The St Jerome’s Laneway Festival apologised for headliner M83’s (pictured) 50-minute delay in taking to the stage in Brisbane for their headlining slot. “We are very sorry for the issues that caused the delay in getting M83 on stage which forced the band to cut their set short by 15 minutes at the Brisbane event,” the statement read. “It was due to unfortunate and uncommon technical difficulties beyond M83’s and our production team’s control.” It was not the only incident on the day. Feist told fans she was getting shocks from her mic during her set on the same stage earlier in the day, while some punters complained on social media about sound quality for some other acts.

Be first to comment on this article

The most surprising thing about this year’s Hottest 100 result is how unsurprising it was. The yearly Triple J poll returned the result that everyone was expecting: Gotye (pictured) featuring Kimbra with Somebody That I Used To Know at number one. SportsBet had the song at $1.18, which is the shortest odds a winner has had since 1998 when Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) by The Offspring won it. This year, SportsBet had Feel So Close by Calvin Harris next at $6 (it came in at number 11), followed by Feeding Line by Boy & Bear at $7 (number four).

Australia was typically well represented in the list, with 44 of the 100 songs, which – let me get my calculator – comes to 44% of the total. Queensland contributed five of those, so congratulations to Busby Marou (Biding My Time at number 81), The Grates (Turn Me On at number 54), Ball Park Music (All I Want Is You at number 38 and It’s Nice To Be Alive at number 31) and Emma Louise (Jungle at number 23). Only 5% of the one million votes cast by almost 160,000 people for the Hottest 100 came from Queensland, however. Compare that to the 16% of the total votes that came from New South Wales and Victoria each, 4% from South Australia and 3% from Western Australia. Altogether, 43% of the votes were from Australia, 27% from the US, 22% from the UK and the remainder from “rest of the world”.

Gotye was one of 22 artists who placed more than once, with The Wombats taking up four places, as did Kimbra with three solo efforts as well as her duet. There were 36 debuts, including Matt Corby, Lana Del Rey and WA teen act San Cisco who took the afternoon off from recording their debut album in Melbourne to listen to the poll and were gobsmacked when their song Awkward went in at number 7. Matt Corby was at a house party in Tamarama when he heard Brother came in at number 3. The whole party apparently erupted and Corby was hoisted up onto the shoulders of his mates.

This year is only the third time in the history of the Hottest 100 that a song with a female vocalist involved has topped the vote, after The Cranberries in 1994 and Angus & Julia Stone last year.

10% of the entries were by acts with animal names. None of the entries were bands that Ian Kenny is in.

Be first to comment on this article

DZ Deathrays (pictured) release their debut EP in the US on 3|4 Records (Odd Future) in February, and Canada via Dine Alone Records (Alexisonfire, City & Colour) in March. They’re also playing over there, including SXSW and Canadian Music Week. Their profile in Europe continues to rise: the NME placed them as the fourth most exciting new act of 2012, including a double page spread with quotes from Mark Ronson, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Huw Stephens of the BBC1. New single No Sleep had its world premiere last week on BBC1. Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley are recording their debut LP with Richard Pike (of PVT) and Neil Coombe at White Room Studios in Mt Nebo.

Be first to comment on this article

Lana Del Rey (pictured) has recovered the rights to her 2010 debut album, called Lana Del Rey A.K.A. Lizzy Grant. It was released on iTunes for only two months before becoming unavailable, but will likely be re-released later this year as a follow-up to her Born To Die album on Interscope.

Be first to comment on this article

Kid Cudi (pictured) didn’t react well when his set at the Melbourne Heatwave festival was cut short before it was even halfway through. To the cheers of the crowd he started knocking over the stage equipment, as you can see for yourself on several YouTube videos. Then he took to www.cudlife.tumblr.com to deliver this rant: “If my set is EVER cut short at any show, im trashing the stage. Not out of anger, it takes a lot to get me furious nowadays, but out of principle. The fans always deserve a full set at all shows, especially when they spend their hard earned money on expensive tickets. A lot of artist wouldnt do what I did in Australia, but I will. Spread the word. No matter the circumstance, cut my set short, im breaking shit. And next time im startin a riot. Me and my fans. Cause promoters will sometime take advantage of the artists, and u gotta let em know what time it is. Cutting nobody any slack.”

Be first to comment on this article

Disney have stopped selling a t-shirt that combines two iconic images – Mickey Mouse’s head and the cover art of Unknown Pleasures, the debut Joy Division album from 1979 – while they figure out if they were breaching anyone’s copyright by doing so. Peter Hook (pictured) doesn’t seem to have minded, giving an interview to Rolling Stone in which he said that “it’s a hell of a compliment to be bootlegged by someone like Disney.” Hook has previously been less forgiving of his former bandmates, talking about taking them to court for re-forming New Order without him. But thanks to the Disney t-shirt, apparently they’re on speaking terms again. “And you never know, this might be just the thing that brings me, Bernard and Stephen together to have a laugh and a drink. And maybe Walt can achieve what no amount of people seem to be able to do in the world, and bring Joy Division back together.” 

Be first to comment on this article