Pics from the sold out Beach House show on Wednesday night at the Hopetoun Hotel.

Despite being terribly jet lagged, Victoria Legrand’s voice was just as enchanting live as it is on record and it was an absolutely privilege to see her and Alex Scally (guitar) in action.

Earlier, New Zealand’s fellow Mistletone labelmate, Bachelorette, entertained with her brand of psychedelic folk and “space pop”.

One of my favourite blogs, Einstein Music Journal, posted a great interview with Beach House recently and is definitely worth a read.

Over the next few days, the lads from Okkervil River will be releasing a series of videos via their brand new youtube channel, featuring special guests (who you may have heard of) ’standing in’ for members of the band.

This first episode sees Carl Newman, of New Pornographers fame, filling in for the Shearwater-bound Jonathan Meiburg on ‘Lost Coastlines’, except Carl sings Will’s original part, and Will does Jonathan’s.

Confused? Well, just watch the above clip and prepare to be spellbound by all its splendour, as it is truly something special. One future guest is said to be Bon Iver, and wouldn’t that be just grand..

Here is Will to explain what this project is all about:

The new album The Stand Ins will be out through Jagjaguwar on 9 September.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest things to be introduced to the interwebs in recent times has been Muxtape. This simple, yet elegant website that had been an excellent source for discovering new music, has been hamstrung by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), and is in lockdown mode indefinitely.

Some keen observers had predicted this for some time, while others are suggesting that this could be no more than a publicity stunt, before some form of monetisation takes place.

Whatever the reason, this is devastating news for many, like those who have relied heavily on the service to get through some of the more arduous times - spending late nights in the office, long after the iPod battery had died, for example.

The official muxtape tumblr goes on to say - “No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned.” - so hopefully this is not the end.

Regardless, it is a sad day and one could only hope that this issue is resolved real soon.

With Baltimore’s Beach House set to play a bunch of shows starting this week, the excellent Mistletone label have announced a joint tour featuring two of America’s true originals - Lucky Dragons & Mount Eerie. The Sydney show is going to be a bit special, with the intimate setting of a church in Paddington. Tickets to that are on sale this morning at 9am from moshtix.

Lucky Dragons Dates:

2 Oct	Paddington Uniting Church, Sydney *
3 Oct	Open Frame Festival, Brisbane
4 Oct	Sound Summit, Newcastle
5 Oct	Spring Tones, The Tote, Melbourne
7 Oct	Triple R Performance Space, Melbourne *

Mount Eerie Dates:

2 Oct	Paddington Uniting Church, Sydney *
3 Oct	Sound Summit, Newcastle
4 Oct	Lofly Hangar, Brisbane
5 Oct	tba
6 Oct	tba, Hobart
7 Oct	Triple R Performance Space, Melbourne *

* Lucky Dragons / Mount Eerie joint event

More information can be found at the Mistletone blog.

Lucky Dragons - Fear Melody
(from “Fear Melody” - split cassette release w/ Whitman)

Find more free downloads at their crazy website.

Some of you may have heard about the mooted collaboration between David Byrne and Brian Eno.

Last week, the official site was launched confirming that the two had indeed been working together on a new album (first time since 1981’s Bush of Ghosts) - and today, he delivered on his earlier promise of having a new song available for free on said site - http://everythingthathappens.com/

Of more interest, David has written on his blog, stating that he hopes to see the news of the free download spreads virally, rather than him investing some insurmountable amount of dollars on some elaborate marketing plan, as he would have done so in the past.

Judging by the recent twitter chatter, I very much doubt that Sir David will need to spend a cent.

Read his post here.

Pics from the amazing Snowman + Baseball double bill last Thursday night at the Annandale Hotel. Perth’s Snowman have certainly transformed since I caught them some while ago. In The Horse, The Rat And The Swan, their latest release, they may have come up with perhaps the strongest and most brutal Australian album since The Drones’ Wait By The River…

It was at the same venue that I was blown away by the sheer ferocity of The Drones 2 years ago, and Snowman came close to repeating that experience for me.

Earlier, Melbourne’s Baseball impressed with their unique blend of something I haven’t quite put my finger on just yet. I picked up their album on the night, and it has been playing non-stop in the car stereo.

More photos from the night can be found at my flickrstream and I have posted some on fasterlouder also.

Snowman - We Are The Plague

<— Snowman —>
official | myspace | wikipedia

It has been a little while since we last heard from pop sensations, The Basics.

Word on the street is that the sharpest dressed band in the land have been adjusting their lapels, and working on some new material in the old studio. And just to prove that they are also the hardest working trio in the country, they have just announced another round of month-long residencies in August.

Though, unlike last year’s insane tri-state attempt, 08’s version will be a slightly less-crazy two state only affair - Tuesdays (Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney) & Thursdays (The Evelyn, Melbourne). Are they getting soft?

The other news is that The Basics are re-releasing their little known 2002 debut album Get Back. Only a 1,000 copies were printed and sold originally, and this was before Tim Heath had joined the band (then guitarist, Michael Hubbard plays on the album). A re-mastered and re-packaged edition will be re-released via MGM Distribution on 2 August, and the old songs are sure to be re-visited at the re-sidencies.

4 tracks off Get Back are streaming on theirspace now.

Residencies in August:

5 Aug	Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney - w/ Cloud Control
7 Aug	The Evelyn, Melbourne - w/ The Brutals
12 Aug	Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney - w/ Blackmilk (WA)
14 Aug	The Evelyn, Melbourne - w/ Sophisticants
19 Aug	Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney - w/ Cuthbert & Nightwalkers
21 Aug	The Evelyn, Melbourne - w/ Princess One Point Five
26 Aug	Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney - w/ Tokenview
28 Aug	The Evelyn, Melbourne - w/ Armen Firman

The Basics - Hey There

<— The Basics —>
official | facebook | myspace | triplejunearthed

Music geeks rejoice.

Warpsters - Pivot - have today started a radio show titled O Download My Heart (pun intended). Each episode will be thematically produced, calling on all their powers to meld the collective minds of geek freaks everywhere.

The first ep is on classic synthesizer music and is called Cosmic Gods of SYNNNTH

01. Van Halen - 1984 [1984]
02. Vangelis - Main Titles [OST: Blade Runner]
03. Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene IV [Oxygene]
04. Tonto’s Expanding Headband - Ferryboat
05. David Bowie - Warszawa [Low]
06. Pink Floyd - On The Run [Dark Side Of The Moon]
07. Klaus Schulze - Floating [Moondawn]
08. Kitaro - Flight [The Best of Ten Years 1976-1986]
09. Vangelis - Spiral [Spiral]
10. Kitaro - Mororism [Oasis]
11. John Carpenter - Main Titles [Assault On Precinct 13]
12. Brian Eno - 2/2 [Ambient 1: Music For Airports]

Head to the pivotpivot blog post to find out how to subscribe to the weekly (or monthly?) podcast, and be sure to catch them while they’re here on tour with Sigur Ros.

Oz Tourdates:

31 Jul	Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane
1 Aug	Festival Hall, Melbourne *
2 Aug	Hordern Pavillion, Sydney *
7 Aug	East Brunswick Cub, Melbourne
8 Aug	Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
9 Aug	The Bakery, Pert

* supporting Sigur Ros

<— Pivot —>
official | facebook | myspace | Warp Records

Now this is exciting!

Carl, Neko et al came and wowed us at The Gaelic a couple of years back, but as they prep for their tour to Australia for this year’s Great Escape in October, it has been revealed that Vancouver’s New Pornographers will be playing a bunch intimate shows, including Sydney’s home of live music - The Annandale Hotel!

Tickets go on sale Friday 11 July.

Oz Tourdates:

4 Oct	The Great Escape, Sydney
7 Oct	The Zoo, Brisbane
8 Oct	Rosemount Hotel, Perth
10 Oct	The Gov, Adelaide
11 Oct	The Corner, Melbourne
12 Oct	Annandale Hotel, Sydney

<— The New Pornographers —>
official | myspace

Woke up this morning with the news that the incredible Yeasayer will be coming over to Australia for the Great Escape festival in October. More is going to be made of this, and I am one happy camper, but there’s probably none happier than this bloke right now.

Others that have been included in the first announcement are - The New Pornographers, Joan As Policewoman, Black Francis, Supergrass, Ladytron and Conor Oberst. Tickets on sale July 9.

Yeasayer - Sunrise (live on Daytrotter ‘07)