GiggySound

Sean Brown and the Red Lights are a local alternative rock band who mix sweaty grunge and classical training to make their sound.

They’ve just recorded their self-titled debut EP at Central Tafe and to chat about it Mr Brown joined Adrian in the studio.

The Western Independent is a paper put out four times a year by Curtin Journalism students.

It offers an independent voice to Perth’s Mainstream news outlets.

To give Youngblood’s regular Youth News segment a bit of a shakeup, Adrian spoke with the deputy editors of the publication – Laura and Caroline.

It’s that time of the week again as Paul Grace and Patrick Pittman don their catsuits for another turn in the Movie-Squad-mobile, captained by Iron Man Barr.

Only one movie this week and it’s a big ‘un…

‘Iron Man 2’ – directed by Jon Favreau. Starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle.

Plot – After confessing his identity as Iron Man to the world, Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) comes under fire from the United States Government who demand he hand over the powerful weapon that is the Iron Man suit. As the Government attempts to create a duplicate suit with the assistance of Stark’s rival, Justin Hammer (Rockwell), Tony’s long time friend Jim Rhodes (Cheadle) is put center stage in the conflict. Meanwhile, a mysterious and dangerous foe emerges in Ivan Vanko (Rourke), who creates an alternate and powerful persona known as Whiplash in order to exact revenge on the Stark family once and for all… it isn’t long before he unites with Hammer in an effort to destroy Iron Man. With the arrival of his shady new assistant Natasha Romanoff (Johansson), and persistent recruitment attempts from S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Stark needs all the help he can get in order to overcome the obstacles.

Verdict: It seems like the story in this film is the thing between the awesome explosive set pieces, even though the screenplay had help from Justin Theroux who has previously worked with David Lynch. Cheadle works better as Rhodes than Terrance Howard in the first film but it was a bit blunt to use a completely different actor. There is absolutely no reason for Scarlett Johansson to be in the film other than for being Scarlett Johansson. The unnecessary ground work for the forthcoming Marvel conglomerate film The Avengers was kind of annoying and that’s the only reason Samuel L Jackson is in the film.

On the plus side – Robert Downey Junior is still totally awesome. He boozes and goes off the rails a little bit more in this film, possibly mirroring real life. But we have to say, Mickey Rourke totally stole the show as comeback kid number 2. His stereotypical Russian bad guy accent is awesome. At times we were gunning for him over Tony Stark.

All in all its a flabby movie that could have been better. It’s a fun, silly and wacky film but the first Iron Man was way cooler. And the ACDC soundtrack totally worked.

The Rudd Government’s shelving of its Emissions Trading Scheme’s been seen by many as a failure to deliver on a core component of its forthcoming election strategy.

With that election announcement looming, what other policies have been delivered, and what others are now sitting on the shelf with climate change policy?

Dr Ian Cook is a Senior Lecturer in Politics & International Study at Murdoch University and joins me to review Rudd.

When the Rudd Government was elected in 2007, the party’s climate change policy was central to its campaign.

Three years on and their Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme’s been shelved until 2013.

The legislation’s already been blocked twice by the senate and doesn’t look likely to be passed any time soon.

So why has the scheme received so much opposition?

And how committed is the government to fulfilling their election promise of lowering carbon emissions?

A poll, conducted by Auspoll on behalf of the Climate Institute, Conservation Foundation and other groups, shows climate change is still of great concern to two-thirds of Australians.

And the Climate Institute’s CEO John Connor joins me.

The countdown continues to WA’s biggest celebration of local music.

In the Pines is back with an enormously excellent line-up that includes one of this town’s infamous freaks of raucous rock – men who pick you up on the side of the road and take you on a trip you’ll never forget.

They’re the Tucker B’s and they join me for Breakfast.

Didn’t know much about Kaki King before having a listen to this album, Junior. After getting her confused momentarily with King Khan, the only thing I found out about her before chucking her on was that she hailed from Altanta, Georgia, and had recorded in New York. I was hoping for a rich grungy southern vocal, but there’s something almost Swedish about her voice – kind of sparse, cold. King’s guitar, however, is warm and lush, complex and layered.

There’s a lot of pop numbers on this album, with some tracks sounding almost synthesised though I think all the instruments are real. Track 6, “My Nerves That Committed Suicide” is a bit more hearty, with some nice solid drums and rich instrumentation. I think that one benefited from a lack of vocals. The final song, “Sunnyside”, gave me a taste of what I was hoping for: just a heartfelt folk ditty by a woman with a guitar. It made me want to chase up her early stuff to see if there’s more like it, on albums that perhaps weren’t quite so produced.

Overall, the dominant soft pop sound of “Junior” doesn’t really do it for me, however if smooth guitar and/or pop melody are your thing then you may very well enjoy this album.