Laneway Festival 2011 Line-Up

The bar may be long gone but the Summer indie festival lives on. The line-up announced today will see the following acts touring down under for the 2011 installment.

!!!, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Beach House, Bear In Heaven, Blonde Redhead, Cloud Control, Cut Copy, Deerhunter, Foals, Gotye, Holy Fuck, Jenny and Johnny, Les Savy Fav, Local Natives, Menomena, PVT, Rat Vs Possum, Stornoway, The Antlers, The Holidays, Two Door Cinema Club, Violent Soho, Warpaint, World’s Press End

I’m really excited over the announcement of Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Sweet arriving as a duo, the return of Foals & Two Door Cinema Club after playing at Splendour In The Grass 2010 and the haunting American band Warpaint making their debut in Australia. Here’s a little taste of what to expect.

The festival will tour down under on the following dates:Auckland Jan 31, Brisbane Feb 4, Melbourne Feb 5, Sydney Feb 6, Adelaide Feb 11, Perth Feb 12,

Tickets for the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival will go on sale Wednesday 20^th October at 9am at the official website or you may purchased limited tickets in store from Polyester Records (Fitzroy) & 1000 £ BEND in Melbourne or The Edge in New Zealand. See http://lanewayfestival.com.au/ for more.

Bad Habits, Good Manners

New Melbourne underground club Pretty Please have announced the line-up of upcoming artists. It’s pretty pleasing.

The newest place to get your fix will open on the 22nd October at 61C Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda. Finally, a new place to hang my hat. Check out their official website at www.prettyplease.com

All Played Out

Gorillaz have seemingly come out of nowhere with this tasty new track Doncamatic (All Played Out) which features Daley.

This comes as a nice surprise given that I wasn’t aware they had anything in the works so soon after the release of Plastic Beach earlier this year. The timing is pretty perfect with their Escape To Plastic Beach world tour less than three months away from its conclusion which will see them visit Australia in December. The single officially drops on 22nd November with a music video surely to proceed it. Good luck not getting addicted to this one.

Scoring like Jordan

Gamer Rage is back in time for the release of NBA 2K11 & for the first time in years, you can be like Mike. Could this be the best basketball game ever made? Check out our review after the jump..

Gamer Rage’s NBA 2K11 Review

Chaga Time with Maya & Vanya

Fresh from a recent stint in Europe, Next Generation DJ Competition winners MayaVanya are back on the airwaves for their weekly radio show on GeorgeFM.

New Zealanders, tune in from 8PM-10PM on 96.6 George FM or join the rest by streaming the show live at http://www.georgefm.co.nz/show91.html

Visit the official Facebook page for the latest on MayaVanya

Worst Tattoo Customer Ever / Best Remix Video Ever

Internet remix master Mike Relm has really honed his craft with his latest remix of a recent internet meme being his most musical yet. Extra points for throwing in an old friend named Charlie.

If you hadn’t seen the ridiculous original clip by now, check it out..

Whilst I hope this doesn’t deter anyone from getting a tattoo, I do hope it deters you from acting like a punk bitch when getting one.

Check out the rest of Relm’s videos over at his YouTube channel.

Parklife 2010

Anybody else’s guts still feel betrayed by their impulsions this weekend? The mark of Monday means a sad end to the madness as Parklife 2010 has left it’s mark on Melbourne & Sydney.

The event was everything a good sequel should be, bigger & better thanks to the French invasion from Ed Banger Record stalwarts Uffie, Mehdi, Busy P & Brodinski, party animals in 2ManyDJs, Bag Raiders, Glitch Mob, the last hurrah for Groove Armada Live & appearances from hip-hop heavyweights Chiddy Bang & Missy Elliott.

Photos will be up shortly. Hats off to promoter Fuzzy for making it all happen again in October!

Big Day Out 2011 line-up

Rock is the returning flavor for Australian / New Zealand summer music festival Big Day Out in 2011. After hosting a mega card last year that had something for everyone, this year harks back to the early days of the festival by bringing out some of the biggest area rock acts of the 1990′s.

The initial announcement at midnight last night revealed Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Tool, Rammstein, Grinderman, Andrew WK & Primal Scream to be some of the festivals heavier attractions.

Hip-hop, alternative rock & indietronica will get its fair shake with Lupe Fiasco, Bliss N Eso, M.I.A, LCD Soundsystem, The Black Keys, Ratatat, CSS, Deftones, Die Antwoord, Crystal Castles, Wolfmother, Bloody Beetroots Deathcrew 77, Booka Shade, Angus & Julia Stone, Plan B, Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros, The Jim Jones Revue, Birds of Tokyo, Little Red, Gyroscope, Vitalic, AIrbourne, Dead Letter Circus, Blue King Brown, Operator Please, Children Collide, Gypsy and The Cat, Will Styles, Lowrider, Sampology, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock all announced on the card.

Local acts included are Die! Die! Die!, Bulletproof, Street Chant, Naked & Famous, Kids Of 88, Shihad Six60 and I Am Giant

Tickets go on sale Friday 8th October – $150 +GST from Ticketmaster

Album Spotlight: Robyn – The Body Talk Series

This is not so much of a review of Robyn’s sixth studio album Body Talk pt.2, as this album was released about 20 days ago, but more of a spotlight on the artist herself & my impression of the Body Talk series. Simply put, the Body Talk series unabashed pop music perfected.

Certain people will remember Swedish singer Robyn from her mid to late 90′s R&B-pop flavored run with songs such as “Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)“, “Do You Know What It Takes” and her breakthrough track “Show Me Love“. Making a splash on American shores, instead of making the full-time move Robyn retreated back to Sweden to regroup. Whilst the Western music scene became over saturated from the consequent pop explosion from the likes of Britney & Justin, Robyn’s European advantage meant she was able to further push her curiosity in dance music. Hooking up with producers such as Christian Falk & Kleerup, Robyn began to find her true identity rather than portray a role given to her by a record label.

Like P!nk famously had done before her, Robyn shed her image to discover herself in lieu of the reinvention method most pop divas take up. In 2005, she released her self titled fourth studio album on her own record label to rave reviews boasting hits such as “Be Mine!“& “Who’s That Girl” whilst also enjoying a hit appearances on Kleerup’s “With Every Heartbeat” and Röyksopp’s “The Girl and The Robot“. While this propelled Robyn to a marquee act in Europe, it was only a matter of time before she once again propelled herself onto the international scene.

In 2010, Robyn announced the development of the Body Talk series, a personal diary-like project that would span three albums over one year. A brazen decision given this may come at the cost of quality but the doubt was cast aside when Body Talk pt.1 was released in June. Hooking up with producers such as Kleerup & Diplo proved a success as tracks “Dancing On My Own“, “Dance Hall Queen” & the defiant “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do” have become instant radio favourites & continued Robyn’s eclectic musical path and cemented her as one of today’s hottest artists. Body Talk pt.2 continues this journey but touches on the more personal side of things that Robyn previous hinted with more humble tracks such as “Hang With Me” & “We Dance To The Beat” giving the album a slighter edge over the first part. The album also features an appearance from rapper Snoop Dogg (who previously worked with Robyn on a remix of his song “Sexual Eruption“) on the track “U Should Know Better“

Robyn most recently appeared briefly televised performing for the live audience at the mecca of US pop culture, The 2010 MTV Music Awards where she performed a dubstep flavored rendition of “Dancing On My Own” courtesy of the in house DJ Deadmau5 which has now sparked interest in a collaboration. Body Talk pt.3 will consist of the best tracks from parts 1 & 2 alongside new songs and is slated to be released in November/December in time for her appearances at the Australian dance musical festival Stereosonic. The exceptional quality I find of Robyn is her ability to retain credibility in everything she throws herself into. Any of her dance-pop floor fillers are easily translatable as acoustic vocal dynamite. When all is said and done, the Body Talk series will go down as one of my favorite releases of 2010.

- Kessie James

White Knuckles

It’s been 5 years since OK Go first filmed their choreographed antics. After a series of similarly filmed feats for subsequent sequels including the award winning treadmill routine for “Here It Goes Again”, one may continually ask “How do you top that?”

Introduce talented four legged creatures. At first I mistook this for an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 (welfare / exploitation joke) & upon repeat viewings I’ve come to conclude that it’s marginally better than that Baha Men music video (throwback joke). Ladies and gents.. White Knuckles.

- Kessie James