Have you ever wondered what kind of recreational activities Sydney musos might get up to on a Thursday afternoon? With all that sun and harbour, imagine the possibilities...

On this particular Thursday, Tim Derricourt from Dappled Cities was driving over a bridge on his way to see a friend's new puppy. As our interviewer Monty Montan discovers, Tim's a pretty cool guy...

WHL: I haven't come across much dirt on your band and I wanna know where does sex, drugs and rock n roll come into it?

Tim: [laughing] Ahh I know we keep it pretty clean! But we're about to go to a festival for the weekend and I don't know what stories will come out of it. We just had a practice and it's not looking like its going to be the cleanest weekend we've ever had let me tell you.

WHL: In the words of Abbie Hoffman "If you don't have sex and you don't do drugs your rock n roll better be awfully good"

Tim: [laughing] Well there you go, maybe our rock n roll is just awfully good!

WHL: I read an interview that you did with Truth Booth, where you were asked to review your own concert and you said ...

Tim: I said, "A dud lay but pleasant company"

WHL: Yeah that's what it said, so I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself. In retrospect if you were asked to describe a Dappled Cities concert what would you say?

Tim: I would describe it as fireworks of sex and very awful company.

WHL: Alright you've totally flipped that one around! So Dappled Cities have been together since you were all 15. What seduced you towards making music and what has kept you together all these years?

Tim: We all seemed to get into the same thing which was grunge and Nirvana and we wanted to be in a cool grunge band so we came together. What kept us together was that we couldn't be grunge [laughs] but we tried our hardest to be an interesting band.
We never do shows for ourselves, we do shows because we love playing and it's always a performance for other people - we revel in that kind of feeling because the more you give people the more they give back. That's our thing.

WHL: Was anything in competition for your attention in the early days? Like cars or girls? Or was music your outright obsession?

Tim: Funnily enough I wouldn't call it an obsession because none of us are obsessive people, but thinking about it now after 12 years together, it's been the only thing we've all pursued ... which I guess gives the impression of a single-minded determination.

WHL: You've just released an album called Zounds which is an archaic word meaning ‘Gods Wounds'. Plus, you're making a series of films called Gadzooks which is another strange sounding word relating to God. There seems to be a religious theme in the band at the moment.

Tim: Well we're certainly not religious - far from it. The Gadzooks project I'm absolutely in love with. They're not released yet but we're the sort of band who likes to play our songs in lots of different ways so after we finished recording the Zounds album we thought we'd combine the new songs with live filming. We got the help of an excellent director (Nick Maher) and an artistic team and they filmed us playing straight through our entire album in the studio.

WHL: It says in one of your press releases that you didn't see ‘eye to hi-fi' with Zounds producer Chris Coady.

Tim: Yeah he was a very intense individual. He was very into star signs. When we first arrived he was like "What star sign are you? And what about you?" We told him and he was like "Ok I might not get along with you". At times he was very difficult, but at other times we were difficult too...although I never heard anyone say that [laughs].

WHL: But I could imagine you guys could be quite intimidating to an outsider...

Tim: You know it's funny because it's only been in the last 3 years I've realised that. People always say to us they're intimidated by us at first, but there's an in built communication with any group of friends. Chris Coady was of a similar ilk to us in terms of production and that's why we got him. He was into the same things like not recording anything too slickly, not focusing too much on one sound to get it perfect, just making it so it sounds right. We like words to sound out of place and things to sound rough, so we very much saw eye-to eye on that one. We certainly worked together through thick and thin on the album.

WHL: So what is your star sign Tim?

Tim: Scorpio

WHL: Do you know Scorpio is the only sign that causes star sign envy?

Tim: Really? People really wanna be Scorpios?

WHL: Totally

Tim: Weird

WHL: Scorpios have a reputation for being absolutely fantastic in the sack too. Did you know that?

Tim: [laughs] Well, I'm not gonna lie.

Zounds - not an English anarchist punk band from the 70's, not a hearing aid but an anachronistic word meaning ‘Gods Wounds' and the new release from Dappled Cities. Out Now through Speak and Spell Records.

ANITA O'DAY

Anita O'Day. The Jezabel of Jazz. Sounds cool doesn't it? Thats becasue Anita O'Day is one of the coolest white women in musical history. She was the first singer to record for the legendary Verve Records (This Is Anita, 1955) just a little bit before Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

She was the epitome of jazz cool in a female form. SO much more a "vocalist" than a songbird, she often opted to wear the same getup as the band rather than attention-grabbing evening gowns.

Anita was a natural jazz drummer and you can hear her inate sense of rhythm in her singing and scatting. A bebop trailblazer, her voice tripped along the beat at all times. She was all about creative timing.

Like so many jazz artists Anita was a wee bit tortured. The Jezebel of Jazz moniker came from her long term heroin addiction and her general loose morals. Just as she liked to be equal with the boys on stage, she liked to mix it with them off stage. She went to jail twice for drugs and liked to get up to no good but managed to live till the ripe old age of 87, dying of heart failure in 2006. 

One of the best examples of Anita's unique and damn cool style is her stunning rendition of Sweet Georgia Brown from the famous 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Sorry to say but it looks like the heroin may have done her good... Anita O'Day was as high as a kite during this performance.

BOBBIE GENTRY

Those who have heard of Bobbie Gentry might think of her as a one hit wonder. I guess literally she was, but so many of her other songs kicked arse. That "one hit" was Ode To Billie Joe, a sparse and dark classic about suicide and abortion. Grizzly stuff for a 1967 number one smash hit.

After this track took her to the top, winning her 3 Grammys, Bobbie dissappeared into relative obscurity (besides a few minor hits and a four episode TV show in the UK a few years later).

Bobbie Gentry grew up in Chickasaw Couty Mississippi in the care of her grandparents and learnt an independance and insight into family life that can be heard in much of her music. She was one of the first women in country music to write and record her own songs, thus setting a course for many important female artists to follow.

Bobbie didnt just stick to country music however. Many of her best songs sound like they came straight out of the Stax or Motown stables, while others are dirty go-go jams or just straight up soul.

Yes she did have some pretty appalling numbers too, especially when she let the razzle dazzle of her showgirl past come back to haunt her. But all in all Bobbie was a bloody sexy, strong and often dark unsung diva of the last century.

Nick Maher

Incredibad by THE LONELY ISLAND

I should've known better than to put this album on high rotation. It was a self fulfilling prophecy. Ever since I started listening to it I've been jizzing in my pants left right and centre.

This morning when I sipped my cappuccino froth with extra choc I jizzed in my pants. Yesterday when i saw my flatmate in his tight blue undies on the way to the shower I jizzed in my pants. Just now when I took the recycling bin out I jizzed in my pants. On sunday at footy training when I kicked the ball I jizzed in my pants and after training when I washed my footy shorts in the laundry bucket I jizzed in my - actually I jizzed on my foot cos I'd already jizzed in all my pants and I had no more pants to jizz in cos as I said I'd jizzed in my pants.

Thats the song Jizz in my pants, 1 of 19 tracks from 'Incredibad' the debut album from The Lonely Island. Their video clip on You Tube has almost 50 million hits to date and, I reccommend you listen to this song and all the others, with the visuals attached. The chance of you jizzing in your pants will be greatly enhanced.

Danish dance duo The Knife have been enlisted by theatre group Hotel Pro Forma, to create a Charles Darwin themed "electro opera".

Tomorrow in a Year will contain an original music score and libretto for the upcoming production launching on 2nd September.

If Karin Dreijer Andersson's solo side project (Fever Ray) is anything to go by, Tomorrow in a Year should resemble some sort of shimmering wintry ghoul type masterpiece. Yep.

Their Facebook Group is giving away two tickets to Denmark to see the show. Check it.

Perth native Felicity Groom has been mesmerizing audiences throughout the country in support of Little Birdy's recent national tour.

A mighty songstress in her own right, Groom's first guitar was a gift from her highschool crush. When they broke up that's when the finger picking and soulful stroytelling began.

Having already lived and gigged throughout Europe, Groom is now building a steady reputation as an Aussie femme fatale to watch. WAMI awards and a Triple J Unearthed status are just the beginning ...

Photography: Lisa Businovski