The Formative Years – Queen

There are few bands that had a tangible impact on me to the extent that Queen did with their dramatic and anthemic songs, before I fell prey to the allure of punk rock, which is many ways is no less dramatic and decidingly less anthemic.

The way Queen as a musical outfit seamlessly and confidently transitioned between a myriad of different styles based on a line-up of four accomplished musicians, each of which contributed an idiosyncratic facet in their own realm, created a creative total the legacy of which remains timeless and constitutes much more than the mere sum of the individual components would suggest. 

As a prepubescent I loved the fact that no matter who I met in even far flung places and started to engage with in terms of musical preferences, Queen was almost always the common denominator as they were one of the most recognisable and accessible acts on this earthround.

It was fantastic to witness how Queen’s music evolved over time, constantly reinventing itself with a perpetual forward move towards innovations while still retaining their DNA. The fact that they were fronted by lightning in a bottle as far as the showmanship and exuberance of their exceptional frontman was concerned, only added to the appeal.

Queen changed the face of rock and roll with not only their talent but imagination and boundary pushing songwriting, resulting in songs that are immensely rich, intricate and multi-layered to ensure that the attentive listener was rewarded with something new to discover even after numerous listens without ever feeling forced.

Lyrically, Queen’s themes had a universal quality and I loved the fuck-you attitude that was the inspiration for some of the more sarcastic elaborations, the delivery of which was accentuated by Freddie’s particularly colourful vocal abilities, adding another layer of authenticity to the frontman paradigm that effortlessly shifted sensibilities from sentimental to raw assault mode.

An inimitable band that upped the ante of what was thought possible to be achieved through pop music.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer

Stomping Ground and Heaps Normal

Traditionally, the Collingwood region in Victoria has always been a hotbed for craft breweries, a fact that had a tangible impact on the nomenclature of Stomping Ground Brewery, which not only gave the region an innovative boundary pushing new brewery but also paid homage to its heritage by adding a new chapter in the realm of brewing to it.

Classifying Stomping Ground’s portfolio of brews as “comprehensive” would be an understatement par excellence as the array of their creations encompasses dozens of beer styles, ranging from easy-to-drink via intermediate to challenging styles like their take on the Teutonic Rauchbier, all of which are imbued with their dedication to nailing the quintessence of the respective style while staying faithful to their DNA.

My first exposure to Stomping Ground’s emissions was via their Hop Stomper IPA, which is located at the lean and subtle end of the sweet and grapefruity spectrum, counterpointed by a prominent bitterness.

Clocking in at 6.2% ABV, the Hop Stomper constitutes a beautifully sessionable IPA and ideal gateway to Stomping Ground’s more challenging creations, parts of which are released as their own barrel-aged Into the Wood series: Based on partnerships with an eclectic range of reputable Victorian distillers like one of my favourite whiskey distillers on terra australis, which we have covered quite a few times as part of our Water of Life series, i.e. Bakery Hill, barrel exchanges result in the creation of unique flavour experiences.

The result of Stamping Ground’s collaboration with Bakery Hill is a veritable flavour bomb: Amber in appearance and fuelled by an alcoholic punch of 10% ABV, it is nice to experience subtle nuances in this barley wine in the way piney highlights cast their resinous shadow against a backdrop of fruity molasses and heavier port wine notes. Needless to say, it goes beautifully with a dram of my favourite Bakery Hill expression, i.e. Sovereign Smoke.

On the lighter end of the Stomping Ground spectrum of diversity, the Raspberry Smash convinced me. As both the name and the pink hue suggests, fruity notes take centre stage and while this could have ended up with an overly sweet novelty beer with lesser breweries, Stomping Ground pulls it off and creates a crisp, berry-centric brew that only offers hints of sour notes, thereby making an instant favourite for any beer fiend with a sweet tooth.

Given that I have yet to taste a Stomping Ground release that does not tick all the boxes for the respective style, I cannot wait to taste the brewery’s other current and future releases and can only hope that they will be looking into releasing double and triple IPAs.

Heaps Normal

Arguably, I like beer and the warmth and other contributions that can be attributed to alcohol certainly plays a role in the equation. However, with the deluge of non-alcoholic beers having entered the scene over the last few years, I endeavoured to find out what the craze was all about and more importantly, if they delivered on the flavour front.

While the bigger players have entered the non-alcoholic beer market early on with questionable and non-enjoyable attempts, it was interesting to see craft brewers enter the game of creating brews with less than 0.5% ABV with innovate new ways to extract alcohol out of the brews. A feat that is usually achieved by brewing in higher temperatures in a bid to literally make the alcohol evaporate based on the fact that alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water. An approach does more often than not come at the cost of flavour.

Enter Heaps Normal based out of Canberra, which has made quite a significant splash on the scene with its well defined marketing campaigns and classic yet iconographic branding, with their credo of being “too good to be wasted” capturing the essence of what they set out to achieve. 

Based on a well calibrated melange of Kohatu, Simcoe and Cascade hops, Heaps Normal’s flagship expression, i.e. the New World hop based Quiet XPA is an accomplished example for a flavourful ale on the citrus and tropical side of things, elegantly counterpointed by biscuity and bitter nuances, which are pierced by a delicate sweetness. 

A wonderfully flavourful little number that is the result of the expertise and technical prowess of Heaps Normal’s head brewer, who has honed his craft through stints at 4 Pines and Grifter and a veritable alternative for real beer aficionados who are dedicated to mindful drinking and looking to cut back on their alcohol intake without feeling like making sacrifices at the flavour front.

With the unique recipe and brewing method that Heaps Normal has refined, I hope that they will endeavour to create a non-alcoholic hopped out IPA. 

The fact that Heaps Normal has finetuned its brand personality with the subtle yet impactful deliberate merchandise they design with meticulous attention to detail and quality without becoming too salesy and drab for recipients to actually want to use, only adds further to the appeal of their offerings.

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images form company websites

Thursday has been touring across the U.S with Cursive, The Appleseed Cast, and Nate Bergman. The show made its way to the art apex of Pomona and I was excited to make it back to The Glass House for the first time since it reopened.

I arrived just in time to catch Nate Bergman wallowing into the mic. The solo act oozed charm and put on a powerful performance with the confidence of a full band. If you have the opportunity to catch the tour before it ends on Sunday, try not to miss Nate. Following were the emo-act, The Appleseed Cast. The band cruised through their set as the audience continued to file in throughout the weeknight.

By the time Cursive made it to the stage, the room was full and ready to get rowdy. Cursive faked out the crowd with the intro to Ugly Organ's, "Gentleman Caller" before jumping into Domestica's, "Lament of Pretty Baby." The fake-outs would continue throughout the night. Often kicking off with "Big Bang's" blusterous opening only to switch to a different song. The fake-outs did eventually lead to a payoff.

One of the joys of seeing Cursive perform is the occasional banter and jokes cracked by frontman, Tim Kasher. When asked if the crowd would like to hear how their new song "Botch Job" went, he began to describe and vocally replicate each part of the song before declaring that they would just play it. Cursive spent the set jumping between fan-favorites like "Art is Hard" and "The Martyr" and tracks like "Stranded Satellite" and "It's Gonna Hurt" from their most recent releases, Get Fixed and Vitriola. Eventually, they finished what they started by returning to "Gentleman Caller" to finish out their set.

Word had spread fast of Geoff Rickly's accident from the night before. The Thursday vocalist had fallen off the stage and broken his ankle. Needless to say, fans were unsure of how the night would go. Then the lights cut out. Queen's "The Show Must Go On" blared from the house speakers as the band walked out. Rickly rode to the center of the stage on a scooter with a cast on his foot and a smile on his face. He wasn't about to let the injury take away from the performance. The band jumped into War All the Time's opener "For the Workforce, Drowning." The band continued onto classics like "Cross Out the Eyes," "Jet Black New Year," and "Signals Over the Air."

One of the frontman's most endearing qualities is the love he expresses toward music and performing. He took a moment to reflect on the struggles throughout the tour, from having to postpone the first half due to the rise of Omicron, members getting covid (which even resulted in multiple special guests filling in), as well as shows getting snowed out, and to Rickly breaking his foot. He recounted how someone asked him if he thought God was trying to tell him that he shouldn't be touring but felt that the experience will just make them stronger. Rickly took a seat and delivered an emotional and impassioned performance of "This Song Brought to You By a Falling Bomb." The audience watched and listened in awe as he repeated the song's final lines over and over to a room of silence.

With Norman Brannon of Texas is the Reason filling in this tour, it only seemed natural for them to throw in a Texas is the Reason cover in the form of "If It's Here When We Get Back It's Ours," while scouring their own discography for deep cuts like "Running From the Rain" from 2006's A City by the Light Divided. But of course, no Thursday show is complete without "Understanding in a Car Crash" which really amped up the Tuesday night crowd before closing the show with the faux encore of "War All the Time."  When the show was over, there was no question that Thursday and Rickly gave 110%. His foot may have been broken, but his spirit wasn't.

The Formative Years – Daft Punk

In the mid-1990s there was a period of time that due to a love interest, lead me to Paris every other weekend, where we often ended up at warehouse parties. It was there that I was first introduced to French electronic music and a duo that referred itself to as Daft Punk, so when their debut album Homework was released and we received physical copies in the record store I was working at, I intuitively put one away for myself.

While house and dance music has never been a particularly favourite, what Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo presented with their first album, felt special and progressive from the get go. 

For a start, the title of the album was a telling one as the tracks were spontaneously recorded and produced in DIY fashion at their respective homes.

Then there was a deliberate departure from what had become a formulaic template that European dance music adhered to with its keyboard pre-sets as they infused it with big beat, acid house, ambient techno and a bit of punk rock spirit. 

Pretty early on it became clear that Homework was a ground-breaking instant classic and with its futuristic approach paved the way for Daft Punk to become one of the biggest electronic dance music acts ever, long before they ventured into pop territory and the creation of their iconic anonymous robot helmeted avatars.

Homework felt like more like a collection of singles rather than a cohesive album, with each track starting off by relying on a single sonic track to then evolve via the incorporation of sounds and techniques lifted from other subgenres, which is then weaved into a cohesive house music based whole.

A classic album that despite its infectious mass compatible tunes retains its intimate, playful and innocent nature.

The Formative Years – Daft Punk

Thus Let Us Drink Beer

Hop Nation & Cronulla Beer Co.

It must have been a couple of years ago that while on a quest to quench my hankering for a hopped out beer, I came across one of Hop Nation’s delicious emissions the first time. I remember that obviously the name, the label design and the overall way Hop Nation presented itself caught my eye and luckily their first IPA, The Fiend, did not disappoint on the flavour front either, which started an on-going interest in the brewery.

After refining their approach and a period of gypsy brewing, Hop Nation eventually set up their own shop in Melbourne, which was the starting point for a journey that eventually established them firmly on the firmament of Australian quality craft beer breweries with their focus firmly set on the creation of hop forward styles, centred around the experimentation with quality ingredients and minimal filtration.

With the Hop Nation founders having a pedigree in winemaking and a curious interest in experimenting, over the years a diverse array of barrel aged brews were given birth to as a side projects under the moniker Site Fermentation Project, which also saw the release of idiosyncratic beer-wine hybrids and fermented brews.

Hop Nation’s over-the-top hazy hop-hash informed tour de force that is the juicy and citrusy J Juice and the pale gold, grapefruity The Chop, which is informed by the best of what the quartet of Ella, Cascade, Simcoa and Mosaic hops have to offer, along with their take on a traditional American red ale, The Buzz, have become a reliable staples in my fridge 

Apart from consistently knocking things out of the park with their hop-centric releases, it was interesting to see Hop Nation branch out into sour beer styles, the first of which I experienced via their refreshingly salty, delicately acidic and passionfruity The Punch, which is a Teutonic-styled mango gose in nature and proved to be a perfect companion to be teamed up with a wee dram of Port Charlotte.

I have to admit that when I first learned about Hop Nation diversifying their offerings via the Ray Seltzer brand, I was a bit sceptical as carbonated water combined with alcohol and fruit flavouring does not exactly sound like an exciting proposition, however, with their natural brewing approach and reliance on real fruit, it makes for a refreshing tipple, especially when one feels like accommodating the urge to indulge during the earlier hours of the day.

Apart from the way Hop Nation is expertly channelling their alchemy in the realm of brewing and fermentation, their meticulous attention to detail not only can be experienced via the artful presentation of their drink range, but also with the creation of their top notch merchandise, which both in terms of designs but also the quality of their garments aligns with their quality approach.

Cronulla Beer Co.

We have covered a myriad of Australian craft beer distilleries from all necks of the woods of terra australis, however, an area that was not necessarily on my radar in the brewing department was Sydney’s Sutherland Shire. 

All the more exciting it was to see a brewery pop up that fully embraces the DNA of the place and channels the local vibes into their interpretations of hoppy nectars, which to culminates in a liquid, fun- and flavour filled equivalent to what Cronulla and its beaches stand for – an ethos that also expands to the branding and their high quality merch range, which given the stylish components it is based on, should be more than well received both by beer aficionados as well as folks a bit more invested in what garments they invest in.

Having initially started out with a core range of four beers, i.e. XPA, mid-strength, a lager and a pale ale, my current favourite expressions are Cronulla’s Next Level XPA, which is essentially based on an NEIPA by transforming the grain bill and hop schedule,  and their Pavlovian response evoking Ultra Hazy IPA, both of which are lipsmackingly great and dangerously more-ish due to the slightly higher ABV content.

Especially with the Ultra Hazy IPA, Cronulla Brewing Co demonstrates that they are naturals when it comes to expertly calibrating the finer nuances of subtleties, which are often overshadowed by lesser releases in the current haze craze breweries find themselves competing in.

Cronulla’s Ultra Hazy IPA is a beautiful union of solid and liquid, resulting in flavour that you can see, with each ingredient contributing to the haze without running danger of cancelling the impact of other ingredients out. 

An example par excellence for the best one could hope for when merging the triumvirate of protein-rich grains, yeast activity, and hefty hop additions, which results in a foggy brew that one would be hard pressed to distinguish from a class of orange juice as far as appearance is concerned, and thereby representing the provenance and natural hues of Cronulla and its surroundings.