EDUCATION, TRAINING & CAREERS FEATURE
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LOCAL NEWS
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
BLUE ROOM THEATRE ANNOUNCES FIRST TWO SHOWS OF THEIR SECOND SEASON
Pic: Tahlia Palmer
STONEKING ANOINTS BIBBY IT’S BRIDGETOWN, IT’S BLUES It’s WA’s longest running blues and roots festival, and it’s gearing up for a huge 23rd edition. The community-focused Blues At Bridgetown festival will take place over three ticketed venues and close to 10 ancillary free venues in Bridgetown (natch) from Friday-Sunday, November 13-15. The first line-up announcement sees Diesel, Harts, Jeff Lang, Bret Mosley, Backsliders, Black Rabbit George, Rick Steele, Minnie Marks, Marshall Okell, The Swamp Stompers, Benny Walker, Eddie Boyd & The Phatapillers, Carus Thompson, Datura4 and the Perth Blues Club’s BB King Tribute with many more to be announced shortly. Weekend Festival Tickets are now on sale from bluesatbridgetown.com.au. Diesel
Renowned Aussie bluesman CW Stoneking has a n n o u n ce d t h a t a s ce n d a n t WA s i n g e r songwriter Peter Bibby will be signing up as primary support for his forthcoming tour of the country this October. Bibby joins the tour following a busy first half of the year, which has seen the acclaimed muso capitalise on early buzz following the release of debut full-length Butcher/Hairstylist/Beautician late last year to become one of the most eagerly spokenabout artists doing the rounds at present. His jaunt with Stoneking comes in the wake of the Gon’ Boogaloo scribe’s wildly successful, more-than-35date-strong, run of shows internationally throughout Europe and the UK, with both men ready and raring to bring the goods on stage together in just a couple months’ time. Catch them at Settlers Tavern, Margaret River, on Thursday, November 12; Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, on Friday, November 13, and the Fremantle Arts Centre, on Saturday, November 14. Booking via oztix.com.au. Peter Bibby
The Blue Room Theatre has announced its first two shows for their season two program, All That Glitters and Latitudes. The August-December 2015 program will consist of eight shows, and will be officially launched at The Blue Room Theatre at 6.30pm Wednesday, July 29, (where the remaining 6 shows will go on sale). The Last Great Hunt presents the first show All That Glitters, that will showcase work about ‘hope in the face of hopelessness even when it feels like we are never, ever, ever getting ourselves together’. Tickets for the first two shows are now available for pre-sale, season dates are August 11 – December 5. For bookings and more info, head to blueroom.org.au or 9227 7005.
Sydney punk-rockers Nerdlinger are getting set to release their new EP, Trend Setter, on Friday, August 7, via MGM Distribution available on iTunes, Bandcamp and good music retailers. The news of their EP came with the announcement of a massive Australian tour. The band has recently returned from their tour of Japan with French Canadian punk band Mute and Japan’s Waterweed. Don’t miss out on this gig coming to Amplifier Bar on Friday, November 27, Geraldton’s Camel Bar on Saturday, November 28, and Bar 459 in North Perth on Sunday, November 29. pre-sale tickets are available from nerdlinger. Nerdlinger
All That Glitters
THE WAIFS RETURN They are one of Australia’s most loved folk bands and now fans can mark their calendars again with the announcement that The Waifs are heading home for a national tour this September. The WA-founded outfit have announced the shows in support of their seventh LP, Beautiful You, due out next month and will kick off the tour with a number of performances in their home state starting on Thursday, September 10. The Waifs will perform in Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Albany, Perth, Geraldton, Carnavon and Broome throughout September with East Coast dates being announced shortly. Meanwhile, the ARIA Awardwinning quintet have dropped their new single, 6000 Miles which will feature on the forthcoming album. The emotionally raw track is about singer and guitarist Vicki Thorn contemplating the distance between her home in Albany and her new residence in Utah, USA. The Waifs will perform at the Perth Concert Hall on Tuesday, September 15. Tickets to the Beautiful You tour will be available from 9am on Thursday, July 23, from thewaifs.com. Beautiful You will be available from Friday, August 14, via Jarrah Records. The Waifs
TRICKAZ TREATS Paris duo, The Trickaz, have been unleashing their hip-hop-trap-epic-orchestral-anime bass music around the world, and they’re now on their way to WA. The two producers Pho (Dirtyphonics) and DJ iRaize (The New Team) have produced LPs, EPs, collabs and remixes from labels such as Cassius records, Kannibalen, Ninja Tunes and Play Me. The Trickaz show (which has taken to stages over the world more than 200 times in the last three years) consists of heavy on beat pads, rumbling basses on synths, samples and turntable scratches, and is a unique experience you won’t want to miss. They’ve performed at festivals like the Quicksilver Tony Hawk Show, Dour Festival and Solidays Garorock with a huge six tours that have been completed in Asia. The Trickaz will be coming to Metropolis Fremantle on Friday, August 7, tickets available now from Oztix.com.au. The Trickaz 4
TRENDSETTERS
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THE 1975 FOR 2016 The 1975 will returning to Australia and New Zealand for a tour next January. The band is currently producing their second album that depicting what they acknowledge as the end of a challenging time that they’ve shared as friends and artists. They’ve played hundreds of shows across many different countries and received huge attention after the release of their debut self-titled album. The 1975 will play at HBF Stadium on Saturday, January 23, be sure to get your tickets as they will sell out fast. Book via ticketmaster.com.au. The 1975
ADDITIONAL TANGENTS The ARIA Award-winning Megan Washington has announced a handful of additional dates on her national Tangents Tour, having already sold out venues in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and WA in only one week. Washington’s shows at Ellington Jazz Club on Thursday-Friday, August 1314, have already sold out, but you can catch her at a newly announced show on Wednesday, August 12, at Mojos. Washington will also perform in Bunbury at the Prince Of Wales on Tuesday, August 11.
CITY OF PERTH CALL FOR TEMPORARY PUBLIC ART IN THE CITY The City of Perth is inviting WA artists to create unique light-based artworks on Perth’s Council House. Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said LIGHTHOUSE in 2015 is one of the forerunning art projects in a new chapter in temporary public art commissioned by the City of Perth. “Public art is a source of pride and identification in our community, and unlike many other artistic works, it is accessible to everyone at no charge,” Ms Scaffidi said. Artists will create a series of sequences using the existing lighting infrastructure that includes more than 22,000 energy-efficient LED lights on its roof, T-window sunshields and bulkheads of the building. The artwork is set to be displayed in October/November and will be commissioned for up to $7,500 (with a maximum combined total of $15,000). For more information on LIGHTHOUSE 2015 and TRANSART: EXPERIMENTAL (submissions closing 5pm Monday, July 27) visit perth.wa.gov.au/ arts_culture.
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WIN
N E W S L E T T E R - S I G N U P AT W W W. X P R E S S M A G . C O M . A U
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations. Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species. Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential. It opens in Perth on July 31 and runs until September 27 under the Big Top at Belmont Racecourse. We have five double passes available to Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday performance.
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TOTEM
13 MINUTES A portrait of a German pacifist whose awakening to rising inhumanity in the early days of World War II spurs him to radical action, 13 Minutes chronicles in exhaustive detail an event that might have changed history if not for the narrow mistiming of the title. Oliver Hirschbiegel’s drama is handsomely mounted and driven by a lead performance of unquestionable integrity from Christian Friedel as courageous real-life resistance figure, Georg Elser. And while its tireless shuffling between brutal interrogation rooms and the protagonist’s preceding years in an alpine village becomes plodding and overburdened by incident, the film should nonetheless find an audience in the prestige-picture market. We have 10 double passes to give away. 13 Minutes
KIDNAPPING MR. HEINEKEN In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (played here by Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture - by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam - resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual. It was the perfect crime…until they got away with it. Based on a true story, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken also stars Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten. Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
FANTASTIC FOUR The Fantastic Four, o p e n i n g o n Thursday, August 6, is a contemporary reimagining of Marvel’s original and longestrunning superhero team, centring on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy. To celebrate the release, 20th Century Fox is offering the chance to win one of five merchandise prize packs for F4 valued at $105 each. Each pack contains a keyring, cap, notebook, shoulder bag and in-season pass to see the film. Enter via the App. F4 prize pack
DAVID STRATTON’S GREAT BRITAIN RETRO FILM FESTIVAL Legendary Australian film critic David Stratton was actually born in the UK, having spent the first 20 years of his life in Britain. So it only makes sense the man would curate this special run of Brit-tastic feature films – many of them outright classics – that span decades and cover off an intensely creative swath of directors, actors, cinematographers and craftsmen working at the top of their game. Think The 39 Steps, A Room With A View, Lawrence Of Arabia and more, screening from Thursday, August 6, until Wednesday, August 19. We have five double passes to give away. 6
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SCANDANAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL After the stunning success of the debut Scandinavian Film Festival last year, the 2015 program, presented by Palace and Luna Palace Cinemas, will showcase the most exciting dramas, comedies and thrillers from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, all at Cinema Paradiso from Thursday-Wednesday, July 23-29. Opening the festival is Here Is Harold, humorous, warm and human portrait of a man in an existential crisis. Other hot tips to catch include Life In A Fishbowl, Underdog, The Grump, The Absent One and Out Of Nature. We have 10 double passes to give away. Here Is Harold
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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
DENNISON ON DEMAND Formerly a member of Sydney duo, kyü, Alyx Dennison has launched her own career with the release of her self-titled debut solo album. She’s headed our way for two special shows, first up at The Bird on Saturday, July 25, (with Fall Electric and Golden String) then on Sunday, July 26, at Mojos (with SEAMS and Felicity Groom). Tickets are $15 walk-up at The Bird, or $10 plus booking fee from mojosbar.com.au (or $15 walk-up). Alyx Dennison The Southwicks
LUCIE THORNE Palomino Songs Lucie Thorne, joined by Hamish Stuart, performs at Ellington Jazz Club on Thursday, August 13; Tea House Books, Denmark, on Saturday, August 15, and The White Star, Albany on Sunday, August 16. MICHAEL SMITH reports. Managing to corral the “funny little creatures” that are her songs into a new album, Everything Sings Tonight, Lucie Thorne and long-time musical partner, drummer, Hamish Stuart, are well-pleased with the latest batch. “Some of the songs we’d been playing in various guises for the last year or so I suppose,” singer, songwriter and pianist Lucie Thorne explains the genesis of her latest album, Everything Sings Tonight, “and a few of them were quite well formed before we went into the studio. One of them popped out a couple of days before we started recording, and then another couple really found their shape on the fly. “Actually the single, The Rushing Dark, I’d had that text for ages and played around with a few different versions of it, and in between takes of something else, Hamish started playing this groove…” “And it was actually the most appropriate setting for that song that we’d come up with, really,” drummer Hamish Stuart finishes, “and it made it onto the record. It’s good that things can be so spontaneous.”
“After overhearing someone in a pub the night before say to his mate, ‘I’ve bought the world’s best pencil,’ I had to chime in...” Spending two days in a Berlin studio while they were touring Europe last year, the pair essentially completed the new album, but, as Thorne adds, “the beauty of recording in the modern day is that can go, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to just add a little sprinkle of (The Necks’) Chris Abrahams? Or a little sprinkle of guitar from Bo Ramsey?’ whilst keeping that focus of ‘this is the sound we make in real life’, you know,” she chuckles. Ramsey and fellow Iowan, singer/ songwriter Pieta Brown added their touches in a small Iowa City studio a few weeks later. Each song has its provenance in a different place — Lasseter’s Gold in Alice Springs, and opening cut, Blackwing, in Cataract Gorge, Launceston, “after overhearing someone in a pub the night before say to his mate, ‘I’ve bought the world’s best pencil’, at which point I had to chime in and say, ‘Excuse me, did you say…?’ ‘Yeah’, he turned to me and said, ‘It’s a Palomino Blackwing 602’. It sounded like poetry! But it’s more a love song than it is about a pencil of course.” S p e a k i n g o f p o e t r y, t h e re ’s t h e centrepiece (and title track) of the album, complete with a snippet from TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, in both English and Romanian... “...that’s my dad doing the Romanian spoken word in there,” Thorne says. “We had a friend translate it into Romanian and dad learned how to recite his part from that, while Pieta’s dad Greg did the English version.” The Seeds EP is quite psych-driven. What’s inspired you to take things more that way? I endeavour to make all sorts of musical styles, as I am a diverse appreciator of all forms of music and expression. I have always collected psych music, and also I have been interested in how hip hop music can be interpreted in a psychedelic way. Edan’s Beauty And The Beat was a revolutionary album for me and DJ Shadow’s early work was very psych based in its sample selection, really made me love the concept of ‘psych hop’, ‘mind music’. I have played the guitar for 20 years now, and have collected various instruments over a two decades or more. I like the mix of samples and real instruments, and the combination of style. I have loved the idea of fusion between different worlds and sounds for ever now. The inspiration has always been there, just the know how has caught up. So dreams have now become produce.
DIGER ROKWELL Sewing The Seeds Diger Rokwell launches his new EP, Seeds, this Friday, July 24, at The Bird. BOB GORDON has a chat with him. 8
Was the recording quite pre-planned or did the music have its own evolution during the recording process? I feel my music is always evolving with new ideas and techniques. The songs have been around for three or four years now, and I work in a very electronic way with organic materials: starting from loops and sketches recording instruments or small snippets of samples, from there I work on arrangement and then the song starts to form. From an idea that takes 30 minutes to start, it takes months, years to turn into a finished song. In the future, I feel I will be more directed in my intention and vision of the final outcome. You’ve covered new vocal territory too. What was it like bringing out that side of yourself and why now? I guess confidence and timing is the reason. I have always considered myself to be able to sing, I was a staple at the improvised hip hop night, Colab, for years, and people always said they loved my voice, and were surprised at it. I have also had a lot of instrumental work to get out of my
MC Magnus Danger Magnus
THE BIG SPLASH HEAT #7 The Odd Fellow Thursday, July 16, 2015 The Big Splash 2015 continues on, with Heat #7 seeing a very healthy crowd down at The Odd Fellow. Flighflow impressed with a set of soulful hip hop which was nicely followed by the African grooves of Couldbeat Jenako. Eventual winners The Southwicks showed off some tasty Arcade Fire/ Mumford & Sons influences, while Visceral soldiered on despite nerves and will be all the better for the experience. Check out our post-heat Q+A with The Southwicks on page 26. Photography by Rachael Barrett
Flighflow
Couldbeat Jenako
Judges Doug, Phil and Myles
system and also exploring many different avenues of musical expression. In life, I am a late bloomer and very unconventional, I don’t think time or age can be a block to being creative and being heard. In the future, I plan to release a few vocal-based projects under my real name. And I feel confident in being able to be doing that from recording from home, at a reasonable price and having the know-how to do it well with what I know after all this time. Congrats on the birth of your baby! Parenthood is a profound thing; do you think it may bring out other realms in your overall creativity? Thank you. He is the best. Being a parent is the best thing I could ever do in my life, and I look forward to seeing my son grow into a fully-fledged human. I feel it definitely gives you more purpose, more meaning, and a better understanding of existence. I feel parenthood will give me a massive boost of creativity and make me utilise my time creatively to greater effect and focus on my family and myself more. My partner and I shot a stop motion animation video clip for my track, Take Flight, whilst she was pregnant using the toys from my studio, which was fun! So lots of domestic do-it-yourself family projects close to home I feel. With the new EP now out, what are the plans from here? Well, I have so much music to share which can be seen as a negative in a single based musical world. I am just finishing off the mix for a new EP going back to my ‘beat music’ roots, also I am working on some cosmic disco inspired stuff to round out the EP series focusing on one musical inspiration at a time, that started from the house inspired, Innersense. I would like to release an LP of the choice cuts of music from 2012-16, sometime late next year. Also I am planning on working on some singles with some heavyweight vocalists to be announced in the near future, plus my own vocal stuff. I would love to tour the next two EPs at the end of the year, early next on the East Coast.
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Newsdesk Win Flesh The X-Press Interview - Kevin Parker, Tame Impala 11 Music Jamie T, Tuka, The Districts Jon Spencer Blues Explosion New Noise 13 Culture Hub Cover: Ant-Man Lifestyle, Hitlist Figaro, Arts Listings 13 Minutes, Mr Holmes, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Paper Towns Feature: ETC 23 Scene Cover: Holy Holy Feature: Local & Launching Live: Jack Rabbit Slims Opening, Johnny Marr, The Church, The Big Splash Heat #7 28 X-Press Guide 30 Social Pics/Volume Front Cover: Tame Impala have just released their much-anticipated third album, Currents. Scene Cover: Holy Holy have just released their debut album, When The Storms Would Come, and coming to the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, on Friday, August 14; Amplifier on Saturday, August 15, and the Newport Hotel on Sunday, August 16.
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COVER STORY
THE X-PRESS INTERVIEW
So when, in your mind, does the era of Lonerism end and the era of Currents begin? There’s no line you can draw, because I was writing songs for Currents while I was touring songs for Lonerism. I started writing songs for this album almost immediately after I finished the last album, so it’s impossible to say. So you’re able to do what so many say they can’t - from speaking to musicians over the years - of being able to write on tour. There are the odd ones, but most find it incredibly hard because everything is so in the air and temporary when on the road... Yeah, I don’t get that. You know, for me, the most inspiring time to write a song is when there’s so much shit going on, when you’re in this world of craziness. You get five minutes to yourself in a hotel room and that’s when the songs come flooding in. Because the songs are a way of dealing with the quiet, for my brain it’s a way to fill that void of silence. When life is cruisey and casual and relaxed and uneventful at home, there’s almost no need for your brain to think of songs. For me it’s when life is most volatile and temporary. It’s a way of soothing your brain into feeling comfortable because the outside world is so turbulent. So in some ways its more than just about writing a tune, its more for a coping mechanism? Exactly, it’s like therapy. It’s like lying down on a couch with a guy sitting next to me with a notepad, you know? For me that’s what the main purpose of it is, the melody and the chords are just the physical form of it and the medium for that. So you don’t really have to think of a project or create an agenda? You’re just basically easing in and out of creative moments as you go and being tuned in enough to capture them. Yeah, not even easing out of them, jolting in and out of them. For me the most creativity happens when you’re jolted into that, when you’re in some sort of crazy social environment and then you suddenly step outside and it’s suddenly silent. And you’re jolted into this silence and my brain suddenly spasms, and thinks of a melody to ease the transition. To be honest, I’ve never really known what it is.
KEVIN PARKER | PHOTO BY RACHAEL BARRETT
TAME IMPALA Big Kev Tame Impala have just released a new album, Currents, the long-awaited follow-up to 2012’s Lonerism. And what an album it is. Not pigeonholed by his fandom’s love of the psych-rock-guitar leanings of yore, Kevin Parker has gone deep into heart and mind within, exploring loops and electronics in his inimitable, mesmeric way. While being granted near guru-like status, Parker remains unaffected and cheerfully willing to talk about his work and creative process. What’s even more exciting than what’s been already released is what no doubt lays ahead. Kevin Parker guests with Mark Ronson at Metro City on Wednesday, July 22. Tame Impala will tour Australia later in the year. By BOB GORDON This would be a rare moment at home for you so far this year, am I right? Yeah, it feels good. I’m savouring every moment. Or as much as you can while trying to do interviews... Yeah, but it’s okay I’m just sitting around literally about 50 metres from home at a pub. I’m arguably soaking up more home time here doing interviews than if I was just sitting in my studio, because my studio is nowhere. You’re not long back from the last of your shows in the States, how were they what with playing the new material? They were great; they were amazing. I think they were some of the best shows we’ve done, and I mean that honestly, especially in America. It was a long tour, put it this way, I expected to get sick of touring a lot quicker than I did because with America it’s so big you could play a show in a different city for a year and not go to the same place - its mindbogglingly big. 10
But they were all good shows. It was weird, each one was kind of different in itself, which is also weird because shows in America can quickly become repetitive. Yeah, well you’ve become sort of a big festival band, you’re on a lot of them and the band clearly works well in those festival situations. I’m not so sure, does it? Well they keep asking you to do them, I guess that’s a barometer. Yeah, true. So there’s obviously a lot of demand for the band to play, what are your personal preferences, these days, between headline shows as opposed to those mega festival appearances? I t ’s a co n s t a n t g a m e o f te n n i s , sometimes I’m like ‘Yeah! Festivals! This is where I wanna fuckin’ be’. But then you play a festival and no one gives a shit and you’re like, ‘Yeah, fuck this’, and the same with headlines. You either have a good headline or an amazing headline. Because everyone’s there to see you so it’s going to be fun either way. Festivals, it can swing any way. They range between an absolute labour and the best time you’ve ever had. And there’s absolutely no way of knowing until you’re on stage. In fact, we played this festival in Cincinnati last week and we got totally rained out, completely rained out. The rained started coming in sideways, on top of us, it was like we were standing in the shower playing the gig, and of course all the crew guys just ran on and started covering shit with plastic and we just decided to play on anyway. I was delirious with excitement because it was so different to anything that had happened at any other festival. It was like a weird dream, it was like I was standing in the shower playing a gig, so another part of me took over and it became this tribal experience. And the crowd was instantly four times as more into it, they were suddenly just loving it. Up until then it was a pretty ordinary gig, once the rain started pissing down there was a connection between us and the audience, we were both in the same boat. That was one of the best festival experiences I’ve ever had, we only ended up playing for 20 minutes because they literally told us to get off stage because there was an electrocution danger. I was standing in the same puddle that the power was, next to my pedal board. Well that’s pretty good really, I don’t think the Beatles played gigs any longer than 20 minutes back in the day. Yeah, well they just turned it off on us! But up until then it was perfect.
Iggy Pop once said of living in Detroit that the factory sounds of the Motor City created a rhythm from which he could hear music within. Do you think it’s a similar thing with a noise on a flight or the shade of grey you see in a cloud? Yeah, you know I worked at the mines for a couple of months when I was at uni. I was the one who had to putt drill bolts onto the drill rig, and all the songs I wrote around that time were just this drone (laughs), kind of like a ‘60s pop with an incessant drone to it. And I noticed that they were all in the same key, not that I was writing them all the time, just when I was next to the drill machine. Even when I got back and I went to play it on my guitar I had to shift the key that was in my mind because it was halfway between two notes. It was a machine, it wasn’t tuned to a guitar. So when I got to the guitar I was like, ‘oh shit this is halfway between two notes’. Given that you’re on a bit of a constant creative roll anyway, what were the songs on this album that made their presence known, whether they were the snatches of an idea or a more whole kind of thing? I think Let It Happen was one of the first songs I wrote. My memory is so bad… I have the worst mental calendar in the world. I would not be able to tell you what-happened-when in anything that’s happened in my life in the last five years. I’m sure it’s written down somewhere... Someone else knows. My manager knows. It’s the same for me with writing songs, I can pinpoint exactly where I was when I wrote it, but I could not for the life of me tell you which came first and when they were. If I went to my computer and checked the date created that would tell me, but apart from that I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Do you have a vague pre-plan for your songs or do they make themselves known and you work with them and there’s a certain push and pull? Oh yeah, it’s one in the same. I’ve never once consciously decided to make a type of a song and gone with it. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be able to finish it without completely disowning it. For me, if it’s contrived or if I say ‘I want to make this kind of song’ it always comes out bogged. I’ve never been able to decidedly make something; I have to wait until it naturally occurs. Is there an instrument that you’ve favoured for composition? No, for me instruments are just instruments, they’re just things you use to make the song. I’m good at drums, pretty average at keyboard, I don’t know... I was going to ask about drums, there’s a lot of fascination out there for the drum work in Tame Impala. I remember Steve Malkmus (Pavement, The Jicks) in a 2012 interview with X-Press went out of
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his way to compliment the drumming on Lonerism. I’m curious in terms of drums as a compositional instrument; there’s certain flourishes you do that are a mixture of signature-yet-unexpected sounds. For me if they’re not the most important instrument, they’re certainly the most expressive. I try to do drums last because for me that’s the instrument that’s most unbound by the rest of them. They govern their own section of the music, everything else is bound by everything else; the vocals are bound by the chords and the chords are bound by the bass. All of them are linked but the drums just has to be a cool rhythm, obviously the song dictates what rhythm it wants, but it’s the thing I spend the most time on and the thing I spend the most time mixing because it’s what defines the sound of the song more than anything else. I couldn’t tell you enough about how important drums are to me, it’s the first instrument I learnt. When you’re in composition or recording them, do you ever stop to think of what the songs will be like ‘out there’ in the realm where people are hearing them or is it still very internalised when you’re doing that? The most fruitful studio sessions are the ones where you’re detached from thinking about what people will think. If I ever start thinking too heavily about what people are going to think I usually take a break. That kind of shit only fucks with me. When you say ‘what people think’, doing something like that Reddit AMA, when I guess you’re faced with a mass of what people think and what they want to know, what’s that like? I guess a lot of those things are a lot on social media, like if you’re looking at fans Facebook pages and see what people’s feelings are, but in something like that they’re thinking of you behind a screen answering their individual questions, but you’re seeing everything coming in in swarms about everything that you do, what’s something like that for you? It was amazing; it was intense. I couldn’t step away from it. I went for like four hours going constantly, but it’s one of the most fulfilling moments that I’ve had. It was like the interview to end all interviews. It was good, also, because I knew it was going straight to the people that wanted the answers. It wasn’t being filtered through the usual medium of interviews, which you know is the way it is, it’s cool. But it was straight from the source straight to the receiver, it felt so good to be able to speak freely and that was exactly how it was going to come across and there wasn’t going to be any bending of the words, or the inflection of how I’m talking, it went straight to the vein and it was very liberating. I’ve never felt so liberated in terms of doing interviews. You’re following up your work on Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special album by doing guest vocals on his upcoming tour. What’s it like utilising abilities in someone else’s forum, wherein you are a part of it but it’s not about you, what do you take from that? It’s what I always want but I’m never able to do, to be able to separate myself from Tame stuff. I’ve always wanted to be able to separate myself from that totally internal, closed off recordmaking thing. But it’s so hard to do because I’ve got to trust in what I’m doing. But in terms of Mark’s album, he’s someone that I look up to and respect so it wasn’t hard to just hand myself over, and that’s kind of what it was, just giving my services of what I can do, whatever you think I can do I’ll do. So yeah, it was pretty satisfying. In recent weeks the music world’s been talking about the money situation between Steve Pavlovic, Tame Impala and Universal. What’s it been like watching that situation explode? Yeah well at this point I just see myself as a spectator like the rest. I pretty much know the same as what’s out there. I’m as interested as anyone else is, as to where it goes. Obviously having someone I’ve worked with that’s been so close to what we’ve been doing for so many years, it was so instrumental, to where I am now. It’s extremely melancholy to see all that’s happening. B u t ye a h , w h at ’s h a p p e n e d h a s happened. For me, I’m not passionate about the outcome. When we heard there was money missing I wrote that off a long time ago, I assumed it was something that happened in the business. If you’re a sucker or if you don’t go chasing the money that you’ve earned, that’s what happens to you. The reason that the money wandered off is because I didn’t go looking for it, I didn’t reach out and say, ‘hey, where’s my money gone?’ I just went, ‘fuck it’. So as naïve as I come across in saying that, in the end I don’t give a shit. I’m happy where I am. I’m doing what I’m doing and I’m allowed to do it and I’m grateful. So with the album now released, how’s it all look into next year? Lots of touring? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. The touring will start back up again and that will ride its course. At that point I just hand myself over to whatever the world wants of me.
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“I try and take it all a bit less seriously now.”
JAMIE T Growin’ Up Jamie T will support Blur at Perth Arena on Thursday, July 30. ANTHONY CAREW reports. Jamie T’s feeling a bit old at age 29, but he has ways of dealing with any attendant anxieties. “People are suddenly talking about me in different terms,” says Jamie Treays. The Englishman — who records as, simply, Jamie T —released his debut album, Panic Prevention, when he was just 21, and its follow-up, Kings & Queens, at 23. But, his third LP, Carry On The Grudge, arrived after a half-decade interim. “I hadn’t released a record in five years,” he says. “We didn’t know if anyone would be interested.” Treays’ ‘return’ was marked by a change in how he was perceived. “Being 29 in a lot of places makes you still young; in the music industry it makes you old,” Treays laughs. “Having started really young, I’ve been treated young for a long time. People would call me ‘brash’ and all that shit, but I don’t think 11
I’ve really changed since then. It’s more that, when you get older, people actually listen to what you’re fucking saying. You’ve been around long enough that they have to listen, if only to wonder how it is that you’re still around. “Music is generally for young people, and it should be. When someone’s young, they know about the rule book, but they couldn’t be fucked learning it or following it, and that’s a great thing. But the flipside is that, when you do that, there are certain people who’ll just put you down, say, ‘You’re young, you don’t know what you’re doing’. You take a lot of flack for the things that you do, but when you’re young you’re headstrong enough to tell everyone to get fucked.” Treays started out in music young, listening to his older brother’s drum’n’bass records before adolescence and forming his first punk band at 14. “Being not particularly handsome-looking, what do you do when you’re young, to get girls? You get in a band! That seemed like a good idea at the time, and I’ve been doing it ever since.” When Treays got a four-track recorder at 15, he funnelled his teenage boredom into recording, growing into the ‘one-man-band’ he’d be on Panic Prevention. Treays cut his teeth in a DIY way, making flyers and doing poster runs, booking shows and running club nights. “Without meaning to be, I think me and my friends were really driven to do things. Looking back now — and I sound like I’m fucking 60 years old when I say that — I’m happy that I got to do things in a way that’s almost disappeared now. Nobody ever thought: ‘Let’s upload a track and try and get a record deal’. It was: ‘Let’s put on a party and get 300 quid in our pocket’.” T h e f i r s t t w o J a m i e T r e co r d s proved hugely successful in England — Panic Prevention nominated for the Mercury Prize, both clocking up Gold sales — but Treays felt the need to step away, his career tapping into anxieties he’d long been dealing with (hence his debut’s title). “I had to learn to be less hard on myself,” he says. “I try and take it all a bit less seriously now, think of it like a job. It helps me to keep things separated. This is something I do for a living, and there’s a huge public element of that, but my personal private life is my personal private life. That helps me be less stressed.”
“I really just wanted to do an album that wasn’t slave to any genre. I just wanted to make a collection of songs.”
TUKA Dualities Tuka, one-third of Aussie hip hop staple, Thundamentals, is back with his third solo album, Life Death Time Eternal, and is set to go on a national tour which will bring him to Amplifier on Friday, November 14, and Mojos on Saturday, November 14. JAI CHOUHAN reports. Brendan Tuckerman, more commonly known as Tuka, is arguably at the peak of his career. Six albums deep, half of them as a solo artist, the New South Wales MC has gained praise all over the country with his juggling act of writing, recording, and touring. His latest effort, Life Death Time Eternal, is no exception, breaking the top 10 on last week’s ARIA charts. With all the heat surrounding Thundamentals in recent years, it’s a surprise that Tuka has even found time to record a new solo album, three years after his last.
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“I don’t think it feels like three years for people that follow me because they had the Thundamentals album. But that being said, once we finished So We Can Remember I started on Life Death Time Eternal almost instantly because I just couldn’t see another opportunity for me to make a solo album unless it was now.” With both the group’s and his own schedule to deal with, Tuckerman saw a chance to work on Life Death Time Eternal, figuring it was either now or after another few years or so. “I put out two albums under Tuka and it just felt like a waste if I was throwing away all that work, getting a really cool following that I really respect and love. If I didn’t put out something, it could have fallen away so I said ‘Nup!’ and was just possessed making it.” In terms of subject matter, releasing under Tuka as opposed to Thundamentals allows the rapper to paint a more personal canvas with his music. His third full-length is no exception, this time focussing on the notion of duality. “I don’t want to spoon feed what it’s about too much but while I was writing it I was really contemplating the idea of what duality means. I’m trying to put up opposites, opposing things that make a lot of sense when they’re together and whole. So it’s funny, you know, an example would be that ‘all my successes were born out of my failures’. My successes didn’t lead to other successes, my biggest failures led to the successes.” Audibly speaking, Life Death Time Eternal strays from traditional hip-hop with its production and songwriting. With the voice and a platform to do so, Tuka is ‘challenging the status quo’ as ‘the broader community doesn’t take hiphop seriously’. “I really just wanted to do an album that wasn’t slave to any genre,” he says. “I just wanted to make a collection of songs. I’ve got Thundamentals to do hip hop albums and I’m going to continue to do hip hop albums so I just felt now is the right time to do a songwriting thing. For a similar reason I didn’t get any features and for the most part I wrote the music with the producers as well.”
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THE DISTRICTS
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“When we’re up there, we all get into a zone; it helps us feel the music more and get into it more.”
In The Zone Rising American buzz band The Districts found their mojo up on the stage, as bassist Connor Jacobus tells SIMONE UBALDI. Watching The Districts play, it’s hard to believe they barely scrape the legal drinking age. Singer, Rob Grote, throws himself across the floor in violent fits and bursts, sweating what must be half his body weight over the neck of his guitar. His bandmates are just as wild, guitarist Pat Cassidy, drummer Braden Lawrence and bassist Connor Jacobus hurling limbs in all directions, playing their plaintive garage rock tunes with every available muscle. The Districts are all the more captivating because they seem to have emerged from the womb fully-fledged, exploding out of nowhere with this dynamite stage craft. They were a buzz band at SXSW 2015 and their star has been rising ever since, an overnight success story. But like most of the fast-breaks in the music business, theirs was a long time coming. Forming in 2009 in Lititz, Pennsylvania, home to about 10,000 people and just one high school, High school, of course, is where The Districts came together — four awkward teenagers united by a general interest in guitars. Reared on The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the band members had different niche passions. Grote listened to punk, including The Clash, Lawrence was into Metallica and Jacobus was a Tom Petty fan. They pooled their influences and started playing covers, with a few rough sketches of original material. Jacobus says their early gigs, like most early gigs, were unremarkable. “We were all pretty nervous on stage and the songs were all pretty mediocre when we first started out,” he laughs. “We slowly evolved over time. We have some demos that our high school friend recorded that sound pretty bad. It’s still fun to look back at them and see how we started out. It took a lot of work to get past that, but I guess it worked out.” After a few years together, The Districts started recording, releasing two EPs and a debut album under their own steam, gradually honing their songwriting and performance skills to a razor’s edge. “After (debut album) Telephone was released, around 2012, we started getting more comfortable with the songs and got more expressive on stage, not really caring what we 12
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did and doing whatever felt right on stage. When we’re up there, we all get into a zone; it helps us feel the music more and get into it more.” In 2013, when The Districts were ready for it, they got their first break. A live clip went viral on Reddit — a beautiful rendition of the track, Funeral Beds — and record labels started calling. The Districts signed to Fat Possum in November, 2013, and made their first appearance at SXSW the following year. “It was hectic and very tiring — we had seven or eight shows — but it was definitely fun. We had three or four shows in one day, which is the most we’ve ever played,” Jacobus remembers. They began a heavy touring schedule around the States and started to build a fanbase, selling out shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Things were starting to come together. “We had one guy come up to us after the show and tell us he’d seen us four or five times, that was really cool,” Jacobus remembers. Meanwhile, when they were home, the band practiced diligently, “Trying to write new songs as much as possible, trying to crank out as many as we could.” Late in 2013, the band went into the studio with producer John Congleton, whose long list of credits includes Modest Mouse, Earl Sweatshirt and a Grammy Award-winning album for St Vincent. It was The Districts’ first experience with a professional producer and it lifted their game yet again. “John helped us look at the songs more objectively and imagine how the audience would perceive them. He helped us to make the songs more impactful and hard-hitting than they would usually have been. Being more objective about the music helped us to cut out a lot of the bullshit. The biggest thing we were worried about was what kind of guy he was, as a producer. We know that there are a lot of producers who are just really controlling, who take too much control. John seemed to be down with doing whatever we wanted; he just helped us clear the songs up and polish them.” When The Districts returned to SXSW in 2015, they had a slick second album to promote and over five years’ experience as a band. With label muscle behind them and that seemingly out-of-nowhere powerhouse stage presence, The Districts caught a SXSW wave that’s carried them around the country and now overseas. Fresh from a killer performance at Glastonbury, they’re heading over for their first Antipodean tour, major success just a matter of time.
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For more album reviews head to xpressmag.com.au
4.5
4.5
OUT OF 5
OUT OF 5
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING
WIRE DESAPARECIDOS Payola Epitaph
Get To Heaven Sony
When a band is named after the word given to political dissidents who mysteriously disappeared under Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing dictatorship, they are bound to be a highly charged political outfit. After their first album, Read Music/Speak Spanish, saw them gather strong momentum, they chose to break up as frontman Conor Oberst was too busy with Bright Eyes to give time to the outfit. A couple of reformation shows since 2010 as part of the Obama campaign trail and Desaparecidos are again a going concern. Payola is their first album in 13 years, collecting the six songs released on 7” since 2012 and a swag of new tunes, and is every bit as raw and energetic as the band’s debut. The sociopolitical state of affairs in America is the playground for the songs on Payola with the band offering commentary on issues such as the Occupy Movement (The Left Is Right), accused civil rights abuser Sheriff Joe Arpaio(MariKKKopa) and the Anonymous hacker group (Anonymous). Indie poster boy, Oberst has a voice that is well suited to this venomous vocal approach, although bringing emotion to his tales has never been an issue.
As you may have very probably heard, a scientific discovery has depicted that, basically, the human race doesn’t have very long left to live, seeing as we have officially entered the greatest extinction the Earth will have seen in 3.5 billion years. That’s enough to make you question pretty much everything you live for. Everything Everything released their new album around the same time as this announcement, and they have done exactly that. The four-piece draw lyrical influence from confronting issues like the Isis beheadings and the Elliot Rodger’s shooting spree, to the depleting environment, to body image, to the media’s manipulation surrounding war, with a pretend-happy, euphorically warm sound, produced with the help of Stuart Price (The Killers, Madonna). Frontman Johnathon Higgs pleads ‘It’s alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair/Old enough to run, old enough to fire a gun’ in No Reptiles. Everything Everything combine the hyperactive, UK-maintained grime drum and bass with glitchy, voice-oriented verses that bring us into sweeping, elated and exhilarated, arty and incredibly well produced chorus-driven by the frantic panorama of Higgs’ internal mindset. The music all sounds pretty similar in some manner, but the 17 tracks on Get To Heaven (Deluxe Version) all feel different and are, in many ways, entirely idiosyncratic. While their sound is pretty charttopping, the content that Everything Everything covers in this new release proves them to be almost too worthy of it.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
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OUT OF 5
CLAUDIA NATHAN
JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION New York Groove Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are conducting a no-holds-barred dance party to let you know where they’re coming from in more ways than one. Jon Spencer tells STEVE BELL to get limber in the lead up to their show on Tuesday, August 9, at the Rosemount Hotel. From their inception at the very outset of the ‘90s Jon Spencer Blues Explosion seemed like one of those bands who’d just stepped out of the ether unburdened by geography, a group whose fierce and primal rock’n’roll reminded of a certain time, ethos and passion but not necessarily a city. Of course they’d arrived with history and an element of (cool) baggage – most notably frontman Spencer’s tenure with the legendarily caustic Pussy Galore – so we knew their back story lay in the gutters of New York City, but that knowledge wasn’t imbued with an overwhelming sense of locale. N o w, h o w e v e r, o n t h e i r 1 0 t h album Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015, the trio – Spencer’s offsiders being guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins – have fully embraced the legendary city they call home, inhabiting the record with not only their trademark groove-laden amalgam of punk, garage, blues and hip hop but also tales reflecting their attachment to the seedy side of NYC. “This was not planned out to be a ‘concept album’ beforehand,” Spencer explains. “At a certain point during the mixing of the record it became very apparent to me that most of the songs were about New York City. New York City has been home to the Blues Explosion – and that’s been 24 years now – so it’s not only our home and the place where we live and the place where we work, but it’s also a great inspiration for us. And it’s a great inspiration not just because of the artists and musicians who have lived and worked there beforehand – people like, I don’t know, The Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls to visual artists like Andy Warhol – but also because of the city itself, and things like restaurants and the subway and the noise of the streets and the anonymity: all of the stuff that comes with a very big city like New York. “But we didn’t set out to make a concept record, I just think that at a certain point it became clear that most of the songs were about our home and so when I sequenced the record those were the songs that I favoured – we left off the songs that 14
“I think with this record as the Blues Explosion we stake a claim on New York City as our home – we stand up and say, ‘Hey, we are a New York rock’n’roll band!’
didn’t fit the theme. As to why this happened? I’m not really sure, perhaps because New York City is so important to us due to the art and culture of the city and also the physical city itself has been such an influence on us as a band. I think with this record as the Blues Explosion we stake a claim on New York City as our home – we stand up and say, ‘Hey, we are a New York rock’n’roll band!’ Not that we haven’t always been such. “This record is about the city today, it’s about the city that’s gone forever now – especially looking back 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago or five years ago, it’s about a place that doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s also about a city that perhaps never existed except perhaps in my imagination or in my own heart. And I think it’s also important for me to say that it’s not meant to be a nostalgia trip – I have no desire to turn back the hands of time. New York City is something that is always moving forward and always changing.” Freedom Towers is a high-energy affair, reflecting the band’s desire to get the dancefloor jumping again. “This is the kind of music that we like and I definitely think in the back of my mind was the idea to do a dance kind of record – a dance party,” Spencer continues. “I think that Freedom Tower compared to our previous record Meat + Bone (2012) from a couple of years ago is much more sparse and clean in a way and maybe a little more funky: Meat + Bone was supposed to be a more blown out, smeared, rock’n’roll garage-y thing.” In that regard Freedom Tower seems quite reminiscent of the Blues Explosion’s revered mid-‘90s output. “I can understand why someone might think that,” the singer ponders. “I don’t think that we were consciously trying to nod towards Orange (1994) or Extra Width (1993), but I think that we looked again towards rap and hip hop and classic soul for inspiration. Generally when we’re working as the Blues Explosion we don’t discuss things a great deal – we just sort of do it and then see what’s behind us and what we’ve made, what we’ve left behind. But perhaps after that really intense overblown distorted record that we made with Meat + Bone, for this record we wanted something that was more sharp and precise and focused and more danceable. “And there’s no guests on the record – it’s just us – and we tracked it out at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, and one of the main reasons that we went to Daptone was because we knew that we’d come away with a great sounding recording, and we knew that we’d come away with a great drum sound – that’s the studio and the label that’s been making great dance records for over a decade, and that’s a studio that knows how to work with a live band. And that’s what we were going to and that’s the way we always start a record – we play a song together live.”
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TAME IMPALA
OUT OF 5
Currents Universal Tame Impala/Kevin Parker finally put to rest the gargantuan guitar riffs and extended organ solos they borrowed from their dads’ record collections. Now that they’ve finished rewriting Smoke On The Water, the Perth psych-rock band are ready to move to the next astral plane, where a glittering disco ball sets over the horizon every night. Currents rocks and sways with a whole new swagger for the band. It sounds less like a drugfuelled exploration of inner visions than an electronic interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions. Leader and singer Kevin Parker has said that the album’s direction was inspired by the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive, and while he was supremely high on cocaine and mushrooms at the time, he’s managed to transform the melancholy he felt in that classic into a suite of songs that have surprising complexity and depth. The record is written from the perspective of someone drifting away from a relationship, as song titles like Yes I’m Changing suggest. There’s a maturity to Parker’s writing that was hinted at on the standout song from their last album, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. The regretful longing continues in full force on Currents, as he sings lines like ‘Wish I could turn you back into a stranger’ on Eventually. Tame Impala have transformed themselves into the kind of group that writes introspective anthems where the music is the focus, as well as finally finding a way for Parker to lose those John Lennon comparisons. ROSHAN CLERKE
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ALLAN BROWNE QUINTET
HOLY HOLY When The Storms Would Come Sony The members of Holy Holy have bonded over mutual fondness of groups like Band Of Horses, Grizzly Bear and Pink Floyd, and those influences shine through on the Australian duo’s debut album. It’s a very pure-sounding record; vocals tinged with reverb and gallant guitar work dominate, each track sounding as through it’s drifting through the breeze across a field stretching towards the horizon. Sentimental And Monday is a fitting introduction, building up slowly compared to most of the other tracks, but climaxing towards the end with a huge vocal. Outside Of The Heart Of It takes on a folkier approach with simple instrumentation, but still manages to show plenty of heart. Unsurprisingly, lead single, You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog, stands up as one of the biggest moments on the record, at least vocally; the ethereal harmonies, commanding drum beat and powerful nature of the guitar work recalls something of the Cigarettes, Wedding Bands moment on Band Of Horses’ fantastic album, Cease To Begin. That’s not to take anything away from the second half of this album — Wanderer shakes things up with a bassdominated tune; Pretty Strays For Hopeless Lovers is softer vocally, but the chaotic instrumental at the end is an album highlight; and final track The Crowd is a reflective piano-driven piece that brings the record to a close wonderfully. Holy Holy sound more confident in their approach and style than groups facing their third and fourth efforts, and as such, their future looks very bright. KANE SUTTON
Ithaca Bound Jazzhead With Allan Browne’s death last month, Ithaca Bound has come into the office at a sad time. The late, great heavyweight of the Melbourne jazz community released this album just two months ago and continued playing until the day before his death. The album itself is full of emotionallyconnected, atmospheric compositions, with Browne’s drums providing a textured backdrop for the other musicians to work off. Homeric in influence, the album’s post-bop sensibilities gives each solo musician a wide leeway to create their own journeys over each song. The horn interplay between Eugene Ball and Phil Noy is a prevalent feature in the album, and the personalities seem to feed well off each other. Geoff Hughes’s guitar lines are often serene and unobtrusive, particularly in Calypso, and though atmospheric in nature, there are a few nice moments where the tight rhythmic pulse between Browne and bassist, Nick Hardwood is satisfyingly played out. With some heartbreakingly optimistic liner notes it’s a touching, great end to an amazing career from Browne and a must-have for fans who followed his work. Vale, Allan Brown. SHAUN COWE
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3.5 OUT OF 5
TIRED LION Figurine Independent The second EP from Perth quartet, Tired Lion, explodes right away into a frenzy of distorted feedback and thumping drums. Pretend is the ideal attention-grabber, with a fantastic guitar hook that’s only sparsely used. Tired Lion brilliantly bring a refreshingly modern vibe to a well-established genre; with a firm grasp on their influences and inspirations, the band provides their own raw take on grunge. Figurine is a strong release through and through, powering through short, sweet and downright cacophonous sonic love letters to the ‘90s, making everyone want to join in. LUKAS MURPHY
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L I F E S T Y L E & C U LT U R E
ANT-MAN
In many ways, the Marvel brand has become trusted enough to transcend the fame - or lack thereof - of the characters its attached to. You could argue that it was the Marvel name that put bums on seats for the smash hit Guardians Of The Galaxy. But surely getting people to take Ant-Man seriously is a challenge for even the Mighty Marvel House of Ideas? Not so, says producer Kevin Feige. “It’s a movie that is very different from anything we’ve ever made before,” Feige says. “And like Guardians Of The Galaxy, it really feels like we are continuing to surprise audiences with how vast the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be and how diverse it can be and how unique it can be from film to film.” The hero of Ant-Man is not a driven industrialist or an alien god, but down on his luck schlub - Scott Lang, recently released from prison and looking for redemption. ““Scott means well; he has a daughter but he’s sort of ruined things with his wife who has moved on since they divorced,” explains Feige. “He’s trying to do the right thing to be back with his daughter, and we wanted to carry that into the film because it’s very different; we haven’t done a film like that before. So we wanted those moments to seem very real. We have the spectacle; we have shrinking technology and we have growing technology and have ants that have their own characteristics, so we wanted the human side of this film and the emotional side of this film to seem very real.” The film’s chief conceit - the shrinking technology made possible by the “Pym Particles” invented by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), meant that the action could be staged in a way that
audiences haven’t seen before, bringing hyperbolic battle to most mundane locations. “He’s able to shrink down to a half inch or even smaller. And suddenly any location - the inside of a briefcase, the inside of a play set in a little girl’s bedroom - becomes an epic setting for an action battle unlike any action movie we’ve ever made before or ever seen before.” Speaking of Pym - the original Ant-Man in comics continuity - Feige is incredibly happy to have veteran actor Michael Douglas essaying the role. “ When Michael Douglas’ name came up, it was perfect. It is perfect because he would have been a kickass Ant-Man back in the day, and he could still kick ass today. Michael was willing to play it a little older than he really is. He’s still this dashing, unbelievable movie star but we aged him up a bit for the role of Hank Pym. He also has that noble sense about him. The backstory of Hank is that he really put his life aside to protect the world from his own invention. “At the same time, he has a great sense of humour because there are sequences in this film where he has to train Scott Lang, who has essentially no business trying to become a super hero. Hank Pym has to train him to be able to shrink and grow super-fast and handle his own against the ants, which when you’re looking up at a giant ant, it’s a whole other experience than when you look down and see them crawling through the sidewalks. Michael Douglas more than delivered, and he’s just got such this iconic presence about him. His voice and his entire aura are very, very impressive. There are moments in this film where he has to tell his backstory to Scott to try to get Scott to agree to this. Nobody can weave a tale like Michael Douglas can, and we knew that it would be hard to say no after Scott heard this speech.” TRAVIS JOHNSON
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A R T S & C U LT U R E
Every week we bring you the best in fashion, food, shopping and lifestyle.
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POTTERY BARN Common Clay Perth fans of Pottery Barn get ready to redecorate, with Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and West Elm all now open in the Hay Street Mall.
EAT AT: BOLT COFFEE ROASTERS Coffee roasted onsite and old fashioned comfort food make for a winning winter combination. Bolt Coffee Roasters
Pottery Barn was established in 1949 and acquired by Williams-Sonoma Inc. in 1986. The founding idea was to offer home furnishings with a focus on comfort, quality, style, and value, and since then it’s easily become one of America’s most readily identified retailers in terms of interior style. Anyone who’s watched a lot of American television and film—or even just picked up a lifestyle magazine from the US—will be familiar with Pottery Barn. For me, the Pottery Barn obsession began with an episode of Friends and the infamous apothecary table incident with Phoebe and Rachel (because I, too, wanted that lamp). And let’s face it, popular culture is in the throes of a bit of a design and decorating addiction that we can’t quite shake, and don’t want to. Transforming the space we live in, making it our own, can be satisfying, and endlessly interesting. Trends change, but so do we as people, and as a result our interior tastes are often in flux. If you love interiors but couldn’t match a chair, rug, and table together to save your life, the
DRINK AT: BUDBURST SMALL BAR An interesting win selection, craft beers, delicious snacks and more, all housed in a century-old cottage, right in Mount Hawthorn. Budburst Small Bar
THAT’S FIT Winter Workouts Sometimes you want to get some physical activity in that’s fun, maybe social, and definitely won’t see you working out in the rain (hey, it’s wet out there).
SHOP AT: MADE ON THE LEFT The best indie WA design, homeware, fashion and arts are all gathered together under the roof of the Perth Concert Hall this Sunday, July 26. Entry is free. Made On The Left
GO TO: PERTH TRUCK AND TRAILER SHOW We like big trucks and we cannot lie. On at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre from Friday, July 24, until Sunday, July 26. Perth Truck And Trailer Show 18
Let’s face it, anything dance-related, or with elements of dance, is one of the best ways to get a workout that feels a little like a night out. A Sh’Bam class is one way to enjoy some hip hop and funk tunes. The moves aren’t complicated so
GENERICS Apothecary Now Local style aficionados know of Lisa Chau, product developer for Generics, Zanthus, and original co-founder of Merge. Her latest concept space, Generics in Northbridge, amalgamates three focal points into one fashion lifestyle experience. Generics Style Lab offers wardrobe, accessories and styling; Generics Urban Apothecary looks at skincare, perfumery, and candles that are handmade, sustainable, socially, and ethically sourced; the Generics Pamper Corner allows you to build your own style team for events. Chau said the Urban Apothecary element was inspired by the need to make grooming uncomplicated and affordable, while still possessing that X factor. “I also wanted us to get back to basics and think about holistic style and how we can do this by exploring small batch vegan skincare and beauty.” She believes true style is about being honest with ourselves. “What we wear, and also, what we put on our skin and in our bodies, tells us a lot about who we are and where we are going. It’s about alternate beauty and style within the urban landscape.”
Pottery Barn crew has you covered: sections are dedicated to areas of the home like living rooms, bedrooms, and outdoor space. Not to mention the Design Studio, a part of the store dedicated to helping customers plan their furniture choices. If, like myself, you’re constantly buying the little things in life (new crockery and an endless supply of candles you never light because you’re worried about setting off smoke alarms), you’re in luck. Pottery Barn covers a vast array of your interior needs, whatever the scope. There are also gift registry options if you’ve got a wedding or birthday coming up. For those with young ‘uns, Pottery Barn Kids is packed with furniture and associated accessories for the discerning nursery, bedroom, and play space shopper. (Plus it’s a kid-friendly shop.) There’s also in store monogramming, if personalisation is your thing. From toys to reusable lunch bags, you’ll find more than enough to fill the nursery and probably every cupboard in the house. The gift registry option for an upcoming baby is
tre helpful. For the trend-savvy shopper, West Elm launched in 2002, and the idea is that West Elm’s designers create an exclusive collection annually (often working with independent designers and artists globally on collaborations exclusive to West Elm). Gorgeous and fun if you’re looking to update your interiors, or gift someone with a standout conversation starter. The store also stocks oneoff pieces sourced worldwide. Take advantage of complimentary consultations. (Also has gift registry too.) Right now all three stores have an Objects Of Affection Giveaway and Instagram Competition going on. They’re highlighting six alltime fave items. Vote, and you get a chance to win a $1000 gift card. Specific hashtagging can also put you in the run for spot prizes each week, so check out potterybarn.com.au for details. GILLIAN O’MEAGHER
Now that you’re all grown up (sort of) flying through the air is a cool way to work out. Ring around and find adult classes for beginners, or head for a centre like Bounce Inc. where the walls and the floors are covered in trampolines, and you and your friends can have a lot of fun. At some point most of us have enjoyed roller-skating. If not, no worries, lots of places have lessons. Give it a wheeling, gliding go. Avid fans of roller derby might consider quitting the sidelines, and getting into the action. Contact WA Roller Derby to discuss opportunities. (Don’t worry, they’ve got training options to help get you up to speed.) For many, indoor rock climbing is a winter favourite. The centres around will help newbies through the first awkward stages. Don’t worry about falling; the place is designed to ensure you don’t need to be able to shake it like a music a safe experience (as will be explained to you). A number of different types of climbs are usually video extra. on offer and you can always join a climbing club, How about a genre change? For if you want to. something left of field, the National Square Dance Adult gymnastics is another Society Of Australia Inc has classes in WA (details idea (especially if you loved gymnastics as a on their website). Or consider line dancing classes. kid). Often referred to as “recreational” gymnastics It’s not too hard (with the help of the net) to find for adults, a number of places now include elements boot scootin’ friends. (Yeehaw!) Never hurts to of the discipline as part of an overall workout. Great change it up a little. for flexibility and strength. Have you tried a barre workout? There We might not have snow, but we do are a few variations are around, but the idea is a have ice skating. If you don’t mind the cold, combination of ballet moves, with yoga or pilates contact the nearest rink for lesson details or in the mix (though this can vary, depending on the social ice skating sessions. West Australian’s are instructor, and the version of barre you’ve signed starting to get into ice hockey, so if you’ve enjoyed up for). The barre, in case you didn’t know, is the watching it on tv, why not consider figuring out wooden pole you see in dance studios, along the how to play? Check with your local ice rink for wall (hence the name). training and classes. Anyone who had a trampoline as a kid will tell you trampolining is ridiculously awesome. GILLIAN O’MEAGHER that many things we are doing in this space pay somewhat homage to its past history.” Keep in mind; the offerings are not just for the girls. “I like to ensure Generics will always have something for everyone. Many of our products are unisex, from clothing to skincare and candles. If you’re comfortable with the way it looks, feels, or smells, and you can make it work for you, then why not?” She says Clean Slate, Generics, Carriage 44 and Sabr Organics are popular with both sexes. “Specific manscaping ranges such as beard care by Norwegian skincare Fit For Vikings, or Hunter Lab skincare of Melbourne are also great.” At present, she’s focused on expanding the Generics range into natural skincare, lifestyle, and sensory products. “Just last week we released our first batch of Generics Australian certified organic lip balm with bath salts, soaks, and wet mud masks. The cucumber mud mask with Vitamin E and aloe is a great little staple beauty addition for men and women. We also have Generics skinfood range, made with certified organic ingredients for face and body. And we have released our first batch of 100% vegan soy candles into Northbridge.” Chau is happy with her latest undertaking, describing it as “...such a heavenly space. I love that you can come here and find a diverse range of Generics products, whether it’s accessories, fashion, She points out the space on William Street or apothecary. is a heritage listed corner store built in 1913. “Its tall Generics can be found at 282 William St, walls and angular frontage has been a dispensary, Northbridge. beauty salon and artefact gallery, accessories and vintage store over the years. It inspires me, to know GILLIAN O’MEAGHER
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Now Add Honey
Circus Carnis - Photo by RM Photographics
FREAK OUT ALL OVER AGAIN Following on from the spectacular success of their first Freaks And Fishnets event at The Doll House, the Danger Cabaret crew have decided to do it all over again on Sunday, August 9, with the rather predictably named but still exciting Freaks And Fishnets Volume II. Fancy man about town Magnus Danger Magnus takes on MC duties for a night of titillating fun that features burlesque performances from Miss Gail Force, Vivian Marlowe and Odile Divine, magic from Robbie T, extreme circus from Circus Carnis, go go dancing from The Foxettes and more! Doors open at 6pm, and tickets are $30 plus booking fee from dangercabaret.com. $35 on the door, subject to availability.
TAXI TO THE LAUGH SIDE Our amigos at Infinite Jest are combining two of our favourite things, music and comedy, in a way that, surprisingly enough, isn’t musical comedy. Death Cab For Comedy is a new banner which brings together top notch comedians and killer musos for a night of music and mirth that is sure to please. Get down to the Rosemount Hotel on Sunday, August 2, to see legendary Aussie comedian Greg Fleet, plus music from the incredible Wisdom2th. Support comes from Steven J Whitely, Ciaran Lyons, Sonny Yang, Sam Cribb, Manfred Yon and Glenn Grimwood. Doors open at 7pm, and tickets are available now from infinitejest.com.au.
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO WA Opera His Majesty’s Theatre Tuesday, July 14, 2015 Opera. Just the word makes some people’s eyes glaze over, provokes a feeling of either dread or sleep. You might hear words like highbrow or inaccessible thrown around from certain friends or family when they discuss the artform. You might be perusing the entertainment pages for things to do in Perth, see the listing for WA Opera’s The Marriage Of Figaro and think, “Meh. I’d probably have to wear a tie. Plus, that could be three hours I’ll never get back.” Readers, I’d like to reassure you that although there are certainly operas out there that you would be perfectly right to dread seeing. There are certainly opera productions that are so soporific and/or puzzling that you would be justified taking
CINEFEST OZ FILM PRIZE FINALISTS ANNOUNCED Five finalists are vying for Australia’s richest film prize, which will be announced at the Cinefest OZ Film Festival on Saturday, August 29. The Cinefest OZ Film Prize is the only cash film prize focused on Australian feature films. In 2014, the generous prize went to Robert Connolly’s lauded family film, Paper Planes. Now in 2015, Backtrack, Now Add Honey, The Daughter, Pawno, and Putuparri And The Rainmakers have been shortlisted. Backtrack and Now Add Honey will be making their Australian premieres at the Festival, while the remaining three films will be making their West Australian premieres. For more information and to purchase early bird tickets, head to cinfestoz.com.au.
...SAID THE ACTRESS TO THE BISHOP UK comedian John Bishop is wildly popular. How wildly popular is he? So wildly popular that he’s had to add a second show to the Perth leg of his upcoming Australian tour. Perhaps best known to Aussie audiences for his comedic travel show, John Bishop’s Australia, which saw him cycle from Sydney to far north Queensland, as well as his own The John Bishop Show, Bishop plays the Astor Theatre on Sunday. October 18 and Sunday, October 25. For tickets, go to stagetix.com.au. a nap and/or extended visit to the toilet during the entirety of the third act. And although WA Opera’s The Marriage Of Figaro goes for a whopping three and a half hours, it is not one of those operas. Nope. It’s well worth your time and your tie. Figaro is a character that’s gotten a lot of coverage over the centuries. He first came to life in French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais’ Figaro Trilogy in the late 18th century, the most famous installments being The Barber Of Seville and The Marriage Of Figaro. These two works inspired composers Rossini and Mozart, respectively, to write two operas of the same names. And thanks to Warner Brothers, Figaro gets immortalized in cartoon form by the Bugs Bunny short, Rabbit Of Seville. There’s your short history of Figaro in pop culture, now let’s get down to what’s happening at The Maj this week. Figaro is played by one of WA Opera’s finest assets, baritone James Clayton, who leads the way along with Emma Pearson, as his fiancée, Susanna. Pearson was a latecomer to the production, replacing a different Emma, Emma Matthews, who was originally slated to play the role. Clayton and Pearson are perfectly paired, equally matched performers with excellent comic timing, musicianship and presence. The Italian lyrics roll off Clayton’s tongue probably easier than if he were to sing the same in English, and Pearson’s fourth act aria was simply sublime, causing three gentle tears to roll down my cheeks. Under the direction of Neil Armfield, who originally brought his vision of Figaro to life for Opera Australia in 2011, this bedroom farce gets a whimsical and bawdy treatment. There are a few eye-rollers amongst the frequently genitalia-based gags, but it’s nice to see classical musicians have permission to let loose on stage in a setting where they’re often constrained by corsets and capes. There are some fun little anachronisms in the stage props, and the minimalist set, designed by Dale Ferguson, is bold and sweeping. Ferguson’s period costumes are luxurious, and the support characters’ looks are designed for excellent comedic impact. Of special note is Marcellina’s (Caitlin Cassidy) Frida Kahlo unibrow, which seemed to arrive on scene ahead of Cassidy. This is by far and away the most fun I’ve had with WA Opera in the last couple of years, though I’ve never had a bad time with them. But somehow the atmosphere was looser, both on stage and in the audience, and though we hit 11pm before they let us out into the street, a good time was had by all. Reserve your “mehs” for other operas, and catch this one before it closes. CICELY BINFORD
Daek William - The Sword And Society
VISUAL ARTS 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 until Sunday, July 26. Go to hyperfest.com.au for more details. With Every Fibre Of My Being: Mundaring Arts Centre This group exhibition looks at ideas associated with ritual, sacred objects, women and the body by a number of WA’s top textiles and fibre artists, including Trish Bygott, Loran Murray, Bonnie Boogaard, Trish Little, Annette Seeman and Anne Farren. It runs until Sunday, August 16. Foreign Soil: John Curtin Gallery Multidisciplinary artist Thea Constantino takes an oblique look at the centenary of the Great War and the ANZAC cultural myth, examining migrant stories within the framework of Colonial and Imperial conflict. It runs until Sunday, September 6 - go to johncurtingallery.curtin. edu.au for further details. Ledge Point: Moana Project Space This collection of abstract oil paintings by Perthbased artist Jordy Hewitt is on display from Friday, July 31, until Sunday, august 16. Go to moana-ari.com for more info. The Sword And Society: Linton And Kaye Gallery, Perth Painter, muralist and installation artist Daek William digs into a rich world of fantasy imagery and fabulist forms with this new series of works. This richly imaginative collection is on display from Saturday, August 1, until Sunday, August 15. For more, head to lintonandkay.com.au
THEATRE/DANCE/ PERFORMANCE Blithe Spirit: The State Theatre Centre Black Swan State Theatre Company presents this new production of Noel Coward’s supernatural comedy, which sees a novelist haunted by the ghost of his first wife, much to the consternation of his second. Directed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and starring Adam Booth, Adriane Daff and Michelle Fornasier, it runs until Sunday, August 9. For tickets and session times, head to bsstc.com.au Josh Pyke With The West Australian Symphony Orchestra: Perth Concert Hall ARIA-winning singer Josh Pyke performs with the WASO for one night only on Friday, July 24. For tickets, go to waso.com.au
Cirque Du Soleil - Totem: Belmont Racecourse The latest show from the renowned circus troupe traces the evolution of the human species from our distant amphibian state to our ultimate desire to fly, drawing inspiration from numerous creation myths along the way. It runs from Friday, July 31, until Sunday, September 20. Go to cirquedusoleil.com/ totem for full details. National Geographic Live Presents Steve Winter - My Nine Lives: The State Theatre Centre Wildlife photographer Steve Winter will regale the audience with his stories of encounters with big cats from across the globe. A world renowned wildlife photographer, Winter’s work capturing images of tigers in the wild recently culminated in the National Geographic book, Tigers Forever. He appears for one night only on Monday, August 10. For tickets, go to nglive.org/pacific Coppelia: His Majesty’s Theatre West Australian Ballet and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra come together to present this beloved ballet, originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Leon with music by Leo Delibes, this production shifts the setting of the venerable work to a small, ethnically German settlement in 1800s South Australia, where a young man falls in love with a clockwork girl created by the titular inventor. It runs from Friday, September 11, until Saturday, September 26. Book via Ticketek or waballet.com.au.
FESTIVALS Scandinavian Film Festival The second ever Scandinavian Film Festival lands at Cinema Paradiso on Thursday, July 23, bringing with it a full roster of dramas, comedies and thrillers from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. It runs until Thursday, July 29 - got to lunapalace.com. au for more information. Great Britain Retro Film Festival Presented by patron David Stratton, this festival brings back to the screen 20 classics of British Cinema, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lawrence Of Arabia, and newly remastered prints of Carol Reed’s The Third Man and Powell and Pressburger’s Tales Of Hoffman. It runs at the Windsor Cinema from Thursday, August 6, until Wednesday, August 19. For tickets and session times, go to lunapalace.com.au. AICE Israeli Film Festival Cinema Paradiso plays host to an impressive roster of films from one of the most fascinating a divisive countries on earth. New Artistic Director Richard Moore has curated a program that encompasses all aspects of Israeli society, with a total of 35 titles. Subsets include a selection of Israeli classics in Blast From The Past, examples of Israel’s vibrant LBGTI culture in Queer Spot, and theological meditations in Questions Of Faith. It runs from Thursday, August 20, until Wednesday, August 26. Go to lunapalace.com.au for tickets and session times.
Life In A Fishbowl - screening at the Scandinavian Film Festival WWW. XP RE SS MAG.COM. AU
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OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL
PAPER TOWNS Zen And The Art Of The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Directed by Jake Schreier Starring Nat Wolff, Cara Delevigne After a wild night of revenge and quirky freedom with his manic pixie dream girl neighbour, Quentin (Nat Wolff) decides to finally tell her how he truly feels about her. Unfortunately for him, Margo (Cara Delevigne) has disappeared after that night and, despite many absurd rumours as to where she is, no one has actually seen her. It falls to Quentin and his group of friends to follow the clues this free spirit has left and try and decipher what is meant by the phrase “paper town” in an attempt to find her. Based on the book by John Green (The Fault In Our Stars), Paper Towns is just a little bit smarter than you initially give it credit for. Sure, it peddles a lot of the standard pop psychology that has been aimed at teen audiences ever since a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a criminal, and a princess served detention together one Saturday in the ‘80s. That is to say: be empathetic to your schoolmates, look beyond the surface, and don’t be afraid to go outside your comfort zone. Paper Towns just does it with a genuine sense of fun from the cast and occasionally it has a little more to say about how we construct those views. The changes from the novel help with this. Paper Towns was adapted for the screen by
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Scott Neustadte and Michael H Webber, who had previous experience in bringing a Green novel to the big screen with The Fault In Our Stars. They manage to change Quentin’s lonely journey into a road movie, hence there is a sense of exultation about the search as the friends bond, have adventures and manage to grow a little, rather than one lone guy stalking his neighbour 1200 miles up the coast (which, if we are being honest here, is less romantic and more grounds for a restraining order). The young cast manages to have a great chemistry together, especially the three friends that are the heart to this film. “Q”, Radar (Justice Smith) and “Bloody” Ben (Austin Abrams) act like they have a lifetime of bonding, whether it is interrogating Ben for details about his make believe girlfriend, or bursting into the Pokemon theme. There is a sense of joy and familiarity here, tinged with the melancholic realisation that it will all end soon as they head for college. Delevigne makes a great “it” girl, with her harsh eyebrows and husky tone, lending her both mystery and strength. Nat Wolff is more laid back than the scene stealing Isaac (again Fault...), but he conveys a sense of charisma to what could easily be a flat central role. Jake Schreier (Robot And Frank) may not do anything ground-breaking here, but he handles the subject mater well, creating what is an enjoyable teen film. This should hit its target demographic with no problem, and may even find fans outside it. DAVID O’CONNELL
13 Minutes In his new film 13 Minutes, the director of Downfall, Oliver Hirschbiegel, looks at the life of Georg Elser. In 1939 Elser came within a hair’s breadth of assassinating Hitler, when a bomb he manufactured and planted detonated a mere 13 minutes after the dictator had left. We had a talk to Hirschbiegel about this fascinating individual, what it means to convey violence in film, and of course “that” reaction video. “When it comes to the depiction of a man like this it is extremely emotive. I knew a lot about Elser, but in a certain sense he will remain a riddle. Looking at his story it is almost unbelievable. He is almost clairvoyant in he sees what is coming. In 1939 no one was talking World War. These people (NSDAP) were terrible, but to see millions and millions of deaths...” Hirschbiegel trails off, before continuing on a different track, “You can only get as close as you can to a character like that, try to shed as many light beams as possible on him.” Unsuccessful in his attempt, Elser was detained the night of the bombing. The film covers both the interrogation of the man and flashbacks to his previous life, so the audience understand the motives that drove him to this point “Elser was subjected to enforced interrogation techniques from the Gestapo. I, as a director, have a duty not to avoid that, as many of my colleges have done. Especially me being German, depicting Gestapo interrogation, I feel I need to go deeper there. It gets tricky, authenticity is very unpleasant to
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shoot that, to force your actors to go that deep into the pain, and at the other end you must not be voyeuristic. You must shoot it in a way that the audience can take it still. It’s a thin line between what you do show and what you make happen in the mind of the audience.” That question of portraying violence troubles Hirschbiegel. He knows it is a balancing act he must get right. Not to glamorise, but not to shy away from. “It’s awful when anyone is killed. You see people get killed in the thousands in movies, and no one knows what it means. In a film like this it is my duty to make an impression, what dying means, what fear means, what it is like to kill. With any film, especially those dealing with The Third Reich, it is in keeping with authenticity that you drag the audience inside. To wonder what they would do in the same situation. How far would I go? What would I do in the same situation?” The result is an at times harrowing, but also liberating film about a fascinating figure. On a lighter note, those Hitler reaction videos made from the director’s previous work Downfall? “I never expected a thing like that to happen. I think it is a first in history for something like that to be so many times. It has become a classic, beyond being a classic anyway. It shows that the best weapon to avoid a war is humour. To use Hitler now (laughs) it is hilarious. Most of these are done by brilliant minds. I am very proud of it.” DAVID O’CONNELL
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13 MINUTES
MR HOLMES
The Nail That Stands Out... Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel Starring Christian Friedel, Kathrina Schuttler, Burghart Klaussner The director of Downfall once again ventures into the history of the Third Reich, this time to bring us the story of a lone individual that said no to the rise of the Nazi Party and tried to stop them as early as 1939. The result is an intense film that covers both the interrogation of Georg Elser and looks at how the rise of National Socialism affected the village which he grew up in. It is November 8, 1939, and 13 minutes after Hitler leaves a Munich rally an explosion kills eight people. On the same night a man, Elser (Christian Friedel), is detained trying to cross the Swiss border with items that tie him into the bombing. As he is interrogated by both police and the Gestapo, in the forms of Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaussner) and Heinrich Muller (Johann Von Bulow), we slowly begin to see the motivation of this individual in the flashbacks to his previous life. From a younger Elser’s perspective we see the growth of the Nazi party as they fight the Communists for political gain, but we also see the changes in the simple village life that are wrought. Eventually even Elser, a free-spirited man of peace, feels the need to take action. At times harrowing, 13 Minutes is an inspiring tale of one man’s clear foresight and conviction. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel brings us a film that isn’t afraid of making the audience confront the violence and tension of the interrogation,
The Game Is Afoot
but neither does he revel in or glamorise it. This is a fine balancing act, relying much more on the audience’s imagination and implication to create an impact rather than gore. In utilising this technique Hirschbiegel is also able to demonstrate how commonplace such methods are and how dehumanising it is on the participants. In one memorable scene the camera tracks up a hallway landing on a mid-shot of a secretary reading a novel as Elser is tortured next door. That juxtaposition of the feigned indifference and the agonised cries is terrifying. Acting almost as a relief mechanism, we are also given a glimpse into German rural life in the ‘30s. This seemingly idyllic pastoral setting is soon soured as the Nazi ideology spreads its way into everyday life, first in the form of historical details added to the background, then more and more in the attitude of the inhabitants. Friedel does a wonderful job in these scenes of bringing some shade to the character beyond mere stoicism, allowing a sense of humour and love of life to flow, creating a multilayered portrayal. An interesting and at times intense look at a historical figure who is less known than later attempts to assassinate Hitler (ironically, Nebe was part of Operation Valkyrie). Although not quite up to the standard of Hirschbiegel’s previous study of the Third Reich, it is a pointed reminder of how a nation can be shaped by the views of extremism and hate. DAVID O’CONNELL
Directed by Bill Condon Starring Ian McKellan, Milo Parker, Laura Linney Ian McKellan gets to add yet another iconic character to his resume in this latest take on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, Mr Holmes. It is the end of World War 2 and Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellan) returns from Japan to his remote country retirement cottage. Accompanied only by his housekeeper and her young son Roger (Milo Parker), he seeks to write down the particulars of his last case, and correct the often faulty published recollections of Dr Watson. However, age has taken its toll even on the memory of the world’s greatest consulting detective, and he struggles to remember the details. As Holmes strikes up a friendship with Roger, they both seek to find the clues amongst Sherlock’s own possessions and solve his final case. The strength of Mr Holmes lies in two areas. The first is the solid bones of its script. Based on the novel A Slight Trick Of The Mind by Mitch Cullen, it weaves its multiple timelines slowly together till the plot fits with an almost audible click. It is immensely satisfactory to see the elements impact on each other and find resolution; nothing feels superfluous. Furthermore it is filled with Holmseian logic, managing to capture the feel of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work and many of the films that came afterwards, maintaining its uniqueness but dovetailing into the world of Sherlock Holmes.
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Which is no mean feat. Given that it is set across two periods of time removed from the Victorian setting of the original. The first, after World War 1, sees Holmes exercising his deductive skills in one last case, the other sees him fighting senility as he struggles to remember the details of that case. Each era is lovingly recreated and given marvellous detail, each reflects the zeitgeist of the time, that sense of loss from the war combined with the desire to move forward and rebuild. It weaves into the themes of loss, change and rebirth nicely, without having to club the audience over the head with it. The second pillar of this film is Ian McKellan. He effortlessly inhabits the character, displaying the confidence at the height of his powers and the fragility of him closer to the end of his life. There is a definite sense of glee in his performance when he attacks some of the Holmesian tropes and overturns them (“I prefer a cigar”), but this is balanced by the pathos he can bring to the elderly Holmes, struggling with his greatest gifts being stripped from him by age. His interaction with the young Milo Parker, who does so much more than merely hold his own here, adds a depth of empathy and understanding rarely seen in the character. A beautifully balanced work that adds something new to a classic character, while being respectful and aware of its origins. Mr Holmes is an intelligently written, gently paced and perfectly cast piece of cinema. DAVID O’CONNELL
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Curtin University Open Day
If you’ve got plans for Sunday, August 2, consider a raincheck because Curtin University’s biggest event of the year is on again – that’s right, it’s Curtin Open Day. Curtin’s main campus in Bentley is set to throw open its doors to show you the ins and outs of what it’s like to study at WA’s largest and most multicultural university. If you’re thinking about going to uni, it’s the perfect opportunity to find out everything you want and need to know. You can explore facilities, learn about the courses, meet lecturers and talk to current students. It’s going to be a massive day, with a massive program, which is why they’ve compiled a list of must-sees. In the courses expo area – the tent-city next to the main entrance – grab a metal detector and try your hand at prospecting in the Curtin WA School of Mines Super Pit. You’ll have just one minute to locate a mineral treasure and win a prize. With Curtin’s new medical school set to open in 2017, there’ll also be a booth in the Health
Sciences marquee open to answer all your questions about the new degree – which will be the only undergraduate entry course for medicine in the state. Curtin’s fashion students are known for pushing the envelope of design. Two different collections will be showcased in the Humanities marquee during Open Day – but get in early, these shows are hugely popular! Out on campus, the Engineering Pavilion will be humming with robots, with Willy The Bomb Squad Robot, a robotic fish and a 3D-printed hand exoskeleton on display. And if you’re into cars, stick around for a race car demonstration from the Curtin Motorsports Team. Fans of CSI, NCIS and Bones can tour Curtin’s Chemistry and Resources Precinct and channel their inner Ducky Mallard as they learn about the science of forensics. There’ll also be displays about nanochemistry and a chance to try some liquid nitrogen ice cream. Immerse yourself in the HIVE – the Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch - where there will be 3D interactive technologies and high-powered computing systems that are letting researchers explore and present their data in a whole new way. It’s the next best thing after the finger-twizzling tech of Tony Stark.
If you head to Health Sciences, you can also try out the most technologically advanced visualisation system for anatomy education – the Anatomage Table. Generated from real patient scans and cadavers, you can touch, move, rotate, enlarge and slice the virtual bodies with no messy clean up!
“Even if you’re not sure if uni’s for you, it’s worth coming down for the festive atmosphere if nothing else. There are many different pathways to get into uni, and Curtin staff will be available to let you know what options there are.” The Curtin Business School is home to the only stock market trading room in a WA university. Its 16 terminals and real-time financial news and stock boards will let you dip your toes into the world of finance. Located at the south end of campus is Curtin FM 100.1, the university’s on-campus radio station. The station owes its success to
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the volunteers who help run the station, from producing shows, to manning the phones and working in the record library. Station tours will run throughout the day and there’ll be a sausage sizzle outside with some live entertainment. If you’ve got some time to kill between activities, why not head over to the Fun Zone? There’ll be performing artists, live music, a photo booth and a petting zoo for the young and the young at heart. Even if you’re not sure if uni’s for you, it’s worth coming down for the festive atmosphere if nothing else. There are many different pathways to get into uni, and Curtin staff will be available to let you know what options there are. Curtin’s Open Day website – openday. curtin.edu.au – has the full day’s program and a map of the campus. A new Hello Curtin app can also help you make the most of Open Day. Using beacon technology, the app can alert you to nearby events and give you extra information about the facilities and courses you see on the day. You can find the app by searching ‘Hello Curtin’ in Google Play or the App Store. So pull out your phone and add Curtin Open Day to your calendar. It’s a day that can change your life, inspire your future and make tomorrow better.
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UWA START YOUR PURSUIT AT UWA OPEN DAY Learn more about the many course and career opportunities available to you at The University of Western Australia by visiting the 2015 UWA Open Day on Sunday, August 9, between 10am and 4pm. At UWA Open Day, you can discover everything you’ve ever wanted to know about university life to help you in your study journey. Staff will be on hand to give you detailed information on undergraduate (first degree) and postgraduate (second or graduate degree) courses, answer your questions and offer career advice. Meet current students and get the low-down on the UWA student experience. You can talk to students in the Future Students Hub, at faculty displays and at the student club displays.
SAE Perth post production suite
SAE OPENING DAY SAE Perth is opening the doors to its state-of-the-art campus and giving you the opportunity to see what SAE Creative Media Institute has to offer. Kickstart your creative career and learn more about their Animation, Audio, Design, Film, and Games courses.
D u r i n g t h e d ay yo u ’ l l s i t i n o n information sessions and creative demonstrations as well as chat with our academic and campus staff, students and graduates. SAE Perth is celebrating a campus upgrade as they prepare to expand, and move to the cultural hub of Northbridge. Help them celebrate their milestone growth and change, and experience everything that SAE Open Day has to offer including: • Pop up cinema premiere screenings • Virtual reality with the oculus rift headset • Play student games • Camera and foley demonstrations for film making • Live music • Live drawing, animation and design showcases • Exciting details about our brand new custombuilt campus It’s all happening at Level 1, 3 Bennett Street, East Perth from 10am-1pm. For more: sae.edu.au.
What Else Is Happening At UWA Open Day? A fun-filled day for the whole family, UWA Open Day will also include tours of the university’s Crawley campus, the chance to climb Winthrop Tower or a rock wall, interactive displays, sporting activities, games, entertainment, performances and more. 92.9 radio will also be there with heaps of free giveaways and you can enter one of the many competitions across campus. Why Choose UWA? By choosing UWA, you will benefit from a worldclass education with access to teachers who are global leaders in their fields. It will help you become part of a forward-thinking group of people determined to explore the unknown and make things happen. As a UWA student, you will have interactions that will help you build strong networks that will benefit you throughout your career.
Student Life As well as the career benefits of a UWA degree, the university offers a fabulous student experience on stunning campuses, with an exciting social, cultural and sporting life. There are opportunities for students to volunteer, join clubs and societies and to study overseas. Students can live on campus in one of the residential colleges that are affiliated with or owned by the University. Scholarships E ve r y ye a r, U WA o f fe r s m o re t h a n 4 5 0 undergraduate and postgraduate coursework scholarships to help students on their path to pursuing their impossible. In addition to academic scholarships, there are many scholarships available for students experiencing financial hardship, with a disability, or for those from a rural or remote area who have experienced other educational disadvantages. M o re s c h o l a r s h i p i n fo r m at i o n i s available at Open Day or visit scholarships.uwa. edu.au. Special Entry Pathways The university has a long tradition of recognising and rewarding excellence and is committed to ensuring equity and access for all students. UWA welcomes a diverse student group and offers alternative entry schemes. These allow students to be considered for entry to UWA if their results in one of the university’s standard entry pathways are not sufficient for them to gain admission. Support and Advice U WA o f f e r s m a n y s u p p o r t s e r v i c e s t o help students transition from school into university. These range from helping students with career advice, medical support, counselling, financial services, housing and support for people with a disability. For more information about UWA Open Day and the chance to win some great prizes, visit openday.uwa.edu.au.
Meg Mac
Hugh Jackman during his visit to WAAPA in 2014
ECU Find A Course To Fit You Peek behind the curtain at WA’s fame factory and explore the facilities and meet the staff who helped propel the likes of Hugh Jackman, Meg Mac and Tim Minchin to stardom. Edith Cowan University’s Open Day (Sunday, August 9) at the Mount Lawley Campus is your chance to visit the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), as well as the university’s wide range of communications and arts courses. Learn the tricks of the trade in WAAPA’s multi-million dollar props and scenery workshop, go behind the scenes in the costume and design studios, watch performances and have all your questions answered by WAAPA staff and current students. 24
For those interested in a career in the media, check out ECU’s industry-standard TV and radio facilities, where students produce news programs for broadcast. Or learn more about the exciting opportunities to work as a director, producer, writer or editor at ECU’s WA Screen Academy. Take a tour of the fashion, printmaking, painting and design studios. At the Campus’ very own art gallery, Spectrum Project Space, visit the Girls, Girls, Girls exhibition by four successful female ECU alumni. Visitors will also get a chance to talk to lecturers and learn more about ECU’s business, computing and security, law and justice, medical and paramedical sciences and teaching courses. Not sure what you want to study? Don’t worry, ECU has got that covered too. There’s the opportunity to have your mind read to identify your true interests. Visitors can don headsets that monitor brain activity and are then shown visual and written cues about ECU courses. The headsets detect which generate the most beta waves – suggesting alertness or interest – indicating which study areas you might be most interested in.
ECU Open Day
Tim Minchin
“For those interested in a career in the media, check out ECU’s industry-standard TV and radio facilities, where students produce news programs for broadcast.” Other interactive activities on the day include: • • • • •
Design a game: Explore your creative side by designing and making your own computer game. Glass design: experience live demonstrations in glass, hot glass and kiln work in our sculpture studio. How to film with a green screen: Learn how to create movie magic. Be a TV weather reader: Try out activities in Studio A, including stop motion animation and TV weather reading. Deal or no deal: A fun, interactive experience with a financial twist. Think you can beat
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• •
the bank? Learn more about financial risk and strategy. See if you can walk away with a virtual fortune. The (Vir tual) Amazing Race: A fun, interactive tourism experience. Showcasing marketing opportunities with ECU. Pick the suspect: How good are your powers of observation? Could you pick a suspect after witnessing a crime? Come and get a snapshot of the world of Criminology and Justice.
The ECU Open Day will be held on the Mount Lawley Campus, Bradford Street, on Sunday, August 9, from 10am to 3pm. To plan your Open Day, visit ecu.edu.au.
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Business Education Health Sciences Law Medicine Nursing & Midwifery Philosophy & Theology Physiotherapy Pathways
Notre Dame is committed to providing a personalised education experience for all students and, as a result, the majority of the University’s courses are delivered in a face-to-face mode. Core Curriculum In pursuit of the university’s objectives, and to encourage critical thinking among students, Notre Dame requires all undergraduate students to study units in Philosophy, Theology and Ethics. The Core Curriculum is designed to be intriguing and enjoyable and to build mind and character by opening up questions that will help make life and work meaningful and richer in potential. Entry Flexibility Notre Dame Open Day
NOTRE DAME The Heart Students are at the heart of Notre Dame. The university’s personalised approach to education supports students every step of the way, helping them to develop their gifts and talents. As a university ‘in the world and for the world’, Notre Dame strives to equip students with attributes that go beyond excellent disciplinary expertise. Students are encouraged to expand their minds, develop critical thinking and reasoning skills and contribute to the local and global community. The University of Notre Dame Australia (est. 1989), is a distinctive national Catholic university that is committed to providing an excellent standard of training for the professions
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and pastoral care for its students. Notre Dame provides an excellent standard of training for the professions. Notre Dame students graduate wellequipped for their chosen profession through courses taught by leaders in their fields, grounded in high levels of on-the-job experience. Notre Dame has the highest graduate employment rate in WA (*Source: myuniversity.gov. au). Consistently rated highly by graduates, Notre Dame has received five-star ratings in ‘Teaching Quality’, ‘Generic Skills’ and ‘Overall Graduate Satisfaction’ in The Good Universities Guide for the past eight years. Notre Dame’s Fremantle Campus is located in the historic West End, operating in beautifully restored heritage buildings situated close to Bathers Beach, public transport and the famous Cappuccino Strip. Apply direct: www.notredame.edu.au, 9433 0533, future@nd.edu.au. Locations - Fremantle, Broome and Sydney. • •
Study Areas - Fremantle Arts & Sciences
The University seeks to enrol students who wish to make a special contribution to society. Its admissions process considers every applicant on an individual basis. Entry to Notre Dame is based on: • personal qualities, motivation to study and academic potential; • contribution to school, church or community life; • academic record; and • an interview with a member of the University’s academic staff.
Notre Dame University
Notre Dame’s Academic Enabling & Support Centre provides academic support to students enrolled in coursework and offers alternative entry pathways and bridging programs to further assist students reach their academic potential. Fees
Notre Dame also provides alternative entry pathways and academic enabling programs to assist students gain entry to their preferred undergraduate course(s). Students apply directly to the University (not through the TISC system).
Notre Dame is committed to making its courses as affordable and accessible as possible. The University offers Commonwealth-supported places that allow students to access HECS-Help and FEE-Help. There are also a number of scholarships available across various courses at Notre Dame. For more details regarding scholarships please visit nd.edu.au/scholarships.
Special Features
Upcoming Fremantle events
Reflecting Notre Dame’s commitment to pastoral care, the university’s Student Services Office ensures students have access to confidential counselling services, careers advice, volunteering opportunities, Campus Ministry and student mentoring programs.
· Open Day Festival (Sunday 16 August) · Parent Information Evening (Wednesday 9 September) · Admissions Info & Expo, including Alternative Entry (Tuesday, September 15). To register visit nd.edu.au.
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KTI Online Music Course Sets A New Tone Did you know you could gain a nationally accredited music qualification from the comfort of your own home? In tune with the fast-paced world in which people learn, Kimberley Training Institute is delivering Australia’s first fully online Certificate III in Music (CUS30109). KTI Senior Music Lecturer, Bel Skinner, developed the course early last year with a view to make the training accessible to all, particularly those living in remote areas. Designed for existing and emerging musicians, the course provides training in song writing, performance craft and music business, giving students the ability to launch a successful career in Australia’s booming music industry. Students have the option of enrolling in a single unit, skill set or the entire course and the delivery is fully self-paced, allowing them to work flexibly around their careers and lifestyles. Access is available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, with online, phone and video-conferencing support offered to all students throughout the course. “This course offers fantastic opportunities to aspiring musicians to build successful careers in the music industry, regardless of their location and work/life commitments,” Bel said. “Knowledge and skills gained by completing the course will give students a strong advantage at getting ahead in the music industry and building a self-managed successful career.” A year since its inception, Bel is continuing to receive a positive response from students and industry experts alike. “The feedback has been fantastic. It’s exciting to be working with a wide range of people across Australia. We currently have students across many different genres and at different stages of their careers, which is great for building a dynamic online environment.”
Murdoch Open Day
Kimberley Training Institute Senior Music Lecturer Bel Skinner is delivering Australia’s first fully online Certificate III in Music (CUS30109)
As a lecturer, musician and band manager with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, Bel brings with her a passion and commitment to supporting the development of emerging artists. She has been lecturing at KTI since 2002, and helped to establish their music programs before growing them to be delivered across the country. KTI now offers music training from a Certificate II in Music (CUS20109) through to a Diploma of Music (CUS50109) at its Broome campus and various locations across the Kimberley region in the far North West of Australia. Bel was named West Australian Trainer of the Year in 2009 and is currently a board member of Western Australian Music. For more information on Australia’s first fully online Certificate III in Music (CUS30109), or to enrol, please visit kti.wa.edu.au, email info@kti. wa.edu.au or call 1300 996 573
MURDOCH UNIVERSITY The Real World For real-world experience, think Murdoch. Studying at Murdoch isn’t just about learning in your chosen field. It’s also about exploring new ways of thinking, discovering different perspectives and finding ways to make a difference. Murdoch will link your learning directly to relevant, real-world experience so you graduate career-ready. They’re passionate about what they do and are there to help you get the skills, knowledge and life experience you need to achieve your goals and stand out from the rest. With the support of their national awardwinning student advisor team and teaching staff, your experience at Murdoch will give you the edge you need to land a job in the real world. Learn the craft of broadcast in industrystandard television and radio studios, hone your law skills in a purpose-built courtroom, undertake the only Veterinary Science course in WA in our
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community veterinary hospital and on-campus farm, gain hands-on instrumentation and control experience at our state-of-the-art engineering pilot plant and practice nursing at the state’s newest health precinct, located right on our doorstep. At Murdoch University, combining majors is not only possible, it’s encouraged. Careers aren’t as obvious as they once were and neither are the pathways for reaching them. Our students have the opportunity to gain a unique education and stand out from the rest with double majors offered across a broad range of disciplines. Murdoch is the only public university in Perth to offer a five-star full-time employment rating in the Good Universities Guide 2015. This means they had the most graduates land full-time employment straight out of uni. So, if you think you stand to benefit from the kind of real-world learning experience that delivers this kind of result. think Murdoch. Mid-year applications are closing soon. To find the Murdoch course that’s right for you, visit guide.murdoch.edu.au or go along to their Open Day this Sunday, July 26, from 10am-4pm and start your journey. They’ll be showcasing a broad range of courses, and their friendly staff and students will be on hand to answer all your questions about course options and campus life. Visit openday.murdoch.edu.au for more information.
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NEWS
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INTERVIEWS
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VENUES
OSCAR DAWSON AND TIMOTHY CARROLL, HOLY HOLY
Holy Holy release their debut album, When The Storms Would Come, and are soon to set off a national tour that brings them to the Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, on Friday, August 14; Amplifier on Saturday, August 15, and the Newport Hotel on Sunday, August 16. BOB GORDON chats with songwriter/ guitarist, Oscar Dawson. Holy Holy have something of an organic history, an evolution that has perhaps evolved more because of the momentum their music has created rather than a forward plan. Timothy Carroll and Oscar Dawson initially met as volunteer English teachers in South East Asia, then, in 2011, came into each other’s orbit while travelling in Europe. They began making music together, often separated by continents but their collaboration tightened, resulting in last year’s The Pacific EP and some resulting acclaim. They have now released a moody, atmospheric and uplifting debut album, When The Storms Would Come, and the music has once again done the walking. “It’s always a bit of a balancing act between letting it be itself and trying to nudge it along the way,” says Dawson. “A lot of the time with the progression of this band over the
last three to four years, it’s just kind of happened. We’ve had certain lynchpins to our sound that have kind of been concrete, in that we keep things very natural and make it performance-based and record in the most natural way we can and so on, it seems kind of cohesive. “But in other ways we let it do its thing. We let it grow and evolve and be the way that it is, you can’t control it, you really just have to let it happen. That’s just a by-product of who you have in the band and who’s playing, and I think that now between Tim and I and our drummer Brian (Strathie) in particular, with our producer Matt (Redlich) and bass player, Graham (Ritchie), we’ve all kind of got a thing going where it all works really well and we all understand each other.” Dawson sees The Pacific EP as an introductory chapter to Holy Holy, even as the book was still being written. “I suppose when we released the EP that was kind of a stepping stone, I guess, at that point, although we probably had enough songs to release an album it wouldn’t have been right to do it. It wouldn’t have been the right time and the sound didn’t feel like it had been crystallised yet. “Whereas now we’ve written newer songs and played more shows and developed the sound a lot more and it feels like a more apt time to release it. The main thing, I would say, is there’s certain things you can’t control, but there’s points you come back to where you keep things cohesive, a lot of that comes down to playing as naturally as we can and recording and producing with Matt in a way that encapsulates that.”
Producer Matt Redlich (Ball Park Music, Emma Louise, The Trouble With Templeton) has been described by Dawson and Carroll as a recluse, but actually leaves his studio hive to tour with Holy Holy. “It’s amazing how reclusive you can be on tour, you would be amazed,” Dawson qualifies. “You’re surrounded by people but you’re in your own bubble, I find that just happens. You go from being in a car to being in a gig in a little room and then back in the car again, so while being on a tour is the most social thing in the world to do it can actually be incredibly reclusive. “We called Matt reclusive before he joined the band, he’s got his studio up in Brisbane, he lives upstairs from his studio and doing music can be a solitary activity. You share music with people, you play gigs and you play in a band but a lot of writing and practice, and Matt’s case engineering, learning and mixing and developing your skills happens alone. I think that’s often a good thing too, you need that solitary time. I find that, and I know that Matt does too, so maybe that’s where the reclusive thing comes in. “He’s definitely enigmatic, you know, he is himself, and I think that’s really important for anyone who’s in a creative world. I think it’s important for anyone in any world, but it seems to be especially potent in the creative world, because people are so strongly themselves and they have to be to preserve their identity and make art and do what they want to do. You sort of need to be staunch of yourself.” As for Dawson and Carroll, who began making music together across borders and
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continents, now is the time to consolidate what they have created. It seems that what has become Holy Holy could have fallen apart due to distance, time or travel, but has obviously been held together by a very strong chemistry. “Yeah, it’s a funny thing how certain relationships over time stay together and other ones don’t,” says Dawson. “Certain friendships and working relationships are held together and others aren’t, in this case it just held together very naturally. At least that’s how I see it, I’m not sure how he sees it. We write songs, and those songs are good, we think, or at the very least we enjoy them, enjoy listening to them and enjoy playing them, that’s also important. “Over the years - we first met quite a long time ago and then spent years where we didn’t speak to each other and then we would touch base again for a little bit of music and then went apart again and touched base again - there’s been a lot of serendipity involved, too. It feels weird to think about it. It’s a strange thing, I’ve got some relationships in my life where I feel like I need to work and massage and hold them together, and others I don’t. With Tim it certainly feels that way, where it sort of happens, who knows maybe at some point in the future we will go some years without speaking again and will then come back together again? “It’s just to do with where we’re at, it’s nothing to do with anything else other than that. We don’t have to try, and sometimes that’s the best way for things to be.”
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JONI IN THE MOON These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things Joni In The Moon - aka sibling duo Joni and Josh Hogan - launch their new single and video, War And Porn, at Mojos Bar on Saturday, August 1, with help from Mei Saraswati and Flower Drums. Joni brings us up to speed.
Joni In The Moon - Photo by Mac1 Photography
What’s new in your world? Well, I got a new haircut and a 10 year old! Mostly plugging away trying to get this new album out of me and into the studio. War And Porn is a big change in direction for you... Our last album took a long time to happen
because I was having a really difficult time being a single mum to two small children and I’d never recorded properly before, so a lot of the material from it was written six - seven years ago, and it took a while to actually be released. At the moment I’m more interested exploring issues that are more outside of myself, lyrically speaking. I got really tired of writing self-indulgent heartbreak songs when a lot of my thinking was taken up with bigger global concerns and it felt so much more important than feeling sorry for myself. There is definitely a more “future” sound happening for both Josh and I in turns of what turns us on sonically - more synthesized sounds and experimenting with structures and beats. I’m experimenting a lot more vocally and am feeling a lot more fearless in messing around with traditional pop song forms, so the sound is heavier themed with more technology and less organic sounds - less forest nymph, more frustrated, soul-vomming woman taking an axe to the engine of a military helicopter. Tell us about the video. Who did you work with on that? From the outset I knew I wanted something shot simply with some kind of media animation spewing out of my face representing the infiltration and then purging of shitty western news media that the song talks about. I really wanted to
work with my good friend Steven Aaron Hughes on the animation and when I got together with director Poppy Van Oorde-Grainger, we consolidated the concept and she organized it into a really clear vision. We were time and budget limited, though we had help from some amazing creatives - Dave Le May shot it for us and brought along all his robot camera toys so it ended up being a really surreal experience and we got a stupidly high production value out of the shoot given the budget. In a crowded marketplace, how important is a video presence in terms of developing an audience and making your voice heard? For me, an interesting aesthetic has always been a really important aspect of all the music and artists I’m completely fanatical about - Kate Bush, Bjork, Radiohead, to name a few. A great music video can take music into another dimension, and in an increasingly online click-bait market, it’s trickier to hold the attention of your audience if you can’t give them something cool to look at. As wanky as it may sound, having a clear brand is really important, though it’s the part I find fun too because I have an art background, the look of things is something I tend to care about. The trick is trying to bring music and aesthetic together in a way that communicates the music on another level and is also authentic to the artist and their intentions. Any major plans for the rest of the year? We’re recording an album which we hope to release early next year and we’ll be kicking off a crowd fund really soon to help us make it happen - in the meantime we’ll be playing shows and nutting out a lot of new material live which is always scary and exciting.
OUR MAN IN BERLIN Rich In Spirit Spirit Down, the new single from indieelectro proponents Our Man In Berlin, gets it Perth launch at Amplifier on Friday, July 24, with support from Flower Drums, Beach Aunty and Teij. We speak to keyboardist Justin Martins, just back in town from their launch tour. Give us a history lesson. Lands of yonder filled us with hope in our hearts but pains in our upper traps. So we decided to channel the energy into creating some good vibes. Some people have come and gone but the current line-up is killer, love playing with these guys. From jamming in vocalist Haydn Mansell’s backyard to playing at an international music festival, it’s nice to see where the journey has taken us. How did the launch tour go? Any war stories? It was pretty good, everything went smoothly and we only lost our drummer, Cain Munns, once! It was great to check out some new venues, as well as feeling comfortable at known ones. Byron Bay was a new location for us that we loved, will have to get back there on the next tour! #cainmunns Tell us about Spirit Down. Spirit Down almost documents where we’ve come from with regard to our debut EP, Is It Right? We tried to let things go into new directions and experimented with different sounds and feels, which I think gave Spirit Down some tasty vibes. The first EP kind of brought us into the world as a band so we definitely felt pressure to keep the momentum going and keep people interested with Spirit Down. It’s a real journey from beginning to end and we hope the listener takes a good musical experience from it. Much on for the rest of the year? Well now that I’ve taught Cain Munns to put his headphones lead down the back of his shirt while he drums I can’t see a reason to push the ceiling any further. I guess landing some live shows, awesome supports and killer festival spots would just be the icing on the cake of a fantastic year. Anything else to add? Knibb High football rules! 30
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W H AT ’ S N E W I N LO C A L M U S I C
FOXES Fleet, Silver, And On The Run Emo rock outfit Foxes launch their long-awaited album, Organic Vessels, at Amplifier this Saturday, July 25, with help from Puck, Statues, and Apollo Zen, Guitarist Jesse Blanchard lets us in to the chicken coop. What’s the Foxes story? I’ve been playing music with Jake Humphreys since about 2009. The rest of us all eventually found each other through a mutual interest of wanting to play a specific type of music. Even though our influences have changed and spread out, it all still seems to work. Short story is that we’re all just sad boys wanting to whinge together. Define “whinge together.” It’s pretty much post-hardcore/screamo stuff. Although both genres are now considered dirty words, I would say that’s still at the core of our sound except we decided to buy reverb pedals. You’ve been around for a good five years now. How has the band changed/developed in that time? Our songs have gotten longer. Besides that I would say its the same sort of progression as many bands. An old song may have a hint of a
certain subgenre we hadn’t incorporated before. We grab that vibe and try base a new song around it and then try throw in something different into that song again. Trying not to keep it too one dimensional. Tell us about Organic Vessels. The other day I found an old demo from 2011 for Stomp The Earthworm, our first single. I would say that is when writing began. We played an old version of that song at YaYas with The Novocaines - I think in 2013, maybe? Either way, it’s taken a long time. Songs being either drawn out, compressed or scrapped then revisited. We just wanted the whole album to remain interesting and fresh, start to finish. Where did you record? We recorded with Ron Pollard from Studio Sleepwalkers Dread. The fact he put up with us re: tracking part after part when we decided we wanted to do something minimally different (and probably barely audible) is a miracle. Being in a fantastic band himself (Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving), he also gave us heaps of ideas and direction of certain songs and vibes when they were a little bit lost. Good dog too. What does the rest of the year hold for you? H o p e f u l l y h e ad i n g ove r e a s t i n November and writing as soon as possible. Going to try bang out an EP as an apology for taking so long with the album. Sadder than the last. Anything else to add? Shout out to Alec Thomas, get better soon mate.
THE SHOPS Retail Therapy Guitarist and singer Sean Gorman talks to us ahead of the launch of The Shops’ EP launch at Mojos on Sunday, August 2, with support from Leah Miche, Arlo|Esnat, Wuyong The Wizard, When Autumn Leaves and MC Strongo Bongo. Who are The Shops? The Shops formed after I discovered Louis Inglis(drums & vocals) on Myspace (we are getting old) and made him an international star. We toured together in states as morose navel gazing singer songwriters and then on our return I asked Louis if he knew anyone who might want to play with me because I was sick of myself. Louis then enlisted his friend Cameron Hanush (bass & vocals) who had nothing better to do. What’s your sound? We joked ages ago that if someone asked us that our response would be semi lo-fi alt folk rock, but it’s more jangly-posty-punky poppy now.
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You’ve kept up a steady stream of updates in terms of the design and packaging of the EP. How important is that in terms of marketing yourself these days? Time will tell. It’s more about revealing the inner workings of the band. We are working on a television series based on our band meetings - stay tuned. How did production go? We recorded at Sumo in Osborne Park with Laurie McCallum but we didn’t have enough cash to mix it there properly at the time and then arrogantly tried to mix it ourselves, going round in circles and arguing about many things until we luckily met Nik Thompson from Arlo|Esnat, who has mixed it for us. We then got Al Smith from Begerk to master it. What have you got coming up? We will probably go back to our day jobs immediately after the EP Launch and start saving for the next recording as we’ve got a stack of songs ready to record. Anything left to say? I want to say that I love you Louis and Cam. You’re the best. XO
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W H AT ’ S N E W I N LOCAL MUSIC
Iceage Sugar - Photo by Abbie Hunt
ICEAGE SUGAR In Glacier Interested Pop-rockers Iceage Sugar launch their latest single, Sometime (Take You Out), at The Odd Fellow on Thursday, July 31, with support from Della Fern, Braves and Petrichoral. Bassist Dillon Reid fills us in. What’s the Iceage Sugar story? We all know each other initially from high school and a few of us (me, Alexander Jackaman - guitar, Jesse Reid - drums) played casually together in a few bands before we decided to bring Joshua Goldamn (vocals, guitar) on board and form Iceage Sugar. It doesn’t get more Hollywood than that. What’s your sound? We like to think our sound is primarily indie pop/rock, and we throw around the term “deep-sea pop” sometimes to be special. Some of our bigger influences include The Jungle Giants, Mac DeMarco, Arctic Monkeys and The Neighbourhood. Tell us about your writing process. One of us will come up with an idea, most likely a guitar riff, then we will try to figure it out as a band; it’s not really an exact science. Occasionally it just becomes a matter of how many different good songs we can rip off in one track. What’s the story with Sometime (Take You Out)? It’s a bouncy little number that goes down really well live. The lyrics aren’t exactly prose poetry but they’re fun to sing along to. We recorded the track with some sound students at Central Leederville. It was a bit challenging to capture the energy the song has live but it sounds alright. What does the rest of the year hold for you? We’ll just be playing as many gigs as we can. We are also taking the single on the road with us for a little regional tour, hitting Four5Nine on Friday, July 31; Prince Of Wales in Bunbury on Saturday August 1; and Caves House in Yallingup on Sunday, August 2.
Oakland
OAKLAND Songs Of The Sea Moody indie rockers Oakland introduce their EP, Into The Sea, at Mojos Bar this Friday, July 31. Gunns and These Winter Nights pull support duties. We have a word with guitarist, Matt Shehan. Who are Oakland? Oakland is the result of a series of progressions as a band. Earlier this year we added Andrew McLeod (bass) to change the dynamics of the band. We now have a five piece which we’re pretty stoked with. What’s your genre? Our sound is indie rock with a slightly dark and moody insert. We love The National, Gang of Youths and Arcade Fire. How does it all come together? Our ideas usually come from different members of the band, but our arrangement process usually involves Alex Cooke (vocals) taking the lead as far as finishing a song. Where did Into The Sea come from? Into the sea is one of the earliest songs we wrote. It began as a much different sounding song in a completely different style, but was re-written to get it to the point that we were happy. Where did you record? We recorded the EP ourselves with close supervision from Andy Lawson Andy also mixed the EP - he really did a great job. What’s coming up? After our EP launch we have lots of shows booked with local artists, hoping to get our music in the ears of many people.
GOZZY ROCK Suburban Mayhem Entry is now open for Gozzy Rock, the annual City Of Gosnells music competition. Now in it’s 28th year, Gozzy Rock is a recognised and respected platform for emerging WA music talent, exposing young artists to a wide audience. We spoke to Chris Woods, City Of Gosnells Youth Services Cordinator. Tell us a bit about the legacy of Gozzy Rock - it’s certainly a venerable brand at this stage of the game. Where do I start… It all began way back in 1986. That was the year when Metallica’s Master Of Puppets was first released. Gosnells was pretty bogan back then (desert boots, black jeans and mullets) so you can imagine the bands were not as diverse as they are today. At the time there were few all-ages gigs, so Gozzy Rock was popular and had a huge following. Who initially proposed a band competition to the City of Gosnells? Gozzy Rock was WA’s first band competition. The City of Gosnells has always been very progressive in supporting the arts and young people. The City of Gosnells had the first urban art project in Australia back around the same time and as I said, Gozzy Rock was one of the only all-ages gigs in Perth. How has Gozzy Rock evolved since its inception? It hasn’t changed that much. Probably the most noticeable difference is that we are now delivering a music forum for aspiring bands alongside the competition which provides musicians the opportunity to learn skills and hear direct from industry leaders. This year we have Joel Quartermain from Eskimo Joe, Broderick MaddenScott from SpaceManAntics, David Chitty the managing director from Sunset Events and Harris Water from Pilerats Records each delivering a forum session. Who are some of the notable acts who have played Gozzy Rock over the years? We have had some great headline acts over the years. Probably the biggest event we had was in 2006, when I Killed The Prom Queen played. Since then we have had many other great headline acts including Drapht and Abbe May amongst many other great bands. 32
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Joel Quartermain
What are the requirements for entry? · Entries are open to Western Australian bands of any style. · At least one band member must be aged 25 or under · All your music must be original · Band must be currently unsigned · Entrants must not have been a major winner (first or second place) from a previous year · Entrants must be available to perform at all performance dates as detailed below. · Entrants must be available to assist in promotion of Gozzy Rock through media coverage, interviews and advertising. · All entrants must attend the music forum. For more info or to enter, go to thehive.com.au
W H AT ’ S N E W I N LOCAL MUSIC
Diger Rokwell
Ragdoll
RAGDOLL Only Forward
listen to and follow because of our multi media work. Three hairy guys playing sweaty rock music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but just about everyone uses YouTube. It’s an integral part of the artistic process for us now.
Tell us about shooting the Rewind Your Mind clip. How did you develop the concept? We had a great team working on, but the core ideas were developed by the director Aaron Moss. I’m a big fan of Harmony Korine, and his documentary Alone In The Woods was a big inspiration, as well as films like Into The Wild. We consciously avoided the typical action movie style cuts and went a more cinematic experience, and the results are stunning.
As for the single, how did recording go? We’ve been working with Troy Nababan for a few years now, and he’s one of the few people in the country who can pull off the massive multi layered American style rock production we like. We tracked drums at Crank Recording in Leederville and did the rest at our home studios. It allowed us the time to find sounds we were 100% happy and stay fresh and inspired. Plus, we could enjoy my mums cooking and make a record. What’s up next? After the single launch we’re on the road in August and September, playing up through Newman, Carnarvon, Geraldton and a lot of regional centres. We’re also going to buckle down and finish writing and recording our next release.
How important do you feel music videos are now in terms of getting your stuff in front of audiences? A great music video really throws the doors wide open; we have a lot of fans who found us through our previous videos, and a lot of them will say we’re one of the few hard rock bands they
Anything else we should know? We’re a 100% independent and self managed band and we’ve been lucky enough to tour extensively and live out our dreams, playing a style that isn’t trendy or popular. If you’re reading this, drop us a line on Facebook or come to a show. Rock ain’t dead yet.
Guitarist Leon Todd talks to us about Ragdoll’s new video and single, Rewind Your Mind, which hits at The Velvet Lounge this Saturday, July 25, with support from Legs Electric, Summerset, and an acoustic set by Hailmary.
23/07 Yaqui Yeti A Way Of Knowledge EP Launch @ Clancy’s Freo 24/07 Diger Rokwell Seeds EP Launch @ The Bird 24/07 Our Man In Berlin Spirit Down EP Launch @ Amplifier 25/07 Foxes Organic Vessels Album Launch @ Amplifier 25/07 Ragdoll Rewind Your Mind Single Launch @ The Velvet Lounge 31/07 Iceage Sugar Sometime (Take You Out) Single Launch @ The Rosemount 31/08 Oakland Into The Sea EP Launch @ Mojos 01/08 Joni In The Moon War And Porn Single/Video Launch @ Mojos 01/08 Moana The Trilogy Of The Black Monsoon Part II EP Launch @ The Bird 02/08 The Shops Self Titled EP Launch @ Mojos 07/08 The Brow Monsters/That’s Life Double Single Launch @ Amplifier 08/08 Tired Lion Figurine EP Launch @ Amplifier 08/08 The Wheelers Of Oz Revivalised Album Launch @ The Bird 14/08 Rainy Day Women In The Dark Single Launch @ Jimmy’s Den 21/08 The Pissedcolas Glue Gun 12” Launch @ The Bird 22/08 Kitchen People Self Titled Album Launch @ Mojos 22/08 Legs Electric Strange Addiction Single Launch @ The Boston 29/08 Datura4 Demon Blues Album Launch @ Mojos
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SCOTTOFEST The Flying Scotsman Friday, July 17, 2015 17 bands across three rooms, including The Disappointed, Scalphunter, The Caballeros, Limbs, High Horse and more, came together on Friday night to help raise money to soundproof the Scotto. Noise complaints are an everpresent problem for live music rooms in Perth, but we’ll say this: they do sometimes present an opportunity to assemble some top-notch talent for a great night of tunes. Photos by Anthony Jackson
Laith
Michael
Travis & Sara Brendan & Phoebe
Wheels & Stefan
Tim & Oscar 33
NEWS
Hideous Sun Demon | Photo by Juliet Duvall
JACK RABBIT SLIM’S PREVIEW NIGHT Hamjam/Hideous Sun Demon Jack Rabbit Slim’s Friday, July 17, 2015 At a time when the opportunity for live gigs is increasingly shrinking, the announcement of a new venue, started by local creative minds Pilerats, has caused some genuine excitement in Perth’s music industry. Taking its name from the Tarantino classic Pulp Fiction, there’s more than one nod to the film adorning walls both outside and inside the venue.
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Jack Rabbit Slim’s boasts four bars over two levels, including the smaller ‘shake and fries’ bar just inside the entrance, where punters can sit in the ‘50s-style diner and wash down fries with drink choices ranging from non-alcoholic ‘virgin’ shakes to fully alcoholic bad boys. All shakes are of the bovine variety but word is no-cow shakes are on the to-do list. Chasing something more in keeping with Friday night drinks, it’s time to venture through a pair of white fridge doors and into the main room. Long bars sit opposite and adjacent to the stage, both serving standard alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. There’s certainly a pretty strong hipster element going on here with Emu Export long-necks spotted being drunk out of brown paper bags. Pinball machines and old-school Daytona USA racing games are also on offer in one of the many corners of the venue, as well as a fenced-in area above the bar, accessible via some stairs outside the main room. HamJam, comprising guitarist, keyboard player and drum machine, hit the stage and kicked off what could only be described as a pretty loose set of their unique brand of alt-rock. Starting out with a couple of original songs, they then slipped in an unlikely cover of Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game. While they had the attention of the 400+ punters in attendance, HamJam completely changed tack by announcing that everyone liked rap and inviting two friends on stage to round out the set with a garage jam of rapping. HamJam do things their own way and it’ll be interesting to see what they might do with some more original material. My vantage point from the VIP room upstairs was a great spot to take in all that is Hideous Sun Demon. The punk four-piece ripped into their set with a barrage of sound and energy and it wasn’t long before the front of the stage filled with punters taking in the band’s incredibly tight, fast and frenzied ‘we don’t give a fuck’ set. The four Perthites valiantly overcame a few feedback issues in the mix and the puzzling loss of bass for a few seconds and barely missed a beat as they ploughed on. Hideous Sun Demon have energy, chops and attitude in spades and I can see a bright (pogo, stagediving, moshing) future ahead. Jack Rabbit Slim’s name might be an homage to a film but the venue plays like a wonderfully dark, subterranean warren and if opening night was a glimpse of what’s to come, its live future is assured. Down the rabbit hole indeed. GARETH WILLIAMS
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The Southwicks | Pic: Rachel Barrett
THE SOUTHWICKS The Big Splash Heat #7 Winner Answered by bass player, Hannah Fredriksson.
amazing to see so many people singing along with us. What acts caught your ear/eye? All the bands on the night were really impressive. Flighflow had a sweet groove and you’d never know their drummer had his arm in a sling. Couldbeat Jenako were an absolute joy to watch. Who else in the Big Splash heats are you keen to get a look at? I think Foam are a band to watch, and Apollo’s Son are pretty rad.
As a band, what are you trying to do? Are you What are your plans from here? doing it? We have been doing some pre-production Right now we’re just trying to get our for a new EP and we’re aiming to have it recorded music out there and build a loyal fan base. by the end of the year. How did you feel about your set on Thursday The Big Splash continues with Heat #8 on Thursday, night? Fitting six people onto a tiny stage is July 22, at The Bird with Bri Clark, Eteana, FOAM never easy but we made the most of it and it was and Divorce Party. Doors open 8pm, $6 entry.
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NEWS
Johnny Marr - Photo by Michael Caves
JOHNNY MARR Metropolis Fremantle Thursday, July 18, 2015 It’s 29 years since The Smiths released The Queen is Dead. She isn’t. Freddie Mercury is, though. We were so, so wrong. But Thatcher is too, so it ain’t all bad. There’s always an element of fear in watching your heroes decades after their defining moments. Johnny Marr dispels this fear by making you realise - instantly - that as far as he’s concerned, The Smiths may have defined a point in time, but there’s no time like the present. Marr took the stage to rapturous applause and kicked off with the title track from his 2014 release, Playland, featuring his distinctive guitar style (Jag/Fender set-up for the tyre kickers), but in a much more straightforward, stripped-back rock approach than Smiths devotees
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might have been expecting. In short, Marr kicks ass. His guitar playing can’t help but be beautiful and melodic, but by god the man knows how to kick out the jams. Perhaps there’s a certain level of irony in choosing Stop Me as his first Smiths song, but apart from being a crowd-pleaser, it quelled any doubts as to what the night would be like. Marr is a great singer, with a different style to that other guy, so he simply does the songs his way. And it’s awesome. From there he dove forward into his own back catalogue with The Right Thing Right (The Messenger, 2013) and a deliciously savage version of Easy Money - a sort of love-child between Blur’s Boys And Girls and I Was Made For Loving You with a sharp and dangerous twist. Best of all, the overhead view of the dance floor revealed a hell of a lot of bald and grey/ silver haired crew jumping, swaying and dancing and generally having a great time. The kids grew up to be more than alright, although their kids might be horrified by the sight. Headmaster Ritual was the perfect moment to reflect on what it is that makes Marr a guitar godhead. Technical virtuosos hate this kind of guitar hero, because it often looks like he’s doing nothing - his left hand barely seems to move - and he just lets these beautiful lead and rhythm guitar patterns flow out. Except this time, he was doing it while doing Morrissey’s job as well. Effortlessly. A gig highlight would have to be his version of Bigmouth Strikes Again - apart from being an obvious crowd favourite, Marr’s version is so inherently dangerous it’ll make you look at the song in a new way - less ironic bravado and more straightforward threat. There’s not enough space in this review to cover all the magic, but his encore set was a pure delight with unexpected covers of Depeche Mode’s I Feel You and Clash/Crickets I Fought The Law before a full audience participation version of How Soon is Now - arguably his finest work with the Smiths. Particularly in the British music press, the entire ‘90s was an endless parade of “...best band since The Smiths.” Only Suede’s Bernard Butler came to close to Marr, and largely by developing from his sound. In 2015, Johnny Marr is the best Johnny Marr since Johnny Marr. His is a light that may never go out. Or as his shirts proclaim: Johnny Fucking Marr. SABIAN WILDE
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THE CHURCH The Church | Photo by Rachael Barrett The Rosemount Hotel Saturday, July 19, 2015
They don’t fill stadiums, but venerable psychedelic pop band The Church command a fiercely devoted audience nonetheless - as evidence, note that their gig at the Rosie sold out some weeks prior, and that the main room was rammed with middle aged punters eager to soak of some of the old Kilbey magic. Some of them maybe hadn’t been to a gig in a while, such as the woman who insisted on tasting each wine on offer at the bar, oblivious to the rugby scrum of customers behind her trying to get their drinks in before kick off. “We’re called The Church,” frontman Steve Kilbey needlessly informed the crowd. “And we’re gonna give you The Blurred Crusade.” before launching shakily into the first song of the night, Almost With You. Musically, the band were as tight as ever, with recent recruit Ian Haug of Powderfinger fame slotting in neatly with The Church’s sonic aesthetic without going so far as to ape the distinctive style of departed guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper. Kilbey’s voice, however took a couple of songs to hit its stride; indeed, we were well into Fields Of Mars before the mystically-inclined singer seemed at home on the
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stage, relaxing into the vibe of the night. It was, to coin a sporting phrase, a game of two halves: first up, a run through The Blurred Crusade, The Church’s 1982 sophomore album, rightly regarded as an absolute classic, followed by a mix of cuts from their latest release, Further/Deeper, along with a selection of old favourites. It was clear that the crowd was mainly there for the old stuff, which is as disappointing as it is unsurprising - few bands manage to hook their fanbase as hard with their later explorations as they did with their early jam. Nonetheless, Vanishing Man, which opened the second set, is as good as anything they ever laid down back in the day, and Miami remains a sprawling and ambitious modern fantasy ballad. Still, it was songs like Metropolis that really saw the crowd picking up what the band were putting down, and a fun cover of Powderfinger’s Waiting For The Sun was well received. The thesis is in the final scene, though, and the night wrapped up with a killer rendition of Reptile, taken from 1988’s Starfish, which got a bigger reaction than any three preceding songs put together. The Church remain a viable and inventive ongoing creative exercise, but its clear the fans like their old stuff better than their new stuff. TRAVIS JOHNSON
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MARK RONSON, JULY 22
BLUR, JULY 30
TOURS THIS WEEK ADAM HARVEY 22 Albany Entertainment Centre 24 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre 25 Astor Theatre MARK RONSON 22 Metro City TIGERS JAW 22 Amplifier 23 YMCA HQ THE WOMBATS 23 Metro City JOSH PYKE with WASO 24 Perth Concert Hall ELLY HOYT 24 Ellington Jazz Club VINCE JONES 24 Fly By Night 25 & 26 Ellington Jazz Club OPTIMUS GRYME 24 Jimmy’s Den 25 Settlers Tavern JA RULE & ASHANTI 25 Metro City IAN MOSS 25 Wintersun Hotel 26 Ravenswood Hotel 28 Friends Restaurant JULY 2015 EARL SWEATSHIRT 29 Villa BLUR with JAMIE T 30 Perth Arena MENTAL AS ANYTHING 31 The Admiral Hotel AUGUST 2015 RUBBER SOUL REVOLVER 1 Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre IAN MOSS 1 Charles Hotel 2 Boab Tavern OLLY MURS 4 Riverside Theatre 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 UV BOI 7 Jimmy’s Den THE TRICKAZ 7 Metropolis Fremantle PACES 7 Flyrite WALTER SMITH III 7 & 8 Ellington Jazz Club HOODOO GURUS with
ESKIMO JOE 8 Cable Beach Amphitheatre HERMAN’S HERMITS 9 & 10 El Caballo Resort MEGAN WASHINGTON 11 Prince of Wales 12 Mojos Bar 13 & 14 Ellington Jazz Club … AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD 12 Rosemount Hotel GOOD RIDDANCE 12 Amplifier GURRUMUL 12 Perth Concert Hall SETH SENTRY 12 Judd’s, Kalgoorlie 13 Pier Hotel, Esperance 14 Studio 146 15 Settlers Tavern 19 Dunsborough Tavern 20 Prince of Wales 22 Astor Theatre CHELSEA GRIN 13 Rosemount Hotel DRAPHT 14 Metropolis Fremantle THE AUSTRALIAN BEE GEES SHOW 15 Regal Theatre 16 Albany Entertainment Centre YOB 19 Rosemount Hotel OCEAN ALLEY 20 The Bird 21 Mojos Bar 22 Prince of Wales TIKI TAANE 20 Mojos Bar 22 Clancy’s Dunsborough 23 Indi Bar PEACE TRAIN: THE CAT STEVENS STORY 21 Astor Theatre 22 Albany Entertainment Centre LLOYD SPIEGEL 21 Settlers Tavern 22 Indi Bar 23 Mojos Bar 25 Perth Blues Club NORTH WEST WEEKENDER ft. BIRDS OF TOKYO, PEKING DUK, ANGUS & JULIA STONE, DRAPHT, SETH SENTRY, BRITISH INDIA, THE PREATURES & more! 21 – 23 Port Hedland Turf Club JAMIE LAWSON 22 Jimmy’s Den THE DRONES 22 Rosemount Hotel ANDREW MCMAHON
FEATURED GIG
THE WOMBATS METRO CITY JULY 23
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TUMBLEWWEED, SEPTEMBER 18
26 Amplifier THE BEATLES FOREVER 27 Albany Entertainment Centre ELVIS MEETS THE BEATLES 28 HBF Stadium HIATUS KAIYOTE 29 Rosemount Hotel THE GRISWOLDS 30 Jimmy’s Den HELLYEAH 31 Capitol
SEPTEMBER 2015 THE STORY SO FAR with MAN OVERBOARD 2 Amplifier 3 YMCA HQ JAMES REYNE 5 Astor Theatre PERCH CREEK 5 & 6 Mojos Bar TYLER, THE CREATOR 8 Capitol BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS 9 Regal Theatre TYLER OAKLEY 9 Perth Concert Hall TONI BRAXTON 9 HBF Stadium GANG OF YOUTHS 11 Prince of Wales 12 Capitol 13 Newport Hotel JULIA MORRIS 11 Regal Theatre ROY ORBISON & THE EVERLY BROTHERS 12 Crown Theatre THE WAIFS 15 Perth Concert Hall THE RUBENS 16 Prince of Wales 17 Settlers Tavern 18 Astor Theatre THE SMITH STREET BAND 18 Metropolis Fremantle OH MERCY 18 Mojos Bar TUMBLEWEED 18 Rosemount Hotel SAFIA 19 Amplifier 20 Mojos AS IT IS 22 YMCA HQ XAVIER RUDD & THE UNITED NATIONS 23 Goldfields Arts Centre 24 Esperance Civic Centre 25 Albany Entertainment Centre 26 Belvoir Amphitheatre 27 Three Oceans Winery, Margaret River THE TEN SOPRANOS 25 Astor Theatre CELTIC WOMAN 25 Perth Arena BAHAMAS 25 Mojos 26 Wave Rock Weekender LISTEN OUT 2015 ft. CHILDISH GAMBINO, JOEY BADA$$, ALISON WONDERLAND, ODESZA, HAYDEN JAMES, CLIENT LIAISON & many more 27 Ozone Reserve BEHEMOTH 29 Capitol JOAN BAEZ 30 Perth Concert Hall OCTOBER 2015 PENNYWISE with ANTIFLAG 1 Metropolis Fremantle WIZ KHALIFA 2 Red Hill Auditorium KISS 3 Perth Arena
NEEL KOLHATKAR 3 Astor Lounge SICK OF IT ALL 6 Amplifier ROBBIE WILLIAMS 9 & 10 Perth Arena CONRAD SEWELL 10 & 11 Jimmy’s Den LIFEHOUSE 11 Metro City LEE KERNAGHAN 13 Albany Entertainment Centre 14 Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre LAURA MARLING 16 Astor Theatre SNOT 21 Amplifier EARTHLESS & ELDER 22 Rosemount Hotel AT THE GATES 28 Amplifier 10CC 28 Astor Theatre HOZIER 28 Belvoir Amphitheatre FLEETWOOD MAC with ANGUS & JULIA STONE 30 Domain Stadium ROCKWIZ LIVE! 31 Riverside Theatre
NOVEMBER 2015 ANATHEMA 1 Rosemount Hotel NAUGHTY BY NATURE 5 Astor Theatre THE RUTS 12 Rosemount Hotel CW STONEKING 12 Settlers Tavern 13 Prince of Wales 14 Fremantle Arts Centre RUSSELL MORRIS 13 Charles Hotel TUKA 13 Amplifier 14 Mojos Bar COLD CHISEL with THE LIVING END 14 Perth Arena NEIL DIAMOND 14 Sandalford Estate 16 Perth Arena ODDISEE 20 Mojos Bar DEF LEPPARD with BABY ANIMALS & LIVE 21 Red Hill Auditorium THE BEACH BOYS 21 Kings Park THE GETAWAY PLAN 21 Mojos Bar NILE with UNEARTH, FEED HER TO THE SHARKS & WHORETOPSY 22 Capitol NERDLINGER 27 Amplifier 28 Camel Bar 29 Four5Nine Bar AC/DC 27 & 29 Domain Stadium UB40 28 Metropolis Fremantle SAM SMITH 28 Perth Arena DECEMBER 2015 ED SHEERAN 2 NIB Stadium THE SCREAMING JETS 3 Prince of Wales 4 Settlers Tavern 5 Charles Hotel 6 Ravenswood Hotel CHRIS CORNELL 8 & 9 Perth Concert Hall JANUARY 2016 NIGHTWISH 15 Metropolis Fremantle THE 1975 23 HBF Stadium
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CELERY, JULY 22
THE FLOORS, JULY 24
W E E K LY WEDNESDAY 22/07 ALBION HOTEL Quiz Night AMBAR Cactus Wednesdays AMPLIFIER Tigers Jaw THE BIRD Leftover Lovers Vol. 3 ft. Kitchen People The Spunloves Dougal’s Casino BRASS MONKEY Trump’d ft. DJ Grizzly DJ Lab Rat CHOO CHOO’S SMALL BAR Unamped Sessions CIVIC HOTEL Open Mic Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Songwriter’s Night ft. Matt Minchin CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Commander Cody’s Seaside Quiz ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB WAAPA Musical Theatre Fundraiser THE FLY TRAP Gaslight Club THE GOOD SHEPHERD HERD ft. Halycon Sounduh The Devil in Miss Jones Buttered Bronson Hot Rock DJs & more HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica LANEWAY LOUNGE Libby Hammer Trio LLAMA BAR Akuna Club Farewell Party METRO CITY Mark Ronson Pond Yolanda Be Cool METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen MOJOS BAR Velociraptor (QLD) Doctopus The Southwicks THE MOON CAFÉ Timothy Nelson Amanda Merdzan MOONDYNE JOE’S Karaoke with Nikki MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday ft. Frenzy NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays PRINCE OF WALES Vulture Culture Comedy ft. Greg Fleet Mike Klimczak 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Good Try Raksha Slums Hindley ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rock ’n Roll Karaoke with Magnus Danger Magnus ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz SAIL & ANCHOR Quiz Night SWAN LOUNGE Francis White Aaron Gwynaire Peri Angelo UNIVERSAL BAR Jerico Band The Dead Capitaal VELVET LOUNGE Lazarus Rising ft. DJ Jess Kill DJ Boxer X-WRAY CAFÉ Seth Lowe THURSDAY 23/07 AMPLIFIER Last Night – HomerPalooza ft. Aveira Skies El Capitan Ready to Fire ARCADE NIGHTCLUB Lowpitch Season Launch THE BIRD Big Splash Heat #8 ft. Bri Clark Eteana FOAM Divorce Party BRASS MONKEY Open Deck Night BUFFALO CLUB Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Hideous Sun Demon Legs Electric One Tiger Down CLANCY’S FREMANTLE
Yaqui Yeti (Album Launch) Verge Collection Stupendous Evaporators DEFECTORS BAR Songwriters Club DUNSBOROUGH TAVERN Open Mic Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Supersonic Blues Trio FREMANTLE NAVY CLUB Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Freqshow Phil Walley-Stack GROOVE BAR Hi-NRG HULA BULA BAR Rhum Club INDI BAR Open Mic MALT SUPPER CLUB Playroom ft. Cathrine Summers Quintet METRO CITY The Wombats MOJOS BAR Spacemanantics Fierce Mild (VIC) Kitchen People Dougal’s Casino Segue Safari MOONDYNE JOE’S Open Mic Night with Peter MUSTANG BAR Thumpin’ Thursdays ft. Decoy DJ James Mac NATIONAL HOTEL Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Celery Stuart Orchard Band Joe Pule Irish Music Jam Session NEWPORT HOTEL Record Club — Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ ft. Mark Hosking (Karnivool) Jon Stockman (Karnivool) Steve Judd (Karnivool) Dave Parkin (Red Jezebel) PRINCE OF WALES The Love Junkies Gunns PS ART SPACE Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Grace Barbe Afro-Kreol Apocalypso Ensemble Choppa Crucial (DJ Set) 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Apollo’s Son Delay Delay Mayor Dadi The Limbs Pool Boy SETTLERS TAVERN Vulture Culture Comedy ft. Greg Fleet Mike Klimczak UNIVERSAL BAR Off The Record VELVET LOUNGE Maids Black Stone From The Sun Ray Finkle The Worst X-WRAY CAFÉ Jesse Michael Bach YMCA HQ Tigers Jaw FRIDAY 24/07 AMBAR Billy Kenny Terace Bockman City Kid Pussymittens Parakord Drifter AMPLIFIER Amplifier Fridays — 90s Party ft. Eddie Electric Jamie Mac ASTOR LOUNGE The Big Hoo-Haa! AVIARY DJ Neil Viney NDorse BAILEY BAR Hi-NRG THE BIRD Diger Rokwell (EP Launch) The Community Supergroup CASH KRZMA Maxy Bills THE BOSTON Chainsaw Hookers’ 10 Year Birthday Party The Bob Gordons Emu Xperts Castle Bravo Hope Street BRASS MONKEY Terry Clark CAPITOL Capitol Fridays ft. DJ Roger Smart CHARLES HOTEL Slippery When Wet: Bon Jovi Tribute & Hysteria: Def
Leppard Tribute CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE DJ Boogie CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Billie Rogers & the Country Gentleman CLUB KAHUNA GT Fridays ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Elly Hoyt FLY BY NIGHT Vince Jones GEISHA BAR Olivier Giacomotto Saul Bliss Devante Paul Scott GERALDTON HOTEL Sweet Surrender GINGER NIGHTCLUB Mondo Fridays GOLD BAR Fox Fridays HERDSMAN LAKE TAVERN Reapers Riddle Counterfeit God Stone Cold Shoulder The Flying Embers HIDDEN BAR Kayla Jaye Trio INDI BAR Tom Fisher & the Layabouts JIMMY’S DEN Optimus Gryme LANEWAY LOUNGE The Avenue Bernardine LEISURE INN Kripke’s Illusion Social Madness Chuck Hombre Placid THE LIBRARY DORCIA LITTLE WING CORNER GALLERY Photo Bomb Live Exhibition #6 ft. moistoyster Psychedelic Porn Crumpets MOANA Spacemanantics LLAMA BAR Honey METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Top Shelf presents Magic Mike On Stage MOJOS BAR The Floors Old Blood The Chlorines DJ John Black DJ Billy Black MUSTANG BAR Oz Big Band Flash Nat & the Action Men NEWPORT HOTEL Live Band Karaoke PUBLIC HOUSE Light Street QUALITY HOTEL DJ DMT RAILWAY HOTEL Haydn Ward Time No Longer The Procrastinators Pharaoh Shane THE REPUBLIC ORBiT ft. Klean Kicks Zesty ORBiT DJs 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Killer Hipsters The Peaky Blinders The New Invincibles Neil Preston ROSEMOUNT HOTEL The Love Junkies Gunns Skullcave The Drools ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Yambeque SETTLERS TAVERN Abbe May Elli Schoen SKYE BAR Christmas in July — Red Party SWAN BASEMENT The Murderbirds The Insinnerators Blood Ramblers SWAN LOUNGE Blues Rock Covers ft. The Convicts UNIVERSAL BAR Nightmoves X-WRAY CAFÉ Michael Triscari SATURDAY 25/07 AMBAR Japan 4 – Challenger Ready ft. Pussymittens Parakord Bezwun Invoker Philly Blunt Mo’Fly Blend DNGRFLD Meet Mark Jordan Scott AMPLIFIER Foxes (Album Launch) Puck Statues
HAMJAM, JULY 30
LITTLE DEATH, JULY 25 Apollo Zen ASTOR THEATRE Adam Harvey The Sunny Cowgirls Chelsea Basham AVIARY Zel Paradise Paul Genga THE BIRD Alyx Dennison Fall Electric Golden String THE BOAT Trent-Jean Michel THE BOSTON Fresh Jam #1 ft. Graphic Characters Rukkus Killing the Riff The Creative Lies Great Snakes CAPITOL Death Disco Cream of the 80s CIVIC HOTEL Enemy Minds CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Kakemono Duo CLANCY’S FREMANTLE The Rogues THE CRAFTSMAN Rock Candy Duo ELECTRIFIED White Party — World of Trance ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Vince Jones FLYRITE Father ft. LOLO BX FRAYED Frayed FLYRITE Father ft. LOLO BX (NSW) THE GARAGE The Love Junkies Gunns Sugue Safari Uncle Jeffery GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus ft. Verge Collection Benji Gala DJs GROOVE BAR Decoy HERDSMAN LAKE TAVERN All Star Showstoppers Beatles & Stones HOTEL ROTTNEST Acoustic Aly HULA BULA Sailor Saturdays INDI BAR Blue Shaddy JACK RABBIT SLIM’S Hey Geronimo Braves King’s Justice JIMMY’S DEN Ladies of Soul LANEWAY LOUNGE Neo THE LIBRARY Twist ft. Unkempt Dance LLAMA BAR Laundry MATISSE BEACH CLUB Winter Funk Fest ft. Mark Ronson (DJ Set) METRO CITY Ja Rule Ashanti MOJOS BAR FOAM French Rockets Maids (NSW) Rag ’n Bone The Pissedcolas THE MONASTERY Remixed MUSTANG BAR Wal*Tones DJ Holly Doll Milhouse THE ODD FELLOW Edie Green Michael Savage The Regular Hunters Xanthea PADDY MAGUIRES Trouvaille PARAMOUNT Felix PRINCE OF WALES Stumped (EP Launch) The Bob Gordons Ocean Drive The Flaps RAILWAY HOTEL Push Me Under St. James Sirens Occasional Symmetry Beyond Stone Rising 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Fierce Mild (VIC) Lanark Antelope Delay Delay ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Little Death (Album Launch) Trigger Jackets DIGITAL ORDER Just Numbers ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) DJ Sandy
DJ Johnny Ajax ROSIE O’GRADY’S FREMANTLE Deluxe SETTLERS TAVERN Optimus Gryme DJ Sphere SWAN BASEMENT The Illegals The Stone Frogs Blues Confusion SWAN LOUNGE The Bone Kickers Sheila & the Neighbours Craig Eulenstein Janglophone UNIVERSAL BAR Soul Corporation VILLA Syndicate ft. Barely Alive Dodge & Fuski Astronaut WANNEROO TAVERN Vulture Culture Comedy ft. Greg Fleet Mike Klimczak SUNDAY 26/07 THE BIRD Lurking: An Exhibition by Brad Seris Doctopus HAMJAM Verge Collection The Body Boys CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Limelights Jazz CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH Dallas Royal (Acoustic) CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Zarm ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Vince Jones FLYRITE MVMNT HULA BULA BAR Tropical Sundaze INDI BAR Irish Night ft. The Rogues LAST DROP TAVERN Robert West MOJOS BAR Alyx Dennison SEAMS Felicity Groom NEWPORT HOTEL Surfin’ Safari ft. The Surf Mist Danger Island The Beehives Go-Go dancers DJ Clancy NORTH FREMANTLE BOWLING CLUB Open Mic PAPER MOUNTAIN ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Sizzlin’ Sunday with Burlesque shows ft. Lady Velvet Cabaret ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down ft. Aslan Klean Kicks Pawel Good Company DJs Sleepyhead Beni Chill Jo Lettenmaier Tim King SUBIACO ARTS CENTRE Sunday @ Subi ft. Sparrow UNIVERSAL BAR Retrofit MONDAY 27/07 AMPLIFIER Nerdlinger THE BIRD In a Room Exhibition by Nick Zafir & James Cooper BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness — Backpacker Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic NEWPORT HOTEL Club Kizomba Grand Opening ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia TUESDAY 28/07 THE BIRD Barefaced Collections — Money Talks CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Hatched… From the Sea CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Quiz Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Ben Matthews HERDSMAN LAKE TAVERN The One Thing Music Quiz MOJOS BAR Collections NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show PERTH BLUES CLUB Dave Brewer & Lez Karski Cyclone Tracey Morrison Band
Danny Pash Band ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night TORCH BAR Quiz Meisters X-WRAY CAFÉ Child’s Play WEDNESDAY 29/07 ALBION HOTEL Quiz Night AMBAR Cactus Wednesdays THE AVIARY Xmas in July Party THE BIRD Bahasa Malay (Tape Launch) Leafy Suburbs Tourist Kid BRASS MONKEY Trump’d ft. DJ Grizzly DJ Lab Rat CHOO CHOO’S SMALL BAR Unamped Sessions CIVIC HOTEL Open Mic Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Songwriter’s Night ft. Rob Walker Rhys Hussey CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Commander Cody’s Seaside Quiz HULA BULA BAR Island Nite INDI BAR Club Acoustica LANEWAY LOUNGE Polkadot & Moonbeam METROPOLIS FREMANTLE Next Gen MOJOS BAR Doctopus (Album Launch) Kitchen People Aborted Tortoise Moist Oyster THE MOON CAFÉ Luke Dux Skyscraper Stan MOONDYNE JOE’S Karaoke with Nikki MUSTANG BAR Wild Wednesday NEWPORT HOTEL Newport Wednesdays 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Mom’s Spaghetti ft. Korzah Mayhem Macshane Warpsa Ruinous Affekt Johnny Halo ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rock ’n Roll Karaoke with Magnus Danger Magnus ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Student Night ft. DJ Anton Maz THE VELVET LOUNGE Electric Funeral Club ft. LYTTA VILLA Earl Sweatshirt X-WRAY CAFÉ Mei Saraswati THURSDAY 30/07 AMPLIFIER Last Night – It’s a Match Tinder Party ft. Lights of Berlin Amberdown Treehouses ARCADE NIGHTCLUB Lowpitch THE BIRD Beat Lounge #26 BRASS MONKEY Open Deck Night BUFFALO CLUB Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. HAMJAM Apache The Disappointed DEFECTORS BAR Songwriters Club ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB WA Youth Jazz Orchestra FREMANTLE NAVY CLUB Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Odette Mercy & Her Soul Atomics James Baker Experience HULA BULA BAR Rhum Club INDI BAR Open Mic JIMMY’S DEN Beautiful Ugly presents… The Odd Couple ft. Chu Creed Birch Mikali Fries Quantize Roc Walla Empty Coin Banks Rob Delirious
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FLOWER DRUMS, JULY 31 S.O.X LC McKenzie Empty Beckon Bax Davis Macshane Strangelove Hyclass LANEWAY LOUNGE Jessie Gordon Quartet MALT SUPPER CLUB Playroom ft. Cathrine Summers Quintet MOJOS BAR Pick n Mix ft. The Darling Ranges Henry Kissinger Bird Brains Mitch McDonald MOONDYNE JOE’S Open Mic Night with Peter MUSTANG BAR Thumpin’ Thursdays NATIONAL HOTEL Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series ft. Katie J. White Wasted Sons Louis Inglis Irish Music Jam Session NEWPORT HOTEL Record Club – INXS ft. Oats Supply THE ODD FELLOW Iceage Sugar Della Fern Braves Petrichoral PERTH ARENA Blur Jamie T PS ART SPACE Hidden Treasures — Fremantle’s Winter Music Series 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL John Martyr’s Ghost Little Skye Ellen Oosterbaan The Hounds Bliss in Berlin ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Late Night Hysterics Ohayo Steppes Raksha X-WRAY CAFÉ Ricky Ponting & the Gentleman’s XI FRIDAY 31/07 AMBAR Fresh Produce ft. Nishmann Joni Boi Avance Mike de Wet Lain AMPLIFIER Claim the Throne 10 Year Anniversary Suffer in Rot (Album Launch) Sanzu 9 Foot Super Soldier ASTOR LOUNGE The Last Fair Deal A.J. Wigwams Flooded Palace THE BIRD Red Bull Music Academy presents KNXWLEDGE Rok Riley Andrew Sinclair Ben M Fahmi THE BOSTON Aborted Tortoise The Bob Gordons The Pissedcolas Surf Rabbits CAPITOL Capitol Fridays ft. DJ Roger Smart CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE DJ Boogie CLANCY’S FREMANTLE The Zydecats CLUB KAHUNA GT Fridays ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Jamie Oehlers Allira Wilson GEISHA BAR Lane 8 Chopstick & Johnjon GINGER NIGHTCLUB Mondo Fridays GOLD BAR Fox Fridays HULA BULA Friday Frendzee JACK RABBIT SLIM’S At the Pile ft. Panama CLN Jia Lih Flower Drums JamYang JIMMY’S DEN Gassed! Bixler Gran Calavera Deadweight TDEC Crew THE LIBRARY SNEAKY 2015 DJ COMP LLAMA BAR Honey METRO CITY
JONI & THE MOON, AUGUST 1
Animal House 3rd Birthday — 80s vs. 90s ft. Slumberjack Loston Herzeloyde GG Magree MOJOS BAR Oakland (EP Launch) Gunns These Winter Nights NEWPORT HOTEL Live Band Karaoke PRINCE OF WALES Drapht RAILWAY HOTEL Full Moon Party 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Iceage Sugar Della Fern Braves Petrichoral ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Big Spash Semi Final #1 ft. Apollo’s Son Cool Band Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Shit Narnia Verge Collection SETTLERS TAVERN Soul Porpoise SWAN LOUNGE Stumped (EP Launch) New Husseins & more THE VELVET LOUNGE Resonance Launch Party ft. FDEL Carla & Miss Demeanour Roxright Diistortiion VILLA HILINE #002 ft. DJ Craze Ape Drums X-WRAY CAFÉ Galloping Foxleys
DJ Ben Taaffe THE MONASTERY Remixed PARAMOUNT Felix RAILWAY HOTEL Gravity Punch The Second Alternation Chuck Hombre RIVERSIDE THEATRE Rubber Soul Revolver ft. Husky Gawenda Jordie Lane Marlon Williams Fergus Linacre 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Rich King Matthews Villain The Mondays Darlings Aemm ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Take The Power Back ft. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving The Reptillians Sharon The I’s ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) DJ Sandy DJ Johnny Ajax SETTLERS TAVERN John Read Band SWAN BASEMENT Lakeside Ratking Filthy Apes SWAN LOUNGE Orquestra Yambeque VILLA Wedidit Shlohmo Purple D33J Nick Melons
SATURDAY 1/08 ADMIRAL HOTEL A Boy Named CASH Tribute ft. Monty Cotton & Band AMBAR Japan 4 ft. Jordan Scott Invoker Miss Demeanour Bezwun DNGRFLD AMPLIFIER Breakeven Endless Heights Reactions Cursed Earth Losing Grip Idle Eyes ASTOR THEATRE The Rat Pack AVIARY Zel Paradise Paul Bfix THE BIRD MOANA “The Trilogy of the Black Monsoon Part II” Odette Mercy & Her Soul Atomics A’tuin Golden String BRIGHTON HOTEL Bangin’ @ The Brighton ft. DJ Cookie CAPITOL Death Disco Cream of the 80s CIVIC HOTEL Tuff Life: Stones Show CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Russell Holmes Trio ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Jack Carty Jordan Millar FLYRITE Father FRAYED Frayed GOLD BAR Pure Gold THE GOOD SHEPHERD Chocolate Jesus HERDSMAN LAKE TAVERN Stumped (EP Launch) Blindspot Hope Street Fight the Morning HULA BULA Sailor Saturdays JACK RABBIT SLIM’S Asta Lilt GRRL PAL JIMMY’S DEN Jimmy’s World Famous House Band LEISURE INN Abbe May THE LIBRARY Twist ft. Unkempt Dance LLAMA BAR Laundry METRO CITY Armada Night ft. Ben Gold David Gravell Omnia Exis MOJOS BAR Joni In The Moon (Single Launch) Mei Saraswati Flower Drums
SUNDAY 2/08 CLANCY’S CITY BEACH The Limelights Jazz CLANCY’S DUNSBOROUGH Carus Thompson & Band DEFECTORS BAR Open Sesame – Mt. Lawley Open Mic Night ELLINGTON JAZZ CLUB Ruth Roshan Tango Noir FLYRITE MVMNT HULA BULA BAR Tropical Sundaze MOJOS BAR The Shops (EP Launch) THE MOON CAFÉ Shontay Snow trio NORTH FREMANTLE BOWLING CLUB Open Mic 459 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bass Ingredient ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Half Baked Comedy ft. Ciaran Lyons Manfred Yon Steven J Whiteley Sonny Yang Sam Cribb Glenn Grimwood ROSEMOUNT HOTEL (BEER GARDEN) Get Down ft. Aslan Klean Kicks Pawel Good Company DJs Sleepyhead Beni Chill Jo Lettenmaier Tim King SETTLERS TAVERN Nate Lansdell SUBIACO ARTS CENTRE Sunday @ Subi ft. Amanda Dee MONDAY 3/08 BRASS MONKEY Monday Madness — Backpacker Night CLANCY’S CANNING BRIDGE Scotty’s Quiz Night MOJOS BAR Wide Open Mic ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Comedy Trivia TUESDAY 4/08 CLANCY’S CITY BEACH Hatched… From the Sea CLANCY’S FREMANTLE Quiz Night HERDSMAN LAKE TAVERN The One Thing Music Quiz MOJOS BAR Splattergunk ft. Fuzz Toads The Dead Capital NEWPORT HOTEL Quiz Show RIVERSIDE THEATRE Olly Murs Anja Nissen ROSEMOUNT HOTEL Bex & Turin’s Open Mic Night TORCH BAR Quiz Meisters
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SOCIAL PICS | VENUES | CLUBS | PUBS
DOUBLE DOUBLE SMALL BAR
JACK RABBIT SLIM’S
DELICIOUS @ ROCKET ROOM
THE MONASTERY
MUSIC GEAR & TECHNOLOGY
GRAHAM GREENE GUITAR CLINIC Classic Sounds in Kelmscott played host to an evening equal parts educational and entertaining in presenting the Graham Greene Guitar Clinic on Wednesday July 15. In association with WA-based Ormsby Guitars and Mesa Boogie Amplification, the home-grown guitar legend took to the stage for an up close and personal look at his electrifying musicianship, the equipment used to shape his tones and his lifelong journey as a working musician. Over the course of two hours, Greene gave entertaining insights into his enduring music career, from his innocent beginnings on the ukulele in the
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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 BIBRA LAKE REHEARSAL STUDIO Air Conditioned Room. Great Facilities. Superior sound to hear yourself and your band. 10 mins from Freo. Phone Nick: 0410 485 588.
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Kimberley, through to lessons with legendary WA guitarist Cliff Lynton, high-grossing cover bands, tour support slots and encounters with rock stars. Interwoven into the open and honest narrative were performances of several Graham Greene classics, both from his latest album and previous works, the highlights of which were a blistering version of the award winning Impressive Hair from Leap Of Face and Chicken Soup For The Soul from Down Devil’s Road. The latter track in particular showcased Greene’s refined maturity as a guitarist, switching seamlessly between clean, traditional blues licks and inventive overdriven flourishes. A long time endorsee of Ormsby guitars, Greene recounted his early dealings with luthier Perry Ormsby, from when the latter volunteered to serve as guitar tech on some Ice Tiger reunion shows in 2004, through to test-driving some early guitar builds and the eventual official endorsement of a West Australian guitar brand that continues to grow in popularity both at home and abroad. Greene’s GG-6 and GG-7 signature models were heavily utilised throughout the song performances. In addition to these models, the fixed-bridge guitar played on the aforementioned Chicken Soup For The Soul was a standout in its rich and balanced tone. Not utilised as part of the performance but on display nonetheless was one of Ormsby’s multiscale guitars. Greene made specific mention of the philosophy and
TUITION ***GUITAR LESSONS*** All styles, all levels. Children & adults. Beg to adv. AMEB and WAAPA accreditation.Online bookings. Cliff Lynton Guitar Institute. Mt Lawley 9342 3484/ www.clifflynton.com **THE VOICE COACH SINGING TEACHER** Let my 30 years experience give you the quality coaching and technical advice you need to live your dream. All styles and ages welcome. Home studio and mobile services available.Call for more information 0407 260 762 BASS GUITAR LESSONS AVAILABLE by WAAPA tutor. A practicle approach to learning. All styles.Years of experience. Tony Gibbs 9470 6131
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design behind these unique instruments that feature a fretboard with frets that fan out across the neck at angles that benefit the overall tonality, rather than more traditional vertical frets. Keen to impart his knowledge of the instrument, Greene took the time during the clinic to outline and demonstrate some of his trademark stylistic components, including two-handed tapping, whammy dives, natural and artificial harmonics, and arpeggios. At one point in the clinic, Greene made reference to the importance of the journey itself over the destination, and hinted at the possibility of hands-on guitar workshops in the near future as well as a return to local stages. Continuing a career spanning over three decades thus far, it would appear that the guitarist has plans to continue to contribute to the WA music industry that he has had a big part in shaping. This is great news not only for Greene’s existing colleagues and fans, but also for new musicians entering the industry in need of talented, experienced role models. Visit grahamgreene.com.au for more information on forthcoming performances and recordings. Visit ormsbyguitars.com for information on Perry Ormsby’s guitars, services and guitarmaking courses. CHRIS GIBBS
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