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FAC PRINT AWARD // CALL FOR ENTRIES

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 by Matt

FAC_PrintAwardsThe Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award 2010 – Supported by Little Creatures Brewing is now open for entries.

Established in the 70’s the FAC Print Award constantly raises the benchmark for for contemporary printmaking.  There can be great diversity in the works – lino prints will be found alongside genre-bending contemporary works.

The award continues to demonstrate that printmaking is alive and well in Western Australia and always attracts plenty of visitors not just from the local area but interstate.

“The Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award is an important event for artists in any stage of their career to present their work with their contemporaries,” says Elizabeth Delfs, FACPA Coordinator. “Be part of a national survey of contemporary print; and be part of a major promotional and professional experience which fosters further opportunities for artists.”

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MASS MUSIC FESTIVAL //

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 by John

Mass Music Festival

Bringing together a unique combination of Music, Arts, Surf and Style – MASS, the festival will add a welcome creative element to the competition in and around the surf capital of WA, Margaret River.

Following the Women’s Surfing Final on Saturday afternoon March 20, the music component of the inaugural MASS Festival will be headlined by Gyroscope. Their latest single Some Of The Places I Know from their highly anticipated forthcoming album “Cohesion” due for release in April this year, is getting a flogging on pretty much every rdaio station that isn’t ABC Classic FM.

Joining them will be Cog who’s second album, “Sharing Space” (2008), proved even more successful than its predecessor, charting as high as number two on the Australian albums chart and spawning the Top 50 hit What If.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring will be belting out new stuff from their latest album “Rush to Relax” as well as their  multiple award winning 2008 release “Primary Colours.”

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GASLAMP KILLAHHHH //

Monday, March 8th, 2010 by Nicole Norelli

Mister KillahIt’s official! A gig and a venue like no other in Perth certainly gave you a night to remember. Into an intimate 170 capacity, with pizza on arrival, the event was strictly bring your own, with plenty of champagne popped over head, sweat, fashionistas, politicians, the who’s who of the art community, the posers, the doers, the promoters, the originators, the creators, the models, the painters, the artists and the self-claimed artistes, the fixers, skaters, rockstars, and musos all let loose in the club: Welcome to The Bird.

Opening with an exclusive prequel secret show last Thursday, who could have given a better blessing for the newest underground music venue in Perth than by the muthafucking Gaslamp Killer.

NAIK jump started the night and played a passionate live set, setting the pace for when GLK arrived, and for a man who shares a similiar and well known story to Perthites, (inspired to name himself the Gaslamp Killer in disgust for much of the patronage in the downtown Gaslamp District bar scene in his hometown San Diego, which led to him uprooting and relocating to Los Angeles, where he found a niche for himself amid the city’s massive underground party scene), the MFGLK served well as the evening’s psychadelic Master of Ceremonies.

A fairly straightforward recipe for success, GLK launched into what can best be described as a trippy initiation ritual proceeding into definitive dubstep and left-field hip-hop mashups climaxing with a drum and bass finale. All I can say is it was one hell of a show. A massive congratulations to Mike and Brenton, for bringing a much needed and most highly anticipated new music venue to Northbridge, Perth and the {move} crew for getting GLK back to Perth!

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BOOM! BAP! POW! – NO PLEASIN’ YOU // VIDEO SUPERSTARS

Monday, March 8th, 2010 by Matt

disco_ballFilm Clip Shoot – Saturday March 27th

Dancer Call Out – That’s you in a music video!

Boom! Bap! Pow! need you to… DANCE

That’s right come down and spend a glorious day in the park on Saturday March 27 with your musical buddies as we film their first single film clip - No Pleasin’ You.

Come a join us for a dance fest!

We’re looking for A LOT of people of any age, it’ll be fun day in the park so bring whoever you want and be ready for a day of dancing!

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Future Music Festival 2010

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by Nicole Norelli

EOTSFuture Music Festival was the place to be this Sunday past. For the last long weekend of summer (and summer festivals) it was an a beautiful day at Ascot Racecourse.

Though it was 1.4 kilometres ‘tween some stages, the layout of Future gave opportunity for 29,000 people enough space and plenty of shade, with idyllic hideaways and full moons, team it with a whirl on the Ranger and a skate at Silent Disco, these kids looked happier than pigs in mud.  However it wasn’t until the sun started it’s descent and took the heat off with the breeze, that the party really started.

All bets were on The Prodigy being the best for a Future headline act but I must admit David Guetta was the DJ that got the crowd into that golden summer festival state. Franz Ferdinand seemed kind of out of place, but regardless of that are always fun to watch. Poor ol’ Empire of The Sun were pushed right down the very end of the track and considering Steele’s stage show, totally deserved a bigger, perhaps more central stage. Personal highlights?  Spank Rock and Booka Shade.

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A HEALTHY REVIEW //

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by Matt

HEALTH_BANDI walked into the arena area at Beck’s Music Box while the Cut and Paste DJ’s were building a mood and VJ Lynch was taking the night’s theme “aggressively happy” and bombarding a huge screen with loops of animals in wrestling masks and other extraordinary sequences that left my brain feeling stretched and re-sampled.

Some hipsters were complaining that the crowd wasn’t as big as they thought should be there.  I wanted to agree but only a bit as part of the satisfaction of being hip is being ahead of that all important curve: The one that let’s you give up and start hating on bands, styles, haircuts as soon as they achieve a certain level of popularity and these HEALTH kids are really cool right now.

Then HEALTH arrived with an intensity that the audience’s anticipation couldn’t quite match. At the start of every gig the crowd always presses toward the stage, this is arguably the first time I’ve seen a band push back, just with sheer force of sound. The very first notes spat into Beck’s Music box, white hot with purpose.

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GRACE // IN CONVERSATION

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by John

Deckchair Theatre were honoured to welcome author Robert Drewe and adapter Humphrey Bower in conversation with Artistic Director Chris Bendall. See here an excerpt on what they had to say about the production of GRACE.

Deckchair Theatre is presenting GRACE, in association with the Perth International Arts Festival. Performances continue until March 6.

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Also don’t forget to check out our interview with Chris Bendall here

And our interview with the star of GRACE, Kirsty Hillhouse here

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GASLAMP KILLER // IT’S A SECRET ROUND HERE

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by John

GasLampInviteLos Angeles based DJ/Producer, psychopathic beat maniac, Low End Theorist, and demonic bass shaman, THE GASLAMP KILLER returns! After the brutal and bloodied mass {musical} murderings of an entire club’s worth of unsuspecting attendees during his last Perth appearance he has gained special permission to re-enter the country, and blow your minds once again!

For the last two years he has toured steadily, earning prestigious spots at Plastic People’s FWD night in London, Barcelona’s Sonar Festival and Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder showcases to name a few; holding down his residency at LA’s seminal Low End Theory nights; and recording mixes for and with Flying Lotus, The Heliocentrics, Andy Votel’s Finders Keepers Label and Mary Anne Hobbes BBC radio show.

Describing his sound as “educational with a touch of rock ‘n’ roll energy and eclectic exorcisms. My rules, no industry standards apply”, the man is omni-voracious in his consumption and absorption of music. Spanning from psychedelic Middle-Eastern and Indian rare-grooves to body-rumbling bass-heavy hip hop and ear-piercing helicopter breaks The Gaslamp Killer is renown for his spectacularly dynamic style and energy behind his preferred weapons of mass destruction, turntables and a microphone.

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MD LIMITED EDITIONS // THE PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by John

MD5 LaunchMD Limited Editions is an arts magazine released quarterly. Each issue of MD Limited Editions showcases work by emerging artists in graphic design, photography, visual art, music, fashion design, writing, and Video-VJ’s.

MD Limited Editions 5: The Photography Issue. This issue features editorials from Esther Tetris, Tom Cramond (Six Thousand), Brad Serls, Dave Adams, Jake Casteldine, Virginia Ivory, Michael Ellis (relative Magazine), Jordan Shields (The West Australian), Nicole Norelli and Alberto Sanchez. That’s ten professional and avid photographers from Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and London.

MD Limited Editions 5 will be launched at The Bird, Thursday March 11 2010. The event is BYO.

MD Limited Editions 5 launch will feature a special Vinyl-only showcase from Naik, Arms in Motion, King Jon Ill and Kit Pop, playing favourites from their treasured record crates.

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PICNIC // RECORD AND LABEL LAUNCH

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 by John

Picnic LaunchPicnic Records will be celebrating its birth as a label alongside the launch of its third release Love Vacation on Saturday, March 13.

Picnic Records is the brainchild of Perth producer and DJ Nathan Nisbet (aka Captn K), who conceived it as an avenue to release original local music with an eclectic style that blends psych, blues, funk, dub and disco.

“I wanted to have full control over the sound and not have to wait in vain after sending out demos to labels that would probably never be listened to, so starting my own label seemed the sensible option,” Nathan explains.

Nathan describes Picnic’s upcoming release as being “all about love, sunshine and dancing”. The title track “Love Vacation” is a feel-good disco-boogie sensation with sunny vocals and a smooth bass line, while “Beat Vacation” is a dance floor-ready remix by label affiliate Francis Rae. On the B-side “Inaku Dreams” builds with haunting guitar work followed by “Tumble” a laid-back track with an Italo/disco vibe that nicely rounds off the 4 track 12-inch vinyl release.

Founded in 2008, Nathan has chosen to delay the official label launch of Picnic Records until it had at least three releases and tangible success – with international distribution through UK-based Kudos Records, as well as airplay on radio stations and bars/clubs in Australia and around the world.

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BLAC BLOCS // NVDA VIDEO LAUNCH

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 by Matt

BB Filmclip LaunchBlac Blocs have been building something and now they’re ready to show you..

From an album to be released sometime near the middle of this year comes the track NVDA.

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LIFE AND FATE // Review

Friday, February 26th, 2010 by Dave

Well, what to say about the stage adaptation of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. It goes for nearly three and a half hours and is in Russian with subtitles projected onto a little screen above the stage. On paper it sounds like a rough night at the theatre, and true it does take a sizable amount of patience and immense concentration to get through it, but I’m proud to say I did get through it, I MOSTLY understood what was going on and I enjoyed it a lot!

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LUPE FAIL //

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by Nicole Norelli

Lupe, Lupe, Lupe, tsk, tsk.

As far as reviews go, Lupe Fiasco was OK. He certainly didn’t blow my mind, far be it for me to play a game of pool or take a smoke on the balcony and feel as though this wasn’t a “MetroCity Concert Event” as the banners side of stage so aptly reminded me, but that perhaps I may as well have been at R&B Super Club on a Saturday night.

All the songs were performed like a well-trained puppy, an incongruous looking band played alongside him, while two friends (?) sat distractingly on stage: the whole time looking bored out of their skulls. Who were those people? Why were they on stage and why weren’t they dancing??!

Fiasco and co raced through the songs with barely a breath between. To this little reviewer Lupe gave the impression of an artist who wanted to get the gig over with, take his $100, 000, ‘Thank Perth!” and run while a bunch of unlucky people think it’s the best thing they’ve seen without realising they’ve just been insulted and duped at the same time.  On the final song Lupe introduced Daydream, only to stop and start again, stating the crowd didn’t know how to behave and that if he were in a ‘real’ city he’d be receiving the reaction he wanted. For an artist who originally gave me the impression his music was of a genuine place of hiphop lovin’, I walked out of his gig feelin’ nothin’ but at least knowin’ that it doesn’t matter if you’re a poet breaking new ground, if there’s idiocy in the masses then there’s money to be found.

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HAIRCUTS BY CHILDREN // DAVID GETS A CUT & COLOUR

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by John

Cut & Paste’s David Ferrier also drops into Ebony and Ivory, this time for a cut & colour. Although David appears a tad nervous at the beginning he was pretty happy with the final result and spent the rest of the day showing it off!

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HAIRCUTS BY CHILDREN // JOHN GETS SOME COLOUR

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by John

John Macliver from Cut & Paste drops into Ebony and Ivory on Barrack St. for his appointment with Haircuts by Children. Big ups to Saige from Roseworth Primary School for his amazing use of colours and shape for John’s final do.

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Irvine Welsh, Cottonmouth and Katherine Dorrington//PERTH WRITERS FESTIVAL

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 by John

Katherine Dorrington, program manager for the Perth Writers Festival takes us through a couple of highlights from this year’s “literary long weekend”.

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PIVOT // WE SING

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 by John

It seemed that everyone who saw Pivot play at Beck’s Music Box last week came away discussing whether or not they liked the inclusion of vocals on some of the new material. In this interview Dave Miller and Richard Pike talk about how singing entered organically into the Pivot sound while they were working on their new album, which will be the band’s third, even though the album itself is still without a title.

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THE TRANSIENTS // ARE YOU WITH THE BAND?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 by John


transients 3 low resThe Transients are one of the top two bands in Nova 937’s I Am With The Band competition.

Over the next few weeks Nova will be playing their upcoming single, Mischa, and you can show your support for them by voting for them online. You can vote multiple times and by voting, you could win $5000.

The Transients are giving away via free download, their remix  of Brash and Sassy’s No Milk For You (The Transients’ Thirsty remix). Click here to hit their website and grab the track

You can catch The Transients playing live this Saturday night at the Health after-party at Beck’s Music Box (free entry from 10pm) and at Future Music Festival, Ascot Racecourse on Sunday. They’re opening the main stage so get there early at 12 noon!

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THE SOCIETY // THE STEREOTYPES OF COFFEE

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 by John

Cut & Paste talk to Trond Fausa Aurvag and Solfrid Glesnes about the daily rituals of coffee consumption and what happens when a teabag is found… or do they?

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TOMAS FORDS // DISCO BUNKER

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by John

Disco-Bunker-Poster--Final-Draft

You’ve seen, or at least heard about, Tomás Ford. He’s the showman who plays electro to punk kids, puts on confronting cabarets, dances on every conceivable surface and has as much fun as he can with audiences.

Even if you took in his controversial One Night Stand show from back in 2007, his runaway hit Artrage Festival show Tomás Ford vs The Audience in 2006 or any of his appearances at pubs or festivals around the country, this is still so far on the next level from those shows as to be unrecognisably awe inspiring. You still haven’t seen him as liberated as he is in this show.

Ford’s art is manipulating audiences and harnessing chaos. It’s one thing to see him in a pub or at a festival, but there’s only so much he can do in those spaces; when you put him in a theatre, everything is maxxed out. He has more control. He can tailor the show to the space. For this show, we’re talking about new costumes, video work, a unique performance environment and a series of happenings that may never happen again.

If you want to see Tomás Ford at his best, you’ve only got one night to do it.

That night is Saturday February 27 at The Astor Theatre on Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley.

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