The Brag Magazine :: Sydney's Sexiest Streetpress :: Your Online Guide To The City

like a total poseur. Before I continue just let me clear something up. I like Robyn. I think you should check out her album – there are some quality pop tracks on there. But like most Swedish blondes I’ve known, she was disinterested and fake in the flesh. Now for a tangent that may be ostensibly sexist, but needs to be said regardless. A lot of these female Pop queens seemingly think that their prettiness can compensate for a lack of effort in their live performance (and perhaps a lack of skill?).

A quick recount: Annie at the Basement last year was appalling, Lily Allen has the lip synch routine nailed (she could give Robyn some tips) and Uffie was totally wasted at the Gallic club in December and her DJ/producer boyfriend Feadz had to carry her. It’s about time these starlets stopped relying on looks and studio magic and put some effort into their live performance. Or invested more time into music rather than marketing. Just to present a semblance of a balanced argument, my little sister told me Gwen Stefani was amazing, which at least provides hope that the future of female pop isn’t all doom and gloom.

The way I see it, when someone fakes their way through a live show they don’t even warrant a detailed critique, hence the broader scope of this review. Robyn had that many backing tracks that on the occasions that she chose to sing, such as with ‘Be Mine’, she raised the question as to about what actually constitutes a live performance these days. For Robyn the answer is a drummer, a heap of prerecorded tracks. Incidentally it was a fun night. There was a great crowd and the venue was amazing…I will definitely look forward to returning to the Oxford Arts Factory. Hopefully next time I go there it will be for an artist who puts some effort into their music instead of some wannabe who personifies a lot that is bad about the music industry. Robyn should know, that image and branding are always superseded by the music itself.

And you remember that too, dear reader.

Chris Honnery

THE SILVERSUN PICKUPS
GHOSTWOOD
The Annandale, September 15 2007

Ghostwood. I suggest that you remember that name. I demand that you get out and see this band. Think My Bloody Valentine. Think Nick Cave. Think, how old are these kids? Still in high school and delivering strong, grungy, alternative tunes teamed with intricate melodies. I give these shoegazers two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

It’s difficult to talk about Brian Aubert without mentioning Billy Corgan, nor speak of The Silversun Pickups’ big guitars and catchy hooks without mentioning The Smashing Pumpkins. But you can compare them to anybody you like; the LA based quartet can hold their own, and have revived early 90’s alternative rock with a joyful vigour that is to be both admired and no doubt emulated. No scowling shoegazers here. Only an unlikely bunch of talented musicians who combine androgynous vocals with catchy alternative rock all splashed in California sun.

The Silversun Pickups will take you somewhere else, and they’ll do it with huge, welcoming smiles on their faces. In fact, I’ve never seen so many onstage smiles. Bravo. Smiling is the new black… look out, serial myspace photo posters - posing is out! Happiness is in! These guys emanate something that I have not seen in a band for a long time. Good, old fashioned enjoyment. And if a band is enjoying themselves on stage, it’s hard not to join in.

From the adorable coyness of bassist Nikki Monninger, to the awkward and yet confident eccentricity of frontman, Brian Aubert, even a slight mess up during ‘Three Seed’ couldn’t get anybody down. The crowd were as forgiving of a minor mistake as they were in awe of this band’s pizzazz. Playing most of the songs from their debut album; Carnavas and also a few from their EP; P'ikul', in an encore performance, it was clear the audience didn’t want the show to end.

Think Smashing Pumpkins meets My Bloody Valentine and they will still exceed your expectations. Silversun Pickups are the best band I have heard in ten years, and this was by far the best gig of 2007. Hooray.

Elliot

Belles Will Ring
The Lovetones
Hopetoun Hotel
Thursday September 6

Despite the fact that APEC had the city swarming with ‘the fuzz’, the Hopetoun hosted an almost packed house of underground rock loyalists screaming on the inside for the sounds of The Lovetones, supported by Belles Will Ring. True they may have been bribed with the promise of a free limited edition seven inch given in exchange for buying an early bird ticket, however it seems that the Hopetoun Hotel has become the de facto spiritual home of Sydney’s flowering psychedelic revival. The Lovetones toured with revivalist gods Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2006 and received worldwide acclaim for their previous album Mediations. They are currently touring Australia wide with the now equally as popular band, Belles Will Ring. Both bands are touring to promote their new albums, Axiom and Mood Patterns respectively.

Belles Will Ring sounded as fresh as they were dressed. If you saw the poster up around the city for The Lovetones / Belles Will Ring show, you would probably have noticed how much cooler Belles Will Ring looked in comparison with their longer serving counterparts. It’s a picture of how the dice rolled, as Belles Will Ring played a full set to a packed crowd undeniably upstaging their headlining friends The Lovetones.

With a careful measuring of tone and timing, Belles Will Ring have proven their proficiency in song writing with agility and finesse. The musical landscape was at times breathtakingly introspective while at other times they held the crowd mesmerized, with energetic psychedelic rock outs. Jacqui Schlender drew all the eyes (despite making less than one fifth of the sound) with her sensually spaced out movements in a shiny, silver dress and her elegant tambourine gestures.

The boys looked equally sexy, their collared shirts and black, pointed boot-shoes matched their melodic organ riffs and reverb saturated hollow bodied guitars. Perfect for a desert road trip, Mood Patterns paints visions of Nevada dust and grit. The crowd were obviously impressed, answering front man Liam Judson’s question “how long do we have?” with an impassioned “go for 2 hours”. Even the tiny Hopetoun men’s bathroom was awash with calls of “that was fucking great”.

It was an act that The Lovetones failed to follow; their performance appeared dry and boring. A busy bass line complimented Matthew J Tow’s twelve-string electric guitar for a full sound with great build-ups. The impression given was that it was overly controlled. That’s definitely what the crowd thought, a good number of them leaving three quarters of the way through The Lovetones set.

Jared James

bluejuice at Candy’s Apartment
Problems Album Launch

I’m confused, bluejuice! Did you not already launch this record at Spectrum a while ago? Because we were all there and it was awesome. You wore the Vitriol Robes and shit was hot, hot, hot. Was it because things have gone somewhat mental-cakes for you since then, that you decided more people had to be admitted into the Church Of Bluejuice than the puny aforementioned venue would allow? Because if I was you, I’d do that too. Radness. Soak up that glory!

Word was early in the day that the show was sold out. This did not deter the line of hopefuls wheeling their way past the bouncers as best they could. And once you were in there, BAM! If that wasn’t one sweaty overcrowded den of anticipation.

The sweet taste of success (And if it’s really gonna cut you up/ give it a little bit of Vitriol) has bolstered the band’s sense of purpose, which shone through in this live set. The never boring onstage antics of frontmen Jake and Stav have been toned down a little to allow the songs to stand on their own – and a damn fine collection they are.

The band meanwhile, are a hugely talented trio responsible for a sound defying their number. The rhythm section busts out ear catching grooves and some really interesting and well executed ideas, while the keys are a whole show on their own – responsible for the entire sound of the band at heart.

Mixing up brash and brattish hip hop elements, with electro-infused rock chops and sci-fi sonic divebombs, the sound (and sight) of bluejuice is truly like nothing else around. The vocals switch up between mile a minute belting raps and perfectly off kilter harmonizing, and the energy barely drops below fevered, even when the band switches gears for a heartfelt almost ballad.

Nights like these at intimate venues will shortly be a thing of the past for bluejuice. But those of us who saw them will be those annoying people who tell you they saw Nirvana at the Hordern that year at the BDO when in reality they were seven years old at the time. Whatever. Kudos to you, bluejuice. Kudos.

Elmo Keep.

James Lavelle
Oxford Art Factory
8/9/07

Okay so I'm going to use this review as a chance to gush about the new Oxford Art Factory space as much as I'm going to critique Lavelle's set. The redevelopment of the old Central Station Records (down that dirty great staircase off Oxford St) is nothing short of amazing. I think a lot of people wandering in for the first time were a bit taken aback at the build quality of the overhaul, I know I didn't dare to dream that it would be that good. But I shared lots of nods of agreement with Saturday night's crowd; we were all thankful that somebody who really knew what they were doing was in charge of this project, undeniably world class. The place is in no way recognisable as the grey cavernous abyss of the former record store, the foyer's covered in dope graph art (which they'd do well to renew periodically) with a view through to the main room so you can keep an eye on the action.

They've chosen to go with an industrial feel for the decor, the stripped-back brick interior and warehouse pilons provide a classic Hacienda style construct, and it's equally well set up for bands and DJs. And the most important thing: the sound is wicked. I'm no tech but it seems as if the sound blankets most corners equally, I was finding sweet spots all over the place. All hail people who get shit right for us Sydneysiders! So yeah Lavelle still pulled a decent crowd on the night as the city streets were a bit subdued from the APEC exodus. The room was looking a bit thin when Telefunken were spinning their deepness, though it was sounding real good, but by the time Lavelle stepped up with his bespectacled beanie look, it was a case of instant sardines. He still commands a hefty roar on arrival, a legacy of UNKLE's influential early days when Shadow was part of the team, and although Lavelle's never quite scaled those heights since, there's a certain aura about his persona that ensures people still expect to be wowed. I dunno if anyone was that wowed or not on Saturday, but I know I danced my ass off to some slamming techno that he dropped. It was just a good night.

Tony Edwards

KID CONFUCIUS
The Commas
Ngaiire
Annandale Hotel
Friday 7 Sep 2007

Kid Confucius have been playing the live circuit in Sydney so long now that it almost seems pointless to be writing a review of their show. If you've never seen them, I couldn't possibly impart to you the addictive and uplifting atmosphere that is present at each and every Kid Confucius show; and if you have seen them before, you don't really need to be told.

The opening slot is always a hard one to really make to most of - if you don't really stand out, people just don't care and you get lost under conversation. Sadly, this is exactly what happened to Ngaiire, her voice is beautiful, her musical meanderings charmingly diverse, but she just wasn't able to capture the attention she really needed to make a lasting impression.

The Commas did slightly better, partially because they simply had more people on stage, and partially because their Cordrazine-fronted-by-Jeff-Buckley sound was just energetic enough to grab some attention and keep it. They were smooth, and their music is beautiful, but in the end it still felt just a little out of place. I think both the supporting bands would do much better in a quieter, more intimate venue. Neither have the strength of presence to really own the Annandale Stage.

Kid Confucius seem capable of owning any stage they grace, be it a suburban street or The Metro, and as such they captured the entire venue from the moment they stepped out. As their sound has changed to shed the hip-hop influence, they have shed extraneous members from their lineup, and the result is frankly tighter than a hipster's jeans. They make Soul Music, and they make it like no one else in Australia. If you miss this tour, you will be kicking yourself for a very long time.

Cassie Goodwin

Talons
Laura Imbruglia
Emergency Emergency
The Hopetoun Hotel 9/9/2007

Sundays usually inspire lapses of concentration, but this particular Sunday would prove otherwise.

Laura Imbruglia carries a look of determination on her brow so intense that it seems almost like performing is a chore for her. When you shut your eyes and listen however, it’s clear that she loves singing and she’s pretty good at it too. Some of her songwriting leaves room for further development, but her covers, such as Sid Barrett on this eve, are simply lovely. She is an incredibly classy interpreter.

Talons seem to get tighter and tighter every show, and this, the band’s first headline show, was a harbinger of so many tasty morsels to come. This is a band on a super-speed escalator to becoming the talk of the town. The threesome seem to have listened bands such as Wire and The Germs and decided to play their own songs twice as fast. It’s completely manic and utterly mesmerizing.

Rumours that Talons had one of the best drummers in town proved to be true, with murmurings of all of those in earshot whispering, ‘man, check out that drummer’. The rest of the band somehow managed to keep up without skipping a beat however, which is no mean feat considering the crazy pace being set.

On the downside, the delivery of the vocals doesn’t yet match the instrumentation, which is a major setback when your approach is for the most part atonal. The screaming vocals lack nuance and are delivered on one level, without change in tempo. This means there’s a sameness about each song that masks the snippets of originality. That said, it also indicates that there is even more to come from Talons and quite possibly very soon, possibly even as soon as the second or third week of their September Sunday night residency at the Hopetoun. Bring it on.

Diana Ward

Earl Gray
w/Melanie Hornsell
The Basement, 11.9

Melanie Hornsell held the Basement in quiet awe and the palm of her hand, strumming a nylon stringed electric guitar. Touching on Beth Orton territory, mixed with quirky Kiwi audience participation (“and once more in Japanese!” “I was in love with this guy from Woollworths once, he gave me a glove”), her songs are never twee, but veer to the side of endearing – though, there are hard little kernels of truth in that sweetness. A bit like what might happen if you put a mentos in a Coke bottle. Maybe. In short, amazing. I didn’t want her set to end. I will keenly pay attention to where her next record takes her.

Earl Gray was something else. A solo performer of great command, he had assembled a band of some of the shit-hottest players in town – along them a supergroup rhythm section built of Kid Confucius and Baggsmen parts. He also has a guitar player who could make Steve Vai (and Zz Top with that incredible beard) weep, with some lovely keys adding a nice counter complexity to the whole affair. Unfortunately, what this served to do was effectively play Earl Gray off the stage.

Earl Gray’s material is firmly in two genres: earnest Neil Younesque country tinged rock and blues, and a delicious soul/blues/rock/synth sub genre of his own. In the latter mode, he is flying at times when the band hits its considerable straps. In that style, the killer chops on display work perfectly.

But when he puts this super smooth band behind the deliberately ragged alt.country material, the effect is of something forced, and not as moving as it’s surely intended to be. Earl Gray plays loose with his guitar timing and that doesn’t stand up well with this kind of band. He seemed to lose confidence at times and was lost to the cast of players. Instead of driving the show, he was driven by the at times indulgent soloing and extended jams.

There’s two Earl Grays out there, he just needs to work out which one he really wants to be. An acoustic troubadour without a band, or a new soul/blues pioneer with a blazing outfit. But this show revealed the stage to not be a big enough place for both of them.

Elmo Keep.