19th August 2019
Local Artists:
FELIVAND: Waitin’ For You (Single)(Independent)
Keelan Mak: Sleep Talker (Single)(Independent)
Private Function: St Anger
- It’s hard to find a debut album rollout which has been so befitting of a band as Melbourne band Private Function’s new record St Anger. The name, a piss-take of the Metallica album of the same title, features a suspiciously similar album cover, and when Metallica tweeted asking fans their favourite track off of the original St Anger, Private Function responded with their debut LP’s lead single Talking To Myself.
Ride: This Is Not A Safe Place
<p>- The huge resurgence in popularity for the ‘90s guitar indie sub-genre known as “shoegazing” has resulted in a wealth of young bands from all over the world clutching their copies of old <strong>Slowdive</strong> and <strong>My Bloody Valentine</strong> albums on the way to rehearsal. As a result, both of these acts have enjoyed a second wind, most notably Slowdive with their triumphant comeback album of 2017.</p>
Sleater Kinney: The Center Won't Hold
- The Center Won’t Hold is the tenth album from iconic American punk band Sleater Kinney, and the second following their reformation in 2015.
Marika Hackman: Any Human Friend
- Marika Hackman has slowly but surely risen to the top of the indie underground scene since 2013. Despite originally focusing on folk music, 2017’s I’m Not Your Man saw Marika embrace the popular aesthetics of the late ‘10s indie sound with a spin entirely her own. A continuation down this path has resulted in her latest effort Any Human Friend, presenting the most introspective side we’ve seen of her yet.
Review: The New World QSO
The New World: Majestic Music Inspired by America
Presented by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Alondra de la Parra
Percussion Martin Grubinger
Dorman Frozen in Time I Indoafrica
II Eurasia
III The Americas
Dvořák Symphony No.9 Op. 95 (From the New World) I Adagio-Allegro molto
II Largo
III Molto vivace
IV Allegro con fuoco
Review: Queensland Theatre's L’Appartement
L’Appartement presented by the Queensland Theatre
Written and Directed by Joanna-Murray Smith
Visually entertaining and humorous with a French twist
Playwright Joanna-Murray Smith claimed she wanted to stick pins in a doll of Sam Strong, the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre, when he coerced her into also directing her play L’Appartement. Although initially unwilling, she successfully helped incarnate the play with the four experienced actors from words on paper to the stage.
Purple Pilgrims: Perfumed Earth
- Purple Pilgrims are a mysterious quantity. They’ve been drifting around the world -from New Zealand to Hong Kong to the US and back again- in a hazy cloud of echoes, donning vaguely cultish trappings and gently spinning out the jams. That’s been happening for the best part of a decade and yet their soft, fey presence has largely passed unnoticed here in Australia. That may be about to change with their new record, Perfumed Earth; we may get to find out exactly how weird the Purple Pilgrims are.
Ainslie Wills: All You Have Is All You Need
- Ainslie Wills is one of Australia’s real musical treasures and still, after all these years, a bit of a hidden one. As I’ve said before, this small town girl is a musician’s musician, completely focused on pursuing music-making before all else. Actually, that may not be quite accurate, Ainslie’s new record, is a personal document, suffused with dissatisfaction.
Heart and Rockets - 'Power'
Melbourne-based, feminist brat-wave band Hearts and Rockets are running high, and they have another album on its way. With videos on Rage, album of the week on 3PBS FM, single of the week in Beat Magazine, and countless live shows with the likes of Screaming Females (USA), Dream Can (China), HEX (NZ), A. Swayze and the Ghosts, Hexdebt, MOD CON, Cry Club, and many more - plus spots at Sydney's King Street Crawl and Melbourne's Bush Festival - Hearts and Rockets have stayed locked on a focussed path, culminating in recording a brand new set of songs.
Hearts and Rockets’ forthcoming second LP, the 14 track dude smasher, Power, is still anchored by the trademark driving bass lines and clattering 808 drum machine beats that have become synonymous with the band, and glimpses of their buzzing analogue synth are sure to catch you unaware. But it’s the addition of Kalindy on guitar that sets this new collection apart. On Power, the duo reinvent the very sound they created only 2 years ago, all mixed and mastered by their career-long collaborator Mikey Young.
Hearts and Rockets have pushed themselves beyond the hazy Heat Wave days, taking the fun and energy of their debut album Dead Beats and adding some serious pop smarts. They’re set to take it on the road for an East-Coast tour in September 2019.
Power features the single Dance Off; the party tune with a middle finger to the dudes at the front, which featured on a split 7” with garage-punk legends Shrimpwitch in late 2018 and had an incredible self-produced video that’s got to be seen to be believed (their 5th official video). Kurt and Kalindy have plans for a string of singles and video clips throughout 2019, and there is no shortage of options amongst these 14 earworms.
Power’s effect is in its simplicity: Hearts and Rockets don’t mince words, and they don’t waste time. Their short-sharp and catchy tracks are fun, without being vapid. They’ll make you want to dance, and definitely sing along, but heads up - you might elbow a few bigots along the way.