Hayley Rivers  is an Aussie babe who would love to be in Penthouse, vote for Hayley Rivers
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HANDY ANDIE
Casanovette, Andie Valentino, made waves in Penthouse in May ’97 as Pet of the Month. This year she’s back and sexier than ever in The Girls of Australian Penthouse. We don’t know what they feed their porn stars over there in California, but it leaves them smoldering from the inside out
Photography: MISHA
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Mishka Martini is an Aussie babe who would love to be in Penthouse, vote for Mishka Martina now!

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Ricki is an Aussie babe who would love to be in Penthouse! Vote for Ricki now!

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Where there’s a Will… Continue reading “Where there’s a Will there’s a…” »

Following a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2009, electrifying American bluegrass band Old Crow Medicine Show is back! Cameron Murray talks to fiddle player and songwriter Ketch Secor (above, with the apple) about life on the road, Bob Dylan, and snuff…

How’s it going, Ketch?

It’s going pretty well, but it’ll be going even better when I get down under!

What do you most enjoy about touring in Australia?

I don’t even know where to begin. One of the things I love is simply being in a foreign place, where music is your language, where music is the thing that unlocks doors, where music is your passport. And I love the symbolism of bringing fiddles, guitars, banjos, harmonicas, a double bass, and all my best friends halfway around the globe to make music. There’s no further you can go than the land down under; if you go any further, you start coming home again!

How did you come up with the name ‘Old Crow Medicine Show’?

We needed a name that was going to sound good shouted on a street corner; a name that would call the people in. It needed to have a little rhyme and a good cadence, and Old Crow Medicine Show was just something that struck me while I was scrubbing dishes at a job and daydreaming about playing music.

How would you describe OCMS?

We’re like a rock’n’roll band with acoustic instruments. One time, we played the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, and we had a million people on our left and a million people on our right – the biggest crowd I ever played to. Well, they called us “the Rolling Stones of bluegrass”; that’s what it said on the side of the float, in marshmallow. So I think we’re sort of the marshmallow Rolling Stones of bluegrass.

What’s your favourite song to perform?

I like ‘Wagon Wheel’ – that’s been a good song for us, but we’re always putting pen to paper and coming up with new ditties. I was thinking I might steal that song about the kookaburra in a gum tree and write myself a mega hit!

‘Wagon Wheel’ was a half-finished Bob Dylan song that you completed. Have you ever met the great man?

I never have met Bob, but I did get a co-writing credit with him, so I guess he signed off on it. I think he’d probably like us because he was into string-band music when he was coming out of that folk scene in New York City, and there were more bands like OCMS in that era than there are today. Like Bob, we always have something to say.

Your frenetic live shows always get rave reviews. What’s your secret?

Though our band is so informed by American folk music traditions, we’re not a relic. You know, if the traditions that shaped us were ever behind glass, we busted on through that, jumped off the pedestal and raced down to the streets, where this kind of music belongs. This music is powerful stuff and it can’t be contained. I think it sounds better live than it ever could on a record.

I understand legendary bluegrass guitarist Doc Watson helped you out in the beginning…

That’s true. We were busking on a street corner, out the front of a drugstore in Boone, North Carolina, and a woman came up and said, “That sounds so good, let me go get my daddy.” And she walked Doc across the street not 20 minutes later. As soon as we saw him get out of the car, we were pretty excited, and we sure got nervous! But we played a couple of tunes for him and he took a shine to us. Not a year later, we were playing at the Grand Ole Opry.

When can we expect a new album?

I’m not sure, but I’m glad we’re gonna get a little bit of that Australian dust into our nostrils before we hit the red button. I feel like there’s still something to learn, and I’m glad we’re gonna do a little travelling in your country before we finalise our new record.

Will it be at all similar to your last record, Tennessee Pusher?

I don’t know. We haven’t even played in 2010 yet. Our first gig since New Year’s Eve will be in Wellington, New Zealand on March 24. I don’t know what’s in store for us, but I’m fired up, man!

You’ve played a lot of festivals all around the world. Do you have a favourite?

CMC Rocks The Snowys in Thredbo, mate! Get a dog up ya! I haven’t seen that many cowboys since Oklahoma…and I live in Nashville.

What’s on your rider?

I think it’s Foster’s and Vegemite, primarily, but it’s also taken up by numerous tobacco products; I like a moist, sweet snuff.

So the rider changes wherever you are in the world?

Yeah, I like it when we go to Holland! You ought to see the riders up there, man!

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW TOUR DATES

March 2010
Wed 24 | The Opera House, Wellington, NZ
Thu 25 | James Hay Theatre, Christchurch, NZ
Sat 27 | Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Sun 28 | West Coast Blues n’ Roots Festival, Fremantle, WA
Mon 29 | Mojos, Fremantle, WA
Wed 31 | Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne, Vic

April 2010
Thu 1 | Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne, Vic-SOLD OUT
Fri 2 | Mossvale, South Gippsland, Vic
Sat 3 | Byron Bay Blues Festival, Byron Bay, NSW

WINNERS

E. Dobee, Claremont, Western Australia

M. Brown, Claremont, Western Australia

D. Willanski, West Lakes Shore South Australia

P. Eldrid, Claremont, Western Australia

K. Rattray, Hoxton Park, New South Wales

A 9-DISKS DVD FATPACK OF…

PRIME SUSPECT – THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

Time Life and Australian Penthouse magazine are offering 5 readers the chance to win a classic DVD fatpack of Prime Suspect – The Complete Collection (RRP $79.95 each). Continue reading “WINNERS! PRIME SUSPECT – The Complete Collection on DVD” »

madison is an Aussie babe who would love to be in Penthouse! Vote for Madison now!

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ALIEN vs. PREDATOR

PUBLISHER: SEGA
DEVELOPER: REBELLION
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, PC

★★★★★

THE road to adapting movie-licensed properties is fraught with peril, with most attempts stopped at the gate, never to be seen or played. Generally, these games are hack jobs, created to coincide with a cinema release and with little consideration of the source material (exluding titles such as Batman: Arkham Asylum).

However, this is not the case with Alien vs. Predator. In fact I’ll go out on a limb and say that the game is the best licensed product that I’ve ever played—being both faithful to its inspiration, and breaking new ground.

Through three interlocking campaigns, as either Marine, Alien or Predator, you retrace your steps with each new character, but the wildly different mechanics of each species keeps the action decidedly fresh, leaving you hungering for more.

Marines use the same iconic weaponry from the films, such as the Pulse Rifle and SMART gun, gloriously recreated as you creep tensely through the darkness to the metronomed beat of the motion tracker. Aliens are built for stealth and speed, emerging from the shadows before ventilating craniums, and Predators are the nastiest of the bunch, stalking prey from afar, cloaked, with the most brutal coup de grace ever seen in a videogame.

Each story lasts approximately 4-5 hours, and feels perfectly balanced. The thread that weaves it all together is Charles Bishop Weyland, (voiced by Lance Henriksen) giving both an air of legitimacy and familiarity, and just the beginning of the multi-license pay-off.

There’s a robust multi-player component, with inter and intraspecies ‘Death Match’, ‘Predator Hunt’ and ‘Infestation’, where one player stalks a squad of Marines as either Alien or Predator, but my favourite is Survivor, where up to four Marines battle waves of increasingly more powerful Aliens in a last stand scenario.

With sublime controls, respect for its namesake and high production values, Alien vs. Predator is a must-own for the discerning gamer, guaranteed to keep you entertained from the first burst of the Pulse Rifle to the climactic inter-species smackdown.

[Inside The Game]

Alien vs. Predator producer Paul Mackman explains how SEGA brought together two original monsters of movie franchising…

SEGA must be overjoyed at Australia’s reversal of the classification ban of AVP

Absolutely! Obviously, from a sales perspective we are, but as developers we’re glad that you guys will actually get to play the game—and from a more personal standpoint. I get to come to Australia for a week, so it’s a win-win in my book.

Did you draw upon any of the films particularly heavily?

It’s fair to say our primary reference points are Alien, Aliens and Predator—those are the classics, in our opinion; but we take something from the [franchise] universe, including the films, the comic books—it’s all fair game. We think we’ve given fair nods to all four corners of the AVP galaxy.

Lance Henriksen has a large role and provides the basis of the game’s three separate campaigns. Was Bishop always your preferred narrator?

Charles Bishop Weyland was always our primary character to bind the three stories. I actually directed the voice session, and it was a massive career highlight for me. [Lance] was everything I hoped he’d be: very chilled; cool; with

loads of stories—talking about Jim (James Cameron) and Bill (Paxton); but beyond that, he’s a consummate professional. I think he really likes coming back to the franchise, adding a little more to it here and there…being a face that the fans recognise, and pulling it all together.

In multi-player sessions, does the development team favour one species over another?

It’s actually quite evenly split. Our producer, Dave, would play Marine, our project leader, Tim, would opt for the Alien, and I would be the Predator—as I love the toys, he’s a cool guy—but I really do enjoy playing them all, and you’ll find that the more you play, the more you’ll enjoy switching between the three characters.

Will fan favourites Hicks (Michael Biehn) or Hudson (Bill Paxton) be available as playable characters in the final version, multi-player or otherwise?

I’m afraid not, there is a fair amount of unlockable content, but we didn’t manage to get likeness rights for either of those two characters.