Live review: Soundwave (for The Music Network)

01 March 2011

by Poppy Reid

Sydney Showgrounds, NSW
Sunday February 27

The weather-gods couldn’t have been kinder at Sydney’s Soundwave festival on Sunday, the predicted thunderstorms stood us up and the dark clouds kept the heat out for what was an epic day of short lines, considerate moshers and a line up so good you wish you had a time machine just so you could catch every act.

Canadian brat-punks, Sum 41 reminded us of the good ol’ days when Vans ruled and hocking gollys were cool, with their tracks Walking Disaster, Motivation and In Too Deep. Singer Deryck Whibley proved he hadn’t changed an inch with new single Screaming Bloody Murder.

On the same stage, Sweden’s Millencolin played to a now packed tent. Opening with No Cigar and the trademark track Fox, and closing with the half acoustic song The Ballad, the band sacrificed between-track banter to get through a 13-track set.

Anberlin was cheered onstage by those who hadn’t already left for horror-punks, Murderdolls. Straight after We Owe This To Ourselves, singer Steven Christian surfed the moshpit, his energy staying at a high until the end of closing tracks Younglife and Impossible.

Over on Stage 1, the stadium was crammed with Slash fans who were met with a pretty safe and slightly dull set. Touring singer Myles Kennedy dressed and sounded uncannily like Axl Rose on tracks likeNightrain, By The Sword and Slither but seemed to play it up moreso for Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City; personally I would have liked his version.

Back on Stage 3, Social Distortion rocked mostly new tracks from their Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes album, in between giving Home and Away an undeserved plug; “what? You don’t like that show?” said lead singer Mike McColgan. But it was Florida’s New Found Glorywho took out the accolade for most energy onstage.

“We only get 40-minutes like every fucking band so we're gonna shut up and play a bunch of fuck’n songs for you,” screamed frontman Jordan Pundik.

Wearing matching NFG-tailored basketball outfits, the pop-punk band seared through an intense set of old favourites like Failures Not Flattering (where Scott Vogel from Terror joined them onstage) andDressed To Kill, new tracks like Don’t Let Her Pull You Down and even their cover of Sixpence None The Richer’s Kiss Me.

“So this is where all the black shirts are,” I thought to myself at Stage 4 for Rob Zombie. It was around the time of second track, Scum Of The Earth that I felt I had officially crossed over as a Zombie fan.

“Sorry we were a little late, we were tryna get this 100 million dollars worth of electronic effects to work for you; but I decided fuck it, you'll be the special effects.” Standing in leather flared pants with a massive claw extension on his left arm, Zombie opitomised the kind of foul, dirty sex you only dream of in your nightmares

Shoes, bottles, balls and even CD’s were thrown in sacrifice to the metal man before White Zombie track, Devil Man. “We can do whatever the fuck we want!” he bellowed before his encore, Dragula. “I hate that fuck’n guitar, John,” he roared; the guitarist smashed his weapon, ending the anarchy of high-pitched distortion and unanimous whiplash.

While metal icons Slayer were forced to cancel their set due to vocalist/bassist Tom Araya being hospitalised just one hour before their scheduled show, most of Soundwave chose Iron Maiden to take them out on Stage 1. Sticking to the same setlist and stage show from their sidewave gig, the masters of metal took us through their vast back catalogue of new and classic tracks. Closing with the energetic Running Free, these over-50-year-olds had more energy than the lot of us.

A massive day of rock and overpriced beer had drained us into blissful sweaty zombies; we left drenched with satisfaction.

Live review: Iron Maiden (for The Music Network)

01 March 2011

by Poppy Reid

Sydney Entertainment Centre, NSW
Thursday February 24 

The sea of black shirts, dirty beards, beer guts and the odd mullet at Sydney’s Entertainment Centre, mirrored exactly what you’d expect a true Iron Maiden fan to look like. If you’d rocked as hard as the English metal masters have over the past 30-odd years, you would look like you’d just stepped out of a greased up aeroplane turbine too.

Opening with new tracks Satellite 15…The Final Frontier and El Dorado, the sextet leapt about their massive 12 tonne spaceship-set as a mini-film spewed artwork and close ups of the band on side screens. An incredible solo-off began between the guitarists’; Adrian Smith held his weapon like a .22, shooting chords at us like bullets, the quietly effeminate Janick Gers twirled about and flipped his hair and Dave Murray juxtaposed his deathly handmanship with his constant grin and rosy cheeks.

Over 16 epic songs, the Soundwave headliners offered only the best of their 15 albums; these guys may be in their fifty’s but a few current metal bands would do good to take a liner note from Iron Maiden’s song book.

Captain of the ship, Bruce Dickinson roared through classics like Fear Of The Dark, The Number Of The Beast and The Wicker Man as the painted backdrop changed with each track; “think of yourselves as the best of the best, or the sadists and masochists,” he chuckled. At times it was corny and theatrical like when Dickinson dodged through beams of purple light like Golum, but we ate it all up and threw our bodies back and forth with him.

A talented female from the audience threw her pink bra over the English flag before Blood Brothers, which Dickinson dedicated to their friends in disaster stricken New Zealand.

Before the three-track encore, a 12-foot robot version of Iron Maiden’s mascot, Eddie appeared onstage; it all became clear why the band’sEd Force One tour plane weighed so much. Closing with Hallowed Be Thy Name and Running Free, the Centre’s energy reached a colossal peak, after every soul-wrenching riff we knew we had just experienced an intimate night with the Gods of Metal.

Stone Parade: "Avoid everything but music and the weather" (for The Music Network)

28 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

“It’s important to have your face out there but not bug the shit out of people.” Greg Byrne, frontman of alt-rock outfit, Stone Parade is hungover when he offers his best advice on landing a record deal. “Don’t be like ‘I’ve got a demo! I’ve got a demo!’ Avoid everything but music and the weather,” he laughs.

The quintet from Sydney’s Northern Beaches may not be signed to a major label themselves but they’ve been in the game long enough to know what not to do. 2010 saw the band release so phomore albumStratosphere in October, changing what Byrne calls their “thought provoking, sorrowful” sound to “more uptempo with a bit more energy.”

That same year the band landed some serious sync deals including a football advertisement on One HD and another with US animated series, Beavis and Butt-head.

They also secured a spot on the bill for next month’s Canadian Music Festival. Byrne is well aware the festival could potentially mark an epoch for Stone Parade as it’s known to be teeming with A&R, but he’s not getting his hopes up.

“We were fortunate enough to get a grant from Arts NSW so that’s allowed us to go over there,” says Byrne. “We’re treating it as we get a free trip overseas which is awesome; we’ll do our showcases and put on a good show and see if anything happens, if it doesn’t, that’s just life.”

This apprehension is normal when you consider how close the band got to signing with Sony in their embryonic years.

“There’s only been one time when we’ve had very serious interest from a major label in Australia and we showcased to the whole company pretty much. We didn’t end up signing a deal at that stage.” 

Byrne says he’s thankful to be a slow- burning band, who are building a loyal Australian fanbase along their own independent road. “Bands like Jet have kind of tapered off a little bit now. Same with Wolfmotherwho had a really big profile at one stage and won a Grammy and all that kind of stuff, now they’re sort of ‘meh’. It died off a little bit,” says Byrne. “The problem is when you go up early, there’s only one way... down,” he deduces.

Speaking of their own trajectory, for album number two, Stone Parade decided to take a different route, both metaphorically and literally. Whereas their debut album Chase The Setting Sun was tailored to the US market, which meant expensive jaunts overseas, this time they decided to keep a local focus and experiment with their sound. “We can’t afford to keep going back to America. We’ve been there three times, it’s just gonna break the band up. We needed to change our tact a little bit. We thought okay let’s get a bit more gritty and see how we go in Australia.”

The switch to grit may have been necessary for the band, but along with a change in sound comes the possibility of a backlash from devout fans. Byrne’s justification is, “if you put out the same record twice you’re not going anywhere.

“I look at some bands, I’m not talking about us, of course,” he laughs. “But [their later albums] don’t stack up to the first album. Linkin Park is a prime example; Hybrid Theory was such a groundbreaking album, the later albums haven’t caught me as much.”

The musical makeover has also made Stone Parade’s live show more appealing. “We wanted to have the album contribute to the parts we wanted to fix about our live set,” he says. The band have been polishing their performance in and around Sydney of late, just in time for showcases in Canada, New York and Los Angeles.

Despite their early flirtations with a major label they remain optimistic about the future as a self-funded band, noting, “if you sign with a major label you have to be careful. You don’t want to be a small fish in a big pond, unless you’re U2 and you’re signing a record deal and you get paid $20million before you even do the record...I think you have to build your fanbase as independently as you can.”

Sum 41: "None of that Cookie Monster shit" (for The Music Network)

23 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

When Sum 41 burst onto the brat-punk scene almost a decade ago with their debut All Killer, No Filler, some thought the Canadian group would fall off the radar. A fair perspective when considering the rise and fall of angst-pop bands at the time who, like them, relied heavily on scatological humour.

But just weeks before the release of their fifth album, Screaming Bloody Murder on March 29, drummer Steve ‘Stevo’ Jocz says even after an almost four-year hiatus, it’s like they never left.

“We’ve been on tour for six months now, we just played a sold-out show in Paris for 8,000 people and the album’s not even out yet,” beams the 30-year-old.

During the breather their label of the two decades, Platinum Island Records, kept fans amused with a greatest hits collection. According to Jocz, All The Good Shit was “label marketing bullshit that’s trying to sell everything again”. “The label owns the rights to every song we’ve ever released so they can do whatever they want with them,” he laughs. “If they wanna put out some greatest hits album they can, that’s how it works.”

While fervent fans were poring over tracks they already owned, Sum 41 were in wedded bliss and crisis. During their first break in eight years, Jocz and new member and lead guitarist Tom Thacker both got married, while frontman Deryck Whibley divorced bubblegum-punk princess Avril Lavigne. “We had a lot of stuff to do!” Jocz says.

The break also cemented Thacker’s replacement of Dave Baksh who cited ‘creative differences’ for leaving the band in 2006. Thacker went from touring guitarist with the band to a contributing member who helped write the new album’s title track and first single.

“Tom wrote the riff in the new single so he’s definitely becoming more and more a part of the band…We knew that Dave wasn’t really into being in the band for a long time so when it was time for him to go it was like when your friend tells you that you’re gay, and you know that you’re gay, but you’re like ‘nooo!’” Jocz says animatedly. “We knew for a while that he wanted to leave, and then he left.” 

Jocz may speak comically about the departure of Baksh, but the band hadn’t planned to record another album without him after Underclass Hero. In fact, Screaming Bloody Murder was intended only as an EP but the tracks “were really good,” says Jocz, so they decided to write a full-length and ended up with more songs than they could fit onto the record.

“In every album we’ve ever had we’ve been like ‘lets do 12 songs’ and then we’ll be like ‘alright that’s the 12.’ Whereas this was the first time we’d ever written 20 songs and picked the ones we wanted.”

According to Jocz, Screaming Bloody Murder stays true to good ol’ punk rock, it doesn’t genre surf and it certainly doesn’t have a concept.

“I don’t think we’re really concepty, albumy dudes, not yet…There’s no overall storyline like The Wall or whatever,” he laughs. “For people who like pop music, or those who like disco and techno and R&B and all this weird stuff that’s fusing together with rock music; they’re not gonna find it on ours. This is a straight rock record, it’s ballsy, there’s none of that Cookie Monster shit on there. People are sick of the disco, electronic thing that’s creeping in on everybody’s records. It’s just gonna blow over.”

Album Review: Ladi6, The Liberation Of... (for The Music Network)

22 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

We haven’t heard too much from New Zealand female artists over the ditch lately. Even Bic Runga’s fallen off the radar and now sells feather inspired jewellery through her website. However, with the release of kiwi hip-hop diva Ladi6’s sophomore album, there may just be hope for the girls yet.

Her album, The Liberation Of… is the follow up to her Gold certified (in New Zealand) 2008 debut, Time Is Not Much. Ladi6, a.k.a Karoline Tamati, mixes soulful trilling guitar, reverberating synths, sporadic brass sprinklings and her ululating howls to extend her message of hope and strength.

The two opening tracks, Bang Bang and Koln are fast-paced hip hop at its most punchy; Ladi6 harps about political injustice and betrayal, all the while cementing her don’t-mess-with-me disposition. Even her track Jazmine D.L, written as a tribute to her cousin who passed in 2009, is sung with that fiery, hilted strength; she shows her vulnerability and sadness through respect.

Tracks like Let It Go and Burn With Me are less lyric heavy but have an almost Blue King Brown swagger that will resonate with hip hop aficionados. Although The Liberation Of… is album two for Ladi6, it predominantly marks her debut here in Australia.

The benefit of this is that Ladi6 will be introduced to Oz as a fine-tuned hip hop soulstress, one who doesn’t just have a lot to say, but with each liberating entry, has a powerful way of saying it.

Album Review: Adalita, Adalita (for The Music Network)

16 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

Adalita’s self-titled debut is a necessary outlet for the Magic Dirtfrontwoman; her stark sound couldn’t be a further cry from her days with the Aussie rockers.

Swarming with simple guitar, a sprinkling of tambourine and nothing other than her thick, and at times, haunting voice, Adalita Srsen has gone back to basics and stripped bare in this ripened record full of wisdom and poetry.

Dedicated to and co-produced by her late friend and former band mate, Dean Turner, Adalita explores the sexual side of depression (see Hot Air), the illusions that go hand in hand with ego (see Good Girl) and the art of spoken song (see Invite Me).

The album’s not all wondrous poetry and reverberating guitars though; the lyrics in her track Good Thief could well have began as a high school poem she wrote in her exercise book to her besty. Somehow, Adalita makes lyrics like ‘nestled in your heart babe is the perfect little jewel’ sound more like a heavy soundtrack addition to aSuburban Mayhem sequel.

There are a few instrumental fillers which could be deemed unneeded, if only because the honesty felt in other tracks is actually missed. 

Her debut whole-heartedly proves what we already knew, this rock chick can stand on her own two feet and has more to say now than she ever could with Magic Dirt.

Neon Trees: Shining a light in a world of vice (for The Music Network)

17 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

Utah rock-pop group Neon Trees, are loud and proud about about being Mormons and as frontman Tyler Glenn and bassist Branden Campbell explain, it’s their faith that’s kept them straight and narrow on the rock 'n' roll road.

“Bands like Paramore are very clean, they only have chocolate milk on their rider. I know for us it’s given us a ground to stand on when things get crazy. Things do get crazy, we’ve seen a lot,” says Glenn sitting at Sydney’s Universal Music headquarters, his tooth still chipped from falling offstage last month. “Maybe I should keep it, my badge of honour,” he laughs.

Campbell is very diplomatic and makes it clear you don’t have to love Jehovah to be in the band. “Neon Trees has never set out to be a Mormon or Latter Day Saint band, we’re a rock n’ roll pop band and in our lives, music is just one thing that we do.”

Named after the sign that sits atop the US hamburger chain In and Out, Neon Trees have already garnered a #3 spot on the TMN Top 100 and a #30 placing on the ARIA Charts for their track Animal from their forthcoming album Habits, out on February 18. They may seem like overnight sensations here, but Habits has actually been out in their homeland for 11 months. Campbell says the hold up is due to the bands’ big break, a support spot on The Killers’ national tour.

“We were gonna come sooner but when things started to happen in the US which is hard to do in such a big territory, [the label] didn’t wanna lose that momentum,“ he says.

“It’s very rare. It scares me. I want to be able to have that success everywhere,” adds Glenn.

Neon Trees have learnt the hard way that along with success often comes ostracism. Glenn admits to losing both friends and family whilst struggling to make it with the band.

“You lose friends, I’ve lost friends through the years and peoples’ belief in you, family also. Because you say ‘I’m gonna do this, we’re gonna do this’ and it’s exciting and then you kind of fall apart and they stop believing because they think ‘how long?’”

It's clear Neon Trees isn’t just some hobby for Glenn and Campbell, the pair share the same values, beliefs, a love for Bruce Springsteen and interestingly, the same heart disease. “It’s more like a heart defect, it’s a mutated heart valve,” explains Glenn. “I faint a lot when I don’t take care of myself nutritionally…I think I’m supposed to get heart surgery when I’m 35.”

“It’s something that we have to watch out for,” adds Campbell.

After the bands’ visit here, they’ll jet to London and Paris before heading home to touch base again with their long-time fans. It’s these devout followers who keep the group grounded in the wicked world of rock.

“None of us have ever done this to be famous and I think the concept of fame is totally different now than the old days,” says Glenn. “It’s such a dead lifestyle now, I think people can go and be famous for...” Campbell finishes Glenn’s sentence, “for so many things, and not the right things anymore. So many people are famous for doing bad things or even doing tacky, embarrassing things. It’s not associated with talent.”

Where some artists refuse to speak publicly about personal opinions on pop culture and of their faith, Neon Trees are refreshingly honest. The biggest dose of religious iconography can be found in the final track on Habits, titled Farther Down, with lyrics like “Your eyes, they ate my soul, begged me to come back down," it's reminiscent of the epic poem, Dante's Inferno.

“It’s about seeing both the God and the devil and the effects of that," says Glenn. I think I’ve seen that in my life extremely, maybe not physically but there are scary moments that you have.

“You feel that darkness, you feel that sense of loneliness and I know that doesn't come from a good place. There are good things and there are bad things in life and as much as I’m a dark tormented poet guy I want good and that’s what I strive for.”


Habits is out February 18 through Universal.

Live review: Michael Bublé, Sydney (for The Music Network)

15 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

Acer Arena, Sydney
Monday, February 14 

How appropriate that Michael Bublé should play his first of four sold out Sydney dates on Valentine's Day to a room full of loved-up couples and jilted singles.

The curtains opened to reveal ‘The Boob’ looking dapper in his grey suit accompanied by an impressive 13-piece band. Opening with Cry Me A River from his Crazy Love album, the Canadian crooner slid down his stage to meet us, and won us over instantly. The man could have burped into his microphone and we still would have cheered and called it melody. We were putty in his hands from soulful start to blistering finish.

During All Of Me, Bublé stopped to autograph a little girls ‘I’m your #1 fan’ sign before saying, “I love that half of you just booed and the other half just looked at your girlfriends and went 'he is so gay.'”

Bublé’s hilarious banter between tracks Mack The Knife, Crazy Love(named after Van Morrisson) and For Once In My Life, evinced him as the ultimate performer, constantly entertaining and letting us sing all the best bits. “I wanna shower with all of you. Because if we sound this amazing in here, imagine what we'd sound like in the shower,” he told us.

His incredible rendition of Billie Jean partnered with the customary MJ dance moves that jack-knifed their way into the hot-potato for Twist & Shout had the arena looking like the final scene of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Bublé then walked straight through the crowd with his support actNaturally 7 in tow, to sing Wonderful and Home atop a tiny platform.

“I just wanna apologise,” he said seriously. “To all those people who paid big money to sit up front, coz you guys got ripped off!”

Back on the mainstage, Bublé closed with Haven’t Met You Yet, silver flakes burst from the ceiling as high-pitched screams echoed from, wait for it… mostly men. We stood and danced for the three-track encore of Feeling Good, Me & Mrs Jones and Song For You.

“You know that I'll come back here as many times as you'll have my Canadian butt,” he said.

Trumpet player, Justin Ray played faultlessly from the grand stand, but the 360° feast for our eyes wasn’t over yet. Bublé removed his earpiece, and his mic, and sang the final verse of Song For You to a deafeningly silent audience. The energy he gave us buzzed through our veins and hasn’t stopped coursing since.

Live review: Good Vibrations, Sydney (for The Music Network)

14 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

Centennial Park, Sydney
Saturday February 12

Extolled as a landmark in Australian music festivals, the first instalment of Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney certainly lived up to its name sonically, but weather-wise, the constant downpour put more than a damper on the day. After five years of rain in a row, it was obvious the over 25,000 punters were getting over it.

Those who arrived before 4pm were able to catch acts like congenial DJ, Kid Kenobi, unseasoned Perth youngsters Tim & Jean and hip hop duo, Koolism from the comfort of the dry grass. Most sat nursing their $12 Red Bull and vodkas, sporadically topping them up with their own 'cocktails' they’d strapped to their crotch on the way in.

Of the aforementioned acts, MC Hau and DJ Danielsan of Koolismwere the best-received. Mixing De La Soul’s Ring Ring Ring with tracks from their fifth album, The ‘Umu. MC Hau spoke like a sailor and warmed the crowd to a near fever with tracks like Can’t Stand It andJam Hot.

Over on the Mr J stage stood my favourite quirk of the day, the Storm Troopers. The pair hilariously thrusted their junk toward the crowd and shook their bobbling helmet heads in unison to the Sosueme DJ’swho filled in the space between Aloe Blacc & The Grand Schemeand the upcoming Jinja Safari.

It was a hard decision to catch Sydney band Jinja Safari over US live wire, Erykah Badu; but after slap-clapping and gypsy dancing through the five-piece's chipper set of dance and roots, it turned out be one of the best decisions I made that day.

The other was my protest against wearing makeup; as the rain began to fall, pretty hipsters began to look like a Salvador Dali, their eyes drooping in clumps down their cheeks. “Dancing in the rain, two feet in the sand,” lead singer Marcus Azon couldn’t have timed their trackPeter Pan better.

Before rising popstar, Mike Posner took the same stage I ventured into Good Vibes' equivalent of the Boiler Room to see how the other half (the punters on crooked candy) were living. The Laundry tent was full of shirtless boys and melting-face girls for UK Grindcore DJ’s,Fake Blood. The tent was a sweaty haze of red from the flashing images projected from side screens; no one seemed to know the tracks being laid, but judging by the jaws swinging like old barn doors in cyclone Yasi, no-one seemed to care either.

Birthday boy Mike Posner played singles like Please Don’t Go, Bow Chicka and obvious favourite Cooler Than Me, however it was his rendition of R. Kelly’s Ignition that triggered the most questionable dance moves from the crowd.

Kelis’ performance on the Good Vibrations stage cemented her comeback into the pop scene. Opening with tracks Scream, 22nd Century and Home from her latest offering Flesh Tone, Kelis made up for her hiatus. Although she did throw in crowd favourite, Milkshake, her new album dominated the voluptuous diva’s set.

Most of the crowd stayed at the Good Vibrations stage for headlinerFaithless. The UK electro act blew the minds of long-time fans and recruited those who were more into Aqua while Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo were at their peak. For almost an hour and a half, the rain didn’t matter and the pneumonia could wait until tomorrow; Faithlesssent shockwaves through the crowd with favourites like God Is A DJ, Mass Destruction and Insomnia.

If it weren’t for such an electric closer, this year’s Good Vibrations could have been a soaking flop, although one drenched girl in hotpants did sum up the general vibe for me as she clung to her junked-out boyfriend; and it wasn’t good. “Babe, seriously, this is the last year we’re doing this, like, this is fucked.”

Album review: Social Distortion, Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes (for The Music Network)

09 February 2011

by Poppy Reid

When a band like Social Distortion releases their seventh record a good twenty years after their debut, there's never much expectation for a groundbreaking change of pace; but after a six-year hiatus (following their album Sex Love and Rock 'n' Roll), you do at least expect SxDx to come back with the same fervour. Their latest offering,Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes does just that.

The record opener is wholly instrumental, falling in line withMillencolin's Machine 15 and Muse's Absolution, but without the tacky centrepiece. The years have been kind to vocalist Mike Ness, his more pronounced rasp on tracks like Machine Gun Blues andCalifornia (Hustle & Flow) only make for a more raw singing-whilst-gargling-razorblades sound. It's the kind we've come to enjoy from punk bands coming out of Southern California.

The four-piece have adopted a few country and blues elements this time around though; the '90s guitar heavy track, Far Side Of Nowhere,about escaping monotony in your pick-up truck and Diamond In The Rough, a vintage Social D track, are both laced with classic rock and soul sensibilities.

Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes is the kind of punk powerhouse that would have been a leading addition to the records fired out of late '80s So-Cal. In 2011, Social Distortion have proven through their six-year spell and junked-up blues rock, that good things really do come to those who wait.

Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes is out now through Epitaph Records.