Everybody secretly loves trance – some a little less secretly than others. Dutch trance superstar FERRY CORSTEN and Rave’s SCOTT HARMS are two of the guys who are a little more open about it…

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• Garage2V returns for V Festival ’09, with bands and artists urged to enter the heats now for a chance to play the local date (Mar 29 at Avica Resort, Gold Coast) and possibly even all national dates for the ultimate winner. Interested acts should hit up www.garage2v.com.au soon!
• The Tim Steward Band have had a name change! The Brisbane-based pop-rock five-piece featuring Screamfeeder’s Steward are now known as We All Want To, and plan to release some new tracks in January. Check out the new look and sound at www.myspace.com/weallwantto
• Intelligent Brisbane popsters The Boat People are making quite a splash overseas, with their ’08 release Chandeliers receiving excellent reviews in both the UK and US music press. March ’09 sees them hit Austin, Texas, for SxSW, where they’re sure to pick up even more fans. Looks like next year could be an even bigger one for The Boaties.
• Aussies who got lucky in 2008: The Presets were everywhere — on the charts, helping BMW sell cars, pissing off Billy Corgan by not finishing before Smashing Pumpkins at V Fest, even causing Delta Goodrem grief when Channel [V] got her to sing My People, which ended up on MySpace. Gurrumul Yunupingu became a household name and became NT’s person of 2008. Gabriella Cilmi won six ARIAs from one hit single.
• Which reminds us – homegrown acts continued to excite consumers in ‘08, with releases by Australian acts making up one-third of all sales. Aside from Gabriella, Gurrumul and The Presets, we had Cut Copy, Gyroscope, The Potbelleez, Angus And Julia Stone, Axel Whitehead and Carl Riseley making an impact on the mainstream charts, while the indie sectors produced more exciting stars of the future.
• Warner Music has ordered YouTube to remove all music videos featuring Warner artists from its site after revenue-sharing negotiations broke down. It’s another blow to YouTube’s intention to host every music video produced, a feat that MTV online is now closer to achieving.
• Brian Eno will score Peter Jackson’s next movie and no, it will not feature Hobbits. The Lovely Bones, adapted from the novel, is about a murder victim watching over her grieving family and friends from the afterlife. Eno’s spooky music for waiting rooms sounds like a perfect fit.
• Last year, after footage of troubled rapper Akon hurling a fan offstage during a New York concert surfaced, he claimed the action was a stunt to promote his album. That was apparently not entirely true, as the fan in question has charged him with harassment and Akon has to pay a $350 fine and perform 65 hours of community service.

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Pre-sales for the Coconet Classic happening on Boyne Island Sunday Apr 12, 2009, have sold out. Head to www.coconetclassic.net.au for the second release priced at $75+bf if you want to catch The Living End, The Butterfly Effect (pictured), Spiderbait and a slew of others.

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Thursday Jan 8, 2009 sees day two of Sunset Sounds dawn again at The Riverstage. Today’s line-up features Franz Ferdinand, The Grates, Santogold (pictured), Donavon Frankenreiter, I Heart Hiroshima and a vast array of others. One day tickets may still be available at $122+bf, or it’s $144+bf for a two day pass through Ticketmaster.

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Valley Studios - Thu Dec 18

Armed with an eclectic sound palate, Brisbane midi-maestro Hunz plies his post-rock meanderings with a bass and drum ensemble to an audience who prefer to populate corners and couches rather than the gaping space near the front of the stage.

Buoyed by winning the coveted Unearthed slot on the upcoming Big Day Out, local indie rockers Hungry Kids Of Hungary demonstrate the songwriting maturity of a band twice their age, with the musicianship to boot. Their three part harmonies contrast nicely with Kane Mazlin’s staccato keyboard rhythms to achieve a sound somewhere between the ‘70s pop-rock icons Chicago and today’s hippest indie producer Ben Folds.

It’s tough to see past the disappointed faces of Sydney’s kick-ass funk/soul-cum-indie rock act Kid Confucius, here to promote their latest release The Let Go, although the powerhouse octet deliver an amazing set despite the poor turnout. After an opening passage of super-charged rockier newbies including Play A Part, Morning J and Good Luck, singer Rob Hezkial defiantly jumps down from the stage to pull chairs, couches and bodies closer to the stage to instant effect. With the vibe in check, they return to the funk with Stripes’ cruising tune Better Be On Soon and their self-titled debut’s Mister, before peaking with the festival blockbuster Moment.

JAMES STAFFORD 

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(Acony/Shock)

Debut album from folk rock combo, led by the songwriting pen of Morgan Nagler

The Whispertown 2000 are an LA-based rootsy four-piece – two boys and two girls, one of those girls being singer/songwriter Morgan Nagler. On their debut album Swim, the band combines Nagler’s diverse, storytelling compositions with a stripped-back and dry garagey production. The result is roots music that has a tough punky edge, largely thanks to Nagler and co-vocalist Vanesa Corbala’s indie-porch harmonies colliding triumphantly with Tod Adrian Widenbaker’s fuzzed-up electric guitar and his brother Casey thumping out confident bass lines. This frenetic combination is best summed up in the medley From The Start/Jamboree, one of the better examples of the “indie punk hoedown”. There’s a backing chorus supergroup in the soaring ballad Atlantis, Nagler and Corbala harmonising with Jenny Lewis and their label boss Gillian Welch. Even the more “straightforward” folk-pop moments have welcome twists, such as the opening Beatle-esque stride of 103 which pleasantly surprises with the sudden arrival of soulful Hammond organ. Effortlessly swaying from lurching psychedelic blues to campfire quietness, The Whispertown 2000 prove themselves to be a band to watch.

****

MATT THROWER

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