Tobacco and Dave Graney are Anne's vices.

In no particular order:

1. ATP Australia – A wonderful festival, that I wish we were having next year and that I hope we will have in 2011. Spending a day on an island with like-minded people listening to good music (if you cut Chris Bailey from your memory), with the absence of dickheads (if you cut Chris Bailey from your memory), and in particular no dickheads in fluoro or wearing flags. Lovely. I didn’t go to Mt. Buller but I’m told it was even better than Cockatoo Island, and I’ll believe it. I think I’d have overdosed on seratonin had I attended.

2. Flip Out – Again, an awesome festival full of good music, with a relaxed vibe, and the market stalls really made it. Amongst other great stuff, I got a Mink Deville LP, The Triffids ‘Calenture’ for ten bucks, and a couple of Link Wray 45s (including the Batman theme, which means I now have four different versions of the theme – how good is it??). I went to both Sydney and Melbourne gigs, and had a great time at both. Let’s do it again, folks.

3. The Red Rattler – Sydney venues aren’t having a good time at the moment, and Sydney warehouse venues are having it worse. The Red Rattler is a warehouse that got its shit together enough to get a licence, which means it can’t (easily) be touched by the powers that be. My first time at the Red Rattler was The Holy Soul’s album launch, and it was brilliant. The venue is set up like a ’20s cabaret bunker – dim lamps coming from the walls, reproduction Edwardian furniture all around, a reasonably priced bar and a decent sized stage. The sound was great, the vibe was great, the people were great.

4. Andrew Ramadge’s “Tall Tales and True” feature for Mess+Noise - I was a big fan of Ramadge before I became a colleague, and his writing continues to make me wish I could be that good. There’s not much I can say about the story that would be better than just reading it yourself – check it out.

5. Dave Graney “Knock Yourself Out” - What a brilliant rekkid. Smart, sexy, and real fucken cool. I reviewed it for M+N with the line “rarely has an album so made me want to fuck,” and it was true. Graney appeared to like that line, and has it in bold on the reviews page of his site, as well as declaring that line on a couple of social networking sites as “the BEST note [he has] ever received”. If I had a cock, it’d feel really massive having read that. Just getting to own that album was joy enough. If you haven’t heard it yet, you’re a fool.

6. Wifey – “Salt, Sugar, Fat” – This one’s great. The debut EP from Sydney band Wifey had me dancing around my flat like a maniac. Still does. They do a great cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Diamonds in the Mine”, except it’s not boring. Cohen’s lyrics over a fine rock’n'roll tune of their own arrangement. Some online reviewer apparently missed the part in the sleeve notes where they wrote “lyrics by Leonard Cohen”, and accused them of ripping him off. What a dick. If you haven’t heard this one either, you’re an even bigger fool.

7. The Nice Folk – “Devil At My Door” – The Nice Folk, from Wollongong, play a dirty, blusey kind of rock, but in a real Australian style – it’s about death and the dole and smack and booze and hatred and indifference and makes me think of a bushranger running from the law and himself – in a kind of Dronesy, Rowland S. Howardy lyrical vein. The only member in the band with a drivers license lost it for a while so they couldn’t do Sydney gigs. He got it back recently and they were meant to play at GoodGod Small Club in Liverpool St on November 29 with Partyline, but the gig got cancelled that day because the venue apparently asked for a $500 venue hire fee, like the Sando is doing now. What a fucking jive. Anyway, when they get another gig, go see it if you can. Totally worth it. I hope they get massive.

8. Sam de Brito – I often worry that I’ve peaked too soon, and I will never be a better writer than I already am. Then I read Sam de Brito, and I feel so much better about myself. If de Brito can really get away with his dull, uninformed, uninspired, misogynistic tripe every week (see “Hope Down”, in which he gave his solution to the woes of the Sydney music scene in the aftermath of the Hoey’s closure: “…get hotter chicks to gigs.”), then I can get away with publishing my shopping list, which employs more thought and creativity than anything he could blurt out. We should not hate Sam de Brito – we should hold him as a beacon of hope. If he can – well, anyone can, and better.

9. Melbourne – A long-distance relationship means I’ve had the chance this year to visit the place an awful lot more often, and though Sydney still remains my home, I could definitely learn to love the place. Particularly the Old Bar.

10. End of year lists – Unless you run out of things to say.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.