Hey look everyone, it’s David Bowie’s internet dating profile!

Mess + Noise have an awesome feature on Australian guitarist/weirdo Kirin J Callinan that flicks between the recording of his upcoming debut album and his infamous Sugar Mountain set earlier this year:

http://www.messandnoise.com/articles/4568052

‘Hye’ being the perfect mash of Hi and Hey and definitely not a silly typo.

Really great Grungecake piece by Gavin DeCantillon on white kids dropping the n-bomb:

http://grungecake.com/content/media/columns/beer-and-a-shot/soft-a-vs-hard-r

Nobody does it better than good old Mr. Agreeable: http://thequietus.com/articles/10744-mumford-sons-babel-review-mr-agreeable

Playing it now, record on the way, got a ticket to see them live in 13 days, life is pretty good.

Festivals here in Australia hit some kind of critical mass in the late 00′s where they suddenly became insanely popular, selling out in seconds. One or two years later the same thing started happening to Coachella and Lollapalooza and it seemed to take everyone in the US by surprise too.

I still head along because down here it’s usually the only way to see most of the bands on the lineup until next time they tour, 2 or three years later.

I’ve also been to Lolla in the US which felt like an Australian festival only bigger and with more drugs, and Roskilde in Denmark which was a different beast entirely. They book that one full of headliners and buzz bands too, but also a heap of arty, off-trend genres and and out there music. It’s the only time I’ve found a major festival to be really exciting, and all the others seem like they are going through the motions by comparison.

A major festival could be amazing if it’s well curated and unique. Instead, everyone books variations on the same lineup and presents an interchangable show as a result. I saw an interview with the lady in charge of one of Australia’s most popular: Splendour In The Grass. She said she’d love to go back to the fetival’s more quiet, hippy-ish roots and stop booking the current batch of international festival acts. But she won’t, because it’s worth fat cash to get Phoenix and Blur this year, or whoever it turns out to be.

It’s a shame but it reflects, in a way, a similar problem with the music itself: what we consider more artistically valuable usually makes far less money.

Also, Grinderman is still a thing? I guess Nick’s commitment to his musical projects melts in the face of a double payday.

I went to a free Converse show earlier this year here in Brisbane – Royal Headache and Kitchen’s Floor in a boxing ring – and after that one I’m pretty sure Converse don’t give a fuck what happens as long as people talk about it.

They gave everyone free beer for 1.5 hours before the show, people were apparently doing coke off the windowsills, and a mosh pit surrounding a boxing ring with broken glass on the floor is a nightmare. No Age taking some pot shots at the company just ‘proves’ that Converse books the real edgy bands, even if it’s to their own detriment because they care about the music, man.

They were playing in the first place and that’s all Converse wanted. And hey, free Stereogum feature. No Age probably got a bonus.

Album: Liars – WIXIW
Song: The Music Tapes – ‘Playing Evening’
Music video: Night Beds – ‘Even If We Try’
New act: Ed Schrader’s Music Beat
Crushing on: Mike Hadreas (Perfume Genius) and Ruth Radelet (Chromatics)

My actually-favourite album this year was Cats On Fire but I sticking to stuff covered on the ‘gum.

Aww yeah, got myself tickets to see Godspeed in Brisbane and then again at ATP in Melbourne with My Bloody Valentine, Swans and The Drones (who are revered here in Aus as much as the others are internationally). I might never have to go to any concert ever again.

In other news, just looked up this album on Wikipedia and the page was deleted as a ‘non-notable music release’, what the fuckipedia.

Thee Oh Sees should be crazy famous, I don’t get it.