The multi-talented Wayne Brady returns to Australia with his hit Las Vegas Show ‘Making S%!t Up’.
Heralded as “pure genius,” “hysterically funny” and “amazing,” Brady’s show is a guaranteed hit Since he started performing Making S%!t Up in April 2007, Brady has lived up to its title. Not only does he create a different show each night with improv partner Jonathan Mangum, he is also constantly adding new elements to the line-up, making each show an original. Brady is well known for his hilarious improvised antics, unique musical talents and limitless impersonation skills as showcased on the hit show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and the syndicated talk show “The Wayne Brady Show.”
Young and old wait in the shadows for the outsiders. Excited and unsure about what to expect from these strangers, from this contemporary dance troupe from the other side of the world, the other side of governance. Their entrance: a few members trickle onto the stage, in silence and unadorned.
With: Karla Deane, Michael Civitano, Natasha Kapper, Jill Brocklebank, Kate Hawkins.
There was a decidedly pleasant mood at the Brisbane Arts Theatre on Saturday, as people gathered for the opening night performance of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia. Promoted as a comedy about the relationship between Man and “Man’s best friend”, the play’s title character is in fact a dog – a precocious little mut, played by Karla Deane.
Review: Natalie Salvo The Drums are a young band from New York City who – like The Strokes before them – received a lot of hype very early on. But as their debut EP, Summertime! And now eponymous debut album have proved, this indie pop quartet are more about basking in the sunlit glow of a California beach than being inspired by yellow cabs or shopping on fifth avenue.
The guys ooze retro cool and like Peter Hook’s bass playing in Joy Division and New Order, their sound makes an immediate impact gaining your attention quickly with its old-yet-fresh style. But it seems this quality is also the group’s pitfall because when spread out over 12 songs, it becomes too repetitively simple and the buzz does tend to wear off a little. Like summer itself, you miss it when it’s gone but after enough humid 40+ degree days you can’t wait for winter or at the very least, autumn. Continue reading The Drums “The Drums” – EP Review→
Zakk Wylde is known as one of the metal world’s best guitar players, particularly
when talking shredding abilities. He was Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist for two decades, and didn’t let decadence overcome discipline – as well as working and touring with Ozzy, he completed an album a year from 1999-2006 with his side project, Black Label Society (BLS). BLS have their guitars firmly wedged in heavy metal/ hard rock – think Alice in Chains, a bit of Ozzy’s influence apparent in the vocals. But now Wylde’s no longer with Ozzy, and Order of the Black is the first album release by BLS in four years.
Review: Natalie Salvo
If ever there was a group that embodied the spirit of quality over quantity, then Junip’s it.
The trio – made up of José González (vocals, guitars), Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (keys) – have released a few singles and EPs; taken a 5-year break (where the former toured his solo work); and are now on the verge of releasing their debut album, Fields. It took a lot of effort to get here (although it was by no means the longest spell – Guns N’ Roses anyone?) but in this case people will declare it was a labour of love well worth the wait.
González and Araya have been making music together since they were 14, having started creative life as a hardcore group. In 2010 they’ve taken a different musical route, improvising together to find song sketches and in particular, looking for beats and guitar patterns that stood out for their overall groove and melody. The result is 11 nu-folk and pop songs borne out of patience, perfectionism, inspiration and sheer bloody mindedness. Continue reading Junip “Fields” – Album Review→
Review: Natalie Salvo Goodnight Owl started life in a bedroom, graduated to various recording studios and a church in Melbourne, and the result is a folktronica quartet content on blurring the lines between musical genres. Peel away the layers and you have five songs on a self-titled debut EP that have too many ambient noises and electronic beats to be strictly pop, yet also boast too many tender, heartfelt moments to be strictly the former.
The group have been likened to The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, Bon Iver and Band of Horses and they admit their music can take you in one of two directions. Like being faced with a road less travelled, on the one hand there is the promise of the embrace of the dawn while the alternative is an adventure into the dark Continue reading Goodnight Owl “Goodnight Owl” – EP Review→
What deal did Jez Mead make with the devil to get that voice? He certainly didn’t trade his finger picking abilities (his mastery of the guitar is evident in this diverse mix of tracks), but the man surely gave up something for a voice that soars across octaves, that swings from gravel to whisper to a full blown resonance that seems to take up real, tangible space in the room. Beard of Bees is Jez Mead’s fourth recorded offering to the world, and a record that uses his vocal gift (no matter how it was acquired) to deliver a striking set of songs.
Let’s begin at the end: the last song on this album
was the best. A gorgeous, chilled out track called ‘Crooked’ was a resplendent way to finish, with slow chords and soulful crooning and Jez humming low and full, a honey coated vibration that left goose bumps in its wake (and was not the only track to do so). ‘Devil’ (featuring Julia Stone as Mead’s duet partner) is similarly slow and haunting, a love song which includes such lyrical blues gems as ‘Devil wants my blood for making whisky’. Continue reading Jez Mead “Beard of Bees” [LP Review]→
Interview / Dallas Taylor April 2010.
Interview By: Hannah Collins
Dallas Taylor (DT), the longest standing member of southern rock/metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster talks to LifeMusicMedia’s Hannah Collins (LMM) about divine justice, family, touring and their new album “III”
Few artists in rock history can carry off the single moniker, and carry it with gravitas.
SLASH is one of that rare breed.
Since emerging with Guns N’ Roses, SLASH has been one of the world’s most sought after guitarists. Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Quentin Tarantino and so many other fellow icons have sought his services in order to make the good sound great.
Critics and fans alike still debate the greatest rock riff of all time with “Sweet Child O’ Mine” consistently taking top honors. Time Magazine placed SLASH second only to Jimi Hendrix amongst the greatest guitarists of all time.
Interview by: Ben Hosking
JEFF MARTIN, set to embark on a national tour April/May 2010, talks with LifeMusicMedia’s Ben Hosking about The Armada, The Tea Party, Music Influences and his upcoming Live Album and DVD.
Rotting Christ is, for the uninitiated, a very strange beast upon first listen. Credited as being one of the progenitors of the second wave of Black Metal (BM) at the dawn of the 1990s, the band has amassed a sizeable and remarkable body of work spanning some 11 releases.
What sets Rotting Christ apart from their contemporaries is their ability to seamlessly inject their Greek heritage into the music. This is done largely within the accepted construct of the BM rule book and without a hint of cliché or pastiche.
Despite the never-ending death and birth cycle of live venues, amid licensing restrictions and noise curfews, bedrooms and garages on both sides of the Brisbane river continue to deliver quality acts to the Australian music scene. Buick Six owe their beginnings to the soggy grounds of 2007’s Splendour in the Grass festival. By 2008, a debut EP had appeared which captured the force of Buick Six’s Brisbane based gigging through live recording.
Their new EP, Common Arms, is garage rock at its dirty, window shaking best. It is only their second release, but the songs on the record sound like the outpourings of a band well used to working and recording together. Guitar work throughout is excellent. The overall feel of the record is urgent, potent, bursting – an achievement to capture on a recording, and suggesting that when viewed live, Buick Six would be a sonic explosion of grinding, grungy rock. The simple bass-guitar-drums line up works in their favour, a pure outlet for their untamed energy left uncomplicated by extra musicians or fussy elements. Continue reading CD Review: Buick Six – Common Arms EP→
Review: Lana Harris The Break was formed from three of the previously in-your-face-political pub rockers Midnight Oil (Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey) plus the bassist (Brian Ritchie) from the grungy, always a bit teen-angst Violent Femmes. The love child spawned is nothing like its parents. Instead, it is a fun loving, apolitical coast dweller called The Break.
‘Cylinders’ is the pre release, first impression of the new creation. What is presented is a three and a half minute instrumental surf rock track. Surf rock? If you have ever seen a movie with teens at a beach shack party, circa 1960’s, you’ve heard surf rock. Remember ‘Wwwwwwwwipeout!’ Surf rock. It was repopularised for a while in the 1990’s – the opening credits to Pulp Fiction are overlaid with a revamped version of surf rock in the form of song ‘Misirlou’ and put the genre back into the population’s consciousness.
The Break’s postmillennial take on the genre has a heavier, deeper feel. Darkness washes across the laid back and loose vibes from the sixties, as though a man with sinister intentions is hiding amongst the palms that surround the beach shack party. There is a strong energy to the track, which explodes in your face like salt spray from a crashing wave. The Break thump straight into up-tempo, driving, full band participating music that ebbs and swells as the song progresses. The beach theme and vibes will continue with debut album Church of the Open Sky (released by Bombora Records) promising to be a mostly instrumental surf rock record with tracks named after famous surf breaks.