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Big Day

The other day I went to The Big Day Out with Josh who was wearing his Superman undies, Martha who was too short to see any of the acts, and Chris who was surly all day.

Our day kicked off with The Grates. They were awesome, with Patience (lead singer) dancing around like Thom Yorke’s arch-nemesis, in a white frilly dress and wearing a giggling grin from ear to ear.

Next up was Faker. Boring. I heard Hurricane, and then left for Youth Group, who were really good, though it would have been better if I had have known more of their stuff.

Bit By Bats. Dance-rock that makes you want to sit down and fall asleep. Falling asleep would have been awkward though, so I ate lunch.

Wolfmother. The hype was wrong baby.

Sarah Blasko. Looks like a painting, sings like a painting. She makes me feel like a little girl (I swear she was looking straight at me).

I tried to see The Go! Team, but after ten minutes I got bored so I went and caught the last quarter hour of The Hilltop Hoods, who were pretty okay. If I was into hip-hop, I’d be into The Hilltop Hoods.

The Kings of Leon sounded pretty good, but as far as I was concerned they were just standing between me and The Living End.

The Living End were always going to be great. For no other band did the crowd sing along to every single world of every single line. They just have so many killer songs. Only problem is that their new stuff isn’t really going anywhere. They need to evolve. And they’re kind of in danger of becoming try-hard social the way Green Day are try-hard political. My whining aside, they’re one of the greatest bands in the world right now.

At the main stage the mosh pit was barricaded to keep out drunk people and small people. Sounds good, except that then you get a second mosh pit happening just a bit further back, which is full of drunk people and small people. Uh. Because Martha was too small to be allowed in the pit, we were relegated to the secondary ‘pit’. We didn’t get too bashed around.

Unfortunately I had to miss the last half of The Living End and nearly all of Franz Ferdinand to see The Herd. That’s right, I dogged Franz Ferdinand to see a hip-hop band you’ve probably never heard of. Anyway, hip-hop sucks, unless it’s The Herd. Aussie whiteboy hip-hop. I managed to get right up the front, where everyone was doing that hand thing with their hands, you know-

\m/

…that thing. Me and my guitar-filled head felt so out of place, but I loved it. Probably edged out The Grates and Sonicanimation as the best set of the day. ‘The crew’ (getting with the lingo) got up and sung (?) about war, politics, race, and all that, which usually turns me right off, so I was amazed to hear them sing it as if they actually cared, as opposed to someone like Green Day who sing about it to make an image for themselves or whatever.

I’ll try not to let this become a Green Day bash. I hate Green Day.

After The Herd I walked across the grounds towards Cut Copy. I took a slight detour through the main stage and saw, in it’s entirity, the only Franz Ferdinand song I really love, The Dark Of The Matinée. Bonus!

Cut Copy really funked. They’ve been touring Europe with Franz Ferdinand lately. Best described as ‘rad’.

Somewhere in there I also managed to see ten minutes of End Of Fashion (uh), Iggy & The Stooges (er), The Mars Volta, and The White STripes. Then came one of the weirdest experiences of my life - dance music.

Sonicanimation are to dance what The Herd are to hip-hop. The only artist worth it. Again I was very out of place. Most people were more naked than not, and the whole place was drowning in sweat. I guess they don’t call it ‘The Boiler Room’ for nothing. I’ll never forget sweating to death while watching two life-sized puppets dance around to Theophilus Thistler, though I’ll probably never see another dance act in my life.

I would have liked to see Magic Dirt, Peabody, Josh Pyke, Gerling, and Sleater-Kinney, but hey, timetable clashes.

Big Day Out. Fun. You should come next year. We’ll meet up and bust our ears in the best way possible yeah.

Hottest Three

I would like to declare that this years largest-music-poll-in-the-world Hottest100 was officially rubbish. Absolute rubbish.

This is not a baseless claim. Let’s look at the top ten-

1. Wish You Well - Bernard Fanning. Bad.
2. Catch My Disease - Ben Lee. Very bad.
3. Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz. Poor.
4. Best Of You - Foo Fighters. Average at best.
5. Dare - Gorillaz. Poor.
6. Mind’s Eye - Wolfmother. Good song, but not worth top ten by far.
7. My Doorbell - The White Stripes. Seven Nation Army?
8. O Yeah - End Of Fashion. Very bad.
9. Joker & The Thief - Wolfmother. Average.
10. Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand. Average.

Now at least half of those tracks are not worthy of top one hundred at all, let alone top ten. The first really good track is at number twenty nine (Gyroscope - Fast Girl), and Kanye West made it in at number thirteen. Was two thousand and five really that bad, or did people just vote stupidly?

Running Away With Your Wife

I still hate movies, or most of them anyway. Yesterday I watched Underworld: Evolution, and it was lame. The first bit was boring, as it was full of blood and sex, and I had my eyes shut. In the middle there was about five or ten minutes that was quite interesting when there was some actual plot. From then on it was very predictable, and just a matter of watching it all play out, the good guys win, etc. Ah well, I had a free ticket.

Yesterday I also bought Ocean’s Eleven on DVD. That is a good movie.

I consider myself a big fan of Eskimo Joe, so although I never buy singles I bought the From The Sea single because it had two tracks on it that aren’t available anywhere else. And ’cause it was five dollars. Oooh.

Take Me Out

So, it’s Hottest100 time again. Here’s my ’short’list.

78 Saab - The City Is Humming
Andy Clockwise - Alice May
Audio Bullys - Shot You Down
Beck - Black Tamborine
Beck - Earthquake Weather
Beck - E-pro
Beck - Girl
Beck - Go It Alone
Beck - Que Onda Guero
Beck - Rental Car
Beck - Send A Message To Her
Beck - Missing
Bedroom Philosopher - I’m So Post Modern
Ben Folds - Bastard
Ben Folds - Landed
Ben Folds - Late
Benjamin Gibbard - Carolina
Benjamin Gibbard - You Remind Me Of Home
Bloc Party - Helicopter
Cardigans - I Need Some Fine Wine & You, You Need To Be Nicer
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Heavy Metal
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - Divorcee At 23
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - I Thought You Were God
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - Lips Like Orange
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - Little Self Centered Queen
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - On This Side
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - The Thing About Grief
Dan Brodie - Prescription Chemicals
Dan Brodie - Sunday Mourning
Dan Brodie - Sweetheart
Dappled Cities Fly - Die In Your Eyes
Darren Hanlon - Don’t Stop
Darren Hanlon - I Wish That I Was Beautiful For You
David McCormack - Who Can It Be
Devoted Few - Sleep Less
Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Lounger
Editors - Bullets
Eels - I’m Going To Stop Pretending I Didn’t Break Your Heart
Elliott Smith - Thirteen
Epicure - Tightrope Walker
Faker - Hurricane
Fiery Furnaces - Here Comes The Summer
Frente! - Same
Gelbison - Holy
Gelbison - Summer Of Love
Gyroscope - 22 Of 3
Gyroscope - A Slow Dance
Gyroscope - Beware Wolf
Gyroscope - Dream Vs Scream
Gyroscope - Fast Girl
Gyroscope - Missed The Point
Gyroscope - Mistakes And Ladders
Herd - Under Pressure
Herd - We Can’t Hear You
Herd - I Was Only 19
Hot Hot Heat - Goodnight Goodnight
I Am Kloot - No Direction Home
Josh Pyke - Middle Of The Hill
Kate Miller-Heidke - Space They Cannot Touch
Leo Nine - The Slow Bullet
Little Birdy - Six Months In A Leaky Boat
Little Birdy - These Boots Are Made For Walking
Living End - What’s On Your Radio
Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
Mercury Rev - In A Funny Way
Mess Hall - Disco 1
Mess Hall - Metal And Hair
Mess Hall - Pills
Millencolin - Ray
Missy Higgins - Stuff & Nonsense
Missy Higgins - The Sound Of White
Mountain Goats - Dance Music
Mountain Goats - This Year
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Get Ready For Love
Polyphonic Spree - Move Away & Shine
Postal Service - We Will Become Silhouettes
Radiohead - I Want None Of It
Rhubarb - Self Control
Rhubarb - Start Again
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
Sarah Blasko - Always Worth It
Sarah Blasko - Counting Sheep
Sarah Blasko - Flame Trees
Sonic Animation - Love Puppet
Sophie Koh - Charlie
Supergrass - Low C
Supergrass - St. Petersburg
Supergrass - Tales Of Endurance Pts. 4, 5 and 6
Supergrass - Kick In The Teeth
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Angel’s Share
Thrills - The Irish Keep Gate-Crashing
TZU - She Gets Up
Youth Group - Forever Young
Youth Group - Someone Else’s Dream

And your favourite songs of two thousand and five were…?

People Impressions

The very first ni-Vanuatu person that I spoke to (he was at the airport, funnily enough) had WWJD printed on the lanyard holding his identification around his neck.

What would Jesus do if he was a customs officer?

RarI’mGonnaPunch

Ohmygoshsorryforthedowntime.

(Myhostsucks).

Homesick Alien

When I finally got home I had so much dirty washing that our washing machine broke under the strain of it all. I was welcomed back by forty three degrees of dry heat, and a strong wind that’s been feeding a number of large grass fires in the area. Fun for all indeed. My trip to Vanuatu was great, but I won’t bore you with a great big explanation of everything I did, instead in the coming weeks a few posts may just start off with In Vanuatu…

There’s some photos though.

But before all that, music. I managed to not buy any new music between mid october and the end of the year. However I did get more birthday and Christmas stuff.

Dan Brodie and The Broken Arrows’ Big Black Guitar.

Ben Folds and WASO, Live in Perth.

I also got two alternative compilations, imaginatively named The Alternative Album, and All That Alternative, and four volumes of an acoustic release, also imaginatively titled, Acoustic 1, 2, 3, and 4.