City & Colour Live

Canadian singer/songwriter Dallas Green kindly bought his City & Colour project back to Sydney last week for another year of back to back sold out shows! Following a huge demand from us Australian fans, this was the second time Dallas has been out to tour his third full-length album Little Hell. 

I've been lucky enough to see City & Colour a handful of times now, and each time Dallas has delivered the collection of heartfelt songs we have all come to know and expect of this acoustic-folk luminary. But last week's show was something different entirely... Dallas was no longer the lone ranger, but instead stood prominently towards the left hand side of the stage and conveyed himself as equal to his four bandmates. This gave the entire show a sort of zealous energy, analogous to his recent departure from mainly acoustic beginnings to the fuller sounding tracks of the latest release. 

I should stop here and be completely honest with you guys... I did not receive the release of Little Hell with wide open arms last year. As a long time City & Colour fan, I was no stranger to those acoustic classics. For years they had become the soundtrack to my life. Certain tracks were applied to certain situations, and lyrics were interpreted to invoke way too much emotion in a way that most prepubescent teens so frequently do. And I think it was the raw, stripped back acoustic that facilitated this. So when City & Colour embarked on the bold new sound that is Little Hell, I was quick to give it a second place status.  

Now having heard Dallas's voice flow effortlessly over those warm guitars, simple keys and subtle percussion live, my opinion has completely changed. I stood in absolute awe from the moment they opened with We Found Each Other In The Dark, and my jaw remained gravitated towards the floor for the remainder of the evening. 

While Dallas is a quiet man, crowd interactions were aplenty. He proved he can still charm an audience with his did bit stories. He recruited us for backup vocals during What Makes A Man, and encouraged us to dance to Fragile Bird. For Body In A Box, Dallas did something no other artist has ever done and asked us to put away the phones and cameras, and just experience the show for what is was, to which we all respectfully obliged. 

The set was highlighted by a breathtaking performance of my favourite track The Girl. For that six minute period, I was whisked away to a world of wonder. While I sang along and sort of slow danced on the outside, I was pondering life's greatest questions on the inside. I was deep in thought for the first half, wondering about the lady the song was written for. What was she like? What happened in her life? Where is she now? Then the song song kicked over into its more upbeat second-half and I was  consumed with happiness, remembering how my very beautiful friends shared their first dance as a married couple to this song only two weekends ago. I've said that only my teenage self did this when listening to City & Colour songs, but in all reality, Dallas's voice just beams with so much honesty and heart-felt emotion that it's almost impossible to stand there and not be guided through some sort of self-evaluation. I'm sure I'm not alone in this... 

A two-track encore featuring crowd favourite Comin' Home saw the audience hang on every last chord as the evening drew to a close. Where I'd usually be a complete chatter-box on the way home, this time round I was so stumped on finding the right words to express what I'd just seen and heard. Each and every song were both lyrically and atmospherically alluring, and delivered in a way my now adult self could appreciate fully. 

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Just a quick note on the photos... This was my very first attempt at indoor concert photography guys! I ended up taking over 120 photos (up until Dallas asked us to put the cameras away) and decided to salvage and show just these seven. While most were hindered by the drunk Peter Brady swaying to and fro in front of me, others were just plain awful (& blurry). But, in saying that I think I've managed to stay true to the mantra that editing the selection is more important than shooting it and come up with some goods! These haven't been altered with any editing software either. The colours you see are the colours I saw!! No rose-tinted Sierra or Nashville effects up in here. What do you think?

Splendour is a Sellout!

And not the bad kind of washed-up sellout either! Yes, thats right. Splendour In The Grass 2012 has officially sold out in less than 43 minutes (thats record time)! Which definitely proves that this year's lineup, ripe with an eclectic array of artists and sans big fat fancy headliners, is what we festival folk here in Australia want! I had a late night studying and only remembered at 9.09 that tickets went on sale at 9am this morning!! So as you can imagine, my Poptarts went flying and I swore a hell of a lot. By the time I got through the shit-fight online waiting room to purchase my tickets the allocation had exhausted. Luckily enough, one of my lady friends was already amidst the purchasing screen! So with a short text, I quickly secured my spot at Splendour. And possibly just gave some sort of text message interceptor the perfect deets for credit fraud and identity theft. I'm going to say it was all worth it but! 

So a giant congrats to the Splendour crew for their massive sell out, and to everyone who managed to claw their way to the top of Moshtix this morning. For those who's fate was not so kind, maybe try eBay!? Not all eBayers are peaky scalpers. I had a splendid time in the grass last year off a last minute reasonably priced eBay purchase... (Splendour have announced this morning that they may bring in the reissue option that they had last year). There is still hope! 

Sunday Sounds: Gossling

I don't know whether its her alluring voice, or those sweet sweet melodies that have me in 'Wild Love' with Gossling!? Perhaps its both? If one thing is certain, its that Gossling has a definite winner with her new EP Intentional Living.

Following the success of Gossling's second EP Until Then, Intentional Living features much of the same lyrically sweet sounds we have come to expect and of course, the distinctively beautiful voice of leading lady Helen Croome. This track, 'Wild Love' was the first to be released back in February and has been capturing hearts ever since! My personal favourite has to be 'Heart Killer', because of its undeniable magnetism. But each of the four tracks are absolute gems!! 

I was a lucky duck and scored a pre-ordered signed copy of the EP earlier this week!! Intentional Living was just released on Friday and is available right now on iTunes or in record stores nationally! Definitely recommended for those of you who have fallen in love with Australia's other lovely ladies, Julia Stone or Lisa Mitchell. 

For tour dates throughout the end of April and early May, click here!

Splendour in the Grass Announced!

Well it was another exciting morning here in Aus, as the lineup for this years Splendour in the Grass festival was announced. I was banking on The Black Keys headlining after their massive launch of El Camino last year. But that hope was pounded to smithereens on Tuesday when they announced an Australian tour for October, which sold out instantly three hours later!!! Anyway, back to Splendour. It's interesting to see how many of the rumours for this years lineup turned out to be true. Yes folks, Jack White, Bloc Party and Miss Lana del Ray are coming to our shores this July! 

The full line up is as follows... 

Jack White

Bloc Party

Smashing Pumpkins

At The Drive-In

The Shins

Hilltop Hoods

The Kooks

Gossip

Miike Snow

Dirty There

eLana Del Rey

360

Azealia Banks

Tame Impala

Explosions In The Sky

Ladyhawke

The Afghan Whigs

Missy Higgins

Wolfmother

Metric

Kimbra

Mudhoney

Band Of Skulls

Spiderbait

Django Django

Gypsy & The Cat

San Cisco

Last Dinosaurs

Electric Guest

Muscles

Angus Stone

DZ Deathrays

Howler

Lanie Lane

Fun.

Big Scary

Michael Kiwanuka

Seekae

Friends

Yacht Club Dj’s

Bertie Blackman

Jinja Safari

Blue King Brown

Youth Lagoon

Pond

The Beautiful Girls

Tijuana Cartel

Ball Park Music

The Rubens

Ben Howard

Bleeding Knees Club

Zulu Winter

The Medics

Shihad

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Husky

Kate Miller-Heidke

Father John Misty

Emma Louise

Chet 

Faker

Here We Go Magic Parachute Youth

Mosman Alder

The Cast Of Cheers

Wolf & Cub

Gossling

BeniSampology (AV/DJ show)

Canyons (DJ Set)

Nina Las Vegas

Danny T

Alison Wonderland

Nice and Ego (AV/DJ show)

Flume

Gloves

Luke Million

Harris Robotis

Alley Oop

Few people have expressed their disappointment with the lineup already, claiming how last year was "sooooo much better". But I think it is important to take each year as they come without too much comparison. This lineup is very reflective of what has happened in Australian music late last year and during the beginning of this year... So many of the artists included had just dropped new albums last year, some were just unearthed last year and some were just thrown in for good measure. 

I've had my ticket money saved since last week, because even if I don't enjoy a few of artists in the lineup, there is always a buttload for me to get silly to. Besides, who wouldn't want to go to a festival headlined by Edward Scissor Hands!!?? That and, with Smashing Pumpkins on the bill, my Splendour experience (ticket pending) is going to be exactly like The Simpsons Hullabalooza! 

Kaisha Gambell, smiling politely. 

Sunday Sounds: Laura Marling

 

Laura Marling - Sophia

Okay so Sunday Sounds is back (usually I am sleeping in). But only because I just have to share this amazing new track from UK singer/songwriter Laura Marling. This gem is the ninth track on her third album A Creature I Don't Know due for release on the 12th of September and has pretty much pulled at every single one of my heart strings since it was previewed last month. Words cannot express how eager I am to get my hands on a copy of the new album. Upon first listen I can already tell that Marling has changed her nu-folk sound yet again. But I'm not complaining because this song is beautiful (not to mention the cute illustration!). Just when I think a lady who is months younger than me couldn't get any more mature she goes and drops this. Mind officially blown.

Splendour In The Grass

Holy moley! I did not even realise that we are already eight days into August, let alone the fact that I haven't updated or posted here in over a week!!! I guess I've been out living my life and getting back into the swing of things. Something I definitely shouldn't feel too bad about, I think? So where have I been? Well it was around this time last Monday that I was midway through a 15hour road trip home with a car load of Splendour casualties. That's right. The weekend at Splendour In The Grass 2011 was so massive that every single one of us were guilty of complaining about our feet, or our backs, or even our rumbling tummy's. But after I got home, showered and napped, I was ready and willing to go all over again. I was so saddened by the fact that I was thrust back into reality (with Semester Two of Uni starting as well) that I did my very best to relive the Splendid memories. I wore one of my festival outfits again and have been playing Splendour artists in my car all week. It was only tonight that I finally had enough time to sit down and sift through all the photos we took. So here they are...

I'm a little too tired to give a complete recap right now, so if you're interested in all the amazing artists I had the pleasure of watching, check back later in the week for some reviews!

Looking forward to catching up on all the wonderful parts of your lives that I've missed over the last couple of weeks. I'm back at Uni full time again, so it's pretty much a given that I'll be round these parts more often.

On Scene At Splendour

Just a little photo free post to let you know that I am on scene at Splendour in the Grass 2011. We arrived late last night and challenged ourselves by setting up the tent in the dark. We succeeded and have the most amazing set up now. It's modest. But it's our home for the next four days. Our hopes of having a good night sleep to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed for today were squashed by the antics of our rowdy neighbours. But a few grumbles and a shit load of energy drinks later we were ready to start this epic weekend. I'm currently siting on a very lushious hill, drinking some vodka and lime, chilling with some amazing lady friends and watching awesome bands! Will be back in a few days!

Sunday Sounds: New Music Edition

It has been a very long while between my last Sunday Sounds post, and I apologise for that (especially to those of you who I know enjoy the music part of this little blog). But it's back and here to stay. Better late then never. And might I just say, you know you are in desperate need of some new music when you hit shuffle mode on your iTunes and you no longer enjoy the first ten songs it throws at you!! So here is some great new stuff that I've had on a very high rotation as of late...

Bon Iver - Calgary

This is the eighth track of the self-titled album from American indie-folk band Bon Iver. Like 'Calgary', each of the tracks are inspired by locations (either real or imagined, I'm not too sure) that front man Justin Vernon believed to hold a special sort of significance and embodied the very sound he wanted to evoke. But it's hard to put a label on this sound, because each track is so very different. There are acoustic lovelies, electronic parts and even some songs that are just completely stripped down, almost naked if you will. While 'Calgary' incorporates the more electronic sound found on the album and is a stand out for its hauntingly beautiful lyrics, I think every track is done to complete perfection. Highly recommended!

Seeker Lover Keeper - Even Though I'm A Woman

Seeker Lover Keeper is the dynamic collaboration of some of Australia's best indie-songstress'. Here, Sally Seltmann, Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby have joined together to create some sort of dream team, and my are they dreamy!! Each of the lovely ladies have written four songs each on the album, which upon a complete listen only shows how they completely compliment and inspire one another. Overall it's a beautiful album, one that you'll just have to listen to to understand. Note: This clip is kinda freaky after a while. Anyone else get that?

Emma Louise - Jungle

Okay so I lied. This isn't entirely a new music edition because this little gem from Emma Louise was released back in April, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it with you. After all, it's always seems to be stuck in my head! The vocals are incredibly powerful, but very well reserved at the same time. Oh and the hook... Did I mention how it will get stuck in your head? While Emma Louise is a relatively new lady on the scene, I dare say we will be seeing a lot more of her soon. Especially if this track is anything to go by.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I worked a hell of a lot, as usual. But it's the start of a new week tomorrow and I'm determined to get things done!

Angus and Julia Abroad

There is something great about befriending your favorite artists on Facebook. Mainly because you get a little sneak peak into their lives in an incredibly raw, unpolished form. Indie Folk duo Angus & Julia Stone are just winding down their European Tour, and photographer Jorgen Nordby was there to capture all the action. These are some seriously great photos. Experiencing a little lens jealousy here!











































Sorry for the massive photo overload. They were just too beautiful to overlook.