Revolver: Queensland music news

THE Gympie Muster has announced its 100 per cent home-grown Aussie line-up for 2017 with the surprise headliner of Jessica Mauboy.

WHEN it comes to the local music scene, no one knows the ins and outs better than our columnist Sally Browne. Check out what’s on her radar this week.

MAUBOY HEADS TO THE MUSTER

Jessica Mauboy, pictured at the 59th Annual Logie Awards, will head to Gympie in August for the annual Music Muster. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

The Gympie Muster has announced its 100 per cent home-grown Aussie line-up for 2017 with the surprise headliner of Jessica Mauboy.

The pop/r’n’b singer is no stranger to country, winning the Telstra Road to Tamworth in 2004.

She’ll be joining a line-up including Busby Marou, Adam Brand, Graeme Connors, Amber Lawrence, Catherine Britt, Fanny Lumsden, Caitlyn Shadbolt and more.

The festival runs from August 24-27. Tickets are on sale now. http://www.muster.com.au/

THE GOON SAX SAY GOODBYE

The Goon Sax are ready to say bon voyage. The Brisbane three-piece are wistful and excited about their upcoming adventures which will take them to Europe for the foreseeable. In the meantime they are playing a farewell show at the Foundry on Friday, April 28.

“It will be a bit sad playing in Brisbane for the last time in a while, but I’m excited,” frontman Louis Forster says.

Forster will be heading to Berlin while bandmates Riley Jones and James Harrison will be based in Norwich in the UK.

“I speak German because my mum’s from Germany. It might be easier for the others to find a job in the UK but also Riley’s got family there.”

The Goon Sax - Louis Forster, Riley Jones and James Harrison

Forster’s mum violinist Karin Bäumler met his dad Robert Forster formerly of the Go-Betweens in Berlin in the early 1990s.

In the meantime the Goon Sax are just putting the finishing touches to album number two, the follow-up to their acclaimed debut, Up to Anything.

First, though, they will be heading on an epic European tour that will see them play shows from mid-May until July.

“It was great,” Forster says of their last tour. “We went to a lot of places I hadn’t been to before, like Madrid and Glasgow. I love touring. I’d do it all the time if we could.”

QUBE EFFECT UNVEILS VIDEOS

Two days, 24 bands and 360 degrees of high-tech robotic cameras. The Qube Effect took over the Tivoli in Brisbane last month to create music videos for 24 fresh-faced Queensland acts. Now the results are in and viewers can vote for their favourite. Check it all out at:

https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/community-safety/community-support/young-people/qube-effect-2017

SABRINA LAWRIE DOESN’T FOLLOW THE RULES

Pig City Records have unveiled the debut track from the second artist to grace the newly formed indie label, Sabrina Lawrie.

The track No Rules, a taste from her forthcoming album Hush the Mountain, shows off Lawrie’s powerhouse of a voice and blues-rock guitar skills. Hush the Mountain will be the Brisbane artist’s debut solo album after performing in bands including Tongue and Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade.

Pig City Records, founded by author Andrew Stafford and artist manager Sean Clift, launched last year, with their debut signing being Some Jerks with the album Strange Ways.

No Rules features a video by local filmmakers Slapshot Films.

THE JUNGLE GIANTS SPACE OUT

Brisbane favourites The Jungle Giants have been getting plenty of streams (we’re talking over a million) with their song Feel the Way I Do. Now they’ve got a video to match.

The quirky clip which features a spaceman breaking into a cosy mountain cabin was directed by local filmmaker Nick Maguire.

“The film clip was a really fun process,” says frontman Sam Hales.

“We originally wanted it to look like this spaceman had landed into a ski lodge of some sort but it was kind of hard to find a ski lodge in Brisbane so we settled for a cool old woody house we found on Airbnb. I asked a friend of mine, Stag, who lived real close to be the spaceman. He rides that perfect line between sassy and naughty in his dancing, and he always does it so hard, I knew it had to be him.”

The track was cooked up in the band’s Brisbane studio, in smelling distance of the Weet-Bix factory. It’s a preview of album number three, following Learn to Exist and Speakerzoid.

The band are currently gearing up for performances at the touring Groovin the Moo festival, which comes to Townsville on Sunday, April 30.

“So excited for the Groovin shows,” Hale says.

“We’ve been rehearsing more than we ever had before. For us it’s nerve wracking but exciting to be playing new stuff in the set. It’s really refreshed the feel of the show.”

THE STRESS OF LEISURE CHILL OUT AT STONES CORNER

The Stress of Leisure have been somewhat quiet achievers. Or not so quiet when they get on stage.

They Brisbane band have gained a reputation for their cheeky post-punk attitude and super-fun live shows. Their latest album, Achievement, featuring earworms such as No Idea is the New Idea, Girl on a Lilo and Aim High/Get High, captures the struggle of living in paradise.

Next on their achievement list is performing with seminal ’90s band Regurgitator at the Stones Corner Festival in Brisbane’s inner east this Sunday, April 30. They’ll be joining Sahara Beck, I Heart Hiroshima, Luke Daniel Peacock, Hemingway and Sarah Booker.

The Stress of Leisure and Regurgitator are a good match. Both know their way around a catchy hook and understand the value of humour and irony in a song.

“You’ve got to be careful with the fun aspect of music that you don’t go into novelty,” says Stress of Leisure frontman Ian Powne, who has written fan favourites such as House and Garden and Sex Time.

“There’s real social commentary going on behind our fun and our humour. I think humour is kind of illuminating reality.”

Stress of Leisure.

As an announcer on 4ZZZ radio – he hosts Brighten the Corners on Tuesday afternoons – Powne gets to hear a lot of cool new music too. Former Go-Betweens bassist Adele Pickvance is a regular on the show. The Stress of Leisure were the backing band for Pickvance and Dan Kelly at the Go-Betweens tribute show at Brisbane’s The Triffid late last year. They’ve also performed with acts including Some Jerks, Primitive Motion, Dave Graney, the Gin Club and Ben Salter.

“You end up playing with friends a lot,” Powne says. “And that’s what we value as well, friendships in the music scene. You just meet more people as you go.”

Place plays a part as well. “I think geography informs every band, especially climate. The entertainment dollar in Queensland has a lot of competition. You’re competing with outdoor activities, dining and sport. Still, I think we’ve got a great live scene in Brisbane and that’s due to the passion of the bands. The great thing about the city is bands that don’t sound alike can play together. Brisbane is open-minded about that, and I think that’s healthy.”

Queensland’s climate has definitely made its mark on the Stress of Leisure – not least in the band’s name as well as their aesthetic. “It comes through in the sunlight,” says Powne. “It’s so sunny in Brisbane. Even when I lived in London, I could never write a minor-chord song.”

The Stress of Leisure line-up is completed by Pascalle Burton on keys, Jane Elliott on bass and Jessica Moore on drums. The band are already working on their next album, their sixth, Eruption Bounce.

“At the end of the day the big achievement is to play gigs with people you know and respect. And that, in a musical sense, keeps you vital.”

ROCKABILLY ROCKS ON

It will be a time warp back to the 1950s this weekend when the annual Rods and Rockabilly festival takes over the Hamilton Hotel in Brisbane on Saturday, April 29.

When Jon Flynn and the Knights of Sin first started playing, they might have had to travel to Sydney to find an audience, but now the scene has grown and grown.

“The challenge in Brisbane was to try and play to other people than the rockabilly crowd but now its popular anyone digs it,” says Flynn. “People would dig it then but they had to be exposed to in the first place.”

Rockabilly has come in and out of fashion many times over the decades, says Flynn, who plays upright base. The first rock ‘n’ roll revival was in the late 1960s. Another wave came along in the late 70s and early 80s with the birth of bands like the Stray Cats. Flynn first got into rockabilly in Year 9 when he found a record his older brother had by a California band called the Blasters.

“Then one particular day after school I had the song Rock This Town going through my head. I went to Rocking Horse Records in the city and bought the Stray Cats album and it was totally a case of all killer no filler. I realised then, that’s it for me.”

The combination of guitar, drums and upright bass plus fast and loose songs is a winner. The Knights of Sin have been playing together for so long it’s like a second language to them. They play regularly at Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall in Caxton Street, but the Rods and Rockabilly festival should draw an even bigger crowd.

“I think the bottom line is it’s the greatest thing in the world,” says Flynn. “The scene encompasses more than just the music. It’s just the greatest thing in the world so people are working it out.”

SEA SHEPHERD TO BENEFIT FROM GOOD TUNES

Caravana Sun had the pleasure of supporting ska heroes Madness on their recent Australian and New Zealand tour. Now they’re excited to be playing their own shows with a gig at the Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane, on Saturday, April 29.

The tour follows the release of their third album Guerrilla Club, featuring the track Whale Song, which is getting plenty of Spotify spins.

“This song is a call to be fearless in feeling,” says songwriter Ant Beard. “I was craving something real and honest and I found it beneath the waves.”

The Whale Song Tour is presented by Sea Shepherd with the band donating $5 of each merchandise item sold to the conservation group.

Follow Sally on Twitter: @sallyscribe

Originally published as Revolver: Queensland music news