Massive Attack at Sydney Opera House

Massive Attack

Bristol-based duo Massive Attack has finally confirmed their long-anticipated Australian tour. For us Sydney-siders, they chose no other than Sydney Opera House for their two shows on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 March 2010. Tickets go on sale Friday 5 February, coinciding with their fifth studio album (Heligoland) release. If you purchase your tickets from the Sydney Opera House website, you’ll be treated to a free album download. Hurray to that!

Shoot the Player: Sydney and music on film

A great way to start the new year is by getting out and indulging in the goodies Sydney has on offer this summer. If you need a break from the beach or find the weather rather unappealing, get out there and see lots of international and local gigs at the Sydney Festival, catch a movie at one of the outdoor cinemas, or, for something a bit out of the ordinary, head down to Carriageworks in Newtown for a very interesting project from the Sydney-based Shoot the Player.

Together with Carriageworks, they are presenting an interactive showing of unique one-take music videos featuring local and international artists doing things like hanging out in their pyjamas, performing on the street and buying pastries. The aim of the exhibition is two-fold: to experience the musicians in a new light by seeing them in places one wouldn’t expect them to be normally; and the evolution of the spontaneous and unpredictable one-take music videos as an art form and the ‘do-it-yourself’ concept of filmmaking.

The installation runs until Saturday 30 January, and is free.

Shoot the Player

Big Day Out photo exhibition

Mart Gallery

Another really cool photo exhibition happening at the moment is the Tony Mott & Sophie Howarth. A Big Day Out Retrospective. Basically, it’s a collection of photographs from Australia’s favourite festival, Big Day Out, taken by two of Australia’s most renowned music photographers, Tony Mott and Sophie Howarth. The spectrum of musicians captured on camera is very impressive. From our own Magic Dirt, Silverchair, The Dirty Three to international superstars like The Ramones, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Bjork, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey and the list goes on and on.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 30 January and is free. Mart Gallery is at 156 Commonwealth Street in Surry Hills.

Outdoor cinema experience

Moonlight Cinema

You know summer’s truly kicked in when you’re over your first sunburn,  your carpet is full of sand and when your flatmate leaves flippers in the bathtub. That’s if you’re lucky to live by the beach. But what to do when the night falls, you ask? We’re super lucky to live in a gorgeous, outdoors-loving city. So when the sun goes down, head to your local  for some garden/courtyard dining and beverage action, or organise a picnic with some mates and head to Centennial Park for Moonlight Cinema. It’s the annual outdoor cinema located in a very gorgeous Belvedere Amphitheatre, screening all sorts of cool new and classic movies. It kicked off last Thursday (4 December), and it runs until Sunday 14 March, almost every night, with movies starting after sunset. Romantic, isn’t it? My fave Tarantino cult, Pulp Fiction, will screen on Thursday 17 December, Nolan’s The Dark Knight will show on Thursday 18 February and the Coppola masterpiece, The Godfather (part I), will screen towards the end of the festival, on Thursday 11 March. I might check out Mao’s Last Dancer (Friday 15 January) and Almodovar’s new film Broken Embraces (Thursday 4 February) due for release in Australian cinemas next week. For full list of movies and screening dates, go here. Tickets are $15.

St. George OpenAir Cinema

St. George OpenAir Cinema will also be happening from Tuesday 12 January until Saturday 20 February. Check out the screening program, out tomorrow, Friday 11 December. Although a bit pricier ($25) than Moonlight, OpenAir’s location is more than brilliant. If you’ve got visitors over the summer months, take them to the pictures and impress them big time! Bet they won’t be able to resist gazing into the stunning Sydney harbour backdrop.

Rock loyalty snapshots land at Blender

Pattie Boyd and George Harrison

Blender Gallery in Paddington is hosting a photo exhibition by Patti Boyd, former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Labeled one of the original 1960’s ‘it girls’—or what we would now call a ‘celebrity’—Boyd was a model, a photographer and a columnist. Having lived in the most creative music period, she is believed to have been the inspiration of a number of classic songs, most notably Harrison’s Something, For You Blue, and Clapton’s Layla, Wonderful Tonight and Bell Bottom Blues.

She married Harrison in 1966 after meeting him on the set of A Hard Day’s Night movie. Many say it was her growing interest in Eastern philosophy, that ispired The Beatles’ subsequent exploration of transcendental meditation and the 1968 visit to the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Harrison and Boyd divorced in 1977, and two years later, she married Eric Clapton, who had long been in love with Boyd—Layla the ultimate symbol to their unrewarded love. Boyd was with Clapton through his alcohol and heroin addiction, before they split at the end of the 1980’s. The two are still friends, and she also remained close to Harrison until his death in 2001.

Boyd has documented these happenings since the late 1960’s. Through The Eyes Of A Muse—Photographs By Pattie Boyd is an opportunity to take an intimate look at some epoch-making lives and times, seen through the eyes of an ultimate insider. The exhibition is on until Thursday 24 December at the Blender Gallery.

One more 2010 diary date

Phoenix

Frenchies are coming back in the new year! Versailles-based indie pop-rockers Phoenix are coming to play a few live shows for us again in March 2010. I had so much fun seeing them earlier this year at the Enmore Theatre. I still get shivers just remembering the euphoria of the crowd. If you missed out on the ultimate dance party/gig Phoenix experience, be sure to get your hands on their Hordern Pavilion tickets which go on sale Thursday 10 December. No doubt their first Sydney show for Tuesday 2 March will be a sell-out, with more dates to follow.

Note: Phoenix just announced a second Sydney show. Pencil in Wednesday 3 March at Big Top Luna Park. Enjoy!

Sydney Festival freebies

Circa 1979: Signal to Noise -- Photo © Sydney Festival

There are quite a few free events to catch at Sydney Festival this January—think great little bands in the Famous Spiegeltent with Late at the Garden, Festival First Night starring the gospel legend Al Green, or something a little different like Symphony in The Domain—but my favourite is Circa 1979: Signal to Noise.

Circa 1979: Signal to Noise is a celebration of one of the most creative periods in Australia’s music history that spanned from 1979 to 1985. A period which saw avant garde, post-punk, new wave and early electronic styles of music become a thriving underground scene.

Presented by Sydney Festival and  Modular, this event consists of two parts. Signal to Noise Sessions is a day of free talks exploring early experimentation in music, film and video and the cultural influences surrounding this period, and is happening at the Seymour Centre on Saturday 16 January. Then there is Signal to Noise at the Sound Lounge, an exhibition of fanzines, photography and album artwork collected in an attempt to revive and recreate the Sydney underground music scene of 1979–1985. The exhibition will run over a couple of weeks in January at the Seymour Centre’s Sound Lounge. Coupled with unreleased music and a previously unseen video archive, this exhibition is the first of its kind. A must see for any music appreciator.

Small bar me

It’s been a few exciting months for small bar lovers around Sydney. Like hidden treasures, tiny little spaces have been popping up everywhere. My absolute favourite is the intimate and cosy Pocket Bar. Serving cheap booze and delicious crepes, it’s a perfect after work catch-up drink space for the East Sydney/Surry Hills/Darlinghurst ‘creative hub’ types. I love the second-hand velvety lounges and pop-art stenciled walls. The atmosphere is friendly and bubbly, and most importantly its clientele is not pretentious. Pocket Bar is on the corner of Burton and Crown Streets in Darlinghurst and is open every night until midnight.

NME’s top 100 greatest albums of the decade

The Strokes

What a day! Not that this is relevant to what to do in Sydney, but I just can’t resist not publishing NME’s hot-off-the-press top 100 albums of the decade list. The list, which is made of albums released between January 2000 and December 2009, was voted for by NME staff, and a selection of musicians and industry figures. Here are the first 50, but for the full list and more detail, head to NME. While I love the fact that two amazing ladies, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing at Hordern Pavilion on Friday 8 January) and Polly Jean Harvey, are in the top 10, I’m a little disappointed only two Australian albums have made it in. At number 45 are the Avalanches with their 2000 debut Since I Left You and at number 92 sits Sleepy Jackson with the beautiful 2003 album Lovers. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds anyone?

1. The Strokes – Is This It
2. The Libertines – Up The Bracket
3. Primal Scream – XTRMNTR
4. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
6. PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
7. Arcade Fire – Funeral
8. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights
9. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead – In Rainbows
11. At The Drive In – Relationship Of Command
12. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
13. The Shins – Wincing The Night Away
14. Radiohead – Kid A
15. Queens Of The Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf
16. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free
17. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
18. The White Stripes – Elephant
19. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
20. Blur – Think Tank
21. The Coral – The Coral
22. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
23. Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future
24. The Libertines – The Libertines
25. The Rapture – Echoes
26. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
27. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
28. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around
29. Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
30. Elbow – Asleep In The Back
31. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
33. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
34. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump
35. Babyshambles – Down In Albion
36. Spirtualized – Let it Come Down
37. The Knife – Silent Shout
38. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
39. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
40. Ryan Adams – Gold
41. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
42. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
43. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
44. Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
45. Avalanches – Since I Left You
46. The Delgados – The Great Eastern
47. Brendan Benson – Lapalco
48. The Walkmen – Bows and Arrows
49. Muse – Absolution
50. MIA – Arular

Hola Mexico Film Festival

Hola Mexico Film Festival

Fourth annual Hola Mexican Film Festival is kicking off in Sydney tonight. The festival runs until Sunday 29 November in both Circular Quay and Newtown Dendy cinemas. My picks are the opening flick Sin Nombre (also screening on Friday 27 and Saturday 28); The Bastards (showing on Friday 20, Monday 23, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29);  I’m Gonna Explode (screening on Saturday 21, Sunday 22, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29); and Those Who Remain (showing on Thursday 19, Saturday 21, Sunday 22, Friday 27 and Sunday 29);