I recently purchased my first ever pair of Reebok Pumps (hell yes I wanted them back in '92 but hey, just like the rest of you poor suckers had to settle for el-cheapo Aerosport hi-tops). Then whilst flicking through the racks at my local op shop contemplating donning a Flanny to match my tight jeans, I started thinking to myself; this obvious occurrence of fashion deja vu, the ever evolving re-hashing of past phases - could it be predictable? If so what would be the next big thing? Stussy pants? Or maybe the Serps were on the money with their ode to 80's painted denim... I'm just gonna throw it out there and say happy pants are it! Yes, I said it, happy pants will shine once again.

watussi - live on light square

Coming off a huge performance on one of the main stages of WOMAD earlier this year WATUSSI were one of the highlights of the festival with their debut album “Tequila, Sangre y Fuego” promptly selling out within hours of the show. This Bondi based Afro Colombian rock and roots group are known as one of the most exciting bands performing in Sydney at the moment, and are returning to Adelaide for one show only: FRIDAY 25th JULY at Live on Light Square.

More importantly; supporting on the night will be our favourite; Adelaide's heavyweights of Reggae, Dub & Dance, the FRAUD MILLIONAIRES. So be sure to get down to Light Square for a Massive night of Worldy Beats and Rythms.

When: Friday 25th July
Where: Light Square, City
Map: Which square is that?

Sun glasses at night 3

One of the biggest parties to drop during the 2007 calender year is back, bigger and other stuff….gooder??

Basically it’s the easiest dress-up you’ll ever attend.
Step 1. Grab Sunglasses.
Step 2. Put them on your face.
Step 3. Look fucking cool and dance.

For the third installment, The Baltimore club and Indie classics are coming clean through the supreme sound system of Rocket Bar and local chicken hero’s Alistair Cookie, Curtis, Kane and Kitto will be backed up by Melbourne’s golden Boy ‘DJ Ooh Ee’.

Party starts at 9pm, entry is $15 with cheap drinks before 11, you should probably get there by then anyway, it’ll be heaps heaps!

When: Friday 11th July, 9pm - real late
Where: Rocket Bar 142 Hindley St, City.

Funk + Punk = God God Damit Damit @ Rhino

If you like to get your dance floor groove on to meaty bass lines full of sexy slap bass and horn peaks, but also like to get loose and jump around to some fast punk rock; this gig is a must. Boasting 9 band members including a 3 piece horn section, these cats make any venue go nuts.

When: Saturday 26th July, 9pm till late
Where: Rhino room, 13 Frome st, city

DJ Dexta @ Rocket

Home Slice love Dexta - ever since the early days of the Avalanches we've been hooked. Any dude who can successfully mash up Jimmy Hendrix is alright by us.

Want to win one of 10 FREE tickets for entry to the night before 11pm?

BE ONE OF THE FIRST 10 TO EMAIL US BACK and we'll put you on the list.. right next to our names!

When: Saturday 5th July, 9pm - late
Where: Rocket Bar 142 Hindley St, City.

A Room of Her Own

Having procured their gallery name from the great Virginia Woolf, art aficionados Elspeth Pitt and Gloria Strzelecki established A Room of Her Own in July of last year. Realising there were too few spaces in which local artists could exhibit professionally, the girls set up in Queen Street, Croydon, and have quickly established a reputation for showing innovative contemporary art across a variety of media. Keen to encourage art collecting amongst those without mega salaries, exhibitors works sell from anywhere between $100.00- $1000.00.

Currently on show are the vividly coloured and kitsch Christ works by Sydney-based artists, Chris and Kara Town. In August, Sam Songailo’s large-scale geometric canvases will take over the space and will serve as the starting point for the SALA Croydon walk (South Australian Living Artists Festival, August 1-17). The gallery has also started showing contemporary art jewellery by Peta Kruger and Gray Street Workshop fellows, Alice Potter and Jessica Dare.

Drop into the gallery to sign up to A Room of Her Own’s email list, or join their Facebook group to receive exhibition and event info.

Where: A Room of Her Own,
5 Elizabeth st (Queen st precinct), Croydon
Map: tinyurl.com/6na9f5
Website: aroomofherown.com.au

e belief by Andy Petrusevics

Painter, performance artist, video artist, Andy Petrusevics has been making his anachronistic brand of ideological observation and commentary under the e tag for many years. Petrusevics has an impressive handle on the processes of television production and early 20thC modernist histories. The works are littered with references to the TV aesthetics of B-grade 60's sci-fi, dada-esque typologies and contemporary psychological machinations. His video productions — video? tv? performance? — in particular transmit an oblique wit that appears at first glance heavy-handed and out of synch with the slick narratives of soap opera. Yet there remains something abiding about his take on the dumb forces of power: absurd, banal and funny.

Where: EAF at The Lion Arts Centre, North Terrace (West End)
When: 6pm Thurs 17 July

Stars & Dust Exhibition

An art exhibition inspired by 1950s and 60s Las Vegas casinos, showgirls, glitz and glamour and neon signs. By Stencil Artist Joshua Smith and Photographer Samantha Vodic. The exhibition features stencil artwork by Joshua Smith from a recent photoshoot with local pinup girls Sammy Dee, Miss Cherry Valens and Samantha Vodic as well as photographic work by Samantha Vodic.

Aside from being a talented stencil artist, home slice thinks Joshua Smith is the dude. So check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Where: Value King Gallery, 83A Hindley St, (Clubhouse Lane - off hindley street)
When: Friday 11th of July 6pm

armed and empty handed

Opened by Adelaide artist Anna Platten, 'armed and empty handed' is a collection of new charcoal drawings. Maybe some glass. Maybe even some sculpture...?

Either way, the wine will be flowing and charcoal will be flying, so get your eyes on and come and have a look!

Where: Chesser Gallery, 23 Chesser St, City
When: Wednesday, July 30. 7pm - 9pm

Fresh Meat From The Grindhouse

The often forgotten Mercury Cinema down our charming west-end is running 'Fresh Meat From The Grindhouse', a potentially sordid wet dream for Lynch and Tarantino fans complete with Adelaide premieres and second-run revivals. From the fascinatingly bizarre Lynch classic Blue Velvet, to Tarantino's sexy machine gun legged zombie killer Cherry in Grindhouse plus the straight to cult status, Sweeney Todd, the cuttingly remarkable musical. See these fine flicks and more on the big screen, just as the creators intended.

Where: Mercury Cinema, 13 Morphet st, city

When: Friday 11th July - 2nd August

Tim Fite - Fair Ain’t Fair
(Anti/Epitaph/Shock)

Eclectic hardly seems a strong enough word to use to describe Tim Fite. I mean, after last year’s download-only hip-hop album, Over The Counter Culture, he’s traded his raps for singing once again, coming back with a cut-and-paste indie-folk-based album that’s in a similar vein to Gone Ain’t Gone, his first album for Anti, but more refined and fully realised.

Like a folk troubadour in the space age, Fite riddles the rootsy songs of Fair Ain’t Fair with obscure samples (mainly sourced from the bargain bin in second hand stores), unusual instrumentation (including Hawaiian slack key guitar and mandolin, not to mention the use of tape sounds) and layered vocals with strange harmonies. Picture Tom Waits tackling a mashup of Beck’s Mellow Gold and Odelay albums and you might start to get the idea. But strip away the technique and you’re left with plenty of substance: there’s lots of kooky melodies and catchy choruses here.

That said, it’s almost as if Fite wants to distance himself from his knack for a hook. For example, the album’s most infectious song is not only deprecatingly titled Sing Along, but towards its conclusion Fite notes that he thinks it would “sound real nice for a car commercial”.

Despite the feeling that Fite is at least partly fucking with you throughout the album, it’s easy to be impressed by Fair Ain’t Fair. It’s not perfect (off kilter first track Roots Of A Tree grows on you but is hardly the best introduction to the album, and The Names Of All The Animals and My Hands are both a bit dirge-like), but with the effortlessly tuneful slacker ditty Big Mistake, exuberant and memorable Rats And Rags or dope jam More Clothes, Fite crafts irresistible pop gems almost despite himself.

Words by Oh-Banger

The Tough Alliance - A New Chance
(Sincerely Yours)

***Disclaimer: If you take your music too seriously don’t even bother reading this. Just go back to listening to whatever makes you feel big***

A New Chance is eight songs joyously drenched in the stunningly dorky pop spirit of an era past. More so than any band making music today, The Tough Alliance possess a priceless ability that has been seemingly so long forgotten. The ability to not only coax a smile to the face of the listener, but force it upon them. From the moment that tribal drumming and primitive chants dissolve into the beginnings of a bouncing keyboard riff on the stunning opener Something Special, The Tough Alliance have you in a stranglehold of love.

Admittedly, two lesser gentlemen than Swedes Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund could not have produced the electro-pop masterpiece that is A New Chance. But more importantly, neither could two less charming men. Their unabashed enthusiasm means lyrics that should come off as lame are sincere. Beats that should be repulsive are infectious. Or maybe it’s just because they’re Swedish? But when it comes down to it you’re already too busy lacing up your dancing shoes to care.

If nothing else The Tough Alliance serve as a brilliant reminder not to take music too seriously.

Words by Nick

But wait.. there's more..
We loved the new Girl Talk album, so we thought you might too.. available for your download pleasure right here:

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

The Underground Chef

Cooking food is a fine art that I have definitely not mastered. Understanding spices, tastes and the subtleties that make a great meal? Right right, um no.

Luckily there's a bunch of lovely Adelaide kids that have.. and not only that, they combine it with a kitch secret underground flavour to please all the senses.

The idea is you register your interest. They send you a confirmation email 1 week before hand to tell you you're invited to the dinner party. 24 hours before the event, you're emailed the secret location. And then on the night they proceed to cook you a themed 5 course dinner including matched wine!
And all this for $100 per person.

Oh, did I mention they use local produce where possible, and even cater for vegetarians. Hell yeah!!!

Want in? We sure do!

Email Alice directly at: underground.chef@hotmail.com

Or via f***book: group link here

Entropy Magazine redesign

When I was at uni, I thought the Army was for those who chose guns over books, and I wore op shop and chain store garb because I couldn't afford anything else. Turns out, times have changed; Uni SA have recently launched a shiny new Entropy Magazine for your reading pleasure and it's packed full of relevancy for today's Uni student. In amongst Dolce & Gabbana and Emporio Armani ads is an editorial proclaiming a partnership between the publication and Greenpeace (we might want to save the whales but damn if we can't look slick doing so) and a full page ad for the country's finest (cough), the Army Reserve. But just when you designer wearing, right-wingers thought it may be a good read, the stereotypical uni student strikes with an article that basically reads "I love Kevin Rudd" All this printed in a publication whose tagline is - Urban Lifestyle Magazine. Riiight. Thumbs up for the description of Corey Delaney as a "fuckwank" though, and the Colombian gangster article in the Biography section was a few minutes of interesting reading. At the end of the day, Gjoko Muratovski has done marvels with a top notch graphic re-design, but sadly nothing within these pages justifies the front cover disclaimer, ‘warning of offensive material’ (we could only be so lucky) but hey, it's free free free.

Download your copy now, or pick it up from different locations around the city, we got ours from ValueKing.

Words by Brooke

The Mini-Permafest

Pedro is a permaculturalist. Come help pedro plant his orchard, please? He'd like that ever so much. Ever ever so much. EVER. SO. MUCH.

But what on earth is permaculture? Its growing yummy things using sustainable living and farming techniques so the soil will be fertile for the future.

Sound cool? It is! So come along and help Pedro plant fruit & native trees, learn about permaculture & see a Permaculture farm in the making. Over the whole weekend there'll be workshops on irrigation, orchard planting, seeding groundcovers, planting native trees, grafting fruit trees, making natural medicine, urban planning & food security, plus more.

Where: Rowley Park farm, Corner Pages Flat & Old Sellicks Hill Roads, Myponga.
When: Saturday, July 19, 10am onwards.
Map: can be found here
Contact: Pedro 0415394801
Email: elfucto@yahoo.com.au

peppermint mag art eco comp!

Peppermint mag are the cool new kids in town. They describe themselves as 'fashion for a better looking world'.. and that world includes fair trade, organic, vintage, sustanable, locally produced, recycled, responsibly made and environmentally friendly fashion!!! NICE!

To launch their first issue, they're running a little art eco competition. The theme is 'when one pulls at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world'.

Submit your art as graphic design, photography, art, anything as long as it is an original interpretation of the brief. :)

The winning 3 will be printed in the first issue, 2nd and 3rd as full page and 1st as a double page pull-out poster in the middle. Plus you'll be smothered in organic t-shirts and goods from Kow Tow, Fully Stoked and Ooid.

Get onto it!

Entries close: Monday 14th July
Post entries to: PO Box 553, Morningside, 4170 QLD.
Email entries to: kelley@peppermintmag.com
More information: peppermintmag.com