The Thousands

Sit back and let the world steer you somewhere - this artist let her imagination pilot her into into new landscapes, this muso finally got out there. In a tweed coat (or a fancier one), your hands are free for a change - hold them out and catch the wind!

p.s. we're having a pre-party and screening of Rowland S Howard: Autoluminescent, hope you can make it!

Covershot by Raquel Fialho. Take a ride like Raquel! Send us your covers.

The 12 tracks on Felicity Groom’s debut Gossamer serve as a very seductive distillation of Groom’s musical development over the seven or so years she’s been gigging. In this time she has grown into an assured performer and forged a distinctive sound which is best described as dark, folk ballads with lashings of her full-bodied, highly emotive croon. The album however strays widely from this format, especially in the standout, indie-pop number ‘Finders & Keepers’ which, through sheer vivacity and forward-momentum, makes being a poor artist sound like the funnest thing in the world (as opposed to the Centrelink/Mi Goreng fuelled nightmare it actually is).

In the Golden Age of Hipster Runoff, Carles wrote a piece in his typically ‘insanely relevant’ fashion about whether ‘indie bros’ could ever appreciate music by ‘zany female artists’ without the issue of whether they are ‘crazy mad hot’ coming into the equation. Looking at the female artists I appreciate (Joanna Newsom, Janelle Monae, Björk) and the ones I don’t (Gossip, Tracy Chapman), I can’t help but think that I am not immune to this sort of thinking. I only bring this up in the interest of full disclosure in that when I say I really dig Gossamer, I may not exactly be the most objective source.

At a coffee shop in my hometown I ran into my friend Jon, who I skated with when we were teenagers. While his toe-headed son Mylo played we talked about old times; Jon recalled, "We were dicks! We'd crash parties, walk into bars like we owned the place. I was never an instigator. I'd just sit back and watch, like, 'what's gonna happen tonight?'"

What's rad about Odd Future and probably what's got "old" white dudes like me interested is they broadcast that vibe worldwide; the fun of being a young skate punk, being kind of a dick and not caring. We get to watch without instigating.

This book is mainly photos, sandwiched between a bit of Tyler's Always Amusing Soundbite-Based Prose. It's not amazing or anything; it'll make the haters fume, but the diehards will swoon. It's got pizza shots, Sharpie tees, homemade tats, posing for pictures, cute skate outfits, girl action, skate photos, and lots of bird flipping, showing the crew can be as creative, silly, funny and offensive in real life as they are on recordings.

My favorite photo is the crew sitting on their boards, on the curb, eating take out. Skaters are the best at hanging out, and hanging out is the best thing in the world. So why is anyone surprised we all love Wolf Gang?

If Clare Peake’s art practice were a character in Girl, Interrupted, it would be the one played by Winona Ryder – the promiscuous one. She’s had her roving little fingers in every artist-related pie from her own independently run art zine Tête á Tête and a residency at Fremantle Arts Centre, to a group exhibition at AGWA and one presented in some Brisbane baggage lockers.

While art might have imitated reality in Ryder’s case, following that certain issue with shoplifting and swathe of ‘Free Winona T-shirts’ to follow, we don’t think the same could be said for Ms. Peake. Thus far she’s stuck to the mysterious (and totally PG) realms of the landscape of the imagination as her subject, which she delves into further for Pilot. This one is being held at the similarly elusive sometimes gallery, mostly private residence, The Museum of Natural Mystery where you can witness more goods from her open relationship with illustration, sculpture and installation. Let’s hope no one gets hurt.

The most surprising things pop up. Pimples just before a first date. That ex you never actually got over. Even fashion can pop up. Yes, the pop-up store is a phenomenon that has taken Perth by storm over recent years and this summer, it gets hotter when Dilettante pop-up in Claremont.

Yes, everybody’s favourite slice of haute style is taking a seaside sojourn over the sizzling season, hitting Bayview Terrace in the biggest way possible. Wrapped in hessian from head to toe, the temporary space is a haven of understated luxury as it mixes Old World elements with a diffused Arabian sensibility. Summer labels from the likes of Josh Goot, Dion Lee, Tsumori Chisato and many more abound throughout, along with a plush assortment of festive season gifts.

Dilettante’s Claremont pop-up shop will prove to be far more fabulous than first-date nerves but just as tempting as that ex.

Hey DIYers! Instead of waking up at 3am to bid on eBay for that overpriced vintage guitar effects pedal, why not have a crack at making your own? Impossible? Nope just read on!

Having myself not soldered (soddered if you’re American) a piece of metal since high school, let me tell you that all you need to get by is a pedal kit from Build Your Own Clone and the occasional online tutorial. Actually you better add to that list a decent soldering iron as things can end up a bit like doing surgery with a stick of butter otherwise.

A few hours and probably half a litre of summer sweat later and you should successfully have cloned your first pedal. Even if the pedal's circuit board looks more like a used cheese grater than a refined piece of sonic technology the sound should be just right.

With BYOC claiming to have the world's finest DIY kits, the verdict on my own attempt at the Scrambled Octave Pedal for the tech-heads out there is that it was easy to assemble and gives a damn nice fuzzy tone, with enough levels of controllable octave to create something nice and freaky. Well worth having a go if you want to keep an eye on the beer fund and sleep through that eBay auction alarm.

Blame it on Bono but the 'rockumentary' has become a tired cliche. A parade of talking heads. Not so, Autoluminescent, a film about Rowland S Howard - guitarist, songwriter, artist and an instrumental figure in the Australian rock scene, most notably for his involvement with the Birthday Party and for writing one of the greatest songs in the history of the sing song!

Howard is the deserving star of this doco. Sure there are interviews including Nick Cave, Henry Rollins and Thurston Moore but the bulk of the film consists of archival interviews with Howard himself. In a career spanning 30 years he worked with the best artists of his generation including Rollins, Lydia Lunch and Ollie Olsen. His was a singular talent, cut short by an untimely death in 2009.

The early ’80s Melbourne post-punk scene is well represented as the film follows Howard through The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Crime & The City Solution and These Immortal Souls. Directors Lynn-Maree Milburn and Richard Lowenstein (Dogs in Space) need to be credited for creating an intimate portrait of a true artist, not a rockstar. There's not a Bono or Flea in sight. Just the tale of a remarkable musician.

I feel strongly that Lars von Trier is f#*ked in the head and that we should condemn his films’ glorying in women’s psychological (and sometimes physical) suffering. But Melancholia surprised me with its romanticism… albeit the sublime kind tinged with suffocating dread. It’s an intimately powerful film that imagines the end of the world with tenderness rather than bombast.

Its disquieting, slo-mo prologue of apocalyptic imagery feels like video art. Like a nihilistic companion piece to Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, it’s set to the prelude from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. This music recurs almost obsessively, coming to represent the florid inertia of sisters Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg).

Severely depressed Justine fails to keep her shit together at her wedding to gormless Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) at the country estate of Claire and her husband John (Kiefer Sutherland). Some months later, almost catatonic, Claire returns to the house as an undiscovered planet named Melancholia collides catastrophically with Earth.

The sisters’ terrifying mum (Charlotte Rampling) abhors the sentimental rituals Claire cherishes. But Justine’s more atavistic rituals – baths; nude moonbathing as the planet encroaches; constructing a ‘magic cave’ with her small nephew – provide solace at the last.

The vegetarian option is often much better for you than a big slab of fatty meat is. Although I am a dedicated carnivore, that fantastic feeling you get when you have downed a bowl of heartwarming beans and vegetables cannot be ignored! While they are low on the ground in Perth, the vegetarian joints that do exist often hold a ‘I-love-the-smell-of-my-own-shit’ aura that radiates from the staff’s vitamin-enriched skin.

Veggie Mama are cute, and there is no air of pretension whatsoever. The food speaks for itself - most of it is prepared in the owner’s own commercial kitchen and deliveries are three times a day. There is a real nice mix of fresh crispy salads (including one of slithers of beetroot, carrot and sprouts) that ooze goodness, plus the chickpea and sweet potato patty is killer. There’s such a mix of different foods - quiches, veggie slices, and filo pastries - that you can easily mix and match to create your ideal, healthy vegetarian feast. At this rate, vego’s shall inherit the earth!

Watching any of the glut of crime shows on TV at the moment, it seems that there ain’t nothing cooler these days than fast cars, fast guns and even faster one-liners. But while modern detectives can seemingly solve any crime in 45 minutes (plus ad breaks), none of them have got shit on Sherlock Holmes. Choosing his need for tweed over the need for speed, Holmes was the epitome of suave, gentlemanly style – one bad-ass’, Earl Grey drinkin’, pipe-smokin’ motherf---er.

What’s more, the man knew his way around a bicycle, realising long before Mark Ronson and Spank Rock that a pair of wheels and some dapper threads do wonders with the laydeez. The folks at Fremantle Tweed Run have wrestled back the sanctity of the traditional bicycle from the tight grip of the lycra clad clan for their annual riding event. Grab some pals, deck yourselves out in some sweet tweed threads and complete the short course – there’s some seriously good prizes on offer. If bikes aren’t your thing, head down to the finish line where there will be a host of festivities on offer, including music from Tusk, Sonpsilo Circus, Will Stoker, Ruby Boots, One Tiger Down and more. Elementary!

The first Human Centipede was a bit of a one trick pony, if *SPOILER ALERT* you could describe people being force fed human fecal matter as a ‘trick’ or, three people with their digestive tracts sewn together as a ‘pony’. The laughs are set to continue when Tom Six unleashes Human Centipede 2, a film which is billed as being ‘banned in heaps of places’. Lead actor Laurence R. Harvey will be in attendance for this special preview screening of the uncut version of HC2 to take your questions/complaints.

Picking up where Evil Summer left off, modern man of music Andrew Sinclair’s Hargharda Dreams EP has a lot of good things going on – the title track’s got a minimal electronic vibe,'Alla Marcia' has driving, tribal undertones with washed-out, looping vocals, and we think we heard some calypso (!) on 'Book of Egyptian Rituals' (feat. the lovely Rebecca Orchard from Erasers). To quote Lyndon Blue in his Soundcloud comment (important resource for critique) it’s “bullshit good”. Sinclair co-launches it all with Ourobonic Plague (we reviewed GAAP here). Support from Eleventeen Eston, Leaving, DJs Javier Frisco, Travis Doom and Nik Ridikulas.

Ever since calling things couture went out of fashion, bespoke has been all the rage and I have no idea what it means. It seems even Californian dandy Daedelus knows all about it - he titled his latest album after the popular expression. But then, he also named his genre-hopping beat project after that Greek inventor who accidentally killed his son and has an onstage mirror-machine he calls 'Archimedes'. Could it be that he his customises his music and live shows to suit his own unique sense of style? Bring me a dictionary!

The art of getting wasted involves good threads, good music and a killer venue. Enter Wasteland and Subway DC with a laneway party that blows all other parties out of the water. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights fuses fashion with sound as labels like Acne, Kris Van Assche, Romance Was Born, Arnsdorf and Chronicles of Never sidle down the catwalk with beats supplied by People of Paris (who actually come from New Zealand). Guaranteed to leave you wondering exactly what happened to your weekend.

It would be an understatement to say that I’m not a very outdoorsy person - the closest I’ve ever gotten to observing nature was watching Bear Grylls set up home inside a rather unfortunate camel, and even then I had to look away. When I read the word camp in this week’s assignment I started to recoil in trepidation until I saw the word cupcake sitting right next to it which made everything alright again. The delicious morsels on offer at Cupcake Camp were baked by volunteers with all the proceeds going to charity. The volunteers, unlike Bear Grylls, know how to prepare tasty treats.

I used to really like Gaslamp Killer, but lately I'm not too happy with the direction he is heading in. Sure his solo stuff is still solid, continuing the crazy hip-hop and eclectic set vibe, but his band, LMFAO, really doesn't do it for me. Just kidding - Gaslamp Killer does look exactly like that guy though! I once saw a LMFAO film clip and thought GK had completely lost his mind and started the gayest band ever. See GK rock some serious amounts of stage presence and psychedelic hip-hop this Sunday, along with fellow Brainfeeder stablemate, the incredibly avant-gardely named Matthewdavid. Support from Perth expat Wooshie and James Ireland.

Just so all of us ‘grown-ups’ don’t feel left out of the Leavers action taking place down in ‘Busso’ and ‘Margs’ at the moment, Ash from TW!ST has decided to throw his own beach party for this month’s instalment of the night. It promises to be more of a demure affair - so significantly less Passion Pop consumption, use of the phrase ‘WOOOOO, LEAVERS 2011’, dexies, and furious dry-humping in sand dunes. On the plus side, the music will be better and you're unlikely to get like 'hell scunted and shit' by the cops.

Having been crooned to sleep as little ones by the Bob Marley himself, the Marley family know good sound. In an effort to carry on the still-relevant, ever-simplistic mantra of 'One Love' they're keeping the spirit of their old man alive, creating a 'movement' in the way of headphones and speakers.

All the products at The House Of Marley have been crafted using the sounds of reggae as a starting point. In short, the bass on these things is out-of-control, without a trace of even the slightest distortion. They've worked on the high pitches, too, for clean sound on either end of the sonic spectrum. Aesthetically they're about as far away from the heinous futuristic get-up you might see chumps sporting on the bus. These are very simple black and brown leather, recyclable, with a tangle-free cord and plenty of other techno-jargon-filled features you can smile-and-nod about too.

Backing up the earthy aesthetics, the Marley family use only reusable or renewable materials to make and package their products. It's times like these the glass feels half full.

You can buy Marley Headphones from these stockists or if you're lucky you can win the pair of Exodus Headphones we are giving away! Over-the-ear design, 20Hz-20+kHz frequency response for clear sound reproduction, a 40-millimeter dynamic moving coil speaker drive for sound reinforcement and integrated three-button Apple controls compatible with iPod and iPhone - RRP $149.95. To enter, just answer the following question. (Warning: We've rigged it so that this kid can win).