Perth Music

Following on from their incredible recent performances at this year’s Fuji Rock and Splendour In The Grass festivals, The Vines are pleased to announce that they will be embarking upon their first full length national album tour in over four years this coming October and November in support of their brand new long-player, Melodia.

After their many well documented trials and tribulations, no one really had the right to expect to find The Vines in such rude health in 2008, but with the release of Melodia, the band have come full circle, recording their best album since ‘Highly Evolved‘ and playing the finest live shows of their career. Anyone who has witnessed the band’s incendiary sets at Splendour, Homebake or Big Day Out over the past two years will attest to the fact that as a live force they are now nigh on unstoppable.

With the first single He’s A Rocker having reacquainted the listening public with the trademark razor-sharp pop instincts that led to The Vines becoming one of Australia’s most recognisable and passionately supported bands, the band will be releasing the album’s scorching opener Get Out to coincide with the shows, a song that has immediately become a festival crowd favourite.

Tickets on sale Friday 5th September

Tour Dates:
Fri 24th October - ANU Bar, Canberra
Sat 25th October - Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne
Thur 30th October - Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Fri 31st October - Tivoli, Brisbane
Sat 1st November - The Metro, Sydney (Licensed All Ages)
Fri 7th November - Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide (Licensed All Ages)
Sat 8th November - Rosemount Hotel, Perth

End Of Fashion - Fussy

Upon its release, The Grates debut album Gravity Won’t Get You High immediately shot to the ARIA top-ten, was nominated for awards, and sold over 50,000 copies. The trio slogged it out for two years straight, with sold-out Australian tours, shows in the UK, US and Canada, and garnered gushing press coverage. With their new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, The Grates faced a new challenge in the studios: being their own co-producers for the very first time. While sound engineer/producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Mates of State, The National) joined the ride again, this time, The Grates were also alongside him closely at the producer’s desk at Tarquin Studios, a gutted-out attic in Connecticut, USA. Initially, taking the production helm - occasionally by themselves - scared them. Needless to say, the band’s newfound musical smarts have paid off. This batch of songs is more sophisticated and punch-in-the-guts catchy than anything they’ve done before. Hand-clapping, foot-stomping first single ‘Burn Bridges’ is a good indicator of The Grates’ new musical direction, but also provides a handy manifesto. Guitarist John Patterson spoke to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (9:00 - 2.1Mb)

“We are super happy. In the US we were in this house in Conneticut which was this huge stately mansion on a main road in a dirty area. We all lived in this house and it was half winter, half spring and we barely left. We worked upstairs and slept downstairs and that’s kind of how I like to work, just put everything into it and have nothing else to focus on. It was great. Peter Katis lives in Conneticut and the studio is in his house so we just went to his house. There was nothing special about the place except he was there.”

I asked John what it was like being away from Australia to record the album. “We’ve done both of our albums away from home and I would have a lot of trouble trying to work on something at home. There are so many distractions when you have to go home to your house and you have your family there or you pick someone up or drop someone off or you have bills to pay and stuff. When you are away you don’t have any distractions, even with the timezones no one can really call you up. It’s a great way to get away from everything.”

Second albums can sometimes cause problems with bands especially trying to live up to expectations and writing new songs. I asked John if this was the case with Teeth Lost, Hearts Won. “It was harder to write songs because when you first start writing songs it’s so easy because you’ve never done anything before. You feel so super original for writing your first 20 songs because you’ve never written songs before. The more you write the harder it is to feel you are doing something original and feel like you are doing something new. So it takes a lot longer to write songs and we had to put a lot of effort into making things feel organic. Even though it took a long time to arrange the songs and stuff a lot of thought was put into making it feel like they grew organically instead of just having that organic feel just because you wrote it really quickly.”

Asked what the songwriting process of the band was, John replied “The only way we have been able to get it to work is Patience and I start writing something at exactly the same time pretty much. I might write something on guitar and she sings something in the next 30 seconds or something. Otherwise we all get quite anxious and feel a lot of stress. If I write a guitar riff and leave it with Patience for a day or something, there’s no way she will be able to write anything for it because she will feel too much pressure. We have to do it both together at exactly the same time. It seems like that is the only way we can do it at the moment. I don’t know what it will be like for the third record but that was the only way we could it.”

“I think this one has much more of a theme than our last record. We tried to treat every song separately on the last one and this one was all written within a year and lyrically there are similar themes and musically I tried to bring in little melodies. We always try anything that is hanging around the studio. I played bass guitar and somebody else played bass guitar and we hadn’t done that before so I think there is bass guitar on six or seven songs this time. I think Patience can credit herself with handclapping as an instrument so she can sound like she can play an instrument. She does a bit of tamborine at the moment as well.”

Tour Dates:
Thur 2nd October - Sands Tavern, Sunshine Coast QLD
Fri 3rd October - The Arena, Brisbane QLD
Sat 4th October - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Sun 5th October - Great Northern, Byron Bay QLD
Wed 8th October - 21 Arms, Ballarat VIC
Thur 9th October - Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc VIC
Fri 10th October - Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne VIC
Sun 12th October - Govenor Hindmarsh, Adelaide SA
Wed 15th October - Uni Bar, Wollongong NSW
Fri 17th October - Metro, Sydney NSW
Sat 18th October - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Thur 23rd October - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury QLD
Fri 24th October - Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
Sat 25th October - Capitol, Perth WA

For more info visit www.thegrates.com

The Grates - Burn Bridges

Read on… because here is the news that everyone has been waiting for! MGMT – the super cool Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden – are touring Australia for the first time ever this December. The band who’ve created a storm here in Australia & around the world over the last few months will perform headline shows in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Whilst MGMT might seem like an overnight success, they’re not. Goldwasser and VanWyngarden have been performing together since their freshman days at uni back in 2001. After their graduation in 2005, the band took their hyped live show on the road and following a brief hiatus, secured their record deal internationally with SonyBMG.

From there things snowballed, with the band exploding onto the international music scene earlier this year. The trippy duo’s hit song ‘Time To Pretend’ was added to radio the world over, used on the hit UK TV show ‘Skins’ and the USA’s ‘Gossip Girl’ and earned the pair appearances on Letterman and Conan O’Brien.

The buzz band at this year’s SXSW, MGMT’s psychedelic debut Oracular Spectacular caused a wave of excitement amongst critics and fans alike upon its release in May.

Now with another hit song ‘Electric Feel’ flooding the airwaves and a wealth of live experience (including Glastonbury, T in the Park and Lollapalooza of late), MGMT will be the concert of the Summer.

Enigmatic Sleepy Jackson frontman Luke Steele will be the special guest support on all shows.

Tour Dates:
Sat 6th December - Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth
Tue 9th December - Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wed 10th December - The Tivoli, Brisbane
Thur 11th December - The Palace, Melbourne

FRIDAY, JANUARY 2
The Hives, Pete Murray, Architecture In Helsinki, Donavon Frankenreiter, Birds Of Tokyo, Liam Finn, TZU and The Drones and more to be announced

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3
Franz Ferdinand, The Kooks, The Cat Empire, Gomez, Pete Murray, Tegan And Sara, The Grates, Atmosphere featuring Brother Ali, Faker, Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed And The True Loves, Jamie Lidell, Karnivool, Mystery Jets, Soko, A-Trak, Wolf & Cub and more to be announced

Western Australia’s very own Music, Camping and Arts Festival is back to nature with the finest rollcall of rockers, boppers and beat makers this side of Pluto. So, without further adieu, may we introduce the Southbound family for 2009. First up, a very big band from a very little country…those great Scots Franz Ferdinand. Now, say ‘yeah’ for our raucous Swedish brothers The Hives. And we see you’ve already met The Kooks. Watch those sharp horns…The Cat Empire can get a little wild. Now come and meet the rest of the family – there’s Gomez over in the corner playing ping-pong with Pete Murray. And that’s our American cousin Donavon Frankenreiter getting all philosophical with his northern neighbours Tegan And Sara.

And on the trampoline, that’s The Grates with Atmosphere featuring Brother Ali. And there’s Faker playing doctors and nurses with Jamie Lidell. Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed And The True Loves – please play nicely with Architecture In Helsinki! Oh, and there’re the twins…Birds Of Tokyo and Karnivool. Aren’t they cute? But they’re almost as hyperactive as A-Trak. The Mystery Jets and The Drones are some of the brightest in the bunch. Oh, and that’s Soko messing about with TZU, Liam Finn and Wolf & Cub – she’s visiting from France.

And there you have it – the Southbound family. But that’s not all…there are plenty more of us. But you’ll get to meet the rest in the months ahead. More than 30 international, national and local artists will make the fifth annual Southbound Festival the finest yet on Friday, January 2 and Saturday, January 3, at Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton.

It all kicks off on Friday, January 2, when campers arrive, with the Festival continuing on Saturday, January 3, and campers departing the festival site on Sunday, January 4. This year we’ve expanded the Friday night programme to include its very own exclusive performances. Unlike previous years, however, we will be releasing a very limited amount of day tickets for Friday – so lucky day-trippers can experience the very special Friday entertainment – for the first time. These changes are an exciting development for Southbound, as it truly progresses into a two-day festival.

Southbound will again feature many special initiatives, including ArtBound, which gives visual artists a chance to get involved in the cultural celebration that is Southbound. More details for the initiative will be announced shortly. EcoBound will also be back greener and more eco-friendly than ever.

TICKET INFORMATION
Happy Camper Tickets – These include two nights camping on Friday and Saturday night, plus the full weekend of entertainment and are $197 + booking fee.

Festival Ticket: Two Day Pass – For the very first time Saturday ticket holders can purchase a strictly limited amount of Friday day tickets for an additional $70. That’s $189 + booking fee for two days’ worth of festivities…

Festival Ticket: Saturday Only – Saturday tickets are $119 + booking fee.

Or if you’re up for a bit of convenience, snap yourself up a Pampered Camper ticket, which will make it all the more easy – arrive with your tent already set-up in a prime position! Now, that’s the business. Head to www.sunsetevents.com.au for more information, where you’ll also find information on VIP tickets.

Go to www.sunsetevents.com.au for full ticketing information, including bus tickets.

Public tickets go on sale Monday, September 15.

After playing to over 1 million people with their renowned energetic live gigs and their TV performances, Faker now celebrate their second album Be The Twilight officially achieving Gold sales status. Be The Twilight features Faker’s Top 10 hit single This Heart Attack – which is still in the ARIA chart after staggering 40 weeks! After a #5 peak on iTunes, a #5 peak on the radio airplay chart, a ‘Law & Order’ promo and endless TV performances, This Heart Attack has well and truly been seen and heard across the nation and also came in at a very respectable #5 on the Triple J Hottest 100. Far from resting on their laurels, Faker are soon to head out on the road on the ‘Are You Magnetic Tour’, supported by Sparkadia. Bassist Nic Munnings spoke to Justin Middleton for this interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (9:56 - 2.3Mb)

“It’s pretty surreal. It’s really exciting, we’ve been doing this forever and it’s flattering that people are starting to pay some attention to it. We never really have any idea what is going to happen next. The best we can do is try and write songs that we like and try not to care too much whether other people like them as well.

I asked Nic if the band felt more pressure from outside influences or themselves while writing and recording Be The Twilight. “We probably put more pressure on ourselves after the first record. It seemed to take us forever to get our teeth into the process for the second album. We were basically doing demos for two years from just before the first record came out until when we recorded Be the Twilight. We didn’t really feel a great deal of pressure from anywhere else but there were definitely points where we were going ‘What the fuck are we doing?’. We kind of had 45 songs before we went into pre-production and there was quite a lot of trimming down to come up with 12 songs out of that.”

The album was recorded in LA and I asked Nic if it was good to be away from friends and family for the period of recording. “The main thing about recording in LA was being away from everything. We worked really hard and were there for three months. We had a couple days off when we got there but other than that we were working six day weeks, up to about 14-15 hours a day. We didn’t get much of the sightseeing experience of LA and there is a reputation of LA people being superficial but we didn’t see that. You really need to be able to focus on the task at hand and we really thought we were going to be making the record at home so I don’t think we would have been able to focus all the energy if we were kind of going home at the end of the day.”

Asked what the band are up to at the moment and coming up in the next few months Nic replied “The tour starts next month but we a couple one off shows leading up to that. We are turning on the tap slightly before letting it all out. At the moment we are up the coast doing some demos of new stuff so that’s already underway. That will be the next thing we do after the tour and it’s pretty rare that we actually stop. Nathan will always be coming up with things while on tour but by and large, the touring side of things is not really where the creative process happens. It’s usually pretty important for us to find some space and time to let that stuff happen because on tour every ten hours you have to be somewhere else.”

I asked Nic how much he enjoys making music videos and especially the new Are You Magnetic clip which can be viewed at the bottom of this post. “It was even more colourful on set due to the amount of digital effects and stuff. We had a blue screen and we were wearing green lab coats that I don’t think are ever actually green in the video. The main thing was working with the guys making the video and making it a collaborative effort instead of them telling us to stand here and there. There is a lot of standing around but it’s important to feel like you have some involvement in the visual representation of your music. Our old drummer Paul used to say that every time he had to make a video a little piece of him died inside. But maybe that’s why he isn’t in the band anymore.”

Are You Magnetic Tour Dates:
Thur 4th September – Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, WA
Fri 5th September – Metro City, Perth, WA
Sat 6th September – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
Fri 12th September – Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Sat 13th September – Wrestpoint Showroom, Hobart, TAS
Sun 14th September – HQ, Adelaide, SA
Thur 18th September – Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane QLD
Fri 19th September – Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast, QLD
Sat 20th September – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW (licensed and all ages)

For more info visit www.faker.com.au

Faker - Are You Magnetic

An unprecedented 23 bands from the University of Western Australia will be fighting it out in the National Campus Band Competition (NCBC) this year. The bands are competing in NCBC heats throughout August, with the winning bands playing in Semi-Finals across Perth against other Western Australian universities and TAFEs. The State Final will be held in early October, featuring the cream of this year’s crop of campus bands, and the winning band will walk away with over $2,000 in prizes.

NCBC, now in its 19th year, is the largest live band competition in the southern hemisphere. The competition showcases up-and-coming bands to wider audiences and has helped launch the careers of acts such as Eskimo Joe, The Vasco Era and Jebediah. Last year’s competition saw WA band Will Stoker and the Embers take out the national title, while Black Market Babies, the top UWA band, played alongside Karnivool and Bluejuice at the UWA O’Day concert this year.

Competition between the UWA bands has got off to an early start, with an online ‘People’s Choice Award’ poll showing some clear leaders before the heats have even begun. And, with genres ranging from Indie Rock to Shoegaze/Psychedelic, Alternative/Fusion and New Age Folk Electronica, the 2008 UWA NCBC heats are set to be some of the most entertaining and diverse live music shows in Perth.

The four UWA heats will take place at the UWA Tavern on August 8th, 15th, 21st and 22nd; all at 3pm. Entry is free (18+ ID required). For the running order and details of the bands playing, check out www.guild.uwa.edu.au.

Final Dates
Semi # 1 – Fri Sep 5th Railway Hotel
Semi # 2 – Fri Sep 12th Swan Basement
Semi # 3 – Fri Sep 19th Rocket Room
State Final – Sat Oct 4th Hyde Park Hotel, backroom

Prizes:
The winning band will receive $2000 worth of gear from Kosmic Sound, plus 2 days studio time from Sumo Sound Studio and all the backline needed for studio recording from Lounge Backline. All other prizes can be viewed online at the NCBC West Myspace (www.myspace.com/ncbcwest)

No one can ever accuse Cog of doing things the easy way. Never catering to formula or template, eschewing the safe or conventional in their songwriting, the powerhouse trio have at heart always been a truly progressive band, one driven by sheer will, a tenacious belief in themselves, and an uncompromising musicality. But from day one, it’s been one long hard slog for this band.

Born from an epic, and at times, frustrating, recording experience that involved almost 12 months of solitude from the lives they knew here in Australia, in a small Californian town called Weed, Sharing Space is fast proving to be a worthwhile labour of love for Cog, debuting at # 2 on the national ARIA Chart, the highest chart position for the band, holding in the top 30 for seven weeks, and currently remains in the top 50. Sharing Space is close to Gold sales in Australia and recently received a J Award Nomination, for the Triple J Australian Album Of The Year.

Since the release of Sharing Space in April, Cog have sold out two national tours, gained feature records on a number of major community radio networks, including Triple J, received commercial airplay across the country,  drawn rave reviews in press and made a number of television appearances. Sharing Space has also received ‘album of the week’ recognition in a number of outlets.

Sharing Space has cemented the band as a ground breaking act for their genre, defying the boundaries that at times exclude such rock acts from mainstream attention.

Tour Dates:
Sat 30th August - Lake Jindabyne Station Resort, Jindabyne NSW
Wed 3rd September - Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill NSW
Thur 4th September - The Cube, Campbelltown NSW
Fri 5th September - Revesby Workers, Reevesby NSW
Sat 6th September - Bar on the Hill, Newcastle NSW
Sun 7th September - Evans Theatre, Penrith Panthers, Penrith NSW (licensed all age)
Wed 10th September - UNE Armidale, Armidale NSW
Thur 11th September - Ballina RSL, Ballina NSW
Fri 12th September - Manly Warringah Leagues Club, Manly NSW
Sat 13th September - Waves, Towradgi NSW
Thur 18th September - Port Macquarie Panthers, Port Macquarie NSW
Fri 19th September - Club Forster, Forster NSW
Sat 20th September - Coaster Festival, Gosford NSW
Sun 21st September - Bad Lands Manning, Sydney NSW
Fri 10th October - Queensbridge, Melbourne VIC
Sat 11th October - Sounds of Spring, Brisbane QLD
Fri 24th October - Metro City, Perth WA
Sat 25th October - Big Top Show, Bunbury WA
Tue 28th October - Karratha Tavern, Karratha WA
Wed 29th October - Pier Hotel, Port Headland WA
Fri 31st October - Wintersun Hotel, Geraldton WA
Sat 1st November - Big Top Show, Rockingham WA
Thur 6th November - NSomniax, Albany WA
Fri 7th November - Esperance Civic Centre, Esperance WA
Sat 8th November - Big Top Show, Kalgoorlie WA

Sunday 3rd August 2008
Fly By Nightclub, Fremantle
Birds Of Tokyo
Abbe May & the Rockin Pneumonia
Harlequin League

It was that time of the year when Triple J made the journey over to the West for a special Live @ the Wireless performance by a fantastic group of WA bands. Birds Of Tokyo have just released their sophomore album Universes to a fantastic reception and to get ready for a national tour they played a special afternoon gig to lucky fans. Abbe May is loved by almost all WA music lovers as well as Triple J and she has had a fantastic year playing festivals and her own gigs all over town. Harlequin League are building their reputation as strong up and comers and have their debut EP coming out at the end of this month. All in all it was a great selection of WA bands to represent WA on the national stage.

After a bit of a delay in letting people in to the Fly By Nightclub (due to apparently getting sound check just right for the radio) and a introduction from Triple J’s Rosie Beaton, Harlequin League jumped on stage to a growing audience. Visibly excited about playing a high profile gig the boys were intent on proving their worth. Great guitar work, fantastic energy and even double drumming was a perfect start to the afternoon as more and more audience members crept closer to the stage and started bopping along to the rockin tunes. Itchy Heart and Bones were electric highlights of the set as the band garnered plenty of new fans who must be eager to see how big this new band will get.

A short break was followed by Abbe May and The Rockin Pneumonia arriving on stage to an appreciative applause. As the first song started Abbe started to sing but no sound was coming from the microphone. This continued for about 3 minutes, followed by frantic sound guys trying to figure out what was going on. A few loud screeches of distortion finally ended the song with a disappointed look and a laugh from Abbe. The sound was then finally fixed and the band rocked into their set. Abbe May has one of the best female voices in Australia and she had it on perfect display this afternoon. Some great blues songs filled the newly renovated Fly By Nightclub but a lot of the crowd were young music lovers that might not have had the patience to enjoy it. As Abbe May and The Rockin Pneumonia walked off stage the electricity in the room lifted as the band all were there to see were up next.

Rosie Beaton was on stage again to introduce the band of the moment and get the radio guys ready to press record. Ian Kenny and band walked on stage with confidence but mentioned that they “had never done anything like this before where a show was recorded live and they were shitting themselves”. Starting off with crowd favourite Broken Bones, the Birds Of Tokyo were intent on making this a show to remember. Plenty of songs were played from the new album Universes as well as a good sample of songs from Day One with the crowd singing along to most songs. Getting ready for a huge national tour it was obvious the Birds Of Tokyo were in perfect form, from the thunderous drumming, the magic guitar and bass combos and Ian Kenny’s powerful vocals. When this recording does come out on Triple J make sure you catch it.

End of Fashion are pleased to announce they are doing what they love best and heading back out on the road on a national headline tour in September/October to support the release of their new album ‘Book Of Lies’ which is released on September 27.

‘Book Of Lies’ was recorded at home in Perth, with producer Magoo (Regurgitator, Midnight Oil, Powderfinger) and Andy Lawson (The Avenues), and finished off by Tim Palmer (U2, The Cure, Robert Plant) who mixed the album in Los Angeles.  A new spirit and energy are reflected in the songs and while the pop nous and melodic attentiveness the band displayed on their debut LP makes a signature return, End Of Fashion have crafted an album that is more brutal and angular than the last.

‘Fussy’, the first single lifted from the album, hit the radio airwaves this week causing a rippling effect across the country with the track being added immediately across the board at commercial radio. Be on the lookout for the non-traditional music video directed by Natasha Pincus (Inside Film Award winner, Best Music Video 2007 for Paul Kelly’s ‘God Told Me To’) which is bound to cause a stir as the first installment of a two part video series.

New album ‘Book of Lies’ in stores September 27
New single ‘Fussy’ available digitally August 23 and in stores August 30

Tour Dates:
Tue 2nd September – Barwon Club, Geelong
Thur 4th September – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Fri 5th September – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Sat 6th September – Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc
Sun 7th September – Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
Wed 10th September – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Thur 11th September – Sound Lounge, Currumbin
Fri 12th September – Sol Bar, Coolum
Wed 17th September – ANU Bar, Canberra
Thur 18th September – Wollongong University
Fri 19th September – Gaelic Club, Sydney
Sat 20th September – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Thur 2nd October – Players Bar, Mandurah
Fri 3rd October – Prince Of Wales, Bunbury
Sat 4th October – Capitol Bar, Perth