Southern Indie Music Festival Sideshows Coming North to Brisbane

Apologies. I promised myself I wouldn't do this ever again, but there's been so much news updates in the last 2 or 3 days and I have so little free time that the only way I'm going to get it out to you right now is in one of those "one-size-fits-all" blog update. Except this one size happens to be Shaq-size. So there's plenty of room for all of the news.

The following news items are in no way in an order of importance, more or less just which tab I have open in my browser closest to the blogger editing window.

The Kooks
The weird thing is, I saw this on a bus stop near my shopping mall days before the official press release. But yes, indie darlings the Kooks are coming to Australia for all the southern New Years festivals, which means we get sideshows up north! January 2nd at the Tivoli.

Beirut
Appearing at some of the same festivals will be the folky indie sounds of Beirut. We get them at a full gig, January 12 at the HiFi.

Deerhoof
Let's just presume every indie band playing in that fortnight is on one of these festivals. Deerhoof would be one of the ones I'm most excited for though. Their experimental indie style is quite an inspiration to many modern indie bands, and they are playing Woodland for like $24! It's on the 10th of January. I can guarantee it will be a sweatbox, but bloody hell, it'll be great.

Fleet Foxes
Is this folk-rock band playing a southern New Years festival?
Yep.
Are we getting a sideshow?
You bloody well know it.
January 11, the Tivoli.

J Mascis
The creative genius behind the legendary noise band Dinosaur Jr is also coming out for some festivals, but in his solo acoustic mode (which is still bloody good). He'll be playing sideshows at the Sound Lounge on the Gold Coast on January 7 and the Powerhouse on January 10. Given Woodland's late starts, you could probably do this before Deerhoof. I'm thinking of that plan anway...

Kings of Leon
Despite the rumours of their break-up, alcoholism, etc, they are coming down under to play their postponed tour from last year. This band really polarises me. Their first two albums, were amazing. I still love them to this day. They inspired me to relearn guitar when I had given up on it, and they blew me away on their first Australian tour oh so many years ago. Then they released a bunch of tripe. And continue to. But hey, if you like them now, they've added a new Queensland date on their tour, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. It will be November 9, the day after their show at the Entertainment Centre.

Off!
Switching genres now, Off! are a band made up of former members of Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Rocket From the Crypt. I don't think you can get anymore punk credibility there. But they're bringing their old school style of skate-hardcore punk to Australia.

If you can't see the tour poster above, I'll tell you what's on it. We get two shows. Dec 4 at the Zoo for the 18+ and Dec 6 for an all-ages at Sun Distortion (this will be insane). I cannot wait.

News Post

I hate doing all the news in one blog post, but I've been snowed under this month and it's not picking up. And I am inherently lazy. So here's a bunch of news in bullet points.

• Kings of Leon tour is now officially postponed until November 8, but still at the Entertainment Centre. Tickets for the march tour can be used there.
• Fleet Foxes, the folk-rockers, has a free MP3 from their new album here for you: http://www.fleetfoxes.com/helplessness-blues.html
• British India also have a free MP3 for you: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/mp3s.htm
• Unkle were one of the bands on the Groovin' the Moo festival announcement that I got excited for. And now they're doing sideshows! May 3, HiFi. Now if only they had Ian Astbury come on that tour with them...
• Christian rockers (with a Jesus lookalike on keys) Emery are coming on another tour. They're a great live band, but unfortunately, much like the Chariot tour, the only Queensland date is at Easterfest in Toowoomba, April 23. BOO TO YOU.
• The Rics Big Backyard festival on March 26 has added a few more bands: Violent Soho, Velociraptor and Numbers Radio being the highlights.

Now good day to you.

Kings of Leon postponed

It started as a stadium tour. A few weeks ago it was downsized to an entertainment centre tour. And now, it's not even happening.

Yes, Kings of Leon's show on March 6th has been canned. Apparently it's not for poor ticket sales though, but rather:

Doctors have advised that at least three months will be required for Nathan to recover post surgery to ensure the injury doesn't reoccur.

The injury has, at this stage, led to the postponement of Australian and South African tour dates for Kings Of Leon.

Nathan said of the postponement, "Sorry to all the fans in Australia and South Africa. My bum wing needs more time to heal but we'll be back later this year. Sorry again".

A new itinerary is currently being secured for November in Australia and will be advised to fans this week. Ticket holders should hold on to their tickets until further notice.

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?

Kings of Leon

It's official: these guys have gone big/sold out. I still remember the first time I saw them, playing very early in the day at Big Day Out, with very few people in the crowd caring.


I did. I loved their dirty and obscene southern blues rock. But their last 3 albums drifted horrendously away from it, trying to be some sort of shoe gaze weirdness, which made me sad. But apparently everyone else loved it as evidence by their next tour: a stadium tour.

They'll be playing the Queensland Sports and Athletic Centre on March 6th.

One sentence album reviews (#4)

Some more album reviews from the last week or so:

From Monuments to Masses - The impossible...(2003): Noodly instrumental post-rock with way too much overdubbed political speeches. 2/5

Islands - Vapours (2009): Disappointing: they've lost their sounds of the first 2 albums and become generic indie-electro-pop. #yawn. 2/5

Kings of Leon -Come Around Sunset (2010):wasted potential; like most of my classmates that are now drug dealers or managers at Woolies. 1/5

Kerouac - Cold and Distant...(2010): Dirty, angry, hardcore and invokes violence and hatred with their music and lyrics. Yet oh so good 4/5

Forest City Lovers - Carriage (2010): Upbeat indie folk pop music, with vocals that sound a little bit like Lily Allen 3.5/5

Gayngs - Relayted (2010): Electronic folk music that is very chill and perfect for a Sunday lying around relaxing, even with a hangover. 3/5

Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (2008): Very quiet ambient music, I actually didn't notice the album playing a few times. 2/5

Marc Houle - Drift (2010): minimalist techno; cross between nintendo music and 90s neo-gothic apocolyptic movie soundtracks. Amazing. 4.5/5

Girl Talk - All Day (2010): If nightclubs in Brisbane played this music, I'd never stop clubbing. 71 minutes of amazing mashups. 4.5/5

Grown Ups - More Songs (2010): Math rock collides with pop-punk; two guilty pleasures rolled into one. 3.5/5

Koalacaust - Koalaaust (2010): Makes me thing of old school Against Me!, less angsty but with lots more accordians. 3.5/5

Interpol - Interpol (2010): Everything they do is ultra-criticised, but I find this their darkest and most brooding album to date. 3.5/5

Jeremy Messersmith - The Reluctant Graveyard (2010): peaceful poppy folk singer-songwriter, this album is almost like lullabies. 4/5

Kylesa - Spiral Shadow (2010): Amazing sludge metal album that is not too heavy and quite accessible. 4.5/5

Magic Kids - Memphis (2010): It's as if 1960's pop-rock is reborn in an indie band (4/5)