COLLAPSE BOARD

6 things I like about 2011

by Darragh Murray

Golden Plains 2011
This is the best music festival in Australia. I returned for a second time this year with lots of friends of mine and caught the likes of Best Coast, Robert Forster, Architecture In Helsinki, Belle And Sebastian, Hawkwind and lots more. The venue is stunning, there’s only one stage, numbers are capped, and you can bring alcohol in. I don’t think any other festival offers as much as Golden Plains does. Pulled Apart By Horses pretty much pulled me apart, and their intense performance is still the one that I remember best. Splendour in the Grass can take their Coldplay and shove it up their colons, ‘cause you got nothing on Golden Plains.

The end of this video is crazy as the singer/guitarist moves the finale into the crowd and the camera man captures him screaming the song at the crowd. Other YouTube videos show him crowdsurfing while playing the guitar. Their music isn’t exactly revolutionary and doesn’t particularly appeal to me in recorded format, but their live show is amazing. Live music isn’t about music at all – it’s the spectacle. If it were about music, we’d just go to venues and listen to cds.

Swaying Buildings
The relatively unknown Brisbane band released a gorgeous little record called Bloom Beside The Freeway Moon. While I think it could do with a bit more production, the songs are charming, and I’m still listening to it six months after I reviewed it for Rave Magazine. That can only be a good thing.

Keep On Dancin’s
I don’t know what it is about Merenoise, but I generally liked nearly every band that they sign up. The Keep On Dancin’s debut record is brilliant and makes me wonder why the likes of the national youth broadcaster are not picking them up and rotating them to death. Then I realise that they only play songs performed by men who live in Sydney and Melbourne, and that their listeners prefer the likes of Gypsy And The Cat to the debut record of The Hoodoo Gurus and then it suddenly all makes sense.

Destroyer – Kaputt/Wild Beasts – Smother
I’ll include these together because Everett only wanted six entries. [Hey, I didn't expect anyone to take me literally! - Ed] These are two international records that I really liked. Dan Bejar’s ninth studio album happens to be the first piece of his work I’ve listened to, and man, I love the vibe, the lyrics and pretty much everything about it. Wild Beasts’ third record, Smother, must be among my most played this year. It’s easy listening and accessible, but it’s something I consistently return to.

‘Dead Pony’
‘Dead Pony’ is the fourth song off No Anchor’s 2011 record, Real Pain Supernova. I put this as my mobile phone ringtone for a week and my work colleagues almost murdered me.

Blank Realm/Lowtide/Feathers @ The Hangar
This was a one off Hangar on May 7. Blank Realm played with Lowtide (Melbourne), Feathers, and Sputnik Sweethearts (actually the Rational Academy, I believe but I missed them due to my own tardiness). This was actually the first time I ever saw Blank Realm live despite having listened extensively to their work. Now I feel stupid that I’d never known how great a live band they were. Also, did not realise that two guys who went to school with me for like most of my schooling life are in the band. Lowtide and Feathers were also really good. The Hangar is/was such a great place, it’s a shame that they’re not open at this venue any more.

Harmony – Extinction Debt
My vinyl copy of Harmony’s debut arrived late last week. I bought it after listening to the track by track on Mess+Noise and some endorsements from some knowledgeable locals. Didn’t realise the group features Chapelle, the maniacal bass player of the defunct mclusky (though Harmony sound little like that group). The band writes these haunted ballad type songs and each song has a detailed narrative behind it and a sense of purpose (well explained in the Mess+Noise link above).

I listen to these songs and I think “this is old music” – not old as in ancient, rather grown up and mature. I think of the times past and I think of the Australian landscape for some reason. I think the record is also pretty good. The lead singer, Tom Lyngcoln, sometimes sounds a bit like Gareth Liddiard and sometimes a bit like Mark Seymour.

Track seven, ‘Extinction Debt’ could be the most powerful song I’ve heard this year. I love how it starts out quiet and then suddenly the music pummels you with a tumult of guitars and cymbal crashes. Then it moves one into this wonderfully passionate, descriptive, and uplifting passage of music, and that’s in spite of the message of the song being largely sombre.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 21st, 2011 at 9:35 am. It is filed under Best of 2011, Brisbane and tagged with best of 2011, Blank Realm, Brisbane, Darragh Murray, Destroyer, Golden Plains, Harmony, Keep On Dancin’s, mclusky, Music criticism, No Anchor, Pulled Apart By Horses, Swaying Buildings, The Hangar, Wild Beasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.