Glasto grin

[Laura Marling, Pyramid stage]

[Slipperly slope]

[A view from above]

[The ribbon tower on Observation Hill]

[Storm clouds ahead]

[Pirate ship, near the unfairgrounds]

[The gooey gooey mud bath]

[Wellies on the ready. The cheap Argos tent survived the elements]

How do you like your eggs? I can cook them any which way on my skin. My arms are puffy from fluid retention. My skin is scrorched red and blistered, and still radiating enough heat to fry up a full English breakfast. The slighest contact of my shirt sleeves sends my nerve endings firing in pain and discomfort. This is the worse sunbrun I've had in years - yet I'm positively grinning. In fact I've just registered to do it all again in 2013. Yup, I'm in deep. I'm in love with Glastonbury.

The weather swung from extreme cold to blistering heat. The skies bucketed down with rain, tents buckled with wicked winds. Walking anywhere was a journey requiring focused effort, gritted determination, a robust level of cardiovascular endurance and a smattering of good fortune - as by day two the grounds had turned into swampy bog land. Swift footwork was the key, any momentary pause could result in your gumboots sinking into the mud. The mud had an astonishingly steely grip and you needed to be yanked free, hopefully managing to keep your feet in your boots! Yet no one complained. In facct the more outrageous the weather, the more of a laugh it was.

I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the punters - from toddlers, to teens, to twany twenties, thirties and well up into the seventies. I meet so many people from all over Britain - Wales, Scotland, London, Manchester, Canterbury, Brimingham - all willing to muck in for five days sans showers and decent sanitation [the enviro loos were extreme to say the least, you hoped that it was mud and rainwater smeared around the interior...]. All had a ready smile and set to return in 2013 (The festival is having a break in 2012). In fact I chatted with a bloke who was there when it flooded in 2005 - the flooding was so bad that the organisers feared a cholera outbreak and had to send divers to check if anyone had drowned in their tents - I asked if he considered leaving early 'Of course not! It was grand, the water receeded eventually and there was too much on to miss out on because of a bit of rain!'

The festival site is a bustling metropolises, the tent city houses 175,000 people and is sprawled over the undulating countryside. It is so vast that it's divided into hamlets and boroughs with place names that are so quintessentially English, that it almost sounds like a coded conversation when planning to meant someone or organise a route through the grounds - Diary ground, Hawkwell, Bushy Ground, Lower Mead, Top Webbs Ash, Lime Kiln Ground, Woodsies, Darble, Big Lickle, Whitelake meadow.

Then there are the mega stages and the boutique bars. There is something going on at all hours of the day - be that mediation in the Stone Circle, woodwork in the Craft field, muscle melting gravity defying circus tricks in the Big Top, Raves in Shangri-La, sweaty jazz sets in Bourbon Street, swing dancing in the 1950's diner, importune fireside gigs in Stummerville. The music was beyond anything I've ever experienced. There were so many bands and so many stages, that I managed to experience some really intimate gigs as well as some sweeping statium shows.

Day one: Brother, Summer Camp, Two Door Cinema Club, Jim Jones Revue, The Vaccines, The Wombats, Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons, U2

Day two: Tame Impala, The Gaslight Anthem, Jessie J, Patrick Wolf, Warpaint, Friendly Fires, White Lies, Chemical Brothers

Day three: Fisherman's Friends, The Low Anthem, Foster the People, Noisettes, Laura Marling, The Bees, Eels, Lykke Li, Kaiser Chiefs, Beyonce

I can't wait to wear my leopard print wellies once more, this time I'll make sure I'm slathered in sunscreen!

Fi

Anti-D

It's not generally advised for someone to sing at the top of their lungs, as a means of curing an upper respiratory tract infection. But I wasn’t going to lie in bed and miss out on The Wombats.

Perhaps it was thanks to the copious mugs of sweet tea and lemsip – or it could have been the utterly brilliant pop music, but I felt a million dollars at the gig.

Today is another matter. I feel more lackluster than ever. I can barely string sentences together.

Ugh, why does feeling sick entail feeling miserable?

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

My head is exploding with mucus. So I wanted to think of someone who's head is always exploding with brilliance.

[film]

[detective]

[monkey, monkey]

Greedy

My new favourite band kinda sounds like - when you shove your fingers in your ears. They also sound like being underwater. They can be compared to the sound of one hand clapping in a forest. Or the sound of cotton wool.

Basically they don't sound like anything.

My new favourite band don't make music.

They have an album (available on vinyl), track listings and a video clip. Yet no music.

The girls at Greedy Hen are so delightfully obscure, my brain tingles and my armpits sweat a little.

These blue days from the hills

I was looking at Urban Outfitters Summer catalogue this morning. While it’s drenched in spectacular snapshots of sunshine and positively zesty with the promise of good times and divine outfits, it didn’t sit well.

It’s cold in Sydney. I want to reveal in the gorgeous winter weather of the place I call home. So with my scarf wrapped around me and I turned on the wintery sounds of Mumford and Sons and sunk into a stupor of delight for all things blustery, folksy and blue.

[Letters from the hills]

Have a lovely day folks.

If you’re not enjoying the weather as much as I am, then you may enjoy this. I laughed so hard I may have a hernia.

Tomorrow it starts, I suppose

[Tim and Jean]

It was my last day of work today. It may be lame to admit, but I keen (almost anxious) to launder my uniform, just so I can officially ziplock it away for the next year.

I fly out on May 28th and won't be putting my nose back to grindstone until March 2012. That is if I find a job.

But I will be keeping busy with my freelance writing. In fact I'll be reviewing these native Perth boys tomorrow night and I'm pretty damn excited as I feel like dancing. I do, I do.

The Grates are great

The Grates are back!! I am positively tickled pink, as it’s been two years since their last release; finally they have a brand-spanking-new album coming out.

Though they are minus their adorable drummer (who has enrolled in a culinary school in NYC), their first single oozes with a sound synonymous with The Grates [Translation: Solid high hats, loose guitar and sweaty, manic, animalistic good times].

[Cake for goodness sake]

They haven't released any of the music online, but they are keeping a delightfully zany blog - Hate Creep.

Now I'm going to sink into their back catalogue and relive some memories of their live shows, cue montage of thrones, animal costumes, hula hoops, rhythmic gymnastics.

Wombats and Dancing

My siblings and I are literary jumping with joy for the latest Wombats release. Yup we’re shaking like ferrets to ‘Techno Fan’ and belting out ‘Anti-D’. Perhaps we’ll even have a synchronized dance down pat for their gig next week? Though I think we'll forgo matching outfits...

[The Wombats]

Besides absolutely gorging myself with this delightful aural feast, I’ve also been loving the album’s cover art. The illustration style reminds me of a Babysitter’s Club book – fresh, innocence, warm and inviting. Plus there are sausage dogs. Be. Still. My. Heart.

Glastonbury 2011

Oh my stars....

Go Outside

I tested my hip today. I've been pain free for three days and decided it was time.

I ran 5km and I'm feeling fine.

In fact I feel incredibly happy, I can't wait to go outside for another run tomorrow.

I was young

Just got in from work. It’s only 4pm, but I’ve jumped into my jim jams and ate a tim tam. Oh the delicious comfort.

This is also comforting:

I want you back

It's four days since I last went for a run. I’m feeling a little bit antsy to say the least.

This song ties all my thoughts together:

- Skeleton motif (I am constantly thinking about my hip joint and sacrum)

- Lyrics “I want you back” (I want running back please)

- Random assortments of clutter (my head space feels cluttered)

- Displays of angst (My family are also feeling the pain of my running withdrawal. I am a bit of a grumpy pants at the moment)

I did get a laugh out of this brilliant thread on Cool Running.

My Mother

In the summer ooo I love her

She's like no other

She's my Mother

My Mum is a hair's breath away from cutting her birthday cake and I have yet to get her a birthday present. In the past no matter how much thought and effort, I always inadvertently gifted her something that I had been lusting after. The old self serving present.

A small patch below my right ear lobe is red raw, as I've been scratching my head all afternoon, trying to find something to give her. This is the best that I could come up with:

[carrot]

[girl and the finch]

[Magnetic]

[Suitable suitcas]

[turntable clock]

[summer shawl]

Unfortunately, after reviewing the list, I think I want them all. For. Myself. Ugh this is a pickle, I just want to eat cake.

Bliss

[Poster by greedy hen]

I feel as though I’m stalking Jinja Safari.

While I’m not planning to name my first born Jinja or Safari, nor am I building tumblrs or fossicking through their garbage bins. I have seen them play 3 times this year and it’s only March.

Though they are a new band with a limited arsenal of songs to fill their set list - they still provoke me to throw myself into a convulsions resembling a wonky highland fling, with flashes of Zumba hip swivelling and Kevin Bacon inspired posing. This was probably not the best rehab for my new running injury and my dancing certainty isn’t an effective mating call. But regardless of this, I would happily continue my winning streak of seeing Jinja Safari once a month for the rest of the year.

[Jinja safari]

I was slightly more apprehensive about seeing Cloud Control, as I have also seen then a handful of times in quick succession. The difference between the two bands; is that I’ve surgically grafted Cloud Control’s “Bliss release” album to my ear. I’ve had it on high rotation for the last six months and know the songs so intimately that my genes have probably mutated to include the album’s score.

While the album doesn’t sound stale, I was dubious that Cloud Control would have any element of surprise in their show. As a stint in the UK and a massive touring schedule hasn’t left the band with any time to release any more ‘bliss’.

Yet any fears I had were shelved within the first song. The band seemed like they have been missing Sydney, as they played with joyful abandonment and the crowd were equally enthralled. The set list had a lovely mix of lesser known B-sides and tracks off their award winning debut album. With the help of the boys from Fishing, Cloud Control also dished up a new cover of a School of Seven Bells track.

[Cloud Control]

The 80s

Roller skates. check.

Animal masks. check.

Karate kid pose. check.

Joyous running. check.

Sensual egg cracking. check.

BMX bandits. check.

Yup, this is one kooky, yet compelling clip. You could waste hours analysing the meaning behind the sequences and 1980s motif employed - or you can just groove to the song.

I know what I'll be spending my time doing.

Alpine

This song is so deliciously haunting I don't want to taint it with my shoddy singing, so I'm very pleased that I can just sit quietly and swim in videoclip's surreal images.

Cabins, belles, lanes, magnets and cairo

Cabins, Belles Will Ring, Lanie Lane, Magnetic Heads & The Cairos @ OAF, Saturday 19^th March.

Generally brand endorsed music events are just thinly veiled exercises in product pimping. However any apprehension I had of being bombarded by ads was quickly dispelled when I was greeted by OAF’s bare brick walls. Thankfully free of a potential barrage of Jim Beam posters. There wasn’t even an MC to hurry the bands along and enforce a strict timetable of proceedings. The merch was displayed on a bare trestle table, manned by various band members, making the vibe less corporate and more bootleg.

With five bands on the lineup the night started early. Too early it seemed, with only a smattering of punters showing up to watch Brisbane natives The Cairos. The near empty room didn’t deter the band from letting loose with an energetic set. Singer Alistar Richardson led the charge with his stellar vocal range evident in “Shane” and “Listening Party”, jumping from polished 1960s pop to a half strangled scream.

The Magnetic Heads were next up and with six members they crowded the small stage. Jonathan Millar’s wry and nonchalant drawl makes it easy to compare the band to a whole gamut of 1980s predecessors including The Go-betweens, Split Endz, Simple Minds or The Smiths. But it became quickly apparent that the band isn’t one to mooch off of others, each song is incredibly well crafted. Their songs veer away from traditional song structure; long progressive builds are interspersed with unexpected flourishes of tambourine and upbeat jangly keyboard. These rapid tempo changes aren’t jarring to the ear; they sound smooth, polished but most importantly incredibly fresh and exciting.

Lanie Lane sauntered on stage in a leopard print leotard, high waist jeans and an evitable quiff. Lane has the rockabilly look down to a tee. Her music on the other hand doesn’t just stick to the one genre as the set skipped between jazz, blues and poppier numbers. Announcing to the now sizable crowd that she just quit her day job as a florist, its apparent that Lane’s got the goods to back up her decision, with punters twisting in time to “Bang Bang”, “Betty Baby”, “Hoochie Coochie Man”.

Belles Will Ring, didn’t bother introducing themselves, instead they served up a solid set full of new material including ‘Come North With Me Baby, Wow”, “Deepwater” and “The Coldest Heart”, which are less upbeat love songs of old (“Park benches”) and more introspective musings. Lingering lead guitar, solid bass lines, sedate singing and the occasional flute created a darker ambience to match the lyrics. Even though the songs are moody and evoke feelings distance and space, the band played with enthusiasm and vigor.

The crowd tapered off during the interlude, but Cabins shook any sense of music fatigue from the reminding punters with hammering kick-drum beats. The consistent heavy beats in “Hounds” and “Mary” are trance like and the brooding vocals swim through the layers of off kilter guitar, causing the listener to feel in equal parts hypnotic and manic. “Foes & Thieves” and “Oceanic Blues” are more pared back and are driven by Leroy Bressington’s softly yearning vocals. Making it a more sedate, but nonetheless pleasing way to finish off the evening.

The bootleg tour succeeded in not succumbing to corporate shenanigans but showcased five cracking bands, which deserve to be hyped.

House party

An artist I know became so frustrated by being “constrained by the parameters of canvas”, she started experimenting with light installations. It seems that most people present at Garden Music on the weekend felt similarly frustrated They didn’t start brandishing light bulbs, but they did ditch the free canvas on offer, in favour of slathering their limbs in paint.

Floral sundresses, high waisted short shorts, hula hoops, trilby hats, bare feet, parasols, suspenders and rockabilly attitudes were also favoured attire. All of which are not befitting the typical standards set by Government House.

Needless to say the Historic Houses Trust can throw a heck of party.

The Trust kindly opened the doors and grounds Government House, for a Sunday afternoon Garden Party. Constructed between 1837 and 1845, Government House “is the most sophisticated Gothic revival building in the state (NSW)”. To put it plainly – it’s jaw droppingly beautiful. The cavernous rooms are lit by natural sunlight from enormous bay windows and lined with bespoke carpets, so soft it puts my new sleeping mat to shame. The furniture and textiles throughout are a delightful blend of contemporary and Victorian styles.

When you’re having a house party it’s important to get the right vibe. To achieve this, there were garden games including croquet and badminton.

For the less competitive there were hula hoops, free newspapers and ‘Art en plein air’ (free art supplies so you could capture your impressions of the day). To keep the energy levels up, after lounging in the hot afternoon sun, a selection of French pasteries, tea and iced coffee were available.

This was all lovely, but what is a party without music?

There were performances throughout the day by – Ngalire, First Flight Crew, Lanie Lane, Deep Sea Arcade, Jinja Safari and Jonathan Boulet. In between sets, the very witty Gramophone Man kept the beats going on his beautiful brass gramophone.

This is a shot of one of the blokes from Jinja Safari scaling the scaffolding - gosh they are the bees knees and cause me to dance with wild tribal abandonment till my heart aches and my arm pits are swimming in sweat. Not the most attractive of descriptions, but look in the mirror if you happen to listen to their music - chances are you be throwing around moves that would make the Governor General blush.

camping

I've bought a fancy pants new tent and sleeping mat, so I’ve been itching to go on a roadtrip to test them out, but things just keep getting in the way.

These images make me froth at the mouth, as there’s nothing better than packing up and heading bush with your mates.

[classic kingswood]

[simple sheet]

This song has been running loops in my head for the past month, it's clip is perfection. I built a raft when I was cub scout many moons ago, though it wasn't half as successful nor did it have an awesome banner.

Note to self: bring raft making materials on roadtrip.

Bleeding Knees Club

For a fleeting moment I was in a choir. The choirmaster diplomatically described my voice as only “suiting large groups”. Needless to say I never got a solo. Dreams of living the Lauryn Hill dream fell by the wayside. So I just sing alone in the car.

But I have now found my song.

This song is for anyone who doesn’t have a polished voice and wants to let loose sing front and centre.

.