Rock City looks to CherryRock’s future

Drunk Mums usually drink Cairns but today it’s plonk
Source: HeraldSun

CHERRY Bar’s jivetalking co-owner James Young may be touting this Sunday’s Cherry Rock as the last one in AC/DC Lane but read between the lines, fastidious reader.
“Over my dead body will there not be another CherryRock Festival. Where? Flinders Lane? NGV carpark? Birrarung Marr? Tallarook?” Young says, throwing his hands above one of his many Stetson hats.

This time next year we’ll know for sure, as long as Melbourne Council respects this rock (‘n’ roll) city.
At present, apartments are being built in AC/DC Lane and there are other logistical obstacles. “You need a permit to take a dump in this town,” Young clarifies.

Let’s cheer Jim Bob and get him to name the Top 5 Unexpected Moments in CherryRock’s history.

“1. CherryRock014: Kurt Cobain’s biggest influence, Meat Puppets to play their first show in Australia in 20 years! 2. CherryRock008: mystery band in AC/DC Lane…Airbourne!
3. CherryRock009: lactating Six Ft Hick fan squirts breast milk from ten metres away onto lead singing brothers Jeff and Ben Corbett.
4. CherryRock010: the guitarist from Viking Metal fire act Barbarion has to be escorted from the event because he threatened to start a fist fight with Rose Tattoo guitarist Rob Riley over who got the last chicken wing in the Artist Green Room.
5. CherryRock012: Cherry confirms Californian Godfathers of Stoner Rock Fu Manchu as our headliner in their first Oz Tour in over ten years.”

The bill this weekend includes Beastwars, Child, The Harlots, Don Fernando, King of the North, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Bitter Sweet Kicks and Drunk Mums.

“They hail from Cairns and will take over the world,” Young says casually. “There are three songwriters in the band which is a recipe for great music and inevitable implosion. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Dean Whitby was born with a tail which he had surgically removed without any complications before he was six months old.”
Glad we/they cleared that up.

Playing Times
AC/DC Lane Stage
Meat Puppets (USA) 8:05-9:20pm
Brant Bjork (USA) 6:20 – 7:20pm
King Of The North 4:55 – 5:40pm
Redcoats 3:35 – 4:15pm
Beastwars (NZ) 2:20 – 3:00pm
Bitter Sweet Kicks 1:10 – 1:40pm
The Harlots 12:10 – 12:40pm
Cherry Bar Stage
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk 7:20 – 8:05pm
Child 5:40 – 6:20pm
Drunk Mums 4:15 – 4:55pm
High Tension 3:00 – 3:35pm
Don Fernando 1:40 – 2:20pm
Powerline Sneakers 12:40 – 1:10pm

AC/DC Ln, city. Sun, noon. $ 74. cherrybar.com.au

Enjoy The Silence
It’s a tricky one.
Do you ask every Icelandic artist you interview a token Bjork question … even if it’s not token at all? Emiliana Torrini took umbrage at the mention of Miss Guomundsdottir and Sigur Ros always play a straight bat with the ex-Sugarcube.

New kid on the iceblock, 21-year-old melancholy folk babe Asgeir Trausti Einarsson — just Asgeir will do — has quickly become hot property in Australia with vast Triple J support of his album In The Silence. By the time Splendour in the Grass rolls around he’ll be a hundred times bigger than the egg that swan “laid” on the Oscars red carpet in 2001 … you know the one.

So.
After 10 minutes of blizzard-interrupted, slightly stilted and not exactly groundbreaking conversation, it’s time to ask about She Who’s Name Sounds Like The Morning After a Big Night.

Here goes something.
“Bjork, I met really early on. I heard that she liked my music. She came to my concert then I heard she helped getting the label (One Little Indian) to listen to my music, which is, y’know, great,” Asgeir says like a little boy standing in front of the class, explaining how one of his heroes fast-tracked his career.
“I’ve been listening to her music for a long time, I’ve seen many concerts of hers,” he adds, endorsing the singer he sees as “the most famous person ever to come from Iceland”.
Any good stories about Bjork? “Probably, but I didn’t know her that personally so I’m not going to say anything,” he says, retreating back into his shell, returning to his seat red faced and glancing up at the school clock to wait for the bell.

A decent lead then a dead end. But wait, isn’t Asgeir a big James Blake fan and didn’t James Blake cover a song by his father James Litherland titled Where to Turn he renamed Wilhelm Scream, and didn’t Asgeir use his own father’s poetry on his debut album?

“Yeah, I knew it,” he grins. “James Blake’s self-titled 2011 album was influential, I guess, because it was the first folk album with electronics that I’d heard. I’ve been listening to Overgrown lately and of course Wilhelm Scream is great,” he adds. You heard it here first.

Asgeir’s 73-year-old father Einar Georg Einarsson is Iceland’s most revered poet. Ol’ mate Einar didn’t mind when his son brought his prose work to a bigger audience although the toughest decision was how Asgeir would retool hit Icelandic album Dýrð í dauðaþögn into English.

Enter suave Denver folk guy John Grant (ex The Czars).

He helped strip the album down. “He heard my stuff on the radio and wanted to help.”

As the Australian tour approaches, Asgeir has the fear. Growing up in Laugarbakki, a meek hamlet in a treacherous part of Iceland with a population of just 40, (!) he isn’t accustomed to relentless sunshine, clammy lobes and punters dressed in animal onesies insisting he down Jager Bombs at 10am.
Mostly though, Asgeir doesn’t want to boil like a crab. “I don’t know whether I’ll make it,” he says as the line cracks. Say wha’? “The heat, it’s going to be very hot.”
I suggest he makes an ice cravat; a really long sock that you stuff with ice and tie around your neck so the ice sits just under your hairline and keeps you spine-tinglingly cool. “OK …(nervous laugh) I’ll do that. Thanks.”
 
The Forum, 154 Flinders St, city. July 22. $ 57. ticketmaster.com.au

Going Ape Droppings
We may have lost Royal Headache (boo!) and The Rochester (double boo!!) but we have regained The Gasometer (woo!).

Those swarthy chaps The Ape led by Tex “no one ever calls him Greg” Perkins will play, as well as La Bastard and Elizabeth Barker. DJs Benny & the Jets will spin records until 3am and magician Ben Hutton will do some hustle bustle.
Gasometer, 484 Smith St, Collingwood, Sat, 6pm. Free

Don’t Diss Harmony
How good is this line: “Uncomfortable with the imminent backlash of perceived popularity, Harmony are scampering back to their roots playing a headline at The Tote.”
Supports from Summer Flake, Bruff Superior, Moon Rituals. They killed it at Howler!

The Tote, 71 Johnston St, Collingwood, Sat, 9pm, $ 15, oztix.com.au

Sunday Night Dessert
Speaking of Howler, you should get there for a Good Beer Week event with Bannoffee, Martin
King, Speed Painters, Total Giovanni. So many A+++ gigs!

Howler, 7 Dawson St, Brunswick, Sun, 7pm, $ 20, h-w-l-r.com

THIS WEEK’S GIGS – MUST SEE THREE

1 COOKIN’ ON 3 BURNERS
Your mission, you should choose to accept it: Head to The Searchers on Smith St, buy music, stop at Trippy Tacos to fuel up, then sidle next door to see Cookin’ On 3 Burners launch their new 45. They’ll be playing with Kylie Auldist. You then buy the limited edition sleeve. NB: not a tatt. Feel the funk.

Northside Records, 245 Gertrude St, Sat, 2pm. Free

2 THE FIRING LINE
Winners of the recent Gunn Music Espy Artist Showdown, these guns (sorry) will launch their debut EP Edges of Time with support from alternative rockers Rumour Control and two piece “Sub Octave Blues Fusion/Rock outfit” (their words) The Dandans.

The Reverence Hotel, 28 Napier St, Footscray. Sat, 8pm. $ 10.

3 PANDA FOOD & THE SEVEN UPS
Speaking of funk, punk, the secret is out. The Bamboos are playing a FREE warm-up show before their first trip to Japan. They’ll be playing a classic Bamboos album in full! You’ll have to make it down to find out which one. Go early and dig the supports DJ Manchild and The Seven Ups.

The Espy, St Kilda, Sat, 8pm, Free. espy.com.au

Going at a Clip – 5 Music Videos Under The Mikeyscope

Pluto Bounce – Milwaukee Banks
Best bit: Dyl Thomas dressed as one of The Emperor’s Imperial guards. Riding a horse. Through pink meadows.
Weird bit: “D&Ms we grind our teeth/ We going deep into the night without sleep” Love it.
Earworm: “Jellybean coloured socks you better show the world/ I think you might have flashed your cash to get the girl.”

A Love Divine – Saskwatch
Best bit: The razor funk garage guitars. The horn section appearing at 1.14, in the circle, in the pocket.
Weird bit: We don’t get to see Nkechi rip it! Where she at?
Earworm: The speaker-splitting rise in Nkechi’s voice “You robbed my miiiiiiiiind”

Déjà Vu – Mumbai Science
Best bit: The chase sequence after the protagonist rolls a guy for his shoes at 1.56.
Weird bit: The feeling you’ve heard this before. Cheap joke but the generic keys and loops have hints of Free*Land, Chemical Brothers, Disclosure and Miss Kittin. Clip-wise, the spray-in-the-face-after-the-lean-in-for-a-kiss.
Earworm: “Disco ball disco lights, dirty talk on endless nights, avant garde, no self-control, business cards and alcohol.”

Pools – Glass Animals
Best bit: The flirting at 2.25.
Weird bit: Um, not much not weird about this. So good.
Earworm: “Sink my little soul for you/ And talking, I said I’ve been through a lot of noise.”

Die Tryin’ – The Psyde Projects
Best bit: It is Moonshine-affiliated. Brother is ON as a DJ and a human.
Weird bit: Toothbrush negotiations at 4.20.
Earworm: “You better take heed before you see me on Punt Rd with squeegee.”

Well played, children. Off to drink now. twitter.com/joeylightbulb

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