Brisbane almost gets a Laneway sideshow... almost

Brisbane's not very well known for getting sideshows for music festivals. So when Laneyway was announced, I was 50-50 on going. There's a few bands I really want to see, but not enough to justify a whole festival expense. We never get sideshows though.

Then today, at rather short notice, a sort-of-Brisbane sideshow got announced. For the Drums, one of the bands I really wanted to see.

When I say "sort-of" I mean Byron Bay. Only a few hours drive away. It's January 29, at the Northern. I'm thinking it's a good reason to cram my car full of hipsters and go for a drive though.

Laneway 2012

Festival season rapidly approaches! Two announcements today, the first of which is next year's Laneway festival. I went last year for the first time ever, and had a reasonably good time, purely for Les Savy Fav. The rest of the bands were a bit similar sounding and the day was a bit of a let down due to the non-chalance of the predominantly "hip" audience.

Well this year is looking the same again... almost. Presenting, the Laneway lineup!

 

There's some good bands there, but the ones that really get me going are M83, Girls, Portugal the Man, the Drums and Yuck. M83, I saw at V-Fest a few years ago, Portugal the Man aren't playing Brisbane and the Drums seem to be touring here every 6 months or so now. So almost not worth it. But then, there's Yuck. This band sounds like a noisy reincarnation of the great 90's Brit-rock sound. This band is my front runner for album of the year. At the start of the year I was more than mildly obsessed with them. And M83 always put on a good show.

So yes, I am weighing up the advantages of going. We'll see how much the tickets are. January 28, in the usual RNA laneway area.

Cut Copy

In what was quite a busy week for Cut Copy last week, they released an album and headlined the main stage (or at least the biggest one) at Laneway. I missed it to go see !!!, because, let's be honest, I figured they'd be back to do an Australian tour very soon.

And god, it feels good to be right.

If you don't know Cut Copy, they do a very relaxed electronica. But not so relaxed that you can't get up and dance. I personally haven't listened to their new album Zonoscope yet, but their 2008 release In Ghosts Colours generated more than a lot of hype. And most of it was warranted.

If you missed them at Laneway, you can catch them May 19 at the Tivoli.

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.

Sufjan Stevens

A few weeks back I had a good old whinge, because apparently Sufjan Stevens was out touring and coming to Brisbane on the same day as the Laneway Festival. That would be an absolutely horrible idea, because they are the exact same type of crowds. Luckily, someone was a little smarter than that.

It's now the 30th of January at the Tivoli. Get your inner-hipster on and see what is supposed to be an amazing live show by what many label a bloody genius of indie music. Now I've just got to figure out if I want to go to the Opera House in Sydney to see this tour...

Sufjan rumours

My inner hipster is rejoicing today. But at the same time, he's crying. This is the reason:

Sufjan Stevens. The man who puts out album after album of great indie covering all styles, ideas and concepts. Although only 2 albums into his concept of an album for each state of America (Illionoise just blew him up massively), he's already taken a break and released a different strain of music, with his new album the Age of Adz. And for that album he will be coming to Australia.

For now, the dates apart from an Adelaide date are just rumoured. So why is the inner hipster crying? His date at the Tivoli is meant to be the same day as Laneway. The 4th of February. ARGHHHHHHH! Hipster Chuck barely gets out, and now he has 2 reasons on the same day! And I've alread bought my expensive Laneway tickets, so I'm just hurt now.

I hope they change it. It is only a strong rumour, I still have time to hope until the real announcement.

MySpace

Laneway

St Jerome's Laneway is that festival I never go to, because I know none of the bands. However, the next year, I rue that decision because I finally have heard half of the bands that played, and they are hipster royalty. Well, this year I will break the drought.

So which bands are playing the indie-hipster festival of festivals this year? I've bolded the ones I really want to see:

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

Les Savy Fav and Menomena have put out two of my favourite albums of the year. So much so, that I was going to blog about Menomena today. As long as prices are reasonable, I'll be there. This has turned into the year of the festivals for me.

4th February, Alexandria St, Fortitude Valley.