Your favourite garage-psych group King Lizard and the Lizard Wizard know a thing or two when it comes to pioneering in the world of production. They recorded and distributed their first EP entirely off their own backs, went on to release 8 albums in about four years, have five more projects lined up for 2017, they’ve just won an ARIA, and have also managed to gift Australia with its very own psychedelic festival, Gizzfest.
After debuting last year, Gizzfest’s sophomore undertaking has seen a bunch of national and international acts hopping around our shores, including the legendary White Fence, POND, Stonefield, Los Angelenos Mild High Club, ORB, The Murlocs, and funk master Boulevards. We blissed out to all of these and more at Sydney’s Luna Park.
Body Type
White Fence
Greta Now
Dinner
POND (with special guest Kirin J Callinan)
Boulevards
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Photos: Dani Hansen/Howl & Echoes
Last weekend, Sydney saw an immense downpour of rain unlike anything we’ve seen for a few months now. But that wasn’t enough to stop VISIONS from going off on Saturday June 4, part of this year’s Vivid Live. The event featured sets from some of the city’s best artists including Montaigne, Gideon Bensen, Hedge Fund and Deep Sea Arcade across two Chippendale venues, Freda’s and The Lord Gladstone. We braved the rain and headed along for what ended up being an incredible party, and incredible music. The final two acts to take the Freda’s stage were two of Sydney’s best live acts, These New South Whales and Kirin J Callinan.
All photos copyright Danielle Hansen / Howl & Echoes
Check out some of the other awesome musical events taking places across the final week of Vivid Live.
These New South Whales
Kirin J Callinan
GUM
Kirin J Callinan
Mac DeMarco
See More
Read our review of GUM’s sophomore album, ‘Glamorous Damage’
Read our review of Falls Festival
See our galleries from Falls Festival at Byron Bay for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3
Tear Council, Anywhere
I recently wrote about this excellent song, a new collaboration between Matt Van Schie and Michael Di Francesco (aka Touch Sensitive). The video clip has just come out, and it’s really entertaining. It’s very retro, kinda film noir, and really hilariously creepy. Highly recommend watching the whole thing. Really looking forward to seeing more from these guys!
Donny Benet & Kirin J Callinan, The Edge
You can’t go wrong when something involves these two. Like Tear Council these guys have fully embraced the ’80s retro revival. This is an excellent synth-pop track with a driving beat and a video that wouldn’t have been out of place on early 1990s MTV – and that’s a good thing.
Loon Lake, Surfin’
And now for something completely different. Loon Lake’s new song is frantic and fun punk rock.The video features a series of skater clips, alongside cruisin’ in the car, sweaty live gigs and generally having A LOT of fun. Short and sharp at 2 min 35, this makes me wanna go and jump around a mosh pit.
Future, Just Like Bruddas.
Fresh off his recent Beast Mode mixtape, Future has dropped the video for this deliciously nasty-yet-soulful track. It’s pretty much your run-of-the-mill hip hop video: clubs, homies, limousines, bling. All in all a big loved-up bromance celebration. Ohh, that piano. I love this track. PS download the mixtape here.
Grimes, REALiTi
Apparently this was considered a “scrapped” track – never meant to see the light of day. But it obviously has, alongside a lovely little video clip. Self-directed and edited during a 2013 tour, the angelic electro-pop track is set to trippy visuals, gorgeous scenery and lots, and lots, and lots of bright colours. The track itself is fucking lovely. Lets hope we’ll be finally hearing more new Grimes soon!