Band VS Fan - Playing All The Songs You Don't Care About

So last week I went to catch one of my old favourites Modest Mouse at The Prince Bandroom. On account of a lucky favour, I got to take my close friend to the show for free and even got to watch from the V.I.P bar. OK, enough about my lucky break and more on the show.
The last time I saw MM was in 2008 when the lads took to the V Festival stages one sunny Sydney afternoon. I remember being really excited to see them but as the band started up, the vocals never seemed to appear. All I heard were faint scratches of Isaac Brock's voice and even though I was listening as hard as I could, I couldn't audibly attend to the trademark raspy vocals.
For years I blamed this on a shitty PA and not the band even though I knew these vocals can sometimes come up rough live. So when I got the chance to see Modest Mouse in a smaller, more intimate setting I was willing and ready for round two.
The room was packed and in my excitement leading up I'd been traipsing setlistfm.com for ideas of what to expect this time. Modest Mouse only have a few staple songs they like to play and the rest is usually unpredictable. When the band appeared on stage the crowd erupted to the sound of 'Spitting Venom'. The song sounded great but when the set moved into my personal favourite 'The View', it was happening again. I couldn't hear a word. I know every lyric to that song but at no point during the verses could I even imagine where Brock was up to. My friend and I just looked at one another, puzzled.
The set dropped back into a mixture of less popular tunes and you could sense the crowd getting restless between the bands drunk and aggressive banter. At one point there was talk about kids with cancer and crowds were confused until hit with the ever celebrated 'Float On.' No complaints here, I could hear perfectly fine and morale was spiking once more.
Everything seemed to be going well again and my friend who works at Prince mentioned they only put one bottle of Jack in the rider this week after last weeks show. Apparently the band were so drunk at the previous gig, it was decided that for the sake of the patrons, the alcohol would be cut down this time around. Around this point in conversation, I started to hear the beginnings of 'Cowboy Dan.' The audience had been calling out song requests all night at which Brock would shout back some awkward refusal. As if he'd started to please with this crowd favourite, Brock launched into a tirade at audience members stating that if they wanted to hear it done well they should listen to the album. Warning us not to expect the best was a prolonged show and the mood was once again shifting, this was growing tiresome. People, me included started to worry the rant would chase away the song and maybe we'd miss out. Eventually Modest Mouse succumbed to our wishes and reluctantly played what we wanted to hear, a bitter sweet result.
On a good note, Modest Mouse did play a two hour set which is pretty generous and it was enjoyable to see them. My comments just stem from a dislike of the band vs fan situation. We're the reason you are where you are, we're the reason your shows sold out and your records sell well, why take it out on us? If you're tired of touring go start a record store in San Francisco and fade into obscurity, don't get shitfaced and take it out on a crowd of adoring fans. We love attitude and we know what we're in for with bands like this but get a grip! It was like Brock was channeling Anton Newcombe from the Dig! days.
Would I see Modest Mouse again? The answer is yes. Much like an abusive relationship, I will probably always go back to these gigs because I love the records so much and there's hope it'll get better.
Have you ever experienced a situation likes this at a show?

Why being an avid Smiths fan is an advocate for loneliness

Last night my friend said he knew the greatest pick-up line of all time. It went something along the lines of, “I’d love to listen to The Smiths and make you tea all night.”

Apparently this is foolproof and the bitches love it. However me, being the aggressive and pretentious elitist bitch I am, said it wouldn’t work. Yep, because instead of swooning, my follow-up question would be: “What are your top 5 Smiths songs of all time?” — I would unknowingly completely overlook the pick-up to make sure they were an authentic Smiths fan.

Yep, more on why I’m single..

The awkward moment when Ashton Kutcher tweeting your band means you've made it.

You don't want it to be real but it might be.
Today The Kutch tweeted to his 7 million or so followers the new Gotye ft. Kimbra clip for 'Somebody That I Used To Know'. The Australian media have since been salivating over the unexpected press making Gotye the new best thing he already was.

I'm not trying to be all 'counter-culture' but this shouldn’t mean you’ve made it by any means but we all know the truth. At the end of the day, good music should travel, no matter the vessel.

Homebake Returns To Take The Crown

In the Australian music festival kingdom there's a certain hierarchy. Much like the social ladder in a 90's cult teen flick, there's all kinds of cliques, and every festival has a place.

Splendour had been reining supreme as prom queen since 2009 however its popularity has dropped back considerably this year due to a seemingly tired line-up and price increase producing lackluster ticket sales. Maybe you could bake some spirit cookies to raise your popularity?

Now every social chain offers the abominable trend followers and that's where you'll find Future Music, Good Vibes and Parklife kicking it. These kids are draped in the latest trending sunglasses and retail apparel. They're usually loaded with an abundance of hipstermatic prints and some bad pills but have nothing to offer but a 'good time'. St Jeromes Laneway sometimes falls into this category. I give full credit for humble beginnings and an A for line-ups, but it's the followers that can sometimes taint the event. "Your mate just checked-in."

Then you've got Meredith, Golden Plains and Playground Weekender who are more like the chilled out burnouts that we got high with on the weekends but never talked to in school. These festivals reflect a careless weekend in a paddock where the line-up doesn't matter too much, it's all about the experience, man.

Like every scenario there's the cocky jock who spend most of their time effortlessly at the top of the social chain without having contributed an original idea since puberty. It's here you'll find Big Day Out tossing the pig skin. When the festival first started gaining momentum it housed one of the final Nirvana gigs and Australia had nothing to compare it to -- now days it bares the excitement of a bitter and tired old roadie. Picture the high school quarterback 30 years later, balding and beer bloated.

Most of the hipsters you know now, you never knew at school. They were smart, left of centre and didn't get their flare until they graduated. Whether it's this euphemism that suffocated their creativity or teenage angst, they found a way to blossom. They're on the precipice of being renown commercially but the quality is there and that's where you'll find Vivid and All Tomorrows Parties. A little bit of art, a little bit of music which makes a collective of wonder with these kids. It would be nice to watch them grow up and flourish.

This brings us to the 'friends to everyone' group where Splendour may find itself after losing the crown this year. On the grassy knoll of acceptance is Falls, Southbound and Homebake. It's an almost genre free collection of stuff everybody enjoys and no one would turn down a free ticket to.
However the times might be changing with this mornings Homebake line-up announcement. I haven't seen a Homebake line-up this good in years. After doing the sensible sit-out last year due to an over saturated market, Homebake have returned with the goods reuniting The Church and Icehouse on an exploslive line-up that merges both fresh and classic Australian artists.
Could Homebake be gunning for prom queen? Check out the line-up below!

Grinderman
Ladyhawke
Pnau
Gotye
Gurrumul Yunupingu
Cut Copy
RocKwiz (live)
Icehouse (playing Flowers )
Daniel Merriweather
Eskimo Joe
Drapht
The Triffids
Architecture in Helsinki
The Vines
The Church
The Jezabels
Kimbra
C.W. Stoneking
Hungary Kids of Hungary
Illy
Avalanche City
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Papa Vs Pretty
Killaqueenz
Kids of 88
Passenger
Noah Taylor and The Sloppy Boys (Ed Clayton-Jones from The Wreckery and Cec Condon from The Mess Hall)
Vents

*an honourable mention to those festivals who were not able to graduate this year

"Between the mattress and a column of hazy faces
I remember every word you said
Quite a clear picture every word you said
The door was open but the way was not lit
And there was no way out of my head"

NYC Ghosts and Flowers - Sonic Youth

Citizen Sex Get Naked For North Melbourne

The beauty of the Melbourne music scene is that you never know when or where a random band will just set-up and stage an awesome guerrilla gig! I've literally seen countless bands in lounge rooms and kitchens across the sprawls of hipster house parties and it's always fun, but never too surprising. This weekend I was sincerely impressed with a new band with no boundaries, raw energy and a taste for illegal afternoon gigs. Citizen Sex have busted onto the scene with an array of shocking and sometimes half naked gigs across the city and Saturday was no different. The North Melbourne lads sent out an event invite to meet at the Town Hall pub on Errol Street where we would then be directed to an abandoned house for a semi-secret performance.
With the power borrowed from the lovely new record store in town Wooly Bully, Citizen Sex set up in an old hollowed out and graffitied terrace ready to rock.
With about 30 participants in tow, front man Robbie and co. exploded into a charismatic set of what I feel was the most legit garage punk-rock episode I've seen in some time. Think The Hives meets The Stooges but not without the shirtless antics of Iggy. Citizen Sex's songs were energetic and catchy as hell, there seems to be some definite millage here. The set closed with an impromptu version of Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' which was not lost on an eager crowd who joined in -- who knew we all still remembered the lyrics?
So that's what I did last Saturday afternoon and what you should definitely do soon!
Check out the anarchy of Citizen Sex here!

“Your past is just a story.
And once you realize this,
it has no power over you.” - Chuck Palahniuk.

When 1700 Roams Free - Fatty Gets A Stylist

Today the 1700 crew and I went to SONY BMG, Melbourne to interview Kate Miller Heidke and her band mate for their new project Fatty Gets A Stylist.

The interview went really well and they were super sweet! Kate even brought a polaroid to give me a little picture to remember our meeting. What a cutie!

Fatty Gets A Stylist is a funky fun post-pop side-project that's ignited interest from all genres this week with the release of their debut album. Fatty shows Kate exploring a lower register as opposed to the classically trained vocals we're used to and it's working wonders! Kate explained to me that the discovery was made whilst she was singing in the shower in Amsterdam and decided to make a real go of it with long-term partner Kier Nuttall.
I've had the new single 'Are You Ready' stuck in my head all day! Give it a spin here!

Gotye

When I think about Gotye, the first thing that comes to mind is a night back in 2006; it was a usual haze of aimless drinking in front of Rage at 2am. I remember watching the clip for 'Heart's A Mess' for the first time and being completely consumed in this odd yet enchanting song. The person watching it with me disagreed with my views and said that it was for lack of a better word, "shit." As Gotye developed, some were listening but others still weren't interested. I remember having a really hard time convincing my friends to see Gotye at Homebake in 2007 due to the unfortunate (for my friends) timetable clash with the hot new buzz band at the time, Cut Copy. I felt like it separated the idiots, but that's just my opinion. Someone once described the Cut Copy crowd as something not to dissimilar to a General Pants Christmas party and I'd have to agree.
Over time this reception changed and critical acclaim rightfully found its way to what I think was one of the best albums of 2006, Like Drawing Blood.

Late last year Gotye gave us something we'd all been waiting for, a brand new track! Wally did something that I respect in Australian music -- by not feeding off of the hype and trying to push out a new record as soon as possible to stay relevant. I find that a lot of bands these days seem eager to release new material as soon as they can to avoid working a day job. This usually results in the band burning out as opposed to progressing artistically over time.

'Eyes Wide Open' was the first single to emerge from the forthcoming LP and it was a fresh Spring favourite. However I can't help but feel this track has been overshadowed slightly by last weeks release, 'Somebody That I Used To Know' featuring Melbourne up and comer Kimbra. To put it bluntly, this shit is real. If I could make a list of everyone who has since shared this track on my facebook and Twitter, I'd be here all night and I have some drinking to do.
It's the perfect combination of the eerie eccentric sounds we've come to expect from Gotye and the right amount of lyrical depth. There's a perfect middle ground where Conor Oberst and Star Wars dialogue meet -- it's a place where sad and simple come to marry; it's not too dreary but it's relatable because we've all dated that emotionally backward shit this song alludes to. I can see the status update quotes now, really, I'm looking at one.

With the release of this single I'm spastic with excitement for the new album. Gotye is really one of Australia's more revolutionary acts and it seems to change the way I think about electronic music every time I listen.

Listen to 'Somebody That I Used To Know' here and tell me what you think, does it remind you of somebody that you used to know or is it just a great track?

Hello internet!

I’m here and I’m staying. I’m a longtime Tumblr addict and Blogspot cretin - otherwise ever slapping the veins for blogging addiction.
Up until now I’ve been feverishly blogging without a cause like every self-obsessed teenager who listens to John Mayer in her bedroom and feels individual. I’m unfortunately not a teenager but nonetheless I am yet to outgrow my self-importance.
I just have a lot of feelings.
Anyway, I’ve decided to create a new online identity because my last blog read like a bad paperback romance novel and projected the scraps of the Home & Away cutting room floor. It’s time for a change. A new outlook on life leads to a firm kiss goodbye to the pasts ass and reinvention (ONLINE) - because changing your actual identity is too expensive and really impractical.
What can I tell you about me? I’m a 23 year old music maniac with an adolescent need to be heard. I’m a music business student, writing enthusiast and small time TV presenter.
I guess the point of this blog is to refine the nature of the old one. I’d like to add a few more music reviews in an effort to return to my music blogging roots.

Music and writing are what I'm obsessed with, that and a good cat video, welcome.