Photos by Jess Gleeson
_____
Over the course of BIGSOUND Koi Child, friendships, Cosima Jaala (Manglewurzel /JAALA) and Donny Benet allowed us to court them around some of Fortitude Valley’s least trash-laden alleyways and convenience stores for a few shots. Featuring Donny’s best Kirin J Callinan impression and some serious brotherly love from the Koi Child brood.
_____
_____
(View full set below)
It’s BIGSOUND season again, and my humble home of Brisbane is ready to prove that we can do urban pretentiousness as well as the other east coast heavy hitters. We have a gluten-free brownie shop, those fucking donut milkshakes and even a cat cafe – because, shut up. More relevant to the swarm of music journos and broke-as artists about to descend on our fair city is that Fortitude Valley, home of the BIGSOUND conference, has a tobacco shop three doors down from Maccas – and at least two pubs where you won’t be the first person to order a drink at 9am.
Our relative smallness certainly hasn’t restricted our output when it comes to musical talent, it just makes the scene…well, a little incestuous. This has more of a talent incubating effect than birthing bands with mutant third limbs. Although there are plenty of great venues spread across the city and its suburbs, there’s no denying the few seedy blocks of the ‘Valley’ contain the city’s most well-loved live music institutions.
We gathered some Brisbane bands on this year’s BIGSOUND bill to share some stories. Here’s what Morning Harvey frontman Spencer White (far left) had to say:
Spencer: I was actually thinking about this the other day, comparing Brisbane’s nightlife precinct to Sydney or Melbourne’s. We don’t venture out to ‘The Valley’ (where all the BIGSOUND magic happens) anymore unless one of our bands, a friend’s band or a touring act is playing. Nonetheless, I personally feel more comfortable going out in Brisbane to Sydney. It’s pretty mental on a Saturday night but it’s fairly controlled chaos. All the bars are in one place so you have so many kinds of people in a four block radius. I don’t really know what the difference is between the cities, maybe I’m just a sook.
It’s BIGSOUND season again, and my humble home of Brisbane is ready to prove that we can do urban pretentiousness as well as the other east coast heavy hitters. We have a gluten-free brownie shop, those fucking donut milkshakes and even a cat cafe – because, shut up. More relevant to the swarm of music journos and broke-as artists about to descend on our fair city is that Fortitude Valley, home of the BIGSOUND conference, has a tobacco shop three doors down from Maccas – and at least two pubs where you won’t be the first person to order a drink at 9am.
Our relative smallness certainly hasn’t restricted our output when it comes to musical talent, it just makes the scene…well, a little incestuous. This has more of a talent incubating effect than birthing bands with mutant third limbs. Although there are plenty of great venues spread across the city and its suburbs, there’s no denying the few seedy blocks of the ‘Valley’ contain the city’s most well-loved live music institutions.
We gathered some Brisbane bands on this year’s BIGSOUND bill to share some stories – the first from Babaganouj drummer Jack Gleeson.
Jack: I used to be in a band which for anonymities sake, we will call ‘Inland Twee’.
We had been offered a coveted spot on the Big Sound 2011 Lineup, which featured legends like Big Scary, DZ Deathrays, and Ball Park Music. I was pretty pumped, because our manager at the time told us this was a pretty important opportunity for like, the band and whateverblahblahblah. I guess she was right because we ended up touring the UK soon after, but eh who is keeping score anyway?
To keep it short and sweet (I lie, this is a longwinded piece of shit), I don’t fully remember the show, but we played a gig hotter and sweatier than the dreadlocked armpit hair of a JBT roadie. Playing Brisbane in summer can be a test of endurance, akin to the Bridge To Brisbane or listening to the Veronicas discography. Thankfully it was mid-September. I’m sure the gig went well regardless.
During the course of the next three days of debauchery/networking, 7 of the 10 people in our ridiculous band, proceeded to drink so heavily that guitarist Beau, our resident ‘wild man’ had to be sat down and told to “rein that shit in” cause he was just “grabbin’ chicks”. Claire fell over in front of Cloudland resulting in an amount of bruises usually exhibited by the entirety of a roller-derby team post grand-final. A few of the Inland Twee-team even managed to seriously jeopardize long-term relationships! Severe bruising, a troubled gait and relationship turmoil – as history attests – continue to be the hallmarks of a good time. It was truly, freaking wonderful.
To fellow fans and musicians:
BIGSOUND is like being tossed into a churning sea of beer, basic spirits, and some exotic shot of liqueur you didn’t ask for. You’re swimming for your life among the drunk musicians, drunk fans, and drunk industry types and the regular Valley locals we know and love (shout out to the guy outside the old Westpac building who just constantly shreds). You’ve just gotta catch the party-wave back home in time to get a reasonable enough sleep to get to work on Friday. Which of course never happens, and the next three days post-BIGSOUND are a total write-off.
_____
Babaganouj will kick off BIGSOUND debauchery at The Elephant Hotel’s outdoor stage on Wednesday, September 9th.
Melbourne five-piece Crepes have released the clip to ‘Size of Your Town’, the downer-pop slow burner that closes out their debut EP Cold Summers. The clip is an ode to the boys’ central Victoria hometown, Ballarat, splicing VHS footage of Crepes with a 1994 performance from fellow countrymen the Teddyboys, an 80s band covering 60s swing. For an extra layer of WTF the boys have helpfully added Japanese subtitles for full karaoke absurdist effect.
The clip’s nostalgia is the initial drawcard, but it also serves as a great reminder to go back and listen through Crepes’ debut EP again – because damn, it’s a lovely slacker-psych kaleidoscope.
Fun fact: after seeing the clip I watched about 20 minutes of pancake tutorials. Thank you, Crepes, for not only being a delicious breakfast food but for producing equally delectable tunes.
Crepes are headed north with shows in Melbourne and Sydney before ending up in Brisbane next week for their BIGSOUND spot.
For those of you unfamiliar with the punishing sounds of Brisbane’s WAAX, now is the time to become acquainted. Bursting onto the scene last year with the bruising ‘Wisdom Teeth’, the group notched up some significant airplay and recognition of their tour-de-force sound. After some time in the wilderness, the band has returned with ‘I For An Eye’, another furious, hell-bent tune that packs even more hooks and speed into its time span.
Calling this sound ‘heavy’ doesn’t quite do WAAX justice, and alt-rock is a classification best left behind in the late 90s. WAAX is rock-and-roll, for lack of a better term, but it has intangibles that keep my ears engaged. The bass gives me heart palpitations and the guitars threaten to shred my eardrums – good things in this instance. This is hard rock that rocks hard; music that spits in your face and knocks your drink out of your hand and you can’t do anything about it.
WAAX endured a line-up change over the past few months, recently enlisting the services of Tom Griffin (ex-Calrissian) to take over on the low end. Overlaying the throb and grunt of WAAX’s squall are the recognisable vocals of Marie DeVita, forceful and aggressive with spite-filled affectations that put me on edge.
‘I For An Eye’ was produced by Konstantin Kersting of The Belligerents and mixed by Scott Horscroft. As intimidating as this sound can be, it would still be a lot of fun to thrash around to. Listen if you enjoy being throttled by noise.
Take note: WAAX has been announced as part of the BIGSOUND Live 2015 line-up, and you can also catch them at the Maroochy Music and Arts Festival in August.
Facebook / Soundcloud / Bandcamp / BUY
Thanks to a calendar mix up, I was late to this interview with Nicholas Allbrook (of POND, Mink Mussel Creek and Allbrook/Avery). He’s just released a solo album called Ganough, Wallis and Fortuna, so luckily I cut out the long part at the start of our chat – which was just me apologising profusely and Nick having to reassure me that everything was fine and that he was totally chill. Nick had been drawing on the whiteboard but wiped it clean before I got there. When I told him I would have liked the see his drawings, he talked about these monks who had once come to his school who’d done beautiful intricate sand paintings and then tipped them into the ocean and that he liked that idea. This is totally the kind of thing you’d like to think someone as thoughtful, nervous, and interesting as Nick Allbrook would be into.
ML: You got here yesterday right?
NA: I saw Felicity Groom who was great, but it’s all a bit overwhelming to stay out. Even though I wanna see bands I just can’t, it’s too much.
Even just like walking in here (the Judith Wright Centre, hub of BIGSOUND activity)…
It’s fuckin’ weird hey? You gotta like, say the same thing to everyone cause that’s all people know.
Is this the start of a tour for you?
Nah, just the one show. I’ve been doing a few shows at home in Melbourne.
How’ve they been?
Somewhere between enjoyable and horribly painful.
‘Whispers of Beauty’ sounds very…’Pond-y’ to me. Was that written early?
I guess it’s as much ‘Pond-y’ as anything else is ‘Nick Allbrook-y’. The only difference is the little name that shows up in Streetpress. It’s all the same. There’s no division from what is Pond, and what is me. It just gets put on a different… saleable unit.
I guess with one you get to work on with your mates a bit more.
Exactly. Though I can still work on ‘Nicholas Allbrook’, I’m doing the quotation mark thing with my mates. All the Pond dudes helped me on various songs. That’s what I’m talking about, why the labelling of stuff is so bizarre. I played drums on one of Joe’s ‘solo’ album songs and it’s weird, it’s all just the same stuff.
Does recording at home help you feel more comfortable?
Sort of. I kind of had to make a sanctified space to make it feel less comfortable; to make it feel like I was there for a reason. When I had my recording doohickies in my room it just doesn’t even…I don’t even do anything. Or I do, and there’s an overly casual no-end-to-it kind of feeling like ‘this is just a shitty demo, it’s just something I’m doing just next to my bed, why make it good?’
Do you feel like you make better music when you’re under pressure?
I don’t think there’s any. Sometimes pressure would work definitely. Especially in an improvisational way, but sometimes I’ll just be like sitting around relaxing and something good will happen. There’s no rules.
And are you approaching the shows in a bit more of a low-key way than with Pond?
Yeah absolutely. It’s not as much of a festival, a spectacle. And ’cause I’m you know, alone – you don’t just wanna. I get very nervous about putting yourself out there like, ‘It’s Nicholas Allbrook! Lights, camera! Everyone look at this guy!’
I just can’t help but underplaying it a lot. Probably the same reason I wear slippers every day. Don’t want to just be strutting around in Cuban heels. I’d feel uncomfortable.
(read the full interview below)
Apart from being one of the few places in the world where old white dudes drink for free, BIGSOUND (if you don’t know) is also a great place to see new Australian bands – and your old favourites – which is something we’re pretty keen on. Here’s who we reckon will be worth checking out between beers at the LIVE portion of this year’s festival. You can check out the whole lineup and pick up last-minute tickets here.
We’ll also be instagrammin’ live for the festival at @whothehellnet if you wanna see us attempt to find a filter that might make Fortitude Valley Mall look good.
Jesse Davidson: Wednesday, 8.00 p.m. – New Globe Theatre
Jesse Davidson is an Adelaide eighteen year old (and he already supported Mac Demarco this year. Jesus.) making really subtle, lovely pop music with warm, dynamic vocals. He does mumbly angst just as well as soaring… angst. His latest single ‘Ocean’ is precise but dreamy – nothing seems out of place or accidental, and the end result is something very pretty.
Bad//Dreems: Wednesday, 9.40 p.m. – The Brightside (Outdoor)
It’s no secret that we’re fans of these guys, but if you haven’t seen them live yet, you’re missing out. Bad//Dreems specialise in heavy downer vibes and grab-you-by-the-throat melodies. With a debut album on the way, there’s sure to be plenty of new stuff to sink your teeth into.
Blank Realm: Wednesday, 11.20 p.m. – New Globe Theatre
Okay, not exactly an underground find, we know, but Blank Realm is a truly world class act and if you’re not already planning on seeing them well… you gotta. They write riffs like no one else and are probably gonna be the most fun act you’ll see all festival – the perfect band to get sweaty and messy and a bit dirty to at the end of the first night.
Latest Comments
V
Still trying to purchase!!!ANTHONY J LANGFORD
Cool track. Congrats Joshua. Hope the release is a success.Tristan
Man I love these guys. I can't believe they are not releasing any new music. I've been to so many…sophie
^^ I love Grimes! Banoffee is one of my new favorite music artists! :) I love With Her, Reign Down,…Ace
Read your review then listened to the EP. Fantastic ! Different to most hardcore punk I listen to. Somewhat more…