Tagged By melbourne

Golden Plains Sixxx at The Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre – in pictures.

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seekae

Golden Plains Sixxx took place over the weekend at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre in Victoria. It’s the relaxed festival that hosts a mixed bag of artists on one stage over a long weekend. It has become a real highlight for me not just because it winds up the summer music season but because it is a really bloody good festival. From kind and very beautiful people to incredibly diverse and talented artists, good food and great camping areas to plenty of amenities and fantastic staff, Golden Plains has it figured out. I covered a bunch of the oz bands and a few internationals including ‘Bon Iver’ who surely was amazing. Sign on to the mailing list and be sure to get in the ballot for next year here – http://2012.goldenplains.com.au/every-thing/subscribe/

Full set of pictures after the jump (more…)

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Mildlife – ‘Arriving Soon’ single launch at the Grace Darling

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mildlife grace darling single launch by david payne

Mildlife launched their new single ‘Arriving Soon’ at the Grace Darling in Collingwood on Saturday night. It was the first time I had actually got down to the grace band room and it was kinda overwhelmingly packed and hot. Mildlife played a well considered set to a group of mesmerized and very attractive youths. Saturdays in Collingwood probably always look like this these days and the band lapped it up. I was quite into the sound and really like the way Mildlife mix subtle electronica and instrumental melody. ‘Arriving Soon’ is a dreamy tune that winds through layers of sweet grooves and features dramatic pop vocals that fit their presence onstage. It’s romantic stuff that moves with a heavy bass line or gets more disco with the up numbers but the straight forward band structure is still driven by the live drums. This is a band that has a heart not unlike cut copy and the slacker appeal of washed out, I hope they see the same success.

Arriving Soon by Mildlife

You can keep up with the band here – http://www.facebook.com/Mildlife and check out more pics after the jump (more…)

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‘Broken Stone Records’ Roadshow hits Horse Bazaar

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Caitlin Park live photo

Caitlin Park

Magnetic Heads

I caught the first half of the Broken Stone Records Roadshow at Horse Bazaar in Melbourne on Sunday. Featuring ‘Magnetic Heads‘, ‘Caitlin Park‘, ‘The Maple Trail‘ and ‘Sister Jane‘, the Broken Stone Records Roadshow is currently making its way around the nation. Heading up to Newcastle tonight and then onto Sydney for the last few shows. If you can get along be sure to do so as the sets from Magnetic Heads and Caitlin Park were great and well worth the door charge. You can also check out some original cover artwork and of course pick up some fine merch. Dates are on their site here – http://www.brokenstonerecords.com/

More pictures after the jump. (more…)

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PBS 106.7FM ‘Drive Live’ featuring Pop Singles, Extreme Wheeze and Lost Animal

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Pop Singles live in PBS Studios

PBS 106.7FM is running ‘Drive Live’ this week in Melbourne and I rocked along to catch Pop Singles, Extreme Wheeze and Lost Animal. The week is presented by APRA and Arts Victoria and features a tightly curated selection of bands each day between 5-7pm. The best part is you can rock up for free and check it out. PBS members also get free beer! Seriously. Don’t miss the critically acclaimed ‘Twerps’ on Friday, who ended up on almost everyone’s best of 2011 album list.

Check out details on the PBS 106.7fm site here.

Full set of photos after the jump. (more…)

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Kristina Miltiadou – ‘Carousel’ video by Who By Fire

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This video starts out like some friends having a dinner party in the park – all very pretty. Then features the lovely voice of Kristina Miltiadou doing a version of her track ‘Carousel’.
All shot and edited well but the location sound by Ed Denton is really good. I like seeing videos like this – nothing too serious but very well recorded. ‘Who By Fire’ have this style down and have been releasing a bunch of stuff over summer. I posted Lester The Fierce a little while back. Their team of writer/director Alexander Watkins, producer Sian Darling and cinematographer Ben Helweg are doing a pretty fine job. Check them out here – http://whobyfire.com.au/

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Interview w/ Husky Gawenda

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husky

Following on from Mel T’s interview with Geoffrey O’ Connor. I spoke to Husky Gawenda of Husky, another Australian band set to play the Laneway Festival circuit this summer. Husky have had a lot of love on the site for their singles and live shows. In October they released their debut record ‘Forever So’ and have been touring the country playing to sold out crowds and very happy fans.

I started by asking about the release of ‘Forever So’.

We finished the record last year so we were sitting on it for a little while. We’d spent a lot of time and energy and love on the record so waiting to release it was a bit hard in a way cause we really wanted to get it out there and have people hear it. So to finally put it out and start to get feedback in all sorts of different ways – on Facebook and twitter and all the ways you get feedback these days – it’s been quite amazing. The fact that there are people out there connecting with it and enjoying it is an amazing feeling.

and having that direct connection with fans?

Yeah, its a beautiful thing because in the past the only feedback you get other then meeting people at shows, which is a great way to get feedback but other then that the only feedback you get is from critics. That’s all good but it’s a different sort of feedback I think. So to be able to just read people responses to the album on our Facebook wall is great. It’s a great way to gauge how people are feeling about it.

How has playing shows and the time since writing the record changed the way you feel about the record ‘Forever So’?

It’s interesting, I don’t listen to the record. I don’t think that much about the actual record. Obviously we’ve been playing and touring a lot so the record has become a live creature. It’s a thing we do live, we’ve had to work on translating the recordings to a live setting and we’ve had a great opportunity to do that this year because we’ve had so many support tours and now we’ve had our own tour. I’m still feeling really good about the songs, I still feel that most of the time I can connect with them while I’m playing them. Sometimes they mean something different to me while I play them to perhaps what they meant when I wrote them but there is nothing wrong with that, that’s the nature of songs and any sort of art. I’m really enjoying playing the songs and seeing how people respond and connect with them – it’s great fun.

The arrangements on the record are quite unique, have you had trouble translating that to a live set – you have a lot of scope to play around with? (more…)

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