Chiara Grassia

Plays - Short + Sweet

What can you get done in ten minutes? SHORT + SWEET puts your ten minute conquests to shame, boasting self-contained ten minute plays to delight, provoke, and entertain. The massive theatre festival dedicated to short plays is hitting Canberra once again. Squeezing a handful of short plays into one night is no mean feat, and at the helm of the Canberra run is Jarrad West. “This is my first time putting the whole shebang together,” chirps the festival director, less than a week before opening night. “We’ve had something like 500 plays submitted worldwide for the entrance of this year’s festival, and I’ve got 17 of them to play with this time. It’s been really good, finding out about those writers in the ACT, and we’ve got some from the USA – it’s quite a big thing, just a small context here in Canberra.”

17 plays will be performed over a tight two week run, with all the action kicking off in early September. With no overarching theme or other constrictions, “the only condition for a Short + Sweet play is that it has to be less that than ten minutes. Unfortunately there’s no interlinking theme between any of the shows because they’re all coming from such different places around the world,” Jarrad expains. “I guess I just tried to pick a nice balance between those that are quite serious and a little bit disturbing, and the hilariously funny.”

Although a handful of the plays are penned by ACT locals, West says that the “plays are all slightly universal, in terms that they can be performed anywhere and still be understood. You’re not going to find anything set in Hackett. Maybe you could assume it’s set in Hackett, I don’t know, it depends on what the directors are doing with it.”

The experience of those involved in this year’s Short + Sweet varies. “There’s this collaborative kind of thing that goes on. I’ve got some old-hands that are directing and doing a couple of plays. I’ve also got some new people who have never directed before but have always thought that they might want to give it a go, so they’re sort of getting up and having a go for the first time. They may have been an actor or they have been a writer in previous years but now they’re kind of stepping behind the notepad and pen and taking notes… We’re getting a spread from all sections of the acting and dramatic community.” With such a diverse array of subjects and styles showcased over the course of the two weeks, the best thing for curious audiences is to expect the unexpected. “We range from kidnapping in Somalia to genital decoration,” laughs West. “We cover the whole gamut.”

Short + Sweet is running at The Canberra Theatre from Wednesday August 31 to Saturday September 10. Tickets are $25/$20 concession, and are available through www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au .

Kaiser Chiefs / Stonefield / Papa Vs Pretty

UC Refectory
Wednesday August 3

The UC Refectory has always struck me as having a strong high-school hall vibe. Walking into the place at the beginning of a smack-in-the-middle-of-the-week Wednesday evening, we’re greeted with the likes of The Beatles, early Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and Cream blasted through the speakers. It’s like being sucked into a strange teen time-warp. Dashing over to stake out spots at the front of the stage, I can’t help slipping into fan-girl mode. But it seems like everyone else is doing the same. It’s rare that a band like the Kaiser Chiefs get to grace a stage in Canberra, and the rest of the line-up is pretty stellar.

We’re eager to catch Melbourne all-girl band and current triple j darlings, Stonefield, who recently played mega festival Glastonbury, and have a whole lot of hype surrounding them. The four sisters (the youngest barely a teen, the eldest barely out of her teenage years) have been creating blistering rock of the classic ‘70s kind. They instantly impressed. Adorned in their already signature paisley print and headbands, the band ripped through songs off last year’s EP, Through The Clover, as well as latest offerings Black Water Rising and the fierce Yes Master. Chucking a cover into the mix and paying homage to a main influence, they nailed the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love. While strong as a group, singer/drummer Amy swiped the spotlight, belting out electrifying vocals whilst keeping a sharp beat.

Next on stage was Sydney three-piece Papa Vs Pretty, churning out indie rock in the vein of Birds Of Tokyo, Muse-esque vocals with a streak of British flavour with heavier moments reminiscent of The Cribs. Their set was tight, featuring last year’s Heavy Harm and current single One Of The Animals, which provided the first audience sing-along of the night. Although their sound didn’t catch my fancy, their songs were well received by the increasing crowd. 

It didn’t really hit me that the Leeds band would actually be performing that night until the slinky electro of Howlaround seeped out of the speakers. With a solid reputation for being a live band, Kaiser Chiefs lived up to expectations. Singer Ricky Wilson immediately leaped over to the side of the stage, posing proudly with hands on hip, before racing for the microphone. After smashing out a quite fast rendition of Every Day I Love You Less and Less, the band powered their way through anthems including Ruby, Never Miss A Beat, Angry Mob, Take My Temperature and I Predict A Riot. The singles-heavy set was balanced out with a healthy smattering of the new, with a handful of tracks, pumped full of spacey synth, from their latest The Future Is Medieval making a welcome appearance. New material sat comfortably among the older songs; Long Way From Celebrating was sheer Britpop-bliss, the jerky, Franz Ferdinand-esque, bittersweet ballad Starts With Nothing was atmospheric, Kinda Girl You Are could have been a Franz Ferdinand B-side, and Man On Mars featured nasally lead vocals courtesy of drummer Nick Hodgson. Every lyric Wilson fed to the audience was vigorously spat back at him; with all eyes fixed on him as he whacked cowbells, kicked around tambourines, swung the microphone like a lasso, very much enjoying the role of frontman. Throughout, the parallels between them and Britpop giants Blur became obvious, from the lyrical territory of the modern-life-is-rubbish persuasion to the sheer physicality of the wired Wilson. With a flawless set list, every song swept the audience into a frenzied state. The night ended with the very fitting Oh My God and a slurred, “Goodnight Canberra, you sexy beast,” from Wilson.

LIGHTNING ROGERS

“It’s been a mixture of melodrama, want and revelry.” TIM ROGERS’ signature dry wit and self-deprecating charm is all there, surreally crackling down my phone line, as he chats about his current national solo tour. “It’s been good, been trying to make every night different. The challenge is always... I mean, it’s just you and an instrument, and you want to do something that is more than the sum of its meagre parts, you know? And you throw some other elements in there, whether it’s rouge storytelling or physical comedy, and that’s been working so far… Depending on my experiences during the day, really.”

Rogers has recently written the music for the play The Story of Mary Mclane by Herself, which will be performed in Melbourne later this year. “I like the discipline of theatre. I’ve tried to discipline myself in music at times, and try to create something more visceral and nasty and joyous because often when you’ve got structure around you it gives you, strangely enough, the opportunity to do something wilder… I’m picking up little chords, little tricks, and often when writing for myself I won’t do it as myself, I’m still in character. Which is good – I’ve been sick of myself since 1995, so to write as somebody else is liberating.”

With his forays into the world of theatre, Rogers has also piled his plate high with contributions to a film soundtrack, upcoming acting roles and even a bit of lecturing, as well as forming yet another band, this time a honkytonk outfit. The Hillbilly Killers, consisting of himself, Catherine Britt and Bill Chambers, will be recording an album together in a few weeks, which Rogers enthuses about. “We’re writing all our own songs, so that’s kind of a mixture of great dexterous playing and down and dirty honkytonk music, so I’m really, really, really excited about that. ‘Cause I’m not the guy, I’m not Tim Rogers, I’m Lightning Rogers or something.”

And stepping back into full Tim Rogers mode, You Am I have plans to tour and record in America later this year. You Am I’s new album, Roger notes, is set to be “a high energy record more than anything. A record that we can just go out and play the whole thing and not really think about it, just down and dirty… We’re physically really capable. It’s like, why should we spend time making music for our heads when we can make music for our gorgeous, middle-aged bodies?” As far as a new solo album goes, Rogers admits there is one already in the works. “I might do some recording with a producer in the states. I’ve done a lot of writing for it, particularly at the moment, a lot of really good songs... Bit of a purple patch at the moment.”

Purple patch? I ask.

“Yeah, nothing like hard times to bring out good music.” 

Tim Rogers will be rolling into town on Sunday July 24, to play Transit Bar. Tickets are through Moshtix for $28.50.

A ROAD WELL TRAVELLED

JORDIE LANE never planned on making an album during his travels, but traipsing across America provided instant inspiration for his second album, Blood Thinner. Fuelled by rock ‘n’ roll phantasms sparked by music documentaries and lured by iconic locations slathered in music history, the Melbourne singer-songwriter packed his bags and set off for the US. “My only real intention was to stay in this motel room that one of my favourite singers used to stay in, and then actually died in. And then it all started from there.” Beeline-ing it to the famous Joshua Tree Inn, where his beloved Gram Parsons stayed, Lane then headed back to LA, where he mucked around with sounds in the depths of a cheaply rented, cramped basement. “It was kind of like I was trapped in hiding, and spent day and night in there, writing new songs and just experimenting; getting sticks and hitting anything in the room.” 

These environments fostered the sound of the album, as well as Lane’s recorder of choice – the oh-so-vintage cassette tape. Its technological restrictions provided a refreshing set of constraints, which forced Lane to “be creative with how you’re going to get all the sounds in your head off to that. Sometimes I was hitting a banjo string and hitting a table top and singing a backing vocal at the same time, to get them all into one track”. Due to the project’s spontaneity, Lane had to build up an assortment of instruments along the way, noting, “I had nothing with me when I arrived in America, at all. First thing I did was buy an acoustic guitar, a really expensive custom-made one from Virginia and that was when I started to get into picking the guitar again, and started writing songs. The next thing I did was buy a banjo on the way down to Mexico, searching around everywhere on the first day for cassette tapes. Nobody sells cassette tapes anymore, so it took ages; ringing different stores and getting tip offs from different places, driving all the way there to find out no, they didn’t have any. A lot of kids working at audio stores didn’t even know what cassette tapes were – it was a nightmare!” Last to be added to his on-the-road collection was a beaten up “harmonial-style organ powered by a crappy little electric fan” nestled amongst the power tools in a second-hand shop, which features heavily throughout the album.

“It was fun to not stick to conventional ideas of folk or county music. Not that it’s like some outlandish, experimental record, but for me it was definitely trying new things.” The result is a richly layered album, complete with Lane’s gorgeous vocals and intriguing storytelling. Lane will be performing songs from Blood Thinner on his massive national tour, with Drones’ drummer-turned-solo-performer, Mika Noga, on board to help translate the songs to a live setting.

Jordie Lane hits Canberra on Wednesday July 27, and will be showcasing his dulcet tones at The Front Café in Lyneham. $15 on the door.

Jordie Lane

The follow up to 2007’s Sleeping Patterns, Melbourne singer-songwriter Jordie Lane’s sophomore effort Blood Thinner is a beautifully crafted album which sits comfortably in between the genres of country and folk. The songs were initially recorded onto cassette tapes, and the result is many layers which build up onto each other, producing a rich sonic texture. However, the album sounds quite polished, with each layer clearly present. Blood Thinner sounds paradoxically classic and innovative; a direct result of Lane’s rich vocals and finger-picking guitar style juxtaposed with intricate layers of percussion.

Those with a keen ear can spend the entire album picking out the various percussion noises; bass drum or Tupperware container? The lyrics are strong, but the real highlight of the album is Lane’s voice, which is consistently stunning; delicate and deep, but never gruff. His vocals inject a subtle fragility into the songs, which adds to the quiet intensity of the album.

There’s an overall sadness that lingers throughout, evident in its haunting atmosphere, and lyrics which yearn and question. Yet Blood Thinner isn’t dragged down in melancholy. The album explores different moods and shades, yet still feels pulled together. Highlights include Old Time Spell, with its great use of guitar finger-pickin’, and the gorgeous vocal harmonies and jumpy rhythm of Thin My Blood. Blood Thinner is an intimate album that rewards with each listen. 

Datarock

DATA-ROCKING OUT

This year, those cheeky Norwegian dance-punks DATAROCK plan on unleashing a musical, a single in the form of a collectable toy, as well as embarking on their seventh tour of Australia. Since releasing their debut album in 2005, the band have been endlessly touring the globe, released their second album a few years back, and appeared on a slew of US TV shows including a stint on the uber-hip kid’s program Yo Gabba Gabba.

But hang on, a musical? Datarock? From the band who brought you the geek-chic anthem Computer Camp Love? From the band who seem to be constantly adorned in snazzy red tracksuits? “We love performing, but we have to try to come up with something new,” says super confident front man Fredrik Saroea, speaking from a hotel in Chile of all places. “And we were thinking, what is the stupidest thing you could possibly do? And that is to write a musical. I mean, look at the songs [we have]. Some are so cute. Like Computer Camp Love; that’s a musical song, a call and response.”

While Datarock will be providing the sonic goodness, fans will be encouraged to get involved with the musical by making their own visual accompaniments. A slice of the musical extravaganza takes the form of their new EP, California, which is chock full of super slick electro punk delivered in their signature tongue-in-cheek style, and is slathered in pop culture references Sareoa promises Canberra audiences will be able to hear when they take the stage at Groovin The Moo festival in May.

As well as a musical under their belts, the band have enlisted esteemed toy designer Bryan Flynn to produce Datarock: Limited Edition. Fantastically ambitious, the new “single” is available in the form of a collectable toy stuffed with a USB containing the brand spankin’ new EP, album, album art and concert footage. “I collect those kinds of toys myself, I have hundreds. I think the reason why I collect them is because those companies and those designers who do them, I see a link between those kinds of companies and independent record labels…We’ve worked with indie labels, we’ve worked with big labels, and now we have problems because it’s so hard to sell copies.” This left the band to ponder; “How can we try and come up with a simple concept, a physical product that people can be just as passionate about as they used to be about 7’’s or 12’’s, or CDs in the ‘80s? The designer toys are actually vinyl releases- made out of vinyl.” And the wonderfully neat solution? Why, a datarock, of course! “It’s a diamond character- a diamond is a rock, with a USB inside it- a USB carries data…We’re just trying to find a way where we can combine the old days with the new way of life.”

Datarock are rocking out Groovin The Moo on Sunday May 8, at the UC Meadows. Tickets will set you back $99.90 and are available through Moshtix.

Dan Kelly - Dreaming of Dan

He may have released his latest album Dan Kelly’s Dream last year, but the man with the knack for capturing the surreal and spinning words into delightfully vivid stories is still touring the country. Vigorously. While his last performance in the capital in October witnessed spontaneous light shows, eclectic band dress-ups and his own signature frazzled quiff, DAN KELLY is all set to grace Canberra again, this time in solo mode. Two very different gigs are lined up; the first playing alongside old Canberra sweethearts The Falling Joys at the National Museum of Australia and the other supporting Drones’ frontman Gareth Liddiard.

Regarding the former, Kelly notes that the show is “a different thing. It’s probably more storytelling and, you know, more suited to a wider range of people. More family-oriented. I can’t believe I’m saying that about myself!” he laughs, voice blistering through the phone line. “I’ve been putting myself out there, doing those sorts of shows. It’s a good way to travel and you don’t have to pay seven people in the band. It’s a little more low-key. I really like playing solo, talking more about the songs; semi-comedy type of show.”

One-off lakeside shows aside, Kelly is about to embark on a massive road trip around the country with Gareth Liddiard. “I’ll just be playing solo with Gaz, but mine is a bit more smoke and mirrors. Gaz’s is just the power of the written word and guitar playing. I like when I do a solo show to just keep moving and not do the same thing… There’s a certain amount of songs I do all the time, but I just try and make the setlist diverse enough that it’s still moving… The songs are so story-based that I’ll try and get onto a certain thing and then try and go with that. It’s not like Playschool, but it’s definitely more interactive than what I do with the band.”

Accompanying Kelly during the solo shows will be Augie March keyboardist Kiernan Box, member of Kelly’s Dream Band and fancy dress accomplice. The theatrical presence of cobbled together costumes makes for a perfect companion to Kelly’s lyrics, rich in imagination and dripping with vibrancy. “Kiernan’s going to dress like a Hindu,” announces Kelly, before shrugging off the statement. “He might dress up. Solo stuff I feel like I don’t need to be as obvious. I found some good outfits lately – I found a great karate outfit that I’m pretty keen to look into, stage-wise. I’m lucky enough to have a band who don’t seem to tell me to fuck off. I dressed like a spaceman from Norway and they were into it, and that’s kind of fun. If I was incredibly brilliant, I wouldn’t bother, but I think every little bit helps.”

Catch Dan Kelly and The Falling Joys live at the National Museum Amphitheatre on Saturday February 26. Entry is free, so make sure to get there early. Playing times are from 7-9pm. Dan will also be supporting Gareth Liddiard at The Maram on Wednesday March 23. Tix through Moshtix.

You Am I / Cabins / Hancock Basement @ The Maram Wed Nov 24

There is so much affection and warmth felt at a You Am I gig, even hours before the band clamber up on the stage. Witness the direct beelines from the entrance to the merchandise table. Overhear the eager debates over albums, the wapping of gig experience stories and enthusiastic retellings of favourite Timmy Rogers moments. An assortment of ages and fans (from casual listeners to the ever-loyal ‘Hourly, Daily changed my life at age 13’ types) slowly made their way into The Maram on a balmy Wednesday night.

Despite playing to an initially small, timid crowd, local favourites Hancock Basement instantly impressed with engaging tunes and stage presence. The band proved to be a perfect opening for the night, demonstrating solid pop sensibilities through sleek guitar riffs, group harmonies and swags of charm.

Moving away from slick pop hooks was second act Cabins, drenching the room with their sludgy sound. Treading the same murky waters as Blood Red River-era Scientists, the band boasted a concoction of slinky swamp-rock and muddy blues, and even threw in a slightly sinister cover of Edwyn Collins’ sleazy hit, A Girl Like You.

After a rather long break between bands, You Am I finally sashayed on stage. Wasting no time, they jumped straight into their songs off their latest, self-titled album, churning out Crime, We Hardly Knew You and Shuck, before sinking into album track Someone Else’s Home from their classic Hourly, Daily. The new material translated extremely well live, with new songs injected with a good dose of furious energy which shimmered alongside older staples. Despite the absence of guest female vocalists for Lie And Face The Sun and single Trigger Finger, guitarist Davey (oh Davey...) Lane’s vocals provided a good substitute.

A change of pace was signalled by the brand new Pinpricks, a brutally fast and sharp song that boasts the brilliant refrain of “I wanna kiss her ‘coz she smiles like David Johansen” and a super catchy riff. The band continued with louder songs, including that thick, thick bass line that is Coprolalia from their debut Sound As Ever, as well as latest sonic sprawl, The Ocean. Rummaging through their back catalogue, the majority of their albums were well represented, and all sorts of delights were dug up including #4 Record’s Plans and the stripped down Damage from Dress Me Slowly.

Onstage, Rogers exuded a state lodged in between total control and slipping off the edge; all part of his charm and magnetic pull. It was visible in his confident strut, the mad glint in those azure eyes, every swig from the bottle of wine (the prop of choice), even in the ensemble of a structured purple blazer paired with half-buttoned black shirt and tight, ripped flared pants. He hammed up every windmill, pouted his lips, shimmied those arms, even danced over mid-song and persistently tried to rearrange Lane’s hair by fluffing up the fringe. Oh and you know, those vocals are just getting better.

With tongues firmly in cheeks, that infamous banter between songs was simultaneously playful and seedy, with a feisty Rogers ever ready to spit out a quotable line to audience heckling;

“When can we touch you, Tim?”

“Give me three grams of coke and you can touch anything you like.”

“I only have two grams!”

“Ok, yeah. You can touch my cock.”

Crude comments aside, the show’s atmosphere was comfortably intimate. The room was filled with bodies and smitten sing-alongs, doe-eyed. Closing the set with the much loved Purple Sneakers, the band swaggered offstage before shortly returning for the inevitable encore, winding up with Minor Byrd, Mr Milk, Piano Up The Tree and Trike.

Wons Phreely

A combination of musical curiosity and travelling through Europe’s hippest, music history-drenched cities has resulted in Tonight, the new EP for Perth’s WONS PHREELY. A taster of the EP has been floating around the internet in the form of single The World Has A Bank Account, the rather catchy tune that has been both featured heavily on triple j, as well as plucked for iTunes’ weekly free single. Sonically, Phreely fixated on “elements that don’t normally go together, squishing them together and seeing what they sound like… When I went travelling I wasn’t really doing any self examination or searching, it was just more about letting stuff happen, meeting people and having a bit of a laugh. I just wrote down things that happened, without thinking too much.”

Released on the much loved Ivy League Records and recorded overseas, Tonight is a pop-fuelled affair, lusciously layered with synths and samples, matched with whip-sharp observations. “I just got interested in trying to find new sounds, what people like, what people are listening to over in places like Manchester. I started to really like sounds that I didn’t know how they were made, necessarily. If I hear a record, I can tell if it’s a guitar or a piano, but it’s not as interesting for me if I don’t squint my ears a bit, and try and think what that could be.”

With two EPs under his belt, including his debut The Rules Of Nature, could creating an album be in Phreely’s future? “Yeah, it is, however I do think about how these things come out, and if the album still has a place in people’s lives. I’m not so sure about that. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t rushed into it. You might make an album and people might download three songs from it, so I’m not sure. The way people consume music now is not by buying records.” Nevertheless, this doesn’t seem to faze Phreely. “I just want to make good music, and enjoy it, that’s part of what I was doing when I went travelling. Seeing and meeting other people, and the way producers and musicians are embracing that as well, getting on with it… just doing whatever they can to do enjoy music.”

In the meantime, Phreely will be hitting the road supporting The Vasco Era. However, a consequence of recording overseas means that that the talented collective who collaborated with him on the EP aren’t necessarily available. “So if I’m going to play here,” muses Phreely, “I need to put a band together, and I’m getting there... The Vasco Era guys are pretty awesome. Our music is probably not that similar, but I heard their last album is a bit of a concept album, about a couple of people, narrative stories, and my music is a bit like that as well. So hopefully we’ll have some fun.”

Catch Wons Phreely and I Am Giant supporting The Vasco Era live at The Maram on Friday November 19. Tickets are $19 and are available through Moshtix.

Superpitcher

On a dark and stormy night in the deep south of mother Deutschland, two figures appear against the shadowy blanket of night. Through the pounding rain, we can see that one is Kompact head honcho Michael Mayer and as the other staid figure angles his face, it becomes apparent that it is none other than his stablemate SUPERPITCHER.

The two are best known for their prodigious collaboration ‘Supermayer’, which is the most exciting underground pairing since Sasha met Digweed, as Superpitcher reveals. “It was happening after being friends for a very long time, so strange we didn’t think about it before but I believe that these things need to happen naturally. So at one point we built new studios and just because we were both smokers at the time we’ve decided to share one,” he says. “Suddenly we were sitting there together and discovered that it is a lot more fun to work together, to make decisions together and of course to drink together!”

Superpitcher grew up in an area of Germany that has fostered its fair share of minimal techno artists, most who will tell you their love for music came from a sense of complete apathy. “I grew up in the south of Germany, really beautiful and really, really boring. I think I was looking for something helping me get away from all the boredom around me and luckily, I found music. My one true love!”

After a series of minor successes, Superpitcher happened upon a like-mind in Mayer, who aided his production career with an offer to work for his lucrative label, Kompact. “My very first interaction with Kompakt was meeting Michael Mayer at a bar in the Disco. We liked each other so much, we got really super-drunk and have been best friends ever since,” he says. “Later on I was asked if I would like to work in the shop and having no money and no job at the time, I said yes.”

The young producer then set about making a name for himself, with muscular solo releases like Heroin and Yesterday introducing him into the underground elite. His latest offering, the long awaited album Kilimanjaro is an affidavit for his enduring passion for the art of techno. “I think I started more than four years ago. First on and off, collecting ideas and in the last year working intensely on the production, arrangements and the mixing. I had a few nervous breakdowns before it became what it is!”

Superpitcher has been in high demand all over the globe, with his constant travels inspiring the deep soundscape emanating from the bass-bins. As he slides his synthesizer into a flight bag, the German artist delivers a warning to his southern hemisphere fans, one which will delight the throng of techno zealots eagerly awaiting his arrival. “Right now I’m looking forward to coming to Australia! Put on your dancing shoes!”

Catch Superpitcher live at Transit Bar on Sunday October 31. Tickets are only $10 (+bf) and are available through Moshtix.

The Bohemian Masquerade Ball

“The Albert Hall is very, very old, and tonight we’re going to break it,” announced man-about-town, host-for-the-night Hadley early in the evening, adorned in a shambolic outfit spilt down the middle; dark suit and diaphanous pink dress. Kicking off the national Bohemian Masquerade Ball tour, Canberra was the first, and very well-received, stop for the brilliant assortment of music, circus and burlesque acts.

The Albert Hall’s old worldly charm and rich history made for a perfect backdrop for the evening’s mischievous glamour. Hundreds flooded the hall; extravagant masks were donned, as well as the outfits, from the simple to the avant-garde. Lace, corsets, striped blazers, peacock feathers, sequins, wigs, fishnets, ruffles and the occasional steampunk-esque set of goggles made their presence felt. As my accomplice and I arrived, the line to the bar (boasting cider, beer and delicious-sounding absinthe cocktails) was already snaking out of the room; outlandish masks and familiar faces were spotted; and Mojo Juju had just quietly crept up on stage. A very good sign that a fantastic night was already starting to bubble away.  

Beautiful bluesy, whiskey-soaked vocals and a fine looking steel-string guitar was all Mojo Juju (sans her Snake Oil Merchants) needed to seduce the growing audience. Burlesque made its first appearance of the night in the fabulous Frankie Valentine, a poised pin-up straight from a well-thumbed ‘50s men’s magazine, who joined Mojo Juju onstage providing visual entertainment in the form a feather-dance.

Gypsy band Lola Lovina swept onto the stage, interweaving warped sea shanties and even a cover of the Stones’ classic Paint It Black into their set, all accompanied by ethereal vocals.?The band provoked the audience to shift their vague swaying into a full-on hip-shaking dance, swinging and twirling partners about and even busting out the Charleston. After a quick circus fix, local favourites Mr Fibby took to the stage for a solid performance, as a very loyal audience fixated on their every movement. Brothers Grimm were all gruff vocals and stomping swamp rock-fuelled blues, with the lead singer sauntering around the stage, spitting out anecdotes whilst swigging from a duty-free bottle of something.   

By the time The Orphanage had sauntered on stage, the absinthe cocktails had well and truly kicked in to the crowd’s system, with the floor covered in a thin layer of spilt drinks, ready for shoes to stick to it. Kudos to the tambourine/cymbals player, who was rocking out through the entire set – so much energy went into bashing that one tambourine – and it paid off. The audience lapped up The Orphanage’s brand of gritty rock, continuing the frantic dancing displayed during The Brothers Grimm set.  

Interspersed between each of the swampy sounds were an array of sideshow performances, including walking on broken glass, balancing plates, hula hooping, stapling paper love hearts on flesh, bizarre inflatable stripteases and another dose or two of burlesque. With cream feathers and a tight, fluffy white dress studded with crystals, La Viola Vixen enticed the crowd, slinking out from the red velvet curtains. Miming to an Eartha Kit track, Frankie Valentine once again graced the stage, this time in a pink bustle dress, sweetly twirling a parasol.  

Final band The Barons of Tang proved to be a splendid way to wrap up the evening, with their frantic shifting of tempos and musical fusions sending the audience into an infectious frenzy of dancing. As people shuffled out the door, all ecstatic faces and warm laughter, Friday evening had turned into Saturday morning, signaling the end of a surreal night. The masks were taken off, cigarettes lit and the road littered with taxies.

CHIARA GRASSIA

QI: The Best Bits (Fremantle Media)

2 out of 5

Ah, QI. You know the drill – a panel are given an assortment of oddball questions, with points allotted for interesting responses, obvious answers penalised. Host Stephen Fry continually rattles off obscure facts, with the puggy-dog-esque QI staple Alan Davies (creating yearnings for Jonathan Creek re-runs) falling for all the right traps and encouraging a nice slab of immaturity to boot. An array of British and international comedic talent have hopped on board for this season, including Bill Bailey, Rich Hall, Phil Jupitus, Sue Perkins, Rob Brydon, David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr, Jo Brand… Hell, even Graham Norton, Barry Humphries and David Tennant pop in.

Yet, this selection doesn’t boast much to suffice fans, or even newcomers, of the show. The subtitle on the DVD reads: “A hotch potch of moments from the ‘G’ series”. And a hotch potch indeed. Clocking in at under an hour, The Best Bits offers only slivers of amusement from the brilliant British panel quiz. The whole enjoyment of watching the show is the on-going jokes, banter and the sly looks tossed around the room, which is only hinted at in this jumble of clips. The collection does have its standalone moments, though, such as gags on how to humanely kill bees, and the nature of irresistibly tasty tortoises. The initial theme of the episode, and even the questions themselves, are merely the kickoff for conversations and discussions that regularly spinoff from the tiniest digression. This is what makes the show work. The Best Bits does offer laughs, though the short length of the snippets neuters comedic momentum and may annoy. The DVD boasts no special features, and a few rather posed pictures of Fry, Davies and co.

Lucie Thorne

Sometimes late nights call for just the right music – serene vocals full of delicacy and depth, to sooth and comfort but not to slip into the background. LUCIE THORNE, she of the voice that provokes constant comparisons to Chan Marshall and PJ Harvey, crafts music that fits perfectly for quiet evenings.

After last year’s critically acclaimed Black Across The Field, praised nationwide, Thorne is set to embark on her second European tour. “Last year’s Euro tour was a bit of a DIY experiment, really,” she explains. “I had a bit of help from a few different folks, but pretty much just strung it all together blind, and jumped in. And so I was really overwhelmed by the responses I got, and all the great connections made, and all the invitations to return… The whole experience was a very heartening and inspiring one.”

Listing a slew of countries planned for the tour, Thorne mentions that the album “is being released by a little boutique Netherlands-based record label in September, and the crew there have been helping out with booking shows and publicity and such, and I’ll also be going back to a lot of the places I played last year, so it’s shaping up to be a pretty convincing tour!”

Ready to record another album in August, Thorne explains that “the plan is to track the guts of this new record before I leave for Europe, and then we’ll finish it when I get back, and release it early next year. It’s all still mostly in that lovely amorphous stage for me at the moment but there’s lots that’s still up in the air, which I love.”

With lyrics like private love letters delivered in warm tones, it’s no huge surprise that her Canberra show will be played in the much beloved McGregor Hall – a venue Thorne has yet to play but has “heard plenty of reports about what a great place for a show it is.” Delving into the debate of what shows suit her better, Thorne explains that, “I play in all sorts of venues all around the place, but I love that feeling of it being a kind of intimate, special event that shows in smaller halls and theatres often have.”

This time round, she and her electric guitar will be accompanied by drummer Jay McMahon, a dynamic Thorne rapidly enthuses about. “It’s kind of the best of both worlds in some ways – all the energy but still lots of space, and room to move harmonically, melodically… So we’ll be up for a fun show, that’s for sure! And of course we’ve also got the gorgeous local treasures The Cashews warming up the night, which is a real treat.”

See Lucie Thorne and support band The Cashews live at McGregor Hall on Sunday July 25. Tickets are $20/$15/$12 for Canberra Musicians Club members and are available on the door.

Princess One Point Five - What Doesn’t Kill You [Pharmacy Records]

3 out of 5

Proof that the dynamic between Sarah-Jane Wentzki and Richard Andrew (Underground Lovers, Crow) produces music of excellence consistently, What Doesn’t Kill You, is another beautiful offering from Melbourne’s Princess One Point Five. At first quiet and atmospheric, the album is reminiscent of ‘90s trip-hoppers Lamb (a very good thing indeed), with moody piano, haunting melodies and even a few instrumentals scattered throughout. Wentzki’s vocals are similar to those of Sally Seltmann/New Buffalo, and possess both a fragility
and strength.

Spliced in between instrumentals, moody piano and fragile, poignant vocals, are boisterous pop songs with sly lyrics. Could Today’s chorus of “what the hell is with today today?” be a sly nod to ‘90s teen flick Empire Records? I hope so. Nonetheless, it’s a whip-smart, neat little pop track, followed nicely by Quote Me, a quick jab at the music industry. Though all relatively short songs, every track is well crafted and
sleekly produced.  

Princess 1.5’s delicate nature can lend itself to be pushed into the territory of background music, and only a few tracks leap out and demand to be listened to on the first few plays. However, repeated spins of What Doesn’t Kill You rewards the listener with lingering tracks. Perfect timing too, as the the music’s distinctive wintery feel makes a good match for the current oh-so-cold weather.

Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks [Third Man Records]

4 out of 5
Karen Elson, most noted for being a stunning model and married to Jack White, has released her first album - and it’s damn good. Though not her first foray into music (she is a member of American cabaret group The Citizens Band, and has lent her vocals for various projects), The Ghost Who Walks proves itself to be no novelty project. Elson is in good company, having snagged members of The Dead Weather (including an obvious addition of Jack White, on drums of all things) and My Morning Jacket to be part of her collective.

Any scepticism is tossed away by Elson’s clear vocals, feminine and ethereal, that fit well with the music - beautifully composed, intricate yet lush, delving into country, folk and early ‘60s sounds. The Ghost Who Walks treads similar territory as Nick Cave & The Bad Seed’s Murder Ballads, haunting tales. A few tracks take their cue a little too directly from Where The Wild Roses Grow, with the chorus of Stolen Roses almost a mimic of Cave’s. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Elson’s lyrics are still intriguing and vivid, and the quality of the music ultimately lifts the album.

Delicate country ballads such as Lunasa are reminiscent of Gillian Welch, and fit well in between bolder love songs. At only 12 songs, the album is a little short, but the tracks are impressive. A sophisticated album, hopefully not the last for Elson and her accomplices.

Omar Musa

OMAR MUSA is sitting across from me, reciting favourite lines of Anne Sexton’s poetry. It’s a little surreal (in the best way possible), but his passion for language is evident in his enthusiasm. “The way I’ve always seen it is that mostly I love the English language,” he says. “It’s like it’s this big ocean of language, and it has all these different streams that lead into it, and I don’t think one is better, or more clever, or more interesting than another.”

A hip-hop artist who made a name for himself in local and national poetry slams, Musa is in a peculiar limbo – bordering the literature scene and the hip-hop scene. “Someone who’s a rap artist can be equally as good a practitioner of the English language as an erudite scholar who went to uni and writes this lofty poetry,” he explains. As he lists his influences in both fields, from Sexton to Kanye West, Musa notes that, “it’s all just different approaches, and I like to draw from all those different styles.”

This combination has resulted in the release of Musa’s debut album, World Goes to Pieces, recorded in Seattle with Sun Kil Moon bassist Geoff Stanfield. This time round, lyrics were penned impulsively, and this candidness flows through the album. There’s a thoughtfulness to his lyrics; an obvious intelligence and eye for observation that shines through. However, Musa is cautious when choosing when to comment, repeating that his words are selected carefully.

“Because my name is Omar Bin Musa, Muslim background, Malaysian-Australian, people are clambering for me to make political comment. I’m not really that preoccupied with politics. But I think there are things that are important to talk about, but I just choose wisely when I do. After a while, people can get bored with you, and close their ears off if you just rabbit on and bang on about one thing. I’m pretty wary about that.” In relation to the album, it “…does deal with issues of racism and social justice, and things like that, and hopefully in a nuanced way. You hope for it, but you never know.”

His flair for stringing words together has frequently caught attention from overseas, most recently in Germany, where he has been invited to support legendary wordsmith Gil Scott-Heron there in late July. “The Munich Ministry of Culture flew me in to Germany a few months ago to perform all over the city. They turned this train into a club, it was so awesome. It was jam-packed… it was moving and it would pick up a few more hundred people.” Along with a few other poets, Musa was selected to perform for “…over four hours as the train went around Munich. It was so amazing. There was a bar there, there were even carriages where they couldn’t see the performance. They were just listening to the poetry.”

World Goes to Pieces will be available to purchase as well as download for free on Tuesday July 6.

Dan Sultan

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the gorgeous, hip-swingin’, smooth-voiced DAN SULTAN. His second album, Get Out While You Can, has found the attention its deserved, had a role in Australian musical Bran Nue Dae and his performance at the Paul Kelly Tribute concert was critically praised. “It’s really good,” Sultan’s deep voice crackles down the phone line, “but you don’t want to burn out. You don’t want to party too hard and do all this work at the same time, or be too hard on yourself. You need to make sure that you can still relax if you need.”

Sultan and his band have landed a slot at this year’s Splendour in the Grass, which he’s (rightly so) keen for. “Obviously we’re not one of the larger bands on the bill, so it means we’ll be playing pretty early, I imagine. Once we play, we can just hang out and have fun, which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve never been to Splendour in the Grass before, but I’ve been to Woodford. It’s gorgeous – a beautiful part of the world.”

Lyrically, Get Out While You Can is emotionally dense; love songs roll along with heartbreaking tales of growing up. “Personally, I’ll imagine things and I’ll try and be empathetic towards a certain character,” Sultan explains. “Scott [Wilson] helps me a lot with my writing, we obviously co-wrote together. He’s really good at writing lyrics. I’ll do a lot of the arranging and producing and music. In some cases I’ll go to [Scott] with bare bones for words and he’ll come to me in a couple of weeks, and he’ll have a beautiful story using where I was coming from.”

“I think I’ve always had my own understanding of music, Scott just showed me country music and some underground soul music I hadn’t heard. I’ve been playing guitar since I was four, writing songs for a long time and I’d been in bands. I had my own kind of battles and successes and failures before I met him, and him the same. Then we met up and got it together.”

And is a third album in sight? “Yeah, we’re starting to think about it, we’ll wait and see. It’s good to keep up appearances. I’d like to get to work on another one pretty soon, but you know, we’ll wait and see. We’re not too hard on ourselves.”

As for Canberra, his expectations are pretty open. “The time before I was in Canberra, I was actually camping in one of the city gardens. I was hitching up to Cairns – me and my friend went camping. It was our first night and we didn’t put a fly-up on the tent, because it wasn’t going to rain, but of course the bloody sprinklers came on in the dark, so we got pretty much saturated. As long as that doesn’t happen this time around…”

Catch Dan either at his show at the UC Refectory on Saturday May 22 or at Splendour in the Grass, this year held in Woodford, QLD, over Friday-Sunday July 30-August 1. UC tickets through Ticketek, Splendour tickets are on sale Thursday May 6 through Moshtix.

Brakes - Rock Is Dodelijk [FAT CAT]

Akin to their studio efforts, Rock Is Dodelijk is a lovely swift, sharp kick to the face. The British band’s usual manic, rapid songs are wrapped in a vigorous energy that will instantly seep through your speakers. Spitting out songs every few minutes or so in his signature nasally deadpan snarl, singer (and sometime British Sea Patrol-er) Eamon Hamilton’s voice may be confronting to newcomers to the band. But ultimately it’s his vocals and sharp tongued humour that lifts Brakes from the hoards of other indie bands with jagged guitar riffs and an ironic stance.

Spread over two concerts, the first half dedicated to a gig in hometown Brighton, the second in Germany, the album loses no stamina over the 20 tracks. Launching with the hysteric Hi How Are You, the first half of the album is splattered with songs from their debut Give Blood. Five second yelping wonder Comma Comma Full Stop marks the end of the first concert, before the band jumps into another live rendition of Hey Hey, a sturdy rock song.

Later songs such as Don’t Take Me To Space (Man) with the candid refrain of “I don’t care that this world’s corrupted/I don’t want to be abducted”, prove that the band haven’t lost their peculiarity, while dipping into a softer side. Finishing with their cover of country staple Jackson, the first live album is a well recorded offering from the fantastic Brakes.

Bald Archy Prize

Holidays On Ice, Pillage Before Plunder

Let Pillage Before Plunder be your soundtrack for spending the day in bed, covers wrapped around you, daydreaming. Holidays On ice have created an intelligent album that rewards on repeated listens, and is best left in your CD player at all times. With Angie Hart (Frente) and occasionally Dean Manning (Leonardo’s Bride) on vocals, Pillage Before Plunder drifts through dreamy pop songs. The lyrics are wry and poignant, the music melodically and emotionally rich. Holidays prove they can do late-night love songs like the best of them. Out Of Mud should be as big as Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You, as well as racy and infectious Ribbon Round A Bomb. Brilliance.

Alex Hallahan

“I was born and bred Canberran and quite proud of it really, compared to a lot of people who seem to move away,” laughs musician and former Canberra boy ALEX HALLAHAN, who released the critically acclaimed debut The Turning Wheel late last year. “Some people in Canberra probably consider it to be a bit of a dead end but I thought it was terribly artistic, so I actually really enjoyed growing up there.”

“The reason I’m not so shy about it is because I grew up in the art community of Canberra, with my Mum and Dad in their particular industries,” Alex explains. With his mother running dance studio The Canberra Dance Development Centre and his father a radio announcer on 2CA and FM104.7, Alex grew up comfortable on the stage and listened to the sounds of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s pumping out of the radio at home.

“By the time I was fourteen I thought about maybe doing musical theatre,” Alex recalls. “Obviously with musical theatre you need to learn to dance, so I started dance and in a typically me fashion got extremely obsessed and ended up being accepted in the Australian Ballet School at sixteen years old. I left home and came to Melbourne, but I finished up after a couple of years there… It just seems like a bit of a whirlwind because it only happened within a few years and then I went back to my roots.”

Returning to Canberra to kick off his national As I Sleep tour, Alex is excited to play the Street Theatre, returning to his element after experiencing the pub culture of Melbourne. “When I came down to Melbourne, after a few years, in my early-to-mid twenties, I started performing in the bars and pubs. I was used to the harsh lights and the audience somewhere in the darkness. So for me it was quite confronting at first, to have them right in front of me.” But the theatre experience has always gone hand in hand with his performing confidence. “I have never really been one to worry about the stage or anything, I feel quite at home there. So it didn’t weigh heavily on my mind, to walk out on stage.”

Even though The Turning Wheel is barely a year old, Alex has already has the blueprints down for album two. “I’ve pretty much written my second album,” he reveals. “I have written completely new songs for this next album. The exciting thing for me on this tour is that I’m going to be able to share that with the audience as well. There’s already a couple of new songs in my set, as we go along it’s kind of an unusual situation because people are just coming to The Turning Wheel, but I also have the chance to implant some of the new songs and try and see what sticks.”

Alex Hallahan will take to the stage at the Street Theatre on Saturday September 5. Tickets from thestreet.org.au

Clutch

"I think we're getting better at making records, each one that we do we learn some kind of a lesson. And that's not saying that you eventually learn everything because it's certainly not a perfect album. I don't think we'll ever make a perfect record." Jean-Paul Gaster, drummer for American rockers CLUTCH, is certainly quite humble about his band. "You take in what you can from your previous records... Hopefully you can learn from all of those records, and each one is going to be a little better, in some respects. And that's the fun of it; you never figure the whole thing out."

Releasing their ninth studio album Strange Cousins From The West, a kick to the head of thumping rock and blues, Clutch have maintained their strong sound. "I think for the most part there's not a lot of heavy-music going on. We tend to listen to a lot of dub and reggae stuff, we listen to a lot of blues records, back in the '90s we used to listen to a lot of hip-hop... it changes." The concoction title was "one of the phrases that were kicking around and that was carrying some weight and seemed to have a few meanings. I think everybody's got some strange cousins from the West. I think it works on a lot of different levels and conjures up a lot of images."

Sticking together for 18 years, Jean Paul explains that simple "mutual respect" has so much to do with Clutch. "It's great to play with these guys. We were friends before we started this band. It's certainly not the easiest thing in the world but it's not by far the most difficult thing in the world. It's a great thing. We have a great time, hanging out, making music, and having a couple of beers. They're definitely the most

talented guys I know, and the easiest to play with, and that says a lot."

Performing live has always been an important aspect of the band's structure, and the process of making Strange Cousins...
was no different. "These days we make it a point to play the new songs as much as we can before going into the studio. For the last couple of records we actually booked two or three week tours with the sole intention of trying to play the songs out... For me personally, as the drummer, because I'm thinking about the pulse of the tune, thinking about the tempo of the tune, thinking about how the words sit on top of the riffs and all those dynamics really come into their own in a live setting in front of an audience. If it's a good song I think folks will react to it, and if they're not reacting to it, what I can do to better represent that tune. So that's a pretty crucial step in the process of making a record."

Strange Cousins From The West is out July 14 through Weathermaker Music.

Jordie Lane

After putting out two EPs of his solo work and one album with Canadian artist Tracy McNeil, Melbourne musician JORDIE LANE Sleeping Patterns. Digging deep into a blues and country sound, combined with his world-weary voice that's decades beyond his 24 years, the album weaves songs that he's written years ago with more recent ones, creating a strong atmosphere. is finally releasing his debut solo album, entitled

Sleeping Patterns boasts guests musicians such as delicate-voiced Laura Jean and established Australian guitarist Jeff Lang. "Jeff co-produced the record and so naturally he played guitar on it," explains Jordie. "[There were] sounds like chimes and bells and stuff like that, and he did it all through digital [equipment and the] guitar. That was pretty exciting... It's a totally different thing collaborating closely with people, which I think after all these experiences I really do like collaborating, and I'll probably try and do more of that."

At the place they recorded at, Adelphia Studios in Melbourne, they were able to manipulate the studio to suit their fancy. Jordie describes it as "a bare empty warehouse which had lots of building blocks that you could make your own booths out of. We could create what we wanted there, over the four days. We got accustomed to going in and recording in the same place every day." A radical difference from his previous recordings, when it was "just me and a computer in my shed."

"It's loosely based on the metaphor for the sleeping pattern," Jordie says of the mood on the album. "Because they hadn't been all written in one big specific thought and they're all for one record, I was finding it hard to think what brought all the songs together. Then I thought about the actual time... A lot have been based around writing songs in the middle of the night, in a weird, weird headspace. Not knowing if you're in reality or fantasy."

A surreal situation occurred one day, whilst Jordie was in slumber, leading to the discovering of the debut's name. "It was about three o'clock in the afternoon and I was asleep, and a guy knocked on the window and asked me if I was awake, and I said 'yeah, I am now.' Then he walked out and I was a bit confused about who he was. Then I got up and realised he was just some guy trying to rob the house. Our back window was broken. He kindly woke me up before he stole my laptop. He ended up not stealing anything, but it's such a weird thing to happen. And I knew straight away that I had my title."

And yes, he's looking forward to playing Canberra.

Jordie Lane will roll into town on Sunday July 9 to play the Folkus Room at the Italo-Australian Club in Forrest. For tickets, call the Club on 62627265.

Yves Klein Blue - Eine kleine nacht music

Yves Klein Blue

For another young, hyped-up indie band, YVES KLEIN BLUE have done particularly well for themselves. Bursting out of Brisbane, they’ve scored spots playing at all the prestigious festivals, Splendor, South By South West and Big Day Out, as well as nabbing supporting gigs with The Vines and even recently playing at the Picasso exhibition in Brisbane. “It was a hard gig,” lead singer Michael Tomlinson says about performing in the art gallery. “We were the support act for a guy who’s dead. It was a great honour to play.” The experience has been something quite different for both the band and the city. “You don’t hear of art galleries in Brisbane; Canberra’s art galleries are really something.” With that, has Brisbane’s culture affected them? “We are a product of our surroundings,” he states. After all, Brisbane has produced classic bands such as The Go Betweens and The Saints, both of which Michael has currently been getting into. “We’re proud of our heritage.”

Not bad for a band who started out escaping high school PE classes to jam on “wonky, out-of tune” guitars. “It was actually a guitar storeroom,” Michael confirms, explaining how he and Charles Sale (guitarist) first formed the band in year ten at school, over a mutual love of Led Zeppelin. “The band over years fell apart; it was a crappy high school band, and then we met the other guys at uni and that’s how we formed.”

Their festival experiences so far have gone well, with Michael revealing that the Austin music festival South By South West had “more bands than you can possibly see. There’s a band playing every hour, day or night for a whole week; it was incredible, such a crazy experience and a wonderful vibe. Splendour was obviously a dream come true. I’ve been to Splendour every year for the past three years, four years. It was a privilege.”

With a name referencing French artist Yves Klein, you’d expect the band to have at least some artistic connection. “Sometimes, if I’m working out a song and if I’m having trouble with the parts and can’t figure something out, I draw a little squiggle.” And does this technique help? “Yeah, I love to look at it. I love the visual.  Unfortunately I have a visual thinking mind and I’m trying to be in a band. It’s not really a device anyone else in the band understands. It looks like something a two year old would do, with a biro that was running out of ink and was upside down… That’s how legible these diagrams are. I can understand it, there’s no consistency to it, however.”

Before settling down to record an album November, the band are set to travel about the country throughout October with The Holidays (“top chaps and excellent players and songwriters and performers”) as part of The Immaculate Confection Tour (“there’s no real reason to call it that, but we just thought we’d reference Tom Waits”). “It’s actually the biggest tour we’re ever done”, he says, noting that they’ll be playing at a variety of places. However, Michael mentions he was disappointed on his last trip to Canberra. “The porn was terrible, it was shocking. I don’t want to slander anything here, but there’s no excuse!”

Yet there are perks for punters at the upcoming tour. “Apparently there’s baked goods for the early birds. I can’t confirm or deny whether that’s true or not, because I don’t really see how I can cook up baked goods in the back of this stinky van on the road to Canberra. I’m sure in the upper-echelons of management, somebody is devising a way to combine a light bulb, a shoebox and an easybake oven to cook stuff while driving to Canberra. Come early to get a free baked thing.”

Yves Klein Blue will play alongside The Holidays, and Chambers at the ANU Bar on October 4. Tix are only $12.95, so get along!

Teenagers in Tokyo - Teenage Kicks

Teenagers in Tokyo

Probably one of the most mundane questions a band gets asked is ‘how did you form’? So I start with that. “Us four girls have been friends forever; we’re kinda like sisters,” says Sophie McGinn, guitarist for kickin’ Sydney band TEENAGERS IN TOKYO. The girls bonded quickly: “Day one, year seven, making stupid jokes. We weren’t in a band in high school, but maybe we should have been; would have helped with playing our instruments.” The band started “once we hit uni, a couple of years in.” After having friends who were in bands, the girls decided to form their own one, starting out with “jamming, learning to play and write basic stuff.” The line-up was completed with the band recruiting drummer Rudy, who’s stuck with them for “over 18 months. It’s been great, just gelled.”

Their recent trip to the UK and Europe turned out to be a surreal daze. “It went really well; it’s really bizarre reading stuff back about it now. So good, considering we’ve never played overseas before.”

UK label Back Yard Recordings snapped them up, and Sophie noticed the difference. “Here in Australia, it was up to us if something had to happen. [Being on the label] other people are just as excited about our music as we are. Amazing, having an actual label just for us.” The single Very Vampr released in the UK has “done really well”, with Sophie mentioning that the song’s video clip “is played in-between pop clips in the morning before school. It’s not a huge, huge fanbase, but it’s definitely growing.” She pauses, “very removed.”

Though it may seem Teenagers In Tokyo’s success is only recent, with the band selling out shows overseas while having only released one EP, Sophie confirms that this is not actually the case. “We’ve been together for quite a while (three years, from early 2005) and we’ve worked at it for a very long time, so we shouldn’t be too surprised.” She recalls the days of “being dragged to rehearsal after work.

“We used producer Jono Marsh, who engineered a lot of the tracks,” says Sophie about the recording of their debut EP, noting it was good to “hear someone understand the sorts of sounds we wanted. It went really well. It was a stretched out process, originally demos and to get some tracks recorded.” But the band picked up the fact that they could “actually do this kind of thing. It all kinda worked in the end.”

Wrapping up their last tour of Australia in August, Teenagers In Tokyo will be heading to the studio to record their debut album. “We really just want to knuckle down. These shows will be really good in the sense that we can test out a couple of the tracks, test run some songs, then get back in the studio, depending on how we are with the stuff - we’re quite hard on ourselves. We want to make a good one. The main focus at the moment is figuring out who’ll produce it. That’ll influence the sound; it’s a major decision, whether we record it here or overseas.”

The songs they’ve concocted for their debut so far are “a bit darker than our EP, but still got that dance-y quality. I hope we have a bit of variety; we don’t want it to be too similar. Mix it up a bit. Have the catchy songs and have a bit more luscious sounding ones too. Be experimental with sounds.”

Teenagers in Tokyo head to the Transit Bar on Saturday August 16, with ample support from Canberra kingpins Hancock Basement and the Purple Sneakers DJs. Free entry! Their self-titled debut EP is out now on Pavement Entertainment, through Inertia distribution.

Tin Alley - Alley cats

“At a Melbourne club and in the proximity of an attractive blonde girl, Paul asks his friend ‘…now what’s a good ice-breaker?’ Just as the music dies down, the girl hears the question and before any reply could be suggested she walks over. ‘Polar Bears. Polar Bears break ice…’ she cleverly says and struts away to her friends.” That little anecdote told by Jim Siourthas, the singer and guitarist of Melbourne’s TIN ALLEY, went on to form the basis of his band’s latest single, titled, funnily enough, Polar Bear. As he concludes, “we didn’t get the girl but we got the song!”

Following on from Polar Bear’s intriguing origins, Jim clarifies that “Tin Alley songs can be inspired by anything and everything. We don’t write to a formula. The style or lyrical content of a song is usually influenced by what is happening around us at the time of writing. Our songs deal with such themes as human frailty, personal loss, fascination, the universe and others.” On the release of Polar Bear, two other songs join the track listing, including In A Knot, from last year’s album Every Turn, and Scour The World, which Jim describes as “a mellow, acoustic guitar song which contrasts sharply with the other two.”

The Melbourne band started out with Jim and his brother, bassist Paul, who together had “been playing from an early age.” They posted an ad up in drum shop, which attracted the attention of drummer Peter who then joined the band. “Initial influences included such acts as Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins as well as The Doors,

U2, The Who etc.” From humble beginnings, they’ve since launched three releases, “making the AIR Charts in 2007 twice with the single In Your Hands,” which Jim noted as a career highlight.

“We really enjoy coming up with new riffs, melodies and lyrics and the whole process of creating a song. It is exciting to see a song take shape from the initial conception stage through to the final recorded version. Similarly, we like to tour and play live as much as possible and connect with audiences.” And a firm connection with the audience is what they achieved recently at their gig in Shepparton’s Yahoo Bar. “The punters had such a good time they wouldn’t really let us get off the stage until we played pretty much every song we knew!”

When asked for future plans, Jim simply states, “We don’t like to plan too far ahead. Late last year it looked as though we would be absent from the touring circuit for a very long time given our drummer’s motorcycle accident and injury, however he made a remarkable recovery.” So as not to leave a subdued note, he continues, “we are having lots of fun recording and touring at the moment and we want to continue for as long as we can.”

Tin Alley will, alongside Spoil, support The Variodivers at their EP launch at The Greenroom on Friday June 27. Doors from 8pm. $10 gets you in with a free copy of the Varios’ EP to boot, plus a free stein if you’re one of the first 50 through the door. Cheap Jagerbombs too, natch.

LAURA JEAN & GRAND SALVO

WHAT: HIGHLY-REGARDED MELB FOLKSTERS
WHERE: THE FRONT, LYNEHAM
WHEN: SAT JUL 5

Last seen in Canberra in late 2007 dueting on stage with Snow Patrol, Laura Jean is back and, with The Eden Land Band, touring her quietly beautiful second album Eden Land. Since her debut Swan Song, Laura Jean has attracted interest both nation wide and overseas, and Eden Land proves the quality of her music is consistent. Weaving together subtle blend of effortless story-telling with music of an ethereal nature seems to be Laura Jean’s specialty, and her new album is laden with it. A concept album, it travels poignantly through themes such as love and religion, backed by a plethora of instruments, resulting in well-crafted listen. Accompanying her to Canberra is Grand Salvo, who has just released his new album entitled Death. Both musicians produce music that humbly boasts delicate vocals and vivid lyrics, creating an entire atmosphere in their songs. The evening kicks off around 8pm on the 5th of July at The Front Gallery in Lyneham. $7 entry.

Institut Polaire -Institutionalised

“We’re not a fashionable band,” says Elliott Brannen who lends his trumpeting talent to Perth’s INSTITUT POLAIRE . “We want to make something that’ll last.” Drawing from their status as “fans of classic pop music” and constant line-up additions, the band have since produced last year’s EP The Fauna And The Flora, featured on the bill of many festivals and toured as support acts. They are currently touring the country with Cuthbert and the Night Walkers.

The title The Fauna And The Flora is “a line from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Erik Hecht (vocals, guitar and keyboard) was writing this song and came to the chorus, just singing la las. He came back a couple weeks later and said ‘by the way, I’ve got the chorus and it’s going to be the title track’. He didn’t tell us for a week and then it was the husband of the violin player who spotted it right away, ‘I know where that’s from!’”

For a band that has been described as “musically schizophrenic,” Elliott agrees people don’t know what to label them. “People tend to use big terms when describing us, ‘bombastic’, ‘orchestral’.” And what can people call them? “All sorts of things, as long as they think highly,” he says with a laugh.

“You run into people you used to go to school with,” says Elliott on the subject of their single City Walls & Empires, doing the rounds on Triple J, “and you tell them you’re in a band, and mention the song and they go ‘I know that song!’” The first time he heard the song on radio? “I was driving down to the shop for lunch, and I hear the drums start and I go ‘oh, I know that song!’ It’s still quite a novelty, still quite strange,” he muses.

“I only found this out the other day,” Elliott admits when asked how the band formed. “A group of guys were studying sound recording and one day said ‘stuff it, we’ll make our own song’, so they sent it off to the main community station in Perth.” From there, the song received airplay and when the invitations to start playing live started to hit them, the band realised they needed more people who eventually ended up being Institut Polaire. “Whoever they found suitable, ‘you can join the band’. We’ve up to eight, I don’t know if we can go any further. Hard to believe it started with three and ended up with eight. A natural evolution to where it is today.”

Does the band’s sound change with the addition of new members and new instruments? “I think you have to have the confidence to say, ‘I don’t fit in with this song’. There are five or six people who can play at least two instruments. I often shake my head, think how the hell am I going to… but you come to terms and figure it out as you go along.”

And news on an upcoming album? “We’ll start recording as soon as we finish the tour, early June. We have the demos down so we know how it’s going to turn out.” Elliott confirms that it should be out by November this year. Will it be different to the EP? “As a member of the band I can’t judge it properly. To me, it’s a slow, organic process. I think that we’re a hopefully better version than what we were.”

They’re looking forward to touring with Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers, but Elliott realistically notes “it’s a lot of people to take around the country, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Institut Polaire play on Saturday May 17 at the Transit Bar with Cuthbert and the Night Walkers and The Cherry Marines. Entry is free.

Custom Kings - Observing the Customs

“Writing songs is why I got into in the first place,” says Nick Vorrath, key songwriter and frontman for Melbourne’s CUSTOM KINGS . Ah, the Custom Kings. By now you’ve probably heard at least one of their tracks kicking around on the radio, with songs such as Number One and Up Late, off their debut album At Sea, having been staples on stations such as triple j of late. The bands’ blend of genres gives their songs variety and so people seem to have trouble summing up their sound into a neat category. “Eclectic songs,” Nick says simply when asked to describe their sound. “We don’t stay in the same spot for too long. Mix and match.”

“We all kinda knew each other,” Nick informs, as the topic of conversations leans towards the band’s formation, “it’s almost my solo band.” The band actually came together when Nick contacted his record company and handed them a copy of his demo. But does he regret not going in a solo direction? Not at all. “It’s always good with the right bunch of people. We’ve been together for almost four years.” The opportunity to bounce ideas of each other is always available, “steal the credit for that,” he adds cheekily.

Live, the band prefers to play more of their “upbeat” songs. “They’re more fun. We like the crowd to be up and dancing. Mix it up, play lots of different stuff. Number One has turned into a bit of a crowd favourite, it’s gotten a bit more rockier.” On stage, the band comprise two guitars, keyboard, bass, sampler and drums, which results in the instruments been swapped around “back and forth.” Covers are few, though the band have been talking about covering a more modern song, compared to the older blues songs they have reinterpreted in the past. But for now the band are concentrating more on process of learning “how to play our own songs first.” While he enjoys touring and playing live, Nick does find recording “a little more satisfying, more creative.” Adding to their list of festivals, the Custom Kings are part of the line-up for the relatively new Gum Ball festival in Wollombi Valley, NSW. “I don’t really know what to expect,” Nick says, “but I’m looking forward to it.

We met the guys last year in Newcastle.” The band has played their fair share of festivals, with Nick admitting it “feels like we’ve played stacks.
We never pass up a festival; it’s always a good thing to do.” With a “mini tour in April” scheduled, The Custom Kings’ second album will be finished “hopefully by the end of the year. We have a few songs on the go,” Nick states, but notes that there will be a difference between the new album and their debut, with the new one being “not as diverse.

More focused, a more cohesive package. It’s hard to write a whole album in one genre; every song sounds like the last.”

The Custom Kings share the stage with The Vasco Era, Urthboy, Mia Dyson and numerous others at The Gum Ball festival in Wolombi Valley (NSW), held between April 11 and 13. Tickets available through Moshtix outlets, for more info head to the Gum Ball Festival website .