The Laneway Festival is coming up on 1 February, so here's a few picks on who to see (or, if you're not going, then it's also a nice way to discover some new acts).

It's tempting to start with Courtney Barnett, since she took over the main stage last year with her grab-you-by-the-throat heavy rock live sound - somewhat surprising since she's more known on record for her witty lyrics. However, we just sang her praises a few posts ago, so let's go to the opposite end of the noise spectrum and instead start with one of our own emerging female musicians, Nadia Reid ...





Nadia Reid's latest album, Listen to formation, look for the signs, received a 7.2 rating on music-nerd website Pitchfork and she will no doubt provide a wonderful afternoon respite from the noisier bands at Laneway, especially for those who are fans of Aldous Harding and Tiny Ruins.

Let's keep it local with our next pick, the solo project of Kody Neilson (former singer of The Mint Chicks and colloborator/partner with Bic Runga). His live show features a DJ with a large robotic head and Kody isn't shy of performing (when he played in the sedate surroundings of Newsworthy, he still got up on the presenter's table and danced in their faces). This is the first single of his album, Personal computer:





Moving on to the overseas acts, it's hard to go past Beach House, who shocked many fans last year by releasing two albums quickly on the heels of one another - Depression Cherry and Thank your lucky stars. Most of it is fairly mid-tempo, but they're bound to sound huge on the main stage - hopefully as the day cools and the sun begins to set. This song will make it seem like the whole festival is taking place within a David Lynch movie...




Now let's pick up the pace a bit with DIIV, whose sound manages to take the shoegaze approach of My Bloody Valentine and Ride, but crank up the tempo a little bit. Their first album, Oshin, was their breakthrough release and here's the lead single off it:




You'd think from the above acts that Laneway is just all about indie rock, though this year there's some big hitters from the hip hop world as well - Vince Staples and The Internet. Though for many the biggest drawcard will be the odd pop music of Grimes, who injected some art school experimentation into her last release, Art Angels. Since she'll probably close out the night at Laneway, it seems only right to let her have the last word here as well:

Given that it's almost the end of the year, it seems like a good time to have a quick scan over the various award winners of the year and pick out some of the best.

Front of mind is the New Zealand Music Awards which took place recently. The Stuff website has a full list of winners, but rather than give more breath to the big winners (e.g., Broods), let's dig a bit further down the list.

First up, the Critic's Award winners, Bespin. The band are named after the cloud city on 'The Empire Strikes Back' and the group's dreamlike, psychedelic sound fits the name perfectly...




Marlon Williams was the winner of Best Male Solo Artist and Breakthrough Artist of the Year, as well as being in the shortlist for the Silver Scroll Awards (as well as being a nominee for "Best Blues and Roots Album" at the ARIA awards in Australia). His self-titled debut album is firmly based in the folk music, but the songwriting is strong enough to breath some new life into this tradition and the album was recorded by Lyttelton music scene stalwart, Ben Edwards.

Here's a creepy little tune he wrote about a man living in a house that seems to be filled with ghosts ever since his wife died. The video also features Williams's girlfriend, Aldous Harding, and they seem to just be a pair of hobos fooling around until the final twist...





The act that beat Williams at the Silver Scroll Awards was Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who recently released their third album. The outfit is led by Reuben Neilson from the Mint Chicks, though the recording also features his brother (Kody, who now plays as Silicon). The awards was given to UMO's tune, "Multi-Love", but I have to admit a preference for their tune "Keep Checking My Phone" and this live version (on Conan O'Brien) sounds great and shows Reuben dropping a nice dance move at the end...





Casting an eye across the Tasman, also shows a few worthy winners emerging from the Australia's ARIA awards. The psychedelic music revival is just as strong over there and Tame Impala has showed he is still ahead of the pack on his second album, Currents, which saw him win "Best Rock Album" and "Album of the Year." Equally deserving was Courtney Barnett who won "Best Breakthrough Artist" for her critically adored album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit. This tune about the unaffordability of local real estate should strike a chord with a lot of Aucklanders!




And last but not least, let's look even further northward and check out the winner of the UK's prestigious Mercury Prize, which has the occasional ability to shine a light on a upcoming talent that most of the country hasn't heard of. This year's winner was Benjamin Clementine, who grew up in London but was discovered by a French music label while busking on the streets of Paris. This led to his debut album, At Least For Now, being released back in the UK, though his real breakthrough wasn't until he scored a surprise slot on Later ... with Jools Holland.

Courtney Barnett is a brilliantly clever Australian lyricist. Avant Gardener is a charming track about gardening during a heatwave and ending up in an ambulance. It's got great lines like "the paramedic thinks I'm clever because I play guitar/I think she's clever cause she stops people from dying" and the tennis umpire is a Bob Dylan lookalike, so that five minutes and twenty seconds just flies by.

Update: Barnett has just announced she's coming to New Zealand for one show at Auckland's Kings Arms on September 17. Tickets go on sale from 9am, Tuesday July 22 from Under The Radar and Real Groovy.