Latest news with #MichelleZauner
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Japanese Breakfast beats Melbourne cold with warm presence and irresistible performance
MUSIC | Rising Festival Japanese Breakfast ★★★★ PICA, June 5 'It's so cold here! What's going on?' says Michelle Zauner, driving force behind indie darlings Japanese Breakfast. Yes, it's cold in Melbourne right now, and especially in PICA, a big empty shed in Port Melbourne with uneven concrete floors and unlit portaloos. Everyone's wearing massive coats and basking in our collective body heat, while cursing our friends at the Jessica Pratt show in the warm, acoustically luxuriant recital hall. But I'm at a Japanese Breakfast show and thrilled about it. It's been eight years since they last visited, and since then they've put out the breakthrough hit album Jubilee and this year's literate, almost baroque For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), and Zauner has written a bestselling memoir, Crying in H Mart. She writes songs dense with emotion and pathos, and performs them irresistibly. The six-piece opens with three songs from the new album, all dripping with Zauner's great lyrics and the band's rich instrumentation. She's in a frilly shirt and torn tights. Saxophone dances with flute as the lights play with the stage smoke. 'The breeze carries salt / And sipping milky broth / He cast his gaze towards the sea out / The Winnebago,' she sings on Orlando in Love. It's dreamlike. The sound bounces around indie genres. Honey Water leans into shoegaze. Slide Tackle – which she introduces with a cry of 'No more melancholy!' – plays with disco. The guitar finger slide comes out for the country-tinged Men In Bars, with drummer Craig Hendrix sharing the vocals, a part originally performed by Jeff Bridges. Throughout, Zauner's voice is so expressive and full of intent, and her presence is tirelessly warm and breezy. She introduces Winter in LA as being about 'being miserable in lovely places', a contrast that could apply to the whole set. It's not easy to tour to Australia in the '20s. As Zauner tells us, it's so far away and expensive ('IT IS EXPENSIVE!' someone validates from the crowd). But even with high overheads, Zauner wasn't skimping on the massive gong at the back of the stage, used only for the chorus of Paprika in the encore. Correct decision.
The Age
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Japanese Breakfast beats Melbourne cold with warm presence and irresistible performance
MUSIC | Rising Festival Japanese Breakfast ★★★★ PICA, June 5 'It's so cold here! What's going on?' says Michelle Zauner, driving force behind indie darlings Japanese Breakfast. Yes, it's cold in Melbourne right now, and especially in PICA, a big empty shed in Port Melbourne with uneven concrete floors and unlit portaloos. Everyone's wearing massive coats and basking in our collective body heat, while cursing our friends at the Jessica Pratt show in the warm, acoustically luxuriant recital hall. But I'm at a Japanese Breakfast show and thrilled about it. It's been eight years since they last visited, and since then they've put out the breakthrough hit album Jubilee and this year's literate, almost baroque For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), and Zauner has written a bestselling memoir, Crying in H Mart. She writes songs dense with emotion and pathos, and performs them irresistibly. The six-piece opens with three songs from the new album, all dripping with Zauner's great lyrics and the band's rich instrumentation. She's in a frilly shirt and torn tights. Saxophone dances with flute as the lights play with the stage smoke. 'The breeze carries salt / And sipping milky broth / He cast his gaze towards the sea out / The Winnebago,' she sings on Orlando in Love. It's dreamlike. The sound bounces around indie genres. Honey Water leans into shoegaze. Slide Tackle – which she introduces with a cry of 'No more melancholy!' – plays with disco. The guitar finger slide comes out for the country-tinged Men In Bars, with drummer Craig Hendrix sharing the vocals, a part originally performed by Jeff Bridges. Throughout, Zauner's voice is so expressive and full of intent, and her presence is tirelessly warm and breezy. She introduces Winter in LA as being about 'being miserable in lovely places', a contrast that could apply to the whole set. It's not easy to tour to Australia in the '20s. As Zauner tells us, it's so far away and expensive ('IT IS EXPENSIVE!' someone validates from the crowd). But even with high overheads, Zauner wasn't skimping on the massive gong at the back of the stage, used only for the chorus of Paprika in the encore. Correct decision.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
June will not be beach weather for Sydney. Here's what you should do instead
With wet weather constantly popping up on the daily forecast, there's no need to let it be a dampener on your social schedule. Sydney's arts and culture scene has plenty of hot-ticket indoor events that don't require gumboots, an umbrella or an impossible-to-refold rain poncho. Check out our guide to the best indoor music gigs, theatre shows, exhibitions, performances and festivals happening in June, all of which will keep spirits soaring even as the rain falls. Titanic. The Human Story Walsh Bay Arts Precinct Pier 2/3, until July 6 History buffs (or fans of James Cameron's 1997 romantic blockbuster) can get up close and personal with the tragedy of the Titanic at a month-long exhibition that has already toured the United States and Britain featuring 200 objects and personal artefacts from passengers and crew members. There is a detailed recreation of the ship's interior from first class to third class that visitors can walk through, while an audio guide lets listeners be completely encompassed by the stories of those who were onboard. Japanese Breakfast Sydney Opera House, June 3 There are still a few seats left to catch Japanese Breakfast, the musical project of songwriter Michelle Zauner, as the Grammy-nominated indie pop outfit hit town for a Vivid gig. The multi-talented Zauner also found massive success with her bestselling 2021 memoir, Crying In H Mart, but is now back focusing on music with the band's most recent album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), receiving rave reviews for a more mature sound when it dropped earlier this year. Sydney Film Festival Various locations, June 4-15 Cinephiles will be out in full force guzzling popcorn and bathing in the big-screen glow as the film festival takes over Sydney's movie theatres. The buzziest titles on this year's program include the Australian premieres for Ari Aster's straight-from-Cannes flick Eddington, with Joaquin Phoenix starring opposite Pedro Pascal, and Kelly Reichardt's art heist drama The Mastermind. But with more than 200 films from 70 countries on the timetable, there is plenty to choose from whatever one's taste. Illume Sydney Opera House, June 4-14 Bangarra Dance Theatre reveals the world premiere of its first visual arts collaboration as Mirning choreographer and Bangarra artistic director Frances Rings and Goolarrgon Bard visual artist Darrell Sibosado merge their creative forces for what should prove an enlightening alliance. The new work Illume explores how the life-sustaining phenomena of light has been woven into Indigenous cultural existence and how light pollution has disrupted that connection.
The Age
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
June will not be beach weather for Sydney. Here's what you should do instead
With wet weather constantly popping up on the daily forecast, there's no need to let it be a dampener on your social schedule. Sydney's arts and culture scene has plenty of hot-ticket indoor events that don't require gumboots, an umbrella or an impossible-to-refold rain poncho. Check out our guide to the best indoor music gigs, theatre shows, exhibitions, performances and festivals happening in June, all of which will keep spirits soaring even as the rain falls. Titanic. The Human Story Walsh Bay Arts Precinct Pier 2/3, until July 6 History buffs (or fans of James Cameron's 1997 romantic blockbuster) can get up close and personal with the tragedy of the Titanic at a month-long exhibition that has already toured the United States and Britain featuring 200 objects and personal artefacts from passengers and crew members. There is a detailed recreation of the ship's interior from first class to third class that visitors can walk through, while an audio guide lets listeners be completely encompassed by the stories of those who were onboard. Japanese Breakfast Sydney Opera House, June 3 There are still a few seats left to catch Japanese Breakfast, the musical project of songwriter Michelle Zauner, as the Grammy-nominated indie pop outfit hit town for a Vivid gig. The multi-talented Zauner also found massive success with her bestselling 2021 memoir, Crying In H Mart, but is now back focusing on music with the band's most recent album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), receiving rave reviews for a more mature sound when it dropped earlier this year. Sydney Film Festival Various locations, June 4-15 Cinephiles will be out in full force guzzling popcorn and bathing in the big-screen glow as the film festival takes over Sydney's movie theatres. The buzziest titles on this year's program include the Australian premieres for Ari Aster's straight-from-Cannes flick Eddington, with Joaquin Phoenix starring opposite Pedro Pascal, and Kelly Reichardt's art heist drama The Mastermind. But with more than 200 films from 70 countries on the timetable, there is plenty to choose from whatever one's taste. Illume Sydney Opera House, June 4-14 Bangarra Dance Theatre reveals the world premiere of its first visual arts collaboration as Mirning choreographer and Bangarra artistic director Frances Rings and Goolarrgon Bard visual artist Darrell Sibosado merge their creative forces for what should prove an enlightening alliance. The new work Illume explores how the life-sustaining phenomena of light has been woven into Indigenous cultural existence and how light pollution has disrupted that connection.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Michelle Zauner shares the 'sage rock advice' Karen O gave her that changed her life
As a teenager, Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner looked up to Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs not only as a female musician who knew how to rock a stage, but as a fellow half-Korean American woman. "She was everything that any Korean mother tells you not to be," Zauner tells Q 's Tom Power in a recent interview. "That was so exciting for me and a big reason why I think I felt the courage I did to start playing music." In 2022, the Japanese Breakfast frontwoman got the chance to meet her hero when she opened for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Forest Hills Stadium in New York and later at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl. The timing couldn't have been better for Zauner, who was desperately in need of a female role model who could help guide her through some big career changes. WATCH | Michelle Zauner's full interview with Tom Power: Just a year earlier, in 2021, Japanese Breakfast found massive critical acclaim for their breakthrough album, Jubilee, which received two Grammy nominations. Zauner's debut book, Crying In H Mart: A Memoir, also became a surprise New York Times bestseller. But all of that attention came at the cost of Zauner's mental and physical health. In her conversation with Power, she recalls feeling burnt out and scared about the new expectations she felt she'd have to live up to — so she took a break and moved to Seoul for a year to regroup. "I didn't realize how much stress and pressure can manifest in the body," she says. "I thought I was struggling with some kind of illness, but then when I went to Korea for a year, all of that kind of reset and I realized how all of that was just mental, which was pretty wild." The biggest takeaway from our conversations is not to be afraid to say no. - Michelle Zauner By the time Zauner met O, she was feeling much more grounded, but she was grappling with how to balance her career as a touring musician with her desire to start a family. She says O was able to give her some "sage rock advice" about the power of a single word: "no." "I think the biggest takeaway from our conversations is not to be afraid to say no," Zauner says. "She's so, so creative and no one is ever not going to wait around for her to do something, you know? So that was her big piece of advice: the power of no. And I think that was really hard for me as someone who came from a DIY background … because I said yes to everything." Watch or listen to the full interview with Zauner to hear about her new chapter and new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), which is out now.
