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:
