Top 10 gigs of 2012

Another well overdue post, so again, no reviews for now, just straight into it! (If country is not mentioned, band is Australian.)

10. Flight of the Conchords (New Zealand) at Rod Laver Arena, 15th July. With support from Arj Barker (USA).
9. Shellac (USA) at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 19th/20th October. With support from My Disco (19th) and Blacklevel Embassy (20th).
8. Karnivool at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 5th-7th July. With support from Redcoats and sleepmakeswaves.
7. The Tea Party (Canada) at Palais Theatre, 14th July. With support from Georgia Fair.
6. The Darkness (UK) at Palace Theatre, 8th May. With support from Baptism of Uzi.
5. Battles (USA) at Forum Theatre, 28th January. With support from Witch Hats and Other Places.
4. Refused (Sweden) at Palace Theatre, 16th November. With support from Outright.
3. Radiohead (UK) at Rod Laver Arena, 17th November. With support from Connan Mockasin.
2. At the Drive-In (USA) as part of Splendour in the Grass, at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay, 27th-29th July. Other higlight acts also included Dirty Three, Jack White and The Smashing Pumpkins.
1. Roger Waters (UK) - The Wall Live, at Rod Laver Arena, 8th February. No support.

Honourable mentions from headlining, non-festival gigs, in chronological order only:

• Devin Townsend Project (Canada), Meshuggah (Sweden), and dredg (USA) at Forum Theatre, 29th February. What a bill! Courtesy - of course - of the ever-reliable Soundwave Touring.
• Aphex Twin (UK) at Palace Theatre, 6th March. 
• Humans, Sheriff, The Sinking Teeth and Lubbock Lights/Seasuns at Gasometer, 19th April.
• Fu Manchu (USA) and Black Cobra (USA) at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 6th May.
• Dead Letter Circus, Fair to Midland (USA) and Twelve Foot Ninja at Ferntree Gully Hotel, 17th May.
• The Butterfly Effect at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 8th June. With support from The Khyber Belt and The Siren Tower.The final show with their singer of ten years, Clint Boge. A very emotional and special evening for all!
• Trial Kennedy at Corner Hotel, 23rd June. With support from Ikarii, The Pretty Littles and My Echo.
  This was the final show of Trial Kennedy's farewell tour, and again, another one that pulled on the heartstrings a little!
• The xx (UK) at Forum Theatre, 18th July. With support from Flume.
• Jack White (USA) at Festival Hall, 25th July. With support from Lanie Lane.
• The Black Keys (USA) at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, 31st October. With support from Royal Headache.
• Sub Atari Knives (EP launch) at Evelyn Hotel, 9th November.
• My Left Boot (album launch) at Cherry Bar, 22nd December. With support from King of the North and Sheriff.

And some festival highlights:

• Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (UK) closing the Green Stage at Big Day Out, 29th January.
• System of a Down/Slipknot (USA) back to back to close the main stages at Soundwave, 2nd March. Runner-up goes to a killer set from Mastodon (USA).
• Golden Plains, 10th/11th March - nothing in particular stands out, just a great weekend at the Sup' as always.
• Okera, Mushroom Giant and A Lonely Crowd, as part of the all-round excellence of Progfest, 8th September at the Espy.
• Cup My Balls at the Tote, 6th November (surprise surprise, Melbourne Cup Day). Some of Melbourne's finest underground rockers including Sun God Replica, Harmony, Batpiss and Sheriff gathered to give Melbourne music fans an alternative to uhh, that horse race thing.
• Fuck Buttons, Sigur Ros and Ben Folds Five, stand-out acts at another fantastic edition of Harvest, 10th November.
• Primal Scream, Turbonegro, Itch-E & Scratch-E, Saskwatch... yep, Meredith Music Festival was fantastic as always! (7th-9th December).

Festival of the year goes to... Meredith, of course. Harvest a runner-up again. It's going to be hard to break that formula!
Best live Australian act: Karnivool
Runner-up: Sheriff, Sub Atari Knives

The best of (the best of) 2012 - albums/physical product wise!

This, my friends, is well overdue. So I'll just get down to it! Presenting first, the top TWENTY albums of 2012. Yes, I personally felt that 2012 delivered so many goddamn good albums that it warranted extending a top 10 into a top 20, just to fit the awesomeness in! And even so, there are still some more that didn't quite make the cut that should've! Anyway, due to this being so late, I'm going to add reviews at such a time when I can be bothered, which might not actually happen ever. Who knows? Anyway, let's get cracking.

20. The Beards - Having a Beard is the New Not Having a Beard (Australia)
19. Redcoats - Redcoats (Australia)
18. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis (Australia/UK)
17. Future of the Left - The Plot Against Common Sense (UK)
16. Adrift for Days - Come Midnight... (Australia)
15. Jack White - Blunderbuss (USA)
14. The xx - Coexist (UK)
13. The Siren Tower - A History of Houses (Australia)
12. OFF! - OFF! (USA)
11. Maximum Wolf - Spacescapes (Australia)

.....................................

10. Breaking Orbit - The Time Traveller (Australia)
9. Okera - A Beautiful Dystopia (Australia)
8. Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun (Australia)
7. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Australia)
6. Saskwatch - Leave it All Behind (Australia)
5. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (Australia)
4. Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Âme (France)
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Silent Machine (Australia)
2. Swans - The Seer (USA)
1.Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (UK)

Whew. What a quality year it was; like I said, there was so much good music that it just seemed like a top ten wouldn't cut it, in terms of fitting everything in. Something that's definitely notable about this year, like it was in 2010, is that bands from Australia made some fucking great albums! And it's a complete coincidence too; I don't favour a band any more (or less) just because they come from my home country, but it turns out that a LOT of the best albums released were from Australian bands. Thirteen out of the top twenty albums were from homegrown bands, and even more impressively, SEVEN of the top ten were Australian acts. Local music is good music! Anyway, so now we turn our attention to the best five EPs of the year... they were...

5. Birds of Tokyo - This Fire
4. High Tension - High Tension
3. Maximum Wolf - ii
2. Sheriff - Sheriff
1. Sub Atari Knives - Sub Atari Knives

These always seem to be local acts, don't they? I think it's something to do with the size of the acts - the bigger overseas acts are less likely to release music in the shortened form once they've established themselves, and tend to focus on producing actual albums. Whereas the local acts represented here (with one slight exception) are in a pretty early stage of their career, and at this point it seems to be better to just give everyone a quick taste of where they're at and what they're about, rather than put all their time and effort into making an album when most people in the music community aren't even aware they exist yet. Anyway, that's just my take on things! It's great to see once again that local talent ruled this countdown!

The year's top five songs:
5. Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
4. Saskwatch - Your Love
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Coming for You
2. Spiritualized - Hey Jane
1. Swans - The Seer

And the final award for best live release... a definite no-contest here!
The Chemical Brothers - Don't Think