N O W A V A I L A B L E O N I P A D • 2 6 s ep t e m be r 2 0 1 2 • 1 5 9 6 • F R E E
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INSIDE
BLACKCHORDS HIGH ON FIRE FOUNDS HEY GERONIMO
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Performs a greatest hits set followed by The Blue Album from start to finish
with Special Guests
cloud control & ball park music
Sunday 13 January Brisbane Entertainment Centre ON SALE NOW ticketek.com.au | 132 849
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THE NEW ALBUM OUT NOW
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“Ben Drew’s move from sharp-suited soul boy to gritty narrator of inner-city deprivation is a bold one – and a good one.”
8/10 - NME
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GIVEAWAYS obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and became a phenomenon. Thanks to Madman Entertainment we have ten double passes to a special preview screening of Searching For Sugar Man on Sunday 30 September at Palace Centro at 4pm.
Queensland’s own Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson have a new album out, and it’s a beauty. Wiley Ways, the pair’s second album gathered stellar reviews from UK press on their recent trip. They launch Wiley Ways on Thursday 4 October at The Joynt. We have three double passes to give away. Entrants must be 18+.
Joe Bonamassa and his touring band will perform in concert at the QPAC Concert Hall on 3 October in support of his new album Driving Towards The Daylight. We have two double passes up for grabs.
TICKET5S $1
Drunken Moon Festival came about when James Grim set out to, quite simply, carefully curate the finest collection of live bands he’s seen in the past year into one massive East Coast splurge of shows. It’s happening Saturday 29 September at The Hi-Fi with performances by Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders, 6ft Hick, Gay Paris, Jackson Firebird, Kira Puru & the Bruise, Howlin’ Steam train and The Ramshackle Army. We have got one double pass up for grabs. Entrants must be 18+.
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival, now in its 13th year. It returns to Palace Barracks and Centro on 3 to 21 October with 30 new films that celebrate the romance and artistry for which Italian movies are renowned. We have three double general admission passes (which exclude opening night, closing night and special events) to give away. In the late ‘60s, a musician was discovered in a Detroit bar by two celebrated producers who were struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics. They recorded an album that they believed was going to secure his reputation as one of the greatest recording artists of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into
Danish American psychobilly horror legends Nekromantix return to our shores this October. You can catch them at The Hi-Fi on Thursday 4 October, and we have three prize packs up for grabs. Each pack contains a double pass to the show and a CD. Entrants must be 18+.
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ISSUE 1596
W E D N E S D AY 2 6 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2
TIME OFF Foreword Line – news, opinions, tours, Backlash, Frontlash The Medics are going from strength to strength We chat with The Presets about their new album before Parklife hits If you’re familiar with the term Slume then you’ve clearly encountered Regular John High On Fire are ready to dominate Australia once more We find out more about what went into Blackchords’ new record The Beards are always good for a laugh What’s going on with Fear Factory in 2012? Ulcerate know how to punish in the finest possible way Things are going to get messy this weekend if Brothers Grimm have anything to say about it Go behind the joyous pop of Hey Geronimo Holy shit! It’s a new magazine! Check out the first edition of Muso Senyawa are ready to show us some of the quality of the Indonesian scene What a year it has been for Laneway Another Greenthief tour indicates just how hardworking they are The new Collarbones is sounding promising thus far; we find out more
10 14 16 17 18 18 20 22 22 24 24 25 58 58 58 58
CREDITS
EDITORIAL Group Managing Editor: Andrew Mast Editor: Steve Bell Contributing Editor: Dan Condon Front Row Editor: Cassandra Fumi Interns: Keagan Elder, Sophia De Marco ADVERTISING Advertising Account Executives: James Tidswell, Alex Iveson DESIGN & LAYOUT Cover Design/Designer: Matt Davis ACCOUNTS & ADMINISTRATION Administration: Leanne Simpson Accounts: Marcus Treweek CONTRIBUTORS: Time Off: Ben Preece, Dan Condon, Daniel Johnson, Chris Yates, Matt O’Neill, Adam Curley, Lochlan Watt, Carlin Beattie, Tyler McLoughlan, Mitch Knox, Sam Hobson, Rachel Tinney, Tony McMahon, Benny Doyle, Jake Sun, Helen Stringer, Brendan Telford, Rip Nicholson, Cyclone, Amber McCormick, Brad Swob, Siobhain McDon8 • TIME OFF
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On The Record has the latest, greatest and the not so greatest new musical releases 60 Chris Yates spotlights the best (and worst) tracks for the week in Singled Out 60
$25 TICKETASLE OR PRES HE DOOR T $25 ON
FRONT ROW Check out what’s happening This Week In Arts 62 Russell Brand confesses to being an outsider on the inside ahead of his Australian tour 62 We level with On The Road director Walter Salles about adapting a classic for the screen 62 Gediminas Taranda from the Imperial Russian Ballet Company says there’s nothing more Russian than a night at the ballet 63
BACK TO TIME OFF! Get the drum on all the coolest happenings in local music last week, this week and beyond in Live Dan Condon gets the dirt on the blues scene from the Roots Down Lochlan Watt gives you brutal metal news in Adamantium Wolf Adam Curley cuts sick with another musical pop culture rant in The Breakdown Cyclone has the wide urban world covered with some OG Flavas Go behind the music Behind The Lines
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FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
MENAGE A TROIS
IN BRIEF
Three of the country’s most impressive emerging acts – Argentina, Tokyo Denmark Sweden and Them Swoops – have joined forces for a tri-state tour along Australia’s East Coast this October. The second ever Triple Treat tour follows on from the original, which featured Millions, Nantes and Northeast Party House in February and March this year. After already establishing some impressive formative buzz over the last 12 months, all three bands are set to play to respective hometown crowds in their three respective cities, hitting Oh Hello on Thursday 25 October. The Triple Treat platform showcases a handpicked selection of talent from Australia’s three biggest East Coast cities, all conveniently on the one stage, and the three playing this show exemplify the best of Australia’s up-and-comers. Tickets available on the door.
The Presets have debuted at 11 on the Billboard Dance/ Electronic Albums Chart this week with their new album Pacifica. The album also garnered them a top 20 spot on the overall Heatseekers chart, eligible only to acts who have never appeared in the top 100 of the Billboard 200.
RISE ABOVE
After wowing Australian audiences at Creamfields earlier this year, Above & Beyond are returning to reconnect with their vast and incredibly loyal Australian fanbase. Above & Beyond’s ongoing world tour will see their famed and memorable DJ experience take control of The Family on Friday 25 January with support from Anjunabeats stars Andrew Bayer and Norin & Rad. Having previously produced with Above & Beyond, Bayer is a Washington-raised producer and is one of the most prolific and eclectic producers in today’s scene, so combined with breakthrough DJs/producers Norin & Rad, you’ve got one hell of a killer line-up. Taking fans on a journey of epic proportions, Above & Beyond will showcase their latest productions, as well as exclusive material from their forthcoming Anjunabeats Volume 10 compilation. Tickets via Moshtix.
10 • TIME OFF
It’s safe to say that Weezer’s first trip to Australia in 16 years was always going to be a momentous party, one that will be all the more extraordinary with the announcement of two very special additions – the band have confirmed that Cloud Control and Ball Park Music will be supporting them on their Australian tour in January. The first show of the tour kicks off at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Sunday 13 January and sees Weezer playing their greatest hits as well at The Blue Album start to finish. Weezer’s career has spanned nearly two decades, influencing countless bands the world over, and it’s no stretch to hear that influence in the two Australian support bands. Throughout the band’s ever-evolving career, they have cultivated an interactive relationship with their fans old and new, and this tour will no doubt secure the nation’s love for the band even further. Tickets via Ticketek.
360, The Jezabels and Gotye lead the nominees in this year’s ARIA Artisan Awards with the first two scoring three nominations and two nods going to Gotye.
BLUES BLOWOUT
As if Byron Bay Bluesfest hadn’t already become as epic and all-encompassing as we could collectively imagine over the years, the multi award-winning five-day festival has just announced its first of four announcements that will constitute a huge line-up heading this way and playing Thursday 28 March to Monday 1 April at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm. And it’s a corker: roots’n’blues legend Ben Harper with band, decades-long guitar phenomenon Santana, undying harbingers of the best of punk Iggy & The Stooges (pictured), blues-rock bad boy Chris Isaak, foxtrotting Yankees and alternative heroes Wilco, American music institution Bonnie Raitt, mudhole-stompin’ Celtic punks Dropkick Murphys, incendiary ex-Frames frontman Glen Hansard, blood-nutted folk troubadour Newton Faulkner, banjo-and-bass-clad Americana stalwart William Elliot Whitmore, “the people’s prince of punk poetry” Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls and many more. With another three lists to be announced, Bluesfest 2013 is certainly keeping its long-running place atop the Australian festival scene solid. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.
Archie Roach, Natalie Pa’apa’a and Dan Sultan have loaned their voices to three re-recorded renditions of the Shane Howard classic Solid Rock, which celebrate the song’s 30th anniversary. Future Entertainment have launched Future Fans, a program that gives festival fans the opportunity to be a ‘mini-promoter’ for the event and sell tickets to their friends for a discounted price. Veteran promoter Michael Chugg is set to enter the dance festival market by bringing American festival Lights All Night to Australia in 2013. The 2012 event, held in Dallas, Texas, will host the likes of Tiesto, Avicii, Bassnectar, Calvin Harris, Axwell and more.
BIGGER THAN TEX
Frontman for the evocative soundscapes of The Cruel Sea and the hard-edged pub rock of Beasts Of Bourbon, collaborator on the Tex, Don & Charlie outings, and compadre to Tim Rogers on the T’n’T project, Tex Perkins has shown us many faces over his journey as one of Australia’s greatest musicians. More recently seen leading Tennessee Four in a night of memorable music in the Johnny Cash musical The Man In Black, Tex is back once again with the lilting, dark country of Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses, returning this October and November with a new LP, Everyone’s Alone and a select run of tour dates in support. He swaggers into The Zoo on Thursday 8 November. The enigmatic and affable songsmith Mike Noga (The Drones) supports Tex and his Dark Horses on all dates. Tickets through Oztix.
CLOUDY MUSIC
THIRD WAVE
With a huge second announcement and every state selling out, it seemed almost impossible for Soundwave 2012 to get much bigger. Now the festival has unleashed its third artist announcement, and much like the first and second announcements, it could be somewhat of a festival in its own right. Killswitch Engage (pictured), The Vandals, Orange Goblin, The Sword, Chelsea Grin, The Chariot, Sharks, Northlane, O’Brother, Dr. Acula and Milestone join an already explosive line-up featuring Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182 and more that will take control of the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday 23 February. If you missed out on tickets, keep your eyes peeled for a sea of Sidewaves that will no doubt arise as the festival approaches.
themusic.com.au
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has entered a rehabilitation facility to deal with substance abuse issues, following on from a dummy spit at Las Vegas’ iHeartRadio Festival at the weekend.
IT’S ON
LA punk rock supergroup OFF! have had busy year off the back of their critically-acclaimed self-titled debut album. Summer 2013 will see them bring their explosive old-school rock show to the national Big Day Out, and it’s been announced they’ll also headline sideshows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Following up their successful introductory tour of Australia last summer, Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) and his troupe of punk rock royalty are primed to spit fire, riffs and fury at punters, playing breakneck tunes from their lauded First 4 EP’s release and debut self-titled album. Catch the iconic punk legends at The Zoo on Monday 21 January. Ticket via Oztix.
EARTHBOUND
After a two-year absence from this golden land, North American high priests of all things psychedelia, Earthless, are venturing south of the equator once again and giving us what we all need, what we’ve all been asking for – a blast of no-holds-barred, old-school heavy psych. They bring the hammer down on Thursday 13 December at The Zoo. Since their first release, 2005’s Sonic Prayer, Earthless have been blowing minds all over the cosmos, and with their sophomore album, Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky (2007), it became abundantly clear that they were a non-stop sonic force to reckoned with; a world-class rock’n’roll band that had something vital to say – sonically speaking, of course. Far too many bands fall by the wayside of being a parody of who they want to be. Thankfully Earthless aren’t one of those bands, they’re the real deal, and their fans know it. Tickets through Oztix.
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MICKS TRIVIA 6:30PM
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O’MALLEY’S PUB GAMES COMP FROM 7PM
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FOREWORD LINE GLORY HOGS
Currently touring the country with Regurgitator, Beijing’s Hedgehog have found time to add a couple of headlining shows to their schedule. One of their two headlining shows goes down at Tym Guitars on Friday 28 September from 5pm (all ages). Hugely popular with both musical hipsters for the brilliance of their compositions and performances, and with rock’n’roll party animals for their wild, out of control pop frenzy, Hedgehog’s music is totally approachable and totally unique. Hedgehog are a classic power trio with three of the best performers in Beijing on their respective instruments, but it is their songwriting skills that make this band more than just a great performance band and one of the most important in China. Their latest album Sun Fun Gun is available now through MGM.
UP IN ARMS
The iconic and much-loved Valley watering hole currently known and trading as The Elephant & Wheelbarrow Hotel has put a moratorium on any wheelbarrows being mentioned or physically rolled into the pub. The venue has decided to part ways with its ‘Wheelbarrow’ and is officially trading as The Elephant Arms. This Friday the hotel plays host to its first annual Coachelephant, which will see it also offer something different from its staple diet of rock and blues bands. The acclaimed up-and-coming Oz hip hop act Yung Warriors will headline the outdoor hip hop stage, and are going in hot for the last show of their Australian tour before heading to the US for a run of gigs. They will be extremely well supported by the well-known and much loved The Winnie Coopers.
FAULK IN THE ROAD
On the back of a successful, but all-too-brief Australian tour, Newton Faulkner has announced another run of national dates kicking off in March 2013. Following the release of Write It On Your Skin, his third studio album, demand has been high for the English singersongwriter. Faulkner will be coming back for an extensive run of dates around Australia, including an appearance at Bluesfest 2013, but you can also catch him on Tuesday 2 April at The Tivoli. Whether you missed out on his swift September string of dates, or are longing to experience another spellbinding performance, there is no excuse to miss Newton Faulkner on his sweeping Australian tour in 2013.
BIG BROTHER
The eldest and last surviving brother of the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb will kick off his Mythology tour in Australia on February 2013. Touring in tribute to the unparalleled lifetimes in music created by Gibb and his brothers Maurice and Robin, this is sure to be a magical and emotional concert experience, drawing from every era of the timeless catalogue and huge international success achieved by the three. The Australian tour will feature Barry Gibb with his incredible band that includes his son, guitarist/vocalist Stephen, Maurice’s daughter Samantha, and Beth Cohen. Catch Gibb & Co in action on Saturday 16 February at Brisbane Entertainment Centre. As a songwriter, Gibb is hailed with contemporaries such as Lennon and McCartney, enjoying the most consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number ones of any songwriter, and with a career that has spanned more than five decades, he stands as one of the most prolific singer-songwriterproducers of the modern era. Tickets via Live Nation.
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
FAIR GAME
IN BRIEF
Brisbane’s largest Record & CD Fair is on again on Saturday 13 October at the West End Club. Early birds can ensure they snap up the best bargains by being there when the action kicks off at 9am. If you’ve got a big night planned Friday, you’ve got until 4pm on Saturday to head down to the fair. Music lovers can expect to find over 50,000 records (LPs, EPs and 45s) as well as CDs covering a wide range of genres including rock, pop, punk, indie, soul, country, jazz, surf, metal and blues. There’s always t-shirts, sheet music and memorabilia aplenty as well so come along for a browse. You’ll find it pretty hard to walk away empty handed.
Fiona Apple was arrested last Wednesday evening in Texas after being caught with hashish onboard her tour bus. She spent a night in jail and was released on $11,000 bail. The eponymous debut album from Sydney’s The Rubens has debuted in the number three position on the ARIA Album charts. American rapper Flo Rida has appealed against the $400,000 fine he was slapped with by an Australian court after he failed to appear at last year’s Fat As Butter festival. Australian urban pop artist Israel Cruz has been released from jail after reportedly spending 52 days behind bars. Australian publishing company Alberts have today confirmed that they will represent the main catalogue of international publisher the Kassner Music Group, who publish work by the likes of Ray Davies and Ray Charles. Publishing company Sony/ATV are believed to have started the auction process for the rights of more than 30,000 songs from the Virgin Music and Famous UK catalogues – including material from Iggy Pop, Tears For Fears and Culture Club. Brisbane’s Thelma Plum has signed a deal with Select Music after representatives from the label saw her performing at this year’s BIGSOUND.
KIND OF BLUE
In a short space of time, Melbourne’s Gypsy & The Cat have infiltrated the Australian musical landscape – their debut album Gilgamesh naturally and effortlessly making an impact whilst building a strong supporter base globally. Its successor, the duo’s eagerly awaited new album The Late Blue, will be released on 19 October, followed by a huge national tour from late October. They hit The Hi-Fi on Wednesday 10 October, and if Gilgamesh was anything to go by, the band’s unleashing of The Late Blue will be an equally momentous occasion. Tickets through Moshtix. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.
Indie-folk/country-soul duo Texas Tea have announced the release of their third long player, Sad Summer Hits. The band’s 2006 debut album Take A Sip along with 2008 follow up Junkship Recordings and a reputation for stellar live performance have seen the duo strongly establish themselves not only in their hometown of Brisbane but right across Australia. Treasured locally, they once took out the number one spot on 4ZZZ’s Hot 100 two years in a row. The launch shows for the record will no doubt be heated events: catch them in action at The Zoo on Friday 26 October with The Gin Club, The Madisons and James X Boyd; The Loft on Saturday 27 with Adam & Dusty, Turner and Karl Williams; and the Spotted Cow (Toowoomba, arvo) on Sunday 28 with Suicide Swans. 12 • TIME OFF
Double Grammy award-winning duo The Civil Wars return to Australia in March for a series of shows that are set to be both visually and sonically spectacular. The shows will see the American pair touring churches and cathedrals to perform their beautiful brand of melodic chamber folk and pop. Joy Williams and John Paul White, the talent behind The Civil Wars, first met in 2009 at a writing camp in Nashville, Tennessee. It has been a whirlwind of success since this fateful meeting with the band amassing a multitude of honours and hundreds of thousands of album sales in three short years. This tour is set to be a treat for all, as The Civil Wars perform their beautiful masterpieces in some of the most architecturally stunning buildings. St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane plays host to the duo for one night only on Friday 8 March. Be quick to grab your tickets to one of the most spectacular shows of 2013. Tickets via Ticketek.
THE RED CARPET
FEEDING TIME
Brisbane four-piece Hungry Kids Of Hungary may have been quiet at home in Australia of late, but in reality the last two years have proved to be remarkable not only across international waters, but also with writing and recording their second album, You’re A Shadow – due for release March 2013. If you can’t wait until next year for a taste of the new material, then you’re in luck. They’ve released the album’s first single, Sharp Shooter, and will be doing a national tour to showcase the new material live and give fans an idea of what to expect. Set purposefully in a smaller room, a short, sharp reminder of the band’s live legacy, they play The Zoo on Thursday 18 October with Brisbane psych-surf-pop duo Gung Ho along for the ride. Tickets via Oztix.
Following the well-received first single off their debut self-titled album, Redcoats have announced another single and a tour to celebrate. Once the sounds of second single Evergreen have sunken in and the album drops on 19 October, they’ll be heading out on the Who’s Rollin’ album tour, which brings them to Alhambra Lounge Thursday 22 November, the Great Northern Hotel (Byron Bay) on Friday 23 and The Spotted Cow (Toowomba) on Saturday 24. Everything is super sized in Redcoats’ world: epic drums and vocals, and a guitar and bass synergy that throbs, chops and drones. The band’s individuality and hard-work ethic made them an obvious support choice for fellow heavyweight acts such as Stone Temple Pilots, Grinspoon, Papa Vs Pretty, Calling All Cars and Karnivool: this is a band you must see live to experience their full effect. Proudly presented by Street Press Australia.
BACKLASH
FRONTLASH
Seriously, imagine being really poor and seeing on the TV (presumably someone else’s) people whinging about their precious new iPhone 5s having scratches on the cases. Seriously, you sound like douches – take your new toys and piss off…
The first line-up for Bluesfest 2013 is apparently only the tip of the iceberg, and they’ve already announced such luminaries as Wilco and Iggy & The Stooges, among many more fine names. Bring that shit on!
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS
TEA TIME
THIS MEANS WAR
NO BLUES!
GOAL!
BAD FORM
Congrats to goal umpire Chelsea Roffey for being the first female to be chose to officiate in the AFL Grand Final. She shouldn’t be too overawed by the occasion, given some of the terrible decisions made in recent GFs she’s can’t do any worse…
The Chaser are great and we love them for their willingness to butt into any situation, but sometimes you’ve just got to back off – hassling Tony Abbott while he was consoling people upset by the memorial for victims of Bali bombings was tacky and unwarranted. Bad boys…
ROADRUNNER ONCE! Indie icons Smudge have announced that they’ll be playing The Modern Lovers’ classic debut in its entirety in Sydney and Melbourne in a couple of months, and having heard them smash out Roadrunner last weekend it promises to be amazing…
C’MON… Crime boss Carl Williams’ relatives are now planning to sue the Victorian government over his murder while in prison custody. His death was obviously tragic for his family, but suing them as victims of crime? Really? Can’t they work out some sort of contra deal?
Wilco
themusic.com.au
JONSON STREET BYRON BAY Thurs 27 Sept
THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Fri 28 Sept
CHARLIE MAYFAIR & THE FALLS Sat 29 Sept
THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS & REGULAR JOHN Fri 5 Oct
AFL GRAND FINAL Saturday 29th September LIVE from 2PM on the BIG SCREENS followed by
NRL GRAND FINAL Sunday 30th September LIVE from 5PM on the BIG SCREENS followed by
WASABI
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THE MEDICS Sat 6 Oct
FAIT ACCOMPLI Sat 13 Oct
THE RUBENS Sat 20 Oct
THE OTTOMANS Fri 26 Oct
FAIRCHILD REPUBLIC
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www.thenorthern.com.au TIME OFF • 13
The Medics are taking on all comers at the moment with their debut album Foundations, so far coming up trumps at every turn. Frontman Kahl Wallace talks to Steve Bell about having fun, keeping it real and breaking down cultural divides in the process.
DEADLY AMBITION
On top of their success at the NIMAs The Medics have been nominated for Album Of The Year and Band Of The Year at the annual Deadly Awards – the annual celebration of Indigenous cultural and sporting achievement – and Wallace couldn’t be prouder.
LIVING IN THE MOMENT W
hen fast rising Queensland rockers The Medics scooped the pool at the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) in Darwin last month – they took home gongs for New Talent Of The Year, Album Of The Year (for debut album Foundations) and Song Of The Year (for single Griffin) – few who’ve been following their progress in recent times would have been surprised in the slightest. The young four-piece have been conquering everything placed before them since forming in Cairns in 2007, first moving down to the big smoke of Brisbane and then, having ticked every musical box in the state capital, turning their attention to the national stage, which has also capitulated to their atmospheric charm. They smashed it at Splendour In The Grass, once again hammered it at BIGSOUND – unsurprisingly on either front, given that The Medics are no strangers to the big stage having already become veterans of Big Day Out, Laneway Festival, Woodford and plenty of other massive events – and their debut Foundations has been getting rave reviews, but so far it’s the wins at
the NIMAs and the experience they had accepting the awards at the ceremony in Darwin that has been the real highlight for the close-knit band.
“You could say that getting the awards at the NIMAs was something really special for us,” reflects frontman Kahl Wallace. “It’s really interesting, because a lot of other people are working and helping the band move along now – there’s a lot of other people in the mix – and it’s just really great for them to see us get some of those awards and getting the great reviews. It’s all new to us and we’re just going with the flow really and having fun with it. We’re just playing shows and just enjoying being in the band and the music industry. “It was a really special night [at the NIMAs], and it means a lot to our family. To be in Darwin and to see the people there and to rub shoulders with people like Troy Cassar-Daley – he had some words of wisdom – and just to be up on stage with my uncle Bunna Lawrie [of iconic Indigenous rock band Coloured Stone] – that’s Jhindu [Lawrie – drums/ vocals]’s father – to be up there with him and to play
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one of his well-known songs, Black Boy, was a really special thing and I think it was really well-received. And we ended up playing [Dylan cover] Blowin’ In The Wind as well, Thelma Plum actually came out and sang a verse as well – she’s a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, she got the Unearthed spot for the NIMAs, she’s an up-and-coming Indigenous singer-songwriter. It was a great night. It was held at the Botanical Gardens – such a beautiful setting – and just to be a part of that was amazing.” But really their achievements at the NIMAs are merely the culmination of a journey they started a couple of years ago when, having already released two well-received EPs, they bunkered down to begin work on what would become their debut record. “It’s been a while since we first went in the studio – that was nearly two years ago I guess when we first started talking to Yanto Browning, our producer,” Wallace recalls. “We met him probably as soon as we moved down to Brisbane and got talking and then we got the [Federal government] Breakthrough grant and got to go down and record at 301 Studios at Byron Bay. It was amazing – it was our first time in a big studio like that and it was great to have him there to guide us as well, because we’re still exploring sounds and being savvy with being in the studio and having a time limit to get all the music out. It was an experience and a steep learning curve.”
Anyone who’s seen the seen the band’s frenetic and celebratory live show will attest that The Medics have nailed this aspect of their craft, so the challenge for the young musicians was to try and capture this intensity in the studio.
“I love watching bands who have a good stage presence or dynamic – when you look at them you can really tell that they’re loving what they’re doing; they’re not just standing there depressed and not moving around – so we try to just have an experience and just really be real. It’s always different, but we always try to push the boundaries with our live performance,” Wallace enthuses. “We always wanted to really capture our live performance and have that big-sounding energy and I think we did capture it to an extent. You can always learn from it and better yourself for the next time around, but I think we did really well in capturing our sound and taming that raw energy to put it into the record. “We set up as if we were playing live in the studio – we were in different areas but we could see each other – and we played along and got the raw bones for the songs and then went along and just layered on
top of that with extra guitar parts; just filling out the sound. Just having fun really listening to it and just being amazed by the results. In the past we’d never really captured our sound how we wanted it, so this time around it was really great to hear it through the monitors in the studio to go, ‘Wow, this is amazing! This is really what we want the band to be’. Our sound’s always going to be changing and we’re always wanting to do something different, but we’re just having fun creating music really. We don’t have a formula or anything like that, we just kinda jam and everyone has a say in the song – everyone in the band is a songwriter in their own right. We’re all just having fun.” The Medics have forged a distinctive sound already – despite being still in their formative stages in many respects – and while they don’t feel that they’re slavishly derivative, Wallace concedes that there’s some bands that they look up to for their dense, atmospheric sound. “You know there’s a lot of bands whose sound has inspired us, bands like Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros and obviously The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In in their own way,” he ponders.
“There’s heaps of bands out there, just a lot of textural stuff – the Deftones and Smashing Pumpkins I guess have influenced us along the way. But we’ve never really listened to an album and said, ‘We want to make an album that sounds like that’. I’m sure our album sounds like some other bands production-wise, but it could just be by coincidence, I can’t really say. “We never really set out to say, ‘I want to be like that’, it’s just kind of happened over the years just slugging it out and not really being too influenced by the music around us. Just being in our own world – like still listening to music and stuff, but not coming to the rehearsal or the studio and saying, ‘We need to sound like this’, we just went in there and did it. But I’m sure the influences were there subconsciously in a way, like all bands.” While their songwriting has become increasingly collaborative in recent times, the lyrical component of The Medics’ songs is still Wallace’s domain and he explains that Foundations is a group of individual songs without any thread or overriding theme holding them together. “I don’t really see a major theme, they’re all kind of different lyrically – they’re not all about the same thing, they’re all different and they all have their own stories and story behind the lyrics,” he offers. “I tend to just spew out lyrics onto a piece of paper and sing them over the top of the music and just try to critique it as we go when we start writing the song in the studio or in the rehearsal space. I just try to get the emotions out onto paper – or wherever I can – and go from there really. The initial writing of the lyrics is pretty messy and just comes straight out. I try to be as real as I can be.”
And while keeping it real has so far proved no problem whatsoever for the talented four-piece, Wallace admits that deep down they have their eyes on even more distant horizons. “We went away a few months ago – we went down to Seal Rocks, north of Sydney, and started writing some new music, so we’re thinking about album two,” he discloses. “It’s just a matter of us writing and creating this next album... There’s always those dreams of travelling the world, but we like to live in the moment and I think we’ll just take it in our stride and if things happen and we get to go overseas that will be amazing.” WHO: The Medics WHAT: Foundations (Footstomp/Warner) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 27 October, Valley Fiesta, Fortitude Valley; Saturday 17 November, Golden Days Festival, Coolum Beach
“It’s going to be my first time – I missed out on going a couple of years ago, which was a shame because we were given Band Of The Year, which was pretty amazing,” he enthuses. “I’m really keen to get along; it’s another special night for the Indigenous community and Indigenous music. “It’s important because it goes to show what can be done. There’s a lot of people out there who might have an idea of what Indigenous music is, so when they see a band like us playing hopefully it breaks down some preconceptions – it’s not just reggae or didgeridoos, it’s something different as well. Indigenous music is just music – it’s not different to any other music. I don’t see why people have to label things. But I don’t know, it just shows that there is different music out there, it’s not all world music but some ‘popular music’ as well, if you want to put it that way.” Their incredible success to date must surely help break down some cultural barriers as well, especially when rock fans get to see The Medics holding their own on the big stage at events like Splendour and other festivals. “Exactly – breaking down the barriers and just bringing people together in a way and opening up people’s minds to a whole new thing,” Wallace offers. “There was a lot of support for the NIMAs and I think we should get behind it more and start sharing. Things are changing in the music industry, so to see artists out there like Busby Marou and Dan Sultan, plus people like Jessica Mauboy being in big production movies, is so great. It’s a bit of a change and I think we’re seeing the start of a new era, it’s great to see that happening and to be a small part of it.”
TIME OFF • 15
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE The Presets have finally followed up 2008’s career-defining Apocalypso. Kim Moyes takes Matt O’Neill inside Pacifica.
K
im Moyes is a little insulted. He’s discussing the Sydney duo’s polarising Ghosts. Spartan and abstract, The Presets’ second single from recently released third album Pacifica overflows with strange ideas and approaches – segueing effortlessly from gang vocals and frenetic percussion into melting, cerebral refrain. Somebody (read: this guy) has just made the mistake of suggesting that the track’s rhythm owes something to dubstep. “I really don’t think so,” Moyes practically splutters – seemingly caught between laughter and outrage. “I suppose I can kind of see where you’re coming from but, really, the rhythms for that track are a combination of a few things. We went to Colombia and went to a club where they were playing this really fast merengue music with pop melodies and styles over the top. It was a very culturally specific music we’d never heard before.
“Then, there was this other style of music from Chicago we got into last year called ‘footwork‘ – which is, like, super-fast, 160BPM, instrumental hip hop sort of stuff. And then the general feel of the song is kind of like a sea shanty and very Old World-y, in a way. We wanted to get this feeling of it being a little militaristic – like the First Fleet. We just wanted to throw all those elements together into a pop track.” That exchange says a lot about Pacifica. The Presets‘ third album has arrived after four years of boundary-shattering success and maddening anticipation. It’s not what people expected. Worlds away from the electro-house juggernaut that was Apocalypso, Pacifica is an album of abstraction and texture. Even when the band do hit the dancefloor, they do so with elegant, pulsing extrapolations – not grenades. “When I listen to the first few tracks of Apocalypso, I actually feel... Well, I actually feel frightened,” Moyes says with a laugh. “There’s like an energy level and excitement that I just don’t know if I could still tap into as a creative person anymore. I guess I’ve mellowed out a bit. There was a real urgency in that music. It makes me kind of anxious to listen back to it.” Apocalypso may always stand as The Presets‘ defining opus. Following the pair’s modestly well-received 2005 debut album Beams, Apocalypso hit like a tidal wave upon release in 2008. From ubiquitous hit singles through to chart-topping debuts and a slew of ARIA awards – Apocalypso transformed The Presets from obscure electro-indie kids into bona fide pop leviathans. “We were absolutely aware of the success of Apocalypso,” Moyes says. “It was daunting, at times. We were really aware of the expectation that we had to live up to – or, in some people’s minds, had to live up to. It impacted quite severely, at times. In a way, it stifled us. Thankfully, we weren’t stupid enough to buy into it completely and we were sort of able to realise what was working and what wasn’t and for what reasons. “Eventually, we got to a point where we were able to trust our instincts again and just go with the plan that we’ve always gone with – which was to make the music we want to hear and make the music we believe in. And once we sort of stopped cock-blocking ourselves, things started to really come together and really interesting ideas started to sprout – ideas that we were really proud of and excited by.”
There’s more to this story on the iPad The success of Apocalypso was problematic for The Presets in more ways than one. Both graduates of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, neither Moyes nor vocalist/keysman Julian Hamilton were ever interested in pop stardom. Debut album Beams barely had anything resembling a conventional pop song on it. Moyes, however, denies that Pacifica is the pair’s attempt at fleeing the mainstream. Initially, anyway. “I mean, we always try to make our music as direct as possible. We don’t necessarily want to confuse people,” the drummer weighs in. “We just want to put different ideas out there. I mean, I listen to songs like Fall and I hear a straight up pop song. Ghosts, really, is a straight up pop song – verse, chorus, verse, chorus. There’s nothing that mischievous about it. “With something like Ghosts, I agree it’s not exactly conventional, I’ll give you that, but it’s not exactly avant-garde either. We kind of just do that for ourselves, though. That’s just the sort of people that we are and that’s how we hear the world. We like to experiment with styles and influences. I don’t think it would exactly give me a hard-on if someone came up to me and listed all the different styles in Ghosts. It would probably just creep me out.” Still, it’s hard not to think a specific incident in the band’s career that suggests otherwise. In the wake of the band’s mutual discomfiture in attending 2008’s ARIA awards, Julian Hamilton suggested that the band’s next album would to be so weird as to ensure they would never have to venture into the limelight ever again. Given they then went on to release a six-minute acidtechno track as a lead single, it’s hard not to be suspicious. “Oh, I don’t think it’s a particularly obvious record. You have to kind of engage with it and let it happen to you,” Moyes laughs – with a certain sadistic pride, it must be said. “We haven’t just given all the bags of lollies – ‘Oh, here you go; here’s a fun pop song, here’s a fun electro song, blah blah blah‘. We’ve tried to challenge people. We’ve tried to inject a little bit more art to what we do as opposed to just straight-up pop music.” In actual fact, The Presets chose arguably two of the most difficult and confronting tracks on the album as lead singles. There are a handful of weirder cuts (Push, Adults Only) but a score of more immediately accessible productions (Promises, Fall, It’s Cool). Yet, when asked to introduce their eagerly anticipated album to the world, The Presets opted for a six-minute track without a chorus – followed by a post-modern sea shanty. “Yeah, we’re trying to raise the consciousness and all that pretentious shit,” the drummer says with another laugh. “We definitely chose Youth In Trouble and Ghosts as the first singles for a reason. There was a strategy to it. We initially wanted to release Ghosts as the first single – because, really, that and Adults Only are the centrepiece tracks of the album – but we kind of realised it would probably challenge people a little too much. “When we finished the album, Youth In Trouble was just a favourite of everyone who heard it. So, when it came to promoting the album, we just kind of went, ‘Well, fuck it, let’s release a six-and-a-halfminute techno track, we’ll make a crazy psychedelic film clip, we won’t service it to radio, we’ll just give it to triple j and see what happens.‘“ WHO: The Presets WHAT: Pacifica (Modular/Universal) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 29 September, Parklife, Brisbane Botanical Gardens 16 • TIME OFF
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IN BLOOM Regular John weren’t sure they wanted to keep making music following the release of their debut album. But after realising he would “rather die” than quit, Ryan Adamson tells Brendan Telford the band are back with new energy on second record Strange Flowers.
‘T
aking a break’ and ‘changing direction’ are two terms in the music industry that fill one with instant trepidation. Sydney-based rock outfit Regular John found themselves offering both as they lost a guitarist and contemplated their future. They return with Strange Flowers after three years in the veritable wilderness, and much has changed. Case in point is album opener Sky Burial – what with its heavy organ and squalling guitar outro, it is safe to say that the ball-tearing stoner rock that the quartet dipped their toes in back in the mid-2000s has been left behind in favour of a much more diverse sonic palette. Yet the ‘70s psychedelic flourishes weren’t something that the band were actively changing when they sat down to write their new material. “There was one song that Cal [Caleb Goman, bass] initiated and we worked on that extensively, and I consider that one to have a King Crimson influence coming through – I think we called it Green in tribute to their album Red – but nothing was particularly referenced for the rest of the songs,” guitarist and vocalist Ryan Adamson states. “Cal does love his ‘70s stuff, but we are all big, big music fans across the board. So there was nothing overtly conscious, we just wanted to use the best ideas that came to us and I guess that’s what won out.”
hear where the first album landed in parts of these songs, so I think that having that time off to take stock and have a proper think about what it is that music does for me made it easier to see where to cut back and refine things. There was a new energy, and we were determined not to compromise but instead make decisions where we saw fit. Things were allowed to be different; that idea seemed totally valid.” WHO: Regular John WHAT: Strange Flowers (Difrnt) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September: Alhambra Lounge; Saturday, The Northern, Byron Bay
The problem with such influences appearing in certain songs is that labels will be slapped on the entire album without giving each individual track its due. A good example is single Slume, an excellent slowburner of a track and standout song on the album that nevertheless has been stated to bear witness to the likes of Syd Barrett and Led Zeppelin. “To me Slume is very close to my heart, and to me it’s the closest I’ll probably ever get to writing a country song, just muddied up and covered in feedback,” Adamson asserts. “It’s certainly more in that realm. People will pick up what they assume from what they hear, and no one may pick this up other than me, but the bass line to me always makes me feel the same way that TV On The Radio does. Now I’m not saying they’re country, but the emotion that they can create… We are all huge music fans, and I think it comes through a lot more on this record, I don’t think there are easy labels [this time around]. We have made a big tangent from our last album, and we’ve had someone leave the band, so we don’t have to simplify our ideas as much anymore.” Strange Flowers as an album is a fully immersive affair, a cohesive whole that absorbs influences and styles rather than pinches from them; it’s sponge-like rather than a collage of sounds. Such a result may surprise those that have been fans of the band when they burst out of Marrickville back in 2004. From their namesake (an early Queens Of The Stone Age song) to debut album The Peaceful Atom Is A Bomb in 2009, Regular John have been thrown into the stoner-rock arena, something that Adamson doesn’t necessarily disagree with, but feels it is a very narrowminded way of looking at any music, let alone his own. “We have always had that label, and I still love belting out riffs like that, but I’ve never been interested in only making that kind of music,” Adamson admits. “Once upon a time that could have been it, my bread and butter, but if you love music, really love it, you can’t restrict yourself to just one thing. Me and Caleb, well he is my best friend in the whole world, [he is] my main collaborator, and we’ve always dreaded the word ‘maturity’. But to be honest I think it’s more about knowing what you are doing, and this time around I think our writing is a bit more esoteric, a lot more personal both lyrically and dynamically. This stuff breathes; it’s loud, it’s quiet, it’s a lot more human. For that reason it’s a lot easier to relate to.” The boys chose to work once more with Tim Powles (The Church) for the recording of the album, but the epiphany that they had reached in regards to their music extended into the studio to the point that even he was approaching things from a different direction. “The biggest difference, and there were a few, was that Caleb and I were really adamant that we use the studio as a tool as well. Ever since I was about 17 I have been into recording; I would find any spare time at home to fuck around with a four-track and pedals, and around the time we started writing this stuff I really got into analogue synths and I bought a lot of them. I have always kept these influences separate from the band, but after gaining more confidence in myself and what the band is capable of I thought that I should try and do what I have always done at home, but in the studio. I wanted to be involved in finding texture, of finding the right sounds, and Tim was really accommodating and helpful in allowing for that to happen.” The extended period away from the harsh light of media and audience expectations and opinion has helped to fuel the reinvigoration that permeates Strange Flowers, and while it wasn’t an overly planned move Adamson agrees that being left to their own devices has helped shape Regular John into something that they are collectively comfortable with. “We were at a stage where we weren’t sure if we wanted to play music anymore, and that was a fucking scary notion for us all,” Adamson stresses. “For us music is the escape, it was the beautiful thing in our lives, and we were at the point where we wanted to escape from the escape. I would rather die than live like that, it was a really heavy thing. So when I came back to it and to feel the beauty of it all over again, it was a giant relief but also really reaffirming. I don’t think that Strange Flowers is as dramatic a change as some might think, because I can
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TIME OFF • 17
BURNING BIBLES Oakland marauders High On Fire have been reborn. Matt Pike discusses their latest trial by fire with Brendan Telford.
M
att Pike isn’t a stranger to claims of reinventing the game. The short existence of stoner doom legends Sleep garnered worldwide rapture and acclaim, and in their Dope Mountain record a sleeper cult hit that can still be heard reverberating the corridors of metal acolytes today. But Pike isn’t one to sit still. He jumped ship and formed High On Fire, an outfit that is primeval, visceral and brutal. The trio (Des Kensel and Jeff Matz round out the bill) have prided themselves in shapeshifting too, with marked shifts in tone, content and aggression from record to record. Therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that latest album De Vermis Mysteriis is a return to aggressive bloodletters of yore, something not heard from the band for some time. Yet it nearly was a different story. “It is what it is,” Pike says nonchalantly. “We were going through a bit of a weird time writing that thing, a lot of stuff going on, and the feeling of that definitely came out. There were some dark times, and things seemed to really be stacked against us, but it came out pretty much the way we wanted it to. It’s a good memoir.”
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Such fractious events, which has also seen Pike battle with sobriety, would often tear some bands out from the outside as well as from within. High On Fire isn’t just some band, however. “It was a little bit of everything, bearing down on us,” Pike admits. “You know, we had been touring non-stop for a few years, and there was a bit of that normal tiredness, and not really sure where we were going with all of this. You start to feel like you don’t have enough time, that you are faced with things in your life that you miss, and it can be hard to get everyone to see eye to eye. So we got a place up in the mountains, we took a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time, and then really going over the music when we got the courage. I would be taking opiates at the time of writing, and that wasn’t good, and everyone was facing down financial difficulties. Then all of a sudden I dumped all of that shit, and we made it through and
made a great album; it has some really good feelings and sombre feelings. I don’t understand (why), but all three of us are always trying to let loose all of the feelings inside of us, that despair, that happiness, whatever it may be. And that album says it all, and Im incredibly proud of it.” High On Fire have always provided a full-frontal, visceral sonic experience, yet on De Vermis Mysteriis there is a catharsis inherent throughout that Pike states was a hangover effect from the purging of the band’s own misfortunes and musical redemption, and it’s been the catalyst to providing an absolute release of tensions and fears, and inadvertently the most accessible album that the band are ever likely to get. Yet it also comes along with an elaborate in-built concept about the timetravelling twin brother of Jesus Christ that is sure to bait Christian purists, and elate everyone else. Pike admits that he has always been enthralled by science fiction by the likes of Phillip K Dick, HP Lovecraft and alternate histories, so most of his ideas come from such realms. “It’s just something that popped into my head, and it makes great lyrics,” he chuckles. “It’s something where I was thinking, ‘What am I going for on this one?’ and so I sat down with the guys and asked them what sort of themes they wanted to focus on, then I went away and wrote down a lot of stuff into my book of ideas. It’s influenced by a lot of shit that I was reading and a lot of shit I was thinking, so I was writing like I was writing a book. I’d come across something or think of something, add it to the mix, and, ‘Voila! There you go’.” When pressed further though, Pike opens up a little more. “I have always had a wrestle with the God syndrome from time to time: you question the why’s and the where’s, and at certain times in my life I have believed various things,” he continues. “So none of my lyrics make these things universally factual, correct or constant; it’s just a thought. It is just philosophy, based off opinions and questions being raised and pondered, which is the whole human condition anyway, to wonder about the meaning of life. So I figured (Jesus) in as he is the most controversial religious icon – he has changed the world more than anything you can imagine, more than even he probably imagined, if he did indeed exist. So I just took that whole thing and ran with it, putting science fiction noir
in there and put a timeline to it, then reincarnation and immortality, whatever that popped into my head really.” Collating Pike’s concepts and the tangential difficulties of the band might ordinarly been a hard task, or at least a memorable one. Yet Pike insists that, like many things in life, it all takes time. “You cannot put your finger on such things, yet there is little that can really change,” he muses. “It’s like distilling liquor or something, finding those right ingredients. You write then play again and again, you throw in different timings, different lyrics, different vocal patterns, different guitar parts, different bass parts, different drum parts. It gets whittled down ‘til it becomes something of substance and character. You start with a slab of clay and you work away until suddenly this thing comes out of it that is perfect. Art is about refining things til you hit that point.” The band are using this experience as a new beginning, which bodes well for their upcoming Australian tour, which will also include a revitalised Pike fresh from rehabilitation.
“We are starting off with a new foothold, a new plan, and we are gonna let it all unfold,” the frontman explains. “At times we have gotten stalled a little, but we’ll be coming out of the gates, and the anticipation will reap its own rewards. People will see me playing with a little more focus, a little more direction, seeing me sober, and hopefully I can deliver. It was a little weird at first, because you are a little more present, which makes you more meticulous and particular about what you are playing; you are way more judgemental on yourself. There will be a little bit of nervousness and anxiety, but that is part of the deal. I can now give more of myself to people, and being of service like that, it’s what I want to do with my life. We were a great band before, but it’s even more powerful now.” WHO: High On Fire WHAT: De Vermis Mysteriis (Shock) WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 30 September, The Zoo
CHEMICAL MELODIES Melodic trio Blackchords have bided their time, but are about to go all out on their sophomore record. Brendan Telford talks to Nick Milwright about experimenting as a collaborative whole.
B
lackchords have made a stir over the past few years crafting a swirling miasma of emotive sounds that has led them all over the continent with the odd foray to European soil. However they have been somewhat quiet of late as they feverishly etch out a new direction, eager to expand their horizons in the process. The first taste of their new chapter came in the form of Dance Dance Dance back in May, and yet it is only now that we see the trio launching into a fully-fledged tour. Bassist and vocalist Nick Milwright admits it was a strategised move. “I think that [Dance Dance Dance] is like a crossover, a bit of a bridge from our old material, so the majority of what’s on the new album is to the left of all that,” Milwright explains. “There is a lot more synth, a cinematic feel to the rest of the tracks. The original plan was to be out releasing the record, and we were discussing different ways of releasing it. We have spent time working out how things finish for us, because it is quite different for us musically than anything we have done before. We have been doing the artwork and booking the tour ourselves, so there has been some business side of things to contend with too. We are so pleased with how it all turned out and want to give this album the best chance possible, so we booked the tour so that we can get the songs out there, and the album will follow suit straight after.” The album that Milwright speaks of is A Thin Line, the follow up to their self-titled 2009 debut. The record embodies a paradigm shift which saw Blackchords coming together as an organic unit within the creative process. “There is a definite shift in the sound, which comes from there being much more collaboration between the boys, on the songs and the composition of them,” Milwright asserts. “Blackchords was very much written on an acoustic guitar or the piano, and we would kind of paint around that. This time around it is very much a band-oriented sound, where the writing was done as a collective. By doing it this way it’s really pushed my songwriting, my lyrics, my vocals to different reaches, and with Damian [Cazaly – guitar] and Tristan [Courtney 18 • TIME OFF
– bass] coming into their own, it feels like their sound coming through, not mine, and not our influences. To us it sounds like Blackchords shining through.” Such a relinquishing of control may have seemed daunting at first, yet it is something that Milwright had contemplated for a long time without finding the right people with which to let go. “It can be really hard, and I often find it quite challenging,” he admits. “Yet it’s something I really wanted to try ever since I started playing with Damian. It’s been a dream of mine of finding the right kind of musicians who believe in me, but also who I believe in, their songwriting abilities and the influence that that may have on me. The music I listened to when growing up was very much band-oriented, and they shift from album to album; people like Radiohead, it’s never one sound that is tired, they continue to push outwards. I feel that if left on my own I would only have a certain amount that I could grow from, but having that constant influence provides something that helps push and challenge me. I never wanted to be a ringleader.” Whilst the songs evident on A Thin Line evoke certain moods, the constant is the foundation of their songwriting in incessant grooves and melodies, pushing the songs along rather than building the atmosphere at a languid pace. This insistent energy inherent in Blackchords’ music springs from an organic viewpoint whereby it is the last thing to come to fruition, and not even the band cannot assuage where the process will lead them. “It’s taken time, because when we started writing all we wanted to do was create a certain level of atmosphere,” Milwright attests. “We look at lots of layering, and it often takes a while before we feel what a song might be about. The ideas develop, and the melodies after that, after chord progressions are in place and have been worked over and over. It will appear in the bass line or the guitar line or the vocals – it’s always different. We wait for that hook that pulls people in; if it was just atmospheric, whilst I find that personally pleasant to listen to, the music shrinks by comparison, there is nothing
to return to. That sense of a strong melody is very important to us, and nothing moves off the ground until we can find it and put it in there.” That said, the initial songwriting sessions for A Thin Line were fraught with difficulties. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves knowing that not only fans but critics and radio would sample these songs, and it really got us stuck,” Milwright states. “We were writing songs that were somewhat contrived, and it was incredibly frustrating. It wasn’t until we took ourselves out of that and wrote for ourselves, without thinking of the next album, that the melodies and the weight of these songs came out and became clear to us. It was scary but a pleasant realisation that when we focused on ourselves and writing things for us, for what we believed in, we could develop something that we could be really proud of.” Blackchords sequestered themselves away to an isolated barn/improvised studio in rural Victoria for two weeks to work on A Thin Line. Produced by former The Frames guitarist David Odlum (Gemma
themusic.com.au
Hayes, Josh Ritter, Tinawiren), Milwright discloses that his fingerprints are all over the final product. “What amazes us about the album is how he could put down the sounds that we could only talk about,” he marvels. “We had these ideas and knew where we wanted to go, but technically speaking we had no idea how to go about achieving that. Talking to David just before he came out (from Ireland) he was able to articulate what I was only able to stumble around, and he would say, ‘Right, what you need is this drum machine’ and it would be exactly what I was thinking of. It became clear that we needed someone like him on board to be really supportive with us in what became relative science experiments, where Tristan could play with his synth, or Damian with an amazing layer of pedals that we had never used before.” WHO: Blackchords WHAT: A Thin Line (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 29 September, Ric’s Bar
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TIME OFF • 19
GROW FORTH AND PROSPER The Beards have some bad news for us cleanchins: we’re all gonna die. Nathaniel Beard explains all the gory details to a distinctly beardless Warwick Goodman.
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hat is it that makes a man great? It is a question that every man asks himself from time to time. “It is the ability to solve mathematical equations,” says the engineer. “It is contemplating everything while listening to the river,” says the buddha. “It is Jane and swinging through the jungle,” says Tarzan. According to Nathaniel Beard, they’ve got it all wrong. He thinks it is much more simple. For him, what makes a man great is his beard. The bushy-faced bassist from Adelaide band The Beards is sitting at a table in a bar, wringing his hands thoughtfully over a glass of water. He is wearing a blue-and-beige bomber jacket and a newsboy cap. “I consider myself to be the intellectual of the band,” he says, “in that I have an arts degree. So I’ve taken on the role of interpreter of these parchments.” What in the world is going on here, you might ask? Well, the end of it all for the beardless,
of course. According to Beard and his parchments, anyone without a beard will soon be doomed. “Facey McStubblington, our guitarist, was rifling through his neighbour’s garbage and he found a wooden chest, an old wooden chest, and the parchment was within that. The gist is that we’re currently living in the Fourth Age, or the Beardless Era. The prophecies say that on December 21st of this year, which conveniently ties up with the end of our tour, the Great Bearded Spirit will be roused and he will cleanse the world of he who shaves.” Terrifying, to say the least. We’ll let that simmer for a moment. Presently we seek to better understand why this band of bearded propagandists started in the first place. One does not simply create a band whose existence is entirely concerned with beards. Well, actually, one does. But why? “We just formed to play one show,” explains Beard, “because we were fed up with the way society treated bearded people like second-class citizens. We started out because there was no one providing a voice for the bearded man. Employers were asking bearded men to shave and wives were asking husbands to shave. Even just people attending a wedding were expected to shave. And that still happens, you know. These are real, serious issues affecting bearded men everywhere, and we sort of formed to combat that.” Everything is truly about beards in The Beards. You might think that when a band’s entire ethos is essentially the hair that grows from a man’s face, they may suffer from a kind of creative burnout; a lack of depth in the songwriting well. But these men are extremely passionate about what they do. “We didn’t realise how many songs about beards we had in us. But once we started writing about beards we thought, ‘why would we ever write about anything else?’ Because, as an artist, you’ve got to write about what you believe in. And the only thing any of us believe in is beards, and having beards. So, yeah, it brought a lot more honesty to our music.” Quite conveniently, all four members of the band have names relating to beards. “There’s four of us,” says Beard, “I’m Nathaniel Beard, Johann Beardraven is our frontman and saxophonist and keytarist, Facey McStubblington is our guitarist, and John Beardman Jr is our drummer.” Beard’s long, reddish-orange beard bobs up and down as he speaks about a rather sour revelation in the band’s history. “John Beardman Jr is our second drummer. His father, John Beardman, came before him. We had to kick him out of the band after we became aware of the fact that he had been wearing a fake beard the entire time. He sure fooled us. It was a very high-end fake beard, obviously, but yeah, they don’t speak anymore, they’re estranged.” Ironically, Beard says that Beardman Jr actually has the best beard in the band. He is quick to comment, however, that it is not the size or thickness of a man’s beard that is important, it is just that he has one. “I’m trying to grow my beard so it’s longer and better than his, but I mean, I probably shouldn’t be doing that. We have a saying in the band, like if we’re ever having an argument or something we’ll say, ‘come on guys, calm down, we’ve all got beards here’. Because the war is out there, you know. When you have bearded people fighting amongst themselves, that’s not what you want.” Beard says that he would sooner be dead, pulled limb from limb, than cut off his beard. He once had a nightmare where he shaved off his beard. “Sometimes when you’re just slightly trimming your beard – you know, because one side might grow more than the other and a little bit of trimming is therefore required – you can go too far. I had a nightmare where I ended up cutting the whole thing off, and that was just horrible. But I don’t think I’d ever make that mistake in reality. Bearded men are quite intelligent, so I don’t think that any of them would be that stupid.” Wisdom and smarts are not the only qualities that, according to Beard, a bearded man inherently holds. Beard states his philosophy of the all-embracing superiority of bearded men over their clean-shaven counterparts: “I think that people with beards are superior in all ways to people without beards. They’re smarter, faster, stronger, better looking, better at writing songs about beards – all of these things.” You have to respect a man with principles. Beard talks about his experiences touring around Australia. He believes that because of The Beards, and perhaps Brad Pitt too, the popularity of the beard is on the rise. “Since we formed, we’ve noticed an extreme increase in the amount of beards in every Australian city. Brisbane, for example, when we first went there we were horrified at how beardless a place it was. It was just awful, it was a depressing place to be. But now, the streets of Brisbane are filled with bearded people. Oh, it’s becoming a really bearded city.” He tells a tale about the time The Beards went to Alaska. “We were invited to play at The World Beard and Mustache Championships,” he says proudly. And it really was everything they could ever dream of. “On that weekend, in that city, in Anchorage of Alaska, the best beards in the world were there. It was as if for one weekend we were living in the utopian society that we hope to one day create. Where bearded men can walk down the street and get the respect that they deserve. It was just great.” But alas, the time has come to return to that awkward elephant in the room: the prophecy of impending doom for all beardless men. The Beards are going on a tour around the country to celebrate. As for the rest of us, believe what you will. Beard may or may not be the next Nostradamus (who, incidentally, had quite a large beard), but to all the clean shaven men out there, you’ve at least been warned. “Good luck with growing a beard and saving your life. And I’m sorry it’s come down to that, I’m sorry to everyone. We don’t want to kill people for not having beards, but you know, we didn’t write these prophecies. Don’t shoot the messenger, just grow beards.” WHO: The Beards WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, Beach Hotel, Byron Bay; Saturday 29 & Sunday 30, Caloundra Music Festival; Thursday 4 October The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba; Friday 5, Coolangatta Hotel; Saturday 6, The Hi-Fi; Wednesday 10, The Club, Bundaberg; Thursday 11, Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton; Friday 12, Magnums, Airlie Beach; Saturday 13, JCU Unibar, Townsville; Sunday 14, The Jack, Cairns
20 • TIME OFF
themusic.com.au
TIME OFF • 21
INDUSTRIALISM
UPPING THE UGLY
Pioneering metal gods Fear Factory are returning to Australia to promote their return to form album, The Industrialist. Mark Hebblewhite discusses concept albums and intra-band conflict with vocalist Burton C. Bell.
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Kiwi extreme metal kings Ulcerate are ready to sign off on their critically acclaimed third record and start work on the follow-up. Drummer Jamie Saint Merat prewarns Benny Doyle to get ready for the horror.
ustralia has been really good to us and we’re forever thankful to you guys for the way you helped us out over the years,” enthuses Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell. “From day one when we released Soul Of A New Machine way back in the early-1990s, Australia gave us a level of support that was unmatched – radio play, album sales, you name it.”
Apart from a distinct uptick in the quality of the song writing and its sleek yet massive sound, The Industrialist is also notable for being a fully blown concept record that tells the story of a morphing megalithic automaton who eventually turns into a cataclysmic threat to mankind. Thing is, do concept heavy albums still work in this day and age?
Did the band realise what they had unleashed with Soul Of A New Machine, especially the way the album would be embraced warmly by industrial enthusiasts, metal traditionalists and death metal fiends alike?
“It represented a real challenge for us in a creative sense. We wanted to meld a concept together in both a lyrical and sonic sense to create one overriding theme,” explains Bell. “Ambition, and rising to a challenge is something that I think is missing in a lot of today’s music where artists are content to play it safe most of the time. As music fans we all need something to be excited about again.
“No, we had no idea that it would go on to have such a life of its own,” confirms Bell. “We didn’t sit down with some grand master plan. Basically me and Dino [Cazares – guitar] sat down to create the music we wanted to hear and it all snowballed from there. Because we had crossover appeal – death metal people, thrashers, the industrial crowd; all of them supported us – it meant that we were able to tour with a huge range of bands and that helped us grow. “We’ve found over the years that Fear Factory fans stay Fear Factory fans for life. They keep coming to the shows, keep buying the records, and some of the older ones even bring their kids to see us as well. It’s humbling to have that devotion in our fans and every time we put on a show we make sure that we give back that same devotion.” Fear Factory’s continuing longevity has been helped by their latest LP – The Industrialist – which has been rightly hailed as a return to form and the ‘classic’ Fear Factory sound after a number of years of turmoil (both stylistic and literal) and confusion for the band. “We’re really proud of that record,” says Bell. “It came out exactly the way we planned. We went into the studio with a really defined focus and came out having achieved what we want to achieve.”
“We believed that there were enough people who enjoyed having a story in their music and enjoyed the ability of their favourite artists to create such a story. But even if you don’t like that approach – just focus on the music itself – the songs work individually as well. Whatever way you look at it everyone wins!” Bell concedes it’s possible that sometime in the future the band will decide to play The Industrialist live and in sequence, but for the upcoming Australian tour a more traditional set is planned. “We give you guys three or four songs from the new album alongside a dose of stuff from Soul…., Obsolete (1998), Demanufacture (1995) – you know pretty much all our records. It will be a really balanced set that will hopefully cater for everyone.” WHO: Fear Factory WHAT: The Industrialist (Riot/Sony) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 26 September, The Hi-Fi
“T
he goal with this next album is to pull away from the more ambient/atmospheric side of things we were working with on [The Destroyers Of All] and push further into the ugly/violent territory. There will of course be the atmosphere, but this time around we’re working incredibly hard on getting across a different voice altogether. I think we’re all really excited with the material we have so far, a lot of it just sounds totally horrific and fucked, in the best way possible.” Saint Merat is on the line from his native New Zealand, discussing Ulcerate’s forthcoming slice of punishment. With a new label behind them and an increased global profile, it’s a record that is shaping up to be a defining body of work for the band. Forming in 2000, the Auckland group was originally known as Bloodwreath, however, it wasn’t until 2003 that they first started doing the rounds under their current moniker. Behind a trio of dense and confronting albums, Ulcerate built a loyal fanbase, delivering the sort of mind-bending death metal that in the past has predominantly been associated with the Scandinavians. “Yeah we get a little bit of that,” he says, “particularly because there’s only really a handful of death/black/ grind acts from NZ that are known internationally.” But although the strength of their earlier work is undeniable, it was last year’s The Destroyers... that really put the band on the global metal map. With a return to the guttural growls of their first EPs, the amalgamation of mood and might The Destroyers... brought won Ulcerate new fans from all parts of the world and earned the band praise from tastemakers such as Decibel Magazine and Pitchfork. Saint Merat admits that he was surprised by the critical plaudits dished out towards The Destroyers.... “You always have zero objectivity upon completing an album,” he says, “so for it to be received as well as it was is completely humbling.” Considering the
accolades the Kiwis received, it’s surprising to hear that neither Saint Merat nor the band are feeling any pressure with this, their Relapse Records debut. “We know how we want things to sound, and for the most part we even agree with some of the minor criticism of The Destroyers... in terms of the more ambient side of things,” he concedes. “It sounds clichéd of course, but I think the three of us just want to make the best Ulcerate record we can at any given time, and that is really all that we need to be satisfied. If people respond positively then that’s a huge bonus, but first and foremost we have to create a group of songs that we stand behind 100%.” Australian fans along the East Coast are being spoilt with the band’s last run of shows before they immerse themselves in the studio to record the as-yet-untitled fourth album. Saint Merat says the songs are still taking shape, but the trio are getting more excited every time they plug in. “We’re about halfway through at the moment,” he informs, “four songs down, close to 35 minutes of music. Just starting to pre-produce the shells of songs we’ve got, working out all the finer details at a counterpoint level between the instruments, [and] doing a ton of rearranging and reworking as we go, as we’ve always done. But the more we’re playing things the better they’re feeling for sure. I’m really fucking proud of what we’ve been able to do with our music, but there’s still a lot of room to move so to speak and, if anything, we’re a lot hungrier these days than we’ve ever been.” WHO: Ulcerate WHEN & WHERE: Sunday 30 September, Beetle Bar
Bare Witness by Mari Lourey
“...an outstanding piece of physical theatre... ambitious, smart, beautifully realised...” Alison Croggon, Theatre Notes
TUES 9 OCT 6:30pm WED 10 OCT 1pm & 6:30pm THURS 11 OCT 1pm & 6:30pm FRI 12 OCT 1pm & 7:30pm SAT 13 OCT 7:30pm Tickets $25 - $30. Take $5 off the ticket price by booking online with the promocode TIMEOFF
queenslandtheatre.com.au
1800 355 528
A La Mama Theatre/fortyfivedownstairs production. Toured by Performing Lines for Road Work, with the support of the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, through the national performing arts touring program, Playing Australia and La Mama’s Vic Health ‘Arts About Us’ program. 22 • TIME OFF
themusic.com.au
Judith Wright Centre presents MUSIC
FREE PROGRAM THIS WEEK... FRIDAYS
MUSIC Brisbane Powerhouse and Brispop present
THE RESIDENTS:
DANNY WIDDICOMBE
Emma Dean & Jake Diefenbach EP launch with special guests Silver Sircus
Fri 5 October, 8pm Tickets from $22
28 Sep, 6pm, Turbine Platform Pictured Danny Widdicombe
October Resident: Eleanor Angel
SATURDAYS
MUSIC
Brisbane Powerhouse and BEMAC present
PLANET: judithwrightcentre.com 07 3872 9000 420 Brunswick St (Cnr Berwick St), Fortitude Valley
MZAZA & FRIENDS Sat 6 Oct, 5pm, Turbine Platform
Pictured Mzaza & Friends
SUNDAYS
MUSIC Brisbane Powerhouse and Brispop present
LIVESPARK:
MOSES GUNN COLLECTIVE, DREAMTIME Sun 30 Sep, 3.30pm, Turbine Platform Pictured Dreamtime
Next week: Founds, Winter People
Brisbane Powerhouse presents
LIVEWIRED:
COMEDY
VARIOUS
Join us on Sunday nights for complimentary comedy from Brisbane’s up-and-coming comedians. Past Livewired jokers include Josh Thomas, Mel Buttle, Wil Anderson and Judith Lucy. Every Sunday, 6.30pm, Turbine Platform
PLANET is the Brisbane Powerhouse dedicated world music and dance program delivered in partnership with BEMAC. This project has received financial assistance from the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
B R I S B A N E P OW E R H O U S E . O R G TIME OFF • 23
FUN LOVERS
EAR PUNCHERS
A viral videoclip, a new EP and an East Coast tour in support; Hey Geronimo are keeping busy. Vocalist Pete Kilroy takes some time out to talk to Sky Kirkham about the importance of having fun.
As the Drunken Moon Festival rolls north this week, Tyler McLoughlan gets the downlow on the scene it represents from Brothers Grim And The Blue Murders’ frontman James Grim.
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ith a belief in the birds of a feather mentality that keeps niche scenes alive, James Grim has curated the inaugural tri-state Drunken Moon Festival to celebrate the modern, sweaty, boisterous number on bygone musical eras that bands such as his own Brothers Grim And The Blue Murders enjoy dishing out. “It all kind of started when this promoter asked me… about the bands that we play with in this scene that people are talking about, and he goes, ‘Well, what is it?’ and I was like, ‘That’s a good question’,” laughs Grim. “And then I was thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Fuck, we’re all just the bastards of our parent’s music – the one commonality we have is that we’re all inspired by old time music of some kind, whether it’s country or blues or early rock or hybridisations of all’. It’s just celebrating this weird hybridised blues movement that has been kind of bubbling under the surface for a while now.” As is often the case with a style of music that evolves outside of the usual genre tags, Grim says his band turned to like minds for support. “When we first started, we didn’t fit into anything – we were playing metal gigs or country gigs because they knew we played blues but we kind of play it with such a driving force they just didn’t quite know where to put us. Then what happened was we all would come across another band of a similar kind of ilk, like you know we discovered The Snowdroppers years ago and then we played together a lot, then Graveyard Train and so on and so on. And as soon as you’d meet a band that was kind of in this same kind of space, you just started lookin’ out for each other. And this is the extension of that – some of the old guard and then a lot of the new bands that are coming up through the ranks, so it’s really just a celebration and also a showcase…” he says.
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Varying the line-up between the states in an effort to showcase both local and interstate talent, Grim is particularly excited about the inclusion of a legendary local headliner for the Brisbane chapter. “I think SixFtHick really sum up what Drunken Moon is all about – if you want a band in Australia that epitomises hard work for no other reason than pure rock fury, that’s the band. They are exceptional live performers, fantastic musicians and they’re not gonna care whether there’s two people in the room or 2000 people in the room – whether they’re opening the night or whether they’re closing the night it makes no difference to them because they just feed off an audience wherever it is. That basically sums up what we’re all about. And then you’ve got a band like Jackson Firebird which are a fantastic duo, and they just do things with anything that’s in front of them that you probably wouldn’t have seen before – they’re just insane. And that’s the band incidentally that the Melbourne venue Cherry Bar turned down Lady Gaga for. Venues look after their own here, it’s really good,” says Grim, who also considered the practical elements required for a great night of music. “The whole evening has basically been put together so that you just start, walk in, the first band will blow your mind and then you’ve got about ten minutes to quickly get yourself another drink and then the next band will blow your mind – and so on and so on! It’s basically about punchin’ you in the ears with some good shit.” WHO: Brothers Grim And The Blue Murders WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, Woombye Hotel; Saturday 29, Drunken Moon Festival @ The Hi-Fi
hen we started the band we thought, ‘When we go to shows, what do we like to see, what do we like to experience?’” Kilroy says. “And I sort of thought that I didn’t want to be in a band that you walked away from a show thinking, ‘Aww’. I didn’t want anyone to feel down about anything. I wanted them to walk away thinking, ‘Oh geez that was fun, I had a good time there.’ And that may seem sort of simple, but that’s what motivates our songwriting and that’s how we go about it. And it was very deliberate and it will keep continuing to be that way, because there are lots of bands out there that play the sort of down stuff – the really emotional, deep stuff – and we figured there’s also room for bands on the other end of the scale as well. The other number one rule is that it can’t be in any way naff or contrived. And we reckon we tick that box too, because I don’t think it falls into those categories.” The band’s first film clip, an Angry Birds and cat meme-inspired video, has seen the band mentioned in international press and has so far garnered over 800,000 views on YouTube. It’s part of what Kilroy sees as a changing method of promotion for bands. “Even the video clip, it was made for the Internet, it wasn’t made for TV,” he states. “And that might sound like a weird thing but, you get it on Rage or Channel V and you might get a month of good play and then it’s forgotten, but on the Internet it’s there for years. It’s there for as long as YouTube is a company, so that’s kind of the way I think about it. It’s so competitive, so doing the little things to make you stand out, it’s essential really; it’s not really an option if you want to succeed.” Kilroy shot and produced the video clip himself, along with a friend of his, Luke Constable, and reflects that it’s a common and even necessary part of the industry in Australia for musicians to take on multiple roles.
Drawing
24 • TIME OFF
themusic.com.au
“I was talking to a dude from England at the BIGSOUND conference, and he was like, ‘I’m really surprised that in Australia everyone has a few jobs’. No one does just one thing, and he couldn’t really wrap his head around it,” Kilroy recalls. “I think it’s just a case of trying to be pragmatic, you know. I don’t think that I’m going to make a lot of money out of being in an indie band, so I’ve got to have another job, I’ve got to do other stuff and I happen to be a filmmaker or do marketing or stuff like that. And these days you can do that other stuff. Technology allows people to be photographers and make films, whereas in the past, you wouldn’t have been able to afford an editing rig, you’d have to work for an actual film company to do that.” After a great set at BIGSOUND to a packed out Zoo, Kilroy says he’s hopeful that the rest of the tour will match the experience. “If you look into the crowd and everyone’s having a good time, it just blows you away so much. It peps you up more, which then they feed off and it’s just like this sort of perpetual machine of emotion that just builds and builds and builds. And that’s what we’re aiming for: we just want people to have a good time.” WHO: Hey Geronimo WHAT: Hey Geronimo EP (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, The Zoo; Sunday 30, Caloundra Music Festival
L A UNCH ISSUE
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SEPTEMBER 2012
OH MERCY REHEARSING, BRITISH INDIA RECORDING, SA SKW ATCH TOURING, TIM ROGERS & C ATHERINE BRITT CHATTING, GEAR G ALORE AND MUCH MORE!
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WELCOME TO
THE NEW VOICE OF THE LOCAL MUSICIAN COMMUNITY
T
he sky is falling right? This is no time to launch a new music publishing venture surely? Yet here it is ... Muso, our new monthly supplement and a brand new voice for our local musicians and the music gear industry. Why the heck not we say! The figures back us up in saying that the live music scene is alive and kicking. The Government told us that in he last year, 5.2 million people went to see a live band and that doesn’t even include major concerts. Plus a recent survey we conducted showed that well over half of our readers are musicians, and at least twenty percent are in working bands. Seems like the perfect time to ignite a new publishing spark for musos and the music trade. So what the hell is Muso? It’s a regular, up to date information source for working musicians and musicians-to-be. It’s in print, it’s on iPad and you’ll find all of the content ... the stories and reviews on themusic.com.au You’ll also get a weekly fix of Muso over a page or two in between the monthly supplements. In Muso, you’ll read interviews with artists in their working element, in rehearsal, on stage and in the studio. You’ll learn about the gear they use and how they use it in their creative pursuits. There will be advice and news. Our experienced team of musician writers will road test the latest gear and give their honest opinion. In this launch issue, we sat down members of Redcoats, The Amity Affliction and Expatriate to chat about the creation of their albums, we visited Oh Mercy as they rehearsed for their Deep Heat tour which kicked off this week, we snuck into a recording session with British India as they laid down some tracks for their next album which they won’t be releasing until 2013, Saskwatch documented their Edinburgh trip in a tour diary for us, Richard Clapton told us about how he records his guitar parts, Tim Rogers and Catherine Britt sat down together to talk albums and tours, The Rubens’ Sam Margin road tested the new Roland Fender G5 VG Strat and kicks off another 4 pages of gear tests. There’s a heap more to read inside. Grab a drink, have a look around and tell us what you think! We hope Muso becomes your regular haunt. Oh yeah, the publisher told me I should say Muso is awesome! For any road test, gear coverage requests or editorial pleas, demands and desires, email greg@streetpress.com.au GREG PHILLIPS
Muso Editor
CREDITS Muso. Issue 1 - September 2012 Ph: 03 9421 4499 Fax: 03 9421 1011 584 Nicholson St Nth Fitzroy 3068 Website: www.themusic.com.au Editor and Advertising: Greg Phillips greg@streetpress.com.au Distribution enquiries: Distribution@streetpress.com.au Layout & design: Matt Davis iPad edition: Dave Harvey Contributors: Reza Nasseri, Shannon Bourne, Baz Bardoe, Michael Smith, Elyce Phillips, Ajay Bawden, Paul Matcott, Mark Owen. Photographer: Kane Hibberd Published by Street Press Australia PTY LTD Printed by: Rural Press
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ABBEY ROAD TO ZIGGY STARDUST Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust, is a must-read memoir of recording engineer/ producer ken Scott, who shaped the sounds loved by generations. Grammy®nominated producer/engineer Ken Scott is one of the five main engineers to have worked with The Beatles. With no holds barred, Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust chronicles his amazing career with intimate memories of working with The Fab Four and many other iconic recording artists in music history, including David Bowie, Elton John, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, and more. Seminal albums that Scott has collaborated on include Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album by the Beatles, and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and many other groundbreaking releases. Poised to satisfy the most ardent fans and industry insiders alike, Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust is peppered with provocative and humorous anecdotes, and studio shoptalk, and never-beforeseen photographs. Available at all good bookstores.
THE BIG GIG: BIG-PICTURE THINKING FOR SUCCESS DV MARK TRIPLE 6 This new 2012 release of the popular three-channel Triple 6 head adds new features to the DV Mark top-of-the-line tube head. Like the previous version, it offers three completely independent channels and 120 watts of pure tube tone from two massive KT88 tubes. DV have added “hi-gain” switches on channels 2 and 3 that allow you to toggle the amp between Bad Boy 120 tonality and the more aggressive Triple 6 gain levels. They’ve also added MIDI ports to the already multi-function footswitch! The footswitch that is included with all DV Mark three channel heads (Bad Boy 120 and Triple 6) switches channels, activates the Solo function (fixed boost), and controls the FX loop... Plus it automatically memorizes the configurations you choose and stores them in memory until the next power-on. And in the new release they’ve added MIDI ports for greater switching options. The Triple 6 has a built-in system that automatically biases AND matches the output tubes (if the tubes are within 20%)! No more trips to your service tech for biasing! Our unique patent pending Advanced Tube Control System allows you to hook up to the optional DV Controller to collect cool and useful information such as power amp voltages, bias current, tube life and more! www.cmcmusic.com.au
ROLAND’S INTEGRA-7 – SUPERNATURAL SOUND MODULE Roland’s next generation sound module with the latest sounds and ambience technology. From composers to live performers, the INTEGRA-7 vast collection of premium sounds covers all music genres. In addition to the Behavior Modeling technology that enables expressive SuperNATURAL Acoustic and SuperNATURAL Synth sounds, it contains all of the sounds from the 12 SRX expansion board libraries that are widely used by professionals. Brand-new ambience effects are onboard such as newly-developed reverb and the new Motional Surround that lets you take the 16 parts, plus one more external sound source, and place them 360 degrees around the listener – resulting in an expansive sound with a lot of depth. www.rolandcorp.com.au
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SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MUSICAL Who doesn’t love SpongeBob Squarepants? In late September, you will be able to buy your very own SpongBob Electric Guitar kits, Drum Outfit, Percussion Pack, Acoustic or sized Classic Guitars, Percussion items and a whole host of other SB branded musical instruments. Electric Guitar kits featured in 7/8th, ¾ and full sizes come complete with inbuilt microamp or amplifier, leads, strap, carry bag, picks, plus a tuition DVD. www.musicmerch. com.au
DP90S/90 – DIGITAL PIANO Compact and contemporary DP series pianos are renewed by latest Roland’s high-end keyboards, refined sounds and new finish variations, while maintaining their sleek, modern-furniture-like design. Now equipped with flagship PHAIII Ivory Feel keyboard (DP90S) or Ivory Feel-S keyboard (DP0) to deliver authentic and comfortable playability of a grand piano as same as the traditional cabinet models such as the LX-15 or HP500 series. www.rolandcorp.com.au
MININOVA SYNTH FOR OCTOBER Set for release in October, MiniNova is a compact, super-cool studio and live synth with the same sound engine as the; UltraNova. It comes with 256 onboard sounds that you can tweak with five knobs, or totally warp with eight ‘animate’ buttons. It has up to 18 voices with as many as 5 synth effects on each sound. MiniNova also has an onboard VocalTune effect as well as a classic vocoder so you can recreate iconic vocal sounds from hip hop, urban and electronic music. MiniNova is the latest in the ‘nova’ range of synths dating back to the legendary Supernova series. It has the same incredibly powerful sound engine and synth effects as the UltraNova which means it is capable of creating dirty-fat bass synth sounds, soaring leads, lush pads and vintage synth sounds. All this in a 37 mini-key form with a USB port and MIDI i/o so you can hook it up to your laptop and control your music software. www.innovativemusic.com.au
Internationally renowned drummer Zoro transports his experiences from the stage onto the page in an intriguing read titled The Big Gig: Big-Picture Thinking for Success. The Big Gig is a comprehensive method for musos who want to break into the highly competitive music industry. Every chapter in the 440page book includes a video interview with Zoro, accessible via QR code (traditional web URLs are also provided). Zoro has toured and recorded with Lenny Kravitz, Bobby Brown, Vanessa Paradis, and many others. Available at all good bookstores. www.alfred.com
VOX STOMPLAB MULTI-FX PEDALS The new VOX series StompLab MultiEffects pedals pack powerful sounds into compact units featuring roadworthy metal housing and quick and easy sound selection. The series includes the StompLab 1G with dedicated guitar amp and effects modeling, and the StompLab 1B with dedicated bass amp and effects modeling. The StompLab 2G and 2B also contain an expression pedal that can be used to control wah and volume, as well as the parameters of each effect. The user-friendly top panel offers 100 preset programs (plus room for 20 user programs). All programs are named with a musical style, such as rock, blues, or metal, allowing players of all levels to easily locate the perfect sound. Effect types include amp, drive, cabinet, modulation, delay and reverb (plus noise reduction); eight effects can be used simultaneously. All StompLab pedals have a built-in chromatic tuner with a three-LED indicator that makes tuning easy. A mute function allows silent tuning. Headphones can also be connected. In addition, there’s battery operation. au.yamaha.com
DV MARK FRANK GAMBALE COMBO 112 Australian born, international guitar hero Frank Gambale’s power, character and virtuosity are immediately recognizable. DV Mark have developed this 12” signature combo to suit Frank’s exacting needs. After spending a few hours working with him, designers understood and appreciated his concept. Frank wants to make sure that the power amp is powerful enough to provide clean amplification at high volumes, without contributing to the distortion. Any distortion should come from a tube preamp that is applied to the drive channel only. This way he can control the amount of drive with his guitar’s volume pot or with a volume pedal. Specs include: Preamp: solid state (clean) / tube (drive), Power amp: solid state Power: 80W @ 16ohms / 250W @ 4ohms, Controls: Clean: gain / low / mid / high / level; Drive: gain / low / mid / high / level, Reverb: spring (Accutronics), Speaker: 12” DV Mark custom neodymium, Weight (kg/lbs): 11,7 kg / 25.79 lbs www.cmcmusic.com.au
GIBSON FIREBIRD X Despite Gibson being an iconic brand with a long and esteemed history in music, they’ve also been innovators and futurists, especially over the last few years with their robotics. Gibson now adds the Firebird model to their list of futuristic products. The guitar is made to be comfortable and amazingly easy to play. It features a lightweight body made from hand-sorted swamp ash, with a rock maple neck and curly maple fingerboard. This construction not only makes it refreshingly light, but it also allows the guitar to achieve exceptional sustain and tonal range. Firebird X is capable of very resonant and acousticlike voicing. The guitar is a bit more than six pounds in total weight. Special resonant chambers not only decrease total weight, but also allow acoustic-like tones and increased overall sustain. The guitar is louder than a typical solid body with substantial tone from lowest bass note to highest treble note. The fingerboard is curly maple. The headstock has a classic Gibson dove wing shape, and a Firebird-style truss rod cover. The look has a very classic fine furniture look with marquetry, elegant curves and smooth rounds. It is very appealing to a guitar player and non-guitar player alike. The neck has a thin “C” shaped profile with a smooth, non-stick satin finish. The neck joint is smoothly blended from neck to body with just a slight roundness, allowing maximum access to high register strings. The lower cut away cuts deeper, affording exceptional access to the high register. The fingerboard has low-profile frets and a highly polished curly maple surface. The Firebird X product uses three mini-humbuckers and a vastly improved hexaphonic piezo bridge pickup with an improved low noise, high dynamic-range preamplifier, making this a fully active guitar. The pickups are based on traditional Firebird designs, but have been significantly improved to provide more tonal range and to match the studio-grade preamplifier section. The result is that the signal dynamic analog dynamic range exceeds the specification of the high-end electronics. This guitar continues on a tradition of having electronic tuners, and a fourth generation of supporting hardware and software. What this means is that the guitar can change tunings even more quickly and accurately, with an even simpler way to get to multiple tunings. The tuners can be used manually and have been enhanced to be more robust with a better feel when used manually. www.gibsonami.com
WALDEN ‘NATURA’ D550 + HARDCASE Walden’s best selling entry dreadnought features quarter-sawn solid spruce top, mahogany back/ sides, and tasteful detailing; all complete in a quality hardcase for a limited time. Sound character isn’t something you expect from an inexpensive guitar, but the D550 has it by the bucket full. Anyone looking at dropping $700-$800 on a new acoustic would be wise to test a D550 first. $499 RRP. www.waldenguitars.com
The fall of Allans Billy Hyde Bil Hydes.. What at does it all mean It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the recent voluntary liquidation of the Allans + Billy Hydes retail group and it’s mother company AMG and ask what it means to the industry. By Greg Phillips.
T
he combination of a rise in online shopping and the poor state of the world’s economy has left Australia’s retail sector struggling to make a buck. The musical instrument industry is not immune to the conditions and that was made evident when receivers were appointed to the Australian Music Group on August 23rd. AMG encompasses Allans + Billy Hydes retail outlets as well as Musiclink and Intermusic, distributors of such high profile brands as Korg, Ampeg, Line 6, ENGL, Jet City, DW and many others (Some of those brands have already gone to other wholesalers). AMG’s voluntary administration has ramifications for the whole industry, the wholesalers who have stock sitting their stores, as well as the people who have lost or will lose
recently joined the hunt for the musician’s dollar and Con Gallin’s Musician’s Pro Shop network is always growing. The time is perfect for those chains to ramp up their activity. “We have hundreds of thousands of transactions per week. If one percent of those bought a musical instrument, it will grow the market significantly,” JB’s Nick Kanaris told us earlier in the year. “This is adding another category for the amount of traffic we have coming through. We added computers a few years ago. If you go back to the start of JB, we didn’t even have TVs. We have 165 stores nationally, all potentially could have musical instruments in them. Currently we offer keyboards in around 40 stores. That will expand into guitars and other areas. We’ll have close to 80 stores with musical instruments soon.”
their jobs. For many, it’s the day job which supports their music making activities at night. On one hand the liquidation of Allans+ Billy Hydes stores provides the chance to pick up a bargain as they sell off gear, on the other hand if you were the holder of a gift voucher with the chain, things aren’t so rosy. However, despite the retail arm of the music industry suffering a major setback, the live music scene remains reasonably bouyant. Gigging and the merch table seem to be the only real way to pay the way for a musician. What this means at the most basic level is that there are many working musicians who still need gear and accessories. They need to get it from somewhere and it’s up to those still in the retail game to step up, get clever, promote and attract musicians to their stores or online services. The conditions provide a great opportunity for independent music stores in particular … but they best get out there campaigning aggressively now as there are other retail chains with a whiff of that opportunity too. The JB Hi Fi chain has been quietly introducing musical instruments to their inventory for a couple of years now, the Harvey Norman chain has more
Harvey Norman, the newest player to the music game introduced instruments and accessories to their stock in January this year via their Big Buys stores. Their Big Buys store
FOR MUSICIANS SEEKING NEW GEAR, THERE’S GOING TO BE SOME VERY COMPETITIVE DEALS OUT THERE IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AND LEADING UP TO CHRISTMAS. ”
through to the intermediate player. We’ll cater to the parents buying gear for their kids or the player going from their first guitar to their second.” Mark Gale, Marketing manager of Perth based retailers Kosmic Sound certainly isn’t spruiking the AMG downfall as an opportunity to benefit from. Australia’s musical instrument industry a close knit community and everyone knows somebody suffering from the situation. Rather Gale suggests that the indies should always be on their toes being active irrespective of what the opposition is doing. “Independent stores always have the advantage of being able to manoeuvre relatively quickly under changing market conditions and adjust their business models to suit customer expectations,” he said. “Unfortunately, AMG, given their private equity backing, were primarily profit focused rather than customer focused and consequently their buying and management decisions were poor. As Australia’s largest independent music store, Kosmic will continue to focus on providing the right products at great prices and with a level of service that has seen us get to where we are after more than 40 years in business.We are also tightly integrating our online and offline business to provide a seamless customer experience and meet the rapid growth that we are experience nationally. We now ship from both the east and west coasts with free delivery over $50 and with the option to pay for express shipping.” Ron from Ron Leigh’s Music Factory in Brighton, Victoria suggests that in tough economic times, independent retailers like himself need to look to their strengths. “Are they good at retailing or repairs or teaching? Establish what your strengths are and focus on that,” he said. Leigh sees his advantage as the great customer relationships he has built through his personable teaching methods.
idea was originally an online only project. “We’re expanding as we go,” said Michael PalamaraCategory Manager-Music of the music range. “We’ve got entry level guitars and ukuleles, electric pianos, print music, music technology, accessories and we’ll branch into band gear as we grow.”
A recent phenomenon he’s not fond of however, is witnessing people coming into the store, taking photos of gear with their iPhones, knowing that they will then take that photo back to their computer and search for the best online price for the product. Spare a thought for the local retailer before you pull that act of rudeness.
Palamara claims that the Billy Hydes factor has not really altered their tactics as they had planned to grow the instrument market anyway. “It just means we may do it in a larger way than originally planned,” he said. “We want to be a serious one stop shop with everything for the beginner
For musicians seeking new gear, there’s going to be some very competitive deals out there in the next few weeks and leading up to Christmas. Get yourself into a store and check it out. Muso would also like to wish all of the hard working, music loving AMG staff well in finding new employment.
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RECORDING 2o12 STYLE
Apart from the fact that all three bands have landed or landing excellent albums this year, they really have nothing much else in common… or do they? Conveniently, Neil Wilkinson from Redcoats, Ben King from Expatriate and Ahren Stringer from The Amity Affliction are sitting around a table in front of me. Why don’t I ask them? Pics by Kane Hibberd.
Muso: All three albums are excellent modern day music productions with so much in them. Did you all have specific sonic goals for the albums prior or was it a matter of recording the bunch of songs you had at the time? Neil: Yeah I suppose so. I think a lot of it came into context in the studio. The goal for us was to portray our live sound as honestly as possible.
REDCOATS EXPATRIATE THE AMITY AFFLICTION
M
elbourne based rockers Redcoats created a wave of curiosity with their 2011 EP release and will follow up with an up-sized, retro-tinged, progadelic self- titled album in mid October. Five years after they released their debut album, 80s-flavoured, 2012-valid electro-pop outfit Expatriate have finally released their second record, Hyper/Hearts and have been recently road testing it live in Melbourne, Sydney and Indonesia. The Amity Affliction have just released an album too. It’s a massive sounding metal-core record called ‘Chasing Ghosts’, complete with much-talked about album art which has gone straight to the top of the album charts.
We weren’t trying to build sounds which would be more than the stage sound, so it was an honesty thing more than a sonic thing. Ben: We were the opposite of that. We wanted a record that was very textured and layered. A couple of us in the band
are well into the production world and do stuff outside of music. We wanted to get a great band energy in the studio and then take that away, which we did ... 4 weeks in the studio, then took it to our home set up and kind of went up our own arse in a way! (laughs all round). We were taking guitar sounds and putting them through weird filters in Ableton or whatever else and just getting a bit more adventurous than we did on the first album.
Was it difficult to know when the new album was finished? Ben: It was really hard, terrible at certain points. It was like, when is this going to end? When is life going to resume? It’s still rewarding because you have control over what you are doing. You can take something right to the end and see if it is worth keeping or not, you have that time.
What about Amity, Ahren? Ahren: I guess we just wanted to do something that was on a par with our peers. We made all the demos as good as we could possibly make them. Troy, our guitarist is into all of that stuff as well and we tried to polish it as much as possible before we went into the studio. It was like, OK, now we’ve got to better this and it all worked out well.
How important was the choice of studio? Ahren: We wanted the guy who did out previous album but he wasn’t available so we had to get someone else. We didn’t really know who he was but Roadrunner said you can do it with this guy (Michael Baskette), he’s free. We didn’t really know who he was or what he’d done.
He’d worked with Incubus? Ahren: Yeah. He hadn’t done much stuff like us and when it came to mixing, he kind of blew it. It was all recorded on an analogue desk, which kind of got lost in what we wanted. It was all too warm so we got another guy to mix it. But combined, both of them created a pretty good sound.
Ben, Expatriate recorded in Berlin where some classic rock albums were produced. Can a town ever influence a recording? Ben: It’s obviously steeped in a lineage of great artists who have gone there and made great records but it is also full of really crap bands and shit art! There are so many people living there and it is cheap. I mean you could fart and have an exhibition! It’s inspiring there but it’s like, everyone is doing this. We actually made half of the record in Wales. We had intended to make the whole record there but the truth is that we didn’t come out with something that we wanted. We thought it wasn’t good enough. We’re quite skilled at bedroom studios and we have a bit of gear, so we took it all back to Berlin and put the cream on top of the cake kind of thing.
And where did Redcoats record? Neil: We recorded in Byron Bay at 301.
Ben: What’s that like? Neil: It’s great, very comfortable… relaxing. You can live on site which is great. We were there for three and a half weeks. You had been all together somewhere with the writing too? Neil: Yeah we had been writing it over the last year at a house near Daylesford (Victoria). There’s a house on a bunch of land and there is no one around. There’s a deaf farmer in a dairy just over the hill and that’s it. We’d set up in the kitchen and do most of it there. Did a week of pre-production at Bakehouse in Melbourne and then went up to Byron and did it all mostly live. The producer Redcoats used, David Schiffman has worked with Nine Inch Nails. How did you find his style of production? Neil: Great. He is all about getting the most sincere sound throughout the whole record. It just sounds so much like us ... really quite straight up. The sound of the guitar amps, it’s just there. It’s not really effected or anything. Our EP was more ‘produced’ in a sense with effects on vocals and snare drum, reverbs and swirling shit. This is a lot more dry but the sounds are really honest.
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With Redcoats and also Expatriate. there’s an element of retro in your music. I can hear 80s, Simple Minds-era music in Expatriate and the ghosts of 70s rock in Redcoats. Is there ever a discussion about how far you go with the homage to old school sounds? Is there a line you have to draw in the sand? Ben: We don’t have a discussion about it. I guess it’s just the way things evolve when the writing process
takes place and also the choice of sounds and instruments. Yeah, we love that era of music but also a lot of other genres too. I guess because I write the music and I gravitate to that way of music, it’s how I want to say it. Luckily we are pretty much all on the same page so with Damien’s keyboard sounds for instance, there’s never any of that, ‘no you can’t do that’ type of thing.
Was it the same for Redcoats? Neil: Yeah, it’s never really intentional. It’s just what we have grown up listening to and letting in. It’s a combination of all those influences, a subliminal thing.
Both Redcoats and Amity’s bass mixes are interesting on your albums, it’s not overpowering, it’s mixed back. Was there much discussion about where bass would sit in the mix? Ahren: Yeah it just makes it sound heavier I feel. Based on all metal-core records, it’s pretty hard to find. It takes away from the entirety a bit and makes it a bit too wide, where as you want it hard hitting. In certain parts it’s there fairly prominent though.
And that’s similar with your band Neil? Neil: Yeah it moves around more on this record than other stuff we’ve done, where it comes in and out and moves around a bit. It accentuates different parts and pulls back in other parts to sit with drums or when the guitars go up with the vocals but there are moments where it’s really in there.
With the mixing process, there’s a lot of good work which is often resigned to the background. Is that a bummer sometimes for a musician?
Neil: Yeah they play really well together and it is something I have done. I see no reason to change. It sounds great
Ahren: A little bit. It’s like, why would I waste so much time making this perfect when you can barely hear it. You can just turn up the kick drum and it will make the sound like it is perfectly in time anyway. Ben: It’s interesting when you hand a piece of work over to a mixer and then they hand it back. That exchange takes place and sometimes you think, why did you do that? Ahren: Everything louder than everything else and you can’t hear anything! Ben: Something that can be so obvious to you, it’s striking that it’s not to someone else but that’s the exchange that happens and you might compromise. Sometimes they’ll come back with something amazing. Ahren: And other times it can be like, how can you not see that? (laughs)
Neil: Not a lot. I use a couple of fuzz pedals. In the studio I just use what I do live but obviously with more time to pull up sounds between takes. It’s pretty straight forward. A lot of it is just overdriven amp tones. For the heavier sounds, I’ll just put a fuzz pedal in. Not really a lot of trickery on the album really. There’s a few really nice Leslie tracks which is great to just slip under stuff. Just a lot of hot valves and dying fuzz pedals.
Pedals?
Ben, is the gear you used in the studio pretty much what you use on stage? Ben: Pretty much but we borrowed some gear
Ben: Definitely. To be honest we really had a lot of toing and froing on this record. There were like 4 or 5 mixes of songs going on.
Because there is such a gap between albums, was it difficult to know which way to go musically this time?
Ben: Yeah I do. I have a solo thing that is happening at the moment called Lakes of Light, it’s a lot more pop ... very much a work in progress. It’s not pop in a Top 40 way but colourful, positive, pop music.
What about you Neil? Neil: I do some acoustic shows but it’s not really a ‘thing’. It’s just a bunch of songs which aren’t rock songs. If someone asks me to play after a gig at dinner for fifty bucks, I’ll be there!
Let’s talk about the gear you guys play. Neil: My main stage rig is a Fender Jazzmaster. I used to play a Jaguar, since High school ... just that guitar shape, it became my guitar. I stepped up to a Jazzmaster a year or so ago. I use an Orange amp, a Retro 50 head which is beautiful.
A lot of guitarists are doing that now, playing Fenders through Orange amps. Ben: I did last night and it sounded really good.
Ben: Same with us… just to fill it out. Ahren: Just to make it perfectly in time. Even when our keyboard player was in the band we still had exactly the same backing track with all the keys because he couldn’t play it in the time. God knows how he lasted so long.
Neil: Yeah, we don’t use any samples or clicks or anything live. We have done in rehearsal leading up to the album ... a click just for the first half of a song or even just listening to it before the intro so you can shift a bit.
Ben: I definitely agree with that. Particularly for us because we made that first EP in-house. Damian had a studio in Sydney where we rehearsed, wrote and recorded on a 001 Pro Tools thing. We took our time and
Ahren, I read that you have an electro side project?
Do you guys have side projects?
Ahren: Well it is easy with the backing track! Honestly, with the backing track, all of the keys we don’t have to worry about. There is nothing that strange on the record that we can’t pull off live. It’s just guitar, bass, drums and singing. As long as we don’t get too drunk, we keep in key.
Ahren: It’s huge! You’ve got to write three times as many songs. It’s hard.
Ben: It was and we had so many songs. The thing is, when we write together in a room, it is very different to when I bring songs to the band. We end up writing really cool, spacey dub music. It’s another side of the band which happens when we get in a room, we’re not thinking, just playing. We had it set up so that we could record everything and multi track demos. So we had a huge amount of material and then through a process of elimination, we got it down. Yeah it was quite nerve-racking. We put that first record out in 2007, then put it out in Europe in 2009 and toured it, so it was nerve-racking to go back in and do something new. We were really gagging for it obviously because it had been so long in between.
Ahren: It was with our ex-keyboard player, who we are not on good terms with at all. That’s the reason. Otherwise I may have been into but I’d much rather just focus on one band.
Ahren: Ryan our drummer will have in-ears with a click and the track playing.
How much of a culture shock is it going from your first recording experience, an EP compared to your first album?
But you’d all have final say anyway wouldn’t you?
Ben: What happened to it?
Because there is so much production in your albums, how difficult will it be playing these tracks live?
And Redcoats are much more straight forward than that?
FOR US IT IS BETTERING THE LAST ALBUM. THAT’S THE MAIN GOAL.TO WRITE BETTER SONGS BUT STILL NOT CHANGE DRASTICALLY. STAY TRUE TO THE FANS RATHER THAN PLEASE YOURSELF.”
Ahren: Oh no, not anymore. I did for a bit. It was a pop thing which was pretty funny. I always used to muck around in Garageband and stuff.
Is there an element of triggering with Amity on stage?
from friends over there. My main instrument is a late seventies Tele. It’s just a beautiful sounding thing. I like a really clean tone that has body to it and the Tele seems to give it to me without being muddy or scratchy in the top end, through a Vox AC30 or Fender Bassman. I’ll drive it through a Tube Screamer or something like that but mainly I use Boss pedals. I haven’t gone down that path of buying obscure gear. Neil: It’s a can of worms!
And you like to keep the guitars clean because of the keyboards, Ben? Ben: Damian who plays the keys but also guitar… he tends to play all the colourful, weirder stuff and he has quite an arsenal of pedals which he shares around with people. My role is just to keep it solid and keep the bed there, which sounds simple but it is hard to get it just right. The clean full bodied thing with a bit of break up is … I’m still on that journey!
Ahren, what’s your rig? Ahren: Just a MusicMan. I used a five string in the studio. I played a bunch of guitar as well. I used Troy’s Maton and a couple of Les Pauls he had there. I play my bass through an Ampeg classic and an 8x10 Ampeg cab with a SansAmp.
built it up, mixed it ourselves and luckily our record label let us put it out. Then when it came to making the album, we went into studio world and that was a bit of a shock… actually being in a room which is built for making records.
Neil, this is probably fresher for you because you’ve just finished the album? Neil: Yeah our album isn’t even out yet. It’s just a lot bigger project with a lot more people and songs involved. Which is great, we loved doing it. Ben: See I suck at doing vocals in a studio. I have to work twice as hard in a proper studio as opposed to being in a bedroom. I guess instead of putting money into heaps of pedals, I have set myself up with a decent home recording set up. I tend to do my own vocals in a walk in wardrobe, which I have made into a vocal booth. I am far more relaxed and get far better results that way.
Ben: Definitely very hard for us as a result of doing all of that stuff we did in Berlin and all the samples, layers of things. We run Ableton live, our drummer plays off a click to that. There’s not a lot of backing track stuff but there’s enough. We have pulled stuff out so it doesn’t sound too weird but he’s also triggering a few things to keep that live element ... we just wanted to replicate it live. Luckily our drummer survived death by click! He got through that whole stage of rejecting the click and thanks to him we can put on a show.
What about Redcoats getting the album down live, I guess it’s easier for you guys? Neil: It’s not really an issue because we kind of worked backwards in that respect, taking what we do live and trying to capture it in the studio, with the exception of instead of kicking in a new pedal, you just set up a new tone. Consciously as well, we didn’t really want to go out and put all this shit on a track that makes the song and think, yeah that’s great, but then hang on, how are we going to do that live. Ben: It’s weird, I went to see a band a couple of weeks ago, and I swear it just sounded like a CD and I think he was even miming. It was their single, it’s on Triple J and I swear he was miming this single. It was an indie electronic band who will remain nameless but it was weird. It’s like, why? You can all play! Maybe it’s an insecurity thing maybe?
You’re all musicians and you love to play music but because you’re in professional bands you have to worry about other stuff like interviews ... and cover art. I wonder how much discussion there is about album art. I know Amity Affliction have copped a bit of flack about your cover (picturing a guy hanging himself). How much discussion was there Ahren about that cover? Ahren: It was only really between me and Joel. We sort out all the merch and stuff and he’s an artist and came up with that. I thought, yep good idea and that was it.
And Expatriate? Ben: Damian our keyboardist came up with the art for this one. We take a lot of pride and put a lot of effort into the art. We went through so many different ideas to get this one where we got it to. It was a shit fight actually. I found all these photos of amazing natural formations and I had this whole thing in my head how it all made sense with the music. I was just kind of wafty crap! Then I’d engaged these people with the photos and they totally dicked me around for two months with licences and fees and had to scrap it right on deadline. Art is super important …videos.
Redcoats have completed the cover art? Neil: Yes we have reached a conclusion. We work with artists who we know so they understand our vibe and we understand how they work. it can be hard though because obviously it is a representation of what is inside the record. Film clips are a shit fight. It’s a brain strain because it is such a big thing. So many people are going to see it on the internet. Ahren: So many people talk shit about it. That’s what YouTube is for… talking shit!
What are you most proud of with the album? Neil: That’s a hard one. Probably the structuring of the songs and how we have moved along as writers. We are really proud of that. The songs we had for this record compared to the songs we had for the EP, it’s a real progression for us as writers… and as players too because we have been playing for a lot longer now.
What about you Ben? Ben: Probably just getting it done, to put it simply. Having five years between records it was a relief to get it finished. Once something is completed you can then focus on something else, the next batch of writing .. which we already are. It’s not a very interesting answer but it’s the most honest answer I can give… just finishing it.
Ahren? Ahren: Probably just what people might take away from it, the message through the lyrics. We get messages from kids saying we saved their life all the time, it is amazing. www.redcoatsmusic.com www.theamityaffliction.net www.expatriateband.com
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On paper, they might seem an unlikely pairing but as labelmates, indie rock icon and You Am I frontman Tim Rogers and country artist Catherine Britt, are currently touring together showcasing their new albums. Michael Smith sat in as they chatted about their guitars and the sounds that are inspiring them right now.
guitar lessons off Bill Chambers at the moment, once a week – but I cannot discipline myself to get better. When I first picked up the guitar, I swear, I never got lessons or anything and I probably should have… I probably should have got singing lessons and all that sort of stuff but I didn’t – hated being told what to do – and I was just so obsessed
THERE’S MORE TO THIS STORY ON THE IPAD
T
hey might have been rocking hard late last year when they toured with Cold Chisel on that band’s biggest and most successful Australian tour ever, but right now their sometimes mercurial and always deftly witty singer, songwriter and guitarist, frontman Tim Rogers seems to be feeling You Am I are slipping into what he’s described as “a middle-aged men’s club”. So he’s taking the opportunity once again to step out and explore other musical and artistic avenues.
Accidental Tourists: Tim Rogers And Cathrine Britt friend Catherine Britt, featured on her new ABC Country album, Always Never Enough, it seemed obvious the pair should hit the road together to showcase their respective albums. Recorded at Cedar Creek Studios in Austin, Texas, with a crack team of American country musicians and coproduced with her Australian mentor and guitar teacher Bill Chambers, Always Never Enough is Britt’s fifth album. Born in Newcastle, NSW, she released her debut EP, In The Pines, produced by Chambers, in 1999, when she was still only 14, and spent six years living and working in Nashville.
Catherine: So Tim, what sort of guitar are you playing on this tour?
But that first guitar wasn’t anything special. It was just… a piece of shit and then I got a Maton that was a piece of shit [laughs]. I like Matons, don’t get me wrong, the right kind of Matons, but my favourite guitar I’ve ever had is the
Gibson. And I’ve had heaps of different guitars but there’s something really cool about that one. I’ve got a really good Emmylou Gibson – I’ve two but one’s really good – they’re like a mini version of the J200. Gibson in America sponsor me over there.
Tim: Well, at the moment I’m playing a Godin [5th Avenue], a Canadian brand. It’s got no tone at all and it’s just all about rhythm, and finding the sweet spots in the chords is almost a challenge. And that’s why I play. You know, that black guitar I play. I think I just got sick of hearing white guys with dreadlocks in bars singing April Sun In Cuba with these really bright guitars. I wanted to get a guitar sound like – who was the original guitarist with Muddy Waters? [ Jimmy Rogers]. No Jimmy Reed, I wanted to get a sound like Jimmy Reed. And Catherine, the hundredth reason I love you is because you turn up to a show, you plug in, you get your voice to some kind of level, and you set and forget. You’re the kind of person and the kind of singer who could play someone’s bar mitzvah. So tell us about your guitar, that fabulous blonde Gibson J200.
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I used to play till my fingers bled, I would not put the guitar down, and all I did was watch Bill play at gigs. I’d go out to gigs and watch where his fingers would be on the guitar or how he would play the rhythm or how the singing would go and I’d sit there in the front row and watch. And that’s how I learnt to play guitar.
Tim: As much as I absolutely adore Angus’ playing [in AC/DC], I look straight at Malcolm. Regards rhythm players, I guess through time Keith [Richard, The Rolling Stones] is the big one, Malcolm, Lazy Lester and Slim Harpo and Jimmy Reed… Just in this particular year of just listening to a lot of R&B and soul, Slim Harpo has been really impressing me, because he’s mostly unaccompanied and his rhythm playing is unique. In other years it’s been the guitar player in [‘80s US punk band] Minor Threat [Lyle Preslar], because I used to listen a lot
THAT BLACK GUITAR I PLAY. I JUST GOT SICK OF HEARING WHITE GUYS WITH DREADLOCKS IN BARS SINGING APRIL SUN IN CUBA.”
The early morning call to sit on the couch in The Drum Media office in Sydney for a chat together caught Rogers feeling just a little seedy from a 4am finish at a gig in Newcastle just six hours earlier, but Britt, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed managed to discover quite a bit about her collaborator.
Tim: I’m loving your rhythm at the moment, loving your guitar playing. When we play in the band together, you’re really strong.
Catherine: I just want to be a rhythm guitar player in Tim Rogers’ band – that’s what I think. There’s nothing better than a strong rhythm guitar player, and it’s really hard actually to be a really good rhythm guitar player. I reckon it’s harder than being a good guitar player.
I JUST LITERALLY MADE IT UP AND LOOKED AT WHERE PEOPLE’S FINGERS WERE ON A GUITAR AND WENT, “I GUESS THAT’S A CHORD.” I JUST PLAY FROM MY HEART.”
There have been excursions into theatre, scoring the Marion Potts production of Lorca’s Blood Wedding and performing Sydney’s Griffin Theatre production of The Story Of Mary MacLane By Herself, but right now it’s his second solo album, Rogers Sings Rogerstein, recorded at Yikesville Studios in Melbourne with producer Shane O’Mara, that’s got him back out on the road. Signed to new ABC Music imprint FOUR | FOUR, and having cowritten a song, Troubled Man, with Australian country artist and good
Catherine: It’s from an ex-lover. It’s great – my good memory from that relationship is getting the guitar. I left this person while they were on tour because it wasn’t working out and I took the guitar, and it’s been my favourite guitar ever since. I don’t know, there’s something – once again it’s not the best guitar in the world and I’m definitely not the best guitar player in the world but I just think that no one plays like me [chuckles].
the moment. I play a cleaner sound; I just try and play dirtier, and be dirtier.
Catherine: I’ve never played rhythm guitar on a record. I’ve always had a hired gun or whatever, somebody that plays a lot better than me, but on this new album, being co-producer, my first thing was I’m playing rhythm guitar on this
fucking record. I don’t care if I’m not the best guitar player in the world, I wrote these songs with me and my guitar, so if you want to make a Catherine Britt record, it’s me and my guitar – that’s the first step. And, you know, it’s not perfect,
but it’s me, and I think that’s the most important thing about guitar playing – everybody’s got their totally unique thing. Everybody plays rhythm differently. Some of my favourite guitar playing is not the best guitar playing – it’s unique. Emmylou Harris, for instance, is a great rhythm guitar player – she’s really good [chuckles], just as far as really steady rhythm guitar playing goes, you know? Tim: So what was your first guitar? Catherine: My parents bought me a really crappy nylon-string guitar, but I was obsessed. I get
Tim: I got a nylonstring as well. Mum bought me a guitar when I was 13 for ‘doin’ ma chores’. Gut strings, you’ve got to work with them. They’re not easy. Willie Nelson. He still plays gut string, yeah? His rhythm guitar playing is incredible. Oft and mistakenly overlooked instrument. I think I actually devolved into playing electric. I don’t go through when I’m playing with this band at
of hardcore punk. This year’s more… I don’t know why, it’s probably just tones for me. I’m trying to slow my playing to sound like Jimmy Reed. Catherine: All my favourite artists and stuff learnt from old black blues players, so I think a lot of my influences are very Southern blues playing. Not that I can play anything like that, but I want to, one day. I’ve got so much to learn when it comes to guitar playing. I just literally made it up and just looked at where people’s fingers were on a guitar and went, “I guess that’s a chord,” and I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just play from my heart. That’s all. www.timrogers.com.au www.catherinebritt.com
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REHEARSING WITH
Oh Mercy
Muso’s Greg Phillips gets an armchair view of Oh Mercy rehearsing their brand new album Deep Heat ahead of an extensive national tour which began this week.
W
ord to the wise! If you’re looking to find the same Great Barrier Grief-style Alexander Gow, writer, performer of sensitive, personal, breezy pop songs on the band’s brand new record Deep Heat, forget it. Step away from the car and put your hands in the air… Alexander’s gone dancin’! Yes indeed, with Oh Mercy’s new album, recorded in Portland, Oregon, under the production command of Burke Reid, the band has gone retro, tapping into ‘70s blaxsploitation grooves and glam rock pizzaz. Rehearsals are in early stages, with the band merely trying to work out how to interpret the newly recorded tunes for their upcoming shows. Gow played all of the keyboard parts in the studio and today at an inner city Melbourne rehearsal room, is discussing the licks with Annabel Grigg, who’ll be playing those parts on tour. The Nord keyboard is misbehaving and they can’t quite nail the flute solo on the title track Deep Heat. “We’re just trying to get the Nord to do what the piano and lots of other keyboards did in the studio after a hell of a lot of manipulation,” explains the frontman. When Gow and producer Reid were exploring pedal sounds and distorting, fuzzing and phasing every sound that had a heartbeat, they weren’t
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necessarily thinking about the implications of playing these sounds live. “Some people think it’s a really important thing to only record things they are going to be able to reproduce live,” says Gow. “Albums I love, by people like Scott Walker, they weren’t thinking about how they were going to play an album in a pub when they were writing.” What Gow did know was that the album needed to be fun to play live, it needed to be groove based, with stripped back instrumentation, focussing on drums, bass and vocals… then coloured by whatever weird and wonderful sounds they could conjure. “If we’re going to go to a pub in Wollongong and play to people after being in a car for ten hours, you’re going to want to hope that the songs are fun to play. Touring definitely has shaped the way I write. I think all of these songs will hold up, even on the brink of exhaustion and all of that kind of stuff. This album is one that we can all really enjoy playing. It was kind of exhausting emotionally with the last album because it was so honest and biographical. It’s hard to get up and sing every night, all these really earnest songs, especially when you’ve got shitty foldback and been in the van for ten hours. I think this one is going to be a bit of party.”
Deep Heat is a completely different beast to Oh Mercy’s previous recordings and that will be reflected in the shows too. Significantly, Gow will not play guitar on this tour. “There’s very little guitar on the album,” he stresses. “So we only needed one guitar and I’ve gladly popped that down. I enjoy playing the guitar and I have my own naive style, but I don’t think it’s a big loss! It’s good because I have been able to lend Eliza and Annabel all of my guitar pedals to mess with their sounds. Eliza has never owned a guitar pedal prior to four weeks ago. You might have noticed here today, we’re really working on Eliza and Annabel’s sounds with the stomp boxes. It’s new territory for them and new territory for me to try to manipulate keyboard sounds and purposely we are reamping the keyboards as opposed to putting it through the PA. Eliza has her delays and octaves and phasers and all of that kind of stuff happening. It’s a completely different soundscape to past records.” The other consequence of Gow being guitarless on stage is that he now has to give more consideration to his stagecraft. “It’s weird,” he said while contemplating the issue. “I’m hoping I’ll just figure it out, once I throw myself into the deep end. But yeah, I’m definitely thinking
about that. What do you do with your hands? I don’t know! I don’t want to be the guy with the tambourine either.” In addition to introducing a cache of new pedals to the band’s live arsenal, the other main change for Oh Mercy is the inclusion of a software package to help produce some of the album sounds. “We’re using a program called Mainstage to reproduce some of the weird percussion stuff we recorded. We have spent the last four rehearsals trying to get our heads around that program. We’ve got the laptop and the interface underneath it and it takes four stereo tracks - eight in total - out the back of the interface straight into the PA. We’ve never used backing tracks before. I felt it was really important to have the percussion stuff in the live shows because it adds to that sense of joy and groove, the things that make people want to move. Otherwise we’d have to bring another four people on the road with us. I draw the line at having the guitar or anything like that through a backing track. I don’t mind when other people do it, I just wouldn’t personally. So yeah, trying to get our heads around Mainstage and there are lots of sax solos and flute solos and we’ve been trying to work out how to reproduce those.” All of the members in Oh Mercy
OH MERCY’S DEEP HEAT TOUR PEDAL COLLECTION ELIZA (BASS) • Line 6 Echo Park • Ibanez Phaser • Boss CE-2 Chorus • Boss ODB-3
Bass Overdrive
• Electro Harmonix
Octave Multiplexer
• Boss TU-2 Tuner
CLIFF (GUITAR) • Line 6 DL4
Delay Modeler
• T-Rex Squeezer • Ibanez TS9
Tube Screamer
• Ibanez FC10 Fat
Cat Distortion
• Seymour Duncan
Pickup Booster
• Ross Phaser • Boss CE-2 Chorus • Morley Wah • Boss TU-2 Tuner • Annabel (Keys) • Line 6 Echo Park • Electro Harmonix
EH4800
• Small Stone
Phase Shifter
• Boss TR-2 Tremolo • Boss BD-2
Blues Driver
seem to be relishing the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zones for this tour. “Eliza who has never owned a pedal has gone to using about eight on her board now and it’s the same type of thing with Annabel,” says Gow. “It’s not a subtle difference either. Annabel previously only used the piano sound straight into a di and into the PA, which gives you a very crisp sound. This time we are going completely opposite in that we are running it through an amplifier and stomp boxes and stuff like that.” While Deep Heat was always going to have an element of experimentation, Gow and Reid had some specific ideas from the outset as to how this album should sound, even down to the drum mix. “With every song, we packed down the mics after we had recorded and moved the drums to a different part of the house and re-mic’d them again, so as not to have the same sound twice,” he explains. “There are certain things I dislike about the drums and we avoided those things. On the other side of the coin, Burke had a lot of fun making the drums sound they way he wanted. We were referencing a lot of that late-’70s glam stuff so the snare is more of a thud and it’s not a big aggressive stadium kind of rock and roll sound. It’s more of a tight, punchy, ‘70s disco-inspired sound. There are no cymbals on the record because I hate cymbals and so does Rohan, the band’s drummer. There’s a hi-hat and that’s a wonderful instrument but I can’t stand hearing rides and crashes and stuff.” Hearing the band run through the title track Deep Heat, it’s obvious Oh Mercy’s shows are going to be a joyous groovefest. While most of the tracks on the album will get a run, many of the older tunes will also get a new sonic paint job. “Step one is just employing the attitude of the album to the older songs, which is no rhythm guitar or piano playing, which only leaves the groove makers, the bass and the drums. We’ll dumb it right down to bass and drums, then we’ll see what we can set up with bass and keyboards through the guitar pedals and see how interesting we can make it,” Gow says of the plan for Oh Mercy live. Cliff, fill-in guitarist for Simon Okely, who is on a six month sabbatical, is giving the new tracks a more voluminous shape in rehearsals too. In the studio Gow played all of the guitars but wants a different sonic result for the tour. “Guitar tones are probably a different thing altogether from the recording to live. I am all for di-ing guitars in the studio and making it the thinnest, weirdest sound you can get. We used the Roland Jazz Chorus a lot on the record but sometimes they don’t cut it live so you have to reinterpret your sounds a bit for the stage.” The Deep Heat national tour kicked off this week. www.ohmercy.com.au
RECORDING
T
he facility has been the scene of so many famous Australian recordings and has also guested Kanye West, The Mars Volta, The Prodigy, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z. This very day, Jebediah’s Kev Mitchell is in the room next door doing some work on a new Bob Evans album. I ran into him coming out of the bathroom.
WITH
British India
The British India guys are recording a track this afternoon with the working title of We Don’t Need Anyone, it’s a hard drivin’, rockin’ piece… the ‘shouty’ track as singer Declan Melia later describes it. At the moment Melia is laying down a rhythm guitar part. He’s asked by engineer Callum to rotate on his heels in an attempt to find a sweet spot where there’s no guitar buzz coming from his Strat. Anyone not involved directly in a take seems to be on a laptop checking emails and social media sites. Will, the bass player alerts the band to a handy fact that a member of some obscure band had been jailed for stealing golf balls from a forest. The band is maybe halfway through recording album number four. It’s difficult to tell exactly where they are at as a record company is now involved and for the first time, they’re not completely in control of the decision making process. A release seems likely in early 2013. “Since we signed to Liberation things are different,” explains Declan. “It used to be… you go into the studio on this date, you’ll be in there three weeks, and then you’ll have an album. Those days are pretty much gone in as much as that we write for a bit, record for a bit, until we eventually have an album. It’s difficult to know where you are at because things have a tendency to be half done, never quite finished off. When they approached us they were really adamant that they be hands on. They were really worried, and probably rightly so, that we would be really closed off. I think to outsiders, that’s the way we seem. They’ve definitely dictated the kind of songs they would prefer. There are lots of songs and the ones they have chosen will probably be the ones which will be on the record. They’ll have the ultimate choice. We’re not really up for debating them on that. We think it’s a case of they know best. They’ll decide what the people hear, but I mean, it doesn’t effect the writing of the songs. All the songs get written and all the songs get recorded but then it’s them who get to select the final tracks.” Despite becoming more adventurous in the studio and feeling more comfortable with the recording process, Melia still views British India as a punk band which doesn’t think too much about direction or growth. “We’re not that interested in growing that much,” the frontman states of the album they are currently working on. “British India is self aware enough to know that one of our great qualities is naivity. We wouldn’t want to give that up by growing. We’ll never be a band with particular finesse, nor do we want to be.” While that may be the conscious intention, unconsciously there is some serious musical maturity going on deep inside Melbourne’s Sing Sing studios. Glenn Goldsmith, who has been manager and the band’s producer for the last six years, agrees. “I just think the guys have developed as songwriters every year. It has just progressed and I think over time, you get a little more adventurous, not tied to what British India is supposed to be but it still comes down to good songs.” With Melia’s rhythm part done on today’s track, guitarist Nic Wilson is now using an original Roland Space Echo to lay down the lead riff to the song. Producer Glenn Goldsmith suggests he needs to bend one note just a little more to achieve the desired result. The demo had been made using a digital delay and Glenn urges Wilson to revert to the demo pedal. However majority rules and they go for the authenticity of the Roland Space Echo unit. The democracy shown is impressive. “We’re completely
Melbourne’s Sing Sing recording studios resides down a narrow street behind the glitz of a row of Chapel Street’s fashion retail outlets. The studio itself is such a rabbit warren, featuring oddly shaped corridors, nooks, cubicles, large rooms and small. British India are in the Neve Room.
democratic in that if it ever came down a decision and there was deadlock, everyone would get a vote each but it is more a case of who is most adamant. It’s kind of who cares the most,” says Melia. The Sing Sing studio vibe is contributing to the feel-good nature of the recording too as Melias attests. “With Thieves and Guillotines (the band’s first two albums), we were in Harry [Vanda]’s studio and it was kind of like, you couldn’t have your feet on the table. Here, it is like, is anyone sober enough to do a bass take? It’s been a lot of fun.” The production on the band’s last album Avalanche was more pronounced than on the first two and that fatter, layered sound ethos seems to have carried
on with the new album. “It’s the sound we are preferring. The stuff we are listening to at the moment is mostly like that,” admits Melia. “The reason that happened on Avalanche as well was that it was the first time we felt comfortable in the studio, finding our feet whereas previously we had no idea what we were doing. Now we have found all these new tricks we can exploit and as long as we find that exciting, we’ll be into layering tracks and stuff.” It seems to be the tracks most un-British India which the guys are really enjoying working on. Melia is particularly keen on two. “There’s one called Crystals which sonically is pretty interesting. It’s one of the songs which is really layered. I wouldn’t consider it a rock song. It’s really drum heavy.
It’s a weird mix, lots of acoustics and strings… keyboard strings, some sort of organ anyway. Another one is called Major Label Trash which is an interesting song. Production wise, we listened to a lot of Notorious BIG, hip hop and pop music, just that kind of slammed sound but also... I hate to use this word because people will just run with it, but it’s kind of funky in a way or it’s got a good groove and this weird kinda computer game riff. It’s a weird beast and I think it will surprise people. Bass player Will Drummond is also happy to leave the band’s comfort zone. “Crystals, I really enjoy,” he says. “It’s five minutes or something and unlike anything we’ve ever done before. It’s piano based and has really heavy drums but it’s like a ballad.
I hardly did anything on that. I played bass but it is just there for texture more than melody lines.” Matt O’Gorman is delighted with the drum sounds the engineers have captured on the album too. “It’s probably the best drum sound we’ve ever had,” he enthuses. “Aaron and Callum have done a great job capturing that really roomy sound. They use about four room mics, two on the hats, two on the snare, one on each tom. I think also what is happening is that the more I record, I am getting more comfortable in the studio and feeling more confident with playing. Especially playing to click tracks… when I first started playing, it was something I couldn’t get my head around. I was so nervous and would play something straight just to keep everyone happy and not take too much time.” O’Gorman is playing a Yamaha kit in the studio, not his own but he’s used to that, even on the road the band don’t carry their own backline, they use the support band’s gear. “I haven’t used my own drum kit in about two and a half years,” he laughs. For Melia, gear is not a big consideration. “We never feel a particular affinity for gear,” he said.
We’ve never been a big gear band. As far as guitar sounds go with this, there is still a lot to do. I’m just using my Fender, straight into the amp, no pedals, find a good tone and go. My guitar in all our recordings is never at the forefront, it’s really just wash, all gravy my guitar sound. I’ve never been a proficient player but it was a case of Nick being so lead orientated, we needed something to fill to complete the three corners of the square. My guitar could be anything, it could be keyboard pads.” British India hope to release their yet to be titled album in early 2013. www.britishindia. com.au
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TOURING WITH
Saskwatch Prior to unleashing their debut album Leave it All Behind on us, Melbourne based nine-piece soul outfit Saskwatch took their Stax-laden licks to Edinburgh, to see if they could get those renown funky Scots to bust out a jig or two. The band were kind enough to document their trip in a tour diary for us.
First Show Late ‘N’ Live - Edinburgh Fringe Festival Rolling into Edinburgh Airport after 36 hours of traveling, no sleep, and more than a couple of beverages; we’re all in high spirits. It’s been a huge year for Saskwatch, and everyone can’t wait to hit up sunny (wait...) Edinburgh. Piling nine people (along with appropriate luggage, instruments and our manager Bernadette) into three taxis, we head off to find our accommodation, only to end up at the wrong address, on the wrong side of town, due to various accent misinterpretations. Ah well, mood is still high when we arrive at our luxurious apartment in Lothian Rd, Leith. With everyone’s internal body clock already out of sync, we decide to hit the town. Visits to more than a few of Edinburgh’s late night joints result in the inevitable: Sam Boon serenading the natives with his spellbinding version of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street on his Alto Saxophone well after sunrise. Bed. Show Day. For our first week in Edinburgh, we’re playing the historic Late ‘N’ Live slot night after night. Late ‘N’ Live, now in
[16]
it’s 26th year at the Edinburgh Festival is the most notorious of all late night comedy at the Fringe. Involving two hours of comedy from 1-3am (a mix of world famed and up-and-coming comedians), followed by two hours straight of music (us) from 3-5am. It has been a proving ground for comedians worldwide since inception, and the crowd is a notoriously brutal one, devouring comedians whole, and completely derailing even the most experienced ones. But it has also been a measuring stick for bands as well, most notably in Australia for our own Cat Empire (who slayed Late ‘N’ Live for three successive years in the early 2000’s). So understandably we’re all feeling a little nervous watching some comedy, and preparing for the show. It’s also somewhat of a new experience (despite the musician’s late night stereotype) to be playing a show at 3am. Apart from playing Melbourne’s Pony 2am slot once, I’ve never really encountered any show as late as this. After seeing an unnamed comedian slaughtered mid-set at the hands of “Eddie” in the front row, who after stealing the microphone from the comedian and rallying the crowd to chant “Eddie, Eddie” - he saluted his victory and the comedy was over; we were on. Playing a surprisingly supportive audience, we went over quite well. Highlights including George from Cheers being in the audience, Nic emptying a prop fire extinguisher on band members, a rider of Fosters and actually making it through the painstaking two-hour set. One down, Six to go...
Album Release Day Friday August 17. Album release day. After a hectic week of playing at Late ‘N’ Live, sleeping patterns are fractured at best, but luckily the shows have been building night to night, gradually gaining momentum despite the insanely late hour. The festival is in full swing, with literally thousands of shows, be it comedy, theatre or music, on around the clock - and adding to it, it’s our album release day...Vibe is up. Recorded live to tape at Woodstock Studios in Melbourne with good friend Cam Trewin earlier in 2012, our first record Leave It All Behind’has been nearly three years in the making; beginning from loose busking sessions outside of Melbourne’s iconic Flinders St Station gradually forging our own material over countless shows in the last few years. So naturally we’re excited to be finally putting it out!
To celebrate, we head to the park for a party in the rare Edinburgh sun, put on by our new friend Simon. Downing a few Red Stripes in the sunshine and listening an eclectic mix of Tropicalia, Salsa and Cumbia from an amazing customized golf cart/DJ booth, all is good in the world.
Back to work Inspired by our recent shows with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and in an attempt to woo some would-be punters down to the shows, we’ve go back to our old ways,
have a quick line check earlier in the day, and as soon as the comedy concludes, we’re thrust into our first number. Production-wise it isn’t ideal, but aided by some great venue staff, it’s a great attitude and camaraderie that happens to make the best show possible. The show that night is solid, the long two hour set is a really good chance to road test new material as well as thrash out a couple of old favourites - finding out what is good and what isn’t. The night (morning) ending in the now ritual wait for Tesco’s to open at 6am for an early breakfast and bedtime.
Back at The Spiegeltent Halfway through our little UK jaunt, we switch our attention to
Spiegeltents, literally “Mirror Tent” is a spectacularly glamourous and decorative venue, steeped in a long tradition of cabaret and music. For me, it is simply one of my favourite venues to play in the world. So understandably, everyone is in high spirits about returning to the tent. As we play the first couple of shows (this time in the more body-clock friendly time of 5pm) fortunately the crowds continue to grow day to day. With 10 minute changeovers, shuffling the acts in and out, the camaraderie of the staff and performers and as well as the other Australian acts over here as well (Flap, Mikelangelo), the atmosphere really is a supportive and positive experience.
at various club nights and other festival shows. Most days we have been doing two or three shows with the occasional rest day thrown in. We’ve played a few shows for the BBC compound set up at the festival, on top of the Spiegel shows, stripped back acoustic shows and busking. Probably the highlight for me though has been the opportunity to play a handful of shows at some of Edinburgh’s music clubs. I’ve always heard so much about the UK’s vibrant soul/funk club nights, but it was great to actually be involved, and in a couple of cases, play shows very similar to those we have been doing at various venues back home. One such night was the ‘Favela’ night at The Bongo Club where our new friend Francis brought us in for his night. Despite a false start where Tom (our bass player) broke a string to a crowd of 300, didn’t have a spare, and rushed off to get a replacement...we restarted 10 minutes later and it literally brought the house down. For me it was such a great event, as I couldn’t believe we’d come halfway across the world and could experience shows like that in a totally foreign place. Edinburgh, what a city.
End of the tour After a whirlwind three weeks and a grueling but rewarding 20+ shows in Edinburgh, it was time to move down to London for the final show of the tour. But not before struggling to climb Arthur’s Seat just
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDING GEORGE FROM CHEERS BEING IN THE AUDIENCE, NIC EMPTYING A PROP FIRE EXTINGUISHER ON BAND MEMBERS, A RIDER OF FOSTERS AND ACTUALLY MAKING IT THROUGH THE PAINSTAKING 2-HOUR SET.” and busk on the street with the four horn players and drum-kit, playing stripped down instrumental numbers to passers by. It’s been really amazing the difference it makes, with people coming up and saying hello, buying a CD and then ultimately coming down to one (or most) shows. Late ‘N’ Live’s large comedy programme means that in preparation for each show that night we only
playing another week of shows, this time at The Famous Spiegeltent. Built in Belgium in 1920, the tent is one of a series made in the early 20th century and used as traveling venue for places that didn’t have major halls. The tent is actually the reason we are in Edinburgh in the first place. We played at the venue in Melbourne during their last season, and were invited over to the Fringe as a result. For those newcomers, The
Apart from a few technical glitches (reverb units that don’t work, broken pedals and trumpets), the shows start off virtually without a hitch and it’s hard not to feel comfortable playing night in, night out in such an amazing space.
Club Shows + More As the festival has gone on, we’ve received more and more offers for shows
on the outskirts of the city, and then going to see Paul and Dan Kelly play as a part of the festival. The intimate show in Queens Hall was really special, with incredible interpretations of Paul’s songs and Dan’s great guitar work - very inspiring to see half way across the world. The following Spiegeltent afterparty was terrific was well. But on to London via train. Our show was at Bedroom Bar in hipster central Shoreditch, East London. A really nice place, it was great to see the bar packed with friends and friends of friends over here coming down to see the show which was another highlight on a tour full of them. Huge thanks to everyone that helped us out in the UK: David and The Famous Spiegeltent, Late ‘N’ Live, Francis, Simon and everyone we forgot! We’ll be back next year for sure. Sweet times! www.saskwatch.com.au
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[19]
the slide sound he had six months ago.”
Richard Clapton has never been your regular guitar gymnast but his tasteful tones and subtle use of effects has contributed to the quality of his legendary songs. Greg Phillips spoke to Clapton about his use of effects and the ideas behind his wonderful new album Harlequin Nights.
T
he carnivalesque title of Richard Clapton’s new album and the joyous melody of the opening track Sunny Side Up disguise the much darker and broader subject matter of the majority of the album… his recent, ‘difficult’ divorce! It’s been eight long years since Clapton’s last album Diamond Mine and the reasons for the delay are laid bare in the lyrics of the new record. “It was a fairly miserable divorce, so I just turned the album into a catharsis,” says Clapton. “That’s kind of what I like about the album because it is very real. I think it is
Richard Clapton - New Tunes & Tones good when a songwriter writes an album just for themselves. I wasn’t thinking if I was going to have a hit with it or how many copies I was going to sell.” Richard Clapton is one those rare artists who couldn’t make a dud album if he tried, and Harlequin Night is no exception; it’s a gem. Apart from displaying his usual top-shelf songwriting skills, the guitar tones are well thought out, refined and apt for each and every tune. However these were achieved not through a collection of hot vintage stomp boxes but 2012 style, using AmpliTube in Pro Tools. AmpliTube is a guitar amp and effects modelling software package produced by IK Multimedia out of Modena, Italy and Clapton and his guitar-totin’ offsider Danny Spencer used it extensively on the album.
Eric Wareheim and his comedy partner Tim Heidecker are best known for their Adult Swim show ‘Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!’ The show, with its bizarre musical interludes is unlike anything else on television and now comes to Australia live. Wareheim chats to Elyce Phillips.
A
lthough Eric Wareheim is renowned for his technological wizardry, creating bright and frenetic music videos, his musical beginnings were decidedly lo-fi. When asked what he listened to when he was growing up, Wareheim spins a story about his early listening experiences, informing us that they were purely of a live nature.
“AmpliTube has moved ahead in leaps and bounds during the course of this album and the quality of it is so good,” says Clapton. “Frankly, Danny and I did try guitars at Alberts studios a couple of times but unfortunately, I think the art of recording guitars has been lost
to an extent. I don’t want to sound overly critical of young engineers coming up but… for example, when we did The Great Escape, I know that Mark Opitz and Ian Moss got eleven Marshalls in before they were happy. The Marshalls were moved, not only all
over the studio but different rooms, different mics. In those days we used to take a long time getting those sounds. For Danny and I, AmpliTube... well it’s making us seasick there are so many presets and now we have a full library of our own edits. I’ll save a file like ‘Danny’s Skankytown’, which is great because in the old days if you wanted to come back to something, you’d have to go through the whole process of trying to get that sound you had two weeks before. I love this aspect of modern recording technology. You switch on Tools, and there’s everything exactly as you left it. You get AmpliTube up and there’s ‘Danny’s Skankytown’,
Pushed further about his use of effects over the years and what he might use in his shows this year, much like the album substance, Clapton is brutally honest. “I don’t use many effects,” he states. “I went through a phase a few years ago where I used a SPX500 and I got sick of it after a while. It was the late ‘80s and thought it was great because I had all of the presets. I got sick of that and went through a TC Chorus pedal and I am endorsed by Laney which gives you nice compression in everything anyway. So for a long time I was just using the TC Chorus with the Laney amp. Recently I started getting into using the Keeley compressor, they’re awesome compressors, really transparent. It gives you a little sparkle up the top and nice colouring but Danny is a real guitar player, whereas I am a songwriter guitar player. I’m sure Danny will be a lot more fastidious about his sounds than I will be. I’m trying to conduct a show and it’s hard for me, I don’t want to
These days, his musical tastes are a little more modern and his listening habits more technologically advanced.
“And I didn’t grow up with record players or tape players. I wasn’t exposed to any outside music. So it was pretty much just, like, hardcore African tribal stuff. Mainly just didgeridoos, drums. Home-made drums. Stuff like that.”
“For records, you know, I buy either vinyl or I download,” says Wareheim. “I love the artwork on vinyl and that’s sort of a lost thing… I have a pretty good collection. I moved a couple times and lost huge portions of it, but I kept all the records that have some sentimental value to them and the important ones.”
Apparently, it wasn’t until Wareheim went to Temple University and met Tim Heidecker, that his musical horizons were broadened. “It’s like I had an awakening when I left for college. I met Tim Heidecker. He started showing me all the greats… like Kenny Loggins, Santana. He really opened me up to a lot of classical rock.”
“I mean, as you can see from the videos, there’s almost zero band involvement.
[18]
www.richardclapton.com
“I think it’s a little bit like Stockholm Syndrome. If you’re kidnapped you essentially start to love the person that kidnapped you. And the thing with the didgeridoo, I was forced to play it, but then I started to love it, and I continue to love it to this day.
“I would say my favourite thing right now is the new Beach House record. I’m doing a song called Wishes that’s on that record, and I’m shooting that this month.” Eric has worked with bands such as MGMT, Depeche Mode and The Bird And The Bee, creating some spectacular and wildly original music videos.
The convenience of modern day digital recording technology has opened up a brand new world of possibilities for Clapton. The eleven tracks on Harlequin Nights were culled from twenty three. “If I wanted to, and there was demand for it, I could probably do a whole new album,” he says of his options. Longtime fans will be hoping Harlequin Nights is only the beginning of a new recording era for Richard Clapton.
Wareheim. “Actually, my parents have been teaching me the different ways to play didgeridoo. I’ve been playing since I was a young child, so I’m a master. So, it’s going to be great to come down to Australia. I think in Melbourne, we just added a second show, and that’s just going to be me playing the didgeridoo. Two and a half hours before we even start the show, so get ready for a really long show.
Tim & Eric’s Awesome Greatness “When I was a young boy, my parents… I grew up on a weird kind of… commune? I wouldn’t say it was a hippy commune, but it was more like a bizarre group of eccentric people, and they forced me to play as part of this big band. [The music] was mainly, like, tribal. Sort of African tribal stuff. That’s what my parents were doing,” recalls Wareheim.
get distracted trying to get the exact same sounds on the album but Danny is a lot more free on stage to do things and he has a pretty impressive pedal board. Some of his sounds that I really like are the pure ones, like [on album the tracks] Blowing Smoke Up At The Moon and Vapour Trails. It may not sound like it but we went to a hell of a lot of trouble to get those sounds. I know they are plain straight guitar sounds. What I have experienced working with INXS and Ian Moss… the sound is so critical for a guitar player.”
They pretty much come to me and they know my work, so they ask me to write something for them and I write something – whatever I feel about the music, and that’s what we do. I sort of pick
bands that allow me to do that. I don’t work with bands that have a big idea. Although, this Beach House one was co-written with Victoria, the singer from Beach House, so that’s going to be a new thing for me. Which… she’s so brilliant that I wanted to collaborate with her. However, the live music experience has always remained as a part of Wareheim’s listening habits. During his college days, he became a part of the Philadelphia punk scene, playing in bands such as
Twelve Tone System and The Science Of. And yet, despite his punk roots, Eric told us that his preferred instrument is something a little closer to home. “I play didgeridoo. That’s all I play,” says
“My favourite piece is this thing called Good Morning, Young Boy. That is something that I learned to play to my little brother when he wakes up. It’s kind of a sensual piece, but it’s also supposed to be for brotherly love, and I would wake him up every morning with my didgeridoo and he’d rise and greet me with a smile.” www.timanderic.com
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epics, perfect fodder for FM radio and that’s exactly where the band has been acquiring some extensive airplay of late. Shay was in the studio when she heard her own music over the airwaves for the first time. “It’s a really special moment when you hear it on radio for the first time because you know there are loads of other people listening. It kind of gives you fulfilment for all those years of work. It’s hard
Muso’s Greg Phillips chats to Sharaya’s Shay Liza, about the band’s rockin’ debut album.
Muso’s Greg Phillips speaks with Tristan Bouillaut about his new project Dead In A Second.
G
rowing up as a member of an infamous religious cult is not the ideal way to spend your youth, but it’s a hell of bio story for a lead singer of a rock band. Fortunately for Shay Liza, frontwoman for Melbourne rockers Sharaya, she and her family escaped the clutches of the American sect now know as The Family and relocated to Australia, where she’s been able to pursue her love of music and use those life experiences in a positive way. “I went through hard times in my late teens, early twenties trying to come to terms with the different lifestyle
I
n late 2011, during downtime from his day job as guitarist for the band Thousand Needles In Red, Tristan Bouillaut had a vision for a new music project. It was as DIY a musical project as you could possibly get. “I had a real vision for how I wanted the business side of things to run, the music side obviously and also the DIY mentality,” he states of his intentions. “I don’t think it’s particularly necessary
RICK RAE (PRODUCER) Drums recorded mainly through a vintage Neve Broadcast console. Kick and Snares recorded through Focusrite ISA 115s. For micing the drums, I used D12 on the kick and SM57 on snare top, a AKG C414 on the snare bottom and on the toms varied condenser mics. For overheads, I used U47s and room mics, new Red Valve microphones. Bass Guitars were recorded straight into Vintec X81 and then re-amped later using an M88. For Guitar, used 3 guitar amps, through a Voodoo labs amp switcher with an array of 57s and 421s, through Neve 1073’s and Vintec X81’s All Keyboards recorded straight into the Neve 1073.
Alive And Well these days with the tools we have to outsource a lot of the creative work, even down to the graphic design. I wanted us to do everything in-house, not to have total control, it’s not about that… it’s so that we don’t have to wait or rely on anyone.”
endorsement deals, all of which he honoured in the production of the EP. “I used a Faith 12 string, a Faith 6 steel string, a nylon which was great to have some body behind certain notes. For electrics I used mainly PRS, a couple of Gibsons, a 335. There were a few guitars. I know it’s hard to tell. When you go that little bit heavier, it’s hard to distinguish between them. I used the TC Electronic’s Nova System for my compression and delay. I didn’t use a great deal of clean guitar. The reverb from the Nova System is insane. Everyone knows TC’s reverb comes from years and years of research.”
Fast forward to June this year and Triztan’s, or Trizo as he’s more commonly known, was in Melbourne launching Maretimo, the debut EP for his new outfit Dead In A Second. Not only had Triz written all of the songs and played all of the instruments, he produced, engineered and mixed as well, all from home, only bringing in friend Rick Hammond to sing and rap. What Triz didn’t know about production during his Maretimo journey, he studied up on using YouTube clips and Google searches. A soundproof vocal booth was created in his spare room using mattresses in a whatever-it-takes mind set. “I had my guide guitars on the demo... From the click track, you start building the drums and the bass and get the foundations down. Then I like to add guitars and production before the vocals are put down. So all the instrumentation first and all the production, then the vocals and you can just delete what you don’t need from there.” Trizo’s talent has not gone unnoticed by the gear companies and he’s been blessed with many
Working on the EP from home was in one way a blessing, but as time marched on it also became a curse not knowing when to actually call it quits. “It was horrible. I have learned a lot from it though. It was hard because you wake up at four in the morning and you think, I have a record I am working on in the next room. Living and working in the same place is ridiculous.”
Road To Rock and understanding the world that we live in from being so cloistered,” Shay recalls. “Now I wouldn’t change a thing because I have this great respect for life and something to draw from when I write. A lot of the album is based on those experiences.”
to describe,” she recalls fondly of the moment. The Road To … reeks of an album that has benefitted by a lot of time, thought and effort put into its production. Sharaya now look forward to a summer full of gigs, writing for album number two, and keeping one eye open to international market possibilities.
Shay has since immersed herself in the Melbourne music community and couldn’t be happier, splitting her time between duo bar gigs and her new band Sharaya. Initially the songs which now appear on the Sharaya album The Road To … were being prepared with a solo project of some sort in mind. As musicians were brought in by producer Ricki Rae to lay some parts down for the songs, they organically just morphed into a band. Sharaya now features Rae as drummer, hot shot guitarist Simon Hosford, Adam Surace on bass and Nik Pringadi on keyboards. The album is a collection of brooding, atmospheric, rock
Tristan’s attention now turns to taking his music to the stage, which will happen around November this year. Find Dead In A Second On Facebook
Find Sharaya on Facebook
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[19]
Advice WITH
CATHERINE HARIDY
At what point does an artist need a manager? Why would you? Where do you find one anyway? Greg Phillips asks Catherine Haridy, she is one!
L
ong story short … Catherine Haridy began her route to artist management via this very magazine company writing for Inpress, while at the same time broadcasting on 3RRR and later doing great A&R for major record labels. Currently Cath manages Eskimo Joe, Jebediah, Adalita, and Bob Evans among a host of other talented local artists and producers. She runs a label, chairs the Association of Artist Managers, is an APRA Ambassador, board member at the Community Broadcasting Foundation, heads the Australian Music Grants Advisory and by the time this sentence finishes, Cath has probably allocated herself yet another role. The adage is so true, if you want something done, give it to a busy person! Think back to the famous music managers of the past; Zeppelin’s Peter Grant, Presley’s Colonel Tom Parker, The Beatles Brian Epstein… dodgey, ruthless bastards who were as much about themselves as their artists. Turns out the best kind of manager today is one who simply loves your music, has their shit together and has the artist’s best interests at heart. Catherine Haridy is as surprised as anyone that she fell into artist management. However on reflection, it all adds up. Working in A&R, she was basically an internal manger anyway, “managing expectations, enthusing people, working on strategies,” she says. But what the hell is a manager and what do they really do? Haridy narrows the modern day artist
more creative than ever before. Haridy herself, has been known to think outside the box when it comes to negotiating deals for her artists. One project Catherine is most proud of is the Basement Birds (a band which consists of Josh Pyke, Kav from Eskimo Joe, Kev from Jebediah and Steve Parkin) in which she managed to negotiate a deal freeing each member from the constraints of their label contracts in order to proceed with the project independently. What was most interesting however was the release method Haridy negotiated. “We did a deal direct with iTunes and released it in a way that no one else had in this country,” she says of the pioneering move. “ The guys financed it themselves, made back their money and a little bit more and had a fun time doing it and that’s all you can hope for.”
manager’s role down to four key areas. “Communication, creative and business and then there are a whole lot of peripheral things around that dealing with everyday enquiries and also managing my own business within that.” But if you’re a cocky young band just starting out and think your music is the best thing since the last thing, don’t assume managers, media and even the public are going to naturally gravitate toward you. You first need to establish a reason why a manager would want to take you on or why the media would want to talk about you or why the public would be keen to see you play. What would attract Catherine Haridy to signing a new act? “The songs to begin with,” she tells. “Are they strong songs? Is there something in the music that you feel passionate about that you feel you could work with in terms of a bigger career?” One of the hazards of being over enthusiastic about your music is that you can sometimes introduce it to the wider world too soon. First impressions are
Management WHEN, WHY AND HOW? long lasting and you want to ensure that you give yourself the best shot possible right from the beginning. Catherine agrees: “I think if you are going to step out into a public forum in a recorded sense, then you want to make sure the recording is a good recording, sufficiently mixed and mastered and that it is potentially radio playable. You want to make sure you have a plan for what you’re going to do with your music.”
In the digital age of music, the rule book is still being written. Management practices which worked in the past may not be applicable today and both artists and managers need to be
OK, so your band has got the great songs down, they’re recorded well and you’ve been playing some gigs and accumulating a fanbase via social network sites. You’re at the stage where you need management, but where do you begin to look? Haridy believes your managerial needs may well be found within. “I think a lot of new bands feel they need to secure one of the top 20 percent of managers in the country when in actual fact, those managers are so busy that they generally don’t have time to pick up anything else. My advice would be if they want to find a manager, they should look within their community and isolate a person who is passionate about their music and loves what they do, has initiative, is a good communicator and bring that person onboard to start with them from the very beginning and have them grow into their role as manager as the artist grows.” Haridy has her hands full planning a path for releases by Bob Evans, Tiger Town, Eskimo Joe and The Chemists, recordings which will emerge in the coming months into next year and is both intrigued and excited about the future of the Australian music scene. “It still excites me,” she says, “I don’t think it will ever not excite me.” www.catherineharidy.com.au
Don Bartley’s BENCHMARK MASTERING Full Analogue Online Mastering Services. www.benchmarkmastering.com info@benchmarkmastering.com 02 47395455 / 0412217779
[22]
Jean Larrivee Guitar USA
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For your nearest dealer go to www.promusicaustralia.com/Dealers.Larrivee.htm
[23]
[6]
Roland Fender G5 VG Stratocaster
REVIEWER: THE RUBENS’ SAM MARGIN INFO: WWW.ROLANDCORP.COM.AU
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he Rubens play a style of rock which is one part timeless guitar swagger and another part modern day production groove. The Roland Corporation, the innovative company responsible for many of the world’s most iconic keyboards has teamed with Fender guitars to release The G5, VG Stratocaster, merging a classic guitar model with futuristic technology to create a versatile guitar for the times. It made sense to put one of these units into the hands of The Rubens lead vocalist and guitarist Samuel Margin to get his opinion on the meeting of these two worlds. “When I was first asked to road test and review a bit of music equipment I was quite worried. I’d never been asked my opinion on anything like that before and wasn’t sure I could pull it off. When it was suggested that I review The Fender Roland G-5 guitar I was even more unnerved. It wasn’t as simple as reviewing a pedal like I’d hoped, but proved to be much more interesting! I had the chance to play a Line 6 JTV69US while I was in America and found it had many faults. It’s quite convenient for me to have something to compare the G-5 to, and quite convenient for the G-5 to have such a weak competitor... in my opinion. Basically, Roland has taken its COSM guitar modelling technology and integrated it into a Mexican Stratocaster. This seems like a great idea in theory, but just because two things are successful on their own, doesn’t mean combining them will result in something equally successful. I’ve always been skeptical of these kinds of instruments, mainly because I feel like they are destroying the romanticism surrounding the guitar. The idea that you can now buy one guitar that can do the work of six is extremely practical, but not traditionally ‘Rock and Roll’. The first thing you will notice about this guitar when you pick it up is the high build quality. Mexican Strats can be a little bit hit and miss sometimes, but this guitar actually feels like an American Standard Stratocaster. This is really important to me especially if I was to be performing on stage with this thing. The fact that it looks
and feels like a normal Strat helps distract you from the mutant it contains and I’m sure its subtlety will be a great selling point (though the blue LED does constantly remind you that there’s something fishy going on).
Back In The Day SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS
Let’s take a look at the spec sheet and see what this beast consists of. The guitar features an alder body, c-shape maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. It has a vintage-style synchronised tremolo and three single coil pickups. Controls include a Mode knob which will gets you a modeled Strat, modeled tele, modeled humbucking, modeled acoustic guitar and there’s a non-modeling mode. The Tuning knob offers normal tuning, drop D, Open G, D modal, Baritone and 12 string guitar. Pretty
- PROPHET 5
F
rom Tears For Fears and Abba to our own INXS and Icehouse, there was a time when the Prophet 5 roamed the earth and left a huge sonic footprint before suffering the fate of all dinosaurs. Melbourne Music Centre’s Brad Coates reports: In the beginning of 1978, Dave Smith, John Bowen and Barb Smith squeezed into a tiny exhibition booth at Anaheim’s Disneyland Hotel and together they formed the newly established Sequential Circuits Company. Little did anyone at the time know, they were about to change the keyboard player’s world forever with their main display item for the winter NAMM show - the Prophet 5. Described at the time as “5 Minimoogs in one box”, (somewhat incorrectly), the Prophet 5 literally stole the show as the first commercially available and viable Polyphonic Synthesizer. In actual fact the Yamaha CS80 really deserved the title and was also being demonstrated at the same show. What really created the PRO V’s success was its’ ability to play five notes at once and store all parameters for each patch in memory banks - 40 in all, a thing unheard of in 1978.
SPECS • Alder Body • C-Shape Maple Neck
Three successive models were produced during SCI’s lifetime - designated Rev. 1, 2 & 3, (short for software revision).The Rev. 1, although extremely sought after as the earliest version, lacked the later version’s tape-dumping abilities and all-important ‘tune’ button, and whilst being the most unreliable, due to the SSM chips (Solid State Music) the Rev. 1 was also arguably the dirtiest and fattest sounding. However, only the later Rev. 2’s and 3’s are able to be MIDIretrofitted. These were the days when musicians actually PLAYED their synths, so sequencing a Prophet in those days was somewhat of a secondary concern, although the company did produce its own dedicated digital poly sequencer (non-MIDI) for the prophet , which was also included in the Prophet-10 (essentially two Pro-5’s with the sequencer onboard).
• Rosewood
Fingerboard
• Single Coil type x3,
Divided type x1 P/U
• Vintage Style
Synchronized Tremolo
• Fingerboard
Radius: 9.5” • Scale Length: 25.5” (64.8cm) • Number of Frets: 22 • Fret Size: Medium Jumbo
GUEST TEST
THE RUBENS’ SAM MARGIN
CONTROLS • MODE knob: 5 types • Normal
(non-modeling)
• Modeled Stratocaster • Modeled Telecaster • Modeled
Humbucking Pickups
• Modeled
Acoustic guitar
• TUNING knob:
Normal tuning, Drop D, Open G, D Modal, Baritone, 12-string guitar • TONE Control knob, VOLUME knob, 5-Way switch • Connector • Guitar Jack (1/4” phone type)
POWER SUPPLY • Alkaline battery
(AA, LR6) x 4, or Rechargeable Ni-MH battery (AA, HR6) x 4 • Expected battery life under continuous use Alkaline battery: 6 hours. Rechargeable Ni-MH battery: 9 hours
impressive! There’s also a tone control knob, volume knob and five-way switch. I am easily confused by technology, and I’m a terrible decision maker. I should have been completely daunted by such a guitar, but I wasn’t. I could’ve very easily become frustrated with the complexity of the different models but the truth is, I was just having way too much fun playing it to find it draining. I slowly tried different settings and through trial and error, became pretty at ease with the system quite quickly. I must admit I did begin to favour a few settings, particularly the Telecaster. It is actually phenomenal how much it sounds like you’re playing a Tele. The baritone guitar was equally as impressive. And there was absolutely no latency issues! This guitar could really be used in a wide range of settings. For guitarists in cover bands
its surely going to become a must-have! They could go from Hendrix to Jack Johnson with the flick of a switch. Actually, the acoustic guitar is really great too with the tone knob becoming a reverb knob when you choose this setting, another fantastic feature obviously great for using live. Although I can imagine most purist producers and engineers would turn their nose up at the idea of using the G-5 in the studio, more open minded types would benefit from having this guitar as their general studio ‘work horse’. Especially because although you have an amazing array of technology at your disposal, it can all be turned off and be used as a “classic” Strat. It could also be an inspirational writing tool thanks to the tuning options. Being able to flick a switch and change from open tuning to drop-D and so on definitely helps when trying to get inspired and come up with a tune!
Looking back at this review its seems as though it has been a good one. I guess I like the G-5. I didn’t really expect to but Fender and Roland have really covered all the bases on the this one and left me no choice. I think the reason for its success is its relative simplicity. If I had to find something negative to say I’d only be able to find something as trivial as the fact that it doesn’t come with a hard case. If they are hoping for this guitar to be taken as seriously as the price tag suggests, (around $1500) they could throw in a Fender Hard-case. If I’m going to be completely honest, and I am, I wouldn’t buy one of these guitars because I don’t need one. In saying that, there are countless musicians out there whose lives will be made so much easier by this amazing mash-up of technologies and because of that, I think Fender and Roland have produced something special in the G-5.”
Although many think of the Prophet of a strictly analogue machine, in reality the Prophet was actually an analogue/digital hybrid, as were most of the polys that followed. The basic features were: five voices with two oscillators per voice; A 24db per Octave Four pole resonant low-pass filter; two ADSR Envelope Generators, one each for Filter and Amplifier, White Noise Generator (actually easily the worst-sounding noise on any synth ever! - but useful as a modulation source.), Pitch and Modulation wheels, (like Minimoogs) assignable to either Oscillator’s Pitch, Pulse Width of 2nd Oscillator, or Filter. Also a whopping 40 userprogrammable memories (1978 remember!), AND...the part that generated all the really complex waveshapes - the poly-mod section, which defined the Prophet “flavour” more than any other single sound-shaping element. The keyboard was a five octave PrattReid note on/note off affair with no Touch Response. Selling in Australia in ’79 for around $5,000 -$6,000, the Prophet came in several thousand dollars cheaper than Yamaha’s CS80, and virtually single-handedly destroyed the Solina/ARP’s String Machine market. Unfortunately, Sequential Circuits was doomed to become yet another synthmanufacturer casualty, and their R&D and other concerns were taken over by Yamaha in the late ‘80s. One of the last great synths they made was the Vector-Synthesis Prophet from which certain design elements were ‘pinched’ for the now-classic Korg Wavestation, and other TG series Yamaha synths. www.melbournemusiccentre.com.au
[25]
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Ashton Acoustic D59SCEQ NCM
O
ut of the box, it looks clean functional and all in one piece, which is always a great start. To test this instrument out, I played it in a writing session at my studio with a client. I played on and off for a threehour period as we wrote, discussed and tried different ideas for the tune we were writing. First port of call for any session is tuning and I’m glad to report that once the instrument was at pitch, it held its tune quite well. Sealed machine heads with a nice ratio made this part a breeze. Can it be tuned ? Yes. Does it hold tune? Yes indeed! The neck was rather thin for an acoustic. It reminded me of similar premium American guitar brand. It was easy to play, the action was good low but without rattling like a snake. Is it nice to play? It sure is. The spruce top is solid wood and sang nicely when the instrument was played, bright but not tinny or brittle. The frets were well finished and felt really nice under hand. The fingerboard wasn’t the best I’ve
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ever felt but it was nothing to complain about either. As for sounding good… it does that too.
First up the Crossfire Dual-Injection After-Burner, a twin Overdrive and Distortion pedal, comprised of two circuits housed in the one unit that is able to change the order of signal flow either from distortion to overdrive or vice versa. The overdrive section features ‘Tone’, ‘Drive’ and ‘Level’ knobs, while the distortion section features ‘Tone’, Dist.’ and ‘Level’. I was keen to test the distortion first with a clean tone and a humbucker. I set the distortion to emulate a dirty rhythm sound and used the overdrive to add more gain and level for a saturated lead tone, thereby turning a single channel amp into a three channel amp (sort of ). The distortion on its own produced an aggressive crunch similar to a DS-1 (Boss), but with a harsher, filthier top end making it good for grunge. Cranking the level and keeping the tone behind 11 o’clock produced the most desirable sounds, as the tone is very sensitive and sounds brittle and thin when cranked. Going from distortion to overdrive produced a usable mid-heavy solo tone with the level cranked, the tone at 4 (o’clock) and the drive at 9. The overdrive on its own produced nice vintage break-up, with a light smooth drive, characteristic of a DOD-style OD. Going from overdrive to distortion resulted in a considerable loss of volume, but heralded in the best lead tone that was saturated and sculpted, ideal for recording.
What it lacks is depth of tone that you can only get from an all solid guitar which would be twothree times the price of this unit, so it really is a case of horses for courses. Typically in this segment of the market for solid top guitars you consistently get thin brittle tones and a glossy finish to make it look attractive. This features a natural matte finish and is well constructed, no barbs on the fret ends, nice fingerboard and I didn’t tire as I played up the neck. As for the electronics… the built-in tuner was quite handy and both accurate and sensitive, with four-band EQ on the preamp consisting of bass, middle, treble and presence plus a volume control. All were responsive enough to manipulate the sound out of the pickup with a decent amount of range cut and boost. I found it quite easy to tailor the tone to what I wanted to hear from the small PA I tested it with. The knobs were a little small and fiddly but it was no big deal to adjust the controls. Overall I found the Ashton D59SCEQ NCM a great value for money workhorse and an instrument I’d recommend for any beginner or intermediate player.
Next up, the TRM-507 Tremolo, a simple, versatile ‘Trem.’ pedal that sounds pretty darn good. The winner here (besides the price) is the ability to go from a soft sine wave to a jagged square wave by tweaking the ‘Wave’ knob, which is where two knob tremolos fail. This is a very musical trem and I liked how it sounded both in the effects loop, and in front of the preamp. Three knobs do the damage, where ‘Rate’
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Tech 21 Boost Series Pedals
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REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.NATIONALMUSIC.COM.AU
T
The Tech 21 Boost Overdrive was first under the microscope. I used this pedal with my Les Paul and Marshall Plexi to get a beefier tone out of my amp. The overdrive consists of controls for ‘Level’, ‘Tone’ ‘Drive’ and ‘Sparkle’. All the usual suspects are here except for the addition of the ‘Sparkle’, which “Adds upper harmonics for an open, snappy sound”. The overdrive did a very convincing ‘TS808’ emulation, a great ‘Top Booster’ for ‘70s drive, and good Blues overdrive when dialed in with cleaner tone. Overall I thought this pedal sounded great for older ‘70s and ‘80s hard rock/ metal tones, and using the boost on its own sounded the best with my Marshall for getting the exact kind of tone I was after.
The Boost Distortion has hints of that iconic modern Tech 21 distortion heard all over the world on some great albums (Nevermind…). It was easy to a get a thick clear distortion that emulated a modern high-gain amp, and is perfect for turning a good clean amp into a monster. This time the ‘Sag’ effect “Adds an expressive tube-like response to every pick stroke”, and did a good job of sounding like a worn in tube amp when digging into the strings, adding that tube feel even with solid state amps.
[26]
G
I must say overall I am really impressed with this instrument. Without knowing the price initially, I estimated around $499 and I was spot on. If I had to give it a mark, I would rate this guitar 7 out of 10. I was very impressed with its playability, tone and quality of hardware and construction and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to any beginner or intermediate player.
I took the same approach with the Boost Fuzz pedal and plugged into a driven amp, and what could be better than a Strat into a vintage Marshall for that Hendrix sound? The combination of a driven amp plus fuzz results in magic. Again, this pedal sees the same format of ‘Level’, ‘Tone’ and ‘Drive’, but the inclusion of ‘Sag’ adds an extra dimension “Allowing notes to bloom and sing at your command, for a dynamic, organic performance.” A wide array of tones was available from Hendrix, to Weezer. This pedal did a killer job of emulating those vintage Germanium fuzz pedals guitarists drool over.
Finally, a pedal for bass, the Boost Fuzz Bass was my favourite, as it did a number of different things really well. I plugged this pedal direct into my mixing desk as I was after that insane fuzz bass you hear on Nine Inch Nails recordings and on some electronic recordings and it delivered with unexpectedly good results. This time the secret ingredient was the “+ Clean” knob which dialed back in a clean signal making it possible to blend fuzz and clean together generating a massive doubled sound when distorted guitars are in the mix. There is so much drive on tap that it is possible to go from warm, spongy drive to insane globs of mush that would be perfect for heavier styles such as stoner rock, death metal and industrial music. Dialing back the ‘Level’, ‘Tone’ and ‘Drive’, and boosting the ‘+ Clean’ adds a bass boost to your overall tone, while turning the ‘Tone’ up keeping the ‘Drive’ midway was cool for ‘Sabbath-like’ rumble. This new line of Tech 21 pedals is great and will appeal to musicians searching for a certain sound, whilst still having the flexibility produce a variety of different tones.
REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.JADEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
one are the days where stomp boxes cost an arm and a leg with loads of budget brands surfacing which produce similar results to the big guys. Add Crossfire to this list, a company providing simple, solid tone, in a sturdy housing that’s wallet friendly. I was given a whole bunch of pedals to try out, but today I’ll be looking at my three faves, the CF-DO2 Overdrive and Distortion, TRM-507 Tremolo and DLY-303 Delay.
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Pulling an Ashton acoustic out at a gig may not traditionally be a status symbol and by no means is this the greatest acoustic I’ve ever strummed, but make no mistake, this is a fine workhorse, probably best suited for beginner to intermediate players. However if Ashton continue to produce this sort of quality instrument, I think some of the other manufacture’s in this market should be worried. The back and sides are made of mahogany, adding stability and strength to the instrument, the wood-grain on this one is quite pretty to look at.
ech 21 are one of the the effects heavyweights, born in NYC, USA by Andrew Barta’s vision of the Sansamp. His legacy lives on through other killer pedals like the new ‘Boost’ series featuring a form of drive coupled with up to 21dB of clean, switchable boost.
Crossfire Pedals
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REVIEWER: AJAY BAWDEN INFO: WWW.ASHTONMUSIC.COM
The Crossfire pedals are cool; they all have solid housings and switches and are perfect for expanding your pedal board on a budget. Each effect has its limitations, but they do what they do very well and may provide you with exactly what you’re after.
Posse
E
1
Last but not least, the DLY-303 Delay, a wonderful analogue delay that’s warm and clear, and capable of producing short to medium delay times. Again the simple threeknob format for ‘Rate’, ‘Repeat’ and ‘Level’. I’d definitely say this pedal was the finest of the lot because it sounds so warm and rich, and is amazing for its price. Here you get the sound of a true analogue delay, perfect for retro slapback and clean short stabs of rhythm. The ‘Rate’ isn’t capable of ridiculously long times like some digital delay pedals but is set to allow for a bit more ‘throw’ for leads, or perfect that Foo Fighters ‘Rope’ sound if put in front of some tube breakup.
REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.TRC.COM.AU
very now and then an item comes along which revolutionises the way we make music. In-ear monitoring is now an accepted format even amongst artists playing smaller gigs, but the problem is that it’s sometimes too complicated to get a decent mix or you may feel isolated because you’re not hearing the room properly. What if you could quickly set up your own independent monitor mix, fine-tune it throughout the show, and even blend in some of that essential room sound? Well this is exactly what you can do with the POSSE, a personal in-ear monitoring system that includes, a Floor Box, Belt Box, and Stand Box that allows you to blend vocal, instrument, room, and aux inputs so you get a full, natural mix directly in-ears.
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controls the speed of the cycle and ‘Depth’ likewise controls the intensity of the effect.
First up the Posse isn’t limited to one sort of musician or one musical format, it can be tweaked and setup for just about any situation for singers, guitarists and beyond. The inbuilt room mics and an included condenser mic make it especially handy for horn players or acoustic musicians that don’t have pickups and require clear signal to be fed to front of house. An easy to use onboard guitar tuner located on the stand box will also keep your axes in tune all night while being highly visible in the dark. I set the Posse up in my studio with a mic and acoustic guitar and also sent some backing tracks out of my studio speakers to replicate the sound of a live band on a small scale. Jumping on the website (posseaudio.com) made setup especially easy for me, as it had a number different configurations and uses for different musical scenarios. I attached the floor box to the stand box, screwed the stand box onto my mic stand, plugged my vocal mic in, and finally hooked up the belt box to the floor box and was ready to go. I gave my acoustic a quick tune with the on-board tuner,
which was fast and accurate and hit play on my backing tracks. Setting up a mix was fast and easy and could be done on the fly, and it was possible to go really loud without any discernable distortion. The quality of tone was nothing short of stunning, and the real winner here was the ability to blend room sounds using the inbuilt stereo room mics allowing me hear the backing tracks clearly, my guitar and vocals, as well as traffic from the main road and even the birds chirping outside. Unplugging the direct line and using the Posse’s condenser mic yielded even better tonal results for my acoustic for that classic close miked sound we all love, so I’d definitely encourage using the mic (or a blend) if you’re able to stay clear of feedback at a show. Sure you can buy inear monitors, but then you have to buy a belt pack and transmitter and even then you still might be relying on someone else for your mix. So why rely on your sound-guy when you can have your own Posse (pun intended)?
YAMAHA MSR SERIES. ACTIVE SPEAKERS.
yamahabackstage.com.au
*The prices set out in this advertisement are recommended retail prices (RRP) only and there is no obligation for Yamaha dealers to comply with this recommendation. Errors and omissions excepted.
[27] 7
5
Mark Electronic Drum Set
W
ith the market for electronic drum sets running hot, it is no surprise to see a new entrant here in Australia. Mark Drums originate in Italy, and are wholly designed by the company that brought us the Mark Bass amps. I spent a weekend recently putting the Mark drums to the test, and my responses were all positive. The kit itself is lightweight, with strong components that make for a very easy set up. Not all electronic kits are easy to configure to one’s normal playing set up, but the Mark drums were particularly easy to work with. The connecting leads all use network cable connectors, and with the sounds themselves processed within each pad, the rack has many points of connection, not just one for each pad, so there are lots more set up possibilities here. The cabling is very user, with virtually no ‘spaghetti’ wiring often found with electronic kits, another big plus in a performance situation. The pads all have mesh heads, and can be tuned to suit one’s own preferences in relation to head tension.
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I found the pads very responsive and their size made them easy to play. They are very durable, with solid rims, and I could quickly get the whole kit to ‘feel’ like my normal acoustic set up. The kit comes with a hi-hat attachment for use with your normal hi-hat pedal, and the bass drum trigger likewise works with your own pedal. I found both of these very good, with the hi-hat being able to track almost all of my ‘normal’ movements on this instrument. There are player specific calibrations that you can set for the hi-hat and for the snare drum to immediately get the kit feeling like your own in terms of playability.
I
In terms of the electronics the Mark drums are aimed at the quality end of the market: 24 preset kits with over 205 different single voices, all of which can be used to create your own user kits. The samples used are first rate and sound excellent! There is a 16 level velocity control function as well that makes for a very ‘playable’ kit, adaptable to any musical style. The controller interface is also very user friendly, with all functions easily accessed. I could quickly build my own user kit, create loops in real time to play along with, and even found time to explore the velocity settings – with just a short tweak, I could get the snare drum following my every nuance, including flams, drags, and buzzes (one of the best closed roll sounds I have produced on an electronic kit!).
The unit’s purpose is to play music from your iPod, computer, or smart phone. Operating the FOXL is easy enough, you turn it on and either connect to your audio source via the 3.5mm stereo mini jack (lead provided) or for those with Bluetooth/ wireless capabilities, via your smart phone. The folks at FOXL claim that the point of difference between this unit
R
ecently I had my hands on the Timberidge Mini Series-4 guitar, which I thought had a unique voice and built with quality, appeal and charm, so it was nice to get my hands on the full-bodied Timberidge (TR1SBP) and see how it stacked up. This particular model was a stock, Series 1 Dreadnaught guitar, and like all Timberidge guitars is designed in Australia and built in China making it an extremely affordable option.
Strung with a set of D’addario EXP Long Life Strings this guitar sounded bold and brilliant, with a tight bass response and a lot of presence. The tone and action made it a fingerpickers delight, and like the last Timberidge I reviewed, this guitar has more of a mid-heavy lead voice as opposed to softer, boomier acoustics with different body shapes and materials utilised. I loved what I refer to as the ‘string path’, the journey the string takes from its mounting in the bridge to the tuning post (as it’s something I evaluate more closely these days). The attention to detail and choice of materials was very good along the string path, with the X-brace under the top and a solid mounting into bridge and body being responsible for a strong attack, while the TUSQ nut, saddle and Grover machine heads kept this guitar perfectly in tune at all times.
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REVIEWER: GREG PHILLIPS INFO: WWW.FOXL.COM.AU
The uses for this unit are staggering, I think it covers just about all bases when it comes to audio, you can chuck some batteries in it and take it away to the coast and record some demos with your acoustic, plug in your electric guitar or keys and make some “full sounding” demos by using the on-board drum machine, or use it to multi-mic a full drum kit, or link two units together and capture the full band. You can even use the unit live and add sequencing while your drummer jams along with an independent click track appearing only in his headphones. The Zoom R24 can record up to 8 mono inputs simultaneously, playback up to 24 mono tracks at 44.1/48kHz, 16/24 Bits. It comes with a 2G SDHC card (which can be upgraded to up to 32G), PSU, a handy little 4G flash drive, and a copy of Cubase LE 6 to top it off. There are two in-built condenser mics that sound great, another six phantom powered (+24 or 48V) channels and a Hi-Z input for direct input of electric guitars and basses (that can utilise inbuilt amp modelling). The unit also has a drum machine that’s not limited to preset patterns, so you can make your own beats by tapping them in with the drum pads. You can even sample, loop and edit like any modern DAW.
But does it work as well without the leads? I went into my smartphone preferences and configured the settings to talk to the FOXL. My Bluetooth connection took all of 20 seconds to sort. While the unit does feature a volume control, it makes more sense to set it where you want and control volume from your audio source. Once I had the sound pumping out wirelessly, I took the phone for a stroll to check the unit’s range. Despite walking behind walls a room away, the unit kept in touch with my phone.
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The TR1-SBP is great value for money, and is diverse enough to make it very appealing to acoustic guitarists wanting to buy their first gigging acoustic, or musicians in need of another guitar to add more colour to their sonic palette.
REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.DYNAMICMUSIC.COM.AU
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Another cool thing is it’s piezo pickup, which I wouldn’t have known about had I not read the specs. You can plug a guitar lead into the input jack located at the strap pin just like most acoustic/ electrics; however, there is no onboard preamp that immediately identifies this feature. Don’t despair, because with a bit of gain into an acoustic amp or PA you’re rewarded with great tones. I actually like the fact that it has no onboard preamp, because being a sound guy I’ve had to compensate for some really poor tones and EQ coming straight from the guitar. I’m sure you’d get a great live tone if you invest in a feedback buster and threw a headstock tuner on this guitar because the stock tone coming out of the piezo is excellent.
Zoom R24 Review
he quality of home recording is so high these days it’s possible to make killer recordings right at home. Back in the day I started out with a old 4-track cassette recorder, then moved onto a digital multi-track unit after finally arriving at the PC and Mac based platforms. The great thing about the Zoom R24 is that it appeals to both the computer gurus and ‘all-in-oners’ because it functions as both an audio interface/ controller for computer-based Digital Audio Workstations, as well as a sole multi-track recorder.
and other mini speaker systems is that it packs an inordinate amount of punch for its size and can do it wirelessly. The sound is driven by two patented dual voice coil 25mm linear Magnetic Drive Twoofers (tweeters that also woof apparently). The BassBattery is both a re-chargeable lithium ion battery, and a Flatmagic acoustic bass radiator.
The sturdy construction means you can place it on a flat surface and it’s not going to fall over. If like me, you don’t have a set of speakers attached to your computer, then this little beast will be a godsend. Alternatively if you need to take your music with you, you can wear the FOXL on your belt, around your wrist or if you can bear it beating through your chest, around your neck too. The user guide suggests that a fully charged unit should have a battery life of 12 hours. At around $239 bucks for the Bluetooth model, the FOXL system is an affordable and versatile space saving sound system option.
REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.JADEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Out of its case, this guitar looked good, with a nice selection of materials and hardware used in its construction. On closer inspection, the frets were nicely rounded and dressed evenly with the setup department doing a good job ensuring no fret-buzz was apparent at the medium action it arrived in.
The more creative functions in the controller include Player Immersion, which allows you to adjust the sound of the kit from a listening perspective – you can choose to hear the kit from the audience perspective (out front) or from a player’s perspective (behind the kit) or mix them together to get the live sound you really want. There is a Layering function that allows you to add a second sample to the main one (eg adding a hand clap to a snare sample) and there is a Kaleidoscope Function that allows you to combine sample sound variations to create ‘continuous moving’ sounds. There is a loop function as well and on-board effects. I have used a number of electronic kits over the years teaching in schools, and some recording work too, and the Mark drums stand up as one of the best such kits I have played.
I connected the unit to my computer initially using the stereo mini jack route and called up iTunes. My first impression is that something is not right… and I don’t mean that in a negative way… I mean it’s not right that such low end boom and mid clarity is emanating from this Violet Crumble (they still make those don’t they?) sized piece of metal. It’s truly amazing and the louder you turn up the volume, the better the sound gets. OK, it’s not the kind of sound you’re going to get from your regular floor bound stereo system speakers but comparatively, the unit size per output ratio for this FOXL unit is off the map. Developed by Dr. Godehard Guenther, a physicist and former NASA engineer, the acoustics achieved are quite incredible.
Timberidge TR1SBP
This guitar is simple in design, built with a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, TUSQ nut and saddle, and a lovely abalone inlay around the soundhole. The maple binding on the neck and body provides an elegant look, a slick gloss coating gives a vintage vibe, and a flamed pattern on the back of the neck adds depth and character. Six diecast Grover tuners with satin black buttons hold it this instrument perfectly in tune, a pre-installed piezo pickup and input allows you to go electric, and the guitar comes with a choice of three selfadhesive pickguards in clear, black and tortoiseshell.
FOXL Personal Audiophile Loudspeaker
’m not a fan of earphones! Not only do I dislike the tactility of buds in my ears, I also crave the bleed of surrounding life in my sonic mix. So when I was offered FOXL’s Personal Audiophile Loudspeaker unit to review, I was keen to hear some new state of the art mini speaker technology, particularly because I didn’t need to stick it in my ears. When I first viewed the size of the unit (143 x 55 x 35mm), my expectations were lowered… it would have to defy physics to give the kind of sound I’ve become accustomed to. It’s around the size of a chocolate bar, the way they used to make them anyway.
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REVIEWER: PAUL MATCOTT INFO: WWW.CMCMUSIC.COM.AU
Out of the box I decided to make a quick demo to sample the quality of this unit and test its features. I pulled out an acoustic guitar and recorded two tracks with the inbuilt mics, with no compression or EQ added. Later, I recorded a vocal track by using a nice insert
preset that gave quite an impressive, slick vocal tone and added some reverb and delay on playback. The inbuilt mics sound great, true studio quality, even on the vocal track. Next up I make a bigger sounding demo with electric guitars, a bass, programmed drums and vocals. The on-board drum sounds were pretty simplistic and having to learn how to use the sequencer involved having to read the manual, but the good thing is that you can use the sample pads to play any sample so I imported some serious drum sounds by downloading free sounds off the net. The amp sims were not to bad either, especially after a little EQ, so the final product sounded slick and professional, especially after using insert effect chains, EQ and the two sends of reverb and delay to gel everything together. The Zoom R24 is a brilliant unit with a ton of features and uses. It’s perfect for beginners to seasoned professionals, especially if you need to record multiple inputs at any given time (drummers should definitely take note!).
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Behringer P16 I & M
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he Behringer Powerplay 16 provides a new method for personal monitoring that sends audio to an input module (P16-I), converts the signal to 24-bit data, then runs it down a Cat-5 cable into a personal mixer (P16-M). Each input module can feed six mixers or distributors which feed (up to) a further eight mixers (like a computer router) which are even bus powered through the Cat-5 cable. Initially audio is fed to the P16-I either through 2x8 blocks of ADAT, 16 mono audio channels (¼” TRS), or a combination of the two (eight ADAT/ eight TRS). If using an analogue desk 16 high-headroom TRS inputs make for clean, loud signal with less than one millisecond latency experienced in conversion. Each channel has four gain switches to ensure level consistency, with top-notch 24-bit A/D converters providing clear sound up to 75m from the source. The P16-I also accepts 44.1 or 48K sample rates through various digital sources.
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If I was mixing at a typical pub gig using 16 direct outs, I’d set up something like this for a four- to fivepiece band: Kick, Snare, Rack (tom) 1, Rack 2, Floor, for my drum channels (1-5). Bass DI, Guitar L, Guitar R, for my instruments (6-8). Vocal L, Centre, Right, Drum Vocals, for all the vocal mics (9-12). Stage Left and Right (which will only be fed to the monitor mix for room ambience) and a stereo reverb send to “wet” drums, and aid vocals (13-16). In this scenario the input module would live in a rack at front of house, Cat-5 cables would run to the stage with the multi-core, with each member having their own mixer (P16-M). Then I’d soundcheck each input, allowing all the members to set up their own private mix with different volume, panning and EQ, while at the same time tweaking my own front of house mix. After the band finishes soundcheck, all the settings can be saved and stored on the P16-M; it’s possible to save different mixes for different bands and even different songs.
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The first guitar that took my eye was the lovely AX3 Guitar, based on Eddie Van Halen’s signature Axis model and finished in a gorgeous transparent blue flame top. With a 25.5” scale, featuring a solid hardwood body, maple neck and fingerboard in a smooth satin finish for firebreathing shred. Two body-mounted zebra humbuckers provide a wide range of tones, with a five-way selector splitting the pickups into single coils at positions 2 and 4. Other features include an easy to use truss rod adjuster, fivebolt neck attachment, superb cutaway and a killer ‘dive-only’ trem with a small recessed handle allowing use without a whammy bar.
The Lionheart is a made-inthe-UK, twin channel, 50watt singled-ended Class A amplifier. It’s loaded with five EL34 tubes in parallel. Some of the features include: footswitch controlled reverb, a Hi and Lo input, effects loop, as well as band pass EQ in the form of a Tone knob, and a Dynamic knob; which is basically presence.
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REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.CMCMUSIC.COM.AU
Plugged in the AX3 fell nothing short of a guitar three times its price, sounding thick and full, funky and ‘quacky’ or richly saturated for searing solos. The winning factors on this guitar are the “hardwood” body, which sounds, responds and weighs like mahogany, two killer pickups (and their body mounting) and superb tuning stability.
Sterling has undoubtedly achieved its goals with the new S.U.B. series. Low prices, high quality, great looks and killer tones.
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The only thing I wish this amp had that it didn’t was greater control over each channel. The single EQ control for both channels really frustrates me on any amp, and this was no different. I also found the clean a little too clinical at times, and wished that I was able to have control of the gain and could introduce a little break up. Laney have really outdone themselves in producing an amp that is versatile, well made and sounds great. And for the price, buying a Chinese made ‘British’ style amp seems crazy. Unless you are looking to buy an amp made in the UK ten years ago, this is the closest thing you will find to true classic vintage tone in a modern amp.
REVIEWER: AJAY BAWDEN INFO: WWW.MUSICMERCH.COM.AU
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In comparison to the AX3, the Silo 3 sounded completely different, much thinner and lighter in tone, making it better matched to warmer, darker sounding valve amps like certain Fender and Mesa combos. The signal was also much cleaner than the AX3 (even with the humbucker) so it was easy to achieve super-clean, chorused chimes that dominated ‘80s ballads, if that’s your thing.
the most impressive thing about this amp is its dynamic ability, even with full gain it never becomes over saturated - the way the amp would open up the harder I hit my strings, for me, is a sign of a great amp; I never felt like the amp was in control.
Walden G570CETB Acoustic electric guitar
K, let’s break this Walden model number down to the basics. G equals guitar, 570 is the model number, CE refers to cutaway electric and TB stands for tobacco burst. Opening the case, it’s looking good. The tobacco burst, matte finish visual presents well. Nothing broken… bonus! It even comes with a few accessories such as 9V battery, truss rod/neck adjustment tool (don’t use this if you’re a newbie to guitars…leave it to the guys at the shop) and even a black walden T-shirt. A nice little touch of value.
Next was the Silo 3, (showing shades of influence from the John Petrucci model) with a single bridge humbucker and two single coils providing the tones. This particular guitar was finished in white with a black pickguard for a cool, classy white tuxedo look. There was a discernable difference in body weight and tone compared to the AX3, which leads me to believe the body is made of alder, ash or basswood.
Not only an excellent looking bass, but sounding fantastic the pickup presents strong, clean, high output tones, perfect for direct recording and DI’d tones, as well as lots of versatility with the onboard preamp, from smooth jazz, funky slap to thick midrange rock, and the absence of a neck or middle pickup makes popping, slapping, and picking easier as well.
The first thing you will notice about the amp is that it looks great, and that’s all the counts right? But does it sound great? Having only ever played a Laney 15w practice amp when I was 15 I was interested to see how they sounded, and how they would, if they could, produce a great ‘British’ amp sound. From my first slightly out of tune chord I was already digging the amp. With the amp on the dirty channel and all the settings at 12 o’clock, this amp already was warm, the break up was great, and the tone was spot on. The amp handled everything I threw at it, from a jazzy, only slightly overdriven tone, through to a full gain monster, this amp could do it all, and did it in style. The clean is bright and shimmery, the reverb is a great example of a spring reverb, and the gain is thick, warm and full of depth. For me
Behringer’s P16 Powerplay monitoring system is a bold step into the future, great for band and especially relevant to churches, school and ensembles that require multiple monitor mixes.
Finally, the S.U.B. Ray 4 bass, modeled after one the greatest basses in existence, the Music Man Stingray. Much like the real deal, this bass had the iconic Stingray pickguard, single humbucker (with active preamp), and three aside/one aside headstock. Again, even though this bass was born offshore, it had the look, feel and in some respects tone of the classic American Stingray. A couple of things make this bass really appealing, for one it’s probably the only bass in its price range with quality active electronics, solid quality woods and a sturdy six-bolt neck joint.
REVIEWER: MARK OWEN INFO: WWW.AUSTRALISMUSIC.COM.AU
n the last few years there has been a trend in favour of vintage style amps. The shift has been away from brands like Mesa, Peavey, Line 6, Engl and Krank; back to the the old stalwards... Fender, Orange, Vox and Hiwatt. This hasn’t been isolated to just amps, with guitars following the same trend… ESPs being replaced with Fenders and Schechters with Gibson. This period of change has caused a few brands to go under the radar; one of these brands is Laney, and after playing a Lionheart, I don’t really understand why.
So what are the advantages of having your own mixedr for your headphones? The biggest is you’ll have complete control of your own stereo mix to aiding your performance to another level, also having no sound coming out of the wedges results in a cleaner front of house mix, and finally you save money on not having to buy a belt-pack/transmitter, or even wedges or amps. I tested the Powerplay system with various instruments at home. I sent a stereo mix from my computer to channels one and two, plugged in an acoustic guitar in channel three and a vocal mic in channel four. All sounded loud and clear and it was enjoyable playing along with a stereo mix.
Laney L50H Lionheart
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The interface sends signal to the P16-M, a small lightweight mixer feeding either headphones, inears, or powered foldback. Each mixer has 16 mono channels that can be linked, grouped; EQ’d and panned at individual volumes, as well as a master bus with its own output, EQ and limiter. The EQ features a fixed bass and treble with sweepable mid cut/ boost for massive tone sculpting capability.
Sterling S.U.B. AX3 Guitar
t was great to get my hands on the new S.U.B. series of Sterling guitars by Music Man. The S.U.B. series of guitars and basses are comprised of both US and “International” models aiming at high quality and serious value for money. Today I’ll be reviewing three Indonesian models: the Sterling S.U.B. AX-3, Silo-3 guitars, and the Ray-4 bass.
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REVIEWER: REZA NASSERI INFO: WWW.KOSMICSOUND.COM.AU
This Grand Auditorium shaped guitar is designed in the USA and made in China… what isn’t these days? Sealed machine heads with a black plastic trim/binding, plastic nut bridge and string pins. This is a solid top guitar made of western red cedar with mahogany back and sides. The fingerboard is solid rosewood and it features two ring inlay rosettes. Now let’s give it a strum and see what happens. Great… it’s in tune and nothing broke. First port of call… tuning. Let’s put this into DADGAD Dsus4 tuning and see if it holds. I played Zeppelin’s Kashmir for a few minutes and then decided to tune it back to standard EADGBE and retest the stability of the tuning. It held up fine and I found the sealed machine heads to be pretty good accurate. They’re not big-branded, so don’t expect Gotoh or Grover quality, but none the less they do the job as well as one would hope.
As for tone… well this guy is bright and brittle. I have a heavy right hand (I’m right handed) and a percussive style when it come to playing, so the shimmer really stood out to me. I also tried some softer finger picked tunes to test its versatility. There was a slight buzz coming from the frets so I decide to check the position of the neck. This one is really straight, a bit too straight and an adjustment of the truss rod solved all of that. Overall this is about right for a young or beginner player. A more mature player may not get enough from the tone. The electronics worked fine, the pickup good and E.Q. (bass, middle, treble) responsive enough to do what needed to be done. Option includes Venetian cutaway style with B-band T35 EQ.
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or many years the name Casio has conjured up images of products perhaps most diplomatically described as being aimed at the more entry level of the market. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when I was confronted by the XW-P1 and the XW-G1. The latter is more ‘DJ’ oriented and I will talk about it another time, but the XW-P1 is very definitely a player’s synth, aimed squarely at performers who want a huge range of features on a budget. Firstly the expected price falls below a thousand dollars, which is fantastic value. The look is extremely ‘pro’ and as soon as it fires up the sound quality is apparent. It is by anyone’s standards a good sounding synth, with a vast array of sounds. There’s four basic ways it can be used. In solo synth mode there are 100 presets representing some great vintage analogue sounds; then there’s ‘hex’ setting which allows the layering of six tones; there’s fifty drawbar organ presents in organ mode and the nine sliders on the control
Casio XW synth
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REVIEWER: BAZ BARDOE INFO: WWW.SHRIRO.COM.AU
surface are used in this mode to replicate the adjustments of drawbars; and then there’s a mode which has some 420 PCM melody and drum presets. The XW-P1 has a total of 311 internal synth waves based upon vintage analogue synthesiser sounds, and a total of 2.158 PCM waves. Sounds can be built up by layering waves and they can of course also be used as a basis for individual sound creation, with the sliders allowing the adjustment of various parameters. Featuring six oscillator blocks, the scope for sound creation seems endless. There are 100 preset effects which are fully editable, and space to store 100 of the edited ‘user’ effects you can create yourself. The main intention of this unit is to provide a versatile tool for the live performer and to that end Casio have packed in some pretty cool features. In the ‘performance’ function the keyboard can be divided into four zones, with different sounds in each. There is a phrase sequencer which allows you to record musical phrases for playback, and there is a step sequencer for generating entire tunes. In fact it really has everything you could need to create and perform your own music. Then there’s little features like the non slip area at the top right where you can put an iPod or some other device, and the fact that you can run external devices through it. It’s fairly light but has a durable feel/appearance. It can be run off battery power - good for busking! The control surface seems to me to be fairly intuitively laid out and features such as the sliders are multi functional, which means you still have a very tactile approach to sound control. Despite all the features it’s easy to navigate, and all seems pretty logical. The bottom line is that it looks great, it is competitively priced, and the sounds are very good. There are synths that sound better and do more, but in this price range the XW-P1 offers a complete solution for any serious performer. If you want to get out there, play and you are on a budget, the XW-P1 will not let you down. When product guru Paul Noble started belting out ‘Jump’ at EnTech, followed by plenty of other iconic keyboard sounds and riffs, there was literally cheers of approval. The sounds are BIG and Casio have delivered a lot of bang for your bucks with this one.
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Larrivee OM-05
REVIEWER: SHANNON BOURNE INFO: WWW.PROMUSICAUSTRALIA.COM
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have long heard of the Larrivee brand and the high standard of instrument they produce. Unofortunately I had never been able to get my hands on one, but now that I have, they’re not getting it back! This guitar is of all solid wood construction featuring mahogany back, neck and sides; a Sitka Spruce top with spruce bracing; a beautiful African Ebony fingerboard and bridge and features an LR Baggs “iBeam” pickup system. You also get symmetrical parabolic X-bracing, hand fit dovetail neck joint, Abalone Rosette, Pearl Logo w/ Sterling Silver Border, Chrome Tuners (18:1 Ratio), ivoroid fretboard binding, Larrivee custom beveled pickguard, TUSQ nut, compensated TUSQ saddle, and Microdot fretboard markers.
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The first thing that strikes me apart from the beauty of this guitar is how great the neck feels. The neck has a matte finish which makes it feel “fast”. It’s a little thing but something a seasoned player would notice and appreciate. Next thing that struck me was the TONE! It is so well balanced with just the right amount of bass, mids and treble. This guitar excels at fingerpicking with the notes ringing loud and clear across the room! There is a mid range “brashness” that enables this guitar to really cut. When it comes to strumming, more of that mid range things becomes evident, whilst not a big, luxurious type of sound, probably due to the body size, it has a nasty dirty “hill country” type of thing that I really love. I think you could probably get a little more bottom end “bloom” by raising the action slightly, but straight out of the case this one feels and sounds fantastic.
Upon plugging this baby in I was impressed by the amount of tonal adjustment you can get. The “iBeam” features a powerful three-band EQ, phase switch and notch filter for taming nasty feedback and a blend knob that allows you to blend between two different pickups! I personally found that having about 75% “element” pickup and the remainder “iBeam” gave the plugged in sound the right amount of direct signal with just a little bit of air around the sound. This instrument is incredibly stable both tuning and tone wise. It looks elegant and not overdone and at around $2,500 is well worth the investment. The craftsmanship is faultless and it is set up impeccably. As I say…they are going to have a hard time getting this guitar back out of my hands…its feels like the kind of instrument that you should be inspired to write with and perform on. Now…where to hide this thing?
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LIFE IS NOISE PRESENTS FROM PORTLAND, OREGON
WITH
THE RATIONAL ACADEMY AND TURNPIKE
AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2012
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17 THE ZOO, BRISBANE Tickets from www.lifeisnoise.com, The Zoo & Oztix. Presale $35+BF.
LIFE IS NOISE PRESENTS CHICAGO’S LEGENDARY
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WITH AND
FRIDAY OCTOBER 12 THE ZOO, BRISBANE
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM WWW.LIFEISNOISE.COM & WWW.OZTIX.COM.AU. PRESALE $45+BF. TIME OFF • 57
MOVING FORWARD, LOOKING
SPECIAL TWO
Eloquent country folksters Laneway have used time out of the fast lane to inadvertently enter the busiest phase of their career. Louise O’Reilly talks to Brendan Telford about the birth of new opportunities.
Senyawa are a three-year-old Indonesian two-piece who improvise their music on an instrument they built themselves. Matt O’Neill sits down with Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi to figure out how the hell they ended up supporting Regurgitator.
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enyawa almost sound like a Mighty Boosh sketch. A collaboration between extended technique vocalist Rully Shabara and master instrument-builder Wukir Suryadi (playing his own invented instrument he crafted from a piece of bamboo), Senyawa’s semi-improvised work is so thoroughly out of this world on paper that it’s almost comical. Still, they’ve rapidly found a following. The pair will be supporting Regurgitator on their upcoming Retrotech 2012 tour and have previously performed as part of the Adelaide Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, and Hobart’s increasingly illustrious Mona Foma festival. While their work may sound confronting in print, there’s something inherently, beautifully punk within their music that just seems to draw unlikely audiences into the fray. “[I’ve been] quite surprised by it all,” Wukir Suryadi says in response to the reception Senyawa’s music has managed to squeeze from Australian audiences. “Even though we kind of knew that we would have some kind of success, we weren’t sure what that would be. We are quite happy and confident because we are bringing music that came from our lives.” “Generally, there’s never a problem of having our music received by different kind of audiences, especially by pop/rock audiences,” Rully Shabara muses on the situation. “And, when they do appreciate our music, that is much more rewarding – because, to be honest, it’s easier to please an avant-garde crowd than it is to please a pop crowd.” The success is less surprising to the pair because, in a way, it’s kind of the point of their work. Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi actually formed Senyawa with the intention of standing between movements and genres. Their work fuses traditional Javanese musical forms with the experimentation of the avant-garde and ideas imported from more populist musical genres like rock and metal. “Senyawa was formed accidentally – right after we jammed on stage and met each other for the first time. We didn’t plan anything, Senyawa just happened,”
Shabara explains. Suryadi elaborates with a counterpoint: “It was formed out of our anxiety about music. We needed to create an entirely original music. “There’s too much politics in Indonesia, including politics in music. Everything’s monopolised. Industry controls the way people think and perspectives – even the type of music that people should listen to. They are more busy with government projects or schools. We just do what we do best.” Shabara agrees: “We certainly get a better reception abroad. Traditionalists protest everything new [in Indonesia].” What’s intriguing about the pair’s work is its apparent lack of limits. While one would think that, by virtue of instrumentation, sound and numbers alone, Senyawa’s work would be inescapably limited, Suryadi and Shabara seem to have found a phenomenal freedom in their collaboration. They do collaborate with other musicians on a regular basis but, for the most part, they develop their unique, expansive sounds in solitude. “[Collaboration is] very important [to us]. We always find opportunities to collaborate with artists from any place we visit,” Shabara explains. Suryadi emphasises the point: “[It’s] quite important [for Senyawa to collaborate] because it enriches the music with the addition of energy and different memories of other people.” Suryadi says of the pair’s plans at large, “We just go with the flow, we’re open to any possibilities as long as it’s making us better and can be beneficial to anybody and everybody else.” When asked whether Senyawa could realistically remain a two-piece as their music develops, Shabara is more concise: “Why not?” WHO: Senyawa WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 26 September, Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay; Thursday 27 and Friday 28, The Hi-Fi (all shows supporting Regurgitator)
DEATH AND FRIVOLITY
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“I’m wary of making it either too difficult for me to have fun playing, or too difficult for people to be entertained by it, so it isn’t that drastically different,” Cook mentions of playing live. “I play with the elements of the song live and fuck it up a little bit, alter it slightly and play drums over the top of parts of the song. I don’t want to make it too easy on myself; I’ve got to not be bored, but not be too overwhelmed with things that I can’t have fun, so it’s a bit of balance there.” From seeing previous shows, it looks like Collarbones have the ‘fun’ part of the show down pat, but it’s something they’ve had to work on. “We’ve forced ourselves to make it enjoyable,” Cook continues. “To begin with, in live performances, we were a bit more reserved; Marcus wasn’t much of a frontman. We kind of hid behind laptops and didn’t do much. But we’ve slowly gotten more confidence and made it more of a party atmosphere and I think slowly maybe our music will become more ‘party’ to accommodate the vibe that we want to have at live shows, where we try to make it as fun as possible.” The first album, Iconography, was critically acclaimed, but hasn’t quite seen the band cross over into mainstream success. The new album looks set to repeat the critical attention, and Cook is hopeful that it will attract new listeners into the fold as well. “At the moment the reception is still in the critical side of things definitely, but hopefully this album 58 • TIME OFF
Normally such events would be enough, but further accolades have followed with the band winning this year’s Grant MacLennan Fellowship Grant. “When you are shortlisted in something like that you have to surrender yourself to being in the running and nothing more; it doesn’t pay to get your hopes up,” O’Reilly admits. “We were shortlisted in 2011 also, so just to be nominated again was a privilege to us. “You don’t want to view it as a competition, which is pretty counter-intuitive, even though as an independent artist the grant is what gets you by, it is the nature of the beast. We are so lucky and humbled, and it is a life-changing experience, because there is no other way that we could get the resources together to do these things that we dream of.” “These things” include travelling to Berlin, an element of the grant; something that O’Reilly has dreamt about but never thought would truly come into fruition. Nevertheless there were many things to consider. “We had to consider how far it could go for us, as we are a young family and we felt that Berlin was the best (the other choices being London and New York) for creating the perfect life balance for young creative families,” O’Reilly explains. “We were also looking for longevity. Most recipients [of the award] stay for two months then return, but we wish to stretch out and see how things transpire. We are fitting in as many live shows as we can, and hopefully take in some other countries such as France, which has a good scene. “Bizarrely there is a good Brisbane/France connection there, we know some people there. It’s the contrast of the European experience that we are excited about,
both personally and creatively. Sitting here in the quiet of Natural Bridge where we don’t even have electricity to the bustle of Berlin with its keen culture and history; we just want to wander the streets, not speak the language and muddle through.” Before this new exciting chapter begins, Laneway are taking to the road with their backing band to air out the new album, a process that O’Reilly finds familial in a variety of ways. “Much of the album inadvertently came together from our move away from the city that we loved, and discovering new loves, looking back at the world which is in turns liberating and isolating,” O’Reilly opines. “There is a tension from yearning for that place of familiarity. Then of course we are parents now; we made the first album whilst I was pregnant, and inadvertently so, so it only informs on that in retrospect. “So looking back on this, the themes of loss and yeaning and caring and nurturing come through naturally. We have also had the band [Fingers Malone & Rowan Roebig] with us, which offers a different space for us, but is very familiar also. There is an intimacy to a duo show that you surrender to when you have a band, but then there is so much more excitement within those songs. You really appreciate the different arrangements that either incarnation of Laneway can bring to these songs; that each style has its place. Plus it’s a lot of kilometres for this tour, so hopefully they can do some of the driving.” WHO: Laneway WHAT: Turn Your Love Up (Crawler Records) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, The Soundlounge, Gold Coast; Sunday 21 October, Black Bear Lodge
COATTAIL RIDERS In the midst of a national tour celebrating new single Mr Number 1, Greenthief guitarist/ vocalist Julian Schweitzer lifts the lid on the Brisbane trio’s debut album plans to Tyler McLoughlan.
With their two members based in different cities, Collarbones have been able to use technology to record two highly-regarded albums, but surely it must make live gigs a challenge. Not so, as Travis Cook tells Sky Kirkham. think we’re pretty lucky with the type of music that we make and that we work well together automatically, basically,” Cook says. “And the fact that I sort of control most of the music aspects live and [Marcus Whale] is definitely the vocalist these days, it isn’t all that difficult. And it’s getting easier the more we tour and see each other in person. Basically our touring is our rehearsal.
2
012 is proving to be the year of Laneway. The country-flecked folk duo of Louise O’Reilly and Paul Hannan left the rat race to take their young family into the wilderness – Natural Bridge in the southeast Queensland hinterland to be exact – and their re-connection with nature has given birth to their hauntingly beautiful second longplayer, Turn Your Love Up.
W connects with people a bit more. I think the lyrics are a bit more direct, so maybe there’s a bit more of an emotional pull to it that might get people more interested. The first one was a bit more abstract, so I wouldn’t expect that to be commercially successful. We don’t have any expectations, but we’ll go with whatever happens. I think we’re both willing to make it a priority in our lives at least” Die Young, their new release, is a very modern mixture of R&B and electronica – similar to some of Oscar + Martin or How To Dress Well’s work. “Well Marcus has basically spent the whole year listening to a lot of R&B and I suppose emulates them now,” Cook explains. “And I do as well. But the majority of my personal influences have come from mainstream dance music this time and rave music and trance even. Which you probably can’t really hear, apart from the first track Hypothermia. And so [Die Young] is sort of like a collision of poppy vocals with everything else in the world. I think there’s been a slight change in mentality maybe. We’ve always liked R&B, but now a certain sub-section of the community won’t look down on us as much if we admit to it.” Collarbones even collaborated internationally with Die Young, working with Paris-based Michael Salerno to create a film to accompany the album. “It’s sort of a nice, but also pretentious thing to have a film alongside your album, but it’s pretty fun,” Cook concludes. WHO: Collarbones WHAT: Die Young (Two Bright Lake/Remote Control) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 29 September, Out The Back @ Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts
ith two EPs released over their four-year history, Greenthief have been putting in the hard yards in the run-up to their debut album release in 2013, kicking the year off with an east coast tour for first single Epidemic, followed by a 23-date autumn tour opening for melodic heavy rock legends The Butterfly Effect. “It was awesome,” recalls frontman Julian Schweitzer. “It was a really great opportunity we had to be able to ride on the back of a really well-established band. We had a ball getting to play really big venues and getting a little look into the life of a bigger band and having everything organised for us and stuff like that, so it was a really awesome experience. “At the back of that tour we went straight back into the rehearsal room... because we’d planned to start recording quite soon after that, which is really good timing because we had to do a lot of playing and tidying up. It was definitely inspiring and we felt really motivated to get back into it at the end of the tour,” he admits of the kick of encouragement that comes with touring with such a high-profile band. With a European tour in the works for next year as well, the psych-rock trio jumped headlong into work for their debut album. “I guess there were two ways of putting together the album,” Schweitzer considers. “One was to try and make it more of an album that has ups and downs and shades [which] a band like Tame Impala has obviously done so well, like just created a really amazing thing that goes for 45 minutes or whatever. The other approach we were considering was, ’Do we want to just put all of our best songs, put on more of the shorter songs, and think of it as twelve singles?’ And so we were tossing up between the two different ways of going about it, and we’re going for more the song element rather than like an album thing, but we’re hoping it all works together.”
themusic.com.au
Holing up in a Mullumbimby forest studio to track the album and complete the singles, Greenthief enlisted the help of a renowned producer. “Steve James [Sex Pistols, The Jam] who did the [2011] Retribution EP, he’s kind of doing the album, and he’s been really good. In terms of what we’ve done with him, he came up for a weekend a couple of weekends before we went into the studio and he stayed the night at mine. We kind of went through all the songs and we just played them in the rehearsal room to him and we did a lot of pre-production that way. He’s great – we worked with him in the past and he always brings a lot of advice, normally with just trimming the fat off the songs,” Schweitzer says. With the recently dropped second single Mr Number 1 providing a further taste of the debut album to come, the trio scheduled another extensive tour including Western Australia, a territory that usually remains cost-prohibitive for a band in their formative stages. “We were trying to follow up from The Butterfly Effect tour – we were trying to revisit the [same] places, and the dudes from The Butterfly Effect mentioned, ‘You should really be coming back to these places as soon as possible if you’re really serious about developing your fanbase’, which is true – you can’t really sit and wait for whatever it is that you’re waiting to happen, because the only thing that you can do and control is your live show.” WHO: Greenthief WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, Tempo Hotel; Saturday 29, Toowoomba Irish Club
TIME OFF • 59
SINGLED OUT WITH CHRIS YATES
ON THE RECORD
TWERPS
Work It Out Chapter Music
THE BLACK KEYS Money Maker
Nonesuch/Warner Something funny happened on the way from the garage rock dungeon to the mainstream; The Black Keys dumbed down their already pretty dumb version of Sonics covers and somehow became one of the biggest bands in the world. Better them than Kings Of Leon or Green Day I guess, but it would be pretty easy for them to raise the bar a little bit higher again and show their legions of new fans something interesting. Unfortunately they’ve chosen to churn out junk like this, which is so far from having an original idea anywhere near it that they might as well just keep playing these same two chords and rehashing lines from classic rock forever.
CODY CHESNUTT That’s Still Mama Breakaway Chesnutt has been quiet since his lo-fi soul record The Headphone Masterpiece lived up to its name, and The Roots remix of The Seed put him in the hip hop big leagues. Judging by this single alone, the new album looks set to really massive things this time around. You’ll hear people talk about Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, but they’re not just being obvious. The extra years in his voice and the classic soul production really put him in this stratosphere. His unique quirks and personality only add to the authenticity and produces results that mere copycats could not manage.
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND Mercy Sony If there’s something I really like about Australians, it’s that we never really embraced Dave Matthews. If you ever talk to an American person who’s been to college, they will either talk about how annoying the ever-present Dave Matthews is, or they’ll be like, “What do you mean you don’t like Dave Matthews??!” in a really annoying shriek of non-understanding. On Mercy, Matthews pushes the gravel out through his mouth with as much force as possible, while offering serious life lessons like love being good and life being hard, and how we all need a little mercy, but not the Lamborghini Murcie that 2 Chainz is probably getting a blowjob in right now.
60 • TIME OFF
Bob Mould first came to the world’s attention fronting seminal alt-rock legends Hüsker Dü in the late-‘70s and ‘80s, but in the early-‘90s he spent a few years at the helm of power trio Sugar – whose ’92 debut Copper Blue is a recognised classic, and whose entire catalogue has been recently reissued – and it’s this powerful-but-immediate realm to which he returns for his tenth solo album, Silver Age.
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Back playing with guitars after some years spent dabbling in electronica, Mould has recruited Superchunk skinsman John Wurster and bassist Jason Narducy to provide the rhythm foundation over which he unleashes some of his most propulsive tunes in the last two decades. Opener Star Machine is like a statement of intent from a usurped leader out to reclaim his rightful position, all power chords and thick riffing and that unmistakable voice once again stretching out. Mould doles out melody and hooks with trademark ease, songs like single The Descent and Fugue State visceral and immediate in equal doses. Steam Of Hercules brings things down a couple of notches to show that he deals equally well in restraint, but for the most part this is an album of unabashed pomp and power from a man who basically wrote the rulebook on such matters. When Mould sneers, “Never too old to contain my rage” during the crushing title track he sounds like he means business, and provides an apt reminder that it’s amazing for someone of his vintage to be still showing the youngsters how it should be done. A smashing return to form from one of the most influential musicians ever to strap on a Strat – long live king Bob! ★★★★½
Steve Bell
Sony
Spunk/Co-Op/Universal
When Carolina’s Band Of Horses left Sub Pop for the majors and emerged with third album Infinite ArmsLIVE back in 2010, many new converts were ushered into the fold but just as many old fans were left bemused by the shiny production and the washes of reverb which were liberally slathered over everything, making it sound to many like a different band to that which they’d known in the past.
Recorded live with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Cut The World showcases tracks from Antony & The Johnsons’ four studio albums, a greatest hits record in the grandiose style that Antony Hegarty’s beautifully sorrowful and dynamic vocal deserves. Opening with the only new track, a piece written for the theatre production The Life and Death of Marina Abramović that uses the orchestra to build to a pleasingly tumultuous conclusion, old and new fans alike prepare for a powerful journey. And what comes next is, surprisingly, an almost eight-minute speech titled Future Feminism which opens with the sentence: “I’ve been thinking all day about the moon – like, is it an accident that women menstruate once a month and that the moon comes once a month?” Hegarty’s thoughts on religion, world order and feminine systems of governance are intriguing, though the timing is questionable. Epilepsy Is Dancing trades some of its chamber pop edge for a clearer, more structural sound, allowing room to hear both an astonishing level of isolation and playfulness within the one intake of Hegarty’s breath. There’s little love lost for George Michael’s guest spot on 2005’s You Are My Sister – here it shines as a solo amongst a bed of sweeping strings and flute embellishments. Cripple And The Starfish is plainly haunting: “It’s true I always wanted love to be filled with pain and bruises”. Hegarty’s poetic lyricism is more poignant in an orchestral context across Cut The World, his love more raw, his pain more twisted; it’s easier for the lyrical gems to find their way into the psyche of a listener willing to mull. ★★★★
Tyler McLoughlan
Now, with follow up Mirage Rock, they’ve probably
managed to placate both of these camps. Legendary VDproducer Glyn Johns (who’s worked with nearly every
truly iconic band in history) has done a great job at the helm, providing a pristine production which, while verging on AOR at its cleanest points, also lets some rough edges shine though – probably due to the live tracking – and which (most importantly) never stands in the way of the tunes themselves. The band for their part seem more relaxed, not so serious and earnest, and this translates well across the album’s 11 tracks. Throughout the course of the journey they traipse all over the Americana landscape, covering vast tracts of musical terrain in the best traditions of their forebears. How To Live is one of the most effortlessly catchy songs they’ve committed to tape, A Little Biblical drifts into So-Cal pop territory, Everything’s Gonna Be Undone is beautifully pastoral before Feud drags them happily back into southern rock territory. The only anomaly is the slightly confusing Dumpster World and its mixed message of empathy and nihilism, but even this slight misfire is well-intentioned.
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Listening to this lightweight bounce of a track, it’s hard to remember how far ahead of the curve Missy and Timbo were when they blew up. Timbaland’s beats sounded like a future mesh of musical cultures and technologies that were barely even conceivable in the real world. It makes it harder to judge this without comparing, but this is not the kind of comeback anyone would be hoping for. Timbaland’s tuneless and uninspired intro rap bragging about how many records he used to make is embarrassing. Sounds like the beat is inspired by the new Kanye minimalism, which in itself owes some legacy to the Timbaland of old, but this new style is sad and weak.
Mirage Rock
Cut The World
Merge/Shock
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Atlantic/Warner
BAND OF HORSES
VD
Triple Threat (feat Timbaland)
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Silver Age
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MISSY ELLIOTT
BOB MOULD LIVE
VD
If you’re not already a fan of the Twerps, then you would no doubt be getting tired of people constantly going, ‘Ermagherd, you have to listen to the Twerps’. I’m sorry to join the cacophony and reinforce those same ideas, but Work It Out is a more refined version of what they’ve done before, certainly not breaking any new ground but polishing what they’ve been doing and just continuing to nail it. Polishing is probably not the right word - while it is a little bit more high fidelity than usual, it still has charm and the production is still modest.
Overall an interesting and eclectic album from a band with a long and prosperous future ahead of them. ★★★★
Steve Bell
COLLARBONES
GRINSPOON
GRIZZLY BEAR
Two Bright Lakes/Remote Control
Universal
Warp/Inertia
Travis Cook and Marcus Whale must hold an intrinsic connection to the human mind and what makes it move. How else do they create soundscapes so captivating and aligned with the emotions of dayto-day existence? Collarbones’ second record Die Young is a stirring listen cover to cover, the album housing mysterious sounds that feel somewhat spooky without ever coming across as scary or intimidating.
Grinspoon, the Oz rock band that cannot be killed, are back with album number seven. Continuing the run of their post-New Detention fare, Black Rabbits functions as a rebuttal of the four-piece’s preceding record. This time around, the band take stock of 2009’s raw-andrough Six To Midnight, and offer up its counterpoint; a sleek, catchy power-pop record. From the opening notes of Passerby to the closing strains of Battleground, Black Rabbits sounds more like Unwritten Law or Fountains Of Wayne than Grinspoon’s spiritual forefathers Helmet.
How do you follow up an album that was received by many music fans as perfection? Do you endeavour to grow or stay the course? This is the question Grizzly Bear has faced since 2010’s Veckatimest, an album so universal you could give it to your most pretentious friend and their nana and get the same rapturous response.
Die Young
Black Rabbits
Like a positive drone, opener Hypothermia takes the vocals of Ivan Vizintin and wraps them around a hissing drum beat that gives an edge to the otherwise dreamlike sounds bouncing within the song. Vizintin’s tone recalls British 2-step of the Millennium turn, while the record’s other main vocalist, Melbourne musician Oscar Vicente Slorach-Thorn – he of textured pop duo Oscar + Martin – lays a bit more syrup down on tracks like Cocooned and One Day, the latter juxtaposing his voice against a pulsing, low key synth line to glorious effect. Strong song foundations allow Collarbones to be as creative as they please on the top section of the songs, a balance that works fluidly across the whole record. Missing is another real standout, with the sparse drumming and glitchy synths making you feel like you’re floating through orbit. Teenage Dream, meanwhile, could have slotted nicely on last year’s SBTRKT record, with the atmospherics holding that same echoed goodness that the British producer employed to devastating effect with his self-titled debut.
For members of the generation of Australian youths who would tear their throats up mimicking Phil Jamieson’s grungey scream across the band’s Guide To Better Living and Easy records, it going to feel like there’s something missing from the polished sheen of Black Rabbits. But in the absence of the constraints of the stereotypically ‘Grinspoon’ song, Phil and the boys show off their ability to fit a wicked melody around some dextrous playing and the fix it all together with a bouncy, dynamic production. This formula creates some moments of radio rock brilliance – Final Reward contains the band’s most memorable chorus since Chemical Heart, bratty quick number Tightrope is a treat and the left-field inclusion of dusty slowburner Another Sun is too audacious not to enjoy.
If you feel like walking the streets alone late at night, then Die Young houses the jams for you. For a couple of young blokes from Melbourne, these are some seriously accomplished tunes right here. Set your heads to nod.
Whether the requisitely drunk fans that seem to be at every Grinspoon show screaming about their ‘dead cat’ will take to songs like Beaujolais is yet to be seen – in this reviewer’s opinion, they won’t – but good on the Grinners for writing the kind of music that’s going to keep them interested in staying out on the road, playing shows for said insufferable fans.
★★★½
★★★
Benny Doyle
themusic.com.au
Tom Hersey
Shields
First single Sleeping Ute hinted at a departure, with its agitated lyrics and heavy guitar sounds, while second single Yet Again showcases an almost psychedelic, stadium-sized sound ready-made for the festival circuit. As an album, Shields is a more challenging listen; the production sounds slightly flatter, especially in the vocal, which makes it harder to get lost and wallow in the lush instrumentals. There’s no ‘instant indie movie soundtrack’ song like Two Weeks here, the harmonies are more subtle and opportunities for singalongs almost non-existent. There’s an almost Kid A-ish quality to instrumental Adelma with its cold and spacious beauty. Not that the band have lost their talent for the uplifting, they still know how to put in a key change or a soaring harmony at the perfect moment to take your breath away. One such highlight is Half-Gate, which builds and ebbs with huge drums and an infectious air of furious excitement. Elsewhere there are weirder, more abrasive sounds: Gun Shy sounds like it belongs a funky sci-fi movie, while album closer Sun In Your Eyes bucks the trend with an upbeat, extended jam where previous albums would have closed with a delicately brooding come-down. Grizzly Bear have always come at pop music from a different angle, and it’s a relief to see that adulation hasn’t changed this one bit. ★★★★
Madeleine Laing
JJ DOOM
MINUS THE BEAR
THE OYSTER MURDERS
IMAGINE DRAGONS
Lex/Inertia
Dangerbird
Independent
Interscope/Universal
It’s the kind of story you think the enigmatic, selfmythologising DOOM would make up about himself. After a successful European tour, the MC was refused entry into the United States, so he wrote his rhymes for another new record in England while in a Victor Von Doom-styled exile. While DOOM was stuck in England, alternative beat-maker Jneiro Jarel – aka Dr Who Dat? – was compiling an album worth of material back in the States. The product of the two alt.rap darlings, JJ DOOM is as good as anything expected from the pairing, Jarel’s tightly wound beats pulsating around the gaps in DOOM’s gravel-throated rhymes.
Many fans were probably hoping that Seattle-based indie rockers Minus The Bear had moved on from 2010’s forgettable Omni, the cheesed-up, glossedover, synthed-out tribute to the sort of sheeny sleazeball music you’d expect to hear at every club in Miami in, like, 1984. And it was depressing as hell. Unfortunately, the quintet have continued further down the disco ball-lit rabbit hole with Infinity Overhead.
Winter Of The Electric Sun begins sweetly with Ink, opening with some of the only acoustic guitar on the album, before the drum machine and keys kick in to give us the template for layered electronic pop that the band will predominantly follow for the rest of the tracks.
Spawned from the same colourful desert as Brandon Flowers & Co, Las Vegas troupe Imagine Dragons garnered a swift following in their hometown, taking out local competitions and swiftly landing their record deal. Not wasting time, debut album Night Visions arrives even more promptly, confirming that despite a charismatic vocalist and some very likeable moments of indie-pop and alt.rock fusion, more time spent developing a sound that runs cohesively throughout their first effort may have been fruitful.
Keys To The Kuffs
Infinity Overhead
Winter Of The Electric Sun
Delivery-wise, DOOM sticks to his Madvillian modus operandi for the album. He’s in fine form too, mixing the slow, stoned rhymes and tongue-twistingly fast efforts that the MC transitions between with aplomb. Packing Keys To The Kuffs with tricky wordplay and obscure references (is that a shout out to Brisbane on Rhymin Slang?) that unfold in front of the listener upon multiple listens, DOOM really steals the show here. As impressive as JJ’s beats are, ...Kuffs is about the thrill of seeing where DOOM will take his brilliant free-association rhymes next.
It kicks off with the truly grating Steel And Blood, perhaps the most Omni-esque song on the album, whereby frontman Jake Snider instantly loses all previously amassed points for being a suave bastard by coming across like a lounge singer trying desperately to incite some kind of carnal reaction from a pool of disinterested soccer mums. It’s partially because he audibly lacks the passion, the rough edge, that used to permeate his vocals, but it’s also because – against the backdrop of straightup 4/4 soft dance rock – the whole thing spends its life laughing at the very concept of subtlety.
The simple drums/guitar/vocal intro of It Might Be Real is a welcoming breath of fresh air after the density of the first three tracks, and is the strongest song on the album. It’s musically upbeat, which contrasts with the dark lyrical theme, and it’s restrained; making the big, sweeping chorus more moving and catchy. It’s difficult to get a real handle on this album, everything in it seems designed to draw in the listener – the whispered vocals, the anthemic choruses, the harmonies and lyrical repetition – but it all seems kind of hollow, with no thematic centre or strong melodic grounding in most of the tracks. However, there’s some really strong imagery here, especially in Ink and Water In The Blood, which makes it even more frustrating how easily the songs slip through your fingers.
The record’s not entirely without moments of strength – Lies And Eyes, Diamond Lightning, Zeros, Heaven Is A Ghost Town and Empty Party Rooms all throw back in various ways to the excellent Planet Of Ice (2007) and earlier. This is nowhere near what a band such as Minus The Bear should be delivering and, while their willingness to try new things and speak with a more pop-focused/less technical sensibility should be admired because it’s brave, it should also be mocked openly because it kind of sucks balls.
The overall feeling of Winter Of The Electric Sun is over-earnest and slightly cloying, which comes primarily from singer Grant Redgen’s voice, which is pretty but whiny and starts to grate after a while. With song names like Dissent, Stay Warm By Burning Books and Spectre Of A Landfill, this album seems like it might be one of those rare modern releases with something to say. But if The Oyster Murders do have a message, it’s too cloaked in layers of reverb and lyrical ambiguity to be completely effective.
★★★★
★★½
★★★
Keys To The Kuffs sends some shout outs across the pond, but these mostly take on a fairly superficial form in songs like Guv’nor. Apart from the odd reference to a British TV show (My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding), guest spots from UK luminaries (Damon Albarn and Portishead’s Beth Gibbons) and hints of England’s grime rap sound during Banished, the album remains very American, defined by Jarel’s impressive arrangement of beats.
Tom Hersey
A
Mitch Knox
Night Visions
Having said that, the first half of Night Visions pricks up the ears. Vocalist Dan Reynolds has a set of chops capable of adding a bit of light and shade, sweet and crooning at points, ballsy and dynamic at others. Opener Radioactive showcases the group’s deft hand at crafting songs with diversity running wild; acoustic guitars, striking keys and glittery synths all set on top of a crackling dubstep beat. It’s hooky numbers like this and the hand-clapping, anthemic Tip Toe that see the album safely on its way into the mid-section – Reynolds’ vocal delivery suddenly channels a more forceful Chris Martin treated to multi-tracking over some repeated tribal-like guitar motifs in On Top Of The World. When Every Night rolls around, it takes a dramatic turn into R&B territory with soft beats and crisp deliveries. Bleeding Out follows suit with neatly placed melodic lines under shimmery synths, and the until now earthy handclaps turn into buzzing beats in Underdog. As standalone songs they’re fine, they just alter the album’s trajectory slightly but it’s certainly worth a look into. ★★★
Madeleine Laing
Carley Hall
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bourbon premix. Pick up the new American Honey premix at your local Dan Murphy’s store
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TIME OFF • 61
F R O N T R O W @ T I M E O F F. C O M . A U
THIS WEEK IN
ARTS
Dr Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown And His Singing Tiger: Kids Show
WEDNESDAY 26
SATURDAY 29
Angela’s Kitchen – a piece of autobiographical theatre and one-man show from Paul Capsis about Angela. The journey of a matriarch, who left Malta in 1948, with five children bound for Surrey Hills, Melbourne, Australia. Part of Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse to Saturday 29 September.
Tender Napalm – a new work from British playwright Philip Ridley, an exploration of your first great love and passion’s destructive side. Following a young couple from first attraction to consuming devotion, that is danced as much as it is acted. Directed by David Berthold and Australian Dance Theatre Artistic Director and choreographer Garry Stewart. Part of Brisbane Festival, continuing at La Boite Theatre to Saturday 13 October.
No Child – a one-woman show written and performed by Nilaja Sun and directed by Hal Brooks. A theatrical commentary on the New York City public school system. Sun portrays 16 characters to tell the story about a group of sceptical tenth graders who start a riot aganist their teachers. Part of Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse to Saturday 29 September.
Sunsuper Riverfire – The Brisbane Festival’s closing night extravaganza the sky will be lit up with a fireworks display celebrating the end of another Brisbane Festival. One of the most important events on Queensland’s cultural calendar, Southbank, 7pm. Amy Carkeek: Even Our Dreams Are Fake – an exhibition that uses highly constructed photographic images to challenge the hyperreal imagery portrayed in contemporary consumer culture. Brisbane Powerhouse to Sunday 7 October.
THURSDAY 27
TUESDAY 2
FRIDAY 28 Dr Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown And His Singing Tiger: The Kids Show – Dr Brown and his singing tiger on a madcap adventure from breakfast to bedtime with a tennis match, a game of golf and a slightly spectacular BMX finale. Straight from sold out, award-winning seasons at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Fringe Festival comes the unmissable physical comedy that has kids storming the stage and adults loving it just as much. Part of Brisbane Festival, The Courier-Mail Spiegeltent to Saturday 29 September.
Stand-up comedian and all-purpose Renaissance man Russell Brand has undergone a fair few changes in the past few years. Hollywood embraced him a bit. His marriage to pop star Katy Perry raised his public
Kelly – Ned Kelly sits in a grimy cell at Old Melbourne Gaol the night before his execution. His brother and fellow gang member Dan, believes Kelly died at the siege of Glenrowan and visits disguised as a priest. Written by Matthew Ryan and directed by Todd Macdonald. Cremorne Theatre QPAC to Saturday 20 October.
Yet, even as he became a filmmaker, “the book was so emblematic to
Kelly
BARRACKS 07 3367 1954 61 PETRIE TCE, TOP OF CAXTON ST
Brand admits, though, that he’s not out to impart the meaning of life to his audience (“Oh, yeah, there’s gonna be dick jokes,” he adds). “How can I be truthful to myself? How can I make sure my stand-up comedy is true to my principles? I can be on a radio show with a very laddish atmosphere and I’ll join in and make jokes about women and ejaculation and I recognise that’s what I need to do but the challenge is being authentic as a comedian or an artist or a human being while accepting the confinements and requirements of your job. I mean, I’ve got to be funny if I’m there – I’m a comedian, for fuck’s sake – but I want to be truthful, and the things I’m encountering on my spiritual journey... well, you have to learn a lot about it before you can convey it. And I’m still very much on the foothills, gazing at the summit of enlightenment.”
THE LONG ROAD
me that the idea of adapting it for screen never occurred to me.” Then in 2004, American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola’s studio, approached Salles aboutdoing just that, the company having optioned the book in 1979, and had been searching since for someone to adapt it. Salles had just come off making The Motorcycles Diaries, a rousing road-movie tracing Ernest Guevara’s coming-of-age trip across the South American continent on his way to becoming Ché. The link makes sense, these twin bildungsroman travelogues both being about iconic symbols of 20th century counter-culture. “They’re
LAVAZZA ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2012: (NO FREE TIX)
THAT ENDS WELL (CTC)
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FRI/WED – 11.00 SAT/SUN – 1.00
ARBITRAGE
(MA15+) (NO FREE TIX)
STARTS SEPTEMBER 27 (MA 15+)
THU/MON/TUE 10.15,2.30,6.45,9.00PM FRI 2.35,6.45,9.00PM SAT 11.45,1.55,6.45,9.00PM
WHEN & WHERE: Tuesady 4 December, Convention Centre
like Michael McClure, Diane Di Prima and Amiri Baraka, and travelled the text’s journeys three times over. After returning to his native Brazil to make 2008’s Linhe De Passe, Salles finally set out to adapt Kerouac’s “jazz and bebop-influenced” writing, where improvisation and intuition create abstract, expressive rhythms in text. “It has this freeform quality that is very difficult to translate to screen,” Salles admits. “It is anything but a traditional narrative, with these arcs that are very identifiable.”
CENTRO
07 3852 4488
SUN 12.00,4.15,6.45,9.00PM WED 9.50,1.55,9.30PM
WELCOME TO THE NORTH BEASTS OF THE (M) OPENING NIGHT! SOUTHERN WILD (M) WED 7.00 PALACE OPERA & BALLET PRESENTS: ALL’S WELL
WHO: Russell Brand
The film finds Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund as the leads, with the supporting cast filled with an array of notable names: Kristen both about the transitions from Stewart, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst, youth to adulthood, and all of the Elisabeth Moss, Steve Buscemi pain and discoveries and exhilaration t It bbecame andd Vi Viggo M Mortensen. that comes with,” Salles explains. a sizeable production — a $25mil “They’re also about the initial steps budget — due to its two huge of what would eventually become a logistical hurdles: this a late-’40s/ cultural or socio-political revolution. early-’50s period piece that is They’re about that moment before about journeying into the American the eruption, about what’s boiling frontier, a frontier which, in the under the surface, about to explode.” 2010s, no longer exists. “There’s been a homogenisation of the Yet, when approached about making geography, and that obliges you to On The Road, Salles initially baulked. He was fresh, as pointed out, from the go further,” Salles says. “If you just stick to the highways, you drive “insanity” of The Motorycle Diaries’ for a thousand miles just to find 30,000km journey, which went from the exact same food chains and 20 degree temperatures in Patagonia Wal-Marts that you saw when you to 47 in the Peruvian Amazon, and left. You have to take the backroads unsure of tackling a text that meant so much to him. So, instead, he made and go further into the hinterlands, the documentary Searching For On The to find places that haven’t been Road, a simultaneous study of the book touched by the brands yet.” and its possible adaptation, which Opening nationally Thursday featured interviews with beat-era poets 27 September
3367 1954
THURSDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER TO WEDNESDAY 3RD OCTOBER 2012
WWW.PALACECINEMAS.COM.AU
The title of his new show was inspired by his performance of The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. “There’s tens of thousands y p of peop people in the stadium, a billion people watching worldwide, and none oof them know my trousers are being hheld together by Sellotape and corners of that tape is stabbing the cor me in tthe testicles,” laughs Brand.
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62 • TIME OFF
profile somewhat; their subsequent split could be said to have raised it even more. But Brand’s quicksilver wit and yearning for a deeper, more meaningful understanding of life remain the same.
Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles tells Anthony Carew he tried running from On The Road with little success. It’s like familiar 18-year-olds’ rite-ofpassage: reading On The Road. And so it went for Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, on whom Jack Kerouac’s beat generation landmark left a “profound impression”, given how it contradicted with life under a military rule in 1974 Brazil. “What it talked about was the exact reverse angle of what we were living,” he recalls. “I was immediately taken by those characters, who were seeking different forms of freedom. I’d never seen a narrative where sex and drugs could be tools to expand our understanding of the world.”
embarrassing things happen and funny things happen and sexy things happen and stupid things happen. I want to create an atmosphere where it’s the opposite of what people feel when they read magazines that tell them they’re not thin enough or sexy enough or their hair’s not good enough. I want people to feel that everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is how it ought to be. And the stuff that isn’t? We can change that. I want an atmosphere of controlled mayhem, sexiness and chaos, hope and humour.”
“And my m mate Mick, who drives around when I’m in England, me aro thought I was singing a song called though ‘I Am a Walrus’. It’s only a small difference but ‘I Am The Walrus’ differen implies some psychedelic messiah the mind of John Lennon, while from th ‘I Am a Walrus’ is just, you know, a walrus. So you could be on top of a bus at the Olympics, singing a Beatles song, but what is your life really defined by? If you don’t have a relationship with truth, what is it? So broadly the show is about what it’s like to be famous, what it’s like to experience those things, but how really it’s just part of being a human being. Different things happen but
In a sea of chaos and disjointed Hollywood reality, oddly Russell Brand manages to stay grounded. Guy Davis finds out what it’s like to be an outsider on the inside.
SUNDAY 30
Hairspray – the John Waters original 1988 film that inspired the hit Broadway musical and 2007 remake. About a ‘pleasantly plump’ teenager who dances her way onto the Corny Collins Show in 1962 Baltimore. Tribal Theatre, 8.15pm. Win/Win: Power, Privilege And My Little Pony – evil returns with the next installment in this series of demotivational seminars. A mash up of current affairs and political satire presented as a PowerPoint presentation of internet meme, sexy dance moves and puppetry. Part of Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts to Saturday 29 September.
BRAND’S LAND
Brand is returning to Australia towards the end of the year for a nationwide comedy tour titled I Am A Walrus, and speaking to him from Los Angeles he admits that many recent events in his life have provided him with fascinating material. “Living in the world of celebrity, I’ve got an interesting insight – it’s such an aspirational aspect of contemporary life, innit, that world,” he says. “And when you’re part of it, you think ‘Well, this is mostly silly.’ It’s 99% silliness, and that provides me with really interesting stuff.”
THU 12.30,4.45,9.10PM FRI 1.45,4.45,9.30PM SAT 9.45,4.05,8.45PM SUN 10.00,2.15,9.00PM MON 12.30,4.45,9.00PM
MENTAL (MA 15+) (NO FREE TIX) ADVANCED SCREENINGS
FRI 12.15,7.15PM SAT 3.45,8.00PM SUN 1.45,6.30PM MON 1.45,6.30PM
YOUR SISTER’S
SISTER (M)
THU/TUE 11.55,7.15PM FRI 8.45PM SAT 2.00,6.00PM SUN 8.45PM MON 11.55,8.45PM HOPE SPRINGS (M) THU- TUE - 10.00PM
LOOPER (MA 15+) (NO FREE TIX)
WED 12.30,4.05,9.30
DIARY OF A WHIMPY KID: DOG DAYS (PG) (NO FREE TIX)
THU - WED 9.30,1.20
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (PG) (NO FREE TIX)
THU/FRI/TUE 11.30,3.15,5.15 SAT/SUN 11.30,3.15,5.10 WED 11.30,3.15
THU - TUE 12.05,4.35,7.00,9.25 MADAGASCAR 3: 2D WED 10.10,2.40,9.30 (PG) (NO FREE TIX) RUBY SPARKS THU/FRI/SAT 9.45,11.45,1.45 (M) (NO FREE TIX) SUN/MON 9.45,11.45,4.10 THU/FRI/SAT 2.30,6.30,8.45 TUE – 11.00,12.55,3.00 SUN/MON 2.30,7.10,9.20 WED – 9.45,11.45,1.45 TUE 2.30,7.00,9.10
ON THE ROAD (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) THU/SAT- TUE 10.20, 3.15, 6.30, 9.15PM FRI 3.15, 6.30, 9.15PM WED 12.45, 3.30, 6.20, 9.15PM
ARBITRAGE
(MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) THU- SAT/MON/ TUE 1.40, 4.00, 6.40, 9.00PM SUN 1.40, 6.40, 9.00PM
WED 10.30 (GOLDEN LUNCH), 4.00, 6.40, 9.00PM
LORE (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) THU 11.00 (BABES), 6.20, 8.40PM FRI- WED 1.20, 6.20, 8.40PM
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (M)
THU- TUE 4.30, 8.50PM WED 4.30PM
YOUR SISTER’S SISTER (M) THU- TUE 1.10PM WED 1.40PM
MONSIEUR LAZHAR (M)
THU- TUE 10.00, 2.20, 6.50PM WED 10.00, 2.20, 8.50PM
MOONRISE KINGDOM (PG)
THU- WED 3.40PM
CHINESE
TAKEAWAY (M) THU- WED 12.10PM BERNIE (M)
THU 1.30PM FRI- WED 11.00AM
THE SAPPHIRES (PG) THU- WED 11.30AM
F R O N T R O W @ T I M E O F F. C O M . A U
REVIEWS
C U LT U R A L
BLIND DATE THEATRE Part of the Brisbane Festival Big One Little One’s Blind Date will hit each audience member differently. A single-audient work wherein participants are led blindfolded around the city on a one-on-one date with one of the company’s creatives, it’s a performance experience largely (but not exclusively) defined by each audience member. This reviewer enjoyed his experience immensely. Beginning the date eyes-closed, sitting by a fountain in Fortitude Valley on a Friday afternoon, I’m greeted by performer Bren. He kindly hands me a blindfold, explains the work and proceeds to chat amiably with me as he leads me through the city.
WORK IN PROGRESS: MAD THEATRE Part of the Brisbane Festival Based on the poetry of author and schizophrenic Sandy Jeffs, Brisbane Festival production Work in Progress: MAD felt like a great show that is still very much in its infancy. Told primarily through music, movement, and film, the piece is at its most transcendent when the confusion of all these elements happen at once, reaching a fever pitch. Echoing some of the anxiety and unease constant at the dark heart of the schizophrenic condition. The songs, compositionally, are terrific, even if I disagree that writer Sandy Jeffs’ verbose poetry doesn’t quite lend itself to the rhythm and reliability required of a song. At its best, you understand the sentiment
In a credit to the confidence generosity of Bren’s performance, I’m not at all alarmed by having no idea where I am or where I’m going - and, oddly, I find the utter detachment and anonymity of the scenario quite liberating. My date with Bren actually proves therapeutic - allowing me to discuss and contemplate things that had been stressing me out for weeks. There are occasional flourishes of craft to break up the chatter and travel. Some work, some don’t - being led to some swings and spontaneously waltzing outside a fountain is fun; planting seeds to weepy indie-rock a little naff - but that will change with each audience member. Overall, it’s a wonderful experience and thoroughly recommended. Matt O’Neill
that’s being sung because of natural indications of the music, and at its worst, it sounds like that Spicks & Specks game where someone has to sing the lines of a textbook to a musical refrain. This isn’t to say Jeffs’ poetry isn’t affecting, or indeed great poetry – it’s just that it hasn’t here been worked in a way that best serves its complicated cadence. All in all, MAD is a show with terrific promise, and three truly faultless lead performances. Post-script: The audience Q&A that closed the show was truly insufferable, however. Somehow, our crowd was filled with rabid overappreciators; a riddle of idiots who asked dawdling, posey questions that were as toothless as they were tedious. It was the King Lear scene from Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret writ painfully real, and a markedly irritating finish to the evening.
Every five years or so researchers make a new breakthrough in developing the male contraceptive pill, as it was this month when we were informed of man’s ability to make rats shoot blanks. The last time we got all hopeful about this I remember writing what I thought was an incredibly witty blog about it. Wondering whether it was witty or reworkable, I decided to visit my poor, neglected old blog… on Myspace. After much mucking about and having the forgotten password sent to my poor, neglected email on Yahoo, I finally made it into Myspace. Facebooklike additions and advertising sprung out at me but when I made it to my home page it seemed like I had stumbled on some fossilised past. The dated pictures of my top eight friends who, like me, also had ignored but not deleted their accounts, smiled out from the screen at me, looking all skinny and youthful. Beautiful bastards. They don’t know about the GFC, Tony Abbott, or the passing of Neil Armstrong. On the other hand, in their time, people still have crazy frog ringtones on their Nokias.
Sam Hobson
WAKING UP THE BALLET
A big stage productionn of Sleeping al ballet lover’s dream Beauty? It’s a classical and, as Gediminas Taranda from the Imperial Russian Ballet Company tells our tutu-sporting dance correspondent Paul Ransom, there’s nothing more Russian than a night at the ballet.
When the Imperial Russian Ballet Company returns to these shores to tour their full-scale production of Sleeping Beauty, all of that tradition and pride will be on display. Indeed, there is nothing more Russian than the ballet (vodka notwithstanding).
WITH MANDY MCALISTER
Then there are the blogs of those crazy cohorts. For my part, the excess of swearing
taken a huge risk. However his tenacity, talent and extensive networks ensured that both his and IRBC’s star rose rapidly. The Sleeping Beauty tour will be the company’s fourth in this country.
Some things endure, like fairy tales, the ballet and the Russian people. Throughout centuries of brutal Czarist and Soviet rule, numerous wars, regular famines and political upheavals, the Russians have turned to vodka and classical ballet as a solace and as a source of considerable national pride.
CRINGE
For the founder of the Imperial Russian Ballet, Gediminas Taranda, it comes as no surprise that his compatriots continue to be enamoured of classical ballet. “Classical ballet is part of our national tradition in Russia going back over 200 years. Apart from that, Russian people love to dance and that’s why so many of them put their children into ballet school.” Whereas in Australia we have sport, in Russia they have ballet. “The main reason is that for Russian people life never used to be very good,” Taranda expands. “It was
very tough conditions and they used to go to the ballet in the evening to h l ffrom reality.” li ” protect themselves So entrenched in the Russian psyche is the ballet that despite its obviously aristocratic aesthetic, the former Soviet régime held it in the same regard as cinema and space travel. However, after the fall of the CCCP in 1991 and the liberalisation of the economy, life for Russia’s cossetted ballet community got a lot tougher. “About eight or ten years ago it wasn’t a good time for the ballet,” Taranda recalls, “but now it’s coming back and all around Russia. Even in the smaller cities, audiences are returning… Most importantly in all of this is that the government has started to support the ballet again.” Back in 1994 when Taranda stepped away from his career as a Bolshoi soloist to create the Imperial Russian Ballet Company he could have been excused for thinking that he had
“I am very impressed with Australian audiences,” Taranda declares. “There are lots of ballet lovers down there, which surprised me because usually it’s Europe and Russia that love ballet. It’s probably because of the Australian Ballet, who for the last 50 years or so have been a very famous company.” In 2012 those antipodean ballet fans will get to feast their senses on one of the genre’s defining classics, the Tchaikovsky-scored, two-hour-plus spectacle that is Sleeping Beauty. Although the dance community is busy embracing contemporary and ‘street’ forms, the technical, narrative musical and m sical traditions of classical ballet remain popular with audiences. For 51-year-old Gediminas Taranda, nothing compares to the sheer joy of the ballet. (Well, almost.) When asked what keeps him fresh and inspired, he laughs heartily. “In the morning, in the studio, it’s like a very good breakfast – and I love breakfast. Then in rehearsal it’s like drinking fantastic wine and afterwards, in the performance, it’s like a fantastic celebration for me. I live my life in the ballet, in celebration. I can’t understand how I could live without it.” WHAT: Sleeping Beauty WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 20 October and Sunday 21, The Arts Centre, Gold Coast and Monday 22 October to Wednesday 24, Brisbane Concert Hall
THE LOOKING
and angst could be summed up as fundamental problems of style and content. However, browsing over those belonging to writer friends unearthed little gems of creativity. I can’t help but be a little disappointed that they no longer feel compelled to blog. The instant readership of friends never really made the leap to Facebook notes. With all the apps to improve photography skills of the masses, Facebbook has become a very visual medium, whereas in writing, the last app for that was spell check. Issues of style and content can’t be fixed with an old timey filter. Perhaps the best we could do is a Mark Twain app. He once said, “Instead of writing the word ‘very’ write ‘darn’. Your editor will delete it and it will be as it should.” No editor is going to delete “darn” these days but still, improvements are imminent, as in the sentence “Facebook is a darn visual medium”. Much better. The freeze-frame of time that is Myspace is probably best left as an archived museum of the recent past where we can take a Midnight In Paris-type trip anytime and see just how we’ve evolved artistically and evaluate things gained and lost. If nothing else it’s a darn amusing way to spend an hour.
GLASS
WITH HELEN STRINGER There are certain truths that school career counsellors don’t tell you. First, arts degrees actually are as useful as the various disparaging adages suggest; attempts to deter you from undertaking a three-year BA are not motivated by a failure to fully appreciate your overwhelming artistic talents but by genuine hope that you’ll not affect tax brackets by joining the post-graduate dole queue. Second, and contrary to popular belief, there actually are at least three professions that allow you to be a batshit crazy perpetual adolescent: avant garde artist, writer and scientist. Forget the second option, unless, that is, you fancy an endless cycle of matriculation to delay your entry into the real world. Or if you find appealing the notion of subsisting on mi goreng, developing a full-blown case of agoraphobia and living with the niggling fear that you may just be the word-slinging equivalent of that delusional X Factor contestant who has the vocal skills of a mewling cat. Batshit crazy artist is a much preferable path, not least because you can make a name for yourself without actually having to put in a lot of work. It’s a simple matter of choosing a taboo and then breaking it, preferably whilst naked and on film. Art knows no boundaries. Case in point: asexual Japanese artist Mao Sugiyama recently had certain parts of his anatomy removed, frozen and served up to paying diners. It makes perfect sense really; God knows when I think “$250 meal” I immediately think, “Gee I hope sautéed human genitals are on the menu.” Who doesn’t? So
forget nudity, public sex and making a contribution to the perpetuation of the age-old mystery, “Performance art or porn?” cannibalism is the new artistic frontier. Over in the world of science you can get away with illegal activities by being in the business of human advancement. Play your cards right and you might find yourself lawfully cooking up a-grade narcotics and testing them on real-life humans, a televised experiment a group of British scientists is currently undertaking. They’ve even managed to get a couple of minor celebrities to agree to take Ecstasy with the effects documented on film. Fucked up people are hilarious to watch. The jaw grinding, the compulsive confessions of love, the sudden fondness for glow sticks and soft, fluffy things; it’s a riot. Let’s not get outraged about the potential glamorisation of recreational drug use just yet; there’s a big difference between hitting up a bored ex-private school kid for a pillshaped dose of concentrated Ajax and taking 83mg of pure MDMA made by bona fide scientists under controlled conditions. Although, being a big fan of a-grade pharmaceuticals prescribed to me by doctors, I might be biased in this liberal approach. I truly believe there are certain excruciating occasions when you’ve earned a right to intramuscularly administered morphine. Getting stunningly high is sometimes due compensation for writhing agony. Screw it; it’s time to quit day jobs and become drug dealing, cannibalistic performance artists. God knows there’s good money in narcotics. TIME OFF • 63
EP Launch
Friday 5th October Tickets 7 bf PRESALE X&Y Bar, 8pm www.xandybar.com.au with special guests 10 on the door
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theMusic.com.au and amaysim are giving away an iPad 3 or one of two iPhones with three months free national standard calls and texts. All you need to do is let us know which festivals you will be rocking this festival season. To enter head to: themusic.com.au/news/all/2012/09/24/amaysim/
HELM Members answering/roles:
Dario Lagana (guitar/vocals), Ryan Swierczewski (bass), Lucas Stone (vocals/guitar)
How long have you been together? Forever and ever.
Which Brisbane/SEQ bands before you have been an inspiration (musically or otherwise)?
allowed trade certificates. Did someone say Scotty Cam? Nah, just kiddin’, we’d throw a schooner down with that bloke.
Powderfinger, The Saints, Regurgitator, The Butterfly Effect.
If your band had to play a team sport instead of being musicians, which sport would it be and why would you be triumphant?
Divine intervention.
What part do you think Brisbane/SEQ plays in the music you make?
You’re on tour in the van – which band or artist is going to keep the most people happy if we throw them on the stereo?
Is your band responsible for more make-outs or break-ups? Why?
How did you all meet?
It’s big, cloudy, dark and dirty, just like us.
Mutemath, Cult Of Luna or Every Time I Die.
Break-outs. You do the math.
Would you rather be a busted brokebut-revered Hank Williams figure or some kind of Metallica monster?
What reality TV show would you enter as a band and why?
Some kind of Hank Williams monster that’s rich as shit.
The fucken Block, mate. We’d smoke those clowns. Rough c*%ts. Because where we come from, cowboys aren’t
Synchronised swimming. Because we are so graceful, like a gaggle of swans.
What’s in the pipeline for the band in the short term? Many, many break-outs... Seriously though, Vol. 3. Cannot wait to get this bad boy in your ears. Helm play Miami Tavern, Gold Coast on Friday 28 September and Crowbar on Saturday 29. Photo by TERRY SOO.
“Moved to a tear by a subway breakdancer” and the weathered, dreadlocked features of bassist Daniel Lorca adding the backing vocal, “It’s never too late for teenage dreams” throws a warm and fuzzy vibe on the stomping rock rhythm. Filling out the sweet solo opening of When I Was Young slowly and strategically, Nada Surf redirect via the dark, post-rock mood of Killian’s Red to appease that guy – the drunken, annoying dude in a crowd who won’t quit heckling until his favourite song is played – and finish unperturbed with a spinetingling rendition of 2008’s See These Bones. An encore of Blankest Year leaves all on a high as Caws’ puts out the call of “Oh fuck it!” and the tent responds with “I’m gonna have a party!” in delighted unison. It’s been a hell of a show, and those listening carefully enough to Caws’ banter know to stick around the merch desk afterwards to be treated to chats with the band and an impromptu performance. The affable frontman covers a further chunk of Nada Surf’s impressive 20-year catalogue including Blonde On Blonde, Your Legs Grow and Always Love on acoustic guitar for almost two hours, and as a small handful of fans sing gently with him, a truly beautiful moment is experienced. Tyler McLoughlan
ENTER SHIKARI, IN HEARTS WAKE
EATONS HILL HOTEL: 20/09/12 You know a night is going to be serious when you see someone jump from an upstairs mezzanine ten minutes into the support act. Fair enough though – In Hearts Wake are doing a solid job of inciting the mosh, capitalising on their swelling popularity on the back of debut album Divination. Plenty of that record gets aired, including Departure (Death), The Unknown (Strength) and Survival (The Chariot), with Jake Taylor’s screams making the windows ache and bow. Although they lose the beat a few times, their melody-infused hardcore is airtight for the most part, however they need to lose the cringeworthy coordinated stage moves – the songs stand up on their own without the need for additional bullshit.
Oh Mercy pic by Sky Kirkham
OH MERCY, MILLIONS, SPLIT SECONDS THE ZOO: 21/09/12
Spring is in the air and the cool breeze wafting through The Zoo’s windows is most welcome to the small crowd starting to trickle in. Kicking off the first night of the headliner’s national tour are Perth five-piece Split Seconds. Having their debut You’ll Turn Into Me lauded as a triple j Feature Album recently, there’s a respectable amount of interest garnered and gathered before them as they launch into an upbeat set that’s as fresh and enjoyable as it is near technically flawless. Frontman Sean Pollard leads his troupe through some back catalogue gems like the sweet acoustic strummer Bed Down as well as popular newbies Top Floor and All You Gotta Do. It’s vibrant and sunny indie pop that channels the glory days of Brisbane’s 1980s music scene, and hence goes down a treat. A slight increase in numbers sees local boys Millions onstage, suited up in sharp and classy black. Pocket rocket leading man Dominic Haddad calls for everyone to get cosy and come closer, then hurls his four-piece into Champagne off their Nine Lives Six Degrees EP from earlier this year. It’s astonishing the trajectory these young guys have found themselves on so soon after arriving on the scene, but with the suave execution of Haddad’s Julian Casablancas/Alex Turner-like delivery, with those exquisite controlled wails, it’s little wonder why the lads continue to incite increasing interest with each show. They work a solid and energetic set with faithful renditions of charming downbeat crooner Going Overseas and crowd favourite Slow Burner. A fairly short setup brings Alex Gow and the rest of Oh Mercy onstage sooner than expected, the ever-colourful frontman sporting a gold silk bomber jacket with ‘Deep Heat’ emblazoned on the back. It’s the title track from their latest and they get straight into it, a steady but tonally affected 66 • TIME OFF
drum beat intro into cool chugging guitars, with Gow having fun with his egg shaker. The jacket doesn’t hide his penchant for truly daggy shirts but an Oh Mercy show just wouldn’t be the same without them. He smiles and bounces his way through an energetic mid-section, dishing out the big ensemble sounds of My Man, Pilgrim’s Blues, and Labour Of Love with the help of additional touring members on keys and sax. Apart from getting a bit rattled when some rogue balloons get punched onstage, it’s clear Gow couldn’t be happier being anywhere else. He closes the set with current radio favourite Drums, nailing the higher vocal, returning to close with Great Barrier Grief’s Stay Please Stay and State Trooper, grabbing guys from the support acts as well as from Hungary Kids Of Hungary and The John Steel Singers for a cacophonous percussive singalong. Carley Hall
NADA SURF
THE SPIEGELTENT: 18/09/12 It’s been almost a decade since American trio Nada Surf graced our shores, and Brisbane has turned out a sold out crowd in the very special Spiegeltent during its Brisbane Festival visit to welcome them back. Ripping straight into this year’s seventh record The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, Waiting For Something highlights the live addition of guitarist Doug Gilliard of Guided By Voices fame; frontman Matthew Caws looks chuffed to let Gillard take lead whilst drummer Ira Elliot whips through massive drum rolls and chimes in on backing vocals to underline the tidy pop-rock hooks that Nada Surf specialise in. Though their live show tends to be breakneck in speed compared to all but their latest record, dynamic shifts are expertly crafted in tone and flow; Weightless is all crunchy guitar vs quiet interludes, where What Is Your Secret? is moody by way of minor melodies and affecting harmonies. Newbie Teenage Dreams is superb; a combination of Caws’ colourful lyric,
Zack de la Rocha is flowing over the sound system when the “Shikari” chants start in the pit, and as the lights drop and the St Albans’ crew stride gingerly out onto stage and straight into the double hit of System... and ...Meltdown, the room loses its collective shit. Considering Enter Shikari haven’t brought their full rig over from England, the lighting is formidable to say the least. Reds, yellows, greens and blues fly across the room like laser beams from a spaceship, a suitable setting for the industrial onslaught of older classics such as Sorry You’re Not A Winner, Labyrinth and Destabilise. The latter is extended to a point where it seems like the band are going through a series of sonic hoops, the hardcore-infused techno getting super ravey before it’s all brought to a brutally sprawling dub close. Rocking a straight-brimmed chav cap, sweater and shorts, frontman Rou Reynolds doesn’t make for the standard intimidating frontman and it’s refreshing. His bandmates are equally as unassuming, yet the energy they throw out relentlessly for 90 minutes is impossible to avoid. The middle section of the set is built around the band’s newer material – Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here leads a mass singalong, while Gandhi Mate, Gandhi lets the riffing pair of Rory Clewlow and Chris Batten get into the crowd for some casual crowd surfing. It’s Stalemate though that really highlights the successful risks that the band took on their latest album, with Reynolds managing to switch between acoustic six-string and sampler without it sounding one bit jilted. Then, “led by the ominous floor tom” of drummer Rob Rolfe, Juggernauts smashes the main set to a close, the simplistic mentalist riff and keys sounding like some sort of futuristic apocalypse, before an encore of Sssnakepit and Zzzonked squeezes every bit of energy out of the room, the bludgeoning breakdown-heavy finale creating pit destruction of catastrophic proportions. Fair play lads. Benny Doyle
PETER COMBE, ASTRID AND THE ASTEROIDS TEMPO HOTEL: 23/09/12
It’s clear the spell of Peter Combe has bewitched the Tempo Hotel from the outset of tonight’s proceedings. Everything’s quiet, and neat. People are friendly, young-ish, and are all wearing hats made out of thick, folded newspaper. There’s no tangle of hanging arms and fighting
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voices outside on the balcony – empty, but for a splash of moonlight – no, this gathering, it seems, is all about restraint – it’s all about wholesome, courteous, tucked-in fun. But Tempo feels a little dead, at first. It’s hot, and terribly still, and the stage lights are gaudy and fierce. There’s a cultish fever to the air; clucky renditions of Combe’s Newspaper Mama drift across the tables, variously stopping short in fits of tickled laughter. Suddenly, there’s a flash of sequins, and a band led by a female singer in a sparkling-jacketed one-piece are upon us. “We’re in a space band,” claims lead singer Astrid of She and The Asteroids, as they launch into a manically syncopated beat. Sounding like a jumble of great ideas unfortunately all actedupon at once, The Asteroids seem at first too weird and dense for the go-lucky crowd. But, this reviewer be damned, everyone quickly gets into what can best be described as some giddy convulsion of prog-pop-tinged glam-funk. Playing right into tonight’s ‘90s niche, the band peak on covers of the Round The Twist theme-song, and a surprisingly lucid version of Foxy Lady. Between then and Peter Combe, something happens. The floor loosens. People drink, shirts become untucked. A chair falls over (and is politely picked up again). On stage, a band begins to play. The mic stand sits empty, and the crowd begins to roar. Paper hats bob up and down in a sea of triangles. From afar, it looks like a bring your kids to work day at the KKK playhouse. Peter Combe, famed child performer, walks slightly hunched onto stage, and the floor becomes a cacophony. Everyone here is happyfucked, immediately. Combe raises his mouth to the mic, and launches into The Walking Song. The room is filled with girlish affection. Combe breaks between songs to chat in his adorable Pee-Wee Herman voice about where each song comes from, dropping hints about what’s coming up next. It’s everyone’s childhood, unmoved. We’re all kids again, and it’s strangely emotional. Saturday Night is next, then the endlessly silly Bahgdad, which is then followed by the desperately cute Rock This Little Baby; a song about his new niece. (Combe is a man on whom the simple pleasures of a pun are not lost.) By the time Chopsticks rolls ‘round, it feels like a revelation, and by Rain, most of us are a wet mess. Sam Hobson
JONATHAN WILSON
THE FAMOUS SPIEGELTENT: 16/09/12 Spiegeltent is the perfect setting to see Laurel Canyon revivalist Jonathan Wilson and his accomplished band play their first ever set in these parts, the rows of seats and ornate booths around the perimeter emitting a perfectly relaxed vibe that augments his wonderfully smooth music perfectly. There’s a gorgeous purple wash of light through the tent as they kick off with the exquisite Can We Really Party Today?, Wilson dragging us back to his native North Carolina in the lyrics while the band lay down a soft bed for him to riff over. The band’s sounds and textures are lush and soothing – able and willing to shift tones and feel on a dime midsong – but it’s the songs that shine, tracks like Magic Everywhere sounding polished and pristine. Wilson sports a string-haired, tousled hippy vibe while the rest of his bandmates look like ‘70s troubadour throwbacks, but it’s the music itself which demands attention, laidback and carefree but with depth and an attention to detail, the songs sprawling and jammy but with nary a note out of place. The cascading melodies of Desert Raven are intoxicating, all beautiful post-AOR bliss, while Ballad Of The Pines unveils a whole new dimension in the live setting. These Brisbane gigs are the final shows of a world tour supporting Wilson’s debut album Gentle Spirit, which has stretched out longer than a year, and the band are both in great form and high spirits, loving the unique environment and unbridled support but also happy that there’s respite in sight and that they’ll soon be home for a decent stint with their loved ones. Wilson unleashes a new song, Moses Pain, a beautiful country-infused number not far removed from his previous aesthetic but showing a clear progression in scope and craftsmanship, before finishing with a stunning version of Valley Of The Silver Moon, the cosmic ‘70s vibe stretched far beyond the parameters of its recorded counterpart. It’s all over far too quickly but no one’s complaining: Wilson is an absolutely delightful soul, and his music reflects this to the core. What a beautiful and serene world to sink into for an hour or so... Steve Bell
ARE YOU LOCAL? BRISBANE SINGLES AND EPS BY CHRIS YATES CHRIS@TIMEOFF.COM.AU
THE M-HUMM Twerps pic by Terry Soo
TWERPS, KITCHENS FLOOR METRO ARTS: 22/09/12
Entering the alleyway beside Metro Arts for another installment of the Out The Back series courtesy of Brisbane Festival, it’s clear that this venue is a new milestone for Brisbane live music. From the bulbous, amorphous installations hanging from some walls and some black-painted appliance noir embedded into another, the reasonably priced beverages and the open air stage, the mild Spring evening is set up for something truly memorable. Kicking off proceedings is Kitchens Floor, who are fleshed out into the four-piece tonight courtesy of Cured Pink’s Andrew McLellan. After stints of acoustic fare in the past twelve months, Matt Kennedy eschews the quieter moments entirely for a full-tilt re-entry into the kitchen sink despair of his desolate tunes. Opening up with No Love, the band are at their off-kilter best, Kennedy’s atonal drawl perfectly matched by the dissonance and affected disdain. Newer tracks Down and Bitter Defeat are early highlights, but the band rip through 116, Twenty-Four, Graves and Regrets with a controlled urgency. The songs all sound great, although McLellan’s organ is lost in the
mix for the most part, which is a shame since his recorded additions add even further depths. It’s a long gap between sets, but after a lot of great soul, funk and punk vinyl is slung about courtesy of Earl Grey, it’s time for the Melbourne wunderkinds Twerps to take the floor. Marty Frawley beckons the crowd in closer, which they do willingly. Frawley and co-anchor Julia MacFarlane are an unassuming duo, and whilst her guitar is a light addition under the heft of Frawley’s sounds tonight she takes command of songs like This Guy without even trying. Everything is tied effortlessly together by the metronomic styles of Pat O’Neill and Rick Milovanovic. Unfortunately the band struggles with the occasional technical difficulty, which seems to put them off at times, Frawley in particular feeling pressed to apologise. There is no need; their set is brimming with jagged pop gems that are too infrequent in this day and age. New track He’s In Stock offers a straighter, punchier riff on their Dunedin idols, whilst Coast To Coast is so good that some punters ask for it to be played twice. Staple Dreamin resonates, before the languid Jam Song washes over the crowd. The charm that emanates from these songs comes from their lack of self-consciousness; instead they float away on their own melodies, in the process taking everyone with them. Brendan Telford
Taming Tension Independent
A famous sound engineer once said that there is such a thing as too much reverb. I couldn’t agree less, and neither could the crazies in The M-Humm it would seem. Taming Tension is a fantastic shadow of a song, with vocals bathed in so much echo that all that remains is the suggestion of what they could have once been – the sounds of melancholy moaning nonsensically off in the distance somewhere. The drum machines don’t escape the echo treatment (actually nothing does really) but the tiny clicks and clacks are magnified and drift off over the arrangement. The M-Humm have a bunch of different releases on the near horizon, all will be worth casually investigating at the very least.
EVIL EDDIE Golden Age Independent Evil Eddie from Butterfingers laments modern hip hop with an anthem that sums up pretty much everything that’s wrong with Australian hip hop. Old dudes who look back at a tiny era of late-‘80s and early-‘90s hip hop which basically every Australian hip hop crew has built on and continues to mine, making everyone sound the same. Ironically, Eddie’s track sounds thoroughly modern, when he drops
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Beastie Boys and ODB samples he references his early hip hop interests, but the production takes elements of proto hip hop like a slinky bassline and a vocoder voice and actually does something fresh with it. The lyrics are funny and personal, even if they do reflect an idea that nothing good has happened with hip hop since Biggie and Tupac, which really I just don’t get. Maybe he’s taking the piss – always hard to tell with Eddie.
YOUNG MEN DEAD Courageous Independent Despite the fact that they are embracing some really interesting sounds and creating a nice bed of danceable indie, the vocals from Young Men Dead suggest they want to well and truly establish themselves as a pop band. There’s elements in the production side of things that mirror MGMT or even your Hot Chip, but they want to rely on the vocals and stick them way out in front. The falsetto comes in on the choruses for a bit of extra texture, but this all adds a lot of drama, which contrasts with the otherwise light and airy production of the track.
ARCANE REVOLVER The French EP
Paper Street Records Arcane Revolver indulges in sampling and representing things in a new light. For the opening track the synths and drums sit second place to the snippets of vocals and speeches that have been crafted together to create a narrative that doesn’t really say anything, but remains compelling. It’s not like this is detrimental to the song, it actually improves things by making these organic manipulations the focus. The EP explores a whole variety of different soundscapes and dabbles in just about every genre of electronic music ever created, but the clever use of voice samples threads the whole thing together.
TIME OFF • 67
ROOTS DOWN
OG FLAVAS
ADAMANTIUM WOLF
BLUES ‘N’ ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON ROOTS@DRUMMEDIA.COM.AU
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
METAL, HARDCORE AND PUNK WITH LOCHLAN WATT
Slaughterhouse
Wilco “There’s not much blues on there,” Bluesfest director Peter Noble said, grinning widely, when I met him in a Brisbane Japanese restaurant two weeks ago. By this stage I knew the first Bluesfest announcement was on its way and this little tidbit of information only furthered my curiosity as to who would be on the bill. When the first announcement was finally revealed to me, a couple of things in particular stuck out; it seems a fearless kind of announcement to me. Noble and his crew seem confident leading with punks such as Dropkick Murphys, Frank Turner and the mighty Iggy & The Stooges; all perfect fits for the Bluesfest but not necessarily the kind of bands we’re used to seeing on the first announcement. Likewise, they seem confident to once again lead their announcement with Ben Harper, an artist whose Bluesfest shows have become the thing of legend and has made that festival his own countless times over the past 16 years. No doubt the addition of Santana and Steve Miller Band – both playing Bluesfest for the first time – are big drawcards for the more mature punter, while the return of the Tedeschi Trucks Band brings the real rich guitar blues onto the bill; meaning that, all in all, it’s a pretty nicely rounded line-up. My top three picks from the first announcement are outlined below: Ask anyone who knows and they’ll happily tell you that Wilco are one of the world’s best live bands right now. Yes, their records are always vital, but in the live environment they offer something that is just completely mind boggling and utterly amazing. Tight, loose, musical, noisy, loud, intricate, brash… just see them. For Christ’s sake just see them. Their latest record The Whole Love was one of last year’s truly fine records and we can’t wait to see them performing songs from it in the live environment. They dominated Bluesfest a number of years ago and they’re gonna do it again. What can be said about Iggy & The Stooges that hasn’t already been preached a hundred times over? One of the original punk rock bands, with a couple of the most enduring, well loved rock’n’roll records of all time, this is an act that you need to see before it’s too late. And it’s going to be too late soon, as this is going to be the last ever tour of Australia that Iggy & The Stooges embark on. The past two visits have both been absolutely incredible – we’re not just saying that – and we have no reason to believe that it will be any different this time around; shame on anyone who misses this inimitable rock band for the last time. The last time the great Bonnie Raitt played Bluesfest she closed the Crossroads Stage in scintillating form; as far as blues singers and guitarists go, she has to be one of the best that’s ever been around. Her Slipstream record of earlier this year was very good indeed and we just know she’s going to have a band packed with some of the world’s best players when she makes her return to Bluesfest in 2013. There are another three big announcements to come (I’m guessing there’ll be a smaller one with the locals as well, but don’t quote me on that) and I think the next one is just a couple of weeks off. You may have noticed a lack of Australian acts on the first announcement; expect that to all change very soon! And I am assured that, yes, there will be more blues. The full line-up as it stands following the first announcement is as follows: Ben Harper, Santana, Iggy & The Stooges, Chris Isaak, Bonnie Raitt, Wilco, Dropkick Murphys, Steve Miller Band, Glen Hansard with The Frames, Tedeschi Trucks Band, William Elliott Whitmore, Newton Faulkner, Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Grace Potter, Playing For Change and Ben Caplan. 68 • TIME OFF
Eminem loves his supergroups. He’s long been involved in D12. Then he had the compact Bad Meets Evil with fellow Detroiter Royce Da 5’9”. Last year they presented the ‘EP’ Hell: The Sequel. And Eminem has signed Slaughterhouse – its members Royce, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I – to his Shady Records. Welcome To Our House is their first major label effort and reached No. 2 in the US. You may already know the Slaughterhousers. Not coincidentally, all have had label woes. They’re underdogs. Royce is, of course, ‘Bad’ to Eminem’s ‘Evil’. He premiered with the promising Rock City in the early 2000s, DJ Premier helming the sweet-ass Boom. Budden, a Jersey City native, broke out with 2003’s self-titled album (home to Just Blaze’s Pump It Up) on Def Jam before going indie. Brooklyn’s Ortiz was at one stage with Dr Dre’s slow-moving Aftermath Entertainment. He’s lately aligned himself with Shady. Crooked, from Long Beach, is an ex-Death Row affiliate. Naturally, Slaughterhouse are all about the hardcore. In fact, hardcore rap is virtually extinct in the hedonistic electro-hop era. 50 Cent, due to unleash Street King Immortal in November, has become a gangsta parody. Others have kinda wussed out. Snoop Dogg has (again) renamed himself – this time choosing Snoop Lion. The OG, who believes he’s the reincarnation of the peace-lovin’ Bob Marley, is prepping a reggae album, Reincarnated (duh!), with Major Lazer. Dre has apparently semi-retired, his Detox yet to materialise. The NWA co-founder cameos on Rick Ross’ Jake One-guided 3 Kings alongside Jay-Z (off God Forgives, I Don’t), and produced Fiddy’s New Day, but doesn’t contribute here, Eminem connection or no. And so Slaughterhouse are repping hardcore’s old(er) guard. Welcome To... is a glorified posse album. Camaraderie is the key theme, Slaughterhouse paying homage
to hip hop on StreetRunner’s radio-friendly My Life, with Cee-Lo Green. (It samples Corona’s ‘90s Italohouse The Rhythm Of The Night!) Welcome To... is also a big-sounding record that taps into hip hop’s prevailing nostalgia for epic ‘90s joints. Busta Rhymes (Budden’s ally on Fire and since sometime foe) booms on Hit-Boy’s fierce Coffin, which references his classic Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check. Slaughterhouse rap over beats supplied by Eminem and his old colleagues, among them Mr Porter (AKA D12’s Kon Artis), who shares his appreciation of grungy Detroit beats. Porter participated in Slaughterhouse’s debut. Wannabe hype man Swizz Beatz joins the fold on Porter’s amped up yet goofy party song Throw It Away. Brit producer Alex Da Kid, responsible for Eminem’s crossover hit Love The Way You Lie with Rihanna, has two records. His Our House blends a similar alt.rock ballad ethos to Love... with Portisheadstyle trip hop. Guest Eminem dominates the sombre track with a hook by Skylar Grey, co-writer of Love... Alex and Grey are also on board for Rescue Me, which reveals a slight Boys Noize electro-hop pull. But Slaughterhouse have reached out to hot relative newcomers, too. Drake’s homie T-Minus chips in with Throw That (Eminem again gatecrashing), ol’ skool electro, and the even better underground techno Frat House (plus there’s rock guitar!). The Canadian may specialise in illwave, but he customises his beats for the grimy Slaughterhouse. AraabMuzik creates the eerie, surrealist, synthy horrorcore Hammer Dance, the first single earlier this year (oh, the hammer is a gun). Get Up is funky ‘90s boom-bap, courtesy of No ID (Common). Slaughterhouse let down their collective guards for the personal Goodbye. If Welcome To... falters, it’s because it’s overcrowded. What’s more, lyrical prowess aside, Slaughterhouse are a little unfocussed. At times they come across as clowns like D12, but then they offer party tracks, ‘keep it real’ hip hop missives, and the odd bit of horrorcore. Nevertheless, the ultimate question is: can Slaughterhouse fend off new ‘bad’ rappers on the block, Odd Future?
THE BREAKDOWN POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY
Sarah Mary Chadwick During his keynote interview at Brisbane’s BIGSOUND conference this month, Ben Lee described his induction into the US lo-fi scene of the mid ‘90s. It came about by happenstance, he told; his naivety in recording sessions with his teen band Noise Addict produced what he called in the interview “bad recordings”. Those recordings saw Noise Addict accepted into the fold of bands producing technologically primitive recordings as an aesthetic and perhaps political choice. It was a lucky break, Lee told the audience. Of course there was a little more to it than that. The lo-fi aesthetic of Noise Addict did perfectly suit the earnest teenage musings of its singer and his foal-like vocals. The delivery matched the material and the industry personnel around the band, including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore who signed them to his Ecstatic Peace! label, and could see the potential in that. Considering the commercial rebirth of lo-fi over the past few years as well as the number of burgeoning smallprint labels in Australia turning out home-recorded records, it’s worth continuing the conversation about what justifies slacking off on recording techniques, or indeed working two fold to produce a primitive tone, when making an album. That is to say that in all arts practice, the artist should be able to give reasons for their choice of medium. Those reasons should extend beyond monetary limitations, too. After all, if you’re broke and want to dress well, you go and find a free or cheap suit. Plenty of start-up bands attempt big-studio sounds on a budget, though the argument could also be made (by people forced to listen to these recordings) that they shouldn’t. Melbourne-based noise troubadour Sarah Mary Chadwick has been working with lo-fi recording for
a decade, most of that with her former band Batrider. That band often used lo-fi techniques to create mood and to juxtapose unadorned and repetitive musical phrasings and breakneck rhythms, making for albums that got easily under your skin and then poisoned you from the inside. The band’s final album, last year’s Pile Of Lies (Two Bright Lakes/Inertia), built walls of peaking guitars and hid Chadwick’s usually caterwauling voice behind them; it was an exercise in using recording as a songwriting element, and as an assault weapon. Chadwick’s recently released debut solo album, Eating For Two (out through Bedroom Suck Records), plays an opposing game. It’s stark, leaving Chadwick and her at turns delicate and jarring guitar playing to do almost all the work. There are layers in places, some backing guitar tracks and harmonies that create the effect of ghostly pleadings echoing Chadwick’s brutal appraisals of a past relationship. A halo of reverb over much of the album also aids in the overwhelming sense of loneliness Chadwick creates. If it were to be matched against another recent recording, that would have to be Adalita’s 2011 self-titled album, which also dealt in ghostly balladry. But Adalita’s album, with the help of the late Dean Turner, set the Magic Dirt frontwoman’s stream-of-consciousness punk poetry in a soft, if minimal, landscape, enhancing the dreamlike state of the songs. Eating For Two is wide awake, and while there’s immense beauty to be found, it isn’t soft in the slightest. It isn’t a troubled dream. It’s a purpling, seeping sore. Chadwick’s confessions are both uncomfortable and painfully relatable. “I knew I would break us and I even knew how”, she sings in a hushed tone and broad New Zealand accent amidst sparse strumming on Perfect For You. On Don’t Try At All, an accordion wheezes like a slow anxiety attack as Chadwick’s vocals layer up and she repeats the title phrase. The album’s finale, I Could Have Lived Without You, is its most gutting, a rasping list of things Chadwick could have done rather than be in a relationship. Through this, the lo-fi recording feels essential. It’s the crumbling walls of this emotional prison. It’s the unclean air that keeps the album alive and threatens to leave.
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Don’t forget about US touring duo Defeater and Blacklisted hitting town this weekend. Check the bottom of this column for the weekend’s date, but don’t forget that the forward-thinking hardcore groups will also play next Tuesday evening at The Zoo with locals Waiting Room. Tickets are available now from Kill The Music and all Oztix outlets for $39.80. American deathcore dudes Oceano are headed down to Australia for the first time – and they’ll be playing direct support to Perth group and recent Roadrunner Records Australia debutants Make Them Suffer. Making sure the bill is super massive, Saviour, also from Perth, and Melbourne’s Boris The Blade will round it out. You can catch the Brisbane shows on Saturday 1 December at X&Y Bar, and on Sunday 2 for an all ages show at The Eagleby Community Hall. Tickets are on sale now. The Amity Affliction, The Ghost Inside, Architects and Buried In Verona have been destroying/ will destroy The Tivoli four nights in a row this week – if you missed out on Monday and Tuesday’s shows, too bad, because Wednesday and Thursday’s have well and truly sold out. Sydney/Brisbane deathcore group Thy Art Is Murder recently released the first single from their debut album, Hate. You can check out or pick up the ridiculously crushing Reign Of Darkness over on YouTube or iTunes. Hate is due out on 19 October, and if you pre-order it now through JB Hi-Fi you’ll also receive a limited edition Thy Art Is Murder bumbag for you to hide your stash in. Gold Coast pop-punks Skyway have decided to call it a day after four years and five releases. They’ll be playing a final tour with Built On Secrets, and releasing a new digital EP before they go out in style at X&Y Bar on 18 October and Kulrilpa Hall on 19 October. The band’s explanation is simple: “we’re still as good mates as we were when we got into this, it’s just that life is taking us all in different directions at this time.” Perth punks Grim Fandango have teamed up with Brisbane fruit-bearers El Alamein for a tour that spans Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. Check them out at Crowbar on Thursday 11 October with We Set Sail, Waiting Room and Capeweather, and then on Friday 12 at Valhalla House with Make More and Little Shadow. Melbourne death-gore-slammers Whoretopsy have confirmed the details for their new EP release, Isn’t She Lovely. It’s going to be made available in midOctober, with a bloodstained lyric video for the first single Seminal Torture currently viewable on YouTube. Brisbane pop punk guys Sunsets have been at work in the studio putting together a new EP titled Make It Happen. They plan to release it sometime in either October or November, and you can check out the first single Elsewhere Bound on YouTube. Some dedicated folk have put together a book on the 20-year history of iconic Melbourne punk/metal/hardcore venue The Arthouse. Entitled Home Is Where The Arty Is, you can pre-order the hardcover, full-colour book for $65 from thearthousebook.bigcartel.com. Supports have all been confirmed for the upcoming Russian Circles tour with Eagle Twin. Next Friday night in Brisbane they’ll be joined by Sydney’s Lo! at The Zoo, with I Exist, Clagg, Hydromedusa, Sleepmakeswaves, Agonhymn, and The Broderick among the names opening up the rest of the tour.
GIGS OF THE WEEK:
Wednesday: Fear Factory (USA), Thy Art Is Murder, Truth Corroded – The Hi-Fi. Thursday: MC Lars (USA), Sunsets, Always Yesterday, Ash McIntyre – X&Y Bar. Illicit, In The Shadows, Portraits, The Dagobah System – Crowbar. Friday: Defeater (USA), Blacklisted (USA), De Memoria – Mt Gravatt PCYC. Local Resident Failure, Friends With The Enemy, The Decline, Driven Fear, Mental Giants – Crowbar. Saturday: For This Cause, Sound of Season, Awaken I Am – X&Y Bar. Helm, Dollarosa, Alibrandi – Crowbar. Sunday: High On Fire (USA), Shellfin – The Zoo. Ulcerate, Eternal Rest, Departe, Grey Matter – Beetle Bar. Boris The Blade, Never Lose Sight, Shorelines, Courting Pandora – X&Y Bar.
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TIME OFF • 69
DUMBSAINT
ASTA Talking of film, Andrews explains why Dumbsaint’s much lauded, signature audiovisual show is such an important element of their live performances.
After being announced the winner on Tom & Alex’s breakfast program, Asta simply lost it. It was a wave of emotion that really encapsulated the importance of the competition.
“We’ve created individual short films that sync to all our songs as we play and are projected onto a screen on stage – an installation of sorts. It’s crucial for us as it further enhances the narrative, cinematic nature of what we try to do. We explore the possibilities of interacting music and images and hopefully create something memorable.”
Nick Andrews, drummer with cinematic Sydney instrumentalists Dumbsaint, talks to Tony McMahon about his band’s new single, Inwaking, and how much he loves coming to Brisbane. “I would say length played a big factor,” says Andrews, talking about why the band thought Inwaking would make for a good second single off the band’s debut album, Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form. “It’s to the point and structurally it’s quite easily digestible. Melody and harmony are to the forefront of the track as opposed to our usual angular walls of sound, which works really well to enhance the tension of the corresponding short film.”
“I had my phone in my hand waiting in anticipation,” the 18-year-old recalls. “I was hopeful, but I knew it was a tough competition as the finalists were all so talented and unique. As soon as that blocked number appeared on the phone though my stomach just dropped.”
Not all that surprisingly, Andrews is pretty happy to be out on the road touring a new record with his band, and it seems that he’s especially pleased about the Queensland leg of the trip. “The tour has been fun so far. We’re very excited to get out there as a four-piece for the first time and further develop the performance. I would say supporting Earth (USA) last week has been the highlight of the year so far. We’re looking forward to coming back to Brisbane – everyone there is so relaxed. Hopefully we can expand on last time and continue playing to a like-minded audience. We’re playing two shows, two different sets – including some new material – as well as performing a soundscape improv on 4ZZZ radio up there.” WHAT: Inwaking (Bird’s Robe Records) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 28 September, Tempo Hotel; Saturday 29, Tym Guitars (free, all ages)
HANNAH ROSA
For some people like Kylie, it takes years to be recognised by a single name. For Asta, it took one song. The Unearthed High winner speaks to Benny Doyle. My Heart Is On Fire. With that one song, Asta’s life will never be the same again. “I felt such love and passion when writing the song and then going onto to perform it with electronic backing really brought it to life,” Asta gushes, talking about the track that won her the 2012 Unearthed High competition. “It started acoustic and kept evolving. It describes exactly how I was feeling at that time in my life. I love expressing myself through lyrics. [But] the realisation how special this track really is came so strongly by it being shared, loved and supported by so many.”
“All the songs from Tall Poppy were written late at night when I was alone in my bedroom, so I guess it’s not surprising that they tend to be of a slightly dark and personal nature,” she admits, discussing her debut EP. “For me, writing songs has always been a fantastic way to vent about two-faced friends, boys and life in general. I’ve already started penning songs for my next release, and while the lyrical themes are likely to remain the same, I’m really looking forward to delving into different genres and collaborating more with other songwriters.” A beautiful group of songs that will resonate deeply for fans of Missy Higgins and The
“Tough question,” she ponders. “I like each song for various reasons. There is something very satisfying about belting out Liar when I’m playing live and You Chose Me is a highlight, if simply because it’s one of the only happy songs I’ve ever written! That said, my favourite at the moment is When The Lights Go Out. It only took me an hour to write, and when I went to Alchemix to record with Marly [Lüske], everything fell into place really neatly. He’s done such a great job in realising my vision for the EP, this track particularly.” Rosa will be backed up by her five-piece band for the EP launch, with the songwriter genuinely excited about the layered depth the quintet bring to the table. “It’s much more fun when you can bounce off each other’s creativity in the studio and energy onstage. I really can’t ever thank my band enough. They’ve put in so much time and hard work to help me get to where I am now. I feel so lucky to share the stage with them all.” WHAT: Tall Poppy (Independent)
70 • TIME OFF
Fronting MKO has transformed Hannah Macklin into an electro-soul vixen. It seems like the 24-year-old hates spare time, but as Benny Doyle finds out, it’s actually the opposite. Sort of.
The quartet’s first gig followed a few months later and now we have Awaken The Herd, a explosive mash up of pop, dance-centric R&B and neo-soul that sounds simply alive. Macklin discusses the topics she waxes lyrically.
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 27 September, The Zoo
Combining tech instruments – samplers, MPC, loop pedals – with more traditional sounds – bass, keys and drums – MKO has become the outlet for Macklin to finally flesh out the musical magic cooped up inside her. “I think the music I create with MKO is the closest and truest I’ve ever been to replicating the sounds and musical desires I hear and feel within me which is a great feeling!” she exclaims. “I’ve always responded most enthusiastically to R&B and soul-flavoured music; most of my favourite artists fall in these genres. I also enjoy music that pushes boundaries sonically and technically and makes the listener think. Things that maybe take a few listens to get your head around. Things that groove in cool and weird ways.” WHAT: Awaken The Herd (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 26 September, The Astonishing Electric Bear @ Black Bear Lodge
THE DECLINE When it comes to excitement levels for the tour, Sound Of Seasons don’t discount the possibility of some television sets in swimming pools types of activity.
sounds better for it. Between the guys writing some killer songs and Adam and the BR crew polishing our turds I think we came up with something worth releasing.”
“We’re absolutely stoked! This is our biggest tour to date in terms of the amount of shows, distance covered and personal investment. It’s something we’ve been working towards since we’ve been a band and now that it’s finally here, we can’t wait to get out there. We want to meet and play to as many people as we can and as far as having fun and getting up to mischief goes, we’re all for it.”
Not only do The Decline have a terrific album under their belts, they’re also about to embark on what is, without doubt, the world’s most awesomely named road show: The Abbott Proof Fence Tour.
As far as describing a SOS live show is concerned, it seems that the operative word here is energy.
“The first two singles were pretty different to each other and I think that when we released those, we didn’t quite know our own sound, we’d only been a band for a couple of months before we released All Over Me and Sweet Decline wasn’t too far after that. With this EP, it’s more of a collection of songs that really reflect where we’ve come as a band. We’ve also grown a fair amount as people, which is again reflected on the EP.”
WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 29 September, Kingdom Of Little Empires @ Brisbane Powerhouse
“I guess the overriding theme was one of self-growth and discovery, and within that realising and thinking more about my direction in life,” she explains. “Taking tips from people I greatly admire, trying to be my own person and not care about the ‘people with their faces in their windows’, and tackling tricky decisions. And of course, the obligatory love song, disguised cheekily as a syncopated soul-pop ditty.”
“I love spare time – I just enjoy filling it up! Last year while I was working on several different projects, I started playing around in GarageBand with beats, new poppier tunes and a more crisp electronic sound. After getting a small repertoire together, I formed MKO – a four-piece – and we began recording our EP in October.”
SOUND OF SEASONS
Sydney alt.rockers Sound Of Seasons tell Tony McMahon all about their new EP, Make Believe, and their plans for getting into some Sunshine State trouble.
“I’ve been working on a set that shows some dynamic upbeat dance tunes where I can really shake ma thang, with a blend of soft-yet-strong lyrical acoustic tunes,” she tells. “There’s a variety in my set which reflects my personality and at these performances [you’ll hear] two brand new songs, one called I Miss You and another called Someday – I cant wait to share them!”
MKO Waifs, the singer-songwriter is at odds to pick the high point of the release.
On the cusp of her first release, Hannah Rosa speaks to Benny Doyle about the honesty that runs through her new EP Tall Poppy.
As part of the prize, Asta recorded new track, Escape. The song recalls the power of Stevie Nicks, however, it’s more modern maidens such as Sarah Blasko, Kimbra and Adele who have helped push Asta’s songwriting further. This will be the Tasmanian teen’s first show Queensland and understandably, anticipation is running high.
“In terms of the music, we try to sound as close to the record as possible when we play live. It’s always frustrating when a band sounds amazing on record so you see them live and it’s totally different. Having said that, there are always elements that have more impact when playing live, such as calland-responses, crowds singing certain parts and whatnot. One thing that we pride ourselves on is the energy that we put into each performance whether it’s in front of one person or 500 people.” WHAT: Make Believe (Sourtree/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 29 September, X&Y Bar
We’re pretty sure they’re having us on, but WA punk outfit The Decline swear that their new album, Are You Gonna Eat That?, is the precursor to some serious cock rock. Drummer Danny shares all with Tony McMahon. “This album is the prequel to a 20-part concept album that will incorporate each of our individual styles along with the four elements and the impact they have on Shane Collins. It’s gonna be pretty epic as we plan to incorporate a narrative throughout that we can later be turned into a Broadway sensation. I can’t wait. We recorded it with our good friend Adam Round at a tiny studio in the burbs and then had it sent off to The Blasting Room for a spit and polish. It was quite an intense recording process for me especially as this was my first attempt at tracking to a click and yeah, it was crazy. I was waking up in the middle of the night from nightmares of metronomes chasing me down tunnels and hallways. It was creepy but totally worth it as the album
themusic.com.au
“Definitely happy to be on the road again. Every time I’m home now all I think about is when can we go next. I’m especially excited for Queensland as I was born in Cairns but moved when I was very young. So the fact that I get to go exploring the country with these guys is so awesome. Even though at times we get on each other’s nerves, it’s all part of the experience and we always seem to come out stronger for it. There’s seems to be a stigma attached to WA in relation to it being behind the times and far away from everything, and you always hear of bands moving over east to ‘make it’, but it always seems crazy to me. If you really want to do something just fucking work at it. WA has awesome people, killer bands and not to mention the best fucking beaches. I can’t imagine any other state I’d like to come home to after a tour!” WHAT: Are You Gonna Eat That? (Independent) WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 27 September, Surfer’s Paradise Beer Garden, Gold Coast; Friday 28, Crowbar
TIME OFF • 71
BRISBANE BOUND
I’M ON FIRE
Brisbane is about to get shaken up as California outfit High On Fire cross the Pacific, bringing with them their latest offering, De Vermis Mysteriis. The “underground thrash-sludge messiahs” will be doing what they do best, bringing a storm of sound thanks to their “apocalyptic riffage and gravel-gargling vocals”. Supporting High On Fire on their Brisbane leg of their tour will be local three-piece Shellfin, adding their blend of stoner-rock sounds to what already promises to be a hectic night. Catch High On Fire with Shellfin playing at The Zoo on Sunday 30 September, tickets are available through OzTix.
TRUE BLUE
KIRA PURU & THE BRUISE Name Of Act: Kira Puru & The Bruise Member/role: Kira Puru – vocalist Homeground: We all live together in an old beat-up ‘warehouse’ space in Newcastle. Describe your live music/performance style as succinctly as possible. Moody, violent, drunk. Is this your first foray to Brisbane? If not how many times have you performed in our midst? We once decided it would be funny to take on a residency in Brisbane at the same time as we had one in Sydney and drive back and forth, weekly. It quickly became apparent it wasn’t very funny at all. In answer to your question though, this is not our first time, we obliterated our Bris Vegas virginity at the Old Museum last year and have since played at the Beetle Bar, the Judith Wright Centre and many, many times at The Joynt. Please relate your impressions of performing in our fair city. The people are hot, the weather is fine and there’s a healthy appreciation for the arts. There’s also good booze and good coffee, so you’ll get no complaints here. What can we expect different this time around? We have a babin’ new drummer whose spin on our songs has tweaked our sound ever-so slightly. We also have a handful of new songs. Has anything exciting been happening in your world of late? Getting a new drummer, collaborating with the guys from Blackfella Films and Sonar Music on an exciting project, Kira wrapped up her collaboration with Paul Mac on his new album, we’re working with a really excellent producer for our new release and plan to tour it in November, we’re currently on the road with Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes and doing the Drunken Moon Festivals – it’s all guns ablaze for us until the end of the year.
Australia’s Got Talent finalists DeepBlue will be playing a string of dates at Brisbane’s Powerhouse from Wednesday 10 to Sunday 14 October. The 16-piece string-rock outfit will be running workshops with local young musicians as well as getting choirs involved. As for their shows, imagine a set that shuffles through “Radiohead, Corelli, Gotye and DeepBlue originals”, delivered through their harmonic, string-playing prowess. DeepBlue have brought the art of classical string instrument playing into the 21st century, remixing all-time greats as well as today’s chart singles. The show will also allow spectators to directly interact, through the use of the DeepBlue app, allowing the audience to request songs and voice their messages to all those watching. Tickets are available through the Brisbane Powerhouse website, prices vary according to age groups; family tickets are also available.
DAMN HABIT, HIGH AND SEEING UNICORNS
December is set to be hot and sweaty, not just because it’s the start of summer, but because Californian punk outfit Pour Habit will be visiting our shores. The four-piece have also amassed a huge list of support acts varying from place to place, looking to uncover some of nation’s uprising punk and metal talent. Adelaide fourpiece, Hightime, and NSW four-piece, Totally
Melbourne artist, Mojo Juju, is leaving her band Snake Oil behind and launching her solo career. November will see Mojo Juju release her self-titled record, delivering a dirty concoction of jazz and blues, which is full of sass and attitude. Single Must Be Desire is available on YouTube for your viewing and listening pleasure, with its sumptuous noir film clip, providing a taste of what to expect from Mojo Juju. Following the release, she’ll be going on a promotional national tour. Mojo Juju’s live shows have been described as being “something dark, dirty and seductive”, which ultimately make for a truly mesmerising live show. She will be bringing her mojo to Black Bear Lodge on Thursday 15 November and Byron Theatre, Byron Bay on Friday 16. 72 • TIME OFF
Everyday Starts With An E VAGINABILLIES Wowee Zowee PAVEMENT Cassowary THE STRESS OF LEISURE I, Jonathan JONATHAN RICHMAN Thankful N’ Thoughtful BETTYE LAVETTE Sad Summer Hits TEXAS TEA Robbie Dupree ROBBIE DUPREE
Unicorn, will play at every leg of the Pour Habit tour, ensuring the tour is as loud, energetic and raucous as possible. Catch the California boys playing at the Crowbar on Thursday 6 December with further support courtesy of Army Of Champions and Mental Giants, $29+BF. Pour Habit will also be playing at the Miami Tavern, Gold Coast on Friday 7 December with Trust Fall and Satellite Years, $27+BF .
TOO OLD FOR TOYS 17-year-old Kurt Sines, formerly renowned for his folk/acoustic prowess, has taken the giant leap into the electro-pop pool. With his latest EP Toys just released on iTunes, he’s certainly not wasting any time getting himself out there. Single Cloud Song is already being well received amongst fans, delving into delicate and intricate electro soundscapes over which his vocals echo through in haunting ways. Kurt will be playing at the Valley’s Undress Festival – a fashion show held in a car park of all places (hipster or what?), showcasing Brisbane’s rising and independent fashion talent – on Saturday 13 October. So head along for your fashion and music fix. Tickets cost $12.
In the lead-up to the Big Village Big Things national tour, celebrating the release of the new Big Village compilation Big Things Volume Two and featuring pretty much everyone on the label taking to the road, we grabbed Native Wit from True Vibenation, Tuka and Ellesquire to talk all things Big Village, stereo domination and same but different. T: I’m investing in noise cancelling headphones, a soft blow up doll in the shape of a pig which will serve as my snoozing partner and a giant megaphone to yell demands at the driver or whoever thinks they deserve their choice in music on the stereo. Actually fuck that, I’m booking flights instead. So yeah, no fights from me, happy Tuk, might even try to get upgraded, drink a bloody mary on the way’n’shit. Yeah. Tuka
Is there a commonality with all the artists in the collective? Or is everyone totally disparate? E: Musically I think we all have pretty different styles. To me that’s what makes the collective interesting. We vary from the more traditional boom bap kind of hip hop to a more futuristic/ grime type vibe. Some of us talk politics some of us parties. As people though I think we’re all on a similar page. A lot of us hang out on the regular. Nearly half of Big Village live in the same house. It’s all love at the end of the day.
Ellesquire
What’s the biggest thing you hope will happen to your musical career? Ellesquire: Make an album I’m at least 95% happy with. That’s it. Be stoked if I get there. Native Wit (True Vibenation): We’ll all appear in The Simpsons. Tuka: One day I hope to be a major endorser for some sort of taco company, ideally one that murders children, rapes our natural resources and makes sick fucking tacos. I really like tacos; most Mexican food actually. But to tell you the truth I’m not a big fan of any expectations. With the whole label going on tour, there are bound to be some fights over the stereo in the tour van. Who will win and why? E: I’ll win ‘cause I got the biggest selection of tunes. Also I’m a master at choosing the appropriate song for specific moods, weather, traffic conditions and severity of hangover. NW: Us (True Vibenation) because we’re taking a boom box for the backseat! Bring on the battle of the stereos.
HAVE YOU HEARD
Money For Rope MONEY FOR ROPE
IT’S GOTTA BE BIG
BOWLED OVER
FULL OF MOJO
Kings Of The Sun THE SAINTS
¡UNO! GREEN DAY
Kira Puru & The Bruise play Drunken Moon Festival @ The Hi-Fi on Saturday 29 September.
Spring is in the air, what better time for free lawn bowls, oh and not to forget sweet sunny tunes. Well Octobersesh will see just that, with “live music, drink specials, unlimited barefoot bowls, free pool and a relaxed vibe”. There is a pretty extensive line-up including Sticky Fingers, who have been enjoying extensive airplay on triple j over the last month, as they stop over on their Made For It tour. Fat Tuesday, Rogerthat, The Mank, Vaguely Human Choon Goonz and Jesswah will also be playing, bringing a diverse array of sounds to proceedings. So head over to the Greenslopes Bowls Club on Sunday 21 October, tickets cost $15 presale/$20 on the door, with doors open 12pm-late (all ages).
ON TIME OFF STEREO
NW: Well we were all friends already and had been doing shows together and just hanging out for a few years before we decided to make the collective official. That being said we all have pretty different tastes and styles. I think we all take what you could call a ‘no bullshit’, forward thinking approach to music where substance is just as important as style. T: We are not afraid to get a little close you know, royal rumbles‘n’shit, but everyone has their own vibe. Taco eating is more my thing. We are all pretty close mates, defo a lot of commonality, not in a weird holding hands way, unless everyone is up for it, if that’s the case I am fucking down. Big Village Big Thing tour hits Coniston Lane on Friday 28 September.
themusic.com.au
RVLR How did you get together? Joel Myles (vocals/guitar): “Jess, my sister, and I have had some sort of rock band happening since we were 12. We’ve had a fair few line-up changes over the years and I’m happy to say that this incarnation of the band is absolutely what it should be. We mostly were always a three-piece. We had an extended hiatus while I was starting a solo career and then, when the urge of playing sweaty rock music and screaming my lungs out became overwhelming and I finally started writing again for this band, we needed to up the ante with an extra guitarist. We struck gold when Josh “Bowie” Feros answered our ad – we immediately became best mates and for the first time I collaborated with another guitarist and our new sound and name was born. Michael Grabbe joined RVLR about two-and-ahalf years ago and that’s when we could truly put our ideas forward in the live environment.” Sum up your musical sound in four words. “Brutal, grungy, shouty songs!” If you could support any band in the world – past or present – who would it be? “Silverchair.” You’re being sent into space, you can’t take an iPod and there’s only room to bring one album – which would it be? “David Bowie – Best Of Bowie.” Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? “It was more of a whole weekend that has become our favourite rock’n’roll moment. We opened the main stage at Splendour In The Grass 2010. We were looking at the running times of the bands we were sharing the stage with that day – to open a stage that the Pixies closed later that night was definitely one of those, “How did we get here?” moments. We drank all of our rider pretty quickly but made friends with Bluejuice who said, ‘Here, take some of ours – we can’t drink it all!’ Legends!” Why should people come and see your band? “We’ve been doin’ this rock’n’roll thing for a long time. We absolutely love it! We have been working in the studio a lot this year so we are bursting out of our skin to play live. I really think this show is going to be absolutely friggin electric and if you make it along you will be a part of something really powerful!” RVLR play X&Y Bar on Friday 28 September.
SOMETHING’S BURNING Smell that? No? Well that’s the smell of an afternoon BBQ mixed with frazzled amps exploding with the sounds of some of our local punk talent. The Mustang Bar in the Valley will be hosting a rock‘n’roll BBQ on Sunday 7 October, which will feature performances from Mick Medew (former frontman of The Screaming Tribesman) and The Rumours, The V-RaYS and Team Utopia. Also making their debut appearance on stage that day will be Bloodshot, which consists of former members of Lime Spiders (none other than frontman Mick Blood), Throttle and Fur. So be sure to head over for your fill of fast, loud punk head-bangers and a flame-grilled feast. It’s free!
BLACK JACK Locals Take Us To Vegas may be getting a little too big for humble Bris Vegas, making a big splash in the industry, winning over a lot of followers and undergoing negotiations to perform at US festivals and college parties. Having previously supported US acts Broken Heart and Wheatus on their Australian tours, it may not be too long before the boys make it over to the real Vegas. But in the meantime the five-piece will be throwing a party over at the Crowbar on Saturday 13 October, launching new single Apparently It Is Frowned Upon. They will be supporting Goodnight Midnight alongside Veora and Set The Record.
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TIME OFF • 73
EXTENDED PLAY-TIME
QUEBEC DELIGHT
TOUR DIARY
Introducing Quebec’s finest import Le Vent de Nord; no not some posh bottle of wine, but rather a critically acclaimed, multi-award winning classical four-piece who have a passion for reinvigorating past classics, giving them a modern twist. With a multitude of live experience, having played tours worldwide, the Canadian multi-instrumental quartet are about to grace our shores for the very first time, playing at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Wednesday 17 October. Their latest album Tromper le Temps translates as “to fool time”, doing so quite literally as it “plays with time by presenting music from the past in a modern manner”. Tickets cost between $35 and $39 and are available through the venue’s box office right now.
Brisbane indie rockers Charlie Mayfair started their Spring Tour to plug their Fall In Time EP in Melbourne and have been snaking up the East Coast. Drummer Will Weightman kept a diary exclusively for Time Off. know is that he’s the oldest and he’s probably over the hill – great guitar player though! We all went to sleep that night to the sounds of Hannah and Jack Carty’s talented little brother Dashy singing and playing Bon Iver tunes on the piano.
NO ORDINARY FURNITURE
ZELITA Name of EP: But His Vision He Kept Label: Independent How many tracks: Six Tell us a little bit about the release: But His Vision He Kept is a collection of tracks illustrating where we are now as a band. They take you on a journey which is unique and satisfying, yet after many listens of the tracks you are eager to go ‘round once more. This stems from the fact that we all have varied musical influences, making the songwriting process a melting pot of creativity and originality. There’s something for every music fan: searing guitar solos, encapsulating and emotive vocals, booming basslines and superb drum fills. We did everything ourselves: no producers, no budget, no recording studios, nothing conventional. The EP was recorded in four different locations. What do you have planned for the launch? Initially The Zoo had no Saturday night spots remaining for the rest of the year, but we got lucky when we received an email from them asking us to play this weekend – at that point in time, we hadn’t even finished recording the EP so that gave us a deadline which, in the end, was the best thing for us. We believe in providing an experience with our music, we want to draw emotion from our audience give them something that they remember – the key word there being ‘give’. We’ve also hand-picked some really great bands to support us (Hack, Rawr Vanity and Daze) because we believe that they can help us to drive home the experience. What’s on the horizon for the band? I suppose the next logical step for us is to release another EP, or an album. We also definitely would like to get out of Brisbane and start building a fanbase elsewhere. Zelita launch But His Vision He Kept at The Zoo on Saturday 29 September.
Psych-western/psychedelic outfit The Ottomans are on the verge of wrapping up their monthlong tour of the east coast promoting their single Lonely With You. Described as having a sound that blends “the likes of Nick Cave, Tame Impala and Quentin Tarantino”, the Gold Coast four-piece has certainly created an individual style and sound. So if you fancy hearing what The Ottomans are all about and hear their single, head along to the Black Bear Lodge on Friday 5 October. Joining them on the night will be Moses Gunn Collection, The Kramers and Earl Grey DJs. It’s free entry as per usual, being a Friday night gig, so you’ve got no excuse not to go.
SEND IN THE TROOPS It’s been a busy year so far for Melbourne punk band Ramshackle Army, having toured the East Coast of the US with Dropkick Murphys and played their debut Brisbane show at the Dead Of Winter festival. The five-piece have returned to our capital, playing two massive shows this weekend. On Friday Ramshackle Army will feature alongside Jack Flash, D Rouser, The Vampers and Order 66, playing as part of PunkFest, which will be held at the Prince Of Wales in Nundah. Tickets are available at the door ($12), with doors opening at 7.30pm. Ramshackle Army will also be playing at Drunken Moon Festival on Saturday, where they’ll be joined by SixFtHick, Brothers Grim, Gay Paris, Jackson Firebird, Kira Puru & The Bruise and Howlin’ Steam Train. This packed-out festival will take place at The Hi-Fi; tickets cost $25+BF.
THIS IS A DEMOCRACY!
Brisbane indie-pop outfit, Tin Can Radio, will be releasing their new EP Open Ears, Open Mind next week, which will be followed by a national tour. Produced by award-winning ARIA producer Magoo (Regurgitator, Powderfinger), Open Ears, Open Minds is sure to be a super energetic listen. The five-piece has also made use of the Audio Democracy Project, allowing fans to pick and choose what tracks got recorded on the EP – essentially it’s an EP made by the fans for the fans, and will be available through iTunes on Wednesday 26 September. You can also experience Tin Can Radio live as they play at Coniston Lane on Saturday 20 October and at SolBar, Maroochydore on Saturday 8 December.
It’s bizarre how much can happen in three action-packed days on the road. After flying down to Melbourne to kick off our Spring Tour last weekend, after using and abusing the Virgin Lounge (thank you!), and after spending a grand total of 90 minutes in the car, we were excited to get our “road trip” on for the second leg to NSW. For the very first time, we hired a monster 12-seater van for the trip to Newcastle/Sydney. There were only six of us, but if there’s one thing we’ve learnt from touring as a fairly large band in the past, it’s give yourself as much space as possible otherwise you will get annoyed and you will end up verbally or physically harming everyone in your band. We’re not joking. Shit gets real. So, Thursday morning saw the four of us Charlies, our amazing bass player Graham Ritchie and our equally amazing friend and photographer Mel Baxter meeting at Will’s family home in Camp Hill at the crack of dawn to start the journey. Twelve hours later, after refueling four times and stopping for bathroom breaks 37 times, we arrived at the Queen’s Wharf Brewery in Newcastle. We didn’t catch his name, but the bar manager working throughout the afternoon was an absolute legend. He fed us free red wine and schooners of James Squire and Stone & Wood beers all afternoon, before bringing out platters of salad, seafood and antipasto for dinner. Here’s a hot tip for any budding touring musicians; always send venues an elaborate rider – hot food, alcohol, energy drinks, blow up toys – basically whatever you want. You obviously won’t always get everything, but one day a magical venue like the Queen’s Wharf Brewery in Newcastle will give you exactly what you ask for. The Newcastle gig went well, with our sound guy Mark Smithers working his magic to get the seemingly awkward RSL-esque room sounding great. Sydney-based singer-songwriter Jack Carty has family based in Newcastle and they always look after us whenever we’re in town. His Mum Viv is especially lovely. Shenanigans ensued after load-out, with Viv offering up Irish coffee, pizza, whiskey and desert at 2.30am for a worthy celebration of our guitarist Christo’s 32nd birthday. He’s not actually 32. Well, maybe he is. All we
Our short stay in Sydney on Friday was a whirlwind but we made the most of it. Our good pal Alex Sol Watts offered to put us up for the night (again!), but we ended up losing his house keys on the very morning that he had to move house. Sorry, man. Alex took us to the best burger and shake restaurant in Sydney – The Milk Bar by Café Ish. All we can say is “holy shit”! Go to this place. Go to this place now. We ate ourselves silly and again celebrated Christo’s birthday – this time with a vulgar cake in the shape of a woman iced by the resident master chef Josh. A few of us stopped into REC Studios on Castlereagh Street in the CBD in the afternoon for a quick tour and an almost delirious (us, not them!) interview with online media bro-syndicate One Trick Pony. Will had business elsewhere in The Hills District though, picking up an eBay order of 600+ vinyl records for under $100. Awwww, shit yeah. The fine folk from The Falls and Cogel truly made our gig at Bright’n Up Bar on Oxford Street a memorable one. Cogel lent us all their back line and then absolutely smashed their set. Single female member Alex Cameron is a musical octopus – singing, drumming, dancing and shredding the violin pretty much all at once. Mel and Simon from The Falls blew us away yet again, and having heard a number of their sets so far on this tour we’re finding it pretty difficult not to launch into backing harmonies whilst listening to them play. Half of our touring dream-team went home to hit the hay after the show, while the rest bravely headed into King’s Cross to catch a friend DJ at World Bar. A bunch of sugary potent teapots and a couple of dance moves from Graham later, they stumbled home and slept un-blanketed for a few hours before it was time to leave Sydney-land. With individual iPods in everyone’s ears, it was a much quieter trip on the way home. We’d all pretty much exhausted any words that we had left to speak to each other. We made it safely home, had a sick time, played some rad shows, travelled over 2,000 kilometers and met some awesome people – all in under twoand-a-bit days. We’re now gearing up to smash a hometown gig on Thursday night at Alhambra, before we wrap things up in Byron Bay on Friday night! Special best friends The Falls will be there to bid our Spring Tour adieu. But first, we sleep. Charlie Mayfair play Alhambra Lounge on Thursday 27 September and the Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay on Friday 28.
DAS EFX Wed 26 Sep
@ Surfers Paradise Beergarden Tickets from Ticketmaster
FRI 28 SEP
HELM
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS TIX $15 AT THE DOOR FROM 8.00PM
SAT 29 SEP
SUN 30 SEP
4 DEAD IN 5 SECONDS NIGHTMARES, RAMPAGE PLUS SPECIAL GUEST TIX $5 AT THE DOOR FROM 8.00PM
DIANA ANAID & BAND TIX $5 AT THE DOOR FROM 8.00PM
THE RADIATORS Fri 28 Sep @ Kallangur Tavern
Sat 29 Sep @ Springwood Hotel Sun 30 Sep @ Hinterland Hotel Tickets From Ticketmaster
ABSOLUTELY 80'S Fri 28 Sep @ Hamilton Hotel
Sat 29 Sep @ Albany Creek Tavern Sun 30 Sep @ Racehorse Hotel Tickets from Ticketmaster Sun
DIANA ANAID 30 Sep @ Miami Tavern Shark Bar 4 Oct @ Racehorse Hotel & BAND Thu Fri 5 Oct @ Coolum Beach Hotel CHISEL REVIVED Sun 30 Sep @ Parkwood Tavern FREE ENTRY
GISH Thu 4 Oct @ Lonestar Tavern
Fri 5 Oct @ Springwood Hotel Sat 6 Oct @ Club Caboolture Tavern Sun 7 Oct @ Pacific Pines Tavern Wed 10 Oct @ Buderim Tavern Tickets From Ticketmaster
74 • TIME OFF
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TOUR GUIDE BILLY BRAGG: Thursday 25 October, QPAC; Friday 26, The Hi-Fi
INTERNATIONAL
FEAR FACTORY: The Hi-Fi Sep 26 MC LARS: Snitch Sep 27 FERRY CORSTEN: Family Sep 28 FUNKAGENDA: The Met Sep 28 JAMES MORRISON: Eatons Hill Hotel Sep 28 ULCERATE: Beetle Bar Sep 30 HIGH ON FIRE: The Zoo Sep 30 DEFEATER, BLACKLISTED: Mount Gravatt PCYC Sep 30, Byron Bay YAC Oct 1, The Zoo Oct 2 JOE BONAMASSA: QPAC Oct 3 HOME BLITZ: Black Bear Lodge Oct 3 STEEL PANTHER: Eatons Hill Hotel Oct 4 TIM & ERIC: The Tivoli Oct 4 NEKROMANTIX: The Hi-Fi Oct 4 HIGH WOLF: Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 4 RUSSIAN CIRCLES, EAGLE TWIN: The Zoo Oct 5 GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL: Coniston Lane Oct 6 ALLO DARLIN’: Black Bear Lodge Oct 7 CANNIBAL CORPSE: The Hi-Fi Oct 8 MARTIKA: The Hi-Fi Oct 10 EVERCLEAR: Coolangatta Hotel Oct 10, The Hi-Fi Oct 11 GROUPER: Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 11 STEVE AOKI: The Met Oct 11 TORTOISE: The Zoo Oct 12 GOMEZ: Coolangatta Hotel Oct 13, The Tivoli Oct 14 LANGE: Barsoma Oct 14 RUDIMENTAL: Oh Hello Oct 14 GRAILS: The Zoo Oct 17 MUMFORD & SONS: Brisbane Riverstage Oct 17, Gold Coast Convention Centre Oct 31 XIU XIU: Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 18 THE SWELLERS: Thriller Oct 20, Elements Collective Oct 21 LEE RANALDO BAND: The Zoo Oct 21 SMASH MOUTH: Jupiter’s Oct 21 SHELLAC: The Zoo Oct 23 HOT CHELLE RAE: BCEC Oct 23 WEDNESDAY 13: The Zoo Oct 25 MADLIB, J ROCC, EGON: Coniston Lane Oct 25 BILLY BRAGG: QPAC Oct 25, The Hi-Fi Oct 26 THE BLACK KEYS: BEC Oct 26 THURSTON MOORE: The Hi-Fi Oct 27 MATCHBOX TWENTY: BEC Oct 27, 28 MARSHALL JEFFERSON: Sky Room Oct 28 AT THE GATES: The Hi-Fi Oct 31 MATTHEW BARBER: Black Bear Lodge Oct 31 TOUCH AMORE, MAKE DO & MEND: The Zoo Oct 31, Sun Distortion Nov 1 CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES: Tempo Hotel Nov 1 CHELSEA WOLFE: The Zoo Nov 7 KELLY JOE PHELPS: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 7, SolBar Nov 8, Mullum Civic Hall Nov 10 RADIOHEAD: BEC Nov 9
BEN HARPER: BCEC Nov 9 REFUSED: Eatons Hill Hotel Nov 11 BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: The Zoo Nov 15 FAT FREDDY’S DROP: Coolangatta Hotel Nov 15, Arena Nov 16 DAVE DOBBYN: The Hi-Fi Nov 16 RICK ASTLEY: Twin Towns Nov 16, Ipswich Civic Hall Nov 17, The Tivoli Nov 18 JOHN WAITE: Eatons Hill Hotel Nov 16, Twin Towns Nov 17, Caloundra RSL Nov 17, The Northern Nov 18 RON POPE: Old Museum Nov 18 COLDPLAY: Suncorp Stadium Nov 21 BOYZ II MEN: The Tivoli Nov 21, Jupiters Nov 23 KORA: Arena Nov 22 IWRESTLEDABEARONCE: The Zoo Nov 22 KORA: Arena Nov 22 NICKELBACK: BEC Nov 22 THE KNOCKS: Coolangatta Hotel Nov 22, Bowler Bar Nov 23 DARK FUNERAL: The Hi-Fi Nov 23 GEORGE MICHAEL: BEC Nov 27 LAGWAGON: The Hi-Fi Nov 28, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 29 JEFF MARTIN: Byron Bay Brewery Nov 29 THE SELECTER: The Zoo Nov 29 NICKI MINAJ: BEC Dec 3 SPIRITUALIZED: The Hi-Fi Dec 4 REGINA SPEKTOR: BCEC Dec 6 POUR HABIT: Crowbar Dec 6, Miami Shark Bar Dec 7 GRIMES: The Zoo Dec 8 SIMPLE MINDS, DEVO: Sirromet Wines Dec 9 EARTHLESS: The Zoo Dec 13 WILL & THE PEOPLE: Tempo Hotel Dec 13, SolBar Dec 14 EVAN DANDO & JULIANA HATFIELD: The Zoo Dec 16 MORRISSEY: BCEC Dec 17 JENNIFER LOPEZ: BEC Dec 18 65DAYSOFSTATIC: The Hi-Fi Jan 3 NIGHTWISH: Arena Jan 4 WEEZER: BEC Jan 13 ALESTORM: The Hi-Fi Jan 20 OFF!: The Zoo Jan 21 THE BLOODY BEETROOTS: The Tivoli Jan 22 ABOVE & BEYOND: Family Jan 25 GLADYS KNIGHT: Jupiters Feb 6 GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: The Tivoli Feb 13 DAVID HASSELHOFF: The Hi-Fi Feb 16 BARRY GIBB: BEC Feb 16 NORAH JONES: BCEC Feb 19 EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: The Tivoli Feb 23 ED SHEERAN: Brisbane Riverstage Mar 2 THE CIVIL WARS: St John’s Cathedral Mar 8 NEWTON FAULKNER: The Tivoli Apr 2
NATIONAL
REGURGITATOR: The Northern Sep 26, The Hi-Fi Sep 27, 28 THE AMITY AFFLICTION: The Tivoli Sep 24 – 27 REGULAR JOHN: Alhambra Sep 28, The Northern Sep 29 THE BEARDS: Beach Hotel Sep 29, Spotted Cow Oct 4, Coolangatta Hotel Oct 5, The Hi-Fi Oct 6 BLACKCHORDS: Ric’s Bar Sep 29 THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS: Alhambra Oct 5
PRESENTS
CHARLIE MAYFAIR: Alhambra Lounge Sep 27, Great Northern Sep 28 THE BEARDS: Beach Hotel Sep 28, Spotted Cow Oct 4, Coolangatta Hotel Oct 5, The Hi-Fi Oct 6 BEC LAUGHTON: Solbar Sep 28 BLACKCHORDS: Ric’s Sep 29 TIM & ERIC AWESOME SHOW: The Tivoli Oct 4 WINTER PEOPLE: Black Bear Lodge Oct 4, The Loft Oct 6, Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 7 THE MEDICS: The Northern Oct 5 DAPPLED CITIES: The Zoo Oct 6 VELOCIRAPTOR: Coolangatta Hotel Oct 11, Alhambra Oct 12, Buddha Bar Oct 14, The Hive Oct 27 CLARE BOWDITCH: Old Museum Oct 11 GROUPER: Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 11 BASTARDFEST: The Hi-Fi Oct 13 LAST DINOSAURS: Alhambra Oct 13, The Hi-Fi Oct 19, Alhambra Nov 3 MUMFORD & SONS: Brisbane Riverstage Oct 17, Gold Coast Convention Centre Oct 31 TRIPLE TREAT TOUR: Oh Hello Oct 25 BILLY BRAGG: QPAC Oct 25, The Hi-Fi Oct 26 THURSTON MOORE: The Hi-Fi Oct 27 CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES: Tempo Hotel Nov 1 BALL PARK MUSIC: Spotted Cow Nov 1, The Tivoli Nov 3, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 8, Great Northern Nov 10, Alhambra Nov 11 CITY RIOTS: Alhambra Lounge Nov 8 BRITISH INDIA: king’s Beach Tavern Nov 9, The Zoo Nov 10
Russ Walker Duo Victory Hotel Beer Garden Smooth Duo The Kitty, Treasury Casino Stage Fright The Joynt, Brisbane The Amity Affliction, The Ghost Inside, Architects, Buried In Verona The Tivoli The Bowery Hot Five With Mal Wood The Bowery The Broadie Graham Band, + Guests Tempo Hotel The Company Irish Club Venus Envy Royal Exchange Hotel Beer Garden
THU 27 Andrew Markwell Southside Tea Room, Morningside Az Kerwin Royal Exchange Hotel Beer Garden Ballad Boy Loving Hut Charlie Mayfair, The Falls Alhambra Lounge Clint Boge Blackwater Mine Workers Club Dj Bliss, J-Free, Heavensent, That Swedish Guy, Azza Exchange Hotel
Ladybird Quartet, Dan Quigley Quartet, Jam Session TurnarOund Jazz Club Lanie Lane Spiegeltent Lasse Marhuag Ima Lissy Stanton Band, The Gym Junkies, Shed Catz The Loft, Chevron Island Mc Lars Snitch Michael Geeves Hamilton Hotel Regurgitator, Hedgehog, Senya Wa The Hi-Fi Sam Cahill, Chris Miller Elsewhere Bar, Surfers Paradise The Amity Affliction, The Ghost Inside, Architects, Buried In Verona The Tivoli The Beautiful Girls Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay The Decline, Local Resident Failure, Friends With The Enemy, The Final Fall Surfers Paradise, BeEr Garden The Shakeouts, The Timbers, Lincoln Howe & The Wanted Men, Lazy Tangerine The Music Kafe Tim Hart Black Bear Lodge Woody Elephant & Wheelbarrow
MC LARS: Thursday 27 September, X&Y Bar
GYPSY & THE CAT: The Hi-Fi Nov 10 HENRY WAGONS: Old Museum Nov 16 XIU XIU: Brisbane Powerhouse Nov 18 GOLDEN DAYS FESTIVAL: Coolum Beach Nov 17-18 REDCOATS: Alhambra Lounge Nov 22, Great Northern Nov 23 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Port Macquarie Dec 14-15 GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR: The Tivoli Feb 13 EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: The Tivoli Feb 23 BLUESFEST 2013: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Mar 28-Apr 1
WED 26 Charlotte Mclean Group The Manhattan Club Comedy Night The Hideaway Fear Factory, Thy Art Is Murder, Truth Corroded The Hi-Fi Jye Whiteman, Jaya, Call Me Animal Elephant & Wheelbarrow
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Mal Capewell Trio The Vault Bar & Grill, Southport Mko, Silas & The Seasons, Brainbeau Black Bear Lodge Open Mic, Jade’s Diary The Music Kafe Open Mic Night The Loft, Chevron Island Regurgitator, Hedgehog, Senya Wa Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Glass Towers Oh Hello! Golden Sound Qpac, Wander Bar Hannah Rosa, Bec Plath, Stephen Smith, Georgia Rose, Sally-Ann The Zoo I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Satellites The Bowery Jasper Duo, Dj The Kitty, Treasury Casino Josh Rennie-Hynes, Steve Grady The Hideaway Josh Rigg, El Motel, Luna Seasons, Love Hate Rebellion, The Fire Alive Tempo Hotel Kira Puru & The Bruise The Joynt, Brisbane
FRI 28 About Time Lock ‘N’ Load Bec Laughton Sol Bar, Maroochydore Big Village Artsts Showcase Coniston Lane Brothers Grimm The Woombye Pub Brown Suga Duo, Dj The Kitty, Treasury Casino Caloundra Music Festival Kings Beach Park Precinct Charlie Mayfair, The Falls Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay Claire Walters, Ryan Livings, Capitol Groove Press Club
TIME OFF • 75
GIG OF THE WEEK
Parklife Riverstage And BotaniCal Gardens Peter Walters Group Brisbane Jazz Club Recharge Beats Cbx, Caloundra Regular John Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay Richard Clapton Nambour Civic Centre Rob Reeves Zegatos Six Ft Hick, Brothers Grimm, Gay Paris, Jackson Firebird, Kira Puru & The Bruise, Howlin’ Steam Train, The Ramshackle Army The Hi-Fi Sound Of Seasons X & Y Bar Stan Walker, Casey Barnes Coolangatta Hotel That Swedish Guy, Krushel, Azza, J-Free Exchange Hotel The Decline, Local Resident Failure, Friends With The Enemy, Trauma, Sharks & Wolves O’dowds Irish Pub,
REGURGITATOR
THURSDAY 27 AND FRIDAY 28 SEPTEMBER, THE HI-FI Brisbane legends Regurgitator are renowned for being innovators – how ahead of their time were they with Band In The Bubble, for instance? For one time only they’re indulging in some sweet nostalgia, undertaking the Retrotech 2012 tour which finds them playing their much-loved first two albums – 1996’s Tu-Plang and 1997’s Unit – back to back in their entirety. That’s a lot of hits, a lot of memories, and a hell of a lot of good times. To make things even better they’re dragging two exciting acts along with them – Indonesian duo Senyawa who’ve been ripping it up all over the place in recent times with the distinct sound, plus Beijing indie sensations Hedgehog – making these nights not to be missed! Catch Brisbane’s finest and their special guests at The Hi-Fi on Thursday and Friday night (sold out), it’s going to be an experience to remember... Clint Boge Rocky Glen Hotel David Bentley Ecco Bar And Bistro Double Jack Cbx, Caloundra Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side Qld Art Gallery Greenthief, Vayer, Barefoot Alley, Bixby Canyon, The Royal Artillery, Dumbsaint Tempo Hotel Hedgehog Tym Guitars (Afternoon) Helm, Alibrandi, Dollarosa Miami Tavern Hey Geronimo, The Griswolds, Thelma Plum, The Worriers The Zoo House Party Neverland James Morrison Eatons Hill Hotel Jazz Australis, Nick Hollamby Brisbane Jazz Club Jon Boss Coolangatta Sands Hotel, Front Bar Josh Gambles, Lucy Gallent The Music Kafe Lady Antebellum, Tim Hart Brisbane Convention And Exhibition Centre Lissy Stanton Band, Moondogs Gypsy Blues Band, Tom Ray Jones Burleigh Underground Drummers Lost Dogs Chinderah Tavern
76 • TIME OFF
Mal Capewell Trio The Vault Bar & Grill, Southport Matt Kitshon, Han Yolo, Krushel, That Swedish Guy, Azza Exchange Hotel Ramshakle Army, Jack Flash, D Rouser, The Vampers, Order 66 Prince Of Wales Hotel Regular John Alhambra Lounge Regurgitator, Hedgehog, Senya Wa The Hi-Fi Richard Clapton Qpac, Concert Hall Sandy Beynon, Sean Mullen Jephson Hotel Skyway, Ghost Town, Audun, Poodfy Elsewhere Bar, Surfers Paradise Sneeky Picnic, Shaunyl The Loft, Chevron Island Solar Rush Hamilton Hotel The Beards, Starboard Cannons Beach Hotel,L Byron Bay The Beautiful Girls Coolangatta Hotel The Cathars, Fever Pitch The Hideaway The Chase Kingscliff Beach Hotel The Decline, Local Resident Failure, Friends With The Enemy, Driven Fear, Mental Giants Crow Bar, BrisbaNe
The Ferretino Trio, Kate Mackie, Peta Wilson Queen Street Mall The Lamp Lights, Alexis & The Missing Pieces The Joynt, Brisbane The Lazy Valentines Albany Creek Y And J’s The Stillsons, Laneway Soundlounge, Currumbin Trashbags Bowler Bar Venus Envy Surfers Paradise, Beer Garden Yung Warriors, The Winnie Coopers, The Very Elephant & Wheelbarrow
SAT 29 Asta, Jessica Cerro, Tyler Touche Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Platform Band Of Frequencies Kings Beach Tavern Bullhorn Black Bear Lodge Caloundra Music Festival Kings Beach Park Precinct Charlotte Mclean, Zvonsky, Glacier The Box, West End Dan England Glenmore Tavern Dead Ringers, Junkyard Diamonds The Hideaway Devola Neverland Dumbsaint Tym Guitars (Afternoon)
High On Fire, Shellfin The Zoo Howlin’ Steam Train, Bearded Gypsy Band The Joynt, Brisbane (Late Show) Hump Day Project Exchange Hotel Jade DiAry Lock ‘N’ Load Joel Wiggins Trio Brisbane Jazz Club (Afternoon) Mick Danby, Jonny & The Cole Shots Tempo Hotel Recharge Beats Cbx, Caloundra Seventh Avenue Trio Botanical Café Spectrum Big Band Brisbane Jazz Club Sunas, Emily Norman, Amy Min Bond University Adco Amphitheatre The Big Bang! The Music Kafe (Afternoon)
MARIANAS TRENCH: Thursday 27 September, The Zoo
Dya Singh, Dheeraj Shrestha Tallebudgera Valley Community Centre Ewan Mackenzie And Swing Manouche The Woombye Pub Greenthief Irish Club Hotel, Toowoomba Helm, Alibrandi, Dollarosa Crow Bar, Brisbane Jabba, The Rhubarbs Elephant & Wheelbarrow Jeff Carter Blue Pacific Hotel Joel WiGgins Trio Brisbane Jazz Club (Afternoon) Jon Boss Kingscliff Beach Hotel Joshua Hatcher Quartet, Out Of Abingdon Queen Street Mall King Tide The Joynt, Brisbane Lady Antebellum, Tim Hart Brisbane Convention And Exhibition Centre Lily & Merryn, Mama Juju The Music Kafe (Afternoon) Mick Danby, Bearded Gypsy Band, The Broadie Graham Band Tempo Hotel Midnight Groove Duo, Dj The Kitty, Treasury Casino Mr Clifford, Stretch Paper Cranes, Giv Elsewhere Bar, Surfers Paradise
Rockhampton The Enterprise Band Lock ‘N’ Load The Stillsons Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Topnovil, Crooked Face, Alla Spina, Myrtle Place Prince Of Wales Hotel Trash & Treasure, Black Light The Music Kafe Tyney Charles Coolangatta Sands Hotel, Front Bar Zelita, Hack, Rawr Vanity, Daze The Zoo
SUN 30 Alys Longmate The J Theatre, Noosa Big Dead The Brewery, Byron Bay Caloundra Music Festival Kings Beach Park Precinct Dan England Magnums, Airlie Beach Deacon Rose, Stretch Paper Cranes, Sessionkatz Elsewhere Bar, Surfers Paradise Defeater, Blacklisted, De Memoria Mt Gravatt Pcyc Diana Anaid Miami Tavern Shark Bar Dk Music Duo The Kitty, Treasury Casino Flyin Solo The Joynt, Brisbane George Ferguson, Kimberly Davis Lauxes On The Park Restaurant - Broadbeach Herb Armstrong & The Royal Street 3 Coorparoo Bowls Club
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The Leftovers, Lemmings, Xero, No V Bleet, Skeletones, + More Prince Of Wales Hotel The Mason Rack Band, The A Team Elephant & Wheelbarrow The Satellites The Bowery The Soundscapes Trio, Wiley Reed Trio Queen Street Mall The Stilsons Railway Bar, Byron Bay Ulcerate, Eternal Rest, Departe, Grey Matter The Beetle Bar We All Want To Black Bear Lodge
MON 01 Defeater, Blacklisted, Rain Dogs Yac, Byron Bay Funky Monkey Jam The Music Kafe John Butler Townsville Civic Theatre, Townsville Mark Sheils Elephant & Wheelbarrow Rockaoke (With Live Band) Tempo Hotel That Swedish Guy Exchange Hotel
TUE 02 Amanda Gilmour, Steve Cook, Out Of Abingdon The Bug Defeater, Blacklisted, Waiting Room The Zoo Gold Coast Comedy Club The Loft, Chevron Island Gonzales 3, Ant Aggs The Bowery
TOUR GUIDE DAPPLED CITIES: The Zoo Oct 6 ASH GRUNWALD: Redland Bay Hotel Oct 6, Racehorse Hotel Oct 6, SoundLounge Oct 19, Star Court Theatre Oct 20 THE RUBENS: Coolangatta Hotel Oct 11, The Hi-Fi Oct 12, The Northern Oct 13 CLARE BOWDITCH: Old Museum Oct 11, A&I Hall Bangalow Oct 12 LAST DINOSAURS: Alhambra Lounge Oct 13, The Hi-Fi Oct 19 SOMETHING FOR KATE: The Zoo Oct 13, 14 NO ZU: Alhambra Oct 13 STEP-PANTHER: Oh Hello Oct 18, Elsewhere Oct 19 HUSKY: Old Museum Oct 18 HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY: The Zoo Oct 18 SUGAR ARMY: Alhambra Oct 19 FRENZAL RHOMB: Spotted Cow Oct 19, The Hi-Fi Oct 20 COERCE, TOTALLY UNICORN: Crowbar Oct 20 ROBERT FORSTER: Brisbane Powerhouse Oct 23 – 24 KARISE EDEN: St John’s Cathedral Oct 23 – 24 KNIEVEL: The Hideaway Oct 26 ICEHOUSE: Alexandra Hills Hotel Oct 26, Eatons Hill Hotel Oct 27 DELTA GOODREM: BCEC Oct 27 TUMBLEWEED: Kings Beach Tavern Nov 1, The Zoo Nov 2, Spotted Cow Nov 3 BALL PARK MUSIC: Spotted Cow Nov 1, The Tivoli Nov 3, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 8, The Northern Nov 10, Alhambra Nov 11 LISA MITCHELL: The Tivoli Nov 2, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 3, Woombye Pub Nov 4, Byron Bay Community Centre Nov 5 HOODOO GURUS, THE ANGELS, BABY ANIMALS, JAMES REYNE, BOOM CRASH OPERA: Sirromet Wines Nov 4 ANGUS STONE: The Northern Nov 7, The Hi-Fi Nov 9, Coolangatta Hotel Nov 10, Lake Kawana Community Centre Nov 11 TEX PERKINS & THE DARK HORSES: The Zoo Nov 8 YUNG WARRIORS: Byron Bay Brewery Nov 8, X&Y Bar Nov 9 M-PHAZES, MANTRA: Coniston Lane Nov 10 GYPSY & THE CAT: The Hi-Fi Nov 10 HENRY WAGONS: Lismore City Bowling Club Nov 15, Old Museum Nov 16 DEEP SEA ARCADE: The Zoo Nov 16 KASEY CHAMBERS, SHANE NICHOLSON, JOHN WILLIAMSON, TROY CASSARDALEY, CATHERINE BRITT, FELICITY URQUHART: Sirromet Wines Nov 18 REDCOATS: Alhambra Nov 22, The Northern Nov 23, Spotted Cow Nov 24 VIOLENT SOHO: Alhambra Nov 23 THE LIVING END: The Zoo Dec 1 – 7 MISSY HIGGINS: BCEC Dec 1 BRITISH INDIA: Kings Beach Tavern Dec 9, The Zoo Dec 10 PARKWAY DRIVE: Byron Bay High School Dec 12, Brisbane Riverstage Dec 14
FESTIVALS
PRADO UPLATE: Queensland Art Gallery Fridays Until Nov 2 DRUNKEN MOON FESTIVAL: The Hi-Fi Sep 29 PARKLIFE: Botanic Gardens Sep 29 BASTARDFEST: The Hi-Fi Oct 13 WHIPLASH: The Hi-Fi Oct 21 VALLEY FIESTA: Foritude Valley Oct 26 – 28 ISLAND VIBE: Point Lookout Oct 26 – 28 QUEENSLAND FESTIVAL OF BLUES: The Hi-Fi Nov 3 SPRUNG HIP HOP FESTIVAL: RNA Showgrounds Nov 10 GOLDEN DAYS: Coolum Nov 17 – 18 HARVEST: Botanic Gardens Nov 18 MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mullumbimby Nov 22 – 25 DUB DAY AFTERNOON: Jubilee Hotel Nov 24 STEREOSONIC: RNA Showgrounds Dec 2 FESTIVAL OF THE SUN: Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Dec 14 – 15 SUMMAFIELDAYZE: Doug Jennings Park Jan 5 BIG DAY OUT: Gold Coast Parklands Jan 20 SOUNDWAVE: RNA Showgrounds Feb 23 BLUESFEST: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Mar 28 – Apr 1
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WITH MICHAEL SMITH
PAUL GILBERT GUITAR MASTERCLASS
Although Allans Billy Hyde have announced their nationwide closing down sale, they’re still committed to presenting two final masterclasses by internationally renowned guitarists: the Jeff Loomis guitar clinic, which happens this Thursday 27 September at Allans Billy Hyde Fortitude Valley and the final Allans Billy Hyde showcase masterclass from 7.30pm on Monday 8 October at The Princess Theatre in Woolloongabba, featuring founding Mr Big guitarist Paul Gilbert. Gilbert’s ferocious picking technique has revolutionised playing styles across the musical spectrum. Renowned for his accuracy, creativity and power, as well as a great sense of humour, he’ll be presenting a three-hour masterclass/clinic that’ll include a chance to get up and jam with the man. Tickets are $79+BF, with pre-paying customers receiving a Thump Music Showbag that includes more than $50 worth of gear. You can book through the Allans Billy Hyde website or check into the Thump Music website.
STUDIOS 301 SYDNEY JUST GOT BIGGER
As of October, Studios 301 in Alexandria, Sydney’s inner-west, can boast six new music production studios within what is now one of the largest studio complexes in the world. As their press release tells it, “Each studio is self-contained, comprising a large control room and adjacent recording booth. The acoustics of the control room have been expertly treated for a flat and natural response, and are extremely well isolated from neighbouring studios.” All studios are available for long-term hire, so call Anthony Garvin on (02) 8396 7266 or email Anthony@studios301.com for more info.
SOUND BYTES
Fifteen years-plus since they released their last album, Soundgarden finally release their sixth studio album, King Animal, in November, recorded at Studio X in Seattle with producer Adam Kasper (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Pearl Jam). Joe Barresi (QOTSA, Weezer) then mixed it in Pasadena, California. The end of August saw Red Door Sounds Recording Studio in Collingwood play host to American R&B superstar Kelly Rowland when she stopped off in Melbourne to record her latest single, due for release later in the year. The expanded Birds Of Tokyo took themselves off to LA to record their forthcoming EP, This Fire, with producer Dave Coole (Silversun Pickups) and mixing engineer Tony Hoffer (M83, Beck, The Kooks). The self-produced latest album, I’ll Be A Dog (Off The Hip), from Melbourne garage band Midnight Woolf was recorded over a year by Raul Sanchez at Mobile Crossbone Recording Studios, which is actually an old eight-track. The new album, To The Dollhouse, from Melodie Nelson, the solo moniker of Lia Tsamoglou, was recorded in Melbourne by Simon Grounds (Laura Jean) and mixed in Tasmania by Chris Townend (Daniel Johns). Sister duo Scarlett Affection recorded their debut album, Forever Is A Long Long Time, with bass player, producer and arranger Dave Symes, who is MD for Sarah Blasko and Missy Higgins, at Megaphon Studios in Sydney, Shane Fahey engineering.
TWO SONS IN ONE The second album, thefearofmissingout, from thenewno2, the musical outlet for Dhani Harrison, is very much a band album, he tells Michael Smith.
T
here are two sons of famous musical fathers at the core of UK experimental-pop combo thenewno2. Dhani Harrison is, of course, the son of the late, great George of Beatles fame, but equally important to the formula is keyboards player and programmer Paul Hicks, who is the son of the guitarist and songwriter in that other great UK ‘60s pop institution, The Hollies. Hicks got his start in the business working as an engineer, mixer and producer at the same Abbey Road Studios both his father and Harrison’s made all their greatest hits, and was heavily involved in preserving The Beatles recordings, working with their original producer George Martin as part of a team coordinated by Allan Rouse in remixing and remastering their entire catalogue, for which he won three Grammy Awards. Thenewno2, their name a reference to the Patrick McGoohan character in the ‘60s UK TV cult series The Prisoner, formed in 2006 around a collaboration that already existed between singer, songwriter and guitarist Harrison and drummer and synth player Oliver Heck. The pair approached Hicks, whom Harrison had also played with off and on for years, to engineer and mix their debut album, 2009’s You Are Here. Since then, Heck has moved on and Hicks has become a part of the now trans-Atlantic group – “I finally got him out in the sunlight,” Harrison laughs – that also features keyboards player and guitarist Jonathan Sadoff, guitarist Jeremy Faccone, bass player Nick Fyffe and drummer Frank Zummo. The band’s second album, thefearofmissingout, produced by pHd (Paul and Dhani), features a combination of live and programmed instruments overlain with obscure samples that create what they describe as “an intricate collage of trip-hop, blues, dub, reggae and electronica sounds”. The core of the music however bears all the hallmarks of classic pop melody, but there’s an obvious passion for creating unique sonic contexts within which those melodies are presented. So what took Harrison down this path? “I dunno – fun, I think,” he admits. “I love brewing stuff. I tend [to] make this up to hear myself. It’s experimental music, so some of it works and some of it doesn’t; you’re never quite sure if it’s going to work. And some days you’ll come back to it and think, ‘Oh God, that’s not working,’ and some days it’s just perfect – ‘Oh great, I didn’t expect that to work but it did.’ So it’s try and try again until you get something that you like. “Knowing when to stop – that’s the tricky bit. When Paul and I are working, some days you just
The new album, In Echoes Of Dawn, from Melbourne-based guitarist and songwriter Matt Walker, who co-produced it with Nikki Griffin-Beale, was recorded at The 8-Track Shack and mastered at Deluxe Mastering by Adam Dempsey. Based on the NSW north coast, Rebecca Ireland recorded her new EP, Wild Bear, at Prawn & Spanner Studio with producer Christian Pyle (Acre, Ghost Mountain), who also recorded and mixed it, before Michael Worthington mastered it. 78 • TIME OFF
“But Paul is so good. Once he got a taste for the programming, he’s impossible to stop and how far he could go! He really makes things a lot easier for me. I wrote a lot with Jeremy and Jon on this record; Frank was around, and we got to really sketch things out live. There was a lot of material for this record and we’ve already started working on stuff for the next record, which will be more of an ambient dance record – that’s gonna be really fun.” The album was recorded at FPSHOT, the studio at Friar Park, the Victorian neo-Gothic Harrison family home in Henley-on-Thames just outside of London, originally set up in 1972 as a 16-track
STUDIO PROFILE
NT-1A, Shure Beta 57 (x2), Beta 56 (x4), Beta 52, Shure SM57, Shure SM58, AKG D112, Sennheiser MD441, Sennheiser e935, EV RE27, Ruggelson Pedro Ribbons (x2) and a clone of a Royer SF-12.
One of this country’s finest singers, Wayne Jury, hooked up with fellow songwriter Dave Steele, at whose solar-powered, windgenerated The Studio On Windy Hill in Winchelsea on the Victorian coast, he recorded his latest album, Doors And Bridges, which the pair co-produced, David Briggs then mastering it at the Production Workshop. Jeff Duff and Icehouse bass player Steve Bull have been writing and recording an album together.
want to release a bit of music, you know, so you won’t give up on it and you’ll stay up all night, right until it has to go to the mastering, and sometimes you’ll get it back and you’ll have worked on it so much that you run out of tracks – you’ve got 92 tracks going. One day I saw Paul and I said, ‘Okay, that means it’s done then,’ because we can’t add any more tracks, so it has to be done! Then some days you’ve got a little drums and a vocal for a song and before you even put anything else on it, Paul will turn to me and say, ‘That’s done – that’s great. Just leave it like that – it’s perfect.’ So yes, you know, it is a bit tricky to know when to stop. But when you see someone start to go mental in the studio, that’s a good time to say, ‘Okay, I think it’s time to stop now.’
Monitoring: Yamaha HS50M’s Plugins: Avid, Waves, Soundtoys, Loomer, Bomb Factory, FabFilter. Which notable artists have worked at the studio? Tape/Off, DZ Deathrays, Kellie Lloyd, Stature::Statue, The Belligerents, Toy Balloon, Charlie Mayfair, Gazar Strips, HorseFight, Sincerely Grizzly, Moon Jog, Card Houses.
CASABRANKO STUDIOS (YEP, IT’S MIGHTY CHEESY)
Who do you have on staff and what’s their background in the industry? I’m the sole runner of the studio and I’ve been working in sound for ten years. I also do sound work for 4ZZZ.
Answered by: Branko Cosic What’s the studio set up you have there equipment-wise? Studio Layout: There’s two rooms. The drum room is three metres squared and two metres high. It’s surrounded by ‘70s pinewood walls. And the amp room is 5m x 3m with nice rugs on the floor. Console: Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 & Digidesign DIGI 003 Rack+ Microphones: Rode K2, Rode NTK, Rode NT4, Rode
Analogue vs digital – discuss. Analogue is a beautiful sounding medium, but a very expensive one at that. Digital has allowed us to escape the “cabin fever” of being in a control room at the same studio for hours on end, and has enabled us to run an entire studio setup on a laptop and record in any environment possible. I prefer carrying a mobile studio to go and record on-location on a farm somewhere, rather than carting around a 32-channel analogue desk with a tape machine.
themusic.com.au
analogue tape-based facility, and also in a studio, dubbed H.O.T. West that Harrison has in Santa Monica, California (H.O.T. for Henley-on-Thames). “I hang out with a lot of musicians,” he explains. “I live in Venice Beach [California] and there are a lot of people who live around me, so having a studio, I’ll get a phone call, ‘I need some guitar doing on this, can you come over?’ ‘Oh, you can come over to mine to do it so it’s easier.’ It was so much harder when I was in the countryside in England. There was never anyone around, I was always by myself,” he laughs. “But here, everyone’s played on everything, and everyone’s in four bands. There are a lot of collaborations going on. And all of my New York friends tend to see me in LA touring a lot, so whenever they come into town, they come straight to the studio and if we’re lucky we can get them to do something on a track. It’s like having a football squad to play with.” A few members of the “football squad” lend their vocals to various tracks on the new album, among them the rapper RZA, blues roots musician Ben Harper (with whom Harrison performs, alongside Joseph Arthur, in a side project called Fistful Of Mercy) plus Icelandic pop singer Throunn Antonia and Holly Marilyn from The Child. thefearofmissingout is out now on Cooking Vinyl through Shock.
Can bands bring in their own engineer or do they have to solely use a house engineer? Yes, most certainly [they can bring in their own]. Is the studio capable of holding a full band at once for recording? The studio can definitely handle a full band. We’re an impoverished indie band – do you offer any deals for acts in our situation? I’m in an impoverished indie band, so of course I can cut a deal. Do you have any in-house instruments at the studio acts can use, or is it totally BYO? I’ve got quite a few amps, guitars, cymbals and drum kits in the studio for bands to use. BYO is totally cool too. What’s the access to the studio like with regards to parking, flat load, etc? Easy access with flat loading and plenty of parking space. Working in the studio can be arduous and we’ll need a break – what are the amenities in the local area? There is every fast food chain possible, two supermarkets and a plenty of servo’s within a two-minute drive of the studio. What are your contact details? Phone: +61 411 441788 Email: casabrankostudios@gmail.com
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE 2012 NOMINEES : A MUSIC COMPANY FIRE S LEVEN T A R TER KS E INDICA AUSTRALIA KP RE M TRA C C U O R S DS MUSI IC ANT F LEF ACTICS INION MUSIC RED CAT RECORDS R KUNS THA OOTS T EMO SE OP T ES LLA UBLIC E OL ELECTRIC PUBLIC OPINIO CON US L TOM OC ORI PETR NM P IO P T PR S G RDS ENT R TROL ELECTRIC PUBLIC OPIN USIC OL N H REC G W INM O R IA PE O IO R E N D DE RDIN REC ERTA INERT ING MUSIC OBESE RE M CA ECO USE ORD U C ARKET S O T R I OL CO GUE ENT RAH C DS RE RD MU EWM DAGGIES TWO BRIGHT R O L N RE LEA DER JAR SIC N A K GAW E L ED C COR S R ES O VI SIC A Y MU D E OU DS ISH MUSIC SOULMA T U U T T E L R R E ON CE M KINNYF COR AMIN DER RE S NE CO TI ARRAH LEVEL T S C R D W R O S S U M RDS J RE RA EC ENT O US S O SO CORD E RECO I C BE LIB UR ORD E LI DS E GU C R E A R AT E M S LE OR T.X I O AL IVY N U M DS
APT ER URE MUS IC O C UDE F VIN TA REA RE GE TE N ELE TERT GIG CO N F A TIN ANT INM PIGL TR G M TR E E UN USI ACK NT T I IFI C ED OB S O V UL MA MUS ESE EC TE R IC OR D EC ES S S OU N
PIL VE OO IC GR S AL C MU Y I GIT DI MUS RISK GA D DS OL R GA UD OR R S C M EC ONT CO R SI ST TE C OTE SI MO EM T PE RE S R EN N RD AINM RE U RT E A O W ST C SI IC US BROUGHT TO YOU BY
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STUDY YOUR DREAM CAREER Applications for October closing soon
ENROL NOW CHOOSE FROM: Audio Production | Film Production | Live Sound Production Electronic Music Production | Web Design & Development
For more information visit: www.sae.edu.au or call 1800 SAE EDU Byron Bay | Brisbane | Sydney | Melbourne | Adelaide | Perth
OCTOBER INTAKE ENROLLING NOW Taught by producers for producers | Fully Accredited Cert III in Music Creative music production with Ableton Live & Logic Pro 9
Available at SAE Institute Australia For more information: www.sae.edu.au or call 1800 SAE EDU