The Brag

Leaving straight after Sigur Rós’ last mindblowing bar, we descended in a surge on Parramatta Station at 10.20pm. It was a make or break moment for Harvest Festival. A glacier-like throng of humans carried us slowly up the stairs onto the already jam-packed platform, and miraculously we surged into the waiting train. We couldn’t possibly fit safely or comfortably, and we didn’t – yet the mood in my carriage was neither frustrated nor unfriendly. My head was stuck in three separate armpits whose owners smiled down apologetically; a jolly, huge-bellied man close by politely sucked it in the whole way home; and when a skittish girl was driven by some unknown force (acid) to lie prostrate on the train floor, we climbed over and on top of each other to help let it happen for her. The long, late train ride home to Redfern was jovial, communal, well-behaved, and indicative of Harvest as a whole: we were all in this together, in a way unimaginable at other major summer events – no drunken fights or pukes, no offence or leering gropers. There’s still no better way to rediscover faith in festivals than a day spent at Harvest.

Posted: November 26th, 2012 under Brag 490, Live Reviews, Music.
Tags: Beck, Ben Folds Five, Cake, Grizzly Bear, Harvest Festival, Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, Mondo Cane, Sigur Rós, The Dandy Warhols

Sometimes you just can’t get away from the past. When Prince changed his stage name to a strange, hieroglyph-like symbol, people simply referred to him as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. In much the same way, Nottingham funk/soul outfit Crazy P have often had trouble distancing themselves from their old moniker, Crazy Penis. It’s not really hard to guess why.

Posted: November 12th, 2012 under Brag 488, Music, Music - Interview.
Tags: Beck, Beirut, Ben Folds Five, Cake, Crazy P, Fuck Buttons, Grizzly Bear, Harvest Festival, Liars, Morgan Richards, Santigold, Sigur Rós, Silversun Pickups, The Spice Cellar

Late in 2009, rumours began to circulate about Sigur Rós’s then-untitled sixth album, a follow-up to their 2008 full-length, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. The Icelandic band’s rabid fans began frothing at the prospect of what was described as a more “ambient” record: considering the nature of Sigur Rós’s body of work, the idea that the band was adding more ambience was certainly saying something.

Posted: November 12th, 2012 under Brag 488, Music, Music - Interview.
Tags: Beck, Ben Folds Five, Cake, Chromatics, Grizzly Bear, Harvest Festival, Joshua Kloke, Liars, Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, Orri Páll Dýrason, Sigur Rós, The Dandy Warhols

The last time we spoke, Zach Condon was in a bad way. It was March 2008, and the boy from Santa Fe, New Mexico had hauled his Balkan-pop ensemble Beirut to Australia for their first run of shows in the country. Unfortunately that night each member of the group was running on autopilot, completely exhausted after months touring their 2007 sophomore LP, The Flying Club Cup, with Condon using the breaks between songs to utter apologies to the crowd, band or anyone who’d listen. From my position at the Manning Bar, I could see the effects of a lack of rest and preparatory time, as the exhaustion first confused and then angered the highly skilled ensemble.

Posted: November 6th, 2012 under Brag 487, Music, Music - Interview, New.
Tags: Beck, Ben Folds Five, Cake, Fuck Buttons, Grizzly Bear, Harvest Festival, Liars, Otouto, Santigold, Sigur Rós, The Enmore Theatre, The War On Drugs, Zach Condon

After a solid decade entertaining international audiences with their gut-busting and side-splitting performances, Baltimore-based burlesque duo Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey are bringing their panoply of live provocations Down Under as part of the Harvest Festival’s Bootleg Alley, a space dedicated to alternative and underworld performance. Titled Flipping & Stripping Down Under, their latest show is an assemblage of greatest hits pulled from previously popular outings like Gypsy Little: Sexual Psychic and The Kama Sutra Brought To Life On A Trapeze. When we Skype, the duo are just a few days out from previewing Flipping & Stripping at Williamsburg’s new aerialist and workshop space The Muse, ahead of their Sydney trip. “We’re so ready for this,” enthuses Trixie, the pretty half of their beauty-and-the-beast dynamic.

Posted: November 5th, 2012 under Arts, Arts - Interview, Brag 487.
Tags: Bourgeois & Maurice (UK), Briefs, Flipping & Stripping Down Under, Harvest Festival, The League Of Sideshow Superstars, Vaudevillage