I started gigging in London so I didn’t have to maintain
the ridiculous lead singer antics, but I’ve realised I’ll never be able to put 100 per cent into both playing a guitar and singing at the same time so I’ve scaled it back to the odd Elvis-style acoustic strum. Which works well because we now have Aidan Gordon on board who’s incredibly talented at both. So what are you writing about these days? “The usual,” Durack responds. “Relationshit, reminiscences and other flim-flam.” Rounding out the flim-flam deliveries are Nigel Harford (Stray Tapes, German Humour, White Cross) on bass and Malcolm Clark (Sleepy Jackson, The Basement Birds, Jeff Martin 777, The Weapon Is Sound), who recently took over on drums from Dayvid Clark. With an album now released, Durack’s future plans for the band are simply a case of keep on keepin’ on. “I couldn’t be happier with the album,” he says, “which features such sterling folks from the players to production to mastering and I’d like to think that even though I’m getting a bit ancient the tunes will kind of float out there and get in people’s ears. “After the launch I want to keep this lineup of the band together, record another album and keep playing at places where they serve booze and welcome people who like to have a listen and a lark.”
MIAMI HORROR LA Story It’s been five years since Miami Horror released their debut album, Illumination, and after spending a busy three years living and recording in Los Angeles, the Aussie synthpoppers have returned with their all-new record, All Possible Futures. GABBI JOHNSTON reports. Miami Horror’s sophomore album has been a long time coming, but over that time the group’s sound has grown and matured. Frontman, Ben Plant, says the new album is the result of blending the feel of Illumination with some new and experimental sounds. “I think we really tried to achieve a balance between what we really wanted and doing what you would expect from the first album,” he says. “We initially started with a lot of experimentation with different genres and sounds to what we normally would, and then kind of tied it all together with the sound of the original album.” With the boys confident they had their production techniques sorted after recording their first album, Plant says the foursome had more of a chance to write from a deeper, personal perspective on All Possible Futures. “We focused a lot on songwriting, which we didn’t really focus on so much in the first album. That was more about production and genre, but this time we felt that we already had that down pat and we focused more on writing from a personal point.” Ahead of the album release, fans got their first taste of the updated Miami Horror sound with lead single, Love Like Mine, getting regular airplay on triple j. Plant says the response from listeners has been nothing but positive. “It’s been all good news so far. They’ve played it for four weeks on high rotation so it’s pretty good for us. The rest of the world seems to be reacting well too, and I haven’t seen anything bad.” The new album draws plenty of inspiration from LA’s laid-back lifestyle, and Plant says it’s a place he’s always been fascinated with from a young age. “We chose LA just because it’s a very original city. Even compared with a lot of places in Europe – they all have their own thing about them but they’re quite similar in the way that they’re built and the weather and the way that they’re run. I guess LA has its own strange thing that I’ve always been attracted to from childhood.” As well as having a unique vibe, LA also happens to house some of the best recording studios in the world. Interestingly enough, however, Miami Horror
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chose to record the new album from the comfort of their own home studio. The quality of production is a testament to Plant’s skills behind the desk, and he says it’s no different to how they would have done it back home in Australia. “We recorded at home in LA and we would have recorded at home in Australia too. It’s more so that we’re lucky enough to be in the position that we can do it wherever we want. We found the place really interesting and we rented a house and had a studio in there.”
“We recorded at home in LA and we would have recorded at home in Australia too. It’s more so that we’re lucky enough to be in the position that we can do it wherever we want.”
Although Miami Horror have never officially released any music in the US, the band is starting to develop a devoted American fan base. “We had already toured America maybe two or three times before,” says Plant. “Once DJing and twice with the band. Considering we never really officially released anything here and it was all just word of mouth, we got a really good reaction.” Most of the band members also have side projects they’ve been busy working on while living in the US for the past couple of years. “Josh (Moriarty) has always been interested in a more rockier style of music, so All The Colours was his outlet for that. Wunder Wunder was this idea that Aaron (Shanahan) and I had where we went for more of a psychedelic, ’60s-inspired style. We weren’t sure if that music would fit Miami Horror, so we created that outlet to do that and we wanted to get that out of the system before we went on to the Miami Horror record.” Now that All Possible Futures has been released, Plant says the band would like to be based back in Australia, but they no longer have anywhere to set up tent Down Under after living overseas for so long. For the time being, it looks like LA will be home to Miami Horror – though they’re set to hit the road to promote the album soon. “We’re probably going to be touring for the next two years, so there won’t be much downtime,” says Plant. “I guess it will be spread between LA and Australia, but the thing with LA is we have a house, so that’s kind of become home for the moment, whereas every time we go to Australia we have to find somewhere to stay. “Sometimes it’s not about what place you want to be in, it’s more about not moving to another place. It’s just nice to stay somewhere for a while, so I guess once we’re back in Oz we probably won’t want to fly back to LA soon.”
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THE JOY EVELATION Jump For Joy The Joy Evelation release their latest EP, Stain, this Sunday, May 17, with a show at the Oddfellow in Fremantle. Singer/ guitarist Mia Joy tells SHANE PINNEGAR how they came to be recording in the city of angels, LA. “That’s the wonder of social media,” she explains enthusiastically. “Probably 2012, through Facebook I connected up with Dino Maddalone. He’s a Grammy award winning producer and a really good drummer. He’s done lots of stuff over in LA and has his own studio. He also has a TV program over there for Warner (The Ask Dino Show). He heard that we were coming out to LA the first time and wanted to put us on his show, which he did. From there we grew a friendship. When we were in L.A. we went out with him so we stayed friends. “The next time we went back to L.A. our original band members didn’t want to go - they pulled out at the last minute. I had a tour booked and everything, so I rang him up. I said ‘Dino, you’ve got to help me out - these guys can’t come. If you know any new blokes that would be interested…?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll do it, and I’ve got a really cool bass player.’ I’m like, ‘Okay!’ “We went over [and] rehearsed for about an hour and a half and they were amazing. I was blown away. I was like a bunny in the headlights. I was like, ‘Oh my God. They know my songs better than me. I’m having my ass kicked right now.’” That bass player was Dig Lewis, a veteran of many tours and recordings with the likes of John Mellancamp, Stevie Wonder, Boz Scaggs and another of Joy’s favourite acts. “Tina Turner - who I really love,” she enthuses, “He’s like royalty, [and] he’s so humble you’d probably never hear about. He’s done a lot of Motown stuff. He’s done an incredible amount of stuff and has his own production company now. He’s an amazing musician to the point where I’m like, I don’t even know how I got to play with him, but he’s got a really good music company.” After recording the rhythm section in L.A. and her and musical partner Rob Garnett’s parts
Mia Joy
back in her own studio, Joy is beside herself with excitement about the new material. “[The songs] are quite different from what we’ve done before. We’ve got a whole new lot of material which we’re going to bring out as an album in October, and we’re venturing [into some] different areas. I don’t know where it’s going to end up. I love rock, blues, soul… so, I don’t know. I’ll let it grow and see what happens.” On their trips to Los Angeles The Joy Evelation have managed to play at iconic rock venues on the Sunset Strip such as The Whiskey A Go Go and The Viper Room. “We played there originally in 2012,” explains Joy, “and then went back last year and played with Gus G. He is from Ozzy Osbourne’s band. That was interesting. We also played at The House of Blues. That was really cool too. “Actually, it sounds ridiculous,” she continues, “but [playing the Whiskey] is actually one of the pinnacles of me ever doing anything in music. It’s just incredible that you’re in a venue that is so iconic and has such a history of the people playing there. On top of the dynamic new Stain EP getting its launch this weekend, they’ve just been announced to support the Baby Animals and Superjesus She Who Rocks tour on Friday, 22 May, and there’s the album to finish. She’s also recording an acoustic album to be released under her own name, but that is “...on the back burner of the moment while we’re doing all this.” In addition to singing and some voice over work, Joy has also dabbled in acting and says she wanted to be a performer from as young as she can remember. “I’m really shy. which can come off as being snobby or arrogant,” she explains, “but on the other side, probably from when I was 1, I was standing in front of the TV and singing and dancing and saying ‘Don’t you watch the TV, watch me!’”
CONTACT TIM@XPRESSMAG.COM.AU NOW!
Adria
14/05
MIRACLE BAND X Self Titled EP Launch @ The Odd Fellow
15/05
RUBY BOOTS Solitude Album Launch @ The Rosemount
15/05
SULLY Into The Breach Single Launch @ Babushka
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ADRIA Shell EP Launch @ Jimmy’s Den
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THE JOY EVELATION Stain CD Launch @ The Odd Fellow
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BERNADINE Self Titled Album Launch @ The Ellington
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TRIANGLE FIGHT Silver Mountain EP Launch @ The Rosemount
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DAN CRIBB AND THE ISLOATED As We Drift Apart Album Launch @ Amplifier
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TENDERHOOKS Self Titled Album Launch @ Jimmy’s Den
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RISE OF AVERNUS Dramatis Personae EP Launch @ The Civic
29/05
MICHAEL TRISCARI Driftwood Single Launch @ The Odd Fellow
30/05
DIGITAL ORDER Single Launch @ The Velvet Lounge
30/05
FIGHT THE MORNING 1833 EP Launch @ The Paddington
12/06
THE LEAP YEAR 7” Launch @ The Astor Lounge WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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THE BAKERY THE FINAL CURTAIN The Bakery Saturday, May 9, 2015
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SXPNTHR
Sabre Tooth Tigers
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Seemingly the entire Perth music industry turned out for The Bakery’s last hurrah on Saturday night, and though the crowd ebbed and lowed over the long day’s journey into night, it was never far below capacity. It was a bittersweet event, the excellence of the entertainment on hand counterbalanced by the grim reality that the current economic climate and the value of the land it stood on meant that the iconic venue was worth more dead than alive now. Still, even when the battle is over and the field is lost, the crowd managed to pour one out (more than one, really - the bars were crushed all night) for the defunct venue in fine style.
Felicity Groom
With so many fine performers on hand, including Felicity Groom, Rachael Dease, Smrts, The Weapon Is Sound, The Wednesday Society and more, it’s hard to pick out highlights. Perpetual Perth presence Tomás Ford pulled a surprisingly early slot, much to the consternation of some dogs in the courtyard, who made a good show of trying to savage the lanky showman when he attempted to lure punters inside. Later on in the proceedings, Injured Ninja’s Epic Of Gilgamesh project saw an impressive number of drummers, professional and otherwise, joining in for an epic, mythical soundscape. Still, it felt more like a party than a gig, and while the stage was never short of a large audience, the courtyard was likewise packed with the friendly and familiar catching up, commiserating, drinking, laughing. and generally doing their best to mark the occasion as indelibly as possible. It’s a difficult time for the Perth music scene, with The Bakery being just one of many venues closing their doors, but rather than dwell on the negative, let’s remember the fine times that were had. Thanks, Bakery crew: you were the best. TRAVIS JOHNSON Photos by Daniel Grant
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Wednesday Society
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OPETH Voyager Astor Theatre Friday, May 8, 2015 Swedish band Opeth are one of the biggest heavy metal acts in the world. With a career spanning decades and a whopping 11 studio albums under their belt it’s no surprise that they can sell out shows all around Australia. The Perth show was no exception, with the 1000+ capacity Astor Theatre completely sold out. Warming up for Opeth must have been a daunting task but Perth locals Voyager knocked it out of the park. Frontman Daniel Estrin is an incredible vocalist, his voice soaring across the room, piercing through the madness with astounding grace. Musically, Voyager are a classic metal band, but there’s a strong influence of funk and groove Ace Frehley | Pic: Cole Maguire metal that takes it to the next level – if you’ll forgive the cliché. Voyager put just as much effort into their performance as they do their songs, combining the over-the-top theatrics of the ‘80s with the energy of a modern hardcore band. Revelling in the joy of playing with their heroes, the band got the entire Astor Theatre crowd shouting “Opeth” before closing out the set Thursday, May 7, 2015 with their 2011 track, The Meaning Of I. The lights dimmed and Opeth walked onto Opeth - Photo By Denis Radacic A very dyed-in-the-wool rock’n’roll crowd swarmed the stage, the crowd screaming as the band leapt into the Astor Theatre last Thursday. It had been into their opening tracks - Eternal Rains Shall Come album. Åkerfeldt took some time to speak to the a good five years since Ace Frehley, Kiss’ iconic crowd, recalling his entry to the band at age 16. and Cusp Of Eternity - which also open up their latest and original lead guitarist had performed in Perth. album, Pale Communion. While a swarm rushed to Joking that when he joined the band as bass player, Arguably (or perhaps not) the coolest of the band’s he was actually incapable of playing bass, so he was the front of the stage, seated fans took to the aisles, classic line-up, Frehley’s larrikin ways have alw2ays eager to get in on the action with standing-room lucky that then guitarist was fired, so he could take made him popular with Australian audiences, and over the role. Sure, the story may have been slightly quickly becoming a crowd crush. After finishing embellished, but it was good to see the band joking while there were a few young faces at this show, the first trio of songs, frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt around, adding a little humour to their performance. the majority of this audience were clearly big fans of explained that his throat was a little croaky, but he Launching into April Ethereal, followed by Space Ace going back some decades. was going to do his best to “scream and shit” - a hint The Lotus Eater, the crowd burst into a frenzy, waves With an artist straight outta the history that they would be exploring a few of their older and of fans flinging themselves into the chaos at the front books, support slots are always an honour for younger heavier songs, which drew an enormous cheer from of the room. Finishing up with The Grand Conjuration bands, but can also be incredibly hard to pull off. the crowd. from their 2005 album The Ghost Reveries, they said Psychonaut (of whom guitarist, Mark DeVattimo The band’s earlier work had been missing goodbye and left the stage - but not for long. Sticking once donned Frehley’s clobber in a Kiss tribute band) from the their set list on previous tours – which to the tradition of giving the crowd an encore, and Legs Electric did well to pull solid sets out of they immediately rectified, launching into The Moor they returned to the stage for one last song – but their own bags of rock’n’roll tricks, the latter clearly from their 1999 album, Still Life. The inclusion of not before riffing on some classic Metallica tunes. silencing the sections of the crowd who appeared to the popular, heavier music was a pushbutton for They finished up with the 13 minute masterpiece initially think that girls couldn’t rock. craziness at the front of the stage, the fans exploding Deliverance, from the 2002 album of the same name. With a spirited intro from tour manager into chaos. Åkerfeldt would later state that while It was the perfect end to the night, winding up what John Howarth, Ace Frehley and his band tore into he usually wouldn’t ask fans to mosh, he’d make an was an amazing performance. Opeth are heading 1977’s Rocket Ride, from the studio side of Kiss’ Alive exception as he was having a great time watching back to Europe now, but if you want to catch Voyager II album. It’s a rollercoaster of a tune at the best of them from the stage. they’re starting a national tour towards the end of the times, but while the tempo seemed to vary, Frehley Heading back into their latest album, month. and his band kept it on track in a blaze of blistering they played the fan-favourite Elysian Woes, followed blues-based solos and all ‘round drummer-geddon. by Windowpane from their 2003 Damnation DAN MULLINS Casual-as-fuck at all times, Frehley led the band into
ACE FREHLEY
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Gimme A Feelin’ from his recent album, Space Invader. ‘We’ve had some great audiences on this Australian tour’, said Frehley by way of working the crowd up. ‘Even Hobart kicked ass!’ Another new song, Boys Toys, followed and while the reaction to his more recent solo material was enthusiastic, it must be said that it wasn’t anywhere near what it was when he played classic Kiss material such as Parasite, Love Gun, King Of The Night Time World and Strutter (featuring drummer Scot Coogan on impressively Paul Stanleylike vocals) or 2000 Man, a sloppy Talk To Me and Strange Ways (sung by bassist, Chris Wyse, who also contributed a strong, but perhaps unnecessary bass solo) or any of the songs from his 1978 solo debut (Snowblind, New York Groove). Still, the likes of late Eric Carr-penned Breakout and Too Young To Die (both featuring dual guitar solos featuring Frehley’s long-time/occasional foil, Richie Scarlett) were sturdy and let’s not forget, LOUD. This was old school and so it was appropriate that the show ended with Shock Me (including a signature, smoking guitar solo) and the first song that Frehley ever jammed on with Kiss, 1973’s Deuce. Ace Frehley is worshipped as a guitar legend by fans yet perhaps derided by aficionados who state he’s a long ways behind technicians such as Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai or Joe Satriani. But the fluidity and feel of his playing certainly launched a great many rock’n’roll hearts back in the day and it did so again on this very night. It was just so... him. Look, it’s rock’n’roll. BOB GORDON
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EVERCLEAR, MAY 14
JEBEDIAH, JUNE 26, 27, 28.
TO URS THIS WEEK
EVERCLEAR 14 Rosemount Hotel ALT-J 15 HBF Stadium BACKSTREET BOYS 15 Perth Arena BRITISH INDIA 15 Dunsborough Tavern 16 Capitol 17 Newport Hotel THE ANGELS with DAVE GLEESON 15 & 16 Charles Hotel ONRA 15 Parker PALOMA FAITH 16 Perth Concert Hall RIBLJA CORBA 16 Astor Theatre BAM MARGERA AS FFU 17 Capitol ENTER SHIKARI 18 Metropolis Fremantle MAY 2015
NECRO 20 Metropolis Fremantle SPANDAU BALLET 22 Perth Arena BABY ANIMALS & THE SUPERJESUS 22 & 23 Charles Hotel KARNIVOOL 22 Metro City COLIN HAY 23 Regal Theatre 24 Colonial Brewery, Margaret River MOTLEY CRUE 23 Perth Arena SHAGGY 23 Astor Theatre TOMMY LEE & DJ AERO 23 Parker PETER BIBBY 24 Mojos NICKELBACK 26 Perth Arena DEFEATER 28 YMCA HQ 29 Rosemount Hotel ANDREW STRONG 29 Astor Theatre PANOS KIAMOS 29 HBF Stadium
DARYL BRAITHWAITE 29 Charles Hotel DENMARK FESTIVAL OF VOICE 29 – 31 Denmark Civic Centre DAVE WARNER 30 Charles Hotel THE FUNKROARS 30 Amplifier MATT GRESHAM 30 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre STATE OF THE ART MUSIC FESTIVAL ft. BIRDS OF TOKYO, YOU AM I, THE SCIENTISTS, DOWNSYDE, KATY STEELE & many more! 30 Perth Cultural Centre LANCELOT 31 Geisha
HIATUS KAIYOTE, JULY 29.
BRIAN KENNEDY 10 Victoria Hall THE GETAWAY PLAN 12 Rosemount Hotel HARTS 12 Amplifier 13 Settlers Tavern 14 Newport Hotel THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER 18 Capitol SCHNEIDER KACIREK 21 Four5Nine Bar SONGS IN THE KEY OF MOTOWN 24 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre 25 Astor Theatre JEBEDIAH 26, 27 & 28 Astor Theatre 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 29 Perth Arena MACHINE HEAD 29 Astor Theatre
SEPTEMBER 2015 JULY 2015
JUNE 2015
BORIS 1 Rosemount Hotel IN HEARTS WAKE 2 YMCA HQ 3 Metropolis Fremantle BEN HOWARD 3 Fremantle Arts Centre AGAINST ME! with JOYCE MANOR 4 Rosemount Hotel KINGSWOOD 4 Jimmy’s Den RILEY LEE 4 St. Paul’s Church VOYAGER with KLONE 5 Amplifier R.A. THE RUGGED MAN 5 Game Sports Bar DIESEL 6 Charles Hotel YNGWIE MALMSTEEN 6 Astor Theatre KIM SALMON & SPENCER P. JONES BAND 7 Mojos DEEZNUTS 9 YMCA HQ 10 Amplifier KARISE EDEN 10 Albany Entertainment Centre
FEATURED GIG
THE CLOWNS 3 Prince of Wales 4 Four5Nine Bar 5 Mojos YELLOWCARD 4 Metro City AUSTRALIAN ROCK WITH ANGRY ANDERSON 4 Charles Hotel THE MANFREDS 4 Astor Theatre TIM ROGERS & THE BAMBOOS 4 Rosemount Hotel JIMMY BARNES 10 Crown Theatre THE CHURCH 16 Settlers Tavern 17 Prince of Wales 18 Rosemount Hotel JOHNNY MARR 18 Metropolis Fremantle DEAD LETTER CIRCUS 19 Rosemount Hotel ADAM HARVEY 22 Albany Entertainment Centre MARK RONSON 22 Metro City THE WOMBATS 23 Metro City JOSH PYKE with WASO 24 Perth Concert Hall V CAPRI 25 Charles Hotel BLUR with JAMIE T 30 Perth Arena AUGUST 2015
BRITISH INDIA CAPITOL MAY 16 28
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HOODOO GURUS with ESKIMO JOE 8 Cable Beach Amphitheatre THE AUSTRALIAN BEE GEES SHOW 15 Regal Theatre 16 Albany Entertainment Centre YOB 19 Rosemount Hotel PEACE TRAIN: THE CAT STEVENS STORY 21 Astor Theatre 22 Albany Entertainment Centre THE BEATLES FOREVER 27 Albany Entertainment Centre ELVIS MEETS THE BEATLES 28 HBF Stadium HIATUS KAIYOTE 29 Rosemount Hotel
RUBBER SOUL REVOLVER 1 Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS 5 Rosemount Hotel PHIL JAMIESON 5 Dunsborough Tavern 6 Highway Hotel 7 Leisure Inn 9 The Saint Hotel, Innaloo DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE 6 Metro City
THE STORY SO FAR with MAN OVERBOARD 2 Amplifier 3 YMCA HQ TYLER OAKLEY 9 Perth Concert Hall BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS 9 Regal Theatre JULIA MORRIS 11 Regal Theatre ROY ORBISON & THE EVERLY BROTHERS 12 Crown Theatre THE TEN SOPRANOS 25 Astor Theatre JOAN BAEZ 30 Perth Concert Hall OCTOBER 2015
KISS 3 Perth Arena AT THE GATES 28 Amplifier 10CC 28 Astor Theatre HOZIER 28 Belvoir Amphitheatre FLEETWOOD MAC 30 Domain Stadium NOVEMBER 2015
ANATHEMA 1 Rosemount Hotel NEIL DIAMOND 14 Sandalford Estate 16 Perth Arena AC/DC 27 Domain Stadium UB40 28 Metropolis Fremantle DECEMBER 2015
ED SHEERAN 2 NIB Stadium THE SCREAMING JETS 5 & 6 Charles Hotel JANUARY 2016
NIGHTWISH 15 Metropolis Fremantle
FOR ALL WEEKLY EVENTS DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MAGAZINE APP AVAILABLE FROM DOWNLOAD OUR FREE EVENTS GUIDE APP Deadline Monday 5pm. X-Press Guide is a service to advertisers listing all entertainment events. All inclusions are at the discretion of X-Press. Email guide@xpressmag.com.au
LYTS, MAY 13
DALLAS FRASCA, MAY 15.
WEEKLY WEDNESDAY 13/05
AMPLIFIER Amplifier Wednesdays: issue #1 ft. Dianas Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Segue Safari AJ Wigwams Kopano Mel Jackson THE BEAT Street Wednesdays THE BIRD LYTS Night Signals Hussy Zerodent CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Songwriter’s Night ft. Salt Tree Music CLUB KAHUNA Ch33k ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Straight Ahead Big Band Night Cap Sessions THE GOOD SHEPHERD HERD ft. Black Stone From The Sun Rum Punch Fuzz Toad The Procrastinators Gamba Circle Jerk Dick Jockies HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen MOJOS Abbe May Jeffs Dead Abacaxuva THE MOON CAFÉ Hayley Beth Laurel Fixation MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday – Backpacker & Student Fest ft. PUMP NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays ROSEMOUNT HOTEL One Thousand Years Dan Peters & the Volatyles Sciatika & more! ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz THURSDAY 14/05 AMPLIFIER Last Night ft. Dance Gavin Dance Finders Afraid of Heights
ASTOR LOUNGE The Western Suburbs Windows to the World Flyball Gov’nor THE BIRD Hip Hop Kara”Yo!”Ke – Welcome to Atlanta CIVIC HOTEL Steve’s Karaoke DEFECTORS BAR Songwriters Klub ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Orquestra Yambeque Night Cap Sessions THE GOOD SHEPHERD Special Delivery #2 HULA BULA BAR Rhum Club INDI BAR Open Mic Dallas Frasca (Album Launch) & guests MUSTANG BAR Thumpin’ Thursdays ft.Frenzy DJ James Mac THE ODD FELLOW Miracle Band X & guests 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rock N Roll Karaoke ft. Magnus Danger Magnus ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Everclear SETTLERS TAVERN Open Mic Night ft. Claire Warnock SWAN LOUNGE Summer Collision The Wildcards Slacker Aurora FRIDAY 15/05 AMBAR Deekline Mafia Kiss Miss Demeanour Black & Blunt Beat Slappaz AMPLIFIER DFC Mhorgl Suffer in Rot ASTOR LOUNGE The Rosemary Beads The Beautiful Losers THE BIRD Flower Drums Fait Leafy Suburbs RKDA DJ LAZ13OY CAPITOL VICES CLANCYS CANNING BRIDGE Boullibass DJ Boogie CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Sunset Belly Dancers
FEATURED GIG
ALT-J HBF STADIUM FRIDAY, MAY 15
CLANCY’S FREMANTLE The Fab Three (Beatles Tribute) DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN British India Grenadiers Tired Lion ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Cassandra Charlick (UK) Ruby & The Remedy EVE NIGHTCLUB Candy Fridays GEISHA BAR Edu Imbernon GINGER NIGHTCLUB Mondo Fridays GOLD BAR Fox Fridays THE GOOD SHEPHERD Throwback HBF STADIUM Alt-J HULA BULA Friday Frendzee INDI BAR Dallas Frasca THE LIBRARY Dorcia METRO CITY Flashback – The Official Backstreet Boys After Party METROPOLIS FREMANTLE The Animal House: Annual Disney Bash MOJOS BAR Aborted Tortoise Doctopus HAMJAM Pat Chow Thee Gold Blooms Yokohomos MUSTANG BAR Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Flash Nat & The Action Men NEWPORT HOTEL Friday Fiesta THE ODD FELLOW Sh’mon DJs RAILWAY HOTEL Intercranial Tremors (VIC) Souls of Bughuul BloodKlot Dethlahem The Uncreation ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Ruby Boots (Album Launch) The Ghost Hotel Flooded Palace Little Lord Street Band ROSIE O’GRADY’S NORTHBRIDGE Wesley Goodlet Jamboree Scouts SETTLERS TAVERN The Amani Consort SWAN BASEMENT Clincher Colour Control Moscow Train Dogs Discordians SWAN LOUNGE Trustee Brown & guests VILLA Syndicate ft. Valentino Khan Getter UFO SATURDAY 16/05 AMBAR Japan 4 AMPLIFIER Anna O Angus Dawson Bri Clark Music ASTOR LOUNGE Rock Monsters: Series II – Green Day Tribute ft. Nimrod Mike Nayar & band ASTOR THEATRE Riblja Corba THE BIRD Aborted Tortoise (Vinyl EP Launch) CAPITOL British India & special guests
RACHAEL DEASE, MAY 17.
CIVIC HOTEL PULMAC ft. Flyball Gov’nor The Milkmen Dan Peters & The Volatyles September Sun CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Gavin Shoesmith Trio CLANCY’S FREMANTLE King of the Travellers (Single & Video Launch) EAST END BAR & LOUNGE Home ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Cassandra Charlick (UK) R&B Party with Cian Caton & friends FLYRITE Father GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus HULA BULA Sailor Saturdays JIMMY’S DEN Adria (EP Launch) Lilt Grrl Pal Velveteen LLAMA BAR Laundry METRO FREO Metropolis Saturdays MOJOS BAR The Floors Red Engine Caves Rag N Bone MUSTANG BAR Johnny Law DJ Holly Doll Milhouse DJ James Mac THE ODD FELLOW Kenny Austin & guests PARKER Red & Black Party PERTH CONCERT HALL Paloma Faith ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Soul Provider Block Party ft. Lazy Grey Jake Biz & DJ Dcide Grand Lodge 3 Maundz Mata & Must Fluent Form Raven Dialect & Despair One Sixth Soma Vic The Bitter & Bfumez DJ Polar DJ Kid Tsu Eddy Extract ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Turin Robinson SETTLERS TAVERN Dallas Royal SHAPE HUSH SWALLOW BAR Nick Sheppard SWAN BASEMENT Reef and The Riff Raff Black River Ransom South Saturn Delta Yaqui Yeti SUNDAY 17/05 THE BIRD THNMF12: Magnolia’s Late Night Live CAPITOL Bam Margera as F*ckface Unstoppable Havoc CIVIC HOTEL Steve Hepple CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Limelights Jazz CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH Ruby Boots Polly Medlen
CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Decks on the Decks ft. DJ Jiminy Kickit Casual Sets DEFECTORS BAR Open Sesame – Mt. Lawley Open Mic Night DUNSBOROUGH HOTEL Clint Boge & guests ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Marnie Kent Quintet FLYRITE MVMNT HULA BULA BAR Tropical Sundaze MOJOS BAR Status Factory Recommends 002 ft. ASSAD Rachael Dease Duo Chris Cobilis & Yenting Hsu Atripat Alzabo Sam Atkin Laurel Fixation THE MOON CAFÉ Patient Little Sister Shola Lee NEWPORT HOTEL British India NORTHBRIDGE PIAZZA Sunday Sounds ft. Rachel Gorman Howie Morgan THE ODD FELLOW The Joy Evelation ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Scorcher Fest ft. Ascending Fall Black Cat Black Ink Blake Rose Cookdwepn Counterfeit God Crawford Bros. el Fresco Burgers Francis White General Public Hayley Novelli Iron Cypher Jamaica Scream Lachie King Lost For Reason McLambo Mel & the Bournes Oak Tree Suite Odie Ozymandias II Placid Raksha ShortCut Slick & the Oilys Something Humble Sound Castle Technicolour DreamCat The Crusherz The Devil In Miss Jones The Drools The Florizels Three Quarter Flat Tinnez Tijuan Benefactor Tonite Tyto ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down ft. Aslan Klean Kicks Pawel Good Company DJs Sleepyhead Beni Chill Jo Lettenmaier Tim King SETTLERS TAVERN Sunday Session ft. Empire-Acoustic SWALLOW BAR Jessie Gordon Duo MONDAY 18/05 BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness Student & Industry Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night
TRIANGLE FIGHT, MAY 21.
ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Song Lounge ft. Bernardine (Album Launch) Matt Allen Megan Grant Anna-Kat METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Enter Shikari MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia TUESDAY 19/05 BRASS MONKEY Open Mic Night ft. Shaun Street ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Adrian Kelly LLAMA BAR Ruby Tuesdays MOJOS BAR Blood Groove Nectar Bowser & more NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night TORCH BAR Quiz Meisters WEDNESDAY 20/05 AMBAR VERSUS – UWA vs. Curtin CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Songwriter’s Night ft. Shane Corry Matt Minchin CLUB KAHUNA Ch33k ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Danny Moss Jr. & friends Night Cap Sessions HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen MOJOS BAR Abbe May Fall Electric Lucy Peach THE MOON CAFÉ Ben Mayhem Luke Dux MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday – Backpacker & Student Fest ft. Blue Gene NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Apollo Million The Durongs Little Death Sunshine Punch ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz THURSDAY 21/05 AMPLIFIER Last Night – Welcome to the Black Parade ft. Lights of Berlin Vice Versa Paper Walls CIVIC HOTEL Steve’s Karaoke DEFECTORS BAR Songwriters Klub ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Manteca Night Cap Sessions THE GOOD SHEPHERD Segue Safari Late Night Hysterics Kallan Phillips band Bliss In Berlin
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DIANAS, MAY 23.
Nathalie Pavlovic & more HULA BULA BAR Rhum Club INDI BAR Open Mic MOJOS BAR Palace of the King Legs Electric MUSTANG BAR Thumpin’ Thursdays ft. Kickstart DJ James Mac 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rock N Roll Karaoke ft. Magnus Danger Magnus ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Triangle Fight (EP Launch) Max & The Electric The Discordians SETTLERS TAVERN Comedy @ Settlers ft. Mike G Steve Bedwell SWAN LOUNGE The Dead Capital Sunshine Punch Leoh Aaron Gwynaire FRIDAY 22/05
AMBAR Yum Cha ft. Mace ASTOR LOUNGE Palace of the King Legs Electric ASTOR THEATRE The Official Blues Brothers Revue THE BIRD Leure (Single Launch) Mei Saraswati New Native CLANCYS CANNING BRIDGE Boullibass DJ Boogie CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Sunset Belly Dancers CLANCY’S FREMANTLE The Fab Three (Beatles Tribute) ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Ben Falle & Friends James Flynn Quintet EVE NIGHTCLUB Candy Fridays HULA BULA Friday Frendzee THE LIBRARY Sneaky METRO CITY Karnivool MOJOS BAR The Big Splash Band Comp 2015 ft. Pat Chow Dream Rimmy The Long Lost Brothers Hunting Huxley MUSTANG BAR Adam Hall & The Velvet Playboys Flash Nat & The Action Men THE ODD FELLOW Flower Drums & guests PARKER Majesty ft. Akouo 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Dead White Males The Hacks The Discordians DJ Brett Rowe ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Shackles (QLD) Legions (NSW) Losing Grip Agitated Warthreat TRS SETTLERS TAVERN The Tommyhawks SWAN LOUNGE
Annick Phan Jere Sosa Stefan Testi Reuben De Melo YMCA HQ Raksha Turtle Island Figurehead Uncle Jeffrey SATURDAY 23/05
AMBAR Japan 4 ft. Reset! AMPLIFIER Dan Cribb & The Isolated (Album Launch) & special guests ASTOR THEATRE Shaggy THE BIRD Love of Diagrams Dianas Erasers DJ Mr. Sinclair DJ Sandilands CIVIC HOTEL StormRider Heavy Metal Festival ft. LORD Vanishing Point Silent Knight ALKIRA Anarion Lord Symphony Avarin Espionage Morphica 4 Horsemen CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Gavin Shoesmith Trio CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Helen Townsend (Album Launch) EAST END BAR & LOUNGE Home ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Grid Allira Wilson James Flynn Quintet FLYRITE Father GEISHA Fine Art ft. Tom & Kasty Ace Basik Baux Nishmann Tommy B GILKISONS DANCE STUDIO BASSMENT 012 ft. Boy Kid Cloud (UK)
RABBIT ISLAND, MAY 24.
GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus HULA BULA Sailor Saturdays LLAMA BAR Laundry METRO FREO Metropolis Saturdays MOJOS BAR Caravana Sun (Single Launch) Michael Triscari The Tommyhawks MUSTANG BAR Shot Down From Sugartown DJ Holly Doll THE ODD FELLOW Golden Era vs. Heavy Soul DJs PARKER Official Motley Crue After Party ft. Tommy Lee DJ Aero Nick Thayer ROSEMOUNT HOTEL GIZZFEST ft. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Mugwump Dream Rimmy Gunns Hideous Sun Demon Sam Atkin Laurel Fixation Shit Narnia Aborted Tortoise Doctopus ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Turin Robinson SETTLERS TAVERN Syllabolix SWALLOW BAR Razor Jack SWAN LOUNGE Middle Ground & guests SUNDAY 24/05 CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH King of the Travellers ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB The Catz Meow Metro Big Band FLYRITE MVMNT HULA BULA BAR Tropical Sundaze MOJOS BAR Peter Bibby HAMJAM Rabbit Island
NORTHBRIDGE PIAZZA Sunday Sounds ft. Classic Groove Steve Tallis 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Gravity Punch (EP Launch) ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Caravana Sun Bluechild Collective (EP Launch) Jeff’s Dead ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down ft. Aslan Klean Kicks Pawel Good Company DJs Sleepyhead Beni Chill Jo Lettenmaier Tim King SETTLERS TAVERN Ten Cent Shooters SWALLOW BAR Limelights Jazz Trio MONDAY 25/05
THE BIRD Fabien Zuffo Exhibition Launch ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Chamber Jam ft. Cathie Travers Reedefined Clarinet Quartet Dane Yates MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia TUESDAY 26/05
THE BIRD Barefaced Stories BRASS MONKEY Open Mic Night ft. Shaun Street ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Holli Scott & Jamie Oehlers LLAMA BAR Ruby Tuesdays MOJOS BAR Collections NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night TORCH BAR Quiz Meisters
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NEWS
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INTERVIEWS
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REVIEWS
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LIVE
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EVENTS
DOUBLE DOUBLE SMALL BAR
ROCKET ROOM
METRO FREO
THE COURT
MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY
FOXHOLE STUDIOS Chad Blondel Located in Maylands light industrial area, Foxhole Studios purports to be Australia’s fist 24 hour DIY recording and rehearsal facility. We catch up with founder and director Chad Blondel. What’s the Foxhole Studios story? Over the years I’ve noticed a huge shift towards bands recording their own stuff at home. The ‘pro studio’ is becoming a smaller piece in the process of making and releasing music. But artists still need access to quality analogue gear, nice mics and creative space without noise restrictions to keep the releases at a certain quality. That’s where the idea of a shared studio space came from.
MUSOS WANTED FEMALE SINGER/SONGWRITER/GUITARIST seeking a covers rock/rocknroll/ blues band. Wanting to gig. Only passionate musicians please. No time wasters. Call Leah 040 368 7285 PRODUCTION SERVICES CD & DVD MANUFACTURE Check out our latest CD & DVD specials online at www.procopy.com. au 9375 3902 MATRIX PRODUCTIONS AUSTRALIA Lighting, staging, sound systems, smoke machines, night club FX, intelligent lighting, strobes & mirror balls, crowd barriers, video projectors. 9371 1551 RECORDING STUDIOS ALAN DAWSON’S WITZEND RECORDING STUDIO Prof quality albums or demos, large live room, experienced engineer, analog to digital transfers, mastering. Alan 0407 989 128 www. witzendstudios.com 30
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How long have you been in operation? Only one month, and our studios are already half full of members! What sets Foxhole apart from other, similar operations? Well, first of all our studio equipment is industry quality. If you walk into any working studio in the world you will find the same gear that we have at Foxhole. It is open 24 hours: members book online and access the facility with a swipe card, so you can come and go as you please rather than only having a set time that the owner comes down to open up. Our rehearsal rooms are the only ones in Perth that have in-ears for all band members. Each band member can set their own personal mix that is independent of everyone else’s. No more ringing ears after practice and feeling like you didn’t hear anything but yourself and the snare drum! What’s your set up there? Our recording rooms run ProTools HD2 Core and Accel, Digi 192 16in/out, Adam 8 monitoring, mics from Neumann, Sennheiser, AKG, Shure, Earthworks and preamps from API / Vintech / ART
ANALOG MASTERING VINTAGE TAPE, TUBES & TRANSFORMERS with the latest state of the art digital converters. Clients include: Melody’s Echo Chamber, Pond, Gossling, Knife Party, Felicity Groom, The Floors, Jeff Martin & The Panics. World class facility, World class results. Www. poonshead.com. 9339 4791 ANDY’S STUDIO International multi award winning songwriter / producer. No band required. Broadcast quality. A songwriter’s paradise. Ph 9364 3178 GOLDDUST Production Mixing, recording and composition. Leederville $80 p/h. 0408 097 407 RECORDING MIXING MASTERING PRODUCING Fremantle location. Call Pete Kitchen Cooked Records. Ph 0407 363 764 / 9336 3764 REVOLVER SOUND STUDIO Ph 9272 7505. www. revolverstudio.com.au REHEARSAL STUDIOS
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Foxhole Studios
Rehearsal rooms run Shure 215 ears, p16-M person mixers, Shure mics and Audix drum mics. What does the future hold for you guys? For now we are focused on giving the best possible experience to our members and cultivating more creative opportunities for the good people of Perth. We want to get to a place where the rehearsal
PLATINUM SOUND ROOMS Professional rehearsal rooms, airconditioned, quality PAs mob 0418 944 722 TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** New Year enrolments. Online bookings. Children & adults. Beg to adv. AMEB and WAAPA accreditation. 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 GUITAR LESSONS Learn guitar in a modern studio in Belmont. Learn finger style, classical, rock & blues using state of the art techniques. Great rates. Call 0433042503
BIBRA LAKE REHEARSAL STUDIO Air Conditioned Room. Great Facilities. Superior VOICE COACH SINGING TEACHER 30 years sound to hear yourself and your band. 10 mins experience. All levels, all styles. Student discounts. NOR 0407 260 762 from Freo. Phone Nick: 0410 485 588. WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
members and the studio members are working on releases together, a music/social hub of creativity, that would be great. We are also starting to use the big studio that I run at Foxhole as a venue for recording and filming live shows. We have our first one on the 30th of May, featuring Lanark. Tickets are available through foxholestudios.com.au
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