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So you click, and we appear - it’s kind of one-sided isn’t it? Welcome to the first episode of Throw Shapes since we dropped off Castro-style in ’07. We’ve had a bit of work done, thanks for noticing. Be outraged by our reviews, and enthused by our gig picks. Try your wit at some of the giveaways down the page. Take offence at the inaugural monthly guest column, courtesy of the acerbic tabloid-fetishists at Duke Mag. And grimace over the awkward chat we had with Spank Rock. Turns out we're actually pretty white.
We're still uploading content to the archives, killing the bugs, digging the lint out of the proverbial drier. In the meantime you can just drool over our new home… If only it was possible to have sex with a screen without short circuiting something. If you're desperate you can probably stroke it, unless you’re using one of those new fangled plasma machines. Even then, if you’re blessed with a particularly tender caressing technique… |
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March 7,8,9 > So many people told us that last year's Playground Weekender was their favourite festival of ’07 that we went on a (vaguely pissy) road trip a few weeks ago to check out the site, and there were KANGAROOS. Outside of a perfectly eclectic international lineup – Ian Brown from Stone Roses, Coco Rosie (they’re bringing a baby grand), Kruder and Dorfmeister and Maximo Park - they've got loads of “why hasn’t anyone thought of this before” bits, like Toni & Guy’s $10 hair and makeup de-crust, a trampoline, the Peat’s Ridge Chai Tent and a fancy dress shop. Plus pretty much every Australian band that you've ever wanted to see. And plus, we’ll be there. |
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| EARN
IT :: DOUBLE PASSES :: CLICK HERE |
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March 2 > While there is an undeniably adolescent grungy thing happening here, Manchester Orchestra pull off so many moments of sweeping orchestral folk, straight up indie-rock and early Gibbard-esque poignancy that they steer well clear of that damaging ‘emo’ label. After touring over the past few years with the likes of Kings of Leon and blog-favourites the Annuals, the band are in Sydney on Feb 27 with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, just in time to stop over at the SOLD OUT Laneway Festival. Making this possibly one of the best giveaways we’ve ever had to offer. Okkervil River... Broken Social Scene...
CYHSY... Feist… We couldn’t have booked it better ourselves. |
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| EARN
IT :: DOUBLE PASSES:: CLICK HERE |
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| THIS
WEEK |
MUM
+ WHAM! |
CLICK HERE TO
SEE THE WHOLE GALLERY |
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| THIS
WEEK |
MUM'S
1ST B'DAY + WHAM! |
CLICK HERE TO
SEE THE WHOLE GALLERY |
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Lachlan
Macara spoke to Spank Rock last week. There was gunfire.
Here's what happened. You know an interview maybe isn’t gonna go as
well as you’d hoped when your first question is,
“Sorry, is someone shooting at you?”
Naeem
Juwan AKA MC Spank Rock was speaking to me on his mobile from the US,
and with a thick accent, static line and constant
interruptions by a swarm of “Wassup!”s and handclasps,
most of the interview involved me pretending that
I understood what he was saying and that I wasn’t,
in fact, the whitest man in the world. And yes,
there was gunfire.
“Sorry, is someone shooting
at you?” “I’m at the gun range. Shooting rifles.”
Of course. |
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It didn’t surprise me. A certain
amount of frivolity and maverick-ness would be expected from the man behind
the party-starting dance-inducing juggernaut that
is Spank Rock. Their new EP, Bangers & Cash,
pays homage to 2 Live Crew – an older group who, not unlike Spank, used a
bunch of revolutionary beats underneath some mum-would-slap-you-if-she-heard-this-shit
lyrics. But with the tracklisting reading like a
schoolboy’s pre-pubescent pencil case (“B-O-O-T-A-Y”, “Loose”, "Bitch!" and “Pussy”), the
first question I wanted to ask is whether he ever
gets tired of rapping about, well, pussy. But you
can’t ask Spank Rock that and expect him to like you.
(It's worth it.) |
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+ Big Bows In Your Hair: Last issue we were championing washer woman chic, but now with Wino adopting the look and a million other impressionables following her lead, we've moved on to wearing big bows in our hair. Think the Hamptons preppy style, or turn it bad a-la Heathers.
+ Cults: The Moonies, Manson's "family", Jim Jones' People's Temple, The Jehovahs, Scietologists... This season "families" are OUT and cults are IN. Welcome back! Not since David Koresh's compound burnt down has there been so much controversy over an independently organised religion. Scientology is the new wave. We love cults with all-powerful leaders, especially those who sport robes and tunics. It gives them an instant look of insanity, yet also peace of the soul. This is how they keep their followers guessing and this is exactly what we plan to do...
+ Adnan Ghalib + Sam Lutfi: That gold digging duo from hell. Oh no, we mean Lebanon.
As we all know, this terrible twosome (with matching facial landing strips) have been bleeding poor old Britney dry and their cash cow is close to being put out to pasture. We just read a blind item in a very prestigious journal, which will remain anonymous, "Which two money hungry pigs of Mediterranean descent are really secretly homo and by natural selection, really into each other?" Hmm... could it be Adnan and Lutfi?
+ Doomy Cigarette Ads: Enough already! We get the point. Please, we don't want to see any more wheezing, bleeding lungs or little cameras probing the tar-choked insides of an esophagus, no more gangrened feet or nicotine-stained fingers.
Has everyone seen that ad with that guy who pontificates: Cigarettes take you away from your friends? Well, Someone We Know spotted him outside a theatre, chain-smoking away while his friends were crying inside.
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> EMILY & RAQUEL, DUKE MAGAZINE DICTATORS |
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It’s like school, but better. User-created videos and slideshows teach you how to make jelly glow, how to make a watermelon even more fun than it already is, and how to make out. Maybe even more interesting is the amount of clicks these DIY-handbooks are attracting. How To Lift Someone Over Your Head With One Hand got over 21 000 views, which sounds impressive until you find out that’s 10 000 less than How To Tear A Phonebook In Half. And 82 000 people now know what to do next time they inadvertently find themselves in line for Sneakers next Friday.
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“I love everything about Polaroids. The simplicity; the colours; the novelty of a photo popping out; the thought process behind every shot; the sound the camera makes… and it's just so old school.” From July 12 2006 to July 11th 2007, Nerissa Parker commissioned herself to take one Polaroid each day, in a prolific project that we imagine would exercise ones patience as much as ones creativity. All 365 are on exhibition at China Heights Gallery for only a couple of days (Feb 22 – Feb 24), so put it in your diary NOW. What are her plans for the future? “Possibly another photo a day project with either a Holga or even talk of a pinhole camera. I'm also working on finishing my book of poems, which I'm also illustrating.” So she's not attempting to do it for the rest of her life, like this guy. |
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March 6 > Three level events at Manning Bar are always great, especially if your
attention span is about as long-lived Brendan Nelson’s popularity. Zing. Manning Bar’s pulled all the big international names this year, and this lineup is the local equivalent. Van She, Damn Arms, AJAX, Dardanelles, Blue Juice, The Jezabels, Catcall and Gameboy/Gamegirl, it’s not much different to a tasty bagel – well-rounded and delicious, with the promising potential of getting toasted. This year they’ve got another stage outside, so bring along enough credit for the “where’d you go meet me in the bathroom bring fun ok” messages. A much better way to start the uni year than a library tour. |
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Feb 21 – March 19 > In early 2007 the ex-Hunter-And-Collector Greg Perano sent out 23 hungry sketchbooks to artists all over the world. Since then, over 100 artists have added a piece to the pages – some big names like Tony Conrad and Hugh Stewart, some up-and-comers, and some unexposed. Even Pixie Geldof and Billy Zane had a go. This is the first time the works have been exhibited, and they're setting up each pad on its own school desk. Imagine open day in the high school art room, but with less collages of girls, mirrors and cut up text saying "PRESSURE”, “conformity!” and “but what IS beauty?”. |
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Feb 15 – March 8 > “little death productions” was the team behind last year’s Mercury Fur, and that’s enough of an endorsement for us. Written by British playwright Simon Stephens during the ’05 London bombings, Motortown follows serviceman Danny after he returns home from Iraq and finds himself unable to fit back in to the life he left behind. “Less a comment on the Iraq war than a critique of the society that the war attempts to protect”, the themes of immorality in war, compassion fatigue and depravity are familiar. But this play shines a new and unforgiving light on them. |
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| So The Wall are putting on a little bit of awesome
at the Playground Weekender, they're
on the lookout for talent, and we asked them to
write up a little blurb about it: "The Wall
want to come along to Playground Weekender with
our friends from the World Bar. We're not in
the business of booking bands so we had to be
savvy- a giant live art installation! Amazing! We
need you to make this happen! If you're an artist
and want to spend a weekend painting a giant wall
at The Playground Weekender with 49 other artists,
email us at thewallsydney@gmail.com or check out myspace.com/thewallsydney. It'll be amazing so don't
be a pussy. (maybe cut out the last bit…I'm a little
drunk./" |
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WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
When we heard that Spike Jonze was turning our favourite kids’ book of all time into a film, with a score arranged by his ex Karen O, a script written by our favvy Dave Eggers, and an adult version of the book by Eggers to accompany the film’s release, we traveled 8 months back in time and started an e-zine just so we’d have somewhere to write about it. |
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| With an apt
title, The Magnetic Fields’
latest is like listening to the music you
love, but underwater- so fuzzy, so far away!
If nostalgia could be made into songs, this
would be it: sexy, echoey, melancholy pop
that you’ll sing along to as it tears your
heart out. Sure you can’t hear the lyrics
over the distorted guitars but whatever,
take some acid if it’s bothering you that
much. The lovely Shirley Simms plays a more talented Nico to Stephin Merritt’s deeper Lou Reed, and if you can’t
wait for The Magnetic Fields to tour,
go see The Jesus and Mary Chain at the V Fest. Same gist. (RS) |
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| Ethereal soundscapes,
dreamy harmonies, fantastical jazz, textured
trills in a winter. It’s like what would happen
if you could McFlurry a bunch of genres with
creamy production, Christmas elves, synths
and Sigur Ros. To those of
you who’ve been with Mum since Yesterday, you’ll notice this
is their most epic and accessible album to
date, and you’ll probably be disappointed.
To those of us who haven’t, it’s a great place
to start. Iceland’s so hot right now. (SH) |
| 15 OCTOBER 07 |
FAT CAT RECORDS |
>MYSPACE |
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| I was so ready
to love this album. I planned out all of my
adjectives. I set my Gush-o-Matic to STUN.
With a song like “Mansard Roof”, how can anything
these guys make be bad? ...Oh, Disappointment.
This is the type of album you have to apologise
for when you’re sitting around with your friends
smoking joints and you’ve got iTunes on Random.
You hear it and you cringe a little. There
are some definite standouts – “Walcott”, “A-Punk”
and obviously "Roof of Mansard" – but most
of the time it’s like getting to the bottom
of the popcorn and trying to pick out the
most appetising kernels to suck on. (RS) |
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| From the very
first quivering note on the very first trembling
track I knew I’d be a sucker. Sure
we’ve all heard Arcade Fire and Polyphonic Spree,
but there's always room for
more. It’s a bit preachy and theosophic, with
references to Satan and locusts and whatnot,
but with music so clearly influenced by the
theatrical harmonics of gospel, you can’t
really expect angst, sex and bitches. Put
on a flowing robe (I suggest the satiny caftan
lounger that’s advertised weekly in the Tv
Guide that comes with the paper), and throw
your hands up. This album will bring you joy.
(RS) |
| 21 JANUARY |
THOUSAND TONGUES |
>MYSPACE |
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| Inspired by
the 1944 Ringling Brothers Circus Fire, Daniel
Lea has orchestrated an ambitiously epic yet elegant concept album that really
hasn’t been getting enough press. We were
expecting a menagerie of screeching animal
noises set to the soothing sound of screams
and burning tarp. What we got instead was
a concept realised more through moods and
atmospherics – guitar driven psych-folk with
a shoegaze bent, giving way to soaring strings
and dramatic drums, and Lea’s sweet, Sufjan-y
vocals lending the whole adventure a gloomy
pathos. Think Midlake, but
sadder. |
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The Mars Volta have been maundering through the
For-Hardcore-Fans-and-the-Aurally-Enlightened-Only woods for quite some time
now, so I don't know why I expected The Bedlam in Goliath to be De-loused
in the Comatorium Part 2. Call me stupid but I doubt I'd be able to tell
the difference between the last three albums including the last one. They're
just a bit "we're too
progressive to care about standard structure, let's light a doob and start this fucker in the middle." Amazing live, lacks in album form, and indulges too much in the stylistic tendencies that P4k lovingly refers to as, “clusterfucks of incomprehensible lyrical jabberwocky”. |
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| With a few exceptions, the Ruffians’ debut is exactly the ADD-driven, pub-friendly pop that we expect, with the obligatory ejaculatory vocals and heavy hooks that play it safe but well. But two things set them apart from the rest of Canada's punk-pop - the first is Luke Lalonde’s vocals that lie on a sped up, younger and drunker line between Hot Hot Heat and CYHSY. The second is the sparse but pensive oases, like the title track and “Little Garcon”, that signal where a sophomore album might go while belying the album’s Animal Collective/Panda Bear producer Rusty Santos. But the rest of it is just straight up, Soft-Tigers-of-Toronto, unadulterated but short shelf-life fun. |
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Editor Steph
Harmon Cover Art & Layout Matt Roden
Email steph@throwshapes.com.au Address 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings X, Sydney
Mobile 0422949374 Landline 02 9357 2744 Fax 02 9331 5511
Contributors Ramona Spanx, Lachlan
Macara Photos Irina
Belova |
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