Well, after a cracking year in 2010 at my first Soundwave Festival, I was definitely looking forward to seeing what AJ Maddah and his team would deliver this year - and when the lineup was released last year, I instantly knew I'd be attending. Soundwave began as a slightly more punk/hardcore/emo oriented festival a few years ago, something I really had no interest in, but in the past few years they've certainly branched out with some great rock and metal acts taking to the festival's many stages (there's now EIGHT of them!). Having Iron Maiden on the bill was a sure-fire way to get me to buy a ticket, even though I didn't actually end up seeing them on the day! Nevertheless, it was still a highly enjoyable day out with several incredible performances.
I wasn't really interested in any of the first couple of acts on any of the stages so I decided not to hurry myself in getting there. When I did, I headed in the direction of the two stage 4s to see Texan stoner metal (a genre that was certainly not in short supply at Soundwave this year) act The Sword. While waiting it out in front of the Stage 4 "annex", Las Vegas's Taking Dawn were doing their thing on the adjacent stage. It comes as no surprise to me while reading up on this band to learn that they've supported Airbourne before, as their music definitely has that old-school revival approach to heavy metal and hard rock. Frontman Chris Babbitt certainly had his 80s frontman showmanship shtick downpat too, as he soloed down on the ground in front of the barrier, climbed up speaker stacks, and even ran over to the annex stage, much to the bemusement of the crowd waiting for The Sword. I never know whether to take bands like this seriously or not, but at least they provided us with some good laughs and good riffs early in the day.
It was perhaps a little early in the day, but there was still a very decent turnout for The Sword, and most of the crowd seemed to be genuine fans; right away, from the opening riffs of Acheron/Unearthing the Orb, long-haired heads began banging and horns were pointed skyward. I'd only listened to one of their albums prior to this set, but Gods of the Earth luckily got a bit of a look-in with the track How Heavy This Axe. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of the ol' doom-stoner-sludge metal in general, so those low-end heavy riffs coming out of Orange amps (of course) sounded pretty damn awesome - and apparently I wasn't the only one that thought so.
SETLIST:
Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
Barael's Blade
Freya
Tres Brujas
How Heavy This Axe
Night City
Winter's Wolves
(The Sword score 8/10.)
I then made my way over to a stage I didn't even go near last year, Stage 5, aka the big shed, for a performance from mathy Oxford quartet This Town Needs Guns. They were certainly a bit out of place on the overall lineup of the day, something vocalist Stuart Smith referred to several times throughout the band's set. "We're not anywhere near as punk as that (referring to whatever band had just come off the stage at the other end of the shed) but hopefully you'll still enjoy us", he noted early on. However, it soon became clear that the crowd weren't simply waiting for the next band on that stage, but were actually genuine fans of TTNG. They did have a pretty short set, but it was jam-packed with plenty of goodies off the Animals album, a pair of old favourites from the self-titled EP, and even a new song! They were one of the bands on the lineup I decided to check out only a few weeks ago, and I'm really glad I did, as I enjoyed their set immensely. Hopefully they'll be back in Australia soon, as I'd love to see them at a headline show.
SETLIST
Chinchilla
Baboon
Lemur
Gibbon
Want to Come Back to My Room and Listen to Some Belle and Sebastian?
Adventure, Stamina and Anger
26 is Dancier Than 4
(This Town Needs Guns score 8.5/10.)
I then bolted over to Stage 3 (AKA "the other shed") just in time to catch a stellar performance from seminal UK post-punkers Gang of Four. Certainly another band that was a bit out of place amongst all that noisy metal and hardcore, but it didn't seem to faze them one bit. Frontman Jon King may be 55 years old, but for all the energy he displayed on the day, you could more accurately say 55 years young! Running around onstage like a madman, even doing a somersault at one point, all the while spitting his lyrics out with typical venom, it was really inspiring to watch. Unfortunately for the band, the slightly younger generation of the Soundwave crowd obviously had other interests in bands at that timeslot, and the Stage 3 shed was looking a little sparsely populated. That said, the small crowd was genuinely getting into the sounds of such classics as At Home He's A Tourist and Anthrax, performed with genuine effort and energy despite the age of the musicians in question. Before I went in to check them out I was reminded of a performance by a band from a similar era and style of music, The Fall, who had put on a really bizarre set at Meredith Music Festival at the end of last year. Frontman Mark E Smith evidently decided that he wasn't going to put in much of an effort, and simply stumbled around onstage, yelled his lyrics in an indecipherable manner, and sporadically turned his bandmates' amplifiers down, up, or even completely off. In complete contrast, Gang of Four were still electric on stage, but at least they had the sense to actually perform their music properly - and the crowd loved it.
SETLIST
(pending recording)
(Gang of Four score 9/10.)
I then made my way back to Stage 4 for a performance by Norwegian melodic black metal stalwarts, Dimmu Borgir. As All That Remains vacated the annex, the crowd grew extremely restless, and one inebriated punter yelled to the sky joyously, "DIMMU BORGIR ARE FINALLY IN AUSTRALIA!" It was certainly a fair statement to make - in their career of almost 20 years, the band have never once set foot on our soil until today, and were a highly anticipated act for many. However, as blasts from smoke machines tried in vain to set some sort of atmosphere for the upcoming performance (at 3:25 in the afternoon, the clouds of dry ice simply blew away and dispersed as soon as they appeared), it became clear that the band weren't appearing any time soon. Roadies continued to do their thing onstage for quite a while, at which point I looked at my phone and realised I'd been standing in front of an empty stage for ten minutes. That was enough for me, and I wandered back over to the Main Arena, for one of Soundwave's major drawcards this year, a little Californian band by the name of Primus.
The funky sounds of Here Come the Bastards were extremely pleasing to hear, particularly as I and the rest of the crowd at the band's sideshow the night before had not witnessed the trio playing this particular song live. Following it up with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers was even more enjoyable! I've only recently started listening to this band properly (I must admit, I bought that sideshow ticket mainly to see Melvins), but they've definitely found a place in my musical heart quite quickly, and how could they not? It's always a bit of a risky decision to see a band play twice in a row, especially if one of those performances is a festival. Will they play different songs? Will the stage antics be the same? Will the crowd like them? Well, there was no need to worry about that first point, as the band's 9-song set only reprised three numbers from the night prior. The delightfully odd frontman/bass GOD Les Claypool was in fine form too, as he spotted a few fans in the front row holding a banner in appreciation of Slash. "I hate to tell you, but Slash is performing on that stage over there!" he said, pointing in the direction of the adjacent stage 1, before suggesting that maybe the security guards would be nice enough to escort them to the other side. However, whether Claypool was joking or whether he was genuinely incorrect, it became apparent to those checking their timetables that he had got it wrong, and Slash was due to play on Stage 2, after Thirty Seconds to Mars on Stage 1. "I'm sorry, I have been misinformed!" Claypool apologised a few songs later, to general laughter. "It just goes to show, never trust the fuckin' bass player!" His antics, and indeed, the eccentric funk stylings of the music, may have gone over the heads of some of the younger members in the crowd, but by the end of the set, most of the audience was smiling and left feeling very satisfied. The set concluded with a very-crowd pleasing double of My Name is Mud, which Claypool introduced as "a Van Halen song, pre-Jump", and the immortal classic Tommy the Cat, introduced as "another Van Halen song, this one from the Sammy Hagar era". My only complaint with this set was it wasn't dark enough, therefore the visuals on the giant inflatable spacemen's helmets were not used like at the sideshow. But a great performance all round!
SETLIST
Seas of Cheese
Here Come the Bastards
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
Pudding Time
The Eyes of the Squirrel (new song!)
Over the Falls
John the Fisherman
My Name is Mud
Tommy the Cat
(Primus score 10/10!)
After the necessary food-and-R 'n' R break, it was back to Stage 4 for a performance from thrash metal royalty. It's almost become something of a festival tradition to have a really terrible band play right before Slayer; all one need to do is look at YouTube to see loads of hilarious footage of such "bands" as My Chemical Romance having stuff thrown at them. And today the unfortunate band was Ill Nino. It was quite amusing to watch the end of their set, by which point the Slayer fans were no longing patiently waiting, and were throwing bottles, cans, middle fingers and a continuous chant involving a less-polite way of saying "Please leave the stage now, thank you." Poor old Ill Nino vocalist (I'm not even going to do him the honour of looking his name up on Wikipedia, they really were quite terrible) tried his best to be brave in the face of adversity, directly addressing the opposing crowd with "We won today Melbourne, and you lost", before leaving the stage quickly. And then the chaos began. A wall of no less than 36 Marshall cabs filled the stage - it could be no other band than Slayer. With an offstage intro booming out of the PA, the four thrash metal titans soon made their way onstage to blast their way through the title track to their 2009 release World Painted Blood. "Thank you for showing up today!" vocalist/bassist Tom Araya exclaimed early in the set. His choice of words were certainly deliberate, as some of the crowd shouted similar sentiments back to him. "I guess you're all glad that I showed up today," he continued, referring to his hospitalisation in Sydney that resulted in the last-minute cancellation of the Slayer set. The band ripped their way through a slew of new material and old favourites alike; unsurprisingly it was the latter that evoked the biggest crowd response. However, I'm not sure whether it was because I was pretty far back in the crowd or for some other reason, but this performance just didn't seem to live up to my expectations. The sound seemed a little off at times, which is something that, even though it's not usually the band's fault, can really detract from a performance. Also, I was a little miffed that the band didn't even finish Raining Blood, cutting the song off just before the thrashing madness of the guitar solo and finale. Speaking of guitars though, the other big news of this tour was the absence of Jeff Hanneman, who has contracted a very metal-sounding flesh-eating disease that has rendered him unable to play guitar. His replacement for the time being is Exodus axeman Gary Holt, who certainly put in a very capable performance on the day. However, in the end Slayer just weren't delivering as much as I thought they would; nonetheless it was still good to see an enormously influential heavy metal band playing in Australia yet again. Maybe a "Big 4" tour could happen soon? I live in hope...
SETLIST:
World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Hallowed Point
Americon
Payback
Mandatory Suicide
Temptation
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
(Slayer score 8/10.)
"Guess what I came here to do today!" proclaimed Josh Homme, frontman of the inimitable Queens of the Stone Age, as he took a healthy swig from a bottle of what appeared to be vodka, and his bandmates kicked into the familiar opening of Feel Good Hit of the Summer. With this particular choice of opening song, the crowd was instantly in Homme's pocket, as they enthusiastically helped him out on those very simple yet very fun lyrics! Straight away, Homme and bandmates followed it up with other Rated R fave The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret, and the pace was set early for what would turn out to be a really good set from the riff-driven five piece. In celebration of the recent reissue of their self-titled debut album, the band have stated that they will play it in its entirety at many of their shows throughout this year, and indeed did at their Soundwave sideshows. However, today not even one song made it into the set, as the band opted instead for a "greatest hits" package of sorts, featuring a wide variety of material from across their career, except for that first album. Queens have always been one of those bands I've sort of "casually loved" - never got "extremely" into them, but certainly haven't hated them either - and I was quite glad to see them perform on this occasion. I didn't really have any complaints with the setlist either - it was especially pleasing to hear I Think I Lost My Headache live, something I didn't expect them to play at all. I thought I'd better leave a bit early to make sure I was back at Stage 4 in time for Melvins; apparently I missed a guy in a wheelchair crowdsurfing during No One Knows! Ah well. Great set!
SETLIST:
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
3's & 7's
Sick, Sick, Sick
Misfit Love
Monsters in the Parasol
Burn the Witch
Little Sister
I Think I Lost My Headache
Go With the Flow
No One Knows
----Encore----
A Song for the Dead
(QOTSA score 10/10!)
At which point it was time to endure another average band running their set overtime at the expense of a much better band to come - this time it was Rob Zombie and his band that were torturing the poor fans of the next band, who in this case was Melvins. Could someone please buy this guy a watch? Despite the apparent fact to everyone in the crowd that their set should have been wrapping up, Zombie and his band dragged it out as long as possible, including throwing in the biggest metal-cliche cover that any band can ever do - Metallica's Master of Puppets. Ugh. They finally finished with Dragula (of course) before getting the crowd to chant "ZOMBIE! ZOMBIE!" one last time - naturally, the other crowd gave it their best "MELVINS! MELVINS!" to try and point out to this dickhead that he'd clearly overstayed his welcome.
Melvins, to their credit, didn't resort to tearing Zombie a new one, either literally or through their microphones, but simply stood onstage with their instruments - clearly frustrated and well ready to play - and waited until Zombie finished, before blasting into The Water Glass, with bass player Jared Warren chanting "WOO! WOO!" sarcastically at the crowd. The setlist was pretty similar to the previous night's sideshow, of course with a few omissions due to the reduced set time, but still highly enjoyed by the crowd, naturally considerably smaller now that a certain British classic metal band were doing their thing on the main stage. The band themselves didn't really mess around with any live schtick, although they were wearing some interesting costumes, but just delivered a solid no-frills set of mostly tracks from their most recent three albums - unfortunately, not albums I'm very familiar with. Nevertheless, it's always a good night when these gents are on the stage!
SETLIST
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
The Bloated Pope
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Anaconda
Electric Flower
Civilized Worm
(Melvins score 9/10)
The crowd was slowly dwindling, but the couple of hundred people that were left were extremely keen to see another smashing live performance from "motherfuckin' Los Angeles" punk heavyweights The Bronx. One can't accuse them of not being kind to their Australian fans (of which there are plenty!), with this visit technically being the band's fourth in just over two years (if you include their brief visit last year under their Mariachi El Bronx incarnation). However, the crowd still lapped up the incredible energy coming from the stage, ensuring that vocalist Matt Caughthran's usual commands for moshing, circle pits and "chaos" were obeyed with great enthusiasm. Playing in front a giant gorilla backdrop with flashing red eyes and the slogan "THE BEAT THAT KILLS", The Bronx tore their way through a great set of songs from their eponymous three albums, and even threw in one brand new song! Eventually Caughthran did what we knew he would do, and leapt into the pit during everyone's favourite, Heart Attack American, more than happy to share his microphone with the adoring crowd. As the band drew their set to a close with History's Stranglers, the crowd were all a bit worse for wear, but at Caughthran's insistence, thought they'd better drift over to the annex to catch the next band!
SETLIST
Knifeman
Rape Zombie
Shitty Future
White Tar
Inveigh
Under the Rabbit (new song)
Six Days a Week
Strobe Life
Around the Horn
Heart Attack American
History's Stranglers
(The Bronx score 10/10!)
Like The Bronx, Fucked Up delivered a stellar set of vicious hardcore punk with all the fury and intensity they could muster, which as it turns out was quite a lot! Vocalist Damian Abraham was also up for some in-the-crowd fun, in fact, he walked onstage, ripped his shirt off, smashed a beer can on his head, and then off he went, into the crowd where he spent the entirety of the set. The band onstage (talented as they are!) were mostly ignored as the crowd attempted to get their piece of Abraham, whether it be singing furiously into his microphone, giving him a high-five or a backslap, or even jumping on his shoulders and riding him around, as one punter managed! After a long day, everyone was a little bit wearied but a band like Fucked Up ensured that everyone tapped into their reserves to summon one last burst of energy. It all ended way too soon, as both Abraham and his new friends looked optimistically toward the stage in the hope of getting one last song. But it was not to be, and as the band walked offstage, Abraham stayed in the pit to thank each and every member of the crowd personally. A truly inspiring thing to watch.
SETLIST
Son the Father
David Comes to Life
Black Albino Bones
I Hate Summer
The Other Shoe
Baiting the Public
(Unknown)
Crusades
(Fucked Up score 10/10!)
Well, it seems that once again, Soundwave Festival brought a truly diverse lineup to celebrate the hard rock/punk/metal counter-culture that's usually pretty much ignored by the mainstream festivals out there. For a festival that only became truly national in 2008, Maddah's Soundwave brand has certainly been embraced with great enthusiasm, and with the acts he's bringing out, it's easy to see why. Fingers crossed that this "Soundwave Revolution" will be something quite exciting!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Further developments...
So, the recording gear went out for its second outing last night. To, of all things, the mighty Iron Maiden. I didn't have high expectations for how it would turn out. Here's why:
1) I was in located in the back section of the floor - splitting the floor up into front and back is still in my opinion one of the stupidest and most pointless excuses for "crowd control" I have ever seen.
2) I still have these old microphones of which only one works most of the time.
3) And, it was an Iron Maiden concert. I was drunk, I was having a good time jumping around, singing, acting like a general idiot, and so were the majority of the people around me.
The result? A pretty terrible sounding recording. It sounds like the band are playing miles away, which given the view that we had most of the night, they might as well have been. Stadium gigs suck in general, but when you're in the back GA, they're even worse. Also, lo and behold, for the majority of the gig only one channel did work, surprise surprise. And even when things do seem to be going good, you can hear the sounds of people talking and singing badly. I should also point out that the mix on the night sounded pretty average, way below par for an Iron Maiden gig. In short, this probably isn't worth uploading. I might send it to Chris to see what he can do to get it cleaned up, as I know he's got a bit more experience with fiddling around with audio editors and such. But I think he can only do so much. It's a shame that it didn't work out, because, well, it's Maiden. I really should post a review of this, but I don't think I can honestly do it justice. Besides, every man and his dog has already a say on the interwebs, so it's kind of a moot point. Maybe I'll include them in my Soundwave review, well, I'll obviously be writing a Soundwave review, so if I see Maiden, they'll obviously get a mention. But, as we all know I love my setlists, so here's what they played (and from all accounts, will be playing until further notice):
Satellite 15 ... The Final Frontier (S-15 played over tape, band came on during TFF)
El Dorado
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Talisman
Coming Home
Dance of Death
The Trooper
The Wicker Man
Blood Brothers
When the Wild Wind Blows
The Evil That Men Do
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden
----Encore----
The Number of the Beast
Hallowed be Thy Name
Running Free
Up the Irons. What a fantastical show.
1) I was in located in the back section of the floor - splitting the floor up into front and back is still in my opinion one of the stupidest and most pointless excuses for "crowd control" I have ever seen.
2) I still have these old microphones of which only one works most of the time.
3) And, it was an Iron Maiden concert. I was drunk, I was having a good time jumping around, singing, acting like a general idiot, and so were the majority of the people around me.
The result? A pretty terrible sounding recording. It sounds like the band are playing miles away, which given the view that we had most of the night, they might as well have been. Stadium gigs suck in general, but when you're in the back GA, they're even worse. Also, lo and behold, for the majority of the gig only one channel did work, surprise surprise. And even when things do seem to be going good, you can hear the sounds of people talking and singing badly. I should also point out that the mix on the night sounded pretty average, way below par for an Iron Maiden gig. In short, this probably isn't worth uploading. I might send it to Chris to see what he can do to get it cleaned up, as I know he's got a bit more experience with fiddling around with audio editors and such. But I think he can only do so much. It's a shame that it didn't work out, because, well, it's Maiden. I really should post a review of this, but I don't think I can honestly do it justice. Besides, every man and his dog has already a say on the interwebs, so it's kind of a moot point. Maybe I'll include them in my Soundwave review, well, I'll obviously be writing a Soundwave review, so if I see Maiden, they'll obviously get a mention. But, as we all know I love my setlists, so here's what they played (and from all accounts, will be playing until further notice):
Satellite 15 ... The Final Frontier (S-15 played over tape, band came on during TFF)
El Dorado
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Talisman
Coming Home
Dance of Death
The Trooper
The Wicker Man
Blood Brothers
When the Wild Wind Blows
The Evil That Men Do
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden
----Encore----
The Number of the Beast
Hallowed be Thy Name
Running Free
Up the Irons. What a fantastical show.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
"You're nothing to me... except everything" - Sydonia w/Jericco, East Brunswick Club, 19/02/11
It's official, this is the third gig review I've given Sydonia in this little blog, which means they are now my most reviewed band! And one might think that I might be getting a little sick of them, and would be perhaps reaching the point where I'd slow down on attending their gigs, but, hey, have you BEEN to a Sydonia gig lately? They're definitely one of this city's best live bands going around, never disappointing the punters when they step on to a stage! That combined with the fact that they were co-headlining with Jericco, and had Sydney's sleepmakeswaves in the support slot, meant that I was more than keen to head along to the East Brunswick Club on a Saturday night and get my local live music fix!
I was slightly worried about whether I'd enjoy this gig in the proper way, due to the fact that I'd attended a party the night before (in Bellfield of all places, yeah, I didn't know where it was either) and had absolutely minimal sleep as a result. I was feeling pretty drained and was hoping the bands would put on great sets to keep me awake. However, before I even got in the door, the night got off to a good start. As I stepped off the tram and walked across the road, some guy said to me, "Have you got your ticket yet?" When I replied in the negative, he said that his girlfriend had been unable to make it and I could have her ticket. So, in for free! Definitely something that pleased me, given my current financial situation! In the unlikely event you're reading this, THANK YOU to Bradley Dixon! If we run into each other again sometime, I owe you a beer! Anyway, through the door I went and right down the front for a highly anticipated set from the immensely talented post-rockers sleepmakeswaves, who were making the trek down all the way from Sydney for this night. With the room still half empty, they started their set a little early anyway, but the few that were in attendance were genuinely enjoying the sounds coming from the stage. I'd been looking forward to seeing them for quite a while; unfortunately they didn't play anything I recognised (only possessing the In Today Already Walks Tomorrow album) and I think the general consensus is that the entirety of the set was new material. I'm generally against the idea of a band playing too many "new" songs at a gig, for the obvious reason that it's much more enjoyable if you're hearing familiar melodies and riffs, and in the case of bands with vocals, you can sing along! However, if the songs are awesome enough, the rule can be broken and tonight sleepmakeswaves were that exception. Combining beautiful textures and soundscapes (including great use of e-bow, electronic programming and other handy guitar effects) with moments of genuine "heavy" intensity, sleepmakeswaves provided a nice "relaxed" start to the evening, something I definitely needed! The early start to their set was advantageous as their songs tend to be a little longer than usual, and they still played to their allocated finishing time. It was mentioned that the group hope to have a new album released mid-year, and I certainly can't wait for it!
Up next was a set from proggy Melbourne five-piece Branch Arterial, who play in the same vein as your typical Butterfly Effect/Karnivool type of sound. I caught the tail-end of their set last year supporting Jericco's Evelyn Hotel show, and I remember them being enjoyable, so I was looking to the full set this time around. The set opened with the tried-and-true method of the instrumentalists taking to the stage first and delivering a cool intro song, before vocalist Nigel Jackson joined them onstage to play the set proper. Like sleepmakeswaves' set, the material they were playing was all stuff I hadn't heard before - although that's probably because I've NEVER listened to Branch Arterial unlike sleepmakeswaves. However, unlike sleepmakeswaves, their sound didn't immediately appeal to me, and I found it hard to enjoy their set compared to the other bands on offer. Their musicianship was certainly tight and creative, with some cool riffs and progressive ideas, but I didn't particularly like the vocals. Jackson certainly has a good voice, it just seemed a little... I don't know! "Artificial" is perhaps the word I'm looking for? The band were a good fit to the lineup in general, but on the flipside, there are WAY WAY too many of these Australian heavy-prog-ish-rock bands going around at the moment, especially in Melbourne, and Branch Arterial really don't have that extra "zing" or anything that sets them apart from some of the better acts in the scene at the moment. But they're a pretty new band and their sound is off to a good start so far, so give them a few years and they might be doing some pretty good things. After all, I can't write off a band after one set!
One of those aforementioned better acts is Jericco, who have rapidly become one of my favourite bands ever since I saw them on a rather drunken evening at the Espy front bar about two years ago now. This set was always going to be a big one, especially seeing as it's been a while between shows, and when they came onstage and opened with a brand new song, the tone was set for an absolute belter. It was a fantastic song too! Following that, the immensely talented five-piece dived headfirst into a crowd-pleasing set of favourites from their two EPs, with nearly every song they've recorded getting an airing. The typical Jericco energy was in full display, with man-mountain bassist Roy Amar and keyboard wizard Fetah Sabawi hopping around onstage enthusiastically as usual; now that I think about it I wasn't even really looking at guitarist Jordan Nagle much on the night, but I'm sure he was getting into it too! And at the front of it all was the ever awesome Brent McCormick, staring down punters and singing directly to them (while they sang right back), and of course utilizing a megaphone to deliver some of his lyrics. In between all that, the band managed to fit in another new song; the crowd was so fired up that it made little difference that nobody had heard the song before, the response was just the same! The set concluded with an awesome trio of Sun, B-Song (where McCormick led the crowd in a singalong of "sloooooowww, doowwwn") and traditional closer Rujm (Pile of Stones), with the eager crowd left wanting more! They did finish a little bit early, but looked absolutely drained and decided that they were done.
SETLIST:
(New song)
Always
Nice to See You
No Solution No Problem
Promises Made of Glass
Safe to Say (new)
Cause and Effect
Sun
B-Song
Rujm (Pile of Stones)
(I've had to stretch the old memory here, I planned to take a setlist from the stage seeing I was in the front row, but Brent picked them up too quickly. I think the order's pretty close to being correct.)
"They're opening with Life in a Cup!" exclaimed some excited punters in the front row, as the members of Sydonia made their way onstage and began set-up, which included some setlists being placed on the stage (written on the back of beer slab cardboard, of course). It was indeed an event worthy of creating such excitement, as it's been quite a while since this particular song has been featured at a Sydonia show. The rest of the setlist was looking particularly interesting too. However, as we were all enjoying watching the band drag out Sean Bailey's massive drum kit, and of course the extra custom percussion on the stage, someone decided to close the friggin curtain! Eventually the curtain opened again, and yes, it was the very mellow Life in a Cup that opened the set - before it finished and the band stepped up the pace a hundredfold with the thrashing madness of 3 Tongues getting everyone suitably revved up! As I've said, I've seen Sydonia quite a lot lately, I think this was the fourth time in the past 12 months (and 3rd in only 4 months), but really, their live shows are always something exciting and tonight was no exception. They're pretty good at mixing up the setlist too, and tonight was a good example, with Shame and Elbow making a return for the first time in ages, and the almost-debut of yet another song, Nobodies. Vocalist-guitarist Dana Roskvist explained that they'd only played it once, in Perth. If you've been to a Sydonia show before, you know that the interaction between the band (especially guitarist Sam Haycroft) and the crowd is always particularly hilarious, and tonight was no exception. "Go work in a Mercedes dealership!" someone yelled out to bassist Adam Murray. "Please don't bring work here!" he replied. As always, there were a few friends on hand to help out with the percussion jam Bateria; tonight it was Murray's brother Zack (who's been at the last few shows), along with Darren Hurford from Branch Arterial, and someone else I didn't quite catch. Zack Murray also helped out with the brilliant newie Here. As the set drew to a close, it became clear that they had a bit of extra time. The crowd favourite Incoming was on the setlist as an encore, yet the band didn't even bother to leave the stage, as Haycroft asked the crowd to help out on that evergreen opening shout of "INCOMING!" Certain excited punters had already been doing so pretty much since the beginning of the set! The mosh pit reached absolute fever pitch during what's undoubtedly one of the heaviest numbers in Sydonia's bag of tunes. With the extra time they had, the band took a quick breather on the side of the stage before being coaxed back on to play one more, which delightedly was Rubber Bullet, featuring more percussive madness from Haycroft and Murray. As the band wrapped up yet another brilliant set, punters in the front row leaned forward to grab the setlists and various drum sticks that scattered the stage (as you might imagine, there were quite a few!) It was another great evening for one of Melbourne's hidden talents; hopefully that new album is coming soon, it's well overdue!
SETLIST (what was played!):
Life in a Cup
3 Tongues
No Woman's Land
Shame
Here (with Zack Murray)
Bateria (with Zack Murray, Darren Hurford and ?)
Nobodies
Ocean of Storms
Elbow
Sinner
Incoming
----Encore----
Rubber Bullet
ACTUAL SETLIST (written by Sam, who else?)
By the way, if you read this blog regularly you might recall in December that I said I was going to start recording shows around Melbourne, thanks to a very generous gift from a friend of mine. And yet, it doesn't seem to have happened yet. Well, to cut a long story short, there's been some technical difficulties. First of all, I took the gear on the understanding that the mics were a little screwed up and one of them probably wouldn't work. Which, when I took them out for the first time to My Disco's gig, I learnt firsthand. Second, while trying to recover the recordings the next day, the iRiver froze and then ran out of battery, and I had nothing to charge it with. Well, I gave it back to Chris recently and he managed to get it fixed, now I have it back. I REALLY wanted to take it for a spin for this particular gig, but during the afternoon I thought I'd test it out, and again the microphones were playing up, so I thought I wouldn't bother. Considering the intensity of that moshpit, and me being up the front, it was probably for the best! Chris has ordered some new microphones and it was cheaper for him to order two pairs, so I get one. Hopefully, after the false start to my "career" as a bootlegger, I can get this show on the road soon. There's some killer shows coming up!
I was slightly worried about whether I'd enjoy this gig in the proper way, due to the fact that I'd attended a party the night before (in Bellfield of all places, yeah, I didn't know where it was either) and had absolutely minimal sleep as a result. I was feeling pretty drained and was hoping the bands would put on great sets to keep me awake. However, before I even got in the door, the night got off to a good start. As I stepped off the tram and walked across the road, some guy said to me, "Have you got your ticket yet?" When I replied in the negative, he said that his girlfriend had been unable to make it and I could have her ticket. So, in for free! Definitely something that pleased me, given my current financial situation! In the unlikely event you're reading this, THANK YOU to Bradley Dixon! If we run into each other again sometime, I owe you a beer! Anyway, through the door I went and right down the front for a highly anticipated set from the immensely talented post-rockers sleepmakeswaves, who were making the trek down all the way from Sydney for this night. With the room still half empty, they started their set a little early anyway, but the few that were in attendance were genuinely enjoying the sounds coming from the stage. I'd been looking forward to seeing them for quite a while; unfortunately they didn't play anything I recognised (only possessing the In Today Already Walks Tomorrow album) and I think the general consensus is that the entirety of the set was new material. I'm generally against the idea of a band playing too many "new" songs at a gig, for the obvious reason that it's much more enjoyable if you're hearing familiar melodies and riffs, and in the case of bands with vocals, you can sing along! However, if the songs are awesome enough, the rule can be broken and tonight sleepmakeswaves were that exception. Combining beautiful textures and soundscapes (including great use of e-bow, electronic programming and other handy guitar effects) with moments of genuine "heavy" intensity, sleepmakeswaves provided a nice "relaxed" start to the evening, something I definitely needed! The early start to their set was advantageous as their songs tend to be a little longer than usual, and they still played to their allocated finishing time. It was mentioned that the group hope to have a new album released mid-year, and I certainly can't wait for it!
Up next was a set from proggy Melbourne five-piece Branch Arterial, who play in the same vein as your typical Butterfly Effect/Karnivool type of sound. I caught the tail-end of their set last year supporting Jericco's Evelyn Hotel show, and I remember them being enjoyable, so I was looking to the full set this time around. The set opened with the tried-and-true method of the instrumentalists taking to the stage first and delivering a cool intro song, before vocalist Nigel Jackson joined them onstage to play the set proper. Like sleepmakeswaves' set, the material they were playing was all stuff I hadn't heard before - although that's probably because I've NEVER listened to Branch Arterial unlike sleepmakeswaves. However, unlike sleepmakeswaves, their sound didn't immediately appeal to me, and I found it hard to enjoy their set compared to the other bands on offer. Their musicianship was certainly tight and creative, with some cool riffs and progressive ideas, but I didn't particularly like the vocals. Jackson certainly has a good voice, it just seemed a little... I don't know! "Artificial" is perhaps the word I'm looking for? The band were a good fit to the lineup in general, but on the flipside, there are WAY WAY too many of these Australian heavy-prog-ish-rock bands going around at the moment, especially in Melbourne, and Branch Arterial really don't have that extra "zing" or anything that sets them apart from some of the better acts in the scene at the moment. But they're a pretty new band and their sound is off to a good start so far, so give them a few years and they might be doing some pretty good things. After all, I can't write off a band after one set!
One of those aforementioned better acts is Jericco, who have rapidly become one of my favourite bands ever since I saw them on a rather drunken evening at the Espy front bar about two years ago now. This set was always going to be a big one, especially seeing as it's been a while between shows, and when they came onstage and opened with a brand new song, the tone was set for an absolute belter. It was a fantastic song too! Following that, the immensely talented five-piece dived headfirst into a crowd-pleasing set of favourites from their two EPs, with nearly every song they've recorded getting an airing. The typical Jericco energy was in full display, with man-mountain bassist Roy Amar and keyboard wizard Fetah Sabawi hopping around onstage enthusiastically as usual; now that I think about it I wasn't even really looking at guitarist Jordan Nagle much on the night, but I'm sure he was getting into it too! And at the front of it all was the ever awesome Brent McCormick, staring down punters and singing directly to them (while they sang right back), and of course utilizing a megaphone to deliver some of his lyrics. In between all that, the band managed to fit in another new song; the crowd was so fired up that it made little difference that nobody had heard the song before, the response was just the same! The set concluded with an awesome trio of Sun, B-Song (where McCormick led the crowd in a singalong of "sloooooowww, doowwwn") and traditional closer Rujm (Pile of Stones), with the eager crowd left wanting more! They did finish a little bit early, but looked absolutely drained and decided that they were done.
SETLIST:
(New song)
Always
Nice to See You
No Solution No Problem
Promises Made of Glass
Safe to Say (new)
Cause and Effect
Sun
B-Song
Rujm (Pile of Stones)
(I've had to stretch the old memory here, I planned to take a setlist from the stage seeing I was in the front row, but Brent picked them up too quickly. I think the order's pretty close to being correct.)
"They're opening with Life in a Cup!" exclaimed some excited punters in the front row, as the members of Sydonia made their way onstage and began set-up, which included some setlists being placed on the stage (written on the back of beer slab cardboard, of course). It was indeed an event worthy of creating such excitement, as it's been quite a while since this particular song has been featured at a Sydonia show. The rest of the setlist was looking particularly interesting too. However, as we were all enjoying watching the band drag out Sean Bailey's massive drum kit, and of course the extra custom percussion on the stage, someone decided to close the friggin curtain! Eventually the curtain opened again, and yes, it was the very mellow Life in a Cup that opened the set - before it finished and the band stepped up the pace a hundredfold with the thrashing madness of 3 Tongues getting everyone suitably revved up! As I've said, I've seen Sydonia quite a lot lately, I think this was the fourth time in the past 12 months (and 3rd in only 4 months), but really, their live shows are always something exciting and tonight was no exception. They're pretty good at mixing up the setlist too, and tonight was a good example, with Shame and Elbow making a return for the first time in ages, and the almost-debut of yet another song, Nobodies. Vocalist-guitarist Dana Roskvist explained that they'd only played it once, in Perth. If you've been to a Sydonia show before, you know that the interaction between the band (especially guitarist Sam Haycroft) and the crowd is always particularly hilarious, and tonight was no exception. "Go work in a Mercedes dealership!" someone yelled out to bassist Adam Murray. "Please don't bring work here!" he replied. As always, there were a few friends on hand to help out with the percussion jam Bateria; tonight it was Murray's brother Zack (who's been at the last few shows), along with Darren Hurford from Branch Arterial, and someone else I didn't quite catch. Zack Murray also helped out with the brilliant newie Here. As the set drew to a close, it became clear that they had a bit of extra time. The crowd favourite Incoming was on the setlist as an encore, yet the band didn't even bother to leave the stage, as Haycroft asked the crowd to help out on that evergreen opening shout of "INCOMING!" Certain excited punters had already been doing so pretty much since the beginning of the set! The mosh pit reached absolute fever pitch during what's undoubtedly one of the heaviest numbers in Sydonia's bag of tunes. With the extra time they had, the band took a quick breather on the side of the stage before being coaxed back on to play one more, which delightedly was Rubber Bullet, featuring more percussive madness from Haycroft and Murray. As the band wrapped up yet another brilliant set, punters in the front row leaned forward to grab the setlists and various drum sticks that scattered the stage (as you might imagine, there were quite a few!) It was another great evening for one of Melbourne's hidden talents; hopefully that new album is coming soon, it's well overdue!
SETLIST (what was played!):
Life in a Cup
3 Tongues
No Woman's Land
Shame
Here (with Zack Murray)
Bateria (with Zack Murray, Darren Hurford and ?)
Nobodies
Ocean of Storms
Elbow
Sinner
Incoming
----Encore----
Rubber Bullet
ACTUAL SETLIST (written by Sam, who else?)
By the way, if you read this blog regularly you might recall in December that I said I was going to start recording shows around Melbourne, thanks to a very generous gift from a friend of mine. And yet, it doesn't seem to have happened yet. Well, to cut a long story short, there's been some technical difficulties. First of all, I took the gear on the understanding that the mics were a little screwed up and one of them probably wouldn't work. Which, when I took them out for the first time to My Disco's gig, I learnt firsthand. Second, while trying to recover the recordings the next day, the iRiver froze and then ran out of battery, and I had nothing to charge it with. Well, I gave it back to Chris recently and he managed to get it fixed, now I have it back. I REALLY wanted to take it for a spin for this particular gig, but during the afternoon I thought I'd test it out, and again the microphones were playing up, so I thought I wouldn't bother. Considering the intensity of that moshpit, and me being up the front, it was probably for the best! Chris has ordered some new microphones and it was cheaper for him to order two pairs, so I get one. Hopefully, after the false start to my "career" as a bootlegger, I can get this show on the road soon. There's some killer shows coming up!
Friday, February 11, 2011
"I know a place, where I can go, when I'm low down" - Foals, Palace Theatre, 10/02/11
There certainly seems to be this pattern of current indie flavours-of-the-month-type bands touring the country, leaving, and then... coming back in a relatively short space of time, doesn't there? Last in the country around July last year for the massive Splendour in the Grass festival, English math-y dance-punk quintet Foals made an appearance on this year's Laneway Festival bill, and naturally were given the opportunity to play sideshows, given the very quick sell-out of their last tour. I'd missed those particular shows due to how quick they sold out - well, I didn't miss them entirely, thanks to a certain social networking site's "Secret Show" series, I got along to Carlton's Trades Hall early one evening to catch a short, but FREE show from the band. However, that venue had quite a low stage, resulting in terrible visibility of the band, and the sound was also pretty average to say the least. I had expectations that I would enjoy this show a lot more, and I had those expectations met!
Brisvegas four-piece Last Dinosaurs had the honours of warming the stage in front of a rapidly-filling Palace Theatre crowd (although as far as I'm aware, the show failed to reach "sold out" status). Frontman Sean Caskey noted on a few separate occasions how genuinely excited his band were to be playing such a huge gig, opening for such an established act as Foals, unfortunately, they didn't quite make much of an impact on the crowd, save for when he announced the song Saturn, which is apparently one of their more well-known tunes. It wasn't as if they didn't have a sound suited to the gig; their bouncy uptempo indie numbers were definitely a close match for the headliners. And it wasn't as if the songs themselves didn't have their merits. It was just that they didn't really seem to have enough variety to set them apart from this current indie sound, and the songs just didn't have that extra energy needed to sway the largely indifferent crowd. The band themselves didn't help matters either, pretty much standing still at their respective positions on the stage, occasionally nodding their heads but seeminly not getting "into it" very much at all. In fact, oddly enough Caskey was the one doing most of the moment, strutting around the stage at every opportunity he had when he wasn't required to be in front of his microphone. I'd like to give these guys another chance, as they certainly weren't the worst opening act I've seen, but they just seemed to be a little too "samey" and one-dimensional to be playing at this particular event. A commendable effort nonetheless.
Note to whoever was responsible for running times for this particular event: it is NOT good practice to keep a crowd waiting FORTY-FIVE minutes between bands for the headlining act to take to the stage. Nevertheless, when Foals finally did appear, a little earlier than they were supposed, the crowd was suitably revved up and as Blue Blood predictably got the set going, everyone came alive. Even with just a 75 minute set, the Oxford group packed plenty of songs from their two albums into the set, with last year's Total Life Forever getting the most airings, but complemented nicely by a selection of Antidotes favourites. I've said to a lot of people that I still think Antidotes is a much better album; it just has a much more energetic and "fun" vibe to it. In comparison, a lot of the slower and more reflective pieces on TLF sound almost "serious" in comparison. The response in the crowd tonight reflected this - one only needed to compare the relentless dancing and singing during an early rendition of Cassius, to the quiet reverential appreciation of newer material such as What Remains. The band themselves looked to be having a great time, bouncing around onstage enthusiastically; singer Yannis Philippakis was also genuinely thankful of the crowd on numerous occasions. As the set progressed, Philippakis gradually got more enthusiastic, especially during main set closer Electric Bloom, which saw him belting a floor tom relentlessly, before finally launching himself off the stage and into the adoring crowd! The band returned for the obligatory encore, which kicked off in great style with The French Open, the crowd energy reaching fever pitch as they pogoed and even crowd-surfed to one of the more high-energy numbers in Foals' discography. There was a brief pause after the song, where the band had a quick conversation, before Philippakis announced they were going to play something they hadn't played in a while due to them being so satisfied with the crowd response, and so it was that we got pre-Antidotes rarity Hummer, which apparently wasn't on the planned setlist! Two Steps, Twice was a fitting end to the night, with the band extending the pre-chorus section to allow Philippakis to sprint up to the second floor balcony, before climbing down near the left PA speaker and dropping to the stage! The band looked exhausted at the end of it, but seemed quite happy with the response they got, and the crowd agreed! A great set from a very talented band.
SETLIST:
Blue Blood
Olympic Airways
Total Life Forever
Cassius
Balloons
Miami
What Remains
After Glow
2 Trees
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Electric Bloom
----Encore----
The French Open
Hummer
Two Steps, Twice
Brisvegas four-piece Last Dinosaurs had the honours of warming the stage in front of a rapidly-filling Palace Theatre crowd (although as far as I'm aware, the show failed to reach "sold out" status). Frontman Sean Caskey noted on a few separate occasions how genuinely excited his band were to be playing such a huge gig, opening for such an established act as Foals, unfortunately, they didn't quite make much of an impact on the crowd, save for when he announced the song Saturn, which is apparently one of their more well-known tunes. It wasn't as if they didn't have a sound suited to the gig; their bouncy uptempo indie numbers were definitely a close match for the headliners. And it wasn't as if the songs themselves didn't have their merits. It was just that they didn't really seem to have enough variety to set them apart from this current indie sound, and the songs just didn't have that extra energy needed to sway the largely indifferent crowd. The band themselves didn't help matters either, pretty much standing still at their respective positions on the stage, occasionally nodding their heads but seeminly not getting "into it" very much at all. In fact, oddly enough Caskey was the one doing most of the moment, strutting around the stage at every opportunity he had when he wasn't required to be in front of his microphone. I'd like to give these guys another chance, as they certainly weren't the worst opening act I've seen, but they just seemed to be a little too "samey" and one-dimensional to be playing at this particular event. A commendable effort nonetheless.
Note to whoever was responsible for running times for this particular event: it is NOT good practice to keep a crowd waiting FORTY-FIVE minutes between bands for the headlining act to take to the stage. Nevertheless, when Foals finally did appear, a little earlier than they were supposed, the crowd was suitably revved up and as Blue Blood predictably got the set going, everyone came alive. Even with just a 75 minute set, the Oxford group packed plenty of songs from their two albums into the set, with last year's Total Life Forever getting the most airings, but complemented nicely by a selection of Antidotes favourites. I've said to a lot of people that I still think Antidotes is a much better album; it just has a much more energetic and "fun" vibe to it. In comparison, a lot of the slower and more reflective pieces on TLF sound almost "serious" in comparison. The response in the crowd tonight reflected this - one only needed to compare the relentless dancing and singing during an early rendition of Cassius, to the quiet reverential appreciation of newer material such as What Remains. The band themselves looked to be having a great time, bouncing around onstage enthusiastically; singer Yannis Philippakis was also genuinely thankful of the crowd on numerous occasions. As the set progressed, Philippakis gradually got more enthusiastic, especially during main set closer Electric Bloom, which saw him belting a floor tom relentlessly, before finally launching himself off the stage and into the adoring crowd! The band returned for the obligatory encore, which kicked off in great style with The French Open, the crowd energy reaching fever pitch as they pogoed and even crowd-surfed to one of the more high-energy numbers in Foals' discography. There was a brief pause after the song, where the band had a quick conversation, before Philippakis announced they were going to play something they hadn't played in a while due to them being so satisfied with the crowd response, and so it was that we got pre-Antidotes rarity Hummer, which apparently wasn't on the planned setlist! Two Steps, Twice was a fitting end to the night, with the band extending the pre-chorus section to allow Philippakis to sprint up to the second floor balcony, before climbing down near the left PA speaker and dropping to the stage! The band looked exhausted at the end of it, but seemed quite happy with the response they got, and the crowd agreed! A great set from a very talented band.
SETLIST:
Blue Blood
Olympic Airways
Total Life Forever
Cassius
Balloons
Miami
What Remains
After Glow
2 Trees
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Electric Bloom
----Encore----
The French Open
Hummer
Two Steps, Twice
Monday, January 31, 2011
Explosions, stage invasions, fokken riddikolos South African hip hop, and Nick Cave! - Big Day Out 2011, Flemington Racecourse, 30/01/11
So, yet again, what I saw as an excellent lineup convinced me to break my promise to myself that I would be giving this year's Big Day Out a miss. Yes, the lineup may have been a little recycled, with two of the three mainstage headliners appearing at the festival only four and five years ago and not releasing any significant new material in that time (Tool and The Stooges respectively), and the Australian undercard was absolutely yawn-worthy (with a few exceptions). But I never really understood that "they've been here before!" argument for knocking a lineup - if the artist is a great live performer (as Tool and The Stooges UNQUESTIONABLY are), then why not go back and see them again? Anyway, despite the 40 degree heat doing its best to ruin it, another fantastic day was had at my SEVENTH consecutive Big Day Out.
A combination of misreading the train timetable and my own laziness saw me get through the gates a bit later than intended, then a friend arrived soon after I did so I met up with him. Unfortunately by then it was too late to go over and check out Super Wild Horses, who I'd heard good things about, and we instead made our way in the direction of the main stages so I could get my spot for Dead Letter Circus and he could go and see Little Red with some others. Within ten minutes however, said friend had joined me over on the Orange Stage side, finding Little Red boring, and indeed they were. One band that was not boring was Dead Letter Circus! Despite the sound guys doing a very average job - vocalist Kim Benzie was barely audible at the best of times, the guitars of Rob Maric and newish live member Tom Skerlj were completely overwhelmed by drums and the sampled beats and programming were almost non-existent - the band still threw themselves into their early afternoon timeslot with all the usual enthusiasm we see from them at live shows. As expected, the rapidly rising profile of the band saw plenty of keen punters arriving early to check Dead Letter Circus out, and the fans were more than happy to lend their voices to just about every lyric of every song! This time last year, DLC were a lot less well-known and were just starting to rise out of the "underground", yet the sudden success has clearly not gone to their heads. Benzie was genuinely thankful of everyone in attendance, preceeding One Step with a mention of their recent Hottest 100 success (the song made it in at #65), and later dedicating Lines to the fans who had been there from the beginning. Having always seen DLC at club shows with longer sets than the 50 minutes they were allocated today, I was expecting them to miss a few classics, but the setlist was actually quite satisfying, with a healthy selection of their amazing debut album This is the Warning, and three out of the six tracks from their debut self-titled EP making the cut. The set concluded in great style; as the introductory speech from This is the Warning played out over the PA, Benzie introduced Sean Bailey from Sydonia and Zane Rosanoski from Black Devil Yard Boss to the stage, to belt the floor toms in that middle section.
SETLIST
The Mile
Reaction
This Long Hour
Disconnect and Apply
One Step
Lines
Cage
Here We Divide
The Space on the Wall
Next in Line
This is the Warning (with Sean Bailey (Sydonia) and Zane Rosanoski (Black Devil Yard Boss) on guest percussion)
(Dead Letter Circus's performance was worthy of a 10/10, but unfortunately due to abysmal sound the overall set was an 8/10 at best. Not the band's fault though, I'm sure. They didn't even seem to notice a problem.)
It was then time for a bit of a wander and take-it-easy time. In this time I found myself pondering the appeal of Washington, when we tried to meet up with a few friends near a jam-packed Essential Stage. I mean, her music sounds... nice and easygoing and all, I'd even say it's good, but FIVE sold-out nights at the Corner Hotel good? I don't get it. Anyway. After staying there for a bit and finding ourselves increasingly bored, we headed over to the Boiler Room to enjoy the fact that it had a roof, and also to secure an early spot for South Africa's Zef hip-hop trio Die Antwoord. What a show! I didn't get the chance to have a listen to the music of MCs Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJ Hi-Tek before the day, but I was expecting some extremely over-the-top rave-rap, and that's exactly what I got! As Ninja and Yo-Landi belted out vicious rhymes over Hi-Tek's bass-heavy beats, they were accompanied by some excellent visuals, one of which proclaimed "DIE FOKKEN ANTWOORD", which really summed up the mood of the whole show. The crowd was huge for such an early slot, and we all enjoyed this totally over-the-top display of Zef culture at its finest.
(Die Antwoord score: 9/10)
Up next in the Boiler Room (well at least, after a short half-hour interlude from DJ Perplex) were typically bonkers Canadian glitch-electro duo (with a bit of help on drums for their live show) Crystal Castles. The big story of this tour has been that vocalist Alice Glass had done some serious damage to her ankle at a recent show in Japan. Naturally, someone from BDO thought it a good idea to get the crowd amped up even more by declaring that Glass had been advised by doctors to cancel the tour. Pause for boos and shouts. "But she didn't want to disappoint you, so here she is!" How cliche. With a crutch under one arm and holding her microphone in the other, Glass and producer Ethan Kath whipped the Boiler Room into a frenzy in what seemed like a very short but intense set. The massive sound system in the stage did the band a lot more favours than their 2009 appearance at Parklife, and the crowd lost their collective shit to a handful of favourites from their two self-titled albums. Predictably, it was numbers like Baptism and Alice Practice that elicited the biggest response, but really, all went down a treat for the sweaty punters.
SETLIST (something along the lines of this, anyway. Doesn't seem to be up on setlist.fm yet and I couldn't be bothered doing my usual setlist-in-phone on the day.)
Fainting Spells
Baptism
Doe Deer
Crimewave
Air War
Alice Practice
Reckless / Through the Hosiery
Not In Love
(Crystal Castles score 8.5/10)
It was time to head the Main Stage again, and while waiting it out in front of the Blue Stage, I got to witness most of what seemed like just another John Butler Trio gig. I don't mean that in a particularly negative way; I used to be a pretty big fan and I found myself singing along (albeit a little quietly!) and nodding my head to some of the songs that he played during his set. Unfortunately there was quite a lot of material from last years' April Uprising album, which I never bothered to check out. But he did make up for it with the usual classy rendition of Ocean, showing his impressive talents with fingerstyle and percussive guitar playing. Unfortunately for those anticipating the next act on the Blue Stage, he decided that his last song Funky Tonight would involve an extensive percussion jam that stretched the set over-time. Poor form Mr Butler, especially considering that rock royalty was being held up!
(JBT score 7.5/10)
Seeing the mighty Iggy Pop fronting his band The Stooges in a reasonably far-off country like Australia could be considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, five years on from their EPIC performance at the 2006 Big Day Out, lightning struck twice and The Stooges would perform on Australian stages yet again. Since their last outing, they have tragically lost founding axeman Ron Asheton, and so as a mark of respect for their fallen bandmate are now continuing under the Iggy and the Stooges moniker, featuring the return of guitarist James Williamson, who played on the group's third album Raw Power. As one might expect, the material from this set was drawn mostly from this aptly-titled album, still performed with an intensity that most other performers at this festival struggled to match, despite the fact that the five members of the band probably have a collective age of greater than the rest of the festival put together! The backdrop behind the band was a simple PLAIN WHITE SHEET, perfectly epitomising their no-nonsense rock and roll attitude, in stark contrast to the two acts that would take to the stage after them. And at the front of it all was James Newell Osterberg Jr, better known as motherfucking Iggy Pop - running around on stage like a madman, knocking over those microphone stands foolish enough to stand in his way, screeching out those lyrics with all the fury he could muster, and even punching out a camera who got a little too close! Where does this 63-year-old man get so much energy?! Arguably the highlight of the 2006 BDO was the massive stage invasions that Iggy brought on during the anthem Real Cool Time, and of course history repeated itself this time around - the band didn't play that particular song, but four songs in, as Iggy introduced Shake Appeal, the chaos began and punters began spilling themselves over the barrier and onto the stage - I managed to get over the barrier pretty quickly, but the chaos of people scrambling to the stage made the next part quite a challenge, and security very quickly prevented any more people from climbing up! We remained on that side of the barrier for the whole song, until security eventually had to kick us out! The rest of the set was highly enjoyable, featuring a few more ditties from Raw Power, as well as the Fun House double of Fun House and 1970 (oddly played in that order) and a handful of tracks from the Iggy/Williamson collaboration Kill City. The set conclude with No Fun and the immortal I Wanna Be Your Dog as taken from their self-titled debut album, but after vanishing offstage for a bit, being the rock gods that they are, they were allowed to bend the BDO rules slightly and get an encore, which would be Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell. Iggy and the Stooges really showed up just about everybody else on this bill with a high-class performance despite their increasing age.
(Iggy and the Stooges score 9.5/10.)
SETLIST:
Raw Power
Search and Destroy
Gimme Danger
Shake Appeal (with stage invasion!)
Johanna
Kill City
Fun House
1970
Night Theme
Beyond the Law
No Fun
I Wanna Be Your Dog
----Encore----
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
Towards the end of The Stooges, I'd shuffled over to the other side of the D-barrier to the Orange Stage, where I was greeted by the side of a roof-to-floor black curtain, obscuring the stage set-up of German industrial metal legends Rammstein. It was a hotly (pun intended) anticipated performance for quite a lot of people on the day; after all, it's their first Australian tour in ten years, and in that time they've released FOUR albums. I think the method of covering the set-up time is a good tension builder, after all, you've got no idea what's going to happen until BAM, it actually does happen. And as The Stooges wrapped up, lights could be seen flickering behind the black curtain, and the familiar synthesiser opening of Rammlied, from the band's 2009 album Liebe ist für alle da, drifted out across the grounds. Still behind the curtain, the operatic voice of Till Lindemann began the song in fine style, before the opening chord blasts and chant of "RAMM! STEIN!" began the song proper. The black curtain fell to the floor to reveal a SECOND curtain, this time a massive German flag, before that too dropped, the first of MANY loud explosions went off, and the six German rockers became visible for the first time! After ten years away from this country, it's fair to say the fans were waiting a long time for this, and the band weren't disappointing at all. Now, it would be impossible to review this show without saying that THE STAGE SHOW WAS INCREDIBLE. After all, this was the only band on the bill today (and probably in BDO history) that boasted a licensed pyrotechnician for a frontman, and they put his skills to excellent use. Fireballs going off in every direction (including from above the band), flamethrowers wielded by band members, and even the occasional dazzling fireworks display, the band was so over-the-top you couldn't help but be amazed at their show. My personal favourite stunt occurred during Du hast, when the purpose of the wires running from the stage to the mixing tent became immediately clear; Lindemann fired a crossbow in their general direction, setting of a dazzling chain of explosions along the wires. There were some comical theatrical moments as well, such as during Ich tu dir weh, when Lindemann picked up keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz and put him in a bathtub, before ascending high above him on a hydraulic platform and pouring fireworks down into the bathtub. After returning to the stage, Lindemann inspected the bath and pronounced Flake "dead", however as he returned to his microphone, Flake re-emerged, now in a sparkling suit and returned to the keys, continuing the rest of the set most amusingly on a treadmill! Then there was the "fan" being set on fire during Benzin! Stage-show, schmage-show, some of you might say. WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC? Well, as some other bands have proven over the years (umm, Empire of the Sun?), blowing your budget on the visual side of things is pointless without a decent collection of songs to back it up with; thankfully, there were no such complaint's of Rammstein's material on the day. The band played a decent set of tunes, consisting as expected mostly of LIFAD tracks, but interspersed with a couple of favourites from across their career, even dating back to debut album Herzeleid, with Du riechst so gut delighting the hardcore fans in the audience. Elsewhere, third album Mutter got the next highest representaion, and one song from everything else was played, including, of course, Du hast, which certainly got the biggest reaction on the day. The explosions finally died down enough to allow the band to farewell the crowd with Pussy, but there was one final stunt to come and that involved Till Lindemann mounting a suspiciously-penis-shaped cannon on the stage and blasting foam out into a delighted audience. The only complaints about Rammstein's set that I think everyone had, were, 1) It wasn't properly dark yet, meaning the amazing stage show was slightly less intense than it should have been, and 2) THEY JUST WEREN'T ON FOR LONG ENOUGH. This was undoubtedly one of THE BEST performances in Big Day Out history; definitely my personal favourite since Rage Against the Machine's comeback in 2008, and over the seven years I've been, probably only second to that performance as well. Usually I don't like to include festival performances in my end of year top 10 gigs, but bearing in mind that they didn't do a sideshow, there is no way that this cannot make it at the end of the year. RAMMSTEIN SCORE 10/10!
SETLIST:
Rammlied
Waidmann's Heil
Keine Lust
Feuer frei!
Weiner Blut
Ich tu dir weh
Du riechst so gut
Benzin
Links 2-3-4
Du hast
Sonne
Ich Will
Pussy
After that, there wasn't a lot that Tool could do to impress me; going to a set of arty prog-rock after that, and staying in the jam-packed D, just didn't seem like the right option, especially seeing I was going to Tool's sideshow. So a good mate and I decided we'd head over to the Green Stage to see Warren Ellis, Martyn P Casey, Jim Sclavunos, and NICK CAVE in action, as wired garage-rock revivalists Grinderman. I'd seen the band perform at the ATP Festival a few years ago, but didn't really know their material at the time, so I was pretty keen to see them this time around. Naturally, the "other" three members came onstage first, then Cave himself entered to an extremely enthusiastic response. Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man, from the band's Grinderman 2 album, was a good choice for opening the set, as Cave chanted "We sucked her, we sucked her, we sucked her dry!" and howled out at the crowd. The band really were throwing everything into this performance, with Cave thrashing around the stage in a manner not dissimilar to Iggy Pop's earlier performance, taking out a few microphone stands with him. He seemed to have some sort of extension of the stage set up (I was a little far back in the crowd so I couldn't tell exactly), and utilised it frequently to get even closer to the adoring crowd, especially during Kitchenette where he screeched "I JUST WANNA RELAX!" repeatedly. The sexually-charged performance featured numerous cuts from both Grinderman and Grinderman 2, with highlights including a typically violent Get it On and No Pussy Blues. There were however the occasional moments of contrasting tranquility; Nick Cave introducing Palaces of Montezuma with: "Now, this next one's a love song, so if you're with someone you love... or even someone you hate, take a hold of them and let the sweet..." *long pause* *Sclavunos shouts something* "Yes, the sweet sentiments, thank you Jim, wash over you". After Bellringer Blues, Cave made to leave the stage, but stopped, saying "Apparently we've got one more," and so it was that the set concluded with a beautiful extended version of the eponymous Grinderman. (Grinderman score 10/10.)
SETLIST:
Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man
Worm Tamer
Get it On
Heathen Child
Palaces of Montezuma
Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)
Kitchenette
No Pussy Blues
Bellringer Blues
Grinderman
Naturally, the Boiler Room was still kicking until the very end, with M.I.A. taking the headline slot, but the group I was with decided it was time to go, and after the excellent day I'd had already, I decided that I wouldn't be missing much to call it a night at that point. I was getting a little bit fed-up of the whole Big Day Out experience this time last year, but this time around I really did enjoy myself a whole lot, probably because of the excellent performance by those crazy Germans. So, I won't write this festival off just yet; if the lineup has enough goodness in it next time around, I may just return for an eight visit!
A combination of misreading the train timetable and my own laziness saw me get through the gates a bit later than intended, then a friend arrived soon after I did so I met up with him. Unfortunately by then it was too late to go over and check out Super Wild Horses, who I'd heard good things about, and we instead made our way in the direction of the main stages so I could get my spot for Dead Letter Circus and he could go and see Little Red with some others. Within ten minutes however, said friend had joined me over on the Orange Stage side, finding Little Red boring, and indeed they were. One band that was not boring was Dead Letter Circus! Despite the sound guys doing a very average job - vocalist Kim Benzie was barely audible at the best of times, the guitars of Rob Maric and newish live member Tom Skerlj were completely overwhelmed by drums and the sampled beats and programming were almost non-existent - the band still threw themselves into their early afternoon timeslot with all the usual enthusiasm we see from them at live shows. As expected, the rapidly rising profile of the band saw plenty of keen punters arriving early to check Dead Letter Circus out, and the fans were more than happy to lend their voices to just about every lyric of every song! This time last year, DLC were a lot less well-known and were just starting to rise out of the "underground", yet the sudden success has clearly not gone to their heads. Benzie was genuinely thankful of everyone in attendance, preceeding One Step with a mention of their recent Hottest 100 success (the song made it in at #65), and later dedicating Lines to the fans who had been there from the beginning. Having always seen DLC at club shows with longer sets than the 50 minutes they were allocated today, I was expecting them to miss a few classics, but the setlist was actually quite satisfying, with a healthy selection of their amazing debut album This is the Warning, and three out of the six tracks from their debut self-titled EP making the cut. The set concluded in great style; as the introductory speech from This is the Warning played out over the PA, Benzie introduced Sean Bailey from Sydonia and Zane Rosanoski from Black Devil Yard Boss to the stage, to belt the floor toms in that middle section.
SETLIST
The Mile
Reaction
This Long Hour
Disconnect and Apply
One Step
Lines
Cage
Here We Divide
The Space on the Wall
Next in Line
This is the Warning (with Sean Bailey (Sydonia) and Zane Rosanoski (Black Devil Yard Boss) on guest percussion)
(Dead Letter Circus's performance was worthy of a 10/10, but unfortunately due to abysmal sound the overall set was an 8/10 at best. Not the band's fault though, I'm sure. They didn't even seem to notice a problem.)
It was then time for a bit of a wander and take-it-easy time. In this time I found myself pondering the appeal of Washington, when we tried to meet up with a few friends near a jam-packed Essential Stage. I mean, her music sounds... nice and easygoing and all, I'd even say it's good, but FIVE sold-out nights at the Corner Hotel good? I don't get it. Anyway. After staying there for a bit and finding ourselves increasingly bored, we headed over to the Boiler Room to enjoy the fact that it had a roof, and also to secure an early spot for South Africa's Zef hip-hop trio Die Antwoord. What a show! I didn't get the chance to have a listen to the music of MCs Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJ Hi-Tek before the day, but I was expecting some extremely over-the-top rave-rap, and that's exactly what I got! As Ninja and Yo-Landi belted out vicious rhymes over Hi-Tek's bass-heavy beats, they were accompanied by some excellent visuals, one of which proclaimed "DIE FOKKEN ANTWOORD", which really summed up the mood of the whole show. The crowd was huge for such an early slot, and we all enjoyed this totally over-the-top display of Zef culture at its finest.
(Die Antwoord score: 9/10)
Up next in the Boiler Room (well at least, after a short half-hour interlude from DJ Perplex) were typically bonkers Canadian glitch-electro duo (with a bit of help on drums for their live show) Crystal Castles. The big story of this tour has been that vocalist Alice Glass had done some serious damage to her ankle at a recent show in Japan. Naturally, someone from BDO thought it a good idea to get the crowd amped up even more by declaring that Glass had been advised by doctors to cancel the tour. Pause for boos and shouts. "But she didn't want to disappoint you, so here she is!" How cliche. With a crutch under one arm and holding her microphone in the other, Glass and producer Ethan Kath whipped the Boiler Room into a frenzy in what seemed like a very short but intense set. The massive sound system in the stage did the band a lot more favours than their 2009 appearance at Parklife, and the crowd lost their collective shit to a handful of favourites from their two self-titled albums. Predictably, it was numbers like Baptism and Alice Practice that elicited the biggest response, but really, all went down a treat for the sweaty punters.
SETLIST (something along the lines of this, anyway. Doesn't seem to be up on setlist.fm yet and I couldn't be bothered doing my usual setlist-in-phone on the day.)
Fainting Spells
Baptism
Doe Deer
Crimewave
Air War
Alice Practice
Reckless / Through the Hosiery
Not In Love
(Crystal Castles score 8.5/10)
It was time to head the Main Stage again, and while waiting it out in front of the Blue Stage, I got to witness most of what seemed like just another John Butler Trio gig. I don't mean that in a particularly negative way; I used to be a pretty big fan and I found myself singing along (albeit a little quietly!) and nodding my head to some of the songs that he played during his set. Unfortunately there was quite a lot of material from last years' April Uprising album, which I never bothered to check out. But he did make up for it with the usual classy rendition of Ocean, showing his impressive talents with fingerstyle and percussive guitar playing. Unfortunately for those anticipating the next act on the Blue Stage, he decided that his last song Funky Tonight would involve an extensive percussion jam that stretched the set over-time. Poor form Mr Butler, especially considering that rock royalty was being held up!
(JBT score 7.5/10)
Seeing the mighty Iggy Pop fronting his band The Stooges in a reasonably far-off country like Australia could be considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, five years on from their EPIC performance at the 2006 Big Day Out, lightning struck twice and The Stooges would perform on Australian stages yet again. Since their last outing, they have tragically lost founding axeman Ron Asheton, and so as a mark of respect for their fallen bandmate are now continuing under the Iggy and the Stooges moniker, featuring the return of guitarist James Williamson, who played on the group's third album Raw Power. As one might expect, the material from this set was drawn mostly from this aptly-titled album, still performed with an intensity that most other performers at this festival struggled to match, despite the fact that the five members of the band probably have a collective age of greater than the rest of the festival put together! The backdrop behind the band was a simple PLAIN WHITE SHEET, perfectly epitomising their no-nonsense rock and roll attitude, in stark contrast to the two acts that would take to the stage after them. And at the front of it all was James Newell Osterberg Jr, better known as motherfucking Iggy Pop - running around on stage like a madman, knocking over those microphone stands foolish enough to stand in his way, screeching out those lyrics with all the fury he could muster, and even punching out a camera who got a little too close! Where does this 63-year-old man get so much energy?! Arguably the highlight of the 2006 BDO was the massive stage invasions that Iggy brought on during the anthem Real Cool Time, and of course history repeated itself this time around - the band didn't play that particular song, but four songs in, as Iggy introduced Shake Appeal, the chaos began and punters began spilling themselves over the barrier and onto the stage - I managed to get over the barrier pretty quickly, but the chaos of people scrambling to the stage made the next part quite a challenge, and security very quickly prevented any more people from climbing up! We remained on that side of the barrier for the whole song, until security eventually had to kick us out! The rest of the set was highly enjoyable, featuring a few more ditties from Raw Power, as well as the Fun House double of Fun House and 1970 (oddly played in that order) and a handful of tracks from the Iggy/Williamson collaboration Kill City. The set conclude with No Fun and the immortal I Wanna Be Your Dog as taken from their self-titled debut album, but after vanishing offstage for a bit, being the rock gods that they are, they were allowed to bend the BDO rules slightly and get an encore, which would be Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell. Iggy and the Stooges really showed up just about everybody else on this bill with a high-class performance despite their increasing age.
(Iggy and the Stooges score 9.5/10.)
SETLIST:
Raw Power
Search and Destroy
Gimme Danger
Shake Appeal (with stage invasion!)
Johanna
Kill City
Fun House
1970
Night Theme
Beyond the Law
No Fun
I Wanna Be Your Dog
----Encore----
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
Towards the end of The Stooges, I'd shuffled over to the other side of the D-barrier to the Orange Stage, where I was greeted by the side of a roof-to-floor black curtain, obscuring the stage set-up of German industrial metal legends Rammstein. It was a hotly (pun intended) anticipated performance for quite a lot of people on the day; after all, it's their first Australian tour in ten years, and in that time they've released FOUR albums. I think the method of covering the set-up time is a good tension builder, after all, you've got no idea what's going to happen until BAM, it actually does happen. And as The Stooges wrapped up, lights could be seen flickering behind the black curtain, and the familiar synthesiser opening of Rammlied, from the band's 2009 album Liebe ist für alle da, drifted out across the grounds. Still behind the curtain, the operatic voice of Till Lindemann began the song in fine style, before the opening chord blasts and chant of "RAMM! STEIN!" began the song proper. The black curtain fell to the floor to reveal a SECOND curtain, this time a massive German flag, before that too dropped, the first of MANY loud explosions went off, and the six German rockers became visible for the first time! After ten years away from this country, it's fair to say the fans were waiting a long time for this, and the band weren't disappointing at all. Now, it would be impossible to review this show without saying that THE STAGE SHOW WAS INCREDIBLE. After all, this was the only band on the bill today (and probably in BDO history) that boasted a licensed pyrotechnician for a frontman, and they put his skills to excellent use. Fireballs going off in every direction (including from above the band), flamethrowers wielded by band members, and even the occasional dazzling fireworks display, the band was so over-the-top you couldn't help but be amazed at their show. My personal favourite stunt occurred during Du hast, when the purpose of the wires running from the stage to the mixing tent became immediately clear; Lindemann fired a crossbow in their general direction, setting of a dazzling chain of explosions along the wires. There were some comical theatrical moments as well, such as during Ich tu dir weh, when Lindemann picked up keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz and put him in a bathtub, before ascending high above him on a hydraulic platform and pouring fireworks down into the bathtub. After returning to the stage, Lindemann inspected the bath and pronounced Flake "dead", however as he returned to his microphone, Flake re-emerged, now in a sparkling suit and returned to the keys, continuing the rest of the set most amusingly on a treadmill! Then there was the "fan" being set on fire during Benzin! Stage-show, schmage-show, some of you might say. WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC? Well, as some other bands have proven over the years (umm, Empire of the Sun?), blowing your budget on the visual side of things is pointless without a decent collection of songs to back it up with; thankfully, there were no such complaint's of Rammstein's material on the day. The band played a decent set of tunes, consisting as expected mostly of LIFAD tracks, but interspersed with a couple of favourites from across their career, even dating back to debut album Herzeleid, with Du riechst so gut delighting the hardcore fans in the audience. Elsewhere, third album Mutter got the next highest representaion, and one song from everything else was played, including, of course, Du hast, which certainly got the biggest reaction on the day. The explosions finally died down enough to allow the band to farewell the crowd with Pussy, but there was one final stunt to come and that involved Till Lindemann mounting a suspiciously-penis-shaped cannon on the stage and blasting foam out into a delighted audience. The only complaints about Rammstein's set that I think everyone had, were, 1) It wasn't properly dark yet, meaning the amazing stage show was slightly less intense than it should have been, and 2) THEY JUST WEREN'T ON FOR LONG ENOUGH. This was undoubtedly one of THE BEST performances in Big Day Out history; definitely my personal favourite since Rage Against the Machine's comeback in 2008, and over the seven years I've been, probably only second to that performance as well. Usually I don't like to include festival performances in my end of year top 10 gigs, but bearing in mind that they didn't do a sideshow, there is no way that this cannot make it at the end of the year. RAMMSTEIN SCORE 10/10!
SETLIST:
Rammlied
Waidmann's Heil
Keine Lust
Feuer frei!
Weiner Blut
Ich tu dir weh
Du riechst so gut
Benzin
Links 2-3-4
Du hast
Sonne
Ich Will
Pussy
After that, there wasn't a lot that Tool could do to impress me; going to a set of arty prog-rock after that, and staying in the jam-packed D, just didn't seem like the right option, especially seeing I was going to Tool's sideshow. So a good mate and I decided we'd head over to the Green Stage to see Warren Ellis, Martyn P Casey, Jim Sclavunos, and NICK CAVE in action, as wired garage-rock revivalists Grinderman. I'd seen the band perform at the ATP Festival a few years ago, but didn't really know their material at the time, so I was pretty keen to see them this time around. Naturally, the "other" three members came onstage first, then Cave himself entered to an extremely enthusiastic response. Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man, from the band's Grinderman 2 album, was a good choice for opening the set, as Cave chanted "We sucked her, we sucked her, we sucked her dry!" and howled out at the crowd. The band really were throwing everything into this performance, with Cave thrashing around the stage in a manner not dissimilar to Iggy Pop's earlier performance, taking out a few microphone stands with him. He seemed to have some sort of extension of the stage set up (I was a little far back in the crowd so I couldn't tell exactly), and utilised it frequently to get even closer to the adoring crowd, especially during Kitchenette where he screeched "I JUST WANNA RELAX!" repeatedly. The sexually-charged performance featured numerous cuts from both Grinderman and Grinderman 2, with highlights including a typically violent Get it On and No Pussy Blues. There were however the occasional moments of contrasting tranquility; Nick Cave introducing Palaces of Montezuma with: "Now, this next one's a love song, so if you're with someone you love... or even someone you hate, take a hold of them and let the sweet..." *long pause* *Sclavunos shouts something* "Yes, the sweet sentiments, thank you Jim, wash over you". After Bellringer Blues, Cave made to leave the stage, but stopped, saying "Apparently we've got one more," and so it was that the set concluded with a beautiful extended version of the eponymous Grinderman. (Grinderman score 10/10.)
SETLIST:
Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man
Worm Tamer
Get it On
Heathen Child
Palaces of Montezuma
Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)
Kitchenette
No Pussy Blues
Bellringer Blues
Grinderman
Naturally, the Boiler Room was still kicking until the very end, with M.I.A. taking the headline slot, but the group I was with decided it was time to go, and after the excellent day I'd had already, I decided that I wouldn't be missing much to call it a night at that point. I was getting a little bit fed-up of the whole Big Day Out experience this time last year, but this time around I really did enjoy myself a whole lot, probably because of the excellent performance by those crazy Germans. So, I won't write this festival off just yet; if the lineup has enough goodness in it next time around, I may just return for an eight visit!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Triple J's Hottest 100 2010
Well, hopefully by now you've all recovered from your Australia Day hangovers. Over the years, it's become one of our most-loved traditions to gather around the radio with a beverage or two and listen in excitement as Triple J counts down their annual listener-voted Hottest 100 poll - the one hundred best songs from the year that's just been. I've always enjoyed the celebrations since, I think, 1997, when The Offspring's Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) took out the honours. Since then, the tradition has usually been kept, except for the previous two when I was attending the Big Day Out. Now, with this and many other "best of" lists, everyone loves to have an opinion on what should and shouldn't have made it, so I though that, well, because this is a music blog, I'd weigh in with my two cents.
I suppose I'll start at the beginning, which was the moment when I logged on to the Triple J website and casted my vote for ten songs that particularly floated my boat so to speak in the year twenty-ten. As I went through the endless list of musical oddities and made a few selections, I found myself wondering, "Hang on...what ARE half of these songs?!" Over the last few years I've really not been listening to Triple J very often; I guess I have my ridiculously oversized CD collection to blame for that. I still wanted to vote though, for a few reasons. The first, and I guess it's pretty obvious, IS THAT PRIZE - Triple J awards a randomly chosen voter a "Golden Ticket", which gains the winner (and a friend) free entry to ALL TRIPLE J SUPPORTED GIGS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. Now, as we all know, I attend way too many concerts, can you imagine how awesome this would be for me?! Think of the money I'd save! Anyway, the second reason I voted was because of course, I find it interesting to think about what songs I've enjoyed in the year previous and I wanted to see what I'd come up with when I narrowed it down to ten. What were the songs I picked, I hear you ask? Here they are, with positions achieved in the actual countdown, and a "DNP" standing for "Did Not Place" (which six out of my ten votes did not!).
Birds of Tokyo - Plans - #4
Boy and Bear - Rabbit Song - #45
Dead Letter Circus - One Step #65
Delphic - Doubt - DNP
Foals - Total Life Forever - DNP
Gotye - Eyes Wide Open - #25
My Disco - Turn - DNP
PVT - Window - DNP
The Chemical Brothers - Swoon - DNP
Vampire Weekend - White Sky - DNP
Well then. I guess where those particular songs landed (or didn't land) on the countdown didn't really surprise me all that much in general - I knew Plans was going to do extremely well and I was very happy to hear it come in at number 4, and I expected a strong showing from Gotye and Boy & Bear. Dead Letter Circus making the cut was a bit of a turn-up, especially seeing as I thought that Triple J listeners would be more inclined to vote for Big, which was was heard much earlier in the day at #99. As for those that didn't make the grade, well, I didn't hold a great deal of hope for My Disco, PVT and the Chems, such was the slightly "odd" quality of those songs that didn't really seem to fit with the general Triple J mindset. However, I was a little surprised at the lack of Delphic (no songs at all from their excellent Acolyte made it) in the countdown; as I said, I didn't turn the radio on much throughout the year, but when I did, I definitely heard those guys a lot and I thought they were pretty popular. Foals is another that surprised me; Total Life Forever (the album) has been generally very well-received across the music community and yet they only reared their head once in the Hottest 100, at #98 with Spanish Sahara. Definitely a surprise for me. Ditto Vampire Weekend - perhaps it was the very early release of Contra (January 11) that hurt them in this regard, and also the fact that the two big hits were released in 2009 (Cousins and Horchata placed in that year's countdown at #22 and #52 respectively). Nevertheless, they still put in a respectable showing this year, with Giving Up the Gun getting the #55 honours, and Holiday taking out position #67. Evidently, I just voted for the wrong song.
Now for the rest of the list, and my thoughts on it.
1. Angus & Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane
2. Little Red - Rock It
3. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel
4. Birds Of Tokyo - Plans
5. Boy & Bear - Fall At Your Feet
6. Adrian Lux - Teenage Crime
7. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You!
8. The Wombats - Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)
9. Art Vs. Science - Magic Fountain
10. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Somebody To Love Me {Ft. Boy George & Andrew Wyatt}
11. Pendulum - ABC News Theme {Remix}
12. Drapht - Rapunzel
13. Sia - Clap Your Hands
14. Kanye West - Runaway {Ft. Pusha T}
15. Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
16. The Jezabels - Mace Spray
17. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Bang Bang Bang {Ft. MNDR & Q-Tip}
18. Cloud Control - There's Nothing In The Water We Can't Fight
19. Flight Facilities - Crave You {Ft. Giselle}
20. Washington - Sunday Best
21. Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn
22. Children Collide - Jellylegs
23. Bliss N Eso - Addicted
24. Sparkadia - Talking Like I'm Falling Down Stairs
25. Gotye - Eyes Wide Open
26. Crystal Castles - Not In Love {Ft. Robert Smith}
27. Florence & The Machine/Dizzee Rascal - You've Got The Dirtee Love {Live}
28. Darwin Deez - Radar Detector
29. Illy - It Can Wait {Ft. Owl Eyes}
30. Yeasayer - O.N.E
31. The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
32. Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
33. Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss
34. The Naked And Famous - Punching In A Dream
35. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - The Bike Song {Ft. Kyle Falconer & Spank Rock}
36. Chiddy Bang - Opposite Of Adults
37. Gorillaz - Doncamatic {Ft. Daley}
38. The Naked And Famous - Young Blood
39. John Butler Trio - Revolution
40. Gyroscope - Baby, I'm Getting Better
41. Bliss N Eso - Down By The River
42. Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill
43. Yolanda Be Cool/DCUP - We No Speak Americano
44. Crystal Castles - Baptism
45. Boy & Bear - Rabbit Song
46. Bag Raiders - Way Back Home
47. Birds Of Tokyo - Wild At Heart
48. Pendulum - Witchcraft
49. The Jezabels - Easy To Love
50. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
51. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
52. The John Steel Singers - Overpass
53. Bliss N Eso - Reflections
54. Miami Horror - Holidays {Ft. Alan Palomo}
55. Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun
56. Sia - Bring Night
57. Example - Kickstarts
58. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
59. Washington - Rich Kids
60. Children Collide - My Eagle
61. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Jackson's Last Stand
62. Angus And Julia Stone - Hold On
63. Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
64. Gypsy & The Cat - Jona Vark
65. Dead Letter Circus - One Step
66. Cold War Kids - Audience
67. Vampire Weekend - Holiday
68. Andy Bull - Dog {Ft. Lisa Mitchell}
69. Pendulum - Watercolour
70. Groove Armada - Paper Romance
71. Gypsy & The Cat - Piper's Song
72. Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
73. Gypsy & The Cat - Time To Wander
74. Tame Impala - Lucidity
75. Hungry Kids Of Hungary - Coming Around
76. Kings Of Leon - Radioactive
77. Big Boi - Shutterbugg {Ft. Cutty}
78. Gorillaz - Stylo {Ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def}
79. Little Red - Slow Motion
80. The Black Keys - Howlin' For You
81. Klaxons - Echoes
82. The Black Keys - Tighten Up
83. Arcade Fire - Modern Man
84. Washington - The Hardest Part
85. Hot Chip - I Feel Better
86. Evil Eddie - Queensland
87. Birds Of Tokyo - The Saddest Thing I Know
88. Kanye West - Monster {Ft. JAY-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver}
89. Interpol - Barricade
90. Art Vs. Science - Finally See Our Way
91. The Bedroom Philosopher - Northcote (So Hungover)
92. LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change
93. The National - Anyone's Ghost
94. Xavier Rudd - Time To Smile
95. Broken Bells - The High Road
96. Jonsi - Go Do
97. Parkway Drive - Sleepwalker
98. Foals - Spanish Sahara
99. Dead Letter Circus - Big
100. Muse - Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)
Well. Overall I guess I can't honestly say I was surprised or even not surprised by what came in the countdown; after all, I barely touched the radio this year so I had little idea what was popular (or "hot" if you will). My tip to win was Cee-Lo Green's Fuck You!, and I have to admit I was surprised it didn't. It seemed like it had all the right ingredients to go all the way - catchy hooks, commercial crossover appeal, and of course, those lyrics that we all love to sing! Seeing it come in at only #7 was quite a shock! Congratulations must go to Angus and Julia Stone for taking out the #1 spot with Big Jet Plane. I can't say I'm a massive fan of that particular song, but they are definitely a talented bunch and it's a far better choice for a winner to have a homegrown folk duo, as opposed to some overhyped commercial overseas act stealing the spot because all the Nova listeners jumped on board and had a vote too. It was a far better song than some of the alternatives. Like, for instance, Duck Sauce's abominable Barbra Streisand (an UNFORGIVEABLE #15!). Now, I can be a harsh critic of commercial dance/electronic music at the best of times, but as this song assaulted my ears for the first time, I was just at a loss for words - what, exactly, is the appeal of this song? Yes, the "tune" (in the LOOSEST sense of the word) cooked up in the studio by the seemingly-awesome-on-paper duo of Armand van Helden and A-Trak is, in an irritatingly painful way, quite catchy. You know the kind. It's repetitive, it's simple, it probably took about five minutes to think of, but it gets stuck in your head from the first repeat out of the million that occur in the song, and if you were drunk you'd probably dance your nether regions off to it, so in that respect, it's not without its merits. But... then that voice comes in and utters the name of a not-really-relevant female actor/singer/general celebrity, and that's when the "song" loses all its credibility. I mean, why? Aaaaanway. Other than that, I really have no complaints or compliments to give to the Hottest 100 of 2010 - after all, I had pretty much no idea what songs were going to land where (with a few exceptions), so I can't say I was surprised or even not surprised. I did however really enjoy the day, at a friend's house with a few people and a few (yes, JUST a few, unlike some previous years!) cold ones!
When I arrived home, I was interested to read the amount of bitching on Facebook about the results. Not that I thought the results were particularly "good" or anything, and definitely not suggesting everyone shouldn't share their opinion, but the tone of some people's statuses seemed to suggest that the countdown perhaps should have gone a certain way and they felt surprised and let-down that it didn't. Huh? This is a countdown of the best songs of the year as voted by Triple J listeners, and as I was listening to the countdown, the thing that stuck out most in my mind was, "Well, this isn't exactly what I'd listen to regularly, but it IS what Triple J listeners listen to!" Like just about EVERY other radio station, Triple J has a certain demographic of listeners, and a certain style of music it plays. And I think, when the Hottest 100 rolls around each year, it's usually an accurate encapsulation of what the station played and enjoyed that year. So I don't think there's any point in saying, "Blah, this list sucks!" - do you even listen to Triple J on any other day of the year? If you DID, then there's no way that the Hottest 100 could have caused any major shock to your system, and if you were complaining about it, then one would question why you listen to Triple J in the first place. There are plenty of other choices for radio stations, and if you don't like them, just chuck on your CD collection! Can't really complain about anything in that can you?
Anyway. Congrats once again, not only to Angus and Julia, but to ALL the entrants in the Hottest 100 - OK, so I didn't personally like a large percentage of you, and hadn't even HEARD of quite a lot of you, but obviously quite a few people out there do enjoy your stuff, and placing in this countdown is something I think any band would be happy to put on their resume. It was an interesting ride, once again.
I suppose I'll start at the beginning, which was the moment when I logged on to the Triple J website and casted my vote for ten songs that particularly floated my boat so to speak in the year twenty-ten. As I went through the endless list of musical oddities and made a few selections, I found myself wondering, "Hang on...what ARE half of these songs?!" Over the last few years I've really not been listening to Triple J very often; I guess I have my ridiculously oversized CD collection to blame for that. I still wanted to vote though, for a few reasons. The first, and I guess it's pretty obvious, IS THAT PRIZE - Triple J awards a randomly chosen voter a "Golden Ticket", which gains the winner (and a friend) free entry to ALL TRIPLE J SUPPORTED GIGS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. Now, as we all know, I attend way too many concerts, can you imagine how awesome this would be for me?! Think of the money I'd save! Anyway, the second reason I voted was because of course, I find it interesting to think about what songs I've enjoyed in the year previous and I wanted to see what I'd come up with when I narrowed it down to ten. What were the songs I picked, I hear you ask? Here they are, with positions achieved in the actual countdown, and a "DNP" standing for "Did Not Place" (which six out of my ten votes did not!).
Birds of Tokyo - Plans - #4
Boy and Bear - Rabbit Song - #45
Dead Letter Circus - One Step #65
Delphic - Doubt - DNP
Foals - Total Life Forever - DNP
Gotye - Eyes Wide Open - #25
My Disco - Turn - DNP
PVT - Window - DNP
The Chemical Brothers - Swoon - DNP
Vampire Weekend - White Sky - DNP
Well then. I guess where those particular songs landed (or didn't land) on the countdown didn't really surprise me all that much in general - I knew Plans was going to do extremely well and I was very happy to hear it come in at number 4, and I expected a strong showing from Gotye and Boy & Bear. Dead Letter Circus making the cut was a bit of a turn-up, especially seeing as I thought that Triple J listeners would be more inclined to vote for Big, which was was heard much earlier in the day at #99. As for those that didn't make the grade, well, I didn't hold a great deal of hope for My Disco, PVT and the Chems, such was the slightly "odd" quality of those songs that didn't really seem to fit with the general Triple J mindset. However, I was a little surprised at the lack of Delphic (no songs at all from their excellent Acolyte made it) in the countdown; as I said, I didn't turn the radio on much throughout the year, but when I did, I definitely heard those guys a lot and I thought they were pretty popular. Foals is another that surprised me; Total Life Forever (the album) has been generally very well-received across the music community and yet they only reared their head once in the Hottest 100, at #98 with Spanish Sahara. Definitely a surprise for me. Ditto Vampire Weekend - perhaps it was the very early release of Contra (January 11) that hurt them in this regard, and also the fact that the two big hits were released in 2009 (Cousins and Horchata placed in that year's countdown at #22 and #52 respectively). Nevertheless, they still put in a respectable showing this year, with Giving Up the Gun getting the #55 honours, and Holiday taking out position #67. Evidently, I just voted for the wrong song.
Now for the rest of the list, and my thoughts on it.
1. Angus & Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane
2. Little Red - Rock It
3. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel
4. Birds Of Tokyo - Plans
5. Boy & Bear - Fall At Your Feet
6. Adrian Lux - Teenage Crime
7. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You!
8. The Wombats - Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)
9. Art Vs. Science - Magic Fountain
10. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Somebody To Love Me {Ft. Boy George & Andrew Wyatt}
11. Pendulum - ABC News Theme {Remix}
12. Drapht - Rapunzel
13. Sia - Clap Your Hands
14. Kanye West - Runaway {Ft. Pusha T}
15. Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
16. The Jezabels - Mace Spray
17. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Bang Bang Bang {Ft. MNDR & Q-Tip}
18. Cloud Control - There's Nothing In The Water We Can't Fight
19. Flight Facilities - Crave You {Ft. Giselle}
20. Washington - Sunday Best
21. Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn
22. Children Collide - Jellylegs
23. Bliss N Eso - Addicted
24. Sparkadia - Talking Like I'm Falling Down Stairs
25. Gotye - Eyes Wide Open
26. Crystal Castles - Not In Love {Ft. Robert Smith}
27. Florence & The Machine/Dizzee Rascal - You've Got The Dirtee Love {Live}
28. Darwin Deez - Radar Detector
29. Illy - It Can Wait {Ft. Owl Eyes}
30. Yeasayer - O.N.E
31. The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
32. Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
33. Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss
34. The Naked And Famous - Punching In A Dream
35. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - The Bike Song {Ft. Kyle Falconer & Spank Rock}
36. Chiddy Bang - Opposite Of Adults
37. Gorillaz - Doncamatic {Ft. Daley}
38. The Naked And Famous - Young Blood
39. John Butler Trio - Revolution
40. Gyroscope - Baby, I'm Getting Better
41. Bliss N Eso - Down By The River
42. Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill
43. Yolanda Be Cool/DCUP - We No Speak Americano
44. Crystal Castles - Baptism
45. Boy & Bear - Rabbit Song
46. Bag Raiders - Way Back Home
47. Birds Of Tokyo - Wild At Heart
48. Pendulum - Witchcraft
49. The Jezabels - Easy To Love
50. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
51. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
52. The John Steel Singers - Overpass
53. Bliss N Eso - Reflections
54. Miami Horror - Holidays {Ft. Alan Palomo}
55. Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun
56. Sia - Bring Night
57. Example - Kickstarts
58. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
59. Washington - Rich Kids
60. Children Collide - My Eagle
61. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Jackson's Last Stand
62. Angus And Julia Stone - Hold On
63. Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
64. Gypsy & The Cat - Jona Vark
65. Dead Letter Circus - One Step
66. Cold War Kids - Audience
67. Vampire Weekend - Holiday
68. Andy Bull - Dog {Ft. Lisa Mitchell}
69. Pendulum - Watercolour
70. Groove Armada - Paper Romance
71. Gypsy & The Cat - Piper's Song
72. Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
73. Gypsy & The Cat - Time To Wander
74. Tame Impala - Lucidity
75. Hungry Kids Of Hungary - Coming Around
76. Kings Of Leon - Radioactive
77. Big Boi - Shutterbugg {Ft. Cutty}
78. Gorillaz - Stylo {Ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def}
79. Little Red - Slow Motion
80. The Black Keys - Howlin' For You
81. Klaxons - Echoes
82. The Black Keys - Tighten Up
83. Arcade Fire - Modern Man
84. Washington - The Hardest Part
85. Hot Chip - I Feel Better
86. Evil Eddie - Queensland
87. Birds Of Tokyo - The Saddest Thing I Know
88. Kanye West - Monster {Ft. JAY-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver}
89. Interpol - Barricade
90. Art Vs. Science - Finally See Our Way
91. The Bedroom Philosopher - Northcote (So Hungover)
92. LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change
93. The National - Anyone's Ghost
94. Xavier Rudd - Time To Smile
95. Broken Bells - The High Road
96. Jonsi - Go Do
97. Parkway Drive - Sleepwalker
98. Foals - Spanish Sahara
99. Dead Letter Circus - Big
100. Muse - Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)
Well. Overall I guess I can't honestly say I was surprised or even not surprised by what came in the countdown; after all, I barely touched the radio this year so I had little idea what was popular (or "hot" if you will). My tip to win was Cee-Lo Green's Fuck You!, and I have to admit I was surprised it didn't. It seemed like it had all the right ingredients to go all the way - catchy hooks, commercial crossover appeal, and of course, those lyrics that we all love to sing! Seeing it come in at only #7 was quite a shock! Congratulations must go to Angus and Julia Stone for taking out the #1 spot with Big Jet Plane. I can't say I'm a massive fan of that particular song, but they are definitely a talented bunch and it's a far better choice for a winner to have a homegrown folk duo, as opposed to some overhyped commercial overseas act stealing the spot because all the Nova listeners jumped on board and had a vote too. It was a far better song than some of the alternatives. Like, for instance, Duck Sauce's abominable Barbra Streisand (an UNFORGIVEABLE #15!). Now, I can be a harsh critic of commercial dance/electronic music at the best of times, but as this song assaulted my ears for the first time, I was just at a loss for words - what, exactly, is the appeal of this song? Yes, the "tune" (in the LOOSEST sense of the word) cooked up in the studio by the seemingly-awesome-on-paper duo of Armand van Helden and A-Trak is, in an irritatingly painful way, quite catchy. You know the kind. It's repetitive, it's simple, it probably took about five minutes to think of, but it gets stuck in your head from the first repeat out of the million that occur in the song, and if you were drunk you'd probably dance your nether regions off to it, so in that respect, it's not without its merits. But... then that voice comes in and utters the name of a not-really-relevant female actor/singer/general celebrity, and that's when the "song" loses all its credibility. I mean, why? Aaaaanway. Other than that, I really have no complaints or compliments to give to the Hottest 100 of 2010 - after all, I had pretty much no idea what songs were going to land where (with a few exceptions), so I can't say I was surprised or even not surprised. I did however really enjoy the day, at a friend's house with a few people and a few (yes, JUST a few, unlike some previous years!) cold ones!
When I arrived home, I was interested to read the amount of bitching on Facebook about the results. Not that I thought the results were particularly "good" or anything, and definitely not suggesting everyone shouldn't share their opinion, but the tone of some people's statuses seemed to suggest that the countdown perhaps should have gone a certain way and they felt surprised and let-down that it didn't. Huh? This is a countdown of the best songs of the year as voted by Triple J listeners, and as I was listening to the countdown, the thing that stuck out most in my mind was, "Well, this isn't exactly what I'd listen to regularly, but it IS what Triple J listeners listen to!" Like just about EVERY other radio station, Triple J has a certain demographic of listeners, and a certain style of music it plays. And I think, when the Hottest 100 rolls around each year, it's usually an accurate encapsulation of what the station played and enjoyed that year. So I don't think there's any point in saying, "Blah, this list sucks!" - do you even listen to Triple J on any other day of the year? If you DID, then there's no way that the Hottest 100 could have caused any major shock to your system, and if you were complaining about it, then one would question why you listen to Triple J in the first place. There are plenty of other choices for radio stations, and if you don't like them, just chuck on your CD collection! Can't really complain about anything in that can you?
Anyway. Congrats once again, not only to Angus and Julia, but to ALL the entrants in the Hottest 100 - OK, so I didn't personally like a large percentage of you, and hadn't even HEARD of quite a lot of you, but obviously quite a few people out there do enjoy your stuff, and placing in this countdown is something I think any band would be happy to put on their resume. It was an interesting ride, once again.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Drumroll please! The best physical releases (now including EPs/singles/live albums) of 2010!
And here they are!
10. The Ox and the Fury - Guitars Die in Hot Cars
As I opened my Excel spreadsheet containing my list of albums and searched for all those released in 2010, this one took me by surprise when it came up, as it was released quite early in the year. And then I thought to myself, "Wow, this really is a good album isn't it?", and realised it was more than deserving of a place in the top 10. "The Ox" in this band is actually Melbourne musician extraordinaire Ezekiel Ox, who's certainly been involved with quite a few musical ventures in the past decade or so. In fact, by hearing his name, you're now probably thinking of arguably his most successful venture, the politically-charged funk rock quartet Mammal, who absolutely dominated the Melbourne live scene in the three years they were together, before abruptly cutting their career short in 2009 due to personal differences. Or maybe you thought of Full Scale, who rose to prominence in the wake of the late 90s/early 2000s "nu metal" explosion with a barrage of hard-hitting anthems lead by Ox's vicious diatribes about the state of the world as he saw it. However, I'd bet you didn't think of Ezekiel Ox as the frontman of a... country/folk band? As far as I'm aware (bio details on this lot are pretty scant), Ox got this project going around 2008, and after various musicians drifted in and out of the lineup over the next year or so, the lineup finally stabilised in 2009 with Ox on vocals and acoustic (YES, ACOUSTIC) guitar, Dom Italiano on lead guitar, Ox's old friend Ben Brennan on bass, and Lucius Borich (of the mighty Cog) on drums. And yes, it is country-tinged folk music! While it may be puzzling to imagine how such musicians came up with this style of music based on their other work, these talented blokes pull it off with remarkable ease. Indeed, the great thing about this album is you get to see a very personal side to Ox; rather than his usual politically influenced lyrics, he's actually singing about his own life and the relationships he has with the people in it. In the wake of Over-reactor, and perhaps with Borich having to commit some time to Cog and his new project Floating Me, The Ox and the Fury have kind of slipped off the map over the last few months, which is a great shame as this album shows just how great Ox is as a songwriter and they could definitely have taken this further in the future. Hopefully they'll revisit it soon.
9. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
In which I join the legions of music fans and critics the world over who are falling over themselves to lavish praise on the debut album from Perth psychedelic musician Kevin Parker (who created the majority of this album himself) and his cohorts in trippiness Dominic Simper and Jay Watson. Psychedelic rock is a genre that needs to be approached with caution when one chooses to play it; the danger being that it's very easy to fall into the trap of making bland generic music. Any idiot on acid and who owns a flanger and delay pedal can make psychedelic rock, the trick is to make it not sound like a poor man's Beatles. And while there's undoubtedly a bit of Beatles influence in Parker's work here, there's also plenty of nods to other early jam-heavy rock bands such as Cream and Hendrix, and even some Kyuss thrown into the mix (that's what my ears are finding anyway). Rather than being just a blatant rip-off designed for long-haired bong connoiseurs still living in their parents' basement, Parker has quite faithfully recreated the sound of his influences and made it his own. With the dreamy vocals, fuzzed-out guitars and hypnotic rhythms, Innerspeaker is the sound of an artistic vision coming to life in truly great form, and I think we'll see a lot more of these guys in the future.
THE STAND-OUT: Jeremy's Storm
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Solitude is Bliss, The Bold Arrow of Time
8. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
This was certainly one of the most unexpected comebacks of the year - at the beginning of the year, Michael Gira, the enigmatic frontman of the disbanded Swans, updated their Myspace page to read "SWANS ARE NOT DEAD", in reference to their final live release Swans are Dead, which was released to coincide with their breakup in 1998. Of course, this clever pun was Gira's way of announcing to the world that he was indeed reactivating the beloved Swans name, and after self-releasing a demo to fund this album (featuring a few tracks that would later be released on the album), My Father... was finally released in September of 2010, the first Swans studio album in FOURTEEN years. And what an album it is; unfortunately I cannot compare it to the rest of Swans' legacy due to the fact that it's the first Swans I've ever listened to, but if this sounds anything like the rest of their material, then I'll be diving headfirst into their back catalogue at my earliest convenience! Gira and his band show an impressive dynamic range here, ranging from gentle acoustic-based ballads (see Reeling the Liars In) to noisy discordant intensity (see You Fucking People Make Me Sick or the opening intensity of No Words / No Thoughts). The question that's always asked when great bands like this "come back" or "reunite" after a long period of inactivity is, "Was it worth it? Is (new album title here) really good enough to stand up with the likes of (classic albums title/s here)?" I can only imagine in this case, the answer is a resounding yes.
THE STAND-OUT: You Fucking People Make Me Sick
OTHER STAND-OUTS: No Words / No Thoughts, My Birth
7. My Disco - Little Joy
I purchased this album on a little bit of an impulse a couple of months back, despite some initial misgivings over this band when I saw them live about halfway through 2009 - yes, they ARE REPETITIVE! Let's not deny it! But once you get past the fact that each song on this album contains a very small amount of riffs - sometimes only variations on a single main theme - it starts to become increasingly easy to listen to and even fun at times. The Melbourne trio have stated that minimalism in general was a big influence on the making of this album; I don't know much about the genre, but I can definitely hear it on some of these tracks. And yet, there's still a wealth of ideas on show here - from uptempo grooves such as Closer and epic single Young, to slow burners like Sunray and the almost-title track Lil Joy. I will now probably go out and buy this band's other two releases, even though they've evolved quite considerably on this album.
THE STAND-OUT: Rivers
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Closer, Young
6. PVT - Church With No Magic
Australian electronic experimentalists Pivot faced a bit of a defining moment in their career early in 2010, when an American band also called Pivot decided to launch a legal challenge for the name. Unfortunately, although Aussie Pivot are far better known to the music world, American Pivot had established themselves first, and so it was that Aussie Pivot had to change their name. Sneakily, they simply took out the vowels and became PVT, which the band state is still acceptable to pronounce Pivot! But it wasn’t only the name that changed, for when they started to release tracks from their third album, everyone was a little surprised at the new direction the band had taken. The most notable change of course, THERE WAS VOCALS. Not unusual in itself, but definitely unusual for these guys. Nevertheless, the new direction works quite well; “Church With No Magic” is a very fun, easily digestible collection of synth-driven tunes, still showing an experimental edge to them, but also finding a new dimension of accessibility. Not always a bad thing!
THE STAND-OUT: Light Up Bright Fires
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Window, Timeless
5. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier
A Facebook status of mine when I first purchased this album read something along the lines of "Is this an Iron Maiden album? Yes. Do Iron Maiden make good albums? Yes." OK, so with the possible exception of the opening section of opening salvo Satellite 15... The Final Frontier, there aren't a WHOLE lot of new ideas on Iron Maiden's FIFTEENTH (that number is enough reason to pay them respect automatically), but really, if you were in one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time, would you bother toying with your sound and risk alienating your fanbase just for a few experimental ideas? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! And yet, despite being very familiar sounding, on this release the legendary British six-piece are creating songs that show that the band are still firing on all cylinders and haven't lost the mojo that lead them to create such great albums as Powerslave and The Number of the Beast. Bruce Dickinson still has a set of lungs on him, Messrs Smith and Murray (and probably Gers somewhere, but who really knows when that guy's actually doing anything :P ) are still shredding away as ever, and that rhythm section will always keep your head rocking. Tis not long to go til songs from this album get their first airing in Australia, and I think that's going to be an excellent evening for all concerned!
THE STAND-OUT: The Alchemist
OTHER-STAND-OUTS: Mother of Mercy, When the Wild Wind Blows
4. The Chemical Brothers - Further
Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands will always hold a place in my musical heart; I have very fond memories of being a little seven-year-old and getting up nice and early on a Saturday morning to make sure I caught the Rage Top Fifty that week (the charts actually weren’t too bad in those days). And in that year, I remember frequently staring with wide-eyed wonder, and with delighted ears, at a little song entitled Setting Sun. Fast forward to my teenage years when I actually had the money to purchase such classics (yes, they really are) as Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole and I realised that my love for The Chemical Brothers did not die at all... except, maybe it did, in 2007, when they released We Are the Night. What was it about that album? Well, I know what it was – THE SALMON DANCE. And in general, the overall direction of that particular album was one that alienated quite a few of the purist Chemical heads. Thankfully, the British duo took note of the (mostly negative) response to that album, and re-evaluated their approach to music when it came time to write and record this, their seventh album. Their first rule, and it certainly has made a difference, is that this album would contain ABSOLUTELY NO guest vocalists – no Noel Gallagher, no Beth Orton, no Q-Tip, no Tim Burgess, no Ali Love, and THANK FUCK, no Fatlip! The only vocals on this album come from a couple of well-placed samples, as well as, would you believe it or not, Tom Rowlands himself! In addition, early in the piece the duo stated that this album would be something along the lines of a whole album in the experimental spirit of their famed Electronic Battle Weapon series. Well, all in all, this album really lived up to expectations, as this return to their roots has produced a beauty. I am anticipating their live show in a few months with EXTREME anticipation.THE STAND-OUT: Swoon
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Escape Velocity, Horse Power
3. Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
Here's an album I found myself pleasantly surprised with; I first decided to check this album out on a recommendation from a friend of mine, bearing in mind he was playing at the Meredith Festival that I would attend later in the year. And I knew right from the first listen that this was going to grow on me quite a bit over the next few months. Pantha du Prince is the primary alias used by Hendrik Weber - he's from Germany, which is why it shouldn't surprise you that the music he makes is of the electronic variety. Black Noise is his third album, and even though it falls under the wide umbrella of "techno", this is not your average dumbed-down doof-fest that you hear blaring out of cars driving along Chapel St on a weekend. Rather, Weber places an emphasis on the importance of atmosphere; from the gentle chiming melodies in tracks like Lay in a Shimmer and Bohemian Forest, to the deep dark bass-heavy rumbles in Behind the Stars. And there's even some familiar vocals in there, with Animal Collective mainman Panda Bear lending his distinctive pipes to the very catchy Stick to My Side. Prior to his aforementioned Meredith performance, and in the wake of it, I have been listening to this album with increasing frequency, and it's noticeably jumped up to the pointy end of the top 10, and deservedly so.
THE STAND-OUT: Behind the Stars
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Bohemian Forest, Satellite Snyper
2. Birds of Tokyo - Birds of Tokyo
Even before it was released I was definitely expecting to give this a high ranking, as this Perth quartet have certainly released some impressive output in the past, especially 2008's stellar Universes disc. Ian Kenny, Adam Spark, Anthonny Jackson and Adam Weston decided that this album would be best self-titled, and really, that decision makes perfect sense when you look at the kind of record they've made here - it really is an album that just sums them up perfectly. This album admittedly does see them taking the foot off the pedal so to speak - I don't want to say they've gone "pop" or whatever, but then again, if an album sounds this good, then who wants to get pedantic with genre labels? There's catchy hooks, riffs that stick out without being challenging, hell, maybe this is a pop album! But who cares? With that voice coming out of the speakers, you can't not love this!
THE STAND-OUT: The Dark Side of Love
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Plans, Murmurs, Circles
1. Dead Letter Circus - This is the Warning
It certainly was a hotly anticipated debut album from this Brisbane quartet, who have been slowly but steadily building up a very loyal fanbase over the past 4 years, through a much-loved EP, a decent follow-up single and some very energetic live shows. Finally, the wait was over, and the fans responded in earnest, sending the album straight to NUMBER TWO on the ARIA charts! This is the Warning lived up to all expectations – the band took their time with this one, and it certainly shows, as all the tracks are of a very high quality. The traditional DLC sound that the fans know and love is epitomised brilliantly on this album, although there’s definitely some wonderful new ideas to keep things interesting; namely the flirtations with electronica and industrial music on tracks like “This Long Hour” and of course, the rave-tastic “Cage”. The one criticism I do have to make with this album is their decision to include “Reaction” and “Next in Line” – these songs are so bloody old now! But anyway. 2010 was a very good year for this band; in addition to the success of the album, the band embarked on several tours throughout the year, with many of the shows boasting “sold out” signs! In December they also had the honour of supporting Muse and Linkin Park! I'm quite happy to be giving these guys the number one position; its quality speaks for itself and I think people finally started to take proper notice of them this year!THE STAND-OUT: Cage
OTHER STAND-OUTS: One Step, Here We Divide, The Drum
So there we have it! It really was a stellar year for music, but then again I say that every year! ALSO, as I was going through my top 10, I noticed something that gave me great delight, and that is that an impressive SIX out of ten of these entries are Australian! Which speaks volumes for the quality of the acts in our own backyard, and is a timely reminder I think that we should ALWAYS support these bands by going to their gigs and by BUYING and not downloading their great music! Because if we don't do this, then what would be the point of their existence? (On a side note, the other countries represented in this countdown were the UK (two entries; The Chemical Brothers and Iron Maiden), the USA (Swans), and interestingly enough, Germany (Pantha du Prince).)
I'd now like to throw in a few honourable mentions, because sometimes ten albums just isn't enough to mention all the albums you enjoyed this year! These discs are all excellent in their own right, but may have failed to make the top 10 for various reasons - lack of consistency, or just not being as memorable as the others, for example.
(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
Armin van Buuren - MirageDelphic - Acolyte
Foals - Total Life Forever
Itch-E & Scratch-E - Hooray for Everything!!!
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante
Over-reactor - Lose Your Delusion (both volumes)
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Top five EPS of 2010
5. Black Devil Yard Boss - Black Devil Yard Boss
4. Anna Salen - Anna Salen
3. Boy & Bear - With Emperor Antarctica
2. Twelve Foot Ninja - Smoke Bomb
1. Engine Three Seven - Atmosphere
(ALL AUSSIES! Well done!)
Top five songs of the year:
5. Boy & Bear - Rabbit Song
4. Gotye - Eyes Wide Open
3. PVT - Light Up Bright Fires
2. Birds of Tokyo - Plans
1. The Chemical Brothers - Swoon
(yes, you may note that some of these are inconsistent with what I said were the standout tracks on their respective albums, but I tried to stick to actual singles on this, and also just songs that had the ability to stick out by themselves rather than being part of the whole album)
Best live release:
Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize
Whew! If you read all that, well done!
10. The Ox and the Fury - Guitars Die in Hot Cars
As I opened my Excel spreadsheet containing my list of albums and searched for all those released in 2010, this one took me by surprise when it came up, as it was released quite early in the year. And then I thought to myself, "Wow, this really is a good album isn't it?", and realised it was more than deserving of a place in the top 10. "The Ox" in this band is actually Melbourne musician extraordinaire Ezekiel Ox, who's certainly been involved with quite a few musical ventures in the past decade or so. In fact, by hearing his name, you're now probably thinking of arguably his most successful venture, the politically-charged funk rock quartet Mammal, who absolutely dominated the Melbourne live scene in the three years they were together, before abruptly cutting their career short in 2009 due to personal differences. Or maybe you thought of Full Scale, who rose to prominence in the wake of the late 90s/early 2000s "nu metal" explosion with a barrage of hard-hitting anthems lead by Ox's vicious diatribes about the state of the world as he saw it. However, I'd bet you didn't think of Ezekiel Ox as the frontman of a... country/folk band? As far as I'm aware (bio details on this lot are pretty scant), Ox got this project going around 2008, and after various musicians drifted in and out of the lineup over the next year or so, the lineup finally stabilised in 2009 with Ox on vocals and acoustic (YES, ACOUSTIC) guitar, Dom Italiano on lead guitar, Ox's old friend Ben Brennan on bass, and Lucius Borich (of the mighty Cog) on drums. And yes, it is country-tinged folk music! While it may be puzzling to imagine how such musicians came up with this style of music based on their other work, these talented blokes pull it off with remarkable ease. Indeed, the great thing about this album is you get to see a very personal side to Ox; rather than his usual politically influenced lyrics, he's actually singing about his own life and the relationships he has with the people in it. In the wake of Over-reactor, and perhaps with Borich having to commit some time to Cog and his new project Floating Me, The Ox and the Fury have kind of slipped off the map over the last few months, which is a great shame as this album shows just how great Ox is as a songwriter and they could definitely have taken this further in the future. Hopefully they'll revisit it soon.
9. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
In which I join the legions of music fans and critics the world over who are falling over themselves to lavish praise on the debut album from Perth psychedelic musician Kevin Parker (who created the majority of this album himself) and his cohorts in trippiness Dominic Simper and Jay Watson. Psychedelic rock is a genre that needs to be approached with caution when one chooses to play it; the danger being that it's very easy to fall into the trap of making bland generic music. Any idiot on acid and who owns a flanger and delay pedal can make psychedelic rock, the trick is to make it not sound like a poor man's Beatles. And while there's undoubtedly a bit of Beatles influence in Parker's work here, there's also plenty of nods to other early jam-heavy rock bands such as Cream and Hendrix, and even some Kyuss thrown into the mix (that's what my ears are finding anyway). Rather than being just a blatant rip-off designed for long-haired bong connoiseurs still living in their parents' basement, Parker has quite faithfully recreated the sound of his influences and made it his own. With the dreamy vocals, fuzzed-out guitars and hypnotic rhythms, Innerspeaker is the sound of an artistic vision coming to life in truly great form, and I think we'll see a lot more of these guys in the future.THE STAND-OUT: Jeremy's Storm
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Solitude is Bliss, The Bold Arrow of Time
8. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
This was certainly one of the most unexpected comebacks of the year - at the beginning of the year, Michael Gira, the enigmatic frontman of the disbanded Swans, updated their Myspace page to read "SWANS ARE NOT DEAD", in reference to their final live release Swans are Dead, which was released to coincide with their breakup in 1998. Of course, this clever pun was Gira's way of announcing to the world that he was indeed reactivating the beloved Swans name, and after self-releasing a demo to fund this album (featuring a few tracks that would later be released on the album), My Father... was finally released in September of 2010, the first Swans studio album in FOURTEEN years. And what an album it is; unfortunately I cannot compare it to the rest of Swans' legacy due to the fact that it's the first Swans I've ever listened to, but if this sounds anything like the rest of their material, then I'll be diving headfirst into their back catalogue at my earliest convenience! Gira and his band show an impressive dynamic range here, ranging from gentle acoustic-based ballads (see Reeling the Liars In) to noisy discordant intensity (see You Fucking People Make Me Sick or the opening intensity of No Words / No Thoughts). The question that's always asked when great bands like this "come back" or "reunite" after a long period of inactivity is, "Was it worth it? Is (new album title here) really good enough to stand up with the likes of (classic albums title/s here)?" I can only imagine in this case, the answer is a resounding yes.
THE STAND-OUT: You Fucking People Make Me Sick
OTHER STAND-OUTS: No Words / No Thoughts, My Birth
7. My Disco - Little Joy
I purchased this album on a little bit of an impulse a couple of months back, despite some initial misgivings over this band when I saw them live about halfway through 2009 - yes, they ARE REPETITIVE! Let's not deny it! But once you get past the fact that each song on this album contains a very small amount of riffs - sometimes only variations on a single main theme - it starts to become increasingly easy to listen to and even fun at times. The Melbourne trio have stated that minimalism in general was a big influence on the making of this album; I don't know much about the genre, but I can definitely hear it on some of these tracks. And yet, there's still a wealth of ideas on show here - from uptempo grooves such as Closer and epic single Young, to slow burners like Sunray and the almost-title track Lil Joy. I will now probably go out and buy this band's other two releases, even though they've evolved quite considerably on this album.THE STAND-OUT: Rivers
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Closer, Young
6. PVT - Church With No Magic
Australian electronic experimentalists Pivot faced a bit of a defining moment in their career early in 2010, when an American band also called Pivot decided to launch a legal challenge for the name. Unfortunately, although Aussie Pivot are far better known to the music world, American Pivot had established themselves first, and so it was that Aussie Pivot had to change their name. Sneakily, they simply took out the vowels and became PVT, which the band state is still acceptable to pronounce Pivot! But it wasn’t only the name that changed, for when they started to release tracks from their third album, everyone was a little surprised at the new direction the band had taken. The most notable change of course, THERE WAS VOCALS. Not unusual in itself, but definitely unusual for these guys. Nevertheless, the new direction works quite well; “Church With No Magic” is a very fun, easily digestible collection of synth-driven tunes, still showing an experimental edge to them, but also finding a new dimension of accessibility. Not always a bad thing!THE STAND-OUT: Light Up Bright Fires
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Window, Timeless
5. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier
A Facebook status of mine when I first purchased this album read something along the lines of "Is this an Iron Maiden album? Yes. Do Iron Maiden make good albums? Yes." OK, so with the possible exception of the opening section of opening salvo Satellite 15... The Final Frontier, there aren't a WHOLE lot of new ideas on Iron Maiden's FIFTEENTH (that number is enough reason to pay them respect automatically), but really, if you were in one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time, would you bother toying with your sound and risk alienating your fanbase just for a few experimental ideas? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! And yet, despite being very familiar sounding, on this release the legendary British six-piece are creating songs that show that the band are still firing on all cylinders and haven't lost the mojo that lead them to create such great albums as Powerslave and The Number of the Beast. Bruce Dickinson still has a set of lungs on him, Messrs Smith and Murray (and probably Gers somewhere, but who really knows when that guy's actually doing anything :P ) are still shredding away as ever, and that rhythm section will always keep your head rocking. Tis not long to go til songs from this album get their first airing in Australia, and I think that's going to be an excellent evening for all concerned!THE STAND-OUT: The Alchemist
OTHER-STAND-OUTS: Mother of Mercy, When the Wild Wind Blows
4. The Chemical Brothers - Further
Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands will always hold a place in my musical heart; I have very fond memories of being a little seven-year-old and getting up nice and early on a Saturday morning to make sure I caught the Rage Top Fifty that week (the charts actually weren’t too bad in those days). And in that year, I remember frequently staring with wide-eyed wonder, and with delighted ears, at a little song entitled Setting Sun. Fast forward to my teenage years when I actually had the money to purchase such classics (yes, they really are) as Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole and I realised that my love for The Chemical Brothers did not die at all... except, maybe it did, in 2007, when they released We Are the Night. What was it about that album? Well, I know what it was – THE SALMON DANCE. And in general, the overall direction of that particular album was one that alienated quite a few of the purist Chemical heads. Thankfully, the British duo took note of the (mostly negative) response to that album, and re-evaluated their approach to music when it came time to write and record this, their seventh album. Their first rule, and it certainly has made a difference, is that this album would contain ABSOLUTELY NO guest vocalists – no Noel Gallagher, no Beth Orton, no Q-Tip, no Tim Burgess, no Ali Love, and THANK FUCK, no Fatlip! The only vocals on this album come from a couple of well-placed samples, as well as, would you believe it or not, Tom Rowlands himself! In addition, early in the piece the duo stated that this album would be something along the lines of a whole album in the experimental spirit of their famed Electronic Battle Weapon series. Well, all in all, this album really lived up to expectations, as this return to their roots has produced a beauty. I am anticipating their live show in a few months with EXTREME anticipation.THE STAND-OUT: SwoonOTHER STAND-OUTS: Escape Velocity, Horse Power
3. Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
Here's an album I found myself pleasantly surprised with; I first decided to check this album out on a recommendation from a friend of mine, bearing in mind he was playing at the Meredith Festival that I would attend later in the year. And I knew right from the first listen that this was going to grow on me quite a bit over the next few months. Pantha du Prince is the primary alias used by Hendrik Weber - he's from Germany, which is why it shouldn't surprise you that the music he makes is of the electronic variety. Black Noise is his third album, and even though it falls under the wide umbrella of "techno", this is not your average dumbed-down doof-fest that you hear blaring out of cars driving along Chapel St on a weekend. Rather, Weber places an emphasis on the importance of atmosphere; from the gentle chiming melodies in tracks like Lay in a Shimmer and Bohemian Forest, to the deep dark bass-heavy rumbles in Behind the Stars. And there's even some familiar vocals in there, with Animal Collective mainman Panda Bear lending his distinctive pipes to the very catchy Stick to My Side. Prior to his aforementioned Meredith performance, and in the wake of it, I have been listening to this album with increasing frequency, and it's noticeably jumped up to the pointy end of the top 10, and deservedly so.THE STAND-OUT: Behind the Stars
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Bohemian Forest, Satellite Snyper
2. Birds of Tokyo - Birds of Tokyo
Even before it was released I was definitely expecting to give this a high ranking, as this Perth quartet have certainly released some impressive output in the past, especially 2008's stellar Universes disc. Ian Kenny, Adam Spark, Anthonny Jackson and Adam Weston decided that this album would be best self-titled, and really, that decision makes perfect sense when you look at the kind of record they've made here - it really is an album that just sums them up perfectly. This album admittedly does see them taking the foot off the pedal so to speak - I don't want to say they've gone "pop" or whatever, but then again, if an album sounds this good, then who wants to get pedantic with genre labels? There's catchy hooks, riffs that stick out without being challenging, hell, maybe this is a pop album! But who cares? With that voice coming out of the speakers, you can't not love this!THE STAND-OUT: The Dark Side of Love
OTHER STAND-OUTS: Plans, Murmurs, Circles
1. Dead Letter Circus - This is the Warning
It certainly was a hotly anticipated debut album from this Brisbane quartet, who have been slowly but steadily building up a very loyal fanbase over the past 4 years, through a much-loved EP, a decent follow-up single and some very energetic live shows. Finally, the wait was over, and the fans responded in earnest, sending the album straight to NUMBER TWO on the ARIA charts! This is the Warning lived up to all expectations – the band took their time with this one, and it certainly shows, as all the tracks are of a very high quality. The traditional DLC sound that the fans know and love is epitomised brilliantly on this album, although there’s definitely some wonderful new ideas to keep things interesting; namely the flirtations with electronica and industrial music on tracks like “This Long Hour” and of course, the rave-tastic “Cage”. The one criticism I do have to make with this album is their decision to include “Reaction” and “Next in Line” – these songs are so bloody old now! But anyway. 2010 was a very good year for this band; in addition to the success of the album, the band embarked on several tours throughout the year, with many of the shows boasting “sold out” signs! In December they also had the honour of supporting Muse and Linkin Park! I'm quite happy to be giving these guys the number one position; its quality speaks for itself and I think people finally started to take proper notice of them this year!THE STAND-OUT: CageOTHER STAND-OUTS: One Step, Here We Divide, The Drum
So there we have it! It really was a stellar year for music, but then again I say that every year! ALSO, as I was going through my top 10, I noticed something that gave me great delight, and that is that an impressive SIX out of ten of these entries are Australian! Which speaks volumes for the quality of the acts in our own backyard, and is a timely reminder I think that we should ALWAYS support these bands by going to their gigs and by BUYING and not downloading their great music! Because if we don't do this, then what would be the point of their existence? (On a side note, the other countries represented in this countdown were the UK (two entries; The Chemical Brothers and Iron Maiden), the USA (Swans), and interestingly enough, Germany (Pantha du Prince).)
I'd now like to throw in a few honourable mentions, because sometimes ten albums just isn't enough to mention all the albums you enjoyed this year! These discs are all excellent in their own right, but may have failed to make the top 10 for various reasons - lack of consistency, or just not being as memorable as the others, for example.
(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
Armin van Buuren - MirageDelphic - Acolyte
Foals - Total Life Forever
Itch-E & Scratch-E - Hooray for Everything!!!
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante
Over-reactor - Lose Your Delusion (both volumes)
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Top five EPS of 2010
5. Black Devil Yard Boss - Black Devil Yard Boss
4. Anna Salen - Anna Salen
3. Boy & Bear - With Emperor Antarctica
2. Twelve Foot Ninja - Smoke Bomb
1. Engine Three Seven - Atmosphere
(ALL AUSSIES! Well done!)
Top five songs of the year:
5. Boy & Bear - Rabbit Song
4. Gotye - Eyes Wide Open
3. PVT - Light Up Bright Fires
2. Birds of Tokyo - Plans
1. The Chemical Brothers - Swoon
(yes, you may note that some of these are inconsistent with what I said were the standout tracks on their respective albums, but I tried to stick to actual singles on this, and also just songs that had the ability to stick out by themselves rather than being part of the whole album)
Best live release:
Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize
Whew! If you read all that, well done!
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