Good Vibrations: the Curse

So this year's Good Vibrations just keeps getting worse and worse. What with major attractions pulling out and all, it seems that the festival is just getting to be a whole pile of 'meh'. So much so that a bunch of my friends are offloading tickets with just a few days to go.

This may throw them for a spin though, because Good Vibrations are now offering a "buy 1 get 1 free ticket" deal, but with a twist. If you show up at the door with a ticket, you can get a second person in for free!

Oh dear, the sales must be real slow for the Gold Coast leg this Saturday.

News Update!

The floods have come and gone, but I'm still stranded. I'm the last person on my street with no electricity (even the flooded houses have it!) and it looks like it may be another week until we get it back. As a result, I have almost zero internet access outside of work hours and can't do updates too much. This is why I'll bundle all of the news up into one post! And here's a funny comic to start with:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

HAHA KINGS OF LEON
So Kings of Leon originally decided they were going to do a stadium tour. Now they've decided to make the shows "more intimate" by downgrading their venues to something smaller where the punters can get up close. And by more intimate, they mean the Entertainment Centre. Read between the lines and you can see it written on the walls "ticket sales were shit. U2/Bon Jovi we are not."

I used to be a huge Kings of Leon fan with their first dirty, innuendo filled, blues inspired albums. They were fresh and amazing. Then they decided to (I think they even did an interview stating that they would) sellout and make as much money as possible. And started writing shit songs.

March 8, Entertainment Centre

Good Vibes loses yet another one to the Grammys
With Cee-Lo already pulling out of the February 19th event to perform at the Grammys, another artist has decided that playing the Grammys is better for her career than a field full of drug-riddled dance music poseurs. Janelle Monae is doing the same thing.

Thank God It's Monday
Carlton Dry kicked off the free Thank God It's Monday gig series last month, with the Hungry Kids of Hungary playing a free Monday show for us. For their second round of gigs, this month, Carlto Dry has one-upped it, with Philadelphia Grand Jury playing a gig the 31st of January at the Normanby Hotel.... Wait... The Normanby?! Am I seeing this right? So confusing. Hopefully the stop the flow of Bundy/fights for this show.

It's sponsored by a beer company at a bar, so obviously its 18+.

Gary Numan
It's been over 30 years since Gary Numan blew us all away with his synth-pop masterpiece that was the Pleasure Principle, released in 1979. Abandoning nearly all guitars and writing it mainly on a Moog, it went number 1 in the UK and lead the way for the hugeness of New Wave. So in celebration, he's touring the album.

Tivoli. May 12

If you don't know the album, you'll at least know this song (even though it's the Fear Factory version with Gary Numan singing).

God God Dammit Dammit
I am late on this, but most of my friends are already going. Tonight a 12 piece funk-punk party band called God God Dammit Dammit are playing a free show at Fat Louies with Headaches and Ironhide. Get in on that and have a great time!

MySpace

Club 299 Redeems Itself
Although switching from indie/hardcore hangouts to top-40 bad pop/dance music club in an effort to be profitable, Club 299 is still dedicated to the music. I'd hope so, especially since the owner is formerly of Her Majesty's Basement, a great old music venue buried under Queen Street Mall. Every Wednesday now they will be showcasing some of Brisbane's best young and unknown bands. Entry is free to students and there are lots of giveaways to be had. So head in, what else do you do on Wednesday nights?

Cee Lo cancels Good Vibrations

The title says it all really.

This guy:

Has pulled out of the Good Vibrations festival on the Gold Coast in February. Apparently it's so he can play the Grammy Awards.

I don't blame him really.

Hungry Kids of Hungary

One of my friends just worships the ground that Hungry Kids of Hungary walks on. It's not hard to see why, they're good guys and they have some really upbeat guitar indie-pop.

I've blogged about them a few times before, so I won't go into too much detail about these Brisbane boys. But following on from their excellent Australian Music Month show in November, they are now going around and doing a string of regional Australian dates. They'll be taking the Honey Month with them and be playing around appearances at both the Laneway festival here in Brisbane and Good Vibrations on the Gold Coast.

Feb 3, Joe's Waterhole, Eumundi
Feb 5, Hoey Moey, Coff's Harbour

Get a free MP3 from their Unearthed site.

Ting Tings

In 2008 this little UK duo put out an annoyingly catchy song about someone getting called the wrong name. It was bloody annoying, but gosh darn if it didn't get stuck in your head. And apparently it got stuck in everyone else's, because they sold out a very hastily organised tour of Australia.

At the time I made the call that they'd be a one-hit wonder band. Time went by, we all forgot about them. Then they announced they were playing Splendour with some new songs in hand, only to pull out merely days before the festival. I took this as validation of my 2 year old theory.

So after taking time off from not showing up to Splendour and to work on their album, you think they'd have dropped their new album by now (and not become a Chinese Democracy farce). But no. Although there is now hope...

...as they have been announced to be playing the Good Vibrations festival, sweeping into the Gold Coast on February 19th next year.

There's a new song on their MySpace, so maybe they'll prove my thoughts of the last 2 years wrong.

Good Vibrations

It was announced on Friday, but I've been fairly intoxicated since then. So here's the Good Vibrations festival lineup.


This could be the year I actually go to Good Vibes. I love Faithless' electronica, Phoenix are just charming French indie, Cee Lo was great last time I saw him play with Gnarls, Ludacris is my favourite rapper from my teenage years and the Nas and Damian Marley album is my favourite hip-hop album of the year so far.

And it's on my birthday! February 19, at the Gold Coast Parklands. I've just got to convince myself to put up with all of the idiotic festival goers.