HEY, BRISBANE!

What the heck, bro? I'm not sure how the usual jerks/bogans managed to taint Australia's Best Festival (Laneway) but hey, you did it pals. Sure The Presets were playing and all but Future Music was on the same day and I'm sure that'd make a much better place to get all crazy-eyed and jaw-grinding on it, you could've played that hilarious game where you and yr buddy wait in line at the portaloos and race each other with which girl in front of you does her business first or hold yr friends bald head back ("I'm holding his hair back, HAHA") as he vomits violently into the wheely bin...what a sight! I know that Fortitude Valley doesn't exactly boast the scenes of Sydney's Circular Quay but come ooooooonnnn, spread some good vibes instead of being a douche and trying to steal Dan Deacon's glasses and pulling his ears and shit. Okay, it wasn't really that bad, maybe I just had high standards because of how awesome the Sydney one has been the past two years. I wish the sound was better, though; it was easier to enjoy (and actually make out what song it was) Broken Social Scene from the top of the carpark building across the road from The Zoo (where they played their side show). The beers were cheaper up there, too.

[Photo: Dan Deacon @ Outpost Stage by Justin Courageo]

Laneway Festival 2008

Australia's best festival, Laneway, has just announced it's 2008 lineup. And as previously speculated here on RQ, the bands in the first announcement are fully sick!

Fiest
Clap Yr Hands Say Yeah
Gotye
The Presets
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew
Okkervil River
Dan Deacon
Via Tania
The Panics
The Devastations
Bridezilla
The Brunettes
Little Red
The Holidays

I'm particularly excited about Dan Deacon, Kevin Drew, Fiest, The Brunettes, CYHSY, and I'm keen to hear what Via Tania is like. Laneway is the best laid out (in Sydney, at least) festival with the lowest bogan factor. And a few days later is Golden Plains (near Melbourne at the Meredith supernatural amphitheater). The lineup for this looks like it's going to be terrific too, with very strong rumours of Beirut, Iron & Wine and Ween circulating the intarwebs.

I'm going to post some new music soon, promise. But did watching the ARIAs on Sunday night scare the fucking bejeeeesusss out of anyone else? I thought mistakenly catching 'The Singing Bee' earlier in the evening was enough to hurt my brain and ears but wowzers, how confusing it al was. But word, Sarah Blasko:

'No, I'm not competitive.'
'Isn't that what this is all meant to be about?'
(Firmly) ''NO. I have no idea what this is all meant to be about.'

LOLZ.

Unsubstantiated rumours!

So if you've got one of these blog things yr meant to probably write about stuff that matters or concerns folk instead of just putting up mp3s and making obscure references so here we go, the lineup for the Big Day Out announcement for 2008 has just been announced and this is something that you should really write about, putting yr two cents in, following up on earlier rumours which this year have mostly come true like The Arcade Fire and Bjork. The first announcement is by all means amazing: The Arcade Fire, Billy Bragg, Dizzee Rascal, LCD Soundsystem, Grinspoon, Hilltop Hoods, Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, Faker, Midnight Juggernauts, Something With Numbers, Battles and Cut Off Your Hands. Well, mostly, (i've put the ones that I'm glad for in italics) it's got the usual drab Aussie lite-rock with Paul Kelly and likeable fashionistas Cut Off Yr Hands but yeah, this is the BDO, just be glad there's no Metallica this year (though crowds will probably worse at Rage Against The Machine). So the lineup is great but is it something worth going to and supporting? It's not as easy as you'd think, being squashed up against sweaty pill-munching Jack Daniels-swilling Aussie flag-wearing jerks. My main concern is how to negotiate this enourmous amount of bogans or just regular idiots that left me bewildered and feeling alien at 2006's Sydney BDO. "Kiss the flag"? Sorry, what??? Wow. It was amazing in Sydney, especially as this poor New Zealander had only been here a matter of weeks. I thought it was another one of those race riots that yr so famous for! Seriously, it was pretty concerning. Apparently the Gold Coast one won't be so bad. All you'll have to put up with this is tanned guys with arms as big as shiny sky scrapers grinding their teeth together and moving their jaws around in funny ways.

A sure-fire way to either escape from this swarthy sea of bogans or to scare them away would be via The Boredoms performance. They've been rumoured for the second announcement.

Other unsubstantiated tour rumours for this summer's festivals (Laneway, mainly):

- The Clean
- Broken Social Scene
- Fleetwood Mac
- Jens Lekman
- Fiest
- The National