Off the back of their sophomore release, Yuck (which we recently reviewed), Alpine are heading out on the road to introduce fans to a new suite of tracks. The six piece had a very warm reception to their debut A is for Alpine both at home and abroad, and if the buzz is anything to go by, surpass all second album expectations with their follow up. With little time to catch up on the eve of the tour, we posed some questions to the band in a Q& A to get a little bit of insight into the record and how it came together.
“We’ve really grown together as a band in terms of having a clearer sense of identity and of our musical influences. This allowed us to be fearless and take this album to the next level in terms of its sound,” writes Lou James, as she flies out for the Adelaide show, “…we really do think about pop music in quite an unusual way. There’s an almost strategy in how we write each song which makes them have their own distinct uniform.”
Lou makes up half of the honeyed and euphoric vocals you hear on the album, alongside band mate Phoebe Barker. Just from listening you can tell that there is a rich and contextual set of influences and ideas at play, and she lets us in on a few.
The music definitely sounds more refined. Like on Come On, it feels so vast, and there’s all this wonderful empty space. Were there times where you consciously pulled back or reigned it in?
Musically there wasn’t any space on our first record. It was definitely something we wanted to play with this time. In Come On, we really gave Phoebe’s voice room to breathe.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203480389″]
Can you tell us about your discovery of Tropicalia artists and the influence they had on the latest album?
We began listening to a lot of this on the road whilst touring in the states. 1960s/1970s South American pop artists like Caeteno Veloso and Milton Nascrimento were two of the artists we all loved listening to. Something flirtatious about their music was what we were attracted to. However, we didn’t begin jamming on it until we were back home staying in Byron Bay in a beach shack right on the ocean. Perhaps it was the sunny, summer vibes that helped us to make Foolish the tropicalia inspired track that it is on the album.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1emgUdD3_pE]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieajwo-oSmU]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6I4MZUtCCo]
There’s a really sultry R&B sound throughout the album. Had you decided to go down that road before starting to write for the album, or was it more of an organic influence from what you were listening to at the time?
The process of writing what we wanted made the decisions for us. All of us listen to that sort of music together before shows to get us pumped up, so it was probably inevitable!
Guitarist Christian O’Brien also co-produced the album this time around. What influence did this had on the overall product?
This time having Dann and Christian work together as producers was great. They bounced ideas back and forth and it seemed neither of them wanted to be the one who signed off on a track. They both wanted to just keep pushing and pushing. Often with us the last thing to be recorded is the strongest. So it’s good to be pushed hard in the studio.
Christian was quoted saying, “I wanted to see if certain things would work in a pop song,” and as we can hear, those limits were really pushed… was the intended sound achieved, and do you have a particular favourite moment in that sense?
For the most part I think it was. A song like Come On where music was so sparce and lush and there is two grooves happening at once; one swung, one straight. We didn’t hold back on that track at all. And it’s still a pop song in the end.
Christian also said most of the songs came from a “textural or harmonic idea” that he was curious about. So with that in mind, is the music more important than the lyrical content or the theme of a song? Or is it more about how the two come together?
It’s always as important. But things take their turn. Jellyfish started as a conceptual idea and the music was made with so much care, then we have myself and Phoebe both writing to the music, responding to it. Then that response becomes as important as the music.
Your tour kicks off really soon – we especially can’t wait to see you at Splendour. You must be so excited to play some of your new stuff live there – is there one song you can’t wait to share on stage? Have you got any tricks up your sleeve?
Splendour was our first ever festival we played at. I think this will be our third Splendour and we really can’t wait! Thankfully we’ll be very warmed up after this tour. I’m actually sitting on the plane about to fly to Adelaide for our first show. I can’t reveal any secrets just yet, you’ll just have to see us! A visual treat I promise! Jellyfish is my favorite song on the album and can’t wait to perform it!
With six of you, how do you manage being in such close confines on tour for extended periods?
You become like siblings. You just learn to deal with everyone’s weird habits and respect each other’s space. It’s great fun but sometimes feels like boot camp and it can be tough so you gotta love and look after each other so you can also relish in the spontaneous adventure times!
What do you do to unwind when you come off tour?
I love going for big walks around my neighbourhood in north Fitzroy. It’s my perfect type of meditation in order to clear my head. Or go to my favorite cosy bar and enjoy a red wine and pizza with a friend.
As a group, do you create music purely that you want to create, do you think more about what your audience might want, or is it a mix of both? If so, how do you find that balance?
Yes 100% we create music we want to create. It’s never about the audience but obviously if you write music you love and pour your heart and soul into it, then you hope people will love it too.
You’ve been a band since 2009. If you could go back and give your younger self-advice, what would it be?
Get excited! You’ll still be doing this in 2015
That piece of advice may hold the key to what makes Yuck so good. On Alpine’s last release the band were starting out, rife with uncertainty, unsure of what the future might hold. This time around, their is a confidence that comes from being established and self-assured. They aren’t just ‘doing it’ in 2015, they are owning it, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the tour offers.
You can check out all the details and get tickets here.
Neil Young’s song Rockin’ in the Free World rose to fame in 1989 in the wake of the George H. Bush administration, and became an anthem for a generation that was dissatisfied with their government and what it stood for. The song’s lyrics reference a nation asleep at the wheel, plagued with social inequality, overlaid with the catchy and ironical chorus. It was this chant that not only garnered a following at home, but released only weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall, became the unofficial and arguably misplaced soundtrack to the fall of communism in eastern Europe.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdiCJUysIT0]
This week when the song was used to launch the presidential bid of Republican candidate Donald Trump, it left a taste in the mouth so bad it made the Sex Pistol’s branded credit card seem like lemonade. The song’s raw vigour, when contrasting with the toupee-wearing magnate, seems to be so diametrically opposed it is hard to conjure an image where they might intersect. It is like trying to push two magnets together; a basic universal force exists to push them apart.
Young openly came out after the event and assured that the usage of the song was unauthorised. “Had I been asked to allow my music to be used for a candidate – I would have said no,” he declared in the official statement he released on his Facebook page pictured in full below. “Increasingly, democracy has been hijacked by corporate interests. The money needed to run for office, the money spent on lobbying by special interests, the ever increasing economic disparity and the well funded legislative decisions all favor corporate interests over the people’s.”
https://www.facebook.com/NeilYoung/posts/10155658389810317
It begs the question of how the song came to be used in such a contextual faux pas in the first place. It certainly isn’t the first time that politicians have taken the liberty of employing music to win over supporters – Springsteen had a similar spat with Reagan over his song Born in the USA in 1984 when the then presidential candidate clearly misunderstood the song, which at it’s core portrays another critical reflection of the times.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8BRWNaOdlc]
Springsteen says of the track: “In my songs, the spiritual part, the hope part, is in the choruses. The blues, your daily realities, are in the details of the verses. The spiritual comes out in the choruses, which I get from Gospel music and the church.” It feels the same for Young, but this format makes it easy to filter out the message in favour of a driving refrain and is the exact formula that politicians seek.
Earlier this year, the Dropkick Murphys also tweeted at Governor Scott Walker after the use of track I’m Shipping Up to Boston with the statement:
@ScottWalker @GovWalker please stop using our music in any way…we literally hate you !!! Love, Dropkick Murphys
— Dropkick Murphys (@DropkickMurphys) January 25, 2015
So like those before him, Trump and his people may have had no idea what the song really meant to the creator. Or, maybe they did, and decided to use it anyway as a cheap advertising gimmick to garner the favour of an audience, otherwise untapped through the use of buzzwords that resonate little with actual policies of paradigms. One only needs to take a superficial look at Trump’s policies to see the disparity. As an example, in an interview with Bill O’Reilly he says on ISIS:
“I say that you can defeat ISIS by taking their wealth. Take back the oil. Once you go over and take back that oil, they have nothing. You bomb the hell out of them, and then you encircle it, and then you go in. And you let Mobil go in, and you let our great oil companies go in. Once you take that oil, they have nothing left.”
And that is just the tip of a vitriolic and dangerous set of ideas that are clearly manufactured to appeal to a portion of the American public dredged in fear and hatred. In contrast, Young has a strong stance on the environment having released an album about his electric car, another about the Monsanto issue, and just yesterday supporting the recent statement on global warming from the Pope. With that in mind alongside his Rockin lyrics the whole issue becomes a saddening loop. The message of the song rings truer than ever, and the perpetrators employ it to push the very ideals it speaks out against.
We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.
–excerpt from Rockin in the Free World
Unsurprisingly, Trump isn’t the only one using famous songs to win fans. Democratic opposition Hillary Clinton recently used a play on the words from a classic Beatles track to strengthen her case:
“Now, there may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir, but they’re all singing the same old song…A song called “Yesterday.” You know the one — all our troubles look as though they’re here to stay … and we need a place to hide away… They believe in yesterday.”
All this use of musical diatribe from another time comes while right here in the present the USA continues to grapple with the Charleston shootings, a topic that deserves a conversation all of it’s own. Musicians like Killer Mike, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco have spoken out, using their platform to broadcast social commentary like those before them. The white placards of Dylan are now easily replaced with those of twitter.
[vimeo 72540087 w=500 h=281]
Young signs off in his statement with the mandate to “Keep Rockin’ in The Free World” and we are reminded that music isn’t a currency that can be stolen to buy support. It will continue to be a free market where artists and audiences can exchange commentary on collective issues, in an attempt to make a little bit of sense in this maddening world. A world where another megalomaniacal billionaire candidate runs for the White House, and it’s just another day in the office.
In an epic interview with The Guardian released today, Kendrick Lamar goes into detail about his inspiration behind To Pimp a Butterfly, his roots, his take on the current political landscape, religion, his next album and much more.
The sprawling conversation goes deep in an interview befitting the artist, who certainly has proven he has a lot to say. We recently listed track King Kunta as our favourite of the year so far, and gave the album a stellar review, recognising the 28-year-old rapper as a powerful voice and leader of his craft.
Lamar tells the Guardian that there is no excuse for rappers to be discouraged from talking about political issues: “It’s really just about integrity. We all like to have fun. I like to have fun, too. But where do you stop and say, ‘You know what? There’s actually some real shit going on out there that people can relate to more than any singalong I can bring to the table.’”
With the weight of success and a tumultuous past, Lamar opens up about his depression in a very candid way, and discusses the impact on his work. He also tells readers about the the pressure he now feels to leave a mark in the wake of his rapid rise to fame:
“You got it whether you want it or not because you have thousands of people singing your songs every night… Your friends at the side of the stage, they’re looking at you as somebody who made it. They’re following you. And every mistake that you make, they’re going to make the same mistakes.”
The rapper takes us deep into his psyche and leaves readers with a much stronger sense of who he is as a person, and how he came to be there, revealing his take on christianity and the battle between good and evil. It is as insightful as it is heartfelt, giving fans nuggets of information that they have never heard.
On his next album he says:
“I know exactly what I want to say next… Everything is going to make sense – not only to myself but to anybody who wants to understand life and music. Everything will make a little more sense.”
Excited much? We sure are.
Be sure to check out the whole interview here.
On the eve of The Grates’ first headline tour in nearly four years, I recently caught up with Patience Hodgson to talk about how she finds the time to be a new mum, a front woman and an entrepreneur.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” she says, “It’s just like BC and AD. You’ve got your previous life and then you have your current life. It’s two totally different things. You’re a mum and you’re just non-stop a mum. You just have to completely surrender to it.”
For those not familiar with the entrepreneurial spirit of Patience and her bandmate (and partner) John Patterson, they sure know how to keep busy. On top of being in a highly successful band, they also run their own label Death Valley Records and Tapes, as well as owning and operating the Southside Tea Room and Death Valley Bar in Brisbane. I asked Patience how she finds the time, especially with baby Soda now under wing.
“Everything is important, and you can multi task, you just can’t do everything at the same time,” she says. “Currently if I go out to the café or something like that I have a washing basket that I carry around, and I just put a blanket in it and if she falls asleep I just put her in that… There are some days when you aren’t going to get anything done at home, so it’s like, suck it up, put your baby in a washing basket, take it to the café.”
It is this considered and lighthearted approach to life that makes Patience so cool. But, she is the first to admit that she couldn’t do it alone. “That’s the key. You’ve got to have really good people around you. Its like … Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” she laughs, dropping the name of the upcoming tour (seemingly by accident). “They used to say it takes a village to raise a child and now I totally understand it.”
The album, Dream Team, dropped at the end of last year. It came as a surprise to many, announced only a month before its release. The band turned over the 11 tracks in 10 days, and made a marked return to their early garage roots. For fans, it sounds like coming home. And for the band, it’s not so different.
“When we recorded the last album it was insanely isolating because we were completely out of our comfort zone in the States. Now we have returned to Brisbane and we’re in our comfort zone and we have managed to find all these really like minded people,” says Patience.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7dWrJP0GYw]
This is partly in reference to new drummer Ritchie Daniels, who is also a barista at the cafe. When I ask how Ritchie came to be in the band, Patience recalls the story fondly: “We heard he was a drummer, but everyones a drummer, so we sort of just dismissed it,” she says, “We knew he was in Trouble With Templeton and he would have to take heaps of time off work, cause he is a trained jazz drummer. He would fly to all different places in Australia just to play drums with different people. So we knew from how often he left our shop and needed time off that he must be a pretty decent drummer.”
But it wasn’t just about his skill. The thing that I am starting to understand from our brief conversation is that The Grates don’t just recruit staff, or band members or videographers. They recruit members of their tribe. People who they enjoy to be around that contribute to their little network through a symbiotic exchange of talent and friendship.
“With Ritchie we had been working in the café for a year, and what you do when you’re working in a café is you listen to music… It’s like with John and Alana and I in the beginning where you would send each other mix-tapes and crap like that… I can’t imagine a scenario ever again where you get a new member of your band, and you’re just able to listen to hundreds and hundreds of hours of music with them. By the time we started writing music together we had this friendship and we had all this music under our belt.“
The band will debut their new line up and new tracks at Splendour in the Grass, before heading off on the upcoming three stop east coast tour. The tour really does give credence to its name, furnished by the web of people that make up The Grates team. Owen Penglis from Straight Arrows, who produced Dream Team, will play bass as well as perform with his own band, along with Pleasure Symbols who currently record under Patience and John’s house.
Patience comments that some of those close to herself and John are worried about the tour, with baby in tow, but she shrugs it off. “I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a big deal at all.”
And why should it be? Musicians take babies on the road all the time, but it is an interesting insight from the performer: “The difference is that heaps more men are in bands than women so you don’t really see it or hear it or talk about it that much because it’s always the dude on the stage with the mum and the baby with headphones on side of stage,” she says “and even though his family is there, people aren’t really paying them any attention. But this is just one of those less common situations where I am the front person, but I am also a lady and I have a baby so it’s more upfront.”
She does admit the maternal instincts have kicked in when she thinks about Soda watching on: “I just have this new part of my brain that has opened up as a mum where I’m like, fuck I hope she’s ok!”
It will be the fifth time The Grates have performed at Splendour with stellar moments over the years, from the whimsical flood of balloons in 2006, to the batman costume of 2008. Looking back, Patience reminisces on her favourite Splendour moment.
Patience at 2008 Splendour in the Grass
“What happened was there was some problem with the gates, for some reason people weren’t getting into the show. We went on stage at I think 12 or 12:30 and there was absolutely zero audience and they were like, you have to start playing, we have a full day of line up and you have to play, you’re like the first band on, no one gives a shit,” she says, “So we started playing to a completely empty tent, which was weird. Then all of a sudden the gates must have been opened, and we were 3 songs into our set and all of these people started running towards the big top. They were just running from the back of the tent towards the front. And it was just a weird thing to see, it was awesome. That is definitely something I will never get out of my brain.”
The question on everyones lips is, what treats the band have in store for fans this time around?
“What you can expect is something totally romantic. That’s our plan,” Patience hints.
The band have been working in collaboration with 16 year old Tia Toilet, who directed the captivating Call Me video, to design the visual show (and surprise, surprise, she also worked at the café!). “Her thing is that she is all about romance, so we will get a romantic stage set up happening”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk2lJrO98VE&w=420&h=315]
“And then I have these insane coats I’ve been making with my friends,” Patience tells me, “I have just been going around my house decluttering, taking all the crochet flowers, and plastic flowers, and plastic animals and bamboo elephants and any crap that I can find from around my house… and pom poms from our wedding… and gluing them all over these coats and they look out of control.”
“We’re going to make one for each show,” she says, “My plan was to just throw them into the audience at the end of each show but now I’m not sure I want to because there is just so many memories all over the coats and I am just looking at them thinking, I don’t know if I can do it.”
Images spring to mind of these elaborate creations, and I get a bit excited about seeing them come to life. I, like many others, can’t wait to see Patience and her technicolour coats of memories take to the stage again with The Grates at the upcoming shows. As pioneers of a sound that took Brisbane to the international stage, it will be a very warm homecoming.
You can get tickets to the Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork Tour here, and can buy the Dream Team album here.
The Grates “Team Work Makes The Dream Work” Tour w/ Straight Arrows + Pleasure Symbols
Sat 25 Jul Splendour In The Grass – SOLD OUT Byron Bay NSW
Sat 8 Aug The Triffid Brisbane QLD w/ Straight Arrows + Pleasure Symbols
Fri 14 Aug Oxford Art Factory Sydney NSW w/ Straight Arrows + Pleasure Symbols
Sat 15 Aug The Corner Hotel Melbourne VIC w/ Straight Arrows + Pleasure Symbols
State of Origin is here. That time of year when New South Wales and Queensland sports teams don their colours, go head to head and battle it out on the field – while the rest of us shout profusely at the television. And it’s bloody fun.
Of course, not all of us love sport. Some of us love music – and some us love music AND sport. SO we thought, why stop the rivalry there?
So in true Howl & Echoes style, we have decided to create our very own Musical State of Origin, where we pit the bbest NSW music against the best from QLD.
The competition runs in four categories: Rock, Electronic, Hip hop and Nostalgia.
We’re leaving the winners up to you – there’s little polls next to each category. May the best state win!
Rock
QLD – VIOLENT SOHO
There are a lot of sweet maroon-bleeding bands we could have picked for this: Velociraptor, Dune Rats, The John Steel Singers among a whole bunch of others, but we can’t go past Mansfield’s favourite sons; Violent Soho. Possibly the hardest rocking band to come out of this great nation. Shove that up you, everybody south of the border.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9NC4iQcsA]
NSW – GANG OF YOUTHS
First of all, Gang of Youths frontman Dave Le’aupepe already has the distinct advantage of already playing NRL as his alter-ego, Kevin Gordan.
Hair that luscious is hard to disguise.
Gang of Youths also has a serious leg up in terms of stamina – these guys put out seven minute tracks like it ain’t no thing, and their live energy will knock your teeth out. If this was coming towards you, I don’t care who you are – you are going down.
Their sound, too, is ground-shakeable. A mix of soaring Kings of Leon peaks and gravelly, The-National-esque lows, Gang of Youths have the scope of a much more mature band and can take you on journeys you didn’t expect. They’re rabble-rousers in Poison Drum¸ heartbreakers in Knuckles White Dry, cosmic rockers in Radioface. Gang of Youths are the NRL side’s all-rounders. Put them anywhere on the field and they’ll smash through the opposition, and best of all with a smile on their face and a smack on the back. Off the field, these are the guys you want giving you the pep talk in the locker room that will inspire the second-half comeback – these guys have been through some shit, and come out stronger on the other side. Look out QLD – Gang of Youths may be the youngest on the field, but if their debut is anything to go by they’ve got big things ahead.
Electronic
QLD – THE KITE STRING TANGLE
Some would say Danny Harley, aka The Kite String Tangle is the Jonathan Thurston of electronic music. That is to say he is a leader of the game, who crushes souls with his sheer awesomeness at any given opportunity. Harley’s own favorite track What If from debut record Vessels is stellar and is bound to leave those southerners crying big, sad, blue tears of defeat.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t37aseIe9E]
NSW – GOLDEN FEATURES
Every team needs someone absolutely huge. Someone to intimidate the other team and know that they shouldn’t be fucked with. For New South Wales, that person is Golden Features. Huge huge sounds, bass whose filth cannot be rivaled, and an emergence onto the scene much like his tackles on the field – out of nowhere. In only a little over a year, Golden Features has proved that he’s one of the biggest on the Electronic field, and now one of the biggest in the Music State of Origin as a whole. Most recently playing a string of club shows Australia wide to promote his latest EP XXI, and yesterday revealed to be returning to Listen Out Festival for the second year in a row, his reputation as a player is well known. If Queensland thinks that they can get past the New South Wales defense, they’d better think again. Golden Features is the big wall of sound that none can penetrate, with the weak being crushed under the weight of his bass. For his teammates, he’s the one who gets them ready for the game. Listen to final track of his latest EP then tell me you that you’re not going to win whatever you’re doing – you’d be lying.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210339716″ params=”color=5f5f5f&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Hip Hop
QLD – ASTRO TRAVELLERS
There is no question that there is a bit of a stigma attached to Aussie hip hop, but up in the Sunshine State, that’s starting to shift. More and more acts are challenging your standard raps and rhymes, pushing boundaries with their beats and defying expectations and vocabularies with their lyrics. Brisbane 7 piece Astro Travellers bring it home for me. A bunch of classically trained jazz musicians from the Conservatorium, two astounding emcees and a formidable force with their female singer, I don’t see an act further south than the River City to bring it home for us Queenslanders! Check their first single Future Supernova and try to defy those grooves. Impossible. Take that, NSW!
NSW – THUNDAMENTALS
Do I even need to explain why Thundamentals are our choice to represent New South Wales in this epic head-to-head battle? Lyrically dense and musically brilliant, the beloved hip hop trio have undoubtedly proved themselves to be one of the greatest rap groups in NSW, if not the whole country. With the strength, stamina and lyrical muscle to kick serious hip hop ass, it’s hard to think of a worthy opponent. They’re the only rappers around who can spit rhymes about beef noodle soup, and make it sound badass.
Everyone knows the best thing about going to a big sports game is the electric energy in the audience. In that sense, anyone who has ever been to Thundamentals show knows that there’s many similarities between it and State of Origin: the thunderous cheers, the singing and chanting from the crowd, the sweaty men on stage and (for the winning team anyway) heading home with a beaming smile.
We actually contacted Thundamentals for a comment, and Tuka (who also has some pretty bangin’ solo work out now by the way), sent us back the ultimate pre-game song to get PUMPED UP:
Let’s be real here: anyone who uses the Beastie Boys to pump it up, is gonna go hard as hell. Queensland: watch out.
Nostalgia
QLD – THE BEE GEES
This one was really tough, because when it comes to amazing nostalgia acts there is no drought in the Sunshine State. We have everything from the seminal Brisbane indie outfit The Go Betweens, to the party inducing tunes of Regurgitator, to the classic rock of Powderfinger. But, if you want to win at the nostalgia game you have to go back – way back. Right back to the smooth toe tapping melodies that got your parents bopping at the Redcliffe RSL. That’s right. We have the BeeGees and we are proud. Let that sweet hook carry you all the way back to the locker rooms NSW. See you next year.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNfFZULPcgk]
NSW – SILVERCHAIR
Daniel Johns may have moved onto to different things, but Silverchair will forever be the absolute greatest New South Wales rock band. Dubbed Nirvana in Pyjamas when Frogstomp blasted its way around the world 20 years ago, Silverchair went on to be one of the loudest, angst-iest riff rockers we’ve ever seen. It would be a Pure Massacre on the field. You’ll be wishing it was already Tomorrow, because some freakin’ Madman is coming right for you. You’ll be feeling (Dearest) Helpless, because you know the other team is just a Freak of nature.
So, who is the winner?
You be the judge. Either way, we are pretty sure the real winner is music.
Brisbane’s BIGSOUND has just released it’s 2015 line up, and continues it’s reputation as an incubator for the strongest up and coming Australian acts. The Brisbane festival attracts visitors from around the world, all hoping to stumble across the next big thing. Previous years have seen the likes of Courtney Barnett, Seth Sentry and the Temper Trap on their rise to great success, and this year promises some more big unveilings.
The huge first announcement includes Stonefield, Muscles, Gang of Youths, Holy Holy, Katy Steele (pictured), City Calm Down, Grenadiers, Ayla, Jesse Davidson, Cosmic Psychos, High Tension, The John Steel Singers, to name a few. The event spans genres and showcases the latest buzz bands, as well as those yet to be talked about.
The event will host over 140 acts and takes place over two nights on September 9 and 10 in fourteen venues across Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. As chaotic as it is exciting, it’s not easy to catch so many bands over such a short amount of time – once the full schedule is revealed, we highly recommend getting those planners out!
Tickets are on sale from Monday 22nd of June with a pre-sale for those wise enough to check out the event last year from June 19th.
Check out our coverage from 2014 here for a taste of what you can experience, and make sure to get your tickets here.
The artists will join Peter garrett, Brother Ali and many more who will be speaking at the conference. Check out the full speaker details here.
Full First Announcement:
| Aldous Harding All Our Exes Live In Texas Ali Barter Astral Skulls Ayla Babaganouj Baro Ben Salter Big White Born Lion Caitlin Park Caulfield City Calm Down Cosmic Psychos Donny Benét Ella Thompson friendships Gang of Youths Gordi Grenadiers Harvey Sutherland High Tension Holy Holy Jaala |
JACK THE STRIPPER Jesse Davidson Jonny Telafone K21 Katy Steele Koi Child Luke Howard Major Leagues Methyl Ethel Moonbase Commander Muscles Pearls Rainbow Chan RaRa Slum Sociable Stonefield Sui Zhen Sunbeam Sound Machine Super Best Friends Tempura Nights The John Steel Singers The Snowdroppers Tiger Choir Timberwolf WAAX Yukon Blonde |
Chicago-based mash-up extraordinaires The Hood Internet are at it again and have just released a super sweet new track. Sure, not all mash-ups work, but this feels like it was a match made in heaven, and we are so happy to have stumbled upon it.
Since 2007, the pair have made their mark on the music world by bringing together unlikely pairings of indie and hip hop tracks with infectious and downright exceptional results. The latest offering sees Flume’s new track Some Minds and Notorious B.I.G’s hit Big Poppa smushed together in a seamless production.
Yeah, it’s really good.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/209540894″]
If you aren’t familiar with The Hood Internet, you can check out some more of their tracks here. Be warned! They are addictive.
In related news, Sydney’s wunderkind Flume has released some new music of his own recently. It’s good, but if we’re being honest, we didn’t think it was THAT great.
Also, if you really like the sound of Biggie in a mash-up, check out this incredible multi-track release that’s entirely a mash-up of biggie with FKA Twigs!
Alpine‘s new release, Yuck, is an album that is best experienced like a swimming pool. There’s no point dipping your toes in; you just have to throw yourself head first and let the coolness wash over you. From opening track Come On, the smooth and sophisticated melodies overlay an instrumental track that is both complex and sparse. You can float there, staring at the sky, letting the world drift away.
Alpine’s latest offering is cinematic in its approach, teetering around themes of love, uncertainty and self-doubt. With such heady and haunting instrumentation, it feels like it could almost be the posthumous soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. And that might not be a coincidence. The sextet evokes the dreamy soundscapes of French group Air who originally scored the film, and captivates listeners with similar sensual hooks.
First single, Foolish (which we have included in our top songs of the year so far, by the way,) uses the word “yuck” to describe the feeling of falling for someone despite all your best intentions and interests. Like so many moments on the album, it represents that confounding butterflies in the stomach feeling, and reminds listeners of the infectious indie pop that the group bought on their debut A is for Alpine. The video which cleverly debuted on April Fool’s Day was directed by Melbourne artist Tristan Jalleh. It perfectly furnishes the world that the song creates.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6I4MZUtCCo]
The ability to pen a catchy radio anthem is still alive and well with the band, but Yuck also brings a whole lot more. On Jellyfish, there are Bjork-like moments that quickly transition to something that could be found in a 90’s pop song (Merril Bainbridge’s I Could Be Your Lover strangely springs to mind). Guitarist and co-producer Christian O’Brien says: “Most of the music of the songs came from a textural or harmonic idea that I was curious about. I wanted to see if certain things would work in a pop song.” This open-hearted experimentation is clear, and the compositions on the whole are a resounding success.
The vocals on the album are often minimalist in nature. Songs are allowed to breathe their own life without being smothered in complex ideas. Shy Fox encapsulates this with the echoing line “When you’re gone, the world seems brighter. And when you’re heart beats mine beats faster.” This self-assured deftness might just be what makes the album work so well. As a group nothing is overdone. Each moment is allowed to flow onto the next with relaxed ease.
The deluxe edition of the album features three bonus tracks So Long, Saturn and the wonderfully titled Bold Digger. While the first two bring little new, the final track brings a fun and rhythmic breath of fresh air to close out a stellar album.
In case you can’t tell, I am a big fan of this latest offering and can’t wait to see Alpine perform the new tracks live for the first time on their upcoming tour. You can buy the album in digital, CD and vinyl form here.
Bonnaroo is in it’s final day and there has already been some pretty stellar things go down. Not only does it have a line up to incite festival envy in any music lover; it is also home to the long standing late night “Superjam” which sees surprise collaborations and general awesomeness come to fruition.
The Saturday Night 2015 Throwback Superjam was curated by Pretty Lights, Run D.M.C’s Darryl McDaniels and Metallica basist Rob Trujillo. The first surprise appearance took place almost immediately when unscheduled guests Jon Hamm and Zach Galifinakis took to the stage and belted out an endearing and hilarious version of Michael Jackson’s “We are the World.”
https://instagram.com/p/36faEpRqrv/
If that’s not enough Chance the Rapper (who has been getting around the festival with buddy Kendrick Lamar) performed an array of covers from DJ Jazzy Jeff to Notorious B.I.G.
If you missed out on the action, be sure to tune in to the last day streaming live right now and check out “The Bluegrass Situation Superjam featuring Ed Helms” at 12:30pm.
When legendary funk act Earth, Wind and Fire took to the Bonnaroo stage on Saturday night, no one could have predicted what would go down. In classic festival spontaneity and splendidness, bassist Verdine White decided to capitalise when he saw some well known faces in the crowd.
In a move that has gone above and beyond the call of surprise, the classic group called up hip hop artists Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamar to show the crowd (who almost certainly were NOT expecting this kind of cameo) their freestyle talents. Of course, they graciously obliged. You can check them out at around the 1:15:00 minute mark. “I knew who [Lamar] was, but it wasn’t planned,” White said later.
The duo look like they are having a killer time and the performance pays testament to the talent of these young rappers. They embrace the opportunity to let loose and do a pretty damn good job.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WSmIiQxHeQ]
Don’t miss out on seeing what other crazy pairings the festival has to offer by checking out the live stream of the final day!