It's always 1996 somewhere. By this stage, Stephen Malkmus - both solo and with the Jicks, as he is presently - is very much a known quantity. Every couple of years now he pushes out a new record of proggy, insouciant guitar songs that in trade insight and inanities ("what the senator wants! is a blowjob!") with equally shaggy fervour.
This is largely targeted at freshers, and comes people with 5+ years at UWA and mastering it's idiosyncrasies. Covering things you don't realise how much you'll care about - Parking, food and avoiding lecture attendance.
No doubt, you will stand aghast that it is estimated that 356,000 of Chlamydia . That so many people can suffer from an infection that is easily diagnosed and more easily treated says a lot about how our country treats sexual health.
This weekend, Perth will host the world premiere of The Rabbits, a piece of operatic theatre based on the award winning illustrated book by John Marsden and Shaun Tan, as part of this year’s Perth International Arts Festival. Coproduced by the Barking Gecko Theatre Company and the Opera Australia, director John Sheedy will bring to life the chilling truths presented in “The Rabbits” about Australia’s colonial beginnings, featuring music composed by Queensland songstress Kate Miller Heidke.
Writers Festival's are challenging. I left most of the sessions wondering whether writers were deliberately avoiding self-reflection, or if they were cherry-picking poignant moments in their lives to consider.
What do you do with a song with a two minute guitar solo when you have no backing band? Tinashe's answer to her 'Bet' problem: Give one of your dancers a tap-dance showcase. You read that right: 'tappa, tappa, tappa'.
In true southern tradition, Bear walks on with southern-styled hat on head and guitar over shoulder. The boys open with two huge tracks, one from an older album, and "State I'm In" from the recent album (Rivers in the Wasteland) and they had the audience hooked in under 10 minutes.
I'll be the first to admit that I attend far less live music than I should. It's fun, it's social and most of all, it's a memory, an experience far superior to sitting on my couch soaking up some tunes. When I was given the chance to see 'The Budos Band' live it didn't take me long to rearrange the plans I already had that night to slot them in.
On their fifth visit to Perth, with a growing discography and a consistency unmatched by almost all of their contemporaries, it's easy to see why Daniels feels that after all these years Spoon are “doing something right”.
Because people really don't read reviews properly anymore and like to just skim things, I've decided to format my 2015 Laneway review as a list of winners and losers. As usual, this is subjective, but here are my winners and losers from this years Fremantle leg of the Laneway Festival.
Taking audiences on a journey through a civil detente is a hard thing to achieve. Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay and produced by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, accomplishes the Hollywood glamour that audiences want in historical dramas.
When it comes to "what's hot" now in the music biz, you can name a genre and there will be a market for it. If Americano-styled rock, flavoured with a bit of folk, stomp, a dash of Beach Boys is your thing - not only do you have an eclectic taste in music - but this album has your number.
When your country is empowered by its people to abuse others, it is only a matter of time before they use that power against its own people.
Some of our favourite shots from the 2015 Southbound festival in Busselton. Photos by Mitch Hender.
A modern day interpretation of the Bible's most famous parable, the tale of Job, Leviathan is a stinging rebuke of the systemic corruption that underpins modern Russia, told through the collapse of a family and the downward spiral of its patriarch.
What is the best movie you've seen this year?
Why settle on THE best film of the year when I can just make a hastily-edited (thanks iMovie) supercut of ALL my favourite movies of 2014? Genius, I know.
This piece examines the relations between capital and labour, and casts light on the causes and perpetuations of growth, inequality, and the ideologies which support the facticity of history and the form of the state overarching citizens and labour.
A hush comes over Perth every mid-December. Most of us long for it. The annual month of down time from December to January. Personally, I hate it. Everything becomes a bit too quiet for me. The cherry on top is… Christmas.
After my personal hiatus with the Bakery, I returned, only to discover a long line on Thursday night, an assortment of breeds almost as if it were a gathering of different tribes. Ready to witness American sweetheart Ty Segall.
If you were to walk down the street and randomly ask people what kind of people they believe suffer from eating disorders and body image issues, many would answer that they are female issues. Very few would acknowledge that men can, and do, suffer from such illnesses
